nature, as River, Stone, Cave; from animals, as Bear,
Sheep, Dragon; from birds, as Swallow, Pheasant; from the body, as
Long-ears, Squint-eye; from colours, as Black, White; from trees and
flowers, as Hawthorn, Leaf, Reed, Forest; and others, such as Rich,
East, Sharp, Hope, Duke, Stern, Tepid, Money, etc. By the fifth century
before Christ, the use of surnames had definitely become established for
all classes, whereas in Europe surnames were not known until about the
twelfth century after Christ, and even then were confined to persons
of wealth and position. There is a small Chinese book, studied by every
schoolboy and entitled _The Hundred Surnames_, the word "hundred" being
commonly used in a generally comprehensive sense. It actually contains
about four hundred of the names which occur most frequently.

About two hundred and twenty years before Christ, the feudal system came
to an end. One aggressive state gradually swallowed up all the others;
and under the rule of its sovereign, China became once more an empire,
and such it has ever since remained. But although always an empire, the
throne, during the past two thousand years, has passed many times from
one house to another.

The extraordinary man who led his state to victory over each rival in
turn, and ultimately mounted the throne to rule over a united China,
finds his best historical counterpart in Napoleon. He called himself
the First Emperor, and began by sending an army of 300,000 men to fight
against an old and dreaded enemy to the north, recently identified
beyond question with the Huns. He dispatched a fleet to search for some
mysterious islands off the coast, thought by some to be the islands
which form Japan. He built the Great Wall, to a great extent by means
of convict labour, malefactors being condemned to long terms of penal
servitude on the works. His copper coinage was so uniformly good that
the cowry disappeared altogether from commerce during his reign. Above
all things he desired to impart a fresh stimulus to literary effort, but
he adopted singularly unfortunate means to secure this desirable end;
for, listening to the insidious flattery of courtiers, he determined
that literature should begin anew with his reign. He therefore
determined to destroy all existing books, finally deciding to spare
those connected with three important departments of human knowledge:
namely, (1) works which taught the people to plough, sow, reap, and
provide food