Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-02-18
THE ANTIQUITY or CHINA.


the world. To say that it is older than
any other existing nation, is saying
/ very little. HerodOtus, who has been
called the Father of history, travelled
in Egypt about $50 B. C. He studied ats
monuments, bearing the names OF
kings who were as distant from his
/ time as he is from ours,-mOnuments
| which even then belonged to a gray
/ antiquity. But the kings who erected
| those monuments were pOsterior to the
| founders of the Chinese Empire.
/ Porcelain vessels, with Chinese mot
toes on them, have been. found in those
ancient tombs, in shape, material, and
appearance precisely like those which
are made IN China to-day and Rose
lini believes them to have been inn
ported from China by kings contem-
DOrary with Noses, or before him
This nation and its institutions have
outlasted everything. The ancient
Bactrian and Assyrian kingdoms, the
Persian monarchy, Greece and Rome
have all risen, dOurished, and fallen
and China continues still the same.
The dynasty has been occasionally
changed; but the laws, customs. insti-
tutiOns, all that makes national life,
have continued. The authentic history
of China commences some three thou
sand years before Christ, and a thou
sand years in this history is like a cen
tury in that OF any other people. The
the same that it is now for thirty cen
turies. The great wall bounding the
empire on the north, which is twelve
hundred and forty miles long, and
twenty feet high with towers every
few hundred yards,-Which crosses
mountain ridges, descendsinto valleys,
and is carried over rivers on arches
was built two hundred years before
Christ, probably to repeI those fierce
tribes who, after Intellectual attempts
to conquer China, travelled westward
till they appeared on the borders of
Europe i've hundred years later, and,
under the name of Huns, assisted in
the downfall of the Roman Empire.
All China was intersected with canals
at a period when none existed in
Europe. The great canal, like the great
wall, is unriYalled by any similar ex-
isting work. It is twice the length of
the Erie Canal, Is from two hundred to /
a thousand feet wide, and has enorm-
GUS banks built of solid granite, along
q great part of its course. One of the !
important mechanical inventions of |
modern Europe is the AFtesian well /
That sunk at Grenoble was long, sup
posed to be the deepest in the world, |
going down eighteen hundred feet. |
One at st. Louis, in the United States, |
has since been drilled to a depth, as |
has recently been stated, of more than |
four thousand But in China these |
sunk at very remote periods to obtain /
salt water. The method used by the /
Chinese from immemoria1 time has re- /
Gently Deen adopted instead Of our |
own, as being much more simple and
economical. The Chinese have been
long acquainted with the circulation of
the blood they inocu1ated for small
pOx in the tenth century and about
the same time they invented printing. |
Their bronze money was made as ear
changed since the beginning of the
Christian era. The mariners compass,
gunpowder, and the art of printing
were made known to Europe through
stories told by missionaries returning
from Asia. These missionaries, coast
ing the shores OF the Celestial Empire
in Chinese junks, saw little box con-
tanning a magnetized needle, called
Ting-nanyTehens or tsneedle which
points to the south" !" They also noticed /
terrible machines used by the armies
in China, called Ho-pao or fire-guns,
powder, which produced q noise like
thunder and projected stones and
pieces of iron with irresistible force.
Father Hue, in his "Christianity in
China, - saws that "the Europeans who
penetrated into China were no less
struck with the libraries of the Chinese
than with their artillery. They were
astonfshed at the sight Of the elegant
books printed rapidly upon plant,
silk y paper by means Of wooden blocks.
The first edition of the classical works
printed in China appeared in 95S, five
hundred years before the invention of
Gutenberg. The missionaries had,
doubtless, often been busted in their
converts with the laborious work of
copying manuscript books, and the
simple Chinese method of printing
must have particularly attracted their
attention. Many other marvellous pro-
ductiOns were noticed, such as silk,
porcelain, playing-cards, spactacles.
and other products of art and industry
unknown in Europe. They brought
back these new ideas to Europe; and
from that time,' says Abel Remusat,
the West began to hold in due esteem
the most beautiful, the most pOpulous,
and the most anciently civilized of all
the four quarters of the world. The
arts, the religious faith, and the Ian
guages of its people were studied, and
it was even proposed to establish a
prOfessorship for the Tartar language
In the University of Paris. The world
seemed to open towards the East ge-
ography made immense strides, and
ardOF for discovery opened new vent
for the adventurous spirit OF. the Eu-
rOpeans. As our own hemisphere be-
came better known, the idea of another
ceased to appear wholly improbable
paradox and in seeking the Zipangon
of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus
discovered the New World