CHINA 



CHINA 



GREAT WALL OF CHINA 



This is the most colossal line of defense in the world, a wall over 1,500 miles long, extending 

 between Mongolia and China proper, with an extension northeastward to the Sungari River. It 

 is called in Mongolian the White Wall, and in Chinese The Wall of 10,000 Li. In the third century 

 B. c. a crude earthwork was erected against the inroads of the Tartars ; this was supplemented by 

 the present wall, which recent investigations establish as dating only from the latter part of the 

 fourteenth century. The structure is about twenty-two feet high, and twenty feet broad, with tow- 

 ers at intervals of a few hundred yards. The immensity of this engineering feat impresses one 

 when it is realized that the wall is as long as from New York City to Omaha, or from the city of 

 Quebec to Winnipeg. It is built of brick or dressed granite shell, filled with earth and covered with 

 a very hard coating of bricks in lime. It follows a winding course over mountains and through 

 valleys, and is still in a fair state of preservation for hundreds of miles. At a point near Kalzan 

 it has been cut through to admit the railway line from Peking. 



people changed from the wandering or nomadic 

 life to a settled existence, and began that care- 

 ful cultivation of the soil which has gone on 

 unbrokenly until to-day. A feudal system grew 

 up, the great land-holders acquiring fiefs so 

 large that they were practically separate states, 

 and thus China became in effect a confedera- 

 tion rather than an empire in the true sense 

 of the word. The emperor, however, remained 

 the real head, politically as well as religiously. 

 The first date that is known with accuracy in 

 Chinese history is during this Chow dynasty 

 August 29, 776 B.C., according to Western 

 chronology ; for on that day occurred an eclipse, 

 the account of which a Chinese poet preserved. 

 The great feudal states, each jealous of its 

 rivals, kept up a constant strife which so dis- 

 turbed the empire that finally, in the third cen- 

 tury B. c., the Chow dynasty was overthrown 

 by the Tsin, or Chin, dynasty, from which 

 China takes its name. 



> Though this dynasty ruled for less than half 

 ^a century, .it accomplished certain notable 



things. The Great Wall of China, which is 

 the most stupendous structure ever built by 

 man, was erected to keep put the Tartars, and 

 the feudal system was abolished. The emperor 

 who performed this latter service was so 

 anxious that his own reign should go down in 

 history as the beginning of the empire, and 

 especially that none of the feudal heroes should 

 be kept in mind, that he had all the literature 

 dealing with previous ages destroyed, and put 

 to death hundreds of learned men. After the 

 overthrow o^the Tsin rulers dynasty after 

 dynasty reigned, some of them doing much for 

 the country, others fomenting strife and blood- 

 shed. There were ages of invention, ages of 

 literary activity, -and occasional dealings with 

 outside countries; as Japan, Persia and Korea. 

 Through them all, however, China was crystal- 

 lizing into the conservative, tradition-loving 

 nation, which, to a large extent, it still remains. 

 Printing was invented in the tenth century 

 A. D., and the practice of binding the feet of 

 women was introduced about the same time. 



