201717中国简史【英语版本十】.doc

中国简史【英语版本十】张铁城 2017、1、7发送A Brief History Of ChinaThe Decline of the Qing DynastyBy the late 18th century the Qing dynasty was in decline. This was partly due to a rise in the population. The population of China began to outstrip its resources and the peasants grew poorer. As a result rebellions broke out. In the years 1796-1804 the White Lotus sect led a rebellion. Although that rebellion was eventually crushed it was followed by another rebellion in 1813 led by the Eight Trigrams sect. This rebellion cost 70,000 lives before it was defeated.However by far the most serious rebellion was the Taipeng rebellion of 1850-1864, which is estimated to have cost 20 million lives. It was led by Hong Xichuan who believed he was the Son of God and the younger brother of Jesus. He preached a mixture of some Christian beliefs and some Communism. His followers sold their property and put the money in a common fund. Land was distributed among his followers. He also banned foot binding, smoking opium and wearing the queue. His followers also destroyed Buddhist and Taoist temples. He took Nanjing in 1853 and led a long rebellion. It took the Qing more than a decade to crush it. Furthermore other rebellions broke out in China. It took another 4 years to put down bandits in the north called the Nanin. There were also rebellions by Muslims in outlying areas. These were not defeated until 1873.In the late 19th century the Chinese government made some attempts to introduce European technology. None of them were very successful. In partnership with Chinese merchants the government opened coalmines, started a steam shipping company and opened iron works and cotton mills. They also built a telegraph network and a small network of railways.However all these efforts at reform met with resistance from traditional Confucian scholars. Worse in 1893 the Empress Cixi took some money intended for the navy and used it to build a marble ship in the shape of a paddle steamer. China remained fundamentally unchanged in the late 19th century, unlike Japan, which changed rapidly.In 1894 came war with Japan. A rebellion broke out in Korea in 1894 and Chinese troops were sent there. However the Japanese navy sank a Chinese troop carrier, provoking war. The Japanese army and navy quickly won stunning victories and the Chinese were forced to sign a humiliating treaty. They were forced to cede Taiwan to Japan and to allow the Japanese to build factories in China. China was also forced to pay a large sum of money. Afterwards European powers took advantage of Chinas weakness by forcing her to cede more territory to them.After the shock of the Sino-Japanese war many Chinese realized that China must modernize otherwise she would be carved up between the foreign powers. In 1898 some officials persuaded the emperor to decree a series of reforms. However the Empress Dowager (a retired empress) Cixi put a stop to it. She arrested most of the reformers and executed them on the trumped up charge that they were plotting to overthrow the government.The Boxer RebellionIn 1900 Chinese resentment of foreign interference boiled over into the Boxer rebellion. It began with a secret society called the Harmonious Fists. They hated Christian missionaries and foreign influence. The society grew rapidly after 1898 and friction between them and the missionaries grew. Afraid, the British sent 2,000 men to protect their nationals in Beijing.However the Boxers cut the railway to Tianjin and the British were forced to withdraw their soldiers. Cixi decided to join the Boxers and she declared war. The foreigners in Beijing shut themselves in their buildings and the Chinese lay siege. However a force of 20,000 European soldiers marched into Beijing and sacked it. Afterwards the Chinese were forced to pay a large sum of money to the Europeans as compensation.The Fall of the Qing DynastyIn 1901 the Empress Dowager, Cixi, changed her mind and decided some reform was needed after all. Primary and secondary education was changed to include western subjects. Then in 1905 the civil service entry exams, which had been used for 2,000 years, were abolished. Some attempt was made to reform the army and navy. In 1908 she agreed to make the Chinese monarchy a constitutional one. In 1909 provincial assemblies were elected. However only a limited number of men were allowed to vote and the assemblies had little power. After 1910 there was a national assembly but it too have very limited power. The limited reforms of the Qing satisfied nobody and in 1911 they were swept away by a revolution. China became a republic.THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 1911-1949The RevolutionIn the early 20th century many people decided the only thing to do was to sweep away the old order. Leading the revolutionaries was Sun-Yat-Sen (1866-1925). He put forward 3 principles, nationalism, democracy and socialism. In 1905 he formed the Revolutionary Alliance of Tongmen Hui. Some soldiers in Wuchang with revolutionary ideals formed an organisation called the Literary Society. In 1911 they were planning revolution. However they accidentally set off a bomb. Realizing the government would now be alerted they decided to start the revolution immediately.The revolution soon gathered pace and spread across southern China. Province after province seceded from the Qing Empire. However the Qing turned to a man named General Yaun Shikai. This man had been a regional governor but the Qing dismissed him, as they feared he was growing too powerful. Now they recalled him and gave him wide powers to crush the revolution.However when his forces were repulsed at Nanjing the general decided to change sides. He made a deal with the revolutionaries. He would make China a republic if he could be President. Sun Yat-Sen and the other revolutionaries feared that a divided China would be easy prey for the foreign powers so they agreed to his terms. The Qing were persuaded to abdicate in February 1912. Yuan Shikai became president of China. A parliament was elected in February. The largest party were the nationalists of Kuomintang with Sun Yat-Sen at their head.However the general had no intention of sharing power with parliament and soon made himself dictator. The Kuomintang were banned at the end of 1913 and parliament was closed in January 1914.The Warlord YearsWhen General Yuan died in 1916 China descended into semi-anarchy. Central government had little power and warlords controlled the provinces. In 1916 the Japanese took over the German sphere of influence in Shangdong. After the war, in 1919, it became clear that the victorious powers intended to let Japan keep it. This news provoked 3,000 students to demonstrate in Beijing on 4 May 1919. They burned the Minister of Communications house. Although the police moved to suppress the demonstration in Beijing similar protests took place elsewhere in China. The protest gave rise to a movement called the Fourth of May movement which rejected Confucian values and sought to modernize China. Although the Kuomintang were banned in 1913 they simply moved their base to Guangzhou and continued to operate.In 1921 the Chinese Communist Party or CCP was founded. Communism was based on the ideas of Karl Marx (1818-1883). According to him society went through an inevitable series of stages ending in Communism. The workers, he said, would inevitably rise up against the capitalists and Capitalism would be replaced by Socialism in which the state would own industry. However the state would wither away leaving a classless society or Communism. Needless to say the promised utopia never materialized.One of the founders of the Communist Party was Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976). By 1935 he became head of the new party. At first the Communists decided to co-operate with the Kuomintang. For a time the two joined forces.Meanwhile China was changing in the early 20th century. Industry was expanding rapidly (although the country remained overwhelmingly agricultural) and China saw a wave of strikes and labor unrest in the 1920s. Then in 1926 the Kuomintang decided to unite China. From their base in the south they sent an army of 150,000 men into the north. The warlords in some of the northern provinces were defeated and by the end of 1926 large parts of northern China were brought under Kuomintang control. In 1928 the Northern Expedition was renewed and in April Kuomintang forces entered Beijing. China was reunited.Meanwhile the Kuomintang and the Communists argued. In the autumn of 1927 Mao Tse Tung led a peasant rebellion called the Autumn Harvest Uprising. However it was crushed. In December 1927 there was an uprising in Guangzhou and a Communist government was very briefly established in the city but government forces soon crushed the movement.In 1930 the Kuomintang said that China was not ready for democracy. Instead China became a military dictatorship led by Chiang Kai Shek. In 1930 Li Lisan led another Communist rebellion but it was easily crushed. However in the countryside Mao Tse Tung adopted a much more successful policy. From his base in a mountain range he carried out guerrilla warfare. He created a well-disciplined force that conducted hit and run raids and hid whenever the enemy advanced, avoiding pitched battles. His men were able to wear down and demoralize them. Guerrilla warfare proved to be extremely successful in the 20th century.In 1934 the Kuomintang attempted to encircle the Communists. Mao decided to break out. About 90,000 soldiers escaped the trap and embarked on a long march to the north of China. This Long March became legendary although less than 20,000 of those who took part survived the march. Then in 1937 Communists and Kuomintang agreed to a temporary truce to fight the Japanese.In 1931 the Japanese occupied Manchuria. In 1932 they created a separate state with a puppet government called Munchuko. In 1937 the Japanese invaded the rest of China. The invasion began with the rape of Nanjing when tens of thousands of people in that city were murdered. Women were raped and buildings were burned. However the Japanese were unable to conquer all of China due to its sheer size.In the 1930s some modernization occurred in the coastal cities of China. Many new railways were built and many more roads were metaled. The amount of electricity generated increased 7 times over. Industrial output was small but it was growing. Coal mining boomed. Cotton spinning also grew. However the interior of China remained overwhelmingly agricultural. When the Japanese invaded in 1937 Chiang Kai Shek attempted to evacuate many people, especially skilled workers to the unoccupied areas of China. Industrial machinery was also evacuated west. However to finance the fighting the Kuomintang were forced to print money. The result was rampant inflation which undermined their support.The Revolution in ChinaIn August 1945 Russia declared war on Japan. As a result Russian troops occupied Manchuria after the Japanese surrender. When they withdrew the Communists were left in control of Manchuria. In 1946 the civil war resumed between Communists and Kuomintang. At first the Kuomintang were successful and they recaptured southern Manchuria and other parts of northern China. However the Communists turned to guerrilla warfare and successfully harassed the Kuomintang and their lines of communication.From the middle of 1947 the Communists were winning the war. Then in November 1948-January 1949 the Communists won a victory at Huai-Hai. They encircled an army of 300,000 Kuomintang and eventually forced them to surrender. After that the Kuomintang position swiftly collapsed. The Communists took Beijing in January 1949. In April they took Nanjing and in May Shanghai. The remaining Kuomintang then fled to Taiwan and in October Mao Tse Tung declared the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing.MODERN CHINAThe Early Years of the Peoples RepublicUnder the Communists industry was nationalized. The peasants were encouraged to pool their resources and form their small farms into co-operatives. Any opposition to the Communist regime was ruthlessly suppressed.In 1958 Mao launched an attempt to greatly increase output of farming and industry. It was called The Great Leap Forward. Agricultural co-operatives were joined together to form larger units called communes. Creches and nurseries were set up so women could work.Communes were encouraged to make steel in their own makeshift furnaces. Many peasants were forced to work on water conservation works.However the Great Leap Forward proved to be a disaster. Most of the steel was of very poor quality and could not be used.Worse farm output greatly declined and there was a terrible famine in China in 1959-62. Far too much labor was diverted to making steel or building projects leaving not enough for the harvests which in some areas were left to rot. Worse crops fell prey to locusts. In 1958 Mao launched a campaign to kill sparrows (because they ate grain seeds). However sparrows also ate locusts and other insects. Huge numbers of sparrows were killed and without natural predators the number of locusts greatly increased, making the famine worse. Bad weather in 1959 and 1960 made the famine worse still.Yet even though there was a famine and people were starving China continued to export grain. An estimated 36 million people in China died in the famine. Not all died of starvation. Starving people were executed for stealing food. It was the worst man made famine in history. However Mao was unmoved by the famine. He said To distribute resources evenly will only ruin the Great Leap Forward. It is better to let half the people die so that the other half can eat their fill. Nevertheless The Great Leap Forward was a failure and it had to be abandoned. Afterwards Mao lost some of his authority.The Cultural Revolution in ChinaIn 1966 to reassert his authority Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. Students began to call themselves the Red Guard and they held rallies in Beijing. Soon a movement began to root out old habits, beliefs and attitudes and cause a cultural revolution. The Red Guard began to attack intellectuals and also officials. In 1967 they forced the mayor and other officials in Shanghai to resign. The same thing happened in other cities as well. Many party officials were purged and removed from power.During the Cultural Revolution religion was persecuted in China. Many places of worship were destroyed. (Mao like all Marxists was an atheist and he detested religion).However in 1968 Mao realized that things were going too far. The Red Guard was disrupting industry and agriculture