Yes, but also no. If you examine the High Qing (Kangxi to Qianlong Emperors, which unfortunately happens to be the early Qing) they actually improved the Ming methods of rule. The shining example of this is the secret memorial system, which enabled the emperors to actually understand the needs of the local officials, since for most Chinese dynasties, the imperial censors deemed much of the requests of local officials too low for the emperor. Unfortunately as time went on, the later Qing emperors stopped reading them.
Couple of mischaracterizations: 1. The last Ming emperor didn't know about the Qing (Manchu) armies entering Beijing because he was already dead, having hung himself when a peasant army took over Beijing. The Qing army was allowed south of the Great Wall by a Ming general who decided their help was needed to quash the rebellion, and the Qing court would go on to claim to be the legitimate successors to the Ming, even while hunting down the actual former imperial family. 2. Cixi didn't just rely on "martial artists" to fight the Eight Nation Army, she ordered the actual imperial army to support them. That's why the Boxer Rebellion came back to bite her in the ass, because she couldn't pretend it was just an internal problem.
Yeah, especially since many generals just outright disobeyed her orders and sided with the Europeans. After the boxer rebellion the Qing had already lost all their control over the south of China, the military and anybody that wasn’t Manchu.
Yu Yang but china's has rich culture just to get ruined in the end by manchurian invaders ( like how the GOT ended lol, it destroyed the whole build up of the amazing series)
I think the most impressive thing about China is how impregnable their identity is. In most other cases in history, the conquerer imposes their culture on the conquered. But China seems to be the only country where the conquerer becomes ends up adopting the culture and becoming Chinese. And not even in a Ptolemaic way. The power of China isn't in it's military or it's economy. Those come and go. The one constant is the Chinese identity. It's like a nigh unlimited 1ups and continues even after a game over, compared to most other civilizations and empires that fade away once they shatter. China simply refuses to go away. It's the only nation that can trace her culture back to the river valley civilisations of antiquity that is still alive and active. Even India cannot trace her entire culture back to the Indus Valley.
1Invinc actually is the Chinese adopt part of the Manchu culture, you ignore the part where the hairstyle is different from Chinese dynasty to Qing dynasty, and how the dressing code force to change from Chinese dynasty to Qing dynasty ( since Manchu don’t allow Chinese to keep their traditional hairstyles and dressing )
Yeah buddy, the strongest thing about China is FUSION. Not only in the way you described, but the other way around as well. In the Chun-Qiu(Spring and autumn)period, the Kingdom Zhao shared a border with the Huns, and got frequently raided. What did he do? He said, 'from today on, all nobles and me will dress like the Huns and practise horse archery'. Similarities can be found throughout history. Chinese culture was inward and growing weak, someone stronger comes along, then the Chinese rise up to the challenge and adopt these elements into their own and become stronger. In Beijing, local snacks and dining include Manchu dishes, Mongolian dishes, Han dishes, etc.. So, due to militaristic and historical reasons, to fully conquer China, you have to be nomadic and militarilly much stronger. These cultures have no experience adminstering a large state, so when they conquer China, they have to adopt the Chinese way of governance. To do that, they have to learn the Chinese language. In doing so, they have to learn Chinese history, customs and so much more. So one day they just realise: this is really tiresome, let's just be Chinese instead. There were those who conquered China and did not adopt too well, and those got thrown out of China really fast because their rule was just abyssmal.
and thus, even after immigration they are still really strongly associate themselves as Chinese, but simply living somewhere else , their are still chinese in their blood as they would say
Hell, Chinese communists and student vigilantes literally tried to destroy Chinese culture themselves for like a decade and even then China's culture survives.
As a more poetic version of Bill Wurtz's "China is whole again....China has broke again" have extra history's "The empire long united must divide. The empire long divided must unite" instead.
That's the opening line to "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" one of the most influential novels in history which seeing as it was first published almost 500 years ago is quite a bit older than Extra History. (The particular translation into english is only from 1991 however.)
@@vegetalss4 ah. That does make more sense. It's the opening line to their three kingdoms series, and I guess I just assumed they came up with it like the rest of their narrative cold opens
@@vegetalss4 of course. And eh has used lines from relevant sources in their narrative bits, but usually they're credited at the end, followed by x writes, or are audio recordings of the quote at that time. I guess since none of that happened, I assumed it wasn't the case.
As a Chinese-Canadian, I wanted to say thanks for covering dynastic China’s history! It’s very very difficult to learn about Chinese history in the west because it’s just not touched upon at school, but of course even parts of communist China prefer not to get too deep into it. That being said, God it _grinds my gears_ hearing about the Opium Wars. When I was younger, my mother used to tell me about how so many countries wanted a piece of China and ended up invading, and while it never really crossed my mind back then, as I’ve grown older and desired a closer connection to my family’s home country (as most immigrant children do), I’ve realized the full extent of how awful what China went through is. There’s a reason around the 19th-20th century of China is referred to as a “century of humiliation.” Besides Britain and the other countries you mentioned, Japan would really weaken China in the Second World War. I won’t get into the Opium Wars and the Ming and Qing dynasties since this video was all about them, but I wanted to talk about some other stuff in the latter half of history. While Chinese officials and the empire, as mentioned in this video, did do a bad job due to corruption etc, I’ve always disliked how quickly foreigners write China off as a shithole or a dictatorship without any freedoms “because that’s just how it is and that’s just how its people are.” No, it’s not. History has made China the way it is. China’s government’s current iron grip on its country even reflects the development of other countries throughout history. While most countries try to be democratic now, many countries have gone through empires and international conquests and colonialism. I hope the mess that is the Second World War and the Cultural Revolution will get more coverage in the future, but for now I want to touch on some points: I’ve done a lot of research on China in the Second World War for school papers, and it’s still true that many Japanese (and even Chinese) textbooks scrub these parts of history from the writings. They mention the Nanjing Massacre/Rape briefly as an “incident,” and don’t mention Unit 731 at all. To give an idea how bad some of what China went through in the Second World War is, here’s a look at the gruesome “experiments” of Unit 731. Doctors raped female prisoners, injected horse urine into prisoners’ kidneys, froze limbs only to put them in boiling hot water, did surgeries without anaesthetics, etc. They dehumanized the prisoners and called them logs because they secretly worked in a lumber mill. And what happened to those that suffered? Most of them died, and most of their families never saw them again. They got nothing in return. And in the meantime, the US granted the doctors of Unit 731 immunity for the information. One of them even opened up a pharmaceutical company still operating today. Many doctors, despite their cruelties, were allowed to continue living like normal even after what they did. And if some guilty doctors hadn’t decided to come forward with testimonies, perhaps we would have never known the full extent of a victim’s suffering. And this is already adding onto the other things: Japan’s pillaging of Nanjing caused many deaths and rapes. I remember a story of a man, as a kid, watching his mother be stabbed to death before him. He watched his brother, only a baby, be skewered on the Japanese soldier’s bayonet. And even as she lay dying, his mother tried to breastfeed her baby so that he could stop crying in pain. A girl around 14 let herself be raped to the point of unconsciousness and intense bleeding so that her grandfather could stop begging and putting himself in danger to protect her from a Japanese soldier. Another person saw a relative be cut in half. These stories are recorded in a documentary on the Nanjing Massacre that featured interviews with survivors. Feel free to do a quick RUclips search. Just a quick warning: it is quite brutal and emotional. There were also the two Japanese soldiers racing to see who could behead 100 Chinese civilians the fastest, etc etc. _Now_ I want to touch on Mao Zedong and how he came to power: After everything that happened during the Second World War, China was weak and in decline. When Mao Zedong promised a better future, people chose to believe in him. Communism struck when the country was weak _because_ of all that China had suffered during that century. Everyone likes to compare Mao Zedong to the Japanese empire. “What about him?” they ask. And yet, we should acknowledge Mao’s ascendance to power is also a result of the Japanese Empire’s invasion, among the other things presented in this video that led to China’s decline. In addition to that, I’ve discussed with a Taiwanese friend of mine. When the communists pushed the Guomindang to Taiwan, that party was quite dictator-like there as well. Citizens who disagreed with the government still disappeared. So while perhaps they wouldn’t have been _as bad_ as Mao Zedong’s communist party, they wouldn’t necessarily be a vast improvement either. Of course Mao wasn’t a good leader-I know his atrocities. I looked at adults in surprise when they preferred to pin the blame of Mao’s failings on his wife. I don’t like the idea of his influence being so washed of bloodshed. But that’s in China. In the west, Mao’s bloodshed is the only thing ever covered. I did extensive research on him for a school project as well, where I acted as prosecution _against_ Mao in a mock trial, and I also _know_ people who grew up during his time in China, many of whom saw people be imprisoned and beaten publicly for supposedly disagreeing with the government. Mao Zedong was an undeniable dictator with the pattern of paranoia and cruelty that often comes with communism, killing millions of civilians in his wake. But he did bring China out of complete and total poverty, even if he didn’t do a great job. *Mao did not build a perfect country. But he did rebuild a broken country, ensuring it would leave a mark on the world.* I don’t want anyone to think I’ve made this comment to solely bash on Japan. I have no ill feelings toward Japanese people as a whole. I know I appear to be biased, and it’s undeniable I am, but knowing these things about history just matter a lot to me. I actually highly enjoy Japan’s culture and media and people, although I do wish more people will acknowledge Japan (and Korea)’s culture(s) being evolved from China. Besides, Britain’s attempt to control China through opium is also extremely awful, and China is no way guiltless in its own downfall, but the joke about China censoring information and the mention of leaving Winnie the Pooh, while funny, doesn’t cover the whole picture. Germany continues to apologize for Nazi atrocities and even US citizens are taught to feel guilty for dropping the nukes on Japan (ironically, Japan holds barely any grudges against the US because the US greatly helped Japan’s economy after WWII and disappearing US military bases from public view meant that Japan forgot USA’s occupation postwar was a militaristic one, as a Japanese scholar has proposed in a paper I read for my Japanese Cinema class). I’m not defending communism. It just doesn’t work. But I also don’t want to deny that Mao did do some good things for China, including bringing it out of intense poverty and lack of global influence. Even China tries not to fully address these things, whether it’s about the mess-ups of the dynasties, other countries, or Mao Zedong. After all, we’re often told that those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it. *TL;DR: China is hated because of its nature, but people forget Mao Zedong’s tyranny was partly a result of what happened during the Ming and Qing dynasties, along with what Japan did to China in WWII. China wouldn’t necessarily be better off with the Guomindang, and while still a dictator who killed millions, Mao did bring China out of poverty, even if he was a ruthless, cruel, paranoid dictator who failed just as much-if not more than-he succeeded.* *Remembering history is important, and since Germany and the US cover it quite heavily, I hope to see the international world, as well as Japan and China, take a closer look at history as well.*
At least Taiwan was under a better rule under Chiang Kai Shek... And his son Chiang Chung Kuo greatly improved Taiwan's economy. So yeah, Taiwan we thank Chiang Chung Kuo l, while China Deng Shiao Ping takes the credit for improving China's. So yeah, whether you agree or disagree, Taiwan is really "Freedom China" sure we use Traditional Chinese like Hong Kong, but we have our own regime... Whatever China says that we are just a part of China, which isn't wrong, but it is wrong when UN acknowledge Taiwan province of PRC.
@@Mario123007 The "better rule" that included the military dictatorship which suppressed and murdered native Taiwanese and dissenting Han Chinese alike? CKS couldn't keep a city running without half of it rising up in rebellion and the other half starving to death, much less Taiwan or the whole of China. Yellow River flood? Yeah, great idea. His son, on the other hand, made strides... which ultimately amounted to nothing as KMT failed to retake China, partly as they had very lukewarm allies in the West that offered little more than lip-service after 1945. Worse yet modern Taiwan is economically stagnant, with politics that make the US look like it's functioning politically. Let me know when another developed nation in the world has parliament members bashing each other with folding chairs, then I'll have good reason to believe Chiang has reincarnated elsewhere to bring ruin to another nation.
@@LawL_LawL lol so many bias and misconception in this. CKS wasn't even at Taiwan when the 228 massacre happened. And KMT can't retake China was because of US after Korean War, they saved KMT's butt and Taiwan, but after that both PRC and ROC only have minor battles. ROC legislators are still morons, especiallythise from DPP, and New Power Party. But now things gotten way more entertaining than just smash each other in folding chairs. This isn' t late 1990s. And Taiwan economy isn't as good as it was in 1990s,but we are still high up there GDP wise.
Upvoted for non-simplistic view on China. I am a Chinese national who grew up, like many of my peers as anti-CCP youth(outsiders may find that surprising, but that's the fact, the more the information is suppressed, the more people become skeptical). The moment i found myself outside of China(ten years ago), I started digging online to find any pieces of information to justify my anti-CCP stance. However, the more I dug in, the more nuanced the history seems to make it difficult to actually draw simple conclusion. Now I'm not hating CCP anymore. Because love and hate is irrelevant in the world. All I want it's my China, the civilization, to survive, my feeling or anyone elses' is irrelevant.
You have left out a very important piece of story regarding the invading Manchu. In fact, the Manchurians did not manage to force through the Great Wall. Even the great Nurgachi was killed in one of such attempts. Instead, they were deliberately given an access to pass the Great Wall through an open gate by a Ming General (Wu San Gui) in a stupid attempt to neutralise the menacing rebels on Ming soil.
Any chance we can get a ReDux of the 5 Easy Steps to Ruin your Civilization for other nations too? Maybe a Western Roman version or a Collonial France... That'd be neat.
How to ruin your colonial empire in 5 easy steps 1. Isn't called Britain 2. Opposes royal navy 3. Doesnt have coats that are red 4. Not being Portuguese 5. *Oh god please stop the nationalism* *Laughs as his great Portugese colonial empire outlasted every other European power in Africa* No Spain those weird cities in North Africa don't count.
Yeah, thats the first line from the first video in the series. Thanks for commenting it here to give the impression you know anything more than anyone else.
South Korea is really like the Ming Dynasty of China. From etiquette to costumes, it is just a miniature version of the Ming Dynasty. After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, officials of the Qing Dynasty saw the North Korean messengers and saw the clothes they were wearing. The officials of the Qing Dynasty were sad and weeping.
Blue, I wanted to thank you for your balanced take on all this. Too often, when people discuss history, they will frequently side with going one way or the other. They'll say "this nation would have been fine if it had kept foreigners out", or "this nation doomed itself by only looking inward" and stuff like that. But you actually showed that there is no right answer as to what the correct course for a country should be. Both directions have their merit, and too much of one or the other will always lead to bad things. So kudos for putting a spotlight on that :)
Agreed, it all depends on context, what is happening at the time. If you've just taken power or come out of a war, some isolationism can be a good thing, but when you have foreign powers knocking at your door or building up their military and talking conquest, best keep your eyes on them. (Here's looking at you, Chamberlain, you fool.)
Modern historiography suggest that the Great Wall was more focused on stopping small scale raids than large scale invasions; in that regard, it succeeded. But small successes are boring, and catastrophic failures interesting, so we only hear about the latter.
Actually, the Great Wall was mostly effective. Yes, the Mongolians broke through it once, but you’re ignoring the thousands of invasions that it did successfully prevent.
Harak Mapping How many times do you think the Northern Barbarians attempted to invade? How many times did they succeed? The Great Wall cost so much resources to build. If it were so ineffective, how come so many different governments spent so much money and effort to build and rebuild it?
@Andy Ding The Great Wall was long abandoned by the time the Mongols came. The Jin had tried to build a pretty shit line of mud ramparts in the middle of the deserts against the Mongols, which worked as well as you'd expect your home's fence to against an invading army.
5 Dynasties: Foreigner legally invited by Cao Cao and later the Western Jin (not the other Jin) Dynasty to repopulate Northern China after the population losses through the collapse of the Han Dynasty, later revolted against the central government from their new home South of the Great Wall. Jin and Liao: The Great Wall had long since been abandoned, and anyways they didn't face a central government that had effective control over its entire length. Qing: A general guarding the wall willingly opened the gates of the Great Wall as part of a deal with the Qing. If anything, the lesson China should learn from all of these instances of invasion seems to be that they should probably double down on xenophobia. Especially the 5 dynasties one, which also seems to be a good historical argument against accepting any immigrants or refugees, legal or otherwise.
Ingebot Li You may be correct, but there are many who would disagree with you. I am no historian, so I can only rely on the opinions of those who know better-and there are plenty who hold the opinion that the Great Wall was effective. See this for example: www.quora.com/How-effective-was-the-Great-Wall-of-China . As I have stated, I am no historian; nevertheless, I *do* in fact know that: 1. The Wall required a great deal of natural and human resources to construct. Hence, one can infer that many Emperors throughout thousands of years-advised by many highly educated and high ranking civil servants-agreed that building the Wall was a good idea. In fact, they believed that the Wall was so necessary that it justified the colossal cost involved in building it. 2. When the Wall was successful, nothing happened; when the Wall failed, the Dynasty collapsed. Therefore, it is easy to ignore the countless times it was successful and to notice the few times it failed.
That was hilarious! I hope they cover it 'properly' later on, unless they just want to let Extra History have it covered with the recent Sun Yat Sen series.
fun fact: Qing was originally called jin which means gold, the world "Ming" is associate with the sun and therefore Ming has fire attribute, in chinese element gold is weak to fire and they never successfully invade china, so they changed the name to Qing, which is associated with the water element and strong against fire, and voila they actually did it
Well the fall of the Ming dynasty was way more complicated than that. My home town was sacked at least twice during the 40 years of Qing's invasion. And Qing was able to invade because rebels occupied Beijing and Emperor killed himself. At the end of Ming dynasty, though the empire was not particularly weak, there were just so many bad things happening together.
China: *Ming empire starts to fall apart at the seams* Manchu Invaders: *I T ' S F R E E R E A L E S T A T E* China: *tries to avoid trade with Britain* Britain: *I T ' S F R E E R E A L E S T A T E*
China: The UK is building a navy that is the best in the world should we do stuff? Also China: Let us use repurpose a fishing fleet! Britain: Our worst ships are better than you.
Thing is, China wasn’t expecting people to be that barbaric. Like he said in the video, when ever a new dynasty sets in, it pushes for education and especially Confucianism, which teaches 中庸. Government officials of the same level, the soldier should bow to the scholar. Of course after a couple centuries, they can no longer fight. Military technologies development get less fundings than poetry and philosophy club.
@@bowmanc.7439 Whay do you consider barbaric? Or, more accurately I suppose, what did the Qing consider barbaric? 'Cause as far as I'm aware, literally everything outside of China was considered barbaric. I don't see how building a baddass navy would be any more inherently barbaric.
Very accurate and concise video, thank you! It is difficult to stay away from a long script when it comes to Chinese history, I think you did an outstanding job.
I was reading a Chinese novel, and one of the problems that was pointed out by them, was that the Confucian method does lead to education, but not necessarily to good leadership. As is still a problem now, people learn for the exam, and not for the learning, which means that the people in charge were the people who could pass the exam, which is not necessarily the people that would be best to lead.
Kevin T don’t rush to conclusions please. China’s censorship only applies to overly popular things that are harmful to society. I think the limit is 500 share.
@@kevint1929 THIS POST HAS BEEN DEEMED HERETICAL BY TERRA'S HOLY INQUISITION. YOUR PLANET HAS NOW BEEN SCHEDULED FOR EXTERMINATUS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION. EMPEROR PROTECTS!
Curtis Mahon As the Qing where the ones in power at the time China came in to contact with the major western powers a lot of cultural elements we generally associate with or based on China came from that period. (Like the Earth Kingdom...)
I'm pretty sure Earth Queen Hou-Ting was based off of the woman in that painting: Empress Dowager Cixi, regent of China for almost 50 years in the latter half of the 1800's.
Jon Snor yes, and as wrong as him. Pretty sure Winnie the Pooh isn’t actually censored officially. Many sites decided to censor it spontaneously because their mods are too patriotic and their sites can’t distinguish said comparison specific posts and regular post relating to the character. But on many sites, especially major ones, neither the comparison nor the character itself is censored.
@@InfamousQuiche In China even mentioning winnie the pooh gets censored because someone thought he looks like their president and called him that. This is nothing new for china. For example in the 60s and 70s you had a hard time talking about sun dots because mao was nicknamed the red sun or something like that.
@@InfamousQuiche Some people were using pictures of Winnie the Pooh in place of Chinese leader Xi Jinping in order to criticize him (apparently they resemble each other) so he banned Winnie the Pooh.
Zheng He's expeditions were halted in part because they were super expensive. It's debatable how much China would have benefited from continued exploration, but I think history has shown how much they didn't from not doing that. Also, it's theorized that one of his ships might've reached the Americas almost a century before Columbus, so that's a thing.
"NOTHING?! WE CAN'T JUST SIT HERE AND DO NOTHING!" *China proceeds to do nothing regardless* **Anyone trying to improve the situation just gets horribly frustrated**
China: you dare call me mortal while i have 5000 years + of civilization. Don't think for one moment you can boss around just because your started the industrial revolution.
@@starfieldryker5299 it’s not just the industrial revolution. China isnt culturally creative. Very one dimensional, monolithic and redundant. And that 5 thousand year history is a myth. More like 3-4 thousand.
@@freckleheckler6311 well the Xia I believe is definitely a kingdom, but before I don't know, unless we get more historical evidence we will never know.
in fact, the great wall worked. it works well. because the main purpose of the wall, is to have prevent sudden attack or as an early warning system to the empire over the foreign invaders. the walls were built on mountain and strategic areas, and worked pretty well on preventing the enemy of large scale to easily quickly surpassing the territory, small units might sneak through, but then they wont be enough to invade an empire, large scale gathering units would trigger the alarm on the wall, the soldiers would give signals to all the outpost so the empire would be alerted. if people think that the wall didnt work because Mongolian and Manchurian conquered China, that is very wrong. first, the wall were all on northern part of China. Mongolian first conquered Jin Dynasty, because the Jin didnt use defensive strategy, instead of defending the wall, they attack on the mongols, and also fighting against the Song Dynasty at the south at the same time. so their collapse had nothing to do with the wall. and then when Mongol conquered the Song, Song had no walls to use against the mongols, but then there was a Song fortress called Diao Yu fortress, stands for 36 years against the mongol invaders, and eventually they surrender when Khubilai promised no massacre when they give up. And for the manchurian case, well, the wall also worked very well, with the firearm on the wall, and an elite cavalry battalion, it kept the Manchurian away for decades. It was so hard to breakthrough and it costs the life of an Manchurian emperor Huang Tai Ji when he tried to challenge that wall. you can do some studies on "Shan Hai Guan", but eventually Wu Shan Gui, the commander of Ming, opened the gate and let the Manchurian army passed, because he betrayed Ming Dynasty and wanted to use the Manchurian for his own interest later. ########### and FYI,(VERY IMPORTAT: ）the Ming empire were destroyed by the civil war called Li Zi Cheng, not the Manchurian. that is a common mistake by many. people did not know that The Ming were actually fighting in 2 fronts, one is manchurian, and another is the civil war. the Ming last emperor commited suicide when Rebels of Li Zi Cheng broke the palace last defense. the great wall had nothing to do with this at all. in both Mongol and Manchurian cases, they did not defeat the wall, but the enemy collapsed itself or surrender themselves.
Second comment, dunno if that break youtube law or whatever BUT! One of my TCM teachers, back when she was a young intern, met Puyi a few times, and HER teacher always insisted on bowing to the former emperor, to which Puyi always seemed to react with a bit of embarrasment, mumbling something about "it's the current year comrade". According to my teacher, he was one of the kindest and gentlest people with impeccable manners and decorum. The Aisin-gioro family still has several members living close by where I'm currently living, I also know a couple of manchu Yellow banner descendants (basically former top nobility), and they're always some of the coolest people to hang out with. Also, I'm a huge simp for Ariel Aisin-goro, a Chinese actress and direct descendant of Nurhaci (14th generation). Not only is she pretty and talented, but she has the loveliest old-town Beijing accent
You missed the part where the Ming was pretty much already overthrown by the time the Manchus rolled on Beijing. The last Ming Emperor has hung himself in what's now Jingshan Park after a peasant rebellion had taken the capital.
This is a great job! As a Chinese, I only just realized how much we feared the foreigners in the 18th and 19th, and maybe even now. The Chinese government literally build a wall and it is still there only in its internet form. Even if it is to help keep our people safe it just shows a sign of weakness.
For like 2000 years Europe was in complete and utter chaos with wars and empires and madness, while most of Asia sat there oblivious, doing their own thing.
I have a different view on the part of the ming great wall. The watch towers and the wall itself has places for people to stand on, this means archers can stand on the tower and shoot at the enemy or throw weird things like boiling human waste material(historically accurate as it causes bacterial infections to nomadic tribes with no proper medications) at them. Also, the wall is built along mountains and so the mountains themselves can stop cavalry units, which are common in nomadic tribes, that base their successes on speed. The action of climbing will reduce their speed and the archers can use this time to attack them. So this the wall is actually useful.
From what I remember, the manchus were actually citizens of the ming dynasty and the conquering manchu general belonged to the imperial court and was just stationed outside the great wall, he was actually allowed past the great wall in order to quell the rebellions.
Yeah by the time when it happened Qing had already been established outside the passes and had launched many military campaigns. They had long lost loyalty to the Ming which was about to fall anyways after the Emperor hanged himself on a tree…
Lord wind I belive your very wrong here, Manchuria was in the ming sphere of influence but they arnt chinese subjects. Nurachi (I think the guy your referring to) was afforded titles for helping the ming suppress revolts and it has his son hong tiji who crossed the great wall, he also wasn't there to suppress the rebellion but instead the commanding general at the time (wu sangui) who saw no other option (his father was tortured and his wife stolen by the rebels) decided to let the Manchu in
Not citizens per se, but initially the Manchu State was a tributary ally/vassal of the Ming. But in the later Ming period as the Ming declined and the Manchu grew stronger, that relationshipo became just a on-paper formality, and then finally repudiated by the Manchu. By the time the Ming fell, they and the Manchu had been military rivals for several decades already, and their armies had clashed on a number occasions along the Great Wall protected border between them. When a peasant rebellion based in the South captured Beijing and the last Ming Emperor committed suicide, the rebels took the capital and declared a new Dynasty. The Ming General stationed at the Great Wall at the Manchu Border made the independent decision to ally with the Manchu, and let them through the wall unopposed, so that the combined Ming-Manchu army could crush the Rebellion.
the finger thing is protecting the long fingernails because long nails is a symbol of status... for some reason... Kinda like how rich people want ferraris for some reason i guess...
9:59 Not to mention, many Qing Generals did not support the decision to fight the European expeditionary force, which also ruined the anti foreign rebellion by the Boxers. The most notable of which was Yuan Shikai's New Army (formed after First Sino-Japanese War) and others of the Southeast China Protection Movement during the rebellion period.
the whole point of the old wall wasn't to stop the enemy but to slow them down enough so that the Chinese had enough time to mobilise all of their troops
Hahaha looks like the youtube censors got to this video. Just the other day I saw this really informed comment from a user and now it is just gone. So me I'm thinking I'll do my civic duty and bring back that information because I think it is very important for people to understand what's happening. QUOTE @@@夏士莲欧莱雅 There's too many people on the internet that try to make sure the rest of the world only learns the parts of Chinese history that work with their sinophobic message. For example this video. (But I hope Overly Sarcastic Production's just playing it off as a joke like they did in all the other episodes about other places. I really really hope they aren't being serious.) Message: China falls apart every 6 seconds and is only united for 1/4 of its history. So if you watch the videos he glosses over the fact that he just casually tosses away 2000 out of 5000 years of Chinese history where it was under a early united rulership. 2000 years just gone because it doesn't fit with the "falls apart every 6 seconds" message. Then Shang Dynasty gets its 600 years lifespan glossed over so they can skip right to Zhou and gloss over its 800 years span to jump to when it fell apart later on. Then there's tons about how it was broken up for a hot second. Seriously the Warring States period lasted 255 years. That's a fraction of either dynasty and a drop in the bucket from the 2000 years that was just tossed aside as "mythical." Then he goes over Qin which was legitimately a short dynasty but paved the way for the Han Dynasty that lasted 400 years. But he wants to talk about the Three Kingdoms Period that followed 400 years of united rulership. And that period lasted less than 100 years. Because China "falls apart every 6 seconds" right? So we get this trend don't we? To make the message "China keeps falling apart" you have to first ignore big chunks of history then shorten other big chunks of history in favor of talking in depth about the short periods of Chinese history where more than one state existed. Still for all that effort what do you get in the end? Three whole episodes on just China's extremely long history and even a Mongol one where China has a starring role. Unless you happen to gloss over the fact that once Kublai Khan the leader of the Mongol empire conquered China he called himself Emperor of China and ruled the rest of his empire from his seat on the Chinese throne. ======================================== Let's do the math. 1/4 of 5000 years is 1250 years. Now if we add Zhou Dynasty's 800 years + Shang Dynasty's 600 years + Han Dynasty's 400 years. Wait. We already have 1800 years. That can't be right. That's already more than 1/4. And we didn't even add back the 2000 years! Wait so then there's the Jin Dynasty that had at least 100 years in relative peace + Tang Dynasty's over 300 years + Song Dynasty's 300 years + Ming Dynasty's 300 years + Qing Dynasty's 300 years and you end up with a quick sum of at least 3000 years. And we still didn't add the 2000 years that was casually tossed out yet! So if we went with the -2000 years that this video series accepts we'd still estimate roughly all of China's history as together with drops in the bucket of "falling apart." Let's try adding that together. So you have 255 years of Warring States before China reunites. Then it breaks up again for 60 years in the Three Kingdoms Period. Then you have the Northern/Southern Dynasties that count for 169 years before China is reunited. Then you have the 53 years in between Tang and Song. And that's it. So what does that come out to? 536 years. Out of 5000. United for 1/4 of its history? Really? It was even broken up for less than 1/4 of its history. Ok maybe because they casually cut out 2000 years of Chinese history. So 1/4 of 3000 is 750 years. Nope still broken up for less time than 1/4 of its supposedly divided and trimmed off history. But it does scare me how easily people are willing to believe things like "China has been divided for most of its history" and "China keeps falling apart" like they are really easy pitfalls to fall into. I mean I didn't even have to try. The dates I got were just wikipedia entries. Who knows how many more years the actual dynasties could have lasted that got trimmed away in these articles? From just these dates I proved that China's been united basically its entire history with little more than 500 years of it being divided. Can you even say that about a second country in the world? tl;dr Don't believe everything you hear. Try using your own head. 1/4 of its history divided? No 536 total divided years out of either 3000 or 5000 does not equal 75%.
“But what if I told you that in this video it only collapses once!” -Blue
Me- Confused screaming
Confucius : screaming.
Boom, it crashed, burned and sunk into the swamp...but we built it again !
Nani 😕!?
Why is Confused Screaming saying me?
Qing be like: Conquer this useless, self-absorbed inefective state of Ming.
THEN:
Govern in exactly the same way, but worse.
It's like how Ming and Qing rhyme, they are nearly the same word but are just slightly different.
It seems like a pattern in Chinese History.
Yes, but also no. If you examine the High Qing (Kangxi to Qianlong Emperors, which unfortunately happens to be the early Qing) they actually improved the Ming methods of rule. The shining example of this is the secret memorial system, which enabled the emperors to actually understand the needs of the local officials, since for most Chinese dynasties, the imperial censors deemed much of the requests of local officials too low for the emperor. Unfortunately as time went on, the later Qing emperors stopped reading them.
@@whoknows7968 Ming: Brightness, Qing: Clearness
Well, Qing’s conquering of Ming was famously done by a Ming rebel who pretty much did all the work and accidentally let Manchu finish him off
“Antagonize the British Empire! You can take ‘em!”
Top Ten Quotes said Moments Before Disaster.
Unless you are America
Lemon Ninja Doesn't count if you need the French to help.
@@The_Sigillite and the Spanish, don't forget the Spanish
Gotta give a bit of credit to the Prussians too.
Lemon Ninja Ehhh. First round we did good. Second round? Not so much.
"Steppe One"
Don't think I missed that, buddy
"Pros and khans"
Divide and Kahnquor
I adore yet despise you
Prose and Kahns
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Po{s} and Khans
Couple of mischaracterizations:
1. The last Ming emperor didn't know about the Qing (Manchu) armies entering Beijing because he was already dead, having hung himself when a peasant army took over Beijing. The Qing army was allowed south of the Great Wall by a Ming general who decided their help was needed to quash the rebellion, and the Qing court would go on to claim to be the legitimate successors to the Ming, even while hunting down the actual former imperial family.
2. Cixi didn't just rely on "martial artists" to fight the Eight Nation Army, she ordered the actual imperial army to support them. That's why the Boxer Rebellion came back to bite her in the ass, because she couldn't pretend it was just an internal problem.
Yeah, especially since many generals just outright disobeyed her orders and sided with the Europeans. After the boxer rebellion the Qing had already lost all their control over the south of China, the military and anybody that wasn’t Manchu.
“So , how many of these steps do you want to take to ruin a civilisation that wasn’t even yours to begin with?”
Qing Dynasty: yes
Bryce Bowen Awh thanks!❤️
You say this, yet China constantly got in the affairs of the Jurchens/Manchus and Mongolians. Do stupid shit, win stupid prizes.
To be fair, the Manchurian ruler were in the end more or less identical to the Han-Chinese. Cixi couldn't even speak or read Manchurian language
Yu Yang but china's has rich culture just to get ruined in the end by manchurian invaders ( like how the GOT ended lol, it destroyed the whole build up of the amazing series)
According to modern Chinese, they are Chinese. They were only seen as outsiders until the republic was declared
Divided China: *exists*
Mongolians and japanese: *H I P P I T Y H O P P I T Y Y O U R’ E M Y P R O P E R T Y*
"It's free real estate!"
To be fair, the bubbles would have collapsed eventually.
United China: exists
The Joker: And everyone loses there minds!
both Monglia and Japan were defeated, Inner Mongolia becomes Chinese territory, Japan took but lost Korea, Manchuria and Taiwan,
you forgot manchurians
I think the most impressive thing about China is how impregnable their identity is.
In most other cases in history, the conquerer imposes their culture on the conquered.
But China seems to be the only country where the conquerer becomes ends up adopting the culture and becoming Chinese. And not even in a Ptolemaic way.
The power of China isn't in it's military or it's economy. Those come and go. The one constant is the Chinese identity. It's like a nigh unlimited 1ups and continues even after a game over, compared to most other civilizations and empires that fade away once they shatter.
China simply refuses to go away.
It's the only nation that can trace her culture back to the river valley civilisations of antiquity that is still alive and active.
Even India cannot trace her entire culture back to the Indus Valley.
1Invinc actually is the Chinese adopt part of the Manchu culture, you ignore the part where the hairstyle is different from Chinese dynasty to Qing dynasty, and how the dressing code force to change from Chinese dynasty to Qing dynasty ( since Manchu don’t allow Chinese to keep their traditional hairstyles and dressing )
Yeah buddy, the strongest thing about China is FUSION. Not only in the way you described, but the other way around as well. In the Chun-Qiu(Spring and autumn)period, the Kingdom Zhao shared a border with the Huns, and got frequently raided. What did he do? He said, 'from today on, all nobles and me will dress like the Huns and practise horse archery'. Similarities can be found throughout history. Chinese culture was inward and growing weak, someone stronger comes along, then the Chinese rise up to the challenge and adopt these elements into their own and become stronger. In Beijing, local snacks and dining include Manchu dishes, Mongolian dishes, Han dishes, etc..
So, due to militaristic and historical reasons, to fully conquer China, you have to be nomadic and militarilly much stronger. These cultures have no experience adminstering a large state, so when they conquer China, they have to adopt the Chinese way of governance. To do that, they have to learn the Chinese language. In doing so, they have to learn Chinese history, customs and so much more. So one day they just realise: this is really tiresome, let's just be Chinese instead. There were those who conquered China and did not adopt too well, and those got thrown out of China really fast because their rule was just abyssmal.
True, China’s true ability lies in assimilation, and spreading their own culture.
and thus, even after immigration they are still really strongly associate themselves as Chinese, but simply living somewhere else , their are still chinese in their blood as they would say
Hell, Chinese communists and student vigilantes literally tried to destroy Chinese culture themselves for like a decade and even then China's culture survives.
As a more poetic version of Bill Wurtz's "China is whole again....China has broke again" have extra history's "The empire long united must divide. The empire long divided must unite" instead.
That's the opening line to "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" one of the most influential novels in history which seeing as it was first published almost 500 years ago is quite a bit older than Extra History. (The particular translation into english is only from 1991 however.)
@@vegetalss4 ah. That does make more sense. It's the opening line to their three kingdoms series, and I guess I just assumed they came up with it like the rest of their narrative cold opens
@@AbsolXGuardian It is a really good and fitting line, so I don't begrudge them from using it.
@nikolai bahtin Wow that's metal
@@vegetalss4 of course. And eh has used lines from relevant sources in their narrative bits, but usually they're credited at the end, followed by x writes, or are audio recordings of the quote at that time. I guess since none of that happened, I assumed it wasn't the case.
As a Chinese-Canadian, I wanted to say thanks for covering dynastic China’s history! It’s very very difficult to learn about Chinese history in the west because it’s just not touched upon at school, but of course even parts of communist China prefer not to get too deep into it.
That being said, God it _grinds my gears_ hearing about the Opium Wars. When I was younger, my mother used to tell me about how so many countries wanted a piece of China and ended up invading, and while it never really crossed my mind back then, as I’ve grown older and desired a closer connection to my family’s home country (as most immigrant children do), I’ve realized the full extent of how awful what China went through is.
There’s a reason around the 19th-20th century of China is referred to as a “century of humiliation.” Besides Britain and the other countries you mentioned, Japan would really weaken China in the Second World War.
I won’t get into the Opium Wars and the Ming and Qing dynasties since this video was all about them, but I wanted to talk about some other stuff in the latter half of history.
While Chinese officials and the empire, as mentioned in this video, did do a bad job due to corruption etc, I’ve always disliked how quickly foreigners write China off as a shithole or a dictatorship without any freedoms “because that’s just how it is and that’s just how its people are.”
No, it’s not. History has made China the way it is.
China’s government’s current iron grip on its country even reflects the development of other countries throughout history. While most countries try to be democratic now, many countries have gone through empires and international conquests and colonialism.
I hope the mess that is the Second World War and the Cultural Revolution will get more coverage in the future, but for now I want to touch on some points:
I’ve done a lot of research on China in the Second World War for school papers, and it’s still true that many Japanese (and even Chinese) textbooks scrub these parts of history from the writings. They mention the Nanjing Massacre/Rape briefly as an “incident,” and don’t mention Unit 731 at all.
To give an idea how bad some of what China went through in the Second World War is, here’s a look at the gruesome “experiments” of Unit 731. Doctors raped female prisoners, injected horse urine into prisoners’ kidneys, froze limbs only to put them in boiling hot water, did surgeries without anaesthetics, etc. They dehumanized the prisoners and called them logs because they secretly worked in a lumber mill.
And what happened to those that suffered? Most of them died, and most of their families never saw them again. They got nothing in return. And in the meantime, the US granted the doctors of Unit 731 immunity for the information. One of them even opened up a pharmaceutical company still operating today. Many doctors, despite their cruelties, were allowed to continue living like normal even after what they did.
And if some guilty doctors hadn’t decided to come forward with testimonies, perhaps we would have never known the full extent of a victim’s suffering.
And this is already adding onto the other things: Japan’s pillaging of Nanjing caused many deaths and rapes. I remember a story of a man, as a kid, watching his mother be stabbed to death before him. He watched his brother, only a baby, be skewered on the Japanese soldier’s bayonet. And even as she lay dying, his mother tried to breastfeed her baby so that he could stop crying in pain.
A girl around 14 let herself be raped to the point of unconsciousness and intense bleeding so that her grandfather could stop begging and putting himself in danger to protect her from a Japanese soldier.
Another person saw a relative be cut in half.
These stories are recorded in a documentary on the Nanjing Massacre that featured interviews with survivors. Feel free to do a quick RUclips search. Just a quick warning: it is quite brutal and emotional.
There were also the two Japanese soldiers racing to see who could behead 100 Chinese civilians the fastest, etc etc.
_Now_ I want to touch on Mao Zedong and how he came to power:
After everything that happened during the Second World War, China was weak and in decline. When Mao Zedong promised a better future, people chose to believe in him. Communism struck when the country was weak _because_ of all that China had suffered during that century.
Everyone likes to compare Mao Zedong to the Japanese empire. “What about him?” they ask. And yet, we should acknowledge Mao’s ascendance to power is also a result of the Japanese Empire’s invasion, among the other things presented in this video that led to China’s decline.
In addition to that, I’ve discussed with a Taiwanese friend of mine. When the communists pushed the Guomindang to Taiwan, that party was quite dictator-like there as well. Citizens who disagreed with the government still disappeared. So while perhaps they wouldn’t have been _as bad_ as Mao Zedong’s communist party, they wouldn’t necessarily be a vast improvement either.
Of course Mao wasn’t a good leader-I know his atrocities. I looked at adults in surprise when they preferred to pin the blame of Mao’s failings on his wife. I don’t like the idea of his influence being so washed of bloodshed. But that’s in China. In the west, Mao’s bloodshed is the only thing ever covered.
I did extensive research on him for a school project as well, where I acted as prosecution _against_ Mao in a mock trial, and I also _know_ people who grew up during his time in China, many of whom saw people be imprisoned and beaten publicly for supposedly disagreeing with the government.
Mao Zedong was an undeniable dictator with the pattern of paranoia and cruelty that often comes with communism, killing millions of civilians in his wake. But he did bring China out of complete and total poverty, even if he didn’t do a great job. *Mao did not build a perfect country. But he did rebuild a broken country, ensuring it would leave a mark on the world.*
I don’t want anyone to think I’ve made this comment to solely bash on Japan. I have no ill feelings toward Japanese people as a whole. I know I appear to be biased, and it’s undeniable I am, but knowing these things about history just matter a lot to me. I actually highly enjoy Japan’s culture and media and people, although I do wish more people will acknowledge Japan (and Korea)’s culture(s) being evolved from China.
Besides, Britain’s attempt to control China through opium is also extremely awful, and China is no way guiltless in its own downfall, but the joke about China censoring information and the mention of leaving Winnie the Pooh, while funny, doesn’t cover the whole picture.
Germany continues to apologize for Nazi atrocities and even US citizens are taught to feel guilty for dropping the nukes on Japan (ironically, Japan holds barely any grudges against the US because the US greatly helped Japan’s economy after WWII and disappearing US military bases from public view meant that Japan forgot USA’s occupation postwar was a militaristic one, as a Japanese scholar has proposed in a paper I read for my Japanese Cinema class).
I’m not defending communism. It just doesn’t work. But I also don’t want to deny that Mao did do some good things for China, including bringing it out of intense poverty and lack of global influence. Even China tries not to fully address these things, whether it’s about the mess-ups of the dynasties, other countries, or Mao Zedong.
After all, we’re often told that those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.
*TL;DR: China is hated because of its nature, but people forget Mao Zedong’s tyranny was partly a result of what happened during the Ming and Qing dynasties, along with what Japan did to China in WWII. China wouldn’t necessarily be better off with the Guomindang, and while still a dictator who killed millions, Mao did bring China out of poverty, even if he was a ruthless, cruel, paranoid dictator who failed just as much-if not more than-he succeeded.*
*Remembering history is important, and since Germany and the US cover it quite heavily, I hope to see the international world, as well as Japan and China, take a closer look at history as well.*
At least Taiwan was under a better rule under Chiang Kai Shek... And his son Chiang Chung Kuo greatly improved Taiwan's economy.
So yeah, Taiwan we thank Chiang Chung Kuo l, while China Deng Shiao Ping takes the credit for improving China's.
So yeah, whether you agree or disagree, Taiwan is really "Freedom China" sure we use Traditional Chinese like Hong Kong, but we have our own regime... Whatever China says that we are just a part of China, which isn't wrong, but it is wrong when UN acknowledge Taiwan province of PRC.
The last part I get it I s a joke, but it is has something to do with Tauwan's current regime lol.
@@Mario123007 The "better rule" that included the military dictatorship which suppressed and murdered native Taiwanese and dissenting Han Chinese alike? CKS couldn't keep a city running without half of it rising up in rebellion and the other half starving to death, much less Taiwan or the whole of China. Yellow River flood? Yeah, great idea. His son, on the other hand, made strides... which ultimately amounted to nothing as KMT failed to retake China, partly as they had very lukewarm allies in the West that offered little more than lip-service after 1945. Worse yet modern Taiwan is economically stagnant, with politics that make the US look like it's functioning politically. Let me know when another developed nation in the world has parliament members bashing each other with folding chairs, then I'll have good reason to believe Chiang has reincarnated elsewhere to bring ruin to another nation.
@@LawL_LawL lol so many bias and misconception in this. CKS wasn't even at Taiwan when the 228 massacre happened. And KMT can't retake China was because of US after Korean War, they saved KMT's butt and Taiwan, but after that both PRC and ROC only have minor battles.
ROC legislators are still morons, especiallythise from DPP, and New Power Party. But now things gotten way more entertaining than just smash each other in folding chairs. This isn' t late 1990s. And Taiwan economy isn't as good as it was in 1990s,but we are still high up there GDP wise.
Upvoted for non-simplistic view on China.
I am a Chinese national who grew up, like many of my peers as anti-CCP youth(outsiders may find that surprising, but that's the fact, the more the information is suppressed, the more people become skeptical). The moment i found myself outside of China(ten years ago), I started digging online to find any pieces of information to justify my anti-CCP stance.
However, the more I dug in, the more nuanced the history seems to make it difficult to actually draw simple conclusion.
Now I'm not hating CCP anymore. Because love and hate is irrelevant in the world. All I want it's my China, the civilization, to survive, my feeling or anyone elses' is irrelevant.
3:55 By "massive", he means "can carry all of Columbus's ships in its hold."
You have left out a very important piece of story regarding the invading Manchu. In fact, the Manchurians did not manage to force through the Great Wall. Even the great Nurgachi was killed in one of such attempts. Instead, they were deliberately given an access to pass the Great Wall through an open gate by a Ming General (Wu San Gui) in a stupid attempt to neutralise the menacing rebels on Ming soil.
Any chance we can get a ReDux of the 5 Easy Steps to Ruin your Civilization for other nations too? Maybe a Western Roman version or a Collonial France...
That'd be neat.
+
I can give you it in one easy step for European nations.
Invade Russia in the winter.
@@BlindandMad mic drop?
As an American, I kinda feel like someone in power is using them as a checklist...
How to ruin your colonial empire in 5 easy steps
1. Isn't called Britain
2. Opposes royal navy
3. Doesnt have coats that are red
4. Not being Portuguese
5. *Oh god please stop the nationalism*
*Laughs as his great Portugese colonial empire outlasted every other European power in Africa*
No Spain those weird cities in North Africa don't count.
Europe: No one can partition things like us!
China: *Hold my beer Eight-Nation Alliancers*
Imagine being so inept at international diplomacy that early 1900s France and Germany work together against you
@@marcustulliuscicero5443 Imagine having a rebellion so weak that even if you are in a different continent Austria-Hungary is coming to whoop you
Imagine being so weak that 20,000 troops save a besiged city from a nation that has over 360,000,000 people.
imagine having an army without proper gun training in the 19th century
@@BroznikTSOC while having invented gun powder yourself
Britain:lets trade
China:no
Britain:yes
There's no diplomacy like gun boat diplomacy.
"We only seek peace and trade you'll buy our goods OR ELSE!!!"
We have a trade offer you can't refuse!
"Never forget, bigger army diplomacy."
I approve of this message
Just think about it. If Lu Bu was alive during this time period, nobody would pursue him.
I get that reference
Sup dude
I’ve seen you everywhere.
Hello again.
Hi again mustacheless man
"The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide."
-Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Yeah, thats the first line from the first video in the series. Thanks for commenting it here to give the impression you know anything more than anyone else.
“So in other words, leave Winnie the Pooh alone” perfection omfg
I love that because president Xi hates how his critics call him Winnie the pooh.
@@o76923 which in turn makes more people call him Winnie the Pooh.
@@o76923 That was literally the point.
That slogan "Nobody can disagree when nobody can talk!" is both funny AND chilling.
@@o76923 so you love bullying? disgusting
South Korea is really like the Ming Dynasty of China. From etiquette to costumes, it is just a miniature version of the Ming Dynasty. After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, officials of the Qing Dynasty saw the North Korean messengers and saw the clothes they were wearing. The officials of the Qing Dynasty were sad and weeping.
HOLY SHIT. I LITERALLY WENT TO THE DC QING EMPRESS EXHIBIT FOR MY BIRTHDAY, AND YOU RELEASE THIS AWESOME VIDEO ON MY BDAY. THIS IS AWESOME.
CocoaBeanz Happy Birthday.
Blue, I wanted to thank you for your balanced take on all this. Too often, when people discuss history, they will frequently side with going one way or the other. They'll say "this nation would have been fine if it had kept foreigners out", or "this nation doomed itself by only looking inward" and stuff like that. But you actually showed that there is no right answer as to what the correct course for a country should be. Both directions have their merit, and too much of one or the other will always lead to bad things. So kudos for putting a spotlight on that :)
Agreed, it all depends on context, what is happening at the time. If you've just taken power or come out of a war, some isolationism can be a good thing, but when you have foreign powers knocking at your door or building up their military and talking conquest, best keep your eyes on them. (Here's looking at you, Chamberlain, you fool.)
Modern historiography suggest that the Great Wall was more focused on stopping small scale raids than large scale invasions; in that regard, it succeeded. But small successes are boring, and catastrophic failures interesting, so we only hear about the latter.
"they really should have built a... oh...ah...hnn... that really didnt work for them at all, did it? hmmm"
WOW. THE SHADE THO
Actually, the Great Wall was mostly effective. Yes, the Mongolians broke through it once, but you’re ignoring the thousands of invasions that it did successfully prevent.
Harak Mapping How many times do you think the Northern Barbarians attempted to invade? How many times did they succeed?
The Great Wall cost so much resources to build. If it were so ineffective, how come so many different governments spent so much money and effort to build and rebuild it?
@Andy Ding The Great Wall was long abandoned by the time the Mongols came. The Jin had tried to build a pretty shit line of mud ramparts in the middle of the deserts against the Mongols, which worked as well as you'd expect your home's fence to against an invading army.
5 Dynasties: Foreigner legally invited by Cao Cao and later the Western Jin (not the other Jin) Dynasty to repopulate Northern China after the population losses through the collapse of the Han Dynasty, later revolted against the central government from their new home South of the Great Wall.
Jin and Liao: The Great Wall had long since been abandoned, and anyways they didn't face a central government that had effective control over its entire length.
Qing: A general guarding the wall willingly opened the gates of the Great Wall as part of a deal with the Qing.
If anything, the lesson China should learn from all of these instances of invasion seems to be that they should probably double down on xenophobia. Especially the 5 dynasties one, which also seems to be a good historical argument against accepting any immigrants or refugees, legal or otherwise.
Ingebot Li
You may be correct, but there are many who would disagree with you. I am no historian, so I can only rely on the opinions of those who know better-and there are plenty who hold the opinion that the Great Wall was effective. See this for example: www.quora.com/How-effective-was-the-Great-Wall-of-China .
As I have stated, I am no historian; nevertheless, I *do* in fact know that:
1. The Wall required a great deal of natural and human resources to construct. Hence, one can infer that many Emperors throughout thousands of years-advised by many highly educated and high ranking civil servants-agreed that building the Wall was a good idea. In fact, they believed that the Wall was so necessary that it justified the colossal cost involved in building it.
2. When the Wall was successful, nothing happened; when the Wall failed, the Dynasty collapsed. Therefore, it is easy to ignore the countless times it was successful and to notice the few times it failed.
10:30 did you just talk about [REMOVED] !?
That was hilarious! I hope they cover it 'properly' later on, unless they just want to let Extra History have it covered with the recent Sun Yat Sen series.
Chinese history is so wonderful. Thanks for making videos on such an interesting, under-explored aspect of history!
Me: *sees this video*
Me: *sees what isolation can do*
Time to boot up EU4 and have Ming not turn into the nation version of NEET
Qing has a better flag though :)
M I N G P L O S I O N
Hey guys, I just want to thank you for your greek mythology videos. I aced my finals thanks to them. Keep up the good work to help out the students.
fun fact: Qing was originally called jin which means gold, the world "Ming" is associate with the sun and therefore Ming has fire attribute, in chinese element gold is weak to fire and they never successfully invade china, so they changed the name to Qing, which is associated with the water element and strong against fire, and voila they actually did it
Well the fall of the Ming dynasty was way more complicated than that. My home town was sacked at least twice during the 40 years of Qing's invasion. And Qing was able to invade because rebels occupied Beijing and Emperor killed himself. At the end of Ming dynasty, though the empire was not particularly weak, there were just so many bad things happening together.
赞同
China: *Ming empire starts to fall apart at the seams*
Manchu Invaders: *I T ' S F R E E R E A L E S T A T E*
China: *tries to avoid trade with Britain*
Britain: *I T ' S F R E E R E A L E S T A T E*
The message at 11:05 hit me on a personal level.
Thanks for the lesson, Blue.
China: The UK is building a navy that is the best in the world should we do stuff?
Also China: Let us use repurpose a fishing fleet!
Britain: Our worst ships are better than you.
rule Britannia intensifys
Thing is, China wasn’t expecting people to be that barbaric. Like he said in the video, when ever a new dynasty sets in, it pushes for education and especially Confucianism, which teaches 中庸. Government officials of the same level, the soldier should bow to the scholar. Of course after a couple centuries, they can no longer fight. Military technologies development get less fundings than poetry and philosophy club.
@@bowmanc.7439
Whay do you consider barbaric? Or, more accurately I suppose, what did the Qing consider barbaric? 'Cause as far as I'm aware, literally everything outside of China was considered barbaric. I don't see how building a baddass navy would be any more inherently barbaric.
Feste the Phule
I meant attacking people when you are at peace.
@@bowmanc.7439
When else would you attack people?
Blue it's under 40 seconds in and you've already made a pun that made me laugh for an embarrassingly long time.
Very accurate and concise video, thank you! It is difficult to stay away from a long script when it comes to Chinese history, I think you did an outstanding job.
I was reading a Chinese novel, and one of the problems that was pointed out by them, was that the Confucian method does lead to education, but not necessarily to good leadership. As is still a problem now, people learn for the exam, and not for the learning, which means that the people in charge were the people who could pass the exam, which is not necessarily the people that would be best to lead.
6:52 OMINOUS BRITAIN
"Hey let's take over this empire that doesn't do any thing, AND watch this let's...
*Not do anything* "
*but somehow worse*
I'm just here for the age of mythology music lmao
ps: great vid as usual!
¿Why was Xi Jinping sitting next to Blue? ¿Or was þat someone else?
I just wanna tell you that I appreciate your use of the letter thorn (þ).
Kevin T don’t rush to conclusions please. China’s censorship only applies to overly popular things that are harmful to society. I think the limit is 500 share.
@@kevint1929
THIS POST HAS BEEN DEEMED HERETICAL BY TERRA'S HOLY INQUISITION. YOUR PLANET HAS NOW BEEN SCHEDULED FOR EXTERMINATUS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION. EMPEROR PROTECTS!
The governor want to have tea with you...
@@festethephule7553 YOUR UNIVERSE HAS BEEN DEEMED UNWORTHY BY THE MOST POWERFUL BEING TO EVER EXIST, YOU SHALL NOW BE DELETED FROM EXISTENCE
9:20 holy cow it's like I'm looking at the earth queen from Legend of Korra. The earth kingdom is really closely based on China
Curtis Mahon As the Qing where the ones in power at the time China came in to contact with the major western powers a lot of cultural elements we generally associate with or based on China came from that period. (Like the Earth Kingdom...)
Is that really surprising? Fire Nation is Japan, Water Tribes are Inuit, and the Air Nomads are Tibetan.
Jorge Justin fire nation is just basically Tang Dynasty, u think it looks like Japan because Japan was heavily influenced by Tang empire
I'm pretty sure Earth Queen Hou-Ting was based off of the woman in that painting: Empress Dowager Cixi, regent of China for almost 50 years in the latter half of the 1800's.
I love how you guys use the age of mitology soundtrack, it's one of my favourite games of all time
I got that Winnie the Pooh reference.
Xi Jinping you adorable totalitarian dictator. You look nothing like a cartoon bear. Not at all!
Why are you not currently praying to great leader Xi
Am I the only one who read this comment in a John Oliver voice?
I don't see the resemblance either. But his response to the comparison is still kinda funny!
No one throws political shade like blue.
Jon Snor yes, and as wrong as him. Pretty sure Winnie the Pooh isn’t actually censored officially. Many sites decided to censor it spontaneously because their mods are too patriotic and their sites can’t distinguish said comparison specific posts and regular post relating to the character. But on many sites, especially major ones, neither the comparison nor the character itself is censored.
"Steppe One:..." :D I see you, I see you.
Nice Winnie the Pooh reference there that was subtle and lovely.
Can you please explain that one to me?
@@InfamousQuiche In China even mentioning winnie the pooh gets censored because someone thought he looks like their president and called him that.
This is nothing new for china. For example in the 60s and 70s you had a hard time talking about sun dots because mao was nicknamed the red sun or something like that.
@@InfamousQuiche Some people were using pictures of Winnie the Pooh in place of Chinese leader Xi Jinping in order to criticize him (apparently they resemble each other) so he banned Winnie the Pooh.
@@merrittanimation7721 funny thing is, I didn't see any resemblance before, but I see it now
0:39 "Steppe One" I see what you did there sir and I love it.
I’ve never been this early before but YOU GO BLUE
I hope Catherine the Great is next on the list or is at least on the list
Zheng He's expeditions were halted in part because they were super expensive.
It's debatable how much China would have benefited from continued exploration, but I think history has shown how much they didn't from not doing that.
Also, it's theorized that one of his ships might've reached the Americas almost a century before Columbus, so that's a thing.
Fantastic history vid Blue, looking forward to where you take the series next! 😊
Oh magic conch shell, what can we do to make China a cultural, economic, and militaristic power in the world?
"Nothing."
THE SHELL HAS SPOKEN!
"NOTHING?! WE CAN'T JUST SIT HERE AND DO NOTHING!"
*China proceeds to do nothing regardless*
**Anyone trying to improve the situation just gets horribly frustrated**
@@mrbyzantine0528
ALL HAIL THE MAGIC CONCH!!!!!
"Force western companies to sell you bonds in exchange for allowing them on your market."
THE SHELL HAS SPOKEN
China: Hi we're independent
Britain: *You Dare Oppose Me, Mortal.*
Murican farmers: u wot?
Ireland, USA, India, and every region Britain has ever occupied: Fuck yeah we do!
China: you dare call me mortal while i have 5000 years + of civilization.
Don't think for one moment you can boss around just because your started the industrial revolution.
@@starfieldryker5299 it’s not just the industrial revolution. China isnt culturally creative. Very one dimensional, monolithic and redundant. And that 5 thousand year history is a myth. More like 3-4 thousand.
@@freckleheckler6311 well the Xia I believe is definitely a kingdom, but before I don't know, unless we get more historical evidence we will never know.
in fact, the great wall worked. it works well. because the main purpose of the wall, is to have prevent sudden attack or as an early warning system to the empire over the foreign invaders. the walls were built on mountain and strategic areas, and worked pretty well on preventing the enemy of large scale to easily quickly surpassing the territory, small units might sneak through, but then they wont be enough to invade an empire, large scale gathering units would trigger the alarm on the wall, the soldiers would give signals to all the outpost so the empire would be alerted.
if people think that the wall didnt work because Mongolian and Manchurian conquered China, that is very wrong. first, the wall were all on northern part of China.
Mongolian first conquered Jin Dynasty, because the Jin didnt use defensive strategy, instead of defending the wall, they attack on the mongols, and also fighting against the Song Dynasty at the south at the same time. so their collapse had nothing to do with the wall. and then when Mongol conquered the Song, Song had no walls to use against the mongols, but then there was a Song fortress called Diao Yu fortress, stands for 36 years against the mongol invaders, and eventually they surrender when Khubilai promised no massacre when they give up.
And for the manchurian case, well, the wall also worked very well, with the firearm on the wall, and an elite cavalry battalion, it kept the Manchurian away for decades. It was so hard to breakthrough and it costs the life of an Manchurian emperor Huang Tai Ji when he tried to challenge that wall. you can do some studies on "Shan Hai Guan", but eventually Wu Shan Gui, the commander of Ming, opened the gate and let the Manchurian army passed, because he betrayed Ming Dynasty and wanted to use the Manchurian for his own interest later.
###########
and FYI,(VERY IMPORTAT: ）the Ming empire were destroyed by the civil war called Li Zi Cheng, not the Manchurian. that is a common mistake by many. people did not know that The Ming were actually fighting in 2 fronts, one is manchurian, and another is the civil war. the Ming last emperor commited suicide when Rebels of Li Zi Cheng broke the palace last defense. the great wall had nothing to do with this at all.
in both Mongol and Manchurian cases, they did not defeat the wall, but the enemy collapsed itself or surrender themselves.
罕见的客观的评论，身为一个中国人，很难不表示支持
Pls make a similar video on India, BTW, Love your work.
India basically lost 90% of its history records before the colony era, so it would be impossible
@@장전-q7q via Islamic conquest?
Britain: Want some hard drugs, uncle Chang?
China: Eeeeh... No?
Britain: I BEG YOUR PARDON?!
[muffed march of british grenadiers in a distance]
Last time I was this early, Alexander conquered my town and named it after himself.
Gonna need to be more specific.
@@Bluecho4 no.
@@ellamunson-jackson3149 alexandratta or alexandria ?
History script writers: "Well China kind of forgot about the part where it was supposed to fall apart every 6 seconds."
Second comment, dunno if that break youtube law or whatever BUT! One of my TCM teachers, back when she was a young intern, met Puyi a few times, and HER teacher always insisted on bowing to the former emperor, to which Puyi always seemed to react with a bit of embarrasment, mumbling something about "it's the current year comrade". According to my teacher, he was one of the kindest and gentlest people with impeccable manners and decorum. The Aisin-gioro family still has several members living close by where I'm currently living, I also know a couple of manchu Yellow banner descendants (basically former top nobility), and they're always some of the coolest people to hang out with. Also, I'm a huge simp for Ariel Aisin-goro, a Chinese actress and direct descendant of Nurhaci (14th generation). Not only is she pretty and talented, but she has the loveliest old-town Beijing accent
Last time I was this early, everyone still lived in Africa
CHINA PART 3! POPCORN TIME!
Seriously though, I have no problem watching as many videos as you guys care to put out. :)
*Steppe 1*
I see you
You missed the part where the Ming was pretty much already overthrown by the time the Manchus rolled on Beijing. The last Ming Emperor has hung himself in what's now Jingshan Park after a peasant rebellion had taken the capital.
Who would win?
1) The wealthiest and most sophisticated empire in the world
2) Some horsey shooty bois
Ahh the old astronauts vs cavemen argument
Really liked the humor and editing in this one
This is a great job! As a Chinese, I only just realized how much we feared the foreigners in the 18th and 19th, and maybe even now. The Chinese government literally build a wall and it is still there only in its internet form. Even if it is to help keep our people safe it just shows a sign of weakness.
"History will push back." Dang Blue, that basically summarizes everything that has ever happened in human history, ever.
10:43 _in which Winnie the Pooh is also censored in China_
Seriously, did you make that reference on purpose?
For like 2000 years Europe was in complete and utter chaos with wars and empires and madness, while most of Asia sat there oblivious, doing their own thing.
First-wait for it, the Mongols!
*mongol-tage intensifies*
4:40 "Not broken in the middle of it"
Just to make sure that people know that the wall was actually outflanked, forcing the Jin army back.
Next video must be about Zheng He.
God the winny the pooh joke is enough to get you on a list over there xD good job.
Last time I was this early Zues was still a virgin
And how many Planck times did he STAY a virgin?
Sooo.. never?
Last time I was this early someone still had a pair of balls between their legs and crazy love-match-overprotective momma didn't exist yet.
10:41 OMG THAT IS F*CKING AMAZING. YOU SIR, HAVE EARNED A SUB.
Eyo! Learning before graduation rehersal!!!
That ending...I love you.
Where is season 2 of Son Wu Kong? Btw loved the video
I have a different view on the part of the ming great wall. The watch towers and the wall itself has places for people to stand on, this means archers can stand on the tower and shoot at the enemy or throw weird things like boiling human waste material(historically accurate as it causes bacterial infections to nomadic tribes with no proper medications) at them. Also, the wall is built along mountains and so the mountains themselves can stop cavalry units, which are common in nomadic tribes, that base their successes on speed. The action of climbing will reduce their speed and the archers can use this time to attack them. So this the wall is actually useful.
*watching this on my Huaiwei cellphone*
Wait... why is showing "sending IP location" ?.
From what I remember, the manchus were actually citizens of the ming dynasty and the conquering manchu general belonged to the imperial court and was just stationed outside the great wall, he was actually allowed past the great wall in order to quell the rebellions.
Yeah by the time when it happened Qing had already been established outside the passes and had launched many military campaigns. They had long lost loyalty to the Ming which was about to fall anyways after the Emperor hanged himself on a tree…
Lord wind I belive your very wrong here, Manchuria was in the ming sphere of influence but they arnt chinese subjects. Nurachi (I think the guy your referring to) was afforded titles for helping the ming suppress revolts and it has his son hong tiji who crossed the great wall, he also wasn't there to suppress the rebellion but instead the commanding general at the time (wu sangui) who saw no other option (his father was tortured and his wife stolen by the rebels) decided to let the Manchu in
Not citizens per se, but initially the Manchu State was a tributary ally/vassal of the Ming. But in the later Ming period as the Ming declined and the Manchu grew stronger, that relationshipo became just a on-paper formality, and then finally repudiated by the Manchu. By the time the Ming fell, they and the Manchu had been military rivals for several decades already, and their armies had clashed on a number occasions along the Great Wall protected border between them. When a peasant rebellion based in the South captured Beijing and the last Ming Emperor committed suicide, the rebels took the capital and declared a new Dynasty. The Ming General stationed at the Great Wall at the Manchu Border made the independent decision to ally with the Manchu, and let them through the wall unopposed, so that the combined Ming-Manchu army could crush the Rebellion.
8:24 Export surplus huh.....
Seems strangely familiar.
10:06 i just loved this bit, it made me laugh so hard
The Late Qing Dynasty sounds like me procrastinating for finals... "everything's okay if we ignore it"
Oh my gosh don't call me out like that😭
I believe the Yuan had reinstated the examination. I am not sure will research a bit now.
9:20 she looks like the last Earth Queen in Avatar The Legend of Korra. She even has those things on her fingers.
That was the idea.
the finger thing is protecting the long fingernails because long nails is a symbol of status... for some reason...
Kinda like how rich people want ferraris for some reason i guess...
9:59
Not to mention, many Qing Generals did not support the decision to fight the European expeditionary force, which also ruined the anti foreign rebellion by the Boxers. The most notable of which was Yuan Shikai's New Army (formed after First Sino-Japanese War) and others of the Southeast China Protection Movement during the rebellion period.
Prominently people like li hongzhan (who later became the diplomat who settled with the 8 nation alliance) and yuan zhi Kai didn't support the boxers
Nanking:Exists
Japan:I’m bout to ruin this man’s whole career.
I'm very happy you brought up the Earth King.
It's funny, because I actually understand that Winnie the Pooh joke.
A mud horse would have been good, as well
Dani McKenzie ?
@@thatfighterguy5846 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse
But not as family friendly. :-)
ThatFighterGuy I like your pic. More people should like that pic.
(The UN should like that pic)
Allon Kirtchik I agree.
Hey, I recognize that background music, as a fellow Age of Mythology fan, I salute you. So much memories.
Okay, so
Romance of the Three Kingdoms summation when?
the whole point of the old wall wasn't to stop the enemy but to slow them down enough so that the Chinese had enough time to mobilise all of their troops
"10/10, would censor again" -- CCP
Really like the Age of Empires music in the back.
It's almost like extreme conservatism and xenophobia are a bad thing...
I don't think that could be applied to anything these days.
Oooooweeeee, a new vid!
Hows China?
Back togheter
For now.
Hey that video length is pretty... elite
Kinda sad Manchu become China stereotype for western.
That's tragic, no doubt, but all because the longest dynasty China ever had is Manchu.
@@chewxieyang4677 the longest dynasty China has is zhou dynasty. 700 years.
@@rosesblue1218 Longest modern period dynasty
@@chewxieyang4677 明朝的时间都比清长
Hahaha looks like the youtube censors got to this video. Just the other day I saw this really informed comment from a user and now it is just gone. So me I'm thinking I'll do my civic duty and bring back that information because I think it is very important for people to understand what's happening.
QUOTE
@@@夏士莲欧莱雅 There's too many people on the internet that try to make sure the rest of the world only learns the parts of Chinese history that work with their sinophobic message. For example this video. (But I hope Overly Sarcastic Production's just playing it off as a joke like they did in all the other episodes about other places. I really really hope they aren't being serious.)
Message: China falls apart every 6 seconds and is only united for 1/4 of its history.
So if you watch the videos he glosses over the fact that he just casually tosses away 2000 out of 5000 years of Chinese history where it was under a early united rulership. 2000 years just gone because it doesn't fit with the "falls apart every 6 seconds" message.
Then Shang Dynasty gets its 600 years lifespan glossed over so they can skip right to Zhou and gloss over its 800 years span to jump to when it fell apart later on.
Then there's tons about how it was broken up for a hot second. Seriously the Warring States period lasted 255 years. That's a fraction of either dynasty and a drop in the bucket from the 2000 years that was just tossed aside as "mythical."
Then he goes over Qin which was legitimately a short dynasty but paved the way for the Han Dynasty that lasted 400 years. But he wants to talk about the Three Kingdoms Period that followed 400 years of united rulership. And that period lasted less than 100 years. Because China "falls apart every 6 seconds" right?
So we get this trend don't we? To make the message "China keeps falling apart" you have to first ignore big chunks of history then shorten other big chunks of history in favor of talking in depth about the short periods of Chinese history where more than one state existed.
Still for all that effort what do you get in the end? Three whole episodes on just China's extremely long history and even a Mongol one where China has a starring role. Unless you happen to gloss over the fact that once Kublai Khan the leader of the Mongol empire conquered China he called himself Emperor of China and ruled the rest of his empire from his seat on the Chinese throne.
========================================
Let's do the math. 1/4 of 5000 years is 1250 years. Now if we add Zhou Dynasty's 800 years + Shang Dynasty's 600 years + Han Dynasty's 400 years. Wait. We already have 1800 years. That can't be right. That's already more than 1/4. And we didn't even add back the 2000 years! Wait so then there's the Jin Dynasty that had at least 100 years in relative peace + Tang Dynasty's over 300 years + Song Dynasty's 300 years + Ming Dynasty's 300 years + Qing Dynasty's 300 years and you end up with a quick sum of at least 3000 years. And we still didn't add the 2000 years that was casually tossed out yet!
So if we went with the -2000 years that this video series accepts we'd still estimate roughly all of China's history as together with drops in the bucket of "falling apart." Let's try adding that together. So you have 255 years of Warring States before China reunites. Then it breaks up again for 60 years in the Three Kingdoms Period. Then you have the Northern/Southern Dynasties that count for 169 years before China is reunited. Then you have the 53 years in between Tang and Song. And that's it. So what does that come out to? 536 years. Out of 5000. United for 1/4 of its history? Really? It was even broken up for less than 1/4 of its history. Ok maybe because they casually cut out 2000 years of Chinese history. So 1/4 of 3000 is 750 years. Nope still broken up for less time than 1/4 of its supposedly divided and trimmed off history.
But it does scare me how easily people are willing to believe things like "China has been divided for most of its history" and "China keeps falling apart" like they are really easy pitfalls to fall into. I mean I didn't even have to try. The dates I got were just wikipedia entries. Who knows how many more years the actual dynasties could have lasted that got trimmed away in these articles? From just these dates I proved that China's been united basically its entire history with little more than 500 years of it being divided. Can you even say that about a second country in the world?
tl;dr Don't believe everything you hear. Try using your own head. 1/4 of its history divided? No 536 total divided years out of either 3000 or 5000 does not equal 75%.
Yo blue I bought your book and I’m excited to read it man