Untitled

CHAPTER V.
CHINA.
GENERAL SURVEY.
IHE term "China," applied by Europeans to this region,
to the natives, and the Tsin dynasty, whence probably the Hindu
is unknown
form China, has for nearly fifteen hundred years ceased to rule
over the plains of the Hoang-ho and Yang-tze-kiang. Nor do
they recognise the epithet "Celestial," attributed to their empire,
the expression Tien-hla, or " Under the Heavens," being applied by their poets to
the whole " sublunary " world in general as well as to China itself. In ordinary
" Middle Kingdom," or
language the usual expression is Chung-kwo ; that is,
" Central Empire," in reference either to the preponderance gradually acquired by
the central plains over the surrounding states, or to the idea common to so many
peoples, that China was really the centre of the world. To the usual four points
of the compass the Chinese add a fifth the centre ; that is, China. Since the
Manchu conquest the official designation is Tatsing-kwo ; that is, the " Great and
Pure Empire," or, perhaps, Ta Tsing-kwo, the " Empire of the Tsing, or Pure."
Other expressions are Se-hai, or "Four Seas" that is, the Universe; Nwi-ti, or
" "
Inner Land ; Shipa-shang, or " Eighteen Provinces "
; Hoa-kwo, or " Flowery
Land," a poetic form synonymous with " Land of Culture and Courtesy." The
people themselves are the " Children of Han," or the " Men of Tsang," in allusion
to two famous dynasties. They also call themselves " Limin," an enigmatical term
commonly rendered " Black-haired Race." But there is no precise natural term
of general acceptance either for the country or the people, and the same is largely
true of the mountains, rivers, provinces, and inhabited districts, the names of which
are mere epithets, descriptive, historical, military, or poetical, changing with every
dynasty, or replaced by other epithets of an equally vague character.
The natural limits of China proper arc sufficiently well defined. On the west
the eastern extension of the Tibetan plateau, here separated by deep river valleys
into divergent ranges, forms a clear frontier between the Chinese and the half-
savage Lolo, Sifan, and other hill tribes. Northwards the Great Wall indicates
throughout most of its course the parting-line
between the arable lands and the