Chapter VIII: Part 8

Asia, including its outlying islands, has become the dwelling-place of
all the great families into which the races of men have been divided.
By far the largest area is occupied by the Mongolian group. These have
yellow-brown skins, black eyes and hair, flat noses and oblique eyes.
They are short in stature, with little hair on the body and face. In
general terms they extend, with modifications of character probably
due to admixture with other types and to varying conditions of life,
over the whole of northern Asia as far south as the plains bordering
the Caspian Sea, including Tibet and China, and also over the
Indo-Malayan peninsula and Archipelago, excepting Papua and some of
the more eastern islands.

Next in numerical importance to the Mongolians are the races which
have been called by Professor Huxley _Melanochroic_ and
_Xanthochroic_. The former includes the dark-haired people of southern
Europe, and extends over North Africa, Asia Minor, Syria to
south-western Asia, and through Arabia and Persia to India. The latter
race includes the fair-haired people of northern Europe, and extends
over nearly the same area as the Melanochroi, with which race it is
greatly intermixed. The Xanthochroi have fair skins, blue eyes and
light hair; and others have dark skins, eyes and hair, and are of a
slighter frame. Together they constitute what were once called the
Caucasian races. The Melanochroi are not considered by Huxley to be
one of the primitive modifications of mankind, but rather to be the
result of the admixture of the Xanthochroi with the Australoid type,
next to be mentioned.

The third group is that of the Australoid type. Their hair is dark,
generally soft, never woolly. The eyes and skin are dark, the beard
often well developed, the nose broad and flat, the lips coarse, and
jaws heavy. This race is believed to form the basis of the people of
the Indian peninsula, and of some of the hill tribes of central India,
to whom the name Dravidian has been given, and by its admixture with
the Melanochroic group to have given rise to the ordinary population
of the Indian provinces. It is also probable that the Australoid
family extends into south Arabia and Egypt.

The last group, the Negroid, is represented by the races to which has
been given the name of _Negrito_, from the small size of some of them.
They are closely akin to the negroes of South Africa, and possess the
characteristic dark skins, woolly but scanty beard and body hair,
broad flat noses, and projecting lips of the African; and are diffused
over the Andaman Islands, a part of the Malay peninsula, the
Philippines, Papua, and some of the neighbouring islands. The Negritos
appear to be derived from a mixture of the true Negro with the
Australoid type.

Mongolians.

The distribution of the Mongolian group in Asia offers no particular
difficulty. There is complete present, and probably previous
long-existing, geographical continuity in the area over which they are
found. There is also considerable similarity of climate and other
conditions throughout the northern half of Asia which they occupy. The
extension of modified forms of the Mongolian type over the whole
American continent may be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance
connected with this branch of the human race.

The Mongolians of the northern half of Asia are almost entirely
nomadic, hunters and shepherds or herdsmen. The least advanced of
these, but far the most peaceful, are those that occupy Siberia.
Farther south the best-known tribes are the Manchus, the Mongols
proper, the Moguls and the Turks, all known under the name of Tatars,
and to the ancients as Scythians, occupying from east to west the zone
of Asia comprised between the 40th and 50th circles of N. lat. The
Turks are Mahommedans; their tribes extend up the Oxus to the borders
of Afghanistan and Persia, and to the Caspian, and under the name of
Kirghiz into Russia, and their language is spoken over a large part of
western Asia. Their letters are those of Persia. The Manchus and
Mongols are chiefly Buddhist, with letters derived from the ancient
Syriac. The Manchus are now said to be gradually falling under the
influence of Chinese civilization, and to be losing their old nomadic
habits, and even their peculiar language. The predatory habits of the
Turkish, Mongolian and Manchu population of northern Asia, and their
irruptions into other parts of the continent and into Europe, have
produced very remarkable results in the history of the world.

The Chinese branch of the Mongolian family are a thoroughly settled
people of agriculturists and traders. They are partially Buddhist, and
have a peculiar monosyllabic, uninflected language, with writing
consisting of symbols, which represent words, not letters.

The countries lying between India and the Mongolian are occupied by
populations chiefly of the Mongolian and Chinese type, having
languages fundamentally monosyllabic, but using letters derived from
India, and adopting their religion, which is almost everywhere
Buddhist, from the Indians. Of these may be named the Tibetans, the
Burmese and the Siamese. Cochin-China is more nearly Chinese in all
respects. It is known that to the Tibeto-Chinese modifications of the
pure Mongolian type all the eastern Burmese tribes--Chins, Kachins,
Shans, &c.--belong (as indeed do the Burmese themselves), and that a
cognate race occupies the Himalaya to the eastern limits of Kashmir.

Some light has been thrown on the connexion between the Tibetan race
and certain tribes of central India, the Bhils and Kols; and it seems
more probable that these tribes are the remnants of a Mongolian race
which first displaced a yet earlier Negroid population, and was then
itself shouldered out by a Caucasian irruption, than that they entered
India by any of the northern passages within historic times. Mongolian
settlements have lately been found very much farther extended into the
border countries of north-west India than has been hitherto
recognized. The Mingals, who, conjointly with the Brahuis, occupy the
hills south of Kalat to the limits of the Rajput province of Las Bela,
claim Mongolian descent, and traces of a Mongolian colony have been
found in Makran.

Malays.

The Malays, who occupy the peninsula and most of the islands of the
Archipelago called after them, are Mongols apparently modified by
their very different climate, and by the maritime life forced upon
them by the physical conditions of the region they inhabit. As they
are now known to us, they have undergone a process of partial
civilization, first at the hands of the Brahminical Indians, from whom
they borrowed a religion, and to some extent literature and an
alphabet, and subsequently from intercourse with the Arabs, which has
led to the adoption of Mahommedanism by most of them.

Aryans.

The name of Aryan has been given to the races speaking languages
derived from, or akin to, the ancient form of Sanskrit, who now occupy
the temperate zone extending from the Mediterranean, across the
highlands of Asia Minor, Persia and Afghanistan, to India. The races
speaking the languages akin to the ancient Assyrian, which are now
mainly represented by Arabic, have been called Semitic, and occupy the
countries south-west of Persia, including Syria and Arabia, besides
extending into North Africa. Though the languages of these races are
very different they cannot be regarded as physically distinct, and
they are both without doubt branches of the Melanochroi, modified by
admixture with the neighbouring races, the Mongols, the Australoids
and the Xanthochroi.

The Aryans of India are probably the most settled and civilized of all
Asiatic races. This type is found in its purest form in the north and
north-west, while the mixed races and the population referred to the
Australoid type predominate in the peninsula and southern India. The
spoken languages of northern India are very various, differing one
from another in the sort of degree that English differs from German,
though all are thoroughly Sanskritic in their vocables, but with an
absence of Sanskrit grammar that has given rise to considerable
discussion. The languages of the south are Dravidian, not Sanskritic.
The letters of both classes of languages, which also vary
considerably, are all modifications of the ancient Pali, and probably
derived from the Dravidians, not from the Aryans. They are written
from left to right, exception being made of Urdu or Hindostani, the
mixed language of the Mahommedan conquerors of northern India, the
character used for writing which is the Persian. From the river Sutlej
and the borders of the Sind desert, as far as Burma and to Ceylon, the
religion of the great bulk of the people of India is Hindu or
Brahminical, though the Mahommedans are often numerous, and in some
places even in a majority. West of the Sutlej the population of Asia
may be said to be wholly Mahommedan with the exception of certain
relatively small areas in Asia Minor and Syria, where Christians
predominate. The language of the Punjab does not differ very
materially from that of Upper India. West of the Indus the dialects
approach more to Persian, which language meets Arabic and Turki west
of the Tigris, and along the Turkoman desert and the Caspian. Through
the whole of this tract the letters are used which are common to
Persian, Arabic and Turkish, written from right to left.

Racial distribution.

Considerable progress has been made in the classification of the
various races which occupy the continent to the west of the great
Mongolian region. The ancient Sacae, or Scyths, are recognized in the
Aryan population, who may be found in great numbers and in their
purest form in the more inaccessible mountains and glens of the
central highlands. These Tajiks (as they are usually called) form the
underlying population of Persia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan and
Badakshan, and their language (in the central districts of Asia) is
found to contain words of Aryan or Sanskrit derivation which are not
known in Persian. They have been for the most part dispossessed of
their country by Turkish immigration and conquests, but they still
retain their original intellectual superiority over the Turkish and
other mixed tribes by which they are surrounded. Uzbegs and Kirghiz
have but small affinity with the Mongol element of Asia. They are the
representatives of those countless Turkish irruptions which have taken
place through all history. Of the two divisions (Kara Kirghiz and
Kassak Kirghiz) into which the Kirghiz tribes are divided by Russian
authorities, the Kassak Kirghiz is the more closely allied to the
Mongol type; the Kara Kirghiz, who are found principally in the
valleys of the Tian-shan and Altai mountains, being unmistakably
Turkish. The Kipchaks are only a Kirghiz clan. The language of the
Kirghiz is Turki and their religion that of Mahomet. As a nomadic
people they have great contempt for the Sarts, who represent the town
dwellers of the tribe. The Kalmucks are a Buddhist and Mongolian
people who originated in a confederacy of tribes dwelling in
Dzungaria, migrated to Siberia, and settled on the Lower Volga. From
thence they returned late in the 18th century to the reoccupation of
their old ground in Kulja under the Chinese. The Turkoman is the
purest form of the Turk element, and his language is the purest form
of the Turkish tongue, which is represented at Constantinople by a
comparatively mongrel, or mixed, dialect. Ethnographers have traced a
connexion between the Turkoman of central Asia and the Teutonic races
of Europe, based on a similarity of national customs and immemorial
usage. Evidence of an original affinity between Turkoman and Rajput
has also been found in the mutual possession by these races of a ruddy
skin, so that as ethnographical inquiry advances the Turk appears to
recede from his Mongolian affinities and to approach the Caucasian.
Turks and Mongols alike were doubtless included under the term Scyth
by the ancients, and as Tatars by more modern writers, insomuch that
the Turkish dynasty at Delhi, founded by Baber, is usually termed the
Mogul dynasty, although there can be no distinction traced between the
terms Mogul and Mongol. The general results of recent inquiry into the
ethnography of Afghanistan is to support the general correctness of
Bellew's theories of the origin of the Afghan races. The claim of the
Durani Afghan to be a true Ben-i-Israel is certainly in no way
weakened by any recent investigation. The influence of Greek culture
in northern India is fully recognized, and the distribution of Greek
colonies previous to Alexander's time is attested by practical
knowledge of the districts they were said to occupy. The _habitat_ of
the Nysaeana, and the identity of certain tribes of Kafiristan with
the descendants of these pre-Alexandrian colonists from the west, are
also well established. To this day hymns are unwittingly sung to
Bacchus in the dales and glens of Kafiristan. The ethnographical
status of the mixed tribes of the mountains that lie between Chitral
and the Peshawar plains has been fairly well fixed by John Biddulph,
and much patient inquiry in the vast fields of Baluchistan by Major
Mockler, G.P. Tate and others has resulted in quite a new appreciation
of the tribal origin of the great conglomeration of Baluch peoples.

The result of trans-border surveys to the north and west of India has
been to establish the important geographical fact that it is by two
gateways only, one on the north-west and one on the west of India,
that the central Asiatic tides of immigration have flowed into the
peninsula. The Kabul valley indicates the north-western entrance, and
Makran indicates that on the west. By the Kabul valley route, which
includes at its head the group of passes across the Hindu Kush which
extend from the Khawak to the Kaoshan, all those central Asian hordes,
be they Sacae, Yue-chi, Jats, Goths or Huns, who were driven towards
the rich plains of the south, entered the Punjab. Some of them
migrated from districts which belong to eastern Asia, but none of them
penetrated into India by eastern passes. Such tides as set towards the
Himalaya broke against their farther buttresses, leaving an
interesting ethnographical flotsam in the northern valleys; but they
never overflowed the Himalayan barrier. Later most of the historic
invasions of India from central Asia followed the route which leads
directly from Kabul to Peshawar and Delhi.

By the western gates of Makran prehistoric irruptions from Mesopotamia
broke into the plains of Lower Sind, and either passed on towards the
central provinces of India or were absorbed in the highlands south of
Kalat. In later centuries the Arabs from the west reached the valley
of the Indus by their western route, and there established a dynasty
which lasted for 300 years. The identification of existing peoples
with the various Scythic, Persian and Arab races who have passed from
High Asia into the Indian borderland, has opened up a vast field of
ethnographical inquiry which has hardly yet found adequate workers for
its investigation. To such fields may be added the yet more
complicated problems of those reflex waves which flowed backwards from
India into the border highlands. (T. H. H.*)

HISTORY

1. The borders assigned to Asia on the west are somewhat arbitrary. The Urals indicate no real division of races, and in both Greek and Turkish times Asia Minor has been connected with the opposite shores of Europe rather than with the lands lying to the east. A juster view of early history is probably obtained by thinking of the countries round the Mediterranean as interacting on one another than by separating Palestine and Asia Minor as Asiatic.

Asiatic characteristics.

2. The words "Asiatic" and "Oriental" are often used as if they denoted a definite and homogeneous type, but Russians resemble Asiatics in many ways, and Turks, Hindus, Chinese, &c., differ in so many important points that the common substratum is small. It amounts to this, that Asiatics stand on a higher level than the natives of Africa or America, but do not possess the special material civilization of western Europe. As far as any common mental characteristic can be assigned it is also somewhat negative, namely, that Asiatics have not the same sentiment of independence and freedom as Europeans. Individuals are thought of as members of a family, state or religion, rather than as entities with a destiny and rights of their own. This leads to autocracy in politics, fatalism in religion and conservatism in both. Hence, too, Asiatic history has large and simple outlines. Though longer chronologically than the annals of Europe, it is less eventful, less diversified and offers fewer personalities of interest. But the same conditions which render individual eminence difficult procure for it when once attained a more ready recognition, and the conquerors and prophets of Asia have had more power and authority than their parallels in Europe. Jenghiz Khan and Timur covered more ground than Napoleon, and no European has had such an effect on the world as Mahomet.

Religion and civilisation.

3. Attention has often been called to the religious character of Asia. Not only the great religions of the world--Buddhism, Christianity, Islam--but those of secondary importance, such as Judaism, Parseeism, Taoism, are all Asiatic. No European race left to itself has developed any thing more than an unsystematic paganism. It is true that Greek philosophy advanced far beyond this stage, but it produced nothing sufficiently popular to be called a religion. On the other hand Christianity, though Asiatic in its origin and essential ideas, has to a large extent taken its present form on European soil, and some of its most important manifestations--notably the Roman Church--are European reconstructions in which little of the Asiatic element remains. Christianity has made little way farther east then Asia Minor. Modern missions have made no great conquests there, and in earlier times the Nestorians and Jacobites who penetrated to central Asia, China and India, received respectful hearing, but never had anything like the success which attended Buddhism and Islam. Yet Buddhism has never made much impression west of India; and Islam is clearly repugnant to Europeans, for even when under Moslem rule (as in Turkey) they refuse to accept it in a far larger proportion than did the Hindus in similar circumstances. Hence there is clearly a deep-seated difference between the religious feelings of the two continents.

Since Asiatic records go back much farther than those of Europe, it is natural that Asia should be thought the birthplace of civilization. But this originality cannot be absolute, for, whatever may have been the relations of Babylonia and the Aryans, the latter brought civilization to India from the west, and it is not always clear whether similarity of government and institutions is the result of borrowing or of parallel development. Both in Europe and in Asia small feudal or aristocratic states tended to consolidate themselves into monarchies, but whereas in Europe from the early days of Rome onwards royalty has often been driven out and replaced temporarily or permanently by popular government, this change seems not to occur in Asia, where revolution means only a change of dynasty. The few cases where the government is not monarchical, as Arabia, seem to represent the persistence of very ancient conditions.

The contemplation of Asia suggests that progress is most rapid when accompanied by the migration of races or the transplantation of ideas and institutions. Thus Greece excelled the Eastern countries from whom she may have derived her civilization, and Buddhism had a far more brilliant career outside India than in it.

General historical outlines.

4. In many parts of southern Asia are found semi-barbarous races representing the earliest known stratum of population, such as the Veddahs of Ceylon, and various tribes in China and the Malay Archipelago. Some of them offer analogies to the Australians. This connexion, if true, must be very ancient, since it apparently goes back to a time when the distribution of land and water was other than at present. In northern Asia are found other aborigines, such as the Ainus of Japan and the so-called hyperborean races (Chukchis, &c.), but no materials are at present forthcoming for their history. There is some record of the migrations of the later races superimposed on these aborigines. The Chinese came from the west, though how far west is unknown: the Hindus and Persians from the north-west: the Burmese and Siamese from the north. We do not know if the Mongols, Turks, &c., had any earlier home than central Asia, but their extensive movements from that region are historical.

The antiquity of Asiatic history is often exaggerated. With the exception of Babylonia and Assyria, we can hardly even conjecture what was the condition of this continent much before 1500 B.C. At that period the Chinese were advancing along the Hwang-ho, and the Aryans were entering India from the north-west. Both were in conflict with earlier races. The influence of Babylonian civilization was probably widespread. Some connexion between Babylonia and China is generally admitted, and all Indian alphabets seem traceable to a Semitic original borrowed in the course of commerce from the Persian Gulf.

Apart from European conquests, the internal history of Asia in the last 2000 years is the result of the interaction of four main influences: (a) Chinese, (b) Indian, (c) Mahommedan, (d) Central Asian. Of these the first three represent different types of civilization: the fourth has little originality, but has been of great importance in affecting the distribution of races and political power.

(a) China has moulded the civilization of the eastern mainland and Japan, without much affecting the Malay Archipelago. In the sphere of direct influence fall Korea, Japan and Annam; in the outer sphere are Mongolia, Tibet, Siam, Cambodia and Burma, where Indian and Chinese influence are combined, the Indian being often the stronger. These countries, except Japan, have all been at some time at least nominal tributaries of China. Where Chinese influence had full play it introduced Confucianism, a special style in art and the Chinese system of writing. After the Christian era it was accompanied by Chinese Buddhism. The cumbrous Chinese script maintains itself in the Far East, but has not advanced west of China proper and Annam.

(b) Indian influence may be defined as Buddhism, if it is understood that Buddhism is not at all periods clearly distinguishable from Hinduism. Its sphere includes Indo-China, much of the Malay Archipelago, Tibet and Mongolia, Moreover, China and Japan themselves may be said to fall within this sphere, in view of the part which Buddhism has played in their development. The Buddhist influence is not merely religious, for it is always accompanied by Indian art and literature, and often by an Indian alphabet. Much of this art is Greek in origin, being derived from the Perso-Greek states on the north-west frontiers of India. Indian alphabets have spread to Tibet, Cambodia, Java and Korea. The history of Indian civilization in Indo-China and the Archipelago is still obscure, in spite of the existence of gigantic ruins, but it would appear that in some parts at least two periods must be distinguished, first the introduction of Hinduism (or mixed Hinduism and Buddhism), perhaps under Indian princes, and secondly a later and more purely ecclesiastical introduction of Sinhalese Buddhism, with its literature and art.

(c) Mahommedanism or Islam is perhaps the greatest transforming force which the world has seen. It has profoundly affected and to a large extent subjugated all western Asia including India, all eastern and northern Africa as well as Spain, and all eastern Europe. Its open advocacy of force attracts warlike races, and the intensity of its influence is increased by the fusion of secular and religious power, so that the Moslem Church is a Moslem state characterized by slavery, polygamy, and, subject to the autocracy of the ruler, by the theoretical equality of Moslems, who in political status are superior to non-Moslems. Thus, whenever the population of a Moslem country is of mixed belief, a ruling caste of Moslems is formed, as in Turkey at the present day and India under the Moguls. Islam is paramount in Turkey, Persia, Arabia and Afghanistan. India is the dividing line: Islam is strong in northern and central India, weaker in the south. But only one-fifth of the whole population is Moslem. Beyond India it has spread to Malacca and the Malay Archipelago, where it overwhelmed Hindu civilization, and reached the southern Philippines. But it made no progress in Indo-China or Japan; and though there is a large Moslem population in China the Chinese influence has been stronger, for alone of all Asiatics the Chinese have succeeded in forcing Islam to accept the ordinary limitations of a religion and to take its place as a creed parallel to Buddhism or any other.

Even more than Buddhism Islam has carried with it a special style of art and civilization. It is usually accompanied by the use of the Arabic alphabet, and in the languages of Moslem nations (notably Turkish, Persian, Hindustani and Malay) a large proportion of the vocabulary is borrowed from Arabic. Hindi and Hindustani, two forms of the same language as spoken by Hindus and Mahommedans respectively, are a curious example of how deeply religion may affect culture.

(d) The great part which central Asian tribes have played in history is obscured by the absence of any common name for them. Linguistically they can be divided into several groups such as Turks, Mongols and Huns, but they were from time to time united into states representing more than one group, and their armies were recruited, like the Janissaries, from all the military races in the neighbourhood. Soon after the Christian era central Asia began to boil over, and at least seven great invasions and more or less complete conquests can be ascribed to these tribes without counting minor movements, (i.) The early invasions of Europe by the Avars, Huns and Bulgarians. (ii.) The invasion and temporary subjection of Russia by the Mongols, who penetrated as far west as Silesia, (iii.) The conquests of Timur. (iv.) The conquest of Asia Minor and eastern Europe by the Turks. (v.) The conquest of India by the Moguls. (vi.) The conquest of China by the Mongols under Kublai. (vii.) The later conquest of China by the Manchus. To these may be added numerous lesser invasions of India, China and Persia.

These tribes have a genius for warfare rather than for government, art or literature, and with few exceptions (e.g. the Moguls in India) have proved poor administrators. Apart from conquest their most important function has been to keep up communications in central Asia, and to transport religions and civilizations from one region to another. Thus they are mainly responsible for the introduction of Islam with its Arabic or Persian civilization into India and Europe, and in earlier times their movements facilitated the infiltration of Graeco-Bactrian civilization into India, besides maintaining communication between China and the West.

5. _Babylonia and Assyria._--The movements mentioned above have been the chief factors of relatively modern Asiatic history, but in early times the centre of activity and culture lay farther west, in Babylonia and Assyria. These ancient states began to decline in the 7th century B.C., and on their ruins rose the Persian empire, which with various political metamorphoses continued to be an important power till the 7th century A.D., after which all western Asia was overwhelmed by the Moslem wave, and old landmarks and kingdoms were obliterated.

The materials for the study of their institutions and population are abundant, but lend themselves to discussion rather than to a summary of admitted facts. In the early history of south-western Asia the Semites form the most important ethnic group, which is primarily linguistic but also shares other remarkable characteristics. Two of the greatest religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, are Semitic in origin, as well as Judaism. In politics these races have been less successful in modern times, but the Semitic states of Babylonia and Assyria were once the principal centres for the development and distribution of civilization. It is generally agreed that this civilization can be traced back to an earlier race, the Sumero-Akkadians, whose language seems allied to the agglutinative idioms of central Asia. If this ancient civilized race was really allied to the ancestors of the Turks and Huns, it is a remarkable instance of how civilization thrives best by being transplanted at a certain period of growth. Still less is known of the early non-Aryan races of Asia Minor such as the Hittites and Alorodians. One hypothesis supposes that the shores of the Mediterranean were originally inhabited by a homogeneous race neither Aryan nor Semitic.

The earliest Sumerian records seem to be anterior to 4000 B.C. Shortly after that period Babylonia was invaded by Semites, who became the ruling race. The city of Babylon came to the fore as metropolis about 2285 B.C. under Khammurabi. Assyria was an offshoot of Babylonia lying to the north-west, and apparently colonized before the second millennium. While using the same language as the Babylonians, the Assyrians had an individuality which showed itself in art and religion. In the 9th and 8th centuries B.C. they became the chief power within their sphere and the suzerain of their parent Babylon. But they succumbed before the advance of the Medo-Persian power in 606 B.C., whereas it was not till 555 that Cyrus took Babylon. Assyria, being essentially a military power, disappeared with the destruction of Nineveh, but Babylon continued to exercise an influence on culture and religion for many centuries after the Persian conquest.

6. _China._--This is the oldest of existing states, though its authentic history does not go back much beyond 1000 B.C. It is generally admitted that there was some connexion between the ancient civilizations of China and Babylonia, but its precise nature is still uncertain. It is clear, however, that the Chinese came from the west, and entered their present territory along the course of the Hwang-ho at an unknown period, possibly about 3000 B.C. In early historical times China consisted of a shifting confederacy of feudal states, but about 220 B.C. the state of Tsin or Chin (whence the name China) came into prominence, and succeeded in forming a homogeneous empire, which advanced considerably towards the south. The subsequent history of China is mainly a record of struggles with various tribes, commonly, but not very correctly, called Tatars. The empire was frequently broken up by successful incursions, or divided between rival dynasties, but at least twice became a great Asiatic power: under the Han dynasty (about 200 B.C.-A.D. 220), and the T'ang (A.D. 618-906). The dominions of the latter extended across central Asia to northern India, but were dismembered by the attacks of the Kitans, whence the name Cathay. China proper, minus these external provinces, was again united under the Sung dynasty (960-1127), but split into the northern (Tatar) and southern (Chinese) kingdoms. In the 13th century arose the Mongol power, and Kublai Khan conquered China. The Mongol dynasty lasted less than a century, but the Ming, the native Chinese dynasty which succeeded it, reigned for nearly 300 years and despatched expeditions which reached India, Ceylon and East Africa. In 1644 the Ming succumbed to the attacks of the Manchus, a northern tribe who captured Peking and founded the present imperial house.

Until the advent of Europeans, the Chinese were always in contact with inferior races. Whether they expanded at the expense of weak aboriginal tribes or were conquered by more robust invaders, Chinese civilization prevailed and assimilated alike the conquered and the conquerors. It is largely to this that we must ascribe the national conservatism and contempt for foreigners. The spirit of the Chinese polity is self-contained, anti-military and anti-sacerdotal. Rank is nominally determined by merit, as tested by competitive examinations. Society is conceived as regulated by mutual obligations, of which the duties of parents and children are the most important. The emperor is head of the state and the high priest, who sacrifices to Heaven on behalf of his people, but he can be deposed, and no divine right is inherent in certain families as in Japan and Turkey. On the contrary there have been 20 dynasties since the Christian era.

The most conspicuous figure in Chinese literature is Confucius (551-475 B.C.). Though he laid no claim to originality and merely sought to collect and systematize the traditions of antiquity, his influence in the Far East has been unbounded, and he must be pronounced one of the most powerful advocates of peace and humanity that have ever existed. Confucianism is an ethical rather than a religious system, and hence was able to co-exist, though not on very friendly terms, with Buddhism, which reached China about the 1st century A.D. and was the chief source of Chinese religious ideas, except the older ancestor worship. But they are not a religious people, and like many Europeans regard the church as a department of the state.

7. _Japan_ appears to have been formerly inhabited by the Ainus, who have traditions of an older but unknown population, but was invaded in prehistoric times by a race akin to the Koreans, which was possibly mingled with Malay elements after occupying the southern part of the islands. Authentic history does not begin till about the 6th century A.D., when Chinese civilization and Buddhism were introduced. The government was originally autocratic, but as early as the 7th century the most characteristic feature of Japanese politics--the power of great families who overshadowed the throne--makes its appearance. We hear first of the Fujiwara family, and then of the rivalry between the houses of Taira and Minamoto. The latter prevailed, and in 1192 established the dual system of government under which the emperor or Mikado ruled only in name, and the real power was in the hands of a hereditary military chief called Shogun. Japan has never been invaded in historical times, but an attempt made by Kublai Khan to conquer it was successfully repulsed. The chief power then passed to the Ashikaga dynasty of Shoguns, who retained it for about 200 years and were distinguished for their patronage of the arts. The second half of the 16th century was a period of ferment and anarchy, marked by the arrival of the Portuguese and the rise of some remarkable adventurers, one of whom, Hideyoshi, conquered Korea and apparently meditated the invasion of China. His plans were interrupted by his death, and his successor, Ieyasu, who shaped the social and political life of Japan for nearly 300 years (1603-1868), definitely decided on a policy of seclusion and isolation. All ideas of external conquest were abandoned, Christianity was forbidden, and Japan closed to foreigners, only the Dutch being allowed a strictly limited commerce. In 1854-1859 the Christian powers, beginning with the United States, successfully asserted their right to trade with Japan. The influx of new ideas provoked civil war, in which the already decadent Shogunate was abolished and the authority of the Mikado restored. Recognizing that their only chance of competing with Europeans was to fight them with their own weapons, the Japanese set themselves deliberately to assimilate the material civilization and to some extent the institutions of Europe, such as constitutional government. Their progress and success are without parallel. In 1895 they defeated the Chinese and ten years later the Russians. Their exceptional status among Asiatic nations has been recognized by treaties which, contrary to the general practice in non-Christian countries, place all foreigners in Japan under Japanese law.

This sudden development of the Japanese is perhaps the most important event of the second half of the 19th century, since it marks the rise of an Asiatic power capable of competing with Europe on equal terms. Their history is so different from that of the rest of Asia that it is not surprising if the result is different. The nation hardly came into existence till China and India had passed their prime, and remained secluded and free from the continual struggle against barbarian invaders, which drained the energies of its neighbours. It was left untouched by Mahommedanism, and for an unprecedentedly long period kept Europeans at bay without wasting its strength in hostilities. The military spirit was evolved, not in raids and massacres of the usual Asiatic type which create little but intense racial hatred, but in feuds between families and factions of the same race, which restrained ferocity and tended to create a temper like that of the feudal chivalry of Europe. On the other hand it is noticeable that the Japanese have little which is original in the way of religion, literature or philosophy. Unlike the Chinese and Indians, they have hitherto not had the smallest influence on the intellectual development of Asia, and though they have in the past sometimes shown themselves intensely nationalist and conservative, they have, compared with India and China, so little which is really their own that their assimilation of foreign ideas is explicable.

8. _Korea_ received its civilization and religion from China, but differs in language, and to some extent in customs. An alphabet derived from Indian sources is in use as well as Chinese writing. The country was at most periods independent though nominally tributary to China. In the 16th century the Japanese occupied it for a short period, and in 1894 they went to war with China on account of her claims to suzerainty. In 1895 Korea was declared independent.

9. _India._--The population of India comprises at least three strata: firstly, uncivilized aborigines, such as the Kols and Santhals, and secondly, the Dravidians (Tamils, Kanarese, &c.), who perhaps represent the earliest northern invaders, and appear to have attained some degree of culture on their own account. The most recent authorities are of opinion that the Kolarians and Dravidians represent a single physical type; but, whatever the historical explanation may be, they certainly have different languages and show different stages of civilization. In prehistoric times they were spread over the whole of India, but were driven to the centre and south of the peninsula by the third stratum of Aryans, and perhaps also by invasions of so-called Mongolian races from the north-west. No historical record has been preserved of these latter, but they appear to have profoundly affected the population of Bengal, which is believed to be Mongolo-Dravidian in composition. The Aryans appear to have been settled to the north of the Hindu Kush, and to have migrated south-eastwards about 1500 B.C. Their original home has been a subject of much discussion, but the view now prevalent is that they arose in southern Russia or Asia Minor, whence a section spread eastwards and divided into two closely related branches--the Hindus and Iranians. There were probably two successive Aryan immigrations, and the tradition of a struggle between them may be preserved in the _Mahabharata_. The life of the ancient Aryans, as portrayed in their sacred songs, the _Rig Veda_, was quasi-nomadic and in many ways democratic, but by the 6th century B.C. settled states had been formed in the Ganges valley. They were absolute monarchies, but the power of the king was tempered by the extraordinary influence possessed by the hereditary sacerdotal class or Brahmans. The position of this class, which has remained till the present day, is connected with the institution of caste, a division of the population into groups founded partly on racial distinctions. The peaceful progress of Brahmanism was hindered by the doctrine of the Indian prince Gotama, called the Buddha, which grew into one of the greatest religions of the world. For many centuries the culture and development of the Hindus depended mainly on the interaction of the old Brahmanical religion and Buddhism. The latter was finally absorbed, and disappeared in India itself, but has spread Indian influence over the whole of eastern Asia, where it still flourishes.

In 326 B.C. Alexander invaded the Punjab. The immediate result was small, but the establishment of Perso-Greek kingdoms in central Asia had a powerful influence on Indian art and culture. It may also have helped to familiarize the Hindu mind with the idea of an empire, which appeared among them later than in other Asiatic countries. The first empire, called Maurya, reached its greatest extent in the time of Asoka (264-227 B.C.), who ruled from Afghanistan to Madras. He was a zealous Buddhist and gave the first example of a missionary religion, for by his exertions the faith was spread over all India and Ceylon. No Hindu empires have lasted long, and the Maurya dominions broke up fifty years after his death.

In the next period (c. 150 B.C.-A.D. 300) India was invaded from the north by tribes partly of Parthian and partly of Turki (Yue-chi, &c.) origin. Owing to the absence of dated records, the chronology of these invasions has not yet been set beyond dispute, but the most important was that of the Kushans, whose king Kanishka founded a state which comprised northern India and Kashmir. They were Buddhists, and it is probable that the Mahayana or northern form of Buddhism was due to an amalgamation of Gotama's doctrines with the ideas (largely Greek and Persian) which they brought with them. Much of Sivaism has probably the same origin. Another native empire, known as Gupta, rose on the ruins of the Kushan kingdom, and embraced nearly the whole peninsula, but it broke up in the 5th century, partly owing to the attacks of new northern invaders, the Huns. The Malava dynasty maintained Hindu civilization in the 6th century, and from 606 to 646 Harsha established a brief but brilliant empire in the north with its capital at Kanauj. This epoch is marked by the renaissance of Sanskrit literature and the gradual revival of Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism. But after Harsha Hindu history is lost in a maze of small and transitory states, incapable of resisting the ever advancing Mahommedan peril. As early as 712 the Arabs conquered Sind, and by the end of the 11th century the whole of northern India was in Moslem hands. Two periods may be distinguished, namely the Turki (1200-1526) and the Mogul empire. The former comprised several dynasties of mixed Turki and Iranian race, but was wanting in coherency. In the neighbourhood of the Moslem capitals, Islam spread rapidly, but in such districts as Rajputana and specially Vijayanagar (Mysore) Hindu civilization and religion maintained themselves.

In 1526 the Moguls descended on India from Transoxiana and seized the throne of Delhi. They never subjugated the south, but the empire which they founded in the north was for about two centuries, under such rulers as Akbar and Shah Jehan, one of the most brilliant which Asia has seen. After 1707 it began to decline: the governors became independent: a powerful Mahratta confederacy arose in central India; Nadir Shah of Persia sacked Delhi; and Ahmed Shah made repeated invasions. A still more formidable danger, the power of the French and English, continued to increase. Amidst such confusion the authority of the Mogul empire rapidly disappeared, but it lasted as a name till the Mutiny (1857).

Indian history until Mahommedan times is marked by the unusual prominence of religious ideas, and is a record of intellectual development rather than of political events. Whatever national unity the Hindu peoples possessed came from the persistent and penetrating influence of the Brahman caste. Kings held a secondary position, and were generally regarded as adventitious tyrants, rather than as the heads and representatives of the nation. Even the great dynasties have left few traces, and it is with difficulty that the patient historian disinters the minor kingdoms from obscurity, but Indian religion, literature and art have influenced all Asia from Persia to Japan.

10._Persia._-- The Persians, with whom are often coupled the Medes, appear to be pure Aryans in origin, and the earliest form of their language and religion offers remarkable analogies to the Vedas. It is reasonable to suppose that their ancestors and those of the Hindus at one time formed a single tribe somewhere in central Asia. The religion was remodelled by Zoroaster, who seems to be a historical character and to have lived about the 7th century B.C. About the same time they shook off the domination of Assyria. From the 6th century onwards their empire, then known as Median, began to expand at the expense of the surrounding states. They destroyed Nineveh in alliance with the Babylonians, and half a century later Cyrus took Babylon and founded the great dynasty of the Achaemenidae. The substitution of the Persian for the Median power, which took place with the advent of Cyrus, seems to indicate merely the pre-eminence of a particular tribe and not conquest by another race. The power of the Achaemenidae, when at its maximum, extended from the Oxus and Indus in the east to Thrace in the west and Egypt in the south, but fell before Greece, after lasting for rather more than 200 years. Darius and Xerxes were repulsed in their efforts to subjugate the Greek Peninsula, and Alexander the Great conquered their successor Darius III. in 329. But the greater part of the empire continued to exist under new masters, the Seleucids, as a Hellenistic power which was of great importance for the dissemination of Greek culture in the East. Bactria soon became independent under an Indo-Greek dynasty, and the blending of Greek, Persian, central Asiatic and Hindu influences had an important effect on the art and religion of India, and through India on all eastern Asia. About the same period (250 B.C.-A.D. 227) the Parthian empire arose under the Arsacids in Khorasan and the adjacent districts. The Parthians appear to have been a Turanian tribe who had adopted many Persian customs. They successfully withstood the Romans, and at one time their power extended from India to Syria. They succumbed to the Persian dynasty of the Sassanids, who ruled successfully for about four centuries, established the Zoroastrian faith as their state religion, and maintained a creditable conflict with the East Roman empire. But in the 7th century they were defeated by Heraclius, and shortly afterwards were annihilated before the first impetus of the Mahommedan conquest, which established Islam in Persia and the neighbouring lands, sweeping away old civilizations and boundaries. During the greater part of the Mahommedan period Persia has been ruled by troubled and short-lived dynasties. It attained a certain dignity and unity under Abbas Shah (1585-1628), but in later times was distracted and disorganized by Afghan invasions. The present dynasty, which is of Turkoman origin, dates from 1789.

The achievements of the Persians in art, literature and religion are by no means contemptible, but somewhat mixed and cosmopolitan. Owing to its position, the Persian state, when it from time to time became a conquering empire, overlapped Asia Minor, Babylon and India, and hence acted as an intermediary for transmitting art and ideas, sending for instance Greek sculpture to India and the cult of Mithra to western Europe. It is perhaps on account of this intermediate flavour that the literature of Persia--for instance the adaptations of Omar Khayyam--is more appreciated in Europe than that of other Oriental nations. On the other hand, the wars between Persia and Greece were recognized both at the time and afterwards as a struggle between Europe and Asia; the fact that both combatants were Aryans was not felt, and has no importance compared to the difference of continent.

11. _Jews._--The Israelites appear to have been originally a nomadic tribe akin to the Arabs, whom they resemble in their want of political instinct and in their extraordinary religious genius. Among many remarkable qualities they have been distinguished from the earliest times by a species of commensalism, or power of living among other nations without becoming either socially merged or politically distinct. Their traditional history represents them as migrating to the borders of Egypt and living there for some centuries. After the exodus, which perhaps took place about 1300 B.C., they moved northwards again and founded a state of modest dimensions, which attained a short-lived unity under Solomon, but succumbed to internal dissensions and to the attacks of Assyria and Babylon. Shalmanezer destroyed the northern kingdom or Israel in 720, and following the practice of the times deported the majority of the population, whose traces became lost to history. There is no reason why their descendants should not be found to-day in various tribes, but the physical type commonly called Jewish is characteristic not so much of Israel as of western Asia generally. In 588 Nebuchadnezzar carried off the Jews in captivity, but after the Persian conquest of Babylonia they were allowed to return to Palestine in 538. Their institutions and ideas were probably considerably modified during this period. Babylon long continued to be a Jewish centre whence the Jews radiated to other countries. The restored state of Jerusalem lived for about six centuries in partial independence under Persian, Egyptian, Syrian and Roman rule, often showing an aggressively heroic attachment to its national customs, which brought it into collision with its suzerains, until the temple was destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70, and the country laid waste in the succeeding years. But long before this period the Jews of the Dispersion had become as important as the inhabitants of Palestine. From choice or compulsion large numbers settled in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies, and added an appreciable element to Alexandrine culture, while gradual voluntary emigration established Jewish communities in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, who facilitated the first spread of Christianity. In spite of chronic unpopularity and recurring persecutions they have spread over nearly all Europe. At the end of the 13th century they were expelled from Spain and many of the exiles moved eastwards. At present the largest numbers are to be found in the eastern parts of Europe. It is remarkable that though the Jews live in relative peace with Asiatics, the great majority of them prefer Europe as a residence.

12. _Arabs._--The Arabs have hardly any history before the rise of Islam, although their name is mentioned by surrounding nations from the 9th century B.C. onwards. They appear to have had few states or kings, but rather tribes and chiefs. Their relationship to the Babylonians and Jews is indicated by linguistic and ethnological data. The language and writing of the Semites who, at an unknown period, settled in what is now Abyssinia, show affinities with those of South Arabia, and these Semites may have been immigrants into Africa from that region. It is plain from early Moslem literature that Persian, Christian and especially Jewish ideas had penetrated into Arabia.

With the rise of Mahommedanism occurred a sudden effervescence of the Arabs, who during some centuries threatened to impose not only their political authority but their civilization and new religion on the whole known world. They successfully invaded India and central Asia in the east, Spain and Morocco in the west. The Caliphate under the Omayyads of Damascus, and then the Abbasids of Bagdad, became the principal power in the nearer East. It had not, however, a sufficiently coherent organization for permanence; parts of it became independent, others were first protected and then absorbed by the Turks. The Arab rule in Spain, which once threatened to overwhelm Europe and was turned back near Tours by Charles Martel, was distinguished by its tolerance and civilization, and lingered on till the 15th century.

The collapse of the political power of the Arabs was singularly complete. The Caliphate, though Arabian, was always geographically outside Arabia, and on its fall Arabia remained as it was before Islam, isolated and inaccessible. It is still one of the least known parts of the globe, and has hardly any political link with the outside, for the Arabs of northern Africa form separate states. But in spite of this total political collapse, Arabic religion and literature are still one of the greatest forces working in the western half of Asia, in northern Africa and to some extent in eastern Europe.

13. _Ceylon_, though geographically an annex of India, has not followed its fortunes historically. According to tradition it was invaded by an Aryan-speaking colony from the valley of the Ganges in the 6th century B.C. It received Buddhism from north India in the time of Asoka, and has had considerable importance as a centre of religious culture which has influenced Burma and Siam. Its medieval history consists of struggles between the native sovereigns and Tamil invaders. A powerful native dynasty reigned in the 12th century, but in 1408 the island was attacked by Chinese, and from 1505 onwards it was distracted by the attacks and squabbles of Europeans. It was partially subjugated, first by the Portuguese and then by the Dutch. In 1796 the Dutch were expelled by the English.