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.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 644 of 701
Words from 340100 to 340625 of 370046