Ten Great Campaigns
Encyclopedia
The Ten Great Campaigns were a series of wars fought during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, much celebrated in the official Qing Dynasty
annals. They included three to enlarge the area of Qing control in Central Asia
: two against the Dzungars (1755–1757) and the pacification of Xinjiang
(1758–1759). The other seven campaigns were more in the nature of police actions on frontiers already established - two wars to suppress the Jinchuan
rebels in Sichuan
, another to suppress rebels in Taiwan
(1787–1788), and four expeditions abroad against the Burmese (1765–1769), the Vietnam
ese (1788–1789), and the warlike Gurkha
s in Nepal
on the border between Tibet
and India
(1790–1792), the last counting as two.
and eliminated rivalry for control over the Dalai Lama
in Tibet, and thereby the elimination of rival influence in Mongolia
. It also led to the pacification of the Islamicised, Turkic-speaking southern half of Xinjiang immediately thereafter. To commemorate this victory, Qianlong had the Puning Temple
of Chengde
constructed, home to the world's tallest wooden sculpture
of the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteśvara
and hence its alternate name, the 'Big Buddha Temple'.
hill people was the costliest and most difficult, and also the most destructive. The Jinchuan (literally "Golden Stream") was northwest of Chengdu
in western Sichuan
. The tribal peoples there were related to the Tibetans of the Amdo
. The first campaign in 1747-1749 was a simple affair; with little use of force the Manchu general induced the native chieftains to accept a peace plan, and departed.
Interethnic conflict brought the Manchus back after twenty years. The result was the Qing expeditionary force being forced to fight a protracted war of attrition
costing the Qing treasury several times the amounts expended on the earlier conquests of the Dzungars and Xinjiang. The resisting tribes retreated to their stone towers and forts in steep mountains and could only be dislodged by cannon. The Manchu generals were ruthless in annihilating the rebellious tribes, then reorganised the region in a military prefecture and repopulated it with more cooperative inhabitants.
". Burma's successful defense laid the foundation for the present-day boundary between the two countries.
At first, Qianlong envisaged an easy war, and sent in only the Green Standard troops
stationed in Yunnan
. The Qing invasion came as the majority of Burmese forces were deployed in the Burmese invasion of Siam
. Nonetheless, battle-hardened Burmese troops defeated the first two invasions of 1765 and 1766 at the border. The regional conflict now escalated to a major war that involved military maneuvers nationwide in both countries. The third invasion (1767–1768) led by the elite Manchu Bannermen
nearly succeeded, penetrating deep into central Burma within a few days' march from the capital, Ava
. But the Bannermen of northern China could not cope with unfamiliar tropical terrains and lethal endemic diseases, and were driven back with heavy losses. After the close-call, King Hsinbyushin
redeployed most of the Burmese armies from Siam to the Chinese border. The fourth and largest invasion got bogged down at the frontier. With the Qing forces completely encircled, a truce was reached between the field commanders of the two sides in December 1769.
The Qing kept a heavy military lineup in the border areas of Yunnan for about one decade in an attempt to wage another war while imposing a ban on inter-border trade for two decades. The Burmese too were preoccupied with another impending invasion by the Chinese, and kept a series of garrisons along the border. Twenty years later, Burma and China resumed a diplomatic relationship in 1790. To the Burmese the resumption was on equal terms. But Qianlong unilaterally interpreted the act as Burmese submission, and claimed victory. Ironically, the main beneficiaries of this war were the Siamese. After having lost their capital Ayutthaya
to the Burmese in 1767, they regrouped in the absence of large Burmese armies, and reclaimed their territories in the next two years.
and the involvement in the region of a new foreign power, Britain
, through their British East India Company
. The rash Gurkha rulers of Nepal decided to invade southern Tibet in 1788.
The two Manchu resident agents in Lhasa
(Ambans) made no attempt at defense or resistance. Instead they took the child Panchen Lama
to safety when the Nepalese troops came through and plundered the rich monastery at Shigatse
on their way to Lhasa. Upon hearing of the first Nepalese incursions, the Qianlong Emperor commanded troops from Sichuan to proceed to Lhasa and restore order. By the time they reached southern Tibet, the Gurkhas had already withdrawn. This counted as the first of two wars with the Gurkhas.
In 1791 the Gurkhas returned in force. Qianlong urgently dispatched an army of 10,000 men. It was made up of around 6,000 Manchu and Mongol forces supplemented by tribal soldiers under the able general Fu Kang'an, with Hailancha as his deputy. They entered Tibet from Xining
(Qinghai
) in the north, shortening the march but making it in the dead of winter 1791-1792, crossing high mountain passes in deep snow and cold. They reached central Tibet in the summer of 1792 and within two or three months could report that they had won a decisive series of encounters that pushed the Gurkha armies across the crest of the Himalaya and back into the valley of Kathmandu. Fukang'an fought on into 1793, when he forced the battered Gurkhas to sign a treaty on Manchu terms which forced Gurkhas to pay tax every five years.
.
Emperor Lê Chiêu Thống fled to China and appealed to Emperor Qianlong for help. In 1788 a large Qing army was sent south to restore Lê Mẫn Đế to the throne. They succeeded in taking Thăng Long (Hà Nội) and putting Emperor Chiêu Thống back on the throne, but many of his supporters were angered by their subservient position. Chiêu Thống was treated as a vassal king by Qianlong and all edicts had to be authorized by the Qing before becoming official. In any event, the situation did not last long as the Tây Sơn leader, Nguyễn Huệ
, launched a surprise attack against the Qing forces while they were celebrating the Chinese New Year
festival of the year 1789. The Chinese were unprepared but fought for five days before being defeated at Battle of Đống Đa. Chiêu Thống fled back to China as Nguyễn Huệ was proclaimed Emperor Quang Trung. Although Nguyễn Huệ won this battle, he eventually submitted himself as vassal of Qing China and agreed to pay tribute annually.
The campaigns were major financial drain on Qing, costing more than 151 million taels of silver.
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
annals. They included three to enlarge the area of Qing control in Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
: two against the Dzungars (1755–1757) and the pacification of Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
(1758–1759). The other seven campaigns were more in the nature of police actions on frontiers already established - two wars to suppress the Jinchuan
Jinchuan
Jinchuan may refer to:* Jinchuan Group , mainland Chinese company* Jinchuan County , in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan* Jinchuan District , Jinchang, Gansu...
rebels in Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
, another to suppress rebels in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(1787–1788), and four expeditions abroad against the Burmese (1765–1769), the Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese (1788–1789), and the warlike Gurkha
Gurkha
Gurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
s in Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
on the border between Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(1790–1792), the last counting as two.
The Dzungars and pacification of Xinjiang (1755 - 1757)
Of the ten campaigns, the final destruction of the Dzungars was the most significant. It secured the northern and western boundaries of XinjiangXinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
and eliminated rivalry for control over the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
in Tibet, and thereby the elimination of rival influence in Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
. It also led to the pacification of the Islamicised, Turkic-speaking southern half of Xinjiang immediately thereafter. To commemorate this victory, Qianlong had the Puning Temple
Puning Temple
The Punning Temple , or Temple of Universal Peace of Chengde, Hebei province, China is a Qing Dynasty era Buddhist temple complex built in 1755, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor to show the Qing's respect to the ethnic minorities...
of Chengde
Chengde
Chengde , previously known as Jehol or Re He , is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, People's Republic of China, situated northeast of Beijing. It is best known as the site of the Mountain Resort, a vast imperial garden and palace formerly used by the Qing emperors as summer residence...
constructed, home to the world's tallest wooden sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
of the Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...
Avalokiteśvara
Avalokitesvara
Avalokiteśvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He is one of the more widely revered bodhisattvas in mainstream Mahayana Buddhism....
and hence its alternate name, the 'Big Buddha Temple'.
Suppression of the Jinchuan hill peoples (1747-1749, 1771-1776)
The suppression of the JinchuanJinchuan
Jinchuan may refer to:* Jinchuan Group , mainland Chinese company* Jinchuan County , in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan* Jinchuan District , Jinchang, Gansu...
hill people was the costliest and most difficult, and also the most destructive. The Jinchuan (literally "Golden Stream") was northwest of Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...
in western Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
. The tribal peoples there were related to the Tibetans of the Amdo
Amdo
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...
. The first campaign in 1747-1749 was a simple affair; with little use of force the Manchu general induced the native chieftains to accept a peace plan, and departed.
Interethnic conflict brought the Manchus back after twenty years. The result was the Qing expeditionary force being forced to fight a protracted war of attrition
War of Attrition
The international community and both countries attempted to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The Jarring Mission of the United Nations was supposed to ensure that the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 242 would be observed, but by late 1970 it was clear that this mission had been...
costing the Qing treasury several times the amounts expended on the earlier conquests of the Dzungars and Xinjiang. The resisting tribes retreated to their stone towers and forts in steep mountains and could only be dislodged by cannon. The Manchu generals were ruthless in annihilating the rebellious tribes, then reorganised the region in a military prefecture and repopulated it with more cooperative inhabitants.
The Burmese Campaigns (1765-1769)
The Qianlong Emperor launched four invasions of Burma between 1765 and 1769. The war claimed the lives of over 70,000 Chinese soldiers and four commanders, and is sometimes described as "the most disastrous frontier war that the Qing Dynasty had ever waged", and one that "assured Burmese independence and probably the independence of other states in Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
". Burma's successful defense laid the foundation for the present-day boundary between the two countries.
At first, Qianlong envisaged an easy war, and sent in only the Green Standard troops
Green Standard Army
Green Standard Army is the name of a category of military units under the control of the Qing Dynasty in China. It was made up mostly of ethnic Han soldiers and operated concurrently with the Manchu-Mongol-Han Eight Banner armies...
stationed in Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
. The Qing invasion came as the majority of Burmese forces were deployed in the Burmese invasion of Siam
Ayutthaya kingdom
Ayutthaya was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese , Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the...
. Nonetheless, battle-hardened Burmese troops defeated the first two invasions of 1765 and 1766 at the border. The regional conflict now escalated to a major war that involved military maneuvers nationwide in both countries. The third invasion (1767–1768) led by the elite Manchu Bannermen
Eight Banners
The Eight Banners were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed. They provided the basic framework for the Manchu military organization...
nearly succeeded, penetrating deep into central Burma within a few days' march from the capital, Ava
Ava
Innwa is a city in the Mandalay Division of Burma , situated just to the south of Amarapura on the Ayeyarwady River. Its formal title is Ratanapura , which means City of Gems in Pali. The name Innwa means mouth of the lake, which comes from in , meaning lake, and wa , which means mouth...
. But the Bannermen of northern China could not cope with unfamiliar tropical terrains and lethal endemic diseases, and were driven back with heavy losses. After the close-call, King Hsinbyushin
Hsinbyushin
Hsinbyushin was king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma from 1763 to 1776. The second son of the dynasty founder Alaungpaya is best known for his wars with China and Siam, and is considered the most militaristic king of the dynasty. His successful defense against four Chinese invasions preserved...
redeployed most of the Burmese armies from Siam to the Chinese border. The fourth and largest invasion got bogged down at the frontier. With the Qing forces completely encircled, a truce was reached between the field commanders of the two sides in December 1769.
The Qing kept a heavy military lineup in the border areas of Yunnan for about one decade in an attempt to wage another war while imposing a ban on inter-border trade for two decades. The Burmese too were preoccupied with another impending invasion by the Chinese, and kept a series of garrisons along the border. Twenty years later, Burma and China resumed a diplomatic relationship in 1790. To the Burmese the resumption was on equal terms. But Qianlong unilaterally interpreted the act as Burmese submission, and claimed victory. Ironically, the main beneficiaries of this war were the Siamese. After having lost their capital Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya (city)
Ayutthaya city is the capital of Ayutthaya province in Thailand. Located in the valley of the Chao Phraya River. The city was founded in 1350 by King U Thong, who went there to escape a smallpox outbreak in Lop Buri and proclaimed it the capital of his kingdom, often referred to as the Ayutthaya...
to the Burmese in 1767, they regrouped in the absence of large Burmese armies, and reclaimed their territories in the next two years.
The Gurkha Campaigns (1790-1792)
The Gurkha wars display the Qing court's continuing sensitivity to conditions in Tibet. The late 1760s saw the creation of a strong state in NepalNepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
and the involvement in the region of a new foreign power, Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
, through their British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
. The rash Gurkha rulers of Nepal decided to invade southern Tibet in 1788.
The two Manchu resident agents in Lhasa
Lhasa
Lhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...
(Ambans) made no attempt at defense or resistance. Instead they took the child Panchen Lama
Panchen Lama
The Panchen Lama , or Bainqên Erdê'ni , is the highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism...
to safety when the Nepalese troops came through and plundered the rich monastery at Shigatse
Shigatse
Shigatse is a county-level city and the second largest city in Tibet Autonomous Region , People's Republic of China, with a population of 92000, about southwest of Lhasa and northwest of Gyantse...
on their way to Lhasa. Upon hearing of the first Nepalese incursions, the Qianlong Emperor commanded troops from Sichuan to proceed to Lhasa and restore order. By the time they reached southern Tibet, the Gurkhas had already withdrawn. This counted as the first of two wars with the Gurkhas.
In 1791 the Gurkhas returned in force. Qianlong urgently dispatched an army of 10,000 men. It was made up of around 6,000 Manchu and Mongol forces supplemented by tribal soldiers under the able general Fu Kang'an, with Hailancha as his deputy. They entered Tibet from Xining
Xining
Xining is the capital of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China, and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. It has 2,208,708 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,198,304 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.-History:...
(Qinghai
Qinghai
Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...
) in the north, shortening the march but making it in the dead of winter 1791-1792, crossing high mountain passes in deep snow and cold. They reached central Tibet in the summer of 1792 and within two or three months could report that they had won a decisive series of encounters that pushed the Gurkha armies across the crest of the Himalaya and back into the valley of Kathmandu. Fukang'an fought on into 1793, when he forced the battered Gurkhas to sign a treaty on Manchu terms which forced Gurkhas to pay tax every five years.
The Campaign in Vietnam (1788-1789)
For most of her history, the Vietnamese rulers sometimes recognized the Chinese Emperor as their feudal lord, while ruling independently in their own land. This had been the case throughout the reign of the Later Lê Dynasty. This changed however when the brothers of Tây Sơn, leading a national uprising, defeated the feuding Trịnh and Nguyễn lords and overthrew the last Lê ruler, Emperor Lê Chiêu ThốngLê Chiêu Thống
Lê Chiêu Thống , born Lê Duy Khiêm and later Lê Duy Kỳ, was the last king of the Vietnamese Lê Dynasty.-Early life:Lê Duy Khiêm was the eldest son of Lê Duy Vĩ who was the first crown prince of king Lê Hiển Tông. After Khiêm's father was killed by the ninth Trinh lord Trinh Sam in 1771, he was jailed...
.
Emperor Lê Chiêu Thống fled to China and appealed to Emperor Qianlong for help. In 1788 a large Qing army was sent south to restore Lê Mẫn Đế to the throne. They succeeded in taking Thăng Long (Hà Nội) and putting Emperor Chiêu Thống back on the throne, but many of his supporters were angered by their subservient position. Chiêu Thống was treated as a vassal king by Qianlong and all edicts had to be authorized by the Qing before becoming official. In any event, the situation did not last long as the Tây Sơn leader, Nguyễn Huệ
Nguyen Hue
Nguyễn Huệ, also known as Emperor Quang Trung , born in Bình Định in 1753, died in Phú Xuân on 16 September 1792, was the second emperor of the Tây Sơn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 1788 until 1792...
, launched a surprise attack against the Qing forces while they were celebrating the Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
festival of the year 1789. The Chinese were unprepared but fought for five days before being defeated at Battle of Đống Đa. Chiêu Thống fled back to China as Nguyễn Huệ was proclaimed Emperor Quang Trung. Although Nguyễn Huệ won this battle, he eventually submitted himself as vassal of Qing China and agreed to pay tribute annually.
The Campaigns in Perspective
In his later years, Qianlong referred to himself with the grandiose style name of "Old Man of the Ten Completed [Great Campaigns]" (十全老人). He also wrote an essay enumerating the victories in 1792 entitled "Record of Ten Completions" (十全记).The campaigns were major financial drain on Qing, costing more than 151 million taels of silver.
- The tribes at Jinchuan numbered less than 30,000 households and took five years to pacify.
- Nearly 1.5 million piculs (1 picul = 100 cattyCattyThe catty , symbol 斤, is a traditional Chinese unit of mass used across East and Southeast Asia, notably for weighing food and other groceries in some wet markets, street markets, and shops. Related units include the picul, equal to 100 catties, and the tael, which is of a catty. A stone is a...
) were transported for the Taiwan campaigns. - Instead of restoring Emperor Lê Mẫn Đế to the throne as the Vietnam campaign was intended, Qianlong ended up settling with the new Nguyen dynasty, and even arranging for imperial marriage between Qing and Nguyen.