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Anonymous, Qin Shi Huang, From a 19th c. Korean album, 19th c.

Paper, Folio. British Museum, London.

King Cheng succeeded to the throne of Ch’in in 246 B. C., and in 221 B. C., after he had conquered and annexed all the other States, he founded a new and homogeneous empire on the ruins of the feudal system. He extended the empire widely towards the south, drove back the Hiung-nu Turks from the north, and built the Great Wall as a rampart of defense against these horse-riding nomads. He tried to burn all historical books, declared himself the First Divus Augustus and decreed that his successor should be known as the Second, the Third, and so forth, even down to the ten-thousandth generation. But his ambitious projects came to nothing, as his son, who succeeded as Erh Shih Huang Ti, or Emperor of the second generation, in 209 B. C., was murdered by the eunuch Chao Kao two years later, and in 206 his grandson, a mere child, gave himself up to the founder of the House of Han, Liu Pang, bringing with him the jade seals of State, and was assassinated a few years later.

The civilization of China during the three ancient dynasties would appear to have been, so far as we know, mainly, if not entirely, an indigenous growth. Towards the close of this period, in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C., the Ch’in State (Shensi Province) extended its boundaries towards the south and west, and from its name was undoubtedly derived that of China, by which the country generally became known to the Hindus, Persians, Armenians, Arabs and Ancient Romans. About the same time or somewhat earlier, signs of an overland traffic with India, by way of Burma and Assam, appeared in the south-west, started by traders of the Shu State (Szechuan Province), by which route Hindu ideas of forest seclusion and asceticism penetrated and gave a marked colour to the early Taoist cult which sprang up in these parts.

Anonymous, Kublai Khan’s armies lay siege to the Chinese fortress O-Chou, Illustration 14th c.Book c. 1590. Paper, Folio.

Golestan Palace, Teheran.