Things Chinese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with China

Front Cover
Sampson Low, Marston, 1893 - 501 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 3 - It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
Page 260 - ... the movement of. the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract.
Page 173 - I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earned.
Page 177 - While a man's father is alive, look at the bent of his will; when his father is dead, look at his conduct. If for three years he does not alter from the way of his father, he may be called filial.
Page 258 - When we turn from the ravings of the Zendavesta, or the Puranas, to the tone of sense and of business of this Chinese collection, we seem to be passing from darkness to light — from the drivellings of dotage to the exercise of an improved understanding : and, redundant and minute as these laws are in many particulars, we scarcely know any European code that is at once so copious and so consistent, or that is nearly so free from intricacy, bigotry, and fiction.
Page 258 - The most remarkable thing in this code is its great reasonableness, clearness, and consistency ; the business-like brevity and directness of the various provisions, and the plainness and moderation of the language in which they are expressed.
Page 326 - ... Society, of Government, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language, Literature, Science, Art, this same evolution of the simple into the complex, through successive differentiations, holds throughout. From the earliest traceable cosmical changes down to the latest results of civilization, we shall find that the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, is that in which Progress essentially consists.
Page 443 - THE Tao which can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao; the name which can be uttered is not its eternal name. Without a name, it is the Beginning of Heaven and Earth; with a name, it is the Mother of all things.
Page 32 - Their intelligence and capacity for remembering facts make them well fitted for use in modern warfare, as do also the coolness and calmness of their disposition. Physically they are on the average not so strong as Europeans, but considerably more so than most of the other races of the East ; and on a cheap diet of rice, vegetables, salt fish, and pork, they can go through a vast amount of fatigue, whether in a temperate cUmate or a tropical one, where Europeans are ill-fitted for exertion. Their...
Page 420 - Converse with virtuous friends and renounce heartless companions. If people insult you, injure you, revile you, abuse you, — how ought you to take it? You ought to bear it, suffer it, endure it, and forgive it. Don't ask immoral people to drink wine with you. Don't believe those who are righteous with their mouths and unrighteous in their hearts. Do not frequent people who turn you a cold shoulder, and are without heart or faith. Do not despise people whose fortune has turned; for you will only...

Bibliographic information