many works are now in circulation which have no claim whatever to the
antiquity to which they pretend.

During the four hundred years of Han supremacy the march of civilization
went steadily forward. Paper and ink were invented, and also the
camel's-hair brush, both of which gave a great impetus to the arts of
writing and painting, the latter being still in a very elementary stage.
The custom of burying slaves with the dead was abolished early in the
dynasty. The twenty-seven months of mourning for parents--nominally
three years, as is now again the rule--was reduced to a more manageable
period of twenty-seven days. Literary degrees were first established,
and perpetual hereditary rank was conferred upon the senior descendant
of Confucius in the male line, which has continued in unbroken
succession down to the present day. The head of the Confucian clan is
now a duke, and resides in a palace, taking rank with, if not before,
the highest provincial authorities.

The extended military campaigns in Central Asia during this period
brought China into touch with Bactria, then an outlying province of
ancient Greece. From this last source, the Chinese learnt many things
which are now often regarded as of purely native growth. They imported
the grape, and made from it a wine which was in use for many centuries,
disappearing only about two or three hundred years ago. Formerly
dependent on the sun-dial alone, the Chinese now found themselves in
possession of the water-clock, specimens of which are still to be seen
in full working order, whereby the division of the day into twelve
two-hour periods was accurately determined. The calendar was regulated
anew, and the science of music was reconstructed; in fact, modern
Chinese music may be said to approximate closely to the music of ancient
Greece. Because of the difference of scale, Chinese music does not make