TRANSACTIONS 



ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



I. Memoir concerning the Chinese. By John Francis Davis, Esq., 



F.R.S., M.R.A.S. 



Read May 17, 1823. 



The Empire of China furnishes a subject of investigation, highly deserving 

 the attention of the antiquarian and the philosopher ; and one which, in pro- 

 portion as it has been little attempted, affords the ampler field for research. 

 It may in some measure be considered as a reproach to this country, that, 

 notwithstanding our having a much greater interest in the subject, we should 

 have permitted the learned of France and of Germany to anticipate us on 

 many points of inquiry : although the labours of the last twenty years, and 

 more especially of the last ten, have gone far towards giving us the first 

 place in the ranks of Chinese literature ; and much more may be expected 

 from the future. 



I shall endeavour, in this paper, to take a cursory view of such facts 

 connected with the earlier history of the Chinese, as may be depended upon, 

 in order to obtain a correct idea of the antiquity of their empire, and their 

 advancement in knowledge, points on which the most vague and unfounded 

 notions have been prevalent ; and the view may not be without its utility, 

 in shewing what parts of the subject stand in need of further investigation. 

 Great as is the antiquity of the Chinese, it has still been extravagantly over- 

 rated. The best-informed and most reflecting among themselves reject, as 

 unprofitable fables, the earliest traditions of their history : * and indeed the 



* Sec, in Morrison's Chronology, p. 57, a quotation from Choo-foo-lsze, in which he says : " It 

 is impossible to give entire credit to the traditions of tlicse remote ages." 

 Vol. I. 13 



