Page:The Chinese Repository - Volume 01.djvu/506
Gazette.—The most probable etymology of this name, as is well known, is gazetta, the name of a small coin, which was formerly current in Venice, and which was the ordinary price of the first newspaper published in that city.
The Chinese have something similar, but imperfect of its kind. It is a slip of paper which is published when any extraordinary circumstance occurs which the printer thinks will excite interest. It is sold for the small copper coin, called a "cash," eight hundred or a thousand of which are given in exchange for a dollar. These trivial millia, are called Sin-wan-che, "newly-heard-paper,"—which is exactly our term news- paper. But they are yet so unlike the newspaper in Europe that they do not deserve the name. The following is the whole of one of these cash papers which was published a few days ago.
"At Tungkea-chow, in Foochow-heen, belonging to Kweilin-foo, there lives a man whose surname is Wang, and his name Tsohang. Through life he has been addicted to poetry and books. This year on the third day of the first moon, he was going along the street, and met a mandarin; but he had not knowledge enough to stand back and make way. The mandarin lictors seized him, and took him to the public officer, alleging that he had stopped the road. He was forthwith examined in open court, and interrogated by the magistrate as to what had been his occupation through life. He replied;—'during the day, I went to the hills to cut wood; and at night I read books.’ The magistrate said to him;—'write out something that you remember perfectly, and let me see it,'—at the same time throwing a pencil to him. Tsohang took the pencil and wrote:—
E kea tso go, urh laou tsin;
Wang shan tsae tseaou, too jih shin;
Chang keu shun shan, woo jin kin,
Pull che wang fa, leuh yen sin.
At my poor home there sit and sleep two aged parents;
For a livelihood I frequented the hills to cut and gather wood;
Being constantly in the woods far away from the haunts of men,
I was ignorant of the rigorous requirements of the royal law.
On seeing this composition the magistrate praised him and said;—
Seih yew foo sin, kwa keo jin;
Jih wang shan tseaou, yay seih wan;
She keen hew ke, neen shaou tsze,
Tang kaou peih chen, pang shang jin.
In ancient times the wood-cutter hung his book to the buffalo's horns;
In the day time he worked among hills, and at night studied letters;
Cease, O ye worldlings, to insult poor young men;
The day will come when their names will stand high in the literary gazette."