[287] Davis, Sketches, Vol. I., pp. 99, 101.
[288] Archdeacon Gray, China, Vol. I., p. 167.
[289] Chinese Repository, Vol. IX., p. 542.
[290] Professor H. A. Sayce, of Oxford, in reference to a suggested possible connection between the Chinese and primitive Accadian population of Chaldea, says in a letter to the London Times: “I would mention one fact which may certainly be considered to favor it. The cuneiform characters of Babylonia and Assyria are, as is well known, degenerated hieroglyphics, like the modern Chinese characters. The original hieroglyphics were invented by the Accadians before they descended into Babylonia from the mountains of Elam, and I have long been convinced that they were originally written in vertical columns. In no other way can I explain the fact that most of the pictures to which the cuneiform characters can be traced back stand upon their sides. There is evidence to show that the inventors of the hieroglyphics used papyrus, or some similar vegetable substance, for writing purposes before the alluvial plain of Babylonia furnished them with clay, and the use of such a writing material will easily account for the vertical direction in which the characters were made to run.”
[291] Biot has a brief note upon the methods employed by native scholars for studying pronunciation. Essai sur l’instruction en Chine, p. 597.
[292] Easy Lessons in Chinese, pp. 3-29; Chinese Repository, Vol. III., pp. 1-37.
[293] One may gain some idea of this difficulty by referring to the geographical names contained in the Russo-Chinese Treaty, quoted on page [215].
[294] The writer has an edition of the Thousand Character Classic, containing each couplet of eight words in a different form of character, making one hundred and twenty-five styles of type—too grotesque to be imitated, and probably never actually in use.
[295] See page [193]. In order that the Manchu portion of this famous poem might not appear inferior to the Chinese, the Emperor ordered thirty-two varieties of Manchu characters to be invented and published in like manner with the others. Rémusat, Mélanges, Tome II., p. 59. Père Amiot, Éloge de la Ville de Moukden. Trad. en françois. Paris, 1770.
[296] Chinese Chrestomathy, Chap. I., Secs. 5 and 6, where the rules for writing Chinese are given in full with numerous examples; Easy Lessons in Chinese, p. 59; Chinese Repository, Vol. III., p. 37.