ORIENTAL PHILOLOGY 239 



who taught from 1832 to 1873, was the best Sinologist 

 of his day. His translation of the life and travels of 

 the illustrious Buddhist pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang, serves 

 the Indianists much as Pausanias serves the Hellenists. 

 Stagnating somewhat upon the death of Julien, French 

 Sinology sprang to new life again in the hands of the 

 Jesuit missionaries Pere SERAPHIN-COUVREUR and Pere 

 WIEGER, and of CHAVANNES, CORDIER, and PELLIOT. 

 Father COUVREUR'S " Dictionnaire Chinois-f rancais " 

 (3rd ed., 1911) has been of inestimable value in pro- 

 moting Chinese studies in France; and Father WIEGER'S 

 "Textes historiques" serve admirably for a general 

 knowledge of the history of the Middle Kingdom. Henri 

 CORDIER 's " Bibliotheca Sinica" (2d ed., 1908) is the 

 most minute and learned Occidental repertory of Chinese 

 bibliography. Edouard CHAVANNES has published the 

 first five volumes of his complete version of the " Memoires 

 historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien." Besides this vast historical 

 work may be mentioned his archaeological investigations 

 contained in his "Sculpture sur pierre en Chine" and 

 in his "Mission archeologique dans la Chine septentri- 

 onale" (with nearly 500 plates). His three beautiful 

 and charming volumes, "Cinq cents contes et apologues, 

 extraits du Tripitaka chinois et traduits en f rancais," 

 have already been most fruitful in the hands of students 

 of comparative literature. 



The exploration of Central Asia by Sir Aurel STEIN, 

 PELLIOT, and others, has opened up a new world to stu- 

 dents of India and China. PELLIOT'S finds in his journey 

 of 1905-8 were astounding beyond measure. He visited 

 the "Grottos of the Thousand Buddhas," examined the 

 manuscripts (some fifteen to twenty thousand) which 

 had been walled up in the eleventh century (mostly 

 Chinese and Tibetan, but some in Indian writing), and 

 brought to France material for the researches of scholars 



