NOTES AND QUERIES 203 



Dr. Ferguson replies : 



As to the quotation from the Family Sayings of Confucius, 

 Dr. Giles is wrong in his translation of one phrase "there were three 

 bronze men." He is right in correcting the error made by me in 

 stating that the insciption was written by Confucius. The sentence 

 should read — "Their mouths were thrice bound up. Confucius saw 

 an inscription on the back of the figures 'These were men of ancient 

 times who were careful of their words.' " 



It is not at all likely that the decorous Confucius would play 

 the part of vandal tourist in the sacred temples and do any scribbling 

 on the images. It must be remembered too the man was made of 

 bronze, and the inscription must have been cast with the figure. 



I find the Encyclopaedia gives the sentence in full. The words are 



2. tlW A til. 



From this it will be seen that JJg? is the correct reading and not 

 p{| as amended by Dr. Giles. This too is the most likely reading. 

 Pi were the royal steps and Hou Chi was entitled to that ; Chieh was 

 the more popular name for the same thing. Dr. Giles is wrong in 

 referring the 3. to the A.- The form of the sentence will not permit 

 this. Besides 5|| is a well known phrase meaning fj| g* ;£, f|f i& 

 jtj P» H. Jit "til : • Possibly there was only one man. Whether we are 

 to read that the mouth was bound up literally three times, or simply 

 bound up, is uncertain and immaterial, if the idiomatic use of San 

 Chien be remembered. 



Dr. H. A. Giles writes : — 



The explanation of this term, which I gave in 



The Meaning ^ n ^ niro ^ uc ^ on io th e History of Chinese Pictorial 



of f?- # Art {p. 126), and which I am reproducing in the 



2nd edition of the same, has been challenged by 



Dr. J. C. Ferguson. I stated that the essence of a "boundary picture" 



consisted in "putting a landscape into a given space," as opposed to 



the artist letting his fancy run on until he chose to bring his work 



to an end, as seen in many very long landscape scrolls. Dr. Ferguson 



claimed that the term referred to drawing buildings, and said that 



"the name chieh-hua does not refer to landscape, but to buildings in 



a landscape." This view is reinforced by the Eev. E. Morgan in last 



year's Journal (p. 242), as follows : — "Dr. Ferguson is quite right in 



