16
THE CHINA REVIEW,
Now San was a second son, and had an elder brother called San Ching, a mau full of wiles and stratagems from top to toe; he was well acquainted with the military art and with every mode of fighting; he knew everything, but was not an upright man. He was Kao Chin's chief hanger-on and sharp- er; and he was consulted in any business Kao Chin lad for destroying or ruining any one; he settled the matter, and no mistakes then ensued. Hence Kao Chin was much pleased with him and wanted to promote kim to be a Sub-Prefect, but he refused all office and only lived in Kao Chin's mansion, where he contrived to get plenty of acrapings and to get his living off fraudulent squeezes. Kao Chin never would let him go, and all in the capital feared him; he was called San, He had now re- the prickly hedgehog. turned from performing, at the instance of Kao Chin, some public business, but as it was night he could not enter the mansion, The two brothers thus met at night and talked about the hots and colds (various things that had happened). San Ching asked
what had been going on at H. E. San Kao said, "No very important affair, only to day I have got, for the son, a little girl both obedient and sprightly who will soon be his, and he must thank me not a little for it," San Ching said, "Whose family does she belong to ?" and his brother then told him the whole affair about Hai-chen from begin- ning to end. Sun Ching shook his head when he heard it, and said, "Don't be pleased in such a hurry, there is bound to be some deceit here; it is only a device for delay." San Kao gave a grunt, and said, "I never guessed there could be such a plan, perhaps he intends his daughter to commit San Ching said, "She some violent deed,"
won't injure any one, only fly off as far as she can go; you are exerting yourself to no purpose; and will be well laughed at for your gains; wait till I have seen Kao Chín to-morrow, and criticized the affair. I will then have roady another plan and so clip their wings that these people will be unable to fly off. You are drank now; go off and sleep; to-morrow I will talk with you.
A CHINESE PRIMER.
"Frensch eche spak ful faire and fotysly After the anvie of Stratford atte Bowe. For Freusch of Parys was to hire unkanwe.""
CHAUCER.
It would doubtless be very interesting to students of the nineteenth century, to be able to peruse the old world hand-books, the manuscripts written in crabbed monkish Latin, by the aid of which Chaucer's dainty nun endeavoured to acquire a knowledge of superfine French. Failing this however it may be permitted us to doubt whether, in spite of all the intellectual progress which has marked the flight of time, we have im- proved to any very great extent the methods used by our ancestors in learning a tongue
other than our own. The kindly sarcası of the poet is as true and as pertinent in our day as when five centuries since he let fly the light shafts of wit, at "the scole of Stratford atte Bowe," where religious can- didates received the needful polish which was to fit them for their profession. They learned indeed to speak French, but it is very evident that they would have been sorely at a loss to make theraselves under- stood in Paris. The poet's keen perception divined that the art of speaking a language
A CHINESE PRIMER,
can only be successfully acquired amongst those who use it as their mother tongue. Schools and colleges, books and tutors may help the student to read, and even write in a measure, any language under the san, but he who expects in addition to speak in- telligibly as the result of a systematic study of tones and forras, and artificial combina- tions, instead of getting saturated with the living tongue of the people, is only preparing disappointment for himself. I recall an old Peninsula veteran who used to tell of bis
pride as a youngster, when going to Spain, in the fact that he could read Don Quixote in the original with tolerable ease. His first attempt however at ordering dinner for his party in the vernacular resulted in his re- ceiving the humiliating rejoinder from the mystified attendant, Will the Sonor be good enough to speak English? I do not understand Italian!"
These reflections have been occasioned by the contrast exhibited between one of the first, and the latest contribution towards the study of Chinese generally, and of Cantonese in particular, which now lie before us the one the well known Chres- tomathy of Dr. Bridgman, 1841; the other A Chinese Primer by Dr. Burdon, 1877.* During the six and thirty intervening years we remember but few works of this kind which have made their appearance, and of these some are now out of print, eg. Dr. Williams's "Easy Lessons" 1842 and "Beginner's First Book" 1847. Dr. Deyan's "Students First Assistant," followed by the Rev. W. Lobscheid's Grammar 1864, also a small volume of "Easy Sentences for Begin- ners," and latterly by Dr. Dennys's "Hand- book of the Canton Vernacular 1874," are the principal of these which remaiu, and doubtless familiar in some measure to all who have tried to learn Punti. They all have this in common, that they profess to be intended to be placed in a student's hand as first books. Dr. Devan's aim was to furnish
* A Chinese Primer. Compiled by J. S. Burdon, Bishop of Victoria. Hongkong, 1877.
47
a stock of words, arranged under different headings so as to be easily found, beginning with nouns, apportioned to their proper categories, and then in succession lists of the different parts of speech, each section being followed by illustrative sentences. In fact a Primer, grammar and vocabulary in one,the whole exceedingly cambrous aud ineffective, recailing those continental conversation books, in which the particular phrase wanted at the moment was never to be found. Mr. Lobscheid's Grammar in two parts, whilst containing a large amount of valuable information both as to classic and vernacular, presents it in so chaotic a condi- tion and so intermixed with crude theories on irrelevant matters as materially to inter- fere with its usefulness. It recalls vividly the eccentric author's manner of advising new-comers to carry about note book and pencil and ever to be on the look-out for contributions towards a Grammar of Chinese. The Handbook of Dr. Denuys follows the plan of the Chrestomathy in giving a large repertoire of well-chosen sentences, but pur- posely gives the Grammatical information in detached yet consecutive fragmente, possibly with a view to its easy assimilation by tyros, but most painfully reminding any one wish- ing to consult it, of a child's dissected puzzle. The Chrestomathy aimed at teaching classic Chinese systematically and progressively through the medium of the Canton Dialect. These later works aim rather at teaching the dialect as an introduction to the man
li.
In this I think they are right. The student who has first acquired the power of freely conversing with his teacher in the vernacular will find bis progress much facilitated in mastering the terse style of man h or classio. Still I must confess that
there seems to me to be room for a more systematic work on the study of Chinese than any yet published, leading gradually up to the classic through and by means of the vernacular, yet keeping them both quite distinct-a manual which shall provide a suficiency of thoroughly native contences,
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