MONGOLE STOCK. 



275 



the invasion of Zingis Khan, China was divided into two empires, 

 or dynasties the north, or Cathay, and the southern, or Mongi ; and 

 these, from 1234 to 1279, were divided between the Great Khan and 

 the Chinese : the northern empire, which had been dismembered by 

 Zingis, was finally subdued, seven years after his death. The perfect 

 reduction of China was reserved for the arms of Cublai, and the whole of 

 the country, from the great wall* (built in the third century, A.C.) to 

 Tonquin, submitted to his dominion. (" The circumjacent kingdoms of 



* In the third century, A.C., an immense wall, 1,500 miles long, was erected to defend the frontier 

 northern regions of China from the inroads of the Huns, who, nevertheless, overcame this obstacle, and 

 obtained from Kaote, the Chinese monarch, an annual tribute of silk and money, besides a select band of 

 the fairest virgins ; and this alliance between the haughty Tanjous, or chiefs of the Huns, and the 

 Chinese, was thus secured by their marriage with the daughters of the imperial family and other 

 nobles. 



t Gibbon says that Cublai declined from the pure and simple religion of his great ancestor, and 

 sacrificed to the idol Fo ; and his blind attachment to the lamas of Thibet, and the bonzes of China, 

 provoked the censure of the disciples of Confucius. The attachment of the khans, and the hatred of 

 the mandarins, to the bonzes and lamas, seems to represent them as the priests of the same god, of 

 the Indian Fo, whose worship prevails among the sects of Hindostan, Siam, Thibet, China, and 

 Japan. 



