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kind of Salic law was passed, that "Queens should not reign, or assist in public matters"- -a good law, adds the historian, and worthy of being an example: it was, however, soon afterwards abrogated in practice. It has been concluded, not without probability, that the name China, Sina, or Tsina, was taken from the dynasty of Tsin. The first Emperor, or founder, is said to have had political transactions with Fergana, a province of Sogdiana, and to have received a Roman embassy.

On the conclusion of this race of Sovereigns, in A.D. 416, China became divided into two principal kingdoms, Nanking being the capital of the southern one, and Honân of the northern. For about 200 years afterwards, five successive races (woo-tae) rapidly followed each other, and the salutary rule of hereditary succession being constantly violated by the strongest, the whole history of the period is a mere record of contests and crimes. At length, in A.D. 585, the north and south were united for the first time into one empire, of which the capital was fixed at Honân. The last of the five contending races was soon after deposed by Ly-yuen, who founded, in A.D. 622, the dynasty of Tâng.

Tae-tsoong, the second Emperor of this race, was one of the most celebrated in China; his maxims are constantly quoted in books, and his temperance and love of justice considered as patterns. There is reason to believe that certain Christians of the Nestorian church first came to China in his reign, about A.D. 640. It is recorded that foreigners arrived, having fair hair and blue eyes. According to the Jesuits, whom Du Halde has quoted, a stone monument was found at Sy-gan-foo in Shensy, A.D. 1625, with the cross, an abstract of the Christian law, and the names of 72 preachers in Syriac characters, bearing the fore-mentioned date. It has been urged that this

discovery might have been a pious fraud on the part of the holy fathers; but it is not easy to assign any adequate motive for such a forgery, and the evidence seems upon the whole in its favour.

One of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of Tâng is the extraordinary power which the eunuchs of the palace arrogated to themselves. The third Emperor was so besotted by one of his wives, that he left her invested with sovereign power at his death, contrary to the enactment before made and provided. She reigned for about 20 years absolutely, leaving her son Emperor; and the vicious and troubled period is another example, quoted by the Chinese, of the mischiefs which result to public affairs from the management of women. During her reign, the eunuchs gathered fresh force, and for a considerable time had the choice of the Emperors, and the control of their actions. The influence of such singular rulers must of course be referred to the operations of intrigue. The uncontrolled access which their condition gave them to all parts of the palace, and to the company of both sexes, was greatly calculated to facilitate their projects; and projects of mischief and disorder were the most likely ones to be formed by those who were cut off from the ties of kindred, and sufficiently disposed to regard the rest of mankind as their enemies. The awe of state was not long felt by such as were the immediate attendants, and perhaps the companions, of the Sovereign, in his private haunts; and that barrier once passed, the approaches of insolence and usurpation might advance unchecked. The power of the eunuchs was at length destroyed by the last Emperor of the race, who in great measure extirpated them, through the assistance of a powerful leader, whose aid he requested. This person fulfilled his commission, but subsequently killed the Emperor and his heir, and after

a course of atrocious cruelties put an end to the dynasty Tâng, A.D. 897.

The whole country was once more thrown into a state of war and confusion, with several aspirants to the sovereignty. This period, which lasted about fifty-three years, is called in Chinese histories the How Wootae, or "latter five successions." The Tartar people of the region now called Leaou-tung, at the eastern extremity of the Great wall, encouraged by the unsettled and divided condition of the empire, gave much trouble by their incursions.

These turbulent portions of the Chinese annals, which were now soon to give way to a settled Oriental despotism, bear many features of a feudal cast about them. We think we can perceive in the book of Meng-tse, or Mencius (as his name has been latinized by the Jesuits), that the original government of China approached in some degree to that description. "The Sovereign, the Koong, the How, the Pĕ, and the Nân, constituted five ranks. The Sovereign had the immediate government of 100 ly; the Koong and How each of 100 ly; the Pě 70; and the Nân 50 ly." (Hea-meng. Ch. X.) We read in their histories of grants of land to certain officers of state, and of government and military lands, in which may be perceived a resemblance to the feudal fiefs or benefices. Whatever may have been the tenure in former times, the Emperor is now, as in most Oriental countries, regarded as the ultimate owner of all lands, from which he receives a tax of about 10 per cent.

After a succession of civil wars, Tae-tsoo, the first Emperor of the Soong dynasty, was raised to the throne by the military leaders, in consequence of the minority of the real heir, who was only seven years of age, A.D. 950. Being about to engage the Eastern Tartars, they did not wish to be ruled by a child, who

could not appreciate their services. They accordingly fixed on a servant of the deceased Emperor, and immediately despatched messengers, who found him overcome with wine, and in that state communicated their message. The history adds, that "before he had time to reply, the yellow robe was already applied to his person." Substitute purple for yellow, and this might be taken for the translation of some passage in Tacitus or Suetonius.

The art of printing having been invented just previous to this dynasty, about five hundred years before it was known to us, the multiplication of books, the instruments of learning, was a principal cause of the literary character of the age of Soong: to the same cause may be attributed the increased fulness of the records of this period, from whence the really interesting thread of Chinese history commences. Our lights now multiply fast, and the Tartars begin to take a considerable share in the national transactions. In fact the whole history of this polished but unwarlike race is a series of disgraceful acts of compromise with the Eastern Tartars, called Kin (the origin of the Manchows, or present reigning family), until the Mongols, or Western Tartars, took possession of the empire under Koblai Khan.

In the reign of Chin-tsoong, the third Emperor of Soong, the Eastern Tartars having laid siege to a town near Peking, were forced to treat, but still obtained advantageous terms, with a large annual donative of money and silk. The pacific disposition of Jin-tsoong, the fourth Emperor, gave them further encouragement, and a disgraceful treaty was the consequence. Ten districts to the south of the wall being claimed by them, they received an annual quitrent of 200,000 taëls, and a quantity of silk. complete his disgrace, the Emperor called himself a tributary, making use of the term Nă-koong.

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Shin-tsoong, the sixth Emperor, is described as having hastened the fall of his race, by attending to the absurd suggestions of a minister, who was for reverting to the antiquated maxims of Yaou and Shun, who may properly be said to belong rather to the mythology than the history of the empire. At length Wei-tsoong, the eighth Sovereign in succession, enslaved himself to the eunuchs, and soon experienced the consequences of his weakness and imbecility. The Eastern Tartars advanced apace, took possession of a part of northern China, and threatened the whole country; they were destined, however, to be checked, not by the Chinese, but the Mongols. These inhabited the countries which extend from the northwestern provinces of China to Thibet and Samarcand. They had already conquered India, and being now called in against the Kin or Eastern Tartars, they soon subdued both them and the enervated Chinese, whom they had been invited to protect.

The Mongols might be said to be masters of the northern half of modern China from the year 1234. The Kin, who until then had occupied a part of the provinces bordering on the wall, were attacked on one side by the Chinese, and on the other by the Mongols, under the command of the famous Pě-yen (hundredeyes, or Argus), who is mentioned by Marco Polo, and the correctness of whose name is of itself a sufficient proof of the genuineness of that early traveller's narrative. Their principal city was taken, and the death of their prince put an end for the present to the Eastern Tartars; but the remnant became the stock from whence grew the Manchows, who afterwards conquered China, and who hold it to this day in subjection.

When Koblai Khan had possessed himself of the northern part of the empire, he took occasion of the infancy of the reigning Chinese Emperor, to use an

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