Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/210

186 SIKLO. was bounded on the west by the Liao river ; but supposing all Liaosi under its control, it would not have injured China proper, whose lands were then more than sufficient to sustain her own population. For south-west was Shanhaigwan or Yiigwan, which the Manchoos found impossible to force, though they were very much more powerful than ever Gaoli was, and though they were fighting against the Ming dynasty at its weakest, — weaker than Tang ever was, till it ate off its own head. Of Shanhaigwan, the Emperor Kienlung, who knew, said that his ancestors could not hold an inch of Chinese soil as long as Shanhaigwan stood ; and Shanhaigwan could be opened only by treachery. Hence the Manchoos had to force a passage into China, by conquering southern Mongolia, and cutting their way in by Tatung of Shansi And even then they could only raid and harry, but could not retain a foot of soil Besides this pass, the Coreans would have to cut their way over the bodies of the brave Kitan- And after the Kitan were annihilated, the greatly more formidable Turks had to be dealt with, ere China could be seriously touched. At the time when the Tang Emperor, brave but unwise, started his expedition against Gaoli, the latter could not in the least have injured his people. He had no casus belli, nor was it easy to hava There might have been such, if, as at a subsequent date, Qaoli had first swallowed up Baiji, Sinlo and Bohai, in the east ; and had several times defeated Kitan, in the west It would then be ample time for China to look to the rising power, and go to war, not as the conqueror of Oaoli, but as the defender of Eitan. And it would then be sufficient to expend only as much blood and treasure as would defeat and curb Gaoli, instead of turning its lands into deserts, and its cities into dens for wolves. Instead of this defensive policy, which would compel Kitan to be on good terms with China, the Tang marched his men, and threw away his millions of money, year after year, to annihilate Gaoli. The dynasty succeeded. And what was the gain ? While he was needlessly murdering his own and Gaoli subjects in the remote country of the latter, the Annamites, the Miao>