OP CHINA. 7 



prising Shensi and the adjoining west which produced no silk, nor other 

 products worth mentioning, with the exception of several sorts of precious 

 stones ; offers of hair-cloth and skins were made, but only by the foreign 

 tribes of the mountainous west 26 . 



10. The present resume is an unsophisticated account of the textile 

 industry in the parts of China proper known to the authors of the Yii- 

 Kung. It is by far less glowing a description than some published 

 translations would lead their readers to suppose. The cause of this 

 difference is not far to seek. We have confined ourselves to the bare 

 statements of facts, without indulging into inferences which are not sup- 

 ported by positive words to that effect. Although the terseness and 

 vagueness of the Chinese texts leave much to the reader's mind to infer, 

 we are of opinion that it is a great error to develope the meaning of the 

 characters beyond their natural and commonly received acceptation. We 

 must not follow the Chinese commentators in their erroneous system of 

 considering and interpreting all the ancient statements in a roseate and 

 glowing view. In Yentchou, for instance, the offers consisted of lacquer, 

 se or silk and tchehiven or woven ornaments. This is the literal 

 translation, but native commentators, in their constant endeavours to 

 beautify and make the utmost of all that concerns the deeds of their 

 ancients, have suggested that these words implied fabrics of the highest 

 quality as handiwork and material 27 . 



11. In Tsiu-tchou we have noticed offers by the native tribes of the 

 Hwai of fine fabrics reddish black and undyed. The terms are hiuen 

 sien kao, meaning litteraliy : reddish black 28 fine fabrics and raw. 

 Sien is properly small, fine like silken fibres 29 , and it applies also to a 

 cloth wove with a black warp 30 , and white woof 31 . Now commentators 

 of the Shu King have improved upon that and we find these three words 

 magnified into bla ck silks and chequered sarcenets inMedhurst's 

 32 and by: deep azure silks, and other silken fabrics, chequered 

 and white in Legge's translation 33 . 



In Yang-tchou, the region bordering the maritime provinces of the 

 south east, the text says that the offers consisted in tcheh pei, fabrics 

 and cauries, which are magnified into: woven ornamented silks 

 in Legge's translation 34 , and more soberly rendered by : weaving cotton 

 in Medhurst's* 5 . 



12. Offers were made from King-tea u in hiuen hiun or reddish black 

 and crimson stuff s. The two Chinese symbols mean simply deep- 

 azure and bright-red-three-times-dyed 36 , and there is no statement as to 



