Art. VIII.— Chinese Laws and Customs

1883 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
Christopher Gardner

When I promised to write a paper for the Royal Asiatic Society on Chinese Laws and Customs compared with the primitive Laws and Customs of the Latin, Teutonic, and Indo-Germanic Eaces, I was not aware that my friend Mr. E. H. Parker had already written on the same subject (China Review, vol. viii. p. 67). I have now read Mr. Parker's paper with great care and attention. Though he only deals with Comparative Family Law, yet this is so large a portion of my subject, and Mr. Parker's views are so in accordance with my own, that I doubt whether he has left me enough to say so as to form the subject of a full paper. I therefore propose, on this occasion, only to make a few observations.

1834 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Houghton Hodgson

[With a view to obtain correct and authentic information on the subject of Nepálese law, both in its theoretical principles and practical administration, Mr. Hodgson addressed a series of questions to several individuals who were judged most capable of replying to them in a full and satisfactory manner. Copies of these series of interrogatories, with their respective answers, have been communicated by him to the Royal Asiatic Society (together with a separate paper on crimes and punishments); and the following article has been drawn up from a careful comparison of the whole, excluding as much as possible the repetitions unavoidably occurring, in many instances, in the various answers to any particular question. A reference to the works of Kirkpatrick, Hamilton, and others, will shew how little has hitherto been contributed to the knowledge of Europeans respecting Oriental systems of jurisprudence, as far as regards the kingdom of Nepal; it is therefore particularly gratifying to be enabled to produce so complete a view of the subject as has been furnished by Mr. Hodgson, whose perseverance and energy in obtaining an acquaintance with these and other matters hitherto kept sacred from all strangers, are only equalled by the intelligent and liberal manner in which he communicates to the public the information he has acquired.—Ed.


1836 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 381-386
Author(s):  
Wilson

Having found in the cabinet of the Society several of the coins which have lately been the subject of so much interesting and intelligent research in India, I have selected the accompanying for publication in the Society's Journal; for, although of themselves, and in my hands, they may not add much that is of importance to our knowledge of their origin, yet, as they are in a tolerably perfect condition, they may contribute, by a comparison with others of the same class instituted by the talented individuals who are engaged in the inquiry, to facilitate the deciphering of the legends which they offer, to determine their affinities, and to ascertain their history.


1887 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-499
Author(s):  
H. G. Keene

It is not without sincere diffidence that I venture to lay before Oriental scholars the following remarks. It is my misfortune to find myself constrained to oppose the conclusions of one who, when I first took up the question, was the most accepted authority on the subject—the late Edward Thomas. That learned and distinguished man has recorded, in commenting on some former notes of mine (in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal), that I treated the matter in so discursive a way that he was unable to catch my drift. On observing this, I wrote a fresh paper for the Royal Asiatic Society—which has been unfortunately lost—in which I strove to speak out in a manner that should leave no room for misconception. Unhappily Mr. Thomas is no more among us; and one is again in the old difficulty. A hesitating delivery of opinion, which was originally caused by deference to the justly-deserved reputation of the opposing advocate, is now, in a manner, called for by respect for the memory of the departed.


1891 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 607-686
Author(s):  
C. R. Conder

The subject of the Lycian inscriptions appears to have been first brought prominently to notice by Sir Charles Fellows half a century ago. The first texts in this character were copied by Cockerell, and published in Walpole's travels. These were commented on, in 1821, by M. Saint Martin, who, judging from the bilingual in Greek and Lycian from Limyra, supposed the native version of the text to be comparable with the Syriac and Phoenician. Ten years later, in 1831, Dr. Grotefende communicated to the Royal Asiatic Society a paper, published in the third volume of the Transactions, treating of the five Lycian texts then known, and lie concluded from the declension of the verb that the Lycian must have belonged to the Aryan family of speech, and that it possessed long and short vowels as in Persian. In 1838–9 Sir C. Fellows collected copies of twenty-four Lycian inscriptions, including the great obelisk of Xanthus, on which are inscribed, in letters one and half inches long, no less than 246 lines of Lycian writing, and twelve lines of Greek hexameters. A certain number of coins of Lycian cities, with Lycian inscriptions, were also recovered, and the results published in 1840 in the volume called “ Lycia.” The copy of the great Xanthus text was however imperfect, and to this, as the most important of the Lycian monuments, Sir Charles Fellows devoted further attention, and in 1842 published a larger and very careful reproduction of the monument.


1841 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 11-41
Author(s):  
W. Morley ◽  
Duncan Forbes

Whilst I was engaged last year in making a catalogue of the Oriental MSS. comprised in the libraries of the Society and the Oriental Translation Committee, I met with the historical MS. which is the subject of the following letter. I, at that time, applied to the Council of the Society for permission to forward a description of the MS. to M. Quatremere, who is employed in editing the only portion of the work hitherto known, in the hope that he would represent the matter to the French Government, and cause our MS. to be published in the “Collection Orientale,” as a sequel to his “Histoire des Mongols.” The council acceded to my request, and I accordingly wrote to M. Quatremère on the subject, but whether on account of my letter not having reached its destination or from the press of business, he has not as yet returned any answer to my communication. In the mean time, I think it desirable that the existence of this important volume should be made known to the public, and I have accordingly drawn up the following account of the MS. for insertion in the Journal of the Society.


1836 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 387-390
Author(s):  
H. H Wilson

Shortly after the paper which the Royal Asiatic Society has thought worthy of a place in the present Number of the Journal, the Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya, was printed, I procured a copy of a valuable work recently transmitted to England from Madras, “Oriental Historical Manuscripts in the Tamil Language; translated, with Annotations, by William Taylor, Missionary.” The most important of the manuscripts, now first published by Mr. Taylor, relate to the subject of my Sketch, and constitute materials highly essential to the elucidation of Pandyan history. The chief of them, the “Madura Sthala Purana,” is clearly the same as one of my authorities, the “Madura Purana;” and it seems likely that the “Pandion Chronicle,” and the “History of the Karnata Governors of Madura,” which are also amongst Mr. Taylor's translations, may be identifiable with documents in the “Mackenzie Collection,” of which I have made use.


1852 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 373-428
Author(s):  
Edward Thomas

In June, 1839, I submitted to our Society a brief paper on the subject of the Pehlvi Legends occurring on the medals of the early Mohammedan conquerors of Persia. As the memoir in question was avowedly left incomplete, consequent upon my return to my duties in India, I have since uniformly cherished the hope of being able, at some future period, to remedy the defects and supply the deficiencies of my first essay. In this view, on my arrival in this country a few months since, I commenced collecting new materials, and rigidly examining my previous inferences and conclusions, trusting that I might eventually succeed in compiling a treatise more worthy of the pages of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, than that which our Council had already complimented me by printing.


1843 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
pp. 42-63
Author(s):  
J. A. Hodgson

In submitting to the Royal Asiatic Society the following remarks on the very important inquiry, as to the length of that unit on which is founded the simple but perfect system of land measurement, by bigahs and their subdivisions, adopted by the most enlightened of the Moghul sovereigns of Hindustan, the Emperor Akbar, I hope I may be excused for entering into much more detail than the subject may at first seem to require; and before entering into the investigation, that I may be allowed to submit some preliminary remarks.


1836 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 189-190
Author(s):  
Alex Johnston

In reference to the statement, published in the last Number of the Society's Journal, of the allusion which I, as Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence, had made in my Report, at the last Anniversary Meeting, to the account given by Dr. Robertson in the Appendix to his Historical Disquisition on Ancient India, of the opinions of Mr. Baily and Mr. Playfair, as to the extreme age of the Hindú astronomical tables, I have to request, with a view of affording the readers of the Journal the most recent information upon the subject, and thereby preventing them from drawing any erroneous inference from the supposed antiquity of those tables, that you will be so good as to publish in the Journal the following statement of the very scientific and very able opinion of the celebrated M. La Place, as to the real age of the same tables. It is copied from Harte's Translation of La Place's Système du Monde, pp. 220, 221, 222. (Dublin, 1830.)


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