Chapter 33

All intercourse with Europe seems now to have ceased until the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century, but Hung-wu cultivated friendly relations with the neighbouring states. As a quondam Buddhist priest he lent his countenance to that religion to the exclusion of Taoism, whose priests had for centuries earned the contempt of all but the most ignorant by their pretended magical arts and their search after the philosopher's stone. Hung-wu died in 1398 and was succeeded by his grandson Kien-Wên. Aware that the appointment of this youth--his father was dead--would give offence to the young emperor's uncles, Hung-wu had dismissed them to their respective governments. However, the prince of Yen, his eldest surviving son, rose in revolt as soon as the news reached him of his nephew's accession, and after gaining several victories over the armies of Kien-wên he presented himself before the gates of Nanking, the capital. Treachery opened the gates to him, and the emperor having fled in the disguise of a monk, the victorious prince became emperor and took the title of Yung-lo (1403). At home Yung-lo devoted himself to the encouragement of literature and the fine arts, and, possibly from a knowledge that Kien-wên was among the Buddhist priests, he renewed the law prohibiting Buddhism. Abroad he swept Cochin-China and Tongking within the folds of his empire and carried his arms into Tatary, where he made new conquests of waste regions, and erected a monument of his victories. He died in 1425, and was succeeded by his son Hung-hi.

Hung-hi's reign was short and uneventful. He strove to promote only such mandarins as had proved themselves to be able and honest, and to further the welfare of the people. During the reign of his successor, Süen-tê (1426-1436), the empire suffered the first loss of territory since the commencement of the dynasty. Cochin-China rebelled and gained her independence. The next emperor, Chêng-t'ung (1436), was taken prisoner by a Tatar chieftain, a descendant of the Yüen family named Yi-sien, who had invaded the northern Erovinces. Having been completely defeated by a Chinese force from Liao-tung, Yi-sien liberated his captive, who reoccupied the throne, which during his imprisonment (1450-1457) had been held by his brother King-ti. The two following reigns, those of Chêng-hwa (1465-1488) and of Hung-chi (1488-1506), were quiet and peaceful.

Struggle with Japan for Korea.

The most notable event in the reign of the next monarch, Chêng-te (1506-1522), was the arrival of the Portuguese at Canton (1517). From this time dates modern European intercourse with China. Chêng-te suppressed a formidable insurrection headed by the prince of Ning, but disorder caused by this civil war encouraged the foreign enemies of China. From the north came a Tatar army under Yen-ta in 1542, during the reign of Kia-tsing, which laid waste the province of Shen-si, and even threatened the capital, and a little later a Japanese fleet ravaged the littoral provinces. Ill-blood had arisen between the two peoples before this, and a Japanese colony had been driven out of Ningpo by force and not without bloodshed a few years previously. Kia-tsing (d. 1567) was not equal to such emergencies, and his son Lung-king (1567-1573)sought to placate the Tatar Yen-ta by making him a prince of the empire and giving him commercial privileges, which were supplemented by the succeeding emperor Wan-li (1573-1620) by the grant of land in Shen-si. During the reign of this sovereign, in the year 1592, the Japanese successfully invaded Korea, and Taikosarna, the regent of Japan, was on the point of proclaiming himself king of the peninsula, when a large Chinese force, answering to the invitation of the king, appeared and completely routed the Japanese army, at the same time that the Chinese fleet cut off their retreat by sea. In this extremity the Japanese sued for peace, and sent an embassy to Peking to arrange terms. But the peace was of short duration. In 1597 the Japanese again invaded Korea, defeated the Chinese army, destroyed the Chinese fleet and ravaged the coast. Suddenly, however, when in the full tide of conquest, they evacuated Korea, which again fell under the direction of China. Four years later the missionary Matteo Ricci (q.v.) arrived at the Chinese court; and though at first the emperor was inclined to send him out of the country, his abilities gradually won for him the esteem of the sovereign and his ministers, and he remained the scientific adviser of the court until his death in 1610.

Manchu invasion: 17th century.

About this time the Manchu Tatars, goaded into war by the injustice they were constantly receiving at the hands of the Chinese, led an army into China (in 1616) and completely defeated the force which was sent against them. Three years later they gained possession of the province of Liao-tung. These disasters overwhelmed the emperor, and he died of a broken heart in 1620.

In the same year T'ien-ming, the Manchu sovereign, having declared himself independent, moved the court to San-ku, to the east of Mukden, which, five years later, he made his capital. In 1627 Ts'ung-chêng, the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, ascended the Chinese throne. In his reign English merchants first made their appearance at Canton. The empire was now torn by internal dissensions. Rebel bands, enriched by plunder, and grown bold by success, began to assume the proportion of armies. Two rebels, Li Tsze-ch'êng and Shang K'o-hi, decided to divide the empire between them. Li besieged K'ai-fêng Fu, the capital of Ho-nan, and so long and closely did he beleaguer it that in the consequent famine human flesh was regularly sold in the markets. At length an imperial force came to raise the siege, but fearful of meeting Li's army, they cut through the dykes of the Yellow River, "China's Sorrow," and flooded the whole country, including the city. The rebels escaped to the mountains, but upwards of 200,000 inhabitants perished in the flood, and the city became a heap of ruins (1642). From K'ai-fêng Fu Li marched against the other strongholds of Ho-nan and Shen-si, and was so completely successful that he determined to attack Peking. A treacherous eunuch opened the gates to him, on being informed of which the emperor committed suicide. When the news of this disaster reached the general-commanding on the frontier of Manchu Tatary, he, in an unguarded moment, concluded a peace with the Manchus, and invited them to dispossess Li Tsze-ch'êng. The Manchus entered China, and after defeating a rebel army sent against them, they marched towards Peking. On hearing of the approach of the invaders, Li Tsze-ch'êng, after having set fire to the imperial palace, evacuated the city, but was overtaken, and his force was completely routed.

Ta-ts'ing dynasty.

The Chinese now wished the Manchus to retire, but, having taken possession of Peking, they proclaimed the ninth son of T'ien-ming emperor of China under the title of Shun-chi, and adopted the name of Ta-ts'ing, or "Great Pure," for the dynasty (1644). Meanwhile the mandarins at Nanking had chosen an imperial prince to ascend the throne. At this most inopportune moment "a claimant" to the throne, in the person of a pretended son of the last emperor, appeared at court. While this contention prevailed inside Nanking the Tatar army appeared at the walls. There was no need for them to use force. The gates were thrown open, and they took possession of the city without bloodshed. Following the conciliatory policy they had everywhere pursued, they confirmed the mandarins in their offices and granted a general amnesty to all who would lay down their arms. As the Tatars entered the city the emperor left it, and after wandering about for some days in great misery, he drowned himself in the Yangtsze-kiang. Thus ended the Ming dynasty, and the empire passed again under a foreign yoke. By the Mings, who partly revived the feudal system by making large territorial grants to members of the reigning house, China was divided into fifteen provinces; the existing division into eighteen provinces was made by the Manchus.

All accounts agree in stating that the Manchu conquerors are descendants of a branch of the family which gave the Kin dynasty to the north of China; and in lieu of any authentic account of their early history, native writers have thrown a cloud of fable over their origin (see MANCHURIA). In the 16th century they were strong enough to cope with their Chinese neighbours. Doubtless the Mings tried to check their ambition by cruel reprisals, but against this must be put numerous Manchu raids into Liao-tung.

The accession to the throne of the emperor Shun-chi did not restore peace to the country. In Kiang-si, Fu-kien, Kwang-tung and Kwang-si the adherents of the Ming dynasty defended themselves vigorously but unsuccessfully against the invaders, while the pirate Chêng Chi-lung, the father of the celebrated Coxinga, kept up a predatory warfare against them on the coast. Eventually he was induced to visit Peking, where he was thrown into prison and died. Coxinga, warned by his father's example, determined to leave the mainland and to seek an empire elsewhere. His choice fell on Formosa, and having driven out the Dutch, who had established themselves in the island in 1624, he held possession until the reign of K'ang-hi, when (1682) he resigned in favour of the imperial government. Meanwhile a prince of the house of Ming was proclaimed emperor in Kwang-si, under the title of Yung-li. The Tatars having reduced Fu-kien and Kiang-si, and having taken Canton after a siege of eight months, completely routed his followers, and Yung-li was compelled to fly to Pegu. Some years later, with the help of adherents in Yun-nan and Kwei-chow, he tried to regain the throne, but his army was scattered, and he was taken prisoner and strangled. Gradually opposition to the new régime became weaker and weaker, and the shaved head with the pig-tail--the symbol of Tatar sovereignty--became more and more adopted. In 1651 died Ama Wang, the uncle of Shun-chi, who had acted as regent during his nephew's minority, and the emperor then assumed the government of the state. He appears to have taken a great interest in science, and to have patronized Adam Schaal, a German Jesuit, who was at that time resident at Peking. It was during his reign (1656) that the first Russian embassy arrived at the capital, but as the envoy declined to _kowtow_ before the emperor he was sent back without having been admitted to an audience.

After an unquiet reign of seventeen years Shun-chi died (1661). and was succeeded by his son K'ang-hi. He came into collision with the Russians, who had reached the Amur regions about 1640 and had built a fort on the upper Amur; but by the Treaty of Nerchinsk, concluded in 1689 (the first treaty made between China and a European power), the dispute was settled, the Amur being taken as the frontier. K'ang-hi was indefatigable in administering the affairs of the empire, and he devoted much of his time to literary and scientific studies under the guidance of the Jesuits. The dictionary of the Chinese language, published under his superintendence, proves him to have been as great a scholar as his conquests over the Eleuths show him to have been famous as a general. During one of his hunting expeditions to Mongolia he caught a fatal cold, and he died in 1721. Under his rule Tibet was added to the empire, which extended from the Siberian frontier to Cochin-China, and from the China Sea to Turkestan. During his reign there was a great earthquake at Peking, in which 400,000 people are said to have perished.

K'ien-lung, who began to reign in 1735, was ambitious and warlike. He marched an army into Hi, which he converted into a Chinese province, and he afterwards added eastern Turkestan to the empire. Twice he invaded Burma, and once he penetrated into Cochin-China, but in neither country were his arms successful. He is accused of great cruelty towards his subjects, which they repaid by rebelling against him. During his reign the Mahommedan standard was first raised in Kan-suh. (Since the Mongol conquest in the 13th century there had been a considerable immigration of Moslems into western China; and numbers of Chinese had become converts). But the Mussulmans were unable to stand against the imperial troops; their armies were dispersed; ten thousand of them were exiled; and an order was issued that every Mahommedan in Kan-suh above the age of fifteen should be put to death (1784).

K'ien-lung wrote incessantly, both poetry and prose, collected libraries and republished works of value. His campaigns furnished him with themes for his verses, and in the Summer Palace was found a handsome manuscript copy of a laudatory poem he composed on the occasion of his war against the Gurkhas. This was one of the most successful of his military undertakings. His generals marched 70,000 men into Nepal to within 60 miles of the British frontiers, and having subjugated the Gurkhas they received the submission of the Nepalese, and acquired an additional hold over Tibet (1792). In other directions his arms were not so successful. There is no poem commemorating the campaign against the rebellious Formosans, nor lament over the loss of 100,000 men in that island, and the last few years of his reign were disturbed by outbreaks among the Miao-tsze, hill tribes living in the mountains in the provinces of Kwei-chow and Kwang-si. In 1795, after a reign of sixty years, K'ien-lung abdicated in favour of his fifteenth son, who adopted the title of Kia-k'ing as the style of his reign. K'ien-lung died at the age of eighty-eight in 1798.

Trade with Europe.

During the reign of K'ien-lung commerce between Europe and Canton--the only Chinese port then open to foreign trade--had attained important dimensions. It was mainly in the hands of the Portuguese, the British and the Dutch. The British trade was then a monopoly of the East India Company. The trade, largely in opium, tea and silk, was subject to many exactions and restrictions,[49] and many acts of gross injustice were committed on the persons of Englishmen. To obtain some redress the British government at length sent an embassy to Peking (1793) and Lord Macartney was chosen to represent George III. on the occasion. The mission was treated as showing that Great Britain was a state tributary to China, and Lord Macartney was received with every courtesy. But the concessions he sought were not accorded, and in this sense his mission was a failure.

Kia-k'ing's reign was disturbed and disastrous. In the northern and western provinces, rebellion after rebellion broke out, due in a great measure to the carelessness, incompetency and obstinacy of the emperor, and the coasts were infested with pirates, whose number and organization enabled them for a long time to hold the imperial fleet in check. Meanwhile the condition of the foreign merchants at Canton had not improved, and to set matters on a better footing the British government despatched a second ambassador in the person of Lord Amherst to Peking in 1816. As he declined to _kowtow_ before the emperor, he was not admitted to the imperial presence and the mission proved abortive. Destitute of all royal qualities, a slave to his passions, and the servant of caprice, Kia-k'ing died in 1820. The event fraught with the greatest consequences to China which occurred in his reign (though at the time it attracted little attention) was the arrival of the first Protestant missionary, Dr R. Morrison (q.v.), who reached Canton in 1807.

Tao-kwang (1820-1850), the new emperor, though possessed in his early years of considerable energy, had no sooner ascended the throne than he gave himself up to the pursuit of pleasure. The reforms which his first manifestoes foreshadowed never seriously occupied his attention. Insurrection occurred in Formosa, Kwang-si, Ho-nan and other parts of the empire, and the Triad Society, which had originated during the reign of K'ang-hi, again became formidable.

War with Great Britain, 1840.

More important to the future of the country than the internal disturbances was the new attitude taken at this time towards China by the nations of Europe. Hitherto the European missionaries and traders in China had been dependent upon the goodwill of the Chinese. The Portuguese had been allowed to settle at Macao (q.v.) for some centuries; Roman Catholic missionaries since the time of Ricci had been alternately patronized and persecuted; Protestant missionaries had scarcely gained a foothold; the Europeans allowed to trade at Canton continued to suffer under vexatious regulations--the Chinese in general regarded Europeans as barbarians, "foreign devils." Of the armed strength of Europe they were ignorant. They were now to be undeceived, Great Britain being the first power to take action. The hardships inflicted on the British merchants at Canton became so unbearable that when, in 1834, the monopoly of the East India Company ceased, the British government sent Lord Napier as minister to superintend the foreign trade at that port. Lord Napier was inadequately supported, and the anxieties of his position brought on an attack of fever, from which he died at Macao after a few months' residence in China. The chief cause of complaint adduced by the mandarins was the introduction of opium by the merchants, and for years they attempted by every means in their power to put a stop to its importation. At length Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir Charles) Elliot, the superintendent of trade, in 1839 agreed that all the opium in the hands of Englishmen should be given up to the native authorities, and he exacted a pledge from the merchants that they would no longer deal in the drug. On the 3rd of April 20,283 chests of opium were handed over to the mandarins and were by them destroyed. The surrender of the opium led to further demands by Lin Tze-su, the Chinese imperial commissioner, demands which were considered by the British government to amount to a _casus belli_, and in 1840 war was declared. In the same year the fleet captured Chusan, and in the following year the Bogue Forts fell, in consequence of which operations the Chinese agreed to cede Hong-Kong to the victors and to pay them an indemnity of 6,000,000 dollars. As soon as this news reached Peking, Ki Shen, who had succeeded Commissioner Lin, was dismissed from his post and degraded, and Yi Shen, another Tatar, was appointed in his room. Before the new commissioner reached his post Canton had fallen into the hands of Sir Hugh Gough, and shortly afterwards Amoy, Ning-po, Tinghai in Chusan, Chapu, Shanghai and Chin-kiang Fu shared the same fate. Nanking would also have been captured had not the imperial government, dreading the loss of the "Southern Capital," proposed terms of peace. Sir Henry Pottinger, who had succeeded Captain Elliot, concluded, in 1842, a treaty with the imperial commissioners, by which the four additional ports of Amoy, Fu-chow, Ningpo and Shanghai were declared open to foreign trade, and an indemnity of 21,000,000 dollars was to be paid to the British.

Hien-fêng emperor.

T'ai-p'ing rebellion.