Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ... only written in Chinese with characters pronounced Sha-man, but also m P"J, SANG-MAN,8"9 and f$ Pf, Shi-man.!169 Here the character j, Sang, is used as the equivalent of other characters pronounced Sha and Shi. See page 400. In view of the illustrations already given of the imperfection with which Chinese characters frequently represent the sounds which they are intended to transcribe, is it beyond the bounds of possibility that the character usually pronounced Sang, but fluctuating in sound at different times or in different dialects toward so, su, Shi, Sha or Zhoh, may have been considered by the Chinese as a sufficiently good representative of the xi (or Shi) of Me-xi-co? As to the first syllable, M. de Paravey claims that, as a country in the exti-eme north was known as Fu-yu (Jj f),8"' one in the extreme south as Fu-nan (Jj j),88" and one in the extreme west as Fu-lin ( $fO, MW the Chinese adopted this fourth Fu, in Fu-sang, as being properly expressive of a country at the ei-treme east. In the Chinese San-fuh-tsi, '" a term applied to a kingdom in the island of Sumatra, and which is probably intended to represent the same name for which we have adopted the word "Sumatra," the Chinese character Fuh seems to be equivalent to our syllable " ma." M. Julien finds the character $fc, Fu, written for the Sanskrit bhti in Subhuti, and for b6 in B6dhisattva."a He also finds other characters, now pronounced Fu, written for pa in Vachpa,1"9 and for 2 in Vetala,167 as well as for pu and pti. It is therefore evident that, of the characters now pronounced Fu-sang-kwoh, the first may have been intended to representany of the sounds Fu, F&, Pit, Pf, Bo, Bhu, Pa, or v; the second to represent Sang, so, sir, Shi, Sha, or znon; and the third..."
