metimes in travelling I have seen a triumphal arch
proclaiming that "Here was born the laureate of the Empire." Such
an advertisement raises the value of real estate; and good families
congregate in a place on which the sun shines so auspiciously.
A laureate who lived near me married his daughter to a viceroy,
and her daughter became consort to the Emperor Tungchi.

What then are the objections to a regulation which is so democratic
that it makes a nobleman of every
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successful scholar and gives to all the inspiration of equal
opportunity? They are, in a word, that it has failed to expand
with the growing wants of the people. The old curriculum laid down
by Confucius, "Begin with poetry; make etiquette your strong point;
and finish off with music," was not bad for his day, but is utterly
inadequate for ours, unless it be for a young ladies seminary. The
Sage's chapter on experiment as the source of knowledge--a chapter
which might have anticipated the _Novum Organum_--having been
lost, the statesmen of the T'ang period fell into the error of
leaving in their scheme no place for original research. This it
was that made the mind of China barren of discoveries for twelve
centuries. It was like putting a hood on the keen-eyed hawk and
permitting him to fly at only such game as pleased his master.

The chief requirement was superficial polish in prose and verse.
The themes were taken exclusively from books, the newest of which
was at that time over a thousand years old. To broach a theory
not found there was fatal; and to raise a question in physical
science was preposterous. Had anyone come forward with a new machine
he might have been rewarded; but no such inventor ever came because
the best minds in the Empire were trained to trot blindfold on
a tread-mill in which there was no possibility of progress. Had
the mind of the nation been left free and encouraged to exert its
force, who can doubt that the country that produced the mariner's
compass might have given birth to a Newton or an Edison?

After Wu none of the monarchs of this dynasty
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calls for notice. The last emperor was compelled to abdicate; and
thus, after a career of nearly three centuries bright with the
light of genius and prolific of usages good and bad that set the
fashion for after ages, this great house was extinguished.

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CHAPTER XXIII

THE SUNG DYNASTY, 960-1280 A. D.
(18 Emperors)

_The Five Philosophers--