CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF CHINA.

Grey River Argus, 18 February 1927, Page 8

CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF CHINA.

THE ANTIQUITY OF HER CIVILISATION.

By

H. E. Holland, M.P.

There was a day when China led the world in the march of civilisation; and then for some four hundred years she stood practically still. But the last decade of the nineteenth century and

every year of the twentieth century have brought rude and mighty awakening which have left her where she stands to-day, internally convulsed and

oxtei-N.-i.lly threatened, and yet with her eyes lifted to the sunlight and her millions striving for a foothold on the pathways that wind towards the mountain heights of nationhood. In this

series of articles I propose to trace some of the events which have led up to the

present crisis in ehr history. BEGINNING OF CHINESE CULTURE The development of Chinese culture began nearly five thousand years ago. When Menes was busy founding Egypt’s ancient capital, whose name the ..Greeks were later to corrupt into Memphis, China had formulated her marriage laws, and had invented the lute and the lyre. When the Pyramids were building, tire Chinese were raising silkworms, inventing character Writing, and standardising styles of apparel. When Abraham and Lot were settling their quarrels in Canaan by driving their flocks along divergent paths, the fields of art and education were being explored and cultivated in China. When Hammurabi was codifying the laws he received from the Suu, God, the Chinese were administering the tribute system of taxation, writing tirades on tortoise fjhell, establishing schools., studying astronomy, and working in bronze and jade. What time the Babylonian civilisation was flourishing, and Moses was leading the Israelites into a wilderness out of which he couldn’t pilot them, the Chinese were giving pensions to the aged, imposing a new system of taxation (the aid system) under which land was divided into lots, and eight families were required to cultivate one lot for the Government; they were.minting gold coins, extending their schools and colleges, and beginning-to write lyric poetry. STEADILY FULFILLING HER DESTINY. From Latinos to David and Solomon, from the, founding of Rome to the Hebrew Prophets, from the days of Buddha to the life and death of Soc rates, China was steadily fulfilling her destiny and achieving her high degree of civilisation; her authentic history was beginning to shape itself; parts of ■the Great Wall were being built;Confueius and Mencius were giving to the world their immortal philosophies; centra! Government was developing; the penal code was being drafted, and the Law cast in metal; the marriage system was being perfected; principles of taxation Were being adjusted—-with the tribute system for the city and the aid system for the country; silk was being •exported to. Europe; enormous advances were being made in education and lit-

erature, arid works were being written on military tactics, medicine, mathematics. etc.; bronze work was reachin" a higher artistic success; ami chariots, war weapons, farm implements, and household untensils were being manufactured. CHINA’S GREAT INVENTIONS. When Alexander the. Great was deploying his armies on the plains of Macedonia, aud later when Greece was being conquered by Rome, China was dividing her Empire into provinces, and was completing the Great Wall; she was using both gold and copper coins as her medium of exchanges; she was simplifying writing, inventing the brush pen, and erecting palaces and monuments on a regal scale. When Julius Caesar was prosecuting his Gallic wars and conducting his invasions of Britain, the Chinese were trading with the Greeks and Romans; they were holding civil service examinations for Government appointments; they were writing history, compiling dictionaries, establishing their Imperial Library, developing stone scupture, inventing paper-making, and painting portraits. When the Man of Sorrows was flogging the moneylenders out of the Temple, the Chinese were making inventions designed for purposes of both war ami peace. When Diocletian ruled in Rome, and death was cutting a wide.swathe in the Chris tian ranks, the Chinese were drinking tea and writing poetry and prose. In the fifth century they invented the mariner’s compass. In the seventh century they collected a land lax, a personal tax, and a house tax; they made copper cash the unit of currency; and they invented gunpowder (at first it was used for fireworks, but in the twelfth centriry it was employed in warfare). In the tenth century they an plied a land and products tax; they in vented block printing, and later moveable types. About the tenth or •eleventh century they introduced paper money, and in the thirteenth century they had a paper currency. From the tenth to the twelfth century they pass ed through the renaissance of classical learning, developed speculative philosophy, and established their schools of painting. In the thirteenth century they wrote novels and dramas. In the sixteenth century’ the European traders arrived; and also round about the same century the period of China’.' his torical stagnation set in. TWO MOVEMENTS IN CHINA. ‘ As we proceed to study some aspects of the development of China leading t » the present situation, let the reader bear in mind the fact that ther' are two movements proceeding simultaneously in that great Eastern country. One is the movement of the people of China towards complete nationhood, ami the other is the struggle of the workers for better social conditions and highei economic standards. (To be continued).