Mǎnqīng Xīngwáng Shǐ 滿清興亡史
History of the Rise and Fall of the Manchu Qing by 漢史氏 (撰)
About the work
Mǎnqīng Xīngwáng Shǐ 滿清興亡史 is a Republican-era popular history of the Qīng dynasty written under the pen name 漢史氏 (Hàn Shǐshì, “A Han Historian”). The text is organized in four thematic chapters: “The founding era” (kāishǐ shídài 開始時代), “The era of prosperity” (lóngsèng shídài 隆盛時代), “The era of decline” (shuāiwēi shídài 衰微時代), and “The era of collapse” (mièwáng shídài 滅亡時代). The work covers the full sweep of Qīng history from the Manchu origins in Jiànzhōu 建州 and the founding by Nǔrhāchì 努爾哈赤 through the abdication of the Xuāntǒng 宣統 Emperor in 1912. The opening passage — “On a ridge of Chángbái Mountain (Chángbáishān 長白山) called Bùkūlǐ Mountain live the Tungus people at its foot…” — signals an origin narrative of the Aisin Gioro clan.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
Mǎnqīng Xīngwáng Shǐ belongs to the Republican-era genre of popular dynastic histories that treated the recently collapsed Qīng as a subject of historical narrative rather than current politics. The pen name “Hàn Shǐshì” 漢史氏 announces the Han-nationalist perspective of the author — situating the Qīng as a foreign dynasty whose rise and fall could be narrated from the perspective of Han Chinese historical agency. This was a common Republican-era framing: the overthrow of the Qīng in 1911 was celebrated as the restoration of Han rule after nearly three centuries of Manchu governance.
The four-chapter structure mirrors a classical rise-and-fall (xīngwáng 興亡) schema applied to the Qīng as a whole: foundation under Nǔrhāchì and Hóng Tàijí, the height of power under the Kāngxī, Yōngzhèng, and Qiánlóng emperors, the onset of decline in the nineteenth century under the pressures of foreign imperialism and internal rebellion, and the final collapse culminating in the 1911 Revolution and the 1912 abdication. The genre sits between popular narrative history and vernacular fiction, employing a colloquial prose register without pretending to documentary rigor.
漢史氏 is a pen name; no biographical data has been located.
Translations and research
- Crossley, Pamela Kyle. 1997. The Manchus. Blackwell. Standard Western scholarly account of Manchu origins and Qīng history.
- Spence, Jonathan D. 1988. The Search for Modern China. Norton. Covers the Qīng rise and fall in broader context.