Page:China historical and descriptive.djvu/45

Rh two in number, in writing day and night the annals of the reigning dynasty. These hard- worked scribes are on duty by turns, four at a time, and are stationed close to the Emperor's person for the purpose of taking notes of his words and even of his actions, which interesting records are written on loose sheets of paper, and strictly preserved under seal until the throne has been transferred to another race; they are then collected, discussed, reviewed, and for the first time made public.

The first translation of the annals of China was made by Père Moyriac de Mailla, who lived for forty-five years at the court of Peking during the eighteenth century. It is considered a very faithful record, and embraces a period of over four thousand years. Its compilation must have been laborious in the extreme.

According to the most ancient historians, the Chinese owe their first glimpse of civilisation to the Emperor Fuh-he, who lived in the year 2953 B.C. He found his subjects simple savages, recognising only the rights of force, and it became his chief endeavour to lift them from the low condition, little above the beasts, in which they then lived. In those days a man, "though he might know his mother, could not point out his father; his desires were unrestrained. In his sleep he snored; when he rose he yawned; when hungry he ate as much as he could digest, and threw away the remainder. His dress consisted of the skins of animals, his drink their blood; but Fuh-he taught them to make nets and to rear domesticated animals. Observing the constant course of nature, he was