Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 237

1841.

Examination of Four Chinese Characters.

223

Of the charactere, commonly rendered uti (se servir), cum, ut, causâ, e, ex, etc., to use, employ, with, as, by reason of, of, from, &c.

§ I. All sinologues have plainly perceived and known that in the more modern Chinese books the characters pa and tseäng

把 將

case.

(vulgo, to take, hold), when prefixed to words that precede the active verb by which they are governed, place those words in the accusative These characters so situated are very often prefixed to things that cannot be taken hold of, and they so entirely lose their usual signification that, to the mind of the reader or hearer, they appear to be mere potential characters, indicating the accusative case. It is almost the same thing as if in writing Latin, one should cut off the termination of the accusative, which is inseparably suffixed to the last syllable of the noun, and place it before the same noun. I beg leave to do this in the following examples, that I may more clearly and distinctly explain the peculiar property, as I regard it, of these cha-

racters.

I shall adduce first an example from the learned Grammar of the distinguished M. Abel-Rémusat; see 392.

A #pa 眞chin心 sin 話 haoa 說 shioǒ 了 Lerou

Literally: prehendens veri

I write : as

veri

cordis

cordis

verba loquel-

enuntiavit. enuntiavit.

That is, veri cordis loquelas (sive verba) enuntiavit: "He spoke

the words of a true heart."

Another example ;

B tu pa

I write :

Literally: prebendens

am

A chung ▲ jin tow.

hominum-turbam

hominum-turb-

tow. 看 kan

furtim

aspiciebat.

furtim

aspiciebat.

That is, homines furtim aspiciebat: "He stealthily beheld the

men." Observe that

the plural number.

chung, (vulg. many,) a multitude, denotes-

That the charactere, which appears in theKoo wăn, or ancient style of writing, performs, in certain cases, the same office as that of the aforesaid characters pa and tseäng, will be evident from the following proofs.

which, he informs us, he has felt bound to read again and again, while he has admitted no sense, nor criticised any rendering of others, unless the authority of many, or at least some, of these commentators favored bim. And in addition to this he has studied and compared with equal care the two Tartar versions of the same books. The man who has the ability and patience to do all this, in order to expound the Chinese classics, certainly does not boast, if he says he has adhered to the royal road to true interpretation, though unlike the modern regia via it is long and tedious. Tr.