y took place. The disturbances of the years that
had passed had got rid of the worst enemies of the people, the
formidable rival cliques and the individuals lusting for power; the
gentry had become more cautious in their behaviour to the peasants; and
bribery had been largely stamped out. Finally, the empire had been
greatly expanded. All these things helped to stabilize the regime of the
Manchus.

2 _Decline in the eighteenth century_

The improvement continued until the middle of the eighteenth century.
About the time of the French Revolution there began a continuous
decline, slow at first and then gathering speed. The European works on
China offer various reasons for this: the many foreign wars (to which we
shall refer later) of the emperor, known by the name of his ruling
period, Ch'ien-lung, his craze for building, and the irruption of the
Europeans into Chinese trade. In the eighteenth century the court
surrounded itself with great splendour, and countless palaces and other
luxurious buildings were erected, but it must be borne in mind that so
great an empire as the China of that day possessed very considerable
financial strength, and could support this luxury. The wars were
certainly not inexpensive, as they took place along the Russian
frontier and entailed expenditure on the transport of reinforcements and
supplies; the wars against Turkestan and Tibet were carried on with
relatively small forces. This expenditure should not have been beyond
the resources of an ordered budget. Interestingly enough, the period
between 1640 and 1840 belongs to those periods for which almost no
significant work in the field of internal social and economic
developments has been made; Western scholars have been too much
interested in the impact of Western economy and culture or in the
military events. Chinese scholars thus far have shown a prejudice
against the Manchu dynasty and were mainly interested in the study of
anti-Manchu movements and the downfall of the dynasty. On the other
hand, the documentary material for this period is extremely extensive,
and many years of work are necessary to reach any general conclusions
even in one single field. The following remarks should, therefore, be
taken as very tentative and preliminary, and they are, naturally,
fragmentary.

[Illustration: 14 Aborigines of South China, of the 'Black Miao' tribe,
at a festival. China-ink drawing of the eighteenth century. _Collection
of the Museum fue