The Great Chinese Travelers PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ... HISTORICAL SKETCH President Yuan Shift K'ai ANDED down from generation to generation in the form of legends, or written by chroniclers who had more desire to produce literary works of merit, than to make true records of past events, there is much that is obscure in the early history of China, and a great part of that which the Chinese historians have apparently made clear is disputed by more critical foreign students. Certainly a great deal of it is so entwined with the mythical and fantastic legends of a primitive people, that it is difficult to distinguish the true from the fanciful. For the purposes of this sketch, we need not concern ourselves with the disputed facts but will briefly consider the main points of the long story, as taught and believed by the Chinese themselves. The Chinese are not the original inhabitants of the country which they now occupy, but migrated from Western Asia about 2700 B. C, and settled near the present city of Siau-fu, ou the Yellow river in Shensi. As the newcomers grew in number, their settlements extended, following the courses of the rivers into the present provinces of Szechuan, and Kiaugsi. The original inhabitants were displaced by the Chinese and formed new settlements in various parts of the country, apart from the newcomers. These aboriginal tribes still exist in the Lolos, Shans and Miaotzes, living in Szechuan, Kweichow, Yunnan, Kwantung, and Kwangsi and on the islands of Formosa and Hainan. In the more than 4000 years they have been associated with the Chinese, they have lived apart, have resented all intrusions by the .Chinese and there has been no mixture of blood. The historical period of the Chinese begins with the reign of the three emperors, who in a remarkably short space of time...