As a rule, the credit of
the invention of the art of writing is given to Ts'ang Chieh, a being
with fabulous attributes, who conceived the idea of a written language
from the markings of birds' claws upon the sand. The diffusion of the
Greater Seal script is traced to a work in fifteen chapters published
by Shih Chou, historiographer in the reign of King Hsuean. The Lesser
Seal, again, is often ascribed to Li Ss[)u] himself, whereas the
utmost he can have done in the matter was to urge its introduction
into common use. Likewise, Ch'eng Mo, of the 3rd century B.C., is
supposed to have invented the _li shu_ while in prison, and one
account attributes the Lesser Seal to him as well; but the fact is
that the whole history of writing, as it stands in Chinese authors, is
in hopeless confusion.

_Grammar._--When about to embark on the study of a foreign language, the
student's first thought is to provide himself with two indispensable
aids--a dictionary and a grammar. The Chinese have found no difficulty
in producing the former (see _Literature_). Now what as to the grammar?
He might reasonably expect a people so industrious in the cultivation of
their language to have evolved some system of grammar which to a certain
degree would help to smooth his path. And yet the contrary is the case.
No set of rules governing the mutual relations of words has ever been
formulated by the Chinese, apparently because the need of such rules has
never been felt. The most that native writers have done is to draw a
distinction between [Ch][Ch] and [Ch][Ch] "full" and "empty words,"
respectively, the former being subdivided into [Ch][Ch] "living words"
or verbs, and [Ch][Ch] "dead words" or noun-substantives. By "empty
words" particles are meant, though sometimes the expression is loosely
applied to abstract terms, including verbs. The above meagre
classification is their nearest approach to a conception of grammar in
our sense. This in itself does not prove that a Chinese grammar is
impossible, nor that, if constructed, it might not be helpful to the
student. As a matter of fact, several attempts have been made by
foreigners to deduce a grammatical system which should prove as rigid
and binding as those of Western languages, though it cannot be said that
any as yet has stood the test of time or criticism. Other writers have
gone to the other extreme, and maintained that Chinese has no grammar at
all. In this dictum, exag