CHAPTER XIX.

The empire of China-Unknown to the ancients-Its history involved in fable and tradition-Founded by Noah-Patriarchal form of government-Location, size, cities, towns, villages, monuments, libraries, &c.-Immense population-Observations on acclimating her productions.

THE Chinese empire, which, including its tributary states and those under its protection, is said to cover more than five millions of square miles, and is computed to contain more than three hundred millions of inhabitants—is, perhaps, less accurately known than any other kingdom of the earth. To the ancient historians, both sacred and profane, China was either entirely unknown, or she was, as it were, a "sealed book," into the contents of which the eye of curoisity was not permitted to pry; and though modern enterprise, with a freer and bolder spirit of commerce and inquiry, has been more successful in seeking to penetrate the mysteries of the "Celestial Empire," comparatively little additional light has been thrown upon the subject; or, at least, much still remains to be known. The Portuguese navigators, who followed Vasco de Gama round the Cape of Good Hope, after its discovery by Dias, were the first from whom the Europeans attained any tolerably correct ideas of the situation, extent, and character of this interesting country. And several subsequent embassies from Europe, though all of them failing in the grand object of their respective missions, together with the more recent and successful labours of the intelligent and enterprising missionary Gutzlaff, have tended in some measure to throw down the mysterious screen of national pride and jealousy, behind which the Chinese have ensconced themselves for so many centuries. Other Christian missionaries, also, so far as they have been permitted, have laboured hard, and somewhat successfully, in the same cause.

Although Alexander the Great, who flourished three hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, is stated to have subdued all the then known world, and to have lamented that there were no more nations to conquer, we now know that the vast regions

of northern Tartary, China proper, and even further India, were not included in his conquests. This exception in favour of the countries just named, is supposed by some writers to be attributable to their early knowledge of gunpowder, and the use of artillery. Philostratus, as we have stated in a previous chapter, wrote under this impression in his Life of Apollonius Thyanæus.

But whatever credit may be attached to this historian, there are strong reasons for believing that the empire of China was totally unknown to the ancient Greeks, as it is not mentioned or even alluded to by Homer, or Herodotus, the great father of history. It has been conjectured, however, from a passage in Quintius Curtius, the Latin historian, who wrote the Life of Alexander the Great, that the Macedonian hero had attained some knowledge of the Chinese during his conquests in India, about three hundred and twenty years before Christ, and that it is to them the historian refers in these words-hinc in regnum Sophitis perventum est. Gens ut barbari sapientia excellit, bonisque moribus regitur. In confirmation of this conjecture, it is added that Strabo, the great Latin geographer, calls this kingdom of Sophites, Cathea, a word which is supposed to bear a resemblance to Cathay, the name given to China by the Tartars. The Jews are supposed to have found their way into China, after Alexander, by his conquests in the east, had opened a communication with India; and their arrival in the country is said to be noticed in the historical records of China. The date of that event is fixed by some in the year two hundred and six, and by others in the year two hundred and fifty-eight before Christ. They abound chiefly in the silk provinces.

The ancient history of China is too much enveloped in darkness, fable, and extravagant tradition, to furnish us with any data on which to erect a plausible hypothesis respecting its origin. Some of their writers have claimed an antiquity for the nation of more than ninety millions of years! The more moderate and reasonable of them, however, are content to ascribe their origin to the immediate survivers of the general deluge, and suppose that Noah himself was the actual founder of the empire!

This supposition has been ingeniously sustained by some European writers, particularly by the authors of the "English Universal History." It is suggested that the patriarch Noah, whom the Chinese call Fohee, and whose ark they suppose may

have rested on some mountain in Great Tartary, becoming justly offended at the impiety of his degenerate descendants, about two hundred and thirty years after the flood, separated himself from them; and with a select number of adherents, travelled eastward, where he planted a colony which ultimately became the foundation of the Chinese empire.

In the meantime, his disobedient and refractory descendants, who, with those that accompanied him, comprised all the human race, took an opposite direction, and travelled to the west until they reached the banks of the Euphrates. Here a striking analogy is obvious between the tradition and that passage in Genesis which says "And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there." Here they attempted to "build a tower, whose top should reach to heaven," which impious enterprise was defeated by the miraculous confusion of tongues, which led to their dispersion over all the earth.

Another argument, which has been adduced in favour of this hypothesis, is derived from the fact that there is a striking resemblance between the Chinese government and that which has been generally called the "patriarchal form," from which it is supposed to have originated.†

But after all that has been conjectured and written on the subject, the knowledge of the origin, history, and condition of this extensive and extraordinary empire, is still extremely imperfect and uncertain. It was only at a late period that the nations of Europe became acquainted even with the existence of the country; and even then the peculiar nature of the language, and the careful exclusion of foreigners by the government, prevented, and still in a great measure prevents, that degree of intercourse with

* It is a curious fact, that the celebrated Swedish theologian, Swedenborg, asserts in his writings, that the "Book of Enoch," quoted by Moses, still exists in Tartary. This he says was a divine revelation made to the antediluvians.

"The Emperor of China possesses the most unlimited authority, and can issue new laws, or abrogate old ones, as he pleases. He is the undisputed master of the lives of his subjects. To his revision every verdict is subject, and is of no force until it receives his confirmation. All his own sentences are executed without delay; and all his edicts are acknowledged throughout the empire, as if they were the mandates of Deity."-Ed. Enc.

the people which is necessary to procure correct information of their manners, and free access to their historical records.

So little indeed was known of China, or any part of the eastern extremity of Asia, as late as the fifteenth century, that Columbus lived and died under the impression that all his discoveries were on that coast; little dreaming that a vast continent, and an ocean beyond it of ten thousand miles in width, intervened between them. The opinions of Aristotle, Seneca, and Pliny, that by sailing west from Cadiz, a navigator might arrive at the Indies in a few days, served to strengthen this impression. Strabo, also, the celebrated ancient geographer, had asserted that the ocean surrounded the earth, washing the shores of India on the one side, and the western coast of Spain and Mauritania on the other; so that it was easy to navigate from one to the other, on the same parallel.

By reference to the map of Asia, it will be seen that "China proper," which is the subject of our immediate consideration, extends more than twelve hundred geographical miles from north to south, and not much short of that distance from east to west. It stretches from latitude 21° to 42° north, covering twenty-one degrees of latitude, and about twenty-five of longitude. The limits of the United States include twenty-three degrees of latitude, or one hundred and twenty geographical miles more seacoast than China; but the latter extends westward from the coast to such a distance as to include more than a million and a quarter of square miles, while the whole extent of our own country, including the Oregon territory, is only a little more than two millions of square miles. It is bounded on the north by the vast regions of Tartary, from which it is separated by an artificial barrier fifteen hundred miles in length, said to have been erected in the year one thousand one hundred and sixty, as a work of defence, and is known by the appellation of the "Great wall of China." The eastern boundary of the empire is the Yellow and China Sea, forming an extensive coast of almost every variety of climate. On the south, it is bounded partly by the ocean, and partly by the kingdom of Tonquin and Cochin-China. Its western boundary consists of lofty mountains and extensive deserts, which separate it from Bucharia, Thibet, &c. This vast empire is divided into fifteen provinces, which, according to Chinese statements, contain four thousand four hundred

and two walled cities, divided into two classes, the civil and the military; the first comprising two thousand and forty-five, and the second two thousand three hundred and fifty-seven cities. The frontiers and seacoasts are defended by four hundred and thirtynine castles, fortified and covered by two thousand nine hundred and twenty towns, many of which are equal in population and extent to the walled cities themselves; while the villages scattered over the interior are declared to be innumerable.

There are also, according to the same authorities, eleven hundred and forty-five royal hospitals, or lodging-places for the officers and servants of the court; eleven hundred and fifty-nine triumphal arches, erected in honour of kings and heroes; two hundred and eight monuments, dedicated to the memory of females who have been distinguished by the virtues of their sex; two hundred and seventy-two libraries, continually open to the learned and in almost every city or town, schools and colleges established by their great philosopher Confucius, or founded in honour of his name. How near to the actual truth these flaming and probably exaggerated accounts approximate, it is impossible for strangers to determine. We know that this people possess an extraordinary share of national pride and vanity; despising all the rest of the world, and believing, or affecting to believe, that every other nation of the earth is bound to pay them homage and obeisance.

By the Chinese themselves, their country is called TehongKaoue, or the middle kingdom; because they formerly imagined that it was situated in the middle of the earth, and that all other countries lay scattered around their empire in the form of small islands. In latter times they have indeed acquired a more correct geography; but so inveterately do they adhere to ancient opinions, and especially to whatever flatters their national vanity, that they still continue to express themselves in this erroneous manner, and to preserve unaltered every sentiment and expression of their great philosopher Confucius. In their hyperbolical jargon, China is the "Celestial Empire," and their emperor the "Father of ten thousand years," and the "Brother of the sun and moon."

But, after making all due allowances for hyperbole and exaggeration, the country in question is emphatically one of the wonders of the world; for the whole geography and history of