Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/877

MANCHURIA. 783 MANCHURIA. by the southwest monsoon, it is dry. Tlie rain- fall is only about thirteen inches in the south. The minimum winter temperature varies from 7° F. below zero in the south to 40° F. below zero in the north, and the summer temperature some- times reaches 95° F. The rainy season occurs in July and August. Tbaxspoktatio". There are many so-called 'highways,' but in some seasons of the year they are almost impassable. The chief movement of the crops takes place in winter, when the country is frozen solid, and thousands of pulse and grain laden carts and wagons stream southward day and night to the ports. There are now three railways in Manchuria: (1) from Shan-hai-k wan through Liao-si to Ying-tse and northward to Sin-ming-t'ing ( and Mukden ) , 298 miles, built with British capital, guaranteed by the Imperial Chinese Government, and under the management of a British subject as engineer-in-chief; it can- not be alienated to any non-Chinese company or to any foreign Government ; ( 2 ) a branch of the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway across Tsi- tsi-har and Kirin to Vladivostok; (3) the Cen- tral Manchurian Railway, running north 59.5 miles from Port Arthur and Dalny to Harbin on the above mentioned branch of the Trans- Siberian line; thus bringing Port Arthur and Xiu-chwang into direct railway communication with Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The last two lines are really Russian Government railways, though nominally owned by a company called the 'Chinese Eastern Railway Company,' in which only Russians and Chinese can hold stock. Telegraph lines now run in every direction; but the Imperial Postal Service is still confined to Government use. CoMMEBCE. The commerce of the country is carried on chiefly at the ports of Niu-chwang, Port Arthur, and Dalny ( qq.v. I . For administrative purposes ilanchuria is di- vided into three provinces, of which the southern, Shing-king, has practically the same form of government as a province of China proper, ex- cept that it has only five boards for the transac- tion of public affairs instead of six, the board of civil office lacking. At the head of this prov- ince is a Governor-General, who is also the com- mander-in-chief of the provincial forces and high commissioner of the defenses of the whole terri- tory of Manchuria. The remaining two govern- ments have only a military form of government with a military governor at the head, who is under the supervision of the Governor-General of the southern province. Population". There are no census returns, and estimates differ widely. The most conservative make it from 5.530.006 to 12,500,000, 90 per cent. of which is Chinese. The original tribes still liv- ing in Manchuria probably form only one-twelfth of the population. For military purposes they are ranged under eight banners, and are consequently kno^%-n as Bannermen. The language of the coun- try is Chinese, which is also the only language taught in the schools. The Manchu language is now practically dead. An independent ilanchu literature has never existed, the principal works in the language being versions of Chinese classics, history, etc. The alphabet consists of twenty-five letters (based on Mongol ) , six of which are vowels. They consist of certain marks and curves written on either side of a vertical stem, thus forming syllables, which are ranged in columns, read from left to right. Education is conducted en- tirely on Chinese lines, but the provincial and higher literary degrees are obtainable only on examination at Peking. History, Many references are found in Chi- nese history to the savage tribes inhabiting this region even as early as the eleventh century B.C. In 712 we find a chieftain named Ta, whose tribe dwelt to the north of Korea, receiving from the Chinese Emperor the title of Prince of Pohai. Later his descendants threw off the Chinese alle- . glance and established an independent kingdom with a centralized government and no fewer than five royal residences. Later still arose the Khitan, whose seat Avas in the valleys of the Hulan. They conquered Eastern Jlongolia, waged war on China, established a dynasty there known as the Liao (907), overthrew the Pohai in 92ii, and annexed their territory. In 1125 the Khitan were conquered by the Xeu-cliin or Jurcliin,wliose original seat was between the Lpper Sungari and the Hurka, and who possessed themselves of Man- churia, Mongolia, and North China, and there set up the Kin or Golden dynasty. Driven out of China in the thirteenth century by Kublai Khan, the .lurchin became broken up into a number of independent trilies which were later welded into one kingdom by Xurhachu (born 15591, whose chief seat lay in the south of the Long WTiite Mountain about 100 miles east of Mukden, then an important Chinese city. He was the seventh in descent from the miraculously conceived Aisin Gioro Bukuli, the ancestor of the family now on the throne of China, and the first to apply to his triljesmen the epithet ilanchu, 'clear' or 'pure,' still used in the Chinese name of the reigning dynasty— ra Ts'ing Ch'no. 'the Great Pure.' In 1616 Xurhachu took the title of T'ien-iling, 'Heaven-decreed.' and in the following year de- clared war on China, then in possession of both Liao-tung and Liao-si, defeated with immense slaughter an army of 200,000 sent against him, took Mukden in 1621. and on his capturing Liao- yang (which he made his capital) seventy cities surrendered to him. At his death in 1626 he was succeeded by his fourth son, who sent an army in 1627 into Korea, which had been aiding the Chinese, conquered it and exacted tribute, and advanced into Liao-si and Mongolia. Meanwhile decay had seized the Ming dynasty then on the throne of China ; formidable rebellions existed everywhere ; one of the rebel leaders had captured Peking, and the Emperor stabbed himself and his daughter. Wu San Kwei, the general operating against the Manchus in Liao-si, at once patched up a peace with them and invoked their assist- ance in restoring order in China. The Manchus agreed with great alacrity, marched into China, recovered Peking, and kept it (1644), placing the grandson of Xurhachu on the throne with the reign-title of Shun-chih (q.v. ). For the subse- quent history of Manchuria, especially in connec- tion with the Boxer uprising of 1900 and the occupation of the country by Russia, see CmxESE Empire. BiBLiOGR-ipnT. The best book is that by Hosie, Manchuria: Its People, Resources, and Recent Bistort/ (London, 1901); Williamson, Journeys in Xorth China. Manchuria, and Mongolia (2 vols., London. 1870) : Fleming, Traiels on Horse- hack in Mantchu-Tnrtartj (London, 1863) ; and James, The Long While Mountain, or a Journey in Manchuria (London, 1888). For the language.