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a pretended message from Shueypingsin, appointing an assignation at the back gate of her house. The inconsistency of this message with the lady's character opens his eyes to the fraud, and, seizing the boy, he forces him by threats to confess it is a trick of his enemies.

The next step is to devise another plot against our hero, whose abandoned rival calls at his lodgings, and, on being denied, leaves a ceremonial ticket. This compels Teihchungyu to return the call, for which his enemy is prepared with an entertainment, to which the youth is, much against his will, detained. It is concerted that a number of rakish fellows should join the party one by one, and get up a quarrel, in which, with their assistance, the host may revenge himself by maltreating Teihchungyu. His coolness, courage, and strength, however, avail him as usual; and when a fray becomes 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 ;

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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."

*2 vols. 8vo. 1829.

CHAPTER XIX.

ARTS AND INVENTIONS.

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Printing Printed books - Ink-Gunpowder - Mariner's compass Variation of Needle - Navigation - Obstacles to improvement Industrial arts Cleaning cotton - Candle-making - Metallurgy Metallic mirrors - Carving Tools - Silk manufacture Silkworms Porcelain manufacture - Egyptian bottle - Lackered ware - Fine arts- Drawing and painting - Ornamental gardening -- Sculpture - Music.

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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 and 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 printing having been practised in China during the tenth century of our era. 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.

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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 stereotype 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 further 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.

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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, or rather 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.

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 pres

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