CHINA UNDER THE TSINGS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 6

CHINA UNDER THE TSINGS.

TRAITS OF RULERS OF THE PRESENT DYNASTY. If the little Emperor Pu-yi should be the last of the Manchus to sit', upon' the. Dragon Throne of China it would be ' a curious coincidence.. The Manchu dynasty would end as it began—with a child. From-the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the_ eighteenth one of the Manchu clan families produced a succession of able men. Tho first Was N'oorhachu, a tribal chief'who'to ward the eud of the sixteenth century ■■ began to consolidate the Manchu clans and to extend his authority. 'He defeated Chinese armies, and when he died, in 1628, had advanced- his frontier to the TAaoyang River, and made the city of the same name his capital. His son Taitsong continued the attack upon China, conquered Korea, and;iu the coursc of a campaign into Shansi in 1635 assumed the title of Emperor.' He did not succeed, however, in reaching Peking. The Ming dynasty was nearing its fall, but its actua lend was to come from within, and. not from -without. The Great Wall, and the quadrilateral of fortresses. formed by .the cities Ningyuen, Shanhaikwan, Kingchow, and- Songslian, with the military genius of General Won Sankwei, held him back from the-desired goal. .- ~ , During the same years a'military adventurer named Li-Tseching, a son of a Shansi peasant, hnd'been, carving .his-way to power. Beginning as a robber, -by 1640 his followers were said to number half a million men. - In successive campaigns he defeated the Imperial forces, and in the year of Taitsong's death became master of Peking, and Tsongehing, tho last'of the Mings to rule there, strangled himself with his girdle. _ Won Sankwei, with his disciplined army,'had : lieen called from the frontier to the defence of the capital.- Summoned to recosnise the rebel chief ns his sovereign. Won Sankwei preferred to invite the Manchu« to help in putting him down. The invitation was promntly accepted, and the arrival of the Manchu cavalry turned the great on the /■anho" River from victory to defeat for Li Tseching, much as tile arrival of Bleucher and the Germans turned the scale at Waterloo. Being in Peking, the Manehus resolved to stay. Chunchi, the 8-year-old son of Taitsong, was proclaimed Emperor, with his uncle Dorgun as regent. Under his administration the Manehu authority was gradually extended over the whole of China by conciliation whore possible, by the sword where necessary. The actual reign of Chunchi was not long, but was capable, and lie chose ill his second son Kauglii a oapabie successor.. In his long reign, from lOfil to 1722, tho.Manchu power was consolidated, tho Mongols of tho Northwest represented, and the Chinese dominions extended into Tibet. Kanghi was succeeded by a capable son, Yung Ching, after whom followed in 1735 ■his son ICien Lung, in whom the glories of the Manchu power reached their highest point. The authority of the dragon throno was recognised from Korea to Tibet, and from tho Amur to Nepaul on tho frontier of India and far down into Burma. Kicn Lung abdicated in 17Sti, nnd the three Emperors who followed may be briefly described as Kinking the Incompetent. Taoukwnng the ignorant, and ileinfuuif tho Obstinate. In these three reigns, ending in 18G1, China came into conflict with the Western Powers aud suffered tho long devastation of the great Tui-ping rebellion! The stupid pride of Hienfuug and the treachery of his ministers were punished bv his expulsion from his capital- by English nnd French bayonets. To Ilienfung succeeded nominally his infant son Tungehi. The real power was in the hands of Prince Kung and two women Tsi-An, llienfung's chief wife, and Tsu-Tai the young mother of Tungehi. The latter was the famous Dowager Empress of recent years. To Tungehi, dying not without suspicious of poison when he had barely attained his. majority in 1875, nominally succeeded lvwang.su, another child. Hmv Kwangsn, on attaining his majority in 1889, attempted sweeping reforms, and how he was deposed by a palace intrigue is a familiar story. And so we come to little Pu-yi, the child of six, with whom the Manchu dynasty seems.likely to end as it began; but with an important difference. The guardians of little_ Chunchi 25(1 years ago were capable warriors and shrewd statesmen. Tho guardians of little Pu-yi are neither. The (.VY 1 . " seems: to have run out.— Chicago Inter Ocean."