University of Virginia Library

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

PAGE 10. lin. 3. note referring to the word
[even[1] .]

Page 23. lin. 2. note [blame[2] .]

Pag. 92. Addition to the note.

N. B. In what light the Chinese consider foreign
nations will appear from the following
words of the late Emperor Yong-ching [who
died Oct. 7. 1735.] in a speech he made to the
Jesuites. "I am Sovereign Master of The kingdom
of the middle: all other states great and
small send me tribute: I take a pleasure in
giving them instructions: if they profit by them,
well and good! if not, I am not concerned
at it." See Lettres edif. Rec. xviii. pref. xxxiv.

And even in the last vol. of Jesuites Letters
published so lately as 1758, we find the fathers
in order to pave the way for a new embassy
from France, endeavouring to prevail with the
Chinese ministry, not to consider his most christian
majesty, as "tributary to the Emperor, but to
treat him upon the footing of an equal: neither
to look upon his presents, as tribute; or
those of the Emperor, as the bounty of a superior.
Nor again to regard his letters, as supplicatory
petitions, nor to give to the answers
which should be returned, the name of orders
intimated to him from the Emperor." But
we don't find that these applications met with
any success.

See Lettres edif. &c. Rec. 28. pref. p. xxiii.

Page 96. Note.

The Reader is desired to cancel the last eight
lines of this Note, viz. from [From this table, &c.]
to the end; and in their stead to read, as follows.

The first of these, or çu, begins as soon as
the clock with us hath struck eleven; the same
is to be observed of the rest. Each of these
hours hath smaller divisions and subdivisions,
answerable to our minutes, &c.

It is remarkable that, whereas we reckon our
Hours by numbers, but have particular names
for our Months, the Chinese on the contrary
compute their Months by numbers, but assign
particular names and characters to their Hours.
Thus we say, January, February, &c. but the
Chinese simply, The first or second moon: on the
other hand we only distinguish our Hours by
one, two, or three o'clock, whereas the Chinese
have a peculiar arbitrary name for each, as in
the table.

If the Chinese excel us in some inventions,
they fall vastly short of us in their manner of
giving notice of the time of the day: their only
method being as follows. In each of their cities
is a tower, wherein their Hours are measured by
a kind of Clepsydra or water clock: where the
water running out of one vessel into another, lifts
up a board marked with the names of the
hours. As soon as a new hour is begun, one
or more persons, who are stationed there for
that purpose, immediately give public notice
of it, by striking upon a prodigious large drum;
and at the same time set up in public view a
tablet or board, whereon the name of the current
Hour is painted in characters of gold half a
a yard long. Vid. Bayer, tom. 2. p 336.]

To have done once for all with their computations
of time, we may observe briefly, that
the Chinese compute their annals by Cycles of

sixty years, as the Greeks did by Olympiads:
and that the Chinese civil year, which commences
about the twenty-fifth of January, consists
but of 354 days, and is set right with the course
of the sun, by inserting an intercalary Month
every third and fifth year.

And especially be it remarked, that although
the Chinese keep no Sabbath, or seventh day
of rest, they nevertheless divide the weeks like
us, according to the order of the planets, reckoning
the twenty-eight days of every Month
successively by seven and seven throughout the
year: [See P. Du Halde, v. 2 p. 132.] thereby
confirming that remark of learned men,
that there is hardly any nation under heaven,
among whom some tradition of the world's
having been created in seven days may not
be discovered, by the arbitrary division of their
time into weeks of seven days.

Vide Selden. Jus Nat. & Gent. lib. 3. cap. 22.
—Huet. demonstrat. Evang. prop. 4. cap. 11. p.
264. Gro—tius de veritat. lib. 1. sect. 16.

Page 131. Note, add:

N. B. The Editor hath been informed by a
gentleman lately come from China, that the Tael
is always estimated at 6s. 8d. English. See also
the Translator's pref. to P. Du Halde, fol. v. 1. p.
viij. and Dampier, vol. 2. Supplemt. p. 61.

Page 136. Note, add:

N. B. See also a very exact, though somewhat
different, account of this curious Evergreen

(for such the Tea-shrub is) in Kæmpfer's
Hist. of Japan. Supplement.

Page 169. Note, add.

N. B. The great progress of the religion of
Fo among the Chinese, is perhaps to be accounted
for, from its supplying the doctrines of
a future state, so agreeable to the mind of man.
This at least was the case in Japan. [See Kæmpfer,
p. 248.] As for the sect of Tao-tse, they
have evidently borrowed their notions on this
subject from the other. See page 269. note.

Page 194. lin 12. [silver[3] ;]

(See P. Du Halde, 1. 196. Lettr. ed. xxviij. 194.)
not but the Chinese manufacture a kind of glass, but
we are told that it is more brittle than ours, breaking
when exposed to too sharp an air. P. Du Halde, 1.
105. Mod. Univ. Hist. viij. 73.

Page 280. Note, lin. 14.

2. The Hu-pu or Tribunal of the Treasury.
[This court hath the care of the public treasury,
finances, &c. together with the private estate,
revenues, and expences of the Emperor. It
pays the salaries and pensions of all the state
officers: and keeps the rolls and registers which
are made every year of all the families, number
of men, measure of land, and the duties thence
arising to the Emperor. See P. Du Halde, 1.
249. Mod. Univ. Hist. viij. 146.]

Page 281. Note, lin. 3.

6. The Kong-pu, or Tribunal of public-works.
[This court superintends all the Emperor's
buildings: and takes cognizance of all the towers,
bridges, causeys, dikes, rivers, canals, highways,
and streets throughout the empire. P. Du
Halde. Mod. Univ. Hist. &c. ubi supra.]