Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/72

 60 CHEISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. Europe, seek with eagerness, and at a great expense, the porcelain, the bronzes, the lacquer, and the paintings of the dynasty of Thang. This period of the history of China is especially remarkable for the numerous relations which the Chinese kept up with foreign countries. Accustomed as we have been, in our own time, to see the Chinese shutting themselves up jealously within their own em- pire, we have been too ready to believe that it was al- ways so ; that they have always cherished an inveterate antipathy to foreigners, and done their utmost to keep them off their frontiers. This is, however, quite a mistake. This jealously exclusive spirit characterises especially the Mantchoo Tartars ; and the empire has only been thus hermetically closed since their accession to power. In the preceding ages, and particularly under the celebrated dynasty of Thang, the Chinese kept up an active intercourse with all the Asiatic nations. Arabs, Persians, and Indians, came and traded in their ports, without let or hindrance ; and also freely passed into the interior, and traversed the provinces. The annals of China, as well as the histories of the various countries of Asia alluded to, contain numerous documents relating to this subject. We learn from one of these, that the relations of Persia and China were, at this time, very remarkable ; and that Hormisdas or Izdegerd III. was the ally of the Emperor of China. In 644, the Caliph Omar was stabbed in the Mosque of Medina, and his successor had achieved, at the head of the Mussulman armies, the conquest of Persia, when Hormisdas, reduced to the last extremity, sent to China, to solicit the aid of an