Chapter 32 chapter 32

First, then, that the knowledge of Chinese among Europeans has changed, is only so far true, it seems to us, that the greater part of the difficulty of acquiring a knowledge of the language has been removed. "The once prevalent belief," says Mr. Giles, "in the great difficulty of acquiring a colloquial knowledge, even of a single Chinese dialect has long since taken its place among other historical fictions." Indeed, even with regard to the written language , a student in the British Consular Service, after two years residence in Peking and a year or two at a Consulate, can now readily make out at sight the general meaning of an ordinary dispatch. That the knowledge of Chinese a-mong foreigners in China has so far changed, we readily admit; but what is contended for beyond this we feel very much inclined to doubt.

After the early Jesuit missionaries, the publication of Dr. Morrison's famous dictionary is justly regarded as the point de part of all that has been accomplished in Chinese scholarship. The work will certainly remain a standing monument of the earnestness, zeal and conscientiousness of the early Protestant Missionaries. After Morrison came a class of scholars of whom Sir John Davis and Dr. Gutzlaff might be taken as representatives. Sir John Davis really knew no Chinese, and he was honest enough to confess it himself. could perhaps without much difficulty read a novel written in that dialect. But such knowledge as he then possessed, would now-a-days scarcely qualify a man for an interpreter-ship in any of the Consulates. about the Chinese of most Englishmen, even to this day, will be found to have been acquired from Sir John Davis s book on China. Dr. Gutzlaff perhaps knew a little more Chinese than Sir John Davis; but he attempted to pass himself off as knowing a great deal more than he did. The late Mr. Thomas Meadows afterwards did good service in exposing the pretension of Dr. Gutzlaff, and such other men as the missionaries Hue and Du Halde. After this, it is curious to find Mr. Boulger, in his recent History of China, quoting these men as authorities.

In France, Remusat was the first to occupy a Chair of Chinese Professorship in any European University. Of his labors we are not in a position to express an opinion. But one book of his attracted notice: it was a translation of a novel, " The Two Cousins. The book was read by Leigh Hunt, and by him recommended to Carlyle, and by Carlyle to John Stirling, who read it with delight, and said that the book was certainly written by a man of genius, but "a man of genius after the dragon pattern, "the Ju Kiao Li, * as the novel is called in Chinese, is a pleasant enough book to read, but it takes no high place even among the inferior class of books of which it is a specimen. Nevertheless it is always pleasant to think that thoughts and images from the brain of a Chinaman have actually passed through such minds as those of Carlyle and Leigh Hunt.

After Remusat followed Stanislas Julien and Pauthier. The German poet Heine says that Julien made the wonderful and important discovery that Mons. Pauthier did not understand Chinese at all and the latter, on the other hand, also made a discovery, namely that Monsieur Julien knew no Sanscrit. Nevertheless the pioneering work done by these writers was very considerable. One advantage they possessed was that they were thorough masters of their own language. Another French writer might be mentioned, Mons. D Harvey St. Denys, whose translation of the T Ang poets is a breach made into one department of Chinese literature in which nothing has been done before or since.

In Germany Dr. Plath of Munich published a book on China, which he entitled "Die Manchurei." Like all books written in Germany, it is a solid piece of work thoroughly well done. Its evident design was to give a history of the origin of the present Manchu dynasty in China. But the latter portions of the book contain information on questions connected with China, which we know not where to find in any other book written in a European language. Such work as Dr. Williams s Middle Kingdom is a mere nursery story-book compared with it. Another German Chinese scholar is Herr von Strauss, formerly the Minister of a little German principality which has since been swallowed up by Prussia. The old Minister in his retirement a-mused himself with the study of Chinese . He published a translation of Lao Tzu, and recently of the Shih King. Mr. Faber, of Canton, speaks of some portions of his Lao Tzu as being perfect. His translation of the Odes is also said to be very spirited. We have , unfortunately , not been able to procure these books.

The scholars we have named above may be regarded as sinologues of the earliest period, beginning with the publication of Dr. Morrisonss dictionary. The second period began with the appearance of two standard works: st, the Tzu Erh Chih of Sir Thomas Wadend, the Chinese Classics of Dr. Legge. As to the first, those who have now gone beyond the Mandarin colloquial in their knowledge might be inclined to regard it lightly. But it is, notwithstanding, a great work_the most perfect, within the limits of what was attempted, of all the English books that have been published on the Chinese language. The book, moreover, was written in response to a crying necessity of the time. Some such book had to be written, and lo! it was done, and done in a way that took away all chance of contemporary as well as future competition.