THE CHINESE SOUTH-POINTING CARTS. 67 



ists regard it as impossible to rely upon any records dating 

 back more than 800 years before our era. 1 Legge* fixes 

 the beginning of trustworthy chronology at 826 B. C., and 

 Plath, at 841 B. C. It is apparent, therefore, that in deal- 

 ing with the legends and traditions which form the basis 

 for the assertion of knowledge of the magnet by the Chi- 

 nese at very ancient epochs, the doubt whether they prop- 

 erly belong to mythology or to history is unavoidable. 



The most ancient of these legends relates to the victory 

 of the Emperor Hiuan yuan, or Hoang-ti, over the rebel 

 Tchi yeou, or Khiang, an event supposed to have taken 

 place in the year 2634 before our era. Khiang, having 

 been defeated, " excited a great fog in order to put, by the 

 obscurity, disorder in the ranks of his adversary. But 

 Hiuan yuan made a chariot which indicated the south, in 

 order to recognize the four cardinal points," and by the 

 aid of this he overtook and destroyed Khiang. 3 



This legend is so clearly mythical that it would deserve 

 no attention, were it not constantly quoted by pro-Chinese 

 advocates in support of their favorite claim that the inven- 

 tion of the compass by the Chinese extends back to the 

 remotest antiquity. 4 In the form in which they present the 

 story, it perhaps warrants Klaproth's conclusion that there 

 is nothing so plainly fabulous about it as to render it 

 certain that it has no historic foundation; but the anti- 

 Chinese writers have unearthed various ancient works in 

 which the tradition is very differently stated. In one of 

 these Khiang is destroyed by a monster-winged dragon, 

 sent after him by Hoang-ti, which threw him into a valley 



1 Azuni, cit. sup. 



2 Chinese Classics. 



"Thoung Kian Kang Mou, imperial edition of 1707, fol. 22. Quoted 

 by Klaproth: 1'Invention de la Boussole. Paris, 1834, 72. 



Also, Kou tin tchou, quoted by Biot. Comptes Rendus, vol. xix., 823. 



*Arriot: Abrege" Chron de 1'Hist. Univ. de 1'Empire Chin., vol. 13. 

 Memoirs concerning the Chinese, p. 234, No. 3. Martini : Historia Sinica, 

 106. 



