Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 342

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Topographical Account of Chusan.

JUNE,

Thus this author, who of all Chinese writers is, possibly, the most calculated to please Europeans, is one of those who have been the least read and admired.

There is a biographical notice of Mencius in the Sze Ke of Szema Tseën; and some particulars, literary and bibliographical about his Father Du works, in the 184th book of the Library of Ma Twanlin. Halde has given a copious analysis of Mencius; and we have some details about his life in the memoirs of the missionaries. J. B. Carp- zou has written a meagre dissertation on Mencius, which consists only of passages taken from Noel, and is unworthy of notice. A work, every way remarkable, is the beautiful Chinese and Latin edi- tion of Mencius by Stanislas Julien, since it required not merely a study of the text of Mencius, but of all the commentaries of this author which have reached Europe. (For a more extended notice of this translation, see page 222 of this volume.)

ART. V. Topographical Account of Chusan; its territorial divi-

sions, population, productions, climate, &c., &c.

TINGHAE, under the Chinese rule, forms a heën, or district, having the town of the same name for its chief town and seat of government. This is what by Du Halde, and other European writers, is called a city of the third order: the two superior orders being chow and foo— (or tcheou and fou),—words that do not, however, properly distinguish the cities and towns, but rather the territorial divisions which are under the jurisdiction of such cities and towns. A chow contains, sometimes, several heën subordinate to it; at other times it does not : a foo always comprises several heën, and frequently also one or two of such chow as have no subordinate heën within their precincts. By regarding these last chow as nowise different from the heën, and the others (those that have jurisdiction over several subordinate heën) as answering to the foo*, we may confine to two names the distinctions of the more marked territorial divisions:-the higher of these we may call prefectures or departments; and each prefecture will contain a number of districts, as many sometimes as ten, twelve,

or even more.

*They differ only in the number and gradation of officers, and the consequent expense of establishments.

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