so do the official interpreters and others whose
duty it is to translate from Chinese into Manchu all documents submitted
to what is called the "sacred glance" of His Majesty. In a similar
sense, until quite a recent date, skill in archery was required of every
Bannerman; and it was undoubtedly a great wrench when the once fatally
effective weapon was consigned to an unmerited oblivion. But though
Bannermen can no longer shoot with the bow and arrow, they still
continue to draw monthly allowances from state funds, as an hereditary
right obtained by conquest.

Of the nine emperors of the Manchu, or Great Ch'ing dynasty, who have
already occupied the dragon throne and have become "guests on high," two
are deserving of special mention as fit to be ranked among the wisest
and best rulers the world has ever known. The Emperor K'ang Hsi (_Khahng
Shee_) began his reign in 1662 and continued it for sixty-one years,
a division of time which has been in vogue for many centuries past. He
treated the Jesuit Fathers with kindness and distinction, and
availed himself in many ways of their scientific knowledge. He was an
extraordinarily generous and successful patron of literature. His name
is inseparably connected with the standard dictionary of the Chinese
language, which was produced under his immediate supervision. It
contains over forty thousand words, not a great number as compared with
European languages which have coined innumerable scientific terms,
but even so, far more than are necessary either for daily life or
for literary purposes. These words are accompanied in each case by
appropriate quotations from the works of every age and of every
style, arranged chronologically, thus anticipating to some extent the
"historical principles" in the still more wonderful English dictionary
by Sir James Murray and others, now going through the press. But the
greatest of all the literary achievements planned by this emperor was a
general encyclopaedia, not indeed on quite such a colossal scale as that
one produced under the Ming dynasty and already described, though still
of respectable dimensions, running as it does in a small-sized
edition to 1,628 octavo volumes of about 200 pages to each. The term
encyclopaedia must not be understood in precisely the same sense as in
Western countries. A Chinese encyclopaedia deals with a given subject
not by providing an up-to-date article written by some living
authority, but by exhibiting extrac