China.
—The dates of the beginnings of literature in China are uncertain. If we could accept as authentic the claims of the Chinese historians, the origins of their civilization must be traced back to a period antedating by thousands of years the accepted records of Chaldea and Egypt. It is, however, I understand, the present conclusion of the archæologists that the beginnings of the development of the civilization of the Chinese, as also of that of the East Indian peoples, are to be placed at a time considerably later than the date of the earliest records of the peoples of Mesopotamia. According to certain authorities, written characters existed in China as early as 5000 B.C. According to others, they first took shape more than a thousand years later. The Emperor Fu-hi, reigning about 3500 years before Christ, is credited with the invention of the Chinese alphabet. As the Emperor was walking near his palace, possibly musing on the inconveniences of ruling a country without an alphabet, his attention was attracted by the beautiful markings of a very large toad that he encountered. He took the beast home with him, and (under the guidance of the proper deity) evolved from the designs on the toad’s back the figures of the original Chinese characters. He very probably said to himself (paraphrasing the old nursery saying), “It looks like an alphabet, and it hops like an alphabet, why not call it an alphabet?” One can imagine a scholar in later years, puzzling over the lengthy series of Chinese characters, wishing that his Imperial Highness had happened to meet a smaller or a less variegated toad.
About the year 3000 B.C., the Emperor Hoang-ti is said to have invented the decimal system and the measurement of time, and also to have completed the organization of the Empire. If this date is to be relied upon, the organization of the Chinese State was taking shape about eight centuries after the time of the great Sargon of Agadê, who brought to its highest power the earlier Chaldean empire. The national ballads or folk-songs, later collected under the title of the Book of Odes, are believed by Legge to antedate the Empire—that is, to have come into circulation while the territory was still separated into a number of independent states or principalities. These folk-songs were collected by the minstrels and historiographers working under the direction of the feudatory princes, and the complete collection, when reshaped by Confucius, is said to have comprised as many as three thousand songs. The writer of the article on China in the Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition) speaks of the collection as probably antedating any other known work of literature. The folk-songs themselves certainly existed from a very early date, but, according to Karpeles, the collection did not take the form of a book until after 1000 B.C. Karpeles believes that the earliest known work in Chinese literature is the Y-king, the Book of the Metamorphoses, or of Developments, which dates from 1150 B.C., about two centuries earlier than the generally accepted date of the Homeric poems. The author, Wang-wang, having been put into prison for some political offence, employed his enforced leisure in working out a philosophical system based upon the maxims of the Emperor Fu-hi.[5]
The Book of the Developments continued in high honor for many centuries, and early in the fifth century B.C. was reissued by Confucius, with an elaborate analysis and commentary, serving to make its teachings available for later generations. He also issued a “final edition” of the Book of Songs, which comprised, out of the three thousand of the old collection, the three hundred which were best worth preservation. Confucius takes rank in China as practically the founder of its literature, of its system of morals, and of its religious ideal or standard. The name Confucius is the Latinized form of Kung Fu-tsze—Kung, the teacher or master. He was free, says one of his disciples, from four things: foregone conclusions, arbitrary determinations, obstinacy, and egoism. A good American of the present time may express the regret that Confucius, or some disciples like him, had not been spared to occupy seats in the Senate Chamber at Washington.
What is known as the religion of Confucius, comprises in substance the old-time national or popular faith freshly interpreted into the thought and language of the later generation, and shaped into a practical system of morals as a guide for the action of the state and for the daily life of the individual citizen.
It is interesting to compare the different forms taken by the earliest literary traditions of the different peoples of antiquity. The Greek brings to us as the corner-stone of his literature and of his beliefs, the typical epics, the Iliads and the Odyssey; poems of action and prowess, commemorating the great deeds of the ancestors, and describing the days when men were heroes, and heroes were fit companions and worthy antagonists for the gods themselves.
The imagination of the East Indian has evolved a series of gorgeous and grotesque dreams, in which all conditions of time and space appear to be obliterated, and in which the universe is pictured as it might appear in the visions of the smoker of haschisch. It is difficult to gather from these wild fancies of the earlier Indian poets (and the earlier writers were essentially poets) any trustworthy data concerning the history of the past, or any practical instruction by which to guide the life of the present. The present is but a tiny point, between the immeasurable æons of the past and the nirvana of the future, and seems to have been thought hardly worthy the attention of thinking beings.
The Egyptian literary idea has apparently been thought out in the temple, and it is from the priests that the people receive the record of the doings of its gods and of the immeasurable dynasties of monarchs selected by the gods to express their will, while it is also to the priests that the people must look for instruction concerning the duty of the present.
The Assyrian records read, on the other hand, as if they were the work of royal scribes, writing under the direct supervision of the kings themselves. The gods are described, and their varied relations to the world below are duly set forth. But the emphasis of the narrative appears to be given to the glory and the achievements of such great monarchs as Sargon and Asshurbanipal, as if a long line of scribes, writing directly for the king’s approval, had continued the chronicles from reign to reign.
The early literary and religious ideals of China took a very different form. We find here no priestly autocracy, controlling all intellectual activities and giving a revelation as to the nature of the universe, the requirements of the gods, and the obligations of men, obligations which have never failed to include the strictest obedience to the behests of the priests, the representatives of the gods. There are no court chronicles, dictated under royal supervision, and devoted not to the needs of the people, but to the glorious achievements of the monarchs. Nor is there any great epic, commemorating the deeds of heroes and demi-gods. In place of these we find what may be called a practical system of applied ethics. Confucius was evidently neither a visionary dreamer nor a poet, nor did he undertake to establish any priestly or theological authority for his teaching. He gives the impression of having been an exceptionally clear-headed and capable thinker, who devoted himself, somewhat as Socrates did a century later, to studying out the problems affecting the life of the state and of the individual. With Socrates, however, the chief thing appears to have been the intellectual interest of the problem, while with Confucius, the controlling purpose was evidently the welfare of his fellow-men. It was his aim, as he himself expressed it, through a rewriting of the wise teachings left us by our ancestors, so as to adapt them to the understanding of the present generation, to guide men to wise and wholesome lives, and to prepare them for a better future.[6]
The work of Confucius stands as the foundation-stone of the literature, the morals, and the state-craft of China. It was continued by such writers as Mencius, 350 B.C., and Tsengtze, 320 B.C.
The works of the earlier authors secured, we are told, an immediate circulation, but we have no knowledge as to the methods employed for their distribution. It seems probable that in the earlier as in the later centuries, the authors whose works found approval with the authorities received directly from the state compensation for their literary and philosophic labors.
The material used for the earliest known writings was made from bamboo fibre, and was prepared in the shape of tablets. Early in the third century B.C. (curiously enough, during the reign of Hwang-ti, the destroyer of literature), brushes were invented, with which characters could be traced upon silk. The bamboo was either scratched upon with a sharp stylus, or the characters were painted upon it with a dark varnish. Sometimes also the characters were burned into the bamboo, with a heated metal stylus. India ink was first used in the seventh century. The invention of paper took place about 100 B.C., the first material utilized for the manufacture being bark, fishing-nets, and rags. Printing from solid blocks was done as early as the first century A.D. The invention of the art of printing from movable type is credited to a blacksmith named Pi-Shing. The blacksmith’s first books were turned out towards the close of the tenth century A.D., or early in the eleventh century, more than three centuries before the presses of Gutenberg began their work in Mayence.
The movable type used by Pi-Shing were made of plastic clay. At the same time, or shortly thereafter, porcelain type were utilized. The printing from movable type never seems to have developed to such extent as to supersede block printing. The Emperor Kang-He had engraved about two hundred and fifty thousand copper type, which were used for printing the publications of the government. These type were afterwards melted for use as cash, but were replaced by his grandson with type made from lead.[7]
There is record of books being printed in Corea (at that time a province of the Empire) from movable clay type, as early as 1317 A.D.[8]
Literature has always been an honored profession in China, and seems even in the earliest times to have attracted a larger proportion of workers than, during the same period, were engaged in literary pursuits in any other countries in the world. The mass of literature was very much added to after the introduction of Buddhism into the country, which took place during the first century of the Christian era. Karpeles states that a selection of the early Chinese classics, with commentaries, undertaken under the direction of one of the emperors in the eighteenth century, would, it was calculated, comprise when completed, 163,000 volumes. By the year 1818, there had been published of the series, 78,731 volumes.[9] From this enormous mass of material a few books only stand out as possessing distinctive importance by reason of their influence on the thought and the life of many generations.
There are the five King and the four Schu, or “books.” The term “king” means literally a web, a thing woven, or fabricated. Its use in this connection recalls the ῥαπτός of the Greek rhapsodists, a term which, originally meaning a thing spun or a yarn, came also to stand for a literary production of a certain class, a “yarn” that could be recited. The five King were the “webs” or productions of wise and holy writers, but the names of these writers have not been preserved, even as a tradition. The first in order is the Y-king, already mentioned, the Book of the Developments, which is much the oldest in the series. The second is the Schu-king or Book of Chronicles, which begins its narrative with the time of Noah, and gives the record of the dynasties from 2400 to 721 B.C. In addition to the historical chronicles, the Schu-king contains, in the form of dialogues between the emperors and the councillors, the instruction in the principles of state-craft, in philosophy, in the science of war, in music, in astronomy, and in general culture. The headings of some of the chapters recall the matters treated in The Prince of Machiavelli. The following “royal maxims” do not, however, sound Machiavellian: “Virtue,” says the great councillor Yih, speaking to the emperor, “is the foundation of your realm”; “The ruler must lead his people in the paths of virtue”; “Guard yourself from false shame, and if you have committed an error, hasten to make frank acknowledgment of the same. Otherwise you will mislead your subjects.”[10]
The third of the canonical books is the Schi-king or Book of Songs, already referred to. This presents the selection made by Confucius of the hymns, ballads, and folk-songs collected from the earliest generations. The fourth is the Tschun-tshien, or Spring and Autumn Year-Book, which is ascribed to Confucius. It is a brief chronicle of events covering a space of 240 years. The fifth is the Li-ki, or Book of Ritual, or of Conduct. This gives detailed instructions concerning the proper ceremonials for all events of life, from the cradle to the grave.
With these classics should be grouped certain books prepared by the followers of Confucius, the most important of which, the Lün-yü, or Conversations, is a record of the instruction given by Confucius to his pupils in the form of talks. In these conversations we find questions shaped in a method quite Socratic. With this should be grouped the Mengtsze, the record of the work of the philosopher Mencius. His instruction seems, like that of his great forerunner, to have been very practical in its character. Associated with the earlier teachings of Confucius, the instruction of Mencius was accepted as the basis of the moral and the educational system of the nation.
The enormous respect which the Chinese have given to the works produced during their classical period is believed by authorities like Williams and Wade to have exercised an influence on the whole detrimental to the development and to the originality of their later literature.
The first active literary period preceded Confucius, 500 B.C. From this period have been preserved the classics already referred to. The next important epoch is that of the “interpreters,” the counsellors and the lawgivers, extending from Confucius to Mencius, 350 B.C. They were followed by a long line of annalists and commentators, whose work came to an abrupt close with the reign of the Emperor Che Hwang-ti, 221-226 B.C. Hwang-ti was evidently a man with opinions of his own. He objected to what seemed to him an exaggerated and mischievous reverence for the “good old times,” and he proposed to discourage the laudator temporis acti. He issued an edict directing all books to be burned excepting those treating of medicine, divination, and husbandry. This index expurgatorius (possibly the earliest in history) included all the writings of Confucius and Mencius, comprising both their original work and their compilations and editions of the earlier classics. It was further ordered that any one who dared to mention the Book of History or the Book of Odes should be put to death. Any one possessing, thirty days after the issue of the edict, a copy of the books ordered destroyed, was to be branded and put to labor for four years upon the great wall. This is probably the most drastic and comprehensive policy for the suppression of a literature that the world has ever seen. Fortunately, like similar attempts in later centuries, it was only partially successful. While the destruction of books was enormous, and while, of long lists of works, it is probable that all existing copies actually did disappear, the texts of the most important, including the specially obnoxious Book of History and Book of Songs, were preserved. According to one tradition, a large number of the songs were saved only by having been retained in the memory of public reciters and their hearers. After the death of the Emperor Che, the text of these was taken down and again committed to writing. This instance is, one recalls, fully in line with the methods by which in Greece, before the general use of writing, the earlier classics were preserved in the memories of the rhapsodists and their hearers.
It is the opinion of Dr. Williams that the command of the Emperor Che for the destruction of all books was so thoroughly executed that “of many classical works not a single copy escaped destruction. The books were, however, recovered in great part by rewriting them from the memories of old scholars.... If the same literary tragedy should be enacted to-day, thousands of persons might easily be found in China who could rewrite from memory the text and the commentary of their nine classical works.”
Williams is also my authority for the statement that not only were the books destroyed as far as copies could be found, but that nearly five hundred literati were burned alive, in order that no one might remain to reproach in his writings the emperor for the commission of so barbarous an act.[11]
One of the most celebrated female writers in China was Pan Whui-pan, also known as Pan Chao, the sister of the historian Pan Ku, who wrote the history of the Han dynasty. She was appointed historiographer after the death of her brother, and completed, about A.D. 80, his unfinished annals. A little later she wrote the first work in any language on female education, which was called Nü Kiai or Female Precepts, and which has formed the basis of many succeeding books on female education. In the writings of this and of other Chinese authoresses, instructions in morals and in the various branches of domestic economy are insisted upon as the first essentials in the education of women, and as more important than a knowledge of the classics or of the annals.[12]
1050 A.D. Wang Pih-ho, of the Sung dynasty, compiled for his private school a horn-book or manual of education, entitled the San-tsz’ King. The manual is interesting not merely as giving a general study of the nature of man and the existence of modes of education, but because it includes a list of books recommended for the student, a list which gives an impression of the extent of the education and literature of that date.[13]
The golden age of Chinese literary production is fixed by Sir Thomas Wade at the period of the Tang dynasty, 620-907 A.D. In 922 A.D. an edition of the classical writers was printed and published under the instructions of the Emperor. The tendency of writers since the tenth century has been to devote their energies to commentaries on the ancient works, and to analyses and interpretations of these rather than to original production. The writing of historical annals has, however, gone on with great regularity, and the series of Chronicles of the Kingdom is very comprehensive in its completeness.
The rewards of authors are given in the shape of official appointments and preferments, and of honors and honorariums bestowed directly by the state. It seems probable that in modern as in ancient times the writers of China could look for no direct returns from the circulation of their productions. It is nevertheless the case that from the time of Confucius to the present day, that is for a period of two thousand four hundred years, the direct influence of scholars, thinkers, and writers has been greater in China than in any other part of the world. The state as a whole and the individual citizen, from the Emperor down, have, as a rule, been ready to recognize and accept the authority and the guidance of literary ideals and of intellectual standards. The case would be paralleled if the French Academy had existed from the time of Charlemagne to the present day, if the counsellors and rulers of the state had always been appointed from the forty, and if the remaining officials of all grades had been selected by competitive examinations, instituted and supervised by the forty. The parallel would not be complete, however, unless the Academy of to-day were still basing its examinations on a codex of Charlemagne.
The imperial government of China and the Chinese community as a whole have for many centuries, apparently ever since the time of the book-burning Hwang-ti, rendered a larger measure of honor (and also of direct reward as far as this could be given by official station) to students and scholars, than has been given by any state in the history of the world. The literary ideal and the literary productions, the study of which has thus been honored, have, however, been in the main those of a thousand years or more back. The fact, says Legge, that the earlier literary period was so fruitful, and that the works produced in it have been held by later generations in so great honor, is one cause why original or creative literary productiveness has been discouraged, and why the later literary activities continue in so large proportion to take the shape of commentaries. It has also, he thinks, been an important influence in keeping the language in an inflexible and undeveloped condition. It was the language of the fathers, and it would be sacrilege to modify it.