A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.].

A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.].

To throw light on the scale of events, we need to have figures of population.  There are no figures for the years around A.D. 220, and we must make do with those of 140; but in order to show the relative strength of the three states it is the ratio between the figures that matters.  In 140 the regions which later belonged to Wei had roughly 29,000,000 inhabitants; those later belonging to Wu had 11,700,000; those which belonged later to Shu Han had a bare 7,500,000. (The figures take no account of the primitive native population, which was not yet included in the taxation lists.) The Hsiung-nu formed only a small part of the population, as there were only the nineteen tribes which had abandoned one of the parts, already reduced, of the Hsiung-nu empire.  The whole Hsiung-nu empire may never have counted more than some 3,000,000.  At the time when the population of what became the Wei territory totalled 29,000,000 the capital with its immediate environment had over a million inhabitants.  The figure is exclusive of most of the officials and soldiers, as these were taxable in their homes and so were counted there.  It is clear that this was a disproportionate concentration round the capital.

It was at this time that both South and North China felt the influence of Buddhism, which until A.D. 220 had no more real effect on China than had, for instance, the penetration of European civilization between 1580 and 1842.  Buddhism offered new notions, new ideals, foreign science, and many other elements of culture, with which the old Chinese philosophy and science had to contend.  At the same time there came with Buddhism the first direct knowledge of the great civilized countries west of China.  Until then China had regarded herself as the only existing civilized country, and all other countries had been regarded as barbaric, for a civilized country was then taken to mean a country with urban industrial crafts and agriculture.  In our present period, however, China’s relations with the Middle East and with southern Asia were so close that the existence of civilized countries outside China had to be admitted.  Consequently, when alien dynasties ruled in northern China and a new high civilization came into existence there, it was impossible to speak of its rulers as barbarians any longer.  Even the theory that the Chinese emperor was the Son of Heaven and enthroned at the centre of the world was no longer tenable.  Thus a vast widening of China’s intellectual horizon took place.

Economically, our present period witnessed an adjustment in South China between the Chinese way of life, which had penetrated from the north, and that of the natives of the south.  Large groups of Chinese had to turn over from wheat culture in dry fields to rice culture in wet fields, and from field culture to market gardening.  In North China the conflict went on between Chinese agriculture and the cattle breeding of Central Asia.  Was the will of the ruler to

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.