The antiquity of Asiatic history is often exaggerated. With the exception of Babylonia and Assyria, we can hardly even conjecture what was the condition of this continent much before 1500 B.C. At that period the Chinese were advancing along the Hwang-ho, and the Aryans were entering India from the north-west. Both were in conflict with earlier races. The influence of Babylonian civilization was probably widespread. Some connexion between Babylonia and China is generally admitted, and all Indian alphabets seem traceable to a Semitic original borrowed in the course of commerce from the Persian Gulf.
Apart from European conquests, the internal history of Asia in the last 2000 years is the result of the interaction of four main influences: (a) Chinese, (b) Indian, (c) Mahommedan, (d) Central Asian. Of these the first three represent different types of civilization: the fourth has little originality, but has been of great importance in affecting the distribution of races and political power.
(a) China has moulded the civilization of the eastern mainland and Japan, without much affecting the Malay Archipelago. In the sphere of direct influence fall Korea, Japan and Annam; in the outer sphere are Mongolia, Tibet, Siam, Cambodia and Burma, where Indian and Chinese influence are combined, the Indian being often the stronger. These countries, except Japan, have all been at some time at least nominal tributaries of China. Where Chinese influence had full play it introduced Confucianism, a special style in art and the Chinese system of writing. After the Christian era it was accompanied by Chinese Buddhism. The cumbrous Chinese script maintains itself in the Far East, but has not advanced west of China proper and Annam.
(b) Indian influence may be defined as Buddhism, if it is understood that Buddhism is not at all periods clearly distinguishable from Hinduism. Its sphere includes Indo-China, much of the Malay Archipelago, Tibet and Mongolia, Moreover, China and Japan themselves may be said to fall within this sphere, in view of the part which Buddhism has played in their development. The Buddhist influence is not merely religious, for it is always accompanied by Indian art and literature, and often by an Indian alphabet. Much of this art is Greek in origin, being derived from the Perso-Greek states on the north-west frontiers of India. Indian alphabets have spread to Tibet, Cambodia, Java and Korea. The history of Indian civilization in Indo-China and the Archipelago is still obscure, in spite of the existence of gigantic ruins, but it would appear that in some parts at least two periods must be distinguished, first the introduction of Hinduism (or mixed Hinduism and Buddhism), perhaps under Indian princes, and secondly a later and more purely ecclesiastical introduction of Sinhalese Buddhism, with its literature and art.