C H 1 
of them in his fervice, by giving them appointments of 
trull and confidence about his perfon and court at Pekin. 
He gave encouragement (o artifts and fcientific emi¬ 
grants from all countries, with a-view to the general im¬ 
provement of the Chinefe empire. We lhalJ not, in this 
place, enter into any farther particulars of his reign, 
becaulethefe will be iufficientiy (hewn in our account of 
the embafly. After a calm and profperous reign, ex¬ 
tended to the unufual length of lixty-three years, he 
died in March 1799, in the ninetieth year of his age,- 
and was fucceeded by his fon Ka-hing, the prefent reign¬ 
ing emperor; who, adopting the policy of his anceitors, 
appears, like them, averfe to any foreign intercourfe or 
donnedlion. 
The extenfive country over which this monarch holds 
the ablolute (way, is thus emphatically depifted by fir 
William Jones •• “Though I do not pretend (fays he) 
to fet limits to this vaft empire, yet I might confider it 
as embraced on two fides by Tartary and India, while 
the ocean feparates its other fides from various Afiatic 
ifles of great importance in the commercial iyftem of Eu¬ 
rope : annexed to the immenfe traft of land in China, is 
the peninfula of Corea, which a vaft oval bafon divides 
from Nifon or Japan, a celebrated and imperial ifland, 
bearing in arts and in arms, in advantage of iituation, but 
not in felicity of government, a pre-eminence among 
eaftern kingdoms, analogous to that of Britain among 
the nations of the weft. So many climates are included 
in lb prodigious an area, that, while the principal empo¬ 
rium of China lies nearly under the tropic, its metropolis 
enjoys the temperature of Samaikand j i'uch, too, is the 
diverfity of foil in its fifteen provinces, that, while fome 
of them are exquiiitely fertile, richly cultivated, and ex¬ 
tremely populous, others are barren and rocky, dry and 
unfruitful, with plains as wild, or mountains as rugged, 
as any in Scythia, and thofe either wholly deferted, or 
peopled by lavage hordes, who, if they be not Hill inde¬ 
pendent, have been but very lately lubdued.” 
Although the term China be well known to that peo¬ 
ple, it is not the name by which they chufe to denomi¬ 
nate their country: they call it fometimes Chujn-cue, or 
the Central Kingdom; and, at other times, they diftin 
guilh it by the words Tien-hia, or, ‘ What is under Hea¬ 
ven,’ meaning, ‘ All that is valuable on earth.’ To an 
implicit.confidence in which opinion, might be juftly at¬ 
tributed that fovereign contempt in which they hold all 
other nations of the earth ; and hence the caule of their 
declining the fmalleft intercourfe with foreign powers. 
Their own country certainly produces all that is necef- 
fary to make a people rich and happy. Even fome of 
their mountains are covered with foreits of tall, ftraight, 
and large, trees, fit for building, for mails, and for (hip- 
tirnber. The emperor fometimes procures from thele 
mountains enormous trunks, which he caules tobetranf- 
ported to the dittance of more than three hundred 
leagues, by land and water, to be employed in public 
works. Other mountains furnilh quickfilver, iron, tin, 
copper, gold, filver, and precious ftones, Political fore¬ 
fight has however prevented many of the latter from 
being opened. The chiefs of the early dynafties, aware 
that artificial riches could not form a folid balls for the 
happinefs of Hates, were afraid of opening thefe fources 
of luxury, left the people Ihould be induced to negleft 
the natural riches of their foil, by applying to other la¬ 
bours than thofe of agriculture. About the commence¬ 
ment of the fifteenth century, the emperor Tching-tfou 
caufed a mine of precious ftones to be (hut up, which 
had been opened by a private individual. “Uielefs la¬ 
bours,” faid he, “ produce fterility ; a mine of precious 
llones does not furnifh Corn.” 
The country of China derives every convenience of 
fertility and tree intercourfe with its own interior, by 
means of its abundant lakes, rivers, and canals. Its prin¬ 
cipal lakes are the Tong-ting-hou, fituated in the pro¬ 
vince of Hou-quang, which is more than 2^0 miles in 
N A. 44 jf 
circumference; the Tai-hou, part of which extends into 
Kiang-nan ; the Hong-tfe, and the Kao-yeou, of the 
province of Kiang-nan; and the Poy-ang-hou, formed 
in Kiang-fr, by the confluence of four confiderable 
rivers, Which, like the fea, is lirbjefit to tempefts and 
ftorms. This laft is near 300 miles in length. Among 
the rivers that water this vaft kingdom, there are two 
particularly celebrated. The firft is the Yang-tfe-kiang, 
or Son of the Sea. It has its fource in the province of 
Yun-nan, traverfes Hou quang and Kiang-nan, and, 
after having watered four provinces,, through an extent 
of twelve hundred miles, it falls i^ito the eaftern fea, 
oppofite the ifle of Tfong-ming. This river, at the 
diltance of more than ninety miles from its mouth, is a 
mile and a half broad. The navigation of it is dan¬ 
gerous, and numbers of veftels are loft in it. It flows 
with- great rapidity, and forms in its courfe feveral 
iflands, which are beneficial to the province, on account 
of the multitude of reeds, from ten to twelve feet in 
height, which they produce, and which are ufed for fuel 
in all the neighbouringcities. When this river is (welled 
by torrents from the mountains, it becomes fo impetuous 
that it overflows and carries away part of thefe iflands, 
and often forms others from their wrecks. Another 
great river of China is the Hoang-ho, or yellow river, 
the Chinefe give it this name, becaule the clay and iapd 
which it waihesdovvn, efpecially in time of rain, make its- 
water appear of a yellow colour. It rifes in the moun¬ 
tains which border the province of Te-tchuen on the 
weft, and, after a courfe of nearly 1800 miles acrofs Tar¬ 
tary and China, difcliarges itfelf into the eaftern fea, not 
far from the mouth of the Yang-tfe-kiang. It is very 
broad and rapid ; but fo (hallow, that in fome places it 
is fcarcely navigable. It often, like the Nile, overflows, 
and buries whole villages; fo that it has been found 
necelfary to raife long and ftrong banks, in order to con¬ 
fine it. Superior to thefe rivers is the-celebrated canal 
which reaches from Canton to Pekin, and which forms a 
communication between the fouthern and northern pro¬ 
vinces. In this canal a number of others terminate, 
which ftretch out into the country, and form a commu¬ 
nication between the neighbouring cities, towns, and 
villages. Near to Chao-hing and Ning-po there are two 
canals, the waters of which do not comm unica te, and which 
differ ten or twelve feet in their level. To render this 
place paflable for boats, they have conftru< 5 led a double 
glacis of large ftones, or rather, two inclined planes, 
which unite in an acute angle at their upper extremity, 
and extend on each fide to the furface of the water. If 
the bark is in the lower canal, they draw it up the plane 
of the firft glacis, by means of feveral capftans, until it 
is railed to the angle, when, by its own weight, it glides 
down the fecond glacis, and precipitates itfelf into the 
water of the higher canal, with a confiderable velocity. 
This principle of the inclined plane, has been lately a- 
dopted in Europe. See the article Canal, vol.Iii. p. 699. 
A great part of the gold which is procured in China,, 
is collected from the lands of the rivers and torrents 
which fall from the mountains, fituated on the weftern 
boundaries of the provinces of Se-tchuen and Yun-nan. 
As the Chinefe gold is not coined, it is employed in com¬ 
merce, and becomes merchandize. It is never ufed there 
but in gilding, or for flight ornaments: the emperor 
being the only perfon who poflefl'es any quantity of gold 
plate. Iron, lead, and tin, mines are common, and thefe 
metals are fold at a low rate. The copper-mines of the 
provinces of Yun-nan and Koei-cheou have furnifhed, 
for a great number of years, all the finall coin that is 
ltruck in the empire. The Chinefe have a kind of cop¬ 
per which they call f e-tong, or white copper, fo pure and 
fine, that in brilliancy it nearly approaches to filver. 
This copper is naturally white when taken from the mine 5 
and when broken into grains, it is found dill whiter in 
the interior part than on the furface. Quarries and coal¬ 
mines are abundant in every province. Lapis lazuli is 
found 
