118 



CH! 



IT any information from Corea is received. It 

 hu ben ascertained that, during 1*7 

 boat 1,500 Coreans hive escaped across the 

 northern boundary, the river Turaen, into 

 lta*uan territory, whore they have been wel- 

 comed and provided with land and seed*. 

 Those emigrants, on their arrival, are de- 

 d-ribed as indigent, and, while raising suffi- 

 cient for to-day, are quite thoughtless of the 

 morrow. They soon improve, however, and 

 easily acquire the Russian language. 



The most important event in the history of 

 China durin,' th.- vow 1873 is the complete 

 suppression of thj rebellion of the Moham- 

 medan Panthays, who for several years had 

 been able to sustain an independent g.r.vrn- 

 ment in the southwestern province of Yunnan. 

 The attempts of the Mohammedans in tlio 

 northwestern and southwestern provinces of 

 China proper, and in the western depend- 

 encies, to shake off Chinese rule and establish 

 independent governments, are not so well 

 known as their importance would deserve. A 

 connected history ot the Mohammedan troubles 

 in China will therefore supply a contribution 

 to the current history of China, which U not 

 easily obtained, from other sources, and, as the 

 struggle is still going on in the dependencies 

 and northwestern provinces, may be of im- 

 portance for an understanding of coming 

 events.* The origin of Mohammedanism in 

 China reaches back to the tenth century, and 

 U connected with the first commercial trans- 

 actions of the Arab* with China. Its develop- 

 ment was favored by the successful campaigns 

 and conquests of the Califs. In China 

 proper this new faith did not gain a linn 

 rig. except in the southern provinces or 

 Yunnan and Kwei-Ohoo, where the Moh.-im- 

 medans oraetimes claim to be the deacon 

 of Arabian military colonists, but are not dis- 

 tinguished in iV-ir outward appearance from 

 the other Chinese ; to Mantchooria and Mon- 

 golia, the Islam likewise remiinad for 

 leu the Chinese subjects of the Turkish 

 became its followers. Their seats were nl 

 in the north and west of China proper ; only 

 there the Moh rirn 1 1:1. live in large number, 

 the chief :ives being the Dnngane.% 



whose name Wauiliev traces to a tr.in-p*i- 

 tion of vowels in the word Tangnn, the plural 

 of Tangut, which word designates the terri- 

 tory around Lake Koko. The opinions of 

 ethnographic writers on the origin of the 

 -.ines are utill divided. Rudlof regards 

 them as desocnd.ints of the Uiguriano, the 

 ethnographic relation of whom is still a inj- 

 ury; but Palladia* (for many years a m. 

 of the Riumn minion in Peking) nnd others 

 deny this, and point to the fact that the name 

 Khoi-Khol. which, by the Chinese, is given 

 M*nate the Ulgurians, is also used by 

 in general for designating any Mohani- 



it I* ckMjr coodcntcd from n 

 >twU) la \\nAOffaiuliu 



medon. At all event?, the difference of re- 

 ligion lm< widened the breach between the 



-o subjects of Turkish descent anil the 



-ie proper. Much tlmt is highly u\ 

 i by the Chinamen is dcspUed by the 

 Mahommedans; thus to the Chinese pork is a 

 favorite food, while to the Mohammedan to 

 partake of it is a greater sin th:in theft and 

 fraud. The number of Mohammedans iiK'hinn 

 is not accurately known. The climates made 

 by the Chinese official* are entirely untrue- 

 worthy, and are believed to be in many 

 inspired by a wish to use them for extortions. 

 It seems that there are some Mohammedans 

 in every town of importance. The Ki; 

 clergyman, Palladius, one of the best author- 

 ities on the subject, estimates their number in 

 the northern provinces at from three to four 

 millions. In consequence of their small num- 

 ber they would have been powerless, even in 

 the districts where they are most numerous, 

 it' they had rebelled against a strong govern- 

 ment ; but in China the power of the rei.. 

 Mantchoo dynasty is undermined, and tin- 

 whole administrative system disorganized, and 

 every movement that offers a prospect u. 

 cess is therefore sure of beinif largely ruen- 

 forced by malcontents of every kind, and by 

 crowds looking out for plunder. The Mo- 

 h :im:iK-dans of China, generally, are not strict 

 in the profession of their relijrion, although 

 some trill,-- pimrtually perform the preM" 

 prayers and lavatiotn. and rigidly observe tho 

 mate. Their priests, imams, and mollahs, 

 generally do not under-' -nnl the contents of 

 u-abie, prayers which they recite; and 

 their pronunciation of the Arabic is so corrupt 

 that a Mohammedan of Yunnan is not under- 

 stood in Calcutta. The priests display a great 

 zeal in urging parents to send their children 

 to school ; but for years they arc only drilled 

 in reading and committing to memory Arabic 



which they are not taught to under- 

 stand. Tho priests ore not free from av;. 

 but in some instances have successfully de- 

 fended their coreligionists against the ex- 

 tortions of Chinese official*. The first insur- 

 rection of the Mohammedans against Chinese 

 authority took place, in 1855, in Yunnan; in 

 1862 a rebellion broke out in tho northwestern 

 province of Shensi, which soon spread to the 

 neighboring province of Kansu ; in 1803 an at- 

 ack upon tho Chinese fortresses was made in 

 Soongaria; in 18(i5Yakool> Kushbegi began to 



irow Chinese rule in East Toorkistan, 

 which had been kept in constant excitement by 

 tho intrigues of tho dynastic family of tho 

 Khodshas of Khokand, who in 1758 had 

 expelled by tho Chinese. All these insurrcc- 



irose from local causes, and they were not 

 connected with each other, though of course it 

 inn-it be assumed that any success of one of 

 them must have aided in the progress of tho 

 others. The causes of tho insurrection in 

 Yunnan art very differently stated. A native 

 of Yunnan who mado a pilgrimage to Mecca, 



