Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

SECTION I. CHINA AND INDIA.

CHAPTER I. CHINA.

China proper comprises less than half of the present Chinese Empire. It was called the land of Sinae or Seres by the ancients, and in the middle ages bore the name of Cathay. In the north of China are the broad alluvial plains, and in the north-eastern portion of the empire, an immense delta. The rest of the country is hilly and mountainous.

The nucleus of the Chinese nation is thought to have been a band of immigrants, who are supposed by some to have started from the region south-east of the Caspian Sea, and to have crossed the head waters of the Oxus. They followed the course of the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River, having entered the country of their adoption from the north-west; and they planted themselves in the present province of Shan-se. Although nomads, they had some knowledge of astronomy, brought from their earlier homes; and they quickly made for themselves settled abodes. The native tribes by degrees were extirpated or driven out. The new-comers cultivated grain. They raised flax, out of which they wove garments.

LEGENDARY ERA, TO THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123 B.C.).—The early annals of the Chinese, like those of other nations, are made up of myth and fable. The annalists placed the date of the creation at a point more than two millions of years prior to Confucius. The intervening period they sought to fill up with lines of dynasties. Preceding the Chow dynasty, the chroniclers give ten epochs. Prior to the eighth of these, there are no traces of authentic history. To Yew-Chaou She (the Nest-having) is given the credit of teaching the people to make huts of the boughs of trees. Fire was discovered by Suy-jin-She (the Fire-producer), his successor. Another ruler (Fuh-he), whose date is fixed at 2852 B.C., discovered iron. He also divided the people into classes. His successor invented the plow. These tales, perhaps, retain vague reminiscences of the methods in which useful inventions originated, or of the order in which they appeared.

With Yaou (2356 B.C.) we reach the period where the narratives which were compiled many centuries later by Confucius, begin their story. In the mass of fable, there is a larger infusion of historical fact, which, however, it is well-nigh hopeless to separate from the fiction that is mingled with it. In that golden age, few laws were required. We are told that the house-door could safely be left open. Yaou extended the empire: he established fairs and marts over the land. During the reign of Shun, who followed him, a tremendous inundation is said to have occurred; and Yu, called "the Great," was energetic in draining off the waters. He ascended the throne in 2205 B.C. His degenerate successors provoked a revolt and the introduction of a new dynasty, called the Shang dynasty, whose first Emperor, Tang (1760 B.C.), had a wise and beneficent reign. Tyranny and disaster followed under the later kings of this house; until finally Woo-Wang, the first sovereign of the Chow dynasty, acceded to the throne (1123 B.C.).

THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123-255 B.C.).—The traditions now become decidedly more trustworthy, although still largely mixed with fable. Woo-Wang was brave and upright. Under him a momentous change in government took place. By him the kingdom was divided into seventy-two feudal states. Internal divisions and struggles resulted from this new political system. The Tartars availed themselves of the weakened condition of the nation, to make predatory incursions. In this period of disorder and danger, Confucius, the great teacher of China, was born (551 B.C.). His father was a district magistrate, and died when the son was only three years old. He was trained and taught by his mother. When she died, he gave up all employments to mourn for her, during three years. His only occupation during this period was study. A grave and learned youth, he at length resolved to become an instructor of his countrymen in the ancient writings, to which he was devoted. He was regular in all his ways, and never ate or drank to excess. He gathered about him scholars; his fame increased; and, in 500 B.C., he was made magistrate of Chung-tu by the sovereign, Duke Ting, an office which he justly and discreetly administered for three years. Sometimes persecuted, he compared himself to a dog driven from his home. "I have the fidelity of that animal, and I am treated like it. But what matters the ingratitude of men? They can not hinder me from doing all the good that has been appointed me. If my precepts are disregarded, I have the consolation of knowing in my own breast that I have faithfully performed my duty." Both by his literary works and by the lessons taught to his disciples, he laid the foundation of a most powerful and lasting influence over his countrymen. He died in 478 B.C., at the age of seventy-three. Laou-tsze, another famous thinker, was a few years older than Confucius. "Three precious things," he said, "I prize, and hold fast,—humility, compassion, and economy." Mencius, a celebrated teacher and reformer, who followed in the path of Confucius, after a long life died in 289 B.C. One of his doctrines was, that the nature of man is good, and that evil is owing to education and circumstances. One of his maxims was, that the people can be led aright, but can not be taught the reasons for the guidance to which they are subjected.

DYNASTY OF TSIN (255-206 B.C.).—Reverting to the course of Chinese history, the next grand epoch is the enthronement of the Tsin dynasty, in the person of the ruler of one of the provinces, which, in the intestine strife among the feudal princes, gained the victory. This was in 255 B.C. In this line belongs the famous Emperor Che Hwang-te, who, in 246 B.C., at the age of thirteen years, succeeded to the crown. His palace in his capital, the modern Se-gan Foo, the edifices which he built elsewhere, the roads and canals constructed by him, excited wonder. He routed and drove out the Tartar invaders, and put down the rebellion of the feudal princes. He enlarged the kingdom nearly to the limits of modern China proper. For the protection of the northern frontier he began the "Great Wall," which he did not live to finish. It was finished 204 B.C., ten years after it was begun. When finished, it was not less than fifteen hundred miles in length. It would reach "from Philadelphia to Topeka, or from Portugal to Naples." The innovations and maxims of government of Che Hwang-te were offensive to the scholars and the conservative class, who pointed the people to the heroes of the feudal days and to the glories of the past. For this reason, the monarch commanded that all books having reference to the history of the empire should be destroyed. He would efface the recollection of the old times. He would not allow his system to be undermined by tradition. The decree was obeyed, although hidden copies of many of the ancient writings were undoubtedly preserved. Numerous scholars were buried alive. His death, in 210 B.C., was followed by disturbances, growing out of the disaffection of the higher classes. In the civil war that ensued, his dynasty was subverted. The throne was next held by

THE HAN RULERS (206 B.C.-22l A.D.).—Their sway, which lasted for four hundred years, covers a brilliant period in the Chinese annals. During the reign of Ming-te, 65 A.D., a deputation was sent to India, to obtain the sacred writings and authorized teachers of the Buddhistic religion, which had begun to spread among the Chinese. The power of the feudal lords was reduced. Northern Corea was conquered, and the bounds of the empire extended on the west as far as Russian Turkestan, In this period, there was a marked revival of learning and authorship. Then lived a famous public officer, Yang Chên, who, when asked to take a bribe, and assured that no one would know it, answered, "How so? Heaven would know, Earth would know, you would know, and I should know." Under this dynasty, a custom of burying slaves with the dead was abolished.

BEGINNING IN 221 A.D., there followed the "era of the three kingdoms." It was an age of martial prowess, civil war, and bloodshed. This long period of division was interrupted in 265 A.D. by a re-union of the greater part of the empire for a brief period. But discord soon sprang up; and it was not until 590 A.D. that unity and order were restored by Yang-Kian, who founded the dynasty, named from his local dominion, Suy.