46th Nov.
At language is wonderful and philology is a fascinating study. The Chinese language considered by itself is 8 marvellous growth, but how it compares with other languages in practical value is quite an unsettled question. The average foreigner learning Chinese resents its peculiar difficulties and decides it is cumbersome, ineffective, avd not up to date; while the sinologue magnifies the beauties which be alone can see and makes the most he dare of every incidental advantage it has over an alphabetic Janguage. But extrayagant praise does no good: The Mexicans had a system of picture-writing; and if any genius to-day attained to reading what is left of that "literature" he would probably make the most of his hardly conquered prize, dwell upon its advantages which we and grow ecstatic over the brilliant had lost by our unpicturesque alphabet, colouring and delicate drawing. Yet the most that sober men could believe would be that it was a wonderful system the Mexicans and a system sufficient for the requirements' of Bfexican civilisation, As to Chinese it does not seem likely that a language " breeding in" for thousands of years could be compared in fulness and stability with those languages that have been enriched 8 the times required with new life from various civilisations.
Dr, Giles, in his invaluable dictionary, protests against the common idea that the Chinese language is more ambiguous than any other. "To the tyro any language has ambiguities, and five schoolboys will give five different translations of a Latin passage: yet Latin is not an ambiguous language." The argument so far appears to be that if you know the language well enough to be sure what every passage meats, then no passage will be to you ambiguous, which may be granted. But as Dr. Giles immediately and frequently falls foul of other sinologues for their mistranslations, it further seems that to other than tyros the Chinese language is ambiguous, and perhaps five sinologues could be found to give five different translations of a single passage.
Everyone who knows Chinese knows thet it can be made as ambiguous as one pleases, like the ancient oracles' dark utterances; and we ourselves have seen an ambiguity in an official proclamation, no doubt purposely put in to be understood, and perhaps with a purpose, like some of the deluding oracles, to compass the death of those it professed to protect. But apart from ambiguities with a purpose, it should be remembered that whatever Latin or Chinese may be to the English student, English should not be ambiguous to the English schoolboy uor Chinese to. the Chinese.
And this is where the difficulty and unsatisfactory nature of the Chinese Language is seen; you may get five schoolboys to give five different renderings of a passage out of their own books; though it is more likely they would be unable to give any rendering at all if it was a difficult passage which they had not previously had explained them. In English, the mau or boy who has learned to read has the whole range of modern English literature thrown open to him; no expression that he meets with will be enigmatical the thought reay he difficult to grasp, the reasoning hard to follow, but no brain power will be wasted in the mere understanding of the phraseology. " Why, truly, Sir," Mr. Wegg admitted with modesty, "I believe you couldn't show me the piece of English print that I wouldn't be equal to collaring and throwing, on the spot." But no ordinary Chinese, with or without a wooden leg, could make such a boast about Chinese print. The average educated Chinese with his books is more in the position of the average Englishman of education with his Latin, The books that were thrashed into him in school will remain familiar; any quotations from those books he will recognise through life with a pleased sense of scholarship; he may retain the power of bringing in an apt line from Horace in his speeches. But with the majority, to collar and throw any Latin unknown author op the spot is too much to ask, So the average educated Chinese can never be sure how he will get through the next page of a wen-li book. There may be unknown characters which require his reference to a dictionary or worse than that, there may be a collocation of words all of which he knows, yet which he cannot see the leaving of; or there may be a character which he knows, used in a sense that he is not familiar with; or there may be a quoted phrase which cannot be understood unless one first understands the passage from which the quotation is taken. As an example of. this last difficulty we refer the reader to our artful introduction of a wooden leg several lines back, an expression whick must be utterly meaningless to those who do not know where it comes from. Asa sample of another kind of difficulty mentioned we may instance a famous line from the classics. The word pao is used constantly of officials, "a tyrant nical official; of wind, a fierce wind; of anger, violent anger," and -s0 on, Hence when one finds it joined with fu, 8 tiger, one would naturally easily and off-hand translate, "a fierce tiger." But this is just where the mere unaided human intellect shows itself insufficient for Chinese. For in the passage we allude to: the two words pao fu must be translated, "unarmed to attack a tiger!" This of course is an extreme case; it may he that this word with this meauing occurs nowhere else in Chinese Titerature,—we do not know (for we are not a sinologue). But if it did not occur in the classics and did appear somewhere else; what a fatal: pitfall that somewhere else' would be for the reader!
One result of this difficulty in reading Chinese is, of corse, that less Chinese is read. We all know how much pleasure is taken away from the reading of a book in a language we do not know well, by the constant interruption to consult a dictionary; and we cannot wonder if the Chinese, however literary, are not 1s a role great readers, We speak, of course, of the ordinary half-educated Chinese, not.of the comparative few who are well-equipped scholars.
A further result is that style becomes everything. Ihe constant close attention necessary for understanding the phraseology gives at length a keen appreciation of style, until the mutter becomes less important to the reader than the manner. 'I'he complete and thorough study of the Chinese Classics, and the subsequent wide reading necessary to' make a Chinese scholar, can be the happy portion of only a fam. No oae would be so foolish as to wish for the abandonment of the study of the ancient native Ucerature; but it is perhaps equally foolish and more harmful to require all alike to enter on such studies, Just as the Greek and Roman literatures are the joy of the select few who have leisure and talent, so the ancient books of China should be studied by those who have time and prefer to devote their lives to that pursuit; and there should be an easier road for all the rest, That every Chiness boy who goes to school, whatever his station in life, should have to grind at the same weary mill is pre-pesterous. Perhaps the barbarous usage which cripples the feet of the girls is a mild evil compared with an educational system that cramps and wearies the mind, leaves the many in gross iguorance, and makes the test more proud than wise,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.