Week 2: Early Qing

Check you have done all the assignments for the end of Week 1! Then get started on this week.

Remember: Use the login name and password found on the Canvas home page for the PDFs hosted in the PDF vault (url starting with “docs.tdh.bergbuilds”)

Table of Contents

• Slides and class details
• Readings
• Assignments
• Extra Credit Tasks
• Where to Get Assistance?

Slides

• Jan. 25: Manchu conquest
• Jan. 27: Manchu conquest and early Qing

Readings and class details

Meetings this week: Jan. 25 and 27, 9.30AM-10.45AM, Ettinger 204.

• Wednesday: Prepare the Basic Set for Wednesday; bring your questions and discussion points to class
• Friday: Prepare an Exploration Pack of your choice and bring any questions you have to class

Basic set:

Materials from previous years

These summaries help you get a basic understanding of the big outlines and events.

• Textbook summary chapter 2
• Textbook summary chapter 3
• Textbook summary chapter 4

Background info

• Carter, James. “The Untold Story of Wu Sangui, China’s Two-time Turncoat”. Supchina September 30. URL https://supchina.com/2020/09/30/the-untold-story-of-wu-sangui-chinas-two-time-turncoat/
  • The story of the general who defected to the Qing, and then betrayed to Qing as well.
• Video/audio lectures by Prof. Thomas Mullaney from Stanford University. Note that some are audio only, but all are short and informative. (Thank you Prof. Mullaney!)
  1. The Manchus
  2. The banner system and the Manchu military
  3. The Manchu’s enter the Forbidden City
  4. Origins of the Chinese queue

Optional extra materials

If you can’t get enough, or are looking for additional background materials for a project:

• Gerritsen, Anna. “From Late Ming to High Qing.” In The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China. Edited by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, 12-36. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2016.
  • For this week: chapter 1, pp. pp. 19-36.
  • (available through Trexler as an E-book)
• Crossley, Pamela. The Wobbling Pivot. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. ; Malden, MA : Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
  • Chapter 1: “Sources of Order under the Qing Empire”

Exploration Pack 1: Textbook

Comprehensive approach from Spence, documenting the rise of the Manchu, conquest of Ming China, and the early Qing Empire’s attempts to keep the peace amid ethnic differences between the ethnic Han subjects and the Manchu conquerors.

• Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. Third ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.
  • Chapters 2, 3, and 4.
  • Documentary reader: 3.2: Shi Lang’s Memorial on the capture of Taiwan (PDF)

Exploration Pack 2: Conquest

Focus on the ethnic differences between the ethnic Han who were mainly subjects of the Ming, and the Manchu conquerors.

• Lovell, Julia. The Great Wall: China against the World, 1000 BC-AD 2000. 1st paperback ed. New York: Grove Press, 2007. (PDF)
  • “Chapter Ten: The Great Fall of China”
• Struve, Lynn A. Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tigers’ Jaws. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.(PDF)
  • Diary of a survivor of the Yangzhou massacre of 1645 when the Manchu conquered southern China.
  • Warning: contains graphic descriptions of violence
• “Nurhaci’s Seven Grievances”. In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third edition. Edited by Janet Chen, Pei-Kai Cheng and Michael Lestz, with Jonathan Spence, 19-21. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2014.(PDF)
  • Before the Qing invaded and conquered the Ming in 1644, they already had many confrontations and conflicts. Nurhaci lists here many of the ways in which he felt the Ming had fallen short of its commitments towards the northern peoples, including the Manchu.
• “Two edicts concerning hair”. In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third edition. Edited by Janet Chen, Pei-Kai Cheng and Michael Lestz, with Jonathan Spence, 19-21. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2014.(PDF)

Exploration Pack 3: Economy

In the late sixteenth century, the European exploitation of the silver mines in the New World gave the Europeans an entry ticket into the lucrative Asian trade markets. But the influx of cheap silver had significant unforeseen consequences for the Chinese economy. If you’re interested in world trade markets and their influence on domestic issues and economies, look through these materials to connect the dots. There is much much more material on this topic, should you be curious.

Note that this option fits more with Week One, but I also know students of the ABEF department responded positively to this offering in previous years.

• Von Glahn, Richard. The Economic History of China: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2016. (PDF)
• “A Ming Official on the Decline and Fall of the Dynasty”. In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third edition. Edited by Janet Chen, Pei-Kai Cheng and Michael Lestz, with Jonathan Spence, 4-6. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2014.(PDF)
  • economy #primary-source

Assignments

1. Reminder: Weekly blog post about week 1

5 points, due by Jan. 23, 11.59pm.

Write a blog post exploring themes or ideas based on your reading (from week 1). You do not need to have all the answers. In fact, learning to ask good analytical or research questions is a skill you can develop during the semester. Remember the description of the assignment from the syllabus.

• Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
• Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
  • TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
• Add the words “Week 1” in the title.
  • Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
• Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose.
• Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
• Post on your website, and add to the category hst271.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I indicated which Exploration Pack I chose.
– I included an image, and I provided a caption and credit (source), and an Alt text description for the image.
– I use the words Week 1 in the title, and added the post to category hst271

2. Hypothes.is: comments on Week 1 posts

3 points, due Wed. Jan. 25 by 11.59pm.

Below you find links to three blog posts from your fellow students. If one of the websites is your own, or it is twice the same person’s, refresh the page, and you should get new sites. [posts coming on Tuesday]

• Post 1:
• Post 2:
• Post 3:

Leave feedback, questions, thoughts, insights about the contents of the posts of your fellow students using Hypothes.is group HST271. You can ask for clarifications, point out similarities and differences with the material you covered, or with your interpretation. This should encourage you to nose around in the other materials you did not read in the first round.

Use tags in Hypothes.is: question: If you have a question (obvious); answered: if you gave an answer to a question; info: if you provide more information, looking up additional facts, drawing on knowledge from other classes; and other tags you can think of. This will help us to navigate more quickly to the questions that still need answering.

Use the “Architect’s Model” of giving feedback, and engage with concrete issues. Go beyond “Yeah, I agree,” “I like” or “I think the same”, and instead explain why you have that reaction, or if you disagree, you can try to persuade the original poster of your idea or interpretation.

Remember that Hypothes.is allows for hyperlinks, e.g. to materials that support your argument, or you can include pictures (memes! [yes, there she is again]), videos etc. that help the original poster to learn more.

When you’ve commented on four posts, read this declaration carefully, and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I commented on three fellow students’ initial posts on the readings from Week 1 using the group HST271.
– I made sure to leave substantial comments that move the discussion forward and help to create better insights, and go beyond a “nice” or “great”.
– I left comments that I would like to receive myself: thoughtful, helpful, kind, but also pointing out errors so they can be fixed.

3. Blog post (content week 2)

Due Mon. Jan. 30, 11:59PM

Write a blog post exploring themes or ideas based on your reading. You do not need to have all the answers. In fact, learning to ask good analytical or research questions is a skill you can develop during the semester. Remember the description of the assignment from the syllabus.

• Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
• Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
  • TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
• Add the words “Week 2” in the title.
  • Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
• Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose.
• Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
• Post on your website, and add to the category hst271.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I indicated which Exploration Pack I chose.
– I included an image, and I provided a caption and credit (source), and an Alt text description for the image.
– I use the words Week 2 in the title, and added the post to category hst271

Extra credit tasks

Missed a task earlier this week? Want to try out some new things? Just like playing games and scoring as many points as possible? Here are some extra credit tasks.
In later weeks, these will give you more opportunities to explore more functionality of our online tools, and get a small reward for it. You can only get credit for them before the end of the week!

EC 1: Add an image your Discord profile

2 point, due by Sunday, Jan 29, 11.59pm

If you look like the standard Discord avatar (a little circle with two eyes), please consider adding a splash of personality: a picture of you, or of something that represents you, for instance your pet, or a location you like.

if you already have a Discord profile picture, skip straight through to the Declaration Quiz and collect your extra credit points!

1. Use this web tutorial to walk you through the steps to change your avatar
   • Top tip: if you have a favorite picture, place it in a top-level folder in your “Documents” folder or on the “Desktop”, so you can find it easily.
2. You can ask in the HST271 Channel if we see the change to confirm it worked.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully, and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your point.

Declaration
– I uploaded a picture to my Discord profile so I no longer look like a little circle with eyes.
– I checked it shows up on the the server as I intended.

EC 2: Change the theme on your WordPress site

4 points, due by Sunday, Jan 29, 11:59pm

The standard theme for WordPress blogs at this moment is “Twenty Twenty-Three”. Maybe you like it well enough. But did you know there are thousands of free themes out there to make your blog look nice? For instance, my course website runs on “Catch Starter”, I have used “Noto Simple”, and many students like the look of the SPLOT, which is built on the Fukasawa theme.
Here’s how to have some fun with your site:

1. Spend ± 30 mins. exploring different themes, and pick a new one that fits your personal taste better, and customize it. You can find more information in the videos linked on this help page (scroll down).
2. Write a brief blog post explaining why you picked your new theme, and why you like it better, or how you customized it. If you stuck with the original “Twenty Twenty-Three” theme, remove extraneous links and information (so it looks nice), and then explain in the post why it’s still the best theme for you.
3. In the title of the post, include the words WordPress Theme, add the tag extracredit (one word) and add the post to category hst271.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully, and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I explored different themes for WordPress and customized one for my site.
– I wrote a blog post explaining my choice of theme, and how I customized it.
– I included the words WordPress Theme in the title, added the tag extracredit (one word) to the post, and added the post to category hst271