ore than that,
on account of this same wastage of the forces;--this also has
to be taken into consideration.

Brooding over the whole situation, I should foretell the history
of this second Han Dynasty in this way: from 35 to 67,--the
latter date the point where the old and new cycles intersect,--
would be a static time: of consolidation rather than expansion;
of the gathering of the wave, not of its outburst into any
splendor of foam. Between 67 and 100, or when the two cycles
coincide, I should look for great things and doings; for some
echo or repetition of the glories of Han Wuti,--perhaps for a
finishing and perfecting of his labors. From then on till 197 I
should expect static, but weakening conditions: static mainly
till 165, weakening rapidly after. Advise me, please, if this is
clear.--Well, if you have followed so far, you have a basis for
understanding what is to come.

The dynasty, as thus re-established by Kwang-wuti, is known as
that of the Eastern Hans; for this reason:--just as late in the
days of the Roman empire, Diocletian was stirred by cyclic
flowing east-ward to move his capital from Rome to Nicomedia,--
Constantine changed it afterwards to Byzantium,--so was Han
Kwang-wuti to move his from Changan in Shensi, in the west,
eastward to Loyang or Honanfu,--the old Chow capital,--in Honan.

While Rome was weltering under Caligula, Claudius, and Nero,
China was recovering herself, getting used to a calm equanimity,
under Haii Kwang-wuti: the conditions in the two were as
opposite as the poles. She dwelt in quietness at home, and held
her own, and a little more, on the frontiers. In 57, two years
before Nero went mad and took the final plunge into infamy, Han
Kwang-wuti died, and Han Mingti succeeded him. As Nero went
down, Han Mingti went up. His ninth or tenth year, remember, was
to be that of the recurrence of the old Han cycle. It was the
year in which the provinces rose against Nero,--the lowest point
of all in Rome. I do not know that it was marked by anything
special in China; the fact being that all the Chinese sixties
were momentous.

In the third Year of his reign Han Mingti dreamed a dream: he
saw a serene and "Golden Man" descending towards him out of the
western heavens. It would mean, said his brother, to whom he
spoke of it, the Golden God worshiped in the West,--the Buddha.
Buddhism had first come into China in the reign of Tsin Shi
Hwangti; but that imperial ruffia