Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 25

Chinese History.

JAN.

The 2d has reference to the arrangement of the Kang and the Muh, in order to give method and order to their work. The Kang ** are the heads or the principal parts of the history; they form a brief text of the whole work, down to the close of the Yuen dynasty. 'The Muh are the subordinate parts of the history; they are to the Kang (so the Chinese say) what the eyes are to the head, or what the strands are to the rope, of which it is composed. There may be a Kang without a Muh; vice versa, not.

The 3d has reference to the arrangement adopted by the coin- pilers in the subordinate part of their work.

In the first part down to the reign of

Weilce of the Chow dynasty, and also

in the last part of it, after the fall of the Yuen family, our compilers do not employ the Muh; in the first part, prior to Weilee's reign, they use

Kang and

Ke; in the last part, after the rise of the Ming line, they presume not to employ either Kang Muh or Kang Ke, but content themselves with a plain and simple narrative, with- out any of these divisions.

The 4th explains their system of references, adopted with the special purpose of rendering more easy the reading of history "by Inen of only ordinary capacities," like themselves. Having divided their work into sections (112 as specified above), and numbered the leaves of each section, the references are easy, and need no explana- tion from us. References in this manner, so common in our own, are seldom made by the Chinese in their books-for, as they inti- mate, it argues a want of intellect and a bad memory.

The 5th explains their mode of referring to, and specifying, the original works from which their materials have been derived. This they have done to enable the reader, whenever disposed, to refer to those authorities, either to see that there be no error in the abridg- ment, or to make himself more fully acquainted with the subject in hand.

The 6th explains their manner of treating the subject of geogra- phy--which is simply that of specifying the place, by its modern 'name, where each respective event occurred,→for if the reader of history is ignorant of the place, "the narrative will be to him like

a dream."

The 7th explains the new mode of punctuation, employed by the compilers. The Chinese usually omit all marks of punctuation; but in the History Made Easy, not only is the whole of the text di- vided into sentences and clauses by appropriate marks, but the good