Bandits, Soldiers, and Warlords - Part I

During Anna Bøg’s time, banditry was endemic in China and especially in Manchuria. The bandits, called hunghutze by the Chinese, were very much feared by the populace, and their presence hampered the work of the missionaries, because of the dangers associated with travel. As will be seen in a later excerpt, the bandit threat became an unfortunate reality for one of the missionaries in Siuyen.

Manchuria’s 12-foot high cereal grasses (kaoliang) provided excellent cover for the hunghutze’s approach and the mountains provided them with abundant hiding places. Large contingents of bandits attacked cities and towns and forcibly entered trains and dwellings, stole goods of all kinds, and kidnapped persons who might be worth holding for ransom. One maneuver was where a lookout would spot a vulnerable traveler who could be held for ransom and signal the victim’s approach to an armed accomplice who then forced the victim to a secluded place. There, the leader took charge of the captive and the effort to ransom him.

James, who traveled extensively in Manchuria in the late 1880s wrote, “[G]ang robbery by bands of mounted men varying in strength from ten and twenty to eighty or a hundred has always existed in Manchuria; and it exists -- nay abounds -- to the present day[.]” (1)

James believed this affliction was related to two factors: one, that the Manchus were historically a warlike, nomadic people; and two, that the Manchu rulers distrusted the Han Chinese. That is, when the Manchus ruled of all of China from 1644 to 1911 (the Qing Dynasty), the Manchu rulers imported Manchu soldiers into Han China to ensure the presence of loyal troops and exported criminals to Manchuria to keep them away from the seat of power. The Manchu rulers also forbade immigration by Han Chinese into the two northernmost provinces of Manchuria until 1820, leaving large areas of unsettled land.

Here is James’ analysis and description:

“With a spare population of nomad hunters, [the northern Manchurian provinces] were reserved as a nursery for Tartar soldiers, and also used as a place for the transportation of Chinese criminals [.]” (2)

"[During the Qing Dynasty] the constant presence . . . of a mass of bad characters, transported or fled from justice, made crime and especially brigandage, endemic . . Bands of brigands coalesced, and highway robbery took the form of armed resistance to the Government. Nowhere . . . were violence and lawlessness more rife. Murders were of daily occurrence; no man went out of his house unarmed; field labourers had their matchlocks and spears strapped across their backs while working. Gangs of robbers seized and held to ransom the persons of high officials and even the principal towns [.]" (3)

“The plague is worst in the newly-settled colonies in the north, where the banditti not only rob on the highways but plunder villages and cities. They also bind and hold prisoners to ransom, failing payment of which the victim is ruthlessly killed, and his head sent to his friends.” (4)

While the authorities often dealt harshly with the bandits, executing them without a trial, at other times the officials were said to be in league with the bandits. In any event, the government’s efforts to deal with these outlaws were largely ineffectual.

James described the execution of a bandit in the late 1880s:

“Last year, in a scuffle with brigands, a soldier was wounded, and all the brigands escaped but one. . . . His ankles were smashed, his legs forced outwards till his knee joints were dislocated, and then he was cut into small pieces, alive.” (5)

The poetess, Akiko Yosano, who traveled extensively in Manchuria in 1928 also spoke of the execution of bandits:

“Although it was 5:00 p.m., the sun was still high in the sky in late May. The road ... was covered with sand, and the dust carried by the wind bounced off the car all in white. As we went nearby certain sandy knolls, our Japanese driver told us that a group of bandits had been killed by Chinese troops near there. When the Chinese government apprehended bandits, they usually just executed them without a trial. Thus, he noted, bandits carried out acts of great brutality so as not to leave any criminal evidence behind.” (6)

The situation was further complicated by the fact that the boundaries between bandits, soldiers, and warlords were fluid. At the time Anna Bøg arrived, Manchuria was ruled by Chang Tso Lin, a warlord who had begun his career as a bandit, had gone on to become a mercenary for the Japanese, then a member of the regular Chinese army, and ultimately the ruler of all of Manchuria from 1916 to 1928.

Referenced sources:
(1) James, H.E.M.; The Long White Mountain (Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1888; First Greenwood Reprinting, 1968), p. 99.)
(2) James, op. cit., p. 4.
(3) James, op. cit, p. 98.
(4) James, op. cit, p. 100.
(5) James, op. cit., p. 158.
(6) Yosano, Akiko; Travels in Manchuria and Mongolia [1928], translated by Joshua A. Fogel (Columbia University Press, New York, 2001), p. 80.

Image:
A photograph of Manchurian bandits from Gullach-Jensen, Thyra; D.M.S. i Manchuriet (D.M.S., Copenhagen, 1937), p. 85. Used with permission.