On the Chinese side, this Mongol trade, which continued in rather different form in the Manchu epoch, led to the formation of a local merchant class in the frontier province of Shansi, with great experience in credit business; later the first Chinese bankers came almost entirely from this quarter.

But the Manchu menace was far from being the only one.

The men fit for service were distributed among eight "banners", and these banners became the basis of the Manchu state administration.

Manchu armies even reached the province of Shantung.

Accordingly he negotiated with the Manchu Prince Dorgon, formed an alliance with the Manchus, and with them entered Peking on June 6th, 1644.

The Manchu Dynasty (1644-1911) 1 Installation of Manchus The Manchus had gained the mastery over China owing rather to China's internal situation than to their military superiority.

In the first phase of the Manchu conquest the gentry had refused to support either the Ming princes or Wu San-kui, or any of the rebels, or the Manchus themselves.

A second phase began about twenty years after the capture of Peking, when the Manchus won over the gentry by desisting from any interference with the ownership of land, and by the use of Manchu troops to clear away the "rebels" who were hostile to the gentry.

Chinese scholars thus far have shown a prejudice against the Manchu dynasty and were mainly interested in the study of anti-Manchu movements and the downfall of the dynasty.

Chinese scholars thus far have shown a prejudice against the Manchu dynasty and were mainly interested in the study of anti-Manchu movements and the downfall of the dynasty.

The decline of the Manchu dynasty began at a time when the European trade was still insignificant, and not as late as after 1842, when China had to submit to the foreign Capitulations.

One of the deeper reasons for the decline of the Manchu dynasty seems to lie in the enormous increase in the population.

Internal colonization continued during the Manchu time; there was a continuous, but slow flow of people into Kwangsi, Kweichow, Yünnan.

No doubt, in spite of all this, Chinese business and industry kept on developing in the Manchu time, but they did not develop at such a speed as to transform the country from an agrarian into a modern industrial nation.

3 Expansion in Central Asia; the first State treaty The rise of the Manchu dynasty actually began under the K'ang-hsi rule (1663-1722).

The most famous literary works of the Manchu epoch belong once more to the field which Chinese do not regard as that of true literaturethe novel, the short story, and the drama.

Probably the finest dramas of the Manchu epoch are those of Li Yü (born 1611), who also became the first of the Chinese dramatic critics.

The first Manchu emperors were as generous in this matter as the Mongols had been, and allowed the foreigners to work in peace.

The Kalmuks fought the Chinese without cessation until, in 1739, they entered into an agreement under which they ceded half their territory to Manchu China, retaining only the Ili region.

6 Decline; revolts The period of Ch'ien-lung is not only that of the greatest expansion of the Chinese empire, but also that of the greatest prosperity under the Manchu regime.

Not out of any belief that the T'ai P'ing movement was without justification, but because they had concluded treaties with the Manchu government and given loans to it, of which nothing would have remained if the Manchus had fallen; because they preferred the weak Manchu government to a strong T'ai P'ing government; and because they disliked the socialistic element in many of the measured adopted by the T'ai P'ing.

Not out of any belief that the T'ai P'ing movement was without justification, but because they had concluded treaties with the Manchu government and given loans to it, of which nothing would have remained if the Manchus had fallen; because they preferred the weak Manchu government to a strong T'ai P'ing government; and because they disliked the socialistic element in many of the measured adopted by the T'ai P'ing.

Thus the peasants, all anti-Manchu, could choose between two sides, between the T'ai P'ing and Tsêng Kuo-fan.

This purely peasant revolt was not suppressed by the Manchu government until 1868, after many collisions.

In 1882 the Manchu government raised Turkestan to a "new frontier" (Sinkiang) with a special administration.