THE CONQUEST OF KASHGAR BY CHINA.
Before continuing the narrative of the events that took place in Kashgar
after the year 1720, until it fell into the hands of the Chinese in
1760, it may be as well to consider briefly the history of China, in
order that it may be intelligible to us how that power was induced to
undertake such far distant enterprises, and how, moreover, it was able
to accomplish them successfully. In the earlier years of the seventeenth
century the dynasty of Ming was seated on the throne of Pekin, but its
power had been shaken to its foundations by repeated disasters in wars
with the Mantchoo Tartars, who had wrested the province of Leaou Tung
from the Emperor Wan-leh, before his death in 1620. The Mantchoos are
said to have been the descendants of the Mongol conquerors of the
thirteenth century, who had been forced to take refuge in the wilds
north of China when the native Chinese rose up and destroyed their
power. Whether this very plausible suggestion be true or not, or
whether, as some affirm, these were a new race issuing from the frozen
regions of Kamschatka and driven south by the necessity for obtaining
sustenance for their increasing numbers, matters little for our present
purpose. It is certain that they were a warlike people at this time, and
that they could bring considerable numbers into the field, and it is
very probable that, when they had obtained some success, their ranks
were swollen by recruits from their Tartar kinsmen of Eastern Jungaria.
On the death of the Chinese Emperor Wan-leh, dissensions broke out in
China as to his successor, and in the struggle that ensued the Mantchoos
were invited in to support the cause of one of the claimants. Their aid
turned the scale in his favour; but when the fortunes of war had been
clearly manifested, the Mantchoos showed no disposition to take their
departure as had been stipulated. As the Saxons in our own history, and
the Mongols in the Chinese had acted, so now did the Mantchoos, and in
1644 their first Emperor Chuntche was installed in the imperial
dignities, as the first of the present ruling dynasty of Tatsing, or
"sublimely pure," When Chuntche was crowned by his victorious soldiery,
it must not be supposed that he had conquered the whole of China. During
the seventeen years of his reign he was constantly engaged in warring
with the native Chinese forces; but always with invariable success. In
1661 Kanghi, his son, ascended the throne, and by a series of judicious
measures and successful enterprises, firmly maintained the position won
in China by his father. It was during this brilliant reign that Tibet
was annexed to the Chinese Empire, and from Cochin-China and the
frontiers of Birma to the River Amoor there was none to question the
power of the Mantchoo Government. It cannot be doubted that the conquest
of Tibet opened up fresh ideas in the minds of the Chinese as to their
right to rule in Eastern Turkestan; and with the re-assertion of their
old suzerainty over the Tibetan table-land, the remembrance of a similar
claim, at a far distant epoch, over Jungaria and Turkestan would be
forced on the minds of the Chinese people, until some ambitious ruler or
viceroy might avail himself of the opportunity of distinction by
acquiescing in, and giving effect to, the popular desire. Kanghi was too
prudent to jeopardize his recently consolidated state by expeditions
either into Jungaria or Turkestan; and was quite satisfied with the
respect shown to his empire by the Eleuthian princes of those regions.
On Kanghi's death, in 1721, his son, Yung-Ching, came to the throne,
and during his short reign, the example of his two predecessors not to
interfere in the troubles of the states lying beyond Kansuh, was closely
followed. Yung-Ching died in 1735, and thus made way for his ambitious
and warlike son, Keen-Lung. When Keen-Lung first commenced to reign for
himself he found that he was irresponsible ruler of a most powerful
empire, at peace within itself, and satisfied to all outward seeming
with its _de facto_ government. His treasury was full; the country was,
perhaps, at its very highest point of prosperity, and the sovereign had
only to maintain in this wealth and vigour the nation which had been
brought to such a pitch by the wisdom of his predecessors. To a warlike
monarch, however, the career of ruler of a thriving, peace-loving, and
domestic people, has never been a palatable one, and Keen-Lung thought,
as have many other great sovereigns of our own age, that the only use of
a wealthy and numerous subject race was to enable the ruler to undertake
high-sounding enterprises, and to spread the terror of his name through
distant regions. The reputation and the real strength of the Chinese
Empire were so great at this time in Asia, that no single power, or even
any possible confederacy, would have thought of entering the lists
against it. Keen-Lung had, therefore, no just cause for hostilities with
the neighbouring states, as they were always too willing to offer the
amplest reparation for any cause of offence to the Imperial dignity. The
conquest of Turkestan was therefore an object with which he would
heartily sympathise; and when we remember his warlike disposition, and
the exact condition of China at the time, possessing a superabundance of
wealth, and of numbers sufficient to achieve far more difficult
enterprises than the one in question, it is easier to understand the
eagerness with which Keen-Lung intervened in the affairs of Jungaria,
when the following opportunity, which we are about to narrate, offered
for so doing.
It is now time to return to Kashgar and narrate the events that were
happening in that troubled district. The feud between the Aktaghluc and
Karataghluc factions reached its height when Afak, who had been placed
on the throne of Yarkand by the Calmucks, under Galdan, the chief
representative of the Aktaghluc, succeeded in expelling all the
prominent supporters of the rival clan. Afak ruled for some years, but
with difficulty maintained himself in some parts of Kashgar, against the
Calmucks, Kirghiz, and Kipchak. His sons had no better fortune, and the
state was finally divided between a Kipchak and a Kirghiz leader. These
quarrelled between themselves, but happily they each expired in the
first encounter. Acbash, one of the sons of Afak, was executed at Yangy
Hissar in the course of this contention; but he had previously called in
to his assistance from Khodjent, in Khokand, a Khoja, Danyal, of the
rival Karataghluc faction. This roused the enmity of the more bitter
among the Aktaghluc, and, on this, Khoja Ahmad was brought in to
represent their interests. Danyal was besieged in Yarkand, but, with the
assistance of a contingent of Kirghiz, he was able to repulse his
assailants. But, although successful in the field, Danyal was compelled
shortly afterwards to flee, and leave his rival in possession of the
state. He fled to the Calmucks, in Jungaria, and pleaded so well, that
an army was lent him to regain Kashgar. Victory attended this
expedition, but the Calmuck leader, who had captured Ahmad at the siege
of Kashgar, instead of placing Danyal in power, took both him and his
rival as prisoners to his capital of Ili. With so forcible a settlement
of the question, little room was left for useless complaining to the
ambitious Danyal, and from this time down to the Chinese conquest, the
Calmuck rulers of Ili asserted their right to supremacy over Eastern
Turkestan. Danyal, himself, was appointed, some years later on, governor
of Kashgar, now called Alty Shahr, or six cities; but, under him, there
was a local governor for each town, appointed by the Calmucks
themselves. His power was more apparent than real. His eldest son was
kept at Ili as a hostage for the good behaviour of his father, and
Danyal, himself, had frequently to proceed to Ili to make his report on
the state of affairs in Kashgar. Such was the condition of Kashgar, as a
subject province of the Calmuck rulers of Ili, governed by Danyal, a
member of the Karataghluc party, in the year 1740. On the death of
Galdan, the son of Arabdan Khan of Jungaria, in 1745, two chiefs,
Amursana and Davatsi, or Tawats, seized the governing power, and for a
time they divided the authority fairly between them; but it was not long
before they fell out, and resolved to advance their own interests at the
expense of each other. Amursana was unable to cope with the armies of
his rival, Davatsi, and, having been defeated in several encounters,
fled from Jungaria to China. On his arrival at Lanchefoo he demanded
permission to proceed to Pekin to lay his grievances at the feet of the
Emperor, and to offer in his name, and in that of many of his
compatriots, the districts of Ili and of Kashgar to his omnipotent
majesty.
The request was granted, and Keen-Lung received him with favour,
promised to consider what he had stated, and, in the meanwhile, gave him
titles and revenues within the Chinese Empire. Amursana's address was so
insinuating, and he played so skilfully on the king's ambition and love
for military renown, that at last Keen-Lung consented to lend him the
forces, which he had been so lavish of promises to secure. In 1753, the
Chinese army, under Amursana, appeared in Jungaria, and, after several
desperate encounters, Davatsi was driven out of that state, and,
according to one account, was delivered up to the Chinese by Khojam Beg,
the governor of Ush Turfan. According to another version, he was
captured in the field; but both agree that he was taken to Pekin and
there executed. Amursana, having regained his position in Jungaria, now
turned his attention to the conquest of its dependency, Kashgar. He was
now supreme in Jungaria, with his capital at Ili; but his army, which
maintained him in his position, was a Khitay force, owing allegiance
solely to the Emperor of Pekin, and only obeying the instructions issued
by his general accompanying the Eleuth prince Amursana. At this epoch
Yusuf, a son of Galdan, had seized the chief authority in Kashgar, and,
raising a cry that the true religion of Islam was in danger from the
advance of the Khitay, endeavoured to rally to his cause in the struggle
that he saw was approaching the Mahomedan governments of Khokand and
Bokhara. Amursana, on the northern frontiers of Kashgar, was eagerly
watching for the opportunity to arise for an active interference in that
state, and Yusuf was prudent in seeking beyond his frontiers for allies
that were able to assist him against the machinations of his foes. Yusuf
had made himself the leader and representative of the Karataghluc party
in the state, and Amursana accordingly resolved to put forward the
pretensions of the rival Aktaghluc faction. In this design the Chinese
general acquiesced, and, with the assistance of the Calmuck governors of
Ush Turfan, and Aksu, no delay interfered with its prompt realization.
The descendants of the ancient Khojas were consequently sought out, and
Barhanuddin, son of Ahmad, was selected for the purpose. He, at the head
of a mixed following, promptly seized Ush Turfan, and was there received
with acclamation, and several of the minor tribes joined him at once.
Yusuf was, however, hurrying up with a large force from Yarkand, and
Barhanuddin's chances seemed to be more than doubtful, when Yusuf died
on the way. His son Abdulla, who took the name of Khoja Padshah,
hastened on, however, and besieged Barhanuddin in Ush Turfan. Abdulla
then endeavoured to come to terms with Barhanuddin, and made overtures
for the reconciliation of the Karataghluc and Aktaghluc parties to be
cemented in a crusade against the invading Khitay. Barhanuddin, a true
Mussulman, was personally inclined to accept the arrangement offered,
but, as he was surrounded by Chinese officials and their allies, he was
constrained to give instead the advice that Abdulla should surrender to
the Chinese and acknowledge their supremacy. Abdulla was not at all
willing to forfeit his independence without some struggle, and the siege
of Ush Turfan was pressed on. In the camp of the besieging forces there
were some who favoured the pretensions of Barhanuddin, and these
deserting from the Karataghluc cause, the remaining forces of Abdulla
were compelled to retreat with precipitation. Barhanuddin immediately
advanced on Kashgar, where he was received with open arms. Yarkand soon
afterwards fell into his possession, and the conquest of Kashgar by the
descendant of the Khojas and the triumph of the Aktaghluc party were
complete.
So far the Chinese had been merely spectators of the progress of events
in Kashgar. Amursana had induced them to approve of this enterprise of
Barhanuddin, and they had given general support in the war with Yusuf
and his son; and it was not until Barhanuddin, elated with his success,
set their wishes at defiance, that they resolved to occupy the country.
But before that, Amursana's career had been cut short. Although escorted
by a large force of native Chinese troops, he had aspired, in 1757, to
establish himself as an independent prince in Jungaria, and had broken
loose from Chinese control. The forces he raised were, however, defeated
with remarkable ease by the Chinese, and Amursana was compelled to flee
once more from his home--this time with no certain refuge, as he had
before in Pekin. The Russians were then in possession of Siberia, but
their influence for good or for ill beyond their desert and almost
impenetrable stations was practically _nil_; but, such as it was, it
seemed to Amursana the only place affording any prospect of security.
He died at Tobolsk, in 1757, soon after he arrived there; but the
implacable Chinese haughtily demanded from the Russians his body as a
proof of his decease, and the Russian government sent it to Kiachta for
surrender to them. Such was the career of the ill-fated, but ambitious,
Amursana, who was the immediate cause of the introduction of Chinese
power into Eastern Turkestan.
With so unmistakable a proof before his eyes of the power of the
Chinese, it is strange to find Barhanuddin also proving contumacious in
Kashgar, but so it was. In 1758, the very next year after the death of
Amursana, this ruler and his brother Khan Khoja broke out in open mutiny
to the Chinese. At Ili some Khitay officers were maltreated, and
outspoken contempt was shown for Chinese commands. Such attitude could
not be brooked by any established rule, and, to do the Chinese simple
justice, never had been tolerated by them on any occasion; and
accordingly a Chinese army was despatched from Ili to chastise this
recalcitrant ruler, and to remind him that the arm of Chinese power was
terribly long. Barhanuddin and his brother were defeated in several
pitched battles, city after city opened its gates to the dreaded
invader, and the last representatives of the Khojas were compelled to
seek refuge in the isolated region of Badakshan. But even here they were
not safe. The terror of the Chinese name had gone before them, and the
sovereign of Badakshan, eager to propitiate the conqueror, sent the
heads of the two brothers to the Chinese general, who was advancing from
Yarkand. Only one of the numerous sons of Barhanuddin escaped the
destruction wrought in the family of the Khojas by the victorious
Chinese: his name was Khoja Sarimsak. The Chinese had now completely
annexed all the territory north of the Karakoram and east of the Pamir
and Khokand, and it does not appear that in doing so they had suffered
any great loss. By availing themselves of Amursana's claims in Jungaria
they had obtained a firm foothold in that state, and then by an equally
skilful manipulation of the rival parties of Aktaghluc and Karataghluc,
they had extended their authority over Kashgar as well. When their
puppets, Amursana and Barhanuddin, became restive as Chinese vassals,
and strove for independence, the Chinese forces were called into action
and swept all opposition from their path. All this may seem the most
unjustifiable ambition, nor do we wish to palliate in any way the
terribly harsh repressive measures adopted by the Chinese. There is no
doubt that, so long as there remained the shadow of any opposition to
their rule, they did not temper their power with any exhibition of
mercy. It is computed that almost half a million of people were slain
during the wars of these two or three years, and that the great majority
of these were the innocent inhabitants, who had been massacred. Nor,
although we should be disposed to think that this is a greatly
exaggerated number, have we any reason to doubt that the sword of the
Chinese was called into use whenever any resistance was offered to their
advance, and that the feelings of the soldiers were embittered to a
great extent by religious fervour, in their encounters with the
Mussulmans. The Chinese, having conquered Kashgar, turned their arms
against Khokand, and entered Tashkent and the city of Khokand in
triumph. As the year 1760 was drawing to a close, quite a panic was
spreading through Western Asia at the advance of the Chinese.
Afghanistan, then as now the only formidable Mahomedan territory left
intact from foreign conquest, was implored by the suffering Islamites to
check the Chinese advance. Then, as recently on a somewhat similar
occasion, Afghanistan thought prudence the better part of valour, and
confined her action to the invasion of Badakshan, which she coveted, in
order to punish its ruler for the murder of the fugitive Khojas. But,
having terrified Khokand, the Chinese wisely retired to the proper
frontier of Kashgar, and then set about consolidating their rule there
by an energy and administrative capacity which must excite the
admiration of every governing nation.
It was some years, however, before the conquest of Kashgar, which had
been so rapidly accomplished, could be considered to have been
altogether completed. Fresh troops had to be summoned from Kansuh, and
military settlers imported in large numbers from Shensi and other
Chinese provinces, to supply the place of the massacred Kashgari.
Settlers were also brought from the neighbourhood of Urumtsi and Hamil;
and with these and imperial troops sent from Pekin, the Chinese felt
complete masters of the situation. It was only then that the Chinese
viceroy considered himself sufficiently strong to place his army in
detachments in the various cities. Up to that time it had been kept
mobilised in one, or at most two or three stations, ready for instant
action. When the Chinese withdrew from Khokand they imposed a tribute on
that state, and then they turned their arms against the nomad tribes on
the north of the Jungarian frontier. The various hordes of the Kirghiz
nomads sent in their submission one after the other, and the Chinese
invariably accepted their fealty, and as a rule rewarded their duteous
behaviour with Chinese titles and rank Thus Ablai, Chief of the Middle
Horde, was made Prince in 1766, and Nur Ali, of the Little Horde, went
so far as to send special emissaries to Pekin, where they were
favourably received, and returned with recompenses for the fidelity of
their master. The Chinese had thus secured their position in Jungaria
and Kashgar before the dose of 1765, and by their possession of Khoten,
they had opened up communications with their province of Tibet. On the
south they possessed an admirable frontier, and it was only in the
south-west that any check seemed to be put upon their advance. As
already mentioned, the Ameer of Afghanistan had overran Badakshan, in
chastisement for the murders of Barhanuddin and his brother; and he was
continually receiving applications to declare an open war against the
Chinese. His own troubles with the rulers of Scinde and Persia were
sufficient to keep his religions sympathies within due bounds. But he
sent an embassy to Pekin, to point out that his fellow-religionists were
suffering under the conquering sway of the Chinese forces in Central
Asia; and on its return with an unsatisfactory reply, he appears to have
stationed a large body of troops in Badakshan. The proud Durani monarch
was probably eager to oppose the Chinese, but, wiser than his
contemporaries in Turkestan and Jungaria, he accurately reckoned up the
risks of the enterprise, and contented himself with the maintenance of
the powerful empire he had erected on the ruins of the conquests of
Nadir Shah. When the Afghans had done so much, and given promises of aid
in the defence of Samarcand, it is not to be wondered at if the people
of Kashgar thought they would do more, and risings took place in several
parts of the state, notably at Ush Turfan. The Chinese measures were
prompt and effectual; the rebellion was suppressed, the inhabitants
massacred, and the town destroyed. This failure struck so complete a
panic into the hearts of the people, that no inducements, for more than
half a century, could encourage them to rise against the Chinese. The
Chinese conquest of Kashgar gave an effectual solution to the rivalries
of the numerous claimants to its sovereignty, and among other
competitors to the Khojas, that is, to the descendants of that Sarimsak
who alone survived the massacre of his family in 1760. While very
possibly the people may have suffered that mental depression which must
accompany the installation of a foreign rule, and despite the very harsh
and unmistakable evidences given by the Chinese of their intolerance of
opposition, there was some prospect, notwithstanding these, that the
Chinese would prove permanent masters, and that their rule would
consequently become milder and milder every year. It was this feeling,
that things could not become much worse, that rendered the Kashgari
apathetic in their resistance to the Chinese. They did not dare to
expect much improvement in their lot; but at all events they might
suppose that Chinese massacres would cease with the disappearance of
resistance, whereas massacres by their own countrymen and tyrants had
been for centuries an every-day occurrence.
Before considering the Chinese occupation of Kashgar, it may be useful
to give some description of the Aktaghluc and Karataghluc parties, of
whose rivalry the history of Kashgar in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
eighteenth centuries is so full. It may be remembered that in 1533,
Reshid, the younger son of Said, who had distinguished himself in his
father's wars, seized the state from his brothers, to whom he was
inferior both in age and in birth on his mother's side. In effecting
this he availed himself of the alliance of the Usbeg rulers west of
Pamir, and during the negotiations that were transacted between them,
the distinguished divine, Maulana Khoja Kasani, of Samarcand, visited
him. He was greeted with the most striking marks of Reshid's affection,
and granted a large estate in Kashgar. He married and left two sons in
that state to represent his interests and share his possessions. The
elder son, whose mother was a Samarcand lady, was averse to the younger,
whose mother was a native of Kashgar. In the course of time they each
rose prominently in the service of the state, but they transmitted their
antipathy to their descendants. Khoja Kalan, the elder, whose influence
was greatest in Yarkand and Karatagh, was the founder of the
Karataghluc, or "Black Mountaineers." Khoja Ishac, the younger, whose
influence was greatest in Kashgar and Actagh, another form of Altai,
was the founder of the Aktaghluc, or "White Mountaineers." The
descendants of either of these Khojas, or priests, the sons of the great
divine of Samarcand, claim the title of Khoja, but that must not be
confounded with the more exclusive signification it possesses as
representing the once ruling family.