468 DAVIS. 



the notes themselves permits comparison and while there are slight 

 variations in the dimensions, the intention of the illustrator to repeat 

 in black and white outline drawing, the original in its general features, 

 including size, is evident. 



The impressions of the notes given herewith are necessarily reduced 

 to meet the exigencies of the pages on which they appear. This 

 reduction is not made strictly on any given scale. The longest of the 

 notes measures upwards of twelve inches in length by six and three- 

 quarters in width. The smallest is five and one-eighth inches by two 

 and three-quarters. To reproduce the larger of these notes on these 

 pages it must be reduced about one-half in size. If the smaller were 

 reduced in the same proportion, the characters thereon, already quite 

 small, would become difficult to decipher. Nevertheless a reduction 

 in size of the smaller was made, enough in amount to call attention to 

 the fact that the note is a very small note. Furthermore, the dimen- 

 sions of all the notes are stated to the nearest eighth of an inch, the 

 measurements being taken from the photostats of the notes, which 

 were intended to be of full size. A comparison of those measurements 

 with those given in "Certain old Chinese notes" will show that the 

 photostats were as a rule slightly smaller than the actual notes. This 

 may be accounted for in several ways, but in the case of the one kwan 

 Ming note where the actual note measured was three-quarters of an 

 inch longer and one-quarter of an inch wider than the photostat of 

 the drawing in the Chinese book, it rriust be remembered that we have 

 abundant evidence that various officials emitted these notes and con- 

 sequently there were undoubtedly many woodcuts from which they 

 were impressed. The mechanical demands of the time did not call 

 for any great delicacy in the measurement of the impressions on the 

 notes. It would have been possible to have given the measurements 

 of between twenty and thirty actual notes, but it was thought better 

 to pursue a uniform policy, especially as the statement of the measure- 

 ments furnishes a means of estimating the actual size of the notes. 



There are said to be in existence several old Chinese numismatical 

 works which are illustrated in a similar way to the one which we have 

 under consideration. Our author says, in speaking of certain notes 

 emitted during the Chin Dynasty, of which he had knowledge only 

 through some historical publication, "as I was not able to discover the 

 notes thus referred to in the history, I could not print them in this 

 book." Without knowledge that the history in question was illus- 

 trated, this statement does not amount to proof that the illustrations 

 in Ch'iian Pu T'ung Chih were all of them derived from existing 

 notes, but the probal)ility is that such was the case. 



