l \l\)fftiinA CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 i9ie _ CorneJI University Library DS 735.W72 A history of China :being tlie historical 3 1924 023 120 342 A Cornell University 7 Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924023120342 A HISTORY OF CHINA A HISTORY OF CHINA BEING THE HISTOEICAL CHAPTERS FEOM "THE MIDDLE KINGDOM" BV THE LATE S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D. PBOFESSOR OF THE CHINESE LANaUAOE AND LITERATUHE IN TALE COLLEGE WITH A CONCLUDING CHAPTER NARRATING RECENT EVENTS BT FREDERICK WELLS WILLIAMS IKSTBT7CT0B IN ORIENTAL HISTOEY IN YALB UNIVEKSITY NEW yOEK CHARLES SCRIBNEE'S SONS 1897 H ^^"^ COPTRIGHT, 1882 AKD 1897, Bt CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ; PREFACE. The need for a good liistoi-y of China remains as unsatisfied to-day as when " The Middle Kingdom " was first written lialf a century ago. This is intended neither as a reflection upon tlie times in which we live, nor as a reproach to the small band of learned men that deserve the name of Sinologues for an age is competent to determine its own interests, and if educated Europe cares little for the Far East it but continues in the traditions of tlie past ; nor have scholars yet been able to investigate the unexplored mass of Chinese printed books which must supply authorities for the story of China's long career. The statement that the history of this nation has yet to be written is only made here in explanation of the reap- pearance in this volume of an inadequate sketch originally designed to form part of a comprehensive study of the country and its inhabitants. In view of an awakening interest iti the affairs of Asia manifest throughout Europe and the United States, it has seemed advisable to provide—at least temporar- ily—for the wants of many readers by re-issuing the historical chapters of " The Middle Kingdom," adding thereto a sum- mary of the more important occurrences that have marked the dozen years of Chinese history since that work was last re- vised. No attempt has been made to amend the portion already in type, since it is hoped that the lessened cost of the volume secured by using the old plates would compensate for any advantages to be expected from its revision within the limited time at the editor's command. Such accounts of political and social China as have appeared in our language within the past half-century have for the most part suffered VI PREFACE. from tlie bias, national, religious or otherwise, of tlieir^uthors. While absohite impartiality is not a quality to be found here or elsewhere among human annalists, a true conception of east- ern Asiatic politics is only to be obtained by forsaking so far as possible our prejudices of race and creed and approaching them with unselfish and sympathetic interest. An endeavor is made in these pages to comprehend the stand-point of tlie Chinese instead of eitlier condemning or excusing their acts. Events so recent as those detailed in the last chapter of this book nnist needs be ai-i-anged in the form of a rather colojless chronicle, the perspective being too small as yet to develop them into a philosophic history. In her present distress and indecision, it is still more difficult to discuss the fntuie than the present of the Chinese Empire. She has now had nearly three generations of intercourse and experience with Western nations, and yet with few exceptions her statesmen to-day exhibit the same hopeless incapacity in dealing with questions involving the fate of the nation that marked the advisers of Taukwang and Hieiifnng. Apparently their lessons at the hands of hardier peoples have taught them nothing ; they show since their discomfiture by Japan the same abject fear that has in times past driven or drifted them into spasms of abase- ment, which to the merely superficial observer seem closely bordering upon imbecility. The dread inspired by defeat is not an unaccustomed phenomenon to students of Asiatic na- tions. In the simple structure of an oriental despotism a disastrous campaign means, usually, the supplanting of the reigning family by a new house, native or foreign. This event has moi'e than once during this century been confidently awaited in the East as the normal outcome of Chinese reverses. At each catastrophe the mandarinate—which is but a ruling clique —has, as it were, bent its head for the coup de grace, involving, of course, the extinction of the dynasty, only to arise to renewed life and a lengthened lease of corrupt control. In a very real sense the government and the nation of China are two different things. The former has just escaped, thanks in part to European interference, from peril of its life; the latter feels no sense of escape whatevei', only a renewal of the PREFACE. Vii unjust rule under which it has repined since the present dy- nasty became effete. In some degree we may account, there- fore, for the prostration of tlie governing minority in the its Empire, weakness and ineptness in war and in peace ; with characteristic oriental stoicism it has not thought seriously of guaranteeing the future, being still confident of its inevitable doom. Meanwhile, the nation itself, conscious of new forces on every side, has shown by rebellions cropping out eveiy- where, by the machinations of secret societies and by the more open and laudable efforts of a few individuals, its discontent with the old regime and its desire to participate in the profits of industrial life with modern appliances and under modern conditions. This is the New China, that the Old; the one has insisted upon the adoption of railroads and telegraphs, the circulation of newspapers, and the introduction of Western science into the curriculum of official education ; the other has excited the hatred of the ignoi'ant people against foreigners and thwarted or ridiculed eveiy attempt to re-establish the Empire by the adoption of European institutions. Whether the one party or the other will eventually succeed in obtaining permanetit control is now rendered doubly un- certain by the active and apparently unresisted interference of Russia in Chinese affairs. While this new political factor, and the still newer phenomenon of militant Japan, introduce elements into the problem of the Far East as yet too undefined to discuss, it may be observed in conclusion that the proposed network of railroads in Manchuria to be built, equipped and guarded by Russian money and troops, shows who is the chief gainer b}' the late war. Thi.-i is what British diplomatists have uniformly expected as a result of a contest which in- volved China witli any other power, and for this I'eason they tried to prevent the war. Having failed to do so they not unnaturally declined to join their continental rival and humil- iate Japan by interfering in the treaty which gave her the rewards of victory. The hopes of political prophets as to the military value of China's millions being for the present in abej'ance, it is still possil)le for Gi-cat Britain —the represen- tative of what is best in Christian civilization in Asia—to via PEEFACE. count upon an ally that is imbued with a dislike as intense as her own for Russia, and that is willing to join her in rescu- ing from the Adversary the country which each in turn has invaded and vanquished. A word ought to be said as to the spelling of proper names in this volume. Had a thorough revision been practicable the editor might have conformed to the "Wade system, not because of its intrinsic superiority to others, but because of its general use in a matter wliere a clear majority ought to be law. While endeavoring to preserve the same forms throughout the vol- ume, he has in the final chapter yielded to common usage in some familiar names like Foochow, Kelung, etc., and has for the sake of simplicity abandoned the accent employed to mark the Italian i. In Korean names any scientific consistency in spelling is excessively diflficult to attain, since with the no- menclature of three languages to choose from foreign wiiters naturally vary widely in their selections. The place called in the text Ping yang, for example, is written P'vng jang (or yang) in Chinese, Phyong yang in Korean, and Hei jo in Japanese, and so with every spot in that unblest and stricken peninsula. In general the consonants have their English values here while the vowels are sounded approximately as in Italian or Spanish, with the exception of a which corresponds with e in the Wade system and represents the short u in such words as/wn, tun, etc. F. W. VV. New Haven, Conn., February, 1897. ;;; CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Cetkonologt and Early History, 1-53 General doubts and ignorance concerning the subject, S ; The mythological period, 3 ; Chinese notions of cosmogony, 4 ; The god Pwanku, 5 ; Chu Hi's cosmogony, 7 ; The legendary pe- riod, Fuh-hl, 9 ; The eight monarchs, 11 ; Hwangtl and the sexagenary cycle, 12 ; The deluge of Yao, 13 ; The historical period: The Hia dynasty, 14; Yu the Great, his inscription on the rocks of Kaa-lau shan, 15 ; Records of the Hia, 18 The Shang dynasty, 20 ; Chau-sin, 22 ; Rise of the house of Chau, 23 ; Credibility of these early annals, 25 ; The Tsin dy- nasties, Tsin Chi Hwangtl, ; The dynasty of Han, 26 28 ; From the Han to the Sui, ; 31 The great Tang dynasty, 33 ; Taitsung and the Empress Wu, ; The Dynasties, 35 Five 38 ; The Sung dynasty, 39 ; The Mongol conquest, Kublai Khan, 41 ; The Mings, 43 ; The Manchus, or Tsing dynasty, 45 Kanghi, 46 ; Yungchlng and Kienlung, 47 ; Kiaking and Taukwang, 49 ; Tables of the monarchs and dynasties, 52.