THE NIGHT OF ASIA
them were even successful. But the disintegration of the national consciousness under alien tyranny made renationalization almost impossible, and the native dynasties were unable to withstand fresh waves of outside aggression. In China, the Ming or Bright dynasty, which wrested the government from the Mongols in the middle of the fourteenth century, soon became a prey to internal discords. Scarcely had the destruction attendant on the Mongol reign been repaired, when, near the end of the sixteenth century, a fresh invasion came from the north, and the Manchus tore the scepter from the native rulers. In spite of the strenuous efforts made by the wiser statesmen of this new dynasty, no complete fusion of the Manchus and the Chinese has ever been accomplished.
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