Final answer:
The Chinese attribute historical events such as rebellions, civil wars, and invasions to various internal and external factors, including economic hardships, opium crises, failure to modernize the military, and the influence of revolutionary figures like Sun Yat-sen.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Chinese explained rebellions, civil wars, and invasions using various historical events and factors. Among these were the economic difficulties, such as the inability of the imperial government to pay soldiers leading to layoffs and uprisings, harsh tax increases exacerbating public discontent, and the collapse of Chinese society under the pressures of external invasions and internal crises including natural disasters, opium addiction among officials, and the detrimental impact on infrastructure. Most notably, the Taiping Rebellion, led by Hong Xiuquan, represented a significant upheaval against the Qing Dynasty, attracting peasant support and aiming to establish a new social order with ideals that foreshadowed later communist principles.
Other significant movements include the Boxer Rebellion, which was a reaction against foreign intrusion and European colonialism in China. These occurrences weakened the Qing empire, epitomized by the loss of Korea to Japan after the first Sino-Japanese War and ultimately contributed to the rise of revolutionary figures like Sun Yat-sen, leading to a series of political changes at the turn of the 20th century.