Chinese scholars will be much interested in' new map which has just boon published, showing China as it was during a' comparatively early periud of its history, about 500 B.C. The map is the result of the collaboration at Sicawei of " European and a Chinese priest, who appear to have bestowed much pains on their task—by no means a small one, as anybody who has had anything to de with the identification of the names of Chinese localities will admit. The compilers have not attempted to consider the subject from an archaeological, but rather from a literary, point of view. They have taken as the basis such information as la to be found in she commentaries of Chu Chien, and in the works of well-known authors such as Kiang-yung's Fe AK LIH BY FS YOIRAS. Im a few notes with which ave _been favoured, the compilers "When these authors agreed, and determined che position of a town' with sufficient exactness, we have indicated it on the map with a character accompanied by a period. In many cases the identification has. differed, and in such we have, accepted the authority of Kiang-yung, whoae work is one of the most recent. This: author lived in the reign of Kien Lung, A.D. 1736-1796, and is the best. literary authority on these matters, In' these cases we have inserted the character without period or other sign, The same plan has been adopted for those localities which, without being the subject of controversy, was only vaguely indicated between several kisen, We have verified the identification of thehsienduring the auth lifetime with the existing locality. Wo have omitted a certain nunb-r of to and waterways mentioned in the Chu-chien and its commentaries, but of the situation of which all trace has been lost, The principal difficulty has been to define the boundaries ut the different Kingdoms, In the period of two centuries and a half embraced by the Chit-chien there was a constant state of warfare. The result was a succession of changes in the extent of each Kingdom, Some, such as Tsan En -B, Cheng Pf, Tong #R, Hou of, Ki $B, and Kung $2, disappeared altogether before B.C. 480, destroyed or absorbed by the others, generally Chin 4 or Ch'ou J¥, On the other hand, one or two of the principal kingdoms were established after 722, It would have been impossible to devise a nap showing the form of these kingdoms during the whole of that period, It would also have been inconvenient to fix upon one icular time, for instance a reign or he ratification of one of those great treaties to which mont of the kings agreed. Our object, which is to facilitate the study of the commentaries on the Chu-chien, would have been fully attained only for that particular epoch, obviate the difficulty we have marked on the map the site of all the kingdoms and states mentioned in the Classics, without regard to time. Consequently the limite which we have assigned cannot be regarded as La lines of demarcation. Frontier tows have often passed from one kingdom to another. The boundaries, however: are very nearly accurate and give a sufficiently good idea of the territorial extension of each kingdom, In the absence of documents we have not attempted tw show the numerous principalities of which exch kingdom was composed at this feudal period of Chinese history. We have simply indicated, in the region in which they were, an independent principality by enclosing the character in a circle, and a dependent principality by its character Our map is not the first attempt ind, but it will, we hope, be preferred to such imperfect productions as ti in the beginning of some editions of the Cho Chou, in which China is represented as nearly square, with water on three sides, Dr. Legge, in the 6th volume of the Classics, was the first to give a correct and fairly complete mup for the Chu-chien; but this map, designed for a book, could not be made 80 comprehensive as ours, The learned doctor, in order to avoid confusion, has been obliged to confine himself to what was actually indispensable, leaving out great number of towns the situation of which it is interesting to know. The size of our map and the use of photo litho have enabled us to give, in clear and dist characters, all that we think can be given with certainty, or at least with the greatest probability that can be derived from the proper authors. To this advantage me ave been able, without interfering with clearness, to add another which increases the interest of the work. Whilst the geography of the Chu-chien is shown in red, thst of China as at present is printed in black. Having thus under the eye two maps at the same time, as it were, the comparison of feudal China with the China of to-day ly facilitated, For the geography of to-day, use has been made of the map of the Kighteen Provinces drawn up in 1888 by Pere Chevalier, director
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.