HISTORY. Many references are found in Chi nese history to the savage tribes inhabiting this region even as early as the eleventh century B.c. In 712 we find a chieftain named Ta, whose tribe dwelt to the north of Korea, receiving from the Chinese Emperor the title of Prince of Pohai. Later his descendants threw off the Chinese alle giance and established an independent kingdom with a centralized government and no fewer than five royal residences. Later still arose the Khitan, whose seat was in the valleys of the Hulan. They conquered Eastern Mongolia, waged war on China, established a dynasty there known as the Liao (907), overthrew the Pohai in 926. and annexed their territory. In 1125 the Khitan were conquered by the Neu-chin or Jurchin.whose original seat was between the Upper Sungari and the Mirka, and who possessed themselves of Man churia, Mongolia, and North China, and there set up the Kin or Golden dynasty. Driven out of China in the thirteenth century by Kublai Khan, the •urchin became broken up into a number of independent tribes which were later welded into one kingdom by Nurhachu (born 1559). whose chief seat lay in the south of the Long White Mountain about NO miles east of Mukden, then an important Chinese city. He was the seventh in descent from the miraculously conceived Aisin Gioro Bukuli, the ancestor of the family now on the throne of China, and the first to apply to his tribesmen the epithet Manchu, 'clear' or 'pure,' still used in the Chinese name of the reigning dynasty—Ta Ts'ing Cleao, 'the Great Pure.' In 1616 Nurhachu took the title of T'ien-Ming, 'Heaven-decreed.' and in the following year de clared war on China, then in possession of both Liao-tung, and Liao-si, defeated with immense slaughter an army of 200.000 sent against him,
took Mukdcn in 1621. and on his capturing Liao yang (which he made his capital) seventy cities surrendered to him. At his death in 1626 he was succeeded by his fourth son, who sent an army in 1627 into Korea, which had been aiding the Chinese, conquered it and exacted tribute, and advanced into Liao-si and Mongolia. Meanwhile decay had seized the Ming dynasty then on the throne of China: formidable rebellions existed everywhere; one of the rebel leaders had captured Peking, and the Emperor stabbed himself and his daughter. Wu San Kwei, the general operating against the Manchus in Liao-si, at once patched up a peace with them and invoked their assist ance in restoring order in China. The Manchus agreed with great alacrity. marched into China. recovered Peking. and kept it (1644). placing the grandson of Nurhachu on the throne with the reign-title of Shun-chih (q.v.). For the subse quent history of Manchuria. especially in connec tion with the Boxer uprising of 1900 and the occupation of the country by Russia. see CHINESE ElIPIRE.
Brimorat.trriv. The best book is that by Hosie. Manchuria: Its People, Resources, and Recent History (London. 1901) ; Williamson. •ournrys in. North China, Manchuria. and Mongolia (2 vols., London. 1870) : Fleming. TrarcIs on Horse back in Mantchu-Tartary (London, IS63) ; and .Tames. Thr Long White Mountain, or a Journey in Manchuria (London. 1SRS). For the language, sc Lucien Adam, Grumnzaire dc la lungue Mond (hou t Paris, 1873).