The times., 1899-09-03
An Ancient Empfre.

A recent volume in the Story of the Ma
tions" series is China" by Robert K.
Douglas AS time goes on there will un-
doubtedly be an increased and increasing
demand for histories of various Asiatic ma
tions, and especially histories written in
compact form, and available for reference.
Mr.. Douglas work will answer this de-
mand, so far as China is concerned.
II is not claimed that this is a complete
history Of the great empire of the East.
Its antiquity is so great that such a history
would, even in the most condensed form,
I'll more than one volume. The author has
therefore begun with the time of Marco
Polo, and continued the record to the
present day. He has left the earlier his
tory OF the empire for others to deal with.
For the purposes for which this work is
designed, Mr.. Douglas has chosen his
course wisely. This history is not an ex-
haustiye treatise on the Chinese people
but record Of the doings of successive
dynasties. In obtaining the data for even
this work, the author has labored under
some difficulties, since Chinese historians
though fairly truthful, paid little attention
to anything which happened outside the
court or the camp. The life OF the people
lis only recorded incidentally, in various
miscellaneous and more or less unsatisfac-
tory works historical and on-historical
In spite of all this, however, the author
has managed TO evolve not only a read
able but an interesting and instructive
! book.
Those who read 1t will see, perhaps as
never before, that there is an immense
mass OF romance, tragedy, martial incident.
ana other literary material in the history
/ OF this huge Asiatic empire. There are
dramatic happenings all the way through
/ j. Take, for instance, the Burning of the
| Books" ordered by Shih Hwangti. This
| emperor-the first ruler to proclaim him
| self Universal Sovereign-issued q decree
1 that all existing literature in the country
with the exception of works on diyination
and medicine should be destroyed. MANY
| OF the literary men of the country perish
/ ed at the block rather than burn their
cherished volumes. The carrying cut of
| this decree was followed by considerable
material prosperity, and under this ruler
the Great Wall was constructed, to protect
the country from a Tartar invasion This
rugged, powerful, dramatic figure died and
left a son incapable Of maintaining the
power of the throne; and the next Empe-
ror was Kaoti, of the Han dynasty who
rescued from their hiding places such books
! as had escaped the general holocaust. and
| gave the signal for a revival Of learning.
| Old men dictated TO scribes portions OF
ancient texts which had not ESCAPED de-
| struction; books were found IN the roofs of
houses, the sides of caves, and the banks of
rivers. Kaoti was shrewd enough TO copy
his predecessor in so far as the improve
ment of the internal resources of the en-
/ pire went, and he is said to have directed
/ the construction of the first suspension
| bridge known to exist in the world. And
all this happened between two and three
| centuries before Christ.
The following chapters deal with the ad-
ventures OF Marco Polo the wars of the
empire against neighboring nations, and the
civilization which existed under successive
dynastles. The dealing OF The government
with Jesuit missionaries also receives at
tention. AS in other countries, some OF
the rulers of China were tolerant and others
Ill accordingly. t
| About one-third Of the book is occupied