10 Post-Imperial China
Many Chinese began to despair over the condition of China well before the
Qing Dynasty collapsed in 1911. It had been apparent since perhaps the
Opium War ( 1839 – 42 ) that the Qing imperial army was in decline and that
Qing military practice had fallen behind Western military practice.
Increasing emphasis on Western military technology and techniques brought
radical changes to the Qing military, and by the end of the dynasty it had
formed completely Western-style armies outfitted with the latest Western
equipment. Chinese soldiers, like their Western counterparts, still practiced
some hand-to-hand combat skills, particularly the use of rifles with bayo-
nets, but for many soldiers and officers, traditional Chinese martial arts had
become obsolete. Rifles and artillery decided battles, not spears and swords.
Of course, this dichotomy was more imagined than real. The Qing army
had relied upon cannon andfirearms in its wars for centuries. Western
military technology had been absorbed into the Qing military as it became
available over the course of the nineteenth century, and indeed even before
that during the late Ming Dynasty. The break with the past in the martial
arts was thus much more psychological or ideological than actual. Western
armies were clearly more powerful than Qing armies, and for reasons
beyond technology. Focusing on technology, however, allowed the possi-
bility of somehow adopting a material part of Western culture while
leaving Chinese or Manchu culture in place. Many, perhaps most,
Chinese were convinced of the value, even superiority, of Chinese culture.
Few were willing simply to abandon it and adopt Western culture. The
military weakness of the Qing Dynasty, and even the subsequent Western-
style Republican government’s army, as compared with Western armies,
was all too clear.
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