PEKIN'S FAMOUS PAPER.

Waikato Times, Volume XLII, Issue 3424, 9 June 1894, Page 5

PEKIN'S FAMOUS PAPER.

"IJ]S T DouBTEDLY'tIie oldest" newspaper in the world is the Tching-Pao, of Pekin, sometimes called the Pekin Gazette, the literal translation of whoso name, is "the news oftlie .capital," The extravagant claim is made on behalf of it that it was founded 740 years before • the -Christian era; but there is no evidence to support such a claim, nor, indeed, to show that it was published auy earlier than our own Middle Ages. But it is reasonable to suppose that it has had a continuous existence from a date considerably earlier than the European invention oLprinting.. In a cpminunication to the Oommercjai" Geographical Society, M,\ ilmbaulfrsHirard, French consul* at Pekin, says of the Tching-Pao:— '' TIIO reading of this journal is a most instructive thing; it unfolds a veritable panorama not only of official life, but also of Chinese social life. "The reader will find in it, together with other official documents, the date upon which the Emperor has decided to replace his .summer hat with a winter hat. ' The reader will observe here th<iti six of tho successful candidates for a doctor's degree are 90 years old, and 13 of them, more than 80 years old—which gives us an impressive idea of the persistence; and/ton" tinuity of classical The Tching-Pao is made up of . three, oneLof: which) 5 called the : Ku : ng ; ' men or ''copy ef the palace gate,'' is very, .similar to the "Court 'circular" published by English' newspapers, and records the doings ot the Emperor and his.court/ The second!- ; 'd6partment,' or Shaug-yu, consists of imperial decrees, and the third, the Tsow-pao, je made up of memorials or official

papers of the officers of the empire. Many o( these are requests for orders or rulings, and are answered either in the decrees or in special memoranda printed immediately after the inquiry, A curious feature of the official decrees,' to those who have some knowledge of the Chinese language, is the attempt to translate literally, or render 'phonetically, foreign words into Ohiueso. In a recent decree the "European" word 00-ti-ma-tong occurs several times. It is neither more nor less than the Latin word ultimatum, now; used in its diplomatic sense by all Western Powers. ' Another European word frequently used in another decree is to lifooiuf, and this was found to mean the telephone. Typographical mistakes are of course possible, because the TchiiigPao is printed from movable types of wood, but the execution of a few proof-readers had the effect to discourage their occurrence.