Song dynasty

“ Never in the history of China was the nation more illustrious, nor its power more widely felt, than under his sovereignty. During the first twenty years of his reign Sung kept up a resistance against his Kublai Khan emperior. authority. Their last emperor Ping-ti, seeing his cause lost, drowned himself in the sea. The Sung dynasty, which had ruled southern China 320 years, despite its misfortunes is accounted one of the great dynasties of China. During its sway arts and literature were cultivated and many eminent writers flourished. ”

“ To keep up appearances, another child was placed upon the throne. A conspiracy against the usurper was now formed by the great men of the state, but Wang Mang speedily crushed plot and plotters, rid himself of the new boy emperor in the same arbitrary fashion as before, and, throwing off the mask he had thus far worn, had himself proclaimed emperor of the realm. It was the Han dynasty he had in this arbitrary fashion brought to an end. He called his dynasty by the name of Sin. ”

“ The founder of the dynasty was scrupulously careful not to overstep the recognized limits of his authority as a vassal of China and we never for a moment have forgotten the gap which separates a vassal king from his suzerain. The custom of giving these posthumous titles dates from the days of Sil-la, so how could we be expected to know that it was wrong, especially as it has never been called in question before? If we are blamed for ignorance and boorishness we cry guilty, but if for lack of loyalty, we humbly deny it. ”

“ The Book of Poetry mentions an eclipse of the sun which took place on the 29th August, B.C. 776, in the sixth year of king Yû, who preceded Phing. Yû reigned eleven years, and his predecessor, Hsüan, forty-six, whose reign consequently commenced B.C. 827. Up to this date Chinese chronologers agree. To the ten reigns before king Hsüan, the received chronology assigns 295 years, making the dynasty begin in B.C. 1122, which cannot be far from the truth.
The period of the Shang dynasty.4. In the period of the Shang dynasty we cannot fix a single reign by means of astronomical facts. ”

“ This they did, but having once possessed themselves of the country they declined to yield it to the Chinese, and the result was that a still more aggressive neighbour was established on the north-eastern frontier of China. The Nüchih or Kin, as they now styled themselves, overran the provinces of Chih-li, Shen-si, Shan-si and Ho-nan, and during the reign of Kao-tsung (1127–1163) they advanced their conquests to the line of the Yangtsze-kiang. From this time the Sung ruled only over southern China; while the Kin or “Golden” dynasty reigned in the north. ”

“ A peasant, by mere force of character, succeeded after a three-years' struggle in establishing himself upon the throne, 206 B.C., and his posterity, known as the House of Han, ruled over China for four hundred years, accidentally divided into two nearly equal portions by the Christian era, about which date there occurred a temporary usurpation of the throne which for some time threatened the stability of the dynasty in the direct line of succession. To this date, the more northern Chinese have no prouder title than that of a "son of Han." ”

“ Pʽan-köng (1401) and Wu-ting (1324) are described as good rulers among a somewhat indifferent set of monarchs. The Shang dynasty, like the Hia, came to an end through the reckless vice and cruelty of a tyrant (Chóu-sin with his consort Ta-ki) . China had even in those days to maintain her position as a civilized nation by keeping at bay the barbarous nations by which she was surrounded. Chief among these were the ancestors of the Hiung-nu tribes, or Huns, on the northern and western boundaries. ”

“ About 1600 B.C. we come at last into the realm of history. Of the Shang dynasty, which now followed, we have knowledge both from later texts and from excavations and the documents they have brought to light. The Shang civilization, an evident off-shoot of the Lung-shan culture (Tai, Yao, and Tunguses) , but also with elements of the Hsia culture (with Tibetan and Mongol and/or Turkish elements) , was beyond doubt a high civilization. Of the origin of the Shang State we have no details, nor do we know how the Hsia culture passed into the Shang culture. ”

“ In the days of the Tang dynasty China was long happy under the sceptre of a good Emperor, named Sin-Woo. He had overcome the enemies of the land, confirmed the friendship of its allies, augmented the wealth of the rich, and mitigated the wretchedness of the poor. But most especially was he admired and beloved for his persecution of the impious sect of Lao-tsze, which he had well-nigh exterminated.
It was but natural that such an Emperor should congratulate himself upon his goodness and worth; yet, as no human bliss is perfect, sorrow could not fail to enter his mind. ”

“ The united kingdoms were then ruled for three centuries by the Kao-Li dynasty, but their power ceased with the expulsion of the Mongol rulers from Pekin.
The emperors of the Ming dynasty, who became masters of China in the fourteenth century, also conquered Korea in 1392, re-establishing the ancestors of the present Emperor in place of the house of Kao-Li. Tao-Tso, the first king, transferred his capital from Kai-Teng to [200] Hang-Jang, the present Seoul, recognizing the suzerainty of China as a protection. He adopted the Chinese calendar and sent envoys to China to pay homage every year. ”

“ These governors had already become independent at the end of the T'ang epoch; they declared themselves kings or emperors and ruled particular provinces in the south, the chief of which covered the territory of the present provinces of Szechwan, Kwangtung and Chekiang. In these territories there was comparative peace and economic prosperity, since they were able to control their own affairs and were no longer dependent on a corrupt central government. They also made great cultural progress, and they did not lose their importance later when they were annexed in the period of the Sung dynasty. ”

“ Probably China at this time was in advance of India. Contemporary with the seventeenth dynasty in Egypt, there was a dynasty of emperors in China, the Shang dynasty, priest emperors over a loose-knit empire of subordinate kings. The chief duty of these early emperors was to perform the seasonal sacrifices. Beautiful bronze vessels from the time of the Shang dynasty still exist, and their beauty and workmanship compel us to recognize that many centuries of civilization must have preceded their manufacture. ”

“ A partial end was made to this recognized disorganization when, in 960, General Chao Kw‘ang-yin was proclaimed by the army emperor in succession to the youthful Kung-ti, who was compelled to abdicate. The circumstances Sung dynasty. of the time justified the change. It required a strong hand to weld the empire together again, and to resist the attacks of the Khitán Tatars, whose rule at this period extended over the whole of Manchuria and Liao-tung. ”

“ To his dying day he never ceased to remonstrate against the cruelty and corruption of the age, and his name is still regarded as one of the most glorious in the annals of the empire. It was reserved for his son, known as Wu Wang, to overthrow the Shang dynasty and mount the throne as first sovereign of the Chou dynasty, which was to last for eight centuries to come. The following is a speech by the latter before a great assembly of nobles who were siding against the House of Shang. ”

“ Contemporary observers vie with one another in praising his wit, understanding, and liberality of mind. He was not twenty when the three feudatory princes broke into open rebellion. Of these, Wu San-kuei, the virtual founder of the dynasty, who had been appointed in 1659, was the chief; and it was at his instigation that his colleagues who ruled in Kuangtung and Fuhkien determined to throw off their allegiance and set up independent sovereignties. Within a few months, Kʽang Hsi found vast portions of the empire slipping from his grasp ”

“ In the year A.D. 618 the House of T'ang entered upon its glorious course of three centuries in duration. Under a strong but dissolute ruler immediately preceding, China had once more become a united empire, undivided against itself; and although wars and rebellions were not wanting to disturb the even tenor of its way, the general picture presented to us under the new dynasty of the T'angs is one of national peace, prosperity, and progress. ”

“ There had been one previous instance of a woman wielding the Imperial sceptre, namely, the Empress Lu of the Han dynasty, to whom the Chinese have accorded the title of legitimate ruler, which has not been allowed to the Empress Wu. ”

“ General Li Yuen-heng, the rebel leader at Hankow, who was appointed vice-president of the Republic by President Sun Yat Sen, probably will be chief of the general staff. Provision for Dr. Sun has not yet been made.
Today's abdication of the Chinese throne by Fu Yi, the child Emperor, brings to an end the powerful Manchu dynasty which has reigned in China since 1644. The boy ruler has been on the throne since November 14, 1908, when the Emperor Kwang-Su, his uncle, died. His father, prince Chun, was appointed regent and was the chief figure in China for three years. ”

“ Their fame was not the creation of one man alone, and as a consequence the dynasty enjoyed a lengthened existence equaled by few of its predecessors or successors. No ruling family was ever more popular with the Chinese than this, and it managed to retain the throne when less favored rulers would have expiated their mistakes and shortcomings by the loss of the empire. ”

“ His character as a ruler may be gathered from the following selection, taken from among his many speeches: "Do you think," he said, "that it is so easy for a sovereign to perform his duties? He does nothing that is without consequence. This morning the thought occurs to me that yesterday I decided a case in a wrong manner, and this memory robs me of all my joy."
The new emperor took the style of Taitsong, and during his reign of twenty-three years the Sung dynasty may be fairly considered to have grown consolidated. ”

“ For once in its history China had an actual empress, and one of an ability and a power of maintaining the dignity of the throne which none of its emperors have surpassed.
Her usurpation brought her a host of enemies. It set aside all the precedents of the empire, and that a woman should reign directly, instead of indirectly, stirred the spirit of conservatism to its depths. Wou made no effort to conciliate her foes. She went so far as to change the name of the dynasty [Pg 226] and to place members of her own family in the great offices of the realm. Rebellious risings followed ”

“ The decay of the imperial house, the encroachments of the foreigner, and the opposition of the native Chinese to the rule of the Manchus, awoke the Empress Dowager to a realization of the fact that a stronger hand than that of her husband must be at the helm if the dynasty of her people were to be preserved. ”

“ In connection with a Sung funeral in 651 B.C., it is explained that the bier lay between the two front pillars, and not, as with the Chou dynasty, on the top of the west side steps; it will be remembered that Sung represented the sacrifices of the extinct Shang dynasty. That same year the future Second Protector (then a refugee among the Tartars) declined to put in a claim to the Tsin succession against his brothers "because he had not been in mourning whilst a fugitive." In 642 Sung and her allies made war on Ts'i, which was then mourning for the First Protector ”

“ In 264 a member of the Ssŭ-ma family declared himself king; when he died and was succeeded by his son Ssŭ-ma Yen, the latter, in 265, staged a formal act of renunciation of the throne of the Wei dynasty and made himself the first ruler of the new Chin dynasty. There is nothing to gain by detailing all the intrigues that led up to this event: they all took place in the immediate environment of the court and in no way affected the people, except that every item of expenditure, including all the bribery, had to come out of the taxes paid by the people. ”

“ The area under more or less organized Shang control comprised towards the end of the dynasty the present provinces of Honan, western Shantung, southern Hopei, central and south Shansi, east Shensi, parts of Kiangsu and Anhui. We can only roughly estimate the size of the population of the Shang state. Late texts say that at the time of the annihilation of the dynasty, some 3.1 million free men and 1.1 million serfs were captured by the conquerors; this would indicate a population of at least some 4-5 millions. ”

“ He speedily obtained the leadership of a large army, with which he totally destroyed the power of the Mongols, and finally established a new Chinese dynasty over the thirteen provinces into which the empire was divided. He fixed his capitol at Nanking, where it remained until the accession of the third emperor, the conqueror of Cochin China and Tonquin, who transferred the seat of government back to Peking, the capitol of the Mongols, from which it has never since been removed. ”

“ If it had not been for the impact of the West it is conceivable—although all comment on this must remain mere speculation—that a social revolution such as those which occurred under Wang Mang (usurper-founder of the unrecognized Hsin Dynasty, 9-25 A.D.) , Wang An-shih (prime minister, 1069-1076 A.D., under the Sung dynasty) , or Hung Hsiu-ch'üan (founder of the rebel T'ai P'ing dynasty, 1849-1865) , [pg 059] might have adjusted matters by a general redistribution of wealth and administrative reorganization. ”