པ མ མ་
850
THE LANGUAGE OF THE CHINESE PARLIAMENT.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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HIUNG NU NOT HUNS.
to being elected, no doubt a much larger number of Chinese would perfect themselves in it, and, with an object of this kind (Daily Press, 25th November.) before them, would find little difficulty in Should the Chinese, as they promise, doing so. There are a large number of establish a system of representative Govern Chinese, outside the official classes, who ment, there is one point of detail which has have some knowledge of the Kian Hua, hitherto not been referred to, but which will but it is not very accurate, and they have probably be found to tax even Chinese
no incentive to keep it up. One effect of ingenuity to adjust quite satisfactorily. representative institutions would be to If an Imperial general assembly with elective make a common spoken language more members be established, it is a curious general and thus in some measure to do speculation how they will arrange as to the away with the localism which has always dialect in which the discussions are to be been one of the chief difficulties in govern- carried on. The Chinese dialects, as ouring the Chinese as a whole. If this effect be readers are well aware, differ so much that produced, it will be one of the most salutary Chinese from one Province are often quite changes that can take place in China, unable to understand those from another; where the great trouble has always been to and even where they do so to some extent, get the nation to act as a whole, and with a they have frequently to resort to a pan- truly national spirit. The fact that the tomimic writing of a character with the
written language is the same all over China finger of one hand on the palm of the other has been a strongly combining force; but to make themselves understood. If there. this force is by no means so great as that of fore, there is a bona fide elective system, it
a common spoken language, which is one of is difficult to understand how the hon. the strongest honds of sympathy in all parts member for, say, Shanghai with broad and of the world; and would, no doubt, prove completely local pronunciation is to make to be as much so in China as in other himself understood by, say, the member for places, Canton with the well known snappy pro- nunciation of that district, or how either of them will be understood by members from Peking speaking the official dialect
(Daily Press, November 26th.) and entertaining a hearty contempt for Dr. AUREL STEIN has proved himself a those of any other part of the Empire. The model explorer, and the results that he has solution which will naturally occur to the already attained in the till lately mysterious Chinese is that all discussions must be con- regions of Central Asia lying immediately ducted in the official dialect, and no doubt, west of Chiua afford an indication of what at first at least, this will be the plan resorted
we may expect regarding the earlier history to. At all events it may be taken as toler- of Asiatic civilisation when his explorations ably certain that only men who were well come to he still further extended. Lately he conversant with the Kwan Hua would be has been extending his researches into the likely to be selected as nicuibers of the districts of the Gobi immediately adjoining Council or Assembly, aud thus the choice western China; and here his researches, would be restricted to a comparatively though not to the ethnologist likely to be limited class in many places, while in others of as great importance as those further west, such as Tientsiu and the northern cities and will for the purposes of the historiographer districts generally a much larger field would who desires to understand the rise of the open for the selection of representatives.imperial power of China from its foundation The Nanking dialect, which differs from the by the great Tsin Shihwangti, be of still official mainly in consonant, and compara- greater interest. One of the great move tively little in vowel sounds might be ments of Asiatic history, whose echoes acceptable but the larger number of Chinese reached as far as Imperial Rome, had its from other than the two parts indicated headquarters in these regions-the struggle could not hope to hold their own, unless they for mastery between the Hiung Nu and the were among those who are well acquainted Hans, which long remained undecided; and with the official tongue. Something, there it is therefore of consequence that Dr. Stein fore, will have to be done to solve this should start provided with the latest difficulty, if there is to be anything in the information derivable on the subject rather form of a Parliament after the foreign model. than that he should be left of his own No doubt it may be assumed that every
devices to struggle out of the Sirbonian bog educated Chinaman speaks the official in which the subject has been left through language, and therefore no difficulty need the errors of DEGUIGNES, and his modern arise. This is true from the Chinese point followers. For his age-the earlier part of view. In other words, the officials and of the eighteenth century-DEGUIONES WAS literati consider that no one who cannot a fair Oriental scholar, but he seems speak the official dialect can be regarded as have known little Chinese, and to have been a man of finished education or worth listen- entirely dependent on second hand trans- ing to upon any matters of s'ate importance, lations of the Wanhien Kanginu, itself a But unfortunately this is just one of the old réchauffée with no critical acumen of standing prejudices in China which it would older works of very different authority. be the object of representative institutions DEGUIGNES History of the Huns may be to do away with, by providing the means best described as a work of the same age and of the views of the mercantile and other similar authority with ROLLIN'S "Ancient classes, who, in a broader sense, are better History," aud it would be as profitable to go educated than those too strongly imbued to the latter for a history of ancient Egypt with official tradition, being duly heard. It or Babylon as to DEGUIGNES for the an. would therefore be an unfortunate thing, if cient history of Central Asia. Our modern the choice of representatives were restricted Chinese scholars are as deficient in critical in any such manner, and it is to be hoped judgment as their predecessors of the that some solution of the difficulty may be eighteenth century, and bave been content found. This would not, of course, be im- to copy their blunders, without, of course, possible by providing interpreters where the same excuse; and so Dr. STEIN, not necessary, and, in the earlier stages, this himself a professing Chinese student, has should be the course adopted. As time went heen led into the error of confounding on, aud it became known that a knowledge of Hunni with Hiung Nu. The error, which the official dialect, or at least something amounts to an entire falsification of the approaching it, was a necessary qualification | ethnographic history of Asia, as well as
be
to
[November 30, 1907.
more
dislocating the later history of the Roman
of importance, the Empire, is especially that neither ethnographically nor philologically is there any connection between the two peoples, who are in both respects as far apart as the poles. Klaproth a century ago shattered DeGUIGNES' argu- ments, but the modern sinologist still, from ignorance or malice prepense, elects to repeat the error.
As a fact, while the swarthy low statured dark eyed Hunn described by AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS is an unmistakeable Oghuz, all the descriptions we possess from Chinese Bources lead to the conclusion that the Hiung Nu there figured belonged rather to the blond type; was tall, fair com. plexioned, and possessed that generosity of character which has at all times marked the Turk in contrast with the Oghuz type. The Hiung Nu was, in fact, the true fore- runner of the modern Osmanli in festure as in disposition; and the remains of his speech preserved for us by SSEMA T'SIEN are distinctly of the Osmanli type. The true descendants of the Hiung Nu were in fact the Tughul of the sixth century a nd the Seljuk of the tenth, and through 'he latter the modern Osmanli. The Hann of AMMIANUS who so nearly brought the early Byzantine Empire to destruction, and who disturbed the whole of Europe till conquered on the field of Chalons, finds his closest modern representative in the swarthy Vo- gul of the Urals.
This confusion of Turk and Oghuz is not, however, the only error into which Dr. STEIN has been led by his false guides in his short description of this Gobi land. Equally in error, though the consequences are of less importance, are the supposed identification of Charkhlik and Leolan. Leolan, or as it was apparently subsequently called, Shen-shen, the Nafopu, i.e. Navapur or Newtown of the monk Yuen Chwang was undoubtedly the modern Cherchen. Origi. nally the capital of the old Arjuna tribes of Eastern Turkestan, its history is very instructive, and its capture formed one of the main achievements of the mythical Nanwang in the story of the Great Migra- tion, Charkhlik on the other hand re- presents the site of the mythical K'i the first home of the Cheos who founded the first kingdom in northern China, the fore- runner of the subsequent Empire. It is in fact the Kusse or Ch'esse of the T'aien Han Shu, when it constituted a separate king- dom. As Dr. STEIN rightly tells us, the Lake Lop was in those early days far more extensive than at present, and so the road to Shen-shen had to hug the northern slopes of the modern Altyn Tugh, and passed through the land of Küsse, in mordern times known as Gash. This territory in the time of the early Hans was far more fer ile and better watered than in modern times, and we find the Emperor Wu offering it as pasture land to the Wusuns, who, however, declined it, whereupon he settled here the Hwanyas who had been dispossessed by the Hiung Nu of the former homes. has often been a subject of wonder why the ancient travellers in Central Asia going west from Shacheo or Tunhwang, instead of proceeding due west, made a detour far north by way of Khamil whence they pro- ceeded by Cherchen to the west. The explanation is to be found in this former great extension of Lop, which in the early middle ages seemed to have for a time, at least, blocked the southern road. When the road was re-opened the desert was found to have an far advanced that few travellers ventured on making the journey. Up to the time of the Wei Shu, where the way stations are mentioned, the lines of
It
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