Those who attended the meetings of the Literary Department when these papers were read will particularly appreciate their publication, for they will now be able to read and digest at leisure the material presented and will have it preserved for them in permanent form. Had these papers not been preserved in print, it is probable that their full value would have been restricted, more or less, to the authors concerned who must have spent considerable time in research work before writing them. The subjects dealt with are more than usually abstruse and in the memory of an average audience would make no _permanent record.
The first paper treats of the various theories regarding the origin of the Chinese race and their settlement in China. The next three papers are concerned with legendary and what might be called partially authentic history. Then, in a paper by Mrs. W. F. Beaman, the reader is told how the early historical records were preserved and, after this, the outstanding events of ancient Chinese history are dealt with in chronological order.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.