122 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



a description which, although too favour- 

 able, might be still applied to them ia 

 a general way. 



The present area of the Chinese 

 Empire is 4,500,000 square miles, only 

 two other empires, the British and the 

 Russian, exceeding it in extent. But, 

 measuring by population, it is actually 

 the biggest empire on record, the number 

 of people subject to its rule being esti- 

 mated at 360,000,000, whereas that of 

 India is less than 300,000,000. The area 

 of China Proper is not more than half of 

 the whole empire. 



The early history of the Chinese is 

 singularly obscure. Their own " Book 

 of History " records events said to have 

 occurred so far back as 2350 B.C., the 

 period from which, according to Cou- 

 fucins, the authentic annals of China 

 begin. But it gives uo account of the 

 origin of the race. A few learned 

 Chinese have gone so far as to say that 

 the race now and for more than 4,000 

 years dominant in China is not the 

 race which first possessed the land. They 

 maintain that the original ancestors of 

 the Chinese . were the Bak Sing tribes, 

 and that they came into the country 

 from the west, easily conquering and exterminating the aborigines, and so becoming undisputed 

 lords of the Flowery Land. The Bak Sings were in a much more advanced state of civilisation; 

 hence their advance was made easy. 



Ethnologists divide mankind into four great families, or stocks: the Caucasian, or white; 

 the Ethiopian, or black; the Mongolian, or yellow; and the American, or red. The 

 Mongolian stock in the course of time became divided into a number of branches, which 

 spread over Central and East Asia. Two of the great branches from that stock are the 

 Mongolo-Tartar and Tibeto-Indo-Chiuese, and it is with the latter important section of the 

 Mongol race we are now concerned. Since they became masters of their vast dominions, they 

 have passed through wars and revolutions which would almost certainly have divided such a 

 teeming population into different states if they had been of any other race. But the most 

 violent convulsions did not destroy their cohesion. They did not even lead to any change 

 in the fundamental principles and beliefs on which their social and political life was 

 founded 4,000 years ago, and which continue to be the guiding and controlling sources of 

 their government at the present time. The strength of national unity and the durability 

 of national institutions are the every-day boast of most peoples; but on both points history 

 compels us to award the highest place to the Chinese. 



The physical traits of the average Chinaman may be described in a few words. The form ia 

 well built, and, though rather short to represent what we regard as perfect symmetry, is fairly 

 proportionate. It is something between that of the lithe, supple Hindu and the muscular, fleshy 

 European. The complexion may be described as brunette, with a strong yellowish tinge. In 

 the south of China the people are darker in tint than in the northern provinces, but their 

 swarthiness is not so deep as that of the Portuguese. 



A CHI.VESE HAUMEli. 



