. The
people of the northern provinces called themselves _Han-jin_,
"men of Han" or "sons of Han," while those of the south styled
themselves _T'ang-jin_, "men of T'ang." Does not this indicate
that, while the former were moulded into unity by the great dynasty
which took its name from the river Han (206 B. c.), the latter
did not become Chinese until the brilliant period of the T'angs,
nearly a thousand years later? Further confirmation need not be
adduced to show that the empire of the Far East contemporary with,
and superior in civilisation to, ancient Rome, embraced less than
the eighteen provinces of China Proper. Of the nine districts into
which it was divided by Ta-yue, 2100 B. C. not one was south of
the "Great River."

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CHAPTER XIV

THE MYTHICAL PERIOD

_Account of Creation--P'an-ku, the Ancient Founder--The Three
Sovereigns--The Five Rulers, the Beginnings of Human Civilisation--The
Golden Age--Yau, the Unselfish Monarch--Shun, the Paragon of Domestic
Virtues--Story of Ta-yue--Rise of Hereditary Monarchy_

Unlike the Greeks and Hindoos, the Chinese are deficient in the sort
of imagination that breeds a poetical mythology. They are not, however,
wanting in that pride of race which is prone to lay claim to the past
as well as to the future. They have accordingly constructed, not a
mythology, but a fictitious history which begins with the creation of
the world.

How men and animals were made they do not say; but they assert that
heaven and earth were united in a state of chaos until a divine man,
whom they call P'an-ku, the "ancient founder," rent them asunder.
Pictures show him wielding his sledge-hammer and disengaging sun
and moon from overlying hills--a grotesque conception in strong
contrast with the simple and sublime statement, "God said, 'Let
there be light' and there was light." P'an-ku was followed by a
divine being named Nue-wa, in regard to whom it
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is doubtful whether to speak in the feminine or in the masculine
gender. Designated queen more frequently than king, it is said
of her that, a portion of the sky having fallen down (probably
owing to the defective work of her predecessor), she rebuilt it
with precious stones of many colours. _Lien shih pu tien_,
"to patch the sky with precious stones," is a set phrase by which
the Chinese indicate that which is fabulous and absurd.

Instead of filling the long interval between the creation of the
world and the birth of h