By a Chinese Manuscript, out of which I transcribed the Lord's Prayer in the Year 1666 (when it was lost) I found that the Pronunciations had no affinity with the stroaks of the Character. Whence I conceived it was either a numeral Character consisting of Numbers, or else a real Character, but not a literal, unless it were a literal Character of some other Language than that by which it was pronounced, whose pronunciation is lost though the significancy be retained, as if one should read what is written in Hebrew בראשיהברא into the Latin or Roman Language, In Principio Cræavit instead of Brasit bra, or Beresith Bara according to the Masorethæ.
Since that time I procured from China, a Dictionary of the Court Language, (as I found it written upon by the Person that sent it me from thence) but this whole Book (which I found was Printed) consisted only of the Chinese Characters without any Interpretation, or Pronunciation; however by the help of the Pictures of that, and a Chinese Almanack, I quickly found out their Characters for Numbers, and their way of Numeration, together with the Figure and Use of their Abacus or counting Board, for performing the Operations of Arithmetick, which I find pretty near to agree with that of the antient Romans (a Description and Picture of which is given by Ursinus, Pignorius and Velserus) save only, that, instead of Pins and sliding Groves of the Roman, the Chinese Abacus hath Strings or Wires and Beads, to slide upon them; and that, instead of four Pins for Digits or Units, the Chinese hath five Beads: So that it may seem to argue that the Chinese Abacus was designed for a Duodecimal Progression: Whereas that of the Romans was design'd for the Decimal.
One thing is remarkable in the Chinese, that I find the Abacus to lie Horizontal, and their first place to be that next the left Hand, which I judge was also the first in their old way of reading, much the same with ours, though their other Characters are erected (as I shall by and by shew) from the posture of Writing and Reading, which I conjecture they did at first make use of; and what does yet further agree with this conjecture, is remarkable in the newly mentioned Treatise of Vulg. Beig. That whereas the way of Writing and Reading used by the Arabs, was from the right to the left, the first place or the place of Units in their Numeration, was that next the right Hand; and so came first to be read: As did that of China, who as I conceive read the contrary way, from the left to the right.
It appears therefore by this Remark that we received this way of expressing Numbers from the Arabians, for that we keep the same posture or position of places with them, tho' our progression in Writing and Reading be the contrary way. And though we now read them also in the order they are set, twenty one, twenty two, thirty six, forty eight, &c. yet we retain also the other way of Pronouncing, viz. one and twenty, two and twenty, six and thirty, eight and forty, &c.
Now as the Chinese and Roman Abacus do much agree save only that they proceed contrary ways, so doth their way of expressing Numbers by Letters or Marks, one stroke or line signifying one; two lines two; three lines three; a cross ten; two crosses twenty; three crosses thirty; and so onwards to a hundred, which they expressed by a square Mark, and a cross with a stroak added for a thousand, as will appear by the Table annexed. And though the Characters are not all the same; yet the order and method of one agrees very near with that of the other, especially if I may be allowed my supposition, that the primitive way of Writing and Reading with the Chinese was Horizontal, and like the Greek and Latin or European way. Now that these are properly numeral Figures, or Characters, is manifest from this, that they have also word Characters for every Number, and they can (in the same manner as the Romans could) express a Number by their numeral characters or Marks, and by their literal or word Characters; for as one single stroak signifies one or the first, so does the Character (in the Plate marked with E) signify the same thing, that is one or the first.
Having thus discovered their Characters for Numbers, and their way of Numeration, I was next desirous to understand something concerning their Language and Character.
Upon perusing all the Accounts I could meet with in Books, I found very little satisfaction as to what I principally inquired after, which was first concerning the method of the Character, whether it consisted of a certain number of Marks methodically disposed like Letters in a literal, or like Numbers in a Numeral, or like Radicals in composite and decomposite Derivations? 'Tis said to be legible into a great many Languages considerably different one from another, but how this is effected is not related, only 'tis said that the Marks are of the nature of our Arithmetical Figures, (which are become almost Universal at least to us here in Europe,) and 2dly, concerning the number of these Characters? to which I found as little satisfaction; for, by some Relations I found that there were 120000, by others 80000, and by others 60000. And that a Man must be able to remember to Write and Read at least 8000, or 10000, before he will be able to express his meaning thereby, and that it is the business of a Man's whole Life to be throughly understanding in the whole Character; seeming to intimate that the Characters are immethodical, and there are as many primitive Characters as Words. Others tell us of various kinds of Characters which have been in use in several Ages. The first they say were Hieroglyphical like the Ægyptian or Mexican, consisting of the Pictures of Animals and Vegetables. But that the last are made up of Lines and Points, that they have no such thing as Letters or Syllables, but every distinct Word and Notion has a distinct Character, and that all are primitive or in composite, so that if Calepines Dictionary were to be translated into the Chinese, 'twere necessary to have as many distinct radical Characters as there are Words therein to be found, which accounts do seem to insinuate that this Character is the most difficult, and the most perplexed piece of Learning in the World, and depends wholly upon the strength of the Memory, in retaining the form and signification of a perplexed scrawl. But whether they who gave us these Accounts did do it knowingly, is much to be doubted, my own Observations, at least, make me think otherwise.
I have not yet been able to procure sufficient helps to inform my self of the whole Art of Writing and Reading the Chinese Character, and I fear the Relations I have hitherto met with concerning it, were written by such as did not well understand it, however from such helps as I had, what I collected or do conjecture, I shall here relate. The best help I had, was the perusal of some Books Printed in China, with the pronunciation and signification of the Character in Latin Letters. By these Books then I observed, first, that every one of their Characters, whether consisting of more or fewer strokes or marks, were comprised within a certain square space, which is proportion'd according to the bigness of the size or manner of Writing, they design there to make use of, not that the whole Square is filled with every Character, but that no part of that Character does exceed the limits of that Square, so that tho' the Character have but one stroak, it takes as much room in the line as another that hath 20 or 30 several Marks, so that their Characters are most exactly ranged in Rank and File, not unlike our Numbers in Arithmetick.
Notwithstanding which I find they do vary the bigness of the Character upon several Occasions, as in the Titles of Books, in the Titles of the Chapters or Sections, in the Comments, Explications or Notes, and upon several other occasions of variety, which they do at Pleasure with their Pencil, as we use variety of Letters in the Printing of a Book. The Titles of Books are generally in very large Characters, 6 or 8 times as big as those of the Book, the explication Notes ½ of the bigness, the Contents usually twice as big, and the like variety on several other occasions. I have met with also three several kinds of Characters, the most usual is the fixed or set square form. The second sort is the running Hand, in which the orders of the Courts are written by their Secretaries, of which I have seen 3 or 4 kinds, in which the Pencil is never taken off, till the whole Character be finished, and sometimes two or three are all written without break. The third seems to be somewhat like the flourishing great Letters, used by Scriveners at the beginning of Deeds, and by the Germans in the beginning of Chapters and Sections. They are compounded of the same strokes as the set Character, but modulated and shaped a little otherwise to make them appear the more beautiful and regular. A Specimen of each of these three are in the Plate. This third is made use of for Epitaphs, and other Inscriptions on Buildings or Monuments. These three sorts I may call the three general kinds of Writing, but there is to be found an almost infinite variety of forms which Men use. This will be the more easie to be believed, when we consider that the Printed Characters are exactly the same with the Written, insomuch that every variety in each stroke, line or point, that is or can be made with the Pencil, is perfectly expressed in the Impression, and the Form, Mode, or Hand, as we call it, of every Writer is exhibited so curiously, that I think it hardly possible to be performed after the way of wooden Cuts, as Authors affirm it is, but must be done after the method of our Copper Cuts, Printed by a Roll-press, which the way of expressing the Running or Court-Hand, does, I conceive, most evidently demonstrate, and from divers circumstances, I could evidently make appear from the Book it self, which I cannot so well express in Writing. Their Paper is generally very thin and fine, and very transparent, but brown, so that whatever is Written or Printed on it, is almost as legible on the back, as on the foreside, which is of great use in the cutting of their Stamps. And thence they never Write or Print on both sides of the same Leaf, but only on one, and to make the Leaf appear Printed on both sides, they double the Sheet with the Printed sides outwards, and putting the folded part forward, they Sew, Bind, or Stitch together, all these Sheets with the cut Edges, and upon whole Sheets instead of single Leaves; just in the same manner as the Plate annexed to this Discourse is Printed. They begin the Book on the top of the right Hand side of the Page that is next the right Hand, and they read downwards to the bottom, then begin the next Line towards the left Hand at the top, and so read to the bottom, and so proceed to the end of the Book. But this I suppose not to be the primitive or first way of Writing or Reading. The Title of the Book is set first upon a whole Leaf, usually of a thicker Paper, and some Title is likewise Written upon the folding or edge of every Sheet, where is set also the Number of the Book, and the Number of the Sheet, half of which appears on one side, and half on the other side of the fold.