Chapter III: The Countries of Eastern Asia

I. CHINA.

THE TANG DYNASTY (618-907).--The confusion in China, after the establishment of the three kingdoms, was brought to an end by the _Sui_ dynasty, which, however, was of short duration. Between the _Hans_ and the new epoch beginning with the _T'angs_, diplomatic intercourse was begun with _Japan_; Christianity was introduced by the Nestorians; a new impulse was given to the spread of _Buddhism_; the first traces of the art of printing are found; and the Yang-tse and the Yellow Rivers were connected by a canal.

EVENTS IN THIS PERIOD.--Under the _T'angs,_ the empire was united, peaceful, and prosperous. One of the most remarkable occurrences was the usurpation (649) and successful reign of a woman, the Empress _Wu_. Her policy was wise, and her generals were victorious. The Emperor _Hiuen Tsung_ had a long reign (713-756), and was an ardent patron of literature, but in his later years fell into immoral ways, as was seen in the character of the poems written under his patronage. Under this dynasty, there were productions in poetry of an excellence never surpassed in China. Buddhism, although resisted by the Confucianists and Taouists, gained ground. A bone of _Buddha_ was brought into China with great pomp and ceremony. Early in the reign of the T'angs, _Mohammedanism_ first appeared in China. In the transition period before the accession of the next dynasty (900-960), the art of printing came more into use. The practice of cramping women's feet is said by some to have originated at this time.

THE SUNG DYNASTY (960-1280).--In the early part of this era, China was prosperous. But the _Tartars_ began their invasions; and it was finally agreed that one of their tribes, which had helped to drive out another, should retain its conquests in the North. These Tartar conquerors, the _Kins_, were invaded by the Mongol Tartars under _Genghis Khan_ (1213). After a long struggle, both the _Kins_ and the _Sungs_ were conquered by the _Mongols_, and the empire of _Kublai Khan_ (1259-1294), the ruler of nearly all Asia except Hindustan and Arabia, was established. Under the _Sungs_, a system of military drill for all the citizens was ordained. Literature flourished; Buddhism and Taouism concluded to live in peace with one another; and the system of competitive examinations and literary degrees was more fully developed. After the complete conquest of China, the dominion of _Kublai Khan_ lasted for about a century. The celebrated Venetian traveler, _Marco Polo_, visited his court. In this period, mathematics was more studied, and romances were first written. Three out of the "Four Wonderful Books," which are leading novels, were then composed. The Grand Canal was finished by _Kublai Khan_, and thus _Peking_ was connected with Southern China. His great naval expedition against Japan failed.

THE MING DYNASTY (1368-1650).--_Hung-wu_, the son of a Chinese laborer, shook off the Mongol yoke, and founded a new dynasty with its capital at _Nanking;_ whence it was afterwards transferred by the third emperor, _Yung-lo_ (1403-1425), to _Peking_. He conquered and annexed _Cochin China_ and _Tonquin_, and even portions of Tartary. The Tartars continued their attack; and in 1450 _Ching-tung_, the emperor, was taken prisoner, and held until he was released in consequence of a Chinese victory.

II. JAPAN.

CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT.--In the seventh century A.D., there began changes in Japan which resulted in a dual government, and eventually in a feudal system which continued until recent times. The _Mikados_ retired from personal contact with their subjects; and the power by degrees fell into the hands of the families related to the Mikado, and combined into clans. Military control was exercised by the generals (_Shoguns_), and towards the end of the eighth century devolved on the two rival clans of _Gen_ and _Hei_, or _Taira_ and _Minamoto_. About the same time (770-780) the _agricultural_ class became distinct from the _military_, and were compelled to labor hard for their support. One family, the _Fujiwara_, by degrees absorbed the civil offices. They gradually sank into luxury. From the middle to the end of the twelfth century, there was terrible civil war between the _Taira_ clan and the _Minamoto_ clan, in which the former were destroyed. The military power passed from one family to another; but a main fact is that the _Shoguns_ acquired such a control as the "mayors of the palace" had possessed among the Franks. The _Mikados_ lost all real power, and the _Shoguns_ or _Tycoons_ had the actual government in their hands. In recent times (1868) a revolution occurred which restored to the Mikado the power which had belonged to him in the ancient times, before the changes just related took place.

CIVIL WAR: FEUDALISM.--The final struggle of the two clans, the _Hei_ or _Taira_, and the _Gen_ or _Minamoto_, was in the naval battle of _Dannoura_, in 1185, which was followed by the extermination of the _Taira_. _Yoritomo_, the victor, was known as the Shogun after 1192. The supremacy of his clan gave way in 1219 to that of their adherents, the _Hôjô_ family, who ruled the Shogun and the emperor both. The invasion of the Mongol Tartars failed, their great fleet being destroyed by a typhoon (1281). The _Hôjô_ rule terminated, after a period of anarchy and civil war, in 1333. The "war of the chrysanthemums"--so called from the imperial emblem, the chrysanthemum--was between two rival Mikados, one in the North, and the other in the South (1336-1392). There ensued a period of confusion and internal war, lasting for nearly two centuries. Gradually there was developed a system of feudalism, in which the _daimios_, or lords of larger or smaller principalities, owned a dependence, either close or more loose, on the _Shogun_. But feudalism was not fully established until the days of the _Tokugama_ dynasty, early in the seventeenth century.

III. INDIA.

MOHAMMEDAN STATES.--During the Middle Ages, India was invaded by a succession of Mohammedan conquerors. The first invasions were in the seventh and the early part of the eighth centuries. A temporary lodgment was effected in the province of _Sind_, on the north-west, in 711; but the Moslems were driven out by the Hindus in 750. The next invader was the _Afghan_ sultan, _Mahmud_ of Ghazim, a Turk, who is said to have led his armies seventeen times into India. From his time the _Punjab_, except for a brief interval, has been a Mohammedan province. The last of his line of rulers, _Bahram_, was conquered by the Afghan _Allah-ud-din_ of Ghor (1152). Bahram's son fled to _Lahore_, but the _Ghoride_ dynasty soon absorbed his dominion. One of the Ghoride rulers, _Mohammed Ghori_, the _Shahab-ud-din_ of the Mohammedan writers, spread his dominion so that it reached from the Indus to the Brahmaputra. After his death, _Kutab-ud-din_, who had been a Turkish slave, became the founder of the "slave" dynasty (1206-1290), whose capital was _Delhi_. _Allah-ud-din_, by whom he was assassinated (1294), had a brilliant reign of twenty years, and conquered _Deccan_ and _Guzerat_. Of the _Togluk_ dynasty, which gained the throne in 1321, _Mohammed Togluk_ (1325-1351) is said to have had the "reputation of one of the most accomplished princes and most furious tyrants that ever adorned or disgraced human nature." Desiring to remove the seat of empire to the _Deccan_, he compelled the inhabitants of _Delhi_ to leave their old home, and to make the journey of seven hundred miles.

TAMERLANE.--Revolts in India made the triumph of _Timour_ (Tamerlane) easy (1398). The Mongol leader sacked _Delhi_, and made a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. A half century of anarchy followed this invasion.

LITERATURE.--On Mediaeval History: The General Subject. (See list of
works on Universal History, p. 16.) GIBBON'S _Decline and Fall_,
etc.; "THE STUDENTS' GIBBON" (Smith, 1 vol.); FREEMAN, _General
Sketch of European History_, and _Historical Geography of
Europe_; DURUY, _Histoire du Moyen Age_, etc. (11th edition,
1882); Hallam. _View of the State of Europe during the Middle
Ages_; Lavisse et Rambaud, _Histoire Generale_
(vols. i.-iii.); Cunningham, _Western Civilization_ (vol. ii);
Lavisse, _Political History of Europe_; Dunham, _History of
Europe during the Middle Ages_ (4 vols.); BRYCE, _The Holy Roman
Empire_; Putz and Arnold, _Mediaeval History_; E. A. FREEMAN,
_Historical Essays_ (series 1 and 3).

Works on Church History. The Church Histories of GIESELER, NEANDER;
MILMAN, _History of Latin Christianity_; ALZOG [a Roman
Catholic], _Manual_, etc. (3 vols. 1874-78); Hardwick (vol. i.,
_Middle Ages_); _Students' History of the Church_;
STANLEY'S _Eastern Church_; Fisher, _History of the Christian
Church_.

On Portions of the Mediaeval Period. Froissart, _Chronicles_,
etc.; CURTEIS, _History of the Roman Empire_ [395-800];
R. W. CHURCH, _The Beginning of the Middle Ages_; A. Thierry,
_Histoire d'Attila_, etc., _St. Jerome_, etc., _St. Jean
Chrysostome_, etc.; Church, _Life of Anselm_; MORISON,
_Life and Times of St. Bernard_; Gfrörer, _Pabst Gregorius
VII. u. sein Zeitalter_ (1859); Bury, _The Later Roman
Empire_ (2 vols.); Oman, _The Dark Ages_ (476-918); TOUT,
_The Empire and the Papacy_ (918-1272); Emerton, _Mediaeval
Europe_ (800-1300); Pears, _The Fall of Constantinople_;
Sergeant, _The Franks_; MULLINGER, _The Schools of Charles the
Great, and the Restoration of Education in the 9th Century_
(1877); MONTALEMBERT, _The Monks of the West_ (7 vols.);
Sartorius, _Gesch. des hanseatischen Bundes_ (3 vols.); Mombert,
_Charlemagne_; Sabatier, _Life of Francis of Assisi_;
Hasse, _Leben Anselm_; West, _Alcuin_; Hodgkin,
_Theodoric the Goth_.

General Character of the Period. ROBERTSON, _A View of the Progress
of Society in Europe from the Subversion of the Roman Empire_,
etc. (Introduction to the History of Charles V.); Kingsley, C.,
_The Roman and the Teuton: a Series of Lectures_, etc.;
SULLIVAN, _Historical Causes and Effects; from the Fall of the
Roman Empire_ A.D. 476 to 1517; Ozanam, A. F., _History of
Civilization in the Fifth Century_; LAURENT, _Études_,
etc. (vol vii.); Sir James Stephen, _Ecclesiastical Essays_;
Adams, _Civilization during the Middle Ages_. Scott's
novels,--_Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Anne of Geierstein_: they are
historically much less correct pictures than his romances which
relate to Scotland.

Particular Aspects of the Period. SAVIGNY, _Gesch. d. römischen
Rechts im Mittelalter_ (7 vols.); Sismondi, _Literature in the
South of Europe_; Hallam, _Introduction to the Study of
Literature_, etc.; Geffchen, _Church and State_ (2 vols.);
GUIZOT, _History of the Origin of Representative Government in
Europe_; Hecker, _Epidemics of the Middle Ages_;
J. E. THOROLD ROGERS, _A History of Agriculture and Prices in
England_ [1259-1793] (4 vols., 1866); Amos, _Roman Civil
Law_; Jenks, _Law and Politics in the Middle Ages_; Gross,
_The Guild Merchant_; Oman, _Art of War_; VIOLLET-LE-DUC,
_Annals of a Fortress_; H. C. Lea, _History of Sacerdotal
Celibacy, History of the Inquisition_ (3 vols.), and
_Superstition and Force_; LACROIX, _Works on the Middle
Ages_, richly illustrated (5 vols., London, 1880); Gautier,
_Chivalry_; Cornish, _Chivalry_; BULFINCH, _Age of
Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur; Legends of Charlemagne, or
Romance of the Middle Ages_ (2 vols.); COX AND JONES, _Popular
Romances of the Middle Ages_; NASSE, _On the Agricultural
Community of the Middle Ages_ (1871); Roth,
_Gesch. d. Beneficialwesens_, etc.; Secretan, _Essai sur la
Feodalité_; Smith, T., _English Guilds_ (1870); WILDA, _Das
Gildenwesen im Mittelalter_ (1831); Seignobos, _The Feudal
Regime_.

Works on the Crusades. G. W. COX, _The Crusades_ (1878); also,
art. _Crusades_ in the _Encycl. Brit_.; Michaud, _History
of the Crusades_ (3 vols.); VON SYBEL, _The History and
Literature of the Crusades_; Mills, _A History of the
Crusades_, etc. (2 vols.); Heeren, in _Vermischte historische
Schriften_ (3 vols.); Procter's _History of the Crusades_;
Gray's _Children's Crusade_; Archer and Kingsford, _The
Crusades_.

For works on Mohammedanism and the Arabic kingdom, see p. 232.

The works here mentioned respecting the several countries either
relate to their entire history, or to their history prior to the
close of the Middle Ages.

I. ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.--GREEN'S _History of the English
People_ (4 vols.), and _Short History of England_ (1 vol.);
the "STUDENTS' HUME"; the histories of BRIGHT, Knight, LINGARD,
Hume, GUIZOT, Traill, _Social England_ (6 vols., two editions);
GAIRDNER, _Outline_, etc.; Turner's _History of the
Anglo-Saxons_; Palgrave's _Rise and Progress of the English
Commonwealth_; Palgrave's _History of Normandy and of
England_; FREEMAN'S _History of the Norman Conquest_ (6
vols.), and _History of William Rufus_; Green, _The Making of
England_, and _The Conquest of England_; Ramsay,
_Foundations of England, Angevin Empire, Lancaster and York_;
STUBBS, _The Early Plantagenets_; LONGMAN'S _History of
Edward III_.; Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and
Commerce_; Cheyney, _Industrial and Social History of
England_; Seebohm, _English Village Community_; _Life of
Wickliffe_, by LECHLER, by LOSERTH, by WILSON, by Trevelyan.

Kemble's _The Saxons in England_; STUBBS'S _Constitutional
History of England in its Origin and Development_ (3 vols.);
STUBBS'S _Select Charters_; CREASY'S _Rise and Progress of
the English Constitution_; THOMPSON'S _Essay on Magna
Charta_; Bisset, _History of the Struggle for Parliamentary
Government in England_ (1877); TASWELL-LANGMEAD'S _English
Constitutional History_, etc.; FREEMAN'S _Growth of the English
Constitution_, etc.; Bagehot, _The English Constitution_;
Macy, _The English Constitution_.

SCOTLAND.--P. H. Brown, _History of Scotland_ (2 vols.); Miss
Macarthur, _History of Scotland_ (1 vol.); E. M. Robertson,
_Scotland under her Early Kings_ (2 vols.).

IRELAND.--C. G. Walpole, _The Kingdom of Ireland_; Morris,
_Ireland_.

II. FRANCE.--General histories by Crowe (5 vols.); DURUY (2 vols.);
GUIZOT (to 1789, 5 vols.; 1789-1848, 3 vols.); and _Outlines of
the History of France_ (1 vol.); Bonnechose (to 1848); JERVIS
(Hassall edition); MARTIN (17 vols.); KITCHIN, LACOMBE, MICHELET (17
vols.); Lavisse, _Histoire de France_; Adams, _Growth of the
French Nation_; Grant, _The French Monarchy_; Wallon's
_St. Louis et son Temps_ (2 vols.); Sismondi, _The French
under the Carlovingians_ (1 vol.), _France under the Feudal
System_ (1 vol.); BARANTE'S _Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne de
la Maison de Valois_, 1364-1477; WALLON'S _Jeanne d'Arc_ (2
vols.); Lowell's _Joan of Arc_; Jameson's _Life and Times of
Du Guesclin_.

COULANGES' _Histoire des Institutions politiques de l'Ancienne
France_ (1877); Viollet, _Institutions politiques de la
France_ (3 vols.); Luchaire, _Manuel des Institutions
Françaises_; Esmein, _Histoire du Droit Français_; GUIZOT'S
_History of Civilization in France_ (3 vols.), and _Essai sur
l'Histoire de France_; THIERRY'S _The Formation and Progress of
the Third Estate in France_; Sir James Stephens's _Lectures on
the History of France_.

III. GERMANY.--Henderson, _A Short History of Germany_ (2
vols.); Histories by C. T. LEWIS (founded on D. Müller), Kohlrausch;
Kaufman, _Deutsche Geschichte_; Lamprecht, _Deutsche
Geschichte_ (6 vols.); Schröder, _Lehrbuch der
d. Rechtsgeschichte_; Richter, _Annalen_.

GEISEBRECHT'S _Geschichte d. deutschen Kaiserzeit_ (4 vols.);
VON RAUMER'S _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit_ (6
vols.).

Coxe's _History of the House of Austria_; KRONES'S _Handbuch
d. Geschichte Osterreichs_ (3 vols.); Marlath's _Geschichte
Osterreichs_.

ARNOLD, _Ansiedelungun und Wanderungen deutscher Stämme_
(1875); also, _Deutsche Urzeit_ (1879); Ozanam, _Les Germains
avant le Christianisme_ (1872); SOHM, _Die altdeutsche Reichs
und Gerichtsverfassung_; MAURER'S histories of German local
institutions (the Marks, the Villages, the Cities); WAITZ,
_Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte_ (8 vols.), Wirth, _Die
Geschichte der Deutschen_ (1853); SUGENHEIM, _Geschichte
d. deutschen Volkes und seiner Kultur_, etc.

IV. ITALY.--Cantu, _Histoire des Italiens_ (12 vols., 1859);
HUNT'S _History of Italy_ (in Freeman's Series); Butt's
_History of Italy_ (2 vols.); LEO'S _Geschichte von
Italien_ (5 vols.); SISMONDI'S _Histoire des Republiques
Italiennes du Moyen Age_ (10 vols.); SPALDING'S _Italy and the
Italians_; Boscoe and Morell, _Compendium of Italian
History_.

Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_ (2 vols.); TESTA, _History
of the War of Frederic I. against the Communes of Lombardy_;
HEYD, _Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter_ (2 vols.);
C. HEGEL, _Gesckichte der Städteverfassung von Italien_, etc.

Daru, _Histoire de la Republique de Venise_ (9 vols.); BROWN,
_Venice: an Historical Sketch_; Ranke, _Zur Venitianer
Geschichte_; Machiavelli's _History of Florence_; Napier's
_Florentine History_ (6 vols.); PERRENS, _Histoire de
Florence_ (4 vols.); REUMONT'S _Lorenzo the Magnificent_ (2
vols.); Roscoe's _Life of Lorenzo de' Medici_; TROLLOPE'S
_History of Florence_; Campbell's _Life of Petrarch_;
GREGOROVIUS' _History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages_
(8 v., from fifth to sixteenth century); Gallenga, _History of
Piedmont_ (3 vols.); Amari, _History of the War of the Sicilian
Vespers_ (3 vols.); Malleson, _Studies from Genoese History_
(1 vol.); Oliphant, _Makers of Florence_, etc.; SYMONDS,
_Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe_; TAINE, _Florence
and Venice_, and _Rome and Naples_; Freeman, _Historical
and Architectural Studies_ (chiefly Italian, 1 vol.).

V. RUSSIA.--Bell's _History of Russia_ (3 vols.); Howorth's
_History of the Mongols_; KARAMSIN, _Histoire de l'Empire de
Russie_ (11 vols.); Histories of Russia, by Kelly, Lamartine,
Levesque; RAMBAUD, _History of Russia_ (2 vols., 1879);
RALSTON, _Early Russian History_.

VI. POLAND.--Histories of Poland, by DUNHAM (12mo), Fletcher,
JOACHIM (2 vols.), RÖPELL AND CARO.

VII. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.--Lembke und Schäfer, _Geschichte von
Spanien_ (3 vols.); MARIANA, _The General History of Spain_;
DUNHAM, _History of Spain and Portugal_; CRAWFORD, _Portugal,
Old and New_; Burke, _History of Spain_ (2 vols.); Stevens's
_Portugal_; TICKNOR'S _History of Spanish Literature_ (3
vols.); Prescott's _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella_ (introductory chapter).

VIII. SWITZERLAND.--History of Switzerland, in LARDNER'S CYCLOPEDIA
(1832); Histories of Switzerland, by MORIN (5 vols.); J. Müller;
Zschokke; Rochholz, _Tell und Gessler in Sage und Geschichte_
(1877).

IX. SCANDINAVIA.--DUNHAM'S _History of Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway_ (3 vols.); Dahlmann's _Geschichte von Danemark bis zur
Reformation_ (with Norway and Iceland, 3 vols.); Histories of
Sweden, by Fryxell, GEIJER AND CARLSON (5 vols.); Laing's _History
of Norway_; MALLET'S _Northern Antiquities_; MAURER'S
_History of Iceland_; RINK'S _Danish Greenland_; Sinding's
_Scandinavia_; WHEATON'S _History of the Northmen_;
Worsaac's _Danes and Northmen in Great Britain_.

X. OTTOMAN TURKS.--HAMMER-PURGSTALL'S _Geschichte des osmanischen
Reiches_ (10 vols.); CREASY'S _History of the Ottoman Turks_;
FREEMAN, _The Ottoman Power in Europe_ (1877); ZINKEISEN,
_Geschichte d. osmanisch. Reiches in Europa_ (7 vols.).

XI. CHINA, JAPAN, AND INDIA.--(See lists on pp. 25, 32.) Dickson,
_Japan_, etc. (vol. i., 1869); Griffis, _The Micado's
Empire_ (1876).

XII. BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--In addition to Adams, _Manual_;
Sonnenschein, _The Best Books_ and _A Reader's Guide_;
Gross, _Sources and Literature of English History_ (to 1485);
Gardiner and Mullinger, _English History for Students_; Monod,
_Bibliographie de l'Histoire de France_; Dahlmann-Waitz,
_Quellenkunde, der Deutschen Geschichte_; lists in Lavisse et
Rambaud, _Histoire Générale_.