The Chinese have six styles or modes of writing their characters, the most elegant being the Kiai shoo.
The Chuen-shoo style is the ancient mode of writing, and is derived immediately from hieroglyphics, and is either a caricature or a stiff and imperfectly written character.
The Le-shoo is used by official attendants, and is written with greater freedom than that employed in books.
The Hing - shoo is the regular running hand used when quick writing is needed.
The Tsaou-tsze is a hasty and abbreviate style, used in ordinary transactions and correspondence.
The Sung-ti is the regular form of the character used in printing.
The respect which the Chinese pay to their written character amounts almost to worship. The literati employ men to traverse the streets of towns and villages to collect waste-paper from dwelling-houses and shops, lest fragments bearing Chinese characters should be trodden under foot. Each man is provided with two baskets, and at his call, `Sow-suee-chu Spare the printed paper! the people rush to the door and empty their waste-paper baskets into his. When his baskets are full, he takes them to the temple or guild, provided with a furnace for the purpose of con suming such collections, and in many instances the ashes of this paper are put into earthenware vases, and 'flung into a tidal stream to be borne out to sea.
The essays of candidates for the various degrees must be in the best caligraphy, and the Kiai-shoo style is that adopted by them. They must have at least 360 characters in their essays, and not more than 720.
Chinese Currency.—Sycee silver, in Chinese Wan yin, is their only approach to a silver currency. In it the government taxes and duties, and the salaries of oflicers, are paid ; and it is also current among merchants in general. The term Sycee derived from two Chinese words, Se-sze, fine floss silk ; which expression is synonymous with the signification of the term Wan. This silver is formed into ingots (by the Chinese called shoes), and by the natives of India, khuri, or hoofs, which are stamped with the mark of the office that issues them, and the date of their issue. The ingots are of various weights, but most commonly of ten taels each.
Sycee silver is divided into several classes, according to its fineness and freedom from alloy. The only coined money in China are the brass pieces with a hole in the centre. Silver is sold
by the weight, and an ounce is the equivalent of from 1700 to 1800 of these brass coins, which are called sapek ' by Europeans. They have some pieces of brass, called tsian, and in Mongol tchos, of which the inhabitants of Siberia make tebok and tchek ; they are of less value than a sapec. A kind of notes are in circulation among private persons.
Weights.—The Chinese have communicated their weights to all the adjacent countries. A pikul is equal to 1334 lbs. avoirdupois ; and 4 lbs. being equal to 3 catties, 100 catty make a pikul.
10 cash =1 candarin. I 16 tael = 1 catty.
10 candarin = 1 mace. 100 catty = 1 pikul.
10 mace =1 tad.
Calendar.—The Han dynasty of China reformed the calendar. The Chinese, like all the natives of the north-east of Asia, reckon their time by cycles of 60 years, and give a different name to each year of the cycle. The Chinese cycle of sixty years is called Hwa-kea-tsze. The year com mences from the conjunction of the sun and moon, or from the nearest new moon, to the fifteenth degree of Aquarius. It has twelve lunar months, some of twenty - nine, some of thirty days. To adjust the Inflations with the course of the sun, they insert, when necessary, an intercalary month. Day and night are divided into twelve periods, each of two hours. Their division of the day is therefore as simple as the British, and not much unlike it. The Chinese begin the day an hour before midnight, and divide the twenty-four hours into twelve parts of two hours each. Instead of numbering their hours, they give a different name to each period of two hours.
Tem, 11 to 1 morning. Woo,11 to 1 afternoon.
Chow, 1 to 3 „ We, 1 to 3 „ Yiu, 3 to 5 „ Shin, 3 to 5 „ Maou, 5 to 7 „ Yew, 5 to 7 ,, Shin, 7 to 9 „ Seo, 7 to 9 „ Sze, 9 to 11 „ Hae, 9 to 11 „ The word Keaou is added when the hour of each period is intended, and Ching for the last. Thus Keaou t,sze is eleven at night, and Ching tsze, twelve at night ; Keaou chow, one in the morning ; Ching chow, two ; etc. etc. The word K'hih, quarter,' is used after the hour with the numerals yih (one), urh (two), or sau (three), to subdivide the hours into quarters, which is the smallest division commonly employed: example, Ching maou yih k'hih, a quarter past six ; Keaou woo urh half-past eleven.