444 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



FOUNDING OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE 



During the third century B. C. there arose in northwestern China a 

 great conqueror and organizer, Sliih Huang Ti (to give him his later 

 appellation), king of the aggressive state of Ch'in." This man of 

 genius subdued the other Chinese states and united them into a 

 single centralized and bureaucratic empire, with himself as its abso- 

 lute ruler — the most enduring political achievement ever wrought by 

 man.^^ 



Systems of government closely similar, even in their details, had 

 arisen not long before in lands farther to the west — in Persia under 

 Darius the Great, in India under Chandragupta Maurya. This new 

 principle in state building appeared in, all three countries within a 

 period of about 3 centuries, roughly 500-200 B. C. It did so, more- 

 over, at successively later dates as we pass from the Near to the Far 

 East. 



With this founding of a centralized empire, the civilization of 

 China, which became in time, incidentally, that of all eastern Asia, 

 was fairly launched on its great historical career. 



SUMMARY 



In the foregoing paper we have purposely avoided attempts at 

 interpretation, necessarily more or less subjective as these are. We 

 have, on the contrary, simply stated ascertained facts, and allowed 

 these to speak for themselves. 



As we have seen, civilization appeared earliest in the Near East. 

 There, certain animals were domesticated, certain plants brought 

 under cultivation; there, too, various basic inventions were made 

 and city life first arose. To accomplish all this required a long 

 period, probably of several thousand years. 



In eastern Asia we found things quite otherwise. Many of the 

 above culture traits appeared there too; but they invariably did so 

 far later, and, relatively speaking, at an already fairly advanced 

 stage of evolution. Nothing has been found to suggest their inde- 

 pendent origin there, while in certain instances we found definite 

 evidence of their ultimate derivation from the West. These traits 

 displayed in the Far East, moreover, just that archaic and fragmen- 

 tary nature characteristic of marginal areas everywhere. 



" From the name of this state almost certainly came our own for the whole of China. 

 Those who dispute this, usually on the ground that the latter name occurs (in India) 

 earlier than the founding of the Ch'In empire, forget that the state of Ch'in had already 

 annexed the eastern ends of both the overland routes which Unlr China with the West. 



»* The Chinese Empire lasted, in substantially the form devised for it by Its creator, 

 for over 2,000 years— 221 B. C.-A. D. 1911. 



