File:China's open door; a sketch of Chinese life and history (1900) (14577502208).jpg

Identifier: chinasopendoorsk00wild (find matches)
Title: China's open door; a sketch of Chinese life and history
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Wildman, Rounsevelle, 1864-1901
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Publisher: Boston, Lothrop Publishing Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ttered tribes of his race whocovered the territories from the Great Wall to theAmoor, but unlike Kublai he himself never sat onthe coveted throne. His ambition probably wouldhave been satisfied with the recognized leadershipof his own people, had not the Chinese emperor,Wanli, interfered by supporting a rival chief.His first engagement with the dreaded imperialtroops taught him the superiority of his ownveterans, and aroused him to the fullness of hisown genius. He boldly entered the Liaotungpeninsula, and signally defeated an army of ahundred thousand. After successfully crushingone army after another he made Moukden hiscapital, where he died the following year, 1626,in the sixty-eighth year of his age. So far the rise of the Manchus had been muchlike the rise of the Mongols, — a small army ofveterans, led by a soldier of ability with a clearlydefined object, was advancing with unerring stepthrough a half-hearted, badly organized, and poorlycommanded mob. The Chinese emperor seemed
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INTRODUCTION OF THE ^UEUE. 117 to feel that fate was crowding him; and when thePortuguese envoy from Macao offered to come tohis rescue with two hundred arquebusiers, hegladly accepted the loan. The two hundred menwho were to succor an army of two hundred thou-sand marched across the empire from Macao toPeking, and were there told by Wanli, who hadfor the moment recovered from his funk, thatthey might leave their guns and return, whichthey did at their own expense, and without athank you. One cannot but speculate as to whatwould have been the result had Texeiras littleforce been allowed to go to the front. It was notuntil two centuries later that China again ac-cepted the loan of a foreign force to save theroyal descendants of Nurhachu from the rebel-lious Taipings. Chinese historians incidentallynote that it was the custom of the Chinese in-habitants of conquered ■cities to shave their headsin token of submission to their new masters.This is the first mention of the now universalcu

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