ETHNOLOGY, ETC., OF CHINA. 191] 
the Han family degenerated with each successive representa- 
tive, and, finally, the last of their race gave himself up so 
completely to indolence and pleasure that he was forced to 
abdicate in favour of the son of one of his own ministers. 
As a result of conditions existing in “the Middle King- 
dom,” however, considerable difficulty arises in presenting 
a picture in which the order of events may be strictly fol- 
lowed. ‘Thus, we learn that towards the end of the Han 
dynasty China proper consisted of three separate States,* 
the transactions relating to which are still a favourite 
subject of historical plays and romances in that country. 
The States referred to were named respectively Wei, Wu, 
and Shuh. The first, under the son of ‘Tsao Tsao, 
at Loh-yang, whence he ruled the northern country. ‘The 
second, under Siun Kren, occupied the northern provinces 
from Shantung to the Yellow River down to the mountains of 
Fuhkien; that Prince holding his court at Nankin. ‘The 
third, under Liv Pi, was regarded as the legitimate dynasty, 
from his affinity with the Han; he held his court at Chingtu, 
in Sechuen. Under the latter the fortunes of the dynasty 
revived as the After Han dynasty, by some writers reckoned 
as the 8th. 
It was about the middle period of the Han dynasty that 
events occurred in Judea the importance of which is tran- 
scendent in the spiritual history of the human race,—those 
events the birth and death of Jesus Christ. When the birth 
of our Saviour took place in Bethlehem the throne of China 
was occupied by Pine m1, otherwise “The Prince of Peace,” 
eleventht emperor of the dynasty,—the coincidence of title 
furnishing subject of comment to subsequent writers. 
As a result of the divided condition of the empire already 
noticed as existing at the period alluded to, we again find 
that difficulty occurs in following events in their proper 
sequence. But according to the authority{ now followed, 
the reigning monarch at the date of the Crucifixion was 
Kwana Woo, fourteenth of the same dynasty. In his reign 
a remarkable solar eclipse was recorded, the precise date of 
its occurrence ‘the last day of the seventh moon, in the 
twenty-eighth of the fortieth cycle,” and Du Halde has left it 
to astronomers to decide from the data so given whether 
that event coincided with the darkness which happened at the 
death of Christ. 
* Known as “the period of Sankwo, or Three States.” 
+The Empress Lrucui,—- who, from B.C. 186 to 178, although nominally 
Regent, was virtual ruler,—is not reckoned in this enumeration. 
Sir John Davis. 
