# Readings in Cantonese Colloquial/Introduction

​===ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS BOOK:===
Class.=Classifier.
Lit.=Literally.
* Indicates that the tone the word is marked in is different from the tone in the book language—the tone is a colloquial one.
† Indicates that the pronunciation of the word as given in this book is different from that given to it in the book language.—the word is pronounced differently in colloquial.

### I.—HINTS FOR THE USE OF THIS BOOK.I.—HINTS FOR THE USE OF THIS BOOK.

A few hints as to the method to be adopted in the use of this book may not be amiss:—
Nothing is better in learning to read Chinese than to copy the Chinese. Let your teacher read over the passage to you, you following him clause by clause, imitating his every tone and inflexion of voice.
Do not be content with reading a passage over once or twice or even a dozen times, but keep on at it till you know it by heart, especially if it is a subject in which you are to be examined. Then make a point, if you can possibly get the time to do so, to memorise it à la Chinoise, so that if a sentence of it were given you without the book you could keep on with several sentences without looking at the book. The Author feels convinced from experience that this is one of the best ways to learn Chinese. It is splendid practice for the tones if rightly carried out. If you are to be examined in it, it gives you a confidence which is worth possessing.
This method is of course mechanical to a certain extent and that alone will not suffice to get up one's subject. It must not be allowed to descend into a mere mechanical, unreasoning process, but must be supplemented by thought, a learning of the meaning, analysis of the composition of the sentences, &c., &c., which go to make up a right comprehension of what one is reading.
But, as a firm basis for one's after work, the Author feels convinced that there is nothing like this memorising at first as much as possible. If pursued with a book of colloquial sentences or to a certain extent with a colloquial book, it has the additional advantage of furnishing ready-made speech for the beginner to use in conversation.
​The student of Chinese requires constant, unremitting use of the language. He must make use of the living tongue-his own, his teacher's, and that belonging to the multitude of Chinese by whom he is surrounded. He finds, however, that at first and for some considerable time he seems surrounded by a confusion of tongues. His own, though awkwardly moving to the rhythm of this new and strange language, is understood by himself, of course, and to a less extent by his teacher, who has grown accustomed to its mistakes and makes allowances for them. His teacher's tongue, he likewise understands to a considerable extent, as be is familiar with it, and his teacher adapts his language to the capacity of his pupil.
But when he turns his attention to the speech of those he hears around him, it is humiliating to him to find that it is but a small percentage of what is said that is plain. It is advisable for him, notwithstanding the difficulties in his path, to persist in his attempts at conversation with the natives outside of the small circle formed by his teacher and servants, &c., whose talk, continual intercourse has rendered more intelligible to him than that of others. These attempts should be made as soon as he can put together a few Chinese words into a sentence. He thus increases his knowledge, adds to his limited vocabulary, trains his ear to take in the sounds, and his brain to interpret them, and also gives himself confidence.
At the same time there is another method which at the start and for some considerable time he must use even more than the preceding one, as by it he prepares himself for the preceding one—the preceding one being the aim and goal of his study. This other method is the use of the phrase and reading book. By memorising at first many of the sentences and making himself quite familiar with the others, he stores up many words, phrases, and sentences ready for use. The student of Cantonese, if he has gone through the fifteen lessons in 'Cantonese Made Easy,' and the fifty conversations in 'How to speak Cantonese' has, or ought to have, a fairly elementary knowledge of Cantonese colloquial. But, even before accomplishing this task, he will find it pleasant if he has a love for his work, and a relief if he is weary of it, as well as useful, to vary his labour by a careful perusal of some of the colloquial books of which there are not a few in Cantonese. These vary from the simplicity required by the child to the mixed style, as it is termed, in which not a few words primarily belonging to the book language are used. The first style is well adapted for the beginner when he is just commencing to talk in Cantonese; the latter should be well studied by him after he is familiar with ordinary common conversation. The present book commences with this simple style and proceeds gradually to ​the more difficult. If the student is not restricted in the time which he can give to the style of the language, and if he desires to be proficient in it, it would be well for him to supplement the present work by procuring some, if not all, of the books from which these extracts are made and read them as well.

### II.—Cantonese Colloquial Literature.II.—Cantonese Colloquial Literature.

A tribute of praise is due to those who have created a colloquial literature for Cantonese speakers. Infinite pains have evidently been taken in the production of the different books: some of them are beautiful specimens of the language—rich in their purity of form and in idiomatic phrase. By a perusal of them we have Cantonese as it is spoken; for they have all been prepared with the assistance of natives who, to a large extent, are responsible for the Chinese dress of the ideas presented to them by the foreigner.
One turns to the purely native literature, prepared entirely by natives, with the hope of finding something similar; but it is disappointing, after numerous enquiries, to find so little to reward one. With the exception of two or three books, there scarcely appears to be anything worthy of the name of a pure colloquial literature produced by the natives themselves—that is to say there appear to be scarcely any books entirely in colloquial.
It is only within about the last thirty-five years or so that any systematically continuous attempt, on a large scale, has been made to provide a colloquial literature for the Cantonese.
The efforts made previous to this were few in number; but they are interesting to the student of Cantonese from the fact of their being the precursors of the present mass of literature in the vernacular: first attempts made at introducing the Cantonese to their own spoken language—a language which will in time doubtless take the place of the present book-language, as the living English of our own day has long ere this superseded the dead language in use in books in Wickliff's time.
It is unfortunate that no specimens of these first attempts in Cantonese colloquial are procurable at the present day they have been long out of print; nor are we able to fix with certainty the date of their production. As far as we are able to gather, Rev. James Legge, D.D., LL.D., for many years missionary of the London. Missionary Society at Hongkong, and now Professor of Chinese at ​Oxford, seems to have led the van in the production of Cantonese Colloquial Literature. Unable to discover any copy of these colloquial books of Dr. Legge's, and equally unable to discover much definite information about them, we wrote to Dr. Legge with regard to them, having in view the production of the present monograph. The following extract from Dr. Legge's reply will doubtless prove of interest to our readers:—
   'I published long ago the two leaflets, for they were hardly more, about which you ask me, though I do not think that either of them is now in my possession. They were produced early in my mission life in Hongkong, and before I was familiar with the speaking of Cantonese in any connected narrative or discourse. I nsed to go from house to house, and shop to shop; and where I had the opportunity, to tell off or read these two stories, which often led to interesting conversation.
   'I wrote out in the same way Asop's fables in Thom's Edition, and committed them. to memory, and would often recite one or two; but I did not print any of them. In this way I laboured to help me in acquiring an easy and intelligible style in preaching which was for years the chief object of my ambition.'
From 'Memorials of Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese: giving a list of their Publications and Obituary Notices of the Deceased with Copious Indexes, Shanghai, American Mission Press, 1867,' page 121, we gather that the names of these two leaflets Dr. Legge mentions were as follows:—
'"Unscathed in the Furnace," six leaves, Hongkong. This tract, which is written in the Canton dialect, gives the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, followed by a discourse on the subject.'
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* ↑ No mention has been made here of a small tract by the Rev. I. J. Roberts, a missionary at one time of the Southern Baptist Convention of the United States, as this little book was in the Macao dialect. It may not he amiss to quote what 'Memorials of Protestant Missionaries' has to say concerning it, p. 96:— '"Catechism in the Macao Dialect: "Seven leaves, Macao 1840. This is divided into three parts; the first is a catechism of Christian truths, prefaced by a map of Jerusalem; the second is geographical, with a map of Asia; and the third is a collection of Scripture quotations. The author's signature is Heaóu.' Several works by Rev. W. Lobscheid, a German missionary in Hongkong and sometime in charge of the Government Schools in the Colony, have not been noted in the text, as they are described as being in a half-colloquial style. To those who may be interested in knowing more about them, the descriptions of them in the book already quoted are given herewith:— '"Thousand Character Classic, Hongkong," 1857. This is the popular little Chinese work of that name, with short notes explanatory of the Characters and the text, given in a simple half colloquial style. It was prepared for the use of the Government Schools of Hongkong.' '"Medhurst's Trimetrical Classic," 16 leaves, Hongkong, 1857. This is Medhurst's Tract * * annotated in the same manner as the preceding. It was reprinted at Hongkong in 1863.' '"Odes for Children with notes," 17 leaves, Hongkong. This is another popular little book in Chinese Schools, to which Mr. Lobscheid has added simple explanations, clause by clause, uniform with the preceding.' '"The Four Books with Explanations in the Local Dialect," 31 leaves, Hongkong, 1860. This is the Tái Hok, or first of the Four Books, annotated in the same style as the preceding, by one of Mr. Lobscheid's teachers, and published with his revision and imprimatur. There is a preface, followed by four questions and answers regarding the contents of the book, and a note regarding Confucius and his works.'