The Pacification of the Muslims

        In 1756, the brothers Burhan-al-Din and khozi khan, known as the big and little Hodjas, fomented a revolt among the Muslim communities to the south of the T'ien-shan Mountains. In 1758, the Ch'ing court dispatched an army to suppress the rebellion. In the following year, the Ch'ing general Chao Hui defeated Muslim forces in engagements at Mt. Hoskuluk and other sites, thereby quelling the uprising.

        After the victory, Emperor Ch'ien-lung ordered the European court painter Lang Shih-ning (Giuseppe Castiglione) to produce a series of paintings commemorating the Ch'ing campaigns against the Muslims and Zunghars. This series of sixteen works, known alternately as the Achieving Victory or Pacification of Sinkiang group, depicted the important battles, surrenders, and victory processions of the campaigns. After Castiglione and other court painters completed the drafts, the works were sent to France to be engraved on lithograph plates, after which both the plates and lithograph prints were sent back to Peking. After this it became customary for the court, upon the successful conclusion of a military campaign, to order court artisans to engrave commemorative lithographs themselves. Examples include the Pacification of Taiwan and Pacification of the Y eh Bandits series, each of which includes 12 lithographs, respectively.

        The Battle of Hoskuluk, from the series Pacification of Sinkiang
    

        In 1759, the Ch'ing general Chao Hui put down a Muslim uprising. Next month, the warrior Ming-jui led a vanguard of 900 cavalry in a crushing victory over a force of 6000 Muslim troops. In the lower right-hand corner of the work, one can see the mounted archery and sword charging tactics used during the early Ch'ing dynasty.

        Macang Lays Low the Enemy Ranks, painted by Lang Shih-ning
       

        Heroic rendition of the courageous Ch'ing warrior Macang engaged in the battle at Hu-erh-man. This battle occurred in the first month of 1759, when Fu Te, Pacifier of the Frontier and Regional Commander of the Right Army, led Ch'ing forces to a conclusive victory over Muslim rebels.