The Chinese conquest of Songaria

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THE
CHINESE CONQ.UESTOF SONGARIA.

BY .-. ' ■,'";/'

CH. DENBY.JR.

It is exceedingly difficult for a western reader to take a deep
interest in a narative of the warlike deeds of Cliina's heroes. A
feat, of strategy, a midnight march to the rescue of a beleagured
city, a desperate defence against fearful odds, in fact any
military achievement, and the history of China tells manyfit
subjects for a minstrel's lay, lose their charm for us when we
hear that Chang, or T^o, or T:iai was the hero of the occasion. The
march of a band of Mongol cavalry across the rugged passes of
the T'ien Shan, riding two hundred miles a day, nourishing
themselves with a mouthful of blood sucked from the veins of
the steeds they rode, and gaining a victory over a surprised and
unsuspecting foe, were it in the annals of any otlier nation, would
excite the enthusiasm of us all. Let the Chinese, the Manchu
and the Mongol armies fight as they will, let them conffuer Asia
and knock with victorious arms at the gates of Europe, their
deeds for us are hke those of beings of another planet. The
victories of Napoleon under the shadow of the pyramids, the
conquests of England's armies on the plains of India, the march of
American volunteers across the states of the Confederacy need
fear no Asiatic rivalry.

And why ? Is it because of names ? Should Ulysses change
his name to Ma, Hector to Liao and Aeneas to Huo would their

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feats of valor lose sensibly llieir clinrin for us ?

Whatever the reason, there is somi(3 inevitable dilTirulty, and

;:;*%evertOiM ^}to:has attempted to put Chinese history into attractive

Endish has l)ei3n.t\*recked upon it.
:;::•;•;;•• -A :

;•: Xr •*'^i>??iM^Hpt«t'o translate a little book of llie last century, tlie

Hsi-Yu Wen-chien-lu. which is the ba^is of this paper, proved no
exception to the rule (1). The gaps in the narrative, the omission
of explanations necessary to an understanding of the story have
necessitated a frequent appeal to other books and leave this essay
rough and disconnected.

With these few words in anticipation of criticism, I will
attempt to give an account of Songiiria and its conquest by K'ien
Lung.

Wang W^ei, a Chinese poet of the seventh century, says:
•'He who travels westward through Vang Kuan finds no longer
friends (2) ".

Tills line expresses the ideas of the Chinese for many
centuries on the dangerous and inhospitable character of the vast
territories to their north and west. It is difficult for us, in the
light of modern geographical research, familiar with tlie journeys
of Russian and English explorers, to form a conception of the
views the Chinese had of the dangers of the desert of Gobi.

Through Chia Yii Kuan, the westernmost gate of the Great
Wall, passed the highway which southwards led into Shensi and
the Middle Kingdom. Northwards it led to the Chinese fortresses
of Yang Kunn and Yii Men Kuan, across the desert tlu'ough

'*■• ffi^ ^ ^^^i-> Piililislied in the year 1777 byCh'un Yu;ui }[^ ^
/2;, Wang Wei ^ ^ A. D. 0!)9-7:,9— A poel of llu'T'ang Dynasty. jJLj [fj
Iw my ^ PA /\ ''•'"" ^^''"'^" ^''"■^^ '^'''"'' ^^y^Joi-rnry wp^f ofSha Cimti.

— IGl —

several micieril cities to the passes of the Tsuri'^^-ling Mountains
and the mysterious lands of Central Asia. To go out of this pass
was to leave friends and home and civilization and lo enter into
a land of which no tale too exaggerated could he told. Here
the beasts were of fahulous si/e and mankind either more or less
than human. It was through this pass that one reached the
famous Kuen-lun mountains, the favorite arena for the monsters,
fairies, genii and other beings of Chinese legends, '• the Olympus",
as Williams says, '' where the Buddhist and Taoist divinities
hold their mystic sway, strange voices are heard and marvels
accomplished" (1).

Even afiei" the conquests of the Emperor I Ian Wu Ti, which
greatly extended Chinese geographical knowledge, the desert
retained the reputation of a haunted waste. The travels of the early
Buddhist pilgrims hetw^en China and India take on a character
of greater intrepidity atjd deeper devotion, if looked at in the
knowledge of sixteen hundred years ago. Fa Hien, a Buddhist
monk who, in the fourth century, visited India to obtain copies
of the Books of Dis(;ipline, says that when he left T'un-hwang
he came to a desert in whicli there were many evil demons and
hot winds. "Though you look all round" he says, "most
earnestly to find wiiere you can cross, you know not where to
make your choice, the only mark and indication heing the dry
hones of the dead ' (-2). Ilwen Thsang, another Buddhist pilgrim,
speaks of troops marching and iialting with gleaming arms and
waving barmers, the imagery of demons, and of a voice which
called behind him " fear not ! fear not ! (3i. " Marco Polo himself,

(I) Williams' Middle Kingdom, Vol. I p. \l.
(II The Travels of Fa Hien, Legge p. 12.
(:?/ Yule's Marco Polo, Vol. I p. 'iOo.

— 1G2 —

who rrossed the desert in the thirteenth century, speaks of the
spirits of tlie desert. " When tnivellers are on the move by
night" be says "and one of tlieni chances to lag behind or to
fall asleep or the like, when he tries to gain his company again he
will hear spirits talking, and will suppose them to be bis
comrades. Sometimes the spirits will call him by name ; and thus
shall a traveller ofltimes be led astray so that he never finds his
party. And in this way many have perished" (1). Gilmour, in his
'•Among the Mongols", mentions the wonderful deceptions of
Gobi (2). Stones presented themselves to him as houses and camels
while real tents, herds and people seemed to spring magically
from the wilderness.

Separated by such a barrier from Hi and the countries north
of India, it is not strange that fuller knowledge of the countries to
the west did not prevail among the Chinese of the early centuries
of our era, hut rather more remarkable that they so widely extended
their influence thither.

During the reign of the Emperor Han Wu Ti (140 B. C. ),
we have the first definite mention of these hitherto unknown
lands. The books of the Han Dynasty — the Han Shu — immortalize
the first Chinese who made an extensive excursion through the
Chia Yii Kuan. In the 2"'' century B. C. Chang K'ien (3), spoken
of by ancient historians as he who '-pierced the void", was sent on
a mission to the Yueh Ti or Getae, known to us as the Goths.
Taken prisoner by the lisiung-nu, he lived many years among
them. Being at length released, he was sent on a mission to Ta
Yuan Kuo, the Fergana of today, then a dependency of Persia.

(\) Yule'9 Marco Polo, Vol. I p. 207.

(2; Cliap. 5.

(li; Mayers' Cliitie-e Roarlcr'? Manual. 18

— 1G3 —

From here he hrought to China the grape and the art of making
wine from its juice. Subsequently he was sent to Hsi Yij — the
present Turkistan — to negotiate treaties with the countries there
" By B. C. 115" , ( says Mayers in the Chinese Reader's Manual ),
"a regular intercourse with the thirty-six states of this region
had become estabhshed through his efforts". To him also is
attributed the discovery of the source of the Yellow River, previously
believed to be a continuation of the Milky Way.

A few years later General Li Kuang Li (1) marched at the
head of a large army against Ta Yuan Kuo to enforce the payment
of a tribute of horses. Notwithstanding an immense loss of
Hfe in the passage of his army across the trackless wastes of Central
Asia, his expedition was successful. Three years later he effected
tlie conquest of Ta Yuan and was ennobled by the Emperor with
the title of Marquis of the Western Sea. He ended his career by
fleeing from China, to avoid execution for conspiracy against the
Emperor, and joined the Hsiung-nu.

Theintercoursethus established between China and the countries
of western Asia was maintained with occasional interruptions
for many centuries. We find the Parthians known to them as
An-si. From the 5^^^ Century of our era Persia is referred to in
Chinese books as Po-sz, from which country many embassies
came to China. The rise of Islamism is almost contemporaneous
with the T'ang dynasty — China's Elizabethan age. The T'angshu
relate embassies of the Califs to the Chinese court in the seventh
and eighth centuries. The History of the Sung mentions twenty
embassies from Arabia to China during the \0^^ to the 13i'»
centuries (2). All the Mohammedan records of intercourse, however,

(1 ) Chinese Reader's Manual, 350.

I'll Mediaeval Researches. Bretsclineider vol. I p. 'JtKl.

— 164 — . •

cannot be fully credited, as several works, witli characteristic
Chinese inaccurany, refer to Mohammedanism and it's introduction
into China at dates anterior to Mohammed's having entered on
his mission in Arabia (1).

During the Mongol dynasty many Chinese statesmen, connected
with the court of Chinghiz Kaan(2), made extensive journeys in
the west and some of them have left admirable accounts of the
countries that tliey visited. Most prominent among these is the
Sage Ch'ang Chun, author of the Si Yii Ki.

It was reserved for the Manchu Emperor K'ien Lung,
however, to effect the permanent conquest of Hi and other
countries of the west and to definitely annex them to Chinese
dominions. '-Outside of Chia Yii Kuan'' says Ch'On Yuan,
author of the book referred to in the introduction to this paper,
''for a thousand /2 there is nothing but sand and gravel, without
water or grass or smoke from the abode of man. So it has been
from the earliest times " .

Further on across this desert, however, as we know from
other sources, on both sides of the mountains known in Chinese
books as the Celestial or Snow Mountains, are the two fertile
vallies of Kashgaria on the south and Songaria on the north,
called, since their annexation by K'ien Lung, the Northern and
the Southern Circuits. Kashgaria is also known on maps as
Little Bokhara and Ciiinese Turkistan.

By the Ciiinese Kashgar is called Ka-shih-la-erh and the
Mohammedans of the Southern Circuit were known generally to
the Chinese as Ka-shih-la-erh Mohammedans, so great was the

fl) Mediaeval Hesoarclies. Vol. I p. 266.

Ill For Ihe dislinclion lielween kaan, as the litle of the supreme sovereign of the
Mongols, and hhan. as applied generally to Tartar cliiefs wiiellier sovereign or not,
see Col. Yule's Marco Polo. Vol. . p. 11.

— 1G5 —

fame of the city. Chiin Yuan says that Ka-shih means every
co/or and la-erli means brick homes and that the name refers to the
many various colored brick liouses in Kashgar.

lU is now, and for many centuries has been, the site of
many flourishing cities as Hand, Aksu, Yarkand, Kashgar in the
south, and Kuidja, or Hui Yuan Cli'eng, in the north. The
population seems to have undergone frequent and violent
changes and presents today a curious blending of nationalities
and reUgions. They have had every form of Central Asian rule
and misrule — the freedom of migratory tribes, khans of their
own election, ^lohammedan conquerors from Samarkand, Manchu
Emperors at Peking, Mongol khans at Almalik and part of them
for a time the Czar of Russia. With a fertile soil aided by a system
of irrigation bequeathed from an ancient past the people seem to
have flourislied, notwithstanding change of masters, and lU is from
all accounts today the most desirable part of Central Asia (1).

Songaria, the Northern Circuit, called by the Chinese Chun-
la-erb, is that part of Hi with which this narrative is chiefly
concerned. It is bounded on the south by the Tien Shan, west
by Russian territory, north by the Altai range of Mountains and
east by the desert. It is watered throughout its length by the
river Hi, flowing from east to west, and' by its tributaries. The
country is interlaced with irrigation canals which derive their
water from these streams. The soil is fertile, producing fine
crops of wheat, millet, peaches, apples, melons, apricots and
many other fruits and grains. Przewalsky speaks of the abundance
of apple and apricot trees in a wild state on the northern slope of
the T'ien Shan Mauntains, producing excellent fruit (2). In

(I; Schuyler's Tui-kistan, Vol. II p. 198.

Cv') Mediaeval ne-^eairlic?. Vol. I p. 17 note 18.

— I6() —

autumn, lie says, the soil of the forest is covered with it.

The name Songaria, by which this valley was known until
its occupation by the Chinese, dates back to the seventh
century. It was then occupied by a Turkish tribe, at that time in
possession of Central Asia, which had divided into two tribes or
divisions, known as the Junfjar, or Eastern Division, and the
Boronyar, or Western Division. (1) When the dominion of this
latter came to an end the name of the Western Division disappeared
with it. The name Jun-gar remained, however, and the country
became known as Songaria.

The earliest inhabitants of this country seem to have been a
people called the Szu. Adjoining them on the east, occupying
pastures on China's northwestern border, north of Tibet, was
another numerous people, known to the Chinese as the Yueh Ti,
who have been identified as the Goths. In the S^d century B. C.
they were driven westward by the terrible Ilsiung-nu (2) —
sometimes mistakenly identified with the Huns — the warhke
tribes against whom Shih Hwang-ti, the founder of the Ch'in
dynasty, waged successful wars and to whose incursions China
owes the erection of the Great Wall. Under this pressure the
Yueh Ti emigrated to the valley of the Hi, displacing the Szu
who, in turn, fell upon Central Asia. Before many years another
movement of these nomad swarms took place, caused also by the
Hsiung-nu, and another tribe known to us as the Usun, identified
by many scholars with the ancestors of the Teutonic Race (3),
were driven to the Hi and the shores of Lake Balkash. The

(1) Schuyler's Turkislan. Vol. II p. 16G.

(2) In Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I p. 203, the author slates that the Hsiung-nu
cannot be identified with the Huns. The Huns only appear in history about A. D.
37.'), while in A. I). 21(5 the power of the Hsiung-nu was completely broken.

(3) Schuyler's Turkislan, Vol II p. !G4.

— 107 —

Vueh Ti and llie Szu were precipitated, a verifalde barbarian
iiiuiidalioFi, in a resistless flood upon the vallies of the Oxus and
Jaxartes. To this advance of barbarous tribes, taking its origin
in far Eastern Asia, was due the overthrow of the Bactrian King-
dom founded in Central Asia by tlie successors of Alexander (1).
It is supposed that the cause of these migrations may be found
in Siiih Hwang-ti's campaigns against the llsiung-nu and his
concpiests over them (2).

Songaria was, from the 7^'> to the 13"» centuries, under the
control of Turkish tribes. During this epoch there existed in
the valley of the Hi the celebrated city of Almalik, home of
Persian and of iMongoI princes, tlie site as early as the 14"' century
of a Latin Bishopric and a Nestorian See. Ch'ang Chun states
that he stopped at Almalik on Oct. 14H» 1221. He says "We
stopped at a fruit orchard west (of the city). The people here
call a fruit O'li-nra and as the city is famed for its fruits, the city
received the above name ". The a-li-ma is the apple, in Persian
alma. Ch'ang Ch'un also speaks of cloth woven from veyelable
tvool. ''This hair", he says, ^'resembles the down (enclosing
the seeds) of our willows. It is very clean, fine and soft; and
they use it for making thread, ropes, cloth and wadding" (3). This
was cotton, at that time very slightly known in China.

The Chinese statesman Yeh-lu-Ch'u-tsai, who accompanied
Chinghiz Kaan in the 13^^ century and left a record of his conquests,
refers to this city under the name of A-li-ma (4), west of whidi he
states was the river Hi.

In the early part of the I3i'' century Songaria fell under the

(1). Journey lo llie Source of the Oxus, Inlroduelion XXXI.

('?). Lectures on Ihc Science of Language, Max Miiller Vol. I p. 34G

(:■?). Mediaeval Hesearchcs, Vol. I p. 70.

li). Nnles on Chinese Mi'diacval Travellers lo the West.

sway of Chiiighiz Kaan. On the partition of liis kingdoms at his
death it was allotted to his second son, Jagatai, who set up his
court at the city of Alrn;ilik, near whose high mountains, as Persian
historians slate, he loved to pass the summer.

During the 15^^^ century this city was destroyed by the
Mongols and Uzl)eks. Its vast ruins, about twenty five miles
northwest of Kuldja, are still pointed out to tourists. Songaria
remained under Mongol rule until the invasi(m of Tamerlane, who,
after laying it waste, made it part of his dominions. After this
great confusion prevailed in the rule of the country. It was torn
with dissensions between various Mongol princes and does not
again come into prominence until the middle of the 15th century.
We then find it occupied by three powerful Mongol tribes, the
C^i'oros, Khoshoit and Turguts. They had risen to some
prominence while the descendants of the Great Kaan were still on
the throne of China. After the successful Chinese rebellion,
which resulted in the expulsion of the Mongols in 1366 and the
seating of Ilung-wu as first Ming Emperor, Ching Tsung, the IPh
and last Mongol Emperor, fled to Mongolia.

The overthrow of the Mongols in China was absolute and
complete. No such wiping out of a reigning people can be found
anywhere in history. The last Mongol Emperor died in his
retreat in the very year that the victorious Hung-wu ascended the
throne. His successors dwindled into almost impotent khans and
Mongolia became the prey of contending factions. The three
tribes of Songaria ahove mentioned united themselves against all
opponents under the name of the -'Weirad" or " Confederates"
and soon obtained a preponderating influence. A separation of the
ClVoros into two divisions made the allies four in number and they
henceforward became known as the " Durben Weirad" or '' Four

— 1G9—

Allies'', and brought all Mongolia under their influence (1 ).

They then seem to have formed the ambition to establish
the descendants of Cbinghiz Kaan on the throne of China, and
waged an almost constant warfare against the early Ming
Emperors.

In the beginning of the 17"> century, owing to the tyranny
of the head of the union, a dissension occurred among them, the
discontented tribes going to settle in Siberia. '^It is probable",
says Schuyler in his Turkistan, "that it was at this time, on
account of this secessioji from the confederacy, that they received
from the Tartars and Kirghiz the name of Kalmyks, Kalmaks or
Kalmuks, as kabna, kalmak and kalmalik in the East Turkic
dialects mean "remnant", '-remaining", "rest". (2).

According to the Hsi YQ Wen Chien Lu, it was at this epoch
that a small band of Turguts left Songaria and went to settle on
the Volga^ to return one hundred and seventy years later to offer
themselves as subjects of K'ien Lung. The return of this tribe,
then numerous and powerful, has been immortalized by De
Quincey in his essay, '* The Flight of a Tartar Tribe." This
journey across the Kirghiz steppe, through the midst of their
enemies has been characterized by Williams as '• one of the most
remarkable instances of nomadic wanderings and unexampled
sufferings in modern times" (3). The Chinese account in the Hsi
YQ Wen Chien Lu details the submission of the Turguts, as
the author calls their return, as follows.

The Turguts were a small and insignificant tribe living in
Songaria, or Hi, and were vassals of the Songares. They were

(1) Scliuyler's Turkislan, II, p. Kio.

(•2) Vol. II p. 106.

p Mi'ldle Kini?(lnin. Vol. I p. VA.

— 170 —

oppressed and ill-trealed by the kahii of the Soiigares, it is briefly
stated, and resolved to flee to Russia. The date of their departure
is given as seven generations, about 170 years, before the date of
their famous return, or about 1600. With their small possessions
and scanty herds of rattle they made their way to the Russian
boundary. By order of the Czar they were well received and
granted a large tract of land on both banks of the river Volga.
Here they enjoyed peace and soon became a flourishing and
populous tribe. After the Chinese conquest of Hi in 175G, the
scattered remnants of three tribes from Hi, the Turbets and others,
under the leadership of a man called She-leng, fearful of
extermination by the Chinese, fled to Russia to join the Turguts.
Here they settled down under the control of the khan of the
Turguts and engaged in pastoral pursuits.

Fre(iuent large levies of troops had been made amongst this
people by the Russian Government in past time, and of the
soldiers furnished by them eighty or ninety thousand are said to
have been killed. Now a rumor arose, which seems to have been
started by the newly arrived tribes, that a further conscription
was to be made and that every male of sixteen years of age and
over was to be pressed into the service. Great excitement and
uneasiness prevailed amongst the people. They had already lost
many thousands in Russian wars and attributed to their rulers
designs for their destruction. Finally a council of nobles and
headmen was called and, at the suggestion of She-leng, it was
decided to return to Hi as soon as cold weather had set in and the
rivers were frozen.

Accordingly on Ihe 33''^ day of the 10"' Moon, of the 25ii< year
of K'ien Lung '1771). with their khan at their head and the

— 171 —

fugitive lril)es as guides^ tlie Tiirguts 460,000 families in numbre,
accompanied by vast herds of horses and cattle, set out for Hi.
Before starting they murdered 1000 Russians living amongst
them and on their way attacked and destroyed four fortified
Russian towns. A Russian army was sent against them, but
before it caught them they had left Russian territory and entered
the mountains of Hi. Their sufferings now commenced. The
cattle died in countless numbers for want of water and forage.
The Kirghiz tribes followed them keeping up a destructive warfare
day after day. The mountain tribes harassed them causing terrible
havoc. Finally they came to the country of the Burut Mongols.
This fierce tribe welcomed their approach, says the Hsi Yii Wen
Chien Lu, as a dispensation of providence, and formed an army
of thousands of horsemen for the purpose of pillage. The Turguts
took refuge in almost inaccessible mountains. " Here for a
thousand li'\ says the Wen Chien Lu, in a graphic description,
"there was nothing but rugged mountains without water or grass.
It was the 3rd moon and the weather was warm. They quenched
their thirst with the blood of horses and cattle. A great pestilence
broke out among them, spreading from one to another, from which
300,000 died. Of their cattle not three in ten remained. After ten
days they fled like a wounded wolf, but the Buruts awaited them
outside the mountain passes, attacking in front and rear, in large
bodies and in scattered parlies, pursuing, kiUing and robbing
night and day'".

Their loss in killed and prisoners, carried off as slaves, and
in animals and property, taken from them in these few days, far
exceeded the depredations of all their other enemies combined.
Finally they came to llic vicinity of a Chinese military station and
the Buruts withdrew.

— 17;^ —

The Cliiriose military governor of Hi now sent officers to
demand the intention of their arrival .After a conference of six or
seven days, they replied that they had come to offer themselves as
suhjects of the Emperor of China. The khan was taken to an
audience with the military governor, to whom he made splendid
gifts of foreign guns, jade, clocks, porceiain, gold and other
things. Among them was a jade seal, engraved with tlie seal
character, which had been given to one of his ancestors by the
Ming Emperor Yung Lo, in 1411.

Awaiting imperial orders they were located in Hi and well
treated. The Emperor was deUghted at their arrival. He sent
the highest nobles of his court to receive them. The khan, Wa-pa-
hsi, with his headmen and nobles were summoned to an audience
at Jeho. Great honors, decorations and degrees of nobility were
conferred on them all and abundant lands allotted to their people.

Staunton, then with Lord Macartney's Mission at Jeho,
mentions attending a theatrical performance given by K'ien lung,
at which were present "two Mussulmen, chiefs of some hordes of
Calmoucks, who, not long since, on occasion of discontent or
misunderstanding with the government of Russia, migrated in
great numbers from the northern coast of the Caspian Sea into
Chinese Tartary, and put themselves under the Emperor'?
protection. He gave them a very favorable reception, and
decorated these two leaders with buttons of dignity, and peacocks'
feathers to their caps' (1).

It would be difficult to imagine a more interesting encounter
than this of the Mohammedan khan of the Turguts, just arrived
from such a remarkable journey, with the embassy of an English

(li Slaunlon's Embassy, pari II p. l>;i.

— 173 —

king at tlie court of the Manclm Emperor of China at his summer
palace at Jeho.

To return to the history of the Weirad, after this secession,
the khans of tlie confederacy seem to have increased in power.
In the end of the 17''» century, under "the Galdan'', a ruler of
great ability, Tashkent and oilier cities of central Asia were
included in Songarian dominions. In pursuit of the ambition of
his predecessors to create an empire like that of Chinghiz, this khan
waged a war against the Kalka Mongols, who were under Chinese
protection, and forced them to take refuge in Chinese territory.
During his absence upon this expedition, his nephew, Tsevan
Rabdan, raised a revolt. It was an easy matter to obtain the
assistance of tlie Emperor K'ang Ilsi. Witli the help of Chinese
armies, Tsevan deposed bis uncle and seated himself on the throne.

Though the Manchus made no attempt to take possession of
the country, the downfall of the Weirad khans was foreshadowed
by the victories of K'ang Hsi. Tsevan, however, ruled with
success and greatly ex'ended his conquests toward the west. Many
independent Mongol princes were brought into subjection to him
and he levied tribute from '^the cities of eastern Turkistan as well
as Samarkand, Bukhara and even Balk", ( 1 ) in northern
Afghanistan. A full account of his conquests, if it could be
procured, would be full of interest. An empire, however
temporary and uncertain it was, which extended from the northern
boundaries of China on the east to Balkh, ''the mother of
cities" (2), on the west, and which included the vallies of the
Oxus and Jaxartes and the tableland of Pamir — the roof of Asia
perhaps the cradle of tlie Aryan race — is a proof of the power to

(\) Schuyler's Turkistan, V(3l. II p. KiT.

i'2l See Iiilroducliou lo \Vood\s .luurney lu Source of tlie Oxus. p. XXVIII.

— 174 —

which Songaria had attained under Mongol rule.

Tsevan Rahdan appears in the Chinese accound as Che-vvang
A-la-pu-tang. Upon his death he was succeeded hy his son, wlio
reigned eigiiteen years, and died in 1745, leaving three sons and
a daughter. The succession at once became the subject of fierce
dispute among them. The second son was chosen khan by the
people. His first act was to put his younger brother to death and
to attempt to submit the elder to a similar fate. In this he was
unsuccessful and, on the contrary, the elder brother succeeded in
having him assassinated and assumed the title of khan himself.
A rebellion, headed by his sister's husband, at once arose but was
suppressed with great bloodshed. His sister and her husband
were made prisoners and promptly executed.

This khan — whose name in Chinese was La-ma-ta-la-cha
— was now securely seated in power. The bloody acts which had
marked his succession, though common to every change of rulers
in Central Asia, were of such an extraordinary cruelty as to arouse
a deep feeling of discontent among his people.

Among the subjects of the khan were two ambitions
chieftains, Tawachi and Amursana, each having several thousand
followers. They resolved to profit by the spirit of revolt
manifested to attempt to set up an independent khanate. "The
family of Tawachi" says the Chinese historian, ''was held in the
highest consideration but he himself was without abihty, while
Amursana was of obscure origin but excelled all the other
Mohammedan chiefs in craftiness and treachery". Amursana's
ambition had the additional incentive of a hereditary hatred against
the ancestors of the khan, by whom his grandfather, a Tibetan,
had been treacherously murdered during a Songarian expedition
asainst Tibet.

In a battle between tbo forces of tbe kban and tbe army of
the albed chieftains the rebels were completely defeated. The two
chiefs took refuge in hiding in the Kirghiz steppe but the khan,
resolved upon their extermination, sent an army of 60.000 men
marching westward night and day to search for them in all the
Kirghiz villages. Tawachi, learning of the expedition was
completely prostrated. He is said to have given himself up to tears
and lamentations, regarding speedy death as certain. Amursana,
with the boldness and resource which marked all his actions,
formed his plans at once. Picking from his followers fifteen
hundred of the bravest and best mounted men, he left the Kirghiz
country and made his way southwards through precipitous and
almost unknown passes. The country through which he travelled
was an uninhabited desert. His men carried dried meat for food
and their horses found sufficient grazing on the rugged mountain
sides. To better avoid detection they encamped by day in
secluded canons and pushed on at night. Arrived in Hi totally
unexpected, he hastened with his followers in search of the Khan
and slew him before his presence was suspected.

Amongst those tribes the loss of the leader was the loss of the
cause. Amursana had little difficulty in recalling the forces sent
against himself and Tawachi. Remembering his own base origin,
he made his friend khan of Songaria and retired to his home near
the T'ien Shan.

Tawachi's weakness of character made him dependent on
Amursana in ruling Songaria. He frequently summoned him to
come from his distant home and each summons was the occasion
of an angry interview between them. Amursana constantly
upl)raided Tawachi for his weakness and his want of ability. At
last bitter onmitv rose between them and the Khan resolved to rid

•^ 171) —

himself of a troublesome if useful adviser. Alleging the cunning
character of Amursana as a pretevt for liis destruction, a force was
raised and sent against him. Resistance was useless, so Amursann,
grasping at the only bope of safety, gathered his followers together
and, without a show of resistance, fled to the city of K'uei Una
Ch'eng where he offered himself as a vassal to the Emperor K'ien-
Lung.

This was in the 19"' year of K'ienLung, 1755 of our calendar,
and marks the downfall of Songaria.

Amursana was raised by K'ienLung to the rank of prince
and a large army of Chinese, Mancliu and Mongol troops,
commanded by oflicers of exalted rank, was sent to bis assistance.
"It was an imposing force'', says the Chinese account, "their
banners covered the land. The Mohammedans of the villages on
their way, with tlie lamas and officials at their head, advanced to
offer .submission, knocking their beads on the ground. Such was
their haste they only seemed to fear to arrive too late".

Abandoned by his people the khan, Tawachi, offered no
resistance. With bis own immediate family, he fled to the
mountains. Here, thinking to find a safe refuge with a beg who
owed him many favors, he was seized by his friend and
treacherously delivered over to the imperial troops.

The complete subjugation of Songaria followed. It was
formed into a Chinese dependency with a Tartar-general, a
military governor, government agents and all the officers of the
Chinese colonial organization.

The Chinese, however, were doomed to have trouble with
their former ally. The ambition of Amursana was far from
satisfied with the subordinate position allotted to him. In leading
the Emperor's forces into Hi he liad hoped for nothing less than

— 177 —

the nomination ns khan a^ Ihc reward of his services. Finding
that he was to occupy nn inferior position he at once planned
rehellion. No sooner had tiie main body of the Cliinese forces
marched back to China than he rose in arms, inducing the Mongol
tribes to join him. Tlie Chinese officials ware slain even before
their suspicions were aroused. The success of his revolt was
brief, however. Imperial armies were sent against him by several
roads and completely defeated he fled into Russia. He died of
small-pox at Tobolsk, in 1757. It is a curious commentary on
the relative power of China and Russia at that lime that the
Russians, then engaged in Turkish wars, conveyed the dead body
of Amursana to Kiachta and gave it up to the Chinese as an in-
ducement to peace (1).

The effects of this rebellion were disastrous and far reaching.
The Songarians, restless under foreign rule, repeatedly attempted
to throw off the Chinese yoke. At last, as ChQn Yuan tersely
expresses it, "the Emperor's anger was aroused. He commanded
three Tartar-generals, each with several myriads of troops, to
advance upon the Mohammedans by separate roads. They put
more than a million to the sword. Those who escaped fled to the
mountains but were hunted out by the officers and troops and all
that were found were put to death. The few who remained
became submissive subjects".

The immense number of slain in this massacre is confirmed
by other authorities. Schuyler, who obtained his figures from
some Russian source, says that the massacre was indiscriminate
"so that while before the conquest there were in Jungaria 24
uluses with a population of 600.000 souls, al the end of 175G not

li). Schuyler's Turkistan Vol. II p. 168.

— 178 —

one Jungarian remained, those who had nol heeii kiJIetl liaviiig
sought refuge among the Kirghiz or the Russians" (I). The
Chinese historian's only comment on this incident is that
Amursana's bad character brought these evils on his people.
^'Songaria had now become"' he says, ^'entirely subject to Cliina.
Officers and troops were stationed in various places, military
colonies founded and a lieut-Tartar-general stationed in Hi to keep
peace on the borders ".

In short the thorough remodeling of Songaria on a Chinese
basis was undertaken, evincing K'ien Lung's intention of retaining
the new territory which he had acquired force of arms.

A rebellion arising in the territory south of the T'ien Shan
led to his conquest of Kashgar and all Eastern Turkistan. The
history of this uprising by the Mohammedans of Yarkand under
the leadership of two brothers, the two Ilojeks Pu-la-tan and
Huo-chi-chan, is of a very interesting character. They managed
to involve in their plans the cities of Ku-che, Khoten, Kashgar
and Yarkand and nearly all the Mohammedan population of
Turkistan. All the Southern Circuit readily fell under their sway
and several Chinese expeditions sent against them were met and
destroyed. The city of Ku-che, on the southern slope of the
T'ien Shan, became the headquarters of the rebels. A large
Chinese army was sent against them here. The rebels despatched
a force to intercept the Chinese troops in the mountain roads
leading to the city. It was entirely defeated however by the
imperial forces in a battle which lasted all day, and si\ thousand
rebels were slain.

Disheartened, the whole rebel army retreated within the city,

'M. Vol. Up. 168.

— 179 —

which was strongly fortified with earthworks that cannon could
not penetrate. Here they underwent a siege of many weeks. The
story of this siege is told in great detail in the Wen Chien Lu.
Open attack heing useless and the fortifications impregnable,
under-ground mines were resorted to. These were discovered by
the besieged and, by means of counter-mines, were flooded, with
great loss to the besiegers. Finally, provisions being exhausted, the
defenders made their escape at night with a long train of camels
and fled to Aksu. The flight was suspected by the Mongol alhes of
tlie Chinese who heard the cries of the camels being loaded for the
journey. They reported at once to the general, who was drinking
and playing, chess in his tent. He refused to believe them and
would not authorize a pursuit. This conduct was reported to the
Emperor and by imperial command he was taken a prisoner to
Peking and executed.

The rebels were refused admission at Aksu. A similar
experience met them at Wushih so they continued their flight to
Yarkand. Here Huo-chi-chan raised another large army and kept
the pursuing forces at bay for several months. At one time he cut
the Chinese army into two parts and kept them so surrounded with
his cavalry that, though only a few miles apart, each division was
ignorant of the fate of the other for more than thirty days. Finally,
however, they efl'ected a junction and he was driven into the city.

The Tartar-general left him besieged within the city and
devoted himself to the subjection of the cities and villages of the
surrounding country, a task which was easily effected. When
Huo-chi-chan heard that his great stronghold, the city of Kashgar,
had capitulated he gave up all hope of resistance and fled with
only a few thousand men to Khoten. Pursued thither he engaged
in a last desperate battle for the defence of the city. It was a one-

— 180 — ■

side(J contest, however, and when his most courageous officer was
killed in single combat with a Solon Mongol, Iluo-chi-chan's
spirit was broken and he gave up hope.

Unable to offer further resistance he and his brother, with a
few followers, determined on flight to Dadakshan, hoping to make
their way thence into India. The khan of Dadakshan met them,
however, with an armed force. The rebels were completely routed.
Huo-chi-chan and his brother were holh slain and their heads,
together with their wagons and all the spoils of their army, were
sent as a tribute to China.

This brought to an end a war of two years duration, which
had caused great trouble and loss to China and had inflicted
immense injury on the Moliammeilan nations. The slain in battle
numbered many thousands while the massacre of the inhabitants
was the sequel to the capture of every city. At the tiiking of Ku-
che one thousand Mohammedan soldiers were made prisoners and
all, with their families, were buried alive.

The history of the repression of rebellions among their
Mohammedan subjects by the Chinese Emperors is marked by
great cruelty and an utter disregard of human life. It must be said,
however, that such has been the character of warfare among the
tribes and nations of Central Asia from the beginning of history.
It seems to be inherent in the nature of these people to be restless
under any control, and to be always ready for revolt. Chun Yuan
expresses alow estimate of their character. He says ''The
Mohammedan disposition is suspicious, and disorderly conduct is
easily instigated. In days of peace if the begs and ahoons daily
meet together, some deliberations of an unusual character are sure
to be entered into in which the multitude will acquiesce. If they
do not it is a mark of want of ability".

-- 181 —

The Chinese understand thoroughly their character, and the
Chinese policy of violence has found an imitator in no less
distinguished a military authority tlian the Russian General
Skoheleff. In his campaigns against the Turkmans, Genl, Skobeleff
did not hesitate to advocate the advantage for future peace of a
great victory followed by relentless slaughter.

On the subsequent history of Songaria this paper will not
enter. Its conquest by Yakub Khan, its temporary falling into
Russian hands and its reconquesl by China are pages of modern
history. Nor will its future be here discussed. Recent events
in Central Asia lead us, however, to believe that the history or
Songaria is not finished. The thoughtful words of Col. Yule,
written twenty five years ago, seem written for to day, "The
future is with God. Of the clouds that are gathering around the
World's horizon China has its share. The empire which has a
history coeval w ith the oldest of Chaldaea seems to be breaking
up. It has often broken up before and been reconsolidated ; it
has often been conquered, and has either thrown off the yoke or
absorbed its conquerors. But therj derived what civihzation they
possessed from tlie land which they invaded. The internal
combustions which are now heaving the soil come in contact with
new and alien elements of Western origin. Who can guess what
shall come of that chemistry?" (1)

l\l Preface to "Cathay and the Way thither" pp. VII VIII.

Board of officers of the Peking Oriental
Society for the year 1891.

President: H. E. Col. Denby
Secretary : D*^ A. Forke
Treasurer: S. Russel Esq.
Members of the Council: E. Drew Esq.

D^ S. W. BUSHELL

f. t J. N. Jordan Esq.

A. Vissiere Esq.

YX^

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