1585. Historia del gran Reyno de la China. By J. G. de Mendoça. 8vo. 1601. Historia de las Missiones en los Reynos de la China, &c. By L. de Guzman. Folio. 1617. Histoire de l'Expédition Chrétienne à la Chine. By N. Trigault. 4to. 1621. Epitome historial del Reyno de la China. By Maldonado. 8vo. 4to. 1634. History of the Court of the King of China. From the French of M. Baudier. 1643. Relatione della Grande Monarchia della Cina. By Alvarez. Lemedo. 4to. 1653. Voyages du Pere Alexandre de Rhodes en Chine, &c. 4to. 1655. Brevis Relatio de numero Christianorum apud Sinas. By Martini. 1659 Martini Martinii Sinica Historia. Amst. 8vo. 1660. Theoph. Spizelii de re Literariâ Sinensium. 12mo. 1667. Sinarum Scientia Politico-Moralis. By P. Intorcetta. Folio. Folio. China Illustrata. Athanasius Kircher. 1673. Embassy from the East India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China. By Nieuhoff. (Englished by J. Ogilby.) Folio. 1679. History of the Tartars; their Wars with and Overthrow of the Chineses. From the Spanish of Mendoza. 8vo. Basilicon Sinense. By Andrew Müller. 4to. 1686. Tabula Chronologica Monarchiæ Sinicæ. By P. Couplet. Folio. 1688. Nouvelle Relation de la Chine. G. de Magaillans. 4to. 1697. Nouveaux Mémoires sur l'Etat présent de la Chine. By Louis le Compte. 12mo. 1698. Journal of Russian Embassy overland to Peking. By Adam Brand, Secretary of the Embassy. 8vo. 1699. Histoire de l'Empereur de la Chine (Kang-hy). By Joachim Bouvet. 12mo. 1700. Varia Scripta de cultibus Sinarum, inter Missionarios et Patres Societatis Jesu controversis. 8vo. Relation du Voyage fait à la Chine, sur le Vaisseau l'Amphetrite. 12mo. B 2 1711. Libri Classici Sex (namely, the Four Books, Heaou-king, and Seaou-heo). By Père Noël. 4to. 1714. Relation de la Nouvelle Persecution de la Chine. F. G. de S. Pierre. 12mo. 1718. Anciennes Relations de deux Voyageurs Mahometans. Par Eusebe Renaudot. 8vo. 1728. Nouveau Voyage autour du Monde, avec une Description de l'Empire de la Chine. By Le Gentil. 12mo. 1730. Museum Sinicum, opera Th. S. Bayer. 8vo. 1735. Description Géographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique, et Physique de l'Empire de la Chine, &c. Par J. B. du Halde. Folio, 4 tom. 1737. Meditationes Sinicæ, opera St. Fourmont. Folio. 1750. Authentic Memoirs of the Christian Church in China, with the Causes of the Declension of Christianity in that Empire. From the German of J. L. Mosheim. 8vo. 1760. Mémoire dans laquelle ou prouve que les Chinois sont une Colonie Egyptienne. De Guignes. 8vo. 1763. Travels of John Bell, of Antermony. 4to. 2 vols. 1765. Voyage to China and the East Indies. By Peter Osbeck. 8vo. 1770. Le Chou-king, un des Livres Sacrés des Chinois. Par le Père Gaubil. 8vo. 1773. Lettre de Pekin, sur le Génie de la Langue Chinoise. Par le Père Amiot. 4to. Recherches Philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois. Par M. de Pauw. 12mo. 1776. Mémoire de M. D'Anville sur la Chine. 8vo. 1785. Histoire Générale de la Chine, traduite du Tongkien-kang-mou. Par le Père Mailla. 12 tom. 4to. Description Générale de la Chine. Par l'Abbé Grosier. 4to. 1797. Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. By Sir Geo. L. Staunton, Bart. 2 vols. 4to. Mémoires concernant les Chinois. 16 tom. 4to. 1798. Embassy of the Dutch East India Company to China. From the Journal of A. E. Van Braam. 2 vols. 8vo. 1804. Travels in China. By John Barrow. 4to. 1808. Voyages à Peking, &c. Par M. de Guignes. 3 tom. 8vo, 1810. Ta-tsing-leu-lee; the Penal Code of China. By Sir George T. Staunton, Bart. 4to. 1813. Dictionnaire Chinois, Français, et Latin. Par de Guignes. Folio. 1814. Mémoires concernant les Chinois, redigés par Silvestre de Sacy. 4to. 1815. Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts. By R. Morrison. 6 vols. 4to. (Completed in 1823.) 1816. Dialogues and detached Sentences in the Chinese Language. By R. Morrison. 8vo. 1817. A Chinese Drama. Translated from the Original by J. F. Davis. 12mo. Journal of Embassy to China. By Henry Ellis. 4to. Chinese Gleaner, Malacca. 8vo. (Concluded in Sacred Edict. Translated by W. Milne. 8vo. 1818. Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China. By Clarke Abel. 4to. 1821. Chinese Embassy to the Khan of the Tourgouths. By Sir G. T. Staunton, Bart. 8vo. 1822. Miscellaneous Notices relating to China. By Ditto. 8vo. Elémens de la Grammaire Chinoise. Par Abel 1823. Chinese Moral Maxims. Compiled by J. F. Davis. 8vo. 1824. Meng-tseu, vel Mencium. Edidit S. Julien. 8vo. 1826. Les Deux Cousines, Roman Chinois. Par Abel Rémusat. 12mo. 1827. Voyage à Peking, à travers la Mongolie. Par M. G. Timkouski. 8vo. 1829. The Fortunate Union; a Chinese Romance. Translated from the Original by J. F. Davis. 8vo. 1831. Notitia Linguæ Sinicæ, auctore P. Premare. 4to. 1832. Cercle de Craie, Drame Chinois. Traduit par Stanislas Julien. 8vo. Chinese Repository (commenced), Canton. 8vo. 1834. Miscellaneous Papers concerning China, in Three Volumes of Royal Asiatic Transactions, 4to (Commenced 1823.) China, an Outline, &c. By Peter Auber. 8vo. The following pages being intended wholly for the use of the general reader, so much only of each subject has been touched upon as seemed calculated to convey a summary, though at the same time accurate, species of information in an easy and popular way. More detailed knowledge, on each separate point, must be sought for, by the few who are likely to require it, in one or other of the numerous works above named, and the Catalogue here given may prove serviceable for that purpose. The superiority which the Chinese possess over the other nations of Asia is so decided as scarcely to need the institution of an elaborate comparison. Those who have had opportunities of seeing both have readily admitted it, and none more so than the Right Honourable Henry Ellis, our ambassador to Persia, whose intimate personal acquaintance with China and India, as well as with Persia, renders him peculiarly calculated to form a just estimate. The moral causes of a difference so striking may perhaps occur to the reader of the subjoined work: the physical causes consist, it may reasonably be supposed, in the advantages which China possesses from its geographical situation; in the generally favourable climate, the average fertility of soil, and the great facility of internal intercourse which the country possesses from nature, and which has been still farther improved by art. The early advancement of China, in the general history of the globe, may likewise be accounted for, in some measure, by natural and physical causes, and by the position of the whole of that vast country (with a very trivial exception) within the temperate zone. On this point the author will repeat some observations which he long since made in another place; that "an attentive survey of the tropical regions of the earth, where food is produced in the greatest abundance, will seem to justify the conclusion, that extreme fer tility, or power of production, has been rather unfavourable to the progress of the human race; or, at least, that the industry and advancement of nations has appeared in some measure to depend on a certain proportion between their necessities and their natural resources. Man is by nature an indolent animal, and without the stimulant of necessity will, in the first instance, get on as well as he can with the provision that nature has made for him. In the warm and fertile regions of the tropics, or rather of the equinoctial, where lodging and clothing, the two necessary things after food, are rendered almost superfluous by the climate, and where food itself is produced with very little exertion*, we find how small a progress has in most instances been made; while, on the other hand, the whole of Europe, and by far the greater part of China, are situated beyond the northern tropic. If, again, we go farther north, to those arctic regions where man exists in a very miserable state, we shall find that there he has no materials to work upon. Nature is such a niggard in the returns which she makes to labour, that industry is discouraged and frozen, as it were, in the outset. In other words, the proportion is destroyed; the equinoctial regions are too spontaneously genial and fertile; the arctic too unkindly barren; and on this account it would seem that industry, wealth, and civilization have been principally confined to the temperate zone, where there is at once necessity to excite labour, and production to recompense it." There are, no doubt, other important circumstances, besides geographical situation, which influence the advancement of nations; but this at least is too considerable an ingredient to be left out of the calculation. J. F. D. *See the observations of Humboldt, on the use of the banana in New Spain. |