1850.
The Shwoh Wan, or Etymologicon.
183
(f.) The bird and insect characters niáu chung shú, or such as were used upon flags and envelopes.
19. When Kung, the prince of the ancient kingdom of Lú, pulled down the house where Confucius used to live, he found concealed in its walls, the Code of Ceremonies, the History of the Sháng dynas- ty, the Spring and Autumn Annals, and the Treatise on Filial Duty; moreover, there are extant two books, a copy of the Spring and Autumn Annals, and a copy of Tso's commentary thereon, which were pre- sented to the Imperial court by Cháng Tsang the prince of Pehping; also pots and vases which at various times, and in different states of the empire have been discovered on the hills and in the rivers, having insciptions upon them; now all these books, vases, etc, are found to contain the ancient character, kú wan, that had been employed under former dynasties; and they are all essentially the same. By means of these various writings and inscriptions, we are enabled clearly to as- certain and describe what were the forms employed in remote antiqui- ty, and hitherto but imperfectly understood.
20. But [notwithstanding the evidence furnished us in possessing these written monuments, if any one now presumes to labor upon them], the people will ridicule and reproach him, as being too fond of the marvelous, and dissatisfied with what is plain; and yet they them- selves will change the characters in current use and form new ones hard to be understood, fancying that by altering them in this irregular manner they will gain distinction in after ages. Even scholars who by a descrip- tion of separate characters would explain to us the meaning of the clas- sics, rashly declare that the official form, invented under Tsin, was the work of Tsing kieh! As these characters have been transmitted from father to son, how, say they, could they have been changed and altered? Yet they doggedly affirm, for example, that the character long ( cháng) is a compound formed of a horse's head and man; that the cha- racter man (^ jin) grasping the numeral ten († shih) makes tau (斗) (+) or ten bushel measure; and that the character for insects chung) is formed by turning its parts inwards towards the center. Proceeding in this manner, even the imperial jurists, when explaining the laws will, by employing only one single character give sentence in a criminal case! In the phrase, to-harass people in-order-to-get money, (ho jin shau tsien) the fisrt character zo-harass, is taken alone (the others being dropped) to form a complete sentence ! Examples of this kind are very numerous, and they are all different from the ancient form employed by Confucius, nor do they accord with those invented by Sz'-chau. Vulgat literati and pettifoggers, too fond
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