Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/201

Rh that they may allude to the circumstances of bye-gone days, and enrich their compositions with phrases from ancient authors, who, in the estimation of the Chinese, thought and wrote far better than the moderns. The chief excellency of their essays, consists in introducing as many quotations as possible, and the farther they go back, for recondite and unusual expressions, the better; but they are deprived of every scrap of writing, and are expected to carry their library, to use their own phrase, in their stomachs, that they may bring forth their literary stores as occasion requires.

All this can only be attained by great application and perseverance. The first five or six years at school are spent in committing the canonical books to memory; another six years are required to supply them with phrases for a good style; and an additional number of years, spent in incessant toil, are needed to ensure success. Long before the break of day, the Chinese student may be heard chaunting the sacred books; and till late at night, the same task is continued. Of one man it is related, that he tied his hair to a beam of the house, in order to prevent his nodding to sleep. Another, more resolute, was in the habit of driving an awl into his thigh, when inclined to slumber. One poor lad, suspended his book to the horns of the buffalo, that he might learn while following the plough; and another bored a hole in the wainscot of his cottage, that he might steal a glimpse of his neighbour's light. They tell of one, who fearing that the task assigned him was too hard, gave up his books in despair; and was returning to a manual employment, when he saw an old woman rubbing a crow-bar on a stone; on