Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/407

 AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 395 called Taoism was taught by Lao-Tse, and a philosophy of material common sense was formulated by Confucius, who might also be called the father of Chinese history. Four hundred years later Buddhism found its way among them. They had in- vented printing five hundred years before the art was discovered in Europe. In the thirteenth century a.d. China was overrun by the Mongols, and the Mongol dynasty of Khublai Khan was established, of whose splendours the Venetian traveller Marco Polo brought his own report to Europe. A century later the Mongol dynasty had been ejected by Chinese rulers, but in the seventeenth century the barbarian Manchus conquered their civilised neighbours and established the still reigning Manchu dynasty. It was at about the same time that the European traders in the east first brought tea from China to Europe. But the Chinese government did not encourage intercourse with foreigners, whether missionaries or traders j and attempts to exclude British trade brought about the first war Q hin3i and between China and a European power in 1840. the Its conclusion opened certain ports to British trade, Euro P eans - and Hong-Kong was ceded to the same power, under the treaty of Nanking. A few years later there broke out in China a great semi-religious insurrection known as the Taiping rebellion, which was still in full swing when the government again made it necessary for the British to go to war with them, this time with French support. The victories of the allies and their entry into Pekin procured a further treaty, giving extended trading rights to the Europeans ; and the Taiping rebellion was shortly afterwards brought to an end with the aid of British officers. Trustworthy Japanese history goes back no further than the seventh century of our era, when a Japanese empire was certainly in existence. The Japanese race had probably Mediaeval taken possession of the islands some six hundred Japan. years before ; their origin was probably mixed, but contained a Chinese element. In the course of time a system developed something like that of European feudalism, in which there was no firm central government, and great baronial families who owned all the land strove for supremacy. The great Mongol