Viewing page 247 of 469

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[underlined]] Chapter XI. [[/underlined]]   21^[[9]].

ruling house was founded by an invading clan or group called the Toba (T'o-pa Shih 拓跋 氏), of uncertain ethnic affinities. Once thought to have been of Turgusic stock, many scholars now regard it as more probably Turkic or even proto-Mongol in origin. [[superscript]] (200) [[/superscript]] For a century
----------------------
[[superscript]] (200) [[/superscript]] Professor Pelliot ([[underlined]] T'oung pao [[/underlined]], vol. XXIV, 1925/26, page 79) speaks of it as of Turkic extraction.
----------------------
and a half the dynasty ruled over most of northern China and much of Central Asia; but it has not been recognized by Chinese historians as "legitimate". Until near the close of the 5th century A.D. its capital was situated at P'ing Ch'êng 平 城, just east of the present Ta T'ung, from which its now abandoned site is separated by the Yü Ho (written both as 玉 河 and as [[1 Chinese character]]河; formerly called the Ju-hun Ho 如渾 河). In 494 A.D. i^[[t]] was moved to Lo-yang, in Ho-nan. Forty years later still, in 534 the dynasty divided into two parts, the Eastern and the Western Wei respectively. These succession-states in turn soon came to an end, the former in 550, the latter in 557.
     Possessed at the outset, apparently, of a modified "steppe" type of culture, after they had established themselves as conquerors in northern China the Toba people made every effort to assimilate themselves as completely as possible to their less warlike but more highly civilized subjects, in language, customs, and institutions. They encouraged intermarriage and adopted Chinese family names for themselves; after a time they even prohibited the use of their own native speech and dress. While their power endured, the Tobas were the staunch protectors and champions of the Chinese civilization against the attacks of other "barbarian" peoples from the regions to the north.
     Although a few emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty displayed Taoist or Confucian leanings, the majority were devout Buddhists. It was to some of the latter that the famous cave-temples of Yün Kang owed 
[[page cut off part of a sentence missing]]

Transcription Notes:
1 Chinese character needed