Extent of China.—The territorial distinctions of China proper and the Chinese Empire have existed from the earliest periods of Chinese history. China proper has meant, at all periods, that portion of the east of the Asiatic continent which has been possessed and permanently occupied by the Chinese people. The Chinese Empire has meant, besides China proper, those large portions of the whole Asiatic continent occupied by Tartar nomades or other non-Chinese peoples, but which have from time to time been under the sway of the Empire of China, and more or less directly ruled by Chinese officers and armies. China proper has at all periods been characterized by Chinese civilisation ; that is to say, its population generally, besides being physically of the same race, has always been governed in its domestic, its social, and (with the exception of some very short periods) its political life, by the principles and rules laid down in the Chinese old sacred books. The non-Chinese peoples of the Chinese Empire have, on the other hand, at all periods either been destitute of anything that could be called civilisation, or have been slightly tinged with Chinese civilisation, or have been marked by some different civilisation, as for instance at present, in the inhabitants of Turkestan by a Mahomedan civilisation, and the inhabitants of Tibet by one strictly Buddhistic. At present China proper and the Chinese Empire are supposed to be 3,010,400 square miles in extent, and may be noticed under three territoral divisions: China proper, as the empire existed under the Ming dynasty, which ruled in China from A.D. 1368 until the Manchu conquest in A.D. 1644.
Manchu, or, as known in Europe, Manchuria, the country of the reigning dynasty.
Colonies of China, in Mongolia, Soungarra, Eastern Turkestan, Tibet, and the countries of the several tribes bordering on Kan-su and Sze chuen.
China proper is the largest as well as the most compact country in any part of the globe, extend ing in length from about lat. 19° to about 42° N., and in breadth (taking one extremity, where it borders upon the peninsula of the Corea) from about long. 125° (taking the other extremity, where the Great Wall extends to the west) to about long. 85° E., being 23° in lat. and 39° in long. The area given by Sir George Staunton is 1,292,000 miles. A recent estimate is 1,534,953 English square miles ; and in 1844 its revenue, 191,803,139 taels = £63,934,713.
It is separated on the north by the Great Wall from the desert lands of the Mongol tribes, and from the scarcely less dreary Manchu country; on the east is the Gulf of Pe-che-li, the Eastern Ocean, and the Formosa channel ; on the west barbarous tribes ; and S.W. are the kingdoms of Tonquin, Cochin-China, Burma, and Laos.
In the course of ages the Chinese Empire has varied greatly in extent. It has been more than once larger than it is even now. It was so, for
example, about 2000 years ago, under the fifth emperor of the Han dynasty, when it embraced the greater portion of inhabited Asia east of the Caspian Sea, and inclusive of Siam, Pegu, Cam bodia, and Bengal. In the intervals between these great extensions, it has shrunk up to the size of China proper, and even this latter has been occasionally subdivided for considerable periods under two or more ruling families or dynasties, each acknowledging no superior. But the Chinese people has continued the same, even when under several rulers, and has been steadily increasing its territorial possessions. They have annexed all the parts neighbouring on China proper from Manchu and Mongol races. The dynasty now is Mongol, and the army Manchu, and furnishes Manchu soldiers in Mongolia and Tibet.
Government.—The idea of the family is the grand principle that serves as the basis of society in China. Filial piety, the constant subject of dissertation to moralists and philosophers, and continually recommended in the proclamations of emperors and the speeches of mandarins, has become, in the views of the Chinese, the funda mental root of all other virtues. All means are made use of to exalt this sentiment, so as to make of it an absolute passion. It assumes all forms, mingles in all actions, and serves as the moral pivot of public life. Every crime, every attempt against the authority, property, or life of in dividuals, is treated as filial disobedience ; whilst, on the other hand, all acts of virtue, devotion, compassion toward the unfortunate, commercial probity, or even valour in battle, are referred to filial piety. To be a good or a bad citizen, is to be a good or bad son. This grand principle dominates and penetrates more or less deeply all the strata of society. The emperor, as the head of the family system on which Chinese political life is based, is responsible only to the gods. In civil cases the last appeal is to the emperor, and the registers of capital offenders are submitted to him. The names of the officials who merit promotion or disgrace are likewise submitted to him. He is called Hoaug-te, August Sovereign, or Hoang-chou, August Eleva tion ; but his name par excellence is Tien-dza, or Tien-tsze, Son of Heaven.
The empress of China, on the other hand, is the representative of mother earth. She is sup posed to be ignorant of politics, and occupies herself in feeding silkworms, winding silk at the cocoon festival, and inspecting the silk stuffs woven by the women of the imperial household.
China has 18 political divisions,—Shang-tung, Pe-che-li, Shansi, Shensi, in the north ; Kwang tung and Kwang - si in the south ; Che - kiang, Foh-kien, and Kiang-su, in the east ; Kau-su, Sze-chuen, and Yunnan, in the west ; and Nang hui, Kiang-si, Hoo-nan, Hu-peli, Ho-nan, and Kwei-chu, as midland provinces.