The larger part of Manchuria is covered by forests, the abode of wild animals, whose capture affords employment, clothing, and food to their hunters. The rivers and coasts abound in fish; among which carp, sturgeon, salmon, pike, and other species, as well as shell-fish, are plenty; the pearl-fishery is sufficiently remunerative to employ many fishermen; the Chinese Government used to take cognizance of their success, and collect a revenue in kind. The argali and jiggetai are found here as well as in Mongolia; bears, wolves, tigers, deer, and numerous fur-bearing animals are hunted for their skins. The troops are required to furnish 2,400 stags annually to the Emperor, who reserves for his own use only the fleshy part of the tail as a delicacy. Larks, pheasants, and crows of various species, with pigeons, thrushes, and grouse, abound. The condor is the largest bird of prey, and for its size and fierceness rivals its congener of the Andes.
The greater half of Shingking and the south of Kirin is cultivated; maize, Setaria wheat, barley, pulse, millet, and buckwheat are the principal crops. Ginseng and rhubarb are collected by troops sent out in detachments under the charge of their proper officers. These sections support, moreover, large herds of various domestic animals. The timber which covers the mountains will prove a source of wealth as soon as a remunerative market stimulates the skill and enterprise of settlers; even now, logs over three feet in diameter find their way up to Peking, brought from the Liau valley.
THE PROVINCE OF SHINGKING.
Manchuria is divided into three provinces, Shingking, Kirin, and Tsitsihar. The province of Shingking includes the ancient Liautung, and is bounded north by Mongolia; north-east and east by Kirin; south by the Gulf of Liautung and Corea, from which latter it is separated by the Yaluh River; and west by Chahar in Chihlí. It contains two departments, viz., Fungtien and Kinchau, subdivided into fifteen districts; there are also twelve garrisoned posts at the twelve gates in the Palisade, whose inmates collect a small tax on travellers and goods. Manchuria is under a strictly military government, every male above eighteen being liable for military service, and being, in fact, enrolled under that one of the eight standards to which by birth he belongs. The administration of Shingking is partly civil and partly military; that of Kirin and Tsitsihar is entirely military.
The population of the province has been estimated by T. T. Meadows[97] at twelve millions, consisting of Manchus and Chinese. The coast districts are now mostly occupied and cultivated by emigrants from Shantung, who are pushing the Manchus toward the Amur, or compelling them to leave their hunting and take to farming if they wish to stay where they were born. The conquerors are being civilized and developed by their subjects, losing the use of their own meagre language, and becoming more comfortable as they learn to be industrious. But few aboriginal settlements now remain who still resist these influences. The inhabitants collect near the river, or along the great roads, where food or a market are easiest found.
The capital of Shingking is usually known on the spot as Shin-yang, an older name than the Manchu Mukden, or the Chinese name Fungtien. As the metropolis of Manchuria, it is also known as Shingking (the ‘Affluent Capital’), distinguished from the name of the province by the addition of pun-ching, or ‘head-garrison.’ It lies in lat. 41° 50½′ N. and long. 123° 30′ E., on the banks of the Shin, a small branch of the Liau, and is reckoned to be five hundred miles north-east from Peking. The town is surrounded by a low mud wall about ten miles in circuit, at least half a mile distant from the main city wall, whose eight gates have double archways so that the crowd may not interfere in passing; this wall is about three miles around, and its towers and bastions are in good condition. It is 35 or 40 feet high, and 15 feet wide at the top, of brick throughout; a crenulated parapet protects the guard. But for its smaller scale, the walls and buildings here are precisely similar to those at Peking. The streets are wide, clean, and the main business avenues lined with large, well built shops, their counters, windows, and other arrangements indicating a great trade. This capital contains a large proportion of governmental establishments, yamuns, and nearly all the officials belong to the ruling race. Main streets run across the city from gate to gate, with narrow roads or hu-tung intersecting them. The palace of the early Manchu sovereigns occupies the centre; while the large warehouses are outside of the inner city. Everywhere marks of prosperity and security indicate an enterprising population, and for its tidy look, industrious and courteous population, Mukden takes high rank among Chinese cities. Its population is estimated to be under 200,000, mostly Chinese. The Manchu monarchs made it the seat of their government in 1631, and the Emperors have since done everything in their power to enlarge and beautify it. The Emperor Kienlung rendered himself celebrated among his subjects, and made the city of Mukden better known abroad, by a poetical eulogy upon the city and province, which was printed in sixty-four different forms of Chinese writing. This curious piece of imperial vanity and literary effort was translated into French by Amyot.
The town of Hingking,[98] sixty miles east of it, is one of the favored places in Shingking, from its being the family residence of the Manchu monarchs, and the burial-ground of their ancestors. It is pleasantly situated in an elevated valley, the tombs being three miles north of it upon a mountain called Tsz’yun shan. The circuit of the walls is about three miles. Hingking lies near the Palisade which separates the province from Kirin, and its officers have the rule over the surrounding country, and the entrances into that province. It has now dwindled to a small hamlet, and the guards connected with the tombs comprise most of the inhabitants.
Kinchau, fifteen leagues from Mukden, carries on considerable trade in cattle, pulse, and drugs. Gutzlaff[99] describes the harbor as shallow, and exposed to southern gales; the houses in the town are built of stone, the environs well cultivated and settled by Chinese from Shantung, while natives of Fuhkien conduct the trade. The Manchus lead an idle life, but keep on good terms with the Chinese. When he was there in 1832, the authorities had ordered all the females to seclude themselves in order to put a stop to debauchery among the native sailors. Horses and camels are numerous and cheap, but the carriages are clumsy. Kaichau, another port lying on the east side of the gulf, possesses a better harbor, but is not so much frequented.
TRADE AND CLIMATE OF MANCHURIA.
Since the treaty of 1858 opened the port of Niuchwang or Yingtsz’, on the River Liau, to foreign trade, the development of Shingking has rapidly increased. The trade in pulse and bean-cake and oil employs many vessels annually. Opium, silk, and paper are prepared for export through this mart, besides foreign goods. Fung-hwang ting, lying near the Yaluh River, commands all the trade with Corea, which must pass through it. There are many restrictions upon this intercourse by both governments, and the Chinese forbid their subjects passing the frontiers. The trade is conducted at fairs, under the supervision of officers and soldiers; the short time allowed for concluding the bargains, and the great numbers resorting to them, render these bazaars more like the frays of opposing clans than the scenes of peaceable trade. There is a market-town in Corea itself, called Kí-iu wăn, about four leagues from the frontier, where the Chinese “supply the Coreans with dogs, cats, pipes, leather, stags’ horns, copper, horses, mules, and asses; and receive in exchange, baskets, kitchen utensils, rice, corn, swine, paper, mats, oxen, furs, and small horses.” Merchants are allowed not more than four or five hours in which to conduct this fair, and the Corean officers under whose charge it is placed, drive all strangers back to the frontier as soon as the day closes.[100]