Qing Dynasty

Qing military

The development of Qing military system can be divided into two broad periods separated by the Taiping rebellion (1850 - 64). Early Qing military was rooted in the Manchu banners first developed by Nurhachi as a way to organize Manchurian society beyond petty clan affiliations. There were eight banners in all, differentiated by colours. The banners in their order of precedence were as follows: Yellow, Bordered Yellow (ie yellow banner with red border), White, Red, Bordered White, Bordered Red, Blue, & Bordered Blue. The Yellow, Bordered Yellow, and White banners were collectively known as the ?Upper Three Banners?(上三旗) and were under the direct command of the Emperor. Only Manchus belonging to the Upper Three Banners could be selected as the Emperor's personal bodyguards. The remaining banners were known as ?The Lower Five Banners? (下五旗) and were commanded by hereditary princes known informally as ?Iron Cap Princes? (铁帽子王). Together they formed the ruling council of the Manchu nation as well as high command of the army. In 1730 Emperor Yongzheng established the General Command Centre (Junjichu|???) at first to direct day to day military operations, but gradually Junjichu took over other military and day to day administrative duties and served to centralize authority to the crown. However, the Iron Cap Princes continued to exercise considerable influence over the political and military affairs of Qing government well into the reign of Emperor Qianlong.

Related Topics:
Taiping rebellion - Emperor Yongzheng

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As Qing power expanded north of the Great Wall in the last years of the Ming dynasty, the banner system was expanded by Nurhachi's son and successor Hong Taiji to include parallel Mongolian and Chinese Banners. After their conquest of China, the relatively small Banner armies were augmented by the Green Standard Army (綠營兵) which outnumbered banner troops by about three to one. The Green Standard Army so-named after the colour of their battle standards was made up of ethnic Han Chinese Ming troops who had surrendered to the Manchus during the conquest. They are led by a mixture of Banner and Green Standard officers. The Banners and Green Standard troops were standing armies, paid for by central government. In addition, regional governors from provincial down to village level maintained their own irregular local militias for police duties and disaster relief. These militias were usually granted small annual stipends from regional coffers for part-time service obligations. They received very limited military drill if at all and were not considered combat troops.

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Banner Armies were divided along ethnic lines, namely Manchurian and Mongolian. Although there existed a third branch of Chinese bannermen made up of those who had joined the Manchus before their conquest of China, Chinese bannermen were never regarded by the Manchurian Qing government as equal to the other two branches due to their late addition to the Manchu cause as well as their Han Chinese ancestry. The nature of their service - mainly as infantry, artillery and sappers, was also seen as alien to the Manchurian nomadic traditions of fighting as cavalry. After the conquest the military roles played by Chinese Bannermen were quickly subsumed by the Green Standard Army. The Chinese Banners virtually ceased to exist altogether after Emperor Yongzheng's Banner registration reforms aimed at cutting down imperial expenditures. The socio-military origins of the Banner system meant that population within each branch and their sub-divisions were hereditary and rigid. Only under special circumstances sanctioned by imperial edict were social movements between banners permitted. In contrast, the Green Standard Army was originally intended to be a professional volunteer force. However during protracted period of peace in China from the 18th to mid 19th century, recruits from farming communities dwindled, due partly to Neo-Confucianism's negative stance on military careers. In order to maintain strengths, the Green Standard Army began to internalize, and gradually became hereditary in practice.

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After the conquest, the approximately 200,000 strong Manchu Banner Army was evenly divided; half was designated the Forbidden Eight Banner Army (jinlubaqi|禁旅八旗)and was stationed in Beijing. It served both as the capital's garrison and Qing government's main strike force. The remainder of the Banner troops was distributed to guard key cities in China. These were known as the Territorial Eight Banner Army (zhufanbaqi|駐防八旗). The Manchu rulers, keenly aware of their own minority status, reinforced a strict policy of racial segregation between the Manchus and Mongols from Han Chinese for fear of their being assimilated by Han culture while living in close proximity with the newly subjugated Han people. This policy applied directly to the Banner garrisons, most of which occupied a separate walled zone within the cities they were stationed at. In cities where there were limitation of space such as in Qingzhou (青州), a new fortified town was purposely erected to house the Banner garrison and their families. Beijing being the imperial seat, the Regent Dorgon had the entire Chinese population forcibly relocated to the southern suburbs later known as the "Outer Citadel" (waichen|??). The northern walled city called "Inner Citadel" (neichen|??) was portioned out to the remaining Manchu eight Banners, each responsibled for guarding a section of the Inner Citadel surrounding the Forbidden City palace complex(紫禁城).

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The policy of posting Banner troops as territorial garrison was not to protect but to inspire awe in the subjugated Chinese populace at the expense of their expertise as cavalry. As a result, after a century of peace and lack of field training the Manchurian Banner troops had deteriorated greatly in their combat worthiness. Secondly, before the conquest the Manchu banner was a 'citizen' army, and its members were Manchu farmers and herders obligated to provide military service to the state only in times of war. The Qing government's decision to turn the banner troops into a professional force whose every welfare and need was met by state coffers brought wealth and with it corruption to the rank and file of the Manchu Banners and hastened its decline as a fighting force. This was mirrored by a similar decline in the Green Standard Army. During peace time, soldiering became merely a source of supplementary income. Soldiers and commanders alike neglected training in pursuit of their own economic gains. Corruption was rampant as regional unit commanders submitted pay and supply requisitions based on exaggerated head counts to the quartermaster department and pocketed the difference. When the Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1850s the Qing Court found out belatedly that both the Banner troops and Green Standards could neither put down internal rebellions nor keep foreign invaders at bay.

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Early during the Taiping Rebellion, Qing forces suffered a series of disastrous defeats culminating in the loss of the regional capital city of Nanjing (南京) in 1853. The rebels massacred the entire Manchu garrison and their families in the city and made it their capital. Shortly thereafter a rebel expeditionary force penetrated as far north as the suburbs of Tianjin (天津) in what was considered Manchu heartlands. In desperation the court ordered a Chinese mandarin Zen Guofan (曾國藩)to reorganize regional and village militias (Tuanyong|團勇,Xianyong|鄉勇) into a standing army to contain the Taiping rebellion. Zen's strategy was to rely on local gentries to raise a new type of army from the provinces that Taiping forces directly threatened. This new force became known as the Xiang Army (湘軍), named after the region it was raised. Xiang Army was a hybrid between local militia force and a standing army. It was given professional training, but was paid for by regional coffers and funds its commanders - mostly Chinese gentries - could muster. Xiang Army and its successor the "Huai" Army (淮军) created by Zen's colleague and 'pupil' Li Hongzhang (????were collectively called Yongying (勇營), it was a military system based on the Neo-Confucian idea of binding the troops' absolute loyalty to their immediate superiors and also the regions which they were raised. This gave the troops, at least in the short term, a certain esprit de corps. However in the long run it created more problems for the beleagued Qing government. Firstly, Yongying military system signalled the end of Manchu dominance in Qing military structure. Although the Banners and Green Standard armies continued to co-exist within the military establishment, henceforth the Yongying armies were the only combat worthy troops. Secondly, the Yongying command structure fostered cronyism amongst its regional commanders whom as they ascended up the bureaucratic ranks laid the seeds to Qing's demise and the eventual outbreak of "warlordism".

Related Topics:
Zen Guofan - Li Hongzhang

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By late 1800s China was fast descending into a semi colonial state. Even the most conservative elements in the Qing court could no longer ignore China's military weakness in contrast to the foreign "barbarians" literally beating down its gates - The capital Beijing was captured by the (relatively) tiny Anglo-French coalition of 25,000 strong in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Although China pride itself as the inventor of gunpower and firearms had been in continual use in Chinese warfare since as far back as the Sung Dynasty, the advent of modern weaponry resulting from the industrial revolution such as rifles, breech loading guns and steam driven dreadnoughts had rendered China's traditionally trained and equipped army and navy obsolete. Various piece meal efforts to ?westernize? and update the armed forces - mostly in the Haui Army yield little results.

Related Topics:
Sung Dynasty - Breech loading

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Losing the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - 1895 was a watershed for the Qing government. Japan a country long regarded as inferior to China had beaten its larger neighbour and joined the ranks of colonial powers three decades after it instituted the Meji reforms. Thus finally in December 1894 the first concrete steps were taken to reform military institutions and to re-train certain units in westernized drills, tactics and weaponry. These units were collectively called the New Model Army (新式陸軍). The most successful of which was the Beiyang Army (北洋軍) under the overall supervision and control of an ex-Huai Army commander, the Han Chinese general Yuan Shikai (袁世凱), who exploited his position to eventually become Republic president, dictator and finally abortive emperor of China.

Related Topics:
Meji reforms - Yuan Shikai

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