6.30 The far east: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 2/4)

Li, as the conqueror of Peking, never got to form a dynasty because of the almost immediate invasion of the Manchus, who came down from Liao-tung with the aid of some Chinese defectors. (Ref. 68 ) Driven south, the remnants of the Ming eventually occupied Taiwan (never previously under Chinese control) in 1662, wresting it from the Dutch and they remained there until 1683. These new Formosans, led particularly by Cheong Ch'eng-kung

The Mongolians and Manchurians of the eastern steppe apparently learned to protect themselves against plague and it was this that allowed their populations and vigor to be augmented to the point that the Manchu could conquer China. (Ref. 140 ) Some might argue that their habit of eating meat in large slices (as the Mongols before them) might also have contributed. In China proper meat was rare (and thus their proteins deficient?). At any rate, the Manchus set up their own Ch'ing Dynasty which was to rule China until the 20th century. It was these foreign rulers who obliged the native Chinese to wear the Manchu pigtails as a mark of submission. The large robe, of former times, was also altered, but this did not amount to much and otherwise there was basically very little change. (Ref. 260 ) The invaders forbade intermarriage with the natives, but soon these conquerors, too, became "Chinese". The second ruler of the dynasty, K'ang-hsi, gave China the most prosperous, peaceful and enlightened reign in the nation's history. His realm, which included Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, Indo-China, Annam, Tibet and Turkestan was the largest, richest and most populous empire of its time. His rule was more wise and just that that of his contemporaries, Aurangzeb and Louis XIV. All the emperors of the Ch'ing Dynasty lived in magnificent style. When Father Verbiest traveled with the emperor in Manchuria in 1682, the retinue was accompanied by 100,000 horses and in a hunt, 1,000 stags and 60 tigers were killed in 1 day. The Manchus were tough and smart. In 1689 when a final treaty was signed with the Russians at Nerchinsk, officially giving the Amur River basin back to China, the city was surrounded by a large fleet of heavily armed junks and 17,000 Manchu soldiers. (Ref. 131 )

By the end of the century the population had again risen and stood at about 130 million. (Ref. 260 ) The Chinese did not give a monetary value to gold and would exchange it for silver at exceptionally low rates. Some historians believe that from 1/3 to 1/2 the silver mined in America between 1527 and 1821 found its way to China. Braudel (Ref. 292 ) states that in 1695 a traveler reported profits of 300% were made taking Chinese mercury to New Spain.