2l8 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Students of China will await, more- 

 over, the new life in the empire and the 

 opening of the interior in the hope that 

 excavations in interior cities and the 

 bringing to light of old records may tell 

 us more than we now know and better 

 explain and illustrate the conditions of 

 the dazzling past. 



China's famous competitive examina- 

 tions were begun under the Hans ; a 

 penal code, the model of all subsequent 

 ones, was drawn up, and, as before re- 

 corded, Buddhism was first introduced 

 from India. The limits of the empire 

 were extended until under the Western 

 and Eastern Han dynasties they in- 

 cluded Szechuan, Yunnan, and Fukien. 



Romance tells its story of these times 

 in the great Chinese historical novel 

 entitled "The History of the Three 

 States," which immortalizes in a halo 

 of glory that period, which was at its 

 height about three centuries after the 

 birth of Christ. Every Chinese delights 

 in this graphic story of valorous deeds. 



We now pause at the threshold of the 

 illustrious Tang dynasty, that shaped 

 Chinese destinies for three hundred 

 years, A. D. 618-907. To reach this 

 period we pass the Tsin and Eastern 

 Tsin dynasties, that succeeded the Hans 

 and ruled for one hundred and fifty years 

 with another group of fifteen monarchs. 

 A few lesser dynasties followed, and 

 then the first Tang began his beneficent 

 sway. During this d^masty Korea be- 

 came an acknowledged dependency of 

 China, Siam sent tribute-bearers, and 

 Persia sought aid from the Chinese Em- 

 peror in a war with other lands. It 

 was one of the Tangs that welcomed 

 ■the Nestorians. The canal S3^stem of 

 China was extended, libraries were 

 built, schools opened, and the people 



were occupied peacefully and happily 

 with agricultural pursuits for unusually 

 long periods. The Hanlin lyibrary and 

 College was founded in 755, the writings 

 of Confucius were newly annotated and 

 revised, and poets, essajdsts, and histo- 

 rians thronged the courts of the em- 

 perors in place of eunuchs and concu- 

 bines. But if preceding dynasties had 

 been disgraced with beautiful and dis- 

 solute but powerful women, who con- 

 trolled the empire by controlling their 

 emperors and ministers, the Tangs had 

 likewise the cruel and immoral but brill- 

 iant and able Empress Wu. She ruled 

 China with a rod of iron and to the 

 benefit of the people for fifty-four years. 



Arab travelers who visited China in 

 those days returned with stories of cop- 

 per money, rice wine, and the use of tea 

 as a beverage. Envoys of the Pope at 

 this period sought to know more of 

 China, and Mohammedanism also then 

 first gained extensive entrance into 

 China and became a factor in its devel- 

 opment. 



Ivooking to Europe, we find that Eng- 

 land was then divided among the Saxon 

 princes, and France and Germany were 

 in that chaotic state which preceded the 

 reign of Charlemagne. The discovery 

 of printing is ascribed to this period, or 

 about A. D. 581, nine centuries before 

 Caxton introduced printing into Eng- 

 land. In the siege of Tai-yuen, in the 

 eighth century, gunpowder was used in 

 cannon that threw 12-pound stone shot 

 some 300 paces. After twenty emperors 

 had reigned and China began to see the 

 approach of a modern period of history, 

 the Tang dynasty ended with a desolate 

 land, ruined towns, and the capital razed 

 to the ground by fire and vandal con- 

 querors. 



( To be concluded in the July )i umber') 



