Of the history of individuals, or biography, which the Chinese themselves call Sing-heo, "the study of surnames," they possess a great variety, and at the head of these, as the oldest in date and estimation, may be instanced the Lun-yu, or Discourses of Confucius, a work which, we have already observed, is in plan not unlike our own Boswell. There is a modern biographical work called Sing-poo, in no less than one hundred and twenty volumes, comprising the lives of eminent men and women, but withal a dull compilation, and deficient in interest and animation. The art of printing has put the Chinese in possession of as voluminous and cheap a literature as any people in the world; though the difference in the standards of intellect and taste renders much of this but little calculated to please European taste or satisfy European intellect. It is for this reason that very few Chinese works can bear to be translated in detail, and that the best way of making their general literature known is by short summaries or abstracts.

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Whatever their ignorance may be of matters extraneous to their empire, the numerous and extensive statistical works which they possess demonstrate that the Chinese have a very detailed and accurate knowledge of their own country. The principal of these, Ta-tsing Ye-tung-chy, A complete Account of the Ta-tsing Empire,' consists of two hundred and forty volumes, giving particulars of the population, the geography, revenues, magistracy, and other details of every province of China Proper, as well as an account of Chinese Tartary. Every province, too, hast its own separate history in print, comprising particulars of its productions, manufactures, eminent persons, and everything that can interest those connected with it; so that the ignorance of the Chinese cannot be truly stated with reference to their own vast empire, exceeding as it

does (with Tartary) all Europe in extent. Indeed the publicity unreservedly given to political and state matters of every description is a singular feature of their system. The Peking Gazette has very correctly been described as a state engine of no inconsiderable importance, exhibiting obvious proofs of an anxiety to influence and conciliate public opinion upon all public questions, in a manner which could not be predicated of a government theoreti-. cally despotic.

Some account of their great work on criminal law has already been given in the sixth chapter. The civil code of the present Tartar dynasty is called Ta-tsing Hoeytien, and consists of no less than two hundred and sixty-one volumes, of which it may be worth while to abstract some particulars, from the appendix to one of the annual reports (1829) of the Anglo-Chinese college. It contains not only the existing laws, but an account of all the changes and modifications of the law by successive emperors since the conquest in 1644, and frequently the reasons assigned at the time for the enactment of new or repealing of old laws. The whole is preceded by prints explanatory of all state ceremonies, both civil and religious. Then follow maps of every principal district in the empire, including not only China Proper, but Eastern and Western Tartary.

The body of the work is divided into nine parts, of which the first contains all regulations concerning the imperial house now reigning, with the privileges of the descendants of the Tartar conqueror, in the direct and collateral lines. The second part relates to the palace and its regulations. The next six parts are concerning the Six Tribunals or Boards, among which the whole details of the government are distributed in systematic order, as before noticed. Under the ninth and last division are

miscellaneous laws relating to public education, the examination of candidates for public honours and offices, peculiar laws concerning the Tartar dependencies, with the courts which take cognizance of their affairs.

In that part which relates to the first of the Six executive boards (that of civil offices) is a detailed list of all the appointments in the empire, the relative rank of each officer, and the rules for selecting, appointing, removing, rewarding, and punishing. In the management of official people, the principle of a comparison of merits and demerits is kept in view, and the one are set off against the other. A graduated record of both is preserved, and an officer is accordingly promoted or degraded so many steps. Some approach to this system has lately been made in our own Indian empire, where it appears that a regular report is sent to the government of even the private conduct and demeanour of every civil mandarin, by his immediate superior. In China there is a terrible round of espionage in perpetual operation, and mutual jealousy is substituted for the principle of honour. This may be very necessary and proper as relates to the Chinese, but we can hardly suppose it called for in our Indian empire, near as that may be to China. At Peking, members of the imperial house are all required to attend the public boards, and listen to what is going on. In case of observing anything amiss, they are permitted to give information to the emperor. When our last ambassador was in the neighbourhood of Peking, such persons were looking on continually as spies, and one of the conductors of the embassy, by way of caution to the strangers, told them that the emperor had very long ears; an asinine attribute which no one had the presumption to contest.

Under the head of Science we shall soon have more particularly to consider that portion of Chinese learning

which relates to astronomy, geography, and medicine. The two former departments have been infinitely indebted to the Romish missionaries, and to the patronage which those scientific and learned persons received from Kânghy, the most liberal and enlightened of Chinese monarchs, who condescended even to take lessons in mathematics from the Jesuits.

In the department of medicine (surgery they do not attempt) we shall see that the Chinese works contain their whole knowledge of natural history, with their peculiar theory of the circulation, and the materia medica of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, as contained in that voluminous work the Pun-tsaou. Considering the little intercourse that the Chinese have had with other countries, it is perhaps quite as surprising that they should know so much, as that they should know no more; for everything they possess, with the exception of the two departments of astronomy and geography, may fairly be considered as their own.

Reserving the lighter literature of China (its belles lettres), as poetry, drama, and romance, for a separate chapter, we may observe that specimens of more serious works have, in the course of rather more than a century, been but scantily presented, in various European translations, to the knowledge of the Western world. It was as early as 1711 that Père Noel's Latin version of the Four Books, with two other subordinate classics, was printed; at a long interval after that date appeared Gaubil's translation of the Shoo-king; and in 1785 was published Mailla's voluminous work in fourteen quartos, entitled 'Histoire générale de la Chine,' being a version of the native annals called Tongkien-kang-mo. Fresh translations of several portions of the Four Books' have since been made; among the rest, Mencius by M. Stanislas Julien; while a com

plete English version of the whole issued from the AngloChinese press in 1828. A French translation of the ancient ritual and ceremonial code of China is said to be in preparation by M. Julien.

Of some of the missionary translations, especially those of our own country, it may be observed that, if there is much that is obscure or worthless in the original works, this has been rendered still worse by the wretched attempt to render word for word, thus exhibiting the whole in a jargon which has not inaptly been distinguished as "missionary English." This of course must be anything but a faithful picture of the originals, which, with all their defects in point of matter, are well known to be, in respect to manner and style, the models of the language in which they were composed. It is to this foolish and injudicious system of translation that we must attribute the following harsh judgment on that particular department of Chinese letters, which appeared some years ago in a critical work: "The specimens which have reached us through the medium of the missionaries are not the best adapted to convey information respecting the present state of the Chinese. Their labours are sufficiently voluminous, but their choice of subjects is not always the most happy. We may find an apology for the Chinese in endeavouring to make sense of their ancient records; but we cannot conceive what interest a few insulated Europeans can possibly take in toiling to unravel the inextricable confusion of their king, or canonical books." The fact is, that the confusion of the originals has occasionally, by means of uncouth translation, been made "confusion worse confounded."