The prince of Shántien married the daughter of Yükiáu. Her name was A ́ntang, and she bore two sons: the eldest was Shinien, who was nourished and brought up close by the waters of Kiáng, which flowed along the south side of a city of the same name, in the department of Fungyáng in Shensí. Hence he received the surname Kiáng. Exercising the functions of government by the virtue or power of fire, he was hence called, Yen ti, or the Blazing emperor. He was also known by the names of two hills, or mountains, near which he was born; and likewise sometimes called by the names of the districts, over which he was first made ruler. He first built his capital in the department of Káifung in Honán, but subsequently he removed to the department Kiufu in Shantung.

The people of his age were rude, and wholly unacquainted with the arts and advantages of agriculture. They subsisted on fruits, vegetables, and the flesh of birds and beasts. The Blazing emperor, not satisfied with this state of his empire, engaged in domestic improvements; examined the qualities of the soil, and the character of the climate; made ploughs, &c.; and taught his people how to till the soil and raise grain. The interests of husbandry thus commenced their advance, and most salutary results followed. Hence it was that his grateful subjects called him Shinnung, which means the Godly-agriculturist, or the Divine-husbandman.

inents.

But the sovereign did not stop with these more necessary improveThe people suffered from sickness, and he was thereby led to search for remedies. The vegetable kingdom was laid under contribution-as intimated by the portrait. The medical qualities of plants were tested; and his investigations went on rapidly, sometimes analyzing as many as seventy new plants in a single day. Books on the healing art were soon made, and the practice of medicine became a regular and honorable profession.

The streams and springs of water were likewise carefully examined, and their mineral qualities noted, so that the people might know which to use and which to avoid. The inhabitants of the empire now began to live in security and quietude, enjoyed the fruit of their industry, and were relieved from all fear of dying. How splendid! How glorious!

In such happy and prosperous times, commerce could not long be wanting. The people were all honest, faithful, and industrious. There were no domestic or foreign wars; and money was abundant. By imperial commands, markets were erected, and sales appointed. Soon people came from all quarters and all countries; and thus commerce, both domestic and foreign, began to flourish.

Music and the other refined arts, under these circumstances, could not be long neglected. Instruments were made, and the song of the plentiful year was sung. The officers of government were arranged into classes, their ranks defined, and boards instituted with proper titles, and the most perfect method was everywhere preserved.

But the Divine-husbandman was not to live always, his healing art notwithstanding. The years of his reign were one hundred and forty. He died 2737 B. c. This melancholy event happened in the southern part of his empire-the Chinese say, in the province of Húkwáng. Such are some of the sentiments and opinions entertained, by the black-haired race, regarding the successor of Fuhí.

ART. V. Illustrations of men and things in China: the term Fankwei; mode of sharpening edge tools; bean curd; sonnets of Yuen Yuen; military medals.

The term Fankwei.-This opprobrious epithet has become in this country a synonym for foreigner, aud we may alınost expect erelong to see it entered in our dictionaries, and defined a "term for a fcreigner in China.” We were asking a respectable native gentleman the other day what he supposed was the reason for the application of this term Fán kwei or Fán devils' to foreigners. He replied, "that he did not think kwei meant devil or demon in this connection, but something outlandish, uncouth, bizarre, something in short that was not celestial, i. e. Chinese. Fán was a terrn given to the petty, groveling island savages living in the southern ocean, as mán, í, ti, &c., were the names of people dwelling on the northern and other frontiers of the empire. When foreigners first came to the shores of China, their close fitting dress, their squeaking shoes and cocked hats, their blue eyes and red hair, their swords, their unintelligible talk, their overbearing carriage, and the roaring guns of their ships, all astonished the people, who exclaimed kwei! kwei! Thus the term came into use, and gradually acquired circulation until it has become the general appellative of all far-traveled strangers." This explanation is probably somewhat near the truth, but must be considered rather ex parte evidence, and is, we think, really illustrative of Chinese contempt for other nations. The term is, however, the only one in common use among the people in this region to denote foreigners, and although it may be in many cases used without any intended disrespect, yet if the people entertained any particular respect for us, they would soon find a better term. It is not so much used in direct address to a foreigner, (which is a tacit confession of its rudeness,) as it is a descriptive term for them and everything belonging to them, when they are the subject of remark. Hundreds of natives know no other appellation. We heard a friend say, that he was once walking the streets of Canton, and one youngster among the crowd around him hooted after him so obstreperously, that turning suddenly he caught the urchin, and was about to teach him better manners, when the lad, turning up the white of his eyes, exclaimed, 'If I do'nt call you fankwei, what shall I call you?' And thus escaped. The ideas entertained among the lower class of natives regarding foreigners are

as strange as can be well conceived, almost akin to the demoniacal natures ascribed to ghouls and genii in Arabian story; and many of these opinions, we think, derive a sanction in their minds from the use of kwei. We once saw a mother instantly quell the crying of her child by telling it that she would throw it to the fankwei, if it did not hush. On another occasion, we were walking alone, and overtook a child, who immediately began to whimper and cry fankwei. "Do'nt cry, do'nt cry," said the father, "he understands Chinese," which quite pacified it. The use of this epithet however cannot be eradicated, until the people shall have had more familiar intercourse with those from other lands, and learned to regard them as fellowmen and friends, by receiving ocular demonstration of their claim to such titles.

Mode of sharpening edge tools.-The greatest part of the blade in most of the edge tools of the Chinese is made of soft iron, the edge only being steel, and usually of a pretty good temper. The search for stones proper for whetstones has not been carried to much extent, or else there are none in the country except those of the coarsest grain, which are wholly unfit for sharpening fine tools. In order to supply this want, the cutlers have contrived a scraper, shaped somewhat like a drawing-knife in having handles at each end of a bar, with a chissel-like process on the bar. In using this shovel, or chán as it is called, the razor or other tool is placed firmly upon a bench, and the workmen pushes the scraper along its edge, paring off a fine shaving. When he has taken off as much as is necessary, a strop is used to give a smooth edge. This clumsy mode of putting an edge on certain tools has been to some extent superseded in this region by common whetstones, but whether they are imported or not we have not learned.

Bean curd.-This is the name sometimes given to an emulsive preparation of pulse, which is constantly hawked about the streets, and used as a condiment. It is made from a species of Dolichos bean, cultivated for the purpose, which after being boiled and skinned, is ground in a common hand-mill, with the addition of a good deal of water. The semifluid mass, after straining and adding a little clean water, resembles bonny-clabber or curdled milk, and in that state is called tau fú kwá, or bean curd jam. Frequently, the water is wholly strained off, and the curd sold in slices. It is also made into small cakes, stamped with the maker's name; which are sometimes colored yellow with the juice of small seeds called kwáng tsz. In whatever way it is used, finely powdered gypsum is usually

added, from a notion of its strengthening properties, and intimately mixed up in the mass. The purchaser eats it as he buys it, or else cooks it to suit himself; sometimes he simmers it in fat, and sometimes takes it along with soy; the cakes are hashed up with pork, and then fried, or dressed in some other way; but in some form or other, it is found on almost all tables from the beggar upwards. A similar condiment of beans is used as a relish by the Japanese The taste of this preparation to a palate unused to it is insipid, nor does the gypsum seem to alter the flavor, or prove noxious to the

eater.

Sonnets of Yuen Yuen.-The original of these two pieces are found in the Indochinese Gleaner. The author was governor of Canton in 1818, and wrote the first on his birthday, having retired from his office on that day to avoid his visitors, and take a ramble in the country. From some of the expressions in it he seems then to have been dissatisfied with his honors in this "dusty world," but it was not till about three years ago that he could get permission from his imperial master to retire to his native place in Kiángsú, where he is till living, upwards of 82 years old. We insert them here merely as specimens of the occasional verses of an educated man, one who finally attained to a seat in the cabinet of the empire.

SONNET ON A BIRTHDAY.

The forty years the vernal winds have blown,
Do just accord with all the years I've seen;
But when my mind the rolling time recalls,
My thoughts like tangled silk at once become.

My duty to my tender mother, I've long foregone,

But I now recall her care for me when callow and unweaned;
My princely sire is still strong at threescore and ten,
And for this robust age I can and will rejoice.
He who has reached the time of forty years,
Must look back at his prime, and on to his decay;
Although my hair has not yet turned to ashy gray,
I cannot sleep nor eat as in the days gone by.

· My life has been spent like that of Lí Táipe,

But compared with him, alas! how paltry has it passed;

All kinds of cares distract my jaded mind,

But my toils are not those of flesh and limb.

My learning 's rusty, which makes my rule so bad,

I'm always fearing lest I error do some crying wrong;

Yet I entered office younger than Lí Táipe,

And even Pe Lótien was later still than he.