Talk:Bronze Age (for deletion, kept for Palestinian details)

Additional content for after 1200-1150 B.C.

Neo-Babylonian Kingdom

With the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom (612 B.C.) under Nabopolassar and his successor, Nebuchadnezzar, the plain once more dominated the highlands, and the territory of the new Babylonian rulers extended beyond the confines of Mesopotamia to include Palestine and Syria. Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for the attack on Jerusalem and the subsequent Babylonian captivity of the Jews, which began in 597 B.C.. Nebuchadnezzar is remembered as the builder of the Hanging Gardens and the king who carried off the Jews into the Babylonian captivity (587-586 B.C.). A contemporary Babylonian relief supports the Biblical tradition that some Jews were thrown into "fiery furnaces."

Defeated by the Persians under Cyrus the Great, the last of the Neo-Babylonian monarchs, Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar, also figure prominently in the Old Testament. Nabonidus was an elderly scholar and antiquarian who seems to have lacked the energy or competance to direct his kingdom in a critical period when other states, Lydia and Medea, were crumbling before the advance of Persia under Cyrus the Great. In 539 B.C., when Cyrus finally turned his attention to Babylonia, he encountered little resistance. In fact, there is ground for suspicion that the Babylonians, particularly the priests, were willing to exchange Nabonidus for Cyrus.

After 539 B.C., Babylonia and Assyria ceased to be independent and passed successively under the rule of the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Parthians, and the other later conquerors of the Near East. The city of Babylon itself remained an important administrative center for many centuries, but the old cities of Assyria were abandoned. When Xenophon passed by the Assyrian capital of Nineveh at the end of the 5th century B.C., only a huge mound of earth remained to mark the site of a once thriving urban center.

The Neo-Babylonian period was the final one in which the Semitic peoples of Mesopotamia were their own masters. Many centuries of domination by one foreign group after another followed the capture of Babylon by the Persians in 539 B.C. On the other hand, until the Mongol invasion of the 13th century A.D., the economic and cultural importance of the area was not diminished. No matter what group was in power, and no matter how far-flung the political entity of which Mesopotamia happened to be a part at the moment, the vicinity of Babylon continued to be a site of an administrative center. That is to say, the captial was in this area, for the sites of Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon and Baghdad are close neighbours. Because of its possibilities for agricultural production and its favourable position for trade, the plain constituted a rich and populous province. The economic wealth of other regions might rise and fall, but Babylonia possessed a stability in this respect, which kept it on a fairly even keel. Further, as a major contributor to Near Eastern, Greek and Roman civilisations, Babylonia remained a primary center of cultural diffusion throughout antiquity.

Persian Mesopotamia

The coming of the Persians under Cyrus the Great in 538 B.C. marked the first of a series of instances in which the inhabitants of Persia were to extend their political control over Mesopotamia. In the Persian period, the Tigris-Euphrates Valley was divided into two satrapies known as Chaldea and Assyria, with the former including the plain and the latter the highlands. The importance of Babylon was recognized in the fact that it was one of the four major administrative centers of the Persian Empire, a vast political unit which stretched from the Indus to the Nile. During the period, the population of Mesopotamia remained largely Semitic. A triumph may be seen in that the conquerors adopted a system of writing based on a modification of the Babylonian cuneiform script.

Alexander the Great

The Persian Empire endured until it was crushed by the onslaught of Greeks and Macedonians led by Alexander the Great. Alexander's campaigns began in Asia Minor in 335 B.C. and carried him to Babylon late in 331. When he returned from his eastern conquests in 325, he established his headquarters at Babylon, where he died in 323. With the disintegration of Alexander's empire, Mesopotamia and most of the old Persian holdings — except Egypt — fell into the hands of Seleucus, one of Alexander's Macedonian generals.

Selucid Mesopotamia

Seleucus established a dynasty which dominated the Near East for the next two centuries. The capital, a new city called Seleucia, was located on the Tigris about twenty miles south of Baghdad. At its greatest extend the empire stretched eastward to the Indus and included the old Persian homeland. It was here, just south of the Caspian Sea, that a new movement of Persian nationalism appeared about the middle of the 3rd century B.C..

Parthian Kingdom

A group known as the Parthians began to represent themselves as the successors of the Persians and to call upon the Iranian tribes to unite against the Greeks and Macedonian foreigners. Gathering momentum, the anti-Seleucid revolt restored the independence of Persia before the 3rd century ended. Then the Parthian monarchs looked westward toward Mesopotamia. Under the famoous Mithradates I, the first major Parthian king, the hordes from Iran expelled the Seleucids from the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and the Parthians became the rulers of Mesopotamia.

The Parthians are best remembered as the formidable opponents of the Romans in the Near East. They were the victors over Crassus at Carrhae (modern Haran) in the 1st century B.C. and the victims of the Roman emperor Trajan when his campaigns of A.D. 114-116 carried the Roman standards all the way to the Persian Gulf. Just as in the case of the Persian Empire, so under the Parthians, Mesopotamia was a vital region and a center of administration. During the 1st century B.C., however, the capital city of Seleucia on the Tigris was replaced as capital by the rival city of Ctesiphon, just across the river.

The Parthian Kingdom survived the campaigns of Trajan and regained territory temporarily surrendered during the brief Roman occupation, but there were later Roman attacks. In the time of Marcus Aurelius, a new penetration — which might have been more serious than that of Trajan — was nullified by the great plague which the legions carried back home with them. Subsequently, the Parthians were weakened by the campaigns of Septimus Severus and Caracalla, with the result that they ultimately collapsed before new pressure emanating from Persia.

Sassanian Kingdom

The Sassanian Persians, whose kings claimed descent form the Achaemenids (the founders of the First Persian Empire), revolted against the Parthians in A.D. 224. By 227 Mesopotamia had fallen to the Sassanians and the Parthian Kingdom had ceased to exist. The Sassanian Kingdom now came into being, with the Persians replacing the Parthians as the opponents of the Romans. During the Sassanian period the conflict between East and West continued, with first one side and then the other gaining the upper hand. The Persian defeat and capture of the Roman emperor Valerian in the middle of the 3rd century has often been compared to the Parthian victory over Crassus. But the Romans, too, had their share of glory with the victories of Diocletian and the preliminary successes of John the Apostate. In Byzantine times the Eastern emperors at Constantinople carried on the warfare against the Sassanians with little or no permanent achievement.

The Islamic Caliphates

At length, the Sassanians were destroyed and the ancient period came to an end with the rise of a new group, the Arabs. After the death of the Prophet, Mohammed, in 632, the Arabs began to expand outside their homeland. Under the inspiration of Islam they were irresistable. Syria and Palestine were conquered; then Mesopotamia fell in 637.

Under the Orthodox, Ommiad and Abbasside caliphs, Mesopotamia continued its old administrative, economic and cultural importance. Kufa on the Euphrates replaced Ctesiphon as the capital, until the foundation of Baghdad by the Abbasside caliph, al-Mansur, in 762. Baghdad, home of Harun al-Rashid and scene of the stories of the Arabian Knights, is still capital of Mesopotamia. In the 8th century, Baghdad was not merely a provincial capital, as Kufa had been under the Ommiads, it was also the imperial seat of the new Abbasside Dynasty, replacing Damascus as the political center of the Moslem world. The change from Damascus to Baghdad is said to have had the further effect of promoting the Persianification of the Arab rulers, whose political ideas and social habits were now modified by lingering Sassanian influences.

After reaching its peak in the 8th and 9th centuries, the vigour of the Abbassides was gradually lost. By the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks had extended their sway southward into Mesopotamia. Between 1055 and 1194, a Seljuk sultan wielded temporal power in Baghdad, while by his side Abbasside caliphs sat as mere puppets clutching about them the tattered remnants of spiritual authority as successors of the Prophet.

Mongolian Mesopotamia

Although the Mongols under Genghis Khan swept across Persia and into Mesopotamia between 1218 and 1222, it was Hulagu, grandson of Genghis Khan and brother of Kublai Khan, who effectively subdued Mesopotamia. In 1258, Baghdad surrendered to Hulagu after a siege in which 800,000 non-combatants were slaughtered. For the next eighty years, Mesopotamia was a province of the Mongol empire; for another seventy years it was the possession of one or another of the smaller Mongolian states. A second Mongolian sack of Baghdad occurred in 1393, when the ferocious Tamerlane descended upon the city. During the 15th century, Mesopotamia knew further suffering under the rule of two Turkomen dynasties known as the Black Sheep and the White Sheep.

At the very end of the middle period, a revived Persia once more conquered and for a few years held the Tigris-Euphrates valley (1509-1534). By the 16th century, however, Mesopotamia was ruined. Under the Mongols, the irrigation system so necessary to agricultural prosperity had been completely destroyed; and much of the cultivated area had become barren and arid. There was undoubtedly a serious decline in population, with very little recovery having taken place since that time.

Ottoman Mesopotamia

In 1534, the Persians were expelled from Mesopotamia by the forces of Suleiman the Magnificent, the great Ottoman sultan. From then until the present, Mesopotamia has been a Turkish possession.

Persia

About 1500 B.C., waves of tribal invaders speaking dialects of the Indo-Iranian tongues invaded from the north to east, the most advanced and powerful calling themselves the Mad (Medes). By the eighth century they had reached the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and come into mortal conflict with the Assyrians. At the zenith of the Median empire, about 600 B.C., King Cyaxares captured Nineveh and marched into central Anatolia.

Achaemenid Iran

The successors of Cyaxares were weak and succumbed to a rebellion in 550 B.C. led by Cyrus, a descendant of Achaemenes, who belonged to the tribe called the Pars, which had recently settled in the southeast. The Pars (Persians) borrowed Median organization and traditions and launched forth on a series of amazing conquests. The Medo-Persian army reached the Aegean Sea opposite Greece in 546 B.C., captured in 539, and seized Egypt a decade later. Cyrus proved to be a wise ruler and a generous victor. The Jews called him the Messiah, and later Greek writers praised his sagacity. His son, Cambyses II, died violently in 522 B.C., leaving the kingdom rent by civil war, during which a false pretender, Smerdis or Gaumata, temporarily mounted the throne. In a brilliant two-year campaign, 520-518 B.C., Darius I, claiming kinship to Achaemenes, reunited the country, recording his feats on the famous Behistun rock carving. His rule was long and noteworthy. Herodotus gives detailed figures on the organization of the immense realm called “the land of the Aryans,” or Eranshahr, the larges the world had seen up to that time. The new capital, called by the Greeks Persepolis, was adorned with exquisitely beautiful rock carvings depicted the glories and wealth of his realm. It is also fairly well established that at his court there lived Zoroaster, one of the greatest of the Aryan-speaking prophets, whose teachings were eventually codified in the sacred books known as the Zend-Avesta. Because some Greeks encouraged the Ionians to revolt in Asia Minor (499-494 B.C.), Darius sent two punitive forces to punish them. The first army was only partly successful, but the second was overwhelmed at Marathon in 490 B.C. A more ambitious attempt to subjugate the Greeks was attempted by Xerxes (Darius’ successor), but after a naval disaster at Salamis in 480 B.C. and a decimation of the land forces at Platea the next year, the invading forces were withdrawn to the shores of Asia Minor. Vastness of the kingdom, degeneration of the royal line, and the ambitions of powerful satraps combined to bring about a decentralization of authroity in spite of good post roads and an originally enlightened provincial policy, The effort of Cyrus the Younger, satrap of Asia Minor, to seize the throne in 401 B.C. resulted in the retreat of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries described by Xenophon. This incident also revealed the weakness and wealth of the empire, temporarily held together by Artaxerxes III.

Hellenistic Period

The last of the Achaemenid line, Darius III, proved totally incapable of organizing the defense of the empire, and in two battles at Issus in 333 B.C. and Arbela in 331 B.C., he led the flight before the conquering phalanx of Alexander of Macedon. In spite of military defeat, the culture and wealth of the Persian would greatly impressed Alexander, who married two of its princesses and adopted many Oriental traditions, much to the irritation of some of his associates. Upon the death of Alexander in 323 B.C., Seleucus Nicator carved out a kingdom including Iran. But the Seleucid rulers, in spite of their plans to build Hellenistic centers, were gradually driven westward by the implacable advance of new Iranian leaders, the Parthians.

Arsacid Dynasty

A military caste, the Parthians adopted Hellenistic titles and called themselves Philhellenes, but they vigorously opposed Seleucid rule. Following an obscure founder, Arsaces, who ruled about 250 B.C., the dynasty came to the attention of the Western world when Mithridates II (c. 124-87) defeated the Seleucidae and threatened to re-establish the great empire of Darius. In penetrating westward, the Parthians under King Orodes finally came under attack from the Romans in the year B.C. the wars that ensued were to last three centuries, sometimes with Parthian victories, such as at Carrhae in 53 B.C. and the destruction of Mark Antony’s hundred thousand legionnaires in Media in 36 B.C., and at other times with notable Roman successes. The battlefields were in Mesopotamia and Armenia, and a long struggle, in which neither could win a decisive victory, exhausted both states. After the death of Trajan in Cilicia in A.D. 117, the Romans abandoned efforts to subjugate Mesopotamia, and sporadic excursions thereafter often resulted in disaster. However, patricide and regicide were rife in the Arsacid house, barbaric customs had taken the place of Hellenistic culture, and constant civil wars over the question of succession to the throne drained the nation’s wealth and resulted in a marked decline in culture and strength.

Sassanid Dynasty

The province of Pars again supplied leadership for Iran. Claiming ancient royal ancestry, Ardashir I (Artaxerxes) defeated Artabanus V in 226, and instituted a purge of all things Parthian and Hellenistic. His descendants were to rule Eranshahr for over four centuries (226-641) and to bring about a renaissance of old Iranian art and thought. Devotees of Mazda, the god of light, the Sassanian kings re-established fire worship, built temples, fanatically uprooted heresies such as those taught by Mani and Mazdak, and codified the teachings of Zoroaster. After the acceptance of Christianity by Armenia and Byzantium as a state religion, adherents of this faith were suspect as traitors, and under Shapur II (309-379), Christians were persecuted as potential allies of enemy states. Arts and crafts flourished, many beautiful objects such as plates of silver having survived to demonstrate the high degree of skill existing at that age. The Sassanian monarchs imbued Iran with vigor in all fields. A script known as Pahlavi was widely used, though few specimens of literature have survived. Many roads and irrigation projects, bridges, new cities, and palaces were built, partly by the Roman slaves captured in the campaign of Shapur I against the emperor Valerian in 259. The ruins of all these still stand in southeastern Iran in attestation of their former grandeur. But Eranshahr was to have no respite from wars. The White Huns poured across the Oxus river and were halted only by elaborate military preparations in the fifth century. A little later the Roman emperors Constantine and Julian revived the hope of a conquest of Mesopotamia, but met disaster. In the sixth century, Sassanian naval forces were operating in the Red Sea, while armed land forces were on the outskirts of Constantinople. The Sassanian zenith in conquest and the arts was attained under Khosrau I, who ruled from 531 to 579. Khosrau II Parvez (590-628) seemed to be on the verge of surpassing all his illustrious ancestors, for he had recaptured Egypt and Asia Minor by 621, when the hollowness of the imperial structure was exposed by the dramatic duel with Heraclius, emperor of Byzantium. The latter advanced through Mesopotamia, drove Khosrau Parvez from his throne, and left the kingdom rent by intrigues and palace revolts.

Medieval Iran

Arab armies decimated Iranian forces in a series of critical battles between 640 and 642, and an Arab-Moslem military heirarchy was set up. This small group was soon inundated by Iranian clients or converts, who superficially adhered to Moslem forms but continued the content of their earlier cultures. Because of their advanced ability in administration and intellectual pursuits, Iranians soon dominated the Eastern caliphate at Baghdad. Iranians, with Arabicized names (Al Ghazzali, Ibn Sina, and At Tabari), writing in Arabic, contributed more to Arabic literature, philosophy, and science that did the Arabs themselves. Beginning in the eighth century, increasing numbers of Turkic tribes moved westward across Iran. By the eleventh century they had captured the caliphate and were the rulers of the Islamic world. The Seljuk period, 1055-1220, was one of the most creative in Iranian history, and Rayy became one of the great cities of the medieval world. But the feudal Turk war lords could not long remain loyal to any one chief. A series of regional feudal states grew up, each fighting its neighbor in interminable wars. These were swept away by the fierce hordes of the Mongols who invaded Iran under the leadership of Genghis Khan in 1221; Hulagu Khan, who captured Baghdad in 1258; and Tamerlane in 1369. So devastating was the effect of these calamities that it was almost two centuries before Iran became an integrated state again. In the interim, clashing rivals set up fragmentary states such as those of the Black and White Sheep dynasties, 1378-1502, the Sabadars, the Karts, and others.

The Safawid Dynasty

Out of this chaos there emerged in 1502 a thirteen-year-old scion of a sainted mystic known as Safi-al-Din. The boy, Ismail, succeeded in unifying Iran again, and his successors raised Iran to the stature of a great power in the two succeeding centuries. They ushered in the modern period in Iran. The climax of the Safawid rule came during the brilliant reign of Shah Abbas the Great (1586-1628). He fought victorious wars against encroaching Turks and Portuguese, adopted the official faith of Shiite Islam, moved his capital to Isfahan, which became one of the world’s most ornamented spots, and fostered trade, art, roadbuilding, and foreign diplomatic relations. He modernized the army, and employed two British cannoneers, who equipped it with its first artillery.

India

Later Vedic Period

The progress of the fusion of the Aryan and pre-Aryan peoples and the emergence of an Indian or Hindu culture are seen clearly in the literature, still religious in its nature, of the epoch after the Rig-Veda. Relatively large kingdoms took the place of tribal states, and city life developed. Royal power grew and the importance of the popular assembly waned. Villages organizaed themselves, each under its own headman, and the rudiments of a local administration appeared. Women’s position was slightly lowered, and sons came to be preferred to daughters. There was progress in agriculture and handicrafts, with iron and silver coming into more common use. The division of the people into hereditary castes had begun, although as yet there were only four main groups or varna, and not the numberless subgroups that developed in the course of succeeding centuries. The color bar undoubtedly had something to do with the origin of this caste system, but for the most part it was a deliberate attempt to secure social integration among different sections of the population without prejudice to their varying habits, customs and outlook.

In religion, the cult of sacrifice became much more elaborate and costly, and the priests who were the custodians of its complex technique, the Brahmins, gained in importance. A reaction followed, however, and reflection and philosophy gained the upper hand; meditation was exalted above ritual, and emphasis was laid on the quest for the ‘ultimate reality’ in preference to securing the pleasures of life in this or the other world. It was the wake of this reaction, in the 6th century B.C., that the new faiths of Jainism and Buddhism arose, both in Magadha (modern Bihar).

Another notable development was in the sphere of popular religion, where a synthesis was effected between some Vedic deities and those that appeared to resemble them in the popular pantheon of the pre-Aryans. This process led to the emergence of Shiva and Vishnu, with Brahma as a distant third deity. The three gods, Trimurti, began to fill a large place in the affections of the people, and the many legends of their lives and deeds that fill the epics and the puranas undoubtedly embody much pre-Aryan lore. These legends became localized in different parts of India, and famous temples and shrines were erected everywhere. Pilgrimages to such centers and the rehearsal of the sacred legends connected with them have served through the ages as one of the most powerful bonds for uniting India. Temple worship and the doctrines of karma and transmigration came into vogue. The Ramayana of Valmiki, treating of the most popular story of Rama and his wife Sita; the kernel of the other great epic, Mahabharata, the story of the great war between the Kurus and the Pandus; and the core of the puranas (legendary history) must have been composed in this period also. Their continuous influence on the life and art of India can hardly be exaggerated.

Effects of Greek Conquest

The valley of the Indus was a Persian satrapy in about 578 B.C., but became independent again before Alexander’s entry into India in 326 B.C. The Buddhist books mention sixteen independent states, some monarchies and some republics, between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas. The monarchy of Kosala (modern Oudh) had been the premier state in about 600 B.C., but Magadha (Bihar) had gradually won ascendancy and its kings had ruled over an extensive empire, the power and fame of which had reached the ears of Alexander in the Punjab. Mahavira and Buddha, the founders of Jainism and Buddhism, both members of the warrior caste of Kshatriyas, had flourished in the reign of King Bimbisara of Magadha. Seagoing merchants from South India had availed themselves of the monsoons and traded with Babylon from the 7th century B.C., if not earlier, and possibly also with Indonesia and the Philippines.

Alexander’s conquest of northwestern India had little lasting effect. The battle on the banks of the Jhelum was a Pyrrhic victory, after which Alexander’s soldiers opposed his plunging further into India, and he himself soon died after his return to Babylon. But it led to the establishment of Greek kingdoms to the west of India and strengthened the intercourse between India and the West, which had begun under the Persian empire of the Achaemenidae.

Mauryan Empire

As a youth, Chandragupta, the founder of the first all-India empire, met the Greek invader in the Punjab, and this meeting undoubtedly had a part in shaping his career. During his reign (322-298 B.C.), Chandragupta also owed much to his Brahmin chancellor, Kautilya, the author of a comprehensive manual of Indian polity, the Arthasastra. For about a century, from 325 B.C., the rulers of the Maura dynasty brought all India except the extreme south under one rule, marked by exceptional efficiency and prosperity.

Asoka, Chandragupta’s grandson, who was emperor from 273 to 232 B.C., towers as a world historic figure. After waging one war of conquest against Kalinga, he was struck by remorse at the horrors of war, gave up conquest by force, and steadily followed the path of peace. He adopted Buddhism as his faith and actively propagated its principles by proclamations engraved on rocks and pillars in India, and by embassies to foreign lands, particularly the Greek kingdoms of the West. He was mindful of the material and spiritual interests of backward peoples and organized medical aid for men and animals not only within his empire but in the territory of adjoining rulers. He recognized conversion by persuasion, Dhammavijaya, as the duty of the state, and held a council of monks in his capital, Pataliputra (Patna), to clarify the Buddhist’s faith and provide and authoritative version of its canon. He laid stress on ethical conduct generally, and in particular on tolerance of other faiths. Asoka raised Buddhism from a struggling local faith to one of the great religions of the world. His reign also was marked by great developments in art and architecture, partly inspired by Persian and Greek models.

Later Invasions

After the death of Asoka, the Maurya empire disintigrated, and there was no paramount power in northern India for some centuries. The peace of the smaller kingdoms which succeeded the Maurya empire was often disturbed by the incoming of Greeks, Sakas, Pahlavas and lastly Kushans, in one of those mysterious movements of peoples in high and central Asia which often disturbed the course of history in Europe and in southern and western Asia. The foreigners entering India established kingdoms of their own in the northwest, issued coins and waged wars, but in the course of a few generations they merged with the surrounding population. A Greek ambassador, Heliodorus from Taxila, declared himself a follower of Vishnu, and in 100 B.C. set up a stone column in honor of the deity at Besnagar, in Central India. Menander, the Greek king of Punjab, appears as Milinda in a Buddhist catechism known as Questions of Milinda. The Kushana coins bear effigies of Hindu gods, and some rulers bore Indian names; eg., Vasudeva. Kanishka (circa A.D. 110), the greatest of the Kushan emperors, held the last of the Buddhist councils and patronized the famous Buddhist author Asvaghosha, as well as Charaka, author of the most celebrated treatise on Hindu medicine. About the same time, or a little earlier, began the transformation of Buddhism into a colorful popular religion, with the worship of many divinities, male and female, and festivals in their honor. The period also produced new developments in Buddhist sculpture under Greco-Roman influences, as indicated by the rise of the Gandhara school of sculpture.

Southern Kingdoms

In the south, shortly after Asoka’s reign, the Deccan became a powerful and independent state under one of the longest lived dynasties of India, known as the Satavahanas or Andhras (circa 230 B.C. to A.D. 230). These kings carried their arms into the north and captured Ujjain, thus sharing the Malwa Plateau with the Sungas, the successors of the Mauryas. Later they waged long wars with the varying fortunes with the Saka satraps of Gujarat and Malwa, and the legends about the famous Vikramadityasakari, valorous enemy of the Sakas, probably refers to an early phase in this struggle with the intruders. Undoubtedly, the Vikrama era, starting from 57 B.C., and the Saka era, from A.D. 78, were also connected with these struggles. The Andhra rulers performed Vedic sacrifices and patronized letters and the arts. Buddhism flourished under their rule, and great artistic monuments—stupas, temples and monasteries—were carved out of the live rock in the Western Ghats and constructed from brick and stone in the deltaic regions of the lower Godavari and Kistna rivers. The kings were known as “lords of the three oceans.” They maintained a navy, and their subjects not only carried on trade with lands beyond the seas on both sides of India, but also settled in considerable numbers in foreign lands, particularly in the East.

In the extreme south, the country was divided among the three kingdoms of Chera, Chola and Pandya. These kingdoms enjoyed an active share in the trade and colonial movements, and the ports on the western and eastern littoral were kept busy by the concourse of merchants, inland and foreign. Fine textiles and pepper from South India and spices from the eastern lands were exchanged for wines, gold and silver from the early Roman empire, until the drain of specie and the growth of luxury caused serious concern to the financiers and moralists of the West. Tamil literature, which dates from the beginning of the Christian era if not earlier, portrays vividly the mixed culture of the country; its towns, villages and ports; its kings, nobles and common folk; and its industry and trade. Vedic religion modified by contact with pre-Aryan cults was ascendant; Buddhism and Jainism, though not unknown, were in the background.

Gupta Northern Empire

The empire of the Guptas, extending over practically the whole of North India in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., wass the next great epoch of India’s history. This period has been truly called the “Golden Age of India.” Samudragupta (c. 330-375) was famous as a conqueror, poet and musician. His son Chandragupta II, whom he chose for the succession, completed his work and assumed the famous title of Vikramaditya.

These two reigns spanned nearly a century, from 330 to 415. The Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien, who traveled widely in the empire, left testimony to the prosperity and good government. Vasubandhu, celebrated in Buddhist though and letters, and Kalidasa, the greatest of India’s poets, lived and wrote in this age, which also gave the major puranas definitive shape. Aryabhata and Varahamihira carried mathematics and astronomy to heights unknown to the rest of the world in their age. Nalanda, in Bihar, was rising as a great center of learning that was to make its influence felt throughout Asia. Time, neglect and the vandalism of the later ages have contrived to create a singular dearth of the monuments of this splendid epoch, but enough remains to emphasize the gap left in the artistic heritage of India. The seated stone Buddha at Sarnath, the iron pillar of Delhi, the copper Buddha from Sultanganj, finely wrought gold coins (one of which was found as far afield as Java) and the paintings of Ajanta are examples of the cultural attainments of the period. The influence of Gupta art forms in Indochina and Indonesia attests the continuation of colonial contacts.

Penetration by Huns

Under Skandagupta, the fifth ruler of the line, from 455 to 480, the empire first began to feel the pressure of invading Huns from the northwest. These barbarians established their predatory rule in the Punjab before the end of the 5th century, and their wars and raids reduced the Gupta empire to the level of a local kingdom. The power of the Huns was broken before the middle of the 6th century by the cooperation of Yasodharman, of Malwa, and Narasimhagupta Baladitya, a scion of the imperial Gupta line. But more potent than the heroism of soldiers in the field was the silent absorbing power of Hinduism, which in a few generations made Hindus of the race which had carried fire and sword into Europe, and whose name had become proverbial there for wanton cruelty and destruction. Not all of the Rajput clans of medieval Indian history were descendants of the Huns, but there can be little doubt that some had a large admixture of that element.

Reign of Harsha in the North

In the late 6th and early 7th centuries North India was divided among three powers: the later Guptas in the east, the Maukharis in the central region, and the Vardhanas in the west. All carried on wars with the remnants of the Hun power. By a series of unexpected turns in the course of events, Harshavardhana (c. 590-647) found himself called to rule the combined kingdoms of his ancestors and of the Maukharis. He had great talents as a warrior, administrator and author, and was the patron of the famous Sanskrit prose writer Bana, and the friend and admirer of Yuan Chwang, the Chinese master of the law who visited India, and wrote a full account of his travels. By about 612 Harsha had become the paramount ruler of North India and held that position until his death, although his attempt to extend his sway into the Deccan was repulsed by the powerful Chalukya king, Pulakesin II. Harsha’s able and benevolent rule healed the wounds inflicted by the Huns, but he left no heir to continue his work.

Developments in the South

Meanwhile, in the Deccan, the Satavahana power had given way to several dynasties, of whom the Vakatakas in the north, the Kadambas in the southwest, the succession of the Ikshvakus, Salankayanas and Vishnukundins in the eastern Deccan, and the Pallavas to the south and west of them were the most notable. Buddhist art had flourished under the Ikshvakus in the 3rd century, and there had been active intercourse between Ceylon and the Deccan, and between these and the eastern colonies. Jainism had made progress in the western Deccan and the Tamil country, and had attained great strength there by the 6th century.

The Chalukyas of Badami, the Pallavas of Kanchipuram, and the Pandhyas of Madura became the chief southern powers in the 6th century. The Chalukyas brought all of the Deccan under their power, and Pulakesin II (608-642), the greatest warrior of the time, exchanged embassies with Khosrau II of Persia. The Cauvery River was the line between the territories of the Pallavas and the Pandyas and, with minor variations brought about by mutual wars, this political setup continued until the middle of the 9th century. Only the Chalukya viceroyalties in the Gujarat (Lata) and eastern Deccan (Vengi) developed into independent kingdoms under collateral branches; the main line of Badami was overthrown in the middle of the 8th century by Dantidurga, the founder of the new line of Rashtrakutras, which occupied their predecessors’ place in the political map for about two centuries. The kings of the new line were known as Balhara (from Vallabharaja) to Moslem merchants from Arabia, who settled in the ports and cities of the kingdom, as well as farther south on the Malabar Coast, where they became the progenitors of the modern Moplahs.

Trade, literature and art flourished in the Deccan during that period. Sanskrit held an honored place everywhere, enlivening and strengthening the progress of the popular tongues. King Durvinita of the subordinate dynasty of the Gangas of Mysore wrote both in Sanskrit and Kannada; Mahendravarman I Pallava was equally accomplished as author, architect, musician and painter. The temples, rock-cut and structural, and the sculptures of the period reached the highest perfection. Badami, Pattadakal, Ellora and Ajanta, Mamallapuram (Seven Pagodas) and Kanchipuram were the most representative centers of this art. In the Tamil country, a strong reaction against Jainism and Buddhism found expression in a widespread popular devotional movement, bhakti, led by saints, or nayanars and alvars, as the devotees of Shiva and Vishnu were respectively called. The exuberant songs of this movement still form a priceless treasure in Tamil literature. Kumarila and Sankara, great Indian philosophers, taught in this age.

The same type of polity and culture continued to flourish in the south from the 9th to the 13th century; only the ruling dynasties of kings changed. The Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta (Malkhed in the west of Hyderabad) gave way to Chalukyas, who regained their ascendancy in 973 after more than two centuries of subjection, shifting the capital from Manyakheta to Kalyani, about 50 mi. to the north.

Vikramaditya VI (1075-1125) was one of the greatest of the line. The jurist Vijnanesvara, author of the Mitakshara, the Hindu code which is still accepted in many parts of India, adorned his court, as well as the poet Bilhana, who wrote a long poem in Sanskrit on the life of his patron ruler. In the Tamil country, the Cholas of Tanjore rose from the middle of the 9th century and built an empire on the ruins of the Pallava and Pandya kingdoms. Their sway extended over the whole country south of the Tungabhadra and included Ceylon and the Maldive Islands; the eastern Chalukya kingdom of Vengi, in the eastern Deccan, was a protectorate under them from 1000.

Rajaraja I (985-1014) and his son Rajendra I (1014-1035) enjoyed the greatest reigns of this line, giving political unity to all of South India for the first time and waging successful wars with the Chalukyas of Kalyani, across the Tungabhadra. Their empire became a respected sea power, controlling the Indian Ocean and effectively regulating the affairs of the Sumatran empire of Sri Vijaya by invasion and diplomacy. They perfected a highly organized system of central control, fostering at the same time the autonomy of rural village assemblies. The father constructed the Great Temple of Tanjore, the finest example of South Indian architecture. The son created its replica in the wilds of the Trichinopoly district, where he built a new city, Gangaikonda-Chola-puram, to commemorate his expedition to the banks of the Ganges. The Chola rulers established hospitals and colleges and made lavish expenditures for irrigation projects and public utilities. The greatest works of Tamil literature were produced under their rule, as well as some of the oldest extant commentaries on the Vedas.

The North After Harsha

In North India, the death of Harsha in 647 had been followed by complications which had enabled Tibet to interfere in the northeastern region for a time. This, in turn, had paved the way for the reception of Buddhism into Tibet. In the early part of the 8th century, Kashmir was drawn into central Asian politics and closer contact with China, while expanding her power into India as well. The age of Kanishka seemed to have come back, although with the difference that the Kashmir kings accepted investiture from the Chinese emperor. But this situation did not last, and Kashmir again shrank to its normal position of a border state in the Indian system. Sind and some adjacent territory in the Punjab passed under the Arabs from 712, first as a province of the caliphate of Baghdad, and soon after as two virtually independent principalities owing only nominal allegiance to the caliph. Again, however, this was an episode without consequences, political or cultural, and the attempt of the Arabs to spread farther into India was effectively checked by the Chalukyas of Gujarat and other powers. For the rest, a number of Rajput kingdoms divided the country among themselves, and the annals of the period are filled with their wars.

The Gurjaras of Kanauj came near establishing a large empire from 820 to 1020, and the Paramaras of Malwa were next in importance. The Rashtrakutas and Chalukyas from the Deccan occasionally raided the north and meddled in the affairs of these kingdoms. The Chandelas of Bundelkhand, the Gahadvals who succeeded the Gurjaras in Kanauj, and the Chauhans of Sambhar and Ajmer in Rajputana rose to prominence later, bearing the brunt of futile opposition to definitive conquest of Hindustan by the Moslems at the close of the 12th century. The number of separate kingdoms and disputes among them apparently was no serious obstacle to the maintenance of the cultural arts. The temple of Martand in Kashmir and the group of temples in Khajraho, Central India, are excellent specimens of the architecture of the time. In sculpture and painting, the simple naturalism of the former times yielded to an effort to give visual form to spiritual ideas, the result of new developments in the religious field; modern critics do not agree on the aesthetic results of this intrusion of mysticism into the sphere of art.

Nepal, another important border state in the Indian system, did notable work as a relaying point for the spread of Hindu influences over the rest of Asia. Bengal and Bihar virtually formed a world apart during the rise of the Pala dynasty in the 8th century. Pala art is famous and suffused with mystic influences. The Palas had intimate connection with the new developments of Tantric Buddhism characteristic of the age, and with the great monastery of Nalanda; their overseas contacts with Hinduized states of Indonesia are well attested.

Characteristics of Hindu Society

The main traits of Hindu society may be briefly sketched before describing the conquests of India by Turks, Mongols and Europeans. In ancient India, hereditary monarchy was the rule after the kingless states had disappeared in the early centuries A.D. Succession disputes were often averted by the instution of Yuvaraja, or crown prince, an office to which the reigning monarch appointed the most competent among his sons or other relatives. The king was no autocrat, having been brought up in a tradition which respected Dharma, ie., law and custom as established and interpreted by the elite. There were ministers who met in council to advise the king, who listened to all points of view before acting. However, the sphere of the state was limited, and the king’s primary duty was to uphold the existing social order, which was believed to be a divine insitution, and was, in fact, self-regulating. The people seldom acted as individuals, but found expression in some group outside the family, such as caste, trade, craft-guild, temple committee or village assembly. The autonomy of these groups extended to determining their own constitutions, the king and his courts intervening only in disputes. There were settled methods of procedure and also a fairly well-developed law of evidence.

Even taxation was ruled by custom and was not greatly affected by change. The land tax, taxes on professions and houses, octroi, market and port dues, and judicial fines were the chief items of the royal fisc; the palace, the army, religion and the arts were the main heads of expenditure. The voluntary groups taxed themselves and received contributions from the state and from other groups to carry on their work. Social life was harmonious because the concept of unity and interdependence ran through the whole organization, inequalities being freely recognized and accommodated, but seldom exploited to the detriment of the weaker party. Caste had not yet become rigid in its restrictions, and shiploads of Brahmins felt free to carry their Vedic sacrifices to strange lands in a manner that later ages would not tolerate. It was a “self-contained, self-dependent, symmetrical and perfectly harmonious industrial economy” which had reached a balance between unity and diversity, and between stability and change.

Sultanate of Delhi

A serious threat to this society developed with the appearance of the Turks in India in the 11th century. Fierce warriors by nature, after their acceptance of Islam they felt it their duty to wage war on the infidel. The strict rule of the Moslem law gave the vanquished peoples no choice but to embrace Islam or prepare for death or slavery. This was relaxed early, and non-Moslem subjects came to be tolerated on the payment of a poll tax, the Jizya, yet the initial clash between Islam and Hinduism probably was terrible in its effects. The first mosque at Delhi was finished in 1198. It was erected on the site of a Hindu temple, and an Arabic inscription on the walls states that the materials of twenty-seven “idolatrous” temples were used in the construction. After the sack of Nalanda by the Moslems, there was not a monk alive to tell the raiders of the nature of the books in its great library.

The Turkish kingdom of Ghazni, which had started as a small principality in about 962, made its power felt in India under its third ruler, Mahmud, who took the title of sultan. Mahmud led several expeditions beyond the Indus, sacking Kanauj in 1019 and Somanath, in Gujarat, five years later; he annexed the Punjab to his kingdom before his death in 1030. A century and a half elapsed, and then both Ghazni and the Punjab passed under the rule of the Persian house of Ghor. Mohammed Ghori began the real conquest of India. He was defeated in 1191, but was victorious in 1193 on the same field; he made all of northern India as far as Bengal acknowledge his sway, and established his new capital at Delhi.

After Mohammed Ghori’s death in 1206, the kingdom of Delhi retained its paramountcy in the north through the 13th century and for a time in the 14th century extended its power over considerable portions of southern India. There was a succession of different dynasties, Slaves, Khiljis and Tughlaks. Few of the twenty-six Turks that sat on the throne of Delhi left notable records. Kutb-ud-din, who ruled from 1206 to 1210 as the first of the Slave kings, was successful as a general and administrator, and his minar, or pillar of victory, still rised above the ruins of old Delhi. Ala-ud-din Khilji (1295-1315) warred with the Rajputs and sent his favorite eunuch, Malik Kafur, on a vast plundering raid which penetrated the extreme south of the peninsula. The eccentric ways of the restless and versatile Mohammed Tughlak (1325-1351) led to revolts through his extensive empire, and independent Moslem kingdoms began separate careers in Bengal (1336) and Deccan (1347). The devastating raid of the Mongol Timur (Tamerlane) in 1398 completed the ruin of the sultanate of Delhi. The 15th century was an age of confusion from which the Afghan dynasty of the Lodis emerged for a brief period.

Effects of Turkish Rule

Turkish rule was harsh and would have caused even more suffering if it had been efficient. The coutnry was never fully subdued and pockets of successful resistance continued in Rajputana and elsewhere. After the first shocks, however, in spite of mutual dislike, a modus vivendi was established between the conquerors and their subjects. Mixed marriages obliterated differences of race; only the barrier of religion remained. Persian influenced the speech of the people—a considerable number of Persian words and turns of speech were added to Hindu. Indian Islam recognized caste, and in music and the dance there were fruitful exchanges. New modes developed in architecture and religion. Ramanand and Mira Bai, Nanak, Chaitanya and Kabir became important names in the religious movements in different parts of the country, but except in the case of Kabir, the influence of Islam was not appreciable.

Resistance to Turks in the South

In the 13th century the Chalukya and Chola empires in the south gave way to four lesser states: those of the Yadavas of Devagiri and Kakatiyas of Warangal in the Deccan, and the Hoysalas of Dvarasamudra (Mysore) and the Pandyas of Madura farther south. These states could offer no effective resistance to the aggressions of Islam from the north in the 14th century, and their territories passed to the more powerful Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, founded in 1336 on the banks of the Tungabhadra, and its northern neightbor, the Moslem state of the Bahmani rulers. Vijayanagar fought the Bahmani kingdom from its inception, and their wars, which continued for two centuries, were marked by unusual ferocity. The greatest ruler of Vijayanagar was Krishna-devaraya (1509-1529), a soldier, statesmen and poet. Necessity forced Vijayanagar to organize its polity on a quasi-military basis and this helped it to resist Islam for many generations and save South India for Hinduism. The latter, when faced by a relentlessly hostile creed, developed a new code of rigid, narrow and suspicious orthodoxy.

The Moghuls

In 1525, Baber, a direct descendant of Timur and one of the most romantic figures of history, invaded India. He won a victory at Panipat in 1526 against the Afghan sultan of Delhi, and before his death in 1530 brought a large part of North India under his sway. But the Afghans under Sher Shah won back their supremacy from Humayun, Baber’s son, and it remained for Akbar (1542-1605), the conqueror's grandson, to establish the Mogul empire. Becoming king in 1556 at the age of fourteen, Akbar gave early proof of his extraordinary ability as soldier, administrator and statesman. He effected the conquest of the whole of north India in less than twenty years and, while still extending his dominions, built a stable and sound administrative system with the aid of carefully chosen ministers. He sought the support of the Hindus, and towards this end abolished all political distinctions between rulers and ruled, and promoted mutual intercourse and understanding between them. He overstepped this purpose when he started a new religion to serve as the instrument of a new order, but the rest of his work endured under his son Jahangir. His policy was reversed in part by Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan.

Akbar united the ideas of ancient India with others from outside, and he founded a system of public finance which continued to inspire the land-revenue policy of the Indian governments until recent times. In architecture, all Akbar’s buildings, particularly in Fatehpur-Sikri, near Agra, are characterized by a structural blending of Hindu and Moslem motifs. His policy toward the Rajputs persuaded them to value their friendship with him, and on occasions to marry their daughters into the Mogul royal family. The revenue minister Todar Mall, the musician Tansen and the poet Tulasidas, author of the Ramayana, are names that recall aspects of the great synthesis that was in progress.

In the south, the Bahmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms continued their wars even after the former kingdom gave way to five succession states early in the 16th century. The Moslem states united for a great effort and Vijayanagar in ruins after the battle of Talikota in 1565. Reduced in power, the Hindu empire continued its existence from new capitals at Penukonda and Vellore for a century longer, while out of the intrigues and wars among the Moslem states, Bijapur and Golconda emerged.

Among European nations, the Portuguese were the first to enter India in comparatively modern times for trade, conquest and conversion. After a long voyage from Lisbon, Vasco da Gama anchored off Calicut in May 1498. Establishing themselves on the Malabar Coast, the Portuguese spread their power east and west, fought the Moslem traders and enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the Indian waters for a century. They maintained close trade relations with Vijayanagar, and their power began to decline with the fall of that kingdom. Chili peppers, potatoes and tobacco were introduced by them into India. Goa, Diu and Daman, the only possessions still maintained by Portugal in India, are relics of the power once held by that country.

The Dutch, French and British followed early in the 17th century. The Dutch continued to the Spice Islands, expelled the Portuguese, and frustrated English attempts to settle there. The French were the most important rivals of the English, although at first the English East India Company had to overcome Portuguese opposition before effecting its initial settlement at Surat in 1612. This led to the founding of Madras in 1639-1640. Cotton goods, muslin, indigo, saltpeter, sugar and silk were the main items of export from the Coromandel Coast.

China

The Chou Dynasty

The longest dynasty in the history of China was the Chou, with traditional dates of 1122-221 B.C. The Chou came from the west, from the valley of the Wei, a tributary of the Yellow River a little west and some distance north of the center of what later became China Proper. It is not known that the Chou were related by blood to the Shang. They overthrew the Shang but took ofver much of the latter’s culture. At the outset the Chou domains were probably not far from the extent of those of the Shang. In succeeding centuries the territory which acknowledged the suzerainty of the Chou was extended into the Yangtze valley, both in its lower reaches and west into what was later the province of Szechwan. In this large area culture was varied, but it could more and more be called Chinese with common family likenesses. As time passed, the power of the central government waned and the functions of the Chou monarchs became increasingly ceremonial. The territories which were nominally under the Chou broke up into many states, large and small. A structure of government and society loosely akin to feudalism prevailed. The states fought one another. From the middle of the fifth century the warfare increased and there followed an era which Chinese historians call that of the Contending States. Eventually one of the states, Ch’in, from its center in the Wei Valley, the ancient seat of the Chou, defeated its rivals, brought to an end the feeble remnants of the Chou, and made itself master of all China.

The Chou period is noted especially for its cultural developments. Domestic commerce flourished and a merchant class appeared. There was a rich art, largely a continuation of that of the Shang. Especially noteworthy were the ferment in thought and the developments in literature. This was the era of the appearance of the schools of philosophy which shaped the later China and of the composition of the works of literature which subsequent generations esteemed as classic. Most influential of the thinkers was Confucius. He is said to have described himself as a transmitter of ancient ideals rather than as a creator. He stressed certain virtues, among them those that can be loosely translated as benevolence—the duty of man to man—and sincerity. He wished the rulers to be men of integrity who would govern more by example than by force. He talked much of ‘superior’ men who by their lives would set the tone for society. He believed in an overruling Providence and a T’ien (Heaven), and stressed the maintenance of religious ceremonies; but he was reticent on religious beliefs, and left the impression of being something of an agnostic. Mencius (373-288 B.C.), greatest of the thinkers following Confucius, even more than the latter, stressed the duty of rulers to their subjects.

The Taoists were also important. Their traditional founder, Lao Tzu, is a shadowy figure who may never have lived. The outstanding classic of the school, the Tao Te Ching, while attributed to him, was probably of composite authorship. The most brilliant writer was Chuang Tzu, a contemporary of Mencius. The Taoists wished to have man conform to the Tao, which may be loosely described as the way of the Universe. This they interpreted as absence of effort. They wished a minimum of government and protested against the elaborate ethics and social regulations of the Confucianists.

Prominent also was Mo Ti, who was a native of the feudal state in the modern shantung, which produced Confucius and Mencius, and lived somewhere in time between the two. He believed passionately in T’ien as governing the affairs of men through love and stressed the duty of men to love one another. Love as he defined it differed form the Christian conception, but it included active good will. The Legalists emphasized the framing and strict application of laws. They wanted strong states and rulers.

The Ch’in Dynasty (221-206 B.C.)

The state of Ch’in unified the Empire. Indeed, it may be said to have created the Empire. Its great ruler called himself Shih Huang Ti, the “First Emperor.” He held sway over what later became China Proper, including the south coast beyond Canton. By a group of devices he and his chief minister, Li Ssu, sought to weld the realm together. They extended to the entire Empire the appointive bureaucracy which had been developed in the state of Ch’in. They sought to build the Empire upon the principles of the Legalist School, for these had been used to make Ch’in strong. To this end they forbade the discussions of the adherents of the rival schools and ordered the writings of these schools collected and burned. They built a capital in the plain of the Wei Valley, and required the powerful and wealthy to make their homes there. They attempted to make one form of the Chinese script current throughout the Empire. To defend against the northern frontiers, the Great Wall—which utilized existing ramparts—was built. It is fitting that the name China comes from the Ch’in.

The Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 220)

The Ch’in Dynasty did not long survive the death (210 B.C.) of its great founder. His weak successors were unable to retain the power which had been his. They perished and civil strife followed. In the struggle, one of the contestants established his family on the throne under what was known as the Han Dynasty. With a break about the time of Christ, this ruling line held sway for about four centuries. Under it China prospered. At their widest extent, the Han territories reached from Korea and southern Manchuria in the northeast into Annam in the southeast, and westward through the Tarim River basin into Turkestan. The land area was probably not far from the size of the contemporary Roman Empire. Commerce was maintained with the latter, both by land and by sea. Roman ladies wore Chinese silks. The Han emperors continued, with modifications, the governmental system of the Ch’in, that of a bureaucracy whose members were appointed from the capital. To recruit these officials, a system of civil service examinations was begun which, developed by later dynasties, became a prominent feature of the Chinese state system. Confucianism was adopted as the philosophy on which state and society was based, and on which aspirants in the civil service were more closely examined as time went on. Cultural unity through Confucianism held the Empire together. Han art was distinctive and much of it was vivid. Buddhism was introduced but did not spread widely.

The Period of Division (220-589)

After the downfall of the Han, the Empire tended to fall apart. Invaders created states in the north. Various Chinese states existed in the Yangtze valley and the south. During these three and a half centuries of division when Confucianism, lacking the support of a strong regime, could offer slight resistance, Buddhism flourished and become one of the prominent religions.

The Sui Dynasty (589-618)

Under the brief Sui Dynasty, China was reunited, but, like the earlier Ch’in, the Sui seemed exhausted by the effort.

The T’ang Dynasty (618-907)

The Sui was followed by the T’ang. The latter lasted for nearly three centuries and covered one of the great eras of China’s history. The domains ruled by the T’ang were with some exceptions, notably that of Korea, which the T’ang did not subdue, similar to those of the Han. Confucianism, supported by the revived and enlarged civil service examinations, regained much of its lost ground. Buddhism reached its apex and began the slow decline which has continued to the present. Some of China’s greatest painters, the chief of whom was Wu Tao-yuan, and poets, of whom Li Po and Tu Fu were the most prominent, flourished. Porcelain was developed. Printing appeared. Foreign and domestic commerce flourished.

The Five Dynasties (907-960)

The collapse of the T’ang was followed by internal division and disorder in which Chinese historians recognize five states as carrying on the dynastic succession. Then came the Sung, a period in which political weakness was matched by cultural brilliance.

The Sung Dynasty

At its widest extent the Sung Dynasty ruled most of China proper. However, it lost the north to foreign invaders and eventually was erased completely by the Mongols. Under the Sung a new form of Confucianism was developed, with Chu Hsi as its chief formulator, which displayed Taoist and Buddhist influences and which remained dominant until the present. Poetry flourished, the best landscape painting was done, beautiful porcelain was produced and printing was perfected. An interesting experiment associated with the name of Wang An-shih, which consisted of a nationalism of private property.

The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)

Also called the Mongol Dynasty. It took the Mongols three quarters of a century to conquer China. They held the Empire for only a little more than that time. During the first part of the dynasty which they founded, China was a part of their realm, the most extensive which up until then the world had seen. That empire had been begun by the great conqueror, Genghis Khan, and reached its apex under his grandson, Kublai Khan. From Cambaluc, approximately on the site of modern Peking, Kublai Khan’s sway was acknowledged from Korea in the east and Mongolia in the north, to Annam in the south and to Moscovy in the west. It was during the reign of the Mongols that western Europeans, both merchants and Roman Catholic missionaries, first made their way to China. Of these Marco Polo is best remembered.

The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

The Mongols were expelled by the Chinese led by a former Buddhist monk, Chu Yuan-chang, better known as Hung Wu, who founded a new native dynasty, the Ming. Under the Ming, China was prosperous and much building was done. Yet few fresh cultural achievements were witnessed. The old culture persisted, with porcelain making, painting, philosophy and literature, but most of these were according to traditional patterns.

The Ch’ing Dynasty

Also called the Manchu Dynasty, founded in 1644 following the overthrow of the Mings by the Manchurians, a people from the northwest who had in part adopted Chinese civilization. It rules from Peking, the Ming capital, and does not greatly interfere with the currents of Chinese life. The culture of the Ch’ing is a continuation, with slight modifications, of the Ming.