0:00:08 > 0:00:11In 1644, Ming Dynasty China,
0:00:11 > 0:00:14the greatest civilisation in the world,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16went through a devastating foreign conquest.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24The Chinese people were left haunted by dreams
0:00:24 > 0:00:28of lost peace and visions of war.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34The invaders were Manchus from the north,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37people the Chinese saw as barbarians.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43The Ming Emperor committed suicide and the Manchu armies swept south.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49When the city of Yangzhou resisted, it was plundered
0:00:49 > 0:00:51and burned in a ten-day reign of terror.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56300,000 people died.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Afterwards, the writer Zhang Dai visited the West Lake in Hangzhou,
0:01:08 > 0:01:10once China's paradise on earth.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15As he sailed along the shore,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19he was shocked by the aftermath of the fighting.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22"I thought I was in a nightmare", he said.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24The loss seemed irretrievable...
0:01:26 > 0:01:30..but China had been through such cataclysms before
0:01:30 > 0:01:32and would go through them again.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35And being a great and ancient civilisation,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39the people had the inner resources to rebuild.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44And that's what happened next.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49The Manchus were foreigners, non-Chinese, but it was they
0:01:49 > 0:01:52who would institute the next rebuilding,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56and becoming Chinese in the process.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59And they were the last imperial dynasty of China -
0:01:59 > 0:02:01the Qing.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39So, China's last empire was forged in war.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45The Manchu conquest took 30 years.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51It climaxed in the 1670s, in a savage struggle in the south,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54when three great provinces rose against the Manchus
0:02:54 > 0:02:57and their teenage emperor, Kangxi.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05The war lasted eight years and, by the end, the Qing government had
0:03:05 > 0:03:09half a million troops fighting in these wild mountains
0:03:09 > 0:03:11of the southwest.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19At that moment, China could have fallen apart, but it didn't.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24The war was the making of Kangxi and, when it ended in 1681,
0:03:24 > 0:03:30he was 27 and he would become the longest ruling, and some would say,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33the greatest of all the Chinese emperors.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46For all its glories, the Ming had ended as a decadent, broken empire.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Now, the foreign Manchus set out to make sure that the mistakes
0:03:55 > 0:03:56they had made were not repeated.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01That the new rulers of China should be men
0:04:01 > 0:04:04with a sober sense of public duty
0:04:04 > 0:04:06and Kangxi, the upright one,
0:04:06 > 0:04:08was such a man.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Kangxi was the first of three great Qing emperors -
0:04:24 > 0:04:28father, son and grandson, who ruled for 133 years.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32They built China's largest empire
0:04:32 > 0:04:35and created the essential shape of China today.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40You get an idea of the immense size of the Qing empire
0:04:40 > 0:04:44when you fly out from Beijing to Xinjiang in the far west.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47It takes seven hours.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54By road, it's 2,700 miles from the capital to Kashgar.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06Under the Qing, China entered a new phase of its history,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10for they define China not as an exclusively Han civilisation,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13but as a great, multiethnic empire.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18So, for the first time since the Tang dynasty,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21China ruled over the Central Asian peoples of Xinjiang.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32Among them were the Uyghurs.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35Hello!
0:05:35 > 0:05:39- This is my wife...- Very nice to meet you.- ..and this is my mother-in-law.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Very nice to meet you. Thank you.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43So, this is my family.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Oh, thank you so much.
0:05:51 > 0:05:52Thank you.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55Before the Qing dynasty, this area was controlled
0:05:55 > 0:05:57by the Yongle Mongols.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59You know, the descendants of Genghis Khan.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01The leader of the Yongle Mongols,
0:06:01 > 0:06:06he invaded the western territory of the Qing dynasty.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11So, the emperor of the Qing dynasty, the Kangxi, he led a big army
0:06:11 > 0:06:16by himself and waged two big wars with the Yongle Mongols,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20and, finally, defeated them and kicked them out of this region
0:06:20 > 0:06:21and took this region.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Under the Qing Kangxi emperor,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30- it almost doubles the size of China, doesn't it?- Yes, yes, yes.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32- It was a huge area.- Yes, yes.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34So, what happens here in Turfan, then?
0:06:34 > 0:06:39The government built new towns just next to the original town,
0:06:39 > 0:06:46so, in many cities in Xinjiang, even now, we have old town and new town.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50The old town was also called Uyghur town or Hui town.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52Hui, like Muslim... Yes.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56And new town was named "Man town" or "Han town",
0:06:56 > 0:06:59like "Hancheng" or "Mancheng", like Chinese name.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Many different races meet in this point in China, don't they?
0:07:02 > 0:07:05- Yes, yes.- Many different histories, I suppose.- Yes.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15So, the Silk Road became, again, an axis of world history,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19linking the great Asian land empires of Iran and Russia,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Mogul India and Qing China.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30And today, with China's new Silk Road,
0:07:30 > 0:07:35Central Asia is once more becoming a crossroads of commerce and peoples.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42If you see the different hats, you can buy the pattern
0:07:42 > 0:07:46or colour, the flowers on the hat, you can tell where they are from -
0:07:46 > 0:07:49Turfan or Hotan or Kashgar or Ili.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53So, each different place, they have a different pattern for the hat.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57All the Silk Road places - Hotan, Turfan - have different hats. Yeah.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03The Qing initially adopted a light touch
0:08:03 > 0:08:05towards the ethnic minorities,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08leaving their local leaders in place.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10They also allowed religious autonomy
0:08:10 > 0:08:15and Muslim culture soon gained a new vitality in Chinese civilisation.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27In the old Muslim communities of China, founded back in the Tang,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31Chinese Muslim scholars wrote books showing how loyalty to Islam
0:08:31 > 0:08:34and to the Mandate of Heaven went hand in hand.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Walking through the mosque, you see all these inscriptions,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45not only in Chinese, but in Arabic and in Farsi, Persian!
0:08:48 > 0:08:52They welcomed outsiders for their food and their luxuries,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55their money, their ideas and their expertise.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58You may think of China in its history as being
0:08:58 > 0:09:00an inward-looking civilisation,
0:09:00 > 0:09:02but most of the time it wasn't like that at all.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11This was a rich age for Chinese Muslim philosophy,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15with debates about the role of women and one fascinating
0:09:15 > 0:09:19and surprising by-product of the age is women's mosques
0:09:19 > 0:09:21with women imams.
0:09:21 > 0:09:27THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:09:43 > 0:09:46There are ten small women's mosques here in Kaifeng,
0:09:46 > 0:09:51part of the changing scene of Chinese Islam from the late 1600s.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56I have travelled many places in the world
0:09:56 > 0:10:00and filmed with Muslim communities in many different countries,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04but I have never seen women's mosques like this.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Is this a special Chinese tradition
0:10:07 > 0:10:09or special Kaifeng tradition?
0:10:09 > 0:10:14THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
0:10:18 > 0:10:19Special Chinese tradition.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21Yeah.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27So, here, even today, you can see the results
0:10:27 > 0:10:29of the religious policies of the Manchus.
0:10:29 > 0:10:30Shukran!
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Shukran!
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Tibet too, long an independent kingdom,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55was freed from the rule of the Yongle Mongols.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Kangxi restored the Dalai Lama
0:10:58 > 0:11:02and brought Tibet into the Qing Empire as a Chinese protectorate.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08The Qing rulers built a huge replica of the Potala in Lhasa back home.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14Fascinated by Tibetan Buddhism,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17they had private chapels in their own palaces.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:11:21 > 0:11:23For Tibet, it was a time when Chinese rule
0:11:23 > 0:11:26promoted Tibetan culture.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42So, China's new, expanded frontiers were secured.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49And at home, the Manchus were keen to be seen to rule
0:11:49 > 0:11:51in the Chinese tradition.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58Before they even come in, they learn a Chinese way of governing.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Once they come in, they put up a face to represent
0:12:02 > 0:12:05that they are authentic Chinese rulers.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10The Confucius rulers. You know, classical Confucian education,
0:12:10 > 0:12:11civil service examinations -
0:12:11 > 0:12:14these are all the things they pay a lot of attention to.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24To reinforce their right to rule, the Manchus returned to the roots,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28giving new life to the old rituals of the Chinese state.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36In one ceremony, the Manchu emperor joined hands
0:12:36 > 0:12:38with a poor Chinese peasant.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45We're on a platform here and the platform looked out onto a field...
0:12:46 > 0:12:49..and the field was where the sports ground is, there.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Every year on the auspicious day, in the second month of spring,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00the Emperor ploughed eight furrows of this field
0:13:00 > 0:13:02with a great, yellow plough.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11The Minister of Finance had the goad, prodding the oxen,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15and the Chief Prefect sowed the seed.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21It was to show solidarity with the workers,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25to show that agriculture was the very basis of the Chinese state,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29and to revere the very first ancestor who invented agriculture.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36To get his message across, Kangxi issued 16 maxims -
0:13:36 > 0:13:38guidelines for the people -
0:13:38 > 0:13:40which were posted in every town and village.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49They were read out twice a month -
0:13:49 > 0:13:51a custom which lasted until the 20th century.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07On his great tours of the South, Kangxi talked to the people
0:14:07 > 0:14:09and listened to their grievances.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14He was an autocrat, but stories about his common touch,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17and that of his grandson, Qianlong,
0:14:17 > 0:14:19became legend among the Chinese people.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14"And as for the daily business of ruling",
0:15:14 > 0:15:17wrote Kangxi, "That takes a lot of energy.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21"I once handled 500 documents in a single day.
0:15:21 > 0:15:26"Sometimes I don't go to bed till after midnight."
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Labelled in Chinese and Manchu in the Imperial Archive,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35their dispatch boxes are empty now,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39but still scented with the camphor that kept insects from the paper.
0:15:41 > 0:15:42HE SNIFFS
0:15:42 > 0:15:46Isn't that great? You can still smell it after all these centuries.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50The smell of history.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56The other great task Kangxi set himself was cultural.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Well, I think Kangxi, as a Manchu emperor, knew very well
0:16:01 > 0:16:04that he couldn't actually cope with the whole of the China that he had
0:16:04 > 0:16:09conquered, and which he was going to rule, without the Chinese help.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13So he mounted a charm offensive to a lot of the intellectuals
0:16:13 > 0:16:17who were loyal to the previous dynasty.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21He worked hard by getting these people to get involved
0:16:21 > 0:16:25in the editing of so much of Chinese works.
0:16:25 > 0:16:26Like this one,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30which is the Quan Tangshi - The Complete Tang Poems.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33And, my goodness me, you can see there is quite a lot.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35How many poems? Do we know?
0:16:35 > 0:16:3648,000 plus.
0:16:36 > 0:16:3948,000 plus. Yeah.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42So, it's quite a project.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46A hundred wood block carvers were employed,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48all under the supervision of a servant,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52Cao Yin, who was Han Chinese, not Manchu.
0:16:54 > 0:17:00Cao Yin was, in theory, a bond servant or a slave, of the Manchus.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04His family had been captured by the Manchus, before they actually
0:17:04 > 0:17:07took over the rule of the whole of the Chinese Empire.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15And as a slave person,
0:17:15 > 0:17:20he remained very close to the Emperor in his household.
0:17:20 > 0:17:21And, not only that.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Actually, Cao Yin's mother was made one of the nurses
0:17:25 > 0:17:27for the Kangxi Emperor.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30And they also say, though it's not proven,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33that Cao Yin may have been one of the people who
0:17:33 > 0:17:38was a sort of reader-companion to the Emperor when he was a small boy.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48This sort of very close bond between them went on
0:17:48 > 0:17:51and, apart from making him the titular head of this project,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54because he was Chinese,
0:17:54 > 0:18:00he also made him a kind of spy, to make private reports
0:18:00 > 0:18:04to the Imperial Palace alone
0:18:04 > 0:18:08on what he saw in the course of his duties.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15So, the bondsman Cao Yin oversaw the huge printing job.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19The collating, cutting, binding and sewing.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25He published The Complete Tang poems in 1708
0:18:25 > 0:18:28and on the frontispiece was a kind gesture by the Emperor
0:18:28 > 0:18:31to the boy he'd grown up with -
0:18:31 > 0:18:33his name on the front page.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37Cao Yin wrote back,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40"Who am I that I should be on this list of names?
0:18:40 > 0:18:45"I do not know what happiness can ever compare with this"
0:18:49 > 0:18:51The great enterprise was done in the very city
0:18:51 > 0:18:55destroyed by the Manchus in the horrors of 1645.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05Yangzhou was rising again with Manchu patronage.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08They, I think, have learned the art or the craft
0:19:08 > 0:19:11of ruling China in the Confucius way very well
0:19:11 > 0:19:15So, what you see in Yangzhou is a bit of a snapshot of some
0:19:15 > 0:19:18of some of the prosperity that's coming out
0:19:18 > 0:19:21of a relatively peaceful and stable period.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31If Suzhou was the place to be in the Ming, in the Qing, it was Yangzhou.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36So what you see is relatively secure property rights on land,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40in the relatively free market, and commerce was,
0:19:40 > 0:19:44I wouldn't say protected, but at least, in many cases, undisturbed.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49'Visitors here in the 18th century describe it
0:19:49 > 0:19:54'as a fusion of southern elegance and northern vigour.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57'In its streets, you saw wealth and culture all around you.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02'Like Georgian London, it was a trend-setter, a capital of culture.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07'And as one of China's four ancient cuisines,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10'its cooking was famous, too,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13'as it is today.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15'Even the fast food.'
0:20:15 > 0:20:17Just the day for this. It's so cold, isn't it?
0:20:20 > 0:20:23That's fantastic. Wonderful.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Mmm! Yeah, really good.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36Wonderful.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Situated on the Grand Canal, Yangzhou was a centre of commerce
0:20:40 > 0:20:44where millions were made through the lucrative salt monopoly.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49At the time of the early Industrial Revolution in Europe,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53China itself was developing the first shoots of capitalism,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55but the Chinese way.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11And salt always very important in the story of Yangzhou.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33So, Yangzhou's 200 salt merchants became
0:21:33 > 0:21:35major players in the economy.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41One of them came from a village we've already met in this story -
0:21:41 > 0:21:44Tangyue, home of the Bao family.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Bao Zhidao became one of the richest men in China.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Because they make business in Yangzhou and they're getting richer,
0:21:54 > 0:21:58so they have ability to build this kind of building.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00So this is like grand bankers today in London,
0:22:00 > 0:22:04building their mansions with their swimming pools and everything else,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08but this is much more ritually centred and historically centred.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10It's a corporation here.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Filial piety is good for big business,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17and they don't need to lend, they don't need money -
0:22:17 > 0:22:18they collect money together
0:22:18 > 0:22:22and...exactly, the wording is share.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25So if we want to know who is the shareholder,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28just open the genealogy and see the activity
0:22:28 > 0:22:30of who is joining in the activity,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34the ritual activity, so you know the membership of this corporation.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39So, in China, the lineage, the family,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42is the corporation and the shareholders,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45where, at this time in London or in the West,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49private companies start to be the shareholders.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54Back here in his home village,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59Bao Zhidao is still remembered by his family for his Confucian values.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14"The Confucian way was against excess.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18"Be thrifty, but don't hoard. Spend wisely."
0:23:56 > 0:24:00So China thrived again under Manchu rule.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04In the 18th century, it had the biggest GDP in the world.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16And the Yangzhou merchants made the most of it.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18In their gardens, they held cultural gatherings.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24Their guests were poets, painters and book collectors.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Looking at it with Western eyes,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30you might say this looks very much like an enlightenment society.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35These guys were the equivalent of billionaires today
0:24:35 > 0:24:37and they made their wealth on the backs of the poor...
0:24:39 > 0:24:43..but they were also public-spirited men.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47Bao Zhidao had the streets of his part of town repaved,
0:24:47 > 0:24:50he established an insurance system for the boatmen
0:24:50 > 0:24:53who ran the salt barges,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57he built charitable schools for children at the gates of the city,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01and he ploughed money back into his native village.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05He may look very different to us,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07in his great silk blue gowns
0:25:07 > 0:25:10and his long moustaches and pigtails,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13but he's the very model of what
0:25:13 > 0:25:16would later be the Victorian philanthropist.
0:25:16 > 0:25:22In the 18th century, China was already developing a civil society.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32And in the rich cities of the south,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36the merchants were also great patrons of opera and drama.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Well, it's a very cold and rainy, snowy day
0:25:42 > 0:25:45at the end of a New Year festival.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48And we're heading out into the countryside from Yangzhou
0:25:48 > 0:25:52to see a performance of the traditional Yangzhou drama
0:25:52 > 0:25:54by the main acting troupe.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57Tradition which has been passed down across all the wars
0:25:57 > 0:26:00and revolutions of the last couple of hundred years.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06So what show are you doing this afternoon?
0:26:14 > 0:26:16And it's a sad story or a...?
0:26:40 > 0:26:44In the Qing, travelling companies like this crisscrossed the south,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46playing in the new market towns,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49which were springing all over the countryside,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52providing entertainment to the expanding bourgeoisie,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54and to ordinary folk, too.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59Their shows adapted famous novels,
0:26:59 > 0:27:04but Qing drama also dealt with history - the fall of the Ming,
0:27:04 > 0:27:06the sack of Yangzhou.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Contemporary themes with many lessons
0:27:08 > 0:27:15for Chinese audiences still coming to terms with the Manchu conquest.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Today is my grandma's 90th birthday celebrations,
0:27:42 > 0:27:48so it is a tradition for us to invite every family member
0:27:48 > 0:27:53and their friends and neighbours to watch an opera.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00During the ancient time, if you were rich,
0:28:00 > 0:28:02you'd have a opera stage in your home,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06and if you have any kind of a celebration you would invite this
0:28:06 > 0:28:11kind of opera team to your home to share your happiness with everyone.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26But such a flourishing culture did not mean freedom.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32The Qing state was an autocracy -
0:28:32 > 0:28:35criticism of the system was dangerous.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38As in England, dramatists were censored.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40Books could be banned and burned.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43So, as so often in Chinese history,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47writers and artists learned to speak in code.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54"Some people only see the surface of things",
0:28:54 > 0:28:56wrote a Qing philosopher.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01"They focus on appearances and miss the essence.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08"But in the human world, and in nature,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12"there are things that cannot be transmitted through words."
0:29:14 > 0:29:17Over a century before the European expressionists,
0:29:17 > 0:29:21one group of Yangzhou painters broke with tradition to try
0:29:21 > 0:29:24to get beyond the world of appearances.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28What's so special about the Yangzhou painters,
0:29:28 > 0:29:29does your father think?
0:29:48 > 0:29:52So far away from the conservative culture of the capital,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Chinese artists and thinkers were beginning to explore
0:29:55 > 0:29:58different pathways to modernity.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Always aware of the watchful eye of the state,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07they were developing new modes of expression...
0:30:10 > 0:30:14..challenging the old meanings of history and ethics,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18and looking for new ways to represent the inner life,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20what one Qing writer called,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24"The domain of the demonic and mysterious."
0:30:28 > 0:30:33'But the 18th century also saw a huge explosion of popular culture,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36'which reached down even to the illiterate.'
0:30:37 > 0:30:39Hello. Ni hao. Thank you.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07There used to be three teachings, it was said -
0:31:07 > 0:31:09Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12But now there's a fourth - Popular Fiction -
0:31:12 > 0:31:14and everybody loves it.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17This is The Water Margin.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22It's really the Chinese equivalent of Robin Hood -
0:31:22 > 0:31:26the bunch of good outlaws who live out on Mount Liang -
0:31:26 > 0:31:29the Chinese equivalent of Sherwood forest.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32There's even a Buddhist monk, a kind of Chinese Friar Tuck.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Drinks just as much, but a little more violent!
0:31:36 > 0:31:39HE SHOUTS
0:31:44 > 0:31:46But under the Qing, the Water Margin
0:31:46 > 0:31:49and other tales were periodically banned as subversive.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54The outlaws' exploits, it was thought,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58might encourage seditious anti-Manchu sympathies.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16By now, Kangxi himself was getting old.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23His boyhood friend, the bond-servant, Cao Yin, was dead now.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26The Emperor had cared about him to the end.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29"You're not well", Kangxi wrote.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32"Take this, it's Western medicine, but it really works.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35"But take care of yourself, take care."
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Now in his late 60s,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45the Emperor was conscious of his own mortality, too.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49"When I was young", he wrote, "I didn't know what sickness was.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53"Now I'm getting thinner and weaker. I have dizzy spells."
0:32:56 > 0:32:58"Officials can retire, but I can't.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01"I'm old, but I can't rest for a minute.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05"If I die without trouble breaking out for China, I will die happy."
0:33:14 > 0:33:19Kangxi died in 1722 after a reign of 61 years,
0:33:19 > 0:33:21longest in Chinese history.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28And he left his sons this advice. "The great rulers of the past",
0:33:28 > 0:33:31he said, "Followed two guiding principles in governing China.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35"Number one - have reverence for the laws of heaven.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38"And number two - have reverence for the ancestors."
0:33:43 > 0:33:45"Work hard", he said.
0:33:45 > 0:33:46"Take care.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49"Mix strictness with leniency
0:33:49 > 0:33:53"and expedience with principle,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57"and, that way, you'll find a long-term vision for the nation."
0:34:00 > 0:34:03And Kangxi did have a vision for the nation.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06He was a benevolent dictator.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09But the Qing was still and autocratic state
0:34:09 > 0:34:13and Imperial favour could vanish overnight.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18The new emperor was Kangxi's 43-year-old son, Yongzheng.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21"Don't think I'm a novice", he said.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24"I've spent my life in the real world."
0:34:27 > 0:34:29Straightforward but formidable,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Yongzheng began a war against corruption and incompetence.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37There were purges and show trials,
0:34:37 > 0:34:40and among those caught in the net were the family
0:34:40 > 0:34:43of the late bondsman Cao Yin,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46their intimacy with Kangxi now forgotten.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53Just imagine it, the Emperor's troops crashing into the house,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55the servants taken away for questioning,
0:34:55 > 0:34:58the inventory made of your possessions,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01and then the show trial and the inevitable verdict.
0:35:03 > 0:35:04And all that was watched,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08wide-eyed, one imagines, by Cao Yin's 13-year-old grandson,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12who at that moment remembered Grandad's favourite old saying -
0:35:12 > 0:35:17"When the tree falls, the monkeys will be scattered."
0:35:32 > 0:35:35The Cao family moved to these alleys in Beijing
0:35:35 > 0:35:40and, here, Cao Yin's young grandson, Cao Xueqin, grew up.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42A watchful, clever child,
0:35:42 > 0:35:46wary of all power, having seen the family crushed by the state,
0:35:46 > 0:35:50and he grew up in the life of the imagination.
0:35:54 > 0:35:55He wanted to be a writer,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59but in Emperor Qianlong's day that was fraught with jeopardy.
0:35:59 > 0:36:00There were book burnings,
0:36:00 > 0:36:06over 50 writers were executed for criticising the government.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08So these lanes around the lake were his haunts.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13He didn't have a good degree, so he never got a good job.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17He worked for a while in a wine bar, slept in the stable.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24He got jobs as a tutor for the children of rich families
0:36:24 > 0:36:27in the great mansions the other side of the lake.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33Final warning, he got sacked for having an affair with the maid.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35Never got employed again.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Ended up down and out in north Beijing.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56But that bohemian life in these streets gave the young man
0:36:56 > 0:37:00his own perspective on the tensions underneath Chinese society.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07In the teeming alleys of the capital,
0:37:07 > 0:37:09there were many kinds of stories.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30For a while, he rented a cottage in the hills outside Beijing,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33at a peppercorn rent, through a family friend.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41And there, an idea began to take shape.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50"The reminders of my poverty were all around me", he said.
0:37:50 > 0:37:56"The old stove, the hard bed, the thatched roof, the latticed window.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59"But such things are not necessarily obstacles
0:37:59 > 0:38:02"to the creative imagination.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08"In fact, the view from my front door -
0:38:08 > 0:38:14"the landscape, the trees and the autumn leaves, the wind -
0:38:14 > 0:38:18"were positive encouragements to write.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23"What was to stop me turning the whole thing into a story?"
0:38:30 > 0:38:32And what a story.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35It's nothing less than the great Chinese novel.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39A window into the Chinese imagination.
0:38:39 > 0:38:44Surreal, poignant, romantic.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54This book is written about 250 years ago, right?
0:38:54 > 0:38:58But as a person from modern times, I still can really relate with it
0:38:58 > 0:39:02because the love and freedom - the eternal topic.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08I feel like the main character, Jia Baoyu, he's a rebel.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11- He's the hero.- He is not hero.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13- Kind of hero. - Well, yeah. But he's the rebel,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17and I think that's more important than being a hero.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23The book tells the tale of a family over four generations, until,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25as grandad Cao Yin had feared,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29the tree falls and the monkeys are scattered.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34Best part of this novel is actually the humanity, caring
0:39:34 > 0:39:37and universal volume inside of this book.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39The people inside of this book,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41they are not afraid to express themselves.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45They are brave enough to stand up for love.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48They are having this hope and Cao Xueqin has this hope -
0:39:48 > 0:39:51for women, for the servant,
0:39:51 > 0:39:56for everyone who has a dream, who has the chance to love.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58He doesn't discriminate them.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02He doesn't think the royalty is better than the servant.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06He thinks everybody is the same, everybody has the right to love,
0:40:06 > 0:40:08and everybody deserves respect.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16'Cao Xeuqin, the bondsman's grandson, died in 1763,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20'his heart broken by the death of his only son.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27'His novel was finally printed in 1791,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30'censored, it was rumoured, but brilliantly capturing the glory
0:40:30 > 0:40:34'that was Qing China and the knife edge on which that glory balanced.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38'When he wrote, in the mid 1700s,
0:40:38 > 0:40:43'China was still the greatest civilisation in the world, and,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47'in time, no doubt, would've found its own form of modernity.'
0:40:49 > 0:40:54Many people think that was the height of the Qing Dynasty.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59The population has nearly tripled and the territory doubled.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02So, I guess, it was, at that time,
0:41:02 > 0:41:06this was maybe the peace before the storm.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Land ahoy! It's China!
0:41:19 > 0:41:21It's China!
0:41:21 > 0:41:25But, now, China came into contact with a rising maritime
0:41:25 > 0:41:30power from a small island 7,000 miles away, off the shore of Europe.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32The British.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47'In the story of civilisation, the British couldn't compare with
0:41:47 > 0:41:50'China and its 4,000-year-old tradition...
0:41:51 > 0:41:54'..but they would change the course of Chinese history.'
0:41:57 > 0:42:00This is the Pearl River and this is the great city
0:42:00 > 0:42:05of Guangzhou, what the Europeans call Canton.
0:42:05 > 0:42:10And it was here, in the mid 1700s, that the destinies of China
0:42:10 > 0:42:14and the British began to intertwine.
0:42:15 > 0:42:20The British were becoming a great power in India and opening up
0:42:20 > 0:42:24a global trading network for the first time in history.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27They wanted to get in on the Chinese market.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30They wanted luxuries and silk and textiles, but, above all,
0:42:30 > 0:42:32they wanted tea.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34MARKET CROWD CHATTERS
0:42:35 > 0:42:39'They'd started to drink tea back in the 17th century,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42'paying for it with hard currency - silver -
0:42:42 > 0:42:46'but that soon became a problem for their balance of payments.'
0:42:46 > 0:42:49During the course of the 18th century,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52tea became a British obsession, their national drink.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56And, by then,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59they were importing millions of pounds weight of tea every year.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03It was 10% of the national revenue.
0:43:03 > 0:43:08No wonder, then, that people said, "If the China tea trade was
0:43:08 > 0:43:11"endangered, the British nation was in trouble."
0:43:14 > 0:43:17But the problem was that China was self-sufficient -
0:43:17 > 0:43:20it didn't need the outside world.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Europeans, and British in particular, were buying a lot
0:43:23 > 0:43:29from China and China wasn't buying a lot from Britain and Europe.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32There was nothing, really, that they needed.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39So, the British set out to create the demand.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45And the British and other traders - the Portuguese, the Dutch - were
0:43:45 > 0:43:48all thinking, "What is it that the Chinese would buy
0:43:48 > 0:43:53"so that we can get that silver out and then we can get more tea?"
0:43:53 > 0:43:59And...by the...1790s, I think,
0:43:59 > 0:44:01they figured it out,
0:44:01 > 0:44:03that the Chinese
0:44:03 > 0:44:05were buying a little bit of opium every time,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08and that number was increasing.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17The key to the opium trade was British control of India,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20where the opium was grown.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24The East India Company bought raw cotton from India
0:44:24 > 0:44:29and then sold it back to them as Finnish textiles.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32They then bought up Indian opium and sold it to China,
0:44:32 > 0:44:37buying tea in return. And, so, they created a trading triangle.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41The profits were high, but so was the risk.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49So, in 1793, the British sent an embassy to China to try
0:44:49 > 0:44:51to get favoured trading nation status.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55Its leader was Sir George Macartney.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57Born in Country Antrim,
0:44:57 > 0:45:01Macartney had served in the Caribbean and India.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04He coined the phrase, "The empire on which the sun never sets."
0:45:10 > 0:45:13"China is picturesque beyond comparison", he wrote,
0:45:13 > 0:45:19"the rice paddies, the fields of sugar cane, the tea plantations."
0:45:21 > 0:45:24"The common people of China", he said,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28"are patient and industrious, cheerful under the severest labour.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32"Hardy and loquacious, they are by no means the sedate,
0:45:32 > 0:45:34"tranquil people they've been represented."
0:45:40 > 0:45:43"But the poorest",
0:45:43 > 0:45:47he added, "detest the Mandarins, whose arbitrary powers they fear,
0:45:47 > 0:45:51"whose injustice they feel, whose rapacity they must feed."
0:45:57 > 0:46:00The emperor wouldn't meet them in Beijing
0:46:00 > 0:46:05because the British refused to prostrate themselves or "kowtow".
0:46:06 > 0:46:09So they set up their gifts from Birmingham
0:46:09 > 0:46:14and Manchester manufacturers outside the capital, at the Summer Palace.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17By now, the British were frazzled.
0:46:17 > 0:46:23The nine-month sea journey, the weeks overland to Peking.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26And the emperor took them by surprise, he came unannounced.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34The British were very impressed by him as a man.
0:46:35 > 0:46:3883 years old, but didn't look a day over 60.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41His manner, dignified and affable.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47He asked if anybody in the embassy spoke Chinese and a 12-year-old
0:46:47 > 0:46:51page boy called Staunton had learned a bit of Chinese on the journey.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57The emperor was so delighted that he gave little Staunton his fine,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00yellow, silk purse that hung by his belt,
0:47:00 > 0:47:04containing his favourite Areca nuts.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Well, that was quite optimistic for the British,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09but what followed wasn't.
0:47:15 > 0:47:20The emperor went round looking at the presents, the honourees, the
0:47:20 > 0:47:24celestial globes, the planetarium, the telescopes,
0:47:24 > 0:47:27without a flicker on his countenance.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32And he picked up the air pump and then said,
0:47:32 > 0:47:36"These things are not good enough to amuse a child."
0:47:44 > 0:47:48Deflated by his failure, Macartney returned to Macau, dismissing
0:47:48 > 0:47:53the Qing state as a crazy old man of war, no longer seaworthy.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58As he saw it, the Qing government was holding the Chinese
0:47:58 > 0:48:02people back from the benefits of modern civilisation.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05"And a nation that does not advance", he said,
0:48:05 > 0:48:10"must retrograde and, finally, fall back into barbarism and misery."
0:48:18 > 0:48:22But the British simply couldn't take no for an answer.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26Thank you.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31'If any link in their global trading network was broken,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34'their economy could face disaster.
0:48:34 > 0:48:41"Our aim", said Macartney, "should be to mould the China trade to the
0:48:41 > 0:48:47"shape that best suits us. Any stopping of that trade would have a
0:48:47 > 0:48:51"severe effect on our position in India, to which it is already
0:48:51 > 0:48:52"immeasurably valuable.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58"It would have an immediate and heavy blow
0:48:58 > 0:49:00"on our own woollen industries
0:49:00 > 0:49:04"and manufacturers back home, the ancient staple of England,
0:49:04 > 0:49:06"and all our other growing imports
0:49:06 > 0:49:10"and manufactures would be instantly convulsed."
0:49:13 > 0:49:18So, the honourable East India Company continued to smuggle opium,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21despite public outrage back in Britain.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23And, soon, the ravages of the drug became
0:49:23 > 0:49:27apparent in the streets of China, with millions of addicts.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35By the 1820s, opium addiction became visible, socially,
0:49:35 > 0:49:39which means opium dens on the street, people dying off,
0:49:39 > 0:49:44dosing off on the street...it's becoming a social problem.
0:49:46 > 0:49:52Suddenly, there's a huge increase of court documents relating to this.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54If you search "1790s", there's none.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56Then if you go to 1810s,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59maybe a few, if you go to 1820s, it's a lot,
0:49:59 > 0:50:01go to 1830s, it's a huge amount.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07So, I think, by mid-1830s,
0:50:07 > 0:50:101835, 1836,
0:50:10 > 0:50:14it's obvious they have to do something about this.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20'Shocked by the social effects of the opium trade and by its drain
0:50:20 > 0:50:24'on their silver supply, the emperor and his advisors
0:50:24 > 0:50:26'debated what to do.'
0:50:30 > 0:50:33The emperor spent time looking for an upright official
0:50:33 > 0:50:38because opium is something you could sell and make lots of money,
0:50:38 > 0:50:43so you need someone who is upright and very Confucian, very moral.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49Such a man was the incorruptible Commissioner Lin.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51Of his appointment, an old friend wrote,
0:50:51 > 0:50:55"Our great land needs thunder and lightning to revive it now."
0:51:02 > 0:51:05Lin gave the orders to destroy
0:51:05 > 0:51:08all the opium held in British warehouses.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12Commissioner Lin began the destruction
0:51:12 > 0:51:15of the British opium in early June 1839.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21There were 1,200 tonnes of it.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25It took 500 workers more than three weeks to get rid of it all,
0:51:25 > 0:51:29burning it, mixing it with lime and dumping it in these ponds.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37At the same time, the Commissioner wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, a
0:51:37 > 0:51:42letter that's touching in its almost naive belief in Confucian morality.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48"We learn that your country is
0:51:48 > 0:51:52"60 or 70,000 lee away from China", he said.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55"and yet, foreign vessels come here to make great profit
0:51:55 > 0:51:57"out of the wealth of our country.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00"But by what right in return do they sell us
0:52:00 > 0:52:04"this poisonous drug which does so much harm to the Chinese people?
0:52:05 > 0:52:09"They may not necessarily intend to hurt us,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12"but, by putting profit above all things,
0:52:12 > 0:52:15"they are disregarding the harm they do to others.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19"So, we ask you, where is your conscience?"
0:52:26 > 0:52:29But the British were in no mood to discuss Confucian ethics.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33The fact that China had 50 times their population
0:52:33 > 0:52:36and lay the other side of the world was of no matter.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41They were a maritime nation, the Chinese were not.
0:52:41 > 0:52:46In fact, the Chinese didn't really have a navy at all.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Did they understand that the balance of power in the world was
0:52:49 > 0:52:52changing because of maritime power?
0:52:52 > 0:52:54I think, for us historians, we're always asking that,
0:52:54 > 0:52:57"Don't they realise that they were no match?
0:52:57 > 0:52:59"Don't they know what's going on in the world?"
0:53:02 > 0:53:07I think the answer, I can be quite definite in that, is no.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10They still think we are the middle kingdom
0:53:10 > 0:53:15and all under heaven respects China, admires Chinese civilisation.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20Bringing ships and men from India,
0:53:20 > 0:53:25the British gathered a task force and sailed to China.
0:53:25 > 0:53:29In New Year 1841, they entered the Pearl River.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38And there, the Chinese found themselves hopelessly out-gunned.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45The Chinese had defended the estuarine depth,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48they had outer fortifications towards the sea and then,
0:53:48 > 0:53:52at the narrows, these big fortresses with heavy guns.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57To the soldiers who were waiting here so anxiously,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00it must have seemed that they had a chance of defeating the British.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06In fact, the Chinese guns were useless, with their fixed
0:54:06 > 0:54:10positions and fixed range, against a mobile enemy.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18The British fleet had three 74-gun warships out in the estuary.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21A flotilla of smaller vessels,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24they had 15 troop ships carrying native Indian regiments,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27who were going to fight alongside the British
0:54:27 > 0:54:29when they stormed these fortresses.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34And their secret weapon was a nearly 200-foot-long boat made
0:54:34 > 0:54:37entirely of iron.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42And, on it, swivel and pivot-mounted, heavy weaponry
0:54:42 > 0:54:46and a rocket launcher that could send incendiary projectiles.
0:54:46 > 0:54:52And the name of the boat was the Nemesis. Retribution.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58At the climax of the battle, a British rocket hit the powder store
0:54:58 > 0:55:02of the flagship Chinese junk, which blew up in a tremendous explosion.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12The British then rampaged up the coast
0:55:12 > 0:55:15and stormed the port city of Ningbo
0:55:19 > 0:55:23It was shock and awe, 19th century style.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25GUNSHOTS
0:55:25 > 0:55:28SCREAMING
0:55:29 > 0:55:31'Rocked by their defeat,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35'the Qing government sued for peace in the very place where, 400 years
0:55:35 > 0:55:40'before, Admiral Zheng He had given thanks after his great voyages.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47'Here, in this room in Nanjing, they negotiated
0:55:47 > 0:55:51'the first of what the Chinese call, "The Unequal Treaties." '
0:56:07 > 0:56:11'So, power had come from the barrel of a gun.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14'The British had got what they wanted - trading rights,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16'silver and a foothold in China,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19'five treaty ports on the Chinese coast.'
0:56:22 > 0:56:25The treaty was signed out on the Yangtze River,
0:56:25 > 0:56:29in the admiral's cabin of HMS Cornwallis,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31and so began what has come to be seen
0:56:31 > 0:56:34as China's century of humiliation.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39And, as Dr Tian Jian explained to me,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42that time has left its mark on China till today.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14History, the Chinese say, is a mirror.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19In Chinese history, every dynasty has reached a peak
0:57:19 > 0:57:23and then declined and needed outside influence to bring change.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28This time, the catalyst was the British.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34'Among the treaty ports was a small town that would become
0:57:34 > 0:57:36'the greatest city on earth, Shanghai,
0:57:36 > 0:57:41'and an uninhabited island, Hong Kong.'
0:57:41 > 0:57:46And all this was the unintended consequence of the first opium war.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50All there was here was a few wooded islands and promontories,
0:57:50 > 0:57:53a couple of native fishing villages, and a wonderful anchorage,
0:57:53 > 0:57:56which is why the British wanted it,
0:57:56 > 0:57:58and it would become one of
0:57:58 > 0:58:01the greatest trading cities in the world.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06So, out of these traumatic events would come new forces
0:58:06 > 0:58:10and new ideas that would transform China in the modern age
0:58:10 > 0:58:15in ways no-one could have foreseen back in 1841.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26Next time, the end of the empire, civil war and revolution,
0:58:26 > 0:58:29and the amazing transformation of modern China.