those who wish to make satisfactory progress in the language. By the time the student has reached this point, he needs no further directions; the path he wishes thenceforth to pursue can easily be marked out by himself. It is not amiss here to remark that many persons, ardently desirous of fitting themselves soon for preaching or talking to the people, weary their minds and hinder their ultimate progress, by too hard study at first upon the dry characters; the student, intent upon his final aim, forgets that his mind requires variety in the subject of his pursuit, and ere he is aware, he has become disgusted with the continuous attention necessary to remember so many arbitrary signs. A slower progress, in many cases, will conduce to greater ultimate

attainments.

Before translating into English, a knowledge of the principles of Chinese grammar is indispensable. Chinese sentences do not mean everything and anything, and in translating them but one definite idea is to be derived from them, viz. that which the author had in his mind when he wrote them. Translations from Chinese have often been obnoxious to the charges of rudeness and obscurity, owing partly to ignorance of the grammatical construction of the original, and partly to too close an adherence to its idiom. Knowledge of the meaning of the characters merely, is not sufficient to make a person a good translator; he must attend to the force of the word or phrase in its connexion, so as to select an apt expression to render it; and give the author an opportunity of appearing as well in his foreign garb as he does in his native costume, so far as the nature of the two languages will allow.

It is to be hoped that the study of Chinese will receive more attention than it has done, now that books to aid in learning it, and opportunities for using it, have multiplied. The merchant and the traveller, as well as the philologist and missionary, should attend to it, if their pursuits call them to that country; and we hazard little in saying, that had this been done, most of the ill-will between foreigners and natives, and many of the troubles which have jeoparded life and property at Canton, would have been avoided; and that the contempt which the people feel for their visitors, and the restricted intercourse which has been carried on for the past century, have been mainly owing to an ignorance of the Chinese language. The native traders there have managed to

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pick up a meagre jargon of uncouth words, and comparing its scantiness with their own copious vocabulary, have inferred thence the ignorance and barbarism of those who use it, and judged of their civilization by this wretched scantling of words.* The writer once saw a good illustration of this feeling. He was return. ing home one evening on a narrow causeway running across the rice fields, when just ahead he saw an infant standing by the side of his father. The child began to whimper on seeing the ogre of a barbarian coming, but the parent instantly pacified it by saying, "Don't cry; he wo'nt hurt you, he can talk Chinese."

A knowledge of their language is a passport to the confidence of the people, and when foreigners generally learn it, the Chinese will begin to divest themselves of their prejudices and contempt. As an inducement to study it, the scholar and the philanthropist have the prospect of benefiting and informing through it vast numbers of their fellow-men, of imparting to them what will elevate their minds, purify their hearts, instruct their understandings, and strengthen their desire for more knowledge; they have an opportunity of doing much to counteract the tremendous evils of the opium trade by teaching the Chinese the only sure grounds on which they can be restrained, and at the same time of making them acquainted with the discoveries in science, medicine, and arts, among western nations. Far above all in importance, the missionary can show them the secrets of another world, and teach them their obligations to obey the commands of their Maker, and accept the proffered grace of their Redeemer. These benefits will amply repay the labor of acquiring this language to those who wish to aid in the Christianization of so vast a people, and even a partial knowledge of the language will enable one to do great good.

* Chinese Repository, Vol. VII., page 199.

CHAPTER XI.

Classical Literature of the Chinese.

THE literature contained in the language now briefly described, is very ample and discursive, but wanting in truthfulness, and unenlivened by genius. The books of the Chinese are the transcripts of their national taste; everything has conspired to produce a tedious uniformity; while the unbounded admiration felt for the classics and their immaculate authors, fostered by the examinations, has further tended to this result; and caused these writings, remarkable in many respects, considering the times and their authors, to become still more famous from the unequalled influence they have exerted.

In taking a general survey of this literature, the Sz' Fu Tsiuen Shu Tsung-muh, or Catalogue of all the Books in the Four Libraries, will be the best guide to follow, since it goes over the whole range of letters, and affords a complete and succinct synopsis of the contents of the best books in the language. It is itself a valuable work, especially to a foreigner, and one whose existence would hardly have been expected in a country so despotic; it is comprised in one hundred and twelve octavo volumes of about three hundred pages each, and probably contains the names of upwards of twenty thousand works. The books are arranged into four divisions, viz. Classical, Historical, and Professional writings, and Belles-lettres.

The works in the first division are ranged under nine sections; one is devoted to each of the five Classics, and with a subsidiary one on them as a whole, one to the memoir on Filial Duty, one to the Four Books, one to musical works, and the ninth includes treatises on education, dictionaries, &c.

At the head of the Wu King, or Five Classics, is placed the Yih King, or Book of Changes, which is held by the Chinese in great veneration for its antiquity and the occult wisdom, which only sages can understand, supposed to be contained in its mys

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tic lines. It was composed in prison by Wăn wang, "the Literary prince," about B. c. 1150, and is doubtless one of the most ancient books extant in any language. The Yih King treats of general philosophy and the first cause as supposed to have been taught by Fuh-hí, whose institutes were founded upon the pah kwa, or eight diagrams, which he invented, and by subsequent combinations increased to sixty-four. These diagrams are merely trinities of straight lines, upon which have been founded a system of ethics, deduced by giving names to each diagram, and then associating the meanings of these names according to the changes which could be rung upon the sixty-four combinations. The evolution of the eight diagrams from two original principles is as follows:

1. Kien is the Yang or expanse, celestial matter, that principle of things which generates; the fluid ether.

2. Tui is vapor, the ascending influence from water; lakes, fountains issuing from mountains.

3. Lí, fire, the beautiful element light, heat; actuating power. 4. Chin, thunder, igneous exhalation or the mover of sound and heat.

5. Siuen, wind, the moving action of wind.

3. Kan, the liquid element, water.

7. Kăn, mountains, solidity, quiet, what sustains motion.

8. Kwăn is the Yin or earth, terrestrial matter, the principle of change in things by generation and corruption.

The appellations humid, light, hot, rigid, flexible, cold, heavy, and dry, are also given to the eight diagrams, which, with the application of the eight points of the compass, altogether form the material for a cabalistic logomancy, peculiarly pleasing to Chinese habits of thought. They have also supplied the basis

for many species of divination by shells, lines, letters, &c., by which the mass of people are deluded into the belief of penetrating futurity, and still more wedded to their superstitions. By uniting two of the diagrams and ringing the changes around, sixty-four more are made, each of which has a name, and a chapter in the work of six sections to explain it, showing how principles of good and bad conduct are evolved from the original dual powers. The leading idea of this curious relic of antiquity seems to have been founded upon the Chinese notions of the creation of the world, according to which all material things proceeding from two great male and female vivifying elements, the Yin and Yang, were made in harmony, because acted upon by the same harmonious powers. Man being also formed by these same powers, would naturally come under their influence, and if nothing interfered, would likewise move in harmony, as did nature around him, of which he was originally a part. The deduction of principles of good action for human conduct, according to these notions, followed from observing the combinations and successive evolutions of the Yin and Yang in nature; the diagrams are the symbols of these multiform changes. Of course anything and everything could be deduced from such a fanciful groundwork, but the Chinese have taken up the discussion in the most serious manner, and endeavored to find the hidden meaning of the diagrams. Confucius spent years in the vain search; his object was also more fully to explain Wăn wang's commentary on them, and his observations, now incorporated with that commentary, constitute the chief value of the work. Those who study it depend entirely upon the explanations of Confucius and Chu Hí, for the meaning of its aphoristic expressions; about 1450 treatises on the Yih King alone, consisting of memoirs, digests, expositions, &c., are enumerated in the Catalogue.

The second section contains the treatises upon the second of the Five Classics, called the Shu King, or Book of Records. It consists of a series of dialogues designed to give a brief history of China from the times of Yau, about B. c. 2350, down to Ping wang, of the Chau dynasty, B. c. 770, including some documents explaining the principles upon which the early sovereigns conducted the affairs of state, and proclamations and addresses to the people. The internal evidence leads to the conclusion that Confucius acted principally as editor of documents existing