Mr. Davis's Eugraphia Sinensis. 305 



tlie most studied form of the Chinese character. To attain skill in writing 

 it, is more or less the aim of every educated Chinese ; and to impart that 

 skill, is the object of the work, whose rules I have translated, and given 

 its examples, in the following pages. 



Of the two points, correctness and elegance, the first only is absolutely re- 

 quired of students, at their public examination ;* though, of course, if the latter 

 exist, it is held to be an additional recommendation. If graphic skill be ever 

 held cheap in China,! it is only in the possession of him who can lay no 

 claim to the higher attainments of solid erudition. It will always procure 

 as much consideration as it is worth ; and that it is worth a great deal, 

 when combined with learning and critical accuracy, is proved by the care 

 with which it is studied. 



Having derived some advantage, in writing the character correctly, from 

 an observance of the rules that follow, I concluded that they might prove 

 equally useful to such Englishmen, or others, as studied the language, of 

 which the written character must be allowed to form an important depart- 

 ment. It is well known, that the Chinese themselves write with a hair 

 pencil, but partly with a view to make it more difficult for them to forge 

 such papers, and partly because it is a readier method. The British Factory 

 at Canton, in their correspondence with the local government, are accus- 

 tomed to have their letters, &c. in the native language, written with a pen, 

 on English paper ; though it certainly is not possible with our pens exactly 

 to imitate the pencil strokes of the Chinese ; yet by dint of practice much 

 may be done with it, even in point of neatness and beauty : the form of 

 the character, and its proportions, may be most accurately preserved ; and 

 there is no reason whatever why, in point of correctness, the writing of 

 the pen should not be fully equal to that of the pencil. 



The rules and examples that follow include every possible class of 

 written character; and indeed, some few of them are little more than mere 

 repetitions of the same general directions, though, as they were made for the 

 instruction of the Chinese themselves, I have thought it right to omit none, 



• To prove )iow mucli stress is laid on this, the Cliinese liave a common story of some can- 

 didate, who having written the character for a horse, with a horizontal line at the bottom, instead 

 of with four points, was rejected altogether, being told " it was impossible for a horse to walk, 

 without its legs." 



f See Chinese Moral Maxims, page 175. 



