Policies and Institutions of the Oboi Regency 1661–1669
During the 1660's four Manchus dominated the Chinese empire from the court at Peking. These four, Soni, Suksaha, Ebilun, and Oboi, had been appointed in the “Imperial Will” of the late Shun-chih Emperor to serve as Regents during the minority of the K'ang-hsi Emperor. For the first five years of the Regency these Manchus governed collectively. After 1666, however, one of the Regents, Oboi, managed to concentrate power in his own hands and to eliminate the influence of the other Regents. In the years of 1667–69, the young K'ang-hsi Emperor, assisted by his grandmother (the Grand Empress Dowager) and several Manchu advisers, sought to assert personal control over the Ch'ing state and to eliminate the ambitious Oboi. Eventually, in June, 1669, the Emperor arrested Oboi and put an end to his faction of relatives and supporters.
The Economic Role of the Imperial Household in the Ch'ing Dynasty
This author will attempt to present a preliminary study of the economic aspects of the Imperial Household (Nei-wu-fu), which played a unique role during the Chʻing Dynasty in the grand strategy of the Manchu rule over China. The fact that this vital area of Chʻing history has long been neglected can be gauged from the lack of scholarly studies on the Nei-wu-fu up to the present. Even in the imperial days, few Chinese scholars knew about the actual workings of the Nei-wu-fu, for it remained a closed field to outsiders—almost a shrouded mystery. The reasons for its mysterious character were twofold: on the one hand, inaccessibility of sources of information prevented people from getting a clear picture of the Imperial Household; on the other hand, Chinese were inhibited from investigation, since to peer into the “secret affairs of the Court” (Kung-wei chin-shih) was to run a political risk.
A Technique for Estimating The Numerical Strength of The Early Manchu Military Forces
The early documents of the Ch'ing dynasty relating to the military affairs of the Manchus seldom mention either the total number of men serving in the standing army or the number of men sent out on expeditions. When a reference is given to indicate the numerical strength of the army, it is usually given as " so many men from each Company." Unless we know the number of Companies in a particular year, we can make an estimate of neither the potential strength of the Manchu Army, nor how many men took part in an expedition. During the Manchu expedition to inner Mongolia in 1634, thousands of Mongols were recruited to serve under Mongolian as well as Manchu banner^.^ The combat troops sent on this expedition were recorded as being composed of eight guards and twenty cavalrymen from each Company.' The strength of the standing army under the Manchus is also recorded as " so many men from