The Yue-Chi founded the Kushan dynasty, in which the greatest king was Kanishka (Vol. 15, p. 653), already mentioned as a Buddhist ruler whose policy marked the beginning of the end of Buddhism in India. On the succeeding dynasty see the article Gupta; and refer again to the article Fa-Hien for the Chinese account of the rule of the second Gupta king, Chandragupta,—on whom in legend see Vikramaditya. On the White Huns and their invasion consult the articles Ephthalites and Huns. On the only other great king of this period, who was paramount monarch of northern India in the first half of the 7th century and whose administration was described by Hsüan-Tsang, see Harsha. On the principal Deccan dynasties of the Hindu period, see Chalukya and Rashtrakuta, and the article Deccan.
Mahommedans and Moslems
For a general notion of the Mahommedan period in India the student should read the articles on Mahommedanism already mentioned, and for more definite information about India, the articles on the 11th century invader Mahmud of Ghazni (Vol. 17, p. 397), and on Somnath, the temple city which he captured and sacked in 1025. See Deccan and Gujarat for the Moslem conquest of these states by Ala-ud-din. For the destruction of the Tughlak dynasty, which followed Ala-ud-din’s successors, see Afghanistan (Vol. 1, especially p. 315) and Timur (Vol. 26, p. 994), by Major-General Sir Frederick John Goldsmid. The “last stand made by the national faith in India against conquering Islam” was in Vijayanagar (Vol. 28, p. 62). With the 16th century and the Mogul dynasty, India is quite definitely Moslem: see Baber, Humayun, Akbar, Abul Fazl the historian of Akbar’s reign, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Agra and Indian Architecture (especially Fig. 17, opposite p. 433, Vol. 14) for the Taj Mahal, the Mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtäz Mal, and—for the culmination of the Mogul power, the beginning of its decay, and the first sign of Moslem bigotry and intolerance on the part of the Mogul emperors,—Aurangzeb. His attempt to conquer the Mahommedan kings of the Deccan gave the natives an opportunity to regain power: see the article Mahrattas, and for the earlier risings of the Mahrattas, Sivaji. And for the rise of Afghan power under the Durani dynasty and the battle of Panipat in 1761, a crushing defeat for the Mahrattas, see Afghanistan, History (Vol. 1, especially p. 316), and Ahmad Shah.
On earlier European settlements in India see the article India, History (Vol. 14, p. 404), and more particularly for Portuguese explorations and settlements the articles Vasco da Gama (Vol. 11, p. 433), Albuquerque (Vol. 1, p. 516), and Goa the capitol of Portuguese India, the last article being by K. G. Jayne, author of Vasco da Gama and His Successors: for Dutch rule the article Dutch East India Company (Vol. 8, p. 716); and for the beginning of British influence in India the articles East India Company; Surat; Madras, where the first English fort was built in 1640 and the first grant, except for factory use, was made by the English; Bombay, acquired from Portugal in 1661–65; Sir John and Sir Josiah Child; Job Charnock, founder of Calcutta, and the article on Calcutta.
The British Conquest
On British political history in India in the 18th century, see the articles on Pondicherry, Dupleix, French Governor-General in Pondicherry, his rival Clive the founder of the British Empire and of the power of the East India Company in India, Eyre Coote who took Pondicherry from the French in 1761, Suraj-ud-Dowlah and Calcutta for the siege of the city and story of the Black Hole, Plassey, Shah Alam for the massacre of Patna; and for the period after Clive the articles Warren Hastings, Mahrattas for the first Mahratta war, Hyder Ali and Mysore for the first Mysore war; Tippoo Sahib and Cornwallis for the second Mysore war; Teignmouth and Bengal, for the permanent settlement of Bengal under Cornwallis; Wellesley and Tippoo Sahib and Seringapatam, Wellington and Lake (Vol. 16, p. 85) for the campaigns against the French and natives during Wellesley’s governor-generalship; Lord Minto for the years from 1807 to 1813; Marquess of Hastings, Ochterlony and Nepal for the war in Nepal; for the wars of 1817 the articles Pindaris, Mahrattas, Elphinstone, Sir John Malcolm; for the administration (1823–28) of Lord Amherst, the articles Amherst, Burmese Wars, Bharatpur and Combermere; for Bentinck’s rule, the articles Bentinck, Suttee, Thugs by Reinhold Rost, late secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, and Mysore; Metcalfe, for a view of his short tenure of office; for the stormy period of the ’40’s, Auckland, Ellenborough, Afghanistan, Sir W. H. Macnaghten, Sir R. H. Sale and Sind; and for the Sikh wars, Hardinge, Punjab, Sikh Wars, Ranjit Singh, Sir Hugh Gough, Dalhousie, Sir Henry Lawrence, Edwardes, Burmese Wars for the second war of 1852, and Oudh for its annexation; and for the close of the Company’s rule, the articles Lord Canning, Indian Mutiny, Delhi, Lord Lawrence, Richard Baird Smith, John Nicholson, Sir Neville Chamberlain, Cawnpore, Nana Sahib, Lucknow, Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir J. E. W. Inglis, Havelock, J. G. S. Neill, Outram, Sir Colin Campbell.
On India under the Crown, since 1858, see particularly the articles on the viceroys, Canning, Elgin, Lawrence, Mayo, Northbrook, Lytton (see also Shere Ali and Yakub Khan),—Ripon (see also Ayub Khan, Earl Roberts, and Abdur Rahman Khan), Dufferin (see also Panjdeh for the Russian scare of 1885 and Burma and Burmese Wars for the dispute with Thebaw), Curzon and Kitchener, and Minto.
CHINA
As with India, so with China, the whole of the article in the Britannica is of value to the historical student. The article China (Vol. 6, pp. 166–231) is equivalent to 200 pages of this Guide. The most important part for the student of history is section V. (pp. 188–212) on History: but such parts of the article as Geography, with a coloured map, the People (pp. 171–174), Religion (174–177), Economics (177–181), Government and Administration (181–188), Art (213–216) with illustrations, and Language and Literature (216–231) are all of importance to help get the background that is so baffling to an occidental studying the Far East. As was the case with India, the study of religions is particularly important and besides the section Religion in the article China, the student should turn to the articles Lao-Tsze, the founder of a philosophy debased into Taoism, Mencius, and Confucius, all by the Rev. James Legge, author of The Religions of China, and the editor of The Chinese Classics, and Buddhism and Lamaism, the latter the form of Buddhism in vogue in China,—and he should remember that there are some Mahommedans in China. In connection with the latest developments in Chinese history he should read with great care in the article China, Section IV, Government and Administration, especially p. 184 on the Civil Service, an elaborate merit system.
Section V. of the article China opens with a treatment by Sir Henry Yule, the famous Orientalist, of the European knowledge of China before 1615, particularly “Cathay” and the early explorers of Mongolia, Carpini (see Vol. 5, p. 397) and Rubruquis (see Vol. 23, pp. 810–812), and of Cathay itself Marco Polo (see Vol. 22, pp. 7–10). The internal history of China begins (Vol. 6, p. 191) with a discussion of Chinese origins: “anthropological arguments seem to contradict the idea of any connection with Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians, or Indians. The earliest hieroglyphics of the Chinese, ascribed by them to the Shang dynasty (second millenium B.C.) betray the Mongol character of the nation that invented them by the decided obliquity of the human eye whenever it appears in an ideograph.... Our standpoint as regards the origin of the Chinese race is, therefore, that of the agnostic.... Their civilization was already old at a time when Britain and Germany were peopled by half-naked barbarians, and the philosophical and ethical principles on which it is based remain, to all appearances, as firmly rooted as ever.” Chinese legendary history goes back to Fu-hi as the “first historical emperor; and they place his lifetime in the years 2852–2738 B.C.” |The First Definite Date| There is much that is purely legendary and mythical in these early records, but with the year 776 B.C. we find a veritable record: in an ode referring to a wicked emperor there is mention of “certain signs showing that Heaven itself is indignant at Yu-wang’s crimes. One of these signs was an eclipse of the sun ... the date and month being clearly stated. This date corresponds exactly with August 29, 776 B.C.; and astronomers have calculated that on that precise date an eclipse of the sun was visible in North China.” It is an interesting coincidence that this earliest sure date in Chinese history is the date of the first Greek Olympiad, from which time was reckoned in the Greek calendar—though there are no certain dates in Greek history until much later. The first outstanding event in the history of China was nearly 20 centuries later—the Mongol invasion; see the articles Mongols (Vol. 18, pp. 712–719) and Jenghiz Khan (Vol. 15, p. 316), both by Sir Robert K. Douglas, author of The Life of Jenghiz Khan. On the period immediately following see Kublai Khan, for the foundation of the Mongol dynasty, and the section Medieval Cathay (Vol. 6, p. 189) of the article China for early exploration and missionary effort. Mongol rule was broken in the 14th century by the founder of the Ming dynasty. |Foreign Relations| The Portuguese arrival at Canton in 1517 marked the beginning of modern intercourse with Europe; and see the article Matteo Ricci by Sir Henry Yule, for the first important work of a Christian missionary in China early in the 17th century. Immediately thereafter came the Manchu invasion, on which see the article Manchuria, by Sir R. K. Douglas. Trade with Europe on a large scale began in the second half of the 18th century; see the article Canton. British diplomatic missions for the improvement of the condition of traders in Canton were unsuccessful, but in 1840 the opium war made China feel the weight of Great Britain’s power when Hong Kong was ceded to the English and other ports were opened to trade: see Lord Napier, Sir Hugh Gough, and Hong-Kong. On the T’ai-p’ing rebellion, the “Arrow” affair, and the second interference of Great Britain with China, see Sir H. S. Parkes, Charles George Gordon (“Chinese Gordon”), Earl of Elgin (Vol. 9, p. 268), Tseng Kuo-fan, Li Hung Chang. On the Russian boundary disputes of 1858 and 1860 see Amur and Vladivostok.