The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing (大清), was the last imperial dynasty of China. The regime was founded by the Jurchens in 1616[1] as the Aisin Gurun (ᠠᡳ᠌ᠰᡳᠨ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ, 'Golden State') or the Jin (金, 'Gold') in the Mandarin language,[2] then a distinct nation.[3] In 1635, the Jin conquered Mongolia, extinguishing the Yuan once and for all.[4] The following year, with the invasion of the Great Ming underway, their khan Nurhaci renamed their people the Manchus and their country the Great Qing for propagandist reasons.[1][note 1]
Their capture of the Ming capital of Beijing in 1644 is traditionally taken as the start of their dynasty[3] although it would take until 1662 to complete the conquest of China.[1][note 2] Alongside encroachments on its sovereignty by foreign empires,[5][6] the Qing suffered widespread rebellions throughout the 19th century[7] and was finally overthrown in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that led to the founding of the Republic of China.[8]
History[]
After the Qing seized Beijing, they enthroned the six-year-old Aisin-Gioro hala-i Fulin as the Shunzhi Emperor on 30 October 1644, by which he became the first Qing ruler in China.[1] It is known from a series of cryptic puzzles left behind by Assassin Clay Kaczmarek for Desmond Miles in the Animus that the Shunzhi Emperor did not possess a Staff of Eden.[9]
At some point prior to 1715, a daughter of Chinese rebels named Jing Lang married the son of a Qing general. Joining the Templar Order, she served as a political advisor for a time before a political shift prompted her to become a pirate.[10][11]
The Qing maintained diplomatic relations with the Portuguese Empire via Macau, where a mansion complex known as the Mandarin's House acted as a home for visiting Qing officials and their allies. One of these allies, the merchant Madam Lee, moved into the mansion in February 1725, after which she purchased a bulk order of alcohol and tea from the Qing.[12]
Under the Qing regime, the Han Chinese people suffered heavy persecution, including Madam Lee and many members of the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins. This led the Brotherhood's Mentor, Xiao Han, to resent the Manchus and seek to remove them from power in order to establish a new dynasty under which the Han people might thrive again.[13] To this end, Xiao Han and two of his fellow Assassins, Liu Qing and Xue Yan, searched for a Piece of Eden hidden in the lost Khmer city of Angkor,[14] and later formed an alliance with Madam Lee, who believed she would benefit greatly if the Qing were to be overthrown.[13]
Although the Qing court forbade all trade with foreign entities in the early 18th century, numerous merchant companies, such as the one led by Madam Lee, took advantage of the political instability within the empire to disobey this law. It was through these clandestine deals that European powers like the Spanish Empire managed to acquire goods of Chinese origin, including pottery, silk and tea.[15]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (first mentioned) (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple (mentioned only)
Notes[]
- ↑ The Ming (明), whose name meant 'brightness', was associated with the classical element of fire while the name Jin (金) referred to the element of metal. Since fire melts metal, the Jin changed their name to Qing (清), meaning 'clear', and their element to water to signify their inevitable triumph over the Ming.
- ↑ The completion of the Qing conquest can also be dated to 1681, when they crushed the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, or 1683 with the annexation of the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan, where Ming loyalists had fled. This article takes the year 1662, when the last Ming emperor was captured and killed in southern China, as the end of the Ming.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Rowe, William T. (2009). "Conquest". In China's Last Empire: The Great Qing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 11–30.
- ↑
Later Jin (1616–1636) on Wikipedia
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Millward, James A. (8 October 2020). We need a new approach to teaching modern Chinese history: we have lazily repeated false narratives for too long. Medium. Retrieved on 14 May 2023.
- ↑
Northern Yuan on Wikipedia
- ↑ Rowe, William T. (2009). "Crises". In China's Last Empire: The Great Qing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 149–274
- ↑ Ibid., "Imperialism", pp. 231–252.
- ↑ Ibid., "Rebellion", pp. 175–200.
- ↑ Ibid., "Revolution", pp. 253–283.
- ↑ Assassin's Creed II – Glyph #5: "Instruments of Power"
- ↑ Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Jing Lang
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: The Orchid
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 10
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 40
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 34
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 58