Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/203

Rh CHU Yu-chien 朱由檢, February 6, 1611–1644, Apr. 25, fifth son of, was the last Ming emperor to rule in Peking. His reign-title was Ch'ung-ch'ên 崇禎 (1628–1644). He inherited from his grandfather, Emperor Shên-tsung, who ruled from 1572 to 1620 under the reign-title Wan-li, and from his elder brother, Emperor Hsi-tsung (see under ), a government that had reached the last stages of disintegration. Among the forces of disruption was the excessive power wielded by empresses, concubines and eunuchs within the palaces. When Chu Yu-chien was four years old his mother was put to death by order of his father who had ceased to care for her, and his upbringing was entrusted to an ambitious concubine known as the "Western Li" (see under ). A few years later his father who, through the intrigues of Emperor Shên-tsung's favorite, the secondary consort Chêng, had for a long time been debarred from his rightful position as crown prince, ascended the throne with the reign-title, T'ai-ch'ang. He died after a month, the victim of the "red pill" given him by an official—an episode known in Chinese history as the second of the "three cases" (see under ). The guardianship of Chu Yu-chien, then nine years of age, was transferred to another concubine, called the "Eastern Li" (東李), who died not long after as a result of the persecutions of. The misgovernment of the latter was at its height when, in 1627, Emperor Hsi-tsung died, leaving no heirs. Chu Yu-chien, then little more than sixteen years of age, succeeded to the throne. Although he did not begin immediately to oppose the eunuch party, his intentions seem to have been clear, for at the end of one week Wei Chung-hsien tried to resign. Two months later Wei was sent into retirement and committed suicide on the way. Chu Yu-chien eliminated some of the more vicious officials, but his indecision and lack of confidence prevented the formation of a strong government. The chaotic state of affairs can be seen from the frequent changes in personnel. During the twenty-four year period from 1621 to 1644 the presidents of the Six Ministries changed 116 times, or an average of almost one change a year for each position. In 54 instances the occupants were dismissed from office, and in 20 of these they suffered death or confiscation of property. In the corresponding twenty-four years of the preceding century there had been only seven cases of dismissal and five of punishments inflicted on presidents of the Six Ministries.

More chaotic still was the situation in the Board of War when it was faced with the steady advance of the Manchus in the northeast. During the dictatorship of Wei Chung-hsien capable generals like, , and had been persecuted or removed from their posts. The new emperor reinstated Yüan and gave him full powers in Liaotung where he undertook to recover the whole of the lost territory. In 1629 Yüan put to death who had successfully carried on guerilla warfare against the Manchus. On January 13 of the following year Yüan himself was arrested (see under ) and was later executed at the instigation of former partisans of Wei Chung-hsien. From this time onward no effective resistance was offered to the Manchus. In 1629 Manchu forces penetrated the Great Wall and reached the gates of the capital (see under ). A year later Sun Ch'êng-tsung succeeded in driving them back beyond the Wall, but he himself soon fell a prey to partisan jealousies within the government. The Manchus consolidated their position in Inner Mongolia where they defeated the Chahar nation, and from 1632 onward had easy access from the north to the provinces of Chihli and Shansi.

Much of the military weakness of China at this time is attributable to the impoverished condition of the country. From the beginning of the Wan-li period (1573) people suffered from constantly increased taxation designed to supply luxuries to the palace. Chu Yu-chien inherited an empire too poor to stand the expense of maintaining the armies needed at the front. His failure to send supplies resulted in wholesale desertion of soldiers who either joined the enemy or returned as bandits to their native districts. The collapse of China was due more to the desolation wrought by these bandits within than to attacks of enemies from without. The center of these uprisings was in the province of Shensi where border warfare and a severe famine in 1628 had reduced the people to starvation. A further incentive to banditry was the dissolution of the courier-post system in 1629. Inaugurated at the time of the First Emperor (third century B.C.) this system developed particularly during the Yüan and Ming dynasties. Nominally it was concerned with the transmission of official dispatches, but in mountainous regions where 191