delicate brush. But silk was expensive and difficult to handle, so that the invention of paper in A.D. 105 by a eunuch, named Tsʽai Lun, came as a great boon, although it seems clear that a certain kind of paper, made from silk floss, was in use before his date. However that may be, from the 1st century onwards the Chinese have been in possession of the same writing materials that are in use at the present day.
In A.D. 170, Tsʽai Yung, who rose subsequently to the highest offices of state, wrote out on stone in red ink the authorized text of the Five Classics, to be engraved by workmen, and thus handed down to posterity. The work covered forty-six huge tablets, of which a few fragments are said to be still in existence. A similar undertaking was carried out in 837, and the later tablets are still standing at a temple in the city of Hsi-an Fu, Shensi. With the Tʽang dynasty, rubbings of famous inscriptions, wherein the germ of printing may be detected, whether for the style of the composition or for the calligraphic excellence of the script, came very much into vogue with scholars and collectors. It is also from about the same date that the idea of multiplying on paper impressions taken from wooden blocks seems to have arisen, chiefly in connexion with religious pictures and prayers. The process was not widely applied to the production of books until the 10th century, when in A.D. 932 the Confucian Canon was printed for the first time. In 981 orders were issued for the T ʽai P ʽing Kuang Chi, an encyclopaedia extending to many volumes (see above) to be cut on blocks for printing. Movable types of baked clay are said to have been invented by an alchemist, named Pi Shêng, about A.D. 1043; and under the Ming dynasty, 1368–1644, these were made first of wood, and later of copper or lead, but movable types have never gained the favour accorded to block-printing, by means of which most of China’s great typographical triumphs have been achieved. The process is, and always has been, the same all over China. Two consecutive pages of a book, separated by a column containing the title, number of section, and number of leaf, are written out and pasted face downwards on a block of wood (Lindera tzŭ-mu, Hemsl.). This paper, where not written upon, is cut away with sharp tools, leaving the characters in relief, and of course backwards, as in the case of European type. The block is then inked, and an impression is taken off, on one side of the paper only. This sheet is then folded down the middle of the separating column above mentioned, so that the blank halves come together, leaving two pages of printed matter outside; and when enough sheets have been brought together, they are stabbed at the open ends and form a volume, to be further wrapped in paper or pasteboard, and labelled with title, &c. It is almost superfluous to say that the pages of a Chinese book must not be cut. There is nothing inside, and, moreover, the column bearing the title and leaf-number would be cut through. The Chinese newspapers of modern times are all printed from movable types, an ordinary fount consisting of about six to seven thousand characters.
See J. Legge, The Chinese Classics (1861–1872); A. Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature (1867); E. Chavannes, Mémoires historiques (1895–1905); H. A. Giles, Chuang Tzŭ (1889), A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (1898), and A History of Chinese Literature (1901); A. Forke, Lun-Hêng (1907); F. Hirth, The Ancient History of China (1908); L. Giles, Sun Tzŭ (1910). (H. A. Gi.)
CHINA, the common name for ware made of porcelain, given
because it came from China, where the first vitrified, translucent,
white ware was produced. The Portuguese or Italians gave it
the name of “porcelain” (q.v.). English usage was influenced
by India and the East, where the Persian chīnī was widely
prevalent as the name of the ware. This is seen also in some
of the earlier forms and pronunciations, e.g. chiney, cheney, and
later chaney (see Ceramics; and for “china-clay” Kaolin).
CHINANDEGA, or Chinendega, the capital of the department
of Chinandega in western Nicaragua, 10 m. N.N.E. of the seaport
of Corinto by the Corinto-Managua railway. Pop. (1900) about
12,000. Chinandega is the centre of a fertile corn-producing
district, and has a large transit trade owing to its excellent situation
on the chief Nicaraguan railway. Its manufactures include
coarse cloth, pottery and Indian feather ornaments. Cotton,
sugar-cane and bananas are cultivated in the neighbourhood.
CHI-NAN FU, the capital of Shan-tung, China, in 36° 40′ N.,
117° 1′ E. Pop. about 100,000. It is situated in one of the
earliest settled districts of the Chinese empire. The city,
which lies in the valley of the present channel of the Yellow
river (Hwang-Ho), and about 4 m. south of the river, is
surrounded by a triple line of defence. First is the city wall,
strongly built and carefully guarded, outside this a granite wall,
and beyond this again a mud rampart. Three springs outside
the west gate throw up streams of tepid water to a height of
about 2 ft. This water, which is highly prized for its healing
qualities, fills the moat and forms a fine lake in the northern
quarter of the city.
Chi-nan Fu was formerly famous for its manufacture of silks and of imitation precious stones. It is now the chief commercial entrepôt of Western Shan-tung but no longer a manufacturing centre. A highway connects it with the Yellow river, and it is joined by a railway 280 m. long to Kiaochow. The city has a university for instruction on Western lines, and an efficient military school. American Presbyterians began mission work in the city in 1873; it is also the see of a Roman Catholic bishop.
CHINCHA ISLANDS, three small islands in the Pacific Ocean,
about 12 m. from the coast of Peru (to which country they
belong), opposite the town of Pisco, and 106 m. distant from
Callao, in 13° 38′ S., 76° 28′ W. The largest of the group,
known as the North Island or Isla del Norte, is only four-fifths
of a mile in length, and about a third in breadth. They are of
granitic formation, and rise from the sea in precipitous cliffs,
worn into countless caves and hollows, which furnish convenient
resting-places for the sea-fowl. Their highest points attain an
elevation of 113 ft. The islands have yielded a few remains of
the Chincha Indian race. They were formerly noted for
vast deposits of guano, and its export was begun by the Peruvian
government in 1840. The supply, however, was exhausted in
1874. In 1853–1854 the Chincha Islands were the chief object in
a contest known as the Guano War between President Echenique
and General Castilla; and in April 1864 they were seized by the
Spanish rear-admiral Pinzon in order to bring the Peruvian
government to apologize for its treatment of Spanish immigrants.
CHINCHEW, or Chinchu, the name usually given in English
charts to an ancient and famous port of China in the province
of Fu-kien, of which the Chinese name is Chʽüanchow-fu or
Tsʽüanchow-fu. It stands in 24° 57′ N., 118° 35′ E. The walls
have a circuit of 7 or 8 m., but embrace much vacant ground.
The chief exports are tea and sugar, tobacco, china-ware, nankeens,
&c. There are remains of a fine mosque, founded by the
Arab traders who resorted thither. The English Presbyterian
Mission has had a chapel in the city since about 1862. Beyond
the northern branch of the Min (several miles from the city)
there is a suburb called Loyang, approached by the most
celebrated bridge in China.
Chʽüanchow, owing to the obstruction of its harbour by sand banks, has been supplanted as a port by Amoy, and its trade is carried on through the port of Nganhai. It is still, however, a large and populous city. It was in the middle ages the great port of Western trade with China, and was known to the Arabs and to Europeans as Zaitūn or Zayton, the name under which it appears in Abulfeda’s geography and in the Mongol history of Rashīddudīn, as well as in Ibn Batuta, Marco Polo and other medieval travellers. Some argument has been alleged against the identity of Zayton with Chʽüanchow, and in favour of its being rather Changchow (a great city 60 m. W.S.W. of Chʽüanchow), or a port on the river of Changchow near Amoy. “Port of Zayton” may have embraced the great basin called Amoy Harbour, the chief part of which lies within the Fu or department of Chʽüanchow; but there is hardly room for doubt that the Zayton of Marco Polo and Abulfeda was the Chʽüanchow of the Chinese. Ibn Batuta informs us that a rich silk texture made here was called Zaitūniya; and there can be little doubt that this is the real origin of the word “Satin,” Zettani in medieval Italian, Aceytuni in Spanish.
