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but two facts will sufficiently account for it-namely, the cautious jealousy of the government against strangers, and the peculiarity of the language. The former has, indeed, been overcome to a considerable extent in recent years, by the persevering and energetic efforts of England, France, Russia, and our own country. Great concessions have been obtained, though not always in a fair and honorable way. But it is the end, not the means, we have now to consider. At the present moment, foreigners may visit several of the commercial cities of China; they are but tolerated, however, at best, certainly not encouraged. It does not seem that they are welcomed by any class of the people. Even traders who go with pockets full of money are looked upon with suspicion. Generally they have not much difficulty in purchasing the productions of the country, but if they attempt to secure extensive information relative to the institutions, the religion, the laws, or even the literature of the country, they meet with obstacles at every step. When questions are asked, answers are seldom refused; nor is it often that any reluctance is evinced on the part of the interrogated party. On the contrary, every intelligent Chinese wishes to be considered frank and communicative. But, unfortunately, he has little regard for truth in his intercourse with foreigners. He tells the latter, not what he believes true, but what he imagines will redound to the glory of China. This, we may observe in passing, is the more remarkable, because no people are more truthful to each other than the Chinese; none are taught to have a greater abhorrence of lying. This we may see from the works which they regard as their bible-those of Kon-Fu-Tse, called by Europeans Confucius, of whom it has been well and truly said:

"Without assumption, he explor'd the mind,
Unveil'd the light of reason to mankind;
Spoke as a sage, and never as a seer,

Yet, strange to say, his country lov'd him dear."

If the learned men of China are asked why it is that their countrymen are so prone to making statements to foreigners, that in many cases have no foundation, their reply is that they have good reason for it, asking in turn, whether Christian moralists require their disciples to tell what may be injurious to themselves. This is in allusion to the torrents of blood shed both in Japan and China, by means of the interference of foreigners in the laws and religion of those countries.

But be the cause what it may, the effect is obvious enough; those who remain longest in the country can obtain little information more than is afforded by personal observation.

Those who would be acquainted with China, as it was and is, must learn her language, and there are but few who like to undertake this. Even among linguists, it is pretty generally believed that it requires the greater part of a whole life to learn Chinese. Several Chinese scholars have asserted the fact; and their assertion seems fully borne out by the written characters of the language, without any further evidence. Nor are those, who proceed so far as to be able to form an idea of its structure, much better encouraged; for in Chinese, more than in any other language, the most formidable difficulties are those which present themselves at the outset of the student's labors. To learn the characters alone, requires no slight amount of study and perseverance; at the same time, the system of writing is by no means so complicated as it would seem at first sight. Before proceeding any further, it is proper to say that the writer of this article is not sufficiently acquainted with Chinese to be able to translate any difficult passage. We have studied its grammatical structure and fundamental principles, but nothing further. This, however, we find to be quite sufficient to enable us to compare the language with the Greek and the Latin, with five or six of the principal modern dialects of Europe, and to some extent with the Sanscrit. All these have a general resemblance to each other; but we cannot say that the Chinese has the least resemblance to any one of them. It belongs to that class of idioms called monosyllabic. There is no pure Chinese word of more than one syllable. The syllables are, however, sometimes combined, as in the English words mankind, welcome, dayspring, &c., &c. No language has so few consonants. Those found most useful in the IndoEuropean idioms are entirely wanting in the Chinese, namely, b, d, r, v, and z. Even the consonants used can seldom be pronounced without the interposition of u, or sheva; so that, for example, if a Chinese is required to pronounce the Latin word Christus, he can make no nearer approach to it than Kul-iss-ut-oo-suh. Mr. Marshman was the first European who discovered that as words in other languages are formed by the combination of certain symbols, termed letters, so are Chinese characters constructed by the union of certain imitations of the objects of sense; or, more strictly speaking,

From this, it would seem,

imitations of natural objects. that those characters must be very numerous; and so indeed they are, when combined. But the number of elements, or mother characters (Tsé-moo), as they are called by the Chinese (clefs or keys by Europeans), are only two hundred and fourteen, certainly not more than two hundred and thirty. But these, when combined, form at least 80,000, though an acquaintance with less than half that number enables the student to read any Chinese book.

What time the present characters were invented, or first introduced, no one can pretend to determine with any degree of accuracy; but there can be no question of their being of high antiquity. Se-ma-tsien, the most reliable of all the Chinese historians, traces them back to the reign of Hoangtse, about 2,500 years before Christ-2,000 years anterior to the time of Confucius; and his chronology is accepted as approximating nearest to the truth by such European scholars as Adelung, Bunsen, and Grimm. Öther Chinese historians assign them an antiquity of nearly 4,000 years; nor is there any proof that they are not thus old, further than that the use of any written characters, at so remote a period of the world's history, would be inconsistent with the Mosaic chronology, or that generally believed by Christians. But the period of 2,500 years is no matter of mere conjecture. The characters are found not only in books that date nearly, if not quite, so far back, but also on porcelain vases, seals of agate, drinking cups, urns, sepulchral monuments of stone, copper, &c., &c. And, the more ancient they are, the more accurately do they represent natural objects. "They include," says Mr. Marshman,* " the most remarkable objects of nature, as the sun, the moon, a river, a mountain, fire, water, earth, wood, stone, &c.; the principal parts of a house, as well as those utensils most in use, as a knife, a spoon (or chopsticks), a seat, a box, a staff, &c.; nor are the grand supports of life omitted, grain, pulse, flesh, fish, &c.; nor the primary relations of life, father, mother, son, daughter, however difficult to be represented. We find not only characters to denote the body, but also the soul or spirit, as well as certain articles of worship. Qualities, though somewhat more difficult of representation, are not wholly omitted, although the elementary characters expressive of these scarce

• Dissertation, pp. 12, 13.

ly amount to thirty; among which will be found, however, such as are most obvious to the senses, as straight, crooked, great, small, high, &c. To express actions by appropriate symbols would seem still more difficult; accordingly we find that this class is even smaller than the foregoing; a few, however, are admitted, which signify the most common actions of life, such as to see, to speak, to walk, to run, &c. Such, then, are the ideas represented by these elements, which, as they compose the other characters, may be justly termed the alphabet of the Chinese language, or imitative medium of communication."

At first view, it is difficult to understand how a language, every word of which is, more or less, a representative of some object in nature or art, can be learned without at least half a lifetime of unremitting application and study; yet the learned M. Rémusat, for many years professor of the language in the Imperial College of Paris, has proved by facts-by a dozen of pupils whom he had taught, not only to translate into Chinese any modern book, but to speak it quite as fluently as many of our best professors of Greek and Latin can speak the language of Homer or Virgil-that Chinese may be learned in as short time as almost any other idiomin a much shorter time than the Sanscrit, the Greek, or the Latin. Mr. Marshman has asserted that it is much more easily learned than the German, and vastly more regular and artistic in its structure than the English. This will seem less incredible to those who judge of the Chinese by its seemingly unmeaning characters, when it is remembered that the linguists of China find it difficult to understand how it is possible for the outside barbarians to form, from twenty-four elements, or letters, void of meaning themselves, such an immense variety of expressive words as are to be found in our great poems, histories, &c. If we would only reflect on this ourselves, we should admit that it is no greater wonder to form the Chinese language from different combinations of two hundred and fourteen characters, each of which expresses an idea by itself, in its simplest form, than it is to form the English language from twenty-four letters, which, as already observed, have no meaning, except in combination.

Our readers need not be informed how letters are so combined as to express ideas; but there are not many of them, we presume, who understand how the elements of the Chinese are made to produce corresponding results, or in

what proportion are they used. A few examples, taken from Mr. Marshman's Dissertation, will give a sufficient idea of this for our present purpose: "Chou, grass, or vegetation in general; soi, water, and mook, wood, hold the first rank, the latter having 1,232 characters into which it enters; soi, water, 1,333; and chou, vegetation, no less than 1,423. The elements which, next to these, receive the greatest numbers of characters, are those which represent the hand, the mouth, the heart, the first standing at the head of 1,012; the second claiming as its quota 983; and the third, 956. Nee, the element for a woman, ranks next, standing at the head of 834; while yun, that for a man, includes only 729; but wy, the element intended to denote reptiles, has underneath it a class containing 804. After these follow guin, a word which includes in its class 734; and kyam or kyun, gold, under which are placed 719 characters. See, the character for silk, or anything fine and delicate, and chok, a bamboo, that notable instrument of government among the Chinese, claim each an equal number, namely. 672. Yok, flesh, san, a mountain, mook, the eye, and chok, the foot, rank next, and include each of them somewhat more than 500 characters; as does nieu, the element expressive of a bird. The elements which represent earth, stone, disease, clothing, and jewels, contain each somewhat above 400 characters in their respective classes; as do ma, a horse, and khin, a dog; while yut, a day, ton, a knife, chee, a place, mie, rice, and cheok, motion, stand each at the head of somewhat more than 300. Thus, thirty of these elements, expressive of the primary objects of sense, enter into the composition of nearly twenty thousand characters which probably constitute the better half of the characters included in the language.

If

some elements, however, enter into the composition of a very great number of characters, others will be found to have so few as scarcely to entitle them to a place among the elements. The six characters which compose the class of one stroke, beside being all obsolete, except yut, one, include together only 95 characters, and one of them only two. Among those consisting of many strokes are to be found 40, the respective classes of which contain no more than 20 characters each, and some of them only ten; the whole 40 containing only 615. There are 20 others which contain from 20 to 35 each; the aggregate amounting to 557. Thus, eighty-four of these elements include, in the whole of their

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