Sect. V.] Chinese Literature, <£S5 



In 1 7^1 a very singular and carious performance 

 made its appearance in Great Britain. This'was 

 a translation of a Chinese novel, under the title of 

 Hail Kiou ChooaUy or the Pleasing History, in 

 four volumes. The translation had been made a 

 number of years before, by James Wilkinson, a 

 British merchant, who had resided for some time 

 at Canton, where he studied the Chinese lan<ruaoe. 

 Tlie editor was Dr. Thomas Percy, who accom- 

 panied the publication with extensive and learned 

 notes, which have a tendency not only to illustrate 

 the composition immediately connected with them, 

 but also to throw new light on the charaoter of 

 Chinese literature in general *. 



In 177^ was published the first volume of an 

 extensive work on the literature, sciences, and hi- 

 story of China, compiled from papers communi- 

 cated by French missionaries in that country. Two 

 Chinese young men, after residing several years 

 in France, and receiving a liberal education, re- 

 turned to their own country in ]765. They car- 

 ried with them a number of questions from some 

 learned societies of France, particularly relating to 

 the literary and philosophical condition of China, 

 and to which answers were requested from them- 

 selves and the missionaries. The communications 

 made in consequence of these queries were pub- 

 lished in the work above mentioned. In these com- 



* It is said that the reverend Dr. Blair, the celebrated ieacher 

 of rhetoric in Edinburgh, once remarked, in conversation, tliat tlie 

 Pleasing History contained a more authentic and interesting ac- 

 count of the internal state of China than all the other publications 

 0n that subject that he had ever seen. 



