Hsinbyushin
Hsinbyushin, also known as Maung Rwa or Prince of Myedu, was the third emperor of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma from 1763 to 1776. The second son of the dynasty founder Alaungpaya is best known for his wars with Qing China and Siam, and is considered the most militaristic king of the dynasty. His successful defense against four Qing invasions preserved Burmese sovereignty. His 1765 invasion of Ayutthaya brought an end to the Ayutthaya Kingdom. The near simultaneous victories over Qing and Siam has been referred to as testimony "to a truly astonishing elan unmatched since Bayinnaung." He also raised the Shwedagon Pagoda to its current height in April 1775.
The deputy commander-in-chief during his father's reunification campaigns, Hsinbyushin as king pursued an expansionist policy against his neighbors. By 1767, his armies had put down a rebellion in Manipur, captured the Laotian states, sacked and destroyed Ayutthaya, and driven back two invasions by China. However, his reckless decision to wage two simultaneous wars against China and Siam nearly cost the kingdom its independence. The third Chinese invasion forced Hsinbyushin to hastily withdraw from Siam, until an uneasy truce in 1769.
The specter of war kept the state heavily militarized, setting the stage for army commanders to mistreat the population. In 1773, the army command provoked a rebellion by ethnic Mon troops, only to suppress the mutiny with "undue severity". The warlord behavior by local governors and army commanders only increased in 1774 when Hsinbyushin suffered from what turned out to be a long illness that would ultimately claim his life. In 1775, periphery vassals states of Lan Na and Manipur both revolted. He died in June 1776 while the Burmese forces were still engaged in Siam and Manipur. The Burmese armies withdrew from Siam right after his death, leaving Lan Na under Siamese control. His wars would eventually lead to the present-day Burmese control of the Taninthayi Region, the Northern and Eastern portions of Shan State, and Kachin State.
Early life
The future king was born Maung Ywa to Aung Zeya and Yun San in Moksobo, a large village in the Mu river valley located about 60 miles northwest of Ava, on 12 September 1736. His father Aung Zeya was the chief of the village of a few hundred households, and was part of gentry families that had administered the Mu valley for generations. His father came from a large family, and was related by blood and by marriage to many other gentry families throughout the valley. Aung Zeya claimed descent from a 15th-century cavalry commander and ultimately the Pagan royal line.Ywa grew up during the period in which the authority of King Mahadhammaraza Dipadi of the Toungoo dynasty had largely dissipated across the kingdom. The Manipuris had been raiding increasingly deeper parts of Upper Burma between the Chindwin River and Irrawaddy River since the mid-1720s. Ywa's home region was directly on the path of the raids, and took the brunt of the raids. With the Burmese court unable to deal with the small kingdom of Manipur, the Burmese watched helplessly as the raiders torched villages, ransacked pagodas, and taking away captives. In 1740, the Mon of Lower Burma broke away, and founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom. The central authority of the king had effectively disappeared, and a profound sense of helplessness pervaded and deepened. The Hanthawaddy armies finally toppled the Toungoo dynasty on 23 March 1752 when they captured Ava.
Military commander (1752–1760)
On 29 February 1752, three weeks before the fall of Ava, Aung Zeya founded the Konbaung dynasty to resist the upcoming Hanthawaddy rule, styling himself King Alaungpaya. The Konbaung resistance was just one of many resistance forces that had sprung up across Upper Burma. Many young men from 46 villages in the Mu valley, who longed to redress the humiliations of the previous decades, answered Alaungpaya's call. The 15-year-old Ywa enthusiastically joined his father's call..Ywa, now styled as Thado Minsaw, quickly proved a capable military commander—certainly, the most capable of Alaungpaya's sons, and became a top commander in his own right. By December 1753, the Konbaung forces had driven back Hanthawaddy invasion forces back to Ava, the fallen capital. The 17-year-old prince was given the overall command to recapture Ava. The prince's assault on 3 January 1754 succeeded, forcing Hanthawaddy troops to withdraw in disarray. Pleased, Alaungpaya made his second son the governor of Ava,.
Just three months later, the Hanthawaddy invasion forces were back, this time in their full might. Konbaung forces led by Hsinbyushin and his elder brother Naungdawgyi were badly defeated at present-day Myingyan District. Hsinbyushin fell back to Ava, and had to defend the city against a siege by the invaders. Hsinbyushin's defenses held. Other Hanthawaddy armies also advanced up to Mu valley, the Konbaung homeland, but were driven back. In April 1754, Hsinbyushin also broke the siege of Ava, and pursued the retreating Hanthawaddy armies down to Minbu. Alaungpaya granted Hsinbyushin the town of Myedu in fief, for the latter's successful defense of Ava. He would be known as the Prince of Myedu from then on.
Throughout the rest of the 1750s, Hsinbyushin was a key top commander in Alaungpaya's campaigns which by 1759 had reunited all of Burma, and driven out the French and the British Empire who had provided arms to Hanthawaddy. Hsinbyshin was second-in-command of the Burmese forces in Alaungpaya's invasion of Siam, which overran the Siamese defenses and reached the gates of Ayutthaya in April 1760. But the Burmese forces had to retreat hastily as Alaungpaya suddenly fell ill from scrofula. Hsinbyushin retreated back alongside his father's litter, and was by his father's bedside when the king died near a small village in Martaban.
Heir-apparent (1760–1763)
Alaungpaya was succeeded by his eldest son Naungdawgyi. Alaungpaya had pronounced that all of his six sons by his first wife would become king in the order of seniority. At Alaungpaya's deathbed, Hsinbyushin had promised his father to uphold his wish. But right after his father's death, Hsinbyushin made a blatant attempt to take over the throne, asking the top military command to support him. But he failed to receive sufficient support. Naungdawgyi forgave his brother at the queen mother's intercession because he needed to deal with an insurrection by Gen. Minkhaung Nawrahta, a highly decorated commander with whom Naungdawgyi had a long difficult relationship, and one who led the rearguard action in Siam, as well as a rebellion by his uncle, Thado Theinkhathu, the viceroy of Toungoo.Hsinbyushin, now officially the heir-apparent per Alaungpaya's wish, watched his brother the king try to put down the rebellions, and offered no help. Naungdawgyi was able to put down the rebellions by January 1762, and even recaptured Lan Na in January 1763. By then Naungdawgyi's authority was unrivaled, and Hsinbyushin was prepared to stay as the heir-apparent for the long haul. Then in November 1763, Naungdawgyi, only 29, suddenly died. The ambitious Hsinbyushin, now 27 years old, ascended to the throne.
Reign
On 28 November 1763, Hsinbyushin ascended to the throne. His full royal style at the coronation ceremony on 16 May 1764 was Thiri Thuriya Dhamma Razadhipati Hsinbyushin. He later assumed the new reign name of Thiri Thuriya Dhamma Mahadhammaraza Razadhipati on 3 January 1768.Administration
The first order of business was to rebuild the ruined city of Ava, which he wished to make his capital. By the royal order issued on 27 November 1764, the relocation of the kingdom's capital to Ava from Sagaing was announced. The gates of restored Ava were named after the conquered states: on the east side, Chiang Mai, Martaban, Mogaung; on the south, Kaingma, Hanthawaddy, Myede, Onbaung ; on the west, Gandalarit, Sandapuri, Kenghung; on the north, Tenasserim and Yodaya. He officially moved to Ava in April 1765, after his return from the Manipuri campaign.Culture
In 1765, Hsinbyushin commissioned the translation of the Vyakarana, the Sanskrit works on grammar, medicine, astrology, erotic lore, etc. The Maungdaung Sayadaw translated with the help of nine Brahmin scholars Hsinbyushin had invited to his court from Varanasi, India. In 1771, an official at his court compiled a new law book called Manusara Shwe Min Dhammathat, based on older law books, in Burmese and Pali. In 1774, he raised the Shwedagon Pagoda to its present height, gilding it with his own weight in gold and erecting a golden spire studded with gems to replace the one thrown down during the 1769 earthquake.Though mostly known for his wars, Hsinbyushin was deeply interested in poetry. One of his minor queens, Ma Htwe, was a noted poet. Letwe Thondara, a secretary to the Hluttaw council, whom Hsinbyushin had exiled to Meza Hill, earned his recall two months later by writing the well known Meza Taung-Che poem, bewailing his grief and loneliness.