and give it that development which makes it the strange compound of ignorance and scholastic erudition, the union of cruelty and politeness, of condescension and contempt, of civilization and barbarism, which it really is. Their defect is in the absence of those powerful motives which the Bible contains as the sanctions of its precepts, and hence the result is such a medley as might be expected from the training given the mind in such morals under a despotic government, and where there was so little conscientious restraint.

The ninth section of this division in the catalogue contains a list of musical works, and a few on dancing or posture-making; they hold this distinguished place in the list from the importance attached to music as a branch of learning. The tenth gives the names of the principal grammars and dictionaries, most of them confined to the Chinese language, though a few are in Manchu. The Chinese government has excelled in the attention it has given to the compilation of lexicons and encyclopædias. The number of works of this sort, and the extent of quotation in them; the variety of separate disquisitions upon the form, origin, and composition of characters; and treatises upon subjects connected with the language, are very great, and indicate the careful labor native scholars have bestowed upon the elucidation of their own tongue.

One thesaurus, the Pei Wan Yun Fu, or Treasury of compared Characters and Sounds, is so extensive and profound, as to deserve a short notice, which cannot be better made than by an extract from the preface of M. Callery to his prospectus to a translation of it. He says the emperor Kanghí, who planned its preparation," assembled in his palace the most distinguished literati of the empire, and laying before them all the works that could be got, whether ancient or modern, commanded them carefully to collect all the words, allusions, forms, and figures of speech, of which examples might be found in the Chinese language of every style; to class the principal articles according to the pronunciation of the words; to devote a distinct paragraph to each expression; and to give in support of every paragraph several quotations from the original works. Stimulated by the munificence, as well as the example, of the emperor, who reviewed the performances of every day, seventy-six literati assembled at Peking, labored with such assiduity, and kept up

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such an active correspondence with the learned in all parts of the empire, that at the end of eight years the work was completed (1711), and printed at the public expense, in 130 thick volumes." The somewhat peculiar nature of the Chinese language, in the formation of many dissyllabic compounds by combining two or more characters to express a third and new idea, renders such a work as this Thesaurus more necessary and useful, perhaps, than it would be in any other language. Under some of the common characters as many as 300, 400, and even up to 600 combinations are noticed, all of which modify its sense more or less, and form a complete monograph of the character, of the highest utility to the scholar in composing idiomatic Chinese. This magnificent monument of literary labor reflects great credit on the monarch who took so much interest in its compilation, as he remarks in his preface, to devote the leisure hours of every day, notwithstanding his manifold occupations, for eight years, to overlooking the labors of the scholars engaged upon it.

M. Callery notices many other lexicons of high repute among the Chinese,* one of which, the Shwoh Wăn Kiai Tsz', or Treatise on the Meaning of Words, was published a. D. 150, and is still good authority. Two of them were issued under the Ming dynasty, and the one published A. D. 1397, formed the basis of Dr. Morrison's Syllabic Dictionary, printed 425 years afterwards; no stronger proof of the fixedness of the Chinese language could be adduced.

* Systema Phoneticum, Part I., p. 77 Chinese Repository, Vol, XII.,. p. 302.

CHAPTER XII.

Polite Literature of the Chinese.

THE three remaining divisions of the Imperial Catalogue comprise lists of Historical, Professional, and Poetical works. With regard to their value it would be difficult to give a satisfactory decision, without furnishing very copious extracts; but Rémusat, Staunton, the two Morrisons, and others who have studied them the longest, speak of them with the most respect,-whether it arose from a higher appreciation of their worth as they learned more, or that the zealousness of their studies imparted a tinge of enthusiasm to their descriptions. A writer in the Quarterly Review places the polite literature of the Chinese first, for the insight it is likely to give Europeans into their habits of thought. "The Chinese stand eminently distinguished from other Asiatics, by their early possession and extensive use of the important art of printing, of printing, too, in that particular shape, the stereotype, which is best calculated, by multiplying the copies and cheapening the price, to promote the circulation of every species of their literature. Hence they are, as might be expected, a reading people; a certain degree of education is common among even the lower classes, and among the higher it is superfluous to insist on the great estimation in which letters must be 'held under a system where learning forms the very threshold of the gate that conducts to fame, honors, and civil employment. Amid the vast mass of printed books, which is the natural offspring of such a state of things, we make no scruple to avow that the circle of their belles-lettres, comprised under the heads of drama, poetry, and novels, has always possessed the highest place in our esteem; and we must say, that there appears no readier or more agreeable mode of becoming intimately acquainted with a people from whom Europe can have so little to learn on the score of either moral or physical science, than by drawing largely on the inexhaustible stores of their ornamental

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literature." This decision of the reviewer is equally applicable to the writings of all Asiatic nations, and although the histories, laws, and ethical works of the Chinese are not destitute of ́interest in illustrating their civilization, government, and religious opinions, as the translations of Mailla, Staunton, and Rémusat, in each of these departments prove, still it is true that their works of imagination are best fitted for showing their character.

The division of Sz' Pu, or Historical Writings, is subdivided into fifteen sections. These writings are very extensive; even their mere list conveys a high idea of the vast amount of labor expended upon them; and it is impossible to withhold respect, at least, to the industry displayed in compilations like the Seventeen Histories in two hundred and seventeen chapters, or volumes, and its continuation, the Twenty-two Histories, a still larger work. But the entertaining episodes and sketches of character found in Herodotus and other ancient European historians are wanting; they are little else than barren annals of the succession and demise of kings and emperors, stating the length of their reigns, the wars they engaged in, and the various names they took from their birth to their death. Instead of weighing the testimony presented to them, and considering the rise and fall of successive dynasties in a philosophical manner, and making the exhibition of the faults and wickedness of past monarchs a means of instruction to subsequent sovereigns, the majority of Chinese historians content themselves with collecting the statements of their predecessors, and placing them together in a chronological series. With them the emperor is everything, and common mortals are his servants, soldiers, and subjects,-mere puppets to be moved at the pleasure of the autocrat; the whole nation is represented by and absorbed in him. Among the immense mass of historical works, the Tung Kien Kang-muh, or General Mirror of History, and a compiled abridgment of it, the Kang Kien Í Chí, or History made Easy, are the most useful.

The earliest historian among the Chinese is Sz'ma Tsien, who flourished about B.c. 104, in which year he commenced the Sz' Kí, or Historical Memoirs, in 130 chapters. In this great work, which, like the Muses of Herodotus in Greek, forms the commencement of credible modern history with the Chinese, the author relates the actions of the emperors in regular succession, and the principal events which happened during their reigns,

together with details and essays respecting music, astronomy, religious ceremonies, weights, public works, &c., and the changes they had undergone during the twenty-two centuries embraced in his Memoirs. It is stated by Rémusat that there are in the whole work 526,500 characters, for the Chinese, like the ancient Hebrews, number the words in their standard authors. The Sz' Kí is in five parts, and its arrangement has served as a model for subsequent historians, few of whom have equalled its author in the vivacity of their style, or carefulness of their research.

The General Mirror to aid in Governing, by Sz'ma Kwang of the Sung dynasty, in 294 chapters, is one of the best digested and most lucid annals that Chinese scholars have produced. Both the historians, Sz'ma Tsien and Sz'ma Kwang, filled high offices in the state, were both of them alternately disgraced and honored, and were mixed up with all the political movements of the day. Rémusat speaks in terms of deserved commendation of their writings, and to a notice of their works adds some account of their lives. One or two incidents in the life of Sz'ma Kwang exhibit a readiness of action, and freedom in expressing his sentiments, which are more common among the Chinese than is usually supposed. In his youth he was standing with some companions near a large vase used to rear gold fish, when one of them fell in. Too terrified themselves to do anything, all but young Kwang ran to seek succor; he looked around for a stone with which to break the vase and let the water flow out, and thus saved the life of his companion. In subsequent life, the same common sense was joined with a boldness which led him to declare his sentiments on all occasions. Some southern people once sent a present to the emperor of a strange quadruped which his flatterers said was the kílin. Sz'ma Kwang, being consulted on the matter, replied, "I have never seen the kílin, therefore I cannot tell whether this be one or not. What I do know is that the real kílin could never be brought hither by foreigners; he appears of himself when the state is well governed."*

Few works in Chinese literature are more famous than a historical novel by Chin Shau, about a. D. 350, called the San Kwoh · Chí, or History of the Three States; its scenes are laid in the northern parts of China, and include the period between A. D.

* Chinese Repository, Vol. IX., pages 210, 274.