OLDEST NEWSPAPER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 25 November 1912, Page 7

OLDEST NEWSPAPER.

SUPPRESSED FOR EVER

The Publishers' Journal of Germany learns that recently the President, Yuan-Shi Kai, suppressed the newspaper King-Bao for ever. KingBao is without doubt the oldest newspaper in the world. In Chinese history and literature it has played an enviable and supreme part. For 1500 years thds journal has informed China of the important, events in the known world, and exercised a profound influence upon the growth "of the Chinese community. At a time in which, Europe was plunged in darkness, without the faintest glimmering of the future developments of book and newspaper printing, a Chinese discovered that type could be made out of alloy of lead, and silver, and accordingly founded in the reign of the Emperor Fin-tschuang (400 A.D.) the King-Bao, which has appeared without interruption "until, to-day. Originally the paper was printed upon ten yellow .silk pages; which were bound together like a book, and sent to the highest _ dignataries in the kingdom. In time this news sheet became famous throughout China. In the Great Library of the Emperor of China are preserved interesting documents, which relate to the history of the oldest newspaper in the world. Two of the outstanding events are well worthy of record, for the editors-in-chief of the paper often display exemplary, courage and great patriotism. Thus in the eighth century, it was the editor of the King-Bao, who denounced the treachery of the Royal Prince, Fin-Mo-Ling, and received as reward for his devotion sentence to the most terrible tortures and finally to death at the stake. Fin-Mo-Ling's treachery was proved too late to save the editor. But undoubtedly most fascinating and significant of all the incidents in the^ history of the newspaper is the action and the fate of the twelfth century < editor, who wrote an article demanding that the Government should turn its back on tradition and ceremony, and should "senfj cleTßer men to Europe, to learn

there, to see, and to hear." Foil this advice, which sounds so s&rangely modern—the editor, the famous Chinese poet, Gur-Nu-Tschang, was beheaded; and his head, with ears torn off and th« tongue placked out, was exhibited: as a warning to modernists in every town of North China.