Are we learning from history?

 

Quote from a book

Zhang, Qizhi. An Introduction to to Chinese History and Culture. New York, NY: Springer Heidelberg, 2015.

        In politics, the highly centralized and autocratic monarchical system fomented serious corruption. From the perspective of Chinese history, this political system played an active role in making China a unified multinational country and in promoting social productivity, yet as time passed, its drawbacks became more evident. 

        The Qing emperors inherited the political system of the Ming Dynasty and developed it to its peak. The Qing emperors were at the center of this system, and they were surrounded, at both central and local levels, by a large number of fully functional and closely linked bureaucratic groups, whose job was to safeguard the emperor’s authority and autocracy by managing people’s discontents and crushing any insurgence and revolt. 

        Corruption was commonplace within these ruling groups. Government officials were oblivious to the welfare of the nation and did not care about anybody’s livelihood except for their own; they expended little energy in choosing competent people for the benefit of country, preferring to form cliques for personal gain. They were so corrupt and shady that bribery and the sale of official titles and posts for money were rampant. 

        No wonder it was said by people “being three years a Qing government official is of equal worth to 100,000 taels of silver.” The later Qing Dynasty era was regarded as one of the darkest and most politically corrupt periods in Chinese history. 

        Manifold problems of the autocratic monarchy, which had been accumulating over 2,000 years, could not be eliminated by the rulers themselves; thus, the problems were fully exposed, which eventually inflamed widespread social conflicts. 

        Corruption could also be found in the military sector. The Emperor Daoguang had 900,000 servicemen in his troops, mainly the Eight Banners (Baqi) and Green Camps (lüying). After entering the Shanhaiguan Pass, the Eight Banners enjoyed various privileges, lived a parasitic existence, and lost all of their martial toughness. 

        Those stationed outside the capital city descended into idleness and indulged in bird-keeping and sparrow-keeping or group gambling. Their equipment was also backward. Primitive cold weapons, such as the knife, spear, sword, and halberd, were still widely used, and the cannons of all key military fortresses were by now 300 years old. 

        The backward weapons and poor military discipline brought about a decline in military strength. In the end, the Qing troops intimidated and robbed ordinary people, becoming incapable of defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity. (Zhang 2015, 411)