CHINA AND THE MANCHUS

By Herbert A. Giles

Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge, and sometime H. B. M. Consul at Ningpo. 

NOTE

It is impossible to give here a complete key to the pronunciationof Chinese words. For those who wish to pronounce with approximatecorrectness the proper names in this volume, the following may be arough guide:--

 a as in alms. ê as u in fun. I as ie in thief. O as aw in saw. U as oo in soon. ü as u in French, or ü in German. {u} as e in her. Ai as aye (yes). Ao as ow in cow. Ei as ey in prey. Ow as o (not as ow in cow). Ch as ch in church. Chih as chu in church. Hs as sh (hsiu = sheeoo). J as in French. Ua and uo as wa and wo. 

 The insertion of a rough breathing ` calls for a strong aspirate. 

CHINA AND THE MANCHUS

CHAPTER I--THE NÜ-CHÊNS AND KITANS

The Manchus are descended from a branch of certain wild Tungusic nomads, who were known in the ninth century as the Nü-chêns, a name which hasbeen said to mean "west of the sea. " The cradle of their race lay at thebase of the Ever-White Mountains, due north of Korea, and was fertilisedby the head waters of the Yalu River. 

In an illustrated Chinese work of the fourteenth century, of which theCambridge University Library possesses the only known copy, we read thatthey reached this spot, originally the home of the Su-shên tribe, asfugitives from Korea; further, that careless of death and prizing valouronly, they carried naked knives about their persons, never parting fromthem by day or night, and that they were as "poisonous" as wolves ortigers. They also tattooed their faces, and at marriage their mouths. By the close of the ninth century the Nü-chêns had become subject tothe neighbouring Kitans, then under the rule of the vigorous Kitanchieftain, Opaochi, who, in 907, proclaimed himself Emperor of anindependent kingdom with the dynastic title of Liao, said to mean"iron, " and who at once entered upon that long course of aggressionagainst China and encroachment upon her territory which was to resultin the practical division of the empire between the two powers, with theYellow River as boundary, K`ai-fêng as the Chinese capital, and Peking, now for the first time raised to the status of a metropolis, as theKitan capital. Hitherto, the Kitans had recognised China as theirsuzerain; they are first mentioned in Chinese history in A. D. 468, whenthey sent ambassadors to court, with tribute. 

Turning now to China, the famous House of Sung, the early years of whichwere so full of promise of national prosperity, and which is deservedlyassociated with one of the two most brilliant periods in Chineseliterature, was founded in 960. Korea was then forced, in order toprotect herself from the encroachments of China, to accept the hatedsupremacy of the Kitans; but being promptly called upon to surrenderlarge tracts of territory, she suddenly entered into an alliance withthe Nü-chêns, who were also ready to revolt, and who sent an army to theassistance of their new friends. The Nü-chên and Korean armies, actingin concert, inflicted a severe defeat on the Kitans, and from thisvictory may be dated the beginning of the Nü-chên power. China hadindeed already sent an embassy to the Nü-chêns, suggesting an allianceand also a combination with Korea, by which means the aggression of theKitans might easily be checked; but during the eleventh century Koreabecame alienated from the Nü-chêns, and even went so far as to adviseChina to join with the Kitans in crushing the Nü-chêns. China, no doubt, would have been glad to get rid of both these troublesome neighbours, especially the Kitans, who were gradually filching territory from theempire, and driving the Chinese out of the southern portion of theprovince of Chihli. 

For a long period China weakly allowed herself to be blackmailed by theKitans, who, in return for a large money subsidy and valuable suppliesof silk, forwarded a quite insignificant amount of local produce, whichwas called "tribute" by the Chinese court. 

Early in the twelfth century, the Kitan monarch paid a visit to theSungari River, for the purpose of fishing, and was duly received bythe chiefs of the Nü-chên tribes in that district. On this occasion theKitan Emperor, who had taken perhaps more liquor than was good for him, ordered the younger men of the company to get up and dance before him. This command was ignored by the son of one of the chiefs, named Akutêng(sometimes, but wrongly, written _Akuta_), and it was suggested tothe Emperor that he should devise means for putting out of the way souncompromising a spirit. No notice, however, was taken of the affairat the moment; and that night Akutêng, with a band of followers, disappeared from the scene. Making his way eastward, across the Sungari, he started a movement which may be said to have culminated five hundredyears later in the conquest of China by the Manchus. In 1114 he began toact on the offensive, and succeeded in inflicting a severe defeat onthe Kitans. By 1115 he had so far advanced towards the foundation of anindependent kingdom that he actually assumed the title of Emperor. Thuswas presented the rare spectacle of three contemporary rulers, each ofwhom claimed a title which, according to the Chinese theory, could onlybelong to one. The style he chose for his dynasty was Chin (also read_Kin_), which means "gold, " and which some say was intended to mark asuperiority over Liao (= iron), that of the Kitans, on the ground thatgold is not, like iron, a prey to rust. Others, however, trace theorigin of the term to the fact that gold was found in the Nü-chênterritory. 

A small point which has given rise to some confusion, may fitly bementioned here. The tribe of Tartars hitherto spoken of as Nü-chêns, andhenceforth known in history as the "Golden Dynasty, " in 1035 changed theword _chên_ for _chih_, and were called Nü-chih Tartars. They did thisbecause at that date the word _chên_ was part of the personal name ofthe reigning Kitan Emperor, and therefore taboo. The necessity for suchchange would of course cease with their emancipation from Kitan rule, and the old name would be revived; it will accordingly be continued inthe following pages. 

The victories of Akutêng over the Kitans were most welcome to theChinese Emperor, who saw his late oppressors humbled to the dust by thevictorious Nü-chêns; and in 1120 a treaty of alliance was signed by thetwo powers against the common enemy. The upshot of this move was thatthe Kitans were severely defeated in all directions, and their chiefcities fell into the hands of the Nü-chêns, who finally succeeded, in1122, in taking Peking by assault, the Kitan Emperor having alreadysought safety in flight. When, however, the time came for an equitablesettlement of territory between China and the victorious Nü-chêns, theChinese Emperor discovered that the Nü-chêns, inasmuch as they had donemost of the fighting, were determined to have the lion's share of thereward; in fact, the yoke imposed by the latter proved if anything moreburdensome than that of the dreaded Kitans. More territory was taken bythe Nü-chêns, and even larger levies of money were exacted, while thesame old farce of worthless tribute was carried on as before. 

In 1123, Akutêng died, and was canonised as the first Emperor of theChin, or Golden Dynasty. He was succeeded by a brother; and two yearslater, the last Emperor of the Kitans was captured and relegated toprivate life, thus bringing the dynasty to an end. 

The new Emperor of the Nü-chêns spent the rest of his life in one longstruggle with China. In 1126, the Sung capital, the modern K`ai-fêngFu in Honan, was twice besieged: on the first occasion for thirty-threedays, when a heavy ransom was exacted and some territory was ceded; onthe second occasion for forty days, when it fell, and was given up topillage. In 1127, the feeble Chinese Emperor was seized and carried off, and by 1129 the whole of China north of the Yang-tsze was in thehands of the Nü-chêns. The younger brother of the banished Emperor wasproclaimed by the Chinese at Nanking, and managed to set up what isknown as the southern Sung dynasty; but the Nü-chêns gave him no rest, driving him first out of Nanking, and then out of Hangchow, where he hadonce more established a capital. Ultimately, there was peace of a moreor less permanent character, chiefly due to the genius of a notableChinese general of the day; and the Nü-chêns had to accept the Yang-tszeas the dividing line between the two powers. 

The next seventy years were freely marked by raids, first of one sideand then of the other; but by the close of the twelfth century theMongols were pressing the Nü-chêns from the north, and the southernSungs were seizing the opportunity to attack their old enemies fromthe south. Finally, in 1234, the independence of the Golden Dynastyof Nü-chêns was extinguished by Ogotai, third son of the great GenghisKhan, with the aid of the southern Sungs, who were themselves in turnwiped out by Kublai Khan, the first Mongol Emperor to rule over a unitedChina. 

The name of this wandering people, whose territory covers such ahuge space on the map, has been variously derived from (1) _moengel_, celestial, (2) _mong_, brave, and (3) _munku_, silver, the lastmentioned being favoured by some because of its relation to the iron andgolden dynasties of the Kitans and Nü-chêns respectively. 

Three centuries and a half must now pass away before entering upon thenext act of the Manchu drama. The Nü-chêns had been scotched, but notkilled, by their Mongol conquerors, who, one hundred and thirty-fouryears later (1368), were themselves driven out of China, a pure nativedynasty being re-established under the style of Ming, "Bright. " Duringthe ensuing two hundred years the Nü-chêns were scarcely heard of, theHouse of Ming being busily occupied in other directions. Their warlikespirit, however, found scope and nourishment in the expeditionsorganised against Japan and Tan-lo, or Quelpart, as named by the Dutch, a large island to the south of the Korean peninsula; while on the otherhand the various tribes scattered over a portion of the territory knownto Europeans as Manchuria, availed themselves of long immunity fromattack by the Chinese to advance in civilization and prosperity. Itmay be noted here that "Manchuria" is unknown to the Chinese or to theManchus themselves as a geographical expression. The present extensivehome of the Manchus is usually spoken of as the Three Eastern Provinces, namely, (1) Shêng-king, or Liao-tung, or Kuan-tung, (2) Kirin, and (3)Heilungchiang or Tsitsihar. 

Among the numerous small independent communities above mentioned, whichtraced their ancestry to the Nü-chêns of old, one of the smallest, themembers of which inhabited a tract of territory due east of what is nowthe city of Mukden, and were shortly to call themselves Manchus, --theorigin of the name is not known, --produced, in 1559, a young hero whoaltered the course of Chinese history to such an extent that for nearlythree hundred years his descendants sat on the throne of China, andruled over what was for a great portion of the time the largest empireon earth. Nurhachu, the real founder of the Manchu power, was bornin 1559, from a virile stock, and was soon recognised to be anextraordinary child. We need not linger over his dragon face, his phoenixeye, or even over his large, drooping ears, which have always beenassociated by the Chinese with intellectual ability. He first came intoprominence in 1583, when, at twenty-four years of age, he took up arms, at the head of only one hundred and thirty men, in connection with thetreacherous murder by a rival chieftain of his father and grandfather, who had ruled over a petty principality of almost infinitesimal extent;and he finally succeeded three years later in securing from theChinese, who had been arrayed against him, not only the surrender ofthe murderer, but also a sum of money and some robes of honour. He wasfurther successful in negotiating a treaty, under the terms of whichManchu furs could be exchanged at certain points for such Chinesecommodities as cotton, sugar, and grain. 

In 1587, Nurhachu built a walled city, and established an administrationin his tiny principality, the even-handed justice and purity of whichsoon attracted a large number of settlers, and before very long he hadsucceeded in amalgamating five Manchu States under his personal rule. Extension of territory by annexation after victories over neighbouringStates followed as a matter of course, the result being that his growingpower came to be regarded with suspicion, and even dread. At length, a joint attempt on the part of seven States, aided by two Mongolchieftains, was made to crush him; but, although numerical superioritywas overpoweringly against him, he managed to turn the enemy's attackinto a rout, killed four thousand men, and captured three thousandhorses, besides other booty. Following up this victory by furtherannexations, he now began to present a bold front to the Chinese, declaring himself independent, and refusing any longer to pay tribute. In 1604, he built himself a new capital, Hingking, which he placed notvery far east of the modern Mukden, and there he received envoys fromthe Mongolian chieftains, sent to congratulate him on his triumph. 

At this period the Manchus, whose spoken words were polysyllabic, andnot monosyllabic like Chinese, had no written language beyond certainrude attempts at alphabetic writing, formed from Chinese characters, andfound to be of little practical value. The necessity for something moreconvenient soon appealed to the prescient and active mind of Nurhachu;accordingly, in 1599, he gave orders to two learned scholars to preparea suitable script for his rapidly increasing subjects. This theyaccomplished by basing the new script upon Mongol, which had beeninvented in 1269, by Baschpa, or 'Phagspa, a Tibetan lama, acting underthe direction of Kublai Khan. Baschpa had based his script upon thewritten language of the Ouigours, who were descendants of the Hsiung-nu, or Huns. The Ouigours, known by that name since the year 629, were oncethe ruling race in the regions which now form the khanates of Khiva andBokhara, and had been the first of the tribes of Central Asia to have ascript of their own. This they formed from the Estrangelo Syraic ofthe Nestorians, who appeared in China in the early part of the seventhcentury. The Manchu written language, therefore, is lineally descendedfrom Syraic; indeed, the family likeness of both Manchu and Mongolto the parent stem is quite obvious, except that these two scripts, evidently influenced by Chinese, are written vertically, though, unlikeChinese, they are read from left to right. Thirty-three years latervarious improvements were introduced, leaving the Manchu scriptprecisely as we find it at the present day. 

In 1613, Nurhachu had gathered about him an army of some forty thousandmen; and by a series of raids in various directions, he furthergradually succeeded in extending considerably the boundaries of hiskingdom. There now remained but one large and important State, towardsthe annexation of which he directed all his efforts. After elaboratepreparations which extended over more than two years, at the beginningof which (1616) the term Manchu (etymology unknown) was definitivelyadopted as a national title, Nurhachu, in 1618, drew up a list ofgrievances against the Chinese, under which he declared that his peoplehad been and were still suffering, and solemnly committed it to theflames, --a recognised method of communication with the spirits of heavenand earth. This document consisted of seven clauses, and was addressedto the Emperor of China; it was, in fact, a declaration of war. TheChinese, who were fast becoming aware that a dangerous enemy had arisen, and that their own territory would be the next to be threatened, atlength decided to oppose any further progress on the part of Narhachu;and with this view dispatched an army of two hundred thousand menagainst him. These troops, many of whom were physically unfit, weredivided on arrival at Mukden into four bodies, each with some separateaim, the achievement of which was to conduce to the speedy disruption ofNurhachu's power. The issue of this move was certainly not expected oneither side. In a word, Nurhachu defeated his Chinese antagonistsin detail, finally inflicting such a crushing blow that he was leftcompletely master of the situation, and before very long had realisedthe chief object of his ambition, namely, the reunion under one rule ofthose states into which the Golden Dynasty had been broken up when itcollapsed before the Mongols in 1234. 

CHAPTER II--THE FALL OF THE MINGS

It is almost a conventionalism to attribute the fall of a Chinesedynasty to the malign influence of eunuchs. The Imperial court wasundoubtedly at this date entirely in the hands of eunuchs, who occupiedall kinds of lucrative posts for which they were quite unfitted, andeven accompanied the army, nominally as officials, but really as spiesupon the generals in command. One of the most notorious of these was WeiChung-hsien, whose career may be taken as typical of his class. He was anative of Sun-ning in Chihli, of profligate character, who made himselfa eunuch, and changed his name to Li Chin-chung. Entering the palace, he managed to get into the service of the mother of the future Emperor, posthumously canonised as Hsi Tsung, and became the paramour of thatweak monarch's wet-nurse. The pair gained the Emperor's affection to anextraordinary degree, and Wei, an ignorant brute, was the real rulerof China during the reign of Hsi Tsung. He always took care to presentmemorials and other State papers when his Majesty was engrossed incarpentry, and the Emperor would pretend to know all about the question, and tell Wei to deal with it. Aided by unworthy censors, a body ofofficials who are supposed to be the "eyes and ears" of the monarch, and privileged to censure him for misgovernment, he gradually drove allloyal men from office, and put his opponents to cruel and ignominiousdeaths. He persuaded Hsi Tsung to enrol a division of eunuch troops, tenthousand strong, armed with muskets; while, by causing the Empress tohave a miscarriage, his paramour cleared his way to the throne. Manyofficials espoused his cause, and the infatuated sovereign never weariedof loading him with favours. In 1626, temples were erected to him in allthe provinces except Fuhkien, his image received Imperial honours, andhe was styled Nine Thousand Years, i. E. Only one thousand less than theEmperor himself, the Chinese term in the latter case being _wan sui_, which has been adopted by the Japanese as _banzai_. All successes wereascribed to his influence, a Grand Secretary declaring that his virtuehad actually caused the appearance of a "unicorn" in Shantung. In 1627, he was likened in a memorial to Confucius, and it was decreed that heshould be worshipped with the Sage in the Imperial Academy. His hopeswere overthrown by the death of Hsi Tsung, whose successor promptlydismissed him. He hanged himself to escape trial, and his corpse wasdisembowelled. His paramour was executed, and in 1629, nearly threehundred persons were convicted and sentenced to varying penalties forbeing connected with his schemes. 

Jobbery and corruption were rife; and at the present juncture theseagencies were successfully employed to effect the recall of a reallyable general who had been sent from Peking to recover lost ground, andprevent further encroachments by the Manchus. For a time, Nurhachu hadbeen held in check by his skilful dispositions of troops, Mukden wasstrongly fortified, and confidence generally was restored; but the fatalpolicy of the new general rapidly alienated the Chinese inhabitants, andcaused them to enter secretly into communication with the Manchus. Itwas thus that in 1621 Nurhachu was in a position to advance uponMukden. Encamping within a mile or two of the city, he sent forwarda reconnoitring party, which was immediately attacked by the Chinesecommandant at the head of a large force. The former fled, and thelatter pursued, only to fall into the inevitable ambush; and the Chinesetroops, on retiring in their turn, found that the bridge across themoat had been destroyed by traitors in their own camp, so that they wereunable to re-enter the city. Thus Mukden fell, the prelude to a seriesof further victories, one of which was the rout of an army sent toretake Mukden, and the chief of which was the capture of Liao-yang, nowremembered in connection with the Russo-Japanese war. In many of theseengagements the Manchus, whose chief weapon was the long bow, which theyused with deadly effect, found themselves opposed by artillery, theuse of which had been taught to the Chinese by Adam Schaal, the Jesuitfather. The supply of powder, however, had a way of running short, andat once the pronounced superiority of the Manchu archers prevailed. 

Other cities now began to tender a voluntary submission, andmany Chinese took to shaving the head and wearing the queue, inacknowledgment of their allegiance to the Manchus. All, however, was notyet over, for the growing Manchu power was still subjected to frequentattacks from Chinese arms in directions as far as possible removedfrom points where Manchu troops were concentrated. Meanwhile Nurhachugradually extended his borders eastward, until in 1625, the year inwhich he placed his capital at Mukden, his frontiers reached to the seaon the east and to the river Amur on the north, the important city ofNing-yüan being almost the only possession remaining to the Chinesebeyond the Great Wall. The explanation of this is as follows. 

An incompetent general, as above mentioned, had been sent at theinstance of the eunuchs to supersede an officer who had been holdinghis own with considerable success, but who was not a _persona grata_at court. The new general at once decided that no territory outside theGreat Wall was to be held against the Manchus, and gave orders for theimmediate retirement of all troops and Chinese residents generally. To this command the civil governor of Ning-yüan, and the militarycommandant, sent an indignant protest, writing out an oath with theirblood that they would never surrender the city. Nurhachu seized theopportunity, and delivered a violent attack, with which he seemed to bemaking some progress, until at length artillery was brought into play. The havoc caused by the guns at close quarters was terrific, andthe Manchus fled. This defeat was a blow from which Nurhachu neverrecovered; his chagrin brought on a serious illness, and he died in1626, aged sixty-eight. Later on, when his descendants were sitting uponthe throne of China, he was canonised as T`ai Tsu, the Great Ancestor, the representatives of the four preceding generations of his familybeing canonised as Princes. 

Nurhachu was succeeded by his fourth son, Abkhai, then thirty-fouryears of age, and a tried warrior. His reign began with a correspondencebetween himself and the governor who had been the successful defender ofNing-yüan, in which some attempt was made to conclude a treaty of peace. The Chinese on their side demanded the return of all captured cities andterritory; while the Manchus, who refused to consider any such terms, suggested that China should pay them a huge subsidy in money, silk, etc. , in return for which they offered but a moderate supply of furs, and something over half a ton of ginseng (_Panax repens_), the famousforked root said to resemble the human body, and much valued by theChinese as a strengthening medicine. This, of course, was a case of"giving too little and asking too much, " and the negotiations came tonothing. In 1629, Abkhai, who by this time was master of Korea, marchedupon Peking, at the head of a large army, and encamped within a fewmiles from its walls; but he was unable to capture the city, and hadfinally to retire. The next few years were devoted by the Manchus, whonow began to possess artillery of their own casting, to the conquest ofMongolia, in the hope of thus securing an easy passage for their armiesinto China. An offer of peace was now made by the Chinese Emperor, forreasons shortly to be stated; but the Manchu terms were too severe, andhostilities were resumed, the Manchus chiefly occupying themselves indevastating the country round Peking, their numbers being constantlyswelled by a stream of deserters from the Chinese ranks. In 1643, Abkhaidied; he was succeeded by his ninth son, a boy of five, and was later oncanonised as T`ai Tsung, the Great Forefather. By 1635, he had alreadybegun to style himself Emperor of China, and had established a systemof public examinations. The name of the dynasty had been "Manchu" eversince 1616; twenty years later he translated this term into the Chineseword _Ch`ing_ (or Ts`ing), which means "pure"; and as the Great PureDynasty it will be remembered in history. Other important enactments ofhis reign were prohibitions against the use of tobacco, which had beenrecently introduced into Manchuria from Japan, through Korea; againstthe Chinese fashion of dress and of wearing the hair; and against thepractice of binding the feet of girls. All except the first of thesewere directed towards the complete denationalisation of the Chinese whohad accepted his rule, and whose numbers were increasing daily. 

So far, the Manchus seem to have been little influenced by religiousbeliefs or scruples, except of a very primitive kind; but when theycame into closer contact with the Chinese, Buddhism began to spread itscharms, and not in vain, though strongly opposed by Abkhai himself. 

In 1635 the Manchus had effected the conquest of Mongolia, aided to agreat extent by frequent defections of large bodies of Mongols who hadbeen exasperated by their own ill-treatment at the hands of the Chinese. Among some ancient Mongolian archives there has recently been discovereda document, dated 1636, under which the Mongol chiefs recognised thesuzerainty of the Manchu Emperor. It was, however, stipulated that, inthe event of the fall of the dynasty, all the laws existing previouslyto this date should again come into force. 

A brief review of Chinese history during the later years of Manchuprogress, as described above, discloses a state of things such as willalways be found to prevail towards the close of an outworn dynasty. Almost from the day when, in 1628, the last Emperor of the Ming Dynastyascended the throne, national grievances began to pass from a simmeringand more or less latent condition to a state of open and acutehostility. The exactions and tyranny of the eunuchs had led to increasedtaxation and general discontent; and the horrors of famine now enhancedthe gravity of the situation. Local outbreaks were common, and were withdifficulty suppressed. The most capable among Chinese generals of theperiod, Wu San-kuei, shortly to play a leading part in the dynasticdrama, was far away, employed in resisting the invasions of the Manchus, when a very serious rebellion, which had been in preparation for someyears, at length burst violently forth. 

Li Tz{u}-ch`êng was a native of Shensi, who, before he was twenty yearsold, had succeeded his father as village beadle. The famine of 1627had brought him into trouble over the land-tax, and in 1629 he turnedbrigand, but without conspicuous success during the following ten years. In 1640, he headed a small gang of desperadoes, and overrunning parts ofHupeh and Honan, was soon in command of a large army. He was joined by afemale bandit, formerly a courtesan, who advised him to avoid slaughterand to try to win the hearts of the people. In 1642, after severalattempts to capture the city of K`ai-fêng, during one of which hisleft eye was destroyed by an arrow, he at length succeeded, chiefly inconsequence of a sudden rise of the Yellow River, the waters of whichrushed through a canal originally intended to fill the city moat andflood out the rebels. The rise of the river, however, was so rapid andso unusually high that the city itself was flooded, and an enormousnumber of the inhabitants perished, the rest seeking safety in flight tohigher ground. 

By 1744, Li Tz{u}-ch`êng had reduced the whole of the province ofShensi; whereupon he began to advance on Peking, proclaiming himselffirst Emperor of the Great Shun Dynasty, the term _shun_ implyingharmony between rulers and ruled. Terror reigned at the Chinese court, especially as meteorological and other portents appeared in unusuallylarge numbers, as though to justify the panic. The Emperor was indespair; the exchequer was empty, and there was no money to pay thetroops, who, in any case, were too few to man the city walls. Each ofthe Ministers of State was anxious only to secure his own safety. LiTz{u}-ch`êng's advance was scarcely opposed, the eunuch commanders ofcities and passes hastening to surrender them and save their own lives. For, in case of immediate surrender, no injury was done by Li to lifeor property, and even after a short resistance only a few lives wereexacted as penalty; but a more obstinate defence was punished by burningand looting and universal slaughter. 

The Emperor was now advised to send for Wu San-kuei; but that step meantthe end of further resistance to the invading Manchus on the east, andfor some time he would not consent. Meanwhile, he issued an Imperialproclamation, such as is usual on these occasions, announcing thatall the troubles which had come upon the empire were due to his ownincompetence and unworthiness, as confirmed by the droughts, famines, and other signs of divine wrath, of recent occurrence; that theadministration was to be reformed, and only virtuous and capableofficials would be employed. The near approach, however, of Li's army atlength caused the Emperor to realise that it was Wu San-kuei or nothing, and belated messengers were dispatched to summon him to the defenceof the capital. Long before he could possibly arrive, a gate of thesouthern city of Peking was treacherously opened by the eunuch in chargeof it, and the next thing the Emperor saw was his capital in flames. He then summoned the Empress and the court ladies, and bade them eachprovide for her own safety. He sent his three sons into hiding, andactually killed with his own hand several of his favourites, rather thanlet them fall into the hands of the One-Eyed Rebel. He attempted thesame by his daughter, a young girl, covering his face with the sleeveof his robe; but in his agony of mind he failed in his blow, and onlysucceeded in cutting off an arm, leaving the unfortunate princess tobe dispatched later on by the Empress. After this, in concert with atrusted eunuch and a few attendants, he disguised himself, and madean attempt to escape from the city by night; but they found the gatesclosed, and the guard refused to allow them to pass. Returning to thepalace in the early morning, the Emperor caused the great bell to berung as usual to summon the officers of government to audience; but noone came. He then retired, with his faithful eunuch, to a kiosque, onwhat is known as the Coal Hill, in the palace grounds, and there wrotea last decree on the lapel of his coat:--"I, poor in virtue and ofcontemptible personality, have incurred the wrath of God on high. MyMinisters have deceived me. I am ashamed to meet my ancestors; andtherefore I myself take off my crown, and with my hair covering my face, await dismemberment at the hands of the rebels. Do not hurt a singleone of my people!" Emperor and eunuch then committed suicide by hangingthemselves, and the Great Ming Dynasty was brought to an end. 

Li Tz{u}-ch`êng made a grand official entry into Peking, upon which manyof the palace ladies committed suicide. The bodies of the two Empresseswere discovered, and the late Emperor's sons were captured and kindlytreated; but of the Emperor himself there was for some time no trace. At length his body was found, and was encoffined, together with those ofthe Empresses, by order of Li Tz{u}-ch`êng, by-and-by to receive fit andproper burial at the hands of the Manchus. 

Li Tz{u}-ch`êng further possessed himself of the persons of WuSan-kuei's father and affianced bride, the latter of whom, a verybeautiful girl, he intended to keep for himself. He next sent off aletter to Wu San-kuei, offering an alliance against the Manchus, whichwas fortified by another letter from Wu San-kuei's father, urging hisson to fall in which Li's wishes, especially as his own life would bedependent upon the success of the missions. Wu San-kuei had alreadystarted on his way to relieve the capital when he heard of the eventsabove recorded; and it seems probable that he would have yielded tocircumstances and persuasion but for the fact that Li had seized thegirl he intended to marry. This decided him; he retraced his steps, shaved his head after the required style, and joined the Manchus. 

It was not very long before Li Tz{u}-ch`êng's army was in full pursuit, with the twofold object of destroying Wu San-kuei and recovering Chineseterritory already occupied by the Manchus. In the battle which ensued, all these hopes were dashed; Li sustained a crushing defeat, and fledto Peking. There he put to death the Ming princes who were in his hands, and completely exterminated Wu San-kuei's family, with the exception ofthe girl above mentioned, whom he carried off after having looted andburnt the palace and other public buildings. Now was the opportunity ofthe Manchus; and with the connivance and loyal aid of Wu San-kuei, theGreat Ch`ing Dynasty was established. 

Li Tz{u}-ch`êng, who had officially mounted the Dragon Throne as Emperorof China nine days after his capture of Peking, was now hotly pursuedby Wu San-kuei, who had the good fortune to recover from the rebels thegirl, who had been taken with them in their flight, and whom he thenmarried. Li Tz{u}-ch`êng retreated westwards; and after two vainattempts to check his pursuers, his army began to melt away. Drivensouth, he held Wu-ch`ang for a time; but ultimately he fled down theYang-tsze, and was slain by local militia in Hupeh. 

Li was a born soldier. Even hostile writers admit that his army waswonderfully well disciplined, and that he put a stop to the hideousatrocities which had made his name a terror in the empire, just so soonas he found that he could accomplish his ends by milder means. His menwere obliged to march light, very little baggage being allowed; hishorses were most carefully looked after. He himself was by nature calmand cold, and his manner of life was frugal and abstemious. 

CHAPTER III--SHUN CHIH

The back of the rebellion was now broken; but an alien race, called into drive out the rebels, found themselves in command of the situation. Wu San-kuei had therefore no alternative but to acknowledge the Manchusdefinitely as the new rulers of China, and to obtain the best possibleterms for his country. Ever since the defeat of Li by the combinedforces of Chinese and Manchus, it had been perfectly well understoodthat the latter were to be supported in their bid for Imperial power, and the conditions under which the throne was to be transferred wereas follows:--(1) No Chinese women were to be taken into the Imperialseraglio; (2) the Senior Classic at the great triennial examination, onthe results of which successful candidates were drafted into the publicservice, was never to be a Manchu; (3) Chinese men were to adopt theManchu dress, shaving the front part of the head and plaiting the backhair into a queue, but they were to be allowed burial in the costume ofthe Mings; (4) Chinese women were not to adopt the Manchu dress, nor tocease to compress their feet, in accordance with ancient custom. 

Wu San-kuei was loaded with honours, among others with a triple-eyedpeacock's feather, a decoration introduced, together with the "button"at the top of the hat, by the Manchus, and classed as single-, double-, and triple-eyed, according to merit. A few years later, his son marriedthe sister of the Emperor; and a few years later still, he was appointedone of three feudatory princes, his rule extending over the hugeprovinces of Yünnan and Ss{u}ch`uan. There we shall meet him again. 

The new Emperor, the ninth son of Abkhai, best known by his year-titleas Shun Chih (favourable sway), was a child of seven when he was placedupon the throne in 1644, under the regency of an uncle; and by the timehe was twelve years old, the uncle had died, leaving him to his ownresources. Before his early death, the regent had already done someexcellent work on behalf of his nephew. He had curtailed the privilegesof the eunuchs to such an extent that for a hundred and fifty yearsto come, --so long, in fact, as the empire was in the hands of wiserulers, --their malign influence was inappreciable in court circles andpolitics generally. He left Chinese officials in control of the civiladministration, keeping closely to the lines of the system which hadobtained under the previous dynasty; he did not hastily press for theuniversal adoption of Manchu costume; and he even caused sacrificialceremonies to be performed at the mausolea of the Ming Emperors. Onenew rule of considerable importance seems to have been introduced bythe Manchus, namely, that no official should be allowed to hold officewithin the boundaries of his own province. Ostensibly a check oncorrupt practices, it is probable that this rule had a more far-reachingpolitical purport. The members of the Han-lin College presented anaddress praying him (1) to prepare a list of all worthy men; (2) tosearch out such of these as might be in hiding; (3) to exterminateall rebels; (4) to proclaim an amnesty; (5) to establish peace; (6) todisband the army, and (7) to punish corrupt officials. 

The advice conveyed in the second clause of the above was speedilyacted upon, and a number of capable men were secured for thegovernment service. At the same time, with a view to the full technicalestablishment of the dynasty, the Imperial ancestors were canonised, andan ancestral shrine was duly constituted. The general outlook wouldnow appear to have been satisfactory from the point of view of Manchuinterests; but from lack of means of communication, China had in thosedays almost the connotation of space infinite, and events of the highestimportance, involving nothing less than the change of a dynasty, couldbe carried through in one portion of the empire before their imminencehad been more than whispered in another. No sooner was Peking taken bythe One-Eyed Rebel, than a number of officials fled southwards and tookrefuge in Nanking, where they set up a grandson of the last Emperor butone of the Ming Dynasty, who was now the rightful heir to the throne. The rapidly growing power of the Manchus had been lost sight of, ifindeed it had ever been thoroughly realised, and it seemed quite naturalthat the representative of the House of Ming should be put forward toresist the rebels. 

This monarch, however, was quite unequal to the fate which had befallenhim; and, before long, both he himself and his capital were in thehands of the Manchus. Other claimants to the throne appeared in variousplaces; notably, one at Hangchow and another at Foochow, each of whomlooked upon the other as a usurper. The former was soon disposed of, butthe latter gradually established his rule over a wide area, and fora long time kept the Manchus at bay, so hateful was the thought of analien domination to the people of the province in question. Towards theclose of 1646, he too had been captured, and the work of pacificationwent on, the penalty of death now being exacted in the case of officialswho refused to shave the head and wear the queue. Two more Emperors, both of Imperial Ming blood, were next proclaimed in Canton, one ofwhom strangled himself on the advance of the Manchus, while the otherdisappeared. A large number of loyal officials, rather than shave thefront part of the head and wear the Manchu queue, voluntarily shaved thewhole head, and sought sanctuary in monasteries, where they joined theBuddhist priesthood. 

One more early attempt to re-establish the Mings must be noticed. Thefourth son of a grandson of the Ming Emperor Wan Li (died 1620) was in1646 proclaimed Emperor at Nan-yang in Honan. For a number of years ofbloody warfare he managed to hold out; but gradually he was forcedto retire, first to Fuhkien and Kuangtung, and then into Kueichou andYünnan, from which he was finally expelled by Wu San-kuei. He nextfled to Burma, where in 1661 he was handed over to Wu San-kuei, who hadfollowed in pursuit; and he finally strangled himself in the capitalof Yünnan. He is said to have been a Christian, as also many of hisadherents, in consequence of which, the Jesuit father, A. Koffler, bestowed upon him the title of the Constantine of China. In view ofthe general character for ferocity with which the Manchus are usuallycredited, it is pleasant to be able to record that when the officialhistory of the Ming Dynasty came to be written, a Chinese scholar ofthe day, sitting on the historical commission, pleaded that three ofthe princes above mentioned, who were veritable scions of the Imperialstock, should be entered as "brave men" and not as "rebels, " and thatthe Emperor, to whose reign we are now coming, graciously granted hisrequest. 

In the year 1661 Shun Chih, the first actual Emperor of the Ch`ingdynasty, "became a guest on high. " He does not rank as one of China'sgreat monarchs, but his kindly character as a man, and his magnanimityas a ruler, were extolled by his contemporaries. He treated the Catholicmissionaries with favour. The Dutch and Russian embassies to his courtin 1656 found there envoys from the Great Mogul, from the WesternTartars, and from the Dalai Lama. China, in the days when hercivilization towered above that of most countries on the globe, and whenher strength commanded the respect of all nations, great and small, was quite accustomed to receive embassies from foreign parts; the firstrecorded instance being that of "An-tun" = Marcus Aurelius _Anton_inus, which reached China in A. D. 166. But because the tribute offered in thiscase contained no jewels, consisting merely of ivory, rhinoceros-horn, tortoise-shell, etc. , which had been picked up in Annam, some haveregarded it merely as a trading enterprise, and not really an embassyfrom the Roman Emperor; Chinese writers, on the other hand, suggest thatthe envoys sold the valuable jewels and bought a trumpery collection oftribute articles on the journey. 

By the end of Shun Chih's reign, the Manchus, once a petty tribe ofhardy bowmen, far beyond the outskirts of the empire, were in undoubtedpossession of all China, of Manchuria, of Korea, of most of Mongolia, and even of the island of Formosa. How this island, discovered by theChinese only in 1430, became Manchu property, is a story not altogetherwithout romance. 

The leader of a large fleet of junks, traders or pirates as occasionserved, known to the Portuguese of the day as Iquon, was compelled toplace his services at the command of the last sovereign of the Mingdynasty, in whose cause he fought against the Manchu invaders along thecoasts of Fuhkien and Kuangtung. In 1628 he tendered his submission tothe Manchus, and for a time was well treated, and cleared the seas ofother pirates. Gradually, however, he became too powerful, and it wasdeemed necessary to restrain him by force. He was finally induced tosurrender to the Manchu general in Fuhkien; and having been made aprisoner, was sent to Peking, with two of his sons by a Japanese wife, together with other of his adherents, all of whom were executed uponarrival. Another son, familiar to foreigners under the name of Koxinga, a Portuguese corruption of his title, had remained behind with the fleetwhen his father surrendered, and he, determined to avenge his father'streacherous death, declared an implacable war against the Manchus. Hispiratical attacks on the coast of China had long been a terror to theinhabitants; to such an extent, indeed, that the populations of no fewerthan eighty townships had been forced to remove inland. Then Formosa, upon which the Dutch had begun to form colonies in 1634, and wheresubstantial portions of their forts are still to be seen, attracted hispiratical eye. He attacked the Dutch, and succeeded in driving themout with great slaughter, thus possessing himself of the island; butgradually his followers began to drop off, in submission to the newdynasty, and at length he himself was reported to Peking as dead. In1874, partly on the ground that he was really a supporter of the Mingdynasty and not a rebel, and partly on the ground that "he had foundedin the midst of the waters a dominion which he had transmitted to hisdescendants, and which was by them surrendered to the Imperial sway, "--amemorial was presented to the throne, asking that his spirit might becanonized as the guardian angel of Formosa, and that a shrine might bebuilt in his honour. The request was granted. 

Consolidation of the empire thus won by the sword was carried out asfollows. In addition to the large Manchu garrison at Peking, smallergarrisons were established at nine of the provincial capitals, and atten other important points in the provinces. The Manchu commandant ofeach of the nine garrisons above mentioned, familiar to foreigners asthe Tartar General, was so placed in order to act as a check uponthe civil Governor or Viceroy, of whom he, strictly speaking, tookprecedence, though in practice their ranks have always been regarded asequal. With the empire at peace, the post of Tartar General has alwaysbeen a sinecure, and altogether out of comparison with that of theViceroy and his responsibilities; but in the case of a Viceroy suspectedof disloyalty and collusion with rebels, the swift opportunity ofthe Tartar General was the great safeguard of the dynasty, furtherstrengthened as he was by the regulation which gave to him the custodyof the keys to the city gates. Those garrisons, the soldiers of whichwere accompanied by their wives and families, were from the firstintended to be permanent institutions; and there until quite recentlywere to be found the descendants of the original drafts, not allowed tointermarry with their Chinese neighbours, but otherwise influenced tosuch an extent that their Manchu characteristics had almost entirelydisappeared. In one direction the Manchus made a curious concessionwhich, though entirely sentimental, was nevertheless well calculatedto appeal to a proud though unconquered people. A rule was establishedunder which every Manchu high official, when memorializing the throne, was to speak of himself to the Emperor as "your Majesty's slave, "whereas the term accepted from every Chinese high official was simply"your Majesty's servant. " During the early years of Manchu rule, proficiency in archery was as much insisted on as in the days of EdwardIII with us; and even down to a few years ago Manchu Bannermen, as theycame to be called, might be seen everywhere diligently practising theart--actually one of the six fine arts of China--by the aid of whichtheir ancestors had passed from the state of a petty tribal community topossession of the greatest empire in the world. 

The term Bannerman, it may here be explained, is applied to all Manchusin reference to their organization under one or other of eight bannersof different colour and design; besides which, there are also eightbanners for Mongolians, and eight more for the descendants of thoseChinese who sided with the Manchus against the Mings, and thus helped toestablish the Great Pure dynasty. 

One of the first cares to the authorities of a newly-established dynastyin China is to provide the country with a properly authorized PenalCode, and this has usually been accomplished by accepting as basis thecode of the preceding rulers, and making such changes or modificationsas may be demanded by the spirit of the times. It is generallyunderstood that such was the method adopted under the first ManchuEmperor. The code of the Mings was carefully examined, its severitieswere softened, and various additions and alterations were made; theresult being a legal instrument which has received almost unqualifiedadmiration from eminent Western lawyers. It has, however, been statedthat the true source of the Manchu code must be looked for in the codeof the T`ang dynasty (A. D. 618-905); possibly both codes were used. Within the compass of historical times, the country has never beenwithout one, the first code having been drawn up by a distinguishedstatesman so far back as 525 B. C. In any case, at the beginning ofthe reign of Shun Chih a code was issued, which contained only certainfundamental and unalterable laws for the empire, with an Imperialpreface, nominally from the hand of the Emperor himself. The next stepwas to supply any necessary additions and modifications; and as timewent on these were further amended or enlarged by Imperial decrees, founded upon current events, --a process which has been going on down tothe present day. The code therefore consists of two parts: (1) immutablelaws more or less embodying great principles beyond the reach ofrevisions, and (2) a body of case-law which, since 1746, has beensubject to revision every five years. With the publication of the PenalCode, the legal responsibilities of the new Emperor began and ended. There is not, and never has been, anything in China of the nature ofcivil law, beyond local custom and the application of common sense. 

Towards the close of this reign, intercourse with China brought about aneconomic revolution in the West, especially in England, the importanceof which it is difficult to realize sufficiently at this distant date. A new drink was put on the breakfast-table, destined to displacecompletely the quart of ale with which even Lady Jane Grey is said tohave washed down her morning bacon. It is mentioned by Pepys, under theyear 1660, as "tee (a China drink), " which he says he had never tastedbefore. Two centuries later, the export of tea from China had reachedhuge proportions, no less an amount than one hundred million _lb. _having been exported in one season from Foochow alone. 

CHAPTER IV--K`ANG HSI

The Emperor Shun Chih was succeeded by his third son, known by hisyear-title as K`ang Hsi (lasting prosperity), who was only eight yearsold at the time of his accession. Twelve years later the new monarchtook up the reins of government, and soon began to make his influencefelt. Fairly tall and well proportioned, he loved all manly exercises, and devoted three months annually to hunting. Large bright eyes lightedup his face, which was pitted with smallpox. Contemporary observers viewith one another in praising his wit, understanding, and liberality ofmind. He was not twenty when the three feudatory princes broke into openrebellion. Of these, Wu San-kuei, the virtual founder of the dynasty, who had been appointed in 1659, was the chief; and it was at hisinstigation that his colleagues who ruled in Kuangtung and Fuhkiendetermined to throw off their allegiance and set up independentsovereignties. Within a few months, K`ang Hsi found vast portions ofthe empire slipping from his grasp; but though at one moment only theprovinces of Chihli, Honan, and Shantung were left to him in peaceablepossession, he never lost heart. The resources of Wu San-kuei wereultimately found to be insufficient for the struggle, the issue of whichwas determined partly by his death in 1678, and partly by thepowerful artillery manufactured for the Imperial forces by the Jesuitmissionaries, who were then in high favour at court. The capital cityof Yünnan was taken by assault in 1681, upon which Wu San-kuei's soncommitted suicide, and the rebellion collapsed. From that date theManchus decided that there should be no more "princes" among theirChinese subjects, and the rule has been observed until the present day. 

Under the Emperor K`ang Hsi a re-arrangement of the empire was plannedand carried out; that is to say, whereas during the Mongol dynasty therehad only been thirteen provinces, increased to fifteen by the Mings, there was now a further increase of three, thus constituting what isknown as the Eighteen Provinces, or China Proper. To effect this, theold province of Kiangsan was divided into the modern Anhui and Kiangsu;Kansuh was carved out of Shensi; and Hukuang was separated into Hupehand Hunan. Formosa, which was finally reconquered in 1683, was made partof the province of Fuhkien, and so remained for some two hundred years, when it was erected into an independent province. Thus, for a timeChina Proper consisted of nineteen provinces, until the more familiar"eighteen" was recently restored by the transfer of Formosa to Japan. In addition to the above, the eastern territory, originally inhabited bythe Manchus, was divided into the three provinces already mentioned, allof which were at first organized upon a purely military basis; but oflate years the administration of the southernmost province, in whichstands Mukden, the Manchu capital, has been brought more into line withthat of China Proper. 

In 1677 the East India Company established an agency at Amoy, which, though withdrawn in 1681, was re-established in 1685. The first treatywith Russia was negotiated in 1679, but less than ten years later afurther treaty was found necessary, under which it was agreed that theriver Amur was to be the boundary-line between the two dominions, theRussians giving up possession of both banks. Thus Ya-k`o-sa, or Albazin, was ceded by Russia to China, and some of the inhabitants, who appear tohave been either pure Russians or half-castes, were sent as prisoners toPeking, where religious instruction was provided for them according tothe rules of the orthodox church. All the descendants of these Albazinsprobably perished in the destruction of the Russian college during thesiege of the Legations in 1900. Punitive expeditions against Galdan andArabtan carried the frontiers of the empire to the borders of Khokandand Badakshan, and to the confines of Tibet. 

Galdan was a khan of the Kalmucks, who succeeded in establishing hisrule through nearly the whole of Turkestan, after attaining his positionby the murder of a brother. He attacked the Khalkas, and thus incurredthe resentment of K`ang Hsi, whose subjects they were; and in order tostrengthen his power, he applied to the Dalai Lama for ordination, butwas refused. He then feigned conversion to Mahometanism, though withoutattracting Mahometan sympathies. In 1689 the Emperor in person led anarmy against him, crossing the deadly desert of Gobi for this purpose. Finally, after a further expedition and a decisive defeat in 1693, Galdan became a fugitive, and died three years afterwards. He wassucceeded as khan by his nephew, Arabtan, who soon took up the offensiveagainst China. He invaded Tibet, and pillaged the monasteries as faras Lhasa; but was ultimately driven back by a Manchu army to Sungaria, where he was murdered in 1727. 

The question of the calendar early attracted attention under the reignof K`ang Hsi. After the capture of Peking in 1644, the Manchus hademployed the Jesuit Father, Schaal, upon the Astronomical Board, anappointment which, owing to the jealousies aroused, very nearly cost himhis life. What he taught was hardly superior to the astronomy then invogue, which had been inherited from the Mongols, being nothing morethan the old Ptolemaic system, already discarded in Europe. In 1669, aFlemish Jesuit Father from Courtrai, named Verbiest, was placed upon theBoard, and was entrusted with the correction of the calendar accordingto more recent investigations. 

Christianity was officially recognized in 1692, and an Imperial edictwas issued ordering its toleration throughout the empire. The discoveryof the Nestorian tablet in 1625 had given a considerable impulse, inspite of its heretical associations, to Christian propagandism; and itwas estimated that in 1627 there were no fewer than thirteen thousandconverts, many of whom were highly placed officials, and even members ofthe Imperial family. An important question, however, now came to a head, and completely put an end to the hope that China under the Manchus mightembrace the Roman Catholic faith. The question was this: May convertsto Christianity continue the worship of ancestors? Ricci, the famousJesuit, who died in 1610, and who is the only foreigner mentioned byname in the dynastic histories of China, was inclined to regard worshipof ancestors more as a civil than a religious rite. He probably foresaw, as indeed time has shown, that ancestral worship would prove to be aninsuperable obstacle to many inquirers, if they were called upon todiscard it once and for all; at the same time, he must have knownthat an invocation to spirits, coupled with the hope of obtaining somebenefit therefrom, is _worship_ pure and simple, and cannot be explainedaway as an unmeaning ceremony. 

Against the Jesuits in this matter were arrayed the Dominicans andFranciscans; and the two parties fought the question before severalPopes, sometimes one side carrying its point, and sometimes the other. At length, in 1698, a fresh petition was forwarded by the Jesuit orderin China, asking the Pope to sanction the practice of this rite bynative Christians, and also praying that the Chinese language might beused in the celebration of mass. K`ang Hsi supported the Jesuits inthe view that ancestral worship was a harmless ceremony; but after muchwrangling, and the dispatch of a Legate to the Manchu court, the Popedecided against the Jesuits and their Imperial ally. This was too muchfor the pride of K`ang Hsi, and he forthwith declared that in future hewould only allow facilities for preaching to those priests who sharedhis view. In 1716, an edict was issued, banishing all missionariesunless excepted as above. The Emperor had indeed been annoyed by anotherecclesiastical squabble, on a minor scale of importance, which had beenraging almost simultaneously round the choice of an appropriate Chineseterm for God. The term approved, if not suggested, by K`ang Hsi, andindisputably the right one, as shown by recent research, was set asideby the Pope in 1704 in favour of one which was supposed for a long timeto have been coined for the purpose, but which had really been appliedfor many centuries previously to one of the eight spirits of ancientmythology. 

In addition to his military campaigns, K`ang Hsi carried out severaljourneys of considerable length, and managed to see something of theempire beyond the walls of Peking. He climbed the famous mountain, T`ai-shan, in Shantung, the summit of which had been reached in 219 B. C. By the famous First Emperor, burner of the books and part builder of theGreat Wall, and where a century later another Emperor had instituted themysterious worship of Heaven and Earth. The ascent of T`ai-shan had beenpreviously accomplished by only six Emperors in all, the last of whomwent up in the year 1008; since K`ang Hsi no further Imperial attemptshave been made, so that his will close the list in connexion with theManchu dynasty. It was on this occasion too that he visited the tomb ofConfucius, also in Shantung. 

The vagaries of the Yellow River, named "China's Sorrow" by a laterEmperor, were always a source of great anxiety to K`ang Hsi; so much sothat he paid a personal visit to the scene, and went carefully into thevarious plans for keeping the waters to a given course. Besides causingfrequently recurring floods, with immense loss of life and property, this river has a way of changing unexpectedly its bed; so lately as1856, it turned off at right angles near the city of K`ai-fêng, inHonan, and instead of emptying itself into the Yellow Sea about latitude34º, found a new outlet in the Gulf of Peichili, latitude 38º. 

K`ang Hsi several times visited Hangchow, returning to Tientsin by theGrand Canal, a distance of six hundred and ninety miles. This canal, itwill be remembered, was designed and executed under Kublai Khan in thethirteenth century, and helped to form an almost unbroken line of watercommunication between Peking and Canton. At Hangchow, during onevisit, he held an examination of all the (so-called) B. A. 's and M. A. 's, especially to test their poetical skill; and he also did the same atSoochow and Nanking, taking the opportunity, while at Nanking, to visitthe mausoleum of the founder of the Ming dynasty, who lies buried nearby, and whose descendants had been displaced by the Manchus. Happily forK`ang Hsi's complacency, the book of fate is hidden from Emperors, aswell as from subjects, --

All but the page prescribed, their present state and he was unable toforesee another visit paid to that mausoleum two hundred and seven yearslater, under very different conditions, to which we shall come in duecourse. 

The census has always been an important institution in China. Withoutgoing back so far as the legendary golden age, the statistics of whichhave been invented by enthusiasts, we may accept unhesitatingly suchrecords as we find subsequent to the Christian era, on the understandingthat these returns are merely approximate. They could hardly beotherwise, inasmuch as the Chinese count families and not heads, roughlyallowing five souls to each household. This plan yields a total ofrather over fifty millions for the year A. D. 156, and one hundred andfive millions for the fortieth year of the reign of K`ang Hsi, 1701. 

No record of this Emperor, however brief, could fail to notice theliterary side of his character, and his extraordinary achievements inthis direction. It is almost paradoxical, though absolutely true, thattwo Manchu Emperors, sprung from a race which but a few decades beforehad little thought for anything beyond war and the chase, and whichhad not even a written language of its own, should have conferred morebenefits upon the student of literature than all the rest of China'sEmperors put together. The literature in question is, of course, Chineseliterature. Manchu was the court language, spoken as well as written, for many years after 1644, and down to quite recent times all officialdocuments were in duplicate, one copy in Chinese and one in Manchu; buta Manchu literature can hardly be said to exist, beyond translations ofall the most important Chinese works. The Manchu dynasty is anadmirable illustration of the old story: conquerors taken captive by theconquered. 

At this moment, the term "K`ang Tsi" is daily on the lips of everystudent of the Chinese language, native or foreign, throughout theempire. This is due to the fact that the Emperor caused to be producedunder his own personal superintendence, on a more extensive scale anda more systematic plan than any previous work of the kind, a lexicon ofthe Chinese language, containing over forty thousand characters, withnumerous illustrative phrases chronologically arranged, the spelling ofeach character according to the method introduced by Buddhist teachersand first used in the third century, the tones, various readings, etc. , etc. , altogether a great work and still without a rival at the presentday. 

It would be tedious even to enumerate all the various literaryundertakings conceived and carried out under the direction of K`ang Hsi;but there are two works in particular which cannot be passed over. Oneof these is the huge illustrated encyclopædia in which everything whichhas ever been said upon each of a vast array of subjects is brought intoa systematized book of reference, running to many hundred volumes, andbeing almost a complete library in itself. It was printed, afterthe death of K`ang Hsi, from movable copper types. The other is, ifanything, a still more extraordinary though not such a voluminous work. It is a concordance to all literature; not of words, but of phrases. Astudent meeting with an unfamiliar combination of characters can turnto its pages and find every passage given, in sufficient fullness, wherethe phrase in question has been used by poet, historian, or essayist. 

The last years of K`ang Hsi were beclouded by family troubles. For somekind of intrigue, in which magic played a prominent part, he had beencompelled to degrade the Heir Apparent, and to appoint another sonto the vacant post; but a year or two later, this son was found to bementally deranged, and was placed under restraint. So things went on forseveral more years, the Emperor apparently unable to make up his mind asto the choice of a successor; and it was not until the last day of hislife that he finally decided in favour of his fourth son. Dying in 1723, his reign had already extended beyond the Chinese cycle of sixty years, a feat which no Emperor of China, in historical times, had ever beforeachieved, but which was again to be accomplished, before the century wasout, by his grandson. 

CHAPTER V--YUNG CHÊNG AND CH`IEN LUNG

The fourth son of K`ang Hsi came to the throne under the year-titleof Yung Chêng (harmonious rectitude). He was confronted with seriousdifficulties from the very first. Dissatisfaction prevailed among hisnumerous brothers, at least one of whom may have felt that he hada better claim to rule than his junior in the family. This feelingculminated in a plot to dethrone Yung Chêng, which was, however, discovered in time, and resulted only in the degradation of the guiltybrothers. The fact that among his opponents were native Christians--somesay that the Jesuits were at the bottom of all the mischief--naturallyinfluenced the Emperor against Christianity; no fewer than threehundred churches were destroyed, and all Catholic missionaries werethenceforward obliged to live either at Peking or at Macao. In 1732he thought of expelling them altogether; but finding that they wereenthusiastic teachers of filial piety, he left them alone, merelyprohibiting fresh recruits from coming to China. 

These domestic troubles were followed by a serious rebellion in Kokonor, which was not fully suppressed until the next reign; also by an outbreakamong the aborigines of Kueichow and Yünnan, which lasted until threeyears later, when the tribesmen were brought under Imperial rule. 

A Portuguese envoy, named Magalhaens (or Magaillans), visited Peking in1727, bearing presents for the Emperor; but nothing very much resultedfrom his mission. In 1730, in addition to terrible floods, there wasa severe earthquake, which lasted ten days, and in which one hundredthousand persons are said to have lost their lives. In 1735, YungChêng's reign came to an end amid sounds of a further outbreak of theaborigines in Kueichow. Before his death, he named his fourth son, thenonly fifteen, as his successor, under the regency of two of theboy's uncles and two Grand Secretaries, one of the latter being adistinguished scholar, who was entrusted with the preparation of thehistory of the Ming dynasty. Yung Chêng's name has always been somewhatunfairly associated by foreigners with a bitter hostility to theCatholic priests of his day, simply because he refused to allow them afree hand in matters outside their proper sphere. Altogether, it maybe said that he was a just and public-spirited ruler, anxious for hispeople's welfare. He hated war, and failed to carry on his father'svigorous policy in Central Asia; nevertheless, by 1730, Chinese ruleextended to the Laos border, and the Shan States paid tribute. He was aman of letters, and completed some of his father's undertakings. 

Yung Chêng's successor was twenty-five years of age when he came tothe throne with the year-title of Ch`ien Lung (or Kien Long = enduringglory), and one of his earliest acts was to forbid the propagation ofChristian doctrine, a prohibition which developed between 1746 and 1785into active persecution of its adherents. The first ten years of thisreign were spent chiefly in internal reorganization; the remainder, which covered half a century, was almost a continuous succession ofwars. The aborigines of Kueichow, known as the Miao-Tz{u}, offered adetermined resistance to all attempts to bring them under the regularadministration; and although they were ultimately conquered, it wasdeemed advisable not to insist upon the adoption of the queue, and alsoto leave them a considerable measure of self-government. Acting underManchu guidance, chiefs and leading tribesmen were entrusted withimportant executive offices; they had to keep the peace among theirpeople, and to collect the revenue of local produce to be forwarded toPeking. These posts were hereditary. On the death of the father, theeldest son proceeded to Peking and received his appointment in person, together with his seal of office. Failing sons or their children, brothers had the right of succession. 

In 1741 the population was estimated by Père Amiot, S. J. , at over onehundred and fifty millions, as against twenty-one million households in1701. 

In 1753 there was trouble in Ili. After the death of Galdan II. , sonof Arabtan, an attempt was made by one, Amursana, to usurp theprincipality. He was, however, driven out, and fled to Peking, wherehe was favourably received by Ch`ien Lung, and an army was sent toreinstate him. With the subsequent settlement, under which he was tohave only one quarter of Ili, Amursana was profoundly dissatisfied, andtook the earliest opportunity of turning on his benefactors. He murderedthe Manchu-Chinese garrison and all the other Chinese he could find, and proclaimed himself khan of the Eleuths. His triumph was short-lived;another army was sent from Peking, this time against him, and he fledinto Russian territory, dying there soon afterwards of smallpox. Thiscampaign was lavishly illustrated by Chinese artists, who produced aseries of realistic pictures of the battles and skirmishes fought byCh`ien Lung's victorious troops. How far these were prepared under theguidance of the Jesuit Fathers does not seem to be known. About sixtyyears previously, under the reign of K`ang Hsi, the Jesuits had carriedout extensive surveys, and had drawn fairly accurate maps of Chineseterritory, which had been sent to Paris and there engraved on copper byorder of Louis XIV. In like manner, the pictures now in question wereforwarded to Paris and engraved, between 1769 and 1774, by skilleddraughtsmen, as may be gathered from the lettering at the foot ofeach; for instance--_Gravé par J. P. Le Bas, graveur du cabinet du roi_(Cambridge University Library). 

Kuldja and Kashgaria were next added to the empire, and Manchu supremacywas established in Tibet. Burma and Nepal were forced to pay tribute, after a disastrous war (1766-1770) with the former country, in whicha Chinese army had been almost exterminated; rebellions in Ss{u}ch`uan(1770), Shantung (1777), and Formosa (1786) were suppressed. 

Early in the eighteenth century, the Turguts, a branch of the KalmuckTartars, unable to endure the oppressive tyranny of their rulers, trekked into Russia, and settled on the banks of the Volga. Some seventyyears later, once more finding the burden of taxation too heavy, theyagain organized a trek upon a colossal scale. Turning their faceseastward, they spent a whole year of fearful suffering and privationin reaching the confines of Ili, a terribly diminished host. There theyreceived a district, and were placed under the jurisdiction of a khan. This journey has been dramatically described by De Quincey in an essayentitled "Revolt of the Tartars, or Flight of the Kalmuck Khan and hispeople from the Russian territories to the Frontiers of China. " Ofthis contribution to literature it is only necessary to remark that thescenes described, and especially the numbers mentioned, must be creditedchiefly to the perfervid imagination of the essayist, and also tocertain not very trustworthy documents sent home by Père Amiot. It isprobable that about one hundred and sixty thousand Turguts set out onthat long march, of whom only some seventy thousand reached their goal. 

In 1781, the Dungans (or Tungans) of Shensi broke into open rebellion, which was suppressed only after huge losses to the Imperialists. TheseDungans were Mahometan subjects of China, who in very early timeshad colonized, under the name of Gao-tchan, in Kansuh and Shensi, andsubsequently spread westward into Turkestan. Some say that they were adistinct race, who, in the fifth and sixth centuries, occupied the TianShan range, with their capital at Harashar. The name, however, means, inthe dialect of Chinese Tartary, "converts, " that is, to Mahometanism, to which they were converted in the days of Timour by an Arabianadventurer. We shall hear of them again in a still more seriousconnexion. 

Eight years later there was a revolution in Cochin-China. The king fledto China, and Ch`ien Lung promptly espoused his cause, sending an armyto effect his restoration. This was no sooner accomplished than thechief Minister rebelled, and, rapidly attracting large numbers to hisstandard, succeeded in cutting off the retreat of the Chinese force. Ch`ien Lung then sent another army, whereupon the rebel Ministersubmitted, and humbled himself so completely that the Emperor appointedhim to be king instead of the other. After this, the Annamese continuedto forward tribute, but it was deemed advisable to cease from furtherinterference with their government. 

The next trouble was initiated by the Gurkhas, who, in 1790, raidedTibet. On being defeated and pursued by a Chinese army, they gave up allthe booty taken, and entered into an agreement to pay tribute once everyfive years. 

The year 1793 was remarkable for the arrival of an English embassy underLord Macartney, who was received in audience by the Emperor at Jehol(= hot river), an Imperial summer residence lying about a hundred milesnorth of Peking, beyond the Great Wall. It had been built in 1780 afterthe model of the palace of the Panshen Erdeni at Tashilumbo, in Tibet, when that functionary, the spiritual ruler of Tibet, as opposed to theDalai Lama, who is the secular ruler, proceeded to Peking to be presenton the seventieth anniversary of Ch`ien Lung's birthday. Two yearslater, the aged Emperor, who had, like his grandfather, completed hiscycle of sixty years on the throne, abdicated in favour of his son, dying in retirement some four years after. These two monarchs, K`ang Hsiand Ch`ien Lung, were among the ablest, not only of Manchu rulers, butof any whose lot it has been to shape the destinies of China. Ch`ienLung was an indefatigable administrator, a little too ready perhapsto plunge into costly military expeditions, and somewhat narrow in thepolicy he adopted towards the "outside barbarians" who came to trade atCanton and elsewhere, but otherwise a worthy rival of his grandfather'sfame as a sovereign and patron of letters. From the long list of works, mostly on a very extensive scale, produced under his supervision, maybe mentioned the new and revised editions of the Thirteen Classics ofConfucianism and of the Twenty-Four Dynastic Histories. In 1772 a searchwas instituted under Imperial orders for all literary works worthy ofpreservation, and high provincial officials vied with one another inforwarding rare and important works to Peking. The result was the greatdescriptive Catalogue of the Imperial Library, arranged under the fourheads of Classics (Confucianism), History, Philosophy, and GeneralLiterature, in which all the facts known about each work are set forth, coupled with judicious critical remarks, --an achievement which hashardly a parallel in any literature in the world. 

CHAPTER VI--CHIA CH`ING

Ch`ien Lung's son, who reigned as Chia Ch`ing (high felicity--not tobe confounded with Chia Ching of the Ming dynasty, 1522-1567), foundhimself in difficulties from the very start. The year of his accessionwas marked by a rising of the White Lily Society, one of the dreadedsecret associations with which China is, and always has been, honeycombed. The exact origin of this particular society is not known. A White Lily Society was formed in the second century A. D. By a certainTaoist patriarch, and eighteen members were accustomed to assemble at atemple in modern Kiangsi for purposes of meditation. But this seems tohave no connexion with the later sect, of which we first hear in 1308, when its existence was prohibited, its shrines destroyed, and itsvotaries forced to return to ordinary life. Members of the fraternitywere then believed to possess a knowledge of the black art; and lateron, in 1622, the society was confounded by Chinese officials in Shantungwith Christianity. In the present instance, it is said that no fewerthan thirty thousand adherents were executed before the trouble wasfinally suppressed; from which statement it is easy to gather that underwhatever form the White Lily Society may have been originally initiated, its activities were now of a much more serious character, and were, infact, plainly directed against the power and authority of the Manchus. 

Almost from this very date may be said to have begun that turn ofthe tide which was to reach its flood a hundred years afterwards. TheManchus came into power, as conquerors by force of arms, at a timewhen the mandate of the previous dynasty had been frittered away incorruption and misrule; and although to the Chinese eye they werenothing more than "stinking Tartars, " there were not wanting many gladenough to see a change of rule at any price. Under the first Emperor, Shun Chih, there was barely time to find out what the new dynastywas going to do; then came the long and glorious reign of K`ang Hsi, followed, after the thirteen harmless years of Yung Chêng, by theequally long and equally glorious reign of Ch`ien Lung. The Chinesepeople, who, strictly speaking, govern themselves in the most democraticof all republics, have not the slightest objection to the Imperialtradition, which has indeed been their continuous heritage from remotestantiquity, provided that public liberties are duly safeguarded, chieflyin the sense that there shall always be equal opportunities for all. They are quick to discover the character of their rulers, and discoveryin an unfavourable direction leads to an early alteration of popularthought and demeanour. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, theyhad tired of eunuch oppression and unjust taxation, and they naturallyhailed the genuine attempt in 1662 to get rid of eunuchs altogether, coupled with the persistent attempts of K`ang Hsi, and later of Ch`ienLung, to lighten the burdens of revenue which weighed down the energiesof all. But towards the end of his reign Ch`ien Lung had become a veryold man; and the gradual decay of his powers of personal supervisionopened a way for the old abuses to creep in, bringing in their train theusual accompaniment of popular discontent. 

The Emperor Chia Ch`ing, a worthless and dissolute ruler, nevercommanded the confidence of his people as his great predecessors haddone, nor had he the same confidence in them. This want of mutual trustwas not confined to his Chinese subjects only. In 1799, Ho-shên, ahigh Manchu official who had been raised by Ch`ien Lung from an obscureposition to be a Minister of State and Grand Secretary, was suspected, probably without a shadow of evidence, of harbouring designs upon thethrone. He was seized and tried, nominally for corruption and unduefamiliarity, and was condemned to death, being allowed as an act ofgrace to commit suicide. 

In 1803 the Emperor was attacked in the streets of Peking; and ten yearslater there was a serious outbreak organised by a secret society inHonan, known as the Society of Divine Justice, and alternatively as theWhite Feather Society, from the badge worn by those members who tookpart in the actual movement, which happened as follows. An attack uponthe palace during the Emperor's absence on a visit to the Imperial tombswas arranged by the leaders, who represented a considerable body ofmalcontents, roused by the wrongs which their countrymen were sufferingall over the empire at the hands of their Manchu rulers. By promisesof large rewards and appointments to lucrative offices when the Manchusshould be got rid of, the collusion of a number of the eunuchs wassecured; and on a given day some four hundred rebels, disguised asvillagers carrying baskets of fruit in which arms were concealed, collected about the gates of the palace. Some say that one of theleaders was betrayed, others that the eunuchs made a mistake inthe date; at any rate there was a sudden rush on the part of theconspirators, the guards at the gates were overpowered, every one whowas not wearing a white feather was cut down, and the palace seemedto be at the mercy of the rebels. The latter, however, were met by adesperate resistance from the young princes, who shot down several ofthem, and thus alarmed the soldiers. Assistance was promptly at hand, and the rebels were all killed or captured. Immediate measures weretaken to suppress the Society, of which it is said that over twentythousand members were executed, and as many more sent in exile to Ili. 

Not one, however, of the numerous secret societies, which from timeto time have flourished in China, can compare for a moment either innumbers or organization with the formidable association known as theHeaven and Earth Society, and also as the Triad Society, or Hung League, which dates from the reign of Yung Chêng, and from first to last has hadone definite aim, --the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty. 

The term "Triad" signifies the harmonious union of heaven (q. D. God), earth, and man; and members of the fraternity communicate to one anotherthe fact of membership by pointing first up to the sky, then down to theground, and last to their own hearts. The Society was called the HungLeague, because all the members adopted Hung as a surname, a word whichsuggests the idea of a cataclysm. By a series of lucky chances the innerworking of this Society became known about fifty years ago, when a massof manuscripts containing the history of the Society, its ritual, oaths, and secret signs, together with an elaborate set of drawings of flagsand other regalia, fell into the hands of the Dutch Government atBatavia. These documents, translated by Dr. G. Schlegel, disclose anextraordinary similarity in many respects between the working of Chineselodges and the working of those which are more familiar to us astemples of the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons. Such pointsof contact, however, as may be discoverable, are most probably merecoincidences; if not, and if, as is generally understood, the ritual ofthe European craft was concocted by Cagliostro, then it follows that hemust have borrowed from the Chinese, and not the Chinese from him. Theuse of the square and compasses as symbols of moral rectitude, whichforms such a striking feature of European masonry, finds no place in theceremonial of the Triad Society, although recognized as such in Chineseliterature from the days of Confucius, and still so employed in theevery-day colloquial of China. 

In 1816 Lord Amherst's embassy reached Peking. Its object was to securesome sort of arrangement under which British merchants might carry ontrade after a more satisfactory manner than had been the case hitherto. The old Co-hong, a system first established in 1720, under which certainChinese merchants at Canton became responsible to the local authoritiesfor the behaviour of the English merchants, and to the latter for alldebts due to them, had been so complicated by various oppressive laws, that at one time the East India Company had threatened to stop allbusiness. Lord Amherst, however, accomplished nothing in the directionof reform. From the date of his landing at Tientsin, he was persistentlytold that unless he agreed to perform the _kotow_, he could not possiblybe permitted to an audience. It was probably his equally persistentrefusal to do so--a ceremonial which had been excused by Ch`ien Lung inthe case of Lord Macartney--that caused the Ministers to change theirtactics, and to declare, on Lord Amherst's arrival at the Summer Palace, tired and wayworn, that the Emperor wished to see him immediately. Notonly had the presents, of which he was the bearer, not arrived at thepalace, but he and his suite, among whom were Sir George Stanton, DrMorrison, and Sir John Davids, had not received the trunks containingtheir uniforms. It was therefore impossible for the ambassador topresent himself before the Emperor, and he flatly refused to do so;whereupon he received orders to proceed at once to the sea-coast, andtake himself off to his own country. A curious comment on this fiascowas made by Napoleon, who thought that the English Government had actedwrongly in not having ordered Lord Amherst to comply with the customof the place he was sent to; otherwise, he should not have been sent atall. "It is my opinion that whatever is the custom of a nation, and ispractised by the first characters of that nation towards their chief, cannot degrade strangers who perform the same. "

In 1820 Chia Ch`ing died, after a reign of twenty-five years, notable, if for nothing else, as marking the beginning of Manchu decadence, evidence of which is to be found in the unusually restless temper ofthe people, and even in such apparent trifles as the abandonment of theannual hunting excursions, always before carried out on an extensivescale, and presenting, as it were, a surviving indication of formerManchu hardihood and personal courage. He was succeeded by his secondson, who was already forty years of age, and whose hitherto secludedlife had ill-prepared him for the difficult problems he was shortlycalled upon to face. 

CHAPTER VII--TAO KUANG

Tao Kuang (glory of right principle), as he is called, from the stylechosen for his reign, gave promise of being a useful and enlightenedruler; at the least a great improvement on his father. He did his bestat first to purify the court, but his natural indolence stood in the wayof any real reform, and with the best intentions in the world he managedto leave the empire in a still more critical condition than that inwhich he had found it. Five years after his accession, his troublesbegan in real earnest. There was a rising of the people in Kashgaria, due to criminal injustice practised over a long spell of time on thepart of the Chinese authorities. The rebels found a leader in the personof Jehangir, who claimed descent from one of the old native chiefs, formerly recognized by the Manchu Emperors, but now abolished as such. Thousands flocked to his standard; and by the time an avenging armycould arrive on the scene, he was already master of the country. Duringthe campaign which followed, his men were defeated in battle afterbattle; and at length he himself was taken prisoner and forwarded toPeking, where he failed to defend his conduct, and was put to death. 

The next serious difficulty which confronted the Emperor was a rising, in 1832, of the wild Miao tribes of Kuangsi and Hunan, led by a man whoeither received or adopted the title of the Golden Dragon. At the bottomof all the trouble we find, as usually to be expected henceforward, thesecret activities of the far-reaching Triad Society, which seizedthe occasion to foment into open rebellion the dissatisfaction of thetribesmen with the glaring injustice they were suffering at the handsof the local authorities. After some initial massacres and reprisals, a general was sent to put an end to the outbreak; but so far from doingthis, he seems to have come off second best in most of the battleswhich ensued, and was finally driven into Kuang-tung. For this he wassuperseded, and two Commissioners dispatched to take charge of furtheroperations. It occurred to these officials that possibly persuasionmight succeed where violence had failed; and accordingly a proclamationwas widely circulated, promising pardon and redress of wrongs to all whowould at once return to their allegiance, and pointing out at the sametime the futility of further resistance. The effect of this move wasmagical; within a few days the rebellion was over. 

We are now reaching a period at which European complications began to beadded to the more legitimate worries of a Manchu Emperor. Trade with thePortuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch, and the English, had been carriedon since the early years of the sixteenth century, but in a veryhaphazard kind of way, and under many vexatious restrictions, briberybeing the only effectual means of bringing commercial ventures toa successful issue. So far back as 1680, the East India Company hadreceived its charter, and commercial relations with Chinese merchantscould be entered into by British subjects only through this channel. Such machinery answered its purpose very well for a long period; but amonopoly of the kind became out of date as time went on, and in 1834 itceased altogether. The Company was there for the sake of trade, and fornothing else; and one of its guiding principles was avoidance of anyacts which might wound Chinese susceptibilities, and tend to defeat theobject of its own existence. Consequently, the directors would not allowopium to be imported in their vessels; neither were they inclined topatronize missionary efforts. It is true that Morrison's dictionary wasprinted at the expense of the Company, when the punishment for a nativeteaching a foreigner the Chinese language was death; but no pecuniaryassistance was forthcoming when the same distinguished missionaryattempted to translate the Bible for distribution in China. 

The Manchus, who had themselves entered the country as robbers of thesoil and spoliators of the people, were determined to do their bestto keep out all future intruders; and it was for this reason that, suspicious of the aims of the barbarian, every possible obstaclewas placed in the way of those who wished to learn to speak andread Chinese. This suspicion was very much increased in the case ofmissionaries, whose real object the Manchus failed to appreciate, andbehind whose plea of religious propagandism they thought they detecteda deep-laid scheme for territorial aggression, to culminate of coursein their own overthrow; and already in 1805 an edict had been issued, strictly forbidding anyone to teach even Manchu to any foreigner. 

From this date (1834), any British subject was free to engage in thetrade, and the Home Government sent out Lord Napier to act as ChiefSuperintendent, and to enter into regular diplomatic relations withthe Chinese authorities. Lord Napier, however, even though backed by acouple of frigates, was unable to gain admission to the city of Canton, and after a demonstration, the only result of which was to bring allbusiness to a standstill, he was finally obliged in the general interestto retire. He went to Macao, a small peninsula to the extreme south-westof the Kuangtung province, famous as the residence of the poet Camoens, and there he died a month later. Macao was first occupied by thePortuguese trading with China in 1557; though there is a story thatin 1517 certain Portuguese landed there under pretence of drying sometribute presents to the Emperor, which had been damaged in a storm, andproceeded to fortify their encampment, whereupon the local officialsbuilt a wall across the peninsula, shutting off further access to themainland. It also appears that, in 1566, Macao was actually ceded tothe Portuguese on condition of payment of an annual sum to China, whichpayment ceased after trouble between the two countries in 1849. 

The next few years were employed by the successors of Lord Napierin endeavours, often wrongly directed, to establish working, if notharmonious, relations with the Chinese authorities; but no satisfactorypoint was reached, for the simple reason that recent events hadcompletely confirmed the officials and the people in their old views asto the relative status of the barbarians and themselves. 

It is worth noticing here that Russia, with her conterminous andever-advancing frontier, has always been regarded somewhat differentlyfrom the oversea barbarian. She has continually during the past threecenturies been the dreaded foreign bogy of the Manchus; and a few yearsback, when Manchus and Chinese alike fancied that their country wasgoing to be "chopped up like a melon" and divided among western nations, a warning geographical cartoon was widely circulated in China, showingRussia in the shape of a huge bear stretching down from the north andclawing the vast areas of Mongolia and Manchuria to herself. 

Now, to aggravate the already difficult situation, the opium questioncame suddenly to the front in an acute form. For a long time the importof opium had been strictly forbidden by the Government, and for anequally long time smuggling the drug in increasing quantities had beencarried on in a most determined manner until, finally, swift vesselswith armed crews, sailing under foreign flags, succeeded in terrorizingthe native revenue cruisers, and so delivering their cargoes as theypleased. It appears that the Emperor Tao Kuang, who had sounded thevarious high authorities on the subject, was genuinely desirous ofputting an end to the import of opium, and so checking the practice ofopium-smoking, which was already assuming dangerous proportions; and inthis he was backed up by Captain Elliot (afterwards Sir Charles Elliot), now Superintendent of Trade, an official whose vacillating policytowards the Chinese authorities did much to precipitate the disastersabout to follow. After a serious riot had been provoked, in which theforeign merchants of Canton narrowly escaped with their lives, andto quell which it was necessary to call out the soldiery, the Emperordecided to put a definite stop to the opium traffic; and for thispurpose he appointed one of his most distinguished servants, at thattime Viceroy of Hukuang, and afterwards generally known as CommissionerLin, a name much reverenced by the Chinese as that of a true patriot, and never mentioned even by foreigners without respect. Early in 1839, Lin took up the post of Viceroy of Kuangtung, and immediately initiatedan attack which, to say the least of it, deserved a better fate. 

Within a few days a peremptory order was made for the delivery of allopium in the possession of foreign merchants at Canton. This demand wasresisted, but for a short time only. All the foreign merchants, togetherwith Captain Elliot, who had gone up to Canton specially to meet thecrisis, found themselves prisoners in their own houses, deprived ofservants and even of food. Then Captain Elliot undertook, on behalfof his Government, to indemnify British subjects for their losses;whereupon no fewer than twenty thousand two hundred and ninety-onechests of opium were surrendered to Commissioner Lin, and the incidentwas regarded by the Chinese as closed. On receipt of the Emperor'sinstructions, the whole of this opium, for which the owners receivedorders on the Treasury at the rate of £120 per chest, was mixed withlime and salt water, and was entirely destroyed. 

Lin's subsequent demands were so arbitrary that at length the Englishmercantile community retired altogether from Canton, and after a futileattempt to settle at Macao, where their presence, owing to Chineseinfluence with the Portuguese occupiers, was made unwelcome, theyfinally found a refuge at Hongkong, then occupied only by a fewfishermen's huts. Further negotiations as to the renewal of trade havingfallen through, Lin gave orders for all British ships to leave Chinawithin three days, which resulted in a fight between two men-of-war andtwenty-nine war-junks, in which the latter were either sunk or drivenoff with great loss. In June, 1840, a British fleet of seventeenmen-of-war and twenty-seven troopships arrived at Hongkong; Canton wasblockaded; a port on the island of Chusan was subsequently occupied;and Lord Palmerston's letter to the Emperor was carried to Tientsin, and delivered there to the Viceroy of Chihli. Commissioner Lin was nowcashiered for incompetency; but was afterwards instructed to act withthe Viceroy of Chihli, who was sent down to supersede him. Furthervexatious action, or rather inaction, on the part of these two at lengthdrove Captain Elliot to an ultimatum; and as no attention was paid tothis, the Bogue forts near the mouth of the Canton river were taken bythe British fleet, after great slaughter of the Chinese. In January, 1841, a treaty of peace was arranged, under which the island of Hongkongwas to be ceded to England, a sum of over a million pounds was to bepaid for the opium destroyed, and satisfactory concessions were to bemade in the matter of official intercourse between the two nations. The Emperor refused ratification, and ordered the extermination of thebarbarians to be at once proceeded with. Again the Bogue forts werecaptured, and Canton would have been occupied but for another promisedtreaty, the terms of which were accepted by Sir Henry Pottinger, who nowsuperseded Elliot. At this juncture the British fleet sailed northwards, capturing Amoy and Ningpo, and occupying the island of Chusan. Thefurther capture of Chapu, where munitions of war in huge quantities weredestroyed, was followed by similar successes at Shanghai and Chinkiang. At the last-mentioned, a desperate resistance was offered by the Manchugarrison, who fought heroically against certain defeat, and who, whenall hope was gone, committed suicide in large numbers rather than fallinto the hands of the enemy, from whom, in accordance with prevailingideas and with what would have been their own practice, they expected noquarter. The Chinese troops, as distinguished from the Manchus, behaveddifferently; they took to their heels before a shot had been fired. This behaviour, which seems to be nothing more than arrant cowardice, isnevertheless open to a more favourable interpretation. The yoke of theManchu dynasty was already beginning to press heavily, and these menfelt that they had no particular cause to fight for, certainly not sucha personal cause as then stared the Manchus in the face. The Manchusoldiers were fighting for their all: their very supremacy was at stake;while many of the Chinese troops were members of the Triad Society, thechief object of which was to get rid of the alien dynasty. It is thus, too, that we can readily explain the assistance afforded to the enemyby numerous Cantonese, and the presence of many as servants on board thevessels of our fleet; they did not help us or accompany us from anylack of patriotism, of which virtue Chinese annals have many strikingexamples to show, but because they were entirely out of sympathy withtheir rulers, and would have been glad to see them overthrown, coupledof course with the tempting pay and good treatment offered by thebarbarian. 

It now remained to take Nanking, and thither the fleet proceededin August, 1842, with that purpose in view. This move the Chineseauthorities promptly anticipated by offering to come to terms in afriendly way; and in a short time conditions of peace were arrangedunder an important instrument, known as the Treaty of Nanking. Itschief clauses provided for the opening to British trade of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, at which all British subjects wereto enjoy the rights of extraterritoriality, being subject to thejurisdiction of their own officials only; also, for the cession toEngland of the island of Hongkong, and for the payment of a lump sum ofabout five million pounds as compensation for loss of opium, expenses ofthe war, etc. All prisoners were to be released, and there was a specialamnesty for such Chinese as had given their services to the Britishduring the war. An equality of status between the officials of bothnations was further conceded, and suitable rules were to be drawn up forthe regulation of trade. The above treaty having been duly ratified byTao Kuang and by Queen Victoria, it must then have seemed to Britishmerchants that a new and prosperous era had really dawned. But theycounted without the ever-present desire of the great bulk of the Chinesepeople to see the last of the Manchus; and the Triad Society, stimulatedno doubt by the recent British successes, had already shown signs ofunusual activity when, in 1850, the Emperor died, and was succeeded byhis fourth son, who reigned under the title of Hsien Fêng (or Hien Fong= universal plenty). 

CHAPTER VIII--HSIEN FÊNG

Hsien Fêng came to the throne at the age of nineteen, and found himselfin possession of a heritage which showed evident signs of going rapidlyto pieces. His father, in the opinion of many competent Chinese, hadbeen sincerely anxious for the welfare of his country; on the otherhand, he had failed to learn anything from the lessons he had receivedat the hands of foreigners, towards whom his attitude to the last wasof the bow-wow order. On one occasion, indeed, he borrowed a classicalphrase, and referring to the intrusions of the barbarian, declaredroundly that he would allow no man to snore alongside of his bed. Brought up in this spirit, Hsien Fêng had already begun to exhibit ananti-foreign bias, when he found himself in the throes of a strugglewhich speedily reduced the European question to quite insignificantproportions. 

A clever young Cantonese, named Hung Hsiu-ch`üan, from whom great thingswere expected, failed, in 1833, to secure the first degree at the usualpublic examination. Four years later, when twenty-four years of age, hemade another attempt, only, however, to be once more rejected. Chagrinat this second failure brought on melancholia, and he began to seevisions; and later on, while still in this depressed state of mind, heturned his attention to some Christian tracts which had been given tohim on his first appearance at the examination, but which he had so farallowed to remain unread. In these he discovered what he thought wereinterpretations of his earlier dreams, and soon managed to persuadehimself that he had been divinely chosen to bring to his countrymen aknowledge of the true God. 

In one sense this would only have been reversion to a former condition, for in ancient times a simple monotheism formed the whole creed of theChinese people; but Hung went much further, and after having become headof a Society of God, he started a sect of professing Christians, andset to work to collect followers, styling himself the Brother of Christ. Gradually, the authorities became aware of his existence, and also ofthe fact that he was drawing together a following on a scale whichmight prove dangerous to the public peace. It was then that force ofcircumstances changed his status from that of a religious reformerto that of a political adventurer; and almost simultaneously withthe advent of Hsien Fêng to the Imperial power, the long-smoulderingdiscontent with Manchu rule, carefully fostered by the organization ofthe Triad society, broke into open rebellion. A sort of holy war wasproclaimed against the Manchus, stigmatized as usurpers and idolaters, who were to be displaced by a native administration, called the T`aiP`ing (great peace) Heavenly Dynasty, at the head of which Hung placedhimself, with the title of "Heavenly King, " in allusion to the Christianprinciples on which this new departure was founded. 

"Our Heavenly King, " so ran the rebel proclamations, "has received adivine commission to exterminate the Manchus utterly, men, women, andchildren, with all idolaters, and to possess the empire as its truesovereign. For the empire and everything in it is his; its mountainsand rivers, its broad lands and public treasuries; you and all thatyou have, your family, males and females alike, from yourself to youryoungest child, and your property, from your patrimonial estates to thebracelet on your infant's arm. We command the services of all, and wetake everything. All who resist us are rebels and idolatrous demons, andwe kill them without sparing; but whoever acknowledges our Heavenly Kingand exerts himself in our service shall have full reward, --due honourand station in the armies and court of the Heavenly Dynasty. "

The T`ai-p`ings now got rid of the chief outward sign of allegiance tothe Manchus, by ceasing to shave the forepart of the head, and allowingall their hair to grow long, from which they were often spoken of atthe time--and the name still survives--as the long-haired rebels. Theirearly successes were phenomenal; they captured city after city, movingnorthwards through Kuangsi into Hunan, whence, after a severe check atCh`ang-sha, the provincial capital, the siege of which they were forcedto raise, they reached and captured, among others, the important citiesof Wu-ch`ang, Kiukiang, and An-ch`ing, on the Yangtsze. The next stagewas to Nanking, a city occupying an important strategic position, and famous as the capital of the empire in the fourth and fourteenthcenturies. Here the Manchu garrison offered but a feeble resistance, the only troops who fought at all being Chinese; within ten days (March, 1853) the city was in the hands of the T`ai-p`ings; all Manchus, --men, women, and children, said to number no fewer than twenty thousand, --wereput to the sword; and in the same month, Hung was formally proclaimedfirst Emperor of the T`ai P`ing Heavenly Dynasty, Nanking from this datereceiving the name of the Heavenly City. So far, the generals who hadbeen sent to oppose his progress had effected nothing. One of these wasCommissioner Lin, of opium fame, who had been banished and recalled, and was then living in retirement after having successfully held severalhigh offices. His health was not equal to the effort, and he died on hisway to take up his post. 

After the further capture of Chinkiang, a feat which created aconsiderable panic at Shanghai, a force was detached from the main bodyof the T`ai-p`ings, and dispatched north for no less a purpose than thecapture of Peking. Apparently a fool-hardy project, it was one that camenearer to realization than the most sanguine outsider could possiblyhave expected. The army reached Tientsin, which is only eighty milesfrom the capital; but when there, a slight reverse, together with otherunexplained reasons, resulted in a return (1855) of the troops withouthaving accomplished their object. Meanwhile, the comparative ease withwhich the T`ai-p`ings had set the Manchus at defiance, and continuedto hold their own, encouraged various outbreaks in other parts of theempire; until at length more systematic efforts were made to put a stopto the present impossible condition of affairs. 

Opportunity just now was rather on the side of the Imperialists, as thefutile expedition to Peking had left the rebels in a somewhat aimlessstate, not quite knowing what to do next. It is true that they were busyspreading the T`ai-p`ing conception of Christianity, in establishingschools, and preparing an educational literature to meet the exigenciesof the time. They achieved the latter object by building anew on thelines, but not in the spirit, of the old. Thus the Trimetrical Classic, the famous schoolboy's handbook, a veritable guide to knowledge in whicha variety of subjects are lightly touched upon, was entirely rewritten. The form, rhyming stanzas with three words to each line, was preserved;but instead of beginning with the familiar Confucian dogma that man'snature is entirely good at his birth and only becomes depraved by laterenvironment, we find the story of the Creation, taken from the firstchapter of Genesis. 

By 1857, Imperialist troops were drawing close lines around the rebels, who had begun to lose rather than to gain ground. An-ch`ing and Nanking, the only two cities which remained to them, were blockaded, and theManchu plan was simply to starve the enemy out. During this period wehear little of the Emperor, Hsien Fêng; and what we do hear is not tohis advantage. He had become a confirmed debauchee, in the hands of adegraded clique, whose only contribution to the crisis was a suggestedissue of paper money and debasement of the popular coinage. Among hisgenerals, however, there was now one, whose name is still a householdword all over the empire, and who initiated the first checks which ledto the ultimate suppression of the rebellion. Tsêng Kuo-fan had beenalready employed in high offices, when, in 1853, he was first orderedto take up arms against the T`ai-p`ings. After some reverses, he enteredupon a long course of victories by which the rebels were driven frommost of their strongholds; and in 1859, he submitted a plan for anadvance on Nanking, which was approved and ultimately carried out. Meanwhile, the plight of the besieged rebels in Nanking had become sounbearable that something had to be done. A sortie on a large scale wasaccordingly organized, and so successful was it that the T`ai-p`ings notonly routed the besieging army, but were able to regain large tracts ofterritory, capturing at the same time huge stores of arms and munitionsof war. These victories were in reality the death-blow to the rebelcause, for the brutal cruelty then displayed to the people at large wasof such a character as to alienate completely the sympathy of thousandswho might otherwise have been glad to see the end of the Manchus. Amongother acts of desolation, the large and beautiful city of Soochowwas burnt and looted, an outrage for which the T`ai-p`ings were heldresponsible, and regarding which there is a pathetic tale told by aneye-witness of the ruins; in this instance, however, if indeed in noothers, the acts of vandalism in question were committed by Imperialistsoldiers. 

It is with the T`ai-p`ing rebellion that we associate _likin_, a taxwhich has for years past been the bugbear of the foreign merchant inChina. The term means "thousandth-part money, " that is, the thousandthpart of a _tael_ or Chinese ounce of silver, say one _cash_; and it wasoriginally applied to a tax of one _cash_ per tael on all sales, saidto have been voluntarily imposed on themselves by the people, as atemporary measure, with a view to make up the deficiency in the land-taxcaused by the rebellion. It was to be set apart for military purposesonly--hence its common name, "war-tax"; but it soon drifted into thegeneral body of taxation, and became a serious impost on foreign trade. We first hear of it in 1852, as collected by the Governor of Shantung;to hear the last of it has long been the dream of those who wish to seethe expansion of trade with China. 

Tsêng Kuo-fan was now (1860) appointed Imperial War Commissioner aswell as Viceroy of the Two Kiang (= provinces of Kiangsi and Kiangsu +Anhui). He had already been made a _bataru_, a kind of order institutedby the first Manchu Emperor Shun Chih, as a reward for military prowess;and had also received the Yellow Riding Jacket from the Emperor HsienFêng, who drew off the jacket he was himself wearing at the time, andplaced it on the shoulders of the loyal and successful general. In 1861he succeeded in recapturing An-ch`ing and other places; and with thiscity as his headquarters, siege was forthwith laid to Nanking. 

The Imperialist forces were at this juncture greatly strengthened bythe appointments, on Tsêng's recommendation, of two notable men, TsoTsung-t`ang and Li Hung-chang, as Governors of Chehkiang and Kiangsurespectively. Assistance, too, came from another and most unexpectedquarter. An American adventurer, named Ward, a man of considerablemilitary ability, organized a small force of foreigners, which he led tosuch purpose against the T`ai-p`ings, that he rapidly gathered into itsranks a large if motley crowd of foreigners and Chinese, all equallybent on plunder, and with that end in view submitting to the disciplinenecessary to success. A long run of victories gained for this force thetitle of the Ever Victorious Army; until at length Ward was killed inbattle. He was buried at Sungkiang, near Shanghai, a city which he hadretaken from the T`ai-p`ings, and there a shrine was erected to hismemory, and for a long time--perhaps even now--offerings were madeto his departed spirit. An attempt was made to replace him by anotherAmerican named Burgevine, who had been Ward's second in command. Thisman, however, was found to be incapable and was superceded; and in 1863Major Gordon, R. E. , was allowed by the British authorities to take overcommand of what was then an army of about five thousand men, and to actin co-operation with Tsêng Kuo-fan and Li Hung-chang. Burgevine shortlyafterwards went over to the rebels with about three hundred men, andfinally came to a tragic end. 

Gordon's appointment to the work which will always be associatedwith his name, was speedily followed by disastrous results to theT`ai-p`ings. The Ever Victorious troops, who had recently been worstedin more than one encounter with their now desperate enemies, began toretrieve their reputation, greatly stimulated by the regular pay whichGordon always insisted upon. Towards the close of the year, the siegeof Soochow ended in a capitulation on terms which Gordon understoodto include a pardon for the eight T`ai-p`ing "princes" engaged inits defence. These eight were hurriedly decapitated by order of LiHung-chang, and Gordon immediately resigned, after having searched thatsame night, so the story goes, revolver in hand, for Li Hung-chang, whose brains he had determined to blow out on the spot. The Emperor senthim a medal and a present of about £3, 000, both of which he declined;and Imperial affairs would again have been in a bad way, but thatGordon, yielding to a sense of duty, agreed to resume command. Foreigninterests had begun to suffer badly; trade was paralysed; and somethinghad to be done. Further successes under Gordon's leadership reducedthe T`ai-p`ings to their last extremity. Only Nanking remained to becaptured, and that was already fully invested by Tsêng Kuo-fan. Gordontherefore laid down his command, and was rewarded with the title ofProvincial Commander-in-Chief, and also with the bestowal of the YellowRiding Jacket. A month or so later (July, 1864), Nanking was carried bystorm, defended bravely to the last by the only remaining "prince, " theHeavenly King himself having taken poison three weeks beforehand. This prince escaped with the new king, a boy of sixteen, who had justsucceeded his father; but he was soon caught and executed, having firstbeen allowed time to write a short history of the movement from theT`ai-p`ing point of view. The boy shared his fate. The Imperial edictsof this date show clearly what a sense of relief came over the Manchucourt when once it could be said definitively that the great rebellionwas over. On the other hand, there were not wanting some foreigners whowould have liked to see the Manchus overthrown, and who severely blamedthe British Government for helping to bolster up a dynasty already inthe last stage of decay; for it seems to be an indubitable fact that butfor British intervention, the rebellion would ultimately have succeededin that particular direction. 

During a great part of the last eight years described above, an ordinaryobserver would have said that the Manchus had already sufficienttroubles on hand, and would be slow to provoke further causes ofanxiety. It is none the less true, however, that at one of the mostcritical periods of the rebellion, China was actually at war with thevery power which ultimately came to the rescue. In 1856 the Viceroy ofCanton, known to foreigners as Governor Yeh, a man who had gained favourat the Manchu court by his wholesale butchery of real and suspectedrebels, arrested twelve Chinese sailors on board the "Arrow, " aChinese-owned vessel lying at Canton, which had been licensed atHongkong to sail under the British flag, and at the same time the flagwas hauled down by Yeh's men. Had this been an isolated act, it isdifficult to see why very grave circumstances need have followed, andperhaps Justin McCarthy's condemnation of our Consul, Mr (afterwards SirHarry) Parkes, as "fussy, " because he sent at once to Hongkong for armedassistance, might in such case be allowed to stand unchallenged; butit must be remembered that Yeh was all the time refusing to foreignersrights which had been already conceded under treaty, and that actionsuch as Parkes took, against an adversary such as Yeh, was absolutelynecessary either to mend or end the situation. Accordingly, his actionled to what was at first an awkward state of reprisals, in which someAmerican men-of-war joined for grievances of their own; forts beingattacked and occupied, the foreign houses of business at Canton beingburned down, and rewards offered for foreigners' heads. In January, 1857, an attempt was actually made in Hongkong to get rid of allforeigners at one fell stroke, in which plot there is no doubt that thelocal officials at Canton were deeply implicated. The bread was one dayfound to be poisoned with arsenic, but so heavily that little mischiefwas done. The only possible end to this tension was war; and by the endof the year a joint British and French force, with Lord Elgin and BaronGros as plenipotentiaries, was on the spot. Canton was captured aftera poor resistance; and Governor Yeh, whose enormous bulk made escapedifficult, was captured and banished to Calcutta, where he died. On thevoyage he sank into a kind of stupor, taking no interest whatever in hisnew surroundings; and when asked by Alabaster, who accompanied him asinterpreter, why he did not read, he pointed to his stomach, the Chinesereceptacle for learning, and said that there was nothing worth readingexcept the Confucian Canon, and that he had already got all that insidehim. After his departure the government of the city was successfullydirected by British and French authorities, acting in concert with twohigh Manchu officials. 

Lord Elgin then decided to proceed forth, in the hope of being ableto make satisfactory arrangements for future intercourse; but theobstructive policy of the officials on his arrival at the Peihocompelled him to attack and capture the Taku forts, and finally, to takeup his residence in Tientsin. The lips, as the Chinese say, being nowgone, the teeth began to feel cold; the court was in a state of panic, and within a few weeks a treaty was signed (June 26, 1858) containing, among other concessions to England, the right to have a diplomaticrepresentative stationed in Peking, and permission to trade in theinterior of China. It would naturally be supposed that Lord Elgin'smission was now ended, and indeed he went home; the Emperor, however, would not hear of ratifications of the treaty being exchanged in Peking, and in many other ways it was made plain that there was no intention ofits stipulations being carried out. There was the example of Confucius, who had been captured by rebels and released on condition that he wouldnot travel to the State of Wei. Thither, notwithstanding, he continuedhis route; and when asked by a disciple if it was right to violatehis oath, he replied, "This was a forced oath; the spirits do not hearsuch. "

By June, 1859, another Anglo-French force was at the mouth of the Peiho, only to find the Taku forts now strongly fortified, and the river stakedand otherwise obstructed. The allied fleet, after suffering considerabledamage, with much loss of life, was compelled to retire, greatly to thejoy and relief of the Emperor, who at last saw the barbarian reduced tohis proper status. It was on this occasion that Commander Tatnell of theU. S. Navy, who was present, strictly speaking, as a spectator only, incomplete violation of international law, of which luckily the Chineseknew nothing at that date, lent efficient aid by towing boat-loads ofBritish marines into action, justifying his conduct by a saying whichwill always be gratefully associated with his name, --"Blood is thickerthan water. "

By August, 1860, thirteen thousand British troops, seven thousandFrench, and two thousand five hundred Cantonese coolies, were ready tomake another attempt. This time there were no frontal attacks on theforts from the seaward; capture was effected, after a severe struggle, by land from the rear, a feat which was generally regarded by theTartar soldiery as most unsportsmanlike. High Manchu officials were nowhurriedly dispatched from Peking to Tientsin to stop by fair promisesthe further advance of the allies; but the British and Frenchplenipotentiaries decided to move up to T`ung-chow, a dozen miles or sofrom the capital. It was on this march that Parkes, Loch, and others, while carrying out orders under a flag of truce, were treacherouslyseized by the soldiers of Sêng-ko-lin-sin, the Manchu prince and general(familiar to the British troops as "Sam Collinson"), who had justexperienced a severe defeat at the taking of the Taku forts. Afterbeing treated with every indignity, the prisoners, French and English, numbering over thirty in all, were forwarded to Peking. There they weremiserably tortured, and many of them succumbed; but events were movingquickly now, and relief was at hand for those for whom it was notalready too late. Sêng-ko-lin-sin and his vaunted Tartar cavalry werecompletely routed in several encounters, and Peking lay at the mercy ofthe foreigner, the Emperor having fled to Jehol, where he died in lessthan a year. Only then did Prince Kung, a younger brother of Hsien Fêng, who had been left to bear the brunt of foreign resentment, send back, ina state too terrible for words, fourteen prisoners, less than half theoriginal number of those so recently captured. Something in the form ofa punitive act now became necessary, to mark the horror with which thisatrocious treatment of prisoners by the Manchu court was regarded amongthe countrymen of the victims. Accordingly, orders were given to burndown the Summer Palace, appropriately condemned as being the favouriteresidence of the Emperor, and also the scene of the unspeakable torturesinflicted. This palace was surrounded by a beautiful pleasance lying onthe slope of the western hills, about nine miles to the north-west ofPeking. Yüan-ming Yüan, or the "Bright Round Garden, " to give it itsproper name, had been laid out by the Jesuit fathers on the plan ofthe Trianon at Versailles, and was packed with valuable porcelain, oldbronzes, and every conceivable kind of curio, most of which were lootedor destroyed by the infuriated soldiery. 

The ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858) was now completed, andbefore the end of the year the allied forces were gone, save and exceptgarrisons at Tientsin and Taku, which were to remain until the indemnitywas paid. 

CHAPTER IX--T`UNG CHIH

On the death of the Emperor, a plot was concocted by eight membersof the extreme anti-foreign party at Court, who claimed to have beenappointed Regents, to make away with the Empress Dowager, the concubinemother, known as the Western Empress, of the five-year-old child justproclaimed under the title of Chi Hsiang (good omen), and also the lateEmperor's three brothers, thus securing to themselves complete controlof the administration. Prince Kung, however, managed to be "first at thefire, " and in accordance with the Chinese proverb, was therefore "firstwith his cooking. " Having got wind of the scheme, in concert with thetwo Empresses Dowager, who had secured possession of the Emperor, hepromptly caused the conspirators to be seized. Two of them, Imperialprinces, were allowed to commit suicide, and the others were eitherexecuted or banished, while Prince Kung and the two Empresses formed ajoint regency for the direction of public affairs, after changing thestyle of the reign from Chi Hsiang to T`ung Chih (united rule). 

The position of these two Empresses was a curious one. The EmpressDowager _par excellence_--for there is only one legal wife in China--hadno children; a concubine had provided the heir to the throne, and had inconsequence been raised to the rank of Western Empress, subordinate onlyto the childless Eastern Empress. Of the latter, there is nothing to besaid, except that she remained a cipher to the end of her life; of theconcubine, a great deal has been said, much of which is untrue. Takenfrom an ordinary Manchu family into the palace, she soon gained anextraordinary influence over Hsien Fêng, and began to make her voiceheard in affairs of State. Always on the side of determined measures, she had counselled the Emperor to remain in Peking and face thebarbarians; she is further believed to have urged the execution ofParkes and Loch, the order luckily arriving too late to be carried out. For the next three years the Regents looked anxiously for the finalcollapse of the T`ai-p`ings, having meanwhile to put up with the hatefulpresence of foreign diplomats, now firmly established within theManchu section of the city of Peking. No sooner was the great rebellionentirely suppressed (1864), than another rising broke out. The Nien-fei, or Twist Rebels, said to have been so called because they wore as abadge turbans twisted with grease, were mounted banditti who, hereto-day and gone to-morrow, for several years committed much havoc inthe northern provinces of China, until finally suppressed by TsoTsung-t`ang. 

Turkestan was the next part of the empire to claim attention. A son andsuccessor of Jehangir, ruling as vassal of China at Khokand, had beenmurdered by his lieutenant, Yakoob Beg, who, in 1866, had set himselfup as Ameer of Kashgaria, throwing off the Manchu yoke and attracting tohis standard large numbers of discontented Mahometans from all quarters. His attack upon the Dunganis, who had risen on their own account and hadspread rebellion far and wide between the province of Shensi and Kuldja, caused Russia to step in and annex Kuldja before it could fall intohis hands. Still, he became master of a huge territory; and in 1874 thetitle of Athalik Ghazi, "Champion Father, " was conferred upon him by theAmeer of Bokhara. He is also spoken of as the Andijani, from Andijan, atown in Khokhand whence he and many of his followers came. Luckily forthe Manchus, they were able to avail themselves of the services of aChinese general whose extraordinary campaign on this occasion hasmarked him as a commander of the first order. Tso Tsung-k`ang, alreadydistinguished by his successes against the T`ia-p`ings and the Nien-fei, began by operations, in 1869, against the Mahometans in Shensi. Fightinghis way through difficulties caused by local outbreaks and mutiniesin his rear, he had captured by 1873 the important city of Su-chow inKansuh, and by 1874 his advance-guard had reached Hami. There he wasforced to settle down and raise a crop in order to feed his troops, supplies being very uncertain. In 1876 Urumtsi was recovered; and in1877, Turfan, Harashar, Yarkand, and Kashgar. At this juncture, YakoobBeg was assassinated, after having held Kashgaria for twelve years. Khoten fell on January 2, 1878. This wonderful campaign was now over, but China had lost Kuldja. A Manchu official, named Ch`ung-hou, who wassent to St Petersburg to meet Russian diplomats on their own ground, themain object being to recover this lost territory, was condemned to deathon his return for the egregious treaty he had managed to negotiate, andwas only spared at the express request of Queen Victoria; he will bementioned again shortly. His error was afterwards retrieved by a youngand brilliant official, son of the great Tsêng Kuo-fan, and latera familiar figure as the Marquis Tsêng, Minister at the Court of StJames's, by whom Kuldja was added once more to the Manchu empire. 

The year 1868 is remarkable for a singular episode. The Regents andother high authorities in Peking decided, at whose instigation can onlybe surmised, to send an embassy to the various countries of Europe andAmerica, in order to bring to the notice of foreign governments China'sright, as an independent Power, to manage her internal affairs withoutundue interference from outside. The mission, which included two Chineseofficials, was placed under the leadership of Mr Burlingame, AmericanMinister at Peking, who, in one of his speeches, took occasion to saythat China was simply longing to cement friendly relations with foreignpowers, and that within some few short years there would be "a shiningcross on every hill in the Middle Kingdom. "

Burlingame died early in 1870, before his mission was completed, andonly four months before the Tientsin Massacre threw a shadow of doubtover his optimistic pronouncements. The native population at Tientsinhad been for some time irritated by the height to which, contrary totheir own custom, the towers of the Roman Catholic Cathedral had beencarried; and rumours had also been circulated that behind the loftywalls and dark mysterious portals of the Catholic foundling hospital, children's eyes and hearts were extracted from still warm corpsesto furnish medicines for the barbarian pharmacopoeia. On June 21, the cathedral and the establishment of sisters of mercy, the FrenchConsulate, and other buildings, were pillaged and burnt by a mobcomposed partly of the rowdies of the place and partly of soldiers whohappened to be temporarily quartered there. All the priests and sisterswere brutally murdered, as also the French Consul and other foreigners. For this outrage eighteen men were executed, a large indemnity wasexacted, and the superintendent of trade, the same Manchu official whosesubsequent failure at St Petersburg has been already noticed, was sentto France with a letter of apology from the Emperor. 

In 1872 T`ung Chih was married, and in the following year took overthe reins of government. Thereupon, the foreign Ministers pressed forpersonal interviews; and after much obstruction on the part of theManchu court, the first audience was granted. This same year saw thecollapse of the Panthays, a tribe of Mahometans in Yünnan who, so farback as 1855, had begun to free themselves from Chinese rule. They choseas their leader an able co-religionist named Tu Wên-hsiu, who was styledSultan Suleiman, and he sent agents to Burma to buy arms and munitionsof war; after which, secure in the natural fortress of Ta-li, he wassoon master of all western Yünnan. In 1863 he repulsed with heavy losstwo armies sent against him from the provincial capital; but the endof the T`ai-p`ing rebellion set free the whole resources of the empireagainst him, and he remained inactive while the Imperialists advancedleisurely westwards. In 1871 he tried vainly to obtain aid from England, sending over his son, Prince Hassan, for that purpose. The followingyear saw the enemy at the gates of Ta-li, and by and by there was atreacherous surrender of an important position. Then a promise ofan amnesty was obtained at the price of Tu's head, and an enormousindemnity. On January 15, 1873, his family having all committed suicide, the Sultan passed for the last time through the crowded streets of Ta-lion his way to the camp of his victorious adversary. He arrived theresenseless, having taken poison before setting forth. His corpse wasbeheaded and his head was forwarded to the provincial capital, andthence in a jar of honey to Peking. 

His conqueror, whose name is not worth recording, was one of thosecomparatively rare Chinese monsters who served their Manchu masters onlytoo well. Eleven days after the Sultan's death, he invited the chief menof the town to a feast, and after putting them all to death, gave thesignal for a general massacre, in which thirty thousand persons are saidto have been butchered. 

In 1874 the Japanese appear on the scene, adding fresh troubles to thosewith which the Manchus were already encompassed. Some sailors from theLoo-choo Islands, over which Japanese sovereignty had been successfullymaintained, were murdered by the savages on the east coast of Formosa;and failing to obtain redress, Japan sent a punitive expedition tothe island, and began operations on her own account, but withdrew onpromises of amendment and payment of all expenses incurred. 

CHAPTER X--KUANG HSÜ

In 1875 the Emperor T`ung Chih died of smallpox, and with his death themalign influence of his mother comes more freely into play. The youngEmpress was about to become a mother; and had she borne a son, herposition as mother of the baby Emperor would have been of paramountimportance, while the grandmother, the older Empress Dowager, would havebeen relegated to a subordinate status. Consequently, --it may now besaid, having regard to subsequent happenings, --the death of the Empressfollowed that of her husband at an indecently short interval, for noparticular reason of health; and the old Empress Dowager became supreme. In order to ensure her supremacy, she had previously, on the very dayof the Emperor's death, caused the succession to be allotted, in utterviolation of established custom, to a first cousin, making him heir tothe Emperor Hsien Fêng, instead of naming one of a lower generation who, as heir to T`ung Chih, would have been qualified to sacrifice to thespirit of his adopted father. Thus, the late Emperor was left without ason, and his spirit without a ministrant at ancestral worship, the onlyconsolation being that when a son should be born to the new Emperor(aged four), that child was to become son by adoption to his lateMajesty, T`ung Chih. Remonstrances, even from Manchus, were soon heardon all sides; but to these the Empress Dowager paid no attention untilfour years afterwards (1879), on the occasion of the deferred funeral ofthe late Emperor, when a censor, named Wu K`o-tu, committed suicideat the mausoleum, leaving behind him a memorial in which he stronglycondemned the action of the two Empresses Dowager, still regardedofficially as joint regents, and called for a re-arrangement of thesuccession, under which the late Emperor would be duly provided with anheir. Nothing, however, came of this sacrifice, except promises, until1900. A son of Prince Tuan, within a few months to espouse the Boxercause, was then made heir to his late Majesty, as required; but at thebeginning of 1901, this appointment was cancelled and the spirit of theEmperor T`ung Chih was left once more unprovided for in the ancestraltemple. The first cousin in question, who reigned as Kuang Hsü (=brilliant succession), was not even the next heir in his own generation;but he was a child of four, and that suited the plans of the EmpressDowager, who, having appointed herself Regent, now entered openly uponthe career for which she will be remembered in history. What she wouldhave done if the Empress had escaped and given birth to a son, can onlybe a matter of conjecture. 

In 1876 the first resident Envoy ever sent by China to Great Britain, or to any other nation, was accredited to the Court of St James's. Kuo Sung-tao, who was chosen for the post, was a fine scholar; he madeseveral attempts on the score of health to avoid what then seemed to allChinese officials--no Manchu would have been sent--to be a dangerous andunpleasant duty, but was ultimately obliged to succeed. It was hewho, on his departure in 1879, said to Lord Salisbury that heliked everything about the English very much, except their shockingimmorality. 

The question of railways for China had long been simmering in the mindsof enterprising foreigners; but it was out of the question to think thatthe Government would allow land to be sold for such a purpose; thereforethere would be no sellers. In 1876 a private company succeeded inobtaining the necessary land by buying up connecting strips betweenShanghai and Woosung at the mouth of the river, about eight miles inall. The company then proceeded to lay down a miniature railway, whichwas an object of much interest to the native, whose amusement soon tookthe form of a trip there and back. Political influence was then broughtto bear, and the whole thing was purchased by the Government; the railswere torn up and sent to Formosa, where they were left to rot upon thesea-beach. 

The suppression of rebellion in Turkestan and Yünnan has already beenmentioned; also the retrocession of Kuldja, which brings us down to theyear 1881, when the Eastern Empress died. Death must have been moreor less a relief to this colourless personage, who had been entirelysuperseded on a stage on which by rights she should have played theleading part, and who had been terrorized during her last years by hermore masterful colleague. 

In 1882 there were difficulties with France over Tongking; these, however, were adjusted, and in 1884 a convention was signed by CaptainFournier and Li Hung-chang. A further dispute then arose as to abreach of the convention by the Chinese, and an _état de représailles_followed, during which the French destroyed the Chinese fleet. Afterthe peace which was arranged in 1885, a few years of comparativetranquillity ensued; the Emperor was married (1889), and relieved hisaunt of her duties as Regent. 

Japan, in earlier centuries contemptuously styled the Dwarf-nation, andalways despised as a mere imitator and brain-picker of Chinese wisdom, now swims definitively into the ken of the Manchu court. The Formosanimbroglio had been forgotten as soon as it was over, and the recentrapid progress of Japan on Western lines towards national strength hadbeen ignored by all Manchu statesmen, each of whom lived in hope thatthe deluge would not come in his own time. So far back as 1885, inconsequence of serious troubles involving much bloodshed, the twocountries had agreed that neither should send troops to Korea withoutdue notification to the other. Now, in 1894, China violated thiscontract by dispatching troops, at the request of the king of Korea, whose throne was threatened by a serious rebellion, without sufficientwarning to Japan, and further, by keeping a body of these troops at theKorean capital even when the rebellion was at an end. A disastrous warensued. The Japanese were victorious on land and sea; the Chinese fleetwas destroyed; Port Arthur was taken; and finally, after surrenderingWei-hai-wei (1895), to which he had retired with the remnant ofhis fleet, Admiral Ting, well known as "a gallant sailor and truegentleman, " committed suicide together with four of his captains. LiHung-chang was then sent to Japan to sue for peace, and while there hewas shot in the cheek by a fanatical member of the Soshi class. This actbrought him much sympathy--he was then seventy-two years old; and in thetreaty of Shimonoseki, which he negotiated, better terms perhaps wereobtained than would otherwise have been the case. The terms grantedincluded the independence of Korea, for centuries a tribute-payingvassal of China, and the cession of the island of Formosa. Japan hadoccupied the peninsula on which stands the impregnable fortress of PortArthur, and had captured the latter in a few hours; but she was notto be allowed to keep them. A coalition of European powers, Russia, Germany, and France--England refused to join--decided that it wouldnever do to let Japan possess Port Arthur, and forced her to accept amoney payment instead. So it was restored to China--for the moment; andat the same time a republic was declared in Formosa; but of this theJapanese made short work. 

[I once read the memoirs of a Japanese foreign minister from thisperiod. He didn't think much of most of the Chinese diplomats, whom heconsidered completely untrustworthy. --JB. ]

The following year was marked by an unusual display of initiative on thepart of the Emperor, who now ordered the introduction of railways; butin 1897 complications with foreign powers rather gave a check tothese aspirations. Two German Catholic priests were murdered, and asa punitive measure Germany seized Kiaochow in Shantung; while in 1898Russia "leased" Port Arthur, and as a counterblast, England thoughtit advisable to "lease" Wei-hai-wai. So soon as the Manchu court hadrecovered from the shock of these events, and had resumed its normalstate of torpor, it was rudely shaken from within by a series of edictswhich peremptorily commanded certain reforms of a most far-reachingdescription. For instance, the great public examinations, which had beenconducted on much the same system for seven or eight centuries past, were to be modified by the introduction of subjects suggested by recentintercourse with Western nations. There was to be a university inPeking, and the temples, which cover the empire in all directions, wereto be closed to religious services and opened for educational purposes. The Manchus, indeed, have never shown any signs of a religioustemperament. There had not been, under the dynasty in question, anysuch wave of devotional fervour as was experienced under more than oneprevious dynasty. Neither the dreams of Buddhism, nor the promisesof immortality held out by the Taoists, seem to have influenced in areligious, as opposed to a superstitious sense, the rather Boeotian mindof the Manchu. The learned emperors of the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies accepted Confucianism as sufficient for every-day humanity, and did all in their power to preserve it as a quasi-State religion. Thus, Buddhism was not favoured at the expense of Taoism, nor _viceversa_; Mahometanism was tolerated so long as there was no suspicion ofdisloyalty; Christianity, on the other hand, was bitterly opposed, being genuinely regarded for a long time as a cloak for territorialaggression. 

To return to the reforms. Young Manchus of noble family were to be sentabroad for an education on wider lines than it was possible to obtain athome. This last was in every way a desirable measure. No Manchu had evervisited the West; all the officials previously sent to foreign countrieshad been Chinese. But other proposed changes were not of equal value. 

At the back of this reform movement was a small band of earnest men whosuffered from too much zeal, which led to premature action. A plotwas conceived, under which the Empress Dowager was to be arrested andimprisoned; but this was betrayed by Yüan Shih-k`ai, and she turned thetables by suddenly arresting and imprisoning the Emperor, and promptlydecapitating all the conspirators, with the exception of K`ang Yu-wei, who succeeded in escaping. He had been the moving spirit of the abortiverevolution; he was a fine scholar, and had completely gained the earof the Emperor. The latter became henceforth to the end of his life aperson of no importance, while China, for the third time in history, passed under the dominion of a woman. There was no secret about it; theEmpress Dowager, popularly known as the Old Buddha, had succeeded interrorizing every one who came in contact with her, and her word waslaw. It was said of one of the Imperial princes that he was "horriblyafraid of her Majesty, and that when she spoke to him he was ontenter-hooks, as though thorns pricked him, and the sweat ran down hisface. "

All promise of reform now disappeared from the Imperial programme, andthe recent edicts, which had raised premature hope in this direction, were annulled; the old régime was to prevail once more. The weakness ofthis policy was emphasized in the following year (1899), when Englandremoved from Japan the stigma of extra-territorial jurisdiction, bywhich act British defendants, in civil and criminal cases alike, nowbecame amenable to Japanese tribunals. Japan had set herself to work toframe a code, and had trained lawyers for the administration of justice;China had done nothing, content that on her own territory foreignersand their lawsuits, as above, should be tried by foreign Consuls. Onecurious edict of this date had for its object the conferment of dulygraded civil rank, the right to salutes at official visits, and similarceremonial privileges, upon Roman Catholic archbishops, bishops, andpriests of the missionary body in China. The Catholic view was that themissionaries would gain in the eyes of the people if treated withmore deference than the majority of Chinese officials cared to displaytowards what was to them an objectionable class; in practice, however, the system was found to be unworkable, and was ultimately given up. 

The autumn of this year witnessed the beginning of the so-called Boxertroubles. There was great unrest, especially in Shantung, due, itwas said, to ill-feeling between the people at large and converts toChristianity, and at any rate aggravated by recent foreign acquisitionsof Chinese territory. It was thus that what was originally one of theperiodical anti-dynastic risings, with the usual scion of the Mingdynasty as figure-head, lost sight of its objective and became abloodthirsty anti-foreign outbreak. The story of the siege of theLegations has been written from many points of view; and most peopleknow all they want to know of the two summer months in 1900, themerciless bombardment of a thousand foreigners, with their women andchildren, cooped up in a narrow space, and also of the awful butcheryof missionaries, men, women, and children alike, which took place at thecapital of Shansi. Whatever may have been the origin of the movement, there can be little doubt that it was taken over by the Manchus, withthe complicity of the Empress Dowager, as a means of getting rid ofall the foreigners in China. Considering the extraordinary position theEmpress Dowager had created for herself, it is impossible to believethat she would not have been able to put an end to the siege by a word, or even by a mere gesture. She did not do so; and on the relief of theLegations, for a second time in her life--she had accompanied Hsien Fêngto Jehol in 1860--she sought safety in an ignominious flight. Meanwhile, in response to a memorial from the Governor of Shansi, she had sent hima secret decree, saying, "Slay all foreigners wheresoever you find them;even though they be prepared to leave your province, yet they mustbe slain. " A second and more urgent decree said, "I command that allforeigners, men, women, and children, be summarily executed. Let notone escape, so that my empire may be purged of this noisome source ofcorruption, and that peace may be restored to my loyal subjects. " Thefirst of these decrees had been circulated to all the high provincialofficials, and the result might well have been an indiscriminateslaughter of foreigners all over China, but for the action of twoChinese officials, who had already incurred the displeasure of theEmpress Dowager by memorializing against the Boxer policy. These mensecretly changed the word "slay" into "protect, " and this is the sensein which the decree was acted upon by provincial officials generally, with the exception of the Governor of Shansi, who sent a secondmemorial, eliciting the second decree as above. It is impossible to sayhow many foreigners owe their lives to this alteration of a word, andthe Empress Dowager herself would scarcely have escaped so easily as shedid, had her cruel order been more fully executed. The trick was soondiscovered, and the two heroes, Yüan Ch`ang and Hsü Ching-ch`êng, wereboth summarily beheaded, even though it was to the former that theEmpress Dowager was indebted for information which enabled her tofrustrate the plot against her life in 1898. 

Now, at the very moment of departure, she perpetrated a most brutalcrime. A favourite concubine of the Emperor's, who had previously givencause for offence, urged that his Majesty should not take part in theflight, but should remain in Peking. For this suggestion the EmpressDowager caused the miserable girl to be thrown down a well, in spiteof the supplications of the Emperor on her behalf. Then she fled, ultimately to Hsi-an Fu, the capital of Shensi, and for a year and ahalf Peking was rid of her presence. In 1902, she came back with theEmperor, whose prerogative she still managed to usurp. She declared atonce for reform, and took up the cause with much show of enthusiasm; butthose who knew the Manchu best, decided to "wait and see. " She began bysuggesting intermarriage between Manchus and Chinese, which had so farbeen prohibited, and advised Chinese women to give up the practice offootbinding, a custom which the ruling race had never adopted. It washenceforth to be lawful for Manchus, even of the Imperial family, tosend their sons abroad to be educated, --a step which no Manchu wouldbe likely to take unless forcibly coerced into doing so. Any spiritof enterprise which might have been possessed by the founders of thedynasty had long since evaporated, and all that Manchu nobles asked wasto be allowed to batten in peace upon the Chinese people. 

The direct issue of the emperors of the present dynasty and of theirdescendants in the male line, dating from 1616, are popularly known asYellow Girdles, from a sash of that colour which they habitually wear. Each generation becomes a degree lower in rank, until they are meremembers of the family with no rank whatever, although they still wearthe girdle and receive a trifling allowance from the government. Thus, beggars and even thieves are occasionally seen with this badge ofrelationship to the throne. Members of the collateral branches of theImperial family wear a red girdle, and are known as Gioros, Gioro beingpart of the surname--Aisin Gioro = Golden Race--of an early progenitorof the Manchu emperors. 

As a next step in reform, the examination system was to be remodelled, but not in the one sense in which it would have appealed most tothe Chinese people. Examinations for Manchus have always been heldseparately, and the standard attained has always been very far belowthat reached by Chinese candidates, so that the scholarship of theManchu became long ago a by-word and a joke. Now, in 1904, it wassettled that entry to an official career should be obtainable onlythrough the modern educational colleges; but this again applied only toChinese and not to Manchus. The Manchus have always had wisdom enough toemploy the best abilities they could discover by process of examinationamong the Chinese, many of whom have risen from the lowest estate tothe highest positions in the empire, and have proved themselves valuableservants and staunch upholders of the dynasty. Still, in addition tonumerous other posts, it may be said that all the fat sinecures havealways been the portion of Manchus. For instance, the office of Hoppo, or superintendent of customs at Canton (abolished 1904), was a positionwhich was allowed to generate into a mere opportunity for piling alarge fortune in the shortest possible time, no particular ability beingrequired from the holder of the post, who was always a Manchu. 

Then followed a mission to Europe, at the head of which we now find aManchu of high rank, an Imperial Duke, sent to study the mysteries ofconstitutional government, which was henceforth promised to the people, so soon as its introduction might be practicable. In the midst of theseattractive promises (1904-5) came the Russo-Japanese war, with all itssurprises. Among other causes to which the Manchu court ascribed thesuccess of the Japanese, freedom from the opium vice took high rank, andthis led to really serious enactments against the growth and consumptionof opium in China. Continuous and strenuous efforts of philanthropistsduring the preceding half century had not produced any results at all;but now it seemed as though this weakness had been all along the chiefreason for China's failures in her struggles with the barbarian, and itwas to be incontinently stamped out. Ten years' grace was allowed, atthe end of which period there was to be no more opium-smoking in theempire. One awkward feature was that the Empress Dowager herself was anopium-smoker; the difficulty, however, was got over by excluding fromthe application of the edict of 1906 persons over sixty years of age. Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of this policy, which so far haschiefly resulted in the substitution of morphia, cocaine, and alcohol, the thoroughness and rapidity with which it has been carried out, canonly command the admiration of all; of those most who know China best. 

CHAPTER XI--HSÜAN T`UNG

The health of the Emperor, never very good, now began to fail, and by1908 he was seriously ill; in this same year, too, there were signsthat the Empress Dowager was breaking up. Her last political act ofany importance, except the nomination of the heir to the throne, wasto issue a decree confirming the previous promise of constitutionalgovernment, which was to come into full force within nine years. Notmany weeks later the Emperor died (November 14), the Empress Dowagerhaving already, while he lay dying, appointed one of his nephews, achild barely three years old, to succeed him, in the vain hope that shewould thus enjoy a further spell of power until the child should be ofage. But on the following day the Empress Dowager also died; a singularcoincidence which has been attributed to the determination of theeunuchs and others that the Emperor should not outlive his aunt, forsome time past seen to be "drawing near the wood, " lest his reformingspirit should again jeopardize their nefarious interests. 

The Regency devolved upon the Emperor's father, but was not of very longduration. There was a show of introducing constitutional reform underthe guise of provincial and national assemblies intended to control thegovernment of the empire; but after all, the final power to acceptor reject their measures was vested in the Emperor, which really leftthings very much as they had been. The new charter was not found to beof much value, and there is little doubt that the Manchus regarded it inthe light of what is known in China as a "dummy document, " a measure tobe extolled in theory, but not intended to appear in practice. Suddenly, in September 1911, the great revolution broke out, and the end came morerapidly than was expected. 

It must not be imagined that this revolution was an inspiration of themoment; on the contrary, it had been secretly brewing for quite a longtime beforehand. During that period a few persons familiar with Chinamay have felt that something was coming, but nobody knew exactly what. Those who accept without reservation the common statement that there isno concealment possible in a country where everybody is supposed to havehis price, and that due notice of anything important is sure to leakout, must have been rather astonished when, without any warning, theyfound China in the throes of a well-planned revolution, which wasover, with its object gained, almost as soon as the real gravity ofthe situation was realized. It is true that under the Manchus accessto official papers of the most private description was always to beobtained at a moderate outlay; it was thus, for instance, that we wereable to appreciate the inmost feelings of that grim old Manchu, Wo-jen, who, in 1861, presented a secret memorial to the throne, and statedtherein that his loathing of all foreigners was so great that he longedto eat their flesh and sleep on their skins. 

The guiding spirit of the movement, Sun Yat-sen, is a native ofKuangtung, where he was born, not very far from Canton, in 1866. Aftersome early education in Honolulu, he became a student at the College ofMedicine, Kongkong, where he took his diploma in 1892. But his chief aimin life soon became a political one, and he determined to get rid of theManchus. He organized a Young China party in Canton, and in 1895 madean attempt to seize the city. The plot failed, and fifteen out of thesixteen conspirators were arrested and executed; Sun Yat-sen aloneescaped. A year later, he was in London, preparing himself for furtherefforts by the study of Western forms of government, a very large rewardbeing offered by the Chinese Government for his body, dead or alive. During his stay there he was decoyed into the Chinese Legation, andimprisoned in an upper room, from which he would have been hurriedaway to China, probably as a lunatic, to share the fate of his fifteenfellow-conspirators, but for the assistance of a woman who had been toldoff to wait upon him. To her he confided a note addressed to Dr Cantlie, a personal friend of long standing, under whom he had studied medicinein Hongkong; and she handed this to her husband, employed as waiterin the Legation, by whom it was safely delivered. He thus managed tocommunicate with the outer world; Lord Salisbury intervened, and he wasreleased after a fortnight's detention. 

Well might Sun Yat-sen now say--

 "They little thought that day of pain That one day I should come again. "

More a revolutionary than ever, he soon set to work to collect fundswhich flowed in freely from Chinese sources in all quarters of theworld. At last, in September 1911, the train was fired, beginning withthe province of Ss{u}ch`uan, and within an incredibly short space oftime, half China was ablaze. By the middle of October the Manchus werebeginning to feel that a great crisis was at hand, and the Regent wasdriven to recall Yüan Shih-k`ai, whom he had summarily dismissedfrom office two years before, on the conventional plea that Yüan wassuffering from a bad leg, but really out of revenge for his treacheryto the late Emperor, which had brought about the latter's arrest andpractical deposition by the old Empress Dowager in 1898. 

To this summons Yüan slily replied that he could not possibly leavehome just then, as his leg was not yet well enough for him to be ableto travel, meaning, of course, to gain time, and be in a position todictate his own terms. On the 30th October, when it was already toolate, the baby Emperor, reigning under the year-title Hsüan T`ung (widecontrol), published the following edict:--

"I have reigned for three years, and have always acted conscientiouslyin the interests of the people, but I have not employed men properly, not having political skill. I have employed too many nobles in politicalpositions, which contravenes constitutionalism. On railway matterssomeone whom I trusted fooled me, and thus public opinion was opposed. When I urged reform, the officials and gentry seized the opportunity toembezzle. When old laws are abolished, high officials serve their ownends. Much of the people's money has been taken, but nothing tobenefit the people has been achieved. On several occasions edictshave promulgated laws, but none of them have been obeyed. People aregrumbling, yet I do not know; disasters loom ahead, but I do not see. 

"The Ss{u}ch`uan trouble first occurred; the Wu-ch`ang rebellionfollowed; now alarming reports come from Shansi and Hunan. In Cantonand Kiangsi riots appear. The whole empire is seething. The minds of thepeople are perturbed. The spirits of our nine late emperors are unableproperly to enjoy sacrifices, while it is feared the people will suffergrievously. 

"All these are my own fault, and hereby I announce to the world thatI swear to reform, and, with our soldiers and people, to carry out theconstitution faithfully, modifying legislation, developing the interestsof the people, and abolishing their hardships--all in accordance withthe wishes and interests of the people. Old laws that are unsuitablewill be abolished. "

Nowhere else in the world is the belief that Fortune has a wheel whichin the long run never fails to "turn and lower the proud, " so prevalentor so deeply-rooted as in China. "To prosperity, " says the adage, "mustsucceed decay, "--a favourite theme around which the novelist delights toweave his romance. This may perhaps account for the tame resistance ofthe Manchus to what they recognized as inevitable. They had enjoyed agood span of power, quite as lengthy as that of any dynasty of moderntimes, and now they felt that their hour had struck. To borrow anotherphrase, "they had come in with the roar of a tiger, to disappear likethe tail of a snake. "

On November 3, certain regulations were issued by the National Assemblyas the necessary basis upon which a constitution could be raised. Theabsolute veto of the Emperor was now withdrawn, and it was expresslystated that Imperial decrees were not to over-ride the law, thougheven here we find the addition of "except in the event of immediatenecessity. " The first clause of this document was confined to thefollowing prophetic statement: "The Ta Ch`ing dynasty shall reign forever. "

On November 8, Yüan Shih-k`ai was appointed Prime Minister, and onDecember 3, the new Empress Dowager issued an edict, in which she said:

"The Regent has verbally memorialized the Empress Dowager, saying thathe has held the Regency for three years, and his administration has beenunpopular, and that constitutional government has not been consummated. Thus complications arose, and people's hearts were broken, and thecountry thrown into a state of turmoil. Hence one man's mismanagementhas caused the nation to suffer miserably. He regrets his repentance isalready too late, and feels that if he continues in power his commandswill soon be disregarded. He wept and prayed to resign the regency, expressing the earnest intention of abstaining in the future frompolitics. I, the Empress Dowager, living within the palace, am ignorantof the state of affairs but I know that rebellion exists and fighting iscontinuing, causing disasters everywhere, while the commerce of friendlynations suffers. I must enquire into the circumstances and finda remedy. The Regent is honest, though ambitious and unskilled inpolitics. Being misled, he has harmed the people, and therefore hisresignation is accepted. The Regents seal is cancelled. Let the Regentreceive fifty thousand _taels_ annually from the Imperial householdallowances, and hereafter the Premier and the Cabinet will controlappointments and administration. Edicts are to be sealed with theEmperor's seal. I will lead the Emperor to conduct audiences. Theguardianship of the holy person of the Emperor, who is of tender age, is a special responsibility. As the time is critical, the princesand nobles must observe the Ministers, who have undertaken a greatresponsibility, and be loyal and help the country and people, who nowmust realize that the Court does not object to the surrender of thepower vested in the throne. Let the people preserve order and continuebusiness, and thus prevent the country's disruption and restoreprosperity. "

CHAPTER XII--SUN YAT-SEN

On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen entered the republican capital, Nanking, and received a salute of twenty-one guns. He assumed the presidency ofthe provisional government, swearing allegiance, and taking an oath todethrone the Manchus, restore peace, and establish a government basedupon the people's will. These objects accomplished, he was prepared toresign his office, thus enabling the people to elect a president ofa united China. The first act of the provisional government was toproclaim a new calendar forthwith, January 1 becoming the New Year's Dayof the republic. 

On January 5 was issued the following republican manifesto:--

"To all friendly nations, --Greeting. Hitherto irremediable suppressionof the individual qualities and the national aspirations of the peoplehaving arrested the intellectual, moral, and material development ofChina, the aid of revolution was invoked to extirpate the primary cause. We now proclaim the consequent overthrow of the despotic sway of theManchu dynasty, and the establishment of a republic. The substitution ofa republic for a monarchy is not the fruit of transient passion, but thenatural outcome of a long-cherished desire for freedom, contentment, andadvancement. We Chinese people, peaceful and law-abiding, have not wagedwar except in self-defence. We have borne our grievance for two hundredand sixty-seven years with patience and forbearance. We have endeavouredby peaceful means to redress our wrongs, secure liberty, and ensureprogress; but we failed. Oppressed beyond human endurance, we deemed itour inalienable right, as well as a sacred duty, to appeal to arms todeliver ourselves and our posterity from the yoke to which we have forso long been subjected. For the first time in history an ingloriousbondage is transformed into inspiring freedom. The policy of the Manchushas been one of unequivocal seclusion and unyielding tyranny. Beneathit we have bitterly suffered. Now we submit to the free peoples of theworld the reasons justifying the revolution and the inauguration of thepresent government. Prior to the usurpation of the throne by the Manchusthe land was open to foreign intercourse, and religious toleranceexisted, as is shown by the writings of Marco Polo and the inscriptionon the Nestorian tablet at Hsi-an Fu. Dominated by ignorance andselfishness, the Manchus closed the land to the outer world, and plungedthe Chinese into a state of benighted mentality calculated to operateinversely to their natural talents, thus committing a crime againsthumanity and the civilized nations which it is almost impossible toextirpate. Actuated by a desire for the perpetual subjugation of theChinese, and a vicious craving for aggrandizement and wealth, theManchus have governed the country to the lasting injury and detrimentof the people, creating privileges and monopolies, erecting aboutthemselves barriers of exclusion, national custom, and personal conduct, which have been rigorously maintained for centuries. They have leviedirregular and hurtful taxes without the consent of the people, and haverestricted foreign trade to treaty ports. They have placed the _likin_embargo on merchandise, obstructed internal commerce, retarded thecreation of industrial enterprises, rendered impossible thedevelopment of natural resources, denied a regular system of impartialadministration of justice, and inflicted cruel punishment on personscharged with offences, whether innocent or guilty. They have connivedat official corruption, sold offices to the highest bidder, subordinatedmerit to influence, rejected the most reasonable demands for bettergovernment, and reluctantly conceded so-called reforms under the mosturgent pressure, promising without any intention of fulfilling. Theyhave failed to appreciate the anguish-causing lessons taught them byforeign Powers, and in process of years have brought themselves and ourpeople beneath the contempt of the world. A remedy of these evils willrender possible the entrance of China into the family of nations. Wehave fought and have formed a government. Lest our good intentionsshould be misunderstood, we publicly and unreservedly declare thefollowing to be our promises:--

"The treaties entered into by the Manchus before the date of therevolution, will be continually effective to the time of theirtermination. Any and all treaties entered into after the commencementof the revolution will be repudiated. Foreign loans and indemnitiesincurred by the Manchus before the revolution will be acknowledged. Payments made by loans incurred by the Manchus after its commencementwill be repudiated. Concessions granted to nations and their nationalsbefore the revolution will be respected. Any and all granted after itwill be repudiated. The persons and property of foreign nationals withinthe jurisdiction of the republic will be respected and protected. Itwill be our constant aim and firm endeavour to build on a stableand enduring foundation a national structure compatible with thepotentialities of our long-neglected country. We shall strive to elevatethe people to secure peace and to legislate for prosperity. Manchuswho abide peacefully in the limits of our jurisdiction will be accordedequality, and given protection. 

"We will remodel the laws, revise the civil, criminal, commercial, andmining codes, reform the finances, abolish restrictions on trade andcommerce, and ensure religious toleration and the cultivation of betterrelations with foreign peoples and governments than have ever beenmaintained before. It is our earnest hope that those foreign nationalswho have been steadfast in their sympathy will bind more firmly thebonds of friendship between us, and will bear in patience with us theperiod of trial confronting us and our reconstruction work, and willaid the consummation of the far-reaching plans, which we are about toundertake, and which they have long vainly been urging upon our peopleand our country. 

"With this message of peace and good-will the republic cherishes thehope of being admitted into the family of nations, not merely to shareits rights and privileges, but to co-operate in the great and noble taskof building up the civilization of the world. 

"Sun Yat-sen, _President_. "

The next step was to displace the three-cornered Dragon flag, itselfof quite modern origin, in favour of a new republican emblem. For thispurpose was designed a flag of five stripes, --yellow, red, blue, white, black, --arranged at right angles to the flagstaff in the above order, and intended to represent the five races--Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Tibetan, Mussulmans--gathered together under one rule. 

On February 12, three important edicts were issued. In the first, thebaby-emperor renounces the throne, and approves the establishment ofa provisional republican government, under the direction of YüanShih-k`ai, in conjunction with the existing provisional government atNanking. In the second, approval is given to the terms under which theemperor retires, the chief item of which was an annual grant offour million _taels_. Other more sentimental privileges included theretention of a bodyguard, and the continuance of sacrifices to thespirits of the departed Manchu emperors. In the third, the people areexhorted to preserve order and abide by the Imperial will regarding thenew form of government. 

Simultaneously with the publication of these edicts, the last sceneof the drama was enacted near Nanking, at the mausoleum of the firstsovereign of the Ming dynasty (A. D. 1368-1644). Sun Yat-sen, asprovisional first president, accompanied by his Cabinet and a numerousescort, proceeded thither, and after offering sacrifice as usual, addressed, though a secretary, the following oration to the tabletrepresenting the names of that great hero:--

"Of old the Sung dynasty became effete, and the Kitan Tartars and Yüandynasty Mongols seized the occasion to throw this domain of China intoconfusion, to the fierce indignation of gods and men. It was then thatyour Majesty, our founder, arose in your wrath from obscurity, anddestroyed those monsters of iniquity, so that the ancient glory waswon again. In twelve years you consolidated the Imperial sway, and thedominions of the Great Yü were purged of pollution and cleansed fromthe noisome Tartar. Often in history has our noble Chinese race beenenslaved by petty frontier barbarians from the north. Never have suchglorious triumphs been won over them as your Majesty achieved. Butyour descendants were degenerate, and failed to carry on your gloriousheritage; they entrusted the reins of government to bad men, and pursueda short-sighted policy. In this way they encouraged the ambitions ofthe eastern Tartar savages (Manchus), and fostered the growth of theirpower. They were thus able to take advantage of the presence of rebelsto invade and possess themselves of your sacred capital. From a bademinence of glory basely won, they lorded it over this most holysoil, and our beloved China's rivers and hills were defiled by theircorrupting touch, while the people fell victims to the headman's axe orthe avenging sword. Although worthy patriots and faithful subjects ofyour dynasty crossed the mountain ranges into Canton and the far south, in the hope of redeeming the glorious Ming tradition from utter ruin, and of prolonging a thread of the old dynasty's life, although mengladly perished one after the other in the forlorn attempt, heaven'swrath remained unappeased, and mortal designs failed to achieve success. A brief and melancholy page was added to the history of your dynasty, and that was all. 

"As time went on, the law became ever harsher, and the meshes of itsinexorable net grew closer. Alas for our Chinese people, who crouched incorners and listened with startled ears, deprived of power of utterance, and with tongues glued to their mouths, for their lives were pastsaving. Those others usurped titles to fictitious clemency and justice, while prostituting the sacred doctrines of the sages: whom they affectedto honour. They stifled public opinion in the empire in order to forceacquiescence in their tyranny. The Manchu despotism became so thoroughand so embracing that they were enabled to prolong their dynasty'sexistence by cunning wiles. In Yung Chêng's reign the Hunanese Chang Hsiand Tsêng Ching preached sedition against the dynasty in their nativeprovince, while in Chia Ch`ing's reign the palace conspiracy of LinChing dismayed that monarch in his capital. These events were followedby rebellions in Ss{u}-ch`uan and Shensi; under Tao Kuang and hissuccessor the T`ai-p`ings started their campaign from a remote Kuangsivillage. Although these worthy causes were destined to ultimate defeat, the gradual trend of the national will became manifest. At last our ownera dawned, the sun of freedom had risen, and a sense of the rights ofthe race animated men's minds. In addition the Manchu bandits could noteven protect themselves. Powerful foes encroached upon the territoryof China, and the dynasty parted with our sacred soil to enrichneighbouring nations. The Chinese race of to-day may be degenerate, butit is descended from mighty men of old. How should it endure thatthe spirits of the great dead should be insulted by the everlastingvisitation of this scourge?

"Then did patriots arise like a whirlwind, or like a cloud whichis suddenly manifested in the firmament. They began with the Cantoninsurrection; then Peking was alarmed by Wu Yüeh's bomb (1905). Ayear later Hsü Hsi-lin fired his bullet into the vitals of the Manchurobber-chief, En Ming, Governor of Anhui. Hsiung Chêng-chi raised thestandard of liberty on the Yang-tsze's banks; rising followed risingall over the empire, until the secret plot against the Regent wasdiscovered, and the abortive insurrection in Canton startled thecapital. One failure followed another, but other brave men took theplace of the heroes who died, and the empire was born again to life. The bandit Manchu court was shaken with pallid terror, until the cicadathrew off its shell in a glorious regeneration, and the present crowningtriumph was achieved. The patriotic crusade started in Wu-ch`ang; thefour corners of the empire responded to the call. Coast regions noblyfollowed in their wake, and the Yang-tsze was won back by our armies. The region south of the Yellow River was lost to the Manchus, and thenorth manifested its sympathy with our cause. An earthquake shook thebarbarian court of Peking, and it was smitten with a paralysis. To-dayit has at last restored the government to the Chinese people, and thefive races of China may dwell together in peace and mutual trust. Let usjoyfully give thanks. How could we have attained this measure of victoryhad not your Majesty's soul in heaven bestowed upon us your protectinginfluence? I have heard say that the triumphs of Tartar savages over ourChina were destined never to last longer than a hundred years. Butthe reign of these Manchus endured unto double, ay, unto treble, thatperiod. Yet Providence knows the appointed hour, and the moment comes atlast. We are initiating the example to Eastern Asia of a republican formof government; success comes early or late to those who strive, but thegood are surely rewarded in the end. Why then should we repine to-daythat victory has tarried long?

"I have heard that in the past many would-be deliverers of their countryhave ascended this lofty mound wherein is your sepulchre. It has servedto them as a holy inspiration. As they looked down upon the surroundingrivers and upward to the hills, under an alien sway, they wept in thebitterness of their hearts, but to-day their sorrow is turned into joy. The spiritual influences of your grave at Nanking have come once moreinto their own. The dragon crouches in majesty as of old, and the tigersurveys his domain and his ancient capital. Everywhere a beautifulrepose doth reign. Your legions line the approaches to the sepulchre; anoble host stands expectant. Your people have come here to-day to informyour Majesty of the final victory. May this lofty shrine wherein yourest gain fresh lustre from to-day's event, and may your example inspireyour descendants in the times which are to come. Spirit! Accept thisoffering!"

We are told by an eye-witness, Dr Lim Boon-keng, that when this ceremonywas over, Sun Yat-sen turned to address the assembly. "He was speechlesswith emotion for a minute; then he briefly declared how, after twohundred and sixty years, the nation had again recovered her freedom; andnow that the curse of Manchu domination was removed, the free peoples ofa united republic could pursue their rightful aspirations. Three cheersfor the president were now called for, and the appeal was respondedto vigorously. The cheering was taken up by the crowds below, andthen carried miles away by the thousands of troops, to mingle with thebooming of distant guns. "

LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED

The _I yü kuo chi_ (costumes of strange nations). Circa 1380. 

The _Tung hua lu_ (a history of the Manchus down to A. D. 1735). 1765. 

The _Shêng wu chi_ (a history of the earlier wars under the Manchudynasty). 1822. 

_A History of China_, by Rev. J. Macgowan, 1897. 

_A History of the Manchus_, by Rev. J. Ross, 1880. 

_The Chinese Repository_. 

_The Chinese and their Rebellions_, by T. T. Meadows, 1856. 

Pamphlets issued by the T`ai-p`ings, 1850-1864. 

_The Times_, 1911-12. 

_The London and China Telegraph_, 1911-12.