PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, Limited, have been authorised by the author to bring out a new edition of these "Notes," now out of print, the demand for which has continued unabated since their Hist appearance twenty years ago. With the exception of a few typographical corrections, no changes have been made in the book.
Shanghai, October 1909.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The selection of notes embodied in these pages, which owe their origin to the liberal encouragement of Sir Robert Hart, K.C.M.G., Inspector General of Customs, has been complied for the purpose of stimulating students of the Chinese business style in making a systematic study of the rules governing this branch of the written language. In conceiving this idea about fifteen years ago, the author was chiefly indebted to the sudden progress lie made in grasping the sense of a Chinese text on having simply worked himself through the pages of Stanislas Julien's Syntaxe Nouvelle de la Langue Chinoise. It seemed to him at the time that, under the guidance of this ingenious work, he had learned more of the real spirit of the language in a few weeks than
