Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/79

Rh Historically, China enjoys the distinction of being the oldest continuing nation in the world. Fairly authentic records trace back the course of events to about 3,000 years, so that it rightly claims an existence of at least 5,000 years. Previous to this period there is a vast amount of legendary matter in which probability and fiction have not yet been separated.

China's own historians, with characteristic conceit, make out their country's history to be contemporaneous with time. Owing to her seclusion and isolation from the affairs of other nations, China's history possesses a local rather than a world's interest, and for the most part is a record of the rise and fall of the several tribes or peoples going to make up the nation, each such change establishing a new dynasty. However, there are certain epochs of general interest and certain salient points in the nation's development and growth that should be understood and kept in mind if any study of China or of things Chinese is undertaken.

Accepted Chinese chronology begins with the reign of Fuh-hi in the year 2852 As to the significance of that date it is interesting to note that it is four hundred years before the rise of the Egyptian monarchy, five hundred years before that of Babylon and precedes the reputed time of Abraham by a period almost as long as the whole record of English history, from the conquest to the present time.

In the Chau Dynasty, which lasted from 1122 to  249, we find the great period in Chinese literature, an era comparable with that of Elizabeth in our records. In 550 Confucius was born, whose philosophical reasonings, owing to the long time he antedated the spread of Christianity and Mohammedanism, have affected the thought of more human beings than the writings or sayings of any other man, with the possible exception of Buddha.

Although Confucius is the central figure of the epoch, there are at least two other men substantially contemporaneous with him, and who are but only a little less prominent, Liao-tze, who preceded him fifty years, and Mencius, who followed him one hundred years. The former was a religious philosopher, on whose writings there has been founded the doctrine of Taoism. This philosophy is based on Reason (Tao) and Virtue (Teh), and is of interest in that it leans towards an eternal monotheism. According to his theory the visible forms of the highest Teh can only proceed from Tao, and Tao, he says, is impalpable, indefinite. Taoism, therefore, contemplates the indefinite, the eternal and a preexistent something which Liao-tze likens to the 'Mother of all things,' or what we call a creator.

In Chinese literature there are the nine classics, the five greater and the four lesser books. The former are Yih-King, the Book of Changes; Shu-King, Historical Documents; Shi-King, the Book of Odes; Li-Ki, the Book of Rites, and Chun-Tsin, a continuation of the Shu-King. Of