72 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



history should have repeated itself in the same particular, 

 thirteen hundred years later; 1 for during the fifth century, 

 and, although some chariots still existed, a skilful work- 

 man, after a year's study, was unable to reproduce one, and 

 thereupon poisoned himself "with the feathers of the bird 

 ming, macerated in wine." The task was finally accom- 

 plished by one Ma-yo, whose method "was found perfect." 



The commentary on the Hoang-ti tradition says that 

 nothing was known as to the ancient form of these chariots, 

 but that they were devised by the Emperor Hian-tsoung, 

 who reigned from 806 to 820 A. D. We are told that they 

 had four gilded dragons on the corners which held up a 

 feather canopy, and that a wooden figure on the top 

 pointed southwards; but nothing is vouchsafed about the 

 magnet. And that is the case 2 with every one of the 

 Chinese descriptions of these south-pointing chariots an- 

 tedating the introduction of the compass in Europe. It 

 is true that Klaproth, Duhalde, Biot and other sinologists 

 conceive that the a posteriori inference that a south- 

 pointing chariot is one containing a magnet needle may 

 fairly be made; but this cannot overcome the force of the 

 omission above noted, especially in view of the further 

 fact that no direct statement of Chinese knowledge of the 

 magnet exists of a date earlier than 121 A. D., 3 a period 

 when the Europeans had been conversant with the lode- 

 stone and its attractive properties for six hundred years, 

 and probably longer. And this statement consists of but 

 six Chinese characters in the dictionary Choue-Wen, 

 where the character "Tseu" is defined as "the name 

 of a stone with which the needle is directed." Even this 

 is known only by citations in later works. 



The mediaeval and modern Chinese encyclopaedists de- 



1 Klaproth, cit. sup., 89. Biot notes the annals of Wei (235 A. D.); the 

 official history of the Tsin dynasty (265 to 419 A. D.); of Chi hou (335 to 

 349 A. D.), and of the Soung dynasty (420 to 477 A. D). 



2 China Review: 1891, Vol. XIX, 52. 



8 Biot: cit. sup., p. 824; Klaproth: cit. sup., p. 66. 



