Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/40

26 of affairs for the whole country. He wanted the Chinese to bury their dead past and begin life again as one nation, to be one people, speaking the same language and using the same kind of writing. But to effect his purposes he used measures which were barbarous and in the end only partially successful. The check which he gave to the progress of learning did not last long, and it was followed by a reaction which more than undid what he had done. But in one thing, at least, he succeeded, for he put an end to the use of the old styles of writing — the Ku-wên, though the canonical writings were long afterwards reprinted in their original characters for scholars. In Shi Huang Ti's time eight kinds of writing, called the Pa-t'i (八體), were current. These were (1) the Ta-chuan(大篆) or Great Seal; (2) the Hsiao-chuan (小篆) or Small Seal; (3) the K'ê-fu (刻符), Carved Tallies; (4) the Chung-shu (蟲書), Insect Writing, from its resemblance to the traces of birds and insects; (5) Mu-yin (慕印), characters used for seals; (6) Shu-shu (署書), used for official notices, etc. ; (7) Shu-shu (殳書), used for inscriptions on weapons; (8) Li-shu (隸書), the square, clear writing for use in public offices. Of these, the first and second alone were used for the ordinary writing on tablets of wood and bamboo. But Shi Chow's writing had been found to be too complicated for common purposes. So a simplified form of it was devised by Li Ssŭ (李斯), a Minister of State to Shi Huang Ti. It was this minister who advised the Emperor to burn the books and kill the scholars. Hence he has come down to posterity with a bad name, though acknowledged as a man of learning and abilities. The style of writing which he introduced, called the Small (or Ch'in) Chuan, was developed in a book to which he gave the name "Ts'ang-chie" (蒼頡). About the same time another scholar wrote a work called the "Yuan-li" (爰歷), and a third composed the Po-hsio (博學). Chao Kao (趙高) was the author of the former treatise, and Hu Mu Ching (胡母敬) of the latter. These three works, which formed a treatise called the "San-ts'ang" (三蒼) or "Ts'ang-chie-pien," were all written in the Small Seal characters, to which they gave a temporary popularity.