VIEW OF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

TAKEN NEAR THE PASS OF COU PE-KOO.

Fuld tw Arch Pullarton & Clasgow

Eag by R.Scott

CHINESE EMPIRE.

THE CHINESE EMPIRE is, with the exception of Russia, the largest in the world, embracing an area of 5,426,000 British square miles, according to Balbi's political and statistical Table published in 1828. It extends from 73° to 142° east longitude,1 and from 21° to 55° north latitude. Reckoning from Rashgar to the mouth of the Amoor, its length is about 3,460 miles, and its greatest breadth from the Saianian mountains to the southernmost point of China opposite to the island of Hay-nan more than 2,000 miles. The Eastern ocean, forming many gulfs and straits, washes its shores for an extent of 3,600 miles. The gulf of Tonquin and the Chinese sea bound the empire on the south. The channel of Fermosa separates the island of that name from the continent. The Blue sea extends between China and the islands of Lieuchoo, and Japan; the Yellow sea between China and Corea. The whole of the Chinese empire may be included under the following heads: China Proper, Peninsula of Korea, Isles of Hainan, Fermosa, and the Lootchoo Archipelago; Mandshooria, including Lyautong; Mongolia, Soongaria, Little Bukharia, Eastern and Western Thibet, and the Tartars of Kokonor. All the latter divisions, beginning with Mongolia, comprehend what is now denominated Central Asia.

CHINA PROPER..

Name.] Chung-kwe, or the Central Kingdom, is the name by which the Chinese themselves denominate their country, and they so call it from a belief that it is situated in the centre of the earth, and that all other kingdoms are mere isolated extremities of the world. Khatai, the Tartar appellation, taught our forefathers to call China, Cathay; while Chin, the name given it by its southern neighbours, is the origin of Sin and Sina, Chin and Machin, the names used by the Arabs, Persians, Indians, and Europeans in the middle ages. The Sinae were probably the southern, as the Seres, better known to the ancients, were the northern Chinese. The whole of the empire is now generally called by the Tartars, the present possessors, Ta-tsʼhing-kwe, the country of the Ta-tshing (i. e. the reigning dynasty.)

Boundaries and Extent.] China Proper does not embrace one-fourth of the Chinese empire. It comprehends a surface of 1,298,000 square miles, extending from lat. 20° to lat. 41° N., and from long. 97° 42′ to 122° 53' E. It is bounded on the N. by Chinese Tartary; on the S. by the gulf

Owing to the want of astronomical observations, it is impossible to fix with precision the western frontier of the Chinese empire; but it cannot be less than 730 E. long. from Greenwich. The most eastern point, however, of the Chinese empire is well known, as the mouth of the Amoor has been determined both in longitude and latitude by La Perouse, Broughton, and Krusienstien.

of Ton-king and the Birman empire; on the E. by the Yellow Sea and the Chinese Sea, and on the W. by Thibet. It occupies a larger space than Hindoostaun, and its figure is much more compact, approaching to an oval form. The greatest length is from the most S.W. point of Yunnan to the most eastern point of the peninsula of Shantong; that is, from 97° 42′ to 122° 53′ E. long.; whilst its greatest breadth from S. to N. is from 20° 15' to 41° N. lat., or 20° 45'. But if the Island of Hainan be included, 2 degrees must be added, making 23 in whole. The superficies of 1,298,000 square miles only includes the provinces within the great wall. Lyautong, or Quantong, being excluded, though in all former statements it was included in Proper China, as may be seen in Du Halde. Hence some have made the area of China Proper, including this province, 1,500,000 square miles. To this must be added the islands of Hainan and Fermosa.

Divisions. The following table, published by authority in the reign of Kien-Long, who died in 1799, exhibits the provinces into which China is divided, with their chief cities, population, &c. A more particular description of these will be found in succeeding chapters. The 5th column expresses, in geographical miles, the distance from Peking of each capital of the 15 provinces. The distance expressed is not horizontal as measured on a map, but by road stages, originally given in Chinese lis or furlongs of 250 to a degree, and these reduced to geographical miles. The province at the foot of the table, called Fong-t'hyen-fu, or Chinese-Tartary, is the ancient province Lyautong, without the great wall, and must not be confounded with Mandshooria or Eastern Chinese Tartary.

CHAP. I.-HISTORY.

Ir is not unusual for the enemies of the Bible to point out the Chinese as a people whose records are more ancient than Noah's flood, and even than the common term assigned as the epoch of the Mosaic creation. But although the Chinese possess an unbroken series of annals for a very long period, no dependence can be placed upon it, either on the ground of physical or moral circumstances. Their books are written on very brittle paper, and have been frequently re-copied. It is a well-established fact, also, that about two centuries before the Christian era, a barbarous monarch caused all their writings then in existence to be destroyed. In addition, their national vanity leads them to gloss over every fact which militates against their pretensions, and their habitual falsehood stifles every scruple as to a deviation from the truth. Every nation has its fabulous history, and is inclined to assume a high antiquity. Scotland, among the rest, has exhibited a long gallery of fictitious monarchs; and why should any more reliance be placed on the early annals of China than on those of other countries? Are Pe-kis and Ki-pis, Kang-nangs and Nang-kangs, Tong-wongs and Wong-tongs, more worthy of credit than Boeces and Buchanans?

It would be idle and insipid to trace out the annals of China with minuteness; for, besides that little dependence can be placed upon them, they contain little to rouse the sympathy of the reader, and are wholly unconnected with European interests. The most interesting particulars of the Chinese history relate to the incursions of the Tartars, who at last conquered the whole empire, and who still continue to hold the sovereignty; though, by transferring the seat of empire to Pe-king, and adopting the language and manners of the Chinese, Tartary would seem rather to have been conquered by China, than China by Tartary. In the earlier ages of its existence, the empire of China must have been composed of various tribes, who changed their place of residence as circumstances required. This is sufficiently established by such events as the following, recorded in Chinese histories, namely, that in the year 1401 before Christ (1500 years after the pretended commencement of the monarchies), the emperor Poenkeng emigrated, with all his subjects, to a new settlement, and assigned the example of his ancestors in vindication of the measure; that in 1122, the empire was conquered by Voo-vang, at the head of the Tcheoo, a people whom one of their succeeding sovereigns affirmed to be far from numerous; that the different tributary kingdoms, subdued by the founder of that dynasty, soon ceased to acknowledge the authority of his successors, and that at length the most powerful of them, the Tsin, introduced a new race of sovereigns, 255 years before Christ; that the fourth emperor of this new dynasty, Shie-hoang-tee, was the first who effectually reduced these independent princes, and thus became sole master of the empire; but found such a variety of usages among these constituent parts of his dominions, that he could devise no better expedient for removing all traces of their disunion, and compelling them to live under the same laws, than to cause all their historical records to be destroyed, in the year 213 before Christ.

The Chinese empire, now united for the first time, did not long continue under one head, but was soon dismembered into distinct sovereignties, till it was again established by Kao-tee, the founder of the Han dynasty, 200 years before Christ. About 220 years after the Christian era, it was again divided into three kingdoms; that of the Han, in the provinces of Se-tchuen and Shensee; that of the Oey, in the northern part of China; and that of