The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey/Manchuria
MANCHURIA
By the Rev. James W. Inglis, M.A., United Free Church of Scotland.
The country known to foreigners as Manchuria is called by the Chinese Kwantung ("East of the Barrier") or The Three Eastern Provinces. Under pressure, however, of recent events the new school of Chinese writers is learning to use the name Man-chou with reference to the whole territory, though this is hardly true to history.
The names of the three provinces are: Fengtien or Shengking, Kirin, and Heilungkiang.
The population is estimated by recent authorities at 20,000,000, and the total area is about 370,000 square miles.
History. — According to the Chinese historian, the northern coast of the Gulf of Liaotung was in ancient times inhabited by barbarous tribes, among whom civilisation was introduced in 1122 B.C. by the brother of Wu Wang. After this we find the kingdom of Chaosien embracing the southern part of Shengking and the west of Corea as far as Pingyang. In 112 B.C. this kingdom was overthrown by the Han dynasty, and the country became a vassal of China. In the confused wars that followed the downfall of the Han, the lands adjoining the coast became the prey of invaders from the north. A tribe inhabiting the hilly country in the basin of the Taling Ho possessed itself of all Liaohsi, including under this name Eastern Chihli (Yungping Fu), for the Great Wall did not then extend so far east. At the same time the Kaoli (Coreans), who first appear on the upper Yalu about the Christian era, established themselves in Liaotung. While paying tribute to China they succeeded in maintaining a virtually independent kingdom, extending as far west as the Liao, and having its capital at Pingyang, until in a.d. 668 they were overthrown by the Tang dynasty. Their name still remains attached to many villages in Fengtien, and any ruins whose history is lost are ascribed by the popular voice to the Kaoli. It was not till the tenth century that they revived sufficiently to establish the modern Corean kingdom, since when the Yalu has remained the boundary on the west.
Meanwhile Central Manchuria had been following an independent course under the headship of various tribes of whom little is known but the name. The fall of the Corean power was the occasion of the rise of a powerful confederacy named Bohai, which from its capital near Ninguta dominated the country from the Sungari almost to the mouth of the Yalu. During this period the country was prosperous and well peopled. "Learning flourished"—presumably Chinese learning. However, in 926 the power of Bohai was destroyed by the invasion of the Kitan, a race dwelling on the upper Liao, who for many centuries had raided the north of China, and who now turned their arms eastwards, overrunning the country as far as the Hurka. It was this people who at the same time established the Liao dynasty in North China. From them the name Cathay was carried to Europe, and China is still known to Russia as Kitai.
The people of Central Manchuria now appear under the name of Nüchen, but broken up into many independent clans. Under the weight of disaster, their former civilisation was lost, and they reverted to the nomadic state. In 1114 a Nüchen chief attacked an army of the Liao on the banks of the Sungari, where his victory began a career of conquest more startling in its rapidity than even that of the later Manchus, for in nine years he had swept down through Manchuria and taken Peking, thus founding the dynasty of Kin.
'rOMB OF KrKHACHU Nurhachu was the founder of the present Mauchii power, the chieftain ot the original royal Tungusic tribelet known as "Manchu." He died 1627. The picture shows the corner tower of the Bast Tomb near Moukden. The roofs are bright yellow glazed tiles ; under the eaves the woodwork is painted bright blues and greens. Beautiful wild woods surround the tombs. When the Ming dynasty obtained possession of Liaotung in the fourteenth century they were the first rulers of Chinese blood who had governed north of the Yellow River for more than 400 years. It is evident, therefore, that during this period the population of North China must have been largely mixed with immigrants of Tartar blood, and conversely that the adjacent parts of Manchukia must have been much affected by Chinese civilisation. As an instance we may refer to the Sung dynasty porcelain mentioned by James as found on the north of the Sungari, and the writer possesses a coin of the same dynasty dug out of a ruin in the Imperial Hunting Grounds.
The Mings governed Liaotung as far north as Kaiguan, where their pagoda still remains. From that city their frontier ran east some 25 miles, then south to near the latitude of Liaoyang, where it ran east again to the Yalu. All this was an integral part of the Chinese Empire. The rest of Manchuria was divided among numerous Nüchen tribes.
With the seventeenth century we enter on the modern period. At that time the tribe in the mountains, 100 miles east of Moukden was known by the name of Manchu. By a combination of diplomacy and force their chief Nurhachu had effected a combination of the tribes as far as the Sungari, and in 1617 he was able to declare war with China. In 1621 Moukden and Liaoyang fell into his hands, and he was master of all Liaotung. After much heavy fighting in Liaohsi and Chihli, the Manchus, in 1644, established their capital in Peking, being the third dynasty that their country had given to China.
The immediate effect on Manchuria was disastrous. Great numbers of the population migrated to Peking, where the "Tartars" and the Chinese still remain apart. Others were scattered on garrison duty and formed military colonies in China. The natives of Southern Manchuria who submitted to the Conquerer were enrolled by him as the "Chinese Banner" (Han-Kün) and shared his fortunes. The country was thus denuded of its inhabitants, and as late as 1682 Verbiest reports that many of the cities were almost empty, and of a multitude of towns and villages no trace remained.
At this time the belt of country between Corea and the "palisades," corresponding roughly to the basin of the Yalu, was cleared of its inhabitants, leaving only one road through Fenghwang Cheng and the Corean Gate for intercourse between the two countries. North of this a wide area eastward of the high-road from Kaiyuan to Kirin was reserved as the Imperial Hunting Grounds. Here there may still be seen the earthen ramparts of many abandoned cities, and it is an impressive experience when the traveller comes on these forgotten ruins, standing silent for more than two centuries in what was till yesterday a pathless waste.
Of the history of the Amur region nothing definite is known before the seventeenth century, though inscriptions on the lower Amur show that Chinese from the south had for long traded by sea with the barbarous tribes there. It was not till 1671 that the province of Heilungkiang became organised under the new dynasty, but already bands of Cossack adventurers had come into conflict with the Manchu outposts. By the treaty of Nertchinsk in 1689 the Russians were shut out from the navigation of the Amur, and China was confirmed in possession of the basin of that river north to the Yablonoi mountains. No use, however, was made of this vast territory beyond the collection of the tribute of furs. At the time of the Crimean War the Russians came down the river in strong force, and remained in possession till the treaty of Aigun in 1858 ceded to them the left bank of the Amur, while in 1860 they were granted the lands between the Ussuri and the ocean, now forming the province of Primorsk.
Before 1820 the Chinese were not allowed to settle in the two northern provinces, but in that year the Government instituted the leasing of the public land of Kirin, and since then the tide of immigration has been steadily swelling. From that time dates the settlement of the fertile plain within the great bend of the Sungari, as also of the Mongolian lands north of Kaiyüan. Another step was gained in 1861 by the opening of the port of Newchwang to foreign trade.
In the sixties the weakness of the central government gave an opportunity to large bands of robbers to terrorise the country. They were strong enough to capture a yamen and put the Mandarin to death, and when they threatened the walled city of Kaichow the foreign community of Newchwang had to take measures for their own defence. In 1875 order was at last restored, and the Corean marches, which had become the haunt of the brigands, were thrown open to legitimate settlement, being divided into four (now six) magistracies. In 1876 the adjoining part of the Hunting Forest was also created into a Mandarin district (Hailung Cheng), and in 1897 and 1903 three new districts were created out of the remainder of the same forest. Finally, in 1903, a large tract of Mongol land west of Petuna was opened to Chinese settlement and placed under the administration of Moukden.
The foreign relations of Manchuria within recent years belong to the history of the Empire and need be only mentioned. First came the war with Japan in 1894-95, by which the hollowness of the Chinese military preparations was exposed and the seed sown of future trouble. In January 1896 a Russian colonel with sixteen men arrived in Moukden by way of northern Corea; the same year saw the conclusion of the agreement for the railway to cross Manchuria to Vladivostok, the construction of which was begun the following summer. In 1898 the Russians took over Port Arthur, and got permission to connect it with Harbin by rail.
The rising of 1900 found the Russians unprepared. Their railway was still in the making, and their garrisons too scattered and feeble to defend it effectively. All inland settlements had to be abandoned; even at Harbin the civil population escaped in barges down the Sungari. Soon, however, four columns had crossed the northern and eastern frontiers, and in the early autumn the southern column had defeated the main body of the Chinese army. It was a more difficult task to restore order in the country. Bands of marauders were everywhere; in the eastern hills of Fengtien the broken fragments of the army united with the robber bands till they numbered 20,000 men. The Russians defeated this force in successive expeditions, but order was not finally established till after they retired and handed the administration back to the Chinese.
In 1902 the Russians evacuated the west side of the Liao, and in the following spring they partially retired from the province of Fengtien; but when the time came to evacuate the northern provinces, in accordance with their agreement, they replaced their guards at the gates of Moukden, and sent an armed force to the mouth of the Yalu. Then followed the war of 1904-5, of which we can hardly yet see the outcome.
Much money was thrown away by the Russians during their construction of the railway and the succeeding military occupation. Yet it is questionable whether the country at large benefited, as the Chinese who took the Russian roubles were chiefly new-comers from Shantung, while the prevailing disorder interfered with traffic and disorganised commerce. Still more was this the case during the war. Large districts were laid waste, especially on the Russian side, the villages destroyed, the inhabitants driven away, and the soil untilled. Some time will elapse ere the country can recover from the losses of those two years; yet there is every hope that, under the more enlightened administration now prevailing, the magnificent resources of the country will give it renewed prosperity.
Shenghing Province.—The population of the province of Shengking or Fengtien is estimated at 13,000,000, and the area is stated at 60,000 square miles, but if we include the recently opened lands it cannot be under 70,000.
The principal river is the Liao, which rises north of Peking at an altitude of 3700 feet. It flows thence eastward through Mongolia under the name of Shara Muren ("Yellow River"), and after losing some of its volume there it turns south into Manchuria. The principal affluent is that called by the Chinese the Inner Liao, the combined waters of the Hun and the Taitze, which enters it a few miles west of the Chinese Newchwang. Below this it is a tidal stream a quarter of a mile wide, with a sluggish current. The head of navigation for junks is Tung Chiangtze, beyond which traffic is forbidden; boats also go up the affluents to Liaoyang, Moukden, and Kaiyüan.
The Yalu rises in the Changpai Shan, but the principal feeders in the upper section come from Corea. The largest tributary is the Hun Kiang, which rises due east of Moukden and flows south by Tunghwa and Hwairen. The volume of the Yalu is probably greater than that of the Liao, its basin receiving a larger rainfall. Junks ascend some thirty odd miles above Maoerhshan, but the Hun is barred by a rapid below Hwairen, and its course is often through rocky gorges.
The Taling Ho is the chief river in the western section of the province.
The most important and most populous section of the province is the great central plain of the Liao. West of this, from above Kwangning to the Great Wall, is a hilly country with bold heights rising to 3000 feet. East of the plain is a vast sea of mountains, rising in places to 5000 feet, and pierced by many fertile valleys. These mountains bound the plain as far as 44° N., and form the backbone of the Liaotung peninsula, ending at Port Arthur on the south. Eastwards they connect with the Changpai Shan, whose highest peak (8000 feet) gives rise to the Sungari; the name is applied to the whole chain dividing that river from the Yalu, and a high offshoot (5000 feet) runs down between the Yalu and the Hun. These ranges are covered with an impenetrable forest of elm and pine, which is being rapidly thinned as far as the means of transport will allow. The logs are floated down to the Yalu, where they are made into rafts, which again are sent down to the mouth at Antung and Tatung Kow.
Products.—The staple crop on the plain is the tall Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/384 _(14597444578).jpg)