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Admittedly the first requisite in learning any language is a good ear, and with Chinese this is especially the case. For even in the simplest sentence, even in the first word, is encountered a difficulty not met with in other languages: The Four Tones.

All Chinese words (only Pekingese being here referred to) are pronounced in one of four tones, and on the tone depends the meaning. It is obviously impossible to give a correct notion of such a thing as a "tone," except vivá voce. The Chinese themselves describe them as the Shang Ping and Hsia Ping, the Upper and Lower Level; the Shang Sheng and Chu Shêng, the Upper and Departing Sounds-which will not appear very illuminating. A more definite idea of this four-headed Cerberus is, however, conveyed in an illustration given in Sir Walter Hillier's Pocket Dictionary of Peking Colloquial, than which exists no higher authority.

First Tone.-A languid young lady at a dance is asked by her partner if she will take an ice. She replies with a drawl, "No, thanks."

Second Tone.-A lady is informed by a friend that Mr Jones has married his cook. She replies in a tone of startled surprise, "What? married his cook?

Third Tone.-A breakfasttable. Mother at one end, father at the other, their little boy Johnnie (who is his mother's darling) at the side. While the

father is reading his newspaper and the mother her letters Johnnie upsets the milk-jug. The mother says in a tone of affectionate remonstrance, "Oh, Johnnie!"

Fourth Tone. The father says in a sharp and angry tone, "Johnnie, you little beggar, why can't you sit still ↑ " In other words, adds Sir Walter

The first tone is represented
by a tone of languid asser-
tion;
The second by a tone of
startled surprise;

The third by a tone of
affectionate remonstrance;
and

The fourth by a tone of abuse.

Excellent, however, as this illustration is, it would provide but will-o'-the-wisp guidance to one seeking to thread the morass unaccompanied by a Native Teacher. Unaided, for instance, he might find it difficult to pronounce chiao in a tone of such startled surprise that a native would understand him to mean foot "; or chiao, a sedan-chair, in the necessary tone of languid assertion.

*

But upon the Tone depends the meaning; and to such a degree is this the case that, however common the word, if it be spoken to a Chinaman in the wrong tone, he will not understand. It will not seem to him merely a word wrongly pronounced, but another word altogether.

The tyro's struggles are fur

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ther complicated by the fact to his particular master's blunthat most words are either ders and knowing the habits aspirated or unaspirated: chiao, of the species, is usually able unaspirated, being pronounced to guess what is required. djeeow"; aspirated, "tch'- When, on a sudden influx of eeow!" He must, therefore, visitors, his Master shouts (in a in every word of every sen- tone of startled surprise) for tence, get both the Tone and Soap," Ah Ling is neither Aspirate correct, or he will startled nor surprised at an not be understood. Worse still, implication so uncomplimenthe may be understood-to say ary to the guests. He notices something he is very far from that there is a chair short, wishing to say. and, overlooking the lack of affectionate remonstrance in his Master's tone, brings one from the dining-room. when, on a winter's morning, his Lao Yeh inquires from bed (in a tone of very languid assertion) as to the probability of "Boots" falling, Ah Ling understands that what he is really anxious about is the likelihood of Snow.

The danger of a "little knowledge" is illustrated in the following (true) story. A Foreigner (who was not a Sinalogue), requiring a postagestamp, called to the Chinese office-boy to get him one. But instead of doing so the youth -who happened to be newly engaged, and unused to foreigners and their mispronunciations - stood gaping and aghast. Again the foreigner shouted, but still the servant stood as though petrified. At last a colleague, who did know Chinese, explained to his heated friend that Hsin, as he had pronounced it (in the first Tone), did not mean "Letter," but "New"; and that while P'iao, aspirated and in the fourth tone, did mean a "stamp," in the third tone and un-aspirated, it denoted well, a lady of considerably inferior social status to that of Calpurnia. The poor Chinese youth had, in fact, been horrified by the brazen depravity of the request.

He was, however, unused to Foreigners. The common, or garden, House-Boy, accustomed

VOL. COXV.-NO. MCCCIII.

Similarly

Some idea, however, of the nature of the task which faces the student may be gathered from the one little fact that in Professor Giles's Dictionary there are no less than 244 chi's and ch'i's, each a distinct and separate word, with its own written character, and, of course, its own meaning. The host of Chi's includes, for instance, such diverse and opposing meanings as: An Omen and a Wife; to kill and to respect; a Louse and an Imperial Concubine; Famine and a Pantry; to slander, to help, and to weep; a Hair-pin and a Centipede. And when, as must of course constantly occur, chi meets chi in the same tone, the meaning can only be determined by the context,

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with mete," 'meet," and the clean-cut brevity. "Wai lu!"

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'How long does it take to learn Chinese ? The best answer is that British Legation Student Interpreters - picked men who have already given their proofs in competitive examination and 'Varsity first appointment to China are allowed two years at Peking for the exclusive study of the language. Every facility is afforded, every inducement held out, and some of them work fourteen hours a day. But at the end of the two years they would be the first to admit to having merely touched the fringe of the embroidered robes of La Belle Dame, to being still this side of the gulf.

In fairness it must at once be recorded that all Student Interpreters do not work fourteen hours every day, and that a few manage to elude the Sinological bacillus altogether. In 'Where Chinese Drive,' a delightful book written by one of them many years ago, occurs this convincing indication of other moods :

"Says Aaron to Moses: 'There are, beyond the Seas,

Some Student Interpreters a-studying of Chinese :

At least that's what their gallant chief, Sir Thomas Wade, supposes— They're really singing comic songs'... 'Well, let 'em sing!' says Moses."

But even the dabbler in Chinese cannot but come to some extent under the spell of the language. He can hardly fail to be charmed by the quaintness, the subtle forms,

"Out of the way!" the simplest form of infant student speech-may be found immediately effective in the crowded Peking streets. Room is made for the Barbarian who has not even learned manners! But how much more satisfying to one's own self-respect the courtly Chich Kuang (Lend me your light!) acquired a week or so later! How amusing, in a month or two more, to play with the appropriate foils in polite escrime: Your Palace; my hovel; your 1,000 Pieces of Gold (daughter); my little slave - girl; Your Young Gentleman; my puppy-dog; Your Honourable Old Age; my wasted years! How soothing, still later, to be referred to as the Tung Chia, or Eastern House the Master, he who lives in the East Wing!

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basalt cliffs of the Written Language. Above these, serene, aloof, are the shining tablelands on which, two by two, the Sinologues pace in everanimated argument.

In my time there appeared to be no Chinese alphabet-and I much doubt whether one has been evolved since,-no grammar, no syntax, "no nothing! Only the 200 odd "Radicals," one of which forms part of every Character, and the Characters themselves. Now, in the famous dictionary compiled under the direction of the learned Emperor K'ang Hai (A.D. 1662-1723) there are said to be over 40,000 characters. I have not verified this, but fear that it may be only too true. What I do know, however, is that one character exceptional I admit -with which I happen to be personally acquainted-Yü, "to be thickly wooded "-is built up of no less than twentynine strokes. Twenty-eight times, in writing it, the brush has to be lifted from the paper. And this is only one of 40,000.

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stands alone, and has to be individually memorised. But the fact that a Character is made up of two parts-the "Radical" and the variantaffords some slight assistance: the Radical giving a clue to the class of subject; the remainder-possibly-to the pronunciation. For example, characters having to do with the Spirit, the Brain, Abstract Ideas, &c., have the radical for Heart -a curve and three drops; while names of Plants, Flowers, &c., carry the Ts'ao tzu t'ou or Grass Character Top "-two strokes crossed by dashes, resembling blades of grass or leaves of bamboo. An interesting point in this connection is that while names of trees, timber, and the like have the radical for "Wood," boxes, packing-cases, &c., made from trees, have the radical for "Bamboo." Which suggests that in the most remote times receptacles and utensils were made of bamboo and not of wood.

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Some characters are almost pictures in themselves-Ideographs, Ideas in Writing. Nü, Woman, is ridiculously remindful of a small-footed Tartar beauty helplessly balancing herself with arms outspread. Ma, a Horse, includes four graphic strokes representing legs, and, as is only proper, four dots for feet. Mên, a Gate or Door, is appropriately pictured by two uprights facing each other with a sort of half-roof between. And ch'uang, to evade Each Character, however, the Customs-a Ma inside a

I hasten to add, however, that life may be quite tolerable with a knowledge of a considerably smaller number. A Chinese newspaper can be published on a fount of about 6000; a Scholar can rub along with 4000; and a Merchant finds that from 2000 to 3000 enable him to read most newspapers and business docu

ments.

Mên,-obviously represents a came from no one

horseman galloping through the barrier and defying the Collector !

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All the world knows, course, that Chinese is written vertically downwards, from right to left. But unless they have themselves handled the brush, however clumsily, how many appreciate the fact that a perfect Character is in itself a thing of beauty, a gem Each curve must be flawless in design, in position, and in its proportion to the whole. Each stroke, while generously full, neither thick nor clumsy; though slender, not attenuated. Each dot a gracefully elongated drop, pear-shape. When complete, the Character should fill an imaginary square-that is to say, whatever its shape, the extreme edges or tips of its strokes, curves, or dots should touch, but not cut, the sides of a square. So that a perfect

document consists of vertical columns of such squares, of uniform size and spacing; tiny caskets, each guarding its jewel.

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"Pidgin ' " is so very well known that more than two haphazard specimens of it would be tedious. One is the houseboy's historic reply to his master's inquiry as to what all the row was about: "Butcher kill piggee, piggee no likee!" other, his groom's exhortation to Johnnie Robison, a famous Shanghai sportsman of the early days, when about to ride a very lazy pony in a race: “ Mister Lobison, Mister Lobison! You kick him belly plenty, you flog him bottom too muchee, must makee win!

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The best sample of written Pidgin " that I have come across is, I think, a bill long treasured by a friend of mine. It was for mowing his microscopic lawn, and ran :

To shaving 1 meadow,
To hire 1 cut-grass rickshaw, 80 cents.
30 cents.

The "rickshaw "was, of course,
the jinricsha of Japan, but it
took a moment to recognise
that the combination meant
mowing-machine!

Fortunately the bulk of Foreigners in China need never But if the difficulties of the learn any Chinese, being able student of Chinese are enorto get along quite comfortably mous, scarcely less scarcely less can be on "Pidgin English." The those of the Chinese student origin of the word "Pidgin who, without leaving his counis obscure, but the basis of try, sets out to acquire a lanthis form of language is Chinese guage of which not only the idiom crudely done into Eng- words but the ideas are so lish. Two of its most important utterly strange to him. One words are exotic: "Savee" is consequently apt to develop from the Portuguese, and, most a very profound respect for used of all, the mystical "Mas- the Celestial intellect, and even (never mind!), which to question whether the average

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