What then are the objections to a regulation which is so democratic that it makes a nobleman of every [Page 124] 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 [Page 125] 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.

[Page 126] CHAPTER XXIII

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

The Five Philosophers—­Wang Ngan-shi, Economist—­The Kin Tartars—­The Southern Sungs—­Aid of Mongols Invoked to Drive Out the Kins—­Mongols Exterminate Sungs

On the fall of the house of T’ang, a score of factions contended for the succession.  During the fifty-three years preceding the establishment of the Sungs, no less than five of them rose to temporary prominence sufficient to admit of being dubbed a “dynasty.”  Collectively they are spoken of as the “Five Dynasties” (907-960).