When the Manchus gained control of China, they imposed the queue, or pigtail, upon the Chinese as a badge of vassalage. This was a Manchu tribal hairstyle, and was seen by the rulers of the new dynasty as Chinese acceptance of Manchu rule. All that can be said of the origin of the pig-tail is that it was first enforced as a badge of subjugation by the Manchus at the siege of Leaouyang, and that thenceforward, until the whole of China was conquered, it was made the one condition of immunity from massacre.Ĭhinese men were forced to shave the front and top of their heads, and wear the rest of their hair in one long pigtail after the Manchus conquered China in the 1640s and founded the Ch'ing Dynasty. This may be due to the fact that the Kins were not a literary race, and that the Chinese chroniclers, who alone recorded their history, had not the necessary information or interest in a foreign race to publish the details of their Court ceremonial and national customs: for it must be remembered that the Kins, although rulers of a great part of China, were not national or popular sovereigns like their contemporaries the Sungs. It might be thought that, if the former were the case, it would have been the custom of the Kin rulers but no record can be found of any such practice among the annals of that dynasty. They could not tell whether shaving the head was the national custom of the Manchus, or whether Noorhachu only conceived this happy idea of distinguishing those who surrendered to his power among the countless millions of the long-haired people of China. The badge of conquest has changed to a mark of national pride but it is strange to find that the Chinese themselves and the most patient inquirers among sinologues are unable to say what was the origin of the pig-tail. This is the first historical reference to a practice that is now universal throughout China, and that has become what may be called a national characteristic. Those of the townspeople who wished to save their lives had to shave their heads in token of subjection. The garrison was massacred to a man, Yuen Yingtai, brave, if incapable, committed suicide. The Manchus gave it no time to recover the confidence it had lost, and, by either treachery within the walls or skilful engineering, making a road across the moat, gained an entrance into the city. He was defeated, losing some of his best soldiers, and compelled to shut himself up in the town with a disheartened garrison. That officer, unwarned by the past, and regardless of the experience of so many of his predecessors, weakened himself and invited defeat by attempting to oppose the Manchus in the open. The defence of this important town was entrusted to Yuen Yingtai, the Court favourite and incompetent successor of Tingbi. In 1621 the Chinese sent several armies to recover Moukden but they met with no success, and the Manchu commander Noorhachu made it the base of his plan of attack on Leaouyang, the capital of the province.
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