CHAPTER X.

THE MANCHU DYNASTY.-FIRST EMPERORS.

THE family of the youthful emperor Shun-chi with great wisdom engaged excellent tutors, who not only instructed him in the literature of the country, but instilled into his mind such principles as were likely to fit him for the government of the conquered nation. Under the care of these able monitors he learned to be just and moderate toward the people over whom the fortune of war had placed him; and being naturally well inclined, he attained to manhood with just such principles as were best calculated to reconcile the Chinese to foreign dominion.

While Shun-chi was pursuing his studies the regent and his generals were engaged in reducing the southern part of the country to subjection, and all the finest provinces were devastated by the long and fearful contest. Many of the great cities were laid in ruins; for wherever the Tartars met with resistance they set fire to the houses, and demolished all the public buildings except the Buddhist temples.

The traces of this war are still visible in China, where many an empty space is bounded by a dilapidated wall which once surrounded a populous town, but now encloses only a few market-gardens; and some of the chief cities

are not much more than half their original size, as may be seen by the extent of their walls, which at present encompass large spaces of ground where no houses are remaining, and which are usually devoted to the culture of vegetables for food. A great part of Nanking, with the imperial palace, was destroyed at this time, and there are now within its walls orchards, fields, garden-grounds and scattered farm-houses, not above one-third of the area being occupied by the present city.

One of the most formidable opponents of the Tartars was a maritime chief, whom history, inasmuch as his cause failed, styles a pirate, known by the name of Koshinga, a noted character in the history of the period, not only for his loyalty to the Chinese royal race, but for his exploits against the Dutch, who had by this time considerably increased their Indian trade, and had strengthened their settlement in the island of Formosa.

Ching Chilung, the father of Koshinga, one of the richest merchants in China, had, in the early part of the war, fitted out a fleet at his own expense to support the native princes; but after the accession of Shun-chi he accepted the offer of a high post at court, leaving the command of his fleet to his son, Koshinga, who, instead of following the example of his father, remained faithful to the cause of the legitimate princes. This chief was the terror of the Indian seas, where no foreign vessels dared to appear during the wars, so that all trade was for a long time suspended. At length, the Tartars, having taken Nanking, laid siege to Canton, which by the aid of Koshinga's fleet was enabled to hold out for eight months, but was at the end of that time obliged to surrender, and the last prince of the Ming family fled

to the court of the king of Pegu, where he was received with the greatest hospitality.

Every place of importance having now submitted to the conquerors, the new government was acknowledged throughout the empire; and shortly afterward, on the death of the regent, in 1652, Shun-chi, although only fourteen years of age, took the government into his own hands. The young sovereign, who no doubt acted by the advice of prudent and experienced ministers, suffered the Chinese to retain all the rights and immunities they had enjoyed under their native rulers; but, as he found it necessary to satisfy his Tartar subjects also, by admitting them to a share of the honors and emoluments of the empire, he doubled the number of officers of state and members of councils, making one half Chinese and the other half Tartars-a regulation which continues to this day.

The Chinese, however, were required to submit to one mark of subjection which was far more obnoxious and spread more general discontent among them than any changes that could have been introduced into the form of government. This was, that they should divest themselves of the thick raven locks which they had been accustomed to cherish with peculiar care, and adopt in their stead the Tartar fashion of having the head shaven, except sufficient to form a long plaited queue behind. A haughty and civilized people would naturally feel deeply humiliated by such a badge of subjection to a tribe of foreign barbarians. They resisted it with indignation; and it is asserted that many chose to submit their heads to the executioner rather than to the barber, for that was the cruel alternative, as it was

found impossible to enforce the decree by any gentler means than treating disobedience as rebellion, and punishing the offender accordingly. The queues were thus fully established, and have been worn ever since. However in one locality an alleviation was granted to this indignity. The last province to submit was that on the southern coast, next eastward of Canton, to which, in commemoration of the final success of their arms, the new dynasty gave the name Fuh-kien-" happily established." Its bold and energetic people received permission to retain the black turban to cover the shaved head, which they hated as the badge of submission to the Tartars; and this turban they proudly continue to wear. It is a strange phenomenon that, much as the Chinese hate the queue, they dread the loss of it, as their acute conquerors made cutting off the queue a punishment to mark the more ignominous crimes, and the want of it, like cropped ears in the Middle Ages in Europe, to be a proclamation of a rogue.

There were some few alterations made also in the national costume, but they were not very striking, nor would it be very easy to describe them. With regard to the laws, the religion and the system of government, the conquest produced no change, for the Tartar sovereigns governed, like their Chinese predecessors, according to the rules laid down in the ancient books; so that, although the emperor of China is absolute lord of the lands and the people, he is in some degree restrained by the laws as well as his subjects. He has first the nuikoh, or private cabinet, composed of four chief ministers-two Tartars and two Chinese-who, together with certain high officers of state, form the kiun-ki-chu, or