1812
History of the Ming Dynasty
611
His inferiors,
single ceremony at one of the proscribed sacrifices. envious of his good fortune, bring forward an accusation; he is ad- judged either to lose his pay or his rank, and the man who may have in the morning received the adulation of thousands, sits down in the evening a clerk in one of the offices, there to redeem his errors. Against these vicissitudes of fortune no functionary is secure, and they are so common that the fall of the highest statesmen, for the most trivial reason occasions no sensation at all. Others follow and experience the same fate, until either a narrow minded man with few talents comes by some good luck, or having outlived his competitors, to high honors, and by the common consent of his fellow officers is left to enjoy his dignity, since all can draw advantage from his stupidity.
Three volumes are occupied with an account of native chiefs, who ruled over the aborigines in Húnán, Yunnán and other provinces, and who either incorporated their country with, or resisted the go- vernment. Their territory at that time appears to have been exten- sive, but the incroachments of the Chinese population upon their mountain fastnesses have been such during the last two centuries, as to make one believe, that they will be extinct within less than another 200 years.
The last three volumes are taken up with a detail of the foreign relations of China; the intercourse with Mongolia, Turkestan, and Independent Tartary occupying the largest portion. This part of the work opens with a description of Japan, the inroads of that peo- ple, and the final triumph of the imperial arms. There are several edicts addressed to the king by heaven's son, in which he dilates upon the great benefits Japan has received from China, and the ne- cessity of his bowing a humble vassal of the Inner Kingdom. It is however remarkable, that no allusion is made to the priests who enriched the Japanese with the literature of Hán, and laid the foun- dation for its present civilization.
The countries that come next under consideration are Lewchew, Manila, Moluccas, and some other lands or nations, whose names it is impossible to recognize. The Lewchew islands appear to have been as civilized in the middle ages as they are at present, and to have kept up a steady intercourse with China. What a contrast is there in the state of civilization in the eastern and western islands of the Pacific; yet these amiable people are idolaters to this day, whilst the savages of many an isle west of them have embraced Christianity'
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