Page:Horæ Sinicæ, Translations from the Popular Literature of the Chinese (horsinictran00morrrich, Morrison, 1812).djvu/12

2 The second tract above referred to is called yeu-hio-shi—the Child’s Ode. The third is named ’tsien-tsi-King—the Thousand-character Classic. It contains a thousand characters, every one different, yet so arranged as to make perfect sense.

The title of the fourth tract is Pe-kia-sing―the Hundred Family Names. Though it contains more than a hundred names, it is a remarkable circumstance that the family names throughout the empire are not more numerous; and that persons of the same surname never intermarry.

By committing to memory and copying these tracts, children are initiated in reading and writing. After them the Hiao-King, Szi-shu, &c. follow, according to the order mentioned in the course of this tract.

San-tsi King is the most interesting of the four. The “Child’s Ode” is addressed to the principle of vanity in the child; fine dress, the admiration of the multitude, and the pomp of rank are made use of to stimulate to exertion. The “Thousand-characters,” from their artificial arrangement, are extremely obscure: and the “Hundred Names” are necessarily uninteresting: so that of these tracts this is a favourable specimen.

There are in China a great number of teach-