Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

other of three overland routes. Then as to the facts stated in Chinese books in reference to foreign countries, they would have to be satisfied if out of a series of 12 facts or statements of products of the country, &c., they could get half a dozen to tally with what was known to be produced in any given country. It was mentioned in some of the ancient Chinese books, that Ta-tsin produced lions; but he did not think lions were produced in Italy. Mr. Haas-Yes.

Dr. Hirth-Were they not imported from the African colonies? They were not "growing wild."

Mr. Haas-At the time of the Greek colonies, the country was infested with lions.

Dr. Hirth thought that no one coming from Rome to China would have mentioned lions as one of the special productions of that country, seeing that on his way to China he would pass through countries where lions were more common.

Dr. Hirth concluded his remarks by expressing his high appreciation of Dr. Edkins's paper, which had added some important facts to our information in regard to the Chinese knowledge of western countries especially inasmuch as it had drawn attention to a new source of information from which the Chinese may have derived their knowledge of western countries. Hitherto we believed that the chapters on this subject contained in the various dynastic histories were based on the reports of tribute bearers and special embassies as well as those of Kan-ying, the military explorer who reached the coast of one of the western seas. Dr. Edkins's paper points to the probability of Bactrian, Indian and other "translators and missionaries" who were engaged in the translations of Buddhist books at the court of China, having communicated their own knowledge of the west to the Chinese historians in the east.

The Chairman said, that in considering this question there were two ways which suggested themselves to him of arriving at the connection between China and the West in ancient timesthey would have to look at what China said with regard to the West and what the West said with regard to China. In modern times China had excluded itself from other nations, and Pliny said that such was the case in his time; and yet Pliny mentioned a variety of articles, in the form of luxuries of high value, in use among the Romans, as having come from the land which Dr. Edkins had identified with the North of China, and if this were

so it was a very remarkable coincidence. They knew that certain productions of some distant eastern country, in which the Greeks and Romans very greatly delighted, abounded in a very special manner in China at the present day. He was not aware of these articles being produced in any other countries to anything like the extent and value to which they were found in China. But apart from this hypothetical course of reasoning they knew that early in the Christian era the imperial power of Rome greatly extended itself in the direction of Central Asia, and countries were mentioned in the course of the paper before them which they could identify very clearly. Was there not a possibility of Chinese representatives having met with representatives of Rome in these parts? They had evidence of the clearest character that there were military expeditions from China to the far west, and they would be safe in assuming that no small amount of information would, by means of these expeditions, reach China, with regard to the great empire of Rome. If any western countries were known in Central Asia or in the places mentioned, they might be sure Rome was in particular; and whether Ta-tsin might be considered as descriptive of Rome or not, he had no doubt that in these countries as much information was obtained in regard to China on the one hand and in regard to Rome on the other as was possible under the circumstances. He had been led to believe that in early times there was a mutual knowledge between the east and the west which they were apt to overlook. There could not have been the interchange of products which they knew to have existed without this mutual knowledge.

Dr. Hirth observed, with regard to the parallel which Mr. Muirhead had drawn between the knowledge of China possessed by Rome and the knowledge of Rome possessed by China, that if Ta-tsin was actually identical with Ancient Rome, and if Fulin was Byzantium of the middle ages there seemed to be no doubt that the ancient Chinese knew a great deal more about Rome than the Romans had ever known about China. The Seres whether quoted in Horace or Virgil had been to the best instructed Roman only a name, the name of a silk producing nation who were at home at some distance beyond the terminus of Alexander's campaign; but there their knowledge of China was at an end, whereas the information about the countries of Ta-tsin and Fu-lin, such as it is recapitulated in the work of Ma-tuan-lin for instance, is quite as full of details as is the store

of notices regarding China possessed by many a well educated European even now-a-days.

The Chairman said the undoubted fact of the existence of the Suez Canal in ancient times proved that there was a greater amount of intercourse between the West and the East than was generally recognised. They ought to express their indebtedness to Dr. Edkins for his valuable paper on a subject of great interest.

ARTICLE II.

COREA.*

Extracts from Mr. F. SCHERZER'S French translation of the Chao-hsien-chih, and Bibliographical Notice. Translated into English by CHARLES GOUld.

I. BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTICE.

The Coreans possess two kinds of writing: the one, devoted to literary works and reserved for editing certain official documents, is in the Chinese character; the other, that is to say the Corean writing properly so called, is alphabetic, and permits of the exact representation of the sounds of the spoken language; this is especially employed by the lower orders and in printing popular editions.

The memoir on Corea of which I offer a translation is written in Chinese, and bears the title Tchao-sien-tche with the intimation denoting an anonymous author; it figures in the vast collection known as Y-hai-tchoutchen which comprises no less than 165 different works. This important collection was compiled in the middle of the last century by Ou-chen-lan and corrected by Shu-y-yuen. This work was described for the first time by Mr. A. Wylie in his valuable "Notes on Chinese literature" as follows-"Chaou-sien-che is an account of Corea including Geography and Customs, by a native of that country, whose name has not been preserved; but it appears to have been written in the latter part of the Ming dynasty." All that I myself can affirm is that this memoir is subsequent in point of age to the first year of Shuen-te that is to say, to 1465, and prior to the conquest of China by the Tartar Manchus in 1616.

* Read before the Society on the 27th February, 1883.

« AnteriorContinuar »