CHINA. 



7i 



Historically, China enjoys the distinction of being the oldest con- 

 tinuing nation in the world. Fairly authentic records trace back the 

 course of events to about 3,000 years b. c, so that it rightly claims an 

 existence of at least 5,000 years. Previous to this period there is a vast 

 amount of legendary matter in which probability and fiction have not 

 yet been separated. 



China's own historians, with characteristic conceit, make out their 

 country's history to be contemporaneous with time. Owing to her 

 seclusion and isolation from the affairs of other nations, China's history 

 possesses a local rather than a world's interest, and for the most part is 

 a record of the rise and fall of the several tribes or peoples going to make 

 up the nation, each such change establishing a new dynasty. However, 

 there are certain epochs of general interest and certain salient points in 

 the nation's development and growth that should be understood and 

 kept in mind if any study of China or of things Chinese is undertaken. 



Accepted Chinese chronology begins with the reign of Fuh-hi in 

 the year 2852 b. c. As to the significance of that date it is interesting 

 to note that it is four hundred years before the rise of the Egyptian 

 monarchy, five hundred years before that of Babylon and precedes the 

 reputed time of Abraham by a period almost as long as the whole record 

 of English history, from the conquest to the present time. 



In the Chau Dynasty, which lasted from b. c. 1122 to b. c. 249, we 

 find the great period in Chinese literature, an era comparable with that 

 of Elizabeth in our records. In 550 b. c. Confucius was born, whose 

 philosophical reasonings, owing to the long time he antedated the spread 

 of Christianity and Mohammedanism, have affected the thought of more 

 human beings than the writings or sayings of any other man, with the 

 possible exception of Buddha. 



Although Confucius is the central figure of the epoch, there are at 

 least two other men substantially contemporaneous with him, and who 

 are but only a little less prominent, Liao-tze, who preceded him fifty 

 years, and Mencius, who followed him one hundred years. The former 

 was a religious philosopher, on whose writings there has been founded 

 the doctrine of Taoism. This philosophy is based on Eeason (Tao) and 

 Virtue (Teh), and is of interest in that it leans towards an eternal mono- 

 theism. According to his theory the visible forms of the highest Teh 

 can only proceed from Tao, and Tao, he says, is impalpable, indefinite. 

 Taoism, therefore, contemplates the indefinite, the eternal and a pre- 

 existent something which Liao-tze likens to the 'Mother of all things/ 

 or what we call a creator. 



In Chinese literature there are the nine classics, the five greater and 

 the four lesser books. The former are Yih-King, the Book of Changes; 

 Shu-King, Historical Documents; Shi-King, the Book of Odes; Li-Ki, 

 the Book of Rites, and Chun-Tsin, a continuation of the Shu-King. Of 



