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pubOne.info present you this new edition. It is impossible to give here a complete key to the pronunciation of Chinese words. For those who wish to pronounce with approximate correctness the proper names in this volume, the following may be a rough guide:-

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819938026
Langue	English

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CHINA AND THE MANCHUS
By Herbert A. Giles
Professor of Chinese in the University ofCambridge,
and sometime H. B. M. Consul at Ningpo.
NOTE
It is impossible to give here a complete key to thepronunciation of Chinese words. For those who wish to pronouncewith approximate correctness the proper names in this volume, thefollowing may be a rough guide:—
a as in alms.
ê as u in fun.
i as ie in thief.
o as aw in saw.
u as oo in soon.
ü as u in French, or ü in German.
{u} as e in her.
ai as aye (yes).
ao as ow in cow.
ei as ey in prey.
ow as o (not as ow in cow).
ch as ch in church.
chih as chu in church.
hs as sh (hsiu = sheeoo).
j as in French.
ua and uo as wa and wo.
The insertion of a rough breathing ` calls for astrong aspirate.
CHINA AND THE MANCHUS
CHAPTER I—THE NÜ-CHÊNS AND KITANS
The Manchus are descended from a branch of certainwild Tungusic nomads, who were known in the ninth century as theNü-chêns, a name which has been said to mean “west of the sea. ”The cradle of their race lay at the base of the Ever-WhiteMountains, due north of Korea, and was fertilised by the headwaters of the Yalu River.
In an illustrated Chinese work of the fourteenthcentury, of which the Cambridge University Library possesses theonly known copy, we read that they reached this spot, originallythe home of the Su-shên tribe, as fugitives from Korea; further,that careless of death and prizing valour only, they carried nakedknives about their persons, never parting from them by day ornight, and that they were as “poisonous” as wolves or tigers. Theyalso tattooed their faces, and at marriage their mouths. By theclose of the ninth century the Nü-chêns had become subject to theneighbouring Kitans, then under the rule of the vigorous Kitanchieftain, Opaochi, who, in 907, proclaimed himself Emperor of anindependent kingdom with the dynastic title of Liao, said to mean“iron, ” and who at once entered upon that long course ofaggression against China and encroachment upon her territory whichwas to result in the practical division of the empire between thetwo powers, with the Yellow River as boundary, K`ai-fêng as theChinese capital, and Peking, now for the first time raised to thestatus of a metropolis, as the Kitan capital. Hitherto, the Kitanshad recognised China as their suzerain; they are first mentioned inChinese history in A. D. 468, when they sent ambassadors to court,with tribute.
Turning now to China, the famous House of Sung, theearly years of which were so full of promise of nationalprosperity, and which is deservedly associated with one of the twomost brilliant periods in Chinese literature, was founded in 960.Korea was then forced, in order to protect herself from theencroachments of China, to accept the hated supremacy of theKitans; but being promptly called upon to surrender large tracts ofterritory, she suddenly entered into an alliance with the Nü-chêns,who were also ready to revolt, and who sent an army to theassistance of their new friends. The Nü-chên and Korean armies,acting in concert, inflicted a severe defeat on the Kitans, andfrom this victory may be dated the beginning of the Nü-chên power.China had indeed already sent an embassy to the Nü-chêns,suggesting an alliance and also a combination with Korea, by whichmeans the aggression of the Kitans might easily be checked; butduring the eleventh century Korea became alienated from theNü-chêns, and even went so far as to advise China to join with theKitans in crushing the Nü-chêns. China, no doubt, would have beenglad to get rid of both these troublesome neighbours, especiallythe Kitans, who were gradually filching territory from the empire,and driving the Chinese out of the southern portion of the provinceof Chihli.
For a long period China weakly allowed herself to beblackmailed by the Kitans, who, in return for a large money subsidyand valuable supplies of silk, forwarded a quite insignificantamount of local produce, which was called “tribute” by the Chinesecourt.
Early in the twelfth century, the Kitan monarch paida visit to the Sungari River, for the purpose of fishing, and wasduly received by the chiefs of the Nü-chên tribes in that district.On this occasion the Kitan Emperor, who had taken perhaps moreliquor than was good for him, ordered the younger men of thecompany to get up and dance before him. This command was ignored bythe son of one of the chiefs, named Akutêng (sometimes, butwrongly, written Akuta ), and it was suggested to the Emperorthat he should devise means for putting out of the way souncompromising a spirit. No notice, however, was taken of theaffair at the moment; and that night Akutêng, with a band offollowers, disappeared from the scene. Making his way eastward,across the Sungari, he started a movement which may be said to haveculminated five hundred years later in the conquest of China by theManchus. In 1114 he began to act on the offensive, and succeeded ininflicting a severe defeat on the Kitans. By 1115 he had so faradvanced towards the foundation of an independent kingdom that heactually assumed the title of Emperor. Thus was presented the rarespectacle of three contemporary rulers, each of whom claimed atitle which, according to the Chinese theory, could only belong toone. The style he chose for his dynasty was Chin (also read Kin ), which means “gold, ” and which some say was intendedto mark a superiority over Liao (= iron), that of the Kitans, onthe ground that gold is not, like iron, a prey to rust. Others,however, trace the origin of the term to the fact that gold wasfound in the Nü-chên territory.
A small point which has given rise to someconfusion, may fitly be mentioned here. The tribe of Tartarshitherto spoken of as Nü-chêns, and henceforth known in history asthe “Golden Dynasty, ” in 1035 changed the word chên for chih , and were called Nü-chih Tartars. They did this becauseat that date the word chên was part of the personal name ofthe reigning Kitan Emperor, and therefore taboo. The necessity forsuch change would of course cease with their emancipation fromKitan rule, and the old name would be revived; it will accordinglybe continued in the following pages.
The victories of Akutêng over the Kitans were mostwelcome to the Chinese Emperor, who saw his late oppressors humbledto the dust by the victorious Nü-chêns; and in 1120 a treaty ofalliance was signed by the two powers against the common enemy. Theupshot of this move was that the Kitans were severely defeated inall directions, and their chief cities fell into the hands of theNü-chêns, who finally succeeded, in 1122, in taking Peking byassault, the Kitan Emperor having already sought safety in flight.When, however, the time came for an equitable settlement ofterritory between China and the victorious Nü-chêns, the ChineseEmperor discovered that the Nü-chêns, inasmuch as they had donemost of the fighting, were determined to have the lion's share ofthe reward; in fact, the yoke imposed by the latter proved ifanything more burdensome than that of the dreaded Kitans. Moreterritory was taken by the Nü-chêns, and even larger levies ofmoney were exacted, while the same old farce of worthless tributewas carried on as before.
In 1123, Akutêng died, and was canonised as thefirst Emperor of the Chin, or Golden Dynasty. He was succeeded by abrother; and two years later, the last Emperor of the Kitans wascaptured and relegated to private life, thus bringing the dynastyto an end.
The new Emperor of the Nü-chêns spent the rest ofhis life in one long struggle with China. In 1126, the Sungcapital, the modern K`ai-fêng Fu in Honan, was twice besieged: onthe first occasion for thirty-three days, when a heavy ransom wasexacted and some territory was ceded; on the second occasion forforty days, when it fell, and was given up to pillage. In 1127, thefeeble Chinese Emperor was seized and carried off, and by 1129 thewhole of China north of the Yang-tsze was in the hands of theNü-chêns. The younger brother of the banished Emperor wasproclaimed by the Chinese at Nanking, and managed to set up what isknown as the southern Sung dynasty; but the Nü-chêns gave him norest, driving him first out of Nanking, and then out of Hangchow,where he had once more established a capital. Ultimately, there waspeace of a more or less permanent character, chiefly due to thegenius of a notable Chinese general of the day; and the Nü-chênshad to accept the Yang-tsze as the dividing line between the twopowers.
The next seventy years were freely marked by raids,first of one side and then of the other; but by the close of thetwelfth century the Mongols were pressing the Nü-chêns from thenorth, and the southern Sungs were seizing the opportunity toattack their old enemies from the south. Finally, in 1234, theindependence of the Golden Dynasty of Nü-chêns was extinguished byOgotai, third son of the great Genghis Khan, with the aid of thesouthern Sungs, who were themselves in turn wiped out by KublaiKhan, the first Mongol Emperor to rule over a united China.
The name of this wandering people, whose territorycovers such a huge space on the map, has been variously derivedfrom (1) moengel , celestial, (2) mong , brave, and (3) munku , silver, the last mentioned being favoured by somebecause of its relation to the iron and golden dynasties of theKitans and Nü-chêns respectively.
Three centuries and a half must now pass away beforeentering upon the next act of the Manchu drama. The Nü-chêns hadbeen scotched, but not killed, by their Mongol conquerors, who, onehundred and thirty-four years later (1368), were themselves drivenout of China, a pure native dynasty being re-established under thestyle of Ming, “Bright. ” During the ensuing two hundred years theNü-chêns were scarcely heard of, the House of Ming being busilyoccupied in other directions. Their warlike spirit, however, foundscope and nourishment in the expeditions organised against Japanand Tan-lo, or Quelpart, as named by the Dutch, a