The History Of The Great And Mighty Kingdom Of China And The Situation Thereof Part 18

[99] Possibly this word is confounded with Colao or Chung-tang, a minister of state.

[100] More properly To't'ung.

[101] More properly Po-ching-sz, or, as Du Halde has it, Pou-ching-ssee.

[102] More properly Too-tuh, adjutant-general.

[103] More properly Ngan-tcha-see.

[104] More properly Hai-tao. Respecting these offices see Du Halde, vol. ii, fol. 32, 33.

[105] Standard-bearer.

[106] More properly Paou-yin.

[107] This and the preceding t.i.tle seem to be the same as those similarly spelt on page 103.

[108] Perhaps the Koo-ta-sze, or treasurer.

[109] Perhaps the Che-tsze, or secretary.

[110] Taou, tae, the intendant of circuits.

[111] More properly Kwan-paou, commissioner of customs. See Morrison's _View of China_, p. 94.

[112] Perhaps Te-paou, a police runner.

[113] More properly Yuen-chae, a police constable.

[114] Perhaps Ching-tang, a.s.sistant officer in a prise.

[115] s.h.i.+n is the Chinese for the verb "to judge", and with the word officer added to it will be "a judging officer". Thus also leu--law, prefixed to che--to rule, or govern, may be the origin of the term Leuchi. This construction is, however, entirely conjectural.

[116] See note on page 113.

[117] This character is so vague as to be scarcely recognizable. The proper Chinese word for heaven is tien. The word here given may perhaps mean tsang, _the azure sky_, which is sometimes used metaphorically for heaven. At the same time the modern Chinese character for Keen, also p.r.o.nounced Kan [Chinese character], which is likewise a very old word for heaven, appears somewhat to approximate in form to the character given in the text.

[118] Evidently hw.a.n.g te, the character here given corresponding with the modern Chinese character Hw.a.n.g. [Chinese character]

[119] This character would seem to be intended for ching,--a walled city, the correct form of the character being [Chinese character]

[120] Fucheou, the capital of Fokien.

[121] _Padrinos_, _Span_.--Literally sponsors.

[122] A German.

[123] A misprint for Pegu.

[124] Mis-translated from the Spanish "Tudesco", a German. The reader will readily recognize the name of Johann Gutemberg or Ganzfleisch, of Mentz, who disputes with Laurens Koster, of Haarlem, the honour of having invented and first practised the art of printing with moveable types.

[125] Conrad Sweynheim, who, in partners.h.i.+p with Arnold Pannartz, published in 1465, at the Monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, the _Lactantii Opera_, 4to., the first work printed in Italy. The _De Civitate Dei_ of St. Augustine, was printed by the same printers at Subiaco two years later. It is now known that the first book printed in Europe with metal types, was the _Mazarine Bible_, printed by Gutemberg and Fust, at Mentz, in 1455.

[126] Germany.

[127] Printing without moveable types does not go back, even in China, beyond the beginning of the tenth century of our era. The first four books of Confucius were printed, according to Klaproth, in the province of Sze-chuen, between 890 and 925, and the description of the technical manipulation of the Chinese printing press might have been read in western countries even as early as 1310, in Raschid Eddin's Persian history of the rulers of Khatai. According to the most recent results of the important researches of Stanislas Julien, however, an ironsmith in China itself, between the years 1041 and 1048, A.D., or almost 400 years before Gutemberg, would seem to have used moveable types made of burnt clay. This is the invention of Pi-sching, but it was not brought into application. See Humboldt's _Kosmos_, translated by Otte, fol. 623. Moveable types are now no longer used, for as Sir John Davis observes, vol. ii, p. 222, "the present mode of Chinese printing with wooden stereotype blocks is peculiarly suited to the Chinese character, and for all purposes of cheapness and expedition is perfect". A complete set of the materials used by the Chinese in the process of printing, may be seen in the Museum of the Royal Asiatic Society. In the note on page 121 of Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, edited for the Hakluyt Society by J. Winter Jones, Esq., the following description is given of a book printed in 1348: "The earliest work of which we have been able to obtain an account, from one having had the opportunity of personally inspecting it, bears date the eighth year of the last period of the reign of Shun Te, or A.D. 1348. Mr. Prevost, our informant, who is at present engaged in cataloguing the splendid collection of Chinese books in the British Museum, has favoured us with the following description of the book. The t.i.tle is 'Chin Tsaou Tseen Wan, or the Thousand Character Cla.s.sic'. It is one of the most popular works in China, and consists of exactly one thousand different characters, not one being repeated. It is composed in octosyllabic verses, which rhyme in couplets; each verse presenting to the student some useful Chinese notion, either in morals or in general knowledge.

The object of this work is to teach the written character, both in its semi-cursive and in its stenographic form, termed Tsaou, or gra.s.s-writing: the text is, therefore, printed in parallel columns, alternately in the Chin, or correct, and the Tsaou, or cursive character. The author lived in the first half of the sixth century.

This work, when seen by Mr. Prevost, was in the possession of Colonel Tynte." The Editor has also in his own possession a Chinese bank note, printed, or rather stamped, in the fourteenth century.

[128] Hou-quang.

[129] A sort of confection made of almonds, sugar, etc.

[130] Bever, probably from bevere, _Ital._, to drink, a small collation between dinner and supper.

[131] _Vname_, is probably _Yew ma_,--pitch, or the resin of the pine.

In Morrison's _Dictionary_, "tar" is translated _Pa ma yew_: but the Editor finds nothing a.n.a.logous to _Ja pez_, which is probably now obsolete.

[132] The Goletta of Tunis was taken from the Spaniards by Sinan Pacha, admiral of Selim II, on the 23rd of August 1574.

[133] Mistranslated for "the extensive knowledge which I had of navigation."

[134] Misspelt for Corunna.