The writer claims for this little book nothing more than its title implies. It is, in the strictest sense of the word, an outline sketch of the pre Manchu period of Chinese history which, it is hoped, the student will fill in from a wider read ing. Some of this is suggested in an Appendix. The excuse for presenting it to a public already deluged with works on China consists in two facts. The first is the importance of the subject. If in Juvenal's time there were those who were inter.