AWAKENING OF THE EAST	411
the Chinese language prepared under the Manchu Emperoi
K'ang Hsi (Hhahng Shee, 1662-1723). The former work
comprised 11,000 volumes with a total of 917,480 pages
and 366,000,000 words, The Dictionary contained 40,000
words accompanied in each case by appropriate quotations
from the works of every age and of every style, chronologi-
cally arranged. K'ang Hsi also produced another encyclo-
paedia in 1628 volumes of 200 pages each, whose biographical
section alone contained 24,000 lives of eminent women!
The greatest ruler of the Ming dynasty was Hsiao Tsung
(1488-1506). Under him peace and prosperity reigned in
the land. After him began the European race for China.
In 1517 two envoys arrived at Nanking, carrying letters
from the King of Portugal. Two more came in 1520, but they
were all driven away unceremoniously by the Chinese. Eight
hundred Portuguese were massacred at Ningpo, a little later,
while attempting to land forcibly. However, they succeeded
in securing a foothold at Macao in 1550. The first Christian
station was founded in Canton in 1579. Matteo Ricci, an
enterprising Jesuit missionary, reached Peking in 1601. By
his knowledge of Mathematics, Astronomy, Geography, and
other sciences, he ingratiated himself into the favour of
the Emperor and obtained permission for missionaries to
settle in important centres.
The English arrived in Canton in 1637, but they had to
sail away without achieving anything. Their first official
embassy, however, did not reach the Celestial Emperor until
1792, when the Earl of Macartney came with a request
from George III. He too was put off by the Chinese
Emperor who roundly declared : " I have no use for your
country's manufactures...! do not forget the lonely re-
moteness of your island, cut off from the world by interven-
ing wastes of sea, nor do I overlook your excusable ignorance