466 C IT I 
of ail colours; ftiiped and black fatins 5 napped, flow¬ 
ered, flriped, clouded, and pinked, taffeties; crapes, 
brocades, plu(h, different kinds of velvet, and a multi¬ 
tude of other (tuffs, the names of which are unknown 
in Europe. 
Porcelain is a prominent feature of Chinefe ability and 
induftry, aild a branch of commerce which employs a 
vaft multitude of workmen. After a piece of porcelain 
has been 'properly faflvioned, it paffes into the hands of 
the painters, who follow no certain plan in.their art; all 
their knowledge is the efteft of practice, Shifted by a fer¬ 
tile imagination. Some of them (hew great tafte in paint¬ 
ing flowers, animals, and landfcapes, on porcelain, as 
well as upon the paper of fans, and the (ilk uled for 
filling up the fquares of lanterns. The labour of paint¬ 
ing is divided among a great number of hands. The 
bufinefs of one is entirely confined to tracing out the firft 
coloured circle which ornaments the brims of the veflel; 
another defigns the flowers, and a third paints them ; one 
delineates waters and mountains, and,another birds and 
Cither animals 5 human figures are generally the word, 
executed. 
The ufe of glafs is very ancient in China. It is related, 
in the Large Annals, that, “ in the beginning of the 
third century, the king of Ta-tfin fent the emperor Tai- 
ffou a magnificent prefent of glafs of all colours; and 
that Come years after, a glafs-maker, who had the art of 
converting flint into cryffal, by means of fire, taught this 
lecret to iome others, by which thofe who had come, 
and thofe who then came from the Weft, acquired much 
glory.” That part of the Annals in which this quotation 
is to be found, was written in the feventh century : but 
from the little attention which at times feems to have 
been paid to the art of manufadturing glafs, and its being 
loft and revived at different periods, we have reafon to 
fulpedt that the Chinefe have never fet any great value 
upon this branch, and that they have confidergd glafs 
rather as an objedt of luxury than utility'-. According 
to fir George Staunton, there is at prefent no manufacture 
-of glafs in the whole empire, except at Canton, where, 
infteaa of fufing the rough ingredients of flint, or land 
and barilla, and converting them by the proper procefs 
into glafs, the manufacturer is fatisiied with only melt¬ 
ing the broken pieces collected of that material, and 
forming it into new fhapes, according to the ufes to 
which it might be deltined. 
The ftudy of medicine among the Chinefe is as an¬ 
cient as the foundation of their empire. Their phyfi- 
cians were never fkilful anatomifts, or profound philofo- 
phers, nor will their moll refpeCtable theories bear the 
fcrutiny of the practical anatomilt; indeed, where ana¬ 
tomy is fhackled by a prejudice which prevents the open¬ 
ing of the human body, it is impoflible that the know¬ 
ledge of phyfic, or furgery, can be very extenfive. Vital 
heat, and radical moilture, are confidered by the Chinefe 
phyflcians as the two natural principles of life ; the blood 
and fpirits they confider only as tlitpr vehicles. Thefe 
two principles, according to them, are feated in all the 
principal parts of the body, in which they prelerve life 
and vigour. The Chinefe phyflcians iuppofe alfo, fays 
F. du Halde, that the body, by means of the nerves, muf- 
cles, veins, and arteries, is like a kind of lute or muflcal 
inftrument, the different parts of which emit various 
founds, or rather have a proper temperament for each, 
and iuited to their figure, fituation, and particular ufes; 
and that its different pulfes, which refemble the different 
tones and notes of thefe inftruments, enable the practi¬ 
tioner to judge infallibly of their fituation and Hate, in 
the fame manner as a cord, more or iefs tenfe, touched 
in one place or in another, in a (Longer or gentler man¬ 
ner, fends forth different founds, and difcovers whether 
it be too much ftretched, or too much relaxed. In a 
word, they fuppofe that between all the parts of the hu- 
,snan body, there is a certain influence on the one hand, 
and a lympathy on the 'other, and thefe form the bafis 
N A. 
of their fyftem of phyfic. They pretend to judge of the 
ftate of a patient, and to determine the nature of his dif- 
eafe, by the colour of the face and eyes, by infpedtihg 
the tongue, noftrils, and ears, and by the found of the 
voice; but it is chiefly upon a knowledge of the pulfe 
that they found their molt infallible prognoftics. Their 
theory refpedting the pulle is very px ten five, and varies 
according to circumllances. One of the ancient phyfi- 
cians has left a complete treatife upon this fubjedt, which 
Hill ferves as a guide. This work, was compofed about 
two hundred years before the Chriftian era; and it ap¬ 
pears certain that the Chinefe were acquainted with the 
circulation of the blood long before any of the nations of 
Europe. 
The modern Chinefe entertain the fame ideas refpedt- 
ing their ancient mufic, as thofe which have been tranf- 
mitted to us concerning that of the Greeks and Egyp¬ 
tians; and they regret their ancient harmony, as we la¬ 
ment the lofs of that which has been fo much extolled by 
antiquity, and of which fo many wonderful things have 
been related. If Egypt had a Hermes, or Mercury Trif- 
megiftus, who, by the foftnefs and charms of his voice, 
finifhed the civilization of men; if Greece had an Am- 
phion, who built cities by his harmony alone; and an 
Orpheus, who, by the found of his lyre, fulpended the 
courfe of rivers, and made the molt rugged rocks follow 
him ; China boafts of no lefs miracles performed by her 
ancient muficians. We are told of a Lyng-lun, a Kouei, 
and a Pin-mou-kia, who, by touching their kin aild their 
che, produced founds capable of foftening the hearts of 
men, and of taming the mod ferocious animals. It is 
not our intention to enter into a diflertation on the an¬ 
cient mufic of the Chinefe ; we (hall only oblerve, that 
the mufical fyftem, fo long attributed to the Egyptians 
and the Greeks, has been difcovered in China; and that 
it had its origin there, at an epocha much anterior to 
the times of Hermes, Linus, or Orpheus. We cannot 
enter into that tedious detail which would be requifite 
to explain this fyftem ; the mufical reader may find it in the 
diflertation of F. Amiot, publifhed by the abbe Rouffier, 
and which this learned theorift enriched with his own 
obfervations. They have always diftinguilhed eight dif¬ 
ferent lounds ; and they believe that nature, in order to 
produce them, formed eight kinds of lonorous bodies. 
The order in which they diftribute thefe founds, and the 
inftruments they have conftrudted to produce them, are 
as follow: 1. The found of (kin, produced by drums. 
2. The found of ftone, produced by the king. 3. That 
of metal, by bells. 4. That of baked earth, by the hiuen. 
5. That of (ilk, by the kin and the che. 6. That of wood, 
by the yu and the tchou. 7. That of bamboo, by the 
koan, and different flutes. And, 8. That of a gourd, by 
the cheng. 
The firft drums were compofed of a box made of baked 
earth, covered at both extremities with the tanned hide 
of fome animal; but, on account of the weight and brit- 
tlenefs of baked earth, wood was foon fubftituted in its 
Head. The Chinefe are, perhaps, the only nation who 
have had the ingenuity to apply (tones to the purpofe of 
making mufical inffruments. We have already mentioned 
the lonorous (tones which are found in this empire; the 
inftrument conftrudted of them is called king, and is dif- 
tinguifhed into tfe-king, and pien-king. The tfe-king 
confifts of only one fonorous ftone, which, confequently, 
produces only one tone. The pien-ting is an affortment 
of fixteen (tones, fufpended together, which form all the 
tones admitted into the mufical fyftem of the ancient 
Chinefe. They have always made their bells of a mix¬ 
ture of tin and copper: their (hapes are various, thole of 
the ancients were not round, but flatted, and in the lower 
part refembled a crefcent". The Chinefe have formed an 
inftrument of fixteen bells, properly aflorted, fo as to cor- 
relpond with the lonorous (tones, of which the king are 
compofed. 
The inftrument hiuen, which is made of baked earth, 
- is 
