Fall of the Mongol dynasty--The son of a labourer chosen Emperor--He
founds the Ming dynasty--Choo becomes Tae-tsoo, and rules with great
wisdom--He dies and leaves his kingdom to his grandson--Young-lo attacks
and takes Nanking--The young Emperor burnt to death--Young-lo is
proclaimed Emperor, and makes Pekin his capital--First European visits
China--Tartar chief usurps supreme power--Dies soon after--Foundation of
present dynasty--Accession of Shun-Che--Chinese compelled to shave their
heads--The old style of coiffure in China--Care of the modern pig-tail.
The fall of the Mongol dynasty and final banishment of the last Emperor
of that once famous race was brought about by a young Chinese bonze
named Choo, the son of a labourer, who joined the rebels when they rose
against the foreign ruler. A delicate boy unfit for out-door toil, he had
been placed by his father in a monastery to be educated, but he early
became tired of the inactive life, and enlisted in the Imperial army as
a common soldier. He soon distinguished himself, and rapidly rose to a
position of high rank, when he married a widow with a fortune, belonging
to a family disaffected towards the Government. Soon after the wedding
an insurrection broke out at Nanking, and thanks to the influence of his
bride the young Choo was chosen leader. So great was his popularity that
thousands flocked to his standard, and after winning several victories
he led an army against Pekin itself. The capital was taken, Shan-Ti and
his family driven into exile, and with one accord the people proclaimed
their beloved General Choo Emperor. This was in 1366, and the Ming dynasty
founded by the labourer's son continued to rule over China for three
hundred years, when it was superseded by that of the family to which the
present Emperor belongs.
On his accession to the throne Choo took the name of Tae-tsoo, and chose
Nanking for his capital, converting Pekin into a principality, which he
gave to one of his sons, who, in his turn, when he came to the throne on
his father's death, once more made it the chief city of the Empire. The
new monarch, Young-lo by name, who had a very able adviser in his wife,
inaugurated his reign by restoring many national institutions for which
Kublai Khan had substituted those of the Mongols, and Chinese chroniclers
tell us he won all hearts by his consideration and moderation. No longer
were the chief offices of State held by military men; mandarins were
restored to their former rank, and many important privileges were granted
to the famous Han-lin College. Whereas Kublai Khan and his successors had
encouraged Buddhism, and neglected the teachings of Confucius, Tae-tsoo
revived the study of the works of the Chinese sage, forbade women to
become priestesses of the Hindu religion, and men to enter convents until
they were forty years of age, a truly salutary reform, saving many able
natives from wasting the best years of their lives in miserable inactivity.
[Sidenote: A CHILD EMPEROR'S DEATH]
Speaking of Tae-tsoo, a Chinese historian says: "Every man who knows how
to turn circumstances to account, to win a fortune and raise himself above
his fellows, must have some merit, but he who from a state of absolute
poverty succeeds in working his way to the summit of human greatness,
taking his seat on the grandest throne in the world, must indeed be of
most extraordinary superiority, worthy to represent Heaven itself as ruler
of the human race."
This richly-endowed being did not, however, escape misfortune; before the
thirty-one years of his reign were over his favourite son died, and he
appointed his grandson, a child of thirteen, to succeed him. The young
prince was duly elected to the supreme power; but his uncle, Young-lo,
coveted the throne, marched an army to Pekin, and though repulsed at
first, was finally successful through the treachery of some soldiers who
opened the gates of the capital to him. The palace was set fire to, and
the child emperor perished in the flames.
Young-lo was allowed to seat himself on the vacant throne without much
opposition; he removed the capital to Pekin, and governed so well that
the crimes which had won him power were forgotten. His reign was much
disturbed by invasions from the North, the restless Tartars coveting the
rich land from which they had been driven out, and at the time it seemed
likely that the country would be conquered by them yet again under their
great chief Timur, or Tamerlane. Most fortunately for the Celestials,
he died on the way to China at the head of his troops, and the land was
reprieved for a time at least.
It was during the reign of the usurper Young-lo that a European vessel
flying a European flag, that of Portugal, entered a Chinese port. A
Portuguese ship had sailed up the Canton river in 1516, and in 1520 a
Portuguese Embassy had penetrated to the very gates of Pekin; but its
leader, Perez, was sent back a prisoner to Canton, and never heard
of again by his fellow-countrymen. He is said, however, to have been
beheaded. It was not until the middle of the century that the Portuguese
really obtained any footing in the country, but at that time they did
succeed in establishing themselves at Macao.
[Sidenote: EXPULSION OF LI-KONG]
The Ming dynasty was in its turn fated to be overthrown by the restless
and ambitious Tartars. The last Emperor of Chinese birth, Whey-tsong,
ascended the throne in 1627, but the country was so distracted by
internecine feuds that he found the task of government beyond his
strength. He committed suicide in his despair at hearing that one of
the insurgent leaders had entered Pekin at the head of a large body of
soldiers. That leader, Li-Kong by name, had himself proclaimed Emperor,
but was only acknowledged by certain provinces, whilst a Chinese general,
Woosankwei, made peace with the Manchu Tartars in the name of the
nation, calling upon them to aid in deposing the usurper.. They agreed,
all too glad to get an entry into the coveted land they had invaded so
often. Li-Kong was expelled, but the Tartar chief, instead of appointing
a Chinese monarch, kept the supreme power himself He was hailed as a
deliverer when he entered Pekin, and ordered a grand ceremonial to be
observed at his own investiture as Emperor. The Nemesis in store for all
traitors was, however, waiting for him; he was taken ill immediately
afterwards and died in great agony. Strange to say, his son, Shun-Che,
a child of six years old, was allowed to succeed him, and thus in 1644
was founded the dynasty known as the Manchu Tartar, or Ch'ing, which has
endured to the present day.
[Illustration: FIG. 52.--MONOLITHS AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE TOMBS OF THE
MING EMPERORS.]
[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF THE PIG-TAIL]
The various provinces of the vast Celestial Empire did not of course
submit peacefully to this usurpation, but Ama-van, the uncle of the young
monarch, who was appointed regent during his minority, was a man of
great ability, who quelled every revolt as it arose. China still bears
the traces of the drastic measures employed to restore peace to the
distracted land, many a ruined wall marking the site of a once populous
town, whilst other cities still standing are evidently but half their
original size. The guardian died when his charge was only fourteen;
still the young prince had already learnt how to govern, and with a
wisdom beyond his years he managed to keep the peace between his Tartar
and Chinese subjects, dividing honours and appointments equally amongst
members of the two races. It was during the reign of this astute young
sovereign that the peculiar style of coiffure which is always looked upon
as distinctively Chinese, was first introduced, and that as a sign of
subjection to the Tartars. Before the accession of Shun-Che the Celestials
had prided themselves on the luxuriance of their dark masses of hair,
and the issue of an edict ordering all without distinction of age or rank
to have their heads shaved, but for one long tress at the back to be
plaited into a pig-tail, nearly caused a fresh revolution. The penalty of
noncompliance was decapitation, and there were many who chose that rather
than the disgrace of submitting to the hands of the barber. Still time,
the all-healer, has now reconciled the descendants of the innovators to
submit to what was originally so detested a custom, and no Chinaman would
now feel happy without his pig-tail.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--CHINESE BRONZES. (_Univers Pittoresque._)]
Writing of the Chinese before the hated edict was promulgated, Father
Alvarez Semedo says: "Men and women alike let their hair, generally black,
grow to a great length, which is why the name of the 'kingdom of the
people with black hair' is sometimes given to China. The natives," adds
this observer, "have little black eyes and small noses; they think our
big prominent noses very ugly; the Chinese look upon them in fact as a
regular deformity. They grow very small beards, and do not care for them
to be thick, all they are anxious about is that they should be black,
which is the most common colour; still they do not object to red hair as
the people of Thebes used to do; they wear their hair long, and let it
grow just as nature makes it, never cutting it. They give more attention
to the arrangement of their coiffure than any other nation of the world;
they would rather not have a single hair on their chins than lose one from
their polls."
Now the care expended on their luxuriant locks by the ancestors of the
modern Chinese is generally concentrated on the once-hated pig-tail; but
in the case of old men with grand-children, on long moustaches, and what
is known as the pointed Imperial beard. It is very evident that when the
Portuguese father quoted above was in China, the Celestials had never seen
the English, whom they call the red devils, on account of the auburn hair
of so many of them. Had they done so the author would never have said,
"They do not object to red hair!"