The Manchu Queue - The Bloody History Behind this Chinese Hairstyle

Looking at photos during the late imperial Chinese era, what will often catch your eye is the hairstyle worn by every male, it had a name, the Manchu Q. It's strongly associated with China, especially in the West during the time that it was popular, as seen in caricatures, during a time that contact between the West and China had reached a peak. Today though, we associate pre-modern Chinese people far more with long flowing hair, neatly put up in buns and adorned with various headdresses, coupled with serene looking facial hair. So why was this other hairstyle so prominent instead in these photos? How did it appear and where did it go? What happened to the old Chinese hairstyles that we are far more used to seeing these days? First, however, I'd like to arrange a few pieces to make the story more coherent as we go. The hairstyle was mandatory for every Chinese male during the Qin Dynasty, with exception to non-Han Chinese minorities, Taoist and Buddhist monks. It has its origin among the Jurchen tribes who had previously established the Qin Dynasty during the 12th century. But this time around, during the 17th century where our story takes place, they had united and adopted a new ethnic identity. The Jurchens were from now on only to be called by the name they are known as today, Manchu. They originate from what is today traditionally called Manchuria in northern China and part of modern day Russia. So this is the first point, the hairstyle did not have Han Chinese origins, which is usually what people mean when they simply say that something is Chinese. The Manchu were also known for creating the Qing Dynasty, which would end up being the last imperial dynasty in Chinese history so far. What makes the Han adoption of this hairstyle all the more interesting is due to the connotation that these kind of haircuts had, all shaven and braided. They were seen as barbarous and had been for a very long time. Around 200 BC, the Han Dynasty had a very intense rivalry with the Xiongnu, a confederate of steppe nomads who would sport similar hairstyles. The Chinese would later through many dynasties and after thousands of years be in contact with many other nomadic steppe tribes such as the Khitans and the Mongols and many more, many of these having similar hairstyles. So if this was seen as the hair of the barbarians, how did the Han themselves keep their hair? Long, very long. In fact, not cutting one's hair had been the custom even before the days of imperial China some 2000 plus years ago. It was usually kept in a bun and or covered in different types of headwear that would differ during the years, but to emphasize it again, it was not shaven. The act of shaving one's head was considered an unfilial act that went against Confucian morals. This idea was supposedly attributed to Confucius himself in an alleged conversation between him and his student, recorded in the text called the Classic of Filial Piety. The master said With that out of the way, how did it start? The Manchu were on a roll through Manchuria and had begun the Great Enterprise, the conquest of the ruling Ming dynasty and claiming the Mandate of Heaven. As they began doing this, the officially first emperor of the Qing dynasty, then known as later Jin, Nurhaci, adopted a policy of cohabitation and collaboration with the native Han, understanding that they needed popular support and expertise if they wanted to succeed. This was part of what led not only to their success, but also laid the groundwork to the ruling regarding the mandatory hairstyle. To cut a long story short, the policy was continued by Nurhaci's immediate successor, Huang Taiji, who then died shortly after the conquest of Beijing. His son, later to be known as the Xuanzhi Emperor, was too young to rule and so our main character, Dorgon, also known as the Prince of Rui, finally enters the scene. So far, rulings identical to the one that would soon come had already been issued before, most notably when pacifying the Koreans in border conflicts. These rulings were met with resistance and rumors understandably spread among the Chinese that they would be required to do the same if the Manchu would conquer them. So it was never a surprise, but the Manchu reassured that this would absolutely not be the case for the Chinese. With this in mind, shortly after the Qing conquered Beijing, Dorgon issued an edict that demanded the occupied to shave their hair. It was aimed to everyone in the occupied city. A direct response to this were two rebellions at Sanhe and Baoding near Beijing and Dorgon was persuaded to rescind the edict. The momentum of the Qing didn't waver though and they would soon reach Jiangnan where the defeated were yet again demanded to shave their head, now aimed only at the military and other officials. This time, the Qing stood by their demand, shave or die. Shortly thereafter, with the fall of the southern Ming based in Nanjing, a final edict was issued demanding not only soldiers and officials to shave their heads, but every male citizen. The slogan used by the Qing at this point was, cut the hair and keep the head, keep the hair and cut the head. With the timeline up until the final edict fully behind us, there remains two things to mention. Firstly, how did people react to this? Officials who saw themselves as Confucian scholars resisted on the basis of virtue. As to them, this was a form of castration, worse than death in many ways. Many would comply, but some would give their life away to keep their hair. The words of scholar Yang Tingshu encapsulates it laconically. To cut off my head is a small matter, to shave my head is a great matter. Yang was subsequently beheaded. There are many other accounts of scholars offering their heads rather than their hair to the Qing, but it's important to also note that they did not only resist on the basis of their hair being almost holy, but also due to other moral reasons such as loyalty. Failure piety was also meant to be extended to the late Ming emperor and also one's own entire lineage who had enjoyed a bountiful and benevolent rule under the fallen Ming dynasty. It goes to show that these officials saw the rise of the Qing as outrageous for many reasons. As for the commoners, they too found it offensive and for a moment people from all classes had something in common to be outraged about. Local military leaders would claim that cutting one's hair would lead to losing one's wife, as people consider cutting one's hair on the front to haunt masculinity. It would be a significant factor in uprisings that took place around the Lake Tai area and Sources claim that Quanxiang lost 40,000 people in the massacre after the city fell and the city of Jiangyin, over 70,000 people were slaughtered in an order by imperial commanders. This all leads to an obvious question, why was it necessary? Why did the Qing go so far just to have people shave their heads? The first reason is that it created uniformity among the population and most importantly the army. This firstly enforces discipline but also makes it so that the native mantra didn't stick out. So uniformity was a way of integrating the Han and the mantra. Secondly, it provided a perfect loyalty test. While it obviously didn't weed out every potential traitor, the Qing rulers believed that it would greatly aid them, efficacy be damned. This hair style would later become a symbol of identity for the Han, but as the Qing fell in 1912, it eventually phased out. This ushered in a new age of short western hairstyles amongst the Chinese population and finally, after all these years, fully embracing male pattern baldness.