eBooks - History - World - Edward Harper Parker - Ancient China Simplified
Ancient China Simplified eBooks
by Edward Harper Parker
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Platforms
Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X, Sony Reader Features
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Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.39
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Platforms
Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X, Sony Reader Features
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Availability:
Download Now Price: $6.68
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Ancient China Simplified Summary
| The upshot of it was that in 771 B.C. the Emperor was killed by the Tartars in battle, and it was only by securing the military assistance of the semi-Tartar Warden of the Marches that the imperial dynasty was saved. As it was, the Emperor's capital was permanently moved east from the immediate neighbourhood of what we call Si-ngan Fu in Shen Si province to the immediate neighbourhood of Ho-nan Fu in the modern Ho Nan province; and as a reward for his services the Warden was granted nearly the whole of the original imperial patrimony west of the Yellow River bend and on both sides of the Wei Valley. This was also in the year 771 B.C., and this is really one of the great pivot-points in Chinese history, of equal weight with the almost contemporaneous founding of Rome, and the gradual substitution of a Roman centre for a Greek centre in the development and civilization of the Far West. |
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| Boswell once remarked to Dr. Johnson that " the history of England is so strange that, if it were not well vouched as it is, it would be hardly credible." To which Johnson replied in his usual style : " Sir, if it were told as shortly, and with as little preparation for introducing the different events, as the history of the Jewish kings,it would be equally liable to objections of improbability." Dr. Johnson went on to illustrate what he meant,by specific allusion to the concessions to Parliament made by Charles I. " If," he said, " these had been related nakedly, without any detail of the circumstances which generally led to them, they would not have been believed." This is exactly the position of ancient Chinese history, which may be roughly said to coincide in time with the history of the Jewish kings.The Chinese Annals are mere diaries of events, isolated facts being tumbled together in order of date, without any regard for proportion. Epoch-making invasions, defeats, and cessions of territory are laconically noted down on a level with the princess indiscretion in weeping for a concubine as he would weep for a wife; or the Emperor's bounty in sending a dish of sacrificial meat to a vassal power by express messenger. In one way there is a distinct advantage in this method,for, the historian being seldom tempted to obtrude his own opinion or comments, we are left a clear course for the formation of our own judgments upon the facts given. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that what may be called the philosophy of history has never been seized by the Chinese mind: the annalists do not trouble themselves with the rights and aspirations of the masses ; the results to general policy that naturally follow upon increase of population, perfecting of arms and munitions of war, admixture of foreign blood with the body politic, and such like matters. |
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eBooks - Titles - Authors - History - World - Edward Harper Parker - Ancient China Simplified