User:Madalibi/History of the Manchus before 1644

See also: Nurhaci, Hong Taiji, User:Madalibi/Nurhaci, User:Madalibi/Hung Taiji, and User:Madalibi/Chronology of Nurhaci's reign

The Manchus moved the Qing Dynasty to Beijing in 1644, replacing the Ming Dynasty. Before 1644, they went through an intensive process of unification and state-building under the leadership of Nurhaci and then Hung Taiji. They emerged from Jurchen tribes in the... regions. Jianzhou Jurchens.

The Jurchens before Nurhaci

See also: Jurchen people

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Origins

Myth of origin

The Qing Dynasty was founded not by Han Chinese, who form the majority of the Chinese population, but by a hunting, fishing, and farming people who would come to be known as the Manchus. The Manchus believed themselves to be descended from Jurchens (Chinese: 女真; Man: Jušen), a Tungusic people who lived in the regions now comprising the Chinese provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang.

The rise of the Jurchens under Nurhaci

Nurhaci's early life

What was to become the Manchu state was founded by Nurhaci, the chieftain of a minor Jurchen tribe in Jianzhou in the early 17th century.

Conflict over Nikan Wailan

Originally a vassal of the Ming emperors, in 1582 Nurhaci embarked on an inter-tribal feud that escalated into a campaign to unify the Jianzhou Jurchen tribes.

Alliance with the Mongols

Depiction of a Jurchen on a Ming woodblock print dated 1609. The original caption explained that the Jurchens lived near the Changbai Mountains and wore "deerskin shoes and fish-scale clothing."

By 1616 he had sufficiently consolidated the Jianzhou region to proclaim himself Khan of the "Great Jin," in reference to the Jin Dynasty (1115–1234), which had also been founded by Jurchens. Historians refer to this pre-Qing entity as the "Later Jin" to distinguish it from that earlier dynasty.

Reorganization of society

Relationship with the Chinese. In 1623 Nurhaci decreed that the Chinese who had joined the Manchus before 1619 should be treated as if they were Manchus.

Break with the Ming dynasty and military success

In 1618, Nurhaci announced the Seven Grievances and openly renounced Ming overlordship in order to complete the unification of those Jurchen tribes still allied with the Ming emperor. After a series of successful battles he relocated his capital from Hetu Ala to successively bigger cities he had captured from the Ming in the province of Liaodong: first Liaoyang (Man: dergi hecen) in 1621, and then Shenyang (later renamed Shengjing; Chinese: 盛京; Man: Mukden) in 1625.

Relocating his court from Jianzhou to the Liaodong peninsula gave Nurhaci access to more human and material resources. Geographically it also brought him in close contact with Mongol domains on the plains of Mongolia. Nurhaci's policy towards the Mongols was to seek their friendship and cooperation against their common foe the Ming Dynasty, thus securing the Jurchens' western border from a potentially powerful enemy. The Mongols also proved a useful ally in war, lending the Jurchens their traditional expertise as cavalry archers. To cement this new alliance Nurhaci initiated a policy of inter-marriages between Jurchens and those among the Mongol nobility who complied with Jurchen leadership, while those who resisted were met with military action. This is a typical example of Nurhaci's many initiatives that eventually became official Qing government policy. During most of the Qing Dynasty the Mongols gave military assistance to the Manchus. Some of Nurhaci's other important contributions include ordering the creation of a written Manchu script based on Mongolian script, and the creation of the civil and military administrative system that eventually evolved into the Manchu Eight Banners, the defining element of Manchu identity, thus laying foundation for transforming the loosely knitted Jurchen tribes into a nation.

Nurhaci's death

Nurhaci's unbroken series of military successes came to an end in January 1626 when he was dealt his first major military defeat by general Yuan Chonghuan while laying siege to the Ming city of Ningyuan. He died a few months later, perhaps from cannon wounds sustained during the siege. His principal wife was asked to commit suicide and she complied. Nurhaci was succeeded by his eighth son, known as Hong Taiji, who emerged as the new Khan after a short political struggle with other contenders.

Hung Taiji's empire-building

Early military campaigns

Although he was an experienced general and the commander of two Banners at the time of his succession, Hong Taiji's reign did not start well on the military front. The Jurchens suffered yet another defeat in 1627 at the hands of Yuan Chonghuan. As before, this defeat was the result of the superior firepower of the Ming forces' newly acquired Portuguese cannons. To redress this technological, Hong Taiji in 1634 created his own artillery corps (Chinese: 重軍; Man: ujen chooha) from his existing Han troops who cast their own cannons from European design with the help of captured Chinese artisans. In 1635 the Manchus' Mongol allies were fully incorporated into a separate Banner hierarchy under direct Manchu command. Hong Taiji then proceeded in 1636 to invade Korea for the second time. This was followed by the creation of the first (two) Han Banners in 1637 (which eventually increased to eight in 1642). Together these military reforms enabled Hong Taiji to defeat Ming forces in a series of battles from 1640 to 1642 for the territories of Songshan (松山) and Jingzhou (錦州). This final victory resulted in the surrender of many of the Ming Dynasty's most battle-hardened troops and the complete and permanent withdrawal of remaining Ming forces from lands north of the Great Wall.

Military reforms and state building

On the civil front, Hong Taiji set up a rudimentary bureaucratic system based on the Ming model of government. In 1631 he established Six Boards to oversee finance, personnel, rites, military, punishments, and public works. These administrative organs initially had very little role, and it was not until the eve of completing the conquest some ten years later that they filled out their government roles. Hong Taiji's bureaucracy was staffed with many Han Chinese, many of them newly surrendered Ming officials. However, the Manchus' continued dominance in government was ensured by an ethnic quota for top bureaucratic appointments. Hong Taiji's reign also saw a fundamental change of policy towards his Chinese ("Nikan") subjects. Whereas under Nurhaci all captured Nikan were seen as a potential fifth column for the Ming Dynasty and treated as chattel — including those who eventually held important government posts – Hong Taiji in contrast incorporated them into the Jurchen "nation" as full if not first-class citizens, who were also obligated to provide military service, so much that by 1648 less than one-sixth of the bannermen were of Manchu ancestry. This change of policy not only increased Hong Taiji's power base and reduced his military dependence on those banners not under his personal control, it also greatly encouraged other Chinese subjects of the Ming Dynasty to surrender and accept Jurchen rule when they were defeated militarily. Through these and other measures Hong Taiji was able to centralize power unto the office of the Khan, which in the long run prevented the Jurchen federation from fragmenting after his death.

The Qing Dynasty

One of the defining events of Hong Taiji's reign was the official adoption of the name "Manchu" (Chinese: 滿洲; Man: Manju ) for all Jurchen people in November 1635. And when in 1636 the imperial seal of the Yuan Dynasty emperors was said to be presented to Hong Taiji by Ejei, the son of Ligdan, the last Khagan of the Mongols, Hong Taiji renamed the state from "Later Jin" to "Great Qing" and elevated his position from Khan to Emperor, suggesting imperial ambitions that went beyond unifying Manchu territories. Although the Jurchen lands were from time to time under Ming overlordship, at the time of the Qing formation, the state ruled by the latter had been outside the control of Ming. Some sources suggested that the name "Qing" was chosen in reaction to that of the Ming Dynasty (明) which consists of the Chinese characters for sun (日) and moon (月), which are associated with the fire element. The character Qing (清) is composed of the water (水) radical and the character for blue-green (青), which are both associated with the water element. Others suggested that the name change went a long way to rehabilitate the Manchu state in the eyes of the Ming-era Han Chinese, who, being heavily influenced by a Neo-Confucian education system, had regarded the former Jurchen Jin Dynasty as foreign invaders.

Hung Taiji's legacy

Hung Taiji died suddenly in September 1643 without a designated heir. As the Jurchens had traditionally chosen their leader through a council of nobles, the Qing state did not have a clear succession system in place. The leading contenders for power at this time were Hong Taiji's eldest son Hooge (1609-1648) and Hong Taiji's agnate half brother Dorgon (1612-1650), who was Nurhaci's son. In the ensuing political impasse between the two rivals, a compromise candidate in the person of Hong Taiji's five-year-old son Fulin, was installed as the Shunzhi Emperor, with Dorgon and Jirgalang as co-regents. Since Jirgalang had little interest in political power, Dorgon thus became the de facto leader of the Manchu nation.

The Ming Dynasty, which was fighting for its survival against a large-scale peasant rebellion, was unable to capitalise on the Qing's succession dispute and installation of a minor as emperor. In April 1644, the Ming capital Beijing was sacked by a coalition of rebel forces led by Li Zicheng. The last Ming ruler, the Chongzhen Emperor, committed suicide when the city fell. After entering China through the Shanhai Pass at the behest of Ming general Wu Sangui, the Manchus led by Dorgon entered Beijing and installed the young Fulin as Emperor of China.