rincipal
is the mandarin or the dialect of the educated. Every word has its
particular written sign, and the Chinese language accordingly possesses
24,000 different written characters; only one man in twenty and one
woman in a hundred can read and write it.

Chinese literature is exceedingly rich, almost inexhaustible. At a time
when the bronze age still reigned in northern Europe, the Chinese had a
highly cultivated literature. From the fifth century B.C. down
to our own day it has run an uninterrupted course through centuries and
ages. When the northern vikings were executing their plundering raids by
sea and setting up their runic stones, a geographical hand-book was
published in China called a "Description of all the Provinces" and
abundantly illustrated by maps. Thanks to their chronicles we can follow
the history of the Chinese for 4000 years back. And the most remarkable
feature of these annals is that they are distinguished by the strictest
accuracy and reliability. All kinds of subjects are alluded to, even the
most insignificant events. Chinese books are very cheap, and every one
who can read can provide himself with quite a large library. Of the
numbers of books we can have some conception when we hear that the
Emperor Kieng Lung had a library so large that the catalogue of his
books filled 122 volumes.

THE BLUE RIVER

The Blue River, or Yang-tse-kiang, the Mekong, and the Salwin all rise
in eastern Tibet and flow quite close to one another southwards through
deeply excavated parallel valleys. But while the first two continue
their southerly course all the way to the sea, the Blue River turns off
sharply eastwards in western China and divides the Middle Kingdom in
two.

It is only Europeans who sometimes call the largest river of China the
"Blue" River. The Chinese themselves call it the "Great" River, or the
"Long" River, or, far up the country to the west, the "River of Golden
Sand." Only three rivers in the world are longer, namely, the Nile, the
Mississippi, and the Amazon. The Obi and Yenisei are about the same
length, 3200 miles. The Blue River discharges 244 times the volume of
water of the Thames.

In one respect the Blue River is far superior to all the waterways of
the world, for on this river and its tributaries, or, in short, in the
area of its drainage basin, live not less than 180 millions of human
beings, or an eighth of the total population of the world. The parts of
China proper sit