After their entry into Beijing, the Manchu ambition to control the whole of the Central Plains necessitated, first of all, an alliance with the civil and the military officials, the landlords and the wealthy people of the Han nationality of the upper society and , secondly, the admittance of the time-honored Confucianism because they were minority. For this purpose, on the third day of their entry into the Beijing city, the royal uncle promptly gave the late Ming Emperor of Chongzhen a decent funeral and showered the staff of the late court with kindness. And he also drummed up the officials, craftsmen in a large scale and held ceremonies in the honor of the Confucianism with the only aim to nurse the Han people and built a positive image of the Qing royal court. Accordingly a solid foundation was laid and enabled the new dynasty to unify the country into a whole.
The Qing rulers paid more homage to the Confucianism to secure and consolidate the safety of their ruling. In 1652 AD (the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Shunzhi), the emperor in person was present in the Confucian Temple and held an extremely grand worshipping ceremony. The worshipping dancing and sing were usually in company with the red-carpeted worshipping ceremonies. When the signal cannon fired, the music for the dancing began to play. On the hazy shrine, the person who presided over the ceremony performed, solemnly and reverently, a complex of the kneeling salute and a series of rituals including: meeting the divine, making the elementary, the second and the final dedications, removing of the food and sending off of the divine etc.
After making its rule firm in Beijing , the Qing Government undertook a series of unifying wars in the succeeding years, for example, the war to conquer the southern districts under control of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the war to take the military strongholds of the Dashun troops, the war to appease the insurgency of the Three Feudal Lords , the war to pacify the revolting of the Mongol clan of Zhunge¡¯er and the war to prevent the Hui people on the border from cleavage.
The position of the capital in holding the multi-national country together became increasingly significant during the warring periods of several decades. Compared with the past dynasties, the significance of Beijing as the place where the Han people communicated with the brotherly minorities in terms of the economy, politics and culture stood out all the more. In 1652 AD (the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Shunzhi) and 1780 AD (the 45th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong), the fifth Dalai and the sixth Panchen came successively to Beijing to pay respects to the Qing court and with them the wish of the Tibetan people to stand up for the unification of the country was brought along. The central government specially built the temple of Xihuang kindly for them to live in. In 1727 AD (the fifth year of the reign of Yongzheng), the Qing government set up the ¡°Liason Ministry in Tibet¡± and ministers were also dispatched to assist in administration of the Tibetan area. Later on, the Emperor of Qianlong improved the status of the Tibetan ministers and ordained that they had the equal rights to handle the administrative and instructive affairs with Panchen and the Dalai Lama. In 1792AD(the 57th year of the reign of Qianlong), the Emperor of Qianlong put into practice of selecting the divine successor (the living Buddha) to the late Dalai Lama by first being balloted for under the supervision of the central government and then be approved of by the emperor. Consequently the contact between the central government and the Tibet became intensified. |
