This series of documentaries on China have been brilliant!!. I've listened to many of your productions and I even try to mimic your Chinese pronunciations, so I may continue to learn Chinese! Keep up the great work!! I've learnt allot and will recommend your channel to friends and family! Thanks again and I truly hope you continue producing quality content such as this!!
@Sipho_Thenjwayo A Jurchen (Manchu) here finds it absurd & funny that those who were conquered & missed out on constitutional monarchy along with democracy are completely ignoring the fact of help from us for uniting the nation. Instead, they're still talking about discriminations against us till today, and appreciating dictatorship... A huge doubt there is that if China & its cultures would still be there if it wasn't preserved by Jurchens (Manchurians)...😂
@Sipho_Thenjwayo Well, consider fact that the China in ‘Legit Chinese’ Han ppl’s eyes were long gone in Ming Dynasty in 1644. I think what you mean is that the nation of Jurchens’ 100 years of humiliation, ain’t it? Wonder if Han ppl would have a say if they were committed Cultural Revolutions (Geno) as what CCP’s been doing since 1644?… And now the whole world agrees that the true humiliation started since 1949 till now led by a deceiving Soviet power in the absence of ROC officials went to finish off signing Japanese imperialists invasion's surrender in TW after defending the nation in WWII, ain't it? 😅
@Sipho_Thenjwayo Well, consider fact that the China in ‘Legit' Chinese H a n ppl’s eyes were long gone before 1644 in Ming Dynasty. I think what you mean is that the nation of Jurchens’ 100 years of humiliation, ain’t it? Wonder if H a n would have a say if they were committed Cultural Revo (Geno) against as what XXP’s been doing since 1644?… 😅(**yt censorship btwXD)
It's really quite sad that an initial agreement between Lin and Elliot could have avoided the war and the ensuing ruination was ignored out of the pigheadedness of both nations. Please do cover the full Opium War in detail.
According to geographer and military historian, Wei Yuan, who worked closely with Lin Zexu, Elliot tried to reach out to Lin with an offer on how to tackle the opium smuggling trade, but was rebuffed by Lin Zexu. This, according to Wei Yuan, was a major mistake. Another mistake made by Lin Zexu, was to target the foreigners in Canton, in spite of numerous officials warning him NOT to do so. Among those who advised against this move, were his predecessor, Deng Tingzhen, and sucessor, Qishan.
22:58. 71 year old Yang Fang, were by this time so deaf, that he could only communicate by writing. His plan, when he arrived in Canton, for fighting the British was to order every ten households to collect together all the women's chamber-pots they could find, place them on wooden rafts, and send them out to defend the city. I find it hard to understand the logic behind this plan. According to one local, who did not bother restraining his mockery of the general, said that, during the day, Yang Fang were busy buying up watches and other foreign goods. While at night, he bought the service of pretty boys for his entertainment.
this made my day, I was bored surfing YT and this suddenly showed up haha! also, will you make episodes about Qin Shi Huang Di? There is a manga called Kingdom which retells the story of the Qin's unification. I'm sure its readers would appreciate if you make a video about it.
Great to hear haha! I most certainly will make a Qin Shi Huang biography. I think I'll finish the Qing saga and then go back in time to the first dynasties and work from there.
@@History_of_China Personally, I would love some insights about how you learn about chinese history, what kind of research you do before the videos and books that you are currently reading or have read related to chinese history.
I believe it's a combination of 2 reasons. The first one was that when Matthew Perry (no, not the actor) demanded that Japan must open her borders to US ships and allow trade, the Japanese were wise enough to understand they were outclassed and accepted the terms (1853-54). The second reason was the Meiji Restoration, in 1868. It was a revolution that ended the Shogunate and reinstated the Emperor (though he had not real power). The subesquent leaders of the Meiji government sent officials to European powers and the US, to collect knowledge and also invited foreign experts to Japan to help them reform their army and in other matters.
IMHO there are few basic differences between them. First, Japanese Emperor didnt hold real power, the one with real power were the shogun and the daimyos. Chinese Emperors, meanwhile, hold real powers and they were the ones that actually run the government. Second, Chinese opened their borders to foreigners albeit with limitation while Japan at the same time isolated themselves for 260 years. Third, Japanese didnt have many resources that foreigners wanted unlike the Chinese. The greed made the Brits and Europeans in general muscled and cheated their way in China which make the Chinese resisted, they didnt do the same thing in Japan. It was just trading business as usual there. Fourth, the Pope didnt have branches in Japan and thus the mistakes the Papacy made in China didnt happen in Japan, which make the Europeans in general are easier to be accepted there.
Another factor is that the Chinese empire had more emotional attachment to the existing order and more historical baggage. Even after experiencing defeat after defeat by foreign imperialist powers, they merely acknowledged that their backwardness was "only" in the technology, and still believed their institution and style of administration was far superior. Of course, we now all know that was more wishful thinking than anything else. Japan, on the other hand, while also a traditional culture, throughout history was continuously learning and adopting institutions, culture, and technologies from other countries, mainly China and Korea. So the notion of having to adopt to adapt when confronted with overwhelming foreign power, while initially shocking, loses its impact soon after. So it was not as unacceptable to them to closely emulate European institution as well as the technology.
King Rama III of Siam once spoke with the government officials talking about the situation in Qing China. Apparently it was mentioned that the King and the government officials believes that Daoguang Emperor was gay.
Stephan R. Platt's Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age published in 2018 is a great source for more detail, especially on the Canton Traders. It's wasn't just English. Americans and other Westerners also participated in the opium trade.
Daoguang's Harem is why I think Qianlong's step Empress was Ula-Nara, not Hoifa-Nara. Daoguang and his grandfather had a great relationship, so it would make you wonder, if the step empress was Hoifa-Nara, why did Daoguang have three Hoifa in his Harem? Why did he have Xianfeng with the more higher titled lady? Something to ponder.
I have met British people who explained to me the Opium Wars was about the Chinese demanding British sell them opium and the British said “you get your own opium”. At the same time they knew every minutiae of WW2. I think it’s because that was the only war in which they were the good guys
Johny Ricco Pff. Lol that is highly inaccurate. There was demand but the British did not just say ‘get your own opium’. Initially a measure to cover the deficit with the arrogant and strict Qing, they saw it as a very profitable profit in which Lord Pamerlston was too happy to support for various reason
I have a request. Could you tell me anything more about the origin of the surname Bing 邴 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(Chinese_surname) . Other then what was mentioned in the wiki article?
That's an interesting request. From my ressearch, there is no trace of the character being used as a surname before the Spring and Autumn period, so I think it's fair to assume that the surname did indeed originate from inhabitants of the village/city of Bing, southeast of present day Fei county (费县). When doubled (邴邴), it also came to mean "happy" or "joyful", as most chinese last names are linked with positive traits. Hope that helps !
@@History_of_China Are those clips all in low resolution or are you prevented from using HD due to copyright issues, or was it intentional for the historical effect? I personally would prefer if you used more HD clips if possible
It's not intentional. Unfortunately it's really hard to find available full HD clips most of the time. In the past, I've sometimes decided not to use some segments when the quality was really too bad.
i am curious of opium abuse was more of a result or consequence of the DAOGUANG depression brought on by the white lotus rebellion, the piracy in the south china sea and the volcanic eruptions of the 1810s? Any thoughts?
How should I put this... Do you know what it's like being starving? As in truly not having had food for a day or two? Living in the modern world, there's a good chance you haven't had that experience, and in the pre-modern one, there's a good chance that in some point in your life you did, as long as you were not in the 1-5% of the most wealthy families. This was not limited to china, and was more a feature of all societies without adequate energy to produce a large food-surplus, and without the technology to store all foodstuffs en-masse. Starvation, disease, lack of social support-systems and just the general quality of life in cities, combined with no worker protections and an economic system where most of your wealth was spent on simply aquiring food to get through daily life... Large catastrophies made these issues worse, but even without them there were still lots of "bad things" happening every single day. Kind of important to note that even in the modern world, people still get addicted to drugs, even with all their basic needs met. So, no. The difference maker was *supply*. The global trade-capacity and network had ballooned tremendously outside the borders of isolationist china, and it had become possible, by the start of the 19th century, to import the kind of industrial quantities of opium, that you would need to turn the drug into such an omnipresent and commonplace luxury, instead of a strictly upper-class addiction. The chinese started smoking, because the drug was available to them, and they kept smoking because of addiction. This state of affairs was only possible, because of the huge, cheap and stable supply of drugs, manufactured by british companies and spread by global trade-systems that transported all the luxury-goods of the time.
@@rockCity777 not following you at all. People do not simply use drugs because they are available. If your argument were correct, every American would be an alcoholic. We do, however, have enormous evidence that drug and alcohol abuse tend to rise in improvised areas. Areas were work is scarce and food security does not exists . I am not sure what you are referring to with your starvation comment. At no point did I mention the starvation which was occuring during this period, hence my comment on food insecurity
@@JoeHynes284 Thanks for answering. I do agree that my first comment was sort of disjointed, so I'll try make this one a bit more snappy and on-point. - I brought up stravation just as an example of the dramatic difference in the standard of living, which is linked to many other social problems, including drug use (like you said) I think we're more or less agreeing here, that lower living-standards and impoverishment do increase the demand for narcotics, as long as they are affordable to those who living in those conditions. I was merely trying to bring accross that there wasn't any kind of "good" standard of living, where you would have been protected from needing an escape, at any time, whether there were dramatic shortages/catastrophies or not. And therefore I don't think the two are very strongly correlated. - On your point about alcholism, it actually touches on an aspect that I was deliberately ignoring, because it's complicated and I'm not the right person to be talking about it in detail: The difference between "supply" and "access" to a good. I'll try to give a simple explanation of how I think about it: - Basically, even though a product is available in the "market", it can have a variety of restrictions placed on it that make aquiring or consuming it in practise a challenge. For alcohol, as an example, there exist a huge number of restrictions, both formal and informal customs and rules/guidelines, for how it needs to be handled in the modern day: There's the obvious age-limit, prohibiting it's use and purchasing from people deemed underage. Most countries require you to have a special license to serve and sell alcohol, and it's taxed differently from other products, having a much higher tax-rate, and an inflated price. There are various formal and informal restrictions on the *times* at which you can drink, for example northern cultures having a very strong tradition of drinking only after your "workday" is over, and the sale of alcohol being ended earlier in the evening than other products. There is a massive ammount of health-guidelines and teaching telling people not to overindulge on alcohol, and it's long and short-term effects have been very strongly imprinted on the collective conciousness. - In short, there has been a massive effort of social-engineering, in order to make society better function with legal alcohol. And this engineering is largely the result of centuries and decades of dealing with the negative effects of it. - For example, during the 19th century, many developing countries went through a very similar crisis of alcohol that china went through with opium. From a certain point of view "everyone was an alcoholic", although in practise this only applied to working class-men who didn't have any religious or cultural-beliefs that discouraged drinking. I found a source that claimed that alcohol-consumption in america peaked at a whopping 7 gallons of ethanol per-capita in 1830, which would be three times the average ammount of a person in 2018, of 2.42 gallons. The reasons for this massive consuption are the same as the ones in chinese opium-crisis: an influx of new, cheaply mass-produced alcohol (in this case, whiskey), being consumed by a population whose governmental and cultural norms were designed for a world with a much smaller supply. Many of the "rules" I mentioned earlier, about how we use alcohol now, didn't exist, and it was much more acceptable to both drink a lot, and to drink throughout the day. - Now, the reason you don't hear about the alcoholism-crisis the same way you hear about the opium-crisis is to do with the drugs themselves. Alcohol, and for that matter, nicotine, are addicting and harmful, but they are nowhere near as debilitating. You can be a high-functioning alcoholic all your life, and still manage to live well into your sixties, if you got lucky enough, even as your organs are going through hell and barely keeping you alive. Opioids are a different horse altogether, in terms of how strong their effects are, how little you need to induce addiction, and how harmful their effects are on your body. The physical and mental strain of addiction are also way more debilitating to your ability to live, work and even think. This is why it matters more that Opium was the thing being supplied, because it's a product that increases it's own demand exponentially simply by being available, more than other narcotics do. - So, this is the context for why I think just "being available" is the only thing that matters. Because it was being introduced into a system, into a culture, in which "access" to drugs was extremely permissive. It would be nice if I knew exactly "how" drug-use worked in Qing-china, but I unfortunately know only the basics: that it was illegal and unregulated, that it was extremely prevalent among the urban population, both with the upper- and lower-classes of people, that it was being supplied by foreigners and sold by the chinese themselves, and that local officials did very little about it until the central government sent it's officials in to directly intervene in the drug-crisis, by which point the problem was already out of control. In short, the Qing-society existed in state, where all the social, economic, cultural and legal barriers to using drugs were low, or at least low enough to create the group of incentives that allowed drug-trade to boom. And the main reason this had never been a problem before was that drugs had been a very rare, and therefore "expensive" commodity, which would have made mass-consumtion of them impossible.
And which country's history does not appall you? :) that all pretty much the same, because people are the same on a basic level in any country and in any century.
It's the Qing dynasty's fault as well for being too weak and arrogant, treating anyone outside their sphere of influence as "barbarians." To the victor the spoils, as always 🇬🇧
There could have been so many other things to trade, but they had to taint China with foreign drugs. The decay of China began and continues today from the Qing Dynasty. The rise of Mao and communist party as well was triggered from this first fall.
The Manchu created the division between the Royal Manchu ELITES and the ordinary Chinese people...this was the cause of the separation between the Chinese population and the Imperial Manchu power which was administrating Chinese population
Interested in the Opium war! Please do one! HAHA. So sad that nations with such power are able to do what they wish. Probably why the chinese consider the period after this as the humiliation
The Muslims from Uzbekistan rebelled against Russian invasion into Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan... escaped to Xin Jiang to start another Rebellion against Manchu military in Xin Jiang... given the other Muslims has already initiated rebellion in Gansu by the Hui Muslims , especially in Qin Hai and Non Xia ... named the 3 Ma families...
He does a good job of telling a story that is inherently BORING and hard to follow for westerners and I am able to understand and follow quite a bit of it. Mostly I like displaying to smallest bits of Chinese history to AMAZE Chinese who think Americans, especially BLACK Americans are hopelessly ignorant of it!! I’m also learning Chinese - to CORRECTLY pronounce even a little bit equally AMAZES them... Out of all my travels is Asia, I found the Chinese to be most impressed when you can speak their language and learn their culture. I studied a little bit but I also amazed them with my smattering knowledge of WRITTEN Chinese! They really appreciate you learning about them...
Wiser course was to ALLOW trade outside opium, meantime learn British science, tech and military fighting style. Hard to swallow, the way forward. Japan did. A war was not in China's favour.
Frankly, if the British tech was thr during Qianlong, the Qing would have been trashed. Cos the rot was alr there, and the people then didn't know how to fight.
@@ShahjahanMasood When notes, or in this case his syllables, are spoken sharply and distinctly from each other. He enunciates waaay too much basically.
You said Doukuang declaired war the British. Brits sent opium toChina then sent war ships with bigger guns to China 's coast, then made your own history books.
For the longest time I would like UK to have HK. Came to realize in history that HK is like a child and China is the Parent, and China is doing damn well in their industries lol
I mean, for Hong Kong (and to some extent the rest of the Pearl River Delta as well as Shanghai and Tianjin) the Opium Wars had a positive outcome, bringing immense prosperity and modern Western technology, learning and political theory, directly leading to the origins of both the Republican and Communist movements that would eventually restabilize and reunite China. However, it was hardly beneficial for China as a whole, with exploitation, addiction and chaos running rampant. I think it is possible to see the conflict as a necessary tragedy of source; sooner or later the outside world would force China to adapt and change in order to compete.
In your logic, it is better that millions of Chinese people be addicted to opium than be publicly executed in Mainland China for selling opium. Unbridled capitalism has really twisted many people in Hong Kong. It is a pity.
This kind of thinking is exactly why China was colonised since the Qing dynasty. People only thinking about themselves and allowing foreigners to play them against each other. Do you feel good being the brit's little pet? You know they treated hong kongers as second class citizens and had zero interest in the welfare of hongkongers?
When I say Chinese I don't mean Han Chinese but of Chinese nationality. As I explained in my Qianlong video, that emperor declared that being Chinese didn't necessarily mean being Han. Mongols, Manchus and other ethnic groups were therfore all considered Chinese subjects.
@@History_of_China Too many of our historians have "gone native" ... you really CANNOT take the Chinese and their history by accepting their version (they are shameless LIARS) The hairstyle was a very clear symbol of Han ENSLAVEMENT. !! Observe the 1997 nonsense by many HK.. we are Chinese not British .. which they are now reconsidering
Stephen Mortimer If you are talking about the hairstyle during the Qing, it was forced upon by the Manchu rulers. Not by the Han. Also, generalising the ‘Chinese’ as shameless liars is a highly hypocritical statement. I also take personal insult being labelled as a shameless liar. You, not kind sir, are a disappointment on the human race.
![[Live สด] การออกรางวัลสลากกินแบ่งรัฐบาล งวดวันที่ 16 ธันวาคม 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dNTiBBthKgQ/mqdefault.jpg)
It was at this point the Qing Dynasty switched the difficulty of their Total War campaign from easy to legendary.
On point
This series of documentaries on China have been brilliant!!. I've listened to many of your productions and I even try to mimic your Chinese pronunciations, so I may continue to learn Chinese! Keep up the great work!! I've learnt allot and will recommend your channel to friends and family! Thanks again and I truly hope you continue producing quality content such as this!!
Thank you so much! That means a lot, I'm really glad you enjoy my work :)
@@History_of_China You're welcome sir! Credit, where credit is due! Thanks for coming back, that's pretty special to me! Stay safe and well! 👍🇦🇺
@@paulgrant7949 Cheers, you too!
Your videos are really underrated
This was incredible! Please bring us more. I keenly await your video on the suggested topic.
Cheers ! I'll be working on it :)
@@History_of_China When will The documentary About Emepror Yizhu(Xianfeng) come
Xianfeng probably won't come until 2 or 3 weeks. I'm currently away so I can't reccord new videos for the time being.
@@History_of_China ok
This was the start of the "100 years of humiliation".
And that would go on till 1976 after maos death and after he's death china became what it is today.
@@markusforsberg6741 It actually ended in the Korean War, nobody believe China would drive American troops back before the war.
@Sipho_Thenjwayo A Jurchen (Manchu) here finds it absurd & funny that those who were conquered & missed out on constitutional monarchy along with democracy are completely ignoring the fact of help from us for uniting the nation. Instead, they're still talking about discriminations against us till today, and appreciating dictatorship... A huge doubt there is that if China & its cultures would still be there if it wasn't preserved by Jurchens (Manchurians)...😂
@Sipho_Thenjwayo Well, consider fact that the China in ‘Legit Chinese’ Han ppl’s eyes were long gone in Ming Dynasty in 1644. I think what you mean is that the nation of Jurchens’ 100 years of humiliation, ain’t it? Wonder if Han ppl would have a say if they were committed Cultural Revolutions (Geno) as what CCP’s been doing since 1644?… And now the whole world agrees that the true humiliation started since 1949 till now led by a deceiving Soviet power in the absence of ROC officials went to finish off signing Japanese imperialists invasion's surrender in TW after defending the nation in WWII, ain't it? 😅
@Sipho_Thenjwayo Well, consider fact that the China in ‘Legit' Chinese H a n ppl’s eyes were long gone before 1644 in Ming Dynasty. I think what you mean is that the nation of Jurchens’ 100 years of humiliation, ain’t it? Wonder if H a n would have a say if they were committed Cultural Revo (Geno) against as what XXP’s been doing since 1644?… 😅(**yt censorship btwXD)
Yes please to the full Opium War video. :)
It's really quite sad that an initial agreement between Lin and Elliot could have avoided the war and the ensuing ruination was ignored out of the pigheadedness of both nations. Please do cover the full Opium War in detail.
According to geographer and military historian, Wei Yuan, who worked closely with Lin Zexu, Elliot tried to reach out to Lin with an offer on how to tackle the opium smuggling trade, but was rebuffed by Lin Zexu. This, according to Wei Yuan, was a major mistake.
Another mistake made by Lin Zexu, was to target the foreigners in Canton, in spite of numerous officials warning him NOT to do so. Among those who advised against this move, were his predecessor, Deng Tingzhen, and sucessor, Qishan.
You deserve so many more views and subscribers. I'm sure that if you continue making videos of this caliber you will succeed sooner than later.
Thank you. As long as I have enough spare time I'll keep making vids !
History of China you will make it
Very interesting and informative as always. Thank you for the video.
Thank you ! Glad you enjoyed !
This was really intresting as always. Keep it up, I'm looking forward to the next one :)
Thanks a lot :)
merci a toi pour ta productivite
Salut, bye.
22:58. 71 year old Yang Fang, were by this time so deaf, that he could only communicate by writing.
His plan, when he arrived in Canton, for fighting the British was to order every ten households to collect together all the women's chamber-pots they could find, place them on wooden rafts, and send them out to defend the city. I find it hard to understand the logic behind this plan.
According to one local, who did not bother restraining his mockery of the general, said that, during the day, Yang Fang were busy buying up watches and other foreign goods. While at night, he bought the service of pretty boys for his entertainment.
30 minutes à feu doux. Super nickel chef
i never even heard of him. Thanks for teaching me so much
Glad you could learn!
These are always amazing
this made my day, I was bored surfing YT and this suddenly showed up haha!
also, will you make episodes about Qin Shi Huang Di? There is a manga called Kingdom which retells the story of the Qin's unification. I'm sure its readers would appreciate if you make a video about it.
Great to hear haha! I most certainly will make a Qin Shi Huang biography. I think I'll finish the Qing saga and then go back in time to the first dynasties and work from there.
If the Emperor had employed bureaucrats with some courage and honesty, the Century Of Humiliation might not have been so humiliating.
Definitely. I think many believe that the Qing dynasty should have engaged in reforms and significant fighting of corruption as early as Jiaqing
The longest lesson of history: Never trust the British.
Right
Especially when they want your tea
@@History_of_China Yees
CherryBoyWriter can I have a spot of tea for the opium
When you have fire power, you have the upper hand.
I absolutely love your videos! Keep publishing them!
Many thanks ! I will do
@@History_of_China You should start a Patreon!
I've thought about it, but I'm not sure what I could offer to patrons for their contribution
@@History_of_China Personally, I would love some insights about how you learn about chinese history, what kind of research you do before the videos and books that you are currently reading or have read related to chinese history.
I'll think about it. Thanks for following :)
There were always a reasoned for any empire to fall .. even in modern days. I guess history will repeat itself unnoticed and unavoidable.
Hi would you do the Ming Dynasty emperors and events after your Qing Dynasty series. Or maybe perhaps one about the Three Kingdoms.
He already did videos on several figures of the Three Kingdoms period like Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Liu Bei, etc. Check his older videos, mate.
Absolutely love ur videos
Thank you, I enjoyed many of your videos
Thanks for following :)
great video as always
I was always curious why Japan, a traditional culture with an Emperor too, managed to industrialise and become a world power but China didn't
I believe it's a combination of 2 reasons. The first one was that when Matthew Perry (no, not the actor) demanded that Japan must open her borders to US ships and allow trade, the Japanese were wise enough to understand they were outclassed and accepted the terms (1853-54).
The second reason was the Meiji Restoration, in 1868. It was a revolution that ended the Shogunate and reinstated the Emperor (though he had not real power). The subesquent leaders of the Meiji government sent officials to European powers and the US, to collect knowledge and also invited foreign experts to Japan to help them reform their army and in other matters.
IMHO there are few basic differences between them.
First, Japanese Emperor didnt hold real power, the one with real power were the shogun and the daimyos. Chinese Emperors, meanwhile, hold real powers and they were the ones that actually run the government.
Second, Chinese opened their borders to foreigners albeit with limitation while Japan at the same time isolated themselves for 260 years.
Third, Japanese didnt have many resources that foreigners wanted unlike the Chinese. The greed made the Brits and Europeans in general muscled and cheated their way in China which make the Chinese resisted, they didnt do the same thing in Japan. It was just trading business as usual there.
Fourth, the Pope didnt have branches in Japan and thus the mistakes the Papacy made in China didnt happen in Japan, which make the Europeans in general are easier to be accepted there.
Another factor is that the Chinese empire had more emotional attachment to the existing order and more historical baggage. Even after experiencing defeat after defeat by foreign imperialist powers, they merely acknowledged that their backwardness was "only" in the technology, and still believed their institution and style of administration was far superior. Of course, we now all know that was more wishful thinking than anything else. Japan, on the other hand, while also a traditional culture, throughout history was continuously learning and adopting institutions, culture, and technologies from other countries, mainly China and Korea. So the notion of having to adopt to adapt when confronted with overwhelming foreign power, while initially shocking, loses its impact soon after. So it was not as unacceptable to them to closely emulate European institution as well as the technology.
They did though. It was just a slower process.
Cuz the Manchurian ruling class refused to give up power
How. Do. I. Help get you guys to be 8 million subscribers instead of 8,000
Your work is amazing.
Thank you ! Sharing my work probably helps the channel grow the most :)
The Qing in the 19th century was basically like the short middle school kid that keeps on getting body slammed by the bigger kids.
funny how when they become emperor, most often they always pick a favorite grandson to rule.
Well it's because Chinese dynasties favor longevity
King Rama III of Siam once spoke with the government officials talking about the situation in Qing China. Apparently it was mentioned that the King and the government officials believes that Daoguang Emperor was gay.
Interesting anecdote, though he did have a pretty large progeniture!
Please do one on the next 4 Emperors!
Certainly ! I'll probably release the video on the First Opium War next, then Xianfeng shortly after :)
I think this happened because of the latter half reign of his grandfather, Qianlong.
Thank you for making these videos you have helped me realize the importance of these qing emperors in chinese history
why does this man not have a diamond play button yet?
Stephan R. Platt's Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age published in 2018 is a great source for more detail, especially on the Canton Traders. It's wasn't just English. Americans and other Westerners also participated in the opium trade.
1:18 MONTY PYTHON Holy Grail:
"Aughhhhhhhh"
"That's what it says !!"
8:55 could have used that opportunity to trade the maps and horses for stopping the opium trade instead, i.e direct investment elsewhere
Daoguang's Harem is why I think Qianlong's step Empress was Ula-Nara, not Hoifa-Nara. Daoguang and his grandfather had a great relationship, so it would make you wonder, if the step empress was Hoifa-Nara, why did Daoguang have three Hoifa in his Harem? Why did he have Xianfeng with the more higher titled lady?
Something to ponder.
Great video
Thanks !
@@History_of_China when will you make videos about other dynasties after u finish the Qing. Ming and Tang looks most interesting for me.
Very good series!
Thank you!
A century of humuliation is some white guy with a snarky accent teaching the rest of us chinese history on youtube. Good job sir!!!
I have met British people who explained to me the Opium Wars was about the Chinese demanding British sell them opium and the British said “you get your own opium”. At the same time they knew every minutiae of WW2. I think it’s because that was the only war in which they were the good guys
Johny Ricco Pff. Lol that is highly inaccurate. There was demand but the British did not just say ‘get your own opium’. Initially a measure to cover the deficit with the arrogant and strict Qing, they saw it as a very profitable profit in which Lord Pamerlston was too happy to support for various reason
Yes more videos please.
Will you be finishing the Qing with the Xuantong Emperor?
Absolutely, it'll be the final segment, though in the future I might talk about elements I've missed out :)
Sorry if i made some grammar mistakes my english is not perfect
I have a request. Could you tell me anything more about the origin of the surname Bing 邴 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(Chinese_surname) . Other then what was mentioned in the wiki article?
That's an interesting request. From my ressearch, there is no trace of the character being used as a surname before the Spring and Autumn period, so I think it's fair to assume that the surname did indeed originate from inhabitants of the village/city of Bing, southeast of present day Fei county (费县).
When doubled (邴邴), it also came to mean "happy" or "joyful", as most chinese last names are linked with positive traits.
Hope that helps !
@@History_of_China Thank you。 I choose this name as my Chinese surname。 That is why I asked。
No problem at all ! Thanks for following :)
Yes make a video about the opium wars
Right on :)
The Spice must flow!!
i'm getting thoroughly educated now
Which is the drama on this video?
The sequences I used come from a show called The Legend of Jiaqing (2005) and the film is The Opium War (1997).
@@History_of_China thanks!!
@@History_of_China Are those clips all in low resolution or are you prevented from using HD due to copyright issues, or was it intentional for the historical effect? I personally would prefer if you used more HD clips if possible
It's not intentional. Unfortunately it's really hard to find available full HD clips most of the time. In the past, I've sometimes decided not to use some segments when the quality was really too bad.
i am curious of opium abuse was more of a result or consequence of the DAOGUANG depression brought on by the white lotus rebellion, the piracy in the south china sea and the volcanic eruptions of the 1810s? Any thoughts?
How should I put this...
Do you know what it's like being starving? As in truly not having had food for a day or two?
Living in the modern world, there's a good chance you haven't had that experience, and in the pre-modern one, there's a good chance that in some point in your life you did, as long as you were not in the 1-5% of the most wealthy families. This was not limited to china, and was more a feature of all societies without adequate energy to produce a large food-surplus, and without the technology to store all foodstuffs en-masse.
Starvation, disease, lack of social support-systems and just the general quality of life in cities, combined with no worker protections and an economic system where most of your wealth was spent on simply aquiring food to get through daily life... Large catastrophies made these issues worse, but even without them there were still lots of "bad things" happening every single day. Kind of important to note that even in the modern world, people still get addicted to drugs, even with all their basic needs met.
So, no. The difference maker was *supply*. The global trade-capacity and network had ballooned tremendously outside the borders of isolationist china, and it had become possible, by the start of the 19th century, to import the kind of industrial quantities of opium, that you would need to turn the drug into such an omnipresent and commonplace luxury, instead of a strictly upper-class addiction. The chinese started smoking, because the drug was available to them, and they kept smoking because of addiction. This state of affairs was only possible, because of the huge, cheap and stable supply of drugs, manufactured by british companies and spread by global trade-systems that transported all the luxury-goods of the time.
@@rockCity777 not following you at all. People do not simply use drugs because they are available. If your argument were correct, every American would be an alcoholic. We do, however, have enormous evidence that drug and alcohol abuse tend to rise in improvised areas. Areas were work is scarce and food security does not exists . I am not sure what you are referring to with your starvation comment. At no point did I mention the starvation which was occuring during this period, hence my comment on food insecurity
@@JoeHynes284 Thanks for answering. I do agree that my first comment was sort of disjointed, so I'll try make this one a bit more snappy and on-point.
- I brought up stravation just as an example of the dramatic difference in the standard of living, which is linked to many other social problems, including drug use (like you said) I think we're more or less agreeing here, that lower living-standards and impoverishment do increase the demand for narcotics, as long as they are affordable to those who living in those conditions.
I was merely trying to bring accross that there wasn't any kind of "good" standard of living, where you would have been protected from needing an escape, at any time, whether there were dramatic shortages/catastrophies or not. And therefore I don't think the two are very strongly correlated.
- On your point about alcholism, it actually touches on an aspect that I was deliberately ignoring, because it's complicated and I'm not the right person to be talking about it in detail: The difference between "supply" and "access" to a good. I'll try to give a simple explanation of how I think about it:
- Basically, even though a product is available in the "market", it can have a variety of restrictions placed on it that make aquiring or consuming it in practise a challenge. For alcohol, as an example, there exist a huge number of restrictions, both formal and informal customs and rules/guidelines, for how it needs to be handled in the modern day:
There's the obvious age-limit, prohibiting it's use and purchasing from people deemed underage.
Most countries require you to have a special license to serve and sell alcohol, and it's taxed differently from other products, having a much higher tax-rate, and an inflated price.
There are various formal and informal restrictions on the *times* at which you can drink, for example northern cultures having a very strong tradition of drinking only after your "workday" is over, and the sale of alcohol being ended earlier in the evening than other products.
There is a massive ammount of health-guidelines and teaching telling people not to overindulge on alcohol, and it's long and short-term effects have been very strongly imprinted on the collective conciousness.
- In short, there has been a massive effort of social-engineering, in order to make society better function with legal alcohol. And this engineering is largely the result of centuries and decades of dealing with the negative effects of it.
- For example, during the 19th century, many developing countries went through a very similar crisis of alcohol that china went through with opium. From a certain point of view "everyone was an alcoholic", although in practise this only applied to working class-men who didn't have any religious or cultural-beliefs that discouraged drinking. I found a source that claimed that alcohol-consumption in america peaked at a whopping 7 gallons of ethanol per-capita in 1830, which would be three times the average ammount of a person in 2018, of 2.42 gallons.
The reasons for this massive consuption are the same as the ones in chinese opium-crisis: an influx of new, cheaply mass-produced alcohol (in this case, whiskey), being consumed by a population whose governmental and cultural norms were designed for a world with a much smaller supply. Many of the "rules" I mentioned earlier, about how we use alcohol now, didn't exist, and it was much more acceptable to both drink a lot, and to drink throughout the day.
- Now, the reason you don't hear about the alcoholism-crisis the same way you hear about the opium-crisis is to do with the drugs themselves. Alcohol, and for that matter, nicotine, are addicting and harmful, but they are nowhere near as debilitating. You can be a high-functioning alcoholic all your life, and still manage to live well into your sixties, if you got lucky enough, even as your organs are going through hell and barely keeping you alive.
Opioids are a different horse altogether, in terms of how strong their effects are, how little you need to induce addiction, and how harmful their effects are on your body. The physical and mental strain of addiction are also way more debilitating to your ability to live, work and even think.
This is why it matters more that Opium was the thing being supplied, because it's a product that increases it's own demand exponentially simply by being available, more than other narcotics do.
- So, this is the context for why I think just "being available" is the only thing that matters. Because it was being introduced into a system, into a culture, in which "access" to drugs was extremely permissive. It would be nice if I knew exactly "how" drug-use worked in Qing-china, but I unfortunately know only the basics: that it was illegal and unregulated, that it was extremely prevalent among the urban population, both with the upper- and lower-classes of people, that it was being supplied by foreigners and sold by the chinese themselves, and that local officials did very little about it until the central government sent it's officials in to directly intervene in the drug-crisis, by which point the problem was already out of control.
In short, the Qing-society existed in state, where all the social, economic, cultural and legal barriers to using drugs were low, or at least low enough to create the group of incentives that allowed drug-trade to boom. And the main reason this had never been a problem before was that drugs had been a very rare, and therefore "expensive" commodity, which would have made mass-consumtion of them impossible.
Very interesting. As a uk citizen my country's history appals me.
And which country's history does not appall you? :) that all pretty much the same, because people are the same on a basic level in any country and in any century.
It's the Qing dynasty's fault as well for being too weak and arrogant, treating anyone outside their sphere of influence as "barbarians." To the victor the spoils, as always 🇬🇧
Britain wanted trade balance. If the Qing had given them that. Opium war might not happen.
Absolutely as even if opium didn't exist the ultimate reasoning for the war went beyond mere drug trading, even if it was the most known reason
There could have been so many other things to trade, but they had to taint China with foreign drugs.
The decay of China began and continues today from the Qing Dynasty.
The rise of Mao and communist party as well was triggered from this first fall.
This is probably the biggest "Oof" in modern history
Africans: "a century of himuliation is better than us....shits still going on for us."
The seeds of decline are often sown in the best ages.
History does provide strong evidence for this!
The Manchu created the division between the Royal Manchu ELITES and the ordinary Chinese people...this was the cause of the separation between the Chinese population and the Imperial Manchu power which was administrating Chinese population
Interested in the Opium war! Please do one! HAHA. So sad that nations with such power are able to do what they wish. Probably why the chinese consider the period after this as the humiliation
I'll be working on it ! The First Opium War was bad enough, but there will be a sequel lol
The moral of this story is that fuckin tea is more addicting than opium!!! Who would have thought?!?
What are those silver things that can be seen in animations as money?
They are taels of silver, the main kind of currency that was used during the Qing dynasty
@@History_of_China I see, thanks. They look very unusual.
The Muslims from Uzbekistan rebelled against Russian invasion into Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan... escaped to Xin Jiang to start another Rebellion against Manchu military in Xin Jiang... given the other Muslims has already initiated rebellion in Gansu by the Hui Muslims , especially in Qin Hai and Non Xia ... named the 3 Ma families...
Qianlong abdicated in 1796
so is this when the uygher issue started???
It technically began with Qianlong's conquest of Xinjiang, but this insurgency was the first major one after the territory was annexed into China
when are we getting Xinhai Revolution.
Once I get to Puyi ! So I have Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu to make first. Xianfeng and Tongzhi also reigned shortly, so they'll be faster to make :)
It seems like Emperor Daoguang failed to finish the job in Xinjiang
your pronunciation is very good like a native speaker
Thanks !
History of China where’re u from?
He does a good job of telling a story that is inherently BORING and hard to follow for westerners and I am able to understand and follow quite a bit of it.
Mostly I like displaying to smallest bits of Chinese history to AMAZE Chinese who think Americans, especially BLACK Americans are hopelessly ignorant of it!!
I’m also learning Chinese - to CORRECTLY pronounce even a little bit equally AMAZES them...
Out of all my travels is Asia, I found the Chinese to be most impressed when you can speak their language and learn their culture.
I studied a little bit but I also amazed them with my smattering knowledge of WRITTEN Chinese!
They really appreciate you learning about them...
Wiser course was to ALLOW trade outside opium, meantime learn British science, tech and military fighting style. Hard to swallow, the way forward. Japan did. A war was not in China's favour.
An Opium Wars video please
I shall be working on it :)
Frankly, if the British tech was thr during Qianlong, the Qing would have been trashed. Cos the rot was alr there, and the people then didn't know how to fight.
Why do you speak in staccato all the time?
What the hell is Staccato?
@@ShahjahanMasood When notes, or in this case his syllables, are spoken sharply and distinctly from each other. He enunciates waaay too much basically.
It’s saddening to see how far China has fallen, not to mention how much further it has yet to fall.
Please do Kong rong please
I might mention him in future Han dynasty/confucius videos
You said Doukuang declaired war the British.
Brits sent opium toChina
then sent war ships with
bigger guns to China 's
coast, then made your
own history books.
For the longest time I would like UK to have HK. Came to realize in history that HK is like a child and China is the Parent, and China is doing damn well in their industries lol
it bugs me how you kept saying "this had began that had began"...the past participle of begin is BEGUN.
Thanks ! I'll pay attention not to make the mistake in future videos :)
📼🐻🛠
Just like Iran 🇮🇷 today 😔
The narrator keeps using multiple names for emperors!! Cut the damn drama. Stick with one name so as not to cause confusion.
🔭😝
well they certainly behaved like barbarians
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Why not mention the vast amounts of opium that had always come from Burma ??
Il doit s'agir d'une simple maldonne mon bon Stéphane.
@@nathanpas6743
WUMAOS come in all languages ... PS my family has not spoken french since 1066
and then we only learned it to rule Normandy
Without the Opium War we Hongkongers might have witnessed thousands of extremely brutal public executions as it was in Mainland China over century !
I mean, for Hong Kong (and to some extent the rest of the Pearl River Delta as well as Shanghai and Tianjin) the Opium Wars had a positive outcome, bringing immense prosperity and modern Western technology, learning and political theory, directly leading to the origins of both the Republican and Communist movements that would eventually restabilize and reunite China. However, it was hardly beneficial for China as a whole, with exploitation, addiction and chaos running rampant. I think it is possible to see the conflict as a necessary tragedy of source; sooner or later the outside world would force China to adapt and change in order to compete.
In your logic, it is better that millions of Chinese people be addicted to opium than be publicly executed in Mainland China for selling opium. Unbridled capitalism has really twisted many people in Hong Kong. It is a pity.
This kind of thinking is exactly why China was colonised since the Qing dynasty. People only thinking about themselves and allowing foreigners to play them against each other. Do you feel good being the brit's little pet? You know they treated hong kongers as second class citizens and had zero interest in the welfare of hongkongers?
No mention that these were not Chinese but they were MANCHU !!
When I say Chinese I don't mean Han Chinese but of Chinese nationality. As I explained in my Qianlong video, that emperor declared that being Chinese didn't necessarily mean being Han. Mongols, Manchus and other ethnic groups were therfore all considered Chinese subjects.
The Manchu made everyone Chinese themselves included, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhonghua_minzu
@@History_of_China
Too many of our historians have "gone native" ... you really CANNOT take the Chinese and their history by accepting their version (they are shameless LIARS)
The hairstyle was a very clear symbol of Han ENSLAVEMENT. !!
Observe the 1997 nonsense by many HK.. we are Chinese not British .. which they are now reconsidering
And what about the Droid attack on the wookies?
Stephen Mortimer If you are talking about the hairstyle during the Qing, it was forced upon by the Manchu rulers. Not by the Han. Also, generalising the ‘Chinese’ as shameless liars is a highly hypocritical statement. I also take personal insult being labelled as a shameless liar. You, not kind sir, are a disappointment on the human race.
Oh so that’s why China has a terrible economy to this day. Unfortunately for me, I’m from China....
No really, many other nations bounced back.
Please the Tang dynasty
I'll get to it eventually :)
@@History_of_China ming dynasty properous the treasure fleet please and the silk road history's