A CHINESE LIFE OF MOHAMMED 161 



Ceremonies, the Meritorious Acts, Philosophy and Faith, 

 etc., about which we cannot concern ourselves now, as the 

 "Annals" themselves are more than sufficient for one paper. 

 There are many prefaces and commendations of the 

 "Annals," written by admirers of Liu Chih, but I will only 

 give a summary of the author's own preface, with the 

 account of how he undertook the work. Telling of his long 

 preparation for becoming! an author, Liu Chih says that, begin- 

 ning at 15 years of age, he spent eight years in study of the 

 Confucian books, followed by six years at Arabic, three years 

 at Buddhist, and one year at Taoist books. He then gave 

 attention to 137 kinds of Western books, after which he 

 concentrated on Arabic studies. He wrote several hundreds 

 of manuscripts and printed about one-tenth of them, chiefly 

 on the lines of the Canons of the Kites and Ceremonies, and 

 of Philosophy; and now he rounds off his writings by these 

 annals of the life and times of Mohammed, the whole scheme 

 being thereby completed. He tells of the difficulties and 

 discouragements he had to face and overcome; his relatives 

 and friends disliked his being such a bookworm, and not 

 attending to the usual affairs of life. He moved from place 

 to place, visiting many famous spots and getting such 

 material and help as he could. He pursued his reading 

 among the dust of travelling carts and even when riding on 

 his beast. 



Having written his first manuscript, he tried to get 

 criticisms and suggestions, but found his friends unwilling to 

 do anything but give compliments, which did not satisfy him. 

 At last he heard of a library of one Hsu, of Ts'eng Liu, and 

 thither he went, and came across a book of records of the 

 Prophet in the Arabic, which was fuller than anything he had 

 seen before; he rejoiced at this find as a mark of God's 

 favour, and set to work to re-write the whole of his 

 manuscript. At this time there was famine and pestilence 

 at Ts'eng Liu so he returned to the Three Mountains and 

 steeped himself in the work. After one year he moved again 

 to several places, finally going to Ho Yang where he remain- 

 ed three months and finished the work in 1724, having been 

 engaged on it for three years and changed places ten times, 

 during which he had travelled thousands of li and written 

 the whole manuscript over three times. After some further 

 remarks about difficulties, and with apologies for short- 

 comings, the writer commits his work to the patience of 

 readers, only wishing that it had been more worthy. The 

 manuscript remained unpublished for over 50 years owing to 

 lack of funds, until one Yuen Kweh Tsu raised subscriptions 

 for the purpose, and the book was published in 1779. With 

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