lligraphy, in the eyes of the Chinese, is just as much
a fine art as painting; the two are, in fact, considered to have come
into existence together, but as might be expected the latter occupies
the larger space in Chinese literature, and forms the subject of
numerous extensive works. One of the most important of these is the
_Hsuean Ho Hua P'u_, the author of which is unknown. It contains
information concerning two hundred and thirty-one painters and the
titles of six thousand one hundred and ninety-two of their pictures,
all in the imperial collection during the dynastic period _Hsuean Ho_,
A.D. 1119-1126, from which the title is derived. The artists are
classified under one of the following ten headings, supposed to
represent the line in which each particularly excelled: Religion,
Human Figures, Buildings, Barbarians (including their Animals),
Dragons and Fishes, Landscape, Animals, Flowers and Birds, The Bamboo,
Vegetables and Fruits.

_Music._--The literature of music does not go back to a remote period.
The Canon of Music, which was formerly included in the Confucian
Canon, has been lost for many centuries; and the works now available,
exclusive of entries in the dynastic histories, are not older than the
9th century A.D., to which date may be assigned the _Chieh Ku Lu_, a
treatise on the deerskin drum, said to have been introduced into China
from central Asia, and evidently of Scythian origin. There are several
important works of the 16th and 17th centuries, in which the history
and theory of music are fully discussed, and illustrations of
instruments are given, with measurements in each case, and the special
notation required.

_Miscellaneous._--Under this head may be grouped a vast number of
works, many of them exhaustive, on such topics as archaeology, seals
(engraved), numismatics, pottery, ink (the miscalled "Indian"),
mirrors, precious stones, tea, wine, chess, wit and humour, even
cookery, &c. There is, indeed, hardly any subject, within reasonable
limits, which does not find some corner in Chinese literature.

Lung Wei Pi Shu.

_Collections_.--Reprints of miscellaneous books and pamphlets in a
uniform edition, the whole forming a "library," has long been a
favourite means of disseminating useful (and other) information. Of
these, the _Lung Wei Pi Shu_ may be taken as a specimen. In bulk it
would be about the equivalent of tw