Asia-Pacific in the Making of the Americas: Toward a Global History

Division of Contents

The main contents can be divided into three sections. The first section introduces the writing English letters, numerals, dates and time. The first page is a list of letters from a to z (except j) written in the standard format of the script between cursive and semi-cursive ones (中草字法定式). The second page is a short list of letters from a to f written in the standard format of semi-regular cursive script (半正草法定式). The third page lists common Chinese idioms in characteristic four character form, such as “勁節超群 (jinjie chaoqun, preeminent in personal integrity), 貞心可掬 (zhenxin keju, faithful wholeheartedly), 斐然君子 (feiran junzi, respectable gentleman), 標誦淇澳 (biaosong Qi-Ao, eulogized through the Qi Ao regions)”. The following five pages forms the “正字法定式讀本” (Textbook of writing regular scripts in the standard format), which provides another list of letters from a to z (except j), with their pronunciations in Cantonese and Guanhua tones. 

A　呀/平音；B　碑/官上；C　西/官上；D　底/官上；E　口衣；F　呀呋{夫}/平音；G　指；H　咽口治{治}；I　挨/上音；K　制/上音；L　几兒；M 口偃；N 口晏；O 呵；P 口悲；Q 九/官音；R 亞兒/上音；S 嘻口士；T 地/官音；U 喴/上音；V 唷；W　喼步尤唷；X 嗌口士；Y 口偉偉；Z　而夕；＆ 奄巴詩；N° 號字

The next page consists of the list of letters from a to z (except j) written according to the standard format of capital letters in cursive script (大草字法定式). The page that follows introduces the standard format of capital letters in seal-cursive script used for greeting cards (大篆草法字體全帖定式) and the next page states that the inscriptions on “porcelain and lacquer are all written in this format” (漆器瓷器皆書此體 tsat he tsu [China] he [ware] kay shue [book] tsu tai).[30]
 
[31] For the meaning of the term “全帖” and its uses, see Coblin and Levi eds., Francisco Varo’s grammar of the mandarin language, 1703: an English translation of “Arte de la lengua Mandarina”, p. 197, note 2 and p. 207.