Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/15

Rh published the San Tzŭ Ching in Chinese and Latin, with notes, as part of his Cursus Litteraturae Sinicae; and in 1892 the Rev. E. J. Eitel, Inspector of Schools in Hongkong, supplied to the China Review (vol. XX, p. 35) a new English rendering, without any notes at all, the aim of which, according to the author, was intended to be "exclusively tutorial." This last is a very poor production, inferior in fact to any one of the earlier versions mentioned above; and so far from being adopted for "tutorial" purposes, it should be carefully removed from the hands of any student either English or Chinese.

It is hoped that the present work will prove to be an advance upon those which have gone before. In addition to the text of Wang Hsiang and a translation with explanatory notes, the literal meaning of each character is given, with its sound and its all-important tone according to the Peking dialect, and with its structural analysis as found in the 說文 Shuo Wên, an etymological dictionary by 許慎 Hsü Shên, who died about A.D. 120. There are also some Appendices, showing passages which have been interpolated by later hands, chiefly in order to bring the historical portion down to the present dynasty.

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Cambridge, 20 March, 1900.