The Long White Mountan : or, A journey in Manchuria, with some account of the history, people, administration and religion of that country

Front matter

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Contents

C'lIAPTEU I.

IXTRODVCTOUY.

Programme of tbe voyaji^e — ^^ e reach Yiugtzu or Newchwang — Ptwition of Manchuria — Ita boundaries— Ite three proTinces— Extent of the country— Colonisation by Chinese — Manchuria a highland country —Mountains — IUveT» — ^Barriera for transit-dues — Different namea for the same place — Survey by the Jesuits — Description of towns — WalU of towns— Military stations— Plan of towns— Arcliitecture— Yamens— Temples — Pagodas— Failoua— Pawnshops— Signposts— Boads— Fertile soil — Crops — Contrast between Indian ryots and Chinese— Varieties of millet— Uses of great millet — Small millet- Good fodder — Golden millet— Other crops— Bean-curd— Bean-oil— Vegetables— Fruits — Timber — Ginseng — Deer-horns— Minerals- Furs — Manufactures — Climate — Difficulties of transport — Telegraphs— Money — Cash — Cumbersome currency — Local notes- Silver shoes— Money-changers— Mint— Passports • . • . 1

Chapter I, Introductory

Programme of the voyage — ^We reach Tingtza or Newchwang — Poaition of Manchuria— Its boundaries— Its three proTincee— Extent of the country — CJolomBation by Ghineee — Manchuria a highland country — Mountaina —Rivera— Barriers for transit-duea — DiflPerent names Tor the aame place

— Survey "by the Jesuita — Description of towns — Walla of tovens

Military stations — Plan of towns — Architecture — Yamens — Temples — Pagodas — Pailous — Pawnshops — Signposts— Roads— Fertile soil— Crops — Contrast between Indian ryots and Chinese — Varieties of millet

— Uses of great millet — Small millet — Good fodder — Golden millet .

Other crops — ^Bean-curd — Bean-oil — Vegetables — Fruits — ^Timber - Ginseng — Deer-horns — Minerals — Furs — Manufact ures *- Climate — Diifi* culties of transport — Telegraphs — Money — Cash — Cumbersome currency — Local notes— Silver shoes — ^Money-changeis — Mint — Passports.

In the winter of 1885 I was entitled to two years' furlough, and determined to spend part of it in China. By great good fortune I soon found a companion, Lieut. Younghusband, of the King's Dragoon Guards, and our plans were speedily formed for a journey in Manchuria, a country full of historical interest, which has been but little explored. Friends from China confirmed us in our choice, asserting that the climate in the north was better, and the people far pleasanter to deal with than in the south or west. The mountains were said to be full of tigers, deer, and other large game, so we were

B sure to get plenty of sport. Last, but not least, the situation of Manchuria on the Russian and Corean frontiers marked it as a country to which public attention was likely one day to be attracted.

We left Calcutta on March 19, 1886, and proceeded to Hongkong by way of Penang and Singapore. We then carried out the tourist's usual programme — Canton, Shanghai, and Peking, including the Great Wall and the Ming tombs. As we neither saw nor did anything extraordinary at these places, I spare my readers any account of them, though I cannot refrain from saying that, to my judgment. Canton, with its crowded streets and beautiful shops, its temples and pagodas, and its mighty city of boats, is the city best worth seeing in the world except Pompeii, and Peking the dirtiest and most unpleasant. By the beginning of May we had sailed in a steamer from Tientsin to Yingtzu, the principal port in Manchuria (commonly but erroneously called Newchwang), and on May 19 we started for the interior.

Manchuria occupies the north-eastern corner of the Chinese Empire, being surrounded on the north and east by Russia, and on the south by Corea. The name signifies the country of the Manchus, a tribe of Tartars, of whom I shall have a good deal to say further on ; but the word is unknown to the Chinese, having, as far as I can ascertain, been coined by French geographers. The ordinary Chinese name is Tung-sansh&ng, or ' the three eastern provinces.' At the present day Manchuria includes roughly a tract which lies between lat. 52° and 40° N. and long. 122° and 131° E. Its existing boundaries are, on the north, the river Amur; on the east, the river Usuri, the river Sungacha, Lake Hinka, and part of the Russian province of the

Il^TRODUCTORT 3

Primorsk ; on the south, Corea, the Yellow Sea, and the Liao-tung Gulf ; and on the west, Mongolia. Its extreme length from Port Arthur, on the Gulf of Pechihli, to a point opposite Albazin, on the Amur, is about 900 miles; and its breadth from Hulan-Pei*rh to Lake Hinka, about 600 miles as the crow flies. It lies north of the Great Wall, and therefore is not part of China Proper, which it joins only at its extreme south-western corner, but belongs to what ancient geographers called Tartary. It is divided into three provinces- The first is Fengt'ien, i.e. * heaven ordained ' (as it has been ordained as the source of the present ruling dynasty), in the south, with an area of about 50,000 square miles and a population of from 12,000,000 to 13,000,000. It is commonly called in histories Liao-tung, that is, the country east of the Liao river, and sometimes in maps Shingking, the translation of the Manchu name for the capital, Moukden. Kirin is in the centre, containing about 90,000 square miles, with a population of about 6,000,000 to 8,000,000, and Hei-lung-chiang in the north, with 140,000 square miles (inclusive of a portion of Mongolia joined to it for military purposes), and a population of 2,000,000. These figures, which are founded upon a careful estimate by Mr. T. Taylor Meadows, a former British Consul at Newchwang, and my own observation, give a total of 280,000 square miles and a population of 20,000,000 to 23,000,000, and may be taken as approximately correct. The area of Manchuria is thus larger than the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The three provinces of Manchuria would in India be called non-regulation provinces. Though the law administered is the same as in China, there is a military executive, the chiefs of which are all Manchus, and in the centre and north the same officers perform both military and civil duties. The most southerly, Fengt'ien, which is comparatively close to the capital — for it adjoins the province of Chihli, in which Peking is situated — ^has been for so many centuries subject to China that there is practically no outward difference between it and any other part of China Proper ; but the other two provinces, though from time to time nominally subject to Chinese suzerainty, did not come under the direct government of Peking until 1644, when the Manchus took possession of the empire. With a very sparse population of nomad hunters, they were reserved as a nursery for Tartar soldiers, and also used as a place for the transportation of Chinese criminals. It is only since the year 1820 that colonisation by Chinese has been permitted in these regions, and for a long time after that life and property were so insecure that emigration languished. During the last twenty years, however, great strides have been made, millions of settlers have arrived, and the land is being reclaimed as rapidly as in Manitoba itself. But the two northern provinces are still very backward, swarming with brigands and bad characters. There is little unoccupied land in Feng-t*ien, but vast areas lie uncultivated elsewhere.

Manchuria is essentially a highland country, a land of mountains, rivers, and swamps ; almost the entire south and east are occupied by ranges of hills which geographers have christened Ch*ang-pai-shan, from the name of the principal peak. The meaning is — * The Long White Mountains.' ^ (Another name is Shan-alin,

* The word Ch'ang in Chinese, like the word ' long * in English, is used for distance as well as time. Hence some authorities caU them the ' Ever- White Mountains/ which is part of the corresponding Manchii terra, Golding-shan-alin.) The inhabitants know the ranges by no specific name, though individual peaks and passes have separate titles — e.g. Lao-yeh-ling, or the Pass of Lao-yeh, the God of War, the favourite god in Manchuria. The mountains radiate in different directions without any apparent system, and the watersheds between rivers run in one part north and south, and elsewhere east and west. They form part of a series of volcanic hills, from 3,000 to 8,000 feet in height, which extend in the south far into Corea, and in the west into the Primorsk, as far as the Sea of Okhotsk, The plain country is limited to the fertile alluvial tract in the west of Feng-t*ien, on the banks of the Liao Ho, and to the north and west of Kirin, in the region of Petuna, and where the Nonni drains a vast area of undulating «teppes. North of the Sungari, the hills form part of a separate system, also volcanic, consisting of outlying spurs of the great Chingan Range. The principal rivers are the Yalu or Ai-chiang, the Tumen or Kaoli-chiang, the Sungari or Sung-hua-chiang, the Nonni, and the Hurka or Mu-tan-chiang. The three first rise within a short distance of one another, in the remote recess of the Ch*ang-pai-shan Mountains. The Yalu flows west into the Yellow Sea; the Tumen east into the Japan Sea, the two together forming the boundary between Manchuria and Cor.ea, The Sungari, which is far the largest, is one of the most considerable tributaries of the Amur. It flows about 350 miles in a shghtly north-westerly direction, and then, taking a sharp turn to the east, after a further course of 500 miles, falls into the Amur 150 miles above Khabarofka. The Nonni rises in the Chingan Mountains, north-west of Tsitsihar, not far from the Amur itself, and flows south, joining the

Sungari near Petuna. The Hurka rises about 120 miles south-west of Ninguta, flows north-east and due north, and joins the Sungari at Sansing, nearly 200 miles above its junction with the Amur. Three other important streams must also be numbered amongst Manchurian rivers. The first is the Liao Ho, on which the port of Yingtzu is situated. It rises far to the west in Mongolia, and drains the low country west of the Ch'angpai-shan Mountains. The second is the great Amur, called by the Chinese Hei-lung-chiang or Black Dragon Eiver — in Manchu, Sakhalin — which divides Manchuria from Siberia. The third is the Usuri, also half Eussian. It rises not far from Vladivostok, and falls into the Amur near Khabarofka.

On the map will be seen marked two barriers of palisades, one commencing at the Great Wall and passing by Yu-shih-ch*^ng-tzu and K'uan-ch^eng-tzu toFa-taha-mSn, and the other starting from Feng huang-ch'6ng, on the Corean border, and meeting the first not far from Kai-yuan. These barriers have no more existence at the present day than the Roman Wall. They consisted of long lines of wooden chevaux-de-frise^ in the shape of St. Andrew's crosses, and made it difficult for men, and especially for cavalry, to pass. They were designed by the Ming dynasty about four centuries ago, the first to exclude Mongols from Liao-tung, and the second, which is identified, by some with a willow fence put up by the Emperor Kanghi for a deer park, to keep out Manchu and Tartar robbers. The wooden gateways, or men^ are, however, still maintained as Customs barriers, and aU traffic passing through them must pay *lekin* or transit dues. Only an occasional mound or row of trees marks the line where the palisade originally stood.

The capital of F&ng-t*ien, which is also the chief town in Manchuria, is Sh6n-yang, though on maps it will be found under its Manchu name, Moukden, or Shing-king, which means the 'capital of prosperity.' Almost all places and rivers in this favoured tract have two names, which differ completely. The first, which is the oflScial name, and the one which will be found on most maps, is the Manchu word, the second the Chinese, and the latter is now in almost universal use with Chinese and Manchus alike. As vainly might the traveller in Manchuria ask for Moukden or Kirin, as the American for Eboracum or Byzantium. The only survey ever made, but that a remarkably good one considering the short time spent over it, was carried out by three Jesuit fathers in the years 1709 and 1710, under the orders of the Emperor Kanghi, and, as both Manchu influence and population were at that time predominant in Manchuria, the Manchu names were entered in the map and sliU have official precedence, Moukden is the lieadquarters of the Governor of Ffing-t'ien, who is also Governor-General of Manchuria. It is the finest of the * fenced ' or walled cities, of which Feng-t'ien has at least thirty, enclosed by really magnificent fortifications laid out in regular parallelograms, a mile or even two miles each way. The walls in most cases are built of squared stone or bricEpthick and massive at the base, and tapering gradually to the top, which is crowned by a crenellated parapet. Seen from outside, thick buttresses at regular intervals break the monotony of the long line of masonry. At each corner stands a flanking tower, and in the centre of each side there is a lofty fortified gateway, surmounted by a picturesque pavilion, or watch-tower, several stories high. Formerly the gates used to be closed every night at sundown, as is still done at Peking, but the custom is gradually falling into disuse, and at some towns the walls themselves are out of repair. Notwithstanding, there is a stately solidity about them lacking in the walls of Indian towns, even those at Delhi being small in comparison. In Manchuria, whenever a village or trading place develops in size or prosperity, its first aim is to build a wall, and in Central and Northern Manchuria we found many of quite recent construction, but for lack of funds or public spirit nowadays they are mere mud enclosures. Even Kirin, or Ch'uan-ch^ang, the capital of Central Manchuria, is only partly surrounded by a masonry wall, and that a miserable apology like the wall of a Clapham villa, the rest of it being made of mud, and so ruinous that we used to jump over it daily when we went out for a walk. Yet wretched mounds and ditches like this have even in the last two years sufficed to protect towns from regular armies of brigands. The capital of Hei-lung-chiang and -Northern Manchuria is Tsi-tsi-har, or Pu-ku*ei, on the river Nonni. It also is surrounded by a mere mud walk

The following are the chief military stations on the northern frontier : Hulan-Pe*rh and Aigun ; on the east, San-sing, Ninguta, and Hun-ch*un ; on the south, Feng-huang-ch'eng, Chin-chou-ting, Port Arthur (Lu shunk*ou), Yingtzu, Chin-chou-fu, and Shan-hai-kuan. The principal port is Yingtzu. The chief commercial town in the interior is K'uan-ch'Sng-tzil.

Towns in Manchuria are almost always laid out as in America, on a regular plan. The main street runs due north and south, and the second best crosses it at right angles, while parallel to these run a series of alleys of greater or less dimensions, according to the importance of the place. But so anxious are new comers to locate themselves in the high street, that it is not uncommon

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o to find a newly-formed settlement consisting of a single street a mile or two long with hardly the rudiments of any cross streets, though a more compact Arrangement would be obviously better. The houses are all oneatpried., the better class constructed of gray brick, faced and corniced with slabs and tiles of the same material, which admit of being carved into elaborate and delicate designs. These tiles last extremely well, and suffer nothing from exposure. Most buildings are designed after one stiff common-place rectangular pattern, with a slight attempt at ornament in the high-pitched roofs, thjB topmost ridge of which tails off at the end into an lipward curve, somewhat like the prow of a gondola. The general outline and peculiar roof suggest a canvas tent as the primary motifs though there is no further proof than this likeness of origin. The yamens, or pubUc offices, and temples are all built on precisely the same design, the more pretentious edifices having verandahs, the pillars and spandrels of which are carved and gaily painted. And occasionally a handsome pavilion, with gorgeously coloured eaves — that is a part to which the Chinese builder always pays special attention — may be seen in a great man's courtyard. Still it must be confessed that the Chinese do not shine in architecture. Almost the only buildings which can be called picturesque are the lofty old-fashioned towers or pagodas such as one sees upon willow-pattern plates, with a quaint roof jutting out from each story, like a dozen umbrellas on one stick, They are generally seven or nine stories high, the number being always an odd one, and sometimes reach 150 feet in height.

Originally supposed to guard a sh6-li or relic of Buddha, or else a set of Buddhist scriptures, many of them have been built as monuments of affection, or in honour of distinguished men. Sometimes an idol may be found in the lower story, but their chief merit is supposed to consist in their drawing down good influences from heaven. In Manchuria, towers of the kind are confined to the limits of F6ng-t*ien. The temples occasionally have pretty little bell-towers, with deeply curved roofs of the same design, and 'p'ai-lou,' or triple memorial arches, both in wood and stone, are often very elegant. Yet, Chinese understand the grouping of buildings harmoniously, and a street is very striking to the eye owing to the multiplicity of gorgeous signposts and advertisement boards. The finest sign is that of the pawnshops, which in Manchuria fulfil the functions of banks. It consists of a lofty pillar fastened at the base between two massive granite blocks, and from the upper part of it projects the carved efligy of a dragon's head gaily painted and gilded. Obelisks far finer than Cleopatra's Needle, with handsome Chinese hieroglyphics in gilding all the way down, tall lamp-posts carved to imitate pagodas, lofty Venetian masts from which depend glittering signboards of every shape, colour, and design, vie with one another in attracting attention. They are all fixed on the edge of the trottoir, so that, looking down the street, it appears one bright vista of masts, flags, and sign-posts. In some towns the streets are paved with wooden sleepers, which conceal hidden sewers ; but as a rule there is no attempt at paving nor any thought of sanitation.

In the high streets the ruts are several feet deep, and during the rainy season the roadway is churned into a slough of fetid black mud, in which carts often stick for hours, and occasionally get overturned. Then the filthy habits of a great part of the population, combined with the accumulation of market and house sweepings in any corner which is handy, and the free flow over the streets of house suUage, which in other parts of China is economically preserved for manure, combine to render a Manchurian town in some respects a pigsty which beggars description. The land is exceedingly fertile, being generally a rich black loam. The principal crops are millet, wheat, maize hemp, barley, poppy, indigo, tobacco, rice, and beans - The shortness of the season alone prevents two crops being raised, though turnips and vegetables may be grown on land cropped in the spring. Even in newly-reclaimed tracts the careful mode of tillage contrasts greatly with the loose, untidy fashion followed by the ryot in India. The ryot has certainly a more oppressive climate to contend with ; still he is less stolid and methodical than the Chinaman, who gets up at two in the morning, works with hardly any intermission till dark, and then goes to bed at once, so as to rise again early the next day. The result is marvellous. Instead of scattering the seed broadcast, it is carefully planted in ridges at regular intervals apart, and the cultivator is for ever weeding, hoeing, or irrigating, so that each head of grain develops like a prize plant.

There are three kinds of millet, each of which has several sub -varieties. First, there is the tall kaoliang, or Holcus sorghum. This is the jowar or cholam of India, where it forms one of the great food grains of the people, and the stalks are highly prized for cattle fodder. In Manchuria the grain is principally used for feeding mules and other animals, or else for distilling spirits, while the stems are converted into fuel (where no wood is to be got they are frequently the only fuel), or devoted to roofing houses and strewing the roadways of bridges, or the outer rind is stripped off and woven into matting. Secondly, thjgre is the small millet, ku-±zu or hsiao-mi {Setaria italica\ a plant about three feet high, somethiDg like the Holctis spicatua or bajri of India, only with a drooping head. This is the principal food grain. After the outer husk is removed it is boiled without any further preparation, and forms a most excellent substitute for porridge. The straw, which is particularly sweet, is chopped up fine with a sharp knife worked in a massive frame like the bread-chopper used in a workhouse in England, and, mixed with moistened kao-liang, makes the best fodder in the universe. It is singular that this staple, one of the finest imaginable for man or beast, has not spread to India. The third is the golden millet or huang-rai {Panicum miliaceum\ a beautiful plant to look at, with a graceful drooping head, which is put to the same use as hsiao-mi. Wheat and barley are not of much account in Manchuria. Oats grow but sparingly. Maize is very common, and is eaten both green and dry. The hemp-plant grows to an enormous size and in vast quantities. The poppy, too, is found everywhere, and the plants are even finer than in India. Tobacco grows luxuriantly, of a mild quality, good enough for cigarettes. There is also a dry crop rice — that is to say, one that grows on dry land, and not in water, and which would possibly be very valuable in those parts of India where the rainfall is precarious. Last, but not least, come peas and beans. These form the great produce of Manchuria. From them oil is expressed of universal demand in Chinese cookery, and the residuum, pressed into great cakes, is either used as food for cattle or exported a» manure for sugar-cane. Beans are also ground into a pulp with water and converted into a white jelly-like substance called bean-curd. It looks very good, and the Chinese consider it one of the greatest delicacies in Manchuria, though it has a disagreeable, rancid taste. Enormous quantities of both bean-oil and cake are exported annually to other parts of China.

Vegetables grow freely, both hardy and semi-hardy, such as melons, gourds, cucumbers, cabbage, lettuce, and turnips. The potatoes are as fine as I ever saw. Fruits are poor, except, perhaps, plums. There are a few peaches, and wild cob-nuts and filberts abound in the mountains. A good illustration of what cultivation will do for wild fruits may be seen in the haw or hawthorn berry. .In Manchuria it grows to the size of a large gooseberry and makes excellent tarts and preserves.

Large quantities of tusser (in Chinese, t*u-ssu) or wild silk are produced in Liao-tung, as well as a little cotton. The hills are very rich in timber, minerals, and furs. The south slopes of the Ch*ang-pai-shan Mountains abound in magnificent trees, chiefly pines, which are floated to the mouth of the Yalu, and thence dis« tributed to all parts of China. In the deep vales grows the famous ginseng plant, the most highly-prized medicine in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. The wild root sells for 10/. or 12/. the ounce on an average, and large roots fetch fancy prices like large diamonds. When cultivated, it is worth only is, to 5^. a pound. A great article of export is deer-horns, which are also valued as medicine. A pair of them newly-sprouted and about a foot long, all velvet and blood, fetches from 50/. to 60/. The same when fully matured fetches only 7^. M.

As for minerals, we found in one place gold, silver, coal, and iron within a few miles of one another, and the gold and coal of Manchuria should have a great future before them. Meanwhile, I suppose, on the principle of

U TUB LONG WHITE MOUNTAIN

^Aurum irrepertiim et sic melius sitiim,' the mandaririd profess to prohibit gold -mining altogether. The miner, in fact, in the eye of the law, is on a level with the robber, and may be treated in the same fashion ; and unfortunately the miner and the robber are in too many cases the same person. The death penalty is also inflicted on persons working coal without a licence. Theoretically it is sacrilege to dig into the bowels of mother-earth, and the sin of silver-mining was supposed to have contributed to the downfall of the Ming dynasty/ But the Government at the present day has extensive coal-mines of its own near Peking, and there are licensed pits on a large scale both in Liao-tung and Kirin. Gold-mining, too, in Manchuria goes on merrily, either with the connivance of the local mandarin or in wild tracts beyond his cognizance. But not always. The day before we arrived at Sansing a miner lost his head ; and a short while ago, when Kussian subjects crossed the Amur to the gold-diggings at Yaksa, near Albazin, and quarrelled with the Chinese, the mandarins forcibly closed the works and exposed the mutilated bodies of their own subjects pour encourager les autres. Besides coal, there is first-class peat in many places.

The Ch*ang-pai-shan and Chingan Mountains also yield an abundant supply of sables, and Manchurian tiger-skins are far handsomer than Indian, with long silky hair. Squirrel, fox, lynx, and other furs are also plentiful. The rivers yield sturgeon, salmon, trout, and many varieties of fish, besides pearls of inferior quality.

Manufactures in Manchuria are not very advanced — in fact, just what might be expected in a country emerging from barbarism. There is but little weaving, as the cotton cloths which are in universal wear are imported from China, but dyeing establishments are numerous. Capital furniture, boxes, and coffins are made, elegantly painted and lacquered, as well as a kind of inlaid parquetry, and the carpenters are unrivalled in the manufacture of carts and cart-wheels. Tanning and the preparation of furs have reached a very high pitch of excellence, and the leather for shoes is good. There is also a little carving in marble.

The climate is temperate, at any rate in summer ; the highest temperature we felt in the shade was 87° Fahr. on July 30. The rains commence in May, continuing almost without intermission till the end of August. The winter is severe; in the north the temperature goes down to 49"* below zero Fahr., while even on the coast it reaches — 10® Fahr. As long, however, as the north wind does not blow, it is an honest, dry, invigorating cold, far less disagreeable than the irritating chilliness of the Punjaub winter ; but, when the north wind does blow, the less said about it the better.

The reader can now judge that, as. countries go, Manchuria is well off; with a reasonably honest and intelligent administration, which encouraged rather than thwarted its development, ita wealth would be unbounded, but it .sadly lacks some of the most elementary requirements of either agricultural or commercial prosperity. First and foremost, roads are wanting; there are certainly tracks more or less defined from town to town, including the so-called imperial postroads between garrison towns, but during the greater part of the year they are simply swamps impassable for carts. Traffic is confined to the winter months, when bog and stream are bound by rigorous frost. On the main lines of communication the worst pieces of quagmire and stream are bridged by the publicspirited efforts of local guilds, and in the north and east the same has been done by the soldiery for military reasons. But the difficulties are so great, and the distances so long, that commerce is positively choked. For instance, when there have been floods in the Liao basin, and grain becomes dear, it does not pay to import it from the mid-Sungari and northern districts, where it is almost a drug in the market. So, again, beans can only be sent south in the shape of oil, and grain in the form of liquor distilled from it. Even in Liao-tung it is computed that one-third of the grain is converted into whisky. Then there is no post. The imperial messengers only carry Government despatches, and, though merchants have established communications by couriers between some of the most important places, the convenience is by no means general. When we were staying at Pa-yen-su-su, a town of 25,000 inhabitants, we were unable to send a letter to Kirin, only a hundred and fifty miles off, and had to employ a special messenger. Telegraphs, it is true, are in the course of rapid construction, but they have been established solely for military reasons, and the offices are itoo far apart to be of much use to the public. Between I Yingtzu and Hun-ch'un, a distance of six hundred miles, [there are only three offices.