Composed between A. D. 713 and 742, by Kái Kiá-hwui

with the title of Ngún-sí-tuh-hú, i. e. protector general, charged with the pacification of the west.

XIII. Si Yih tú

Geographical charts of Sí Yih.

About A. D. 666, the emperor commanded that the distances on the roads in the foreign countries subject to China should be made known to him. Wang Chung-sz' E, president of the Board of Promotions, answered it by presenting to him the above maps, which relate to sixteen kingdoms. The historical compilation, called Táng-hwui-yáu, gives the same details, but reduces the number of kingdoms to twelve.

XIV. Shih Tungán Si Xinh Của Tiki th

Description of Si Yih by the Shamanean Táu-ngán.

This work is quoted in the encyclopædia Yuen-kien-lui-hán, published under the emperor Kánghí in 1710, book 316, fol. 10.

According to the work Chin-sang Ch'uen (book 2, fol. 1), Táu-ngán was a native of Chang-shán in Chehkiáng. His ancestors had always belonged to the literary class. Having lost his parents while young, he was brought up by his elder brother. From the age of seven he reading a piece of com.

濟

was gifted with such a memory that after position twice he could repeat it by heart. His precocity was the admiration of his neighbors and fellow-citizens. He embraced Budhism at the age of twenty, and became the intimate friend of the Budhist Fuh-tú-ching (whose life Rémusat has given in the Universal Biography of Michaud). He died in A. D. 385. We here see that Táu-ngán preceded Fáh-hien, author of the Fuh Kwoh Ki. It is much to be desired that his geographical description, from which the Pien-i-tien, printed in the time of Kanghi, quotes numerous fragments, might have survived to our time; it would doubtless furnish us with interesting materials to enlighten and explain the somewhat dry details left us by Fáh-hien.

XV. Tien-chuh pun Ki.

This title, which should signify the history of India, is found in a list of works cited at the beginning of the literary encyclopædia Tsien kioh lui shú, in eighty volumes. I know nothing of the Budhist monk who composed this work, or upon the epoch when he published it, but think that the title is abridged, and ought to read Fuh yú

Tien-chuh pun K2 佛游天竺本紀 History of the excur

sions of Budha in India. This work, which I have seen several times mentioned, may be the same as the Shih yú King

the sacred book of the Ten Excursions of Budha, which still forms part of the Chinese Dandjour.

XVI. Táng Tung Si Yih Chí, Ha Hi Hi li Description

of the Si Yih, by Tung who lived under the T'áng dynasty.

This work is quoted in a modern description of Canton, entitled Kwangtung Sin-yü.

XVII. Shuh Hiuen-tsáng Chuen,. Continuation of the account of Hiuen-tsáng, author of the TáT ang Sí Yih Kí. See above, first section, No. IV.

There are several fragments of this work in the encyclopædia Tien-chung Ki, book 36, fol. 10.

XVIII. Shih Kwang-p'in sháng Tien-chuh Chi,

Description of India by the Shamanean Kwang-p'in. The word sháng, to ascend, indicates that the author himself traversed the countries which he has described. This work, and the following, are mentioned in the bibliographical section of the imperial supplement to Má Twánlin, book 171, fol. 8.

XIX. Cháng Chí-tsái Tung Tien-chuh muh Chi đi

8 books.

Description of Eastern India by Cháng Chi-tsái; in

a

The author in employing the expression muh chi," description de visu," wishes to say that he had seen with his own eyes the countries described in his book.

These are all the geographical works relating to the Sí Yih, which I have seen mentioned or quoted in fragments in Chinese authors, and the existence of which seem to me uncertain. If this article should reach any missionaries in China, who are near the great libraries, or should it come to the members of the Russian mission at Peking, they will doubtless be interested in making or ordering active researches, in order to discover if possible the greater part of these important works. We may hope that their enlightened zeal will be able to discover what still exists, either in the imperial collections, or in the libraries of Budhist convents, where the indifference of the Chinese for what regards foreign countries would not unlikely leave them buried up.

ART. III.

Reading the Sacred Edict, a system of instruction adopted by the Chinese government for the moral benefit of the common people.

ELOQUENCE and Oratory, in the common acceptation of the terms, are but little cultivated among the Chinese; and, so far as we know, they do not constitute a distinct branch of education. Practically, however, they can not but exist among a great people, organized into a body politic as in this country, where the interests of individuals must often urge them to make every possible effort to speak well, or at least so as to produce effect. Even the beggar in the streets, pinched with hunger, will employ all his powers rehearsing pitiful tales, in order to excite sympathy in his behalf. Venders of wares will sometimes vociferate in a most persuasive manner when expatiating upon the qualities of their curious and valuable commodities, as they go from street to street. The kiáng kú ché, old storytellers, frequently exhibit great powers of speech, detaining for hours listening crowds collected around them, and receiving for their pains a cash from such of their auditors as are willing to pay that pittance.

In the various offices and Boards, discussions must frequently occur, in which the interests of individuals will prompt them to use their utmost powers to speak so as to carry others with them in opinion and in action. To speak well on all such occasions-that is, to employ words in such a manner as shall secure the desired end-this is eloquence-this is oratory and of this there is much in China. And even the rulers, averse as they are and always have been to popular assemblies, employ something of this kind with a view to instruct the people. "On investigating the meritorious national statutes," says the editor of the Sacred Edict, "it appears that, whoever holds the office of local magistrate, is bound, on the first and fifteenth of every month to assemble the army and the people, and proclaim to them the Sacred Admonitions." The following extract from a letter, dated Shánghái, Sept. 23d, 1847, will show something of the manner of doing it.

"I have just returned from hearing Chinese preaching, or what answers to preaching better than anything else I have yet seen among the Chinese. You know that on the 1st and 15th of every month, the local officers throughout the empire are required to repair to the municipal temples, and then, after having worshiped the deity enshrined therein, and the emperor, are

there to have the Sacred Edict brought out in state, and read to the assembly of the people and soldiers. This ceremony I have just had an opportunity of seeing.

“At a quarter past 5 o'clock this morning, in company with some friends, I started for the Ching-hwing miau, the residence of the tutelary god of Shanghái. Entering the city by the Little South gate, and by the way calling for three other gentlemen, we all reached the temple some time before six o'clock. A multitude of devout idolaters had already collected, and most of them were busily engaged in performing their religious rites-making prostrations, offering incense, &c., &c. The officials not having arrived, we strolled through the different apartments of the temple, upstairs and downstairs, among all sorts of shrines and images. This temple is not only the largest in Shanghai, but has the reputation of being inferior to none of the kind in the whole empire.

"In a little while the chief magistrate arrived with his retinue, and was soon followed by the colonel, accompanied by three subalterns, who all repaired immediately to the presence of the presiding divinity, in the centre of the great hall, and on their hassocks went through with the three kneelings and nine knockings of head. As soon as they had retired into a side apart ment, a broad yellow satin curtain was suspended in front of the god whom they had worshiped, and under it, projecting forward, a small altar was erected upon a table. Before this little altar, a small yellow satin screen was placed, designed, as I suppose, to hide from vulgar eyes something intended to represent imperial majesty. In front of the small yellow screen were placed pots of burning incense, and close behind them was a small box. These things being arranged, the same was duly announced to the officers, who returned and repeated the ceremonies which they had already performed. Then, while they were still standing before the representatives of imperial power, an aged man, dressed in official robes, came forward, and with all becoming gravity took up the little box from the table, raised it as high as his chin in both hands, and then turned and carried it out of the temple, and laid it on an elevated table in front of the great hall. Another man now came forward, mounted the platform, opened the box, and took out a sinall volume. This was the Sacred Edict, and he the appointed orator for the morning. He commenced and read on most unconcernedly, the officers having retired and a rabble gathered around, attracted evidently more by the presence of half a dozen foreigners than by the eloquence of the orator, or the importance of his subject.

"The Sacred Edict, or Shing Yu you will remember was written originally by the great emperor Kanghi in sixteen sentences: these were amplified by his imperial son Yungching, and afterwards paraphrased by one of the emperor's ministers, "a salt mandarin,” as Dr. Milne calls him. Anxious to see and hear, and imitating the forwardness of the Chinese, I mounted the low platform and took my position close behind the orator, and the man who bore the little box-both of whom were standing. In this position

I had a good opportunity of hearing and witnessing the effects of the eloquence. It was reading, and nothing more, in a rapid and distinct, but not very elevated tone of voice. The number of listeners could not have exceeded sixty, though the temple and court in front of the hall were thronged. "Neither the officers, nor their principal attendants were present to hear the reading, but were enjoying themselves with tea and tobacco in one of the side apartments. The five classes-scholars, soldiers, farmers, merchants, and mechanics-were all in turn addressed by the orator, for so it was written in the book; but few or none of them were present. The audience consisted almost wholly of vagrante, idle people who were loitering about the place, beggars, and truant boys. The sentence selected for this morning was the

will:

Mind your-own business, to settle the people's

or, in other words, "let each one attend to his own profession, so that the minds of the people may be fixed, and each one remain quiet and contented in his own sphere." Reading the paraphrase on it occupied the orator about ten minutes, when the book was closed, put in the box, and that replaced again on the table before the little screen; the officers in attendance immediately took leave of each other, and returned to their chairs, we at the same time making our exit."

An extended notice of the Sacred Edict (better named Sacred Commands) will be found in Vol. I, page 297, et seq., where the rule respecting this semi-monthly exercise is given; but in order to complete this notice of its actual performance, we subjoin Milne's translation of the Paraphrase on the maxim read on this occasion. A perusal of it will fully account for the little interest taken in the exercise by the people.

The sense of his imperial Majesty is thus. When Heaven produced you, a fixed occupation was appointed to each, as the radically important means of supporting your persons and families. Therefore, though there be not an uniformity among men, some being intelligent and others ignorant, some strong and others weak, yet there is not one who has not his proper work. Seeing then that there are employments for all, let all attend to them, in order, first, that they may support themselves; and, secondly, that they may be useful in the world. When people have from their infancy, thoroughly learned and practiced their employments, when they grow up, they become habituated to them. Being habituated to an employment, if for a moment they wish to change it, they can not. This is what Mencius called "The enduring subsistence;" and what our sacred ancestor, the benevolent Emperor, calls The essential occupations." They are of prime importance. The learned, husbandmen, mechanics, merchants, and soldiers, though not of the same class, yet, each attending to his own calling, they unite. Would you have the body to labor, the mind must first decide. The business being determined upon, the mind will not fluctuate. One of the books of the ancients says, that, "Wanting to do a thing well, the whole rests on determination of spirit-wanting to enlarge it, the whole rests on diligent labor." This expresses that an employment is of