The Rise of Modern China

1142 Pages·1995·39.612 MB·English

by  Immanuel C.Y. Hsu

The Rise'of
MODERN CHINA
Sixth Edition.
IMMANUEL C. Y. HSO
University of Cfllifornia, Santa Barbara .
.
. .
..
ml"lnllll~nl~11I1
3 9~09 0703 8
New York . Oxford
OXPO.RD UNIVERSITY PRESS
2000
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta
Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul
Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai
Nairobi Paris Sao Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1970, 1975, 1983, 1990, 1995, 2000 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 100,6
http;//www.oup-usa.org
Oxfor.d is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hsii, Immanuel Chung~yueh, 1923-
The rise of modern China / Immanuel C. Y. Hsu.-6th ed. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Half title in Chinese: Chung-kuo chin-tai shih.
,ISBN 0-19-512504-5
I. China-History-Ch'ing dynasty, 1644-1912. i.. China
History-2.oth century. I. Title. II. Title; Chung-kuo chin-tai shih.
DS754.H74 2000
Printing (number);
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
2(-2.01.";
"-25·
1737.3
To the Memory of
John King Fairbank

Preface
China? There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep.
For when he wakes he will move the world.
Napoleon
A major shaping force of modern China was the search for a way to
survive with honor in the new world that had been forcibly thrust
upon it by the West. For a century and a half, China underwent dif
ferent stages of self-improvement to overcome the twin evils of de
bilitating inertia from domestic decay and humiliating exploitation by
foreign imperialism. These stages included the Self-Strengthening
Movement of 1861-1895, the Hundred-Day Reform of 1898, the Re
publican Revolution or 19.I2, the Intellectual Revolution of 1919, the
Nationalist Nation-Building of 1928-1948, 'and the Communist Revo
lution of 1949. Each step was a hard struggle and had its successes
and failures, but cumulatively each step contributed to the ultimate
rejuvenation and natiorial rebirth that is evident today. Like a phoenix
rising from the ashes, China enters the 21st century in the best in
ternational position it has known since the end of the Ch'ien-Iung pe
riod (1735-1795). Three American former presidents and 24 former
high-ranking officials informed Congress in a letter dated June 17,
1998 that "China is destined to become a great economic and politi
cal power in the 21st century."l(. How China conducts itself in the new
century will have a critical impact on the rest of the world. Just as
the United States' relations with the Soviet Union defined the previ-
viii Preface
ous half-century, its relations with China are likely to define the
next."''''
In ancient times, the Sinitic civilization reigned supreme' in East
Asia, and the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian civilizations flourished
in the West. Each lived in splendid isolation \\<ithout knowing much
of the other. Truly, East was East and West was West, the twain did
not meet. Today the world is a global village. What happens in one
country instantly affects another. In a cultural sense, China may be
viewed as the heir to the Sinitic civilization and the United States as
the modern embodiment of Western civilization. They meet and in
teract as never before, creating strain as well as enrichment through
symhiosis and acculturation. A new era of unprecedented opportunity
for peace and prosperity lies ahead as the two learn to live with each
other, to tolerate their differences, and to promote mutual accom
modation. Wise and judicious statesmanship is imperative on both
sides of the Pacific.
In preparing this edition, I have received help from my research as
sistant, Edward C. Fields, a doctoral candidate in history at the Uni
versity of California, Santa Barbara. To him I wish to extend my deep
thanks.
I. C. Y. H.
Santa Barbara, California
". The three former presidents me George Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford. The others
include former Secretaries of State James A. Baker, IIi, Warren Christopner, Lawrence S. Ea
gleburger, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Henry Kissinger, William P. Rogers, Geo~ge P. Schultz and
Cyrus Vance; Secretaries of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal, Nicholas F. Brady, G. William
Miller, Donald T. Regan, and William E. Simon; Secretaries of Defense Harold Brown, Frank
C. Carlucci, Dick Cheney, William J. Perry, Elliott L. Richardsqn, James Schlesinger; and Na
tional Security Advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski, Anthony Lake, Robert C. McFarlane, Colin L.
Puwell, and Brent Scowcroft. The New York Times, June 17, 1998.
B Richard Haass, "Fatal Distraction: Bill Clinton's Foreign Policy," Foreign Policy, fall 1997,
120.
Preface to the First Edition
This comprehensive history conveys primarily a Chinese view of the evo
lution of Modem China, reinforced by the fruits of Western and Japanese
scholarship which has been considerable in the past three decades. We see
here a turbulent era of Chinese history in which domestic and foreign
forces interacted to transform the Confucian universal empiJe into a
modem national state. The metamorphosis was labored, slow, and at
times pabful;' an inside view ()f the process promises to shed light on the
contemporary behavior of China.
As the present volume represents the author's long-time study of his
tory, both Western and Chinese, he is deeply grateful to many of his
former professors at Harvard who taught him the historical discipline:
Drs. John K. Fairbank, L. S. Yang, Edwin O. Reischauer, William. L.
Langer, and Serge Elisseeff. To Harvard-Yenching Institute he is indebted
for four years of fellowship which enabled him to pursue graduate studies
in a most stimulating "atmosphere. He is also thankful to the numerous
authors whose works have directly or indirectly benefitted him in the
preparation of this volume. While it is impossible to acknowledge them
all here, he should like to mention a few of the most helpful scholars and
research centers. Hsiao I-shan's monumental work, Ch'ing-tai t'ung-shih
(A general history of the Ch'ing period), which first appeared in two
volumes in 1927-28 and was enlarged into a five-volume set in 1963, is
truly a mine of information: which materially enriched this work. The
writings of John K. Fairbank have been a source of inspiration to a gen-
x Preface to the First Edition
eration of students, and under his resourceful directorship the Harvard
East Asian Research Center has published several dozen monographs
which have significantly elevated the level of scholarship on . Modem
China. The series of publications by the Institute of Modern History,
Academia Sinica, on Taiwan, the Toyo Bunko in Tokyo, and the His
torical Research Association on mainland China, have all been useful in
various ways. Special thanks are due Dr. S. Y. Teng, University Professor
at Indiana University, for his perceptive comments on the manuscript
which enabled the author to make numerous corrections and improve
ments. To his many students over the past decade, the author is indebted
for their stimulating questions which alerted him to their needs and fre
quently opened new vistas for discussion. Thanks are also due Mrs. Alice
Kladnik for her typing of the manuscript and to Mr. En-han Lee for pre
paring the index. Last but not least, the author's wife, Dolores, deserves a
special word of appreciation: but for her constant encouragement, moral
support, and loving companionship, this work would not h~ve been
possible. '
Despite all the help and inspiration he has received, the author alone is
responsible for all the inadequacies of the book. He submits it to the
public with the sincere hope that it will prompt other scholars to make
worthier contributions, in the spirit of the Chinese saying "May the
~ brick I have thrown attract ja?e from others" (p'ao-chuan yin-yu).·
Santa Barbara, California I.C.Y.H.
New Year's Day, 1970
Contents
Maps, xxii
/ .. Note on the Text~ xxiii
Major Chronological Periods, xXvii
Conversion Tables of Currencies; Weights, and Measures, xxix,
I. A Conceptual Framework of Modem China, 3
When Does Modern China Begin? 4
The Shaping Forces of Modern China, 7
!
oward aNew Synthesis, J 3 ,
I The Persistence of Traditional
Institutions, 1600-I 800
2.. The Rise and Splendor of the Ch'ing Empire, 19
The Founding of the Ch'ing Dynasty, 19
'J'BB ASCBNT OP NUlWACJ; THE MBANING OP MANCHU AND CH'ING; TIIB
SBIZURB OP PBKING
Ming Loyalist Movement, 26
Dynastic Consolidation and Splendor, 28
THB REIGN OF EMPEROR SHUN-CHIH, 1644-6 I; THB REIGN OF BMPEROR
K'ANG-SSI, 1662-1722; THB REIGN OF BMPEROR YUNG-QHBNG, 1723-35; TIIB
RBIGN OF BMPBROR CH'IEN';LUNG, 1736-95
3. Political and Economic Institutions, 45
Political Structure, 45