CHAPTER XVIII

Summary

NOW that I have got thus far into the bowels of the Celestial land, and have carefully observed its greatest marvel, let me brush away the cobwebs and dust that shroud its paternity, and glean all the information respecting it, here accessible; for I am bound to acknowledge that I can hardly agree with those who assert that the erection of such a safeguard, by a peaceable and rather timid people, was the whim of a tyrant, and the gravest act of despotism, as well as of folly, that an autocrat could be guilty of.

Chinese history is abstruse and oftentimes perplexing, but I will consult only the best authorities.

It is known that, for many centuries before the Christian era, China was divided into a number of feudal states, in something the same way that Europe was twelve or thirteen hundred years ago, and that the same amount of turbulence and disputation was prevalent among the chiefs or princes that we find recorded in Western history. The number and power of these states was in proportion to the physical strength and political influence, or the weakness and temerity of the reigning monarch, who might sometimes be able to reduce them to complete subordination, and at other times rule only by their sufferance.