32 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ments, five cardinal virtues, six grains, six domestic animals, seven passions, 

 eight kinds of music, nine degrees of kindred, and the ten moral and social 

 duties, followed by a summary of future studies and a catalogue of dynasties 

 up to 1644, when the present dynasty began, the latter not being thought a fit 

 subject for instruction, as if a class in English history should halt at the 

 accession of the House of Hanover! 



2. A Century of Surnames, 454 clan names to be memorized. 



3. Millcnnary Classic, 1,000 distinct characters, written a.d. 550 as a con- 

 nected ode, possessing rhyme and rhythm, but no more poetry than the multi- 

 plication table; in fact, its characters are used as ordinals to designate the 

 successive rows of stalls in the triennial examination halls. In subject matter 

 it is similar to the ' Trimetrical Classic,' but more discursive. 



4. The Odes for Children, 136 lines in rhymed pentameters, containing a 

 brief description and praise of literary life and allusions to the changes of the 

 seasons and the beauties of nature. 



5. Canons of Filial Duty, a tract of 1,903 characters, representing a con- 

 versation between Confucius and a disciple concerning the chief virtue incul- 

 cated by his school. 



6. The Juvenile Instructor, which is said to exhibit better than the works 

 of later scholars the Chinese ideas in all ages on principles of education, rules 

 of conduct, etc. 



A host of commentaries (over fifty on i The Juvenile Instructor ' 

 alone) more copious than the texts themselves are employed to illumine 

 and amplify the string of ideas presented as ' primer-stimuli ' to the 

 youthful mind. 



The task of memorizing the contents of these six elementary school 

 books, which have had such a formative influence on the large propor- 

 tion of students who go no further, is somewhat relieved by exercises 

 in penmanship. After two or three years spent thus, explanations are 

 in order, and the student is introduced to the various commentaries. 

 Such a course of study surely stunts the genius and drills the faculties 

 into a slavish adherence to venerated usage and dictation. 



Though followed chiefly by those destined to practical lives, this 

 curriculum far from fits them for ordinary duties. Formal letter- 

 writing and even elementary arithmetic are not taught in the Chinese 

 school of the old type, and proficiency in either is obtained only by a 

 sort of apprenticeship or by private instruction. No knowledge of 

 business Chinese is imparted, so that the majority of those who fail 

 to carry their studies high enough for degrees are not prepared for 

 practical life. 



The course of instruction for those who are likely to try for literary 

 honors consists of three stages, each of which embraces two leading 

 subjects. The ' Trimetrical Classic ' may have been taken as prepara- 

 tory, though not necessarily. 



I. In the first stage the aim is to get words at the tongue's end and 

 characters at the pen's point, by memorizing the canonical classics and 

 writing an infinitude of characters as a mere manual exercise — a sys- 

 tem sure to prevent precocity and preclude originality. The whole 

 of the ' Four Books ' and often a good part of the ' Five Classics,' all 

 in a dead language, are encompassed by pure memory before any ex- 



