Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-04
WHERE LETTERS ARE REvEREn
To the Old School Chinese Scholar
the Printed Page is Sacred.
nm The New York Sur

From the New York sun
More perfect than beautiful woman
says the old time scholar of China OF tho
Chinese characters he has written on tho
page before him. With infinite pains Q
has drawn them with delicate brush. He
has bent over the page SO intentiy ami
enrapt, with the shading OF a line here
the fneness OF line there. the grace ami
a certain dashing spirit impaired TO tie
character whole. that his eyes al
most touch It. He looks at II with an
affection that appears as tenler a
though II were a human being. IYina,
friend.
And the affection which this oil time
Scholar-he whom the young China IL
now calling pedant-feels for The single
character he feels in vastly greater de-
gree for his idioms. his phrases. MS SEN
tentious episrams. his striking antlther
ses, his exactly worded. exactly arrang-
ed couple.s 1t is in his language. in
arrangement and form that have been
dictated by the elegance OF the ancis mis-
and reyered ever s.nce-and practically
In language alone-that TIE intellect OF
the old Chinese literati has reveled The
true man Of letters will spend tfe Inc
in ACQUIRING a style and 4 form Of ca
preston fixed by set laws that i music
to his ear and warming To his heart
With what anguish would the chinese
=
counterpart OF our phonetic speller as ho
might go about looping of lines AMI
strokes from "A character that would
leave il mut'lated and torn Of all the
wealth of ina e.natiye fancy tie .cholar
throws about II. Or II some new coiner
of barbaric style leaped into the Chinese
classics what scorn and contempt would
be his reward. The written character
and the style Of composition are sacre
to the old lime scholar. Under the OLD
civil service examinations, although ME
chanical skill in penmanshfp was the
chef consideration in the lower examina-
tons. beauty of style In composition was
the criterion in the higher.
Heaven retoiced and hell trembled
when letters We're invented, say tho
Chinese so great is the reverence for
literature among the men of the old
school a reverence handed down to the
new China, though modified to make IL
a reverence of thought rather than mere
ly form. that any printed or written
page. however useless in our eyes, was
valued.
A foreigner was about TO sit on a chair
which a newspaper was lying. His
Chinese host. as unobtruSiVely and po-
litely. though as quickly. as possible.
reached for the paper and pulled il away
just in time. 1t would have been an in
dignity. almost Dissertation, had any
BODY. Chinese or foreigner. sat upon tire
printed page. Chinese OF II erary taste
would avoid stepping on a paper bearing
letters The afternoon editions have not
yet zone to China.
Literary associations In former days
had men to collect printed or written
papers lying in the streets In the Con-
fucian temple in Picking is an altar oven
of green tiles. where such waste OF liter
ature is burned with a ceremonial
ritual of honor due this ;-reat art Tho
illiterate coolie has reSer-
ence for literature that Is astounding to :
us Of land where public schools and the
limited literary appreciation of the aver
age man go hand in hand Can IL be
wondered at that the literary man In
China is looked up TO by every class az
the true hero and the leader Of all7