Plate 1.--Chou Pottery. Fig. 1.--Tripod Food Vessel. Height 6⅛ inches. Fig. 2.--Jar with deeply cut lozenge pattern. Height 6¾ inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 6: e.g. the K´ao Kung chi, a relic of the Chou dynasty (1122-256 B.C.).] [Footnote 7: _T´ao shuo_, bk. ii., fol. 1. See S.W. Bushell, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, being a translation of the _T´ao shuo_, Oxford, 1910, p. 34.] [Footnote 8: A work of the fifth century B.C., quoted in the _Ching-tê Chên T´ao lu_, bk. ix., fol. 1.] [Footnote 9: _Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty_, Leyden, 1909, pp. 10-14.] [Footnote 10: Quoted in the _Ching-tê Chên T´ao lu_, bk. ix. fol. 1.] [Footnote 11: Loc. cit.] [Footnote 12: See p. 200.] CHAPTER II THE HAN [Chinese] DYNASTY, 206 B.C. TO 220 A.D. TWO centuries of internecine strife between the great feudal princes culminated in the destruction of the Chou dynasty and the consolidation of the Chinese states under the powerful Ch´in emperor Chêng. If this ambitious tyrant is famous in history for beating back the Hiung-nu Turks, the wild nomads of the north who had threatened to overrun the Chou states, and for building the Great Wall of China as a rampart against these dreaded invaders, he is far more infamous for the disastrous attempt to burn all existing books and records, by which, in his overweening pride, he hoped to wipe out past history and make good to posterity his arrogant title of Shih Huang Ti or First Emperor. His reign, however, was short, and his dynasty ended in 206 B.C. when his grandson gave himself up to Liu Pang, of the house of Han, and was assassinated within a few days of his surrender. The Han dynasty, which began in 206 B.C. and continued till 220 A.D., united the states of China in a great and prosperous empire with widely extended boundaries. During this period the Chinese, who had already come into commercial contact with the kingdoms of Western Asia, sent expeditions, some peaceful and others warlike, to Turkestan, Fergana, Bactria, Sogdiana, and Parthia. They even contemplated an embassy to Rome, but the envoys who reached the Persian Gulf turned back in fear of the long sea journey round Arabia, the length and danger of which seem to have been vividly impressed upon them by persons interested, it is thought, in preventing their farther progress.[13] A considerable trade, chiefly in silks, had been opened up between China and the Roman provinces, and the Parthians who acted as middlemen had no desire to bring the two principals into direct communication.