south. The first of these still retained some relations with the former subjects of China, and was in alliance with the people of Bucharia.

China was again reunited into a single empire in A. D. 280. A general of the Goei reduced the empire of Chou-Han, and by the influence of his military glory, possessed himself of all the authority of his master. His son constrained the nominal emperor to surrender to him the title as well as the authority, and then subdued the kingdom of Ou.

The new monarch founded the dynasty known as that of Tsin. His reign was prosperous. Not only was nearly the whole of China subject to his sway, but the southern Hiong-nou acknowledged him as their sovereign. The latter had now abandoned their savage mode of life, and adopted the manners and civilization of the Chinese. Among their chiefs was one who claimed descent from the family of Han. This connexion probably arose from the habitual policy of the Chinese emperors, to give their daughters in marriage to the kings of tributary countries. Be this as it may, he succeeded in forming a separate kingdom in the north, and took the Tsin emperor prisoner. The latter family was, however, maintained in the collateral line, although ruling over dominions diminished in extent, and is ranked by the Chinese historians as the imperial dynasty until A. D. 419. This family, like that of Goei, was dethroned by one of its own successful generals, who founded the dynasty of Soung. The princes of the latter race were not able to extend their power over the whole of the present China. Great troubles and dissensions arose; finally, the Soung became sovereigns of all the country south of the Hoang Ho, and the greater part of the north obeyed the rule of the later Goei. This family, although probably connected in the female line with the former dynasty of the same name, was of barbarous descent, belonging to a nation often met with in Chinese history, under the name of Sian-pi, and different from the Turks, the Monguls, or the Mantchous. Under the Tsin they had overrun the province of Chan-si, and obtained from the emperor the recognition of their authority as tributary kings; this allegiance they refused to transfer to the Soung. The rule of the Goei lasted until A. D. 550, when the last of the family was dethroned by his prime minister. The family of Soung retained the throne in the south until 479, when it yielded to the dynasty of Thsi. The latter was short lived, retaining its authority no longer than A. D. 501.

During the division of the Chinese empire, a new power had arisen in the north. The northern branch of the Hiong-nou had joined a tribe supposed by Klaproth to be of the same race with themselves, and the nation thus formed had assumed the name of Turks, rendered by the Chinese Thou-kiou. The year A. D.

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565, is taken by Klaproth as the epoch of their greatest power. At this time, their rule extended from the Pacific to the Volga, comprising the whole of the ancient tributaries and allies of China, with the barbarous race of the Tongouses, the Leanpi, the Cingours, and Monguls. At the same epoch, China was weak and divided. The family of the Goei was replaced by that of Pethsi in the north east. The west formed a kingdom known as that of Heou-Tcheou, the south was subject to the Tchhin, while on the north bank of the Kiang was a small territory, ruled by descendants of the imperial dynasty of Liang. The imperial dignity is ascribed by our author to the Liang up to A. D. 555; that of Tchhin succeeds, and extends to A. D. 583. Their rule, however, was contemporaneous over the parts we have mentioned, and neither at any time possessed the whole of China.

China was again united under one head in 589 by Wen-ti, the founder of the dynasty of Soui. He ranks among the greatest of the princes who ever occupied the imperial throne. The protector of knowledge, he did not hesitate to disperse the idlers, who under pretence of study were supported at the public expense; the library founded by the princes of Heou-Tcheou was increased by him; the ancient institutions were restored, and he did not disdain to introduce new ones from foreign countries. Among these, seduced by the example of India, he attempted the establishment of castes, but was luckily unsuccessful. He was victorious over the Turks and the king of Corea.

His son Yang-ti followed in the steps of his father. The kingdom of Tonquin which had acknowledged the Tchhin as its master, was again rendered tributary; Siam conquered and reduced to a state of vassalage. Incited by the recollection of the ancient glories of the family of Han, he renewed his relations with the western countries, and received the homage of twenty-nine kings of Middle Asia. These glories were however so costly as to excite the dissatisfaction of his people, who rose and deposed him. Two of his grandsons bore the imperial title without power, and in the last of them terminated (A. D. 618) the race of Soui.

The succeeding dynasty is known as that of Thang. At the moment of its accession the empire of the Turks fell to pieces by internal dissensions. The second monarch of the family of Thang took advantage of this, and became the sovereign of territories even more extensive than are now possessed by the Mantchou sovereigns. The barbarians on the shores of the ocean, as far as Kamtschatka, acknowledged his supremacy; the northern limit of his possessions extended into the present domain of Russia in Asia, and did not stop until it reached the Oural mountains; the Sea of Aral formed his western boundary, and the Oxus divided his dominions from those of the Sassanides

in Persia.

Under this emperor (Wen-wou-ti) Christianity was first preached in China.

The dynasty of Thang retained possession of the throne until A. D. 907; but its power and the extent of its dominions was gradually diminished, in spite of occasional vigorous efforts. In A. D. 679, we find a powerful empire existing in Thibet, which had possessed itself of the Chinese military governments of Bucharia. The Turkish empire of Hoci-he had been formed out of the Tartar provinces, and the eastern barbarians had ceased to send tribute. The Turkish and Thibetan empires continued to extend themselves at the expense of the territories of the Thang, and a kingdom of the name of Phou-ho was founded to the north of Corea.

In A. D. 755 the dynasty of the Thang had nearly come to an end. A Turkish refugee in China obtained the confidence of the emperor, and was appointed governor of all the provinces north of the Hoang-ho. When established in this imposing position, he called in his countrymen and the Khitans, who now make their first appearance, and raised the standard of revolt. For a time his arms were successful; he possessed himself of the capital and assumed the imperial title, but at length fell before the united arms of the allies and feudatories of the empire who crowded to the defence of their suzerain.

In A. D. 790 the Thibetans were defeated on the side of China, but more than redeemed their loss on the north and west. The Chinese lost in consequence their territories in Central Asia, and all communication with their western allies; the empire was reduced to little more than China proper. The power

of the Turkish Hoci-he declined with that of the Thang, and gave way, about A. D. 847, to that of the Kinghiz; who however do not appear to have rendered themselves formidable to China, and obtained for their sovereign the title of Khan from the emperor whose superiority was thus acknowledged.

Thibet also showed signs of weakness; and that of the Thang became so manifest in A. D. 862, that the king of Tonquin ventured to assert independence.

The last reigns of the dynasty of Thang were inglorious; immersed in luxury, and almost prisoners in the hands of their eunuchs, they feebly supported the weight of their sceptre.

Four dynasties of short duration are counted between A. D. 907 and 960. Although ranked by historians as successive occupants of the imperial throne, none of them ruled over the whole of China; nor did their united domains occupy its entire territory. The northern provinces were reduced by the Khitans, and no less than twelve petty kingdoms arose in the remainder.

The Khitans were a Tongousian race which suddenly rose to

power in A. D. 907; conquering the northern provinces of China, they fixed the seat of their empire in Pekin itself, and for a time disposed of the throne of the petty kingdoms, and named the possessor of the imperial title. It is to this people. that we are to ascribe the adoption of the name of Cathay, by European writers of the middle ages, for the whole of China. Their empire lasted for two centuries.

The separate kingdoms of the south were united again by the founder of the dynasty of Soung, but he did not regain the northern provinces. China was still farther lessened in extent when the Kin, a cognate race to the Khitans, had destroyed the empire of the latter. The monarchs of the Kin, known as Altoun Khans, conquered every part of the country north of the Hoangho, and exercised the same authority over the nations of the north that had been possessed by the Khitans.

Among the subjects of the Kin, were the Monguls, a tribe which had been little noticed, and had retained, sometimes independent, and sometimes as vassals, the banks of the Lake Baikal. At last the celebrated Genghis, or Tsenngin, was born among them. The history of his rise is well known; in 1234 he destroyed the empire of the Kin, and reduced the dominions of their monarch to a small district on the coast of China; proceeding in his career, he conquered every part of Asia which had owned the sway of the Thang, except the south of China; to this extensive empire he added the northern part of Persia, the countries between the Caspian and Lake Aral, nor did he rest until his armies had penetrated into Europe, to the frontiers of Hungary and the Danube on the south, and to the gates of Moscow on the north. His grandson Kublai Khan completed the conquest of China, putting an end, in A. D. 1279, to the dynasty of Soung. Under his reign the Mongul influence reached its greatest extent, and he was acknowledged as chief by monarchs of his own house, each at the head of a mighty empire. His own immediate rule knew no northern boundary, and besides the provinces of China proper and the tributary kingdoms, which had at any previous time owned the sway of that empire, comprised Thibet, Bengal, and the present Birman empire. Central Asia, as far as the sea of Aral, with the Punjab, was ruled by the descendants of Zagatai, one of the sons of Genghis. Persia in its widest extent to the confines of Syria, and the greater part of Asia Minor, formed the dominions of Houlakou the brother of Kublai. The empire of Kaptchak extended from the confines of Zagatai to Lithuania, Hungary and the Danube; the grand Dukes of Russia were subject to it, and no part of Muscovy retained its freedom except the republic of Novogorod. In Siberia the Mongul Khanat of Siberia was founded.

The armies of Genghis and his successors were recruited from VOL. XVII. -No. 33.

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the Turkish race, and thus although the rulers, throughout this vast extent, were Monguls, the people whom they seated in the place of those destroyed by the unsparing character of their warfare, were Pagans of the same family with the Turks, who had already made themselves formidable as followers of Mahomet.

Kublai speedily conformed to the customs of China, and became the founder of the imperial dynasty of Yuen, which reigned in China until A. D. 1368.

"The empire of China was never so great as during his reign; his authority being acknowledged from the Frozen Sea, almost to the Straits of Malacca. With the exception of Hindostan, Arabia, and the western parts of Asia, all the Mongul princes, as far as the Dnieper, declared themselves his vassals, and brought regularly their tribute. Never was an empire, and never was there perhaps a conqueror greater than Kublai.

"Born a barbarian, he was, at his death, the most civilized prince of his time. Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon, are inferior to him. Wherever his empire extended, the introduction of a benevolent government was the consequence. He did not wish to reign solely over the body of his subjects, but he understood how to control spirits the greatest of all arts. We are not blind to his faults; he was an insatiable conqueror, and spilt the blood of millions for the sake of gratifying his passion. We consider him as an instrument used by the Lord of Hosts to bring the most distant nations in contact, and to curb the fury of his savage countrymen. The canals in China speak more in praise of his greatness than all the statues erected in honour of great heroes; but with him the glory of the Mongul dynasty departed."

An instrument Kublai undoubtedly was in the hands of an all-wise Providence, for important and inscrutable ends. But these ends seem to have been rather those of merited punishment, than such as our author indicates. The civilization of the human race suffered a more dreadful shock in the conquests of Genghis and his successors, than by the ravages of all the other scourges, who have from time to time been the instruments of divine wrath. Persia and Asia Minor have not to this day recovered from the desolation caused by the arms of Houlakou; the northern shores of the Black Sea lost all traces of the civilization of the Greeks, and the nascent improvement of the Muscovites was checked. China alone, of all the countries to which the arms of the Monguls penetrated, fails to show at the present remote epoch, the traces of the destructive torrent.

The successive dynasties of China present an almost unvaried picture; founded by talents of the highest order, raising their possessors from obscurity to supreme power, they are maintained in their original strength, or even extended in influence, by princes educated in the stormy times that gave them birth. No sooner has peace and quiet submission to their power been attained, than luxury and indolence arise; degenerating from father to son, the sovereigns become too weak to sway the sceptre of their vast dominions, and yield to ambitious ministers, to foreign invasion, or to rebellious subjects. Such however has been, and ever must be the history of despotisms. The dynasty of