to rank in life. In the Ta-hyoh, Tse-se, the grandson of Confucius, des

cribes the force of a virtuous example to be such that it extends,

"From the Son of Heaven even to the common people." Ta-hyöh.

In this sentence tsè, the first character in the sentence on the right, denotes from as applied not to place but to situation in life.

The Locative.-The character which answers to the Locative case in Sungskrit, is choong, "in." This character however has two meanings; when it precedes a substantive, it has almost constantly the sense of the adjective middle; as in "Choong-kwok," "the middle country" or China. It is only when it follows a substantive that it has the force of the preposition in. In this last sense it occurs in the second book of Lun-yu,

where Confucius speaking of Koong-yea-chang, one of his disciples then

unjustly suffering imprisonment, says,

"Although he was in confinement, it was not for his crimes."

Sooi

although

tsai

he was

Lun-yu, b. iii.

* This uncouth mode of expressing the meaning of a Chinese sentence is sometimes unavoidable from the nature of the language, if the meaning of each character be given with any precision, which, in a language so little known, seems desirable. But this is not peculiar to the Chinese language: neither Sungskrit nor Greek would appear less uncouth in many instances, were an attempt made to give the meaning of each word singly.

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In this sentence choong in the third line from the right, has the force of the

preposition in.

Of this application of choong, another instance may be adduced from the fourth book, where the sage expresses his contempt of riches and honour if they require the sacrifice of virtuous principles, and says respecting coarse food, water for his daily beverage, and his bended arm for a pillow, that,

In this sentence also, choong, the fifth character from the right, is used in the sense of the preposition in.

We may adduce a third instance from the second volume of the Leekhee, where the writer, giving directions relative to the day on which mourning ought to begin when an emperor dies, says, that on the third day his family should put themselves in mourning; on the fifth the manda

rines; and adds,

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On the seventh day let the men and women in the country begin mourning."

Lee-khee, vol. ii,

In all these examples, choong follows the substantive; and in the two first, it is preceded by tchee the sign of the genitive. This singularity in the construction of choong, is by no means peculiar to the Chinese; it is found in Sungskrit, and in several of its dialects; thus in Sungskrit मध्ये "in the country," is a phrase of the same import, and constructed in exactly the same way, being the genitive case.* The reason on which this peculiar construction is founded, probably is, that both choong in Chinese and in Sungskrit, are in reality substantives; and therefore subjected to the regimen of substantives.

Beside choong, there are one or two other characters, which perform the same office. The character kyen, has in many instances nearly the force of the Locative case. One occurs in the second book of Lun-yu, where the relator narrates a singular conversation between Tse-hya and Tse-choong, two of Confucius's disciples, which took place on the following occasion: Tse-hya's son dying, he mourning for him abandoned himself to all the extravagance of grief. Tse-choong went to see him, and, affected with his distress, wept with him. Overcome with grief, Tse-hya at length exclaimed, "Oh heaven! I have no sin." Tse-hya, displeased, rebuked him, and mentioned three instances wherein he had certainly been guilty of sin; the first occurred when Tse-hya, and himself were ministering to their master in the Chyu-tsyu country, at which time Tse-hya

* A still stronger instance of similarity in the construction of these two languages, will be seen in the compound form of this sentence. Though the two former Chinese examples admit the genitive particle tchee before the prepositive choong, it is omitted in the last example: thus also in Sungskrit the sign of the genitive is omitted in the compound form; and the Sungskrit phrase, agrees precisely with the Chinese ‘kwch-choong.”

turning back at the See-ho river, remained there a long time, with the view of making the people believe that he was Confucius himself: he insisted that he had further acted wrong in performing his parents' funeral obsequies in so private and parsimonious a way, as scarcely to make people in general acquainted with their death; and lastly, that at the present time he was acting improperly in mourning thus immoderately for his son. In narrating the

first of these three circumstances, Tse-koong uses the character kyen in

the sense of the locative case, in the following sentence,

I and thou attended Confucius in Chyu-se. Lee-khee, vol. ii.

In this sentence kyen, the last character to the left, has nearly the force of choong, and is constructed with the genitive particle in precisely the same

manner.

In a sentence which occurs in the first volume of Mung, that philosopher uses this character with reference to time. Walking on the public road with one of his disciples, and pensively revolving the then state of things, his disciple asked him why he appeared so sad ; upon which he disclosed the cause of his grief by saying, that once in five hundred years a good king might perhaps arise, and that in this space of time alone could one man eminent for wisdom be expected to arise. In this sentence kyen is used thus,

"In this period there may possibly arise a man eminent for virtue and wisdom." Mung, book ii.

Here also, kyen, the second character from the right, denotes in, and, like choong in the second example, is constructed with a genitive particle.

In certain cases the adverb nooi, within, is used in a sense which has some affinity with the Locative case. One instance occurs in the second volume of Mung, where that philosopher, lamenting the state of things, says, that were the various rulers determined to imitate Wun-wang in governing, the whole empire might be reformed in seven years. This last clause

is expressed in the following manner:

In this sentence nooi is used in a sense somewhat akin to the locative, and, like the characters choong and kyen when thus used, is constructed with the

genitive particle tchee. Nooi, however, occurs more frequently in the sense of the adverb within.

Hh