China is this wondrously unique empire that astonished Europeans, and has
continued to do so, ever since it became known . Self-contained, it reached this
level of culture quite apart from foreign ties; its ties with other peoples are
only recent, and they are of no significance for this empire. It is the only
empire in the world that has lasted from the most ancient times up to today. We
have already remarked upon its truly vast expanse. Today the population of the
Chinese empire as such is according to the average estimate, some 2002 million
souls; the lowest estimate is 150 million, the highest 300 million . Every few
years there is a census based on very precise tax rolls. So the data are correct.
The Tatars of China are excluded from these counts, as are the many surrounding
princes ruling their own lands under China's direct control. This enormous
population of China proper stands under a government that is well-regulated to
the highest degree, that is most just, most benevolent, most wise. Laws
elaborated, and agriculture, commerce, industry and sciences are flourish. There
are cities with more than a million inhabitants. What is even more astonishing is
that this people has a continuous, well-ordered, and quite well-attested history
from its earliest times onward , covering a i least 5,000 years with the greatest
exactitude and certainty; it is not like Greek and Roman history but instead is
more fully attested. No other land in the world has such a continuous,
authenticated ancient history. This empire ever remained autonomous, ever
remained what it was. At times it was conquered - in the thirteenth century by
Genghis Khan, and later, after the time of the Thirty Years War, by the Manchu-
Tatars - but it was not changed by these conquests. In all these circumstances it
always retained its character, for it remained wholly an autonomous empire. And
so it is an empire untouched by history (ungescbicbtlicb), for internally it
developed undisturbed; it was not destroyed from without. No alien principle came
to displace the ancient one. To that extent it has no history. So, in speaking
about the most ancient history of this empire, we are not speaking of something
past but instead of the shape that it has today. (The same is the case in
India.). The principle of this empire, which has not departed from its concept,
was set forth in universal terms; the amazing thing is that this principle is
simply the natural concept of a state, the elaboration of which has not altered
this first, immature principle. And yet we find here culture at its height.
So we cannot speak here of a proper history as such. We intend to consider briefly
not only the res gestae [deeds] but also the narratto return gestarum [narrative of the deeds].
