IN so arbitrary a government as that of China, it would scarcely be
supposed that the press should be free; that is to say, that every one
who chooses it may follow the profession of a printer or a bookseller
without any previous licence, or without submitting the works he may
print or expose for sale to any censor appointed by government; but then
he must take his chance to suffer in his person all the consequences
that may result from the impression that may be made on the minds of the
civil officers as to the tendency of the work. A libel against the
government, an immoral or indecent book, would subject both printer and
publisher to certain punishment both in his person and purse. The
Chinese have not made any great progress in literature, and still less
in the sciences: they most excel in the history of their own country, in
morality, and in practical jurisprudence. Their dramatic works are
constructed on the same model as those of the Greeks, to which it is
hardly necessary to add they are infinitely inferior. Their novels and
moral tales are better; but the works in most esteem are the four
classical books supposed to be written or compiled by Confucius. Their
printing is not performed by moveable types, like ours, but by wooden
blocks the size of the page; and this mode appears to have been in use
long before the Christian æra.
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[Illustration:
CHINA—PLATE 24
]
Plate XXIV.