ETUNOLOGY OF THE PRESENT DAY. 213 



that of the higher classes, is denominated Kuan-hua, or Mandarin dialect. 

 In the written language each syllable has a mark for itself nnd syllables 

 are combined into words containing from two to three syllables. There 

 are said to be not much over three hundred of such radical words, every 

 one of which, however, has more than fifty meanings. The language 

 spoken by the people generally has only a limited number of monosyllabic 

 words, many of which can be distinguished only by the enunciation. The 

 Chinese print and read, not from the left to the right side, or the reverse, 

 but from the top downwards. Letters are always printed, never written. 



From their earhest childhood, reverence and love towards parents are 

 instilled into the minds of the Chinese. An offence against parents is 

 punished in the severest manner, even with death. The Chinese are 

 industrious, patient, enterprising, and skilful in imitating. Upon the whole, 

 they are courteous ; but as tradespeople, sly and crafty. The greater 

 portion of the Chinese pursue agriculture ; the implements of husbandry, 

 however, are still very imperfect. Besides farming, they are engaged in 

 fishing and hunting, rearing silkworms, trade, and commerce ; less atten- 

 tion is paid to arts and sciences. With respect to improvements in the 

 latter, this people are now as far behind as they were formerly in advance. 

 Several supposed modern inventions, those of gunpowder and porcelain for 

 example, were known to the Chinese long before these articles were heard 

 of in Europe ; many, on the contrary, now long familiar to us, remain 

 unknown to the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, who are also very defi- 

 cient in the knowledge of the heavens and the computation of time, from 

 causes which will be made evident in the course of this sketch. The 

 principal religion of the Chinese is that of Kon-fu-tse (Confucius), who is 

 said to have 1500 temples in China. 



The Emperor of China is looked upon as the father of his people, and 

 hence bears the title " Great Father." According to the belief of the 

 Chinese, he is not of terrestrial origin, but a son of heaven, sovereign of 

 the celestial empire, only ruler of the world. As he is father of the empire, 

 so the governors are fathers of the provinces. The Emperor appears in 

 public but seldom. He is assisted in his government of the country by a 

 high council chosen from Mandchoo and Chinese, who guide the six 

 ministers (of appointments, finances, ceremonies, war, justice, and public 

 works). Under the ministers rank the several departments. In the pro- 

 vinces the highest power is in the hands of the vice-king. The Emperor, 

 owing to his entire absolute will, enjoys such a slavish reverence, that the 

 people are obliged to kneel down and touch the earth with the head nine 

 times even before the mandates and documents issued by him. The pride 

 arising from this reverence is manifested in a strange manner in the 

 Emperor's dispatches to the European powers, whom he appears to deem 

 entirely dependent on him, because they send embassies to China. The 

 power of the Emperor is entirely unlimited, and the idea of paternity- 

 makes every opposition still more culpable. It is true that historiographers 

 are placed over him, censors as it were of his actions, who record what he 

 does, says, and everything that happens to him, and whose business it is to 



ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOr^.DIA. VOL. III. 25 385 



