Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/175

Rh common objects, in the beginning of which certain sounds occurred, they formed a rude representation of the object, and made it stand for the sound in question; thus aleph, "an ox;" beth, "a house;" gimel, "a camel;" and daleth, "a door;" were probably pictured something like those objects, and stood for the sounds a, b, g, and d. Pursuing this method, they soon obtained marks for all the elementary sounds, and, combining them, formed words. This brought about an entire revolution in the written medium of the ancients; and certain combinations of characters became the representatives of audible words, instead of visible objects; by which the written medium was rendered as full, compact, and definite as a spoken tongue; and ideas were communicated to the distance of a thousand years, or as many miles, with certainty and precision.

We are now prepared to consider the origin and nature of the Chinese mode of writing. Their traditions tell us that, in the infancy of their empire, events were recorded by means of knotted cords, as among the Peruvians. These were soon found indistinct, and pictorial representations were resorted to, similar to those used by the Mexicans. The abridged plan of the Egyptians was then adopted; and curiologic, tropical, and symbolic hieroglyphics were used; till, all these proving insufficient, arbitrary marks were invented, and increased, till the present written medium, with all its variety and multiplicity, was formed. The Chinese characters are not strictly hieroglyphic, as they were neither invented by, nor confined to the priesthood. They were in the first instance, doubtless, pictorial, then symbolic, afterwards compounded, and finally arbitrary.