CURRENT LITERATURE.
Gems of Chinese Literature. By Herbert A. Giles. (Bernard Quaritch.)—Mr. Herbert Giles has in this volume (ornamented, by the way, with appropriate quaintness) added another to his valuable contributions on Chinese matters. The literature of which he gives us characteristic specimens is indeed a curious phenomenon. Never in the world—except, indeed, it be in the kindred region of Japan— has a literature had so protracted an existence. The first anther quoted is Confucius (K'ung Fa-Tzil), who would be about coeval with Simonides, who may have been as early as the fifth century B.C. ; and the last Hsti Hsieh, who belongs to the sixteenth century, and may have been of about the age of Sir Philip Sidney. Perhaps the most interesting of all these writers is Chun,g-Tzii (of the fourth century B.C.) a heterodox philosopher, i.e., a dissenter from the orthodox Confucianism. Here is one of his utterances ; it is put into the mouth of a dying man :—" What have I to fear ? Ere long I shall be decomposed. My left shoulder may become a cock, and I shall herald the approach of morn. My right shoulder will become a cross-bow, and I shall be able to get broiled duck. My buttocks will become wheels ; and, with my soul for a horse, I shall be able to ride in my own chariot. I am now working out my destiny on earth. I shall then be completing it in the inevitable. Content with the natural sequence of these states, joy and sorrow touch me not." This last sentence is very Lucretian. Somewhat different is the sense in which he delivered himself to a friend who would have condoled with him on the death of his wife. The friend was very much scandalised to find him beating time on a bowl and singing. The philosopher defended himself :—" When she died, I could not help being affected by her death. Soon, however, I remembered that she had already existed in a previous state before birth, without form, or even substance ; that while in that uncondi- tioned condition substance was added to spirit ; that this substance then assumed form ; and that the next stage was birth. And now, by virtue of a farther change, she is dead, passing from one phase to another, like the sequence of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And while she is thus lying asleep in eternity, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of these natural laws." The practical outcome of his philo- sophy may be thus exhibited. One day, when he was fish- ing, a message came to him from the Prince offering him high office. He replied : "I have heard there is a sacred tortoise, which has been dead three thousand years, and which the Prince keeps packed up in a box on the altar of his ancestral shrine. Now, do you think that that tortoise would rather be dead and have its remains thus honoured, or be alive and wagging its tail in the mud ? " The messenger replied that no doubt it would rather be alive. There- upon, Bhung-Tzii said, "Begone I too elect to remain wagging my tail in the mud." It is amusing to read, among the utterances of another sage, that among the ten follies which overthrew the Ch'in dynasty were "melting down all weapons, and making twelve huge figures with the metal" [was the Peace Society dominant in those days ?]; building the great wall to keep out the Tartars ; and " ap- pointing the Heir-Apparent to be Commander-in-Chief." There is always, at least to us " Outer Barbarians," a comic undertone in the most serious utterances of Chinese wisdom.
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