ORDINARY MEETING.* 

 Professor E. Hull, LL.D., F.R.S., in the Chair 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 

 The following paper was then I'ead by the author : — 



CHINA' S PLACE IN ANCIENT HISTORY: A FRAG- 

 MENT. By Surgeon -General Sir C. A. Gordon, M.D., 

 K.C.B., Q.H.P., Officier de la Legion d'Honueur, etc., etc. 



TWENTY-SIX centuries B.C. an office of Historiography 

 was established by order of Hwangti, " the yellow 

 emperor," then ruler of the Chinese people. From that date 

 to the present the current of history in relation to them is 

 for the most part accepted as correct and continuous, 

 although the circumstance is acknowledged that during the 

 two or three centuries immediately following, a remnant of 

 tradition gave colouring to records of actual events. 



In accordance with the custom of the time Hwangtif was 

 elected to rule over the united tribes of immigrants engaged 

 in consolidatmg their organisation and government in the 

 limited territory then occupied by them on the borders of 

 the Yellow River in Shensi. His first task completed, 

 namely, the subjugation of his enemies, he devoted his 

 attention to the improvement of conditions educational and 



* Subject inti-oduced 17 February, 1896 (5th Meeting of the Session), 

 finally arranged and passed for press 1 September, 1897. 



t B.C. 2632 ? The assigned date of Deluge B.C. 3155. (Hales.) See 

 Note 1 before ApjDendix. 



4(.** The Author desires to express his thanks to Mr. Theophilus G. 

 Pinches, of the British Museum, for having enabled him to arrange the 

 references to Babylonian and Assyrian History in accordance with the 

 results of modern research up to the present date, September, 1897. 

 — C. A. G. 



H 



