Volume 1

An historical and descriptive account of China : its ancient and modern history, language, literature, religion, government, industry, manners, and social state ... / By Hugh Murray ... John Crawfurd ... Peter Gordon ... Captain Thomas Lynn; William Wallace ... and Gilbert Burnet. With a map and 36 engravings by Jackson.

  • Murray, Hugh, 1779-1846.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An historical and descriptive account of China : its ancient and modern history, language, literature, religion, government, industry, manners, and social state ... / By Hugh Murray ... John Crawfurd ... Peter Gordon ... Captain Thomas Lynn; William Wallace ... and Gilbert Burnet. With a map and 36 engravings by Jackson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The importance and interest attached to the subject of this Work appear to be now fully appreciated by the Public. China, from the antiquity of its origin, its early progress in arts and civilisation, and the very peculiar form which its institutions have as- sumed, exhibits an aspect differing from that of every other empire, ancient or modern. Its story is that of the largest portion of mankind that have ever been united under one political and social system. These considerations have induced us to bestow peculiar attention on the history, learning, commerce, and statistics of that immense sovereignty. There does not, so far as we know, exist at present any channel by which the historical inquirer can obtain a complete and connected view of them. Successive missionaries transmitted to Europe many important communications, but from their magnitude, nearly inaccessible to the ordinary reader. Such are the General History, in thirteen large quarto volumes, and the Miscellaneous Memoirs in sixteen. Du Plalde alone attempted to reduce to a convenient form the very valuable records of which he had the command ; but his volumes are now, in a great de- gree, superseded by fuller and more recent informa- tion. Although, however, there has not hitherto been