CONTENTS OF VOL. I. PACE I. The Early Ages ... ... ... ... i II. The Decline Of The Chow Dynasty ... 19 III. The Fall or The Chow Dynasty ... ... 28 IV. The Tsin Dynasty ... ... ... ... 37 V. Rise Of The Hans ... ... ... ... 53 VI. The Han Dynasty ... ... ... ... 65 VII. The Han Dynasty—continued ... ... ... 89 VIII. The Revival And Fall Of The Hans ... 99 IX. Temporary Division Of The Empikk ... ... 118 X. The Dynasty Of The Later Tsins ... ... 126 XI. The Song And The Tsi Rulers ... ... 142 XII. Three Small Dynasties ... ... ... 156 XIII. The Tang Dynasty ... ... ... ... 173 XIV. The Tang Dynasty—continued ... ... 188 XV. The Decline Of The Tangs ... ... ... 209 XVI. Five Small Dynasties ... ... ... 223 XVII. The Sung Dynasty ... ... ... ... 234 XVIII. The Sung Dynasty—continued ... ... 252 XIX. The Sungs And The Kins ... ... ... 274 XXC The Mongols ... ... ... ... 289 XXI. The Fall Of The Kins ... ... ... ... 299 XXII. The Sungs And The Mongols ... ... 316 XXIII. The Fall Of The Sungs ... ... — 329 XXIV. The Yuen Dynasty... ... ... ... 356 CHAPTER PAGE The Reign Of Hongwou ... ... ... 401 The Early Ming Rulers ... ... ... 431 The Ming Dynasty—continued ... ... 445 Three Ming Emperors ... ... ... 456 The Ming Dynasty—continued... ... ... 469 The Long Reign Of Wanleh ... ... 480 The Manchus ... ... ... --- --- 496 Wars Between The Mings And Manchus... 505 The Growth Of Manchu Power Under Tait- The Conquest Of China ... ... ... 534 The Manchu Dynasty ... ... ... 563 The Early Years Of Kanghi's Reign ... 582 Kanghi's Relations With Gai.dan ... 597 Kanghi's Second War With Galdan ... ... 609 Kanghi's Troubles In Central Asia ... 619 Kanghi's Administration ... ... ... 628 The Reign Of Yung Ching ... --- 646 Keen Lung's Early Years ... - -- --- 661 The Conquest Of Central Asia ... ... 671 The Wars With The Burmese And The Miaotze 690 Wars In Tibet, Nepaul, And Formosa ... 7°° LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. Major-general Charles G. Gordon, R.E., C.B. Frontispiece page 722 VOL. II. Frontispiece page 26 ., "4 » *76 THE HISTORY OF CHINA. CHAPTER I. THE EARLY AGES. The origin of all great peoples and empires is to be discovered amid the mists of a more or less remote antiquity, made tangible alone for us by the preservation of myths and legends, which afford in their similarity a proof of the affinity of all the races on the earth. The Chinese, like the Jews and the ancient Egyptians alone, claim to trace back their national existence to a period centuries before Solomon erected his Temple, or Homer collected the ballads relating to the Trojan War, and turned them into his immortal epic From a date anterior to that accepted for the occurrence of the Flood of Noah, the people of China possess a history which preserves the names of kings and conquerors, and describes remarkable events with an appearance of exactitude that would almost compel credence. In comparison with their institutions those of Ancient Egypt and Assyria have only moderate claims to antiquity, and the states of Greece and Rome were but the creation of yesterday. The observer might well stand aghast if he were called upon to follow the exact details in the history of a people and an empire, which were great and definite in form nearly five thousand years ago. It would be not less weak than impossible to demand of the human faculty so severe a strain. The subject would soon become monotonous, as each succeeding cycle of prosperity and military vigour or of depression and decay, following the other with unvarying regularity, was described. But the extreme age of the institutions is one key to the history of the Empire, and the •J! Vol. I. B |