• Domestic unrest: Taiping, Nian, Panthay, Jakub Beg rebellions (1850s-1870s)
• Natural disasters: Yellow River changed course (1855)
• Succession crisis: Tongzhi (b. 1856-1875), aged 5
• Foreign conflicts: Second Opium War; Outer Manchuria ceded to Russia

• How to reform China?
• What is this China that needs reform?
• How did China see the West? How did the West see China?

• Foreign mercenaries
• Local militia
• Regional strongmen

• End of “law of avoidance”, which prevented officials from serving in their home provinces to reduce corruption and favoritism.
• Regional armies, personally loyal to their commanders than to the empire
• Rise of local gentry and elite-led militia across the empire

• Loyalty to Qing
• Belief in Confucian ethics and moral self-cultivation
• Western technology in defense of Confucian statesmanship

• Decentralization: Power devolution from the imperial center
• Militarization: “Prosperous state and strong military”
• Modernization: Of administration and diplomacy
• Westernization: Of education, culture, and values

• Traditional economic centers decimated by civil war and internal migration
• Depressed agricultural yield; labor more expensive than land
• Shift of domestic trade from hinterland to coast
• Treaty ports as centers of commercial boom and self-strengthening initiatives

New gov revenue:

• Commercial transit tax
• Imperial Maritime Customs

But limited impact:

• Decline of land tax
• Most new revenue from domestic and int’l trade to foreign gov and local elites
• Limited improvement to chronic budget deficits

• Western-style, capital-intensive enterprises
• Accompanied by new naval academies and educational facilities
• Management shared between gov and merchants
• Capital raised through selling shares or gov loans
• Rise of hybrid “gentry-merchant”: combining moral rectitude with commercial development

• Gov ties as both asset and liability: Vulnerable to state extraction and intervention
• Obscure lines of decision and responsibility
• Enterprises as bases of political patronage, local loyalties, and corruption

• The Chinese Educational Mission was established in the late 19th century to send Chinese students to the United States for education.
• It aimed to modernize China’s education system and promote Western knowledge and skills.
• Over 120 students were sent to study various subjects, including science and engineering.

“When methods are faulty, we should reject them even though they are of ancient origins; when methods are good, we should benefit from them even though they are those of the barbarians.”

• Western superiority came not only from military, but from four institutions: education, government, and science
• Affinity between Chinese tradition of local autonomy and Western representative democracy
• Two-level administration: Hereditary magistrate, and elected subordinate headmen

• Departure from traditional Confucian statecraft: Minimal state finance, maximal popular livelihoods
• New view of the state: Pursuit of “wealth and power”
• At the same time, confucian tradition as resource for present issues
• Philological scholarship as statecraft solution: “Seek truth from facts”
• Restoring Confucianism vs. Pursuing robust reform

• Traditional ancestor portraits were created for families to honor and remember deceased members.
• Portraits are usually displayed on home altars during family ceremonies, like Lunar New Year, with offerings such as food, fruit, incense, and symbolic items placed before them.
• While faces were painted for likeness, the settings were often stylized, as the ancestor was meant to appear present not physically, but spiritually and symbolically.