CHINESE EMPIRE.

THE CHINESE EMPIRE is, with the exception of Russia, the largest in the world, embracing an area of 5,426,000 British square miles, according to Balbi's political and statistical Table published in 1828. It extends from 73° to 142° east longitude, and from 21° to 55° north latitude. Reckoning from Rashgar to the mouth of the Amoor, its length is about 3,460 miles, and its greatest breadth from the Saianian mountains to the southernmost point of China opposite to the island of Hay-nan more than 2,000 miles. The Eastern ocean, forming many gulfs and straits, washes its shores for an extent of 3,600 miles. The gulf of Tonquin and the Chinese sea bound the empire on the south. The channel of Fermosa separates the island of that name from the continent. The Blue sea extends between China and the islands of Lieuchoo, and Japan; the Yellow sea between China and Corea. The whole of the Chinese empire may be included under the following heads: China Proper, Peninsula of Korea, Isles of Hainan, Fermosa, and the Lootchoo Archipelago; Mandshooria, including Lyautong; Mongolia, Soongaria, Little Bukharia, Eastern and Western Thibet, and the Tartars of Kokonor. All the latter divisions, beginning with Mongolia, comprehend what is now denominated Central Asia.

CHINA PROPER.

Name.] Chung-kwe, or the Central Kingdom, is the name by which the Chinese themselves denominate their country, and they so call it from a belief that it is situated in the centre of the earth, and that all other kingdoms are mere isolated extremities of the world. Khatai, the Tartar appellation, taught our forefathers to call China, Cathay; while Chin, the name given it by its southern neighbours, is the origin of Sin and Sina, Chin and Machin, the names used by the Arabs, Persians, Indians, and Europeans in the middle ages. The Sinae were probably the southern, as the Seres, better known to the ancients, were the northern Chinese. The whole of the empire is now generally called by the Tartars, the present possessors, Ta-tshing-kwe, the country of the Ta-tshing (i. e. the reigning dynasty.)

Boundaries and Extent.] China Proper does not embrace one-fourth of the Chinese empire. It comprehends a surface of 1,298,000 square miles, extending from lat. 20° to lat. 41° N., and from long. 97° 42′ to 122° 53' E. It is bounded on the N. by Chinese Tartary; on the S. by the gulf

Owing to the want of astronomical observations, it is impossible to fix with precision the western frontier of the Chinese empire; but it cannot be less than 73° E. long. from Greenwich. The most eastern point, however, of the Chinese empire is well known, as the mouth of the Amoor has been determined both in longitude and latitude by La Perouse, Broughton, and Krusienstien.

of Ton-king and the Birman empire; on the E. by the Yellow Sea and the Chinese Sea, and on the W. by Thibet. It occupies a larger space than Hindoostaun, and its figure is much more compact, approaching to an oval form. The greatest length is from the most S.W. point of Yunnan to the most eastern point of the peninsula of Shantong; that is, from 97° 42' to 122° 53′ E. long.; whilst its greatest breadth from S. to N. is from 20° 15' to 41° N. lat., or 20° 45'. But if the Island of Hainan be included, 2 degrees must be added, making 23 in whole. The superficies of 1,298,000 square miles only includes the provinces within the great wall. Lyautong, or Quantong, being excluded, though in all former statements it was included in Proper China, as may be seen in Du Halde. Hence some have made the area of China Proper, including this province, 1,500,000 square miles. To this must be added the islands of Hainan and Fermosa.

Divisions. The following table, published by authority in the reign of Kien-Long, who died in 1799, exhibits the provinces into which China is divided, with their chief cities, population, &c. A more particular description of these will be found in succeeding chapters. The 5th column expresses, in geographical miles, the distance from Peking of each capital of the 15 provinces. The distance expressed is not horizontal as measured on a map, but by road stages, originally given in Chinese lis or furlongs of 250 to a degree, and these reduced to geographical miles. The province at the foot of the table, called Fong-t'hyen-fu, or Chinese-Tartary, is the ancient province Lyautong, without the great wall, and must not be confounded with Mandshooria or Eastern Chinese Tartary.