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THE CHINA REVIEW.
buth sexes.
The husband rejoins his wife when the festivities are over, and there is now no further ceremony between them, and consequently nothing further to describe. After sleeping two nights in her new home the newly-married wife returns to spend a day with her family (uring chia), returning the sante evening.
X. Y. Z.
STUDIES IN WORDS.--The words ying tang mean "ought." They are in the same tone, shang play, and are probably the same word. Many words beginning with y have lost initial . Proofs of this law are given in my lutroduction to the Study of the Chinese Characters, page
200.
Both these characters are written phone- tically. Thus ying is the eagle here ex- pressed by E. See page 123. Ying being
a moral wond with the sense "ought" could not be pointed and was therefore represented by its synonym "eagle." Afterwards ying "caglo" was written with the addition "bird" underneath. It was decided to add the sign of a bird, in the one case, and the sign of the heart for moral obligation in the other. But this was at a later period.
The sign for "man" was placed on the left, responsibility being a human attri- bate. Why the covering radical (if ideo- graphie) was added is not very clear, unless it may be that ying also means breast and that which is within the breast is covered from view. But it is preferable to regard it as phonetic as I have done in the second pasange above cited. The Shwo-wen says that the covering radical is derived from
yim "dumb" as its phonetic, the cover- ed portion yin "sound" being omitted. The conclusion to be drawn from this state- ment is that was in the age when the Shwo-wen was written pronounced yim. This is a new proof that, as I said in p. 178 of my Introduction, several at least and probably all the following words classed together in his Div. VI. by Twan-pu-te'ai, were heard
with as their final in the time of the primeval poetry. They are
弓,典,服,
薨繩升陵怡, 登膺,承, 冰, 兢縢懲雄肱恆馬椉 To these are to be added words formed phoneti- cally from them. He refers to the following
passwuges in the Odes 秦小戎三 Logge IV. Fart 1, p. 195, where yin rhymes with 興 ete. and 憩頌五章 Legge IV. Part 2, p. 626, where sien rhymes with
kung, etc.
The final in these words should then have existed B.C. 1650 shortly before Confu- cius, and alsu partially in A.D. 200. But during all this period it may in different parts of the country have been changing to ng. Hence there is ground for the classifica. tion in two divisions. Any word such as hing "rise" for example may have been pronounced him in one dialect and hing in another. In Kü-yuen's poems written B.C. 350 is the only character in ng found rhyning in . See Tyt.
The character in written phonetically with the help of shang anciently called tang and "field" in the sense of landed security for money lent or some other obliga- tion. The explanation given in Sw. is pa "eight" and (1) hiang "towarda," Sw. adds that hang is phonetic, that is with the sound shang, I suggest that it indicates giving and that 'shang ally represented by pa hiang "towards."
give was pictori- sond forth" and
Tang is "to bear," and is the same as tam "to carry." The last of these cha- racters has kept final. The others changed it for ny. The moral word yielded to change more readily than the physical. The Mongol damnaho is "to carry" and damjigor “a carrying pole."
Jen or aim is to bear"
1. This is called jen 1.0. năm on Đặng Lê, dam,
But n and d are interchangeable letters. So hore we have the same word astang and H ging.
NOTES AND QUERIES,
Thus Jen, "responsibility," "official charge," that which is carried; #jen, "fotus," is the same thing. jen or as it is in the North hin, is to rent a house, as
tang is to give pledge for money. The verb nany "to be able" is pro- bably only the same root to hear."
The oldest form of the root being nim, tam or dam, search should be made in other languages for corresponding words having any of these forms. For example in Gor- man, nimm, nehmen, to take, is according to many philologists an example of acci- dental coincidence. This opinion, however, cannot be safely maintained until there has been a detailed comparison of roots, a task, which still remains to be undertaken.
JOSEPH EDKINS,
THE EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM OF THE CHINESE.-There appears to be no limit whatever to the age at which a Chinese may compete at the public examinations. No youth is held too tender, no age is deemed too venerable, that one should be disqualified to enter the lista on equal terms with the majority. According to the general rule, two successive years, out of every three, are devoted to the sui kiao, or examinations hold by the Provincial Literary Chancellor for the degree of siz ta'ai; the third is
year for the k'a k'ao, or the examination held by the Special Commissioner (chu k'ao) for the degree of chữ jên. In many cases, however, there is an irregalurity, and, whether it be that famine, rebels, or other plague have prevented the holding of an examination, or whether it be that the Examiner bas been unable to do his duty for other reasons, the sui and 'o kao will fall together, in which case a year remains vacant. More- over when an accession to the Throne takes place, or a male heir is born to the Emperor, an extra k'o 'ao, which goes by the name of ngên k'o, is granted to each Province.
Let us take a youth A.B. and follow him from the school to the chaplet of honour. His first step is to enter his name at the
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yamên of the magistracy, or hien, of his birth. To this place he betakes himself under the guidance of the lin sheng, or senior graduate of the magistracy. (This term will be explained farther on). He hands in a ts'ê to, or alip, inscribed with his name, age, village, the names of his father, grandfather and great grandfather -his sun tai. No one can compete at a Publio Examination whose genealogy will not go back this far at least. His "three generations are not clear" San tai pu ch'ing. Also are excluded from the lists barbers, play-actors, personal servants, yamên-run- ners, nail-cutters, scavengers, and others, and also the descendants of these to the third generation. The wagistrate collects these slips and, in the early autumn of every sui kao year, issues a notification, naming a day for the hien k'ao or “Magia. trate's examination.” The entering of the name at the yamên entitles one to the ap- pellation of tung shiêng, or undergraduate. The examination is held in the Magistrate's yamêr, where there is always socommoda- tion for five or six hundred undergraduates. Success (ix) follows as a matter of course, the test being only a nominal one, and none but the ogregiously ignorant being discarded. The examination takes place at about 8 a.m., and the subjects are selected by the Magistrate in presence of the undergraduates, after the doors are closed. One theme in prose, and one in verse (ên chung: shih) are hung up within view of all. In about three days the list of retained candidates is exposed outside the yamên (kua p'ać), the first in order receiving the honorary title of "Magistrate's choice" (hien p'i). The single advantage which attaches to this honour is that, as a matter of courtesy, the Prefect, at the next examination, will endeavour to place his name among the first ten.
About a month after the hien kao, the Ju kina takes place, at the Provincial Metro- polis. Thither myriads of undergraduates wend their way from each magistracy to go through the formal and unprofitable Prefect's
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