Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-28
China Is Held Wisest
Nation i'm World History


An article in Mondays Star advo-
eating greater attention to things Chi
nese in this country suggested to me
that would like to say a few words on
the subject.
China is. in my opinion, the greatest,
wisest and most venerable nation in the
worlds history She has, for one thing.
lived throughout the cons of time in
peace and orderly behavior while her
neighbors of the Western World we're
constantly or periodically involved in
military strife and social upheaval. A
single aphorism of Confucian philoso-
ply means more to the skeptic mind
than all the religious doctrine ever
preached. Chinese culture is higher
and finer than that of any European
nation, ancient or modern.
But am best qualified to speak Of
the Chinese lang1Mee, which, after all,
and soul of the people who use it. After
studying the various languages of Eu-
rope, from German to Finnish. l pro-
ceeded eastward and concluded with
Chinese, which I found and do not
hesitate to pronounce the greatest of
all forms of human speech. 1t is mono
syllable and tonic, and without doubt
represents the original type of civilized
thought expression. the other two lin
g,listic branches. viz, the agglutinative
and inf1ectional being evidently but
successive overgroWthS and corruptions
of this basic pristine stock l was sur
prised and delighted beyond measure to
discover IN Chinese vehicle capable of
rendering the Subtlest concepts with
superlative elegance and crystalliZcd
precision in sentences consisting of
few judiciously chosen and syntactically
co-ordinated syllables, in striking con-
traSt to the complicated, cumbersome
verbiage of Indo-European and allied
tongues. The Chinese have never felt
the need of any grammatical prefixes,
suftiXeS, infections. declensions, conju-
! cations. prepositional constructions or
the like to guide them in creating the
most profound and subtle philosophy
and the most elaborate literature. In
sound, we'll spoken Chinese is harmoni-
Gus and musical as the song of bird,
making English and most European
languages seem coarse and dissonant in
comparison.
1t is indeed question whether 1t
would not be more appropriate for
American pupils. bred to so terse
speech as English to study a language
and brain-racking perplexities than to
impress upon their minds the myriads
of verbal variations embraced in the ac-
cidence Of Latin, Greek, German or
other. European tongues
One of the most interesting and fas-
cinating features of Chinese is the lido
graphic symbols which serve to visualize
the vocabulary. This system of writing,
the most ingenious ever invented by
man, while seemingly invincibe at first
view. can really be mastered in a rea-
sonable period If the student will but
persevere till the turning point is
reached. 1t is in fact not harder to ac-
quaint ones self with the 10000 Chinese
characters chiefly in use than to learn,
for instance, the chaotic English orthog-
raphy or the irregular and arbitrary
mutations that words undergo for
grammatical reasons in other Occi-
dental languages.
To read and grasp the meaning of
literary composition in Chinese is, in
my experience, more edifying and salts
factory as a purely mental feat than to
plod through Ciceronian grafton or a
labyrinthian German philosophical or
scientific disquisition
1t is devoutly to be hoped that the
Chinese people will be sane and patri-
SAANN6AA AAOo W dliOW any
modern materialistic consideration to
induce them to abandon their pictur-
esque and intensely characteristic ideo-
graphs for some trivial phonetical
ainhabet or syllabary. If the Japanese,
using the same symbols in combination
with double syllabary of their own,
have been able to educate their youth
and make such. remarkable progress
along every line Of modern activity, why
should old China not be able to do like
wise without sacrificing the priceless
heritage of untold ages for the sake of
some perhaps imaginary expediency?
Let the Americans learn Chinese and
thus become really acquainted with the
greater. half of civilized humanity. and
let them, by manifesting their willing
ness to acquire a knowledge of the
grand old parent idiom of ali mankind.
lend encouragement to the modern
Chinese in fostering and preserving
their language for all time to come in
stead OF weakening and impairing it by
attempting to adapt it to the very forms
OF speech which are philologically
known to be but its own abortive off,
spring and some of which. notably Eng
ilsh, are right now showing a marked
tendency to revert to the monosyllabic
type by abbreviating and cutting down
their words wherever possible!
WILFRED STEVENS.