PROSPECTS OF OUR TRADE WITH CHINA. 409 



all ulterior arrangements, and this is my reason for placing it foremost among 

 our grounds of complaint." 



Mr. Lindsay is so confident of the tenableness of the ground on 

 which he has stuck his standard, that he risks the whole weight and 

 importance of his Letter to Lord Palmerston, with all the advice it 

 contains, on the force of a single passage he has selected from the 

 works of Confucius, which were written above two thousand years 

 since ! In the above citation Mr. L. has been, however, most unfor- 

 tunate ; for Sootungpo is not defining " the identical word E," but he 

 is speaking of two nations or clans of people, the one living on the east 

 of China, and the other on the south, to whom the good rules of go- 

 vernment were of no avail, and whom therefore the ancient kings go- 

 verned without fixed laws, adopting a law as the emergency required. 

 Had Sootungpo been defining the word E, he would have told us that 

 it is formedofTa," great," and Kung, " a bow," hence " agreat bov/," 

 which implied anciently " to wound," &c. E has a variety of mean- 

 ings, such as, good, long-lived, easy, comfortable, &c. Dr. Mor- 

 rison says it signifies foreigners generally. It is the exact word which 

 Mr. L. himself renders" foreigner, "and he says, "My Chinese corres- 

 pondents used it, in lieu of the offensive word ' Barbarian,' ever after- 

 wards in their correspondence, the originals of which are in my pos- 

 session." 



The writer does not know how to account for it, but it is evi- 

 dent that Mr. Lindsay has confounded the word E, " foreigner," with 

 which the Europeans do not quarrel, with Mwan, which is generally 

 rendered " barbarian," and which is considered so offensive. It is 

 remarkable that, at the time of the E and Teih people, alluded to 

 above, therg were two other nations or clans of people, denominated 

 Mwan and Keang, the former living on the south of China, and the 

 latter on the west. The word Mwan, here used, is the identical word 

 which is generally rendered " barbarian,'' while Keang means" west- 

 ern shepherds." The Imperial Dictionary says Mwan signifies a wawie 

 for southern foreigners, and in this definition E is made use of for fo- 

 reigner ; it also makes a quotation from the work Chow-le Ta-sze-ma 

 to the effect that, during the Chow dynasty, all land was deemed fo- 

 reign that extended 500 le (Chinese miles) beyond the influence of 

 the then government, in a southern direction. Mwan is also the 

 name of several birds, one of which is said to be powerful, havinor 

 one eye and one wing, with which it can fly ; probably from what 

 is said in fable, or otherwise, of the cruelty of this bird, is derived the 

 phrase Mwan-sin, " cruel disposition," and this may have led to the 

 error of restricting Mwan to barbarous, or barbarians, when applied 

 to people ; whereas its general import, adopting the first meaning 

 given in the Imperial Dictionary, is simply southern foreigners, and, 

 as Canton is the southern part of China, nothing can be more respect- 

 ful on the part of the Chinese, especially when speaking of Europeans 

 in the aggregate. 



TheFour Books of Confucius being written in a very chaste and ele- 

 gant style, and the Commentary not less so, the writer feel^ confident 

 that Mr. L. is unable to produce any complete sentence which, in its 

 rendering into English, requires the use of the word barbarian, in 

 ailuhion to foreigners. 



