Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/233

 he would never admit the possibility of being wrong, which gained for him the sobriquet of the Obstinate Minister. He attempted to reform the examination system, requiring from the candidate not so much graces of style as a wide acquaintance with practical subjects. "Accordingly," says one Chinese writer, "even the pupils at village schools threw away their text-books of rhetoric, and began to study primers of history, geography, and political economy." He was the author of a work on the written characters, with special reference to those which are formed by the combination of two or more, the meanings of which, taken together, determine the meaning of the compound character. The following is a letter which he wrote to a friend on the study of false doctrines :

" I have been debarred by illness from writing to you now for some time, though my thoughts have been with you all the while.

"In reply to my last letter, wherein I expressed a fear that you were not progressing with your study of the Canon, I h:ive received several from you, in all of which you seem to think I meant the Canon of Buddha, and you are astonished at my recommendation of such per- nicious works. But how could I possibly have intended any other than the Canon of the sages of China ? And for you to have thus missed the point of my letter is a good illustration of what I meant when I said I feared you were not progressing with your study of the Canon.

" Now a thorough knowledge of our Canon has not been attained by any one for a very long period. Study of the Canon alone does not suffice for a thorough knowledge of the Canon. Consequently, I have been myself an omnivorous reader of books

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