i8

THË  CHINESE  EMPIRÉ

Durgan,  entered  Peking  in  triumph,  and  in  accordance  with
the  agreement  entered  into  with  Wu  San-kwei,  placed  his
nephew  on  the  Imperial  throne  of  China,  thus  inaugurating
the  present  dynasty,  the  Tsing,  in  1644.
Although  the  Chinese  in  the  north  submitted  to  the
Manchus,  those  of  the  south  for  fifteen  years  maintained
a  desperate  struggle  to  continue  the  Ming  Dynasty.  At
last,  however,  they  were  compelled  to  bow  to  the  inevitable,
and  the  whole  Empire  for  a  second  time  passed  under  the
rule  of  the  Northerners,  in  whose  hands  it  has  remained  up
to  the  present  time.
The  Manchus  made  but  few  changes  in  the  government
of  the  country,  and  soon  adapted  themselves  to  the  civilisation ­
  of  China.  They  compelled  the  Chinese  all  over  the
Empire  to  adopt  the  queue  as  a  badge  of  subjection,  and
they  were  careful  to  station  garrisons  of  Manchu  troops
at  various  important  centres  to  guard  against  any  sudden
uprising.  In  Peking  they  kept  up  the  organisation  of  the
eight  great  Banner  corps  of  Manchu  troops.
In  a  few  decades  the  new  régime  was  thoroughly  established, ­
  and  the  Chinese  seemed  to  forget  they  were  under  a
foreign  rule.