Imatges de pàgina
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in maintaining their position in Honan, and for a short distance in the surrounding region on account of the prevailing dissension; but their authority was but a faint semblance of what it once had been, and still claimed to be. Like the later Cæsars, the less able they became to wield the sword against the enemy, and to resist the arrogance of the proud, the closer they wrapt the purple round them, and sought in the pleasures of the palace to forget the duties of the council chamber. So far as the record of notable events or the exercise of Imperial power is concerned, the annals of the Chow rulers might be already closed; but the ability and virtues of Laoutse, and the genius of Confucius, gave a lustre to the last three centuries of their rule not unworthy of its earlier fame.

Before passing on to the consideration of the important epoch which we have now reached, and which forms the commencement of the regular history of China, it will be advisable to glance back for a moment at the vast space of time which has been traversed in the few preceding pages.* Originally a nomad people, following the free and untrammelled existence of the hunter and the shepherd, the necessities produced by increasing numbers compelled the Chinese to become agriculturists, and to settle in towns. They had their mythical ancestors, in common with the rest of mankind, who taught

This is the more necessary as the antiquity of Chinese history has been challenged by several writers. There can be no question of its substantial accuracy from the time of Confucius, but that is only two thousand four hundred years ago. The balance of evidence is wholly in favour of the account given in these pages, but the remarks of so intelligent a critic as M. de Guignes may here be inserted and studied with profit. It is permissible to believe that his critical faculty has proved too strong for his judgment of facts. "One of the causes which have led the Chinese into great errors with regard to the antiquity of their country is that they have given to the ancient characters the meaning which they acquired in much more recent times. The characters now translated by the words emperor, province, city, and palace meant no more in former times than chief of tribe, district, camp, and house. These simple meanings did no flatter their vanity sufficiently, and they therefore preferred employing terms which would represent their ancestors as rich and powerful, and their Empire as vast and flourishing in a durable manner before the year B.C. 529."

them the use of fire and of clothes, and who raised them gradually from the brute life which they were leading into a higher and nobler one. Then appeared the first conqueror Hwangti, to be followed by those three perfect, and probably ideal Emperors, Yao, Chun, and Yu, who left an example that none of their successors could hope to emulate. With the death of Yu the first stage in Chinese history closes. The principle that the ruler of the country should be the very best and ablest man in the community, carried out during four brilliant reigns, was set aside partly by the national sense of gratitude, partly because the progress of the age had led to the supersession of the purely public spirit of the patriarchal rulers, by the personal ambition of their descendants. The death of Yu was followed by the establishment of the first dynasty in the person of his son. After six centuries that dynasty was destroyed, to be succeeded by a second, which, when it had ruled for four centuries, was displaced by a third, still reigning at the period we have reached.

With the establishment of a distinct line of succession the country expanded its limits, and assumed all the proportions of an Empire. Its existence was acknowledged by the surrounding nations. It became an object of terror or of solicitude to its neighbours. Foreign embassies flocked to the capital; the princes of the desert, the rulers of the Jongs of the Amour, the kings of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, admitted that the countenance of the great Ti was the light which illumined Eastern Asia. And then, as all things human decline and fall-if they even arise with renewed strength like Antæus-there came a long period of decadence. Prince succeeded prince only to find the extent of his territory more limited, of his authority more circumscribed. weakness of one ruler had led to the transfer of supreme power from the hands of the sovereign to those of the nobles, already too formidable, and it was not until the ranks of the nobles produced a man, in the third century before our era, capable of subduing his peers that the Emperor reacquired the old supremacy, which had belonged to him in days that may well be styled prehistoric. It was at this period that the feudal system was in most vigorous condition, although

The

ORIGIN OF CHINA'S NAME.

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under the later dynasties it was to show greater and more remarkable energy. This system had at least in its favour that the nobles were of the same race as the people of the soil, and that in their provincial capitals they set themselves to imitate not the vices and folly of the ruling Emperor, but the wisdom and irreproachable conduct of those earlier and wise princes who are held up as the pattern of every kingly virtue. By these means China, though under the sway of tyrants and incapable princes during the last five hundred years of the Chow dynasty, was well governed on the whole, and the people remained fairly contented. To this circumstance the ruling House undoubtedly owed its preservation. It had become contemptible in the eyes of the nation, but contempt is not hatred, and it was suffered to maintain a station which, by its own act, had been deprived of practical significance. Not until personal ambition was called into play, and the overthrow of the Emperor had become the special desire and object of a single noble, did the Chows receive the blow which destroyed them. It is the one instance in Chinese history of a dynasty surviving by several centuries the period of its utility—a proof, in its way, of the fact that the grandeur of the Empire as a fixed unit has been created since that time.*

Something may be said here of the origin of the name of China, which is at present wrapt in some doubt. It is probable that the root whence this name came is lost in a very remote antiquity, although the Chinese themselves are unaware of it, and apparently puzzled at the name being applied to their country, which they speak of by the title of the reigning family. It may be possible that the Sinim of Isaiah was identical with China; but "in the laws of Manu and in the Mahabaratha" the country of Chinas or Shinas bears a closer resemblance, and it has been pointed out that they were probably a tribe in the country west of Cashmere, now known as Dardistan. The Romans spoke of the people of a far eastern country-the most remote in the world, and consequently beyond the India of Alexander-as Seres Sinenses, rich in silk and gold, and great traders. Later philologists have traced the name back to the Tsins (Tsina, Tchin, Tchina, China), and many other curious explanations have been given of its origin. In fact, every writer has had a theory to ventilate, and the reader may be referred to the works already quoted, and especially to the admirable article on China from the pen of Professor R. K. Douglas, in the ninth edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica.” The late Sir Henry Yule, in a note on p. 210 of vol. ii. of "Marco Polo," VOL. I.

C

says, "We get the exact form 'China '-which is also used in Japanese -from the Malay." This ought to be decisive, and remove all necessity for further speculation. The fact may be noted that whereas this vast Empire became known as China to those who approached it by sea, or derived their information by intercourse from the south, Cathay, or Khitay (the Russian name), was the name given by those coming overland from the north.

CHAPTER II.

THE DECLINE OF THE CHOW DYNASTY.

THE earliest religion of the Chinese consisted in the worship of a Supreme Being, who was the sovereign both of the heavens and of the earth. The people recognized with shrewd practical judgment that the power which could not be divided on earth without suffering in extent could not be divided in a sphere of assumed perfection. It may be doubted whether any nation possessed and described, with anything approaching the same degree of beautiful conception, the idea of that moral and spiritual pre-eminence which among all the peoples of the world has taken form in the creation of a great and supreme God. Originally, and in its essence, the religion of the Chinese was as far removed from materialism as can be conceived. The great moral teaching of Christianity had been learnt and taken to heart at least seven centuries before the birth of Christ, and among the traditions of the Chinese, in the days of the great philosophers, were that "God ultimately rewards the good, and punishes the wicked; but his punishment is awarded without hatred and without anger," and "however wicked a man may be, if he repent of his sins, he may offer sacrifices." China, like Rome, was hospitable to all the gods, and when foreign nations came, as recorded in the chronicles, they brought with them their rites, if not a distinct religion. It is impossible to estimate how much or how little influence exterior considerations exercised on the religious life of the Chinese, but we know by the history of the human race that a religion composed solely of the worship of a single Supreme Being has never sufficed to meet the wants

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