INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE CHINESE CHARACTERS. BY J. EDKINS, D.D. PEKING, CHINA. LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO., 57 AND 59, LUDGATE HILL. 1876. (All Rights reserved.) PREFACE. THE Chinese characters are records of a distant past. Instead of being hidden under the rubbish heaps of ruined palaces, like the Cuneiform Inscriptions, they have, millennium after millennium, been passing in open day through the hands of scribes. Subject to the caprices of each generation of writers, they now present themselves to us in a vast variety of successive forms. Through these forms, if the inquisitive eye of science trace correctly the process of change, we may acquire a knowledge of the origin of Chinese writing, and the method pursued by the inventors. These men did not make a language. What they did was to find out a mode of committing to writing a language which was already made. It was a sufficient medium at that time for the thoughts and wants of a civilized people. The Chinese language, as judged by the characters, is not barbarous. Though simple and not much developed, it is civilized, and represents man in a condition marked by high moral, political, and social characteristics. He is well fed and well clothed. He is possessed of the conveniences and even luxuries of life. Many of the principal elements which make up the social state of modern China existed when the characters were invented. In these inquiries the conviction b |