To dream of gold represents feelings of something in your life being valuable.
Feelings of wealth or enjoying having something you value all to yourself.
Someone or something precious to you.
Valuable opportunities or possibilities that are available to you all the time.
Feeling secure in your level of power or freedom to do as you please.
A guaranteed experience or reward.
A sense of security with something you value.
Gold could also represent good luck, wealth, healing, illumination, happiness, and achievement.
Alternatively, gold in a dream may represents feelings about an absolutely certain sense of power.
Consider the saying "Good as gold."
Total confidence that you or someone else is a winner.
Cheap
coffee and coffee from restaurants and convenience stores is
disgusting. Good coffee, when fresh ground and brewed, is almost an
entirely different drink.
Try a medium roast that costs a little more, it might change your mind.
Try a medium roast that costs a little more, it might change your mind.
This is why I don't mind buying a $10 bag of dunkin donuts or something similar versus a $6 tin of Folgers.
Miles apart in taste.
That's totally not what I was picturing when I read the above post but I guess everything is relative.
McCafe. Livin' large.
I lost it when i read this
http://www.dreambible.com/search.php?q=Gold
https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/5pqtqk/caffeine_pills_vs_coffee_which_one_is_better/
I live in Zuma beach Ca, that's in northern Malibu area in northern Los Angeles county. We have possibly the largest population of Blue Sharks near any populated area in the world. Some times there would be 200 to 400 right outside the lineup where us surfers take off on waves from.
When the grunion are running or there are sardines in mass, you will run into the large groups of blues with mako's. sand tigers, nurse and other shark types, dolphins, all the different pinnipeds and tuna's. I have been surfing with blues for 40 years. I have lived here my entire life and have been surfing since I was 3 years old. The blues could care less about humans, they only care about bait fish up to 8" long.
Unless they're sick or old they won't even feed on Caracas's of whales or other dead creatures in the sea. We surf with the blues everyday, along with dolphins, sea lions and the occasional juvenile White shark that have a sanctuary 10 miles south in the South Bay and Santa Monica bays where there are stand up paddle boarders (SUPB) in mass.
The SUP guys that get out farther than the surfers never get attacked because the whites are 6' to 9" feet and the boards are 4"-5" thick, 4' to 5' foot wide and up to 20' long. The whites are still on a fish diet until they get big enough (10 -20 foot) to handle Pinnipeds like seals, sea lions and much bigger to handle 5000lb elephant seals just north of Malibu where there is a colony of 1500 out on the channel island and west side of Catalina Island 13 miles off Los Angeles.
"In
Norse terms, the astral lover may be the fylgja [personal guardian
spirit]. Astral lovers may be either male or female, depending upon your
present sexual preferences. The astral sexual act can be just like the
physical act, but the best astral sex is not performed in the same way
as physical sex is. Higher astral sex is a melding of chakras. The
climax of such sex makes regular sex seem like juvenile groping. It is
vastly superior and more intense."
So, back to the blue sharks, they will stay 30' to 50' away because that's where the little fish hang out, they also keep their distance from surfers. Lastly, the critter you need to keep track of while out in the water is the sea lion! and not the blues. whites, dolphins, seals or Orca's of which LA has its own 20 or so pod of them. The sea lions are the meanest bastards in the ocean.
They nip at your feet and will make deep wounds that will send you to the ER for a typical dozen stitches. The number one thing the sea lions like to do is tug and pull you around with your board leash along with biting it in half when they get bored. They also like the taste of fiberglass, resin and Clarke foam as on several occasions they have destroyed my boards and at $400 to $1,000 depending on materials used, that's Expensive.
When the grunion are running or there are sardines in mass, you will run into the large groups of blues with mako's. sand tigers, nurse and other shark types, dolphins, all the different pinnipeds and tuna's. I have been surfing with blues for 40 years. I have lived here my entire life and have been surfing since I was 3 years old. The blues could care less about humans, they only care about bait fish up to 8" long.
Unless they're sick or old they won't even feed on Caracas's of whales or other dead creatures in the sea. We surf with the blues everyday, along with dolphins, sea lions and the occasional juvenile White shark that have a sanctuary 10 miles south in the South Bay and Santa Monica bays where there are stand up paddle boarders (SUPB) in mass.
The SUP guys that get out farther than the surfers never get attacked because the whites are 6' to 9" feet and the boards are 4"-5" thick, 4' to 5' foot wide and up to 20' long. The whites are still on a fish diet until they get big enough (10 -20 foot) to handle Pinnipeds like seals, sea lions and much bigger to handle 5000lb elephant seals just north of Malibu where there is a colony of 1500 out on the channel island and west side of Catalina Island 13 miles off Los Angeles.
So, back to the blue sharks, they will stay 30' to 50' away because that's where the little fish hang out, they also keep their distance from surfers. Lastly, the critter you need to keep track of while out in the water is the sea lion! and not the blues. whites, dolphins, seals or Orca's of which LA has its own 20 or so pod of them. The sea lions are the meanest bastards in the ocean.
They nip at your feet and will make deep wounds that will send you to the ER for a typical dozen stitches. The number one thing the sea lions like to do is tug and pull you around with your board leash along with biting it in half when they get bored. They also like the taste of fiberglass, resin and Clarke foam as on several occasions they have destroyed my boards and at $400 to $1,000 depending on materials used, that's Expensive.
Dolphin innovators hunt fish by collecting conch shells
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News |
A conch collector
Dolphins living in Shark Bay, Australia have developed a rare, and extraordinary new behaviour.
The dolphins seek out the shells to hunt fish that are sheltering within.
It is likely that the dolphins originally chased the fish into the conchs, and have now learnt to bring the shells to the surface, where they can flush out and eat their prey.
The dolphins of Shark Bay, Western Australia are well known to scientists, as they are one of the best studied dolphin populations in the world.
"Shark Bay dolphins are known as clever inventors, showing a remarkable range of foraging tactics, which are unprecedented in other cetacean populations," says biologist Dr Michael Krützen of the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
For example, these dolphins have developed a number of novel ways to catch fish.
Sometimes the dolphins 'hydroplane' into extreme shallow water, beating their tails furiously to pursue fish into the shallows where they are more easily caught.
A fish tail emerges from the conch
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They use another trick called 'kerplunking', whereby the dolphins slap their tails over beds of seagrass, creating bubbles that flush out fish hiding within.
Most remarkable, perhaps, is the technique known as 'sponging'.
Some dolphins intentionally pick up marine sponges with their snouts (known as a rostrum), and use them as 'gloves' or 'shields' to protect their sensitive snouts when rubbing them into the sandy seabed to forage.
This is a cultural trait passed down from mother to offspring, the only known example of culturally transmitted tool use among cetaceans.
Now Dr Krützen and colleagues Mr Simon Allen and Dr Lars Bejder of the Cetacean Research Unit at Murdoch University, Western Australia describe another extraordinary innovation by the same group of dolphins.
An individual dolphin inserts its snout into a sizable conch, then lifts the shell up from the sea floor, carrying it to the surface.
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Now the marine biologists have obtained a series of photographs of the dolphins collecting shells, that reveal why they do it.
The dolphins appear to be hunting fish that have taken refuge inside the shells, as evidenced by photographs showing a relatively large fish falling from a conch being shaken by one dolphin (see above).
"We don't know whether the dolphins go searching in otherwise vacant conch shells for fish and just 'happen' to find prey therein, or whether they actively pursue fish into the vacant conch shells and then lift them to the surface, shaking them about to drain the water and the hapless fish into the waiting jaws of death," Mr Allen told the BBC.
A Shark Bay dolphin going 'sponging'
The researchers suspect the dolphins are pursuing fish into the shells, due to the dolphins' erratic swimming before reaching the conchs and rapid surfacing once they have located the shells.
Once they reach the surface, the dolphins shake the shells to make the water and fish spill out.
"It's quite surprising that they are apparently manipulating such large, heavy, cumbersome objects in such a way as to secure a meal," says Mr Allen.
"I think the behaviour is quite unusual, otherwise it would presumably have been seen more often."
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As yet, there is no evidence that the behaviour is being culturally transmitted between dolphins, but "I'd say we were lucky enough to witness a dolphin being innovative," says Mr Allen.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8975000/8975919.stm
Myth Summary
Chapter 6: The Nature of the Gods
THE NATURE OF THE GODS
Anthropomorphism. The Greeks and Romans (like most peoples) conceived of their deities as ANTHROPOMORPHIC, that is, human in form and character. These gods and goddess are idealized mortals in their physical beauty (although Hephaestus is lame), human beings made larger than life through the intensity of their emotions (however grand or petty these may be) and their superhuman powers.
They perform extraordinary feats, change shape, become invisible, and fly. On the other hand, they appear tragically human in their pain and sorrows, their rivalries, and their sins. ICHOR, not blood, runs through their veins, and they feast not on the food of mortals but instead drink NECTAR and eat AMBROSIA.
In the last analysis, proof of their divinity lies in their immortality.
Olympian Deities. The major deities have as their home Mt. Olympus, where they dwell in splendid houses and enjoy opulent feasts in halls that echo with their inextinguishable laughter. Individual gods and goddesses frequent favorite cult-places or cities.
These immortals are worshiped by mortals in temples and honored with statues, altars, and animal sacrifices.
Priests and priestesses serve them and officiate at celebrations; at an oracular shrine such as Delphi, they convey the god's responses to the prayers and inquiries of suppliants.
Chthonic Deities. Those gods and goddesses who are primarily associated with the Underworld are called CHTHONIC ("of the earth").
Although Hades is an Olympian, he is primarily a chthonic deity because he is king of the Underworld and so is his wife and queen, Persephone, at least for the part of the year that she is with him. Hecate and the Furies are other examples of important chthonic deities.
Nymphs. Among the various lower echelons of divinity are spirits who animate aspects of nature, all of whom may not necessarily be immortal but merely long-lived. The feminine spirits are often imagined as attractive nymphs, called NAIADS if they inhabit waters and DRYADS if they inhabit trees.
Zeus and Greek Monotheism. Within the polytheistic cast of Greek and Roman mythology and religion, there is a strong element of monotheism from the very beginning. In both Homer and Hesiod, Zeus is unquestionably the sovereign deity, and he is very much concerned with moral values.
Yet his monotheism and patriarchy are severely tested by other divinities, especially goddesses. Hera’s power is able to thwart Zeus’ plans.
Aphrodite can bend all the gods to her will, Zeus included, except for the three virgins, Hestia, Athena, and Artemis.
Demeter, angry at the rape of her daughter, Persephone, forces Zeus and the gods to come to her terms.
And Zeus yields to fate or the Fates, although this need not always be the case.
At the same time, in the evolution of Zeus as the one supreme god, he became the almighty god of morality and justice until he could be referred to without a name and simply as god in an abstract, rather than as a specific, anthropomorphic conception.
This greater sophistication in thought, which gave Zeus a more unquestionable, absolute authority, came about through the writings of religious poets and philosophers.
Ultimately in the sixth century B.C., Xenophanes argued against the folly of conceiving deities as human beings and insisted (frag. 23) that there is “one god, greatest among gods and mortals, not at all like them, either in body or in mind.”
Greek Humanism. A belief in the inevitability of fate or the Fates created a particularly somber mood for the development of Greek literature.
This sense of predetermined destiny for each individual was analyzed in terms of the meaning and possibility of free will and independent action.
There also developed a strong and realistic awareness of the misery, uncertainty, and unpredictability of human life ordained by the gods.
If we are lucky, our lives will be more blessed by happiness than doomed to misery; still, the terrible vicissitudes of life lead to only one conclusion: it is better to be dead than alive.
In opposition to this pessimism was an uplifting faith in the potential of human endeavor to triumph against all divine odds.
According to the fifth-century philosopher Protagoras, “Man is the measure of all things,” meaning that mortals, not gods, are the arbiters of the human condition.
In this optimistic mood about the hope and achievement possible in this life, Achilles in Homer’s Odyssey cries out that he would sooner be alive, the slave of a poor man, than dead, a king in the Underworld.
These two seemingly irreconcilable views account for a unique humanism originated by the Greeks, its emphasis upon the beauty and wonder of mortal achievement attained in the face of horrible disasters, which a vindictive god may dispense at any moment.
THE LEGEND OF SOLON AND CROESUS
In his History of The Persian Wars, Herodotus presents a brilliant crystallization of the tragic, yet uplifting nature of Greek humanism, which can be truly understood only through the emotional and intellectual experience afforded by great art.
Tellus the Athenian. After a year of office in Athens with extraordinary powers (594/3 B.C.) during which he wrought many political and economic reforms, the wise man SOLON [soh'lon] set out to see the world.
Among those he visited was the rich and powerful CROESUS [kree'sus], or KROISOS, the king of Lydia, whose capital was at Sardis.
Croesus tried to impress his guest with a tour of his vast treasures, before he asked Solon the question, “Who is the happiest of human beings?”
Croesus, of course, expected that he would be so designated, but Solon, surprisingly, identified an unknown Athenian, named TELLUS [tel'lus], or TELLOS. His reasons for the choice were as follows: Tellus came from a prosperous city and was prosperous himself (by the standards of Athens, not Lydian Croesus) so that he could fulfill his full potential as a human being.
He had beautiful and good children, to whom he saw children born and all survive. Finally he died gloriously fighting on behalf of his family and his city, and was honored with burial at public expense in the place where he fell.
Cleobis and Biton. Despotic Croesus, taken back, persisted in asking who was the second happiest, fully expecting that he would at least win second place.
But Solon refused to flatter or be intimidated and named two young men from Argos, CLEOBIS [kle'-o-bis], or KLEOBIS, and BITON [beye'ton], who had won prizes in the athletic games.
Their mother was a priestess of Hera, who had to be present at the festival of the goddess.
Once when the oxen did not arrive in time, her two sons yoked themselves to their mother’s chariot and brought her to the temple, a journey of five miles.
The whole congregation marveled at this deed, congratulating the youths for their strength and their mother for having such fine sons.
She was overjoyed and prayed before the statue of the goddess to give her sons the best thing for human beings to attain.
After they had sacrificed and feasted, Cleobis and Biton went to sleep in the temple and never woke up.
The end of their life was the very best, and thereby the god showed clearly how it is better to be dead than alive.
Statues of the brothers were set up in Delphi, since they had been the best of men.
The Nature of God and Human Life. Angrily, Croesus asked why his happiness was dismissed as nothing and he was not even put on a par with ordinary men.
Solon explained. All deity is jealous and fond of causing trouble.
Furthermore, in the length of a lifetime of seventy years there is much that one does not wish to see and not one of the days in all those years will bring exactly the same experiences.
A human being is completely a thing of chance.
A human life cannot be judged happy until it has been completed.
The one from whom fate has kept most evils and misfortunes and to whom fate has given most blessings and good fortune, this one is the happiest, provided as well that his death at the end is good.
It is too soon to judge Croesus happiest because his life is not yet over and can not be reviewed in its entirety.
A rich king, seemingly blessed with happiness now, may at any time in the future meet with disasters, just like any other ordinary mortal.
Croesus considered Solon a fool, but NEMESIS (“retribution”) punished him for his hubris in thinking that he was the happiest of mortals.
Croesus and His Son Atys. Croesus had a fine son named ATYS [a'tis], “the doomed one,” in whom he placed all his hopes.
A dream came to Croesus as he slept and foretold that Atys would die, struck by the point of an iron weapon.
Croesus forbade his son to engage in any further military activity, removed all weapons from the men’s quarters, and arranged that his son should get a wife.
In the midst of preparations for the marriage, an unfortunate suppliant, polluted by blood, arrived and begged Croesus for purification.
His name was ADRASTUS [a-dras'tus], or ADRASTOS ("the one who cannot escape fate"), a Phrygian from a royal family; he had killed his brother unintentionally and had been driven out by his father. Croesus benevolently purified Adrastus and accepted him in his palace.
The Mysian Boar Hunt. It happened that the neighboring Mysians were unable to overcome a monstrous boar that was destroying their lands.
They appealed to Croesus to send his son with an expedition to come to their aid.
Croesus, remembering the dream, refused.
But his valiant son, anxious to help the Mysians, convinced his father to allow him to go.
Atys argued that the fight was not against men but a boar; since a boar did not have hands or an iron weapon, how could he possibly die by the point of an iron weapon, if he went on the hunt?
Croesus was won over but, nevertheless, was still concerned about his son’s safety.
So he asked Adrastus that, in return for the great kindness that he had done him, he go along with Atys to act as his guardian. Adrastus, although reluctant, could not refuse Croesus’ request.
In the midst of the hunt, as the attackers hurled their weapons against the wild beast, Adrastus missed his aim and hit instead Atys, and killed him. And the prophecy of the dream was fulfilled.
The Suicide of Adrastus. When the expedition arrived home, Adrastus stood before the corpse and begged Croesus to kill him. But the bereaved Croesus answered that it was the god who had warned him of this evil who was responsible. He forgave Adrastus. Yet Adrastus could not forgive himself.
Alone at the grave of Croesus’ son, Atys, whom he had murdered, he slaughtered himself on the tomb, realizing that he was the unhappiest of mortals, most oppressed by misfortune. In the final scene of this tragedy, we cannot help but contrast the unfortunate and most unhappy Adrastus with Tellus and Cleobis and Biton, the happiest of men who ended their lives well.
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Croesus on the Pyre, Attic red-figure amphora by Myson, ca. 500 B.C.
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The ambiguous answer given by the god was that if he marched against Persia, a great empire would fall. Croesus foolishly did march against Cyrus, but it was his own Lydian empire, not that of the Persians, which fell.
The Enlightenment and Salvation of Croesus. When Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was captured, Cyrus had a great pyre built and Croesus placed upon it. As Croesus stood on the pyre, about to be burned alive, he now understood that the words of Solon about the nature of happiness for mortals were inspired by god.
Croesus called out the name of Solon three times, and Cyrus, who heard him, was perplexed, and Croesus explained the truth expounded to him by Solon: bo one can by judged happy until dead. After the fire was lit and the flames began to burn the outer edges of the pyre, Cyrus, fearing retribution for himself, ordered the fire quenched and Croesus saved.
When Croesus realized Cyrus’ change of heart, and saw that the men were unable to put out the fire, in tears he called to Apollo.
The god answered him by sending out of the clear and calm sky, torrents of rain that extinguished the fire.
Cyrus knew then that Croesus was a good man, beloved by god and made him his wise and benevolent counselor.
Later Croesus inquired at Delphi why Apollo had deceived him by his oracle.
Apollo, his savior, answered that it was Croesus’ own fault for misinterpreting the oracle and not inquiring for further elucidation; Croesus agreed.
http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195397703/student/materials/chapter6/summary/
Faye Fang Kaew
FFK (เฟย์ ฟาง แก้ว) is a Thai pop
trio girl group consisting 3 members; Faye, Fang and Kaew, formed in
2007, affiliated with Kamikaze music, sublabel of RS Music Company.
They are the first artist of this teenager-hit music label, represent 3 styles of girls in this generation: fashionista, sweet and cool, different but perfect.
They are the first artist of this teenager-hit music label, represent 3 styles of girls in this generation: fashionista, sweet and cool, different but perfect.
FFK released many
of hit string songs that have topped on the Thai radio & music video
charts.
Many impressive shows and performances on the stages, lovely personalities and looks in front and behind the scenes, made them become one of the most popular girl groups or idols of this age.
Many impressive shows and performances on the stages, lovely personalities and looks in front and behind the scenes, made them become one of the most popular girl groups or idols of this age.
In addition to their music career, they have other roles such as being emcees on TV Programs: Kamikaze Club, FFK OPEN WORLD and Lady First, as well as acting in Thai dramas,movies and musical play.
They frequently participate in special projects like Kamikaze music,Faye in Seven Days and Fang&Kaew in Love Project.
From their song, Baby Boy, the lyrics
"Baby Boy,I'm not your toy" inspired FFK to name their official fanclub
"TOY".
Their fans chose to name themselves as FFK's "TOY" with it holding a second meaning of being missed (Thinking of You).
Their fans chose to name themselves as FFK's "TOY" with it holding a second meaning of being missed (Thinking of You).
In 2015 FFK has graduated from Kamikaze Music to Yes! Music, other sublabel of RS music company.
The choreography in this was absolute class. Waveya is the group name have lots of vids on here and there from Korea.
Members
- Pornpawee "Faye" Neerasingh (พรปวีณ์ นีระสิงห์)
born on December 29, 1992.
She is the younger sister of Fang, and she also has a younger sister name is Finn.
Skill: singing, piano and tennis.
She graduated from Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.
She is the younger sister of Fang, and she also has a younger sister name is Finn.
Skill: singing, piano and tennis.
She graduated from Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.
- Dhanundhorn "Fang" Neerasingh (ธนันต์ธรญ์ นีระสิงห์)
born on September 12, 1991.
She is the older sister of Faye.
Skill: singing, piano and tennis.
She graduated from Chulalongkorn University,Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy (Second-class Honors).
She is the older sister of Faye.
Skill: singing, piano and tennis.
She graduated from Chulalongkorn University,Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy (Second-class Honors).
- Jarinya "Kaew" Sirimongkolsakul (จริญญา ศิริมงคลสกุล)
born on June 22, 1992.
Skill: singing, dancing, piano.
She graduated from Faculty of Airline Business, Stampford University.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgxwBVDGNGnVBkmZMklkflxWfjtsv
Skill: singing, dancing, piano.
She graduated from Faculty of Airline Business, Stampford University.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgxwBVDGNGnVBkmZMklkflxWfjtsv
Did you know that all of the sweet bananas we eat in the United States are genetically identical? Yes, that's right, they're all essentially clones of one another. How about navel oranges? Granny Smith apples? If you're as shocked (and skeptical) as I was when I first heard this, you may be interested to hear a little bit more about how this came to be.
Cavendish bananas - The ubiquitous sweet bananas you see in every grocery store, eat with your cereal or your ice cream, or bring as a healthy snack are called Cavendish bananas. These bananas do not have seeds (unlike "wild" bananas; see the picture below) and are thus unable to reproduce naturally, so in order to continue supplying us with these delicious mutants (because that's what they are, technically speaking), banana farmers graft cuttings of the Cavendish banana onto other banana plants, effectively cloning the same banana over and over again to ensure the delicious taste we've come to know and love.
So basically, the banana you're eating today is genetically identical to the banana you ate yesterday. Seems kind of weird, but no big deal, right? Well, it actually might be. Without genetic variation, the Cavendish banana is extremely susceptible to disease. If a disease were to affect one crop of bananas—like a fungus outbreak a decade ago did—it could very quickly spread to and kill all of them, since they have no genetic variation to stop the spread, and we could find ourselves with no Cavendish bananas. Anywhere. In the entire world.
There are many other varieties of banana in the world, of course, but none of them as sweet and perfectly tailored to our Western taste buds. Not only that, but nearly half of the world's banana production is Cavendish bananas, meaning that a mass extinction could affect millions—even billions—of people who rely on these bananas not only for food but also for jobs.
In fact, this has happened once before. A hundred years ago, the most popular banana in the U.S. was the Gros Michel, more commonly called "Big Mike." If you've never heard of it before, that's because it went extinct in the 1950s after being infected with a fungus that was—and is still—incurable. It spreads throughout the roots of banana plants, so virulent that a single clump of dirt on a shoe can lead to continent-wide infection. Big Mike was widely believed to be richer and sweeter than the Cavendish, but banana growers around the world were unable to save them from succumbing to the fungus.
Banana farmers are hard at work looking for a solution to the Cavendish banana problem, but so far, none of the new hybrid bananas have come close to the Cavendish in taste. Fun banana trivia: To those in the banana trade, a bunch of bananas is called a "hand." An individual banana is called a "finger."
You know that little mark on navel oranges that looks like a bellybutton? (This is why we call them "navel" oranges, of course!) It turns out it's actually a second orange—a kind of conjoined twin. Navel oranges are one of the most popular varieties of oranges, and for good reason: they're sweeter than many other varieties, they have thick skin that's easy to peel, and they have a long growing season.Those weird second oranges that sometimes show up (image adapted from Wikimedia Commons)
You may have noticed, when eating a navel orange, that when you open it up, it has a bottom section that almost looks like another orange growing out of your orange. (In the photo on the right, you can see what I mean.) That's because it actually is another orange growing out of your orange.
The navel orange has an interesting history. Back in the 1800s in Brazil, a missionary came upon a navel orange and was intrigued that not only did the orange have a bellybutton and baby orange inside, but it was also sweet and had no seeds. He took a cutting and sent it back to William Saunders at the USDA in Washington, and Saunders sent some samples to his friend Eliza Tibbets, who had just moved to Riverside, California. Tibbets planted California's first two Washington navel trees in 1873, and the rest is history.
Because navel oranges are seedless, they can't reproduce naturally. Instead, sprouted buds are grafted onto another tree's trunk and roots, where they grow into more navel oranges with the same genetic make-up as the original
tree—thus making them, like Cavendish bananas, delicious little clones.
Fun navel orange trivia: The trees of navel oranges also produce aromatic flowers, called "orange blossoms," which either fall away or develop into oranges. (See the photo here. How cool is that?!) I know what you're thinking. Apples have seeds, which means they can reproduce naturally. So they don't need to be cloned. Right? Well…yes. But also no.
Natural apple reproduction from seeds can be variable, meaning that some desirable characteristics may be lost in the process. Because of this, if you were to plant the seeds from a Granny Smith apple you bought at the grocery store, the resulting tree would most likely not even bear Granny Smith apples at all. When it comes to Granny Smith apples, in order to ensure that specific characteristics will endure, like their sweet-tart taste and crisp texture, cuttings are grafted onto branches to provide exact duplicates of the mother plants. Meaning—you guessed it—these apples are another example of fruit clones.
So how did Granny Smith apples come to be? It all started in the 1800s in Australia. Maria "Granny" Smith and her husband moved from England to Australia, where they started an apple orchard. In 1868, Granny Smith found a seedling that had developed from the remains of some French crabapples grown in Tasmania.
She cultivated them for the next two years until she died, at which point a few other local orchardists sustained them. It wasn't until the 1890s that "Granny Smith's seedlings" began to be exhibited by multiple local growers and to win prizes as cooking apples, and from there, they began to be exported throughout the world.
Fun Granny Smith apple trivia: A 2014 study in Food Chemistry found that Granny Smith apples surpass Braeburn, Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, and Red Delicious apples in the amount of non-digestible compounds they contain, which may help prevent obesity by re-establishing a healthy microbiota balance.
http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/fruit-clones
...
The Cheetah has the ability to accelerate from 0-62 mph in just under three seconds flat! The 2004 Ferrari Enzo takes about 3.1 seconds to do the same!
Speed is defined as the rate at which an object covers a particular distance. This is what speed means to us humans, but in the animal world, it may very well be defined as the rate at which a predator hunts its prey. It is said that a predator that can run faster than its prey, and a prey that can outrun its predator, survives and exists in the wild. For most animals, their quest for survival is heavily dependent on how fast they can run.
Speaking of prey, predator, and hunting in the wild, one can't help but visualize scenes straight from Animal Planet or National Geographic, wherein, a lion is chasing an antelope. For a few moments, it makes our hair stand on end. Now, measuring the top speed of an animal in the wild can be a tricky task, since conditions and situations (lack of flat ground or open space or nabbing the prey) may not require the animal to reach top speed or even run a desired distance. Hence, very few, if any, trials and tests have been conducted on animals in the wild. And most results regarding speed are estimates.
When we talk of speed, in the wild, the black buck, springbok, wildebeest, are all animals that can run extremely fast. But, the fastest living land animal is undoubtedly, the cheetah. It has a recorded top speed of 64.87 mph (mean of three trials over a 201.2 m course, with a running start). The animal that comes closest to this record is the pronghorn, which records a maximum speed of 61 mph. Now, mind you, here, we are talking about sheer speed and not endurance, and hence, some animals on this list, though able to achieve fantastic speeds, may not be able to sustain it for long periods. So, here is the list of the top ten fastest land animals and their top speeds.
Various tests and studies over the years have provided varying results for a cheetah's top speed. In June 2012, Sarah, an 11-year-old female cheetah from the Cincinnati zoo, clocked 61 mph or 98 kmph over a 100-meter distance. According to a study recently published in Nature magazine (June 2013), cheetahs in the wild clocked a top speed of 58 mph or 93 kmph. Now, over a short, flat distance, that is bereft of vegetation, the cheetah can reach speeds of around 70 mph, even though the official record states otherwise.
The semi-retractable claws of the cheetah provide them a tighter grip while running. Also, the cheetah's enlarged nostrils, heart, and lungs, function together to allow increased oxygen intake and its efficient circulation, which aid the cheetah in its high-speed pursuits. The only downside being that the cheetah cannot sustain such speeds for long (only about 500 m), and is known to successfully chase down a prey only 30% of the times.
Coming in at the second position is the pronghorn; it resembles the antelope very closely, and hence, is also known as the prong buck or pronghorn antelope. The pronghorn is considered to be the 'fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere', and can run exceptionally fast. Its top speed has been recorded at about 61 mph. Although it can't run faster than the cheetah, it can, however, maintain its speed for a longer duration, unlike the cheetah that is famed to make short high-speed sprints. The pronghorn is said to have evolved into a swift animal so that it can save itself from its predators.
The slender, long-necked, brown and white antelope-gazelle has been timed at a top speed of 58 mph. The national animal of South Africa, the springbok is light-footed and can easily outrun its predators. The springbok gets its name from the Afrikaans and Dutch words spring (jump) and bok (antelope) respectively. Its ability to leap as high as 3-4 meters in height, also known as pronking, is one of its distinguishing characteristics.
There are two types of wildebeest, the black wildebeest and the blue wildebeest. The most important and striking difference being the orientation of their horns, and the color of their coats. Both the species have been dubbed as extremely fast, endurance runners. The recorded top speed of a wildebeest is 56 mph. The wildebeest is preyed on by cheetahs, lions, hyenas, and even crocodiles. However, the wildebeest, with its speed and strength, can outrun and even scare away its predators.
One of the most familiar gazelles in Eastern Africa, the Thomson's gazelle has been recorded to have achieved a top speed of 53 mph. This small, yet agile, antelope-gazelle can outrun its predators like leopards, hyenas, and lions, by running extremely fast and in a zigzag manner. It's this ability of the gazelle, to run in a zigzag manner, that, more often than not, helps it escape from its predators. Another tactic displayed by the gazelle, in an attempt to ward off or scare away its predators, is the act of pronking or leaping high in the air.
The second-largest living cat (after the tiger), the lion, also known as the king of the jungle, is quite fast considering its size, and can clock a top speed of 50 mph. Usually, these high-speed runs don't last long but rather short outbursts or sprints. Hence, it doesn't warrant a higher place on the list. The lion relies more on ambush, and though it possesses amazing speed, it is known to hunt successfully only 3 times out of 10.
Known for being an excellent sprinter at short distances, the American Quarter Horse actually gets its name from its ability to outrun other horse breeds in races that span quarter miles or less. Its top speed of 47 mph has prompted the nickname 'World's Fastest Athlete'. Its peculiar and compact body structure gives it the ability to sprint, as well as help humans in reining and calf roping.
One of the largest land mammals in North America and Eastern Asia, (not to be confused with the moose), the elk is the largest species of the deer family. The top speed at which an elk can run is recorded to be at 45 mph. Although the first instinct of an elk is to save itself from its predators by using its antlers (and mind you, those antlers are huge), its ability to run as fast comes to its rescue too.
The Cape Hunting Dog or the African Wild Dog or painted dog, is an endangered animal found only in Africa, hence the name, and is the largest African canid. The most striking aspect of this animal is that it hunts in packs of 10-20, couple that with a recorded top speed of 45 mph, and you have one very dangerous animal. Moreover, the wild dog chases its prey in the open and for a long time, eventually tiring out its prey. The wild dog is known to successfully kill 8 out of times it goes to hunt.
Just making it to the list of top ten fastest land animals on Earth is the coyote, also known as the brush wolf, American jackal, or prairie wolf. It runs at a top speed of 43 mph. This canine species is found extensively in North and Central America. The coyote feeds on smaller farm animals like mice, squirrels, and rodents.
Each of the animals in this list are unique, even though it may seem that all rely on speed to survive. But that's the rule of the jungle, and some might argue the human world too, the fittest shall only survive.
https://animalsake.com/top-fastest-land-animals-in-world.amp
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Dodo (Manchu: Prince dodo.png; 2 April 1614 – 29 April 1649), formally known as Prince Yu, was a Manchu prince and military general of the early Qing dynasty.
Dodo was born in the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan as the 15th son of Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing dynasty. His mother was Nurhaci's primary spouse Lady Abahai, who also bore Dodo's full brothers Ajige and Dorgon.
In 1620, Dodo was conferred the title of a ejen. He became a beile at the age of 13 and was put in charge of the Plain White Banner, and started administrating affairs in the Ministry of Rites and Ministry of War. In 1628, Dodo followed Hong Taiji on the conquest of Chahar, Mongolia, and was granted the title of eerkechuhuer (額爾克楚虎爾) for his achievements. The following year, he followed Hong Taiji again on the conquest of the Ming dynasty, crossing the Great Wall and closing in on the Ming capital Beijing.
In 1631, Dodo was involved in besieging the Ming army at Dalinghe. He lost his footing and fell from his horse during a battle and almost died at Jinzhou. The following year he participated in a campaign against Ligdan Khan of Chahar, and in 1635 he was appointed commander-in-chief for the first time at the Battle of Dalinghe.
In 1636, Dodo was promoted to qinwang under the title "Prince Yu of the First Rank". He followed Hong Taiji on the campaign against the Joseon dynasty of Korea and defeated the enemy at Mount Nanhan. Two years later, he was demoted two grades to beile for bringing prostitutes with him in his army. In 1641, Dodo participated in the Battle of Songjin and led the Qing army in besieging Jinzhou in the first part of the battle. He led an ambush to wipe out the remnants of the enemy at Mount Song in the final battle and joined Hooge's forces in besieging Mount Song and captured the Ming general Hong Chengchou. He was promoted one grade to junwang for his achievement.
In 1644, Dodo entered China proper after the Ming general Wu Sangui opened Shanhai Pass for the Qing armies. They defeated rebel forces under Li Zicheng at Shanhai Pass and occupied the Ming capital Beijing, after which Dodo was reinstated as a qinwang and appointed "Great General Who Pacifies the Nation" (定國大將軍). Together with Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, Dodo led an army of 200,000, comprising both Manchu and Han Chinese soldiers, to attack the remnants of Li Zicheng's rebel army, defeating and driving the enemy from Henan to Shaanxi.
In the first month of 1645, Dodo conquered Tong Pass and Xi'an, and in the second month he attacked the Southern Ming dynasty (remnants of the fallen Ming dynasty). In the fourth month, Dodo captured the city of Yangzhou and executed its defending official Shi Kefa, after which he ordered a massacre to be conducted. By the following month, Dodo's army had crossed the Yangtze River and occupied the Southern Ming capital Nanjing and captured the Southern Ming ruler, the Hongguang Emperor. In the sixth month, Dodo conquered Zhejiang and returned to Beijing, after which he received the title "Prince Deyu of the First Rank" (和碩德豫親王).
Dodo berated and attacked the Southern Ming Hongguang Emperor (Prince of Fu, Zhu Yousong) over his battle strategy in 1645, telling him that the Southern Ming would have defeated the Qing if only the southern Ming assaulted the Qing military before they forded the Yellow river was forded instead of tarrying. The Prince of Fu could find no words to respond when he tried to defend himself.
In 1646, Dodo was appointed "Great General Who Spreads Might" (揚威大將軍) and emerged victorious from suppressing a rebellion by the Sonid Mongols. A year later, he was conferred the title "Uncle Who Assists in Governance and Prince Deyu of the First Rank" (輔政叔和碩德豫親王).
Dodo died of smallpox in 1649 at the age of 36. Dodo was said to have a very close relationship with his brother Dorgon. Dorgon was attacking Jiang Xiang (姜瓖) in Shanxi when he heard that Dodo was severely ill, so he immediately turned and rushed back to Beijing, but when he arrived at Juyong Pass, he received news that Dodo had died. Dorgon was so grieved that he changed into plain robes and cried as he raced back to Beijing.
In 1652, the Shunzhi Emperor posthumously demoted Dodo to the status of a junwang for his affiliation with Dorgon, whom the emperor perceived to have had the intention of usurping the throne. In 1671, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, Dodo was granted a posthumous name "Tong" (通), so his title became "Prince Yutong of the Second Rank" (多羅豫通郡王).
In the first lunar month of 1778, the Qianlong Emperor posthumously restored Dodo to the status of a qinwang and created a place for Dodo in the Qing ancestral temple. Seven months later, a shrine was built for Dodo in the Mukden Palace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo,_Prince_Yu
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Duanfang (Chinese: 端方; pinyin: Duānfāng; Wade–Giles: Tuan-fang; 20 April 1861 – 27 November 1911), courtesy name Wuqiao (simplified Chinese: 午桥; traditional Chinese: 午橋; pinyin: Wǔqiáo), was a Manchu politician, educator and collector who lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was a member of the Tohoro (託濶羅 / 托活络) clan and the Plain White Banner of the Eight Banners.
Duanfang was actually Han Chinese even though he was under a Manchu banner. Some Han Chinese joined Manchu banners directly, instead of joining the separate Han Chinese banners. Han Chinese in the Manchu banners became Manchucized.
The Manchu White Banner were joined by some Zhejiang Han Chinese with the family name Tao who defected to the Manchus towards the end of the Ming dynasty. Their last name was changed to the Manchu sounding "Tohoro". Duanfang was one of their descendants.
The Manchu bannermen typically used their first/personal name to address themselves and not their last name, while Han bannermen used their last name and first in normal Chinese custom.[3] Duanfang followed the Manchu custom.
Duanfang passed the Imperial Examination in 1882 during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor, and then served as a yuanwailang (員外郎) before being promoted to langzhong (郎中). He supported the 1898 Hundred Days' Reform, but when it failed, he was protected by Ronglu and Li Lianying and was not implicated.
The Qing government established the agriculture, commerce, and trade bureau in Beijing, and Duanfang was placed in charge of the bureau. Empress Dowager Cixi awarded Duanfang with an official cap of the third rank. Duanfang purchased a batch of animals from Germany for the Beijing Zoo.
Since then, Duanfang took the post of Shaanxi provincial judge, administrative commissioner, and agent of the Shaanxi governor. In 1900, after Beijing was occupied by the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance after the Battle of Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor fled to Shaanxi.
Duanfang was transferred to a new post as Henan provincial administrative commissioner, and then to governor of Hubei. In 1902, Duanfang served as acting Viceroy of Liangjiang, Afterward, he was transferred to a new post as Governor of Hunan. In his successive posts, he encouraged students to study abroad, known as an englightened person, "enthusiastic in experience in foreign and domestic affairs."
In 1905, Duanfang was recalled to Beijing, and was promoted to Viceroy of Min-Zhe, although when he took office, he was dispatched to do more important tasks. On September 24, because of the Constitutional Movement, the Qing government sent Duanfang along with Zaize, Dai Hongci, Xu Shichang, and Shao Ying to go one a diplomatic mission to the West to study constitutions in order to prepare the Qing constitution.
When the five ministers embarked on that day, a revolutionary, Wu Yue, activated a suicide bomb at the Zhengyangmen train station in an assassination attempt, resulting in the postponement of the journey. Xu Shichang, Shaoying, and Li Shengduo were replaced by Shang Qiheng.
Duanfang wrote articles against footbinding in support of the Foot Emancipation Society. On December 7, Duanfang and Dai Hongci departed in secrecy, with 33 official members on a warship from Qinhuangdao to Shanghai, and on December 19 in the afternoon transfer to an American cruise to Japan.
They visited Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Russia, returning in August the following year. After their return, Duanfang gave a summary of their inspection, advocating strongly that the main source of study should be on the Japanese Meiji Restoration, and as fast as possible formulate the Qing Empire's Constitution.
After returning to China, Duanfang served as Viceroy of Liangjiang. In 1909, he became Governor of Zhili. Due to photographs being taken at the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi, Duanfang was dismissed from office. The 1910 Nanyang industrial exposition took place while Duanfang was Nanyang chancellor (南洋大臣). On May 18, 1911, Duanfang was appointed as the Chuanhan and Yuehan railroad's superintendent.[5] The Railway Protection Movement erupted over the nationalization of local railroad construction and their transfer to foreign banks.
Duanfang arrived in Hankou on July 14. On September 7, due to a murder in Chengdu, the situation of Sichuan spiraled out of control, eventually resulting in the Xinhai Revolution. On September 10, the Qing imperial court removed Zhao Erfeng as governor of Sichuan, and Duanfang became the acting governor, he led the Hubei New Army into Sichuan. The new army mutinied on November 27, and officer Liu Yifeng killed Duanfang, as part of a general wave of anti Manchu violence during the revolution.
Duanfang is one of the founders of China's modern education, while he was acting Viceroy of Liangjiang, he founded the Jinan Academy in Nanjing. As governor of Hubei and Hunan, he established he Teacher's college. While he was governor of Jiangsu, determined to get rid of bad habits, ordered counties to refund red envelopes to use to send two local students to study abroad.
Duanfang was the founder of the first kindergarten in China and provincial libraries. He also sent out more than 20 girls to go to Japan to study pedagogy. The Jiangnan Library was founded by Duanfang in Nanjing in 1907.
Duanfang was a well-known collector of antiques, and maintained a good relationship with Paul Pelliot and others. During his inspection tours abroad, he also collected ancient Egyptian artifacts, becoming the first modern Chinese person to have a collection of foreign artifacts.
After he died in Sichuan, his children lived in poverty, and in 1924 they sold his most famous collection- a set of Shang dynasty bronze artifacts for about 20 million taels of silver to John Calvin Ferguson. The bronzes are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Yangzhou was occupied by Shi Kefa, a 44-year-old general with fanatical loyalty to the Ming dynasty. The Manchus tried to win Shi Kefa over in a number of ways, sending numerous letters in the name of Dorgon, but actually drafted by turncoats.
Shi Kefa had famously berated the Emperor of Grand Radiance on military matters, using language that would have led to the reprimand or imprisonment of a less valuable soldier.
[Manchu Prince] Dorgon's messages capitalised on this, reminding Shi Kefa that, loyal to the Ming or not, he was currently serving a depraved master. While the Manchus fought the Ming loyalists, wrote Dorgon's scribes, both sides lost out on the opportunity to unite and pursue the true enemy: the remnants of the forces of [northern warlord] Li Zicheng.
Dorgon urged Shi Kefa at all costs to avoid a situation in which there were 'two suns in the firmament'. But it was too late; already there were two people claiming to be the emperor of China--three, if one was prepared to count the fugitive Li Zicheng.
When the Manchu army finally began the assault of Yangzhou, Shi Kefa's [Jesuit-designed] guns killed them in their thousands. The bodies piled up so high, that after a time, there was no need for siege ladders, and fresh Manchu troops climbed a mountain of corpses to reach the battlements.
The defenders of the city began fleeing the walls by jumping onto the houses immediately below, tearing off their helmets and throwing down their spears, creating an unearthly clatter as their feet smashed tiles on the rooftops.
The noise brought townsfolk out of their houses in time to see the defenders running away, and soon the streets were full of refugees. But there was nowhere to run. Someone opened the south gate, and the last possible escape route was cut off by more Manchu soldiers.
In the aftermath Shi Kefa ordered his men to kill him, but his lieutenant could not bring himself to strike the death blow. With the town now in Manchu hands, Shi Kefa was brought to [Manchu Prince] Dodo. The prince advised him that his loyalty had impressed his Manchu enemies. 'You have made a gallant defence,' he said. 'Now that you have done all that duty could dictate, I would be glad to give you a high post.'
Shi Kefa, however, refused to abandon his beloved Dynasty of Brightness [= Ming]. 'I ask of you no favour except death,' he replied. Over several days, the Manchus made repeated attempts to persuade Shi Kefa to join them, but he was adamant that the only thing he wanted was to die with his dynasty. On the third day, an exasperated Prince Dodo granted Shi Kefa his wish, and beheaded him personally.
Despite his pleas to Shi Kefa, Dodo was intensely irritated at the human cost of taking Yangzhou. He told his troops to do whatever they wanted with the city for five days, and the ensuing atrocities reached such heights that it was a further five days before Dodo regained control of his men. The surviving Manchus avenged their fallen comrades on the population of the town, slaughtering the menfolk and raping the women.
The clemency shown to turncoat towns further in the north was nowhere in evidence here, as Manchus and Chinese traitors looted what they could, and murdered all the witnesses they could find. Fires broke out in numerous quarters of the city, but were largely put out by heavy rain.
A survivor reported that the corpses filled the canals, gutters and ponds, their blood drowning the water itself, creating rivulets of a deep greenish-red throughout the city. Babies were killed or trampled underfoot, and the young women were chained together ready to be shipped to the far north. Many years later, travellers in Manchuria and Mongolia would still report sightings of aging, scarred female slaves with Yangzhou accents, clad in animal skins.
http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/2006/02/yangzhou-massacre-of-1645.html?m=1
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This is Part 1 in an annotation of 揚州十日記 (‘Diary of the Ten Days of Yangzhou’). Like 吳城日記, it’s a daily log from the year 1645, a year after the Manchus took Beijing, marking the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing (明末清初).
This diary covers the Yangzhou massacre (also known as “The Ten Days of Yangzhou”), and was written by 王秀楚 (Wang Xiuchu). You can read about these events, as well as see more translations of the text, in Lynn A. Struve’s book on the topic.
As always, if you notice a mistake or have any suggestions, please share them in the comments at the end of the page.
Part 1 · Part 2 →
己酉夏四月十四日，督镇史可法从白洋河失守，踉跄奔扬州，坚闭城以御敌，至念四日未破。 Summer 1645, Month 4, 14th Day: the Regional Military Supervisor [Shi Kefa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Kefa) at Baiyang river was defeated, and limped back in a rush to Yangzhou; they firmly closed the city wall gates to resist the enemy; up to the 24th they have not been broken. ([失守](http://www.zdic.net/cd/ci/5/ZdicE5ZdicA4ZdicB1311072.htm) is a binome meaning to fall or to fail, as in to be defeated.)
城前禁门之内，各有兵守，予宅西城，杨姓将守焉。 In front of the city walls, inside every gate there are soldiers guarding; my residence is at the West city wall, under the jurisdiction of a general surnamed Yang.
吏卒棋置，予宅寓二卒，左右舍亦然，践踏无所不至，供给日费钱千馀。 His officials and soldiers are spread out like chess pieces; in my home there are two soldiers, and the houses either side are the same; they are trampling all over the place, and are to be furnished with more than a thousand coins a day.
不继，不得已共谋为主者觞，予更谬为恭敬，酬好渐洽； Before long, we [the neighbours] had no alternative but to discuss this together and invite their master [General Yang] for a banquet; I was deceptively deferential, entertaining him and gradually consulting with him.
主者喜，诫卒稍远去。 The master was pleased, and instructed the soldiers to stay away somewhat.
主者喜音律，善琵琶，思得名妓以娱军暇； The master liked music and was skilled at playing the _pipa_; he wanted to get a famous courtesan to amuse him during his leisure time from military duties;
是夕，邀予饮，满拟纵欢，忽督镇以寸纸至，主者览之色变，遽登城，予众亦散去。 that night, he invited me to drink, contended and intending to indulge himself and be joyous; suddenly a letter from the Regional Military Supervisor [Shi Kefa] arrived; the Master [General Yang] looked it over and the colour drained from his face; he hurriedly went up on to the city wall, and we also dispersed and left.
This is Part 2 in an annotation of 揚州十日記(‘Diary of the Ten Days of Yangzhou’). Like 吳城日記, it’s a daily log from the year 1645, a year after the Manchus took Beijing, marking the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing (明末清初).
This diary covers the Yangzhou massacre (also known as “The Ten Days of Yangzhou”) , and was written by 王秀楚(Wang Xiuchu). You can read about these events, as well as see more translations of the text, in Lynn A. Struve’s book on the topic.
As always, if you notice a mistake or have any suggestions, please share them in the comments at the end of the page.
越次早，督鎮牌諭至“內有一人當之，不累百姓”之語，聞者莫不感泣。 The next morning, the Regional Military Commander [Shi Kefa] and made an announcement saying: "I take on all responsibility myself; the common people will not be implicated" ; of those who heard this, there were none who were not moved to tears. (Shi Kefa has taken on all responsibility for resisting the Manchus, ie he intends to save the common people of the city by taking all blame himself.)
又傳巡軍小捷，人人加額焉。 We then heard that the [Ming] patrolling army had gained a small victory, and everybody put their hands to their heads in celebration.
午後，有姻氏自瓜洲來避興平伯逃兵（興平伯高傑也，督鎮檄之，出城遠避）。 In the afternoon, someone in my wife's family came from Guazhou fleeing the Count of Xingping's defecting army (the Count of Xingping is Gao Jie; the Regional Military Commander put out a warrant for his arrest, so he left the city walls and fled far away ). (Gao Jie is this person’s actual name, and he also held the title ‘Count of Xingping’. I think!)
予婦緣別久，相見唏噓； My wife was fated to a long separation [from this relative] , and they sobbed upon seeing each other;
而敵兵入城之語，已有一二為予言者。 there was word of enemy soldiers entering the city walls - there were one or two people who had already told me about it.
予急出詢諸人，或曰：“靖南侯黃得功援兵至。” I hurried outside about to ask various people, and some of them said: "It's reinforcements arriving for Marquis Huang Degong of Jingnan."
旋觀城上守城者尚嚴整不亂，再至市上，人言洶洶，披髮跣足者繼塵而至，問之，心急口喘莫知所對。 I immediately looked at the guards on the city walls, and they were still in strict order and not in upheaval; I also went to the marketplace, and people were speaking in torrents; there were people with their hair let down and their feet bare, stirring up the dust with their arrival; I asked them - they panted hurriedly but there were none who knew how to answer.
忽數十騎自北而南，奔馳狼狽勢如波湧，中擁一人則督鎮也。 Suddenly several people riding horses came from the north, heading south; they were rushing from disaster with the force of a torrent; amongst them they carried a man - it was the Regional Military Supervisor [Shi Kefa] .
蓋奔東城外，兵逼城不得出，欲奔南關，故由此。 They were intending to rush out of the east gate, but the [enemy] soldiers were pressing down on the city walls and they couldn't get out, so they were going to head for the southern gate, thus passing through here.
是時，始知敵兵入城無疑矣。 At that moment, it was the first time I knew that the enemy soldiers had entered the city walls without doubt.
突有一騎由北而南，撤韁緩步，仰面哀號，馬前二卒依依轡首不捨，至今猶然在目，恨未傳其姓字也。 Suddenly one rider passed through from the south to the north; he had let go of the reins and trotted slowly, his face upward and wailing in anguish; in front of the horse were two soldiers reluctant to let go of the reins; to this day it is still before my eyes, and I regret that I did not find out his surname and given name.
騎稍遠，守城丁紛紛下竄，悉棄冑拋戈，並有碎首折脛者，回視城櫓已一空矣！ When the rider was a little distance away, the soldiers guarding the city walls scurried down one after another, all of them abandoning their helmets and chucking away their spears; furthermore, there were those who cracked their heads and broke their ankles; I looked back at the turrets on the city wall, and they were already completely empty!
先是督镇以城狭炮具不得展，城垛设一板，前置城径，后接民居，使有馀地，得便安置。 Prior to this the Regional Military Commander [Shi Kefa] had found that the city wall was too narrow, and cannon could not be set up on it; on the city wall ramparts they built platforms with the fronts parallel with the wall and the backs touching people's residences, to give more space and make it easier to set the cannon securely.
至是工未毕，敌兵操弧先登者白刃乱下，守城兵民互相拥挤，前路逼塞，皆奔所置木板，匍匐扳援，得及民屋，新板不固，托足即倾，人如落叶，死者十九； At that point the work had not been finished, and when the enemy soldiers first scaled the walls, wildly brandishing their swords, the soldiers guarding the walls crowded together; the route ahead was blocked, so they all rushed on to these wooden platforms, crawling and pulling to help each other; they wanted to reach the people's roofs, but the new platforms were not firm, and in taking the weight underfoot they collapsed; the people fell like leaves, with nine out of ten of them dying.
其及屋者，足蹈瓦裂，皆作剑戟相击声，又如雨雹挟弹，铿然金訇然，四应不绝，屋中人惶骇百出，不知所为？ Of those who made it onto the roofs, their feet trampled on the tiles and broke them, all making the sound of swords and spears clashing; it was also like a hail of shot, clanging and crashing; in all directions it was unceasing, and the people in the houses were panicked and rushed out in great number, not knowing what was going on.
而堂室内外深至寝闼，皆守城兵民缘室下者，惶惶觅隙潜匿，主人弗能呵止，外厢比屋闭户，人烟屏息。 Inside and outside the rooms of the houses, right down to the deepest chambers, all had city wall guards in them; they were panicked and sought out every crevice to hide in; the owners were not able to stop them; the outer rooms and inner rooms were all closed, and people held their breath.
予廳後面城，從窗隙中窺見城上兵循南而西，步武嚴整，淋雨亦不少紊，疑為節制之師，心稍定。 Behind the hall of my own home is the city wall, and peering out through a gap in the window I saw soldiers on the city wall to the south going west; their marching was strictly in order, and despite getting soaked in the rain they were not disordered at all, so I thought they were well-regimented troops [i.e. Shi Kefa's troops] , and my heart was somewhat settled.
忽叩門聲急，則鄰人相約共迎王師，設案焚香，示不敢抗，予雖知事不濟，然不能拂眾議，姑應曰唯唯。 Suddenly there was the sound of urgent knocking at my door; it was the neighbours, who had agreed to unite in welcoming the royal [Qing] troops; they set up a table with incense, to demonstrate that they would not dare to resist; although I knew that these things were no use, I could not not go against the majority opinion, and so I agreed, saying yes, yes.
於是改易服色，引領而待，良久不至。 Thereupon I changed into another style of clothes, craning my neck and waiting, but a long while passed and they did not arrive.
予復至後窗窺城上，則隊伍稍疏或行或止； I went back to the rear window and peeped out onto the wall, where a troop of soldiers was was somewhat spread out, with some walking and some stopped;
俄見有擁婦女雜行，闞其服色皆揚俗，予始大駭。 suddenly I saw that they were carrying along with them various women, and looking at their clothing style they were all of Yangzhou; I was for the first time greatly startled.
還語婦曰：“兵入城，倘有不測，爾當自裁。” I turned and said to my wife: "The soldiers have entered the city - if things go wrong, you should cut short your own life."
婦曰諾。 My wife said "Yes."
吟曰：“前有金若干付汝置之，我輩休想復生人世矣！” Sobbing, she said: "From before I have a small amount of money - I'll give it to you now to put to one side. My generation would never want to be reborn into the human world!"
涕泣交下，盡出金付予。 Her tears fell down, and she took out all the money and gave it to me.
值鄉人進，急呼曰：“至矣，至矣！” Just then someone from the countryside rushed in, urgently yelling: "They've arrived! They've arrived!"
予趨出，望北來數騎皆按轡徐行，遇迎王師者，即俯首若有所語。 I rushed out, and saw several cavalrymen coming from the north, all pulling on the reins and trotting slowly; those welcoming the royal [Qing] troops thereupon bowed their heads as if to express this.
是時，人自為守，往來不通，故雖違咫尺而聲息莫聞，迨稍近，始知為逐戶索金也。 At that moment, people were protecting themselves, and there was no contact between them, so even though we were only feet apart, not a single sound could be heard; we waited until they got nearer, and that was when we first knew that they were going to houses one by one to demand money.
然意頗不奢，稍有所得，即置不問，或有不應，雖操刀相向，尚不及人，後乃知有捐金萬兩相獻而卒受斃者，揚人導之也。 But their expectations were not extravagant, and once they'd got a little, they would then let people off; if people refused, although they would brandish their blades at them, they had not yet struck anyone; later I learnt that someone had donated ten thousand taels, but had still been killed by the soldiers, because people from Yangzhou had encouraged them to.
次及予楣，一騎獨指予呼後騎曰：“為我索此藍衣者。” When they came in turn to my door, one cavalryman pointed to me and called out to the cavalrymen behind him, saying: "Demand something from this one in blue clothes for me."
後騎方下馬，而予已飛遁矣； The cavalryman behind him got off his horse, but I had already fled at speed;
後騎遂棄餘上馬去，予心計曰：“我粗服類鄉人，何獨欲予？” After that the cavalryman gave it up, got back on his horse and left; I wondered to myself: "I am dressed coarsely like a rural villager - why did they want me in particular?"
已而予弟適至，予兄亦至，因同謀曰： When my younger brother arrived, my elder brother was already there, and we made plans together, saying:
“此居左右皆富賈，彼亦將富賈我，奈何？” "To the right and left of this it is all wealthy merchants, so they see us as wealthy merchants too; what can we do?"
遂急從僻迳托伯兄率婦等冒雨至仲兄宅，仲兄宅在何家墳後，腋皆窶人居也。 Thereupon my brothers hurriedly took a secluded path, taking the women and braving the rain to get to my second elder brother's house; my second elder brother's house is located behind the He family graveyard, and on either side it is all the houses of poor people.
予獨留後以觀動靜，俄而伯兄忽至曰： I stayed behind alone to observe developments, but suddenly my eldest brother arrived, saying:
“中衢血濺矣，留此何待？予伯仲生死一處，亦可不恨。” "In the main thoroughfare blood has been spilled - what are you staying here for? If we brothers live or die together, we'll have no regrets."
予遂奉先人神主偕伯兄至仲兄宅，當時一兄一弟，一嫂一侄，又一婦一子，二外姨，一內弟，同避仲兄家。 I thereupon respectfully carried our ancestral tablets and went with my eldest brother to our second elder brother's house; at that time my elder brother, my young brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew, a wife and her son, two aunts, my wife's younger brother all hid in my second elder brother's house.
天漸暮，敵兵殺人聲已徹門外，因乘屋暫避； The sky gradually darkened, and the sound of enemy soldiers killing people came to right outside the door, so we climbed up onto the roof to hide temporarily;
雨尤甚，十數人共擁一氈，絲發皆濕； the rain was especially heavy, and the ten or so of us embraced each other under one blanket, and every thread of our hair got soaked;
門外哀痛之聲悚耳懾魄，延至夜靜，乃敢扳簷下屋，敲火炊食。 outside the door the sounds of grief and pain frightened our ears and terrified our souls; we waited until the quiet of the night before we dared to climb down the rafters back into the house, and light the stove to cook some food.
城中四周火起，近者十馀處，遠者不計其數，赤光相映如雷電，闢卜聲轟耳不絕； Within the city walls, in all directions fires had started, with more than ten in locations close by, and with distant ones countless in number; the red light was reflected like thunder and lightning, and the crackling sound rumbled in our ears endlessly.
又隱隱聞擊楚聲，哀顧斷續，慘不可狀。 We could also faintly hear the sounds of the clashes, pitiful and intermittent, so wretched that one could not bear it.
飯熟，相顧驚怛不能下一箸，亦不能設一謀。 The rice was cooked, we looked at each other in fright and distress and could not take one chopstick of it, nor could we think of what to do.
予婦取前金碎之，析為四，兄弟各藏其一，髻履衣帶內皆有； My wife took out the money from before and separated it into four, giving one to each of my brothers, and we hid it - our topknots, shoes, clothes and belts all had some hidden in them.
婦又覓破衲敝履為予易訖，遂張目達旦。 My wife also found a tattered robe and shabby shoes for me, which I changed into; then we were wide-eyed until dawn.
是夜也，有鳥在空中如笙簧聲，又如小兒呱泣聲者，皆在人首不遠，後詢諸人皆聞之。 That night, the birds in the air were like the sound of panpipes, and there was also the sound of a small child crying and sobbing; all of these were not far from our heads, and afterwards were asked various people and they had all heard it.
廿六日，頃之，火勢稍息。 On the 26th, shortly after, the force of the flames lessened somewhat.
天漸明，复乘高升屋躲避，已有十數人伏天溝內。 The sky gradually lightened, and again we climbed up high onto the rooftop to hide, and found there were already more than ten people concealing themselves in the rain gutters.
忽東廂一人緣牆直上，一卒持刃隨之，追躡如飛; Suddenly from the eastern room a man emerged and climbed up the wall; a soldier holding a blade was chasing him, following behind him as if flying.
望見予眾，隨舍所追而奔予。 When he saw us, he thereupon abandon the man he was chasing and ran after me.
予惶迫，即下竄，兄繼之，弟又繼之，走百馀步而後止。 I was terrified and fled downwards with my elder brother following me and my younger brother following him; we ran more than a hundred paces and then stopped.
自此遂與婦子相失，不復知其生死矣。 From then on I did not know had happened to my wife and son, having been separated from them; neither did I know if they were alive or dead.
諸黠卒恐避匿者多，紿眾人以安民符節，不誅，匿者競出從之，共集至五六十人，婦女參半，兄謂余曰： Those crafty soldiers, fearing that those hiding were many, deceived the masses with an "assuage the people" notice, saying they would not execute people, so those in hiding vied to come out and comply with it; in total fifty or sixty people gathered, half of them women; my brother said to me:
“我落落四人，或遇悍卒，終不能免； "If we lone four people encounter fierce soldiers, will not be able to avoid death;
不若投彼大群勢眾則易避，即不幸，亦生死相聚，不恨也。” it'd be better to throw our lot in with that large group - the power of the group makes it easier to escape; even if we are unlucky, we will still die together, and have no regrets."
當是時，方寸已亂，更不知何者為救生良策？ At that moment, our minds were in disorder, and what other good ideas did we have for saving our lives?
共曰唯唯，相與就之。 So together we agreed on it, and joined with them;
領此者三滿卒也，遍索金帛，予兄弟皆罄盡，而獨遺予未搜； The three Manchu soldiers leading this group were thoroughly searching for money and silk; my elder brother and younger brother both got searched, and only I alone was not searched.
忽婦人中有呼予者，視之乃余友朱書兄之二妾也，予急止之。 Suddenly there were some women calling out to me; I looked at them and they were the two concubines of my friend Zhu Shu; I anxiously stopped them.
二妾皆散發露肉，足深入泥中沒脛，一妾猶抱一女，卒鞭而擲之泥中，旋即驅走。 The two concubines' hair was scattered and their bodies were exposed; their feet were deep in mud that came up to their calves; one of the concubines was still holding a girl, and a soldier whipped her and threw her in the mud, driving her away soon after.
一卒提刀前導，一卒橫槊後逐，一卒居中，或左或右以防逃逸。 One soldier took out a blade and led the way, one soldier levelled his spear behind us, and one soldier was stationed in the middle, going to the left and the right to prevent people fleeing.
數十人如驅犬羊，稍不前，即加捶撻，或即殺之； We several dozen people were herded like sheep with a dog; if people lagged they were immediately beaten and whipped, or immediately killed;
諸婦女長索系頸，累累如貫珠，一步一蹶，遍身泥土； All the women were bound with a large rope by the neck, clustered like a string of pearls, stumbling with each step, and all of their bodies covered in mud;
滿地皆嬰兒，或襯馬蹄，或藉人足，肝腦塗地，泣聲盈野。 the entire ground was covered with infants, either crushed by horses' hooves or trampled under foot by people; some people had offered their lives in sacrifice, and the sound of sobbing filled the space.
行過一溝一池，堆屍貯積，手足相枕，血入水碧赭，化為五色，塘為之平。 Every gutter or pond that we walked past had piled bodies amassed in it, they hands and feet resting on each other, and the blood flowing into the water to make red and green, become multi-coloured; the canals had been levelled too.
至一宅，乃廷尉永言姚公居也，從其後門直入，屋宇深邃，處處皆有積尸，予意此間是我死所矣； We arrived at a house, and it was the official residence of the Commandant of Justice Yao Yongyan; we went straight in through the back door, and in the spacious rooms, everywhere there were piled up bodies; I thought that room would be the place of my death;
乃逶迤達前戶，出街復至一宅，為西商喬承望之室，即三卒巢穴也。 Then we wound our way through to the front door, out onto the street and into another house, which was the home of the merchant from the west Qiao Chengwang; it was the lair of the three soldiers.
入門，已有一卒拘數美婦在內簡檢筐篚彩緞如山，見三卒至，大笑，即驅予輩數十人至後廳，留諸婦女置旁室； We went through the door, and there was already a soldier who had captured several beautiful women and was rooting through the baskets and chests, making a mountain of brightly coloured satin; when he saw the other three soldiers arrived he laughed loudly, and then drove us several dozen people into the rear hall, leaving all the women in a room to the side;
中列二方幾，三衣匠一中年婦人製衣； in there were two square tables and three dressmakers, of which one was a middle-aged woman making clothes;
婦揚人，濃抹麗妝，鮮衣華飾，指揮言笑。 this woman was from Yangzhou, with thick make-up and gaudily dressed and ornamented; she spoke, laughed and gestured.
欣然有得色，每遇好物，即向卒乞取，曲盡媚態，不以為恥； She was happy and pleased with herself, and whenever the soldiers came across a fine item, she would immediately beg them for it, using to the utmost a charming attitude, without any shame;
予恨不能奪卒之刀，斷此淫孽。 I was desperate to grab one of the soldier's blades and sever this wanton good-for-nothing.
卒嘗謂人曰：“我輩徵高麗，擄婦女數万人，無一失節者，何堂堂中國，無恥至此？” One of the soldiers at one point remarked on her saying: "We campaigned in Korea and captured tens of thousands of women, but not one of them lost her chastity; how is it that the magnificent China is without any sense of shame?"
嗚呼，此中國之所以亂也。 Alas, this is why China has been thrown into disorder.
三卒隨令諸婦女盡解濕衣，自表至裡，自頂至踵，並令製衣婦人相修短，量寬窄，易以鮮新； The three soldiers then ordered all the women to completely take off their wet clothes, from the outermost to the innermost, from their heads to their heels; they also ordered the dressmaker woman to make alterations and take measurements so that they could change into fresh clothes;
諸婦女因威逼不已，遂至裸體相向，隱私盡露，羞澀欲死之狀，難以言喻。 all the women were intimidated relentlessly and then faced one another naked, their secrets completely revealed; they were so ashamed they wanted to die - it is difficult to put into words.
易衣畢，乃擁之飲酒，嘩笑不已； When they had finished changing clothes, the soldiers embraced them and drank wine, laughing uproariously without end;
一卒忽橫刀躍起向後疾呼曰： a soldier suddenly drew his blade and leapt up, yelling back with hatred:
“蠻子來，蠻子來！” "Southern savages, come on! Southern savages, come on!"
近前數人已被縛，吾伯兄在焉。 When we got near the front, several people had already been bound; my eldest brother was there.
仲兄曰：“勢已至此，夫復何言？” My second elder brother said to me: "The situation has come to this, what is there to say?"
急持予手前，予弟亦隨之，是時男子被執者共五十馀人，提刀一呼，魂魄已飛，無一人不至前者； Anxiously clasping my hand he went forward, and my younger brother also went after him; at that time the men who'd been captured were now more than fifty altogether; if a blade was raised or a soldier shouted, our souls left us, and there was no-one who did not move forwards;
予隨仲兄出廳，見外面殺人，眾皆次第待命，予初念亦甘就縛，忽心動若有神助，潛身一遁，復至後廳，而五十馀人不知也。 I followed my eldest brother into the hall, and saw that outside they were killing people; our group all waited for their fate in turn; at first I thought I would also willingly be tied up, but suddenly my heart quickened as if with divine help, and I stealthily fled, going back to the rear hall, and the fifty or so people did not know.
廳後宅西房尚存諸老婦，不能躲避，由中堂穿至後室，中盡牧駝馬，復不能逾走； In the rear hall, in the west of the house, there were still several old women, so I could not hide there; I went through the main hall to the back, where there were several herded camels and horses, which I couldn't jump over;
心愈急，遂俯就駝馬腹下，歷數駝馬腹匍匐而出； My heart became even more anxious, but then I stooped down under the bellies of the camels and horses; I crept under the bellies of the camels and horses one by one and got out;
若驚駝馬，稍一舉足，即成泥矣。 if the camels or horses had been startled, and had raised their hooves even slightly, I would have been pulped.
又歷宅數層，皆無走路，惟旁有弄可通後門，而弄門已為卒加長錐釘固； I then went through several layers of buildings, all without a way path to go on; only to one side there was an alleyway which took me through to a back door; the door in the alleyway had been nailed fast in order to strengthen it against soldiers;
予復由後弄至前，聞前堂殺人聲，愈惶怖無策，回顧左側有廚，中四人蓋亦被執治庖者也，予求收入，使得參司火掌汲之役，或可倖免。 I then went out through a back alley and got to the front, and heard the sound of people being killed in the front hall; I was even more panicked and terrified, and without a plan; I looked behind to the left and there was a kitchen, with four people concealed inside who were kitchen workers *[???]*; I begged them to let me in, and they all anxiously repelled me with their hands; perhaps they were lucky and escaped. *[???]*
四人峻拒曰：“我四人點而役者也，使再點而增人，必疑有詐，禍且及我！” The four people said harshly, repelling me: "We four people have claimed to be servants *[???]*; if we had another person, they will be suspicious of trickery, and disaster will befall us!"
予哀籲不已，乃更大怒，欲執予赴外，予乃出，心益急，視階前有架，架上有甕，去屋不甚遠，乃援架而上，手方及甕，身已傾僕，蓋甕中虛而用力猛故也。 Grief-stricken I implored them endless, and then they became even angrier, wanting to take me outside; I thereupon left, my mind all the more anxious, and saw that in front of the steps was a shelf, and on top of the shelf was a large pot; it wasn't very far from the house, so I used the shelf to climb up; just when my hand touched the pot, my body fell in; the lid of the pot was empty but I used my strength and fierceness. *[???]*
無可奈何，仍急趨旁弄門，兩手棒錐搖撼百度，終莫能動，擊以石，則響達外庭，恐覺； There was no alternative - I rushed to the entrance of an alleyway to the side, and with both hands grabbed the bolt and shook it to the hundredth degree; I attacked it with a stone, and the resulting noise echoed into the outer courtyard, and I feared them noticing;
不得已復竭力搖撼之，指裂血流，淋漏兩肘，錐忽動，盡力拔之，錐已在握，急掣門閂，門閂木槿也，濡雨而漲，其堅澀倍於錐，予迫甚，但力取門閂，門閂不能出而門樞忽折，扉傾垣頹，聲如雷震，予急聳身飛越，亦不知力之何來也。 I had no choice but to do my utmost to shake it, my fingers cracking and blood flowing out, running down to my elbows; the bolt suddenly moved, and I used all my strength to pull it out; the bolt in my hand, I anxiously pulled on the door latch; the latch was made of hibiscus wood, and absorbing the rain had expanded, becoming twice as strong as the bolt; I pressed on it hard using all my strength to pull out the latch, but the latch couldn't come out and the door hinges suddenly broke; the door collapsed and the wall crumbled, the noise like thunder or an earthquake; I hurriedly sprung up and flew threw - I don't know where the strength came from.
疾趨後門出，即為城腳。 I madly dashed out of the back door, and there was the foot of the city wall.
時兵騎充斥，觸處皆是，前進不能，即於喬宅之左鄰後門挨身而入； At that moment it was flooded mounted soldiers all over the place, so I could not go forward; at that I went to the back door of the neighbours' house to the left of the Qiao residence and hauled myself in;
凡可避處皆有人，必不肯容，由後至前，凡五進皆如是。 all of the hiding places had people in the them, and they definitely would not be willing to accept me, so I went from the back to the front, and all five rooms I went in were like this.
直至大門，已臨通衢，兵丁往來絡繹不絕，人以為危地而棄之。 I got to the main door, which overlooked the thoroughfare; soldiers were coming and going in an endless stream - people took it be a dangerous place and had abandoned it.
予乃急入，得一榻，榻顛有仰頂，因緣柱登之，屈身向裡，喘息方定，忽聞隔牆吾弟哀號聲，又聞舉刀砍擊聲，凡三擊遂寂然。 I thereupon hurried back in, and found a bed with a canopy above it; I took the opportunity and climbed up one of the bedposts, bending my body inside; I gasped for breath and my breathing settled, and suddenly I heard through the wall the sound of my younger brother's anguished cries; then I heard the sound of a blade hacking, three strikes in all, and then it was silent.
少間復聞仲兄哀懇曰：“吾有金在家地窖中，放我，當取獻。” After a little while I also heard my second elder brother pleadingly say: "I have silver in the basement of my house - let me go and I will get it and give it to you."
一擊复寂然； One strike and it was silent.
予此時神已離舍，心若焚膏，眼枯無淚，腸結欲斷，不復自主也。 At that moment my spirit had already left its lodging, my heart was like burning oil, my eyes dried up and without tears, my intestines knotted and about to break, and I could no longer control myself.
旋有卒挾一婦人直入，欲宿此榻， 婦不肯，強而後可，婦曰： Shortly after a soldier coercing a woman walked right in, wanting to sleep with her on the bed; the woman refused, but he forced her, and afterwards the woman said:
“此地近市，不可居。” "This place is near the marketplace, we can't stay here."
卒复攜之去，予幾不免焉。 The soldier then took her and left, and I only just escaped.
室有仰屏，以席為之，不勝人，然緣之可以及梁，予以手兩扳樑上桁條而上，足托駝梁，下有席蔽，中黑如漆，仍有兵至，以矛上搠，知是空虛，料無人在上，予始得竟日未遇兵； The room had a false ceiling made of woven matting; it couldn't support a person, but along the edge one could get up onto the beams; I used both my hands to pull myself up onto the beams, putting my feet on the centre beam; from below I was concealed by the woven matting, and within it was black like lacquer; then soldiers came in and used spears to thrust upwards, knowing that there was a space; they guessed that no-one was up there, and I for the first time I was able to go a day without encountering soldiers.
然在下被刃者幾何人？ But how many people were killed with blades below me?
街前每數騎過，必有數十男婦哀號隨其後。 In every thoroughfare there were several cavalrymen passing, and there must have been several dozen men and women wailing mournfully after them.
是日雖不雨，亦無日色，不知旦暮。 Although it didn't rain that day, I could not see the sun, and did not know dawn or dusk.
至夕，軍騎稍疏，左右惟聞人聲悲泣，思吾弟兄已傷其半，伯兄亦未卜存亡？ By evening, the cavalrymen had lessened, and on either side I only heard the sound of people weeping with grief; I considered that half of us brothers had already been killed; I also had no way of diving whether my eldest brother was still alive or not.
予婦予子不知何處？ My wife and my son - where are they?
欲踪蹟之，或得一見； I wanted to track them down and perhaps see them once more;
且使知兄弟死所。 moreover I should let them know about the deaths of my brothers.
乃附梁徐下，躡足至前街，街中枕屍相藉，天暝莫辨為誰？ So I gently let myself down by the beams, and walked on tiptoes to the thoroughfare in the front; in the street the piled up bodies lay upon each other; the sky was darkening and I could not distinguish one from another.
俯屍遍呼，漠無應者。 I looked down at the corpses and called out, by no-one replied.
遙見南首數火炬蜂擁而來，予急避之，循郭而走。 Distantly in the south I could see several torches flocking together and approaching, so I hurriedly fled from them, sticking to the wall and leaving.
城下積尸如鱗，數蹶，聲與相觸，不能措足，則俯伏以手代步，每有所驚，即僕地如殭屍，久之始通於衢。 Below the wall the accumulated bodies were like fish-scales, and I stumbled on several; when I heard a sound and could not run on my feet, I lay prostrate and moved with my hands; every time something frightened me, I lay down like a stiff corpse, continuing like that until I got to a thoroughfare.
衢前後舉火者數處，照耀如白晝，逡巡累時，而後越，得達小路，路人昏夜互觸相驚駭，路不滿百步，自酉至亥方及兄家。 In front of and behind the street fires and been lit in several places, and it was illuminated like broad daylight; I hesitated for a while and then climbed over into a small street; the people in the street were muddled in the night and bumped into each other, startling themselves; the street was less than a hundred paces long; I walked from early evening to late evening and then reached my elder brother's house.
宅門閉不敢遽叩，俄聞婦人聲，知為吾嫂，始輕擊，應門者即予婦也。 The door to the house was closed and I didn't dare to knock at first, then suddenly I heard a woman's voice and knew that it was my sister-in-law's, and only then did I knock lightly; the person who answered the door was my wife.
伯兄已先返，吾婦子俱在，予與伯兄哭，然猶未敢遽告仲兄季弟之被殺也。 My second elder brother had returned earlier, and my wife and son were both there; I sobbed with my second elder brother; but I still did not dare to tell my second elder brother too hurriedly about our other two brothers being killed.
嫂詢予，予依違答之。 My sister-in-law asked me, but I did not tell her about it.
予詢婦何以得免？ I asked my wife how she had escaped.
婦曰：“方卒之追逐也，子先奔，眾人繼之，獨遺我，我抱彭兒投屋下不得死，吾妹踢傷足亦臥焉。 She said: "When the soldier chased us and you fled, the group followed after, leaving my behind alone; I held our son Peng and jumped from the roof but did not die; my younger sister tripped and injured her foot and also lay there.
卒持我二人至一室，屋中男婦幾十人皆魚貫而縛之。 A soldier came and took the two of us into a room; in the room there were several dozen men and women, all bound up like fish on a string.
卒因囑我於諸婦曰： The soldier instructed me and the other women, saying:
'看守之，無使逸去。' 'Keep an eye on these - do not let them escape.'
卒持刀出，又一卒入，劫吾妹去； The soldier took his blade and left, and another soldier came in, seized my sister and left;
久之，不見前卒至，遂紿諸婦得出。 For a long time I didn't see any soldiers arriving, so I deceived the other women and got away.
出即遇洪嫗，相攜至故處，故幸免。” When I got out I ran into Old Mrs Hong, and we helped each other back to our former place, thus luckily escaping."
洪嫗者仲兄內親也。 Old Mrs Hong was a relative of my second elder brother's wife.
婦詢予，告以故，唏噓良久。 My wife asked me and I told her what happened, and we sobbed for a long time.
洪嫗攜宿飯相勸。 Old Mrs Hong brought rice to our home and urged us to eat some.
哽咽不可下。 Choking with sobs, we couldn't get it down.
外复四面火起，倍於昨夕，予不自安，潛出戶外，田中橫屍交砌，喘息猶存； Outside there were again fires in all directions, many more than the previous night; I could not stay calm, and hid outdoors, flat in the grass like a corpse, gasping for breath and still alive;
遙見何家墳中，樹木陰森，哭音成籟，或父呼子，或夫覓妻，呱呱之聲，草畔溪間，比比皆是，慘不忍聞。 in the distance I could hear from the He family graveyard, in the gloom amongst the trees, the sound of crying or a father calling for his son, or a husband looking for his wife - a crying sound, on the grassy banks of the creek, it could be heard everywhere, too horrible to describe.
回至兄宅，婦謂予曰： I went back to my elder brother's house, and my wife said to me:
“今日之事，惟有一死，請先子一死，以絕子累； "What happens today, there is only death, I only ask to die before you, so that you are not wearied;
彭兒在，子好為之！” our son Peng is here, you must be good to him!"
予知婦之果於死也，因與語竟夜，不得間，東方白矣。 I knew that my wife was fated to die, because on the night of her saying that, *[????]*.
廿七日，問婦避所，引予委曲至一柩後，古瓦荒磚，久絕人跡，予蹲腐草中，置彭兒於柩上，覆以葦席，婦僂居於前，我曲附於後； On the 27th I asked my wife about where she'd hidden, and she took me on a winding route to a spot behind a coffin; there were old tiles and abandoned bricks, and for a long time there had been no sign of people; I crouched down in the rotten grass, and put our son Peng on the coffin, covering him with a woven mat; my wife crouched down in front, and I twisted myself into the back;
揚首則露頂，展足則踵見，屏氣滅息，拘手足為一裹，魂少定而殺聲逼至，刀環響處，愴呼亂起，齊聲乞命者或數十人或百馀人； If we lifted our heads then the tops would be revealed, and if we stretched out our legs then our heels could be seen; we took shallow breaths and tucked in our hands and feet; our spirits settled a little and then the sound of killing reached us; where the sound of swords echoed, wretched shouting sprung up chaotically, all in a chorus begging for their lives, several dozen people or more than a hundred.
遇一卒至，南人不論多寡，皆垂首匐伏，引頸受刃，無一敢逃者； Whenever a soldier arrived, the southerners would say very little, all lowering their heads and prostrating themselves, extending their necks to receive the blade, with not one daring to run away;
至於紛紛子女，百口交啼，哀鳴動地，更無論矣！ this was such that one after another there were boys and girls, a hundred mouths crying, the sound of wailing shaking the earth - it goes without saying!
日向午，殺掠愈甚，積尸愈多，耳所難聞，目不忍視，婦乃悔疇昔之夜，誤予言未死也。 By afternoon, those who had been killed and plundered were especially many, and the piled corpses were even greater in number; our ears couldn't bear to listen, our eyes couldn't bear to see; my wife *[???]*
然幸獲至夕，予等逡巡走出，彭兒酣臥柩上，自朝至暮，不啼不言，亦不欲食，或渴欲飲，取片瓦掬溝水潤之，稍驚則仍睡去，至是呼之醒，抱與俱去； We were lucky to survive until evening, and we hesitantly came out; our song Peng had lain contentedly on the coffin and from morning to evening had not cried out or spoken, and likewise had not wanted food; when he was thirsty for a drink, we took a piece of tile and held it to the gutter to give him some water; he'd been a little frightened but had then gone back to sleep, and then we called him to wake him, and carrying him we both left.
洪嫗亦至，知吾嫂又被劫去，吾侄在襁褓竟失所在，嗚呼痛哉！ Old Mrs Hong also arrived and informed me that my sister-in-law had also been seized, and that my nephew, still in swaddling clothes, had also been lost; alas, what pain!
甫三日而兄嫂弟侄已亡其四，煢煢孑遺者，予伯兄及予婦子四人耳！ In just three days my elder brother, my sister-in-law, younger brother, nephew - four people - had all perished; we sole survivors - my second elder brother, my wife and son and I - just four of us!
相與覓臼中馀米，不得，遂與伯兄枕股忍飢達旦。 Together we looked in the mortar to see if there was any remaining rice, but there was none, so my second elder brother and I lay resting on each other's legs enduring hunger till daybreak.
是夜予婦覓死幾斃，賴洪嫗救得免。 That night my wife tried to kill herself again, and it was only because of Old Mrs Hong saving her that she didn't die.
廿八日，予謂伯兄曰：“今日不卜誰存？吾兄幸無恙，乞與彭兒保其殘喘。” On the 28th I said to my second elder brother: "We can't foretell today who might survive. You, my brother, still have your luck intact; I beg you to protect our son Peng to his last breath."
兄垂淚慰勉，遂別，逃他處。 My brother shed tears and consoled me, and then left, fleeing to another place.
洪嫗謂予婦曰：“我昨匿破櫃中，終日貼然，當與子易而避之。” Old Mrs Hong said to me and my wife: "Yesterday I hid inside the coffin, and for the whole day was snugly inside; now I should exchange places with you for hiding."
婦堅不欲，仍至柩後偕匿焉。 My wife insisted she didn't want to, and so we went behind the coffin to hide.
未幾，數卒入，破櫃劫嫗去，捶擊百端，卒不供出一人，予甚德之，後仲兄產百金，予所留馀亦數十金，並付洪嫗，感此也。 before long, several soldiers came in, broke open the coffin and pulled out old Mrs Hong; they beat her a hundred times, but in the end she did not reveal a single person, and I was extremely grateful to her; afterwards my second elder brother took out some money; what I had left was over several dozen pieces, and we put it together to pay Old Mrs Hong to show our gratitude for this.
少間，兵來益多，及予避所者前後接踵，然或一至屋後，望見柩而去。 A short while after, soldiers came in increasing numbers, those coming up to my hiding place following on one another's heels; some came behind the house, saw the coffin and left.
忽有十數卒恫喝而來，其勢甚猛，俄見一人至柩前，以長竿搠予足，予驚而出，乃揚人之為彼鄉導者，面則熟而忘其姓，予向之乞憐，彼索金，授金，乃釋予，猶曰：“便宜爾婦也。” Suddenly more than ten soldiers yelling frighteningly, their appearance extremely fierce; suddenly I saw someone go to the front of the coffin, and he used a long pole to jab at my foot - I was frightened and came out; he was a Yangzhou man who was guiding the others around; his face was familiar but I'd forgotten his surname, and I begged for mercy from him; he asked for money, and once he'd got it he then let me go, but still saying: "I've let your wife off cheaply."
出語諸卒曰：“姑舍是。” He left and said to all the soldiers: "Give this one up for now."
諸卒乃散去。 All the soldiers then dispersed and left.
喘驚未定，忽一紅衣少年摻長刃直抵予所，大呼索予，出，舉鋒相向，獻以金，复索予婦，婦時孕九月矣，死伏地不起。 My frightened gasping had still not settled when suddenly a youth in red clothes grasping a long blade came directly for my position; I came out and he raised the point of the blade at me; I gave him silver, but he also wanted my wife; my wife at that time was in her ninth month of pregnancy, and was lying rigidly on the floor, not getting up.
予紿之曰：“婦孕多月，昨乘屋墜下，孕因之壞，萬不能坐，安能起來？” I spun him a story saying: "My wife is many months pregnant; yesterday she went up on a roof and fell down and miscarried because of it; she absolutely cannot sit - how could she get up?"
紅衣者不信，因啟腹視之，兼驗以先塗之血褲，遂不顧。 The man in red clothes did not believe it, and unclothed her belly to look at it; it was doubly confirmed by the blood that we had previously smeared on her pants, and then he paid no attention to her.
所擄一少婦一幼女一小兒，小兒呼母索食，卒怒一擊，腦裂而死，复挾婦與女去。 He had already captured a young woman and her young daughter and young son; when the son called to his mother for something to eat, the soldier was angry and struck him, breaking his skull and killing him; then he grabbed the woman and girl and left.
予謂此地人迳已熟，不能存身，當易善地處之； I said that this place had become well-known to people, we couldn't hide ourselves there, and should go somewhere better.
而婦堅欲自盡，予亦惶迫無主，兩人遂出，並縊於梁； But my wife was determined to kill herself, and I likewise was so frightened I had lost control; the two of us went out and hanged ourselves from the rafters;
忽項下兩繩一時俱絕，並跌於地。 suddenly the two lengths of rope both broke at once, and we fell to the ground.
未及起，而兵又盈門，直趨堂上，未暇過兩廊。 A moment later soldiers filled the gate again, and hurried into the hall, taking no time to go through the two corridors.
予與婦急趨門外，逃奔一草房，中悉村間婦女，留婦而卻予，予急奔南首草房中，其草堆積連屋，予登其顛，俯首伏匿，复以亂草覆其上，自以為無患矣。 My wife and I hurried anxiously out of the door and fled to a thatch hut; inside it was all peasant women, who let my wife stay but not me; I anxiously rushed to another thatch hut to the south, inside which straw was piled up to the ceiling; I climbed up to the top of it and lowered my head to conceal myself, and then disorderly placed grass on on top, and thought that I would be without misfortune.
須臾卒至，一躍而上，以長矛搠其下，予從草間出乞命，复獻以金； Suddenly soldiers arrived and leapt on top in one go, using long spears to thrust below; I came out from the grass and begged for my life and then gave them some money;
卒搜草中，又得數人，皆有所獻而免。 The soldiers searched in the grass and got several more people, all of them giving money and escaping.
卒既去，數人復入草間，予窺其中，置大方桌數張，外圍皆草，其中廓然而虛，可容二三十人。 The soldiers then left, and several people went back into the grass; I spotted in the midst that there were placed several large square tables, all surrounded by straw on the outside, and under them it was wide open and empty, and could contain twenty or thirty people.
予強竄入，自謂得計，不意敗垣從半腰忽崩一穴，中外洞然，已為他卒窺見，乃自穴外以長矛直刺； I strove to scuttle under them, and said to myself that I'd found a good plan, not expecting that the wall, from halfway up, suddenly collapsed leaving a hole, and from outside the hole there were already more soldiers peering in to look, and then from outside the hole they used long spears to pierce right in;
當其前者無不被大創，而予後股亦傷。 Of those in front, there were none who weren't seriously injured, but I was behind and was only injured on my leg.
於是近穴者從隙中膝行出，盡為卒縛，後者倒行排草而出。 Those near the hole tried to crawl out on their knees, but they were all caught by the soldiers, whilst those behind got out in a line through the straw.
予復至婦所，婦與眾婦皆伏臥積薪，以血膏體，綴發以煤，飾面形如鬼魅，鑑別以聲。 I returned to where my wife was; she and the other women were all lying prostrate on a pile of firewood, with blood smeared on their bodies, their hair with coal, their faces looking like demons, and only their voices distinguishing them.
予乞眾婦，得入草底，眾婦擁臥其上，予閉息不敢動，幾悶絕，婦以一竹筒授予，口銜其末，出其端於上，氣方達，得不死。 I begged the group of women to let me go under the straw while they held each other on top; I held my breath and did not dare to move, almost suffocating; my wife gave me the end of a bamboo tube, and I held the end of it in my mouth, breathing in and out through the top, able to get air, and survived that way.
戶外有卒一，時手殺二人，其事甚怪，筆不能載。 Outside the door was a soldier who at that moment killed two people, his behaviour extremely monstrous, such that one cannot express it with a brush.
草上諸婦無不股栗，忽哀聲大舉，卒已入室，復大步出，不旋顧。 On top of the straw all the women did not move a muscle, when suddenly there was a large, frightful sound: the soldier had entered the room, but then gone out again in big steps, turning without looking.
天亦漸暝，諸婦起，予始出草中，汗如雨。 The sky then gradually darkened, and all the women got up; when I first came out of the straw, I was sweating like rain.
至夕，復同婦至洪宅，洪老洪嫗皆在，伯兄亦來，雲是日被劫去負擔，賞以千錢，仍付令旗放還； That evening, I went back with my wife to the Hong residence; Old Mr Hong and Old Mrs Hong were both there, and my second elder brother also arrived, saying that that day he'd been captured and made to carry a burden, and had been compensated with a thousand coins; then they'd given him an official flag and released him to return;
途中亂屍山疊，血流成渠，口難盡述。 On the road the disordered corpses were piled like mountains, the blood flowing into streams - it is hard to describe it completely.
復聞有王姓將爺居本坊昭陽李宅，以錢數万日給難民，其黨殺人，往往勸阻，多所全活。 Then we heard that a gentleman surnamed Wang from who originally resided at the Li residence in Zhaoyang, was giving his several tens of thousands of coins to stricken people; his fellows had been killed, but he had dissuaded [the soldiers?] , thus saving his life.
是夜悲咽之馀，昏昏睡去。 That night there was more mournful sobbing, and faintly we fell asleep.
次日，則念九矣。 The next day was the 29th.
自廿五日起，至此已五日，或可冀幸遇赦，乃紛紛傳洗城之說，城中殘黎冒死縋城者大半，舊有官溝壅塞不能通流，至是如坦途，夜行晝伏，以此反罹其鋒。 From the 25th and up to now it had already been five days, and I thought that I might through good fortune be spared, but then one after another there were rumours of an extermination within the city walls; within the city walls, a good half of those who had survived braved death to let themselves down the walls by ropes; the old official moat was blocked up and did not flow, and now it was like a highway; travelling by night and laying low by day, but because of this they also suffered the blade.
城外亡命利城中所有，輒結伴夜入官溝盤詰，搜其金銀，人莫敢誰何。 Outside the city those fleeing death took all their valuables with them, and travelling together at night they were accosted on the official moat by people seeking their gold and silver, and their were none who dared to say anything about it.
予等念既不能越險以逃，而伯兄又為予不忍獨去； We thought we couldn't pass through that hazard and escape, and my second elder brother couldn't bear to escape on his own.
延至平旦，其念遂止； we thought about it until dawn and then put the idea to rest;
原蔽處知不可留，而予婦以孕故屢屢獲全，遂獨以予匿池畔深草中，婦與彭兒裹臥其上，有數卒至，為劫出者再，皆少獻賂而去。 Our original hiding place was known and we couldn't stay there; because my wife was pregnant she had been captured but spared repeatedly; thereupon I hid alone in the deep grass on the banks of a pond, and my wife and our son Peng lay bundled above me; soldiers arrived several times and captured those who came out repeatedly, but each time we paid a small bribe and escaped.
繼一狠卒來，鼠頭鷹眼，其狀甚惡，欲劫予婦； Then a fierce soldier arrived, with a mouse-like head and hawkish eyes; his appearance was extremely vicious, and he wanted to seize my wife;
婦偃蹇以前語告之，不聽，逼使立起，婦旋轉地上，死不肯起，卒舉刀背亂打，血濺衣裳，表裡漬透。 My wife crept forward lamely and spoke to him to tell him her condition, but he didn't listen and forced her to stand up; she rolled to the ground, refusing to stand even if it meant death, and the soldier raised his blade and used the handle to strike her chaotically, the blood splashing onto her clothes, which were soaked through inside and out.
先是婦戒予曰：“倘遇不幸，吾必死，不可以夫婦故乞哀，並累子； Beforehand my wife had exhorted me: "If we meet misfortune, I must die, and you my husband must not plead for me, because then our son would also be dragged into it;
我死則必死子目，俾子亦心死。” if I die then you must cover our son's eyes, otherwise he will die in his heart."
至是予遠躲草中，若為不與者，亦謂婦將死，而卒仍不捨，屢擢婦發週數匝於臂，怒叱橫曳而去。 So now I hid at a distance in the grass as if I wasn't involved; I said to myself that my wife was going to die; the soldier would not give up, repeatedly grabbing my wife's hair and binding it around her arms, angrily cursing her and dragging her off sideways.
由田陌至深巷一箭地，環曲以出大街，行數武必擊數下。 The path in the field went through a deep lane and went out round on to the main street, and as he walked he made sure to strike her several times.
突遇眾騎至，中一人與卒滿語一二，遂舍予婦去。 Suddenly they encountered a group of cavalrymen who arrived, and one of them said one or two sentences to him in Manchu, and there upon he released my wife and left.
始得匍匐而返，大哭一番，身無完膚矣！ Only then was she able to crawl back and have a great bout of crying, with not a patch of her skin unbroken!
忽又烈火四起，何家墳前後多草房，燃則立刻成燼； Suddenly fires broke out in all directions again, and the numerous thatch huts in front of and behind the He family graveyard immediately burnt to ashes;
其有寸壤隙地，一二漏網者，為火一逼，無不奔竄四出，出則遇害，百無免一。 those who had slipped into crevices to slip through the net were forced out by the fire, and there was not one who did not rush out in all directions and was murdered as soon as they emerged; there was not one in a hundred who avoided it.
其閉戶自焚者由數口至數百口，一室之中，正不知積骨多少矣！ Those who closed their doors and immolated themselves numbered from several to several hundred in one house, and one does not know how many amassed skeletons there are!
大約此際無處可避，亦不能避，避則或一犯之，無金死，有金亦死； About then there was nowhere to hide and likewise we could not run; if you hid wrongly, you might die whether you had money or not.
惟出露道旁，或與屍骸雜處，生死反未可知。 We could only come out on to the roadside, or stay with the piled up bodies and skeletons; there was no way of knowing if we would live or die.
予因與婦子並往臥塚後，泥首塗足，殆無人形。 My wife, my son and I went and lay together behind a tomb, with mud smeared on us from head to foot, appearing inhuman.
時火勢愈熾，墓木皆焚，光如電灼，聲如山摧，悲風怒號，令人生噤，赤日慘淡，為之無光，目前如見無數夜叉鬼母驅殺千百地獄人而馳逐之。 At that time the force of the flames burnt even more strongly, and the trees in the graveyard all burned, the light like bright lightning and the sound like collapsing mountains; the grim wind roared furiously, making people dumb, and the red sun was dismal, with hardly any light compared to this; before our eyes it was like countless spirits and demons were driving to their deaths tens of thousands of prisoners of hell, chasing them speedily.
驚悸之馀，時作昏眩，蓋已不知此身之在人世間矣。 When not shaking with fear, at that time I was dazzled and dizzy, and no longer knew if my body was in the mortal realm.
驟聞足聲騰猛，慘呼震心，回顧牆畔，則予伯兄復被獲，遙見兄與卒相持，兄力大，撇而得脫，卒走逐出田巷，半晌不至； Suddenly we heard footsteps and fierce galloping, and inhuman shouting that shook one's heart; I turned back to look at the wall on the bank, and saw my second elder brother being captured again; from a distance I saw him struggling with a soldier; my brother's strength was great, and he cast off the soldier and got away; the soldier walked away to the field alleyway, not reaching it for some time;
予心方搖搖，乃忽走一人來前，赤體散發。 my heart still shook, and then suddenly a person walked in front of me, their body bare and hair scattered.
視之，則伯兄也； I looked at them, and it was my second elder brother;
而追伯兄之卒，即前之劫吾婦而中途捨去者也。 and the soldier who was chasing my second elder brother was the one from before who had seized my wife, abandoned her on the way and left.
伯兄因為卒所逼，不得已向予索金救命，予僅存一錠，出以獻卒，而卒怒未已，舉刀擊兄，兄輾轉地上，沙血相漬，注激百步。 My second elder brother, forced by the soldier, could not avoid asking me for money to save his life, but I only had a few ingots left; I took them out and gave them to the soldier, but he was angry and did not stop, taking out his blade and striking my brother; my brother writhed around on the ground, blood flowing and soaking the sand, flowing a hundred paces.
彭兒拉卒衣涕泣求免，（時年五歲）卒以兒衣拭刀血再擊而兄將死矣。 Our son Peng (at that time five years old) tugged at the soldiers clothes and sobbed, begging for exemption, but the soldier used the boy's clothes to wipe the blood from his sword and then struck our brother to near death.
旋拉予發索金，刀背亂擊不止，予訴金盡，曰： He spun round and pulled my hair, demanding money, using the back of his blade to strike me endlessly; I pleaded that my money had run out, saying:
“必欲金即甘死，他物可也。” "If it must be money then I will gladly die, but I can give you other items."
卒牽予發至洪宅。 The soldier pulled me by the hair to the Hong residence.
予婦衣飾置兩甕中，倒置階下，盡發以供其取，凡金珠之類莫不取，而衣服擇好者取焉。 My wife's clothes and ornaments were all inside two pots, and I overturned them under the stairs, taking it all out to present to the soldier for him to take things; of all of the gold and pearl items, there were none he didn't take, but of the clothes he only selected the finer items.
既畢，視兒項下有銀鎖，將刀割去，去時顧予曰： Once that was done, he saw that my son had on his neck a silver chain, and used his blade to break it off; when he left he looked at me and said:
“吾不殺爾，自有人殺爾也。” "I didn't kill you, but there are still people who will kill you."
知洗城之說已確，料必死矣。 Then I knew that the rumours of an extermination were correct, and thought that I would definitely die.
置兒於宅，同婦急出省兄，前後項皆砍傷，深入寸許，胸前更烈，啟之洞內府； I put my son in the house and with my wife rushed out to save my elder brother; the front and back of his neck was all cuts and wounds, as deep as an inch, and on his chest it was even more intense, opened up into holes into the internal cavity.
予二人扶至洪宅，問之，亦不知痛楚，神魂忽瞶忽蘇。 The two of us supported him to the Hong residence, and when we asked him, he was beyond feeling pain, his spirit coming and going.
安置畢，予夫婦復至故處躲避，鄰人俱臥亂屍眾中，忽從亂屍中作人語曰： When we had made him secure, my wife and I returned to our hiding place; the neighbours were all lying amongst the disordered corpses, and suddenly from amongst the disordered corpses came a human voice saying:
“明日洗城，必殺一盡，當棄汝婦與吾同走。” "Tomorrow there is going to be an extermination in the city, and they will definitely kill everyone; you should abandon your wife and leave with me."
婦亦固勸餘行，餘念伯兄垂危，豈忍捨去？ My wife also strongly urged me to go, but I still thought of my second elder brother being close to death - how could I bear to give him up?
又前所恃者猶有馀金，今金已盡，料不能生，一痛氣絕，良久而蘇。 Besides, before I had relied on still having some more money, but now it had completely run out, I guessed I could not survive, and with this painful last breath, I passed out for a good while.
火亦漸滅，遙聞炮聲三，往來兵丁漸少，予婦彭兒坐糞窖中，洪嫗亦來相依。 The fires then gradually went out, in the distance we heard three cannon shots, and the soldiers going back and forth gradually reduced; my wife and our son Peng sat in a dung cellar, and Old Mrs Hong also came and joined them.
有數卒擄四五個婦人，內二老者悲泣，兩少者嘻笑自若； Several soldiers had captured four or give women, amongst them two old ones who were sobbing, and two young ones who were giggling and enjoying themselves;
後有二卒追上奪婦，自相奮擊，內一卒勸解作滿語，忽一卒將少婦負至樹下野合，馀二婦亦就被污，老婦哭泣求免，兩少婦恬不為恥，數十人互為奸淫，仍交與追來二卒，而其中一少婦已不能起走矣。 from behind two soldiers caught up and seized a woman, and they [the soldiers] came to blows with each other; one of the soldiers mediated, speaking in Manchu; suddenly a soldier hoisted up one of the young women and committed adultery with her under a tree; the other two women were likewise defiled, and the old women wept, begging for exemption; the two young women were calm and shameless as a dozen men took it in turns to rape them and then handed them over to the two soldiers who'd caught up; one of the young women could not stand up or walk afterwards.
予認知為焦氏之媳，其家平日所為，應至於此，驚駭之下，不勝嘆息。 I recognised her and knew she was a daughter-in-law of the Jiao family; in normal times her family was like that, but in these shocking circumstances I could not help but sigh with regret.
忽見一人紅衣佩劍，滿帽皂靴，年不及三十，姿容俊爽，隨從一人，衣黃背甲，貌亦魁梧，後有數南人負重追隨。 I suddenly saw someone in red clothes with a sword at his waist, wearing a Manchu cap and black boots, less than thirty years old, looking handsome and smart; he had following him a man in yellow clothes with armour on his torso, and his appearance was likewise tall and sturdy; behind them were several southerners bearing heavy loads and following them.
紅衣者熟視予，指而問曰： The one in red clothes regarded me, and then pointed and said:
“視予，爾非若儔輩，實言何等人？” "Looking at you, you are not like these others - truthfully tell me what kind of person you are."
予念時有以措大而獲全者，亦有以措大而立斃者，不敢不以實告，紅衣者遂大笑謂黃衣者曰： I thought at that moment that there were those who had survived because they were scholars, and likewise those who had been killed because they were scholars, and didn't dare to speak truthfully; the man in red clothes then laughed loudly and said to the one in yellow clothes:
“汝服否？吾固知此蠻子非常等人也。” "Are you convinced? I am certain this southern savage is not an ordinary person."
復指洪嫗及予問為誰？ Then he pointed at Old Mrs Hong and asked me who she was.
具告之，紅衣者曰： I told him everything, and the man in red clothes said:
“明日王爺下令封刀，汝等得生矣！幸勿自斃。” "Tomorrow the Venerable Prince will give an order to sheath the blades, and you all shall live! Trust me, and do not kill yourselves."
命隨人付衣幾件，金一錠，問：“汝等幾日不食？ ” He gave orders to his entourage to give us a few items of clothing and an ingot of money, and asked: "How many days have you not eaten?"
予答以五日，則曰：“隨我來。” I replied that it had been five days, and then he said: "Come with me."
予與婦且行且疑，又不敢不行，行至一宅，室雖小而貲畜甚富，魚米充軔，中一老嫗，一子方十二三歲，見眾至，駭甚，哀號觸地。 My wife and I were both trusting and suspicious, daring and not daring to go, and we arrived at a residence; although the the house was small, the stores there seemed extremely abundant - fish and rice filled the place; within was an old woman and a boy of twelve or thirteen years old; they saw the crowd had arrived and were extremely startled, wailing in anguish at the contact.
紅衣者曰：“予貸汝命，汝為我待此四人者，否則殺汝，汝此子當付我去。” The one in red clothes said: "You are spared your life; you must treat these four people I have brought well, or I will kill you; hand me that boy of yours."
遂挈其子與予作別而去。 Thereupon he took the boy and took leave of us.
老嫗者鄭姓也，疑予與紅衣者為親，因謬慰之，謂子必返。 The old woman was surnamed Zheng, and was suspicious that the man in red clothes and I were relatives, and because of this was deceptively comforting [to us?], saying that her son would certainly come back.
天已暮，予內弟復為一卒劫去，不知存亡？ The sky darkened, and my brother-in-law had again been captured and taken away by a soldier - I didn't know if he had survived or died.
婦傷之甚。 My wife was grieving deeply.
少頃，老嫗搬出魚飯食予； Soon after, Old Mrs Hong brought out some fish and rice to feed us;
宅去洪居不遠，予取魚飯食吾兄，兄喉不能咽，數箸而止，予為兄拭發洗血，心如萬磔矣！ our house was not far from the Hong residence, so I took the fish and rice to feed my elder brother; my brother's throat could not swallow, and after a few chopsticks he stopped; I wiped my brother's hair and washed his bloody wounds, my heart broken into ten thousand pieces!
是日，以紅衣告予語遍告諸未出城者，眾心始稍定。 That day, what the man in red clothes had told me was told to all those who had not left the city, and the hearts of the masses began to settle somewhat.
次日為五月朔日，勢雖稍減，然亦未嘗不殺人，未嘗不掠取； The next day was first day of the fifth month, and although the violence had lessened somewhat, the kill had still not ended, the plundering had still not ended;
而窮僻處或少安； but the poor rural areas may have been a little safer;
富家大室方且搜括無馀，子女由六七歲至十馀歲搶掠無遺種。 the remainders of the rich families in large houses still were still being searched for; their sons and daughters between six or seven years old and ten years old had been seized without trace.
是日，興平兵復入揚城，而寸絲半粟，盡入虎口，前梳後篦，良有以也。 That day, the soldiers of Xingping again entered the Yangzhou city walls, and even the tiniest of items were taken back to their hideout, combing and sweeping in front and behind, taking everything. (寸絲半粟 means “the tiniest of items”.)
初二日，傳府道州縣已置官吏，執安民牌遍諭百姓，毋得驚懼。 On the second, official words were passed on that in every prefecture and county they had placed [Qing] officials, and they were using placards to assuage all the common people, telling them not to be afraid.
又諭各寺院僧人焚化積尸； They also ordered that the monks of every Buddhist temple and cloister cremate the piled up bodies;
而寺院中藏匿婦女亦復不少，亦有驚餓死者，查焚屍簿載其數，前後約計八十萬馀，其落井投河，閉戶自焚，及深入自縊者不與焉。 there were many women hiding in the temples and cloisters, and some of them had been frightened or starved to death; checking the count in the book of cremated bodies, from back to front there are roughly more than eight hundred thousand, leaving out those who had fallen into wells or thrown themselves into rivers, those who had shut themselves in their houses and been immolated, those who had died in captivity and those who had hanged themselves.
是日，燒綿絮灰及人骨以療兄創； That day, I burnt some silk, cotton and human bones to treat my brother's wounds;
至晚，始以仲兄季弟之死哭告予兄，兄頷之而已。 that night I tearfully told my elder brother about the death of our younger brother for the first time; my elder brother nodded and was still.
初三日，出示放賑，偕洪嫗至缺口關領米； On the third, they announced relief measures, and we accompanied Old Mrs Hong to Quekou Gate to get rice;
米即督鎮所儲軍糧，如丘陵，數千石轉瞬一空。 the rice was from the army provision store of the Regional Military Supervisor; it was like a hill, and several thousand _shi_ was shifted in the blink of an eye.
其往來負戴者俱焦頭爛額，斷臂折脛，刀痕遍體，血漬成塊，滿面如燭淚成行，碎爛鶉衣，腥穢觸鼻，人扶一杖，挾一蒲袋，正如神廟中竄獄冤鬼； those coming and going carrying loads were all beaten black and blue, with broken arms and fractured legs, blade wounds all over their bodies, and blood clotted in chunks; their whole faces were lit up with tears as they set off, their clothes were broken and shabby, and a rank stench reached one's nose; people supported themselves with staffs, and it was like ghosts fleeing hell in a temple.
稍可觀者猶是卑田院乞兒也。 A considerable amount of them were lowly farmers and beggars.
奪米之際，雖至親知交不顧，強者往而復返，弱者竟日不得升斗。 When they grabbed the rice, they had no regard for their own friends and relatives; the strong went and came back again, and the weak were unable to get a scoop all day.
初四日，天始霽，道路積尸既經積雨暴漲，而青皮如蒙鼓，血肉內潰。 On the fourth, the sky cleared for the first time, and on the roads the piled up bodies that had swelled up in the rain were blue and bulging, their flesh and blood breaking down.
穢臭逼人，復經日炙，其氣愈甚，前後左右，處處焚灼，室中氤氳，結成如霧，腥聞百里。 The filthy stench pressed down on people, and heated under the sun, the vapour was all the more extreme; in front and behind, left and right, everywhere they cremated them, forming a fog, the fishy smell going a hundred _li_.
蓋此百萬生靈，一朝橫死，雖天地鬼神，不能不為之愁慘也！ These millions of living beings, in one swoop had died, and even Heaven and Earth, spirits and deities could not avoid feeling mournful about it!
初五日，幽僻之人始悄悄走出，每相遇，各淚下不能作一語。 On the fifth, the people in remote areas began to quietly leave, and every time one encountered them, they all shed tears and could not speak a word.
予等五人雖獲稍蘇，終不敢居宅內，晨起早食，即出處野畔，其妝飾一如前日； We five people, although we had somewhat recovered, in the end did not dare stay inside the house, and in the morning when we rose to have breakfast, we thereupon went out onto the open bank, which had been returned to its former appearance;
蓋往來打糧者日不下數十輩，雖不操戈，而各制挺恐嚇，詐人財物，每有斃杖下者； Those going back and forth getting provisions now numbered less than ten in a day, and although they did not carry spears, each of them was till very menacing, cheating people out of their belongings, and each time there were those who died by their sticks.
一遇婦女，仍肆擄劫，初不知為清兵為鎮兵為亂民也？ When they encountered women, they still seized them, but I do not know if they were Qing troops, regional troops or by disorderly people?
是日，伯兄因傷重，刀瘡迸裂而死，傷哉，痛不可言！ That day, my second elder brother's wounds reopened; the blade wounds burst open and he died; pain! pain that I cannot describe!
憶予初被難時，兄弟嫂侄婦子親共八人，今僅存三人，其內外姨又不復論。 I recalled that when we first encountered trouble, there were eight of us - my two elder brothers, my younger brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew, my wife and my son - and now there only remained three of us, not including my wife's sisters.
計揚之人如予之家水知凡幾？ Comparing those people of Yangzhou who died compared to my family - who knows how many there were?
其數瀕於死，幸死而不死，如予與婦者甚少，然而愁苦萬狀矣！ The number who nearly died, who were lucky and avoided death, such as myself and my wife, were very few, but the pain is ten thousand times!
自四月二十五日起，至五月五日止，共十日，其間皆身所親歷，目所親睹，故漫記之如此，遠處風聞者不載也。 Starting from the 25th of the 4th month, to the 5th of the 5th month, in total ten days, in that internal everything that I personally experienced and saw with my own eyes, I have unrestrainedly recorded it here thus, so that those in distant places can hear about it.
後之人幸生太平之世，享無事之樂； People of later generations who are fortunate enough to live in a peaceful world, enjoy the happiness of not having these problems;
不自修省，一味暴殄者，閱此當驚惕焉耳！ those who do not cultivate themselves, and are blindly violent, read this and be properly fearful and respectful!
https://eastasiastudent.net/china/classical/yangzhou-shiri-ji-19/
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Duanfang is one of the founders of China's modern education, while he was acting Viceroy of Liangjiang, he founded the Jinan Academy in Nanjing. As governor of Hubei and Hunan, he established he Teacher's college. While he was governor of Jiangsu, determined to get rid of bad habits, ordered counties to refund red envelopes to use to send two local students to study abroad.
Duanfang was the founder of the first kindergarten in China and provincial libraries. He also sent out more than 20 girls to go to Japan to study pedagogy. The Jiangnan Library was founded by Duanfang in Nanjing in 1907.
Duanfang was a well-known collector of antiques, and maintained a good relationship with Paul Pelliot and others. During his inspection tours abroad, he also collected ancient Egyptian artifacts, becoming the first modern Chinese person to have a collection of foreign artifacts.
After he died in Sichuan, his children lived in poverty, and in 1924 they sold his most famous collection- a set of Shang dynasty bronze artifacts for about 20 million taels of silver to John Calvin Ferguson. The bronzes are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Yangzhou was occupied by Shi Kefa, a 44-year-old general with fanatical loyalty to the Ming dynasty. The Manchus tried to win Shi Kefa over in a number of ways, sending numerous letters in the name of Dorgon, but actually drafted by turncoats.
Shi Kefa had famously berated the Emperor of Grand Radiance on military matters, using language that would have led to the reprimand or imprisonment of a less valuable soldier.
[Manchu Prince] Dorgon's messages capitalised on this, reminding Shi Kefa that, loyal to the Ming or not, he was currently serving a depraved master. While the Manchus fought the Ming loyalists, wrote Dorgon's scribes, both sides lost out on the opportunity to unite and pursue the true enemy: the remnants of the forces of [northern warlord] Li Zicheng.
Dorgon urged Shi Kefa at all costs to avoid a situation in which there were 'two suns in the firmament'. But it was too late; already there were two people claiming to be the emperor of China--three, if one was prepared to count the fugitive Li Zicheng.
When the Manchu army finally began the assault of Yangzhou, Shi Kefa's [Jesuit-designed] guns killed them in their thousands. The bodies piled up so high, that after a time, there was no need for siege ladders, and fresh Manchu troops climbed a mountain of corpses to reach the battlements.
The defenders of the city began fleeing the walls by jumping onto the houses immediately below, tearing off their helmets and throwing down their spears, creating an unearthly clatter as their feet smashed tiles on the rooftops.
The noise brought townsfolk out of their houses in time to see the defenders running away, and soon the streets were full of refugees. But there was nowhere to run. Someone opened the south gate, and the last possible escape route was cut off by more Manchu soldiers.
In the aftermath Shi Kefa ordered his men to kill him, but his lieutenant could not bring himself to strike the death blow. With the town now in Manchu hands, Shi Kefa was brought to [Manchu Prince] Dodo. The prince advised him that his loyalty had impressed his Manchu enemies. 'You have made a gallant defence,' he said. 'Now that you have done all that duty could dictate, I would be glad to give you a high post.'
Shi Kefa, however, refused to abandon his beloved Dynasty of Brightness [= Ming]. 'I ask of you no favour except death,' he replied. Over several days, the Manchus made repeated attempts to persuade Shi Kefa to join them, but he was adamant that the only thing he wanted was to die with his dynasty. On the third day, an exasperated Prince Dodo granted Shi Kefa his wish, and beheaded him personally.
Despite his pleas to Shi Kefa, Dodo was intensely irritated at the human cost of taking Yangzhou. He told his troops to do whatever they wanted with the city for five days, and the ensuing atrocities reached such heights that it was a further five days before Dodo regained control of his men. The surviving Manchus avenged their fallen comrades on the population of the town, slaughtering the menfolk and raping the women.
The clemency shown to turncoat towns further in the north was nowhere in evidence here, as Manchus and Chinese traitors looted what they could, and murdered all the witnesses they could find. Fires broke out in numerous quarters of the city, but were largely put out by heavy rain.
A survivor reported that the corpses filled the canals, gutters and ponds, their blood drowning the water itself, creating rivulets of a deep greenish-red throughout the city. Babies were killed or trampled underfoot, and the young women were chained together ready to be shipped to the far north. Many years later, travellers in Manchuria and Mongolia would still report sightings of aging, scarred female slaves with Yangzhou accents, clad in animal skins.
http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/2006/02/yangzhou-massacre-of-1645.html?m=1
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This is Part 1 in an annotation of 揚州十日記 (‘Diary of the Ten Days of Yangzhou’). Like 吳城日記, it’s a daily log from the year 1645, a year after the Manchus took Beijing, marking the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing (明末清初).
This diary covers the Yangzhou massacre (also known as “The Ten Days of Yangzhou”), and was written by 王秀楚 (Wang Xiuchu). You can read about these events, as well as see more translations of the text, in Lynn A. Struve’s book on the topic.
As always, if you notice a mistake or have any suggestions, please share them in the comments at the end of the page.
Part 1 · Part 2 →
己酉夏四月十四日，督镇史可法从白洋河失守，踉跄奔扬州，坚闭城以御敌，至念四日未破。 Summer 1645, Month 4, 14th Day: the Regional Military Supervisor [Shi Kefa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Kefa) at Baiyang river was defeated, and limped back in a rush to Yangzhou; they firmly closed the city wall gates to resist the enemy; up to the 24th they have not been broken. ([失守](http://www.zdic.net/cd/ci/5/ZdicE5ZdicA4ZdicB1311072.htm) is a binome meaning to fall or to fail, as in to be defeated.)
城前禁门之内，各有兵守，予宅西城，杨姓将守焉。 In front of the city walls, inside every gate there are soldiers guarding; my residence is at the West city wall, under the jurisdiction of a general surnamed Yang.
吏卒棋置，予宅寓二卒，左右舍亦然，践踏无所不至，供给日费钱千馀。 His officials and soldiers are spread out like chess pieces; in my home there are two soldiers, and the houses either side are the same; they are trampling all over the place, and are to be furnished with more than a thousand coins a day.
不继，不得已共谋为主者觞，予更谬为恭敬，酬好渐洽； Before long, we [the neighbours] had no alternative but to discuss this together and invite their master [General Yang] for a banquet; I was deceptively deferential, entertaining him and gradually consulting with him.
主者喜，诫卒稍远去。 The master was pleased, and instructed the soldiers to stay away somewhat.
主者喜音律，善琵琶，思得名妓以娱军暇； The master liked music and was skilled at playing the _pipa_; he wanted to get a famous courtesan to amuse him during his leisure time from military duties;
是夕，邀予饮，满拟纵欢，忽督镇以寸纸至，主者览之色变，遽登城，予众亦散去。 that night, he invited me to drink, contended and intending to indulge himself and be joyous; suddenly a letter from the Regional Military Supervisor [Shi Kefa] arrived; the Master [General Yang] looked it over and the colour drained from his face; he hurriedly went up on to the city wall, and we also dispersed and left.
This is Part 2 in an annotation of 揚州十日記(‘Diary of the Ten Days of Yangzhou’). Like 吳城日記, it’s a daily log from the year 1645, a year after the Manchus took Beijing, marking the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing (明末清初).
This diary covers the Yangzhou massacre (also known as “The Ten Days of Yangzhou”) , and was written by 王秀楚(Wang Xiuchu). You can read about these events, as well as see more translations of the text, in Lynn A. Struve’s book on the topic.
As always, if you notice a mistake or have any suggestions, please share them in the comments at the end of the page.
越次早，督鎮牌諭至“內有一人當之，不累百姓”之語，聞者莫不感泣。 The next morning, the Regional Military Commander [Shi Kefa] and made an announcement saying: "I take on all responsibility myself; the common people will not be implicated" ; of those who heard this, there were none who were not moved to tears. (Shi Kefa has taken on all responsibility for resisting the Manchus, ie he intends to save the common people of the city by taking all blame himself.)
又傳巡軍小捷，人人加額焉。 We then heard that the [Ming] patrolling army had gained a small victory, and everybody put their hands to their heads in celebration.
午後，有姻氏自瓜洲來避興平伯逃兵（興平伯高傑也，督鎮檄之，出城遠避）。 In the afternoon, someone in my wife's family came from Guazhou fleeing the Count of Xingping's defecting army (the Count of Xingping is Gao Jie; the Regional Military Commander put out a warrant for his arrest, so he left the city walls and fled far away ). (Gao Jie is this person’s actual name, and he also held the title ‘Count of Xingping’. I think!)
予婦緣別久，相見唏噓； My wife was fated to a long separation [from this relative] , and they sobbed upon seeing each other;
而敵兵入城之語，已有一二為予言者。 there was word of enemy soldiers entering the city walls - there were one or two people who had already told me about it.
予急出詢諸人，或曰：“靖南侯黃得功援兵至。” I hurried outside about to ask various people, and some of them said: "It's reinforcements arriving for Marquis Huang Degong of Jingnan."
旋觀城上守城者尚嚴整不亂，再至市上，人言洶洶，披髮跣足者繼塵而至，問之，心急口喘莫知所對。 I immediately looked at the guards on the city walls, and they were still in strict order and not in upheaval; I also went to the marketplace, and people were speaking in torrents; there were people with their hair let down and their feet bare, stirring up the dust with their arrival; I asked them - they panted hurriedly but there were none who knew how to answer.
忽數十騎自北而南，奔馳狼狽勢如波湧，中擁一人則督鎮也。 Suddenly several people riding horses came from the north, heading south; they were rushing from disaster with the force of a torrent; amongst them they carried a man - it was the Regional Military Supervisor [Shi Kefa] .
蓋奔東城外，兵逼城不得出，欲奔南關，故由此。 They were intending to rush out of the east gate, but the [enemy] soldiers were pressing down on the city walls and they couldn't get out, so they were going to head for the southern gate, thus passing through here.
是時，始知敵兵入城無疑矣。 At that moment, it was the first time I knew that the enemy soldiers had entered the city walls without doubt.
突有一騎由北而南，撤韁緩步，仰面哀號，馬前二卒依依轡首不捨，至今猶然在目，恨未傳其姓字也。 Suddenly one rider passed through from the south to the north; he had let go of the reins and trotted slowly, his face upward and wailing in anguish; in front of the horse were two soldiers reluctant to let go of the reins; to this day it is still before my eyes, and I regret that I did not find out his surname and given name.
騎稍遠，守城丁紛紛下竄，悉棄冑拋戈，並有碎首折脛者，回視城櫓已一空矣！ When the rider was a little distance away, the soldiers guarding the city walls scurried down one after another, all of them abandoning their helmets and chucking away their spears; furthermore, there were those who cracked their heads and broke their ankles; I looked back at the turrets on the city wall, and they were already completely empty!
先是督镇以城狭炮具不得展，城垛设一板，前置城径，后接民居，使有馀地，得便安置。 Prior to this the Regional Military Commander [Shi Kefa] had found that the city wall was too narrow, and cannon could not be set up on it; on the city wall ramparts they built platforms with the fronts parallel with the wall and the backs touching people's residences, to give more space and make it easier to set the cannon securely.
至是工未毕，敌兵操弧先登者白刃乱下，守城兵民互相拥挤，前路逼塞，皆奔所置木板，匍匐扳援，得及民屋，新板不固，托足即倾，人如落叶，死者十九； At that point the work had not been finished, and when the enemy soldiers first scaled the walls, wildly brandishing their swords, the soldiers guarding the walls crowded together; the route ahead was blocked, so they all rushed on to these wooden platforms, crawling and pulling to help each other; they wanted to reach the people's roofs, but the new platforms were not firm, and in taking the weight underfoot they collapsed; the people fell like leaves, with nine out of ten of them dying.
其及屋者，足蹈瓦裂，皆作剑戟相击声，又如雨雹挟弹，铿然金訇然，四应不绝，屋中人惶骇百出，不知所为？ Of those who made it onto the roofs, their feet trampled on the tiles and broke them, all making the sound of swords and spears clashing; it was also like a hail of shot, clanging and crashing; in all directions it was unceasing, and the people in the houses were panicked and rushed out in great number, not knowing what was going on.
而堂室内外深至寝闼，皆守城兵民缘室下者，惶惶觅隙潜匿，主人弗能呵止，外厢比屋闭户，人烟屏息。 Inside and outside the rooms of the houses, right down to the deepest chambers, all had city wall guards in them; they were panicked and sought out every crevice to hide in; the owners were not able to stop them; the outer rooms and inner rooms were all closed, and people held their breath.
予廳後面城，從窗隙中窺見城上兵循南而西，步武嚴整，淋雨亦不少紊，疑為節制之師，心稍定。 Behind the hall of my own home is the city wall, and peering out through a gap in the window I saw soldiers on the city wall to the south going west; their marching was strictly in order, and despite getting soaked in the rain they were not disordered at all, so I thought they were well-regimented troops [i.e. Shi Kefa's troops] , and my heart was somewhat settled.
忽叩門聲急，則鄰人相約共迎王師，設案焚香，示不敢抗，予雖知事不濟，然不能拂眾議，姑應曰唯唯。 Suddenly there was the sound of urgent knocking at my door; it was the neighbours, who had agreed to unite in welcoming the royal [Qing] troops; they set up a table with incense, to demonstrate that they would not dare to resist; although I knew that these things were no use, I could not not go against the majority opinion, and so I agreed, saying yes, yes.
於是改易服色，引領而待，良久不至。 Thereupon I changed into another style of clothes, craning my neck and waiting, but a long while passed and they did not arrive.
予復至後窗窺城上，則隊伍稍疏或行或止； I went back to the rear window and peeped out onto the wall, where a troop of soldiers was was somewhat spread out, with some walking and some stopped;
俄見有擁婦女雜行，闞其服色皆揚俗，予始大駭。 suddenly I saw that they were carrying along with them various women, and looking at their clothing style they were all of Yangzhou; I was for the first time greatly startled.
還語婦曰：“兵入城，倘有不測，爾當自裁。” I turned and said to my wife: "The soldiers have entered the city - if things go wrong, you should cut short your own life."
婦曰諾。 My wife said "Yes."
吟曰：“前有金若干付汝置之，我輩休想復生人世矣！” Sobbing, she said: "From before I have a small amount of money - I'll give it to you now to put to one side. My generation would never want to be reborn into the human world!"
涕泣交下，盡出金付予。 Her tears fell down, and she took out all the money and gave it to me.
值鄉人進，急呼曰：“至矣，至矣！” Just then someone from the countryside rushed in, urgently yelling: "They've arrived! They've arrived!"
予趨出，望北來數騎皆按轡徐行，遇迎王師者，即俯首若有所語。 I rushed out, and saw several cavalrymen coming from the north, all pulling on the reins and trotting slowly; those welcoming the royal [Qing] troops thereupon bowed their heads as if to express this.
是時，人自為守，往來不通，故雖違咫尺而聲息莫聞，迨稍近，始知為逐戶索金也。 At that moment, people were protecting themselves, and there was no contact between them, so even though we were only feet apart, not a single sound could be heard; we waited until they got nearer, and that was when we first knew that they were going to houses one by one to demand money.
然意頗不奢，稍有所得，即置不問，或有不應，雖操刀相向，尚不及人，後乃知有捐金萬兩相獻而卒受斃者，揚人導之也。 But their expectations were not extravagant, and once they'd got a little, they would then let people off; if people refused, although they would brandish their blades at them, they had not yet struck anyone; later I learnt that someone had donated ten thousand taels, but had still been killed by the soldiers, because people from Yangzhou had encouraged them to.
次及予楣，一騎獨指予呼後騎曰：“為我索此藍衣者。” When they came in turn to my door, one cavalryman pointed to me and called out to the cavalrymen behind him, saying: "Demand something from this one in blue clothes for me."
後騎方下馬，而予已飛遁矣； The cavalryman behind him got off his horse, but I had already fled at speed;
後騎遂棄餘上馬去，予心計曰：“我粗服類鄉人，何獨欲予？” After that the cavalryman gave it up, got back on his horse and left; I wondered to myself: "I am dressed coarsely like a rural villager - why did they want me in particular?"
已而予弟適至，予兄亦至，因同謀曰： When my younger brother arrived, my elder brother was already there, and we made plans together, saying:
“此居左右皆富賈，彼亦將富賈我，奈何？” "To the right and left of this it is all wealthy merchants, so they see us as wealthy merchants too; what can we do?"
遂急從僻迳托伯兄率婦等冒雨至仲兄宅，仲兄宅在何家墳後，腋皆窶人居也。 Thereupon my brothers hurriedly took a secluded path, taking the women and braving the rain to get to my second elder brother's house; my second elder brother's house is located behind the He family graveyard, and on either side it is all the houses of poor people.
予獨留後以觀動靜，俄而伯兄忽至曰： I stayed behind alone to observe developments, but suddenly my eldest brother arrived, saying:
“中衢血濺矣，留此何待？予伯仲生死一處，亦可不恨。” "In the main thoroughfare blood has been spilled - what are you staying here for? If we brothers live or die together, we'll have no regrets."
予遂奉先人神主偕伯兄至仲兄宅，當時一兄一弟，一嫂一侄，又一婦一子，二外姨，一內弟，同避仲兄家。 I thereupon respectfully carried our ancestral tablets and went with my eldest brother to our second elder brother's house; at that time my elder brother, my young brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew, a wife and her son, two aunts, my wife's younger brother all hid in my second elder brother's house.
天漸暮，敵兵殺人聲已徹門外，因乘屋暫避； The sky gradually darkened, and the sound of enemy soldiers killing people came to right outside the door, so we climbed up onto the roof to hide temporarily;
雨尤甚，十數人共擁一氈，絲發皆濕； the rain was especially heavy, and the ten or so of us embraced each other under one blanket, and every thread of our hair got soaked;
門外哀痛之聲悚耳懾魄，延至夜靜，乃敢扳簷下屋，敲火炊食。 outside the door the sounds of grief and pain frightened our ears and terrified our souls; we waited until the quiet of the night before we dared to climb down the rafters back into the house, and light the stove to cook some food.
城中四周火起，近者十馀處，遠者不計其數，赤光相映如雷電，闢卜聲轟耳不絕； Within the city walls, in all directions fires had started, with more than ten in locations close by, and with distant ones countless in number; the red light was reflected like thunder and lightning, and the crackling sound rumbled in our ears endlessly.
又隱隱聞擊楚聲，哀顧斷續，慘不可狀。 We could also faintly hear the sounds of the clashes, pitiful and intermittent, so wretched that one could not bear it.
飯熟，相顧驚怛不能下一箸，亦不能設一謀。 The rice was cooked, we looked at each other in fright and distress and could not take one chopstick of it, nor could we think of what to do.
予婦取前金碎之，析為四，兄弟各藏其一，髻履衣帶內皆有； My wife took out the money from before and separated it into four, giving one to each of my brothers, and we hid it - our topknots, shoes, clothes and belts all had some hidden in them.
婦又覓破衲敝履為予易訖，遂張目達旦。 My wife also found a tattered robe and shabby shoes for me, which I changed into; then we were wide-eyed until dawn.
是夜也，有鳥在空中如笙簧聲，又如小兒呱泣聲者，皆在人首不遠，後詢諸人皆聞之。 That night, the birds in the air were like the sound of panpipes, and there was also the sound of a small child crying and sobbing; all of these were not far from our heads, and afterwards were asked various people and they had all heard it.
廿六日，頃之，火勢稍息。 On the 26th, shortly after, the force of the flames lessened somewhat.
天漸明，复乘高升屋躲避，已有十數人伏天溝內。 The sky gradually lightened, and again we climbed up high onto the rooftop to hide, and found there were already more than ten people concealing themselves in the rain gutters.
忽東廂一人緣牆直上，一卒持刃隨之，追躡如飛; Suddenly from the eastern room a man emerged and climbed up the wall; a soldier holding a blade was chasing him, following behind him as if flying.
望見予眾，隨舍所追而奔予。 When he saw us, he thereupon abandon the man he was chasing and ran after me.
予惶迫，即下竄，兄繼之，弟又繼之，走百馀步而後止。 I was terrified and fled downwards with my elder brother following me and my younger brother following him; we ran more than a hundred paces and then stopped.
自此遂與婦子相失，不復知其生死矣。 From then on I did not know had happened to my wife and son, having been separated from them; neither did I know if they were alive or dead.
諸黠卒恐避匿者多，紿眾人以安民符節，不誅，匿者競出從之，共集至五六十人，婦女參半，兄謂余曰： Those crafty soldiers, fearing that those hiding were many, deceived the masses with an "assuage the people" notice, saying they would not execute people, so those in hiding vied to come out and comply with it; in total fifty or sixty people gathered, half of them women; my brother said to me:
“我落落四人，或遇悍卒，終不能免； "If we lone four people encounter fierce soldiers, will not be able to avoid death;
不若投彼大群勢眾則易避，即不幸，亦生死相聚，不恨也。” it'd be better to throw our lot in with that large group - the power of the group makes it easier to escape; even if we are unlucky, we will still die together, and have no regrets."
當是時，方寸已亂，更不知何者為救生良策？ At that moment, our minds were in disorder, and what other good ideas did we have for saving our lives?
共曰唯唯，相與就之。 So together we agreed on it, and joined with them;
領此者三滿卒也，遍索金帛，予兄弟皆罄盡，而獨遺予未搜； The three Manchu soldiers leading this group were thoroughly searching for money and silk; my elder brother and younger brother both got searched, and only I alone was not searched.
忽婦人中有呼予者，視之乃余友朱書兄之二妾也，予急止之。 Suddenly there were some women calling out to me; I looked at them and they were the two concubines of my friend Zhu Shu; I anxiously stopped them.
二妾皆散發露肉，足深入泥中沒脛，一妾猶抱一女，卒鞭而擲之泥中，旋即驅走。 The two concubines' hair was scattered and their bodies were exposed; their feet were deep in mud that came up to their calves; one of the concubines was still holding a girl, and a soldier whipped her and threw her in the mud, driving her away soon after.
一卒提刀前導，一卒橫槊後逐，一卒居中，或左或右以防逃逸。 One soldier took out a blade and led the way, one soldier levelled his spear behind us, and one soldier was stationed in the middle, going to the left and the right to prevent people fleeing.
數十人如驅犬羊，稍不前，即加捶撻，或即殺之； We several dozen people were herded like sheep with a dog; if people lagged they were immediately beaten and whipped, or immediately killed;
諸婦女長索系頸，累累如貫珠，一步一蹶，遍身泥土； All the women were bound with a large rope by the neck, clustered like a string of pearls, stumbling with each step, and all of their bodies covered in mud;
滿地皆嬰兒，或襯馬蹄，或藉人足，肝腦塗地，泣聲盈野。 the entire ground was covered with infants, either crushed by horses' hooves or trampled under foot by people; some people had offered their lives in sacrifice, and the sound of sobbing filled the space.
行過一溝一池，堆屍貯積，手足相枕，血入水碧赭，化為五色，塘為之平。 Every gutter or pond that we walked past had piled bodies amassed in it, they hands and feet resting on each other, and the blood flowing into the water to make red and green, become multi-coloured; the canals had been levelled too.
至一宅，乃廷尉永言姚公居也，從其後門直入，屋宇深邃，處處皆有積尸，予意此間是我死所矣； We arrived at a house, and it was the official residence of the Commandant of Justice Yao Yongyan; we went straight in through the back door, and in the spacious rooms, everywhere there were piled up bodies; I thought that room would be the place of my death;
乃逶迤達前戶，出街復至一宅，為西商喬承望之室，即三卒巢穴也。 Then we wound our way through to the front door, out onto the street and into another house, which was the home of the merchant from the west Qiao Chengwang; it was the lair of the three soldiers.
入門，已有一卒拘數美婦在內簡檢筐篚彩緞如山，見三卒至，大笑，即驅予輩數十人至後廳，留諸婦女置旁室； We went through the door, and there was already a soldier who had captured several beautiful women and was rooting through the baskets and chests, making a mountain of brightly coloured satin; when he saw the other three soldiers arrived he laughed loudly, and then drove us several dozen people into the rear hall, leaving all the women in a room to the side;
中列二方幾，三衣匠一中年婦人製衣； in there were two square tables and three dressmakers, of which one was a middle-aged woman making clothes;
婦揚人，濃抹麗妝，鮮衣華飾，指揮言笑。 this woman was from Yangzhou, with thick make-up and gaudily dressed and ornamented; she spoke, laughed and gestured.
欣然有得色，每遇好物，即向卒乞取，曲盡媚態，不以為恥； She was happy and pleased with herself, and whenever the soldiers came across a fine item, she would immediately beg them for it, using to the utmost a charming attitude, without any shame;
予恨不能奪卒之刀，斷此淫孽。 I was desperate to grab one of the soldier's blades and sever this wanton good-for-nothing.
卒嘗謂人曰：“我輩徵高麗，擄婦女數万人，無一失節者，何堂堂中國，無恥至此？” One of the soldiers at one point remarked on her saying: "We campaigned in Korea and captured tens of thousands of women, but not one of them lost her chastity; how is it that the magnificent China is without any sense of shame?"
嗚呼，此中國之所以亂也。 Alas, this is why China has been thrown into disorder.
三卒隨令諸婦女盡解濕衣，自表至裡，自頂至踵，並令製衣婦人相修短，量寬窄，易以鮮新； The three soldiers then ordered all the women to completely take off their wet clothes, from the outermost to the innermost, from their heads to their heels; they also ordered the dressmaker woman to make alterations and take measurements so that they could change into fresh clothes;
諸婦女因威逼不已，遂至裸體相向，隱私盡露，羞澀欲死之狀，難以言喻。 all the women were intimidated relentlessly and then faced one another naked, their secrets completely revealed; they were so ashamed they wanted to die - it is difficult to put into words.
易衣畢，乃擁之飲酒，嘩笑不已； When they had finished changing clothes, the soldiers embraced them and drank wine, laughing uproariously without end;
一卒忽橫刀躍起向後疾呼曰： a soldier suddenly drew his blade and leapt up, yelling back with hatred:
“蠻子來，蠻子來！” "Southern savages, come on! Southern savages, come on!"
近前數人已被縛，吾伯兄在焉。 When we got near the front, several people had already been bound; my eldest brother was there.
仲兄曰：“勢已至此，夫復何言？” My second elder brother said to me: "The situation has come to this, what is there to say?"
急持予手前，予弟亦隨之，是時男子被執者共五十馀人，提刀一呼，魂魄已飛，無一人不至前者； Anxiously clasping my hand he went forward, and my younger brother also went after him; at that time the men who'd been captured were now more than fifty altogether; if a blade was raised or a soldier shouted, our souls left us, and there was no-one who did not move forwards;
予隨仲兄出廳，見外面殺人，眾皆次第待命，予初念亦甘就縛，忽心動若有神助，潛身一遁，復至後廳，而五十馀人不知也。 I followed my eldest brother into the hall, and saw that outside they were killing people; our group all waited for their fate in turn; at first I thought I would also willingly be tied up, but suddenly my heart quickened as if with divine help, and I stealthily fled, going back to the rear hall, and the fifty or so people did not know.
廳後宅西房尚存諸老婦，不能躲避，由中堂穿至後室，中盡牧駝馬，復不能逾走； In the rear hall, in the west of the house, there were still several old women, so I could not hide there; I went through the main hall to the back, where there were several herded camels and horses, which I couldn't jump over;
心愈急，遂俯就駝馬腹下，歷數駝馬腹匍匐而出； My heart became even more anxious, but then I stooped down under the bellies of the camels and horses; I crept under the bellies of the camels and horses one by one and got out;
若驚駝馬，稍一舉足，即成泥矣。 if the camels or horses had been startled, and had raised their hooves even slightly, I would have been pulped.
又歷宅數層，皆無走路，惟旁有弄可通後門，而弄門已為卒加長錐釘固； I then went through several layers of buildings, all without a way path to go on; only to one side there was an alleyway which took me through to a back door; the door in the alleyway had been nailed fast in order to strengthen it against soldiers;
予復由後弄至前，聞前堂殺人聲，愈惶怖無策，回顧左側有廚，中四人蓋亦被執治庖者也，予求收入，使得參司火掌汲之役，或可倖免。 I then went out through a back alley and got to the front, and heard the sound of people being killed in the front hall; I was even more panicked and terrified, and without a plan; I looked behind to the left and there was a kitchen, with four people concealed inside who were kitchen workers *[???]*; I begged them to let me in, and they all anxiously repelled me with their hands; perhaps they were lucky and escaped. *[???]*
四人峻拒曰：“我四人點而役者也，使再點而增人，必疑有詐，禍且及我！” The four people said harshly, repelling me: "We four people have claimed to be servants *[???]*; if we had another person, they will be suspicious of trickery, and disaster will befall us!"
予哀籲不已，乃更大怒，欲執予赴外，予乃出，心益急，視階前有架，架上有甕，去屋不甚遠，乃援架而上，手方及甕，身已傾僕，蓋甕中虛而用力猛故也。 Grief-stricken I implored them endless, and then they became even angrier, wanting to take me outside; I thereupon left, my mind all the more anxious, and saw that in front of the steps was a shelf, and on top of the shelf was a large pot; it wasn't very far from the house, so I used the shelf to climb up; just when my hand touched the pot, my body fell in; the lid of the pot was empty but I used my strength and fierceness. *[???]*
無可奈何，仍急趨旁弄門，兩手棒錐搖撼百度，終莫能動，擊以石，則響達外庭，恐覺； There was no alternative - I rushed to the entrance of an alleyway to the side, and with both hands grabbed the bolt and shook it to the hundredth degree; I attacked it with a stone, and the resulting noise echoed into the outer courtyard, and I feared them noticing;
不得已復竭力搖撼之，指裂血流，淋漏兩肘，錐忽動，盡力拔之，錐已在握，急掣門閂，門閂木槿也，濡雨而漲，其堅澀倍於錐，予迫甚，但力取門閂，門閂不能出而門樞忽折，扉傾垣頹，聲如雷震，予急聳身飛越，亦不知力之何來也。 I had no choice but to do my utmost to shake it, my fingers cracking and blood flowing out, running down to my elbows; the bolt suddenly moved, and I used all my strength to pull it out; the bolt in my hand, I anxiously pulled on the door latch; the latch was made of hibiscus wood, and absorbing the rain had expanded, becoming twice as strong as the bolt; I pressed on it hard using all my strength to pull out the latch, but the latch couldn't come out and the door hinges suddenly broke; the door collapsed and the wall crumbled, the noise like thunder or an earthquake; I hurriedly sprung up and flew threw - I don't know where the strength came from.
疾趨後門出，即為城腳。 I madly dashed out of the back door, and there was the foot of the city wall.
時兵騎充斥，觸處皆是，前進不能，即於喬宅之左鄰後門挨身而入； At that moment it was flooded mounted soldiers all over the place, so I could not go forward; at that I went to the back door of the neighbours' house to the left of the Qiao residence and hauled myself in;
凡可避處皆有人，必不肯容，由後至前，凡五進皆如是。 all of the hiding places had people in the them, and they definitely would not be willing to accept me, so I went from the back to the front, and all five rooms I went in were like this.
直至大門，已臨通衢，兵丁往來絡繹不絕，人以為危地而棄之。 I got to the main door, which overlooked the thoroughfare; soldiers were coming and going in an endless stream - people took it be a dangerous place and had abandoned it.
予乃急入，得一榻，榻顛有仰頂，因緣柱登之，屈身向裡，喘息方定，忽聞隔牆吾弟哀號聲，又聞舉刀砍擊聲，凡三擊遂寂然。 I thereupon hurried back in, and found a bed with a canopy above it; I took the opportunity and climbed up one of the bedposts, bending my body inside; I gasped for breath and my breathing settled, and suddenly I heard through the wall the sound of my younger brother's anguished cries; then I heard the sound of a blade hacking, three strikes in all, and then it was silent.
少間復聞仲兄哀懇曰：“吾有金在家地窖中，放我，當取獻。” After a little while I also heard my second elder brother pleadingly say: "I have silver in the basement of my house - let me go and I will get it and give it to you."
一擊复寂然； One strike and it was silent.
予此時神已離舍，心若焚膏，眼枯無淚，腸結欲斷，不復自主也。 At that moment my spirit had already left its lodging, my heart was like burning oil, my eyes dried up and without tears, my intestines knotted and about to break, and I could no longer control myself.
旋有卒挾一婦人直入，欲宿此榻， 婦不肯，強而後可，婦曰： Shortly after a soldier coercing a woman walked right in, wanting to sleep with her on the bed; the woman refused, but he forced her, and afterwards the woman said:
“此地近市，不可居。” "This place is near the marketplace, we can't stay here."
卒复攜之去，予幾不免焉。 The soldier then took her and left, and I only just escaped.
室有仰屏，以席為之，不勝人，然緣之可以及梁，予以手兩扳樑上桁條而上，足托駝梁，下有席蔽，中黑如漆，仍有兵至，以矛上搠，知是空虛，料無人在上，予始得竟日未遇兵； The room had a false ceiling made of woven matting; it couldn't support a person, but along the edge one could get up onto the beams; I used both my hands to pull myself up onto the beams, putting my feet on the centre beam; from below I was concealed by the woven matting, and within it was black like lacquer; then soldiers came in and used spears to thrust upwards, knowing that there was a space; they guessed that no-one was up there, and I for the first time I was able to go a day without encountering soldiers.
然在下被刃者幾何人？ But how many people were killed with blades below me?
街前每數騎過，必有數十男婦哀號隨其後。 In every thoroughfare there were several cavalrymen passing, and there must have been several dozen men and women wailing mournfully after them.
是日雖不雨，亦無日色，不知旦暮。 Although it didn't rain that day, I could not see the sun, and did not know dawn or dusk.
至夕，軍騎稍疏，左右惟聞人聲悲泣，思吾弟兄已傷其半，伯兄亦未卜存亡？ By evening, the cavalrymen had lessened, and on either side I only heard the sound of people weeping with grief; I considered that half of us brothers had already been killed; I also had no way of diving whether my eldest brother was still alive or not.
予婦予子不知何處？ My wife and my son - where are they?
欲踪蹟之，或得一見； I wanted to track them down and perhaps see them once more;
且使知兄弟死所。 moreover I should let them know about the deaths of my brothers.
乃附梁徐下，躡足至前街，街中枕屍相藉，天暝莫辨為誰？ So I gently let myself down by the beams, and walked on tiptoes to the thoroughfare in the front; in the street the piled up bodies lay upon each other; the sky was darkening and I could not distinguish one from another.
俯屍遍呼，漠無應者。 I looked down at the corpses and called out, by no-one replied.
遙見南首數火炬蜂擁而來，予急避之，循郭而走。 Distantly in the south I could see several torches flocking together and approaching, so I hurriedly fled from them, sticking to the wall and leaving.
城下積尸如鱗，數蹶，聲與相觸，不能措足，則俯伏以手代步，每有所驚，即僕地如殭屍，久之始通於衢。 Below the wall the accumulated bodies were like fish-scales, and I stumbled on several; when I heard a sound and could not run on my feet, I lay prostrate and moved with my hands; every time something frightened me, I lay down like a stiff corpse, continuing like that until I got to a thoroughfare.
衢前後舉火者數處，照耀如白晝，逡巡累時，而後越，得達小路，路人昏夜互觸相驚駭，路不滿百步，自酉至亥方及兄家。 In front of and behind the street fires and been lit in several places, and it was illuminated like broad daylight; I hesitated for a while and then climbed over into a small street; the people in the street were muddled in the night and bumped into each other, startling themselves; the street was less than a hundred paces long; I walked from early evening to late evening and then reached my elder brother's house.
宅門閉不敢遽叩，俄聞婦人聲，知為吾嫂，始輕擊，應門者即予婦也。 The door to the house was closed and I didn't dare to knock at first, then suddenly I heard a woman's voice and knew that it was my sister-in-law's, and only then did I knock lightly; the person who answered the door was my wife.
伯兄已先返，吾婦子俱在，予與伯兄哭，然猶未敢遽告仲兄季弟之被殺也。 My second elder brother had returned earlier, and my wife and son were both there; I sobbed with my second elder brother; but I still did not dare to tell my second elder brother too hurriedly about our other two brothers being killed.
嫂詢予，予依違答之。 My sister-in-law asked me, but I did not tell her about it.
予詢婦何以得免？ I asked my wife how she had escaped.
婦曰：“方卒之追逐也，子先奔，眾人繼之，獨遺我，我抱彭兒投屋下不得死，吾妹踢傷足亦臥焉。 She said: "When the soldier chased us and you fled, the group followed after, leaving my behind alone; I held our son Peng and jumped from the roof but did not die; my younger sister tripped and injured her foot and also lay there.
卒持我二人至一室，屋中男婦幾十人皆魚貫而縛之。 A soldier came and took the two of us into a room; in the room there were several dozen men and women, all bound up like fish on a string.
卒因囑我於諸婦曰： The soldier instructed me and the other women, saying:
'看守之，無使逸去。' 'Keep an eye on these - do not let them escape.'
卒持刀出，又一卒入，劫吾妹去； The soldier took his blade and left, and another soldier came in, seized my sister and left;
久之，不見前卒至，遂紿諸婦得出。 For a long time I didn't see any soldiers arriving, so I deceived the other women and got away.
出即遇洪嫗，相攜至故處，故幸免。” When I got out I ran into Old Mrs Hong, and we helped each other back to our former place, thus luckily escaping."
洪嫗者仲兄內親也。 Old Mrs Hong was a relative of my second elder brother's wife.
婦詢予，告以故，唏噓良久。 My wife asked me and I told her what happened, and we sobbed for a long time.
洪嫗攜宿飯相勸。 Old Mrs Hong brought rice to our home and urged us to eat some.
哽咽不可下。 Choking with sobs, we couldn't get it down.
外复四面火起，倍於昨夕，予不自安，潛出戶外，田中橫屍交砌，喘息猶存； Outside there were again fires in all directions, many more than the previous night; I could not stay calm, and hid outdoors, flat in the grass like a corpse, gasping for breath and still alive;
遙見何家墳中，樹木陰森，哭音成籟，或父呼子，或夫覓妻，呱呱之聲，草畔溪間，比比皆是，慘不忍聞。 in the distance I could hear from the He family graveyard, in the gloom amongst the trees, the sound of crying or a father calling for his son, or a husband looking for his wife - a crying sound, on the grassy banks of the creek, it could be heard everywhere, too horrible to describe.
回至兄宅，婦謂予曰： I went back to my elder brother's house, and my wife said to me:
“今日之事，惟有一死，請先子一死，以絕子累； "What happens today, there is only death, I only ask to die before you, so that you are not wearied;
彭兒在，子好為之！” our son Peng is here, you must be good to him!"
予知婦之果於死也，因與語竟夜，不得間，東方白矣。 I knew that my wife was fated to die, because on the night of her saying that, *[????]*.
廿七日，問婦避所，引予委曲至一柩後，古瓦荒磚，久絕人跡，予蹲腐草中，置彭兒於柩上，覆以葦席，婦僂居於前，我曲附於後； On the 27th I asked my wife about where she'd hidden, and she took me on a winding route to a spot behind a coffin; there were old tiles and abandoned bricks, and for a long time there had been no sign of people; I crouched down in the rotten grass, and put our son Peng on the coffin, covering him with a woven mat; my wife crouched down in front, and I twisted myself into the back;
揚首則露頂，展足則踵見，屏氣滅息，拘手足為一裹，魂少定而殺聲逼至，刀環響處，愴呼亂起，齊聲乞命者或數十人或百馀人； If we lifted our heads then the tops would be revealed, and if we stretched out our legs then our heels could be seen; we took shallow breaths and tucked in our hands and feet; our spirits settled a little and then the sound of killing reached us; where the sound of swords echoed, wretched shouting sprung up chaotically, all in a chorus begging for their lives, several dozen people or more than a hundred.
遇一卒至，南人不論多寡，皆垂首匐伏，引頸受刃，無一敢逃者； Whenever a soldier arrived, the southerners would say very little, all lowering their heads and prostrating themselves, extending their necks to receive the blade, with not one daring to run away;
至於紛紛子女，百口交啼，哀鳴動地，更無論矣！ this was such that one after another there were boys and girls, a hundred mouths crying, the sound of wailing shaking the earth - it goes without saying!
日向午，殺掠愈甚，積尸愈多，耳所難聞，目不忍視，婦乃悔疇昔之夜，誤予言未死也。 By afternoon, those who had been killed and plundered were especially many, and the piled corpses were even greater in number; our ears couldn't bear to listen, our eyes couldn't bear to see; my wife *[???]*
然幸獲至夕，予等逡巡走出，彭兒酣臥柩上，自朝至暮，不啼不言，亦不欲食，或渴欲飲，取片瓦掬溝水潤之，稍驚則仍睡去，至是呼之醒，抱與俱去； We were lucky to survive until evening, and we hesitantly came out; our song Peng had lain contentedly on the coffin and from morning to evening had not cried out or spoken, and likewise had not wanted food; when he was thirsty for a drink, we took a piece of tile and held it to the gutter to give him some water; he'd been a little frightened but had then gone back to sleep, and then we called him to wake him, and carrying him we both left.
洪嫗亦至，知吾嫂又被劫去，吾侄在襁褓竟失所在，嗚呼痛哉！ Old Mrs Hong also arrived and informed me that my sister-in-law had also been seized, and that my nephew, still in swaddling clothes, had also been lost; alas, what pain!
甫三日而兄嫂弟侄已亡其四，煢煢孑遺者，予伯兄及予婦子四人耳！ In just three days my elder brother, my sister-in-law, younger brother, nephew - four people - had all perished; we sole survivors - my second elder brother, my wife and son and I - just four of us!
相與覓臼中馀米，不得，遂與伯兄枕股忍飢達旦。 Together we looked in the mortar to see if there was any remaining rice, but there was none, so my second elder brother and I lay resting on each other's legs enduring hunger till daybreak.
是夜予婦覓死幾斃，賴洪嫗救得免。 That night my wife tried to kill herself again, and it was only because of Old Mrs Hong saving her that she didn't die.
廿八日，予謂伯兄曰：“今日不卜誰存？吾兄幸無恙，乞與彭兒保其殘喘。” On the 28th I said to my second elder brother: "We can't foretell today who might survive. You, my brother, still have your luck intact; I beg you to protect our son Peng to his last breath."
兄垂淚慰勉，遂別，逃他處。 My brother shed tears and consoled me, and then left, fleeing to another place.
洪嫗謂予婦曰：“我昨匿破櫃中，終日貼然，當與子易而避之。” Old Mrs Hong said to me and my wife: "Yesterday I hid inside the coffin, and for the whole day was snugly inside; now I should exchange places with you for hiding."
婦堅不欲，仍至柩後偕匿焉。 My wife insisted she didn't want to, and so we went behind the coffin to hide.
未幾，數卒入，破櫃劫嫗去，捶擊百端，卒不供出一人，予甚德之，後仲兄產百金，予所留馀亦數十金，並付洪嫗，感此也。 before long, several soldiers came in, broke open the coffin and pulled out old Mrs Hong; they beat her a hundred times, but in the end she did not reveal a single person, and I was extremely grateful to her; afterwards my second elder brother took out some money; what I had left was over several dozen pieces, and we put it together to pay Old Mrs Hong to show our gratitude for this.
少間，兵來益多，及予避所者前後接踵，然或一至屋後，望見柩而去。 A short while after, soldiers came in increasing numbers, those coming up to my hiding place following on one another's heels; some came behind the house, saw the coffin and left.
忽有十數卒恫喝而來，其勢甚猛，俄見一人至柩前，以長竿搠予足，予驚而出，乃揚人之為彼鄉導者，面則熟而忘其姓，予向之乞憐，彼索金，授金，乃釋予，猶曰：“便宜爾婦也。” Suddenly more than ten soldiers yelling frighteningly, their appearance extremely fierce; suddenly I saw someone go to the front of the coffin, and he used a long pole to jab at my foot - I was frightened and came out; he was a Yangzhou man who was guiding the others around; his face was familiar but I'd forgotten his surname, and I begged for mercy from him; he asked for money, and once he'd got it he then let me go, but still saying: "I've let your wife off cheaply."
出語諸卒曰：“姑舍是。” He left and said to all the soldiers: "Give this one up for now."
諸卒乃散去。 All the soldiers then dispersed and left.
喘驚未定，忽一紅衣少年摻長刃直抵予所，大呼索予，出，舉鋒相向，獻以金，复索予婦，婦時孕九月矣，死伏地不起。 My frightened gasping had still not settled when suddenly a youth in red clothes grasping a long blade came directly for my position; I came out and he raised the point of the blade at me; I gave him silver, but he also wanted my wife; my wife at that time was in her ninth month of pregnancy, and was lying rigidly on the floor, not getting up.
予紿之曰：“婦孕多月，昨乘屋墜下，孕因之壞，萬不能坐，安能起來？” I spun him a story saying: "My wife is many months pregnant; yesterday she went up on a roof and fell down and miscarried because of it; she absolutely cannot sit - how could she get up?"
紅衣者不信，因啟腹視之，兼驗以先塗之血褲，遂不顧。 The man in red clothes did not believe it, and unclothed her belly to look at it; it was doubly confirmed by the blood that we had previously smeared on her pants, and then he paid no attention to her.
所擄一少婦一幼女一小兒，小兒呼母索食，卒怒一擊，腦裂而死，复挾婦與女去。 He had already captured a young woman and her young daughter and young son; when the son called to his mother for something to eat, the soldier was angry and struck him, breaking his skull and killing him; then he grabbed the woman and girl and left.
予謂此地人迳已熟，不能存身，當易善地處之； I said that this place had become well-known to people, we couldn't hide ourselves there, and should go somewhere better.
而婦堅欲自盡，予亦惶迫無主，兩人遂出，並縊於梁； But my wife was determined to kill herself, and I likewise was so frightened I had lost control; the two of us went out and hanged ourselves from the rafters;
忽項下兩繩一時俱絕，並跌於地。 suddenly the two lengths of rope both broke at once, and we fell to the ground.
未及起，而兵又盈門，直趨堂上，未暇過兩廊。 A moment later soldiers filled the gate again, and hurried into the hall, taking no time to go through the two corridors.
予與婦急趨門外，逃奔一草房，中悉村間婦女，留婦而卻予，予急奔南首草房中，其草堆積連屋，予登其顛，俯首伏匿，复以亂草覆其上，自以為無患矣。 My wife and I hurried anxiously out of the door and fled to a thatch hut; inside it was all peasant women, who let my wife stay but not me; I anxiously rushed to another thatch hut to the south, inside which straw was piled up to the ceiling; I climbed up to the top of it and lowered my head to conceal myself, and then disorderly placed grass on on top, and thought that I would be without misfortune.
須臾卒至，一躍而上，以長矛搠其下，予從草間出乞命，复獻以金； Suddenly soldiers arrived and leapt on top in one go, using long spears to thrust below; I came out from the grass and begged for my life and then gave them some money;
卒搜草中，又得數人，皆有所獻而免。 The soldiers searched in the grass and got several more people, all of them giving money and escaping.
卒既去，數人復入草間，予窺其中，置大方桌數張，外圍皆草，其中廓然而虛，可容二三十人。 The soldiers then left, and several people went back into the grass; I spotted in the midst that there were placed several large square tables, all surrounded by straw on the outside, and under them it was wide open and empty, and could contain twenty or thirty people.
予強竄入，自謂得計，不意敗垣從半腰忽崩一穴，中外洞然，已為他卒窺見，乃自穴外以長矛直刺； I strove to scuttle under them, and said to myself that I'd found a good plan, not expecting that the wall, from halfway up, suddenly collapsed leaving a hole, and from outside the hole there were already more soldiers peering in to look, and then from outside the hole they used long spears to pierce right in;
當其前者無不被大創，而予後股亦傷。 Of those in front, there were none who weren't seriously injured, but I was behind and was only injured on my leg.
於是近穴者從隙中膝行出，盡為卒縛，後者倒行排草而出。 Those near the hole tried to crawl out on their knees, but they were all caught by the soldiers, whilst those behind got out in a line through the straw.
予復至婦所，婦與眾婦皆伏臥積薪，以血膏體，綴發以煤，飾面形如鬼魅，鑑別以聲。 I returned to where my wife was; she and the other women were all lying prostrate on a pile of firewood, with blood smeared on their bodies, their hair with coal, their faces looking like demons, and only their voices distinguishing them.
予乞眾婦，得入草底，眾婦擁臥其上，予閉息不敢動，幾悶絕，婦以一竹筒授予，口銜其末，出其端於上，氣方達，得不死。 I begged the group of women to let me go under the straw while they held each other on top; I held my breath and did not dare to move, almost suffocating; my wife gave me the end of a bamboo tube, and I held the end of it in my mouth, breathing in and out through the top, able to get air, and survived that way.
戶外有卒一，時手殺二人，其事甚怪，筆不能載。 Outside the door was a soldier who at that moment killed two people, his behaviour extremely monstrous, such that one cannot express it with a brush.
草上諸婦無不股栗，忽哀聲大舉，卒已入室，復大步出，不旋顧。 On top of the straw all the women did not move a muscle, when suddenly there was a large, frightful sound: the soldier had entered the room, but then gone out again in big steps, turning without looking.
天亦漸暝，諸婦起，予始出草中，汗如雨。 The sky then gradually darkened, and all the women got up; when I first came out of the straw, I was sweating like rain.
至夕，復同婦至洪宅，洪老洪嫗皆在，伯兄亦來，雲是日被劫去負擔，賞以千錢，仍付令旗放還； That evening, I went back with my wife to the Hong residence; Old Mr Hong and Old Mrs Hong were both there, and my second elder brother also arrived, saying that that day he'd been captured and made to carry a burden, and had been compensated with a thousand coins; then they'd given him an official flag and released him to return;
途中亂屍山疊，血流成渠，口難盡述。 On the road the disordered corpses were piled like mountains, the blood flowing into streams - it is hard to describe it completely.
復聞有王姓將爺居本坊昭陽李宅，以錢數万日給難民，其黨殺人，往往勸阻，多所全活。 Then we heard that a gentleman surnamed Wang from who originally resided at the Li residence in Zhaoyang, was giving his several tens of thousands of coins to stricken people; his fellows had been killed, but he had dissuaded [the soldiers?] , thus saving his life.
是夜悲咽之馀，昏昏睡去。 That night there was more mournful sobbing, and faintly we fell asleep.
次日，則念九矣。 The next day was the 29th.
自廿五日起，至此已五日，或可冀幸遇赦，乃紛紛傳洗城之說，城中殘黎冒死縋城者大半，舊有官溝壅塞不能通流，至是如坦途，夜行晝伏，以此反罹其鋒。 From the 25th and up to now it had already been five days, and I thought that I might through good fortune be spared, but then one after another there were rumours of an extermination within the city walls; within the city walls, a good half of those who had survived braved death to let themselves down the walls by ropes; the old official moat was blocked up and did not flow, and now it was like a highway; travelling by night and laying low by day, but because of this they also suffered the blade.
城外亡命利城中所有，輒結伴夜入官溝盤詰，搜其金銀，人莫敢誰何。 Outside the city those fleeing death took all their valuables with them, and travelling together at night they were accosted on the official moat by people seeking their gold and silver, and their were none who dared to say anything about it.
予等念既不能越險以逃，而伯兄又為予不忍獨去； We thought we couldn't pass through that hazard and escape, and my second elder brother couldn't bear to escape on his own.
延至平旦，其念遂止； we thought about it until dawn and then put the idea to rest;
原蔽處知不可留，而予婦以孕故屢屢獲全，遂獨以予匿池畔深草中，婦與彭兒裹臥其上，有數卒至，為劫出者再，皆少獻賂而去。 Our original hiding place was known and we couldn't stay there; because my wife was pregnant she had been captured but spared repeatedly; thereupon I hid alone in the deep grass on the banks of a pond, and my wife and our son Peng lay bundled above me; soldiers arrived several times and captured those who came out repeatedly, but each time we paid a small bribe and escaped.
繼一狠卒來，鼠頭鷹眼，其狀甚惡，欲劫予婦； Then a fierce soldier arrived, with a mouse-like head and hawkish eyes; his appearance was extremely vicious, and he wanted to seize my wife;
婦偃蹇以前語告之，不聽，逼使立起，婦旋轉地上，死不肯起，卒舉刀背亂打，血濺衣裳，表裡漬透。 My wife crept forward lamely and spoke to him to tell him her condition, but he didn't listen and forced her to stand up; she rolled to the ground, refusing to stand even if it meant death, and the soldier raised his blade and used the handle to strike her chaotically, the blood splashing onto her clothes, which were soaked through inside and out.
先是婦戒予曰：“倘遇不幸，吾必死，不可以夫婦故乞哀，並累子； Beforehand my wife had exhorted me: "If we meet misfortune, I must die, and you my husband must not plead for me, because then our son would also be dragged into it;
我死則必死子目，俾子亦心死。” if I die then you must cover our son's eyes, otherwise he will die in his heart."
至是予遠躲草中，若為不與者，亦謂婦將死，而卒仍不捨，屢擢婦發週數匝於臂，怒叱橫曳而去。 So now I hid at a distance in the grass as if I wasn't involved; I said to myself that my wife was going to die; the soldier would not give up, repeatedly grabbing my wife's hair and binding it around her arms, angrily cursing her and dragging her off sideways.
由田陌至深巷一箭地，環曲以出大街，行數武必擊數下。 The path in the field went through a deep lane and went out round on to the main street, and as he walked he made sure to strike her several times.
突遇眾騎至，中一人與卒滿語一二，遂舍予婦去。 Suddenly they encountered a group of cavalrymen who arrived, and one of them said one or two sentences to him in Manchu, and there upon he released my wife and left.
始得匍匐而返，大哭一番，身無完膚矣！ Only then was she able to crawl back and have a great bout of crying, with not a patch of her skin unbroken!
忽又烈火四起，何家墳前後多草房，燃則立刻成燼； Suddenly fires broke out in all directions again, and the numerous thatch huts in front of and behind the He family graveyard immediately burnt to ashes;
其有寸壤隙地，一二漏網者，為火一逼，無不奔竄四出，出則遇害，百無免一。 those who had slipped into crevices to slip through the net were forced out by the fire, and there was not one who did not rush out in all directions and was murdered as soon as they emerged; there was not one in a hundred who avoided it.
其閉戶自焚者由數口至數百口，一室之中，正不知積骨多少矣！ Those who closed their doors and immolated themselves numbered from several to several hundred in one house, and one does not know how many amassed skeletons there are!
大約此際無處可避，亦不能避，避則或一犯之，無金死，有金亦死； About then there was nowhere to hide and likewise we could not run; if you hid wrongly, you might die whether you had money or not.
惟出露道旁，或與屍骸雜處，生死反未可知。 We could only come out on to the roadside, or stay with the piled up bodies and skeletons; there was no way of knowing if we would live or die.
予因與婦子並往臥塚後，泥首塗足，殆無人形。 My wife, my son and I went and lay together behind a tomb, with mud smeared on us from head to foot, appearing inhuman.
時火勢愈熾，墓木皆焚，光如電灼，聲如山摧，悲風怒號，令人生噤，赤日慘淡，為之無光，目前如見無數夜叉鬼母驅殺千百地獄人而馳逐之。 At that time the force of the flames burnt even more strongly, and the trees in the graveyard all burned, the light like bright lightning and the sound like collapsing mountains; the grim wind roared furiously, making people dumb, and the red sun was dismal, with hardly any light compared to this; before our eyes it was like countless spirits and demons were driving to their deaths tens of thousands of prisoners of hell, chasing them speedily.
驚悸之馀，時作昏眩，蓋已不知此身之在人世間矣。 When not shaking with fear, at that time I was dazzled and dizzy, and no longer knew if my body was in the mortal realm.
驟聞足聲騰猛，慘呼震心，回顧牆畔，則予伯兄復被獲，遙見兄與卒相持，兄力大，撇而得脫，卒走逐出田巷，半晌不至； Suddenly we heard footsteps and fierce galloping, and inhuman shouting that shook one's heart; I turned back to look at the wall on the bank, and saw my second elder brother being captured again; from a distance I saw him struggling with a soldier; my brother's strength was great, and he cast off the soldier and got away; the soldier walked away to the field alleyway, not reaching it for some time;
予心方搖搖，乃忽走一人來前，赤體散發。 my heart still shook, and then suddenly a person walked in front of me, their body bare and hair scattered.
視之，則伯兄也； I looked at them, and it was my second elder brother;
而追伯兄之卒，即前之劫吾婦而中途捨去者也。 and the soldier who was chasing my second elder brother was the one from before who had seized my wife, abandoned her on the way and left.
伯兄因為卒所逼，不得已向予索金救命，予僅存一錠，出以獻卒，而卒怒未已，舉刀擊兄，兄輾轉地上，沙血相漬，注激百步。 My second elder brother, forced by the soldier, could not avoid asking me for money to save his life, but I only had a few ingots left; I took them out and gave them to the soldier, but he was angry and did not stop, taking out his blade and striking my brother; my brother writhed around on the ground, blood flowing and soaking the sand, flowing a hundred paces.
彭兒拉卒衣涕泣求免，（時年五歲）卒以兒衣拭刀血再擊而兄將死矣。 Our son Peng (at that time five years old) tugged at the soldiers clothes and sobbed, begging for exemption, but the soldier used the boy's clothes to wipe the blood from his sword and then struck our brother to near death.
旋拉予發索金，刀背亂擊不止，予訴金盡，曰： He spun round and pulled my hair, demanding money, using the back of his blade to strike me endlessly; I pleaded that my money had run out, saying:
“必欲金即甘死，他物可也。” "If it must be money then I will gladly die, but I can give you other items."
卒牽予發至洪宅。 The soldier pulled me by the hair to the Hong residence.
予婦衣飾置兩甕中，倒置階下，盡發以供其取，凡金珠之類莫不取，而衣服擇好者取焉。 My wife's clothes and ornaments were all inside two pots, and I overturned them under the stairs, taking it all out to present to the soldier for him to take things; of all of the gold and pearl items, there were none he didn't take, but of the clothes he only selected the finer items.
既畢，視兒項下有銀鎖，將刀割去，去時顧予曰： Once that was done, he saw that my son had on his neck a silver chain, and used his blade to break it off; when he left he looked at me and said:
“吾不殺爾，自有人殺爾也。” "I didn't kill you, but there are still people who will kill you."
知洗城之說已確，料必死矣。 Then I knew that the rumours of an extermination were correct, and thought that I would definitely die.
置兒於宅，同婦急出省兄，前後項皆砍傷，深入寸許，胸前更烈，啟之洞內府； I put my son in the house and with my wife rushed out to save my elder brother; the front and back of his neck was all cuts and wounds, as deep as an inch, and on his chest it was even more intense, opened up into holes into the internal cavity.
予二人扶至洪宅，問之，亦不知痛楚，神魂忽瞶忽蘇。 The two of us supported him to the Hong residence, and when we asked him, he was beyond feeling pain, his spirit coming and going.
安置畢，予夫婦復至故處躲避，鄰人俱臥亂屍眾中，忽從亂屍中作人語曰： When we had made him secure, my wife and I returned to our hiding place; the neighbours were all lying amongst the disordered corpses, and suddenly from amongst the disordered corpses came a human voice saying:
“明日洗城，必殺一盡，當棄汝婦與吾同走。” "Tomorrow there is going to be an extermination in the city, and they will definitely kill everyone; you should abandon your wife and leave with me."
婦亦固勸餘行，餘念伯兄垂危，豈忍捨去？ My wife also strongly urged me to go, but I still thought of my second elder brother being close to death - how could I bear to give him up?
又前所恃者猶有馀金，今金已盡，料不能生，一痛氣絕，良久而蘇。 Besides, before I had relied on still having some more money, but now it had completely run out, I guessed I could not survive, and with this painful last breath, I passed out for a good while.
火亦漸滅，遙聞炮聲三，往來兵丁漸少，予婦彭兒坐糞窖中，洪嫗亦來相依。 The fires then gradually went out, in the distance we heard three cannon shots, and the soldiers going back and forth gradually reduced; my wife and our son Peng sat in a dung cellar, and Old Mrs Hong also came and joined them.
有數卒擄四五個婦人，內二老者悲泣，兩少者嘻笑自若； Several soldiers had captured four or give women, amongst them two old ones who were sobbing, and two young ones who were giggling and enjoying themselves;
後有二卒追上奪婦，自相奮擊，內一卒勸解作滿語，忽一卒將少婦負至樹下野合，馀二婦亦就被污，老婦哭泣求免，兩少婦恬不為恥，數十人互為奸淫，仍交與追來二卒，而其中一少婦已不能起走矣。 from behind two soldiers caught up and seized a woman, and they [the soldiers] came to blows with each other; one of the soldiers mediated, speaking in Manchu; suddenly a soldier hoisted up one of the young women and committed adultery with her under a tree; the other two women were likewise defiled, and the old women wept, begging for exemption; the two young women were calm and shameless as a dozen men took it in turns to rape them and then handed them over to the two soldiers who'd caught up; one of the young women could not stand up or walk afterwards.
予認知為焦氏之媳，其家平日所為，應至於此，驚駭之下，不勝嘆息。 I recognised her and knew she was a daughter-in-law of the Jiao family; in normal times her family was like that, but in these shocking circumstances I could not help but sigh with regret.
忽見一人紅衣佩劍，滿帽皂靴，年不及三十，姿容俊爽，隨從一人，衣黃背甲，貌亦魁梧，後有數南人負重追隨。 I suddenly saw someone in red clothes with a sword at his waist, wearing a Manchu cap and black boots, less than thirty years old, looking handsome and smart; he had following him a man in yellow clothes with armour on his torso, and his appearance was likewise tall and sturdy; behind them were several southerners bearing heavy loads and following them.
紅衣者熟視予，指而問曰： The one in red clothes regarded me, and then pointed and said:
“視予，爾非若儔輩，實言何等人？” "Looking at you, you are not like these others - truthfully tell me what kind of person you are."
予念時有以措大而獲全者，亦有以措大而立斃者，不敢不以實告，紅衣者遂大笑謂黃衣者曰： I thought at that moment that there were those who had survived because they were scholars, and likewise those who had been killed because they were scholars, and didn't dare to speak truthfully; the man in red clothes then laughed loudly and said to the one in yellow clothes:
“汝服否？吾固知此蠻子非常等人也。” "Are you convinced? I am certain this southern savage is not an ordinary person."
復指洪嫗及予問為誰？ Then he pointed at Old Mrs Hong and asked me who she was.
具告之，紅衣者曰： I told him everything, and the man in red clothes said:
“明日王爺下令封刀，汝等得生矣！幸勿自斃。” "Tomorrow the Venerable Prince will give an order to sheath the blades, and you all shall live! Trust me, and do not kill yourselves."
命隨人付衣幾件，金一錠，問：“汝等幾日不食？ ” He gave orders to his entourage to give us a few items of clothing and an ingot of money, and asked: "How many days have you not eaten?"
予答以五日，則曰：“隨我來。” I replied that it had been five days, and then he said: "Come with me."
予與婦且行且疑，又不敢不行，行至一宅，室雖小而貲畜甚富，魚米充軔，中一老嫗，一子方十二三歲，見眾至，駭甚，哀號觸地。 My wife and I were both trusting and suspicious, daring and not daring to go, and we arrived at a residence; although the the house was small, the stores there seemed extremely abundant - fish and rice filled the place; within was an old woman and a boy of twelve or thirteen years old; they saw the crowd had arrived and were extremely startled, wailing in anguish at the contact.
紅衣者曰：“予貸汝命，汝為我待此四人者，否則殺汝，汝此子當付我去。” The one in red clothes said: "You are spared your life; you must treat these four people I have brought well, or I will kill you; hand me that boy of yours."
遂挈其子與予作別而去。 Thereupon he took the boy and took leave of us.
老嫗者鄭姓也，疑予與紅衣者為親，因謬慰之，謂子必返。 The old woman was surnamed Zheng, and was suspicious that the man in red clothes and I were relatives, and because of this was deceptively comforting [to us?], saying that her son would certainly come back.
天已暮，予內弟復為一卒劫去，不知存亡？ The sky darkened, and my brother-in-law had again been captured and taken away by a soldier - I didn't know if he had survived or died.
婦傷之甚。 My wife was grieving deeply.
少頃，老嫗搬出魚飯食予； Soon after, Old Mrs Hong brought out some fish and rice to feed us;
宅去洪居不遠，予取魚飯食吾兄，兄喉不能咽，數箸而止，予為兄拭發洗血，心如萬磔矣！ our house was not far from the Hong residence, so I took the fish and rice to feed my elder brother; my brother's throat could not swallow, and after a few chopsticks he stopped; I wiped my brother's hair and washed his bloody wounds, my heart broken into ten thousand pieces!
是日，以紅衣告予語遍告諸未出城者，眾心始稍定。 That day, what the man in red clothes had told me was told to all those who had not left the city, and the hearts of the masses began to settle somewhat.
次日為五月朔日，勢雖稍減，然亦未嘗不殺人，未嘗不掠取； The next day was first day of the fifth month, and although the violence had lessened somewhat, the kill had still not ended, the plundering had still not ended;
而窮僻處或少安； but the poor rural areas may have been a little safer;
富家大室方且搜括無馀，子女由六七歲至十馀歲搶掠無遺種。 the remainders of the rich families in large houses still were still being searched for; their sons and daughters between six or seven years old and ten years old had been seized without trace.
是日，興平兵復入揚城，而寸絲半粟，盡入虎口，前梳後篦，良有以也。 That day, the soldiers of Xingping again entered the Yangzhou city walls, and even the tiniest of items were taken back to their hideout, combing and sweeping in front and behind, taking everything. (寸絲半粟 means “the tiniest of items”.)
初二日，傳府道州縣已置官吏，執安民牌遍諭百姓，毋得驚懼。 On the second, official words were passed on that in every prefecture and county they had placed [Qing] officials, and they were using placards to assuage all the common people, telling them not to be afraid.
又諭各寺院僧人焚化積尸； They also ordered that the monks of every Buddhist temple and cloister cremate the piled up bodies;
而寺院中藏匿婦女亦復不少，亦有驚餓死者，查焚屍簿載其數，前後約計八十萬馀，其落井投河，閉戶自焚，及深入自縊者不與焉。 there were many women hiding in the temples and cloisters, and some of them had been frightened or starved to death; checking the count in the book of cremated bodies, from back to front there are roughly more than eight hundred thousand, leaving out those who had fallen into wells or thrown themselves into rivers, those who had shut themselves in their houses and been immolated, those who had died in captivity and those who had hanged themselves.
是日，燒綿絮灰及人骨以療兄創； That day, I burnt some silk, cotton and human bones to treat my brother's wounds;
至晚，始以仲兄季弟之死哭告予兄，兄頷之而已。 that night I tearfully told my elder brother about the death of our younger brother for the first time; my elder brother nodded and was still.
初三日，出示放賑，偕洪嫗至缺口關領米； On the third, they announced relief measures, and we accompanied Old Mrs Hong to Quekou Gate to get rice;
米即督鎮所儲軍糧，如丘陵，數千石轉瞬一空。 the rice was from the army provision store of the Regional Military Supervisor; it was like a hill, and several thousand _shi_ was shifted in the blink of an eye.
其往來負戴者俱焦頭爛額，斷臂折脛，刀痕遍體，血漬成塊，滿面如燭淚成行，碎爛鶉衣，腥穢觸鼻，人扶一杖，挾一蒲袋，正如神廟中竄獄冤鬼； those coming and going carrying loads were all beaten black and blue, with broken arms and fractured legs, blade wounds all over their bodies, and blood clotted in chunks; their whole faces were lit up with tears as they set off, their clothes were broken and shabby, and a rank stench reached one's nose; people supported themselves with staffs, and it was like ghosts fleeing hell in a temple.
稍可觀者猶是卑田院乞兒也。 A considerable amount of them were lowly farmers and beggars.
奪米之際，雖至親知交不顧，強者往而復返，弱者竟日不得升斗。 When they grabbed the rice, they had no regard for their own friends and relatives; the strong went and came back again, and the weak were unable to get a scoop all day.
初四日，天始霽，道路積尸既經積雨暴漲，而青皮如蒙鼓，血肉內潰。 On the fourth, the sky cleared for the first time, and on the roads the piled up bodies that had swelled up in the rain were blue and bulging, their flesh and blood breaking down.
穢臭逼人，復經日炙，其氣愈甚，前後左右，處處焚灼，室中氤氳，結成如霧，腥聞百里。 The filthy stench pressed down on people, and heated under the sun, the vapour was all the more extreme; in front and behind, left and right, everywhere they cremated them, forming a fog, the fishy smell going a hundred _li_.
蓋此百萬生靈，一朝橫死，雖天地鬼神，不能不為之愁慘也！ These millions of living beings, in one swoop had died, and even Heaven and Earth, spirits and deities could not avoid feeling mournful about it!
初五日，幽僻之人始悄悄走出，每相遇，各淚下不能作一語。 On the fifth, the people in remote areas began to quietly leave, and every time one encountered them, they all shed tears and could not speak a word.
予等五人雖獲稍蘇，終不敢居宅內，晨起早食，即出處野畔，其妝飾一如前日； We five people, although we had somewhat recovered, in the end did not dare stay inside the house, and in the morning when we rose to have breakfast, we thereupon went out onto the open bank, which had been returned to its former appearance;
蓋往來打糧者日不下數十輩，雖不操戈，而各制挺恐嚇，詐人財物，每有斃杖下者； Those going back and forth getting provisions now numbered less than ten in a day, and although they did not carry spears, each of them was till very menacing, cheating people out of their belongings, and each time there were those who died by their sticks.
一遇婦女，仍肆擄劫，初不知為清兵為鎮兵為亂民也？ When they encountered women, they still seized them, but I do not know if they were Qing troops, regional troops or by disorderly people?
是日，伯兄因傷重，刀瘡迸裂而死，傷哉，痛不可言！ That day, my second elder brother's wounds reopened; the blade wounds burst open and he died; pain! pain that I cannot describe!
憶予初被難時，兄弟嫂侄婦子親共八人，今僅存三人，其內外姨又不復論。 I recalled that when we first encountered trouble, there were eight of us - my two elder brothers, my younger brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew, my wife and my son - and now there only remained three of us, not including my wife's sisters.
計揚之人如予之家水知凡幾？ Comparing those people of Yangzhou who died compared to my family - who knows how many there were?
其數瀕於死，幸死而不死，如予與婦者甚少，然而愁苦萬狀矣！ The number who nearly died, who were lucky and avoided death, such as myself and my wife, were very few, but the pain is ten thousand times!
自四月二十五日起，至五月五日止，共十日，其間皆身所親歷，目所親睹，故漫記之如此，遠處風聞者不載也。 Starting from the 25th of the 4th month, to the 5th of the 5th month, in total ten days, in that internal everything that I personally experienced and saw with my own eyes, I have unrestrainedly recorded it here thus, so that those in distant places can hear about it.
後之人幸生太平之世，享無事之樂； People of later generations who are fortunate enough to live in a peaceful world, enjoy the happiness of not having these problems;
不自修省，一味暴殄者，閱此當驚惕焉耳！ those who do not cultivate themselves, and are blindly violent, read this and be properly fearful and respectful!
https://eastasiastudent.net/china/classical/yangzhou-shiri-ji-19/
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I came through this pic while scrolling through facebook, and it was a bit strange to me. As far as I know apples have a corymbose type of inflorescence, in which a single pedicel ends in a single thalamus. And I am totally sure that the edible part, which is fleshy in the apple, is thalamus. How did this fruit came into existence? I want a biological answer for this query - They are basically conjoined apples which share a common stalk. They are rare but do happen. Here is an article of one discovered in a backyard. It apparently happens because of bad weather conditions, stress and insect damage. Fused fruits are also found in the case of cherries, watermelons, peaches etc. Inadequate pollination because of heat and other adverse growing conditions causes that section of the fruit in which the seed did not develop to not grow and fill out. Also, the fruit primordium (embryonic growing point) can be damaged or altered by environmental factors and cause strange growth forms. Of course, Siamese twins or two fruit growing together is also rather common(reference). https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/19700/how-did-these-apples-grow-together
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The Han Chinese betrayed their own kind for some Manchu's poons. AHAHAHA . Unbelievable. I can't believe what I am reading, folks. So the Manchu created this system called the 8 Banners for Han Chinese defectors, offered them hairy Manchu's pussies if they are willing to betray the Ming. It was a successful system, indeed, for 44 year, the traitorous Han fought along side the Manchu to defeat the Ming. Then After the war, they spent 18 years hunting and massacring Ming Loyalists.
I don't see Han's supremacy anywhere in Chinese history. Only Han's cuckery and thirst for Tungustic coochie. So thirsty that they will cannibalize and sell out their own just to get a piece.
After the war, the Han were turned into slaves once again. With foot bounded and pigtailed. Until the 1900 when the Manchu losing power and credibility in the face of European Domination. That's when they finally let Han marry their women, but only the rich ones. All Chinese men rejoiced, it was like a black athlete that finally get to marry a white woman as a trophy wife. It was indeed the proudest moment in Chinese history.
Until this day, Han men are still thirst for Tungustic and Altic coochies. Japanese adult star Sora Aoi is widely admired in mainland China, each day thousand gallon of sperm are ejaculated fantasizing about Tungustic coochie in mainland China.
If Japan create a system similiar to the Manchu's 8 banners, these thirsty Chinese will kill one another without hesitation. Tungustic coochie power. O M G. What a bunch of cucks. AHAHAHA. They spent 18 years killing Chinese, hunting and killing Ming Loyalist, and those who are suspected of joining Ming forces, which included civilians. And our moronic Han supremacist, Toohoo, Weimer, or whatever the fuge his name is, is so proud of his Northern Chinese traitors for getting some Manchu's poons. Lol. Wtf am I reading. Are we in the twilight zone? You gotta be a Manchu's r8pe baby, no normal human beings s this stupid and cruel.
The Yangzhou massacre in May, 1645 in Yangzhou, China, refers to the mass killings of innocent civilians in Yangzhou by Manchu and defected northern Chinese soldiers, commanded by the Manchu general Dodo. The massacre is described in a contemporary account, A Record of Ten Days in Yangzhou, by Wang Xiuchu. Due to the title of the account, the events are often referred to as a ten-day massacre, but the diary shows that the slaughter was over by the sixth day, when burial of bodies commenced.
According to Wang, the number of victims exceeded 800,000, that number is now disproven and considered by modern historians and researchers to be a extreme exaggeration. The major defending commanders of Ming, such as Shi Kefa, were also executed by Qing forces after they refused to submit to Qing authority.
Even the historian who accounted for the massacre is thinking about his peanuts. Geezus, his name is Wang, for Pete's sake.
The Seven-Point Indictment against the Manchus - First, the Manchus were an alien, barbarian group who were different from the Chinese and did not belong in China. “Why do I find fault with the Manchu people [Manzhouren]?” Zhang Ji asked bluntly in the Jiangsu News in 1903.
“Because China belongs to the Chinese people [Zhongguoren].”8 This stance was what distinguished the anti-Manchu revolutionaries from the anti-imperialist reformers, whose foremost concern was to exclude the imperialist powers (and not necessarily the Manchus) from China; so far as the reformers were concerned, the Manchu rulers were no less “Chinese” than their subjects. For revolutionaries such as Zhang Ji, the Manchus most definitely were not “Chinese” and they had no more right to be in China than the imperialists had.
The revolutionaries differentiated the Manchus from themselves terminologically in two ways. One was to refer to them by epithets traditionally applied to the various “barbarians” on the periphery surrounding China’s civilized core. Thus, Zou Rong asserted,
What our compatriots today call court, government, and emperor, we used to call Yi, Man, Rong, and Di [barbarians of the east, south, west, and north] as well as Xiongnu and Dada. Their tribes lived beyond Shanhaiguan and fundamentally are of a different race from our illustrious descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Their land is barren; their people, furry; their minds, bestial; their customs, savage.9
Other labels of a similar sort that were commonly used to designate and denigrate the Manchus were “Donghu” (Eastern Barbarians), which Zhang Binglin often used, and “Dalu,” as in the Alliance membership oath, which combined “Dada” (Tartar) with lu (caitiffs), an archaic term used in the Northern Song period to refer to the Khitan.
As for the corresponding terms of self-reference, those revolutionaries who equated the Manchu “other” with barbarians generally identified themselves as “Chinese,” which they usually rendered, as Zhang Ji did, as “Zhongguoren” or, as Liang Qichao had done in his 1898 China Discussion commentary, as “Zhina” or “Zhinaren,” from the Chinese reading of “Shina,” the prevalent Japanese term in the Meiji era for China.11 Interestingly, they hardly ever referred to themselves as “Hua” and/or “Xia,” the traditional terms for the people of the civilized central core when they were being contrasted with the barbarians of the periphery.
The other way the revolutionaries differentiated the Manchus from themselves was by drawing upon the imported doctrine of social Darwinism, which Liang Qichao had helped to introduce. According to their understanding of those teachings, as exemplified in Chen Tianhua’s Lion’s Roar, the world’s population was divided, on the basis of location and skin color, among five large racial groups (zhongzu), or peoples: yellow, white, black, brown, and red; and each of these five peoples was in turn divided into a number of races (zu) and further subdivided into yet smaller groupings such as ethnic groups (minzu) and tribes.
Thus, for example, the white people, living in Europe and North America, were made up of three races: Aryans, Teutons, and Slays. Similarly, according to Zou Rong, the yellow people, in East and Southeast Asia, were composed of two races (renzhong): those of China (Zhongguo) and those of Siberia. The Chinese race included the Han (Hanzu)—with Koreans and Japanese as subgroups of the Han—as well as Tibetans and Vietnamese; the Siberian race included the Mongols, Turks, and Tungus, with the Manchus (Manzhouren) as a subgroup of the Tungus.
Chen Tianhua generally referred to the Manchus as “Manzhouren,” but for Zou Rong and many others, the usual term was “Manren,” which Liang Qichao had popularized. The most widely used corresponding term of self-reference in this instance was, again following Liang Qichao, “Hanren.” Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, thus rephrased Zhang Ji’s slogan: “China belongs to the Han people [Hanren].”13 The term “Hanzu,” which is how the Han are classified today in the People’s Republic, was seldom used; even more rare was the correlative term “Manzu” for the Manchus. The range of terms that were used to identify Manchus and Han and their relative frequency of use will become clear in the course of this study.
Second, the Manchus had committed a number of heinous crimes against the Chinese people, particularly in the course of their conquest in the mid-seventeenth century. Their barbarous actions marked the Manchus as the ancestral enemies of the Han, and though those deeds happened a long time ago, they demanded to be avenged. The worst of such crimes were the savage massacres of defenseless civilians at various cities in central and south China as the Manchus marched through in 1645.
Citing the recently reprinted chronicles of the slaughter at Yangzhou and Jiading (both in Jiangsu), Zou Rong claimed that the Manchu troops had been “let loose, burning and plundering” and that “wherever the cavalry of the thievish Manchus [Manren] reached, there was murder and pillage.” Nor, according to Zhang Binglin in 1903, were these atrocities attributable to only a few individual Manchu commanders; instead, every Manchu person had been responsible and thus culpable. Therefore, “when the Han race [Hanzu] wants revenge against the Manchus [Manzhou], they want revenge against their entire group.”
Third, the Manchus had barbarized China by imposing their savage customs upon their Han subjects. Unlike previous foreign conquerors of China who had assimilated the ways of the Chinese, the Qing had forced the Han to adopt their alien Manchu customs, notably their male hairstyle and their official dress. As Zou Rong noted indignantly,
When a man with a braid and wearing barbarian clothes loiters about in London, why do all the passersby cry out [in English], “Pig-tail” or “Savage”? And if he loiters about in Tokyo, why do all the passersby say, “Chanchanbotsu” [lit., “a slave with a tail”]? Alas, the dignified appearance of the Han official has vanished utterly; the dress instituted by the Tang has gone without a trace!
When I touch the clothes I wear, the hair on my head, my heart aches! . . . Ah, these queues, these barbarian clothes, these banner gowns [qipao], these peachicken feathers, these red hat buttons, these necklaces. Are they the costume of China’s cultural tradition, or are they the loathsome dress of the nomadic and thievish Manchus [Manren]?
Fourth, the Manchus had set themselves up as a privileged minority separate from and superior to the Han. According to Zou Rong, “Although it has been over two hundred years, the Manchus stick with the Manchus and the Han stick with the Han; they have not mingled. Clearly there is a feeling that a lower race does not rank with a noble one.”
That is, the Manchus did not consider the Han their equal. As an example of the continuing failure of Manchus and Han to intermix, Zou referred to the provincial garrisons, where Manchus stationed in various major cities lived in their own quarters and were residentially segregated from the Han. Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, cited a ban on intermarriage as another device by which Manchus kept apart from Han.
The revolutionaries, furthermore, claimed that the Manchus, from their own separate world, lorded over and indeed lived off the Han. Echoing Liang Qichao’s earlier criticism, Chen Tianhua, in A Sudden Look Back, charged, “They require that the inhabitants of the eighteen provinces collectively provide for their five million people. But up to now they themselves have not farmed or labored. All they do is sit and feed off the Han people [Hanren]. Is this not absolutely hateful?”16
Fifth, the Manchus subjugated the Han in the manner of a foreign military occupation. They maintained their domination over the Han by keeping their banner soldiers separate and concentrating them in a few strategic places around the country. Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, commented on the careful thought the early Qing rulers had given to the placement of their troops:
Aware that the Jurchen, by being dispersed, had opened themselves to be killed by the Han [Hanren], they took the several million Manchus [Manzhouren] that they had brought to China and stationed one-half of them in Beijing, where they are called the “palace guard” and the other half in the provinces, where they are called “provincial garrisons” [zhufang].
Zou Rong drew attention to the term used for these provincial encampments: Suppose we try to explain the meaning of the term zhufang. It is as if they are terrified and are constantly fearful lest the Han people [Hanren] rebel against them, and so they hold them in check like bandits. Otherwise, whom are they defending [fang] against? And why do they need to be stationed [zhu] somewhere?
The obvious intent of these provincial garrisons, as a Jiangsu News article in 1903 summed up, was “to suppress the slaves.”
Sixth, the Manchus practiced political discrimination against their Han subjects in at least three ways. They were a numerical minority ruling over the Han majority. According to Zou Rong, “The world recognizes only the principle that a minority submits to a majority. . . .
If only the thievish Manchus [Manren] were a majority, but they number merely five million, scarcely the population of a single department or county.” The Manchus discriminated against the Han also by their monopoly of the highest governmental posts, in contravention of the Qing court’s own professed commitment to Manchu-Han equality. According to Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, “Official posts are supposed to be evenly divided between Manchus and Han, but all the important responsibilities are held by Manchus [Manren].”
Following a detailed analysis of the metropolitan administration, Zou Rong concluded, “Opportunities for an official career for a Manchu in comparison with those for a Han are hardly less far apart than the sky is from the ground or clouds are from mire.” The Manchus discriminated against the Han in promotions as well. According to Zou again,
One may often find Manchus and Han of similar grades, graduates of the same year and employed in the same office. The Han [Hanren], however, may be held back for decades, without being transferred to a higher post, whereas the Manchu [Manren] in a twinkling becomes first a board vice-president, and then a board president, and finally a grand secretary. . . .
If, by good fortune and against all odds, some [Han] officials do finally rise to the position of grand secretary or board president or vice-president, they are all white-haired and toothless, old and weak, and they share whatever is left over from the hands of the Manchus.
Seventh, and last, the Manchus, despite their pretense at accommodation, were fundamentally at odds with and hostile toward the Han people. As evidence, the revolutionaries repeatedly cited a remark that Liang Qichao, in an essay of 1900, attributed to Gangyi (1837–1900), the reactionary Manchu leader at Cixi’s court after 1898: “If the Han get strong, the Manchus are doomed; if the Han grow weak, the Manchus get plump.”
Zou Rong claimed that Gangyi’s statement embodied the single underlying rationale behind the court’s successive policies toward the Taiping Rebellion (1851–64), the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), and the Boxer Rebellion, for in every instance the Manchus derived all the rewards while the Han made all the sacrifices.
As for the court’s recent efforts to achieve “wealth and power” (fuqiang): “Today’s strengthening [qiang] is the strengthening of the Manchus [Manren]; it has nothing to do with us Han [Hanren]. Today’s enrichment [fu] is the enrichment of the Manchus; it has nothing to do with us Han.”20 It was, according to the revolutionaries, the Manchus’ anti-Han posture that explained the court’s inability, indeed unwillingness, to defend China’s national sovereignty and territory from the foreign powers.
Their policy was epitomized by another of Gangyi’s alleged sayings: “Rather than hand over our land to household slaves [i.e., the Han], let us present it to neighboring friends.”21 Having thus sold out to their foreign “friends,” the Qing had become, in the words of Chen Tianhua, “the foreigners’ court,” and the Han had become, in Zou’s words, “slaves of barbarous slaves.”
Among the numerous terms that the revolutionaries of the early post-Boxer era applied to the Manchus, one—“banner people” (qiren)—was strikingly absent. This was odd because it is clear that four of the seven counts in their indictment of the Manchus clearly equated them with the membership of the Eight Banner system.
It was soldiers of the banner army who committed the atrocities against the Han during the Qing conquest of China proper (no. 2) and who then kept the conquered Han under continuous subjugation from their various garrisons (no. 5), and it was the broad masses of the banner population who lived a privileged existence segregated from the Han (no. 4) and who benefited from the Qing dynasty’s policy of political discrimination (no. 6).
Thus, in the eyes of the revolutionaries, the Manchus were identical to the banner people, and so it was in the eyes of the Manchus, too. As a descendant of the Qing imperial clan recalls, “The Manchus [Manren] called themselves, and were called by others, ‘banner people’ [qiren].” Or, as stated by James Lee and Robert Eng, “The banner system was the principal institution which unified the Manchu people and defined Manchu identity.”
The Eight Banner system as it existed in the late nineteenth century was fundamentally little changed from when it was first set up by the founders of the dynasty, Nurhaci and Hong Taiji, prior to the invasion of Ming dynasty (1368–1644) China. Nurhaci created the system in 1615 when he divided all the scattered Jurchen tribes in the mountains of eastern and northern “Manchuria” that he had dominated into eight groups called “banners” (qi), each with a number of companies (zuoling).
Twenty years later, when Hong Taiji bestowed the new name “Manzhou” (from the Manchu “Manju”) upon his people, they became the “Eight Banner Manchus” (Baqi Manzhou). Meanwhile, as Nurhaci and Hong Taiji extended their authority into the plains of southern Manchuria and began overrunning Han settlements and enslaving their inhabitants, they apportioned these captives among the leaders of the original Manchu Eight Banners.
Such household slaves of Han origin were known as “bondservants” (baoyi, from the Manchu booi, “of the household”), some of whom were organized into separate banner companies of their own that became a part of their master’s Manchu banner. Still later, in 1642, as more and more Han in southern Manchuria either defected to or were defeated by him, Hong Taiji stopped enslaving them and organized them instead into their own set of banners; these Eight Banners composed of Han personnel were known as the Hanjun.
Meanwhile, in 1635, Hong Taiji similarly had established another separate Eight Banner organization for those Mongols of western Manchuria and eastern Mongolia who had submitted to his rule.
Although other peoples were incorporated into the banner system later on, its basic framework was thus already in place by the time Hong Taiji’s successors “entered through the pass” into China proper in 1644. It had three ethnic components—Manchu, Mongol, and Hanjun—each with its own set of eight banners, for a total of twenty-four banners in the entire banner force.
The Eight Banner system, though simple in structure, was extremely heterogeneous in composition. In addition to the tripartite division among the Manchu banners, Mongol banners, and Hanjun, there were numerous other significant internal differences: between the Upper Three and the Lower Five Banners, between Old and New banner people, between the imperial lineage and ordinary banner people, between the regular banner companies and the bondservant companies, between the core banners and the affiliated banners, between the Metropolitan Banners (Jingqi) and the provincial garrisons, and between the banner soldiers and their dependents.
In all three ethnic components, each of the Eight Banners was identified by the color (yellow, white, red, or blue) of its flag, which was either “plain” (solid) or “bordered” with a red or white fringe. The Eight Banners were ranked in descending order of social importance: Bordered Yellow, Plain Yellow, Plain White, Plain Red, Bordered White, Bordered Red, Plain Blue, and Bordered Blue.
I don't see Han's supremacy anywhere in Chinese history. Only Han's cuckery and thirst for Tungustic coochie. So thirsty that they will cannibalize and sell out their own just to get a piece.
After the war, the Han were turned into slaves once again. With foot bounded and pigtailed. Until the 1900 when the Manchu losing power and credibility in the face of European Domination. That's when they finally let Han marry their women, but only the rich ones. All Chinese men rejoiced, it was like a black athlete that finally get to marry a white woman as a trophy wife. It was indeed the proudest moment in Chinese history.
Until this day, Han men are still thirst for Tungustic and Altic coochies. Japanese adult star Sora Aoi is widely admired in mainland China, each day thousand gallon of sperm are ejaculated fantasizing about Tungustic coochie in mainland China.
If Japan create a system similiar to the Manchu's 8 banners, these thirsty Chinese will kill one another without hesitation. Tungustic coochie power. O M G. What a bunch of cucks. AHAHAHA. They spent 18 years killing Chinese, hunting and killing Ming Loyalist, and those who are suspected of joining Ming forces, which included civilians. And our moronic Han supremacist, Toohoo, Weimer, or whatever the fuge his name is, is so proud of his Northern Chinese traitors for getting some Manchu's poons. Lol. Wtf am I reading. Are we in the twilight zone? You gotta be a Manchu's r8pe baby, no normal human beings s this stupid and cruel.
The Yangzhou massacre in May, 1645 in Yangzhou, China, refers to the mass killings of innocent civilians in Yangzhou by Manchu and defected northern Chinese soldiers, commanded by the Manchu general Dodo. The massacre is described in a contemporary account, A Record of Ten Days in Yangzhou, by Wang Xiuchu. Due to the title of the account, the events are often referred to as a ten-day massacre, but the diary shows that the slaughter was over by the sixth day, when burial of bodies commenced.
According to Wang, the number of victims exceeded 800,000, that number is now disproven and considered by modern historians and researchers to be a extreme exaggeration. The major defending commanders of Ming, such as Shi Kefa, were also executed by Qing forces after they refused to submit to Qing authority.
Even the historian who accounted for the massacre is thinking about his peanuts. Geezus, his name is Wang, for Pete's sake.
The Seven-Point Indictment against the Manchus - First, the Manchus were an alien, barbarian group who were different from the Chinese and did not belong in China. “Why do I find fault with the Manchu people [Manzhouren]?” Zhang Ji asked bluntly in the Jiangsu News in 1903.
“Because China belongs to the Chinese people [Zhongguoren].”8 This stance was what distinguished the anti-Manchu revolutionaries from the anti-imperialist reformers, whose foremost concern was to exclude the imperialist powers (and not necessarily the Manchus) from China; so far as the reformers were concerned, the Manchu rulers were no less “Chinese” than their subjects. For revolutionaries such as Zhang Ji, the Manchus most definitely were not “Chinese” and they had no more right to be in China than the imperialists had.
The revolutionaries differentiated the Manchus from themselves terminologically in two ways. One was to refer to them by epithets traditionally applied to the various “barbarians” on the periphery surrounding China’s civilized core. Thus, Zou Rong asserted,
What our compatriots today call court, government, and emperor, we used to call Yi, Man, Rong, and Di [barbarians of the east, south, west, and north] as well as Xiongnu and Dada. Their tribes lived beyond Shanhaiguan and fundamentally are of a different race from our illustrious descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Their land is barren; their people, furry; their minds, bestial; their customs, savage.9
Other labels of a similar sort that were commonly used to designate and denigrate the Manchus were “Donghu” (Eastern Barbarians), which Zhang Binglin often used, and “Dalu,” as in the Alliance membership oath, which combined “Dada” (Tartar) with lu (caitiffs), an archaic term used in the Northern Song period to refer to the Khitan.
As for the corresponding terms of self-reference, those revolutionaries who equated the Manchu “other” with barbarians generally identified themselves as “Chinese,” which they usually rendered, as Zhang Ji did, as “Zhongguoren” or, as Liang Qichao had done in his 1898 China Discussion commentary, as “Zhina” or “Zhinaren,” from the Chinese reading of “Shina,” the prevalent Japanese term in the Meiji era for China.11 Interestingly, they hardly ever referred to themselves as “Hua” and/or “Xia,” the traditional terms for the people of the civilized central core when they were being contrasted with the barbarians of the periphery.
The other way the revolutionaries differentiated the Manchus from themselves was by drawing upon the imported doctrine of social Darwinism, which Liang Qichao had helped to introduce. According to their understanding of those teachings, as exemplified in Chen Tianhua’s Lion’s Roar, the world’s population was divided, on the basis of location and skin color, among five large racial groups (zhongzu), or peoples: yellow, white, black, brown, and red; and each of these five peoples was in turn divided into a number of races (zu) and further subdivided into yet smaller groupings such as ethnic groups (minzu) and tribes.
Thus, for example, the white people, living in Europe and North America, were made up of three races: Aryans, Teutons, and Slays. Similarly, according to Zou Rong, the yellow people, in East and Southeast Asia, were composed of two races (renzhong): those of China (Zhongguo) and those of Siberia. The Chinese race included the Han (Hanzu)—with Koreans and Japanese as subgroups of the Han—as well as Tibetans and Vietnamese; the Siberian race included the Mongols, Turks, and Tungus, with the Manchus (Manzhouren) as a subgroup of the Tungus.
Chen Tianhua generally referred to the Manchus as “Manzhouren,” but for Zou Rong and many others, the usual term was “Manren,” which Liang Qichao had popularized. The most widely used corresponding term of self-reference in this instance was, again following Liang Qichao, “Hanren.” Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, thus rephrased Zhang Ji’s slogan: “China belongs to the Han people [Hanren].”13 The term “Hanzu,” which is how the Han are classified today in the People’s Republic, was seldom used; even more rare was the correlative term “Manzu” for the Manchus. The range of terms that were used to identify Manchus and Han and their relative frequency of use will become clear in the course of this study.
Second, the Manchus had committed a number of heinous crimes against the Chinese people, particularly in the course of their conquest in the mid-seventeenth century. Their barbarous actions marked the Manchus as the ancestral enemies of the Han, and though those deeds happened a long time ago, they demanded to be avenged. The worst of such crimes were the savage massacres of defenseless civilians at various cities in central and south China as the Manchus marched through in 1645.
Citing the recently reprinted chronicles of the slaughter at Yangzhou and Jiading (both in Jiangsu), Zou Rong claimed that the Manchu troops had been “let loose, burning and plundering” and that “wherever the cavalry of the thievish Manchus [Manren] reached, there was murder and pillage.” Nor, according to Zhang Binglin in 1903, were these atrocities attributable to only a few individual Manchu commanders; instead, every Manchu person had been responsible and thus culpable. Therefore, “when the Han race [Hanzu] wants revenge against the Manchus [Manzhou], they want revenge against their entire group.”
Third, the Manchus had barbarized China by imposing their savage customs upon their Han subjects. Unlike previous foreign conquerors of China who had assimilated the ways of the Chinese, the Qing had forced the Han to adopt their alien Manchu customs, notably their male hairstyle and their official dress. As Zou Rong noted indignantly,
When a man with a braid and wearing barbarian clothes loiters about in London, why do all the passersby cry out [in English], “Pig-tail” or “Savage”? And if he loiters about in Tokyo, why do all the passersby say, “Chanchanbotsu” [lit., “a slave with a tail”]? Alas, the dignified appearance of the Han official has vanished utterly; the dress instituted by the Tang has gone without a trace!
When I touch the clothes I wear, the hair on my head, my heart aches! . . . Ah, these queues, these barbarian clothes, these banner gowns [qipao], these peachicken feathers, these red hat buttons, these necklaces. Are they the costume of China’s cultural tradition, or are they the loathsome dress of the nomadic and thievish Manchus [Manren]?
Fourth, the Manchus had set themselves up as a privileged minority separate from and superior to the Han. According to Zou Rong, “Although it has been over two hundred years, the Manchus stick with the Manchus and the Han stick with the Han; they have not mingled. Clearly there is a feeling that a lower race does not rank with a noble one.”
That is, the Manchus did not consider the Han their equal. As an example of the continuing failure of Manchus and Han to intermix, Zou referred to the provincial garrisons, where Manchus stationed in various major cities lived in their own quarters and were residentially segregated from the Han. Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, cited a ban on intermarriage as another device by which Manchus kept apart from Han.
The revolutionaries, furthermore, claimed that the Manchus, from their own separate world, lorded over and indeed lived off the Han. Echoing Liang Qichao’s earlier criticism, Chen Tianhua, in A Sudden Look Back, charged, “They require that the inhabitants of the eighteen provinces collectively provide for their five million people. But up to now they themselves have not farmed or labored. All they do is sit and feed off the Han people [Hanren]. Is this not absolutely hateful?”16
Fifth, the Manchus subjugated the Han in the manner of a foreign military occupation. They maintained their domination over the Han by keeping their banner soldiers separate and concentrating them in a few strategic places around the country. Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, commented on the careful thought the early Qing rulers had given to the placement of their troops:
Aware that the Jurchen, by being dispersed, had opened themselves to be killed by the Han [Hanren], they took the several million Manchus [Manzhouren] that they had brought to China and stationed one-half of them in Beijing, where they are called the “palace guard” and the other half in the provinces, where they are called “provincial garrisons” [zhufang].
Zou Rong drew attention to the term used for these provincial encampments: Suppose we try to explain the meaning of the term zhufang. It is as if they are terrified and are constantly fearful lest the Han people [Hanren] rebel against them, and so they hold them in check like bandits. Otherwise, whom are they defending [fang] against? And why do they need to be stationed [zhu] somewhere?
The obvious intent of these provincial garrisons, as a Jiangsu News article in 1903 summed up, was “to suppress the slaves.”
Sixth, the Manchus practiced political discrimination against their Han subjects in at least three ways. They were a numerical minority ruling over the Han majority. According to Zou Rong, “The world recognizes only the principle that a minority submits to a majority. . . .
If only the thievish Manchus [Manren] were a majority, but they number merely five million, scarcely the population of a single department or county.” The Manchus discriminated against the Han also by their monopoly of the highest governmental posts, in contravention of the Qing court’s own professed commitment to Manchu-Han equality. According to Chen Tianhua, in Lion’s Roar, “Official posts are supposed to be evenly divided between Manchus and Han, but all the important responsibilities are held by Manchus [Manren].”
Following a detailed analysis of the metropolitan administration, Zou Rong concluded, “Opportunities for an official career for a Manchu in comparison with those for a Han are hardly less far apart than the sky is from the ground or clouds are from mire.” The Manchus discriminated against the Han in promotions as well. According to Zou again,
One may often find Manchus and Han of similar grades, graduates of the same year and employed in the same office. The Han [Hanren], however, may be held back for decades, without being transferred to a higher post, whereas the Manchu [Manren] in a twinkling becomes first a board vice-president, and then a board president, and finally a grand secretary. . . .
If, by good fortune and against all odds, some [Han] officials do finally rise to the position of grand secretary or board president or vice-president, they are all white-haired and toothless, old and weak, and they share whatever is left over from the hands of the Manchus.
Seventh, and last, the Manchus, despite their pretense at accommodation, were fundamentally at odds with and hostile toward the Han people. As evidence, the revolutionaries repeatedly cited a remark that Liang Qichao, in an essay of 1900, attributed to Gangyi (1837–1900), the reactionary Manchu leader at Cixi’s court after 1898: “If the Han get strong, the Manchus are doomed; if the Han grow weak, the Manchus get plump.”
Zou Rong claimed that Gangyi’s statement embodied the single underlying rationale behind the court’s successive policies toward the Taiping Rebellion (1851–64), the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), and the Boxer Rebellion, for in every instance the Manchus derived all the rewards while the Han made all the sacrifices.
As for the court’s recent efforts to achieve “wealth and power” (fuqiang): “Today’s strengthening [qiang] is the strengthening of the Manchus [Manren]; it has nothing to do with us Han [Hanren]. Today’s enrichment [fu] is the enrichment of the Manchus; it has nothing to do with us Han.”20 It was, according to the revolutionaries, the Manchus’ anti-Han posture that explained the court’s inability, indeed unwillingness, to defend China’s national sovereignty and territory from the foreign powers.
Their policy was epitomized by another of Gangyi’s alleged sayings: “Rather than hand over our land to household slaves [i.e., the Han], let us present it to neighboring friends.”21 Having thus sold out to their foreign “friends,” the Qing had become, in the words of Chen Tianhua, “the foreigners’ court,” and the Han had become, in Zou’s words, “slaves of barbarous slaves.”
Among the numerous terms that the revolutionaries of the early post-Boxer era applied to the Manchus, one—“banner people” (qiren)—was strikingly absent. This was odd because it is clear that four of the seven counts in their indictment of the Manchus clearly equated them with the membership of the Eight Banner system.
It was soldiers of the banner army who committed the atrocities against the Han during the Qing conquest of China proper (no. 2) and who then kept the conquered Han under continuous subjugation from their various garrisons (no. 5), and it was the broad masses of the banner population who lived a privileged existence segregated from the Han (no. 4) and who benefited from the Qing dynasty’s policy of political discrimination (no. 6).
Thus, in the eyes of the revolutionaries, the Manchus were identical to the banner people, and so it was in the eyes of the Manchus, too. As a descendant of the Qing imperial clan recalls, “The Manchus [Manren] called themselves, and were called by others, ‘banner people’ [qiren].” Or, as stated by James Lee and Robert Eng, “The banner system was the principal institution which unified the Manchu people and defined Manchu identity.”
The Eight Banner system as it existed in the late nineteenth century was fundamentally little changed from when it was first set up by the founders of the dynasty, Nurhaci and Hong Taiji, prior to the invasion of Ming dynasty (1368–1644) China. Nurhaci created the system in 1615 when he divided all the scattered Jurchen tribes in the mountains of eastern and northern “Manchuria” that he had dominated into eight groups called “banners” (qi), each with a number of companies (zuoling).
Twenty years later, when Hong Taiji bestowed the new name “Manzhou” (from the Manchu “Manju”) upon his people, they became the “Eight Banner Manchus” (Baqi Manzhou). Meanwhile, as Nurhaci and Hong Taiji extended their authority into the plains of southern Manchuria and began overrunning Han settlements and enslaving their inhabitants, they apportioned these captives among the leaders of the original Manchu Eight Banners.
Such household slaves of Han origin were known as “bondservants” (baoyi, from the Manchu booi, “of the household”), some of whom were organized into separate banner companies of their own that became a part of their master’s Manchu banner. Still later, in 1642, as more and more Han in southern Manchuria either defected to or were defeated by him, Hong Taiji stopped enslaving them and organized them instead into their own set of banners; these Eight Banners composed of Han personnel were known as the Hanjun.
Meanwhile, in 1635, Hong Taiji similarly had established another separate Eight Banner organization for those Mongols of western Manchuria and eastern Mongolia who had submitted to his rule.
Although other peoples were incorporated into the banner system later on, its basic framework was thus already in place by the time Hong Taiji’s successors “entered through the pass” into China proper in 1644. It had three ethnic components—Manchu, Mongol, and Hanjun—each with its own set of eight banners, for a total of twenty-four banners in the entire banner force.
The Eight Banner system, though simple in structure, was extremely heterogeneous in composition. In addition to the tripartite division among the Manchu banners, Mongol banners, and Hanjun, there were numerous other significant internal differences: between the Upper Three and the Lower Five Banners, between Old and New banner people, between the imperial lineage and ordinary banner people, between the regular banner companies and the bondservant companies, between the core banners and the affiliated banners, between the Metropolitan Banners (Jingqi) and the provincial garrisons, and between the banner soldiers and their dependents.
In all three ethnic components, each of the Eight Banners was identified by the color (yellow, white, red, or blue) of its flag, which was either “plain” (solid) or “bordered” with a red or white fringe. The Eight Banners were ranked in descending order of social importance: Bordered Yellow, Plain Yellow, Plain White, Plain Red, Bordered White, Bordered Red, Plain Blue, and Bordered Blue.
The first three—Bordered Yellow, Plain Yellow, and Plain White—constituted the Upper Three Banners, which from an early date had been under the direct command of the emperor; the Lower Five Banners were originally commanded by various imperial princes and did not come under direct imperial command until the Yongzheng reign (1722–35). The Upper Three Banners were more prestigious than the Lower Five.25
Of the three ethnic components, the Manchu banners were in the late Qing the largest by far. According to The Draft History of the Qing (Qingshigao), compiled after the revolution, 53.5 percent of the officers and soldiers in the Metropolitan Banners belonged to the Manchu banners, 31.8 percent to the Hanjun, and 14.7 percent to the Mongol banners.
However, when the banner troops in the provinces are taken into account, the Hanjun’s share was considerably less, because the partial demobilization of the Hanjun that took place during the Qianlong reign (1735–96) had a significantly greater effect upon the provincial garrisons than among the Metropolitan Banners. Therefore, it may be roughly estimated that 60 percent of the entire banner force was made up of Manchu banners and the other 40 percent was divided roughly equally between the Mongol banners and the Hanjun.
The Manchu banners were not only the oldest and the most numerous but, not surprisingly, also the most prestigious. They outranked the Mongol banners, who in turn outranked the Hanjun.27 However, just as the entire banner force was not a homogeneous body, neither were the Manchu banners. For example, apart from the Jurchen who formed the founding core, the Eight Banner Manchus also included thirty-seven companies of Mongols, six of Koreans (Chaoxian), one of Russians (Eluosi), and one of Tibetans (fanzi).
These “foreign” units in the Manchu banners were in addition to the many individual Mongols and Han Chinese who were scattered among the Manchu banner companies.28 The major difference within the Manchu banners was that between the Old and the New Manchus, depending on the date of their adherence to the Qing cause. The Old Manchus (“Fo Manzhou,” from the Manchu fe, “old”) were those whose ancestors had joined up and been organized into banners during the time of Nurhaci and Hong Taiji; they were principally descended from the Jianzhou and other Jurchen tribal groups.
On the other hand, the New Manchus (“Yiche Manzhou,” from the Manchu ice, “new”) were principally the descendants of those northeastern tribes who submitted only after the Qing had invaded China proper; they were relocated southward into the Amur River basin and brought into the banner system during the Shunzhi (1644–61) and Kangxi (1661–1722) reigns to defend against Czarist Russia’s expansionism in the region.
These New Manchus included two non-Jurchen Tungusic groups—the Hezhe and Kiakar (Kuyala)—who lived by hunting and fishing amidst the mountains and streams of northeastern Manchuria and adjacent parts of Siberia; and four groups of intermixed Mongols and Tungus—the Daur (Dawoer), Solun (Suolun), Oroqen (Elunchun), and Xibe (Xibo)—who lived on either side of the Greater Xing’an Mountains separating the Mongolian steppe to the west and the Manchurian forests to the east.
Because their association with the Qing rulers was more recent as well as more distant, the New Manchus were less prestigious than the Old, but they were allowed a degree of organizational autonomy denied the Old Manchus; even after they had been incorporated into the banner system, they remained under the leadership of their own tribal and clan chiefs.
One notable subset of the Old Manchus was the imperial lineage (huangzu), which consisted of two large categories of relatives. One was the imperial clan (zongshi), the Aisin Gioro (“Aixin Jueluo” in Chinese), who traced their descent directly from Nurhaci’s father, Taksi. The rest of the imperial lineage, consisting of the collateral lines descended from Nurhaci’s uncles and brothers, were known as the gioro (Ch. jueluo).
Members of these two groups multiplied rapidly. At the end of the dynasty, there were twenty-nine thousand members of the imperial lineage in the main line and another twenty thousand in the collateral lines. Although each of the two categories of the imperial lineage were assigned to their own separate banner companies, all members, whether main line or collateral, were subject to the jurisdiction of the Imperial Clan Court (Zongrenfu) rather than that of the regular banner authorities.
The most exalted of the imperial clan were the titled princes and nobles, who were divided into twelve ranks, the top four of which were qinwang, junwang, beile (a Manchu term), and beizi (from the Manchu beise) respectively.
With some exceptions, notably the eight “iron-capped princes” (tiemaozi wang) who had the right of perpetual inheritance, these ranks were inheritable only on a descending scale. The eldest son of a third-rank beile, for example, became a fourth-rank beizi, while all of the younger sons dropped down to “nobles of the ninth rank” (zhenguo jiangjun).31 Consequently, only a minuscule number of imperial clan members held a title.
In the post-Boxer era the most prominent member of the imperial clan, aside from the emperor and his immediate family, was unquestionably Yikuang (Prince Qing; see chart 1.1.). Born in 1836, Yikuang was a great-grandson of the Qianlong emperor and belonged to the Manchu Plain Blue Banner, one of the Five Lower Banners to which direct descendants of emperors were assigned.
His grandfather, Yonglin, was the first Prince Qing, an honor conferred on him in 1799 after his brother had become the Jiaqing emperor. Yikuang inherited the family estate in 1850 when his uncle, Mianti, died without a male heir.
By then, however, due to the impact of the Qing inheritance rules, Yikuang was a mere noble of the tenth rank (fuguo jiangjun). His subsequent rise to prominence came about as a result of his long association with Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908). When in 1884 he succeeded Yixin (1832–98), the first Prince Gong, as head of the Zongli Yamen (or proto–Foreign Office), he was made a prince of the second rank, thus reclaiming the family title of Prince Qing.
Ten years later, on the occasion of Cixi’s sixtieth birthday, his position was raised to that of prince of the first rank. Finally, in December 1908, at the beginning of the Xuantong reign, he reached the top of the princely ladder and was given the rare right of perpetual inheritance. When a cabinet was formed in early 1911, Yikuang became China’s first prime minister.
Among the collateral lines of the imperial lineage, the most notable figure in the post-Boxer period was probably Liangbi (1877–1912), a member of the Bordered Yellow Banner, whose ancestor was a younger brother of Nurhaci and whose grandfather, Yilibu, negotiated and signed the Treaty of Nanjing, ending the First Opium War (1839–42).
At the time of the 1911 Revolution, Liangbi was a leading proponent of resistance to the Republicans. It was his assassination in late January 1912 that, as much as anything, convinced the court to abdicate.
http://vietrealm.com/index.php?topic=36718.msg104530;topicseen#new
Of the three ethnic components, the Manchu banners were in the late Qing the largest by far. According to The Draft History of the Qing (Qingshigao), compiled after the revolution, 53.5 percent of the officers and soldiers in the Metropolitan Banners belonged to the Manchu banners, 31.8 percent to the Hanjun, and 14.7 percent to the Mongol banners.
However, when the banner troops in the provinces are taken into account, the Hanjun’s share was considerably less, because the partial demobilization of the Hanjun that took place during the Qianlong reign (1735–96) had a significantly greater effect upon the provincial garrisons than among the Metropolitan Banners. Therefore, it may be roughly estimated that 60 percent of the entire banner force was made up of Manchu banners and the other 40 percent was divided roughly equally between the Mongol banners and the Hanjun.
The Manchu banners were not only the oldest and the most numerous but, not surprisingly, also the most prestigious. They outranked the Mongol banners, who in turn outranked the Hanjun.27 However, just as the entire banner force was not a homogeneous body, neither were the Manchu banners. For example, apart from the Jurchen who formed the founding core, the Eight Banner Manchus also included thirty-seven companies of Mongols, six of Koreans (Chaoxian), one of Russians (Eluosi), and one of Tibetans (fanzi).
These “foreign” units in the Manchu banners were in addition to the many individual Mongols and Han Chinese who were scattered among the Manchu banner companies.28 The major difference within the Manchu banners was that between the Old and the New Manchus, depending on the date of their adherence to the Qing cause. The Old Manchus (“Fo Manzhou,” from the Manchu fe, “old”) were those whose ancestors had joined up and been organized into banners during the time of Nurhaci and Hong Taiji; they were principally descended from the Jianzhou and other Jurchen tribal groups.
On the other hand, the New Manchus (“Yiche Manzhou,” from the Manchu ice, “new”) were principally the descendants of those northeastern tribes who submitted only after the Qing had invaded China proper; they were relocated southward into the Amur River basin and brought into the banner system during the Shunzhi (1644–61) and Kangxi (1661–1722) reigns to defend against Czarist Russia’s expansionism in the region.
These New Manchus included two non-Jurchen Tungusic groups—the Hezhe and Kiakar (Kuyala)—who lived by hunting and fishing amidst the mountains and streams of northeastern Manchuria and adjacent parts of Siberia; and four groups of intermixed Mongols and Tungus—the Daur (Dawoer), Solun (Suolun), Oroqen (Elunchun), and Xibe (Xibo)—who lived on either side of the Greater Xing’an Mountains separating the Mongolian steppe to the west and the Manchurian forests to the east.
Because their association with the Qing rulers was more recent as well as more distant, the New Manchus were less prestigious than the Old, but they were allowed a degree of organizational autonomy denied the Old Manchus; even after they had been incorporated into the banner system, they remained under the leadership of their own tribal and clan chiefs.
One notable subset of the Old Manchus was the imperial lineage (huangzu), which consisted of two large categories of relatives. One was the imperial clan (zongshi), the Aisin Gioro (“Aixin Jueluo” in Chinese), who traced their descent directly from Nurhaci’s father, Taksi. The rest of the imperial lineage, consisting of the collateral lines descended from Nurhaci’s uncles and brothers, were known as the gioro (Ch. jueluo).
Members of these two groups multiplied rapidly. At the end of the dynasty, there were twenty-nine thousand members of the imperial lineage in the main line and another twenty thousand in the collateral lines. Although each of the two categories of the imperial lineage were assigned to their own separate banner companies, all members, whether main line or collateral, were subject to the jurisdiction of the Imperial Clan Court (Zongrenfu) rather than that of the regular banner authorities.
The most exalted of the imperial clan were the titled princes and nobles, who were divided into twelve ranks, the top four of which were qinwang, junwang, beile (a Manchu term), and beizi (from the Manchu beise) respectively.
With some exceptions, notably the eight “iron-capped princes” (tiemaozi wang) who had the right of perpetual inheritance, these ranks were inheritable only on a descending scale. The eldest son of a third-rank beile, for example, became a fourth-rank beizi, while all of the younger sons dropped down to “nobles of the ninth rank” (zhenguo jiangjun).31 Consequently, only a minuscule number of imperial clan members held a title.
In the post-Boxer era the most prominent member of the imperial clan, aside from the emperor and his immediate family, was unquestionably Yikuang (Prince Qing; see chart 1.1.). Born in 1836, Yikuang was a great-grandson of the Qianlong emperor and belonged to the Manchu Plain Blue Banner, one of the Five Lower Banners to which direct descendants of emperors were assigned.
His grandfather, Yonglin, was the first Prince Qing, an honor conferred on him in 1799 after his brother had become the Jiaqing emperor. Yikuang inherited the family estate in 1850 when his uncle, Mianti, died without a male heir.
By then, however, due to the impact of the Qing inheritance rules, Yikuang was a mere noble of the tenth rank (fuguo jiangjun). His subsequent rise to prominence came about as a result of his long association with Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908). When in 1884 he succeeded Yixin (1832–98), the first Prince Gong, as head of the Zongli Yamen (or proto–Foreign Office), he was made a prince of the second rank, thus reclaiming the family title of Prince Qing.
Ten years later, on the occasion of Cixi’s sixtieth birthday, his position was raised to that of prince of the first rank. Finally, in December 1908, at the beginning of the Xuantong reign, he reached the top of the princely ladder and was given the rare right of perpetual inheritance. When a cabinet was formed in early 1911, Yikuang became China’s first prime minister.
Among the collateral lines of the imperial lineage, the most notable figure in the post-Boxer period was probably Liangbi (1877–1912), a member of the Bordered Yellow Banner, whose ancestor was a younger brother of Nurhaci and whose grandfather, Yilibu, negotiated and signed the Treaty of Nanjing, ending the First Opium War (1839–42).
At the time of the 1911 Revolution, Liangbi was a leading proponent of resistance to the Republicans. It was his assassination in late January 1912 that, as much as anything, convinced the court to abdicate.
http://vietrealm.com/index.php?topic=36718.msg104530;topicseen#new
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