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China
China, by Demetrius Charles Boulger
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China, by Demetrius Charles Boulger
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Title: China
Author: Demetrius Charles Boulger
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6708] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file
was first posted on January 17, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINA ***
Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
CHINA
BY DEMETRIUS CHARLES BOULGER
WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER OF RECENT EVENTS BY MAYO W. HAZELTINE
[Illustration: THE EMPEROR RECEIVING THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS China Frontispiece ]
I DEDICATE THIS SHORT HISTORY OF CHINA TO SIR HALLIDAY MACARTNEY, K.C.M.G. AS A
SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF PERSONAL RESPECT AND ADMIRATION FOR ONE WHO HAS
MAINTAINED THE RIGHT OF CHINA TO BE TREATED BY THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE
WITH THE DIGNITY AND CONSIDERATION THAT BECOME A GREAT EMPIRE.
IF TO LORD MACARTNEY WE OWE THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN AUDIENCE
OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA ON THE SAME CONDITIONS AS THOSE ON WHICH FOREIGN
AMBASSADORS ARE RECEIVED AT EUROPEAN COURTS, TO SIR HALLIDAY MACARTNEY A
SCION OF THE SAME FAMILY CHINA OWES MUCH OF THE SUCCESS THAT HAS ATTENDED
HER DIPLOMACY IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES
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China, by Demetrius Charles Boulger
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CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. THE EARLY AGES
II. THE FIRST NATIONAL DYNASTY
III. A LONG PERIOD OF DISUNION
IV. THE SUNGS AND THE KINS
V. THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA
VI. KUBLAI AND THE MONGOL DYNASTY
VII. THE MING DYNASTY
VIII. THE DECLINE OF THE MINGS
IX. THE MANCHU CONQUEST OF CHINA
X. THE FIRST MANCHU RULER
XI. THE EMPEROR KANGHI
XII. A SHORT REIGN AND THE BEGINNING OF A LONG ONE
XIII. KEEN LUNG'S WARS AND CONQUESTS
XIV. THE COMMENCEMENT OF EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE
XV. THE DECLINE OF THE MANCHUS
XVI. THE EMPEROR TAOUKWANG
XVII. THE FIRST FOREIGN WAR
XVIII. TAOUKWANG AND HIS SUCCESSOR
XIX. THE SECOND FOREIGN WAR
XX. THE TAEPING REBELLION
XXI. THE REGENCY
XXII. THE REIGN OF KWANGSU
THE WAR WITH JAPAN AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
THE FUTURE OF CHINA
China, by Demetrius Charles Boulger
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece --The Emperor Receiving the Diplomatic Corps Hong Kong Canton--The Flower Pagoda Kang,
the Reformer
PREFACE
As China has now fairly taken her place in the family of nations, it is unnecessary to elaborate an argument in
support of even the humblest attempt to elucidate her history. It is a subject to which we can no longer remain
indifferent, because circumstances are bringing every day more clearly into view the important part China
must play in the changes that have become imminent in Asia, and that will affect the security of our position
and empire in that continent. A good understanding with China should be the first article of our Eastern
policy, for not only in Central Asia, but also in Indo-China, where French ambition threatens to create a fresh
Egypt, her interests coincide with ours and furnish the sound basis of a fruitful alliance.
This book, which I may be pardoned for saying is not an abridgment of my original work, but entirely
rewritten and rearranged with the view of giving prominence to the modern history of the Chinese Empire,
may appeal, although they generally treat Asiatic subjects with regrettable indifference, to that wider circle of
English readers on whose opinion and efforts the development of our political and commercial relations with
the greatest of Oriental States will mainly depend.
D. C. BOULGER, April 28, 1893.
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CHAPTER I
5
CHAPTER I
THE EARLY AGES
The Chinese are unquestionably the oldest nation in the world, and their history goes back to a period to
which no prudent historian will attempt to give a precise date. They speak the language and observe the same
social and political customs that they did several thousand years before the Christian era, and they are the only
living representatives to-day of a people and government which were contemporary with the Egyptians, the
Assyrians, and the Jews. So far as our knowledge enables us to speak, the Chinese of the present age are in all
essential points identical with those of the time of Confucius, and there is no reason to doubt that before his
time the Chinese national character had been thoroughly formed in its present mold. The limits of the empire
have varied from time to time under circumstances of triumph or disunion, but the Middle Kingdom, or China
Proper, of the eighteen provinces has always possessed more or less of its existing proportions. Another
striking and peculiar feature about China is the small amount of influence that the rest of the world has
exercised upon it. In fact, it is only during the present century that that influence can be said to have existed at
all. Up to that point China had pursued a course of her own, carrying on her own struggles within a definite
limit, and completely indifferent to, and ignorant of, the ceaseless competition and contests of mankind
outside her orbit, which make up the history of the rest of the Old World. The long struggles for supremacy in
Western Asia between Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian, the triumphs of the Greek, followed by the
absorption of what remained of the Macedonian conquests in the Empire of Rome, even the appearance of
Islam and the Mohammedan conquerors, who changed the face of Southern Asia from the Ganges to the
Levant, and long threatened to overrun Europe, had no significance for the people of China, and reacted as
little on their destiny as if they had happened in another planet. Whatever advantages the Chinese may have
derived from this isolation, it has entailed the penalty that the early history of their country is devoid of
interest for the lest of the world, and it is only when the long independent courses of China and Europe are
brought into proximity by the Mongol conquests, the efforts of the medieval travelers, the development of
commerce, and the wars carried on for the purpose of obtaining a secure position for foreigners in China--four
distinct phases covering the last seven centuries--that any confidence can be felt in successfully attracting
notice to the affairs of China. Yet, as a curiosity in human existence, the earlier history of that country may
justly receive some notice. Even though the details are not recited, the recollection of the antiquity of China's
institutions must be ever present with the student, as affording an indispensable clew to the character of the
Chinese people and the composition of their government.
The first Chinese are supposed to have been a nomad tribe in the province of Shensi, which lies in the
northwest of China, and among them at last appeared a ruler, Fohi, whose name at least has been preserved.
His deeds and his person are mythical, but he is credited with having given his country its first regular
institutions. One of his successors was Hwangti (which means Heavenly Emperor), who was the first to
employ the imperial style of Emperor, the earlier rulers having been content with the inferior title of Wang, or
prince. He adopted the convenient decimal division in his administration as well as his coinage. His
dominions were divided into ten provinces, each of these into ten departments, these again into ten districts,
each of which held ten towns. He regulated the calendar, originating the Chinese cycle of sixty years, and he
encouraged commerce. He seems to have been a wise prince and to have been the first of the great emperors.
His grandson, who was also emperor, continued his good work and earned the reputation of being "the
restorer or even founder of true astronomy."
But the most famous of Hwangti's successors was his great-grandson Yao who is still one of the most revered
of all Chinese rulers. He was "diligent, enlightened, polished and prudent," and if his words reflected his
actions he must have been most solicitous of the welfare of his people. He is specially remarkable for his
anxiety to discover the best man to succeed him in the government, and during the last twenty-eight years of
his reign he associated the minister Chun with him for that purpose. On his death he left the crown to him, and
Chun, after some hesitation, accepted the charge; but he in turn hastened to secure the co-operation of another
minister named Yu in the work of administration, just as he had been associated with Yao. The period covered

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