The age of Qing Dynasty is - not only in the eyes of Westerners, but also in the mind of Chinese - a period of prosperity, of decay, of stagnation, of revolution, of lazyness and of challenges that came upon a population that seemed to sleep a beauty's sleep of Confucian social ethics in a paradise where a wise ruler governed over a satified and happy population, and on the other side a society that was bound by rules of a backward social thinking. The period of early and middle Qing Dynasty is the culmination of two thousand years of bureaucratical administration, two thousand years of literature, thinking and art, and therewith seems to be the conservation of traditional thinking structures - especially in the shape of the Neo-Confucian wise and paternal ruler - that were unable to cope with the sudden challenges that occurred in the 19th century. The Qing rulers were the second dynastical family that were not of Chinese origin and nonetheless were able to govern the largest territory China had ever occupied. Their rule over the majority of "cultured" and highly sophiticated Chinese population was only possible by a mixture of authoritarianism - or force - and paternalism - or benevolence. The second and third generation emperors of the Qing learned that is was only possible to rule China if the Manchu became Chinese themselves, not racial, but culturally and mentally. Therefore, the three great emperors with the reign mottos Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, saw themselves as protectors of Chinese literature and art. China was the largest, richest and most effectively governed state of the world - at least during the 18th century. Internal problems and external conflicts lead to the decay of a glorious empire from the begin of 19th century, focusing in the Opium war and the following unequal treaties.

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