The Civilization of China | Page 7

extortionate charges; and the traveller
may sometimes happen upon a "black inn," which is another name for a
den of thieves. Still there have been many who travelled for the sake of
beautiful scenery, or in order to visit famous spots of historical interest;
not to mention the large body of officials who are constantly on the
move, passing from post to post.
Among those who believe that every nation must have reached its
present quarters from some other distant parts of the world, must be
reckoned a few students of the ancient history of China. Coincidences
in language and in manners and customs, mostly of a shadowy
character, have led some to suggest Babylonia as the region from which
the Chinese migrated to the land where they are now found. The

Chinese possess authentic records of an indisputably early past, but
throughout these records there is absolutely no mention, not even a hint,
of any migration of the kind.
Tradition places the Golden Age of China so far back as three thousand
years before Christ; for a sober survey of China's early civilization, it is
not necessary to push further back than the tenth century B.C. We shall
find evidence of such an advanced state of civilization at that later date
as to leave no doubt of a very remote antiquity.
The China of those days, known even then as the Middle Kingdom,
was a mere patch on the empire of to-day. It lay, almost lozenge-shaped,
between the 34th and 40th parallels of latitude north, with the upper
point of the lozenge resting on the modern Peking, and the lower on
Si-an Fu in Shensi, whither the late Empress Dowager fled for safety
during the Boxer rising in 1900. The ancient autocratic Imperial system
had recently been disestablished, and a feudal system had taken its
place. The country was divided up into a number of vassal states of
varying size and importance, ruled each by its own baron, who swore
allegiance to the sovereign of the Royal State. The relations, however,
which came to subsist, as time went on, between these states, sovereign
and vassal alike, as described in contemporary annals, often remind the
reader of the relations which prevailed between the various political
divisions of ancient Greece. The rivalries of Athens and Sparta, whose
capitals were only one hundred and fifty miles apart-- though a perusal
of Thucydides makes one feel that at least half the world was
involved--find their exact equivalent in the jealousies and animosities
which stirred the feudal states of ancient China, and in the disastrous
campaigns and bloody battles which the states fought with one another.
We read of chariots and horsemanship; of feats of arms and deeds of
individual heroism; of forced marches, and of night attacks in which
the Chinese soldier was gagged with a kind of wooden bit, to prevent
talking in the ranks; of territory annexed and reconquered, and of the
violent deaths of rival rulers by poison or the dagger of the assassin.
When the armies of these states went into battle they formed a line,
with the bowmen on the left and the spearmen on the right flank. The

centre was occupied by chariots, each drawn by either three or four
horses harnessed abreast. Swords, daggers, shields, iron-headed clubs
some five to six feet in length and weighing from twelve to fifteen
pounds, huge iron hooks, drums, cymbals, gongs, horns, banners and
streamers innumerable, were also among the equipment of war.
Beacon- fires of wolves' dung were lighted to announce the approach of
an enemy and summon the inhabitants to arms. Quarter was rarely if
ever given, and it was customary to cut the ears from the bodies of the
slain. Parleys were conducted and terms of peace arranged under the
shelter of a banner of truce, upon which two words were inscribed--
"Stop fighting."
The beacon-fires above mentioned, very useful for summoning the
feudal barons to the rescue in case of need, cost one sovereign his
throne. He had a beautiful concubine, for the sake of whose company
he neglected the affairs of government. The lady was of a melancholy
turn, never being seen to smile. She said she loved the sound of rent
silk, and to gratify her whim many fine pieces of silk were torn to
shreds. The king offered a thousand ounces of gold to any one who
would make her laugh; whereupon his chief minister suggested that the
beacon-fires should be lighted to summon the feudal nobles with their
armies, as though the royal house were in danger. The trick succeeded;
for in the hurry-skurry that ensued the impassive girl positively laughed
outright. Later on, when a real attack was made upon the capital by
barbarian hordes, and the beacon-fires were again lighted, this time