May 19, 1881J 



NATURE 



55 



Mandarin dialect, and always endeavouring to employ the 

 same character for the same sound as far as possible, 

 giving preference to characters most used by previous 

 translators or compilers. 



All such invented terms to be regarded merely as pro- 

 visional and to be discarded if previously existing ones 

 are discovered or better ones can be obtained before the 

 works are published. 



3. Construction of a General Vocabulary of Terms and 

 List of Proper Names. — During the transl.ition of every 

 book it is necessary that a list of all unusual terms or 

 proper names employed should be carefully kept. These 

 various lists should be gradually collected and formed 

 into a complete volume for general use, as well as with a 

 view to publication. 



Unfortunately the above plan has not been thoroughly 

 or consistently carried out, and hence there exists a certain 

 amount of confusion in the works of the different trans- 

 lators already published, and which can only be partially 

 rectified in future editions. This is greatly to be regretted, 

 because the labour that would have been involved would 

 have been trifling compared with the great advantages to 

 be derived. It is to be hoped that the Chinese as well as 

 the foreign members of the department will in time 

 appreciate the necessity of using the same terms invari- 

 ably throughout the whole series of publications. It is 

 manifest that the practical utility of each one's work 

 depends greatly upon the extent to which the above rules 

 have been observed. 



Next to nomenclature it may be well to consider the 

 selection and arrangement of the various works compiled 

 or translated at the Kiangnan .-Arsenal. The original 

 idea was, as before stated, to prepare an encyclopaedia 

 that should bear some resemblance to the " Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica." It was soon found, however, that many of 

 the treatises in the eighth edition of that valuable work 

 were too elementary and too far behind the time. It 

 became necessary, therefore, to translate from more 

 modern and complete publications. Various high officials 

 asked to have books translated for them on special sub- 

 jects. Several treatises not considered sufficiently com- 

 plete had to be supplemented by larger ones, and hence 

 the idea of an encyclopaedia has gradually been almost 

 lost ; while a miscellaneous collection of translations and 

 compilations has been the result, and the range of sub- 

 jects is comparatively limited. In most cases each trans- 

 lator or Chinese writer seems merely to have selected 

 such subjects as suited him besf, without regard to the 

 symmetry or harmony of the entire collection. There 

 are thus several important subjects, such as natural his- 

 tory, biography, &c., not yet noticed, while there are 

 various treatises on others of comparatively little impor- 

 tance. As might be expected, military and naval science 

 is one of the subjects that has received a large share of 

 attention. 



The general defect about most of the publications is 

 that they are far too elaborate and profound, and conse- 

 quently can only be understood by a few, while the 

 masses can never master them. It vvas to remedy this 

 defect that the Chinese Scientific Magazine was com- 

 menced, although it has no direct connection with this 

 department. Recently some of the English " Science 

 Primers" have been translated by Dr. Allen, and will no 

 doubt help to supply the want. The " School and Text- 

 book Series," however, will probably be the chief means 

 by which a lower and an intermediate grade of books on 

 scientific subjects will be furnished ; and although the 

 series owes its origin to the Missionary Conference held 

 in Shanghai in 1877, it has the two European members 

 of the Translation Department on its managing com- 

 mittee. To some extent this series, when completed, will 

 therefore be supplementary to the publications from the 

 Kiangnan Arsenal, and it is arranged that a part, at 

 least, of the series shall be printed at that place. 



Next as to the manner in which the work of translation 

 or compilation is carried on. The foreign translator, 

 having first mastered his subject, sits down with the 

 Chinese writer and dictates to him sentence by sentence, 

 consulting with him whenever a difficulty arises as to the 

 way the ideas ought to be expressed in Chinese, or ex- 

 plaining to him any point that happens to be beyond his 

 comprehension. The manuscript is then revised by the 

 Chinese writer, and any errors in style, &:c., are corrected 

 by him. In a few cases the translations have been care- 

 fully gone over again with the foreign translator, but in 

 most instances such an amount of trouble has been 

 avoided by the native writers, who, as a rule, are able to 

 detect errors of any importance themselves, and who, it 

 must be acknowledged, take great pains to make the 

 style as clear and the information as accurate as possible. 

 A fair copy having been made, the work is placed in the 

 hands of the foreman of the printing department, who 

 causes it to be written out on sheets of thin transparent 

 paper in the large bold book-characters of the " Sung" 

 pattern, and pasted on blocks ready for the engraver. 

 All illustrations, diagrams, (S:c., are drawn on the same 

 paper by an experienced draughtsman, and cut at the 

 same time and on the same kind of blocks as the charac- 

 ters with which they are interspersed, as in foreign books. 

 In case of steel engravings, such as those accompanying 

 the last edition of Herschel's " Outlines of Astronomy," 

 translated by Mr. Wylie, the illustrations have been 

 printed in England from the original plates. The various 

 charts have been printed from copper plates engraved at 

 the Arsenal. 



It may seem strange that with such facilities for 

 printing in Chinese by metal type as exist in Shanghai, 

 and with a complete fount of such type as well as a good 

 cylinder press on the premises, these books are never- 

 theless cut on wooden blocks and printed by hand, in the 

 old-fashioned way that existed in China for so many ages 

 before printing was known in Europe. The fact is, how- 

 ever, that as a matter of economy and convenience the 

 old system is preferable. The blocks are all of the same 

 size, about eight inches by twelve inches, and about half 

 an inch thick. Each block represents two leaves or four 

 pages of the book, being engraved on both sides. The 

 blocks for a complete work can thus be stowed away in a 

 very small compass. The cost of engraving a page of 

 these wooden blocks is said to be but little more than the 

 expense of setting up a page of Chinese type and pre- 

 paring it for the press. An edition of one copy can be 

 printed if no more are required, and thus the expense of 

 keeping a large stock of printed books on hand, some of 

 which might eventually have to be sold as waste paper 

 when they grew out of date or revisions had to be made, 

 as is the case among ourselves, is entirely avoided. Any 

 errors or misprints that may be discovered can as a rule 

 be corrected on the blocks with but very little trouble. 

 A skilful printer can print by hand five thousand leaves 

 of two pages each in a day, using no press or machinery 

 whatever. He supplies his own tools and receives as- 

 wages about twenty-five dollar cents, a day. The paper 

 ordmarily used is white and of the best quality, although 

 a yellowish kind is also made use of at a reduction of 

 20 per cent, on the selling price. The books are bound 

 in the usual Chinese style and fastened with white silk 

 thread. They present aii appearance which satisfies the 

 taste of the most fastidious native. 



To those who regard the Chinese language as incapable 

 of expressing modern Western learning, and who consider 

 European languages to be the only medium by means of 

 which the Chinese can become proficient in the Arts and 

 Sciences, the establishment of the Translation Depart- 

 ment necessarily appears to be a useless waste of time 

 and money. To those again who grant the possibility of 

 carrying on the work, but suppose that English is destined 

 to become the universal language at no very distant 



