Decembeb 14, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



759 



outset a character began as a rough outline of 

 the object represented, and then by successive 

 repetitions the outlines became more and more 

 conventionalized until it reached its present 

 f orm.^ A suggestion of this evolution is given 

 by Mr. Chalfant in twenty-nine plates with 

 the characters arranged in horizontal lines, to 

 the number of 403, each line presenting a 

 number of variants, derived from ancient in- 

 scriptions. He gives first the modern char- 

 acter, its radical, the seal method of writing 

 it in the early part of our era, and then several 

 older forms with the suggestion of the original 

 figxu'e. The student will be greatly interested 

 in the lucid discussions of these early forms 

 which Mr. Chalfant illustrates so clearly. 

 Edkins, in the book above mentioned, gives 

 only one ancient form with each character, 

 though in a supplement he gives many in- 

 scriptions from ancient Chinese bronzes. 



Dr. John Chalmers published, in 1882, a 

 book entitled * The Structure of Chinese Char- 

 acters Under 300 Primary Forms, after the 

 Shwoh-wan, 100 a.d., and the Phonetic Shwoh- 

 wan, 1833.' Here also only a single ancient 

 form is associated with the modern character. 

 This book, by the way, is the best one in 

 English for the study of Chinese characters, 

 for under each radical many important deriva- 

 tives are given so that if one mastered all these 

 he would have made a sound beginning in this 

 fascinating study. Chalfant gives in twenty 

 additional plates 439 of the Shuo Wen^ rad- 

 icals with their modern equivalents. In this 

 memoir is also presented a fac-simile of the 

 San Edict, filling nine pages with these an- 

 cient characters which date back to 1122 B.C., 

 accompanied with a tentative translation. 

 Mr. Chalfant says the text ' may be regarded 

 as rightly belonging to the early date ascribed 

 to it and I see no reason for suspecting it a 

 forgery.' The writing was found inscribed on 

 a bronze vessel, and the translation of it must 

 have been a most difficult task. The inscrip- 



* Of course there are thousands of characters 

 which are made up of combinations of others act- 

 ing as phonetics, or radicals, and these radicals 

 in turn are often greatly abbreviated. 



* Edkins gives this word Shwo wen, Chalmers 

 gives it Shwoh-wan. 



tion consists of a royal edict concerning the 

 domain of San. " The instrument is executed 

 in the form of an indenture with description 

 of land and names of adjacent land-holders, 

 as in modern Chinese deeds." The minute 

 details show an advanced organization of so- 

 ciety and might well belong to the Chow 

 dynasty. We may add that a confirmation 

 of the civilization of the Chinese at that early 

 date may be gathered from W. K. Gingell's 

 remarkable translation of a work known as 

 the Institutes of the Chow Dynasty. Mr. 

 Gingell entitles his translation * The Cere- 

 monial Usages of the Chinese, B.C. 1121 as 

 Prescribed in the Institutes of the Chow 

 Dynasty, Strung as Pearls.' !N^o one can read 

 this record without being impressed by the 

 elaborate system of government, the compli- 

 cated ceremonies attending every function, 

 the minute rules observed in every employment 

 and the overpowering forms of etiquette. 

 Indeed, so extraordinary are many of these 

 observances that one is inclined to believe 

 them fabulous, the more so, as with such an 

 advanced civilization as these records imply 

 one wonders how a people could be content 

 with a method of rude picture writing that 

 would hardly do credit to an untutored savage. 

 The mystery becomes the deeper when one con- 

 siders that these people had on their western 

 border an example of phonetic writing in the 

 Sanskrit, and yet never abandoned their picto- 

 graphic methods. 



The evolution of these rude drawings into 

 definite conventional characters is very in- 

 structive; as an example, a rude drawing of 

 bushes which were formerly used for hedges 

 to define the boundaries of a field, finally be- 

 comes developed into a character which means 

 ' indicator.' 



The interest attaching to Mr. Chalfant's 

 memoir extends quite beyond the matter of 

 Chinese characters and their origin. Eor 

 those who still have a lingering idea that in 

 the past there was some culture contact be- 

 tween the people of middle America and 

 China it is natural to inquire if any resem- 

 blance can be found in the early writings of 

 these two peoples, both of which wrote in pic- 

 ture symbols at the outset. This method of 



