T R A V E L S I N C H I N A .
C H A P . V I .
Language.- -Literature, and the fine Arts.— Sciences.1— Mechanics,
and Medicine.
Opinion of the Chinefe Language- being hieroglyphical erroneous.— Dodor Hager’s mif-
takes.— Etymological Comparifons fallacious— Examples o f— Nature o f the Chinefe
•written Charader— Difficulty and Ambiguity of— Curious Mijlake o f an eminent
Antiquarian. Mode o f acquiring the Characler.— Oral Language— Mantchoo
Tartar Alphabet— Chinefe Literature— AJlronomy — Chronology— Cycle offixty
Years. Geography Arithmetic.— Chemical Arts. — Cannon and -Gunpowder—
Diflillation— Potteries.— Silk Manufadures.— Ivory— Bamboo— Paper.— Ink.—
Printing. Mechanics.— Muftc. — Painting— Sculpture. - Architecture— Hotel of
the Englijh Embajfador in Pekin— Thy Great Wall— The Grand Canal—
Bridges— Cemeteries.— Natural Philofophy— Medicine— Chinefe Pharmacopoeia. '
— Quacks— Contagious Fevers— Smallpox. — Opthalmia— Venereal Difeafe—
Midwifery Surgery— DoCfor Gregory’s Opinion o f their Medical Knowledge.—
Sir William Jones’s Opinion o f their general Charader.
I f no traces remained, nor any authorities could be produced,
o f the antiquity o f the Chinefe nation, except the written cha-
rader o f their language, this alone would be fufficient to decide
that point in its favour. There is fo much originality in this
language, and fuch a great and eflential difference between it
and that o f any other nation not immediately derived from the
Chinefe,
Chinefe, that not the moft diftant degree o f affinity can be discovered,
either with regard to the form o f the charadter, the
fyftem on which it is conftrudted, or the idiom, with any other
known language upon the face o f the globe. Authors, however,
and fome o f high reputation, have been led to fuppofe
that, in the Chinefe charadter, they could trace fome relation
to thofe hieroglyphical or facred infcriptions found among the
remains o f the ancient Egyptians; others have confidered it to
be a modification o f hieroglyphic writing, and that each charadter
was the fymbol or comprehenfive form o f the idea it was
meant to exprefs, or, in other words, an abftradt delineation o f
the objedt intended to be reprefented. T o ftrengthen fuch an
opinion, they have ingenioufly feledted a few inftances where,
by adding to one part, and curtailing another, changing a
ftraight line into a curved one, or a fquare into a circle, fome-
thing might be made out that approached to the pidture, or the
objedt o f the idea conveyed by the charadter as, for example,
the charadter W , reprefenting a cultivated piece o f ground,
they fuppofed to be the pidture o f an inclo'fure, turned up in
ridges; yet it fo happens that, in this country, there are no inclofures;
the charadter, |~ "| a mouth, has been confidered by
them as a very clofe refemblance o f that objedt; _fc and H F
above and below, diftindtly marked thefe points of pofition ; the
charadter , fignifying man, is, according to their opinion,
obvioufly an abbreviated reprefentation o f the human
figure; yet the very fame charadter, with an additional line
acrofs,