From a Certain Perspective, the Han Chinese Should Be Most Grateful That the Qing Dynasty Destroyed the Ming

From a certain perspective, the Han Chinese should be most grateful that the Qing Dynasty destroyed the Ming. This sounds outrageous, but think about it carefully.

The late Ming Dynasty was a thoroughly rotten mess. Corruption was endemic, the military was hollow, the economy was in shambles, and factional infighting consumed all political energy. If the Ming had continued, China would have continued to decay from within, perhaps disintegrating into multiple warring states, vulnerable to piecemeal colonization by Western powers.

The Qing Dynasty, whatever its faults, unified China, expanded its territory to unprecedented size, and maintained relative stability for nearly three centuries. The territory of modern China -- including Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Taiwan -- is largely the legacy of Qing conquest and administration.

Of course, the Qing Dynasty also failed catastrophically in its final century, leading to the humiliations of the Opium Wars and the Century of Humiliation. But without the Qing's initial territorial consolidation, there might not even be a unified China to be humiliated.

History is not a morality play. Sometimes destruction leads to renewal. Sometimes the conqueror inadvertently does the conquered a favor. The Han Chinese rage against the Qing is understandable but historically myopic.