XV not be altogether disappointed. That in translating so great a body of examples he may uot, in some instances, have mistaken the sense of his author, although unconscious of it, is what he can scarcely hope; but as the authors are cited, even these instances are open to the examination of those who can judge for themselves, who if they detect any error, can also judge how far it affects the position in question; and he cannot but hope that such examination, whatever partial errors it may detect, will serve in general to establish what is here submitted to the public respecting this singular language. The APPENDIX, contains the TA-HYOH, with an Explanation of the Characters. Something by way of Exercise being desirable at the end of a grammar, the author has preferred the Ta-hyoh, the first of the Four Books, to extracts of any kind, as it puts the reader in possession of a complete work, highly esteemed by the Chinese. To this, his eldest son, who has now applied to the language more than seven years, has added a Translation, which, however, is not intended to be perfectly literal; whoever, in translating, attempts to give his author word for word, instead of idea for idea, has the first principles of translation as yet to learn; yet care has been taken to keep as close to the text as perspicuity seemed to admit. For the Notes, and the Praxis or the Explanation of the Characters, the author must himself be answerable. This little work in reality contains the substance of Chinese ethics. It is morality as fitting a person for private and public life. The intellectual faculty, like a mirror, is supposed to be sullied and darkened by the influence of the passions; it is therefore to be enlightened by a thorough examination of all things within the comprehension of the mind. This examination enables a person, according to the Chinese moralist, to rectify his ideas of things, for it leads him to regard vice with the disgust he feels at a fœtid smell, and virtue with the delight felt in beholding a beautiful colour. These feelings, relative to vice and virtue, are to enable a man fully to controul his passions, which lays the foundation for the due discharge of every social duty; while that reverence, respect, and compassion which are displayed in social life, fit him for governing a province or even the whole empire. These ideas, contained in a short epitome, delivered by the Chinese sage himself, his disciple Tsung-tse makes the basis of the Ta-hyoh, or "the Important Doctrine," and illustrates in ten Sections. The foundation on which this fabric of virtue is to be raised, is sufficiently slender, as must be the case in a system which regards moral evil as so trivial a thing, and wholly excludes a Deity, both as the object of filial fear, and as enlightening the mind. The reader will however find some ideas on human conduct and the nature of government, which are far above contempt. The Chinese characters in this work are printed from Metal Types. It is hoped that this improvement, when brought to perfection, will essentially promote the cause of Chinese literature, as well as the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures; as while they add greatly to the legibility if not to the beauty of the Chinese characters, their being moveable enables us to print, in the manner of the Ta-hyoh, any Chinese work whatever, at an expense too by no means immoderate. Thus it will be easy to lay before the public, by degrees, every thing valuable in the Chinese language, in a page containing both a Translation and the Text itself; and the language may thus be rendered as familiar to the learned world, as any other oriental language deemed worthy of notice. In the course of the work, the reader will often find reference made to the Chinese chronology: the dates given are those which their own Annals assign to the various transactions recorded in their history. On the subject of the Chinese chronology, it would be improper now to enter; the author would therefore merely observe, that while no judicious man will credit it implicitly, an examination into the degree of intrinsic evidence which the annals of a nation so ancient, really possess, will not be altogether unworthy the labour. The Annals of China, taken in their utmost extent, synchronize with the chronology of Josephus, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint, rather than with that contained in our present copies of the Hebrew Text; and, according to the former, the highest pretensions of their own annals leave the Chinese inhabiting the woods, and totally ignorant of agriculture, nearly five hundred years after the deluge. Should this work experience sufficient indulgence from the public, it is probable that, if life and health be spared, it will be followed by a Translation of the Imperial Dictionary, supposed to contain every genuine character in the language, which when printed in a convenient size, (for which the Metal Types are happily adapted,) will place the Chinese Language within the reach of any one to whom an acquaintance with it is an object of desire. |