HISTORY OF ANCIENT NATIONS. 



.and during which the population was consider 

 .ably changed in character by the irruptions of th< 

 momad hordes of Asia who intermingled with it 

 "Early in the seventh century, a dynasty, callec 

 that of Tang, acceded to power, which ended in 

 '897. After half a century of anarchy, order was 

 restored under the Song dynasty, at the com- 

 mencement of which, or about the year 950, the 

 .art of printing was discovered, five centuries 

 'before it was known in Europe. ' The Song 

 dynasty,' says Schlosser, ' maintained an intimate 

 ^connection with Japan, contrary to all Chinese 

 maxims ; the emperors of this dynasty imposed 

 .no limits to knowledge, the arts, life, luxury, anc 

 commerce with other nations. Their unhappy 

 fate, therefore on being extinguished, in cir- 

 cumstances of special horror, by the Mongol 

 conqueror, Kublai Khan (1279 A.D.) is held forth 

 as a warning against departing a hairbreadth 

 From the old customs of the empire. From the 

 time of the destruction of the Song dynasty by the 

 Mongol monarchy, the intercourse between China 

 and Japan was broken, until again the Ming, a 

 -native Chinese dynasty (1368 A.D.), restored it. 

 Under this dynasty, Peking became the capital oi 

 the empire (1408), as a post of defence against the 

 eastern Tatars, who, under the name of Man- 

 tchus, established (1644) the Ta-tsing dynasty, 

 -which yet occupies the throne. The Tae-ping 

 crebellion is the most extraordinary event in recent 

 Chinese history. Their leader, Hung-sew-tseuen, 

 was a rejected candidate for a post in the civil 

 service. He came across some Christian tracts, 

 "which impressed him so much, that he renounced 

 idolatry, founded a society of Deists, and in 1850 

 revolted against imperial rule. Hung held that 

 he had a divine mission to uproot idolatry, expel 

 the Tatar intruders and existing dynasty, and 

 establish a new dynasty, that of Tae-ping, or uni- 

 versal peace. After a wonderful career of success, 

 3ie was finally put down by a native army under 

 the ' ever-victorious Gordon,' a colonel in the 

 Indian army. 



We may therefore say that China, a country 

 more extensive than all Europe, and inhabited by 

 -a population of more than 300,000,000, is an aggre- 

 gation of matured Mongolian humanity, sur- 

 rounded by Mongolian barbarism. Chinese history 

 does not exhibit a progress of the Mongolian man 

 through a series of stages : it exhibits only a 

 uniform duration of one great civilised Mongolian 

 -empire, sometimes expanding so as to extend 

 itself into the surrounding Mongolian barbarism, 

 sometimes contracted by the pressure of that 

 barbarism, sometimes disturbed by infusions of the 

 barbaric element, and sometimes shattered within 

 itself by the operation of individual Chinese am- 

 bition, but always retaining its essential character. 

 In this region Mongolian humanity has been able 

 to cast itself but into one civilised type. 



The more salient features of Chinese civilisation 

 may be thus described : China is governed as a 

 despotism, with an emperor as head of the state. 

 Subordinate authority is conducted by mandarins. 

 The laws are exact, and administered with great 

 severity. The bamboo is an instrument of pun- 

 ishment in universal use. The citizen is liable to 

 be stripped and whipped by the orders of the 

 mandarin ; and the mandarin himself is liable to 

 <the same punishment by the orders of his supe- 

 riors. Corporal punishment does not involve the 



same ideas of disgrace as in European countries ; 

 and every day in every province of China, thou- 

 sands of grown-up men are flogged. The full 

 number of strokes mentioned in the sentence is, 

 however, rarely inflicted, part being usually com- 

 muted into a fine. Besides corporal punishment, 

 the penalties most common in Chinese criminal 

 procedure are imprisonment, banishment to Tatary, 

 or death in one of the three forms of strangula- 

 tion, decapitation, or slow torture. Of all offences, 

 treason is the most severely punished ; the rela- 

 tives of the guilty party, and sometimes the neigh- 

 bourhood to which he belongs, being condemned 

 to share his fate. We may be assured that a 

 people who submit to this species of injustice, 

 and do not murmur under the degrading inflic- 

 tion of blows, are at a low stage of moral and 

 intellectual development. 



Properly speaking, the Chinese have no national 

 religion ; that which they profess as such is, more 

 strictly, a system of ethical philosophy. They 

 possess a code of morals, which, while it does not 

 deny the existence of God and of a spiritual world, 

 concerns itself chiefly with the business of the 

 present life. The founder of this philosophy, and 

 the most illustrious hero of the Chinese nation, 

 was Confucius, who is supposed to have lived 

 about the year 550 B.C. He appears to have been 

 a man of the highest intellect and virtue ; and the 

 doctrines which he taught while alive, and which 

 are also inculcated in numerous writings attributed 

 to him and to his disciples, form at the present 

 day the religious creed of most of the Chinese. 



In the religion, or proverbial wisdom, of Con- 

 fucius, filial mildness and courtesy of demeanour 

 towards all, veracity, upright dealing, and forgive- 

 ness of injuries, are sedulously recommended ; 

 but from the general deceitftilness and roguery of 

 the Chinese, as experienced by strangers, it would 

 appear that this formal morality exercises but a 

 feeble influence on the conduct. The most re- 

 markable feature in the religion of Confucius is, 

 that it prescribes a code of manners and eti- 

 quette to be observed in the general intercourse of 

 society. Hence, in no country are politeness and 

 attention to form and ceremony carried to such an 

 extent as in China. There are, it is said, 3000 

 rules of manner which an educated Chinese is 

 expected to observe ; including rules for saluting 

 a friend in the street, rules for sending gifts, and 

 so forth. Respect for these rules characterises all 

 ranks in China, though in their intercourse with 

 foreigners they are frequently rude and inhos- 

 pitable. 



Cold and nearly atheistic as the philosophy of 

 Confucius is, it recognises the practice of wor- 

 ship ; or at least this practice has been ingrafted 

 on it. Deities of three classes the highest, to 

 whom are offered the Ta-sse, or great sacrifices ; 

 the middle, to whom are offered the Choong-sze, or 

 middle sacrifices ; and the inferior, to whom are 

 offered the Seaoo-sze, or least sacrifices have 

 temples in Chinese cities. This worship is 

 n many cases only a profession of reverence 

 _br departed human worth. Among the highest 

 objects of worship, besides the heavens and the 

 earth, are tha deceased Chinese emperors ; among 

 he medium gods are the sun, the moon, and 

 he greater Chinese sages ; among the inferior 

 ,jods are the striking phenomena of nature such 

 as rain and thunder, as well as eminent Chinese 



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