CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Strabo (20 A.D.) ; by the one as a still existing, 

 by the other as a formerly existing seat of royalty, 

 and centre of the Ethiopian religion and civilisa- 

 tion. To this Strabo adds, that the race spread 

 from the boundaries of Egypt over the mountains 

 of Atlas, as far as the Gaditanian Straits. Epho- 

 rus, too (405 B.C.), seems to have had a very great 

 impression of the power of the Ethiopians, since 

 he names in the east, the Indians in the south, 

 the Ethiopians in the west, the Celts in the 

 north, the Scythians, as the most mighty and 

 numerous peoples of the known earth. Already, 

 in Strabo's time, however, their ancient power had 

 been gone for an indefinite period, and the Negro 

 states found themselves, after Meroe had ceased 

 to be a religious capital, almost in the same situa- 

 tion as that in which they still continue. The 

 second remark on the Negro branch of the human 

 race and its history, can only be fully elucidated 

 when the interpretation of the inscriptions on 

 Egyptian monuments shall have been further 

 advanced. The latest travels into Abyssinia shew 

 this much that at one time the Egyptian religion 

 and civilisation extended over the principal seat 

 of the northern Negroes. Single mummies and 

 monumental figures corroborate what Herodotus 

 expressly says, that a great portion of the Egyp- 

 tians of his time had black skins and woolly hair; 

 hence we infer that the Negro race had combined 

 itself intimately with the Caucasian part of the 

 population.'* 



MONGOLIAN HISTORY THE CHINESE. 



Overspreading the great plains of Asia, from 

 the Himalaya to the Sea of Okhotsk, the Mon- 

 golian variety may be supposed to have occupied 

 the area known as China, to have crossed into 

 Japan, and to have reached the other islands of 

 the Pacific, and either through these, or by the 

 access at Behring Strait, to have poured them- 

 selves through the great American continent ; 

 their peculiarities shading off in their long jour- 

 ney, till the Mongolian was converted into the 

 American Indian. 



We find this variety broken up into subdivisions 

 (see ANTHROPOLOGY), of which subdivisions cir- 

 cumstances have given a higher degree of devel- 

 opment to the Chinese and the Japanese than to 

 the others, which are chiefly nomadic hordes, some 

 under Chinese rule, others independent, roaming 

 over the great pasture-lands of Asia, and employed 

 in rearing cattle. 



There is every reason to believe that the vast 

 population inhabiting that portion of Eastern Asia 

 called China can boast of a longer antiquity of 

 civilisation than almost any other nation of the 

 world ; a civilisation, however, differing essentially 

 in its character from those which have appeared and 

 disappeared among the Japetidae. This, in fact, 

 is to be observed as the grand difference between 

 the history of the Mongolian and that of the 

 Japetic variety of the human species, that whereas 

 the former presents us with the best product of 

 Mongolian humanity, in the form of one great 

 permanent civilisation, the Chinese, extending 

 from century to century, one, the same, and soli- 

 tary, through a period of 3000 or 4000 years ; the 



* F. C. Schlosser*s Universalhistorische Uebersicht der 

 GesMchte der Alien Welt und ihrer Cultur. 

 66 



latter exhibits a succession of civilisations the 

 Chaldasan, the Persian, the Grecian, the Roman, 

 the modern European (subdivided into French, 

 English, German, Italian, &c.), and the Anglo- 

 American ; these civilisations, from the remotest 

 oriental to the most recent occidental, being a 

 series of waves falling into each other, and driven 

 onward by the same general force. A brief sketch 

 of Chinese history, with a glance at Japan, will 

 therefore discharge all that we owe to the Mon- 

 golian race. 



The Chinese imagination has provided itself 

 with a mythological history extending many ages 

 back into the unknown past. Unlike the mythology 

 of the Greeks, but like that of the Indians, the 

 Chinese legends deal in large chronological inter- 

 vals. First of all, in the beginning of time, was 

 the great Puan-koo, the founder of the Chinese 

 nation, and whose dress was green leaves. After 

 him came Ty-en-hoang, Ti-hoang, Gin-hoang, 

 and several other euphonious potentates, each of 

 whom did something great towards the building 

 up of the Chinese nation, and each of whom 

 reigned, as was the custom in these grand old 

 times, thousands of years. At length, at a time 

 corresponding to that assigned in Scripture to the 

 life of Noah, came the divine-born Fohi, a man 

 of transcendent faculties, who reigned 1 1 5 years, 

 teaching music and the system of symbols, insti- 

 tuting marriage, building walls round cities, 

 creating mandarins, and, in short, establishing 

 the Chinese nation on a basis that could never be 

 shaken. After him came Shin-ning, Whang-ti, 

 &c. until in due time came the good emperors 

 Yao and Shun, in the reign of the latter of whom 

 happened a great flood. By means of canals and 

 drains, the assiduous Yu saved the country, and 

 became the successor of Shun. Yu was the first 

 emperor of the Hia dynasty, which began about 

 2200 B.C. and may be said to commence the purely 

 historical period of Chinese development. Even 

 in the story of his reign there is more fiction than 

 fact. After this dynasty came that oiShang, the last 

 of whose emperors, a great tyrant, was deposed by 

 Wu-wong, the founder of the Tchow dynasty, 

 which began in 1 100 B.C. from which period many 

 date the beginning of real Chinese history. 



In this Tchow dynasty, which lasted upwards of 

 800 years, authentic Chinese history commences. 

 It was during the reign of Ling-wang (571-544 B.C.), 

 one of this dynasty, and most probably about 550 

 B.C. that the great Con-fu-tse, or Confucius, the 

 founder of the Chinese religion, philosophy, and 

 literature, was born. His name was Kong, but his 

 disciples called him Kong-fu-tse ; that is, ' Kong the 

 Master or Teacher.' In the year 248 B.C. the 

 Tchow dynasty was superseded by that of Tsin, 

 the first of whose kings built the Great Wall of 

 China, to defend the country against the Tatar 

 nomades. By rooting out all the petty dynasties, 

 and bringing the whole under one dominion, he 

 may be considered the real founder of the Chinese 

 monarchy ; the very name China, or Tsina, is 

 derived from him. When the Tsin dynasty had 

 overpowered all rivals, one of its kings, for the 

 first time in Chinese history, assumed the title of 

 Hoang, or Emperor. The Tsin dynasty was a 

 short one : it was succeeded in 206 B.C. by the 

 Han dynasty, which lasted till 238 A.D. Then 

 followed a rapid series of dynastic revolutions, by 

 which the nation was frequently broken into parts ; 



