Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/165

Greece and Rome were felt there, that Buddhism was the religion of the inhabitants, and that they derived their civilisation from India. But owing apparently to insufficient irrigation, the towns and villages were gradually buried under advancing sands, just as was the case in Egypt, and where gardens, avenues, and orchards once existed there is now only a waste.

It will be seen from what has been recorded above that during the early centuries of the Christian era the Chinese received foreigners hospitably, encouraged their trade, imposed no restrictions on the practice or propagandism of their religions, and, in short, evinced nothing of the conservative, exclusive proclivities for which they ultimately became remarkable. The records do indeed show that about the middle of the third century (a. d.) a rule was enacted prohibiting any stranger from residing in the country unless he brought tribute, but it appears that this veto had its origin in domestic disturbances, and that it ceased to be effective when the occasion which had suggested it no longer existed.

Another interesting fact may be gathered from the records, namely, that travel on the Asiatic continent was not attended with any serious dangers in the early eras. At the beginning of the fifth century (a. d.) a Buddhist monk (Fahhien), setting out from Asia, made his way from the northwest of China to the Indus, thence to the modern Peshawur and Kabul, thence down the