The great efforts which the Manchus made from the end
of the Sixteenth Century (when they were still a small Manchurian
Principality striving for the succession to the Dragon Throne and
launching desperate attacks on the Great Wall of China) to receive
from the Dalai Lama, as well as from the lesser Pontiffs of Tibet
and Mongolia, high-sounding religious titles, prove conclusively
that dignities other than mere possession of the Throne were held
necessary to give solidity to a reign which began in militarism
and which would collapse as the Mongol rule had collapsed by a
mere Palace revolution unless an effective MORAL title were
somehow won.
Nor was the Manchu military Conquest, even after they had entered
Peking, so complete as has been represented by historians. The
Manchus were too small a handful, even with their Mongol and
Chinese auxiliaries, to do more than defeat the Ming armies and
obtain the submission of the chief cities of China. It is well-
known to students of their administrative methods, that whilst
they reigned over China they RULED only in company with the
Chinese, the system in force being a dual control which, beginning
on the Grand Council and in the various great Boards and
Departments in the capital, proceeded as far as the provincial
chief cities, but stopped short there so completely and absolutely
that the huge chains of villages and burgs had their historic
autonomy virtually untouched and lived on as they had always
lived.
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