Nurhaci - Manchu Tribal Chief, Dynastic Founder

organization that would culminate in his grandson’s becoming the first emperor of the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty in China.

The people who later called themselves Manchus were Jurchen nomads descended from the Jurchens who founded the Jin (Chin) dynasty that ruled northern China between 1115 and 1234. Early in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the Jurchens lived in southern Manchuria amid agricultural Han Chinese.

The Ming government divided the region into three commanderies (provinces), encouraged agriculture among all the population, and held the tribal chief of the non-Han people accountable to the commanders appointed by the court.

The Ming government also fixed tribal territories and controlled the succession of the chiefs, who rendered tribute at court at regulated intervals. As Ming power weakened in the late 16th century, so did its control over the tribes, enabling the Jurchens to consolidate into a tribal-feudal state.


Nurhaci was a minor tribal chief in the Jianzhou (Chienchow) commandery. He knew Chinese and traveled to Beijing (Peking) on tribute missions. Early in his career he waged war against and defeated other Jurchen chiefs expanding his power.

In 1599, he had a new alphabet created for writing Jurchen (the Jin had created a writing system that died with the dynasty). In 1601, he created a “banner system” for organizing his military, loosely based on the Ming frontier military system called the wei, which militarized the Jurchens into a war machine.

All Jurchen men were grouped into eight banners, which Nurhaci, his relatives, and allies commanded. The banners also functioned as rudimentary administrative units that controlled taxation, conscription, and mobilization. Its members farmed in peacetime, and its men were called up to arms when needed.

With success in war, conquered lands were granted to the banners and the original cultivators became serfs to the banners; however the land allotments were not granted in cohesive units to prevent regionalism. Thus the banner system also became the nucleus of a bureaucratic state. Because the captives became bondservants and serfs, bannermen were able to focus on military duties.

In 1616, Nurhaci announced the creation of a state called the Later Jin, proclaimed himself its “heaven-designated emperor,” and renounced allegiance to the Ming.

He was successful in capturing important cities in Manchuria, including Liaoyang and Shenyang (Mukden), where he established his capital and welcomed defecting and captured Ming officials to join his government. Nurhaci was wounded in an unsuccessful battle against the Ming in 1626 and died as a result later that year.

Nurhaci was a talented leader who transformed his tribal people and organized them into a frontier state, in part by adopting Chinese techniques and methods of administration. He capitalized on the problems of a weakening Ming dynasty to build the foundations that would enable his descendants to rule all China.

Treaty of Nerchinsk

Treaty of Nerchinsk

The Treaty of Nerchinsk, 1689, was China’s first treaty with Russia and was important because it settled the boundary between the two empires and began diplomatic relations on an equal footing. In the mid-17th century, Russia’s eastward conquest across Siberia reached the Amur River region on the boundary of the newly established Qing (Ch’ing) Empire in China.

In 1675, Russia sent Nicolai G. Spathary as ambassador to the Chinese court, and he was received by the Kangxi (K’ang-hsi) emperor; he learned all he could about China but otherwise returned home empty-handed.

Kangxi’s early years were focused on suppressing a serious revolt in southern and southwestern China (called the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, ended in 1681) and the Ming loyalist movement on Taiwan (ended in 1683).


Next he dealt with Russia’s advance to areas claimed by China by ordering General Pengcun, at the head of 10,000 soldiers, 5,000 sailors, and 200 pieces of artillery, to take on the small Russian force at Albazin in 1685, which he captured and then returned home.

The reinforced Russians however returned, rebuilt their fort at Albazin, and continued to raid the Amur region. China did not wish to continue a protracted conflict that might drive the yet unpacified Olod Mongols to the Russian fold.

Thus the two countries agreed to negotiations at Nerchinsk in 1688. The Chinese delegation was headed by Prince Songgotu and had two Jesuit priests, Jean-François Gerbillon and Thomas Pereira, as interpreters. The Russian delegation was led by Fedor A. Golovin.

Each delegation was supporter by a large contingent of soldiers, the Chinese one being much larger. The Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed on September 7, 1689. It had six articles and was in five languages, Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Russian, and Latin, with the Latin version being the official text.

The treaty delineated the boundary between Russian Siberia and Chinese Manchuria along the Argun and Amur Rivers to the mouth of the Kerbechi, and along the Outer Xingan (Hsing-an, Stenovoi in Russian) to the sea.

The Russian-built fort at Albazin was to be demolished and Russian residents there were to be repatriated. It also provided for the right of residence and trade between peoples of the two countries, the issuing of passports, and the extradition of fugitives.

The Treaty of Nerchinsk was negotiated between two equal countries. Russia gained 93,000 square miles of hitherto disputed territory that included Nerchinsk while China secured Albazin and peace with Russia that would allow it to deal with and eventually defeat the western or Olod Mongols. Most significantly it regularized Chinese-Russian relations and began the periodic exchange of diplomatic missions between the two countries.

Late Ming Dynasty

Late Ming Dynasty

The Ming dynasty of China (1368–1644) was founded by a commoner, Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yuan-chang), who ruled as Emperor Hongwu (Hung-wu), 1368–98. He expelled the Mongols and began the recovery of China.

His son, Emperor Yongle (Yung-lo), ruled from 1402 to 1424 and was also a capable general and administrator. Together they expanded China’s borders, strengthened the defenses, and pursued policies that led to economic recovery and agricultural revival.

The schools that they founded and the examination system that they revitalized to recruit government officials would serve the empire well during long decades when minors and weaklings occupied the throne. However a succession of capricious and weak rulers eventually led to eunuchs’ controlling power and massive corruption that resulted in domestic revolts, unwise foreign wars, and dynastic collapse.


Emperor Hongwu instituted an autocratic style of government and both he and Yongle exercised their power vigorously and effectively. However while Hongwu treated eunuchs as mere palace servants, Yongle began to entrust them with administrative duties, but under his firm control.

Yongle died leading his fifth campaign against the Mongols. His son was already ill and died within a year, passing the throne to his son, who ruled for 11 years as Emperor Xuande (Hsuanteh). Xuande was succeeded by his eight-year-old son in 1436.

Such short reigns were damaging in an autocratic system of government where continuity in leadership was an asset. Minors on the throne required regencies by empress dowagers, who notoriously relied on eunuchs rather than ministers for advice.

Most Ming dynasty eunuchs came from poor families in northern China and were noted for their greed and extortion. Boy emperors who were isolated from normal human contacts grew up dependent on them as friends and advisers.

For example Emperor Zhengtong (Cheng-t’ung) appointed his eunuch Wang Zhen (Wang Chen) commander in chief and the two men set out together in 1494 with a large army against the Mongol Esen Khan. The army was cut to pieces, Wang died, and Zhengtong was taken prisoner.

Although the Mongols were too weak to take the offensive, this disaster ended Chinese military superiority over the nomads and put the Ming government on the defensive on the northern frontier. In the mid-16th century, Mongol chief Altan Khan would raid China’s northern borders at will for two decades.

At the same time, Japanese pirates and Chinese renegades raided and looted the southern coast inflicting huge damage. In the 1590s, Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea. Suzerain China had to send a huge army to aid the Koreans for six years, at enormous cost.

Two long reigns in the 16th century (Jiajing or Chia-ching between 1520 and 1566, and Wanli (Wan-Li) between 1572 and 1620) brought a measure of stability, largely due to able ministers in the early part of each reign.

However both monarchs were grossly negligent of their duties, isolating themselves from government officials and relying on power-hungry palace eunuchs, with the result that the bureaucracy became increasingly demoralized. A government that was unresponsive to social and economic problems would eventually be brought down by peasant rebels from northwestern China led by Li Zicheng (Li Tzuch’eng) in 1644.

Ming China prospered, however, despite inept political leadership. The population increased from about 60 million at the beginning to possibly 200 million by 1600. In addition to great metropolitan centers such as Suzhou (Soochow) and Hangzhou (Hangchow), many intermediate-sized market towns emerged.

Society was egalitarian and the flourishing printing industry facilitated the spread of education so that the sons of millions of families could realistically aspire to obtain an education, pass the state exam, and join the elite.

Popular culture represented by the theater and opera flourished in the cities. In addition, a new genre of literature developed during the Ming. It was the novel, written in the vernacular and depicting men and women of all social classes.

The government’s principal source of income was the land tax, assessed on land owned by farming families and not on the number of males in a household. This system of taxation gave farmers greater freedom to choose employment and allowed the development of industries. Silk and cotton manufacturing prospered, as did the porcelain industry, which led the world.

While China had traded with South and Southeast Asia and beyond for over a millennium, the Portuguese entered the trading scene in 1516, opening direct seaborne Sino-European commercial relations.

Portuguese merchants were followed by men from the Netherlands, England, France, and other European nations. Westerners brought European products, but more significantly New World crops such as maize, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, with enormous impact on Chinese agriculture and diet.

More immediately European demand for Chinese silks, porcelain, and tea brought an influx of silver to China. In 1581, the first Jesuit missionary landed in China. Jesuits would be important during the late Ming and early Qing (Ch’ing) as cultural ambassadors between China and Europe.

They introduced Western sciences, mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and firearms to China and the ideals of Chinese philosophy to Europe, laying the foundations of Sinology, or study of Chinese civilization in Europe.

The 16th century was an kurun of great changes in Europe and China, where modern societies were beginning to develop. Despite inept Ming emperors the educational system and civil service continued to provide for a prosperous and advancing civil society.

However by the beginning of the 17th century, many signs pointed to the fact that the country was exhausted. An ineffective government could not simultaneously deal with internal rebellions and border incursions by nomads.

The last Ming emperor hanged himself as rebels swarmed into the capital; a beleaguered frontier general then invited the Manchus, a minority ethnic group living on the northeastern borders of the Ming empire, to help him put down the rebels. Astute Manchu leaders seized this opportunity to ascend the throne and founded a new dynasty.

Southern Ming

Southern Ming

When a frontier people, the Manchus, took over control of China in 1644, Ming dynasty loyalists fled to southern China, where they held out for many years; they became known as the Southern Ming.

Over several centuries, descendants of the Ming emperor surnamed Zhu (Chu) were settled throughout the Chinese empire. As a result when the last Ming emperor committed suicide there were members of the imperial family throughout China, especially in the south, and it was natural that anti-Manchu forces would use them to legitimize their rebellions.

The first of these was Zhu Yusong (Chu Yu-sung), better known as the Prince of Fu. He was descended from Emperor Wanli (Wan-Li) (r. 1573–1620); in fact all of the main claimants of the Southern Ming were descended from him. He assumed the title Emperor Hongguang (Hung-kuang) and reigned in Nanjing (Nanking).

The new Southern Ming emperor sent emissaries to the Manchus. He initially tried to conciliate the Manchus and offered them a subsidy if they would return to Manchuria. The offer was rejected by the Manchu regent, Prince Dorgon. In the ensuing fighting, the Southern Ming fared badly. Nanjing was captured by the Manchus and Hongguang was taken prisoner to Beijing (Peking), where he died in captivity in 1646.


Following the Manchu capture of Nanjing, several Ming princes were elevated to lead movements by loyalists against the Manchus, but none of them showed worthy qualities and their causes fizzled in quick succession, succumbing to campaigns led by both Manchus and Han Chinese generals who had defected to the Manchus.

The most notable example of Han Chinese participation in opposing the restoration of the Ming was Wu Sangui (Wu San-kuei), the general guarding the easternmost pass of the Great Wall against the Manchus, who opened the way for the combined Manchu and his effort that defeated the rebel Li Zicheng (Le Tzu-ch’eng). General Wu commanded a force that drove Prince Guei (Kuei), a Ming pretender, into Burma and was rewarded with a princely title and granted Yunnan Province as his fief.

The most sustained resistance was led by Zheng Chenggong (Cheng Ch’eng-kung), better known as Koxing in the West (1624–62) who had a formidable force along the southern coast and along the Yangzi (Yangtze) River. After his defeat on mainland China, Zeng and his son retreated to Taiwan where they held out until 1683. The fall of Taiwan to Manchu forces ended the southern Ming resistance.

Japanese Invasion of Korea

Japanese Invasion of Korea

Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi dreamed of conquering China and launched two invasions of Korea, in 1592 and 1597, in order to do so. Although he ultimately failed, the wars inflicted terrible devastation on Korea. Because as its overlord the Ming dynasty in China sent a large army to aid Korea, the war also considerably weakened the Ming dynasty.

In the 16th century, Japan underwent constant civil wars as the Ashikaga Shogunate weakened and various feudal lords sought supremacy; in fact this period was called the “Warring States” abad in Japanese history. Hideyoshi was an ambitious general who rose from obscurity. By 1590, he had destroyed all rival lords and unified Japan, freeing him and his large army to conquer new lands.

His target was China and to reach China he needed passage through Korea. When Korea refused his demands he led an invading army of 160,000 men, landing on the southern tip of the peninsula and advancing northward. The inferior Korean army was overwhelmed, King Sonjo abandoned his capital city Seoul and fled, and his two sons were made captives.


The Korean cause was saved from complete ruin by the emergence of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, who built a fleet of “turtle ships,” the world’s first wooden ships with steel plating, which repeatedly defeated the Japanese navy, thus disrupting their supply lines. Meanwhile, China responded with 200,000 troops, who captured Pyongyang and pursued the Japanese forces southward until they only held the southern tip of the peninsula.

Peace negotiations proved fruitless and were broken off because China demanded that Hideyoshi acknowledge Chinese overlordship while Hideyoshi demanded a part of Korea to be ceded to him, the marriage of a Ming princess to the Japanese emperor, and Korean princes as hostages.

Undaunted, Hideyoshi launched a second invasion in 1597 but proceeded no farther than Korea’s two southernmost provinces because both the Koreans and the Chinese relief army were prepared. When Hideyoshi died in 1598 his army quickly returned home. In 1606, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the new shogun of Japan and Hideyoshi’s successor, made peace with Korea.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin in his turtle ships

The two Japanese invasions inflicted terrible sufferings on the Koreans. Whole areas were devastated and depopulated and many historical sites and libraries were burned. The Yi dynasty of Korea never fully recovered its authority and the country its prosperity.

The retreating Japanese moreover took many looted treasures and took as prisoners men with skills, most notably Korean potters, who built up Japan’s ceramics industry. Hideyoshi’s dream of ruling Japan died with him because his son was too young to rule, allowing another feudal lord, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had not participated in the Korean campaigns, to seize power.

Finally the cost of the war weakened the already declining Ming dynasty in China. Additionally, the sending of a large army to Korea denuded southern Manchuria of Ming garrisons and paved the way for the rise of the Manchus.

Defending Korea

Portuguese in Macao

Portuguese in Macao

Portugal established a trading empire in Asia in the 16th century by means of a string of important ports that tapped the products of the continent. Macao (Macau) was Portugal’s outpost on the South China coast.

Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India via Africa. He was followed by Afonso de Albuquerque (1435–1515), viceroy of Portuguese India, who arrived in Goa on the western coast of India. In 1410, he sent a fleet to capture Malacca on the Malay Peninsula.

There they found many Chinese sailing vessels trading in silks and other products throughout Southeast Asia. In 1517, Portugal’s envoy Tomé Pires arrived in Guangzhou (Canton) on the Pearl River delta, an important trading port for two thousand years.


The eight Portuguese ships fired cannon shots as a salute upon entering the harbor, a ritual that the Chinese misunderstood. Pires however remained in China, attempting to negotiate with the government of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The Chinese held him responsible for the misdeeds of Portuguese sailors and he died in a Chinese jail in 1524.

Despite this inauspicious beginning, the Portuguese continued to explore trading opportunities along the Chinese coast and finally were permitted to build an outpost at the end of a peninsula on the southwestern end of the Pearl River estuary in 1535, a two-square-mile land with a good harbor called Macao. The Portuguese paid rent to China for Macao and in return were allowed to build docks, trading facilities, a church, schools, and so on, and to govern themselves.

Even when other European nations were allowed to establish trading companies in Guangzhou, they had to leave their “factories” (offices and warehouses) along the waterfront outside that city when the trading season was over and retreat to Macao. In addition, Macao became the base for Jesuit missionaries coming to China.

Jesuit missionaries were honored and their services in fields such as astronomy, cartography, architecture, and weaponry were valued by the Ming, and later the Qing (Ch’ing [1644–1911]) court. Several Jesuit fathers designed and supervised the making of European style weapons such as cannon pieces in Macao for the Ming government up to 1644 and the Qing after that.

The arrival of the Portuguese in China in the early 16th century opened a new chapter in China’s relations with the outside world. Sino-Western relations would be fundamentally different from China’s interactions with its land neighbors and with earlier Persian, Arab, and Malay maritime traders in eras past.

Kangxi - Chinese Emperor

The Kangxi emperor’s personal name was Xuanye (Hsuan-yeh). He became the second emperor of the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty when barely eight years old on his father’s death, chosen because he had survived smallpox. His 61-year reign would be one of the greatest, and the longest in China since the first century b.c.e. Thus he deserved the posthumous title Shengzu (Shengtzu), which means “sagacious progenitor.”

At his accession, the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) was by no means secure, and a council of four regents governed in his name. At 13, Kangxi got rid of the regents and assumed personal power. Kangxi was an extremely energetic and conscientious ruler who studied history and philosophy under Chinese tutors, military arts under Manchu officers, and Western sciences, music, mathematics, and Latin under Jesuit teachers.

He followed a prodigious work schedule that began before dawn and ended late at night. He personally read and answered memorials and reports, writing with the left hand when the right became cramped. His leisure hours were spent practicing calligraphy and writing poetry and essays.

He also enjoyed the outdoors, personally leading his troops in maneuvers, military expeditions, and hunting. He set high standards for his personal conduct; for example, he fasted before he reviewed capital cases, saying that a life ended cannot be restored.


Kangxi’s greatest military accomplishment was the suppression of the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, 1673–81, led by Wu Sangui (Wu san-kuei), who invited the Manchus to help him oust the rebels whose occupation of Beijing (Peking) had ended the Ming dynasty. Wu and two other allies of the Manchus were granted autonomous princedoms in southern China as reward.

Their revolt jeopardized the Qing dynasty and was defeated after arduous campaigns. Two years later another Qing expedition conquered Taiwan, the head-quarters of a Ming loyalist force under Zheng Chenggong (Cheng Ch’eng-kung) and his son. Next he dealt with the Mongol threat, conquering both Outer Mongolia and the northwest.

Then he extended Qing authority over Tibet by installing a friendly cleric as the seventh Dalai Lama (1708–57) and the leader of the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. In addition he defined China’s northeastern border with Russia at the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689.

Domestically, Kangxi instituted a number of important reforms. He stopped Manchu abuses in the treatment of the majority Han Chinese, reformed the practice of collecting revenue, cracked down on corruption, and repeatedly reduced taxes, finally fixing the tax quota on the basis of population count of 1712 regardless of later increases.

The emperor was a patron of many fields of learning. He appointed a board of 50 historians to write a history of the preceding Ming dynasty, following a 2,000-year-old tradition that each dynasty sponsored writing a comprehensive history of its predecessor.

The work was published in 1739 when Kangxi’s grandson was on the throne. Other boards of learned men worked on multivolume works including the Kangxi Dictionary and a 5,020-volume work comprising ancient and modern published books.

Kangxi fathered 36 sons (20 of whom reached adulthood). His empress bore him one son and died in childbirth. He was proclaimed heir and despite his father’s love and care, the youth grew up dissolute and unstable, became involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the emperor, and was finally demoted and arrested.

The troubles with his heir clouded Kangxi’s last years. He refused to announce another heir until his deathbed, when his last will proclaimed his fourth son, Yinchen (Yin-chen), the next emperor. Kangxi inherited an unstable empire and left it splendid, in large part through his conscientious, frugal, and efficient administration.

Treaty of Kaikhta

The Treaty of Kaikhta in 1727 between China and Russia defined the boundary between Russian Siberia and Chinese Outer Mongolia.

The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 between China and Russia drew the boundary between the two empires between Russian Siberia and Chinese Manchuria in the northeast but left the boundary between Chinese Outer Mongolia and Russia undefined. Thus another treaty was needed to complete the border between these two empires and to settle other issues.

The first treaty with Russia allowed Qing (Ch’ing) emperor Kangxi (K’ang-hsi) to defeat the Olod Mongol chief Galdan in 1697, thus extending his domain to Outer Mongolia in the north and Hami in the northwest. However, China was still not completely secure from the Olod threat and feared plotting between them and Russia because the Olod had earlier become vassals of the Russian czars.


Russia was also anxious to negotiate with China over trade and the establishment of an Orthodox religious mission in Beijing (Peking). Meanwhile both rulers who had negotiated the Nerchinsk Treaty (Kangxi, emperor of China, and Peter the Great of Russia) had died, succeeded by Yongzheng (Yung-cheng) and Catherine I, respectively.

In 1725, Empress Catherine I sent envoy Sava Vladislavich Ruguzinski to China, ostensibly to congratulate Yongzheng on his accession to the throne. The Russian negotiations with China’s chief delegate Tulisen used Jesuit missionaries as interpreters.

They reached agreement in 1727; it was called the Treaty of Kaikhta, named after a frontier town where the signing took place. It provided for a commission to settle on the spot the border between the two countries from the Sayan Mountain and Sapintabakha in the west to the Argun River in the east.

In addition to existing trade at Nerchinsk, another trading station would be opened at Kaikhta and every three years a Russian caravan of 200 men would be allowed to go to Beijing to buy and sell goods without duties. Russia would be allowed to establish a religious mission and church in Beijing, and deserters and fugitives from each country to the other would be extradited.

Russia gained 40,000 square miles of territory between the Upper Irtysh and the Sayan Mountains and land south and southwest of Lake Baikal, trading concessions, and the right to open a religious mission in Beijing.

China gained security by cutting off Mongol tribes from access to Russia. A follow-up embassy from China to Russia in 1731 won for China the right to pursue the Mongol into Russian territory. This provision would be important in China’s quest to consolidate its northern border.

Both Treaties of Nerchinsk and Kaikhta were negotiated between two equal empires and to their mutual benefit. Unlike in relations with all other European nations, whose ambassadors to China were treated as tribute bearers from vassal states, the Russian envoys were regarded as representatives of an equal nation.

While Russian envoys performed the kowtow to the Chinese emperors, likewise the Chinese envoys to St. Petersburg kowtowed to the Russian monarchs. The Russian religious mission in Beijing that trained students in Chinese would give Russia an advantage in the 19th century in negotiations with China.

Jesuits in Asia

Jesuits in Asia

The missionary enterprise of the Jesuits in Asia is comprehensible only against the background of three foundational principles. The first two are from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the order: Following Jesus as a Jesuit entails missionary outreach, and being a missionary implies cultural adaptation because Jesus adapted himself to the human condition.

The third theological principle is that missionary activity should reflect the shared life of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) as documented in the Formula of the Institute and Constitutions.

The nascent Society of Jesus was yet to receive full papal approbation (September 27, 1540) when a request arrived from João III the Pious, king of Portugal, for Jesuits to work in the Portuguese domains of Asia. Ignatius of Loyola chose two of his first companions, Simão Rodrigues and Nicolas Bobadilla, for the mission.


However, before they could leave for Portugal, Bobadilla fell ill. Providentially, Francis Xavier was then in Rome and Ignatius decided to send him instead. The king of Portugal, impressed by the two Jesuits, decided to keep Rodrigues in Lisbon. Xavier, accompanied by Micer Paul, a secular priest recently admitted into the Society of Jesus, and Francisco Mansilhas, a Jesuit aspirant, set sail for India.

They finally reached Goa in India on May 6, 1542. Xavier would labor in Asia for 10 years as a missionary, baptizing and catechizing the inhabitants of the Fishery Coast of southern India; Malacca on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula; the Moluccas, also known as the “Spice Islands”; and Japan.

While in Japan, Xavier heard about China and resolved to preach the Christian message there. While awaiting Chinese government permission to land, he died on the island of Sancian in 1552, unable to fulfill his dream of converting the Chinese to Christ.

That dream would be partially realized not much later as thousands of Jesuits of various nationalities followed Xavier in the Asian missionary enterprise. Missions were conducted in West Asia, for example, with the appointment of Jesuits as papal legates in establishing relations with the Maronites and in negotiating church unity with Orthodox, Nestorian, and Monophysite Churches. But the majority of Jesuit missionaries worked farther afield, chiefly in South Asia and in East Asia.

After India, Jesuits would find themselves laboring in places in peninsular (Malacca, Indochina) and insular (Indonesia, the Philippines) Southeast Asia, and in Japan and China. The primary goal was of course the spread of Christianity, but the diverse cultures who populated the huge continent called for various missionary strategies and tactics.

The chief architect of the Asian missionary enterprise was an Italian Jesuit named Alessandro Valignano. He called for cultural adaptation to Asian ways where this was legitimate and did not compromise the Christian message.

Perhaps the most significant cultural adaptation was the use of Asian languages in the preaching of Christ and teaching of doctrine. They also extended this cultural adaptation to the manner of dress, civil customs, and ordinary life of their target audience.

His principles were put to good use by such as Matteo Ricci and Michele Ruggieri. Aside from exploiting European sciences and arts of their day to gain entrance into the educated elite of China, Ricci and his companions decided to study the Confucian classics esteemed by the Mandarin ruling class.

In a similar way, the Jesuits working in the south of India decided on a two-pronged strategy that enabled them to reach out to both the higher and lower social castes, tailoring their manner of living to gain initial acceptance from their respective audiences.

“Dressed in cloth of red-ochre, a triangular sandal mark on his forehead, high wooden sandals on his feet,” Roberto de Nobili lived in the manner of a Hindu man of God (sannyasi), learned Sanskrit, and memorized the Vedas so that he could share the message of Christ and his church with the Indian people.

In other Asian places not as highly developed in civilization and culture, the Jesuits were animated by the same principles of cultural adaptation. In the Philippines, they creatively replicated strategies that were used elsewhere.

Because local populations were dispersed far and wide, the Jesuits encouraged people to set up permanent communities in planned settlements (a method they used in Latin America called reduction), thus laying the foundation of many towns and cities that exist today. They also set up schools wherever these were needed and constructed churches and other buildings that transformed European architectural designs to suit Asian artistic sensibilities.

They learned the various local languages and dialects and produced grammars, vocabularies, and dictionaries, thus systematizing the study not just of the languages themselves but of the cultures of the peoples that they were seeking to convert. They wrote books that mapped the ethnography of Asia and were keen observers of Asian ways and traditions, including their interaction with the natural environment.

The Jesuit missionary enterprise in Asia met with obstacles along the way. Some of these obstacles arose from European ethnocentric fears and prejudices that burdened the church of their times. Cultural adaptation was denounced as syncretism, and the missionaries themselves were often at loggerheads on the appropriate strategies to use in mission work.

It was not always clear for example whether Chinese categories used to translate Latin ones were without ambiguity, but a lack of understanding, trust, and generosity created a poisoned atmosphere that did not produce the requisite witness to Christian charity.

The distance between Rome and Asia proved to be not only a geographical dilema but also a psychological barrier that prevented church authorities from being more sympathetic to the needs of the missionary enterprise in Asia. Furthermore the political, economic, and social burden imposed by Portuguese and Spanish royal patronage of the church in the Indies proved too heavy at times to carry.

Rome itself would be forced to set up the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith in 1622 to loosen the viselike grip of the European monarchs who wished to manipulate the missionary enterprise for political and economic gain. Also, Jesuits allowed themselves to be caught in political controversies of their host countries, thus inevitably creating enemies for themselves among members of the ruling classes.

In 1759 the Portuguese king expelled all Jesuits working in Portugal and Portuguese Asia. In Spain, the Spanish king followed suit and banished the Jesuits from his domains in 1767. Finally, in 1773, Pope Clement XIV, under extreme political pressure from the Bourbon monarchs of Europe, could no longer prevent the inevitable from happening.

Through the bull Redemptor ac hominis, the pope suppressed the Society of Jesus, thus bringing an end to their missionary work in Asia. This work would be resumed only in the 19th century, when Jesuits would return to their former mission fields now besieged by new historical forces.

Dorgon

Prince Dorgon

Dorgon was regent for his nephew between 1644 and 1650. He seized the opportunity offered by Ming general Wu Sangui (Wu San-kuei) to lead the Manchu forces inside the Great Wall and together to defeat the rebels who had seized Beijing (Peking) that ended the Ming dynasty.

After defeating the rebels Dorgon placed his six-year-old nephew on the vacant throne. With this act, the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty was transformed from a frontier state to a national dynasty of all China.

When Manchu leader Abahai died in 1643, the Manchu clan leaders assembled to elect a new ruler among his sons. Dorgon, Abahai’s younger brother and the most able among the princes, successfully maneuvered to have five-year-old Fulin (Fulin) elected ruler, rather than an older son, so that he could be regent.

An able statesman and warrior, Dorgon continued to consolidate central power and strengthened the bureaucratic style government established by his brother. As the weakening Ming dynasty was threatened by internal revolts Abahai prepared to invade north China.


In April 1644, a rebel army led by Li Zucheng (Li Tsu-ch’eng) advanced on the capital city Beijing (Peking), taking the city before General Wu Sangui and his troops stationed at Shanhaiguan (Shanhaikuan) at the eastern terminus of the Great Wall of China could arrive to defend the city.

General Wu then invited the Manchus to assist him against the rebels, an invitation that Dorgon was delighted to accept. Prince Dorgon and Wu ousted the rebels and entered the city with their joint forces on June 6, 1644.

While Wu and some Manchu units chased down the rebels, Dorgon remained in Beijing, buried the last Ming emperor and empress (who had committed suicide) with honor, declared that the Manchus had come to restore order, and placed his young nephew on the vacant throne as Emperor Shunzi (Shun-chih).

He thus established a new national dynasty, the Qing (Ch’ing), that would last until 1911. He also confirmed most Ming officials in their positions, including the Jesuits who headed the Board of Astronomy; reduced taxes; and forbade Manchu imperial clansmen from interfering in administration.

The defeat of Li and other rebels and immediate reforms won over many northern Chinese although it took several decades to end Ming loyalist movements in southern China. However one of Dorgon’s orders, that all Han Chinese men wear their hair in a queue as Manchu men did, greatly irritated Chinese sensibilities.

Dorgon was a forceful direktur but his arrogance and autocratic style alienated many. He gave himself increasingly exalted titles, such as “Imperial Father Regent,” but was frustrated that he could not become emperor.

A showdown between Dorgon and his nephew never occurred because he died in 1650 during a hunting trip. Shunzi then took over personal control but continued the successful policies of his uncle. Thus while Nurhaci and Abahai prepared the way for the rise of the Manchus, it was Dorgon who seized the opportunity to realize it.