romikgosai/squad_modified huggingface dataset:
Hong Taiji died suddenly in September 1643 without a designated heir. As the Jurchens had traditionally "elected" their leader through a council of nobles, the Qing state did not have in place a clear succession system until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. The leading contenders for power at this time were Hong Taiji's oldest son Hooge and Hong Taiji' half brother Dorgon. A compromise candidate in the person of Hong Taiji's five-year-old son, Fulin, was installed as the Shunzhi Emperor, with Dorgon as regent and de facto leader of the Manchu nation.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Hong Taiji die?
A: September 1643', '
Q: Who was his heir?
A: without a designated heir', "
Q: Who were the likely heirs?
A: Hong Taiji's oldest son Hooge and Hong Taiji' half brother Dorgon", '
Q: Who became the emperor?
A: Fulin']
Ming government officials fought against each other, against fiscal collapse, and against a series of peasant rebellions. They were unable to capitalise on the Manchu succession dispute and installation of a minor as emperor. In April 1644, the capital at Beijing was sacked by a coalition of rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, a former minor Ming official, who established a short-lived Shun dynasty. The last Ming ruler, the Chongzhen Emperor, committed suicide when the city fell, marking the official end of the dynasty.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who raided Beijing in 1644?
A: Li Zicheng', '
Q: Who was Li Zicheng?
A: former minor Ming official', '
Q: Who was the last Ming leader?
A: Chongzhen Emperor', '
Q: What dynasty did Zicheng form?
A: Shun', '
Q: How did the Chongzhen Emporer die?
A: suicide']
Li Zicheng then led a coalition of rebel forces numbering 200,000[a] to confront Wu Sangui, the general commanding the Ming garrison at Shanhai Pass. Shanhai Pass is a pivotal pass of the Great Wall, located fifty miles northeast of Beijing, and for years its defenses kept the Manchus from directly raiding the Ming capital. Wu Sangui, caught between a rebel army twice his size and a foreign enemy he had fought for years, decided to cast his lot with the Manchus, with whom he was familiar. Wu Sangui may have been influenced by Li Zicheng's mistreatment of his family and other wealthy and cultured officials; it was said that Li also took Wu's concubine Chen Yuanyuan for himself. Wu and Dorgon allied in the name of avenging the death of the Chongzhen Emperor. Together, the two former enemies met and defeated Li Zicheng's rebel forces in battle on May 27, 1644.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: How big was Li Zicheng's army?
A: 200,000", "
Q: Who did Li Zicheng's army fight?
A: Wu Sangui", '
Q: What was the name of the general at the Ming fort?
A: Wu Sangui', "
Q: Who beat Li Zicheng's army?
A: Wu and Dorgon", '
Q: When did the battle take place?
A: May 27, 1644']
The newly allied armies captured Beijing on June 6. The Shunzhi Emperor was invested as the "Son of Heaven" on October 30. The Manchus, who had positioned themselves as political heir to the Ming emperor by defeating the rebel Li Zicheng, completed the symbolic transition by holding a formal funeral for the Chongzhen Emperor. However the process of conquering the rest of China took another seventeen years of battling Ming loyalists, pretenders and rebels. The last Ming pretender, Prince Gui, sought refuge with the King of Burma, but was turned over to a Qing expeditionary army commanded by Wu Sangui, who had him brought back to Yunnan province and executed in early 1662.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How long did it take for the Manchus to take the rest of China?
A: seventeen years', '
Q: Who did the Manchus struggle against?
A: Ming loyalists', '
Q: When did the Shunzhi emperor become the Son of Heaven?
A: October 30', '
Q: What was the Shunzi Emperor called?
A: "Son of Heaven"', '
Q: When did Beijing fall?
A: June 6']
Han Chinese Banners were made up of Han Chinese who defected to the Qing up to 1644 and joined the Eight Banners, giving them social and legal privileges in addition to being acculturated to Manchu culture. So many Han defected to the Qing and swelled the ranks of the Eight Banners that ethnic Manchus became a minority, making up only 16% in 1648, with Han Bannermen dominating at 75% and Mongol Bannermen making up the rest. This multi-ethnic force in which Manchus were only a minority conquered China for the Qing.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What percent of bannermen did the Han represent?
A: 75%', '
Q: Who made up the Han Chinese Banners?
A: Han Chinese', '
Q: Who besides the Manchus and the Han made up the Eight Banners?
A: Mongol']
The Qing showed that the Manchus valued military skills in propaganda targeted towards the Ming military to get them to defect to the Qing, since the Ming civilian political system discriminated against the military. The three Liaodong Han Bannermen officers who played a massive role in the conquest of southern China from the Ming were Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, and Kong Youde and they governed southern China autonomously as viceroys for the Qing after their conquests. Normally the Manchu Bannermen acted only as reserve forces or in the rear and were used predominantly for quick strikes with maximum impact, so as to minimize ethnic Manchu losses; instead, the Qing used defected Han Chinese troops to fight as the vanguard during the entire conquest of China.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who were the three Liandong Han bannermen who were instrumental in the taking of southern China?
A: Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, and Kong Youde', '
Q: What part of China did Kexi, Zhongming, and Youde rule?
A: southern China', '
Q: What was the three Han Bannermen position called?
A: viceroys']
First, the Manchus had entered "China proper" because Dorgon responded decisively to Wu Sangui's appeal. Then, after capturing Beijing, instead of sacking the city as the rebels had done, Dorgon insisted, over the protests of other Manchu princes, on making it the dynastic capital and reappointing most Ming officials. Choosing Beijing as the capital had not been a straightforward decision, since no major Chinese dynasty had directly taken over its immediate predecessor's capital. Keeping the Ming capital and bureaucracy intact helped quickly stabilize the regime and sped up the conquest of the rest of the country. However, not all of Dorgon's policies were equally popular nor easily implemented.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who made Beijing his capital?
A: Dorgon', "
Q: Whose capital was Beijing before the Manchu's?
A: Ming", '
Q: Why did Dorgon keep Beijing as his capital?
A: stabilize the regime and sped up the conquest of the rest of the country']
Dorgon's controversial July 1645 edict (the "haircutting order") forced adult Han Chinese men to shave the front of their heads and comb the remaining hair into the queue hairstyle which was worn by Manchu men, on pain of death. The popular description of the order was: "To keep the hair, you lose the head; To keep your head, you cut the hair." To the Manchus, this policy was a test of loyalty and an aid in distinguishing friend from foe. For the Han Chinese, however, it was a humiliating reminder of Qing authority that challenged traditional Confucian values. The Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing) held that "a person's body and hair, being gifts from one's parents, are not to be damaged." Under the Ming dynasty, adult men did not cut their hair but instead wore it in the form of a top-knot. The order triggered strong resistance to Qing rule in Jiangnan and massive killing of ethnic Han Chinese. It was Han Chinese defectors who carried out massacres against people refusing to wear the queue.. Li Chengdong, a Han Chinese general who had served the Ming but surrendered to the Qing, ordered his Han troops to carry out three separate massacres in the city of Jiading within a month, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. At the end of the third massacre, there was hardly any living person left in this city. Jiangyin also held out against about 10,000 Han Chinese Qing troops for 83 days. When the city wall was finally breached on 9 October 1645, the Han Chinese Qing army led by the Han Chinese Ming defector Liu Liangzuo (劉良佐), who had been ordered to "fill the city with corpses before you sheathe your swords," massacred the entire population, killing between 74,000 and 100,000 people. The queue was the only aspect of Manchu culture which the Qing forced on the common Han population. The Qing required people serving as officials to wear Manchu clothing, but allowed non-official Han civilians to continue wearing Hanfu (Han clothing).

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What did Dorgon declare in July of 1645?
A: the "haircutting order")', '
Q: What was the peoples description of the haircutting order?
A: "To keep the hair, you lose the head; To keep your head, you cut the hair."', "
Q: How did the Ming's typically wear their hair>
A: top-knot", '
Q: What city was massacred for not wearing the proper haircut?
A: Jiading']
Although his support had been essential to Shunzhi's ascent, Dorgon had through the years centralised so much power in his hands as to become a direct threat to the throne. So much so that upon his death he was extraordinarily bestowed the posthumous title of Emperor Yi (Chinese: 義皇帝), the only instance in Qing history in which a Manchu "prince of the blood" (Chinese: 親王) was so honored. Two months into Shunzhi's personal rule, Dorgon was not only stripped of his titles, but his corpse was disinterred and mutilated.[b] to atone for multiple "crimes", one of which was persecuting to death Shunzhi’s agnate eldest brother, Hooge. More importantly, Dorgon's symbolic fall from grace also signaled a political purge of his family and associates at court, thus reverting power back to the person of the emperor. After a promising start, Shunzhi's reign was cut short by his early death in 1661 at the age of twenty-four from smallpox. He was succeeded by his third son Xuanye, who reigned as the Kangxi Emperor.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: Who was a threat to Shunzhi's throne?
A: Dorgon", '
Q: What was Dorgon known as after death?
A: Emperor Yi', "
Q: When did Shunzhi's death?
A: 1661", "
Q: Who was Shunzhi's oldest brother?
A: Hooge", '
Q: How old was Shunzhi at his death?
A: twenty-four']
The Manchus sent Han Bannermen to fight against Koxinga's Ming loyalists in Fujian. The Qing carried out a massive depopulation policy and seaban forcing people to evacuated the coast in order to deprive Koxinga's Ming loyalists of resources, this has led to a myth that it was because Manchus were "afraid of water". In Fujian, it was Han Bannermen who were the ones carrying out the fighting and killing for the Qing and this disproved the entirely irrelevant claim that alleged fear of the water on part of the Manchus had to do with the coastal evacuation and seaban. Even though a poem refers to the soldiers carrying out massacres in Fujian as "barbarian", both Han Green Standard Army and Han Bannermen were involved in the fighting for the Qing side and carried out the worst slaughter. 400,000 Green Standard Army soldiers were used against the Three Feudatories besides 200,000 Bannermen.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: Who did the Manchus send to battle Koxinga's troops?
A: Han Bannermen", '
Q: Where did the fight between Ming loyalists and Manchus occur?
A: Fujian', '
Q: What were the Manchus accused of being afraid of?
A: water']
The sixty-one year reign of the Kangxi Emperor was the longest of any Chinese emperor. Kangxi's reign is also celebrated as the beginning of an era known as the "High Qing", during which the dynasty reached the zenith of its social, economic and military power. Kangxi's long reign started when he was eight years old upon the untimely demise of his father. To prevent a repeat of Dorgon's dictatorial monopolizing of power during the regency, the Shunzhi Emperor, on his deathbed, hastily appointed four senior cabinet ministers to govern on behalf of his young son. The four ministers — Sonin, Ebilun, Suksaha, and Oboi — were chosen for their long service, but also to counteract each other's influences. Most important, the four were not closely related to the imperial family and laid no claim to the throne. However, as time passed, through chance and machination, Oboi, the most junior of the four, achieved such political dominance as to be a potential threat. Even though Oboi's loyalty was never an issue, his personal arrogance and political conservatism led him into an escalating conflict with the young emperor. In 1669 Kangxi, through trickery, disarmed and imprisoned Oboi — a significant victory for a fifteen-year-old emperor over a wily politician and experienced commander.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How long was Kangxi Emperor in power?
A: sixty-one year', "
Q: What era did Kanxi's rule kick off?
A: High Qing", '
Q: Who had the longest rule of any emperor?
A: Kangxi', '
Q: How old was Kangxi when he took over?
A: eight', '
Q: Who ruled while Kangxi was young?
A: Oboi']
The early Manchu rulers also established two foundations of legitimacy which help to explain the stability of their dynasty. The first was the bureaucratic institutions and the neo-Confucian culture which they adopted from earlier dynasties. Manchu rulers and Han Chinese scholar-official elites gradually came to terms with each other. The examination system offered a path for ethnic Han to become officials. Imperial patronage of Kangxi Dictionary demonstrated respect for Confucian learning, while the Sacred Edict of 1670 effectively extolled Confucian family values. The second major source of stability was the Central Asian aspect of their Manchu identity which allowed them to appeal to Mongol, Tibetan and Uighur constituents. The Qing used the title of Emperor (Huangdi) in Chinese while among Mongols the Qing monarch was referred to as Bogda khan (wise Khan), and referred to as Gong Ma in Tibet. Qianlong propagated the image of himself as Buddhist sage rulers, patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Manchu language, the Qing monarch was alternately referred to as either Huwangdi (Emperor) or Khan with no special distinction between the two usages. The Kangxi Emperor also welcomed to his court Jesuit missionaries, who had first come to China under the Ming. Missionaries including Tomás Pereira, Martino Martini, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, Ferdinand Verbiest and Antoine Thomas held significant positions as military weapons experts, mathematicians, cartographers, astronomers and advisers to the emperor. The relationship of trust was however lost in the later Chinese Rites controversy.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What type of learning did the early Manchu leaders respect?
A: Confucian', '
Q: What declaration solidified Confucian values?
A: Sacred Edict of 1670', '
Q: Who did the Manchu appeal to?
A: Mongol, Tibetan and Uighur', '
Q: What Christians did Kangxi allow in his court?
A: Jesuit missionaries']
Yet controlling the "Mandate of Heaven" was a daunting task. The vastness of China's territory meant that there were only enough banner troops to garrison key cities forming the backbone of a defense network that relied heavily on surrendered Ming soldiers. In addition, three surrendered Ming generals were singled out for their contributions to the establishment of the Qing dynasty, ennobled as feudal princes (藩王), and given governorships over vast territories in Southern China. The chief of these was Wu Sangui, who was given the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, while generals Shang Kexi and Geng Jingzhong were given Guangdong and Fujian provinces respectively.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who was the most important Ming general?
A: Wu Sangui', '
Q: What provinces did Sangui control?
A: Yunnan and Guizhou', '
Q: Name the other two important Ming generals?
A: Shang Kexi and Geng Jingzhong', '
Q: Which provinces did Kexi and Jingzhong receive?
A: Guangdong and Fujian']
As the years went by, the three feudal lords and their extensive territories became increasingly autonomous. Finally, in 1673, Shang Kexi petitioned Kangxi for permission to retire to his hometown in Liaodong province and nominated his son as his successor. The young emperor granted his retirement, but denied the heredity of his fief. In reaction, the two other generals decided to petition for their own retirements to test Kangxi's resolve, thinking that he would not risk offending them. The move backfired as the young emperor called their bluff by accepting their requests and ordering that all three fiefdoms to be reverted to the crown.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Kexi retire?
A: 1673', '
Q: Who did Kexi thing should take over for him?
A: his son', '
Q: What happened when Kexi, and the two other generals all retired?
A: all three fiefdoms to be reverted to the crown.']
Faced with the stripping of their powers, Wu Sangui, later joined by Geng Zhongming and by Shang Kexi's son Shang Zhixin, felt they had no choice but to revolt. The ensuing Revolt of the Three Feudatories lasted for eight years. Wu attempted, ultimately in vain, to fire the embers of south China Ming loyalty by restoring Ming customs, ordering that the resented queues be cut, and declaring himself emperor of a new dynasty. At the peak of the rebels' fortunes, they extended their control as far north as the Yangtze River, nearly establishing a divided China. Wu then hesitated to go further north, not being able to coordinate strategy with his allies, and Kangxi was able to unify his forces for a counterattack led by a new generation of Manchu generals. By 1681, the Qing government had established control over a ravaged southern China which took several decades to recover. Manchu Generals and Bannermen were initially put to shame by the better performance of the Han Chinese Green Standard Army, who fought better than them against the rebels and this was noted by Kangxi, leading him to task Generals Sun Sike, Wang Jinbao, and Zhao Liangdong to lead Green Standard Soldiers to crush the rebels. The Qing thought that Han Chinese were superior at battling other Han people and so used the Green Standard Army as the dominant and majority army in crushing the rebels instead of Bannermen. Similarly, in northwestern China against Wang Fuchen, the Qing used Han Chinese Green Standard Army soldiers and Han Chinese Generals such as Zhang Liangdong, Wang Jinbao, and Zhang Yong as the primary military forces. This choice was due to the rocky terrain, which favoured infantry troops over cavalry, to the desire to keep Bannermen in the reserves, and, again, to the belief that Han troops were better at fighting other Han people. These Han generals achieved victory over the rebels. Also due to the mountainous terrain, Sichuan and southern Shaanxi were also retaken by the Han Chinese Green Standard Army under Wang Jinbao and Zhao Liangdong in 1680, with Manchus only participating in dealing with logistics and provisions. 400,000 Green Standard Army soldiers and 150,000 Bannermen served on the Qing side during the war. 213 Han Chinese Banner companies, and 527 companies of Mongol and Manchu Banners were mobilized by the Qing during the revolt. 400,000 Green Standard Army soldiers were used against the Three Feudatories besides 200,000 Bannermen.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How long did the Revolt of the Three Feudatories last?
A: eight years', '
Q: Who declared himself emperor?
A: Wu', '
Q: When did the Qing regain power over southern China?
A: 1681', '
Q: Who did the Qing think were the better soldiers to battle Han Chinese?
A: other Han people', '
Q: How many Green Standard Army soldiers  were on the Qing side?
A: 400,000']
The Qing forces were crushed by Wu from 1673-1674. The Qing had the support of the majority of Han Chinese soldiers and Han elite against the Three Feudatories, since they refused to join Wu Sangui in the revolt, while the Eight Banners and Manchu officers fared poorly against Wu Sangui, so the Qing responded with using a massive army of more than 900,000 Han Chinese (non-Banner) instead of the Eight Banners, to fight and crush the Three Feudatories. Wu Sangui's forces were crushed by the Green Standard Army, made out of defected Ming soldiers.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Wu destroy the Qing armies?
A: 1673-1674', '
Q: How many soldiers did the Qing fight back with?
A: 900,000', "
Q: What happened to Wu's army?
A: crushed by the Green Standard Army"]
To extend and consolidate the dynasty's control in Central Asia, the Kangxi Emperor personally led a series of military campaigns against the Dzungars in Outer Mongolia. The Kangxi Emperor was able to successfully expel Galdan's invading forces from these regions, which were then incorporated into the empire. Galdan was eventually killed in the Dzungar–Qing War. In 1683, Qing forces received the surrender of Taiwan from Zheng Keshuang, grandson of Koxinga, who had conquered Taiwan from the Dutch colonists as a base against the Qing. Zheng Keshuang was awarded the title "Duke Haicheng" (海澄公) and was inducted into the Han Chinese Plain Red Banner of the Eight Banners when he moved to Beijing. Several Ming princes had accompanied Koxinga to Taiwan in 1661-1662, including the Prince of Ningjing Zhu Shugui and Prince Zhu Honghuan (朱弘桓), son of Zhu Yihai, where they lived in the Kingdom of Tungning. The Qing sent the 17 Ming princes still living on Taiwan in 1683 back to mainland China where they spent the rest of their lives in exile since their lives were spared from execution. Winning Taiwan freed Kangxi's forces for series of battles over Albazin, the far eastern outpost of the Tsardom of Russia. Zheng's former soldiers on Taiwan like the rattan shield troops were also inducted into the Eight Banners and used by the Qing against Russian Cossacks at Albazin. The 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk was China's first formal treaty with a European power and kept the border peaceful for the better part of two centuries. After Galdan's death, his followers, as adherents to Tibetan Buddhism, attempted to control the choice of the next Dalai Lama. Kangxi dispatched two armies to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and installed a Dalai Lama sympathetic to the Qing.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Who did Kangxi fight?
A: Dzungars', '
Q: When was Galdan killed?
A: Dzungar–Qing War', '
Q: Where did Kangxi lead an army?
A: Outer Mongolia', '
Q: When did Taiwan fall?
A: 1683', '
Q: What European country did Kangxi fight?
A: Russia']
After the Kangxi Emperor's death in the winter of 1722, his fourth son, Prince Yong (雍親王), became the Yongzheng Emperor. In the later years of Kangxi's reign, Yongzheng and his brothers had fought, and there were rumours that he had usurped the throne(most of the rumours believe that Yongzheng's brother Yingzhen (Kangxi's 14th son) is the real successor of Kangxi Emperor, the reason why Yingzhen failed to sit on the throne is because Yongzheng and his confidant Keduo Long tampered the content of Kangxi's testament at the night when Kangxi passed away), a charge for which there is little evidence. In fact, his father had trusted him with delicate political issues and discussed state policy with him. When Yongzheng came to power at the age of 45, he felt a sense of urgency about the problems which had accumulated in his father's later years and did not need instruction in how to exercise power. In the words of one recent historian, he was "severe, suspicious, and jealous, but extremely capable and resourceful," and in the words of another, turned out to be an "early modern state-maker of the first order."

Questions and answers:
['
Q: When did Kangxi die?
A: 1722', "
Q: Who took Kangxi's place?
A: Prince Yong", '
Q: How old was Yongzheng when he took over?
A: 45']