Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/332

 S06 COREAN SOCIAL CUSTOMS. yet in both countries the value of innoculation is un- questionable. Education. If a boy is precocious, he is sent to school at five years of age, the others up to eight ; for education is more common in Corea than even in China. The first book is the Chiendau mun, the " Thousand character door, which is a sort of vocabulary of so many words, beginning with " Heaven, earth, black, yellow, &c." The work is originally Chinese. Like the Three-character classic, it is in rhyme ; but the line is of four, not of three words, It is a very clever production, no two characters being alike. First comes the Chinese character, below it its meaning in Corean, followed by its Chinese name transliterated in Corean letters, as "Heaven, Hanul, Tiun."'* This book is "read by the youngster three times over, — ^first, as just mentioned; next, dropping the Corean signification, retaining the Chinese character with its Chinese name in Corean letters; and the third time, he reads the character alone : and at this stage the scholar begins to write. Thus they have an immense advantage over the Chinese scholar, who commits many hundreds of characters to memory, so as to be able to repeat them glibly, and to recognise the hierogljrphics at sight, while he is entirely ignorant of their meaning, for at least two years of his scholar- hood. The other books which follow this "Thousand character" book, are the ordinary Chinese school books. At fifteen years of age, it is possible to obtain the degree of Siwtsai, which the Coreans call Tsoshi ; a title which they acquire in their district city. In the three hundred odd cities of Corea there are over 1000 Tsoshi, who have, eveiy third year, to go up to the capital to compete for the higher title of Jinsa^ — 200 being the greatest number that can pass. The remaining 800 are not only unsuccessful, but are said to lose their Tsoshi into the bargain, which they have to regain ere they can again and iiun, the tramsUteration of Chinese word in Corean letters.
 * " Heaven" being the Chinese character; ffanul, the Corean for "heaTen";