Macang Lays Low the Enemy Ranks
painted by Lang Shih-ning, Ching Dynasty

Reconquest of Chin-ling
Ching Dynasty

Illustration of Engagement Between
French and Chinese Naval Forces
Ching Dynasty

Eternal Vigilance - Special Exhibition of Ching Military Documents
Gallery 313
4/3/2002 - 9/20/2002

"The army may be unemployed for a hundred years, but it cannot be left unprepared for a single day."
 - Emperor Ch'ien-lung, taken from the Imperial Military Annals.

From the sudden rise of Nurhaci, founder of the Manchu state and grandfather of the first Ch'ing emperor, to the collapse of the Ch'ing dynasty in the early 20th century, there was hardly a single day in which imperial military forces were not engaged in some part of the empire or its surrounding borderlands. Prior to the establishment of the Ch'ing, the Manchus, in their vie for the throne of China, engaged the forces of the Ming dynasty in a long war of epic scale. This war culminated in the Sa-erh-hu and Sung-shan campaigns, which demonstrated the field and siege capabilities of the Manchu bannermen. After crossing the Great Wall and seizing Peking, the Ch'ing organized the so-called "Army of the Green Standard," composed of native Chinese soldiers, which in turn enabled their conquest of central and southern China. Under the reign of the Ch'ien-lung emperor (1736-1795), the military further expanded and fortified the borders of the empire. The middle years of the Ch'ien-lung reign denote the high water mark of the Ch'ing military. By the end of 18th century, its long decline was already underway. Beginning in the Tao-kuang reign (1821-1850), military encroachment by Western imperial powers led to a long series of Ch'ing defeats and the eventual downfall of the dynasty.

The success and failure of the Ch'ing military was closely linked to the factors of military power, strategy, military technology, and the quality of its officer corps. The success of the Manchu bannermen in the early years of the dynasty was primarily due to the skill of their cavalry and their possession of firearms. The infusion of Western technology during the Shun-chih (1644-1661) and K'ang-hsi (1662-1722) reigns enabled the Ch'ing to further develop their firearms technology. However, during the mid and latter part of the 18th century, the government shifted to a closed and defensive military policy that hailed an end to advances in military thought, weaponry, and strategy. This shift coincided, disastrously for the Chinese, with the scientific and technological surge of Western civilization. The crushing defeat inflicted by British imperial forces in the Opium War and other conflicts of the mid-19th century forced the Ch'ing court to recognize the flaws and weakness of the Banner and Green Standard armies. In an anxious effort to place the military on par with that of the Western powers, the Ch'ing established the Hsiang and Huai armies, founded naval facilities, and constructed the Northern and Southern navies. Yet the effort was too little, too late. Although the Ch'ing succeeded in suppressing the T'ai-p'ing Rebellion of the 1850s and 60s, they were soundly defeated by the Japanese army in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. The reasons for the fall of the Ch'ing are many, yet from a military perspective, they can be summarized simply as the failures of weaponry, preparation, and leadership.