LIST OF THE WORKS WHICH HAVE BEEN 



CONSULTED IN MAKING THIS 



OOMPILATION. 



A. Works from which extracts have been translated. 



The twenty-four Historians (*), also called the Dynastie Histories. 

 A most voluminous work in about 900 large volumes, and containing the history 

 of every dynasty wliich has reigned in China previous to the present. Every dynasty 

 is trated separately ; its history was written after its downfall and generally under 

 lts immediate successor. The materials used were the government archives and the 

 literature of the time , and though the internal history of the country , especially towards 

 the end of the old dynasty, may be tinged by the views of the new power which overthrew 

 it , this is not the case with the accounts on foreign countries , which have always 

 been drawn up from the materials at hand , and may therefore be considered to refer 

 to the time when the dynasty still existed, even if the time of their compilation 

 and publication falls considerably later. 



Ying-yai Sheng-lan ( 2 ), //General Account of the shores of the Ocean/ 1 

 This book was published in 1416, by Ma Huan , who , in his preface , says that he was 

 sent with Chêng Ho (q. v.), the celebrated eiivoy to foreign countries , in his expe- 

 dition of 1413, because he could translate foreign books. In a second preface by a 

 friend , we are informeel that Ma Huan was a Chinese Mahomedan and knew the 

 Arabic language. The author describes the different countries visited by him , begin- 

 ning with Champa on the coast of Cambodja and finishing with Arabia. 



Hsing-ch'a Shêng-lan ( 3 ), //General Account of Peregrinatious at Sea 11 , 

 published in 1436 by Fei Hsin , a man from Hang-chou , who was in government 



o +t-0i&. o IWf 



