100 
Sarat Chandra Das —Sacred Literature , etc. 
[No. 2, 
and speech: they are the rudiments of words and their significations: to 
the formation of letters, religion owes its success: but for the principles 
of reading and writing, the progress of work, knowledge and science in the 
world would have come to a standstill. 
The first sovereign of China, King Fold, was a very accomplished 
prince, possessed of an intellect quick, powerful and discerning. With the 
aid of his wise minister Tshankye he first invented the art of writing and 
gave to the letters their form, power and inflection or orthography. He in¬ 
troduced the system of writing on bamboo slates with waxen pencils. His 
characters were of a rounded shape called Ton-tse, and it was during 
the reign of Tshin-slii-huh that his minister Li-si invented the running 
hand which were called Li-si after his name. His General Minthe-yan 
invented the brush pen made of hare’s hair, and with ink prepared from the 
smoke of pine-wood painted the characters on silk cloth. Afterwards 
Tshai-wan of Nag-rum invented paper. Then, by the invention of a 
neater sort of characters called khya-i-si (and the cursive called Tsho-u-si) 
a more convenient and easy method of writing was introduced which gradu¬ 
ally displaced the earlier systems. Many works were written which illustra¬ 
ted the simple and childish character of the earlier people. . Li-si and Min- 
the’s systems of slow and quick handwriting were found unfit and rude and 
so fell into disuse. 
The first king Fo-hi wrote a large treatise on the art of divination 
and astrology called Khyen-shan which is the earliest work of the 
kind known. He also wrote a book on Ethics, called “ The perfect and 
judicious behaviour.” Then appeared the five literary and moral works 
called by the general designation of Ookyins, viz. Yeekyin Shee-kyin. 
Skoo-kyih, Lee-kyih and Chhun-chho-u. The authorship of Yeekyin 
is attributed to Fohi, the writers of the remaining four being unknown. 
She-hu is also a well-known term for that science which treats of the re¬ 
gulation of the customs and manners of a nation. 
CHAPTER I. 
Ethical philosophy. 
The works on this subject are very interesting. The founder of this 
philosophy was the famous sage Khuh-fu-tse (in Tibetan Kon-tse, the 
latinized Confucius). He was born not long after the birth of Buddha. 
In the latter period of the Te-hu dynasty, during the reign of Te-hu- 
win, Khuh-fu-tse was born in Shan-tu one of the thirteen great divisions 
of China. His biography is well known every where in China and he is 
universally believed to have been a particularly sacred personage. The 
present laws of China and the ethical works, so well suited to the welfare 
