This legend confirms the general belief that the original seat of the Manchoos was in the valley of the Hurka, a river which flows into the Sungari in about 46° 20′ N. lat., and 129° 50′ E. long. Under a succession of able and hardy chiefs they added land to land and tribe to tribe, until, in the 16th century, we find them able to cope with, and in a position to demand favourable terms by treaty from, their Chinese neighbours. As they became more powerful their complaints became louder against acts of aggressive oppression which they laid at the door of the Mings. But who will say that the fault was all on one side? Doubtless the Mings tried to check their ambition by cruel reprisals—a mistaken policy common to oppressors who find themselves with waning powers in the presence of growing discontent. But if we are to square the account, against this must be put numerous Manchoo raids into Leaou-tung, entailing loss of life and property on the subjects of China. And the ready rapidity with which these Manchurian horsemen swept round the corner of the Great Wall into China proper on the fatal invitation of the Chinese general shows that they were neither unwilling nor unaccustomed to wander beyond their own frontiers.
But the accession to the throne of the Emperor Shun-che did not by any means at first restore peace to the country. In Keang-se, Fuh-keen, Kwang-tung, and Kwang-se the adherents of the Ming dynasty defended themselves vigorously but unsuccessfully against the invaders, while the pirate Ching Che-tung, the father of the celebrated Koxinga, kept up a predatory warfare against them on the coast. On one occasion he was bought over to the Tatar camp and accepted a princess as a reward for his conversion, but he soon returned to his former allegiance, only, however, once again to prove himself a turn-coat. Finding him too formidable as a foe the Tatars determined again to gain his alliance. A general's command proved too tempting a bait to the buccaneer to be refused. He accepted the offer and went on shore to visit the Tatar commander, who received him with all civility. But when the pirate wished to return to his ships he was politely urged to visit Peking. Once there he was thrown into prison, where he died shortly afterwards. His son Koxinga, 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 the Dutch out of the island, he established himself as king and held possession of the island until the reign of Kang-he, when he resigned in favour of the Imperial Government. Meanwhile a prince of the house of Ming was proclaimed emperor in Kwang-se, under the title of Yung-leĭh. But the Tatars having reduced the provinces of Fuh-keen and Keang-se, and having taken Canton after a siege of eight months, marched against and so completely routed his followers that he was compelled to fly to Pegu. There he remained for some years until, believing that his adherents in Yun-nan and Kwei-chow were sufficiently numerous to justify his raising his standard in those provinces, he crossed the frontier and advanced to meet the imperial forces. On this as on the former occasion, fortune declared against him. His army was scattered to the four winds, and he was taken prisoner and strangled. Gradually opposition to the new regime became weaker and weaker, and the shaved head with the pig-tail—the symbol of Tatar sovereignty—became more and more universally adopted. In 1651 died Ama Wang, the uncle of Shun-che, who had acted as regent during his nephew's minority, and the emperor then assumed the government of the state. Little is known of this monarch. 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-che was gathered to his fathers (1661), and Kang-he, his son, reigned in his stead. This emperor was as renowned as his father had been unknown. He was indefatigable in administering the affairs of the empire, and at the same time 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 Eleuths shows 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 after a glorious reign of sixty years. 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. Almost the only national misfortune that visited China while he sat upon the throne was an earthquake at Peking, in which 400,000 people are said to have perished.
Kang-he was succeeded by Yung-ching, who, reaping the benefits of his father's vigorous administration, enjoyed a peaceable reign, though a short one. He died in 1735, and Keen-lung his son reigned in his room. Ambitious and warlike, this monarch despised the conciliatory measures by which his father had maintained peace with his neighbours. On but a slight provocation, he marched an army into Ili, which he converted into a Chinese province, and he afterwards added eastern Turkestan to the far-reachjng territories of China. Twice he invaded Burmah, 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 it was that the Mahometan standard was first raised in Kansuh. But the Mussulmans were unable to stand against the imperial troops; their armies were dispersed; ten thousand of them were exiled; and, effectually to prevent a renewal of the outbreak for some years, an order was issued that every Mahometan in Kansuh above the age of fifteen should be put to death (1784). Amidst all the political calls upon his time Keen-lung still found leisure for study. He wrote incessantly, both poetry and prose, and did much to promote the cause of literature by collecting libraries and republishing 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 Gorkhas. This was one of the most successful of his military undertakings. His generals marched 70,000 men into Nepaul to within sixty miles of the British frontiers, and having subjugated the Gorkhas they received the submission of the Nepaulese, and acquired an additional hold over Tibet (1792). In other directions his arms were not so successful. We find 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 Meaou-tsze or hill tribes, living in the mountains in the provinces of Kwei-chow and Kwang-se. In 1795, after a reign of sixty years, Keen-lung abdicated in favour of his fifteenth son, who adopted the title of Kea-king as the style of his reign. He only lived three years in retirement, and died at the age of eighty-eight in 1798.
