The Problem of China | Page 8

knew of the expansion of the human race,
being completely ignorant of these voyagers who ploughed the China
Sea and the Indian Ocean, of these cavalcades across the immensities
of Central Asia up to the Persian Gulf. The greatest part of the universe,
and at the same time a civilization different but certainly as developed
as that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, remained unknown to those
who wrote the history of their little world while they believed that they,
were setting forth the history of the world as a whole.
In our day, this provincialism, which impregnates all our culture, is
liable to have disastrous consequences politically, as well as for the
civilization of mankind. We must make room for Asia in our thoughts,
if we are not to rouse Asia to a fury of self-assertion.
After the Han dynasty there are various short dynasties and periods of
disorder, until we come to the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907). Under this
dynasty, in its prosperous days, the Empire acquired its greatest extent,
and art and poetry reached their highest point.[10] The Empire of
Jenghis Khan (died 1227) was considerably greater, and contained a
great part of China; but Jenghis Khan was a foreign conqueror. Jenghis

and his generals, starting from Mongolia, appeared as conquerors in
China, India, Persia, and Russia. Throughout Central Asia, Jenghis
destroyed every man, woman, and child in the cities he captured. When
Merv was captured, it was transformed into a desert and 700,000
people were killed. But it was said that many had escaped by lying
among the corpses and pretending to be dead; therefore at the capture
of Nishapur, shortly afterwards, it was ordered that all the inhabitants
should have their heads cut off. Three pyramids of heads were made,
one of men, one of women, and one of children. As it was feared that
some might have escaped by hiding underground, a detachment of
soldiers was left to kill any that might emerge.[11] Similar horrors were
enacted at Moscow and Kieff, in Hungary and Poland. Yet the man
responsible for these massacres was sought in alliance by St. Louis and
the Pope. The times of Jenghis Khan remind one of the present day,
except that his methods of causing death were more merciful than those
that have been employed since the Armistice.
Kublai Khan (died 1294), who is familiar, at least by name, through
Marco Polo and Coleridge; was the grandson of Jenghis Khan, and the
first Mongol who was acknowledged Emperor of China, where he
ousted the Sung dynasty (960-1277). By this time, contact with China
had somewhat abated the savagery of the first conquerors. Kublai
removed his capital from Kara Korom in Mongolia to Peking. He built
walls like those which still surround the city, and established on the
walls an observatory which is preserved to this day. Until 1900, two of
the astronomical instruments constructed by Kublai were still to be
seen in this observatory, but the Germans removed them to Potsdam
after the suppression of the Boxers.[12] I understand they have been
restored in accordance with one of the provisions of the Treaty of
Versailles. If so, this was probably the most important benefit which
that treaty secured to the world.
Kublai plays the same part in Japanese history that Philip II plays in the
history of England. He prepared an Invincible Armada, or rather two
successive armadas, to conquer Japan, but they were defeated, partly by
storms, and partly by Japanese valour.

After Kublai, the Mongol Emperors more and more adopted Chinese
ways, and lost their tyrannical vigour. Their dynasty came to an end in
1370, and was succeeded by the pure Chinese Ming dynasty, which
lasted until the Manchu conquest of 1644. The Manchus in turn
adopted Chinese ways, and were overthrown by a patriotic revolution
in 1911, having contributed nothing notable to the native culture of
China except the pigtail, officially abandoned at the Revolution.
The persistence of the Chinese Empire down to our own day is not to
be attributed to any military skill; on the contrary, considering its extent
and resources, it has at most times shown itself weak and incompetent
in war. Its southern neighbours were even less warlike, and were less in
extent. Its northern and western neighbours inhabited a barren country,
largely desert, which was only capable of supporting a very sparse
population. The Huns were defeated by the Chinese after centuries of
warfare; the Tartars and Manchus, on the contrary, conquered China.
But they were too few and too uncivilized to impose their ideas or their
way of life upon China, which absorbed them and went on its way as if
they had never existed. Rome could have survived the Goths, if they
had come alone, but the successive waves of barbarians came