The Loss of the Huaxia Civilization

In 1616, Nurhaci, the chief of the Jurchen which was a nomadic nation in the Northeast Asia, suddenly rebelled against the Ming Empire which was the last dynasty of the Han nation (The principal nation of China) and built the Kin Nation which was called Later Kin. the Jurchen nation once destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty which was a prosperous dynasty of the Han People, and brought large disasters to the people of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Jurchen tribes were subdued by the powerful empire. But in the later period of the Ming Empire, this empire was rotten. Sincere people were excluded and persecuted. On the northeast border, Li Chengliang, a general with many military exploits, actually often raided Jurchen tribes and killed innocent people for claiming credit. These actions stirred up the indignation of the Jurchen People. Nurhaci, the careerist which was nurtured by Li Chengliang and got lots of benefits from the Ming Empire, took advantage of the hearts of the Jurchen People and started to expand his force. Nurhaci destroyed the Yehe tribe, a Jurchen tribe which was loyal to the Ming Empire. Arrogant Li Chengliang actually became an onlooker. When Nurhaci eliminated all oppositions of Jurchen tribes, he began to rebel. The misfortune of the Han people has come.

In the battle of Sarhu, the Ming¡¯s armies were defeated utterly. Since then, Jurchen invaded the territory of the Ming Empire. In 1626, Nurhaci attacked Ningyuan. This city was defended with the leading of Yuan Chonghuan who was an excellent general. Nurhaci was seriously wounded by the artillery fire of the Ming¡¯s army and died. Ming Xi-Zong, the emperor of the Ming Empire, was delirious with joy, and said, ¡°Ten years¡¯ slump, but blunted their dash in one day!¡±

But Hongtaiji, the son of Nurhaci, didn¡¯t abandon his father¡¯s ambition, and continued to invade the Ming Empire. In 1635, he renamed his nation ¡°Manchu¡±. In 1636, he renamed his nation ¡°Qing¡± and called himself ¡°emperor¡±.

In order to resist the invasion of Manchu, the Ming¡¯s ministers had many advices. Xu Guangqi, a great scientist, tried to form an army with advanced Western weapons. And some ministers advised to form an advanced navy to attack the nest of Manchu. But in that time, there were peasant uprisings in many areas of the empire. The rotten country didn¡¯t have enough money to realize the ideals of wise ministers. And the armies of Ming must fight on two front lines. Yuan Chonghuan, the excellent general, was killed wrongly by suspicious Chongzhen-Emperor because of the crafty plot of Hongtaiji.

In 1644, when the armymen defended Shanhai-Pass which led into the capital Beijing, the army of peasant uprising which was led by Li Zicheng captured Beijing, and Chongzhen-Emperor killed himself. The administrative system of the whole country became paralyzed. Wu Sangui, the general of Shanhai-Pass, surrendered himself to Manchu and became the vanguard of Qing¡¯s armies. Li Zicheng¡¯s army was defeated, and the whold north fell into Manchu's hands.

In the critical time of our Central Nation, peasants and government united as one. There were innumerable heroes, heroines and touching stories. In Yangzhou which was a prosperous city of the south, Shi Kefa refused to surrender. He led people to resist resolutely. When Manchu captured this large city, the truculent invaders annihilated the whole city and massacred more than eight hundred thousand people of the Han nation in ten days. This tragic history was called ¡°Ten Days of Yangzhou¡±. In Jiading which was also an advanced city of the south, people rose against the aggressors three times and several hundred thousand people were massacred by Manchu. This tragic history was called ¡°Three Times' Massacres in Jiading¡±. There were more massacres in more places of the south. With lots of massacres, Manchu controlled the south.

In order to enslave Han people, the Manchu¡¯s Qing Empire forbade the Han people to keep the national clothing and hairstyle of the Han nation. And Manchu forced the Han people to wear Manchu clothing such as mandarin jacket and cheongsam, and keep Manchu hairstyle which forward half head was shaven and the behind hairs were braided in a long plait. These policies were opposed acutely by the Han people. But the Qing Empire squashed the resistance of the Han people by massacres. Since then, Chinese lost own national clothing and hairstyle, and Chinese proprieties were distorted to menial things by the Manchu¡¯s Qing Empire. In order to wear away the resistance of intellectuals, Manchu rulers caused them to do collections and textual researches of large number of books. These poor men spent their whole lives in old paper piles but thought their talents were made good use. Manchu rulers distorted the meanings of ancient Chinese books. And they burned many Chinese books which showed the national spirit of the Han people. Nowadays many people think Qing¡¯s rulers loved Han's culture and kept ancient Chinese books, but in fact, they destroyed Han's culture and distorted Chinese books and proprieties, and they destroyed the soul of Chinese people.

Age-old Central Nation was destroyed, Age-old Huaxia Civilization was destroyed. Since then, the representative of Oriental Style has disappeared. And most horribly, the Huaxia National Soul was destroyed. In the Ming Dynasty, Chinese people were very interested in Western things, and had trade relations with the Western countries, and Chinese were respected by foreigners. But in the Qing Empire, Chinese blindly opposed everything foreign and they were discriminated against by foreigners. Nowadays many Han people regard mandarin jacket and cheongsam as their national clothing, and highly praise Peking opera that the rulers of the Qing Empire enjoyed very much. They love the Qing¡¯s rulers very much, and all rulers of the Qing Empire are praised in lots of TV dramas and literary works. Because of Chinese advertisement, many foreigners think Chinese Clothing is mandarin jacket and cheongsam, and they think if they can bedaub their faces and cry some words of Peking opera, they know about Chinese culture. So funny!

In nowadays China, the Oriental Civilization of several thousand years is almost forgotten by a large number of Chinese. There are more and more funny things in the country. After laugh, we, the people who clearly remember the history of our ancestors, are in tears.