. Pictorial history of China and India; comprising a description of those countries and their inhabitants. It is rather a curious coincidence, that two princes of the same race, atthe distance of five hundred years, should have established their empireunder much the same circumstances, by subduing and uniting the pettystates into which the country had, in consequence of the weakness of thegovernment, become divided. The dynasty founded by the conqueror justalluded to, like that of which Chi-hoang-ti was the founder, took the nameof Tsin, and ruled over China somewhat more than a century and a
. Pictorial history of China and India; comprising a description of those countries and their inhabitants. It is rather a curious coincidence, that two princes of the same race, atthe distance of five hundred years, should have established their empireunder much the same circumstances, by subduing and uniting the pettystates into which the country had, in consequence of the weakness of thegovernment, become divided. The dynasty founded by the conqueror justalluded to, like that of which Chi-hoang-ti was the founder, took the nameof Tsin, and ruled over China somewhat more than a century and a half,during which period fifteen sovereigns succeeded each other on the throne. The war of the three kingdoms furnished the Chinese authors withabundant materials for poems, novels, and dramatic compositions; for thiswas the golden age of literature in China, where talent had been honoredand rewarded during the whole period of the Han dynasty, and the literati,as before observed, formed the highest class of the community. Next tothem, in point of consideration, were held the agriculturists ; husbandry. Ancient Chinese Husbandman in liis Summer Dress. being, in fact, of much more importance than commerce to a people whoseremote position on the globe, ere navigation had brought them into contactwith distant nations, rendered them wholly dependent on their own resourcesfor subsistence ; therefore the wise sovereigns of China endeavored to pro-mote agriculture by rendering it the most honorable of all pursuits, exceptthat of learning. Ou-ti, the fifth emperor of the Han, restored the annualspring festival, which seems to have been neglected during the war of thethree kingdoms, but was revived by this prince to keep up a remembrance 40 CHINA, HISTORICAL AND DE8CI1IPTIVE. of the high estimation in which field-labor \va3 anciently held; and it hasever since been regularly celebrated, except when war has occasioned atemporary interruption of all customary rites. There w^ere at this per
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