Mr. Davis on the Poetry of the Chinese. 



399 



ness of education. The following lines are taken, as a specimen of this 

 particular kind of verse, from that portion of the above work, in which the 

 regular succession of all the dynasties, and most celebrated emperors, is 

 turned into rhyme ; and it may perhaps remind the English reader of a 

 well known song, called the " Chapter of Kings." 



Trimeters. 



'/U 



'\ti 



XT 





^ 'h 3. 



T ^ ^ la. 

 ^ % ^ '^ 



1^ 



"%- 





t 





m 



i m 



# 



M- 



Kaou-tsoo king — Han nee keen, 

 Che Heaou-ping — IVong-mang tsiion : 

 Kwong-tvoo hing — Wei Tung - Han ; 

 Sze pih neen — Chuiig yu Heen : 

 Wei, Shuh, Woo — Tseng Han ting, 

 Haou San-Kwo — Heih leang Tsin. 



" Kaou-tsoo arose — And the race of Han was established. 



Until the reign of Heaou-ping — When Wong-mang usurped the empire : 

 Kwong-woo arose — And established the Eastern family of Han : 

 After enduring four hundred years — The Han ended with Heen-te : 

 Wei, Shuh, and Woo — Contended together for the empire of Han, 

 They were called the Three Nations — And continued till the rise of the two 

 dynasties Tsin. 



The line of four words is the shortest that seems ever to have been used 

 in the higher species of composition. It constitutes the chief part of the 

 measure of the sacred book of odes, called Sheekmg, the oldest poetical 



3 F 2 



