enforced, and gradually the scions of the Ming family became territorial magnates to the great discontent of the people. It was in the eyes of the latter a flagrant interference with the laws of providence to "assign to one man a district which could supply the wants of a hundred families."

While this cause for discontent not only existed but was acquiring fresh force throughout the country, the extravagance of the court had resulted in grave pecuniary embarrassment, and, as some possible means of supplying urgent wants, orders were given to resume the working of all the gold mines in Central China upon which operations had been long discontinued. More than half a million of persons were employed, but the result was next to nothing. Many lives were lost from fever, and the total sum which the Emperor derived from this desperate expedient and experiment amounted to no more than thirty ounces. The search for gold was then abandoned in despair, but we are not told whether the Emperor sought the true remedy of his embarrassment in retrenchment and economy.

On the other hand, several undertakings of great public utility must be placed to the credit of Hientsong, and among these not the least important was the cutting of a canal from Pekin to the Peiho, sufficiently deep to admit of large junks laden with grain proceeding to the capital both from the Yuho and from the Gulf of Pechihli. The transport of grain from the central provinces, in order to supply the wants of the capital and of the northern districts, where a large garrison was permanently stationed, was always very exten sive, and a regular organization was required to maintain it in an efficient state. At first it had been placed in the hands of the civil authorities, but eventually it was transferred to those of the military, by whom the work was performed with remarkable success. In this measure may be seen the germ of an efficient military field transport, although it must be remembered that here the great difficulty of all was much simplified by the existence of a convenient water-way throughout the entire route.

Another enterprise of a dissimilar but not less useful character was accomplished in the repairing of the great wall

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of Tsin Chi Hwangti. In 1474 it was reported in a memorial to the throne that this structure was in a state of great disrepair, and that the flourishing condition of the Empire afforded a favourable opportunity for restoring it. The necessary sanction having been obtained from the Emperor, the work was prosecuted with energy. The local garrison supplied the labour, and in a few months the wall had been renovated throughout a great portion of its length by the efforts of 50,000 soldiers. A large extent of territory within this wall was then parcelled out among military settlers, and while there was increased security from without, greater prosperity prevailed within.

The closing years of Hientsong's reign witnessed the achievement of several brilliant successes over the Tartars. The town of Hami was taken by one of his lieutenants, and again subjected to Chinese authority. But on the northern frontier near Taitong the Imperialists suffered a reverse, which the unlucky commanders represented in their official bulletins as a success. The latter misadventure was exceptional, and the capture of Hami more truly represented the condition of the Empire, when Hientsong's death left the throne vacant. (A.D. 1487.)

His son and successor, Hiaotsong, was a youth of eighteen when he was called upon to assume the grave responsibility of governing the Empire, but his youth does not appear to have led him into any greater indiscretion than to show a marked partiality for the doctrines of Buddhism. In China, although such a tendency has long been common, and although Buddhism now holds an important part in the religious ceremonies and belief of the court, a leaning towards Buddhism has always been denounced as a kind of infidelity. The moralists of the palace and the petitioners of the throne have ever seized the opportunity thus afforded them to dilate upon the virtues of the great men of a primitive era, and to protest against the immorality of these later days. So it was in the case of Hiaotsong; but whatever his errors of opinion, his acts as ruler appear to have been founded in wisdom, and marked by generosity towards those who disagreed with him.

The presence of a young prince upon the throne always affords the opportunity for rival ambitions to assert themselves in the arena of public affairs. The first few years of Hiaotsong's reign were not free from this cause of irritation, and several ministers were banished and decapitated in expiation of their crimes or misfortune before the Emperor felt sure that he had found in Mawenchin a man in whose integrity he might place the same faith as in his ability. Mawenchin held throughout Hiaotsong's reign the foremost place in official life, and the country benefited equally by his sagacity and his valour. Although the records are always too meagre, and sometimes too contradictory, to invest the subject with any of the interest which at the time it claimed in the eyes of the Chinese, we cannot pass over the one question which occupied the attention, roused the apprehension, and employed the talent of Mawenchin and his colleagues.

In remote Central Asia, where the exciting game of ambition has oft been played by ephemeral conquerors, whose fluctuating fortunes have been marked by the overthrow of dynasties, the Chinese had now for almost a century maintained their supremacy intact, if frequently disputed, and their strong position at Hami enabled them to foil the spasmodic attempts of their rude assailants. The governor of this town naturally became a personage of great importance on the north-west frontier, and at no other place did good service receive its due reward more promptly than at this gate of the Empire. One of Hiaotsong's first acts had been to raise Hanchen, the governor, who had retaken it in the last year of Hientsong's reign, to the rank of prince, but Hanchen's new honours did not bring good fortune to him in the matter of his onerous charge. For the very year following his elevation, Hahema, a Tartar chief who reigned at Turfan, attacked him suddenly, and, having slain the commandant, drove out the Chinese and set up his own authority. With the loss of Hami, all the possessions beyond Gobi also fell into the hands of tribes who, always hostile to the Chinese, had grown doubly inimical to them since they adopted the tenets of Mahomedanism. On this

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occasion Hahema, concerned to defend his western frontiers against neighbours not less aggressive than himself, withdrew from his conquest, and consented to pay to the injured dignity of China the reparation Mawenchin required.

But Hahema's moderation did not last long. Mawenchin placed in the vacant seat of Hami a young prince called Champa or Hiapa, who came from Manchuria, and who represented in direct line the old reigning House of the Mongols; but this appointment seemed to Hahema an affront of a personal character. He accordingly marched against Hami, which he seemed resolved to prevent falling into the hands of anybody else, as he could not keep it for himself. Hami surrendered without any attempt at resistance, and Champa, instead of enjoying his new principality, became a prisoner in the hands of a malignant foe.

It was impossible for the Chinese to put up with this second and flagrant insult. The deposition of Champa reopened the old sore caused by the murder of Hanchen, and rendered it incumbent on Hiaotsong's ministers to take steps to inflict a summary punishment on the ambitious Hahema. It is always easier to decree the punishment of a vassal whose security consists in the remoteness of his district than it is to carry out his chastisement, and Hahema continued to enjoy the security of his position. After this second triumph, he proclaimed himself Khakhan, and he continued to make Turfan his principal place of residence. Hami he was content to leave in the charge of two of his lieutenants with a small garrison of two hundred horsemen.

The confidence shown in these arrangements provided the Chinese with the opportunity of striking a prompt blow against their opponent. An attack on Hami did not promise to be a very hazardous undertaking, although it naturally proved more difficult to keep secret the preparations for such an enterprise. Hahema's officers soon heard of the approaching force, and by a rapid retreat ensured their own safety and converted the Chinese success into a barren victory. The presence of a Chinese army at Hami sufficed to bring Hahema to a proper sense of his position. He then surrendered his prisoner Champa, sent in a fresh expression of his dependence

on the Chinese Emperor, and acquiesced in the installation of Champa as Prince of Hami. Peace was thus given to a region which the ambition of Hahema had threatened to disturb.

*

The rest of Hiaotsong's reign was uneventful so far as its external relations went, but an insurrection on the part of the natives of Hainan called attention to a remote portion of the Empire which seldom received much notice from the magnates of Pekin. The blacks of Hainan, as they were designated, had had the misfortune to be placed under the authority of a governor who ground them down with harsh usage, and when, on some rumour of his tyranny reaching the ears of his superiors, he was removed, his successor continued with still greater violence the course he had adopted. The Hainanese, unable to make their plaints in any form likely to receive attention at the capital, began to plot how they might effect their deliverance from an oppression which weighed so heavily upon them, and they found a popular chief in the person of Founancha, ready and willing to lead them against their Chinese masters. In the disturbances that followed in consequence of this effort towards freedom, the small Chinese garrison was unable to do much towards the maintenance of order, and the natives under the leadership of Founancha long baffled the attempts made to reduce them to subjection. It is possible that the struggle might

* The island of Hainan is of very considerable importance. It is attached to the province of Kwantung. At present little is known of the actual condition of this island, but its mineral wealth is believed to be considerable. Timber forms its staple trade. The Chinese authority was first established there in B.C. 111 by General Lupoteh, but for many centuries it has been a reality only in a few districts adjoining the coast. The capital is Kiungchow, and it is also the principal seaport. The inhabitants are divided into three races-the Chinese, the Shuli, who appear to be a cross between the natives and the Celestials, and the Shengli, Black Li, or aborigines, referred to above. The population is estimated at about two and a half millions. Hainan, which in the past has often been a mere piratical nest and a source of trouble to the Chinese Government, is probably destined to play a considerable part in the development of European trade with China (see, for an interesting description of Hainan with references, vol. xi. "Encyclopædia Britannica,” 9th edition, 1880).