THE CHINESE LANGUAGE
7
Hsüan Wang, who is supposed to have reigned from B.C. 827 to 781. Only a small portion of these inscriptions is legible, but a facsimile is appended of a rubbing taken from one of the stones in the Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1127).[1]
It is not until a much later period that anything like examples of a thoroughly systematized form of writing can be found. Silk preceded paper as a material for writing upon, and it was in the first century A.D. that paper was invented. The introduction of a hair pencil or brush is ascribed to a general of the Emperor Shih Huang Ti (B.C. 221).
The various styles of writing recognized as orthodox by the Chinese may be reduced to six, if we exclude a fanciful ancient form
- ↑ I am indebted to Dr. S. W. Bushell, C.M.G., for permission to use this specimen. An article on the Stone Drums of Peking, by Dr. Bushell, was published in Vol. viii. of the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series, 1873.
