Inner Mongolia, lying between the desert of Gobi and the continuous frontier of Manchuria and China, was occupied, in 1812, by 24 tribes, differing in name, irregularly ranged under 49 standards, and divided, in uneven proportions, into 6 chalkan or leagues.
The Outer Mongolians were,—lst, four tribes of Kalkas of different names, under khans, which, with two fragmentary tribes attached to them, formed four leagues; they numbered in all 86 standards, and resided in the territory north of the desert of Gobi, geographically named Outer Mongolia. 2d, Eleven tribes, not in leagues, under 34 standards, scattered to the west of the Holan rnount.sina, in the S.W. of Inner Mongolia, to the south of the Altai, and to the north of the Teng kiri ranges. 3d, Two tribes of Mahomedans, under 2 standards, at Hami and Turfan, within the provincial boundaries of Kansuh, south of the Celestial Mountains round and 4th, Five tribes under 29 standards, round Koko-Nor, called by the Chinese Tsing-Hai, or Azure Sea. Colonel Gor don, who had taken a prominent part in suppress ing the Tae-ping rebellion, recently returned to China to advise the great viceroy, Li-Hung-Chang, regarding the Chinese forces. The occasion was the retention by Russia of the town and district of Kuldja, and war appeared possible. He urged them to avoid pitched battles, to cultivate skir mishing, to throw up earthworks, to harass the enemy by irregular warfare, and form a fleet of small and cheap ships.
Religions and Philosophies.—Tho Chinese have acquired, in the course of their long existence, more than one different kind of philosophy ; that is to say, there exist in China several radically different ways of viewing the nature of the inani mate world and of man. The philosophic systems of Lao-taze, of Kung-taze, of Choo-taze, of Mang-tsze, and of Buddha, take the place of religions, but none of these are pure philosophies ; those re cognised by the state being Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism with its form Lamaism, and Mahomed anism. They are systems of morality.
• There was a long struggle for mastery among the adherents of these three systems,—a struggle which expressed itself in mutual proscriptions and persecutions; but the Confucian (Kung-taze) al ways succeeded in maintaining for itself the greatest ascendency, except during some comparatively short period, and it became definitively paramount fully ten centuries ago. From that time to this it has continued dominant in the country. It has been the philosophy and morality of all the great historians of China, and has formed the basis of her peculiar national system of legislation and administrative procedure. It may be described as the assemblage of those fundamental beliefs which are entertained by all cultivated Chinese ou the phenomena of animate and inanimate nature.
The literature in which it is set forth, and which it has moulded, whether notological, psychical, ethical, legislative, or historical, is that exclusively an intimate and extensive acquaintance with which has for many centuries been made indispensable to the passing of the public service examinations, which are, for the talent and ambition of China, far more than the hustings, the avenues to church preferment, and the bar all combined, are for the talent and ambition of Britain. Hence Confu cianism is, and has long been in the fullest sense of the terms, the national, orthodox philosophy and morality of the Chinese people. Taoist and Buddhist temples exist all over China, and in latter centuries Mahomedan mosques have been erected in many of its cities; but the dominant Confu cianism merely endures Taoism, Buddhism, and Ifahomedanism as erroneous and superstitious systems of belief, prevalent among, because most suited to, people of uncultivated or weak minds, whether rich or poor ; but which find most accept ance among the poorer and therefore unlearned and unenlightened classes. They have no influence on the national polity. The people are in nowise prohibited from worshipping in the Buddhist and Taoist temples ; in other words, they may regulate their purely religous life by the tenets of these, or indeed of any other sect. But where Taoism or Buddhism would leave the region of religion, and, in the form of philosophy or morality, extend their direct influence into the domain of the social science and art, there Confucianism peremptorily and effectually prohibits their action. Not only aro the national legislation and administration formed exclusively on Confucian principles, it is by them also that the more important acts of the private life of the Chinese are regulated, as for instance marriages. The cause of the prevalence of Mahomedanism in China, in spite of discourage meets, lies in the fact that Confucianism says little or nothing of a supernatural world or of a future existence. Hence it leaves almost unsatis fied those ineradicable cravings of human nature, the desire to revere and the longing for immortal life. That it has, notwithstanding its want of these holds on the human heart, maintained itself not simply in existence, but as the ruling system, is a fact that must, as soon as it is perceived, form for every true thinker a decisive proof of the existence of great and vital truths in its theories, as well as thorough soundness and wholesomeness in the practical rules which it dictates. By Chinese philosophy must be understood Confucian philo sophy; and by Chinese morality, the moral prin ciples rooted in that philosophy.