forms san "umbrella," with R. cloth, kin, and sat, "to sprinkle," sow seed, with R. hand.

In the same way, again, phonetics in ng have also ng in all their compounds. If there be a variation, it is k, or it may be m.

Thus

t'sing "blue," is found in t'sing "if you please,” “invite,” with R. words, and in tsing "essence," "pure," with R. rice.

As an instance of a phonetic which has final k and also ng, among its sounds may be mentioned, which is k'ek and king. Among instances where a phonetic has both m and ng as a final letter, may be mentioned feng, bam, "wind," # bang, bam, "together."

Through all the letter changes that have taken place there has existed a real distinction of six final consonants, reaching back to the time of the invention of the characters. Three great groups end in k, t, p, respectively. Three more terminate in ng, n, m, respectively. Many phonetics have never changed their final consonant. For example, sien "before," sien "having naked feet," with R. foot. But then has been dropped in si "wash," R. water. This word was anciently pronounced sin, or sien, as in some dialects now, e.g. that of Sung kiang. kwan “officer," kwan "coffin," with R. wood, kwan "a pipe," with R. bamboo. Final n has been indeed subject to very slight variation. During the last twelve hundred years, k, t, and p have all been dropped, and m has changed to n.

But if we take our stand on the basis of the mediaval dictionaries, we can look back on a tract of time amounting probably to 2500 years, during which the major part of the phonetics kept their finals as they were at the beginning of that time.

RHYMES OF OLD POETRY.

The second source of information on letter changes is in the rhymes of the ancient classical poetry.

The rhymes of the old poetry in the Shï king, or Book of Odes, constitute a valuable source of information as to the state of pronunciation and the extent to which final consonants had been dropped and modified at the time it was made.

These fine remains of the literary genius of the ancient Chinese were composed at the time when Hebrew poetry was in its most flourishing state. The principle of antithesis is common to both styles. Rhyme, however, is peculiar to the Chinese. The nature of Hebrew grammar and the peculiar Hebrew structure of words.

prevented the artifice of rhyme from becoming an admired quality in poetry. In Chinese poetry, on the other hand, the natural order of words and the monosyllabic simplicity of the roots, rendered rhyme from the first a pleasing and appropriate element in poetry.

A Hebrew-like expansion of antithesis as a poetic ornament has in later times taken place in Chinese literature, as exemplified in the tui lien, or paired sentences, so common in ancestral halls, temples, and private houses. Sir John Davis has stated in his last publication on Chinese poetry that Dr. Morrison suggested to him the propriety of comparing Chinese and Hebrew poetry in regard to this principle, and that he followed the suggestion.

The old classical poems consist of upwards of three hundred popular songs, the productions of many authors, who inhabited several of the kingdoms into which China was then divided. They differ in one important respect from modern Chinese poetry, they were not written by rule, but according to nature's impulses. The poet of to-day keeps in his hand a volume of rhymes arranged in agreement with an obsolete pronunciation. He does not write spontaneously. Words that rhyme in modern Chinese often cannot rhyme according to the recognized standards. The old poem had no stiffness, not being composed for the eye of the literary examiner, but to become a genuine popular song.

Two poems, one from the Odes, and another from a writer of the Tang dynasty, will be found in Appendix D, with the ancient and modern pronunciation of the characters. It will be there seen that old poetry gives by its rhymes satisfactory information on final letters, whether vowels or consonants.

A modern Chinese author, Twan yü t'sai, has made the ancient pronunciation the subject of special researches. He is one of those numerous critical authors who have conferred honour on the present dynasty, and many of whose works are found in the splendid collection Hwang t'sing king kiai, "Explanations of the Classics of the Imperial Tsing Dynasty."

The books from which Twan yü t'sai has collected rhyming words are first, and mainly, the Odes, B.C. 1300 to B.C. 800. The next in importance is the Yi king, "Book of Changes," the most of which is in rhyme, B.C. 1100 to B.c. 500. The others are Shang shu, "Book of History;" Mencius; Li sau, the poem of the celebrated K'ü yuen;

Ta tai li, Li ki, Yi li, Er ya, Ch'un t'sieu tso chwen (the "Spring and Autumn Annals," with comment by Tso), and Kwo yü.

The results of Twan yü t'sai's labours are seen in the discovery of new classical sounds for many words. Thus kiai, chie, "prohibition," is recorded in Kh as kit in the Odes. Tyt shows that it was kak. His labours are very important for the history of the change from final m to ng. He shows that not a few words now ending in ng were in the time of the Odes pronounced with m. He has made it clear that in the time of the Odes the second tone, or shang sheng, did not exist when the final was ng, n, or m. The second tone class grew up when the finals k, t, p, were thrown off. When an alphabetic element was lost, a tonic element attached itself to the word to indemnify it for the loss, and help to make the sound sufficiently distinct for the purposes of language. The rise of c'hü sheng, the third of the four tones, he refers to A.D. 200. At that time many characters began to leave the other tone classes and to form a new tone class. Before the Han era, he says, and during the first part of that dynasty, the remains of rhyming compositions contain no evidence of the existence of c'hü sheng in the language.

Liang wu ti, an Emperor of the Liang dynasty, who became a Buddhist monk, asked on one occasion of his courtiers, What are the four tones? Cheu she replied: t'ien tsi sheng che,

"Heaven's son is holy and wise."

No light shone on the minds of Cheu she, Shen yo and other scholars of that age as to any difference in classical pronunciation as compared with that which prevailed in their own time. Many scholars have devoted their attention since to ancient sounds. To none of them did it occur that by making use of alphabetic signs better and surer progress could be made in these inquiries than could ever be the case without them.

The results for the history of sounds at which Tyt has arrived are the following:

I. Words in ai, if that was the sound belonging to this class, were well separated into the three tones p'ing, shang and ju, or 1, 2, 4. Yet a good number of words were in transition, and were slowly dropping final k. The loss of this final letter would transfer them from the fourth tone class either to the first or to the second. Among such words which were at the time pronounced with k or without it were

lai "come," Ftsi "son," chie "prohibition," tsai "to carry," si "to sacrifice," fu "rich," belonging to 534, and having the same phonetic as fu, pok, "happiness."

II. The second division consists of words in ok or in o. Our author appears to be wrong in arranging them all under the p'ing sheng. We must preserve the final k in all words where that letter remained firm till the time of the Kwang yün. Such words are lak "joy," gak "music," tsiak "official rank," "wine cup," yak "medicine." Where these and words like them in the possession of a firmly fixed final k in Kwy, occur in classical poetry, it is right to modify the statements of our author, who places them in the p'ing sheng and destroys unwarrantably their final k. His second division must be separated into a 1st and 4th class. The principle to be followed is wherever a word undoubtedly ending in k, t, or p, occurs in rhymes, the words in the rhyme must all be regarded as having k, t, or p. It is on the ground of this law that we restore k in words such as E, *, ,, mau, kiau, mau, chau, “hair," "instruct," "appearance,” "shine upon." They all rhyme with words in k.

III. The third division consists of words in u or ok. They are classed in the three groups known as p'ing, shang, ju. Here, again, the principle must be recognized that k existing as a final in a word holding a place in a string of rhyming words indicates the existence of k in all words which rhyme with it. Applying this rule we restore ito隹chui, to究 and to造.

IV. In the 4th division Tyt finds only p'ing sheng and shang sheng. The vowel is u. Among the words occur heu "after," chu "lord," k'eu "mouth." From other sources we know that most words in division IV. have lost final k. The place they hold in Tyt's arrangement shows that in the time of the composition of the poems they had lost this final letter.

V. The vowel seems to be o. The author placeskia, ko, "house," t'sie "and further," ngo, ak, "bad," in the p'ing sheng.

Tyt must be wrong when he makes 作,兴,家,故,居,故,all rhyme together in the section of the Siau ya called T'sai wei. In fact the first two words rhyme as tsak, mak, and the remainder as ko, ko, kio, ko. The first two words stand third in the first two lines. The last four stand fourth and last in the last four lines. It is a very arbitrary proceeding to make two penultimate words rhyme with four

ultimate words. Tyt has followed Chu hi, who wrongly makes all the six words rhyme in u, without admitting in any instance a final consonant. The absence of final k in Kiang si dialects of our own time, which retain final m and p, may account for this error of Chu hi, or his guide in old sounds, Wu t'sai lau. These dialects are spoken not far from Chu hi's native place, in the southern part of the province of An hwei.

The incorrectness of the Sung authors on the subject of ancient sounds is seen in instances like the following. The character nü "woman," Chu directs to be called ju. This is an inversion of the actual state of things. He did not know that a sound like ju comes from an older niu, for ni in Chinese changes to j.

Tyt in the Siau ya, Lu yuch si chang, again follows Chu hi in making hu, phonetic 951, instead of hok, rhyme withju, which should rather be read nok.

Tyt was himself a native of Tan t'u, near Nanking. The k final of the tonic dictionaries is there entirely unknown. He had consequently no clue in his native pronunciation by which he might have been led to detect the law by which final k has been lost.

VI. The sixth division consists of words ending in ng, all in p'ing sheng. The medial vowel I suppose to be i or a; kung "bow," p'eng "a friend," heng "constant," here occur.

Two words in m, viz. yim "sound," t'sim "coat of mail," P. 328, here rhyme with ying "answer," kung "bow," t'eng "to tie," hing "to rise," in the one case, and t'eng "to tie," kung "bow," tseng "many," ying "answer," cheng "punish," cheng "hinder." All of these words must then have had final m.

VII. Words ending in am and ap. There is here no shang sheng. The want of shang sheng in VI. and VII. shows the slow progress to completion made by that tone class.

At the time of the composition of the Odes, feng "wind," was commonly called bam, thus affording us an epoch in the development of final ng out of final m. Among the phonetics in VII. are sim "heart," lim "forest," yim "sound," nam "south," kim "now," zhim "exceedingly," cham "to divine," kim "embroidery," gip "to reach," hap" to combine," shap "wet," dzip " gather together."

VIII. Words in am and ap. Probably this division was distinguished from VII. by an inserted i or w. But the exact sound