China. we shall endeavour to give as concise and compre- to shoot. A multitude of similar descrip tion is to be found in books of philology, being obviously the rude representations of the several objects they are meant to express. From these rude imitations of objects Chinese writers trace the progressive steps to a more abbreviated and convenient form: thus, the sun, is now H. D the moon, The philologists of China speak of knotted cords, mouth, 口: 田 a field, now a horse, now 馬 恚 a boat, now the complicated character means to say, rude representations of the thing signi- ear, now The qualities of objects could only be marked down by arbitrary signs or symbols, which, however, when once settled by convention, were equally expressive with the pictural resemblances of those objects. Many modifications, however, such, for example, as crooked, straight, above, below, great, little, &c. were capable of being expressed to the eye by particular characters, appropriate to their modifications hooked, covered, sheltered, protected, &c. but symbolical representations of this kind could not be sufficiently numerous to embrace all the qua a branch lities and modifications of objects. The first attempt at a regular system of classifica China. tion of the characters, which the Chinese had invented for expressing their ideas, is stated to have been that of dividing them into nine classes, called the Leeshoo, and afterwards into six, called the Lieou-ye. 1st Class, contained all those which had been reduced from the rude picture of the object to a more simple form, as the sun, moon, a man, a horse, &c. 2d, Those which pointed out some property belonging to the object, as great, small, above, below, &c. 3d, The combination of two or more simple objects or ideas to produce a third, resulting from their union. 4th, Those whose names, when sounded, were supposed to imitate the sound of the objects expressed by them. 5th, Those which give an inversion of the meaning by inverting the character; and all those used in a metaphorical sense. 6th, This class seems to include all those characters that are merely arbitrary, and which cannot be brought under any of the preceding divisions. We shall explain these classes by examples. This ill-digested and obscure arrangement was soon abandoned for another not much better,-that of classing the characters according to their sounds or names. As these names were all monosyllables, and as each monosyllable began with a consonant, with very few exceptions, and ended with a vowel or liquid consonant, the number of such monosyllables was necessarily very limited; by our alphabet, the whole of them might be expressed in about 330 syllables; but as necessity taught the Chinese to employ in early life the organs of speech and hearing, in acquiring a greater nicety than most nations have any occasion for, they were able to swell the number of their monosyllables, by means of intonations and accentuations, to about 1200 or 1300. As soon, therefore, as the number of characters exceeded the number of words, it is evident that any verbal arrangement must be attended with uncertainty and confusion; if, for instance, they had 10,000 characters and only 1250 words, the same word must be applied to eight different characters; and as the latter now, in Kaung-he's Dictionary, exceeds 40,000, each syllable in the Chinese language must, on an average, represent thirty-two different characters; and, in point of fact, there are syllables that give the same name to sixty or eighty different cha racters. It is difficult to conceive, therefore, without the assistance of an alphabet, how they could possibly contrive to class the characters in a dictionary according to their names, and by what means they could ascertain the name of a character which speaks only to the eye. To discover this, they seem to have had recourse to three different methods; the first was to place at the head of a list of characters, having the same sounds, some common well known character, and to mark them severally with their respective intonations; the second method was that which is still used in all their dictionaries. It consists in writing after the character, whose sound is sought for, two common characters, of which the initial sound of the first added to the final sound of the latter, produces a third; as from the m of moo and the ing of tsing, is compounded the third or new monosyllable ming; and, in the same way, from ting and ke, would be formed te, &c. The two characters, so employed, are calledtse-moo or "mother characters," and the third produced from them tsé, or "the child." The third method was, by means of a modified Sanscrit alphabet, or series of sounds, which was introduced into China since the Christian era, by some priests of Budh, "to give currency," says one writer, "to the books of Fo." This system is described in the introduction to Kaung-he's Dictionary, though it is never used, and but very little understood. The Chinese, indeed, reprobate the idea of changing their beautiful characters for foreign systems, unknown to their forefathers. "It appears to me," says one of their writers, "that the people of Tsan (Thibet, from whence they derived the system of initials and finals) distinguish sounds; and with them. the stress is laid on the sounds, not on the letters. Chinese distinguish the characters, and lay the stress on the characters, not on the sounds; hence in the language of Tsan, there is an endless variety of sound; with the Chinese, there is an endless variety of the character. In Tsan, the principles of sound excite an admiration, but the letters are destitute of beauty; in China, the characters are capable of evervarying intelligible modifications, but the sounds are not possessed of nice and minute distinctions. The people of Tsan prefer the sounds, and what they obtain enters the ear; the Chinese prefer the beautiful character, and what they obtain enters the eye;" and the Chinese are right; for, unless with their character they gave up their monosyllables, they might almost as well have no written language at all; as, if written alphabetically, it would be wholly unintelligible. The written character assists their meagre monosyllables, an alphabet would completely destroy them. The written character, however, has probably been the means of fixing the spoken language in its primitive monosyllabic form, as the least change or inflexion of the spoken language, must at once and for ever destroy the connection between it and the written character; and this connection, by the way, is no mean proof of the antiquity of the present symbols. (Pref. to Morrison's Dictionary.-Barrow's Travels in China.) These symbols are now reduced to a regular and complete system, which renders the study of the language comparatively easy. A certain number of characters have been selected, which the Chinese call Tse-poo," superintending or directing characters." and sometimes Shoo-moo, or the "Eyes of the Book," which, considering them as composing an index to the book, is no bad name. The Jesuits have given them the name of keys, and sometimes elements or radicals, there being no character in the whole language, into the composition of which some one or other of them do not enter. This number, according to the classification now in general use, consists of two hundred and fourteen, and they are divided into seventeen chapters or classes; beginning with those keys or elements that are composed or formed of one stroke of the pencil, and ending China. China. with those (of which there is only one) composed peen, “ convenient,” the key jin, “man” is on the left. tsoo, ❝ to assist,” has the key lee 1. E 2. 助 tseun, “ the whole,” has the key joo, at the top. that may be wanted. The nature of Chinese symbols admitted, however, of a more beautiful, perfect, and philosophical arrangement, and might, indeed, have been made the most rational and complete system of pasigraphy or universal character, that has yet been attempted. It would seem, indeed, that the Chinese had this idea once in view, but, either through ignorance, pride, or caprice, they have entirely marred the plan, and nearly lost sight of it altogether. In the original adoption of the shoo-moo, or "book's eyes" (the poo or keys), they selected no less than 479 to serve as indices to the characters, the whole of which were marshalled under nine divisions. The first had a few only, consisting of a single line. The second embraced celestial objects, as the sky or firmament, the sun, moon, stars, clouds, rain, thunder, &c. The third, terrestrial objects, as earth, water, metals, hills, rivers, &c. ; the fourth, man, and all the animal functions; the fifth, moving things, including all the rest of the animal creation; the sixth, the vegetable world; the seventh, productions of art and human industry; the eighth, miscellaneous; and ninth, characters of a doubtful genus, whose classification could not well be ascertained. Though this was a complicated, and in some degree an arbitrary classification, yet it comprehends a principle that, if it had been adhered to in simplifying the arrangement of the characters, the Chinese might have challenged the world to produce so beautiful and so philosophical a language as their own. This system, called ping, “ a soldier," has the key pa the Leu-shoo, is that stated by Mr Morrison to have been invented by Paou-she. After this the 479 keys or elementary characters sin, arranged under six divisions, as before-mentioned, The dictionaries are divided into seventeen sections, headed respectively by the seventeen classes or keys, commencing with that class which has its keys of one stroke, and ending with that which is composed of seventeen strokes. The characters which each key governs, or to which it serves as the index, are also divided into classes, according to the number of strokes they contain, beginning at one, and proceeding regularly to the greatest number that any one is found to contain, exclusive of the key; and this number, together with the key character, being marked at the top of every page in the dictionary, afford a clue by which any character in the language may be turned to immediately, having first ascertained the key, and the number of strokes in the remaining part of that character. Thus in the above examples, the character peen will be found under the key jin, and, in the seventh section, there being seven strokes exclusive of the key; in the second, under the fifth section of the index lee; the third, under the fourth section of the index joo; the fourth under the fifth section of the key pa; and the fifth under the ninth section of the index sin. This classification of the characters is extremely simple and easy; the chief object of it would appear indeed, to be like the Linnæan system, that of giving facility to the finding in the dictionary the character 1st Class. The rude representation of the object may now be considered as no longer to exist, but this class consists generally of simple characters, and almost all the great objects of nature are found among the keys or elements which enter into their composition; this may be called the Imitative Class. 2d Class. Under which are comprehended those characters which point out the quality or property of Chim. China parts; the same character, in a figurative sense, expresses moral rectitude, good dispositions, &c. This class may therefore be called the figurative. 3d Class. Under this class might have been ranked all those compound characters which, if the numbers were properly selected, would have given that peculiar beauty and expression to the language which, even in its clumsy and imperfect state, the Chinese still pretend to feel, by employing significant characters, each of which should be connected with the idea to be conveyed by their union. One half of the language, at least, might thus have been composed, and presented a series of symbols, every one of which would have been intelligible to the eye; whereas not one-sixth part at the most, some say not one-tenth, of the compounds, have any relation to their component parts. A few examples will serve to show how much might have been done by attend- high, and ing to a philosophical composition of the compounded characters. Thus, chee, to govern : 喬 keu, 4th Class. The characters arranged under this class are such as embrace both the meaning of the 言 pound 1 信 object and the sound it is supposed to utter; and it nan, male ho, a river with shuee, water, tchei, to stop, tien, a farmer: tien, a field, and ho, a river with makes the compound ho, a river, the name of which is said to imitate the sound. To this class may also be added those objects in the animal kingdom whose generic character can be expressed by one of the elements, and the species by some other character that shall convey its name merely by the sound of the latter character. If, for instance, to the generic character, bird, be added another character whose name or sound is go, the new compound will also be named go, and will signify a goose; if, to the same character bird be added another named ya, the compound will also be ya, and will signify a duck; if, to the generic character tree, be added the appellative pe, the compound will be named pe, and signify a cypress; with tao, it will be called tao, and signify a walnut tree; and with lieou, it will retain the name of lieou, and signify a willow. In this class pin, poverty: may also be comprehended all foreign names written in the Chinese characters, to which, in order to mark shee, tem ← kin, kin, gold, 寺 characters, se-te-lung, and, with the mouth prefix- swamps, depth, transparency, &c. The key or ele China. was taken away, would be read by a Chinese-the magistrate procured a dragon. 5th Class. Consists of an inversion of the sense by an inversion of the whole or some part of the character; or it alters the meaning by giving a different name to the same character; or, lastly, the characters which compose it are used in a figurative or metaphorical sense. An European cannot readily comprehend the illusions or allegories that are frequently contained in a single character, though probably they are not more numerous than those which are found in any of the languages of Europe, rendered easy, and indeed not perceived, by early habit. The combined characters of the sun and moon, which, in a physical sense, expressed brightness, brilliancy, splendour, are also, in a moral or metaphorical sense, noble, illustrious, famous. The characters heart and dead form a third, which signifies forgetfulness: fickleness or levity is represented by a girl and thought; attention, by the heart and totality; antiquity, by mouth and the numeral ten; to flatter, is compounded of word and to lick; to boast, of a mountain and to speak. The wife of a magistrate is used metaphorically for an accomplished lady; a wild boar for courage; and a tiger for ferocity, &c. 6th Class. These characters are either arbitrary, or formed out of some distant or local allusion, most of which are inexplicable to the Chinese themselves. Thus, a bamboo and heaven form a compound, which signifies to laugh; water and to go, compose a character signifying law; wood and the sun form the word east; the character woman three times repeated may signify adultery, or communicating with an enemy. These may or may not be arbitrary combinations. We can explain why the compound of wine and seal should signify marriage, from the circumstance of wine being presented by the bridegroom to the bride as the seal to the contract; and why that of girl and upright should signify concubine, or inferior wife, because such a one must stand in the presence of her lord and master; also, why that of woman and sickness should signify death, because when the sovereign was sick, and given over by the physicians, he was left to die in the hands of women; but by far the greater part are utterly inexplicable. Such, by the Chinese account, is the philosophy of their language; not very clear, it must be confessed, nor exactly calculated for practical facility; but, at the same time, approximating to a very beautiful system. That system has, to a certain degree, been preserved in the modern classification under the 214 elements. Thus, under the element or key which signifies heart, we shall find all the characters arranged expressive of the sentiments, passions, and affections of the mind, as grief, joy, love, hatred, anger, &c. The element water enters into all the compounds which relate to the sea, rivers, lakes, ment plant, takes in the whole vegetable kingdom. Yen, a word, enters into the composition of those characters which relate to reading, speaking, studying, debating, consulting, trusting, &c. All the handicraft trades, laborious employments, and a great number of verbs of action, have the element hand for their governing character. All this is perfectly intelligible; but, on casting a glance over the ele mentary characters, it will be seen that fully one half of them are utterly incapable of being formed into any generic arrangement; and one is surprised and puzzled to conjecture by what accident they could possibly have been included among the elementary characters, or even as indices to characters. The fact is, that, of the 214 characters thus employed, not more than 150 can be considered as effective; the rest being very rarely employed in the combination of characters. Of the 40,000 characters, or thereabouts, contained in the standard dictionary of the language, 60 of the elements govern no less than 25,000. The most prolific is the element grass or plants (No. 140), which presides over 1423 characters; the next water (No. 85), which has 1333; then the hand (No. 64), which has 1012. After these follow, in succession, the mouth, heart, and insect, each having about 900; then a word, a man, and metal, each exceeding 700; next a reed or bamboo, a woman, silk, a bird, flesh, mountain, &c., each governing from 500 to 600, &c. In the modern classification, therefore, of the characters, though probably intended as a more convenient instrument for reference in the dictionaries, so much of the natural arrangement has been preserved as will serve to convey to the eye, at once, the general meaning of a character; at least of such characters as are governed or fall under any of the principal elements. They have even gone beyond this. Feeling how much more capable of nice discrimination the eye is than the ear, the written character has been employed to mark distinctions, which, in an alphabetic language, would be impossible. Instead of the modifications of time, place, age, colour, and the like, by which sensible objects are affected, being expressed by so many epithets or additional characters, in the several stages of their existence, or the lights in which they may be viewed, the Chinese employ only one single character for each several modification of which an object or idea may be susceptible, whether in the physical or intellectual world. Thus they have the key or elementary character for water simply; another under that key for salt water, a third for fresh water, a fourth for muddy water, a fifth for clear water; and so on for running, standing, deep, shallow, and every other qualification that water is capable of receiving; and the same of love, anger, jealousy, ambition, &c.; all of which are expressed by their respective symbols combined with the element heart. China. |