The number of foolish emperors and treacherous ministers in the Qing Dynasty was indeed very small compared to other dynasties, but they were still unable to maintain their power and were completely defeated. There were two main reasons.

1. The Qing Dynasty was also one of the ancient feudal dynasties and could not escape the "three-hundred-year cycle of destruction" unique to ancient dynasties.

Xunzi once said a famous saying, "The movement of heaven is constant. It does not exist for Yao, nor does it perish for Jie." Nature and all things have their own laws of operation, and they will not change just because you are a saint. It changes due to a wise king or a foolish and tyrannical king. This sentence of Xunzi can be regarded as the best summary of the five thousand years of ancient social operation system.

The Qing Dynasty picked Li Zicheng's peaches from a nomadic fishing and hunting tribe outside the customs. It had no ambition or extravagant hope to conquer the Central Plains. Therefore, it was a great deal of luck and chance. The world cherishes the hard work and wants to make an appearance in front of the people of the Central Plains and change the prejudice against them as "lords of barbarians and Di". Therefore, the Qing emperors of all dynasties basically followed the ancestral precepts and never violated them, such as Huizong of the Song Dynasty and Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. There are indeed very few such foolish kings.

The Qing Dynasty also reached the peak of imperial centralization. The extreme expansion of monarchy led to the extreme compression of ministerial power, and ministers were reduced to the emperor's secretaries and staff. This kind of soil could not produce the courageous officials like Kou Zhun and Zhang Juzheng. There are few capable ministers who are brave and knowledgeable, such as Qin Hui and Yan Song.

But the Qing Dynasty, like other ancient dynasties, could not escape the inevitable path from its inception to its development and growth, and then its gradual decline. At the end of three hundred years, it fell into a desperate situation of internal and external difficulties and headed for decline.

2. The international situation faced by the Qing Dynasty was fundamentally different from that of any previous dynasty.

Li Hongzhang said that the Qing Dynasty was facing "changes unprecedented in three thousand years", which was truly insightful. For thousands of years, China has been the world's most powerful country, proud of the world.

But in the late Qing Dynasty, European and American powers quickly emerged as world powers with the help of the Age of Discovery and the Industrial Revolution. Their technological level and military strength constituted a crushing advantage over the Qing Dynasty.

However, the Qing Dynasty clung to its own arrogance and did not know the way to change. It eventually became a weak and poor country that was vulnerable to attack. It became the prey of the great powers but had no power to fight back. It was also a desperate situation step by step. Things must happen.

No matter from which perspective, the demise of the Qing Dynasty is an inevitable trend.