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 Japan and 
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 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 CHARLES WrLLIAM WASON 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 511.M87 
 
 Historical tales 
 
 the romance of realit' 
 
 3 1924 023 033 313 
 
 ZC<L^t/^'^t'X_ 
 
 ''^/y 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023033313 
 
Historical Tales 
 
 The Romance of Reality 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES MORRIS 
 
 AUTHOR OF "half-hours WITH THE BEST AMERICAN 
 AUTHORS," "TALES FROM THE DRAMATISTS," "KING 
 ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND-TABLE," ETC. 
 
 JAPAli AND CHINA 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 1903 
 
Copyright, 1898, 
 
 BY 
 
 J. B. LippiNcoTT Company. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Thb First of the Mikados 5 
 
 How Civilization came to Japan 12 
 
 Yamato-Dake, a Hero op Romance 19 
 
 JiNGU, the Amazon of Japan . 27 
 
 The Decline of the Mikados . . 35 
 
 How the Taira and the Minamoto fought for Power 41 
 
 The Bayard of Japan ... 51 
 
 The Hojo Tyranny 59 
 
 The Tartar Invasion op Japan 67 
 
 NOBUNAGA AND THE FaLL OF THE BuDDHISTS .... 73 
 
 How A Peasant Boy became Premier 80 
 
 The Founder of Yedo and of Modern Feudalism . 86 
 
 The Progriss of Christianity in Japan 97 
 
 The Decline and Fall of the Christian Faith . . 106 
 
 The Captivity of Captain Golownin 113 
 
 The Opening of Japan 123 
 
 The Mikado comes to his own again 133 
 
 How THE Empire of China arose and grew ■ • 142 
 
 Confucius, the Chinese Sage 150 
 
 The Founder op the Chinese Empire 156 
 
 Kaotsou and the Dynasty of the Hans 172 
 
 The Lucbetia Borgia of China 180 
 
 The Invasion of the Tartar Steppes 186 
 
 The "Crimson Eyebrows" 192 
 
 The Conquest of Central Asia 197 
 
 The Siege of Sinching 202 
 
 From the Shoemaker's Bench to the Throne ... 205 
 
 Three Notable Women 212 
 
 The Reign of Taitsong the Great 217 
 
 A Female Richelieu 22o 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Tartars and Genghis Khan 228 
 
 How THE Friars pared among the Tartars .... 236 
 
 The Siege of Sianyang 242 
 
 The Dbath-Struggle of China ... . . . . 249 
 
 The Palace of Kublai Khan 255 
 
 The Expulsion of the Mongols 264 
 
 The Eise of the Manchus 272 
 
 The Manchu Conquest op China 281 
 
 The Career of a Desert Chief 290 
 
 The Eaid of the Goorkhas ... 299 
 
 How Europe entered China 306 
 
 The Burning op the Summer Palace 315 
 
 A Great Christian Movement and its Fate .... 323 
 
 Corea and its Neighbors 330 
 
 The Battle of the Iron-clads 339 
 
 Progress in Japan and China 347 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 CHINA AND JAPAN. 
 
 FAOE 
 
 Main Stkekt, Yokohama. (Frontispiece). 
 
 Shuzenji Village, Idzu 36 
 
 Lettke-Writing in Japan 63 
 
 Karamo Temple, Nikko 78 
 
 Chusenji Road and Daiya Eivek 132 
 
 A Chinese Irrigation "Wheel 165 
 
 A Chinese Pagoda 197 
 
 Shanghai, from the "Water-Side 222 
 
 Market Scene in Shanghai 255 
 
 Chinese Gamblers 281 
 
 Chair and Caqo Carriers 306 
 
 A Bronzb-"Worker's Shop 330 
 
THE FIRST OF THE MI K AD OS. 
 
 The year 1 in Japan is the same date as 660 B.C. 
 of the Christian era, so that Japan is now in its 
 twenty-sixth century. Then everything began. Be- 
 fore that date all is mystery and mythology. After 
 that date there is something resembling history, 
 though in the early times it is an odd mixture of 
 history and fable. As for the gods of ancient Japan, 
 they were many in number, and strange stories are 
 told of their doings. Of the early men of the island 
 kingdom we know very little. When the ancestors 
 of the present Japanese arrived there they found 
 the islands occupied by a race of savages, a people 
 thickly covered with hair, and different in looks 
 from all the other inhabitants of Asia. These in 
 time were conquered, and only a few of them now 
 remain, — known as Ainos, and dwelling in the island 
 of Tezo. 
 
 In the Japanese year 1 appeared a conqueror, 
 Jimmu Tenno by name, the first of the mikados or 
 emperors. He was descended from the goddess of 
 the Sun, and made his home at the foot of Kiri- 
 shima, a famous mountain in the island of Kiushiu, 
 the most southerly of the four large islands of Japan. 
 As to the smaller islands of that anchored em- 
 pire, it may be well to say that they form a vast 
 multitude of all shapes and sizes, being in all nearly 
 
 5 
 
6 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 four thousand in number. The Sea of Japan is 
 truly a sea of islands. 
 
 By way of the sailing clouds, and the blue sky 
 ■which rests upon Kirishima's snowy top, the gods 
 stepped down from heaven to earth. Down this ce- 
 lestial path came Jimmu's ancestors, of whom there 
 were four between him and the mighty Sun goddess. 
 Of course no one is asked to accept this for fact. 
 Somewhat too many of the fathers of nations were 
 sons of the gods. It may be that Jimrau was an in- 
 vader from some foreign land, or came from a band of 
 colonists who had settled at the mountain's foot some 
 time before, but the gods have the credit of his origin. 
 
 At any rate, Hiuga, as the region in which he 
 dwelt was called, was not likely to serve the ends 
 of a party of warlike invaders, there being no part 
 of Japan less fertile. So, as the story goes, Jimmu, 
 being then fifty years old, set out to conquer some 
 richer realm. He had only a few followers, some 
 being his brothers, the others his retainers, all of 
 them, in the language of the legends, being kami, 
 or gods. Jimmu was righteous ; the S9,vages were 
 wicked, though they too had descended from the gods. 
 These savages dwelt in villages, each governed by 
 a head-man or chief. They fought hard for their 
 homes, and were not easily driven away. 
 
 The story of Jimmu's exploits is given in the 
 Kojiki, or " Book of Ancient Traditions," the oldest 
 book of Japan. There is another, called the Nihongi, 
 nearly as old, being composed in 720 a.d. These 
 give us all that is known of the ancient history of 
 the island, but are so full of myths and fables that 
 
THE FIRST OF THE MIKADOS. 7 
 
 very little of the story is to be trusted. Histories 
 of later times are abuDdant, and form the most im- 
 portant part of the voluminous literature of Japan. 
 The islanders are proud of their history, and have 
 preserved it with the greatest care, the annals of 
 cities and families being as carefully preserved as 
 those of the state. 
 
 Jimmu the conqueror, as his story is told in the 
 Kojiki, met strange and frightful enemies on his 
 march. Among them were troops of spiders of 
 colossal size and frightful aspect, through whose 
 threatening ranks he had to fight his way. Eight- 
 headed serpents had also to be dealt with, and hos- 
 tile deities — wicked gods who loved not the pious 
 adventurer — disputed his path. Some of these he 
 rid himself of by strength of arm and sharpness of 
 sword, some by shrewdness of wit. His line of 
 march lay to Usa, in the district of Buzen ; thence 
 to Okada, where he took ship and made his way 
 through the windings of the Suwo !N"ada, a part of 
 the Inland Sea of Japan. 
 
 Landing in Aki, Jimmu built himself a palace, 
 and dwelt there for seven years, after which he sought 
 the region of Bizen, where for eight years more he 
 lived in peace. Then, stirred once more by his in- 
 dwelling love of adventure, he took to the sea again 
 with his faithful band and sailed to the eastward. 
 Eough waves and swift currents here disputed his 
 way, and it was with diflSculty that he at length 
 landed on Hondo, the main island of Japan, near 
 where the city of Osaka now stands. He named 
 the spot I^ami Saya (" swift waves"). 
 
a HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Jimmu Tenno, the name of the conqueror, means 
 " spirit of ■war," and so far victory had perched upon 
 his banners as he marched. But now defeat came. 
 The people of the great island fought fiercely for 
 their homes and liberties, a brother of Jimmu was 
 wounded, and he and his band of followers were 
 driven back with loss. 
 
 The gods surely had something to do with this, — 
 for in those days the gods were thought to have little 
 to do besides busying themselves with the affairs of 
 men, — and the cause of the defeat was sought by 
 means of sacred ceremonies and invocations. It 
 proved to be an odd one. The legend states they 
 had offended the Sun goddess by presuming to travel 
 to the east, instead of following the path of the sun 
 from east to west. This insult to the gods could 
 be atoned for only by a voyage to the west. Taking 
 to their ships again, they sailed westward around 
 Kii, and landed at Arasaka. 
 
 Jimmu had expiated his fault, and was again in 
 favor with the gods. The chief whom he now faced 
 surrendered without a blow, and presented the con- 
 quering hero with a sword. A picture of this scene, 
 famous in the early history of Japan, is printed on 
 one of the Japanese greenback notes issued in 1872. 
 
 The victor next sought the mountain-defended 
 land of Tamato, which was to be reached only by 
 diflScult mountain-passes, unknown to the chief and 
 his followers. But the gods had taken him in charge 
 and came to his aid, sending a giant crow, whose 
 wings were eight feet long, to guide him to the 
 fertile soil of Tamato. A crow with smaller spread 
 
THE FIEST OP THE MIKADOS. 9 
 
 of wing might have done the work as well, but would 
 have been less satisfactory to the legend-makers. 
 
 Fierce was the conflict now impending, and stern 
 the struggle of the natives for life and liberty. 
 Here were no peaceful chiefs, like the one met at 
 Arasaka, and only by dint of trenchant blows was 
 the land to be won. On went the fight, victory now 
 inclining to one side, now to the other, until in the 
 midst of the uncertain struggle the gods sent down a 
 deep and dark cloud, in whose thick shadow no man 
 could see his foe, and the strife was stayed. Sud- 
 denly, through the dense darkness, a bird in the 
 shape of a hawk came swooping down from the 
 skies, enveloped in a flood of golden light, and, dis- 
 persing the cloud, rested upon the hero's bow. The 
 light shed by his refulgent wings struck like the 
 glare of lightning upon the eyes of the enemy, so 
 dazzling them with its radiance that they broke into 
 panic flight. 
 
 A victory gained in such a fashion as this does not 
 seem quite satisfactory to modern ideas. It is not fair 
 to the other side. Yet it was in this way that the 
 Greeks won victory on the plains of Troy, and that 
 many other legendary victories were obtained. One 
 cannot help wishing that the event of battle had 
 been left to the decision of brave hearts and strong 
 hands, instead of depending upon the interposition 
 of the gods. But such was the ancient way, — if we 
 choose to take legend for truth, — and we must needs 
 receive what is given us, in default of better. 
 
 At any rate, Jimmu was now lord of the land, and 
 built himself a capital city at Kashiwabara, near the 
 
10 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 site of the ijiodern Kioto, from which he governed 
 the wide realms that the sword had made his own. 
 The gods were thanked for their aid by imposing 
 religious ceremonies, and the people rejoiced in the 
 peace that had come upon the land. The soldiers 
 who had followed the hero to victory were amply 
 rewarded, and his chiefs made lords of provinces, 
 for the control over which they were to pay in mili- 
 tary service. Thus early a form of feudal govern- 
 ment was established in Japan. 
 
 All being now at peace within the realm, the 
 weapons of war were hung up in home and temple, 
 sacrifices were offered to the goddess of the Sun, and 
 the three sacred emblems of the new kingdom, the 
 mirror, the sword, and the ball, were deposited with 
 solemn ceremonies in the palace of the emperor. 
 
 The remainder of Jimmu's story may be briefly 
 told. He took for bride the princess Tatara, the 
 daughter of one of his chiefs, and the most beautiful 
 woman in all the land. The rest of his life was 
 spent in strengthening his rule and extending the 
 arts of civilization throughout his realm. Finally 
 he died, one hundred and thirty-seven years old, as 
 the Kojiki states, leaving three children, one of 
 whom he had chosen as the beir of the throne. 
 
 That there was an actual Jimmu Tenno is more 
 than any one can say. Of course the crow and kite, 
 serpents and spiders, are myths, transformed, pei-- 
 haps, from some real incidents in his career, and the 
 gods that helped and hindered were doubtless born 
 in men's fancies in later days. 
 
 The Chinese have their story of how Japan was 
 
THE FIRST OF THE MIKADOS. 11 
 
 settled. Taiko, grandfather of the first emperor of 
 the Shu dynasty, had three sons, and, loving the 
 youngest most, wished to leave him his title and 
 estate. These by law and custom belonged to the 
 eldest, and the generous young prince, not wishing 
 to injure his brother, secretly left home and sailed to 
 the south. Leaving Southern China with a colony, 
 he landed in Japan. This took place about forty-six 
 years before the beginning of Jimmu's conquering 
 career, so that the dates, at least, agree. 
 
 Whether there ever was a Jimmu or not, the 
 Japanese firmly believe in him. He stands on the 
 list as the first of the mikados, and the reigning 
 emperor claims unbroken descent from him. April 
 7 is looked upon as the anniversary of his ac- 
 cession to the throne, and is the Japanese national 
 holiday, which is observed with public rejoicings and 
 military and naval salutes. The year 1 was the 
 year in which Jimmu ascended the throne. 
 
HOW CIVILIZATION CAME TO 
 JAPAN: 
 
 There is not much of absorbing interest in early 
 Japanese history. For a period of some twelve hun- 
 dred years nearly all that we know of the mikados 
 is that they " lived long and died happy." No fewer 
 than twelve of these patriarchs lived to be over one 
 hundred years old, and one held the throne for one 
 hundred and one years. But they were far surpassed 
 in longevity by a statesman named Takenouchi, who 
 served five mikados as prime minister and dwelt 
 upon the earth for more than three hundred and 
 fifty years. There was not much " rotation in office" 
 in those venerable times. 
 
 We must come down for six hundred years from 
 the days of Jimmu to find an emperor who made 
 any history worth the telling. In truth, a mist of 
 fable lies over all the works of these ancient wor- 
 thies, and in telling their stories we can never be 
 sure how much of them is true. Very likely there 
 is sound history at the bottom, but it is ornamented 
 with a good deal that it is not safe to believe. 
 
 The first personage after Jimmu upon whom we 
 
 need dwell was a wise and worthy mikado named 
 
 Sujin, who spent his days in civilizing his people, 
 
 probably no easy task. The gap of six centuries 
 
 12 
 
HOW CIVILIZATION CAME TO JAPAN. 13 
 
 between Jitnmu's time and his had, no doubt, its 
 interesting events, but none of particular importance 
 are upon record. 
 
 As a boy Sujin displayed courage and energy, 
 together with the deepest piety. As a man he 
 mourned over the sinfulness of his people, and earn- 
 estly begged them to give up their wicked ways and 
 turn from sin to the worship of the gods. He was not 
 at first very successful. The people were steeped in 
 iniquity, and continued so until a pestilence was sent 
 to change the current of their sinful thoughts. 
 
 The pious monarch called upon the gods to stay 
 the plague, doing penance by rising early, fasting, 
 and bathing, — possibly an unusual ceremony in those 
 days. The gods at length heard the voice of the 
 king, and the pestilence ceased. It had done its 
 work. The people were convinced of the error of 
 their ways and turned from wantonness to worship, 
 and everywhere religious feeling revived. 
 
 As yet Japan possessed no temples or shrines, all 
 worship being conducted in the open air. The three 
 holy emblems of the nation, the mirror, the sword, 
 and the ball, had thus far been kept within the pal- 
 ace. Wherever they were the divine power dwelt, 
 and the mikado, living within their influence, was 
 looked upon as equal to a god. 
 
 But the deities taught Sujin — or at least he 
 thought they did — that this was not the proper place 
 for them. A rebellion broke out, due, doubtless, to 
 the evil spirit of men, but arising, in his opinion, 
 from the displeasure of the gods, who were not 
 pleased with his keeping these sacred objects under 
 
14 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 his own roof, where they might be defiled by the 
 unholiness of man. He determined, therefore, to 
 provide for them a home of their own, and to do so 
 built the first temple in his realm. The sacred sym- 
 bols were placed under the care of his daughter, who 
 was appointed priestess of the shrine. From that 
 day to this a virgin princess of imperial blood has 
 been chosen as custodian of these emblems of deific 
 power and presence. 
 
 The first temple was built at Kasanui, a village in 
 Yamato. But the goddess Amaterasu warned the 
 priestess that this locality was not sufiiciently holy, 
 so she set off with the mirror in search of a place 
 more to the taste of the gods, carrying it from 
 province to province, until old age overtook her, yet 
 finding no spot that reflected the clear light of holi- 
 ness from the surface of the sacred mirror. Another 
 priestess took up the task, many places were chosen 
 and abandoned, and finally, in 4 a.d., the shrine of 
 Uji, in Ise, was selected. This apparently has proved 
 satisfactory to the deities of Japan, for the emblems 
 of their divinity still rest in this sacred shrine. Sujin 
 had copies made of the mirror and the sword, which 
 were kept in the " place of reverence," a separate 
 building within the palace. From this arose the 
 imperial chapel, which still exists within the palace 
 bounds. 
 
 We speak of the " palace" of the mikado, but we 
 must warn our readers not to associate ideas of 
 splendor or magnificence with this word. The Em- 
 peror of Japan dwells not in grandeur, but in sim- 
 plicity. From the earliest times the house of the 
 
HOW CIVILIZATION CAME TO JAPAN. 15 
 
 emperor has resembled a temple rather than a pal- 
 ace. The mikado is himself half a god in Japanese 
 eyes, and is expected to be content with the simple 
 and austere surroundings of the images of the gods. 
 There are no stateliness, no undue ornament, no 
 gaudy display such as minor mortals may delight in. 
 Dignified simplicity surrounds the imperial person, 
 and when he dies he is interred in the simplest of 
 tombs, wonderfully unlike the gorgeous burial-places 
 in which the bodies of the monarohs of continental 
 Asia lie in state. 
 
 When Sujin came to the throne the people of 
 Japan were still in a state of barbarism, and there 
 was scarce a custom in the state that did not call for 
 reform. A new and better system of arranging the 
 periods of time was established, the year being 
 divided into twenty-four months or periods, which 
 bear such significant names as " Beginning of Spring," 
 "Rain-water," "Awakening of the Insects," "Clear 
 Weather," " Seed-rain," etc. A census was ordered 
 to be taken at regular intervals, and by way of taxa- 
 tion all persons, men and women alike, were obliged 
 to work for the government for a certain number 
 of days each year. 
 
 To promote commerce, the building of boats was 
 encouraged, and regular communication was opened 
 with Corea, from which country many useful ideas 
 and methods were introduced into Japan. Even a 
 prince of one of the provinces of Corea came to the 
 island empire to live. Agriculture was greatly de- 
 veloped by Sujin, canals being dug and irrigation ex- 
 tensively provided for. Eice, the leading article of 
 
16 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 food, needs to be grown in well-watered fields, and 
 the stealing of water from a neighbor's field is looked 
 upon as a crime of deepest dye. In old times the 
 water-thief was dealt with much as the horse-thief 
 was recently dealt with in some parts of our own 
 country. 
 
 Sujin's work was continued by his successor, who, 
 in 6 A.D., ordered canals and sluices to be dug in 
 more than eight hundred places. At present Japan 
 has great irrigating reservoirs and canals, through 
 which the water is led for miles to the farmers' fields. 
 In one mountain region is a deep lake of pure water, 
 five thousand feet above the sea. Many centuries 
 ago a tunnel was made to draw off this water, and 
 millions of acres of soil are still enriched by its fer- 
 tihzing flood. Such are some of the results of Sujin's 
 wise reforms. 
 
 Another of the labors of Sujin the civilizer was to 
 devise a military system for the defence of his realm. 
 In the north, the savage Ainos still fought for the 
 land which had once been all their own, and between 
 them and the subjects of the mikado border warfare 
 rarely ceased. Sujin divided the empire into four 
 military departments, with a shogun, or general, over 
 each. At a later date military magazines were es- 
 tablished, where weapons and rations could be had 
 at any time in case of invasion by the wild tribes 
 on the border or of rebellion within the realm. In 
 time a powerful military class arose, and war became 
 a profession in Japan. Throughout the history of the 
 island kingdom the war spirit has been kept alive, 
 and Japan is to-day the one nation of Eastern Asia 
 
HOW CIVILIZATION CAME TO JAPAN. 17 
 
 with a love of and a genius for warlike deeds. So 
 important grew the shoguns in time that nearly all 
 the power of the empire fell into their hands, and 
 when the country was opened to foreign nations, 
 one of these, calling himself the Tai Kun (Tycoon), 
 posed as the emperor himself, the mikado being lost 
 to sight behind the authority of this military chief 
 
 At length old age began to weigh heavily upon 
 Sujin, and the question of who should succeed him 
 on the throne greatly troubled his imperial mind. 
 He had two sons, but his love for them was so equally 
 divided that he could not choose between their 
 claims. In those days the heirship to the throne 
 seems to have depended upon the father's will. Not 
 being able to decide for himself, he appealed to fate 
 or divination, asking his sons one evening to tell him 
 the next morning what they had dreamed during the 
 night. On their dreams he would base his decision. 
 
 The young princes washed their bodies and 
 changed their clothes, — seemingly a religious rite. 
 Visions came to them during the still watches of the 
 night, and the next morning they eagerly told their 
 father what dreams the gods had sent. 
 
 " I dreamed that I climbed a mountain," said the 
 elder, " and on reaching its summit I faced the east, 
 and eight times I cut with the sword and thrust 
 with the spear.'' 
 
 " I climbed the same mountain," said the younger, 
 " and stretched snares of cords on every side, seek- 
 ing to catch the sparrows that destroy the grain." 
 
 The emperor listened intently, and thus sagely in- 
 terpreted the visions of his sons. 
 
 2 
 
18 HISTOKICAL TALES. 
 
 " You, my son," he said to the elder, " looked in 
 one direction. You will go to the east and become 
 its governor. You looked in every direction," he 
 said to the younger. " You will govern on all sides. 
 The gods have selected you as my heir." 
 
 His words came true. The younger became ruler 
 over all the land ; the elder became a warrior in the 
 east and governor over its people. 
 
 And Sujin the civilizer, having lived long and 
 ruled wisely, was gathered to his fathers, and slept 
 death's dreamless sleep. 
 
YAMATO-DAKE, A HERO OF 
 ROMANCE. 
 
 We have now to deal with the principal hero of 
 Japanese legend, Yamato-Dake, the conqueror. His 
 story is full of myth and fable, but there is history 
 in it, too, and it is well worth the telling. Every 
 ancient nation has its legendary hero, who performs 
 wonderful feats, dares fearful perils, and has not 
 only the strength of man but the power of magic 
 and the wiles of evil spirits to contend against. "We 
 give the story as it stands, with all its adventures 
 and supernatural incidents. 
 
 This Japanese hero of romance, born 71 a.d., was 
 the son of Keiko, the twelfth in line of the mikados. 
 In form he was manly and graceful, fair of aspect, 
 and of handsome and engaging presence. While 
 still a youth he led an army to Kiushiu, in which 
 island a rebellion had broken out. In order to enter 
 the camp of the rebel force, he disguised himself as 
 a dancing-girl, a character which his beardless face 
 and well-rounded figure enabled him easily to assume. 
 Presenting himself before the sentinel, his beauty of 
 face and form disarmed the soldier of all doubt, and 
 he led the seeming damsel to the presence of the 
 rebel chief, from whom he hoped for a rich reward. 
 
 Here the visitor danced before the chief and his 
 
 19 
 
20 HISTOKIOAL TALES. 
 
 guests with such winning grace that they were all 
 captivated, and at the end of the dance the delighted 
 chief seized his prize by the hand and drew the 
 seemingly coy damsel into his own tent. Once within 
 its folds, the yielding girl suddenly changed into a 
 heroic youth who clasped the rebel with a vigorous 
 embrace and slew him on the spot. For this ex- 
 ploit the youthful prince received his title of Yamato- 
 Dake, or " Yamato the "Warlike." 
 
 Thirteen years later a revolt broke out among the 
 wild tribes of Eastern Japan, and the young hero 
 marched with an army to subdue them. His route 
 led him past the shrine of the Sun goddess, in Ise, 
 and here the priestess presented him with the sacred 
 sword, one of the holy emblems of the realm. His 
 own sword was left under a neighboring pine. 
 
 Armed with this magical blade, he continued his 
 march into the wilds of Suruga, the haunt of the in- 
 surgent Ainos. But he found it no easy matter to 
 bring these savage foes to an open fight. Fleeing 
 before his army into the woods and mountains, they 
 fought him from behind rocks and trees, it being 
 their policy of warfare to inflict damage upon the 
 enemy with as little loss as possible to themselves. 
 Like the American Indians, these savages were used 
 to all the forest wiles, quick to avail themselves of 
 every sound or sign, able to make their way with 
 ease through tangled thickets and pathless forests, 
 and adepts in all the lore of wood and wild. 
 
 As the army of Yamato pressed them too closely, 
 they set fire to the dry underbrush which densely 
 surrounded their lurking-place. The high wind car- 
 
TAMATO-DAK^, A HERO OF ROMANCE. 21 
 
 ried the flames in roaring waves towards the Jap- 
 anese army, which was in the most serious danger, 
 for it was encamped amid tall, dry grass, which 
 quickly became a sea of soaring flame. "With yells 
 of delight the Ainos gazed upon the imminent peril 
 of their foes ; but suddenly their exultation was 
 changed to dismay. For at this moment of danger 
 the Sun goddess appeared to Yamato, and at her sug- 
 gestion he drew the sacred sword — Murakumo, or 
 " Cloud Cluster" — and cut the grass that thickly 
 rose around him. Before the magic of the blade 
 fire itself was powerless, and the advancing flames 
 turned and swept towards the enemy, many of whom 
 were consumed, while the others fled in panic fear. 
 Grateful to the gods for this timely aid, the hero 
 changed the name of the sword, decreeing that 
 thenceforth it should be known as Kusanagi, or 
 " Grass-Mower." 
 
 His route now led, by a mountain pathway, into 
 the great plain of Eastern Japan, afterwards known 
 as the Kuanto, which extends from the central 
 ranges to the Pacific coast. Eeaching the shores of 
 the Bay of Yedo, he looked across from its southern 
 headland to the opposite peninsula of Awa, whose 
 hills seemed very close at hand. 
 
 " It will be easy to cross that channel," he said : 
 " it is but a trifle. Let the army embark." 
 
 He did not know how treacherous was the navi- 
 gation of this strait, whose weather is never to be 
 trusted, and whose winds, tides, and currents are 
 baflfling and perilous. Embarking with his follow- 
 ers, he looked for an easy and rapid progress ; but 
 
22 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 a terrible storm arose, tossing the boats so frightfully 
 that death seemed their sure fate. 
 
 Tamato was not at a loss to know what was 
 amiss. He was familiar with the ways of the gods, 
 and knew that some hostile deity was at work to 
 ruin him. His contemptuous remark about the ease 
 of the passage had given deep offence to the Japan- 
 ese Neptune, the god of the Sea, who was punish- 
 ing him for his lack of reverence. There was only 
 one way by which the angry deity might be ap- 
 peased, — the sacrifice of a victim to his wrath. But 
 who among them was ready to yield life for duty ? 
 The question was answered by Tachibana, the youth- 
 ful wife of the chief, who was in the boat with her 
 lord. "With a hurried farewell, the devoted woman 
 sprang into the wild waves, which in a moment 
 swept her far away. It was an acceptable sacrifice. 
 The winds fell, the waves went down, the clouds 
 broke, and soon the sun was serenely shining on 
 ruJHed sea and tranquil shore. 
 
 All that Tamato saw again pertaining to his 
 wife was her perfumed wooden comb, which floated 
 ashore and was dedicated by him as a precious relic 
 in a shrine which he built to the gods. A shrine 
 still stands on the spot, which is within the modern 
 city of Tokio, and there to-day fishermen and 
 sailors worship the spirits of Yamato and his sainted 
 wife. 
 
 Thence the hero sailed along the shore, subduing 
 the tribes as he went, until the northern boundary 
 of the empire was reached. Here the leaders of the 
 Ainos had gathered a great army to repel the in- 
 
YAMATO-DAKfi, A HERO OP ROMANCE. 23 
 
 vader. But on seeing the ships, which were new 
 objects to their eyes, awe and consternation over- 
 whelmed them. 
 
 "They are living things," they said, — "strange 
 moving monsters who glide over the sea and bring 
 our foes to our undoing. The gods must have sent 
 them, and will destroy us if we draw bow against 
 these works of their hands." 
 
 Throwing down their arms, they surrendered to 
 Tamato when he sprang ashore, and agreed to pay 
 tribute to the state. Taking their leaders as host- 
 ages for their good conduct, the hero turned home- 
 ward, eager to reach again the capital from which 
 he had been so long away. His route was now 
 overland, and to entertain himself on the long 
 journey he invented a form of poetic verse which 
 is still much in use by the poets of Japan. 
 
 As yet all his work had been done on the plain 
 near the shores of the sea. Now, marching inland, 
 he ascended to the great table-land of Shinano, 
 from twenty-five hundred to five thousand feet above 
 the sea, around and within which lie the loftiest 
 mountains of Japan. Prom this height could be 
 obtained a magnificent view of the Bay of Yedo, the 
 leafy plains surrounding, and the wide-extending 
 ocean. Japan has no more beautiful scene, and 
 Tamato stood silently gazing over its broad ex- 
 panse, the memory of his beloved wife, who had 
 given her life for his, coming back to him as he 
 gazed. " Adzuma, adzuma" (" my wife, my wife"), 
 fell in sad accents from his lips. These words still 
 haunt that land. In the poet's verse that broad plain 
 
24 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 is to-day called Adzuma, and one of the great ships 
 of the new navy of Japan is named Adzuma-kuan. 
 
 It was no light task which now lay before the 
 army and its chief. Even to-day the mountains of 
 Shinano are far from easy to cross. Then they were 
 unknown, and their crossing was a work of the 
 greatest difficulty and risk. There were rocky defiles 
 and steep ascents to climb, river torrents to pass, 
 rugged paths to mount, without, a road to follow or 
 a guide to conduct, and with clouds and fogs to 
 double the dangers of the way. Here, to their fancy, 
 in caves and ravines hostile spirits lurked ; every 
 mountain had its tutelary god; at every step the 
 deities of good and evil seemed to be at strife for 
 their destiny, and with all the perils of the way the 
 gods were thought to have something to do. 
 
 Thus on one day the god of the mountain came to 
 Yamato in the form of a white deer, with purpose to 
 work him evil. The hero, on the alert against the 
 hostile spirits, threw wild garlic in the animal's eyes, 
 causing so violent a smarting pain that it died. At 
 once a dense mist descended upon the hill-slopes and 
 the path vanished, leaving the army to grope onward 
 in danger and dismay. But at this moment of dread 
 a white dog appeared — a god again, but a friendly 
 one this time — who led the bewildered soldiers in 
 safety to the plains of Mino. 
 
 But they were not yet free from the wiles of the 
 white deer. Its spirit now appeared, discharging 
 among them poisonous gases, before whose stupefying 
 influence they fell helpless to the ground. The wild 
 garlic again was their salvation. Some one ate of it 
 
tamato-dak£, a hero of romance. 25 
 
 with happy effect, and gave it to all the men and 
 animals, so that all got well again. Wild garlic is 
 still looked upon in Japan as a specific against dis- 
 ease and as a safeguard against witches. Por this 
 purpose it is hung up before gates and doorways in 
 times of epidemic or superstitious fear. 
 
 The hero next came to Ibuki yama, a cone-shaped 
 mountain whose flattened summit seemed to pierce 
 the skies. Here too dwelt a hostile spirit, who dis- 
 puted the way, and against whom Yamato advanced 
 unarmed, leaving his sword, " Grass-Mower," under 
 a tree at the mountain's foot. The gods of Japan, 
 perhaps, were proof against weapons of steel. Not 
 far had the hero gone before the deity appeared 
 upon his path, transformed into a threatening ser- 
 pent. Leaping over it, he pursued his way. But 
 now the incensed deity flung darkness on the moun- 
 tain's breast, and the hero, losing his path, swooned 
 and fell. Fortunately, a spring of healing water 
 bubbled beside him, a drink from which enabled him 
 to lift his head. Onward he went, still feeble, for 
 the breath of the serpent god was potent for ill, 
 and at length reached Otsu, in the district of Ise, 
 where, under the pine-tree, he found the sword 
 which he had left there on setting out, three years 
 before. His gladness found vent in a poem com- 
 posed of these words : " O pine, if you were a man, 
 I should give you this sword to wear for your 
 fidelity." 
 
 The conquering prince was now near the end of 
 his career. Still sick unto death from his adven- 
 ture upon the mountain, he told before the shrine 
 
26 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 of the gods the tale of hia victories and perils, offered 
 to them his weapons and prisoners, and thanked 
 them piously for their care. Then he sent a report 
 of his doings to his father, the mikado, and begged 
 to see him. Keiko, the father, sent a messenger with 
 words of comfort, but when he arrived the heroic 
 Yamato-Dake was dead. 
 
 He was buried near where he died, and from his 
 tomb a white bird was seen to fly. On opening the 
 tomb nothing was found but the dead hero's chaplet 
 and robes. The place where the bird was seen to 
 alight bears still a name signifying Imperial Tomb 
 of the White Bird. Thus ended the career of the 
 leading Japanese hero of romance. His story sounds 
 like a fairy-tale, though it may well be that Yamato- 
 Dake was a real person and that many of the things 
 told of him actually occurred. 
 
yiNGU, THE AMAZON OF 
 JAPAN. 
 
 To-DAT the women of Japan are kept in seclusion 
 and take no part in affairs of state. This does not 
 seem to have been always the case. In the far past, 
 we are told, women often rose to posts of honor and 
 dignity, and some even filled the mikado's throne. 
 ISTor is this all. To a woman is given the glory of 
 the greatest event in the history of ancient Japan, 
 the conquest of Corea, from which land civilization, 
 literature, and a new religion subsequently came to 
 the island realm. 
 
 The name of this Japanese heroine was Okinaga 
 Tarashi hime, but she is best known under the title of 
 Jingu, or " warlike deed." The character given her 
 in tradition is an attractive one, combining beauty, 
 piety, intelligence, energy, and valor. The waves 
 of the sea, the perils of the battle-field, and the toils 
 or terrors of war alike failed to fill the soul of this 
 heroine with fear, and the gods marched with her 
 and aided her in her enterprises. Great as she was 
 in herself, the Japanese give her higher honor still, 
 as the mother of their god of war. 
 
 This imperial Amazon was the wife of the mikado 
 Chinai, who in 193 a.d. set out at the head of his 
 army for Kiushiu, a rebellion having broken out at 
 Kumaso, in that island. His courageous wife took 
 
 27 
 
28 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 ship and followed him to the seat of war. On he* 
 voyage thither she stopped at one of the islands of 
 the Inland Sea to offer worship to the gods. And 
 as she did so the voice of the deity of the shrine 
 came to her ears. 
 
 "Why do you trouble yourself to conquer Ku- 
 maso?" spoke the mysterious voice. "It is but a 
 poor and barren spot, not worth your labor nor the 
 work of your army. There is a country, larger and 
 richer by far, a land as lovely as the face of a fair 
 virgin, dazzlingly bright with gold, silver, and rare 
 colors, and rich with treasures of every kind. Such 
 a noble region is Shirakl [Corea]. Continue to wor- 
 ship me, and this rich land shall be yours without 
 the shedding of blood. As for Kumaso, my help 
 and the glory of your conquest will cause it to 
 yield." 
 
 On joining the emperor, Jingu repeated to him 
 the words of the god, but she found in him a doubt- 
 ing listener. There was a high mountain near the 
 camp, and to the summit of this he climbed and 
 looked far out over the westward sea. No land was 
 visible to his eyes where she had declared the rich 
 realm of Shiraki lay, and he was confirmed in his 
 doubts. On returning to her he said, — 
 
 " I looked everywhere, and saw water alone ; no 
 land was to be seen. Is there a country in the sky ? 
 If not, your words are false. And my ancestors 
 worshipped all the gods ; or if there are any they did 
 not worship, I know them not. Why, then, should 
 they not speak to me ?" 
 
 " If you credit only your doubts," answered the 
 
JINGU, THE AMAZON OF JAPAN. 29 
 
 god through the lips of the empress, "and declare 
 that there is no country where I have said a couutry 
 exists, you blaspheme, and shall never see this land, 
 but the empress, your wife, shall have the glory of 
 its conquest." 
 
 Even this was not enough to overcome the doubts 
 of the emperor. He was not ready to believe that 
 a god could speak through a woman, and refused to 
 risk his army on an unknown sea. On the contrary, 
 he led it against Kumaso, from which the rebels 
 drove him back in defeat. Soon after he died sud- 
 denly in camp, or, as some declare, was slain in battle 
 by an arrow. Takenouchi, his minister, kept his 
 death a secret from the soldiers, while the valiant 
 Jingu continued the war and soon brought the rebel- 
 lion to an end. 
 
 The death of the mikado had left the power of 
 the state and the command of the army in the hands 
 of his wife, who had shown her valor and ability in 
 the conquest of Kumaso. Her mind was now filled 
 with the promise of the god and the hope of new 
 glory to be won beyond the sea. But first she 
 deemed it wise to obtain further signs from the 
 celestial powers. 
 
 Going to the shore of the sea, she baited a hook 
 with a grain of rice and threw it into the water, 
 saying, " If a fish be caught with this grain of rice, 
 then the conquest of a rich country shall indeed be 
 mine." 
 
 When she drew up the line, to her delight she saw 
 a fish on the hook. " MedzurasMki mono !" (" won- 
 derful thing!"), she exclaimed, viewing the marvel 
 
30 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 as a sure signal that the gods approved her design. 
 Her words have been corrupted into Matsura, which 
 is the name of the place to this day, and here, every 
 year, at the opening of the fourth Japanese month, 
 the women of the vicinity go fishing, no men being 
 permitted to cast in their lines on that day. 
 
 The pious empress, as if some of the doubts of 
 the mikado had clung to her mind, sought still an- 
 other sign from the gods. She now let her long 
 hair fall into the water, saying that if the gods 
 favored her design her tresses would come out of the 
 water dry and parted in two divisions. Again the 
 celestial powers heard. Her abundant black locks 
 left the water dry and neatly parted as by a comb. 
 
 Doubt no longer troubled her soul. She at once 
 ordered the generals of the army to recruit new 
 forces, build ships, and prepare for an ocean enter- 
 prise. 
 
 " On this voyage depends the glory or the ruin of 
 our country," she said to them. " I intrust its details 
 to you, and will hold you to blame if anything goes 
 amiss through lack of care. I am a woman, and am 
 young. But I shall undertake this enterprise, and 
 go with you disguised as a man, trusting to you and 
 my army, and, above all, to the gods. If we are 
 wise and valiant, a wealthy country shall be ours. 
 If we succeed, the glory shall be yours ; if through 
 evil fortune we fail, on me shall lie all the guilt and 
 disgrace." 
 
 The enthusiasm of the empress infected the com- 
 manders, who promised her their full support in her 
 enterprise, which was by far the greatest that Japan 
 
JINGi:, THE AMAZON OF JAPAN. 31 
 
 had ever ventured upon. The ships were built, but 
 the perils of the voyage frightened the people, and 
 the army increased but slowly. Impatient at the 
 delay, but with no thought of giving up her task, 
 the empress again appealed to the gods. A shrine 
 of purification was built, lustrations were made, 
 sacrifices oifered, and prayers for speedy success 
 sent up to the celestial hosts. The Kami, or gods, 
 proved favorable still. Troops now came rapidly in. 
 Soon a large army was assembled and embarked, 
 and all was ready for the enterprise. It was the 
 year 201 A.D., the first year of the third Christian 
 century. 
 
 Jingu now issued her final orders, to the following 
 effect : 
 
 " There must be no plundering. 
 
 " Despise not a few enemies, and fear not many. 
 
 " Give mercy to those who yield, but no quarter to 
 the stubborn. 
 
 " The victors shall be rewarded ; deserters shall be 
 punished." 
 
 Then through her lips the gods spoke again : 
 '■ The Spirit of Peace will always guide and protect 
 you. The Spirit of War will guide your ships across 
 the seas." 
 
 It must here be remarked that the annals of Japan 
 do not seem to be in full harmony. In the days of 
 Sujin the civilizer, a century and a half earlier, we 
 are told that there was regular communication be- 
 tween Corea and Kiushiu, and that a prince of 
 Corea came to Japan to live ; while the story of 
 Jingu seems to indicate that Corea was absolutely 
 
32 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 unknown to the islanders. There were none to pilot 
 the fleet across the seas, and the generals seemed 
 ignorant of where Corea was to be found, or of the 
 proper direction in which to steer. They lacked 
 chart and compass, and had only the sun, the stars, 
 and the flight of birds as guides. As Noah sent out 
 birds from his ark to spy out the land, so they sent 
 fishermen ahead of the fleet, and with much the 
 same result. The first of these messengers went far 
 to the west, and returned with the word that land 
 was nowhere to be seen. Another messenger was 
 sent, and came back with cheering news. On the 
 western horizon he had seen the snowy peaks of 
 distant mountains. 
 
 Inspired by this report, the adventurers sailed 
 boldly on. The winds, the waves, the currents, all 
 aided their speed. The gods even sent shoals of 
 huge fishes in their wake, which heaped up the 
 waves and drove them forward, lifting the sterns 
 and making the prows leap like living things. 
 
 At length land was seen by all, and with shouts 
 of joy they ran their ships ashore upon the beach of 
 Southern Corea. The sun shone in all its splendor 
 upon the gallant host, which landed speedily upon 
 the new-found shores, where it was marshalled in 
 imposing array. 
 
 The Coreans seem to have been as ignorant of 
 geography as the Japanese. The king of this part 
 of the country, hearing that a strange fleet had come 
 from the east and a powerful army landed on his 
 shores, was lost in terror and amazement. 
 
 " "Who can these be, and whence have they come ?" 
 
JING0, THE AMAZON OF JAPAN. 33 
 
 he e:5claime(J. " We have never hi^ard of any coun- 
 try beyond the seas. Have the gods forsaken us, 
 and sent this host of strangers to our undoing ?" 
 
 Such was the fear of the king that he made no re- 
 sistance to the invaders. Corean envoys were sent 
 to them with the white flags of peace, and the 
 country was given up without a fight. The king 
 offered to deliver all his treasures to the invading 
 host, agreed to pay tribute to Japan, and promised 
 to furnish hostages in pledge of his good faith. His 
 nobles joined with him in his oath. The rivers 
 might flow backward, they declared, or the pebbles 
 in the river-beds leap up to the stars, but they would 
 never break their word. 
 
 Jingu now set up weapons before the gate of the 
 king in token of her suzerainty and of the peace 
 which had been sworn. The spoils won from the 
 conquered land consisted of eighty ships well laden 
 with gold and precious goods of every kind the coun- 
 try possessed, while eighty noble Coreans were taken 
 as hostages for the faith of the king. And now, with 
 blare of trumpet and clash of weapons, with shouts 
 of triumph and songs of praise to the gods, the fleet 
 set sail for home. Two months had sufliced for the 
 whole great enterprise. 
 
 Nine empresses in all have sat upon the throne 
 of Japan, but of these Jingu alone won martial 
 renown and gained a great place in history. The 
 Japanese have always felt proud of this conquest of 
 Corea, the first war in which their armies had gone 
 to a foreign country to fight. They had, to use 
 their common phrase, made "the arms of Japan 
 3 
 
34 HISTOEICAL TALES. 
 
 shine beyond the seas," and the glory of the ex- 
 ploit descended not only on the Amazon queen, but 
 in greater measure upon her son, who was born 
 shortly after her return to Japan. 
 
 The Japanese have given more honor to this son, 
 still unborn when the conquest was achieved, than 
 to his warlike mother. It was in him, not in his 
 mother, they declare, that the Spirit of War resided, 
 and he is now worshipped in Japan as the god of 
 War. Ojin by name, he became a great warrior, 
 lived to be a hundred and ten years old, and was 
 deified after his death. Through all the centuries 
 since he has been worshipped by the people, and by 
 soldiers in particular. Some of the finest temples 
 in Japan have been erected in his honor, and the land 
 is full of shrines to this Eastern Mars. He is repre- 
 sented with a frightful and scowling countenance, 
 holding in his arms a broad, two-edged sword. In 
 all periods of Japanese art a favorite subject has 
 been the group of the snowy-bearded Takenouchi, 
 the Japanese Methuselah, holding the infant Ojin in 
 his arms, while Jingu, the heroic mother, stands by 
 in martial robes. 
 
THE DECLINE OF THE MI K AD OS. 
 
 Our journey through Japanese history now takes 
 us over a wide leap, a period of nearly a thousand 
 years, during which no event is on record of suffi- 
 cient interest to call for special attention. The 
 annals of Japan are in some respects minute, but 
 only at long intervals does a hero of importance 
 rise above the general level of ordinary mortals. 
 We shall, therefore, pass with a rapid tread over 
 this long period, giving only its general historical 
 trend. 
 
 The conquest of Corea was of high importance 
 to Japan. It opened the way for a new civilization 
 to flow into the long isolated island realm. For 
 centuries afterwards Corea served as the channel 
 through which the arts and thoughts of Asia 
 reached the empire of the mikados. We are told 
 of envoys bearing tribute from Corea of horses, and 
 of tailors, and finally a schoolmaster, being sent 
 to Japan. The latter, Wani by name, is said to 
 have introduced the art of writing. Mulberry-trees 
 were afterwards planted and silk-culture was un- 
 dertaken. Then came more tailors, and after them 
 architects and learned men. At length, in the year 
 552, a party of doctors, astronomers, astrologists, 
 and mathematicians came from Corea to the Jap- 
 anese court, and with them a number of Buddhist 
 
 35 
 
36 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 missionaries, who brought a new religion into the 
 land. 
 
 Thus gradually the arts, sciences, letters, and re- 
 ligions of Asia made their way into the island king- 
 dom, and the old life of Japan was transformed. A 
 wave of foreign civilization had flowed across the 
 seas to give new life and thought to the island people, 
 and the progress of Japan from the barbarism of 
 the far past towards the civilization of the present 
 day then fairly began. 
 
 Meanwhile, important changes were taking place 
 in the government. From the far-off days of 
 Jimmu, the first emperor, until a century after 
 Buddhism was introduced, the mikados were the 
 actual rulers of their people. The palace was not a 
 place of seclusion, the face of the monarch was vis- 
 ible to his subjects, and he appeared openly at the 
 head of the army and in the affairs of government. 
 This was the golden age of the imperial power. A 
 leaden age was to succeed. 
 
 The change began in the appointment by Sujin of 
 shoguns or generals over the military departments 
 of the government. Gradually two distinct official 
 castes arose, those in charge of civil affairs and 
 those at the head of military operations. As the 
 importance of these officials grew, they stood be- 
 tween the emperor and his subjects, secluding him 
 more and more from the people. The mikado grad- 
 ually became lost to view behind a screen of official- 
 ism, which hid the throne. Eventually all the mili- 
 tary power fell into the hands of the shoguns, and 
 the mikado was seen no more at the head of hia 
 
THE DECLINE OP THE MIKADOS. 37 
 
 army. His power decayed, as he became to the 
 people rather a distant deity than a present and 
 active ruler. There arose in time a double govern- 
 ment, with two capitals and centres of authority ; 
 the military caste became dominant, anarchy ruled 
 for centuries, the empire was broken up into a series 
 of feudal provinces and baronies, and the unity of 
 the past was succeeded by the division of authority 
 which existed until far within the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. The fact that there were two rulers, in two 
 capitals, gave the impression that there were two 
 emperors in Japan, one spiritual and one secular, and 
 when Commodore Perry reached that country, in 
 1853, he entered into a treaty with the shogun or 
 "tycoon," the head of the military caste, under the 
 belief that he was dealing with the actual ruler of 
 Japan. The truth is, there has never been but one 
 emperor in Japan, the mikado. His power has 
 varied at times, but he is now again the actual and 
 visible head of the empire, and the shoguns, who 
 once lorded it so mightily, have been swept out of 
 existence. 
 
 This explanation is necessary in order that readers 
 may understand the peculiar conditions of Japanese 
 history. Gradually the mikado became surrounded 
 by a hedge of etiquette which removed him from 
 the view of the outer world. He never appeared 
 in public, and none of his subjects, except his wives 
 and his highest ministers, ever saw his face. He 
 sat on a throne of mats behind a curtain, even his 
 feet not being allowed to touch the earth. If he left 
 the palace to go abroad in the city, the journey was 
 
38 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 made in a closely curtained car drawn by bullocks. 
 To the people, the mikado became like a deity, his 
 name sacred and inviolable, his power in the hands 
 of the boldest of his subjects. 
 
 Buddhism had now become the official religion 
 of the empire, priests multiplied, monasteries were 
 founded, and the court became the chief support of 
 the new faith, the courtiers zealously studying the 
 sacred books of India, while the mikado and his 
 empress sought by every means to spread the new 
 belief among their people. 
 
 An emperor thus occupied could not pay much 
 attention to the duties of government, and the power 
 of the civil ministers and military chiefs grew accord- 
 ingly. The case was like that of the Merovingian 
 monarchs of France and the Mayors of the Palace, 
 who in time succeeded to the throne. The mikados 
 began to abdicate after short reigns, to shave off 
 their hair to show that they renounced the world 
 and its vanities, to become monks and spend the re- 
 mainder of their days in the cloister. These short 
 reigns helped the shoguns and ministers in their 
 ambitious purposes, until in time the reins of power 
 fell into the hands of a few great families, who fought 
 furiously with one another for the control. It is with 
 the feuds of these families that we have now to do. 
 The mikados had sunk out of sight, being regarded 
 by the public with awe as spiritual emperors, while 
 their ministers rose into power and became the 
 leaders of life and the lords of events in Japan. 
 
 First among these noble families to gain control 
 was that of the Fujiwara (Wistaria meadow). They 
 
THE DECLINE 01" THE MIKADOS. 39 
 
 were of royal origin, and rose to leading power in 
 the year 645, when Kamatari, the founder of the 
 family, became regent of the empire. All the great 
 oflSces of the empire in time fell into the hands of 
 the Pujiwaras : they married their daughters to the 
 mikados, surrounded them with their adherents, and 
 governed the empire in their name. In the end they 
 decided who should be mikado, ruled the country 
 like monarchs, and became in effect the proprietors 
 of the throne. In their strong hands the mikado 
 sank into a puppet, to move as they pulled the 
 strings. 
 
 But the Pujiwaras were not left to lord it alone. 
 Other great families sought a share of the power, 
 and their rivalry often ended in war and bloodshed. 
 The most ancient of these rivals was the family of 
 the Sugawara. Greatest in this family was the 
 renowned Sugawara Michizane, a polished courtier 
 and famous scholar, whose talents raised him to the 
 highest position in the realm. Japan had no man 
 of greater learning; his historical works became 
 famous, and some of them are still extant. But his 
 genius did not save him from misfortune. His rivals, 
 the Fujiwara, in the end succeeded in having him 
 banished to Kiushiu, where, exposed to dire poverty, 
 he starved to death. This martyr to official rivalry 
 is now worshipped in Japan as a deity, the patron 
 god of literature and letters. Temples have been 
 erected to him, and students worship at his shrine. 
 
 At a later date two other powerful families became 
 rivals for the control of the empire and added to the 
 anarchy of the realm. The first of these was the 
 
40 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Taira family, founded 889 a.d., whose members at- 
 tained prominence as great military chiefs. The 
 second was the Minamoto family, founded somewhat 
 later, which rose to be a powerful rival of the Taira, 
 their rivalry often taking the form of war. For 
 centuries the governmental and military history of 
 Japan was made up of a record of the jealousies and 
 dissetisions of these rival families, in whose hands 
 lay war and peace, power and place, and with whose 
 quarrels and struggles for power our next tales will 
 be concerned. 
 
HO W THE TAIRA AND THE MINA- 
 MO TO FO UGHTFOR PO TVER. 
 
 In the struggle of the great families of Japan for 
 precedence, the lords of the Fujiwara held the civil 
 power of the realm, while the shoguns, or generals, 
 were chosen from the Taira and Minamoto clans. 
 Bred to arms, leading the armies of the empire in 
 many a hard-fought war, making the camp their 
 home, and loving best the trumpet-blast of battle, 
 they became hardy and daring warriors, the miHtary 
 caste of Japan. "While war continued, the shoguns 
 •were content to let the Fujiwara lord it at court, 
 themselves preferring the active labors of the field. 
 Only when peace prevailed, and there were no ene- 
 mies to conquer nor rebels to subdue, did these war- 
 riors begin to long for the spoils of place and to envy 
 the Fujiwara their power. 
 
 Chief among those thus moved by ambition was 
 Kiyomori, the greatest of the Taira leaders. As a 
 boy he possessed a strong frame and showed a proud 
 spirit, wearing unusually high clogs, which in Japan 
 indicates a disposition to put on lordly airs. His 
 position as the son of a soldier soon gave him an 
 opportunity to show his mettle. The seas then 
 swarmed with pirates, who had become the scourge 
 alike of Oorea and of Japan and were making havoc 
 among the mercantile fleets. The ambitious boy, 
 
 41 
 
42 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 full of warlike spirit, demanded, when but eighteen 
 years of age, to be sent against these ocean pests, 
 and cruised against them in the Suwo Nada, a part 
 of the Inland Sea. Here he met and fought a ship- 
 load of the most desperate of the buccaneers, cap- 
 turing their vessel, and then attacking them in their 
 place of refuge, which he destroyed. 
 
 For years afterwards Kiyomori showed the 
 greatest valor by land and sea, and in 1153, being 
 then thirty-six years of age, he succeeded his father 
 as minister of justice for Japan. Up to this time 
 the families of the Taira and the Minamoto had been 
 friendly rivals in the field. Now their friendship 
 came to an end and was succeeded by bitter enmity. 
 In 1156 there were rival claimants for the throne, 
 one supported by each of these great families. The 
 Taira party succeeded, got possession of the palace, 
 and controlled the emperor whom they had raised to 
 the throne. 
 
 Kiyomori soon attained the highest power in the 
 realm, and in him the military caste first rose to 
 pre-eminence. The Fujiwara were deposed, all the 
 high ofiices at court were filled by his relatives, and 
 he made himself the military chief of the empire 
 and the holder of the civil authority, the mikado 
 being but a creature of his will. 
 
 History at this point gives us a glimpse of a 
 curious state of aifairs. Go-Shirawaka, the emperor 
 whom Kiyomori had raised to the throne in 1156, 
 abdicated in 1159, shaved off his hair, and became a 
 Buddhist monk, professing to retire from the world 
 within the holy cloisters of a monastery. But 
 
HOW THE TAIEA AND MINAMOTO FOrQHT. 43 
 
 nothing was farther from his thoughts. He was a 
 man of immoral desires, and found his post on the 
 throne a check to the debaucheries in which he 
 wished to indulge. As a monk he exercised more 
 power than he had done as a mikado, retaining the 
 control of affairs during the reigns of his son and his 
 two grandsons. The ranks and titles of the empire 
 were granted by him with a lavish hand, and their 
 disposition was controlled by Kiyomori, his powerful 
 confederate, who, in addition to raising his relatives 
 to power, held himself several of the highest ofllces 
 in the realm. 
 
 The power of the Taira family increased until sixty 
 men of the clan held important posts at court, while 
 their lands spread over thirty provinces. They had 
 splendid palaces in Kioto, the capital, and in Fuku- 
 wara, overlooking the Inland Sea. The two sons of 
 Kiyomori were made generals of high rank, and his 
 daughter became wife of the emperor Takakura, a 
 boy eleven years of age. The Taira chief was now at 
 the summit of power, and his foes in the depths of 
 distress. The Fujiwara, who had no military power, 
 were unable to contend with him, and his most 
 dangerous rivals, the Minamoto, were slain or driven 
 into exile. Yoshitomo, the head of the house, was 
 assassinated by a traitor bribed by Kiyomori, his 
 oldest son was beheaded, and the others — whom be 
 thought to be the last of the Minamoto — were either 
 banished or immured in monasteries. All the reins 
 of power seemed to be in the regent's grasp. 
 
 The story is here diversified by a legend well 
 worth repeating. One of the Minamoto, Tametomo 
 
44 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 by name, was an archer of marvellous powers. His 
 strength was equal to that of fifty ordinary men, 
 and such was the power of his right arm, which 
 was shorter than his left, that he could draw a bow 
 which four common archers could not bend, and let 
 fly a shaft five feet long, with an enormous bolt as 
 its head. This Japanese Hercules was banished from 
 the court at the instigation of the Taira, the muscles 
 of his arm were cut, and he was sent in a cage to 
 Idzu. 
 
 Escaping from his guards, he fled to one of the 
 smaller islands, and remained in concealment until 
 his arm had healed. Here the great archer became 
 governor of the people, and forbade them to pay 
 tribute to the throne. A fleet of boats was de- 
 spatched against him, but, standing on the strand, 
 he sent an arrow hurtling through the timbers of 
 the nearest vessel and sunk it beneath the waves. 
 Then, shouting defiance to his foes, he shut himself 
 up in his house, set fire to it, and perished in the 
 flames. But another legend relates that he fled to 
 the Loochoo Islands, where he became ruler and 
 founder of their dynasty of kings. On the Japanese 
 greenback notes is a picture of this mighty archer, 
 who is shown grasping his bow after sinking the ship. 
 
 It was the purpose of Kiyomori to exterminate 
 the family of his foes. In two instances he was in- 
 duced to let sons of that family live, a leniency for 
 which the Taira were to pay bitterly in the end. 
 The story of both these boys is full of romance. 
 We give one of them here, reserving the other for 
 a succeeding tale. Yoritomo, the third son of Yoshi- 
 
HOW THE TAIRA AND MINAMOTO FOTTGHT. 45 
 
 tomo, was twelve years of age at the date of his 
 father's defeat and death. During the retreat the 
 boy was separated from his companions, and fell 
 into the hands of an officer of the opposite party, 
 who took him as prisoner to Kioto, the capital. 
 Here the regent sentenced him to death, and the day 
 for his execution was fixed. Only the tender heart 
 of a woman saved the life of one who was destined 
 to become the avenger of his father and friends. 
 
 " Would you like to live ?" the boy's captor asked 
 him. 
 
 "Yes," he replied; "my father and mother are 
 both dead, and who but I can pray for their happi- 
 ness in the world to come ?" 
 
 The feelings of the officer were touched by this 
 reply, and, hoping to save the boy, he told the 
 story to the step-mother of Kiyomori, who was a 
 Buddhist nun. The filial piety of the child affected 
 her, and she was deeply moved when the officer said, 
 " Toritomo is much like Prince Uma." 
 
 TJma had been her favorite son, one loved and lost, 
 and, her mother's heart stirred to its depths, she 
 sought Kiyomori and begged him to spare the boy's 
 life. He was obdurate at first, worldly wisdom bid- 
 ding him to remove the last scion of his foes, but in 
 the end he yielded to his mother's prayer and con- 
 sented to spare the child, condemning him, how- 
 ever, to distant exile. This softness of heart he was 
 bitterly to regret. 
 
 Yoritomo was banished to the province of Idzu, 
 where he was kept under close guard by two officers 
 of the Taira. He was advised by a friend to shave 
 
46 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 off his hair and become a monk, but a faithful ser- 
 vant who attended him counselled him to keep his 
 hair and await with a brave heart what the future 
 might bring forth. The boy was shrewd and pos- 
 sessed of high self-control. None of the remaining 
 followers of his father dared communicate with him, 
 and enemies surrounded him, yet he restrained all 
 display of feeling, was patient under provocation, 
 capable of great endurance, and so winning in man- 
 ner that he gained the esteem even of the enemies 
 of his family. 
 
 The story of Yoritomo's courtship and marriage 
 is one of much interest. Hojo Tokimasa, a noble 
 with royal blood in his veins, had two daughters, the 
 elder being of noted beauty, the younger lacking in 
 personal charms. The exiled youth, who wished to 
 ally himself to this powerful house and was anxious 
 to win the mother's favor in his suit, was prudent 
 enough to choose the homely girl. He sent her a let- 
 ter, asking her hand in marriage, by his servant, but 
 the latter, who had ideas of his own and preferred 
 the beauty for his master's wife, destroyed the letter 
 and wrote another to Masago, the elder daughter. 
 
 That night the homely sister had a dream. A 
 pigeon seemed to fly to her with a box of gold in its 
 beak. She told her vision to her sister, whom it 
 deeply interested, as seeming to be a token of some 
 good fortune coming. 
 
 " I will buy your dream," she said. " Sell it to me, 
 and I will give you my toilet mirror in exchange. 
 The price I pay is little," she repeated, using a com- 
 mon Japanese phrase. 
 
HOW THE TAIRA AND MINAMOTO FOUGHT. 47 
 
 The homely sister willingly made the exchange, 
 doubtless preferring a mirror to a dream. But she 
 had hardly done so when the messenger arrived with 
 the letter he had prepared. Masago gladly accepted, 
 already being well inclined towards the handsome 
 youth, but her father had meanwhile promised her 
 hand to another suitor, and refused to break his 
 word. The marriage was solemnized. But an un- 
 derstanding had been reached between the lovers, 
 and early on the wedding-night Masago eloped with 
 the waiting youth. In vain the husband sought for 
 the fleeing pair. The father, seemingly angry, aided 
 him in his search, though really glad at the lovers' 
 flight. He much preferred Yoritomo, though he had 
 been bound by his word, and in later years he be- 
 came one of his ablest partisans. Masago rose to 
 fame in Japanese history, aided in the subsequent 
 triumph of her spouse, and did much to add to the 
 splendor and dignity of his court. 
 
 During this period Kiyomori was making ene- 
 mies, and in time became so insolent and overbear- 
 ing that a conspiracy was formed for his overthrow. 
 At the head of this was one of the royal princes, 
 who engaged Yoritomo in the plot. The young ex- 
 ile sent out agents right and left to rouse the dis- 
 contented. Many were won over, but one of them 
 laughed the scheme to scorn, saying, " For an exile 
 to plot against the Taira is like a mouse plotting 
 against a cat." 
 
 But a conspiracy cannot be killed by a laugh. 
 Yoritomo was soon in the field at the head of a body 
 of followers. A fierce fight took place in the moun- 
 
48 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 tains, in which the young rebel fought bravely, but 
 was defeated and forced to flee for his life. Pursuit 
 was sharp, and he escaped only by hiding irj a hollow 
 log. He afterwards reached a temple and concealed 
 himself in the priests' wardrobe. At length he suc- 
 ceeded in crossing the Bay of Tedo to Awa, on its 
 northern side. Here he found friends, sent out 
 agents, and was not long in gathering a new army 
 from the old friends of the Minamoto and those who 
 hated the tyrant. In a few months he was at the 
 head of a large and well-drilled force, with many 
 noted generals in command. The country was fer- 
 tile and food abundant, and day by day the army 
 became larger. 
 
 But the Taira were not idle. Kiyomori quickly 
 gathered a large army, which he sent to put down 
 the rebellion, and the hostile forces came face to 
 fSLCe on opposite sides of the Fuji Eiver, the swiftest 
 stream in Japan. Between them rolled the impetuous 
 flood, which neither party dared to cross in the face 
 of the foe, the most they could do being to glare at 
 one another across the stream. 
 
 The story goes that one of the Taira men, knowing 
 that the turn of the tide would favor their enemies, 
 went to the river flats at night and stirred up the 
 flocks of wild fowl that rested there. What he hoped 
 to gain by this is not very clear, but it told against 
 his own side, for the noise of the flocks was thought 
 by the Taira force to be due to a night attack from 
 their foes, and they fled in a sudden panic. 
 
 After this bloodless victory Yoritomo returned to 
 his chosen place of residence, named Kamakura, 
 
HOW THE TAIEA AND MINAMOTO FOUGHT. 49 
 
 where lie began to build a city that should rival the 
 capital in size and importance. A host of builders 
 and laborers was set at work, the dense thickets were 
 cleared away, and a new town rapidly sprang up, 
 with streets lined with dwellings and shops, store- 
 houses of food, imposing temples, and lordly man- 
 sions. The anvils rang merrily as the armorers forged 
 weapons for the troops, merchants sought the new 
 city with their goods, heavily laden boats flocked 
 into its harbor, and almost as if by magic a great 
 city, the destined capital of the shoguns, rose from 
 the fields. 
 
 The site of Kamakura had been well chosen. It 
 lay in a valley facing the open sea, while in the rear 
 rose a semicircle of precipitous hills. Through these 
 roadways were cut, which might easily be defended 
 against enemies, while offering free access to friends. 
 The power of the Minamoto had suddenly grown 
 again, and the Taira saw fronting them an active 
 and vigorous foe where a year before all had seemed 
 tranquil and the land their own. 
 
 To the proud Kiyomori this was a bitter draught. 
 He fell sick unto death, and the high officials of the 
 empire gathered round his bed, in mortal fear lest he 
 to whom they owed their power should be swept 
 away. With his last breath the vindictive old chief 
 uttered invectives against his foes. 
 
 "My only regret is that I am dying," he said, 
 " and have not yet seen the head of Toritomo of the 
 Minamoto. After my decease do not make offerings 
 to Buddha on my account ; do not read the sacred 
 books. Only cut off the head of Yoritomo of the 
 
 4 
 
50 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Minamoto and hang it on my tomb. This is my sole 
 command: see that it be faithfully performed." 
 
 This order was not destined to be carried out. 
 Toritomo was to die peacefully, eleven years after- 
 wards, in 1199, with his head safe on his shoulders. 
 Yet his bedchamber was nightly guarded, lest traitors 
 should take his life, while war broke out from end to 
 end of the empire. Kiyomori's last words seemed to 
 have lighted up its flames. Step by step the forces of 
 Toritomo advanced. Yictory followed their banners, 
 and the foe went down in death. At length Kioto, 
 the capital of the mikado, was reached, and fell into 
 their hands. The Taira fled with the young mikado 
 and his wife, but his brother was proclaimed mikado 
 in his stead, and all the treasures of the Taira fell 
 into the victors' hands. 
 
 Though the power of Toritomo now seemed as- 
 sured, he had a rebellion in his own ranks to meet. 
 His cousin Toshinaka, the leader of the conquering 
 army, was so swollen with pride at his success that 
 he forced the court to grant him the highest military 
 title, imprisoned the old ex-mikado Go-Shirakawa, 
 who had long been the power behind the throne, be- 
 headed the Buddhist abbots who had opposed him, 
 and acted with such rebellious insolence that Tori- 
 tomo had to send an army against him. A battle 
 took place, in which he was defeated and killed. 
 
 Toritomo was now supreme lord of Japan, the 
 mikado, for whom he acted, being a mere tool in his 
 hands. Tet one great conflict had still to be fought 
 by the shogun's younger brother, whose romantic 
 story we have next to tell. 
 
THE BAYARD OF JAPAN. 
 
 YoRiTOMO was not the only son of the Minamoto 
 chief -whom the tyrant let live. There was another, 
 a mere babe at the time, who became a hero of chiv- 
 alry, and whose life has ever since been the beacon 
 of honor and knightly virtue to the youth of Japan. 
 
 When Toshitomo fled from his foes after his defeat 
 in 1159, there went with him a beautiful young peas- 
 ant girl, named Tokiwa, whom he had deeply loved, 
 and who had borne him three children, all boys. 
 The chief was murdered by three assassins hired by 
 his foe, and Tokiwa fled with her children, fearing 
 lest they also should be slain. 
 
 It was winter. Snow deeply covered the ground. 
 "Whither she should go or how she should live the 
 poor mother knew not, but she kept on, clasping her 
 babe to her breast, while her two little sons trudged 
 by her side, the younger holding her hand, the older 
 carrying his father's sword, which she had taken as 
 the last relic of her love. In the end the fleeing 
 woman, half frozen and in peril of starvation, was 
 met by a soldier of the army of her foes. Her 
 pitiable condition and the helplessness of her chil- 
 dren moved him to compassion, and he gave her 
 shelter and food. 
 
 Her flight troubled Kiyomori, who had hoped to 
 destroy the whole family of his foes, and had given 
 
 61 
 
52 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 strict orders for her capture or death. Not being 
 able to discover her place of retreat, he conceived a 
 plan which he felt sure would bring her within 
 his power. In Japan and China alike affection for 
 parents is held to be the highest duty of a child, the 
 basal element of the ancient religion of both these 
 lands. He therefore seized Tokiwa's mother, feeling 
 sure that filial duty would bring her to Kioto to save 
 her mother's life. 
 
 Tokiwa heard that her mother was held as a host- 
 age for her and threatened with death unless she, 
 with her children, should come to her relief. The 
 poor woman was in an agony of doubt. Did she 
 owe the greatest duty to her mother, or to her chil- 
 dren? Could she deliver up her babes to death? 
 Yet could she abandon her mother, whom she had 
 been taught as her first and highest duty to guard 
 and revere ? In this dilemma she conceived a plan. 
 Her beauty was all she possessed ; but by its aid 
 she might soften the hard heart of Kiyomori and 
 save both her mother and her children. 
 
 Success followed her devoted effort. Eeaching the 
 capital, Tokiwa obtained an audience with the tyrant, 
 who was so struck with her great beauty that he 
 wished to make her his mistress. At first she refused, 
 but her mother begged her with tears to consent, and 
 she finally yielded on Kiyomori's promise that her 
 children should be spared. This mercy did not please 
 the friends of the tyrant, who insisted that the boys 
 should be put to death, fearing to let any one live 
 who bore the hated name of Minamoto. But the 
 beauty of the mother and her tearful pleadings won 
 
THE BAYAKD OF JAPAN. 53 
 
 the tyrant's consent, and her sacrifice for her children 
 was not in vain. 
 
 The youngest of the three, the babe whom Tokiwa 
 had borne in her arms in her flight, grew up to be 
 a healthy, ruddy-cheeked boy, small of stature, but 
 fiery and impetuous in spirit. Kiyomori had no in- 
 tention, however, that these boys should be left at 
 liberty to cause him trouble in the future. When of 
 proper age he sent them to a monastery, ordering 
 that they should be brought up as priests. 
 
 The elder boys consented to this, suffering their 
 black hair to be shaved off and the robes of Buddhist 
 neophytes to be put on them. But Toshitsune, the 
 youngest, had no fancy for the life of a monk, and 
 refused to let the razor come near his hair. Though 
 dwelling in the monastery, he was so merry and self- 
 willed that his pranks caused much scandal, and the 
 pious bonzes knew not what to do with this young 
 ox, as they called the irrepressible boy. 
 
 As Toshitsune grew older, his distaste at the dul- 
 ness of his life in the cloister increased. The wars 
 in the north, word of which penetrated even those 
 holy walls, inspired his ambition, and he determined 
 in some way to escape. The opportunity to do so soon 
 arose. Traders from the outer world made their 
 way within the monastery gates for purposes of busi- 
 ness, and among these was an iron-merchant, who 
 was used to making frequent journeys to the north 
 of the island of Hondo to obtain the fine iron of 
 the celebrated mines of that region. The youth 
 begged this iron-merchant to take him on one of his 
 journeys, a request which he at first refused, through 
 
54 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 fear of offending the priests. But Yoshitsune in- 
 sisted, saying that they would be glad enough to be 
 rid of him, and the trader at length consented. Yo- 
 shitsune was right : the priests were very well satis- 
 fied to learn that he had taken himself off. 
 
 On the journey the youthful noble gave proofs of 
 remarkable valor and strength. He seized and held 
 prisoner a bold robber, and on another occasion 
 helped to defend the house of a man of wealth from 
 an attack by robbers, five of whom he killed. These 
 and other exploits alarmed a friend who was with 
 him, and who bade him to be careful lest the Taira 
 should hear of his doings, learn who he was, and kill 
 him. 
 
 The boy at length found a home with the prince 
 of Mutsu, a nobleman of the Pujiwara clan. Here 
 he spent his days in military exercises and the 
 chase, and by the time he was twenty-one had 
 gained a reputation as a soldier of great valor and 
 consummate skill, and as a warrior in whom the true 
 spirit of chivalry seemed inborn. A youth of such 
 honor, virtue, courage, and martial fire Japan had 
 rarely known. 
 
 ,In the war that soon arose between Yoritomo and 
 the Taira the youthful Bayard served his brother 
 well. Kiyomori, in sparing the sons of the Mina- 
 moto chief, had left alive the two ablest of all who bore 
 that name. So great were the skill and valor of the 
 young warrior that his brother, on the rebellion of 
 Yoshinaka, made Yoshitsune commander of the army 
 of the west, and sent him against the rebellious gen- 
 eral, who was quickly defeated and slain. 
 
THE BAYARD OF JAPAN. 55 
 
 But the Taira, though they had been driven from 
 the capital, had still many adherents in the land, and 
 were earnestly endeavoring to raise an army in the 
 south and west. Unfortunately for them, they had 
 a leader to deal with who knew the value of celerity. 
 Yoshitsune laid siege to the fortified palace of Fuku- 
 wara, within which the Taira leaders lay intrenched, 
 and pushed the siege with such energy that in a 
 short time the palace was taken and in flames. 
 Those who escaped fled to the castle of Yashima, 
 which their active enemy also besieged and burned. 
 As a last refuge the Taira leaders made their way to 
 the Straits of Shimonoseki, where they had a large 
 fleet of junks. 
 
 The final struggle in this war took place in the 
 fourth month of the year 1185. Yoshitsune had with 
 all haste got together a fleet, and the two armies, now 
 afloat, met on the waters of the strait for the greatest 
 naval battle that Japan had ever known. The Taira 
 fleet consisted of five hundred vessels, which held 
 not only the fighting men, but their mothers, wives, 
 and children, among them the dethroned mikado, 
 a child six years of age. The Minamoto fleet was 
 composed of seven hundred junks, containing none 
 but men. 
 
 In the battle that followed, the young leader of the 
 Minamoto showed the highest intrepidity. The fight 
 began with a fierce onset from the Taira, which drove 
 back their foe. "With voice and example Yoshitsune 
 encouraged his men. For an interval the combat 
 lulled. Then Wada, a noted archer, shot an arrow 
 which struck the junk of a Taira chief. 
 
56 HI8T0EICAL TALES, 
 
 " Shoot it back !" cried the chief. 
 
 An archer plucked it from the wood, fitted it to 
 his bow, and let it fly at the Minamoto fleet. The 
 shaft grazed the helmet of one warrior and pierced 
 the breast of another. 
 
 " Shoot it back !" cried Yoshitsun6. 
 
 "It is short and weak," said Wada, plucking it 
 from the dead man's breast. Taking a longer shaft 
 from his quiver, he shot it with such force and sure- 
 ness of aim that it passed through the armor and 
 flesh of the Taira bowman and fell into the sea 
 beyond. Toshitsune emptied his quiver with similar 
 skill, each arrow finding a victim, and soon the tide 
 of battle turned. 
 
 Treason aided the Minamoto in their victory. In 
 the vessel containing the son, widow, and daughter 
 of Kiyomori, and the young mikado, was a friend of 
 Yoshitsune, who had agreed upon a signal by which 
 this junk could be known. In the height of the 
 struggle the signal appeared. Yoshitsune at once 
 ordered a number 6f captains to follow with their 
 boats, and bore down on this central vessel of the 
 Taira fleet. 
 
 Soon the devoted vessel was surrounded by hostile 
 junks, and armed men leaped in numbers on its 
 deck. A Taira man sprang upon Yoshitsune, sword 
 in hand, but he saved his life by leaping to another 
 junk, while his assailant plunged to death in the 
 encrimsoned waves. Down went the Taira nobles 
 before the swords of their assailants. The widow 
 of Kiyomori, determined not to be taken alive, seized 
 the youthful mikado and leaped into the sea. Mune- 
 
THE BAYARD OF JAPAN. 57 
 
 mori, Kiyomori's son and the head of the Taira 
 house, was taken, with many nobles and ladies of the 
 court. 
 
 Still the battle went on. Ship after ship of the 
 Taira fleet, their sides crushed by the prows of their 
 opponents, sunk beneath the reddened waters. Others 
 were boarded and swept clear of defenders by the 
 sword. Hundreds perished, women and children as 
 well as men. Hundreds more were taken captive. 
 The waters of the sea, that morning clear and 
 sparkling, were now the color of blood, and the 
 pride of the Taira clan lay buried beneath the 
 waves or were cast up by the unquiet waters upon 
 the strand. "With that fatal day the Taira vanished 
 from the sight of men. 
 
 Toritomo gave the cruel order that no male of 
 that hated family should be left alive, and armed 
 murderers sought them out over hill and vale, slaying 
 remorselessly all that could be traced. In Kioto 
 many boy children of the clan were found, all of 
 whom were slain. A few of the Taira name escaped 
 from the fleet and fled to Kiushiu, where they hid 
 in the lurking-places of the mountains. There, in 
 poverty and pride, their descendants still survive, 
 having remained unknown in the depths of their 
 covert until about a century ago. 
 
 The story of Toshitsune, which began in such 
 glory, ends in treachery and ingratitude. Toritomo 
 envied the brother to whose valor his power was 
 largely due. Hatred replaced the love which should 
 have filled his heart, and he was ready to believe 
 any calumny against the noble young soldier. 
 
58 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 One Kajiwara, a military adviser in the army, 
 grew incensed at Yoshitsune for acting against 
 his advice, and hastened to Yoritomo with lies and 
 slanders. The shogun, too ready to believe these 
 stories, forbade Yoshitsune to enter the city on his 
 return with the spoils of victory. The youthful 
 victor wrote him a touching letter, which is still 
 extant, recounting his toils and dangers, and appeal- 
 ing for justice and the clearance from suspicion of 
 his fair fame. 
 
 Weary of waiting, he went to Kioto, where he 
 found himself pursued by assassins. He escaped into 
 Yamato, but was again pursued. Once more he es- 
 caped and concealed himself, but spies traced him 
 out and the son of his host tried to murder him. 
 
 What finally became of the hero is not known. 
 The popular belief is that he killed himself with his 
 own hand, after slaying his wife and children. Some 
 believe that he escaped to Yezo, where for years he 
 dwelt among the Ainos, who to-day worship his 
 spirit and have erected a shrine over what they 
 claim to be his grave. The preposterous story is 
 even advanced that he fled to Asia and became the 
 great Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. 
 
 Whatever became of him, his name is immortal in 
 Japan . Every Japanese youth looks upon the youth- 
 ful martyr as the ideal hero of his race, his form 
 and deeds are glorified in art and song, and while a 
 martial thought survives in Japan the name of this 
 Bayard of the island empire will be revered. 
 
THE HOyO TYRANNY. 
 
 Under the rule of Yoritomo Japan had two capi- 
 tals and two governments, the mikado ruling at 
 Kioto, the shogun at Kamakura, the magnificent 
 city which Yoritomo had founded. The great family 
 of the Minamoto was now supreme, all its rivals 
 being destroyed. A special tax for the support of 
 the troops yielded a large revenue to the shoguns ; 
 courts were established at Kamakura ; the priests, 
 who had made much trouble, were disarmed; a 
 powerful permanent army was established ; a mili- 
 tary chief was placed in each province beside the 
 civil governor, and that military government was 
 founded which for nearly seven centuries robbed the 
 mikado of all but the semblance of power. Thus it 
 came that the shogun, or the tycoon as he after- 
 wards named himself, appeared to be the emperor of 
 Japan. 
 
 We have told how Yoritomo, once a poor exile, 
 became the lord of the empire. After conquering 
 all his enemies he visited Kioto, where he astonished 
 the court of the mikado by the splendor of his 
 retinue and the magnificence of his military shows, 
 athletic games, and ceremonial banquets. The two 
 rulers exchanged the costliest presents, the emperor 
 conferred all authority upon the general, and when 
 Yoritomo returned to his capital city he held in his 
 
 59 
 
60 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 control the ruling power of the realm. All generals 
 were called shoguns, but he was the shogun, his title 
 being Sei-i Tai Shogun (Barbarian-subjugating Great 
 General). Though really a vassal of the emperor, 
 he wielded the power of the emperor himself, and 
 from 1192 until 1868 the mikados were insignificant 
 puppets and the shoguns the real lords of the land. 
 Such was the strange progress of political evolution 
 in Japan. The mikado was still emperor, but the 
 holders of this title lay buried in sloth or religious 
 fanaticism and let their subordinates rule. 
 
 And now we have another story to tell concern- 
 ing this strange political evolution. As the shoguns 
 became paramount over the mikados, so did the 
 Hojo, the regents of the shoguns, become paramount 
 over them, and for nearly one hundred and fifty 
 years these vassals of a vassal were the virtual em- 
 perors of Japan. This condition of affairs gives a 
 curious complication to the history of that country. 
 
 In a previous tale it has been said that the father 
 of Masago, the beautiful wife of the exiled prince, was 
 named Hojo Tokimasa. He was a man of ability and 
 was much esteemed and trusted by his son-in-law. 
 After the death of Yoritomo and the accession of 
 his son, Tokimasa became chief of the council of 
 state, and brought up the young shogun in idleness 
 and dissipation, wielding the power in his name. 
 "When the boy reached manhood and began to show 
 ambition to rule, Tokimasa had him exiled to a 
 temple and soon after assassinated. His brother, 
 then twelve years old, succeeded as shogun. He 
 cared nothing for power, but much for enjoyment, 
 
THE HO JO TYRANNY. 61 
 
 and the Hojo let him live his life of pleasure while 
 they held the control of affairs. In the end he was 
 murdered by the son of the slain shogun, who was 
 in his turn killed by a soldier, and thus the family 
 of Yoritomo became extinct. 
 
 Prom that time forward the Hojo continued pre- 
 eminent. They were able men, and governed the 
 country well. The shoguns were chosen by them 
 from the Minamoto elan, boys being selected, some 
 of them but two or three years old, who were de- 
 posed as soon as they showed a desire to rule. The 
 same was the case with the mikados, who were also 
 creatures of the Hojo clan. One of them who had 
 been deposed raised an army and fought for his 
 throne. He was defeated and exiled to a distant 
 monastery. Others were deposed, and neither mi- 
 kados nor shoguns were permitted to reign except 
 as puppets in the hands of the powerful regents of 
 the realm. 
 
 Ifone of the Hojo ever claimed the oflSce of 
 shogun. They were content to serve as the power 
 behind the throne. As time went on, the usual 
 result of such a state of affairs showed itself The 
 able men of the Hojo family were followed by weak 
 and vicious ones. Their tyranny and misgovern- 
 ment grew unbearable. They gave themselves up to 
 luxury and debauchery, oppressed the people by 
 taxes to obtain means for their costly pleasures, 
 and crushed beneath their oppressive rule the em- 
 peror, the shogun, and the people alike. Their cup 
 of vice and tyranny at length overflowed. The day 
 of retribution was at hand. 
 
62 HISTOEICAL TALES. 
 
 The son of the mikado Go-Daigo was the first to 
 rebel. His plans were discovered by spies, and his 
 father ordered him to retire to a monastery, in 
 which, however, he continued to plot revenge. Go- 
 Daigo himself next struck for the power of which 
 he possessed but the name. Securing the aid of 
 the Buddhist priests, he fortified Kasagi, a strong- 
 hold in Tamato. He failed in his effort. In the 
 following year (1331) an army attacked and took 
 Kasagi, and the emperor was taken prisoner and 
 banished to Oki. 
 
 Connected with his exile is a story of much 
 dramatic interest. While Go-Daigo was being borne 
 in a palanquin to his place of banishment, under 
 a guard of soldiers, Kojima, a young noble of his 
 party, attempted his rescue. Gathering a party of 
 followers, he occupied a pass in the hills through 
 which he expected that the train would make its 
 way. But another pass was taken, and he waited in 
 vain. 
 
 Learning their mistake, his followers, disheartened 
 by their failure, deserted him. But the faithful vassal 
 cautiously followed the train, making various efforts 
 to approach and whisper hope to the imperial exile. 
 He was prevented by the vigilance of the guard, and 
 finally, finding that either rescue or speech was hope- 
 less, he hit upon a plan to baffle the vigilance of the 
 guards and let the emperor know that friends were 
 still at work in his behalf. 
 
 Under the shadows of night he secretly entered 
 the garden of the inn where the party was resting, 
 and there scraped off the outer bark of a cherry- 
 

 LETTER-WRITING IN JAPAN. 
 
THE HOJO TTEANNT. 63 
 
 tree, laying bare the smooth white layer within. 
 On this he wrote the following stanza : 
 
 " O Heaven, destroy not Kosen 
 "While Hanrei still lives." 
 
 The next morning the soldiers noticed the writing 
 on the tree. Curious to learn its meaning, but un- 
 able to read, they showed it to their prisoner, who, 
 being familiar with the quotation, caught, with an 
 impulse of joy, its concealed significance. Kosen 
 was an ancient king of China who had been deposed 
 and made prisoner, but was afterwards restored to 
 power by his faithful follower Hanrei. Glad to learn 
 that loyal friends were seeking his release, the em- 
 peror went to his lonely exile with renewed hope. 
 Kojima afterwards died on the battle-field during the 
 war for the restoration of the exiled mikado. 
 
 But another valiant soldier was soon in the field 
 in the interest of the exile. Nitta Toshisada, a cap- 
 tain of the Hojo forces, had been sent to besiege 
 Kusunoki, a vassal of the mikado, who held a strong- 
 hold for his imperial lord. Nitta, roused by con- 
 science to a sense of his true duty, refused to fight 
 against the emperor, deserted from the army, and, 
 obtaining a commission from Go-Daigo's son, who 
 was concealed in the mountains, he returned to his 
 native place, raised the standard of revolt against 
 the Hojo, and soon found himself at the head of a 
 considerable force. 
 
 In thirteen days after raising the banner of revolt 
 in favor of the mikado he reached the vicinity of 
 Kamakura, acting under the advice of his brother, 
 
64 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 who counselled him to beard the lion in his den. 
 The tyranny of the Hojo had spread far and wide 
 the spirit of rebellion, and thousands flocked to the 
 standard of the young general, — a long white pen- 
 nant, near whose top were two bars of black, and 
 under them a circle bisected with a zone of black. 
 
 On the eve of the day fixed for the attack on the 
 city, Nitta stood on the sea-shore in front of his 
 army, before him the ocean with blue islands visible 
 afar, behind him lofty mountain peaks, chief among 
 them the lordly Fusiyama. Here, removing his 
 helmet, he uttered the following words : 
 
 " Our heavenly son [the mikado] has been deposed 
 by his traitorous subject, and is now an exile afar in 
 the west. I have not been able to look on this act 
 unmoved, and have come to punish the traitors in 
 yonder city by the aid of these loyal troops. I 
 humbly pray you, O god of the ocean waves, to 
 look into the purposes of my heart. If you favor 
 me and my cause, then bid the tide to ebb and open 
 a path beside the sea." 
 
 With these words he drew his sword and cast it 
 with all his strength into the water. For a moment 
 the golden hilt gleamed in the rays of the setting 
 sun, and then the blade sank from sight. But with 
 the dawn of the next day the soldiers saw with 
 delight that there had been a great ebb in the tide, 
 and that the dry strand ofiered a wide high-road 
 past the rocky girdle that enclosed Kamakura. With 
 triumphant shouts they marched along this ocean 
 path, following a leader whom they now believed to 
 be the chosen avenger of the gods. 
 
THE HOJO TYKANNT. 65 
 
 From two other sides the city of the shogun was 
 attacked. The defence was as fierce as the assault, 
 but everywhere victory rested upon the white banner 
 of loyalty. Nitta's army pressed resistlessly forward, 
 and the Hojo found themselves defeated and their 
 army destroyed. Fire completed what the sword 
 had begun, destructive flames attacked the frame 
 dwellings of the city, and in a few hours the great 
 capital of the shoguns and their powerful regents 
 was a waste of ashes. 
 
 Many of the vassals of the Hojo killed themselves 
 rather than surrender, among them a noble named 
 Ando, whose niece was Nitta's wife. She wrote him 
 a letter begging him to surrender. 
 
 " My niece is the daughter of a samurai house," 
 the old man indignantly exclaimed. " How can she 
 make so shameless a request ? And why did JSTitta, 
 who is himself a samurai, permit her to do so ?" 
 Wrapping the letter around his sword, he plunged 
 the blade into his body and fell dead. 
 
 While Nitta was winning this signal victory, 
 others were in arms for the mikado elsewhere, and 
 everywhere the Hojo power went down. The 
 people in all sections of the empire rose against the 
 agents of the tyrants and put them to death, many 
 thousands of the Hojo clan being slain and their 
 power utterly destroyed. They had ruled Japan 
 from the death of Toritomo, in 1199, to 1333. They 
 have since been execrated in Japan, the feeling of 
 the people being displayed in their naming one of the 
 destructive insects of the island the Hojo bug. Yet 
 among the Hojo were many able rulers, and under 
 
 5 
 
66 HISTOEICAL TALES. 
 
 them the empire was kept in peace and order for 
 over a century, while art and literature flourished 
 and many of the noblest monuments of Japanese 
 architecture arose. 
 
 Go-Daigo was now recalled from exile and re- 
 placed on the imperial throne. For the first time 
 for centuries the mikado had come to his own and 
 held the power of the empire in his hands. With 
 judgment and discretion he might have restored the 
 old government of Japan. 
 
 But he lacked those important qualities, and 
 quickly lost the power he had won. After a passing 
 gleam of its old splendor the mikadoate sank into 
 eclipse again. 
 
 Go-Daigo was ruined by listening to a flatterer, 
 whom he raised to the highest power, while he 
 rewarded those who had rescued him with unim- 
 portant domains. A fierce war followed, in which 
 Ashikaga, the flatterer, was the victor, defeating and 
 destroying his foes. Go-Daigo had pronounced him 
 a rebel. In return he was himself deposed, and a 
 new emperor, whom the usurper could control, was 
 raised to the vacant throne. For three years only 
 had the mikado remained supreme. Then for a long 
 period the Ashikagas held the reins of power, and a 
 tyranny like that of the Hojo existed in the land. 
 
THE TARTAR INVASION OF 
 JAPAN. 
 
 In all its history only one serious effort has been 
 made to conquer the empire of Japan. It ended in 
 such dire disaster to the invaders that no nation has 
 ever repeated it. During the thirteenth century 
 Asia was thrown into turmoil by the dreadful out- 
 break of the Mongol Tartars under the great con- 
 queror Genghis Khan. Nearly all Asia was over- 
 run, Eussia was subdued, China was conquered, and 
 envoys were sent to Japan demanding tribute and 
 homage to the great khan. 
 
 Six times the demand was made, and six times re- 
 fused. Then an army of ten thousand men was sent 
 to Japan, but was soon driven from the country in 
 defeat. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, 
 now sent nine envoys to the shogun, bidding them 
 to stay until they received an answer to his demand. 
 They stayed much longer than he intended, for the 
 Hojo, who were then in power, cut off their heads. 
 Once again the Chinese emperor sent to demand 
 tribute, and once again the heads of the envoys were 
 severed from their bodies. 
 
 Acts like these could have only one result, and the 
 Japanese made rapid preparations to meet the great 
 power which had conquered Asia. A large army 
 was levied, forts and defences were put in order, 
 
 67 
 
68 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 stores gathered in great quantities, and weapons and 
 munitions of war abundantly prepared. A fleet of 
 junks was built, and all the resources of the empire 
 were employed. Japan, though it had waged no 
 wars abroad, had amply learned the art of war from 
 its frequent hostilities at home, and was well provided 
 with brave soldiers and skilful generals. The khan 
 was not likely to find its conquest an easy task. 
 
 While the islanders were thus busy, their foes 
 were as actively engaged. The proud emperor had 
 made up his mind to crush this little realm that so 
 insolently defied his power. A great fleet was made 
 ready, containing thirty-five hundred vessels in all, 
 in which embarked an army of one hundred thou- 
 sand Chinese and Tartars and seven thousand Co- 
 rean troops. It was the seventh month of the year 
 1281 when the expectant sentinels of Japan caught 
 the glint of the sun's rays on the far-off throng of 
 sails, which whitened the seas as they came on with 
 streaming banners and the warlike clang of brass 
 and steel. 
 
 The army of Japan, which lay encamped on the 
 hills back of the fortified city of Daizaifu, in the 
 island of Kiushiu, and gathered in ranks along the 
 adjoining coast, gazed with curiosity and dread on 
 this mighty fleet, far the largest they had ever seen. 
 Many of the vessels were of enormous size, as it 
 seemed to their unaccustomed eyes, and were armed 
 with engines of war such as they had never before 
 beheld. The light boats of the Japanese had little 
 hope of success against these huge junks, and many 
 of those that ventured from shelter were sunk by 
 
THE TAETAR INVASION OF JAPAN. 69 
 
 the darts and stones flung from the Mongol catapults. 
 The enemy could not be matched upon the sea; it 
 remained to prevent him from setting foot upon 
 shore. 
 
 Yet the courage and daring of the island warriors 
 could not be restrained. A party of thirty swam 
 out and boarded a junk, where their keen-edged 
 swords proved more than a match for the Tartar 
 bows and spears, so that they returned with the 
 heads of the crew. A second party tried to repeat 
 a like adventure, but the Tartars were now on the 
 alert and killed them all. One captain, with a 
 picked crew, steered out in broad daylight to a 
 Chinese junk, heedless of a shower of darts, one of 
 which took off his arm. In a minute more he and 
 his men were on the deck and were driving back the 
 crew in a fierce hand-to-hand encounter. Before 
 other vessels of the fleet could come up, they had 
 fired the captured junk and were off again, bearing 
 with them twenty-one heads of the foe. 
 
 To prevent such attacks all advanced boats were 
 withdrawn and the fleet was linked together with 
 iron chains, while with catapults and great bows 
 heavy darts and stones were showered on approach- 
 ing Japanese boats, sinking many of them and de- 
 stroying their crews. But all efforts of the Tartars 
 to land were bravely repulsed, and such detachments 
 as reached the shore were driven into the sea before 
 they could prepare for defence, over two thousand 
 of the enemy falling in these preliminary attempts. 
 With the utmost haste a long line of fortifications, 
 consisting of earthworks and palisades, had been 
 
70 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 thrown up for miles along the shore, and behind 
 these defences the island soldiers defied their foes. 
 
 Among the defenders was a captain, Michiari by- 
 name, whose hatred of the Mongols led him to a 
 deed of the most desperate daring. Springing over 
 the breastworks, he defied the barbarians to mortal 
 combat. Then, filling two boats with others as 
 daring as himself, he pushed out to the fleet. 
 
 Both sides looked on in amazement. " Is the man 
 mad?" said the Japanese. "Are those two little 
 boats coming to attack our whole fleet?" asked the 
 Mongols. " They must be deserters, who are coming 
 to surrender.'' 
 
 Under this supposition the boats were permitted 
 to approach unharmed, their course being directed 
 towards a large Tartar junk. A near approach be- 
 ing thus made, grappling-irons were flung out, and 
 in a minute more the daring assailants were leaping 
 on board the junk. 
 
 Taken by surprise, the Tartars were driven back, 
 the two-handed keen-edged swords of the assailants 
 making havoc in their ranks. The crew made what 
 defence they could, but the sudden and unlooked-for 
 assault had put them at disadvantage, and before the 
 adjoining ships could come to their aid the junk was 
 in flames and the boats of the victors had put off 
 for land. With them as prisoner they carried one 
 of the highest oflScers in the invading fleet. 
 
 Yet these skirmishes did little in reducing the 
 strength of the foe, and had not the elements come 
 to the aid of Japan the issue of the affair might 
 have been serious for the island empire. While the 
 
THE TARTAR INVASION OF JAPAN. 71 
 
 soldiers were fighting the priests were praying, and 
 the mikado sent a priestly messenger to the shrines 
 at Ise, bearing his petition to the gods. It was noon- 
 day, and the sky perfectly clear, when he offered the 
 prayer, but immediately afterwards a broad streak 
 of cloud rose on the horizon, and soon the sky was 
 overcast with dense and rolling masses, portending a 
 frightful storm. 
 
 It was one of the typhoons that annually visit that 
 coast and against whose appalling fury none but the 
 strongest ships can stand. It fell with all its force 
 on the Chinese fleet, lifting the junks like straws on 
 the great waves which suddenly arose, tossing them 
 together, hurling some upon the shore, and forcing 
 others bodily beneath the sea. Hundreds of the light 
 craft were sunk, and corpses were heaped on the 
 shore in multitudes. Many of the vessels were 
 driven to sea, few or none of which ever reached 
 land. Many others were wrecked upon Taka Island. 
 Here the survivors, after the storm subsided, began 
 cutting down trees and building boats, in the hope 
 of reaching Corea. But they were attacked by the 
 Japanese with such fury that all were slain but 
 three, whose lives were spared that they might bear 
 back the news to their emperor and tell him how 
 the gods had fought for Japan. 
 
 The lesson was an effective one. The Chinese 
 have never since attempted the conquest of Japan, 
 and it is the boast of the people of that country 
 that no invading army has ever set foot upon their 
 shores. Six centuries afterwards the case was to be 
 reversed and a Japanese army to land on Chinese soil. 
 
72 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Great praise was given to the Hojo then in control 
 at Kamakura for his energy and valor in repelling the 
 invaders. But the chief honor was paid to the gods 
 enshrined at Ise, who were thenceforward adored as 
 the guardians of the winds and the seas. To this 
 day the invasion of the Mongols is vividly remem- 
 bered in Kiushiu, and the mother there hushes her 
 fretful babe with the question, " Little one, why do 
 you cry? Do you think the Mogu are coming?" 
 
 It may be well here to say that the story of this 
 invasion is told by Marco Polo, who was at the court 
 of Kublai Khan, the Mongol conqueror of China, at 
 the time it took place, and that his tale differs in 
 many respects from that of the Japanese historians. 
 Each party is apparently making the best of its side 
 of the affair. 
 
 According to Marco Polo's account, the failure of 
 the expedition was due to jealousy between the two 
 oflScers in command. He states that one Japanese 
 fortification was taken and all within put to the 
 sword, except two, whose flesh was charmed against 
 the sword and who could be killed only by being 
 beaten to death with great clubs. As for those who 
 reached Taka Island, they contrived by strategy to 
 gain possession of the boats of the assailing Japanese, 
 by whose aid, and that of the flags which the boats 
 flew, they captured the chief city of Japan. Here for 
 six months they were closely besieged, and finally 
 surrendered on condition that their lives should be 
 spared. 
 
NOBUNAGA AND THE FALL OF 
 THE BUDDHISTS. 
 
 For more than two centuries the Ashikaga lorded 
 it over Japan, as the Hojo had done before them, and 
 the mikados were tools in their strong hands. Then 
 arose a man who overthrew this powerful clan. This 
 man, Nobunaga by name, was a descendant of Kiyo- 
 mori, the great leader of the Taira clan, his direct 
 ancestor being one of the few who escaped from the 
 great Minamoto massacre. 
 
 The father of this Taira chief was a soldier whose 
 valor had won him a large estate. Nobunaga added 
 to it, built himself a strong castle, and became the 
 friend and patron of the last of the Ashikaga, whom 
 he made shogun. (The Ashikaga were descendants 
 of the Minamoto, who alone had hereditary claim to 
 this high ofSce.) But Nobunaga remained the power 
 behind the throne, and, a quarrel arising between 
 him and the shogun, he deposed the latter, and be- 
 came himself the ruler of Japan. After two hundred 
 and thirty-eight years of dominion the lordship of 
 the Ashikaga thus came to an end. 
 
 Of this great Japanese leader we are told, "He 
 was a prince of large stature, but of weak and deli- 
 cate complexion, with a heart and soul that supplied 
 all other wants ; ambitious above all mankind ; brave, 
 generous, and bold, and not without many excellent 
 
 73 
 
74 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 moral virtues ; inclined to justice, and an enemy to 
 treason. With a quick and penetrating wit, he 
 seemed cut out for business. Excelling in military- 
 discipline, he -was esteemed the fittest to command 
 an army, manage a siege, fortify a town, or mark 
 out a camp of any general in Japan, never using any 
 head but his own. If he asked advice, it was more 
 to know their hearts than to profit by their advice. 
 He sought to see into others and to conceal his own 
 counsel, being very secret in his designs. He laughed 
 at the worship of the gods, being convinced that the 
 bonzes were impostors abusing the simplicity of the 
 people and screening their own debauches under the 
 name of religion." 
 
 Such was the man who by genius and strength of 
 will now rose to the head of afPairs. Not being 
 of the Minamoto family, he did not seek to make 
 himself shogun, and for forty years this office ceased 
 to exist. He ruled in the name of the mikado, but 
 held all the power of the realm. 
 
 The good fortune of Nobunaga lay largely in his 
 wise choice of men. Under him were four generals, 
 so admirable yet so diverse in military ability that 
 the people gave them the distinctive nicknames of 
 " Cotton," « Eice," " Attack," and " Eetreat." Cotton, 
 which can be put to a multitude of uses, indicated 
 the fertility in resources of the first; while the second 
 made himself as necessary as rice, which people can- 
 not live a day without. The strength of the third 
 lay in the boldness of his attacks ; of the fourth, in 
 the skill of his retreats. Of these four, the first, 
 named Hideyoshi, rose to great fame. A fifth was 
 
NOBUNAGA AND THE FALL OP THE BUDDHISTS. 75 
 
 afterwards added, Tokugawa lyeyasu, also a famous 
 name in Japan. 
 
 It was through his dealings with the Buddhists 
 that Nobunaga made himself best known in history. 
 He had lived among them in his early years, and 
 had learned to hate and despise them. Having been 
 educated in the Shinto faith, the ancient religion of 
 Japan, he looked on the priests of Buddhism as 
 enemies to the true faith. The destruction of these 
 powerful sectaries was, therefore, one of the great 
 purposes of his life. 
 
 Nobunaga had other reasons than these for de- 
 stroying the power of the bonzes. During the long 
 period of the Ashikagas these cunning ecclesiastics 
 had risen to great power. Their monasteries had 
 become fortresses, with moats and strong stone walls. 
 Internally these were like arsenals, and an army 
 could readily be equipped from them with weapons, 
 while many of the priests were daring leaders. 
 During the civil wars they served the side that 
 promised them the most spoil or power. Eivals 
 among them often fought battles of their own, in 
 which hundreds were killed and towns and temples 
 burned. So great were their authority, their inso- 
 lence, and their licentiousness that their existence had 
 become an evil in the land, and Nobunaga determined 
 to teach them a lesson they would not soon forget. 
 
 Of the monasteries, the most extensive was that 
 of Hiyeizan, on Lake Biwa. Within its territory 
 lay thirteen valleys and more than five hundred 
 temples, shrines, and dwellings, the grounds of which 
 were adorned in the highest style of landscape art. 
 
76 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 The monks here were numbered by thousands, with 
 whom religious service was a gorgeous ceremonial 
 mockery, and who revelled in luxury, feasted on 
 forbidden viands, drank to inebriety, and indulged 
 in every form of licentiousness. They used their 
 influence in rousing the clans to war, from which 
 they hoped to draw new spoils for their unrighteous 
 enjoyments, while screening themselves from danger 
 behind the cloak of the priesthood. 
 
 It was against this monastery that the wrath of 
 Nobunaga was most strongly aroused. Marching 
 against it in 1571, he bade his generals set it on 
 fire. The officers stood aghast at the order, which 
 seemed to them likely to call down the vengeance of 
 Heaven upon their heads. With earnest protests 
 they begged him not to do so unholy an act. 
 
 " Since this monastery was built, now nearly a 
 thousand years ago," they said, " it has been vigilant 
 against the power of the spirits of evil. IvTo one has 
 dared in all that time to lift a hand against these 
 holy buildings. Can you design to do so ?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Nobunaga, sternly. " I have put 
 down the villains that distracted the country, and I 
 intend to bring peace upon the land and restore the 
 power of the mikado. The bonzes have opposed my 
 efforts and aided my enemies. I sent them a mes- 
 senger and gave them the chance to act with loyalty, 
 but they failed to listen to my words, and resisted 
 the army of the emperor, aiding the wicked robbers. 
 Does not this make them thieves and villains? If I 
 let them now escape, this trouble will continue for- 
 ever, and I have allowed them to remain on this 
 
NOBtTNAGA AND THE PALL OF THE BUDDHISTS. 77 
 
 mountain only that I might destroy them. That is 
 not all. I have heard that these priests fail to keep 
 their own rules. They eat fish and the strong-smell- 
 ing vegetables which Buddha prohibited. They keep 
 concubines, and do not even read the sacred books 
 of their faith. How can such as these put down 
 evil and preserve holiness? It is my command 
 that you surround and burn their dwellings and see 
 that none of them escape alive." 
 
 Thus bidden, the generals obeyed. The grounds 
 of the monastery were surrounded, and on the next 
 day the temples and shrines were set on fire and the 
 soldiers remorselessly cut down all they met. The 
 scene of massacre and conflagration that ensued was 
 awful to behold. None were spared, neither young 
 nor old, man, woman, nor child. The sword and 
 spear were wielded without mercy, and when the 
 butchery ended not a soul of the multitude of in- 
 mates was left alive. 
 
 One more great centre of Buddhism remained to 
 be dealt with, that of the monastery and temple of 
 Houguanji, whose inmates had for years hated No- 
 bunaga and sided with his foes, while they made 
 their stronghold the hiding-place of his enemies. 
 Finally, when some of his favorite captains had been 
 killed by lurking foes, who fled from pursuit into 
 the monastery, he determined to deal with this 
 haunt of evil as he had dealt with Hiyeizan. 
 
 But this place was not to be so easily taken. It 
 was strongly fortified, and could be captured only by 
 siege. "Within the five fortresses of which it was 
 composed were many thousands of priests and war- 
 
78 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 riors, women and children, and a still more frightful 
 massacre than that of Hiyeizan was threatened. 
 The place was so closely surrounded that all escape 
 seemed cut off, but under cover of the darkness of 
 night and amid a fierce storm several thousand of 
 the people made their way from one of the forts. 
 They failed, however, in their attempt, being pur- 
 sued, overtaken, and slaughtered. Soon after a 
 junk laden with human ears and noses came close 
 under the walls of the castle, that the inmates might 
 learn the fate of their late friends. 
 
 Vigorously the siege went on. A sortie of the 
 garrison was repelled, but a number of Nobunaga's 
 best oflScers were killed. After some two months 
 of effort, three of the five fortresses were in the 
 assailants' hands, and many thousands of the gar- 
 rison had fallen or perished in the flames, the odor 
 of decaying bodies threatening to spread pestilence 
 through camp and castle alike. 
 
 In this perilous condition of affairs the mikado 
 sent a number of his high oflScials to persuade the 
 garrison to yield. A conference was held and a sur- 
 render agreed upon. The survivors were permitted 
 to make their way to other monasteries of their 
 sect, and Nobunaga occupied the castle, which is still 
 held by the government. These two great blows 
 brought the power of the bonzes, for that age, to an 
 end. In later years some trouble was made by them, 
 but Nobunaga had done his work so thoroughly 
 that there was little difficulty in keeping them under 
 control. 
 
 There remains only to tell the story of this great 
 
NOBUNAGA AND THE PALL OP THE BUDDHISTS. 79 
 
 captain's end. He died at Kioto, the victim of trea- 
 son. Among his captains was one named Akechi, a 
 brave man, but proud. One day, in a moment of 
 merriment, Nobunaga put the head of the captain 
 under his arm and played on it with his fan, saying 
 that he would make a drum of it. This pleasantry 
 was not to the taste of the haughty captain, who 
 nursed a desire for revenge, — behind which perhaps 
 lay a wish to seize the power of the chief. 
 
 The traitor did not have long to wait. Nobunaga 
 had sent most of his forces away to quell a rebellion, 
 keeping but a small garrison. With part of this 
 Akechi was ordered to Kiushiu, and left the city 
 with seeming intention to obey. But he had not 
 gone far when he called his ofScers together, told 
 them of his purpose to kill I^obunaga, and promised 
 them rich booty for their assistance in the plot. The 
 oflftcers may have had reasons of their own for mu- 
 tiny, for they readily consented, and marched back 
 to the city they had just left. 
 
 Nobunaga resided in the temple of Hounoji, ap- 
 parently without a guard, and to his surprise heard 
 the tread of many feet and the clash of armor with- 
 out. Opening a window to learn what this por- 
 tended, he was struck by an arrow fired from the 
 outer darkness. He saw at once what had occurred, 
 and that escape was impossible. There was but one 
 way for a hero to die. Setting fire to the temple, he 
 killed himself, and before many minutes the body of 
 the great warrior was a charred corpse in the ashes 
 of his fiineral pile. 
 
HOW A PEASANT BOY BECAME 
 PREMIER. 
 
 In the history of nations there have been many 
 instances of a man descended from the lowest class 
 of the populace reaching the highest rank. Kings, 
 conquerors, emperors, have thus risen from the ranks 
 of peasants and laborers, and the crown has beeii 
 worn by men born to the beggar's lot. In the his- 
 tory of Japan only one instance of this kind appears, 
 that of one born a peasant who supplanted the noble 
 families and became lord of the people and the 
 emperor alike. Such a man was Hideyoshi, the one 
 of Nobunaga's generals who bore the popular nick- 
 name of " Cotton," from his fertility of resources 
 and his varied utility to his chief. 
 
 Born in 1536, the son of a peasant named Yasuke, 
 as a baby he had almost the face of a monkey, while 
 as a boy he displayed a monkey-like cunning, rest- 
 lessness, and activity. The usual occupations of the 
 sons of Japanese peasants, such as grass-cutting and 
 rice-weeding, were not to the taste of young Mon- 
 key-pine, as the villagers called him, and he spent 
 his time in the streets, a keen-witted and reckless 
 young truant, who feared and cared for no one, and 
 lived by his wits. 
 
 Fortune favored the little vagrant by bringing 
 him under the eyes of the great soldier Nobunaga, 
 80 
 
HOW A PEASANT BOT BECAME PREMIER. 81 
 
 who was attracted by his wizened, monkeyish face 
 and restless eyes and gave him occupation among 
 his grooms. As he grew older his love of war be- 
 came pronounced, he took part in the numerous 
 civil turmoils in which his patron was engaged, and 
 manifested such courage and daring that Nobunaga 
 rapidly advanced him in rank, finally making him 
 one of his most trusted generals. No man was more 
 admired in the army for soldierly qualities than the 
 peasant leader, and the boldest warriors sought 
 service under his banner, which at first bore for 
 emblem a single gourd, but gained a new one after 
 each battle, until it displayed a thick cluster of 
 gourds. At the head of the army a golden model 
 of the original banner was borne, and wherever it 
 moved victory followed. 
 
 Such was the man who, after the murder of Nobu- 
 naga, marched in furious haste upon his assassin 
 and quenched the ambition of the latter in death. 
 The brief career of the murderer has given rise to a 
 Japanese proverb, " Akechi ruled three days." The 
 avenger of the slain regent was now at the head of 
 affairs. The mikado himself dared not oppose him, 
 for the military power of the empire lay within his 
 grasp. There was only one man who ventured to 
 resist his authority, and he for no long time. 
 
 This was a general named Shibata, who took the 
 field in defence of the claim of Nobutaka, a son of 
 the slain regent. He did not realize with whom he 
 had to deal. The peasant general was quickly in 
 the field at the head of his veteran army, defeated 
 Shibata at every encounter, and pursued him so hotly 
 
 6 
 
82 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 that he fled for refuge to a fortified place now known 
 as Pukui. This stronghold Hideyoshi besieged, es- 
 tablishing his camp on the slope of a neighboring 
 mountain, from which he pushed his siege operations 
 so vigorously that the fugitive gave up all hope of 
 escape. 
 
 In this dilemma Shibata took a resolution like 
 that of the Epicurean monarch of Assyria, the famed 
 Sardanapalus. He gave a grand feast in the palace, 
 to which all the captains and notables of his party 
 were invited, and at which all present danced and 
 made merry as though victory hung over their ban- 
 ners. Yet it was their ftmeral feast, to be followed 
 by a carnival of death. 
 
 In the midst of the banquet, Shibata, rising cup in 
 hand, said to his wife, — 
 
 " We are men, and will die. Tou are a woman, 
 and have the right to live. Ton may gain safety by 
 leaving the castle, and are at liberty to marry again." 
 
 The brave woman, the sister of Nobunaga, was 
 too high in spirit to accept this offer. Her eyes 
 filled with tears, she thanked her lord for his kind- 
 ness, but declared that the world held no other hus- 
 band for her, and that it was her sole wish to die 
 with him. Then, reciting a farewell stanza of poetry, 
 she calmly stood while her husband thrust his dirk 
 into her heart. 
 
 All the women and children present, nerved by 
 this brave example, welcomed the same fate, and 
 then the men committed hara-kiri, the Japanese 
 method of suicide, Shibata having first set fire to the 
 castle. Soon the flames curled upward round the 
 
HOW A PEASANT BOY BECAME PREMIER. 83 
 
 dead and the dying, and the conqueror found nothing 
 but the ashes of a funeral pile upon which to lay 
 hand. 
 
 Hideyoshi, all resistance to his rule being now at 
 an end, set himself to tranquillize and develop Japan, 
 lyeyasu, one of J^obunaga's favorite generals, became 
 his friend and married his sister; Mori, lord of the 
 West, came to the capital and became his vassal, and 
 no man in the empire dared question his power. His 
 enemies, proud nobles who were furious at having to 
 bend their haughty heads before a peasant, privately 
 called him Sava Kuan ja (" crowned monkey"), but 
 were wise enough not to be too open in their satire. 
 Their anger was especially aroused by the fact that 
 the mikado had conferred upon this parvenu the lofty 
 ofl&ce of kuambaku, or prime minister of the empire, 
 a title which had never before been borne by any 
 one not a noble of the Fujiwara clan, for whom it 
 had been expressly reserved. He was also ennobled 
 under the family name of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. 
 
 The new premier showed as great an activity in 
 the works of peace as he had shown in those of war, 
 putting his soldiers to work to keep their minds em- 
 ployed. Kioto was improved by his orders, splendid 
 palaces being built, and the bed of the river Kamo 
 paved with flat stones. Ozaka was greatly developed, 
 an immense fortress being' built, the river widened 
 and deepened, and canak dug in great profusion, 
 over which were thrown more than a thousand 
 bridges. Various other cities were improved, great 
 towers and pagodas built, and public works erected 
 in many parts of the realm. In addition Hideyoshi 
 
84 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 won popularity by his justice and mercy, pardoning 
 his opponents, though the rule had hitherto been to 
 put the adherents of opposite parties to death, and 
 showing no regard for rank, title, or service to him- 
 self in his official duty as judge. 
 
 He had married a peasant girl while a peasant him- 
 self, but as he rose in rank he espoused new wives of 
 increasingly liigh station, his last being of princely 
 descent. In the end he had as many wives as the 
 much-married Henry VIII., but not in the same 
 fashion, as he kept them all at once, instead of cutting 
 off the head of one to make room for the next. 
 
 Hideyoshi had one great ambition, born in him 
 when a boy, and haunting him as a man. This was 
 to conquer Corea, and perhaps China as well. He 
 had begged Nobunaga to aid him in this great de- 
 sign, but had only been laughed at for his pains. 
 Now that he was at the head of affairs, this plan 
 loomed up in large proportions in his mind. Corea 
 had long ceased to pay tribute, and Corean pirates 
 ravaged the coast. Here was an excuse for action. 
 As for China, he knew that anarchy ruled there, and 
 hoped to take advantage of this state of affairs. 
 
 Patting the back of a statue of Yoritomo in a 
 patronizing fashion, he humorously said, " You are 
 my friend. You took all the power in Japan, a 
 thing which only you and I have been able to do. 
 But you came from a noble family, and were not, 
 like me, the son of a peasant. I propose to outdo 
 you, and conquer all the earth, and even China. 
 What say you to that ?" 
 
 To test the feeling of the gods about his proposed 
 
HOW A PEASANT BOT BECAME PEEMIER. 85 
 
 expedition, he threw into the air before a shrine a 
 hundred " cash," or Japanese small coin, saying, to 
 translate his words into the American vernacular, 
 " If I am to conquer China, let these come up head." 
 
 They all came up " head," or what in Japan an- 
 swers to that word, and soldiers and ruler were alike 
 delighted, for this omen seemed surely to promise 
 success. 
 
 Nearly fourteen hundred years had elapsed since 
 the previous conquest of Corea by the famous empress 
 Jingu. l^Tow an army said to have been five hundred 
 thousand strong was sent across the ocean channel 
 between Kiushiu and the Corean coast. Hideyoshi 
 was at this time sixty years of age and had grown 
 infirm of body, so that he felt unable to command 
 the expedition himself, which was therefore intrusted 
 to two of his ablest leaders, Kato, of noble birth, 
 and Konishi, the son of a druggist, who disgusted 
 his proud associate by representing on his .banner a 
 paper medicine-bag, the sign of his father's shop. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ill feeling between the lead- 
 ers, the armies were everywhere victorious, Corea 
 was overrun and the king driven from his capital, 
 and the victors had entered into serious conflict with 
 the armies of China, when word came from Japan 
 (in 1598) that Hideyoshi was dead. A truce was at 
 once concluded and the army ordered home. 
 
 Thus ended the second invasion of Corea, the 
 second of the events which gave rise to the claim in 
 Japan that Corea is a vassal state of the island em- 
 pire and were used as warrants to the nineteenth 
 century invasion. 
 
THE FOUNDER OF YE DO AND 
 OF MODERN FEUDALISM. 
 
 The death of th« peasant premier left lyeyasu, 
 the second in ability of Nobunaga's great generals, 
 as the rising power in Japan. Hideyoshi, in the 
 hope of preserving the rule in his own family, had 
 married his son, a child of six, to lyeyasu's grand- 
 daughter, and appointed six ministers to act as his 
 guardians. He did not count, in cherishing this 
 illusory hope, on the strength of human ambition. 
 Nor did he give thought to the bitter disgust with 
 which the haughty lords and nobles had yielded to 
 the authority of one whom they regarded as an up- 
 start. The chances of the child's coming to power 
 were immeasurably small. 
 
 In truth, the death of the strong-willed premier 
 had thrown Japan open to anarchy. The leaders 
 who had returned from the Oorean war, flushed with 
 victory, were ambitious for power, and the thou- 
 sands of soldiers under their command were eager 
 for war and spoils. Hidenobu, a nephew of Nobu- 
 na,ga, claimed the succession to his uncle's position. 
 The five military governors who had been appointed 
 by the late premier were suspicious of lyeyasu, and 
 took steps to prevent him from seizing the vacated 
 place. The elements of anarchy indeed were every- 
 86 
 
FOtrWDER OF TEDO AND OF MODERN FEUDALISM. 87 
 
 where abroad, there was more than one aspirant to 
 the ruling power, and armies began to be raised. 
 
 lyeyasu keenly watched the movements of his 
 enemies. When he saw that troops were being re- 
 cruited, he did the same. Crimination and recrimi- 
 nation went on, skirmishes took place in the field, 
 the citadel of Ozaka was successively taken and re- 
 taken by the opposing parties, the splendid palace of 
 Hideyoshi at Fushimi was given to the flames, and 
 at length the two armies came together to settle in 
 one great battle the fate of Japan. 
 
 The army of the league against lyeyasu had many 
 leaders, including the five governors, most of the gen- 
 erals of the Corean war, and the lords and vassals of 
 HidC'yoshi. Strong as it was, one hundred and eighty 
 thousand in all, it was moved by contrary purposes, 
 and unity of counsel was lacking among the chiefs. 
 The army of lyeyasu, while far weaker, had but one 
 leader, and was inspired by a single purpose. 
 
 On the 1st of October, 1600, the march began, 
 over the great highway known as the Tokaido. 
 Th« white banner of lyeyasu was embroidered with 
 hollyhocks, his standard a golden fan. " The road 
 to the west is shut," prophesied the diviners. " Then 
 I shall knock till it opens," the bold leader replied. 
 
 As they marched onward, a persimmon (ogaki in 
 Japanese) was ofi'ered him. He opened his hand to 
 receive it, saying, as it fell into his palm, " Ogaki has 
 fallen into my hand." (The significance of this re- 
 mark lies in the fact that the camp of the league lay 
 around the castle of Ogaki). 
 
 Learning of the near approach of lyeyasu's force, 
 
88 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 the opposing army broke camp and marched to meet 
 him through a sharp rain that wet them to the skin. 
 Their chosen field of battle, Sekigahara (" plain of 
 the barrier") by name, is in Omi, near Lake Biwa. 
 It is an expanse of open, rolling ground, bisected by 
 one of the main roads between Tokio and Kioto 
 and crossed by a road from Bchizen. On this spot 
 was to be fought one of the greatest battles Japan 
 had ever known, whose result was destined to settle 
 the fate of the empire for two hundred and fifty 
 years. 
 
 In the early morning of the eventful day one of 
 the pickets of lyeyasu's host brought word that the 
 army of the league was in full march from the castle 
 of Ogaki. This important news was soon confirmed 
 by others, and the general joyfully cried, "The enemy 
 has indeed fallen into my hand." Throwing aside his 
 helmet, he knotted a handkerchief over his forehead, 
 saying that this was all the protection he should 
 need in the coming battle. 
 
 His army was seventy-five thousand strong. That 
 opposed to him exceeded his in strength by more 
 than fifty thousand men. But neither as yet knew 
 what they had to encounter, for a fog lay heavy on 
 the plain, and the two armies, drawn up in battle 
 array, were invisible to each other. To prevent 
 surprise, lyeyasu sent in front of his army a body 
 of guards bearing white flags, to give quick warning 
 of an advance. 
 
 At length, at eight o'clock, the fog rose and drifted 
 away, revealing the embattled hosts. Hardly had 
 it vanished before the drums beat their battle peal 
 
FOUNDER OP TEDO AND OF MODERN FEUDALISM. 89 
 
 and the martial conchs sounded defiance, while a 
 shower of arrows from each army hurtled through 
 the opposing ranks. In a short time the impatient 
 warriors met in mid field, and sword and spear began 
 their deadly work. 
 
 The great weight of the army of the league at 
 first gave it the advantage, and for hours the result 
 was in doubt, though a corps of the league forces 
 deserted to the ranks of lyeyasu. At length unity 
 and discipline began to prevail, the intrepidity of 
 lyeyasu and his skill in taking advantage of every 
 error of his enemy giving confidence to his men. 
 By noon they were bearing back the foe. Ordering 
 up the reserves, and bidding the drummers and 
 conch-blowers to sound their most inspiriting appeal, 
 lyeyasu gave order for the whole army to charge. 
 
 Before the impetuous onset that followed, the 
 enemy wavered, broke, and fled, followed in hot 
 pursuit by the victorious host. And now a frightful 
 scene began. Thousands of heads of the flying 
 were cut off by the keen-edged blades of their pur- 
 suers. Most of the wounded and many of the un- 
 hurt killed themselves upon the field, in obedience to 
 the exaggerated Japanese sense of honor. The de- 
 feat became a butchery. In Japanese battles of the 
 past quarter was a mercy rarely craved or granted, 
 and decapitation the usual mode of death when the 
 sword could be brought into play, so that the tri- 
 umph of the victors was usually indicated by the 
 dimensions of the ghastly heap of heads. In this 
 frightful conflict the claim was made by the victors 
 (doubtless an exaggeration) that they had taken 
 
90 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 forty thousand heads of the foe, -while their own loss 
 was only four thousand. However that be, a great 
 mound of heads was made, one of many such evi- 
 dences of slaughter which may still be seen in 
 Japan. 
 
 Throughout the battle a knotted handkerchief 
 was the only defence of lyeyasu's head. The vic- 
 tory won, he called for his helmet, which he put on, 
 carefully tying the strings. As all looked on with 
 surprise at this strange action, he, with a smile, 
 repeated to them an old Japanese proverb, " After 
 victory, knot the cords of your helmet." 
 
 It was a suggestion of vigilance wisely -given and 
 alertly acted upon. The strongholds of the league 
 were invested without delay, and one by one fell into 
 the victors' hands. The fragments of the beaten 
 army were followed and dispersed. Soon all oppo- 
 sition was at an end, and lyeyasu was lord and 
 master of Japan. 
 
 The story of the victor in the most decisive vic- 
 tory Japan had ever known, one that was followed 
 by two and a half centuries of peace, needs to com- 
 plete it a recital of two important events, one being 
 the founding of Yedo, the great eastern capital, the 
 other the organization of the system of feudalism. 
 
 For ages the country around the Bay of Yedo, 
 now the chief centre of activity and civilization in 
 Japan, was wild and thinly peopled. The first men- 
 tion of it in history is in the famous march of Ya- 
 mato-Dake, whose wife leaped here into the waves 
 as a sacrifice to the maritime gods. In the fifteenth 
 century a small castle was built on the site of the 
 
FOtrNDER OF TEDO AND OF MODERN PETIDALISM. 91 
 
 present city, while near it on the Tokaida, the great 
 highway between the two ancient capitals, stood a 
 small village, whose chief use was for the refresh- 
 ment and assistance of travellers. 
 
 Ota Dagnan, the lord of the castle, was a warrior 
 of fame, whose deeds have gained him a place in the 
 song and story of Japan. Of the tales told of him 
 there is one whose poetic significance has given it a 
 fixed place in the legendary lore of the land. One 
 day, when the commandant was amusing himself in 
 the sport of hawking, a shower of rain fell suddenly 
 and heavily, forcing him to stop at a house near by 
 and request the loan of a grass rain-coat, — a mino, to 
 give it its Japanese name. 
 
 A young and very pretty girl came to the door at 
 his summons, listened to his polite request, and stood 
 for a moment blushing and confused. Then, running 
 into the garden, she plucked a flower, handed it with 
 a mischievous air to the warrior, and disappeared 
 within the house. Ota, angrily flinging down the 
 flower, turned away, after an impulse to force his 
 way into the house and help himself to the coat. 
 He returned to the castle wet and fuming at the 
 slight to his rank and dignity. 
 
 Soon after he related the incident to some court 
 nobles from Kioto, who had stopped at the castle, 
 and who, to his surprise, did not share his indigna- 
 tion at the act. 
 
 "Why, the incident was delightful," said one 
 among them who was specially versed in poetic lore ; 
 " who would have looked for such wit and such 
 knowledge of our classic poetry in a young girl in 
 
92 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 this uncultivated spot ? The trouble is, friend Ota, 
 that you are not learned enough to take the maiden's 
 meaning." 
 
 " I take it that she meant to laugh at a soaked 
 fowler," growled the warrior. 
 
 " Not so. It was only a graceful way of telling 
 you that she had no mino to loan. She was too shy 
 to say no to your request, and so handed you a 
 mountain camellia. Centuries ago one of our poets 
 sang of this flower, ' Although it has seven or eight 
 petals, yet, I grieve to say, it has no seed' (mino). 
 The cunning little witch has managed to eay ' no' 
 to you in the most graceful way imaginable." 
 
 Here, where the castle stood, lyeyasu started to 
 build a city, at the suggestion of his superior Hide- 
 yoshi. Thus began the 'great city of Tedo, — now 
 Tokio, the eastern capital of Japan. In 1600, lye- 
 yasu, then at the head of affairs, pushed the work on 
 his new city with enei'gy, employing no less than 
 three hundred thousand men. The castle was en- 
 larged, canals were excavated, streets laid out and 
 graded, marshes filled, and numerous buildings 
 erected, fleets of junks bringing granite for the 
 citadel, while the neighboring forests furnished the 
 timber for the dwellings. 
 
 An outer ditch was dug on a grand scale, and 
 gates and towers were built with no walls to join 
 them and no dwellings within many furlongs of 
 their site. But to those who laughed at the mag- 
 nificent plan on which the young city had been laid 
 out, the founder declared that the coming time would 
 see his walls built and the dwellings of the city 
 
FOUNDER OF TEDO AND OF MODERN FEUDALISM. 93 
 
 stretching far beyond them. Before a century his 
 words were verified, and Tedo had a population of 
 half a million souls. To-day it is the home of more 
 than a million people. 
 
 It is for his political genius that lyeyasu partic- 
 ularly deserves fame. Once more, in 1615, he was 
 forced to fight for his supremacy, against the son of 
 the late premier. A bloody battle followed, ending 
 in victory for lyeyasu and the burning of the castle 
 of Ozaka, in whose flames the aspirant for power 
 probably met his doom. 'No other battle was fought 
 on the soil of Japan for two hundred and fifty-three 
 years. 
 
 lyeyasu had the blood of the Minamoto clan in 
 his veins. He had therefore an hereditary claim to 
 the shogunate, as successor to the great Yoritomo, 
 the founder of the family and the first to bear the 
 title of Great Shogun. This title, Sei-i Tai Shogun, 
 was now conferred by the mikado on the new mili- 
 tary chief, and was borne by his descendants, the 
 Tokugawa family, until the great revolution of 1868, 
 when the mikado again seized his long-lost authority. 
 
 Before this period, civil war had for centuries 
 desolated Japan. After 1615 war ceased in that 
 long distracted land and peace and prosperity pre- 
 vailed. What were the steps taken by the new 
 shogun to insure this happy result ? It arose 
 through the establishment of a well-defined system 
 of feudalism, and the bringing of the feudal lords 
 under the immediate control of the shogun. 
 
 Japan was already organized on a semi-feudal 
 system. The land was divided between the great 
 
94 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 lords or daimios, who possessed strong castles and 
 large landed estates, with a powerful armed follow- 
 ing, and into whose treasuries much of the revenue 
 of the kingdom flowed. These powerful princes of 
 the realm were conciliated by the conqueror. Under 
 them were daimios of smaller estate, many of whom 
 had joined him in his career ; and lower still a large 
 number of minor military holders, whose grants of 
 land enabled them to bring small bodies of followers 
 into the field. 
 
 lyeyasu's plan .was one of conciliation and the pre- 
 vention of hostile union. He laid his plans and left 
 it to time to do his work. Some of the richest fiefs 
 of the empire were conferred upon his sons, who 
 founded several of its most powerful families. The 
 possessions of the other lords were redistributed, the 
 land being divided up among them in a way to pre- 
 vent rebellious concentration, vassals and adherents 
 of his own being placed between any two neighbor- 
 ing lords whose loyalty was in doubt. To prevent 
 ambitious lords from seizing Kioto and making 
 prisoner the mikado, as had frequently been done in 
 the past, he surrounded it on all sides with strong 
 domains ruled by his sons or friends. When his 
 work of redistribution was finished, his friends and 
 vassals everywhere lay between the realms of doubt- 
 ful daimios. A hostile movement in force had been 
 rendered nearly impossible. 
 
 Below the daimios came the hatamotOy or sup- 
 porters of the flag, direct vassals of the shogun, of 
 whom there were eighty thousand in Japan, mostly 
 descendants of proved warriors and with a train of 
 
POUNDER 0» TEDO AND OF MODERN FEUDALISM. 95 
 
 from three to tfc'rty retainers each. These were 
 scattered throughout the empire, but the majority 
 of them lived in Ye^. They formed the direct 
 military dependence of the shogun, and held most 
 of the military and civil positions. Under them 
 again were the goTienin, the humbler members of the 
 Togukawa clan, and hereditary followers of the 
 shogun. All these formed the samurai, the men 
 privileged to wear two swords and exempted from 
 taxes. Their number and readiness gave the shogun 
 complete military control of the empire, and made 
 him master of all it held, from mikado to peasant. 
 
 Such was the method adopted by the great states- 
 man to insure peace to the empire and to keep the 
 power within the grasp of his own family. In both 
 respects it proved successful. A second important 
 step was taken by lyemitsu, his grandson, and after 
 him the ablest of the family. By this time many of 
 the noted warriors among the daimios were dead, 
 and their sons, enervated by peace and luxury, could 
 be dealt with more vigorously than would have been 
 safe to do with their fathers. 
 
 lyemitsu suggested that all the daimios should 
 make Tedo their place of residence for half the year. 
 At first they were treated as guests, the shogun 
 meeting them in the suburbs and dealing with them 
 with great consideration. But as the years went on 
 the daimios became more and more like prisoners on 
 parole. They were obliged to pay tribute of respect 
 to the shogun in a manner equivalent to doing 
 homage. Though they could return at intervals to 
 their estates, their wives and children were kept in 
 
96 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Yedo as hostages for their good behavior. "When 
 lyemitsu died, the shoguns had cemented their power 
 beyond dispute. The mikados, nominal emperors, 
 were at their beck and call ; the daimios were virtual 
 prisoners of state; the whole military power and 
 revenues of the empire were under their control; 
 conspiracy and attempted rebellion could be crushed 
 by a wave of their hands ; peace ruled in Japan. 
 
 lyemitsu was the first to whom the title of Tai 
 Kun (Tycoon), or Great King, was ever apphed. It 
 was in a letter written to Corea, intended to influ- 
 ence foreigners. It was employed in a larger sense 
 for the same purpose at a later date, as we shall 
 hereafter see. Suf&ce it here to say that the Toku- 
 gawas remained the rulers of Japan until 1868, when 
 a new move in the game of empire was made. 
 
THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN- 
 ITY IN JAPAN 
 
 The fact that such a realm as that of Japan existed 
 remained unknown in Europe until about six cen- 
 turies ago, when Marco Polo, in his famous record 
 of travel and adventure, first spoke of it. He knew 
 of it, however, only by Chinese hearsay, and the 
 story he told contained far more of fable than of 
 fact. The Chinese at that time seem to have had 
 little knowledge of their nearest civilized neigh- 
 bor. 
 
 " Zipangu" — the name he gives it — is, he says, " an 
 island in the Eastern Ocean, about fifteen hundred 
 miles [Chinese miles] from the mainland. Its people 
 are well made, of fair complexion, and civilized in 
 manner, but idolaters in religion." He continues, 
 " They have gold in the greatest abundance, its 
 sources being inexhaustible. To this circumstance 
 we are to attribute the extraordinary richness of the 
 sovereign's palace according to what we are told by 
 those who have access to the place. The entire roof 
 is covered with a plating of gold, in the same man- 
 ner as we cover houses, or more properly churches, 
 with lead. The ceilings of the halls are of the same 
 precious metal ; many of the apartments have small 
 tables of pure gold, of considerable thickness ; and 
 the windows have also golden ornaments. So vast, 
 
 7 97 
 
98 HISTOEICAL TALES. 
 
 indeed, are the riches of the palace that it is impos- 
 sible to convey an idea of them. In this island there 
 are pearls also, in large quantities, of a pink color, 
 round in shape and of great size, equal in value to, 
 or even exceeding, that of the white pearls. There 
 are also found there a number of precious stones." 
 
 This story is as remote from truth as some of 
 those told by Sindbad the Sailor. Polo, no doubt, 
 thought he was telling the truth, and knew that this 
 cascade of gold and pearls would be to the taste of 
 his readers, but anything more unlike the plainness 
 and simplicity of the actual palace of the mikado it 
 would be hard to find. 
 
 For the next European knowledge of Japan we 
 must step forward to the year 1542. Columbus 
 had discovered America, and Portugal had found an 
 ocean highway to the spice islands of the East. A 
 Portuguese adventurer, Mendez Pinto by name, ven- 
 tured as far as China, then almost unknown, and, 
 with two companions, found himself on board a 
 Chinese junk, half trader, half pirate. 
 
 In a sea-fight with another corsair their pilot was 
 killed, and soon after a fierce storm blew them far 
 off shore. Seeking to make the Loochoo Islands, 
 they lost them through lack of a pilot, and were 
 tossed about at the ocean's will for twenty-three 
 days, when they made harbor on Tane, a small island 
 of Japan lying south of Kiushiu. Pinto, after his 
 return to Europe, told so many marvellous stories 
 about Japan that people doubted him as much as 
 they had doubted Marco Polo. His very name, Men- 
 dez, was extended into " mendacious." Yet time has 
 
THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 99 
 
 done justice to both these old travellers, who either 
 told, or tried to tell, the truth. 
 
 The Portuguese travellers were well received by 
 the islanders, — who knew not yet what firebrands 
 they were welcoming. It took a century for Euro- 
 peans to disgust the Japanese so thoroughly as to 
 force the islanders to drive them from the land and 
 put up the bars against their return. What in- 
 terested the Japanese even more than their visitors 
 were the new and strange weapons they bore. Pinto 
 and his two comrades were armed with arquebuses, 
 warlike implements such as they had never before 
 seen, and whose powers filled them with astonishment 
 and delight. It was the era of civil war in Japan, 
 and the possession of a new and deadly weapon was 
 eagerly welcomed by that martial people, who saw 
 in it visions of speedy success over their enemies. 
 
 Pinto was invited to the castle of the daimio of 
 Bungo, whom he taught the arts of making guns 
 and gunpowder. The Japanese, alert at taking ad- 
 vantage of the discoveries of other people, were 
 quick to manufacture powder and guns for them- 
 selves, and in the wars told of in our last few tales 
 native cannon were brought into use, though the 
 razor-edged sword continued the most death-dealing 
 of their weapons. 
 
 As for the piratical trader which conveyed Pinto 
 to Japan, it sold its cargo at an immense profit, while 
 the three Portuguese reached China again rich in 
 presents. This was not Pinto's only visit to Japan. 
 He made three other voyages thither, the last in 
 1556, as ambassador from the Portuguese viceroy 
 
100 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 in the Bast. On this occasion he learned that the 
 islanders had made rapid progress in their new 
 art of gun-making, they claiming to have thirty 
 thousand guns in Fucheo, the capital of Bungo, and 
 ten times that number in the whole land of Japan. 
 
 The new market for European wares, opened by 
 the visit of Pinto, was quickly taken advantage of 
 by his countrymen, and Portuguese traders made 
 their way by hundreds to Japan, where they met 
 with the best of treatment. Guns and powder were 
 especially welcome, as at that time the power of the 
 Ashikaga clan was at an end, anarchy everywhere 
 prevailed, and every local chief was in arms to win 
 all he could from the ruins of the state. Such was 
 the first visit of Europeans to Japan, and such the 
 gift they brought, the fatal one of gunpowder. 
 
 The next gift of Europe to Japan was that of the 
 Christian faith. On Pinto's return to Malacca he 
 met there the celebrated Francis Xavier, the father 
 superior of the order of the Jesuits in India, where 
 he had gained the highest reputation for sanctity and 
 the power of working miracles. With the traveller 
 was a Japanese named Anjiro, whom he had rescued 
 from enemies that sought his death, and converted 
 to Christianity. Xavier asked him whether the Jap- 
 anese would be likely to accept the religion of the 
 Christians. 
 
 " My people will not be ready to accept at once 
 what may be told them," said Anjiro, " but will ask 
 you a multitude of questions, and, above all, will see 
 whether your conduct agrees with your words. If 
 they are satisfied, the king, the nobles, and the people 
 
THE PROGKESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 101 
 
 will flock to Christ, since they constitute a nation 
 that always accepts reason as a guide." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Xavier, whose enthusiasm in 
 spreading the gospel was deterred by no obstacle, set 
 sail in 1549 for Japan, accompanied by two priests 
 and Anjiro, the latter with a companion who had es- 
 caped with him in his flight from Japan. 
 
 The missionary party landed at Kagoshima, in 
 Satsuma. Here they had little success, only the 
 family and relatives of Anjiro accepting the new 
 faith, and Xavier set out on a tour through the land, 
 his goal being Kioto, the mikado's capital. Landing 
 at Amanguchi, he presented himself before the people 
 barefooted and meanly dressed, the result of his con- 
 fessed poverty being that, instead of listening to his 
 words, the populace hooted and stoned him and his 
 followers. At Kioto he was little better received. 
 
 Finding that a display of poverty was not the way 
 to impress the Japanese, the missionary returned to 
 the city of Kioto richly clothed and bearing presents 
 and letters from the Portuguese viceroy to the em- 
 peror. He was now well received and given per- 
 mission to preach, and in less than a year had won 
 over three thousand converts to the Christian faith. 
 
 Naturally, on reaching Kioto, he had looked for 
 the splendor spoken of by Marco Polo, the roof 
 and ceilings of gold and the golden tables of the 
 emperor's palace. He was sadly disenchanted on 
 entering a city so desolated by fire and war that it 
 was little more than a camp, and on beholding the 
 plainest and least showy of all the palaces of the 
 earth. 
 
102 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Eeturning to the port of Pucheo for the purpose 
 of embarking for India, whence he designed to bring 
 new laborers to the virgin field, Xavier preached 
 with such success as to alarm the Buddhist bonzes, 
 who made futile efforts to excite the populace against 
 him as a vagabond and an enchanter. He returned 
 no more to Japan, dying during the year after his 
 return to India. But he had planted the seeds of 
 what was destined to yield a great and noble harvest. 
 
 In fact, the progress of Christianity in Japan was 
 of the most encouraging kind. Other missionaries 
 quickly followed the great Jesuit pioneer, and 
 preached the gospel with surprising success. In 
 less than five years after the visit of Xavier to 
 Kioto that city possessed seven Christian churches, 
 while there were many others in the southwest 
 section of the empire. In 1581, thirty years after 
 Xavier's death, there were in Japan two hundred 
 churches, while the number of converts is given at 
 one hundred and fifty thousand. Several of the 
 daimios were converted to the new faith, and No- 
 bunaga, who hated and strove to exterminate the 
 Buddhists, received the Christians with the greatest 
 favor, gave them desirable sites for their churches, 
 and sought to set them up as a foil to the arrogance 
 of the bonzes. 
 
 The Christian daimios went so far as to send a 
 delegation to the pope at Eome, which returned eight 
 years afterwards with seventeen Jesuit missionaries, 
 while a multitude of mendicant friars from the 
 Philippine Islands and elsewhere sought the new 
 field of labor, preaching with the greatest zeal and 
 
THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 103 
 
 succeBS. It is claimed that at tte culminating point 
 of proselytism in Japan the native Christians num- 
 bered no less than six hundred thousand, among 
 them being several princes, and many lords, high 
 officials, generals, and other military and naval offi- 
 cers, with numerous women of noble blood. In 
 some provinces the Christian shrines and crosses 
 were as numerous as the Buddhist shrines had been 
 before, while there were thousands of churches, 
 chapels, and ecclesiastical edifices. 
 
 This remarkable success, unprecedented in the his- 
 tory of Christian missionary work, was due in great 
 measure to certain conditions then existing in Japan. 
 When Xavier and his successors reached Japan, it 
 was to find the people of that country in a state of 
 the greatest misery, the result of a long era of an- 
 archy and misrule. Of the native religions, Shintoism 
 had in great measure vanished, while Buddhism, 
 though affecting the imaginations of the people by 
 the gorgeousness of its service, had little with which 
 to reach their hearts. 
 
 Christianity came with a ceremonial more splendid 
 than that of Buddhism, and an eloquence that capti- 
 vated the imaginations of the Japanese. Instead of 
 the long series of miseries of Buddhist transmigration, 
 it promised immediate entrance to the glories of 
 heaven after death, a doctrine intensely attractive 
 to those who had little to hope for but misery during 
 life. The story of the life and death of Christ 
 strongly impressed the minds of the people, as com- 
 pared with the colder story of Buddha's career, 
 while the great similarity between the modes of 
 
104 HISTOKICAL TALES. 
 
 worship of the two religions proved of the greatest 
 assistance to the advocates of the new creed. The 
 native temples were made to serve as Christian 
 churches; the images of Buddha and his saints 
 were converted into those of Christ and the apos- 
 tles; the organization of the two religions was 
 closely similar, and nearly everything distinctive of 
 Buddhist had its counterpart in the Eoman Catholic 
 ceremonial. 
 
 One of the methods pursued in the propagation of 
 Christianity had never been adopted by the Buddh- 
 ists, that of persecution of alien faiths. The spirit 
 of the Inquisition, then active in Europe, was brought 
 to Japan. The missionaries attacked the character 
 of their opponents, and instigated their converts to 
 destroy the idols and desecrate the old shrines. 
 Gold was used freely as an agent in conversion, and 
 the Christian daimios compelled their subjects to fol- 
 low them in accepting the new faith. In whole dis- 
 tricts the people were ordered to accept Christian- 
 ity or to exile themselves from their homes. Exile 
 or death was the fate of many of the bonzes, and 
 fire and the sword lent effect to preaching in the 
 propagation of the doctrine of Christianity. 
 
 To quote a single instance, from Charlevoix's 
 " History of the Christianizing of Japan," " In 
 1577 the lord of the island of Amacusa issued his 
 proclamation, by which his subjects — whether bon- 
 zes or gentlemen, merchants or traders — were re- 
 quired either to turn Christians, or to leave the 
 country the very next day. They almost all sub- 
 mitted, and received baptism, so that in a short time 
 
THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 105 
 
 there were more than twenty churches in the king- 
 dom. God wrought miracles to confirm the faithful 
 in their belief." 
 
 Miracles of the kind here indicated and others 
 that might be quoted were not of the character of 
 those performed by Christ, and such methods of 
 making proselytes were very likely to recoil upon 
 those that indulged in them. How the result of the 
 introduction of European methods manifested itself 
 in Japan wiU be indicated in our next tale. 
 
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF 
 THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. 
 
 We have described in the preceding tale the rise of 
 Christianity in Japan, and the remarkable rapidity 
 of its development in that remote land. We have 
 now to describe its equally rapid decline and fall, 
 and the exclusion of Europeans from Japanese soil. 
 It must be said here that this was in no sense due 
 to the precepts of Christianity, but wholly to the 
 practice of its advocates, their jealousy and abuse 
 of one another, and to the quarrels between different 
 nations who hoped to gain a lion's share of the trade 
 with Japan. 
 
 At the time when the Portuguese came to Japan 
 all Europe was torn with wars, civil, political, and 
 religious. These quarrels were transferred to the 
 soil of Japan, and in the end so disgusted the people 
 of that empire that Europeans were forbidden to set 
 foot on its shores and the native Christians were 
 massacred. Traders, pirates, missionaries, and slave- 
 dealers made their way thither, with such a hodge- 
 podge of interests, and such a medley of lies and 
 backbitings, that the Japanese became incensed 
 against the whole of them, and in the end decided 
 that their room was far better than their company. 
 
 The Portuguese were followed to Japan by the 
 Spaniai'ds, and these by the Dstch, each trying to 
 106 
 
DECLINE AND FALL OP THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. 107 
 
 blacken the character of the others. The Catholics 
 abused the Protestants, and were as vigorously abused 
 in return. Bach trading nation lied with the most 
 liberal freedom about its rivals. To the seaports 
 of Hirado and Nagasaki came a horde of the out- 
 casts of Europe, inveterately hostile to one another, 
 and indulging in quarrels, riots, and murders to an 
 extent which the native authorities found difficult 
 to control. In addition, the slave-trade was eagerly 
 prosecuted, slaves being so cheap, in consequence of 
 the poverty and misery arising from the civil wars, 
 that even the negro and Malay servants of the 
 Portuguese indulged in this profitable trade, which 
 was continued in spite of decrees threatening all 
 slave-dealers with death. 
 
 This state of affairs, and the recriminations of the 
 religious sects, gave very natural disgust to the 
 authorities of Japan, who felt little respect for a 
 civilization that showed itself in such uncivilized 
 shapes, and the disputing and fighting foreigners 
 were rapidly digging their own graves in Japan. 
 During the life of Nobunaga all went on well. In 
 his hatred to the Buddhist bonzes he favored the 
 Jesuits, and Christianity found a clear field. "With 
 the advent of Hideyoshi there came a change. His 
 early favor to the missionaries was followed by dis- 
 gust, and in 1587 he issued a decree banishing them 
 from the land. The churches and chapels were 
 closed, public preaching ceased, but privately the 
 work of conversion went actively on, as many as 
 ten thousand converts being made each year. 
 
 The Spanish mendicant friars from the Philippines 
 
108 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 were bolder in their work. Defying the decree, they 
 preached openly in the dress of their orders, not 
 hesitating to denounce in violent language the ob- 
 noxious law. As a result the decree was renewed, 
 and a number of the priests and their converts were 
 crucified. But still the secret work of the Jesuits 
 continued and -the number of converts increased, 
 among them being some of the generals in the Corean 
 war. 
 
 With the accession of lyeyasu began a rapid down- 
 fall of Christianity in Japan. In the great battle 
 which raised him to the head of affairs some of the 
 Christian leaders were killed. Konishi, a Christian 
 general, who had commanded one division of the 
 army in Corea, was executed. On every side there 
 was evidence of a change in the tide of affairs, and 
 the Christians of Japan began to despair. 
 
 The daimios no longer bade their followers to 
 become Christians. On the contrary, they ordered 
 them to renounce the new faith, under threat of 
 punishment. Their harshness resulted in rebellion, 
 so new a thin^ among the peasantry of Japan that 
 the authorities felt sure that they had been secretly 
 instigated to it by the missionaries. The wrath of 
 the shogun aroused, he sent soldiers against the 
 rebels, putting down each outbreak with bloodshed, 
 and in 1606 issued a decree abolishing the Christian 
 faith. This the Spanish friars defied, as they had 
 that of his predecessor. 
 
 In 1611, lyeyasu was roused to more active meas- 
 ures by the discovery of a plot between the foreign- 
 ers and the native converts for the overthrow of the 
 
DECLINE AND PALL OP THE CHRISTIAN PAITH. 109 
 
 government. Sado, whose mines were worked by- 
 thousands of Christian exiles, was to be the centre 
 of the outbreak, its governor, Okubo, being chosen 
 as the leader and the proposed new ruler of the 
 land. 
 
 lyeyasu, awakened to the danger, now took active 
 steps to crush out the foreign faith. A large num- 
 ber of friars and Jesuits, with native priests, were 
 forcibly sent from the country, while the siege and 
 capture of the castle of Ozaka in 1615 ended the 
 career of all the native friends of the Jesuits, and 
 brought final ruin upon the Christian cause in Japan. 
 
 During the reigns of the succeeding shoguns a 
 violent persecution began. The Dutch traders, who 
 showed no disposition to interfere in religious affairs, 
 succeeded in ousting their Portuguese rivals, all for- 
 eigners except Dutch and Chinese being banished 
 from Japan, while foreign trade was confined to the 
 two ports of Hirado and Nagasaki. This was fol- 
 lowed by a cruel effort to extirpate what was now 
 looked on as a pestilent foreign faith. Orders were 
 issued that the people should trample on the cross 
 or on a copper plate engraved with the image of 
 Christ. Those who refused were exposed to hor- 
 rible persecutions, being wrapped in sacks of straw 
 and burnt to death in heaps of fuel, while terrible 
 tortures were employed to make them renounce 
 their faith. Some were flung alive into open graves, 
 many burned with the wood of the crosses before 
 which they had prayed, others flung from the edge 
 of precipices. Yet they bore tortures and endured 
 death with a fortitude not surpassed by that of the 
 
110 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 martyrs of old, clinging with the highest Christian 
 ardor to their new faith. 
 
 In 1637 these excesses of persecution led to an 
 insurrection, the native Christians rising in thou- 
 sands, seizing an old castle at Shimabara, and openly- 
 defying their persecutors. Composed as they were 
 of farmers and peasants, the commanders who 
 marched against them at the head of veteran ar- 
 mies looked for an easy conquest, but with all their 
 efforts the insurgents held out against them for two 
 months. The fortress was at length reduced by the 
 aid of cannon taken from the Dutch traders, and 
 after the slaughter of great numbers of the gar- 
 rison. The bloody work was consummated by the 
 massacre of thirty-seven thousand. Christian pris- 
 oners, and the flinging of thousands more from a 
 precipice into the sea below. Many were banished, 
 and numbers escaped to Formosa, whither others had 
 formerly made their way. The " evil sect" was for- 
 mally prohibited, while edicts were issued declaring 
 that as long as the sun should shine no foreigner 
 should enter Japan and no native should leave it. 
 A slight exception was made in favor of the Dutch, 
 of whom a small number were permitted to reside 
 on the little island of Deshima, in the harbor of Na- 
 gasaki, one trading ship being allowed to come there 
 each year. 
 
 Thus ended the career of foreign trade and mis- 
 sionary labor in Japan. It had continued for nearly 
 a century, yet left no mark of its presence except 
 the use of gunpowder and fire-arms, the culture of 
 tobacco and the habit of smoking, the naturalization 
 
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. Ill 
 
 of a few foreign words and of several strange dis- 
 eases, and, as an odd addition, the introduction of 
 sponge-cake, still everywhere used as a favorite 
 viand. As for Christianity, the very name of Christ 
 became execrated, and was employed as the most 
 abhorrent word that could be spoken in Japan. The 
 Christian faith was believed to be absolutely extir- 
 pated, and yet it seems to have smouldered unseen 
 during the centuries. As late as 1829 seven persons 
 suspected of being Christians were crucified in Ozaka. 
 Yet in 1860, when the French missionaries were ad- 
 mitted to Nagasaki, they found in the surrounding 
 villages no fewer than ten thousand people who still 
 clung in secret to the despised and persecuted faith. 
 The French and English had little intercourse 
 with Japan, but the career of one Englishman there 
 is worthy of mention. This was a pilot named Will 
 Adams, who arrived there in 1607 and lived in or 
 near Yedo until his death in 1620. He seems to 
 have been a manly and honest fellow, who won the 
 esteem of the people and the favor of the shogun, 
 by whom he was made an officer and given for sup- 
 port the revenue of a village. His skill in ship- 
 building and familiarity with foreign affairs made 
 him highly useful, and he was treated with great re- 
 spect and kindness, though not allowed to leave 
 Japan. He had left a wife and daughter in England, 
 but married again in Japan, his children there being 
 a son and daughter, whose descendants may still be 
 found in that country. Anjin Cho (Pilot Street) 
 in Yedo was named from him, and the inmates of 
 that street honor his memory with an annual cele- 
 
112 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 bration on the 15tli of June. His tomb may still 
 be seen on one of the hills overlooking the Bay 
 of Tedo, where two neat stone shafts, set on a pedi- 
 ment of stone, mark the burial-place of the only 
 foreigner who in past times ever attained to honor 
 in Japan. 
 
THE CAPTIVITY OF CAPTAIN 
 GOLOWNIN. 
 
 Japan was persistent in its policy of isolation. To 
 its people their group of islands was the world, and 
 they knew little of and cared less for what was going 
 on in all the continents outside. The Dutch vessel 
 that visited their shores once a year served as an 
 annual newspaper, and satisfied their curiosity as 
 to the doings of mankind. The, goods it brought 
 were little cared for, Japan being sufficient unto 
 itself, so that it served merely as a window to the 
 world. Once a year a delegation from the Dutch 
 settlement visited the capital, but the visitors 
 travelled almost like prisoners, and were forced to 
 crawl in to the mikado on their hands and knees 
 and to back out again in the same crab-like fashion. 
 Some of these envoys wrote accounts of what they 
 had seen, and that was all that was known of Japan 
 for two centuries. 
 
 This state of affairs could not continue. With the 
 opening of the nineteenth century the ships of Europe 
 began to make their way in large numbers to the 
 North Pacific, and efforts were made to force open 
 the locked gates of Japan. Some sought for food 
 and water. These could be had at Nagasaki, but 
 nowhere else, and were given with a warning to 
 move on. In some cases shipwrecked Japanese were 
 
 8 113 
 
114 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 brought back in foreign vessels, but according to law 
 such persons were looked upon as no longer Japanese, 
 and no welcome was given to those who brought them. 
 In other cases wrecked whalers and other mariners 
 sought safety on Japanese soil, but they were held 
 strict prisoners, and rescued only with great diffi- 
 culty. The law was that foreigners landing any- 
 where on the coast, except at Nagasaki, should be 
 seized and condemned to perpetual imprisonment, 
 and that those landing at Nagasaki must strictly 
 abstain from Christian worship. 
 
 Meanwhile the Eussians had become, through 
 their Siberian ports, near neighbors of Japan, and 
 sought to open trade with that country. In 1793 
 Lieutenant Laxman landed at Hakodate and travelled 
 overland to Matsumai, bringing with him some ship- 
 wrecked Japanese and seeking for commercial rela- 
 tions with Japan. He was treated with courtesy, 
 but dismissed without an answer to his demand, and 
 told that he could take his Japanese back with him 
 or leave them as he pleased. 
 
 In 1804 the Eussians came again, this time to 
 Nagasaki. This vessel also brought back some ship- 
 wrecked Japanese, and had on board a Eussian 
 count, sent as ambassador from the czar. But the 
 shogun refused to receive the ambassador or to 
 accept his presents, and sent him word that Japan 
 had little need of foreign productions, and got all it 
 wanted from the Dutch and Chinese. All this was 
 said with great politeness, but the ambassador 
 thought that he had been shabbily treated, and 
 went away angry, reproaching the Dutch for his 
 
THE CAPTIVITY OF CAPTAIN GOLOWNIN. 115 
 
 failure. His anger against the Japanese was shown 
 in a hostile fashion. In 1805 he sent out two small 
 vessels, whose crews landed on the island of Sagha- 
 lien, plundered a Japanese settlement there, carried 
 off some prisoners, and left behind a written state- 
 ment that this had been done to revenge the sHghts 
 put upon the Russian ambassador. 
 
 This violence was amply repaid by the Japanese. 
 How they did so we have now to tell. In 1811 Cap- 
 tain Golownin, an intelligent and educated oflScer of 
 the Eussian navy, was sent in command of the sloop- 
 of-war Diana to explore the Kurile Islands. These 
 belonged to Japan, and were partly settled. At the 
 south end of Kunashir, one of these islands, was a 
 Japanese settlement, with a garrison. Here Golow- 
 nin, having landed with two officers, four men, and 
 an interpreter, was invited into the fort. He en- 
 tered unsuspectingly, but suddenly found himself 
 detained as a prisoner, and held as such despite all 
 the efforts of the Diana to obtain his release. 
 
 The prisoners were at once bound with small cords 
 in a most painful . way, their elbows being drawn 
 behind their backs until they almost touched, and 
 their hands firmly tied together, the cords being 
 also brought in loops around their breasts and necks. 
 A long cord proceeded from these fastenings and was 
 held by a Japanese, who, if an attempt were made 
 to escape, had only to pull it to bring the elbows 
 together with great pain and to tighten the loop 
 around the neck so as nearly to strangle the prisoner. 
 Their ankles and knees were also firmly bound. 
 
 In this condition they were conveyed to Hako- 
 
116 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 date, in the island of Yeso, a distance of six or seven 
 hundred miles, being carried, on the land part of the 
 route, in a sort of palanquin made of planks, unless 
 they preferred to walk, in which case the cords were 
 loosened about their legs. At night they were 
 trussed up more closely still, and the ends of their 
 ropes tied to iron hooks in the wall. The cords were 
 drawn so tight as in time to cut into the flesh, yet 
 for six or seven days their guards refused to loosen 
 them, despite their piteous appeals, being fearful 
 that their prisoners might commit suicide, this being 
 the favorite Japanese method in extremity. 
 
 The escort consisted of nearly two hundred men. 
 Two Japanese guides, changed at each new district, 
 led the way, carrying handsomely carved staves. 
 Three soldiers followed. Then came Captain Golow- 
 nin, with a soldier on one side, and on the other an 
 attendant with a twig to drive off the gnats, from 
 whose troublesome attacks he was unable to defend 
 himself. Next came an officer holding the end of 
 the rope that bound him, followed by a party carry- 
 ing his litter or palanquin. Each of the prisoners 
 was escorted in the same manner. In the rear came 
 three soldiers, and a number of servants carrying 
 provisions and baggage. 
 
 Aside from their bonds, the captives were well 
 treated, being supplied with three meals a day, con- 
 sisting of rice gruel, soup made of radishes or other 
 roots, a kind of macaroni, and a piece of fish. Mush- 
 rooms or hard-boiled eggs were sometimes supplied. 
 
 Golownin's bitter complaints at length had the 
 effect of a loosening of their bonds, which enabled 
 
THE CAPTIVITY OF CAPTAIN GOLOWNIN. 117 
 
 them to get along more comfortably. Their guards 
 took great care of their health, making frequent 
 halts to rest, and carrying them across all the streams, 
 so that they should not wet their feet.. In case of 
 rain they furnished them with Japanese quilted 
 gowns for protection. In all the villages the inhab- 
 itants viewed them with great curiosity, and at 
 Hakodate the street was crowded with spectators, 
 some with silk dresses and mounted on richly capari- 
 soned horses. None of the people showed any sign 
 of malice or any disposition to insult the prisoners, 
 while in their journey they were cheered by many 
 displays of sympathy and piety. 
 
 At Hakodate they were imprisoned in a long, 
 barn-like building, divided into apartments hardly 
 six feet square, each formed of thick spars and re- 
 sembling a cage. Outside were a high fence and an 
 earthen wall. Here their food was much worse than 
 that on the journey. "While here they were several 
 times examined, being conducted through the streets 
 to a castle-like building, where they were brought 
 into the presence of the governor and several other 
 officials, who put to them a great variety of ques- 
 tions, some of them of the most trivial character. 
 A letter was also brought them, which had been 
 sent on shore from the Diana along with their bag- 
 gage, and which said that the ship would return to 
 Siberia for reinforcements, and then would never 
 leave Japan till the prisoners were released. 
 
 Some time afterwards the captives were removed 
 to Matsumai, being supplied with horses on the 
 journey, but still to some extent fettered with ropes. 
 
118 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Here they were received by a greater crowd than 
 before, Matsumai being a more important town than 
 Hakodate. Their prison was similar to the pre- 
 ceding one, but their food was much better, and after 
 a time they were released from their cage-like cells 
 and permitted to dwell together in a large room. 
 They were, as before, frequently examined, their 
 captors being so inquisitive and asking such trifling 
 and absurd questions that at times they grew so 
 annoyed as to refuse to answer. But no display of 
 passion affected the politeness of the Japanese, whose 
 coolness and courtesy seemed unlimited. 
 
 Thus the first winter of their captivity was passed. 
 In the spring they were given more liberty, being 
 allowed to take walks in the vicinity of the town. 
 Soon after they were removed from their prison to 
 a dwelling of three apartments, though they were 
 still closely watched. 
 
 This strict confinement, of which they could see 
 no end, at length became so irksome that the pris- 
 oners determined to escape. Their walks had made 
 them familiar with the character of the surrounding 
 country, and enabled them also to gain possession 
 of a few tools, with which they managed to make a 
 tunnel to the outer air. Leaving their cells at night, 
 they succeeded in reaching the mountains back of 
 the town, whence they hoped to find some means 
 of escaping by sea. 
 
 But in the flight Golownin had hurt his leg 
 severely, the pain being so great that he was 
 scarcely able to walk. This prevented the fugitives 
 from getting far fV-om the town, while their wander- 
 
THE CAPTIVITT OF CAPTAIN QOLOWNIN. 119 
 
 ings through the mountains were attended with 
 many difficulties and dangers. After a week thus 
 spent, they were forced to seek the coast, where 
 they were seen and recaptured. 
 
 The captives were now confined in the common 
 jail of the town, though they were not treated any 
 more harshly than before, and no ill will was shown 
 them by the officials. Even the soldier who was 
 most blamed for their escape treated them with his 
 former kindness. They were soon sent back to their 
 old prison, where they passed a second winter, re- 
 ceiving whUe there visits from a Japanese astronomer 
 and others in search of information. One old officer, 
 who was very civil to them, at one time brought them 
 portraits of three richly dressed Japanese ladies, tell- 
 ing them to keep them, as they might enjoy looking 
 at them when time hung heavy on their hands. 
 
 Meanwhile their countrymen were making earnest 
 efforts to obtain their release. Some months after 
 their capture the Diana, now under Captain Ei- 
 kord, returned to Kunashir, bringing one of the Jap- 
 anese who had been taken prisoner in the descent on 
 Saghalien. The other had died. Six other Japanese, 
 who had been lately shipwrecked, were brought, in 
 the hope of exchanging these seven for the seven 
 prisoners. Efforts were made to communicate with 
 the Japanese, but they refused to receive the Eussian 
 message, and sent back word that the prisoners were 
 all dead. Two of the Japanese sent ashore failed to 
 return. 
 
 Eikord, weary of the delay and discourtesy shown, 
 now resolved to take more vigorous action, and 
 
120 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 seized upon a large Japanese ship that entered the 
 bay, taking prisoner the captain, who seemed to be 
 a person of distinction, and who told them that six 
 of the Eussians were in the town of Matsumai. Not 
 fully crediting this, Eikord resolved to carry his 
 captive to Kamchatka, hoping to obtain from him 
 some useful information concerning the purposes of 
 the Japanese government. At Eikord's request the 
 merchant wrote a letter to the commander of the 
 fort at Kunashir, telling him what was proposed. 
 'No answer was returned, and when the boats tried 
 to land for water they were fired upon. The guns 
 were also turned upon the Diana whenever she ap- 
 proached the shore, but with such wretched aim that 
 the Eussians only laughed at it. 
 
 In the following summer the Diana returned to 
 Kunashir, bringing Kachi, the merchant, who had 
 been seriously ill from homesickness, and two of his 
 attendants, the others having died. The two attend- 
 ants were sent on shore, Kachi bidding them to tell 
 that he had been very well treated, and that the 
 ship had made an early return on account of his 
 health. On the next day Eikord unconditionally set 
 free his captive, trusting to his honor for his doing 
 all he could to procure the release of the prisoners. 
 
 Kachi kept his word, and soon was able to obtain 
 a letter in the handwriting of Golownin, stating that 
 he and his companions were all alive and well at 
 Matsumai. Afterwards one of the Eussian sailors 
 was brought to Kunashir and sent on board the 
 Diana, with the understanding that he would return 
 to the fort every night. Despite the watchfulness 
 
THE CAPTIVITY OF CAPTAIN GOLOWNIN. 121 
 
 of the Japanese, he succeeded in bringing a letter 
 from Golownin, which he had sewed into his jacket. 
 This advised Eikord to be prudent, civil, and patient, 
 and not to send him any letters or papers which 
 would cause him to be tormented with questions or 
 translations. In truth, he had been fairly tortured 
 by the refinements of Japanese curiosity. Finally an 
 ultimatum was obtained from the Japanese, who re- 
 fused to deliver up their prisoners until they received 
 from the authorities at Okhotsk a formal written 
 statement that they had not ordered the hostile pro- 
 ceedings at Saghalien. The Diana returned for 
 this, and in October made her appearance at Hako- 
 date, bearing the letter required and another from 
 the governor of Irkutsk. 
 
 The ship had no sooner entered the- harbor than 
 it was surrounded by a multitude of boats, of all 
 kinds and sizes, filled with the curious of both sexes, 
 many of whom had never before set eyes on a Eu- 
 ropean vessel. They were in such numbers that the 
 watch-boats, filled with soldiers, had great ado to keep 
 them back. 
 
 Kachi came on board the next morning, and was 
 given the letter from the governor of Okhotsk. The 
 other Eikord would not deliver except in person, 
 and after much delay an interview with the gov- 
 ernor was arranged, at which Eikord was received 
 with much state and ceremony. The letter of the 
 governor of Irkutsk was now formally delivered, in 
 a box covered with purple cloth, its reception being 
 followed by an entertainment composed of tea and 
 sweetmeats. 
 
122 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Meanwhile Golownin and his companions, from 
 the time the Diana set out for Okhotsk, had been 
 treated rather as guests than as prisoners. They 
 were now brought to Hakodate and delivered to 
 Eikord, after an imprisonment of more than two 
 years. With them was sent a paper reiterating 
 the Japanese policy of isolation, and declaring that 
 any ships that should thereafter present themselves 
 would be received with cannon-balls instead of com- 
 pliments. 
 
 In all this business Kachi had worked with tireless 
 energy. At first he was received with reserve as 
 having come from a foreign country. He was placed 
 under guard, and for a long time was not permitted 
 to see Golownin, but by dint of persistence had done 
 much in favor of the release of the prisoners. 
 
 His abduction had thrown his family into the 
 greatest distress, and his wife had made a pilgrimage 
 through all Japan, as a sort of penitential offering to 
 the favoring gods. During his absence his business 
 had prospered, and before the departure of the 
 Diana he presented the crew with dresses of silk 
 and cotton wadding, the best to his favorites, the 
 cook being especially remembered. He then begged 
 permission to treat the crew. 
 
 " Sailors are all alike," he said, " whether Eussian 
 or Japanese. They are all fond of a glass ; and 
 there is no danger in the harbor of Hakodate." 
 
 So that night the crew of the Diana enjoyed a 
 genuine sailors' holiday, with a plentiful supply of 
 saki and Japanese tobacco. 
 
THE OPENING OF JAPAN. 
 
 On the 8tli of July, 1853, the Japanese were 
 treated to a genuine surprise. Off Cape Idsu, the 
 outer extremity of the Bay of Yedo, appeared a 
 squadron of war-vessels bound inward under full 
 sail, in bold disregard of the lines of prohibition 
 which Japan had drawn across the entrance of all 
 her ports. Bounding the high mountains of the 
 promontory of Idsu, by noon the fleet reached Cape 
 Sagami, which forms the dividing line between the 
 outer and inner sections of the Bay of Yedo. Here 
 the shores rose in abrupt bluffs, furrowed by green 
 dells, while in the distance could be seen groves and 
 cultivated fields. Prom the cape a number of vessels 
 put out to intercept the squadron, but, heedless of 
 these, it kept on through the narrow part of the bay — 
 from five to eight miles wide — and entered the inner 
 bay, which expands to a width of more than fifteen 
 miles. Here the ships dropped anchor within full 
 view of the town of TJragawa, having broken through 
 the invisible bonds which Japan had so long drawn 
 around her coasts. 
 
 During the period between the release of the 
 Eussian captives and the date of this visit various 
 foreign vessels had appeared on the coast of Japan, 
 each with some special excuse for its presence, yet 
 each arbitrarily ordered to leave. One of these, an 
 
 123 
 
124 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 American trading vessel, the Morrison, had been 
 driven off with musketry and artillery, although she 
 had come to return a number of shipwrecked Jap- 
 anese. Some naval vessels had entered the Bay of 
 Yedo, but had been met with such vigorous oppo- 
 sition that they made their visits very short, and as 
 late as 1850 the Japanese notified foreign nations 
 that they proposed to maintain their rigorous system 
 of exclusion. No dream came to them of the re- 
 markable change in their policy which a few decades 
 were to bring forth. 
 
 They did not know that they were seeking to 
 maintain an impossible situation. China had adopted 
 a similar policy, but already the cannon-balls of for- 
 eign powers had produced a change of view. If 
 Japan had not peaceably yielded, the hard hand of 
 war must soon have broken down her bars. Por in 
 addition to Eussia there was now another civilized 
 power with ports on the Pacific, the United States. 
 And the fleets of the European powers were making 
 their way in growing numbers to those waters. In 
 a period when all the earth was being opened to 
 commercial intercourse, Japan could not hope long 
 to remain a little world in herself, like a separate 
 planet in space. 
 
 It was the settlement of California, and the in- 
 crease of American interests on the Pacific, that in- 
 duced the United States to make a vigorous effort to 
 open the ports of Japan. Hitherto all nations had 
 yielded to the resolute policy of the islanders ; now 
 it was determined to send an expedition with in- 
 structions not to take no for an answer, but to insist 
 
THE OPENING OE JAPAN. 125 
 
 on the Japanese adopting the policy of civilized 
 nations in general. It was with this purpose that 
 the fleet in question had entered the Bay of Yedo. 
 It was under command of Commodore Matthew C. 
 Perry, who bore a letter from the President of the 
 United States to the Emperor of Japan, suggesting 
 the desirability of commercial relations between the 
 two countries, requesting the supply of American 
 vessels with coal and provisions, and demanding the 
 kind treatment and prompt return of shipwrecked 
 mariners. This letter, splendidly engrossed, was en- 
 closed in a golden box of a thousand dollars in value, 
 and was accompanied by numerous presents. The 
 fleet consisted of the steam-frigates Susquehanna 
 and Mississippi and the sloops-of-war Plymouth and 
 Saratoga, being the most imposing armament that 
 had ever entered a Japanese port. Perry was de- 
 termined to maintain his dignity as a representative 
 of the United States, and to demand as a right, in- 
 stead of soliciting as a favor, the courtesies due from 
 one civilized nation to another. 
 
 The ships had no sooner dropped anchor in the 
 bay than several guns were fired from a neighboring 
 point and a number of boats put off from the shore. 
 In the stern of each were a small flag and several men 
 wearing two swords, evidently persons in authority. 
 These boats were stopped at the ships' sides, and 
 their inmates told that no person could be admitted 
 on board except the principal official of the town, 
 the high rank of the commodore forbidding him to 
 meet any lesser dignitary. As one of the visitors 
 represented that he was second in rank in the town, 
 
126 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 he was finally received on board the flag-ship, but 
 the commodore declined to see him, turning him over 
 to Mr. Contee, the flag lieutenant. 
 
 A long interview followed, in which the official 
 was made to understand that the expedition bore a 
 letter from the President of the United States to the 
 emperor, a message of such importance that it could 
 be delivered only to an officer of high rank. He 
 was also told, through the interpreters, that the 
 squadron would not submit to be placed under guard, 
 and that all the guard-boats must withdraw. The 
 oflScial displayed much of the inquisitive curiosity 
 for which the Japanese had made themselves notable 
 on former occasions, and asked a variety of unim- 
 portant questions which the lieutenant refused to 
 answer, saying that they were impertinent. 
 
 The Japanese officer had brought with him the 
 ordinary notifications, warning all ships against en- 
 tering their ports, but these the lieutenant refused 
 to receive. Eeturning to the shore, in about an hour 
 the officer came back, saying that his superior could 
 not receive the letter addressed to the emperor, and 
 stating that Nagasaki was the proper place for 
 foreign ships to stop. As for the letter, he doubted 
 if it would be received and answered. He was at 
 once given to understand that if the governor of the 
 town did not send for the letter, the ships would 
 proceed up the bay to Yedo and deliver it them- 
 selves. At this he withdrew in a state of great agi- 
 tation, asking permission to return in the morning. 
 
 During the night watch-fires blazed at points 
 along the coast, and bells sounded the hours. The 
 
THE OPENING OF JAPAN. 127 
 
 watch-boats remained around the fleet, but kept at a 
 respectful distance from the perilous intruders. The 
 next morning the highest official of the town came 
 on board, but did his utmost to avoid receiving the 
 letter. In the end he offered to send to Yedo for 
 permission, and was granted three days for this pur- 
 pose. 
 
 While awaiting an answer the ships were not idle. 
 Surveying parties were sent four miles up the bay, 
 sounding, and finding everywhere a depth of from 
 thirty to forty fathoms. As they approached the 
 forts armed soldiers came out, but retired again 
 when the boats drew nearer. The forts, five in num- 
 ber, were very feeble, their total armament consist- 
 ing of fourteen guns, none larger than nine-pounders. 
 Many of the soldiers were armed with spears. Can- 
 vas screens were stretched from tree to tree, as 
 if with the idea that these would keep back cannon- 
 balls. In truth, the means of defence were so slight 
 that Yedo lay at the mercy of the American fleet. 
 
 Villages seemed to line the shores in an unbroken 
 series, and numerous small craft lay in the harbor, 
 while trading vessels came in and out with little re- 
 gard to the presence of the foreign ships. Every- 
 day there passed up and down the bay nearly a 
 hundred large junks and a great number of fishing 
 and other boats. 
 
 Yezaimon, the governor of the town, protested 
 earnestly against the survey of the waters by the 
 ships, saying that it was against the laws of Japan. 
 He was told that it was commanded by the laws of 
 America, and the soundings went steadily on. On 
 
128 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 the second day the surveying party proceeded some 
 ten miles up the bay, the Mississippi steaming in 
 their wake. This roused new agitation in the 
 Japanese, government boats meeting them at every 
 point and making earnest signs to them to return. 
 But no notice was taken of these gestures, and the 
 survey was continued, deep soundings and soft bottom 
 being found throughout. 
 
 In the evening Yezaimon came on board with a 
 cheerful countenance, saying that he expected good 
 news from Tedo, though he protested still against 
 the doings of the boats. One of the oflSeers speaks of 
 him as a " gentleman, clever, polished, well informed, 
 a fine, large man, about thirty-four, of most excel- 
 lent countenance, taking his wine freely, and a boon 
 companion." 
 
 On the 12th word came that the emperor would 
 send a high oflScer to receive the letter. No imme- 
 diate answer would be given, but one would be for- 
 warded through the Dutch or the Chinese. This offer 
 the commodore rejected as insulting. But, fearing 
 that he might be detained by useless delay, he agreed 
 to withdraw for a proper interval, at the end of 
 which he would return to receive the answer. 
 
 On the 14th the reception of the letter took place, 
 the occasion being made one of much ceremony. 
 The commodore landed with due formality, through 
 a line of Japanese boats, and with a following of 
 three hundred and twenty oflScers and sailors from 
 the fleet. Passing through a large body of soldiers, 
 behind whom stood a crowd of spectators, the build- 
 ing prepared for the reception was reached. It was 
 
THE OPENING OP JAPAN. 129 
 
 a temporary structure, the reeeptioa-room of which 
 was hung with fine cloth, stamped with the imperial 
 symbols in white on a violet background. The 
 princes of Idsu and Iwami awaited as the envoys of 
 the shogun, both of them splendidly attired in richly 
 embroidered robes of silk. 
 
 A large scarlet-lacquered box, on gilded feet, stood 
 ready to receive the letter, which, after being shown 
 in its rich receptacle, was placed on the scarlet box, 
 with translations in Dutch and Chinese. A formal 
 receipt was given, ending with the following words : 
 " Because the place is not designed to treat of any- 
 thing from foreigners, so neither can conference nor 
 entertainment take place. The letter being received, 
 you will leave here." 
 
 " I shall return again, probably in April or May, 
 for an answer," said the commodore, on receiving the 
 receipt. 
 
 "With all the ships?" asked the interpreter. 
 
 " Yes, and probably with more," was the reply. 
 
 This said, the commodore rose and departed, the 
 commissioners standing, but not another word being 
 uttered on either side. As if to indicate to his hosts 
 how little he regarded the curt order to leave, the 
 commodore proceeded in the Susquehanna up the 
 bay to the point the Mississippi had reached. Here 
 he dropped anchor, the spot being afterwards known 
 as the "American anchorage." On the following 
 day he sent the Mississippi ten miles higher up, a 
 point being reached within eight or ten miles of the 
 capital. Three or four miles in advance a crowded 
 mass of shipping was seen, supposed to lie at Sina- 
 
 9 
 
130 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 gawa, the soutliern suburb of Tedo. On the 16th 
 the vessels moved down the bay, and on the follow- 
 ing day they stood out to sea, no doubt greatly to 
 the relief of the Japanese officials. 
 
 In consequence of the death of the shogun, which 
 took place soon after. Perry did not return for his 
 answer until the following year, casting anchor again 
 in the Bay of Tedo on February 12, 1854. He had 
 now a larger fleet, consisting of three steam-frigates, 
 four sloops-of-war, and two store-ships. Entering 
 the bay, they came to anchor at the point known as 
 the " American anchorage." 
 
 And now a debate arose as to where the ceremo- 
 nies of reception should take place. The Japanese 
 wished the commodore to withdraw to a point down 
 the bay, some twenty miles below Uragawa. He, on 
 the contrary, insisted on going to Tedo, and sent 
 boats up to within four miles of that city to sound 
 the channel. Finally the village of Tokohama, oppo- 
 site the anchorage of the ships, was fixed upon. 
 
 On the 8th of March the first reception took place, 
 great formahty being observed, though this time 
 light refreshments were ofifered. Two audiences a 
 week were subsequently held, at one of which, on 
 March 13, the American presents were delivered. 
 They consisted of cloths, agricultural implements, fire- 
 arms, and other articles, the most valuable being a 
 small locomotive, tender, and car, which were set in 
 motion on a circular track. A mile of telegraph 
 wire was also set up and operated, this interesting 
 the Japanese more than anything else. They had 
 the art, however, of concealing their feelings, and 
 
THE OPENING OF JAPAN. 131 
 
 took care to show no wonder at anything dis- 
 played. 
 
 In the letter of reply from the shogun it was con- 
 ceded that the demands in relation to shipwrecked 
 sailors, coal, provisions, water, etc., were just, and 
 there was shown a willingness to add a new harbor 
 to that of Nagasaki, but five years' delay in its open- 
 ing were asked. To this the commodore would not 
 accede, nor would he consent to be bound by the 
 restrictions placed on the Dutch and Chinese. He . 
 demanded three harbors, one each in Hondo, Tezo, 
 and the Loochoo Islands, but finally agreed to accept 
 two, the port of Simoda in Hondo and that of Hako- 
 date in Yezo. An agreement being at length reached, 
 three copies of the treaty were exchanged, and this 
 was followed by an entertainment on the fleet to the 
 Japanese oflBcials, in which they did full justice to 
 American fare, and seemed to be particularly fond 
 of champagne. One of them became so merry and 
 familiar under the influence of this beverage that he 
 vigorously embraced the commodore, who bore the 
 infliction with good-humored patience. 
 
 At the new treaty ports the restrictions which 
 had been thrown around the Dutch at Ifagasaki 
 were removed, citizens of the United States being 
 free to go where they pleased within a limit of sev- 
 eral miles around the towns. 
 
 The success of the Americans in this negotiation 
 stimulated the other maritime nations, and in the 
 same year a British fleet visited Nagasaki and ob- 
 tained commercial concessions. In 1858 the treaties 
 were extended, the port of Yokohama replacing that 
 
132 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 of Simoda, and the treaty ports being opened to 
 American, British, French, and Dutch traders. Sub- 
 sequently the same privileges were granted to the 
 other commercial nations, the country was made free 
 to travellers, and the long-continued isolation of 
 Japan was completely broken down. A brief ex- 
 perience of the advantages of commerce and foreign 
 intercourse convinced the quick-witted islanders of 
 the folly of their ancient isolation, and they threw 
 open their country without restriction to all the 
 good the world had to offer and to the fullest inflow 
 of modern ideas. 
 
THE MIKADO COMES TO HIS 
 OWN AGAIN. 
 
 The visit of Commodore Perry to Japan and the 
 signing of a treaty of commerce with the United 
 States formed a great turning-point in the history 
 of that ancient empire. Through its influence the 
 mikado came to his own again, after being for seven 
 centuries virtually the vassal of the shogun. So 
 long had he vanished from sight that the people 
 looked upon him as a far-off spiritual dignitary, and 
 had forgotten that he was once the supreme lord of 
 the land. During all this time the imperial court 
 had been kept up, with its prime minister, its officials 
 and nobles, — with everything except authority. The 
 court dignitaries ranked, in their own conceit and 
 their ancient titles, far above the shogun and daimios, 
 the military leaders, but they were like so many 
 actors on the stage, playing at power. The shogun, 
 with the power at his command, might have made 
 himself the supreme dignitary, but it was easier to 
 let the sleepy court at Kioto alone, leaving them the 
 shadow of that power of which the substance was 
 in the shogun's hands. 
 
 Yet there was always a risk in this. The sleeping 
 emperor might at any time awake, call the people 
 and the army to his aid, and break through the web 
 that the great spider of military rule had woven 
 
 133 
 
134 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 about his court. Some great event might stir Japan 
 to its depths and cause a vital change in the state 
 of affairs. Such an event came in the visit of the 
 American fleet and the signing of a treaty of com- 
 merce and intercourse by the Tai Kun, or great sov- 
 ereign of Japan, as the shogun signed himself. 
 
 For two centuries and a half Japan had been at 
 peace. For nearly that length of time foreigners 
 had been forbidden to set foot on its soil. They 
 were looked upon as barbarians, " foreign devils" the 
 islanders called them, the trouble they had caused 
 long before was not forgotten, and throughout the 
 island empire they were hated or despised. 
 
 The visit of the American fleet was, therefore, 
 sure to send a stir of deep feeling throughout the 
 land. During this period of excitement the shogun 
 died, and the power was seized by li, the regent, a 
 daring and able man, who chose as shogun a boy 
 twelve years old, imprisoned, exiled, or beheaded all 
 who opposed him, and was suspected of an intention 
 to depose the mikado and set up a boy emperor in 
 his place. 
 
 All this aroused new excitement in Japan. But 
 the opposition to these acts of the regent would not 
 have grown to revolution had no more been done. 
 The explosion came when li signed a treaty with 
 the foreigners, a right which belonged only to the 
 mikado, and sent word to Kioto that the exigency 
 of the occasion had forced him to take this action. 
 
 The feeling that followed was intense. The 
 country became divided into two parties, that of the 
 mikado, which opposed the foreigners, and that of 
 
THE MIKADO COMES TO HIS OWN AGAIN. 135 
 
 the shogun, which favored them. " Honor the 
 mikado and expel the harbarians," became the pa- 
 triot watchword, and in all directions excited parti- 
 sans roamed the land, vowing that they would kill 
 the regent and his new friends and that they were 
 ready to die for the true emperor. Their fury bore 
 fruit. li was assassinated. At the moment when a 
 strong hand was most needed, that of the regent was 
 removed. And as the feeling of bitterness against 
 the foreigners grew, the influence of the shogun de- 
 clined. The youthful dignitary was obliged by public 
 opinion to visit Kioto and do homage to the mikado, 
 an ancient ceremony which had not been performed 
 for two hundred and thirty years, and whose former 
 existence had almost been forgotten. 
 
 This was followed by a still more vital act. Un- 
 der orders from the mikado, the shogun appointed 
 the prince of Bchizen premier of the empire. The 
 prince at once took a remarkable step. For over 
 two centuries the daimios had been forced to reside 
 in Tedo. "With a word he abolished this custom, 
 and like wild birds the feudal lords flew away. The 
 cage which had held them so long was open, and 
 they winged their way to their distant nests. This 
 act was fatal to the glory of Yedo and the power 
 of its sovereign lord. In the words of the native 
 chronicler, " the prestige of the Tokugawa family, 
 which had endured for three hundred years, which 
 had been as much more brilliant than Kamakura in 
 the age of Toritomo as the moon is more brilliant 
 than the stars, which for more than two hundred 
 and seventy years had forced the daimios to take 
 
136 HISTOEIOAL TALES. 
 
 their turn of duty in Yedo, and which had, day 
 and night, eighty thousand vassals at its command, 
 fell to ruin in the space of a single day." 
 
 In truth, the revolution vras largely completed by 
 this signal act. Many of the daimios and their re- 
 tainers, let loose from their prison, deserted the cause 
 of their recent lord. Their place of assemblage was 
 now at Kioto, which became once more populous 
 and bustling. They strengthened the imperial court 
 with gold and pledged to it their devotion. Pam- 
 phlets were issued, some claiming that the clans 
 owed allegiance to the shogun, others that the 
 mikado was the true and only emperor. 
 
 The first warlike step in support of the new ideas 
 was taken in 1863, by the clan of Choshiu, which 
 erected batteries at Shimonoseki, refused to disarm 
 at the shogun's order, and fired on foreign vessels. 
 This brought about a bombardment, in the following 
 year, by the ships of four foreign nations, the most 
 important result of which was to teach the Japanese 
 the strength of the powers against which they had 
 arrayed themselves. 
 
 Meanwhile the men of Choshiu, the declared ad- 
 herents of the mikado, urged him to make a journey 
 to Yamato, and thus show to his people that he was 
 ready to take the field in person against the bar- 
 barians. This suggestion was at first received with 
 favor, but suddenly the Choshiu envoys and their 
 friends were arrested, the palace was closely guarded, 
 and all members or retainers of the clan were for- 
 bidden to enter the capital, an order which placed 
 them in the position of outlaws. The party of the 
 
THE MIKADO COMES TO HIS OWN AGAIN. 137 
 
 ehogun had made the mikado believe that the clan 
 was plotting to seize his person and through him to 
 control the empire. 
 
 This act of violence led to civil war. In August, 
 1864, the capital was attacked by a body of thirteen 
 hundred men of the Choshiu and other disaffected 
 clans. It was defended by the adherents of the sho- 
 gun, now the supporters of the mikado. For two 
 days the battle raged, and at the end of that time 
 a great part of the city was a heap of ashes, some 
 thirty thousand edifices being destroyed by the 
 flames. " The Blossom Capital became a scorched 
 desert." The Choshiu were defeated, but Kioto lay 
 in ruins. A Japanese city is like a house of card- 
 board, easily destroyed, and almost as easily rebuilt. 
 
 This conflict was followed by a march in force 
 upon Choshiu to punish its rebellious people. The 
 expedition was not a popular one. Some powerful 
 feudal lords refused to join it. Of those mustered into 
 the ranks many became conveniently sick, and those 
 who marched were disorganized and without heart 
 for the fight. Choshiu, on the contrary, was well 
 prepared. The clansmen, who had long been in con- 
 tact with the Dutch, had thrown aside the native 
 weapons, were drilled in European tactics, and were 
 well armed with rifles and artillery. The result was, 
 after a three months' campaign, the complete defeat 
 of the invading army, and an almost fatal blow to the 
 prestige of the shogun. This defeat was immediately 
 followed by the death of the young shogun, who had 
 been worn out by the intense anxiety of his period 
 of rule. 
 
138 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 He was succeeded by the last of the shoguns, 
 Keiki, appointed head of the Tokugawa family in 
 October, 1866, and shogun in January, 1867. This 
 position he had frequently declined. He was far too 
 weak and fickle a man to hold it at such a time. 
 He was popular at court because of his opposition 
 to the admission of the foreigners, but he was by no 
 means the man to hold the reins of government at 
 that perilous juncture of affairs. 
 
 In fact, he had hardly accepted the office when a 
 vigorous pressure was brought upon him to resign, in 
 which a number of princes and powerful noblemen 
 took part. It was their purpose to restore the ancient 
 government of the realm. Keiki yielded, and in 
 November, 1867, resigned his high office of Sei-i Tai 
 Shogun. During this critical interval the mikado 
 had died, and a new youthful emperor had been 
 raised to the throne. 
 
 But the imperial power was not so easily to be re- 
 stored, after its many centuries of abrogation. The 
 Aidzu, the most loyal of all the clans to the shogun, 
 and the leaders in the war against the Choshiu, 
 guarded the palace gates, and for the time being 
 were masters of the situation. Meanwhile the party 
 of the mikado was not idle. Gradually small parties 
 of soldiers were sent by them to the capital, and a 
 quiet influence was brought to bear to induce the 
 court to take advantage of the opportunity and by 
 a bold movement abolish the office of shogun and 
 declare the young emperor the sole sovereign of the 
 realm. 
 
 This coup-d'etat was effected January 3, 1868. On 
 
THE MIKADO COMES TO HIS OWN AGAIN. 139 
 
 that day the introduced troops suddenly took posses- 
 sion of the palace gates, the nobles who surrounded 
 the emperor were dismissed and replaced by others 
 favorable to the movement, and an edict was issued 
 in the name of the mikado declaring the office of 
 shogun abolished, and that the sole government of 
 the empire lay in the hands of the mikado and his 
 court. New offices were established and new officials 
 chosen to fill them, the clan of Choshiu was relieved 
 from the ban of rebellion and honored as the sup- 
 porter of the imperial power, and a completely new 
 government was organized. 
 
 This decisive action led to civil war. The ad- 
 herents of the Tokugawa clan, in high indignation 
 at this revolutionary act, left the capital, Keiki, who 
 now sought to seize his power again, at their head. 
 On the 27th of February he marched upon Kioto 
 with an army of ten thousand, or, as some say, thirty 
 thousand, men. The two roads leading to the capital 
 had been barricaded, and were defended by two 
 thousand men, armed with artillery. 
 
 A fierce battle followed, lasting for three days. 
 G-reatly as the defenders of the barriers were out- 
 numbered, their defences and artillery, with their 
 European discipline, gave them the victory. The 
 shogun was defeated, and fied with his army to 
 Ozaka, the castle of which was captured and burned, 
 while he took refuge on an American vessel in the 
 harbor. Making his way thence to Tedo in one of 
 his own ships, he shut himself up in his palace, 
 once more with the purpose of withdrawing from 
 the struggle. 
 
140 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 His retainers and many of the daimios and clans 
 urged him to continue the war, declaring that, with 
 the large army and abundant supplies at his com- 
 mand, and the powerful fleet under his control, they 
 could restore him to the position he had lost. But 
 Keiki had had enough of war, and could not bear 
 the idea of being a rebel against his liege lord. 
 Declaring that he would never take up arms against 
 the mikado, he withdrew from the struggle to pri- 
 vate life. 
 
 In the mean time the victorious forces of the 
 south had reached the suburbs of Tedo, and were 
 threatening to apply the torch to that tinder-box of 
 a city unless it were immediately surrendered. Their 
 commander, being advised of the purpose of the sho- 
 gun, promised to spare the city, but assailed and 
 burned the magnificent temple of Uyeno, in which 
 the rebels still in arms had taken refuge. For a 
 year longer the war went on, victory everywhere 
 favoring the imperial army. By the 1st of July, 
 1869, hostilities were at an end, and the mikado was 
 the sole lord of the realm. 
 
 Thus ended a military domination that had con- 
 tinued for seven hundred years. In 1167, Kiyomori 
 had made himself military lord of the empire. In 
 1869, Mutsuhito, the one hundred and twenty-third 
 mikado in lineal descent, resumed the imperial power 
 which had so long been lost. Unlike China, over 
 which so many dynasties have ruled, Japan has been 
 governed by a single dynasty, according to the native 
 records, for more than twenty-five hundred years. 
 
 The fall of the shogun was followed by the fall of 
 
THE MIKADO COMES TO HIS OWN AGAIN. 141 
 
 feudalism. The emperor, for the first time for many 
 centuries, came from behind his screen and showed 
 himself openly to his people. Yedo was made the 
 eastern capital of the realm, its name being changed 
 to Tokio. Hither, in September, 1871, the daimios 
 were once more summoned, and the order was issued 
 that they should give up their strongholds and feudal 
 retainers and retire to private life. They obeyed. 
 Eesistance would have been in vain. Thus fell an- 
 other ancient institution, eight centuries old. The 
 revolution was at an end. The shogunate and the 
 feudal system had fallen, to rise no more. A single 
 absolute lord ruled over Japan. 
 
 As regards the cry of " expel the barbarians," 
 which had first given rise to hostilities, it gradually 
 died away as the revolution continued. The strength 
 of the foreign fleets, the advantages of foteign com- 
 merce, the conception which could not be avoided 
 that, instead of being barbarians, these aliens held 
 all the high prizes of civilization and had a thousand 
 important lessons to teach, caused a complete change 
 of mind among the intelligent Japanese, and they 
 quickly began to welcome those whom they had 
 hitherto inveterately opposed, and to change their 
 institutions to accord with those of the Western 
 world. 
 
HOW THE EMPIRE OF CHINA 
 AROSE AND GREW. 
 
 Prom the history of Japan we now turn to that 
 of China, a far older and more extensive kingdom, 
 BO old, indeed, that it has now grown decrepit, while 
 Japan seems still in the glow of vigorous youth. 
 But, as our tales will show, there was a long period 
 in the past during which China was full of youthful 
 energy and activity, and there may be a time in the 
 future when a new youth, will come to that hoary 
 kingdom, the most venerable of any existing upon 
 the face of the earth. 
 
 Who the Chinese originally were, whence they 
 came, how long they have dwelt in their present 
 realm, are questions easier to ask than to answer. 
 Their history does not reach back to their origin, ex- 
 cept in vague and doubtful outlines. The time was 
 when that great territory known as China was the 
 home of aboriginal tribes, and the first historical 
 sketch given us of the Chinese represents them 
 as a little horde of wanderers, destitute of houses, 
 clothing, and fire, living on the spoils of the chase, 
 and on roots and insects in times of scarcity. 
 
 These people were not sons of the soil. They 
 came from some far-off region. Some think that 
 their original home lay in the country to the south- 
 east of the Caspian, while later theorists seek to 
 142 
 
HOW THE EMPIRE OF CHINA AROSE AND GREW. 143 
 
 trace their origin in Babylonia, as an offshoot of the 
 Mongolian people to whom that land owed its early- 
 language and culture. Prom some such place the 
 primitive Chinese made their way by slow stages to 
 the east, probably crossing the head-waters of the 
 Oxus and journeying along the southern slopes of 
 the Tian-Shan Mountains. 
 
 All this is conjecture, but we touch firmer soil 
 when we trace them to the upper course of the 
 Hoang-ho, or 'Yellow Eiver, whose stream they fol- 
 lowed eastward until they reached the fertile plains 
 of the district now known as Shan-se. Here the 
 immigrants settled in small colonies, and put in 
 practice those habits of settled labor which they 
 seem to have brought with them from afar. Yet 
 there is reason to believe that they had at one time 
 been nomads, belonging to the herding rather than 
 to the agricultural races of the earth. Many of the 
 common words in their language are partly made 
 up of the characters for sheep and cattle, and the 
 Chinese house so resembles the Tartar tent in out- 
 hne that it is said that the soldiers of Genghis Khan, 
 on taking a city, at once pulled down the walls of 
 the houses and left the roof supported by its wooden 
 columns as an excellent substitute for a tent. 
 
 However that be, the new-comers seem to have 
 quickly become farmers, growing grain for food and 
 flax for their garments. The culture of the silk- 
 worm was early known, trade was developed, and 
 fairs were held. There was intellectual culture also. 
 They knew something of astronomy, and probably 
 possessed the art of hieroglyphic writing, — ^which, 
 
144 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 if they came from Babylonia, they may well have 
 brought with them. 
 
 This took place five thousand years or more ago, 
 and for a long time the history of the Chinese was 
 that of the conquest of the native tribes. They 
 name themselves the " black-haired race," but their 
 foes are classed as " fiery dogs" in the north, " great 
 bowmen" in the east, " mounted warriors'" in the 
 west, and "ungovernable vermin" in the south. 
 Against these savages war was probably long con- 
 tinued, the invaders gradually widening their area, 
 founding new states, driving back the natives into 
 the mountains and deserts, and finally so nearly 
 annihilating them that only a small remnant re- 
 mained. The descendants of these, the Meaou-tsze, 
 mountain-dwellers, still remain hostile to China, and 
 hold their own in the mountain strongholds against 
 its armies. 
 
 Such was the China with which history opens. 
 Ancient Chinese writers amuse themselves with a 
 period of millions of years in which venerable dy- 
 nasties reigned, serving to fill up the vast gap made 
 by their imagination in the period before written 
 history began. And when history does appear it is 
 not easy to tell how much of it is fact and how 
 much fiction. The first ruler named, Yew-chaou She 
 (the Nest-having), was the chief who induced the 
 wanderers to settle within the bend of the Yellow 
 Eiver and make huts of boughs. After him came 
 Suy-jin She (the Fire-maker), who discovered the 
 art of producing fire by the friction of two pieces 
 of dry wood, also how to count and register time by 
 
HOW THE EMPIRE OF CHINA AROSE AND GREW. 145 
 
 means of knots tied in cords. Puh-he discovered 
 iron by accident, and reigned one hundred and fifteen 
 years. Chin-nung invented the plough, and in one 
 day discovered seventy poisonous plants and as many 
 antidotes. Under Hoang-ti the calendar was regu- 
 lated, roads were constructed, vessels were built, 
 and the title of Ti, or Emperor, was first assumed. 
 Hoang-ti means " Yellow Emperor," and became a 
 favorite name with the founders of later dynasties. 
 His wife, Se-ling-she, was the first to unravel silk 
 from cocoons and weave it into cloth. Several 
 others followed, all partly or wholly fabulous, until 
 Yao ascended the throne in 2356 B.C. With this 
 emperor history begins to throw off some little of 
 the mist of legend and mythology. 
 
 With the reign of Yao the historical work of Con- 
 fucius begins. His narrative is not trustworthy 
 history, but it is not pure fable. Yao and Shun, his 
 successor, are two of the notable characters in the 
 ancient annals of China. Under them virtue reigned 
 supreme, crime was unknown, and the empire grew 
 in extent and prosperity. The greatest difiiculty 
 with which they had to contend was the overflow 
 of the Hoang-ho, an unruly stream, which from that 
 day to this has from time to time swept away its 
 banks and drowned its millions. Yu, the next em- 
 peror, drained off the waters of the mighty flood, — 
 which some have thought the same as the deluge 
 of Noah. This work occupied him for nine years. 
 His last notable act was to denounce the inventor 
 of an intoxicating drink made from rice, from which 
 he predicted untold misery to the people. 
 
 10 
 
146 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 All this comes to us from the Confucian " Book of 
 History," which goes on with questionable stories 
 of many later emperors. They were not all good 
 and wise, like most of those named. Some of the 
 descendants of Yu became tyrants and pleasure- 
 seekers, their palaces the seats of scenes of cruelty 
 and debauchery surpassing the deeds of Nero. Two 
 emperors in particular, Kee and Chow, are held up 
 as monsters of wickedness and examples of disso- 
 luteness beyond comparison. The last, under the in- 
 fluence of a woman named Ta-Ke, became a frightful 
 example of sensuality and cruelty. Among the inven- 
 tions of Ta-Ke was a cylinder of polished brass, along 
 which her victims were forced to walk over a bed of 
 fire below, she laughing in great glee if they slipped 
 and fell into the flames. In fact, Chinese invention 
 exhausts itself in describing the crimes and immoral 
 doings of this abominable pair, which, fortunately, 
 we are not obliged to believe. 
 
 Of the later emperors, Mou Wang, who came to 
 the throne about 1000 B.C., was famed as a builder 
 of palaces and public works, and was the first of the 
 emperors to come into conflict with the Tartars of 
 the Mongolian plains, who afterwards gave China 
 such endless trouble. He travelled into regions 
 before unknown, and brought a new breed of horses 
 into China, which, fed on " dragon grass," were able 
 to travel one thousand li in a day. As this distance 
 is nearly four hundred miles, it would be well for 
 modern horsemen if some of that dragon grass could 
 yet be found. 
 
 It is not worth while going on with the story of 
 
HOW THE EMPIRE OF CHINA AROSE AND GREW. 147 
 
 these early monarchs, of whom all we know is so 
 brief and unimportant as not to be worth the telling, 
 while little of it is safe to believe. In the " burning 
 of the books," which took place later, most of the 
 ancient history disappeared, while the " Book of 
 History" of Confucius, which professes to have 
 taken from the earlier books all that was worth the 
 telling, is too meagre and unimportant in its story 
 to be of much value. 
 
 Yet, if we can believe all we are told, the historians 
 of China were at any time ready to become martyrs 
 in the cause of truth, and gave the story of the dif- 
 ferent reigns with singular fidelity and intrepidity. 
 Mailla relates the following incident : " In the reign 
 of the emperor Ling Wang of the Chow dynasty, 
 548 B.C., Chang Kong, Prince of Tsi, became enam- 
 oured of the wife of Tsouichow, a general, who 
 resented the affront and killed the prince. The 
 historians attached to the household of the prince 
 recorded the facts, and named Tsouichow as the 
 murderer. On learning this the general caused the 
 principal historian to be arrested and slain, and 
 appointed another in his place. But as soon as the 
 new historian entered upon his office he recorded the 
 exact facts of the whole occurrence, including the 
 death of his predecessor and the cause of his death. 
 Tsouichow was so much enraged at this that he 
 ordered all the members of the Tribunal of History 
 to be executed. But at once the whole literary class 
 in the principality of Tsi set to work exposing and 
 denouncing the conduct of Tsouichow, who soon 
 perceived that his wiser plan would be to reconstitute 
 
148 HISTOKICAL TALES. 
 
 the Tribunal and to allow it to follow its own de- 
 vices." 
 
 Other stories to the same effect are told. They 
 are very likely exaggerated, but there is good reason 
 to believe that the literary class of China were obsti- 
 nate to the verge of martyrdom in maintaining the 
 facts and traditions of the past, and that death sig- 
 nified to them less than dishonor. We shall see a 
 striking instance of this in the story of Hoang-ti, the 
 burner of the books. 
 
 In the period to which we have now come, China 
 was far from being the great empire it is to-day. On 
 the south it did not extend beyond the great river 
 Yang-tsze Kiang, all the region to the south being 
 still held by the native tribes. On the north the 
 Tartar tribes occupied the steppes. At the fall of 
 the Chow dynasty, in 255 B.C., the empire extended 
 through five degrees of latitude and thirteen of 
 longitude, covering but a small fraction of its present 
 area. 
 
 And of this region only a minor portion could 
 fairly be claimed as imperial soil. The bulk of it 
 was held by feudal princes, whose ancestors had 
 probably conquered their domains ages before, and 
 some of whom held themselves equal to the em- 
 peror in power and pride. They acknowledged but 
 slight allegiance to the imperial government, and for 
 centuries the country was distracted by internal 
 warfare, until the great Hoang-ti, whose story we 
 have yet to tell, overthrew feudalism, and for the 
 first time united all China into a single empire. 
 
 The period that we have so rapidly run over 
 
HOW THE EMPIRE OP CHINA AROSE AND GREW. 149 
 
 embraces no less than two thousand years of partly- 
 authentic history, and a thousand or more years of 
 fabulous annals, during which China steadily grew, 
 though of what we know concerning it there is little 
 in which any absolute trust can be placed. Yet it 
 was in this period that China made its greatest 
 progress in literature and reUgious reform, and that 
 its great lawgivers appeared. "With this phase of its 
 history we shall deal in the succeeding tale. 
 
CONFUCIUS, THE CHINESE 
 SAGE. 
 
 In the later years of the Chow dynasty appeared 
 the two greatest thinkers that China ever produced, 
 Laoutse, the first and ablest philosopher of his race, 
 and Confucius, a practical thinker and reformer who 
 has had few equals in the world. Of Laoutse we 
 know little. Born 604 B.C., in humble life, he lived 
 in retirement, and when more than a hundred years 
 old began a journey to the west and vanished from 
 history. To the guardian of the pass through which 
 he sought the western regions he gave a book which 
 contained the thoughts of his life. This forms the 
 Bible of the Taouistic religion, which still has a large 
 following in China. 
 
 Confucius, or Kong-foo-tse, born 551 B.C., was as 
 practical in intellect as Laoutse was mystical, and 
 has exerted an extraordinary influence upon the 
 Chinese race. For this reason it seems important to 
 give some account of his career. 
 
 The story of his life exists in some detail, and may 
 be given in epitome. As a child he was distinguished 
 for his respect to older people, his gentleness, mo- 
 desty, and quickness of intellect. At nineteen he 
 married and was made a mandarin, being appointed 
 superintendent of the markets, and afterwards placed 
 in charge of the public fields, the sheep and cattle. 
 150 
 
CONFUCIUS, THE CHINESE SAGE. 151 
 
 His industry was remarkable, and so great were his 
 improvements in agriculture that the whole face of 
 the country changed, and plenty succeeded pov- 
 erty. 
 
 At twenty-two he became a public teacher, and 
 at thirty began the study of music, making such re- 
 markable progress in this art that from the study 
 of one piece he was able to describe the person of 
 the composer, even to his features and the expression 
 of his eyes. His teacher now gave him up. The 
 pupil had passed infinitely beyond his reach. At 
 the next important epoch in the life of Confucius 
 (499 B.C.) he had become one of the chief ministers 
 of the king of Loo. This potentate fell into a dis- 
 pute with the rival king of Tsi, and an interview 
 between the two kings took place, in which a scheme 
 of treachery devised by the king of Tsi was baffled 
 by the vigilance and courage of the learned minister 
 of Loo. 
 
 But, the high precepts of Confucius proving too 
 exalted for the feeble virtue of his kingly employer, 
 the philosopher soon left his service, and entered 
 upon a period of travel and study, teaching the 
 people as he went, and constantly attended by a 
 number of disciples. His mode of illustrating his 
 precepts is indicated in an interesting anecdote. 
 " As he was journeying, one day he saw a woman 
 weeping and wailing by a grave. Confucius inquired 
 the cause of her grief. ' You weep as if you had 
 experienced sorrow upon sorrow,' said one of the 
 attendants of the sage. The woman answered, ' It 
 is so: my husband's father was killed here by a 
 
152 HISTOEICAL TALES. 
 
 tiger, and my husband also; and now my son has 
 met the same fate.' ' Why do you not leave the 
 place?' asked Confucius. On her replying, 'There 
 is here no oppressive government,' he turned to his 
 disciples and said, 'My children, remember this, — 
 oppressive government is more cruel than a tiger.' " 
 
 On another of their journeys they ran out of food 
 and one of the disciples, faint with hunger, asked the 
 sage, " Must the superior man indeed suffer in this 
 way ?" " The superior man may have to suffer want," 
 answered Confucius, " but the mean man, when he is 
 in want, gives way to unbridled license." The last 
 five years of his life were spent in Loo, his native 
 state, in teaching and in finishing the works he had 
 long been writing. 
 
 Confucius was no philosopher in the ordinary 
 sense. He was a moral teacher, but devised no 
 system of religion, telling his disciples that the 
 demands of this world were quite enough to engage 
 the thoughts of men, and that the future might be 
 left to provide for itself. He cared nothing about 
 science and studied none of the laws of nature, but 
 devoted himself to the teaching of the principles of 
 conduct, with a wisdom and a practical common 
 sense that have never been surpassed. 
 
 Of all the great men who have lived upon the 
 earth, conquerors, writers, inventors, and others, 
 none have gained so wide a renown as this quiet 
 Chinese moral teacher, whose fame has reached the 
 ears of more millions of mankind than that of any 
 other man who has ever lived. To-day his descend- 
 ants form the only hereditary nobiUty in China, with 
 
CONFUCIUS, THE CHINESE SAGE. 153 
 
 the exception of those of his great disciple Mencius, 
 who proved a worthy successor to the sage. 
 
 It is to Confucius that we owe nearly all we possess 
 of the early literature of China. Of what are known 
 as the " Five Classics," four are by his hand. The 
 " Book of Changes," the oldest classic, was written 
 by a mystic named Wan Wang, who lived about 1150 
 B.C. It is highly revered, but no one pretends to 
 understand it. The works of Confucius include the 
 " Book of History," the " Book of Odes,'' the " Book 
 of Eites," and the " Spring and Autumn Annals," all 
 of them highly esteemed in China for the knowledge 
 they give of ancient days and ways. 
 
 The records of the early dynasties kept at the 
 imperial court were closely studied by Confucius, 
 who selected from them all that he thought worth 
 preserving. This he compiled into the 8hoo King, or 
 " Book of History." The contents of this work we 
 have condensed in the preceding tale. It consists 
 mainly of conversations between the kings and their 
 ministers, in which the principles of the patriarchal 
 Chinese government form the leading theme. " Do 
 not be ashamed of mistakes, and thus make them 
 crimes," says one of these practical ministers. 
 
 The Le-ke, or " Book of Eites," compiled from a 
 very ancient work, lays down exact rules of life for 
 Chinamen, which are still minutely obeyed. The 
 Chun Tsew, or " Spring and Autumn Annals," em- 
 braces a mere statement of events which occurred 
 in the kingdom of Loo, and contains very little of 
 historical and less of any other value. The " Book 
 of Odes," on the contrary, possesses a great literary 
 
154 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 value, in preserving for us the poetic remains of 
 ancient China. 
 
 iiterature in that country, as elsewhere, seems to 
 have begun with poetry, and of the songs and bal- 
 lads of the early period official collections of con- 
 siderable value were made. Not only at the impe- 
 rial court, but at those of the feudal lords, there 
 were literati whose duty it was to collect the songs 
 of the people and diligently to preserve the histori- 
 cal records of the empire. From the latter Con- 
 fucius compiled two of the books already named. 
 There also fell into his hands an official collection of 
 poems containing some three thousand pieces. These 
 the sage carefully edited, selecting such of them as 
 "would be serviceable for the inculcation of pro- 
 priety and righteousness." These poems, three hun- 
 dred and eleven in number, constitute the She King, 
 or " Book of Odes," forming a remarkable collec- 
 tion of primitive verses which breathe the spirit of 
 peace and simple life, broken by few sounds of war 
 or revelry, but yielding many traces of family aflfec- 
 tion, peaceful repose, and religious feeling; 
 
 These are not the only remains of the ancient Chi- 
 nese literature. There are four more books, which, 
 with the five named, make up the " Nine Classics." 
 These were written by the pupils and disciples of 
 Confucius, the most important being the Mang tsze, 
 or " Works of Mencius." They are records of the 
 sayings and doings of the two sages Confucius and 
 Mencius, whose remarkable precepts, like those of 
 the Greek sage Socrates, would have been lost to the 
 world but for the loving diligence of their disciples. 
 
CONFUCroS, THE CHINESE SAGE. 155 
 
 All this is not history in the ordinary sense. But 
 the men described, and particularly Confucius, have 
 had so potent an influence upon all that relates to 
 Chinese life and history, that some brief account of 
 them and their doings seemed indispensable to our 
 work. 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE CHINESE 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 In the year 246 b.c. came to the throne of China 
 the most famous of all the monarehs of that ancient 
 empire, the celebrated Hoangti, — Tsin Chi Hoang-ti, 
 or " first sovereign emperor of the Tsins," to give 
 him his full title. Various stories are told by Chinese 
 historians of the origin of this great monarch, they 
 denying that he was of royal blood. They say that 
 he was the son of a woman slave who had been 
 bought by the emperor, and that the boy's real father 
 was a merchant, her former master. This story, 
 whether true or false, gave the young emperor much 
 trouble in later years. His mother, after he came to 
 the throne, grew so dissipated that he was forced to 
 punish her lover and banish her. And the merchant, 
 his reputed father, being given a place at court, be- 
 came eager for a higher position, and sought to in- 
 fluence the emperor by hints and whisperings of the 
 secret hold he possessed over him. Hoangti was not 
 the man to be dealt with in such a fashion, and the 
 intriguing merchant, finding a storm of vengeance 
 coming, poisoned himself to escape a worse fate. 
 
 Such are the stories told of the origin of the famous 
 
 emperor. They may not be true, for the historians 
 
 hated him, for reasons yet to be given, and made the 
 
 most of anything they could say against him. All 
 
 166 
 
THE FOUNDER OP THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 157 
 
 we are sure of is that he ascended the throne at 
 the youthful age of thirteen, and even at that age 
 quickly made his influence widely felt. What lay 
 before him was practically the conquest of China, 
 whose great feudal lords were virtually independent 
 of the throne, and had, not long before, overwhelmed 
 tbe imperial armies. 
 
 Fortunately for the young emperor, the great 
 prtnc&s, having no fear of a boy, either disbanded 
 their forces or quarrelled among themselves, two 
 of tho most powerful of them declaring war upon 
 each othor. Taking advantage of these dissensions, 
 Hoangti gained, step by step, the desired control 
 of his foes. Ouki, a great general in the interest 
 of the prindes, was disgraced by the aid of bribery 
 and falsehood, several of the strong cities of the 
 princes were seized, and when they entered the field 
 against the emperor their armies, no longer led by 
 the able Ouki, were easily defeated. Thus steadily 
 the power of the youthful monarch increased and 
 that of his opponents fell away, the dismembered 
 empire of China slowly growing under his rule into 
 a coherent whole. 
 
 Meanwhile war arose with foreign enemies, who 
 appeared on the western and northern boundaries 
 of the empire. In this quarter the Tartar tribes of 
 the desert had long been troublesome, and now a 
 great combination of these warlike nomads, known 
 as the Heung-nou, — perhaps the same as the Huns 
 who afterwards devastated Europe, — broke into the 
 defenceless border provinces, plundering and slaugh- 
 tering wherever they appeared. Against this danger- 
 
158 HISTOKICAL TALES. 
 
 ous enemy the emperor manifested the satne energy 
 that he had done against his domestic foes. Collect- 
 ing a great army, three hundred thousand strong, he 
 marched into their country and overthrew them in a 
 series of signal victories. In the end those in the 
 vicinity of China were exterminated, and the others 
 driven to take refuge in the mountains of Mongolia. 
 
 This success was followed by a remarkable per- 
 formance, one of the most stupendous in the history 
 of the world. Finding that several of the northern 
 states of the empire were building lines of fortifi- 
 cation along their northern frontiers for defence 
 against their Tartar enemies, the emperor conceived 
 the extraordinary project of building a gigantic wall 
 along the whole northern boundary of China, a great 
 bulwark to extend from the ocean on the east to 
 the interior extremity of the modern province of 
 Kan-suh on the west. This work was begun under 
 the direct supervision of the emperor in 214 B.C., and 
 prosecuted with the sleepless energy for which he 
 had made himself famous. Tireless as he was, how- 
 ever, the task was too great for one man to perform, 
 and it was not completed until after his death. 
 
 This extraordinary work, perhaps the greatest 
 ever undertaken by the hand of man, extends over a 
 length of twelve hundred and fifty -five miles, the wall 
 itself, if measured throughout its sinuous extent, be- 
 ing fully fifteen hundred miles in length. Over this 
 vast reach of mountain and plain it is carried, regard- 
 less of hill or vale, but " scaling the precipices and 
 topping the craggy hills of the country." It is not a 
 solid mass, but is composed of two retaining walls of 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 159 
 
 brick, built upon granite foundations, while the space 
 between them is filled with earth and stones. It is 
 about twenty-five feet wide at base and fifteen at 
 top, and varies from fifteen to thirty feet in height, 
 with frequent towers rising above its general level. 
 At the top a pavement of bricks — now overgrown 
 with grass — forms a surface finish to the work. 
 
 How many thousands or hundreds of thousands 
 of the industrious laborers of China spent their lives 
 upon this stupendous work history does not tell. It 
 stands as a striking monument of the magnificent 
 conceptions of Hoangti, and of the patient industry 
 of his subjects, beside which the building of the 
 great pyramid of Egypt sinks into insignificance. 
 Yet, as history has abundantly proved, it was a 
 waste of labor so far as answering its purpose was 
 concerned. In the hands of a strong emperor like 
 Hoangti it might well defy the Tartar foe. In the 
 hands of many of his weak successors it proved of 
 no avail, the hordes of the desert swarming like 
 ants over its undefended reaches, and pouring upon 
 the feeble country that sought defence in walls, not 
 in men. 
 
 "While this vast building operation was going on, 
 Hoangti had his hands so full with internal wars 
 that he adopted the custom of sitting on his throne 
 with a naked sword in his hand, significant of his 
 unceasing alertness against his foes. Not until his 
 reign was near its end was he able to return this 
 emblem of war to its scabbard and enjoy for a few 
 years the peace he had so ably won. 
 
 No sooner had the great emperor finished his 
 
160 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 campaign of victory against the Heung-nou Tartars 
 than he found himself confronted by enemies at home, 
 the adherents of the remaining feudal princes whose 
 independent power was threatened. The first with 
 whom he came in contact was the powerful prince 
 of Chow, several of whose cities he captured, the 
 neighboring prince of Han being so terrified by this 
 success that he surrendered without a contest. In 
 accordance with Hoangti's method, the prince was 
 forced to yield his power and retire to private life 
 in the dominions of the conqueror. 
 
 Chow still held out, under an able genei-al, Limou, 
 who defied the emperor and defeated his armies. 
 Hoangti, finding himself opposed by an abler man 
 than any he had under his command, employed 
 against him the same secret arts by which he had 
 before disposed of the valiant Ouki. A courtier was 
 bribed to malign the absent general and poison the 
 mind of the prince against the faithful commander 
 of his forces. The intrigue was successful, Limou 
 was recalled from his command, and on his refusing 
 to obey was assassinated by order of the prince. 
 
 Hoangti had gained his end, and his adversary 
 soon paid dearly for his lack of wisdom and justice. 
 His dominions were overrun, his capital, Hantan, 
 was taken and sacked, and he and his family became 
 prisoners to one who was not noted for mercy to 
 his foes. The large province of Chow was added to 
 the empire, which was now growing with surprising 
 rapidity. 
 
 This enemy disposed of, Hoangti had another with 
 whom to deal. At his court resided Prince Tan, heir 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE CHINESE EMPIKE. 161 
 
 of the ruler of Yen. Whether out of settled policy 
 or from whim, the emperor insulted this visitor so 
 flagrantly that he flod the court, burning for revenge. 
 As the most direct way of obtaining this, he hired 
 an assassin to murder Hoangti, inducing him to 
 accept the task by promising him the title of " Lib- 
 erator of the Empire." The plot was nearly success- 
 ful. Finding it very diflScult to obtain an audience 
 with the emperor, Kinkou, the assassin, succeeded 
 in an extraordinary way, by inducing Panyuki, a 
 proscribed rebel, to commit suicide. In some unex- 
 plained way Kinkou made use of this desperate act 
 to obtain the desired audience. Only the alertness 
 of the emperor now saved him from death. His 
 quick eye caught the attempt of the assassin to draw 
 his poniard, and at once, with a sweeping blow of 
 his sabre, he severed his leg from his body, hurling 
 him bleeding and helpless to the floor. 
 
 Hoangti' 8 retribution did not end with the death 
 of the assassin. Learning that Prince Tan was the 
 real eulprit, he gave orders for the instant invasion 
 of Yen, — a purpose which perhaps he had in view 
 in his insult to the prince. The ruler of that state, 
 to avert the emperor's wrath, sent him the head of 
 Tan, whom he had ordered to execution. But as 
 the army continued to advance, he fled into the wilds 
 of Lea-vu-tung, abandoning his territory to the in- 
 vader. In the same year the kingdom of Wei was 
 invaded, its capital taken, and its ruler sent to the 
 Chinese capital for execution. 
 
 Only one of the great principalities now remained, 
 that of Choo, but it was more formidable than any 
 
 11 
 
162 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 of those yet assailed. Great preparations and a 
 large army were needed for this enterprise, and the 
 emperor asked his generals how many men would be 
 required for the task of conquest. 
 
 " Two hundred thousand will be abundant," said 
 Lisin ; " I will promise you the best results with that 
 number of men." 
 
 " What have you to say ?" asked the emperor of 
 Wang Tsein, his oldest and most experienced com- 
 mander. 
 
 " Six hundred thousand will be needed," said the 
 cautious old general. 
 
 These figures, given in history, may safely be cred- 
 ited with an allowance for the exaggeration of the 
 writers. 
 
 The emperor approved of Lisin's estimate, and 
 gave him the command, dismissing the older war- 
 rior as an over-cautious dotard. The event told a 
 different tale. Lisin was surprised during his march 
 and driven back in utter defeat, losing forty thousand 
 men, as the records say, in the battle and the pur- 
 suit. What became of the defeated braggart history 
 fails to state. If he survived the battle, he could 
 hardly have dared to present himself again before his 
 furious master. 
 
 Hoangti now sent for the veteran whom he had 
 dismissed as a dotard, and asked him to take com- 
 mand of the troops. 
 
 " Six hundred thousand : no less will serve," re- 
 peated the old man. 
 
 " You shall have all you ask for," answered the 
 emperor. 
 
THE POUNDEE OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 163 
 
 This vast host collected, the question of supplies 
 presented itself as a serious matter. 
 
 "Do not let that trouble you," said the emperor 
 to his general. "I have taken steps to provide 
 for that, and promise you that provisions are more 
 likely to be wanting in my palace than in your 
 camp." 
 
 The event proved the soundness of the old war- 
 rior's judgment and his warlike skill. A great bat- 
 tle soon took place, in which "Wang Tsein, taking 
 advantage of a false movement of the enemy, drove 
 him in panic flight from the field. This was soon 
 followed by the complete conquest of the princi- 
 pality, whose cities were strongly garrisoned by im- 
 perial troops, and its rulers sent to the capital to 
 experience the fate of the preceding princely cap- 
 tives. The subjection of several smaller provinces 
 succeeded, and the conquest of China was at length 
 complete. 
 
 The feudal principalities, which had been the suc- 
 cessors of the independent kingdoms into which the 
 Chinese territory was originally divided, were thus 
 overthrown, the ancient local dynasties being exter- 
 minated, and their territories added to the dominion 
 of the Tsins. The unity of the empire was at 
 length established, and the great conqueror became 
 " the first universal emperor." 
 
 Hoangti the Great, as we may justly designate the 
 man who first formed a united Chinese empire, and 
 to whom the mighty conception of the Great "Wall 
 was due, did not exhaust his energies in these varied 
 labors. Choosing as his capital Heenyang (now Se- 
 
164 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 gan Foo), he built himself there a palace of such 
 magnificence as to make it the wonder and admira- 
 tion of the age. This was erected outside the city, 
 on so vast a scale that ten thousand men could be 
 drawn up in order of battle in one of its courts. 
 Attached to it were magnificent gardens, the whole 
 being known as the Palace of Delight. "Within the 
 city he had another palace, of grand dimensions, its 
 hall of audience being adorned with twelve gigantic 
 statues made from the spoils of his many campaigns, 
 each of them weighing twelve thousand pounds. 
 
 The capital was otherwise highly embellished, and 
 an edict required that all weapons should be sent 
 to the arsenal in that city, there being no longer 
 danger of civil war, and " peace being universal." 
 This measure certainly tended to prevent war, and 
 " the skilful disarming of the provinces added daily 
 to the wealth and prosperity of the capital." 
 
 The empire of China thus being, for the first tim« 
 in its historj-, made a centralized one, Hoangti di- 
 vided it into thirty-six provinces, and set out on a 
 tour of inspection of the vast dominions which ac- 
 knowledged him as sole lord and master. Governors 
 and sub-governors were appointed in each province, 
 the stability of the organization adopted being evi- 
 denced by the fact that it still exists. The most 
 important result of the imperial journey was the 
 general improvement of the roads of the empire. 
 It was the custom, when a great man visited any 
 district, to repair the roads which he would need to 
 traverse, while outside his line of march the high- 
 ways were of a very imperfect character. Hoangti 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 165 
 
 was well aware of this custom, and very likely he 
 may have convinced himself of the true condition 
 of the roads by sudden detours from the prescribed 
 route. At all events, he made the following notable 
 remarks : 
 
 " These roads have been made expressly for me, 
 and are very satisfactory. But it is not just that 
 I alone should enjoy a convenience of which my 
 subjects have still greater need, and one which I 
 can give them. Therefore I decree that good roads 
 shall be made in all directions throughout the em- 
 pire." 
 
 In these few words he set in train a far more use- 
 ful work than the Great Wall. High-roads were laid 
 out on a grand scale, traversing the empire from end 
 to end, and the public spirit of the great emperor is 
 attested by the noble system of highways which 
 still remain, more than two thousand years after his 
 death. 
 
 Having said so much in favor of Hoangti, we 
 have now to show the reverse of the shield, in de- 
 scribing that notable act which has won h'im the 
 enmity of the literary class, not only in China but 
 in the whole world. This was the celebrated " burn- 
 ing of the books." Hoangti was essentially a re- 
 former. Time-honored ceremonies were of little im- 
 portance in his eyes when they stood in the way of 
 the direct and practical, and he abolished hosts of 
 ancient customs that had grown wearisome and un- 
 meaning. This sweeping away of the drift-wood of 
 the past was far from agreeable to the oflScials, to 
 whom formalism and precedent were as the breath 
 
166 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 of life. One of the ancient customs required the em- 
 perors to ascend high mountains and offer sacrifices 
 on their summits. The literary class had ancient 
 rule and precedent for every step in this ceremony, 
 and so sharply criticised the emperor's disregard of 
 these observances that they roused his anger. " Tou 
 vaunt the simplicity of the ancients," he impatiently 
 said ; " you should then be Satisfied with me, for I 
 act in a simpler fashion than they did." Finally 
 he closed the controversy with the stern remark, 
 " When I have need of you I will let you know my 
 orders." 
 
 The literati of China have always been notable 
 for the strength of their convictions and the obsti- 
 nate courage with which they express their opinions 
 at all risks. They were silenced for the present, but 
 their anger, as well as that of the emperor, only 
 slumbered. Five years afterwards it was reawak- 
 ened. Hoangti had summoned to the capital all the 
 governors and high officials for a Grand Council of 
 the Empire. "With the men of affairs came the men 
 of learning, many of them wedded to theories and 
 traditions, who looked upon Hoangti as a danger- 
 ous iconoclast, and did not hesitate to express their 
 opinion. 
 
 It was the most distinguished assembly that had 
 ever come together in China, and, gathered in that 
 magnificent palace which was adorned with the 
 spoils of conquered kingdoms, it reflected the highest 
 honor on the great emperor who had called it to- 
 gether and who presided over its deliberations. But 
 the hardly concealed hostility of the literati soon 
 
THE FOUNDEE OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 167 
 
 distui'bed the harmony of the council. In response 
 to the emperor, who asked for candid expressions 
 of opinion upon his government and legislation, a 
 courtier arose with words of high praise, ending 
 with, " Truly you have surpassed the very greatest 
 of your predecessors even at the most remote period." 
 
 The men of books broke into loud murmurs at this 
 insult to the heroes of their admiration, and one of 
 them sprang angrily to his feet, designating the 
 former speaker as " a vile flatterer unworthy of the 
 high position which he occupied," and continuing 
 with unstinted praise of the early rulers. His 
 oration, which showed much more erudition than 
 discretion, ended by advocating a reversal of the 
 emperor's action, and a redivision of the empire into 
 feudal principalities. 
 
 Hoangti, hot with anger, curtly reminded the 
 speaker that that point was not open to discussion, 
 it having already been considered and decided. He 
 then called on Lisseh, his minister, to state again the 
 reasons for the unity of the empire. The speech of 
 the minister is one of high importance, as giving the 
 ostensible reasons for the unexampled act of de- 
 struction by which it was followed. 
 
 " It must be admitted," he said, " after what we 
 have just heard, that men of letters are, as a rule, 
 very little acquainted with what concerns the gov- 
 ernment of a country, — not that government of pure 
 speculation, which is nothing more than a phantom, 
 vanishing the nearer we approach to it, but the 
 practical government which consists in keeping men 
 within the sphere of their practical duties. With 
 
168 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 all their pretence of knowledge, they are, in this 
 matter, densely ignorant. They can tell you by 
 heart everything which has happened in the past, 
 back to the most remote period, but they are, or 
 seem to be, ignorant of what is being done in these 
 later days, of what is passing under their very eyes. 
 Incapable of discerning that the thing which was 
 formerly suitable would be wholly out of place to- 
 day, they would have everything arranged in exact 
 imitation of what they find written in their books." 
 
 He went on to denounce the men of learning as a 
 class uninfluenced by the spirit of existing affairs 
 and as enemies of the public weal, and concluded 
 by saying, " Now or never is the time to close the 
 mouths of these secret enemies, to place a curb upon 
 their audacity." 
 
 He spoke the sentiments of the emperor, who had 
 probably already determined upon his course of 
 action. Having no regard for books himself, and 
 looking upon them as the weapons of his banded 
 foes, he issued the memorable order that all the books 
 of the empire should be destroyed, making exception 
 only of those that treated of medicine, agriculture, 
 architecture, and astronomy. The order included 
 the works of the great Confucius, who had edited 
 and condensed the more ancient books of the em- 
 pire, and of his noble disciple Mencius, and was of 
 the most tyrannical and oppressive character. All 
 books containing historical records, except those re- 
 lating to the existing reign, were to be burned, and 
 all who dared even to speak together about the 
 Confucian " Book of Odes" and " Book of History" 
 
THE FOUNDER OP THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 169 
 
 were condemned to execution. All who should 
 even make mention of the past, so as to blame the 
 present, were, with all their relatives, to be put to 
 death ; and any one found, after thirty days, with a 
 book in his possession was to be branded and sent 
 to work for four years on the Great Wall. Hoangti 
 did not confine himself to words. The whole empire 
 was searched for books, and all found were burned, 
 while large numbers of the literati who had dis- 
 obeyed the edict were arrested, and four hundred and 
 sixty of them were buried alive in a great pit dug for 
 that purpose. 
 
 It may well be that Hoangti had his own fame 
 largely in view in this unprecedented act, as in his 
 preceding wall-building and road-making. He may 
 have proposed to sweep away all earlier records of 
 the empire and make it seem to have sprung into 
 existence full-fledged with his reign. But if he had 
 such a purpose, he did not take fully into account 
 the devotion of men of learning to their cherished 
 manuscripts, nor the powers of the human memory. 
 Books were hidden in the roofs and walls of dwell- 
 ings, buried underground, and in some cases even 
 concealed in the beds of rivers, until after the 
 tyrant's death. And when a subsequent monarch 
 sought to restore these records of the past, van- 
 ished tomes reappeared from the most unlooked-for 
 places. As for the " Book of History" of Confucius, 
 which had disappeared, twenty-eight sections of the 
 hundred composing it were taken down from the 
 lips of an aged blind man who had treasured them 
 in his memory, and one was obtained from a young 
 
170 HiSTORlCAt TALES, 
 
 girl. The others were lost until 140 B.C., when, in 
 pulling down the house of the great philosopher, a 
 complete copy of the work was found hidden in its 
 walls. As for the scientific works that were spared, 
 none of them have come down to our day. 
 
 We shall now briefly complete our story of the 
 man who made himself the most thoroughly hated 
 of all Chinese monarchs by the literati of that 
 realm. Organizing his troops into a strong standing 
 army, he engaged in a war of conquest in the south, 
 adding Tonquin and Cochin China to his dominions, 
 and carrying his arms as far as Bengal. In the 
 north he again sent his armies into the desert to 
 chastise the troublesome nomads, and then, conceiv- 
 ing that no advantage was to be gained in extending 
 his empire over these domains of barbarism, he em- 
 ployed the soldiers as aids in the task of building the 
 Great Wall, adding to them a host of the industrial 
 population of the north. 
 
 In 210 B.C. Hoangti was seized with some malady 
 which he failed to treat as he did his enemies. Neg- 
 lecting the simplest remedial measures, he came 
 suddenly to the end of his career after a reign of 
 fifty-one years. With him were buried many of his 
 wives and large quantities of treasure, a custom of 
 barbarous origin which was confined in China to the 
 chiefs of Tsin. Magnificent in his ideas and fond of 
 splendor, he despised formality, lived simply in the 
 midst of luxury, and distinguished himself from 
 other Chinese rulers by making walking his favorite 
 exercise. While not great as a soldier, he knew how 
 to choose soldiers, and in his administration was 
 
THE FOUNDER OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 171 
 
 wise enough to avail himself of the advice of the 
 ablest ministers. 
 
 Tet with all his greatness he could not provide for 
 the birth of a great son. Upon his death disturb- 
 ances broke out in all quarters of the realm, with 
 which his weak successor was unable to cope. In 
 three years the reign of his son was closed with as- 
 sassination, while the grandson of Hoangti, defeated 
 in battle after a six weeks' nominal reign, ended his 
 life in murder or suicide. With him the dynasty of 
 the Tsins passed away and that of the Han mon- 
 archs succeeded. Hoangti stands alone as the great 
 man of his race. 
 
KAOTSOU AND THE DYNASTY 
 OF THE HANS. 
 
 After the death of the great Hoangti, two of his 
 generals fought for the throne of China, — Lieou 
 Pang, who represents, in the Chinese annals, intel- 
 lect, and Pa Wang, representing brute force, unin- 
 spired by thought. Destiny, if we can credit the 
 following tale, had chosen the former for the throne. 
 " A noted physiognomist once met him on the high- 
 road, and, throwing himself down before him, said, 
 ' I see by the expression of your features that you 
 are destined to be emperor, and I offer you in antici- 
 pation the tribute of respect that a subject owes his 
 sovereign. I have a daughter, the fairest and wisest 
 in the empire ; take her as your wife. So confident 
 am I that my prediction will be realized that I gladly 
 offer her to you.' " 
 
 However that be, the weak descendants of Hoangti 
 soon vanished from the scene. Pa Wang was over- 
 come in battle, and the successful general seized the 
 imperial throne. He chose, as emperor, the title of 
 Kaotsou, and named his dynasty, from his native 
 province, the Han. It was destined to continue for 
 centuries in power. 
 
 The new emperor showed himself a worthy suc- 
 cessor of the builder of the Great Wall, while he 
 made every effort to restore to the nation its books, 
 :72 
 
KAOTSOU AND THE DYNASTY OF THE HANS. 173 
 
 encouraging men of letters and seeking to recover 
 such literature as had survived the great burning. 
 In this way he provided for his future fame at the 
 hands of the grateful literati of China. Amnesty 
 to all who had opposed him was proclaimed, and re- 
 gret expressed at the sufferings of the people " from 
 the evils which follow in the train of war." 
 
 The merit of Kaotsou lay largely in the great 
 public works with which he emulated the policy of 
 his energetic predecessor. The " Lofty and August 
 Emperor" (^Kao Hoangti), as he entitled himself, did 
 not propose to be thrown into the shade by any who 
 had gone before. On taking the throne he chose as 
 his capital the city of Loyang (now Honan), but 
 subsequently selected the city of Singanfoo, in the 
 western province of Shensi. This city lay in a nest 
 of mountains, which made it very difficult of ap- 
 proach. It was not without advantages from its 
 situation as the capital of the empirCj but could not 
 be reached from the south without long detours. 
 Possibly this difficulty may have had something to 
 do with its choice by the emperor, that he might 
 display his genius in overcoming obstacles. 
 
 To construct roads across and to cut avenues 
 through the mountains an army of workmen, one 
 hundred thousand in number, became necessary. 
 The deep intervening valleys were filled up to the 
 necessary level by the spoils rent from the lofty ad- 
 joining mountains, and where this could not be done, 
 great bridges, supported on strong and high pillars, 
 were thrown across from side to side. Elsewhere 
 suspension bridges — " flying bridges," as the Chinese 
 
174 HISTOEIOAL TALES. 
 
 call them — were thrown across deep and rugged 
 ravines, wide enough for four horsemen to travel 
 abreast, their sides being protected by high balus- 
 trades. One of these, one hundred and fifty yards 
 long, and thrown over a valley more than five 
 hundred feet deep, is said to be still in perfect con- 
 dition. These suspension bridges were built nearly 
 two thousand years before a work of this character 
 was attempted in Europe. In truth, the period in 
 question, including several centuries before Christ, 
 was the culminating age of Chinese civilization, in 
 which appeared its great religious reformers, philos- 
 ophers, and authors, its most daring engineers, and 
 its monarchs of highest public spirit and broadest 
 powers of conception and execution. It was the age 
 of the Great Wall, the imperial system of highways, 
 the system of canals (though the Great Canal was 
 of later date), and other important works of public 
 utility. 
 
 By the strenuous labors described Kaotsou ren- 
 dered his new capital easy of access from all quarters 
 of the kingdom, while at frequent intervals along 
 the great high-roads of the empire there were built 
 post-houses, caravansaries, and other conveniences, 
 so as to make travelling rather a pleasure than the 
 severe task it formerly had been. 
 
 The capital itself was made as attractive as the 
 means of reaching it were made easy. Siaho, at once 
 an able war minister and a great builder, planned 
 for the emperor a palace so magnificent that Kaotsou 
 hesitated in ordering its erection. Siaho removed 
 his doubts with the following argument: "You 
 
KAOTSOU AND THE DYNASTY OP THE HANS. 175 
 
 should look upon all the empire as your family; and 
 if the grandeur of your palace does not correspond 
 with that of your family, what idea will it give of 
 its power and greatness ?" 
 
 This argument sufficed : the palace was built, and 
 Kaotsou celebrated its completion with festivities 
 continued for several weeks. On one occasion dur- 
 ing this period, uplifted with a full sense of the 
 dignity to which he had attained, his pride found 
 vent in the grandiloquent remark, " To-day I feel 
 that I am indeed emperor, and perceive all the dif- 
 ference between a subject and his master." 
 
 His fondness for splendor was indicated by mag- 
 nificent banquets and receptions, and his sense of 
 dignity by a court ceremonial which must have 
 proved a wearisome ordeal for his courtiers, though 
 none dared infringe it for fear of dire consequences. 
 Those who had aided him in his accession to power 
 were abundantly rewarded, with one exception, that 
 of his father, who seems to have been overlooked in 
 the distribution of favors. The old man, not relish- 
 ing thus being left at the foot of the ladder, took 
 prompt occasion to remind his son of his claims. 
 Dressing himself in his costliest garments, he pre- 
 sented himself at the foot of the throne, where, in a 
 speech of deep humility, he designated himself as 
 the least yet the most obedient subject of the realm. 
 Kaotsou, thus admonished, at once called a council 
 of ministers and had the old man proclaimed " the 
 lesser emperor." Taking him by the hand, he led 
 him to a chair at the foot of the throne as his future 
 seat. This act of the emperor won him the highest 
 
176 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 commendation from his subjects, the Chinese looking 
 upon respect to and veneration of parents as the 
 duty surpassing all others and the highest evidence 
 of virtue. 
 
 Siaho, the palace-builder ^.nd war minister, had 
 been specially favored in this giving of rewards, 
 much to the discontent of the leading generals, who 
 claimed all the credit for the successes in war, and 
 were disposed to look with contempt on this mere 
 cabinet warrior. Hearing of their complaints, Kao- 
 tsou summoned them to his presence, and thus 
 plainly expressed his opinion of their claims : 
 
 " You find, I am told, reason to complain that I 
 have rewarded Siaho above yourselves. Tell me, 
 who are they at the chase who pursue and capture 
 the prey ? The dogs. — But who direct and urge on 
 the dogs ? Are they not the hunters ? — You have 
 all worked hard for me ; you have pursued your 
 prey with vigor, and at last captured and overthrown 
 it. In this you deserve the credit which one gives 
 to the dogs in the chase. But the merit of Siaho la 
 that of the hunter. It is he who has conducted the 
 whole of the war, who regulated everything, ordered 
 you to attack the enemy at the opportune moment, 
 and by his tactics made you master of the cities and 
 provinces you have conquered. On this account he 
 deserves the credit of the hunter, who is more worthy 
 of reward than are the dogs whom he sets loose upon 
 the prey." 
 
 One further anecdote is told of this emperor, 
 which is worth repeating, as its point was aptly 
 illustrated in a subsequent event. Though he had 
 
KAOTSOU AND THE DYNASTY OF THE HANS. 177 
 
 won the empire by the sword, he was not looked 
 upon as a great general, and on one occasion asked 
 Hansin, his ablest officer, how many men he thought 
 he (the emperor) could lead with credit in the field. 
 
 " Sire," said the plain-spoken general, " you can 
 lead an army of a hundred thousand men very well. 
 But that is all." 
 
 " And how many can you lead ?" 
 
 " The more I have the better I shall lead them," 
 was the self-confident answer. 
 
 The event in which the justice of this criticism 
 was indicated arose during a subsequent war with 
 the Tartars, who had resumed their inroads into the 
 empire. The Heung-nou were at this period gov- 
 erned by two leading chiefs, Mehe and Tonghou, 
 the latter arrogant and ambitious, the former well 
 able to bide his time. The story goes that Tonghou 
 sent to Mehe a demand for a favorite horse. His 
 kinsmen advised him to refuse, but Mehe sent the 
 horse, saying, " Would you quarrel with your neigh- 
 bor for a horse ?" Tonghou soon after sent to de- 
 mand of Mehe one of his wives. Mehe again com- 
 plied, saying to his friends, " Would you have me 
 undertake a war for the sake of a woman ?" Tong- 
 hou, encouraged by these results of his insolence, 
 next invaded Mehe's dominions. The patient chief, 
 now fully prepared, took the field, and in a brief 
 time had dispersed Tonghou's army, captured and 
 executed him, and made himself the principal chief 
 of the clans. 
 
 This able leader, having punished his insolent 
 desert foe, soon led his warlike followers into China, 
 
 12 
 
178 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 took possession of many fertile districts, extended 
 his authority to the banks of the Hoang-ho, and 
 sent plundering expeditions into the rich provinces 
 beyond. In the war that followed the emperor him- 
 self took command of his troops, and, too readily 
 believing the stories of the weakness of the Tartar 
 army told by his scouts, resolved on an immediate 
 attack. One of his generals warned him that " in 
 war we should never despise an enemy," but the 
 emperor refused to listen, and marched confidently 
 on, at the head of his advance guard, to find the 
 enemy. 
 
 He found him to his sorrow. Mehe had skilfully 
 concealed his real strength for the purpose of draw- 
 ing the emperor into a trap, and now, by a well- 
 directed movement, cut off the rash leader from his 
 main army and forced him to take refuge in the 
 city of Pingching. Here, vastly outnumbered and 
 short of provisions, the emperor found himself in a 
 desperate strait, from which he could not escape by 
 force of arms. 
 
 In this dilemma one of his oflScers suggested a 
 possible method of release. This was that, as a last 
 chance, the most beautiful virgin in the city should 
 be sent as a peace-offering to the desert chief. 
 Kaotsou accepted the plan, — nothing else presenting 
 itself, — and the maiden was chosen and sent. She 
 went willingly, it is said, and used her utmost arts 
 to captivate the Tartar chief. She succeeded, and 
 Mehe, after forcing Kaotsou to sign an ignominious 
 treaty, suffered his prize to escape, and retired to 
 the desert, well satisfied with the rich spoils he had 
 
KAOTSOU AND THE DYNASTY OP THE HANS. 179 
 
 won. Kaotsou was just enough to reward the gen- 
 eral to whose warning he had refused to listen, but 
 the scouts who had misled him paid dearly for their 
 false reports. 
 
 This event seems to have inspired Kaotsou with 
 an unconc[uerable fear of his desert foe, who was 
 soon back again, pillaging the borders with impunity 
 and making such daring inroads that the capital 
 itself was not safe from their assaults. Instead of 
 trusting to his army, the emperor now bought off 
 his enemy in a more discreditable method than be- 
 fore, concluding a treaty in which he acknowledged 
 Mehe as an independent ruler and gave him his 
 daughter in marriage. 
 
 This weakness led to revolts in the empire, Kao- 
 tsou being forced again to take the field against his 
 foes. But, worn out with anxiety and misfortune, 
 his end soon approached, his death-bed being dis- 
 turbed by palace intrigues concerning the succession, 
 in which one of his favorite wives sought to have 
 her son selected as the heir. Kaotsou, not heeding 
 her petition, chose his eldest son as the heir-apparent, 
 and soon after died. The tragic results of these in- 
 trigues for the crown will be seen in the following 
 tale. 
 
THE LUCRETIA BORGIA OE 
 CHINA. 
 
 About two centuries before Christ a woman came 
 to the head of affairs in China whose deeds recall 
 the worst of those which have long added infamy 
 to the name of Lucretia Borgia. As regards the 
 daughter of the Borgias tradition has lied : she was 
 not the merciless murderess of fancy and fame. 
 But there is no mitigation to the story of the em- 
 press Liuchi, who, with poison as her weapon, made 
 herself supreme dictator of the great Chinese realm. 
 
 The death of the great emperor Kaotsou left two 
 aspirants for the throne, the princes Hoeiti, son of 
 Liuchi, and Chow Wang, son of the empress Tsi. 
 There was a palace plot to raise Chow "Wang to the 
 throne, but it was quickly foiled by the effective 
 means used by the ambitious Liuchi to remove the 
 rivals from the path of her son. Poison did the work. 
 The empress Tsi unsuspiciously quaffed the fatal 
 bowl, which was then sent to Chow Wang, who inno- 
 cently drank the same perilous draught. Whatever 
 may have been the state of the conspiracy, this vig- 
 orous method of the queen-mother brought it to a 
 sudden end, and Hoeiti ascended the throne. 
 
 The young emperor seemingly did not approve of 
 ascending to power over the dead bodies of his oppo- 
 nents. He reproved his mother for her cruel deed, 
 180 
 
THE LUCREXIA BORGIA OP CHINA. 181 
 
 and made a public statement that he had taken no 
 part in the act. Yet under this public demonstration 
 secret influences seem to have been at work within 
 the palace walls, for the imperial poisoner retained 
 her power at court and her influence over her son. 
 "When the great princes sought the capital to render 
 homage to the new emperor, to their surprise and 
 chagrin they found the unscrupulous dowager em- 
 press at the head of affairs, the sceptre of the realm 
 practically in her hands. 
 
 They were to find that this dreadful woman was a 
 dangerous foe to oppose. Among the potentates was 
 Tao Wang, Prince of Tsi, who, after doing homage 
 to the young emperor, was invited to feast with him. 
 At this banquet Liuchi made her appearance, and 
 when the wine was passed she insisted on being 
 served first. These unpardonable breaches of eti- 
 quette — which they were in the Chinese code of good 
 manners — were looked upon with astonishment by 
 the visiting prince, who made no effort to conceal his 
 displeasure on seeing any one attempt to drink before 
 the emperor. 
 
 Liuchi, perceiving that she had made an enemy by 
 her act, at once resolved to remove him from her 
 path, with the relentless and terrible decision with 
 which she had disposed of her former rivals. Cov- 
 ertly dropping the poison, which she seems to have 
 always had ready for use, into a goblet of wine, she 
 presented it to the prince of Tsi, asking him to pledge 
 her in a draught. The unsuspicious guest took the 
 goblet from her hand, without a dream of what the 
 courtesy meant. 
 
182 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Fortunately for him, the emperor, who distrusted 
 his mother too deeply to leave her unobserved, had 
 seen her secret act and knew too well what it meant. 
 Snatching the fatal bowl from the prince's hand, he 
 begged permission to pledge his health in that wine, 
 and, with his eyes fixed meaningly on his mother's 
 face, lifted it in turn to his royal lips. 
 
 The startled woman had viewed the act with wide 
 eyes and trembling hmbs. Seeing her son apparently 
 on the point of drinking, an involuntary cry of 
 warning burst from her, and, springing hastily to 
 her feet, she snatched the fatal cup from his hand 
 and dashed it to the floor. The secret was revealed. 
 The prince of Tsi had been on the very point of 
 death. With an exclamation of horror, and a keen 
 invective addressed to the murderess, he rushed from 
 that perilous room, and very probably was not long 
 in hastening from a city which held so powerful and 
 unscrupulous a foe. 
 
 The Chinese Borgia's next act of violence found a 
 barbarian for its victim. The Tartar chief Mehe 
 sent an envoy to the capital of China, with a message 
 which aroused the anger of the empress, who at once 
 ordered him to be executed, heedless of the fact that 
 she thus brought the nation to the brink of war. 
 Pour years afterwards Hoeiti, the emperor, died, 
 leaving vacant the throne which he had so feebly 
 filled. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that Liuchi had any hand 
 in this closing of a brief and uneventful reign. Her 
 son was in no sense in her way, and served as a use- 
 ful shield behind which she held the reins of gov- 
 
THE LTICRETIA BOKGIA OP CHINA. 183 
 
 ernment. But she was in no haste to fill the vacant 
 throne, preferring to rule openly as the supreme 
 power in the realm. In order to consolidate her 
 strength, she placed her brothers and near relations 
 in the great posts of the empire, and strengthened 
 her position by every means fair and foul. 
 
 It soon became evident, however, that this ambi- 
 tious scheme could not be carried through. Through- 
 out the land went up a cry for a successor to the 
 dead emperor. In this dilemma the daring woman 
 adopted a bold plan, bringing forward a boy who 
 she declared was the offepring of her dead son, and 
 placing this child of unknown parents upon the 
 vacant throne. As a regent was needed during the 
 minority of her counterfeit grandson, she had herself 
 proclaimed as the holder of this high oflSce. 
 
 All this was very little to the taste of the ministers 
 of the late emperor. Never before had the govern- 
 ment of China been in the hands of a woman. But 
 they dared not make an effort to change it, or even 
 to speak their sentiments in too loud a tone. Liuchi 
 had ways of suppressing discontent that forced her 
 enemies to hold their peace. The only one who ven- 
 tured to question the arbitrary will of the regent 
 was the mother of the nominal emperor, and sudden 
 death removed her from the scene. Liuchi's ready 
 means of vengeance had been brought into play 
 again. 
 
 For years now the imperious empress ruled China 
 unquestioned. Others who ventured on her path 
 may have fallen, but the people remained content, so 
 that the usurper seems to have avoided any oppress 
 
184 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 sion of her subjects. But these years brought the 
 child she had placed on the throne well on towards 
 man's estate, and he began to show signs of an inten- 
 tion to break loose from leading-strings. He was 
 possessed of ability, or at least of energy, and there 
 were those ready to whisper in his ear the bitter tale 
 of how his mother had been forced to swallow Liu- 
 chi's draught of death. 
 
 Stirred to grief and rage by these whispers of a 
 fell deed, the youthful ruler vowed revenge upon the 
 murderess. He vowed his own death in doing so. 
 His hasty words were carried by spies to Liuchi's 
 ears, and with her usual promptness she caused the 
 imprudent youth to be seized and confined within 
 the palace prison. The puppet under whom she 
 ruled had proved inconvenient, and there was not a 
 moment's hesitation in putting him out of the way. 
 What became of him is not known, the prison rarely 
 revealing its secrets, but from Liuchi's character we 
 may safely surmise his fate. 
 
 The regent at once set to work to choose a more 
 pliant successor to her rebellious tool. But her cup 
 of crime was nearly full. Though the people re- 
 mained silent, there was deep discontent among the 
 oflicials of the realm, while the nobles were fiercely 
 indignant at this virtual seizure of the throne by an 
 ambitious woman. The storm grew day by day. 
 One great chief boldly declared that he acknowledged 
 " neither empress nor emperor," and the family of 
 the late monarch Kaotsou regained their long-lost 
 courage on perceiving these evidences of a spirit of 
 revolt. 
 
THE LUCBETIA BORGIA 0¥ CHINA. 185 
 
 Dangers were gatheriDg around the resolute re- 
 gent. But her party was strong, her hand firm, her 
 courage and energy great, and she would perhaps 
 have triumphed over all her foes bad not the prob- 
 lem been unexpectedly solved by her sudden death. 
 The story goes that, while walking one day in the 
 palace halls, meditating upon the best means of 
 meeting and defeating her numerous foes, she found 
 herself suddenly face to face with a hideous spectre, 
 around which rose the shades of the victims whom 
 she had removed by poison or violence from her 
 path. With a spasm of terror the horrified woman 
 fell and died. Conscience had smitten her in the 
 form of this terrific vision, and retribution came to 
 the poisoner in the halls which she had made in- 
 famous by her crimes. 
 
 Her death ended the hopes of her friends. Her 
 party fell to pieces throughout the realm, but a strong 
 force still held the palace, where they fiercely de- 
 fended themselves against the army brought by their 
 foes. But their great empress leader was gone, one 
 by one they fell in vain defence, and the capture of 
 the palace put an end to the power which the woman 
 usurper had so long and vigorously maintained. 
 
THE INVASION OF THE TARTAR 
 STEPPES. 
 
 Many as have been the wars of China, the Chinese 
 are not a warlike people. Their wars have mostly 
 been fought at home to repress rebellion or overcome 
 feudal lords, and during the long history of the na- 
 tion its armies have rarely crossed the borders of the 
 empire to invade foreign states. In fact, the chief 
 aggressive movements of the Chinese have been 
 rather wars of defence than of offence, wars forced 
 upon them by the incessant sting of invasions from 
 the desert tribes. 
 
 For ages the Tartars made China their plunder- 
 ground, crossing the borders in rapid raids against 
 which the Great Wall and the frontier forces proved 
 useless for defence, and carrying off vast spoil from 
 the industrious Chinese. They were driven from 
 the soil scores of times, only to return as virulently 
 as before. Their warlike energy so far surpassed 
 that of their victims that one emperor did not hesi- 
 tate to admit that three Tartars were the equal of 
 five Chinese. They were bought off at times with 
 tribute of rich goods and beautiful maidens, and 
 their chief was even given the sister of an emperor 
 for wife. And still they came, again and again, 
 swarms of fierce wasps which stung the country 
 more deeply with each return. 
 186 
 
THE INVASION OF THE TARTAR STEPPES. 187 
 
 This in time became intolerable, and a new policy 
 was adopted, that of turning the tables on the Tar- 
 tars and invading their country in turn. In the 
 reign of Vouti, an emperor of the Han dynasty (135 
 B.C.), the Tartar king sent to demand the hand of a 
 Chinese princess in marriage, offering to continue the 
 existing truce. Bitter experience had taught the Chi- 
 nese how little such an offer was to be trusted. Wang 
 Kue, an able general, suggested the policy " of destroy- 
 ing them rather than to remain constantly exposed 
 to their insults," and in the end war was declared. 
 
 The hesitation of the emperor had not been with- 
 out abundant reason. To carry their arms into the 
 wilds of Central Asia seemed a desperate enterprise 
 to the peaceful Chinese, and their first effort in this 
 direction proved a serious failure. Wang Kue, at 
 the head of an army of three hundred thousand 
 men, marched into the desert, adopting a stratagem 
 to bring the Tartars within his reach. His plan 
 failed, the Tartars avoided an attack, and Wang Kue 
 closed the campaign without a shred of the glory 
 he had promised to gain. The emperor ordered his 
 arrest, which he escaped in the effective Eastern fash- 
 ion of himself putting an end to his life. 
 
 But, though the general was dead, his policy sur- 
 vived, his idea of aggression taking deep root in the 
 Chinese official mind. Many centuries were to elapse, 
 however, before it bore fruit in the final subjectioQ 
 of the desert tribes, and China was to become their 
 prey as a whole before they became the subjects of 
 its throne. 
 
 The failure of Wang Kue gave boldness to the 
 
188 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Tartars, who carried on in their old way the war the 
 Chinese had begun, making such bold and destructive 
 raids that the emperor sent out a general with orders 
 to fight the enemy wherever he could find them. 
 This warrior, Wei Tsing by name, succeeded in 
 catching the raiders in a trap. The Tartar chief, 
 armed with the courage of despair, finally cut his 
 way through the circle of his foes and brought off 
 the most of his men, but his camp, baggage, wives, 
 children, and more than fifteen thousand soldiers were 
 left behind, and the victorious general became the 
 hero of his age, the emperor travelling a day's jour- 
 ney from the capital to welcome him on his return. 
 This, and a later success by the same general, 
 gave the Chinese the courage they so sadly needed, 
 teaching them that the Tartars were not quite be- 
 yond the power of the sword. A council was called, 
 a proposal to carry the war into the enemy's country 
 approved, and an army, composed mostly of cavalry, 
 sent out under an experienced oflScer named Hokiu- 
 ping. The ill fortune of the former invasion was 
 now replaced by good. The Tartars, completely 
 taken by surprise, were everywhere driven back, and 
 Hokiuping i-eturned to China rich in booty, among 
 it the golden images used as religious emblems by 
 one of the Tartar princes. Eeturning with a larger 
 force, he swept far through their country, boasting 
 on his return that he had put thirty thousand Tar- 
 tars to the sword. As a result, two of the princes 
 and a large number of their followers surrendered 
 to Vouti, and were disarmed and dispersed through 
 the frontier settlements^of the realm. 
 
THE INVASION OP THE TARTAE STEPPES. 189 
 
 These expeditions were followed by an invasion 
 of the Heung-nou country by a large army, com- 
 manded by the two successful generals Wei Tsing 
 and Hokiuping. This movement was attended with 
 signal success, and the Tartars for the time were 
 thoroughly cowed, while the Chinese lost much of 
 their old dread of their desert foe. Years afterwards 
 (110 B.C.) a new Tartar war began, Vouti himself 
 taking command of an army of two hundred thou- 
 sand men, and sending an envoy to the Tartar king, 
 commanding him to surrender all prisoners and 
 plunder and to acknowledge China as sovereign lord 
 of himself and his people. All that the proud chief 
 surrendered was the head of the ambassador, which 
 he sent back with a bold defiance. 
 
 For some reason, which history does not give, 
 Vouti failed to lead his all-conquering army against 
 the desert foe, and when, in a later year, the steppes 
 were invaded, the imperial army found the warlike 
 tribes ready for the onset. The war continued for 
 twenty years more, with varied fortune, and when, 
 after fifty years of almost incessant warfare with 
 the nomad warriors, Vouti laid down his sword with 
 his life, the Tartars were still free and defiant. Yet 
 China had learned a new way of dealing with the 
 warlike tribes, and won a wide reputation in Asia, 
 while her frontiers were much more firmly held. 
 
 The long reign of the great emperor had not been 
 confined to wars with the Tartars. In his hands the 
 empire of China was greatly widened by extensions in 
 the west. The large provinces of Yunnan, Szchuen, 
 and Fuhkien were conquered and added to the 
 
190 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Chinese state, while other independent kingdoms 
 were made vassal states. And "thereby hangs a 
 tale" which we have next to tell. 
 
 Far west in Northern China dwelt a barbarian 
 people named the Tuchi, numerous and prosperous, 
 yet no match in war for their persistent enemies the 
 Tartars of the steppes. In the year 165 B.C. they 
 were so utterly beaten in an invasion of the Heung- 
 nou that they were forced to quit their homes and 
 seek safety and freedom at a distance. Far to the 
 west they went, where they coalesced with those 
 warlike tribes of Central Asia who afterwards be- 
 came the bane of the empire of Eome. 
 
 The fate of this people seemed a bitter one to 
 Vouti, when it was told to his sympathetic ear, and, 
 in the spirit in which King Arthur sent out his 
 Eound Table Knights on romantic quests, he turned 
 to his council and asked if any among them was 
 daring enough to follow the track of these wan- 
 derers and bring them back to the land they had 
 lost. One of them, Chang Keen, volunteered to 
 take up the' difficult quest and to traverse Asia 
 from end to end in search of the fugitive tribes. 
 
 This knight of romance was to experience many 
 adventures before he should return to his native land. 
 Attended by a hundred devoted companions, he set 
 out, but in endeavoring to cross the country of the 
 Heung-nou the whole party were made prisoners and 
 held in captivity for ten long years. Finally, after a 
 bitter experience of desert life, the survivors made 
 their escape, and, with a courage that had outlived 
 their years of thraldom, resumed their search for 
 
THE INVASION OP THE TARTAR STEPPES. 191 
 
 the vanished tribes. Many western countries were 
 visited in the search, and much strange knowledge 
 was gained. In the end the Yuchi were found in 
 their new home. With them Chang Keen dwelt for 
 a year, but all his efforts to induce them to return 
 were in vain. They were safe in their new land, 
 and did not care to risk encounter with their old foes, 
 even with the Emperor of China for their friend. 
 
 Finally the adventurous envoy returned to China 
 with two of his companions, the only survivors of 
 the hundred with whom he had set out years before. 
 He had an interesting story to tell of lands and 
 peoples unknown to the Chinese, and wrote an ac- 
 count of his travels and of the geography of the 
 countries he had seen. Chang Keen was subse- 
 quently sent on a mission to the western kingdom 
 of Ousun, where he was received with much honor, 
 though the king declined to acknowledge himself a 
 vassal of the ruler of China. From here he sent 
 explorers far to the south and north, bringing back 
 with him fresh information concerning the Asiatic 
 nations. 
 
 Of the Tuchi later stories are told. They are said 
 to have come into collision with the Parthians, whom 
 they vanquished after a long-continued struggle. 
 They are also credited with having destroyed the 
 kingdom of Bactria, a far-eastern relic of the empire 
 of Alexander the Great. Several centuries later 
 they may have combined with their old foes to form 
 the Huns, who flung themselves in a devastating 
 torrent upon Europe, and eventually became the 
 founders of the modem kingdom of Hungary. 
 
THE "CRIMSON EYEBROWS." 
 
 "With the opening of the Christian era a usurper 
 came to the Chinese throne. In the year 1 B.C. the 
 emperor Gaiti died, and Wang Mang, a powerful 
 oflflcial, joined with the mother of the dead emperor 
 to seize the power of the state. The friends and 
 officials of Gaiti were ruined and disgraced, and in 
 the year 1 a.d. a boy of nine years was raised to the 
 throne as nominal emperor, under whose shadow 
 Wang Mang ruled supreme. Money was needed for 
 the ambitious upstart, and he obtained it by robbing 
 the graves of former monarchs of the jewels and 
 other valuables buried with them. This, from the 
 Chinese point of view, was a frightful sacrilege, yet 
 the people seem to have quietly submitted to the vio- 
 lation of the imperial tombs. 
 
 Five years passed away, and the emperor reached 
 the age of sixteen. He might grow troublesome in 
 a year or two more. Wang Mang decided that he 
 had lived long enough. The poisoned cup, which 
 seems to have been always ready in the Chinese 
 palace, was handed to the boy by the usurper him- 
 self Drinking it unsuspiciously, the unfortunate 
 youth was soon lying on the floor in the agonies of 
 death, while the murderer woke the palace halls with 
 his cries of counterfeit grief, loudly bewailing the 
 young emperor's sad fate, and denouncing heaven 
 192 
 
THE "CRIMSON EYEBROWS." 193 
 
 for having sent this sudden and fatal illness upon 
 the royal youth. 
 
 To keep up appearances, another child was placed 
 upon the throne. A conspiracy against the usurper 
 was now formed by the great men of the state, but 
 Wang Mang speedily crushed plot and plotters, rid 
 himself of the new boy emperor in the same arbi- 
 trary fashion as before, and, throwing off the mask 
 he had thus far worn, had himself proclaimed em- 
 peror of the realm. It was the Han dynasty he had 
 in this arbitrary fashion brought to an end. He 
 called his dynasty by the name of Sin. 
 
 But the usurper soon learned the truth of the 
 saying, " uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 
 The Tartars of the desert defied his authority, broke 
 their long truce, and raided the rich provinces of 
 the north, which had enjoyed thirty years of peace 
 and prosperity. In this juncture Wang Mang 
 showed that he was better fitted to give poison to 
 boys than to meet his foes in the field. The Tartars 
 committed their ravages with impunity, and other 
 enemies were quickly in arms. Eebellions broke out 
 in the east and the south, and soon, wherever the 
 usurper turned, he saw foes in the field or lukewarm 
 friends at home. 
 
 The war that followed continued for twelve years, 
 the armies of rebellion, led by princes of the Han 
 line of emperors, drawing their net closer and closer 
 around him, until at length he was shut up within 
 his capital city, with an army of foes around its 
 walls. The defence was weak, and the victors soon 
 made their way through the gates, appearing quickly 
 13 
 
194 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 at the palace doors. The usurper had reached the 
 end of his troubled reign, but at this fatal juncture 
 had not the courage to take bis own life. The vic- 
 torious soldiers rushed in while he was hesitating in 
 mortal fear, and with a stroke put an end to his 
 reign and his existence. His body was hacked into 
 bleeding fragments, which were cast about the streets 
 of the city, to be trampled underfoot by the rejoicing 
 throng. 
 
 It is not, however, the story of Wang Mang's 
 career that we have set out to tell, but that of one of 
 his foes, the leader of a band of rebels, Fanchong by 
 name. This partisan leader had shown himself a 
 man of striking military ability, bringing his troops 
 under strict discipline, and defeating all his foes. 
 Soldiers flocked to his ranks, his band became an 
 army, and in the crisis of the struggle he took a step 
 that made him famous in Chinese history. He or- 
 dered his soldiers to paint their eyebrows red, as a 
 sign that they were ready to fight to the last drop 
 of their blood. Then he issued the following procla- 
 mation to the people : " If you meet the ' Crimson 
 Eyebrows,' join yourselves to them ; it is the sure 
 road to safety. You can fight the usurper's troops 
 without danger ; but if you wish for death you may 
 join Wang Mang's army." 
 
 The end of the war was not the end of the " Crim- 
 son Eyebrows." Fanchong was ambitious, and a 
 large number of his followers continued under his flag. 
 They had aided greatly in putting a Han emperor 
 on the throne, but they now became his most for- 
 midable foes, changing from patriots into brigands, 
 
THE "CRIMSON EYEBROWS." 195 
 
 and keeping that part of the empire which they 
 haunted in a state of the liveliest alarm. 
 
 Against this thorn in the side of the realm the 
 new emperor sent his ablest commander, and a fierce 
 campaign ensued, in which the brigand band stub- 
 bornly fought for life and license. In the end they 
 suffered a crushing defeat, and for the time sank out 
 of sight, but only to rise again at a later date. 
 
 The general who had defeated them, an able prince 
 of the Han family, followed up his victory by seizing 
 the throne itself and deposing the weak emperor. 
 The latter fled to the retreat of the remnant of the 
 brigand band, and begged their aid to restore him 
 to the throne, but Fanchong, who had no idea of 
 placing a greater than himself at the head of his 
 band, escaped from the awkward position by put- 
 ting his guest to death. 
 
 Soon after the "Crimson Eyebrows" were in the 
 field again, not as supporters of an imperial refugee, 
 but as open enemies of the public peace, each man 
 fighting for his own hand. While the new ruler 
 was making himself strong at Loyang, the new capi- 
 tal, Fanchong and his brigands seized Changnan, 
 Wang Mang's old capital, and pillaged it mercilessly. 
 Making it their head-quarters, they lived on the in- 
 habitants of the city and the surrounding district, 
 holding on until the rapid approach of the army of 
 the emperor admonished them that it was time to 
 seek a safer place of retreat. 
 
 The army of the brigand chief grew until it was 
 believed to exceed two hundred thousand men, while 
 their excesses were so great that they were every- 
 
196 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 where regarded as public enemies, hated and exe- 
 crated by the people at large. But the career of 
 the " Crimson Eyebrows" was near its end. The em- 
 peror sent against them an army smaller than their 
 own, but under the command of Fongy, one of the 
 most skilful generals of the age. His lack of num- 
 bers was atoned for by skill in manoeuvres, the brig- 
 ands were beaten in numerous skirmishes, and at 
 length Fongy risked a general engagement, which 
 ended in a brilliant victory. During the crisis of 
 the battle he brought up a reserve of prisoners whom 
 he had captured in the previous battles and had won 
 over to himself. These, wearing still the crimson 
 sign of the brigands, mingled unobserved among 
 their former comrades, and at a given signal sud- 
 denly made a fierce attack upon them. This treach- 
 erous assault produced a panic, and Fanchong's army 
 was soon flying in disorder and dismay. 
 
 Terms were now offered to the brigand chief, which 
 he accepted, and his army disbanded, with the ex- 
 ception of some fragments, which soon gathered 
 again into a powerful force. This Fongy attacked 
 and completely dispersed, and the long and striking 
 career of the " Crimson Eyebrows" came to an end. 
 
;^ iWP^, 
 
 A CHINESE PAGODA. 
 
THE CONQUEST OF CENTRAL 
 ASIA. 
 
 The Chinese are the most practical and the least 
 imaginative of the peoples of the earth. During their 
 whole four thousand years and more of historical 
 existence the idea of military glory seems never to 
 have dawned upon their souls. They have had 
 wars, abundance of them, but these have nearly all 
 been fought for the purpose of holding on to old 
 possessions, or of widening the borders of the em- 
 pire by taking in neighboring lands. No Alexander, 
 Csesar, or Napoleon has ever been born on Chinese 
 soil ; no army has ever been led abroad in search of 
 the will-of-the-wisp called glory ; the wild fancy of 
 becoming lords of the world has always been out of 
 touch with their practical minds. 
 
 If we consider closely the wars of China the 
 truth of what is here said will appear. The great 
 bulk of them have been fought within the limits of 
 the empire, for the purposes of defence against inva- 
 sion, the suppression of revolt, the overthrow of the 
 power of feudal lords, or in consequence of the am- 
 bition of successful generals who coveted the throne. 
 The wars of external conquest have been singularly 
 few, consisting principally in the invasion of the 
 domain of the Tartars, to which the Chinese were 
 driven by the incessant raids of the desert hordes. 
 
 197 
 
198 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 In addition, there have been invasions of Corea and 
 Indo-China, but merely as passing incidents in the 
 long era of Chinese history, not as inaugurating a 
 career of conquest. The great invasion of Japan in 
 the thirteenth century, the only pure war of con- 
 quest of China, was made by Kublai Khan, a Tartar 
 emperor, and largely with Tartar troops. In brief, 
 the Chinese have shown themselves in disposition 
 one of the most peaceful of nations, only asking to 
 be let alone, and are very unlikely to begin the war 
 of conquest which some modern military writers 
 fear. 
 
 Yet there is one instance in Chinese history which 
 seems to contradict what has here been said, that of 
 the career of a great conqueror who carried the arms 
 of China over the whole width of Asia, and who 
 seemed actuated by that thirst for military glory 
 which has inspired most of the great wars of the 
 world and brought untold misery upon mankind. 
 This was the great leader Panchow, who lived under 
 three emperors of the Han dynasty, and whose career 
 is full of interest and event. 
 
 Panchow first appears in the reign of the emperor 
 Mingti, who came to the throne in 57 a.d. His 
 victories were won in the west, in the region of 
 Kokonor, where he brought to an end the invasions 
 of the Tartar tribes. Under Changti, the succeed- 
 ing emperor, Panchow continued his work in the 
 west, carrying on the war at his own expense, with 
 an army recruited from pardoned criminals. 
 
 Changti died, and Hoti came to the throne, a child 
 ten years of age. It was under his reign that the 
 
THE CONQUEST OF CENTRAL ASIA. 199 
 
 events to be described took place. During the pre- 
 ceding reigns Panehow had made the power of China 
 felt in regions far west of that realm, bringing sev- 
 eral small kingdoms and many tribes under subjec- 
 tion, conquering the city of Kashgar, and extending 
 the western borders of China as far into the interior 
 of Asia as the great upland region of the Pamir. 
 The power of his arms had added Eastern Turkes- 
 tan to the Chinese empire, a region which it con- 
 tinues to hold to-day. 
 
 But these conquests were not enough to satisfy the 
 ambition of the veteran general. Under the boy 
 emperor Hoti he was free to carry out his designs on 
 a much larger scale. With a powerful army he set 
 out on the only campaign of ambitious warfare in 
 which China ever indulged. His previous victories 
 had carried the terror of his name far over the 
 kingdoms of the west, and he now led his army to 
 conquest after conquest in the great oases of West- 
 ern Turkestan, subduing kingdom after kingdom 
 until no less than fifteen had submitted to the power 
 of his arms, and his victorious army stood on the 
 far-distant shores of the Caspian Sea, — the Northern 
 Sea, as it is named in Chinese annals. 
 
 To cross this sea would have brought him into 
 Europe, which continent had never dreamed of in- 
 vasion from the mysterious land of Cathay, on the 
 eastern horizon of the world. Panchow's ambition 
 was not yet satiated. There came to his mind the 
 idea of crossing this seeming great barrier to his vic- 
 torious career. He had, with his army, overcome 
 innumerable difficulties of waterless deserts, lofty 
 
200 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 mountain ranges, great rivers, and valiant enemies. 
 Thus far his progress had been irresistible, and 
 should a mere expanse of water put an end to his 
 westward march? 
 
 He was checked by dread of perils in the unknown 
 land beyond. The people on the borders of the 
 Caspian represented that salt sea as being far more 
 formidable than it really was. They dilated on its 
 width, the vast mountains which lay beyond, the 
 fierce tribes who would render a landing difficult and 
 dangerous, and the desert regions beyond the moun- 
 tains, until Panchow reluctantly gave up his scheme. 
 He had already been for several years warring with 
 savage nature and barbarous man, and had extended 
 the dominions of his emperor much farther than 
 any Chinese general had ever dreamed of before. It 
 was time to call a halt, and not expose his valiant 
 followers to the unknown perils beyond the great 
 inland sea. 
 
 The army remained long encamped on the Cas- 
 pian, coming into communication through its envoys 
 with the Eoman empire, whose eastern borders lay 
 not far away, and forming relations of commerce 
 with this rich and powerful realm. This done, Pan- 
 chow led his ever-victorious warriors back to their 
 native land, to tell the story of the marvels they 
 had seen and the surprising adventures they had en- 
 countered. 
 
 That Panchow was moved by the mere thirst for 
 military fame may well be doubted in view of what 
 we know of the character of the Chinese. His pur- 
 pose was perhaps the more practical one of opening 
 
THE CONQUEST OF CENTRAL ASIA. 201 
 
 by force of arms new channels of trade, and over- 
 coming the obstacles placed by the Parthians and 
 other nations of Asia in the way of freedom of com- 
 merce. On his return to China he found himself 
 the idol of the people, the trusted friend of the em- 
 peror, and the most revered and powerful subject of 
 the empire. He died in his eightieth year, enjoying 
 a fame such as no general of his race had ever before 
 attained. 
 
THE SIEGE OF SINCHING. 
 
 When the great dynasty of the Hans, which had 
 held supreme rule in China for more than four hun- 
 dred years, came to an end, it left that country di- 
 vided up into three independent kingdoms. The 
 emperors who had once ruled over all China found 
 themselves now lords of its smallest division, while 
 the kingdom of Wei included the largest and most 
 populous districts in the realm. A war for suprem- 
 acy arose between these three kingdoms, which 
 ended in the kings of Wei becoming supreme over 
 the whole empire and establishing a new dynasty, 
 which they named the dynasty of Tsin. Of this 
 war we have only one event to relate, an interesting 
 example of Chinese fortitude and valor. 
 
 Shortly after 250 a.d. an army of the Han em- 
 peror, led by a general named Chukwoko, settled 
 down to the siege of a small walled town named 
 Sinching, held by three thousand men under the 
 command of a leader named Changte, whose forti- 
 tude and energy alone saved this place for the king 
 of Wei. 
 
 For ninety days the siege went on, the catapults 
 of the besieging force playing incessantly upon the 
 walls, which, despite the activity of the garrison, 
 were in time pierced in many places, while several 
 gaping breaches lay open to the foe. Changte had 
 202 
 
THE SIEGE OF SINCHING. 203 
 
 defended the place vigorously, no commander could 
 have done more, and, as no sign of a relieving force 
 appeared, he could with all honor have capitulated, 
 thrown open the gates, and marched out with such 
 dignity as the victorious enemy would permit. 
 
 But this was not the view of his duty held by the 
 valorous soldier. He was one of the kind who die 
 but do not surrender, and in his extremity had re- 
 course to the following ruse. He sent word to 
 Chukwoko that, as the place was clearly untenable, 
 he was willing to surrender if he were granted ten 
 days more of grace. 
 
 "It is a law among the princes of Wei," he said, 
 " that the governor of a place which has held out for 
 a hundred days, and then, seeing no prospect of 
 relief, surrenders, shall not be held guilty of dere- 
 liction of duty." 
 
 Chukwoko gladly accepted this oifer, being weary 
 of his long delay before this small post, and quite 
 willing to save his men from the perils of an assault. 
 But, to his astonishment, a few days later he saw 
 fresh bulwarks rising above those which had been 
 ruined by his engines, while the breaches were rap- 
 idly repaired, new gates replaced those that had 
 been destroyed, and Sinching seemed suddenly to 
 regain the appearance it had presented three months 
 before. Inside the walls a new spirit prevailed, the 
 courage of the bold commander reanimating his 
 troops, while the sentinels on the ramparts shouted 
 messages of disdain to the besieging force. 
 
 Indignant at this violation of the terms of the 
 agreement, Chukwoko sent a flag of truce to the 
 
204 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 gate, demanding angrily what these proceedings 
 meant, and if this was Changte's way of keeping 
 his word. 
 
 " I am preparing my tomb,'' replied the bold com- 
 mander. " I propose to bury myself under the ruins 
 of Sinehing." 
 
 The tomb remained untenanted by the daring 
 commandant. The long-delayed relief appeared, 
 and Chukwoko was obliged to make a hasty retreat, 
 with the loss of half his army. It is safe to say 
 that in the pursuit Changte and his faithful three 
 thousand played a leading part. 
 
FROM THE SHOEMAKERS 
 BENCH TO THE THRONE. 
 
 At the beginning of the fifth century of the 
 Christian era China had fallen into a state of de- 
 crepitude. The second dynasty of the Tsins was 
 near its end. For a century and a half it had held 
 the imperial power, but now it had fallen a prey to 
 luxury, one of its latest emperors dying from pro- 
 longed drunkenness, another being smothered in bed 
 by his wife, whom he had insulted while intoxicated. 
 
 The empire which the founder of the dynasty had 
 built up showed signs of falling to pieces. In the 
 south the daring pirate Sunghen was making the 
 great rivers the scenes of his merciless activity, 
 spreading terror along their banks, and extending 
 his desolating raids far over the surrounding prov- 
 inces. In the north had arisen a new enemy, the 
 Geougen Tartars, whose career had begun in the 
 outbreak of a hundred rebels, but who had now be- 
 come so powerful that their chief assumed in the 
 year 402 the proud title of Kagan, or Great Lord. 
 Falling upon the northern boundaries of the empire, 
 these dangerous foes made daring inroads into the 
 realm. As for the provinces of the empire, many 
 of them were in a rebellious mood. 
 
 At this critical period in Chinese history a child of 
 the people came forward as the savior of his country. 
 
 205 
 
206 HISTOmCAL TALES. 
 
 This was a poor boy for whom his parents had done 
 little more than give him his name of Lieouyu, 
 having been forced by poverty to desert him to 
 the cold comfort of charity. He was cared for by a 
 kind woman, as poor as they, and as he grew older 
 learned the humble trade of shoemaking, which he 
 followed for some time as an occupation, though he 
 chafed in spirit at its wearisome monotony. The 
 boy had in him the seeds of better things, showing 
 in his early years a remarkable quickness in learn- 
 ing, and an energy that was not likely to remain 
 content with a humble position. 
 
 Seeing that his only chance of advancement lay 
 ia the military career, and burning with spirit and 
 courage, the ambitious boy soon deserted the shoe- 
 maker's bench for the army's ranks. Here he showed 
 such valor and ability that he rapidly rose to the 
 command of a company, and was in time intrusted 
 with a small independent body of troops. It was 
 against the pirate Sunghen that the young soldier 
 was pitted, and during three years he vigorously op- 
 posed that leader in his devastating raids. In this 
 field of duty he was repeatedly victorious, breaking 
 the I'eputation of the corsair, and so weakening him 
 that his overthrow became easy. This was per- 
 formed by another leader, the defeat of Sunghen 
 being so signal that, despairing of escape, he leaped 
 overboard and was drowned. 
 
 Lieouyu, having abundantly proved his ability, 
 was now rapidly promoted, rising in rank until ho 
 found himself in command of an army, which he 
 handled with the greatest skill and success. His 
 
FROM THE shoemaker's BENCH TO THE THRONE. 207 
 
 final victory in this position was against a formidable 
 rebel, whom he fought both on land and on water 
 with a much smaller force, completely defeating 
 him. The emperor showed his sense of gratitude 
 for this valuable service by raising the shoemaker's 
 boy to the rank of commander-in-chief of all the 
 armies of the empire. 
 
 In this exalted position Lieouyu displayed the 
 same energy and ability that he had shown in hum- 
 bler commands. Marching from province to prov- 
 ince and from victory to victory, he put down the 
 rebels whom the weakness of the government had 
 permitted to rise on every side. He had not only 
 rebellious bands, but disloyal princes of the empire, 
 to contend with. In one of his marches it was 
 necessary to cross the great province of "Wei, north 
 of the Hoang-ho, a movement to which Topa, prince 
 of the province, refused permission. Lieouyu, in- 
 dignant at this disloyalty, forced the passage of the 
 stream, routed the army of the prince, and pursued 
 his march without further opposition, sending one 
 of his generals, named Wangchinon, against the city 
 of Changnan, the capital of the prince of Chin, who 
 bad hoisted the flag of rebellion against the emperor. 
 
 Lieouyu had chosen his substitute well. Convej'- 
 ing his army by water as far as possible, Wang- 
 chinon, on leaving his ships, ordered them to be cast 
 adrift. To the soldiers he made the following Na- 
 poleonic oration : 
 
 " We have neither supplies nor provisions, and the 
 swift waters of the Weiho bear from us the ships in 
 which we came. Soldiers of the empire, only two 
 
208 HISTORICAL TALES, 
 
 things lie before ua. Let us beat the enemy, and we 
 will regain a hundredfold all we have lost, besides 
 covering ourselves with glory. If the enemy beat 
 us, there is no escape ; death will be the lot of us all. 
 To conquer or to die, — that is our destiny. You have 
 heard ; prepare to march against the enemy." 
 
 With so resolute a commander victory was almost 
 assured. Changnan, vigorously assailed, quickly sur- 
 rendered, and the captive prince of Chin was exe- 
 cuted as a rebel taken in arms. Lieouyu, who had 
 been winning victories elsewhere, now arrived, hav- 
 ing marched in all haste to the aid of his valorous 
 lieutenant. Praising Wangchinon for the brilliancy 
 of his achievement, the commander was about put- 
 ting his forces on the march for new victorious 
 deeds, when peremptory orders recalled him to the 
 capital, and his career of conquest was for the 
 time cheeked. The absence of the strong hand was 
 quickly felt. The rebels rose again in force, Chang- 
 nan was lost and with it all the conquests Lieouyu 
 had made, and the forces of the empire were every- 
 where driven back in defeat. 
 
 Meanwhile Lieouyu, at the capital, found himself 
 in the midst of political complications that called for 
 decisive measures. The weakness of the emperor 
 troubled him, while he felt a deep resentment at what 
 he considered ill treatment on the part of the throne. 
 He had, as Prince of Song, been raised to the third 
 rank among the princes of the realm, but he thought 
 his deeds entitled him to rank among the first; while 
 the success of the rebels in the absence of his master 
 hand redoubled his reputation among the people. 
 
PKOM THE shoemaker's BENCH TO THE THKONE. 209 
 
 Ganti, the emperor, was destined to experience the 
 dangerous consequences of raising a subject to such a 
 height and yet leaving him below the rank to which 
 he aspired. Lieouyu, now all-powerful in military 
 circles, and virtually master of the realm, caused the 
 emperor to be strangled, and named his brother 
 Kongti as successor to the throne. But the ambi- 
 tion of the shoemaker's boy had not reached its 
 summit. This was but a provisional step, and the 
 throne itself lay before him as an alluring prize. 
 Having skilfully laid his plans, Lieouyu, at the end 
 of two years, gave the weak Kongti to understand 
 that his reign was at an end, and that he must step 
 down from the throne which a stronger than he 
 proposed to ascend. 
 
 Kongti made no resistance to this arbitrary de- 
 mand. He knew that resistance would be useless, 
 and resigned his imperial dignity in favor of the 
 peasant who by his sword had carved his way to the 
 throne. The ceremony was an interesting one. A 
 broad scaffold was erected in a field adjoining the 
 capital, and on it was placed a gorgeously deco- 
 rated imperial throne, which Kongti occupied, while 
 Lieouyu, attired in royal garb, stood below. In the 
 presence of the assembled thousands of Kienkang, 
 the capital, Kongti descended from the seat which he 
 had so feebly filled, while his strong successor seated 
 himself on the throne amid the plaudits of the ap- 
 proving multitude. In the presence of the great 
 officials of the realm Kongti paid homage to Lieouyu, 
 thus completing a ceremony which was without 
 parallel in the history of the Chinese empire. With 
 14 
 
210 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 this act the dynasty of the Tsins came to an end, 
 and was replaced by that of the Songs, of which 
 Lieouyu was the first and worthiest representative. 
 
 Of the ceremony of investiture the principal 
 feature was the assumption of the imperial cap or 
 crown, which has long been the chief mark of roy- 
 alty worn by the Chinese emperor. This is a cap of 
 peculiar shape, round in front and straight behind, 
 and ornamented with one hundred and forty-four 
 precious stones. From it hang twelve pendants con- 
 sisting of strings of pearls, of which four are so ar- 
 ranged as to hang over the emperor's eyes. This is 
 done, it is said, in order that the emperor may not 
 see the accused who are brought before him for 
 trial. 
 
 It was in the year 420 a.d. that Lieouyu ascended 
 the throne, assuming with the imperial dignity the 
 name of a former emperor of renown, Kaotsou, and 
 naming his dynasty the Song, from his princely 
 title. 
 
 As for the deposed emperor, the new monarch 
 had no thought of leaving any such dangerous ele- 
 ment in his path, and Kongti was called upon " to 
 drink the waters of eternal life," the Chinese eu- 
 phuism for swallowing poison. Kongti, a devoted 
 Buddhist, declined the fatal draught, on the ground 
 that self-murder was in opposition to his religious 
 sentiments. This is the only instance in Chinese 
 history in which a deposed ruler refused to accept 
 the inevitable fate of the unfortunate. To quaff the 
 poisoned cup is the time-honored way of getting rid 
 of an inconvenient ex-monarch. This refusal of the 
 
PKOM THE shoemaker's BENCH TO THE THRONE. 211 
 
 deposed emperor led to sterner measures, and he was 
 murdered by the guard which had been placed over 
 him in his palace. 
 
 Lieouyu was not destined long to occupy the 
 throne which he had thus secured. He was already 
 growing old, and a short reign of three years ended 
 his career. As a monarch and a man alike he dis- 
 played sterling and admirable qualities. His cour- 
 age on the field of battle, his frugality and earnest 
 devotion to duty in every position which he reached, 
 won him the widest commendation, while he was 
 still more esteemed by his subjects for his kindness 
 and devotion to the foster-mother who had nourished 
 him when deserted by his own parents, and who had 
 the remarkable fortune of seeing the poor child who 
 had been abandoned to her charitable care seated on 
 the imperial throne of the realm. 
 
THREE NOTABLE WOMEN. 
 
 In the year 503 began a long war between the 
 princes of Wei and the emperors of China, which 
 continued for nearly half a century. Of this pro- 
 tracted contest we have only three incidents to re- 
 late, in which, within a few years, three heroines 
 rose to prominence and in various ways showed an 
 ability surpassing that of the men of their age. It 
 is the story of these three women that we propose 
 to tell. 
 
 Chanyang, a stronghold of Wei, had been placed 
 in charge of Ginching, one of the ablest soldiers of 
 that kingdom. But the exigencies of the war obliged 
 that ofllcer to make an excursion beyond its walls, 
 taking with him the main body of the garrison, and 
 leaving the place very weakly defended. Taking 
 advantage of this opportunity, one of the Chinese 
 generals marched quickly upon the weakened strong- 
 hold, surrounded it with a large army, and made so 
 rapid and vigorous an assault that all the outer de- 
 fences fell into his hands without a blow in their 
 defence. 
 
 At this perilous juncture, when the place was 
 almost in the hands of its foes, and the depressed 
 garrison was ready to yield, Mongchi, the wife of 
 the absent commander, appeared upon the ramparts, 
 called upon their defenders to make a bold and reso- 
 212 
 
THREE NOTABLE WOMEN. 213 
 
 lute resistance to the enemy, and by her courage 
 and animation put new spirit into the troops. In- 
 spired by her, they bravely resisted the further ad- 
 vance of the assailants and held the walls, which, 
 but for the valor of the heroine, must inevitably 
 have been lost. 
 
 Having thus checked the first onslaught of the 
 enemy, Mongchi went vigorously to work. The in- 
 habitants of the place were armed and sent to rein- 
 force the garrison, the defences of the gate were 
 strengthened, and by promises of reward as well as 
 by her presence and inspiriting appeals the brave 
 woman stirred up the defenders to such vigorous re- 
 sistance that the imperial forces were on every side 
 repelled, and in the end were forced to abandon the 
 prize which they had deemed safely their own. Not 
 till after Chanyang was saved did Ginching return 
 from an important victory he had won in the field, 
 to learn that his brave wife had gained as signal a 
 success in his absence. 
 
 The second woman whom we shall name was 
 Houchi, wife of the king of Wei, whose husband 
 came to the throne in 515, but became a mere tool 
 in the hands of his able and ambitious wife. After 
 a short period Houchi was so bold as to force her 
 husband to vacate the throne, naming her infant son 
 as king in his place, but exercising all the power of 
 the realm herself. She went so far as to declare war 
 against the empire, though the contest that followed 
 was marked by continual disaster to her troops, ex- 
 cept in one notable instance. 
 
 As in the case above cited, so in this war a strong- 
 
214 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 hold was successfully held by a woman. This place 
 was Tsetong, whose commandant was absent, leaving 
 the command to his wife Lieouchi, a woman of the 
 highest courage and readiness in an emergency. 
 As before, the imperial troops took advantage of 
 the occasion, and quickly invested the town, while 
 Lieouchi, with a valor worthy of a soldier's wife, 
 made rapid preparations for defending it to the last 
 extremity. 
 
 Her decisive resolution was shown in an instance 
 that must have redoubled the courage of her men. 
 Discovering, after the siege had gone on for several 
 days, that one of the officers of her small force was 
 playing the traitor by corresponding with the enemy, 
 she called a general council of the officers, with the 
 ostensible purpose of deliberating on the manage- 
 ment of the defence. The traitor attended the 
 council, not dreaming that his proposed treason was 
 suspected. He was thunderstruck when Lieouchi 
 vehemently accused him before his fellow-officers of 
 the crime, showing such knowledge of his purpose 
 that he was forced to admit the justice of the charge. 
 The energetic woman wasted no time in this critical 
 state of affairs, but, drawing her sword, severed the 
 head of the traitor from his body with one vigorous 
 blow. This act put an end to all thoughts of treason 
 in the garrison of Tsetong. 
 
 The courage of Lieouchi was not greater than her 
 judgment and decision in an emergency. There was 
 but a single well to supply the garrison with water, 
 and this the enemy succeeded in cutting off. The 
 ready wit of the woman overcame this serious loss. 
 
THKEE NOTABLE WOMEN. 215 
 
 It was the rainy season, and she succeeded in col- 
 lecting a considerable supply of rain-water in vases, 
 while linen and the clothes of the soldiers were also 
 utilized as water-catching devices. In the end the 
 imperial forces, baffled in their every effort by this 
 heroic woman, abandoned the siege in disgust. 
 
 As for Houchi, the ruler of Wei, her ability was 
 of a different kind, yet in her ambitious designs she 
 displayed unusual powers. Deposed and imprisoned 
 on account of the failure of the war, she soon over- 
 threw her enemies and rose to the head of affairs 
 again, and for several years continued to wage war 
 with the emperor. But the war went against her, 
 and trouble arose within her kingdom. Here and 
 there were movements of rebellion, and the generals 
 of the realm were at daggers' points to supplant one 
 another. 
 
 Amid these distractions the queen balanced her- 
 self with marked skill, playing off one enemy 
 against another, but her position daily grew more 
 insecure. Her power was brought to an end by her 
 final act, which was to depose her son and place her- 
 self in sole control of the realm. Brchu Jong, a 
 general of ability and decision, now rose in revolt, 
 marched on the capital, made Houchi his prisoner, 
 and in the same moment ended her reign and her 
 life by drowning her in the waters of the Hoang-ho. 
 Then, gathering two thousand of the notables of the 
 city, her aids and supporters, on a plain outside the 
 walls, he ordered his cavalry to kill them all. Other 
 steps of the same stern character were taken by 
 this fierce soldier, whose power grew so great as to 
 
216 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 excite official dread. A general sent against him by 
 Youti, the emperor, who boasted of having gained 
 forty-seven victories, was completely defeated, and 
 all the results of his campaign were lost. Erchu 
 Jong now formed the design of reuniting the empire 
 and driving Vouti from the throne, but his enemies 
 brought this ambitious scheme to an end. Invited 
 to the palace on some pretence, he was cut down in 
 the audience-hall, the Prince of Wei, whom he had 
 placed on the throne, giving his consent to this act 
 of treachery. Thus was the death of Houchi quickly 
 avenged. 
 
THE REIGN OF TAITSONG THE 
 GREAT. 
 
 The history of China differs remarkably from 
 that of Japan in one particular. In the latter a 
 single dynasty of emperors has, from the beginning, 
 held the throne. In the former there have been 
 numerous dynasties, most of them brief, some long 
 extended. In Japan the emperors lived in retire- 
 ment, and it was the dynasties of shoguns or gen- 
 erals that suffered change. In China the emperors 
 kept at the head of affairs, and were exposed to all 
 the perils due to error or weakness in the ruler and 
 ambition in powerful subjects. 
 
 The fall of the great dynasty of the Hans left 
 the way clear for several brief dynasties, of whose 
 emperors Yangti, the last, was a man of great public 
 spirit and magnificent ideas. His public spirit was 
 expressed in a series of great canals, which extended 
 throughout the empire, their total length being, it 
 is said, more than sixteen hundred leagues. Several 
 of these great works still remain. His magnificence 
 of idea was shown in the grand adornments of Lo- 
 yang, his capital, where two million of men were 
 employed upon his palace and the public buildings. 
 
 Yangti's son was deposed by Liyuen, Prince of 
 Tang, and a new dynasty, that of the Tang em- 
 perors, was formed, which continued for several cen- 
 
 217 
 
218 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 turies at the head of aifairs. The new emperor 
 assumed the name of Kaotsou, made famous by the 
 first emperor of the Hans. But the glory of his 
 reign belongs to his son, not to himself, and it is 
 with this son, Lichimin by name, that we have now 
 to do. 
 
 It had been the custom of the founders of dynas- 
 ties to begin their reign by the destruction of the 
 families of their deposed rivals. The new emperor 
 showed himself more merciful, by pensioning instead 
 of destroying his unfortunate foes. His only ven- 
 geance was upon inanimate objects. Lichimin, on 
 capturing Loyang, ordered the great palace of 
 Yangti, the most magnificent building in the em- 
 pire, to be set on fire and destroyed. " So much 
 pomp and pride," he said, " could not be sustained, 
 and ought to lead to the ruin of those who consid- 
 ered their own love of luxury rather than the needs 
 of the people." 
 
 While his father occupied the throne the valiant 
 Lichimin went forth " conquering and to conquer." 
 Wherever he went victory went with him. The foes 
 of the Tangs were put down in quick succession. A 
 great Tartar confederacy was overthrown by the 
 vigorous young general. Four years sufficed for the 
 work. At the end of that time Lichimin was able 
 to announce that he had vanquished all the enemies 
 of the empire, both at home and abroad. 
 
 His victories were followed by a triumph which 
 resembled those given to the great generals of 
 ancient Eome. The city of Singan was the capital 
 of the new dynasty, and into it Lichimin rode at 
 
THE REIGN OF TAITSONQ THE GREAT. 219 
 
 the head of his victorious legions, dressed in costly 
 armor and wearing a breastplate of gold. His per- 
 sonal escort consisted of ten thousand picked horse- 
 men, among them a regiment of cuirassiers dressed 
 in black tiger-skins, who were particularly attached 
 to his person and the most distinguished for valor of 
 all his troops. Thirty thousand cuirassiers followed, 
 with a captive king of the Tartars in their midst. 
 Other captives testified to the glory of the con- 
 queror, being the vanquished defenders of conquered 
 cities, whose abundant spoils were displayed in the 
 train. 
 
 Into the city wound the long array, through mul- 
 titudes of applauding spectators, Lichimin proceed- 
 ing in state to the Hail of his Ancestors, where he 
 paid obeisance to the shades of his progenitors and 
 detailed to them the story of his victorious career. 
 Unlike the more cruel Eomans, who massacred the 
 captives they had shown in their triumphs, Lichimin 
 pardoned his. The principal officers of the army 
 were richly rewarded, and the affair ended in a great 
 banquet, at which the emperor gave his valiant son 
 the highest praise for his services to the country. 
 The rejoicings ended in a proclamation of general 
 amnesty and a reduction of the taxes, so that all 
 might benefit by the imperial triumph. 
 
 Yet there was poison in the victor's cup of joy. 
 His brothers envied him, intrigued against him, and 
 succeeded in instilling such doubts in the emperor's 
 mind that Lichimin fell into disgrace and was 
 strongly tempted to leave the court. The intrigues, 
 which had first dealt with his good name, were next 
 
220 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 directed against his life, a plot to murder him being 
 devised. Fortunately it was discovered in time, and 
 the death they had planned for their brother fell 
 upon themselves, leaving him the emperor's unques- 
 tioned heir. The same year (626 a.d.) the emperor 
 retired to private life and raised his great son to the 
 throne. 
 
 Lichirain, as emperor, assumed the name of Tai- 
 tsong, a title which he made so famous that he fully 
 earned the designation of Taitsong the Great. The 
 empire was surrounded with enemies, the nomads 
 of the north, extending from Corea to Kokonor, 
 and the warlike people of the south, from Thibet to 
 Tonquin. During the remainder of his life he was 
 engaged in incessant conflict with these stinging 
 wasps, whose onslaughts left him no peace. 
 
 Scarcely was he settled on the throne when the 
 Tartar invasions began. Their raids were repelled, 
 but they instigated Taitsong to an important measure. 
 It had always been evident that the Chinese troops, 
 hitherto little more than a raw militia, were unable 
 to cope with the sons of the desert, and the shrewd 
 emperor set himself to organize an army that should 
 be a match in discipline and efffectiveness for any 
 of its foes. The new army embraced three ranks, 
 each corps of the superior rank consisting of twelve 
 hundred, and those of the others respectively of one 
 thousand and eight hundred men. The total force 
 thus organized approached nine hundred thousand 
 men, of whom a large portion were used for frontier 
 duty. These troops were carefully trained in the 
 use of the bow and the pike, Taitsong himself in- 
 
THE EEIQN OF TAITSONQ THE GREAT. 221 
 
 specting a portion of them daily. This innovation 
 roused bitter opposition from the literati, whose 
 books told them that former emperors did not en- 
 gage in such work. But Taitsong, on the theory 
 that in time of peace we should prepare for war, 
 went on with his reforms regardless of their cited 
 precedents. 
 
 Taitsong's new army was soon put to the proof. 
 The Tartars were in arms again, a powerful confed- 
 eracy had been formed, and China was in danger. 
 Marching into the desert with his disciplined forces, 
 he soon had his enemies in flight, forced several of 
 the leading khans to submit, and spread the dread 
 of his arms widely among the tribes. To his title 
 of Emperor of China he now added that of Khan of 
 the Tartars, and claimed as subjects all the nomads 
 of the desert. 
 
 The next great war was with Thibet, whose tribes 
 had become subdued under one chief, called the San- 
 pou, or " brave lord." This potentate, who deemed 
 himself the peer of his powerful neighbor, demanded 
 a Chinese princess in marriage, and when this favor 
 was refused he invaded a province of the empire. 
 Taitsong at once put his army in motion, defeated 
 the forces of Thibet, and made the Sanpou acknow- 
 ledge himself a vassal of China and pay a fine of 
 five thousand ounces of gold. Then the princess he 
 had sought to win by force was granted to him as a 
 favor. The Sanpou gave up his barbarian ways, 
 adopted Chinese customs, and built a walled city for 
 his princess wife. 
 
 The next act of the great emperor was to bring 
 
222 HISTOEICAL TALES. 
 
 Eastern Turkestan, conquered by Panchow more 
 than five centuries before, under Chinese rule. This 
 country had admitted the supremacy of the emperor, 
 but not until now did it become part of the empire, 
 which it has since remained. 
 
 The last warlike act of Taitsong's life was the 
 invasion of Corea. Here he won various great 
 battles, but was at length baffled in the siege of a 
 Corean town, and lost all he had gained, the gallant 
 commandant of the town wishing the troops "a 
 pleasant journey" as they began their retreat. 
 
 Taitsong did not confine himself to deeds of war. 
 Under the advice of his wife Changsungchi, a woman 
 as great in her way as he was in his, and celebrated 
 for her domestic virtues, talent, and good sense, he 
 founded the Imperial Library and the great Col- 
 lege, decreased the taxes, and regulated the finances 
 of the realm. The death of this good woman was to 
 him a severe blow, and he ordered that she should 
 receive the funeral honors due to an emperor. 
 
 His last days were spent in drawing up for the 
 instruction of his son a great work on the art of 
 government, known as the Golden Mirror. He died 
 in 649 A.D., having proved himself one of the ablest 
 monarchs, alike in war and in peace, that ever sat 
 on the Chinese throne. 
 
H 
 X 
 
A FEMALE RICHELIEU. 
 
 Five years after the death of the great Taitsong, 
 his son Kaotsong, Emperor of China, fell in love 
 with a woman, a fact in no sense new in the annals 
 of mankind, but one which was in this case des- 
 tined to exert a striking influence on the history of 
 an empire. This woman was the princess Wou, a 
 youthful widow of the late emperor, and now an in- 
 mate of a Buddhist convent. So strong was the 
 passion of the young ruler for the princess that he 
 set aside the opposition of his ministers, divorced 
 his lawful empress, and, in the year 655, made his 
 new love his consort on the throne. 
 
 It was a momentous act. So great was the as- 
 cendency of the woman over her lover that from 
 the start he became a mere tool in her hands and 
 ruled the empire in accordance with her views. Her 
 first act was one that showed her merciless strength 
 of purpose. Fearing that the warm love of Kao- 
 tsong might in time grow cold, and that the deposed 
 empress or some other of the palace women might 
 return to favor, she determined to sweep these pos- 
 sible perils from her path. At her command the 
 unhappy queens were drowned in a vase of wine, 
 their hands and feet being first cut off, — seemingly 
 an unnecessary cruelty. 
 
 This merciless act of the empress, and her domi- 
 
 223 
 
224 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 nant influence in the government, soon made her 
 many enemies. But they were to find that she was 
 a dangerous person to plot against. Her son was 
 proclaimed heir to the throne, and the opposing offi- 
 cials soon found themselves in prison, where secret 
 death quickly ended their hostility. 
 
 Wou now sought to make herself supreme. At 
 first assisting the emperor in the labors of govern- 
 ment, she soon showed a quickness of apprehension, 
 a ready wit in emergencies, and a tact in dealing 
 with difficult questions that rendered her aid indis- 
 pensable. Step by step the emperor yielded his 
 power to her more skilful hands, until he retained 
 for himself only the rank while she held all the 
 authority of the imperial office. 
 
 Under her control China retained abroad the 
 proud position which Taitsong had won. For years 
 war went on with Corea, who called in the Japanese 
 to their aid. But the allies were defeated and four 
 hundred of the war-junks of Japan given to the 
 flames. The desert nomads remained subdued, and 
 in Central Asia the power of China was firmly 
 maintained. Now was the era of a mighty commo- 
 tion in Southern Asia and the countries of the Medi- 
 terranean. Arabia was sending forth its hosts, the 
 sword and the Koran in hand, to conquer the world 
 and convert it to the Mohammedan faith. Persia 
 was in imminent peril, and sent envoys to China 
 begging for aid. But the shrewd empress had no 
 thought of involving her dominions in war with 
 these devastating hordes, and sent word that Persia 
 was too far away for an army to be despatched to 
 
A FEMALE RICHELIEU. 225 
 
 its rescue. Envoys also came from India, but China 
 kept carefully free from hostilities with the con- 
 querors of the south. 
 
 Xaotsong died in 683, after occupying the throne 
 for thirty-three years. His death threatened the 
 position of the empress, the power behind the throne. 
 But she proved herself fully equal to the occasion, 
 and made herself more truly the ruler of China than 
 before. Chongtsong, son of the late emperor, was 
 proclaimed, but a few days ended his reign. A 
 decree passed by him in favor of his wife's family 
 roused Wou to action, and she succeeded in deposing 
 him and banishing him and his family, taking up 
 again the supreme power of which she had been so 
 brief a time deprived. 
 
 She now carried matters with a high hand. A 
 nominal emperor was chosen, but the rule was hers. 
 She handled all the public business, disposed of the 
 offices of state, erected temples to her ancestors, wore 
 the robes which by law could be worn only by an 
 emperor, and performed the imperial function of 
 sacrificing to Heaven, the supreme deity of the 
 Chinese. For once in its history China had an actual 
 empress, and one of an ability and a power of main- 
 taining the dignity of the throne which none of its 
 emperors have surpassed. 
 
 Her usurpation brought her a host of enemies. 
 It set aside all the precedents of the empire, and that 
 a woman should reign directly, instead of indirectly, 
 stirred the spirit of conservatism to its depths. 
 Wou made no effort to conciliate her foes. She 
 went so far as to change the name of the dynasty 
 
 15 
 
226 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 and to place members of her own family in the great 
 offices of the realm. Eebellious risings followed; 
 plots for her assassination were formed ; but her vig- 
 ilance was too great, her measures were too prompt, 
 for treason to succeed. No matter how great the 
 rank- or how eminent the record of a conspirator, 
 death ended his career as soon as her suspicions were 
 aroused. The empire was filled with her spies, who 
 became so numerous as largely to defeat their pur- 
 pose, by bringing false accusations before the throne. 
 The ready queen settled this difficulty by an edict 
 threatening with death any one who falsely accused 
 a citizen of the realm. The improbable story is told 
 that in a single day a thousand charges were brought 
 of which eight hundred and fifty proved to be false, 
 those who brought them being at once sent to the 
 block. Execution in the streets of Singan, the capi- 
 tal, was her favorite mode of punishment, and great 
 nobles and ministers died by the axe before the eyes 
 of curious multitudes. 
 
 A Eicheheu in her treatment of her enemies, she 
 displayed the ability of a Eichelieu in her control 
 of the government. Her rule was a wise one, and 
 the dignity of the nation never suffered in her hands. 
 The surrounding peoples showed respect for her 
 power, and her subjects could not but admit that 
 they were well and ably ruled. And, that they 
 might the better understand this, she had books 
 written and distributed describing her eminent ser- 
 vices to the state, while the priesthood laid before 
 the people the story of her many virtues. Thus for 
 more than twenty years after the death of Kaotsong 
 
A FEMALE KICHELIEU. 227 
 
 the great empress continued to hold her own in 
 peace and in war. 
 
 In her later years wars broke out, which were 
 handled by her with promptness and success. But 
 age now weighed upon her. In 704, when she was 
 more than eighty years old, she became so ill that 
 for several months she was unable to receive her 
 ministers. This weakening of the strong hand was 
 taken advantage of by her enemies. Murdering her 
 principal relatives, they broke into the palace and 
 demanded her abdication. Unable to resist, she, 
 with unabated dignity of mien, handed to them the 
 imperial seal and the other emblems of power. In 
 the following year she died. For more than forty 
 years she had been the supreme ruler of China, and 
 held her great office with a strength and dignity 
 which may well be called superb. 
 
THE TARTARS AND GENGHIS 
 KHAN. 
 
 In the northern section of the vast Mongolian 
 plateau, that immense outreach of pasture-lands 
 which forms the great abiding-place of the shepherd 
 tribes of the earth, there long dwelt a warlike race 
 which was destined to play an extraordinary part 
 in the world's history. The original home of this 
 people, who at an early date had won the significant 
 name of Mongol, or " the brave," was in the strip of 
 territory between the Onon and the Kerulon, tribu- 
 taries of the upper Amur Eiver, the great water ar- 
 tery of East Siberia. In this retreat, strongly pro- 
 tected from attack, and with sufficient herbage for 
 their flocks, the Mongols may have dwelt for ages 
 unknown to history. We hear of them first in the 
 ninth century, when they appeared as a section of 
 the great horde of the Shiwei, attracting attention 
 by their great strength and extraordinary courage, 
 characteristics to which they owed their distinctive 
 title. For two or three centuries they were among 
 the tribes that paid tribute to China, and there was 
 nothing in their career of special interest. Then 
 they suddenly broke into startling prominence, and 
 sent a wave of terror over the whole civilized world. 
 
 The history of China is so closely connected with 
 that of the nomad tribes that one cannot be given 
 228 
 
THE TARTARS AND GENGHIS KHAN. 229 
 
 without the other, and before telling the story of 
 the Mongols a brief outline of the history of these 
 tribes is desirable. China is on three sides abun- 
 dantly defended from invasion, by the ocean on 
 the east, and by mountains and desert on the south 
 and west. Its only vulnerable quarter is in the 
 north, where it joins on to the vast region of the 
 steppes, a country whose scarcity of rain unfits it 
 for agriculture, but which has sufficient herbage for 
 the pasturage of immense herds. Here from time 
 immemorial has dwelt a race of hardy wanderers, 
 driving its flocks of sheep, cattle, and horses from 
 pasture to pasture, and at frequent intervals de- 
 scending in plundering raids upon the settled peoples 
 of the south. 
 
 China in particular became the prey of these war- 
 like horsemen. We hear little of them in the early 
 days, when the Chinese realm was narrow and the 
 original barbarians possessed most of the land. We 
 hear much of them in later days, when the empire 
 had widened and grown rich and prosperous, offer- 
 ing an alluring prize to the restless and daring in- 
 habitants of the steppes. 
 
 The stories we have already told have much to say 
 of the relations of China with the nomads of the 
 north. Against these foes the Great Wall was built 
 in vain, and ages of warfare passed before the armies 
 of China succeeded in subduing and making tribu- 
 tary the people of the steppes. We first hear of 
 Tartar raids upon China in the reign of the emperor 
 Muh Wang, in the tenth century B.C. As time went 
 on, the tribes combined and fell in steadily greater 
 
230 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 numbers upon the southern realm. Of these alli- 
 ances of tribes the first known was named by Chinese 
 historians the Heung Nou, or "detestable slaves." 
 Under its chiefs, called the Tanjous, it became very- 
 formidable, and for a thousand years continued a 
 thorn in the side of the Chinese empire. 
 
 The Tanjous were dominant in the steppes for 
 some three hundred years, when they were over- 
 thrown by a revolt of the tribes, and were succeeded 
 by the Sienpi, who under their chiefs, the Topas, or 
 " masters of the earth," grew formidable, conquering 
 the northern provinces of China, which they held for 
 a century and a half Finally a slave of one of the 
 Topa chiefs, at the head of a hundred outlaws, broke 
 into revolt, and gathered adherents until the power 
 of the Sienpi was broken, and a new tribe, the Geou- 
 gen, became predominant. Its leader, Cehelun by 
 name, extended his power over a vast territory, as- 
 suming the title of Kagan, or Khan. 
 
 The next revolt took place in the sixth century 
 A.D., when a tribe of slaves, which worked the iron 
 forges of the Altai Mountains for the Great Khan, 
 rebelled and won its freedom. Growing rapidly, it 
 almost exterminated the Geougen in a great battle, 
 and became dominant over the clans. Thus first 
 came into history the great tribe of the Turks, whose 
 later history was destined to be so momentous. The 
 dominion of the Khan of the Turks grew so enor- 
 mously that in time it extended from Central Siberia 
 on the north to Persia on the south, while he made 
 his power felt by China on the east and byEome on 
 the west. Ambassadors from the Khan reached Con- 
 
THE TARTARS AND GENGHIS KHAN. 231 
 
 stantinople, and Eoman envoys were received in re- 
 turn in his tent at the foot of the Altai range. 
 
 The Turks were the first of the nomad organiza- 
 tions who made their power felt throughout the 
 civilized world. On the eastern steppes other tribes 
 came into prominence. The Khitans were supreme 
 in this region from 900 to 1100 A.D., and made serious 
 inroads into China. They were followed by the 
 Kins, or Golden Tartars, a tribe of Manchu origin, 
 who proved a terrible foe, conquering and long hold- 
 ing a large section of Northern China. Then came 
 the Mongols, the most powerful and terrible of all, 
 who overthrew the Kins and became sole lords of 
 the empire of the steppes. It is with the remark- 
 able career of this Mongol tribe that we are here 
 particularly concerned. 
 
 The first of the Mongol chiefs whose name is pre- 
 served was Budantsar, who conquered the district 
 between the Onon and the Kerulon, the earliest 
 known home of the Moogol race. His descendants 
 ruled over the clan until about the year 1135, 
 when the first step of rebellion of the Mongols from 
 the power of the Kins took place. This was under 
 Kabul, a descendant of Budantsar. The war with 
 the Kins continued under later leaders, of whom 
 Yissugei captured a powerful Tartar chief named 
 Temujin. On returning home he learned that his 
 wife had given birth to a son, to whom he gave his 
 captive's name of Temujin. This child, born prob- 
 ably in 1162 A.D., afterwards became the famous con- 
 queror Genghis Khan. 
 
 The birthplace of the future hero was on the 
 
232 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 banks of the Onon. His father, chief over forty 
 thousand families, died when he was still young, and 
 many of the tribesmen, refusing to be governed by 
 a boy, broke loose from his authority. His mother, 
 a woman worthy of her race, succeeded in bringing 
 numbers of them back to their allegiance, but the 
 young chief found himself at the head of but half 
 the warriors who had followed his father to vic- 
 tory. 
 
 The enemies of Temujin little knew with whom 
 they had to deal. At first misfortune pursued the 
 youth, and he was at length taken prisoner by his 
 enemies, who treated him with great indignity. He 
 soon escaped, however, and rallied his broken forces, 
 shrewdly baffling his foes, who sought to recapture 
 him by a treacherous invitation to a feast. In the 
 end they attacked Temujin in his own country, 
 where, standing on the defensive, he defeated them 
 with great loss. This victory brought the young 
 chief wide renown, and so many allies gathered 
 under his banner that he became a power in the 
 steppes. " Temujin alone is generous and worthy of 
 ruling a great people," was the decision in the tents 
 of the wandering tribes. 
 
 The subsequent career of the Mongol chief was 
 one of striking vicissitudes. His power grew until 
 the question of the dominion of the steppes rested 
 upon a great battle between the Mongols and the 
 powerful tribe of the Keraits. The latter won the 
 victory, the Mongols were slain in thousands, and 
 the power which Temujin had gained by years of 
 effort was in a day overthrown. Nothing remained 
 
THE TARTARS AND QENQHIS KHAN. 233 
 
 to him but a small band of followers, whose only 
 strength lay in their fidelity and discipline. 
 
 Yet a man of the military ability of Temujin 
 could not long remain at so low an ebb of fortune. 
 In a brief time he had surprised and subdued the 
 Keraits, and next met in battle the powerful confed- 
 eracy of the Naimans, whom he defeated in a stub- 
 born and long-contested battle. This victory made 
 him the unquestioned lord of the steppes, over all 
 whose inhabitants the Mongols had become supreme. 
 
 And now Temujin resolved to indicate his power 
 by some title worthy of the great position he had 
 gained. All the Mongol chiefs were summoned to the 
 grand council or Kuriltai of the tribe, and around the 
 national ensign, composed of nine white yak-tails, 
 planted in the centre of the camp, the warriors gath- 
 ered to hear the opinion of their chief. It was pro- 
 claimed to them that Temujin was not content with 
 the title of Gur Khan, to which its former bearers 
 had not given dignity, but would assume the title of 
 Genghis Khan (Very Mighty Khan). It may be 
 said here that there are almost as many spellings of 
 this name as there are historians of the deeds of him 
 that bore it. 
 
 Genghis made princes of his two principal gen- 
 erals, rewarded all other brave officers, and in every 
 available way cemented to his fortunes the Mongol 
 chiefs. He was now about forty-five years of age, 
 yet, instead of being at the end, he was but little 
 beyond the beginning of his career. The Kins, who 
 had conquered Northern China, and whose ruler bore 
 the proud title of emperor, were the next to feel the 
 
234 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 power of his arms. The dominions of the king of 
 Hia, a vassal of the Kin emperor, were invaded and 
 his power overthrown. Genghis married his daugh- 
 ter, made an alliance with him, and in 1210 invaded 
 the territory so long hfeld by the Kins. 
 
 The Great Wall, which had so often proved use- 
 less as a barrier of defence, failed to check the 
 march of the great Mongol host, the chief who 
 should have defended it being bribed to desert his 
 charge. Through the opening thus offered the Mon- 
 gols poured into the territory of the Kins, defeated 
 them in every engagement in the field, overran the 
 rich provinces held by them, and obtained a vast 
 wealth in plunder. Yet the war was now waged 
 against a settled and populous state, with strong 
 walled cities and other fortified places, instead of 
 against the scattered clans of the steppes, and, despite 
 the many victories of the invading horde, it took 
 twenty years of constant fighting to crush the Tartar 
 emperor of Northern China. 
 
 In truth, the resistance of the emperor of the 
 Kins was far more stubborn and effective than that 
 of the nations of the south and west. In 1218 
 Genghis invaded Central Asia, conquered its oases, 
 and destroyed Bokhara, Samarcand, and other cities. 
 He next subjected the whole of Persia, while the 
 westward march of the armies under his lieutenants 
 was arrested only at the mountain barrier of Central 
 Europe, all Russia falling subject to his rule. In four 
 years the mighty conqueror, having established his 
 rule from Armenia to the Indus, was back again and 
 ready to resume his struggle with the Kins of China. 
 
THE TARTARS AND GENGHIS KHAN. 235 
 
 He found the kingdom of Hia in revolt, and in 
 1225 assembled against it the largest army he had 
 ever employed in his Chinese wars. His success was 
 rapid and complete. The cities, the fortresses, the 
 centres of trade, fell in rapid succession into his 
 hands, and in a final great battle, fought upon the 
 frozen waters of the Hoang-ho, the army of Hia was 
 practically exterminated. This was the last great 
 event in the life of G-enghis Khan. He died in 1227, 
 having by his ruthless warfare sent five millions of 
 victims to the grave. With his last words he de- 
 plored the wanton cruelty with which his wars had 
 been fought, and advised his people to refrain in 
 future from such sanguinary acts. 
 
 Thus died, at the age of about sixty-five years, 
 one of the greatest conquerors the world has known, 
 the area of whose conquests vastly exceeded those 
 of Csesar and Napoleon, and added to the empire 
 won by Alexander a still greater dominion in the 
 north. The Chinese said of him that "he led his 
 armies like a god ;" and in truth as a military genius 
 he has had no superior in the history of the world. 
 The sphere of no other conqueror ever embraced so 
 vast a realm, and the wave of warfare which he set 
 in motion did not come to rest until it had covered 
 nearly the whole of Asia and the eastern half of the 
 European continent. Beginning as chief of the frag- 
 ment of a tribe, he ended as lord of nearly half the 
 civilized world, and dozens of depopulated cities told 
 the story of his terrible career. He had swept over 
 the earth like a tornado of blood and death. 
 
HOW THE FRIARS FARED 
 AMONG THE TARTARS. 
 
 The sea of Mongol invasion which, pouring in the 
 thirteenth century from the vast steppes of Asia, 
 overflowed all Eastern Europe, and was cheeked in its 
 course only by the assembled forces of the German 
 nations, filled the world of the West with inexpres- 
 sible terror. For a time, after whelming beneath 
 its flood Eussia, Poland, and Hungary, it was rolled 
 back, but the terror remained. At any moment 
 these savage horsemen might return in irresistible 
 strength and spread the area of desolation to the 
 western seas. The power of arms seemed too feeble 
 to stay them ; the power of persuasion, however, 
 might not be in vain, and the pope, as the spiritual 
 head of Europe, felt called upon to make an effort 
 for the rescue of the Christian world. 
 
 Tartar hordes were then advancing through Persia 
 towards the Holy Land, and to these, in the forlorn 
 hope of checking their course, he sent as ambassa- 
 dors a body of Franciscan friars composed of Father 
 Ascelin and three companions. It was in the yeai- 
 1246 that these papal envoys set out, armed with 
 full powers from the head of the Church, but sadly 
 deflcient in the worldly wisdom necessary to deal 
 with such truculent infidels as those whom they had 
 been sent to meet. 
 236 
 
HOW THE FRIARS FARED AMONG THE TARTARS. 237 
 
 Ascelin and his comrades journeyed far through 
 Asia in search of a Tartar host, and at length found 
 one on the northern frontier of Persia. Into the 
 camp of the barbarians the worthy Prancisean 
 boldly advanced, announcing himself as an ambassa- 
 dor from the pope. To his surprise, this announce- 
 ment was received with contempt by the Tartars, 
 who knew little and cared less for the object of his 
 deep veneration. In return he showed his feeling 
 towards the infidels in a way that soon brought his 
 mission into a perilous state. 
 
 He was refused an audience with the Mongol gen- 
 eral unless he would perform the ko-tou, or three 
 genuflections, an act which he and his followers re- 
 fused as an idolatrous ceremony which would scan- 
 dalize all Christendom. Finally, as nothing less 
 would be accepted, they, in their wise heads, thought 
 they might consent to perform the ko-tou, provided 
 the general and all his army would become Chris- 
 tians. This folly capped the climax. The Tartars, 
 whom they had already irritated, broke into a vio- 
 lent rage, loaded the friars with fierce invectives, and 
 denounced them and their pope as Christian dogs. 
 
 A council was called to decide what to do with 
 these insulting strangers. Some suggested that the 
 friars should be flayed alive, and their skins, stuffed 
 with hay, sent to the pope. Others wished to keep 
 them till the next battle with the Christians, and 
 then place them in front of the army as victims to 
 the god of war. A third proposition was to whip 
 them through the camp and then put them to death. 
 But Baithnoj, the general, had no fancy for delay, 
 
238 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 and issued orders that the whole party should at once 
 be executed. 
 
 In this frightful predicament, into which Ascelin 
 and his party had brought themselves, a woman's 
 pity came to the rescue. Baithnoy's principal wife 
 endeavored to move him to compassion ; but, finding 
 him obdurate, she next appealed to his interest. To 
 violate in this way the law of nations would cover 
 him with disgrace, she said, and stay the coming of 
 many who otherwise would seek his camp with 
 homage and presents. She reminded him of the 
 anger of the Great Khan when, on a former occa- 
 sion, he had caused the heart of an ambassador to 
 be plucked out and had ridden around the camp 
 with it fastened to his horse's tail. By these argu- 
 ments, reinforced with entreaties, she induced him 
 to spare the lives of the friars. 
 
 They were advised to visit the court of the Great 
 Khan, but Ascelin had seen as much as he relished of 
 Tartar courts, and refused to go a step farther ex- 
 cept by force. He was then desired, as he had been 
 so curious to see a Tartar army, to wait until their 
 expected reinforcements arrived. He protested that 
 he had seen enough Tartars already to last him the 
 rest of his life ; but, despite his protest, he was de- 
 tained for several months, during which the Tartars 
 amused themselves by annoying and vexing their 
 visitors. At length, after having been half starved, 
 frequently threatened with death, and insulted in 
 a hundred ways, they were set free, bearing letters 
 to the pope ordering him to come in person and do 
 homage to Genghis Khan, the Son of God. 
 
HOW THE PBIAKS PARED AMONG THE TARTARS. 239 
 
 At the same time that Ascelin set out for the south, 
 another party, headed by John Carpini, set out for 
 the north, to visit the Tartars then in Eussia. Here 
 they were startled by the first act demanded of 
 them, they being compelled to pass between two 
 large fires as a purification from the suspicion of 
 evil. On coming into the presence of Bathy, the gen- 
 eral, they, more terrified perhaps than Ascelin, did not 
 hesitate to fall upon their knees. To heighten their 
 terrors, two of them were sent to the court of the 
 Great Khan, in the heart of Tartary, the other two 
 being detained on some pretext. The journey was 
 a frightful one. With no food but millet, no drink 
 but melted snow, pushing on at a furious speed, 
 changing horses several times a day, passing over 
 tracts strewn with human bones, and the weather 
 through part of their journey being bitterly cold, 
 they at length reached the court of the Mongols on 
 July 22, 1246. 
 
 They arrived at an interesting period. The elec- 
 tion of Kujak, a new khan, was about to take place, 
 and, in addition to great Tartar lords from all quar- 
 ters of the Mongol empire, ambassadors from Eussia, 
 Persia, Bagdad, India, and China were at hand with 
 presents and congratulations. The assembled nobles, 
 four thousand in all, dazzled Carpini with their pomp 
 and magnificence. The coronation was attended 
 with peculiar ceremonies, and a few days afterwards 
 audience was given to the ambassadors, that they 
 might deliver their presents. Here the friars were 
 amazed at the abundance and value of the gifts, 
 which consisted of satin cloths, robes of purple, silk 
 
240 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 girdles wrought with gold, and costly skins. Most 
 surprising of all was a " sun canopy" (umbrella) full 
 of precious stones, a long row of camels covered 
 with Baldakin cloth, and a " wonderful brave tent, 
 all of red purple, presented by the Kythayans" 
 (Chinese), while near by stood five hundred carts 
 "all full of silver, and of gold, and of silk gar- 
 ments." 
 
 The friars were now placed in an embarrassing 
 position by being asked what presents they had to 
 give. They had so little that they thought it best to 
 declare " that they were not of ability so to do." 
 This failure was well received, and throughout their 
 visit they were treated with great respect, the khan 
 cajoling them with hints that he proposed publicly 
 to profess Christianity. 
 
 These flattering hopes came to a sudden end when 
 the great Mongol ruler ordered the erection of a flag 
 of defiance against the Eoman empire, the Christian 
 Church, and all the Christian kingdoms of the West, 
 unless they would do homage to him ; and with this 
 abrupt termination to their embassy they were dis- 
 missed. After " travailing all winter long," sleeping 
 on snow without shelter, and suffering other hard- 
 ships, they reached Europe in June, 1247, where they 
 were "rejoiced over as men that had been risen 
 from death to life." 
 
 Carpini was the first European to approach the 
 borders of China, or Cathay, as it was then called, 
 and the story he told about that mysterious empire 
 of the Bast, gathered from the Tartars, was of much 
 interest, and, so far as it went, of considerable ac- 
 
HOW THE FRIARS FAKED AMONG THE TARTARS. 241 
 
 curacy. He was also the first to visit the court of 
 those terrible warriors who had filled the world with 
 dismay, and to bring to Europe an account of their 
 barbaric manners and customs. 
 
 Shortly after (in 1253) a friar named Eubruquis, 
 with two companions, was sent to Tartary by Louis 
 IX. of France to search for Prester John, an imagi- 
 nary Christian potentate supposed to reign in the 
 centre of Asia, to visit Sartach, a Tartar chief also 
 reported a Christian, and to teach the doctrines of 
 Christianity to all the Tartars he should find. Eu- 
 bruquis did his work well, and, while failing to find 
 Prester John or to convert any of the Tartars, he 
 penetrated to the very centre of the Mongol em- 
 pire, visited Karakorum, the capital of the Great 
 Khans, and brought back much valuable information, 
 giving a clear, accurate, and intelligent account of the 
 lands he had seen and the people he had met, with 
 such news of distant China as he could obtain with- 
 out actually crossing the Great Wall. 
 
 After his visit information concerning these remote 
 regions ceased until the publication of the remark- 
 ably interesting book of Marco Polo, the first to 
 write of China from an actual visit to its court. 
 The story of his visit must be left for a later tale. 
 
 16 
 
THE SIEGE OF SI ANYANG. 
 
 In the year 1268 the army of Kublai Khan, grand- 
 son of Genghis the famous conqueror, made its ap- 
 pearance before the stronghold of Sianyang, an im- 
 portant city of China on the southern bank of the 
 Han River. On the opposite side of the stream stood 
 the city of Panching, the two being connected by 
 bridges and forming virtually a single city. Sian- 
 yang, the capital of a populous and prosperous dis- 
 trict, was the most important stronghold left to 
 China, and its fall would be almost fatal to that 
 realm. Hence Kublai, who had succeeded to the 
 empire of the Kins in Northern China, and was bent 
 on making the rest of that country his own, made 
 his first move against this powerful city, which the 
 Chinese prepared with energy to defend. In all the 
 history of its wars China showed no greater courage 
 and resolution than in the defence of this important 
 place. 
 
 The army of Kublai consisted of sixty thousand 
 veterans of the Mongol wars, with a large body of 
 auxiliary troops, an army large enough to occupy all 
 the neighboring heights and form an intrenched 
 camp around the city ten miles in length. This 
 done, and all communication by land cut oif, stops 
 were taken to intercept all supplies sent by water. 
 The Mongols had no vessels, but they set themselves 
 242 
 
THE SIEGE OF SIANYANG. 243 
 
 with their usual activity to huild a fleet, and in a 
 short time had launched upon the Han fifty junks 
 larger than those used by the Chinese. 
 
 Meanwhile Lieouwen Hoan, governor of the two 
 cities, was strengthening their works and vigorously 
 repelling every assault of his foes. The city was 
 surrounded by thick and lofty walls and a deep 
 fosse, was amply garrisoned, and was abundantly 
 supplied with provisions, having food-supplies, it 
 was said, sufficient "for a period of ten years." 
 Thus provided, the gallant commandant, confident 
 in his strength and resources, defied the efforts of 
 the enemy. Threatened by the Mongols with mas- 
 sacre if he should continue a vain defence, he re- 
 torted by declaring that he would drag the rene- 
 gade general in command of their troops in chains 
 into the presence of the master to whom he had 
 proved a traitor. 
 
 These bold words were sustained by brave deeds. 
 All the assaults of the Mongols were valiantly re- 
 pulsed, and, although their army was constantly re- 
 inforced by fresh troops, the siege made very slow 
 progress. The position of the besiegers was several 
 times changed, their lines were here extended and 
 there withdrawn, but all their efforts proved vain, 
 they being baffled on every side, while the governor 
 held out with unyielding fortitude. 
 
 A flotilla of store-ships on the Han was met by 
 the Mongol fleet and driven back with serious loss, 
 but this success was of no great service to the be- 
 siegers, since the cities were still well supplied. 
 Thus for three years the siege went on, and it was 
 
244 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 beginning to languish, when new spirit was given it 
 by fresh preparations on the part of the two con- 
 testants. Kublai, weary of the slow progress of his 
 armies, resolved to press the siege with more vigor 
 than ever, while the Chinese minister determined to 
 do something for the relief of the garrison. 
 
 A large Chinese army was put into the field, but 
 it was placed under the command of an incapable 
 officer, whose dilatory movements promised little for 
 the aid of the valiant defenders. Nothing would 
 have been done had not abler and bolder spirits come 
 to the assistance of the beleaguered host. Litingehi, 
 governor of Ganlo, a town on the Han south of 
 Sianyang, incensed by the tardy march of the army 
 of relief, resolved to strike a prompt and telling 
 blow. Collecting a force of three thousand men, 
 from which he dismissed all who feared to take part 
 in the perilous adventure, he laid his plans to throw 
 into Sianyang this reinforcement, with a large con- 
 voy of such supplies as he had learned that the 
 garrison needed. 
 
 The attempt was made successful through the 
 valor of the Chinese troops. Several hundred ves- 
 sels, escorted by the band of devoted warriors, sailed 
 down a tributary of the Han towards Sianyang. 
 The Mongols had sought by chains and other ob- 
 stacles to close the stream, but these were broken 
 through by the junks, whose impetuous advance had 
 taken the besiegers by surprise. Eecovering their 
 spirit, and taking advantage of the high ground 
 above the stream, the Mongols soon began to regain 
 the ground they had lost and to imperil the success 
 
THE SIEGE or SIANTANG. 245 
 
 of the expedition. Seeing this, and fearing the de- 
 feat of the project, Changchun, at the head of one 
 division of the escort of troops, devoted himself and 
 his men to death for the safety of the fleet, charging 
 so vigorously as to keep the Mongols fully occupied 
 for several hours. This diversion gave the other 
 Chinese leader an opportunity to push on to Sian- 
 yang with the store-ships, where they were joy- 
 fully received by the people, who for three years 
 had been cut off from communication with the out- 
 side world. 
 
 So great were the excitement and joy of the gar- 
 rison that they flung open the city gates, in bold 
 defiance of their foes, or as if they thought that the 
 Mongols must be in full retreat. Their enthusiasm, 
 however, was somewhat dampened when the muti- 
 lated body of the heroic Changchun came floating 
 down the stream, in evidence of the continued pres- 
 ence and barbarity of their foes. The work of rein- 
 forcement done, Changkone, the other leader of the 
 party of relief, who had succeeded in bringing to the 
 garrison certain needed supplies, felt that he was not 
 wanted within its walls. Outside, Litingchi was hov- 
 ering near the enemy with a force of five thousand 
 men, and the gallant admiral of the fleet resolved to 
 cut his way out again and join this partisan band. 
 
 Calling together his late followers, he extolled the 
 glory they had won and promised them new fame. 
 But in the midst of his address he perceived that 
 one of the men had disappeared, and suspected that 
 he had deserted to the Mongols with a warning of 
 what was intended.' Changkone, however, did not 
 
246 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 let this check him in his daring purpose. Gathering 
 the few war-junks that remained, he set sail that 
 night, bursting through the chains that crossed the 
 stream, and cutting his way with sword and spear, 
 through the first line of the Mongol fleet. 
 
 Before him the river stretched in a straight and 
 unguarded course, and it seemed as if safety had 
 been won. But the early light of the dawning day 
 revealed an alarming scene. Before the daring 
 band lay another fleet, flying the Mongol flag, while 
 thousands of armed foes occupied the banks of 
 the stream. The odds were hopelessly against the 
 Chinese, there was no choice between death and 
 surrender, but the heroic Changkone unhesitatingly 
 resolved to accept the former, and was seconded in 
 his devotion by his men. Dashing upon the Mon- 
 gol fleet, they fought on while a man was left to bend 
 bow or thrust spear, continuing the struggle until 
 the blood of the whole gallant band reddened the 
 waters of the stream. The Mongol leader sent the 
 body of Changkone into the city, either as a threat 
 or as a tribute of admiration. It was received with 
 loud lamentations, and given a place in burial beside 
 that of Changchun, his partner in the most gallant 
 deed that Chinese history records. 
 
 This incident, while spurring the garrison to new 
 spirit in their defence, roused the Mongols to a more 
 resolute pressure of the siege. As yet they had 
 given their attention mainly to Sianyang, but now 
 they drew their lines around Fanching as well. The 
 great extent of the Mongol dominion is shown by 
 the fact that they sent as far as Persia for engineers 
 
THE SIEGE OF SIANYANG. 247 
 
 Bkilful in siege-work and aceustomed to building and 
 handling the great catapults with which huge stones 
 were flung against fortified places in the warfare of 
 that age. By the aid of these powerful engines many 
 of the defences of Sianyang were demolished and the 
 bridge between the two cities was destroyed. 
 
 This done, the siege of Fanching was vigorously 
 pressed, and, after a severe bombardment, an assault 
 in force was made. Despite the resolute resistance 
 of the garrison, the walls were forced, and the 
 streets became the scene of a fierce and deadly fight. 
 From street to street, from house to house, the 
 struggle continued, and when resistance had become 
 utterly hopeless the Chinese officers, rather than 
 surrender, slew themselves, in which they were imi- 
 tated by many of their men. It was a city of ruins 
 and slaughtered bodies that the Mongols had won. 
 
 The engines were now all directed against the 
 fortifications of Sianyang, where the garrison had 
 become greatly dispirited by the fall of Fanching 
 and the failure of the army of relief to appear. 
 Lieouwen Hoan still held out, though he saw that 
 his powers of defence were nearly at an end, and 
 feared that at any moment the soldiers might refuse 
 to continue what seemed to them a useless efibrt. 
 
 Kublai at this juncture sent him the following 
 letter : " The generous defence you have made dur- 
 ing five years covers you with glory. It is the duty 
 of every faithful subject to serve his prince at the 
 expense of his life ; but in the straits to which you 
 are reduced, your strength exhausted, deprived of 
 succor, and without hope of receiving any, would it 
 
248 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 be reasonable to sacrifice the lives of so many brave 
 men out of sheer obstinacy ? Submit in good faith, 
 and no harm shall come to you. We promise you 
 still more, and that is to provide all of you with 
 honorable employment. You shall have no grounds 
 for discontent : for that we pledge you our imperial 
 word." 
 
 This letter ended the struggle. After some hesi- 
 tation, Lieouwen Hoan, incensed at the failure of 
 the army to come to his relief and at the indiffer- 
 ence of the emperor to his fate, surrendered, and 
 thenceforth devoted to the service of Kublai the 
 courage and ability of which he had shown such 
 striking evidence in the defence of Sianyang. 
 
THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OF 
 CHINA. 
 
 Never in its history has China shown such un- 
 yielding courage as it did in its resistance to the 
 invasion under Kublai Khan. The city of Sianyang 
 alone held back the tide of Mongol success for full 
 five years. After its fall there were other strong- 
 holds to be taken, other armies to be fought, and for 
 a number of years the Chinese fought desperately 
 for their native land. But one by one their fortified 
 cities fell, one by one their armies were driven back 
 by the impetuous foe, and gradually the conquest of 
 Southern China was added to that of the north. 
 
 Finally the hopes of China were centred upon a 
 single man, Chang Chikie, a general of unflinching 
 zeal and courage, who recaptured several towns, and, 
 gathering a great fleet, said to have numbered no 
 fewer than two thousand war -junks, sailed up the 
 Yang-tse-Kiang with the purpose of attacking the 
 Mongol positions below Nanking. The fleet of the 
 Mongols lay at that point where the Imperial Canal 
 enters the Kiang on both sides. Here the stream is 
 wide and ample and presents a magnificent field for 
 a naval battle. 
 
 The attack of the Chinese was made with reso- 
 lution and energy, but the Mongol admiral had pre- 
 pared for them by sending in advance his largest 
 
 249 
 
250 HISTOEICAL TALES. 
 
 vessels, manned with bowmen instructed to attach 
 lighted pitch to their arrows. The Mongol assault 
 was made before the Chinese fleet had emerged from 
 the narrow part of the river, in which comparatively- 
 few of the host of vessels could be brought into 
 play. The flaming arrows set on fire a number of 
 the junks, and, though the Chinese in advance fought 
 bravely, these burning vessels carried confusion and 
 alarm to the thronging vessels in the rear. Here 
 the crews, unable to take part in the fight and their 
 crowded vessels threatened with the flames, were 
 seized with a fear that soon became an uncontrol- 
 lable panic. The result was disastrous. Of the great 
 fleet no less than seven hundred vessels were cap- 
 tured by the Mongols, while a still greater number 
 were burnt or sunk, hardly a fourth of the vast 
 armament escaping from that fatal field. 
 
 The next events which we have to record take us 
 forward to the year 1278, when the city of Canton 
 had been captured by the Mongol troops, and scarcely 
 a fragment of the once great empire remained in the 
 hands of the Chinese ruler. 
 
 The incompetent Chinese emperor had died, and 
 the incapable minister to whose feebleness the fall 
 of Sianyang was due had been dismissed by his mas- 
 ter and murdered by his enemies. The succeeding 
 emperor had been captured by the Mongols on the 
 fall of the capital. Another had been proclaimed 
 and had died, and the last emperor of the Sung dy- 
 nasty, a young prince named Tiping, was now with 
 Chang Chikie, whose small army constituted his only 
 hope, and the remains of the fleet his only empire. 
 
THE DEATH-STRUaGLE OF CHINA. 251 
 
 The able leader on whom the last hopes of the Chi- 
 nese dynasty now rested selected a natural strong- 
 hold on an island named Tai, in a natural harbor 
 which could be entered only with a favorable tide. 
 This position he made the most strenuous efforts to 
 fortify, building strong works on the heights above 
 the bay, and gathering troops until he had an army 
 of nearly two hundred thousand men. 
 
 So rapidly did he work that his fortifications were 
 completed before the Mongol admiral discovered his 
 locality. On learning what had been done, the Mon- 
 gols at once hurried forward reinforcements and 
 prepared for an immediate and vigorous assault on 
 this final stronghold of the empire of China. The 
 attack was made with the impetuous courage for 
 which the Mongols had become noted, but the works 
 were bravely held, and for two days the struggle 
 was maintained without advantage to the assailants. 
 On the third day the Mongol admiral resumed his 
 attack, and a fiercely contested battle took place, end- 
 ing in the Chinese fleet being thrown into confusion. 
 The result would have been utterly disastrous had 
 not a heavy mist fallen at this opportune moment, 
 under cover of which Chang Chikie, followed by 
 sixteen vessels of his fleet, made his way out to sea. 
 
 The vessel which held the young emperor was less 
 fortunate. Caught in the press of the battle, its 
 capture was inevitable, and with it that of the last 
 emperor of the Sung dynasty. In this desperate 
 emergency, a faithful minister of the empire, re- 
 solved to save the honor of his master even at the 
 sacrifice of his life, took him in his arms and leaped 
 
252 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 with him into the sea. This act of desperation was 
 emulated by many of the officers of the vessel, and 
 in this dramatic way the great dynasty of the Sung 
 came to an end. 
 
 But the last blow for the empire had not been 
 struck so long as Chang Chikie survived. With him 
 had escaped the mother of the drowned prince, and 
 on learning of his loss the valiant leader requested 
 her to name some member of the Sung family to 
 succeed him. But the mother, overwhelmed with 
 grief at the death of her son, was in no mood to listen 
 to anything not connected with her loss, and at 
 length, hopeless and inconsolable, she put an end to 
 her own existence by leaping overboard from the 
 vessel's side. 
 
 Chang Chikie was left alone, with the destinies of 
 the empire dependent solely upon him. Tet his high 
 courage sustained him still ; he was not ready to ac- 
 knowledge final defeat, and he sailed southward in 
 the double hope of escaping Mongol pursuit and of 
 obtaining means for the renewal of the struggle. 
 The states of Indo-China were then tributary to the 
 empire, and his small fleet put in to a port of Ton- 
 quin, whose ruler not only welcomed him, but aided 
 him to refit his fleet, collect stores, and enlist fresh 
 troops. 
 
 Thus strengthened, the intrepid admiral resolved 
 to renew the war without delay, his project being 
 to assault Canton, which he hoped to take by a sud- 
 den attack. This enterprise seemed desperate to his 
 followers, who sought to dissuade him from what 
 might prove a fatal course ; but, spurred on by his 
 
THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OP CHINA. 253 
 
 own courage and a hope of retrieving the cause of 
 the Sungs, he persisted in his purpose, and the fleet 
 once more returned to the seas. 
 
 It was now 1279, a year after Tiping's death. The 
 Mongols lay in fancied security, not dreaming that 
 there was in all China the resolution to strike an- 
 other blow, and probably unsuspicious that a fleet 
 was bearing down upon one of their captured ports. 
 What would have been the result had Chang Chikie 
 been able to deliver his attack it is impossible to say. 
 He might have taken Canton by surprise and cap- 
 tured it from the enemy, but in any event he could 
 not have gained more than a temporary success. 
 
 As it was, he gained none. Pate had destined the 
 fall of China, and the elements came to the assistance 
 of its foes. A sudden and violent tempest fell upon 
 the fleet while near the southern headland of the 
 Kwantung coast, hurling nearly or quite all the ves- 
 sels on the shore or sinking them beneath the waves. 
 The bold leader had been counselled to seek shelter 
 from the storm under the lee of the shore, but he re- 
 fused, and kept on despite the storm, daring death in 
 his singleness of purpose. 
 
 " I have done everything I could," he said, " to 
 sustain the Sung dynasty on the throne. When one 
 prince died I had another proclaimed. He also has 
 perished, and I still live. Should I be acting against 
 thy decrees, O Heaven, if I sought to place a new 
 prince on the throne ?" 
 
 It appeared so, for the winds and the waves gave 
 answer, and the last defender of China sank to death 
 beneath the sea. The conquest of China was thus 
 
254 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 at length completed after seventy years of resist- 
 ance against the most valorous soldiers of the world, 
 led by such generals as Genghis, Kublai, and other 
 warlike Mongol princes. In view of the fact that 
 Genghis had overrun Southern Asia in a few years, 
 this long and obstinate resistance of China, despite 
 the incompetence of its princes and ministers, places 
 in a striking light the great military strength of the 
 empire at that period of its history. 
 
THE PALACE OF KUBLAI KHAN. 
 
 In the middle of the thirteenth century two emi- 
 nent Venetian merchants, Nicole and Matteo Polo, 
 of noble birth and adventurous spirit, left their 
 native city for a long journey to the East, their pur- 
 poses being those of ordinary travel and also of 
 barter, for which they took with them a stock of 
 jewels, as the commodity of most worth with least 
 weight. Visiting Constantinople and several Eussian 
 cities, they journeyed to the capital of the khan of 
 Kaptchak, where they remained three years, trading 
 and studying the Mongol language. Subsequently 
 they met in Bokhara a Persian ambassador on the 
 way to the court of Kublai Khan, and were per- 
 suaded to keep him company as far as Kambalu (the 
 modern Peking), the capital of the Mongol emperor 
 of Cathay, or China. 
 
 Their journey led them through Samarcand, Cash- 
 gar, and other cities of the far Bast, a whole j'ear 
 passing before they reached the capital of the great 
 potentate, by whom they were graciously received. 
 Kublai asked them many questions about their 
 country, and was very curious about the pope, to 
 whom he in the end sent them as ambassadors, bid- 
 ding them return to him with a hundred Europeans 
 learned in the arts and sciences, for the instruction 
 
 255 
 
256 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 of his people. They reached Venice in 1269, after 
 an absence of fifteen years. 
 
 In 1271 they set out again for China, bearing de- 
 spatches from the pope, but without the learned Eu- 
 ropeans they were to bring. Marco, the young son of 
 Nicolo, accompanied them on their journey, which oc- 
 cupied three and a half years. Kublai, though he had 
 nearly forgotten their existence, received them as gra- 
 ciously as before, and was particularly pleased with 
 young Marco, giving him a high ofiice and employing 
 him on important missions throughout the empire. 
 In truth, he took so strong a fancy to his visitors that 
 they were not suffered to leave China for years, and 
 finally got away in 1291 only as escort to a Mongol 
 princess who was sent as a bride to Persia. 
 
 Twenty-four years had elapsed from the time they 
 left Venice before they appeared in that city again. 
 They were quite forgotten, but the wealth in pre- 
 cious stones they brought with them soon freshened 
 the memory of their relatives, and they became the 
 heroes of the city. Marco took part in a war then 
 raging with Genoa, was taken prisoner, and long lay 
 in a dungeon, where he dictated to a fellow-prisoner 
 the story of his adventures and the wonderful things 
 he had seen in the dominions of the Great Khan 
 of Cathay. This was afterwards published as " II 
 Milione di Messer Marco Polo Veneziano," and at 
 once gained a high reputation, which it has pre- 
 served from that day to this. Though long looked 
 on by many as pure fable, time has proved its essen- 
 tial truth, and it is now regarded as the most valu- 
 able geographical work of the Middle Ages. 
 
THE PALACE OP KtTBLAI KHAN. 257 
 
 We cannot undertake to give the diffuse narrative 
 of Marco Polo's book, but a condensed account of a 
 few of his statements may prove of interest, as show- 
 ing some of the conditions of China in this middle 
 period of its existence. His description of the great 
 palace of Kublai, near his capital city of Kambalu, 
 much the largest royal residence in the world, is of 
 sufficient interest to be given in epitome. The palace 
 grounds included a great park, enclosed by a wall 
 and ditch eight miles square, with an entrance gate 
 midway of each side. Within this great enclosure 
 of sixty-four square miles was an open space a mile 
 broad, in which the troops were stationed, it being 
 bounded on the interior by a second wall six miles 
 square. This space, twenty-eight square miles in 
 area, held an army of more than a hundred thou- 
 sand men, nearly all cavalry. 
 
 Within the second wall lay the royal arsenals and 
 the deer-park, with meadows and handsome groves, 
 and in the interior rose a third wall of great thick- 
 ness, each side of which was a mile in length, while 
 its height was twenty-five feet. This last enclosure, 
 one square mile in area, contained the palace, which 
 reached from the northern to the southern wall and 
 included a spacious court. Though its roof was 
 very lofty, it was but one story in height, standing 
 on a paved platform of several feet elevation, from 
 which extended a marble terrace seven feet wide, 
 surrounded by a handsome balustrade, which the 
 people were allowed to approach. 
 
 Carved and gilt dragons, figures of warriors and 
 animals, and battle-scenes ornamented the sides of 
 
 17 
 
258 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 the great hall and the apartments, while the roof 
 was so contrived that only gilding and painting were 
 to be seen. On each side of the palace a grand flight 
 of marble steps ascended to the marble terrace which 
 surrounded the building. The interior contained an 
 immense hall, capable of serving as a banqueting- 
 room for a multitude of guests, while the numerous 
 chambers were all of great beauty and admirably 
 arranged. 
 
 The roof on the exterior was painted red, green, 
 azure, and violet, the colors being highly durable, 
 while the glazing of the windows was so neatly done 
 that they were transparent as crystal. In the rear 
 of the palace were arranged the treasure-rooms, 
 which contained a great store of gold and silver 
 bullion, pearls and precious stones, and valuable 
 plate. Here also were the family apartments of the 
 emperor and his wives. Opposite the grand palace 
 stood another, very similar in design, where dwelt his. 
 eldest son, the heir to the throne. 
 
 On the north side, between the palace and the 
 adjoining wall, rose an artificial mound of earth, a 
 hundred paces high and a mile in circuit at its base. 
 Its slopes were planted with beautiful evergreen 
 trees, which had been transported thither, when 
 well grown, by the aid of elephants. This perpetual 
 verdure gave it the appropriate name of the Green 
 Mount. An ornamental pavilion crowned the sum- 
 mit, which, in harmony with the sides, was also made 
 green. The view of the mount, with its ever- verdant 
 trees and the richly decorated building on its sum- 
 mit, formed a scene delightful to the eyes of the em- 
 
THE PALACE OF KUBLAI KHAN. 259 
 
 peror and the other inmates of the palace. This hill 
 still exists, and is yet known by its original title of 
 Kinshan, or the Green Mount. 
 
 The excavation made to obtain the earth for the 
 mount was filled with water from a small rivulet, 
 forming a lake from which the cattle drank, its over- 
 flow being carried by an aqueduct along the foot 
 of the Green Mount to fill another great and very 
 deep excavation, made in the same manner as the 
 former. This was used as a fish-pond, containing 
 fish in large variety and number, suflScient to keep 
 the table of the emperor constantly supplied. Iron 
 or copper gratings at the entrance and exit pre- 
 vented the escape of the fish along the stream. The 
 pond was also stocked with swans and other aquatic 
 birds, and a bridge across its width led from one 
 palace to the other. 
 
 Such was the palace. The city was correspond- 
 ingly great and prosperous, and had an immense 
 trade. A thousand pack-horses and carriages laden 
 with raw silk daily entered its gates, and within 
 its workshops a vast quantity of silk and gold tis- 
 sues was produced. As Hoangti made himself fa- 
 mous by the Great Wall, so Kublai won fame by the 
 far more useful work of the Great Canal, which was 
 largely due to his fostering care, and has ever since 
 been of inestimable value to China, while the "Wall 
 never kept out a Tartar who strongly desired to get 
 over its threatening but useless height. 
 
 Having said so much about the conditions of pal- 
 ace and capital, it may be of interest to extract from 
 Polo's narrative some account of the method pur- 
 
260 HISTORICAX TALES. 
 
 sued in war during Kublai's reign. The Venetian 
 attended a campaign made by the emperor against 
 one of his kinsmen named Nayan, who had under 
 him so many cities and provinces that he was able 
 to bring into the field an army of four hundred 
 thousand horse. His desire for sovereignty led him 
 to throw off his allegiance, the more so as another 
 rebel against the Grand Khan promised to aid him 
 with a hundred thousand horsemen. 
 
 News of this movement soon reached Kublai, and 
 he at once ordered the collection of .all the troops 
 within ten days' march of Kambalu, amounting in 
 all to four hundred and sixty thousand men. By 
 forced marches these were brought to Nayan's terri- 
 tory in twenty-five days, reaching there before the 
 rebel prince had any warning of their approach. 
 Kublai, having given his army two days' rest, and 
 consulted his astrologers, who promised him victory, 
 marched his army up the hill which had concealed 
 them from the enemy, the great array being suddenly 
 displayed to the astonished eyes of l^ayan and his 
 men. 
 
 Kublai took his station in a large wooden castle, 
 borne on the backs of four elephants, whose bodies 
 were protected with coverings of thick leather hard- 
 ened by fire, over which were spread housings of 
 cloth of gold. His army was disposed in three grand 
 divisions, each division consisting of ten battalions 
 of horsemen each ten thousand strong, and armed 
 with the great Mongol bow. The right and left di- 
 visions were disposed so as to outflank the army of 
 Nayan. In front of each battalion were stationed 
 
THE PALACE OP KUBLAI KHAN. 261 
 
 five hundred infantry, who, whenever the cavalry- 
 made a show of flight, were trained to mount behind 
 them, and to ahght again when they returned to the 
 charge, their duty being to kill with their lances the 
 horses of the enemy. 
 
 As soon as the order of battle was arranged, wind 
 instruments of various kinds and in great numbers 
 were sounded, while the host of warriors broke into 
 song, as was the Tartar practice before engaging in 
 battle. The battle began with a signal from the cym- 
 bals and drums, the sound of the instruments and the 
 singing growing deafening. At the signal both wings 
 advanced, a cloud of arrows filling the air, while on 
 both sides numbers of men and horses fell. Their 
 arrows discharged, the warriors engaged in close 
 combat with lances, swords, and iron-shod maces, 
 while the cries of men and horses were such as to 
 inspire terror or rouse all hearers to the battle-rage. 
 
 For a long time the fortune of the day remained 
 undecided, Nayan's people fighting with great zeal 
 and courage. But at length their leader, seeing that 
 he was almost surrounded, attempted to save himself 
 by flight. He was made prisoner, however, and 
 brought before Kublai, who ordered him to be put 
 to death on the spot. This was done by enclosing 
 him between two carpets, which were violently 
 shaken until the spirit departed from the body, the 
 dignity of the imperial family requiring that the 
 sun and the air should not witness the shedding of 
 the blood of one who belonged to the royal stock. 
 
 These extracts from the narrative of the Venetian 
 traveller may be fltly followed by a portion of 
 
262 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Coleridge's remarkable dream-poem on the subject 
 of Kublai's palace. The poet, having been reading 
 from " Purchas's Pilgrimage" a brief description of 
 the palace of the Great Khan, — not the one above 
 described, but a pleasure-retreat in another section 
 of his dominions, — fell asleep, and his dreams took 
 the form of an extended poem on the subject. On 
 waking he hastened to write it down, but was inter- 
 rupted by a visitor in the midst of his task, and 
 afterwards found himself unable to recall another 
 line of the poem, only a shadowy image of which 
 remained in his mind. The part saved is strangely 
 imaginative. 
 
 In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
 A stately pleasure-dome decree, 
 
 "Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 
 
 Through caverns measureless to man 
 Down to a sunless sea. 
 So twice five miles of fertile ground 
 With walls and towers were girdled round ; 
 And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 
 Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; 
 And here were forests ancient as the hills, 
 Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. 
 
 But oh I that deep romantic chasm which slanted 
 
 Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover I 
 
 A savage place I as holy and enchanted 
 
 As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 
 
 By woman wailing for her demon lover I 
 
 And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething. 
 
 As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, 
 
 A mighty fountain momently was forced, 
 
 Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst 
 
THE PALACE OF KtlBLAI KHAN. 263 
 
 Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, 
 Or chafly grain beneath the thresher's flail ; 
 And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever 
 It flung up momently the sacred river. 
 Five miles meandering with a mazy motion 
 Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, 
 Then reached the caverns measureless to man, 
 And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean : 
 And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far 
 Ancestral voices prophesying war. 
 
THE EXPULSION OF THE 
 MONGOLS. 
 
 While the descendants of Kublai Khan, the Mon- 
 gol emperor, still held the reins of power in China, 
 there was born in humble life in that empire a boy 
 upon whose shoulders fortune had laid the task of 
 driving the foreigners from the soil and restoring to 
 the Chinese their own again. Tradition says that at 
 his birth the room was several times filled with a 
 bright light. However that be, the boy proved to 
 be gifted by nature with a fine presence, lofty views, 
 and an elevated soul, qualities sure to tell in the 
 troubled times that were at hand. When he was 
 seventeen years of age the deaths of his father and 
 mother left him a penniless orphan, so destitute of 
 means that he felt obliged to take the vows of a 
 priest and enter the monastery of Hoangkiose. But 
 the country was now in disorder, rebels were in 
 the field against the Mongol rule, and the patriotic 
 and active-minded boy could not long endure the 
 passive life of a bonze. Leaving the monastery, he 
 entered the service of one of the rebel leaders as a 
 private soldier, and quickly showed such enterprise 
 and daring that his chief not only made him an 
 officer in his force but gave him his daughter in 
 marriage. 
 
 The time was ripe for soldiers of fortune. The 
 264 
 
THE EXPULSION OF THE MONGOLS. 265 
 
 mantle of Kublai had not fallen on the shoulders of 
 any of his successors, who proved weak and degen- 
 erate monarchs, losing the firm hold which the 
 great conqueror had kept upon the realm. It was 
 in the year 1345 that Choo Yuen Chang, to give the 
 young soldier his full name, joined the rebel band. 
 Chunti, one of the weakest of the Mongol monarchs, 
 was now upon the throne, and on every side it was 
 evident that the empire of Kublai was in danger of 
 falling to pieces under this incapable ruler. Fortune 
 had brought its protege into the field at a critical 
 time. 
 
 Choo was not long in proving himself " every inch 
 a soldier." Wherever he fought he was victorious. 
 In a year's time he had under him seven hundred 
 men of his own enlistment, and was appointed the 
 lieutenant of his chief. Soon after the latter died, 
 and Choo took his place at the head of the rebel 
 band. In it enlisted another young man, Suta by 
 name, who was before many years to become China's 
 greatest general and the bulwark of a new dynasty. 
 
 Choo was now able to prove his powers on a larger 
 scale. One of his first exploits was the capture of 
 the town of Hoyan, where he manifested a high 
 order of courage and political wisdom in saving the 
 inhabitants from rapine by his ill-paid and hungry 
 soldiers. Here was a degree of self-restraint and 
 power of command which none of the Chinese 
 leaders had shown, and which seemed to point out 
 Choo as the man destined to win in the coming 
 struggle for a rejuvenated China. 
 
 Meanwhile a rival came into the field who for a 
 
266 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 time threw Choo's fortunes into the shade. This 
 was a young man who was offered to the people as a 
 descendant of the dynasty of the Sungs, the em- 
 perors whom the Mongol invaders had dethroned. 
 His very name proved a centre of attraction for the 
 people, whose affection for the old royal house was 
 not dead, and they gathered in multitudes beneath 
 his banner. But his claim also aroused the fear of 
 the Mongols, and a severe and stubborn struggle set 
 in, which ended in the overthrow of the youthful 
 Sung and the seeming restoration of the Mongol 
 authority. Yet in reality the war had only cleared 
 the way for a far more dangerous adversary than the 
 defeated claimant of the throne. 
 
 Masked by this war, the strength and influence of 
 Choo had steadily grown, and in 1356 he made a 
 daring and masterly move in the capture of the city 
 of Nanking, which gave him control of some of the 
 wealthiest provinces of the land. Here he showed 
 the same moderation as before, preserving the citi- 
 zens from plunder and outrage, and proving that his 
 only purpose was to restore to China her old native 
 government. With remarkable prudence, skill, and 
 energy he strengthened his position. " The time has 
 now come to drive the foreigners out of China," he 
 said, in a proclamation that was scattered far and 
 wide and brought hosts of the young and daring to 
 his ranks. Elsewhere the so-called Chinese patriots 
 were no better than brigands, all the horrors of war 
 descending upon the districts they occupied and the 
 cities which fell into their hands. But where Choo 
 ruled discipline and security prevailed, and as far as 
 
THE EXPTTLSION OP THE MONGOLS. 267 
 
 his power reached a firm and orderly government 
 existed. 
 
 Meanwhile the Mongols had a host of evils with 
 which to contend. Eebel leaders had risen in various 
 quarters, some of them making more progress than 
 Choo, but winning the execration rather than the 
 love of the people by their rapine and violence. On 
 the contrary, his power grew slowly but surely, 
 various minor leaders joining him, among them the 
 pirate Fangkue Chin, whose exploits had made him 
 a hero to the people of the valley of the Kiang. 
 The events of the war that followed were too many 
 to be here detailed. Suffice it to say that the diffi- 
 culties of the Mongol emperor gradually increased. 
 He was obliged to meet in battle a Mongol pre- 
 tender to his throne; Corea rose in arms and de- 
 stroyed an army sent to subdue it ; and Chahan 
 Timour, Chunti's ablest general, fell victim to an 
 assassin. Troubles were growing thick around his 
 throne. 
 
 In the year 1366, Choo, after vanquishing some 
 leaders who threatened his position, among them his 
 late pirate ally Fangkue Chin, saw that the time had 
 arrived for a vigorous effort to expel the foreign 
 rulers, and set out at the head of his army for a 
 general campaign, at the same time proclaiming to 
 the people that the period was at hand for throwing 
 off the Mongol yoke, which for nearly a century had 
 weighed heavily upon their necks. Three armies 
 left Nanking, two of them being sent to subdue three 
 of the provinces of the south, a result which was 
 achieved without a blow, the people everywhere 
 
268 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 rising and the Mongol garrisons vanishing from 
 sight, — whether by death or by flight history fails to 
 relate. The third army, under Suta, Choo's favorite 
 general, marched towards Peking, the Mongol gar- 
 risons, discouraged by their late reverses, retreating 
 as it advanced. 
 
 At length the great Mongol capital was reached. 
 Within its walls reigned confusion and alarm. 
 Chunti, panic-stricken at the rapid march of his 
 enemies, could not be induced to fight for his last 
 hold upon the empire of China, but fled on the night 
 before the assault was made. Suta at once ordered 
 the city to be taken by storm, and though the 
 Mongol garrison made a desperate defence, they 
 were cut down to a man, and the victorious troops 
 entered the Tartar stronghold in triumph. But 
 Suta, counselled by Choo to moderation, held his 
 army firmly in hand, no outrages were permitted, 
 and the lives of all the Mongols who submitted were 
 spared. 
 
 The capture of Peking and the flight of Chunti 
 marked the end of the empire of the Mongols in 
 China. War with them still went on, but the country 
 at large was freed from their yoke, after nearly a 
 century of submission to Tartar rule. Elsewhere 
 the vast empire of Genghis still held firm. Bussia 
 lay under the vassalage of the khans. Central and 
 Southern Asia trembled at the Mongol name. And 
 at the very time that the Chinese were rising against 
 and expelling their invaders, Timour, or Tamerlane, 
 the second great conqueror of his race, was setting 
 out from Central Asia on that mighty career of vie- 
 
THE EXPULSION OF THE MONGOLS. 269 
 
 toiy that emulated the deeds of the founder of the 
 Mongol empire. Years afterwards Timour, after 
 having drowned Southern Asia in a sea of blood, re- 
 turned to Samarcand, where, in 1415, he ordered the 
 collection of a great army for the invasion of China, 
 with which he proposed to revenge the wrongs of 
 his compatriots. The army was gathered ; it began 
 its march ; the mountains of Khokand were reached 
 and passed ; threats of the coming danger reached 
 and frightened China; but on the march the grim 
 old conqueror died, and his great expedition came to 
 an end. All that reached China to represent the 
 mighty Timour was his old war-horse, which was 
 sent as a present four years afterwards when an em- 
 bassy from Central Asia reached Peking. 
 
 With the fall of the Mongols in China the native 
 rule was restored, but not with it the old dynasty. 
 Choo, the conqueror, and a man whose ability and 
 nobleness of mind had been remarkably displayed, 
 was everywhere looked upon as the Heaven-chosen 
 successor to the throne, the boy who had begun his 
 career as a penniless orphan having risen through 
 pure power of intellect and loftiness of soul to the 
 highest position in the realm. He was crowned em- 
 peror under the title of Hongwou, and instituted the 
 Ming dynasty, which held the throne of China until 
 three centuries afterwards, when another strange 
 turn in the tide of affairs again overthrew Chinese 
 rule and brought a new dynasty of Tartar emperors 
 to the throne. 
 
 As regards the reign of Hongwou, it may here be 
 said that he proved one of the ablest monarchs 
 
270 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 China ever knew, ruling his people with a just and 
 strong hand, and, by the aid of his able general Suta, 
 baffling every effort of the Mongols to regain their 
 lost dominion. Luxury in the imperial adminis- 
 tration was brought to an end, the public money 
 was used for its legitimate purpose, and even some 
 of the costly palaces which the Mongol emperors 
 had built were destroyed, that the people might learn 
 that he proposed to devote himself to their good 
 and not to his own pleasure. Steps were taken for 
 the encouragement of learning, the literary class 
 was elevated in position, the celebrated HanKn Col- 
 lege was restored, and the great book of laws was 
 revised. Schools were opened everywhere, orphan- 
 ages and hospitals were instituted, and all that could 
 be was done for the relief of the sick and the poor. 
 All this was performed in the midst of bitter and 
 unceasing wars, which for nearly twenty years kept 
 Suta almost constantly in the field. The Mongols 
 were still strong in the northwest, Chungti continued 
 to claim imperial power, and the army was kept 
 steadily employed, marching from victory to victory 
 under the able leadership of Suta, who in his whole 
 career scarcely learned the meaning of defeat. His 
 very appearance on the field on more than one oc- 
 casion changed the situation from doubt to victory. 
 In time the Mongols were driven beyond the Great 
 Wall, the ex-emperor died, and the steppes were in- 
 vaded by a great army, though not a successful one, 
 Suta meeting here his first and only reverse. The 
 war ended with giving the Chinese full control of 
 all the cultivated country, while the Tartars held 
 
THE EXPULSION OP THE MONGOLS. 271 
 
 their own in the desert. This done, Sata returned 
 to enjoy in peace the honors he had won, and soon 
 after died, at the age of fifty-four years, thirty of 
 which had been spent in war. 
 
 The death of the great general did not leave China 
 free from warlike commotion. There were rebellious 
 risings both in the south and in the north, but they all 
 fell under the power of Hongwou's victorious arms, 
 the last success being the dispersal of a final Mon- 
 gol raid. The closing eight years of the emperor's 
 reign were spent in peace, and in 1397 he died, after 
 an administration of thirty years, in which he had 
 freed China from the last dregs of the Mongol 
 power, and spread peace and prosperity throughout 
 the realm. 
 
THE RISE OF THE MANCHUS. 
 
 Twice had a Tartar empire been established in 
 China, that of the Kin dynasty in the north, and 
 that of their successors, the Mongols, over the whole 
 country. A third and more permanent Tartar dy- 
 nasty, that of the Manchus, was yet to come. With 
 the striking story of the rise and progress of these 
 new conquerors we are now concerned. 
 
 In the northeast of China, beyond the Great Wall 
 and bordering on Corea, lies the province of Liau- 
 tung. Northward from this to the Amur Eiver 
 extends the eastern section of the steppes, known 
 on modern maps as Manchuria. From these broad 
 wilds the Kins had advanced to their conquest of 
 Northern China. To them they fled for safety from 
 the Mongol arms, and here lost their proud name of 
 Kin and resumed their older and humbler one of 
 Niuche. For some five centuries they remained here 
 unnoticed and undisturbed, broken up into numerous 
 small clans, none of much strength and importance. 
 Of these clans, which were frequently in a state of 
 hostility to one another, there is only one of 'interest, 
 that of the Manchus. 
 
 The original seat of this small Tartar clan lay not 
 
 far north of the Chinese border, being on the Soodsu 
 
 Eiver, about thirty miles east of the Chinese city of 
 
 Moukden. Between the Soodsu and Jiaho streams, 
 
 272 
 
THE EISE OF THE MANCHUS. 273 
 
 and south of the Long White Mountains, lies the 
 valley of Hootooala, a location of rugged and pic- 
 turesque scenery. This valley, protected on three 
 sides by water and on the fourth by a lofty range of 
 mountains, the whole not more than twelve miles 
 long, formed the cradle of the Manchu race, the 
 narrow realm from which they were to emerge to 
 victory and empire. In a certain respect it resembled 
 the native home of the Mongols, but was far smaller 
 and much nearer the Chinese frontier. 
 
 In this small and secluded valley appeared, about 
 the middle of the fourteenth century, when the em- 
 peror Hongwou was fighting with the Mongols, a 
 man named Aisin Gioro. Tradition attributes to him 
 a miraculous birth, while calumny asserts that he was 
 a runaway Mongol ; but at any rate he became lord 
 of Hootooala and ancestor of its race of conquerors. 
 Five generations from him came a chief named Huen, 
 who ruled over the same small state, and whose grand- 
 son, Noorhachu by name, born in 1559, was the man 
 upon whom the wonderful fortunes of the Manchus 
 were to depend. Like many other great conquerors, 
 his appearance predicted his career. " He had the 
 dragon face and the phoenix eye ; his chest was enor- 
 mous, his ears were large, and his voice had the tone 
 of the largest bell." 
 
 He began life like many of the heroes of folk-lore, 
 his step-mother, when he was nineteen years of age, 
 giving him a small sum of money and turning him 
 out into the world to seek his fortune. She repented 
 afterwards, and bade him come home again or accept 
 further aid, but the proud youth refused to receive 
 
 18 
 
274 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 from her any assistance, and determined to make his 
 own way in the world. 
 
 Noorhachu first came into notice in 1583. In that 
 year Haida, chief of a small district south of Hoo- 
 tooala, made an attack, assisted by the Chinese, 
 on some neighboring clans. One of these was gov- 
 erned by a relative of the old Manchu chief Huen, 
 who, with his son and a small force, hurried to his 
 aid and helped him to defend his town. Haida and 
 his allies, finding the place too strong for them, en- 
 ticed a part of the garrison outside the walls, and 
 then fell upon and treacherously massacred them. 
 Among the slain were Huen and his son. 
 
 This brutal murder left Noorhachu chief of his 
 clan, and at the same time filled him with a fierce 
 desire for revenge, both upon Haida and upon the 
 Chinese. He was forced to bide his time, Haida 
 gaining such influence with his allies that he was 
 appointed by them chief of all the Niuche districts. 
 This act only deepened the hatred of Noorhachu, 
 who found himself made one of the vassals of the 
 murderer, while many of his own people left him 
 and attached themselves to the fortunes of Haida. 
 
 Fortunately for the youthful chief, the Chinese 
 did not strongly support their nominee, and Noor- 
 hachu pursued his rival so persistently that the 
 assassin did not feel safe even within his stockaded 
 camp, but several times retreated for safety into 
 Liautung. The Chinese at length, tired of support- 
 ing a man without the courage to defend himself, 
 seized him and handed him over to Noorhachu, who 
 immediatelj' put him to death. 
 
THE RISE OP THE MANCHUS. 275 
 
 The energy and success of Noorhachu in this 
 scheme of vengeance gave him a high reputation 
 among the Niuche. He was still but twenty-seven 
 years of age, but had probably laid out his life-work, 
 that of making himself chief of a Muche confeder- 
 acy, and employing his subjects in an invasion of 
 Chinese soil. It is said that he had sworn to revenge 
 his father's death by the slaughter of two hundred 
 thousand Chinese. 
 
 He began by building himself a stronghold. Se- 
 lecting a site in the plain where water was abundant, 
 he built a town and surrounded it with a triple wall. 
 This done, he began the work of uniting the southern 
 clans under his sway, a task which proved easy, they 
 being much impressed by his victory over Haida. 
 This peaceful progress was succeeded by a warlike 
 movement. In 1591 he suddenly invaded the dis- 
 trict of Talookiang, which, taken by surprise, was 
 forced to submit to his arms. 
 
 This act of spoliation roused general apprehension 
 among the chiefs. Here was a man who was not 
 satisfied with petty feuds, but evidently had higher 
 objects in view. Eoused by apprehension of danger, 
 seven of the neighboring chiefs gathered their forces, 
 and with an army of thirty thousand Niuche and 
 Mongols invaded the territory of the daring young 
 leader. The odds against him seemed irresistible. 
 He had but four thousand men to oppose to this 
 large force. But his men had been well chosen and 
 well trained, and they so vigorously resisted the 
 onset of the enemy that the principal Niuche chief 
 was killed and the Mongol leader forced to flee. At 
 
276 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 this juncture Noorhaehu charged his foes with such 
 vigor that they were broken and put to flight, four 
 thousand of them being slain in the pursuit. A 
 number of chiefs were taken prisoners, while the 
 spoils included several thousand horses and plaited 
 suits of armor, material of great value to the am- 
 bitious young victor. 
 
 Bight years passed before Noorhachu was ready 
 for another move. Then he conquered and annexed 
 the fertile district of Hada, on the north. In 1607 
 he added to this the state of Hwifa, and in the fol- 
 lowing year that of Woola. These conquests were 
 preliminary to an invasion of Yeho, the most power- 
 ful of the Niuche states. His first attack upon 
 this important district failed, and before repeating 
 it he deemed it necessary to show his strength by 
 invading the Chinese province of Liautung. He had 
 long been preparing for this great enterprise. He had 
 begun his military career with a force of one hundred 
 men, but had now an army forty thousand strong, 
 well drilled and disciplined men, provided with en- 
 gines of war, and of a race famed for courage and 
 intrepidity. Their chief weapon consisted of the 
 formidable Manchu bow, while the horsemen wore 
 an armor of cotton-plaited mail which was proof 
 against arrow or spear. The invasion was preceded 
 by a list of grievances drawn up against the Chinese, 
 which, instead of forwarding it to the Chinese court, 
 Noorhachu burnt in presence of his army, as an ap- 
 peal to Heaven for the justice of his cause. 
 
 The Chinese had supinely pei'mitted this danger- 
 ous power to grow up among their tributaries on 
 
THE RISE OP THE MANOHUS. 277 
 
 the north. In truth, the Ming dynasty, which had 
 begun with the great Hongwou, had shared the fate 
 of Chinese dynasties in general, having fallen into 
 decadence and decay. With a strong hand at the 
 imperial helm the Manchu invasion, with only a 
 thinly settled region to draw on for recruits, would 
 have been hopeless. With a weak hpjid no one could 
 predict the result. 
 
 In 1618 the Manchus crossed their southern fron- 
 tier and boldly set foot on the soil of China, their 
 movement being so sudden and unexpected that the 
 border town of Pooshun was taken almost without 
 a blow. The army sent to retake it was hurled back 
 in defeat, and the strong town of Tsingho was next 
 besieged and captured. The progress of Noorhachu 
 was checked at this point by the clamor of his men, 
 who were unwilling to march farther while leaving 
 the hostile state of Yeho in their rear. He there- 
 fore led them back to their homes. 
 
 The Chinese were now thoroughly aroused. An 
 army of more than one hundred thousand men was 
 raised and sent to attack Noorhachu in his native 
 realm. But it was weakly commanded and un- 
 wisely divided into three unsupported sections, 
 which the Manchus attacked and routed in detail. 
 The year's work was completed by the conquest and 
 annexation of Yeho, an event which added thirty 
 thousand men to Noorhachu's resources and com- 
 pleted the confederation of the Niuche clans, which 
 had been his original plan. 
 
 The old Chinese emperor was now near his life's 
 end. But his last act was one of his wisest ones, it 
 
278 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 being the appointment of Tingbi, a leader of skill 
 and resolution, to the command in Liautung. In a 
 brief time this energetic commander had placed the 
 capital and the border towns of the province in a 
 state of defence and collected an army of one hun- 
 dred and eighty thousand men on the frontier. Two 
 years sufficed to make the province impregnable 
 to Manchu attack. During this period of energy 
 Noorhachu wisely remained quiet. But the Chinese 
 emperor died, and was succeeded by his son, who 
 quickly followed him to the grave. His grandson, a 
 boy of sixteen, succeeded, and the court enemies of 
 Tingbi now had him recalled and replaced by a man 
 who had never seen a battle. 
 
 The result was what might have been expected. 
 Noorhaehu, who had been waiting his opportunity, 
 at once led his army across the borders (1621), 
 marching upon the strong town of Moukden, whose 
 commandant, more brave than wise, left the shelter 
 of his walls to meet him in the field. The result was 
 a severe repulse, the Manchus entering the gates with 
 the fugitives and slaughtering the garrison in the 
 streets. Three armies were sent to retake Moukden, 
 but were so vigorously dealt with that in a few 
 weeks less than half Tingbi's strong army remained. 
 Liauyang, the capital of the province, was next be- 
 sieged and taken by storm, the garrison falling al- 
 most to a man, among them Tingbi's incapable suc- 
 cessor meeting his death. No further resistance 
 was made, the other towns, with one exception, 
 opened their gates, and in a brief time Noorhachu 
 completed the conquest of the province of Liautung. 
 
THE EISE OP THE MANCHUS. 279 
 
 Only one thing kept the Manchus from crossing 
 the Great Wall and invading the provinces beyond. 
 This was the stronghold of Ningyuen, which a Chi- 
 nese oflScer named Ohungwan had reinforced with a 
 small party, and which resolutely resisted all assaults. 
 Noorhachu, not daring to leave this fortified place 
 in his rear, besieged it with a strong army, making 
 two desperate assaults upon its walls. But Chung- 
 wan, assisted by some European cannon, whose noise 
 proved more terrible to the Manchus than their balls, 
 held out so vigorously that for the first time in 
 his career the Manchu chief met with defeat. Dis- 
 appointed and sick at heart, he retraced his steps to 
 Moukden, then his capital, there to end his career, 
 his death taking place in September, 1626. 
 
 Such was the adventurous life of the man who, 
 while not conquering China himself, made its con- 
 quest possible to his immediate successors, who ac- 
 knowledged his great deeds by giving him the post- 
 humous title of Emperor of China, the Manchu dy- 
 nasty dating its origin back to 1616. His son, Tai- 
 tsong, who succeeded him, renewed the attack on 
 Ningyuen, but found the heroic Chungwan more 
 than his match. A brilliant idea brought him final 
 success. Leaving the impregnable stronghold in his 
 rear, he suddenly marched to the Great "Wall, which 
 he crossed, and was far on the road to Peking be- 
 fore Chungwan knew of his purpose. At once aban- 
 doning the town, the Chinese general hurried south- 
 ward, and, having the best road, succeeded in reach- 
 ing the capital in advance of the Manchus. But he 
 came only to his death. Tingbi, the one man feared 
 
280 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 by NcwDrhachu, had been executed through the ma- 
 chinations of his enemies, and now Chungwan suf- 
 ered the same fate, Taitsong, not being able to defeat 
 him in the field, having succeeded in forming a plot 
 against him in the palace. 
 
 But Peking, though in serious peril, was not taken. 
 A truce was arranged, and Taitsong drew off his 
 troops — for reasons best known to himself. He 
 was soon back in China, but did not again attack 
 Peking, devoting himself to raids through the bor- 
 der provinces. In 1635 he assumed the title of Em- 
 peror of China, in consequence of the seal of the 
 Mongol dynasty, which had been lost in Mongolia 
 two centuries before, being found and sent to him. 
 But Ningyuen still held out, under an able successor 
 to Chungwan, and in September, 1643, this second 
 of the Manchu leaders came to his death. The con- 
 quest of China was reserved for a later leader. 
 
'^:sfi;ftY':" 
 
THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF 
 CHINA. 
 
 Long years of misgovern ment in China produced 
 their natural result. Evils stalked abroad while 
 worthless emperors spent their days in luxury at 
 home. The land ceased to be governed, local rebel- 
 lions broke out in a dozen quarters, and the Manchu 
 invasion was but one event in the series of diflScul- 
 ties that environed the weakened throne. ■ From the 
 midst of these small rebellions emerged a large one 
 before which the Ming dynasty trembled to its fall. 
 Its leader, Li Tseching, was a peasant's son, who 
 had chosen the military career and quickly gained 
 renown as a daring horseman and skilful archer. 
 In 1629 he appeared as a member of a band of rob- 
 bers, who were defeated by the troops, Li being one 
 of the few to escape. A year afterwards we hear of 
 him as high in rank in a rebel band almost large 
 enough to be called an army. The leader dying 
 after a few years, Li succeeded him in command. 
 
 His progress to power was rapid, cunning and du- 
 plicity aiding him, for often when in a dangerous sit- 
 uation he escaped by pretending a desire to come to 
 terms with the authorities. Other rebels rose, won 
 victories, and sank again ; but Li held his own and 
 steadily grew stronger, until, in 1640, he was at the 
 head of an army of nearly half a million of men 
 
 281 
 
282 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 and in a position to asj^ire to the throne of Peking 
 itself. Town after town fell into his hands, frightful 
 outrages being perpetrated in each, for Li was a 
 brigand in grain and merciless at heart. The efforts 
 of the emperor to overthrow him proved futile, the 
 imperial army being sent against him in four divi- 
 sions, which he attacked and defeated in detail. The 
 court had learned nothing from the failure of simi- 
 lar tactics in the war with Ifoorhachu. After this 
 pronounced success Li laid siege to Kaifong, an im- 
 portant city which had once been the capital of 
 China. He was twice repulsed, but a third time re- 
 turned to the siege, finally succeeding through a rise 
 in the Hoang-ho, which washed away the defences of 
 the city, drowned thousands of its people, and left 
 it at the mercy of the besieging troops. 
 
 Li's next effort was made against the city of Tun- 
 kwan, the most formidable of Chinese fortresses. 
 Situated in the mountains between the provinces of 
 Honan and Shensi, it was strong by position, while 
 the labor of centuries had added enormously to its 
 strength. Here fortune aided him, his army follow- 
 ing into the city a fugitive force which had been 
 beaten outside. By this time the rebel chief had 
 made himself so dreadful a record by the massacres 
 and outrages committed in conquered cities that ter- 
 ror began to fill the minds of garrisons, and towns 
 and cities opened their gates to him without ven- 
 turing resistance. 
 
 No longer a mere rebel chief, but master of more 
 than a third of China, and feared through all the 
 rest, Li now assumed the title of emperor, and, cap- 
 
THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA. 283 
 
 taring every stronghold as he advanced, began his 
 march upon Peking, then a scene of unimaginable 
 terror and confusion. The emperor, who had hesi- 
 tated to flee, found fl.ight impossible when Li's great 
 army invested the capital. Defence was equally im- 
 possible, and the unhappy weakling, after slaying all 
 the women of the palace, ended the career of the 
 Ming dynasty by hanging himself. Li was quickly 
 master of the city, where the ancestral temple of the 
 Mings was plundered and levelled with the ground, 
 and all the kinsmen of the royal family he could 
 seize were summarily put to death. Thus was com- 
 pleted the first phase of a remarkable career, in 
 which in a few years the member of a band of rob- 
 bers became master of the most populous empire 
 of the earth. The second phase was to be one of a 
 decline in fortune still more rapid than had been 
 the growth of the first. And with it is connected 
 the story of the Manchu invasion and conquest of 
 China. 
 
 We have seen in the preceding tale how the heroic 
 Chungwan held the fortress of Ningyuen against all 
 the efibrts of Noorhachu, the Manchu chief After 
 his death Wou Sankwei, a man of equal valor and 
 skill, repelled Taitsong and his Manchus from its 
 walls. This city, with the surrounding territory, 
 was all of Northern China that had not submitted to 
 Li, who now made earnest efforts by lavish promises 
 to win Wou over to his side. But in the latter he 
 had to deal with a man who neither feared nor 
 trusted him, and to whose mind it seemed prefer- 
 able that even the Tartars should become lords of 
 
284 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 the empire than that it should be left to the mercy 
 of a brutal robber like Li Tseching. 
 
 Wou's position was a delicate and difiScult one. 
 The old dynasty was at an end. Those loyal to it 
 were powerless. He had no means of his own en- 
 abling him to contend against the great force of Li. 
 He must surrender or call in foreigners to his aid. 
 In this dilemma he made overtures to the Manchus, 
 asking their aid to put down the rebellion and re- 
 store tranquillity to the empire, — seemingly with the 
 thought that they iriight be dispensed with when no 
 longer of use. 
 
 Not for a moment did the Manchu leaders hesitate 
 to avail themselves of the promising offer. The man 
 who for years had stood resolutely in the way of their 
 invasion of China was now voluntarily stepping from 
 their path, and even offering them his aid to ac- 
 complish their cherished project. The powerful for- 
 tresses which had defied their strength, the Great 
 Wall which in Wou's hands might have cheeked 
 their progress, had suddenly ceased to be obstacles 
 to their advance, and throughout the camps and 
 towns of the Tartars an enthusiastic response was 
 made to the inspiriting cry of " On to Peking !" 
 
 Wou Sankwei did not wait for their coming. Li 
 had sent a sti-ong force to meet him, with instructions 
 either to negotiate or to fight. Wou chose the latter, 
 and delivered battle with such energy and success 
 that more than twenty thousand of the opposing force 
 were laid in death upon the field, no quarter being 
 given to the flying host, i^ews of this perilous re- 
 verse roused Li to vigorous action. Knowing nothing 
 
THE MANOHU CONQUEST OF CHINA. 285 
 
 of the approach of a Tartar army, he imagined that 
 he had only Wou with whom to deal, and marched 
 against him in person with sixty thousand men, the 
 pick of his victorious army. 
 
 This large force, perhaps three times the number 
 that the loyal leader could put in the field, reached 
 Wou's station on the river Lanho before the van- 
 guard of the Manchus had appeared. It was obvi- 
 ously Wou's policy to defer the action, but Li gave 
 him no opportunity, making at once an impetuous 
 attack, his line being formed in the shape of a cres- 
 cent, with the design of overlapping the flanks of the 
 foe. Skilled and experienced as Wou was, the small- 
 ness of his force made him unable to avoid this move- 
 ment of his enemy, who, from a hill where he had 
 taken his station to overlook the battle, had the satis- 
 faction of seeing the opposing army completely sur- 
 rounded by his numerous battalions. Wou and his 
 men fought with desperate courage, but it was evi- 
 dent that they could not long hold out against such 
 odds. Fortunately for them, at this critical moment 
 a strong Manchu corps reached the field, and at once 
 made a furious charge upon the nearly victorious 
 troops. This diversion caused a complete change in 
 the situation. Li's troops, filled with terror at the 
 vigorous and unexpected assault, broke and fled, pur- 
 sued by their foes with such bloodthirsty fury that 
 thirty thousand of them were slain. Li escaped with 
 a few hundred horsemen from the disastrous field 
 which was to prove the turning-point in his career. 
 
 The delayed Manchus soon after appeared in num- 
 bers, and Wou lost no time in following up his signal 
 
286 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 success. Peking was quickly reached, and there, on 
 the eastern ramparts, the victor was greeted with 
 the spectacle of his father's head on the wall, Li 
 having thus wreaked what vengeance he could upon 
 his foe. It was an unwise act of ferocity, since it 
 rendered impossible any future reconciliation with 
 his opponent. 
 
 Li made no effort to defend the city, but fled pre- 
 cipitately with all the plunder he could convey. 
 Wou, marching round its walls, pressed hard upon 
 his track, attacking his rear-guard in charge of 
 the bulky baggage-train, and defeating it with the 
 slaughter of ten thousand troops. Li continued to 
 retreat, collecting the garrisons he had left in various 
 cities as he fled, until, feeling strong enough to hazard 
 another battle, he took his stand near the city of 
 Chingtung. Wou did not hesitate to attack. Eighty 
 thousand Manchus had joined him, and abundant 
 Chinese levies had raised his forces to two hundred 
 thousand men. The battle was fierce and obstinate, 
 Li fighting with his old skill and courage, and night 
 closed without giving either party the victory. But 
 under cover of the darkness the rebel leader, having 
 lost forty thousand men, including some of his ablest 
 officers, deemed it necessary to resume his retreat. 
 
 The remainder of Li's career may be briefly told. 
 Wou followed him with unyielding persistency, 
 fighting at every opportunity and being always the 
 victor in these encounters. This rapid flight, these 
 repeated defeats, at length so discouraged the rebel 
 troops that on Li's making a final stand they re- 
 fused to fight, and insisted on coming to terms 
 
THE MANCHtJ CONQUEST OF CHINA. 287 
 
 with their pursuer. Finding that all was at an 
 end, Li fled to the neighboring mountain region 
 with a small body of men, and there returned to the 
 robber state from which he had emerged. But his 
 foe was implacable ; pursuit was kept up, his band 
 lost heavily in various encounters, and at length, 
 while on a foraging trip in search of food, he was 
 surprised in a village by a superior force. A sharp 
 combat followed, in which Li was the first to fall, 
 and his head was carried in triumph to the nearest 
 mandarin. 
 
 Thus ended the career of a remarkable man. 
 Whatever the Chinese thought of the Manchus, they 
 could not but detest the cruel bandit whom they 
 supplanted, and who, but for their aid and the cour- 
 age of a single opponent, would have placed himself 
 upon the throne of China. 
 
 Wou Sankwei, having rid himself of his great 
 enemy, now became anxious for the departure of his 
 allies. But he soon found that they had no intention 
 of leaving Peking, of which they were then in full 
 control. At their head was Taitsong's young son, 
 still a child, yet already giving evidence of much 
 sagacity. His uncle. Prince Dorgan, — or Ama Wang 
 (Father Prince), as his nephew called him, — was 
 made regent, and hastened to proclaim the youth 
 emperor of China, under the name of Chuntche. 
 Every effort was made to obtain the support of Wou 
 Sankwei: honors and titles were conferred upon 
 him, and the new government showed such moder- 
 ation and sound judgment in dealing with the peo- 
 ple as to win him to its support, — especially as no 
 
288 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Chinese candidate for the throne appeared whose 
 ability promised to equal that of the young Manehu 
 prince. 
 
 The Manchus, indeed, were far from being rulers 
 of the kingdom as yet. They held only a few prov- 
 inces of the north, and a prince of the late native 
 dynasty had been set up in the south, with his capi- 
 tal at Nanking. Had he been a capable ruler, with 
 qualities suited to call Wou Sankwei to his sup- 
 port and enlist the energies of the people, the tide 
 of Manehu conquest would very probably have been 
 stayed. But he proved worthless, and Nanking 
 was soon in the hands of his foes, its officials being 
 spared, but required to shave their heads, — the shaved 
 head and the pigtail of the modern Chinaman being 
 the badge of submission to Tartar supremacy. 
 
 A succession of new emperors was set up, but all 
 met the same fate, and in the end the millions of 
 China fell under the Manehu yoke, and the ancient 
 empire was once more subjected to Tartar rule. The 
 emperor Chuntche died young, and his son, Kanghi, 
 came to the throne when but nine years of age. He 
 was destined to reign for more than sixty years and 
 to prove himself one of the best and greatest of the 
 emperors of China. 
 
 We cannot close without a mention of the final 
 events in the career of Wou Sankwei, to whom 
 China owed her Manehu dynasty. Thirty years 
 after he had invited the Manchus into the country, 
 and while he was lord of a large principality in the 
 south, he was invited by the emperor to visit Peking, 
 an invitation which he declined on the plea of old 
 
THE MANOHTJ CONQUEST OP CHINA. 289 
 
 age, though really because he feared that Tartar 
 jealousy of his position and influence lay behind it. 
 Envoys were sent to him, whom he treated with 
 princely courtesy, though he still declined to visit 
 the court, and plainly stated his reasons. The per- 
 sistence of the emperor at length drove him into re- 
 bellion, in which he was joined by others of the 
 Chinese leaders, and for a time the unwisdom of 
 Kanghi in not letting well enough alone threatened 
 his throne with disaster. One by one, however, 
 Wou's allies' were put down, until he was left alone 
 to keep up the war. The Manchus hesitated, how- 
 ever, to attack him, knowing well his great mili- 
 tary skill. But disunion in his ranks did what the 
 Tartar sword could not effect. Many of his ad- 
 herents deserted him, and the Chinese warrior who 
 had never known defeat was brought to the brink 
 of irretrievable disaster. From this dilemma death 
 extricated him, he passing away at the head of his 
 men without the stigma of defeat on his long career 
 of victory. In the end his body was taken from the 
 tomb and his ashes were scattered through the eigh- 
 teen provinces of China, to testify that no trace 
 remained of the man whom alone the Manchus had 
 wooed and feared. 
 
 19 
 
THE CAREER OF A DESERT 
 CHIEF. 
 
 In looking upon a modern map of the empire of 
 China, it will be seen to cover a vast area in Asia, 
 including not only China proper but the wide plains 
 of Mongolia and the rock-bound region of Thibet. 
 Yet no such map could properly have been drawn 
 two hundred years ago. Thibet, while a tributary 
 realm, was not then a portion of China, while the 
 Mongolian herdsmen were still the independent war- 
 riors and the persistent enemies of China that they 
 had been from time immemorial. It is to the Man- 
 chu emperors that the subjection of these countries 
 and their incorporation in the Chinese empire are due. 
 To-day the far-reaching territory of the steppes, the 
 native home of those terrible horsemen who for ages 
 made Europe and Asia tremble, is divided between 
 the two empires of China and Eussia, and its rest- 
 less hordes are held in cheek by firm and powerful 
 hands, their period of conquest at an end. 
 
 It was to two of the Manchu monarchs, Kanghi 
 and Keen Lung, — whose combined reigns covered 
 more than a hundred and twenty years, — that the 
 subjection of these long turbulent regions was due, 
 enabling China to enter the nineteenth century with 
 the broad territorial expanse now marked on our 
 maps. The story of how the subjection of the 
 290 
 
THE CAREER OF A DESERT CHIEF. 291 
 
 nomads came about is a long one, much too long 
 for the space at our command, yet a brief synopsis 
 of its leading events will prove of interest and im- 
 portance to all who desire to follow the successive 
 steps of Chinese history. 
 
 Kanghi, the second Manchu emperor, and one of 
 the greatest of the rulers of China, having completed 
 the conquest of the Chinese themselves, turned his 
 attention to the nomadic hordes who threatened the 
 tranquillity of his reign. He was one of their own 
 race, a man of Tartar blood, and many of the desert 
 tribes were ready to acknowledge his supremacy, 
 among them the Khalkas, who prided themselves 
 on direct descent from Ghengis and his warriors, 
 but had lost all desire to rule the earth and were 
 content to hold their own among the surrounding 
 tribes. They dwelt on those streams which had 
 watered the birthplace of the Mongol tribe, and their 
 adhesion to the Manchu cause kept all the Mongols 
 quiet. 
 
 But west of these dwelt another nomad race, the 
 Calmucks, divided into four hordes, of which the 
 Eleuths were by no means content to yield to Chinese 
 or Manchu control. Their independence of spirit 
 might have been of little importance but that it was 
 sustained by an able and ambitious leader, who not 
 only denied Kanghi's supremacy but disputed with 
 him the empire of the steppes. 
 
 Galdan was the younger son of the most powerful 
 chief of his tribe. Full of ambition, and chafing at 
 the subordinate position due to his birth, he quarrelled 
 with some of his brothers and killed one of them. 
 
292 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Being forced to flee, he made his way to Thibet, 
 where he sought to obtain admission to the ranks of 
 the Buddhist clergy, but was refused by the Dalai 
 Lama on account of his deed of blood. But on his 
 return to the tents of his tribe he found himself in 
 a new position. His crime was forgotten or con- 
 doned, and the fact that he had dwelt in the palace 
 and under the holy influence of the Dalai Lama, the 
 supreme religious power in Buddhist Asia, gave him 
 a high standing among his fellow-tribesmen. The 
 influence thus gained and his boldness and ruthless- 
 ness completed the work he had in mind. The ruling 
 khan was deposed, all members of his family whose 
 hostility was feared by Galdan were slain, and ho 
 found himself at the head of the tribe, whose mem- 
 bers were terrified into submission. 
 
 His thirst for power now showed itself in en- 
 croachments upon the lands of neighboring clans. 
 The Manchus were at that time embarrassed by the 
 rebellion of Wou Sankwei, and the opportunity 
 seemed excellent for an invasion of the district of 
 the Khalkas, firm friends of the Manchu power. 
 He also sent troops towards the Chinese frontier, 
 fear of whom forced many of the tribesmen to cross 
 the border and seek the emperor's aid. Kanghi 
 could then only give them lands within his realm, 
 being too much occupied at home to be able to do 
 more than send spies into the steppes. Prom these 
 he learned that Galdan had built up a formidable 
 power and that he evidently had in view the subjec- 
 tion of all the tribes. 
 
 Kanghi, anxious to settle these difficulties ami- 
 
THE CAREER OF A DESERT CHIEF. 293 
 
 cably, spent a number of years in negotiations, but 
 his rival showed as much ability in diplomacy as 
 in the field, and succeeded in masking his designs 
 while he was strengthening his position and pre- 
 paring for open hostilities. Finally, with an army of 
 thirty thousand men, he invaded the country of the 
 Khalkas, and in 1690 took his first open step of hos- 
 tility against China, by arresting the envoys who 
 had been sent to his camp. This insult put an end 
 to all Kanghi's efforts to maintain peace. The dip- 
 lomatic movements were followed by a display of 
 military energy and activity, and the whole northern 
 army, consisting of the eight Manchu Banners, the 
 forty-nine Mongol Banners, and a large force of 
 Chinese auxiliaries, was set in motion across the 
 steppes. 
 
 Meanwhile Galdan, alarmed by the hostility he had 
 provoked, sought to make an alliance with the Eus- 
 sians, an effort which brought him hollow promises 
 but no assistance. "Without waiting for the coming 
 of all his foes, he made a vigorous attack on the 
 Chinese advance force and drove it back in defeat, 
 remaining master of the field. Yet, recognizing that 
 the enemy was far too strong for him, he sent an 
 envoy to Peking, offering concessions and asking for 
 peace. The emperor listened, but the army pushed 
 on, and an attack in force was made upon the Bleuth 
 camp, which was located at the foot of a mountain, 
 between a wood and a stream. The post was a strong 
 one, and the Eleuths fought stubbornly, but they 
 were too greatly outnumbered, and in the end were 
 put to flight, after having inflicted severe loss on 
 
294 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 their foes, an uncle of the emperor being among the 
 slain. Galdan now, finding that the war was going 
 against him, offered fealty and obedience to the em- 
 peror, which Kanghi, glad to withdraw his army from 
 its difficult position in the desert, accepted, sending 
 the chieftain a letter of forgiveness. Thus ended the 
 campaign of 1690. 
 
 It was a truce, not a peace. Galdan's ambition re- 
 mained unsatisfied, and Kanghi put little confidence 
 in his promises. He was right : the desert chief oc- 
 cupied himself in sowing the seeds of dissension 
 among the hordes, and in 1693, finding the Dalai 
 Lama his opponent, took the step of professing 
 himself a Mohammedan, in the hope of gaining the 
 assistance of the Mussulman Tartars and Chinese. 
 Yet he kept up negotiations with the Dalai Lama, 
 with the purpose of retaining the Buddhist support. 
 Meanwhile conflicts between the tribes went on, and 
 in 1695 Kanghi, incensed at the constant encroach- 
 ments of the ambitious chief, which failed to sustain 
 his peaceful professions, resolved to put an end to 
 the trouble by his complete and irretrievable over- 
 throw. 
 
 The despatch of a large array into the recesses 
 of Central Asia was a difficult and hazardous enter- 
 prise, yet it seemed the only means of ending the 
 strained situation, and by 1696 a large force was got 
 ready for a protracted desert war, the principal 
 command being given to a frontier soldier named 
 Feyanku, who in the preceding troubles had shown 
 marked ability. 
 
 On the eve of the great national holiday of China, 
 
THE CAREER OP A DESERT CHIEF. 295 
 
 the Feast of Lanterns, the imperial court reviewed 
 a section of the army, drawn up in military array 
 along the principal street of Peking. The emperor, 
 surrounded by the principal functionaries of the 
 government, occupied a throne on a raised platform 
 from which the whole scene could be surveyed, while 
 strains of martial music filled the air. The culmi- 
 nating scene in the ceremony took place when Fe- 
 yanku approached the throne, received on his knees 
 from the emperor's hand a cup of wine, and retired 
 down the steps, at whose foot he quaffed the wine 
 amid the shouts of thousands of spectators. This 
 ceremony was repeated with each of the subordinate 
 generals, and then with the lower officers of the 
 army, ten at a time. Success being thus drunk to 
 the army, Feyanku left the capital to assume the 
 active command in the field, while Kanghi, bent on 
 complete success, set to work to recruit in all haste 
 a second army, which he proposed to command him- 
 self. 
 
 The whole force raised was an immense one, con- 
 sidering the character of the country to be traversed 
 and the limited resources of the enemy. It marched 
 in four divisions, of which that under Feyanku num- 
 bered about thirty-five thousand men. Despite the 
 great distance to be traversed, the desert-like con- 
 dition of much of the country, and the fact that de- 
 ficiency of resources cost thousands of lives and 
 forced many detachments to retreat, a powerful 
 force at length reached the borders of Galdan's ter- 
 ritory. After a march of more than three months' 
 duration Feyanku pitched his camp near the sources 
 
296 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 of the Tula, his army being reduced to twelve thou- 
 sand available men. These were placed in a forti- 
 fied position within the Mongol camping-ground of 
 Chowmodio. 
 
 Meanwhile how was Galdan engaged? He had 
 sought, but in vain, to win the alliance of a power- 
 ful Mongol tribe, and had conducted fruitless nego- 
 tiations with the Eussians of Siberia. His only- 
 remaining hope lay in the desert barrier which lay 
 between him and his great enemy, and this vanished 
 when the Chinese army made its appearance in his 
 territories, thojigh its success had been gained at a 
 frightful loss of life. The situation of the desert 
 chief had become desperate, his only hope lying in 
 an attack on the advance body of the Chinese before 
 it could be joined by the other detachments, and 
 while exhausted by its long march across the desert 
 of Gobi. He therefore made a rapid march and 
 vigorously assailed the Chinese intrenchments at 
 Chowmodo. 
 
 In the interval the Chinese commanders had found 
 themselves in a perilous position. Their supplies 
 had run low, they could not be replenished in that 
 situation, farther advance had become impossible, 
 and it seemed equally impossible to maintain their 
 position. Eetreat seemed their only means of ex- 
 tricating themselves from their dilemma, and the 
 question of doing so was under discussion when the 
 sudden assault of Galdan happily relieved Feyanku 
 from a situation which threatened the loss of his 
 military renown. Of the battle that followed we 
 know only that Feyanku remained on the defensive 
 
THE CAREER OP A DESERT CHIEF. 297 
 
 and sustained Galdan's attacks for three hours, when 
 he gave the signal for a charge. The wearied 
 Sleuths soon broke before the determined onset, a 
 disordered flight began, and Galdan, seeing that the 
 day was lost, fled with a small body of followers, 
 leaving his camp and baggage to the victors and 
 two thousand of his men dead on the field. 
 
 This victory ended the war. Kanghi, on hearing 
 of it, returned to Peking, having sent word to Fe- 
 yanku to pursue Galdan with unrelenting vigor, 
 there being no security while he remained at large. 
 The recent powerful chief was now at the end of 
 his resources. He fled for safety from camp to 
 camp. He sent an envoy to Peking with an abject 
 offer to surrender. He made new overtures to the 
 Eussians, and sought in a dozen ways to escape from 
 his implacable enemies. But Feyanku kept up the 
 pursuit, ceasing only when word came to him that 
 the fugitive was dead. Anxiety, hardships, chagrin, 
 or, as some say, the act of his own hand, had car- 
 ried off the desert chief, and relieved the emperor 
 of China from the peril and annoyance which had so 
 long troubled him. 
 
 In Galdan died a man who, under more fortunate 
 circumstances, might have emulated some of the 
 famous Tartar chiefs, a warrior of the greatest skill, 
 courage, and daring, a " formidable enemy" to the 
 Chinese empire, and one who, had the government 
 of that empire been as weak as it proved strong, 
 might have gathered all the nomads under arms and 
 overthrown the dynasty. 
 
 A few words must sufiSee to end the story of the 
 
298 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Eleuths. The death of Galdan did not bring them 
 to submission, and years afterwards we find them 
 hostile to Chinese rule, and even so daring as to in- 
 vade Thibet, which Kanghi had added to his empire, 
 they taking its central city of Lhassa, and carrying 
 to the steppes a vast wealth in spoil. Eventually 
 they were subjected to Chinese rule, but before this 
 took place an event of much interest occurred. The 
 Tourguts, an adjoining Calmuck tribe, were so im- 
 perilled by the enmity of the Sleuths that they 
 took the important resolution of migrating to Eussia, 
 marching across the Kirghiz steppes and becoming 
 faithful subjects of the czar, who gave them a new 
 abiding-place on the banks of the Volga. Many 
 years afterwards, in 1770, this tribe, inspired by a 
 strong desire to return to their own home, left the 
 Volga and crossed Asia, despite all efforts to check 
 their flight, until they reached again their native 
 soil. For the interesting story of this adventurous 
 flight see " Historical Tales — Eussian." 
 
THE RAID OF THE GOORKHAS. 
 
 During the past two and a half centuries the great 
 empire of China has been under foreign rule, its 
 emperors, its state officials, its generals and trusted 
 battalions, being of Tartar blood, and the whole 
 nation being forced to wear, in the shaved head 
 and pigtail of every man from the highest to the 
 lowest, a badge of servitude. The firm position 
 gained by the Manchu dynasty was largely due to 
 the ability of two emperors, Kanghi and Keen Lung, 
 who stamped out the spirit of rebellion in China, 
 added Thibet to the empire, and conquered Mon- 
 golia, subduing those restless tribes which for so 
 many centuries had been a sword in the side of the 
 great empire of the Bast. Their able administration 
 was aided by their long reigns, Kanghi being on the 
 throne for sixty-one years, while Keen Lung abdi- 
 cated after a reign of sixty years, that he might not 
 take from his esteemed grandfather the honor of the 
 longest reign. Keen Lung died three years after- 
 wards, in 1799, thus bringing up the history of 
 China almost to the opening year of the nineteenth 
 century. His eventful life was largely devoted to 
 the consolidation of the Tartar authority, and was 
 marked by brilliant military exploits and zeal in 
 promoting the interests of China in all directions. 
 
 299 
 
300 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 It is our purpose here to tell the story of one of the 
 famous military exploits of his reign. 
 
 The conquest of Thibet had brought the Chinese 
 into contact with the bold and restless hill-tribes 
 which occupy the region between China and India. 
 South of the Himalaya range there existed several 
 small mountain states, independent alike of Mogul 
 and of British rule, and defiant in their mountain 
 fastnesses of all the great surrounding powers. Of 
 these small states the most important was Nepal, 
 originally a single kingdom, but afterwards divided 
 into three, which were in frequent hostility with 
 one another. West of Nepal was a small clan, the 
 Goorkhas, whose people were noted for their war- 
 like daring. It is with these that we are here con- 
 cerned. 
 
 In 1760 the king of Bhatgaon, one of the divisions 
 of Nepal, being threatened by his rival kings, begged 
 aid from the Goorkha chief. It was readily given, 
 and with such effect as to win the allies a signal tri- 
 umph. The ease of his victory roused the ambition 
 of Narayan, the leader of the Goorkhas, and by 
 1769 the three kings of Nepal were either slain or 
 fugitives in India and their country had fallen under 
 the dominion of its recently insignificant and little- 
 considered neighbor. 
 
 The Goorkhas differed essentially from the Nepal- 
 ese in character. They despised commerce and dis- 
 liked strangers. War was their trade, and their ag- 
 gressions soon disturbed conditions along the whole 
 Himalaya range. The flourishing trade which had 
 once existed between India and Thibet by way of 
 
THE RAID OP THE GOORKHAS. 301 
 
 Nepal was brought to an end, while the raids of the 
 dominant clan on neighboring powers excited gen- 
 eral apprehension. Twenty years after their eon- 
 quest of Nepal the incursions of the Goorkhas into 
 Thibet became so serious as to demand the attention 
 of the Chinese emperor, though no decided action 
 was taken for their suppression. But in 1790 an 
 event occurred that put a sudden end to this supine 
 indiflFerence. 
 
 The temples and lamasaries of Thibet were widely 
 believed to contain a great store of wealth, the re- 
 ports of which proved highly alluring to the needy 
 and daring warriors of the Goorkha clan. The Chi- 
 nese had shown no disposition to defend Thibet, and 
 this rich spoil seemed to lie at the mercy of any 
 adventurous band strong enough to overcome local 
 opposition. In consequence, the Goorkhas prepared 
 for an invasion in force of the northern state, and, 
 with an army of about eighteen thousand men, 
 crossed the Himalayas by the lofty passes of Kirong 
 and Kuti and rapidly advanced into the country be- 
 yond. 
 
 The suddenness of this movement found the Thi- 
 betans quite unprepared. Everything gave way 
 before the bold invaders, and in a short time De- 
 garchi, the second town of the state, fell into their 
 hands. This was the residence of the Teshu Lama, 
 ranking next to the Dalai in authority, and possessed 
 the vast lamasary of Teshu Lumbo, rich in accumu- 
 lated wealth, which fell into the hands of the in- 
 vaders. A farther advance would undoubtedly have 
 given them the chief city of Lhassa, since the un- 
 
302 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 warlike population fled in terror before their ad- 
 vance, but their success at Degarchi had been so 
 great as to check their march, many weeks being 
 spent in counting their spoil and subduing the sur- 
 rounding country. 
 
 Meanwhile urgent petitions were sent to Peking, 
 and the old emperor, aroused to the necessity for 
 prompt and decisive action, gave orders that all 
 available troops should at once be despatched to 
 Lhassa and vigorous preparations made for war. 
 Within a few months a Chinese army of seventy 
 thousand men, armed with several pieces of light 
 artillery, had reached Thibet, where the Goorkhas, 
 alarmed by the numbers of their opponents, made 
 basty preparations for a retreat. But their spoil 
 was so abundant and bulky as to delay their march, 
 and the Chinese, who were well commanded, suc- 
 ceeded in coming up with them before they had 
 crossed the mountain passes. The movements of 
 the Chinese commander were so skilfully made that 
 the retreat of the Goorkhas without a battle for the 
 safety of their treasures became impossible. 
 
 Sund Fo, the Chinese general, according to the 
 usual practice of his people, began by the offer of 
 terms to the enemy, these being the surrender of all 
 their spoil and of a renegade lama whose tale of 
 the wealth of Thibet had led to the invasion. Prob- 
 ably also pledges for better conduct in future were 
 demanded, but the proud chief of the Goorkhas 
 haughtily refused to accept any of these conditions 
 and defied his foes to do their worst. Of the battle 
 that followed nothing is known except its result, 
 
THE BAID OF THE GOORKHAS. 303 
 
 which was the defeat and hasty retreat of the in- 
 vaders, much of whose baggage was left behind. 
 
 The Chinese do not seem to have suffered greatly, 
 to judge from the promptness of their pursuit, which 
 was made with such rapidity that the Goorkhas 
 were overtaken and again defeated before they had 
 reached the Kirong pass, they being now obliged to 
 abandon most of their baggage and spoil. The pur- 
 suit continued with an energy remarkable for a 
 Chinese army, the Goorkhas, bold as they were by 
 nature, growing demoralized under this unlooked-for 
 persistence. Every encounter resulted in a defeat, 
 the forts which commanded the mountain passes and 
 defiles were taken in succession by Sund Fo's army, 
 and he still pressed relentlessly on. At a strong 
 point called Eassoa the Goorkhas defended for three 
 days a passage over a chasm, but they had grown 
 faint-hearted through their successive defeats, and 
 this post too fell into the hands of their enemy. 
 
 The triumphs of the Chinese had not been won 
 without severe loss, both in their frequent assaults 
 upon mountain strongholds and a desperate foe, and 
 from the passage of the snow-clad mountains, but 
 they finally succeeded in reaching the southern slopes 
 of the Himalayas with an effective force of forty 
 thousand men. Khatmandu, the Goorkha capital, 
 lay not far away, and with a last effort of courage 
 and despair the retreating army made a stand for 
 the defence of the seat of their government. 
 
 Their position was a strong one, their courage that 
 of desperation, and their valor and resolution so 
 great that for a time they checked the much stronger 
 
304 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 battalions of their foes. The Chinese troops, dis- 
 heartened by the courage with which the few but 
 brave mountaineers held their works, were filled with 
 dismay, and might have been repulsed but for the 
 ruthless energy of their leader, who was determined 
 at any cost to win. Turning the fire of his artillery 
 upon his own troops, he drove them relentlessly 
 upon the foe, forcing them to a charge that swept 
 them like a torrent over the Goorkha works. The 
 fire of the guns was kept up upon the mingled mass 
 of combatants until the Goorkhas were driven over 
 a precipice into the stream of the Tadi that ran be- 
 low. By this decisive act of the Chinese commander 
 many of his own men were slain, but the enemy 
 was practically annihilated and the war brought to 
 an end. 
 
 The Goorkhas now humbly solicited peace, which 
 Sund Fo was quite ready to grant, for his own losses 
 had been heavy and it was important to recross 
 the mountains before winter set in. He therefore 
 granted them peace on humiliating terms, though 
 these were as favorable as they could expect under 
 the circumstances. Any further attempt at resist- 
 ance against the overwhelming army of their foes 
 might have ended in the complete destruction of 
 their state. They took an oath to keep the peace 
 with Thibet, to acknowledge themselves vassals of 
 China, to send an embassy with tribute to Peking 
 every five years, and to restore all the plunder taken 
 from Teshu Lumbo. 
 
 Of the later history of the Goorkhas some words 
 may be said. Their raids into India led to a British 
 
THE RAID OF THE GOOKKHAS 305 
 
 invasion of their country in 1814, and in 1816 they 
 were forced to make peace. The celebrated Jung 
 Bahadur became their ruler in 1846 through the 
 summary process of killing all his enemies, and in 
 1857, during the Indian mutiny, he came with a 
 strong force to the aid of the British, whose friend 
 he had always remained. In more recent wars the 
 Goorkhas have proved themselves among the bravest 
 soldiers in the Indian army, and in the late war 
 with the hill-tribes showed an intrepidity which no 
 part of the army surpassed. The independence of 
 their state is still maintained. 
 
 20 
 
HOW EUROPE ENTERED CHINA. 
 
 For four or five thousand years China remained 
 isolated from the rest of the civilized world, its only 
 relations being with the surrounding peoples of its 
 own race, notably with the Tartars of the steppes. 
 Then, in the nineteenth century, the wall of isola- 
 tion suddenly broke down, and it was forced to enter 
 into relations of trade and amity with Europe and 
 America. This revolution did not come about peace- 
 fully. The thunder of cannon was necessary to 
 break down the Chinese wall of seclusion. But the 
 result seems likely to prove of the greatest advan- 
 tage to the so-called Celestial Kingdom. It has 
 swung loose from its moorings in the harbor of con- 
 servatism, and it is not safe to predict how far it will 
 drift, but it is safe to say that a few years of foreign 
 war have done as much for it as hundreds of years of 
 peace and isolation. 
 
 From time to time in the past centuries Europeans 
 made their way to China. Some were priestly en- 
 voys, some missionaries, some, as in the case of the 
 Polos, traders. Afterwards came the Jesuit mission- 
 aries, who gained an important standing in China 
 under the early Manch.u emperors, and were greatly 
 favored by the emperor Kanghi. After his death a 
 change took place, and they were gradually driven 
 from the land. 
 306 
 
HOW EUROPE ENTERED CHINA. 307 
 
 The first foreign envoy reached China from Russia 
 in 1567. Another came in 1653, his purpose being 
 to establish freedom of trade. A century later a 
 treaty was made establishing a system of overland 
 trade between Russia and China, and since then a 
 Russian missionary station has existed in Peking. 
 In 1516 came the first vessel to China under a 
 European flag, a Portuguese trader. Others fol- 
 lowed, and trade began through Canton and other 
 ports. But the foreign traders soon began to act 
 rather as pirates than as peaceful visitors, and in 
 the end the Chinese drove them all away. About 
 the middle of the sixteenth century a foreign settle- 
 ment was begun at Macao, on an island near the 
 southeast boundary of the empire, and here the trade 
 grew so brisk that for a time Macao was the richest 
 trading-mart in Eastern Asia. But so hostile were 
 the relations between the Portuguese, Spanish, and 
 Dutch, and so brigand-like their behavior, that the 
 Chinese looked upon them all as piratical barbarians, 
 and intercourse did not grow. 
 
 The English had their own way of opening trade 
 relations. A fleet under Captain Weddell came to 
 Canton in 1637, and, as the Chinese flred upon a 
 watering boat, attacked and captured the forts, burnt 
 the council-house, carried off the guns from the forts, 
 and seized two merchant junks. About fifty years 
 afterwards they were accorded trading privileges at 
 Canton and Ning-po. 
 
 To England, indeed, is due the chief credit of 
 opening up China to the world, though the way in 
 which it was done is not much to England's credit. 
 
308 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 This was by the famous — or infamous — opium war. 
 But in another way England was the first to break 
 through the traditional ceremonies of the Chinese 
 court. All who approached the emperor's throne, 
 foreign ambassadors as well as Chinese subjects, were 
 required to perform the Icotow, which consisted in 
 kneeling three times before the emperor, or even be- 
 fore his empty throne, and each time bowing the 
 head until the forehead three times touched the 
 marble flooring. This was done by the Eussians 
 and the Dutch, but the Earl of Macartney, who 
 came as English ambassador in 1792, refused to per- 
 form the slavish ceremony, and was therefore not 
 permitted to see the emperor, though otherwise well 
 received. 
 
 The first event of importance in the nineteenth 
 century, that century so vital in the history of 
 China, was the hoisting of the American flag at 
 Canton in 1802, which marked the beginning of 
 American trade with the Celestial empire. From 
 this time the trade of Canton rapidly grew, until it 
 became one of the greatest commercial cities of the 
 world, while its mercantile activity gave employ- 
 ment to millions of natives in all parts of the empire 
 in preparing articles of commerce, particularly tea. 
 It was also of great importance to the imperial gov- 
 ernment from the revenue it furnished in the way 
 of duty and presents. It is of interest to note, how- 
 ever, that the emperor and his court looked upon 
 these presents as the payment of tribute, and the 
 nations that sent them, unknown to themselves, were 
 set down as vassals of the Chinese crown. 
 
HOW EUROPE ENTERED CHINA. 309 
 
 We have now an important feature of the Chinese 
 trade to record. Opium was a favorite article of 
 consumption in China, and its use there had given 
 rise to an important industry in British India, in the 
 growth of the poppy. In the year 1800 the emperor, 
 perceiving the growing evil in the use of opium by 
 his people, issued an edict forbidding its introduction 
 into China. This did not check the trade, its only 
 effect being to convert legitimate into smuggling 
 traflSe. The trade went on as briskly as before, the 
 smugglers being openly aided by venal officials not 
 only at Canton but at other points along the coast. 
 By 1838 the disregard of the law, and the quantity 
 of opium smuggled into the empire by small boats 
 on the Canton Eiver, had become . so great that the 
 Peking government determined to take more active 
 steps for the suppression of the illicit trade. At this 
 time there were more than fifty small craft plying 
 on the river under the English and American flags, 
 most of them smugglers. Some of these were seized 
 and destroyed, but as the others were then heavily 
 manned and armed the revenue officers declined to 
 interfere with them, and the contraband trade went 
 briskly on. 
 
 At length the difficulty reached a climax. Arrests 
 and punishments for the use of opium became com- 
 mon throughout the empire, three royal princes were 
 degraded for this practice, a commissioner with large 
 powers was sent from Peking to Canton, and the 
 foreigners were ordered to deliver up every particle 
 of opium in their store-ships and give bonds to bring 
 no more, on penalty of death. As a result, somewhat 
 
310 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 more than one thousand chests were tendered to the 
 commissioner, but this was declared to be not enough, 
 and that oflScial at once took the decisive measure of 
 cutting off the food-supply from the foreign settle- 
 ment. This and other active steps brought about 
 the desired result. Captain Elliot, the British super- 
 intendent of commerce, advised a complete delivery 
 of all opium under British control, and before night 
 more than twenty thousand chests of the deleterious 
 drug were surrendered into his hands, and were 
 offered by him to the commissioner the next day. 
 
 News of this event was sent to Peking, and orders 
 came back that the opium should be all destroyed ; 
 which was done effectively by mixing it with salt 
 water and lime in trenches and drawing off the mix- 
 ture into an adjacent creek. Care was taken that 
 none should be purloined, and one man was executed 
 on the spot for attempting to steal a small portion 
 of the drug. Thus perished an amount of the valu- 
 able substance rated at cost price at nearly eleven 
 million dollars. 
 
 We have described this event at some length, as 
 it led to the first war between China and a foreign 
 power. The destruction of the opium deeply offended 
 the British government, and in the next year (1840) 
 Captain Elliot received an official letter to the effect 
 that war would be declared unless China should pay 
 for the goods destroyed. As China showed no inten- 
 tion of doing so, an English fleet was sent to Chinese 
 waters in the summer of 1841, whose admiral de- 
 clared a blockade of the port of Canton, and, on 
 July 5, bombarded and captured the town of Ting- 
 
HOW EUROPE ENTEEED CHINA. 311 
 
 hai Various other places were blockaded, and, as 
 the emperor rejected all demands, the fleet moved 
 upon Canton, taking the forts along the river as it 
 advanced. In the end, when an attack had become 
 imminent, the authorities ransomed their city for the 
 sum of six million dollars. 
 
 But the emperor did not know yet the strength of 
 the power with which he had to deal, and still con- 
 tinued silent and defiant. The fleet now sailed north- 
 ward, capturing in succession Amoy, Chin-hai, and 
 Ning-po. Cha-pu was the next to fall, and here the 
 Manchu Tartars for the flrst time came into conflict 
 with the English. "When defeated, great numbers of 
 them kUled themselves, first destroying their wives 
 and children. The forts at the mouth of the Yang- 
 tse-Kiang were next taken. Here the governor-gen- 
 eral took care to post himself out of danger, but in 
 a grandiloquent despatch declared that he had been 
 in the hottest of the fight, " where cannon-balls in- 
 numerable, flying in awful confusion through the 
 expanse of heaven, fell before, behind, and on every 
 side, while in the distance were visible the ships of 
 the rebels standing erect, lofty as mountains. The 
 fierce daring of the rebels was inconceivable ; oflBcers 
 and men fell at their posts. Every effort to resist 
 the onset was in vain, and a retreat became inevi- 
 table." 
 
 The result was the capture of Shanghai. The 
 British now determined on a siege of the important 
 city of banking, the ancient capital of China. The 
 movement began with an attack on Chin-Kiang-fu, 
 the " Mart-river city." Here a fierce assault was 
 
312 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 made, the Manchu garrison resisting with obstinate 
 courage. In the end, of the garrison of four thou- 
 sand only five hundred remained, most of the others 
 having killed themselves. This victory rendered the 
 capture of Nanking certain, its food-supply was 
 already endangered by the English control of the 
 river, and the authorities gave way. The emperor 
 was now convinced that further resistance was hope- 
 less, and the truce ended in a treaty of peace, the 
 Chinese government agreeing to pay twenty-one 
 million dollars indemnity, to open to British trade 
 and residence the ports of Canton, Amoy, Foo-Chow, 
 Ning-po, and Shanghai, and to cede to the English 
 the island of Hong-Kong, with various minor stipu- 
 lations. 
 
 This war, which was fought with the discreditable 
 purpose of forcing upon China an injurious drug 
 against her will, had nevertheless several very useful 
 results. Other European nations hastened to claim 
 the same privileges of trade that were given the 
 English, and in 1844 a commercial treaty was signed 
 between China and the United States, in the conduct 
 of which a favorable disposition towards Americans 
 was shown. The eventual result was the breaking 
 down of the barriers of intolerance which had been 
 so long maintained, that ancient and self-satisfied 
 government being at last forced to throw open its 
 gates for the entrance of the new ideas of inter- 
 national amity and freedom of commerce. 
 
 But much had still to be done before these desira- 
 ble results could be fuUy achieved. Hostile relations 
 were not yet at an end, annoying restrictions being 
 
HOW EUROPE ENTERED CHINA. 313 
 
 placed on the promised intercourse. In 1856 a na- 
 tive vessel flying the British flag was seized by the 
 Chinese, who refused to apologize to the British for 
 the act. As a result, the city of Canton was bom- 
 barded and the forts were destroyed. A warlike 
 demonstration was decided upon by Great Britain 
 and France, the first result being the total destruc- 
 tion of the Chinese fleet and the capture of Canton. 
 A revision of the former treaty and the concession 
 of greater privileges were demanded, which China, 
 warned by the lesson of the opium war, found itself 
 obliged to grant. 
 
 The English and French, however, refused to treat 
 at Canton, as the Chinese desired, but sailed to the 
 mouth of the Pei-ho, the port of Peking, up which 
 stream their fleets proceeded to the city of Tien-tsin. 
 Here arrangements for a new treaty of commerce 
 and the opening of new ports were made, Eussia 
 and the United States taking part in the negotia- 
 tions. But on proceeding to the mouth of the Pei- 
 ho in 1859 to ratify the treaty, the river was found 
 to be obstructed and the forts strongly armed. The 
 American and Russian envoys were willing to go to 
 Peking overland, in accordance with the Chinese 
 request, but the British and French determined to 
 force their way up the stream and to take as many 
 soldiers with them as they pleased. They attacked 
 the forts, therefore, but, to their disgust, found them- 
 selves defeated and forced to withdraw. 
 
 This repulse could have but one result. It gave 
 the Chinese for the first time confidence in their 
 ability to meet the foreigner in war. It humiliated 
 
314 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 and exasperated the English and French. They de- 
 termined now to carry the war to the gates of 
 Peking and force the Chinese to acknowledge the 
 supremacy of the nations of the West. 
 
 The events of this war we can give only in out- 
 line. In the summer of 1860 a new attack was made 
 on the Taku forts, troops being- landed to assail them 
 in the rear, in which direction no arrangement for 
 defence had been made. As a result the forts fell, a 
 large body of Tartar cavalry, which sought to stop 
 the march of the allies with bows, arrows, and 
 spears, being taught a lesson in modern war by the 
 explosion of shells in their ranks. The capture of 
 the forts left the way clear for a march on the capi- 
 tal, which was at once made, and on the 5th of Oc- 
 tober, 1860, a European army first came within 
 view of this long-hidden and mysterious city. 
 
THE BURNING OF THE SUM- 
 MER PALACE. 
 
 The " sublime" emperor, the supreme head of the 
 great realm of China and its hundreds of millions 
 of people, dwells in a magnificence and seclusion un- 
 known to the monarehs of other lands. His palace 
 enclosure within the city of Peking, the "Purple 
 Forbidden City," as it is called, covers over half a 
 square mile of ground, and is surrounded by a wall 
 forty feet high and more than forty feet thick. 
 Within this sacred enclosure the Chinese ideas of 
 beauty and magnificence have been developed to the 
 fullest extent, and the emperor resides in unap- 
 proachable grandeur and state. Outside the city, a 
 few miles to the north, lies the Summer Palace, an- 
 other locality on which the Celestial architects and 
 landscape artists have exhausted their genius in de- 
 vising scenes of beauty and charm, and which is 
 similarly walled in from the common herd. Beyond 
 the Great Wall, on the borders of Tartary, exists 
 another palatial enclosure, the hunting and pleasure 
 grounds of the emperor, in the midst of an immense 
 forest abundantly stocked with game. To the latter 
 his supreme majesty made his way with all haste on 
 hearing of the rapid approach of the English and 
 French armies. In truth, the great monarehs of the 
 Manchu dynasty had passed away, and the feeble 
 
 316 
 
316 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 reigning emperor lacked the courage to fight for his 
 throne. 
 
 On the 5th of October, 1860, the allied armies of 
 England and France approached the Celestial capi- 
 tal, the of5cers obtaining their first view of its far- 
 stretching wall from the tops of some grass-grown 
 brick-kilns. On the next day the march was re- 
 sumed, the French force advancing upon the Sum- 
 mer Palace, where it was hoped the emperor would 
 be found, the English directing their course towards 
 the city, where a Tartar picket was driven in and 
 preparations were begun for an assault in force. 
 
 The Summer Palace was found in charge of some 
 three hundred eunuchs, whom Prince Kung, who 
 had left in all haste the evening before, had ordered 
 to make a gallant defence. But the entrance gave 
 way before the impetuous assault of the French, a 
 few of the defenders fell dead or wounded, and the 
 remainder beat a hasty retreat, leaving the grand 
 entrance to the Yuen-ming-yuen, the famous im- 
 perial residence, in the hands of the daring and dis- 
 respectful " barbarians." 
 
 Into the grand reception-hall, which none had 
 heretofore entered except in trembling awe, the 
 irreverent foreigners boldly made their way, their 
 spurred heels ringing on the broad marble floor be- 
 fore the emperor's sacred throne, their loud voices 
 resounding through that spacious hall where silence 
 and ceremony so long had reigned supreme, as the 
 awed courtiers approached with silent tread and 
 voiceless respect the throne of the dreaded Brother 
 of the Sun and Moon. 
 
THE BXJRNING OP THE STJMMEE PALACE. 317 
 
 "Imagine such a scene," says Swinhoe. "The 
 emperor is seated on his ebony throne, attired in 
 a yellow robe wrought over with dragons in gold 
 thread, his head surmounted with a spherical crown 
 of gold and precious stones, with pearl drops sus- 
 pended round on light gold chains. His eunuchs 
 and ministers, in court costume, are ranged on either 
 side on their knees, and his guard of honor and mu- 
 sicians drawn up in two lines in the court-yard with- 
 out. The name of the distinguished person to be 
 introduced is called out, and as he approaches the 
 band strikes up. He draws near the awful throne, 
 and, looking meekly on the ground, drops on his 
 knees before the central steps. He removes his hat 
 from his head, and places it on the throne floor with 
 its peacock feather towards the imperial donor. The 
 emperor moves his hand, and down goes the humble 
 head, and the forehead strikes on the step three 
 times three. The head is then raised, but the eyes 
 are still meekly lowered, as the imperial voice in 
 thrilling accents pronounces the behest of the great 
 master. The voice hushed, down goes the head 
 again and acknowledges the sovereign right, and the 
 privileged individual is allowed to withdraw. The 
 scene described is not imaginary, but warranted by 
 the accounts of natives. 
 
 "How different the scene now! The hall filled 
 with crowds of a foreign soldiery, and the throne 
 floor covered with the Celestial emperor's choicest 
 curios, but destined as gifts for two far more worthy 
 monarchs. 'See here,' said General Montauban, 
 pointing to them. ' I have had a few of the most 
 
318 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 brilliant things selected to be divided between the 
 Queen of Great Britain and the Emperor of the 
 French !' " 
 
 General Montauban had declared that no looting 
 should take place until the British came up, that all 
 might have their equal share, but the fierce desire of 
 the French soldiers for spoil could not easily be re- 
 strained. Even the oflSeers were no better, and as 
 the rooms of the palace were boldly explored, " gold 
 watches and small valuables were w hipped up by these 
 gentlemen with amazing velocity, and as speedily dis- 
 appeared into their capacious pockets." Into the 
 very bedroom of the emperor the unawed visitors 
 made their way, and gazed with curious eyes on 
 the imperial couch, curtained over and covered with 
 silk mattresses. Under the pillow was a small silk 
 handkerchief, with sundry writings in the vermilion 
 pencil concerning the " barbarians,'' while on a table 
 lay pipes and other articles of daily use. On an- 
 other table was found the English treaty of 1858, 
 whose terms were soon to be largely modified. 
 
 Meanwhile the nimble-fi.ngered French soldiers 
 had not been idle, and the camp was full of articles 
 of value or interest, silks and curios, many of them 
 rare prizes, watches, pencil-cases set with diamonds, 
 jewelled vases, and a host of other costly trifles, 
 chief among which was a string of splendid pearls 
 exhibited by one officer, each pearl of the size of a 
 marble and the whole of immense value. 
 
 On Sunday morning, the 7th of October, the orders 
 against looting were withdrawn, and officers and 
 men, English and French aUke, rushed excitedly 
 
THE BURNING OF THE SUMMER PALACE. 319 
 
 about the place, appropriating every valuable which, 
 it was within their power to carry. What could 
 not be carried away was destroyed, a spirit of wan- 
 ton destruction seeming to animate them all. Some 
 amused themselves by shooting at the chandeUers, 
 others by playing pitch-and-toss against large and 
 costly mirrors, while some armed themselves with 
 clubs and smashed to pieces everything too heavy to 
 be carried, finishing the work by setting on fire the 
 emperor's private residence. 
 
 Those who paid more heed to observation than to 
 destruction have given us interesting accounts of the 
 Summer Palace and its surroundings, whose vast en- 
 closure extended from the place where the French 
 entered to the foot of the first range of hills north 
 of Peking, six or seven miles away. Over this broad 
 extent were scattered gardens, palaces, temples, and 
 pagodas on terraces and artificial hills. Some of 
 these were like the one seen by Marco Polo in the 
 palace enclosure of Kublai Khan, being from three 
 hundred to four hundred feet in height, their sides 
 covered with forest-trees of all kinds, through whose 
 foKage the yellow-tiled palace roofs appeared. In 
 the midst of these hills lay a large lake, containing 
 two or three islands, on which were picturesque 
 buildings, the islands being reached by quaint and 
 beautiful stone bridges. 
 
 On one side of the lake ran the favorite walk of 
 the emperor and his court, winding in and out for 
 more than two miles among grottos and flower- 
 gardens, roofed in by flowering creepers. Where 
 palaces touched the water's edge the walk was 
 
320 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 carried past on light but beautiful stone terraces 
 built over the lake. Grandeur was added to the 
 general beauty of the scene by the high mountains 
 of Tartary which rose in the rear. 
 
 The work of looting was followed by a sale of the 
 spoil under the walls of Peking, the auction con- 
 tinuing for three days, during which a large quantity 
 of valuable plunder was disposed of Many of the 
 French officers had acquired considerable fortunes, 
 and numbers of their men were nearly as well sup- 
 plied. For several days intoxication and disorder 
 prevailed, while the disposition to plunder was ex- 
 tended from the palace to the neighboring villages. 
 
 Meanwhile the preparations for an assault on Pe- 
 king had gone forward. The Anting gate was the 
 point selected, the Chinese being given until the 12th 
 for a peaceful surrender. As noon of that day drew 
 near, the gunners stood by their pieces, a storming 
 party excitedly awaited the order to charge as soon 
 as a breach had been made, and General !N"apier, 
 watch in hand, timed the slow minutes. Five min- 
 utes to twelve arrived. The general was almost on 
 the point of giving the order, the gunners were 
 growing eager and excited, when Colonel Stephen- 
 son came galloping hastily up with the news that the 
 gate had been surrendered. In a few minutes more 
 it was thrown open, a party of British marched in 
 and took possession, and the French followed with 
 beating drums and flying flags, forcing the natives 
 back as they advanced. 
 
 That afternoon several prisoners were restored to 
 the allies. They proved to have been inhumanly 
 
THE BTJHNINQ OF THE SUMMER PALACE. 321 
 
 treated and were in a condition of fearful emacia- 
 tion, while the bodies of several who had died were 
 also given up, among them that of Mr. Bowlby, cor- 
 respondent of the London Times. This spectacle 
 aroused the greatest indignation in the British camp. 
 A terrible retribution might have been inflicted upon 
 Peking had not a promise of its safety been given if 
 the gate were surrendered. But the emperor's rural 
 retreat lay at the mercy of the troops, and Lord Elgin 
 gave orders that its palaces should be levelled with 
 the ground. The French refused to aid in this act 
 of vandalism, which they strongly condemned, — a 
 verdict which has since been that of the civilized 
 world. But Lord Elgin was fixed in his purpose, 
 and the work of destruction went on. 
 
 Soon flames appeared above the devoted structures, 
 and long columns of smoke rose to the sky, increas- 
 ing in width and density as the day waned, until the 
 canopy of smoke hung like a vast storm-cloud over 
 Peking, and the sorrowful eyes of those on the walls 
 saw the flashing fire that told of the swift destruc- 
 tion of what it had taken centuries to build. For 
 two days the work of ruin in the imperial grounds 
 went on, the soldiers carrying away what they could 
 from the burning buildings, though a vast amount 
 of property was destroyed, the loss being estimated 
 at a value of over ten million dollars. 
 
 Threats were now made that unless compensation 
 should be paid for the British subjects maltreated 
 and murdered, and the treaty signed within a fixed 
 period, the palace in Peking would be seized and 
 other steps of violence taken. There was no redress 
 
 21 
 
322 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 for the Chinese. They were in. the grasp of their 
 foes and were obliged to submit. On the 24th, Lord 
 Elgin was carried in state in his green sedan-chair 
 through the principal street of the city, attended 
 by a force of about eight thousand soldiers, while 
 multitudes of Chinese viewed the procession with 
 curious eyes. Prince Kung awaited him in a large 
 hall, and here the Treaty of Tien-tsin, to obtain a 
 ratification of which the allies had come to Peking, 
 was formally executed. At the close of the cere- 
 monies the prince tendered a banquet, but the British 
 declined the proffered honor, fearing that they might 
 be poisoned by the Chinese cooks. A similar ban- 
 quet oifered to the French on the following day was 
 readily accepted, and none of them suffered through 
 their faith in the honor of their host. 
 
 Since the date of this war the process of opening 
 China to the nations of the West has gone unceasingly 
 on, the policy of exclusion of that old nation slowly 
 but steadily giving way. In 1873, on the young 
 emperor Tung-chi attaining his majority, the long- 
 refused audience with the emperor without perform- 
 ing the kotow was granted, the ambassador of Japan 
 being first received, and after him those of the United 
 States, Eussia, Great Britain, France, and the Nether- 
 lands. For the first time foreigners were permitted 
 to stand erect and gaze with uplifted eyes on " the 
 sacred countenance," and the equality with the em- 
 peror of the monarchs of the West was acknowledged 
 by the Celestial court. 
 
A GREAT CHRISTIAN MOVE- 
 MENT AND ITS FATE. 
 
 The Chinese are a peculiar people, and have odd 
 ideas of the power and duty of their monarchs and 
 of their own rights and duties. In their country no 
 son has the right to resist his father, even if he be 
 treated with tyrannical cruelty. But in regard to 
 the emperor, though they look upon him as the father 
 of his people, they claim the right to depose him and 
 put him to death if he plays the tyrant. So long as 
 he rules with justice and wisdom both man and 
 nature acknowledge his authority, but if he violates 
 the principles of justice and goodness the Chinaman 
 claims the right to rebel, while such evils of nature 
 as pestilence and famine, destructive storms and 
 earthquakes, are held as proofs that Heaven is with- 
 drawing from the weak or wicked emperor the right 
 to rule. 
 
 The history of the empire is full of instances of 
 popular rebellions against offending rulers, some 
 quelled, others hurling the monarch from his throne, 
 and in this way most of the old dynasties ended and 
 new ones began. The course of events brought about 
 such a state of affairs in the nineteenth century. 
 Though the Chinese have never been content with 
 their Manchu rulers, they submitted to them as long 
 as they were just and public-spirited. But in time 
 
 323 
 
324 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 this dynasty suffered the fate of all others, weak 
 emperors following the strong ones, and in the 
 reign of the incompetent Kea-king, who succeeded 
 Keen Lung, rebellions broke out in a dozen quar- 
 ters, pirates ravaged the coast, and the disaffection 
 extended throughout the realm. 
 
 In 1820 this weak emperor died, and was succeeded 
 by Taou-kwang, who proved even less fit to rule than 
 his father, devoting himself to the pursuit of pleasure 
 and leaving the empire to take care of itself. Soon 
 new rebels were in the field, whom the armies proved 
 unable to put down, and the disorganization of the 
 empire made rapid progress. Even the Meaou-tsze, 
 or hill-tribes, the descendants of the first inhabitants 
 of the country, rose in arms and defeated an army 
 of thirty thousand men. War with the English 
 added to the discontent, which grew greater until 
 1850, when the emperor died and his son Heen-fung 
 ascended the throne. 
 
 This was going from bad to worse. The new em- 
 peror was still more selfish and tyrannical than his 
 father, and under the control of his craving for sen- 
 sual pleasures paid no heed to the popular cry for 
 reform. The discontent was now coming to a head. 
 In the south broke out a revolt, whose leaders pro- 
 claimed as emperor a youth said to be a descendant 
 of the Ming dynasty, who took the royal name of 
 Teen-tih, or "Heavenly Virtue." But he and his 
 followers soon vanished before another and abler 
 aspirant to the throne, the first man with a genius 
 for command who had headed any of these rebel 
 outbreaks. 
 
A GREAT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT AND ITS PATE. 325 
 
 The leader of this remarkable movement sprang 
 from the lowest ranks of the people, being the son 
 of a peasant- dwelling in a village near Canton. 
 Hung Sew-tseuen was a man of ardent imagination 
 and religious enthusiasm. Strange visions came to 
 him, and held him captive for some forty days, in 
 which the visitors of his dreaming fancy urged him 
 to destroy the idols. Some years afterwards he read 
 a Christian pamphlet containing chapters from the 
 Scriptures, and found it to correspond closely with 
 what he had seen and heard in his vision. Inspired 
 by these various influences, he felt himself divinely 
 commissioned to restore his country to the worship 
 of the true God, and set out on a mission to convert 
 the people to his new faith. 
 
 Fung-Yun-san, one of his first converts, ardently 
 joined him, and the two traversed the country far 
 and wide, preaching the religion of the Christian 
 God. Their success was great, their converts all 
 giving up the worship of Confucius and renouncing 
 idolatry. Some of them were arrested for destroy- 
 ing idols, among them Fung-Tun-san, but on the way 
 to prison he converted the soldiers of his guard, who 
 set him free and followed him as disciples. Many 
 of the converts were seized with convulsions, some 
 professed to have the gift of healing, and the move- 
 ment took on the phase of strong religious ecstasy 
 and enthusiasm. 
 
 It was in 1850 that this effort assumed a political 
 character. A large force of pirates had been driven 
 by a British fleet from the sea, and on shore they 
 joined the bandits of the south, and became rebels 
 
326 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 against the Manchu rule. Hung's converts were 
 mostly among this people, who soon took a strong 
 stand against the misrule of the Tartars. The move- 
 ment grew rapidly. From all sides recruits came to 
 the rebel ranks, among them two women chiefs, each 
 at the head of about two thousand men. Hung now 
 proclaimed himself as sent by Heaven to drive out 
 the Tartars — whom he declared to be examples of 
 all that was base and vile — and to place a Chinese 
 emperor on his country's throne. 
 
 Putting his forces in march, Hung made a remark- 
 able progress of about one thousand miles to Woo- 
 chang on the Yang-tse-Kiang and down that stream, 
 the army fighting its way through all opposition. 
 When towns and cities submitted their people were 
 spared. Slaughter awaited those who resisted. Food 
 and clothing were obtained by requisition on the 
 people. The imperial troops were hurled back in 
 defeat wherever met. Before battle it was the cus- 
 tom of the insurgents to kneel down and invoke the 
 protection of God, after which they would charge 
 their enemies with resistless zeal. City after city 
 fell before them, and the whole empire regarded their 
 march with surprise and dismay. 
 
 The converts professed faith in the Christian Scrip- 
 tures, of which an imperfect translation was distrib- 
 uted among them. Hung announced that in case of 
 success the Bible would be substituted for the works 
 of Confucius. The Sabbath was strictly observed 
 among them, forms of prayer to the Supreme Being 
 were in constant use, and Englishmen who came 
 among them spoke in the highest terms of their 
 
A GREAT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT AND ITS FATE. 327 
 
 pious devotion and their great kindliness of feeling. 
 They welcomed Europeans as " brethren from across 
 the sea" and as fellow-worshippers of " Yesu." 
 
 From Woo-chang Hung led his army in 1852 down 
 the river towards Nanking, which, he had fixed upon 
 as the capital of his new empire. The disaffection 
 of the people of Nanking was so great that little 
 resistance was made except by the Tartar garrison, 
 who were all put to death when the city fell. Being 
 now in possession of the ancient capital of the king- 
 dom, Hung proclaimed himself emperor under the 
 name of Teen Wang, or " Heavenly King," giving to 
 his dynasty the title of the Tai-ping. 
 
 And now for a number of years victory followed 
 every movement of the Tai-ping army. Pour lead- 
 ing cities of Central China were quickly occupied, 
 and a brilliant march to the north was begun, in 
 which, cutting loose from its base of supplies, the 
 rebel host forced its way through all obstacles. The 
 army penetrated as far north as Tien-tsin, and Pe- 
 king itself was in imminent peril, being saved only 
 by a severe repulse of the rebel forces. The ad- 
 vance of the British and French upon Peking aided 
 the cause of the insurgents, and fear of them had 
 much to do with the prompt surrender of the city 
 to the foreign invaders. 
 
 After the war the tide of the insurrection turned 
 and its decline began, mainly through the aid given 
 by the English to the government forces. Ignoring 
 the fact that the movement was a Christian one, and 
 might have gone far towards establishing Christi- 
 anity among the Chinese, and friendly relations with 
 
328 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 foreign peoples, the English seemed mainly gov- 
 erned by the circumstance that opium was pro- 
 hibited by the Tai-ping government at Nanking, 
 the trade in this pernicious drug proving a far 
 stronger interest with them than the hopeful results 
 from the missionary movement. 
 
 Operations against the insurgents took place 
 through the treaty ports, and British and French 
 troops aided the imperial forces. The British cruis- 
 ers treated the Tai-ping junks as pirates, because 
 they captured Chinese vessels, and the soldiers and 
 sailors of Great Britain took part in forty-three bat- 
 tles and massacres in which over four hundred thou- 
 sand of the Tai-pings were killed. More than two 
 millions of them are said to have died of starvation 
 in the famine caused by the operations of the Chi- 
 nese, British, and French allies. 
 
 General Ward, an American, led a force of natives 
 against them, but their final overthrow was due to 
 the famous Colonel Gordon, " Chinese Gordon," as 
 he was subsequently known. He was not long in 
 organizing the imperial troops, the " Ever- Victorious 
 Army," into a powerful force, and in taking the field 
 against the rebels. From that day their fortunes 
 declined. City after city was taken from their gar- 
 risons, and in July, 1864, Nanking was invested with 
 an immense army. Its fall ended the hopes of the 
 Tai-ping dynasty. For three days the slaughter con- 
 tinued in its streets, while the new emperor avoided 
 the sword of the foe by suicide. Those who escaped 
 fled to their former homes, where many of them 
 joined bands of banditti. 
 
A GREAT CHEISTIAN MOVEMENT AND ITS FATE. 329 
 
 Thus came to a disastrous end, through the aid of 
 foreign arms, the most remarkable insurrectionary 
 movement that China has ever known. What would 
 have been its result had the Chinese been left to 
 themselves it is not easy to say. The indications are 
 strong that the Manchu dynasty would have fallen 
 and the Chinese regained their own again. And the 
 Christian faith and worship of the rebels, with their 
 marked friendliness to foreigners, might have wor'ked 
 a moral and political revolution in the Chinese em- 
 pire, and lifted that ancient land into a far higher 
 position than it occupies to-day. But the interests 
 of the opium trade were threatened, and before this 
 all loftier considerations had to give way. 
 
CO RE A AND ITS NEIGHBORS. 
 
 We Lave thus far followed the course of two dis- 
 tinct streams of history, that of Japan and that of 
 China, flowing near each other, yet touching at very 
 few points in their course. Near the end of the nine- 
 teenth century these two streams flowed together, 
 and the histories of the two countries became one, 
 in the war in which their difference in military skill 
 was so strikingly displayed. Japan made use of the 
 lessons which it had well learned in its forty years 
 of intercourse with Europe. China fought in the 
 obsolete fashion of a past age. As a result, the cum- 
 bersome medieeval giant went down before the alert 
 modern dwarf, and the people of Eastern Asia were 
 taught a new and astounding lesson in the art of 
 war. 
 
 Between China and Japan lies the kingdom of 
 Corea, separated by a river from the former, by a 
 strait of the ocean from the latter, claimed as a vas- 
 sal state by both, yet preserving its individuality as 
 a state against the pair. It has often been invaded 
 by China, but never conquered. It has twice been 
 invaded by Japan, as described in preceding tales, 
 and made tributary, but not conquered. Thus it re- 
 mained until the end of the nineteenth century, when 
 it was to become the cause of a war between the two 
 rival empires. 
 830 
 
COREA AND ITB NEIGHBORS. 331 
 
 During the long history of China and Japan these 
 countries very rarely came into conflict with each 
 other. Only once has China invaded Japan, when 
 Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, attempted its 
 conquest with a great fleet, the fate of which we 
 have already told. This effort had its influence upon 
 Japan, for during the succeeding three centuries 
 pirates from the island empire boldly raided the 
 coast of China, devastating the maritime provinces 
 and causing immense loss and suffering. They often 
 built forts on the shore, from which they sallied forth 
 to plunder and burn, keeping their ships at hand 
 ready to fly if defeated. Thus they went on, plunder- 
 ing and destroying, their raids reaching a ruinous 
 stage in 1553 and the succeeding years. They de- 
 feated the Chinese troops in several battles,, ravaged 
 the whole surrounding country, carried off immense 
 quantities of spoil, sold multitudes of prisoners into 
 slavery, and in seven or eight years slaughtered over 
 one hundred thousand soldiers and citizens of China. 
 The raids resembled those made at an earlier date by 
 the Normans on the coast of Prance and the Danes 
 on that of England, the sea-rovers pouncing down 
 at unexpected times and places and plundering and 
 burning at will. 
 
 These forays of the pirates, in which the govern- 
 ment took no part, were followed in 1592 by an in- 
 vasion in force of the kingdom of Corea. In this' 
 the invaders rapidly swept all before them, quickly 
 overrunning the southern half of the kingdom and 
 threatening China. The Chinese then came to the 
 aid of their helpless neighbors, and for six years the 
 
332 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 war went on, the Japanese being usually successful 
 in the field, but gradually forced back from want of 
 supplies, as the country was devastated and their 
 own land distant. In the end Hideyoshi, the sho- 
 gun, died, and the army was withdrawn, Japan hold- 
 ing the port of Pusan as the sole result of its costly 
 effort. This Corean port it still retains. 
 
 And now three hundred years passed away in 
 which Corea remained free and isolated from the 
 world. It wanted no more intercourse with for- 
 eigners. Once a year a fair was held in the neutral 
 zone between China and Corea, but any Chinaman 
 found on Corean soil after the fair ended was liable 
 to be put to death. The Japanese were kept out by 
 laws as severe. In fact, the doors of the kingdom 
 were closed against all of foreign birth, the coasts 
 carefully patrolled, and beacon-fires kindled on the 
 hill-tops to warn the capital whenever any strange 
 vessel came within sight. All foreigners wrecked 
 on the coast were to be held as prisoners until death. 
 Such was the threatened fate of some Dutch sailors 
 wrecked there during the seventeenth century, who 
 escaped after fourteen years' confinement. Dread 
 of China and Japan induced the king to send envoys 
 with tribute to Peking and Tedo, but the tribute was 
 small, and the isolation was maintained, Corea win- 
 ning for itself the names of the Hermit Nation and 
 the Forbidden Land. 
 
 It was not until within recent years that this 
 policy of isolation was overthrown and Corea opened 
 to the world. How this was done may be briefly 
 told. In spite of the Corean watchfulness, some 
 
COREA AND ITS NEIGHBORS. 333 
 
 French missionaries long ago penetrated into the 
 land and made many converts, who were afterwards 
 severely persecuted. French fleets were sent there 
 in 1866 and later, and a fight took place in which 
 the French were repulsed. In consequence the per- 
 secution of the Christians grew more severe. War- 
 ships were sent by different nations to try to open 
 trade, but in vain, and finally an American trading 
 vessel was destroyed and its crew massacred. 
 
 This affair brought a fleet from the United States 
 to the coast of Corea in 1871, which, being fired on 
 from the shore, attacked and captured five Corean 
 forts. The opening of Corea was finally due to Japan. 
 In 1876 the Japanese did what Commodore Perry 
 had done to themselves twenty-two years before. A 
 fleet was sent which sailed up within sight of Seoul, 
 the capital, and by a display of men and guns forced 
 the government to sign a treaty opening the country 
 to trade through the port of Fusan. In 1880 Che- 
 mulpo was also made an open port. Two years after- 
 wards a United States fleet obtained similar conces- 
 sions, and within a short time most of the countries 
 of Europe were admitted to trade, and the long 
 isolation of the Hermit Kingdom was at an end. 
 
 These events were followed by a rivalry between 
 China and Japan, in which the latter country showed 
 itself much the more active and alert. Imposing 
 Japanese consulates were built in Seoul, flourishing 
 settlements were laid out, and energetic steps taken 
 to make Japan the paramount power in Corea. As 
 a result, the Coreans became divided into two fac- 
 tions, a progressive one which favored the Japanese, 
 
334 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 and a conservative one which was more in touch 
 with the backwardness of China and whose members 
 hated the stirring islanders. 
 
 In 1882 a plot was formed by the Min faction, the 
 active element in the conservative party, to drive 
 the Japanese out of Seoul. The intruders were at- 
 tacked, a number of them were murdered, and the 
 minister and others had to fight their way to the 
 sea-shore, where they escaped on a junk. Two years 
 afterwards a similar outbreak took place, and the 
 Japanese were once more forced to fight for their 
 lives from Seoul to the sea. On this occasion Chi- 
 nese soldiers aided the Coreans, an act which threat- 
 ened to involve Japan and China in war. The dis- 
 pute was settled in 1885 by a treaty, in which both 
 countries agreed to withdraw their troops from Corea 
 and to send no officers to drill the Corean troops. If 
 at any future time disturbances should call for the 
 sending of troops to Corea, each country must notify 
 the other before doing so. And thus, for nine years,, 
 the rivalry of the foreign powers ceased. 
 
 Meanwhile internal discontent was rife in the Co- 
 rean realm. The people were oppressed by heavy 
 taxes and the other evils of tyranny and misgovern- 
 ment, excited by the political questions described, and 
 stirred to great feeling by the labors of the Christian 
 missionaries and the persecution of their converts. 
 One outcome of this was a new religious sect. At the 
 same time that the Tai-ping rebels were spreading 
 their new doctrines in China, a prophet, Choi-Chei- 
 Ou by name, arose in Corea, who taught a doctrine 
 made up of dogmas of the three religions of China, 
 
COREA AND ITS NEiaHBORS. 335 
 
 with some Christian ideas thrown in. This prophet 
 was seized as a Eoman Catholic in 1865 and executed, 
 but his followers, known as the Tong-Haks, held 
 firm to their faith. In 1893 some of them appeared 
 with complaints of ill usage at the king's palace, and 
 in March, 1894, they broke out in open revolt, and 
 increased in numbers so rapidly that by May they 
 were said to be twenty thousand strong. 
 
 The government troops drove them back into a 
 mountain region, but here the pursuers were cun- 
 ningly led into an ambuscade and routed with severe 
 loss. This victory of the rebels filled the government 
 with consternation, which became greater when the 
 insurgents, on June 1, took the capital of the prov- 
 ince of Cholla. It was now feared that they would 
 soon be at the gates of Seoul. 
 
 This insurrection of the Tong-Haks was the in- 
 citing cause of the war between China and Japan. 
 The Min faction, then at the head of affairs, was so 
 alarmed that aid from China was implored, and a 
 force of about two thousand Chinese troops was sent 
 to the port of Asan. Some Chinese men-of-war were 
 also despatched. This action of China was quickly 
 followed by similar action on the part of Japan, 
 which was jealous of any Chinese movement in 
 Corea. The Japanese minister, who had been ab- 
 sent, returned to Seoul with four hundred marines. 
 Other troops quickly followed, and in a short time 
 there were several thousand Japanese soldiers sta- 
 tioned around the Corean capital. 
 
 The sending of troops to Corea was succeeded by 
 disputes between the two foreign powers. China 
 
336 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 claimed to be suzerain of Corea, a claim which Japan 
 sternly denied. On the other hand, the Japanese 
 government declared that the Tong-Hak movement 
 was a natural result of the prevailing misgovern- 
 ment, and could not be overcome unless radical re- 
 forms were carried out. China was asked to take 
 part in instituting a series of reforms, but declined. 
 
 The situation quickly grew serious. The Mins, 
 who controlled the government, declared that the 
 Japanese troops must be withdrawn before the re- 
 forms could be instituted. The Japanese refused. 
 Ifeither China nor Japan would yield, but the latter 
 held the capital and had the controlling position. 
 
 It was not long before a crisis came. On July 20, 
 Otori, the Japanese minister, made certain demands 
 on the Corean government, and stated that the pres- 
 ence of the Chinese soldiers was a threat to the inde- 
 pendence of the country, their general having pro- 
 claimed that Corea was a vassal state. On the 22d the 
 ofiScials answered that the Chinese had come at their 
 request and would stay until asked to leave. The 
 next step of the Japanese was a warlike one. On the 
 early morning of the 23d two battalions marched 
 from their camp, stating that they were going to at- 
 tack the Chinese at Asan. But they quickly changed 
 the direction of their march, advanced upon the pal- 
 ace, drove out the Corean guard, and took possession 
 both of the palace and of the king. They declared 
 they had come to deliver him from an obnoxious fac- 
 tion and restore his freedom of action. 
 
 The Min party was at once driven out and replaced 
 by new officials chosen from the progressive faction. 
 
COREA AND ITS NEIGHBORS. 337 
 
 With a feeble resistance, in which only two men were 
 killed and a few wounded, a revolution had been ac- 
 complished and a government which favored Japan 
 established. The new authorities at once declared the 
 Chinese at Asan to be intruders instead of defenders, 
 and requested the aid of the Japanese to drive them 
 out. War between China and Japan was at hand. 
 
 Hostilities were precipitated by a startling event. 
 On July 25 three Japanese men-of-war, cruising in 
 the Yellow Sea, sighted two ships of the Chinese 
 navy convoying a transport which had on board 
 about twelve hundred troops. They were a portion 
 of a large force which was being sent to Corea with 
 the purpose of reinforcing the troops at Asan and 
 expelling the Japanese. 
 
 The Chinese ships were cleared for action, and, 
 though the Japanese were ignorant of the late event 
 at Seoul, they at once accepted the wager of battle, 
 and attacked the ships of the enemy with such effect 
 that they were quickly crippled and put to flight. 
 The Naniwa, the Japanese flagship, now approached 
 the transport, a chartered British vessel named the 
 Kowshing and flying the British flag. A boat was 
 sent from the Japanese cruiser to the steamer, her 
 papers were examined, and orders given that she 
 should follow the Naniwa. This the Chinese gen- 
 erals refused to do, excitedly declaring that they 
 would perish rather than be taken prisoners. Their 
 excitement was shared by the troops, who ran wildly 
 about the deck, threatening the ofScers and the 
 Europeans on board with death if they attempted 
 to obey the order of the enemy. 
 22 
 
338 HISTOKIOAL TALES. 
 
 They trusted to the protection of the British flag, 
 but it proved of no avail, for the captain of the 
 Naniwa, finding his orders defied, opened fire on the 
 transport, with such effect that in half an hour it went 
 to the bottom, carrying down with it over one thou- 
 sand souls. The officers, the Europeans, and many of 
 the Chinese sprang overboard, but numbers of these 
 were shot in the water by the frantic soldiers on board. 
 In all only about one hundred and seventy escaped. 
 
 This terrible act of war at sea was accompanied 
 by a warlike movement on land, the Japanese forces 
 leaving Seoul on the same day to march on Asan 
 and expel the Chinese. On the 29th they attacked 
 the enemy in their works and quickly drove them 
 out, little resistance being made. These events pre- 
 ceded the declaration of war, which was made by 
 both countries on August 1, 1894. 
 
 The story of the war that followed was one of 
 unceasing victory for the Japanese, their enemy 
 making scarcely an efibrt at resistance, and fleeing 
 from powerful strongholds on which they had ex- 
 pended months of hard labor with scarcely a blow 
 in their defence. Such was the ease with Port Ar- 
 thur, which in other hands might have proved a Gib- 
 raltar to assailing troops. The war continued until 
 April 17, 1895, when a treaty of peace was signed, 
 which remarkably changed the relative positions of 
 the two powers befoi'e the world, China having met 
 with utter and irretrievable defeat. The war yielded 
 but a single event of novel interest, the famous naval 
 battle of Hai-yang, which we shall describe more at 
 length. 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE IRON- 
 CLADS. 
 
 In these latter days the world seems overturned. 
 Events of startling interest are every year taking 
 place, new discoveries are made, new inventions 
 produced, new explorations completed, peoples and 
 tribes formerly not even known by name are be- 
 coming prominent in daily history, and nations 
 which seemed sunk in a death-like slumber are 
 awakening and claiming a place among the leading 
 powers of the world. And of all these events per- 
 haps the most astounding is that which took place 
 in September, 1894, the battle of iron-clads in the 
 Yellow Sea. 
 
 About forty years before there had begun among 
 Western nations a remarkable revolution in naval war- 
 fare, the substitution of the iron-clad for the wooden 
 man-of-war. During the interval this evolution of 
 the iron-clad had gone briskly on, until by 1894 the 
 nations of Europe and America possessed fleets of 
 such wonderful powers of resistance that the naval 
 artillery of the past would have had no more effect 
 upon them than hailstones upon an iron roof But a 
 revolution in artillery had also taken place. The old 
 smooth-bore guns had been replaced by great rifled 
 cannon capable of sending a heavy ball for ten or 
 twelve miles and of piercing through steel plates of 
 
 339 
 
340 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 moderate thickness as through so much paper. With 
 these came the quick-fire guns, from whose gaping 
 mouths cannon-balls could be rained like the drops 
 of a rapid shower, and the torpedoes, capable of 
 tearing ruinous holes in the sides and bottoms of 
 the mightiest ships. 
 
 Such was the work that was doing in the West 
 while the East slept calmly on. But no occasion 
 had arisen for piitting to the proof these great float- 
 ing engines of war. Theories in abundance were 
 offered of the probable effect upon one another of 
 two modern fleets, but the dread of terrible results 
 had a potent influence, and fear of the destructiye 
 powers of modern ships and armies had proved the 
 strongest of arguments in keeping the nations of 
 the world at peace. 
 
 The astounding event spoken of is the fact that 
 the iron-clad battle-ship of the present day was first 
 put to proof in the waters of the Yellow Sea, in a 
 war between two nations which half a century be- 
 fore were hardly beyond the bow-and-arrow stage 
 of warfare, and were still novices in the modern art 
 of war. The naval inventions made in Europe and 
 America had their first trial in a conflict between 
 China and Japan, and the interest with which mari- 
 time nations read of the doings of these powerful 
 engines of war in those far-off waters was intense. 
 
 Japan had been alert in availing itself of all the 
 world knew about war, providing its army with the 
 best modern weapons and organizing them in the 
 most effective European method, while purchased 
 iron-clads replaced its old fleet of junks. China, 
 
THE BATTLE OP THE IRON-CLADS. 341 
 
 though doing little for the improvement of its army, 
 had bought itself a modern fleet, two of its ships, the 
 Ting-yuen and Chen-yuen, having fourteen inches 
 of iron armor, and surpassing in size and strength 
 anything that Japan had to show. These vessels 
 were all armed with the most effective of modern 
 weapons, were handled by men trained in the theories 
 of European war, and seemed capable of the most 
 destructive results. 
 
 On the 17th of September, 1894, an epoch-making 
 battle of these iron-clads took place. It was a re- 
 markably different event from the first engagement 
 of this sort, that between the Monitor and the 
 Merrimac in Hampton Eoads, for the guns now 
 brought into play would have pierced the armor of 
 those vessels as if it had been made of tin. The 
 Japanese squadron had just convoyed a fleet of trans- 
 ports, bearing ten thousand troops and thirty-five 
 hundred horses, to Chemulpo, near the Corean capital. 
 The Chinese squadron had similarly convoyed four 
 thousand troops to the Yalu Eiver. These were 
 landed on the 16th, and on the morning of the 17th 
 the fleet started on its return. On the same morning 
 the Japanese fleet reached the island of Hai-yang^ 
 leaving their torpedo-boats behind, as there was nG. 
 thought of fighting a battle. About nine o'clock 
 smoke was seen in the distance, and at eleven-forty 
 the Chinese fleet came into sight. 
 
 The Japanese fleet consisted of ten vessels, the 
 First Flying Squadron, consisting of four fine cruisers 
 of high speed, and the Main Squadron, composed of 
 six vessels of lower speed. There were two smaller 
 
342 HISTOKICAL TALES. 
 
 ships, of DO value as fighting vessels. The Chinese 
 fleet was composed of twelve vessels and six tor- 
 pedo-boats, though two of the vessels and the tor- 
 pedo-boats were at a distance, so that the effective 
 fighting force on each side was composed of ten 
 ships-of-war. The Chinese fleet included the two 
 great ships already named, the Ting-yuen and Chen- 
 yuen. The latter, as has been said, were heavily 
 armored. The other Chinese ships were lightly pro- 
 tected, and some of them not at all. None of the 
 Japanese vessels had external armor, their protection 
 consisting of steel decks and internal lining down 
 to the water-line. 
 
 On perceiving the enemy's ships. Admiral Ito, of 
 the Japanese fleet, at once gave orders to his cap- 
 tains to prepare for action. Ting, the Chinese ad- 
 miral, did the same, drawing up his fleet in a single 
 line, with the large ships in the centre and the 
 weaker ones on the wings. Ito, who proposed to 
 take advantage of the superior speed of his ships 
 and circle round his adversary, drew up his vessels 
 in a single column with the Flying Squadron at the 
 head. 
 
 The action began at 1 p.m., the Chinese opening 
 fire at about six thousand yards, the Japanese re- 
 serving their fire until at half that distance. Ito 
 headed his ships straight for the centre of the Chi- 
 nese line, but on drawing near they swerved so as to 
 pass the Chinese right wing, their speed being at 
 the same time increased. As the Yoshino, which 
 led the movement, came up, she became a target for 
 the whole Chinese fleet, but her speed soon carried 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE IRON-CLADS. 342 
 
 her out of danger, the Flying Squadron sweeping 
 swiftly past the Chinese right wing and pouring a 
 deadly fire on the unprotected vessels there posted 
 as they passed. The stream of shells from the rapid- 
 fire guns tore the wood-work of these vessels into 
 splinters and set it on fire, the nearest ship, the 
 Yang "Wei, soon bursting into flames. 
 
 The Japanese admiral, keeping at a distance from 
 the large central vessels with their heavy guns, and 
 concentrating his fire on the smaller flanking ships, 
 continued his evolution, the Main Squadron follow- 
 ing the Flying Squadron past the Chinese right 
 wing and pouring its fire on the second ship in the 
 line, the Chao-yung, which, like its consort, was 
 soon in flames. This movement, however, proved a 
 disadvantage to the slower vessels of the Japanese 
 fleet, which could not keep pace with their consorts, 
 particularly to the Hiyei, which lagged so far in the 
 rear as to become exposed to the fire of the whole 
 Chinese fleet, now rapidly forging ahead. In this 
 dilemma its commander took a bold resolve. Turn- 
 ing, he ran directly for the line of the enemy, pass- 
 ing between the Ting-yuen and the King-yuen at five 
 hundred yards' distance. Two toi-pedoes which were 
 launched at him fortunately missed, but he had to 
 bear the fire of several of his antagonists, and came 
 through the line with his vessel in flames. The 
 Akagi, a little Japanese gunboat, hurried to his aid, 
 though seriously cut up by the fire of the Lai-yuen, 
 which pursued until set on fire and forced to with- 
 draw by a lucky shot in return. Meanwhile the Fly- 
 ing Squadron had wheeled to meet the two distant 
 
344 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Chinese ships, which were hastily coming up in com- 
 pany with the torpedo-boats. On seeing this move- 
 ment they drew back and kept well out of reach. 
 Somewhat later these vessels took part in the ac- 
 tion, though not an important one. At 2.23 p.m. the 
 Chao-yang, which had been riddled by the fire of 
 the Main Squadron, sank, the cries of the drowning 
 men sounding above the roar of the cannon as she 
 went down. 
 
 As a result of the Japanese evolution, the two 
 squadrons finally closed in on the Chinese fleet on 
 both sides and the battle reached its most furious 
 phase. The two flag-ships, the Japanese Matsushima 
 and the Chinese Ting-yuen, poured the fire of their 
 great guns upon each other with terrible effect, the 
 wood-work of the Chinese iron-clad being soon in 
 flames, while a shell that burst on the Matsushima ex- 
 ploded a heap of ammunition and killed or wounded 
 eighty men. Fire broke out, but it was soon ex- 
 tinguished. Almost all the Japanese gunners were 
 killed, but volunteers pressed forward to take their 
 place, among them even the band-players. 
 
 On the Chinese flag-ship the flames drove the gun- 
 ners from their pieces, and she would probably have 
 been destroyed had not the Chen-yuen come bravely 
 to her aid. The fire was finally extinguished by the 
 aid of some foreigners who were on board. It may 
 be said here that the fire-drill of the Japanese was 
 far superior to that of their foes. 
 
 The Japanese continued their circling movement 
 around their slower antagonists, pouring a concen- 
 trated fire upon the wfeaker vessels, of which the 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE IRON-CLADS. 345 
 
 Chih-yuen was sunk at about 3.30 p.m. and the King- 
 yuen at 4.48. By this time the Chinese fleet was in 
 the greatest disorder, its line broken, some of its ves- 
 sels in full flight, and all coherence gone. The fire 
 of the Japanese fleet was now principally directed 
 against the two large iron-clads, but the fourteen- 
 inch armor of these resisted the heaviest guns in the 
 Japanese fleet, and, though their upper works were 
 riddled and burnt, they were able to continue the 
 battle. 
 
 In the fight here described the Japanese had 
 shown a discipline and a skill in naval tactics far su- 
 perior to those of their foes. They had kept at a 
 distance of about four thousand yards from their 
 antagonists, so as to avoid their heavy fire and make 
 the most advantageous use of their larger number 
 of rapid-fire guns and also of their much better 
 marksmanship. The result of the battle was not due 
 to greater courage, but to superior skill and more 
 effective armament. 
 
 At nightfall, as the torpedo-boats had now joined 
 the Chinese fleet, the Japanese drew off, not caring 
 to risk the perils of a battle at night with such an- 
 tagonists, both sides being also exhausted by the long 
 fight. The next morning the Chinese fleet had dis- 
 appeared. It had lost four vessels in the fight, and 
 a fifth afterwards ran ashore and was blown up. 
 Two of the Japanese ships were badly damaged, but 
 none were lost, while the total loss in killed and 
 wounded was two hundred and eighteen, nearly half 
 of them on the flag-ship. The Chinese lost far more 
 heavily, from the sinking of a number of their ships. 
 
346 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 Thus ended the typical battle of modern naval 
 warfare, one whose result was mainly due to the 
 greater speed and rapid evolutions of the Japanese 
 ships and the skill with which they concentrated a 
 crushing fire on the weak points of the enemy's 
 line. The work of the quick-firing guns was the 
 most striking feature of the battle, while the absence 
 of torpedo-boats prevented that essential element of 
 a modern fleet from being brought into play. An 
 important lesson learned was that too much wood- 
 work in an iron-clad vessel is a dangerous feature, 
 and naval architects have since done their best to 
 avoid this weak point in the construction of ships- 
 of-war. But the most remarkable characteristic of 
 the affair is that the battle was fought by two nations 
 which, had the war broken out forty years before, 
 would have done their naval fighting with fleets of 
 junks. 
 
 It may be said in conclusion that the Chinese fleet 
 was annihilated in the later attack on the port of 
 Wei-hai-wei, many of the vessels being destroyed 
 by torpedo-boats, and the remainder, unable to es- 
 cape from the harbor, being forced to surrender to 
 the Japanese. Thus ended in utter disaster to China 
 the naval war. 
 
PROGRESS IN JAPAN AND 
 CHINA. 
 
 We have in the preceding tales brought down 
 from a remote period the history of the two oldest 
 nations now existing on the face of the earth. There 
 are peoples as old, but none others which have kept 
 intact their national organization and form of gov- 
 ernment for thousands of years. Invasion, conquest, 
 rebellion, revolution, have kept the rest of the world 
 in a busy stir and caused frequent changes in nations 
 and governments. But Japan and China lay aside 
 from the broad current of invasion, removed from 
 the general seat of war, and no internal convulsion 
 or local invasion had been strong enough to change 
 their political systems or modes of Ufe. And thus 
 these two isolated empires of the Bast drifted down 
 intact through the ages to the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century, when their millennial sleep was rudely 
 broken and their policy of isolation overthrown. 
 
 This was due, as has been shown, to the coming 
 of the navies of Europe and America, bent on 
 breaking down the barriers that had been raised 
 against the civilization of the West and forcing these 
 remote empires to enter the concert of the nations 
 and open their ports to the commerce of the world. 
 Concerning all this we have no tales to tell, but a 
 brief account of the effect of foreign intercourse upon 
 
 347 
 
348 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 China and Japan will fitly serve to close our work 
 and outline the recent history of these two great 
 powers of the East. 
 
 There are marked differences of character between 
 the Chinese and the Japanese, and these differences 
 have had a striking effect upon their recent history. 
 In the Japanese we find a warlike and aggressive peo- 
 ple, a stirring and inquisitive race, not, like their neigh- 
 bors on the continent, lost in contemplation of their 
 ancient literature and disdainful of any civilization 
 but their own, but ready and eager to avail themselves 
 of all that the world has to offer worth the having. 
 In the Chinese we find a non-aggressive people, by 
 nature and custom disinclined to war, asking only, 
 so far as outer nations are concerned, to be let alone, 
 and in no sense inquisitive concerning the doings of 
 the world at large. Of their civilization, which goes 
 back beyond the reputed date of the Deluge, they 
 are intensely proud, their ancient literature, in their 
 conception, is far superior to the literatures of all 
 other nations, and their self-satisfaction is so in- 
 grained that they still stand aloof in mental isola- 
 tion from the world, only the most progressive among 
 them seeing anything to be gained from foreign arts. 
 These differences in character have given rise to a 
 remarkable difference in results. The Japanese have 
 been alert in availing themselves of all things new, 
 the Chinese torpid and slow, sluggishly resisting 
 change, hardly yielding even to the logic of war. 
 
 There is nothing in the history of the world to 
 match the phenomenal progress of Japan since the 
 visit of Commodore Perry in 1853. If it had been 
 
PROGRESS IN JAPAN AND CHINA. 349 
 
 the people of the United States, instead of those of 
 that archipelago of the Eastern seas, that in this way- 
 first gained a knowledge of the progress of the outer 
 world, they could not have been readier in changing 
 their old institutions and ideas and accepting a new 
 and strange civilization offered them from afar than 
 have been the alert islanders of the Bast. 
 
 When the American fleet entered the Bay of Yedo 
 it found itself in the heart of a civilization and in- 
 stitutions a thousand years and more of age. The 
 shogun, the military chief, was the actual ruler of 
 Japan, as he had been for many centuries before, 
 the mikado, the titular ruler, being still buried in 
 that isolation into which he had long since with- 
 drawn. It was only a dim tradition with the people 
 that the mikado had ever been emperor in fact, and 
 they looked on him as a religious potentate to be 
 worshipped, not as a ruler to be obeyed. The feudal 
 system, established in the past centuries, was still 
 intact, the provincial lords and princes being held 
 in strict vassalage by the shogun, or tai-kun (great 
 king), as he then first termed himself. In truth, 
 Japan was still in its mediaeval state, from which it 
 showed scarcely a sign of emerging. 
 
 The coming of the foreigners made a sudden and 
 decided change in the situation. Within less than 
 twenty years the whole condition of affairs had been 
 overturned ; the shogun had been deposed from his 
 high estate, the mikado had come to his own again, 
 the feudal system had been abolished, and the people 
 beheld with surprise and delight their spiritual em- 
 peror at the head of the state, absolute lord of their 
 
350 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 secular world, while the military tyranny under 
 which they so long had groaned was irremediably 
 annulled. 
 
 Such was the first great step in the political revo- 
 lution of Japan. It was followed by another and 
 still greater one, an act without a parallel in the his- 
 tory of autocratic governments. This was the vol- 
 untary relinquishment of absolutism by the emperor, 
 the calling together of a parliament, and the adoption 
 of a representative government on the tj'pes of those 
 of the West. In all history we can recall no similar 
 event. All preceding parliaments came into exist- 
 ence through revolution or gradual growth, in no 
 other instance through the voluntary abdication of 
 autocratic power and the adoption of parliamentary 
 rule by an emperor moved alone by a desire for the 
 good of his people and the reform of the system of 
 government. 
 
 Japan had learned the lesson of civilization swiftly 
 and well, her ablest sons devoting themselves to the 
 task of bringing their country to the level of the 
 foremost nations of the earth. Young men in num- 
 bers were sent abroad to observe the ways of the 
 civilized world, to become familiar with its industries, 
 and to study in its universities, and these on their 
 return were placed at the head of affairs, industrial, 
 educational, and political. No branch of modern art 
 and science was neglected, the best to be had from 
 every nation being intelligently studied by the in- 
 quisitive and quick-witted island youth. 
 
 The war with China first revealed to the world the 
 marvellous progress of Japan in the military art. 
 
PROGRESS IN JAPAN AND CHINA. 351 
 
 Her armies were armed and disciplined in accord- 
 ance with the best system of the West, and her 
 warlike operations conducted on the most approved 
 methods, though only native officers were employed. 
 The rapidity with which troops, amounting to eighty 
 thousand in all, and the necessary supplies were car- 
 ried across the sea, and the skilful evolution, under 
 native officers, of a fleet of vessels of a type not 
 dreamed of in Japan thirty years before, was a new 
 revelation to the observing world. And in another 
 direction it was made evident that Japan had learned 
 a valuable lesson from the nations of Christendom. 
 Instead of the massacres of their earlier wars, they 
 now displayed the most humanitarian moderation. 
 There was no ill treatment of the peaceful inhabi- 
 tants, while ambulances and field hospitals were put 
 at the disposal of the wounded of both sides, with a 
 humane kindness greatly to be commended. 
 
 It is not only in politics and war that Japan has 
 progressed. In all other directions activity, intel- 
 ligence, and development have been shown. In the 
 art of manufacture there has been a steady advance, 
 and the island workshops are now coming into active 
 competition with those of Europe and America and 
 threatening a dangerous commercial rivalry. Steam- 
 ship lines, under Japanese control, connect with all 
 the leading ports of Asia, and trade is in a flourish- 
 ing state. The telegraph and telephone have been 
 introduced and are widely extended, while railroads 
 connect all the principal cities. The newspaper is 
 an established institution in Japan, libraries and col- 
 leges are flourishing, a new literature, based on that 
 
352 HISTORICAL TALES. 
 
 of the West, is in process of evolution, and science 
 is making important progress. In short, Japan has 
 adopted all the leading institutions of the West, and 
 is modifying its native manners and customs with 
 remarkable rapidity. 
 
 In this recent evolution of life in Japan we have 
 one of the most extraordinary events in the history 
 of the world, it having in about forty years emerged 
 from the position of a nation almost unknown and 
 quite unthought of as a power into that of one of 
 the great powers of the world. 
 
 While little Japan has been thus forging swiftly 
 ahead, great China has been stolidly holding back. 
 It is not that the Chinese lack intelligence or the 
 disposition to avail themselves of material advan- 
 tages, but that their pride in their own civilization 
 and belief in the barbarism of the outer world are 
 so deeply ingrained as to make them hard to con- 
 vince. Such progressive men as Li Hung Chang 
 have had their influence. A navy of modern ships 
 was bought abroad, and did the best service shown 
 in the war, fighting with courage and resolution, 
 while the army, organized on mediaeval principles, 
 went to pieces before the skill and intrepidity of the 
 Japanese. 
 
 In other directions China has made little progress. 
 The telegraph, it is true, is widely in use, but the 
 effort to introduce the railroad has proved, so far, 
 largely a failure, only some short lines being laid 
 down. In this direction, however, the war has some- 
 what aroused the government, and there are signs of 
 a more rapid future extension of the iron road. But 
 
PROGRESS IN JAPAN AND CHINA. 353 
 
 in Other respects there is little to indicate that China 
 has learned much from the short, sharp lesson of 
 war, and even the threat to dismember it and divide 
 it up among the powers of Europe seems hardly to 
 have made a stir in the heart of the torpid leviathan 
 of the Bast. 
 
 Meanwhile the powers of Europe are settling like 
 stinging hornets on its coast. Great Britain, Eussia, 
 Germany, and Prance each claiming a foothold on 
 its shores, while Japan still holds the port of Wei- 
 hai-wei, awaiting the payment of the war indemnity. 
 What will be the result it is impossible to foresee. 
 China is not a consolidated empire. The emperor 
 rather reigns than rules. It is made up of separate 
 parts, each largely under provincial rule, and scarcely 
 more united than when each was governed by its 
 own feudal prince. Different languages are spoken 
 in different sections, there are various strands of 
 population in the separate provinces, and hostile 
 rather than friendly relations exist between north 
 and south, east and west. The empire is one that 
 might fall asunder at a blow, if struck strongly and 
 deeply, and the powers which are now steadily deep- 
 ening and widening their influence within the Celes- 
 tial Empire may yet decide to strike that blow, and 
 divide up China between them as they have already 
 divided Indo-China and the continent of Africa. 
 These are days of rapid political evolution, and the 
 development of colonial empire is one of the most 
 prominent phases of recent history. 
 
 23 
 

 
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