THE EMPEROR TAOUKWANG
The early years of the new reign were marked by a number of events
unconnected with each other but all contributing to the important
incidents of the later period which must be described, although they
cannot be separated. The name of Taoukwang, which Prince Meenning took on
ascending the throne, means Reason's Light, and there were many who
thought it was especially appropriate for a prince who was more qualified
for a college than a palace. Most of the chroniclers of the period gave an
unfavorable picture of the new ruler, who was described as "thin and
toothless," and as "lank in figure, low of stature, with a haggard face, a
reserved look, and a quiet exterior." He was superior to his external
aspect, for it may be truly said that although he had to deal with new
conditions he evinced under critical circumstances a dignity of demeanor
and a certain royal patience which entitled him to the respect of his
opponents.
Taoukwang began his reign in every way in a creditable manner. While
professing in his proclamations the greatest admiration for his father,
his first acts reversed his policy and aimed at undoing the mischief he
had accomplished. He released all the political prisoners who had been
consigned to jail by the suspicious fear of Kiaking, and many of the
banished Manchu princes were allowed to return to Pekin. He made many
public declarations of his intention to govern his people after a model
and conscientious fashion and his subsequent acts showed that he was at
least sincere in his intentions, if an accumulation of troubles prevented
his attaining all the objects he set before himself when he first took the
government in hand. Nothing showed his integrity more clearly than his
restoration of the minister Sung to the favor and offices of which he had
been dispossessed. The vicissitudes of fortune passed through by this
official have been previously referred to, and his restoration to power
was a practical proof of the new ruler's good resolutions, and meant more
than all the virtuous platitudes expressed in vermilion edicts. Sung had
gained a popularity that far exceeded that of the emperor, through the
lavish way in which he distributed his wealth, consistently refusing to
accumulate money for the benefit of himself or his family. But his
independent spirit rendered him an unpleasant monitor for princes who were
either negligent of their duty or sensitive of criticism, and even
Taoukwang appears to have dreaded, in anticipation, the impartial and
fearless criticism of the minister whom he restored to favor. Sung was
employed in two of the highest possible posts, Viceroy of Pechihli and
President of the Board of Censors, and until his death he succeeded in
maintaining his position in face of his enemies, and notwithstanding his
excessive candor. One of the first reforms instituted by the Emperor
Taoukwang was to cut down the enormous palace expenses, which his father
had allowed to increase to a high point, and to banish from the imperial
city all persons who could not give some valid justification for their
being allowed to remain. The troupes of actors and buffoons were expelled,
and the harem was reduced to modest dimensions. Taoukwang declared himself
to be a monogamist, and proclaimed his one wife empress. He also put a
stop to the annual visits to Jehol and to the costly hunting establishment
there, which entailed a great waste of public funds. The money thus saved
was much wanted for various national requirements, and the sufferings
caused by flood and famine were alleviated out of these palace savings.
How great the national suffering had become was shown by the marked
increase of crime, especially all forms of theft and the coining of false
money, for which new and severe penalties were ordained without greatly
mitigating the evil. During all these troubles and trials Taoukwang
endeavored to play the part of a beneficent and merciful sovereign,
tempering the severity of the laws by acts of clemency, and personally
superintending every department of the administration. He seems thus to
have gained a reputation among his subjects which he never lost, and the
blame for any unpopular measures was always assigned to his ministers. But
although he endeavored to play the part of an autocrat, there is every
ground for saying that he failed to realize the character, and that he was
swayed more than most rulers by the advice of his ministers. The four
principal officials after Sung, whose death occurred at an early date
after Taoukwang's accession, were Hengan, Elepoo, Keying, and Keshen.
The first ten years of Taoukwang's reign have been termed prosperous,
because they have left so little to record, but this application of the
theory that "the country is happy which has no history," does not seem
borne out by such facts as have come to our knowledge. There is no doubt
that there was a great amount of public suffering, and that the prosperity
of the nation declined from the high point it had reached under Kiaking.
Scarcity of food and want of work increased the growing discontent, which
did not require even secret societies to give it point and expression, and
as far as could be judged it was worse than when the Water-Lily Society
inspired Kiaking with most apprehension. Kiaking, as has been observed,
escaped the most serious consequences of his own acts. There was much
popular discontent, but there was no open rebellion. Taoukwang had not
been on the throne many years before he was brought face to face with
rebels who openly disputed his authority, and, strangely enough, his
troubles began in Central Asia, where peace had been undisturbed for half
a century.
The conquest of Central Asia had been among the most brilliant and
remarkable of the feats of the great Keen Lung. Peace had been preserved
there as much by the extraordinary prestige or reputation of China as by
the skill of the administration or the soundness of the policy of the
governing power, which left a large share of the work to the subject
races. Outside each of the principal towns the Chinese built a fort or
gulbagh, in which their garrison resided, and military officers or ambans
were appointed to every district. The Mohammedan officials were held
responsible for the good conduct of the people and the due collection of
the taxes, and as long as the Chinese garrison was maintained in strength
and efficiency they discharged their duties with the requisite good faith.
The lapse of time and the embarrassment of the government at home led to
the neglect of the force in Central Asia, which had once been an efficient
army. The Chinese garrison, ill-paid and unrecruited, gradually lost the
semblance of a military force, and was not to be distinguished from the
rest of the civil population. The difference of religion was the only
unequivocal mark of distinction between the rulers and the ruled, and it
furnished an ever-present cause of enmity and dislike, although apart from
this the Mohammedans accepted the Chinese rule as not bad in itself, and
even praised it. The Chinese might have continued to govern Ili and
Kashgar indefinitely, notwithstanding the weakness and decay of their
garrison, but for the ambition of a neighbor. The Chinese are to blame,
however, not merely for having ignored the obvious aggressiveness of that
neighbor, but for having provided it with facilities for carrying out its
plans. The Khanate of Khokand, the next-door state in Central Asia, had
been intimately connected with Kashgar from ancient times, both in
politics and trade. The Chinese armies in the eighteenth century had
advanced into Khokand, humbled its khan, and reduced him to a state of
vassalage. For more than fifty years the khan sent tribute to China, and
was the humble neighbor of the Chinese. He gave, however, a place of
refuge and a pension to Sarimsak, the last representative of the old Khoja
family of Kashgar, and thus retained a hold on the legitimate ruler of
that state. Sarimsak had as a child escaped from the pursuit of Fouta and
the massacre of his relations by the chief of Badakshan, but he was
content to remain a pensioner at Khokand to the end of his days, and he
left the assertion of what he considered his rights to his children. His
three sons were named, in the order of their age, Yusuf, Barhanuddin, and
Jehangir, and each of them attempted at different times to dispossess the
Chinese in Kashgar. In the year 1812, when Kiaking's weakness was
beginning to be apparent, the Khan of Khokand, a chief of more than usual
ability, named Mahomed Ali, refused to send tribute any more to China, and
the Viceroy of Ili, having no force at his disposal, acquiesced in the
change with good grace, and no hostilities ensued. The first concession
was soon followed by others. The khan obtained the right to levy a tax on
all Mohammedan merchandise sold in the bazaars of Kashgar and Yarkand, and
deputed consuls or aksakals for the purpose of collecting the duties.
These aksakals naturally became the center of all the intrigue and
disaffection prevailing in the state against the Chinese, and they
considered it to be as much their duty to provoke political discontent as
to supervise the customs placed under their charge. Before the aksakals
appeared on the scene the Chinese ruled a peaceful territory, but after
the advent of these foreign officials trouble soon ensued.
Ten years after his refusal to pay tribute the Khan of Khokand decided to
support the Khoja pretenders who enjoyed his hospitality, and in 1822
Jehangir was provided with money and arms to make an attempt on the
Chinese position in Kashgaria. Although the youngest, Jehangir seems to
have been the most energetic of the Khoja princes; and having obtained the
alliance of the Kirghiz, he attempted, by a rapid movement, to surprise
the Chinese in the town of Kashgar. In this attempt he was disappointed,
for the Chinese kept better guard than he expected, and he was compelled
to make an ignominious retreat. The Khan of Khokand, disappointed at the
result and apprehensive of counter action on the part of the Chinese,
repudiated all participation in the matter, and forbade Jehangir to return
to his country. That adventurer then fled to Lake Issik Kul, whither the
Chinese pursued him; but when his fortunes seemed to have reached their
lowest ebb a revulsion suddenly took place, and by the surprise and
annihilation of a Chinese force he was again able to pose as an arbiter of
affairs in Central Asia. The fortitude of Jehangir confirmed the
attachment of his friends, and the Khokandian ruler, encouraged by the
defeat of the Chinese, again took up his cause and sent him troops and a
general for a fresh descent on Kashgaria. The khan had his own ends in
view quite as much as to support the Khoja pretender; but his support
encouraged Jehangir to leave his mountain retreat and to cross the Tian
Shan into Kashgaria. This happened in the year 1826, and the Chinese
garrison of Kashgar very unwisely quitted the shelter of its citadel and
went out to meet the invaders. The combat is said to have been fiercely
contested, but nothing is known about it except that the Chinese were
signally defeated. This overthrow was the signal for a general
insurrection throughout the country, and the Chinese garrisons, after more
or less resistance, were annihilated. An attempt was then made to restore
the old Mohammedan administration, and Jehangir was proclaimed by the
style of the Seyyid Jehangir Sultan. One of his first acts was to dismiss
the Khokandian contingent, and to inform his ally or patron, Mahomed Ali,
that he no longer required his assistance. His confidence received a rude
check when he learned a short time afterward that the Chinese were making
extraordinary preparations to recover their lost province, and that they
had collected an immense army in Ili for the purpose. Then he wished his
Khokandian allies back again; but he still resolved to make as good a
fight as he could for the throne he had acquired; and when the Chinese
general Chang marched on Kashgar, Jehangir took up his position at
Yangabad and accepted battle. He was totally defeated; the capture of
Kashgar followed, and Jehangir himself fell into the hands of the victors.
The Khoja was sent to Pekin, where, after many indignities, he was
executed and quartered as a traitor. The Chinese punished all open rebels
with death, and as a precaution against the recurrence of rebellion they
removed 12,000 Mohammedan families from Kashgar to Ili, where they became
known as the Tarantchis, or toilers. They also took the very wise step of
prohibiting all intercourse with Khokand, and if they had adhered to this
resolution they would have saved themselves much serious trouble. But
Mahomed Ali was determined to make an effort to retain so valuable a
perquisite as his trade relations with Kashgar, and as soon as the Chinese
had withdrawn the main portion of their force he hastened to assail
Kashgar at the head of his army, and put forward Yusuf as a successor to
Jehangir. Only desultory fighting ensued, but his operations were so far
successful that the Chinese agreed to resort to the previous arrangement,
and Mahomed Ali promised to restrain the Khojas. Fourteen years of peace
and prosperity followed this new convention.
Serious disorders also broke out in the islands of Formosa and Hainan. In
the former the rebellion was only put down by a judicious manipulation of
the divisions of the insurgent tribes; but the settlement attained must be
pronounced so far satisfactory that the peace of the island was assured.
In Hainan, an island of extraordinary fertility and natural wealth, which
must some day be developed, the aboriginal tribes revolted against Chinese
authority, and massacred many of the Chinese settlers, who had begun to
encroach on the possessions of the natives. Troops had to be sent from
Canton before the disorders were suppressed, and then Hainan reverted to
its tranquil state, from which only the threat of a French occupation
during the Tonquin war roused it. These disorders in different parts of
the empire were matched by troubles of a more domestic character within
the palace. In 1831 Taoukwang's only son, a young man of twenty, whose
character was not of the best, gave him some cause of offense, and he
struck him. The young prince died of the blow, and the emperor was left
for the moment without a child. His grief was soon assuaged by the news
that two of his favorite concubines had borne him sons, one of whom became
long afterward the Emperor Hienfung. At this critical moment Taoukwang was
seized with a severe illness, and his elder brother, Hwuy Wang, whose
pretensions had threatened the succession, thinking his chance had at last
come, took steps to seize the throne. But Taoukwang recovered, and those
who had made premature arrangements in filling the throne were severely
punished. These minor troubles culminated in the Miaotze Rebellion, the
most formidable internal war which the Chinese government had to deal with
between that of Wou Sankwei and the Taepings. From an early period the
Miaotze had been a source of trouble to the executive, and the relations
between them and the officials had been anything but harmonious. The
Manchu rulers had only succeeded in keeping them in order by stopping
their supply of salt on the smallest provocation; and in the belief that
they possessed an absolutely certain mode of coercing them, the Chinese
mandarins assumed an arrogant and dictatorial tone toward their rude and
unreclaimed neighbors. In 1832 the Miaotze, irritated past endurance,
broke out in rebellion, and their principal chief caused himself to be
proclaimed emperor. Their main force was assembled at Lienchow, in the
northwest corner of the Canton province, and their leader assumed the
suggestive title of the Golden Dragon, and called upon the Chinese people
to redress their wrongs by joining his standard. But the Chinese, who
regarded the Miaotze as an inferior and barbarian race, refused to combine
with them against the most extortionate of officials or the most unpopular
of governments. Although they could not enlist the support of any section
of the Chinese people, the Miaotze, by their valor and the military skill
of their leader, made so good a stand against the forces sent against them
by the Canton viceroy that the whole episode is redeemed from oblivion,
and may be considered a romantic incident in modern Chinese history. The
Miaotze gained the first successes of the war, and for a time it seemed as
if the Chinese authorities would be able to effect nothing against them.
The Canton viceroy fared so badly that Hengan was sent from Pekin to take
the command, and the chosen braves of Hoonan were sent to attack the
Miaotze in the rear. The latter gained a decisive victory at Pingtseuen,
where the Golden Dragon and several thousand of his followers were slain.
But, although vanquished in one quarter, the Miaotze continued to show
great activity and confidence in another, and when the Canton viceroy made
a fresh attack on them they repulsed him with heavy loss. The disgrace of
this officer followed, and his fall was hastened by the suppression of the
full extent of his losses, which excited the indignation of his own
troops, who said, "There is no use in our sacrificing our lives in secret;
if our toils are concealed from she emperor neither we nor our posterity
will be rewarded." This unlucky commander was banished to Central Asia,
and after his supersession Hengan had the satisfaction of bringing the war
to a satisfactory end within ten days. Some of the leaders were executed,
the others swore to keep the peace, and a glowing account of the
pacification of the Miaotze region was sent to Pekin. Some severe critics
suggested that the whole arrangement was a farce, and that Hengan's
triumph was only on paper; but the lapse of time has shown this skepticism
to be unjustified, as the Miaotze have remained tranquil ever since, and
the formidable Yaoujin, or Wolfmen, as they are called, have observed the
promises given to Hengan, which would not have been the case unless they
had been enforced by military success. Should they ever break out again,
the government would possess the means, from their command of money and
modern arms, of repressing their lawlessness with unprecedented
thoroughness, and of absolutely subjecting their hitherto inaccessible
districts.
If the first ten or twelve years of the reign of the Emperor Taoukwang
were marked by these troubles on a minor scale, an undue importance should
not be attached to them, for they did not seriously affect the stability
of the government or the authority of the emperor. It is true that they
caused a decline in the revenue and an increase in the expenditure, which
resulted in the year 1834 in an admitted deficit of fifty million dollars,
and no state could be considered in a flourishing condition with the
public exchequer in such a condition. But this large deficit must be
regarded rather as a floating debt than an annual occurrence.
The Chinese authorities continued to hinder and protest against the
foreign trade and intercourse between their subjects and the merchants of
Europe as much as ever; but their opposition was mainly confined to edicts
and proclamations. When Commissioner Lin resorted to force and violence
some years later the auspicious moment for expelling all foreigners had
passed away, and the weakness of the government contributed in no small
degree to this result. Taoukwang, although his claims as occupant of the
Dragon Throne were unabated, could not pretend to the power of a great
ruler like Keen Lung, who would have known how to enforce his will. For
was it possible after 1834 to continue the policy of uncompromising
hostility to all foreign nations whose governments had become directly
interested in, and to a certain extent responsible to, their respective
peoples, for the opening of the Chinese empire to civilized intercourse
and commerce. Up to this point Taoukwang's only experience of the
pretensions of the foreign powers had been the Amherst mission, in the
time of his father, which had ended so ignominiously, and the Russian
mission which arrived at Pekin every ten years to recruit the Russian
college there, and to pay the descendants of the garrison of Albazin the
sum allotted by the czar for their support. But from these trifling
matters Taoukwang's attention was suddenly and completely distracted to
the important situation at Canton and on the coast, the settlement of the
questions arising out of which filled the remainder of his reign.