Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 20

1841.

Chinese History.

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the notice of our readers a popular work of modern date: it is the 54p & Kang Keën E Che Luk, or History Made Easy. The character and value of Chinese history, generally, as viewed by native historians, are exhibited in an Introduction and Preface to this work more fairly than can be done by any equally': brief remarks of our own. And our readers, we presume, will not be displeased with these papers, although cumbered with the disadvan- tages almost inseparable from mere translations. The first paper a short Introduction, written by an uncle of the principal author, of which the following is a translation.

Introduction.

Succeeding the Annals written by Confucius

is

Chun

•

Tsew] and subsequently, in one grand whole illustrating the rise and fall of states, no work is superior to the Kang Muh; indeed the incidents comprised therein are so numerous, extending over a period of several thousand years, that the reader seems in an ocean, wide-spreading and boundless. Compilers-following brevity, par- ing off the redundancies-celebrated hands, have appeared in crowds; but their nice words and profound thoughts, the meaning of their lan- guage, the reality of their statements, are so imperfectly and obscurely expressed, that even those who are the most fond of learning and of profound thinking, with minds fitted to comprehend what they read, are yet without means of forming a connected chain of the events recorded. And this they are unable to do even after they have ex- amined other books and consulted their friends and teachers. Being myself ever fond of investigating the great principles of the Annals by Confucius, I have always found delight in perusing the entire Kang Muh (or Historical Principia). During the ten years and upwards that I held office in Shense, Szechuen, Shanse, and Honan, so completely was I engrossed with public affairs, that very few were the days afforded for the pleasures of historical reading. The mo ments of leisure that occasionally occurred were insufficient for the study of entire histories; and of the compilations, seized at intervals for reperusal, I was only able to comprehend their general import.

Formerly my relative, the honorable Lewtsun, a member of the Board of War, rising from the office of lieutenant-governor in Fuh- keen to the governorship of Kwangtung and Kwangse, with Tsootsae my nephew, having collected the productions of many ancient and

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modern worthies of celebrity, compiled a work which they called

tit Koo Wan Kwan Che, or A Complete View of

古文觀止