Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon.

Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.

Date:: 1860

Credit: Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

750/800 (page 694)

$an intolerable pitch, that the pious Emperor Mou-wang, about b. c. 950, records how Yao, in B. c. 2337, in order to suppress false prophecies, miracles, magic, and revelations, — “ Commanded the two Ministers of Astronomy and Religion to cut asunder all commu- nication between ‘ sky ’ and earth; and thus (says Mou-wang) there was no more of what is called this lifting-up and coming-dowji.” And, so inveterate, in sporadic instances of the Chinese mind, was this childish reliance upon invisible powers, that fifteen centuries after the burning of the books, the Minister Tchang-kouei, about a. d. 1321, during a period of great physical calamities, pestilence, inundations, &c., felt it incumbent upon his office to include the subjoined remarks in a long and manly expostulation: — “A prince must not think to govern his country save as the father of his subjects; and it is not through Bonzes [Budhist priests] that he must seek felicity. Ever since the Bonzes, the Lamas, and the Tao-ssS, make so many prayers and sacrifices to their idol, ‘ Heaven ’ has given constant signs of its indignation; and until such time as one sees the worship of Fo [Budha] abolished, and all these priests driven away, one must expect to be unhappy.” Such political necessities may palliate some of Chi-IIoang-ti’s deeds; which obliterated so much of earlier literature extant down to the Chinese “era of the martyrs” for science, B. c. 213. Upon accession of the famous 77an dynasty, b. c. 202, a reaction in favor of letters im- mediately commenced; and from this period of “renaissance” downwards no nation upon earth possessed, till recently, annals comparable to the Chinese. About b. c. 176, the Chou-king of Khoung-tseu was recovered, partly, by taking down the recitations of a nonogenarian savant, Fou-cheng, who had been president of literature prior to the con- flagration of libraries. Through this venerable scholar (who is to the Chinese what Ezra was to the Jews) and the fortuitous discovery, b. c. 140, of a copy of the Chou-king with other books in the ruined house of Confucius, the more important documents of Chinese antiquarian lore were restored. European authors, who claim that we possess the plenary words if not the autograph of Moses, have doubted this account. We accept it, notwithstanding, in good faith; because neither the books themselves nor their transcribers pretend to supernaturalism in any shape; whilst the nature of the local researches subsequently undertaken renders nuga- tory such unwarrantable European objections. “ But the man who has thrown the grandest 4clat over the reign of the Emperor Wou-ti, is Sse-ma-thsian, whom M. Abel Remusat has called the Uerodotus of China. {515) His portrait is given under our Fig. 331 [supra, p. 349]. About b. c. 104 he commenced his Historical Memoirs; which, in 130 books (extant in European libraries, and consulted by the Sinologists we quote), furnish a vast encyclopaedia of Chinese annals, of every kind, from the reign of the old Iloang-ti, 2697 years before c., down to b. c. 140. “Sse-ma-thsian made good use of all that remained of the Classical Books; of those of the Ancestral Temple of the Tcheou-dynasty; the Secret Memoirs of the House of Stone, and of the Golden Coffer; and of the registers called Plates of Jasper. It is added that he stript the Liu-ling, for what concerns the laws ; the Tactics of Han-sin, for what regards military affairs; the Tchang-tching, for what relates to general literature; and the L\-yi for every thing that is relative to usages and ceremonies.” There are no further breaks in Chinese archeological labors down to our time; which researches, for care and magnitude, may^ challenge the universe. We mention, however, only the Researches profound of the Monuments left by Savans, published at royal expense, in 348 books, by Matouan-lin, in a. d. 1321; which covers history from the twenty-fourth century b. c. down to the twelfth after c. Copies exist in European libraries. After the death of Chi-IIoang-ti: — “ The tombs, the ruins of cities, the canals and rivers, saved some moneys, some bronze vases, some urns and other objects of his proscription. A certain number of these has been found since the fall of the Thsin-dynasty. They have been carefully collected and preserved in museums or in private cabinets; descriptions have been madi$

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