First, I would like to acknowledge the beautiful art and textiles from this era. I actually have a BFA in Fiber Arts and love the embroidery work that I saw in these lectures. I am currently teaching my Intro to Art students how to sew dolls from gloves, and as an extension how to embroider details onto the dolls. 

After reflecting on the Proclamations of the Hongwu Emperor, it is important to note his disdain for the riff-raff of a community because they do not aid in bettering the community. He was also very clear in stating how those individuals would be punished. I think that our students could reflect upon this Proclamation and make comparisons to how we approach discipline in school and in our cities. It could become a very interesting debate, and ideas could be organized in a double bubble map. I think the philosophical ideals that they were drawing upon was Confucianism and Daoism, because they were really putting an emphasis on the elders upholding the ruling of law.

I know I've brought up the concept of absolutism before and in my class we consider Qianlong an absolute monarch. I use the Forbidden City which has a wonderful virtual tour online ( https://www.youvisit.com/tour/chinatour/100444 ), Qianlong’s robes and armor, his royal portrait, plus several documents that illustrate how he rules. Again we draw comparisons between things like the Mandate of Heaven and the concept of Divine right. We use the portrait of Qianlong in the yellow imperial robes and the royal equestrian portrait of Louis XIV to discuss why leaders would need/want to be portrayed certain ways.

I love this letter from Emperor Qianlong to George III for several reasons. One of the things we try to highlight in our WORLD history class is how behind the west was at the beginning of the modern era. AP World History: Modern starts at 1200 to demonstrate how sophisticated the east was and how backwards Europe was. This letter from Emperor Qianlong not only highlights that Chinese perception of their greatness which is reflected in their culture throughout the centuries but also the global perception of Europe. Having received a very western education, that is something the west doesn’t want to talk about….that there was a time when they weren’t the dominant force in the world. And that the scales of the world change throughout history. Plus he’s just kind of cheeky and I love it.

At begining of Qing dynasty, people were forced to have bianzi and changed their cloth styles(剃发易服). Those cloth styles in Ming dynasty mostly represent Confucious beliefs. However, Qing governers just barbarous destoried the culture and killed those people who did not want to change their life style. According to google search, around one million people died for this policy.

Overall, Qing dynasty is a depressive dynasty. The government enslave majority people in China. They didn't trust Han people and had litrary inquisition(文字狱). Moreover, the government was corrupt. Office workers saled position to earn money.

The picture of Qianlong is so interesting. Countries in our world are combined together. We definately cannot lock down on single country and set apart the country to learn from other countries. The arrogant attitude of Qianlong had taught Chinese people a lesson that no matter which country, we should stay humble and learn from other countries. I may use this as a teaching material for my future lesson plans. 

However, based on some historial recordings, Qianlong or the whole Qing govenors were afraid of rebellion of Han people, so they afraid that if ordinary people learned so technologies from other countries, Manchu people might lose dominance. That's a reason of self-seclusion policy.