of Pan Chow, or at the end of the half-cycle Han Kwang-wuti began
in 35. We might tabulate the two concurrent Han cycles, for the
sake of clearness, and note their points of intersection, thus:

--Western Han Cycle, 130 years

--Eastern Han Half-Cycle, 65 yrs

--35 A.D. Opened by Han Kwang-wuti.

--A static and consolidating time until 67 A.D., thirteen decades
from the death of Han Chaoti. Introduction of Buddhism in 65.

--The period of Pan Chao's victories; the Golden Age of the
Eastern Hans, lasting until (about):

--100 A. D. the end of the Eastern Han 'Day'; death of Pan Chow.

--Continuance of Day under this, and supervention of Night under
this Cycle, produce:

--A static, but weakening period until:

--165, the year in which a new Eastern Han Day should begin. A
weak recrudescence should be seen.

--197: the year in which the main or original Han Cycle should
end. We should expect the beginnings of a downfall. By or before:

--230, the end of the second, feeble, Eastern Han Day, the
downfall would have been completed.

Now to see how this works out.

The first date we have to notice is 165. Well; in the very
scant notices of Chinese history I have been able to come on, two
events mark this date; or rather, one marks 165, and the other
166. To take the latter first: we saw that at a momentous point
in Roman history,--in the year of Nerva's accession, 96,--China
tried to discover Rome. In 166 Rome actually succeeded in
discovering China. This year too, as we shall see, was momentous
in Roman history. You may call it a half cycle after the other;
for probably the ambassadors of King An-Tun of Ta Ts'in who
arrived at the court of Han Hwanti at Loyang in 166, had been a
few years on their journey. You know King An-tun better by his
Latin name of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

The event for 165 is the foundation of the Taoist Church, under
the half-legendary figure of its first Pope, Chang Taoling;
whose lineal descendants and successors have reigned Popes of
Taoism from their Vatican on the Dragon-Tiger Mountain in Kiangsi
ever since. They have not adverertised their virtues in their
names, however: we find no Innocents and Piuses here: they are
all plain Changs; his reigning Holiness being Chang the
Sixth-somethingth. It was from Buddhism that the Taoists took
the idea of making a church of themselves. Taoism and Buddhism
from the outset were fiercely at odds; and yet the main
s