Some Chinese Ghosts Part 7

PAGAL.--The ankle-ring commonly worn by Hindoo women; it is also called _nupur_. It is hollow, and contains loose bits of metal, which tinkle when the foot is moved.

SAN-HIEN.--A three-stringed Chinese guitar. Its belly is usually covered with snake-skin.

SIU-FAN-TI.--Literally, "the Sweeping of the Tombs,"--the day of the general wors.h.i.+p of ancestors; the Chinese "All-Souls'." It falls in the early part of April, the period called _tsing-ming_.

TA-CHUNG SZ'.--Literally, "Temple of the Bell." The building at Pekin so named covers probably the largest suspended bell in the world, cast in the reign of Yong-lo, about 1406 A.D., and weighing upwards of 120,000 pounds.

TAO.--The infinite being, or Universal Life, whence all forms proceed: Literally, "the Way," in the sense of the First Cause.

Lao-tseu uses the term in other ways; but that primal and most important philosophical sense which he gave to it is well explained in the celebrated Chapter XXV. of the _Tao-te-king_.... The difference between the great Chinese thinker's conception of the First Cause--the Unknowable,--and the theories of other famous metaphysicians, Oriental and Occidental, is set forth with some definiteness in Stanislas Julien's introduction to the _Tao-te-king_, pp. x-xv. ("Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu." Paris, 1842.)

THANG.--The Dynasty of Thang, which flourished between 620 and 907 A.D., encouraged literature and art, and gave to China its most brilliant period. The three poets of the Thang dynasty mentioned in the second story flourished between 779 and 852 A.D.

"THREE COUNCILLORS."--Six stars of the Great-Bear constellation ([Greek: ik--lm--nx]), as apparently arranged in pairs, are thus called by the Chinese astrologers and mythologists. The three couples are further distinguished as the Superior Councillor, Middle Councillor, and Inferior Councillor; and, together with the Genius of the Northern Heaven, form a celestial tribunal, presiding over the duration of human life, and deciding the course of mortal destiny. (Note by Stanislas Julien in "Le Livre des Recompenses et des Peines.")

TIEN-HIA.--Literally, "Under-Heaven," or "Beneath-the-Sky,"--one of the most ancient of those many names given by the Chinese to China.

The name "China" itself is never applied by the Black-haired Race to their own country, and is supposed to have had its origin in the fame of the first _Tsin_ dynasty, whose founder, Tsin Chi-Houang-ti, built the Great, or "Myriad-Mile," Wall, twenty-two and a half degrees of lat.i.tude in length ... See Williams regarding occurrence of the name "China" in Sanscrit literature.

TSIEN.--The well-known Chinese copper coin, with a square hole in the middle for stringing, is thus named. According to quality of metal it takes from 900 to 1,800 _tsien_ to make one silver dollar.

TSING-JIN.--"Men of Tsing." From very ancient times the Chinese have been wont to call themselves by the names of their famous dynasties,--_Han-jin_, "the men of Han"; _Thang-jin_, "the men of Thang," etc. _Ta Tsing Kwoh_ ("Great Pure Kingdom") is the name given by the present dynasty to China,--according to which the people might call themselves _Tsing-jin_, or "men of Tsing." Williams, however, remarks that they will not yet accept the appellation.

VERSES (CHINESE).--The verses preceding "The Legend of Tchi-Niu" afford some remarkable examples of Chinese onomatopoeia.

They occur in the sixth strophe of _Mien-mien_, which is the third chant of the first section of _Ta-ya_, the Third Book of the _Chi-King_.(See G. Pauthier's French version.) Dr. Legge translates the strophe thus:--

... Crowds brought the earth in baskets; they threw it with shouts into the frames; they beat it with responsive blows; they pared the walls repeatedly till they sounded strong.--_Sacred Books of the East_; Vol. III., _The She-King_, p. 384.

Pauthier translates the verses somewhat differently; preserving the onomatopoeia in three of the lines. _Houng-houng_ are the sounds heard in the timber-yards where the wood is being measured; from the workshops of the builders respond the sounds of _tong-tong_; and the solid walls, when fully finished off, give out the sound of _ping-ping_.

YAO.--"Porcelain." The reader who desires detailed information respecting the technology, history, or legends of Chinese porcelain-manufacture should consult Stanislas Julien's admirable "Histoire de la Porcelaine Chinoise" (Paris, 1856). With some trifling exceptions, the names of the various porcelains cited in my "Tale of the Porcelain-G.o.d" were selected from Julien's work. Though oddly musical and otherwise attractive in Chinese, these names lose interest by translation. The majority of them merely refer to centres of manufacture or famous potteries: _Chou-yao_, "porcelains of Chou"; _Hong-tcheou-yao_, "porcelains of Hong-tcheou"; _Jou-yao_, "porcelains of Jou-tcheou"; _Ting-yao_, "porcelains of Ting-tcheou"; _Ko-yao_,"

porcelains of the Elder Brother [Thsang]"; _Khang-hi-nien-t'sang-yao_, "porcelains of Thsang made in the reign of Khang-hi." Some porcelains were distinguished by the names of dynasties, or the t.i.tles of civic office holders; such as the celebrated _Tch'a-yao_, "the porcelains of Tch'a" (which was the name of the family of the Emperor Chi-tsong); and the _Kouan-yao_, or "Porcelains of Magistrates." Much more rarely the names refer directly to the material or artistic peculiarity of porcelains,--as _Ou-ni-yao_, the "black-paste porcelains," or _Pi-se-yao_, the "porcelains of hidden color." The word _khi_, sometimes subst.i.tuted for _yao_ in these compound names, means "vases"; as _Jou-khi_, "vases of Jou-tcheou"; _Kouan-khi_, "vases for Magistrates."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chinese calligraphy]