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202-675: The Qing dynasty (1644–1912) was a Manchu -led imperial Chinese dynasty and the last imperial dynasty of China. It was officially proclaimed in 1636 in Shenyang in what is now Northeast China , but only captured Beijing and succeeded the Ming dynasty in China proper in 1644. The Qing dynasty collapsed when the imperial clan (surnamed Aisin Gioro ) abdicated in February 1912, a few months after

404-410: A marker gene . This gene, called GFP , or green fluorescent protein, would cause live samples of the virus to glow green under fluorescent light. The insertion of this gene, which would not influence the virulence of the virus, would be the only allowed modification of the genome. The committee stated the proposed modification would aid in research of treatments by making it easier to assess whether

606-515: A "capacity to transform" supported by Heaven, and that his second one Chongde 崇德 ( wesihun erdemungge ) meant the achievement of this transformation. The practice of translating reign names is not new: Jesuits who resided at the Qing court in Beijing in the 18th century translated " Yongzheng "—or its Manchu version "Hūwaliyasun tob"—as Concordia Recta . An era name was used to record dates, usually in

808-564: A "responsible cabinet" led by Yikuang , Prince Qing. However, it became known as the " royal cabinet ", as five of its thirteen members, were part of or related to the royal family. The Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911 set off a series of uprisings. By November, 14 of the 22 provinces had rejected Qing rule. This led to the creation of the Republic of China , in Nanjing on 1 January 1912, with Sun Yat-sen as its provisional head. Seeing

1010-622: A Han revolt in 1623, Nurhaci turned against them and enacted discriminatory policies and killings against them. He ordered that Han who assimilated to the Jurchen (in Jilin) before 1619 be treated equally with Jurchens, not like the conquered Han in Liaodong. Hong Taiji recognized the need to attract Han Chinese, explaining to reluctant Manchus why he needed to treat the defecting Ming general Hong Chengchou leniently. Hong Taiji incorporated Han into

1212-485: A campaign to unify the nearby tribes . By 1616, however, he had sufficiently consolidated Jianzhou so as to be able to proclaim himself Khan of the Later Jin dynasty in reference to the previous Jurchen-ruled Jin 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

1414-443: A clinical case was observed, smallpox was confirmed using laboratory tests. Microscopically , poxviruses produce characteristic cytoplasmic inclusion bodies , the most important of which are known as Guarnieri bodies , and are the sites of viral replication . Guarnieri bodies are readily identified in skin biopsies stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and appear as pink blobs. They are found in virtually all poxvirus infections but

1616-580: A compromise, the Manchu princes chose Hong Taiji's four-year-old son Fulin (the Shunzhi Emperor , r. 1643–1661) as his successor, marking the adoption of father-son succession in the Qing imperial line. The Shunzhi Emperor, who died of smallpox in 1661, chose his third son Xuanye as successor because he had survived smallpox. That child reigned as the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722), who for

1818-523: A desperate situation, the Qing court brought Yuan Shikai back to power. His Beiyang Army crushed the revolutionaries in Wuhan at the Battle of Yangxia . After taking the position of Prime Minister he created his own cabinet , with the support of Empress Dowager Longyu . However, Yuan Shikai decided to cooperate with Sun Yat-sen's revolutionaries to overthrow the Qing dynasty. Smallpox Smallpox

2020-412: 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. Dorgon's fall from grace also led to

2222-666: A disappointed civil service examination candidate who, influenced by reading the Old Testament in translation, had a series of visions and announced himself to be the son of God, the younger brother of Jesus Christ, sent to reform China. In 1851, Hong launched an uprising in Guizhou and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with himself as its king. Within this kingdom, slavery, concubinage, arranged marriage, opium smoking, footbinding, judicial torture, and

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2424-415: A discrete rash, in which the pustules stood out on the skin separately. The distribution of the rash was most dense on the face, denser on the extremities than on the trunk, and denser on the distal parts of the extremities than on the proximal. The palms of the hands and soles of the feet were involved in most cases. Sometimes, the blisters merged into sheets, forming a confluent rash, which began to detach

2626-518: A doctor in Berkeley, Gloucestershire , rural England, discovered that immunity to smallpox could be produced by inoculating a person with material from a cowpox lesion. Cowpox is a poxvirus in the same family as variola. Jenner called the material used for inoculation vaccine from the root word vacca , which is Latin for cow. The procedure was much safer than variolation and did not involve a risk of smallpox transmission. Vaccination to prevent smallpox

2828-455: A fatality rate of around 30%, while variola minor’s mortality rate was about 1%. Throughout the 18th century, variola major was responsible for around 400,000 deaths annually in Europe alone. Survivors of the disease often faced lifelong consequences, such as blindness and severe scarring, which were nearly universal among those who recovered. In the first half of the 20th century, variola major

3030-613: 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 effective end of the dynasty. Li Zicheng then led rebel forces numbering some 200,000 to confront Ming general Wu Sangui , stationed at Shanhai Pass of the Great Wall to defend the capital against the approaching Manchu-led armies. Wu, to survive, had to ally with one of his adversaries against

3232-590: A generational character as in Chinese clans, acceded the throne, he made all his brothers change the first character of their name from "Yin" (胤) to "Yun" (允) to respect the taboo. Citing fraternal solidarity, his successor, the Qianlong Emperor, simply removed one stroke from his own name and let his brothers keep their own. Later emperors found other ways to diminish the inconvenience of naming taboos. The Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796–1820), whose personal name

3434-614: A host cell varies across the poxviridae . Recombination of the genome occurs within actively infected cells. Following the onset of viral DNA replication, an intermediate set of genes codes for transcription factors of late gene expression. The products of the later genes include transcription factors necessary for transcribing the early genes for new virions, as well as viral RNA polymerase and other essential enzymes for new viral particles. These proteins are then packaged into new infectious virions capable of infecting other cells. Two live samples of variola major virus remain, one in

3636-664: A military uprising had started the Xinhai Revolution that led to the foundation of the Republic of China . Nurhaci (1559–1626), khan of the Jurchens , founded the Later Jin dynasty in 1616 in reference to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty (1115–1234) that had once ruled over northern China. His son and successor Hong Taiji (1592–1643) renamed his people " Manchu " in 1635 and changed the name of Nurhaci's state from "Great Jin" to "Great Qing" in 1636. Hong Taiji

3838-519: A misunderstanding that Manchus were afraid of water. Han bannermen carried out the fighting and killing, casting conquest of the Mingdoubt 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

4040-408: A more extensive rash and higher fever. Variola minor is a less common presentation, causing less severe disease, typically discrete smallpox, with historical death rates of 1% or less. Subclinical ( asymptomatic ) infections with variola virus were noted but were not common. In addition, a form called variola sine eruptione (smallpox without rash) was seen generally in vaccinated persons. This form

4242-697: A nephew of the Tongzhi Emperor) as the rules of imperial succession dictated, she picked one from the same generation. The new emperor was Zaitian (the Guangxu Emperor ; 1871–1908), the son of Prince Chun , a half-brother of Empress Dowager Cixi's late husband, the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861). She assured her opponents that as soon as the new emperor had a son, he would be adopted into the Tongzhi Emperor's line. However, as

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4444-454: A patron of Tibetan Buddhism to establish legitimacy as a ruler of the Mongols and Tibetans. Kangxi's reign began when the young emperor was seven. To prevent a repeat of Dorgon's monopolizing of power, on his deathbed his father hastily appointed four regents who were not closely related to the imperial family and had no claim to the throne. However, through chance and machination, Oboi ,

4646-601: A potential treatment was effective in killing viral samples. The recommendation could only take effect if approved by the WHA . When the WHA discussed the proposal in 2005, it refrained from taking a formal vote on the proposal, stating that it would review individual research proposals one at a time. Addition of the GFP gene to the Vaccinia genome is routinely performed during research on

4848-423: A region of roughly 100 base pairs necessary for resolving concatomeric DNA (a stretch of DNA containing multiple copies of the same sequence), a few open reading frames , and short tandemly repeating sequences of varying number and length. The ITRs of poxviridae vary in length across strains and species. The coding sequence for most of the viral proteins in variola major virus have at least 90% similarity with

5050-485: 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

5252-485: A short, but hard-fought campaign. She fled to Xi'an . The victorious allies then enforced their demands on the Qing government, including compensation for their expenses in invading China and execution of complicit officials, via the Boxer Protocol . The defeat by Japan in 1895 created a sense of crisis which the failure of the 1898 reforms and the disasters of 1900 only exacerbated. Cixi in 1901 moved to mollify

5454-809: A short-lived proto-state known as the Zheltuga Republic (1883–1886) in the Amur River basin, which was however soon crushed by the Qing forces. In 1884, Qing China obtained concessions in Korea , such as the Chinese concession of Incheon , but the pro-Japanese Koreans in Seoul led the Gapsin Coup . Tensions between China and Japan rose after China intervened to suppress the uprising. The Japanese prime minister Itō Hirobumi and Li Hongzhang signed

5656-421: A source of infection”; noted that “Current recommendations for control of secondary smallpox infections emphasize transmission ‘by expelled droplets to close contacts (those within 6–7 feet)’”; but warned that the “emphasis on spread via large droplets may reduce the vigilance with which more difficult airborne precautions [i.e. against finer droplets capable of traveling longer distances and penetrating deeply into

5858-582: Is a severe form accompanied by extensive bleeding into the skin, mucous membranes, gastrointestinal tract, and viscera . This form develops in approximately 2% of infections and occurs mostly in adults. Pustules do not typically form in hemorrhagic smallpox. Instead, bleeding occurs under the skin, making it look charred and black, hence this form of the disease is also referred to as variola nigra or "black pox". Hemorrhagic smallpox has very rarely been caused by variola minor virus. While bleeding may occur in mild cases and not affect outcomes, hemorrhagic smallpox

6060-420: Is also a later form of hemorrhagic smallpox (referred to late hemorrhagic smallpox, or variolosa pustula hemorrhagica ). The prodrome is severe and similar to that observed in early hemorrhagic smallpox, and the fever persists throughout the course of the disease. Bleeding appears in the early eruptive period (but later than that seen in purpura variolosa ), and the rash is often flat and does not progress beyond

6262-490: Is also under research as a viral vector for vaccines for unrelated diseases. The genome of variola major virus was first sequenced in its entirety in the 1990s. The complete coding sequence is publicly available online. The current reference sequence for variola major virus was sequenced from a strain that circulated in India in 1967. In addition, there are sequences for samples of other strains that were collected during

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6464-400: Is associated with fire within the Chinese zodiacal system , while Qīng ( 清 ) is associated with water, illustrating the triumph of the Qing as the conquest of fire by water. The name possibly also possessed Buddhist implications of perspicacity and enlightenment, as well as connection with the bodhisattva Manjusri . Early European writers used the term "Tartar" indiscriminately for all

6666-541: Is believed to have had a mortality rate of less than 1%, as compared to variola major's 30%. Like variola major, variola minor was spread through inhalation of the virus in the air, which could occur through face-to-face contact or through fomites. Infection with variola minor virus conferred immunity against the more dangerous variola major virus. Because variola minor was a less debilitating disease than smallpox, people were more frequently ambulant and thus able to infect others more rapidly. As such, variola minor swept through

6868-411: Is caused by infection with variola virus, which belongs to the family Poxviridae , subfamily Chordopoxvirinae , genus Orthopoxvirus . The date of the appearance of smallpox is not settled. It most probably evolved from a terrestrial African rodent virus between 68,000 and 16,000 years ago. The wide range of dates is due to the different records used to calibrate the molecular clock . One clade

7070-488: Is complicated by having multiple infectious forms, with differing mechanisms of cell entry. Poxviruses are unique among human DNA viruses in that they replicate in the cytoplasm of the cell rather than in the nucleus . To replicate, poxviruses produce a variety of specialized proteins not produced by other DNA viruses , the most important of which is a viral-associated DNA-dependent RNA polymerase . Both enveloped and unenveloped virions are infectious. The viral envelope

7272-447: Is consistent with the other published estimates, it suggests that the archaeological and historical evidence is very incomplete. Better estimates of mutation rates in these viruses are needed. Examination of a strain that dates from c.  1650 found that this strain was basal to the other presently sequenced strains. The mutation rate of this virus is well modeled by a molecular clock. Diversification of strains only occurred in

7474-561: Is estimated to have killed up to 300 million people in the 20th century and around 500 million people in the last 100 years of its existence. Earlier deaths included six European monarchs , including Louis XV of France in 1774. As recently as 1967, 15 million cases occurred a year. The final known fatal case occurred in the United Kingdom in 1978 . Inoculation for smallpox appears to have started in China around

7676-415: Is made of modified Golgi membranes containing viral-specific polypeptides, including hemagglutinin . Infection with either variola major virus or variola minor virus confers immunity against the other. The more common, infectious form of the disease was caused by the variola major virus strain, known for its significantly higher mortality rate compared to its counterpart, variola minor. Variola major had

7878-453: Is nothing we lack..." Since China had little demand for European goods, Europe paid in silver for Chinese goods, an imbalance that worried the mercantilist governments of Britain and France. The growing Chinese demand for opium provided the remedy. The British East India Company greatly expanded its production in Bengal. The Daoguang Emperor , concerned both over the outflow of silver and

8080-493: Is rapidly followed by the development of petechiae and bleeding in the skin, conjunctiva and mucous membranes. Death often occurs suddenly between the fifth and seventh days of illness, when only a few insignificant skin lesions are present. Some people survive a few days longer, during which time the skin detaches and fluid accumulates under it, rupturing at the slightest injury. People are usually conscious until death or shortly before. Autopsy reveals petechiae and bleeding in

8282-535: Is the number of years in which that era name was used. Because of discrepancies between the western and the Chinese calendar , this number does not perfectly correspond to the number of years in which an emperor was on the throne. Since posthumous titles and temple names were often shared by emperors of different dynasties, to avoid confusion they are usually preceded by the dynastic name. The Qianlong emperor, for instance, should be referred to as Qing Gaozong rather than just Gaozong. Because each emperor's posthumous name

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8484-453: Is typically fatal. Vaccination does not appear to provide any immunity to either form of hemorrhagic smallpox and some cases even occurred among people that were revaccinated shortly before. It has two forms. The early or fulminant form of hemorrhagic smallpox (referred to as purpura variolosa ) begins with a prodromal phase characterized by a high fever, severe headache, and abdominal pain. The skin becomes dusky and erythematous, and this

8686-626: The Battle of Shanhai Pass on 27 May 1644. The newly allied armies captured Beijing on 6 June. The Shunzhi Emperor was invested as the " Son of Heaven " on 30 October 1644. The Manchus, who had positioned themselves as political heirs to the Ming, held a formal funeral for the Chongzhen Emperor. However, completing the conquest of China proper took another seventeen years of battling Ming loyalists, pretenders and rebels. The last Ming pretender, Prince Gui , sought refuge with Pindale Min ,

8888-870: The Beiyang Army , and the purchase of armament factories from the Europeans. The dynasty gradually lost control of its peripheral territories. 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 1870 Tianjin Massacre , which

9090-631: The British Royal Navy . British soldiers, using advanced muskets and artillery, easily outmaneuvered and outgunned Qing forces in ground battles. The Qing surrender in 1842 marked a decisive, humiliating blow. The Treaty of Nanjing , the first of the " unequal treaties ", demanded war reparations, forced China to open up the Treaty Ports of Canton , Amoy , Fuzhou , Ningbo and Shanghai to Western trade and missionaries, and to cede Hong Kong Island to Britain. It revealed weaknesses in

9292-697: 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

9494-687: The Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) in western China led to the deaths of over 20 million people, from famine, disease, and war. The Tongzhi Restoration in the 1860s brought vigorous reforms and the introduction of foreign military technology in the Self-Strengthening Movement . Defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895 led to loss of suzerainty over Korea and cession of Taiwan to the Empire of Japan . The ambitious Hundred Days' Reform in 1898 proposed fundamental change, but

9696-594: The Dzungars in Outer Mongolia . The Kangxi Emperor expelled Galdan 's invading forces from these regions, which were then incorporated into the empire. 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. Winning Taiwan freed Kangxi's forces for a series of battles over Albazin ,

9898-698: The East India Company stationed in China and another by Clopton Havers . Lady Mary Wortley Montagu observed smallpox inoculation during her stay in the Ottoman Empire , writing detailed accounts of the practice in her letters, and enthusiastically promoted the procedure in England upon her return in 1718. According to Voltaire (1742), the Turks derived their use of inoculation from neighbouring Circassia . Voltaire does not speculate on where

10100-621: The Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796–1820). The latter chose his successor Minning (1782–1850), the Daoguang Emperor , in 1799, but only read his testament shortly before dying. When the Tongzhi Emperor died heirless in 1875, his mother Empress Dowager Cixi was the one who selected the next emperor. But instead of making the deceased emperor adopt an heir from the generation below himself (in this case this would have been

10302-475: The Republic of China . The multi-ethnic Qing dynasty assembled the territorial base for modern China . It was the largest imperial dynasty in the history of China and in 1790 the fourth-largest empire in world history in terms of territorial size. With over 426 million citizens in 1907 , it was the most populous country in the world at the time. Nurhaci , leader of the House of Aisin-Gioro and vassal of

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10504-677: The Revolt of the Three Feudatories , which lasted for eight years. 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

10706-584: The Sacred Edict of 1670 effectively extolled Confucian family values. His attempts to discourage Chinese women from foot binding , however, were unsuccessful. The second major source of stability was the Inner Asian aspect of their Manchu identity, which allowed them to appeal to the Mongol, Tibetan and Muslim subjects. The Qianlong Emperor propagated an image of himself as a Buddhist sage ruler ,

10908-406: The Shunzhi Emperor , with Dorgon as regent and de facto leader of the Manchu nation. Meanwhile, Ming government officials fought against fiscal collapse, against each other, and against a series of peasant rebellions . They were unable to capitalise on the Manchu succession dispute and the resulting boy emperor. In April 1644, Beijing was sacked by a contentious rebel coalition led by Li Zicheng ,

11110-456: The Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861–1875), the 11th Qing ruler, died childless in 1875. The last two emperors were chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi from other branches of the imperial clan. Unlike the Ming emperors, who named their eldest legitimate son heir apparent whenever possible and forbade other sons from participating in politics, the Qing monarchs did not choose their successors according to primogeniture . When in 1622 Nurhaci (1559–1626)

11312-497: The Tsardom of Russia . However, during the 18th century, European empires gradually expanded across the world and developed economies predicated on maritime trade, colonial extraction, and technological advances. 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 what is now India and Indonesia. The Qing response

11514-529: 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,

11716-672: 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. 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

11918-422: The common cold : fever of at least 38.3 °C (101 °F), muscle pain , malaise , headache and fatigue. As the digestive tract was commonly involved, nausea, vomiting, and backache often occurred. The early prodromal stage usually lasted 2–4 days. By days 12–15, the first visible lesions – small reddish spots called enanthem – appeared on mucous membranes of the mouth, tongue, palate , and throat, and

12120-470: The horsepox virus using publicly available sequence data for horsepox. The researchers argued that their work would be beneficial to creating a safer and more effective vaccine for smallpox, although an effective vaccine is already available. The horsepox virus had previously seemed to have gone extinct, raising concern about potential revival of variola major and causing other scientists to question their motives. Critics found it especially concerning that

12322-637: 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 in Jiangnan . In

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12524-468: The replication of viral DNA. The first set of expressed genes are transcribed by pre-existing viral machinery packaged within the infecting virion. These genes encode the factors necessary for viral DNA synthesis and for transcription of the next set of expressed genes. Unlike most DNA viruses, DNA replication in variola virus and other poxviruses takes place within the cytoplasm of the infected cell. The exact timing of DNA replication after infection of

12726-465: The 1500s. Europe adopted this practice from Asia in the first half of the 18th century. In 1796, Edward Jenner introduced the modern smallpox vaccine. In 1967, the WHO intensified efforts to eliminate the disease. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest (a disease of even-toed ungulates ) in 2011. The term "smallpox" was first used in England in

12928-409: The 16th century to distinguish the disease from syphilis , which was then known as the "great pox". Other historical names for the disease include pox, speckled monster, and red plague. The United States and Russia retain samples of variola virus in laboratories, which has sparked debates over safety . There are two forms of the smallpox. Variola major is the severe and most common form, with

13130-530: The 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta to solidify the diplomatic understanding with Russia. In exchange for territory and trading rights, the Qing would have a free hand in 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

13332-624: The 18th and 19th centuries. Variola virus is large and brick-shaped and is approximately 302 to 350 nanometers by 244 to 270 nm, with a single linear double stranded DNA genome 186 kilobase pairs (kbp) in size and containing a hairpin loop at each end. Four orthopoxviruses cause infection in humans: variola, vaccinia , cowpox , and monkeypox . Variola virus infects only humans in nature, although primates and other animals have been infected in an experimental setting. Vaccinia, cowpox, and monkeypox viruses can infect both humans and other animals in nature. The life cycle of poxviruses

13534-425: The British government, sent a diplomatic mission to China led by Lord Macartney in order to open 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

13736-491: The Circassians derived their technique from, though he reports that the Chinese have practiced it "these hundred years". In 1721, Cotton Mather and colleagues provoked controversy in Boston by inoculating hundreds. After publishing The present method of inoculating for the small-pox in 1767, Dr Thomas Dimsdale was invited to Russia to variolate the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia and her son, Grand Duke Paul , which he successfully did in 1768. In 1796, Edward Jenner ,

13938-413: The Eight Banners, giving them social and legal privileges. 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

14140-432: 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 and the Chinese recognition of the French protectorate in Vietnam. Some Russian and Chinese gold miners also established

14342-570: The Guangxu Emperor died heirless too, Empress Dowager Cixi also chose his successor, Puyi , in 1908. Qing succession and inheritance policies made it difficult for empresses and their relatives to build power at court, as they had in the Han dynasty for example. Threats to imperial power usually came from within the imperial clan. When the young Fulin was chosen to succeed his father Hong Taiji in September 1643, two "prince regents" were selected for him: Hong Taiji's half-brother Dorgon (1612–1650) and Nurhaci's nephew Jirgalang (1599–1655). Soon after

14544-410: 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. Nurhaci died in 1626, and was succeeded by his eighth son, Hong Taiji . Although Hong Taiji was an experienced leader and

14746-504: The Jurchen polity as citizens obligated to provide military service. By 1648, less than one-sixth of the bannermen were of Manchu ancestry. Hong Taiji died suddenly in September 1643. As Jurchen leaders were chosen by a council of nobles, there was no clear successor. 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

14948-634: The Kangxi Emperor's personal name Xuanye (玄燁), for example, forced printers of Buddhist and Daoist books to replace this very common character with yuan 元 in all their books. Even the Daodejing , a Daoist classic, and the Thousand Character Classic , a widely used primer , had to be reprinted with yuan instead of xuan . When the Yongzheng Emperor, whose generation was the first in which all imperial sons shared

15150-501: The Manchu-ruled empire into a modernised Han Chinese state. The Guangxu Emperor died on 14 November 1908, and Cixi died the following day. 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. Zaifeng forced Yuan Shikai to resign. The Qing dynasty became a constitutional monarchy on 8 May 1911, when Zaifeng created

15352-509: The Manchus had entered "South of the Wall" because Dorgon had responded decisively to Wu Sangui's appeal, then, instead of sacking Beijing 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. No major Chinese dynasty had directly taken over its immediate predecessor's capital, but keeping the Ming capital and bureaucracy intact helped quickly stabilize

15554-524: The Manchus had seized Beijing under Dorgon's leadership in May 1644, Dorgon came to control all important government matters. Official documents referred to him as "Imperial Uncle Prince Regent" ( Huang shufu shezheng wang 皇叔父攝政王), a title that left him one step short of claiming the throne for himself. A few days after his death, he received a temple name (Chengzong 成宗) and an honorific posthumous title (Yi Huangdi 義皇帝, "Righteous Emperor"), and his spirit tablet

15756-531: The Ming dynasty, unified Jurchen clans (known later as Manchus) and founded the Later Jin dynasty in 1616, renouncing the Ming overlordship. His son Hong Taiji was declared Emperor of the Great Qing in 1636. As Ming control disintegrated, peasant rebels captured the Ming capital Beijing, but the Ming general Wu Sangui opened the Shanhai Pass to the Qing army, which defeated the rebels , seized

15958-584: 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 Mukden (Shenyang) 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

16160-516: The Mongol subjects, and as " Chinese khagan " by their Turkic Muslim subjects when Qing rule extended to Xinjiang in the 18th century. Like their Ming (1368–1644) predecessors—but unlike the emperors of earlier dynasties like the Han , Tang , and Song —Qing emperors used only one era name ("Shunzhi", "Qianlong", "Guangxu", etc.) for their entire reign, and are most commonly known by that name. Starting with Nurhaci, there were twelve Qing rulers. Following

16362-564: The Qing Empire was governed by adult emperors. In the last fifty years of the dynasty—from the death of the Xianfeng Emperor in 1861 to the final abdication of the child emperor Puyi in 1912—the imperial position again became vulnerable to the power of regents, empress dowagers , imperial uncles, and eunuchs. Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) came to power through a coup that ousted eight regents who had been named by her husband,

16564-412: The Qing government and provoked rebellions against the regime. The Taiping Rebellion (1849–1864) was the first major anti-Manchu movement . Amid widespread social unrest and worsening famine, the rebellion not only posed the most serious threat to Qing rule, but during its 14-year course, between 20 and 30 million people died. The rebellion began under the leadership of Hong Xiuquan (1814–1864),

16766-693: The Qing leveraged and adapted the tributary system employed by previous dynasties, enabling their continued predominance in affairs with countries on its periphery like Joseon Korea and the Lê dynasty in Vietnam, while extending its control over Inner Asia including Tibet , Mongolia , and Xinjiang . The High Qing era reached its apex during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–1796), who led Ten Great Campaigns of conquest, and personally supervised Confucian cultural projects . After his death,

16968-790: The Qing, most notably in the Miao Rebellion (1854–1873) in Guizhou , the Panthay Rebellion (1856–1873) in Yunnan , and the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) 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

17170-833: The United States at the CDC in Atlanta, and one at the Vector Institute in Koltsovo, Russia. Research with the remaining virus samples is tightly controlled, and each research proposal must be approved by the WHO and the World Health Assembly (WHA). Most research on poxviruses is performed using the closely related Vaccinia virus as a model organism. Vaccinia virus, which is used to vaccinate for smallpox,

17372-516: The United States, Great Britain, and South Africa in the early 20th century, becoming the dominant form of the disease in those areas and thus rapidly decreasing mortality rates. Along with variola major, the minor form has now been totally eradicated from the globe. The last case of indigenous variola minor was reported in a Somali cook, Ali Maow Maalin, in October 1977, and smallpox was officially declared eradicated worldwide in May 1980. Variola minor

17574-531: The WHO eradication campaign. A genome browser for a complete database of annotated sequences of variola virus and other poxviruses is publicly available through the Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center . The WHO currently bans genetic engineering of the variola virus. However, in 2004, a committee advisory to the WHO voted in favor of allowing editing of the genome of the two remaining samples of variola major virus to add

17776-462: The Xianfeng Emperor. She controlled the government during the reigns of the Tongzhi (r. 1861–1875) and Guangxu (r. 1875–1908) emperors. From 1861 onwards, she was officially co-regent with Empress Dowager Ci'an , but her political role increased so much that within a few years she was taking charge of most government matters. She became sole regent in 1881 after the death of Empress Dowager Ci'an. With

17978-669: The Xinhai Revolution. The abdication of the Xuantong Emperor on 12 February 1912 brought the dynasty to an end. Hong Taiji proclaimed the Great Qing dynasty in 1636. There are competing explanations as to the meaning of the Chinese character Qīng ( 清 ; 'clear', 'pure') in this context. One theory posits a purposeful contrast with the Ming: the character Míng ( 明 ; 'bright')

18180-460: The abolition of the imperial examination system. Sun Yat-sen and revolutionaries debated reform officials and constitutional monarchists such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao over how to transform the Manchu-ruled empire into a modernised Han state. After the deaths of the Guangxu Emperor and Cixi in 1908, Manchu conservatives at court blocked reforms and alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911 led to

18382-507: The absence of Guarnieri bodies could not be used to rule out smallpox. The diagnosis of an orthopoxvirus infection can also be made rapidly by electron microscopic examination of pustular fluid or scabs. All orthopoxviruses exhibit identical brick-shaped virions by electron microscopy. If particles with the characteristic morphology of herpesviruses are seen this will eliminate smallpox and other orthopoxvirus infections. Definitive laboratory identification of variola virus involved growing

18584-531: The assistance of eunuchs and Manchu princes, she remained regent until March 1889, when she finally let the Guangxu Emperor rule personally (he was then 17 years old). After she intervened to end the Hundred Days' Reform in September 1898, she had the emperor put under house arrest and held the reins of the Qing government until her death in 1908. An emperor's era name or reign name was chosen at

18786-547: The beginning of his reign to reflect the political concerns of the court at the time. A new era name became effective on the first day of the Chinese New Year after that emperor's accession, which fell between 21 January and 20 February (inclusively) of the Gregorian calendar. Even if an emperor died in the middle of the year, his era name was used for the rest of that year before the next era officially began. Like

18988-448: The bloodstream in large numbers, a condition known as viremia . This resulted in the second wave of multiplication in the spleen , bone marrow , and lymph nodes. The clinical definition of ordinary smallpox is an illness with acute onset of fever equal to or greater than 38.3 °C (101 °F) followed by a rash characterized by firm, deep-seated vesicles or pustules in the same stage of development without other apparent cause. When

19190-529: The capital Beijing, many princes became involved in politics, and the Kangxi succession became particularly contested. After the Kangxi Emperor's death in 1722, his fourth son Yinzhen (1678–1735) emerged as victor and reigned as the Yongzheng Emperor , but his legitimacy was questioned for years after his accession. To avoid such struggles in the future, the Yongzheng Emperor designed a system by which

19392-450: The capital of Tibet, and installed a Dalai Lama sympathetic to the Qing. The reigns of the Yongzheng Emperor ( r.  1723–1735 ) and his son, the Qianlong Emperor ( r.  1735–1796 ), marked the height of Qing power. However, the historian Jonathan Spence notes that the empire at the end of Qianlong's reign was "like the sun at midday". Despite "many glories", "signs of decay and even collapse were becoming apparent". After

19594-560: The capital, and took over the government in 1644 under the Shunzhi Emperor and his prince regent . Resistance from Ming rump regimes and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories delayed the complete conquest until 1683. As a Manchu emperor, the Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722) consolidated control, relished the role of a Confucian ruler, patronised Buddhism (including Tibetan Buddhism ), encouraged scholarship, population and economic growth. Han officials worked under or in parallel with Manchu officials. To maintain prominence over its neighbors,

19796-545: The capture of Beijing and re-enthronement as Emperor of China in 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor (r. 1643/4–1661) became the first of the ten Qing sovereigns to rule over China proper. At 61 years, the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722) was the longest, though his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), would have reigned even longer if he had not purposely ceded the throne to the Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796–1820) in order not to reign longer than his grandfather. Qing emperors succeeded each other from father to son until

19998-477: The central region of the genome is highly consistent across orthopoxviruses , and the arrangement of genes is consistent across chordopoxviruses. The center of the variola virus genome contains the majority of the essential viral genes, including the genes for structural proteins , DNA replication , transcription , and mRNA synthesis. The ends of the genome vary more across strains and species of orthopoxviruses . These regions contain proteins that modulate

20200-482: 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 the participation of Empress Dowager Cixi in state affairs. Cixi initially entered the imperial palace in the 1850s as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor, and became

20402-503: The closely related Vaccinia virus . The public availability of the variola virus complete sequence has raised concerns about the possibility of illicit synthesis of infectious virus. Vaccinia , a cousin of the variola virus, was artificially synthesized in 2002 by NIH scientists. They used a previously established method that involved using a recombinant viral genome to create a self-replicating bacterial plasmid that produced viral particles. In 2016, another group synthesized

20604-413: The commander of two Banners, the Jurchens suffered defeat in 1627, in part due to the Ming's newly acquired Portuguese cannons . To redress the technological and numerical disparity, Hong Taiji in 1634 created his own artillery corps, 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

20806-474: The compilation of the Siku Quanshu , the largest collection of books in Chinese history. Nevertheless, Qianlong used the literary inquisition to silence opposition. 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

21008-536: The conquest. Han bannermen made up the majority of governors during the early Qing, stabilizing their rule. 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

21210-435: The country 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 until 1804, when badly run, corrupt, and brutal campaigns finally ended it. During the early Qing, China continued to be

21412-621: The course of the illness, but this happened most frequently during the first week of the rash when most of the skin lesions were intact. Infectivity waned in 7 to 10 days when scabs formed over the lesions, but the infected person was contagious until the last smallpox scab fell off. Concern about possible use of smallpox for biological warfare led in 2002 to Donald K. Milton's detailed review of existing research on its transmission and of then-current recommendations for controlling its spread. He agreed, citing Rao, Fenner and others, that “careful epidemiologic investigation rarely implicated fomites as

21614-482: 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

21816-420: The death of the Kangxi Emperor in the winter of 1722, his fourth son, Prince Yong ( 雍親王 ), became the Yongzheng Emperor. He felt a sense of urgency about the problems that had accumulated in his father's later years. 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

22018-400: The death of the previous monarch. With two exceptions (Jiaqing and Guangxu), they reigned under their predecessor's era name until the following New Year . The date that appears under "Dates of reign" indicates the first day of the lunisolar year following the death of the previous emperor, which is when the new emperor's era name came into use. The number of years indicated in the same column

22220-403: The diagnosis of infection. Chickenpox was commonly confused with smallpox in the immediate post-eradication era. Chickenpox and smallpox could be distinguished by several methods. Unlike smallpox, chickenpox does not usually affect the palms and soles. Additionally, chickenpox pustules are of varying size due to variations in the timing of pustule eruption: smallpox pustules are all very nearly

22422-595: The disease dates to around 1500 BC in Egyptian mummies . The disease historically occurred in outbreaks . It was one of several diseases introduced by the Columbian exchange to the New World , resulting in large swathes of Native Americans dying . In 18th-century Europe, it is estimated that 400,000 people died from the disease per year, and that one-third of all cases of blindness were due to smallpox. Smallpox

22624-479: The disease included fever and vomiting. This was followed by formation of ulcers in the mouth and a skin rash . Over a number of days, the skin rash turned into the characteristic fluid-filled blisters with a dent in the center. The bumps then scabbed over and fell off, leaving scars. The disease was transmitted from one person to another primarily through prolonged face-to-face contact with an infected person or rarely via contaminated objects . Prevention

22826-600: The dynasty back on its feet financially and instituted the Self-Strengthening Movement , which adopted Western military technology in order to preserve Confucian values.Their institutional reforms included China's first unified ministry of foreign affairs in the Zongli Yamen , allowing foreign diplomats to reside in the capital, the establishment of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service , the institution of modern navy and army forces including

23028-635: The dynasty faced internal revolts, economic disruption, official corruption, foreign intrusion, and the reluctance of Confucian elites to change their mindset. With peace and prosperity, the population rose to 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, soon leading to a fiscal crisis. Following China's defeat in the Opium Wars , Western colonial powers forced the Qing government to sign unequal treaties , granting them trading privileges, extraterritoriality and treaty ports under their control. The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) and

23230-419: The dynasty the policies allowing intermarriage were done away with. The first seven years of the young Shunzhi Emperor's reign were dominated by Dorgon's regency. 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. Dorgon's precedents and example cast a long shadow. First,

23432-501: The early 17th century. Nurhaci may have spent time in a Han household in his youth, and became fluent in Chinese and Mongolian languages and read the Chinese novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin . As a vassal of the Ming emperors, he officially considered himself a guardian of the Ming border and a local representative of the Ming dynasty. Nurhaci embarked on an intertribal feud in 1582 that escalated into

23634-583: The emperor and his court fled the capital for the imperial hunting lodge at Rehe . Once in Beijing, the Anglo-French forces looted and burned the Old Summer Palace and, in an act of revenge for the arrest, torture, and execution of the English diplomatic mission. 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

23836-585: The emperor's control of the military and military finance. When the Yongzheng Emperor died in 1735, his son Prince Bao ( 寶親王 ) became the Qianlong Emperor. Qianlong personally led the Ten Great Campaigns to expand military control into present-day Xinjiang and Mongolia , putting down revolts and uprisings in Sichuan and southern China while expanding control over Tibet. The Qianlong Emperor launched several ambitious cultural projects, including

24038-516: 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 the extent of the financial crisis, Yongzheng rejected his father's lenient approach to local elites and enforced 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

24240-561: The emperors of the Ming dynasty, Qing monarchs used only one reign name and are usually known by that name, as when we speak of the " Qianlong Emperor " (r. 1735–1795) or the " Guangxu Emperor " (r. 1875–1908). Strictly speaking, referring to the Qianlong Emperor simply as "Qianlong" is wrong, because "Qianlong" was not that emperor's own name but that of his reign era. For convenience sake, however, many historians still choose to call him Qianlong (though not "Emperor Qianlong"). The only Qing emperors who are not commonly known by their reign name are

24442-543: The emperors were given a temple name and an honorific name under which they would be worshiped at the Imperial Ancestral Temple . On the spirit tablets that were displayed there, the temple name was followed by the honorific name, as in "Shizu Zhang huangdi" for the Shunzhi Emperor and "Taizong Wen huangdi" for Hong Taiji. As dynastic founder, Nurhaci ("Taizu") became the focal ancestor in

24644-475: The ensuing unrest, some 100,000 Han were slaughtered. On 31 December 1650, Dorgon died suddenly, marking the 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

24846-465: The far eastern outpost of the Tsardom of Russia . 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. Galdan was ultimately killed in the Dzungar–Qing War ; after his death, his Tibetan Buddhist followers attempted to control the choice of the next Dalai Lama . Kangxi dispatched two armies to Lhasa ,

25048-445: The first order". First, he promoted Confucian orthodoxy and cracked down on unorthodox sects. In 1723, he outlawed Christianity and expelled most Christian missionaries. 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

25250-423: The first time in Qing history followed the Chinese habit of primogeniture and appointed his eldest son Yinreng (1674–1725) as heir apparent. The heir apparent was removed twice because of his extravagance and abhorrent behavior, which included an attempt to assassinate the emperor. After Yinreng was demoted for good in 1712, the emperor refused to name an heir. Because Qing policy forced imperial princes to reside in

25452-565: The first two: Nurhaci (r. 1616–1626), who is known by his personal name, and his son and successor Hong Taiji (r. 1626–1643), whose name was a title meaning "prince Hong". Hong Taiji was the only Qing emperor to use two era names (see table). Reign names are usually left untranslated, but some scholars occasionally gloss them when they think these names have a special significance. Historian Pamela Crossley explains that Hong Taiji's first era name Tiancong 天聰 ( abkai sure in Manchu) referred to

25654-475: The following year at Rehe. Following the death of the Xianfeng Emperor in 1861, and the accession of the 5-year-old Tongzhi Emperor , the Qing rallied. In the Tongzhi Restoration , Han Chinese officials such as Zuo Zongtang stood behind the Manchus and organized provincial troops. Zeng Guofan , in alliance with Prince Gong, sponsored the rise of younger officials such as Li Hongzhang , who put

25856-623: The foreign community, called for reform proposals, and initiated the Late Qing reforms . Over the next few years the reforms included the restructuring of the national education, judicial, and fiscal systems, the most dramatic of which was the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905. The court directed a constitution to be drafted , and provincial elections were held, the first in China's history. Sun Yat-sen and revolutionaries debated reform officials and constitutional monarchists such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao over how to transform

26058-510: The format "Reign-name Xth year, Yth month, Zth day" (sometimes abridged as X/Y/Z by modern scholars). A Qing emperor's era name was also used on the coins that were cast during his reign. Unlike in the Ming dynasty, the characters used in Qing reign names were taboo , that is, the characters contained in it could no longer be used in writing throughout the empire. As in previous dynasties, the emperor's personal name became taboo after his accession. The use of xuan 玄 ("mysterious", "profound") in

26260-408: The genome of vaccinia , a related virus used for vaccination against smallpox. Gene expression of variola virus occurs entirely within the cytoplasm of the host cell , and follows a distinct progression during infection. After entry of an infectious virion into a host cell, synthesis of viral mRNA can be detected within 20 minutes. About half of the viral genome is transcribed prior to

26462-916: The goals of reform were implanted. Drought in North China, combined with the imperialist designs of European powers and the instability of the Qing government, created background conditions for 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

26664-429: The group was able to recreate viable virus in a short time frame with relatively little cost or effort. Although the WHO bans individual laboratories from synthesizing more than 20% of the genome at a time, and purchases of smallpox genome fragments are monitored and regulated, a group with malicious intentions could compile, from multiple sources, the full synthetic genome necessary to produce viable virus. Smallpox

26866-591: The hegemonic imperial power in East Asia. Although there was no formal ministry of foreign relations, the Lifan Yuan was responsible for relations with the Mongols and Tibetans in Inner 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 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk stabilized relations with

27068-498: The hosts' immune systems, and are primarily responsible for the variability in virulence across the orthopoxvirus family. These terminal regions in poxviruses are inverted terminal repetitions (ITR) sequences. These sequences are identical but oppositely oriented on either end of the genome, leading to the genome being a continuous loop of DNA. Components of the ITR sequences include an incompletely base paired A/T rich hairpin loop ,

27270-442: The king of Burma , but was turned over to a Qing expeditionary army commanded by Wu Sangui, who had him brought back to Yunnan 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

27472-589: The land does not." The introduction of new crops from the Americas such as the potato and peanut improved nutrition as well, so that the population during the 18th century ballooned from 100 million to 300 million people. Soon farmers were forced to work ever-smaller holdings more intensely. In 1796, the White Lotus Society raised open rebellion, saying "the officials have forced the people to rebel". Others blamed officials in various parts of

27674-519: The lands of the Qing state (including, among other areas, present-day Northeast China, Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Tibet) as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multi-ethnic state, and rejecting the idea that only Han areas were properly part of "China". The government used "China" and "Qing" interchangeably to refer to their state in official documents, including the Chinese-language versions of treaties and maps of

27876-410: The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history . The dynasty, proclaimed in Shenyang in 1636, seized control of Beijing in 1644, which is considered the start of the dynasty's rule. The dynasty lasted until the Xinhai Revolution of October 1911 led to the abdication of the last emperor, February 12, 1912. In Chinese historiography , the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by

28078-436: The lesions remained almost flush with the skin at the time when raised vesicles would have formed in the ordinary type. It is unknown why some people developed this type. Historically, it accounted for 5–10% of cases, and most (72%) were children. Malignant smallpox was accompanied by a severe prodromal phase that lasted 3–4 days, prolonged high fever, and severe symptoms of viremia . The prodromal symptoms continued even after

28280-548: The living emperor would choose his successor in advance and on merit, but would keep his choice secret until his deathbed. The name of the future emperor was sealed in a casket that was hidden behind a panel in the rafters of the Qianqing Palace inside the Forbidden City . As successor, the Yongzheng Emperor chose his fourth son Hongli (1711–1799), the Qianlong Emperor , who himself selected his 15th son Yongyan,

28482-406: The lower respiratory tract] are maintained”. Once inhaled, the variola virus invaded the mucous membranes of the mouth, throat, and respiratory tract. From there, it migrated to regional lymph nodes and began to multiply. In the initial growth phase, the virus seemed to move from cell to cell, but by around the 12th day, widespread lysis of infected cells occurred and the virus could be found in

28684-499: The main hall of the temple. The earlier paternal ancestors of the Qing imperial line were worshiped in a back hall. Historical records like the Veritable Records ( traditional Chinese : 實錄 ; simplified Chinese : 实录 ; pinyin : Shílù ), which were compiled at the end of each reign, retrospectively referred to emperors by their temple names. Hong Taiji created the Qing ancestral cult in 1636 when he assumed

28886-408: The malignant and hemorrhagic forms were usually fatal. The modified form was almost never fatal. In early hemorrhagic cases, hemorrhages occurred before any skin lesions developed. The incubation period between contraction and the first obvious symptoms of the disease was 7–14 days. At least 90% of smallpox cases among unvaccinated persons were of the ordinary type. In this form of the disease, by

29088-436: 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. Population in the first half of the 17th century did not recover from civil wars and epidemics, but the following years of prosperity and stability led to steady growth. The Qianlong Emperor bemoaned the situation by remarking, "The population continues to grow, but

29290-497: The most junior of the four, gradually achieved such dominance as to be a potential threat. In 1669, Kangxi disarmed and imprisoned Oboi through trickery – a significant victory for a fifteen-year-old emperor. The young emperor faced challenges in maintaining control of his kingdom, as well. Three Ming generals singled out for their contributions to the establishment of the dynasty had been granted governorships in southern China. They became increasingly autonomous, leading to

29492-471: The mother of the future Tongzhi Emperor. Following the his accession at the age of five, Cixi, Xianfeng's widow Empress Dowager Ci'an , and Prince Gong (a son of the Daoguang Emperor), staged a coup that ousted several of the Tongzhi Emperor's regents. Between 1861 and 1873, Cixi and Ci'an served as regents together; following the emperor's death in 1875, Cixi's nephew, the Guangxu Emperor , took

29694-792: The murders as a pretext for a naval occupation of Jiaozhou Bay . The occupation prompted a Scramble for China in 1898, which included the German lease of Jiaozhou Bay , the Russian lease of Liaodong , the British lease of the New Territories of Hong Kong , and the French lease of Guangzhouwan . In the wake of these external defeats, the Guangxu Emperor initiated the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898. Newer, more radical advisers such as Kang Youwei were given positions of influence. The emperor issued

29896-523: 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. In April 1636, Mongol nobility of Inner Mongolia, Manchu nobility and the Han mandarin recommended that Hong as the khan of Later Jin should be the emperor of the Great Qing. When he was presented with the imperial seal of

30098-443: The north, in the south and lower Yangtze valley 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

30300-404: The onset of the rash. The rash on the mucous membranes ( enanthem ) was extensive. Skin lesions matured slowly, were typically confluent or semi-confluent, and by the seventh or eighth day, they were flat and appeared to be buried in the skin. Unlike ordinary-type smallpox, the vesicles contained little fluid, were soft and velvety to the touch, and may have contained hemorrhages. Malignant smallpox

30502-429: The oral, nasal, or pharyngeal mucosa of an infected person. It was transmitted from one person to another primarily through prolonged face-to-face contact with an infected person. Some infections of laundry workers with smallpox after handling contaminated bedding suggested that smallpox could be spread through direct contact with contaminated objects ( fomites ), but this was found to be rare. Also rarely, smallpox

30704-400: The other; one was a Han Chinese peasant army twice his size, but he chose the other. Wu may have resented Li Zicheng's attack on officials and the social order; Li had taken Wu's father hostage and it was said that Li took Wu's concubine for himself. On the other hand, the Manchus had adopted a Chinese-style form of government and promised stability. Wu and Dorgon allied to defeat Li Zicheng in

30906-523: The outer layers of skin from the underlying flesh. Patients with confluent smallpox often remained ill even after scabs had formed over all the lesions. In one case series, the case-fatality rate in confluent smallpox was 62%. Referring to the character of the eruption and the rapidity of its development, modified smallpox occurred mostly in previously vaccinated people. It was rare in unvaccinated people, with one case study showing 1–2% of modified cases compared to around 25% in vaccinated people. In this form,

31108-557: 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—i.e. Manchuria and the adjacent parts of Inner Asia , as ruled by the Qing before the Ming–Qing transition . After conquering China proper , the Manchus identified their state as "China", equivalently as Zhōngguó ( 中國 ; 'middle kingdom') in Chinese and Dulimbai Gurun in Manchu. The emperors equated

31310-588: The person was infected with variola virus, a severe infection could result, and the person could transmit smallpox to others. Variolation had a 0.5–2 percent mortality rate, considerably less than the 20–30 percent mortality rate of smallpox. Two reports on the Chinese practice of inoculation were received by the Royal Society in London in 1700; one by Dr. Martin Lister who received a report by an employee of

31512-447: The practice arrived in Europe. The idea that inoculation originated in India has been challenged, as few of the ancient Sanskrit medical texts described the process of inoculation. Accounts of inoculation against smallpox in China can be found as early as the late 10th century, and the procedure was widely practiced by the 16th century, during the Ming dynasty . If successful, inoculation produced lasting immunity to smallpox. Because

31714-491: The prodromal illness still occurred but may have been less severe than in the ordinary type. There was usually no fever during the evolution of the rash. The skin lesions tended to be fewer and evolved more quickly, were more superficial, and may not have shown the uniform characteristic of more typical smallpox. Modified smallpox was rarely, if ever, fatal. This form of variola major was more easily confused with chickenpox . In malignant-type smallpox (also called flat smallpox)

31916-433: The purge of his family and associates at court. Shunzhi's promising start 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

32118-549: 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,

32320-422: The regime and sped up the conquest of the rest of the country. Dorgon then drastically reduced the influence of the eunuchs 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 Queue Order forced adult Han Chinese men to shave the front of their heads and comb the remaining hair into

32522-454: The same size since the viral effect progresses more uniformly. A variety of laboratory methods were available for detecting chickenpox in the evaluation of suspected smallpox cases. The earliest procedure used to prevent smallpox was inoculation with variola minor virus (a method later known as variolation after the introduction of smallpox vaccine to avoid possible confusion), which likely occurred in India, Africa, and China well before

32724-479: The second day of the rash the macules had become raised papules . By the third or fourth day, the papules had filled with an opalescent fluid to become vesicles . This fluid became opaque and turbid within 24–48 hours, resulting in pustules . By the sixth or seventh day, all the skin lesions had become pustules. Between seven and ten days the pustules had matured and reached their maximum size. The pustules were sharply raised, typically round, tense, and firm to

32926-572: The second emperor of a dynasty, and so Hong Taiji was canonized as Qing Taizong. The last emperor of a dynasty usually did not receive a temple name because his descendants were no longer in power when he died, and thus could not perpetuate the ancestral cult. Puyi , the last Qing monarch, reigned as the Xuantong Emperor from 1908 to 1912, but did not receive a temple name. After death emperors were given an honorific posthumous title that reflected their ruling style. Nurhaci's posthumous name

33128-491: The separation of variola virus from Taterapox (an Orthopoxvirus of some African rodents including gerbils ) at 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. This is consistent with archaeological and historical evidence regarding the appearance of smallpox as a human disease which suggests a relatively recent origin. If the mutation rate is assumed to be similar to that of the herpesviruses , the divergence date of variola virus from Taterapox has been estimated to be 50,000 years ago. While this

33330-421: The six-year-old Xuanye, who was to reign as the Kangxi Emperor . All four were Manchu dignitaries who had supported the Shunzhi Emperor after the death of Dorgon, but their Manchu nativist measures reversed many of the Shunzhi Emperor's own policies. The " Oboi regency", named after the most powerful of the four regents, lasted until 1669, when the Kangxi Emperor started his personal rule. For almost 200 years,

33532-520: The spleen, kidney, serous membranes , skeletal muscles, pericardium , liver, gonads and bladder. Historically, this condition was frequently misdiagnosed, with the correct diagnosis made only at autopsy. This form is more likely to occur in pregnant women than in the general population (approximately 16% of cases in unvaccinated pregnant women were early hemorrhagic smallpox, versus roughly 1% in nonpregnant women and adult males). The case fatality rate of early hemorrhagic smallpox approaches 100%. There

33734-488: 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 the Kangxi Dictionary demonstrated respect for Confucian learning, while

33936-425: The temperature fell to near-normal. These lesions rapidly enlarged and ruptured, releasing large amounts of virus into the saliva. Variola virus tended to attack skin cells, causing the characteristic pimples, or macules , associated with the disease. A rash developed on the skin 24 to 48 hours after lesions on the mucous membranes appeared. Typically the macules first appeared on the forehead, then rapidly spread to

34138-613: The throne in violation of the custom that the new emperor be of the next generation, and another regency began. Ci'an suddenly died in the spring of 1881, leaving Cixi as sole regent. From 1889, when Guangxu began to rule in his own right, until 1898, the Empress Dowager lived in semi-retirement, spending the majority of the year at the Summer Palace . In 1897, two German Roman Catholic missionaries were murdered in southern Shandong province (the Juye Incident ). Germany used

34340-413: The title of "emperor" to these ancestors and gave them the honorific posthumous names and temple names by which they were known for the rest of the dynasty. Nurhaci was identified retrospectively as Taizu ("grand progenitor"), the usual name given to a dynasty's first emperor. This is why Nurhaci is considered as the first Qing ruler even if he was never emperor in his lifetime. Taizong was the usual name for

34542-460: The title of emperor. Taking the Chinese imperial cult as a model, he named his main paternal ancestors "kings" and built an Imperial Ancestral Temple in his capital Mukden to offer sacrifices to them. When the Qing took control of Beijing in 1644, Prince Regent Dorgon had the Aisin Gioro ancestral tablets installed in what had been the Ming ancestral temple. In 1648 the Qing government bestowed

34744-411: The touch. The pustules were deeply embedded in the dermis, giving them the feel of a small bead in the skin. Fluid slowly leaked from the pustules, and by the end of the second week, the pustules had deflated and began to dry up, forming crusts or scabs. By day 16–20 scabs had formed over all of the lesions, which had started to flake off, leaving depigmented scars. Ordinary smallpox generally produced

34946-406: The vanguard, while Manchu bannermen were used predominantly for quick strikes with maximum impact, so as to minimize ethnic Manchu losses. This multi-ethnic force conquered Ming China for the Qing. The three Liaodong 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

35148-475: The vesicular stage. Hemorrhages in the mucous membranes appear to occur less often than in the early hemorrhagic form. Sometimes the rash forms pustules which bleed at the base and then undergo the same process as in ordinary smallpox. This form of the disease is characterized by a decrease in all of the elements of the coagulation cascade and an increase in circulating antithrombin . This form of smallpox occurs anywhere from 3% to 25% of fatal cases, depending on

35350-439: The virulence of the smallpox strain. Most people with the late-stage form die within eight to 10 days of illness. Among the few who recover, the hemorrhagic lesions gradually disappear after a long period of convalescence. The case fatality rate for late hemorrhagic smallpox is around 90–95%. Pregnant women are slightly more likely to experience this form of the disease, though not as much as early hemorrhagic smallpox. Smallpox

35552-442: The virus on chorioallantoic membrane (part of a chicken embryo ) and examining the resulting pock lesions under defined temperature conditions. Strains were characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Serologic tests and enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), which measured variola virus-specific immunoglobulin and antigen were also developed to assist in

35754-554: The whole face, proximal portions of extremities, the trunk, and lastly to distal portions of extremities. The process took no more than 24 to 36 hours, after which no new lesions appeared. At this point, variola major disease could take several very different courses, which resulted in four types of smallpox disease based on the Rao classification: ordinary, modified, malignant (or flat), and hemorrhagic smallpox. Historically, ordinary smallpox had an overall fatality rate of about 30%, and

35956-410: The world. The term 'Chinese people' ( 中國人 ; Zhōngguórén ; Manchu: ᡩᡠᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ ‍ᡳ ᠨᡳᠶᠠᠯᠮᠠ Dulimbai gurun-i niyalma ) referred to all the Han, Manchu, and Mongol subjects of the Qing Empire. When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759 , it proclaimed within a Manchu-language memorial that the new land had been absorbed into "China". The Qing government expounded an ideology that it

36158-493: 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 army. Nonetheless, it was not until 1864 that Qing forces 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

36360-433: The worst slaughter. 400,000 Green Standard Army soldiers were used against the Three Feudatories in addition to the 200,000 bannermen. The 61-year reign of the Kangxi Emperor was the longest of any emperor in Chinese history, and marked the beginning of the High Qing era , the zenith of the dynasty's social, economic and military power. The early Manchu rulers established two foundations of legitimacy that help to explain

36562-464: Was Yongyan (永琰), replaced the very common first character of his personal name ( yong 永, which means "forever") with an obscure one (顒) with the same pronunciation. The Daoguang Emperor (r. 1820–1850) removed the character for "continuous" (綿) from his name and decreed that his descendants should henceforth all omit one stroke from their name. In accordance with Manchu practice, Qing emperors rarely used their clan name Aisin Gioro . After their deaths,

36764-421: Was achieved mainly through the smallpox vaccine . Once the disease had developed, certain antiviral medications could potentially have helped, but such medications did not become available until after the disease was eradicated. The risk of death was about 30%, with higher rates among babies. Often, those who survived had extensive scarring of their skin, and some were left blind. The earliest evidence of

36966-431: Was also called white pox, kaffir pox, Cuban itch, West Indian pox, milk pox, and pseudovariola. The genome of variola major virus is about 186,000 base pairs in length. It is made from linear double stranded DNA and contains the coding sequence for about 200 genes . The genes are usually not overlapping and typically occur in blocks that point towards the closer terminal region of the genome. The coding sequence of

37168-399: Was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus . The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated to date. The initial symptoms of

37370-593: Was asked which one of his sons he had chosen to succeed him as khan of the Jurchens, he refused to answer, telling his sons that they should determine after his death who among them was the most qualified leader. His answer reflected the fact that in Jurchen society, succession as tribal chieftain was usually determined by merit, not descent. When Nurhaci died in 1626, a committee of Manchu princes selected Hong Taiji (1592–1643) as his successor. Hong Taiji's death in 1643 caused another succession crisis, because many of Nurhaci's other sons appeared to be qualified leaders. As

37572-423: Was bringing the "outer" non-Han peoples—such as various populations of Mongolians, as well as the Tibetans—together with the "inner" Han Chinese into "one family", united within the Qing state. Phraseology like Zhōngwài yījiā ( 中外一家 ) and nèiwài yījiā ( 內外一家 )—both translatable as 'home and abroad as one family'—was employed to convey this idea of Qing-mediated trans-cultural unity. The Qing dynasty

37774-417: Was extremely long—that of the Shunzhi Emperor, for instance, was "Titian longyun dingtong jianji yingrui qinwen xianwu dade honggong zhiren chunxiao Zhang huangdi" 體天隆運定統建極英睿欽文顯武大德弘功至仁純孝章皇帝—the table only shows the short form. Later Jin) 恭宗 Legend: Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( / tʃ ɪ ŋ / CHING ), officially the Great Qing , was a Manchu -led imperial dynasty of China and

37976-437: Was founded not by Han Chinese , who constituted a majority of the population, but by Manchus , a sedentary farming people descended from the Jurchens , a Tungusic people who lived in the region now comprising the Chinese provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang . The early form of the Manchu state was founded by Nurhaci , the chieftain of a minor Jurchen tribe – the Aisin-Gioro – in Jianzhou in

38178-428: Was highly contagious, but generally spread more slowly and less widely than some other viral diseases, perhaps because transmission required close contact and occurred after the onset of the rash. The overall rate of infection was also affected by the short duration of the infectious stage. In temperate areas, the number of smallpox infections was highest during the winter and spring. In tropical areas, seasonal variation

38380-414: 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

38582-442: Was less evident and the disease was present throughout the year. Age distribution of smallpox infections depended on acquired immunity . Vaccination immunity declined over time and was probably lost within thirty years. Smallpox was not known to be transmitted by insects or animals and there was no asymptomatic carrier state. Transmission occurred through inhalation of airborne variola virus, usually droplets expressed from

38784-404: Was marked by a fever that occurred after the usual incubation period and could be confirmed only by antibody studies or, rarely, by viral culture . In addition, there were two very rare and fulminating types of smallpox, the malignant (flat) and hemorrhagic forms, which were usually fatal. The initial symptoms were similar to other viral diseases that are still extant, such as influenza and

38986-421: Was nearly always fatal and death usually occurred between the 8th and 12th day of illness. Often, a day or two before death, the lesions turned ashen gray, which, along with abdominal distension, was a bad prognostic sign. This form is thought to be caused by deficient cell-mediated immunity to smallpox. If the person recovered, the lesions gradually faded and did not form scars or scabs. Hemorrhagic smallpox

39188-457: Was not until the eve of completing the conquest ten years later that they fulfilled their government roles. Hong Taiji staffed his bureaucracy with many Han Chinese, including newly surrendered Ming officials, but ensured Manchu dominance by an ethnic quota for top appointments. Hong Taiji's reign also saw a fundamental change of policy towards his Han Chinese subjects. Nurhaci had treated Han in Liaodong according to how much grain they had. Due to

39390-472: Was originally the "Martial Emperor" (武皇帝 wǔ huángdì )—to reflect his military exploits—but in 1662 it was changed to "Highest Emperor" (高皇帝 gāo huángdì ), that is, "the emperor from whom all others descend." Hong Taiji's posthumous name, the "Emperor of Letters" (M.: šu hūwangdi ; Ch.: 文皇帝 wén huángdì ), was chosen to reflect the way in which he metamorphosed Qing institutions during his reign. The emperors were usually enthroned on an auspicious day soon after

39592-415: Was placed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple next to those of Nurhaci and Hong Taiji. In early March 1651 after Dorgon's supporters had been purged from the court, these titles were abrogated. The reign of the Shunzhi Emperor ended when he died of smallpox in 1661 at the age of 22. His last will—which was tampered and perhaps even forged by its beneficiaries—appointed four co-regents for his son and successor

39794-412: Was poorly executed and terminated by the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) in the Wuxu Coup . In 1900, anti-foreign Boxers killed many Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries; in retaliation, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China and imposed a punitive indemnity . In response, the government initiated unprecedented fiscal and administrative reforms , including elections, a new legal code, and

39996-440: Was spread by virus carried in the air in enclosed settings such as buildings, buses, and trains. The virus can cross the placenta , but the incidence of congenital smallpox was relatively low. Smallpox was not notably infectious in the prodromal period and viral shedding was usually delayed until the appearance of the rash, which was often accompanied by lesions in the mouth and pharynx. The virus can be transmitted throughout

40198-404: Was the primary cause of smallpox outbreaks across Asia and most of Africa. Meanwhile, variola minor was more commonly found in regions of Europe, North America, South America, and certain parts of Africa. Variola minor virus, also called alastrim, was a less common form of the virus, and much less deadly. Although variola minor had the same incubation period and pathogenetic stages as smallpox, it

40400-465: Was the real founder of Qing imperial institutions. He was the first to adopt the title of " emperor " ( huangdi ) and founded an Imperial Ancestral Temple in the Qing capital Mukden in 1636. After the Qing captured Beijing in 1644 and appropriated the Ming Ancestral Temple, from 1648 on, Nurhaci was worshiped there as "Taizu" (太祖), a temple name usually accorded to dynastic founders. Qing emperors since Hong Taiji were also referred to as Bogda Khan by

40602-460: Was the variola major strains (the more clinically severe form of smallpox) which spread from Asia between 400 and 1,600 years ago. A second clade included both alastrim (a phenotypically mild smallpox) described from the American continents and isolates from West Africa which diverged from an ancestral strain between 1,400 and 6,300 years before present. This clade further diverged into two subclades at least 800 years ago. A second estimate has placed

40804-399: Was to establish the Canton System in 1756, which restricted maritime trade to Guangzhou and gave monopoly trading rights to private Chinese merchants . This was successful for a time, and 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

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