Military Organization and Weaponry

        During the early conquests of the dynasty, the Manchu military was composed of eight individual armies, each distinguished by a colored banner. These were the Eight Banners, and the soldiers in them, the so-called "bannermen." After crossing the Great Wall and seizing the capital, the Ch'ing reorganized the surrendered remnants of the Ming military into the "Army of the Green Standard." Together, the Banner and Green Standard armies reunified China, expanded the frontiers of the empire, and reestablished firm defensive measures for the state.

        In the beginning, the Banner cavalry was primarily armed with bows, spears, and knives. During the reign of T'ai-tsung (1627-43), the army began to incorporate artillery units. The large-scale production of firearms continued through the Shun-chih (1644-61) and K'ang-hsi (1662-1722) reigns, substantially enhancing the military might of the imperial forces. However, the development of munitions gradually ground to halt during the Yung-cheng (1723-35) and Ch'ien-lung (1736-95) periods, and Chinese weapons technology fell far behind that of the West.

        At the same time, the Banner armies were gradually becoming sinicized and losing their traditions of martial prowess, while corrupt leadership was taking its toll on the quality of training received by the Green Standard forces. In both cases, these armies suffered repeated losses in the Opium War and T'ai-p'ing Rebellion. As a result, the Ch'ing government was forced to rely on the Hsiang and Huai armies (trained and commanded by Tseng Kuo-fan and Li Hung-chang, respectively) to put down the T'ai-p'ings and bring order to the state. In the wake of the assaults by joint British and French forces between 1856 and 1860, the Ch'ing court began to take efforts to construct a modern navy. Yet the resulting Fukien and Northern navies were totally decimated by the Sino-French (1883-85) and Sino-Japanese (1894-95) wars, respectively. These losses led to the adoption of a new and reformed military system at the turn of the twentieth century.

        The historical records, archival documents, and illustrations in this section of the exhibit chart the development and transformation of military organization, weaponry, and equipment through the course of the Ch'ing dynasty.