Transcriber’s note
Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation
inconsistencies have been silently repaired. A list of the changes made
can be found at the end of the book. Formatting and special characters
are indicated as follows:
_italics_
=bold=
AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLIC
IN ANCIENT TIMES
A SKETCH OF LITERARY CONDITIONS AND OF
THE RELATIONS WITH THE PUBLIC OF
LITERARY PRODUCERS, FROM THE
EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FALL
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
BY
GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, M.A.
AUTHOR OF “THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT,” ETC.
_THIRD EDITION, REVISED_
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. 24 BEDFORD ST., STRAND
The Knickerbocker Press
1896
COPYRIGHT, 1893
BY
GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
[Illustration]
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
IN printing the second and third impressions of my essay, I have been
able to take advantage of certain corrections and suggestions submitted
by friendly critics, among whom I wish to make special acknowledgments
to Mr. Charlton T. Lewis and to Mr. Otis S. Hill, whose aid in the
verification of the quotations has been particularly valuable. I may
mention that in the printing of the first edition, I had been obliged,
in connection with the increasing limitations of my eyesight, to
confide the verification and the proof-reading of the quotations to
an assistant, whose services proved, unfortunately, incompetent and
untrustworthy. As a result, a number of errors which had been repeated
from the German editions, or which had crept into the work of the
transcriber, of the typewriter, or of the compositor, found place
with annoying persistency, in the volume as printed. While I may not
hope that the text as now printed is correct (and a book free from
typographical errors is an almost impossible production), I can feel
assured that the more serious misprints at least have been duly cared
for.
Attention has also been given to the correction of certain errors
of statement or of interpretation, but in some of the instances in
which my critics have not been in accord with the authorities upon
which my own statements have been based, I have ventured to abide by
the conclusions of the latter. My little essay made, of course, no
pretensions to establish any conclusions or to maintain any individual
theories on questions of classical literature concerning which there
might be differences among the scholars. My purpose was simply to
trace, as far as might be practicable, from the scattered references
in the literature of the period, an outline record of the continuity
of literary activity, the methods of the production and distribution
of literature, and the nature of the relations between the authors and
their readers. For the citations utilised for this study, I was, as
stated in my bibliography, chiefly indebted to such scholars as Wilhelm
Schmitz, Joh. Müller, Paul Clement, Theodor Birt, Louis Haenny, H.
Géraud, and A. Meineke. The citations given from the Greek or Latin
authors were in the main based upon or corrected by the versions of
these German or French writers, and were specifically so credited.
The majority of my reviewers were ready to understand the actual
purpose of my book and to recognise that my part in the undertaking was
limited to certain general inferences or conclusions as to literary
methods or conditions. In one or two cases, however, the critics,
ignoring the specified purpose and the necessary limitations of the
essay, saw fit to treat it as a treatise on classical literature and
devoted their reviews almost exclusively to textual criticisms and
corrections. In these, of course (irrespective of certain obvious
errors above referred to), they found ample opportunity for differences
of opinion with the authorities whose versions I had utilised, and
ignoring the fact that my renderings were specifically credited to
the German or French editions, they criticised or corrected these as
if they had been presented by myself. It seems to me worth while,
therefore, again to point out that with these issues between the
scholarly or critical authorities I am not at all concerned, and
that in their controversies I assumed to take no part. My sketches
of literary methods, and the suggestions submitted by me as to the
relations of authors and their readers, are affected very little by
these scholastic controversies, and whatever interest or value they
may possess will be entirely independent, for instance, of such a
question as the correctness of the account given by Aulus Gellius
(cited by me from Schmitz and Blass) of the correspondence between
Aristotle and Alexander.
A similar word may be given in regard to the forms utilised for
certain terms or names which have become familiarised with our English
speech. My most captious critic stated, for instance, very flatly
that my spelling of “Piræus” was “neither Latin, Greek, nor English.”
I can only explain that the name is so spelled in the latest edition
of Lippincott’s _Gazetteer_, and for such casual references as I had
occasion to make, I had considered this work a sufficiently trustworthy
authority for the spelling of a name which has found place in English
narrative.
The same critic saw fit to assume that, because I had used a German
editor’s paraphrase in Latin of some saying of Suidas, I had imagined
that this author had written in Latin; oblivious of the fact that, a
few pages farther on, I had made specific references to the various
writings of Suidas in Greek.
I refer to these details not because they are in themselves of any
continued importance, but simply as examples of what struck me as
disproportioned textual or verbal criticism of a volume which made
no claims to textual authority. The text ought of course to have been
correct, and it was certainly the case that some inexcusable errors had
crept into it. Regrettable as these errors were, however, they did not
as a fact affect the main theme of the essay or sketch. It is assuredly
in order for a reviewer to call attention to any such oversights, but
the reviewer who devotes the substance of the space at his command to
a list of typographical errors or oversights, and who has hardly a
word to say concerning the purpose of a book, or the extent to which
such purpose has been carried out, loses sight, I think, of the real
function of reviewing. He may make a good show of infallibility, or
of authoritative knowledge, for himself or for his journal, but he
certainly fails to give what the reader is entitled to expect, a just
and well proportioned impression of the work under consideration.
Since the publication of the first edition, the larger work, as an
introduction to which this essay was planned, _Books and Their Makers
in the Middle Ages_, has been brought before the public, and has been
received with a very satisfactory measure of appreciation. The readers
of this last have occasionally raised question concerning a lack of
harmony of design or of uniformity of method between the two books. It
is in order therefore again to explain that they were never intended
to serve as two sections of a continuous narrative. The record of the
making and distribution of books during the centuries after 476, I have
attempted to present with a certain degree of comprehensiveness; but
for classic times, there are no materials available for any complete or
comprehensive record. The sketch presented by me is, as stated, based
upon a few references to literary methods which are scattered through
the writings of classic authors. A much more comprehensive study of
the conditions of literary production among the ancients could very
easily, however, be prepared by a student who possessed the requisite
familiarity with the literature of the time, and who was sufficiently
free from limitations as to eyesight to be able to trace and to verify
his quotations for himself, and I trust that some competent scholar may
yet interest himself in producing such a treatise.
NEW YORK, June 15, 1896.
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
THE following pages, as originally written, were planned to form a
preliminary chapter, or general introduction, to a history of the
origin and development of property in literature, a subject in which
I have for some time interested myself. The progress of the history
has, however, been so seriously hampered by engrossing business cares,
and also by an increasing necessity for economizing eyesight, that the
date of its completion remains very uncertain. I do not relinquish the
hope of being able to place before the public (or at least of that
small portion of the public which may be interested in the subject)
at some future date, the work as first planned, which shall present a
sketch of the development of property in literature from the invention
of printing to the present day, but I have decided to publish in a
separate volume this preliminary study of the literary conditions which
obtained in ancient times.
In the stricter and more modern sense of the term, literary property
stands for an ownership in a specific literary form given to certain
ideas, for the right to control such particular form of expression of
these ideas, and for the right to multiply and to dispose of copies
of such form of expression. In this immaterial signification, the
term literary property is practically synonymous with la _propriété
intellectuelle_, or _das geistige Eigenthum_.
It is proper to say at the outset that in this sense of the term, no
such thing as literary property can be said to have come into existence
in ancient times, or in fact until some considerable period had elapsed
after the invention of printing. The books first produced, after
1450, from the presses of Gutenberg and Fust and by their immediate
successors, were the Latin versions of the Bible, editions of certain
of the writings of Cicero and of other Latin authors, and a few other
works which, if not all dating back to Classic periods, were, with
hardly an exception, the works of writers who had been dead for many
generations.
The editions printed of these books constituted for their owners, the
printers, a property, which, as distinguished from their buildings and
from their presses and type, might fairly enough be described as a
“literary property.” It was, however, not until the publishers began
to make arrangements to give compensation to contemporary writers
for the preparation of original works, or for original editorial work
associated with classic texts, and not until, in connection with such
arrangements, the publishers succeeded in securing from the State
authorities, in the shape of “privileges,” a formal recognition of
their right to control the literary work thus produced, that literary
property in the sense of intellectual property (_geistiges Eigenthum_),
came into an assured and recognized, though still restricted existence.
Property of this kind, namely, in the form of a right, duly recognized
by the State, to the control of an intellectual production, assuredly
did not exist in Athens, in Alexandria, or in classic Rome. There
is evidence, however, although often of a very fragmentary and
inconclusive character, that in these cities and in other literary
centres of the later classic world, there gradually came into existence
a system or a practice under which authors secured some compensation
for their labors.
Such compensation, doubtless at best but inconsiderable as it did
not depend upon any legal right on the part of either author or
publishers, must have varied very greatly according to the personality
of the writer, the nature of the work, and the time and place of its
production. The evidences or indications of payments being made to
authors are mainly to be traced in scattered references in their own
works. Such references are in the writings of the Greek authors, but
infrequent, and in not a few instances the passages have been variously
interpreted, so that it is difficult to base upon them any trustworthy
conclusions.
It is only when we reach the Augustan age of Roman literature that
we find, in the works of such authors as Cicero, Martial, Horace,
Catullus, and a few others, a sufficient number of references upon
which to base some theory at least as to the nature of the relations of
the authors with their publishers, and also as to the publishing and
bookselling methods of the time.
I have attempted, in this volume, to present a sketch of these
“beginnings of literary property”--that is, to outline the gradual
evolution of the idea that the producer of a literary work, the poet,
ποιητής, the maker, is entitled to secure from the community not only
such laurel-crown of fame as may be adjudged to his work, but also some
material compensation proportioned as nearly as may be practicable to
the extent of the service rendered by him.
I have prefixed to the study of literary and publishing undertakings
in Athens, Alexandria, and Rome, in which cities definite relations
between authors and their public can first be traced, some preliminary
sketches concerning the beginnings of literature in Chaldea, Egypt,
India, Persia, China, and Japan. I admit at once that descriptions of
legendary, prehistoric, or semi-historic periods, are not directly
pertinent to my main subject. I have decided to include them,
however, at the risk of criticism on the ground both of (necessarily)
superficial treatment and of lack of relevance, because it seemed to me
that the character of the earliest literary ideals and of the legendary
literary productions of a people formed an important factor in helping
to develop its later literary conditions, and was not without influence
upon the relations of authors with their public, when such relations
finally began to take shape.
It is, for instance, a matter of very decided interest, in tracing
the literary history of a nation, to ascertain whether the source
and initiative of its earliest literature was the temple, the court,
or the popular circles outside of temple or court; whether the first
compositions were produced by the priests, or by annalists or poets
working under the immediate incentive of the favor of the monarch, or
whether, like the epics of Greece and the folk-songs of China, they
came from authors among the people, and were addressed directly to
popular sympathies and to popular ideals.
It will be noted that I take pains to speak of “authors” and “public,”
rather than of “writers” and “readers,” because it is evident that
there were literary productions in advance, and probably very far in
advance, of the discovery or evolution of written characters, and also
that long after the use of script by authors, the greater portion of
the public in all ancient lands received their literature, not through
their eyes, but through their ears,--not by reading the text, but by
listening to reciters, story-tellers, and “rhapsodists.”
In the preparation of this brief record, which makes no claim to
scholarly completeness, or to be anything more considerable than a
sketch, I have found myself hampered by lack of adequate classical
knowledge and by the lack of familiarity with the works of even the
more important of the Greek and Roman writers. It is doubtless the
case, therefore, that I have failed to discover or to utilize not a few
passages and references that would have a bearing upon the subject; and
I shall be under obligations to any scholarly reader who will take the
trouble to call my attention to such omissions.
I have given, in a brief bibliography, the titles of the more important
of the books upon the authority of which my sketch has been based. I
desire, however, to express my special indebtedness to the following
works, the full titles of which will be found in the bibliography:
Clement’s _La Propriété Littéraire chez les Grecs et chez les Romains_,
Schmitz’s _Schriftsteller in Athen_, Géraud’s _Les Livres dans
l’Antiquité_, Birt’s _Das Antike Buchwesen_, Haenny’s _Schriftsteller
und Buchhändler im alten Rom_, and Simcox’s _History of Latin
Literature_.
As is indicated by the titles in the list of authorities cited, the
writers who have given attention to the relations of authors of
antiquity with their readers, have been almost exclusively German or
French. I shall be well pleased if this brief study of mine may serve
as a suggestion to some competent American or English scholar for the
preparation in English of a comprehensive and final work on the subject.
G. H. P.
NEW YORK, November, 1893.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE BEGINNINGS OF LITERATURE 1
1. PRELIMINARY 1
2. CHALDEA 5
3. EGYPT 10
4. CHINA 21
5. JAPAN 38
6. INDIA 43
7. PERSIA 47
8. JUDÆA 49
II. GREECE 54
III. ALEXANDRIA 127
IV. BOOK-TERMINOLOGY IN CLASSIC TIMES 149
V. ROME 163
VI. CONSTANTINOPLE 282
INDEX 297
[Illustration]
PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO AS AUTHORITIES.
BARTHELÉMI, J. _The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger._ London, 1832.
BECKER, W. A. _Charicles, or Illustrations of the Private Life of the
Ancient Greeks._ Trans. by F. METCALFE. 7th Edition. London, 1886.
---- _Gallus, or Roman Scenes of the Time of Augustus._ Trans. by F.
METCALFE. 8th Edition. London, 1886.
BERGK, T. _Griechische Literatur Geschichte._ Leipzig, 1852.
BIRT, THEODOR. _Das Antike Buchwesen._ Berlin, 1882.
BREULIER, ADOLPHE. _Du Droit de Perpétuité de la Propriété
Intellectuelle._ Paris, 1851.
BRUNS, C. G. _Die Testamente der Griechischen Philosophie._ 2 vols.
Leipzig, 1872.
BUCHSENSCHUTZ. _Besitz und Erwerb im Griechischen Alterthum._ Leipzig,
1879.
BURSIAN, C. _Die Geographie Griechenlands._ München, 1882.
BURY, J. B. _A History of the Later Roman Empire._ 2 vols. London, 1889.
CAILLEMER. _La Propriété littéraire à Athènes._
CASSIODORUS. _The Letters of._ Translated, with an introduction, by
THOMAS HODGKIN. London, 1886.
CATULLUS. Edited by RIESE. Leipzig, 1884.
---- Edited by ELLIS. Oxford, 1867.
CICERO. _Letters._ Edited by WATSON. London, 1852.
CLEMENT, PAUL. _Étude sur le Droit des Auteurs, Précédée d’une
Dissertation sur la Propriété Littéraire chez les Grecs et chez les
Romains._ Grenoble, 1867.
CRUTTWELL, C. T. C. _History of Roman Literature._ New York, 1887.
DAVIDSON, J. L. S. _The Life of Cicero._ New York and London, 1894.
(From advance sheets.)
DONALDSON, J. W. _The Theatre of the Greeks._ 8th Edition. London, 1876.
_Encyclopædia Britannica._ 9th Edition. Edinburgh and New York,
1884-1892.
FREEMAN, E. A. _History of Federal Government._ 2d Edition. London,
1892.
FROMMANN, E. _Aufsätze zur Geschichte des Buchhandels im 16ten
Jahrhundert._ Jena, 1876.
FRONTO. Edited by NABER. Leipzig, 1867.
GELLIUS, AULUS. _Noctes Atticæ._ Edited by HERTZ. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1865.
GÉRAUD, H. _Les Livres dans l’Antiquité._ Paris, 1840.
GIBBON, E. _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire._ American
Edition. 6 vols. New York, 1889.
HAENNY, LOUIS. _Schriftsteller und Buchhändler im Alten Rom._ Leipzig,
1885.
HERODOTUS. _Histories of._ Trans. by RAWLINSON. 4 vols. New York, 1886.
HODGKIN, THOMAS. _Theodoric the Goth._ New York and London, 1890.
HORACE. Edited by MÜLLER. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1874.
---- _Odes and Epodes._ Edited by WICKHAM. London, 1874.
JEVONS, F. B. _History of Greek Literature._ New York, 1886.
JOHNSON, A. J. _The Universal Encyclopædia._ 8 vols. New York, 1884.
JUVENAL. Trans. by GIFFORD. London, 1852.
---- Edited by WEIDNER. Leipzig, 1873.
KAPP, FRIEDRICH. _Geschichte des Deutschen Buchhandels bis in das 17te
Jahrhundert._ Leipzig, 1886.
KARPELES, GUSTAV. _Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur._ 12 parts.
Berlin, 1890.
KLOSTERMANN, R. _Das Urheberrecht und das Verlagsrecht._ Berlin, 1871.
LAËRTIUS, DIOGENES. _De Vitis, Dogmatibus et Apothegen. Clar. Philos._
Edited by HÜBNER. 4 vols. Leipzig, 1831.
LAYARD, Sir A. H. _Nineveh and Babylon._ American Edition. New York,
1852.
LECKY, W. E. H. _A History of European Morals._ American Edition. 2
vols. New York.
LOUISY, M. P. _Le Livre, et les Arts qui s’y Rattachent._ Paris, 1886.
MAHAFFY, J. P. _Social Life in Greece from Homer to Menander._ 6th
Edition. London, 1891.
---- _Greek Life and Thought, from the Age of Alexander to the Roman
Conquest._ London, 1892.
---- _The Greek World under Roman Sway._ London, 1893.
MARTIAL. Edited by PALEY. London, 1875.
---- Edited by FRIEDLÄNDER. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1886.
MEINEKE, A. _Historia Comœdiæ Græcæ_ (in the _Comicorum Græc.
Fragmenta_). Berlin, 1857.
MÜLLER, J. _Die Lustspiele des Aristophanes._ Leipzig, 1868.
MÜLLER, MAX. _History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature._ London, 1860.
OMAN, C. W. C. _The Story of the Byzantine Empire._ New York and
London, 1892.
PLATO. _Works._ Trans. by JOWETT. 6 vols. Oxford, 1889.
PLAUTUS. Edited by FLECKEISEN. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1890.
PLINY. _Works._ Trans. by MELMOTH. 5 vols. London, 1878.
PLUTARCH’S _Lives_. Trans. by CLOUGH. 5 vols. Boston, 1878.
RAGOZIN, ZENAÏDE. _The Story of Chaldea._ New York, 1886.
---- _The Story of Assyria._ New York, 1887.
RAWLINSON, GEORGE. _History of Ancient Egypt._ 2 vols. New York, 1890.
RAWNSLEY, H. D. _Notes for the Nile, together with a Metrical Rendering
of the Hymns of Ancient Egypt and of the Precepts of Ptah-Hotep._
London and New York, 1892.
_Records of the Past._ Edited by S. BIRCH. 12 vols. London, 1882.
RENOUARD, AUGUSTIN CHARLES. _Traité des Droits d’Auteurs._ 2 vols.
Paris, 1838.
RITTER, H. _History of Ancient Philosophy_ (translation). 4 vols.
Oxford, 1849.
ROMBERG, EDOUARD. _Études sur la Propriété Artistique et Littéraire._
Bruxelles, 1892.
ROZOIR, A. _Dictionnaire de la Conversation_, etc. Paris, 1838.
SCHAEFER, A. _Demosthenes und Seine Zeit._ 3 vols. Leipzig, 1858.
SCHÖLL, A. _Aufsätze zur Klass. Liter._ Berlin, 1884.
---- _Hist. Lit. Græc._ 3 vols. Berlin, 1886.
SCHMITZ, WM. _Schriftsteller und Buchhändler in Athen und im übrigen
Griechenland._ Heidelberg, 1876.
SIMCOX, G. A. _History of Latin Literature._ 2 vols. London, 1883.
SMITH, GEORGE. _The Chaldean Account of Genesis._ London, 1880.
STATIUS. Edited by MÜLLER. Leipzig, 1871.
STRABO. _Works._ Edited by MEINEKE. 3 vols. Leipzig, 1866.
SUETONIUS. _Lives of the Twelve Cæsars._ Trans. by THOMSON. London,
1855.
SUIDAS. _Lexicon._ Edited by BRAUN. (Cited by Schmitz.) Leipzig, 1832.
WEHLE, J. H. _Das Buch, Technik der Schriftstellerei._ Leipzig, 1879.
WILLIAMS, S. WELLS. _The Middle Kingdom: A Survey of the Geography,
Government, Arts, Literature, etc., of the Chinese Empire._ Revised
Edition. 2 vols., 8vo. New York, 1883.
XENOPHON. _Works._ Trans. by J. S. WATSON. 3 vols. London, 1862.
ZELLER, E. _Die Philosophie der Griechen._ 2 vols. Leipzig, 1872.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLIC IN ANCIENT TIMES.
CHAPTER I.
The Beginnings of Literature.
WHEN Faust was puzzling his brain concerning the everlasting problem
of the nature and origin of things, we find him questioning the
utterance of the Hebrew seer: “In the beginning was the Word.” “No,”
he says, “this must be wrong. We cannot place the word first in the
scale of causation. The writer should have said ‘In the beginning was
the Thought.’” On further reflection, this statement also seemed to
him inadequate. Is it the Thought that creates and directs all things?
Shall we not rather say “In the beginning was the Power?” Even this
interpretation, however, fails to stand the test, and, after further
wrestling, Faust presents as his solution of the problem the statement,
“In the beginning was the ‘_Deed_.’”
I shall not undertake to consider in this monograph any questions
concerning the line of evolution of the universe, and Faust’s
questionings are recalled to me only because his final answer is in
accord with the experience of man in what he knows of the development
of himself, considered either as an individual or as a race.
Assuredly the first thing of which man was conscious was not the word,
written or spoken, nor the thought behind the word, nor the power
back of the thought, but the deed, which could be seen and felt and
estimated. Conscious thought came much later, and the word spoken and
the word written, later still. A mental conception, realized as such,
and finally taking form as a production of the mind, is a development
of a comparatively advanced stage of human existence, the youth of the
individual or of the race, while for any definition of the nature of a
mental production, and of its just relation to the individual by whom
and to the community for which it was produced, we must look still
further forward.
Literature--that is, mental conceptions in literary form--had been
known for many centuries before the literary idea, and any individual
ownership in the form in which such idea was expressed, had been
thought out and defined. Literary property--that is, an ownership,
on the part of the producer, in a definite expression of literary
ideas--dates, nevertheless, from a comparatively early period, and,
in one sense, may be said to have existed from the time in which the
first “poet” (maker or creator) received his first compensation from
a grateful public or an appreciative patron. In the more precise
interpretation of the term, it is doubtless more correct, however,
to say that literary property dates from the time when authors first
received compensation, not from the state or from individual patrons,
but from individual readers throughout the community, who were ready to
make payment in return for the benefit received. The labor, however,
of placing the literary production in the hands of the reader and
of collecting from these the compensation for the authors, required
an intermediary,--some one to create the machinery for distribution
and collection, and usually also to assume the risk and investment
required. Literary property could, therefore, come into an assured
existence only after, or simultaneously with, the evolution of the
publisher. This, then, is the chain of causation at which we have
arrived: The deed, the thought awakened by the deed, the consciousness
of the thought, the power, first of oral and then of written expression
of the thought (usually the description of the deed), which marks the
appearance of the poet, the “maker” or author; the consecration of
this expression or literary production to a definite purpose, usually
the glorification of an individual in the commemoration of his deed;
the habit of receiving from such individual a tangible recognition;
the widening of the purpose of the production and its dedication to
the community as a whole; the giving, by the community in return, of
a reward or _honorarium_; the evolution of the publisher who develops
the system under which the amount of the _honorarium_ secured for the
author is proportioned (though somewhat roughly) to the number of
persons benefited by his productions.
It is when the higher stage of civilization has been reached which
is marked by the appearance of the publisher, that we have a true
beginning of property in literature.
Centuries must, however, still elapse before we find record of any
noteworthy attempts to arrive at precise definitions of the nature and
origin of literary property, or to analyze the proper relations of the
literary producer as well to the generation for which he originally
worked, as to such later generations as derived benefit from his
creations.
=Chaldea.=--The earliest literature of which the archæologists
have thus far found trustworthy evidence appears to be that of the
Chaldeans. Their “books,” consisting of baked clay tablets, on which
the cuneiform characters had been imprinted with a stylus, were well
fitted to withstand the ravages of time, being practically imperishable
by either fire or water. The important discovery of specimens of the
earlier literature of Chaldea was due to Sir Henry Layard. In 1845
he was fortunate enough, while investigating the mounds at Koyunjik
(ancient Nineveh) now identified with the ruins of the palaces of
Sennacherib and Asshurbanipal (B.C. 650), to stumble into the chambers
which had contained the royal library. Although he was not himself able
to decipher the early cuneiform characters with which were covered the
masses of clay tablets and fragments of tablets brought to light by his
excavations, he readily recognized the importance of the discovery, and
took pains to forward to the British Museum a large number of those
in the best state of preservation. There they lay until 1870, when
George Smith undertook the task of arranging and deciphering them.
Smith had been originally employed in the Museum as an engraver, but
in the course of his work in engraving cuneiform texts, he had become
interested in their study, and by dint of persistent application he
soon came to be one of the few acknowledged authorities on the subject.
Months of patient labor were given to the piecing together of the
thousands of scattered fragments contained in Layard’s shipment. Then,
owing to the enterprise of the London _Daily Telegraph_ (which in 1876
made a novel precedent in journalism by printing from week to week, in
juxtaposition with the news of the day, decipherings of the Chaldean
writings of five thousand years back), Smith was enabled to go to
Mesopotamia, and in three successive journeys very largely to increase
the collections of tablets, which finally comprised over 10,000
specimens.
Smith’s untimely death by fever during his third sojourn in the East
put a check for a time upon both the collecting and the deciphering,
but the latter was later continued by workers who became equally
skilled, and of a large number of the tablets translations have been
put into print. During the past ten years, a great development has been
given to the collecting and deciphering of the tablets by the labors
of such scholars as Dieulafoy, Fritz Hommel, John P. Peters, and others.
Smith had found specimens of Chaldean literature in such departments
as agriculture, irrigation, astrology, the science of government, the
art of war, prayers and invocations to the gods, and above all and
most frequent, records of campaigns. There were also a few tablets
which appeared to be examples of children’s primers and children’s
scribbling. As far as it was practicable to judge from those fragments
that have been preserved of the literature of the nation, the several
works had for the most part been prepared under the instructions and
often apparently for the special use of successive monarchs or of
the rulers of provinces. These books existed, therefore, in strictly
“limited editions,” comprising either single copies or but two or three
copies for the royal residences. The writers were apparently for the
most part officials in the public service and often members of the
royal household. On the campaigns, the king, or the commander who took
the place of the king, appears to have been accompanied by scribes, who
were expected to keep note of the number of cities taken, the enemies
slain, and the prisoners captured, and of the amount of the spoils
appropriated, and the records of campaign triumphs form by far the
largest portion of the literature discovered. These campaign narratives
finally came to take the shape of annual records, often beginning with
the formula “and when the springtime came, the time when kings go out
to war.”
The next largest division of the Chaldean literature is made up of
invocations to the gods, narratives of the doings of the gods, and
prayers and psalms. Many of these last bear a very close family
resemblance to the war psalms of the Hebrews, the composition of which
took place ten or twelve hundred years later. This religious literature
was the work of the priests whose annual stipends came from the royal
treasury, augmented probably by the offerings of the faithful. Remains
of these priestly libraries were discovered by Layard and Smith in the
ruins of Agadê, Sippar, and Cutha.
In the records that have come down to us, there is absolutely no trace
of compensation being paid for the different classes of literary
undertakings except in the shape of annual stipends to the writers,
whose work included other services besides their literary labors,
although it is, of course, probable that special gifts may have been
given from time to time for exceptionally eloquent and satisfactory
accounts of successful campaigns. Whatever property existed in these
productions must, therefore, have been vested in the king, but this
hardly constituted a distinctive feature of literary property, as the
kings claimed and exercised a complete control over all the property
and all the lives within their realms.
The earliest specimen of Chaldean literature which has as yet been
discovered, and which is probably the oldest example of writing at
present known, is given on a tablet of baked clay now in the British
Museum. This tablet was made up by George Smith out of a mass of
scattered fragments which had been brought from the Assyrian mounds.
In going over the collection of inscribed tiles, Smith came across
a small fragment the inscription on which evidently referred to the
Flood, and in the course of his own three sojourns in Mesopotamia he
was fortunate enough, after many months of patient labor, to find a
large portion of the fragments required to complete the tablet and to
give the main portion of the narrative. Such success could hardly have
been possible if the royal library of Nineveh had not contained several
copies of the Flood tablet, as was evinced by the finding of duplicates
or triplicates of certain of the portions. The tablet, as now put
together, comprises eighteen pieces, and presents, notwithstanding a
number of gaps, a fairly complete account of the Flood. The incidents
are so far paralleled by those given in the Genesis narrative, that it
is evident either that the two scribes derived their information from
the same sources, or that the Hebrew story has been based upon the
Chaldean record. According to Lenormant, Smith, and Hommel, the former
was inscribed about 4000 B.C., in that case ante-dating by more than
two thousand years the actual writing of the Book of Genesis. Ragozin
speaks of “the ancestors of the Hebrews, during their long sojourn in
the land of Shinar, having become familiar with the legends and stories
contained in the collection of the Assyrian priests, and after working
these over after their own superior religious lights, having shaped
from them the narrative which was written down many centuries later as
part of the Book of Genesis.”[1]
=Egypt.=--The literature of Egypt probably ranks next to that of
Chaldea in point of antiquity. In fact, not a few of the archæologists
have contended that the civilization of Egypt was of still earlier
development than that of the countries of Mesopotamia or of any other
portion of the world.
The earliest Egyptian writings were, with few exceptions, theological
in their character and appear to have originated in the temples.
First among the authors of Egypt stands, according to tradition,
Thoth-Hermes, the ibis-headed god of wisdom and of literature, the
“Lord of the Hall of Books.” His companion is the beautiful Ma, goddess
of truth and justice, a very proper associate for the founder of a
nation’s literature.
By later generations, Thoth-Hermes came to be known as Hermes
Trismegistus, the god of threefold greatness or majesty. The forty-two
works, the authorship of which is ascribed to Thoth or Trismegistus,
formed, according to Karpeles, a kind of national encyclopædia,
presenting the canon of the faith and the knowledge of ancient Egypt.
Of these so-called Hermetic books, only portions appear to have
remained in existence with the beginnings of the historic period,
but of these portions certain fragments have been preserved for
the inspection of scholars of to-day. In the examination in 1892
of some newly discovered tombs, papyri were found which proved to
contain religious writings based upon the Hermetic books, and which
were themselves the work of scribes writing during the 4th dynasty,
3733-3566 B.C.
The founder of the 4th dynasty was Khufa, better known as Cheops, the
builder of the Great Pyramid, who is also ranked as an author, and
to whose reign belongs the first record of the famous _Book of the
Dead_. This _Book of the Dead_ consisted of invocations to the deities,
psalms, prayers, and the descriptions of the experiences that awaited
the spirit of the departed in the world to come, experiences that
included an exhaustive analysis of his past life and his final judgment
for the life hereafter. The Egyptian title of the book was, according
to Karpeles, _The Manifestation to the Light_, that is, the book
revealing the light. Rawlinson specifies for it another name, _To Go
Forth from Day_. Portions of the book of the dead are said to have been
written by Thoth, and other portions are spoken of as “the composition
of a great god.” These belonged to what might be called the permanent
part of the text or Ritual. Other divisions or pages containing special
references to the deceased would, of course, be distinctive in each
case. The copies prepared for any particular funeral were more or
less comprehensive in their matter and more or less elaborate and
costly in their form according to the wealth and importance of the
departed, and according also to the probable buying capacities of the
mourners. The material written upon was always papyrus, while for
the covers, tinted or stained sheepskin was used. One copy of the
book was always placed in the tomb, as a safe-conduct for the pilgrim
soul on its journey through _Amenti_ (Hades), and for its guidance
in the world to come. This practice has secured the preservation in
the tombs of a great number of copies of the _Book of the Dead_, more
than one half of the existing papyri being transcripts of different
portions of its text. The _Book of the Dead_ enjoys the distinction
of being the first literature of the regular sale of which there is
any evidence. The undertaker, acting probably under the instructions
of the priests, made a business of disposing of copies of the “book”
among the mourners and friends of the deceased, for whom it served
as a memorial of the departed. The Egyptian undertaker, distributing
in this manner from a period three thousand years or more before
the Christian era, authorized or authenticated copies of the sacred
scriptures, accompanied in some cases by memorial pages concerning the
deceased, must take rank as the first bookseller known to history. I
speak of authenticated copies, for it is probable that the authorized
text of the scriptures was kept in the temples or in the colleges
of the priests, and that the copies were prepared by the priests
themselves or by scribes working under their supervision and direction.
In this case the proceeds of the sales were doubtless divided between
the priests and the undertakers, and the priests’ portion may to some
extent have found its way into the treasury of the temple. The scribes
employed were sometimes assistants or students attached to the temple,
but not infrequently slaves, although later the work of scribes came
to be regarded as honorable and as semi-professional in its character,
and some among them held high stations. The control exercised by the
priests over the authorized texts of their sacred scriptures, including
certain writings in addition to those belonging to the ritual of the
dead, must have given to them a practical copyright of the material.
The most complete copy of the _Book of the Dead_, ranking as one of the
oldest works of literature in the world, is now in the British Museum.
A small edition has been printed under the editorship of Mr. Budge, in
precise fac-simile.
Apart from the _Book of the Dead_, the oldest book of which there is
record in the literature of Egypt, and one of the oldest in the known
literature of the world, is a collection of _Precepts_, bearing the
name of Ptah-Hotep. Their author was a viceroy or governor of Egypt,
and was a younger son of Assa, the seventh king of the 5th dynasty,
whose reign began 3366 B.C. The Prisse papyrus, discovered at Thebes
in 1856, and now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is said by
its discoverer, Chabas, to be the oldest papyrus in existence, and to
have been written about 2500 B.C.[2] This papyrus contains a copy of
these _Precepts_ of Ptah-Hotep, which have apparently retained their
interest for Egyptian readers for nearly nine centuries, and which
now, more than five thousand years after their first publication, have
been issued, for the benefit of modern readers, in French and English
versions.
The _Precepts_ are characterized by simplicity, directness,
high-mindedness, great refinement of nature, and a keen sense of
humor, and they give to the reader a very pleasant impression of their
noble author. The great importance laid by Ptah-Hotep upon courtesy
of manner and of action recall to mind Lord Chesterfield, but the
courtly Egyptian had a heart and convictions. English and American
readers are under obligations to the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley not only
for placing before them this antique and distinctively interesting
production, but also for his excellent metrical versions of some of
the representative hymns of Ancient Egypt.[3] The original translation
from the papyrus of the _Precepts_ was made by P. Virey for _Records of
the Past_. It is Virey’s impression that the _Precepts_ were in part
original with the Viceroy, and in part collected by him from older
sources. In reading these pithy words of wise counsel of the shrewd and
kindly old Egyptian, one naturally recalls the proverbs ascribed to
King Solomon, the sayings of Confucius, and certain of the utterances
of Socrates. I do not mean that Ptah-Hotep, on the strength of the
fragmentary utterances that have come down to us, is to be ranked with
these great teachers, but that it is interesting to note how early in
literature favor was found for the form of expressing opinions, or
of giving counsel in the form of maxims or proverbs. The proverbs of
Solomon are said to have been written about 1000 B.C. The conversations
of Confucius were held about 500 years later, and the utterances of
Socrates were closed with his death, 399 B.C.
Rawnsley gives, among other renderings, metrical versions of the
following specimens of early Egyptian poetry: “A Festal Dirge of King
Antef,” 2533-2466 B.C.; “The Song of the Harper,” about 1700; “Hymn to
Pharaoh,” about 1400; “Dirge of Meneptah,” about 1333; “Hymn to Amen
Ra,” about 1300; “Hymn to the Nile,” about 1300; “Lamentations of Isis
and Nepathys,” about 320; “The Poem of Penta-ur on the Exploits of
Rameses II.,” written in 1326 B.C. The last-mentioned is interesting
as being almost the sole example of an Egyptian epic. It is not clear
whether Penta-ur won his position as court poet-laureate by the
production of this poem, or whether, being already laureate, the epic
was written as one of his official compositions. Under the instructions
of the king, however, whose exploits it commemorated, the poem was
made a national epic, and copies of it appear to have been officially
distributed throughout the kingdom. The reign of Rameses, which covered
the years 1350-1300 B.C., marked, according to Rawlinson and Karpeles,
the culmination of a period which was important not only for success
in war, but for literary production. Under Rameses, literary activity,
no longer confined to the temple, was in part at least transferred to
the court. He collected about him scholars and philosophers, and gave
great rewards for successful literary efforts. The approval given by
royalty to Penta-ur’s poem doubtless secured for the author much better
results than would have come to him through the royalty enjoyed under
the modern literary system.
The king took pride in the great library which had been brought
together under his instructions. Over the entrance to the great hall of
the library was engraved the inscription, “A place of healing for the
soul.”
By some historians, Rameses II., this king of a long reign and of great
exploits, the patron of literature, whose massive and well-preserved
figure has only recently been disentombed, has been identified with the
Pharaoh of the Exodus. I believe, however, that the better authorities
have decided that the Exodus took place under the Pharaoh who was the
son of the great Rameses.
Rawlinson speaks of the Egyptians as possessing at a very early date
an “extensive literature, comprising books on religion, morals, law,
rhetoric, arithmetic, mensuration, geometry, medicine, books of travel,
and above all, novels!” He says further, however, that, as far as can
be judged from the specimens which have been preserved, “the merit
of the works is slight. The novels are vapid, the medical treatises
interlarded with charms and exorcisms, the travels devoid of interest,
the general style of all the books forced and stilted.”
Rawlinson adds that, while “intellectually the Egyptians must take
rank among the foremost nations of remote antiquity, they cannot
compare with the great European races whose rise was later, the Greeks
and Romans.... Egypt may in some particulars have stimulated Greek
thought, directing it in new lines, and giving it a basis to work
upon; but otherwise it cannot be said that the world owes much of its
intellectual progress to this people, about whose literary productions
there is always something that is weak and childish.”[4]
On the other hand, the long list of distinguished Greeks who sought
learning in Egypt shows the respect in which Egyptian culture was
held. In the list of the subjects considered in Egyptian literature,
Rawlinson appears also to have overlooked astronomy, in which the
investigations of Egyptian scholars were certainly of the first
importance. Notwithstanding the production of a very considerable body
of literature, there appears to be no evidence of any compensation
being secured by the authors, or of literary productions taking shape
as property. The scribes, who did the copying, must of course have
been paid, for the Egyptians were probably not able, as were later the
Romans, to secure the labor of skilled and educated slaves. These
scribes were for the most part natives and freemen, and they came
to form a very important class, in which class the most important
were those engaged in what might be called the civil service of the
government. Of payment to the authors, however, there is no trace, and
they must have written solely for their own satisfaction or for hopes
of favor. There is also nothing to inform us of the manner in which
the copies of the books which had been “manifolded” were distributed
amongst the readers, and we can only conjecture the existence of
collections or libraries from which the books could be borrowed, or a
practice on the part of the wealthy writers (a practice not unknown in
modern times) of a wide distribution of presentation copies to friends
whose appreciation was hoped for.
The royal library of Rameses contained, says Karpeles, works under
such headings as annals, sacred poetry, royal poetry (_i. e._, poetry
addressed to the king), travels, works on agriculture, irrigation, and
astronomy, correspondence and fiction.
Rawlinson speaks of some characteristic tales which were preserved
from generation to generation, such as the _Tale of the Two Brothers_
(charmingly narrated by the late Amelia B. Edwards), _The Doomed
Prince_, _The Possessed Princesses_, etc. He also refers to
collections of correspondence apparently preserved to serve as models
or patterns, after the fashion of the “complete letter-writers” of
to-day.
Karpeles points out that the early Egyptian literature was particularly
rich in folk-tales, or _Märchen_. It is possible that in Egypt, as in
Greece and Persia, the folk-tales as well as the folk-songs, and such
an occasional epic as the Poem of Penta-on, were recited to the people
by peripatetic reciters or rhapsodists. There are references to such
recitations taking place at court and at the banquets of the rich.
It would have been interesting if it had occurred to some Hebrew
scribe, endowed with a sense of humor, to send for the royal library in
Thebes, as a remembrance of the guests who had gone out of Egypt, an
Egyptian rendering of the Book of Exodus, or even of the Song of Miriam.
=China.=--The dates of the beginnings of literature in China are
uncertain. If we could accept as authentic the claims of the Chinese
historians, the origins of their civilization must be traced back to
a period antedating by thousands of years the accepted records of
Chaldea and Egypt. It is, however, I understand, the present conclusion
of the archæologists that the beginnings of the development of the
civilization of the Chinese, as also of that of the East Indian
peoples, are to be placed at a time considerably later than the date
of the earliest records of the peoples of Mesopotamia. According to
certain authorities, written characters existed in China as early
as 5000 B.C. According to others, they first took shape more than a
thousand years later. The Emperor Fu-hi, reigning about 3500 years
before Christ, is credited with the invention of the Chinese alphabet.
As the Emperor was walking near his palace, possibly musing on the
inconveniences of ruling a country without an alphabet, his attention
was attracted by the beautiful markings of a very large toad that he
encountered. He took the beast home with him, and (under the guidance
of the proper deity) evolved from the designs on the toad’s back the
figures of the original Chinese characters. He very probably said
to himself (paraphrasing the old nursery saying), “It looks like an
alphabet, and it hops like an alphabet, why not call it an alphabet?”
One can imagine a scholar in later years, puzzling over the lengthy
series of Chinese characters, wishing that his Imperial Highness had
happened to meet a smaller or a less variegated toad.
About the year 3000 B.C., the Emperor Hoang-ti is said to have
invented the decimal system and the measurement of time, and also to
have completed the organization of the Empire. If this date is to be
relied upon, the organization of the Chinese State was taking shape
about eight centuries after the time of the great Sargon of Agadê, who
brought to its highest power the earlier Chaldean empire. The national
ballads or folk-songs, later collected under the title of the _Book of
Odes_, are believed by Legge to antedate the Empire--that is, to have
come into circulation while the territory was still separated into
a number of independent states or principalities. These folk-songs
were collected by the minstrels and historiographers working under
the direction of the feudatory princes, and the complete collection,
when reshaped by Confucius, is said to have comprised as many as
three thousand songs. The writer of the article on China in the
_Encyclopædia Britannica_ (9th edition) speaks of the collection as
probably antedating any other known work of literature. The folk-songs
themselves certainly existed from a very early date, but, according to
Karpeles, the collection did not take the form of a book until after
1000 B.C. Karpeles believes that the earliest known work in Chinese
literature is the _Y-king_, the _Book of the Metamorphoses_, or of
_Developments_, which dates from 1150 B.C., about two centuries earlier
than the generally accepted date of the Homeric poems. The author,
Wang-wang, having been put into prison for some political offence,
employed his enforced leisure in working out a philosophical system
based upon the maxims of the Emperor Fu-hi.[5]
The _Book of the Developments_ continued in high honor for many
centuries, and early in the fifth century B.C. was reissued by
Confucius, with an elaborate analysis and commentary, serving to
make its teachings available for later generations. He also issued a
“final edition” of the _Book of Songs_, which comprised, out of the
three thousand of the old collection, the three hundred which were
best worth preservation. Confucius takes rank in China as practically
the founder of its literature, of its system of morals, and of its
religious ideal or standard. The name Confucius is the Latinized form
of Kung Fu-tsze--Kung, the teacher or master. He was free, says one
of his disciples, from four things: foregone conclusions, arbitrary
determinations, obstinacy, and egoism. A good American of the present
time may express the regret that Confucius, or some disciples like him,
had not been spared to occupy seats in the Senate Chamber at Washington.
What is known as the religion of Confucius, comprises in substance the
old-time national or popular faith freshly interpreted into the thought
and language of the later generation, and shaped into a practical
system of morals as a guide for the action of the state and for the
daily life of the individual citizen.
It is interesting to compare the different forms taken by the earliest
literary traditions of the different peoples of antiquity. The Greek
brings to us as the corner-stone of his literature and of his beliefs,
the typical epics, the _Iliads_ and the _Odyssey_; poems of action and
prowess, commemorating the great deeds of the ancestors, and describing
the days when men were heroes, and heroes were fit companions and
worthy antagonists for the gods themselves.
The imagination of the East Indian has evolved a series of gorgeous
and grotesque dreams, in which all conditions of time and space appear
to be obliterated, and in which the universe is pictured as it might
appear in the visions of the smoker of haschisch. It is difficult to
gather from these wild fancies of the earlier Indian poets (and the
earlier writers were essentially poets) any trustworthy data concerning
the history of the past, or any practical instruction by which to guide
the life of the present. The present is but a tiny point, between the
immeasurable æons of the past and the _nirvana_ of the future, and
seems to have been thought hardly worthy the attention of thinking
beings.
The Egyptian literary idea has apparently been thought out in the
temple, and it is from the priests that the people receive the record
of the doings of its gods and of the immeasurable dynasties of monarchs
selected by the gods to express their will, while it is also to the
priests that the people must look for instruction concerning the duty
of the present.
The Assyrian records read, on the other hand, as if they were the work
of royal scribes, writing under the direct supervision of the kings
themselves. The gods are described, and their varied relations to the
world below are duly set forth. But the emphasis of the narrative
appears to be given to the glory and the achievements of such great
monarchs as Sargon and Asshurbanipal, as if a long line of scribes,
writing directly for the king’s approval, had continued the chronicles
from reign to reign.
The early literary and religious ideals of China took a very different
form. We find here no priestly autocracy, controlling all intellectual
activities and giving a revelation as to the nature of the universe,
the requirements of the gods, and the obligations of men, obligations
which have never failed to include the strictest obedience to the
behests of the priests, the representatives of the gods. There are
no court chronicles, dictated under royal supervision, and devoted
not to the needs of the people, but to the glorious achievements of
the monarchs. Nor is there any great epic, commemorating the deeds of
heroes and demi-gods. In place of these we find what may be called a
practical system of applied ethics. Confucius was evidently neither
a visionary dreamer nor a poet, nor did he undertake to establish
any priestly or theological authority for his teaching. He gives the
impression of having been an exceptionally clear-headed and capable
thinker, who devoted himself, somewhat as Socrates did a century later,
to studying out the problems affecting the life of the state and of the
individual. With Socrates, however, the chief thing appears to have
been the intellectual interest of the problem, while with Confucius,
the controlling purpose was evidently the welfare of his fellow-men.
It was his aim, as he himself expressed it, through a rewriting of
the wise teachings left us by our ancestors, so as to adapt them to
the understanding of the present generation, to guide men to wise and
wholesome lives, and to prepare them for a better future.[6]
The work of Confucius stands as the foundation-stone of the literature,
the morals, and the state-craft of China. It was continued by such
writers as Mencius, 350 B.C., and Tsengtze, 320 B.C.
The works of the earlier authors secured, we are told, an immediate
circulation, but we have no knowledge as to the methods employed for
their distribution. It seems probable that in the earlier as in the
later centuries, the authors whose works found approval with the
authorities received directly from the state compensation for their
literary and philosophic labors.
The material used for the earliest known writings was made from bamboo
fibre, and was prepared in the shape of tablets. Early in the third
century B.C. (curiously enough, during the reign of Hwang-ti, the
destroyer of literature), brushes were invented, with which characters
could be traced upon silk. The bamboo was either scratched upon with
a sharp stylus, or the characters were painted upon it with a dark
varnish. Sometimes also the characters were burned into the bamboo,
with a heated metal stylus. India ink was first used in the seventh
century. The invention of paper took place about 100 B.C., the first
material utilized for the manufacture being bark, fishing-nets, and
rags. Printing from solid blocks was done as early as the first century
A.D. The invention of the art of printing from movable type is credited
to a blacksmith named Pi-Shing. The blacksmith’s first books were
turned out towards the close of the tenth century A.D., or early in
the eleventh century, more than three centuries before the presses of
Gutenberg began their work in Mayence.
The movable type used by Pi-Shing were made of plastic clay. At the
same time, or shortly thereafter, porcelain type were utilized. The
printing from movable type never seems to have developed to such extent
as to supersede block printing. The Emperor Kang-He had engraved
about two hundred and fifty thousand copper type, which were used for
printing the publications of the government. These type were afterwards
melted for use as _cash_, but were replaced by his grandson with type
made from lead.[7]
There is record of books being printed in Corea (at that time a
province of the Empire) from movable clay type, as early as 1317 A.D.[8]
Literature has always been an honored profession in China, and seems
even in the earliest times to have attracted a larger proportion of
workers than, during the same period, were engaged in literary pursuits
in any other countries in the world. The mass of literature was very
much added to after the introduction of Buddhism into the country,
which took place during the first century of the Christian era.
Karpeles states that a selection of the early Chinese classics, with
commentaries, undertaken under the direction of one of the emperors
in the eighteenth century, would, it was calculated, comprise when
completed, 163,000 volumes. By the year 1818, there had been published
of the series, 78,731 volumes.[9] From this enormous mass of material a
few books only stand out as possessing distinctive importance by reason
of their influence on the thought and the life of many generations.
There are the five _King_ and the four _Schu_, or “books.” The term
“king” means literally a web, a thing woven, or fabricated. Its use in
this connection recalls the ῥαπτός of the Greek rhapsodists, a term
which, originally meaning a thing spun or a yarn, came also to stand
for a literary production of a certain class, a “yarn” that could be
recited. The five _King_ were the “webs” or productions of wise and
holy writers, but the names of these writers have not been preserved,
even as a tradition. The first in order is the _Y-king_, already
mentioned, the _Book of the Developments_, which is much the oldest
in the series. The second is the _Schu-king_ or _Book of Chronicles_,
which begins its narrative with the time of Noah, and gives the record
of the dynasties from 2400 to 721 B.C. In addition to the historical
chronicles, the _Schu-king_ contains, in the form of dialogues between
the emperors and the councillors, the instruction in the principles
of state-craft, in philosophy, in the science of war, in music,
in astronomy, and in general culture. The headings of some of the
chapters recall the matters treated in _The Prince_ of Machiavelli.
The following “royal maxims” do not, however, sound Machiavellian:
“Virtue,” says the great councillor Yih, speaking to the emperor, “is
the foundation of your realm”; “The ruler must lead his people in the
paths of virtue”; “Guard yourself from false shame, and if you have
committed an error, hasten to make frank acknowledgment of the same.
Otherwise you will mislead your subjects.”[10]
The third of the canonical books is the _Schi-king_ or _Book of Songs_,
already referred to. This presents the selection made by Confucius
of the hymns, ballads, and folk-songs collected from the earliest
generations. The fourth is the _Tschun-tshien_, or _Spring and Autumn
Year-Book_, which is ascribed to Confucius. It is a brief chronicle
of events covering a space of 240 years. The fifth is the _Li-ki_, or
_Book of Ritual_, or of _Conduct_. This gives detailed instructions
concerning the proper ceremonials for all events of life, from the
cradle to the grave.
With these classics should be grouped certain books prepared by the
followers of Confucius, the most important of which, the _Lün-yü_, or
_Conversations_, is a record of the instruction given by Confucius
to his pupils in the form of talks. In these conversations we find
questions shaped in a method quite Socratic. With this should be
grouped the _Mengtsze_, the record of the work of the philosopher
Mencius. His instruction seems, like that of his great forerunner, to
have been very practical in its character. Associated with the earlier
teachings of Confucius, the instruction of Mencius was accepted as the
basis of the moral and the educational system of the nation.
The enormous respect which the Chinese have given to the works
produced during their classical period is believed by authorities
like Williams and Wade to have exercised an influence on the whole
detrimental to the development and to the originality of their later
literature.
The first active literary period preceded Confucius, 500 B.C. From this
period have been preserved the classics already referred to. The next
important epoch is that of the “interpreters,” the counsellors and the
lawgivers, extending from Confucius to Mencius, 350 B.C. They were
followed by a long line of annalists and commentators, whose work came
to an abrupt close with the reign of the Emperor Che Hwang-ti, 221-226
B.C. Hwang-ti was evidently a man with opinions of his own. He objected
to what seemed to him an exaggerated and mischievous reverence for the
“good old times,” and he proposed to discourage the _laudator temporis
acti_. He issued an edict directing all books to be burned excepting
those treating of medicine, divination, and husbandry. This _index
expurgatorius_ (possibly the earliest in history) included all the
writings of Confucius and Mencius, comprising both their original work
and their compilations and editions of the earlier classics. It was
further ordered that any one who dared to mention the _Book of History_
or the _Book of Odes_ should be put to death. Any one possessing,
thirty days after the issue of the edict, a copy of the books ordered
destroyed, was to be branded and put to labor for four years upon the
great wall. This is probably the most drastic and comprehensive policy
for the suppression of a literature that the world has ever seen.
Fortunately, like similar attempts in later centuries, it was only
partially successful. While the destruction of books was enormous, and
while, of long lists of works, it is probable that all existing copies
actually did disappear, the texts of the most important, including
the specially obnoxious _Book of History_ and _Book of Songs_, were
preserved. According to one tradition, a large number of the songs were
saved only by having been retained in the memory of public reciters and
their hearers. After the death of the Emperor Che, the text of these
was taken down and again committed to writing. This instance is, one
recalls, fully in line with the methods by which in Greece, before the
general use of writing, the earlier classics were preserved in the
memories of the rhapsodists and their hearers.
It is the opinion of Dr. Williams that the command of the Emperor
Che for the destruction of all books was so thoroughly executed that
“of many classical works not a single copy escaped destruction. The
books were, however, recovered in great part by rewriting them from
the memories of old scholars.... If the same literary tragedy should
be enacted to-day, thousands of persons might easily be found in China
who could rewrite from memory the text and the commentary of their nine
classical works.”
Williams is also my authority for the statement that not only were
the books destroyed as far as copies could be found, but that nearly
five hundred _literati_ were burned alive, in order that no one might
remain to reproach in his writings the emperor for the commission of so
barbarous an act.[11]
One of the most celebrated female writers in China was Pan Whui-pan,
also known as Pan Chao, the sister of the historian Pan Ku, who wrote
the history of the Han dynasty. She was appointed historiographer after
the death of her brother, and completed, about A.D. 80, his unfinished
annals. A little later she wrote the first work in any language on
female education, which was called _Nü Kiai_ or _Female Precepts_,
and which has formed the basis of many succeeding books on female
education. In the writings of this and of other Chinese authoresses,
instructions in morals and in the various branches of domestic economy
are insisted upon as the first essentials in the education of women,
and as more important than a knowledge of the classics or of the
annals.[12]
1050 A.D. Wang Pih-ho, of the Sung dynasty, compiled for his private
school a horn-book or manual of education, entitled the _San-tsz’
King_. The manual is interesting not merely as giving a general study
of the nature of man and the existence of modes of education, but
because it includes a list of books recommended for the student, a list
which gives an impression of the extent of the education and literature
of that date.[13]
The golden age of Chinese literary production is fixed by Sir Thomas
Wade at the period of the Tang dynasty, 620-907 A.D. In 922 A.D. an
edition of the classical writers was printed and published under the
instructions of the Emperor. The tendency of writers since the tenth
century has been to devote their energies to commentaries on the
ancient works, and to analyses and interpretations of these rather than
to original production. The writing of historical annals has, however,
gone on with great regularity, and the series of _Chronicles of the
Kingdom_ is very comprehensive in its completeness.
The rewards of authors are given in the shape of official appointments
and preferments, and of honors and honorariums bestowed directly by
the state. It seems probable that in modern as in ancient times the
writers of China could look for no direct returns from the circulation
of their productions. It is nevertheless the case that from the time
of Confucius to the present day, that is for a period of two thousand
four hundred years, the direct influence of scholars, thinkers, and
writers has been greater in China than in any other part of the world.
The state as a whole and the individual citizen, from the Emperor down,
have, as a rule, been ready to recognize and accept the authority and
the guidance of literary ideals and of intellectual standards. The case
would be paralleled if the French Academy had existed from the time of
Charlemagne to the present day, if the counsellors and rulers of the
state had always been appointed from the forty, and if the remaining
officials of all grades had been selected by competitive examinations,
instituted and supervised by the forty. The parallel would not be
complete, however, unless the Academy of to-day were still basing its
examinations on a codex of Charlemagne.
The imperial government of China and the Chinese community as a whole
have for many centuries, apparently ever since the time of the
book-burning Hwang-ti, rendered a larger measure of honor (and also of
direct reward as far as this could be given by official station) to
students and scholars, than has been given by any state in the history
of the world. The literary ideal and the literary productions, the
study of which has thus been honored, have, however, been in the main
those of a thousand years or more back. The fact, says Legge, that the
earlier literary period was so fruitful, and that the works produced in
it have been held by later generations in so great honor, is one cause
why original or creative literary productiveness has been discouraged,
and why the later literary activities continue in so large proportion
to take the shape of commentaries. It has also, he thinks, been an
important influence in keeping the language in an inflexible and
undeveloped condition. It was the language of the fathers, and it would
be sacrilege to modify it.
=Japan.=--The civilization of Japan is an off-shoot or development of
that of China, and the Japanese literature is based upon Chinese models
and standards. The literary relation strikes one as in some respects
similar to that which existed between Great Britain and the American
Colonies, or later with the American States. The literature of Japan is
described, however, as characterized by much more elasticity, variety,
and creative originality than is possessed by that of China, and in
place of stereotyping itself upon the models of old-time classics, it
has shown from century to century a wholesome power of development.
At one time, says Karpeles, Japan possessed an alphabet of its own, but
later, the Chinese characters were introduced, and were used together
with the older alphabet. It is only the very earliest writings in which
the Japanese characters alone are employed. The Japanese scribes have
from the beginning worked with brushes rather than with pens, and in so
doing, have been able to utilize such substances as silk, which would
have been unsuitable for the work of the pen. The invention of paper,
however, took place at an early date, possibly simultaneously with its
first use in China. Printing from blocks, and later from type, was
promptly introduced from China early in our era.
According to the native chroniclers, the earliest literary production
of Japan was the work of the two gods Izanaghi and Izanami. These
gods, having created the country, thought it was incomplete without
some poetry, and the poetry was therefore added. Tsurayuki, a poet of
the tenth century, takes the ground that all true expression of feeling
is poetry. The nightingale sings in the wood, the frog croaks in the
pool; each is giving utterance to a feeling, and each, therefore, is
pouring forth a poem. There is no living being, he continues, who
is not a producer of poetry. (This is as startling to us ordinary
mortals as the discovery of Molière’s Monsieur Jourdain that he had
been talking prose all his life without knowing it.) As poetry, says
Tsurayuki, begins with the expression of feeling, it must have come
into existence with the beginning of creation.[14] In the earliest
times, he says, when the gods were poets, the arrangement of sounds
into syllables had not been made, and rhythm had not been invented.
These early divine poems or utterances of the gods are, therefore,
very difficult to understand. Later, however, Susanoo-no-mikoto fixed
sounds into syllables, and then, according to the tenth-century poet,
Japanese literature had its actual beginning, but he does not give us
the date of this useful piece of work. We are inclined to wonder what
the wise Susanoo, etc., did about the announcing of his own name, say
on really formal occasions, before the little matter of the invention
of syllables had been accomplished.
While it is claimed that from prehistoric times there had been in Japan
an active production and a wide distribution of poetry (folk-songs),
the first collection of the “people’s ballads” appears to have been
made as late as 700 A.D. At this time the Emperor, whose residence was
at Nara, took an interest in literature, and during the quarter century
from 700 to 725 A.D. lived “the noble poet” Yamabe-no-Akahito, and
the “wise man of the poets,” Kakino-mo-to-Hito-Maro. (The god above
referred to, who bestowed upon Japan the invention of syllables, seems
to have done his work thoroughly.) The compilation which took shape
during this period is known as the _Man-yo-sin_, or the “collection of
ten thousand leaves.” The two later collections are known as _The Old
and the New Songs of Japan_, and _The Hundred Poets_.
A special feature in the literature of Japan is the great number of
poetesses. The fashion of women interesting themselves in the writing
of poetry was initiated by the poetic Empress Soto-oro-ime, in the
third century A.D.
The great epic of Japanese literature is the _Fei-ke-mono-gatari_,
that is _The Annals of the Fei-ke Dynasty_, which is said to have been
composed in 1083 A.D., and which was sung among the people by blind
rhapsodists. An epic of later date, in twelve books, is credited to
the poet Ikanage. The literary record shows a long series of tales
and romances, which are described as possessing a graceful fancy and
imagination much in advance of Chinese compositions of the same class.
The theatre has from early times played a very important part in the
social life of Japan, and dramatic composers are held in high honor.
The first dramas written for performance date from about 807 A.D.
The people of Japan have from the early times of Japanese literature
given cordial appreciation to literary producers, and especially poets
and dramatists. The official recognition of literature and of men of
letters appears, however, to have been much less distinctive and less
important than in China. We do not find record of official positions
and preferments being bestowed on the ground of proficiency in
philosophy or literature, or by reason of a knowledge of the learning
of the past; nor have the smaller government places been distributed by
competitive examinations arranged for students of literature.
The distribution of literature among the people appears to have been
from an early date very general, and the knowledge of the great
classics has certainly been widespread. Of the methods by which such
distribution was accomplished in the early centuries of literary
production we know nothing. It seems probable from certain references
by later authors, that in Japan, as in Greece, the rhapsodists and
reciters were the principal distributors.
Of rewards or compensations given to the earlier Japanese authors
there is no record. The national treasury does not appear to have
been utilized as in China and Assyria. It is possible that the
dramatists may have secured some share of the stage receipts, but it
is probable that the other authors must have contented themselves with
such prestige or honors as came to them from the readers of, or the
listeners to, their compositions.
=India.=--In India, the typical early literature is the myth. There is
no national epic in the Greek use of the term, in which are described
the doings of heroic men. The literary productions are the work of
poets whose imagination has been impressed with the immensity and with
the mystery of the universe, and whose poetic fancies take the form of
visions. These fancies or visions are concerned with the doings of the
gods, while man plays but a small part in the narrative.
Sanscrit literature is said to date back to the fifteenth century B.C.
The written characters have an origin common with that of the Greek
letters. The oldest existing monuments of Indian script are the edicts
of the King Açoka, cut into the stone at Girnar and elsewhere “so that
they might endure for ever”. They date back to the third century B.C.
The first literary period of India presents the poetry of the
_Vedas_, the sacred scriptures of the Sanscrit peoples. The hymns and
invocations comprising the _Vedas_ are supposed to have been collected
about 1000 B.C. This is the date that has by many authorities been
accepted for the collecting of the Homeric poems, and corresponds
nearly with the time fixed for the writing of the Chinese _Book of the
Metamorphoses_. It also tallies with the period to which is ascribed
the production of the Persian _Zend-Avesta_.
The term _Veda_ means knowledge, or sacred knowledge. The collection
of the _Vedas_ comprises four divisions. The _Rig-Veda_, or _Veda of
Praises or Hymns_; the _Sama-Veda_, or _Veda of Chants or Tunes_;
the _Yajur-Veda_, or _Veda of Prayers_; and the _Atharva-Veda_, or
_Brahma-Veda_.
The second literary period, beginning about the fifth century B.C., is
that of the _Folk-Songs_, in which the myth becomes legend, and the
gods, approaching a little closer to the earth, assume more nearly the
character of heroes. The third period is that of the classic poets,
whose productions in lyric and dramatic poetry are ranked with the
great works of literature of the world. This period appears to have
reached its height of productiveness between the sixth and tenth
centuries of our era.
The earliest prose works are the theological writings of the Brahmanic
priests, which take the form of commentaries on the _Vedas_, and which
elucidate the sacred texts, principally from a sacrificial point of
view. The production of these theological commentaries is supposed to
date back to the seventh or sixth century B.C.
Buddha, or Gautama, philosopher, poet, reformer, and redeemer of his
people, began his work towards the close of the sixth century B.C. His
teachings gave rise to an enormous production of theological literature
in India, Ceylon, China, and Japan.
The information concerning the materials used by the earlier writers
of India, and as to the methods by which their books were placed
before the public, is very meagre. According to Louisy, the use of
_diphtherai_, or dressed skins, prevailed to some extent. Prepared
palm-leaves were also utilized, particularly by the Buddhist writers of
Ceylon. There appears to have been no general or popular circulation of
the manuscripts. These were costly, and were beyond the means of any
but the very wealthy, while it was also the case that the knowledge of
reading was confined to but limited circles.
It seems probable that the manuscripts were in the main prepared in
the monasteries or temples, and that they were exchanged between the
temples. The teachings of the writers were brought before the people by
preaching or recitations. Certain of the princes also attached to their
courts poets and philosophers, and practically the only libraries or
collections of manuscripts outside of those in the temples, must have
been those contained in the palaces of the few princes who possessed
literary tastes.
There could have been no other way of securing for an author
compensation for his work excepting through princely favors or from the
treasuries of the temples.
=Persia.=--The first name that comes down to us connected with the
literature of Persia is that of Zoroaster. The Persian form of his name
is Zarathustra, meaning the gold-star. The date of his birth is said to
be more uncertain than that of Homer, but he is supposed to have lived
about 1000 B.C.
He is credited with the authorship of the _Gâthas_, hymns partly
religious, partly political. To Zoroaster were also revealed the
teachings which later took shape in the sacred scriptures of the
Persians, the _Zend-Avesta_ (commentary-lore). Of these scriptures,
only one division, the _Vendidad_, has been preserved complete. Of the
other parts only fragments remain. It is estimated that the _Vendidad_
(which means the regulations against demons) represents about one
twentieth of the original collection.
The oldest portion of the _Avesta_ is the _Yasna_, or sacrificial
liturgy. This is a grouping together of the commentaries surrounding
the _Gâthas_. A third division is the _Visparad_, or the _Seasons_, in
which are set forth the lists of the objects sacred to each season. A
fourth division is the _Yescht-Sade_, or little _Avesta_, comprising
prayers and hymns.
The monotheistic or dualistic nature of the faith as originally taught
by Zoroaster has, in the later religious writings and practices, been
overlaid and obscured by the different phases of nature worship. Fire
is accepted as the symbol of holiness, but, according to the views of
the educated Parsees, is not itself the thing worshipped.
The existing canon of the _Avesta_ was compiled and published under the
direction of King Sapor II., who reigned 309-330 A.D. Among the poems
of the _Avesta_ we find the legend of which the hero is Rustem, who
stands as the representative of Iran in its long contest with Turan.
The literature of Persia prior to the fourth century of the Christian
era was probably controlled in great part by the priests. The
exceptions would have been in the case of the court poets or court
historians, writing under the incentive of royal remuneration. It is
probable that songs and recitations were to some extent given to the
public by minstrels or rhapsodists. There is some evidence also of the
development in later centuries of the story-teller or improvisatore,
who made a business of exchanging, for the pence of the public,
stories partly original, but chiefly borrowed from older sources.
The Oriental capacity for story-telling, and the Oriental readiness
to devote an abundance of leisure time to listening to stories, is
clearly indicated not only by modern practices, but also by the
history of such collections as the _Arabian Nights_. Of this famous
series of tales, neither the nationality nor the date of origin has
been fixed with any degree of certainty. It is probable, however, that
the collection first took shape in Bagdad about 1450 A.D., the date of
the invention of printing. Von Hammer is of opinion that the Bagdad
Tales are based upon a Persian collection called _Hezar Afsaneh, The
Thousand Fanciful Stories_. From a passage in the _Golden Meadows_ of
El-Mesoudee (quoted by von Hammer) this Persian collection is known to
have been in existence as early as 987 A.D.
It seems probable, as suggested, that the practice of publicly reciting
poems or of narrating stories prevailed in Persia from a very early
date, and constituted here, as in Greece, the first method for the
distribution or the publication of literary compositions. The material
employed for manuscripts was first _diphtherai_, or skins, and later
papyrus and parchment.
=Judæa.=--There is a similar lack of evidence concerning the existence
among the Hebrews of anything that could be called literary property.
The great body of the earlier Hebrew literature belonged, of course,
to the class of sacred writings, best known to us through the books of
the _Old Testament_ and of the _Apocrypha_. In addition to these, and
partly, of course, included with these, were the various collections
of the law and of the comments on the law, while later years produced
the long series of commentaries known to the reader of to-day under
the general name of the _Talmud_. The various transcripts required
of these writings of the law and the prophets gave employment to
numbers of scribes, who, in the first place, apparently were usually
connected with the Temple, and must have derived their support from the
ecclesiastical revenues, but who later formed a separate commercial
class, receiving payment for their work as done.
Professor Peters speaks of the age of Hezekiah as the golden age of
Hebrew literature. He quotes the text, Prov. xxv., I, which says that
“the men of Hezekiah translated” or transcribed, or wrote down the
Proverbs of Solomon, as evidently an effort to collect and preserve the
literary treasures of the past. He says, further:
“It is not unnatural to suppose that the writing down of Solomon’s
Proverbs was for the purpose of a library in Jerusalem, such as the
Assyrian kings had long since collected at Nineveh. The _Book of
Amos_ was edited (somewhere about 711 B.C.) apparently for this
library ... and I suppose Hosea and Micah also to have been edited
about this time and for the same purpose. It was the formation
of this library at just this time and the desire to collect and
preserve all the literary remains of the past, which led to the
collection and preservation of so much of the literature of the
Northern Kingdom, but lately brought into Judah by the Israelite
_emigrés_. No tales of the valor of the heroes of Judah, no Judæan
folk-lore ante-dating the time of David, have been handed down to
us; this literature belonged to the Northern Kingdom. Literary
and antiquarian zeal led to the collection and reception of these
northern tales and poems into Hezekiah’s library ... where their
use in historical works, owing to the awakened zeal for a knowledge
of the past, was assured. So with the transfer of intellectual
activity from Samaria, a new era begins in Judah, and soon the
charming tales and poems of the north, preserved in the library of
Hezekiah, begin to be woven into the more solid and ambitious works
of the historians and lawyers of Jerusalem.
This literary awakening could not fail to act upon the priests.
They were the custodians of those ancient religious and legal
traditions, which, coming down from the age of Moses, had grown
with, and been modified by, changing times and conditions. While
some portions of the ‘law’ were written, presumably the larger part
of it was handed down mainly by word of mouth.
Moreover, that which was written probably existed in various
independent codes relating to different subjects. Some of
these--such as a tariff of offerings, or tables of civil
and criminal law, like those contained in the _Book of the
Covenant_--may have been published, or set up at the Temple gates,
where they could be read by the worshippers. The greater part
of the ‘law,’ however, seems to have been the exclusive, if not
esoteric, possession of the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple. The
literary activity of the Renaissance made itself felt within the
circle of the priests, leading them to begin to commit to writing
their unwritten law as well as the ancient traditions, customs,
and ceremonies. Thus was commenced the work which has given us the
middle books of the _Pentateuch_, as well as much of Genesis and
Joshua.”[15]
It appears, therefore, as if the Hebrew literature of the time (the
reign of Hezekiah, covering the period referred to, lasting from 728
to 699 B.C.) consisted substantially of the “law,” that is of the
authoritative teachings of the “church,” and was almost exclusively
in the hands of the priests. They exercised a control, which amounted
practically to an ownership, over the sacred, that is the official,
records of the “law,” and it appears as if the attested copies or
transcripts could be made only with their permission and under their
supervision. It is probable, therefore, that the copyists were attached
to the Temple, and that such moneys as were received from the sale of
their transcripts belonged to the treasury of the Temple,--but the
manner of such sales can only be guessed at, as the records give us no
information. If, however, this understanding of the practice should
prove to be correct, we should have an example, if not of literary
property, at least of a species of “copyright” control.
The severe Jewish law, directing the penalty of death to be inflicted
upon prophets speaking “false words,” or uttering as inspirations of
their own, words which had originated with others, has been quoted as
an early example of regulation of plagiarism, but it appears evident,
says Rénouard,[16] that the crime here to be punished was not
plagiarism but sacrilege, “_Vates mendax qui vaticinatur et quæ non
audivit, et quæ ipsi non sunt dicta, ab hominibus est occidendus_.”[17]
The utterance of the prophet Jeremiah (c. xxiii. v. 30) evidently
refers to the same regulation.
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