CONQUESTS OF CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 22816, 26 November 1937, Page 1

CONQUESTS OF CHINA

INVADERS ALWAYS AB6OMED One of the most remarkable pages ini the history of the world is the way in which China has been conquered and reconquered—and then emerged again as China still. Nearly 2,000 years ago a race 'of Tartars poured into China. This is the first of the many Chinese invasions of which we have details. Did China change its name to Tar- , taria? Did it change its language to Tartar? ' On the contrary. The Tartars began: to ’ speak Chinese. They married! Chinese wives. They practised Chinese etiquette. They mingled ,in the great mass 'of native-born Chinese, and that was th«( end of their invasion. Next came a race of Turkish-ances-try. They conquered China right down! to the Yangtse River. But China did! not become a Turkish State, The invading Turks adopted the language, the dress, and the customs of their subjects, and as a separate people were speedily forgotten. About the time when King 'Alfred was burning cakes in Wessex, China! was “ conquered ” again. This time it was a race from tha north called the Kitans. They conquered all northern China, Yet in’ barely two centuries they vanished.Who remembers the mighty and victorious Kitans to-day? There is hardly; a record of them left. There is no such place as Kitania. But China remains. Just after William the Conqueror conquered England a race called the Juchens conquered the Chinese. The chief called himself Emperor of China. He deposed the Chinese Emperor and made him pay a tribute of 5,000,0000 zof gold, 50,000,0000 z .of silver, and 1,000,000 pieces of silk. What fyapeiedi next? The Juchenl Emperor so oll / bad to : issue an edict’ compia/nding His/people not to adopt Chipesfe customs./ The/ edict foiled. The Juchens only] lasted' a centam China went on. Next came/ conquerors far more redoubtable .These were the Mongols—the norffigny hordes of the dread Jenghiz- KSSh. /wlfo had swept ' all across Asia anibeven /mto European Russia. ■The JSCbn{/olsj bated hated citijbs, and nv<jro utterly ruthless when they conquered a people. Jenghiz Khan’.boasted:— “ When/ I /sack a city I kill every.-, living -thing/and raze every house in such a nislpon that my cavalry can gallop wwqss it without ever stumbling J’ 7 / In one Campaign he had-',sacked,, si hundred 'cities ■ thUbii' '■ 'Hr*province ho killed 700,000 people, in one city some of the conquered only: pretended they were dead, so he cut off the head of every person and raised three pyramids of heads, one for the men, one for the women, and one for the children. What chance had the unwarlike Chinese against such a people? But Chinese civilisation was .too strong even for the Mongols. They lost their conquering spirit. After a. century the Mongol dynasty of emperors ended and the Mongols became—just Chinese. The Chinese had a dynasty of their own, the Ming, and went on tilling the land, writing wisdom, and mating exquisite china, as nsual. Then the barbarian, poured in from' the north again. This time it was the •Manchus. The Chinese Emperor slew .his daughters, bade his wife commit suicide, and jumped into the Yangtsq River with imperturbable decorum. A foreign conqueror once more sat' on the heavenly throne. The Chinese sat tight, as usual, and awaited events. The Manchu emperors were proud of being _ warriors. They thought that anything other than soldiering was utterly beneath their notice. These do-nothing warriors were easy prey to the Chinese. All that happened was that the Emperor was surrounded by Chinese officials and Civil servants, who ran the country for him. The Manchu emperors lasted from 1644 until they were deposed at last in 1911. At the end of that time China wag exactly as Chinese as when the Manchus arrived.