MODALITIES OF CHINESE RESPONSES TO CHINA'S PROBLEMS:

REBELLION, "RESTORATION" AND REFORM IN MID-19TH-CENTURY CHINA  (Compiled by Professor John Leung)

Introduction

The Continuation of External Threats and Problems Into and Beyond Mid-19C

Review what Chinese-European relations were like in mid-19C: The Second Opium War and its consequences (pp. 44-48)

Modes of continuation and expansion of European influence

Military and political dimensions (pp. 53-54; 62-66)

Economic and social dimensions (pp. 57, 59-61)

Cultural dimensions (pp. 56-57, 58-59)

Changing shapes and means of expanding and intensifying "Western" influence

From treaty system to "spheres of influence" to "scramble for concessions"(pp. 60-61)

Putting Chinese-European relations in the context of "imperialism in Asia" (pp.61-63)

Rebellion

Background: Patterns of rebellion in tradition China (pp. 20-21)

Political causes of rebellion in the past

Social-economic causes - especially class-relations factors

Cultural-intellectual characteristics of past rebellions and revolutions

How past rebellions are assessed in the Chinese world-view

How do the mid-19th-century rebellions fit into these patterns?

How were the mid-19C rebellions linked to the encroachment of the West? (pp. 37-38)

The weakening of the Manchu government and the ethnic issue

Regional - as well as general - social-economic destabilization as an effect of war and new conditions of trade

The cultural assault on the position of the Confucian gentry

The nationality issue and the mid-19C rebellions

The Manchu-Han issue, and the Nian and Muslim issues

The regional conflict - "Hakka" versus "Bendi"

The incursion of "Westerners" (mainly Europeans and North Americans) into the hinterland and the Chinese ethnic response

The "Taiping Rebellion" (pp. 38-39)

Roots and beginnings of the Taiping Movement

The odd utopianism of the Taiping movement (pp. 39-41)

The course of the Chinese "civil war" and the turning of the tide (pp. 42, 53-55)

Question: In what ways did the Taiping movement point the way for future revolutions in China?

Restoration

The attempt to "revitalize" the Manchu system: The role of Prince Gong and Cixi (pp. 52-53)

The co-optation of Han officers and of Western forces (pp. 53, 55-57)

Institutional elements of "restoration" and reform (pp. 67-70)

Reform

The relationship between "restoration" and "reform"

The ideological question: Addressing the limitations of the Confucian order (pp. 73-75)

Reform accomplishments (pp. 75-76)

Assessment of the reforms as a means to resolve China's problems, and "why they failed"

The racial question: The limitations of reform possibilities under the Manchus

The ideological and cultural-intellectual limitations: The restrictedness of the "Western idea - Chinese learning" dichotomy

The structural problems: What were the weaknesses in the "infrastructure" or "architecture" of reform

The foreign impact