ABSTRACT
Chinese writers tend to emphasize the working of the dynastic cycle. By the time Qianlong retired, the Qing Empire had already exhausted its growth potential. The martial spirit of the bannermen had evaporated. The banner system itself declined no differently from the way that the Ming hereditary military households had vanished from the rosters. Yongzheng's "honesty-nourishing" allowances, although increasing the salaries of key personnel by several times, were insufficient to cover the administrative costs of their posts, not to mention the personal expenses necessitated by the living habits of the bureaucrats, and not to mention the fact that numerous middle and lower officials were still paid with little more than nothing. As a result, corruption ran rampant. In the wake of misgovernment came neglected public works and unrelieved natural disasters, and, therefore, banditry and peasant rebellions. The chain reaction followed earlier patterns that had unfolded in history over and over again. Before facing the Western powers, China had weakened itself.
