The Conjunctions.

The Chinese Conjunctions may be divided into four classes; Subjunctive, Copulative, Continuative, and Disjunctive. The first of these are such as serve to the Subjunctive Mood: the chief of which are yoh,* if ; Zij kyéu, if; yu, if, and sooi, although. But as these have been exemplified under the subjunctive mood, little remains to be added respecting them.

Copulatives. The character irr is generally equivalent to the conjunction and;' but not always it bears a strong resemblance to the Hebrew. The following sentence is a pretty fair example of it:

"Respectful and sincere, benevolent to all, but intimate with the good."

Lun-yu, vol. i.

In this sentence the first irr, uniting two things in which there is no opposition, is copulative; but between general benevolence, and particular intimacy, there is evidently a degree of opposition, which would in English be more strongly marked by the disjunctive 'but.'t

* Yoh in certain cases has the force of as or like.'

+ See also pp. 421-422, 424, and 422.

2. Chyéa often occurs as a copulative uniting two substantives or adjectives, as Yin chyéa cheè, virtue and wisdom;' in which sentence chyéa has the force of the conjunction and.' It is however occasionally disjunctive.

3. The verb

copulative; as

kih, 'to extend,' in some cases performs the office of a ✯✯ '

Yu kìh yú, ‹ I and thou.'*

4. It has been already said, that yu, is occasionally used as a copulative, as in the sentence already quoted, Yú yú Hooi yéa shyooh yu† Thou and Hooi, who excels?' Another appears page 402; Tao yú maò, ‘infancy and extreme old age.'

5. The character ping, to unite,' is generally a copulative, as in the

"But he receives the appellation of a base man, and suffers the shame due

to his evil conduct."

Koo-wun, vol. iv.

6. Kyen is also used copulatively, as in the following sentence;

* Mung, vol. ii,

“ Be pleased to favour me with paper, a pen, and also a writer." Koo-wan vol. vi.

7. Yel is the conjunction again; but it has often the force of ' also,

both in conversation and writing; as in the following sentence,

"In autumn he also seized the rice harvest belonging to Chhing-tsyeu.”

Koo-wun, vol. i.

8. Yeh varies its meaning with its position: it has generally the force of the copulative also;' but it is often equivalent to 'or,' and in certain cases to 'yet. In the following example, it has the force of ' also :" Chyu-hee speaking of gentleness and mildness indulged to excess, and

observing, that thereby a man's mind gradually wanders widely from rectitude, adds,

In the following sentence, yěh may be rendered' yet.' On denying the

402

request of Hooi's father for his carriage, to give Hooi a sumptuous funeral,

the sage saying, that his own son Lee had not such a funeral, adds,

也子其言亦才不才

Tsai

Able

“ Whether he have ability or not, yet every man deems his son his son.”

Lun-yu, vol. ii.

Continuatives.*- Kai generally marks the reason of a thing or an

action. The Commentator assigns the reason of the harsh sound of Tse-loo's

"For his natural manner was boisterously violent, and he was incapable of keep

ing within the due sound."

Lun-yu, vol. ii.

2. K00,故' therefore,' generally precedes an inference. From the sen

tence just quoted, the writer, drawing an inference, begins with koo, thus:

* " The Conpulative does no more than barely couple sentences." Continuatives, on the contrary, by a more intimate connection consolidate sentences into one continuous whole.

-They are, If, because, therefore, that,

&c.

Harris's Hermes, page 242.

3. Yuen

is nearly equivalent to 'because.' It assigns the reeson of an

action, as in the following sentence:

Misplaced all; because he had never applied to learning." Chhing-yu-kao, vol. i.

4. Nái sometimes implies the substantive verb, and is equivalent to

that is;' but it is often merely continuative, as

'then can he be called dutiful.'

JG Nái khó wỳ laó,

5. Yen from,' as marking the source of an action, may be termed continuative; but as it has been already exemplified, we refer the reader to the examples already given.* These are the principal continuatives occuring in Chinese.+

- Disjunctives.-Tàn 1 is occasionally the subjunctive conjunction 'if;' but it is oftener the disjunctive 'but.' In his Comment on Lun-yu, Chyuhee, saying that the beginning and the end of learning are the same, adds: 序有之學但 1 Tàn hyoh tchee yéu tsyu, but learning has its degrees.'

2. Tee has often the force of the adversative 'but.' It occurs in

the following sentence,

* See pp. 256 and 257.

+ The Chinese have no conjunction which has precisely the force

of the English, that,' the Latin ut, or the Greek 67. The idea conveyed by these they express by the Infinitive of the causal or of some other verb.