Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER VI.

THE ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY (continued).

V. THE CHINESE.

First explorers of Chinese Literature. - Jesuit and Protestant Missionaries. View of the Chinese Chronology. - Pauthier's

The Historic.

[ocr errors]

System. The Ante-historic Period. - The Semi-historic. How far is this Chronology reliable? — Views of Pauthier. · Of Amiot. — Of Williams. - Examination of the Elements of Computation. - Testimony of the Shu-king. - The Cycle of Sixty Years. — Statements of Rev. J. Chambers. — Of Dr. Legge. - Elements of the Chinese Chronology borrowed. - Its present Form dates only to about the Christian Era. - Materials for the History of the earliest Dynasties unreliable. - The Shu-king, how compiled. Its Destruction and Recovery. — Conclusion.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

THE first European explorers of the literature and antiquities of China were the Jesuit missionaries, who labored in that country in the early part of the eighteenth century, among the most prominent of whom were Fathers Amiot, Souciet, and Gaubil. The latter of these appears to have been distinguished for his investigations in the department of

science for which his mathematical education had specially prepared him. M. Gaubil went to China in 1723, at the age of thirty-four, and died there, after a laborious life, in 1759. His dissertations on

various subjects

[ocr errors]

particularly on the astronomy of the Chinese, which he sent to his friends at home - awakened an interest in Oriental studies, and, with the contributions of other missionaries, greatly aided the study of Chinese literature in France. At the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, Europe, especially France, could boast of many eminent Sinologues, as M. Stanislaus Julien, M. G. Pauthier, MM. Biot, father and son.

His

It is worthy of notice that the principal writers on Chinese astronomy, as Delambre and Biot, rely mostly on the works of Gaubil as authority. writings and opinions are always mentioned with respect, though they have been subjected to severe I criticism. His translations have been revised, and in some passages modified. This was to have been expected, while as a pioneer in Chinese studies his labors have been very valuable. The position of the Jesuit missionaries in connection with, and at the head of, the Tribunal of Mathematics, afforded them rare opportunities for becoming acquainted with the science of that country; and the results of their labors furnished a good foundation for those who

should come after them in the same field of research.

In the present century, Protestant missionaries, English and American, have pursued these studies. with success, and, in connection with other European scholars, have brought the treasures of Chinese literature, such as they are, within reach of all. The last, if not the greatest contribution to this end, is a work by the Rev. James Legge, D. D., of the London Missionary Society, entitled The Chinese Classics: with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. The work consists of seven volumes, and contains the Confucian Analects, an account of Mencius, his disciples and doctrines, the Shu-king, the annals of the Bamboo books, so called, etc. These are specially valuable as bearing upon our present discussion, the Shu-king being the most important of the Chinese classics, in exhibiting the ancient science of that country.

Two points of inquiry here claim our attention : 1. What is the ancient Chinese chronology? and 2. What are the reasons for regarding it as reliable, or otherwise?

In regard to the first, I give the elements of the system as found in M. G. Pauthier's History of China, in the Univers, which is, I be

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

lieve, the commonly received chronology of China.*

Pauthier divides his chronology into three pe riods - ante-historic, semi-historic, and historic.

The first period begins with Pan-kou, the primeval man, who is placed by the native historians at from 2,000,000 to 96,000,000 years before the death of Confucius, B. C. 479. During this interval flourished the three sovereignties of Heaven, Earth, and Man, followed by the ten periods, the last of which began with the Emperor Hoang-ti. In reference to those mythic times, I need only remark that there is much in the details to remind us of the corresponding era among the Hindus. Indeed, Pauthier says, if the tradition in respect to Pan-kou is not borrowed from India, it comes from the same source as the Hindu traditions; "for," he continues, "it is impossible not to recognize in the name and attributes of the Chinese Fan-kou, or, softening the pronunciation, Man-hou, a transcription as exact as the former for a certain latitude, the Indian Manou, who acts the same

* It is followed by Drs. Gutzlaff and Williams, in their works on China, except in relation to ante-historic times. After the emperor Hoang-ti, they agree. Before this, Gutzlaff gives no dates, and Williams goes back to Fuh-hi, making his reign to begin B. C. 2852.

part in the mythological tradition of India." (Chine, vol. ii. p. 22.) Both the Hindu and Chinese traditions, as we shall show hereafter, are derived originally from the events related in the Mosaic records. The ten periods are, doubtless, the ten generations from Adam to Noah.

Semi-historic times began with Fuh-hi, B. C. 3468,* who is said to have reigned 150 years. He was succeeded by Chin-noung (Shinnung) and others, the last of whom was Hoang-ti, whose reign began in B. C. 2698. Williams, however, enumerates these emperors thus: Fuh-hi, 115 years; Shinnung, 140 years; Hoang-ti, 100 years, who began to reign B. C. 2697. He regards historic times as commencing with Fuh-hi.

Historic times begin in the reign of Hoang-ti. The first cycle of sixty years, so famous in Chinese chronology, dates from the sixty-first year of this emperor, B. C. 2637. After him, Shan-hau reigned 84 years; Chiuen-hiuh, 78; Kuh, 78; Yau, 102; Shun, 50. Then follow 26 dynasties of monarchs, beginning with the Hia, B. C. 2205, and ending with the present (the Tau-kwang), embracing 235 sovereigns. Or, if we begin with Fuh-hi, the num

* Williams puts the beginning of Fuh-hi's reign at B. C. 2852. Mid. Kingdom, ii. p. 203.

« PreviousContinue »