ASIA. 



north, and the sea on the east, has long been in- 

 habited by one race, and united under one govern- 

 ment, that of China. We have long been familiar 

 with the coast region ; but it is only within the last 

 few years that the German traveller, Baron von 

 Richthofen, has given us correct general notions 

 of the geography of the interior. He has shewn 

 that the chains represented in our maps are purely 

 conventional Southern China is a region of 

 parallel mountain-chains running north-east and 

 south-west, and the summits of which do not 

 exceed, in general, an elevation of from 2000 to 

 3500 feet. No great plain is met with over this 

 area, and the rivers which cross it pass from 

 valley to valley between the parallel ridges by 

 deep gorges. The streams thus run to and fro 

 through the valleys to turn a barrier, and 

 their courses are, in consequence, sluggish. On 

 the north and west of the Chinese extension 

 of the Kuen Lun, there is another system of 

 mountains, running north-east and south-west, 

 which separates China and the Mongolian plateau. 

 This country sinks eastward into extended 

 plateaux and broad valleys, covered with tertiary 

 deposits, and finally into the great plain of China, 

 into which flows the Yellow River. A great move- 

 ment of upheaval is believed to be taking place 

 on the northern coasts of the Chinese plain, 

 which is damming up the mouths of the great 

 streams, destroying their embankments and the 

 canals fed from them, and thus causing inunda- 

 tions and a wide-spread misery, which has been 

 the source of much of the present weakness of 

 the government of Pekin. China south of the 

 Kuen Lun, that is to say, the southern hill-country, 

 is well cultivated in the valleys, and its hills are 

 clad to the top with luxuriant vegetation. Every- 

 where the river-bottoms yield crops of the finest 

 rice, and the hills, tea. Silk is also produced in 

 large quantities. In the northern division of 

 China, the surface is covered either with a rich 

 and deep tertiary deposit, or with an alluvial soil, 

 both of which are exceedingly fertile. There are 

 bare ridges rising out of these, but they do not 

 cover a great area. The northern river-basins 

 and the great plain produce the finest crops of 

 grain and vegetables. In addition to these pro- 

 ducts, the southern parts of the plain produce 

 tobacco and cotton. 



The government is despotic. The emperor is 

 absolute in the empire ; his governors, in the 

 provinces. The emperor is assisted in governing 

 by two councils, and his decisions are regularly 

 published in the Pekin Gazette. A system of 

 competitive examination exists in China, by which 

 the most able men are supposed to be sifted from 

 the general population, for employment as officers 

 in the public service or mandarins. 



A return published in 1844, and not very reli- 

 able, gives the revenue of China as ^63,934,713. 

 No statement of the expenditure is given in the 

 public accounts, and it appears that the governors 

 of provinces have constantly to make up deficien- 

 cies by extraordinary demands on the tax-payers. 

 The trade of China is chiefly with the United 

 Kingdom and India. The United States, as 

 customers, stand next in importance. The exports 

 in 1881 amounted to .20,000,000, and the imports 

 to ,25,660,000. The exports consist chiefly of tea, 

 the value sent from the treaty ports to the United 

 Kingdom in 1881 being ,7,500,000. 



The Chinese, generally, are strong and ener- 

 getic. At home, they exhibit a bigotry, pride 

 and contempt of foreigners which were sup- 

 posed to indicate stupidity. But this is not 

 the impression they produce in America and the 

 colonies, where the belief now seems to gain 

 ground, that if they make themselves acquainted 

 with the European arts and sciences, and, above 

 all, with the modern art of warfare, the English 

 and Russians will find them formidable rivals in 

 any struggle for the possession of Asia. Baron 

 von Richthofen has shewn that the population is 

 divided by the Kuen Lun into two sections. In 

 the south, the sea-boards, and the hills which 

 separate them from the interior, have also pro- 

 duced an effect: on language, and the dialects of 

 Quang-tong and Fo-kien differ from that of the 

 rest of China. 



Neither the extent nor the population of China 

 are known with anything like certainty. According 

 to the most reliable estimates, the empire, with its 

 dependencies (Mantchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, and 

 Corea), has an area of about 4,000,000 English 

 square miles, with a population of 375,000,000. 

 The area of China Proper is stated at 1,538,000 

 square miles, with a population of 350,000,000. It 

 is divided into eighteen provinces Chih-le, Shan- 

 tung, Shan-se, Honan, Keang-soo, Gan-hwuy, Ke- 

 ang-si, Foo-keen, Che-keang, Hoo-pih, Hunan, 

 Shen-se, Kan-suh, Se-chuen, Kwang-tung or Can- 

 ton, Kwang-si, Yun-nan, Kwei-choo. 



The history of China goes back to a very remote 

 period ; but perhaps the first date that can be 

 looked upon as historical was the erection of the 

 Great Wall of China in 220 B.C. by the first 

 emperor of the Tsin dynasty, as a barrier against 

 the invasions of the Mongol Tatars. The same 

 monarch is said to have conquered six nations, 

 and appears to have extended his sway over the 

 whole of China north of the Kuen Lun. About 

 201, the race of Tsin was followed by that of Han. 

 In 406 A.D. two chief kingdoms appear in China, 

 the capital of one being Honan, and of the other 

 Nankin. They were united in 585 ; but after 

 this period, civil wars and Tatar massacres weak- 

 ened the country. Kublai Khan conquered the 

 whole country in 1279, and in his time it was that 

 Europeans first became acquainted with it from 

 the writings of Marco Polo. In 1368, the Mongols 

 were expelled, and the Ming native dynasty 

 succeeded. The Mantchus invaded China towards 

 the middle of the I7th century, and in 1651 were 

 in possession of the whole country. Since this 

 time they have retained supreme power, but they 

 seem to be gradually losing control over the 

 distant provinces of the empire. One of the most 

 formidable revolutions the Chinese government 

 has recently had to encounter was that of the 

 Tae-ping rebels, who, under their leader, Hung- 

 sew-tseuen, marched to Nankin in 1850-53, and 

 who were only put down with the assistance of 

 the English and French in 1864. The Man- 

 tchus were less fortunate in the western provinces 

 of the empire, where Kashgaria threw off their 

 yoke, and for a time was independent under a 

 Mohammedan Emir. In early times, the Chinese 

 do not appear to have been hostile to intercourse 

 with foreigners. It was the attempt to proselytise 

 made by the Spaniards and Portuguese, in the 

 i6th century, that first excited their hostility to 

 Europeans. For a long period, trade with England 



