Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1904 Dec
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE succeeding dynasties to the present day. The period embraced in that record covers the existence of all the great reigns of Egypt from the fourth dynasty onward to their close. It includes the rise and fall of the Chaldean, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Alexandrian empires of western Asia. Compared with it, the record of Greece and Rome is modern history, and the annals of the nations of Western Europe are but the events of yesterday. It is not to be understood, however, that this national history of more than forty centuries is an unbroken record of prosperity and governmental order. There has been the same experience which marked the lot of the people of Egypt, of western Asia, of Greece, Rome, and modern Europe-wars, civil and foreign; rebellions and conquests ; change of rulers and dynasties ; periods of disorder, anarchy, corruption, and decay ; famine, pestilence, financial ruin and industrial distress ; religious perse cution and social unrest; prosperity and depression ; the golden era of litera ture and the dark ages of learning. But while all the other nations of the earth have fallen and ceased to exist because of these varied assaults, the Chinese Empire entered upon the nineteenth century stronger, more expansive, and more populous than ever before in its history. Next to its antiquity, that which most impresses us is its enormous popula tion. No other government of ancient or modern times has embraced so many people, and these in contiguous territory and ruled by the same system of laws and polity. The nearest approach in this respect is the British Empire; but its territory is scattered over the face of the globe and its system of laws is as varied as its possessions. But this great population has been a slow growth. Even in its recorded his tory it goes back to a period of con tracted territory and a comparatively feeble people. But it has shown a marvelous power of assimilation. The Chinese race, as it brought under its sway the adjoining peoples, absorbed them by commingling their blood and engrafting on them their language and customs. Not even the foreign con queror appears to have had the slight est influence on their racial character istics and very little on the government. In modern times they have been twice completely subjugated-by the great warrior Genghis Khan in the thirteenth century and by the Manchus in the seventeenth century-but in each in stance the population experienced no essential change ; the language, govern ment, religion, and customs continued as before; the conquerors were absorbed by the conquered. While it is the most numerous popu lation under one government, it is also the most homogeneous. Throughout its whole extent there is but one written or printed language ; the religious prac tices, the social ethics, the literature, and the system of education are the same. In these respects it is in marked contrast with India-a country of mixed races, languages, and religions. As a consequence, while China has had a con tinuous existence as a nation and has enjoyed more fully than most nations the blessings of peace, the history of India has been one of almost continual turmoil, alternately rent asunder by the rivalry of domestic rulers and laid waste by invading armies, until it fell an easy prey to Great Britain, whose firm but beneficent rule has given it, for the first time in its history, the blessings of peace and good government. This homogeneity of the Chinese has contributed largely to the permanency of the nation; but another characteristic must be noted in this connection-the durability of the race. It has been said that of all the peoples mentioned in an cient history, only the Jews and Chinese remain; but the Jews have long ago lost 464
Links
Archive
1905 Jan
1904 Nov
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page