expense. 1 Interpreters were charged with the duty of teaching them the customs of the kingdom, and facilitat- ing intercourse ; an institution now expanded into that of the " Ninety-six Translators," who mediate between the empire and all the languages of Asia. 2 Treated as^ the children of their host, strangers were expected to conform to a ceremonial indispensable to his position and functions. " The Emperor," says the Li-ki, " without ceremonial, can- not exercise hospitality." Not less were this great people, grown from a tribe of nomads, disposed to seek distant countries, than to accept their allegiance and tributes. As early as the T'sin dynasty, in the third century or earlier, all Tartar races to the borders of Turkistan were subject to their sway. 3
Stanislas Julien gives account of nearly thirty books on the Si-yeh, or countries west and north of China, from the fifth to the eighteenth centuries, by official persons on em- bassies political or religious. 4 Nine books of Ma-touan- lin's geographical researches (thirteenth century) relate to native, twenty-five to foreign, localities. Cosmas tells us in the sixth century that the Chinese brought their silks and sandal-wood to Ceylon, where they were met by traders from the West. 5 Here was, perhaps, initiated the extensive commerce carried on by the Arabs with China for The Arab man y centuries, not only by sea, but across Persia and Thibet ; and it has become more than probable that many of the inventions supposed to have been intro- duced by them, such as paper and the mariner's compass, 6 were brought from the Pacific shores. In the seventh century these masters of the carrying trade start into
TcJteou-li, B. xxxix, 43-44 ; xxxm. 61. Pauthier, p. 12. Also Prejevalsky, Mongolia (1876) I. 67. Chinese Recorder, January and February, 1876. Chinese Repository, 1848. For mention of Western Lands, Neumann's Pref. to Chi- Pirates ; and Bretschneider, " Chinese Mediceval Travellers" Knight's Commerc. Interc. with China (Cyclop. Use/. Knowt). Draper, Intellectual Development of Europe.
