Gong'an County
Gong'an County is a county in southern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering Hunan to the south. It is under the administration of Jingzhou City. In April 2009, the county drew nationwide ridicule after media reported that Gong'an officials had ordered civil servants and employees of state-owned companies to buy a total of 23,000 packs / year of a Hubei brand of cigarette. Departments whose employees failed to buy enough or who bought other brands would be fined; the officials were undaunted, saying that the increased revenue from the cigarette tax would buoy the local economy. After several weeks of embarrassment, they relented, posting a short message on their government Web site: "We have decided to remove this edict." The county oversees 14 towns and two townships as of 2016. Altogether 59 neighbourhood committees, 321 village committees and 3,337 village groups come under the county's jurisdiction; the new county seat for executive and judiciary and for the CPC and PSB branches, is Douhudi.
Fourteen towns: Buhe Douhudi Yangjiachang Mahaokou Jiazhuyuan Zhakou Ouchi Huangshantou Zhangzhuangpu Shizikou Banzhudang Mengjiaxi Nanping Maojiagang Two townships: Ganjiachang Township Zhangtiansi Township Gong'an County Government
Cao Pi
Cao Pi, courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the second son of Cao Cao, a warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty, but the eldest son among all the children born to Cao Cao by his concubine, Lady Bian. According to some historical records, he was in the presence of court officials in order to gain their support, he was in charge of defence at the start of his career. After the defeat of Cao Cao's rival Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu, he took Yuan Xi's widow, Lady Zhen, as a concubine, but in 221 Lady Zhen died and Guo Nüwang became empress. On 25 November 220, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian, the last ruler of the Eastern Han dynasty, to abdicate in his favour, after which on 11 December 220 he proclaimed himself emperor and established the state of Cao Wei. Cao Pi continued the wars against the states of Shu Han and Eastern Wu, founded by his father's rivals Liu Bei and Sun Quan but did not make significant territorial gain in the battles.
Unlike his father, Cao Pi concentrated most of his efforts on internal administration rather than on waging wars against his rivals. During his reign, he formally established Chen Qun's nine-rank system as the base for civil service nomination, which drew many talents into his government. On the other hand, he drastically reduced the power of princes, stripping off their power to oppose him, but at the same time, rendering them unable to assist the emperor if a crisis arose within the state. After Cao Pi's death, his successor Cao Rui granted him the posthumous name "Emperor Wen" and the temple name "Shizu". Cao Pi was an accomplished poet and scholar, just like his father Cao Cao and his younger brother Cao Zhi, he wrote the first Chinese poem in the style of seven syllables per line. He wrote over a hundred articles on various subjects. Cao Pi was the eldest son of Cao Cao and his concubine Lady Bian, but he was the second among all of Cao Cao's sons. At the time of Cao Pi's birth, Cao Cao was a mid-level officer in the imperial guards in the capital Luoyang, with no hint that he would go on to the great campaigns he carried out after the collapse of the imperial government in 190.
Cao Pi was recorded as excellent swordsman as he studied martial arts from Shi E, a gentleman of household from "Rapid as Tigers" division of the imperial guards. In the period after 190 when Cao Cao was waging war against other rival warlords, it is not known where Cao Pi and Lady Bian were, or what they did; the lone reference to Cao Pi during this period was in 204, when he took Yuan Xi's widow Lady Zhen as his wife. The next immediate reference to Cao Pi's activities was in 211, when he was appointed General of the Household for All Purposes and Vice Imperial Chancellor; this position placed him second to his father, Imperial Chancellor and the de facto head of government in China. The eldest of all of Cao Cao's sons, Cao Ang, had died early, so Cao Pi was regarded as the eldest among all his father's sons. Besides, Cao Pi's mother had become Cao Cao's official spouse after Cao Cao's first wife Lady Ding was deposed. Cao Pi thus became the presumptive heir to his father. However, Cao Pi's status as heir was not made legal, for years there were lingering doubts on whom Cao Cao intended to make heir.
Cao Cao favoured Cao Zhi, known for his literary talents. Both Cao Pi and Cao Zhi were talented poets, but Cao Zhi was more regarded as a poet and speaker. By 215, the brothers appeared to be in harmony with each other, but each had his own group of supporters and close associates engaging the other side in clandestine rivalry. Cao Zhi's party appeared to be prevailing, in 216 they were successful in falsely accusing two officials supporting Cao Pi – Cui Yan and Mao Jie. Cui Yan was executed. However, the situation shifted after Cao Cao received advice from his strategist Jia Xu, who concluded that changing the general rules of succession would be disruptive – using Yuan Shao and Liu Biao as negative examples. Cao Pi was fostering his image among the people and created the sense that Cao Zhi was wasteful and lacking actual talent in governance. In 217, Cao Cao, who had received the title of a vassal king – King of Wei – from Emperor Xian declared Cao Pi as his heir apparent. Cao Pi would remain as such until his father's death in 220.
Cao Cao died in the spring of 220 in Luoyang. Though Cao Pi had been his father's heir apparent for several years, there was some confusion as to what would happen next; the apprehension was heightened when, after Cao Cao's death, the Qingzhou Corps under the general Zang Ba deserted, leaving Luoyang and returning home. Besides, Cao Pi's younger brother Cao Zhang had arrived in Luoyang in a hurry, resulting in rumours that he was intending to seize power from his elder brother. Upon hearing these news at Cao Cao's headquarters at Ye, Cao Pi hastily declared himself the new King of Wei and issued an edict in the name of his mother Queen Dowager Bian, before receiving an official confirmation from Emperor Xian, to whom he still nominally paid allegiance. After Cao Pi's self-declaration, neither Cao Zhang nor any other individual took action against him. Cao Pi ordered his brothers, including Cao Zhang and Cao Zhi, to return to their respective fiefs. With the help of Jiang Ji, the political situation soon stabilised.
In the winter of 220, Cao Pi made his move for the imperial throne, strongly
Gongsun Zan
Gongsun Zan, courtesy name Bogui, was a military general and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Little is known of Gongsun Zan's early life, he and Liu Bei studied under the tutelage of Lu Zhi. At the time, the administrator of his home commandery appreciated Gongsun Zan's impressive looks and booming voice, so he arranged for his daughter to marry him. Gongsun Zan was deployed by He Jin to quash rebellions in the north. Following a misunderstanding with his lord, Liu Yu, he attacked him and won control of the surrounding areas. During this time his former classmate Liu Bei came to serve him and got allocated the city of Pingyuan to defend. To the south, the two brothers Yuan Shao in the north and Yuan Shu in the south vied for supremacy over central China. Gongsun Zan formed an alliance with Yuan Shu and sent his second cousin, Gongsun Yue, to help Yuan Shu's general, Sun Jian, retake Yangcheng. However, Gongsun Yue died in the campaign. Using this as pretext, Gongsun Zan attacked Yuan Shao after his initial plan to gain Han Fu's lands went awry.
However, Gongsun Zan was defeated by Yuan Shao at the Battle of Yijing. He committed suicide after killing his wife and sisters. Gongsun Yue, Gongsun Zan's younger second cousin. Gongsun Zan sent him with 1,000 troops and supplies to assist the warlord Yuan Shu, in a proxy war with his half-brother Yuan Shao. Gongsun Yue died after being hit by a stray arrow during the Battle of Yangcheng in 191 while fighting alongside Sun Jian against Zhou Yu. Gongsun Zan used Gongsun Yue's death as an excuse to declare war on Yuan Shao. In the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Gongsun Yue is Gongsun Zan's younger brother. Gongsun Zan sends Gongsun Yue as a messenger to demand that Yuan Shao keep his promise by dividing Ji Province between him and Gongsun Zan after seizing it from Han Fu, but Yuan Shao refuses. While Gongsun Yue is on his return journey, Yuan Shao orders his men to pretend to be Dong Zhuo's soldiers and ambush and kill Gongsun Yue. Gongsun Zan subsequently declares war on him.
Gongsun Fan, Gongsun Zan's younger second cousin. He leads troops from Bohai Commandery to join Gongsun Zan, he fought in the Battle of Jieqiao alongside Gongsun Zan against Yuan Shao. Gongsun Xu, Gongsun Zan's son. During the Battle of Yijing, Gongsun Zan sent him to seek reinforcements from the Heishan bandits led by Zhang Yan, they returned too late as Gongsun Zan had been defeated by Yuan Shao and had committed suicide along with the rest of his family. Gongsun Xu met his end at the hands of the Tuge, a Xiongnu tribe. Gongsun Zan is a character in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which romanticises the events before and during the Three Kingdoms period of China, he leads an elite cavalry unit called the "White Riders" and has served on the northern and eastern frontiers of the Han Empire by defending the borders from incursions by various non-Han Chinese tribes. In 191, Gongsun Zan joins the coalition against Dong Zhuo, the warlord who seized power in Luoyang and holds the figurehead Emperor Xian hostage.
After the coalition breaks up, he gets into a rivalry with Yuan Shao over the territories in northern China and engages him in a series of battles throughout the 190s, starting with the Battle of Jieqiao and ending with his defeat and death at the Battle of Yijing. In the novel, Gongsun Zan is nicknamed "White Horse General" because the elite cavalry unit he leads is made up of horses of pure white; the reason for doing so is that he knows that the non-Han Chinese tribes consider white horses sacred animals so they will run away when they encounter an enemy unit riding white horses in battle. Lists of people of the Three Kingdoms Chen, Shou. Records of the Three Kingdoms. de Crespigny, Rafe. To Establish Peace: being the Chronicle of the Later Han dynasty for the years 189 to 220 AD as recorded in Chapters 59 to 69 of the Zizhi tongjian of Sima Guang. Volume 1. Canberra: Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University. ISBN 0-7315-2526-4. Fan, Ye. Book of the Later Han. Luo, Guanzhong.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Pei, Songzhi. Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms
Han Sui
Han Sui, courtesy name Wenyue, was a military general and minor warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. For most of his life, he was active in Liang Province and was involved in several rebellions against the Han government and the warlord Cao Cao. With the backing of the Qiang people who populated much of Liang Province, Han Sui participated in the Liang Province Rebellion against the Han dynasty during the rule of Emperor Ling, he joined forces with others such as Bian Zhang, Beigong Yu and Liwen Hou. Despite suffering a defeat by government forces under Dong Zhuo, Han Sui maintained the support of the Qiang people and maintained his territory in Liang Province. Han Sui is thought to have preferred to remain somewhat behind the scenes, placing someone else in the position of leadership while holding real power himself; when Bian Zhang and the other leaders passed from the scene, he placed Wang Guo in power with the help of his ally Ma Teng, whom he pledged a pact of brotherhood with.
The arrangement did not last long and Wang Guo was removed from power after being defeated by the Han general Huangfu Song. It was at this point that Ma Teng and Han Sui declared themselves co-rulers of Liang Province, now autonomous due to turmoil in the Han dynasty. Early in 192, the two of them submitted to the Han central government under Dong Zhuo's control, but Dong Zhuo was assassinated by Lü Bu and Wang Yun in April. After Li Jue, Guo Si and other former followers of Dong Zhuo seized control of the Han central government that year, Han Sui and Ma Teng allied themselves with Liu Yan and led their armies to attack the Han imperial capital, Chang'an. After suffering a major defeat 13 miles west of Chang'an, running short on supplies, the warlords retreated back to Liang Province. Not long afterward, Han Sui and Ma Teng's relationship soured and the two of them battled each other for control of Liang Province, their battle escalated to the point where both were killing children. Cao Cao, having achieved victory at the Battle of Guandu in 200CE, sent Zhong Yao to broker a peace between the two sides and to place Liang Province under Cao Cao's authority.
After the terms were agreed to, Han Sui and Ma Teng would give assistance to Cao Cao in the remainder of his battles against Yuan Shao. After this, Ma Teng was forcibly summoned to Ye and Han Sui placed Ma Teng's son Ma Chao in charge of Liang Province; when Cao Cao began gathering armies with the intent of invading Hanzhong Commandery under the rule of Zhang Lu, Han Sui and Ma Chao suspected that it was they, not Zhang Lu who would be attacked. The two of them went to war against Cao Cao. In the course of the conflict, Cao Cao managed to turn Ma Chao and Han Sui against each other. Han Sui realised that there was no hope for victory with the forces divided against each other in suspicion, retreated once again to Liang Province. Cao Cao killed Han Sui's children and grandchildren; when Xiahou Yuan began his subjugation of Liang Province, Han Sui fought against this, but was defeated and forced to retreat. He discussed the idea of retreating to Yi Province, but his subordinate Cheng Gongying encouraged him to continue his fight against Cao Cao instead.
At this point, he was either died of illness. In either case, his head was brought to Cao Cao by Han Sui's subordinates, he was believed to have been over 70 years old at the time of his death. In the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Han Sui is depicted as Ma Teng's sworn brother and subordinate, when he was a warlord of equal footing as Ma Teng. Han Sui's preference to remain out of the scenes may have been a reason for this depiction. In the novel, during Ma Chao's battles against Cao Cao's forces, Han Sui has eight elite officers serving under him. After Cao Cao used a scheme to turn Ma Chao and Han Sui against each other, Ma Chao grew suspicious of Han Sui and attacked him, cutting off his left arm in the process. Han Sui managed to escape and defect to Cao Cao, who accepted his surrender and allowed him to continue serving as a general in Liang Province alongside Xiahou Yuan. Lists of people of the Three Kingdoms Chen, Shou. Records of the Three Kingdoms. de Crespigny, Rafe.
A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms 23-220 AD. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004156050. Pei, Songzhi. Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms. Sima, Guang. Zizhi Tongjian
Wang Yun (Han dynasty)
Wang Yun, courtesy name Zishi, was an official who lived during the Eastern Han dynasty of China. He served in the Han government through the reigns of three emperors – Emperor Ling, Emperor Shao and Emperor Xian; the highest offices he served in were Manager of the Affairs of the Masters of Writing and Minister over the Masses in the early reign of Emperor Xian. In 192, with help from the general Lü Bu and others, he plotted a successful coup in Chang'an against Dong Zhuo, a tyrannical warlord who controlled the Han central government, assassinated him; however that year, Dong Zhuo's followers staged a counter-coup and seized back control of the central government. Wang Yun, along with his family members, were executed. In the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms Wang Yun was the adoptive father of the fictional maiden Diaochan, whom he used to stir up conflict between Lü Bu and Dong Zhuo, causing the former to betray and assassinate the latter. According to Book of Later Han, Wang Yun was from Taiyuan.
His family had many members who had served as administrative officials in the regional government for generations. Wang Yun himself was an official at the age of 19, became the Inspector of Yu Province; however he failed in the power struggle with the eunuch Zhang Rang. He had to hide himself in the countryside. After the death of Zhang Rang, the general He Jin came into power, Wang Yun was promoted to the Gentleman of the Household and to the Intendant of Henan. In 190, the capital Luoyang fell into chaos following the death of He Jin and a bloody clash between the powerful eunuch faction and government officials. Dong Zhuo, a warlord from Liang Province managed to take control of the situation and placed in the throne a puppet emperor whom he held in his power. At the time, Wang Yun held the positions of the Minister over the Masses and the Prefect of the Masters of Writing. Dong Zhuo's subsequent tyrannical and cruel behaviour aroused the wrath of many. Wang Yun colluded with several other officials in a plot to assassinate Dong Zhuo.
The plan received a huge boost when the conspirators managed to recruit the help of Lü Bu, a formidable warrior serving as a general under Dong Zhuo. Bringing along a dozen men, Lü Bu cornered Dong Zhuo outside the palace gate and slew the tyrannical warlord. After the death of Dong Zhuo, rumours spread that Wang Yun, now the de facto head of the Han central government, wanted to purge and execute all of Dong Zhuo's former subordinates; when Wang Yun refused to grant amnesty to Dong Zhuo's former subordinates, they took up arms under the leadership of Li Jue and Guo Si, who led them to attack Chang'an. Li Jue and Guo Si defeated the Han imperial forces guarding Chang occupied the capital. While Lü Bu was planning to flee Chang'an before the city fell, he asked Wang Yun to escape together with him. However, Wang Yun remained behind. Li Jue and Guo Si's forces killed him along with his family; some of Wang Yun's relatives managed to survive. Wang Yun appears as a character in two chapters of the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which romanticises the events in the late Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of China.
In the novel, Wang Yun devised an elaborate plot to eliminate Dong Zhuo. It involved two of the Thirty-Six Stratagems: Chain Stratagems. In Chapter 8, Wang Yun was thinking about how to get rid of Dong Zhuo when he encountered Diaochan, a singer in his household whom he had been treating like his daughter. An idea struck him: Make use of Diaochan to sow discord between Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu, instigate Lü Bu to assassinate Dong Zhuo, he invited Lü Bu and Dong Zhuo to his residence for a party on two separate occasions. On both occasions, he asked Diaochan to catch his attention, he promised to marry Diaochan to Lü Bu. When Lü Bu found out, he suspected that Dong Zhuo had seized Diaochan for himself and became angry. One day, while Dong Zhuo was out, Lü Bu sneaked into his room to meet Diaochan, she pleaded with him to save her from Dong Zhuo. In the meantime, Dong Zhuo had returned and he saw Lü Bu embracing Diaochan, he was so furious. After calming down, Dong Zhuo spoke to Diaochan and asked if she was willing to marry Lü Bu, but she said she would rather die and attempted suicide.
Dong Zhuo believed her. In Chapter 9, as Lü Bu became resentful of Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun used the opportunity to instigate and incite Lü Bu to turn against Dong Zhuo. Wang Yun managed to convince Lü Bu to kill Dong Zhuo, set up an ambush near the palace gates, he lied to Dong Zhuo, saying that Emperor Xian wanted to abdicate his throne to him, lured Dong Zhuo into the ambush, where he met his end at Lü Bu's hands. In Chapter 9, when Chang'an was surrounded by Li Jue and Guo Si's forces, Wang Yun made them promise to not harm Emperor Xian and committed suicide in front of them by jumping off the viewing platform above the city gates. Lists of people of the Three Kingdoms Chen, Shou. Records of the Three Kingdoms. de Crespigny, Rafe. A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms 23-220 AD. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004156050. Fan, Ye. Book of the Later Han. Luo, Guanzhong. Romance of t
Chen Shou
Chen Shou, courtesy name Chengzuo, was an official and writer who lived during the Three Kingdoms period and Jin dynasty of China. He started his career as an official in the state of Shu during the Three Kingdoms era but was demoted and sent out of the capital for his refusal to fawn on Huang Hao, an influential court eunuch in Shu in its twilight years. After the fall of Shu in 263, Chen Shou's career entered a period of stagnation before Zhang Hua recommended him to serve in the Jin government, he held scribal and secretarial positions under the Jin government before dying from illness in 297. He had over 200 writings -- -- attributed to him. Chen Shou's most celebrated work, the Records of the Three Kingdoms, which records the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in the form of biographies of notable persons of those eras, is part of the Twenty-Four Histories canon of Chinese history. Despite his achievements, Chen Shou's life was marred by disgraceful incidents, including his making of false accusations against another official and the controversies surrounding his writing of the Sanguozhi.
There are two biographies of Chen Shou. The first one is in the Book of Jin, written by Fang Xuanling and others in the seventh century during the Tang dynasty; the second one is in the Chronicles of Huayang, written by Chang Qu in the fourth century during the Eastern Jin dynasty. Chen Shou was from Anhan County, Baxi Commandery, in present-day Nanchong, Sichuan, he was known for being studious since he was young and was described as intelligent and knowledgeable. He was mentored by the Shu official Qiao Zhou, from Baxi Commandery. Under Qiao Zhou's tutelage, he read the Classic of History and Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals, he was well versed in the Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han. According to the Jin Shu, Chen Shou served as a guange lingshi in Shu. However, the Huayang Guozhi mentioned that he held the following appointments consecutively: Registrar of the General of the Guards. In the final years of Shu, many officials fawned on Huang Hao, an influential court eunuch, in their bid to win his favour.
Chen Shou's refusal to engage in such flattering and obsequious behaviour took a toll on his career: He was demoted on several occasions and sent out of the Shu capital, Chengdu. After the fall of Shu in 263, Chen Shou's career entered a period of stagnation until Zhang Hua recommended him to serve in the government of the Jin dynasty. Zhang Hua appreciated Chen Shou's talent and felt that though Chen did not have an untarnished reputation, he did not deserve to be demoted and dismissed while he was in Shu. Chen Shou was recommended as a xiaolian, appointed as a zuo zhuzuo lang and the acting Prefect of Yangping County. In 274, he collected and compiled the writings of Zhuge Liang, the first chancellor of Shu, submitted them to the Jin imperial court, he was appointed as the zhongzheng of Baxi Commandery. The Huayang Guozhi mentioned that he served as the Chancellor to the Marquis of Pingyang; when Zhang Hua recommended Chen Shou to serve as a Gentleman Palace Writer, the Ministry of Personnel appointed Chen Shou as the Administrator of Changguang Commandery instead on the recommendation of Xun Xu.
The Jin Shu mentioned that Xun Xu detested Zhang Hua and disliked Chen Shou for his association with Zhang Hua, so he urged the Ministry of Personnel to reassign Chen Shou to another position. Chen Shou declined the appointment on the grounds; the Huayang Guozhi gave a different account of Chen Shou's relationship with Xun Xu. It stated that Xun Xu and Zhang Hua were pleased with Chen Shou's Sanguozhi and they remarked that Chen Shou surpassed Ban Gu and Sima Qian; however Xun Xu was displeased by the Wei Shu – one of the three sections in the Sanguozhi – and did not want Chen Shou to work in the same office as him, so he had Chen Shou reassigned to be the Administrator of Changguang. In 278, before the general Du Yu assumed his appointment as the commander of the Jin military forces in Jing Province, he recommended Chen Shou to Emperor Wu and stated that Chen Shou was capable of serving as a Gentleman of the Yellow Gate or Gentleman of Scattered Cavalry. Emperor Wu appointed Chen Shou as a yushi zhishu.
The Jin Shu mentioned that Chen Shou took a leave of absence when his mother died, he fulfilled her dying wish to be buried in Luoyang. However, he ended up being castigated and demoted because his act of burying his mother in Luoyang – instead of in his hometown in Anhan County – was a violation of the proprieties of his time; the Huayang Guozhi gave a varying account of the events: It was Chen Shou's stepmother who died. She did not want to be buried together with his father, so Chen Shou buried her in Luoyang. According to the Jin Shu, many years after his demotion, Chen Shou was appointed as a zhongshuzi to the crown prince Sima Yu, but he did not assume his role, he died of illness at the age of 65 in 297 during the reign of Emperor Hui. The Huayang Guozhi gave a different account of the events before Chen Shou's death, it stated that Chen Shou was appointed as a zhongshuzi to Sima Yu, but was reassigned to be a Regu
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty the Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China. It was established in 1636, ruled China proper from 1644 to 1912, it was succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted for three centuries and formed the territorial base for modern China, it was the fifth largest empire in world history. The dynasty was founded by the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria. In the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci a Ming Jianzhou Guard vassal, began organizing "Banners", military-social units that included Manchu and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Manchu clans into a unified entity. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of the Liaodong Peninsula and declared a new dynasty, the Qing. In an unrelated development, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing, in 1644. Rather than serve them, Ming general Wu Sangui made an alliance with the Manchus and opened the Shanhai Pass to the Banner Armies led by the regent Prince Dorgon.
He seized the capital. Resistance from the Southern Ming and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories led by Wu Sangui delayed the Qing conquest of China proper by nearly four decades; the conquest was only completed in 1683 under the Kangxi Emperor reign. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Inner Asia; the early Qing rulers maintained their Manchu customs, while their title was Emperor, they used "Bogd khaan" when dealing with the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of bureaucratic government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus, they adapted the ideals of the tributary system in dealing with neighboring territories. During the Qianlong Emperor reign the dynasty reached its apogee, but began its initial decline in prosperity and imperial control; the population rose to some 400 millions, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate guaranteeing eventual fiscal crisis.
Corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, ruling elites failed to change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium Wars, European powers imposed "unequal treaties", free trade, extraterritoriality and treaty ports under foreign control; the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of these disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order and the Qing rulers; the initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea and the possession of Taiwan. New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days' Reform of 1898 was turned back in a coup by the conservative Empress Dowager Cixi; when the Scramble for Concessions by foreign powers triggered the violently anti-foreign "Boxers", the foreign powers invaded China, Cixi declared war on them, leading to defeat and the flight of the Imperial Court to Xi'an.
After agreeing to sign the Boxer Protocol, the government initiated unprecedented fiscal and administrative reforms, including elections, a new legal code, abolition of the examination system. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with constitutional monarchists such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to transform the Qing Empire into a modern nation. After the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike by obstructing social reform; the Wuchang Uprising on 11 October 1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution. General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on 12 February 1912. Nurhaci declared himself the "Bright Khan" of the Later Jin state in honor both of the 12th–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan, his son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636. There are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng; the name may have been selected in reaction to the name of the Ming dynasty, which consists of the Chinese characters for "sun" and "moon", both associated with the fire element of the Chinese zodiacal system.
The character Qīng is associated with the water element. This association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water; the water imagery of the new name may have had Buddhist overtones of perspicacity and enlightenment and connections with the Bodhisattva Manjusri. The Manchu name daicing, which sounds like a phonetic rendering of Dà Qīng or Dai Ching, may in fact have been derived from a Mongolian word "ᠳᠠᠢᠢᠴᠢᠨ, дайчин" that means "warrior". Daicing gurun may therefore have meant "warrior state", a pun, only intelligible to Manchu and Mongol people. In the part of the dynasty, however the Manchus themselves had forgotten this possible meaning. After conquering "China proper", the Manchus identified their state as "China", referred to it as Dulimbai Gurun in Manchu; the emperors equated the lands of the Qing state as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multi-ethnic state, rejecting the idea that "China" only meant Han areas. The Qing emperors proclaimed that bo
