that "the Mongols should have devoted themselves to satisfying the wants of the people, and not to their own amusements," he was well aware that he was appealing to sentiments cherished by the Chinese from their childhood, and ingrained into the national character by centuries of precept.

In the true spirit of the founder of a new family, one of Hongwou's first acts was to entrust to a literary commission the task of writing the history of the preceding dynasty. This was the usual formal notification of the fact that one epoch had closed and that another was about to commence in the national annals. Having passed this decree, which was so emphatically sanctioned by custom that it had come to be regarded almost as binding as a religious rite, Hongwou founded a school for the sons of the greater officials; and to give it a claim to the high consideration it might otherwise have needed, he sent his own sons to be educated there. Nor did his measures for the advancement of learning and for the development of the national mind stop here. They reached their culminating point in two works of the highest magnitude, the restoration of the celebrated Hanlin College, and the codification and revision of the great book of laws.

The Hanlin College had first come into being, or, at all events, acquired definite form, under the wise and beneficent influence of the great Taitsong. That prince had given stability to his authority by the patronage he extended to the learned classes, but his main object had been to elevate the taste and mould the style of Chinese writers. With that object in view, he founded the Chinese Academy; and so completely did he attain the purpose he had before him, that the standard of poetical elegance achieved and laid down by the poets of his day remains the standard still. The verses of Keen Lung, which furnished a theme for the admiration of Voltaire, were based on precisely the same lines as those observed by the poets of Taitsong's reign, although they may exhibit graces to which the older writers had no claim. Having been started on the high road to success by the bounty of the great sovereign of the Tangs, the Hanlin College flourished on the munificence of those who came after him. In this instance, as in much else, each succeeding

dynasty strove not to outdo, but to perpetuate the work of its predecessor. The Sungs and the Kins continued to show favour to the great institution that embraced within its widereaching folds the literature of the country; and one of the proofs of Kublai's capacity to rule the Chinese was that no sooner had he made himself master of the old Kin capital than he assigned as the abode of the Hanlin doctors one of the most costly and pleasantly situated of the palaces of the conquered. What Kublai had done as a matter of policy, Hongwou confirmed, and continued as a question of natural attachment and national predilection. To him the Hanlin represented an institution intimately associated with the dawn of China's greatness. True it is that it had no claims to go back to that vaguely known period of perfection when the constitution of the country had its origin; nor had it been handed down as a remote tradition, with not only its original merits, but also with all the accumulated imperfections caused by the dangers, difficulties, and responsibilities of centuries. But it was closely connected with the period when China took her place, not only as the most powerful empire in Asia, but also among the polished nations of the world.

And Hongwou was open to all these influences. A visit to the Hanlin College inspired him with the genius of the place, and he felt a national as well as a personal pride in reversing the neglect which Kublai's unworthy descendants. had latterly extended to this monument of China's fame. Both at Pekin, and also at Nankin-the favoured city of the earlier Mings-he granted favourable sites for the buildings necessary for the accommodation of its members, and extended to them all the assistance and material support which contributed to maintain the supremacy of its professors among the literary classes of China.

Hongwou's next great work, and one also which still endures, was the codification of the Book of Laws, the Pandects of Yunglo as it has been called. By this act he not only gave definite form and substance to the regulations by means of which society was kept together in China, but he also placed some further hindrance in the way of those who might seck to tyrannize over the people in districts remote.

from the central authority. By recording in a clear and unequivocal form the statutes of the Empire-a work of immense labour, seeing that they emanated from a considerable number of different systems and opposite customsHongwou earned a claim to his subjects' gratitude, not merely because he thereby completed a national monument, but principally because he ensured by it just government and that immunity from official oppression which was, as stated, one of the three essentials to the popularity or stability of any administration in China. Hongwou was careful to do the thing that was not only just and true for all ages, but that which was likely to receive popular approval for the time being.

Nor did his efforts for the benefit of the country show symptoms of exhaustion with the accomplishment of these two grand schemes, which might be set down by the cynicism of sceptical critics to human vanity as much as to the benevolent desire of a paternal ruler. By one of the first edicts of his reign he had revived the ancient law of gratuitous national education. Under the Mongols the schools which used to exist in every town of any pretension had been allowed to fall into decay. They were now restored, and schoolmasters, properly qualified, were appointed to their charge, under the immediate supervision of the Emperor himself; and in order to place learning before the masses in her most attractive form, he caused public libraries, with books supplied from the capital, or at the expense of the Exchequer, to be placed in all the provincial capitals and larger towns. Indeed, it was his ambition that every village throughout the country should possess its library,* but in this it was not possible for him to attain the full success he desired. He had perforce to rest satisfied with having placed at the disposal of a vast number

* Libraries in China have suffered from the neglect which has fallen over most of the national monuments since the death of the fourth Manchu Emperor Keen Lung at the end of the last century, and very few now remain. Even the celebrated Imperial Library at Pekin has suffered in common with those of less note and importance. There are at this time no general libraries or reading-rooms throughout the country; but, as M. Huc has observed, books can be bought in China at a lower price than in any other country, and thus the evil is to some extent remedied.

SUMPTUARY LAWS.

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of his subjects a ready means of self-instruction, and a source of pleasant occupation which they had never enjoyed at any previous epoch.

Hongwou's care for his people was not confined to their mental wants; it extended to the corporal necessities common to mankind. By sumptuary laws he had put down the extravagance of his Court, and the sums which previous rulers had wasted on personal indulgence were devoted by him to the alleviation of his people's requirements. Acting on the ancient and widely recognized principle that the aged and the orphan had peculiar claims on the State, which demands from all alike ungrudging assistance and service, Hongwou impressed upon his officials the duty of attending to the wants of the poor and the weak. It would be saying too much to assert that Hongwou was the founder of orphanages and hospitals in China; but the peremptory instructions. he gave his subordinates before despatching them to their posts in the provinces, probably accomplished the same benevolent objects. While he was on the throne the poor and the sick could feel sure of receiving from the authorities the amount of food or other assistance necessary for their support.

And the credit of this Prince was the greater, because the years which beheld the inception of these plans were marked by wars of which the bitterness and severity were undoubted, if the result continued one of uniform triumph for Hongwou. The people in the more remote districts had not yet acquired the habit of obedience to the new ruler, and so long as doubt was justifiable as to the future of the Mings, there was some reason for those who thought that the national interests might be promoted without any formal recognition of the new dynasty. The Mongol, moreover, was still formidable on the north-west frontier; and while Hongwou was actively engaged in the restoration of the central authority and administration, his general Suta was not less energetically employed in the difficult and dangerous task of driving out the relics of their late conquerors, and of firmly establishing the imperial authority on the western borders.

Suta's campaigns, which form the most stirring episode in

Hongwou's reign, extended over a period of almost twenty years from his first invasion of Shansi to his defeat of the Mongol general, Arpouha, a few months before his death. The invasion of Shansi was accomplished with such ease that it encouraged the Mings to delay no longer than was absolutely necessary in commencing operations against the provinces of Shensi and Kansuh, and the adjoining districts, where the warriors of the desert, again brought face to face with the necessity and penury which had made them conquerors, might recover their old audacity and proficiency in the science of arms. The Emperor resolved to strike quickly and vigorously at the scattered bands of his beaten and discouraged foe before fresh courage and confidence should return.

In the province of Shensi, Lissechi, a general of the Mongols, still maintained an independence, which he evidently hoped might endure. Lissechi aspired to place his state in the path of the Chinese as a barrier against their further aggression, but neither Hongwou nor Suta was disposed to grant him the time necessary for the success of his plans. A brother general, Kuku Timour, had nursed a similar ambition in Shansi, but his ambition had dissolved with his power at the first contact with the vindicators of their country. And now it had come to Lissechi's turn to encounter the same foe under circumstances not more favourable to his prospects, and there was no reason for anticipating that the result in his case would be different or less promptly attained. The military superiority of the Chinese army over the disheartened fragments of the Mongol forces was turned to the greatest advantage by the tactical ability of the general Suta, and the issue was never left in doubt.

The bend of the great river Hoangho* forms a complete

* The Hoangho or Yellow River rises at a place called Sing-Suh-hae in Northern Tibet. Passing through Tcharing and Oring Nors, its course is generally east by north until it enters Kansuh, when it takes a more northerly direction. It stretches beyond that province into the desert, and forms a loop round the steppe occupied by the Ordus tribes; and then flowing south separates Shensi and Shansi until it reaches the Hoeiho. It then flows due east towards the sea. We have no exact knowledge of any roads leading from the east to the west in this quarter, or of any passage across the Hoangho, although both probably exist. The length of the Hoangho is 2600 miles.