Excerpt from A Survey of Constitutional Development in China: Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Political Science in Columbia University IN this monograph the author does not attempt to write a sketch of Chinese history, but only endeavors to pre sent in an orderly way, mainly for the occidental reader, the important constitutional changes that have occurred in the gradual development of the Chinese state. To him the development of the Chinese state, as any other state, may be likened to a mountain-range, which at places rises to be high mountains and at others dwindles to become low val leys. The mountains are not of the same height, nor are the valleys of the same distance. It is the high mountains that have received his attention and treatment here. The period of over years extending from the close of the third century B. C. To the end of the nineteenth represents a long stretch of low plain, a due recognition and considera tion of which will readily explain the so-called arrested development of the Chinese civilization and the fond at tachment of the Chinese people to the ancient regime. Toward the close of the past century the range once more began to rise and is now rapidly rising. On account of the recency of the change the author has refrained from enter ing upon a critical study of the events but contents himself with an orderly statement of the important facts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."