Qing Empire

Qing dynasty
清朝 ᡩᠠᡳᠴᡳᠩ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ
1644–1912
Flag (1889–1912) Imperial Seal
Anthem 《鞏金甌》 "Gong Jin'ou" ("Cup of Solid Gold")
Qing dynasty in 1765
Capital		Beijing (Shuntian Prefecture)
Languages		Mandarin, Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, Turki (Modern Uighur), numerous regional languages and varieties of Chinese
Religion		Heaven worship, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, Shamanism, others
Government		Absolute monarchy (1644–1911) Constitutional monarchy (1911–12)
Emperor
•	1644–1661	Shunzhi (first)
•	1908–1912	Puyi (last)
Regent
•	1908–12	Zaifeng
Prime Minister
•	1911	Yikuang
•	1911–12	Yuan Shikai
Historical era		Imperial era
•	Qing conquest of the Ming	1644
•	First Opium War	1839–42
•	Second Opium War	1856–60
•	Sino-Japanese War	1 August 1894 – 17 April 1895
•	Xinhai Revolution	10 October 1911
•	Abdication of Puyi	12 February 1912
Area
•	1790	14,700,000 km² (5,675,702 sq mi)
Population
•	1740 est.	140,000,000
•	1776 est.	268,238,000
•	1790 est.	301,000,000
Currency		Cash (wén) Tael (liǎng)
Preceded by Succeeded by Later Jin (1616-1636) Shun dynasty Ming dynasty Southern Ming Republic of China
Today part of		Afghanistan  Bhutan  China  India  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Mongolia  Myanmar  Russia  Tajikistan  Taiwan

Qing dynasty
"Qing dynasty" in Chinese (top) and Manchu (bottom)
Chinese name
Chinese	清朝
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Qīng cháo Wade–Giles Ch'ing1 ch'ao2 IPA [tɕʰíŋ ʈʂʰǎu̯] Wu Suzhounese Tshin záu Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Chīng chìuh Jyutping Cing1 ciu4 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Chheng tiâu Tâi-lô Tshing tiâu
Great Qing
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dà Qīng Wade–Giles Ta2 Ch'ing1 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping daai6 cing1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tāi-chheng Tâi-lô Tāi-tshing
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᡩᠠᡳᠴᡳᠩ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ
Abkai	Daiqing gurun
Möllendorff	Daicing gurun

Tael (liǎng)

The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing, also called the Qing Empire or the Manchu dynasty, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the territorial base for the modern Chinese state.

The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria. In the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing "Banners", military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into a unified entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, the Qing. In 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. 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, who defeated the rebels and seized the capital. Resistance from the Southern Ming and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories led by Wu Sangui extended the conquest of China proper for nearly four decades and was not completed until 1683 under the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722). The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia. The early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to 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 also adapted the ideals of the tributary system in dealing with neighboring territories.