The document provides guidance for students to complete a historical identification and essay assignment on Chinese history prior to 1911. For the identification section, students must choose 6 historical persons, places, events, or concepts from various categories and briefly describe each one in relation to Chinese history and society. For the essay, students must analyze which Chinese ruler prior to 1911 had the most and least successful reigns, making an argument supported by historical evidence and context. The document also provides feedback on a student's attempted identification and essay responses, noting areas that need improvement in contextualizing the historical figures, developing clear arguments, and using proper evidence and analysis.

1. 1. Identification List(6 Paragraph )
a. In a short paragraph, describe what each person/place/thing
is, its historical time frame, and why it was historically
significant. To make a claim about its historical significance,
you must relate this person/place/thing to one of the of the
following core themes from the course:
i. Life and Society in Dynastic China
Ii. State-Building and Revolutionary Ideologies
iii. Literature, Intelligentsia, and Modern Society
iv. Women, Labor, and Cultural Heritage
v. Foreign Relations and Economic Development
b. Student Must Complete Any Six Identifications of Their
Choosing from Below, But Must Select At Least One From Each
Category:
i. Religion and Spirituality
1. Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, the Jesuits, Matteo Rici,
Three Teachings are
One Movement, Rites Controversy
ii. Rebellions and Conflict
1. Taiping, The Opium Wars, Conquest Dynasty, Li Zicheng,
White Lotus Rebellion,
Miao, Lin Zexu, Nian Rebellion
iii. Society and the Arts`
1. The Golden Lotus, Foot-binding, Ming Female Authors, Civil
Service Examination,
Banner System, Liang Qichao, Self-Strengthening Movement,
Yung Wing
iv. Political Figures
1. Hongwu Emperor, Heshen, Cixi, Sun Yatsen, Yuan Shikai,
Kang Youwei
v. Governance
1. Baojia, Lijia, The Censorate, Village Elder System, Fish-
Scale Registers, Hundred

2. Days Reform, Single Whip Tax System/Yellow Registers, Grand
Council, Self-
Strengthening, Three Feudatories, Zongli Yamen
vi. Commerce
1. Bimetallic System, Grand Canal, Silver and the Tea Trade,
Putting Out System/Silk
Road, Lord MaCartney, Unequal Treaties, Tribute System
vii. Regions and Provinces
1. Manchuria, Yellow River Valley, North China Plain, Canton,
Sichuan, Xinjiang,
Tibet, Inner Asia, Mongolia
2. Essay Exam Question(4pages for double space)
a. Prior to 1911, which Chinese ruler had the most successful
reign and why? And which was the
least successful and why? With each, be sure to make a claim
(thesis) about what factor
(historical circumstances, technology, a stable society,
leadership, etc.) proved decisive in
making their reign a success or failure. In making your choice,
be sure to reference historical
examples and evidence from the course readings and lectures.
You may want to consider
criteria such as state-building and security, the economy,
foreign relations, society and the arts,
and the handling of rebellions. Write in a traditional essay
format, complete with an
introduction where you make your claim, body paragraphs, and
a conclusion where you restate
your claim and its supportive reasoning or evidence found in the
body paragraphs.
Running Head: CHINESE MODERN HISTORY
1

3. CHINESE MODERN HISTORY
2
professor feedback
Identifications--A bit confused here, Mao wasn't listed on the
exam---why did you write on him? The rest do an adequate job
of showing you understand each term and their place in Chinese
history. Need more of an argument with each about their impact
on their time period/context or legacy. For example, why did it
matter that Heshen was so corrupt and how did it alter the
course of the Qing dynasty? 35/50 Essay-Introduction lays out
some criteria for evaluating emperor's but is missing historical
context or a strong thesis statement. Body paragraphs do an
adequate job of summarizing some of the main features of
Kangxi's reign, but Yang wasn't a ruler of the Ming or Qing.
This was implied by the essay and course since we don't cover
or read about the Sui. Even then, the essay doesn't work hard
enough to make its arguments rooted in evidence or engage in
comparisons between emperors and each historical context to
make a strong essay. 35/50 Vague or Irrelevant Thesis.
Inadequate command of course material and failure to answer
questions from the prompt. Undeveloped ideas, little to no
evidence provided using course materials, and numerous errors
in reasoning or oversimplifications of historical examples.
Organization is too simplistic, relies on vague summations, and
moves from one topic to another without explicitly stating
connection. Major grammatical problems such as subject-verb
agreement, obscure pronouns, and sentence fragments.
Symptoms of poor communication such as slang, colloquialism,
or repeated inexact word choices.
Need you major fix this essay
In a short paragraph, describe what each person/place/thing is,
its historical timeframe
Mao Zedong was a revolutionary leader who is deemed the

4. father of the people’s republic of china. Chairman Mao was the
paramount chief of china between 1949 to 1976. His importance
was that he promoted a nationalistic attitude in china and
expressed his philosophy known as Maoism, an Ideology where
the concept of Marxism is heavily borrowed (Dirlik, 1996).This
ideology resulted in the systematic change on how china was
governed. This is because his influence in the Communist Party
of China resulted in Maoism being taught in school and include
as part of the Chinese constitution. Mao is credited in opening
china to world as his strategy made china grow into a world
power it is today. The economic expansion increased china's
presence globally making it a large player. Trading with
countries like the united states and most Asian countries. This
opened a chapter of china diplomatic relationships with the
world resulting in china having a permanent seat in the united
nation security council.
Religion and spirituality
Confucianism
Kung fu-tzu devised this system between (551-497BC), where it
is guided by ethics. Confucianism is based on loyalty,
obedience to hierarchy and stressing correct behavior. This
system brought and essentially influenced aspects of the ancient
Chinese philosophy
Rebellion and conflict
White lotus rebellion
During the Qing dynasty, a section of people aligned to the
white lotus movement rebelled in 1794 – 1804).The rebellion
gained traction as multitudes of people came from the
mountainous region of Sichuan province and Shaanxi provinces.
It was under the command of a martial arts and healing expert
Wang lung. The intension of the rebellion was improvised
settlers to challenge the imperial Qing dynasty because of how
they were treated .However the rebellion only lasted 10 years as
it was suppressed by the imperialist. The effect of the rebellion
has had severe consequences to the Qing dynasty as it weakened
its control and prosperity considerably.

5. Society and arts
Yung wing
He was the first’s Chinese student to graduate from Yale
college or any American university in 1854.He was involved
with business transaction between the united states and thing
dynasty. He persuaded the government of the Qing dynasty and
subsequently allowed him take Chinese student to the united
states so that they can learn about the western medicine and
engineering.
His organization was known as the Chinese education mission
who had 120 young students who schooled in new England in
the united states (Lockett, 1988). Although his organization was
shut down in 1881, the student who learnt there went back to
china went ahead to significantly contribute to china’s
expansion in engineering, sciences. and medicine
Political figures
Heshen
He was part of the plain red banner an administrative and
military of the Qing dynasty. Heshen was considered the most
corrupt government official in the history of china. He became
very wealthy and influential as he used corrupt deal to stay in
power. He was the minister of revenue we he consolidated all
his wealth as he climbed the imperial rank to ultimately became
the grad secretary of the Wenham palace. The fall of heshen
came by as the new emperor jiaqing prosecuted him for
imperial; edict and condemned him to slow slicing.
Governance.
The Grand Council
During the Qing dynasty the grand council was an important
policy making body established in 1733 by yongzheng emperor.
The grand council was initially in charge of military affairs
however it gradual grew more powerful as it took more
responsibilities. The council took the role of the privy council
overtaking the grand secretariat in importance and power.
(Zheng, 2015). despite growth in influence the grand council
remained an in formal policy making body.

6. Commerce
The tribute system
This was a system that facilitated trade and diplomatic engage
between china and the foreign entities. the system was based on
homages to the chines emperor who was seen as the ultimate
authority in east Asia. the system was a highly regulated
network where envoys would be involved in Chinese ritual
when they wanted to conduct trade with the neighbor of china.
Region and provinces
Tibet
This is an autonomous region in china located on the Tibetan
platue western part of china and north of the Himalaya
mountain. Tibet shares mount Everest with Nepal making it the
highest region on earth as is the native land of the Tibetan
people .its main economic activity is agriculture where it grows
crops and raise livestock. Tibet government has always declared
it islet an independent country as the Dalai lama act as its
spiritual and political leader however the Chinese government
has always refuted this claims maintain the Tibet is an integral
part of china. (Lockett, 1988).
Rule of china prior 1911
Introduction
During the Chinese imperial rule there were great rulers who
rule and made there dynasty prosperous and incredibly powerful
as they controlled vast lands and maintained stability in there
kingdoms however there were some who were not successful as
much and led the dynasties being overthrown or destroyed. in
this paper we are going to discuss one successful emperor and
one not so successful and compare their reigns
Emperor Kangxi
During the Qing dynasty, existed an emperor named Kangxi.
Emperor Kangxi is one of the most success full rulers who ruled
from the 17th into the 18th century from 1654 to 1722 making
the longest reigning emperor in Chinese history. during the
emperors reign there was prosperity and the empire enjoyed

7. peace because his rule for the most part was conciliatory and
tolerant (Jami, 2012). In the early times of his rule, emperor
kangxi defeated a rebellious plot by one of his ministers and
also pacified a revolt of three feudatories which were governed
by generals from the previous Ming dynasty. the emperor was a
master at Confucianism as he did whatever he could to maintain
peace an example is when he petitioned ethnic Han Chinese
scholars to assist him in compiling the Ming history to
understand it in order to lessen their opposition of the Han
Chinese.
Emperor kanxi was a very successful military commander as he
was able to force the tungning in Taiwan and the Mongol rebels
to submit to his and the Qing dynasty rule. he also blocked the
tsarist Russia at the river Amur from gain entrance and retained
Manchuria and northwest china (Jami, 2012) .since there was
peace and stability during his reign. the population increased
rapidly and people stated cultivating land and therefore got
taxes from agriculture however he refused to raised land tax as
promised making him more popular. He also expanded Chinese
culture by bringing the Hans Chinese history together into his
kingdom and also the entrance of roman Catholicism into china.
he was an astute diplomat enabling to increase with other
foreign region ultimately growth the wealth in china
EmperorYang
Emperor yang was the last ruling emperor of the sui dynasty. He
was the second emperor of the sui dynasty, a dynasty that only
ruled less than 40 years. the emperor is consider the most brutal
tyrant in Chinese history as he is blamed for the relatively short
rule of the sui dynasty.He was a corrupt emperor who appeased
his general by distributing land from farmers to them . he was
also a wasteful ruler as he uses resources to finance his lifestyle
(Xiong, 2006). emperor yang was deemed to have no moral as
he destroyed the kingdom he was left by his father, a kingdom
that was unified, peaceful and prosperous. when he ascends into
the throne, emperor yang forces his brother to commit suicide.
The policies that he implements failed terribly and led the down

8. fall of the kingdom. the prosperity and wealth his father has left
him was gone and this resulting to rebellion where his own
official rebelled against him. (Xiong, 2006). His military effort
failed terribly resulting to massive loss of lives of soldiers and
also it depleted his government money. his reign was so terrible
that civilian unrest happened rapidly and led to his downfall as
he was killed by his general.
Conclusion
The dynasty rule in china evolved as the time went by. Much
progress was done in this period as it greatly influenced the
chines culture and norms practiced today. The prosperous time
of the Qing dynasty verses the brutal rule of the sui dynasty
offered an observation of how different element led r] to the
overthrow and subsequent birth of new dynasties.
References
Zheng, G. (2015). The Role of Endurance Contests in the
Construction of Authority and Social Order in Rural China:
Cases in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. The
International Journal of the History of Sport, 32(8), 1057-1070.
Lockett, M. (1988). Culture and the problems of Chinese
management. Organization studies, 9(4), 475-496.