shower of extraordinary duration. Let these venerable writings be investigated in a candid, cautious manner, weighing their internal evidence, and comparing their notices of those remote periods as much as they can be with those of other nations, and they will illustrate ancient history and customs in no slight degree. Mr. Murray has given a synopsis from Mailla of what is recorded of the Hia dynasty, which will exhibit the matter of Chinese history. It is here introduced somewhat altered.

"The accession of Yu forms a remarkable era in Chinese history. The throne, which hitherto had been more or less elective, became from this period hereditary in the eldest son, with only those occasional and violent interruptions to which every despotic government is liable. The national annals, too, assume a more regular and authentic shape, the reigns of the sovereigns being at the same time reduced to a probable duration. "Yu justly acquired a lasting veneration, but it was chiefly by his labors under his two predecessors. When he himself ascended the throne, age had already overtaken him; still the lustre of his government was supported by able councillors, till it closed with his life at the end of seven years. Many of the grandees wished, according to former practice, to raise to the throne Píyih, his first minister, and a person of distinguished merit; but regard for the father, in this case, was strengthened by the excellent qualities of his son Kí, or Tí Kí (i. e. the emperor Kí), and even Píyih insisted that the prince should be preferred. His reign of nine years was only disturbed by the rebellion of a turbulent subject, and he was succeeded by his son, Tai Kang. But this youth was devoted to pleasure; music, wine, and hunting, entirely engrossed his attention. The Chinese, after enduring him for twenty-nine years, dethroned him, and his brother, Chung Kang, was nominated to succeed, and held the reins of government for thirteen years with a vigorous hand. He was followed by his son, Tí Siang, who, destitute of the energy his situation required, gave himself up to the advice of his minister Yeh, and was by him, in connexion with his accomplice, Hantsu, declared incapable of reigning. The usurper ruled for seven years, when he was killed; and the rightful monarch collected his adherents and gave battle to Hantsu and the son of Yeh, in the endeavor to regain his throne. Tí Siang was completely defeated, and lost both his crown and life; the victors immediately marched to the capital, and made so general a massacre of the family, that they believed the name and race of Yu to be for ever extinguished.

"The empress Min, however, managed to escape, and fled to a remote city, where she brought forth a son, called Shau Kang; and the better to conceal his origin, she employed him as a shepherd boy to tend flocks. Reports of the existence of such a youth, and his occupation, at length

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reached the ears of Hantsu, who sent orders to bring him, dead or alive. The royal widow then placed her son as under-cook in the household of a neighboring governor, where the lad soon distinguished himself by a spirit and temper so superior to this humble station, that the master's suspicions were roused, and obliged him to disclose his name and birth. The officer, being devotedly attached to the house of Yu, not only kept the secret, but watched for an opportunity to reinstate him, and meanwhile gave him a small government in a secluded situation, which he prudently administered. Yet he was more than thirty years old before the governor, by engaging other chiefs in his interest, could assemble such a force as might justify the attempt to make head against the usurper. The latter hastily assembled his troops and led them to the attack, but was defeated and taken prisoner, and Shau Kang, with his mother, returned with acclamations to the capital. His reign is reckoned to have been sixty-one years' duration in the chronology of the time, which no doubt includes the usurpation.

"The country was ably governed by Shau Kang, and also by his son, Tí Chu, who ruled for seventeen years; but the succeeding sovereigns, in many instances, abandoned themselves to indolence and pleasure, and brought the kingly name into contempt. From Tí Chu to Kieh Kwei, a space of 222 years, between E. c. 2040 and 1818, few records remain of the nine sovereigns, whose bare names succeed each other in the annals. At length the throne was occupied by Kieh Kwei, a prince, who is represented as having, in connexion with his partner, Mei-hí, practised every kind of violence and extortion, in order to accumulate treasure, which they spent in unbridled voluptuousness. They formed a large pond of wine, deep enough to float a boat, at which three thousand men drank at once. It was surrounded, too, by pyramids of delicate viands, which no one, however, was allowed to taste, till he had first intoxicated himself out of the lake. The drunken quarrels which ensued were their favorite amusement. In the interior of the palace the vilest orgies were celebrated, and the venerable ministers, who attempted to remonstrate against these excesses, were either put to death or exiled. The people were at once indignant and grieved at such crimes, which threatened the downfall of the dynasty; and the discarded statesmen put themselves under the direction of the wise Í Yin, and advised Chingtang, the ablest of their number, and a descendant of Hwangtí, to assume the reins of government, assuring him of their support. He with reluctance yielded to their solicitations, and assembling a force marched against Kieh Kwei, who came out to meet him at the head of a numerous army, but fled from the contest on seeing the defection of his troops, and ended his days in despicable obscurity, after occupying the throne fifty-two years."*

* Murray's China, Vol. I., pages 51-55

Chinese annals are generally occupied in this way; the emperor and his ministers fill the whole field of historic vision; little is recorded of the condition, habits, arts, or occupations of the people, who are merely considered as attendants of the monarch, which is, in truth, a feature of the ancient records of nearly all countries and people. Monarchs controlled the chronicles of their reigns, and their vanity led them to represent the people as only made to fill up the background of their own stately dignity and acts.

The Shang dynasty began B. c. 1766, or about 120 years before the Exodus, and maintained an unequal sway over the feudal states composing the empire for a period of 644 years. Its first monarch, Chingtang, is reputed to have paid religious worship to Shangtí, the Supreme Ruler, under which name, perhaps, the true God was intended. On account of a severe drought of seven years' duration, this monarch is reported to have prayed, saying, "Do not, on account of the negligence of Ourself, a single individual, destroy the lives of the people." With regard to his own conduct, he blamed himself in six particulars, and his words were not ended when the rain descended copiously. The chronicles of the Shang dynasty resemble those of the Hia, in being little more than a mere succession of the names of the sovereigns, interspersed here and there with notices of some remarkable events in the natural and political world. Luxurious and despised princes alternate with vigorous and warlike ones who commanded respect, and the condition of the state measurably corresponded with the character of the monarchs, the feudal barons sometimes increasing in power and territory by encroaching on their neighbors, and then suffering a reduction from some new state. The names of twenty-eight princes are given, the accounts of whose reigns are not quite so meagre as those of the dukes of Edom in Genesis, but the slight notices would be more interesting, if the same confidence could be reposed in them.

The bad sovereigns occupy more room in these fasti than the good ones, and the palm of wickedness is given to Chau-sin, and his partner Tan-kí, with whom the dynasty ended. The wars which broke out during this dynasty were numerous; nearly every succession was followed by a state of anarchy. The droughts, famines, and other calamities, which occurred, were likewise frequent, and were attended by dreadful omens and

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fearful sights; this fancied correlation between natural casualties and political convulsions, is a feature running through Chinese history, and grows out of the peculiar position of the monarch as the vicegerent of heaven. The people seem to have looked more to their local masters than to their lord paramount, for occupation and protection, ranging themselves under their separate banners, as they were bidden. The History Made Easy speaks of the twenty-fifth monarch, Wu-yih, as the most wicked of them all. "Having made his images of clay in the shape of human beings, dignified them with the name of gods, overcome them at gambling, and set them aside in disgrace, he then, in order to complete his folly, made leathern bags and filled them with blood, and sent them up into the air, exclaiming, when his arrows hit them, and the blood poured down, 'I have shot heaven,' meaning, I have killed the gods." This is the first instance of idolatry recorded, and if trustworthy, the natural inference is, that it was not till fifteen centuries after the settlement of the country that the Chinese first worshipped images, for Wu-yih began to reign B. c. 1198, or four years after Samson's death.

The names of Chausin and Tankí are synonymous in the Chinese annals for everything cruel and licentious, as Nero and Messalina are in Roman history, and the Book of Records dwells largely on their horrible crimes and debauchery, apparently in order to exculpate the conduct of Wu wang, who dethroned them, and founded the Chau dynasty. Chausin is said one winter's morning to have seen a few women walking bare-legged on the banks of a stream collecting shell-fish, and ordered their legs to be cut off, that he might see the marrow of persons who could resist cold so fearlessly. The heart of one of his reprovers was also brought him, in order to see wherein it differed from that of cowardly ministers. Many acts of this nature alienated the hearts of the people, until Wán wang, the leader of a state in the north-west of China, united the principal men against his misrule; but dying, bequeathed his crown and power to his son, Wu wang, who overcame Chausin in one engagement. He, feeling the hopelessness of his cause, retired to his palace, and burned himself with all his treasures, like another Sardanapalus, though his immolation preceded the Assyrian's by more than three centuries.

Wu wang, the Martial king, the founder of the Chau dynasty,

his father, Wăn wang, and his brother, duke Chau, are among the most distinguished men of antiquity, celebrated by their biographer Confucius for their erudition, integrity, patriotism, and inventions. Wăn wang, the prince of Chau, was prime minister to Taiting, the grandfather of Chausin, but was imprisoned for his fidelity. His son obtained his liberation, and the sayings and acts of both occupy a large space in the Shu King. Duke Chau

is reputed to have invented the compass, about B. c. 1112, though others ascribe it to Hwangtí, and survived his brother to become the director of the councils of his nephew. No period of ancient Chinese history is more celebrated among the people than that of the founding of this dynasty, chiefly because of the high character of its leading men, who were regarded by Confucius as the impersonations of everything wise and noble. Wu wang is represented as having invoked the assistance of Shangtí in his designs, and, when he was successful, returned thanks, and of fered prayers and sacrifices. He removed the capital from the province of Honan to the present Síngan fu, in Shensí, where it remained for a long period. This prince committed a great political fault in dividing the empire into petty states, thus destroying the ancient pure monarchy, and leaving himself only a small portion of territory and power, which were quite insufficient, in the hands of a weak prince, to maintain either the state or authority due the ruling sovereign. The number of states at one time was one hundred and twenty-five, at another forty-one, and, in the time of Confucius, about 600 years after the establishment of the dynasty, fifty-two, all quarrelling among themselves. From about B. c. 700, the imperial name and power lost the allegiance and respect of the feudal princes, and gradually became contemptible. Its nominal sway extended over the country lying north of the Yangtsz' kiang, the regions on the south being occupied by tribes of whom no intelligible record has been preserved. The duration of the three dynasties, the Hia, Shang, and Chau, comprises a very important period in the history of the world, extending from B. c. 2205 to 249, from the time when Terah dwelt in Charran, and the sixteenth dynasty of Theban kings ruled in Egypt, down to the reigns of Antiochus Soter and Ptolemy Philadelphus, and the translation of the Septuagint.

I. The HIA Dynasty, founded by Yu the Great, existed 439 years, down to B. c. 1766, under seventeen monarchs, the re