inevitable he completely discomfits the drunken party, and leaves them vowing loud vengeance. The description of this Chinese entertainment, and of the growing row, is highly characteristic, and proves that the most ceremonious of people can sometimes be the most unceremonious. The defeated party lodge a false charge against the hero, but the result redounds to their entire shame and disgrace.

Circumstances subsequently enable Teihchungyu to be of essential service to the exiled father of the heroine, and to procure at length his recall from banishment and reinstatement in his former honours. The families of the youth and maiden being thus drawn together, a proposed alliance is the natural consequence. The ultra refinement, however, of the Confucian school imposes scruples on the parties, lest such a consummation should lead the world to misconstrue

the disinterested nature of their former intercourse. These scruples being overcome, fresh plots are laid by their enemies to oppose their union; and as the affair, from the rank of the parties, at length comes before the Emperor in person, an investigation is set on foot, which exposes the wickedness of the other faction, and leads to the marriage being sanctioned with high encomiums from the "Son of Heaven" himself. All parties are punished or rewarded according to their deserts, and thus the 'Fortunate Union' is concluded. The interest of the story is sustained throughout, by the Chinese author, with more skill and effect than in most native productions; and as a genuine picture of manners it is among the best suited to the use of those who desire, according to the expression of a French writer, "connâitre les Chinois par les Chinois eux-mêmes."

THERE appear to be reasonable grounds for the belief, that what are justly considered in Europe as three of the most important inventions or discoveries of modern times, the art of printing, the composition of gunpowder, and the magnetic compass, had their first origin in China. However much we may have outstripped them in the use and application of these instruments or agents, the Chinese can urge claims to the priority of possession, which are sufficient to convince any unprejudiced person; and it seems fair to conclude that the knowledge or tradition of these contrivances travelled slowly westward through the channels of oriental commerce, and were obscurely derived, by those who first imported them to Europe, by the way of Asia Minor or the Red Sea. There cannot be the least doubt of the art of print

ing having been practised in China during the tenth century of our era. The precise mode in which they operate is certainly different from ours; but the main principle, that of multiplying and cheapening books by saving the time and labour of transcription, is altogether the same.

Shortly previous to the commencement of the Soong dynasty, about the middle of the tenth century, a minister of state named Foong-taou is said to have introduced to the notice of government the art of taking impressions upon paper. History states that the first essay in printing was to transfer the pages from stone blocks, on which the writing had been engraved a process by which the ground of the paper was black, and the letters white. This at length led to the improved invention of wooden stereo

type blocks, on which the characters were cut in relief, as at present, and the effect thereby reversed, the paper page remaining white, and the characters being impressed in ink. Dugald Stewart, in his work on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, considers the invention of printing "rather as the result of those general causes on which the progress of society seems to depend than as the mere effect of a fortunate accident;"-in fact, as a step in the social history of man, and as marking a particular point of his progress. Admitting this to be true, it would follow that the Chinese in the tenth century were not only farther advanced than their contemporaries of Europe, (of which there can be no doubt whatever,) but that they had reached a higher point of civilization than the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The high estimation in which letters have ever been held in China may certainly be supposed to have contributed to the invention by which books are rendered available to the greatest number of readers; and it seems evident, from Chinese history, that, as the period of Soong, which immediately followed, is celebrated for its writers, that invention gave an impetus to the national taste for its own peculiar learning. For all purposes of cheapness and expedition the method of printing is perfect; and a little consideration will show that the stereotype plan is more peculiarly suited to the Chinese characters than to any other. The European alphabet consists of only a few letters, whose infinite combinations form many languages; with them, on the contrary, every word is a different character. The six-and-twenty letters of our alphabet are all within the reach of the compositor in setting up a page of type; and, from long practice, he moves his hands to the little cells in which they are arranged almost without looking: but in China it would require the combination of a Briareus with an Argus to pick out the hundreds, if not thousands, of different characters in the printing of a single book. Then, again, the immense number of copies of their standard, or sacred, works, required in a population of hundreds of millions, all reading, if they do not speak, the same language, is another reason for stereotype.

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But, on the other hand, there are some rare occasions on which particular reasons exist to make single or moveable types preferable, and on these occasions the Chinese use them. Mention has already been made of the Red Book, or Court Kalendar, containing the name and office of every functionary in the empire. A new edition of this is published every quarter; and as the characters which it contains are always pretty nearly the same, with only the difference of arrangement, this particular case approximates to that of our own alphabet; for which reason the Kalendar and some other works are printed with moveable types. For their general literature, the stereotype possesses another advantage; they can take off the impressions according to the sale of the work, and there is no needless expenditure of paper. When the faces of the letters are worn by use, they retouch them and render them available for farther impressions; but, from the following account of their printing process, it will be remarked that there is not anything like the same pressure, nor consequently the same wear and tear, as in our European printing. This, however, may be compensated by the greater durability of material in our metal type.

The material commonly used by the Chi nese is pear-tree wood, called by them ly-mo. The wooden plate or block, of a thickness calculated to give it sufficient strength, is finely planed and squared to the shape and dimensions of two pages. The surface is then rubbed over with a paste or size, occasionally made from boiled rice, which renders it quite smooth, and at the same time softens and otherwise prepares it for the reception of the characters. The future pages, which have been finely transcribed by a professional person on thin transparent paper, are delivered to the block-cutter, who, while the above-mentioned application is still wet, unites them to the block so that they adhere; but in an inverted position, the thinness of the paper displaying the writing perfectly through the back. The paper being subsequently rubbed off, a clear impression in ink of the inverted writing remains on the wood. The workman then with his sharp graver cuts away with extraordinary neat

T

ness and despatch all that portion of the wooden surface which is not covered by the ink, leaving the characters in pretty high relief. Any slight error may be corrected, as in our wood-cuts, by inserting small pieces of wood but the process is upon the whole so cheap and expeditious that it is generally easier to replane the block and cut it again; for their mode of taking the impression renders the thickness of the block an immaterial point.1

Strictly speaking, "the press of China" would be a misnomer, as no press whatever is used in their printing. The paper, which is almost as thin and bibulous, or absorbent of ink, as what we call silver-paper, receives the impression with a gentle contact, while a harder pressure would break through it. The printer holds in his right hand two brushes, at the opposite extremities of the same handle; with one he inks the face of the characters, and the paper being then laid on, he runs the dry brush over so as to make it take the impression. They do this with such expedition that one man can take off a couple of thousand copies in a day. The paper, being so thin and transparent, is printed on one side only, and each printed sheet (consisting of two pages) is folded back, so as to bring the blank sides in inward contact. The fold is thus on the outer edge of the book, and the sheets are stitched together at the other; which might lead an uninformed person to take any Chinese book for a new work, with its leaves still uncut. In folding the sheets the workman is guided by a black line, which directs him in the same manner that the holes, made by the points in our printed sheets, direct the binder.

Every Chinese volume is a species of brochure, neatly stitched with silk thread in a smooth paper of a drab colour, and every volume is numbered on the outer edges of the leaves. Collectors of choice books put up about ten volumes of the same work in a neat case, covered with flowered satin or silk. The popular works of the country are greatly

1 For ephemeral works, this block-printing is of course less adapted. A daily paper at Canton is imperfectly printed from a composition of the consistence of wax, in which characters can be more rapidly formed.

cheaper than ours; they have no taxes on literature, and three or four volumes of any ordinary work, of the octavo size and shape, may be had for a sum equivalent to two shillings. A Canton bookseller's manuscript catalogue marked the price of the four books of Confucius, including the Commentary, at a sum rather under half-a-crown. The cheapness of their common literature is occasioned partly by the mode of printing, but partly also by the low price of paper. What is called India paper, by our engravers and print-sellers, is nothing but the large sheets in which the silk piece-goods of China are wrapped, as they are brought to us from Canton. These have commonly been purchased at an exorbitant price in London; but they might be bought by the chest, upon the spot, for much less than our own paper costs. There is, however, a considerable duty on the importation.

The date of the invention of paper seems to prove that some of the most important arts, connected with the progress of civilization, are not extremely ancient in China. In the time of Confucius they wrote on the finelypared bark of the bamboo with a style; they next used silk and linen, which explains why the character chy, paper, is compounded of that for silk. It was not until A. D. 95, that paper was invented. The materials which they use in the manufactory are various. A coarse yellowish paper, used for wrapping parcels, is made from rice-straw.2 The better

kinds are composed of the liber or inner bark of a species of morus, as well as of cotton, but principally of bamboo; and we may extract the description of the last from the Chinese Repository; "The stalks are cut near the ground, and then sorted into parcels according to the age, and tied up in small bundles. The younger the bamboo, the better is the quality of the paper which is made from it. The bundles are thrown into a reservoir of mud and water, and buried in the ooze for about a fortnight to soften them. They are then taken out, cut into pieces of a proper

2 They also obtain paper from the re-manufacture of what has been used, as well as from rags of silk and cotton.

3 Vol. iii. p. 265.

length, and put into mortars with a little water, to be pounded to a pulp with large wooden pestles. This semifluid mass, after being cleansed of the coarsest parts, is transferred to a great tub of water, and additions of the substance are made until the whole becomes of sufficient consistence to form paper. Then a workman takes up a sheet with a mould or frame of the proper dimensions, which is constructed of bamboo in small strips, made smooth and round like wire. The pulp is continually agitated by other hands, while one is taking up the sheets, which are then laid upon smooth tables to dry. According to others, the paper is dried by placing the newly-made sheets upon a heated wall, and rubbing them with brushes until dry. This paper is unfit for writing on with liquid ink, and is of a yellowish colour. The Chinese size it by dipping the sheets into a solution of fish-glue and alum, either during or after the first process of making it.1 sheets are usually three feet and a half in length, and two in breadth. The fine paper used for letters is polished, after sizing, by rubbing it with smooth stones."

The

What is commonly known in this country under the name of Indian ink is nothing more than what the Chinese manufacture for their own writing. The writing apparatus consists of a square of this ink; a little black slab of schistus or slate, polished smooth, with a depression at one end to hold water; a small brush, or pencil, of rabbit's hair inserted into a reed handle; and a bundle of paper. These four articles, the ink, the slab on which it is rubbed, the writing-pencil, and the paper, are called (with that respect which the Chinese profess for letters) "the four precious implements." They are taught very early to keep them in high order and neatness, and, as men's impressions are always more or less the results of habit, this of course has its effect.

The Chinese, or, as it is miscalled, Indian, ink has been erroneously supposed to consist of the secretion of a species of sepia, or cuttlefish. It is, however, all manufactured from lamp-black and gluten, with the addition of

1 Sized paper is not required in their printing, where the ink is of a thicker consistency.

2 This is found in the mountains called Leu-shân, on the west side of the Poyang lake, where the last

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a little musk to give it a more agreeable odour. Père Contancin gave the following as a process for making the ink :-A number of lighted wicks are put into a vessel full of oil. Over this is hung a dome or funnelshaped cover of iron, at such a distance as to receive the smoke. Being well coated with lamp-black, this is brushed off and collected upon paper. It is then well mixed in a mortar with a solution of gum or gluten, and when reduced to the consistence of paste, it is put into little moulds, where it receives those shapes and impressions with which it comes to this country. It is occasionally manufactured in a great variety of forms and sizes, and stamped with ornamental devices, either plain, or in gold and various colours.

Besides being the universal ink of China, this manufacture serves occasionally with them, as it does with us, for drawings and designs, in executing which they use the same hair pencils with which they write. They consider that the best ink is produced from the burning of particular oils, but the commoner and cheaper kinds are obtained, it is said, from fir-wood. As almost every place in China is more noted than others for the manufacture or production of some particular article, the best ink is produced at Hoeychow-foo, not far from Nanking; and a certain quantity annually manufactured for the use of the Emperor and the court is called Koong-mě, "tribute-ink." The same name, however, is often given to any commodity, to imply its superiority over others of the same description, just as if the person who makes it were to call himself "Manufacturer to His Majesty." The best ink is that which is most intensely black and most free from grittiness. Of the superior sorts a number of ornamented cakes are often tastefully disposed in small cases finely japanned and gilt; and, when their ink is very old, the Chinese sometimes apply it, as they do almost everything in its turn, in medicine.

However ancient may be the discovery, among this people, of the composition of gunpowder, its particular application to fire-arms embassy saw quantities of these slabs manufactured for sale.

3 A black dye, but not ink, is obtained from the cup of the acorn, which abounds in gallic acid.

The

was probably derived from the west1. silence regarding cannon of the two elder Polos2, who served at the siege of Siang-yangfoo about the year 1273, and the circumstance of those persons having taught the use of balista for hurling stones to the Tartar Emperor, seem to prove that the Chinese at that period were as little acquainted with fire-arms as Europeans. Their history notices the use of a composition of the nature of Greek fire, which, when thrown into the ditches that surrounded cities, exploded in contact with water, and proved very destructive. The invention of powder, as compounded of "sulphur, saltpetre, and willow charcoal," is carried very far back by the Chinese, and was probably applied by them to fire-works (in which they excel at present), or other harmless and useful purposes, long before their unwarlike spirit could have suggested the use of guns to themselves, or they could have borrowed the notion from Europeans.

It is reasonable to suppose that the early discovery of the composition of gunpowder was promoted by the abundance of nitre, a substance which abounds in the alluvial plains near Peking as much as it does in those of Bengal. Mr. Wilkinson, of London, in a lecture on the subject of gunpowder, has some observations deserving notice. He gives a table of the different quantities of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur, used by different nations in the manufacture, the proportions being expressed in 100 parts:

as being much the strongest. It may therefore be inferred that our proportions are the best, though no doubt the excellence of the powder may partly depend on the purification and perfect admixture of the materials. It is, however, worth observation, how nearly our proportions agree with those of the Chinese, and, as they seldom change anything, it has probably been the same from the beginning; though, from the imperfection of the mixture and the impurity of the materials, their powder may be inferior in strength to that produced in many other countries." That it is sometimes tolerably efficient, was proved by the author of this seeing a seaman killed at his gun on board the Imogene frigate by a shot which first came through the ship's side. It must be observed, however, that the ship was then within pistol-shot of the battery.

The Chinese, we may remark, have always acknowledged their great inferiority in gunnery. Before the Jesuits taught them to cast cannon, there is reason to suppose that they used tubes of wrought-iron bound together by hoops, some of which were seen by Bell of Antermony. The last Emperor of the Ming dynasty, as we have before observed, invited the assistance of some guns and artillery-men from the Portuguese of Macao against the Tartars, and Káng-hy, after the conquest of China, employed Père Verbiest to superintend the casting of some hundreds of guns-a union of military pursuits with clerical, which brought some scandal upon the enterprising father at Rome. One circumstance in the Chinese system must tend very much to the imperfection of their gunpowder. This munition of war seems, from the following extract of a Peking Gazette for 1824, to be prepared by the troops themselves, as required: "The governor of Hoonân province has presented a report concerning the death of several persons by the explosion of gunpowder, as

3 "The Honourable Colonel Napier, when in the ordnance department, procured a sample of powder from China, which, on the average analysis of 2 oz., was found to consist of 720 gr. saltpetre, 141 charcoal, 89 sulphur, and 10 loss. Dividing the deficiency equally, and reducing it to the proportion in 100 parts, gives the result in the above table.”Lecture.