CHINA. 7i 



teachings of the foreign god, rumors of whose fame had already reached 

 the Pacific shore. It has since been supposed by some that this meant 

 tidings of Christ; but the basis for such an inference is doubtful. At 

 any rate the embassy found its way to India and returned thence with 

 the doctrines of Buddhism, which at once became the established re- 

 ligion of the country, spreading over the whole of China and eventually 

 Japan. It makes an interesting speculation to consider what the effect 

 on the world would have been if the embassy had taken a more north- 

 ern route, bringing it to Palestine instead of to India. 



The Tang dynasty a. d. 618 to 908 marks perhaps the zenith of 

 Chinese development, when, there is no doubt, its civilization and culti- 

 vation outshone those of Europe at the same period. Literature flour- 

 ished; trade was nurtured, the banking system developed, laws were 

 codified and the limits of the empire were extended even to Persia and 

 the Caspian Sea. The art of printing was discovered, certainly in block 

 form and probably by movable type. The fame of China reached India 

 and Europe, whence embassies were despatched bearing salutations 

 and presents. Monks of the Nestorian order were received by the Em- 

 peror Tai-tsung, who gave permission for them to erect churches, and 

 thus was Christianity first publicly acknowledged in China. Although 

 the efforts of the Nestorian monks continued for many years from 

 perhaps as early as 500 a. d. to 845, yet they were without permanent 

 results, as they left no monuments behind them, and the practice of 

 Christianity was suspended for some centuries. 



In 1213 a. D. the Chinese for the first time passed under a foreign 

 rule, when Genghis Khan, the great Mongol, crossed the wall and began 

 to lay waste the country. When he had captured Peking and estab- 

 lished a Mongol dynasty, he turned his attention to further conquests, 

 and in 1219 led a force westward. With it he overran Northern India, 

 Asia Minor, and even entered Europe in Southern Eussia. He then 

 withdrew to Peking, having established the largest empire in the world's 

 history. Under his degenerate successors this vast power dwindled, the 

 only permanent result being found in Europe; for the presence of the 

 Turks on that continent is due to the invasion of Genghis, as he drove 

 them before him out of their own Asiatic country. 



The last purely Chinese dynasty was the Ming (Bright) which occu- 

 pied the throne from 1368 to its overthrow by the Manchus in 1644. 

 The capital of this house was originally at Nan-king, but was moved by 

 the great Emperor Yung-loh to Pekin in 1403, where he constructed 

 the famous Ming Tombs forty miles northwest of the city, where he 

 and his successors of Ming lie buried in solitary grandeur. He also es- 

 tablished the laws under which China is governed to-day, and under 

 him the seeds of Christianity were permanently planted in China in 

 1582 by the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci. About two hundred and 



