The oppression to which they were subjected after the second Tartar conquest began to show itself as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, when their mosques were destroyed by the populace of Hang-chow in Hu-quang province, notwithstanding the efforts of the magistrates to protect them. At an earlier period, however, about 1651, they had been deprived by the Tartar emperor, Chunchi, of the honours enjoyed by some of their number in connection with the Board of Mathematics. This change of policy, thus begun, caused a rebellion, which broke out in the reign of Kien-hung, 1765-71, on the western frontier, and spread to the province of Kansu. The rebels resisted the imperial forces with great valour, but were ultimately subdued. The Abbé Grosier, writing subsequently to this event, says, “that for some time past the Mahommedans seem to have been more particularly attentive to the care of extending their sect.”[33]
The method they resorted to was the free use of their wealth in purchasing children to bring up as Mahommedans. During the terrible famine which devastated the province of Quangtong in 1790, they purchased ten thousand children from poor parents; these were educated, and, when grown up, provided with wives and houses, whole villages being formed of these converts. This system has been followed by them to the present day, so that large numbers of the faithful are of Chinese origin; and we found instances of it at Momien. According to Garnier, the sultan of Tali was a Chinese orphan, adopted and educated by a wealthy Mahommedan. Yunnan appears, from the Pekin Gazette, to have been the scene of almost incessant insurrections from 1817 to 1834, attributable, in all probability, to the Mahommedan element in the population. During one rebellion, in 1828, the leader had an imperial seal engraved, and issued manifestoes summoning the people to join his standard. At the same time, the mixed populations of this province appear to have been always distinguished by an independent and insubordinate spirit, which often defied the central authority. Some towns were even governed by elective municipal councils, only nominally ruled by the mandarins.
Grutzlaff mentions that during his residence in China, in 1825-1832, they had several mosques in Chekiang, Pechili, Shensi, and Shansu; but as they had occasionally joined the rebels of Turkistan, the government viewed them with a jealous eye. Nevertheless, some of their number filled offices of high trust. He also states that many of them performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and brought back Arabian MSS. of the Koran, which a few could read imperfectly, that they were by no means bigoted nor proselytising, and that they venerated Confucius. These Mahommedans of Northern China and Turkistan include the people called Toonganees, who are said to trace their origin to a large body of Uigurs, who were transplanted to the vicinity of the North Wall, under the rule of the Thang dynasty, between the seventh and tenth centuries. These settlers were encouraged to intermarry with the Chinese women, and after this, when, following the example of their fellow tribesmen, they embraced Islam, they still retained this practice, although careful to bring up all their children in the Faith. Though a mixed race, they are distinguished from both Manchoos and Chinese by their intelligent countenances and superior strength. They have always evinced special aptitude for mercantile speculations, like their southern brethren. They have also shown themselves to be excellent warriors in the successful rebellion of Turkistan, and that which broke out in 1861 in Kansu, and under Abdul Jaffier threatened to be as successful as the revolt of Yunnan.
In the course of the present century, the Faithful appear to have multiplied in Yunnan more rapidly than in the northern provinces. Colonel Burney tells us that in 1831 almost the whole of the Chinese traders who visited the Burmese capital were Mahommedans, except a few who imported hams. Some of them could speak a little Arabic, and one read to him passages from the Koran; but none of them could tell him whence they derived their origin.
As far as appearance goes, there are strong traces of descent from a non-Chinese and, we may say, Turkish stock visible among the present Mahommedans of Western China. Garnier remarks that “the Mussulmans of Arab origin are tolerably numerous, and many are to be met with who manifest very markedly the principal traits of Arabs, some preserving the ancestral type in great purity. But the majority cannot be readily distinguished from Chinese, except by their superior stature, greater physical strength, and more energetic physiognomies. Although they only contract matrimonial alliances with those of their own creed, they commonly take Chinese women as concubines. Hence a large infusion of Chinese blood, notwithstanding which they have preserved almost all the warlike qualities of their ancestors.” Mr. Cooper describes a merchant who called upon him as “a splendid specimen of the Yunnan Mahommedan, standing over six feet; his countenance was singularly haughty and noble, and his manner peculiarly gentle and dignified.” His long black moustache and hair, hanging in a huge tail almost to the ground, are also particularly noticed.
The leading men met with by us at Momien were well-made, athletic, and of a goodly height, the governor standing six feet three inches. They were fair-skinned, with high cheek-bones, and slightly oblique eyes, their cast of countenance being quite distinct from the Chinese. In fact, the general type of face recalled that of the traders who come down to Calcutta from Bokhara and Herat. They generally wore moustaches, but depilated the rest of the face, while their long hair was coiled in the folds of huge white turbans. The only other distinctive article of dress was a bright orange-coloured waistband, which usually supported a silver-mounted dagger. As a rule they abstained from intoxicating drink, and smoking opium or tobacco; but some were lax in these particulars. Our strict Mussulmans rather despised them for laxity in worship as well, and the native doctor, who was a fanatic, declared that they were not true believers at all. On the whole, the conclusion which may be fairly arrived at as to their origin is, that to the descendants of a possible Arab stock have been added a considerable number of Turkish emigrants, who, in truth, constitute the main origin of the Mahommedan population in Yunnan. A number of Chinese proper have from time to time been added to this community, which, in all places, seems to have included the wealthiest and best class of the population. The rebellion in Yunnan seems to have been brought about solely by the oppression to which the Mahommedans were subjected by the mandarins. Their proud independent spirit would not brook the tyranny and extortion universally practised by the official class, from which they were excluded. The mandarins, according to their wont, secretly hounded the mob on to their rich and respectable enemies, riots were provoked, and their mosques were destroyed, as at Momien, where a handsome building, constructed after plans brought home from Mecca, had existed before the war. Thus their religious hatred was aroused, as the ruined temples and Buddhist monasteries testified, and both interest and revenge for insults to their religion led to a universal and well-planned rising. As the insurrection which broke out in 1855 spread, the Chinese towns and villages which resisted were pillaged, and the male population massacred; while the women were spared to minister to the passions of the undisciplined soldiery, and children were captured to be brought up as Mussulmans; but all the places which yielded were spared.
That the country suffered terribly in the struggle was proved to us by the mute evidence of the deserted towns and villages, and from the most southern border of the province to the farthest north we have the reports of eye-witnesses of the fearful devastation. The contending parties invoked the aid of the hill tribes, such as the Lolos, Lou-tse, and Kakhyens, and these had to be rewarded for their services by licensed pillage. Thus it happened that places on the debatable borders were pillaged three times over, by the Red Flag, by the White Flag, and by the marauders. In this way the towns of Sanda and Muangla had been plundered by the Kakhyens after the Panthay invasion. The officers at Momien told many stories of the conduct of their soldiers, which spoke volumes of the misery brought on the peaceful inhabitants; but the Chinese soldier is, by all accounts, as dangerous in peace to the towns on which he is billeted as any enemy could be, and scenes of violence and outrage accompany the march of the undisciplined ruffians under the imperial banners wherever they go.
The exact order of events which led to the establishment of the Mahommedan kingdom is somewhat uncertain; we could not, for want of interpreters, gain trustworthy information. In the account of the French expedition,[34] M. Garnier refers the commencement of the rebellion to an outbreak of the Mahommedans, the cause of which is not stated, and describes them as having instigated a riot in 1856, and pillaged the city of Yunnan-fu. The imperial authorities thereupon determined to rid themselves of these intractable subjects by a general massacre, which was ordered to take place on a given day. This commenced at Hoching, a town between Li-kiang-fu and Tali-fu, when upwards of a thousand Mahommedans were murdered; while similar treacherous massacres followed in different places. A simple bachelor or literatus of Moung-ho, named Tu-win-tsen or Dowinsheow, a Chinese orphan who had been adopted by Mahommedans, rallied his co-religionists. His followers at first numbered only forty, but their ranks were speedily joined by fugitives from Hoching, Yung-pe, and other places, till with six hundred men he attacked the ancient and holy city of Tali-fu, which surrendered in 1857. Although Tali-fu is a small town, the population of which did not at that time exceed thirty-five thousand, the rich plain walled in by mountains, and with a lake teeming with fish, stretching forty miles in length and ten in breadth, maintained a population estimated before the war at four hundred thousand. Garnier states that there were one hundred and fifty villages, but the Old Resident numbers them at two hundred and fifty-three. The mountains to the north and south close in upon the lake, and the plain and city are accessible only by two strongly fortified passes, Hiang-kwang and Hia-kwang, or, as the Burmese call them, Shangwan and Shagwan. Thus Tali has been from the earliest times a strong city; it was the capital of a kingdom at the invasion of Kublai Khan, and is still regarded by the Thibetans, who make pilgrimages to its vicinity, as the ancient home of their forefathers. The Mahommedans made it their head-quarters, and it seemed likely again to become the capital of an independent kingdom. Their success was facilitated by the jealousy which existed between the pure Chinese, mainly descended from immigrants from Sz-chuen, and the Minkia and Penti mixed races, descended from the early colonists planted by the Mongols, and probably by the later Tartar dynasty in 1679. These tribes, inhabiting the eastern plains of Tali and other adjacent districts, were despised, as being sprung from intermarriage with the Shan and barbarous races, by the Chinese, as the true Creoles looked down upon any in whose veins ran negro blood.[35] Hence they stood aloof in the struggle between the Chinese and the Mahommedans; the latter even succeeded in occupying Yunnan-fu for a short time, but were speedily expelled. A local revolt, however, was organised there by a Mahommedan hadji of great repute, called Lao-papa, who assassinated the viceroy Pang, and was proclaimed emperor or sultan, but enjoyed his dignity a very short time. Another Mahommedan, named Ma-kien, who, before the war, had been a seller of barley-sugar, but had become a soldier, and took the imperialist side, subdued Lao-papa in 1861, and established the authority of another Lao, who had been appointed viceroy. Ma-kien was named ti-tai, or commander of the forces, but an officer called Leang, in the south of the province, refused to obey his orders, and a little civil war ensued between their respective partisans. The Mahommedans took advantage of this division in the camp of the enemy to consolidate their power under their elected chief, Tu-win-tsen, who was proclaimed sultan, or imam, in the year 1867. Momien had been captured three years before our visit, and the Shan states on the Tapeng brought under the Mahommedan king, whose authority extended over a considerable portion of the province. In the beginning of 1868, the French found the government at Yunnan-fu administered ad interim by a mandarin of the blue button, named Song, the viceroy Lao having recently died, and his successor, though appointed, not having ventured to assume the perilous post. The office of commander-in-chief was filled by Ma-kien, supported by a staff of Mahommedan officers, whose costume and physiognomy marked them as different from the Chinese. Lao-papa also resided in Yunnan, invested with rank and honours, as the religious head of all the Mahommedans.[36] It does not appear how this could be reconciled with the religious authority of Sultan Suleiman, and it is plain that the Mahommedans were themselves divided into two parties.
It is interesting to compare this account with that derived by Mr. Cooper from information furnished him in the north of the province as to the rebellious attitude assumed by the imperial viceroy, himself a Mahommedan proselyte, who had actually concluded a treaty of partition with the sultan of Tali, and corrupted the imperial troops sent to quell the revolt with funds furnished by the sultan. We do not, however, possess such information as will enable us to reconcile the two accounts which present so many points of agreement and difference. By a curious coincidence, that most enterprising traveller, having been turned back by the impossibility of penetrating to Tali, was detained at Weisee-fu, one hundred and twenty miles distant, at the very time of our stay at Momien. The utter want of communication kept us in perfect ignorance of his being comparatively so near at hand, and he was equally unaware of our presence in Western Yunnan. Our information as to the passage of the French mission was, if anything, worse, as an obstructive falsehood is perhaps more aggravating than complete ignorance. During the first week of July the governor communicated the information that some six or eight months previously the French expedition had come into collision with hostile tribes in the vicinity of Kiang-hung, and had suffered severe losses; some of their number had perished, and the remainder had arrived in a state of exhaustion and want at a place called Thela, where they had been kindly received. This information he declared to be authentic, and furnished by a relative of his own, resident at Thela, who had purchased some of the arms and other property taken from the French. As at that time the last news received some time before our departure from Burma had stated the party to be at Kiang-tong or Xiang-tong, a Laotian state tributary to Burma, we could not help fearing that some disaster must have befallen them. The statement may have been a distorted account of the detention experienced by the French before reaching Kiang-hung, and the fact that they were obliged to reduce their baggage, some of the articles referred to as proof positive by the Panthays having perhaps come from the superfluous stores, given or bartered away to the Laotians. It does, as M. Gamier remarks, appear improbable that the governor, who was a trusted officer of the sultan, should have received no information as to the visit to Tali-fu of the party in the month of March preceding.[37] On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine any reason for his suppression of his knowledge of it, unless he feared that we should be thereby inclined to mistrust the letters from the sultan. As regards Garnier’s theory that the apparent welcome given to us was intended to do away with any unfavourable impression which might have been produced in the minds of foreigners by the sultan’s refusal to see the French party, and ordering their instant departure, it is much more probable that the French were regarded with strong suspicion, and taken for spies. The fact that they had travelled under Pekin passports, and had been guests of the viceroy ad interim at Yunnan-fu, was not in their favour; but worse than that was their connection with the French missionaries, who were everywhere most hostile to the Mahommedan cause. One of their number had been engaged in the sacerdotal task of manufacturing gunpowder for the viceroy, and had been blown up by his own petard; others had forwarded a memorial by the medium of the French minister to the emperor in favour of Ma-kien, as the only man capable of saving the province from the rebels. An imperial reply to this, promising to aid him with troops and supplies, was received before Garnier left Yunnan. It is more than probable that this was known to the authorities at Tali, and, even independently of the circumstance narrated by Mr. Cooper, would have operated against a cordial reception of the French visitors.
At our first entrance into the country, without any passports whatever, we, as commercial explorers, had appealed to the existing authorities, and had refused to advance until their safe-conduct had been received. Our neutrality between the two contending parties had been most carefully sifted by letters and envoys before we were made welcome at Momien, and little more than a week after our arrival it was tested, if not by the contrivance, certainly with the knowledge, of the governor. One evening Moung Shuay Yah, in a mysterious manner, made known the presence of an important visitor, namely, an officer sent by Low-quang-fang, the officer who, in conjunction with Li-sieh-tai, supported the imperial cause. He had brought a pony as a gift, and desired to make our friendship, and provide us with a safe escort on the return route, always provided we were unaccompanied by the Panthays. Our leader declined an interview, and refused the pony, stating that we were guests of the governor, and as such could not confer with his enemies, except with his consent. We soon learned that the governor was aware of the mission of this envoy, and that in course of time a treaty was signed by which Low-quang-fang undertook not to attack the Panthay possessions, or molest us on our return, and was to be left undisturbed in the possession of a small customs post; whether this was a ruse on the part of the Chinese partisans to win our support, or of the Panthays to sound our real opinions, it is impossible to say. At all events, it confirmed the conviction of the governor in our good faith. The terms of the agreement, if true, were another proof of the anxiety of the Panthays to re-open the western trade routes, to which we doubtless mainly owed our friendly reception.