In the literature of the Chinese there is a work for which they claim the highest antiquity. Until recently no clew had been found for its interpretation. This was the “Yih King,” or “Book of Changes,” which has been a sealed mystery to the ablest Chinese scholars of all ages, including Confucius. Its interpretation has, however, been accomplished by M. de Lacouperie who finds this work to be a collection of syllabaries such as are common in Accadian literature. These are interspersed with chapters on astronomical and astrological lore. Others again, refer to the ethnology of primitive inhabitants of the country; all of these, however, taking the form of vocabularies only possible to interpret by recognizing their syllabic character. The appearance of this work in ancient Chinese literature is explained in two ways. Prof. Douglas regards this as an evidence that in by-gone ages this language was polysyllabic. He points to the fact that certain words indicate a former polysyllabism and from this infers that the language as it now appears is an example of phonetic decay. Others, on the contrary, see in the occasional but rare evidences of agglutination, the influence of contact with other races speaking an agglutinative or polysyllabic tongue, and of which the above example in their ancient literature is perhaps a literary remains. It is incredible that a race so advanced in polysyllabism as evidenced by the “Yih King,” or “Book of Changes,” could revert to so pure a monosyllabism as is now presented by the Chinese language. Phonetic decay is possible to many words in a language, but so general a reversion to primitive conditions is scarcely possible of a whole language. Reference has been made in the Chinese system of writing to their use of picture forms or ideographic signs, in association with the phonograms to explain the meaning or particular use of these signs. This principle, so often referred to, is by no means a special invention of the Chinese, but as we shall see, occurs in all original pictorial systems of writing with the development of phonetism. This is, that when phonetic values begin to attach themselves to the primitive ideographs, these are retained and attached to the signs expressing the primitive sound. “As if,” says Prof. Sayce, “to assist the memory in remembering the meaning and pronunciation of a particular word.” In this way evidently the “keys” of the Chinese system had their origin, as also the determinatives of the cuneiform, the hieroglyphic systems of the Egyptians, the Maya or Mexican, and other pictorial systems. Among the many advantages obtained from a purely syllabic, or purely alphabetic system of writing is the easy adjustment of these signs to various forms of speech. This is eminently true of alphabetic systems. On the other hand the application of non-alphabetic characters to other than the original language to which these were adapted is by no means so simple and manageable in results.