Page:The Chinese language and how to learn it.djvu/33

 雲、起而捲霄、畢方飛而升屋

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE 15 room. J! finish ijk cloud, ff-, then ~)j rise ^g fly fjl and ffij and fljj roll up ^ rise ^f* mist, H^ The above passage is taken from a letter in the published collection of the correspondence of one Yuan Tzu-ts'ai, a scholar holding office at Nanking in A.D. 1716, whose style is held in high esteem. The writer condoles with a friend on the occasion of his house being burnt down. The elementary meanings of the various characters are given, as stated above, but many of these have various significations either singly or in combination, and any one with a knowledge of Chinese would be assisted in his selection by experience, as well as by examples quoted in the dictionary. Even so, there is certainly no European scholar, and probably very few Chinese, who could understand the passage without the assistance of a commentary. It consists of eight sentences, and eight elliptical quotations from various authors, none of which could be intelligibly rendered without considerable amplification of the context from which they were derived, accompanied by copious notes. It should of course be understood that the passage has been selected as an illustration of the difficulties with which the Chinese can, if they like, beset their own language. Happily it is by no means necessary for any one, even a Chinese himself, to indulge in this literary jugglery. The modern style of Chinese composition that is daily gaining ground, partly in consequence of the revised system of education, which is placing classics and poetry somewhat in the back- ground, and also through the influence of the newspapers, which are now read by millions of people, is bringing a much simpler form of composition into vogue which can be read with comparative ease.