22. The original seat of the nation appears to have been in
the north-west of China, in the provinces of Chensi and
Chansi. Under the two first dynasties the principal town was
still a movable camp, the villages were thinly scattered;
more land was employed in pasture than in tillage; the
exercise of hunting was ordained to clear the country from
wild beasts; Petcheli (where Pekin stands) was a desert; and
the southern provinces were peopled with Indian savages. The
dynasty of the Han (before Christ 206) gave the empire its
actual form and extent.