The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-29

power and facility Of versification ana
elegant style of prose-poetry that are
borrowed from their model his mem
DRY is prodigious his imitatlveness Oh
SURPRISING accuracy but OF original
ability or love of fact and science ne
has none. The old learning is cast
iron bar to all intellectual progress,
and in proportion to its age ana oillu-
sion. it is ten times more stultl1ylhg
than was the pedantry of the school,
man of the middle ages in Europe
When people talk of the young manda-
rim turning to reform, they must recol-
lect that he has been bred upon this
diet. that it is all in all to him, and
that the class to which he belongs de-
mend for their existence upon the main
tenance of the system of examination
and subsequent selection as IL now
stands. Some writer on CHINA mas
said that no face ever wore a more
contemptuous expression than that Oh
the young mandarin as he passes along
the street on looks out from the lattlced
window of the tea house. seated IN
his official chair and surrounded by
greasy retiune of noisy attendants
bearing the insignia of office, or MAX
ing a discordant clang of sounding
brass the mandarin appears the very
incarnation of human arrogance. lie
seems insensibe to all that the vulgar
herd are doing or saying, and he hardly
deigns to notice the sweltering crowds
who block the way that his servants
are making before him. NO patrician
of old Rome could have froWned upon
the plebs with more insolence than Is
shown in the blank stare of the young
literati as they glance from the long
seats that fringe the principal guest
room, set apart for them in the tea
house and watch the antlike workers,
bearing their pals and bales on the
further side of the stagnant pool,
which with their broken, neglected
roclxery. are the great ornament of
the filthy city.
AS with manual labor in the middle
kingdom, so is it with mental Moth
ing in the world can exceed nor eXcel
the monumental industry or the puo-
ding scholar, engaged, perchance AT
the age of fourscore, in the long drawn
competition to obtain the undylng nom
ors of the academic degree-literaliy
undying, for they are continued ana
held in high esteem even unto the third
and fourth generation. 1t Is not only
a question of honorifc title or, as at
home, of letters of the alphabet. Ev7
erv graduate has the inalienable right
of planting a pole or mast in front of
his family mansion, no matter how
humble it may be, and the NUMBER Oh
square inclined cressets on the taper
ing top proclaim the nature OF his de-
gree-one for the prefectural two for
the provincial and three for the nation
al Some towns are dotted over with
these poles. like a forest of burnt trees;
in others but enc or two have been dis
tineuishe1 Because a house is fronted
by pole it does not follow that Its
owner or occupant must be gradu-
ate 1t may we'll be that the galley
mast has been obtained by the talents
of remote ancestor, but like a coat
of arms. the precious examination
papers never lose their virtue. The
scholar Of to-day may not attain to the
supernatural diligence of the classical
heroes. the King Alfreds of Chinese
: literary history, who prosecuted their
studies by the light Of a glowworm or
that they were ploughing with, but
their admirers and imitators are to be
reckoned by thousands.
DR.. Smith mentions that in the prov
ince of Anhui there recently compented
five students over eighty years of age
and eighteen ovar ninety. To those,
who in early life, have faced the schools
at oxford or Cambridge, 1t Is petrify-
ing to think of logic papers following
one to the brink of the tomb, of the
undergraduate with one foot in the
grave and the other in the examination
hall These three degrees of merit are
those Of first. the cultivated talent,
II @ Smalls: second, the raised man,
/. e., Mods; and third and last, the pro-
NOTED scholar, l. e., Finals To the SUI
! preme honor not one candidate in
thousand ever attains, for the entrance
, to the Han LII, or national academy, is
a pearl of much price that few can OBJ
tain by favor or by worth.
All Chinese education leads up, and is
intended to lead up to the examination
hall One curriculum includes the Four
: Books, which contain the teachings
and maxms of Confucius and Mencius
and the Five Cannons of Chanes, of
history and of poetry; the Record of
Rites and Spring and Autumn, No
better clew to the literary tastes and
traditions Of the people, with perfect
illustration of national life can be sup
piled than is contained in two charm
ing volumes of "Stories from Chinese
Studio" being a free translation of por-
tions of the works of Pu Smuggling,
novelist who lived two centuries ago,
at the commencement of the Manchu
dynasty and himself a disappointed
scholar. Mr.. Giles, of Her Majesty's
Consular Service, to whom we owe
them thus defines the classics The
Book of Wisdom, attributed to Confu-
clus, Is disuuisition upon virtue and
the moral elevation of the people. The
Chung Yung, or Gospel of Confucius'
grandson traces to their source the
ruling motives of human conduct The
Confucian gospels are discourses of the
sage with his disciples. The gospels of
Mencius are collection of moral max
inns. The Canon of Chanes contains a
fanciful system of philosophy based
upon the combination Of eight dia-
I grams said to have been copied from