Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/491

 CHINA (LANGUAGE AND LITEBATUBK) 479 circumstances; nor do they to their readers lose any of their freshness with age. They are more or less colloquial in language, and are studied by foreigners as exercises in the Man- darin dialect. From one and another a tolera- bly connected view of history may be obtained. In the Fung shin yen e we have the adven- tures of Woo-wang, son of the founder of the Chow dynasty, about the 12th century B. C. The Lee kw6 che embraces the last five or six centuries of the same dynasty. The Se nan yen e covers the first two centuries B. C., be- ing the story of the Western Han popularized ; and the Tung Jian yen e, which is a corre- sponding tale of the Eastern Han, includes the first two centuries of our era. The univer- sally read and most popular story of the San-kwo che yen e turns altogether on the troubles that followed on the overthrow of the Eastern Han, when the country was divi- ded into three states, embracing the period from 168 to 265. (French translation of the first 44 chapters, by Pavie, 2 vols., Paris, 1845.) The Nan plh chaou yen e describes the succeeding period, when the empire was divided between the northern and southern dynasties. The Suy fang yen e is a popular record of the Suy and Tang dynasties. The Tseen fang relates the downfall of the Tang dynasty. The T'ang woo tae chuen gives the latter part of the Tang with the succeeding five dynasties. The Shwuy hoo chuen is a tale of brigandage about the close of the llth century; and the Shwo yo tseuen chuen is founded on the history of Y6 Fei, a famous general of the 12th century. The Se yew ke is a mythical account of the adventures of Heuen-chwang, the Buddhist priest who went to India in search of Buddhist books in the 7th century. The Kin ping mei is a picture of the dissolute manners of the age at the beginning of the 12th century. As a literary work it stands high, but is condemned for its immoral character. The Se yang ke is an apocryphal history of the expedition of the eunuch Ching Ho to subdue the refractory nations of the southern ocean, at the com- mencement of the 15th century. The Ching tth hwang yew keang nan chuen recounts the adventures of the emperor in a supposed in- cognito journey through Kiang-nan province in the 16th century. (English by Tsin-shen, Malacca, 1846.) Life in the metropolis during the present dynasty is depicted in the Hung low mung, written in a very colloquial dialect. The Haou kew chuen (" The two Fair Cousins ") is a tale of social life. (Englisk by Percy, London, 1761 ; French, Lyons, 1766 ; German by Marr, Leipsic, 1766.) The Tuh keaou le is also a picture of domestic manners. (French by Remusat, Paris, 1826; by Julien, 1864; English, London, 1827.) The Ping shan lang yen is more admired for the language than the plot. (French by Julien, Les deux jeunes filles lettreet, Paris, 1860.) The Leaou chae che e is a popular book of fairy tales, or rather stories of elfin foxes and such like, by P'oo Sung-ling, 186 VOL. iv. 31 and published by his grandson in 1740. There are in all 300 of these legends, collected by the author chiefly from the mouths of the people, among whom there is a strong belief in the possession of foxes by these ethereal sprites. The Kin koo ke kwan is a small collection, as the name implies, of marvellous tales of fiction relating to ancient and modern times. The Lung Voo kung yan is a series of causes celebres in the Chinese courts of justice, giving a cu- rious insight into some of the more tortuous cases of jurisprudence among them. In con- trast with the preceding, there is a class of authors termed orthodox writers, who are deemed the special upholders of the doctrine of Confucius, and whose works are assumed to be the proper objects of study for all who as- pire to eminence in the government or the school of the literati. Every age has had its men of mark in this school, and, comparing the writings of various authors, we find con- siderable latitude of views among them. Be- fore the Christian era we have such names as Seun Hwang, the opponent of the views of Mencius regarding the original rectitude of human nature, whose writings are known by the title Seun tsze ; Kea E, the author of the Sin shoo ; Lew Heang, author of the Sin seu and Shwo yuen ; and Yang Heung, author of the Fa yen and other works. It would be easy to go on from age to age, quoting such scholars as Han Wan-kung, Lin Shin-sze, and a host of others; but the period that calls for special notice is the llth century, which forms an epoch in the history of the orthodox school. The philosophic views first propound- ed by Chow Leen-ke were followed up by Chang Ming-taou and the two brothers Ch'ing Haou and Ch'ing E. The renowned philoso- pher of China, Choo He, was the pupil of Ch'ing Haou, and by his writings gave a lustre to that school of teaching, that has been able to bear down all opposition. These men thought out for themselves a system of the universe, and formed a theory according to which all nature was developed by a process of evolution from a primal monad, or even something beyond that. The writings of Choo on natural and ethical philosophy have had a wonderful in- fluence over the native mind. In 1713 the emperor ordered a collection to be made of the principal of Choo's philosophical works, which were published under his immediate supervi- sion, with the title Choo tsze tseuen shoo. One of his most widely popular productions is a small work for the instruction of youth, en- titled Seaou heo. (Latin by Noel, Prague, 1711 ; French by Pluquet, Paris, 1784; the first two out of six books in English by Bridgman, in the " Chinese Repository," Canton, 1837-'8.) It was one of Choo's pupils, Ch'in Chun, who first introduced the term Sing le as the desig- nation for mental philosophy, and a number of works have been since written on that science. The third emperor of the Ming had a collection made of all the principal writings