ceNTURY.
Tax literary aim that has distinguished writers of the present dynasty in this country has been that of finding out facts and drawing from them indepen. dent vouctasions. In (he seventeenth oovlury a new spirit came over Chinn, Sobolars began to work independently in many ways and on the criticism of the classies in particular, and thie was partly the result of improved education, atid "the wider circulation of books, The Sung dynasty philosophy was felt not to be a help in the discovery of truth, Consequently the scholars of Ubat century quietly released thems: from its trammels and struck oat a new path, The aspect of the Confucian Sobool in their time was peculiar. At the beginning of the Ming dynasty th contrary all the literati of Cha Hai, and accepted Confucius with the additions made by the scholars known as Chou, Chou Ch'eng, Chu, They accounted for the existing universe by a Taoi combined with the divining symbols of the Book of Changes, Let any one enter Chinese school and ask for a copy of the Yi-ching. In the prefatory matter he will see a number of diagrams made up of black and white spaces. These form a symbolic representation of the Sung philosophy, which is contented with the view that light and darkness rule in the universe, that these two elements are derived from © monad sand develope themselves into four, eight," sixteen, thirty-two, and more elements, The literati of this school have chosen to put this symbolism forward as a specimen of their teaching, and we judge of them accordingly. Of course they taught a good deal more, -Their views on innate reason, and nate evil were the occasion of aplittivg up the literati into subdivisione in imitation of the Buddhists. The school of Confucius was onlied that of the rivers Cha and Ssu, which still fow none! hia birthplace. school of the was called that of the Lo in Honan, the homo of those highly honoured schoolman, The div in the ranks of the Con. ists began in the fifteenth centary, with Chen Helen-chang. He made quietness the basis just he had been a 4 In other words he was mystical. He tought his followers to sit still, parify the thoughts and look within for a principle that might guide them, He declined to make a book. His school wns called Chiang Men and another which sprang from it through the energy of Wang Shan-jev, a pupil, was called Yau Chiang. It went into opposite ised Chu Hxi severely, me popular all through the sixteenth century. All the writers of that time took sides on points belong. ing to moral questions, and no 6 gle author gave hia undivided attention to ie oritioul study of the classics, The literati were divided into schools which borrowed plentifully from Buddhism and Taoism.
In the seventeenth century two men appeared who were instruments in producing a grent change, They were! Hwang Teung-hsi and Kn Yeu-wa and it claims to special honour have been and are still, under the careful attention of the government, Last summer the Suporintendent of Education and El for Chiang-lsi province presented a Memorial praying that there two men should be worshipped at the sacrifices to Confucius, On this the Board of Ceremonies was by Edict ordered to report. In obedience to Guverument orders books of these authors wore sent in from the provinces, und an estimate of thole life, work, and position as! scholars, prepared and presented to the iron by the Board of Ceremonies, On account of their opposition to Eh hei this was unfavourable, But a very favourable document supporting prayer of the first Memarinlist was also presented by Pan Twu-yin and both have been published in the Peking Gazette, In January of this year, a very interesting as compiled by Hwang 1B: giving the history of Gon-; facianist Schools in the Sung, the Yuen and the Ming dynasties, and passing judgment on them, He also protested against the application of the Book of Changes to the Culendar, by Chi Fang, thus striking a blow at Astrology and the absurd physical theory of the Han authors. He condemned the} Taoist cosmogony of Tai Chi and the notions of Sbaa Kang-chie on the! superior Leaven of Fahei. By doing! this he reduced the Book of Changes to! what it was in the time of Confuciu: and did much to choke the weaker portions of the Sung philosophy. His contemporary Ku You-wu founded the modern school of research into the sounds of the language in the ancient classics, He was also an able writer on taxation, He urged that taxes should be evenly levied. It was through his efforts thnt the excessive imposts levied on the rich districts of Sachou and Sang Chiang were lightened, and the unduly light burden nid on sume northern cities increased to an amount which redressed the balance between North and South, He was the groutest schuluc of this dynasty, Thus these two authors commenced a new era ut criticism, and they lave been succeeded by an unbroken chain of distinguished writers who have shown what part of the ancient texts were genuine and what parts spurious, and illustrated the astronomy, geography and old provun. lution of these books in a manner never before paralleled, Sung criticism, looks childish jo Unt of very many books written by wuthers of the present dynasty, In sonrching for the onuses of this improvement. it should be rament bored that the invention of printing in the tenth century gradually elevated the popular mind by the diffusion of cheap hooks. The arrival of Buropenn whips in Chinese harbours made the people better acquainted with the outer world, The Jesuit natronomy and geography made the literati randy for great chungas in their ideas of the universe, [he extreme one-sidedness of the Ssu philosophy culminated in the school the Ming literati who adopted my views, and borrowed much from est Buddhism, From this wenk-knead phige of the Confucian moral system the more enlightened men recoiled. The result was that the Sang philosophy rus altuost forsaken, and in its pinon was erected a solid atracture of scholar~ ship more scientific than China known in any age 'THE KEROSENE OIL TRADE; Ir is probable that very great changes in the Petroleum or Kerusous vil trade of the world are near at hand, Up till the Inst few years the United States have lind the supplying of kerosene oil to all the markets ut the world nearly nil to thomselyee, Ihe oil me dustry has been an inmense source of riches to Pennyslyania and other dia. tricts, and certain Companies, and not~ ably the mysterious Standard, have been veritable riines of wealth to their fortunate shareholders, the Standard regulates the market price of oil and the supplies of the erade material which the railway companies may convey in immense pipes to the refinerier, and in fuct, has hitherto had pretty much its own way. Bat a formidable competitor with the Amerionn oil interest is already in the field in the St. Peteraburg Naphtha Producing Compaus—the Brothers Nobel—while the borings which have been made in the north-west by order of the Indian Government seem to promise success. And by and by we may expeot to cee petroleum mines in Upper
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.