442 C H 
miles diftant. On their approach the emperor fled with 
all his family beyond the great wall, and this put an end 
to the dynafty of Ywei*. In 1370 he died, and was l'uc- 
ceeded by his Ton, whom the fuccefl'or of Hong-vu drove 
beyond the Kobi or Great Defert, which feparates China 
from Tartary. 
The 2.ift dynafty of Chinefe emperors, founded in 1368 
by Chu, continued till the year 1644, when they were 
again expelled by the Tartars. The laft Chinefe empe¬ 
ror was named Whay-tfong, and afcended the throne in 
i6a 8. He w as a great lover of the fciences, and a favourer 
of the Chriftians; though much addifted to the fuperlti- 
tions of the Bonzes. He was engaged in a war with the 
Tartars, and with a number of rebels in different pro¬ 
vinces. 
In 1636, the Tartars and rebels above-mentioned com- 
poied four great armies, commanded by as many generals; 
which armies, however, were loon reduced to two, com¬ 
manded by Li and Chang. Tliefe two generals agreed 
to divide the empire between them; Chang taking the 
weltern provinces, and Li the eaftern. The latter leized 
on part of Shen-fi, and then of Honan, whole capital, 
named Kay-fong-fu, he laid fiege to, but was repull’ed 
With loft. He renewed it fix months after, but without 
iuccefs; the belieged chufing rather to feed on human 
flelh than l'urrender. The Imperial forces coming foon 
after to its afliftance, the general made no doubt of be¬ 
ing able to deftroy the rebels at once, by breaking down 
the banks of the Yellow River ; but they efcaped to the 
mountains, while the city was rapidly overflowed, and 
300,000 of the inhabitants pei ilhed. After this difafter, 
Li marched into the provinces of Shen-fi -and Honan; 
where lie put to death numbers of the mandarins, ex¬ 
acted great fums from the officers in place, and (hewed 
no favour to any but the populace, whom he freed from 
all taxes : by this means he drew fo many to his intereft, 
that he thought himfelf ftrong enough to affume the title 
of emperor. He then advanced towards the capital, which, 
though well garrifoned, was divided by factions. Li had 
taken care to introduce before hand, a number of his 
men in difguife, and by tliefe the gates were opened to 
him the third day after his arrival. He entered the city 
in triumph at the head of 300,000 men ; wdiilft the em¬ 
peror kept himfelf Ihut up in his palace, bulled only with 
liis fuperllitions. It was not long, however, before he 
found himfelf betrayed : and, under the greateft con¬ 
firmation, made an effort to get out of the palace, at¬ 
tended by about 600 of his guards. He was Hill more 
furprifed to fee himfelf treacheroully abandoned by them, 
and deprived of all hopes of elcaping the infults of his 
fubjeCts. Upon this, preferring death to the difgrace of 
falling alive into the hands of his enemies, he retired 
with his empreft, whom he tenderly loved, and the prin- 
cefs her daughter, into a private part of the garden. His 
jjriyf was fo great that he was not able to utter a word; 
hut Hie foon underftood his meaning, and, after a few 
filent embraces, hanged herfelf on a tree in a filken fixing. 
Her hufband (laid only to write thefe words on the bor¬ 
der Of his veil: “ I have been balely deferted by my fub¬ 
jeCts ; do what you will with me, but fpare my people.” 
He then cut off the young princefs’s head with his fcy- 
mitar, and hanged himfelf on another tree, in the feven- 
teenth year of his reign, and thirty-fixth of his age. His 
minifters, women, ahd eunuchs, followed his example; 
and thus ended the Chinefe- monarchy ufurped by, Chu, 
to give place to that of the Tartars, which hath continued 
ever fince. 
It was fome time before the-body of the unfortunate 
monarch was found. At laft it was brought before Li, 
and ufed with the utmoft indignity; after which he caufed 
two of Whey-tfong’s fons to be beheaded; but his eldeft 
foil efcaped by flight. The w'liole empire now lubmitted 
to the authority of Li, except prince U-fan-ghey, who 
commanded the imperial forces in the province of Lyau- 
tong. This brave prince,, finding himfelf unable to tope 
N A; - 
With Li, invited the Tartars to his afliftance ; and Tfong- 
te their king immediately joined him with So,000 men. 
Upon this Li marched to Peking; but not thinking him¬ 
felf fafe there, he plundered and burnt the palace, and 
then fled with the immenfe treafure he had collected. 
What became of him afterwards we are not told; but 
the young Tartar monarch was immediately declared 
emperor of China, his father Tfong-te having died almoft 
as foon as he let his foot in that empire. This new em¬ 
peror, named Slmn-chi, or Xun-chi , the firft of the 
Man-clioo Tartar race, began his reign with reward¬ 
ing U-fan-ghey, by conferring upon him the title of 
King; and afiigned him the city of Si-gnan-fu, capi¬ 
tal of Shen-fi, for his lefidence. This, however, did not 
hinder U-fan-ghey from repenting of his error in calling 
in the Tartars, or, as he himfelf ufed to phrale it, “ in 
fending for lions to drive away dogs.” In 1674, he form¬ 
ed a ltrong alliance againft them, and would probably 
have prevailed, if his allies had been faithful; but they 
treacheroully deferted him, which broke his heart, and he 
died foon after. In 16S1 Hong-wha, Ion to U-fan-ghey, 
who continued his efforts againft the Tartars, was reduced 
to fuch difttefs, that he put an end to his own life. 
During this fpace, there had been fome reliftance made 
to the Tartars in many of the provinces. Two princes 
of Chinefe extraction had at different times been pro¬ 
claimed emperors; but both of them were defeated and 
put to death. In 1682, the whole fifteen provinces were 
fo effectually fubdued, that the emperor Kang-lii, fuc- 
celfor to Shun-chi, determined to vilit his native 
dominions of Tartary. He was accompanied by an 
army of 70,000 men, to attend him in taking the di- 
verfion of hunting. This he continued to do for fome 
years; and in his journies took father Verbeift, thejefuit 
miflionary, along with him ; by which means we have a 
better delcription of thefe countries than could poflibly 
have been otherwife obtained. This prince was a great 
encourager of learning, and of the Chriftian religion ; in 
favour of which he publiflied a decree, dated in 1692. In 
1716, however, he revived fome obfolete laws againft the 
Chriftians ; nor could the miffionaries, at leaft for a time, 
preferve the footing they had got in China. The caufe 
of this hafty periecuting fpirit in fo good and wife a 
prince, has been varioufly reprefented by different au¬ 
thors. The true caufe, was the jealoufy of the bonzes 
or priefts of Fo, who, working on the prejudices and 
palfions of fome of the mandarins in their intereft ; they, 
in their turn, impofed on the emperor, by mifreprefen- 
tations of the purfuits ahd practices of the Chriftian 
converts, which not only led to the revival of edicts 
againft them, but againft the movers of all new feds, or 
novel doftrines, left they Ihould effeCt the tranquillity of 
the ftate. Many of the milfionaries were however re- 
ftored, pnd fuffered to penetrate through the different 
provinces of China, for fome time before the death of 
Kaung-hi, which happened after a long and profperous 
reign, in the year 1722. He was lucceeaed by his fon 
Yong-tchien, who, though a moderate and peaceful em¬ 
peror, not only gave no encouragement to the mifliona- 
ries but perfecuted all Chriftians, of what country or de¬ 
nomination foever. He at firft limited the milfionaries 
to the province of Quang-tong; but, in 1732, upon 
iome mifunderftanding or difturbance between the Eu¬ 
ropeans and Chinefe in the city of Canton, they were 
finally banilhed to the ifland of Macao, which had been 
given to the Portuguele. 
In 1736, Yong-tchien died, and was fucceeded by his 
fon Tchien-lung, furnamed the Great Emperor. It was 
to this prince, that the celebrated embally under the 
direftion of the earl of Macartney, was fent by his Biit- 
tanic majefty ; and it was during his reign, that the 
Chinefe people and nation began to grow into higheftr- 
matioh with the commercial kingdoms of Europe. 
Tchien-lung foon after his acceffion to the throne, re¬ 
called the nrilfionaries, and retained the moit diftinguilhed 
