This paper highlights the differences between the Han and Manchu social groups, as well as the various social clashes and changes which existed in 11th century Chinese culture.

The Qing conquest of Ming China placed the numerically superior ethnic group of the Han Chinese under the rule of the outsider Manchurians. The Han Chinese had governed China by way of the Ming dynasty for nearly three hundred years, until the Manchu Qing Dynasty usurped the Ming through military conquest in 1644 A.D. The Qing Dynasty was not the first non-ethnic Chinese dynasty to control China. The Yuan Dynasty was established in 1279 A.D. …

…cities (Struve 53). <Tab/>Manchurian and Han cultures were expressly individual, both ethnicities saw themselves as separate peoples. Through social ideology, appearance, and military mentality the Qing and Han distinguished themselves from one another. The social environment of the Han changed when the Qing took control of China. The Han culture was not able to assimilate the Qing because of Qing mandates that forced the Han to conform to Qing cultural characteristics.