Which Of The Chinese Minorities Influenced The Han Chinese The Most Essay

Which Of The Chinese Minorities Influenced The Han Chinese The Most - Essay Example Table 1 listed the top 40 chinese minorities. According to Table 1, the most notable ones are the Mongolians and Manchus who conquered China and set up the Yuan dynasty and Qing dynasty respectively. Even though they became the rulers of China, the influence of them on the Han Chinese was not as strong as the reverse. This is because the foreign ethnic rulers adopted the appeasement policy in an attempt to please the Han Chinese people, the majority which formed 98% of the population in China. They in turn, adopted quite a few customs of the Han Chinese. As such, in this paper, we analysed the type of influences the Manchus had on the Han Chinese people. The Manchus first conquered China in 1644 by over throwing the Ming dynasty, marking their first political dominance and forming the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty, which was the last dynasty ruled by a non-Han Chinese emperor, lasted for less than 300 years and ended in 1911. The influences of the Manchus on the Han Chinese were then inevitable, as they became the rulers of the country.1 Since the Qing dynasty was longer than the Yuan dynasty (set up by the Mongolians), the direct impact by the Manchus on the life of the Han Chinese and the development of China was naturally larger than the Mongolians. In this paper, we also analysed mainly on the major events during the Qing Dynasty whereby the Manchus had influenced the Han Chinese both directly and indirectly.... 2.1 Origin of Manchus The Manchu are the tungusic people who originated in Manchuria (today's Northeastern China). It is believed that they are descended from the Jurchens who in turn, are decended from one of the tribes of the Mohe, the Heishui tribe. 2.1.1 Economic The economic influence of the Manchus on the Han Chinese is in the late era of the Qing dynasty. During the later part of the Qing dynasty, the Manchu emperor adopted a closed-door policy which indirectly led to the lack of the technological advances in China and in turn caused the fall of the Qing dynasty and invasions by the western powers2. The Mongolians was the exact opposite. When Kublai Khan became the first ruler of the Yuan dynasty in China, he encouraged the Silk Road trade network, allowing the transfer of Chinese technologies to East Europe. The chinese technologicies included gunpowder and paper, etc. This was the first centralised economic system. If he had not implemented the policy and spread the technology, the honour of discovering gunpower and paper might not have been given to the Han Chinese. He also allowed foreign merchants to travel in China without any restrictions. One good example of foreigners is Marco Polo, a native Italian from Venice. The expansionist policy during the Yuan dynasty also saw more cultural exchanges due to its large continuous territory under their control. Its territory included Eastern Europe, China, India and Tibet. Amounts of spices and medical materials were imported from Arabia, Persia and India. Silk and porcelain were exported to Eastern Europe. If the Manchus had adopted the same economic policy as the Mongolians, the history of China would be changed and the Han Chinese might not