So far, two statements seem to be already granted to us by our readers: first, that a new word is to be coined, to meet the new need; and secondly, that the neologism should be an', sim," no matter, for the present, what this aay be. Here we heartily re and take note of this agreement. This result in not worthless, as it enables us, it seems, to get vid of, for ood, the rather long and, as the "North-China Daily News" admits it, "quite incorrect" express sion. "The Three People's Principles" and others of the same kind, Plenty of "isms"
Quite a few "isms" are put before' us, and we are invited to help ourselves, 30 to speak. It would seem as if we had but the difficulty of choosing.
Dr. Ferguson thinks it unneces-ary to go back to the Greek word demon, ase did, He objects to our using "The Triple De recount of the "necessity of adding The Triple to the new word Dem ism, with the inherent drawback of the necessity of constant explanation." In fact, he does not want to translate the four characters under consideration but is quite satisfied to transliterate them, proposes the new word "Sanminism" or ""Sunyatsenism." Both these words, he adds, "would indicate on their face that they oriminated in China,"
The "North-China Daily News," while much more inclined to accept "The Triple Demism" than the "Sanminism" is somewhat hesitant. It makes a difference between "sunyatsenis thinking that the frst "men menta?¥ottitude or the cult of the Followers of Sum Yat'son" Te sees in Dr. Ferguson's amendment a striking analogy with Confucianism m and prefers to either one of them— still a little more than and rightly so—judiciously it coneludi that in' any case "Sunyatsenis ike "Sunwonism" "gets rather far away from the original San. Min Chu 1" And so-it goes back to lo Demism," and main-fain against Dr, Ferguson, that We invented "Demism," "as useful fare quite distinct from Demoeracy," and that we added lo" to show the special apto China."
Behold others isms," for fa third reader propose' "Sunism" or Translations and Transliterations First, let us remark that 0 Buestion it a question of transi ton.
Tu our previous article, we sai the question arises: how translate these four characters San Binchut 1&3 2"
We are answered that there is no "peed of translating them, but that This is hardly an answer to the question.
Besides, in our opinion, trans-iterations are useful or needful in two cases: first, when there is a question of proper names which, of course, cannot but be trans-iterated; and secondly, when the right word, the one more congenial to the language into which it should be translated, has not yet or cannot be found...
With reference to the first case, such words as Confucianism, Men-clanism, and now, if we like it, Sunwenism, are very welcome (although, as for the last o are afraid we would be making muck ado about nothing), because they are of the kind of those we have in our western languages: Aristotelism, Platonism, Thomism, Kantism, Cartesianism, ete. They all mean: the whole doctrine attributed such and such a thinker. Here let us note in passing that, in our opin-fon, "Sonyatsenism" is to be considered as a mere synonym of "Sun-wenism," since Sun Yat-sen is the very same man as Sun Wen. Tke analogy noted between Confucianism or Mencianism and '{Sanminism"
therefore only an apparent one, Decause Confucius or Mencius are men, while there. is nobody whose name would be San As for the second case of transliterations, the Chinese language, 8 few years ago, was extremely rich 48 #18 I for Telephone, ME for motor-car, SE A 35 Me Pp for ultimatum, 68 BW ¥8 fir Wifor Democracy, etc, But this step is only 4 preliminary and transitory ner or later, has to be Tt cannot be some thing definite and. complete. $5, words, like those just quoted, are gradually dropping out as soon the right translation, more "con: genial to the Chinese language, is found, That is why Chinese nov-adays use Wf Of for telephone, for motor-car, S430 for_ult datum and Bt fA or [& oe BR for democracy. Some of them "even went s0 far along this line that they translated names of towns which had some original meaning. Thus, for instance, Oxford is usually refered to as 423ft (Ox ford).
What About "Sunwenisi" and the Like?
If there were a question of finding out a word which should bring forth the idea of the whole doctrine of Dr. Sun, we would not object to neologisms' like "Sunyatsenism," "Sunweniem" or "Sunism." Then expressions 3 3 5E:% or
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.