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 478 CHINA (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) districts in the empire, and that each of these with rare exceptions has its record, some idea of this mass of detailed minutiae may he formed. But even this does not include the whole ; for there is a very extensive series also of similar accounts of famous hills, lakes, rivers, and places of note, such as the Bohea hills, Pootoo island, Silver island, the Western lake at Hangchow, and others far too numerous to refer to. There are many accounts of neighboring countries also ; as the CVaou seen che, a description of Corea written by a native of that country. The Chin Id fung foo ke is a description of Cambodia, written by a member of a Chinese embassy to that country in 1295-'7, and is now the only authentic account in any language of the state of that country in the ancient days of its prosperity. (French by Rdmusat, with a map, in Nouvelles annales des voyages, vol. Hi. ; without the map, in Nouteaux melange* asia- tiques, 1829.) The Wei tsang foo shlh is an ac- count of Thibet. (French by Klaproth, Paris, 1831.) The Hae taou ylh che is an account of Java and the Malayan archipelago. (English by Medhurst, " The Chinaman Abroad," Shang- hai, 1849.) The Se tsang Tee is a record of the country and customs of Thibet, with an itin- erary at the end. There are a number of in- teresting accounts of central Asia by Chinese Buddhist travellers in different ages. The Fuh kw6 Tee contains an account of the travels of the priest Ffi-heen through Turkistan and India in the 5th century, where he went to investigate the state of Buddhism. (French by R6musat, Paris, 1836; new ed., with illustrations, in Charton's collection, 1862.) In the L6 yang kea Ian ke, a description of the temples in Lo- yang, the metropolis of the Northern Wei dy- nasty, is a similar account of a mission of Bud- dhist priests in the 6th century. (German by Neumann, Berlin, 1833.) The Ta fang se ylh ke is an account of 138 kingdoms of central Asia, translated chiefly from the Sanskrit, by Heuen-chwang, a Chinese priest who had trav- elled through most of these countries, during an absence of 16 years from his native land. (French by Julien, 2 vols., Paris, 1857.) The geography of Commissioner Lin, Hae kwo foo che, in 50 books, is a description of the world, first issued in 1844. The latest edition is en- larged to 100 books. A later production, the Ting hwan che led, by Seu Ke-yu, formerly governor of Fo-kien, and now (1873) holding a high official post in the capital, though less bulky, is on the whole a much better account of the nations of the world. The maps, though very sparsely filled with names, are correct in the general outlines. The Kwang yu ke, a ge- ography of the empire in 24 books, written about the commencement of the 17th century, is very useful as giving the ancient names of places at different periods. A small number of books have been classed together as " Official Repertories," treating of the numbers and du- ties of various classes of officers of the empire, such as the Leih toe chlh kwan peaou, in 63 books, which consists of a series of tables of the officers of the several departments of govern- ment, and the changes that have taken place in the names and duties of the respective offi- ces, from the earliest times to the present dy- nasty. " Works on the Constitution " comprise some very formidable productions ; as the most voluminous of which may be named the To, ts^ing hwuy teen, in 80 books, giving a develop- ment of the general principles of the govern- ment under the present dynasty. There is an accompanying section of illustrative plates in 132 books ; and a very imposing supplementary section in 920 books, consisting of a historical detail of the changes that have taken place in the several departments of the government since the commencement of the dynasty. Separate works also exist on the governmental regula- tions of each of the six supreme boards, and also of several of the subsidiary ones. A code of laws of the empire is published in 47 books, with the title Ta is" 1 ing leuh le, a book remark- able for the clearness of its phraseology, the reasonableness of its stipulations, and the gen- eral consistency of its ordinances throughout. (English by Staunton, London, 1810; French by Sainte-Croix, Paris, 1812.)" Catalogues," under which head are included books on inscrip- tions, are also tolerably numerous. The cata- logue of the Sze koo tseuen shoo library, with the historical and critical information append- ed to each title, forms one of the finest speci- mens of bibliography possessed by any nation. The Wan yuen k& shoo muh is a catalogue of the imperial library of the Ming dynasty. It was republished in 1800 in 20 books, a bare list of titles. The Wuh gan leh swan shoo muh is a catalogue of the mathematical and astronom- ical works written by Mei Wuh-gan, compiled by himself, containing much curious informa- tion on the state of the science in China. The Kin shoo muh luh is an index expurgatorius, in two parts, the first containing works of which parts only are objectionable and forbid- den ; the second consists of books that are con- demned in toto. There are several ten thou- sands of volumes in all, chiefly written about the close of the last dynasty, and nearly all of a political tendency. Other lists are in circula- tion comprising a long array of novels and light reading, forbidden in consequence of their licen- tious tendency. The most complete work on inscriptions is the Kin Mh tsuy peen, in 160 books, a comprehensive collection from nearly 2,000 before Christ to the beginning of the 13th century of our era. The texts are given in extenso, and much critical addenda. Al- though native scholars altogether exclude nov- els from a place in their literature, yet they are in fact a very important and influential class of reading, forming as they do the views and opinions of the large mass of the people on the history of their own country, being almost the only source from which they gather any ideas on the subject at all. They are not so numer- ous, however, as might be expected under the