Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/165

Rh A GREAT SINOLOGUE.

I have lately been reading Dr. Giles' "Adversaria Sinica," and in reading them, was reminded of a saying of another British Consul Mr. Hopkins that "when foreign residents in China speak of a man as a sinologue, they generally think of him as a fool."

Dr. Giles has the reputation of being a great Chinese scholar. Considering the quantity of work he has done, that reputation is not undeserved. But I think it is now time that an attempt should be made to accurately estimate the quality and real value of Dr. Giles' work.

In one respect Dr. Giles has the advantage over all sinologues past and present,—he possesses the literary gift: he can write good idiomatic English. But on the other hand Dr. Giles utterly lacks the philosophical insight and sometimes even common sense. He can translate Chinese sentences, but he cannot interpret and understand Chinese thought. In this respect, Dr. Giles has the same characteriticscharacteristics [sic] as the Chinese literati. Confucius says, "When men's education or book learning get the better of their natural qualities, they become literati" (Chap. VI. 16.)

To the Chinese literati, books and literature are merely materials for writing books and so they write