Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China, and on the Chinese Language: Illustrated with a Sketch of the Province of Kwang-Tûng, Shewing Its Division Into Departments and DistrictsW. H. Allen and Company, 1847 - 250 Seiten |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Board of Civil business style called Canton character China Chinese empire Chinese language Chinese spoken language Chinese written language chôu chwang Code colloquial commenced Confucius consequence contains court pronunciation criminals dictionaries Diphthong district magis district magistrate duties Emperor employed England English European examinations existence extent feeling filial foreign frequently ghai give governor-general hence Homophonous honour Imperial inferior departments instance judge knowledge Kwang Kwang-tûng latter Lin wu Manchoo mandarins manner means Mencius ment merely merit mind nation native nature never NOTE obliged officers opium orthography Pekin perceive persons possess practical preceding sound prefect present principle pronounced province punishment rank reader regard respect salaries shang shěng shi ye shu pan speak spoken language sub-prefect superintendent of finances superior taels tain talent thing ting tion translations trate Triphthong tûng virtue vowel words written yamun
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 5 - It is in this manner that the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men, quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast.
Seite 127 - ... magisterial power can be invested ; and are those under which, it is natural to suppose, it may most easily be perpetuated. By such principles the Chinese have been distinguished ever since their first existence as a nation ; by such ties, the vast and increasing population of China is still united as one people, subject to one supreme government, and uniform in its habits, manners, and language. In this state, in spite of every internal and external convulsion, it may possibly very long continue.
Seite 15 - In the latter, an appropriate and well understood term, which does not suit the rhythmus, is exchanged for one less suitable in sense and not so well defined, but which sounds better ; in the business style, on the other hand, little or no attention is paid to the rhythmus or sound, but distinctness being the chief object in view, a word or term is repeated again and again, whenever its omission would appear likely to cause ambiguity. From the spoken language the business style, like every other...
Seite 233 - ... could, by a few well-directed questions, and from very little data, form a tolerably correct notion of the state of a people hitherto unknown to him ; but it would be a great error to suppose that this is the case with the Chinese. Their exclusion of foreigners and confinement to their own country has, by depriving them of all opportunities of making comparisons, sadly circumscribed their ideas; they are thus totally unable to free themselves from the dominion of association, and judge every...
Seite 237 - ... of civilization. All this the Chinaman, having never compared the various states of different nations, is not only quite unable to perceive of himself, but often not even when it is pointed out to him at great length. We have, it is true, the power to do some great and extraordinary things, but so have the elephants and other wild animals, he occasionally sees and hears of; in his eyes, therefore, we are all barbarians, possessing perhaps some good qualities, congregated perhaps together in some...
Seite 230 - England, that the Chinese generally have, in consequence of the late war, attained a much more correct knowledge of foreigners and the power and state of their countries than formerly. This is, however, very far from being the case. Those who saw and felt us, though sufficient in number to populate a first-rate European kingdom, form but a very small portion of the Chinese people; and the great body of the nation, inhabiting districts and provinces that we have never yet reached, can only look on...
Seite 231 - ... the Emperor to make them certain concessions. Nearly all they know of the fighting and of the character of the invading forces they must have learned from the mandarins' reports to the Emperor, and his answers to them, published in the "Pekin Gazette," and from copies of local proclamations which may have reached them. We may easily imagine, from the tone of these papers, that the Chinese, who from want of experience, would be unable to form sound judgments on such matters from correct data,...
Seite 236 - ... the paper at once; but when he finds that instead of commencing at the left hand, as it (according to his belief) of course ought, its beginning is at the (Chinese) end; when he sees that all the lines, instead of running perpendicularly down the page, in the (to a Chinese) natural way, go sidling across it; when he further asks the meaning of the words in a sentence, and finds, as may easily happen, that the first comes last, and the last first, "Ah!" says he, without however the slightest intention...
Seite 117 - ... Government business. The judges alone investigate, and decide in all causes and trials ; there are no counsel for the prisoner, and of course nothing corresponding to juries. Threats, and torture, too, are of daily occurrence. The interior of a yamun is said to present a very strange and bustling scene. " The almost unceasing flail-like sounds of beating with the bamboo, either as a punishment for ascertained guilt, or to extort confessions and evidence — the cries of the sufferers — the...
Seite 235 - Chinese with a single instance of any want of candour in regard to this subject; whenever their minds once acknowledge anything foreign as superior to the Chinese article of the like sort, they at once admit it to be so. For instance, when a mandarin who has never spoken to a barbarian, and never seen one of their books, who, perhaps, has hitherto always doubted that they had anything deserving of the name, is first shown one, he admires the decided superiority of the paper at once; but when he finds...