50 Fun Facts About Qing Dynasty

Which hairstyle, a shaved forehead and a long braid, did the Qing force on Han Chinese men?

The queue was compulsory, and refusing it was punished as treason, by execution. After the 1911 revolution, the hairstyle vanished almost overnight.

Which island did the Qing cede to Britain in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking after the First Opium War?

Hong Kong Island was handed over 'in perpetuity' as a harbour where British traders could refit their ships. It went back to China only in 1997.

Which former concubine ruled Qing China from behind a curtain for nearly half a century until 1908?

Cixi entered the palace as a teenage concubine, bore the emperor a son in 1856 and took power as regent in 1861. She later installed her own nephew on the throne.

Which uprising in Qing China was crushed by an Eight-Nation Alliance sent to lift a siege of foreign legations?

The Boxer Rebellion takes its English name from the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Its fighters were convinced that foreign weapons could not harm them.

Which last Qing emperor took the throne as a toddler and later worked as a gardener in Beijing?

Puyi was not yet three when he was enthroned in 1908, and he was made to abdicate in 1912. A loyalist general put him back on the throne for twelve days in 1917.

Which Qing export did Britain crave so much that its merchants smuggled in opium to pay for it?

Tea drained so much British silver into China that the East India Company began selling Indian-grown opium to traders who shipped it the other way.

Which Han Chinese custom, shunned by Manchu women, did Qing emperors repeatedly try and fail to ban?

Foot binding was outlawed by edict in 1636, 1638 and 1664, and each ban failed. The practice began to die out only in the early 20th century.

Which creature appeared beside a flaming red pearl on the yellow Qing dynasty national flag?

A dragon in azure blue filled the flag adopted in 1889, usually called the Yellow Dragon Flag. It is counted as the first national flag of China.

Which Qing general, who reconquered China's far west, gave his name to a sweet fried chicken dish?

Zuo Zongtang is the General Tso of General Tso's chicken, yet the dish was invented only in the 1970s, long after his death in 1885.

Which Qing emperor, enthroned as a small boy, reigned for a record 61 years?

Kangxi took real power as a teenager in 1669 by having his overbearing regent Oboi arrested. He then ruled in person until his death in 1722.

Which Qing emperor abdicated after 60 years so that his reign would not outlast his grandfather's record?

Qianlong stepped down in 1796 in name only. He kept hold of real power as 'emperor emeritus' until he died three years later at the age of 87.

Which civil war against the Qing, fought from a rebel capital at Nanjing, ranks among the bloodiest in history?

The Taiping Rebellion lasted 14 years and killed an estimated 20 to 30 million people, a toll comparable to that of the First World War.

Which doctor turned revolutionary became the first provisional president of China as Qing rule collapsed?

Sun Yat-sen was in the United States when the revolution broke out and learned of it from press reports. He was elected president in Nanjing that December.

Which 1,300-year-old system for choosing government officials did the Qing dynasty abolish in 1905?

Imperial examinations tested candidates on the Confucian classics. Answers had to follow the rigid 'eight-legged essay', built in eight set parts.

Which stage art took shape after Anhui troupes came to perform for the Qing emperor's birthday in 1790?

Peking opera grew from the Hui opera that four great troupes brought to the capital. Hubei troupes arrived in 1828 and performed alongside them.

Which English word for a Qing scholar-official came not from Chinese but from Portuguese?

Mandarin comes from the Portuguese mandarim. Missionaries later used it for the speech of those officials, which is how the language got the same name.

Which island did the Qing cede to Japan in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki after a humiliating defeat?

Taiwan stayed under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945. Japan also won the Liaodong Peninsula, but three European powers soon pressed it into giving that up.

Which Italian director made The Last Emperor, the first Western feature shot inside the Forbidden City?

Bernardo Bertolucci's film won all nine Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Which region did Qing armies enter in 1720 to expel Dzungar invaders, later posting officials called ambans there?

Tibet stayed under Qing oversight until the dynasty fell in 1912. In the year its armies arrived, the Qing also installed the 7th Dalai Lama.

Priests of which Catholic order served the early Qing court as astronomers, calendar reformers and cannon-makers?

Jesuits such as Adam Schall and Ferdinand Verbiest beat rival calendar scholars in a series of tests, after which the court adopted the Western calendar.

Rivalry over which neighbouring kingdom dragged the Qing into a disastrous war with Japan in 1894?

Korea was still a Qing tributary state, while Japan saw it as a target for expansion. The war that settled the matter lasted less than nine months.

Which close-fitting garment, made fashionable in 1920s Shanghai, draws on the robes of Manchu women under the Qing?

The cheongsam is also called the qipao, a word that first meant a loose robe worn by Manchu men and women alike. The tight cut came much later.

Which novel by Cao Xueqin circulated in unfinished 80-chapter manuscripts for decades before it was printed?

Dream of the Red Chamber first reached print in 1791, with 40 extra chapters added by its editors. The study of the book is a field of its own, known as Redology.

Which Japanese puppet state in northeast China put the deposed last Qing emperor back on a throne in 1934?

Manchukuo was created in 1932, the year after Japan's army invaded the region, and it lasted until Japan's defeat in 1945.

Which European power signed the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk, written in Latin to avoid translation disputes?

Russia had just been beaten at the siege of Albazin and gave up the land north of the Amur River. That border held until the mid-19th century.

Which vast region of steppe and oases did the Qing conquer in the 1750s after destroying the Dzungar Khanate?

Xinjiang means 'new frontier'. It became a full province only in 1884, after the dynasty had lost the region to rebels and then won it back.

Which disease killed the Shunzhi Emperor at 22 and made the Qing court favour an heir who had already survived it?

Smallpox terrified the Manchus, who had no immunity to it. The young boy picked as heir carried its pockmarks on his face as an adult.

Which southern port was the only one where Western merchants could legally trade with Qing China from 1757 to 1842?

Canton funnelled all foreign trade through the Thirteen Factories on the Pearl River, where a licensed merchant monopoly called the Cohong handled every deal.

Which imperial residence was looted by British and French troops in 1860, then burned on Lord Elgin's orders?

The Old Summer Palace was destroyed in reprisal for the torture of an Anglo-French delegation. Victor Hugo likened the two armies to robbers breaking into a museum.

Which Qing commissioner seized British merchants' opium in 1839 and destroyed it at Humen, provoking war?

Lin Zexu had 500 workers spend 23 days mixing the drug with lime and salt and flushing it out to sea. He also wrote an open letter urging Queen Victoria to end the trade.

Which Hakka schoolteacher claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus and led a vast revolt against the Qing?

Hong Xiuquan saw a heavenly father and elder brother in a series of visions and later decided they were God and Jesus Christ. He died of illness in 1864 as Qing armies closed in.

Which British envoy of 1793 would bend only one knee before the Qing emperor rather than kowtow?

Lord Macartney offered the bow he would give his own king, without the hand-kissing. The emperor received him, then rejected every one of the mission's requests.

Which Ming general opened Shanhai Pass to Manchu armies in 1644 so they could drive rebels out of Beijing?

Wu Sangui changed sides after rebels took the capital and captured his family. Three decades later he rose against the Qing himself.

Which chieftain founded the Later Jin state in 1616 and listed Seven Grievances against the Ming before attacking?

Nurhaci was later honoured as Emperor Taizu of Qing, a name his state adopted only after his death. He died in 1626, the year of his first serious defeat, at Ningyuan.

Which rebel leader took Beijing in 1644, driving the last Ming emperor to suicide, then lost it to the Qing?

Li Zicheng, known as the Dashing King, proclaimed a Shun dynasty of his own and declared himself emperor. He was dead within about a year.

Which Ming loyalist, born to a Japanese mother, drove the Dutch from Fort Zeelandia in 1662?

Koxinga is an honorific meaning 'lord with the imperial surname', granted by a Ming claimant. The island state he founded held out against the Qing until 1683.

Which northeastern city, known to the Manchus as Mukden, held the Qing palace before the 1644 move to Beijing?

Shenyang's Mukden Palace was built in 1625, and the dynasty's first three rulers lived there until 1644.

Which Qing system enrolled every Manchu household into hereditary military and administrative divisions?

The Eight Banners began as four, each named after the colour of its flag. Four more with bordered flags were added in 1615, doubling the total.

Which people, who had ruled northern China as the Jin dynasty centuries earlier, were renamed Manchus in 1635?

The Jurchens were renamed by their ruler Hong Taiji to mark a clean break from their past as vassals of the Chinese court.

Which British officer, later killed at Khartoum, was nicknamed 'Chinese' for leading the Ever Victorious Army?

Charles Gordon commanded Chinese soldiers under European officers and, unlike many commanders of the day, insisted on paying his men on time and in full.

Which Qing statesman, founder of the Beiyang Fleet, was shot in the face while negotiating peace in Japan?

Li Hongzhang took a bullet in the left cheek in March 1895 and still signed the peace treaty less than a month later.

Which general brokered the Qing abdication, became China's president, then reigned as emperor for only 83 days?

Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself the Hongxian Emperor in December 1915. Revolts spread, and he restored the republic the following March.

In which city did an army mutiny on 10 October 1911 set off the revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty?

Wuchang is now a district of Wuhan. The plotters' hand was forced when one of their bombs went off by accident the day before.

Which 1898 Qing modernisation drive did a palace coup cut short, leaving the emperor under house arrest?

The Hundred Days' Reform ran from 11 June to 21 September 1898. After the coup, six of its leading reformers were executed.

Which Qing programme of 1861–1895 built arsenals and shipyards to master Western military technology?

The Self-Strengthening Movement began after the shock of the Opium Wars. Its successes came to an abrupt end with defeat by Japan in 1895.

Which secret society's revolt against the Qing, crushed in 1804, ended the myth of Manchu military invincibility?

The White Lotus drew on Buddhist preachers who promised the imminent return of the Buddha. Its revolt took years to put down, ending in 1804.

Forensic tests in 2008 found which poison in the remains of the Guangxu Emperor, at 2,000 times the normal level?

Arsenic had long been suspected, because his physician recorded violent stomach pains and a face turned blue. He died in 1908, one day before the dowager who had confined him.

Which Chinese university began in 1911 as a prep school funded by indemnity money the United States handed back?

Tsinghua grew out of a college that readied students for study in America. The United States had agreed to hand back part of the indemnity on condition that the money paid for scholarships.

Which Manchu clan, whose name begins with the word for 'gold', supplied every emperor of the Qing dynasty?

Aisin Gioro was the name reserved for descendants of the father of the dynasty's founder. Other Gioro branches took different clan names.

Which Qing library project, issued in just seven copies, is imperial China's largest book collection?

The Siku Quanshu runs to 36,381 volumes and about 997 million words. It overtook the Ming dynasty's Yongle Encyclopedia as China's largest.