REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 22 1 



difficult to get. The issue, therefore, of a second edition is welcome. 

 "It has been carefully revised and considerably enlarged. New 

 biographical notices and other items have been inserted : six beautiful 

 pictures, chosen by Mr. L. Binyon . . . have been added : a seventh 

 has been borrowed from an interesting article by Mr. A. D. Waley 

 . . . an eighth . . . shows the passing of Shakycmmni Buddha. 

 Lastly an exhaustive General Index has been prepared, etc." These 

 are the additions in Dr. Giles' words. The letterpress of the old 

 edition was 171 pp., and the new 202 pp. This will show the quantity 

 of new matter. Apart from a remark here and there, this is composed 

 of more translation of the biographies of painters from Chinese sources. 



This work for the most part is a translation of Chinese works. 

 So we have directly the mind of the Chinese on these matters. 

 Biography, criticism, anecdote, the art of painting — ink and colour 

 mixing are all judiciously placed together as in the Chinese authorities : 

 and make very interesting reading. 



It is to be noticed that Dr. Giles has had no further light on that 

 very difficult sentence "never put pupils to the eyes even for several 

 years" (p. 18). It is possible the Journal of the North China Branch 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society will offer some help. 



Sayings of the Mongols, Dictons et Proverbes des Chinois Habitant 

 la Mongolie Sud-Ouest. Par Le R. P. Joseph Van Oost, 

 Imprimerie de l'Orphelinat de Tou-Se-Wei, Zi-Ka-Wei, pres, 

 Chang-Hai. 

 It does one good to walk in the ways of the Gentiles now and 

 then : by this we mean amongst people who are pagans to ourselves : 

 an inspection of their ways of thought, an acquaintance with their 

 common judgements of daily life, and the deeper intricacies of social 

 intercourse may do much to vary the stagnancy that results from 

 following the same grooves which most people have to do. This new 

 book opens up to us new avenues through whose long vistas we may 

 peer into the customs of alien peoples and gain acquaintance with their 

 daily thoughts. Much of a people's profoundest philosophy is im- 

 bedded in popular sayings, and a lot of the philosophy of life may be 

 gathered from proverbs. Pere Van Oost has opened a new field for 

 us in these proverbs of the Chinese inhabiting the Ordos. It will be 

 interesting to learn how these wide and rolling plains have impressed 

 the emigrant inhabitants. What new tales have been whispered by 

 the winds that sweep over those steppes. For such may often be 

 reflected in the proverbs that the people use. Camels, horses, dogs, 



