By Larnaron With the Book Page the victim of circum stances which may be described as a comination of internal stringency and external inaccessibility, it Is. not fair to withhold attention from a new publication dealing with China, 'Particularly does this feeling prevail when the book sets out in two handy little volumes to give an accurate bird's-eye vie of the growth of the development of Chi {from her origins to the present day ("China' by F.C. Jones, M.A, London, Arrowsmith. 2 volumes 3/6 each)' Dr. Jones makes his Hise all the more vekable, besnes he ings it up to date. His concluding paragraphs refers 16 Mr. Koki Hirota's three principles and he goes on to Taken, in their entirely these. principles "amply. Japanese control of the "politic, military and economic life of Ching and her. Teductiot toa virtual. protectorate, Nanking, although often giving: way on points of il, has "hitherto "refused to accept the isola programme." Chiang ¥Cal-ahet, while wslduous "in military preparations, "and specially in the building up of an alr force, would, probably be glad Yo find a modus auction of Japan, the Nanking administration work "of Tecent years. But the growing] Dublie "sentiment agai Ais hand, and. the Chinese, always pt to mistake conciliation far' weakness, to {tke "rash. action. Both... governments a in an extremely' delicate. situa with the whole future "of their' respective countries, and of peace in the Extreme Orient, at stake, Tt will be seen, therefore, that in his course of study of the situation in China, under the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Jones has been truly observant. His first volume deals with the history of China from the beginning of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war of 1804." The. influence of geography and climate on Chinese development 1s. taken as the starting point of his thesis and there 4 truly modern ring in his conclusion: of the hlstorieat But when the ever Increasing population of China began to fil up the Yangtze valley and reach (0 the southern coasts, the exploitation ff these more fettle Tands taused a shire of fconomte gravity to them. Yet the north continued for long to wield poltieal pre-eminence through its possession of the capital city and through the appointment from northern can dates of the majority of the ofciat class. This caused "a Tu tagonism. be-mental tween north and south which strengthened the integrating. tendencies. in Chinese. politics fand sodaly and was the underlying cause of the fall of more than one dynasty, Ar hen agy, can po Soe ae te a mate eats Sal als finale oe lea oura' FRUM Sha by Stel Sabin a sheet at MES
Tel ut Lee in wa Ota il ty a Sous eet Be Ba a one ale ah a ier abe cues tnt ego yn Be ced North Ohina for two centuries in the period of disunity that followed the disappearance of the Han empire, came under the sway of successive non-Sinic peoples. But more important than these reversals of fortune were the social changes which took pi these one of the most signigcant was the' infusion of new elements' is the racial augmented the. non-Sinlc proportion Inhabitants of North China. "Anew raling emerged out of the social chaos following the Aight of the Chin Disunity was brought to an end under the} Vang dynasty "when Chinese pocts gave lustre to Chinese literature and glamour to the glories of the court. "Disunity again overcome China with the Fall of the T'ang Jempire ud successive military adventures of the five dynasties developed what Dr. Jones called "The Age of Nomadic Supremacy." Trade with the outside world came Into the picture and the Mongol empire had the advantage of its praises being sung by Marco Polo. and. other foreign - observers [Prom 1368 to 1644 the Ming year exercised Ils important influence over the central kingdom, especially-in the direction of intensify-Ing. exclusiveness:
..the Chinese governing class, trained in a harrowly orthodox school, became Imperious to. new ideas, convinced of the bar-Darism of all foreign peoples, and therefore hostile to outside Influences. In the Ming era this feeling' of Intellectual selt-sidency was due to-a very natural reaction on the part of the Canfuclanist scholars against the indignlties they had "suffered from the " Yuan emperors. Through the standardized eduentional aystem which was perfected under the! Ming, the literati more. than regained. their péedeminance, and were therefore in a pos {lon to shape'the cultural life of the empire to" their king, especially since their old rivals, Buddhism and Taoism, ost much their former capacity for development.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.