Author: William Frederick Mayers

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-11-10

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 9781979656467

From the PREFACE. The title "Chinese Reader's Manual" has been, given to the following work in the belief that it will be found useful in the hands of students of Chinese literature, by elucidating in its First Part many of the personal and historical allusions, and some portion at least of the conventional phraseology, which unite to form one of the chief difficulties of the language; whilst in its remaining sections information of an equally essential nature is presented in a categorical shape. The wealth of illustration furnished to a Chinese writer by the records of his long-descended past is a feature which must be remarked at even the most elementary stage of acquaintance with the literature of the country. In every branch of composition, ingenious parallels and the introduction of borrowed phrases, considered elegant in proportion to their concise and recondite character, enjoy in Chinese style the same place of distinction that is accorded in European literature to originality of thought or novelty of diction. The Chinese are not, indeed, singular in the taste for metaphor or quotation adopted from the events or from the masterpieces of expression in the past. No European writer -- it is needless to observe -- can dispense with illustrations drawn from a multitude of earlier sources, and in even the most familiar language fragments of history and legend lie embedded, almost unperceived What with ourselves, however, is at the most an exceptional feature, takes with the Chinese the character of a canon of literary art Intricacies of allusion and quotation present themselves, consequently, at every turn in the written language, to furnish a clue to some of which, and at the same time to bring together from various sources an epitome of historical and biographical details much needed by every student, have been the principal objects of the present work. A complete and final execution of the design which was formed when the idea of publication first suggested itself was soon discovered to be out of the question, its scope being virtually coextensive with the entire range of Chinese literature; and the author anticipates criticism in this respect by acknowledging the empiricism of his plan. In arranging his materials he has found no other rule to follow than that afforded by his own experience of what is likely to prove most serviceable. To have extended the work indefinitely by simply transferring matter which stands ready to hand in the original authorities would have been an easier task than that of compressing it within the limits which have permitted its publication to be ventured upon; and in the course of its execution the complaint of the great lexicographer of the last century, that "to the weariness of copying there must be added the vexation of expunging," has often been forcibly recalled. Such as it is, and notwithstanding defects and omissions of which no one can be more painfully aware than himself, the author is encouraged to hope that his work may prove not wholly without use as a contribution to the general stock of knowledge of Chinese subjects, and as a help toward familiarity with a vast and important body of literature.