1. Literary Prison
Until the fifty-third year of Qianlong (1788), the climax of the Literary Prison had passed, and the so-called "Du Guo Ce" case also occurred. As society tended to be more stable during the Qianlong era, the Literary Prison caused suspicions and false accusations, and implicate relatives, causing everyone to feel insecure and suspicious, which was not conducive to consolidating the ruling order of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Under such circumstances, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty adjusted their previous policies, and the literary prison that lasted for more than 100 years finally came to an end in the late Qianlong period.
2. Shave your hair and leave braids
Before the Qing Dynasty, Han men did not wear braids. Shaving one's hair and leaving it in braids was originally a Manchu custom. After Nurhaci captured Liaoshen in 1621, he forced Han people to shave their hair and grow braids on a large scale. In 1644, Qing troops entered the customs. After capturing Beijing, and especially after capturing Nanjing, they strictly enforced a hair-cutting order, "all officials and civilians were ordered to have their heads shaved", and those who disobeyed the order were "killed without mercy." At that time, there was not only an order to "keep your hair but not your head, and your head but not your hair", there was also an order to "if a person does not shave, the whole family will be beheaded, and if a family does not shave, the whole village will be beheaded". [1] Because there was an ancestral motto in ancient China that "the body, hair and skin are influenced by the parents", shaving and leaving braids essentially went against the historical traditions and thoughts and feelings of the Han people. Therefore, in the early Qing Dynasty, many people would rather lose their heads. Reluctance to get a haircut, such as the famous national tragedies such as "Ten Days in Yangzhou" and "Jiading Massacre" in history. After the Qing Dynasty unified China, shaving one's hair and wearing braids changed from a Manchu custom to a common custom among the Manchu and Han nationalities thanks to the power of the political power. Since then, Chinese men have had a long braid on the back of their heads.
3. Seclusion of the country
Seclusion of the country: After Kangxi opened the sea ban, the coastal areas of the Qing Dynasty prospered, but at the same time as normal trade, Xi Fang colonized the country and carried out illegal activities such as gathering intelligence and plundering. In the late Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court was unaware of the world situation and dreamed of calling itself a "Celestial Power", so it closed the ports and only allowed trade in one port in Guangzhou, and only merchants approved by the imperial court. In this way, tea, which is rich in Fujian and Zhejiang, was originally It was exported from Shanghai Port and now has to go to Guangzhou Port. This not only increases the cost, but also affects the quality of the tea. After Qianlong closed the sea ban, it was to prevent Western colonization. It also closed the ports for normal trade, making it impossible for the exchange of Chinese and Western cultures. From this time on, China gradually fell behind the world, and its isolation from the country was also related to the subsequent Anti-British Opium War.