Ancient China Simplified

A feature of the times was the remarkably personal character of the wars, and the apparent utter indifference to humble popular interests; _Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur A...

Confucius has hitherto appeared to many of us Westerners as a stiff, incomprehensible individual, resting his claim to immortality upon sententious nothingnesses directed to no...

The question of the expedition of the Emperor Muh to the West in the year 984 B.C., or during that year and the two following, is worthy of further consideration for many reason...

We propose to say a few words now about peculiar customs which had vogue all over or in certain parts of China; of course some of them may be traced back to the "Rites of Chou,"...

Apart from the fact that reverence for rulers was the pivot of the Chou religious system, or, what was then the same thing, administrative system; official historiographers, who...

It is instructive to inquire what were the literary relations between the distinguished statesmen and active princes who moved about quite freely within the limited area so freq...

Having now derived some definite notions of how the Chinese advanced from the patriarchal to the feudal, from the submissive and monarchical to the emulous and democratic, final...

One of the difficulties of Chinese ancient history is the unravelling of proper names; but, as with other difficulties, this one is owing rather to the novelty and strangeness o...

The year 842 B.C. may be considered the first accurate date in Chinese history, and in this year the Emperor had to flee from his capital on account of popular dissatisfaction w...

Let us now consider the notions of law as they existed in the primitive Chinese mind. As all government was supposed to be based on the natural laws of the universe, of which un...

The relations which existed between Emperor and feudal princes are best seen and understood from specific cases involving mutual relations. The Chou dynasty had about 1800 nomin...

We have already alluded to a princely family, of the same clan- name as the Chou Emperor, which had settled in the southern part of modern Shan Si province, and had thus acted a...

Let us return for a moment to the history of China's development. Confucius was born in the autumn of 551, B.C., and he died in 479. If we survey the condition of the empire dur...

The country of Wu is in many respects even more interesting ethnologically than that of Ts'u. When, a generation or two before the then vassal Chou family conquered China, two o...

The Five Tyrants, or Protectors, are usually considered to be the five personages we have mentioned; to wit, in order of succession, the Marquess of Ts'i (679-643), under whose...

A traveller in modern China may still wonder at the utter absence of any sign of wealth or luxury except in the very largest towns. Fine clothes, jewels, concubines, rich food,...

Mention has been made of eunuchs, a class which seems to have originated with the law's severity rather than from a callous desire of the rich to secure a craven and helpless me...

So far as it is possible to judge from the concrete instances in which women are mentioned, it appears that in ancient Chinese times their confinement and seclusion was neither...

The emperors of the dynasty of Chou, which came formally into power in 1122 B.C., we have seen took no other title than that of wang, which is usually considered by Europeans to...

It will have been noticed that, even in strictly historical times subsequent to 842 B.C., orthodox China was, _mutatis mutandis_, like orthodox Greece, a petty territory surroun...

centralized sway; rounding off the Tartars so as to make the Great Wall (rather than the Yellow River, as of old) their southern limit; conquering the remains of the "Hundred Yü...

Consulting the oracles seems to have been a universal practice, and there are numerous historical allusions, made by statesmen of the orthodox principalities, to supposed interp...

The history of China may be for our present purposes accordingly summed up as follows. The pure Chinese race from time immemorial had been confined to the flat lands of the Yell...

The period of political development covered by Confucius' history-- the object of which history, it must be remembered, was to read to the restless age a series of solemn warnin...

Whatever may be the reason why details of interstate movement are lacking up to 842 B.C., it is certain that, from the date of the Emperor's flight eastwards in 771, the utmost...

What sort of folk were the masses of China, upon whom the ruling classes depended, then as now, for their support? In the year 594 B.C. the model state of Lu for the first time...

It is difficult to guess how much truth there is in the ancient traditions that the water-courses of the empire were improved through gigantic engineering works undertaken by th...

Allusion has already been made to the eclipses mentioned in Confucius' history as a means by which the probability of his general truth as a historian may in a certain measure b...

We must now go back a little. The first of the so-called Five Tyrants, or the Five successive Protectors of orthodox China, had died in 643, his philosopher and friend, Kwan-tsz...

There is singularly little mention of writing or education in ancient times, and it seems likely that written records were at first confined to castings or engravings upon metal...

We must turn to unorthodox China once more, and see how it fared after Confucius' death. After only a short century of international existence, the vigorous state of Wu perished...

In laying stress upon the barbarous, or semi-barbarous, quality of the states (all in our days considered pure Chinese), which surrounded the federal area at even so late a peri...

It was a fixed rule in ancient China that envoys should be treated with courtesy, and that their persons should be held sacred, whether at residential courts, in durbar, or on t...

The reign of the Tsin marquess (628-635), second of the Five Protectors, only lasted eight years, and nothing is recorded to have happened during this period at all commensurate...

We have just seen that, when a military expedition started out, the event was notified, with sacrifice, to the ancestors of the person most concerned: it was also the practice t...

All through these five centuries of struggle, between the flight of the Emperor with the transfer of the metropolis in 771 B.C., and the total destruction of the feudal system b...

It is important to insist on the very close relations that existed between the Chinese and the Tartars from the very earliest times. All that we are told for certain is that the...

historical materials-such, for instance, as the pleasure expedition of a Chinese emperor in 984 B.C. to the Tarim Valley-- that it may be useful to suggest the true proportions,...

As the struggle for pre-eminency which we are about to describe involved bloodthirsty combats extending almost uninterruptedly over five centuries, it may be of interest to inqu...

The first of the so-called five hegemons or lords-protector of the federated Chinese Empire (after the collapse of the imperial power, and its consequent incapacity to protect t...

Having now seen how the Chinese people, taking advantage of the material and moral growth naturally following upon a settled industrial existence, and above all upon the exclusi...

Before we enter into a categorical description of the hegemony or Protector system, under which the most powerful state for the time being held durbars "in camp," and in theory...

In these pictures of ancient Chinese life which we are endeavouring to present, the idea is to repeat from every point of view the main characteristics of that life, so that a s...

Having now shown, as shortly and as intelligibly as we can, how the germs of Chinese development were sown at the dawn of true history, let us proceed to examine how far that hi...

The Chinese, with the single exception of their Great Wall, have always been flimsy builders, and there is accordingly very little left in the way of monuments to prove the anti...

consisted of low houses in narrow streets, with a vulgar palace; this was in 523. In 513 a new king moved to the site now occupied by Soochow, and he seems to have made of it th...

But the collapse of the imperial power in 771 B.C. led to restlessness in the south as well as in the north, north-western, and north-eastern regions: except for a few Chinese a...

Treaties were always very solemn functions, invariably accompanied by the sacrifice of a victim. A part of the victim, or of its blood, was thrown into a ditch, in order that th...

alone; let the others visit our respective capitals." Accordingly it was understood that Tsin and Ts'u should both be Protectors, but that neither Ts'in nor Ts'i should recogniz...

There are singularly few descriptions of cities in ancient Chinese history, but here again we may safely assume that most of them were in principle, if only on a small scale, ve...

The development of China is not only elucidated by documents and events probably antecedent to the strictly historical period, such as the supposed voyage of an Emperor to the F...

Personal character of wars--People's interests ignored--Instances-- Comparisons with the Golden Fleece and Naboth's vineyard--Second Protector avenges scurvy treatment--The halt...

B.C., the first Earl of CHÊNG (a relative of the Emperor) consulted the imperial astrologer as to where he had better establish his new fief: his own idea was to settle southwar...

Confucius--His merits--His imperial and ducal origin--Migration of his family from Sung to Lu--His warrior father--His quaint childish fancies--Lu officer foretells his greatnes...

Literary relations between vassal states--Confucius set the ball of philosophy a-rolling--The fourfold "Bible" of China--Odes were generally known by heart--Comparison with Pres...

Orthodox China compared with orthodox Greece--Our persistent "traditions" about the Tower of Babel and the Tarim Valley-Wu, Yiieh, and ancient traditions--The "Tribute of Yii" s...

Beginning of dated history--Size of ancient China--Parcelled out into fiefs--Fiefs correspond to modern _hien_ districts-- Mesne lords and sub-vassals--Method of migration and c...

Character of the early colonizing Chinese satraps--Revolt of the western satrap and flight of the Emperor in 842 B.C.--Daughter of a later satrap marries the Emperor--Tartars mi...

The state of Tsin in Shan Si--In 771 B.C.: its ruler escorts the Emperor to his new capital--Only in 671 B.C. does Confucius mention Tsin--Divided from Ts'in by the Yellow River...

Whence did the Chinese come?--All men of equal age and ancestry-- Records make civilization and nobility--Evidences of antiquity-- China and the West totally unknown to each oth...

The first Hegemon or Protector of China and his own vassal kingdom of Ts'i--Limits of Ts'i and ancient course of the Yellow River-- Absence of ancient records--Shiftings of capi...

The Emperor Muh's voyages to the West in 984 B.C.--The question of destroyed state annals-Exaggerated importance of the expedition, even if facts true--King Muh's father was kil...

Small size of ancient China--Description of ancient nucleus and surrounding barbarians--Amount of foreign element in each vassal state--Policy of the Ts'i and Lu administrations...

From ancient times Tartars intimately connected with the Chinese-- How the Chou state had to migrate to avoid the Tartars--Chou ancestors had originally fled from China to the T...

Eunuchs and their origin--criminals with feet chopped off as keepers--Noseless criminals for isolated picket duty--The branded were gate-keepers--Eunuchs for the harem--"Purifie...

Wu kingdom--Name begins 585 B.C.--This is the year Japanese "history" begins--The first king and his four sons--Prince Ki- chah--War with Ts'u and sacking of its capital--King F...

Historians had to be careful--Reverence for rulers--Confucius' feelings--His failings--All on the surface--His concealments--His artful censures--Sanctity of the classes--Confuc...

The coast states in possession of the Yang-tsz delta--The state of Wu really of the same origin as the imperial dynasty of Chou-- Comparison with Phoenician colonists--Wu induce...

Engineering works of old Emperors--Marvellous chiselled gorge above Tch'ang--Pa and Shuh kingdoms (= Sz Ch'wan)--The engineer Li Ping in Sz Ch'wan: his sluices still in working...

Original notion of law--War and punishment on a level--Secondary punishments--Judgment given as each breach occurs--No distinction between legislative and judicial--Private righ...

Life-time of Confucius--Secret of his influence--Visit of the Wu prince to Confucius' state--Lu's "powerful" family plague--Lu's position between Tsin and Ts'u influences--Ts'i...

Ancient and modern ideas of wealth--Ts'in and Ts'u valuables-- Furniture--Mats and divans--Tea and wine--Tartar couches--Inlaid ivory sofas--State treasure--Wealth in horses-Sil...

Further explanations regarding the grouping of states, and the size of the smallest states--Statesmen of all orthodox states acquainted with one another--No dialect difficulties...

The vassal princes of the Chou and previous dynasties--Vassal princes and their relations with the Emperors--Protectors make great show of defending the Emperors rights--The Emp...

Death of First Protector and his henchman Kwan-tsz, 648-643 B.C.-- Ts'i succession and Sung's claim to Protectorate--Tartar influence in Ts'i--Ts'u's claim to the hegemony--Ridi...

Very little mention of ancient writing or education--Baked inscribed bricks unknown to the _loess_ region--Cession of land inscribed upon metal--The Nine Tripods--Ts'u claims th...

Collapse of Wu, flight in boats to Japan--Ground to believe that the ruling caste of Japan was influenced by Chinese colonists in the fifth century B.C.--Rise of Yueh, and actio...

History of Tsin and the Bamboo Annals discovered after 600 years' burial--Confirmatory of Confucius' history--Obsolete and modern script--Ancient calendars--Their evidence in re...

The state of Wu--First Chinese princely emigrants adopted barbarian usages--The Jungle country and Wu--Wu's way of doing the hair and Wu's confession of barbarism--Federal China...

Titles of the Emperors of the Chou dynasty--The word "King" in modern times--Posthumous names--The title "Emperor" and the word "Imperial"--"God" confused with "Emperor"--Lao-ts...

Rights of women in ancient China--The legal rule and the actual fact--Instances of irregularity in female status, both in ancient and modern China--Instances of incest and irreg...

_Resume_ of Chinese historical development--General lines of Chinese advance--Methods of Chinese colonization--Equal pedigree claims of half-Chinese states--Tsin and Ts'i were e...

Ancient land and land-tax-Combination of military service with land cultivation--Studious class had to study _tao_ (in its pre-Lao-tsz sense)--Next the trading classes--Next the...

Peculiar customs--Formalities of surrender--A number of instances of succession rules--Status of wives-Cases where the Emperor himself breaks the rules--Instances of irregular s...

Period of fighting states--Tsin divided into Han, Ngwei, and Chao- Ts'in developing herself in Tartary and in Sz Ch'wan--Want of orderly method in Chinese history--How the state...

Treaties and imprecations--Smearing with blood of victims-- Squabble _re_ precedence in the treaty-making--Shuh Niang's philosophy--Confucius' tampering with history condoned--C...

The Five Protectors of China more exactly defined--No such period as the "Five Tyrant period" can be logically accepted as accurate-- Chinese never understand the principles of...

The difficulty of proper names--Instances-Clans and detached families--Surnames and personal names--Strange personal appellations--Interchange of names by all states--Eunuchs an...

Consulting the oracles--The Changes, or Book of Diagrams--Ts'u and Ts'i as instructors of Chou--Tortoise augury--Consulting ancestors--Heaven's decree--Heaven's spontaneous, man...

I'Jo religion except natural religion--Religion not separate from administrative ritual--The titles of "King" and "Emperor"--Prayer common, but most other of our own religious n...

Music in Chinese life--Confucius' present dwelling and the ancient instruments therein--Comparison with Wagner's Ring--Musicians as corrupters of simplicity--Tsin and Ts'in dial...

Ancestral tablets carried in war-Shrines graduated according to rank--Description of shrines--Specific case of the King of Ts'u-- Instance of the First August Emperor much later...

The Chinese calendar--Confucius and eclipses--Proclaiming the new moon--Celestial observations in different states--Chinese year is luni-Solar--Difficulty with the exact length...

The collapse of the Emperor led to restlessness in the south too-- The Jungle country south of the River Han--Ancient origin of its kings--Claim to equality--Buffer state to the...

Paraphernalia of warfare--Ten thousand and one thousand chariot states--Use of war-chariots, leather or wood--Chariots allotted according to rank--Seventy-five men to one cart--...

Sanctity of envoys--Rivalry of Tsin north and Ts'u south for influence over orthodox centre--The state of CHÊNG (imperial clan)--The state of Sung (Shang dynasty clan)--Family s...

Evidences still remaining in the shape of the tombs of great historical personages--Elephants used to work at the Wu tombs-- Royal Ts'u tomb desecrated--Relics of 1122 B.C. foun...

Ancient cities mere hovels--Soul, the capital of modern Corea-- Modern cities still poor affairs--Want of unity causes downfall of Ts'in and China--Magnificence of Ts'i capital-...

How far is history true?--Confucius and eclipses--Evidence notwithstanding the destruction of literature in 213 B.C.-- Retrospective calculations of eclipses and complications o...