Short notices of this remarkable work are given by Mr. Alexander Wylie[238] and Dr. Bretschneider,[239] and a more exhaustive one by M. Bazin.[240]
Fig. 45.—One of the Eave Tiles from the Old Imperial Palace of Nankin,
showing the Five-clawed or Imperial Dragon, an emblem which cannot be borne by
any outside of the Imperial service, under the penalty of death. Commoners have to
be satisfied with a four-clawed dragon.
Fig. 46.—Return from the Chase. (From the ’Rh Ya.)
It is also largely quoted by Williams in his valuable Chinese dictionary. Otherwise Sinologues appear to have entirely ignored it.
Mr. Wylie remarks that “it has long been looked upon with distrust; but some scholars of great ability have recently investigated its contents, and come to the conclusion that it is at least as old as the Chow dynasty, and probably of a date even anterior to that period.”
M. Bazin speaks of it as a fabulous description of the world, and attributes it to Taouist writers in the fourth century of our era, who forged the authority of the great Yü and Peh Yi. He thinks it would be useless to attempt the identification of the localities given in it, and offers a translation of a portion of the first chapter in support of his views.
The value of his translation is impaired by his making no distinction between the text and the commentary, and he appears to have possessed an inferior and incomplete version.
In an editorial article in the North China Herald of May 9, 1884 (presumably by Mr. Balfour, an excellent Sinologue), it is referred to the date of Ch’in Shih Huang, who connected the Heptarchy into a single kingdom, and conquered Cochin China about B.C. 222.