CHINA. 



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stated that tlie oppressions of the Chinese 

 officials called forth a resistance as early as 

 1839 ; hot the Chinese authorities suppressed 

 it with an iron hand, burned down several 

 villages in the insurgent districts, and killed 

 about 2,000 men. The provincial governor 

 to whom the villages appealed took sides with 

 the defendants, aud punished the plaintiffs. 

 An appeal to Peking led to the removal of the 

 criminated official, because he hud not pre- 

 vented the lodging of the complaint ; but his 

 successor soon exceeded him in extortions, 

 and coerced the Mohammedans to sell their 

 property to Chinese at too low a price. New 

 and isolated cases of resistance occurred, but 

 always remained unsuccessful. Colonel Fyt- 

 sche, the chief of liritish Burmah, learned in 

 1867 that the wealth of the Mohammedans 

 had excited the envy and the avarice of the 

 Chinese officials, and had called forth oppres- 

 sions, and that Chinese and Mohammedans had 

 begun to feel for each other a mortal hatred. 

 The impulse to an open insurrection was given, 

 according to the Mecca pilgrim, by a report 

 spreading among the Mohammedans of a secret 

 society having been among the Chinese tor the 

 purpose of massacring the Mohammedans and 

 taking possession of their property ; the Mo- 

 hammedans, fearing for their lives, collected 

 in small bands, which gained successes over 

 the Chinese and gradually obtained the ascen- 

 dency. According to the reports received by 

 Colonel Fytsche, the outbreak was caused by 

 unjust orders given to the workmen in the ex- 

 tensive silver-mines of Lusun-Fu ; they left the 

 mines, withdrew into the woods, and began a 

 guerrilla warfare, in which they found ready 

 - in the rapacious mountaineers of the 

 neighboring districts of Burmah. Another 

 account was given by the Catholic Bishop 

 Chaveau, who for some time was a resident of 

 Yunnan, to the English traveler, Cooper, 

 lie reported that the Governor ofYnnnanfu 

 had adopted the faith of Mohammed, but soon 

 lost his popularity when he endeavored to 

 introduce changes into the fundamental articles 

 of the creed. Thereby his former friends be- 

 came his enraged enemies ; religion was de- 

 clared to be in danger, the faithful were rallied, 

 and the insurrection spread over the whole 

 country. The war lasted for about eight 

 years, until the southern and eastern districts 

 of Yunnan were entirely free from Chinese 

 troops. There was, however, no general 

 leader among the victors; they simply called 

 themMlTM Moslem, with the addition of the 

 place of their birth ; the name Panthay or 

 Pansi, which the English reports pave to them, 

 is derived from the Burroan word Pathi, which 

 means Mussulman. Soon two parties formed 

 among the victors. The eastern and smaller 

 portion received the name Jdon ; its capital 

 was Sin-thau ; its regent had the name Mian- 

 fan. The larger, western, portion was called 

 Jsi, the capital Talil'u ; the chief assumed the 

 title of Sultan, and called himself Suleiman 



Ibn-i-Abdur Rahman; the French officers, 

 who in 1868 visited him in his capital, called 

 him Uen-shoai ; the Chinese reports call him. 

 Dau-win-shian. Soon the two parties became 

 involved in difficulties; Mianfun began a war 

 against Suleiman. After the first, undecided 

 encounter, Hadji (Saint) Jussuf succeeded in 

 concluding a peace for three years, Suleiman 

 ceding some mines and valleys. But soon, 

 and probably at the instigation of the Chinese, 

 this war was renewed ; Mianfun was defeated 

 in ten battles, and lost four fortresses and 

 four productive salt-works. Suleiman became 

 the undisputed head of the new government. 

 On the first report of the success of the Pan- 

 thays the Government of Peking had ap- 

 pointed a new mandarin ; but his predecessor 

 did not yield, but sent accounts of pretended 

 victories to the capital, and claimed to have 

 obtained complete control of the insurrection. 

 As a proof he adduced the withdrawn! of the 

 rebels from Yunnanfn, the capital of Yunncn, 

 which he, however, had only saved by leaving 

 Suleiman in undisturbed possession of the 

 western part of the province. For several 

 years the Chinese Government was deceived 

 by mendacious accounts ; even in 1868, whin 

 the English traveler, Cooper, made his jour- 

 ney along the northern frontier, the Chinese 

 force in the province was insignificant. The 

 suppression of the rebellion was entirely left 

 to the local authorities, and no coii;mander- 

 in-chief was appointed. Under these circum- 

 stances the power of Suleiman was believed by 

 many to be established on a firm basis. The 

 area of his dominions was estimated as high 

 as 65,000 square miles, the population at 

 4,000,000. In 1872 Suleiman sent his eldest 

 son to the courts of Europe, in order to con- 

 clude with them commercial treaties.* It 

 was therefore a matter of general surprise 

 when in June, 1873, a report was received in 

 Europe, that, five months before (January 9, 

 1878), Talifu, the capital of Suleiman, had been 

 taken by the Chinese; Suleiman had com- 

 mitted suicide, and a terrible massacre had 

 been made of the Mohammedan population. 

 The news, at first discredited, was confirmed 

 by later accounts ; and in the early part of 

 1873 the second capital of the rebels, Mornein, 

 near the nominal border of Burmah, was cap- 

 tured, and the entire rebellion crushed out. 

 The troops which obtained these victories 

 over the Panthays were, according to the 

 Prussian traveler Von Richthofen, who visited 

 the country in the spring 1872, as arrogant as 

 brutal, and the official report of the Govern- 

 ment of British Burmah, for the year 1871- 

 '72 (Rangoon, 1873), says of them that "ir- 

 rejrular bands of Chinese marauders, under 

 leaders who had received no imperial appoint- 

 ment, have invaded the south of Yunnan, 

 goaded on and supported by the mandarins of 

 the neighboring provinces; sometimes five or 



See AMZIUCAN AKNUAL CTCLOPJBDIA for 1872 ; nrii- 

 cl CHINA. 



