superiority in civilization is a mere delusion. Our histories, which treat the Mediterranean as the centre of the universe, give quite a wrong perspective. Cordier,[1] dealing with the campaigns and voyages of discovery which took place under the Han dynasty, says:—
The Occidentals have singularly contracted the field of the history of the world when they have grouped around the people of Israel, Greece, and Rome the little that they knew of the expansion of the human race, being completely ignorant of these voyagers who ploughed the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, of these cavalcades across the immensities of Central Asia up to the Persian Gulf. The greatest part of the universe, and at the same time a civilization different but certainly as developed as that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, remained unknown to those who wrote the history of their little world while they believed that they, were setting forth the history of the world as a whole.
In our day, this provincialism, which impregnates all our culture, is liable to have disastrous consequences politically, as well as for the civilization of mankind. We must make room for Asia in our thoughts, if we are not to rouse Asia to a fury of self-assertion.
After the Han dynasty there are various short dynasties and periods of disorder, until we come to the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618–907). Under this dynasty, in its prosperous days, the Empire acquired its greatest extent, and art and poetry reached their highest point.[2] The Empire of Jenghis Khan (died
- ↑ Cordier, op. cit. i. p. 237.
- ↑ Murdoch, in his History of Japan (vol. i. p. 146), thus describes the greatness of the early Tang Empire: "In the following year (618) Li Yuen, Prince of T'ang, established the illustrious dynasty of that name, which continued to sway the fortunes of China for nearly three centuries (618–908). After a brilliant reign of ten years he handed over the imperial dignity to his son, Tai-tsung (627–650), perhaps the greatest
