existence of such a practice, as a proof of the cruelty or insensibility of the Chinese character. Even the dreadful crime of a parent destroying its offspring, is extenuated by the wretched and desperate situation to which the laboring poor in China, to whom the practice of infanticide is admitted to be in general confined, must, by the universal and almost compulsory custom of early marriages, often be reduced, of having large and increasing families, while, owing to the already excessive population of the country, they have not the most distant prospect of being able to maintain them." We have few means to knowing to what extent infanticide is practiced in this country it is affirmed to be much more prevalent in some places than in others; and the preceding proclamation shows, that it is not confined to the poor. A native friend has promised us a copy of Hwang Wan's essay; if it comes into our hands, we will not fail to make our readers acquainted with its contents. B. ART. VII. Journal of Occurrences. The emperor's prime ministers; custody of the imperial palace; new lieut.-governor and hoppo; the hospital ship at Whampoa; Macao passage boats; delay of justice. THE chief ministers of the imperial cabinet are four-two Tartars, and two Chinese. On the 1st of March last, a paper from the vermilion pencil appeared in Peking, appointing to these high offices Muhchangah, Fan Shengăn, Keshen, and Yuen Yuen. Muhchangah and Keshen are Mantchou Tartars. Fan Shengăn and Yuen Yuen are Chinese. Custody of the imperial palace. On the 17th of March it was announced by imperial edict, that his majesty was going to visit the tombs of his ancestors; and that, during his absence from the capital, suh tsin wang Kingmin, tun tsin wang Meënkae, the minister Yuen Yuen, and Yihking, were to remain in custody of the imperial palace; where the three former were in rotation to keep watch by night; while Yihking, excused from the nocturnal duties, was to go daily in person to attend to the business of the palace. The gates of the 'forbidden city' were to be closed every day at noon. A new lieut.-governor has been appointed to Canton; his name is Eleäng. Hoppo Wǎn is soon to be succeeded by Yuhkwän. The hospital ship at Whampoa continues to be an object of animadversion to the local government, which insists on her being either removed or broken up. The Macuo passage-boats also continue to be interdicted, while they remain unmolested, constantly plying up and down the river. Their number too is increasing. At Macao they are, it appears, to be made subject to the regulations of the custom-house. Delay of justice. Hwang Yewshuy, from Keeyang, one of the eastern districts of this province, has repaired to Peking, where he has appeared before the Censorate, accusing his fellow-townsman, Lin Wang, of robbery and various other grievous and cruel acts. According to a report of the Censorate, Lin has more than 10,000 people at his beck, always ready to execute his nefarious purposes. By these, goods are plundered; graves opened; innocent persous seized, and kept in confinement until large sums of money are advanced for their ransom. Two of Hwang's brothers were in confinement at the close of last year, when he left Canton for the capital, which he did not do until he had carried his complaints repeatedly to all the local courts, from the lowest to the highest officers in the province. During the five last years, he presented his petitions thirteen times to the prefect of Chauchow, and thrice to the governor and his colleagues in Canton-and to all in vain. As a dernier resort he has gone to Peking; the result of this final appeal remains to be seen, THE CHINESE REPOSITORY. VOL. VII.-JUNE, 1838.- No. 2. ART. I. Chinese intonations described and illustrated, with brief remarks on the necessity of early and careful attention to them, in studying the language. IN speaking, the Chinese use eight intonations, or different inflections of voice. These constitute such an essential part of their language, that no word is ever uttered without its appropriate tone; and if it were, it would in most cases be unintelligible. To the child this system of intonations is easy, and he learns it without effort, as he learns to speak. The foreigner, likewise, will find it easy, if he imitate the voice of the native, and is constant and persevering in practice. Systematic attention to the tones is of so much importance to the foreigner, who is commencing the study of the Chinese language, that no pains ought to be spared in elucidating the subject. Analysis of the intonations has the same relation to speaking, that tuning an instrument has to music. The musician's first business is to tune his instrument: until he has done this, we can have no good music, or rather no music at all. So with learning Chinese; there can be no correct speaking, or rather no speaking Chinese, without the proper intonations. Ignorance of these will prevent, in nine cases out of ten, the understanding of words and phrases which otherwise would be intelligible. A fact will illustrate this. A foreigner, after studying the language several months with entire disregard of the intonations, found himself one afternoon surrounded by a crowd of Chinese, in a remote part of the suburbs of Canton. Already he had acquired such a knowledge VOL. VII. NO. IL. of the language as enabled him to read; and he was now trying to carry on conversation, which was eagerly sought by both parties. In the midst of the crowd, a little boy, about seven years old, who could neither read nor write, came up and asked for a kamshá: the foreigner, taking a cash from his pocket, and holding it above the boy's head, asked, What is this? Ts'in 16, was his reply. Is it a good ts'in? Inquired the foreigner. It is not ts'in, but ts'ín, said the boy. Again the stranger tried, and again the little boy corrected him. Thus the trial went on- -to the amusement of the bystanders, and to the no small chagrin of the foreigner,- until he had repeated the word nearly a dozen times. That foreigner was the writer of this article; and he will not soon forget the lesson given him by the unlettered boy. The modifications of voice which may be employed in pronouncing a single word, as tsín for example, are twelve; these, for illustration, may be arranged in three classes, thus Six of these marked 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12,- are distinguished from the other six by having the spiritus asper. And it should be noted, that in class first, numbers 1 and 2 have the high monotone, which is indicated by a small semicircular mark, at the bottom of the line before the first letter, and 3 and 4 have the low monotone, indicated by the same mark with a line beneath it; that, in class second, numbers 5 and 6 have the upper rising inflection, and numbers 7 and 8 the lower rising inflection, indicated by appropriate marks, at the top of the line, before the first letter; and that numbers 9, 10, 11 and 12, have the falling inflection, indicated by the semicircular mark placed after the last letter. The boy, in the conversation noticed above, used number 4, which is the low monotone, with the rough breathing; but the foreigner, ignorant of the intonations, and disregarding the breathing, was liable to try all the wrong modifications of voice, before he hit on the right one. Two things, therefore, demand particular attention the intonations and the spiritus asper. The remainder of this short article will be employed, with a brief description of the first of these. No reference is here made to rhetorical and musical tones, properly so called. The sole object is to exhibit and explain those intonations which characterize the Chinese oral language. Want of attention to these, is one of the chief reasons why so few foreigners have learned to speak Chinese. The native, having from infancy learned a correct intonation, has but little need of rules; and if the foreigner asks him for them, he will not easily obtain them. If the former repeats his request, the schoolmaster' will protest against it-telling you there is no necessity for studying the tones. But the man is wrong, and by persisting in your endeavors to acquire a knowledge of the subject, he will by and by see your aim, and be able to afford the aid you need. The best way to insure success is, to follow your teacher viva voce, both in speaking and in reading, imitating him as closely as possible. In this course the learner should assiduously persevere, until he is able to pronounce with ease and accuracy some hundreds of the words, most needed for daily use; these, being selected so as to include all the syllables in the language, (about 411,) will form a basis, on which he may arrange in order his subsequent acqiusitions. The first and principal division of tones, as marked and described by the Chinese in the following lines, is fourfold; The even tone The rising tone - - its even path is neither high nor low; it loudly calls, 'tis vehement, ardent, strong; is clear, distinct, its dull low path is long; The entering tone-short, quick, abrupt, is quickly treasured up. These are like what rhetoricians call the absolute modifications of the voice. In speaking, they are the cardinal sounds. But so great is the difficulty of representing sounds by symbols, addressed to the eye, that no rules can be made completely intelligible without the aid of the teacher's voice. From the many dialectical varieties common among those who speak the English language, in different parts of the world, even the examples, which are adduced in illustration of the tones, may lead some into error concerning their true sound. To the voice of the teacher, therefore, constant reference must be made : it is the best standard, but by no means infallible. Examples and prescribed rules can serve merely as auxiliaries; and as such a few only are given. 1. The even tone. This the Chinese call p'ing shing, even sound, or monotone. It closely resembles that produced by a gentle stroke on a bell, and is fairly represented by a horizontal line, thus; it is characterized by an entire absence of all inflection of voice, being one uniform sound. It may be loud or soft, quick or slow, on a high or low key; but it always continues and ends, with regard to elevation, precisely where it commenced. In English, the following lines afford instances of the monotone, which is indicated by the short horizontal line over the vowels. High on a throne of royal state, which far 2. The rising inflection. This turns the voice upwards, ending higher than it began. The Chinese call it shang shing, rising sound. In English, it is invariably heard in the direct question, and in a variety of other instances. The following is an example: this mark ('), sometimes called the accute accent, placed over the vowels, is here intended to indicate the rising inflection. My mother! when I learn'd that thou wast dead, 3. The falling inflection. This turns the voice downwards, terminating lower than it began; and in this respect it is the counterpart to the rising inflection. The Chinese call it k'eu shing, the departing sound. In English, this inflection is used in the indirect question, and also in language of scorn, surprise, authority, alarm, &c. these examples the grave accent (`) indicates the falling tone. Why are you silent? Why do you prevaricate? Hènce!- home, you idle creatures, get you home, You blocks, you stones! You worse than senseless things. In The man whose own house is in flames, cries, fire! fìre!' It is only from the truant boy in the streets that we hear the careless exclamation, fire, fire.' The city watch is startled, not so much by the words of distress that echo through the stillness of midnight, as by the tones which denote the reality of that distress; hèlp!— mùrder! help!.. hèlp.' 4. The circumflex tone. This may be regarded as a union of the second and third tones in one short syllable. It is not easily defined in English, but in Chinese it can scarcely be mistaken. It occurs in words like block, hop, put, &c. Each of these cardinal tones are subdivided into a high and a low tone or they may be regarded as a series of high tones, having a counter series of low tones, the two series being parallel to each |