REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 205 



Laufer cites a passage from Berthelot saying that "suspension a la 

 Cardan has been employed in eastern Asia probably from times 

 immemorial, as the Chinese do not change their processes." He adds, 

 however, that this point requires further elucidation. 



Well, in accordance with Chinese tradition, this manner of sus- 

 pension is due to Ting Huan, a renowned mechanic of the Han period 

 (226 B.C. — A.D. 220) ; to him indeed is attributed the invention of 

 "the brazier in the bed-clothes." This tradition refers to an appliance 

 as the one described and it is quite possible that its origin goes back 

 to the time of the Han, "the period when mechanics and engineering- 

 awoke in China" and because it is just during this epoch "when along 

 the trade-routes leading across Central Asia into the Roman Orient 

 Hellenistic ideas and inventions were conveyed to the Chinese." 



The author terminates with an assertion which — generalised and 

 extended from the realm of the mechanical science — may serve as a 

 conclusion to this series of reviews : "A single case certainly lacks 

 convincing force, but the totality of coinciding phenomena with which 

 we are now confronted is so overwhelming that Hellenistic influence on 

 Ancient China can no longer be denied. . . . All that is recorded 

 of mechanical innovations in the Han period is traceable to the writings 

 and models of the Alexandrian mechanicians." 



C. B. M. 



The Kan Ying Pien. ^ M U With full Introduction, the Text, 

 Translation, and Notes. By Rev. James Webster. Price, $1.00. 

 For sale at the Mission Book Company, Shanghai. 



Of this book Wylie in his Notes on Chinese Literature says : 

 "Among all the publications of the Taoists, there is none which has 

 attained a greater pupularity. The assumption that it is the work of 

 Laou Keun is a fable, which few, if any believe. It appears to have 

 been written during the Sung, but the author is not known. This 

 treatise which is composed in a style easy of comprehension, has for 

 its object to elucidate the doctrine of future retribution. The various 

 editions are innumerable, it having appeared from time to time in 

 almost every conceivable size, shape, and style of execution. Many 

 commentaries have been written on it. and it is frequently published 

 with a collection of several hundred anecdotes of the marvelous, and 

 pictorial representations appended, to illustrate every paragraph seria- 

 tim. It is deemed a great act of merit to aid by voluntary contribu- 

 tion towards the gratuitous dissemination of this work." 



Mr. Webster's edition is bound in cardboard. It is well printed. 

 It contains 14 pages of Introduction, 16 pages of Chinese text with 



