Names

Hong Taiji named the Great Qing dynasty in 1636. There are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng (lit. "clear" or "pure"). The name may have been selected in reaction to the name of the Ming dynasty (明), which consists of the Chinese characters for "sun" (日) and "moon" (月), both associated with the fire element of the Chinese zodiacal system. The character Qīng (清) is composed of "water" (氵) and "azure" (青), both associated with the water element. This association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water. The water imagery of the new name may also have had Buddhist overtones of perspicacity and enlightenment and connections with the Bodhisattva Manjusri. The Manchu name daicing, which sounds like a phonetic rendering of Dà Qīng or Dai Ching, may in fact have been derived from a Mongolian word ", дайчин" that means "warrior". Daicing gurun may therefore have meant "warrior state", a pun that was only intelligible to Manchu and Mongol people. In the later part of the dynasty, however, even the Manchus themselves had forgotten this possible meaning.

Early European writers used the term "Tartar" indiscriminately for all the peoples of Northern Eurasia but in the 17th century Catholic missionary writings established "Tartar" to refer only to the Manchus and "Tartary" for the lands they ruled.

After conquering "China proper", the Manchus identified their state as "China" (中國, Zhōngguó; "Middle Kingdom"), and referred to it as Dulimbai Gurun in Manchu (Dulimbai means "central" or "middle," gurun means "nation" or "state"). The emperors equated the lands of the Qing state (including present-day Northeast China, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet and other areas) as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multi-ethnic state, and rejecting the idea that "China" only meant Han areas. The Qing emperors proclaimed that both Han and non-Han peoples were part of "China". They used both "China" and "Qing" to refer to their state in official documents. In the Chinese-language versions of its treaties and its maps of the world, the Qing government used "Qing" and "China" interchangeably.

History

Formation of the Manchu state

The Qing dynasty was founded not by Han Chinese, who constitute the majority of the Chinese population, but by the Manchu, descendants of a sedentary farming people known as the Jurchen, a Tungusic people who lived around the region now comprising the Chinese provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang. The Manchus are sometimes mistaken for a nomadic people, which they were not.

Nurhaci

What was to become the Manchu state was founded by Nurhaci, the chieftain of a minor Jurchen tribethe Aisin-Gioroin Jianzhou in the early 17th century. Nurhaci may have spent time in a Chinese household in his youth, and became fluent in Chinese as well as Mongol, and read the Chinese novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. Originally a vassal of the Ming emperors, Nurhaci embarked on an intertribal feud in 1582 that escalated into a campaign to unify the nearby tribes. By 1616, he had sufficiently consolidated Jianzhou so as to be able to proclaim himself Khan of the Great Jin in reference to the previous Jurchen dynasty.

Two years later, Nurhaci announced the "Seven Grievances" and openly renounced the sovereignty of Ming overlordship in order to complete the unification of those Jurchen tribes still allied with the Ming emperor. After a series of successful battles, he relocated his capital from Hetu Ala to successively bigger captured Ming cities in Liaodong: first Liaoyang in 1621, then Shenyang (Manchu: Mukden) in 1625.

Furthermore, the Khorchin proved a useful ally in the war, lending the Jurchens their expertise as cavalry archers. To guarantee this new alliance, Nurhaci initiated a policy of inter-marriages between the Jurchen and Khorchin nobilities, while those who resisted were met with military action. This is a typical example of Nurhaci's initiatives that eventually became official Qing government policy. During most of the Qing period, the Mongols gave military assistance to the Manchus.

Hong Taiji

The unbroken series of Nurhaci's military successes ended in January 1626 when he was defeated by Yuan Chonghuan while laying siege to Ningyuan. He died a few months later and was succeeded by his eighth son, Hong Taiji, who emerged as the new Khan after a short political struggle amongst other contenders . Although Hong Taiji was an experienced leader and the commander of two Banners at the time of his succession, his reign did not start well on the military front. The Jurchens suffered yet another defeat in 1627 at the hands of Yuan Chonghuan. This defeat was also in part due to the Ming's newly acquired Portuguese cannons.

To redress the technological and numerical disparity, Hong Taiji created his own artillery corps in 1634, the ujen cooha (Chinese: 重軍) from his existing Han troops who cast their own cannons in the European design with the help of defector Chinese metallurgists. One of the defining events of Hong Taiji's reign was the official adoption of the name "Manchu" for the united Jurchen people in November 1635. In 1635, the Manchus' Mongol allies were fully incorporated into a separate Banner hierarchy under direct Manchu command. Hong Taiji conquered the territory north of Shanhai Pass by Ming dynasty and Ligdan Khan in Inner Mongolia. In April 1636, Mongol nobility of Inner Mongolia, Manchu nobility and the Han mandarin held the Kurultai in Shenyang, and recommended the khan of Later Jin to be the emperor of the Great Qing empire. One of the Yuan Dynasty's jade seal was also dedicated to the emperor (Bogd Setsen Khan) by the nobility. When he was presented with the imperial seal of the Yuan dynasty after the defeat of the last Khagan of the Mongols, Hong Taiji renamed his state from "Great Jin" to "Great Qing" and elevated his position from Khan to Emperor, suggesting imperial ambitions beyond unifying the Manchu territories. Hong Taiji then proceeded to invade Korea again in 1636.

The change of name from Jurchen to Manchu was made to hide the fact that the ancestors of the Manchus, the Jianzhou Jurchens, were ruled by the Chinese. The Qing dynasty carefully hid the original editions of the books of "Qing Taizu Wu Huangdi Shilu" and the "Manzhou Shilu Tu" (Taizu Shilu Tu) in the Qing palace, forbidden from public view because they showed that the Aisin-Gioro family had been ruled by the Ming dynasty and followed many Manchu customs that seemed "uncivilized" to later observers. The Qing also deliberately excluded references and information that showed the Jurchens (Manchus) as subservient to the Ming dynasty, from the History of Ming to hide their former subservient relationship to the Ming. The Veritable Records of Ming were not used to source content on Jurchens during Ming rule in the History of Ming because of this.

In the Ming period, the Koreans of Joseon referred to the Jurchen-inhabited lands north of the Korean peninsula, above the rivers Yalu and Tumen to be part of Ming China, as the "superior country" (sangguk) which they called Ming China. After the Second Manchu invasion of Korea, Joseon Korea was forced to give several of their royal princesses as concubines to the Qing Manchu regent Prince Dorgon. In 1650, Dorgon married the Korean Princess Uisun.

Meanwhile, Hong Taiji set up a rudimentary bureaucratic system based on the Ming model. He established six boards or executive level ministries in 1631 to oversee finance, personnel, rites, military, punishments, and public works. However, these administrative organs had very little role initially, and it was not until the eve of completing the conquest ten years later that they fulfilled their government roles.

Hong Taiji's bureaucracy was staffed with many Han Chinese, including many newly surrendered Ming officials. The Manchus' continued dominance was ensured by an ethnic quota for top bureaucratic appointments. Hong Taiji's reign also saw a fundamental change of policy towards his Han Chinese subjects. Nurhaci had treated Han in Liaodong differently according to how much grain they had: those with less than 5 to 7 sin were treated badly, while those with more than that amount were rewarded with property. Due to a revolt by Han in Liaodong in 1623, Nurhaci, who previously gave concessions to conquered Han subjects in Liaodong, turned against them and ordered that they no longer be trusted. He enacted discriminatory policies and killings against them, while ordering that Han who assimilated to the Jurchen (in Jilin) before 1619 be treated equally, as Jurchens were, and not like the conquered Han in Liaodong. Hong Taiji recognized that the Manchus needed to attract Han Chinese, explaining to reluctant Manchus why he needed to treat the Ming defector General Hong Chengchou leniently. Hong Taiji instead incorporated them into the Jurchen "nation" as full (if not first-class) citizens, obligated to provide military service. By 1648, less than one-sixth of the bannermen were of Manchu ancestry.

Claiming the Mandate of Heaven

Hong Taiji died suddenly in September 1643. As the Jurchens had traditionally "elected" their leader through a council of nobles, the Qing state did not have a clear succession system. The leading contenders for power were Hong Taiji's oldest son Hooge and Hong Taiji's half brother Dorgon. A compromise installed Hong Taiji's five-year-old son, Fulin, as the Shunzhi Emperor, with Dorgon as regent and de facto leader of the Manchu nation.

Meanwhile, Ming government officials fought against each other, against fiscal collapse, and against a series of peasant rebellions. They were unable to capitalise on the Manchu succession dispute and the presence of a minor as emperor. In April 1644, the capital, Beijing, was sacked by a coalition of rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, a former minor Ming official, who established a short-lived Shun dynasty. The last Ming ruler, the Chongzhen Emperor, committed suicide when the city fell to the rebels, marking the official end of the dynasty.

Li Zicheng then led a collection of rebel forces numbering some 200,000 to confront Wu Sangui, the general commanding the Ming garrison at Shanhai Pass, a key pass of the Great Wall, located northeast of Beijing, which defended the capital. Wu Sangui, caught between a rebel army twice his size and an enemy he had fought for years, cast his lot with the foreign but familiar Manchus. Wu Sangui may have been influenced by Li Zicheng's mistreatment of wealthy and cultured officials, including Li's own family; it was said that Li took Wu's concubine Chen Yuanyuan for himself. Wu and Dorgon allied in the name of avenging the death of the Chongzhen Emperor. Together, the two former enemies met and defeated Li Zicheng's rebel forces in battle on May 27, 1644.

The newly allied armies captured Beijing on 6 June. The Shunzhi Emperor was invested as the "Son of Heaven" on 30 October. The Manchus, who had positioned themselves as political heirs to the Ming emperor by defeating Li Zicheng, completed the symbolic transition by holding a formal funeral for the Chongzhen Emperor. However, conquering the rest of China Proper took another seventeen years of battling Ming loyalists, pretenders and rebels. The last Ming pretender, Prince Gui, sought refuge with the King of Burma, Pindale Min, but was turned over to a Qing expeditionary army commanded by Wu Sangui, who had him brought back to Yunnan province and executed in early 1662.

The Qing had taken shrewd advantage of Ming civilian government discrimination against the military and encouraged the Ming military to defect by spreading the message that the Manchus valued their skills. Banners made up of Han Chinese who defected before 1644 were classed among the Eight Banners, giving them social and legal privileges in addition to being acculturated to Manchu traditions. Han defectors swelled the ranks of the Eight Banners so greatly that ethnic Manchus became a minority—only 16% in 1648, with Han Bannermen dominating at 75% and Mongol Bannermen making up the rest. Gunpowder weapons like muskets and artillery were wielded by the Chinese Banners. Normally, Han Chinese defector troops were deployed as the vanguard, while Manchu Bannermen acted as reserve forces or in the rear and were used predominantly for quick strikes with maximum impact, so as to minimize ethnic Manchu losses.

This multi-ethnic force conquered China for the Qing, The three Liaodong Han Bannermen officers who played key roles in the conquest of southern China were Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, and Kong Youde, who governed southern China autonomously as viceroys for the Qing after the conquest. Han Chinese Bannermen made up the majority of governors in the early Qing, and they governed and administered China after the conquest, stabilizing Qing rule. Han Bannermen dominated the post of governor-general in the time of the Shunzhi and Kangxi Emperors, and also the post of governor, largely excluding ordinary Han civilians from these posts.

To promote ethnic harmony, a 1648 decree allowed Han Chinese civilian men to marry Manchu women from the Banners with the permission of the Board of Revenue if they were registered daughters of officials or commoners, or with the permission of their banner company captain if they were unregistered commoners. Later in the dynasty the policies allowing intermarriage were done away with.

The southern cadet branch of Confucius' descendants who held the title Wujing boshi (Doctor of the Five Classics) and 65th generation descendant in the northern branch who held the title Duke Yansheng both had their titles confirmed by the Shunzhi Emperor upon the Qing entry into Beijing on 31 October. The Kong's title of Duke was maintained in later reigns.

The first seven years of the Shunzhi Emperor's reign were dominated by Dorgon's rule. Because of his own political insecurity, Dorgon followed Hong Taiji's example by ruling in the name of the emperor at the expense of rival Manchu princes, many of whom he demoted or imprisoned under one pretext or another. Although the period of his regency was relatively short, Dorgon's precedents and example cast a long shadow over the dynasty.

First, the Manchus had entered "South of the Wall" because Dorgon responded decisively to Wu Sangui's appeal. Then, after capturing Beijing, instead of sacking the city as the rebels had done, Dorgon insisted, over the protests of other Manchu princes, on making it the dynastic capital and reappointing most Ming officials. Choosing Beijing as the capital had not been a straightforward decision, since no major Chinese dynasty had directly taken over its immediate predecessor's capital. Keeping the Ming capital and bureaucracy intact helped quickly stabilize the regime and sped up the conquest of the rest of the country. Dorgon then drastically reduced the influence of the eunuchs, a major force in the Ming bureaucracy, and directed Manchu women not to bind their feet in the Chinese style.

However, not all of Dorgon's policies were equally popular or as easy to implement. The controversial July 1645 edict (the "haircutting order") forced adult Han Chinese men to shave the front of their heads and comb the remaining hair into the queue hairstyle which was worn by Manchu men, on pain of death. The popular description of the order was: "To keep the hair, you lose the head; To keep your head, you cut the hair." To the Manchus, this policy was a test of loyalty and an aid in distinguishing friend from foe. For the Han Chinese, however, it was a humiliating reminder of Qing authority that challenged traditional Confucian values. The order triggered strong resistance to Qing rule in Jiangnan. In the ensuing unrest, some 100,000 Han were slaughtered.

On 31 December 1650, Dorgon suddenly died during a hunting expedition, marking the official start of the Shunzhi Emperor's personal rule. Because the emperor was only 12 years old at that time, most decisions were made on his behalf by his mother, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, who turned out to be a skilled political operator.

Although his support had been essential to Shunzhi's ascent, Dorgon had centralised so much power in his hands as to become a direct threat to the throne. So much so that upon his death he was bestowed the extraordinary posthumous title of Emperor Yi (義皇帝), the only instance in Qing history in which a Manchu "prince of the blood" (親王) was so honored. Two months into Shunzhi's personal rule, however, Dorgon was not only stripped of his titles, but his corpse was disinterred and mutilated. to atone for multiple "crimes", one of which was persecuting to death Shunzhi's agnate eldest brother, Hooge. More importantly, Dorgon's symbolic fall from grace also led to the purge of his family and associates at court, thus reverting power back to the person of the emperor. After a promising start, Shunzhi's reign was cut short by his early death in 1661 at the age of 24 from smallpox. He was succeeded by his third son Xuanye, who reigned as the Kangxi Emperor.

The Manchus sent Han Bannermen to fight against Koxinga's Ming loyalists in Fujian. They removed the population from coastal areas in order to deprive Koxinga's Ming loyalists of resources. This led to a misunderstanding that Manchus were "afraid of water". Han Bannermen carried out the fighting and killing, casting doubt on the claim that fear of the water led to the coastal evacuation and ban on maritime activities. Even though a poem refers to the soldiers carrying out massacres in Fujian as "barbarians", both Han Green Standard Army and Han Bannermen were involved and carried out the worst slaughter. 400,000 Green Standard Army soldiers were used against the Three Feudatories in addition to the 200,000 Bannermen.

Kangxi Emperors reign and consolidation

The sixty-one year reign of the Kangxi Emperor was the longest of any Chinese emperor. Kangxi's reign is also celebrated as the beginning of an era known as the "High Qing", during which the dynasty reached the zenith of its social, economic and military power. Kangxi's long reign started when he was eight years old upon the untimely demise of his father. To prevent a repeat of Dorgon's dictatorial monopolizing of power during the regency, the Shunzhi Emperor, on his deathbed, hastily appointed four senior cabinet ministers to govern on behalf of his young son. The four ministers – Sonin, Ebilun, Suksaha, and Oboi – were chosen for their long service, but also to counteract each other's influences. Most important, the four were not closely related to the imperial family and laid no claim to the throne. However, as time passed, through chance and machination, Oboi, the most junior of the four, achieved such political dominance as to be a potential threat. Even though Oboi's loyalty was never an issue, his personal arrogance and political conservatism led him into an escalating conflict with the young emperor. In 1669 Kangxi, through trickery, disarmed and imprisoned Oboi – a significant victory for a fifteen-year-old emperor over a wily politician and experienced commander.

The early Manchu rulers established two foundations of legitimacy that help to explain the stability of their dynasty. The first was the bureaucratic institutions and the neo-Confucian culture that they adopted from earlier dynasties. Manchu rulers and Han Chinese scholar-official elites gradually came to terms with each other. The examination system offered a path for ethnic Han to become officials. Imperial patronage of Kangxi Dictionary demonstrated respect for Confucian learning, while the Sacred Edict of 1670 effectively extolled Confucian family values. His attempts to discourage Chinese women from foot binding, however, were unsuccessful.

Controlling the "Mandate of Heaven" was a daunting task. The vastness of China's territory meant that there were only enough banner troops to garrison key cities forming the backbone of a defense network that relied heavily on surrendered Ming soldiers. In addition, three surrendered Ming generals were singled out for their contributions to the establishment of the Qing dynasty, ennobled as feudal princes (藩王), and given governorships over vast territories in Southern China. The chief of these was Wu Sangui, who was given the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, while generals Shang Kexi and Geng Jingzhong were given Guangdong and Fujian provinces respectively.

As the years went by, the three feudal lords and their extensive territories became increasingly autonomous. Finally, in 1673, Shang Kexi petitioned Kangxi for permission to retire to his hometown in Liaodong province and nominated his son as his successor. The young emperor granted his retirement, but denied the heredity of his fief. In reaction, the two other generals decided to petition for their own retirements to test Kangxi's resolve, thinking that he would not risk offending them. The move backfired as the young emperor called their bluff by accepting their requests and ordering that all three fiefdoms to be reverted to the crown.

Faced with the stripping of their powers, Wu Sangui, later joined by Geng Zhongming and by Shang Kexi's son Shang Zhixin, felt they had no choice but to revolt. The ensuing Revolt of the Three Feudatories lasted for eight years. Wu attempted, ultimately in vain, to fire the embers of south China Ming loyalty by restoring Ming customs but then declared himself emperor of a new dynasty instead of restoring the Ming. At the peak of the rebels' fortunes, they extended their control as far north as the Yangtze River, nearly establishing a divided China. Wu hesitated to go further north, not being able to coordinate strategy with his allies, and Kangxi was able to unify his forces for a counterattack led by a new generation of Manchu generals. By 1681, the Qing government had established control over a ravaged southern China which took several decades to recover.

To extend and consolidate the dynasty's control in Central Asia, the Kangxi Emperor personally led a series of military campaigns against the Dzungars in Outer Mongolia. The Kangxi Emperor was able to successfully expel Galdan's invading forces from these regions, which were then incorporated into the empire. Galdan was eventually killed in the Dzungar–Qing War. In 1683, Qing forces received the surrender of Formosa (Taiwan) from Zheng Keshuang, grandson of Koxinga, who had conquered Taiwan from the Dutch colonists as a base against the Qing. Zheng Keshuang was awarded the title "Duke Haicheng" (海澄公) and was inducted into the Han Chinese Plain Red Banner of the Eight Banners when he moved to Beijing. Several Ming princes had accompanied Koxinga to Taiwan in 1661–1662, including the Prince of Ningjing Zhu Shugui and Prince Zhu Honghuan (朱弘桓), son of Zhu Yihai, where they lived in the Kingdom of Tungning. The Qing sent the 17 Ming princes still living on Taiwan in 1683 back to mainland China where they spent the rest of their lives in exile since their lives were spared from execution. Winning Taiwan freed Kangxi's forces for series of battles over Albazin, the far eastern outpost of the Tsardom of Russia. Zheng's former soldiers on Taiwan like the rattan shield troops were also inducted into the Eight Banners and used by the Qing against Russian Cossacks at Albazin. The 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk was China's first formal treaty with a European power and kept the border peaceful for the better part of two centuries. After Galdan's death, his followers, as adherents to Tibetan Buddhism, attempted to control the choice of the next Dalai Lama. Kangxi dispatched two armies to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and installed a Dalai Lama sympathetic to the Qing.

Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors

The reigns of the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723–1735) and his son, the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), marked the height of Qing power. Both emperors ruled from within the Hall of Mental Cultivation, a building in the Forbidden City, which not only became the emperor's residence, but was considered to be the political and administrative hub of the Qing dynasty, until the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor. During this period, the Qing Empire ruled over of territory. Yet, as the historian Jonathan Spence puts it, the empire by the end of the Qianlong reign was "like the sun at midday". In the midst of "many glories", he writes, "signs of decay and even collapse were becoming apparent".

After the death of the Kangxi Emperor in the winter of 1722, his fourth son, Prince Yong (雍親王), became the Yongzheng Emperor. In the later years of Kangxi's reign, Yongzheng and his brothers had fought, and there were rumours that he had usurped the throne – most of the rumours held that Yongzheng's brother Yingzhen (Kangxi's 14th son) was the real successor of the Kangxi Emperor, and that Yongzheng and his confidant Keduo Long had tampered with the Kangxi's testament on the night when Kangxi died, though there was little evidence for these charges. In fact, his father had trusted him with delicate political issues and discussed state policy with him. When Yongzheng came to power at the age of 45, he felt a sense of urgency about the problems that had accumulated in his father's later years, and he did not need instruction on how to exercise power. In the words of one recent historian, he was "severe, suspicious, and jealous, but extremely capable and resourceful", and in the words of another, he turned out to be an "early modern state-maker of the first order".

Yongzheng moved rapidly. First, he promoted Confucian orthodoxy and reversed what he saw as his father's laxness by cracking down on unorthodox sects and by decapitating an anti-Manchu writer his father had pardoned. In 1723 he outlawed Christianity and expelled Christian missionaries, though some were allowed to remain in the capital. Next, he moved to control the government. He expanded his father's system of Palace Memorials, which brought frank and detailed reports on local conditions directly to the throne without being intercepted by the bureaucracy, and he created a small Grand Council of personal advisors, which eventually grew into the emperor's de facto cabinet for the rest of the dynasty. He shrewdly filled key positions with Manchu and Han Chinese officials who depended on his patronage. When he began to realize that the financial crisis was even greater than he had thought, Yongzheng rejected his father's lenient approach to local landowning elites and mounted a campaign to enforce collection of the land tax. The increased revenues were to be used for "money to nourish honesty" among local officials and for local irrigation, schools, roads, and charity. Although these reforms were effective in the north, in the south and lower Yangzi valley, where Kangxi had wooed the elites, there were long established networks of officials and landowners. Yongzheng dispatched experienced Manchu commissioners to penetrate the thickets of falsified land registers and coded account books, but they were met with tricks, passivity, and even violence. The fiscal crisis persisted.

Yongzheng also inherited diplomatic and strategic problems. A team made up entirely of Manchus drew up the Treaty of Kyakhta (1727) to solidify the diplomatic understanding with Russia. In exchange for territory and trading rights, the Qing would have a free hand dealing with the situation in Mongolia. Yongzheng then turned to that situation, where the Zunghars threatened to re-emerge, and to the southwest, where local Miao chieftains resisted Qing expansion. These campaigns drained the treasury but established the emperor's control of the military and military finance.

The Yongzheng Emperor died in 1735. His 24-year-old son, Prince Bao (寶親王), then became the Qianlong Emperor. Qianlong personally led military campaigns near Xinjiang and Mongolia, putting down revolts and uprisings in Sichuan and parts of southern China while expanding control over Tibet.

The Qianlong Emperor launched several ambitious cultural projects, including the compilation of the Siku Quanshu, or Complete Repository of the Four Branches of Literature. With a total of over 3,400 books, 79,000 chapters, and 36,304 volumes, the Siku Quanshu is the largest collection of books in Chinese history. Nevertheless, Qianlong used Literary Inquisition to silence opposition. The accusation of individuals began with the emperor's own interpretation of the true meaning of the corresponding words. If the emperor decided these were derogatory or cynical towards the dynasty, persecution would begin. Literary inquisition began with isolated cases at the time of Shunzhi and Kangxi, but became a pattern under Qianlong's rule, during which there were 53 cases of literary persecution.

Beneath outward prosperity and imperial confidence, the later years of Qianlong's reign were marked by rampant corruption and neglect. Heshen, the emperor's handsome young favorite, took advantage of the emperor's indulgence to become one of the most corrupt officials in the history of the dynasty. Qianlong's son, the Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796–1820), eventually forced Heshen to commit suicide.

China also began suffering from mounting overpopulation during this period. Population growth was stagnant for the first half of the 17th century due to civil wars and epidemics, but prosperity and internal stability gradually reversed this trend. The introduction of new crops from the Americas such as the potato and peanut allowed an improved food supply as well, so that the total population of China during the 18th century ballooned from 100 million to 300 million people. Soon all available farmland was used up, forcing peasants to work ever-smaller and more intensely worked plots. The Qianlong Emperor once bemoaned the country's situation by remarking, "The population continues to grow, but the land does not." The only remaining part of the empire that had arable farmland was Manchuria, where the provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang had been walled off as a Manchu homeland. The emperor decreed for the first time that Han Chinese civilians were forbidden to settle. Mongols were forbidden by the Qing from crossing the borders of their banners, even into other Mongol Banners, and from crossing into neidi (the Han Chinese 18 provinces) and were given serious punishments if they did in order to keep the Mongols divided against each other to benefit the Qing. Mongol pilgrims wanting to leave their banner's borders for religious reasons such as pilgrimage had to apply for passports to give them permission.

Despite officially prohibiting Han Chinese settlement on the Manchu and Mongol lands, by the 18th century the Qing decided to settle Han refugees from northern China who were suffering from famine, floods, and drought into Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Han Chinese then streamed into Manchuria, both illegally and legally, over the Great Wall and Willow Palisade. As Manchu landlords desired Han Chinese to rent their land and grow grain, most Han Chinese migrants were not evicted. During the eighteenth century Han Chinese farmed 500,000 hectares of privately owned land in Manchuria and 203,583 hectares of lands that were part of courrier stations, noble estates, and Banner lands. In garrisons and towns in Manchuria Han Chinese made up 80% of the population.

In 1796, open rebellion broke out among followers of the White Lotus Society, who blamed Qing officials, saying "the officials have forced the people to rebel." Officials in other parts of the country were also blamed for corruption, failing to keep the famine relief granaries full, poor maintenance of roads and waterworks, and bureaucratic factionalism. There soon followed uprisings of "new sect" Muslims against local Muslim officials, and Miao tribesmen in southwest China. The White Lotus Rebellion continued for eight years, until 1804, when badly run, corrupt, and brutal campaigns finally ended it.

Rebellion, unrest and external pressure

At the start of the dynasty, the Chinese empire continued to be the hegemonic power in East Asia. Although there was no formal ministry of foreign relations, the Lifan Yuan was responsible for relations with the Mongol and Tibetans in Central Asia, while the tributary system, a loose set of institutions and customs taken over from the Ming, in theory governed relations with East and Southeast Asian countries. The Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) stabilized relations with Czarist Russia.

However, during the 18th century European empires gradually expanded across the world, as European states developed economies built on maritime trade, colonial extraction, and advances in technology. The dynasty was confronted with newly developing concepts of the international system and state to state relations. European trading posts expanded into territorial control in nearby India and on the islands that are now Indonesia. The Qing response, successful for a time, was to establish the Canton System in 1756, which restricted maritime trade to that city (modern-day Guangzhou) and gave monopoly trading rights to private Chinese merchants. The British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company had long before been granted similar monopoly rights by their governments.

In 1793, the British East India Company, with the support of the British government, sent a delegation to China under Lord George Macartney in order to open free trade and put relations on a basis of equality. The imperial court viewed trade as of secondary interest, whereas the British saw maritime trade as the key to their economy. The Qianlong Emperor told Macartney "the kings of the myriad nations come by land and sea with all sorts of precious things", and "consequently there is nothing we lack..."

Demand in Europe for Chinese goods such as silk, tea, and ceramics could only be met if European companies funneled their limited supplies of silver into China. In the late 1700s, the governments of Britain and France were deeply concerned about the imbalance of trade and the drain of silver. To meet the growing Chinese demand for opium, the British East India Company greatly expanded its production in Bengal. Since China's economy was essentially self-sufficient, the country had little need to import goods or raw materials from the Europeans, so the usual way of payment was through silver. The Daoguang Emperor, concerned both over the outflow of silver and the damage that opium smoking was causing to his subjects, ordered Lin Zexu to end the opium trade. Lin confiscated the stocks of opium without compensation in 1839, leading Britain to send a military expedition the following year.

The First Opium War revealed the outdated state of the Chinese military. The Qing navy, composed entirely of wooden sailing junks, was severely outclassed by the modern tactics and firepower of the British Royal Navy. British soldiers, using advanced muskets and artillery, easily outmanoeuvred and outgunned Qing forces in ground battles. The Qing surrender in 1842 marked a decisive, humiliating blow to China. The Treaty of Nanjing, the first of the "unequal treaties", demanded war reparations, forced China to open up the Treaty Ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuchow, Ningpo and Shanghai to Western trade and missionaries, and to cede Hong Kong Island to Britain. It revealed weaknesses in the Qing government and provoked rebellions against the regime. In 1842, the Qing dynasty fought a war with the Sikh Empire (the last independent kingdom of India), resulting in a negotiated peace and a return to the status quo ante bellum.

The Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century was the first major instance of anti-Manchu sentiment. Amid widespread social unrest and worsening famine, the rebellion not only posed the most serious threat towards Qing rulers, it has also been called the "bloodiest civil war of all time"; during its fourteen-year course from 1850 to 1864 between 20 and 30 million people died. Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil service candidate, in 1851 launched an uprising in Guizhou province, and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with Hong himself as king. Hong announced that he had visions of God and that he was the brother of Jesus Christ. Slavery, concubinage, arranged marriage, opium smoking, footbinding, judicial torture, and the worship of idols were all banned. However, success led to internal feuds, defections and corruption. In addition, British and French troops, equipped with modern weapons, had come to the assistance of the Qing imperial army. It was not until 1864 that Qing armies under Zeng Guofan succeeded in crushing the revolt. After the outbreak of this rebellion, there were also revolts by the Muslims and Miao people of China against the Qing dynasty, most notably in the Miao Rebellion (1854–73) in Guizhou, the Panthay Rebellion (1856–1873) in Yunnan and the Dungan Revolt (1862–77) in the northwest.

The Western powers, largely unsatisfied with the Treaty of Nanjing, gave grudging support to the Qing government during the Taiping and Nian Rebellions. China's income fell sharply during the wars as vast areas of farmland were destroyed, millions of lives were lost, and countless armies were raised and equipped to fight the rebels. In 1854, Britain tried to re-negotiate the Treaty of Nanjing, inserting clauses allowing British commercial access to Chinese rivers and the creation of a permanent British embassy at Beijing.

In 1856, Qing authorities, in searching for a pirate, boarded a ship, the Arrow, which the British claimed had been flying the British flag, an incident which led to the Second Opium War. In 1858, facing no other options, the Xianfeng Emperor agreed to the Treaty of Tientsin, which contained clauses deeply insulting to the Chinese, such as a demand that all official Chinese documents be written in English and a proviso granting British warships unlimited access to all navigable Chinese rivers.

Ratification of the treaty in the following year led to a resumption of hostilities. In 1860, with Anglo-French forces marching on Beijing, the emperor and his court fled the capital for the imperial hunting lodge at Rehe. Once in Beijing, the Anglo-French forces looted the Old Summer Palace and, in an act of revenge for the arrest, torture, and execution of the English diplomatic mission, burnt it to the ground. Prince Gong, a younger half-brother of the emperor, who had been left as his brother's proxy in the capital, was forced to sign the Convention of Beijing. The humiliated emperor died the following year at Rehe.

Self-strengthening and the frustration of reforms

Yet the dynasty rallied. Chinese generals and officials such as Zuo Zongtang led the suppression of rebellions and stood behind the Manchus. When the Tongzhi Emperor came to the throne at the age of five in 1861, these officials rallied around him in what was called the Tongzhi Restoration. Their aim was to adopt Western military technology in order to preserve Confucian values. Zeng Guofan, in alliance with Prince Gong, sponsored the rise of younger officials such as Li Hongzhang, who put the dynasty back on its feet financially and instituted the Self-Strengthening Movement. The reformers then proceeded with institutional reforms, including China's first unified ministry of foreign affairs, the Zongli Yamen; allowing foreign diplomats to reside in the capital; establishment of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service; the formation of modernized armies, such as the Beiyang Army, as well as a navy; and the purchase from Europeans of armament factories.

The dynasty lost control of peripheral territories bit by bit. In return for promises of support against the British and the French, the Russian Empire took large chunks of territory in the Northeast in 1860. The period of cooperation between the reformers and the European powers ended with the Tientsin Massacre of 1870, which was incited by the murder of French nuns set off by the belligerence of local French diplomats. Starting with the Cochinchina Campaign in 1858, France expanded control of Indochina. By 1883, France was in full control of the region and had reached the Chinese border. The Sino-French War began with a surprise attack by the French on the Chinese southern fleet at Fuzhou. After that the Chinese declared war on the French. A French invasion of Taiwan was halted and the French were defeated on land in Tonkin at the Battle of Bang Bo. However Japan threatened to enter the war against China due to the Gapsin Coup and China chose to end the war with negotiations. The war ended in 1885 with the Treaty of Tientsin (1885) and the Chinese recognition of the French protectorate in Vietnam.

In 1884, pro-Japanese Koreans in Seoul led the Gapsin Coup. Tensions between China and Japan rose after China intervened to suppress the uprising. Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi and Li Hongzhang signed the Convention of Tientsin, an agreement to withdraw troops simultaneously, but the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895 was a military humiliation. The Treaty of Shimonoseki recognized Korean independence and ceded Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan. The terms might have been harsher, but when a Japanese citizen attacked and wounded Li Hongzhang, an international outcry shamed the Japanese into revising them. The original agreement stipulated the cession of Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, but Russia, with its own designs on the territory, along with Germany and France, in the Triple Intervention, successfully put pressure on the Japanese to abandon the peninsula.

These years saw an evolution in the participation of Empress Dowager Cixi (Wade–Giles: Tz'u-Hsi) in state affairs. She entered the imperial palace in the 1850s as a concubine to the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861) and came to power in 1861 after her five-year-old son, the Tongzhi Emperor ascended the throne. She, the Empress Dowager Ci'an (who had been Xianfeng's empress), and Prince Gong (a son of the Daoguang Emperor), staged a coup that ousted several regents for the boy emperor. Between 1861 and 1873, she and Ci'an served as regents, choosing the reign title "Tongzhi" (ruling together). Following the emperor's death in 1875, Cixi's nephew, the Guangxu Emperor, took the throne, in violation of the dynastic custom that the new emperor be of the next generation, and another regency began. In the spring of 1881, Ci'an suddenly died, aged only forty-three, leaving Cixi as sole regent.

From 1889, when Guangxu began to rule in his own right, to 1898, the Empress Dowager lived in semi-retirement, spending the majority of the year at the Summer Palace. On 1 November 1897, two German Roman Catholic missionaries were murdered in the southern part of Shandong province (the Juye Incident). Germany used the murders as a pretext for a naval occupation of Jiaozhou Bay. The occupation prompted a "scramble for concessions" in 1898, which included the German lease of Jiazhou Bay, the Russian acquisition of Liaodong, and the British lease of the New Territories of Hong Kong.

In the wake of these external defeats, the Guangxu Emperor initiated the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898. Newer, more radical advisers such as Kang Youwei were given positions of influence. The emperor issued a series of edicts and plans were made to reorganize the bureaucracy, restructure the school system, and appoint new officials. Opposition from the bureaucracy was immediate and intense. Although she had been involved in the initial reforms, the Empress Dowager stepped in to call them off, arrested and executed several reformers, and took over day-to-day control of policy. Yet many of the plans stayed in place, and the goals of reform were implanted.

Widespread drought in North China, combined with the imperialist designs of European powers and the instability of the Qing government, created conditions that led to the emergence of the Boxers. In 1900, local groups of Boxers proclaiming support for the Qing dynasty murdered foreign missionaries and large numbers of Chinese Christians, then converged on Beijing to besiege the Foreign Legation Quarter. A coalition of European, Japanese, and Russian armies (the Eight-Nation Alliance) then entered China without diplomatic notice, much less permission. Cixi declared war on all of these nations, only to lose control of Beijing after a short, but hard-fought campaign. She fled to Xi'an. The victorious allies drew up scores of demands on the Qing government, including compensation for their expenses in invading China and execution of complicit officials.

Reform, revolution, collapse

By the early 20th century, mass civil disorder had begun in China, and it was growing continuously. To overcome such problems, Cixi issued an imperial edict in 1901 calling for reform proposals from the governors-general and governors and initiated the era of the dynasty's "New Policies", also known as the "Late Qing Reform". The edict paved the way for the most far-reaching reforms in terms of their social consequences, including the creation of a national education system and the abolition of the imperial examinations in 1905.

The Guangxu Emperor died on 14 November 1908 and Cixi died the following day. Rumors held that she or Yuan Shikai ordered trusted eunuchs to poison the Guangxu Emperor, and an autopsy conducted nearly a century later confirmed lethal levels of arsenic in his corpse. Puyi, the oldest son of Zaifeng, Prince Chun, and nephew to the childless Guangxu Emperor, was appointed successor at the age of two, leaving Zaifeng with the regency. This was followed by the dismissal of General Yuan Shikai from his former positions of power. In April 1911 Zaifeng created a cabinet in which there were two vice-premiers. Nonetheless, this cabinet was also known by contemporaries as "The Royal Cabinet" because among the thirteen cabinet members, five were members of the imperial family or Aisin-Gioro relatives. This brought a wide range of negative opinions from senior officials like Zhang Zhidong.

The Wuchang Uprising of 10 October 1911 was a success; by November, 14 of the 15 provinces had rejected Qing rule. This led to the creation of a new central government, the Republic of China, in Nanjing with Sun Yat-sen as its provisional head. Many provinces soon began "separating" from Qing control. Seeing a desperate situation unfold, the Qing government brought Yuan Shikai back to military power. He took control of his Beiyang Army to crush the revolution in Wuhan at the Battle of Yangxia. After taking the position of Prime Minister and creating his own cabinet, Yuan Shikai went as far as to ask for the removal of Zaifeng from the regency. This removal later proceeded with directions from Empress Dowager Longyu. Yuan Shikai was now a dictator—the ruler of China and the Manchu dynasty had lost all power; it formally abdicated in early 1912.

On 12 February 1912, after rounds of negotiations, Longyu issued an imperial edict bringing about the abdication of the child emperor Puyi. This brought an end to over 2,000 years of Imperial China and began an extended period of instability of warlord factionalism. The unorganized political and economic systems combined with a widespread criticism of Chinese culture led to questioning and doubt about the future. Some Qing loyalists organized themselves as "Royalist Party", and tried to use militant activism and open rebellions to restore the monarchy, but to no avail. In July 1917, there was an abortive attempt to restore the Qing dynasty led by Zhang Xun, which was quickly reversed by republican troops. Puyi was allowed to live in the Forbidden City after his abdication until the Beijing Coup happened in 1924, which general Feng Yuxiang forced Puyi to move out from the Forbidden City. Puyi then moved to Japanese concession in Tianjin. In the 1930s, the Empire of Japan invaded Northeast China and founded Manchukuo in 1932, with Puyi as its emperor. After the invasion by the Soviet Union, Manchukuo fell in 1945.

Government

The early Qing emperors adopted the bureaucratic structures and institutions from the preceding Ming dynasty but split rule between Han Chinese and Manchus, with some positions also given to Mongols. Like previous dynasties, the Qing recruited officials via the imperial examination system, until the system was abolished in 1905. The Qing divided the positions into civil and military positions, each having nine grades or ranks, each subdivided into a and b categories. Civil appointments ranged from an attendant to the emperor or a Grand Secretary in the Forbidden City (highest) to being a prefectural tax collector, deputy jail warden, deputy police commissioner, or tax examiner. Military appointments ranged from being a field marshal or chamberlain of the imperial bodyguard to a third class sergeant, corporal or a first or second class private.

Central government agencies

The formal structure of the Qing government centered on the Emperor as the absolute ruler, who presided over six Boards (Ministries), each headed by two presidents and assisted by four vice presidents. In contrast to the Ming system, however, Qing ethnic policy dictated that appointments were split between Manchu noblemen and Han officials who had passed the highest levels of the state examinations. The Grand Secretariat, which had been an important policy-making body under the Ming, lost its importance during the Qing and evolved into an imperial chancery. The institutions which had been inherited from the Ming formed the core of the Qing "Outer Court", which handled routine matters and was located in the southern part of the Forbidden City.

In order not to let the routine administration take over the running of the empire, the Qing emperors made sure that all important matters were decided in the "Inner Court", which was dominated by the imperial family and Manchu nobility and which was located in the northern part of the Forbidden City. The core institution of the inner court was the Grand Council. It emerged in the 1720s under the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor as a body charged with handling Qing military campaigns against the Mongols, but soon took over other military and administrative duties, centralizing authority under the crown. The Grand Councillors served as a sort of privy council to the emperor.

From the early Qing, the central government was characterized by a system of dual appointments by which each position in the central government had a Manchu and a Han Chinese assigned to it. The Han Chinese appointee was required to do the substantive work and the Manchu to ensure Han loyalty to Qing rule.

There was also another government institution called Imperial Household Department which was unique to the Qing dynasty. It was established before the fall of the Ming, but it became mature only after 1661, following the death of the Shunzhi Emperor and the accession of his son, the Kangxi Emperor. The department's original purpose was to manage the internal affairs of the imperial family and the activities of the inner palace (in which tasks it largely replaced eunuchs), but it also played an important role in Qing relations with Tibet and Mongolia, engaged in trading activities (jade, ginseng, salt, furs, etc.), managed textile factories in the Jiangnan region, and even published books. Relations with the Salt Superintendents and salt merchants, such as those at Yangzhou, were particularly lucrative, especially since they were direct, and did not go through absorptive layers of bureaucracy. The department was manned by booi, or "bondservants," from the Upper Three Banners. By the 19th century, it managed the activities of at least 56 subagencies.

Administrative divisions

Qing China reached its largest extent during the 18th century, when it ruled China proper (eighteen provinces) as well as the areas of present-day Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet, at approximately 13 million km2 in size. There were originally 18 provinces, all of which in China proper, but later this number was increased to 22, with Manchuria and Xinjiang being divided or turned into provinces. Taiwan, originally part of Fujian province, became a province of its own in the 19th century, but was ceded to the Empire of Japan following the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895.

Territorial administration

The Qing organization of provinces was based on the fifteen administrative units set up by the Ming dynasty, later made into eighteen provinces by splitting for example, Huguang into Hubei and Hunan provinces. The provincial bureaucracy continued the Yuan and Ming practice of three parallel lines, civil, military, and censorate, or surveillance. Each province was administered by a governor (巡撫, xunfu) and a provincial military commander (提督, tidu). Below the province were prefectures (府, fu) operating under a prefect (知府, zhīfǔ), followed by subprefectures under a subprefect. The lowest unit was the county, overseen by a county magistrate. The eighteen provinces are also known as "China proper". The position of viceroy or governor-general (總督, zongdu) was the highest rank in the provincial administration. There were eight regional viceroys in China proper, each usually took charge of two or three provinces. The Viceroy of Zhili, who was responsible for the area surrounding the capital Beijing, is usually considered as the most honorable and powerful viceroy among the eight.

By the mid-18th century, the Qing had successfully put outer regions such as Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang under its control. Imperial commissioners and garrisons were sent to Mongolia and Tibet to oversee their affairs. These territories were also under supervision of a central government institution called Lifan Yuan. Qinghai was also put under direct control of the Qing court. Xinjiang, also known as Chinese Turkestan, was subdivided into the regions north and south of the Tian Shan mountains, also known today as Dzungaria and Tarim Basin respectively, but the post of Ili General was established in 1762 to exercise unified military and administrative jurisdiction over both regions. Dzungaria was fully opened to Han migration by the Qianlong Emperor from the beginning. Han migrants were at first forbidden from permanently settling in the Tarim Basin but were the ban was lifted after the invasion by Jahangir Khoja in the 1820s. Likewise, Manchuria was also governed by military generals until its division into provinces, though some areas of Xinjiang and Northeast China were lost to the Russian Empire in the mid-19th century. Manchuria was originally separated from China proper by the Inner Willow Palisade, a ditch and embankment planted with willows intended to restrict the movement of the Han Chinese, as the area was off-limits to civilian Han Chinese until the government started colonizing the area, especially since the 1860s.

With respect to these outer regions, the Qing maintained imperial control, with the emperor acting as Mongol khan, patron of Tibetan Buddhism and protector of Muslims. However, Qing policy changed with the establishment of Xinjiang province in 1884. During The Great Game era, taking advantage of the Dungan revolt in northwest China, Yaqub Beg invaded Xinjiang from Central Asia with support from the British Empire, and made himself the ruler of the kingdom of Kashgaria. The Qing court sent forces to defeat Yaqub Beg and Xinjiang was reconquered, and then the political system of China proper was formally applied onto Xinjiang. The Kumul Khanate, which was incorporated into the Qing empire as a vassal after helping Qing defeat the Zunghars in 1757, maintained its status after Xinjiang turned into a province through the end of the dynasty in the Xinhai Revolution up until 1930. In the early 20th century, Britain sent an expedition force to Tibet and forced Tibetans to sign a treaty. The Qing court responded by asserting Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, resulting in the 1906 Anglo-Chinese Convention signed between Britain and China. The British agreed not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet, while China engaged not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet. Furthermore, similar to Xinjiang which was converted into a province earlier, the Qing government also turned Manchuria into three provinces in the early 20th century, officially known as the "Three Northeast Provinces", and established the post of Viceroy of the Three Northeast Provinces to oversee these provinces, making the total number of regional viceroys to nine.

Military

The Qing dynasty was established by conquest and maintained by armed force. The founding emperors personally organized and led the armies, and the continued cultural and political legitimacy of the dynasty depended on the ability to defend the country from invasion and expand its territory. Therefore, military institutions, leadership, and finance were fundamental to the dynasty's initial success and ultimate decay. The early military system centered on the Eight Banners, a hybrid institution that also played social, economic, and political roles. The Banner system was developed on an informal basis as early as 1601, and formally established in 1615 by Jurchen leader Nurhaci (1559–1626), the retrospectively recognized founder of the Qing. His son Hong Taiji (1592–1643), who renamed the Jurchens "Manchus," created eight Mongol banners to mirror the Manchu ones and eight "Han-martial" (|s=|t=漢軍 Hànjūn|labels=no) banners manned by Chinese who surrendered to the Qing before the full-fledged conquest of China proper began in 1644. After 1644, the Ming Chinese troops that surrendered to the Qing were integrated into the Green Standard Army, a corps that eventually outnumbered the Banners by three to one.

The use of gunpowder during the High Qing can compete with the three gunpowder empires in western Asia. Manchu imperial princes led the Banners in defeating the Ming armies, but after lasting peace was established starting in 1683, both the Banners and the Green Standard Armies started to lose their efficiency. Garrisoned in cities, soldiers had few occasions to drill. The Qing nonetheless used superior armament and logistics to expand deeply into Central Asia, defeat the Dzungar Mongols in 1759, and complete their conquest of Xinjiang. Despite the dynasty's pride in the Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), the Qing armies became largely ineffective by the end of the 18th century. It took almost ten years and huge financial waste to defeat the badly equipped White Lotus Rebellion (1795–1804), partly by legitimizing militias led by local Han Chinese elites. The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864), a large-scale uprising that started in southern China, marched within miles of Beijing in 1853. The Qing court was forced to let its Han Chinese governors-general, first led by Zeng Guofan, raise regional armies. This new type of army and leadership defeated the rebels but signaled the end of Manchu dominance of the military establishment.

The military technology of the European Industrial Revolution made China's armament and military rapidly obsolete. In 1860 British and French forces in the Second Opium War captured Beijing and sacked the Summer Palace. The shaken court attempted to modernize its military and industrial institutions by buying European technology. This Self-Strengthening Movement established shipyards (notably the Jiangnan Arsenal and the Foochow Arsenal) and bought modern guns and battleships in Europe. The Qing navy became the largest in East Asia. But organization and logistics were inadequate, officer training was deficient, and corruption widespread. The Beiyang Fleet was virtually destroyed and the modernized ground forces defeated in the 1895 First Sino-Japanese War. The Qing created a New Army, but could not prevent the Eight Nation Alliance from invading China to put down the Boxer Uprising in 1900. The revolt of a New Army corps in 1911 led to the fall of the dynasty.

Society

Population growth and mobility

The most significant facts of early and mid-Qing social history was growth in population, population density, and mobility. The population in 1700, according to widely accepted estimates, was roughly 150 million, about what it had been under the late Ming a century before, then doubled over the next century, and reached a height of 450 million on the eve of the Taiping Rebellion in 1850.

One reason for this growth was the spread of New World crops like peanuts, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, which helped to sustain the people during shortages of harvest for crops such as rice or wheat.  These crops could be grown under harsher conditions, and thus were cheaper as well, which led to them becoming staples for poorer farmers, decreasing the number of deaths from malnutrition. Diseases such as smallpox, widespread in the seventeenth century, were brought under control by an increase in inoculations. In addition, infant deaths were also greatly decreased due to improvements in birthing techniques and childcare performed by doctors and midwives and through an increase in medical books available to the public. Government campaigns decreased the incidence of infanticide. Unlike Europe, where population growth in this period was greatest in the cities, in China the growth in cities and the lower Yangzi was low. The greatest growth was in the borderlands and the highlands, where farmers could clear large tracts of marshlands and forests.

The population was also remarkably mobile, perhaps more so than at any time in Chinese history. Indeed, the Qing government did far more to encourage mobility than to discourage it. Millions of Han Chinese migrated to Yunnan and Guizhou in the 18th century, and also to Taiwan. After the conquests of the 1750s and 1760s, the court organized agricultural colonies in Xinjiang. Migration might be permanent, for resettlement, or the migrants (in theory at least) might regard the move as a temporary sojourn. The latter included an increasingly large and mobile workforce. Local-origin-based merchant groups also moved freely. This mobility also included the organized movement of Qing subjects overseas, largely to Southeastern Asia, in search of trade and other economic opportunities.

Statuses in society

According to statute, Qing society was divided into relatively closed estates, of which in most general terms there were five. Apart from the estates of the officials, the comparatively minuscule aristocracy, and the degree-holding literati, there also existed a major division among ordinary Chinese between commoners and people with inferior status. They were divided into two categories: one of them, the good "commoner" people, the other "mean" people who were seen as debased and servile. The majority of the population belonged to the first category and were described as liangmin, a legal term meaning good people, as opposed to jianmin meaning the mean (or ignoble) people. Qing law explicitly stated that the traditional four occupational groups of scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants were "good", or having a status of commoners. On the other hand, slaves or bondservants, entertainers (including prostitutes and actors), tattooed criminals, and those low-level employees of government officials were the "mean people". Mean people were considered legally inferior to commoners and suffered unequal treatments, forbidden to take the imperial examination. Furthermore, such people were usually not allowed to marry with free commoners and were even often required to acknowledge their abasement in society through actions such as bowing. However, throughout the Qing dynasty, the emperor and his court, as well as the bureaucracy, worked towards reducing the distinctions between the debased and free but did not completely succeed even at the end of its era in merging the two classifications together.

Qing gentry

Although there had been no powerful hereditary aristocracy since the Song dynasty, the gentry (shenshi), like their British counterparts, enjoyed imperial privileges and managed local affairs. The status of this scholar-official was defined by passing at least the first level of civil service examinations and holding a degree, which qualified him to hold imperial office, although he might not actually do so. The gentry member could legally wear gentry robes and could talk to officials as equals. Officials who had served for one or two terms could retire to enjoy the glory of their status. Informally, the gentry then presided over local society and could use their connections to influence the magistrate, acquire land, and maintain large households. The gentry thus included not only males holding degrees but also their wives, descendants, some of their relatives.

The gentry class was divided into groups. Not all who held office were literati, as merchant families could purchase degrees, and not all who passed the exams found employment as officials, since the number of degree-holders was greater than the number of openings. The gentry class also differed in the source and amount of their income. Literati families drew income from landholding, as well as from lending money. Officials, of course, drew a salary, which, as the years went by, were less and less adequate, leading to widespread reliance on "squeeze," irrgular payments. Those who prepared for but failed the exams, like those who passed but were not appointed to office, could become tutors or teachers, private secretaries to sitting officials, administrators of guilds or temples, or other positions that required literacy. Others turned to fields such as engineering, medicine, or law, which by the nineteenth century demanded specialized learning. By the nineteenth century, it was no longer shameful to become an author or publisher of fiction.

The Qing gentry were marked as much by their aspiration to a cultured lifestyle as by their legal status. They lived more refined and comfortable lives than the commoners and used sedan-chairs to travel any significant distance. They often showed off their learning by collecting objects such as scholars' stones,

porcelain or pieces of art for their beauty, which set them off from less cultivated commoners.

Qing nobility

Family and kinship

By the Qing, the building block of society was patrilineal kinship, that is, the local family lineage with descent through the male line, often translated as "clan" in earlier scholarship. A shift in marital practices, identity and loyalty had begun during the Song dynasty when the civil service examination began to replace nobility and inheritance as a means for gaining status. Instead of intermarrying within aristocratic elites of the same social status, they tended to form marital alliances with nearby families of the same or higher wealth, and established the local people's interests as first and foremost which helped to form intermarried townships. The Neo-Confucian ideology, especially the Cheng-Zhu thinking favored by Qing social thought, emphasised patrilineal families and genealogy in society.

The emperors and local officials exhorted families to compile genealogies in order to stabilize local society. The genealogy was placed in the ancestral hall, which served as the lineage's headquarters and a place for annual ancestral sacrifice.The genealogy recorded the lineage's history, biographies of respected ancestors, a chart of all the family members of each generation, rules for the members to follow, and often copies of title contracts for collective property as well. A specific Chinese character appeared in the given name of each male of each generation, often well into the future. These lineages claimed to be based on biological descent but when a member of a lineage gained office or became wealthy, he might use considerable creativity in selecting a prestigious figure to be "founding ancestor". Such worship was intended to ensure that the ancestors remain content and benevolent spirits (shen) who would keep watch over and protect the family. Later observers felt that the ancestral cult focused on the family and lineage, rather than on more public matters such as community and nation.

Inner Mongols and Khalkha Mongols in the Qing rarely knew their ancestors beyond four generations and Mongol tribal society was not organized among patrilineal clans, contrary to what was commonly thought, but included unrelated people at the base unit of organization. The Qing tried but failed to promote the Chinese Neo-Confucian ideology of organizing society along patrimonial clans among the Mongols.

Religion

Manchu rulers presided over a multi-ethnic empire and the emperor, who was held responsible for 「All Under Heaven」 or Tian Xia, patronized and took responsibility for all religions and belief systems. The empire's 「spiritual center of gravity" was the "religio-political state." Since the empire was part of the order of the cosmos, which conferred the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor as 「Son of Heaven」 was both the head of the political system and the head priest of the State Cult. He united political and spiritual roles that in medieval Europe were separated into the roles of emperor and pope and performed the imperial rites that ensured political order, prosperity, and social morality. The emperor and his officials, who were his personal representatives, took responsibility all aspects of the empire, especially spiritual life and religious institutions and practices. The county magistrate, as the emperor's political and spiritual representative, made offerings at officially recognized temples, for instance those dedicated to the God of Walls and Moats, (the so-called 「City God), and local deified heroes. The magistrate lectured on the Emperor』s Sacred Edict to promote civic morality; he kept close watch over religious organizations whose actions might threaten the sovereignty and religious prerogative of the state.

The belief system most widely practiced among Han Chinese is often called local, popular, or folk religion, and was centered around the patriarchal family, the maintenance of the male family line, and shen, or spirits. Common practices included ancestor veneration, filial piety, local gods and spirits. Rites included mourning, funeral, burial, practices. Since they did not require exclusive allegiance, forms and branches of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism were intertwined, for instance in the syncretic Three teachings. Chinese folk religion combined elements of the three, with local variations County magistrates, who were graded and promoted on their ability to maintain local order, tolerated local sects and even patronized local temples as long as they were orderly, but were suspicious of heterodox sects that defied state authority and rejected imperial doctrines. Some of these sects indeed had long histories of rebellion, such as the Way of Former Heaven, which drew on Daoism, and the White Lotus society, which drew on millennial Buddhism. The White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1804) confirmed official suspicions as did the Taiping Rebellion, which drew on millennial Christianity.

Manchu and imperial religion

The Manchu imperial family were especially attracted by Yellow Sect or Gelug Buddhism that had spread from Tibet into Mongolia. The Fifth Dalai Lama, who had gained power in 1642, just before the Manchus took Beijing, looked to the Qing court for support. The Kangxi and Qianlong emperors practiced this form of Tibetan Buddhism as one of their household religions and built temples that made Beijing one of its centers, and constructed a replica Lhasa's Potala Palace at their summer retreat in Rehe.

Shamanism, the most common religion among Manchus, was a spiritual inheritance from their Tungusic ancestors that set them off from Han Chinese. State shamanism was important to the imperial family both to maintain their Manchu cultural identity and to promote their imperial legitimacy among tribes in the northeast. Imperial obligations included rituals on the first day of Chinese New Year at a shamanic shrine (tangse). Practices in Manchu families included sacrifices to the ancestors, and the use of shamans, often women, who went into a trance to seek healing or exorcism

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

The Abrahamic religions had arrived from Western Asia as early as the Tang dynasty but their insistence that they should be practiced to the exclusion of other religions made them less adaptable than Buddhism, which had quickly been accepted as native. Islam predominated in Central Asian areas of the empire, while Judaism and Christianity were practiced in well-established but self-contained communities.

Several hundred Catholic missionaries arrived from the late Ming period until the proscription of Christianity in 1724. The Jesuits adapted to Chinese expectations, evangelized from the top down, adopted the robes and lifestyles of literati, becoming proficient in the Confucian classics, and did not challenge Chinese moral values, such as ancestor veneration. They proved their value to the early Manchu emperors with their work in gunnery, cartography, and astronomy, but fell out of favor for a time until the Kangxi emperor』s 1692 edict of toleration. In the countryside, the newly arrived Dominican and Franciscan clerics established rural communities that adapted to local folk religious practices by emphasizing healing, festivals, and holy days rather than sacraments and doctrine. By the beginning of the eighteenth century,a spectrum of Christian believers had established communities. In 1724, the Yongzheng emperor (1678–1735) announced that Christianity was a "heterodox teaching" and hence proscribed. Since the European Catholic missionaries kept control in their own hands and had not allowed the creation of a native clergy, however, the number of Catholics would grow more rapidly after 1724 and local communities could set their own rules and standards. In 1811, Christian religious activities were further criminalized by the Jiaqing Emperor (1760–1820). The imperial ban was lifted by Treaty in 1846.

The first Protestant missionary to China was Robert Morrison (1782–1834) of the London Missionary Society (LMS), who arrived at Canton on September 6, 1807. He completed a translation of the entire Bible in 1819. Liang Afa (1789–1855), a Morrison-trained Chinese convert, branched out the evangelization mission in inner China. The two Opium Wars (1839–1860) marked the watershed of Protestant Christian missions. The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, the American treaty and the French treaty signed in 1844, and the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin, distinguished Christianity from the local religions and granted it protected status. Chinese popular cults, such as the White Lotus and the Eight Trigram presented themselves as Christian to share this protection.

In the late 1840s Hong Xiuquan read Morrison's Chinese Bible, as well as Liang Afa's evangelistic pamphlet, and announced to his followers that Christianity in fact had been the religion of ancient China before Confucius and his followers drove it out. He formed the Taiping Movement, which emerged in South China as a 「collusion of the Chinese tradition of millenarian rebellion and Christian messianism,」 「apocalyptic revolution, Christianity, and "communist utopianism.」

After 1860, enforcement of the treaties allowed missionaries to spread their evangelization efforts outside Treaty Ports. Their presence created cultural and political opposition. Historian John K. Fairbank observed that "To the scholar-gentry, Christian missionaries were foreign subversives, whose immoral conduct and teaching were backed by gunboats.」 In the next decades, there were 800 some conflicts between village Christians and non-Christians (jiao』an) mostly about non-religious issues, such as land rights or local taxes, but religious conflict often behind such cases. In the summer of 1900, as foreign powers contemplated the division of China, village youths, known as Boxers, who practiced Chinese martial arts and spiritual practices, reacted against Western power and churches, attacked and murdered Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries in the Boxer Uprising. The imperialist powers once again invaded and imposed a substantial indemnity. The Beijing government reacted by implementing substantial fiscal and administrative reforms but this defeat convinced many among the educated elites that popular religion was an obstacle to China』s development as a modern nation, and some turned to Christianity as a spiritual tool to build one.

By 1900, there were about 1,400 Catholic priests and nuns in China serving nearly 1 million Catholics. Over 3,000 Protestant missionaries were active among the 250,000 Protestant Christians in China. Western medical missionaries established clinics and hospitals, and led medical training in China. Missionaries began establishing nurse training schools in the late 1880s, but nursing of sick men by women was rejected by local tradition, so the number of students was small until the 1930s.

Economy

By the end of the 17th century, the Chinese economy had recovered from the devastation caused by the wars in which the Ming dynasty were overthrown, and the resulting breakdown of order. In the following century, markets continued to expand as in the late Ming period, but with more trade between regions, a greater dependence on overseas markets and a greatly increased population. By the end of the 18th century the population had risen to 300 million from approximately 150 million during the late Ming dynasty. The dramatic rise in population was due to several reasons, including the long period of peace and stability in the 18th century and the import of new crops China received from the Americas, including peanuts, sweet potatoes and maize. New species of rice from Southeast Asia led to a huge increase in production. Merchant guilds proliferated in all of the growing Chinese cities and often acquired great social and even political influence. Rich merchants with official connections built up huge fortunes and patronized literature, theater and the arts. Textile and handicraft production boomed.

The government broadened land ownership by returning land that had been sold to large landowners in the late Ming period by families unable to pay the land tax. To give people more incentives to participate in the market, they reduced the tax burden in comparison with the late Ming, and replaced the corvée system with a head tax used to hire laborers. The administration of the Grand Canal was made more efficient, and transport opened to private merchants. A system of monitoring grain prices eliminated severe shortages, and enabled the price of rice to rise slowly and smoothly through the 18th century. Wary of the power of wealthy merchants, Qing rulers limited their trading licenses and usually refused them permission to open new mines, except in poor areas. These restrictions on domestic resource exploration, as well as on foreign trade, are held by some scholars as a cause of the Great Divergence, by which the Western world overtook China economically.

During the Ming–Qing period (1368–1911) the biggest development in the Chinese economy was its transition from a command to a market economy, the latter becoming increasingly more pervasive throughout the Qing's rule. From roughly 1550 to 1800 China proper experienced a second commercial revolution, developing naturally from the first commercial revolution of the Song period which saw the emergence of long-distance inter-regional trade of luxury goods. During the second commercial revolution, for the first time, a large percentage of farming households began producing crops for sale in the local and national markets rather than for their own consumption or barter in the traditional economy. Surplus crops were placed onto the national market for sale, integrating farmers into the commercial economy from the ground up. This naturally led to regions specializing in certain cash-crops for export as China's economy became increasingly reliant on inter-regional trade of bulk staple goods such as cotton, grain, beans, vegetable oils, forest products, animal products, and fertilizer.

Silver

Silver entered in large quantities from mines in the New World after the Spanish conquered the Philippines in the 1570s. The re-opening of the southeast coast, which had been closed in the late 17th century, quickly revived trade, which expanded at 4% per annum throughout the latter part of the 18th century. China continued to export tea, silk and manufactures, creating a large, favorable trade balance with the West. The resulting expansion of the money supply supported competitive and stable markets. During the mid-Ming China had gradually shifted to silver as the standard currency for large scale transactions and by the late Kangxi reign the assessment and collection of the land tax was done in silver. Landlords began only accepting rent payments in silver rather than in crops themselves, which in turn incentivized farmers to produce crops for sale in local and national markets rather than for their own personal consumption or barter. Unlike the copper coins, qian or cash, used mainly for smaller transactions, silver was not reliably minted into a coin but rather was traded in units of weight: the liang or tael, which equaled roughly 1.3 ounces of silver. A third-party had to be brought in to assess the weight and purity of the silver, resulting in an extra "meltage fee" added on to the price of transaction. Furthermore, since the "meltage fee" was unregulated until the reign of the Yongzheng emperor it was the source of much corruption at each level of the bureaucracy. The Yongzheng emperor cracked down on the corrupt "meltage fees," legalizing and regulating them so that they could be collected as a tax, "returning meltage fees to the public coffer." From this newly increased public coffer, the Yongzheng emperor increased the salaries of the officials who collected them, further legitimizing silver as the standard currency of the Qing economy.

Urbanization and the proliferation of market-towns

The second commercial revolution also had a profound effect on the dispersion of the Qing populace. Up until the late Ming there existed a stark contrast between the rural countryside and city metropoles and very few mid-sized cities existed. This was due to the fact that extraction of surplus crops from the countryside was traditionally done by the state and not commercial organizations. However, as commercialization expanded exponentially in the late-Ming and early-Qing, mid-sized cities began popping up to direct the flow of domestic, commercial trade. Some towns of this nature had such a large volume of trade and merchants flowing through them that they developed into full-fledged market-towns. Some of these more active market-towns even developed into small-cities and became home to the new rising merchant-class. The proliferation of these mid-sized cities was only made possible by advancements in long-distance transportation and methods of communication. As more and more Chinese-citizens were travelling the country conducting trade they increasingly found themselves in a far-away place needing a place to stay, in response the market saw the expansion of guild halls to house these merchants.

Full-fledged trade guilds emerged, which, among other things, issued regulatory codes and price schedules, and provided a place for travelling merchants to stay and conduct their business. Along with the huiguan trade guilds, guild halls dedicated to more specific professions, gongsuo, began to appear and to control commercial craft or artisanal industries such as carpentry, weaving, banking, and medicine. By the nineteenth century guild halls worked to transform urban areas into cosmopolitan, multi-cultural hubs, staged theatre performances open to general public, developed real estate by pooling funds together in the style of a trust, and some even facilitated the development of social services such as maintaining streets, water supply, and sewage facilities.

Trade with the West

In 1685 the Kangxi emperor legalized private maritime trade along the coast, establishing a series of customs stations in major port cities. The customs station at Canton became by far the most active in foreign trade and by the late Kangxi reign more than forty mercantile houses specializing in trade with the West had appeared. The Yongzheng emperor made a parent corporation comprising those forty individual houses in 1725 known as the Cohong system. Firmly established by 1757, the Canton Cohong was an association of thirteen business firms that had been awarded exclusive rights to conduct trade with Western merchants in Canton. Until its abolition after the Opium War in 1842, the Canton Cohong system was the only permitted avenue of Western trade into China, and thus became a booming hub of international trade by the early eighteenth century. By the eighteenth century the most significant export China had was tea. British demand for tea increased exponentially up until they figured out how to grow it for themselves in the hills of northern India in the 1880s. By the end of the eighteenth century tea exports going through the Canton Cohong system amounted to one-tenth of the revenue from taxes collected from the British and nearly the entire revenue of the British East India Company and until the early nineteenth century tea comprised ninety percent of exports leaving Canton.

Science and technology

Chinese scholars, court academies, and local officials carried on late Ming dynasty strengths in astronomy, mathematics, and geography, as well as technologies in ceramics, metallurgy, water transport, printing. Contrary to stereotypes in some Western writing, 16th and 17th century Qing dynasty officials and literati eagerly explored the technology and science introduced by Jesuit missionaries. Manchu leaders employed Jesuits to use cannon and gunpowder to great effect in the conquest of China, and the court sponsored their research in astronomy. The aim of these efforts, however, was to reform and improve inherited science and technology, not to replace it. Scientific knowledge advanced during the Qing, but there was not a change in the way this knowledge was organized or the way scientific evidence was defined or its truth tested. Those who studied the physical universe shared their findings with each other and identified themselves as men of science, but they did not have a separate and independent professional role with its own training and advancement. They were still literati.

The Opium Wars, however, demonstrated the power of steam engine and military technology that had only recently been put into practice in the West. During the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s and 1870s Confucian officials in several coastal provinces established an industrial base in military technology. The introduction of railroads into China raised questions that were more political than technological. A British company built the Shanghai—Woosung line in 1876, obtaining the land under false pretenses, and it was soon torn up. Court officials feared local public opinion and that railways would help invaders, harm farmlands, and obstruct feng shui. To keep development in Chinese hands, the Qing government borrowed 34 billion taels of silver from foreign lenders for railway construction between 1894 and 1911. As late as 1900, only were in operation, with a further in the planning stage. Finally, of railway was completed. The British and French after 1905 were finally able to open lines to Burma and Vietnam.

Protestant missionaries by the 1830s translated and printed Western science and medical textbooks. The textbooks found homes in the rapidly enlarging network of missionary schools, and universities. The textbooks opened learning open possibilities for the small number of Chinese students interested in science, and a very small number interested in technology. After 1900, Japan had a greater role in bringing modern science and technology to Chinese audiences but even then they reached chiefly the children of the rich landowning gentry, who seldom engaged in industrial careers.

Arts and culture

Under the Qing, inherited forms of art flourished and innovations occurred at many levels and in many types. High levels of literacy, a successful publishing industry, prosperous cities, and the Confucian emphasis on cultivation all fed a lively and creative set of cultural fields.

By the end of the nineteenth century, national artistic and cultural worlds had begun to come to terms with the cosmopolitan culture of the West and Japan. The decision to stay within old forms or welcome Western models was now a conscious choice rather than an unchallenged acceptance of tradition. Classically trained Confucian scholars such as Liang Qichao and Wang Guowei read widely and broke aesthetic and critical ground later cultivated in the New Culture Movement.

Fine arts

The Qing emperors were generally adept at poetry and often skilled in painting, and offered their patronage to Confucian culture. The Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors, for instance, embraced Chinese traditions both to control them and to proclaim their own legitimacy. The Kangxi Emperor sponsored the Peiwen Yunfu, a rhyme dictionary published in 1711, and the Kangxi Dictionary published in 1716, which remains to this day an authoritative reference. The Qianlong Emperor sponsored the largest collection of writings in Chinese history, the Siku Quanshu, completed in 1782. Court painters made new versions of the Song masterpiece, Zhang Zeduan's Along the River During the Qingming Festival, whose depiction of a prosperous and happy realm demonstrated the beneficence of the emperor. The emperors undertook tours of the south and commissioned monumental scrolls to depict the grandeur of the occasion. Imperial patronage also encouraged the industrial production of ceramics and Chinese export porcelain. Peking glassware became popular after European glass making processes were introduced by Jesuits to Beijing.

Yet the most impressive aesthetic works were done among the scholars and urban elite. Calligraphy and painting remained a central interest to both court painters and scholar-gentry who considered the four arts part of their cultural identity and social standing. The painting of the early years of the dynasty included such painters as the orthodox Four Wangs and the individualists Bada Shanren (1626–1705) and Shitao (1641–1707). The nineteenth century saw such innovations as the Shanghai School and the Lingnan School, which used the technical skills of tradition to set the stage for modern painting.

Traditional learning and literature

Traditional learning flourished, especially among Ming loyalists such as Dai Zhen and Gu Yanwu, but scholars in the school of evidential learning made innovations in skeptical textual scholarship. Scholar-bureaucrats, including Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan, developed a school of practical statecraft which rooted bureaucratic reform and restructuring in classical philosophy.

Philosophy and literature grew to new heights in the Qing period. Poetry continued as a mark of the cultivated gentleman, but women wrote in larger and larger numbers and poets came from all walks of life. The poetry of the Qing dynasty is a lively field of research, being studied (along with the poetry of the Ming dynasty) for its association with Chinese opera, developmental trends of Classical Chinese poetry, the transition to a greater role for vernacular language, and for poetry by women. The Qing dynasty was a period of literary editing and criticism, and many of the modern popular versions of Classical Chinese poems were transmitted through Qing dynasty anthologies, such as the Quan Tangshi and the Three Hundred Tang Poems. Although fiction did not have the prestige of poetry, novels flourished. Pu Songling brought the short story to a new level in his Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, published in the mid-18th century, and Shen Fu demonstrated the charm of the informal memoir in Six Chapters of a Floating Life, written in the early 19th century but published only in 1877. The art of the novel reached a pinnacle in Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber, but its combination of social commentary and psychological insight were echoed in highly skilled novels such as Wu Jingzi's Rulin waishi (1750) and Li Ruzhen's Flowers in the Mirror (1827).

Cuisine

Cuisine aroused a cultural pride in the richness of a long and varied past. The gentleman gourmet, such as Yuan Mei, applied aesthetic standards to the art of cooking, eating, and appreciation of tea at a time when New World crops and products entered everyday life. Yuan's Suiyuan Shidan expounded culinary aesthetics and theory, along with a range of recipes. The Manchu–Han Imperial Feast originated at the court. Although this banquet was probably never common, it reflected an appreciation of Manchu culinary customs. Nevertheless, culinary traditionalists such as Yuan Mei lambasted the opulence of the Manchu Han Feast. Yuan wrote that the feast was caused in part by the "vulgar habits of bad chefs" and that "displays this trite are useful only for welcoming new relations through one's gates or when the boss comes to visit". (皆惡廚陋習。只可用之於新親上門，上司入境)

History and memory

Nationalism

After 1912, writers, historians and scholars in China and abroad generally deprecated the failures of the late imperial system. However, in the 21st century, a favorable view has emerged in popular culture. Building pride in Chinese history, nationalists have portrayed Imperial China as benevolent, strong and more advanced than the West. They blame ugly wars and diplomatic controversies on imperialist exploitation by Western nations and Japan. Although officially still communist and Maoist, in practice China's rulers have used this grassroots settlement to proclaim that their current policies are restoring China's historical glory. Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping has sought parity between Beijing and Washington and promised to restore China to its historical glory.

New Qing History

The New Qing History is a revisionist historiographical trend starting in the mid-1990s emphasizing the Manchu nature of the dynasty. Earlier historians had emphasized the power of Han Chinese to "sinicize" their conquerors, that is, to assimilate and make them Chinese in their thought and institutions. In the 1980s and early 1990s, American scholars began to learn Manchu and took advantage of newly opened Chinese- and Manchu-language documents in the archives. This research found that the Manchu rulers manipulated their subjects and from the 1630s through at least the 18th century, emperors developed a sense of Manchu identity and used Central Asian models of rule as much as they did Confucian ones. According to the new school the Manchu ruling class regarded "China" as only a part, although a very important part, of a much wider empire that extended into the Inner Asian territories of Mongolia, Tibet, the Manchuria and Xinjiang.

Ping-ti Ho criticized the new approach for exaggerating the Manchu character of the dynasty and argued for the sinification of its rule. Some scholars in China accused the American group of imposing American concerns with race and identity or even of imperialist misunderstanding to weaken China. Still others in China agree that this scholarship has opened new vistas for the study of Qing history.

The "New Qing History" is not related to the New Qing History, a multi-volume history of the Qing dynasty that was authorized by the Chinese State Council in 2003.

國號

名稱來源

1616年努爾哈赤建立後金政權，1636年皇太極改國號為「大清」，入關後成為元朝以來中國歷史上第三個（也是最後一個）把「大」字加入正式國號之中的大一統皇朝。皇太極改國號的原因未有史料明確記載，有說法認為是為了掩蓋女真曾臣服於明的歷史以鼓舞士氣；「清」之國號，或云是金的諧音，而且滿人尚青，加水字邊以符合五德終始說，用水免去朱明（朱是指明朝皇帝的姓氏，明是明朝國號）之「火」；另有一種觀點認為「大清」這一國號並非來自漢語，而是滿語中的一個蒙古借詞「」（），原意為「善戰者，戰士」，故「大清國」的意思是「上國」或「善戰之國」；但此論述存有爭議，有學者從語言與文獻考證等反駁，指出清朝統治者編撰的語言辭書皆無此用法。

對「中國」一詞的重塑

清朝以前「中國」的詞義基本上為地理、民族、政治區域和文化意義，而現代國體意義上的「中國」，直至1689年9月7日《中俄尼布楚條約》簽訂後才首次正式出現於外交文件上。

自入主中原之後，清朝皇帝正式以「中國」（ᡩᡠᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ|z=dulimbai gurun）稱呼全境。1689年，清朝康熙帝在與俄國簽訂的具有現代國際法水準的邊界條約——《尼布楚條約》中，首次將「中國」作為正式國家名稱使用，與「俄羅斯」相對，該「中國」指包括蒙古以及中國東北等地在內的整個清帝國。

中西史學家如黃興濤博士及新清史學派學者、東亞史學家歐立德（）認為，康雍乾之後的中國，是被清朝皇帝、滿人、漢人等其他族群共同認同並加以再造過的中國。現代「中國」的概念，正是來自於清朝所塑造的中國觀。

歷史

後金立國

15世紀初期，位於東北亞的女真族大致分成三部分，其中以建州女真最為強大。建州女真源自於遼金時代生女真完顏部的附屬五國部，居於牡丹江與松花江匯流地方，在元代組成為五個女真萬戶府，元末因受野人女真及朝鮮滋擾不斷，以及明朝的招撫等因素，其殘餘部族選擇歸附明朝。明朝將其部遷至原渤海地（今綏芬河流域）設置為他們新的聚居地。

1403年明朝依據原渤海建州的地名稱呼為建州女真，並設置了衛所這一地方軍事行政機構，冊封阿哈出（賜名李承善）為建州衛指揮使，猛哥帖木兒為建州衛左都督。其後1416年又建立建州左衛，以猛哥帖木兒為指揮使，並賜姓童。建州衛早期歸屬奴兒幹都司，奴兒幹都司廢除後改屬遼東都司。

猛哥帖木兒在被野人女真所殺後，其弟凡察與子董山被迫率眾南移，最後定居赫圖阿拉（今遼寧新賓），併入建州衛內。1442年，明朝又從建州左衛分立出右衛，以凡察領導右衛、董山領導左衛，形成建州三衛，三衛首領也是世襲制，但須經明朝政府認可後方生效。

由於建州三衛對明朝過度幹預女真產生不滿，因而逐漸不遵守朝廷命令。而此時女真各部也因嫌隙已四分五裂。1467年明朝聯合朝鮮削弱建州三衛（即成化犁庭），並且於遼東邊界興建長城。明朝萬曆初年，董山的後代覺昌安與其子塔克世偕同明朝遼東總兵李成梁，以建州右衛王杲叛亂為由攻滅王杲與其子阿台，然而覺昌安同其子塔克世在入城勸降叛明的阿台時發生混戰，覺昌安父子也在混戰中被明軍誤殺死亡。1586年明廷襲封塔克世之子努爾哈赤為指揮使，世襲建州衛作為補償。

努爾哈赤深覺被明朝背叛，以祖、父遺留的十三副遺甲崛起，統一建州女真後陸續併吞女真各部，並與漠南蒙古友好。

建州女真勢力日盛，1595年明朝授予努爾哈赤龍虎將軍的稱號，其勢力更加強大。1603年努爾哈赤在赫圖阿拉築城，兩年後致遼撫趙楫、總兵李成梁的呈文中說：「我奴兒哈赤收管我建州國之人，看守朝廷九百五十餘里邊疆」，以守疆名義索要更高權利，地位仍與過去相同，聲勢則已不同以往。一直到1616年，努爾哈赤在建立八旗制度後於赫圖阿拉（後稱興京）稱汗立國，即後金汗國。兩年後他以「七大恨」為由起兵反明。檄文中儼然以「北朝」自居。努爾哈赤在1619年的薩爾滸之戰中，擊敗楊鎬指揮的明軍、朝鮮與葉赫聯軍；接連佔領瀋陽、遼陽、撫順等遼東城市，戰無不勝的他更堅定了入主中原之志，隨後戰事集中於遼西地區。1626年，在與明袁崇煥交戰的寧遠戰役中受挫，數月後逝世。第八子皇太極歷經權力鬥爭後繼位。

皇太極即位之後，針對努爾哈赤時期的社會矛盾進行一系列改革，史稱「天聰新政」。皇太極改文館為內國史院、內秘書院、內弘文院，這是清朝內閣的雛形。還繼續完善和擴大蒙古八旗、漢軍八旗，設立理藩院管轄蒙古等地事務。1634年，將都城瀋陽易名「盛京」，更改「女真」族名為「滿洲」。1635年，多爾袞於征伐漠南蒙古時，聲稱得到元順帝離開中原時帶走的傳國玉璽

，皇太極親率其子與諸官出城迎接，拜天行禮。1636年，漠南諸部尊皇太極為「博格達徹辰汗」，皇太極在盛京稱帝，改年號為崇德，改國號為大清。當時明朝在關外的勢力尚有袁崇煥守備的錦州、寧遠與松山等三城。皇太極為繞道避開此防線，首先穩定根據地。他先脅迫明朝求和未果，隨後成功降伏西邊蒙古察哈爾部和東邊朝鮮。接著，皇太極經察哈爾繞道入侵明朝首都北京。最後崇禎帝（有人認為他中了反間計），處決援救北京的袁崇煥，史稱己巳之變。這種藉由繞道入侵的作法後來又執行五次，與明朝內部的流寇一同消耗明朝的經濟力。1642年，清軍於松錦之戰擊潰明軍並收降洪承疇等人，奪取明朝在關外的所有堡壘，明朝防線移至山海關及長城沿線。1643年皇太極病死，第九子福臨繼位，是為順治帝，由其叔多爾袞攝政。

入關一統

明朝崇禎末年，民變勢力（史稱「流寇」）如李自成於陝西西安建國大順，張獻忠於四川成都建國大西。1644年李自成經河南、山西順利地攻入北京，明思宗在煤山上吊自殺，明亡。同年山海關守將吳三桂不願投降大順。面對李自成的順軍，吳三桂引清兵入關，於一片石戰役擊敗順軍，史稱甲申之變。李自成放棄北京，率軍退回陝西。清朝攝政王多爾袞成功迎順治帝入關，順治在北京天壇圓丘行祭天之禮，祝文宣布受天命、建王朝，名稱仍用大清國號，並將首都遷到北京。同一時間，明朝馬士英擁護福王在明朝陪都南京應天府稱帝，即弘光帝，南明成立。然而弘光朝因為黨爭與宦官之亂而混亂分裂。

多爾袞先派阿濟格、吳三桂與多鐸、孔有德分陝北、河南二路攻打陝西李自成，李自成最後於湖北滅亡；派豪格攻滅四川張獻忠，其餘部投降南明以抗清。多爾袞接著對付位於江南、內鬥分裂的南明諸勢力。1645年，多鐸率清軍攻破史可法駐守的揚州，弘光帝逃至蕪湖被逮，送到北京殺害。明朝魯王朱以海與唐王隆武帝分別在浙江與福建建立勢力，然而雙方不和，不久被清軍各個擊破，擁護隆武帝的鄭芝龍也宣佈投降。之後桂王於廣東的肇慶即位為永曆帝，期間瞿式耜、李定國、鄭成功及其他明將先後收復華南各省，最後因為距離互相難以照應，內部又發生叛變而節節敗退。1661年，清軍攻入雲南，逃亡緬甸的永曆帝最後被吳三桂殺死，南明亡。此時只剩下臺灣的明鄭（鄭成功勢力）和緬甸果敢的明軍，清朝基本佔領明朝全部領地。由於華南反清勢力較大，清帝冊封吳三桂、耿仲明與尚可喜為王以鎮守雲南、廣東與福建等地，史稱三藩。

多爾袞在清軍攻入關內後推行剃髮易服政策，導致關內漢人對清廷態度驟變，甚至極力反抗，如「入關之初，嚴禁殺掠，故中原人士無不悅服，及有剃頭之舉，民皆憤怒，或見我人泣而言曰，我以何罪獨為此剃頭乎？」，而明朝官員左懋第亦言「我頭可斷、髮不可斷，我早辦一死矣。」。清軍對反抗者進行鎮壓，重要事件如揚州十日、嘉定三屠與庚寅之劫等。清廷制定的圈地和投充政策使人民放棄土地，增加更多流民。為此又制定嚴禁奴僕逃亡的逃人法，激化京畿地區的民族與階層矛盾。

但後續清廷下令停止這些政策，並實行獎勵墾荒、減免捐稅的政策。並且正式開科取士，追尊崇禎帝與明朝忠臣。

1661年，順治帝英年早逝，其子8歲的玄燁即位，即康熙帝，由索尼、遏必隆、蘇克薩哈與鰲拜四大臣輔政。康熙帝於繼位之初即運用計謀消滅跋扈的權臣鰲拜以穩固皇權。三藩勢力如吳三桂、耿精忠與尚之信等涵蓋全國之半，他們先後請求撤藩以試探清廷。當時部分大臣擔憂三藩叛變而反對。最後，孝莊太皇太后與康熙帝無懼三藩而同意撤除。這使得三藩與陝西王輔臣、廣西孫延齡與台灣明鄭的鄭經聯合發動三藩之亂。在這九年期間，反清勢力遍及華中、華南，吳三桂更於後期稱帝建國周。然而清軍採取積極防禦，進軍陝西、江西以切割叛軍。加上吳三桂沒有積極北伐，反清聯軍因佔領地與吳三桂過度幹涉而發生糾紛，最後王輔臣、耿繼忠與尚之信先後投降，佔領福建沿岸的鄭經被擊敗。1681年清軍攻入雲南，繼承吳三桂之位的吳世璠在昆明自殺，三藩之亂最終在1681年被完全撲滅，國家遭受較大的損失，在四川、雲南以及江西等地有不少人被殺害，從許多記載來看，在三藩之亂時，清軍，叛軍，土匪等曾造成屠殺平民事件，不僅僅在川滇，其他相關地區也遭受類似的厄運，比如江西百姓遭受屠戮的數量就不少，「剿洗，玉石難分，老幼死于鋒鏑，婦子悉為俘囚，白骨遍野，民無噍類」。同年，鄭經之子鄭克塽繼位，明鄭因內亂不斷導致不少將領降清。清朝派明鄭降將施琅率領水師攻打臺灣。施琅佔領澎湖，逼近東寧（今台灣台南），鄭克塽率領大臣降清，至此明鄭亡。

擴張與改制

康熙帝平定三藩後，清朝進入康雍乾時期，這段時期是清朝發展的高峰時期，史學界通常稱為「康雍乾盛世」。康熙帝為政寬仁，留心民間疾苦，在他親政不久後，便宣佈停止圈地，放寬墾荒地的免稅年限。他還著手整頓吏治，恢復京察、大計等考核制度。受康熙帝的「滋生人丁，永不加賦」（攤丁入畝）政策以及外來農作物的引進等影響，清朝人口大大提升。他先後任用靳輔和于成龍治理黃河與大運河，得到很大的成績。在他六次南巡期間，考察民情習俗之外，更是親自監督河工。康熙中期以後，因戰亂而遭到嚴重破壞的手工業逐步得到恢復和發展。為安定社會秩序，他頒行十六條聖諭，要地方人士循循告誡鄉民。他又派心腹包衣（即家奴）如曹寅、李熙等人打探地方物價、人民收入與官紳不軌之事，並以密褶奏報。此即密摺制度的萌芽，到雍正時期趨於完善。康熙帝重視對漢族士大夫的優遇，他多次舉辦博學鴻儒科，創建南書房制度，並且向來華傳教士學習西方科學與文化。

清初蒙古分為四大部。其中準噶爾汗國與俄羅斯沙皇國友好，其可汗噶爾丹先滅領葉爾羌汗國與青海和碩特，又佔領喀爾喀蒙古，喀爾喀三部南下投靠清朝。康熙帝首先派薩布素於雅克薩戰役驅除入侵黑龍江的沙俄軍隊，與沙俄所簽訂的《尼布楚條約》以確立東北疆界並獲得沙俄的中立。接著於1690年至1697年間烏蘭布通之戰與三征噶爾丹使噶爾丹戰死，進行多倫會盟以將喀爾喀蒙古納入直接統治。青藏地區的和碩特汗國協助黃教達賴五世擊敗紅教統一全藏，之後分裂成青海與西藏和碩特。達賴六世時，藏區政事交由第巴（理事大臣）桑結嘉錯管理，他聯合準噶爾對抗西藏和碩特的拉藏汗，拉藏汗先下手殺桑結嘉錯並廢除達賴六世。1717年噶爾丹的侄子策妄阿拉布坦入侵西藏，攻殺拉藏汗，並且佔領拉薩。清軍多次被準軍擊敗，最後於1720年由胤禵率軍驅除成功，協助達賴七世入藏，以拉藏汗舊臣管理藏區。

康熙晚期，由於官員薪資過低以及法律過寬，導致官吏貪污，吏治敗壞，並發生南山案文字獄事件，到雍正與乾隆時期這種情況加重。康熙帝本來按照中國立嫡立長的傳統封胤礽為太子，由於太子本身的素質問題及其在朝中結黨而廢太子，使得諸皇子為皇位互相結黨傾軋。故太子一度復立，但康熙帝仍無法容忍其結黨而廢除。最終在1722年臨終時傳位於胤禛，即雍正帝。

雍正帝獲得隆科多的協助繼位，賴年羹堯平定青海亂事以穩固政局，然而後來因故賜死年羹堯、幽禁隆科多。雍正帝在位時期，針對康熙時期的弊端採取補救措施，以延續康雍乾盛世。他設置軍機處加強皇權，廢殺與他對立的王公並削弱親王勢力。注重皇子教育，採取秘密立儲制度以防止康熙晚年諸皇子爭位的局面再度發生。將丁銀併入地賦，減輕無地貧民的負擔。廢止賤民政策，令世代受到奴役且地位低賤的賤戶被解放。為解決地方貪腐問題使火耗歸公，耗羨費用改由中央政府計算；設置養廉銀以提高地方官員的薪水。

對外方面，雍正初年青海親王羅卜藏丹津意圖復興和碩特汗國而亂，隔年年羹堯與岳鍾琪等人平定。為此雍正帝佔領部分西康地區，又在西寧與拉薩分置辦事大臣與駐藏大臣以管理青藏地區。聽從鄂爾泰建議推行改土歸流，廢除具自治性質的土司，以地方官管理少數民族。將喀爾喀蒙古併入清朝；於1727年與俄羅斯帝國簽訂恰克圖條約，確立塞北疆界。1729年聽從張廷玉建議，以傅爾丹與岳鍾琪兵分二路於科布多對抗準噶爾汗噶爾丹策零，最後於和通泊之戰戰敗。1732年噶爾丹策零東征喀爾喀蒙古，兵至杭愛山，被喀爾喀親王策棱擊敗。1734年清準和談，以阿爾泰山為界，西北大致和平。

雍正帝勤於政事，自詡「以勤先天下」、「朝乾夕惕」。他在位期間的奏摺大多由他親自批改，軍機處的諭旨也由他再三修改。他所親信的內外臣僚如張廷玉、鄂爾泰、田文鏡與李衛等人也都以幹練、刻覆著稱。他所派遣的特務遍即天下以監控地方事務，密摺制度至此完善，然而屢興文字獄打壓異己。1735年雍正帝於工作時去世，其子弘曆繼位，即乾隆帝。

盛極趨衰

乾隆帝繼位之初，獲得張廷玉與鄂爾泰的協助，穩定政局。他以「寬猛相濟」理念施政，介於康熙帝的仁厚與雍正帝的嚴苛之間。人口不斷增加使乾隆末年突破三億大關，約佔當時世界人口的三分之一。江南與廣東等地的絲織業與棉織業都很發達，景德鎮的瓷器都達到歷史高峰。與此同時，銀號亦開始在山西出現。中國的國庫庫存亦從雍正十三年（1735年）的34,530,485銀兩上升至乾隆三十九年（1774年）的73,905,610銀兩。然而乾隆晚期多從寬厚，寵信貪官和珅，官員腐化使政治大壞；六次下江南以蠲賦恩賞、巡視河工、觀民察吏、加恩士紳、培植士族、閱兵祭陵，有學者認為供張過盛，擾民有餘的批評。美國哈佛大學教授歐立德指出乾隆六次南巡誠然耗資巨大，但相對於當時國庫收入而言尚在可承受的範圍之內。

乾隆帝鴻講學術，然而由於限制過多，所得人才不如康熙詞科。此時期有許多書籍出版，例如《續三通》、《皇朝三通》與《大清會典》等史書；著名小說《紅樓夢》、《聊齋誌異》和《儒林外史》等；1773年更下令考據補遺，編纂《四庫全書》，與《古今圖書集成》成為全世界最龐大的類書，這些都成為盛世的文化標誌。然而為維護統治卻嚴厲控制思想，編書期間藉機對不符其思想的書籍進行禁毀與秘藏。此外大興文字獄使如戴名世等人被株連殺害或者流放。有學者認為這些都讓文人思想受到嚴厲阻礙，遲滯文化的發展，另有學者認為此舉扼殺中國人的思想活力。梁啟超則認為，清朝二百多年，對文化發展有相當程度的貢獻，是「中國之文藝復興時代」。清朝盛行的輯佚學亦救亡不少大量早已失傳的中國古籍。另外，史學家郭成康、林鐵鈞指出清代有些包括「反滿」內容的書籍多次在作者沒被追究的情況下合法出版，例如王夫之的《讀通鑑論》和顧炎武的詩文集。在清初年間的思想界、學術界，都相當活躍。康熙規定：「凡舊刻文卷，有國諱勿禁；其清、明、夷、虜等字，則在史館奉上諭，無避忌者」，表現出比歷代封建統治者都較為開明和寬容的態度，史學家喻大華指出不應該將清朝查禁「反清」言論與「文字獄」混為一談，因為號召推翻現政權的言論不屬於文字問題，而是政治問題。

西方傳教士將中國文化介紹給歐洲人，引發18世紀「中國風」熱潮。歐洲人追崇中國文化、思想與藝術，在1769年更有人寫道：「中國比歐洲本身的某些地區還要知名」。佩雷菲特筆下與乾隆帝不歡而散的英國特使馬戛爾尼認為清朝已經衰落，然而馬戛爾尼在其日記著作中寫道：「中國政府的行政機制和權力是如此地有組織和高效，有條件能夠迅即排除萬難，創造任何成就」，馬戛爾尼訪華團的成員之一愛尼斯·安德遜亦對當時期的清朝有相當的正面評價。

對外方面，乾隆十年（1745年）準噶爾汗噶爾丹策零去世，國內諸子爭位。乾隆十七年（1752年）冬，達瓦齊襲奪準噶爾汗國汗位，阿睦爾撒納在隨後的內鬥中被擊敗，不得不歸附清廷。乾隆帝乘機於乾隆二十年（1755年）派其為引導，以定北將軍班第率軍平定準噶爾，攻下伊犁。而後阿睦爾撒納想要成為新一代準噶爾之主，由於沒有獲得乾隆帝支持而叛變。乾隆帝派兆惠西征，阿睦爾撒納戰敗逃亡哈薩克汗國，後因為哈薩克汗歸降于乾隆，又逃亡帝俄，乾隆以《尼布楚條約》規定之中俄引渡逃人的條款要求俄方引渡，而阿睦爾撒納本人已于乾隆二十二年（1757年）出天花病死在托波爾斯克附近的庫杜斯克酒廠。隨著阿睦爾撒納的死去，天山北路遂告平定，準噶爾亡，其族在乾隆的屠殺令下慘遭滅絕。然而在天山南路，脫離準噶爾統治的回部領袖大小和卓兄弟起兵反清，史稱大小和卓之亂。其領袖布拉尼敦（大和卓）與霍集占（小和卓）佔據喀什噶爾與葉爾羌，意圖自立。乾隆二十三年（1758年）乾隆帝再命兆惠西征，兆惠率輕軍渡沙漠圍攻葉爾羌（今新疆莎車），反被包圍於黑水營。隔年清將富德率軍解圍，兆惠與富德最終攻滅大小和卓，並讓帕米爾高原以西的中亞各國成為藩屬國。乾隆末年，尼泊爾的廓爾喀王國兩次入侵西藏。1793年清廷派福康安與海蘭察領兵入藏，擊退廓爾喀入侵，不丹與哲孟雄（今錫金）亦為藩屬國，加強駐藏大臣的權力。

西南方面，乾隆初年派張廣泗平定貴州苗民之亂，隨後清軍前往平定大渡河上游的大小金川（今四川金川縣與小金縣）動亂，史稱大小金川之役。1747年到1749年期間發生大金川之戰，清軍於此吃盡苦頭。1771年第二次金川之戰爆發，大小金川的諾木與僧桑格均叛，清將溫福戰死，阿桂歷經多次作戰，直到1776年方平定。期間緬甸貢榜王朝與清朝爆發清緬戰爭，清軍四次進攻皆失敗。1769年乾隆帝派傅恆、阿桂入緬未果，雙方最後停戰。1784年暹羅卻克里王朝派使朝貢，1788年緬甸為應付暹羅威脅，也派使朝貢。1789年安南發生西山朝統一後黎朝、鄭主與廣南國的事件。清軍入安南擊敗西山朝，護送黎帝黎愍帝復位，但途中遭西山軍的伏擊而敗，史稱清越戰爭。西山朝阮惠遣使向清廷謝罪，清廷封為安南國王。

乾隆期間清朝疆域達1300萬餘平方公里，東方的朝鮮與琉球國也早就成為藩屬國之一。但只有德川幕府統治的日本處於鎖國時期，與清朝來往甚少。乾隆帝以「十全武功」自譽，他平定準噶爾與回疆大小和卓之亂，使四川、貴州等地繼續改土歸流，然而其餘戰事皆小題大作使國庫嚴重損耗，讓清朝國力衰退，全國範圍內開始爆發民變。乾隆時期的戶部存銀最高達8,000萬兩，常年保持在6,000-7,000萬兩左右，足以應付政府的各項日常開支、重大工程、戰爭，而雖然清朝的賦稅較為輕，且於康乾時期多次對外用兵、大興各項工程，但每年國家財政都會有餘，國庫儲備逐年上升。當時人口暴增與鄉村土地兼併嚴重，使得許多農民失去土地；加上貪官和珅等官員腐敗，於乾隆晚期到嘉慶時期陸續爆發民變。白蓮教於1770年代舉兵，後來又於1796年爆發川楚教亂，八年後被清軍鎮壓，領袖王三槐被處死。台灣天地會領袖林爽文於1787年發動林爽文事件，歷時一年多。在乾隆年間，平定大小金川之亂、消滅準噶爾汗國等各威脅，將新疆正式重新納入中國版圖，並且頒佈被視為西藏屬於中國領土的最有力的證據《欽定藏內善後章程》二十九條，加強中央政府對西藏的管治，最終奠定現代中國的版圖。

1795年，乾隆帝照其誓言禪位於子顒琰，即嘉慶帝。乾隆雖為太上皇，但依然「訓政」至1799年去世，嘉慶帝方得以親政。然而嘉慶帝未能解決弊端，清朝繼續走向衰退。

近代開啟

嘉慶帝在當太子時痛恨貪官和珅，親政後將其賜死，並抄收其家產。然而嘉慶並沒有藉此全面整頓政風，加上地方出現賣官以平衡開支的現象，使得貪污腐敗的風氣更加擴大，加重地方人民的負擔。另外還有河道與漕運淤塞的難題。針對乾隆時期過度開銷的弊端，嘉慶帝提倡節儉，縮減朝廷與宗室的開支，把貧窮的旗民送到關外開墾。然而，最後因為朝野強烈的反彈聲浪而妥協。此時八旗兵與綠營軍紀腐敗不可堪用，只能靠地方地主勢力的團練平定亂事，而後期更由此形成湘軍與淮軍等地方軍。當時民亂不斷，有白蓮教的川楚教亂、東南有海盜侵襲，華北又有天理教之亂。道光之後又有太平天國之亂、捻亂以及陝甘回變與雲南回變，再加上鴉片戰爭等外患，一度使清廷搖搖欲墜。

1820年，嘉慶帝崩，旻寧繼位，即道光帝。此時，朝廷暮氣沉沉，滿朝文武只知迎合貪污謊報。道光帝提倡儉樸，所穿龍袍是宮內舊料所製，滿朝文武故意在朝服補丁，以示簡樸。大臣奏章大多報喜不報憂。曹振鏞是當時第一重臣，奉行「多磕頭，少說話」哲學。繼起的穆彰阿，人稱「在位二十年，亦愛才，亦不大貪，惟性巧佞，以欺罔矇蔽為務」。鴉片戰爭時，前方將帥不斷撒謊，敗將奕山竟被欽命交部優敘。道光時期稍可稱善的政績是陶澍改革鹽法，成功地防止商販壟斷。

19世紀上半葉，西方各國為使通商正常化，多次派使者前往中國協商。然而清政府以天朝上國自居，不願與西方各國平起平坐，屢次不了了之。當時不列顛帝國對中國茶葉與絲綢的需求龐大，對華貿易成逆差狀態。為此，英國將成癮劑鴉片大量輸入中國以改善本身經濟。1838年鴉片猛增到四萬零二百箱，人民健康被削弱，清朝經濟發生通貨膨脹，國力也持續衰退。道光帝為解決此弊端，派林則徐到外貿口岸廣州宣佈禁菸，此即虎門銷煙。為此，1840年中英兩國爆發鴉片戰爭，清軍戰敗後和英國簽訂第一個不平等條約——《南京條約》，開啟中國近代史。當時道光帝與耆英不了解國際法，認為給予英人貿易之便以換取國家長存，所以割讓許多影響甚遠的權力。清朝後期被迫和各國簽訂不平等條約，除割地、開港、賠款之外，還讓外國派駐軍隊於首都，中國主權逐漸流失。

1850年，道光帝崩，子奕詝繼位，即咸豐帝。西方各國迫使清政府開港通商，加上地方官吏地主兼併土地，使得傳統農村經濟受到破壞。各地乘機紛紛起事，其中華北以捻亂為主，華中華南以洪秀全的太平天國與雲南杜文秀、馬如龍的雲南回變為主。洪秀全改造基督教教義，1851年於廣西金田起義，聯和天地會、三合會北伐。兩年後攻陷並定都江寧，並且發動兩次西征；不久又發動北伐，最遠達天津近郊。後來曾國藩、左宗棠與李鴻章為保護儒家文化，紛紛組織湘軍與淮軍抵抗太平天國。太平天國發生天京事變後國力衰退，部分勢力轉入捻軍。

1864年7月，曾國藩弟曾國荃率湘軍攻陷首都天京，隨後湘軍屠城，許多當地平民和太平軍人被殺，太平天國也因此失敗。中央研究院院士、中央研究院近代史研究所創所所長郭廷以在其所著《近代中國史綱》引趙烈文《能靜居日記》記載曾國荃率湘軍攻入南京城後的情景：「湘軍『貪掠奪，頗亂伍。中軍各勇留營者皆去搜括』，……『沿街死尸十之九皆老者。其幼孩未滿二、三歲者亦被戳以為戲，匍匐道上。婦女四十歲以下者一人俱無（均被虜），老者負傷或十餘刀，數十刀，哀號之聲達于四方。』凡此均為曾國荃幕友趙烈文目睹所記，總計死者約二、三十萬人（死亡人數有爭議）。」是為湘軍版的「南京大屠殺」。

此期間英國與法國因為和清廷修約不成，趁中國發生內亂之際，於1858年發動英法聯軍之役。清軍於八里橋之戰戰敗，聯軍攻陷北京，放火燒毀圓明園，簽訂《天津條約》及《北京條約》。同時帝俄以調停有功逼清廷簽訂《璦琿條約》，取走外東北領地。1864年帝俄強迫清廷訂立《勘分西北界約記》，割佔外西北。面對內外交迫的局面，清廷為使國力恢復而發起自強運動。

雙改無果

1861年，咸豐帝崩，其六歲之子載淳繼位，即同治帝。咸豐帝本任命肅順等八大臣贊襄政務，兩宮太后與恭親王奕訢發動辛酉政變，兩宮垂簾聽政，最後由兩宮之一的慈禧太后獲得實權。被稱為洋務派的奕訢與部分漢臣在消滅太平軍時認識到西方的船堅炮利，並且鑒於兩次鴉片戰爭的失敗，以「師夷長技以制夷」、中體西用為方針展開自強運動（又稱洋務運動）。當時總理各國事務衙門與隨後的北洋通商大臣負責對外關係與自強運動的策劃與推行，先後引入國外科學技術，建立現代銀行體系、現代郵政體系、鋪設鐵路、架設電報網。建立翻譯機構同文館、新式教育（新學），培訓技術人才並派遣留學生到歐美日等先進工業國家，培育出唐紹儀與詹天佑等人才。開設礦業、建立輪船招商局、江南製造總局與漢陽兵工廠等製造工廠與兵工廠，同時也建立新式陸軍與北洋艦隊等海軍。洋務運動使得中國社會出現較安定的局面，史稱「同治中興」。其間太平天國於1864年滅亡。1865年，僧格林沁的滿蒙騎兵（八旗兵）中捻軍埋伏後全殲，賴洋務派左宗棠與李鴻章分別滅西、東捻，捻亂到1868年為止。1862年至1878年間，左宗棠先後平定陝甘回變，平定新疆回亂，並收回伊犁。雲南回變也於1867年由馬如龍投降清朝岑毓英，以及1872年杜文秀自殺而止。西方各國的租借地也將西方思想帶入中國，推動中國革命與民主制度的發展。1875年，同治帝去世，慈禧太后立載湉為帝，即光緒帝。

對外方面，1884年，清朝和法國為越南（安南）主權爆發中法戰爭，最終法國戰術性勝利，清朝失去藩屬國越南，越南成為法國殖民地，台灣也宣布建省。1885年英國入侵緬甸，清朝駐英公使曾紀澤向英國抗議無效，隔年被迫簽訂《中英緬甸條約》，承認緬甸為英國所有。日本在明治維新後國力大增，1872年日本強迫清朝藩國琉球改屬日本，清朝拒不承認，中日交惡。1894年為朝鮮主權清朝和日本發生甲午戰爭，期間日軍攻陷旅順，執行旅順大屠殺，對城內進行4天3夜的搶劫、屠殺和強姦，超過二萬人遇害。兩個推行西化運動的亞洲國家的戰爭最後以清軍落敗而告終。戰後簽《馬關條約》，清朝割讓台灣和澎湖，失去藩屬國朝鮮和租界。洋務派李鴻章建立的北洋艦隊全面瓦解，也宣告自強運動最終失敗。

甲午戰爭後，維新派康有為與梁啟超於1895年公車上書光緒帝，要求深入改革政府架構、教育、經濟體制與軍事制度等多個層面，期望清廷從制度面革新。1898年光緒帝在康有為的幫助下實施維新運動（戊戌變法），然而由於做法和態度過於激進而激起舊有保守派和原本的中立群體的反抗，康有為的弟弟康廣仁評道：「伯兄規模太廣，志氣太銳，包攬太多，同志太孤，舉行太大。當地排者，忌者、擠者、謗者盈衢塞巷，而上又無權，安能有成？」，導致原本支持變革的慈禧太后以「聽信逆臣蠱惑，改變祖宗成法」為由軟禁光緒帝，處決譚嗣同、康有溥等多人。由於維持103天就結束，被稱為「百日維新」。

1896年清廷為連俄制日，簽訂《中俄密約》。後來密約洩露，外國鑒於清朝已無力自衛，紛紛劃分在中國的勢力範圍以維護為各自利益，而美利堅合眾國提出門戶開放政策以平衡列強在華勢力。中國長期受列強欺辱，使地方產生義和團之類仇洋排外的民族主義團體。慈禧太后藉此排外而發生義和團事變，義和團屠殺洋人、姦淫婦女、搶奪店舖、破壞各國使館、燒毀與西洋有關的東西。慈禧太后不理會各國抗議，更曾半正式向十一國宣戰，引發八國聯軍報復。俄軍于黑龍江海蘭泡越境，悉數屠殺清民六千多人，史稱海蘭泡慘案。北京被聯軍佔領，慈禧太后率光緒皇帝西逃西安。1901年簽訂《辛丑條約》，清廷賠償重款，列強派兵駐守北京一帶、劃定租借地和勢力範圍，加深中國的半殖民化。1904年日俄兩國更因在東北的利益衝突爆發日俄戰爭。義和團事變時，李鴻章、張之洞、劉坤一、袁世凱等東南各行省之總督巡撫為保護華中華南，自行宣布中立，不服從朝廷對外一律宣戰的敕命（即東南自保）；從此清廷權威低落，地方各省自主性提高。

光緒年間中國發生了不少天災，有些天災甚至造成人口損失。光緒元年至四年（1875-1878年）河南、山西、陝西、直隸、山東等地發生特大旱災饑荒，尤以山西最嚴重，太原府100萬人死95萬。總死亡數計950萬-2000萬不等，也就是清朝人口的約2-4%，史稱丁戊奇荒。光緒十三年（1887年）河南鄭州下汛十堡（今惠濟區花園口鎮石橋村）發生黃河決口，致使200多萬（一說93萬；一說最保守估計150萬；一說700萬）人罹難。

末改難為

清朝於太平天國戰爭、甲午戰爭、八國聯軍後國勢大墜，各界人士及知識分子莫不提出各種方法拯救中國，主要分成立憲派與革命派兩種主要改革路線。立憲派主張效仿英德等國實行君主立憲制，而革命派則堅決主張推翻帝制，實行共和制。

1901年，立憲派康有為、梁啟超等推動立憲運動，梁啟超發表《立憲法議》，希望讓光緒帝成為立憲君主。而慈禧太后為挽清朝衰落危局，有意效仿歐日的改革而推行清末新政。新政除了推行君主立憲外，還有諸如建立清朝新軍、廢除科舉、整頓財政等一系列改革。而革命派對清廷的改革失望，他們鼓勵推翻清朝，建立中華共和。1894年，孫文等於夏威夷檀香山建立興中會；1904年，黃興等於長沙成立的華興會；1904年，蔡元培等於上海成立光復會；此外，還有其他革命團體。1905年，孫文在日本聯合興中會、華興會、光復會，成立中國同盟會，並提出「驅除韃虜、恢復中華、創立民國、平均地權」綱領。革命派聯合舊有反清勢力如三合會、洪門等，在華南地區發起十次起事，並將勢力滲入華中、華南的清朝新軍。

當時立憲派與革命派為改革方式發生爭執，起初立憲派佔上風，清廷也承諾實行立憲。1907年清廷籌設資政院，預備立憲，並籌備在各省開辦諮議局。1908年7月頒布《各省諮議局章程及議員選舉章程》，命令各省在一年之內成立諮議局。同年頒布《欽定憲法大綱》，以確立君主立憲制政體，成立代議會。在立憲派成員的請願下，清廷宣佈把預備立憲縮短三年，預定在1913年召開國會。同年光緒帝與慈禧太后皆去世，溥儀繼位，即宣統帝，其父載灃擔任監國攝政王。1911年5月清廷組成由慶親王奕劻領導的「責任內閣」，這是中國歷史上首次君主立憲。不過，該內閣中的很多成員為皇族身份，故被稱為「皇族內閣」，引發立憲派的不滿和失望，很多轉向於革命派合作。

1910年10月末，東北爆發鼠疫，波及69個縣（大連、北京、天津、保定、旅順、芝罘、濟南等地先後都曾出現鼠疫患者），共死亡6萬餘人，除了造成大量人口死亡之外，還嚴重影響經濟。在奉天出現了擠兌風潮。在鐵嶺、錦州、營口、安東等地，因交通阻斷，市面缺貨，大量商鋪倒閉，商品價格瘋漲。在哈爾濱，因貨物減少，關稅的徵收受到影響。學校和工礦也紛紛停課和停產。

走向滅亡

1911年5月，四川等地爆發保路運動，清廷急派新軍入川鎮壓，湖北空虛。10月，湖廣總督瑞澄斬殺彭楚藩、劉堯澄、楊洪聖等三個革命黨士兵，參加文學社與共進會等反清團體的士兵，人心惶惶，兩名革命分子金品臣、程定國夜間與排長陶啟聖齟齬，一怒之下，射殺排長，發起武昌起義，南方各省隨後紛紛宣佈獨立，是為辛亥革命。

清廷任命北洋新軍統帥袁世凱為內閣總理大臣，成立內閣並統領清朝的北洋軍。袁世凱一方面於陽夏戰爭壓迫革命軍，另一方面卻暗中與革命黨人談判，形成南北議和，1912年1月1日中華民國政府於江寧成立，改稱南京，孫文在南京就任臨時大總統，1月26日清室優待條件達成，孫文也承諾只要袁世凱贊成清帝退位，自己即讓位於袁世凱，由袁世凱出任民國大總統，袁世凱與革命黨人的意見達成一致。

在袁世凱授意下，段祺瑞等五十位北洋軍將領，發佈了《北洋五十將乞共和電》，要求宣統退位。段祺瑞不久又發《乞共和第二電》，以發動兵變要脅朝廷。2月12日，隆裕太后代表宣統帝溥儀，頒布退位詔書，將權力交給中華民國政府，清朝滅亡，標誌著中國五千多年來的君主制度正式結束。隨後孫文讓位予袁世凱，南北統一。3月6日，南京參議院正式決議同意袁世凱在北京就職，袁世凱就任大總統，定都北京。

因正統觀使然，清亡時不少漢臣如鄭孝胥等依舊忠於大清，終身以滿清遺老自居，甚至有人捨身殉國。後來，1917年張勳組織辮子軍，於北京擁護宣統帝溥儀，復闢清朝（史稱張勳復闢），但只持續12天而終。1924年，馮玉祥驅逐溥儀，溥儀和他的隨從只好由紫禁城移往天津租界居住。

疆域

發源與擴張

清朝發源於東北地區，努爾哈赤在與明朝決裂前，已領有建州之地，自稱「收管我建州國之人，看守朝廷九百五十餘里邊疆」。經努爾哈赤與皇太極時期的發展後領有今東北地區、外東北地區與內蒙古地區。1644年多爾袞偕同順治帝率軍入關，隨後指揮清軍占領全明朝領地，統一中原，領有內地十八省。

1661年，南明亡。然而當時尚有以吳三桂為首，鎮守華南的三藩；以及奉明朝為正朔，領有台灣台南、澎湖的明鄭。三藩之亂與施琅攻臺後，康熙帝完全掌控華南地區與台灣西部及澎湖地區。此時準噶爾汗國的可汗噶爾丹與俄羅斯沙皇國（沙俄）友好，噶爾丹南征青海和碩特，東征喀爾喀蒙古。而沙俄為在遠東尋找出海口，向東移民侵略黑龍江上游。康熙帝先是於雅克薩戰役擊敗俄軍，與其劃定邊疆；之後率軍三征噶爾丹，協助喀爾喀蒙古收復其領土。喀爾喀蒙古其後在多倫會盟後併入清朝，外蒙古地區正式歸清朝所有。1727年雍正帝與帝俄簽訂恰克圖條約，確立塞北疆界。

1717年準噶爾汗國新可汗策妄阿拉布坦入侵青藏地區，滅和碩特汗國，並且佔領拉薩。清軍多次被準軍擊敗，最後於1720年由胤禵率軍驅除成功，協助第七世達賴喇嘛入藏，以拉藏汗舊臣管理藏區，這是清朝經營青海、西藏地區之始。雍正時期，平定青海親王羅卜藏丹津之亂後，雍正帝又在西寧與拉薩分置辦事大臣與駐藏大臣以控管青藏地區。

新疆地區方面，1755年乾隆帝乘準噶爾汗國噶爾丹策零去世的機會，派將領率軍西征，軍勢直達準國首都伊犁。在平定阿睦爾撒納之亂與大小和卓之亂後徹底掌控準噶爾地區與回疆，並且獲得帕米爾高原以西諸國的朝貢。

極盛疆域

康熙年的《尼布楚條約》和雍正年的《恰克圖界約》後清朝與俄羅斯帝國確定了北部邊界，乾隆時期滅亡準噶爾後清朝的疆域最為穩定，一般將乾隆乾隆三十四年淸緬合約之後疆域定為淸朝的最大範圍：東北與俄羅斯帝國（帝俄）分界額爾古納河、格爾必齊河與外興安嶺，這條疆線直到鄂霍次克海與庫頁島。正北與帝俄分界薩彥嶺、沙畢納依嶺、恰克圖與額爾古納河。西北與哈薩克汗國等西北藩屬國分界薩彥嶺、齋桑泊、阿拉湖、伊塞克湖、巴爾喀什湖至帕米爾高原。西南與印度的蒙兀兒帝國、喜馬拉雅山諸國家分界喜馬拉雅山至野人山，正南大致上與現今中華人民共和國與東南亞國家的分界相同，但清朝尚獲得緬甸北部的南坎、江心坡等地。東與日本、琉球國分界日本海與東海，與朝鮮王朝沿圖們江、鴨綠江分界，清朝還領有台灣、澎湖、海南及南海的南海諸島（時稱千里石塘、萬里長沙、曾母暗沙）。

衰退

進入19世紀，由於清朝的衰落，列強於鴉片戰爭後以不平等條約掠奪許多領土與藩屬國。俄羅斯帝國藉由1858年璦琿條約與1860年北京條約獲得外東北，包括庫頁島等地。1900年趁八國聯軍的機會又強佔黑龍江以北的江東六十四屯。1864年藉由中俄勘分西北界約記與1881年的伊犁條約獲得外西北，並且陸續佔領中亞諸藩屬國。19世紀末大博弈時期英俄兩國簽訂英俄協定，私自劃分帕米爾地區。不列顛帝國藉由1842年的南京條約、1860年的北京條約與1898年的展拓香港界址專條獲得現今香港地區，並且侵占藩屬國緬甸與喜馬拉雅山諸國家。法蘭西第三共和國於中法戰爭占領藩屬國安南、南掌。葡萄牙帝國於中葡和好通商條約永居管理澳門。明末時薩摩藩已對藩屬國琉球國實施以軍事占領為後盾的遙控統治，而日本帝國明治時代更於1872年將其正式吞併，並於1895年的馬關條約獲得台灣與澎湖列島，並強迫清朝放棄藩屬國朝鮮，而原先亦被割讓的遼東半島則因三國幹涉而重回清朝之手，朝鮮後來被日本吞併。甲午戰爭後，列強認為清朝無自衛能力，為自身利益劃分在中國勢力範圍，使得重要港口如旅順、大連被帝俄與後來的日本領有、威海衛被英國領有、膠澳被德國領有、廣州灣被法國領有等。部分清朝末期建立的租界到1945年二戰結束後中國才得以收回主權，而清朝割讓給英國的香港島、九龍和租借地新界則要到1997年才得以被收回主權。

行政區劃

清朝版圖遼闊，民族眾多，在行政區劃上也「因時順地、變通斟酌」。在漢族地區沿用明朝舊制，實行「省—府—縣」三級制。在東北地區，為滿洲八旗制、漢人「省—府—縣」三級制與漁獵部落的「姓長制」並行。在藩部地區則因俗而治，並根據中央集權統治的需要加以改革：蒙古實行「旗盟制」、「札薩克制」；西藏實行「宗谿制」，新疆回部實行伯克制。全國分為內地十八省、五個駐防將軍轄區、兩個辦事大臣轄區共二十五個一級行政區域和內蒙古等旗、盟。

清末，在列強蠶食鯨吞的形勢下，邊疆各地依靠舊有的行政體制已無法維持有效的統治。光緒年間，新疆、奉天、吉林、黑龍江相繼建省，實行與內地相同的行政體制。蒙古、西藏也有建省之議，但在清朝滅亡之前未能實行。光緒三十四年（1908年），清朝分為二十二省，以及西藏、外蒙古、內蒙古、青海等邊疆地方。

內地政區

清代山海關以內、長城以南的漢族地區被稱為「內地」、「關內」或「漢地」，又繼承明代「兩直十三省」的稱謂合稱「直省」。內地的行政區劃承襲明代「省—府（州）—縣」的層級體制。一級政區為省，又俗稱「行省」，本布政使司，但隨著承宣布政使逐漸淪為督撫的屬官，「布政使司」的名稱逐漸被「省」取代，至嘉慶朝《一統志》編纂時「省」已成為一級政區的正式稱呼。二級政區為府、直隸州。府管轄的州（散州、屬州）不再領縣，形成單式的三級制。清代初年，原為臨時差官的巡撫取代布政使，成為一省的長官。在一些民族雜居之處及戰略要地，設置新型政區「廳」，分為省直轄的直隸廳和府轄的散廳。少數直隸廳下轄縣。

明代承宣布政使司、提刑按察使司派出的差官「道員」，在清代也保留下來。道員的統轄區域是「道」，介於省與府之間，有分巡道、分守道、糧儲道、鹽法道、兵備道等名目。清初的道並不是行政區，道員亦無品級。乾隆以後，定道員秩品為正四品，分巡道、分守道的職權也漸趨一致。有的道下直接領縣。有人認為清末的道實際上已成為省、府之間的一級政區，之後北洋政府更有廢省置道之計畫，後因被國民政府取代而未實施。清朝行政區劃層級為：

行省

在行省設置方面，清代基本沿襲明代所置的兩京與十三布政使司，設山東、山西、河南、陝西、浙江、福建、江西、廣東、廣西、湖廣、四川、雲南、貴州。順治元年（1644年）定鼎北京，以盛京為留都。二年（1645年）改北直隸為直隸省，改南直隸為江南省。康熙三年（1664年），分湖廣為湖北、湖南二省。康熙六年（1667年），江南省正式分為江蘇、安徽二省。康熙七年，設立甘肅省，自此形成所謂「內地十八省」的格局。

• 直隸省

• 江蘇省

• 安徽省

• 山西省

• 山東省

• 河南省

• 陝西省

• 甘肅省

• 浙江省

• 江西省

• 湖北省

• 湖南省

• 四川省

• 福建省

• 廣東省

• 廣西省

• 雲南省

• 貴州省

光緒十一年（1885年），分福建省臺灣府置臺灣省。兩年後臺灣正式建省，稱「福建臺灣省」。光緒二十一年（1895年），因甲午戰爭戰敗，臺灣省被割讓予日本。光緒三十年十二月（1905年1月），分江蘇江寧、淮安、揚州、徐甘肅省四府及通州、海州二直隸州置江淮省，旋即裁撤。此後至清末，內地仍為十八省，與東三省、新疆省合為二十二省。

各省以總督巡撫為長貳，掌管一省軍政大權及吏僚考察，號曰「封疆大吏」。乾隆直省轄區確定後，計有轄省總督八員，除直隸、四川兩督轄一省，兩江總督轄三省外，余均轄兩省，而山西、山東、河南三省不設總督；轄省巡撫十五員，直隸、四川、甘肅三省以總督兼巡撫事。清季新疆、東北設省，又新設巡撫每省各一員，奉天、吉林、黑龍江三省巡撫由新設東三省總督統轄，新疆巡撫由陝甘總督統轄，同時內地八督全部兼領駐省巡撫，至是計有轄省總督九員，轄省巡撫十四員。

督撫以下，以布政使（俗稱「藩台」）與按察使（俗稱「臬台」）各置官司（俗稱「藩司」「臬司」），分管一省行政與司法，雍正後又有提督學政一員開衙建署，負責管理教育事務，以上三員均受督撫節制。原則上每省三使均各設一員，唯江蘇省民事繁重，分設江寧蘇州兩藩司，分管省事。

清末新政，針對省級政區實施現代化改革，其中江蘇等總督駐省不複設巡撫，而以總督兼巡撫事；撤消咸同以來各省新設的新式財務機關，統歸藩司屬下的度支公所；按察使改提法使，遵循司法審判與司法行政分離的原則，專管司法行政與監督，審判等權分歸各級審判廳和檢察廳；學政改提學使，強化其教育管理職能以適應新式教育；新設交涉使，專門負責與外國通商交往事宜；每省于藩司外另設巡警道及勸業道，分管一省民政警務與農工商業事務。唯東三省因系新政時初建，不徇故例，故無藩司及巡警道，而設度支使與民政使，東三省當時發展程度低，實業事務輕，故亦無勸業道缺。

各省軍隊雖為督撫節制，但八旗駐防軍不在其列。駐防八旗由各省駐防將軍統領，直接向皇帝負責。

以下為各直省對應的統治軍民的封疆大吏簡表：

衝繁疲難

清代的府、州、廳、縣，按照「衝、繁、疲、難」的考語分為不同等次。考語字數越多，地位就越重要。一般以四字俱全者為「最要缺」，三字者（衝繁難、衝疲難、繁疲難）為「要缺」，二字者（衝繁、繁難、繁疲、疲難、衝難、衝疲）為「中缺」、一字或無字者為「簡缺」。

• 衝：地當孔道者為衝

• 繁：政務紛紜者為繁

• 疲：賦多逋欠者為疲

• 難：民刁俗悍，命盜案多者為難

土司

雲南、貴州、廣西、四川、湖南、湖北、甘肅等省設有土司，分為宣慰司、宣撫司、招討司、安撫司和長官司（長官為武職），與土府、土州、土縣（長官為文職）。土司的長官以當地各族頭人充任，可以世襲，由朝廷或地方官府頒給印信，歸所在地方之督撫、駐紮大臣管轄。宣慰等司的長官隸屬於兵部、土知府、土知州等官隸屬於吏部。雍正年間，雲南、貴州、廣西等省的土司開始改行流官制，史稱「改土歸流」。光緒、宣統之際，趙爾豐出任川滇邊務大臣，四川西部的藏人土司、西藏東部的宗也開始改土歸流。

東三省

中國東北為清朝「龍興之地」。順治年間入關後，以駐防八旗留守盛京瀋陽。康熙至乾隆年間，逐漸形成三個相當於行省的將軍轄區：盛京、吉林和黑龍江。將軍之下設專城副都統分駐各城，並管理各城的臨近地區。副都統下有總管統領各旗。在漢民聚居之處，置府、州、縣、廳，如同內地。居於黑龍江、嫩江中上游的巴爾虎、達斡爾、索倫（鄂溫克）、鄂倫春、錫伯等族，編入八旗，由布特哈總管、呼倫貝爾總管管轄。黑龍江、烏蘇里江下游及庫頁島的赫哲、費雅喀、庫頁、奇楞等漁獵部落則分設姓長、鄉長，由三姓副都統管轄。

• 盛京，由盛京將軍統轄

　• 奉天府 / 盛京副都統

　• 錦州府 / 錦州副都統

　• 熊岳副都統

　• 金州副都統

　• 興京副都統

• 吉林，由吉林將軍統轄

　• 寧古塔副都統

　• 伯都訥副都統

　• 三姓副都統

　• 吉林副都統

　• 阿勒楚喀副都統

　• 拉林副都統

　• 琿春副都統

• 黑龍江，由黑龍江將軍統轄

　• 黑龍江副都統

　• 墨爾根副都統

　• 齊齊哈爾副都統

　• 布特哈副都統

　• 呼蘭副都統

　• 呼倫貝爾副都統

　• 通肯副都統

光緒末年的甲午戰爭、八國聯軍之役與日俄戰爭嚴重動搖清朝在東北地區的統治，迫使其廢除滿洲的旗民分治制度，設立行省。光緒三十三年（1907年），廢除盛京、吉林、黑龍江三地將軍衙門，改設奉天省、吉林省、黑龍江省；隨後裁撤各城副都統、總管，改為府、廳、州、縣。宣統三年（1911年），奉天省領八府、八廳、六州、三十三縣；吉林省領十一府、一州、五廳、十八縣；黑龍江省領七府、六廳、一州、七縣。

藩部

清代蒙古、西藏、青海、新疆與黑龍江布特哈（達呼爾、索倫、鄂倫春等族）被稱為藩部，由理藩院管理。

蒙古

明清之際，蒙古分為眾多部落（蒙古語稱為「艾馬克」），部落首領為「部長」（鄂拓克）或「汗」。清太宗時，依照滿洲八旗的組織形式，將蒙古各部落編為旗，是為蒙古的基本行政單位，其長官為札薩克或總管。旗下設「佐」（蘇木），相當於鄉。自此蒙古各部落被納入統一的行政體系之中。在地域上，蒙古地區大致分為察哈爾、內蒙古、西套蒙古、外蒙古（包括土謝圖汗部、賽音諾顏部、車臣汗部、札薩克圖汗部）、科布多與唐努烏梁海。

清代蒙古又分為內屬蒙古與外藩蒙古。內屬蒙古包括八旗察哈爾、歸化城土默特、唐努烏梁海、阿爾泰烏梁海等部，各旗由朝廷派遣官員（一般為總管）治理，與內地的州、縣無異。外藩蒙古各旗則由當地的世襲札薩克管理，處於半自治狀態。在外藩蒙古，以若干旗合為一盟，設正、副盟長，掌管會盟事宜，對各旗札薩克進行監管。清代的盟是監察機構，並不能視為一級政區。

外藩蒙古又按其歸附清朝的先後分為內札薩克蒙古與外札薩克蒙古。內札薩克蒙古又被稱為內蒙古，於天命至康熙初年陸續歸附清朝。乾隆以後定為二十四部，共四十九旗，設六盟。內札薩克各旗不但政治地位很高，還保留一定的兵權。康熙中期以後歸附清朝的各部落稱為外札薩克蒙古，包括漠北的喀爾喀四部、西套蒙古二旗、青海蒙古各部、科布多各札薩克旗、新疆舊土爾扈特部及中路和碩特部。外札薩克各旗無兵權，隸屬於當地的將軍、都統、駐紮大臣（西套蒙古二旗除外）。其中喀爾喀四部後來演變為外蒙古。

新疆

清代新疆分為天山北路的準部和天山南路的回部，統屬於伊犁將軍。其中的蒙古遊牧地區實行盟旗制。維吾爾、布魯特、塔吉克等族地區則實行伯克制。蒙古舊土爾扈特部與中路和碩特部設立旗、盟：舊土爾扈特部為南北東西四路烏訥恩素珠克圖盟，和碩特部為巴圖塞特奇勒圖盟。準部地方設烏魯木齊都統，統轄烏魯木齊（迪化州）、庫爾喀喇烏蘇、吐魯番、哈密、古城、巴里坤（鎮西府）等城。其中迪化州、鎮西府由新疆與甘肅省雙重管轄。塔爾巴哈臺由塔爾巴哈臺參贊大臣管轄。伊犁及其以西地方由伊犁將軍、領隊大臣管理。回部設總理回疆事務參贊大臣（一般為喀什噶爾參贊大臣），統轄喀什噶爾、葉爾羌、和闐、阿克蘇、烏什、庫車、喀喇沙爾等城。光緒十年（1884年），新疆建省，實行與內地相同的府、廳、州、縣體制。

青海

清代的青海不包括今西寧、海東、黃南以及部分青海省邊緣地區。統轄青海地方的官員為西寧辦事大臣，常駐西寧（當時屬甘肅省）。青海大致以黃河為界，分為青海蒙古和玉樹等四十族土司。黃河以北主要為蒙古人，有和碩特、輝特、綽羅斯（準噶爾）、土爾扈特、喀爾喀五大部落。雍正三年（1725年），編青海蒙古為二十七旗，後增至二十九旗，由西寧辦事大臣主持會盟。另有察漢諾門罕牧地，實際上單獨為一喇嘛旗。道光三年（1823年），分黃河以北二十四旗為左、右翼二盟，每盟設正、副盟長各一人。黃河以南主要為藏人，設有四十個土司，其中以玉樹土司最大，故稱玉樹等四十族土司。土司以下有土千戶、土百戶。嘉慶、道光年間，藏人不斷越過黃河向北遷徙，形成環青海湖一帶的環海八族。

西藏

西藏在清代又稱「唐古忒」、「圖伯特」，分為衛、喀木（康）、藏、阿里四部，以及霍爾三十九族地區。西藏地方的行政長官為駐藏大臣，駐喇薩，會同達賴喇嘛、班禪額爾德尼辦理藏內政務。其政令由噶廈（西藏官府）執行。西藏的基層政區是宗，大致相當於內地的縣，但規模很小。一些貴族、寺廟的莊園領地稱為谿卡，地位比宗低或者平級。宗的長官為「宗本」，谿的長官為「谿堆」，一般由噶廈委派，也有的由特定寺廟委任。後藏札什倫布附近的幾個宗，由班禪直接管理。今那曲地區、昌都地區北部的各部落統稱霍爾三十九族，簡稱三十九族，為蒙古人後裔，由駐藏大臣的屬員夷情章京管轄。駐紮於達木（今當雄）的達木蒙古八旗，每旗設一佐領，不設總管，直屬於駐藏大臣。

政治

決策機關

清朝的政治體制基本上沿襲明朝的君主集權制度，但略有不同。官員等級分「九品十八級」，每等有「正」、「從」之別。不在十八級別以內的叫做未入流，在級別上附於從九品。清朝制定內國史院、內秘書院與內宏文院等內三院為內閣，作為中央最高決策機關。設大學士滿、漢各二人，協辦大學士滿、漢各一人，學士滿六人、漢四人，下轄中央執行機關六部。內閣的地位雖高，但實際權力比明朝小，實際掌握權力的機關會隨時代不同而改變。後金時期，議政王大臣會議是皇帝與王公貴族討論國事之處。1631年皇太極為了中央集權，仿明朝制度設立六部與內閣以分議政王大臣會議的權力。入關之後，1677年康熙帝設立南書房，削弱議政王大臣會議權力，同時將外朝內閣的某些職能移歸內廷，實施高度集權。雍正帝為了西征準噶爾準備設置軍需處，雍正十年改稱軍機處。軍機處機構精簡，行政效率高，能迅速處理軍國大事，進一步加強君主專制主義中央集權。鴉片戰爭之後，為推行自強運動，先後於1861年與1870年成立總理各國事務衙門與北洋通商大臣，負責對外關係與自強運動的策劃與推行，成為自強運動期間最高行政機關。實施清末新政之後，1911年5月18日清廷宣佈廢除軍機處，仿西方國家與日本實行內閣制，內閣總理大臣和諸大臣組成的內閣成為最高行政機關。

清初康熙帝一方面則通過各種手段限制滿洲貴族的權力，如剝奪各旗王公幹預旗務的權力，破除「軍功勳舊諸王」統兵征伐的傳統，削弱議政王大臣會議的政治影響等；另一方面提出要建立由皇帝個人獨裁的專制政體，「天下大權當統於一」，「天下大小事務，皆朕一身親理，無可旁貸。若將要務分任於人，則斷不可行」，亦表示：「天下大事，皆朕一人獨任」，康熙要掌管「用人之權」，以阻止朋黨的形成，免得鰲拜掌權時期「結黨專權」和「罔上行私」的情況再度發生，也為了防止不同派別黨派之間互相鬥爭。康熙帝確立的君主專制制度主要包括三方面：

• 「用人之權」、「獎懲之權」由皇帝親自控制，不許臣僚幹預；

• 通過特務統治、密奏制度，對臣僚實行嚴密的監督和防範；

• 反對朋黨，嚴防臣僚結黨對抗皇權。

在明代，文人結社超出了文學和學術的領域而成為政治上的一支重要力量。清朝統治認為前朝文人團體的龐大和幹政是明亡的重要原因之一。有見及此，清初統治者吸取前朝教訓，於順治九年（1652年）下令「生員不許糾黨多人，立盟結社」和「所作文字不許妄行刊刻，違者聽提調官治罪」。康有為對此作出評論，指出中國數千年來的黨派皆為君主所深惡，又以漢代黨錮之禍，唐代清流，宋代元祐黨籍碑和明朝東林黨為例。近代日本學者宗方小太郎評論：「（清朝）建國之初便多方預防弊政，防止禍亂於未萌狀態，其中如以法令嚴禁組織會黨，故在三百年之治世中黨禍頗少者即係此故。」

康熙帝確立的君主專制原則，被雍正、乾隆二帝繼承和發展，雍正帝的專制體現在他私派特務人員監視全國各地地方長官一切活動，許多地方官的私生活，連家裡的瑣事都瞞不過他。

學者錢穆從傳統「夷夏之辨」與近代民族主義相結合的角度強調清朝的「斷裂性」，在界定清朝的性質時以漢人文明的尺度衡量其價值的優劣，認為是滿人只有接受漢人的先進文化才能步入文明的境界，才具有延續前代王朝正統的資格，是近代史學中「漢化論」的表現。錢穆的論證基於傳統漢化的歷史觀，對滿人的統治評價負面。他引據革命家鄒容的《革命軍》的內容認為中國由漢唐等朝代的「士人政權」在清代變為「部族政權」，認為蒙古人和滿洲人變為中國內的特權階級或特殊分子。亦認為清朝政權始終是維護和偏袒滿洲人，須滿洲人在後擁護，才能控制牢固，以及清朝的政治，制度的意義很少，法術的意義多，批評清朝政府發布最高命令的手續，比如他認為「寄信上諭」是清朝特有的，不按照中國向來的程序，而是直接由皇帝軍機處寄給受命令的人，旁人都不知道。他亦認為，清朝在政治上還限制發言權、結社和出版自由。在清朝，除了六部尚書和侍郎可以向皇帝講話，其他的不論什麼人都不許向皇帝講話，而一直得到中央重視的翰林院等，向來他們可以向政府講話的，但是到了清朝也不准專折言事。在地方上，只有總督、巡撫、藩台、臬台可以向政府講話，其他的府縣均不可，又認為在明代的「布衣」也可以直接向皇帝講話。他又批評在地方上，清朝也不允許民間有公開發言權。在順治五年立在府學、縣學明倫堂里的臥碑就足可以証明。在當時府學、縣學都有明倫堂，清朝在每一個明倫堂里都設置一個石碑，而這個石碑不是豎立的，而是橫躺在那裡，所以叫「臥碑」。在臥碑上有三條禁令：第一，生員不得言事；第二，不得立盟結社；第三，不得刊刻文字。然而史學家徐復觀指出錢穆的「士人政權」說並不正確，因為政府的性質必須就權力根源之地是由誰來運用而言。他亦指出通過《二十四史》一直到現代，都證明凡是站在平民的立場進入到仕途的人地位愈高，與皇帝愈接近，命運性的困擾、艱難必定來自專制的機構與專制的觀念。他批評錢穆對專制下的必然產物例如「外戚宦官」和漢代統治者的暴行視而不見，以及把中國「歷史中成千上萬的殘酷地帝王專制的實例置之不顧」，且根據《報任安書》，凡是皇帝親自交下與皇帝自己有關的案子，承辦的官吏決不敢問是非。

新清史學派認為，滿人採取的政治制度在明代的基礎下有所創新。比如軍機處就從帶有臨時性的純粹軍事咨詢組織轉變成了一種常規的政治治理機構，由此提高了統治效率。密折制度的建立完全改變了君臣之間相互溝通的傳統方式，使得君主控制臣下的能力大大增強。八旗駐防各地使漢人人口佔絕大多數的城市染上了頗為濃厚的異族色彩。內務府的設置與運行，嚴格了宮廷內部的禮儀規範，與明代的內廷制度有了本質的區別，宦官外戚幹政的現象也由此完全絕跡。

西方傳教士如南懷仁等人記載康熙經常親身到各地巡視，以便了解百姓的生活情況和官吏們的施政狀況，亦會允許「最卑賤的工匠和農夫」接近自己，諭令衛兵們不許阻止百姓靠近，康熙會向百姓提出各種問題，包括詢問百姓對當地的官吏的滿意度，以便對官員作出獎勵或處分。另外，在清朝敢言且未被追究的學者有反對專制思想的袁枚、著書批評君權的唐甄、一道反朝廷的黃宗羲以及顧炎武等學者。

南書房

南書房於康熙十六年（1677年）設立，起初是康熙帝為了與翰林院詞臣們研討學問，吟詩作畫而設。因在乾清宮西南角特闢房舍故名南書房。由於南書房「非崇班貴檁、上所親信者不得入」，所以它完全是由皇帝嚴密控制的一個核心機要機構，隨時承旨出詔行令，這使南書房「權勢日崇」。南書房地位的提高，是康熙帝削弱議政王大臣會議權力，同時將外朝內閣的某些職能移歸內廷，實施高度集權的重要步驟。

軍機處

軍機處原稱軍需處，歷來被視為清朝的最高決策部門。雍正八年（1730年），清軍在西北與準噶爾激戰，為及時處理軍報雍正皇帝始立，雍正十年改稱軍機處。軍機大臣以下設章京等官，從六部員司和內閣中書里選用。章京的任務是繕寫諭旨、記載檔案、查核奏議，作軍機大臣的輔助人員。章京也是滿、漢人員各兩班，每班八人，各設一領班。章京參與機要，草擬聖旨，俗稱「小軍機」。

乾隆皇帝即位後服孝，安排數位「總理事務王大臣」進入軍機處，故改名總理事務處。乾隆二年（1737年）乾隆服滿親政，總理事務王大臣等自請罷職，恢復軍機處名稱，自此遂成定製，軍機處成為直接對皇帝負責的核心權力機構，滿洲議政王大臣會議的地位更被削弱至幾乎可忽略不計，政治權力全部掌握在皇帝手中，成為清代中央集權制度的頂峰。

《清史稿》記載，乾隆時軍機處雖然只有兩名漢人，但漢人的地位都很高，張廷玉是太保、大學士、三等伯，徐本是太子太保、大學士，高於除了鄂爾泰之外的所有同僚。至於鄂爾泰的地位之所以穩居軍機大臣之首，則與他在「改土歸流」、「混一華夷」過程中曾立下的功業恰成正比。到了清季，軍機處仍不改諸族合作之傳統，吳鬱生、榮慶和世續等軍機大臣，在國勢陵夷的光緒與宣統時期，依然在默契地合作。

宣統三年（1911年）四月初十清廷宣佈成立「責任內閣」，軍機處廢止。

責任內閣

宣統三年四月初十（1911年5月18日），清政府宣佈廢除軍機處，實行內閣制，任命內閣總理大臣和諸大臣組成內閣。由慶親王奕劻組成中國歷史上第一個現代意義上的責任內閣。由於閣員中過半數為皇族，時人譏之為「皇族內閣」。當時的內閣學士李家駒指出：

• 當時中國唯一具有憲法性質的《欽定憲法大綱》並沒有規定皇族不能組織內閣；

• 日本憲法也沒有類似規定（李家駒曾充駐日公使和出使日本考察憲政大臣）；

• 奕勵內閣只是暫行閣制，具有過渡性質。

中國歷史學博士李細珠指出，與其說奕勘內閣是因皇族親貴太多，不如說是因清朝皇族親貴為滿族，滿漢矛盾才是問題的焦點。該內閣在辛亥革命後倒台，由袁世凱組成的新內閣所取代。

執行機關

與漢地地方行政制度一樣，清朝中央執行機關基本沿襲明朝體制，只有少量機構調整，大致上可以總結為七部院五寺察院兩府。

七部院包括六部（吏部、戶部、禮部、兵部、刑部、工部）與理藩院，為清朝最高執行機關，各部長官稱尚書，副長官稱侍郎，以前尚書均由滿人擔任，順治元年（1644年）規定尚書及侍郎滿、漢各一，只有新設的理藩院因為與漢地事務無關而多涉及旗務，始終不設漢缺。

清朝以前的政治，因為政治的公開性和六部尚書是全國行政首長的關係，由外部送到內部的公事，都是先送到六部；而皇帝拿出來的公事，六部也一定要得先看，例如有關教育的公事一定要經過禮部，而不能由皇帝私下決定，到了清朝卻非如此。清朝的六部雖然沿襲明朝，但是清朝的六部的權力不如前朝，六部尚書更不能直接對部下發命令，而六部尚書也不是行政首長。六部的權限權力集中到皇帝手裡，同時還有滿漢之分，有一個漢人尚書，就必須有一個滿洲尚書，並且始終以滿尚書為主。

五寺包括大理寺、太常寺、光祿寺、太僕寺、鴻臚寺。大理寺與刑部和都察院合為三法司，其職權與今日之最高法院相似。大理寺的首長稱為大理寺卿，也是九卿之一。其餘四個寺的卿職權較低。太常寺負責祭祀；太僕寺管理馬匹；光祿寺負責壽宴；鴻臚寺負責接待外賓。

都察院是最高監察機關，架構基本沿襲明制，以左院察京畿，右院刺外藩（故直省督撫均領右都御史或右副都御史銜），所不同者，隨著君主專制的高度加強，都察院的諫諍職能遭到空前削弱。因為同樣的原因，明朝具有批駁權和言官職能的六科也只餘下分察六部的監察職能，故于雍正年間被併入都察左院。為加強監督管理，凡天下文武官員，都要定期進行考察。規定三載考績，以定升降獎懲。京官叫「京察」，外官叫「大計」。對武官的考察，每五年一次，稱為「軍政」，由兵部主持。但是，不論「京察」、「大計」還是「軍政」，在實行中都是瞻徇情面，弊端叢生。後來更成為故事具文，走走過場而已。

內廷事務方面，鑑於明朝太監亂國，清朝皇帝獨創內務府以管理宮禁事務。其成員由內務府三旗（正黃旗、鑲黃旗、正白旗）的15個包衣佐領、18個旗鼓佐領、兩個朝鮮佐領、一個回子佐領和30個內管領的包衣及太監組成，其機構組織兼容清初內務府和十三衙門兩種制度的內容和特點，並最終形成以七司三院為主幹兼轄其他40餘衙門的龐大的宮廷服務機構。

宗室管理方面，清朝仍設宗人府管理宗室覺羅事務，但與明朝宗人府人浮于事只用于優待親王的狀況不同，由于八旗制度的存在，數量龐大的宗室覺羅成為清廷的核心軍事力量，管理他們的宗人府也成為重要的實權部門。

清末新政中，對此前的制度進行大量的改革，此前的七部院被改革為十一部，長官（國務大臣）均為責任內閣閣僚；大理寺改組為大理院，根據司法獨立原則不再是刑部的覆審機關，而是全國最高審判機關，與最高監察機關都察院同為全國最高司法機關；下四寺進行省革而歸入新官司，內務宗人兩府儘管保有舊時職權，但隨著軍制改革，權力也大為下降。

刑律

順治四年（1647年），《大清律例》編修完成。《大清律》基本上承襲《明律》的內容。後經康熙、雍正兩朝屢次增刪，並于雍正五年公布。但清朝最經常起作用的是例，而不是律。胡林翼說：「《大清律》易遵，而例難盡悉。」，胥吏都諳熟例案，常可執例以壓制長官。清廷對各少數民族地區還有各種特訂的法律，如對蒙古族有「蒙古律」，對維吾爾族有「回律」，對藏族有「番律」等等。

清朝皇帝為打壓漢人反清復明運動與防止散播不利皇帝的消息，屢興文字獄以控制士大夫的思想。文字獄之案件常是無中生有，小人造謠所為。較大規模的文字獄甚至可以牽連多人受害。柳詒徵稱「前代文人受禍之烈，殆未有若清代者。故雍乾以來，志節之士，蕩然無存。……稍一不慎，禍且不測。」。順治四年（1647年），發生第一起文字獄「函可案」。一位法號函可的和尚因藏有「逆書」《變記》而被逮捕，後來流放到瀋陽。順治末年又發生莊廷鑨明史案，並驚動朝廷中的輔政大臣鰲拜等人。清朝諸例文字獄中，有名的有康熙時期的南山案、雍正時期的查嗣庭試題案和呂留良案等。

《劍橋中國史》評價：「清代文字獄中禁止的大多數作品一直被保存下來，而大多數遺失的作品不在被禁之列。這可能是直到今天在許多國家看到的現象的又一種說明。一本被列入禁書名單的書，被認為有特殊價值，從而被小心地保存下來。禁令實際上是最有效的廣告形式。」。

軍事

清朝武裝力量主要有八旗軍、綠營、地方義勇與團練、湘軍、淮軍與清末新軍。

八旗

八旗制度是清朝特有的一種組織形式和軍事制度，是清朝軍隊之核心。原先採取軍政合一、兵民合一的方式。入關後專門以兵為業，世代為兵。包括旗下士兵和戶籍被編制在八旗軍隊中的家庭成員，由各地八旗駐防將軍或都統管轄。1601年，努爾哈赤將建州女真分為四旗。1615年時擴建為八旗，八旗制度至此成形。皇太極在征服漠南蒙古察哈爾部，以及收降明朝降將後，又建立起蒙古八旗與漢軍八旗。儘管八旗有滿洲、蒙古、漢軍之分，但他們都是基於同一套制度之下，因此差異不大。旗人擁有一定的社會地位，絕大多數情況下終身不變，所屬旗籍亦基本世代固定。旗人因戰功而獲得的職位可以世代承襲，例如，每旗下屬的眾佐領通常都是世襲職位。旗人居住地大多是固定的。在各地的駐防軍（分佈在如杭州、成都等大城市）更設立「八旗駐防城」（俗稱「滿城」）供旗人居住，與平民所居住之地相隔離。旗人不得務農或經營工商業，每月錢糧由朝廷供給，號稱「旱澇保收」的「鐵桿莊稼」。旗人不受當地總督、巡撫管轄，犯罪時由特定機關審理。

綠營

綠營是順治帝入關後招降明軍、招募漢人組織的軍隊，以協助少量的八旗兵鎮守廣大的疆土。當時由八旗軍守備京師、華北地區與各地要衝，綠營守備華中與華南地區。華南更交由三藩鎮守，以壓制當地反清勢力。綠營以綠旗為標誌，以營為單位，兵制繼承明朝，編有標、協、營及汛。綠營由漢人統帥，最上位的提督統領一省綠營，受文官總督、巡撫所節制，各省兵力大小不一，由萬餘到六七萬不等；提督之下為總兵，管轄一鎮兵力，約幾千人至一萬五千人。直屬兵力鎮標由參將統領，約千人至兩三千人不等。再下面的為副將，管理一協兵力，約數千人左右。副將以下就是參將、遊擊、都司與守備，統轄一營兵力，兵員數量各有不同。最下面的為千總與把總，負責統領一汛，也就是一個駐地。士兵為世兵制，父死則子繼。將兵由兵部直接統轄，將領無法直接統兵，有效地防止軍人擁兵自重。隨著八旗軍的腐化，綠營的重要性就日益加強，例如三藩之亂時即以綠營為主力。乾隆嘉慶兩朝，綠營總兵六十餘萬，成為軍事主力。然而由於太平已久，綠營本身隨著種種弊端而逐漸腐化。乾隆帝閱兵時，所見已是「射箭，箭虛發；馳馬，人墮地」。1796年川楚教亂時，綠營已無力對付擅長游擊戰的白蓮教徒，部分將領甚至屠殺平民以換戰功。到了鴉片戰爭和太平天國之亂時，綠營上陣一觸即潰，作戰主力也改交由湘軍、淮軍等地方團練負責。同治年間多次裁減綠營，綠營的重要性逐漸減弱，清末新軍成立後綠營同名存實亡。至民國初年，綠營被改編為警察性質的地方治安衛戍部隊，成為民國時期警察的濫觴。

義勇與團練

義勇與團練於川楚教亂後逐漸成為清朝武裝力量之一，由於清軍不善游擊戰，所以鼓勵地方建立義勇與團練協助清軍鎮壓，1799年清廷正式同意組建團練。太平天國之亂與捻亂時，由於清廷的正規軍腐敗無能，且不善游擊戰，地方官員曾國藩整合江忠源、胡林翼與羅澤南義勇，成立湘軍。湘軍作戰能力強，屢次擊敗太平軍。監視太平天國天京的江南大營被攻破後，湘軍成為清廷唯一抵禦太平軍的力量。1860年曾國藩的門生李鴻章于安徽一帶建立淮軍。平定捻亂時，僧格林沁率領的八旗軍中捻軍埋伏全滅，後來有賴淮軍才平定之。當時如豫軍、東軍、滇軍、川軍等義勇也陸續建立起來。這些地方軍成為清朝晚期平定內亂、抵禦外侮的主要力量。然而不管是湘軍或淮軍皆以「兵隨將轉，兵為將有」為方針，與後來的北洋軍形成聽命於個人的軍閥勢力，這個作風深刻影響著民國軍事。

當時湘軍與淮軍採用西方新式槍炮，火力強大。而由外國人協助建立的常勝軍、常捷軍更是讓曾李等將領印象深刻，使他們意識到西方軍事技術的重要性。例如李鴻章目睹常勝軍用4個小時即攻破太倉城，事後寫信給曾國藩，宣稱「若火器能與西洋相埒，平中國有餘，敵外國亦無不足」，這成為自強運動的起因之一。為建立現代化清軍，洋務派聘請外國教官來訓練八旗軍、綠營和守衛首都的神機營，一些兵工廠也建立起來。然而淮軍的地位仍然不可動搖，例如發生天津教案時，儘管守衛首都的神機營已有三萬之眾，清廷仍然調集淮軍來加強京師的防務。

清末新軍

自強運動隨中法戰爭與甲午戰爭而失敗，而清廷守舊派利用義和團抵禦西方列強的策略也隨八國聯軍而落幕。八國聯軍之後，清政府決定實施改革，即「清末新政」。為建立現代化清軍，早在維新運動時即建議成立一支現代化的陸海軍，組織團練並建立保甲制度。清末新政時，袁世凱在華北組建新建陸軍（即北洋軍），張之洞在南方組建自強軍。1904年清廷正式建立由36個鎮組成的常備軍的計劃，而綠營在1901年即開始裁減。同時取消武舉，在各省建立武備學堂，以培養新式軍官。負責軍事改革的中央機構是1903年成立的練兵處，它在1906年被併入新立的陸軍部，其尚書和左右侍郎都是滿人。清廷試圖削弱地方軍閥力量，1907年袁世凱和張之洞就在明升暗調中被剝奪軍權。1908年宣統帝的攝政王載灃決定進一步加強對軍隊的控制，在1909年的一道上諭中，他宣布自己（代表年幼的皇帝）對軍隊行使最高統帥權，他還把自己的兄弟任命為海軍處和軍咨府的管理大臣。到清帝國滅亡前夕，其陸軍可以號稱100萬，但大概只有60萬戰鬥人員，其中只有17.5萬人是現代化的正規軍。並非所有新軍均效忠清廷，部分是暗中支持革命軍的。參謀機制上，在1907年即仿照西製成立參謀部門軍咨處，隸屬陸軍部之下。為把軍事管理和軍事指揮分開，1911年決定把它升格為獨立于陸軍部外的軍咨府。

海軍

清朝視水師為陸軍之輔。加之滿洲以騎射為本，故不善水戰。入關初期，在對抗鄭成功等海上抗清勢力時，往往力不從心。1636年皇太極征滿洲瓦爾喀部，即開始造戰船。1651年順治帝令沿江沿海各省循明制，各設水師，此為清朝水師之始。內河防務以長江為主體，沿岸各設水師。海防上，清朝為封鎖明鄭的經濟力量，實施海禁。即使在平定明鄭後，仍受海禁影響，水師多以防禦為主，缺乏攻擊性戰艦。嘉慶時由于東南沿海海盜泛濫，就有學者開始注意海防，如湖南的嚴如煜寫有《海防輯要》。鴉片戰爭後在面對西方炮艦時，清朝水師一戰即潰的事實讓魏源、鄭復光等人意識到東西方的差距，紛紛提倡建立現代化海軍。太平天國興起時，英國協助清朝建立中英聯合指揮的阿思本艦隊，然而指揮權的問題使得艦隊解散。

直到自強運動時，清朝才有新建海軍的動作。為建立船艦自製能力，1866年清廷在福州馬尾成立總理船政事務衙門，以沈葆禎為船政大臣。同年，李鴻章要求其江南製造局建造炮艦。1868年8月，第一艘中國製造的蒸汽軍艦，「恬吉」號下水。然而自製船艦與外國艦隊相比較差也較貴，李鴻章等官員仍然從國外購艦為主。其中最有名的即是由德國建造定遠與鎮遠，這兩艘是北洋艦隊的主力艦。人事上，早在1867年即建立福州船政學堂以培養海軍軍官，1872年和1876年分別派使團前往海外學習。沈葆楨和丁日昌離開後，福州船政局開始衰落。1880年李鴻章在天津成立天津水師學堂，張之洞在廣州成立水陸師學堂（1887年），曾國荃在南京開辦南洋水師學堂（1890年）。1885年10月清政府宣布成立海軍衙門，以醇親王為總理大臣。

清朝先後建立四支艦隊：受北洋大臣節制的北洋艦隊，受南洋大臣節制的南洋艦隊，受福州船政局節制的福建水師，受兩廣總督節制的廣東水師。其中北洋艦隊在當時被評論為世界第八、亞洲第一的海軍艦隊。然而四隻艦隊資源獨立，互不統屬，也不互相合作。財政上，1891年慈禧太后挪用海軍預算於興建頤和園。到1890年後，守衛黃海、東海的北洋艦隊即已「停購船械」。李鴻章也稱「自光緒十四年（1888年）後，並未添購一船。操演雖勤，戰艦過少」。隨後的中法戰爭南洋水師、福建水師遭受重創，甲午戰爭中北洋水師全軍覆沒，這也標誌自強運動的失敗。隨後旅順、大連、威海衛、膠澳與廣州灣等海軍基地相繼喪失，八國聯軍後大沽等地沿海砲台又被列強下令摧毀，清朝已無海防可言。1909年，清廷決定成立海軍處，並將殘餘的戰艦重編成巡洋和長江兩艦隊。1910年改海軍處為海軍部，力圖重振海軍。

民族

清朝統治者根據實地情況的差異採取不同的政策。在中原地區基本沿襲明代的統治方式，包括開科舉等，以贏得漢族知識分子的支持，並根據清朝的實際情況實行旗民分治；在邊疆地區則採取加派駐防大臣與當地貴族共同治理。

清朝統治合法性建立的基礎與前朝有所不同，清朝統治在鞏固滿洲自我認同的同時，兼容其他族群的信仰和習俗，使之擁有遠超前代的疆域和領土。清朝皇帝本身擁有各種政治與宗教頭銜，具備不同文化象徵意義的多維品格，體現出對各類臣民復雜多樣之宗教信仰的認可。因為清朝對不同地域和族群的宗教信仰採取了更多的包容政策，使各種異質文化因素能夠共存。

漢族政策

清初入關之後有「六大弊政」之說，剃髮（或薙髮）、易服、圈地、佔房（侵佔房舍）、投充（搶掠漢人為奴隸）、逋逃（逃人法），延續時間最長的，是逃人法。順治七年六月，廣西巡撫郭肇基等人因為「擅帶逃人五十三名」，被處死。清初曾頒令諭：一、八旗制度移入關內，全族皆兵。二、鼓勵滿人入關。三、圈地，使近畿五百里內全屬旗人所有。四、禁止旗漢通婚；禁止滿人自由擇業。弊政中的投充和逋逃皆為圈地所造成的直接結果。康熙帝親政後即立即下令永遠停止圈地，並逐步放寬對逃人的禁令並最終裁撤督捕衙門。隨後康熙開始採取一系列與民休息的政策。

剃髮易服

清軍入關之前，為易於辨識順逆，就已要求被征服或投效的漢人改變髮式。順治元年（1644年），多爾袞率清軍入關。山海關之戰後，多爾袞下令沿途州縣官員按滿人風俗，剃頭留辮。清軍驅逐李自成，定鼎北京，漢人強烈反對剃髮，降清之漢族官員剃髮者亦寥寥無幾。多爾袞見滿清統治尚未穩固，便下旨收回成命，命「天下臣民照舊束髮，悉從其便」。明朝降臣孫之獬卻全家主動剃髮迎降，更令妻子不再纏足，並上疏標榜「臣妻放足獨先，閤家剃髮效滿制」，得授禮部左侍郎，兼翰林院侍讀學士。清初筆記《研堂見聞雜記》稱，孫之獬入朝後，列於滿班，滿臣認為他是漢人而不受；歸入漢班，漢臣又因為他從滿俗而不容，孫之獬於是羞憤上疏，稱「陛下平定中國，萬里鼎新，而衣冠束髮之制，獨存漢舊，此乃陛下從中國，非中國從陛下也」，言辭激烈。順治二年（1645年）五月，大順與南明弘光政權相繼被清軍摧毀，多爾袞認為大局已定，於六月重新下剃髮令。七月，又下令「衣冠皆宜遵本朝之制」，規定清軍所到之處，成年男子無論官民，限十日內盡行剃頭，削髮垂辮，不從者斬，以恫嚇抵抗軍民。江南地區不少人反抗剃髮令，嘉定三屠等亦由此引發。

當時一些在華傳教士曾描述過當時一些城市的屠城情況。20世紀的法蘭西學院院士阿蘭·佩雷菲特認為：「建國後的最初幾年，整批整批的百姓遭到屠殺。強迫留辮子引起騷亂，結果都被殺害而倒臥在血泊之中。」

被指帶有「傳統漢化的歷史觀」和「近代反滿興漢民族主義」觀點，且對滿人統治者的統治評價負面的錢穆認為：「清人又想討好民眾，又存心壓迫知識分子，他們只需要有服服帖帖的官員，不許有正正大大的人，結果造成了政治上的奴性、平庸、敷衍、腐敗、沒精神」。

漢臣與漢軍

清朝統治者為能使自己的王朝更長久，按歷代漢人王朝的傳統開設科舉，大力尊崇儒學，從中選拔統治精英以贏得漢族知識分子的支持。早在後金時期，努爾哈赤和皇太極就曾起用範文程、寧完我等漢八旗人士。崇德年間，又先後招降洪承疇、吳三桂、孔有德、尚可喜、耿仲明及其統領的漢族軍隊。後來，這些前明將領在消滅南方反清勢力的過程中起到重要作用。另外，康熙年間帶兵攻克台灣的水師將領施琅也是前明降將中為清朝立功的代表人物之一。晚清時期，漢族官員逐漸成為清王朝的中流砥柱，有虎門銷煙的林則徐；還有在消滅太平天國和捻軍中立下大功的曾國藩、李鴻章、左宗棠；又如在洋務運動中起到關鍵作用的張之洞、劉坤一；實行新式練軍的袁世凱等。

清太宗皇太極即汗位後改變努爾哈赤對漢人的政策，釋放掠奪來的漢人奴隸，編莊別居，將加入漢軍八旗的明朝官員或後金提拔的漢人官員來管理。1633年皇太極下令從所屬的滿洲八旗的漢人壯丁中每十名抽出一名，組成一旗漢軍，這是皇太極組成漢軍的開始，並成為漢八旗的前身。

隨著軍隊的發展，崇德二年（1637年），即皇太極稱帝改後金為大清的第二年，又分漢軍旗為兩旗。又過五年，崇德七年（1642年），把漢軍擴為八旗。至此，漢軍八旗正式出現，成為清朝三軍之一。所使用的旗幟和滿洲、蒙古相一致，即正黃、鑲黃，正白、鑲白，正紅、鑲紅，正藍、鑲藍。由於漢軍編成八旗，所有旗下成員都是旗人，也稱漢軍旗人。漢八旗中的原漢人後代與滿人同樣享受世襲待遇，亦有很多世襲佐領之職。漢軍旗人在司法上和滿洲旗人一樣，與民人同罪不同罰。乾隆年間，由於財政原因，漢軍八旗曾大量出旗為民，僅剩在後金時期便跟隨滿洲統治者漢軍勳舊之後。雍正元年（1723年），漢軍與漢人家奴壯丁共計44萬餘人，約占當時八旗人丁總額的72%。至出旗後嘉慶元年（1796年）的再度統計，已降至總人口的43%，可見漢軍出旗之規模是巨大的。到宣統末年，漢軍旗人共有21596人，約佔旗人總數的6%。

滿漢文化

一般認為，清朝統治者在保持滿族優先前提下，很大程度上採取漢化政策。但一些研究遼金元清史的日本學者認為，清和遼金元一樣屬於中國的征服王朝，漢化深度和速度均遜於北魏等滲透王朝；清室只推行對自己有利的漢化措施，並儘可能保留本族文化，而非全盤漢化。

所有施政文書都以滿漢兩種文字發佈。自康熙起大力推行以儒學為代表的漢文化，漢傳統經典成為包括皇帝在內的滿族人必修課。滿族皇帝也納有漢族嬪妃，詳見滿漢通婚。儘管滿漢通婚的現象早已普遍存在，不過真正解除滿漢通婚禁令，是直到1902年清末新政才完全落實。到乾隆中期，滿人幾乎全部以漢語為母語，滿文漸漸成為僅用於官方歷史記載用的純書面文字，並在使用中逐步為漢文所取代。部分史學者認為，正因滿人自動漢化才沒有在短時期之內覆滅，甚至反被漢人奴化。若無法漢化，則如南北朝的胡族政權一樣，無法吸收漢族先進的文化而滅亡。支持儒化說者則認為，清朝皇帝只是有選擇尊儒，儒家的一些思想清朝皇帝也沒有完全接受，而儒家只是漢文化的內容之一，漢文化不僅僅只包括文字和儒家，還有衣冠、風俗禮儀、各種宗教信仰等。

西南土司

土司制度是在唐宋時期羈縻州縣制的基礎上發展而成的，其實質是「以土官治土民」，承認各少數民族的世襲首領地位，給予其官職頭銜，以進行間接統治，朝廷中央的敕詔實際上並沒有能夠得到真正的貫徹。有些土官以世襲故，恣肆虐殺百姓，為患邊境，「漢民被其摧殘，夷人受其荼毒。」。

康雍乾盛世時期，國力強盛，中央政府已經有足夠的力量加強對少數民族地區的統治。雍正四年（1726年），鄂爾泰大力推行改土歸流政策，即由中央政府選派有一定任期的流官直接管理少數民族地區的政務，「改流之法，計擒為上策，兵剿為下策，令其投獻為上策，敕令投獻為下策。」，「制苗之法，固應恩威並用」。

乾隆後期學者魏源通過《聖武記》的編寫，認同清朝所代表的正統地位。至於地方上的士大夫們，還透過他們編寫於乾隆、道光和光緒等不同時期的《鳳凰廳志》，逐步確證了民間對國家及其民族平等政策的認同。日本東亞史學家安部健夫指出，改土歸流是一個借苗族的漢化，證明「夷性華化」能夠實現的「活廣告」，中國史學家王柯指出，至遲到道光皇帝在位的十九世紀前半，在清朝的帝國構造中，西南部的非漢民族地區就已經被完全當作「內地」來對待。

首崇滿洲

清朝皇帝強調「滿漢一體」，在實行一些政策時會考慮到要平衡各族的心理，例如在康熙晚年的內閣大學士中經常在五至六人中保持一兩個南方人的名額，令南北地主共同參政。在康熙二十年（1681年）的內閣新加入的成員當中，有兩名滿人，四名漢人，而在四名漢人當中南人北人各半。此外，康熙亦重點選拔升遷較快的漢族士大夫，這些士大夫同時是內閣的候補成員，亦容許有「反清」思想的學者嚴繩孫擔任官職。有學者指出，「滿漢一體」實際上是以「首崇滿洲」為前提，清朝統治者的滿漢畛域觀念始終根深蒂固。作為統治族群和八旗軍隊中的主要組成部分，滿洲人尤其被清朝歷代君主視為國家根本、朝廷柱石。滿洲將士為清朝定鼎中原、以及之後平三藩、滅准部等戰役中立下汗馬功勞。故終清一代，「首崇滿洲」（又稱「滿洲根本」）是清朝的既定國策。雍正帝曾明言，「惟望爾等習為善人，如宗室內有一善人，滿洲內亦有一善人，朕必先用宗室；滿洲內有一善人，漢軍內亦有一善人，朕必用滿洲；推之漢軍、漢人皆然，苟宗室不及滿洲，則朕定用滿洲矣。」。

清朝時期，八旗子弟（以滿洲為主，也包含蒙漢八旗子弟）在政治或生活領域主要在教育、科考、補缺、律法、生活待遇等方面享有一定特權待遇。清廷特為宗室子弟特設宗學，覺羅子弟有覺羅學，普通八旗子弟有咸安宮官學等八旗官學，內務府子弟有景山官學等。在文武科舉之外，還提供筆帖式、翻譯士、皇帝侍衛等方式供旗人子弟進入仕途。高層官職也一向有旗缺與漢缺之分。旗人可酌任漢缺，反之除極個別情況外，理論上是不可能的。能力不足以登科做官的旗人可以從參與最基本的挑選八旗兵丁做起，旗人子弟中的未成年者還可以參與類似于預備役制度的「養育兵」選拔，按月可得一定薪資。清代旗漢亦不同刑，若正身旗人犯充軍、流刑罪者有免發遣以枷號代替的特權。滿洲人的司法權也獨立於漢人之外。例如，駐防旗人觸法不歸當地督撫管制，而由該地區駐防將軍、都統負責。京旗子弟則由步軍都統衙門負責處理、宗室則由宗人府全權裁決。清廷還分撥旗地和營房給八旗子弟居住生活，不必承擔任何賦稅。旗地和營房受國家保護，不得私自買賣。清廷在全國各處八旗駐防地實施旗民分治，駐防地俗稱「滿城」，專供兵丁居住，非旗人不得隨意出入滿城。

東北滿洲故地無滿城之分，清初設置柳條邊，防止漢人及外藩蒙古進入「龍興之地」。然而在康熙、乾隆、嘉慶年間有多次漢人移居中國東北地區的記載：「其吉林寧古塔、伯都訥、阿勒楚喀、拉林等地方，乾隆二十七年定例不准無籍流民居住。及三十四年，吉林將軍傅良奏：「阿勒楚喀、拉林地方流民二百四十二戶，請限一年盡行驅逐。」上曰：「流寓既在定例之前，應准入籍墾種，一例安插，俾無失所。」嘉慶中，郭爾羅斯複有內地新來流民二千三百三十戶，吉林有千四百五十九戶，長春有六千九百五十三戶，均經將軍奏令入冊安置。其山東民人徙居口外者，在康熙五十一年已有十萬餘人。聖祖諭：「嗣後山東民人有到口外及由口外回山東者，應查明年貌籍貫，造冊稽查，互相對覈。」其後直隸、山西民人亦多有出口者。」

諸多優待政策的初衷主要是為了保証兵源、加強八旗的軍事職能。同時，這也導致滿族受到束縛，居所不能遠離本佐領之所在；八旗兵役也使得許多人在各大戰爭中戰死疆場，一定程度上阻礙滿族人口的發展；經濟方面，滿族也過于依賴八旗制度，清廷除兵差外，僅允許旗人在所屬旗地務農，這使得以京旗為主、已經適應城居生活的滿族在清朝中期開始出現生計問題。幾代皇帝都曾嘗試解決八旗生計問題，但終因不肯放任旗人自行謀生而均告失敗。此外，東北滿族因保持八旗兵農合一的習俗，始終沒有產生嚴重的生計問題。自乾隆末年，清朝開始走向衰落，並且在之後一系列與外國侵略者的戰爭中接連失敗，陷入內憂外困。這期間，在與漢人的交流中，滿族逐漸接受漢文化，被視為立國根本的國語騎射遭到廢弛。清末民初時，僅有黑龍江齊齊哈爾和璦琿一帶還有滿語使用者。1911年，辛亥革命爆發，清帝遜位，民國建立，「首崇滿洲」之國策也隨之壽終正寢。

美國達特茅斯學院歷史學教授認為，在清帝國統治者所構建的天下秩序觀中，皇權的表達具有「共主性」（Simultaneities），清帝國成功地將幾種不同的統治方式糅入皇權之中，並在不同的地域空間和價值體系中發揮不同的作用，在這樣的天下秩序觀之下，談論「滿族中心觀」並沒有意義，清朝皇帝在絕大多數時間裡僅僅把滿洲人看作是多民族帝國的一份子，認為一個真正的帝國不是隸屬於某一個文化的，而是超越文化的存在，帝國的皇權也是如此。她又說，乾隆皇帝作為清帝國的最高統治者，擁有征服者、家族首領、神權領袖、道德典範、律令制定者、軍事統帥、文化藝術贊助者等多重身份，這多種身份既相互聯繫又具有混雜性，但是又集中統一於乾隆帝一身，乾隆帝不僅僅是滿洲人的大汗，更是全天下的共主。

清朝統治者對滿洲民族意識的梳理和重塑有重要的政治層面的考慮，清代邊疆的少數民族主要是通過對「滿洲」的認同來體認中華「大一統」，故有「崇滿洲以安藩部」，從而有效聯繫「大一統」政治格局的切實需要。「崇滿」所針對的主要是日漸興起的蒙古和回疆勢力的挑戰，及其所觸發的「胡虜無百年之運」的思想異動，這種異動在清朝國內和屬國朝鮮有所反映，雍正時期出使清朝的朝鮮使臣回國後給朝鮮國王的上疏中說：「自古夷狄之主中國，非有仁義德禮，服天下之心而臣之也。華夷雜處，禍變層生，苟無聖人之應期，則漠北諸種，必將因其衰而代之。蓋今胡運之窮，不十數年可決，而蒙古強盛，異時吞倂，必至之理也。」這種情況在朝隆時期進一步深化，並且從準噶爾蒙古和大小和卓之亂可見。在這種歷史背景下，清朝統治者通過對滿洲部眾的精神整合與「國語騎射」傳統的張揚，威服和結合邊疆地區。

蒙古政策

清朝在外藩蒙古地區建立盟旗制和札薩克制，對蒙古部落採取因俗而治、多封眾建的政策。旗是分解原來的部落而組成。每盟設盟長、副盟長各一人，掌管盟務。盟長先由各旗會盟時，從旗長即札薩克中推選。後來改為清朝理藩院開列盟內札薩克，由皇帝任命。其外每盟各設備兵札薩克一人，管理軍務。有的盟還設幫辦一二人，協理盟務。旗是軍政合一的地方政權機構，每旗設旗長一人，即札薩克，掌全旗要務，可以世襲。又設協理台吉襄贊旗務。其屬有管旗章京、副章京及參領、佐領、驍騎校等。旗盟官員多是原蒙古各部落的貴族，並被冊封為札薩克親王、郡王、貝勒、貝子、公、台吉等爵位。另外，清朝統治者在一些方面較為優待蒙古人，只有蒙古人可得到親王封號的待遇。

盟是由各部定期會盟而形成的機構，主要職能是監督各旗札薩克。若干相鄰的旗為一盟，盟有盟長，由朝廷直接任命，多選旗長中勢力大、威望高、與中樞關係親密者任之。盟為監察區，不屬行政單位。當時主要有哲裡木、昭烏達、錫林郭勒等盟。各盟旗直接對朝廷負責，受理藩院的管理。另外，在內蒙古地區設熱河都統、察哈爾都統和綏遠副將軍，率軍駐防要地，以加強軍事控制。但各都統、將軍不幹涉行政事務。如科爾沁部一類可以自治，察哈爾與土默特則被取締。

清朝對外札薩克蒙古盟旗的管轄，中央有理藩院的典屬、柔遠清吏司等機構，地方上有駐紮大臣。定邊左副將軍即烏里雅蘇台將軍，為漠北蒙古地區的最高官員，下設烏里雅蘇台參贊大臣二人，與將軍共同管轄喀爾喀諸部盟旗。科布多參贊大臣及幫辦大臣管轄杜爾伯特、輝特、新土爾扈特等盟旗及札哈沁、阿明特、烏梁海等旗。庫倫辦事大臣掌中俄交涉事務，其屬恰克圖辦事司員等人，負責監督中俄貿易。

清王朝統一蒙古各部後，對蒙古的統治策略是，既要使其不再成為朔方邊患的勢力，又要籠絡當地領袖們統治當地人民，使蒙古成為清政府統治全國的一支重要軍事力量和清帝國北部疆域不設防的屏障。包括在蒙古大力扶植推廣藏傳佛教，有效地收服人心，維護蒙古地區安定局面。蒙古人一向信藏傳佛教中的黃教，滿人一直重視籠絡大喇嘛，如哲布尊丹巴與章嘉呼圖克圖；與此同時，蒙古八旗亦成為清朝軍隊的一支生力軍，在征討噶爾丹的過程中曾發揮過重要作用。外藩蒙古旗下的軍事力量（不屬八旗）也曾發揮重要作用，如清中期的喀爾喀的超勇親王策棱和晚清時的博多勒噶台親王僧格林沁的部隊。

藏族政策

清代西藏地方官府為噶廈。清朝將西藏納入版圖後為加強對西藏的治理曾採取一系列重大措施，建立政教分離的制度。當時清政府的治藏政策有設置駐藏大臣，訂立治藏章程；派駐官兵，整頓藏軍；設立台站，釐定疆域等。乾隆十六年（1751年），清政府平息頗羅鼐之子珠爾默特那木札勒叛亂後決定廢除札薩克郡王監政的權力，設立噶廈衙門，由駐藏大臣與達賴喇嘛共同領導。噶廈為總管藏務衙門，設三品官噶倫四人。下設商上，為分管財政的機構，除以噶倫一人管理外，設四品仔琫（孜本）三人，商卓特巴二人。還有專掌糧務的葉爾倉巴、管理拉薩城的朗仔轄、掌刑名的協爾幫、掌馬廠的達琫及第巴等四至七品的各種名目官員。後藏也設四品商卓特巴、葉爾倉巴，五品達琫等官員，掌管相應的政務。武官則有四至七品的戴琫（代本）、如琫、甲琫、定琫，從幾人至百多人。凡前後藏皆有營寨，按其地理險易和大中小，各設邊營官及營官，總計一百六十餘人。佛教在西藏盛行，喇嘛很多，有的喇嘛在噶廈、商上任職，而僧官又分國師、禪師、札薩克大喇嘛、札薩克喇嘛、大喇嘛、副喇嘛等，專掌教事。

乾隆五十八年（1793年）清政府出兵打敗入侵西藏的廓爾喀（尼泊爾）後頒行《藏內善後章程》二十九條，對西藏的宗教事務、外事、軍事、行政和司法等做出詳細的規定，並加強駐藏大臣的權力。駐藏大臣與達賴、班禪的地位是平等的，而達賴與班禪之間則互為師徒。駐藏大臣作為清政府的代表，可直接向皇帝上奏。達賴、班禪上奏事宜必須通過駐藏大臣轉奏。此外，達賴、班禪及以下呼圖克圖十八人、沙布隆十二人等活佛轉世，稱為「呼畢勒罕」，即奔巴金瓶掣簽，均由駐藏大臣監督。

清朝治藏期間，清政府振興西藏經濟的措施有改革烏拉、租賦、錢法、貿易制度；活躍民族貿易；創報、興學、發展農牧工礦業和加強交通、郵電事業的開發等。清末時為防止英國殖民者對西藏的滲透，川滇邊務大臣趙爾豐等決定在川邊藏區進行改土歸流、建置州縣等，以繼續加強中央政府對西藏地區的管理。宣統二年（1910年）川軍入藏後還曾計劃將改土歸流擴大到整個藏區並鞏固對藏南地區的控制，但因次年（1911年）武昌起義的爆發而作罷。

回部政策

天山山脈將新疆分成天山南北兩個區域。天山南路的大部分地區為當今維吾爾族的祖先所居，亦稱為回部。由於哈密、吐魯番率先歸服，被封為回部札薩克。乾隆平定大小和卓之亂之後，新歸附的地區不設札薩克，實行伯克制。伯克原來是回部的酋長，經清朝重新任命，按職責和品級稱「某某伯克」，共三十餘名目。最高的為阿奇木伯克，掌綜一城回務，三品至六品，其次為伊什罕伯克，掌贊理回務。四品至六品。其餘分掌地畝、田糧、稅務的，大抵四品至七品。在清朝所封的札薩克郡王和諸伯克之上，清朝還派駐伊犁將軍，掌天山南北最高軍政大權，下設參贊大臣一人輔之。又設塔爾巴哈台參贊大臣，喀什噶爾參贊大臣及幫辦大臣，葉爾羌辦事大臣及幫辦大臣，和闐、阿克蘇、烏什、庫車、喀喇沙爾辦事大臣等。乾隆末年以後，內地漢人和回民開始遷往新疆（以天山北路為主），把大片不用的牧場變為戶屯。到十九世紀初，這些定居北疆的移民已達數十萬人。在迪化（烏魯木齊），1808年時各縣的民戶農田數量已達到1775年的十倍。

從乾隆後期開始，以沈垚、張穆、龔自珍等為代表的學者，均紛紛關心邊疆事務，為國家獻計獻策。龔自珍大倡「回人皆內地人也」，無所謂「華夷之別」，並上疏安西北策，將新疆等同內地，主張「疆其土，子其民，以遂將千萬年而無尺寸可議棄之地，所由中外一家，與前史迥異也」。

外交

外交機關

清朝在近代以前並沒有正式的外交機構，因當時清廷一向以天朝上國自居，不願承認與四周國家的平等關係。清朝的外交按照對象的不同，分由禮部、理藩院、內務府與公行制度負擔外交事務。六部的禮部負責對日本、朝鮮、琉球與東南亞各國外交或朝貢事務，以維繫朝貢體制。理藩院負責交涉東亞內陸如內外蒙古、準噶爾、西藏、俄羅斯帝國等事務，主要防止邊患形成。其編制與六部基本相同，官員大多由滿族、蒙古族人擔任，漢人只能擔任堂主事、校正官等少數官職。內務府除管理本身內廷事務，也管理歐洲來華傳教士、宗教使節團的事務以及國外貿易的傳運徵收特別稅。公行制度負責西洋各國如葡萄牙、荷蘭、英國等貿易關係（在清朝來看仍為朝貢），限制於廣州一地，又稱廣州制度。

鴉片戰爭開啟中國近代史，清朝對外關係轉向被歧視。由於缺乏正式外交機構，為西方國家不滿，在《天津條約》就有要求外國公使進駐北京，這使得中國正式開始面對新的外交形勢。1861年，總理各國事務衙門成立，專門負責對外關係；然而，其地位逐漸被1870年成立的北洋通商大臣所取代。直到1901年的清末新政，將總理衙門改制為外務部後，才得以統一負責對外事務。

藩屬國

清朝的藩屬國方面，早在皇太極與康熙時期就有朝鮮與琉球國。到乾隆時期擴充到東南亞地區的安南（即越南）、南掌（琅勃拉邦王國，地屬今寮國）、暹羅（今泰國）、緬甸以及南洋群島的蘭芳共和國（柬埔寨被安南與暹羅瓜分，呂宋與蘇祿於西班牙統治菲律賓群島後相繼消失）；西南喜馬拉雅山有廓爾喀（尼泊爾）、哲孟雄（錫金）、不丹等國；中亞地區有哈薩克汗國、布魯特汗國、浩罕汗國、布哈拉汗國、愛烏罕（今阿富汗）、巴達克山、乾竺特與拉達克等國。

海禁與海外貿易

清朝建立伊始，清政府為禁止和截斷東南沿海的反清勢力與據守台灣的鄭成功部的聯繫，以鞏固新朝的統治，曾五次頒布禁海令，並三次頒布「遷海令」，禁止人民出海貿易。1683年清軍攻佔台灣後，康熙接受東南沿海的官員請求，停止清初的海禁政策，並在「粵東之澳門（一說廣州）、福建之漳州府、浙江之寧波府、江南之雲台山」分別設立粵海關、閩海關、浙海關、江海關作為管理對外貿易和徵收關稅的機構。江浙閩粵四大海關總領各自所在省的所有海關口岸，通常下轄十幾至幾十個海關口岸。但當時西方殖民者的殖民地已遍佈中國周圍，其殖民步伐引起了清廷警惕，康熙甚至曾口諭大臣們：「海外如西洋等國，千百年後中國恐受其累，此朕逆料之言」。

乾隆二十二年（1757年），乾隆帝以海防重地規範外商活動為理由，諭令西洋商人只可以在廣東通商。乾隆諭令「本年來船雖已照上年則例辦理，而明歲赴浙之船，必當嚴行禁絕。……此地向非洋船聚集之所，將來只許在廣東收泊交易，不得再赴寧波。如或再來，必令原船返棹至廣，不准入浙江海口。豫令粵關，傳諭該商等知悉。……令行文該國番商，遍諭番商。嗣後口岸定于廣東，不得再赴浙省」這一上諭只是讓「外洋紅毛等國番船」、「番商」只在廣東通商，不得再赴浙江等地，而不是一些資料中所說的關閉江、浙、閩三海關，更不是「廣州一口通商」。

鴉片戰爭前美國和英國兩個航海大國的船舶總噸位的總和一度遜於清朝，當時中國沿海商船總數約在9,000至將近10,000艘之間，約有150萬噸。加上其他種類的船舶，全國總有大小江海船舶20多萬艘，共計400多萬噸。而在1814年，英國全國有大小21,500多艘船，共240萬噸；美國在1809年全國有船舶135萬噸。

西風東漸

18世紀，歐洲各國普遍流行中國風尚，當時歐洲人對中國普遍持正面和嚮往的態度，例如被譽為「法蘭西思想之父」的法國啟蒙時代思想家伏爾泰就曾高度讚揚當時在位的乾隆帝及中國的政治和文化。不過與此同時亦存在不同的聲音，佩雷菲特指出1792年外交失敗的英使馬戛爾尼回程路上寫的紀事中就包含批判性的看法。然而馬戛爾尼在他的日記《A Journal of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China》裡對清朝的平民百姓的日常生活、官員對下屬的態度、統治者的儀態以至整體社會和國家的法律制度有多處正面評價。

有學者指出，在乾隆以後，清朝開始實行「閉關鎖國」政策，一開始是四口通商，到後來只有廣州開放對外通商，且由十三行壟斷其進出貿易。當時西洋的科技發展蓬勃，漸漸地超越奧斯曼帝國為首的伊斯蘭世界和以清朝為首的東方世界。

但也有學者指出，「閉關鎖國」實際上是西方侵略者強加在清朝頭上的貶詞，反映出當時對華虎視眈眈的西方國家不顧事實反誣清朝排外，又指出就算是當時西方各國的口岸也只容許本國船隻進出，本國的進口貨物只容許本國船或原產國船裝運，稱之為「保護政策」，但又同時強迫其他國家洞開國門，任由他們自由離去和壟斷，是為雙重標準。此外，英使馬戛爾尼曾向清朝提出六項要求，當中包括：

• 要求英國貨船能到浙江、天津等地收泊；

• 要求在北京設立商行；

• 要求在珠舟山佔一島嶼，以便英國人居住和收存貨物；

• 要求在廣州城劃一地方居住英國人，或者居住澳門之人出入自便；

• 要求准許英商從廣東內河航行澳門，貨物不納稅或少納稅；

• 要求確定關稅條例。

乾隆帝隨之復書批駁英國使臣的要求，有學者認為信中雖有妄自尊大的一面，但一些史學家往往斷章獨引「天朝物產豐盈，無所不有，原不藉外夷貨物以通有無」這句話證明清朝「閉關鎖國」，對英國侵犯中國領土完整及關稅自主的六項要求避而不談。清廷為了防止澳門被霸佔的情況重演而限制英國只能在廣州一口通商，其他國家仍然可到四口通商，且並無任何限制。廣州海關以外的江、浙、閩三個海關依然對外開放。美國東亞史學家歐立德也指出乾隆帝並非如過去所想的對外界一無所知，乾隆不僅熟悉西方地理，同時也清楚歐洲法、俄兩國內部的情勢，且清朝政府也認識到英國在印度和廣州的影響力。

簽訂條約

清朝在近代以前與他國簽定的條約較少，主要有《尼布楚條約》與《恰克圖條約》，均為與俄國簽定。

自19世紀以來，經歷一系列失敗之後，清廷在列強的威迫下，前後被迫簽定許多不平等條約。據統計，中國近代簽定的不平等條約共有343個，其中四十多個條約影響較大。清朝在西方國家的威逼下通過開放租界口岸，允許外國人來華經商等割地手段來達到和解。致此中國開始向近代過渡，清廷在被迫打開國門的同時也喪失中國大量領土的管轄權。甲午戰爭後，列強鑒於清朝失去自衛能力，紛紛劃分在中國勢力範圍，中國變成半殖民地。由於受到西方乃至日本的侵略以致割地賠款，中國人的國際形象和地位也驟然下降。但與此同時也激發自強運動等改革措施使西方的科技、文化以及民主憲政思想傳入中國，並為隨後的辛亥革命提供發展契機。

國旗與國歌

清朝與中國歷史上的其它朝代一樣，本來並無法定的國旗與國歌。近代以後，隨著西方國家用武力打開清朝國門，清朝逐漸引入西方國家的一些概念，其中就包括國旗與國歌。晚清重臣李鴻章在同西方國家談判、簽約、通商、互派外交人員等外交活動中，看到西方列國莊嚴懸掛國旗，而中國卻無旗可掛，深感有失「天朝威儀」。於是上奏慈禧太后，提出在外交場合中需要有代表中國的旗幟，請求頒制國旗。1888年（光緒十四年），清政府認定「黃底藍龍戲紅珠圖」（即俗稱的「黃龍旗」）為大清國旗。這是中國歷史上正式確立的第一面國旗。19世紀後期至20世紀初，清朝曾先後使用《普天樂》、《李中堂樂》、《頌龍旗》作為其半官方國歌或代國歌。1911年，清政府將《鞏金甌》定為正式國歌。不過由於辛亥革命的爆發，《鞏金甌》後來沒有流行開來。

國籍法與「大民族」主義

古代中國只有「戶籍」制度而無明確的「國籍」規定，是以「戶籍」管理制度實現「國籍」管理功能。為了能夠在保護海外華人、華僑方面能夠採取法律依據，以及加強海外華人及華僑對大一統中國的認同，清政府於1909年3月28日頒布針對荷蘭國籍法的「出生地主義」、採用「血統主義」原則的《大清國籍條例》，也就是中國第一部國籍法，條例中的《固有籍》部分規定：

• 第一條凡左列人等不論是否生於中國地方均屬中國國籍：

• # 生而父為中國人者

• # 生於父死後而父死時為中國人者

• # 母為中國人而父無可考或無國籍者。

• 第二條若父母均無可考或均無國籍而生於中國地方者亦屬中國國籍。其生地並無可考而在中國地方發現之棄童同。

由於受到當時「大民族」主義的影響，清政府以「血統主義」而不以「居住地主義」的原則來確立國籍法，清政府「獨採折衷主義中注重血脈系之辦法」，其「血脈」亦包括中國各個民族如滿、漢、回、蒙等民族，「統轄於中國中華大『血脈』之中之意」與「大民族」主義主張的「國內本屬部之諸族，以對國外之諸族」觀念一致。旅美華裔史學家何炳棣表示，是滿族創造一個包括滿、漢、蒙、回、藏和西南少數民族的多民族國家，而為五族共和的中華民國張本。

人口

明末清初，因為流寇擾亂、清兵入塞、入關戰爭與三藩之亂的關係造成人民生命與財產的損失。而飢饉、瘟疫使得中國人口又一次地急速下降。史學家葛劍雄認為明清之際人口的跌幅估計可達40%，從崇禎元年（1628年）以來平均每年下降19%，至順治末年達到谷底。另一種說法則認為，人口隱匿數量遠大於人口損失數量，而真正人口損失最大的時期就是入關戰爭的戰亂時期，以及各種的滅絕性屠殺如張獻忠屠川。康熙二十年（1681年）後，清廷平定三藩之亂並佔領臺灣，經過康雍乾盛世獲得長期的休養生息，人口得以迅速增加。清初人口數量未明確，史學家姜濤估算康熙十九年（1680年）前後，人口增長到1億；趙文林推估在康熙二十四年（1685年）超過1億。到乾隆時期，全國人口正式突破2億，到鴉片戰爭前夕的道光十三年（1833年）又猛增到4億。清朝人口的增長一反中國人口過去的波浪式增長型態，呈現斜線上升。

19世紀時，清朝因為太平天國、捻亂及回亂等戰亂損失不少人口；光緒年間又發生不少天災，光緒元年至四年（1875-1878年）河南、山西、陝西、直隸、山東等地發生特大旱災饑荒，尤以山西最嚴重，太原府100萬人死95萬。總死亡數計950萬-2000萬不等，也就是清朝人口的約2-4%，史稱丁戊奇荒。光緒十三年（1887年）河南鄭州下汛十堡（今惠濟區花園口鎮石橋村）發生黃河決口，致使200多萬（一說93萬；一說最保守估計150萬；一說700萬）人罹難。最後加上海外移民風氣日盛，因此到清朝滅亡時，中國人口維持在4億3千萬多人，與道光年間的人口數差不多。

人口流動

清朝的人口擴張和流動規模在長期性和常規化等方面在中國歷史上前所未有，而且清政府在大部分情況下都鼓勵內地人往外移民。

學者認為，清朝鼓勵內地人移民，讓漢文化推廣到非漢民族地區，是為了「移民實邊」，發展經濟，保衛疆土，是「為了中國本身的利益，也為了較為落後的邊疆地區人民的前途」。

在鴉片戰爭前後，中國內地各省約有七百至八百萬人遷移到邊疆向海島地區，形成了一股股由中原向東南、西南、西北、北、東北四面八方輻射狀的移民浪潮。

四川地區

由於明末清初長年的戰亂與屠殺，產生許多真空地區，而後又因為人口大量提升，使部份省份人口過剩，這些都帶動移民潮。例如明末領有四川的流寇張獻忠，他於1646年兵敗退出成都時，在四川進行空前的燒殺破壞：40萬人的成都只剩下20戶居民，人口從至少三百萬一度銳減到只有八萬人。後來清廷推動以湖廣、陝西等各省人口填補四川地區，史稱第二次湖廣填四川，移民四川的趨勢歷經一個世紀。

東北地區

清廷為保護其發祥地中國東北地區，於奉天（今遼寧省）設立柳條邊以限制漢人及外藩蒙古向盛京地區及長白山地區移民，但仍「封而不禁」，對越邊時而佯作不知，並通過流放犯人，招撫流民及移旗等方式進行移民實邊。而乾隆年間則開始嚴厲封禁東北地區，直到1792年，由於發生旱災，清政府公開放鬆禁令，允許並鼓勵災民前往長城及柳條邊外的東蒙及東北地區謀生，以分流難民潮。該措施隨即引發了規模空前的難民遷徙，東北三省、特別是柳條邊沿線地區從此開始大量接收關內移民。1792年旱災後的10餘年間，清廷即在東北柳條邊沿線地區新建四個行政單元以管理移民，包括長春、昌圖、伯都訥和新民，大凌河東岸、養息牧廠、拉林、雙城等官墾聚落也分佈在附近。

據統計，1780年東北人口約95萬，至1820年猛增至247萬人，較1780年增長1.6倍，年均增長率24.2‰，增長人口中大部分來自移民（約100萬），其中吉林省接收移民30萬人，移民增加的趨勢極為迅猛。1873年，清廷考量俄國與日本有意染指東北，故撤除柳條邊，並且在日俄戰爭後完全開放移民。

蒙古地區

清朝初期，清朝統治者限制漢人與蒙古人混雜。但到了康熙年間攤丁入畝後，清廷放開封禁，引起大量民眾遷徙到長城口外漠南之地定居謀生的浪潮，史稱「走西口」。到了二十世紀初，清延開始以各類優惠政策大力鼓勵漢人移民內外蒙古，原因之一是為了反制當時俄國人在內蒙古東部的殖民計劃。由於意識到漢人大量移民最終可能會導致蒙古人自身被同化或全面漢化，加上漢商的詐欺手法以及清朝統治者的政策轉變，一些蒙古人因此懷恨在心並發起叛變。然而那些叛變基本上是地區性的叛變，而非組織嚴密的「全區性暴動」。

西南地區

自雍正朝大規模地實行改土歸流政策以後，內地與西南廣西和雲南邊疆地區之間的交流被加強，地域壁壘被打破，內地人迅速移往西南邊疆地區，自清初至道光中葉，約有200-350多萬人遷入了西南滇桂地區。

臺灣地區

康熙二十三年（1685）以後，清朝向前往台灣的大陸人民實行限額發給照票。雍正十年（1732）後規定渡台者有田產生業足以謀生，均可允許攜眷入籍，從此渡台人數急升。乾隆五十五年（1790），清政府為了減少私渡偷渡而決定多處官渡。自清初至道光中葉，共有150多萬人從中國大陸遷入了台灣。1895年臺灣割讓日本，住民根據《馬關條約》第5款，在同年5月8日住民去就決定日決定去留，最終99.75%臺灣人決定留在台灣。隨之于5月25日有部份台灣人成立台灣民主國，但為期不長。同時，各地也有抗日人士展開了長達二十餘年的武裝對抗殖民統治的台灣抗日運動時期，而中國大陸渡臺亦隨之中斷。

新疆地區

鑑於新疆戰略地位的重要性，清朝在統一新疆前後，對治理新疆的方針開展過深入討論，並確定向新疆移徒中國內地人口以充實農業勞動人口的方針，又制定一系列組織移民出關的具體措施，因而出現內地人戶移民新疆的熱潮。自清初至道光中葉，新疆地區約遷入了五十萬人。

海外移民

福建與廣東各省因為山多人狹，又靠海，許多人口移民海外。台灣早在荷西統治時期、明鄭時期就獲得閩南、粵東的移民，約有十餘萬人。清初因為防止如朱一貴事件等動亂發生，曾嚴格限制移民台灣。同治末年發生牡丹社事件，日軍一度侵台，這使得清廷積極開放移民台灣。到台灣割日前夕，已經有三百數十萬的移民人口。早在十五、六世紀，閩粵人民就時常移民泰國、馬來西亞與印尼等東南亞地區，這些海外華人還建立了華人為主體的蘭芳共和國。鴉片戰爭之後更多華人移民海外，主要以東南亞地區、美國西部、加勒比海群島為主。清朝滅亡時，海外已有七百萬的華僑。

永不加賦與攤丁入地

康熙後期，經過長時期的休養生息，社會已日趨安定，但人丁與地畝的載冊數增加遲緩。一方面由於土地與人口的清查不夠徹底，再者也由於地主以多報少之故，貧民迫於賦役的繁重而相率逃亡，人丁的統計並不確實。康熙帝為確實掌握人口數，於康熙五十一年（1712年），下詔「盛世滋生人丁永不加賦」，以康熙五十年（1711年）在冊人丁數作為全國徵收丁銀的固定總額，以後新增者為「盛世滋生人丁」，從中央到地方均不得隨著人口的增加而增稅。但除補不易，弊端又無法避免。所以採取攤丁入地政策，廢除人頭稅（丁稅），併入土地稅內。這使得無產者沒有納稅負擔，而地主的負擔增加，對於清朝人口的持續增加、減緩土地兼併、以及促進工商業的發展有一定的作用。

錢穆認為「地丁攤糧」只收田租，不收人丁稅的辦法是「清朝統治者自己誇許的『仁政』。但是實際上，這一規定，並不算的是仁政，從中國曆史講，兩稅制度，早把丁稅攤派到地租了」。中國科學院地理科學與資源研究所的學者說，地丁攤糧改革政策也給當時及其後的土地墾闢帶來了重大影響，雖然這是一次賦稅改革，似乎與墾荒並不相干，但它卻有效放鬆了對貧苦無地農民的約束，使人們可以自由流遷，為異地墾荒提供了豐富的勞力資源。歷史學者張硏評價，攤丁入畝在一定程度上改變了賦役不均的情況，增加了地主的賦役，減輕了無地少地農民的負擔，減少了戶口隱漏，穩定了社會秩序，促進了生產發展，以及改善了國家的財政狀況。

人口普查

乾隆六年（1741年），戶部有感於人口的增長，有必要對人口登記制度加以檢討，並徹底改變戶口統計與管理制度，以掌握人口真實情形。然而卻遭到廷臣蘇霖渤等人們的反對，他們認為實施人口普查對維護統治沒有實質意義，各省戶口殷繁，「若每歲清查，誠多紛擾」。到乾隆三十九年（1774年），湖北東部發生災害，由於賑濟的人數超過地方登載的戶口總數，經過清查發現，有些縣份在每年上報人口數都含混交代。乾隆帝大怒，要各省督撫全面展開人口清查。隔年，保甲嚴格執行人口普查制度，共增加43,534,131人，此後全國各省人口數較以往更接近實際人口數。人口查報也成為保甲的一項重要職責。無論在乾隆四十年（1776年）前後，人口統計都限於各省。而且京師順天府、八旗、黑龍江、新疆、蒙古、西藏、台灣、雲貴川廣地區居住的少數民族等並未列入戶口統計中，不管何時見於官方記載的人口均低於實際人口數。葛劍雄以為乾隆四十一年至道光三十年的戶口統計數基本上是較可靠的。

養老制度

清代社會上七十歲以上的老年人口占總人口的比例約百分之二。清代法令對於老人給予免稅和減刑，獨子犯罪可因親老而留養，而官員可因自己年老告休，也可因父母年老而申請終養。此外，清代老人在一些場合中獲政府的賞賜、禮遇和優待。貧窮的老人也是慈善機構救濟的對象之一。

經濟

清朝人口呈現爆發式增長，乾隆時期已達三億，相對應地，需要更加以多種方式提升糧食作物的產量。清朝採取開墾荒地、移民邊區及推廣新作物，改進種植技術等方式以提高生產量。由於國內與國外的貿易提升，經濟農業也相對發達。手工業方面改工匠的徭役制為代稅役制。產業以紡織和瓷器業為重，棉織業超越絲織業，瓷器以琺瑯畫在瓷胎上，江西景德鎮為瓷器製造業中心。清朝商業發達，分成十大商幫。其中晉商、徽商支配中國的金融業，閩商、潮商掌握海外貿易。清朝曾實施海禁政策，直到消滅明鄭統治台灣後，才宣佈展界開海，沿海對外貿易開始活躍，而貨幣方面則採銀銅雙本位制。康熙晚期曾為防止民變，一度推行禁礦政策，在一定程度上阻礙工商業的發展。

清朝人口在中國古代歷史上為最高，其國內生產毛額（GDP）總量所占的世界比例在中國近三千年曆史上也是最高的，據英國經濟學家安格斯·麥迪森的研究，按照1990年美元價格計算，1820年清朝GDP總量為2286億美元，占世界GDP總量的32.9%，中國人均GDP為600美元，當時經過第一次工業革命的英國人均GDP為1,706美元。據他研究，即便被認為是中國曆史上經濟最繁榮時代的宋朝，其GDP總量為265.5億美元，才占世界經濟總量的22.7%，宋代中國的人均GDP在450美元，略低于阿拉伯帝國阿拔斯王朝的人均GDP（621美元）；這兩個地區皆超過當時西歐人均GDP（427美元）。這裡僅表明購買力平價，與所謂財政收入是不同的概念，英國財政年收入在1830年代至1840年代在5000萬英鎊以下；不過，清朝GDP數值在1840年前凌駕于歐洲之上，這一說法基本得到普遍認同，但部分中國學者如劉逖仍認為麥迪森高估了中國曆史上的GDP總量和人均GDP。因此，劉逖對麥迪森1600至1840年數據做了調整，認為1820年中國人均GDP在325美元，而非麥迪森說的600美元。

農業

清代的土地仍可分為官田和民田兩大類。清朝入關後，1644年順治帝頒布圈地令。有主與無主地被滿人圈占，統稱「官莊」。大量農民不得不棄家逃亡，或者淪為新主人的奴僕。圈地主要執行三次，以北京附近的順天、保定、永平、河間四府最為突出，直到1685年康熙帝宣布廢止而終。至於全國其他原明朝皇室或地主的土地，清廷稱其為「更名田」，分配給無地農民使用，或是被新地主霸占。據統計，這種土地的總數不下二十多萬頃。清代也擁有不少屯田，屯區多在新疆、漠南等邊疆地帶。清帝推行令民墾荒的政策。使得華北、華中地區先後著令准墾，一些邊疆如新疆、青海、海南、台灣、漠南等地區於清朝中葉先後實行開墾政策，而東北地區直到清朝後期才准許大量漢人前往開墾。

清代農業亦是歷史畝產量最高的一個歷史時期，秦漢時中國的畝產量為264市斤/市畝，唐代是334市斤/市畝，清以前畝產量最高是明代，為346市斤/市畝，清代的畝產量達到了374市斤/市畝，分別比漢代增加了41.6％，比唐代增代11.9％，比明的畝產量高了8％」，清代所編著的農書數量為之前所有中國朝代總和的2.09倍。另外，在清代的農書中，蠶桑類的農書共155部，而清以前所編寫的蠶桑書有4部，反映了清代蠶桑生產和蠶桑技術發展的程度。

水利設施

清初，在康熙時期進行的多項水利興修。明末清初，黃河、淮河下游堵塞，京杭大運河也受阻塞。康熙帝時大力修治黃河，任靳輔為河道總督，採用疏導和築堤的辦法將黃、淮故道逐漸修復，使這一帶的農業生產在一段較長的時間裡減少水患的威脅。1713年康熙帝成功修浚位於北京的永定河，使舊河兩岸的「斥鹵」變為膏腴良田。另外，雍正時修築江浙海塘也是保護農田的水利工程。清朝的耕地面積於康熙時期逐漸提升。江南、湖廣與四川等地的土地比中原地肥沃許多，湖廣更有「湖廣熟，天下足」之譽稱。

糧食作物

由於清朝人口成長超過可耕地發展速度，如何維持龐大人口有賴占城稻與一些新的糧食作物。占城稻在中國有一段長期的發展時間，到明清時期發展成五十日到三十日即可收穫的品種，使得二次收穫，甚至三次收穫變成可能。此外早熟稻耐旱，可在高原或山坡地種植。從宋朝初期到清朝道光年間，稻米產量以及耕種面積都增加一倍。一些從美洲引進的糧食作物也開發許多原先不擅種植的地形，以提高糧食生產面積。例如比較乾旱的高原有賴玉米與甘薯，更加崎嶇的山地則依靠馬鈴薯。到嘉慶年間，這些高原都種滿新一代的糧食作物。而河川沿岸的沙地則大量種植花生，約18世紀到19世紀才由南方推廣到北方。

清朝糧食產量遠超以往的歷史時期，康熙二十四年，全國共有耕地六億畝，到乾隆帝去世，全國耕地約為10.5億畝，全國糧食產量則迅速增至2040億斤。當時隨英國馬戛爾尼使團來中國的巴羅估計，中國的糧食收穫率高於英國，麥子的收穫率為15：1，而當時的歐洲，糧食收穫率居首位的英國也僅僅為10：1。

法國漢學家謝和耐認為：「中國農業於18世紀達到其發展的最高水平。由於該國的農業技術、作物品種的多樣化和單位面積的產量，其農業看來是近代農業科學出現以前歷史上最科學和最發達者。」。

賑災政策

清政府在各省設有常平倉，儲藏穀物以應付緊急需要，其幅度遠遠超過前朝。同時在全國設有災害監測網，任何地方遇上災害，政府便會利用附近常平倉的糧食來賑濟災民，以致清朝在鴉片戰爭之前從沒出現過嚴重饑荒。康熙年間的外國傳教士亦對清朝的治災手法有所讚揚。

乾隆帝多次蠲除國家賦稅錢糧，賑災救濟費用，在乾隆二十年之前達到2,500萬兩以上。乾隆十一年、三十五年、四十三年、五十五年共四次普免全國共計1.2億兩的賦稅錢糧，次數高於康熙年間的一次。

經濟作物

清朝的經濟作物種植面積也逐漸擴大，促進商品經濟的活躍。棉花在清朝已是十分重要的經濟作物，其產地遍及全國，其中江蘇、浙江、河北、河南、湖北、山東等地都是著名的產棉區，甚至連農業發展較晚的奉天，也成了外輸地區之一。產棉量以河北保定一帶，長江中下游的松江、太倉與通州一帶，以及上海等地最大。煙草原產地是美洲，明中葉以後開始傳入中國，最早的種植地區是福建。種煙草獲利很高，重要產地以陝南漢中、城固，山東兗州，湖南衡陽等地為主。湖南的衡煙、陝西的蒲城煙、北京的油絲煙、山西的青煙、雲南的蘭花煙、甘肅酒泉的水煙（又名西尖），均負盛名。甘蔗產地以華中、華南為主，江南、四川與台灣等地的製糖業非常發達。蠶桑業以江蘇浙江的蘇州、湖州、嘉興、杭州和廣東的廣州最為發達，已成為當地農民的重要生產活動。

手工業

清朝的手工業在康熙中期以後逐步得到恢復和發展。至乾隆年間，江寧、蘇州、杭州、佛山、廣州等地的絲織業都很發達。江南的棉織業、景德鎮的瓷器都達到歷史高峰。手工業分成官營與民營，由于工匠實行以銀代役，所以順治二年就下令廢除工匠制度，官營缺乏必要的工匠而逐漸衰落。民間手工業興盛，例如雲南民間煉銅場十分發達。蘇杭一帶民間絲織中已有不少具有專門技術的人，站在一定的地方等待雇用。

製瓷業與紡織業

瓷器製作技術改進，產量也大幅提升。例如江西景德鎮瓷窯所燒造的御瓷產量在雍正六年（1782年）時，一年之中生產十數萬件御器。玻璃製造有較大的進步，清宮玻璃廠能生產透明玻璃和多達十五種以上的單色不透明玻璃，造型也豐腴美觀。絲織技巧也有新的提高，出產的重要提花品種有妝花紗、妝花緞、妝花絹等。廣東的「女兒葛」是廣東增城的少女用一種葛藤的絲織成，質量極優。當時的棉織業以松江最為發達，技術最好，而染色、踹布業則以蕪湖、蘇州為最先進。

勞雇關係

清朝勞動者與僱主之間的關係，主要是通過買與賣來體現的。不僅全部勞動成果全歸僱主，而且在人身上也很少自由。在這些行業中，勞動者的工資是「按件而計」的；而且按照工匠技術的高低和工作的繁簡論定工價。勞動者所得的工資，已經是根據勞動的熟練程度來規定。勞動者也比過去有較多的自由。例如蘇州絲織業作坊中的勞動者，「倡眾歇作」，要求增加工價，可以「另投別戶」，追尋較好的待遇。

商業

在明清時期的農業和手工業進一步發展的基礎上商業也很發達，商品貨幣經濟空前活躍。由於農業中商品性生產擴大，農產品越來越多地變為商品，出現許多專門化的經濟作物地區，為手工業生產提供原料，或者直接供應消費者。例如養蠶地區為調劑桑葉的供需，出現專賣桑葉的「青桑行」和「葉市」。一些經濟作物如蔗糖行銷國內外，茶葉於十八世紀輸出激增。糧食作物除大量供給城市居民食用外，還有不小的部分用於釀酒、油和豆製品加工等。這些產品自然都是為供應市場而生產的。

清代城市工商業者的地位相對改善，明代以來匠人對國家人身依附的「匠籍」制度隨之瓦解。國家對民營瓷窯、紡織工場及採礦等進一步放寬限制。大小城市各類作坊林立，蘇杭的絲織，松江的棉紡織，景德鎮的製瓷，佛山的鑄鐵等業名揚天下。

商業城市

商品性生產的發展，商品流通範圍的擴大，促使一些新的工商業市鎮的興起和發展，例如漢口鎮和朱仙鎮就是位處交通樞鈕點而興起，而佛山鎮和景德鎮專司生產如絲綢、瓷器等高價值產品的城鎮。至嘉慶年間，這四鎮並稱為「四大名鎮」。其他興起的尚有于江涇、震澤鎮等等。許多重要城市如北京、蘇州、江寧（今南京）等地，也更趨發達。例如北京的居民已不下百萬，一切生活所需，都從商業渠道取得，不能一日無貿易。當時尚流行「天下四聚」的說法：「天下有四聚，北則京師（北京），南則佛山，東則蘇州，西則漢口。然東海之濱，蘇州而外，更有蕪湖、揚州、江寧、杭州以分其勢，西則惟漢口耳。」

農業與手工業的發展為商業繁榮奠定基礎，揚州、蘇州、南京、杭州、廣州、佛山、漢口、北京，成為全國八大商業城市。中小城市星羅棋佈，取得比前朝更大的成就。

;商幫

與此同時，金融業與貿易業發達，商人分成十大商幫。其中晉商、徽商支配清朝的金融業，閩商、潮商掌握海外貿易。廣州的行商與揚州的鹽商都是最闊氣的商人，山西商人掌控全國銀號。

貨幣制度

清朝貨幣大體上採白銀與銅錢並用的銀銅雙本位制，大數用銀，小數用錢，但銀的地位更見重要。因海外貿易發達，白銀大量從國外輸入，康雍乾盛世流通的外國銀元除西班牙銀元外，還有葡萄牙銀元、威尼斯銀元、荷蘭銀元、法國銀元等。鴉片戰爭前後，需要固定形式的銀幣出現，正式使用機器鑄造銀幣則是鴉片戰爭以後的事。鴉片戰爭前，由於英國將大量鴉片銷入中國，導致中國白銀大量外流，需要更多的銅錢才能換取白銀。由於白銀是百姓納稅的固定貨幣，這帶動通貨膨脹，嚴重惡化經濟。使得曾經於1651年順治帝發行紙幣，到1853年咸豐帝又發行大清寶鈔與戶部官票等紙幣，以穩定清朝經濟。

海外貿易

清廷在初期平定明鄭前對于民間海外貿易厲行海禁政策；對于外國來華貿易，仍沿襲明代的朝貢制度加以控制。最初與清朝發生朝貢關係的，主要還是南洋和東南亞諸國，但有許多限制，如貢期和隨貢貿易的監視等都作嚴格的規定。對于西方國家來華商船的限制就更嚴。只許它們停泊澳門，與澳門商人進行貿易，每年來華貿易的大小船隻，不得超過二十五隻。1685年才允許外商到前述口岸通商。

清廷平定明鄭後放寬海禁，在「粵東之澳門（一說廣州）、福建之漳州府、浙江之寧波府、江南之雲台山」分別設立粵海關、閩海關、浙海關、江海關作為管理對外貿易和徵收關稅的機構。江浙閩粵四大海關總領各自所在省的所有海關口岸，通常下轄十幾至幾十個海關口岸，並准許外商在指定口岸通商，逐步建立一套管理外商來華貿易的制度，主要有公行制度和商館制度。浙江、福建與廣東地區盛行海外貿易，人民時常與日本、琉球、東南亞各國及葡萄牙、西班牙與荷蘭等西洋各國展開貿易。到18世紀還有英國、法國與美國參與其中，當中英國幾乎獨佔對華貿易。西洋各國與日俱增地需要清朝的絲綢、茶葉與甘蔗，然而清朝對西洋事物需求不大，使得中國對外貿易呈現大幅出超的情形。大量銀元流入中國，增加貨幣流通量，刺激物價上漲，促進商業繁榮。在此期間，中國沿海以泉州、漳州、廈門、福州與廣州先後崛起，成為貿易大城，操控對外國際貿易。漢學家杜赫德認為，在清朝國內貿易的極盛時期，整個歐洲的總貿易量也不能與中國抗衡。

據西方文獻記載，清朝時期的中國各省被比喻為歐洲諸國，各自擁有自己豐富且多種多樣的特產進行貿易，如湖廣省和江西省專門向所有不產大米的省份提供大米；浙江省出產最優質的絲綢；江南省盛產漆料、墨水，以及各種有趣的小作坊；雲南省、陝西省、山西省出產鐵、銅還有其他各類金屬，還富有馬、騾和毛皮生意等等；福建產糖和最好的茶葉；四川盛產植物、藥物、像大黃等等，而且都傾向於聯盟保護的形式，在所有的城市裡也一樣。清朝官員在商業界裡都擁有自己的股份／分成，同時亦惠及平民百姓。清朝的市集亦相當繁華，中外商家貿易往來頻繁，外國商人對中國商人的誠實也有深刻的良好印象。

清朝在康熙年間部分主要與近鄰國家或地區貿易的進出口貨品如下：

• 清朝從日本出口的商品：各種藥材、白糖、水牛、各類刺繡、木料類等；

• 清朝從日本進口的商品：珍珠、紫銅棒、日本刀具、花紋裝飾的紙張、瓷器、日式工藝品、金等；

• 清朝與馬尼拉的交易商品：大量的絲綢，各類刺繡，地毯，茶葉，瓷器，各種藥材等；

• 清朝從巴達維亞（今印尼雅加達）進口的商品：銀、各種香料、玳瑁、木材、瑪瑙玉石、琥珀、歐洲布料等；

• 清朝向歐洲出口的商品：上等藥材、各色各樣的茶葉、金色棉線、麝香、珠寶玉石、水銀、瓷器等。

另外，當時期清朝與歐洲貿易最為重要的商品為日式工藝品、瓷器以及各類絲綢；清朝亦有將從歐洲進口的布匹轉銷至日本。

乾隆年間雖有10年的「南洋海禁」和在乾隆二十二年（1757年）禁止西洋商船前往閩、浙、江三海關貿易的阻礙和影響，但中國的海外貿易並未因此停頓或萎縮，而是不斷地向前發展，其規模和貿易總值超越前代，在清朝乾隆十年期間，四港貿易額總值達到36,571,777兩，是前朝最高時期的三十五倍，僅廣州一地，貿易額就是前朝全部貿易最高額的十餘倍。18世紀時期中國海外貿易的鼎盛還為荷蘭東印度公司帶來危機感。

乾隆二十二年（1757年），由于外商頻年不斷的掠奪和違法行為，清廷只保留廣州一地作為「番商」如英國、荷蘭、葡萄牙、西班牙等西洋商人的通商出口處，而江、浙、閩三個海關在乾隆、嘉慶和道光期間雖有所限制，但在某程度上亦有繼續正常履行其管理對外貿易的職能。到十九世紀，英國在印度種植鴉片，並且大量銷往中國。這使得中國對外貿易逆轉為入超。鴉片的問題引爆鴉片戰爭，中國戰敗後門戶大開。南京條約不但開放廈門、上海、寧波、福州、廣州等五口通商口岸給外國人。隨後陸續的不平等條約使外國人大量來華投資，並且建立租界，加速對清貿易。

宗教

佛教

清朝自康熙至乾隆，雖然總體上對於佛教（藏傳佛教除外）較為冷淡，不過對於穩定社會仍有一定的幫助。乾隆：「彼為僧為道，亦不過營生之術耳。窮老孤獨，多賴以存活。其勸善戒惡，化導愚頑，亦不無小補。」清朝皇帝多與僧人來往，順治帝先後與名僧憨璞性聰、玉林通琇、茚溪行森和木陳道沁等互相交流，順治本人曾削髮打算出家，他所寵愛的董鄂妃在他的影響下也棲心禪學。再如康熙在外出巡，每往名山巨剎，為之題字撰碑。雍正喜讀《金剛經》，也多與佛教徒往來，選編語錄，儼然以禪門宗匠自居。

不過佛教無限制的發展，對統治者也有不利之處，如果太多人民出家，政府徵稅的對象就會減少，寺院上層兼併土地，發展寺院經濟，就會加強土地集中的程度，激化社會矛盾，一些犯法的人，往往藏身寺廟作為躲避懲罰的手段，某些「聚眾為『匪』之案」，甚至「多由『奸邪』僧道主謀，「平時『煽惑』愚民，日漸釀成大案。」，因此清朝一方面保護佛教，另一方面又對之加以限制。清朝限制佛教的辦法主要有三種，設置僧官、實行度牒制度與不許擅造寺廟。佛教在限制下仍有一定影響力。佛教各派，除了禪宗還算盛行之外，其精神日趨世俗化，宗風也隨之衰落。另外如淨土宗、律宗、也僅能保持典型。乾隆時，曾禁止各地建立新寺院，民間出家為僧者也受限制。士大夫雖喜談佛學，但只是談論佛理，沒有興隆佛教的意願。

清朝為籠絡內外蒙古、青海、西藏外族，優禮和尊崇藏傳佛教（亦稱喇嘛教），順治八年，特於北京建造一大喇嘛廟，度喇嘛一百餘人，皆內府諸旗王公屬下滿州人。雍正帝曾得喇嘛之助繼位，之後以其潛邸改建為雍和宮大喇嘛廟，成為北京也是當時中國最大之喇嘛廟。雍正五年，又為蒙古之哲布尊丹巴呼圖克圖，建大喇嘛廟，發帑銀十萬兩之多。並尊哲布尊丹巴為喀爾喀大喇嘛，其地位與西藏之達賴、班禪鼎立為三，後世稱為「活佛」。乾隆帝曾經把藏傳佛教作為解決現實社會矛盾的方法不過也以理藩院來控管其發展。藏傳佛教雖然表面上受到君王的禮遇，不過事實上不像元明前兩代如此興旺，乾隆末年發生川楚教亂，使藏傳佛教漸走衰落之途。

道教與民間宗教

道教在宋朝最為盛行，之後元明兩代對其仍為優遇，到了清朝，帝室雖然也信奉道教，但不如前代之盛行，清朝對道教的政策與對待其他宗教一樣，既保護又加以控制。清朝的道教在明朝衰落的基礎上，進一步走向衰落。其主要原因如下：

• 滿族統治者對道教素無信仰，他們在入關前尊奉藏傳佛教格魯派，乾隆時又宣布黃教為國教。

• 清朝在思想上更加重視程朱理學，宣揚「忠」「孝」觀念，以束縛人們思想，麻痺人們鬥志。他們收羅一些理學家，如李光地等，纂修性理精義等書，頒行天下。而這些理學家則對釋、道兩教進行攻擊。

• 基督教傳入中國後，也使部分群眾改信其教。

• 民間秘密宗教的發展，這些民間宗教往往是正統道教的流衍，因此道教實際上慢慢演變成這些民間宗教。

衰落最根本原因是時代發生急劇的變化。商品經濟的發展，生產水平的提高，世界交流的頻繁，科學技術的傳入和進步，新文化、新思想的興起，這些衰落的表形，使其在政治上的地位日益下隆；另外道教教義學說陳陳相因，已停滯不前；道教上層人物日益腐化，失去群眾；道教也與儒佛兩教教日趨融合，使其自身的特點日益消退。

由於正統的道教逐漸衰落，促成民間宗教的崛起。其為道教的變種與流衍。因為他們被統治者視為「邪教」，而只能秘密傳播，但傳播的範圍卻很廣泛這些的民間宗教，名目不下數十百種。

民間宗教的思想內容，大量抄襲佛、道、儒等各家的教義，但也有不同之處。其中最多宣傳的東西，是關於彌勒等神佛下凡和劫變的觀念，以及關於「真空家鄉，無生父母」的信仰。民間宗教的所有這些宣傳，無疑是一種封建迷信，表達人民的不滿和抗議，它給人們以安慰和希望，在一定程度上反映人們要求改變現實願望，因此容易被人民所接受，可以成為組織，號召貧苦群眾參加起義的工作。有些民間宗教，還有明確的「反清復明」思想，如清茶門教宣傳，「清朝已盡，四正文佛落在王門；胡人盡，何人登基；日月復來屬大明，牛八元來是土星。」這些民間宗教如白蓮教與天地會，在清朝中葉以後，發動許多起義活動，如：川楚教亂、林爽文事件等等，對清朝國力造成很大的損傷。

伊斯蘭教

從元朝開始，西域伊斯蘭教教徒大量來到中國各地，穆斯林居住於甘肅、陝西、四川、山西、直隸、廣東、雲南等省。清廷對伊斯蘭教採取放任的態度，尊重他們的信仰，用他們的法律來處理紛爭，但是比起元、明前兩代來說較為沒落，清朝防制回人的法律極嚴，內地各省，回人犯法，判罪較一般犯人為重，凡罪當流徒，一般人民可申請存留養親者，回民卻不得申請。在回疆，清朝每於重要所在分建漢、回二城，限制回民的自由，並禁止漢回通婚，在公文書中，則民、回別稱，表示將回民排斥於一般平民之外。

由於受到清朝及漢人的壓制，在清朝統治期間，清朝末年時，甘肅、陝西、雲南這三省曾發動叛亂。康熙順治年間，甘州回民丁國棟、米喇印起兵造反，乾隆年間的大小和卓之亂，嘉慶年間張格爾據浩罕叛，道光同治年間的陝甘回變與雲南回變一時俱起。

基督宗教

滿清入關後，湯若望、南懷仁等教士，先後被任命為欽天監主要官員，他們利用職務之便來傳教，雖然一度受到康熙曆獄的打擊，不過隨著康熙帝開始親政後，翻案成功重新執掌欽天監來繼續傳教，康熙帝對於天文曆算、火炮之學很有興趣，曾叫傳教士徐日昇、白晉等人輪流進講。並以他們擔任通譯及處理外交事務。如：徐日昇、張誠隨索額圖參加中俄尼布楚條約談判，充當翻譯和參謀。清朝對定居中原的西方傳教士採取禮遇態度。其中，順治帝特別倚重德國耶穌會士湯若望，並尊其為「瑪法」（滿語「爺爺」的意思）。在隨後的一百多年前，欽天監皆由耶穌會士掌管。

耶穌會傳教士對於中國原有的風俗習慣，抱持容忍態度。教徒祭天、祭祖、祭孔者盛行，雖然與教義互相衝突，但都以默忍。不過到了17世紀末至18世紀初，天主教內部發生「禮儀之爭」。依照道明會傳教士的指控，羅馬教宗下令禁止的傳教士使用耶穌會的中文詞彙「天」和「上帝」來稱呼天主，也禁止中國信徒祭拜祖先與孔子。這與當初意大利傳教士利瑪竇以及其後的傳教士在中國傳教時所採取的本土化政策截然相反。清政府對此十分不滿，認為這樣做有違中國敬孔祭祖的傳統。康熙帝于1700年批示說：「敬孔敬祖為敬愛先人和先師的表示，並非宗教迷信」。

雙方爭持不下，最後清廷下令必須遵循「利瑪竇規矩」傳教，不然就不准傳教，逐出中國，是為「禁教令」。1722年，雍正帝徹底推行禁教令，使得清朝初年西方基督教在中國傳教被終止，到了道光帝時，連欽天監也不任用傳教士。不過清朝皇帝對於教禁並沒有徹底禁止，嘉慶年間（1807年），新教教士英國人馬禮遜，曾藉工作之便私下在廣州進行傳教的工作。

鴉片戰爭後，清廷雖並未正式撤銷禁令，但基督教的傳教自由已經由不平等條約獲得確認，於是歐美各地的基督教教士在西方列強的庇護下進行宗教活動，基督宗教傳播更為迅速。除了傳教之外，設立醫院和學校，對於中國文化和社會的演進，發生巨大的影響。不過有些西方傳教士擁有種族優越感，以爭議手法傳教，如不理會傳統社會階級之分、強占土地（強行索回雍正禁教時遭沒收的土地房產）、袒護教徒幹涉司法審判、下令教徒不得分攤並參與地方集體祭祀活動、直接要求北京政府撤換省級官員，甚至一些犯罪之人也藉由信教取得司法保護，引起中國人的反感，因此民教衝突不斷；加上民間以訛傳訛的負面謠傳，最終導致許多民眾則憤而紛紛起來焚燒教堂，驅逐或甚至殺害傳教士，收回被侵占的土地財物。從1856年至1889年先後發生的教案多達三百多起，著名的有1870年的天津教案，1900年的義和團之亂期間，有數萬民中西方傳教士與基督教信徒慘遭殺害。

文化

清朝統治中原後，推行的漢化政策比其他征服王朝還要深，然而清室也盡可能保留本族文化，並且維持本身文化與漢文化的平衡。清初以來，所有施政文書都以漢文、滿文兩種文字發布。自康熙起大力推行以儒學為代表的漢文化，漢傳統經典成為包括皇帝在內的滿族人必修課。到乾隆中期，滿人幾乎全部以漢語為母語，滿文漸漸成為僅用于官方歷史記載用的純書面文字。到19世紀，官方文件中的滿文已基本為漢文所取代。然而儒家的一些思想清朝皇帝沒有完全接受。

在18世紀康乾盛世期間，歐洲前往中國的傳教士們將當時中國圖景呈現給歐洲人，而後引發在17世紀末至18世紀末的100餘年間，甚至直到19世紀初，歐洲吹起中國風。無論是在物質、文化還是政治制度方面，歐洲都對中國極為追捧，以至於在1769年曾有歐洲人寫道：「中國比歐洲本身的某些地區還要知名。」對中國風的狂熱追逐曾經是當時歐洲社會的普遍時尚。這種時尚滲透到歐洲人生活的各個層面，如日用物品、家居裝飾、園林建築等。1735年，法國神父翻譯並發表法文版《趙氏孤兒》後，造成非常轟動的中國戲劇熱。西方對當時的中國也存在負面的聲音，認為中國朝廷過於獨裁與專權。乾隆末年英國派遣馬戛爾尼出使清朝，在佩雷菲特筆下的馬戛爾尼本人認為：「人民生活在最為卑鄙的暴政之下，生活在怕挨竹板的恐懼之中，所以人們膽怯、骯髒並且殘酷」，而馬戛爾尼本人的日記卻如此記載：「中國政府的行政機制和權力是如此的有組織和高效，有條件能夠迅即排除萬難，創造任何成就」。馬戛爾尼訪華團成員之一的愛尼斯·安德遜卻如此評價：「殺頭案在中國是非常少見的。關于這問題，我甚為注意而且好奇地去打聽，一有機會就向人探問，我不只問過一個人，有好幾個人，至少有70歲高齡的老人，他們從未見過或聽到過有殺頭處刑的事……比較輕的刑事案，在這人口非常多、商業又發達的國內也不常有」；「走過的鄉村（北京郊區）前後每1英里路上的人數足以充塞我們英國最大的市鎮」；「這城市（廣州城）的街道一般是15英尺到20英尺寬，用寬大的石板鋪砌，房屋超出一層的很少，用木材和磚建築。商店的正面大門之上有漂亮的陽台，因而門前形成一街簷，用各種油漆裝修得很美麗」；「……這個馬車隊伍停歇在一個大市鎮內，鎮名「吉陽府」。說它是人口稠密，則我又用了這冗繁的語詞，這語詞可以同樣應用于整個帝國，如每個村莊、市鎮、城市；不，每一條河流和河流的兩旁也充滿了人。在這國家裡，在我們所經過的地方，人口是極為眾多而且是到處是那麼多：我們走過的鄉村前後每1英里路上的人數足以充塞我們英國最大的市鎮，道路兩旁不少別墅田莊散布在田野之間，大為增色，也足以証明其富裕」；「……不能不對這位偉大、顯赫、聰明、慈善的中國皇帝致以崇高敬意。他治理中國60年之久，按他的百姓的普通呼聲，他對他們的康樂與興旺從未忘懷。在他管理司法方面的情況是：他保護他的百姓中最低微的人」。

學術思想

清朝學術興盛，文人學者對明朝以前各朝代的種種學術都加以鑽研、演繹而重加闡釋，集歷代之大成，梁啟超稱清朝為中國的「文藝復興時代」。鑑於晚明政治腐敗、內憂外患不斷，宋明理學流於空泛虛偽，致使清初學者多留心經世致用的學問。明朝亡於流寇、清朝定鼎中原後，一時學者痛定思痛，排斥空談心性的宋明理學與陽明學，推究各朝代治亂興衰的軌跡，提出種種改造政治與振興社會的方案，使清初學術思想呈現實用主義的風氣，發展出實事求是的考據學。

考據學

考據學又稱為「樸學」，強調客觀實踐，有疑問時求證，具有科學精神。考據學專研訓詁、音韻和校勘等。而其治學遠宗兩漢的經師，有異於宋明理學，故又稱為「漢學」。以顧炎武、黃宗羲、王夫之並為明末清初三大儒，與方以智、朱舜水等人並稱清初五大師，顏元也是這一時期的大師。顧炎武提倡「經學即理學」，提出以「實學」代替宋明理學，要學者直接研習六經。提倡「天下興亡，匹夫有責」，著有《日知錄》、《音學五書》等，其學說發展成乾嘉學派。黃宗羲有「中國思想啟蒙之父」之譽稱，著有《明儒學案》、《宋元學案》，是中國學術史之祖。他保護陽明學，排斥宋明理學，力主誠意慎獨之說，蔚為浙東學派。王夫之強調實際行動是知識的基礎，認為歷史發展具有規律性，是「理勢相成」。其思想發展成船山學，後人編為《船山遺書》。

民主思想

以民為天下之主的思想於明末清初亦有所流行，例如生活在明末又經歷清初時期的黃宗羲和顧炎武、王夫之提倡民權，所著的《明夷待訪錄》攻擊君主專制體制，提倡天下為主，君為客的觀點，倍受清末革命黨的推崇。部分學者認為黃宗羲的思想是近代民主主義的思想，有西方學者稱黃宗羲為「中國自由主義的先驅」。清初思想家唐甄所著《潛書》描述：「清興五十年來，四海之內，日益困窮，農空、工空、市空、仕空（值得一提的是，清初五十年期間正處於氣候最為異常之時，當時世界上多處亦發生罕見的大饑荒）。」，並指出皇帝是一切罪惡的根源，認為「自秦以來，凡帝王者皆賊也。」

被當時正純學者（儒生）斥為「名教罪人」、「喪心病狂」、「人可戮而書可焚」的袁枚追求自由個性，反對專制思想和理學，亦貶斥漢學，他亦針對清廷統一人心風俗政策說「物之不齊，物之情也，天亦不能做主，而況於人乎？」，但袁枚從來沒被追究過「害義傷教」之罪，在當時亦生活得頗為順暢，名傾一世，令人羨慕。

六經皆史

清代中期的考據學崇尚研究歷史典籍，對中國歷史從天文地理到金石銘文無一不反覆考證。當時分成吳、皖兩派。吳派以惠棟父子、段玉裁、王引之與王念孫為主，以「博學好古」為宗旨，恪守儒家法則；皖派以戴震為首，以「實事求是」、「無徵不信」為宗旨。他們「畢注於名物訓詁之考訂，所成就亦超出前儒之上」。桐城派健將姚鼐提倡「義理、考據、詞章，三者不可偏廢。」道光與咸豐年間，曾國藩又把經濟與義理、考據、詞章並列。然而考據學到後來過分重視瑣碎事物的探究，為學問而學問，知古不知今。當時章學誠提出「六經皆史」，注重六經蘊含的義理，並使用於當代政治上，意圖矯正此歪風。鴉片戰爭後，西學大量流入中國，考據學逐漸式微。

西方技術與思想

明末清初，隨著歐洲耶穌會傳教士來華，西學輸入中國，對於當時的學風由浮虛轉為務實，也是有相當的激勵作用。他們將西方科技介紹給中國人，擴大其知識領域，使中國的學術思想添增不少新成分。

當時有才華的傳教士被皇帝欣賞和重用，西方先進的科學技術也被推崇和應用。而在民間，民人與西方傳教士能夠互相交遊，西學在社會中得以自由傳播，由康乾皇帝敕輯的叢書《古今圖書集成》和《四庫全書》亦收錄傳入中國的西方科學技術，當中《四庫全書》收錄了24種西方傳教士的著述。

康熙帝亦曾經委派傳教士閔明我（Domingo Fernández Navarrete）返回歐洲招募人才，希望增進中西方科技文化交流。《四庫全書總目》以及乾隆帝亦對西方技術作出較高的評價：「西洋之學，以測量步算為第一，而奇器次之。奇器之中，水法尤切於民用，視他器之徒矜工巧，為耳目之玩者又殊，固講水利者所必資也」；「歐羅巴人天文推算之密，工匠製作之巧，實逾前古」。

鴉片戰爭之後，大量西方科技與思想帶動中國近代化革新。此時學者如龔自珍、魏源與康有為等人繼承章學誠的說法，並進一步要求改革祖宗的法制，來應付內憂外患的局勢。龔自珍講求經世之務，志存改革，追求「更法」。魏源的《海國圖志》主張「師夷長技以制夷」，馮桂芬的《校邠廬抗議》主張「以中國之倫常名教為原本，輔以諸國富強之術」。康有為與梁啟超主張君主立憲。他們吸收來自西方的知識，先後推動自強運動與維新運動，這一波改革風潮最後引發清末新政與辛亥革命。

文學

清朝文學多元發展，兼容並包歷代之文學特色。明朝以前的文學發展多表現在聲韻、格律、句法、結構的因襲或創變；清朝承接各代文學成果，先後形成許多學派，將各種在明朝以前已式微的文體重新復興，並繼明末進一步發展各類小說、戲曲；另外，因不同地區、民族互動而呈現出語言風格多樣化之文學面貌，於古體詩、近體詩、駢體文、散文、賦、詞、曲、小說、戲曲皆然。由於語言轉變較微妙，往往被人忽視，造成清朝文學缺乏明顯特徵與創造力的一般印象。整體而言，清代文學面向相當複雜多樣，但質量上也良莠不齊。

散文

清朝前期出現風格率真、浪漫的小品文，以張岱、李漁與袁枚為主；又有侯方域、魏禧、汪琬合稱「清初散文三大家」。但是他們的文風不受道學學者支持，這些學者發起復興唐宋文風的古文運動，此即桐城派。創始人方苞與劉大櫆、姚鼐有「桐城三祖」之稱。姚鼐是桐城派的集大成者，他的古文主張，在提倡「義理（內容合理）、考據（材料確切）、詞章（文辭精美），三者不可偏廢。」講究義法，提倡義理，要求語言雅潔，反對俚俗。後來曾國藩發展成湘鄉派，惲敬、張惠言發展成陽湖派。

詩

清朝的詩風甚盛，以帝王、宗室為首，官方大力提倡詩學，自清聖祖以後諸帝主導官修《御定全唐詩》、《御選唐詩》、《御選宋金元明四朝詩》、《御定全金詩》、《御定佩文齋詠物詩選》、《御定歷代題畫詩類》、《御選唐宋詩醇》、《欽定熙朝雅頌集》、《御定千叟宴詩》、《欽定千叟宴詩》、《欽定重舉千叟宴詩》、《上書房消寒詩錄》、《三元詩附三元喜宴詩》、《御定歷代賦彙》以及各代皇帝之《御製詩集》，如清高宗酷愛作詩，一生作《御製詩》五集，共計十餘萬首，每作一首詩便令詞臣注釋，若詞臣不得內容原委則准許其回家查閱典籍，多羅安郡王瑪爾渾選宗室王公詩為《宸萼集》。皇帝也將詩詠作為聯繫、攏絡官員的方式。

在清代，寫詩的女性越來越多，且詩的創作者皆來自各行各業。清代是一個文學收藏和批評的時期，許多現代流行版本的中國古典詩歌都是通過清朝詩集傳播的，如《全唐詩》和《唐詩三百首》等。

清初詩家首推錢謙益、吳偉業與王士禎；康熙中後期，江南地區出現王式丹、吳廷楨、宮鴻曆、徐昂發、錢名世、張大受、管棆、吳士玉、顧嗣立、李必恆、蔣廷錫、繆沅、王圖炳、徐永宣、郭元𨥤合稱「江左十五子」。乾隆時期袁枚、蔣士銓與趙翼並稱江左三大家，同時黃景仁與鄭板橋也以詩聞名。嘉慶、道光年間文人廣結詩社，京師與揚州風氣最盛，以消寒詩社最知名，代表人物有顧蓴、夏修恕、程恩澤、陶澍、朱珔、吳椿、梁章鉅、潘曾沂、胡承珙、李彥章、劉嗣綰、周之琦、林則徐、徐寶善、卓秉恬。被稱為「詩界革命」的詩歌改良運動產生於維新運動，其代表有黃遵憲的以寫作反映時代的社會詩，其餘如譚嗣同、唐才常、康有為、蔣智由、丘逢甲、夏曾佑均有作品存世。於清末又發展出同光體，代表作家陳三立、陳衍、沈曾植等，且延續到辛亥革命後。清朝詩論學說分成沈德潛的格調說、王士禎的神韻說、袁枚的性靈說與翁方剛的肌理說。

詞

詞興起於隋唐的「燕樂」，兩宋發展達高峰，至元朝衰微，延續至明朝則趨近消亡；清初詞學振興繁盛，康熙年間納蘭性德與朱彞尊、陳維崧並稱「清詞三大家」，隨後產生由陳維崧為代表的陽羨詞派、朱彞尊為代表的浙西詞派，詞學蔚為風潮。萬樹整理詞調輯成《詞律》，於清詞頗有影響力；康熙末，清聖祖敕命王奕清等編成《御定詞譜》，為詞調格律的集大成鉅作，影響層面最廣。乾隆、嘉慶朝，常州詞派起而代之，反對浙西詞派的「清空之弊」，代表人物有張惠言、張琦、惲敬、黃景仁、李兆洛、丁履恆、錢季重、陸繼輅、左輔、董士錫、周濟、劉嗣綰、劉逢祿、譚獻、莊棫、宋翔鳳、謝章鋌、馮煦、陳廷焯、王鵬運、鄭文焯、況周頤、朱祖謀等人，著名詞人輩出，持續到清末民初。清朝因此被稱為詞的「極盛時期」，「號稱詞學中興」，「作家之盛，直比兩宋」，門戶派別各具風採，婉約、豪放都各自重現、盛行。

小說

清朝小說傑出者眾，曹雪芹等著《紅樓夢》不僅為四大名著之一，由于其對社會百態和眾多人物全面精確的寫實描繪和豐富的藝術魅力而被普遍認為是中國古典小說的巔峰之作。蒲松齡以志怪內容反映社會面貌的短篇小說集《聊齋誌異》。吳敬梓所著的雖結構鬆散但足稱偉大諷刺小說的《儒林外史》；以及在《儒林外史》的影響下，以《老殘遊記》為代表的揭發官場醜態的譴責小說均有很大影響。

四庫全書

乾隆三十八年至四十九年（1773年－1784年）編纂的《四庫全書》是中國古代最大的一部官修書，也是中國古代最大的一部叢書，分經、史、子、集四部，故名四庫。據文津閣藏本，該書共收錄古籍三千五百零三（3503）種、七萬九千三百三十七（79337）卷、裝訂成三萬六千餘冊，保存豐富的文獻。「四庫」之名，源於初唐，初唐官方藏書分為經史子集四個書庫，號稱「四部庫書」，或「四庫之書」。經史子集四分法是古代圖書分類的主要方法，它基本上囊括古代所有圖書，故稱「全書」。清代乾隆初年，學者周永年提出「儒藏說」，主張把儒家著作集中在一起，供人借閱。這是編纂《四庫全書》的社會基礎。《〈四庫全書〉總目提要》又是一部重要的目錄學著作。

《四庫全書》收錄27種西方傳教士的著述，包括西洋的數學、天文、儀器及機械等方面的著作，被收錄的書籍包括有《泰西水法》、《西儒耳目資》、《坤輿圖說》、《乾坤體義》等。

四庫全書編撰過程中，清朝統治者有詔令禁止鼓吹反政府以及違背儒家道德倫常的野史、筆記、文集等諸多書籍收入《四庫全書》，並取締非議清朝統治者的著作，史稱四庫禁書。但四庫禁書中極少數遭到徹底焚毀，絕大部分是為官方藏禁。。史學家季羨林說，乾隆編修四庫全書的初衷雖是「寓禁於徵」，但客觀上整理、保存了一大批重要典籍，開創了中國書目學，確立了漢學在社會文化中的主導地位，具有無與倫比的文獻價值、史料價值、文物價值與版本價值。史學家龔書鐸亦說：「乾隆年間《四庫全書》的編纂，為華夏文明的延續做出了不可磨滅的貢獻，為後人保留了許許多多珍貴的書籍和資料；但是，在編纂過程中，也免不了發生許多令人遺憾的事情。」。魯迅在批評明清以及民國文學時也對《四庫全書》的編纂過程作出批評：「現在不說別的，單看雍正乾隆兩朝的對于中國人著作的手段，就足夠令人驚心動魄。全毀，抽毀，剜去之類也且不說，最陰險的是刪改了古書的內容。乾隆朝的纂修《四庫全書》，是許多人頌為一代之盛業的，但他們卻不但搗亂了古書的格式，還修改了古人的文章；不但藏之內廷，還頒之文風較盛之處，使天下士子閱讀，永不會覺得我們中國的作者裡面，也曾經有過很有些骨氣的人……清朝的考據家有人說過，「明人好刻古書而古書亡」，因為他們妄行校改。我以為這之後，則清人纂修《四庫全書》而古書亡，因為他們變亂舊式，刪改原文；今人（民國）標點古書而古書亡，因為他們亂點一通，佛頭著糞：這是古書的水火兵蟲以外的三大厄。」

清朝在編纂《四庫全書》時亦救亡不少大量早已失傳的中國古籍，梁啟超對此評論道：「此二百餘年間總可命為中國之『文藝復興時代』，特其興也，漸而非頓耳……吾輩尤有一事當感謝清儒者，曰輯佚。書籍經久必漸散亡，取各史藝文、經籍等志校其存佚易見也。膚蕪之作，存亡固無足輕重；名著失墜，則國民之遺產損焉。乾隆中修《四庫全書》，其書之採自《永樂大典》者以百計，實開輯佚之先聲。此後茲業日昌，自周秦諸子，漢人經注，魏晉六朝逸史逸集，苟有片語留存，無不搜羅最錄。其取材則唐宋間數種大類書，如《藝文類聚》、《初學記》、《太平御覽》等最多，而諸經註疏及他書，凡可搜者無不遍。當時學者從事此業者甚多，不備舉。而馬國翰之《玉函山房輯佚書》，分經史子三部，集所輯至數百種，他可推矣。遂使《漢志》諸書、《隋唐志》久稱已佚者，今乃累累現於吾輩之藏書目錄中，雖復片鱗碎羽，而受賜則既多矣。」

藝術

書法與陶藝

書法方面，晚明的帖學在清初仍然發達，姜英、張照、劉墉、王文治、梁同書與翁方綱等人在刻尊傳統的時候，力圖表現出新面貌，或以淡墨書寫，或改變章法結構等。但由於帖學未有很好地加以清理而逐漸頹勢。隨著金石考證學的發展，清朝書法多從碑體入手，成為清朝書壇的主流。有名的有翁方綱、劉墉、何紹基與趙之謙。到康有為大力張揚碑學，碑學作為一種與帖學相抗衡的書學系統而存在。清代的陶藝發展出繁複的不透明釉上彩陶器以及素色陶器兩種風格迥異的風格。

京劇

京劇被稱為中國的「國粹」，起源於明朝的崑曲和京腔，形成於乾隆、嘉慶年間。京劇之名始見於清光緒二年（1876年）的《申報》，歷史上曾有皮黃、二黃、黃腔、京調、京戲、平劇、國劇等稱謂。乾隆五十五年（1790年）四大徽班進京後與北京劇壇的崑曲、漢劇、弋陽、亂彈等劇種經過五、六十年的融匯，衍變而成，是中國最大戲曲劇種。其劇目之豐富、表演藝術家之多、劇團之多、觀眾之多、影響之深均為全國之冠。京劇是綜合性表演藝術。集唱（歌唱）、念（念白）、做（表演）、打（武打）、舞（舞蹈）為一體、通過程式的表演手段敘演故事，刻劃人物，表達「喜、怒、哀、樂、驚、恐、悲」思想感情。角色可分為：生（男人）、旦（女人）、淨（男人）、醜（男、女皆有）四大行當。人物有忠奸之分，美醜之分、善惡之分。形象鮮明、栩栩如生。

建築與園林

清朝建築比前世變化不多，除了規模宏偉之外，作為中國建築特色之一的斗拱日趨虛飾纖麗，幾乎失去原來用途。北京紫禁城有許多大型色彩豐富的磚石建築。歷代帝陵無寢，自明太祖開始方有明孝陵。清朝分別建有位於遼寧瀋陽的盛京三陵、河北遵化的清東陵與河北易縣的清西陵。清代園林藝術以圓明園為代表，融合江南名園佳景與歐洲義大利樓房花園，被外國傳教士譽為「萬園之園」。清朝提倡藏傳佛教，分別於奉天、北京與五台山興建大喇嘛廟。康熙帝也於熱河承德興建仿西藏布達拉宮的承德避暑山莊，供遊獵避暑的住所。

繪畫

清朝畫壇由文人畫佔主導地位，山水畫科和水墨寫意畫法盛行，更多畫家追求筆墨情趣。清代山水畫家有名的有「正統派」的四王（王時敏、王翬、王鑒和王原祁）、吳歷與惲壽平，合稱「清初六大家」。其中惲壽平創造不用墨線勾勒的沒骨花卉畫法，承自北宋徐崇嗣之沒骨法，又加入創意，蔚為清代花卉畫宗師，頗為後人所效仿，形成以惲壽平、鄒一桂為首的常州畫派。然而正統派的繪畫與元明兩朝相比，其水準水平一般，大致上總不脫臨摹的陋習。不過清初繪畫仍有翻新出奇、流于怪異之處，比如清初四僧的「遺民派」畫家（八大山人、石濤、漸江與髡殘）以及「金陵八家」的龔賢、樊圻、高岑、鄒結、吳宏、葉欣、胡慥和謝遜等人；雍乾之際以金農、鄭板橋為首的揚州八怪。清朝的宮廷畫院以義大利的郎世寧、最著名。受到西洋畫的影響，清宮廷中的畫家如焦秉貞、冷枚等人受西洋畫影響。清末時期，任伯年、吳昌碩、居廉的仕女花鳥畫及楊柳青、桃花塢和民間年畫如《蓮生貴子》、《魚躍龍門》等對後人也有很大影響。

科學與技術

整體而言，清朝的科學技術和同時代的西方國家相比較為落後，在晚期差距更為明顯。清初統治者和部分中國學者積極與西方傳教士進行中西文化技術交流，統治者亦會將習得的新知識實際地運用在治國方面，然而後來由於禁教的原因導致人們對西學日益模糊和隔閡。清代科學技術的落後是中國貧困積弱的重要原因之一，但在某些科學技術領域中比前也有明顯進展，尤其是在數學、天文、曆法等學科方面得到空前發展，而精於此道的學者也是英才輩出且人數眾多，從遠古到清朝這段期間，有關學者的數量在清代占約44%。清代學者亦對古代技術和文獻的復興和修復也作出貢獻。

天文學與地理學

清軍入關後，湯若望、南懷仁等教士來華傳教，帶來西方科學與技術。他們先後被任命為欽天監。康熙帝對於天文曆算，火炮之學很有興趣，曾令白晉、德瑪諾等人，測繪全國地圖，歷時十年而成，康熙帝命名為《皇輿全覽圖》，它是中國第一部用經緯度測繪的地圖。順治帝多次向湯若望學習天文、曆法、宗教等知識，以及治國之策。不久湯若望成為「欽天監」的負責人，掌管國家天文曆法事務。在隨後的一百多年前，「欽天監」皆由耶穌會士掌管。由於需要新的曆法，清政府遂下令根據湯若望所著的《西洋新法曆書》，制定新曆法並頒行全國，名為時憲曆。另一受西方影響較大的是地圖測繪學。康雍乾時期，國家統一，版圖鞏固，始繪製全國和各地的地圖，派人到各處實地測量。外國傳教士雷孝思、杜德美和清朝學者何國宗、明安圖等參加這項工作，採用西方經緯度定位和梯形投影法，所制地圖居當時世界水平的前列。在測繪全國地圖的過程中，康熙時期編成的數學巨著《數理精蘊》亦發揮實際作用。

從順治到乾隆期間，西方傳教士在皇帝的要求下製造以及添加不少天文儀器如赤道經緯、黃道經經緯、簡平儀等，同時有相關天文學術著作出現，亦改善和編製較為先進的曆法。西方的物理學知識也從明朝末年起一直在中國傳播，康熙年間的學者戴震就寫有關于阿基米德定律的作品，傳教士南懷仁著有《熙朝定案》等介紹各種工程技術的作品外，亦著有《驗氣圖說》和《形性理推》等對中國的物理學界產生一定影響的介紹西方光學知識的書籍，並在一定程度下讓一些學者啟迪進而研究光學，例如在康熙年間寫有《鏡史》一書的孫雲球以及在十九世紀前期寫有《鏡鏡詅癡》的鄭復光；在對待西洋器物方面，清代有不少學者、匠師和科學家如黃履莊、黃履、孫玄球等對西方「奇器」有一定的研究和高度仿製，西方「奇器」在一定程度上亦推動中國的物理實驗和機械製造的發展。

由於清政府對天文曆法的重視，民間的天文學研究也很活躍，主要代表人物有著有《曉庵新法》和《五星行度解》的王錫闡等。

火器

為平定三藩之亂，康熙特命比利時傳教士南懷仁製造適應南方地形特點和便於戰場上機動使用的火砲。南懷仁「依洋式鑄造新炮」，並進呈《神威圖說》一書，介紹西方的製炮理論和方法。在康熙十四年（1675）至康熙末年四十餘年間，僅中央政府就督造或改制神威無敵大將軍、金龍炮、制勝將軍、威遠將軍等各型火砲近千尊。不但數量多，而且種類也不少，乾隆二十一年（1756年）頒行的《欽定工部則例造火器式》載有各種火砲共85種，同年的《皇朝禮器圖式》中鳥槍，紅衣炮，子母炮這三樣火器成為製式武器。其他的著作分別有薛熙撰的《練閱火器陣紀》，沈善蒸撰的《火器真訣解證》，王達權、王韜同撰的《火器略說》，薛鳳祚撰的《中西火法》，陳暘撰的砲規圖說以及董祖修撰的《炮法撮要》等。清朝軍隊的火器裝備率也超過明朝，直到兩次鴉片戰爭期間和太平天國戰爭初期，清軍的主要火器是鳥槍和各種生鐵、青銅鑄造的火砲，在道光、咸豐年間又裝備了兩人抬用的抬炮和抬槍，清朝軍隊火器的裝備率達到50-60％。

清朝初期在政權穩固及穩定後容許漢族民眾持有冷兵器，但仍然警惕火器尤其是重型火器的流存。雖然清朝在法律上嚴禁民間私製火器，但在實行上卻沒有也難以嚴加管制，終清一代火器在民間幾乎隨處可見，製造和銷售火器在民間已有相當的規模，出於自衛、捕獵、遊戲等原因有不少平民都擁有了火器，甚至在京城也有鐵匠私造火器售賣。此外，清朝希望士紳掌管的民間武力協助國家維持基層社會的秩序和協助保衛國土，加上亦需顧及民間狩獵和自衛的需要，故清政府在一定條件下容許民間武器合法存在。中國歷史上的歷代王朝都不會樂見民間有大量武器，特別是不願看到有精利武器在民間流傳，但基於上述原因，清朝對民間火器的政策經常陷於「允許、鼓勵」與「禁止、控制」的兩難處境。

農業

農業方面，清代有《授時通考》、《廣群芳譜》、《補農書》等著作，詳細論述各種作物的栽種和農業生產技術。清代亦是中國傳統農學的高度發展時期，中國歷代所編著的農書共714部，其中清以前的二千一百多年間編著的農書為231部，清代267年，編著的農書為483部，為清代以前農書數量的2.09倍，清朝治理及研究蝗蟲的技術亦相對比較發達。

醫學

清初至鼎盛時期，醫藥學進步所表現在很多方面，基本上是明朝醫藥盛況的延續。如對經典著作的研究、本草學、方劑學、診斷治療學、醫案整理等，均較明朝更成熟。各家學派的紛爭也逐漸緩和，大多醫家能採各家之長折衷於臨床。但也不乏固守《內經》、《難經》、《傷寒論》，而批評金元以後一切新說的醫學，這與當時考據學盛行不無關係。清朝中醫藥學最重要的成就，就是關於急性傳染病的研究，它已形成一個新的系統，即溫病學說。這一學說的出現，雖然是基於歷代醫家的有關成就上，但清代溫病學派在中醫發展史上的貢獻，仍然是相當顯著的，它並不亞於東漢張仲景著《傷寒論》，金朝劉完素創河間學派。

康熙年間有不少精通醫術的傳教士如張誠和白晉等向中國傳授西方醫學，並且被容許在入職朝廷、建立試驗室以傳授解剖學知識，康熙對此深感興趣，甚至曾經在一次研探解剖學時得病。法國傳教士巴多明（Dominicus Parrenin）用滿文翻譯人體解剖學方面的著作並名之為《欽定格體全錄》，巴多明和白晉也在康熙的支持下翻譯出有關人體血液循環的著作，並且在北京傳播相關知識。西方傳入的醫學知識和理論亦引起了當時中國醫學界人士的注意，例如清初劉獻廷研究過人物圖說等西方醫學著作，乾隆年間著有《醫林改錯》的醫學家王清任亦十分重視解剖學：「著書不明臟腑，豈不是癡人說夢，治病不明臟腑，何異於盲子夜行」。

清朝中葉後，西學的影響不像清初僅侷限於個別傳教士，西方科技的刺激顯然變得十分具有影響力。尤其是西方國家有意識地把醫藥作為實現他們宗教目的、掠奪目的的手段，所以西方醫學對中國的滲透變得比清初那時更為明顯。那時中國人民也有吸收外來醫藥學的需求，於是中西醫匯的主張應運而生。這種新的思想既有解放中醫藥學家保守思想的一面，也有壓抑對傳統中醫藥學繼承和發展的一面。

到了清末民初，由於西方醫學的強勢輸入，以其診斷、手術器械的先進、服藥的便利、診間及病房的明亮乾淨，對當時的傳統中醫造成了前所未有的生存與競爭的壓力。然而由於中國人根深蒂固的醫療習慣、中醫的實際療效以及西醫人數尚少不能普及於全國等原因，當時的中醫並未如日本明治維新之後的漢醫般幾乎絕跡。

數學

中國古代的數學成就曾名列世界前茅，到明代衰落下來，古算幾成絕學。明末，西算傳入中國，從徐光啟翻譯《幾何原本》前六捲起，直到康熙時編成《數理精蘊》（《數理精蘊》是明末清初西算輸入時期一部帶有總結性的數學巨著，被稱之為當時中國最高水平的數學百科全書），這是中國歷史上第一次西算輸入時期，雍正以後到鴉片戰爭以前，又為「古算復興時期」。介紹西算和復興古算構成清前期數學發展的兩大內容。清初的曆法大辯論，新法以計算精確戰勝舊法，這件事使當時知識界對數學重視起來。康熙又聘請傳教士徐日昇、白晉、張誠、安多等入宮，講授幾何、代數、天文、物理等科學知識，這就推動數學的蓬勃發展，出現方中通、梅文鼎、梅轂成、明安圖、王元啟、董祐誠、項名達等著名數學家。

清朝學者亦重新發掘出在古代已長期失傳的大量數學著作，例如《四庫全書》的編纂工作者之一的戴震就從《永樂大典》中發現和整理出久已失傳的許多古典算書。如《海島算經》、《五經算術》、《周髀算經》、《九章算術》、《孫子算經》、《五曹算經》以及《夏侯陽算經》。他又從南宋刻本的毛扆影抄本中抄輯出《張丘建算經》和《輯古算經》兩種，連同明刻本的《數術記遺》共計十種。這十部算經於乾隆三十八年由孔繼涵刻入《微波榭叢書》，正式題名為《算經十書》。戴震還從《永樂大典》中抄輯出宋秦九韶的《數書九章》及楊輝的各種算書，令漢唐以來數學成就的結晶重現。

清朝的數學人才輩出且著作繁多，大約有五百人貢獻一千多種數學著作，超過以往任何一個朝代；但因受乾嘉漢學的影響，多集中在對古算的整理、註釋方面。在若干領域內，清代學者也作出創造性的貢獻。如陳世仁發展宋元以來垛積術的研究，即高階等差級數求和的方法；焦循註釋《九章算術》，提出加減乘除的交換律；還有汪萊和李銳繼承宋代天元術和四元術，發展方程論的研究，對方程根的性質以及根和係數的關係等進行探討。

建築學與基建

建築學方面取得很高的成就，宮殿、園林、寺廟、宅宇、城垣的建築，盛極一時。或雄偉莊嚴，或富麗典雅，彩繪藻飾，光彩照人，庭院草木，錯落有致。著名匠師梁九、雷發達均有高超的設計和施工技藝。外國傳教士蔣友仁、王致誠等帶來西方的建築技術，設計圓明園內西洋樓、大水法等建築群。

清朝末年，中國的交通事業有所發展，詹天佑是中國第一位傑出的鐵路工程師，他主持修建的京張鐵路工程之艱巨是當時世界鐵路史上罕見的。詹天佑克服一道道難關，創造性地設計出「人」字形軌道，減緩坡度，降低造價，比原計劃提前兩年完工。詹天佑修建京張鐵路期間，厘定各種鐵路工程標準，並上書政府要求全國採用。中國現在仍然使用的4尺8寸半標準軌、鄭氏自動掛鈎等等都是出自詹天佑的提議。此外詹天佑亦著重鐵路人才的培訓，制定工程師升轉章程，對工程人員的考核和要求作出明文規定，並且定明工程師薪酬與考核成績掛鉤。京張鐵路培訓不少中國的工程人員，詹天佑所製定的考核章程亦成為其他中國鐵路的模仿對象。

君主列表

註釋