E CHINESE SOUTH-POINTING CARTS. 



73 



pict the south-pointing cart or chariot as represented in 

 the accompanying illustration, which appears in the so- 

 called great Japanese encyclo- 

 paedia of 1712, and originally in a 

 Chinese work of similar character 

 of 1341. The figure, some six- 

 teen inches in height, was made 

 of jade. Within the right arm, 

 extended in front, was concealed 

 a magnet, the directive force of 

 which is supposed to have turned 

 the manikin on its pivot, and 

 thus to have caused it always to 

 point to the south. This arrange- 

 ment, however, the Chinese con- 

 cede to have been unknown before 

 the 5th century A. D., when they 

 assert that it replaced a magnet 

 hanging within the chariot. 1 



Iron was extensively worked in Shensi in B. C. 220, for 

 at that time there was a heavy excise duty on it, and 

 there is a tradition that such imposts were laid as far back 

 as 685 B. C. Hence, as magnetite is known to exist in 

 the iron deposits of the above locality, it has been argued 

 that sufficient evidence is thereby afforded of Chinese 

 knowledge of the properties of the lodestone at the earliest 

 named date. But the same argument would bring home 

 a like acquaintance to the Syrians, for example, and there- 

 fore it is of no value in a determination of priority in in- 

 vention between the different iron-working nations. 



So far, nothing has been adduced showing any cogniz- 

 ance by the ancient Chinese, of the attractive quality of 

 the lodestone, nor any knowledge at all of the amber. 



CHINESE SOUTH-POINTING 

 CART. 



Ku yu tu (Illustrations of Ancient Jades), first published in 1341, 

 copied into a Chinese encyclopaedia of 1609, and then into the Japanese 

 encyclopaedia. Klaproth: cit. sup. De Lacouperie: cit. sup. Obviously 

 the dimensions of cart and figure, in the picture, are out of proportion. 



