This Fact He Could Have Easily Ascertained From S. Julien,[1] Who Alludes To Mulberry Tree Paper Twice, First, As 'papier De Racines Et D'ecorce De Murier,' And, Second, In Speaking Of The Bark Paper From Broussonetia:

'On emploie aussi pour le meme usage l'ecorce d'Hibiscus Rosa sinensis et de murier; ce dernier papier sert encore

A recueillir les graines de vers a soie,' What is understood by the latter process may be seen from Plate I. in Julien's earlier work on sericulture,[2] where the paper from the bark of the mulberry tree is likewise mentioned.

"The Chi p'u, a treatise on paper, written by Su I-kien toward the close of the tenth century, enumerates among the various sorts of paper manufactured during his lifetime paper from the bark of the mulberry tree (sang p'i) made by the people of the north.[3]

"Chinese paper-money of mulberry bark was known in the Islamic World in the beginning of the fourteenth century; that is, during the Mongol period. Accordingly it must have been manufactured in China during the Yuan Dynasty. Ahmed Shibab Eddin, who died in Cairo in 1338 at the age of 93, and left an important geographical work in thirty volumes, containing interesting information on China gathered from the lips of eye-witnesses, makes the following comment on paper-money, in the translation of Ch. Schefer:[4]

"'On emploie dans le Khita, en guise de monnaie, des morceaux d'un papier de forme allongee fabrique avec des filaments de muriers sur lesquels est imprime le nom de l'empereur. Lorsqu'un de ces papiers est use, on le porte aux officiers du prince et, moyennant une perte minime, on recoit un autre billet en echange, ainsi que cela a lieu dans nos hotels des monnaies, pour les matieres d'or et d'argent que l'on y porte pour etre converties en pieces monnayees.'

"And in another passage: 'La monnaie des Chinois est faite de billets fabriques avec l'ecorce du murier. Il y en a de grands et de petits.... Ou les fabrique avec des filaments tendres du murier et, apres y avoir oppose un sceau au nom de l'empereur, on les met en circulation.'[5]

"The banknotes of the Ming Dynasty were likewise made of mulberry pulp, in rectangular sheets one foot long and six inches wide, the material being of a greenish colour, as stated in the Annals of the Dynasty.[6] It is clear that the Ming Emperors, like many other institutions, adopted this practice from their predecessors, the Mongols. Klaproth[7] is wrong in saying that the assignats of the Sung, Kin, and Mongols were all made from the bark of the tree cu (Broussonetia), and those of the Ming from all sorts of plants.

"In the Hui kiang chi, an interesting description of Turkistan by two Manchu officials, Surde and Fusambo, published in 1772,[8] the following note headed 'Mohamedan Paper' occurs:

"'There are two sorts of Turkistan paper, black and white, made from mulberry bark, cotton and silk refuse equally mixed, resulting in a coarse, thick, strong, and tough material. It is cut into small rolls fully a foot long, which are burnished by means of stones, and then are fit for writing.'

"Sir Aurel Stein[9] reports that paper is still manufactured from mulberry trees in Khotan. Also J. Wiesner,[10] the meritorious investigator of ancient papers, has included the fibres of Morus alba and M. nigra among the material to which his researches extended.

"Mulberry-bark paper is ascribed to Bengal in the Si yang ch'ao kung tien lu by Wu Kien-hwang, published in 1520.[11]

"As the mulberry tree is eagerly cultivated in Persia in connection with the silk industry, it is possible also that the Persian paper in the banknotes of the Mongols was a product of the mulberry.[12] At any rate, good Marco Polo is cleared, and his veracity and exactness have been established again."

XXIV., p. 427.

VALUE OF GOLD.

"L'or valait quatre fois son poids d'argent au commencement de la dynastie Ming (1375), sept ou huit fois sous l'empereur Wan-li de la meme dynastie (1574), et dix fois a la fin de la dynastie (1635); plus de dix fois sous K'ang hi (1662); plus de vingt fois sous le regne de K'ien long; dix-huit fois au milieu du regne de Tao-koang (1840), quatorze fois au commencement du regne de Hien-fong (1850); dix-huit fois en moyenne dans les annees 1882-1883. En 1893, la valeur de l'or augmenta considerablement et egala 28 fois celle de l'argent; en 1894, 32 fois; au commencement de 1895, 33 fois; mais il baissa un peu et a la fin de l'annee il valait seulement 30 fois plus." (Pierre HOANG, La Propriete en Chine, 1897, p. 43.)

XXVI., p. 432.

CH'ING SIANG.

Morrison, Dict., Pt. II, Vol. I., p. 70, says: "Chin-seang, a Minister of State, was so called under the Ming Dynasty." According to Mr. E.H. Parker (China Review, XXIV., p. 101), Ching Siang were abolished in 1395.

In the quotation from the Masalak al Absar instead of Landjun (Lang Chang), read Landjun (Lang Chung).

XXXIII., pp. 447-8. "You must know, too, that the Tartars reckon their years by twelves; the sign of the first year being the Lion, of the second the Ox, of the third the Dragon, of the fourth the Dog, and so forth up to the twelfth; so that when one is asked the year of his birth he answers that it was in the year of the Lion (let us say), on such a day or night, at such an hour, and such a moment. And the father of a child always takes care to write these particulars down in a book. When the twelve yearly symbols have been gone through, then they come back to the first, and go through with them again in the same succession."

"Ce temoignage, writes Chavannes (T'oung Pao, 1906, p. 59), n'est pas d'une exactitude rigoureuse, puisque les animaux n'y sont pas nommes a leur rang; en outre, le lion y est substitue au tigre de l'enumeration chinoise; mais cette derniere difference provient sans doute de ce que Marco Polo connaissait le cycle avec les noms mongols des animaux; c'est le leopard dout il a fait le lion.

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