THE OLDEST NEWSPAPER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1595, 12 November 1912, Page 2

THE OLDEST NEWSPAPER.

' FAMOUS CHINESE JOtJBNAL. •'Phe "Publishers' JournalV of Germany learns that recently the President, YuanShin Kai,' suppressed die newspaper ! "King-Bao" for ever. "King-ilao" is without doubt the oldest newspaper ,iu the World. In Chinese history and lite)" aturo it has played an enviable and supreme part. Jj'or ISOO years this journal, has informed China of tho Important ■events in the. known world, and exercised a- profound intone© upon the growth', of . tho .Chinese community.'-At a time in which Jiuropa was plunged in darkness, without the faintest glimmering of tho future developuieuta of book and newspaper Minting, a Chinese.discovered that type could bo mado out'of-an alloy of lead and silver, and accordingly founded, in. the reign of tho Jimporor I'ui-tsehuang-Tsang(ffil) A.P.), the "King-Bao," which has appeared without' interruption until to-day. '. Originally the pnpel* was printed . upon ten yellow'-silk pages, which, wero ; bound .together like a book,, and sent to the highest dignafcnries in- the kingdom. . -.In time this news sheet became famous ; throughout China. In the Great Li-', brary of;the Emperor of China are preserved interesting: documents, which relate to • the. history of tho oldest newspaper-i.u the world. . I'wo of the outstanding events-are well worthy of record, for the ■editorHn-chief of the paper "often display-, ed eseniplary courage and great patriot-■■ . ism. ' Thus'in the eighth .Century it was '" the editor 'of the ViCing-Oiko" who denounced the treachery' of 'the ltoyal, Prince,' Kn-rMo-Ling,'and received as reward'for'his devotion sentence to tlie : most terrible tortures- and finally to death, at the; stake; Pin-Jio-Bing's treachery. ' was proved too. late to save the editdj, ■' But undoubtedly most, fascinating and , significant "of - all the. incidents ifi the history of the newspaper is the action and ■ th'e fate 6i the twelfth .century editor, wh6 w'rote an article demanding, that the . Government should turn its back flu traf. find ceremony, and should '"send ! clever men to Europe, to learn there, to ; see, and -to heat. ,' For this advice, ;.' which sounds so strangely modern—the ,'; editor, the famous Chinese poet, GurJJu-' il 'Jt'sehaug, was beheaded; and* his 'head. ■ 'with ears torn off, and the tongue plucked • ..put, -was. exhibited as a warning to mod' i ernists in'every town of North China.