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Overview
China has been the civilizer
of eastern Asia. During the history of China, it has been giving
language and literature, religion,
law and fine arts to Korea and
Japan, to the Mongols and Manchus
also, and in a lesser measure
to Siam and Annam. China's political
influence has been potent through
all the Eastern World and her
sway has been acknowledged at
times in Korea, Taiwan, the
Sulu Archipelago, in the Indo-Chinese
Peninsula, in Ceylon, and as
far west as Aden. China's armies
carried her banners triumphantly
over central Asia to the borders
of Persia. But it is not the
conquests of her armies and
fleets that deserve people's
attention. Rather is ith the
influence of her thought, the
triumph of her ideals. Her sway
over distant countries, for
the most part, was merely nominal;
it was the great advancement
of her people in the arts, the
high degree of her civilization
that bound these dependencies
to her.
Although the Chinese were so
long untouched by the Western
World, they did not during that
period of isolation escaped
the struggle which is so essential
to the development of national
character. The pioneers who
came into the Yellow River Valley
some three thousand years before
the Christian Era had to wage
constant warfare with the forces
of nature, with savage beasts,
and with the hostile aborigines.
In the clearing of forests,
in protection against flood
and famine, in the subjection
of barbarous peoples, and in
the building of cities and the
development of political organization
they found opportunity and need
for the exercise of physical
strength and skill, for tact
and leadership, and the employment
of all their intellectual gifts.
Difficulties stimulated though
and led to invention. The struggle
called for courage and endurance.
Through this process character
was developed of that quality
which made the Chinese the dominant
race in eastern Asia. It was
Mencius who said:
"When God is about to
call a man to some great word,
her first tests he resolution
with suffering, wearies his
sinews and bones with toil,
exposes him to hunger, reduces
him to extreme poverty, and
obstructs his enterprises. By
these means Heaven stimulates
his mind, hardens his nature,
and supplies his deficiencies."
Ignorance is the chief source
of racial antipathy and national
prejudice. Acquaintance tends
to destroy suspicion and hatred.
The better we know other people
the more respect them. Glory
is China's history, but we need
to realize how China became
what she is, and to note the
paths pursued by the Chinese
in human thought and action.
And the lives of emperors, the
great battles, famous deeds,
matter less to us than the discovery
of the great forces that underlie
these features and govern the
human element. Only when we
have knowledge of those forces
and counter-forces can we realize
the significance of the great
personalities who have emerged
in China.
And there is no better way
to know China other than her
history, the past from which
she has sprung, in which sources
of her life and her institutions
could be found. The knowledge
obtained from the study will
prove invaluable to all people
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