CHINA. 



235 



History. 

 A. LU700. 



Influence 

 of the mis. 



nonaries. 



Survey of 

 the em- 

 pire. 



Death and 

 character 

 of Kong, 

 tee. 



Arce'sion 

 f Yong- 



erf edi- 

 tion of the 

 Christians. 



family, his court, and an army, it is said, of 70,000 men. 

 He made a similar visit, during the following year, to 

 Western Tartary ; and continued annually to repeat these 

 expeditions, under the pretence of hunting, but in reality 

 for the purpose of keeping his troops in exercise, of dis- 

 playing the grandeur of his court, and of awing the vas- 

 sal princes, who were required to join him in his progress. 



By the assistance of two of the missionaries, Father 

 Gerbillon and Pereira, the boundaries between the Rus- 

 bian and Chinese dominions were amicably defined in the 

 year 1689. In 1693, the emperor was restored by the 

 medicines of the missionaries from a dangerous attack of 

 fever; and in gratitude for their services in this instance, 

 as well as through the influence of Gerbillon and Perei- 

 ra, who instructed him in the European sciences, he ex- 

 tended a greater degree of toleration to the Christian re- 

 ligion, and conferred several important privileges upon 

 the Jesuit residents in Pekin. In the year 1707, the em- 

 peror employed these learned missionaries to make a map 

 and survey of the empire ; a work which they accom- 

 plished with great labour in little more than ten years, 

 and which does honour both to the prince who planned, and 

 to the persons who executed the vast undertaking. In 

 1722, the emperor Kang-hee, after having established his 

 empire in profound peace, and done more for its improve- 

 ment than any sovereign who had ever filled the throne, 

 died suddenly in the 69th year of his age, and the 60th of 

 his reign. He was a prince of a truly enlarged mind, 

 and possessed of many estimable qualities ; indefatigable 

 in his application to public affairs ; cautious and discern- 

 ing in the choice of his ministers ; singularly frugal in 

 his personal expenditure, but munificent and affectionate 

 towards his people ; an anxious promoter of peace, both 

 in his own dominions and among neighbouring nations ; 

 friendly to the arts and sciences, which he cultivated him- 

 self with distinguished success ; addicted to an active 

 mode of life, and skilled in the military exercises of his 

 nation ; uniting in his personal character the most manly 

 corporeal and mental endowment?, and in his political ad- 

 ministration, the tenderness of a parent with the firmness 

 of a prince. 



He was succeeded by his fourth son, whom he had no- 

 minated to the throne, and who assumed at his accession 

 the name of Yong-tching, which signifies " perpetual 

 peace." The new emperor, entering upon hi? function 

 in the prime of life, applied himself with the utmost assi- 

 duity to the discharge of his weighty duties. He is 

 aid to have employed whole days and nights, without 

 interruption, in framing useful laws and regulations ; 

 and to have been particularly attentive to receive and an- 

 swer the numerous memorials presented for his inspection. 

 The most effectual way to gain his favour was to pro- 

 pose some scheme, which tended to advance the public 

 good, or to provide relief for his subjects in times of ca- 

 lamity. Except his thirteenth brother, ho had no con- 

 fidents in his measures ; but governed wholly of himself, 

 and with the most absolute authority. He is said to 

 have been endowed with great wit and eloquence, but to 

 have been less addicted to scientific pursuits than his fa- 

 ther. He began his administration with issuing the most 

 severe edicts against the Christians, whom at length he 

 utterly proscribed and banished from his dominions; ai>d, 

 notwithstanding the excuses, which may be alleged for 

 this measure, from the misconduct of the missionaries, it 

 is impossible to vindicate the cruel persecutions, which 

 he instituted against the native converts, and in which 

 to many of the noblest families were miserably destroyed. 

 In the year 1731, another destructive earthquake wa 

 experienced in the northern provinces, in consequence of 



which 100,000 persons were said to have perished in Pe- 

 kin, and a still greater number in the neighbouring 

 country. The emperor was residing at the time in one 

 of his pleasure houses, about two leagues distant from 

 the metropolis, and was sailing in his barge upon the 

 canal in his gardens, when the shocks commenced. His 

 palace was instantly reduced to a heap of ruins, and the 

 emperor, who had fallen on his knees at the sight, after- 

 wards published an edict in the usual stile, ascribing the ca- 

 lamity to the wrath of heaven against himself, for his offen- 

 ces and want of care in governing the people; commanded 

 an estimate to be made of the losses, which had been sus- 

 tained ; and issued large sums for the relief of the sufferer?. 

 Yong-tching died in the year 1736, after a reign 

 of thirteen years, and was succeeded by his son Kien- 

 long, who ascended the throne without opposition, 

 though he had not been regularly declared by the late 

 emperor as his successor. He had hitherto devoted 

 himself entirely to literary pursuits, and was little ac- 

 quainted, at the time of his accession, with public affairs; 

 but his mild and benevolent character speedily attached 

 to him the affections and applause of his people. In 

 1746, new decrees were issued against the missionaries, a 

 few of whom, however, were still permitted to reside at 

 Pekin, on account of their services in matters of science. 

 In 1753, an insurrection was excited among the Eleuth 

 Tartars, by a powerful prince named Amoursana ; but 

 the approach of a Chinese army compelled him to take 

 refuge in the deserts of Siberia, where he died a few 

 years afterward?. Kien-long sent a message to the Rus- 

 sians, requiring the dead body of Amoursana to be deli- 

 vered up to him, that it might be subjected to the custo- 

 mary penalties, for the intimidation of others ; but the 

 Russian?, while they shewed the bodyof the prince to the 

 Chinese commissioners, in order to satisfy them of his 

 decease, refused to commit it into their hands, as their 

 laws, it appears, prohibit any exposure to indignity of 

 the remains of unfortunate persons, who may take refuge 

 in their dominions. In the year 1770, about 50,000 

 families of the Tourgouth Tartars, in the Russian terri- 

 tories, migrated to the frontiers of China, and were af- 

 terwards followed by an additional number, which made 

 the whole amount to nearly half a million of souls. The 

 Chinese monarch was so much gratified by the accession 

 of so many new subjects, and by the testimony of appro- 

 bation which it afforded of his government, that he cau- 

 sed a monument of stone to be erected in commemora- 

 tion of the event, with an inscription in four different 

 languages. In the year 1782, the emperor shewed his 

 vigilance over the administration of public affairs, and 

 his regard for the welfare of his subjects, by punishing a 

 great number of persons of the highest rank, who had 

 been found guilty of embezzling the revenues, and op- 

 pressing the people, while he diminished the amount of 

 taxes upon the lower cia-.scs of the community, and pro- 

 moted the learned men throughout the empire according 

 to their merit. In the year following, the tranquillity of 

 the empire was interrupted by a dissension among some 

 tributary Mahometan tribes on the western frontiers ; 

 and the more turbulent families, to the number of 10,000, 

 having been punished by the Chinese governor with ba- 

 nishment to a more distant residence, they excited tin: 

 tribes, among whom they had retired, to throw off the 

 yoke of the Chinese emperor, and extended the spirit 

 of revolt to the confines of Bucharia. Having secretly 

 secured adherents among the people, where they had for- 

 merly resided, and procured a considerable quantity of 

 military stort-s, they placed themselves under the com- 

 mand of a rebel chief, who had formerly experienced the- 



History. 



A. D. 1770. 

 Dreadful 

 earth- 

 quake. 



Accession 

 of Kieii- 

 long. 



Insurrec- 

 tion of the 

 Mahome- 

 tau tribes. 



