. New China and old : personal recollections and observations of thirty years. f heaven and earth, the seasons, the com-pass, the elements, the virtues, the vegetable and animalkingdom ; and a list is appended of the books to be readby a ripe student, with an enumeration of the dynastiesof the Empire ; and it concludes with examples ofsuccessful study and honourable service.^ This book islearnt by rote. The master shouts out the first sentence,each word being carefully enunciated, intonated, andexplained. The boys, standing in front of the master, inchorus repeat the same sentence, and after a
. New China and old : personal recollections and observations of thirty years. f heaven and earth, the seasons, the com-pass, the elements, the virtues, the vegetable and animalkingdom ; and a list is appended of the books to be readby a ripe student, with an enumeration of the dynastiesof the Empire ; and it concludes with examples ofsuccessful study and honourable service.^ This book islearnt by rote. The master shouts out the first sentence,each word being carefully enunciated, intonated, andexplained. The boys, standing in front of the master, inchorus repeat the same sentence, and after a while theyreturn to their seats, and swaying their bodies to andfro, declaim the passage they are learning as loud asthey can. In fact in a Chinese school-room noise is asign of diligence and application ; silence—an ominoussymptom of slumber and idleness. At certain intervalsthey are called up again, and turning now their backs ontheir master, and with measured tread rolling from oneleg to another, they repeat the lesson as well as they can. See Williams Middle Method of Teaching Books. 245 They pass from this Trimetrical Classic to the MillenaryClassic, a larger book with a similar arrangement ofsubjects. This consists of lOOO distinct words ; no twocharacters or word-signs being alike in form or was compiled in 550. From this book they passto the great literary treasures of the Chinese language,the Four Books and the Five Classics. The charactersor signs representing the individual words (Chinese ismonosyllabic) are learnt one by one (to quote ), as one would learn mineral specimens in amuseum, by sheer memory. There is but little clue tothe sound or meaning of the character to be gatheredfrom the shape of the arbitrary sign. Little red squaresof paper with characters written on them are dealt outday by day to the scholars. They are pronounced bythe master; and the boys then gaze at them, andshout them by the hour. The afternoon is gen
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