FINGER-PKINT SYSTEM — LATJFEE. 643 



In explaining this ancient practice to his countrymen, Kia Kung- 

 yen remarks: "The significance of these notches is the same as that 

 of the finger prints (hva eld) of the present time." This comparison 

 sufficiently shows that finger prints were utilized in the age of the 

 T'ang dynasty (618-906), and not only this, but also that it was 

 their purpose to establish the identity of a person. In the same 

 manner, the author means to say, as the notches of the tallies served 

 for the verification of a contract concluded between two persons, so 

 the finger prints on two \^Titten contracts of the same tenor had the 

 function of proving the identity of the contractors.' 



The existence of the finger print system in the T'ang period (618- 

 906) is confirmed by the contemporaneous account of the Arabic 

 merchant Soleiman who made several voyages to India and China, 

 and left an interesting series of notes on both countries written in 

 851 A. D. It has been translated by M. Keinaud (Relation des voy- 

 ages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans I'lnde et a la Chine, 

 Paris, 1845) where it is said (Vol. I, p. 42): "The Chinese respect 

 justice in their transactions and in judicial proceedings. When 

 anybody lends a sum of money to another, he writes a bill to this 

 effect. The debtor, on his part, drafts a bill and marks it with two 

 of his fingers united, the middle finger and the index. The two bills 

 are joined together and folded, some characters being written on the 

 spot separating them; then, they are unfolded and the lender re- 

 ceives the bill by which the borrower acloiowledges his debt." This 

 bill was legally recognized and served to the creditor in the court as 

 an instrument proving the validity of the debt. It will be recog- 

 nized that the process described by our Arabic informant in the 

 ninth century is identical with the modern system of bank drafts, as 

 outlined above, except that the finger prints of the debtor were 

 affixed to the document in the T'ang period. 



In regard to the prevalence of the finger-print system in China 

 during the T'ang period, K. Minakawa has furnished a valuable 

 piece of information. Churyo Katsurakawa, the Japanese antiquary 

 (1754-1808), writes on the subject as follows: 



According to the "Domestic Law" (Korei), to divorce the wife the husband must 

 give her a document statiiig which of the seven reasons for divorce was assigned for 

 the action. * * * AH letters must be in the husband's handwriting, but in case 

 he does not understand how to write he should sign with a finger print. An ancient 

 commentary on this passage is: "In case a husband can not write, let him hire another 

 man to write the document * * * a^d after the husband 's name sign with his own 

 index finger." Perhaps this is the first mention in Japanese literature of the finger- 

 print method. 



» Compare E. Chavannes, Les livres chinois avant I'invention du papier, p. 56. (Reprint from Journal 

 asiatique, Paris, 1905.) 



