Peking Field Force

神機營

神机营

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Shénjī yíng
Wade–Giles	Shen²-chi¹ ying²

The Peking Field Force was a modern-armed military unit that defended the Chinese imperial capital Beijing in the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).

The Force was founded in 1862, two years after the humiliating capture of Beijing and the sack of the Qing emperor's Summer Palace in 1860 by foreign powers at the end of the Second Opium War.^[1] After that war, high Qing officials like Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Wenxiang (the latter a Manchu) tried to acquire advanced western weapons and to copy western military organization.^[2] Founded by Wenxiang and manned by mostly Manchu Bannermen, the soldiers most loyal to the dynasty, the Force was armed with Russian rifles and French cannon and drilled by British officers.^[3]

The "First Historical Archives of China" (中国第一历史档案馆) in Beijing hold a collection of primary documents on the Peking Field Force.^[4]

History

The force created in 1860 and comprising entirely bannermen was 13,000 strong and had received western training and modern equipment during the period 1862-1865 though after that whilst it continued its existence further modernisation had not occurred in the force and it had been left to languish^[5]

Name

The Chinese name of the battalions is Shenji ying, in which shenji means "divine mechanism" and ying either "military camp", "battalion", or "regiment". The Qing force had the same name as the Shenjiying, a Ming-era (1368–1644) military corps that specialized in training with firearms.^[6] The Ming division has been variously referred to as "Divine Mechanism Battalions",^[7] "Firearms Division",^[6] "Artillery Camp",^[8] "Shen-chi Camp",^[9] and "Firearm Brigade".^[10] or "Divine Engine Division",^[11] whereas the Qing division that specialized in training with firearms has been referred to as the Firearm Battalion or "Huoqiying".

The Qing army corps also named "Shenji ying" is sometimes called the "Metropolitan Field Force",^[12] but is mostly known as the "Peking Field Force",^[13] the name by which foreigners referred to it in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.^[14]

Notes

Works cited

Brunnert, H. S.; Hagelstrom, V. V. (1911). Present Day Political Organization of China. New York: Paragon.
Chan, Hok-lam (1976). "Li Ying". Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644, Volume I. Stanford University: Stanford University Press. pp. 887–892. ISBN 0231038011.
Chan, Hok-lam (1988). "The Chien-wen, Yung-lo, Hung-hsi, and Hsüan-te reigns, 1399–1435". In Mote, Frederick W.; Twitchett, Denis (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 182–304. ISBN 978-0-521-24332-2.
Crossley, Pamela Kyle (1990). Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691055831.
Dreyer, Edward L. (1982). Early Ming China: A Political History, 1355–1435. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804711054.
Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "I-hsin" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office.
Horowitz, Richard S. (1992). "Bannermen and Soldiers: Wenxiang and the Creation of the Peking Field Force (Shenji Ying), 1860–1866". Papers on Chinese History. 1 (1): 91–105.
Horowitz, Richard S. (2002). "Beyond the Marble Boat: The Transformation of the Chinese Military, 1850–1911". In David A. Graff; Robin Higham (eds.). A Military History of China. Boulder, Colorado, and Oxford, England: Westview Press. pp. 153–74. ISBN 0813337364. (hardcover), ISBN 0813339901 (paperback).
Hucker, Charles O. (1985). A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804711933..
Liu, Kwang-ching; Smith, Richard J. (1980). "The Military Challenge: The North-west and the Coast". In Fairbank, John K.; Liu, Kwang-Ching (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 11: Late Ch'ing 1800–1911, Part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22029-3.
Powell, Ralph L. (1955). The Rise of Chinese Military Power, 1895–1912. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press..
Purcell, Victor (1963), The Boxer Uprising: A Background Study, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521060066 (hardback). ISBN 9780521148122 (paperback).
Rhoads, Edward (2000). Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928. Seattle and London: University of Washington press. ISBN 0295979380.
Wright, Mary C. (1957). The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T'ung-Chih Restoration, 1862–1874. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Qing dynasty topics

History

Early (1616–1683)	Jurchen unification Later Jin Seven Grievances Later Jin invasion of Joseon Qing invasion of Joseon Transition from Ming to Qing Battle of Shanhai Pass Great Clearance Battle of Penghu Revolt of the Three Feudatories
High Qing (1683–1839)	Sino-Russian border conflicts Dzungar–Qing Wars Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720) Chinese Rites controversy Ten Great Campaigns Miao Rebellion (1735–1736) Lhasa riot of 1750 Revolt of the Altishahr Khojas Afaqi Khoja revolts Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769) Lin Shuangwen rebellion Battle of Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa Sino-Nepalese War Miao Rebellion (1795–1806) White Lotus Rebellion Eight Trigrams uprising of 1813
Late (1840–1912)	First Opium War Dogra–Tibetan War (Sino-Sikh War) Taiping Rebellion Nian Rebellion Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856) Small Swords Society Miao Rebellion (1854–1873) Nepal-Tibet War (1855–1856) Panthay Rebellion Second Opium War Punti–Hakka Clan Wars Amur Annexation Self-Strengthening Movement Tongzhi Restoration Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) Mudan incident Tianjin Massacre Margary Affair Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874) Northern Chinese Famine Qing reconquest of Xinjiang Sino-French War Sikkim expedition Jindandao incident First Sino-Japanese War Gongche Shangshu movement Dungan Revolt (1895–1896) Hundred Days' Reform Third plague pandemic Boxer Rebellion Red Lanterns Eight-Nation Alliance Declaration of war Late Qing reforms British expedition to Tibet 1905 Batang uprising 1909 Provincial Assembly elections Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910) Manchurian plague Railway Protection Movement 1911 Revolution Wuchang Uprising Xinhai Lhasa turmoil Mongolian Revolution of 1911 1911 Revolution in Xinjiang Imperial Edict of the Abdication of Puyi Articles of Favourable Treatment Manchu Restoration

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Notes

Works cited