The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea

by Trumbull White

This of course is not history; and but little more can be said for the accounts given of the two dynasties which ruled China between the “golden age” and the opening reigns of the House of Chow. The historian in question had not many sources of information at command. Beside tradition, of which he largely availed himself, the chief of these was the hundred chapters that had been edited by Confucius from the historical remains of those times, now known as the “Book of History.” This contains an unquestionable foundation of facts, pointing to a comparatively advanced state of civilization, even so far back as two thousand years before our era; but the picture is dimly seen and many of its details are of little practical value. This calculation declares that with Yu began the dynasty of Hea which gave place in 1766 B.C. to the Shang dynasty. The last sovereign of the Hea line, Kieh Kwei, is said to have been a monster of iniquity and to have suffered the just punishment for his crimes at the hands of T'ang, the prince of the state of Shang, who took his throne from him. In like manner, six hundred and forty years later, Woo Wang, the prince of Chow, overthrew Chow Sin, the last of the Shang dynasty, and established himself as the chief of the sovereign state of the empire.

It is only with the dynasty of the Chows that we begin to feel ourselves on safe ground, though long before that date the Chinese were undoubtedly enjoying a far higher civilization than fell to the share of most western nations until many centuries later. The art of writing had been already fully developed, having passed, if we are to believe native researches from an original system of knotted cords, through successive stages of notches on wood and rude outlines of natural objects down to the phonetic stage in which it exists at the present day. Astronomical observations of a simple kind had been made and recorded and the year divided into months. The rite of marriage had been substituted for capture; and although cowries were still employed and remained in use until a much later date, metallic coins of various shapes and sizes began to be recognized as a more practicable medium of exchange. Music, both vocal and instrumental, was widely cultivated; and a kind of solemn posturing filled the place that has been occupied by dancing among nations farther to the west. Painting, charioteering and archery were reckoned among the fine arts; the crossbow especially being a favorite weapon either on the battle field or on the chase. The people seem to have lived upon rice and cabbage, pork and fish, much as they do now; they also drank the ardent spirit distilled from rice vulgarly known as “Samshoo” and clad themselves in silk, or their own coarse home stuffs according to the means of each. All this is previous to the dynasty of Chow with which it is now proposed to begin.

The Chows rose to power over the vices of preceding rulers, aided by the genius of a certain duke or chieftain of the Chow state, though he personally never reached the imperial throne. It was his more famous son who in B.C. 1122 routed the forces of the last tyrant of the semi-legendary period and made himself master of China. The China of those days consisted of a number of petty principalities clustering round one central state and thus constituting a federation. The central state managed the common affairs, while each one had its own local laws and administration. It was in some senses a feudal age, somewhat similar to that which prevailed in Europe for many centuries. The various dukes were regarded as vassals owing allegiance to the sovereign at the head of the imperial state, and bound to assist him with money and men in case of need. And in order to keep together this mass, constantly in danger of disintegration from strifes within, the sovereigns of the House of Chow were forever summoning these vassal dukes to the capital and making them renew, with ceremonies of sacrifice and potations of blood, their vows of loyalty and treaties of alliance. At a great feast held by Yu after his accession, there were, it is said, ten thousand princes present with their symbols of rank. But the feudal states were constantly being absorbed by one another. On the rise of the Shang dynasty there were only somewhat over three thousand, which had decreased to thirteen hundred when the sovereignty of the Chows was established.

The senior duke always occupied a position somewhat closer to the sovereign than the others. It was his special business to protect the imperial territory from invasion by any malcontent vassal; and he was often deputed to punish acts of insubordination and contumacy, relying for help on the sworn faith of all the states as a body against any individual recalcitrant. Such was the political condition of things through a long series of reigns for nearly nine centuries, the later history of this long and famous dynasty being simply the record of a struggle against the increasing power and ambitious designs of the vassal state of Ching, until at length the power of the latter not only outgrew that of the sovereign state, but successfully defied the united efforts of all the others combined together in a league. In 403 B.C. the number of states had been reduced to seven great ones, all sooner or later claiming to be “the kingdom,” and contending for the supremacy until Ching put down all the others and in 221 B.C. its king assumed the title of Hwang Ti or emperor and determined that there should be no more feudal principalities, and that as there is but one sun in the sky there should be but one ruler in the nation.

It is interesting to glance backward over these nine hundred years and gather some facts as to the China of those days. The religion of the Chinese was a modification of the older and simpler forms of nature worship practised by their ruder forefathers. The principal objects of veneration were still heaven and earth and the more prominent among the destructive and beneficient powers of nature. But a tide of personification and deification had begun to set in and to the spirits of natural objects and influences now rapidly assuming material shape had been added the spirits of departed heroes whose protection was invoked after death by those to whom it had been afforded during life.

The sovereign of the Chow dynasty worshipped in a building which they called “the hall of light,” which also served the purpose of an audience and council chamber. It was 112 feet square and surmounted by a dome; typical of heaven above and earth beneath. China has always been remarkably backward in architectural development, never having got beyond the familiar roof with its turned up corners, in which antiquaries trace a likeness to the tent of their nomad days. Hence it is that the “hall of light” of the Chows is considered by the Chinese to have been a very wonderful structure.

CHINESE TEMPLE.

Some have said that the Pentateuch was carried to China in the sixth century B.C., but no definite traces of Judaism are discoverable until several centuries later.

The Chow period was pre-eminently one of ceremonial observances pushed to an extreme limit. Even Confucius was unable to rise above the dead level of an ultra formal etiquette, which occupies in his teachings a place altogether out of proportion to any advantages likely to accrue from the most scrupulous compliance with its rules. During the early centuries of this period laws were excessively severe and punishments correspondingly barbarous; mutilation and death by burning or dissection being among the enumerated penalties. From all accounts there speedily occurred a marked degeneracy in the characters of the Chow kings. Among the most conspicuous of the early kings was Muh, who rendered himself notorious for having promulgated a penal code under which the redemption of punishments was made permissible by the payment of fines.