DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0709
( 685 )
BOOK IX.
CHIN A.
CHAPTER L
introductory.
CH I'.OXOLOGY.
Period of Ilea......... u.c. 2100 Wootae dynasty ; China divided into
Woo Wong period of Chow .... 1100 two kingdoms........a.d. 416
Confucius died........ 477 China reunited, capital Honan . . 585
Chy hoang-ty built Great Wall . . 240 Tang dynasty......... 897
Han dynasty......... 201 Northern China captured by Mongols 1234
Hoty, seventeenth king; Buddhism Kublai Khan......... 1*281
introduced......... a.d. 90 ' Ming dynasty; Mongol expelled . . 1366
Tsin dynasty......... 260 Manchow Tartar dynasty; now on the throne 1644
It is extremely difficult, in the present state of our knowledge, to write
anything, either conclusive or satisfactory, about the architecture of
China. This may arise partly from the incuriousness of travellers,
and partly because there really are no buildings in the country
worthy of the people or their civilization. Till very recently, the
latter would have appeared to be the true cause of our ignorance ;
but lately the photographic camera has penetrated even within the
walls of the imperial city of Pekin, and has brought away impres-
sions which go some way to modify this opinion. Unfortunately, the
camera has not been accompanied by the measuring-tape or the note-
book, and our information is therefore, in some respects, vague; but
it seems certain that there are buildings worthy of more attention
than has hitherto been bestowed upon them. Even these, however,
are not such as we might expect to find among a people whose
history and whose civilization seems so exact a counterpart of that
of Egypt. In both countries we have the same long succession of
dynasties with dates, extending through 3000 or 4000 years, inter-
rupted only by shepherd invasions which in both countries lasted
about five centuries, when the words of Manetho are as literally
applicable to the Taeping rebellion as they are to the overthrow of
BOOK IX.
CHIN A.
CHAPTER L
introductory.
CH I'.OXOLOGY.
Period of Ilea......... u.c. 2100 Wootae dynasty ; China divided into
Woo Wong period of Chow .... 1100 two kingdoms........a.d. 416
Confucius died........ 477 China reunited, capital Honan . . 585
Chy hoang-ty built Great Wall . . 240 Tang dynasty......... 897
Han dynasty......... 201 Northern China captured by Mongols 1234
Hoty, seventeenth king; Buddhism Kublai Khan......... 1*281
introduced......... a.d. 90 ' Ming dynasty; Mongol expelled . . 1366
Tsin dynasty......... 260 Manchow Tartar dynasty; now on the throne 1644
It is extremely difficult, in the present state of our knowledge, to write
anything, either conclusive or satisfactory, about the architecture of
China. This may arise partly from the incuriousness of travellers,
and partly because there really are no buildings in the country
worthy of the people or their civilization. Till very recently, the
latter would have appeared to be the true cause of our ignorance ;
but lately the photographic camera has penetrated even within the
walls of the imperial city of Pekin, and has brought away impres-
sions which go some way to modify this opinion. Unfortunately, the
camera has not been accompanied by the measuring-tape or the note-
book, and our information is therefore, in some respects, vague; but
it seems certain that there are buildings worthy of more attention
than has hitherto been bestowed upon them. Even these, however,
are not such as we might expect to find among a people whose
history and whose civilization seems so exact a counterpart of that
of Egypt. In both countries we have the same long succession of
dynasties with dates, extending through 3000 or 4000 years, inter-
rupted only by shepherd invasions which in both countries lasted
about five centuries, when the words of Manetho are as literally
applicable to the Taeping rebellion as they are to the overthrow of