Chapter 1

_OPENING SCENES_

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 colonizing-- Course of the Yellow River in 842 B.C.--Distant fiefs in Shan Tung and Chih Li provinces of to-day--A river which subsequently became part of the Grand Canal--The Hwai River system of waters-- Europeans always regard China from the sea inwards--Corea, Japan, and Liao Tung unknown in 842 B.C. except, perhaps, to the vassal state in Peking plain--Orthodox Chinese adopting barbarian usages in Shan Tung--Eastern barbarians on the coast to Shanghai--No knowledge of South or West Asia--Left bank of Yellow River was mostly Tartar, except in South Shan Si--Ancient capital in Shan Si--Ancient colonization of the Wei River valleys in Shen Si-- Possibilities of Western ideas having been carried by Tartar horsemen from Persia and Turkestan--Traditions of western, eastern, and southern intercourse previous to 842 B.C.--Early knowledge of the River Yang-tsz and its three mouths--Explorations by ancient emperors--Development of China followed much the same normal course as that of Greece or England.