Historic China, and other sketches - University of Macau Library

THE CHOWS.
throne, solely because of his filial piety, in recognition
of which wild beasts used to come and voluntarily drag
his plough for him through 'the channelled fields,'
while birds of the air would hover round and guard his
sprouting grain from the depredations of insects. This
of course is not history ; and but little more can be said
for the accounts given of the two dynasties which ruled
China between the above-mentioned golden age and the
opening reigns of the House of Chow. The historian in
question had not many sources of information at com-
mand. Besides tradition, of which he largely availed
himself, the chief of these was the hundred chapters
which had been edited by Confucius from the historical
remains of those times, now known as the Book of
History. This contains an unquestionable foundation
of fact, pointing to a comparatively advanced state of
civilisation even so far back as 2,000 years before our
era; but the picture is dimly seen, and many of its
details are of little practical value. It is only with the
dynasty of the Chows that we begin to feel ourselves on
safe ground, though long before that date the Chinese
were undoubtedly enjoying a far higher civilisation than
fell to the share of most Western nations until many
centuries later. The art of writing had already been
fully developed, having passed, if we are to believe
native researches, from an original system of knotted
cords,* through successive stages of notches on wood
* Some method of calculation by means of knotted cords exists
among the Sonthals of Bengal, and is mentioned in the " Report on
the Census for 1872." . '
6 2