Moveable types of baked clay were invented about A.D. 1043, and some
centuries later they were made of wood and of copper or lead; but they
have never gained the favour accorded to block-printing, by which most
of the great literary works have been produced. The newspapers of modern
days are all printed from moveable types, and also many translations
of foreign books, prepared to meet the increasing demand for Western
learning. The Chinese have always been a great reading people,
systematic education culminating in competitive examinations for
students going back to the second century A.D. This is perhaps a
suitable place for explaining that the famous _Peking Gazette_, often
said to be the oldest newspaper in the world, is not really a newspaper
at all, in that it contains no news in our sense of the term. It is a
record only of court movements, list of promoted officials, with a
few selected memorials and edicts. It is published daily, but was not
printed until the fifteenth century.

Every Chinese boy may be said to have his chance. The slightest sign
of a capacity for book-learning is watched for, even among the poorest.
Besides the opportunity of free schools, a clever boy will soon find a
patron; and in many cases, the funds for carrying on a curriculum, and
for entering the first of the great competitions, will be subscribed in
the district, on which the candidate will confer a lasting honour by his
success. A promising young graduate, who has won his first degree with
honours, is at once an object of importance to wealthy fathers who
desire to secure him as a son-in-law, and who will see that money is not
wanting to carry him triumphantly up the official ladder. Boys without
any gifts of the kind required, remain to fill the humbler positions;
those who advance to a certain point are drafted into trade; while hosts
of others who just fall short of the highest, become tutors in private