The Middle Kingdom; a survey of the geography, government, education, social life, arts, religion, etc, of the Chinese Empire and its inhabitants

Front matter

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. VOLUME I _. ,e _- THE MIDDLE KINGDOM; A SURVEY OF THE GEOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION, SOCIAL LIFE, ARTS. RELIGION, _c OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE AND ITS INHABITANTS. WITH A NEW MAI' OT Till'. Ii M I' I l( Ii VNll ILL! S'l l; YTIQ.XS, PRINCIPALLY EtfORAV— D BY .1 \V OHJj BY S. WELLS WILLIAMS, lll'THOR ill "LA-Y L_t_1HS IS i I'lMIst." KM.I.I-11 AND .HlNL.-K l„i ABILAIIV," _< IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. NEW YORK -LONDON WILEY AND PUTNAM | SIS Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by S. WELLS WILLIAMS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York R. I'RAICIIJEAD, PRINTER, 112 FULTON STREET. T. B. SMITH, STEREOTYl'ER, 216 WILLIAM STREET. Ti. GIDEON NYE, JR., OF CANTON, CHINA: A TESTIMONIAL OF THE RESPECT AND FRIENDSHIP OF THE AUTHOR . CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Chapter I. General Divisions And Features Of The Empire

PAGE Names given to China — Area, divisions, and boundaries — Mountain ranges around and in the Empire — Desert of Gobi — Yellow river, Yangtsz' -dang, and other rivers — Lakes and islands — Coast line — Great Wall and Canal — Five races within the Empire 1

Chapter II. Geographical Description Of The

EASTERN* PROVINCES. Climate of the provinces — Table of their divisions — Chihli; the city of Peking, its divisions and municipality — Gardens near it — Tientsin — Shantung ; its coast and capital — Shansi * Honan ; its capital — Kiangsu ; its cities Nanking, Suchau, Shanghai, &c. — Nganhwui ; — Kiangsi; its rivers and towns — Chehkiang; its cities Hangchau, Ningpo, &c. ; the Chusan islands — Fuhkien; its capital Fuhchau, Amoy, Changchau, &c. ; Formosa 43

Chapter III. Geographical Description Of The Western Provinces

Hupeh ; its capital Wuchang — Hunan ; — Shensi — Kansuh — Sz'- chuen — Kwangtung ; its capital Canton, Macao, Hongkong — Hainan I. — Kwangsi — Yunnan 120

Chapter IV. Geographical Description Of Colonies

Their subdivisions — Manchuria ; its climate, area, provinces, and productions — Moukden — River Sagalien — Island of Tarakai — Inner Mongolia — Outer Mongolia ; its khanates ; Kiakhta and Kurun — Cobdo — Koko-nor — Ili ; its two Circuits — Tarbagatai and Kur-Kara usu — The capital Kuldsha — Eight Mohammedan cities — History of Hi and Khoten — Tibet ; its divisions, chief towns, inhabitants, and history — Ladak ; its capital Leh CONTENTS. PAGE 206 353

Chapter V. Population And Statistics

Comparison of censuses — Reasons for admitting and doubting them- Revenue and disbursements — Salaries

Chapter VI. Natural History Of China

Minerals, gems, and metals — Zoology; wild animals— Domesticated animals, birds, water-fowl, and birds reared for show — Reptiles — Fishes — Insects — Botany, trees, fluwers, bamboo, &c. — Researches of the Chinese in Natural History 240

Chapter VII. Laws Of China And Plan Of Government

Theory of the Chinese polity, its features of responsibility and espionage — Code of laws — Emperor of China, his power, character, name, &.c. — Orders of nobility and classes of society — Branches of central government — Cabinet and General council ; six Boards — Colonial Office ; Censorate— Judiciary, and Imperial Academy — Minor bureaus — Provincial governments 296

Chapter VIII. Administration Of The Laws

Character and position of the high officers in the government, Changling, Ho, Sung, Lin, Kiying, &.c. — Emperor's responsibility — Edicts of officers — Their agents and modes of extortion — Village eldership — Evils of clans — Popular manifestoes — Prevalence of banditti — Judicial proceedings — Punishments and tortures — Style of officers.

Chapter IX. Education And Literary Examinations

Nature of Chinese education — Schools and schoolbooks — Primary books — Deficiencies and results of education — Examinations for literary degrees — Mode of conducting them — Effects and objects of this competition — Influence ofthe Chinese literary gentry — Extent and objects of female education . CONTENTS. r_G_ 502

Chapter X. Structure Of The Chinese Language

Origin of this language — Six classes of characters — Modes of arranging them — The two hundred and fourteen radicals — Six styles of writing — Mode of printing — Metallic types — Sounds of the Chinese language — Three dialects and their peculiarities — Grammar of the Chinese — Mode of studying the language 458

Chapter XI. Classical Literature Of The Chinese

Catalogue of the imperial library — Five Classics ; their names and character — Filial duty, and examples of it — Four Books ; their authors and character — Notice of Mencius — Confucius, his life and writings ; interview with a boy — Dictionaries of the language. . .

Chapter XII. Polite Literature Of The Chinese

Historical works — Sz'ma Kwang, a historian — History of the Three States — Philosophical writings — Chu Hi and his disquisitions — Sacred Commands of Kanghi ; and versification of it — Stories of the Rationalists — Novels— Story of Li Taipeh— Poetry of the Chinese — Ballads, pasquinades, and dramas — Proverbs ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. I. Portrait of Kiying. Title Page — representing an honorary portal. The two characters, Shing chi, upon the top, show that it is erected by imperial command. The four characters underneath in the panel, Chung Kwoh Tsunglun, are the name of the work in Chinese, " A General Account of the Middle Kingdom." The inscription on the right is Gin chi" ngaifin yu tsin kih so, i. e. He who is benevolent loves those near, and then those who are remote. That on the left is an expression attributed to Confucius; Si fang chi jin yu shing chi y(, i. e. The people of the west have sages.

Plan of Peking, ...... 57 View of a street in Canton, . . ... 135 Yak or Grunting Ox, . . . ... 192 The Chinese Hog, ...... 254 Mode of carrying Pigs, ..... 255 Different styles of Official Caps, .... 323 Mode of carrying high officers in Sedans, . . 404 Prisoner suffering tort*ure, . . . . . 405 Mode of exposure in the Cangue, ... . 411 Publicly whipping a Thif.f through the streets, . 113 Different forms of Chinese characters, . . . -W

Preface

. On my return to the United States from China, I found an unex pected degree of interest in the community regarding the prospects in that empire for the extension of traffic and intercourse ; and in many circles, a still greater desire to know how far the recent changes and openings were likely to advance the intro duction and diffusion of Christianity among its inhabitants. A residence at Canton and Macao of twelve years in daily and familiar contact with the people, speaking their language and study ing their books, it was supposed might enable me to explain parts of their polity and character not commonly understood here, and give such views of their condition as would illustrate their social state, and encourage to greater efforts in evangelizing them. To reply to these, and other inquiries respecting their geography, population, arts, customs, and science of the Chinese, I delivered a series of lectures in Utica, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and other cities, the proceeds of which were devoted to the manufacture of a fount of Chinese type then making for the missions.

Having gone to China under the patronage of the American Board of Foreign Missions as a printer, this object in lecturing was in keeping both with my station in the mission, and the general subjects of the lectures, in which I endeavored to take a sur vey of the empire and its inhabitants. The inquiries made by intelligent persons guided me in the topics chosen for lecturing. The sequel need hardly be told, nor are the lectures here referred to as an apology for these volumes. Others, far belter able to

PREFACE.

. judge of the necessity and usefulness of such a work than I am, strongly recommended their publication ; and one pastor said that if I would write them out he would get his church to publish them. Two objects have been kept in view while preparing them. One has been to embody all the topics treated of in the lectures, amplifying and illustrating some of them more than was expedi ent or useful in a discourse ; so that those who heard the lectures will find the same subjects referred to here. In arranging them, the same order has been preserved ; and in discussing them, care has heen taken to select whatever information was most authentic, important, and recent ; trying to reach that difficult medium be tween an essay on each head, which would tire the general reader, and could be found elsewhere by all who wished to investigate it, and an unsatisfactory abridgment, too meagre to gratify rational inquiry, and too short even to induce further research ; but whe ther I have attained this chung yung, as the Chinese call it, I am not a judge.

If on the one hand the volumes seem too bulky for a general inquirer to undertake to peruse, as containing more upon such a subject than he cares about reading, let him remember the vastness of the Chinese Empire, much larger than his own Republic in its widest bounds, and whose races number nearly as many scores, as his own country has units, of millions, and he will not, perhaps, deem them too large for the subject. On the other hand, those who feel greater interest in the character, his tory, and institutions of the Sons of Han, will pursue their in vestigations in the works of the French missionaries and savants, and those few English writers who have entered into this branch of knowledge. Another object aimed at, has been to divest the Chinese people and civilization of that peculiar and almost undefinable impres sion of ridicule which is so generally given them ; as if they were the apes of Europeans, and their social state, arts, and government, the burlesques of the same things in Christendom. It may be excusable for the Chinese to have erroneous and con-

PREFACE.

. XV temptuous notions concerning lands and people of whom they have had little desire and less opportunity to learn what they really are ; but such ideas entertained concerning them by those who have made greater attainments in morality, arts, and learn ing, greatly enfeebles the desire, and tends to excuse the duty, to impart these blessings to them. The names she has given her towns, the physiognomy God has marked upon the features of her people, the dress and fashions those people have chosen to adopt, their mechanical utensils, their religious festivals, their social usages ; in short, almost every lineament of China and her in habitants, has been the object of a laugh or the subject of a pun. Travellers who visit them are expected to give an account of " Mandarins with yellow buttons, handing you conserves of snails ; Smart young men about CaDton in nankeen tights and peacocks' tails.

With many rare and dreadful dainties, kitten cutlets, puppy pies ; Birdsnest soup which (so convenient !) every bush around supplies." Manners and customs, such as met the eye, and attracted attention by their newness and oddity, first found a place in their jour nals, and combined to continue the impression generally enter tained, that the Chinese were on the whole an uninteresting, grotesque, and uncivilized " pig-eyed" people, whom one run no risk in laughing at ; an " umbrella race," " long-tailed celestials," at once conceited, ignorant, and almost unimprovable. If this attempt, therefore, to set them in a fair position by a plain account of their government and its principles of action, a synopsis of their literature and literary examinations, and a de tail of their social, industrial, and religious state, just as other nations are described, tend to correct or enlarge the views of any, it will not have failed of its object.

I have called it the Middle Kingdom, chiefly from that being the meaning of the most common name for the country among the people themselves ; and also, from the Chinese holding a middle place between civili zation and barbarism, — China being the most civilized pagan nation in her institutions and literature now existing. Besides these objects, I wish also to increase the interest felt in

PREFACE.

. the Christian community for the spread of the Gospel among the Chinese by showing how well they are likely to reward mission ary labors, when once they have taken root among them. In order to this I have gone somewhat fully into the nature of the government and its principles of conservatism and disorganization ; and the religious opinions of the people. The geography of the whole empire has been carefully examined, and the grounds for believing that the largest estimated population is both probable and possible, and its proofs the most credible of any, investigated. The sources of almost every part of the work are personal observation and study of native authorities, and the successive volumes of the Chinese Repository published at Canton, and edit ed by Dr. Bridgman. Some may think it unnecessary to issue another general account of China so soon after the methodical and able digest of Sir John Davis ; and I have thought I could not pay his work a higher compliment than to refrain from quot ing it frequently, or even going into many details upon points fully illustrated in it.

Ten years have elapsed since " The Chinese" was published, however, and the public in this country will, even if they have read it, take a deeper interest in that people, now that they are more accessible than when that was written, and be glad to learn the causes and results of that remarkable contest which compelled them to open their long closed gates. Other works consulted are usually quoted in their place, but the Re pository is often the source of many statements not distinctly marked. The illustrations have been selected with reference to their accuracy, from various sources, chiefly from La Chine Ouverte, a French work of considerable research and vivacity. In concluding this prefatory note respecting the origin, plan, and design of the present work, I may be allowed to express the humble hope that it will aid a little in advancing the cause of Christian civilization among the Chinese, and do its part in dif fusing a juster knowledge of their state and nation in this country. If that knowledge shall further tend to induce in any one the desire to diffuse among them an acquaintance with the chief

PREFACE.

. XVII source of our own civil and religious liberties, and encourage those now engaged to greater efforts, then will the pains taken in its preparation be increasingly rewarded. To the many kind friends in this country who have looked upon the attempt with favor, and especially those who have aided me in carrying it through the press, I can only return that acknowledgment which they so well deserve, but which 1 have not their permission more explicitly to give. S. W. W. New York, Dec. 1st, 1847. NOTE RESPECTING THE MAP, AJVTI I BE -YSTEM OF PRONUNCIATION ADOPTED IX THIS WORK. Tin: Map os the Empire has been drawn from the best authorities The coast is delineated from the recent surveys of the English naval officers, and the provinces from the old surveys of the Jesuits, corrected in their divisions from a large map "I" the empire published by the Chinese government, which measures nearly ninety square feet, and has been referred to in making the boundaries and divisions of Mongolia, Manchuria, and Iii.

The towns aud principalities in Japan are placed according to Siebold's recent map,- those of Annum according to Bp. Taberd's large map : while Mooreroft has been consulted for the divisions of Lad—k, Kiaproth for those in Tibet, and the maps of the Useful luiowledrre Society for Russia, Songaria, Turkestan, &c. In writing the towns and rivers in the Eighteen Provinces, great care has been taken to compare every name with the Chinese map. SO that no mistake should be made in confounding words nearly alike, and it is believed that few errors will be found in this part of it. No pains have been spared to make it as accurate as the extent of our topographical information concerning the vast regions it embraces enables it to be drawn, though uiueli of our present delineation of those parts lying north of the Great Wall rests upon doubtful authority.

The system of pronunciation adopted iu the map and book is n*3ii rly the same as that followed in the works published bv the American mission in China. The powers of the letters are as follows: 1. a as in sother, far ; never like a in hat ; e. g. chang, hangs to he sounded almost as if wriiten chasings haling. ii'ji Hat, like the English words sang, bag ,\ ■ XX SYSTEM OF PRONUNCIATION. a as in American, but, summer, mother ; e. g. pan, tang, to be pronounced as pun, tongue. 2 3. 4 e as in men, dead, said ; as leh, shen, yen. i as in they, neigh, pray ; as chi, yi, pronounced chay, yay. i as in pin, finish ; as sing, tin, Chihli. i as in machine, believe, feel, me ; as li, Kishen, Kanghi. 5 6 o as in long, laion ; never like no, crow ; as to, soh, po. u as in rule, too, fool ; as Turk, Belur, ku, sung ; pro- 7 8 nounced Toork, Beloor, koo, soong.

This sound is heard less full in fuh, tsun, and a few other words. u nearly as in Tune (French), or union, rheum ; as hit, tsu. 9 ai as in aisle, high, or longer than i in pine ; as Shanghai, Hainan. The combination ei is more slender than ai, though the difference is slight ; e. g. Kwei-chau. 10 11 au as in round, our, hou; ; as Fuhchau, Shauchau, Taukwang. iu as in the colloquial phrase say 'em ; e. g. ch€ung. This diphthong is heard in the Canton dialect. ia as in yard ; e. g. Ma, kiang ; not to be sounded as if written high-a, kigh-ang, but like hed, kedng. 12 13 iau is made by joining Nos. 5 and 11 ; hiau, Liautung. 14 15 ie as in sierra (Spanish), Rienzi ; e. g. Men, kien. iu as in pea;, pure, lengthened to a diphthong ; kiu, siun. 16 17 iue is made by adding a short e to the preceding ; kilien, Muen. 18 ui as in Louisiana, suicide ; e. g. sui, chui.

The consonants are sounded generally as they are in the Eng lish alphabet. Ch as in church ; hw as in when ; j is soft, as * in pleasure ; kw as in awkward ; ng, as an initial, as in singing, leaving off the first two letters ; sz' and tsz' are to be sounded full with one breathing, but none of the English vowels are heard in it ; the sound stops at the z ; Dr. Morrison wrote these sounds tsze and sze. Urh or 'rh, as in purr, omitting the p. All these, except No. 12, are heard in the court dialect, according as that is sounded by the French missionaries, by Morri son, Medhurst, Goncalves, and many others, and which has thereby become the most common mode of writing the names of places and persons in China. Though these authors have em ployed different letters, they have all intended to write the same SYSTEM OF PRONUNCIATION.

XXI sound ; thus chan, shan, and xan, are only different ways of writing jl^ ; and tsse, tsze, tsz', and tzu, of "|\ Such is not the case, however, with such names as Macao, Hongkong, Amoy, Whampoa, and others along the coast, which are sounded accord ing to the local patois, and not the court pronunciation, Ma-ngau, Hiangkiang, Hiamun, Hwangpu, &c. Many of the discrepancies seen in the works of travellers and writers are owing to some fol lowing the former, and some the latter. It would be desirable to follow the latter in all cases, and not call places, or people, in foreign books by their local pronunciation ; but uniformity is almost unattainable in this matter. Even, too, in what is called the Court dialect, there is a great diversity among educated Chi nese, -owing to the traditional way all learn the sounds of the characters.

In this work, and on the map, the sounds are writ ten uniformly according to the pronunciation given in Morrison's Dictionary, but not according to his orthography. Almost every writer upon the Chinese language seems disposed to propose a new system, and the result is a great confusion in writing the same name ; for instance, eull, olr, ul, ulh, Ih, urh, 'rh, i, e, lur, nge, ngi, je, ji, are different ways of writing the sounds given to a single character. Amid these discrepancies, both among the Chinese themselves, and those who endeavor to catch their pro nunciation, it is almost impossible to settle upon one mode of writing the names of places. That which offers the easiest pro nunciation, and has become the best known, has been adopted in this work. It may, perhaps, be regarded as an unimportant mat ter, so long as the place is known, but to one living abroad, and unacquainted with the language, the discrepancy is a source of great confusion.

He is unable to decide, for instance, whether Tung-ngan, Tungon Men, Tang-oune, and Tungao, refer to the same place or not. In writing Chinese proper names, authors differ greatly as to the style of placing them ; thus, Fuhchaufu, Fuh-chau-fu, Fuh Chau Fu, Fuh-Chau fu,.&c, are all seen. Analogy affords little guide here, for New York, Philadelphia, and Cambridge, are severally unlike in the principle of writing them : the first being really formed of an adjective and a noun, yet not in this case united to the latter, as it is in Newport, Newtown, &c. ; the second is like the generality of Chinese towns, and while it is now written as one word, it would be written as two if the name THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. were translated, Brotherly Love ; the third Cambridge is never written Cam Bridge, and many of the Chinese names are like it in their origin.

The same rules apply in writing Chinese names as in English, and in this work, the proper names of places have been written as one word, Suchau, Peking, Hongkong, with a hyphen inserted in some cases to avoid mispronunciation, as Hiau-i, Chau-ngan, &c. It is not supposed that the system of writing them here adopted will alter such names as are commonly written otherwise, but the principle on which they are constructed will be shown. The additions, fu, chau, ting, and Men, being classifying terms, should form a separate word, and not be incor porated into the name, as Ningpofu. It has not been possible to reduce the names of towns in other parts of the Empire, and in Japan, to the same system of pronunciation, though they have been written as nearly like it as they could be.

Chapter I

General Divisions and Features of the Empire. The possessions of the ruling dynasty of China, — that portion of the Asiatic continent which is usually called by geographers the Chinese Empire, — form one of the most extensive dominions ever swayed by a single power in any age, or any part of the world. Comprising within its limits every variety of soil and climate ; watered by large rivers, which serve not only to irrigate and drain it, but, by means of their size and the course of their tributaries, also afford unusual facilities for intercommunication, it produces within its own borders everything necessary for the comfort, support, and delight of its inhabitants ; who have depended very slightly upon the assistance of other climes and nations for satisfying their own wants. Its civilization has been developed under its own institutions ; its government has been modelled without knowledge or reference to that of anyother kingdom ; its literature has borrowed nothing from the genius or research of the scholars of other lands ; its language is unique in its symbols, its structure, and its antiquity ; and its people are remarkable for their industry, peacefulness, numbers, and peculiar habits.

The examination of such a people, and so extensive a country, can hardly fail of being both instructive and entertaining ; and if rightly pursued, lead to a stronger conviction of the need of the precepts and sanctions of the Bible to the highest .development of mankind, in their personal, social, and political relations in this world, as well as to their individual happiness in another. It is to be hoped, too, that at this day in the world's history, there are many more than formerly, who desire to learn the condition and wants of others, not entirely for their own amusement and congratulation at their superior knowledge and advantages, but also to do their fellow-men good, and impart to them liberally of the gifts they themselves enjoy. Those who desire to do this, will find that few families of man kind are more worthy of their greatest efforts than those comprised within the limits of the Chinese Empire ; while none stand in more need of the purifying, ennobling, and invigorating principles of our holy religion to develope and enforce their own theories of social improvement.

The origin of the name China, by which the most ancient and important part of the present empire is known abroad, has given rise to some discussion. The people themselves have now no such name for their country, nor is there much evidence that they ever did apply the term to the whole land. The most probable account ascribes its origin to the family of Tsin, whose chief first obtained complete sway, about b. c. 250, over all the other feudal principalities in the land, and whose exploits ren dered him famous in India, Persia, and other Asiatic states. This family had, however, long been famous in Chinese history, and previous to this subjugation, had made itself widely known, not only in China, but in other countries. Its territories lay in the north-western parts of the empire, and according to Visdelou, who has carefully examined the subject, the family was illus trious by its nobility and power.

" Its sounder was Taye, son of the emperor Chuen Hu. It existed in great splendor more than a thousand years ago, and was only inferior to the royal dignity. Feitsz', a prince of this family, had the superintendence of the stud of the emperor Hiau-wang, and as a mark of favor his majesty conferred on him the sovereignty of the city of Tsinchau in mesne tenure, with the title of sub-tributary king. One hundred and twenty-two years afterwards (about b. c. 770), Siangkwan, petit roi of Tsinchau (having by his bravery revenged the insults offered to the emperor Ping by the Tartars, who slew his father Yu), was created king in full tenure, and without limitation or exception. The same monarch, abandoning Si-ngan fu, the capital of his empire, to transport his seat to Lohyang (now called Honan fu), rendered him master of the large province of Shensi, which had composed the proper kingdom of the emperor.

He thus became very powerful, but though his for- NAMES FOR CHINA. 3 tune changed, he did not change his title, retaining always that of the city of Tsinchau, which had been the foundation of his elevation. The kingdom of Tsin soon became celebrated, and being the place of the first arrival of the people from the western countries, it seems probable that those who saw no more of China than the realm of Tsin, extended this name to all the rest ; and called the whole empire Tsin or Chin."* This extract refers to periods long before the dethronement of the family of Chau by princes of Tsin ; and it is plain, that the position of this principality, contiguous to the desert, and holding the passes leading from the valley of the Yarkand across the desert eastward to China, renders the supposition of the learned Jesuit highly probable.

The possession of the old imperial capi tal would strengthen this idea in the minds of the traders resort ing to China from the west ; and when the same family did obtain paramount sway over the whole empire, and its head render himself so celebrated wherever the country was known by his conquests over Tungking, Annam, and the neighboring countries, by his cruelty over the literati, and by building the Great Wall, the name Tsin was still more widely diffused, and regarded as the name of the country. The Malays, Hindus, Persians, Arabians, and other nations of Asia, have known the country or its people by no other terms than Jin, Chin, Sin, Sinai, Tzinistœ, or others similar. These investigations derive additional importance from the light they throw upon the prophecy in Isaiah xlix., 12, and the aid they give in determining what country is intended by the " land of Sinim," and what people are there specifically pointed out, as finally to be brought into the pale of the church. f The Chinese have many names to designate themselves and the land they inhabit.

One of the most ancient is Tien Hia, meaning Beneath the Sky, and denoting the World ; another, almost as ancient, is Sz' Hai, i. e. [all within] the Four Seas ; a third, now more common than either, is Chung Kwoh, or Middle Kingdom, given to it from an idea that it is situated in the centre of the earth; Chung Kwoh jin, or men of the Middle Kingdom, denotes the Chinese. All these names indicate the vanity and the ignorance of the people respecting their geographical position and their rank among the nations, but they have not been alone in this foible ; the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, all had * D'Herbelot, Bibliothfeque Orient , tome IV., p. 8. t Chinese Repository, Vol. XIII., page 113, passim. terms for their possessions which intimated their own ideas of their superiority ; while, too, the area of none of those monarchies, in their widest extent, greatly exceeded that of China Proper.