Page:Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society - Volume 1.djvu/40

 the knowledge and notice of the nations inhabiting the vast countries that intervene; besides which, there exists no resemblance between the mysterious hieroglyphics of Egypt and the Chinese characters, which might, as Sir W. Jones observes, "have been contrived by the first Chinas, or outcast Hindus, who either never knew, or had forgotten, the alphabetic character of their wiser ancestors." Though M. de Pauw and other learned men have been of opinion that the Chinese were originally a tribe of Tartars, or Scythians, I cannot help thinking that there are some reasonable grounds for concluding that they were a colony from India, and that they owe their present distinctive character to their subsequent mixture with the aborigines of the country, and with the Tartars.

The Empire of China cannot be dated earlier than the dynasty called Tsin, about two hundred years before Christ; and the term Wang, or Prince, instead of Hoang-ti, or Emperor, is applied by their own historians to all the monarchs of the race of Chow, which immediately preceded it. From this race of Chow (B.C. 1100 to 240) we may date the Authentic History of the Chinese, which commences with the Chun-tsew of Confucius, the annals of his own times, in which he relates the wars of the different petty states against each other. The northern half of modern China, from the great river Keang to the confines of Tartary, appears then to have been divided by a number of petty independent states, which contended against each other with various success, and as one obtained a temporary ascendancy over the rest, it assumed the pretensions of a doubtful sovereignty, which was acknowledged or denied, in proportion as adversity or success might influence the dispositions of its neighbours. The province of Pĕ-chĕ-li was occupied by a nation or state called Yen, Shan-tung was held by the Kings of Loo and Tsi, Keang-nan by the sovereign of Woo; while a large portion of the modern half of the empire to the south of the Keang, together with the province of Sze-chuen, was occupied by Barbarians, who are seldom mentioned in the histories of that period, except as provoking, by their incursions, the chastisement of the more civilized states in the north.