Talk:Xinjiang under Qing rule

Public Domain descriptions

In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan: Being the Record of Three Years' Exploration By Henry Hugh Peter Deasy:

THE province of Chinese Turkestan is officially called Sin-Chiang (or the New Dominion), but this name is practically unknown among the inhabitants, who are content to describe themselves as natives of the several districts, Yarkand, Khotan, &c. The principal personage in the administration of the province is the Futai, or Governor, who is always a Chinese and has his official residence at Urumtsi. Next to him in rank are two Taotais, one of whom resides at Kulja, and the other at Kashgar, while under them there are Chow-Kuans (by Europeans commonly called Ambans), who may be regarded as district magistrates. The Taotais and Chow-Kuans are Chinese; but most officials of lower rank are usually natives. The principal of these are the Begs, and, in towns only, Aksakals, or heads of trades, Mohammedans, wearing Chinese dress and false pig-tails. Then come the Ming Bashis, or heads of thousands, the Yuz Bashis, or heads of hundreds, and the Oan Bashis, or heads of tens. The Bashis are men in humble position who, not being required to make any compromise withChinese usages, wear neither Chinese dress nor pig-tails.

Ordinary ailments are affections of the lungs and of the eyes, leprosy, tumours in women, and goitre in some districts; but far more common than these is venereal disease, affecting, though not with great virulence, more than nine-tenths of the population.

Indian traders labour under great difficulties. The nearest railway station is at Rawal Pindi, whence the transport to Yarkand occupies about two months. From Leh toYarkand the cost of carriage fluctuates, but is usually about forty rupees for 240 lbs., the route being practicable for caravans during not more than about five months in the year. The merchandise these traders bring is of many kinds, all in small quantities, bought, not from British manufacturers directly, but from middlemen in Bombay, Calcutta, and Karachi, and burdened with the Indian customs duty. The profits are consequently small (about 10 per cent), and traders usually make only one venture in two years. Formerly they imported large quantities of charas or hemp into India, but the duty on this article has recently been increased to such an extent as to be almost prohibitive. There is no commercial treaty regulating the trade between India and Sin-Chiang, and formerly the Hindu traders had many grievances, the foremost of which was the impossibility of recovering debts; but by the action of the British agent difficulties of this nature have been removed. Hindus engage also in money-lending, a profession in ‘ which some Chinese also embark. The rate of interest varies from 75 to 150 per cent., and, though bad debts are not infrequent, large profits are speedily made. Most of the people whom I met, except officials, were heavily in debt, the most seriously encumbered being the transport contractors.

Telegraph messages from Pekin (pronounced Béjin, in Sin-Chiang) to Kashgar take from one to three days in transit. They can be sent either in the Chinese language or in any European language written in Roman characters. If a message in any other language, for example, that of the natives of Sin-Chiang has to be sent, it is first translated into Chinese. Owing to the impossibility of signalling the 4,000 Chinese characters, each of them is denoted by a number, so that Chinese messages have to be “coded” at the station of despatch, and to be “ decoded” at the receiving station. All the telegraph operators are familiar with English, which is used in conjunction with Chinese on the telegraph forms, but the system as regards Chinese messages is cumbrous, and there is a possibility of frequent mistakes. Moreover, as each step in the process has, of course, to be paid for, the cost of telegraphing is high, the rate having been twice raised during 1898—99. The telegraph forms at the time of my visit bore the words, “Messages received for all parts of the world,” but up to March, 1899, no interchange of messages with foreign countries had been sanctioned.

THE military force of China in Sin-Chiang consists nominally of 3,000 cavalry and 4,500 infantry; but the actual strength does not exceed 960 cavalry and 1,350 infantry, the difference between the nominal and the actual numbers being due to the corruption which prevails in the military, no less than in the civil administration. At the head of the force is the Teetai, or General Officer, stationed at Kashgar, and commanding as far north as Maralbashi and as far east as Kiria. The military unit is called a liang-tsu, and the force contains 12 lia-ng-tsu of cavalry, each nominally of 250 men, and 9 of infantry, each of 500 men. The actual number in a cavalry Zia/nytsu is about 80 ; in an infantry Ziang-tsu, about 150. At the head of each of these units is a Li-Dam'n, his subordinate officers being a Li-da-li, a Yu-da-li, and a Wong. The nominal pay of the officers from the Teetai downwards amounts to little or nothing, and each has to make arrangements for his own livelihood.

insurrection is about the last course to which the natives would of their own accord resort. Any riots and disturbances which occur are got up by the officials for the purpose of inflicting injury on foreigners. The population have no fighting courage, no arms, no leaders, are totally incapable of combined action, and, so far as the government of their own country is concerned. may be regarded as of no account. They have been squeezed to the utmost, but would prefer to remain under the dominion of China. If they are questioned, they say “The Chinese plunder us, but they do not drive and hustle us, and we can do as we please.” This opinion agrees with that of the Andijanis, or natives of Russian Turkestan, who assert that Russian rule is much disliked among them, owing to the harassing administration to which they are subjected.

08:29, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

References