he gave orders to two learned scholars to prepare
a suitable script for his rapidly increasing subjects. This they
accomplished by basing the new script upon Mongol, which had been
invented in 1269, by Baschpa, or 'Phagspa, a Tibetan lama, acting under
the direction of Kublai Khan. Baschpa had based his script upon the
written language of the Ouigours, who were descendants of the Hsiung-nu,
or Huns. The Ouigours, known by that name since the year 629, were once
the ruling race in the regions which now form the khanates of Khiva and
Bokhara, and had been the first of the tribes of Central Asia to have a
script of their own. This they formed from the Estrangelo Syraic of
the Nestorians, who appeared in China in the early part of the seventh
century. The Manchu written language, therefore, is lineally descended
from Syraic; indeed, the family likeness of both Manchu and Mongol
to the parent stem is quite obvious, except that these two scripts,
evidently influenced by Chinese, are written vertically, though, unlike
Chinese, they are read from left to right. Thirty-three years later
various improvements were introduced, leaving the Manchu script
precisely as we find it at the present day.

In 1613, Nurhachu had gathered about him an army of some forty thousand
men; and by a series of raids in various directions, he further
gradually succeeded in extending considerably the boundaries of his
kingdom. There now remained but one large and important State, towards
the annexation of which he directed all his efforts. After elaborate
preparations which extended over more than two years, at the beginning
of which (1616) the term Manchu (etymology unknown) was definitively
adopted as a national title, Nurhachu, in 1618, drew up a list of
grievances against the Chinese, under which he declared that his people
had been and were still suffering, and solemnly committed it to the
flames,--a recognised method of communication with the spirits of heaven
and earth. This document consisted of seven clauses, and was addressed
to the Emperor of China; it was, in fact, a declaration of war. The
Chinese, who were fast becoming aware that a dangerous enemy had arisen,
and that their own territory would be the next to be threatened, at
length decided to oppose any further progress on the part of Narhachu;
and with this view dispatched an army of two hundred thousand men
against him. These troops, many of whom were physically unfit, were
divided on