T'UNG CHIH
On the death of the Emperor, a plot was concocted by eight members of
the extreme anti-foreign party at Court, who claimed to have been
appointed Regents, to make away with the Empress Dowager, the
concubine mother, known as the Western Empress, of the five-year-old
child just proclaimed under the title of Chi Hsiang (good omen), and
also the late Emperor's three brothers, thus securing to themselves
complete control of the administration. Prince Kung, however, managed
to be "first at the fire," and in accordance with the Chinese
proverb, was therefore "first with his cooking." Having got wind of
the scheme, in concert with the two Empresses Dowager, who had
secured possession of the Emperor, he promptly caused the
conspirators to be seized. Two of them, Imperial princes, were
allowed to commit suicide, and the others were either executed or
banished, while Prince Kung and the two Empresses formed a joint
regency for the direction of public affairs, after changing the style
of the reign from Chi Hsiang to T'ung Chih (united rule).
The position of these two Empresses was a curious one. The Empress
Dowager _par excellence_--for there is only one legal wife in
China--had no children; a concubine had provided the heir to the
throne, and had in consequence been raised to the rank of Western
Empress, subordinate only to the childless Eastern Empress. Of the
latter, there is nothing to be said, except that she remained a
cipher to the end of her life; of the concubine, a great deal has
been said, much of which is untrue. Taken from an ordinary Manchu
family into the palace, she soon gained an extraordinary influence
over Hsien Fêng, and began to make her voice heard in affairs of
State. Always on the side of determined measures, she had counselled
the Emperor to remain in Peking and face the barbarians; she is
further believed to have urged the execution of Parkes and Loch, the
order luckily arriving too late to be carried out. For the next three
years the Regents looked anxiously for the final collapse of the
T'ai-p'ings, having meanwhile to put up with the hateful presence of
foreign diplomats, now firmly established within the Manchu section
of the city of Peking. No sooner was the great rebellion entirely
suppressed (1864), than another rising broke out. The Nien-fei, or
Twist Rebels, said to have been so called because they wore as a
badge turbans twisted with grease, were mounted banditti who, here
to-day and gone to-morrow, for several years committed much havoc in
the northern provinces of China, until finally suppressed by Tso
Tsung-t'ang.
Turkestan was the next part of the empire to claim attention. A son
and successor of Jehangir, ruling as vassal of China at Khokand, had
been murdered by his lieutenant, Yakoob Beg, who, in 1866, had set
himself up as Ameer of Kashgaria, throwing off the Manchu yoke and
attracting to his standard large numbers of discontented Mahometans
from all quarters. His attack upon the Dunganis, who had risen on
their own account and had spread rebellion far and wide between the
province of Shensi and Kuldja, caused Russia to step in and annex
Kuldja before it could fall into his hands. Still, he became master
of a huge territory; and in 1874 the title of Athalik Ghazi,
"Champion Father," was conferred upon him by the Ameer of Bokhara. He
is also spoken of as the Andijani, from Andijan, a town in Khokand
whence he and many of his followers came. Luckily for the Manchus,
they were able to avail themselves of the services of a Chinese
general whose extraordinary campaign on this occasion has marked him
as a commander of the first order. Tso Tsung-t'ang, already
distinguished by his successes against the T'ai-p'ings and the
Nien-fei, began by operations, in 1869, against the Mahometans in
Shensi. Fighting his way through difficulties caused by local
outbreaks and mutinies in his rear, he had captured by 1873 the
important city of Su-chow in Kansuh, and by 1874 his advance-guard
had reached Hami. There he was forced to settle down and raise a crop
in order to feed his troops, supplies being very uncertain. In 1876
Urumtsi was recovered; and in 1877 Turfan, Harashar, Yarkand, and
Kashgar. At this juncture, Yakoob Beg was assassinated, after having
held Kashgaria for twelve years. Khoten fell on January 2, 1878. This
wonderful campaign was now over, but China had lost Kuldja. A Manchu
official, named Ch'ung-hou, who was sent to St Petersburg to meet
Russian diplomats on their own ground, the main object being to
recover this lost territory, was condemned to death on his return for
the egregious treaty he had managed to negotiate, and was only spared
at the express request of Queen Victoria; he will be mentioned again
shortly. His error was afterwards retrieved by a young and brilliant
official, son of the great Tsêng Kuo-fan, and later a familiar figure
as the Marquis Tsêng, Minister at the Court of St James's, by whom
Kuldja was added once more to the Manchu empire.
The year 1868 is remarkable for a singular episode. The Regents and
other high authorities in Peking decided, at whose instigation can
only be surmised, to send an embassy to the various countries of
Europe and America, in order to bring to the notice of foreign
governments China's right, as an independent Power, to manage her
internal affairs without undue interference from outside. The
mission, which included two Chinese officials, was placed under the
leadership of Mr Burlingame, American Minister at Peking, who, in one
of his speeches, took occasion to say that China was simply longing
to cement friendly relations with foreign powers, and that within
some few short years there would be "a shining cross on every hill in
the Middle Kingdom."
Burlingame died early in 1870, before his mission was completed, and
only four months before the Tientsin Massacre threw a shadow of doubt
over his optimistic pronouncements. The native population at Tientsin
had been for some time irritated by the height to which, contrary to
their own custom, the towers of the Roman Catholic Cathedral had been
carried; and rumours had also been circulated that behind the lofty
walls and dark mysterious portals of the Catholic foundling hospital,
children's eyes and hearts were extracted from still warm corpses to
furnish medicines for the barbarian pharmacopoeia. On June 21, the
cathedral and the establishment of sisters of mercy, the French
Consulate and other buildings, were pillaged and burnt by a mob
composed partly of the rowdies of the place and partly of soldiers
who happened to be temporarily quartered there. All the priests and
sisters were brutally murdered, as also the French Consul and other
foreigners. For this outrage eighteen men were executed, a large
indemnity was exacted, and the superintendent of trade, the same
Manchu official whose subsequent diplomatic failure at St Petersburg
has been already noticed, was sent to France with a letter of apology
from the Emperor.
In 1872 T'ung Chih was married, and in the following year took over
the reins of government. Thereupon, the foreign Ministers pressed for
personal interviews; and after much obstruction on the part of the
Manchu court, the first audience was granted. This same year saw the
collapse of the Panthays, a tribe of Mahometans in Yünnan who, so far
back as 1855, had begun to free themselves from Chinese rule. They
chose as their leader an able co-religionist named Tu Wên-hsiu, who
was styled Sultan Suleiman, and he sent agents to Burma to buy arms
and munitions of war; after which, secure in the natural fortress of
Ta-li, he was soon master of all western Yünnan. In 1863 he repulsed
with heavy loss two armies sent against him from the provincial
capital; but the end of the T'ai-p'ing rebellion set free the whole
resources of the empire against him, and he remained inactive while
the Imperialists advanced leisurely westwards. In 1871 he tried
vainly to obtain aid from England, sending over his son, Prince
Hassan, for that purpose. The following year saw the enemy at the
gates of Ta-li, and by and by there was a treacherous surrender of an
important position. Then a promise of an amnesty was obtained at the
price of Tu's head, and an enormous indemnity. On January 15, 1873,
his family having all committed suicide, the Sultan passed for the
last time through the crowded streets of Ta-li on his way to the camp
of his victorious adversary. He arrived there senseless, having taken
poison before setting forth. His corpse was beheaded and his head was
forwarded to the provincial capital, and thence in a jar of honey to
Peking.
His conqueror, whose name is not worth recording, was one of those
comparatively rare Chinese monsters who served their Manchu masters
only too well. Eleven days after the Sultan's death, he invited the
chief men of the town to a feast, and after putting them all to
death, gave the signal for a general massacre, in which thirty
thousand persons are said to have been butchered.
In 1874 the Japanese appear on the scene, adding fresh troubles to
those with which the Manchus were already encompassed. Some sailors
from the Loo-choo Islands, over which Japanese sovereignty had been
successfully maintained, were murdered by the savages on the east
coast of Formosa; and failing to obtain redress, Japan sent a
punitive expedition to the island, and began operations on her own
account, but withdrew on promises of amendment and payment of all
expenses incurred.