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WITHROVV, D.D., F.R.S.C Aiitho7- of " The C.ttacombs of Rome;' etc. TORONTO: WILLIAM: BRIGGS, WHSLEY IIUILDINOS. C. W. COATES, Montreal, QuK. | S. F. HUF.STIS, If ai.u ax, N.S. 1894. \ \ f It CONTENTS. INoTK.— This book profesges to be nothing more than a full and accu- rate compilation, from the best available sources, of informati*^ on China and its people, especially on Mission work in that country. The Editor has diligently compiled from many books of travel, from mission- ary and other cyclopaedias, from missionary magazines and reviews, and from the annual reports of missionary societies up to 1893, the facts presented here.] iPAdB Extent - 7 Population H Canals 14 Antiquity - . 2ft Peculiar Civilization of the Chinese - - - - 20 CHABAcrrr:* of the Chinese 23 — Social Classes in China 26 Language * . . 3Q The Religions of China 32 Confucianism 32 Taoism 34 Buddhism 34 Ancestor Worship 40 Feng Shui — The Science of Luck ■ - - - 46 ^ How They Bury the Dead 60, -- Social Organization of the Chinese - - - - 54 Agriculture gg, '~-J)iET AND Social Customs 5^ *- Foot Binding g5 Tba - 67 No Caste in China - - 70 Marriage yj The Opium Vice - 73 Gambling 7g The Queue 7g New Year's Festival g3 The Feast of Lanterns 86. Kite Day in China 91 Woman in China 92; A Wedding in China 95. Education in China lOa A ■vs!i;:9i^zna>m»m i Vi CONTENTS. PAGE LiTERAKY Examinations 106 Medicine - - - 115 •Chinese Punishments 117 Modes of Travel 120 Bridges and River Population 126 Itinerant Tradesmen 127 Early JIissions in China 130 Roman Catholic Missions 131 Protestant Missions — Robert Morrison . - . . 134 Mission Methods 144 A Native Ministry 149 Weslevan Mission 155 Methodist Episcopal Missions in China - - - . 165 Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, .South - 182 Missions of the Canadian Methodist Church - 191 Journey from Shanghai 195 The City of Delkshts 201 A Sad Bereavement 206 Missionary Progress 209 Chinese Idolatry 220 A Helping Hand to Missions 224 The Chen-tu Mission 226 Medical Missions in China 230 MfiTHODiST New Connexion Missions 235 Other Missions in China 237 Obstructions to Missions 250 Progress of Christianity in China .... 254 The Cities of China 255 Pekin 256 Shanghai - - . " 268 Canton 271 ' NiNG-PO 281 Outlook for Protestant Missions in China - - - 282 Some Problems Solved by Methodism in China - - 286 Testimony Concerning Chinese Christians - - - 295 Canadian Woman's Missionary Society .... 297 Se-Chuen the Heart of Asia 298 The Great Wall of China 302 A Vision of the Future 303 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. EXTENT. The great empire of China comprises one-third of the entire continent of Asia, and one -tenth part of the habit- able globe. It embraces about 5,500,000 square miles. It is exceeded only by the Russian Empire, with 7,725,000 square miles, and the British Empire, with 6,700,000 square miles. Mere figures, however, give a vague idea of its extent. It is only by comparison with other countries that we can get an adequate idea of its vast size. It is more than one-third larger than the whoh of Europe, and exceeds the area of Great Britain and Ireland forty-four times. It is one hun- dred and four times as large as England, and one hun- dred and seventy-six times as large as Scotland. Its coast line, washed by the restless surges of the China Sea is over 3,000 miles long. It stretches through 2,400 miles from north to south, and nearly 4,500 miles from east to west. In this vast area is a great variety of climate and soil. THE REIGNING EMPEKOU OF CHINA. 8 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. The Rev. Dr. Gracey, for many years a missionary in China, thus vividly describes some of i is character- istics : " It encloses a desert, vast as any over which sterility ever reigned ; it embraces plains as exuber- ant as were ever pressed by the foot of man. Great rivers drain and irrigate the land. The Hoang-ho is almost three times the length of the Ohio, while the Yang-tse is longer than the Mississippi, and drains a basin more extensive than the whole territory of the republic of Mexico. One-tenth of the population derive their food from the waters of the country. The extent of its coal fields is more than twenty times greater than those of all Europe, being 419,000 square miles, and side by side with the coal is iron ore. It has all degrees of altitude, from the sea level to the perpetual snow line. Between Canton and Pekin the f road winds through a pass 8,000 feet above the r .. It has all varieties of climate. One may be ice-bound at Pekin, while the thermometer seldom falls below 50° at Canton. It is not easy to make real to ourselves an empire which sweeps through seventy degrees of latitude and forty of longitude, whose circuit is half the circvimference of the globe." Professor Douglas thus describes this wonderland : *• From one end of the country to the other the land blossoms as the rose, and yields to the diligent and careful tillage of the Natives enough and to spare of all that is necessary for the comfort and well-being of man. Nor have these advantages become the recent possessions of the people. For many centuries they have been in full enjoyment of them, and on every I A BUDDHIST PRIEST IX TKAVKLUlNHi DUKSS. 10 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. side the evidences of lon<]f-established wealth and com- mercial enterprise are observable. From the great wall to the frontier of Tong-king, and from Thibet to the China Sea the country is dotted over with rich and populous cities, which are connected one with another by well-trodden roads and water highways. In these busy centres of industry merchants from all parts of the empire are to be found, who are as ready to deal in the fabrics of the native looms, porcelain, tea and other native products, as in cottons, metals and woollens of Europe." The Chinese Empire comprises China proper, and the dependencies A Manchuria, Mongolia, Thibet, Jungaria, and East Turkestan. Manchuria is north- east and Mongolia north of the Great Wall of China, while Thibet and East Turkestan, or Chinese Tartary, are west of China proper, and 'Jungaria, or Soongaria, lies north of Turkestan and west of Mongolia. Thibet was added to the empire a little over two centuries ago. Eastern Turkestan rebelled in 1873 and the province of Kuldja was claimed by Russia, but in 1878 the Chinese reconquered their lost terri- tory, and in 1881 Kuldja was formally retroceded to China. China proper is divided into eighteen provinces or governmental departments. Each of these divisions has its corresponding city. These cities are all sur- rounded by walls from twenty to twenty-five or more feet in height, with an outer face of solid masonry, either hewn stone or brick. The circumference of these walls varies from three to fifteen English miles. POPULATION. 11 The provincial capitals contain on an average about a million of inhabitants each ; the Fu cities, or those of the second class, are considerably' smaller; while the cities of the third class contain generally a few tens of thousands. All the names found on our largest maps of China are the names of these walled cities. These cities alone, which number in the aggregate more than one thousand seven hundred, contain a population of not less than sixty millions. " But the greater proportion of the inhabitants of Ohina," says the Rev. J. L. Ncv'us, missionary of the Presbyterian Board in ChiKa, " are to be found in almost innumerable unwalled towns, viliaiyes and ham- lets which everywhere dot its fertile plains. Every- thing you see strengthens the impression of the im- mense population. The canals are full of boats, the fields of labourers, the roads and by-paths are filled with pedestrians, and in some parts of the empire with pack-mules and donkeys, the streets resound with the noises of a great variety of busy artisans, and you are hardly ever out of sight of the graves of the dead of past generations." POPULATION. Stupendous as is the size of China, the vastness of its population is still more wonderful. Of the whole empire, including the great steppes of Chinese Tartary and the highlands of Thibet, no accurate census has «ver been taken, and much of it is covered by wan- dering tribes. In the much smaller country of China proper an approximate census is frequently taken. A BUDDHIST PRIEST IN TEMPLE DRESS. POPULATION. 13 Dr. Legge, forty years a missionary in China and now Professor of Chinese in the University of Oxford, does not think that anybody can say anything more defi- nite than the Chinese Ambassador in Paris, who re- cently stated the population at four hundred millions. Here again mere figures can give but vague ideas. There are in China about eiglity times as many per- sons as in the whole Dominion of Canada, about seven times as many as there are in the United States, and one-third more than in the whole of Europe, or one- third the population of the globe. Dr. Gracey strik- ingly sets forth this stupendous fact as follows : " Every third person who lives and breathes upon this earth, who toils under the sun, sleeps under God's stars, or sighs and suffers beneath the heaven, is a Chinese. Every third child born into the world looks into the face of a Chinese mother ; every third pair given in marriage plight their troth in a Chinese cup of wine; every third orphan weeping through the day, every third widow wailing through the watches of the night, is in China. Every third person who comes to die, or who sits in contemplation of his own dissolution, is a Chinese. One can but ask. What catechism will this third child learn ? What pros- perity will follow this V Ual ? What solace will be afforded these widows ? What watch-care will be given these orphans? With what hopes will these multitudes depart ? " Depart they must, and the ghastly arithmetic star- tles us, as we estimate how rapidly they go. Thirty- three thousand Chinel^e die every day ! We pale and 14 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ♦ shudder at the dim outline of the thought. And yet they stay not ! Bury all the people in London in three months, and the rest of mankind would start aghast at the grim event. Yet we record and read with care- lessness the statement that four times every year that number die in China. It is equal to burying all the people of England in a year and a half ; all of Great Britain and Ireland in thirty months; all of New York city in less than a m'^nth ; all the people of the United States in less than five years ! " We turn to the living. Put them in rank joining hands and they will girdle the globe ten times at the equator with living, beating human hearts. Make them an army, and let them move at the rate of thirty miles a day, week after week and month after month,, and they will not pass you in twenty-three auvl a half years. Constitute them pilgrims, and let them jour- ney every day and every night, under the sunlight and under the solemn stars, and yon must hear the ceaseless tramp, tramp, tramp of the weary, pressing,, throbbing throng for twelve long years and eight months." CANALS. " China," says Dr. Humphrey, " is walled in from the remainder of the continent by gigantic chains of mountains having some of the loftiest peaks on the globe. It has at least four hundred canals, equal to all the rest in the world. Some of them are two thou- sand years old; the longest was dug six hundred years- asro, and is twice the lenjjth of the Erie canal." 16 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ANTIQUITY. China is a country of vast antiquity. It is by far the oldest nation in the world. The records of Egypt, it is true, date back to an earlier period than those of China, but the Egypt of to-day has no historical con- nection with the Egypt of the Pharaohs. The lang- uage, religion and monuments of early E^ypt have as little to do with its modern life as though they were on the opposite side of the world. Whereas China has a consecutive history, dating back two thousand years, and more, before the Christian era, when it had an elective monarchy. The names and dates of fifty-eight monarchs before Romulus founded Rome are extant. " Its authentic annals reach back beyond Abraham. It was substantially what it is now — and what it had been for three thousand years — when the shores of Britain echoed the first war-cry of our in- vading barbaric fathers." " The history of Rome," says Dr. Gracey, " is com- passed by about a thousand years. That of Greece varies but little from that of Rome. The history of the Jews from Abraham to the destruction of Jerusa- lem is double that of Rome. But China has had a settled form of government for forty centuries. An- cient Turanian and Aztec nations, Greece, Rome, Per- sia, Assyria and Babylon, have risen, culminated and declined, while the Chinese government has survived through thirty changes of dynasty. China was con- solidated as a government B.C. 1088, and substituted her present form of government for thr feudal two ANTIQUITY. 17 hundred and twenty years before Christ, thus emanci- pating her people from the feudal system before the Christian era. The half-dozen nomadic tribes from the region of the Caspian Sea, who settled in the basins drained by the Yellow and Yang-tse rivers, are to-day the greatest multitude of people gathered under one government to be found on the face of the globe, and Pekin is the oldest existing capital of any country. "A thousand years before Bomulus dreamed of building the Seven-Hilled City the Chinese were a peaceful and prosperous people. While Solomon in all his glory was receiving the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem, when the arches of Babylon first spanned the Euphrates, when the towers of Nineveh first cast their shadows into the Tigris, when Jonah threatened Nineveh with destruction, when Isaiah foretold the downfall of Babylon, when Daniel prayed and prophe- sied — through all these years the Chinese were en- gaged in agriculture, commerce and literature. China was seven hundred years old when the Israelites crossed the Bed Sea. She had existed fifteen cen- turies when Isaiah prophesied of her future conver- sion (Isaiah xlix. 12)." China was known to the ancients under the nan^e of Sin, Sinim, Sinae, etc. The Arabs called it Sin, and Ptolemy speaks of it as Sinae. The prophet Isaiah probably referred to it under the name of Sinim (Isaiah xlix. 12). It has been suggested that the terms " China " and " Chinese " are derived from the word " tsan," mean- 8 TEMPLE GATEWAY, li I ANTIQUITY. 19 ing silk-wbrm, as China is the home of the silk-worm and the land of silk. Cathay is the name by which the Chinese Empire was known to mediaeval Europe, and is in its original form (Kitai) that by which China is still known in Russia and to most of the nations of Central Asia. As to the antiquity of Chinese civilization Dr. Gray remarks : " It is said that two centuries before Abra- ham left Ur of the Chaldees Chinese astronomers had recorded observations which have been verified by modern scVntists. When Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness, Chinese laws and literature rivalled, and Chinese religious knowledge excelled, that of Egypt. While Hornet was composing and singing the Iliad, China's blind minstrels were cele- brating her ancient heroes, whose tombs had already been with them through nearly thirteen centuries. She had, seventeen hundred years ago, a lexicon of language which is still reckoned among her standards. The earliest missionaries found the Chinese with a knowledge of the magnet. Her literature was fully developed before England was invaded by the Norman conquerors. The Chinese invented firearms as early as the reign of England's First Edward, and the art of printing five hundred years before Caxton was born. They made paper A.D. 150, and gunpowder about the commencement of the Christian era. "A thousand years ago the forefathers of the present Chinese sold silks to the Romans, and dressed in these fabrics when the inhabitants of the British Isles wore coats of blue paint and fisHed in willow canoes. Be- 20 China and its people. fore America was discovered China had a canal twelve hundred miles long. Her great wall was built two hundred and twenty years before Christ was born in Bethlehem. It varies from fifteen to thirty feet in height and breadth, and passes over mountains and through valleys in an unbroken line for fifteen hun- dred miles. Six horsemen could ride abreast upon it. It contains material enough to build a wall five or six feet high around the globe." It represents more hu- man labour than any other structure on the face of the earth. PECULIAR CIVILIZATION OF THE CHINESE, " This vast population, isolated by its position from the rest of the world," says Dr. Eugene Smith, " has developed a civilization peculiarly its own. They have a language embracing in all about forty thousand arbitrary signs or characters, and a very extensive literature embracing a great variety of subjects. They have in active operation benevolent societies and insti- tutions of different kinds, and have the lead of west- ern nations in the knowledge of some of the practical arts and sciences. " The character of the government and of the people is due, more than to any other cause, to the teachings of the great sage, Confucius, who lived about five hun- dred years before Christ. He professed to have de- rived his system of truth from the sages who preceded him, and regarded it as his special mission to preserve from oblivion and to hand down to posterity their works. We may gain a general idea of his system > M ENTRANCE TO TEMPfcE OF RUAN'YIN, CHINA. 22 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. from the ' Five Relations ' and * Five Virtues,' which he made the basis of it. The first of the * Five Rela- tions ' is that between the emperor and his officers, which, developed, gives their system of government and political economy. Then follow the relations be- tween father and son, husband and wife, brothers and friends. It will be observed that while these heads cover the whole sphere of human relations or duties, our relation to God is entirely ignored. The Five Virtues are Love, Righteousness, Propriety, Know^l- edge and Faith. As in the Christian system, love stands in the first place. Confucius' conception of this virtue was very high, so much so that he would hardly acknowledge of any that they had attained it. When asked to define his idea of it he replied, * Do not unto others what ye would not have others do unto you,' presenting the nearest approximation to the 'Golden' Rule' which has ever been made by any uninspired teacher. " But, notwithstanding all this culture and civiliza- tion, the spiritual destitution of the Chinese is not exceeded by that of any other nation in the world. They present a striking illustration of the truth that 'the world by wisdom knew not God,' and that a nation may go on improving in intellectual and social culture, and in a knowledge of the arts and sciences, and be all the while going farther and farther away from God. It is almost impossible, without a great deal of explanation and illustration, to communicate a knowledge of Christianity through the medium of the Chinese language. Having no correqt religious it \ CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE. 28 ideas, they have no words to express them. Idolatry has preoccupied the minds of the people, and the whole ' empire is full of heathen temples and idol shrines." CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE. The Rev. John Ross gives the following account of the Chinese character: "More interesting than the enormous extent of China, or the unthinkable num> bers of its population, is the character of the people. Many of our countrymen who have lived long in China consider the Chinese an apathetic, listless, unemotional people. But any careful observer will soon learn to judge differently. I have seen a Chi- nese gentleman relate the death of a favourite child with a stoical smile ; but he could not keep the tears from roUinfif slowly down his cheeks. I have known of Chinese men, and more women, on whom the great- ness of their passion brought disease and death. The Chinese people are trained to exercise self-control; but let any one, master of the Chinese language, employ sarcasm against any kind of Chinaman, and he will soon see that the Chinaman has feelings as keenly sensitive as other people, though he is better educated in hiding them. "But more interesting to us is the remarkable indus- try of the Chinese people. The peoples and nations surrounding China have been for thousands of years nomads, living on the produce of their flocks, or sav- ages preying on the great variety of game in their boundless forests, or on the fish in their numerous rivers and lakes. But the Chinese have always bee^ h I \ t k CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE. 25 o k{ an agricultural people, and therefore necessarily pos- sessed of a written lan<];uage. It is thus unceasing perseverance in the arts of peace which has spread the Chinese people from the narrow tract of country occupied by them three thousand years ago over the immense area now under the sway of the Chinese race. Industry, and industry guided by great in- telligence, is the characteristic of the nation, so that, notwithstanding their never-ending and exhausting crops, their land never runs exhausted. Absolutely nothing is allowed to go to waste in China. They are beyond comparison the most intelligent of non- Christian peoples, and if any race surpasses them in industry it is only the Anglo-Saxon." The Rev. Dr. Humphrey thinks that the character of the people is an incomprehensible mixture. He says : " In the same person stand side by side gentle- ness, thrift, contentment, cheerfulness, dutifulness to parents and reverence for the aged, with lying, flat- tery, fraud, cruelty, ingratitude, avarice, treachery, abominable vices, polygamy, infanticide. They are either utter atheists or abject slaves of superstition. Among the forty-three thousand words of the official dictionary none could be found to describe the graces of the Spirit. It took the missionaries half a century to decide what Chinese word should be used for God. Their judges are venal, their punishments cruel and revolting, slavery exists; woman is held in a state of degrading bondage. And yet Mr. G. F. Seward, formerly American Consul at Shanghai, says he found among the people an j^bsence of shiftlessqess, a praq- M 26 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. tical sense, a self-devotion to the calls arising in the practical relations of life, and an enduring idea of right and wrong; among the gentry, scholarly in- stincts and a desire for advancement, and among the rulers a sense of dignity and breadth of view, con- sidering their information and patriotic feeling." • Those who have longest studied the Chinese men, while allowing that they have many vices, at the same time cannot but praise their hospitality and industry, and grant that gratitude — that savage virtue — is not a rare thing among the Chinese. Poverty is no re- proach, and riches, unless accompanied by learning and merit, less valued than in any other country under the sun. Age is universally honoured, and filial piety carried to an extent that is quite unknown in E'jirope. SOCIAL CLASSES IN CHINA. The Fortnightly Review says that "The Chinese world has often been broadly divided into official and non-official ; but a subtler and more accurate division, especially for the consideration of social relationships, would be threefold, as follows: (1) Mandarins, (2) Literati, and (3) Working classes. Of these, the first section represents all that is most brilliant in point of literary culture and administrative ability, in an em- pire with an area equal to that of the whole continent of Europe. " * Mandarin ' is a name given by foreigners to gov- ernment officers in China. The Emperor is at the head, and among the numerous titles bv which he is 1 SOCIAL CLASSES IN CHINA. 27 addressed are these : the August Lofty One ; the Celes- tial Sovereign ; the Son of Heaven. Underneath the Emperor are nine ranks of officials who are chosen from among those who have passed successful exam- inations. These various classes of officers are known by the colour of the buttons they wear, some of the buttons being of ruby and coral and sapphire. Officers CIIINK8K MANUAIUN, of the third rank wear also a one-^yed peacock fea- ther. As a class they are intelligent and shrewd, but they are often very corrupt and extortionate, using their power for selfish ends. Some of them, however, have accepted the gospel and become true Christians. The officials have bqen nmch impressed by the benevo^ 28 CHIXA AND ITS PEOPLE. ! i lent work accomplished by the missionaries, especially in connection w'^h hospitals and dispensaries for the relief of the suffering. "The literati represent the unemployed scholar- ship of China — unemployed through deserved failure, or merely bad luck, at the great competitions, or, in ex- ceptional cases, through a disinclination to enter upon an oflScial career. They hate foreigners intensely, and they excite the masses to deeds of violence against them by the well-directed poison of pen and tongue." The Hon. S. Wells WilliamS; who was many years in China, gives the following account of the literati : " The honour and power of official position, and the high standing paid to scholarship, have proved to be ample stimulus and reward for years of patient study. Not one in a score of graduates ever obtains an office, and not one in a hundred of competitors ever gets a degree ; but they all belong to the literary class, and share in its influence, dignity and privileges. More- over, these books render not only those who get the prizes well acquainted with the true principles on which power should be exercised, but the whole nation — gentry and commoners — know them also. These unemployed literati form a powerful middle class, whose members advise the work-people who have no time to study, and aid their rulers in the management of local affairs. Their intelligence fits them to con- trol most of the property, while few acquire such wealth as to give' them the power to oy^press. This class has no badge or rank, and is open to every man's highest talent and efforts ; but its complete oeutraliza' I SOCIAL CLASSES IN CHINA. 29 y e, n d t » s tion of hereditary rights, which would have sooner or later made a privileged oligarchy and a landed or feudal aristocracy, proves its vitalizincr, democratic influence. It has saved the Chinese people from a second disintegration into numerous kingdoms, by the sheer force of instruction in the political rights and duties taught in the classics and their commentaries." The " working classes " is a comprehensive term ; it begins with the sleek and well-fed te maachin (tea merchant), to end only with the poor leprous beggar and other outcasts who stand beyond the pale. The tea merchant, in combination with his brother dealers, gets rich upon the prices paid him for his leaf by the foreign merchants in competition with his brother buyers ; inn-keepers receive double rates for the filthy accommodation they provide ; boatmen receive double fares, servants double wages, artisans double pay, shopkeepers double prices, and so on through the long list of those who have regular dealings with foreigners. The Chinese penal code is two thousand years old, and is published at so cheap a rate that there is no excuse for any one to be ignorant of the law. It is unnecessary to say that lawyers do not flourish. The Emperor is assisted in government by two Coun- cils : (1) the inner or Privy Council, and (2) the gen- eral or Strategical Council. Each of the eighteen provinces is governed by an Imperial delegate, who is also Commander-in-chief, and possesses the power of life and death for certain offences. Under him are various officials, such as Superintendent of Finances, Criminal Judge, Educa- 30 OHlNA AND ITS PEOPLE. tion Examiner. The term mandarin, universally applied by foreigners to the Chinese officials, is a Portuguese term, not a native one. i\ LANGUAGE. The Chinese language is monosyllabic, and each word expresses a complete idea or meaning. The written character does not generally indicate the word, but gives a hieroglyphic representation of the thing to be expressed. Hence there must be as many characters as there are words to be expressed ; in all, there are about fifty thousand. The characters are arranged in perpendicular columns, which follow one another from right to left. Chinese writing is picture writing, with the addition of a limited number of symbolic and conventional signs; the larger number of Chinese characters are formed by the combination of hieroglyphs and signs. The immense number of Chinese characters, however, may be reduced to two thousand four hundred and twenty-five, and whoever learns these may be said to know them all. There is no dialect that is common to the whole of China, but each of the eighteen provinces has its own dialect, so that it is frequently very difficult to under- stand in one province if only the language of another province is used. The foundation of the written char- acters is two hundred and fourteen root characters, which it is necessary to learn in order to write the language. The common dialects are not written, and the missionaries have had great trouble in translating . I 32 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. the Scriptures into the common dialects from the want of characters. THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. In China there are three great religions, if they can be so called — Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The first two are indigenous ; the last is an importa- tion from India. Confucianism. The Rev. Dr. Robert Brown furnishes the following account of Confucianism : " Koon-foo-tse, or, as his name has been Latinized in the writings of the early missionaries, Confucius, was born about 550 B.C., and is now accounted the great sage and teacher of China He was the son of a statesman, and chief minister in his native kingdom — one of the many into which China was then divided. Despising the amusements and gaieties common to those of his age, he devoted himself to study and reflection in moral and political science. His doctrines form a code of moral and political philosophy rather than a religious system, and his followers are philosophers more than religious sectarians. He endeavoured *to correct the corrup- t^ions which had crept into the state. Unswayed by personal ambition, he taught his doctrines with a singleness of purpose that, even in conservative China, gained him respect and multitudes of followers ; and "fter being employed in high offices of state, he retired in the company of his chosen disciples to study phil- osophy, and to compile those collections of maxims THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 33 •r which have now become the sacred books of China. ' Treat others according to the treatment which they themselves would desire at their hands,' and ' guard thy secret thoughts* were among his favourite maxims. " The great sage died at the age of seventy-three. Time has but added to the reputation which he left behind him ; and he is now, at the distance of more than two thousand years, held in universal veneration by persons of all sects and persuasions throughout China, with many shrines and temples erected to his worship. Though he inculcated great morality, he was, like many others in similar circumstances, an in- different observer of its common precepts. It is re- lated that, without any sufficient reason, even for a philosopher, he divorced his wife, and that his sons and grandson followed his example so far as to divorce theirs also. " Nevertheless, if for nothing else than the extra- ordinary influence that he has exerted in Chinese life and modes of thought, Confucius must be looked upon as a very great man. Though only a single grandson survived him, yet the succession has continued up to the present time, through upwards of seventy genera- tions, in the very district where their great ancestor lived. In every city, down to those of the third order, is a temple dedicated to him, and the emperor, and all the learned men, delight in doing him honour. Whoever a Chinese may sneer at, whatever he be skeptical about, he takes good care to honour Con fucius, and to respect his doctrines. ' 3 34 CHINA AN1> Its l»EOl'LE. 11 I Taoism. The Rev. Dr. Doolittle describes Taoism and its priests as follows : " Judging from the number of Taoist priests, and the number of temples which are exclusively devoted to the worship of gods of the Taoist sect, this religion is much less popular than the Buddhist. They seem to shun the acquaintance of the 'stranger from afar' much more than do the Buddhist priests. In many respects they are very much like the latter. They never marry, nor do .they confess to the relations of life, as emperor, parents, friends, etc. Their sect is perpetuated in much the same way as is the Buddhist priesthood. They do not confine themselves, even in theory, strictly to a vegetable diet. They may eat animal food. Their dress is different from that of the com- mon people." Buddhism. McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia furnishes the following account of Buddhism : " The third religion of China is that Fo or Buddha, introduced from India about the year A.D. 65, which, however, be- came commingled with the remains of the old Chi- nese religion and with the maxims of Confucius. With the majority of the people it has sunk into a coarse idolatry. The priests are called bonzes, and number more than one million. The lower order of priests are ignorant, live in convents, and go about begging ; the higher orders are educated, and obliged to study their religious books, i There are also female THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 35 r bonzes, living in convents [like the Romanist nuns. The temples are either mere chapels, or else large edifices surrounded by columns, at the end of which is a hall contair- ing the image of the god. The larger temples are inerely a union of several smaller ones, having in the corners pavilions two stories high, in which the image of the god is kept, and which are surmounted by pyramidal octagonal towers from seven to ten stories in height, each story being separated from the next by a cornice projecting in imita- tion of a Chinese roof and from each angle of which depend dragon- CIIINKSK I'AGODA AND JUNKS. heads and bells. By the side of the hall are the cells of the bonzes, and accommodations for a number of animals. Buddhism, although the religion of the em- 36 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. peror, is not the religion of the state, and is actually only tolerated like Taoism. Both systems have been so much altered by the influence of the doctrine of Confucius that the three religions can morally be con- ^^dered as but one." ^^^The religion of Buddha inculcates benevolence, humanity, piety, and in all things moderation. It has no sacrifices, and none of its rites are obscene, secret, or cruel. In the more corrupt state into which it fell after the death of its founder, it has images of all kinds in the temples. There are images representing gods of the hills, woods, valleys, etc., as well as household deities, to whom offerings, but not sacrifices, are made. In the temples, which are very numerous, there are altars, bells, and beads. Incense and tapers burn day and night in these buildings, around the images, some of which are of colossal size ; and the rites of the religion are cele- brated by singing, processions of priests, and such- like ceremonials. The transmigration of souls is, now at least, a leading doctrine among the Buddhists, and accordingly it follows, from their holding this belief, that they avoid animal food and the act of sacrifice — either of which might involve the killing of some human being who was performing one of the states of transmigration in the body of the animal killed/ They have many monasteries, containing numerous monks, who pass their time in religious exercises and study. The head of the faith is the Dalai Lama, or Grand Lama of Thibet, who resides at Lassa, which is accordingly the capital of the ^ THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 37 Buddhist world. This personago has divine honours paid to him, and is also the nominal sovereign of the county, though the real governing power is vested in the Chinese governor and a Thibetan minister. Not China, but India, was the birth-place of the Buddhist religion. China, however, furnishes more devotees to the worship of Buddha than any other country. The strange outward resemblance between its worship and that of the Roman Catholic Church, in the use of images, incense and ceremonial, enabled the Jesuit and other Roman Catholic missionaries to win vast multitudes to a normal acceptance of the Roman Catholic religion. Some of the temples are exceedingly stately and beautiful, and one of the most extraordinary stories in the lifo of Francois Xavier was an account of a public discussion on the respective merits of Christianity and Buddhism, which he conducted with some of the learned pundits \of the latter faith. ^^One of the most ancient and fantous temples in China is " The Temple of Five Hundred Gods," at Canton (see page 38). It is said to have been founded by a Buddhist monk, about 520, A.D. It was rebuilt by the Emperor Kienlung, in 1755. It contains five hundred images, in its various apartments, and wor- shippers with their votive offerings may be seen there at all hours of the day. There are several houses occupied by the numerous priests, and there are also lakes and gardens within the temple grounds. Golden fish and lotus flowers are in the lakes, and curious dwarf- trees and fiowering shrubs are in the THE TEMPI.E OF FIVE HUNDRED GODS. I I THE UELKUONS OK CHINA. 89 gardens, and the people go for pleasure and holiday enjoyment as well as for worship. ~^ Chinese temples are often elaborately carved and painted with brilliant colours, with moral maxims and the like over the doors and on the lintels. The long, sweeping curves of the roof are supposed to be a sur- vival or reminiscence of the times when the Chinese lived in tents, and when the roofs of their canvas structures assumed this curved appearance. The strange carvings are, perhaps, the reminiscence of the bright- coloured embroideries of the tents. This pecu- liarity is less marked in the picture on page 18 than in many others, because it shows not the roof of a building, but a mere temple gateway. This, too, is probably the reminiscence of the times when all their cities and towns were surrounded with walls, and had great gateways for defence against attacks. This flimsy gateway, shown here, would be the smallest kind of defence; but it is the survival of an idea \rather than anything else. f The Chinese, like all the people of Asia, are fatal- ists, and find in their priests the interpreters of des- tiny. The mode of appealing to the oracle, shown in the engraving on page 15, is at least ingenious. One of the inquirers takes a sort of quiver contain- ing a number of small strips or laths of wood, each of which is inscribed with certain characters. This he shakes violently, watching anxiously the laths which, as he thus dislodges them, fall to the ground. If there be more than one inquirer, the others pros- trate themselves with their faces in the dust, while a 40 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. r III bonze notes down in a book the characters inscribed on each of the fallen pieces as they escape from the quiver. Meanwhile, perfumes are kept burning in the sacred urn, and circular pieces of gold and silver paper are cast into the fire to propitiate the genius of the temple. During the ceremony, a number of crackers are fired off to keep the presiding divinity awake and attentive to the proceedings. When the rite is finished, the priest informs the devotees of the success of their prayers, but he takes care to be sufficiently ambiguous in his declarations not to com- promise the idol he serves, whatever the result. " A Chinaman," says the Rev. F. S. Dobbins, " may at the same time be an adherent of all three of the national religions. The mass of the Chinese people accept the three, and see no inconsistency in so doing. It is somewhat as if we were at the same time Pro- testant, Romanist, and skeptic. The Chinese support the priests of all religions, worship in all their tem- ples, and believe in the gods of each and all." " Two popular forms of the religious thought and habit of the Chinese," says Dr. Gracey, " demand special notice — Ancestor Worship and Feng Shui, or the Science of Luck : f "Ancestor Worship. " The worship of ancestors antedates, but was adopted by, Confucius, and is the most powerful religious custom affecting China. It is the most universal and ancient form of idolatry found in the country. It hangs a curtaiii of gloomy super-r THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 41 stition over the land. Ancestral halls are endowed and repaired, and the ceremonies perpetuated thereby." "Ancestor worship," writes the Rev. Dr. Yates, "in- cludes not only the direct worship of the dead, but also, whatever is done, directly or indirectly, for their comfort ; also, all that is done to avert the calamines which the spirits of the departed are supposed to be able to inflict upon the livinj;, as a punishment for inattention to their necessities. " The Chinese believe that those who have passed into the spirit world, stand in need of, and are capable of enjoying, the same things — houses, food, raiment, money, etc., that thoy enjoyed in the world of light ; and that they are entirely dependent upon their living relatives for these comforts. " They believe that as the dead have become in- visible, everything intended for their use, except food, must also be made invisible, by burning. "They believe that those who are in the spirit world can see their living friends in the world of light ; and that it is in their power to return to the abodes of the living, and reward, or punish them, according to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness in making the necessary offerings for those who are in the prison of the spirit world. " They believe that nearly all the ills to which flesh is heir — as sickness, calamity and death, are inflicted by these unfortunate and demoniacal spirits; who, in attempting to avenge themselves, prey upon those, in the world of light, who are in ?io way responsible for their forlorn qoiL4itiop, 42 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. " They believe in the immortality of the soul, and in certain kinds and degrees of rewards and punish- ments in the spirit world. There is no other heaven, or state of rest predicted of any of the Chinese systems of religion, than that of exemption from punishment. The punishments supposed to be in- flicted in the spirit world, are a reflection of those of the Chinese Criminal Code, and are of the most brutal character. They all believe that there are many chances of evading their just deserts in both v/orlds. " They believe that a man has three souls, and that at death one remains with the corpse, one with ih ancestral tablet, and that the other is arrested uid imprisoned in the world of darkness. Hence we find that the Chinese, when they wish to appease, or attempt to ameliorate the condition of their departed friends, worship and present offerings at three dif- ferent places — the grave, the ancestral tablet, and before the Sung Hwang (Hsien deity), under whose jurisdiction the man is supposed to be undergoing trial and punishment. Having no knowledge of God, or of a divine revelation, and standing in great dread of the spirits of the dead, they naturally enough decreed that the spirits of deceased officials should exercise jurisdiction over the spirits in the world of darkness ; and thus they formed a govern- ment for that world, which is found to be & perfect counterpart of the Government of China — the world of light — from the Emperor down to the meanest subordinate of a district magistrate's suite. i 1^ TYPICAL CHINESE PAGODA. 44 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. is " All these gods have their assistants, attendants, doorkeepers, runners, detectives, and executioners — corresponding in every particular to those of the Chinese officials of the Game rank. They cease busi- ness and take a month's holiday at the new year, just as the Chinese officials do ; they occupy their yamens — the temples — and the people say, rotate in office, just as the Chinese officials do; while their subordi- nates, detectives, etc, are out on duty at various strategic points of the city and country, guarding against the depredations of the turbulent and dis- contenteci -ts on the living, in order to preserve public tranqii.ility, i.e., prevent sickness and calamity. These guardians of the public are to be seen at their several stations ; some in the temples, in attendance upon their superiors ; some at the gates of the tem- ples, the large figures on the door ; some at the city gates; some at bridges. in the city, and in the country; some at the forks of the road, while others will be found on guard in the city. Spirits are said to move in straight lines, and it is supposed that they are annoyed at finding their course obstructed by a blank wall. " The m'>ment a man dies in China, a cup of cold water is placed at the door that he may take a last drink ; then a suit of good clothes is burned that he may be made presentable in the next world ; then a quantity of paper is burned that the departed spirit may have the money to bribe those who may arrest him ; then bed and bedding and personal articles are burned that he may be provided with necessary com- THE RELIGIONS OP CHINA. 45 forts. Annual offerings are made at the graves, of food, money, clothing, etc., which are burned, and supposed to be thereby transmitted to those for whom they are designed." " Tablets twelve to fifteen inches high," says Dr. Gracey, " are erected for departed relatives, before which incense is burned morning and evening. For a deceased father the ceremonial must be kept up for forty -nine days. A bridegroom's ancestors must be worshipped by his bride as well as himself. When a scholar obtains his degree, when an officer is advanced in rank, and on anniversaries of births and deaths, this worship must be performed. At the Festival of the Tombs in the spring-time, the people universally have a family gathering to worship the dead. In ancestral halls, in private rooms, in the house, before a few tablets or hundreds, the worship goes on. A family is mentioned in Canton having eleven hundred tablets in each of two rooms, with the third containing an image of the ancestor, a dis- ciple of Confucius who lived B.C. 300 years. " The object of this worship is two-fold, viz. : To secure the repose of the dead, to provide them with comfort, clothing, furniture, made of paper and transported to them by burning ; and also to secure the worshipper from damage in person, business or property, from the restless ghosts of these departed relations. One-half of the female population of China devote their time not occupied in domestic duties, to making articles connected with ancestral worship. " The custom of infant marriages is largely con- 46 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. nected with the desire for heirs who will perform the rites due to parents after their decease. The same notion fosters polygamy. It tends to increase the localization and over-crowding of the population. Chinese dislike to emigrate, because they must leave the tombs and fail in the worship of their ancestors. The family of Confucius has continued through seventy generations to the present day in the same locality. " When a rebellion breaks out in any of the eigh- teen provinces, the first step taken by the Govern- ment is not to raise troops, but to despatch messen- gers to search for the ancestral tombs of the leaders in the rebellion, to open and desecrate these and scatter their contents, as the speediest method of spoiling their prospects of success. " Not a tithe of the money and thought is ex- pended on other features of Confucianism and Budd- hism combined, that is given to ancestral worship. Dr. Yates, in the Chinese Recorder, estimates the amount expended by each family in the worship of their ancestors at $1.50 per person, and in a popula- tion of four hundred millions, this amounts to $G00,- 000,000, to which at least $60,000,000 must be added for charitable ancestor worship. All this is but a part of China's tribute to her servile superstitions. The living generation is bound to the dead genera- tions. China does not think forward but backward." Feng Shui — The Science of Luck. "Translated into the vernacular of the western * barbarian,' Feng Shui is the ' Science of Luck.* A THE RELIGIONS OP CHINA. 47 w I mysterious principle pervades earth, air and water, but is unequally distributed in different localities, on the presence of which depends bodily vigour, family prosperity, and business success. The for- tunes of each family are involved in securing a spot most pervaded with it for the tombs of parents. When the luck doctors point out such an auspicious place for a tomb, if in a neighbour's field, it must be bought at any price. " Feng Shui determines as much the conduct of the living as the burial of the dead. A house can only be built on a certain spot or the corners of it set in a given way, the doors set originally or changed subsequently, the chimneys built above a determined height, or garbage thrown but on a pre- scribed side of the building, without interference with good Feng Shui. To have success in a business undertaking, a son born in a house, sickness averted, lawsuits successfully conducted, or to win literary honours, Feng Shui must be properly and carefully regarded. " Each person, as well as each village, has his own Feng Shui, and as these conflict, endless lawsuits grow out of disputes about interference with it. He is a bad man, indeed, who would cut down a tree, or change the course of a road, thereby disturbing the relations of Feng Shui. It has within a few years past been made the basis of objection to the erection of telegraph poles at Shanghai ; to railways because the embankment diverted the course of water ; to the erection of church steeples because, being higher I 48 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. than the surrounding buildings, they disturbed Feng Shui ; to the building of bridges, the working of coal mines, the digging of proposed canals, the height of foreigners' residences and warehouses, and to many other things which involved elevations or the relations of running water. The church and school architecture and the very sites of our missions must thus be controlled by the Science of Luck." When a new house is built, lanterns are hung on the frame night after night, while gongs are beaten to attract the luck. But this process, which is sup- posed to help the new house, injures the neighbours* luck, drawing it away from their dwellings, and so they feel obliged to try to keep their luck by lifting their lanterns higher, and by a louder drumming upon gongs. Large benevolence and kindness to both men and animals have been claimed for the Chinese as the result of their religions, but the cruel and inhuman character of Chinese punishments at law, show the absolute failure of all these religions combined to master the barbarous element of heathenism. A singular notion of the Chinese is that they can convey to any spirit, whether human or divine, what- ever they may please, by simply burning the article, or an image of it, in the flames. Hence as they think that a friend, after his spirit leaves the body, will need just what he needed here, they burn paper images of these objects, and so fancy that they reach the departed soul. A missionary describes a paper house which he once saw built for a person who had BKARKRS OF SACRED SYMBOLS IN FUNERAL PROCESSIONS, 4 50 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. died : " It was about ten feet high and twelve deep. It contained a sleeping room, library, reception room, hall, and treasury. It was furnished with paper chairs and tables. Boxes of paper money were carried in. There was a sedan chair, with bearers, and also a boat and boatman, for the use of the deceased in the unseen world. A table spread with food was placed in front of the house." This whole paper establishment was suddenly set fire to, and, in the midst of a fusillade of crackers it quickly van- ished in the flames. This idea that whatever is burned in the sacred flame is thus conveyed to unseen spirits, is applied to prayers. The Chinaman always writes his prayers and then burns them. So he fancies they go up to the god or spirit he would address. The practice of writing prayers explains the picture on page 24. The priests behind the bar are filling up blank prayers, according to the wishes of their customers who come with their various wants. People come to buy prayers for themselves and for others, and, having had them filled out, they go away to burn them. HOW THEY BURY THE DEAD. Among other singular customs of the Chinese are those connected with the death and burial of people. When any man is supposed to be dying, he is taken into the hall of his house and washed and dressed in his best clothes. Of course, such treatment often b«,stews defttb. Wh^n h^ is fairly dead, a priest ig HOW THEY muY THE DKAIX :>l called who exhorts the spirit to K^vvo the hotly. Coins ot* gold or silver are put in tl\o dead man's mouth. With these, it is suppose*!, ho can pay his way in the other world. The cothn is usually all ready, since most Chinese make tins provision for themselves long before they die. Sons often present their fathers and mothers with a cotlin, as a suitable birthday gift, when they have conipletod their sixty- lirst year. After the body has boon closely sealed in the coffin, it is kept in the house for fifty days of mourning. During each of these days the family go into the street, and, kneeling in front of the house, they wail bitterly. All the relatives send otlerings of food and money to be placed before the coffin for the use of the spirit which remains in the body. They imagine that each person has three souls, and on the twenty-first day of mourning they raise huge paper birds on long poles, and these birds are sup- posed to carry away one of the souls to heaven. The Chinese imagine that good or bad luck is con- nected with certain days and places. But the Chi- nese carry it so far that they seek a lucky spot for a grave, and a lucky day and hour for the funeral. This often takes a long while, and a burial has been known to be delayed many months till a really lucky time could be pitched upon. When the day comes the people gather at the beating » 'J: gongs, and the priest calls upon the remaining spirit to accompany the coffin to the tomb. The procession is then formed, of which we have an engraving on the fol- lowing page, taken from a native picture. The cere-* KUNEKAL PROCESSION. 1 4 How THEV BUKY THE DEAD. 5d y-v •,» V monies are almost endless, (luite too many to describe here. Usually a band of musicians, or gong-beaters, goes first, then men with banners on which are in- scribed the names and titles of the deceased and his ancestors. In the sedan chair which follows is placed the man's portrait. Then follow more gong- beaters, and near them a person who scatters on the ground paper money, representing gold and silver coins. This mock-money is supposed to be for the hungry ghosts who are wandering through the air, and will annoy the departed soul unless they receive toll. Then comes the coffin, and after that the rela- tives all clad in w^hite — the mourning colour in China. On the arrival of the procession at the burial- place, a person who is supposed to be able to drive away evil spirits strikes each corner of the grave with a spear, and the priest calls upon the soul of the dead man to remain with his body in the tomb. The cut on page 49 shows some of the paraphernalia of a funeral procession — the banners, halberds, state umbrellas, and the like. These stolid-looking fellows in the picture will beat their gongs and clash their cymbals and make a horrible din, and exhibit the most poignant sorrow in proportion to the amount of money paid for their simulated grief. Among the Chinese, infant funerals are unknown. As soon as the last breath is drawn, the little body is committed to the. hand of a stranger, who buries it in some unknown spot, or casts it in one of those offensive receptacles for the untimely fruits of the tree of humanity, which are known to Europeans by • 54 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. the designation of " baby towers." With no weep- ing father to follow the little coffin (if any it has), and no render mother to plant flowers on the little grave (if grave it has), it is cast out as an unclean thing and consigned to speedy oblivion — oftentimes indeed abandoned to the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Prayer is never offered for female children, and their coming is viewed as a calamity. A Chinese official report says, " Many of them are consigned to the nearest pond or stream." They are often drowned in tubs of water, strangled or buried alive, as one might a litter of kittens, and all this largely and often wholly because they, as girls, cannot make offerings of food at the family tombs and in the ancestral hails. It is estimated that about half of the female children in the empire are destroyed in infancy. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE CHINESE. Rev. B. U. Henry, Presbyterian missionary at Can- ton, China, in his book on " The Cross and the Dragon," notes the following characteristics of the social organization of the Chinese : " The political system of the Chinese, their moral code, their stand- ard books of philosophy and literature, have come down to them for twenty centuries or more. Grow- ing out of this intense love and reverence for the past, we find an ultra conservatism. The ruling classes, the officials and gentry, the custodians of these treasures of the past, are opposed to innova- tions and reforms of every kind. They are exclusive I SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE CHINESE. 00 to the extremest degree, and would never have had intercourse with other nations had they not been compelled to do so. " Closely connected with this spirit of exclusive- ness is an overweening priilo and absurd conceit in their own superiority, and an unreasoning hatred of everything foreign. It is enough to say that a thing is not Chinese, especially in ujatters of ethics and religion, to stamp it with disapproval. They call themselves the men of the * Middle Kingdom.,' and believe their land to be not nierely the geographical centre of the earth, but the central fountain of knowledge and civilization, and regard all outside as savages, barbarians, or, worse still, as devils. The exclusiveness in the past seems to have taken the form of haughty indifference or scornful disdain for .people outside their own borders, leading them to despise them as rude and uncivilized and in every way inferior." The Rev. Dr. Doolittle, of the American Board, in his admirable volumes qn China, thus summarizes the social condition of the Chinese ; " The houses of the Chinese are usually one story high, and built of wood. Few substantial brick dwelling houses are seen. The covering is of earthen tiles burnt in kilns — not shingles or lead or zinc. The tlooriiiy of most houses amoner the poorer classes is m ,de of a cement composed of clay, sand and lime, ,nd is hard and smooth when properly prepared, or it is simply the earth pounded down. The wooden floors, even in the better kind of houses, are very poor, uneven and unplaned. No car- V ' 56 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. pets are used, and seldom is matting spread upon the flooring. Oftentimes there is no ceiling overhead — the room extending to the roof. A large number of families live in boats about twenty or twenty-five feet long, and about six or eight feet wide. Here children are born, brought up, marry and die. "Dwelling houses usually have wooden windows, no glass being used even in wealthy families. Some- times windows having a kind of semi-transparent shell ingeniously arranged in rows are found. When light is needed the wooden windows are opened either partially or wholly. " The houses have no apparatus for heating them in Tvinter, like the fireplaces, furnaces and stoves of western lands. The doors and windows are poorly adapted to cold weather, not being fitted tightly. The Chinese simply put on more garments than usual in the winter, the number being graduated by the inten- sity of the cold. In the absence of artificial means for heating their rooms, the people frequently carry around with them a portable furnace, containing embers or coals, with which they warm themselves from time to time. • AGRICULTURE. " The soil is generally fertile, and is kept in a state of excellent tillage. Night soil is hoarded in the citv and suburbs by the Chinese with the greatest care. It is sold to persons who transport it into the sur- rounding country for use as manure. On some low lands two crops of rice and one of wheat are raised. AGRICULTURE. 57 I From many gardens at least six or eight crops of vege- tables are grown year after year. Two crops of the Irish or foreign potato, on the same land, can be culti- vated, one coming to maturity in December and the other in April. "The Chinese make use of many devices to flood their higher lands. In hilly districts the farmers em- ploy two agencies. The water is forced from a lower tield to a higher by an endless chain. Two or four KAKMING aCENK IN ClllXA. men, according to the ifrht of the embankment, sit upon a rack and tread. The tread- wheel consists of an axle with several arms piotruding whereon to place the sole of the foot, and thus Keep up a walking motion all day. This is, indeed, a very lal )rious method, yet the volume of water that can be forced, stage on stage, to a high summit is simply marvellous. During the rainy season the water is preserved on the higher table-lands and permitted to flo^ own as it is needed, forming a series of waterfalls and filling each field in its course. Many districts depend almost entirely on local rains. When these are withheld no 58 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. idols receive so much attention as those which have the supposed power to make or prevent rain. ? \w< :.y^s';iuw■.\m^.^:■^l*. " The wages of a working man vary from three to six dollars a month ; his necessary food costs him 11 I 51 DIET AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 59 ve a o o about one dollar and a half, and as nearly all have families or relatives dependent upon them, the struggle to make both ends meet and find enough for all, involves the strictest frugality of living. In the country, men and women unite in the cultivation of the fields, and the exposure they undergo in the marshy rice lands, which must be spaded or ploughed in the chilly days of early spring, often produces severe attacks of rheumatism. It is painful to see them, women especially, knee-deep in mud and water, spading the heavy soil of the paddy-fields, while in a wretched little boat drawn up by the slimy bank are two or three little half-clothed children and a small supply of the coarsest food, with the rudest implements for cooking. o a to im DIET AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. " The Chinese live principally on rice, fish and vege- tables. They never use bread at their meals, as people do in western lands. Wheat flour is used for making various kinds of luncheon and cakes. The most com- mon meats are pork, the flesh of the mountain goat, and the flesh of the domesticated buffalo or water-ox, and the cow, ducks, geese, chickens, and fish from salt and from fresh water. Immense quantities of the sweet potato are grated into coarse slips and dried in the sun, for use as food among the poor in case rice cannot be procured. This dried potato is called potato-rice. " The Chinese at their meals usually have several small dishes of vegetables, fish, etc., prepared, besides 60 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE* ' a large quantity of boiled or steamed rice,, put in a vessel by itself. Each person helps himself to the rice, putting some, by means of a ladle or large spoon, into a bowl. The bowl, 'held in the left hand, is brought near the chin, whence, by the use of a pair of chopsticks, taken between the thumb and fore and middle fingers, the rice is shovelled or pushed into the mouth from time to time. " Whenever any vegetables or fish, etc., is desired, a morsel is taken by a dexterous use of the chop- sticks, from the common dish which contains the article and conveyed to the mouth. The chopsticks are not used separately, one in each hand, as many suppose. An earthen spoon is sometimes used to dip out the gravy or liquor from the dish of vegetables or fish, but knives and forks are never used at meal- time. " For the host, when guests are present, to take a morsel from the common dish with his own chop- sticks and put it into his guest's mouth, is an act of great hospitality. The working people usually have three meals a day, but often they will work from early davvn until night with only a bowl of cold rice-gruel at noon to sustain them. " To feed such a multitude requires the most stren- uous eflforts and the utmost economy of food. Noth- ing must be wasted, and much that would be re- jected in more favoured lands as unfit for food for human beings, is eagerly consumed. The flesh of dogs, cats, rats, and other animals which we regard as unclean, is exposed in the markets and purchased DIET AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 61 by the poor. In the picture we see a pedlar of rats vending his unsavoury wares from place to place." " Husband and wife and adult children," remarks Dr. Doolittle, " oftentimes eat at the same table, if there are no strangers or guests present; in such a case females do not appear at the table with the males. CHINESE KAT MERCHANT. On festive occasions, when friends are invited to din- ner, the men eat by themselves and the women by themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, if unacquainted, are not formally introduced to each other when in- vited to a feast at the same house, nor do they con- verse or promenade together, as in western lands. I 62 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. The ladies keep by themselves in the inner apart- ments, while the gentlemen remain in the reception- room or public hall or library. Persons of different sex, even those who are acquainted or related, are not allowed to mingle together on public or festive occa- sions. Husband and wife never walk side by side or CHINESE VISITING CARDS. arm in arm in the streets. Sometimes a small-footed woman is seen walking in public leaning on the shoul- der of her son. Dancing is unknown." The Chinese idea of beauty, or at least of the figure which suits a person of ton, is rather peculiar. A woman should, for instance, be extremely slender in appearance, while a roau should be corpulent, obese, imemmm^m DIET AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 63 irt- on- ent QOt :ca- or id 1- e ti or what we understand in English as "alderman-like." Both men and women of rank, or at all above the labouring class, wear their tinger-nails long, as a sign that they are not compelled to stoop to manual labour ; and to such an extent are the nails allowed to grow that cases of ivory, silver, and even of gold orna- mented with precious gems, are used to preserve them from being accidentally broken. Even servants will now and then attempt this bit of foppery, and, to pre- serve them from being broken, splice them on to thin slips of bamboo ! A man is thought an innovator if he commences to wear moustaches before he is forty years of age, or a beard before he is sixty ; but in both cases, in that of the beard especially, the growth is but scanty. The "pig-tail" was not originally a part of the Chinese costume, but was a mark of subjection forced on the Chinese by their Manchu conquerors. It is now, how- ever, adopted by every one, and, if it be scanty, is eked out by silk or false hair. It cannot be denied that this curious tail improves the appearance of the wearer. A Chinaman with his hair growing down on his forehead is a thievish-looking individual ; with his head shaved, his pigtail nicely plaited and dressed, he is, on the contrary, rather intellectual looking than otherwise. The fan is always an important part of a well- dressed Chinaman's " get up." It is made of all ma- terials, and at all prices, from a few pence up to several pounds sterling; some of them being neatly oyi^aqaented with pictures or maps of t^^e larger Qhi- 64 (JHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. V \\ nese cities, embroidery, aphorisms from the works of Confucius and other favourite authors, or the auto- graphs of friends who have exchanged fans with each other. A lantern may be almost said to form part of the dress of a Chinese, for by law it is ordered that who- ever goes out after dark must carry a lighted one with him. Much ingenuity is shown in constructing these of silk, horn, paper or glass. The Chinese are good mechanicians, and manufac- ture beautiful lacquered ware in the shape of cabinets, trays, etc., though as artists they have not the skill or taste of the Japanese. They have long had in use a machine for cleaning raw cotton, and their various kinds of wheels, etc., for raising water are very in- genious. They are, however, averse to machinery, on the plea that machines would save human labour, and therefore throw out of employment large numbers of the population. The silk and porcelain manufactures of China have been long world-famous. Indeed, so well known were they as porcelain makers that the name of the country has been given to some of the finer varieties of the manufacture known in every household as " china." In the fourteenth century the Emperor Yung-loo erected a porcelain tower in honour of his mother. This edifice, which was long the pride of Nanking, the Taepings, in 1860, blew up, and nothing now re- mains of this once stately work of art but a pile of broken porcelain. FOOT lUXDINCl. G5 / FOOT BIN 01 NO. About the first thing that a younjjj Chinese hidy remembers is the painful ordeal of binding her feet. This usually takes place when she is from four to five years of age. She must submit to this torture if she ever expects to be a lady. In the poorer families of Canton it is usual to bind the feet of the eldest daugh- ter, who is intended to be brought up as a lady. Her large-footed sisters will grow up to be bond -servants or domestic slaves, and, when old enough, the concu- bines of rich men or the wives of labouring men. Small feet are, therefore, the mark of gentility, the differentiating quality that distinguishes them from the servant class. What we look upon as a frightful deformity the Chinese regard as a mark of beauty, and these crippled little feet are called " the golden lilies." The process of foot-binding is a simple one. The girl is, we suppose, five years old, and her mother takes a strip of black calico which she wraps tightly around the child's foot, beginning at the big toe and ending at the ankle. The object is to prevent the foot from spreading out, to cause it to taper to a point and develop an abnormally high heel. The bandage is wrapped so tightly that the smaller toes are turned in toward the sole of the foot. The little one screams with agony, but her cries are unheeded. The cramped 6 CHINESE lady's FOOT AND BOOT. 66 CHINA AND ITS I'EOPLE. foot is then put into a small shoe, a smaller one heinfr required as the foot gets smaller. The growth of the foot is retarded, the bones contract, the flesh shrivels up, and then the bandi^ge is tightened. Ordinarily the pain passes into a dull numbness, and then to a condition where there is little or no sensation. There have been frequent cases where the circulation is entirely stopped, and amputation is necessary to save the child's life. With care, the girl suffers no more than to be crippled for life ; and, when the foot is sufficiently cramped, it is put into a tiny shoe from three to three and a half inches long, with a high heel strong enough to support the entire weight of the body, as Chinese ladies do their little walking on their heels. If she goes outside the house she is always accompanied by a stout old woman, whose business it is to carry her on her back, or to run behind her sedan chair, and on all occasions " to play propriety " for her. The origin of the custom of compressing the feet is very obscure. Some say that an empress by the name of Tak-ki, during the Sbang dynasty, originated the custom. She had club feet, and prevailed upon her husband, in order to conceal the deformity, to cause all the ladies of his court to compress or bandage their feet. In this way they were made to appear like hers. The dominant race in the empire, the Manchu Tartars, do not allow their women to bind or cramp their feet. Small feet are a mark, not of wealth, for the poor- est families sometimes have their daughters* feet bandaged — it is rather an index of gentility. It is TEA. 67 the fashionable form. It is a cust^ m of prodigious power and popularity — a custom as imperious as that of tight lacing by ladies in western countries, and perhaps not more ridiculous or unnatural, and much less destructive of health and life, i TEA. The following account of the tea industry of China is abridged from the volumes of Rev. Dr. Doolittle, of the American Board : The poorest of the poor must have their tea, regarding it not so much as a luxury as a necessary. Th6y never use milk or sugar, but always take it clear, and, if convenient, as hot as they can drink it. They prepare it, not by steeping, but by pouring boiling water upon the tea, letting it stand a few minutes, usually covered over. It is considered essential, on receiving a call from a friend or stranger, to offer him some hot tea as soon as he enters; usually he is also invited to smoke a whiff of tobacco. Unless the tea should be forthcoming the host would be re- garded as destitute of good manners and unaccus- tomed to the usages of good society. The tea shrub resembles in some respects the low species of whortleberry, being allowed to grow usually only about a foot and a half high. It is kept low by picking the higher leaves and breaking off the higher branches. In about four years the plants are large enough to spare some of their leaves without serious detriment. The plantations are not manured, but are kept free from weeds. The plant blossoms about the tenth month, producing a white flower, m 68 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. i I I) ^1 in appearance and size much like the flower of the orange. The leaves of a medium size are carefully plucked, principally by wo nen and children. The largest leaves are usually left on the shrub, in order to catch the dew. If all were picked at once there would be danger of killing or of greatly injuring the shrub. A pound of green leaves makes only about three or four ounces of tea. The first picking is the best and commands the highest price. The following is the method of preparing Oolong tea : The fresh leaves are dried for a short time only — not until they are wilted, but only until all the dew, or water, or external dampness is gone. They are then dried in an iron vessel over a small, steady fire. They are kept in motion by the hand to prevent any scorching, or crisping, or burning. They are not per- fectly but only about half dried. They are trodden by barefooted men, roiled with the hand, and dried in the sun or air, and afterwards sifted, sorted and fired in iron pans. Women and children earn from three to six cents per day picking tea, according to their skill and celerity, they boarding themselves ; while the young men receive from five to eight cents, besides their board, per day. While not such a gay, pleasure loving people as the Japanese, from the fact that the conditions of life are harder, the country more crowded, and population poorer than in Japan, the Chinese are fond of picnics to their tea gardens and other picturesque places. One of these is shown in our cut ( n the following the ClIINKSK TKA UAUDi^N. 70 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. page, a pretty pavilion, with numerous plants and flowers, and a pond in the pleasure o^arden. There is this to be said in their favour, that, using the cup that cheers but not inebriates, their holidays are free from the disgraceful scenes of drunkenness and vice that characterize the holidays of many so-called Chris- tian lands. : NO CASTE IN CHINA. " There is," writes Dr. C. B. Henry, " no caste in China such as exists in India. The people, as a whole, are homogeneous, not merely in the sense of being one race, but as to their rights and privileges. The highest positions are open to aspirants from all classes, and instances are given of men rising from the lowest walks of life to fill the highest offices in the land. Their life is something on the plan of the old patriarchal system. They live in clans, and the family lines are very distinctly drawn. " Each family has an organization that centres in the ancestral hall, where the tablets of the deceased fathers are placed. A reunion is held at least once a year, about Easter, which is the time for worshipping the tombs, when among other things roast pork is divided among the members as a recognition of their standing. The threat to deprive a man of his piece of pork means that he will be expelled from the clan. At this time arrangements are made for repairing the graves and offering the annual sacrifices at the tombs. In connection with the ancestral hall, there is usually a fund for the establishment of schools, and also for I i MARRIAGE. 71 the assistance of students, and when a man has taken a literary degree he receives a regular pension, which is increased as he rises higher in his course of literary honour. " As the branches of the family increase, a distinc- tion naturally grows up ; some become poor, others prosper, and usually the control of affairs falls into the hands of the prosperous. A portion of the fam- ily are always farmers, and till the ancestral estates ; some go into business ; but it is the desire of every separate family of the clan, however poor, to educate at least one son, who, though he may not take a degree, or become an official, may at least become a teacher and the man of letters for the house. Whole villages, however, are met with where not one in a hundred can write or read intelligently. Chinese family life is not such as to promote domestic com- fort or improve the social side of men. MARRIAGE. " In the matter of betrothal and marriage, the parents decide and make all arrangements, often without the knowledge of the persons most inti- mately concerned, and it not unf requently happens that the youthful couple never see each other's faces until the day on which their marriage is consum- mated. If by any chance they had been previously acquainted, the rules of propriety would require that after the betrothal they should strictly abstain f r^m the sight of one another; and if this can be ac» ;^- plished in no other way, one 'or the other is sent ■ 1 n dHiNA And Its pfeotLte. away on a visit to friends or to school, until the time for marriage comes. I have known young girls in the boarding-school whose friends have sent for them ostensibly to make a short visit to their homes, but who, on their arrival, found to their consternation that they were to be married — this being the first hint tliey had received of so important a matter. "After marriage the wife becomes an inmate of the husband's family, subject to his mother, to whom she becomes almost a slave in the service required ; and if her mother-in-law be exacting her life is anything but a happy or an easy one. On first repairing to her husband's house she unites with him in worshipping the tablets of his ancestors. This seems to seal her as a member of his family, and in the event of his death she is not free to return to her own family, but remains under the control of his parents, or, if they be dead, of his uncles or elder brothers. The men have practically no mothers-in-lav/, marriage not bringing them into very close relations to their brides' families. Persons of the same surname are not per- mitted to marry, even though separated by forty generations. "The practice of polygamy prevails among those who can afford it, but the first wife holds a position far above any of the subsequent ones. Among the poorer classes many of these restrictions are necessarily removed. Their houses often contain but one or two rooms, but the separation of the sexes is as rigidly maintained as circumstances will permit. When a man receives calls from his most intimate friends, his [] :i The ot»iuM VICE. 73 wife and daughters never appear ; they may be behind the curtains listening, but remain invisible. When a gentleman invites his friends to dine with him, he hires a room in some eating Jiouse, or engages a boat on the river, where the feast is spread ; but such a thing as a party where ladies and gentlemen sit down together would shock their senses of propriety beyond' recovery. Their absurdly strict and stilted rules of propriety breed an artificial prudery, deprive men of what they most need — the refining influence of good female society — and promote the very thing they are supposed to prevent. The whole system is based upon a low, unworthy estimate of woman. "A man has almost absolute control over his family, and may under necessity sell any member of it. It sometimes happens that a man in debt will mortgage himself and his posterity for several generations to his creditors. The most common form of domestic slavery is that in which young girls are purchased as servants in families." THE OPIUM VICE. The vice of opium smoking has become an immense obstacle to the welfare of China, and a great hindrance to the progress of the Gospel. Opium is now used in some of the mandarins' offices and the dwellings of the rich ; the middle and lower classes resort to the saloons, or rather "dens," as they are very appro- priately called. It is now in some parts the fashion- able way of " treating " and showing hospitality, though it is the producer of an immensely greater I D THE OPIUM VICE. 75 M a o B amount of misery, crime, sickness and death than the native liquors are. Each year myriads of Chinese die the opium smoker's fearful death, millions are living the opium smoker's wretched life, and the greatest possible obstacle is raised to Christian missions. Some maintain that opium smoking is no worse than gin and whiskey drinking. Burmah, Arracan and China, which permit the use of ardent spirits, forbid, under the heaviest penalties, opium smoking. Japan, also, rigorously excludes opium from articles of import and of home production. These Orientals know, what all competent authorities assert, that the opium vice is sinister beyond all drinking or other tyrant habits, in its fascination at the beginning, and in its intense necessity when it is once adopted. " It differs from drinking habits," says Dr. Graves, of Canton, " in the insidiousness of its approach and the difficulty of escaping its clutches." M. Came writes in the Revue des Deux Mondes : '* I do not believe that there ever has been a more terrible scourge in the world than opium. The alcohol em- ployed by Europeans to destroy savages, the plague that ravages a country, cannot be compared to opium." Donald Matheson, Esq., partner in an extensive mer- cantile firm in China, says : " Opium is twice as seduc- ing as alcohol. Of those who take it, scarce one in one hundred escapes. The only comparison which can be made is between opium smoking and drunkenness." Every time the opium smoker indulges, from his first smoke to his last, it is for the express purpose of producing an immediate stupor, or partial insensibility 76 CHINA AUb ITS PEOPLE. !i; akin to drunkenness. At first it is a sort of beatific trance, and hence its fascination ; but after the vice has got a firm hold of its victim, " it lays aside its angel aspect, and enslaves, tortures, and destroys like a fiend." But though the wretched man now knows that every time he indulges, his dreams will be horrid and his imaginings wild and fearful, yet he cannot refrain from lessening the period between each in- dulgence without much physical torment, while the craved-for dose must be increased to produce the de- sired effect. The vice of opium smoking has long since become a giant obstacle to the welfare and the prosperity of this people. Good men in China deplore the use of opium as a most extraordinary and most gigantic obstacle to the reception of the Gospel and the spread of it among the Chinese. The beneficent religion preached by men from western lands and this de- moralizing drug are placed by the vast majority of this people in the same catalogue, viz., articles intro- duced by foreigners. Missionaries, while denouncing the evils of opium smoking, and entreating the people not to indulge in the vice of using it, are very fre- quently met by the reply, " You foreigners bring it to sell, and now you exhort us not to use it. If you do not wish us to smoke it, why did you import it ? If you did not bring it to sell we could not buy it, and therefore should not use it.*' w GAMBLING. The Chinese are inveterate gamblers. Gambling is I GAMBLING. 77 universal, and is carried on in infinitely varied forms. The children gamble as they go with their copper cash to buy sweetmeats, and will throw the dice to CHINESE SERVANT BEARING PIPE AND RICE BOWL WITH CHOPSTICKS. see whether they will pay three cash for a couple of sugar ducks or a handful of peanuts, or get them for pne. At every country fair the gambling booths are i^ 78 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ! crowded from morning till night, while whole streets in the cities are given up to such uses. Gambling is forbidden by law, but is connived at by the officials for a pecuniary consideration, and is a fruitful source of revenue to the gentry in many places. With all their boasted morality the Chinese are very low in the scale of morals. It is not our pur- pose to descant upon their immoral practices further than to say that of them, in common with other pagan nations, the picture drawn in the first chapter of Romans is true in every detail. They have little re- gard for the truth ; falsehood is not only considered justifiable, but is in many cases commended. Taking the people as a whole, their fundamental qualities of industry, stabili*' and readiness to sub- mit to authority contains the promise of cheering re- sults in the future, when enlightened ideas and the power of the Gospel shall transform them into active, aggressive Christian men. In their semi-civilized state they are no doubt more difficult to impress than people who are found without civilization, without education, or without a fixed government ; but those very qualities which present a temporary obstacle to the wide acceptance of Christianity will in the future prove most powerful auxiliaries and secure its com- plete and permanent establishment. THE QUEUE. " The queue," says Mr. Chester Holcombe, " is not only the badge or mark of a Chinese ; it is the sign of Chinese manhood. In infancy and childhood the THE (JUEITE. 79 head is either clean shaven and kept as smooth and shining as a billiard ball, or patches of hair are left to grow in circles helter-skelter upon its surface, and from each sticks up a little tuft of braid, as though A CRIMINAL BKINO DKl>HIVKI> OK 1118 QUKUK. the blood, in its excess of vitality, was sending out the sprouts of half a dozen queues. " It is only when the boy reaches the age of thirteen or fourteen years that these * baby queues * are shaved off and he is formally invested with the sober queue of manhood. 80 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. "But the queue, although the badge of a Chinese man, is not Chinese. It is a foreign importation, and, compared with other things in China, is a modern and recent fashion. It is Tartar, or Mongolian, and was brought into the empire only about three hundred years ago by the present rulers, who themselves are foreigners. " Prior to that time the Chinese did not shave their head, but dressed the hair much as we do ours. But when the country wms conquered by its present rulers ARRESTING PRISONER BY HIS QUEUE. a decree was issued that all good subjects of the new Emperor should shave the head and wear a queue. This immediately aroused an intense excitement and bitter opposition throughout the empire. To wear a queue was regarded as degrading and as a mark of slavery to a foreign tyrant. Mobs and riots occurred, and for a long time there was much trouble, and it seemed doubtful if the new fashion could be enforced. But the Tartar Emperor met the difficulty with that shrewdness and tact which has made his name his- • s- THE (^UEUE. 81 P torical in China as the ablest and wisest of all her rulers, ancient or modern. He issued a further de- cree, in which he forbade persons convicted of sei'ious crimes to wear the queue, and in which he required his officers to cut oft' the queues of all such persons and not to allow them to shave their heads. Thus he made the queue a mark of respectability, and his new subjects were soon as anxious to adopt it as they had been determined in their opposition. To this day in China and among the Chinese a full head of hair and the absence of a queue is the badge of a criminal. This will explain to you the reason for the intense opposition among the Chinese in this country to any interference with their right to wear the queue, a right which they have defended in more than one instance in our courts of law. "The queue has now become an object of almost superstitious reverence among the Chinese. It is combed and dressed with the greatest care, enlarged and lengthened with horse-hair or silk, wound about the head at times, and covered to keep it from the dust. In fact it is generally treated as an object of dignity and honour. " The Chinese boy longs for it, as the American or English boy does for trousers with pockets in them. To pull it is an insult, and to cut it off is a grave crime severely punishable by law. "If a person, in travelling on a dusty road, has done up his queue to keep it clean, and meets a friend, before recognizing or addressing him he must sweep it down from its coil on the top of his head. In ^ I t i t NEW YEARS KKSTIVAL. 83 1 similar manner no servant may be allowed to remain in the presence of his master or mistress with his queue coiled up. It is even repjarded as the mark of a rowdy to wear it loose braitlod. The strands must be drawn tight and snug." NEW YEAJt'S FESTIVAL. Rev. E. J. Dukes gives the following description of the Chinese New Year's Festival : "The Chinese t;u:e fewer holidays than any nation under heaven. Except ihe festival of the New Year, none of the festivals can bo described as particularly interesting or notable. The (^Ihinese New Year falls, as a rule, in the middle of February. The Chinese observe it as a general ' cleaning-up ' time — 'all seem to have taken a pledge against their normal dirty habits, and to be striving earnestly for reform.' The New Year is the season when the Chinaman deems it his duty to ' make all comfortable with the gods.' Worship is then done in the * gross * for the whole year. Priests are engaged to pray for the pardon of sins, and to preside at the oHering of sacrifices. Prayers are written out on i*ed paper and pasted on the doors of houses. On New Year's morninor the civil and military mandarins do homajje before the shrine of the reigning Emperor. But New Year's Eve is observed much after the English fashion of keeping the fifth of November fifty years ago. A prodigious quantity of crackers is used, so large that afterwards the farmers come into the town to sweep up the refuse for manure. il! i ' 84 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. "In respectable households, where the proprieties are honoured, the former half of the night is spent in preparation for the usual sacred ceremonies, and the latter half in the performance of them. The shrine of the family idols is decorated with vases containinij the fragrant gourd called the Hand of Buddha, and flowers of hyacinth and narcissus. The air is heavy with the fragrance of incense made of sandal wood. Then from midnight to dawn various solemn services are performed, of which the following is the briefest possible summary : " First of all is the sacrifice to Heaven and Earth at about three a.m. A table is spread in front of the three-walled ' guest room,' or hall, in a spot open to the sky. Mock money, representing gold and silver coinage, is burned as an offering. The head of the family kneels in front of the table, holding in his right hand three sticks of incense. Knocking his head tliree times on the floor, he expresses his thanks to Ileaven and Earth for past favours, and entreats a continuance of them. Towards daybreak the sacri- fice is oflered to the idols of the house. On the table are rice, vegetables, fruit, tea, wine, candles, and in- cense as before, but in smaller quantities. The same ceremony is then performed before the tablets of de- ceased ancestors. " But the last of these heathen matins is the most curious of all, viz., prostration of the junior members of the family before their surviving parents and grandparents. The elders sit in turn to receive the devotion of their offspring. If both grandparents, or THE FEAST OF LANTERNS. 85 both parents, are alive, they sit side by side, while the yoiino- or younger people prostrate themselves at their feet three times, and congratulate them on having survived to the beginning of another year. " The Chinese make a great point of paying their debts, so as to start fair within the new year ; and if any man is so unhappy as to be unable to pay all that he owes, he pays as much as he can, and his creditors are bound in honour and decency not to press him for the rest until the holiday season is over. "'Kung-she! Kung-she !' says every man to his friend, when he meets him on New Year's morning. His friend bows low, and repeats the words, ' Kimg- she ! Kiing-she !' The meaning is, 'I congratulate you,' r, as we say, ' I wish you a happy New Year.' " Throughout the whole of the New Year's festivities idolatrous worship, either of spirits or of gods, is so intermixed with social customs as to make that season a very trying one to Chinese Christians. They are always unmercifully persecuted by their heathen friends when they refuse to take part in their idola- trous ceremonies. r'', :(:ii'l ^ i i si m r THL FEAST OF LANTERNS. Rev. J. S. Adams, of the China Inland Mission, thus describes the Feast of Lanterns, which is celebrated at the first full moon of the new year : "It was a very dark, cloudy night. Every house' and shop, with the exception of our own home, had three or four lanterns hanging in rows. Muffled in red silk or red paper, they cast a subdued light all PI CHINESE PUNCH AND'JUDY. THE FEAST OF LANTERNS. Si '''\. ft' :■■' 'j»i down the street, which was very pleasing, yet only seemed to make the darkness more intense. The sound of gongs and cymbals, drums, fifes and fiddles, and brass trumpets, announced the approach of the procession, which was an hour or more passing our house. The band of music came first, followed by two artillerymen, who fired huge crackers which startled the men and made the women and children scream. A party of little ragged boys trotted after the fireworks, each carrying a large square box of candles all blazing away, their light being hidden by folds of cflico cut out in curious shapes, with holes for grotesque little figures to dance in — not unlike the ' shadow-shows ' we used to make in the nursery in youthful days. " An interval of silence succeeded, broken only by the whispering of the women, the men looking stolidly down the street for the appearance of the next part of the procession, and smoking away at their pipes. Soft music was soon heard, and several thin old gentle- men blowing flutes, and others scraping on fiddles, seconded by boys tapping gently on tambourines, put in an appearance in slow, solemn step. They preceded a long train of respectable citizens, each bearing a banner with his name upon it, who came on two by two. The three lighted lanterns on the head of each banner, swinging twenty feet in the air, reflected light upon the gold characters pasted upon crimson silk — characters praising all sorts of false gods, too many to mention, for, like the devils spoken of in the Bible, their name is * Legion.' One hundred of these banners i ' 1 1 88 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. If passed us with their tiny little bells tinkling as thoy went along. Suddenly the darkness was illumined by the arrival of twelve little boys carrying lanterns, shaped like huge fish, curved in a way which made them look very natural. Some salmon preceded a number of dog-fish with large goggle eyes, and very comical movements of their flexible bodies. Candles burned inside each of the fish. "Another band of music headed a string of lads who each bore a green lantern shaped like a grasshopper, with candles shining through the green paper with a very fantastic light. They moved about very stead- ily, exhibiting far too much dignity for grasshoppers. Then came more big and little fishes, more music, crackers and banners, then a couple of lanterns like fighting-cocks, pecking and striking at each other in a most furious manner. This effect was caused by strings pulled from below by tbe men carrying the lanterns. " A tremendous explosion of crackers followed, and, surrounded by smoke and flame, a huge dragon made its appearance. Its head was made of wood, richly carved and gilded, and it was surrounded by a crest of about eighty coloured lanterns, in which red was the prevailing colour. This head, which reared up, was borne on a frame by about forty men. The body was in curves, and as it twisted and groaned, and curled hither and thither, it reminded one of that ' old ser- pent,' who has so long deceived this poor people. The long, coloured body, with its illuminated scales of red, I'HE FEAST OP LANTEHJJS. 89 green and yellow, was one hundred and seventy feet long, and was carried by eighty-live coolies. No sooner had the dragon gone than a tremendous chat- tering began among the people : * What a fine sight ! ' ' How cleverly managed !' etc., etc., vnth other remarks which clearly indicated that the dragon was the main feature of the procession. " More fish — big and little, red, ^rean, blue and yel- low — more crackers, music, shadow-sihows, more ban- ners borne by all sorts of people. Then clanging cymbals, special honours in the way of fireworks, and, amid a cloud of incense, a big, gilded idol passed on, borne by coolies and attended by priests. Next came a miniature temple, with gardens all complete, lighted with wax tapers. A cry of delight rose from the people when a cluster of lanterns, ten feet high by fifteen feet round, made in imitation of a greatly prized flower, passed by. It was inexpressibly beaufci- ful. The flower in nature is like a red dahlia, but as large as a small ctibbage when cultivated. "Now came eight or ten mythical scenes taken from the history of China, in various ways attended by music. The ground- work of these set pieces was illuminated ; and in the midst of paper trees, moun- tains and rocks sat little boys and tiny girls proudly showing their grand dresses as emperors and empresses of the olden time. " These idol-processions, how they bind the hearts of the people to their false gods ! From infancy to the grave their joys and holidays are all in some way or other mixed up with idolatry. Sober merchants. It KITE DAY IN CHINA. 01 '■I astute officials, intellij^fent scholars, kind-hearted ma- trons, winning girls, and bold, handsome lads — all with many features that draw out love, if with some which repel — are the slaves of these false teachings which are Satan's devices." KITE DAY IN CHINA. The ninth day of the ninth month, which comes in in October, is " Kite Day." Men and boys, of all ranks, sizes and ages, are- seen with cords in their hands, pulling and jerking, or letting loose, all sorts of agile rice-paper monsters in the azure sky. The fun consists in making the kites fi>j:ht, in entangling them, and cutting one another's strings bv sudden jerks. Often the kite string has fine glass glued upon it to cut the cord of rival kites. If the weather is tine the air is full of kites, of all sizes and of many forms. Some are in the shape of spectacles ; others represent a kind of fish ; others are like an eel or some similar looking animal, being from ten to thirty feet long, and of proportionate size ; others are like various kinds of birds, or bugs, or butterflies, or quadrupeds. Some resemble men sail- ing through the air ; others are eight-sided, in imita- tion of the eight diagrams, invented by one of the earliest Chinese emperors. Almost all of those which represent animals are gaudily painted. The most common and simple ones are usually adorned with the head of the tiger or the dragon, or some idol, or some felicitous character, painted in bright colours. A foreign resident or transient visitor passing along f^i m ,;: !1 &2 China and its peoples. the street about this period often sees, at a distance in the air, what seems to be an immense bird, and he is filled with surprise and joy at having so near a view of the unusual phenomenon, until he is reminded, by its nearly stationary position and mechanical move- ments, that it is nothing but a paper kite. At other times he notices a group of large hawks, apparently hovering around a common centre, and finally remem- bers of having heard of the skill of the Chinese in elevating five or more paper hawks into the air, and of controlling them by one strong cord, to which each is attached by short and separate lines. And, again, he will behold with admiration,, half a mile distant, an immense kite, consisting, as a whole, of a large number of smaller ones, made to resemble the different blocks which constitute the game called " dominoes." From the two ends of each block extend a reed or rush four or five feet long. This presents a singularly pretty appearance. WOMAN IN CHINA. Mrs. J. G. Cockburn, of the Church of Scotland Mission at Ichang, China, writes as follows of the women of China : " The social life of China seems as if specially framed to prevent woman being a helpmeet for man. Up to the age of ten or twelve the daughters are allowed their freedom, and, where a tutor is employed in the family, are usually taught along with their brothers. Just at the time when their minds are developing and they ought to be receiving those lessons that would i fi^ hi CUINKSK LAUIKs^, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 11.25 lii|21 |Z5 itt Uii i2.2 Wtau LL4 il.6 FhotogFa]iiic Sciences Corparation ««^-V 13 WIST MAIN »TMIT WIBSTIR.N.r. I4SM ( r f > 472-4S03 4^ ^5»>>^^,^ CHIXESE BRIDE. 98 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. borne by four well-dressed bearers. The chair was preceded by men and boys bearing flags and lighted lanterns, although it was still light. Following the chair -was a band of musicians composed mostly of boys — all gaily dressed and full of fun. Then came attendants and several porters carrying bedding and household furniture enough to set up housekeeping. This was all provided by the bridegroom a month or two before the happy occasion. " We could not see the bride, as she was shut up in the closed sedan chair ; and even after her arrival at the house of the bridegroom we could not at first see her ^ace, as she was closely veiled. Just at candle-light a large number of guests had assembled, with their wed- ding garments on, to join in the festivities, when the sound of fire-crackers and music announced the ap- proach of the bride, and many voices exclaimed, * The bride is coming! the bride is coming !* " When the chair was put down near the door there was another explosion of fire-crackers and the sound of music. A lot of gilt paper is burned near the door and a small quantity of rice is sprinkled near by the entrance, as emblematic of prosperity. The bride- groom and bride never see each other's faces until the day of their marriage, or, at least, they are supposed not to have met. In many cases they do meet. There is no courting done in China by the young men, as the parents generally manage such things for them by a * go-between,' or * middle-man.' " On the occasion of which I am writing the bride reached the house of her husband weeping, for she A WEDDING IN CHINA. 99 ;«a had left her mother and the home of her youth to go among strangers, and her mother could not go with her. She was going to be the slave of her mother-in- law, and hence she leaves her mother's house full of sadness. It is not an occasion of joy to the bride — at least in many instances. It is the custom to weep, and she must do so. " The bride was dressed in a rich costume, and an elegant head-dress of several pounds' weight projected over her face, with innumerable glittering, silvery beads hanging down over the veil which covered her face. She was conducted to the reception-room, which is also the * ancestral hall ' of the family, where all the guests were assembled to see the happy pair made one. At one end of the room was a square table, on which was burning red wax candles and incense in front of a picture of the bridegroom's ancestors. It is here the bridegroom receives his bride; sometimes with a simple bow, and in some instances not the slightest notice is taken of her presence. "When the master of ceremonies calls, 'Prostrate yourselves,' they both bow three times to the picture on the wall. Then the ' go-between,' as the Chinese call him, takes two pieces of narrow, thin silk pre- pared for the occasion — one green, the other red — and each about a yard in length, and tying the two together, puts the gr'?':'n silk into the bridegroom's right hand and the red into the bride's right hand. Then they kneel and bow three times to each other. The bridegroom then follows the bride, who is being led into another room accompanied by all the guests, K * • .1»- 100 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. where he, or some one for him, removes the veil, and for the first oime in his life he looks upon the face of A CHINESE his bride. Sometimes one of the lady guests, with a long stick, removes the veil from the bride's face, and then come the free remarks of all present as to A WEDDING IN CHINA. 101 1, and ice of whether she is pretty or ugly. If she is ugly, how they pity the poor bridegroom, while he looks on with ESB nth a face, as to m 'M m WliUUlNO I'KOCKSJSION. seeming indifference, and often gets up and retires, or rushes from the room in great disappointment or in disgust. 102 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. " On some occasions two cups of wine tied together are produced and handed to each of them. When each has taken a sup the cups are exchanged and they again take a sip, and during the whole time not a word is spoken by them. "After this the bride is led out to pay her respects to all the guests, who are expected to examine her fine clothes, and especially her tiny feet. All are allowed to make just such remarks as they choose about her beauty or want of it in as plain language as the Chinese can use on such occasions. "After the bride meets all the guests and makes her bow or motion of the hand to them, she is then led out in search of the mother-in-law to pay her respects. Very often the mother-in-law pays but little attention to the bride and manifests but little interest in the arrival of her daughter-in-law, and f ten never gives a kind word of welcome to her. No jiatter how gay and happy all those who are present may be, the bride must not manifest any joy or de- light, for that would be a violation of all propriety and custom. She stands in the midst of her gay visitors like a statue, and walks about only as she is directed by her female attendant." The Chinese can do nothing without a great noise and without great display of pomp, banners and bright colours ; and their music is the most discordant thing you ever heard. You cannot tell much difference be- tween our illustrative picture and that of a funeral procession, except that, instead of the sedan chair, in the cut on pages 100 and 101, there is the funeral bier. tebUCAtlOK IN OhiNa. 103 There are the same gongs and trumpets and clang of cymbals, the same display of ceremonial umbrellas, gigantic fans, huge lanterns, and banners with bril- liant inscriptions, the same stolid and immobile ex- pressions on. the countenances. But alas, they are without the knowledge of the blessed Presence who sanctified the marriage of Cana in Galilee, and vfhp turned into joy the funerals at Nair ^nd Bethany. y^ EDUCATION IN CHINA. The Chinese are often said to be well educated. This, is true of only a small part of the people, and even those who spend years in the schools give most of their time to commit to memory long passages from their classics. Even the best educated know little about the world. On a Chinese map of the world, one that was recently bought there, the eighteen provinces of the empire are put down, but all other countries are marked simply by spots. The world is repre- sented as resting on a buffalo, and earthquakes are supposed to be caused by the motion of the beast as he shifts his position. ' Concerning the educational system Rev. Dr. Doo- little, of the American Board, writes : . " There are numerous primary schools in China [ supported by the people of a neighborhood. There . are no school-houses, schools being commonly held in a spare hall or room belonging to a private family, or in a part of the village temple. There is no village tax nor any aid from Government received for the support of schools. Each parent must pay the teacher rH-!(!J\ .' I § I 00 ISDUCATlON IN CHlKA. 105 c o CB U X for the instruction of bis children. Besides these there are private or family schools, the pupils being few and select, belonging to rich families. •' Girls are seldom sent to school or taught to read at home. Education is not regarded as fitting them to fill in a better manner the stations they are expected to occupy. Pupils do not study, in school, books on mathematics and the natural sciences, but the writings of Confucius and Mencius. These they are required to commit to memory, and recite with their backs to- wards the book. This is called ' backing the book.' They are not taught in ^'l.^v -38, but each studies the book he pleases, taking a lunger or shorter lesson according to his ability. They all study out loud, oftentimes screaming at the tops of their voices. They first learn the sounds of the characters, so as to recite them memoriter. After years of study they acquire an insight into their meaning and use. They com- mence to write when they begin going to school, tracing the patterns given them as characters on paper by means of a hair pencil and China ink. It requires an immense amount of practice to write the language correctly and rapidly. "The Chinese boy comes out of school knowing nothing of any of the scien'^es ; nothing of geography, except that heaven is round and earth square, with China in the centre; nothing of astronomy, except that a comet is a sure forerunner of calamity, and that an eclipse is caused by an attempt made by a dog to eat up the sun or moon ; nothing of other nations beyond a vague idea that there are hordes of wander- / 106 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ing, uncivilized vagabonds across the seas, who live in wretchedness and barbarism, unblessed by the light and ^lory of China, and spared in pity by the Emperor ; and nothing of religion beyond a tissue of the most absurd and childish superstitions. "Before any man is allowed to take office under the Chinese government, he is obliged to pass certain examinations in the books which are taught in the schools, and on some other subjects. If he does not succeed at one examination, he may try again and again, and it is no uncommon sight to see quite old men coming up for examination side by side with boys and young men fresh from college. " When a man has passed the examination, he has a right to wear a particular kind of button on the top of his cap, and by this button he is known to every one who sees him as a scholar or learned man.'' LITERARY EXAMINATIONS. The following account of these famous examina- tions is abridged from the account given by Rev. Dr. Doolittle : The provincial examination pavilion, where the graduates of the first degree who desire to compete for the second degree assemble once in every three years, is surrounded by a wall, having back doors or gates, and two very large and high doors on the south side. In the centre, running from north to south, is a wide paved passage. On the two sides of this pas- sage there are, in the aggregate, nearly ten thousand apartments, or rather cells, for the accommodation of I u VILLAGE SCH00LMA8TEH, CHINA. 108 CHINA AND ITS FEOPLG. ■I' the competitors. These are arranged in rows in a straight line extending back to the walls, and covered with a tiled roof. Each cell is a little higher than a man's head, three feet wide, having no door and no window. An alley about three or four feet wide ex- tends along in front of the row of apartments. The cells are open to the alley from top to bottom, letting in wind and rain in stormy weather as well as light and air. The furniture of each cell consists simply of three or four pieces of wide boards which make a Seat and a table, on whi :h he may curl up and sleep. Such are the miserable quarters where the educated talent of the province is expected to congregate and spend several days. The most wealthy as well as the poorest in the province, the man of seventy and the stripling of twenty years, must occupy one of them while competing for the second degree. Around the premises there are two walls, distant from each other about twenty feet. During the ex- amination of candidates this space is patrolled night and day by a large number of soldiers, in order to prevent any communication between the competitors inside and their friends outside. The competitor takes in with him the rice and coal to cook it, meats, or whatever condiments he pleases, cakes, candles, bedding, etc., to use for two or three days during the first session of the examination. Not a single line of printed or written matter is he allowed to carry in, lest it should be used as a help in the preparation of his tasks. The number of candidates is usually from six to ■: Ml LITERARY EXAMINATIONS. 109 eight thousand, who, together with the three or four thousand other men necessarily employed, make up the aggregate of the occupants of the two premises to some ten or twelve thousand men — enough to consti- tute a formidable army or a respectable city. The great outside doors of the premises occupied by the officers,^ as well as the doorj of the premises occupied by the students, are shut, locked, and sealed up in a very formal manner as soon as all who are to take any part in the examination exercises have entered. Both egress and ingress at these doors are equally forbidden. When the doors have been shut for the last time, four themes for the essays and the poem are given out, and the students know for the first time what are the subjects on which they are to try their talent at composition. After the candidates have spent two days in the examining hall, the doors are unlocked and the seals of the essays are broken under a salute of three cannon, the beating of drums, and the play- ing of instrumental music, all designed to honour those who come out. A list of the successful candidates is made out and posted on a tower forty or fifty feet from the ground for the inspection of the public. It often occurs that during the examinations some persons are taken suddenly ill, and die before the doors are allowed to be opened. In such a case it is contrary to law and custom for the body of the de- ceased to be carried out of the arena through the gates. It must be passed over the wall y 110 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. The successful competitor must worship "heaven and earth," as an indication of his thanks for the honour put upon his family. Afterwards he must, for a similar reason, worship the ancestral tablets of his family. When a graduate of the first degree has kept up his regular attendance at the examinations for the second until he has arrived at about the Jii^e of eighty PAVILION OF KXAMINATION HALL. years without being able to attain the much-coveted literary rank, as sometimes occurs, the Emperor pre- sents the aged scholar with the title of Kujin, in honour of his long literary struggles. One of the methods invented by the Chinese by which they fancy they perform acts of merit is that of engraving and distributing books and tracts ad- monishing the age. A vast amount of this work is done ever^- year, principally by literary men an4 LITERARY EXAMINATIONS. Ill candidates for promotion in literary rank, or by men luOnnected with the administration of the affairs of large temples. The object in view is not a benevo- lent one, prompted by the desire to do good to others, but a selfish and personal one, terminating in the donor and -his family. As a sample of the sentiments of these moral books, designed to admonish the age, a liberal translation of these good words is given : Ttvelve Sentences of Good Words. 1. You should not destroy your parents. 2. You should not quarrel with your brothers. 3. You should not indulge in depraved and bad acts. 4. You should not utter injurious words. 5. You should not drown female infants. 6. You should not wound the conscience. 7. You should not obtain money by false pretences. 8. You should not beat down articles below the proper price. 9. You should not destroy animal life. 10. You should not be remiss in doing good (i.e., meritorious) works. 11. You should not throw down on the ground ker- nels of rice or any lettered paper. 12. You should not eat the flesh of the dog:, nor beef. It is worthy of specification that these examples are all negative — telling what should not be done. They do not positively include any virtue — only by inference. While some of the sentiments are highly important, how trivial, as well as false, are others of these " good words " so l^-uded and so much admired, f: 112 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. •M ■ Missionarii's universally regard the distribution of these books and tracts briefly described above, and the respect professedly paid to their sentiments, as great obstacles to the reception of the gospel. The Chinese usuoUy apply the same term to them and to the books and tracts circulated by missionaries from abroad — " volumes which admonish or exhort the ajje." Among the national characteristics of the people is the respect shown to paper on which Chinese charac- ters have been written, printed or stamped. Small baskets, holding about a peck, are found everywhere, hung up by the wayside, on houses and shops, de- signed to hold any lettered waste paper which the people in the vicinity happen to have. A society, called " Lettered Paper Society," having from eight or ten to a hundred or more members, exists quite numerously, the object of which is to secure the Chinese characters from irreverent use. Generally each society erects a furnace in which to burn to ashes the waste paper its agents may collect. The ashes of this paper are carefully put into earthen vessels and kept until a large quantity is collected. They are then transferred into baskets, and carried in procession, attended by the members of the society in their best apparel, through the principal streets of the city or suburbs, to the banks of the river, where they are either poured out into the water and allowed to float down into the ocean, or placed in a boat and taken several miles down the river, or, as some say, near its mouth, before they are emptied into the stream. A band of musicians is hired to accompany of as to IS to to in in the to ihe ny OD o 3 w a ^^ • 1 iBjMll^ ^^^^ 1 w^MMk^ j^BBtv^^BI^^^^^^ I 1 JBSjl 1 1^ C Pm • : HH ■■J m Oi mi Hi r Tra 1 1 1 n f mi S: 1^ ^MM H 1 «ir lu^Sz. kU^^L 1911 M^^l^tS IV^lH 1 wfi,wMBWMl!llil 4ik ■ ■'MlHaoTJl 1 ® — Ill jt < i pr 4 6 /• 114 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. the procession, who play on their instruments as they pass along the streets. He who goes about and collects, washes and burns lettered paper, has (ive thousand merits, adds twelve years to his life, will become honoured and wealthy, and his children and grandchildren will be virtuous and filial. There are also miscellaneous works of charity and merit, as the following : — Hot and medicated tea for travellers ; coffins for poor families ; wadded garments for the needy in winter; refraining from doing or saying anything to prevent a contemplated betrothal ; a lantern suspended in the street at night ; repairing bridges and roads ; in case of a calamity or famine, to distribute rice, porridge and cakes to the destitute; or to give rice to widows and orphans. The gentry and the rich at times sell rice at less than market price to the poor. , The following are specimens of terse Chinese prov- erbs : — He that has wealth and wine has many friends. An upright heart does not fear demons. Seeing an opportunity to make money, one should think of righteousness. A covetous heart is never satisfied. To have a bad child is not as bad as to have none. He who does according; to heaven will be preserved ; he who opposes heaven will perish. According to heaven and according to fate, not according to man. The doc- trines of heaven are not selfish. True doctrine cannot injure the true scholar. Of ten thousand evils lewd- ness is the head. Of one hundred virtues filial piety is the first. MEDICINE. 115 The common speech of the people is often exceed- ingly vile. " Their throat is an open sepulchre ; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." It is one of the most common occurrences in the public streets for two or more Chinese, or parties of Chinese, to bandy back and forth the most vulgar language, and utter the most dreadful curses on each other. The Chinese have a saying that their " mouths are exceedingly filthj'," and no one who has acquired their dialect can have the least doubt of its truth. They have another saying that the " heart of woman is superla- tively poisonous," meaning that the language uttered by females when cursing one another is more virulent and filthy than that used by men. / MEDICINE. A lady who has been a medical missionary in China gives the following account of the native doctors : "A Chinese doctor does not study and go through a course as we do. Any man becomes a physician when he pleases. An ordinary man, if he can cure any particular disease, hangs out his shingle, declares himself, and starts out to kill or cure. They pre- tend to discover all forms of disease by the pulse, of which they discriminate thirty-two varieties. For in stance, they claim that a certain kind of pulse indi- cates disease of the liver, and another kind affection of the heart ; but they have no idea of the internal organs, and no knowledge of anatomy whatever. They have not the slightest conception where the i 116 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. i i spleen or smaller organs are, and of course their treat- ment is quackery. "One ot* their greatest remedies is to pinch the patient violently. One often sees patients, recovering from attacks, covered all over with purple marks where they have been pinched until nearly dead with pain. Another very common treatment practised is to cauterize. I have seen bodies with the skin fear- fully burned by the doctors in trying to cure them of fits. There is no system. Each physician gives his patient anything which his fancy may dictate. The medicine, strange to say, is changed to suit the patient, the doctors seeming to think that costly medicine must perforin a cure, and the costlier it is the quicker the cure. The richer the patient the more he has to pay for his medicine, and we have even seen solutions of gold and silver given. " They have great faith in the virtues of the fossil bones of tigers, petrified crabs, pearls and deers' horns ; while powdered dragons' teeth often figure among the ingredients of a mixture. They have no idea of the true nature of disease, and it is by no means uncom- mon to hear a native physician gravely ascribe an epidemic or a single case of disease to a disturbance of the equilibrium between the yam and the yueng, the universally prevalent male and female powers of nature. The influence of the planets, of evil spirits, and of spiteful men are all, in the opinion of Chinese physicians, potent causes of physical maladies. But it is in cases where surgical skill and knowledge is demanded that the Chinese practitioner moot miser- CHINESE PUNISHMENTS. 117 ably breaks down. He has no idea of the metho all a mother's loving pride. Many of the boat population are Catholics, and the pictures of the Virgin Mary or St. Peter have replaced those of the Goddess of Mercy and Sailor Goddess. The transition seemed easy. " Heathenism always degrades woman. There is no exception to this rule, so far as I know, and therefore it is not surprising to find in heathen lands the heavy burdens resting apon woman's shoulders. I myself once saw a woman rowing a boat much like that in the picture on page 129, with a babe but four days old tied to her back, while her husband smoked hap- pily in the other end of the boat." II 111 ii ITINERANT TRADESMEN. China is the land of itinerant tradesmen. Barbers, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and a host of other useful members of society have a fashion of packing their jimplements into surprisingly small space and taking / 12S CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. themselves off to interior towns, villages and farms, where, as may be nobody has visited them for a long while, their skill is in demand for days together. Perhaps none of these tradesmen are in greater demand than the barbers, of whom we have a repre- sentative in one of our cuts. Nowhere does fashion show more favour to this class of workmen than in China. From the time a baby boy is a month old his head may be said to be entirely in the hands of his barber. Durincj babyhood, and until he arrives at the dignity of a queue, his head must be shaved, except the grotesque little patches of hair which are allowed to remain in the most unexpected places. After the queue is permitted to grow, the entire front of the head is kept smoothly shaven. Of course, a large staff of barbers is required to keep China's millions in " good form," and it is not an unusual sight to see a Chinaman calmly seated by the wayside or in the market-place quietly submitting to a viijorous head-dressini?. These travelling "artists" carry their equipments balanced over the shoulder on a long bamboo pole. On one end hang the small charcoal stove, water- boiler and wash-basin ; on the other end hangs a little seat which is a marvel of economy of space. Not only does it afford the customer a seat, but its little drawers furnish receptacles for money, razors, combs and false hair. If the barber happens to be a good story-teller, his chances for doing a thriving business are greatly increased, as the Chinese thirst for stories is intense. This trait is turned to good account by ITINERANT TRADESMEN. 129 missionaries, who always find it easy to collect a crowd of hearers who listen — at least with the outward ear — to the story of the Gospel. See cut of barber, p. 135. The travelling restaurant is another of these itiner- ant trades. . In the cut given on page 132 not only CHINESE SAMPAN. may the restaurant but the proprietor and one of his customers, be seen. The man with the broad- brimmed hat is the restaurant keeper, the other is the customer, and in front of the two is the restaurant, or eating saloon. This last is not only table, dishes, cooking uten^-ils and furnace, but contains also a supply of '^1 r '. ■\ "ill :| i 130 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. provisions and fuel. It is a complete outfit, and is now seen in active operation. The round basket at the right is the provision store. Within the square box on the other side may be seen another similar basket. Above it is the furnace, on which the food is cooked. The pole between the two boxes or baskets is used for carrying them. These men go about the streets and travel from village to village, usually trying to be at the market towns on market days, doing what restaurant keepers do — provide people with meals. They are ready at almost any time to get up a good warm meal in a few minutes. The illustration on page 136 shows a fruit vender in one of the northern provinces. As will be seen, he is tolerably well equipped against the cold. EARLY MISSIONS IN CHINA. The vast empire of China early became the scene of missionary operations. It is indeed affirmed by tradition that the apostle Thomas preached Chris- tianity in China and built a church in Pekin. It is also said that the Syrian Christians, or Nestorians, had missions in China as eaily as 505. No legend or ruins of these churches, however, remain to bear wit- ness of their work. A stone tablet, however, of date 781 A.D., still stands in the ancient capital of China, which records the establishment of the "illustrious religion" in that city. Nestorian churches are men- tioned by travellers as late as the fourteenth century ; but their es^tinction l^ads to the conclusion that, likQ ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSI the church at Sardis, they were all d had a name to live. U^a; 131 vhiie they ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. The Roman Catholic Church began missionary work in China in 1292, when Jol.in De Monte Corvino reached Pekin. He laboured alone for eleven vears, when Clement V. sent him seven assistants and made him archbishop. He translated the Psalms and New Testament into Mongolian, and it is reported that at his death he had " converted more than thirty thou- sand infidels." But at this distance of time it is im- possible to ascertain what these conversions really amounted to. Certain it is that after the expulsion of the Mongol rulers from China in 1869 nothing sur- vived of these numerous churches nor of their bishops. The next attempt was made by the celebrated Fran9ois Xavier in 1552, but he died just after land- ing, and China remained until 1580 without a Chris- tian teacher. Then came Fathers Ricci and Ruggiero, Jesuit missionaries, who entered upon their work with much zeal. Ricci was disposed to gloss over the idolatry involved in the Chinese practice of ancestor worship by making some compromise, and the wor- ship of Confucius was tolerated as veneration due a great sage and legislator. For one hundred and fifty years the Jesuits flour- ished, but at length controversies between Jesuits, Franciscans and Dominicans about the name for God and about ancestral worship, with other causes, led to the expulsion of the Jesuits and prolonged persecu- li* 81' i;! ill;!,, ( ; i ii II I ; i ■•i - ■ • I- TRAVELLING RESTAURANT. ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 133 /| tion of the converts. Some of their foreicfr. mission- aries reinuinecl, anEOPLfi. asked to see them, the cunning Emperor had the strik- ing part removed, so as she would not take a fancy to them. "After that the keepers were anxious for Father Ricci to stop in Pekin, because they were afraid the clocks might get out of order, and if they were not able to mend them their sovereign might take the notion to chop off their heads." The Roman Catholics report that they have in China Proper 471 European missionaries and 483,403 members, and in Manchuria, Mongolia and Thibet 143 European missionaries and 33,382 members, a total of 614 missionaries and 516,785 members. They have lately suffered severely from persecution, especially in the Se-Chuen Province. PROTESTANT MISSIONS — ROBERT MORRISON. The first Protestant missionary to China was the Rev. Robert Morrison, of Scotland, who sailed from London to that country in January, 1807, as a repre- sentative of the London Missionary Society. It is perhaps scarce too much to say that he was the great- est benefactor of the four hundred millions of China that the teeming populuticn of that vast Empire has ever known. He first, almost unaided, translated the Word of God into a vernacular more widely under- stood than any other in the world,* and opened the Gospel to more than one-third of the human race. * Altho'igh there are some two hundred different dialects spoken in China, yet the same written characters are understood in all; as the Arabic numerals, though called by different names, are understood by all the nations in Europe. ..,i-^ tROtESTANT MISSIONS. 135 ihe m e- is .t- ina las ;he ler- ihe Lce. His labours were the foundation of all future evan- gelization, and upon this foundation all succeeding missionaries have had to build. The life record of this pioneer missionary is a conspicuous example of the great results which may be achieved by energy and patient* devotion of character in humble depen- dence upon God. Like the apostolic Carey, Morrison has conferred dignity on a humble origin and on a youth of lowly toil. If not, like the former, a shoemaker, he was the next thino' to it — a maker of lasts. Thoucfh born in Northumberland (1782) he was of Scottish descent, and exhibited throughout his life much of the charac- teristic energy of his race. After scant schooling at Newcastle, he was apprenticed to his father at a very early age to learn the trade of last-making. Even when at work at his lowly trade, his Bible or Latin grammar was fastened before him, that he might feed the hunger of his soul for sacred and secular knowledge. Before he was out of his teens he was, amid such disadvantages, studying Hebrew, Greek and theology under the guidance of a Presbyterian minister of the town. He had early given his heart to God, and wished to devote his life to the Christian ministry. He devoted himself with energy to his studies. But though delighting in his books, there came to hio soul with irresistible power the imploring wail of the perishing millions of mankind. He felt that he must become a missionary to heathen lands. The vast population of China was felt to present a 'A I 'Hi !:\ n I',; il n / 136 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ripe harvest for the Gospel sickle. The difficulties, too, were great enough for the most heroic courage. Not only was the Chinese Empire closed against the '' outer barbarians," but so hostile was the Home Gov- PKUIT VENDER, NORTHERN CHINA. ^->?v'-'i«^»^j ernment to missionary effort that it was impossible to procure passage for a missionary in a British ship. He was therefore unable to take passage direct to ' China, but had to sail to America and round Cape Horn. PROTESTJ^NT MISSIONS. 137 As Morrison was about to sail, the ship-owner, a somewhat skeptical man of business, said, " Now, Mr. Morrison, do you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire ?" "No, sir," replied the missionary, in a voice of un- shaken conliUence, " I do not ; but I expect that God will." After nine luonths he reached Canton, September, 1807. He found that his difficulties had but begun. To the perplexities of the language were added the jealousies and oppositions of the natives, of the British residents, and of the Portuguese Romish priests. But his faith rose above every obstacle. " China," he said, "may seem walled around against the admission of the Word of God; but we have as good ground to believe that all its bulwarks shall fall as Joshua had respecting the walls of Jericho." In his willingness to become all things to all men that he might by all means save some, he adopted for a time the garb and customs of the Chinese. He shaved his beard and wore the national queue ; allowed his nails to grow long, and acquired the difficult art of eating with chopsticks. But finding that this ex- treme conformity did not conciliate the natives, he soon abandoned it and resumed his European garb. He devoted himself with enthusiasm to a mastery of the language, conversed constantly in it with the Chinese servants, and even employed it in his private prayers. Such energy would conquer any obstacles, and he soon became, like Carey at Calcutta, translator to the East India Company. 1; !' i'i I I m i \ ■A 138 CHINA AND ITS tfiOPLE. In consequence of the jealousies of the native authorities, Morrison was compelled to pursue his labours as student and translator with the utmost caution and privacy. " We get a glimpse," says his biographer, *• of the prudent and indefatigable mis- sionary living in a cellar below the roadway, with a dim earthenware lamp lighted before him, and a folio volume of Matthew Henry's Commentary screening the flame both from the wind and from observation." In seven years the whole of the New Testament was translated, and the East India Company sent out a presp and materials for printing the work. The same year iJ rrison baptized his first convert, Tsae Ako, who had .;een his assistant in his work. The first- fruit of a glorious harvest of souls filled the mission- ary's heart with joy. In five vears more the whole Bible was translated, and, by the aid of the British and Foreign Bible So- ciety, was published in twenty-one portly volumes — the result of about eighteen years of missionary toil. The East India Company's estimate of the value of his linguistic labours may be judged from the fact that it expended the sum of $75,000 in printing his Chinese Dictionary, a work which explains some forty thou- sand characters and which, next to the translation of the Scriptures, is the great work of the missionary's life. In 1824 Morrison revisited his native land, to find himself everywhere received with the greatest honours. He was presented to the Sovereign, to whom he gave a copy of the Chinese Scriptures. He of to iHe CHINESE bAUUEU '1 • I I It I. I i ] li'lj IK • 140 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. remained two years in England, " raost of the time/ he says, "in stage-coaches and- inns," diligently en- deavouring to enlist public sympathy in the work to which he had devoted his life — the evangelization of China. He then returned to his field of toil, " amid failing health and family afflictions and manifold dis- couragements," and by preaching, translating and printing, sought to set up Christ's kingdom in that land of dense, dark heathenism. As an illustration of the extent to which the press was then used may be mentioned the fact that in twenty-six years after his issue of the first portion of the Scriptures, no less than 751,703 copies of works, consisting of 8,000,000 pages of tracts, hymn-books, catechisms, and of the Word of God, were printed and circulated in the Chinese and Malay languages. " Yet," he says, " these seemed not more in comparison to the vast extent of ground to be cultivated, than would be a handful of seed cast upon the mountains of Lebanon." At the comparatively early age of fifty-two he ceased from his labours, having laid the foundation of a greater work for the heathen world than prob- ably any other man since apostolic times. When Morrison entered China in 1807 he was alone — the only Protestant missionary among 400,000,000 people, or about one-third the population of the earth. He lived to welcome Dutch, American and English missionaries to that vast field. Our Lord miraculously multiplied the loaves and fishes to feed the perishing multitude by the ^ea of Qalilee; but we have no right to expect a miracle •f^ PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 141 to ffive the bread of life to the perishing millions of China, when the Churches of Christendom have both men and means to do the work, and when the doing of it would bring a reward of richest spiritual bless- ing to themselves. The money spent in intoxicating liquors and tobacco, to say nothing of the millions lavished in war and squandered in fashionable frivoli- ties, would give the Gospel to every creature of the globe before the close of the present century. " Only forty years ago," writes a Chinese mission- ary, "it was a crime for a foreigner to learn the Chinese language, a crime to teach it to a foreigner, a crime for a foreigner to print anything in it. No public preaching was tolerated. To address an indi- vidual or two, with fear and trembling, in an inner apartment, with the doors securely locked, is all that Dr. Morrison could do, and he retained his position only by acting as interpreter for the East India Com- pany. In 1842 five ports were opened to the for- eigners. In 1858 nine more were, opened. But the interior was hermetically sealed. Now the whole Empire is open, and the missionary may go to every province, city, town and hamlet in the land." " This," says another missionary, " in view of the history of the past, is a most thrilling appeal to Chris- tian lands to come and reap the wide harvests of God. Every province and city and home and heart is ac- cessible. What a tremendous duty rests on the young men of this decade now in our seminaries and colleges and academies ! What a solemn, what an inspiring, call is this to u3 to see to it that men and means are \\ M\ » PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 143 abundantly provided for this prodigious work ! Here are four hundred millions of souls sweeping on toward a Christless death and hopeless eternity with every setting sun, with every flying hour. Every genera- tion this mighty tide of human life is swallowed up in death's oblivion ; three hundred and thirty millions in thirty-three years, ten millions every year, eight hundred thousand every month, twenty-six thousand every day, a thousand every hour. The mind stands appalled at this ceaseless, fearful flow of human souls out beyond the reach of Christian faith and hope." Shall we not, with greater earnestness than ever, pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest ? Shall we not rise to the height of our privilege and obligation, and labour more zeal- ously, and give more liberally than ever we did, to hasten the time when, in a redeemed and regenerated world, the Saviour shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied ? The work of missions in China, from 1807 to 1842, was preparatory, and carried on chiefly from stations outside of the country, as any attempt to interfere with the religion of the people was considered a crime punishable by death. In August, 1842, a treaty was made between the Chinese and British Governments, by which Hong- Kong was ceded to Great Britain, and the ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ning-po and Shanghai were opened, giving foreigners the privilege of residing there and erecting churches, The Missionary Socie- i»i I j.i 144 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. I I I! i! i iii ties took advantage of this, and ere long had some missionaries in each city. MISSION METHODS. Dr. S. Wells Williams, late Secretary of the United States Legation, Pekin, writes thus of missionary methods in China: " Connected with the Mission was usually a hospital, where diseases and wounds were attended to by a trained physician as far as the means allowed ; and the crowd of patients became also a company of audi- tors to hear the message of salvation. The first insti- tution of this kind was opened at Canton in 1835, by Dr. Peter Parker, and has since been imitated with uniform success at many other places. The Canton hospital has received nearly a million patients since it began, and, like the others, its operations have been aided by the donations of foreign residents in China. "Printing offices were also opened in three or four central stations, and four or five fonts of movable metallic types (each containing nearly eight thousand sorts), cut and cast, with which printing could be cheaply done. These types have also furnished the natives with facilities for issuing newspapers, thus incidentally starting one of the powerful agencies of their education. The printing offices and foundries at Shanghai, Hong-Kong, Canton, Foochow and Pekin have issued millions of copies of works upon religion, science, history and geography, besides many copies of the Bible in whole or in part, nearly all of which were written or translated by the missionaries. Their I ' Wf^^TTTJT^FWW^T^ CHIKE8E CLOTHES MENDER. 10 li ! |i ■ l!'i» 146 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. V quality, variety and suitableness vary greatly, of course, but all tend to one point — the explanation and enforcement of God's truth and works. " In addition to purely Chinese books, about three hundred others have been printed at these offices — dictionaries, vocabularies, phrase books, grammars, and numerous separate treatises of a more scientific character, besides periodic publications in the English as well as Chinese language. From all these sources the natives have learned more in thirty-five years about God and their fellowmen, and their duties to each, than they had previously learned since they were a people. " In schools and seminaries the labours of Protestant Missions have kept pace with the means at their com- mand. Through these schools and the public preach- ing the missionaries have aimed more directly tr *ry out Christ's command, ' Teaching them to obse. _ cill things whatsoever I have commanded you.* Calling in the aid of native converts to supplement their own teachings, it has been shown, as it was in apostolic times, that no agency can take the place of the living voice in arousing dull intellects, vivifying dead con- sciences, and leading men to the cross of Christ. In a country where common schools are within the reach and means of even the very poor, it is not necessary to spend time and money in extensive plans of educa- tion. The children of converts are, however, gathered under the care of the Church, and parents thereby taught their new responsibilities in training their ofi- spring in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. MISSION METHODS. 147 I '( Chinese education does not include ji^irls in ordinary cases ; and the ouorujies of the ladies who have in re- cent years joined the missions are much directed to the traininjj of crirls. " The open door of th(» wayside chapel, where usually stands a foreii^n or native teacher to invite the passers- by to enter and hear the Word, is known in the neigh- bourhood or village as one of the common tokens of their presence. Curiosity, for a while, draws the resi- dents and strangers to fill the house. Out of the hundreds who hear little or much, with more or less comprehension of the tiuth, some are led to inquire more, and their hearts become the honest ground where fruit grows up to eternal life. But everybody at first is aroused, and learns something of the for- eigner and his message. " It is difficult for a stranger to understand the utter ignorance of the great body of natives of everything pertaining to other lands ; but a few years* chapel preaching in a town has the result of removing much of this ignorance and prejudice. The Divine declara- tion, 'The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple,' is found to be constantly verified. The erection of large and expen- sive churches at foreign expense has been usually discouraged by Protestants. Such is not the plan of the Roman missions. An imposing edifice for the ceremonies of their Church by its bishops and priests is erected, and thus becomes a centre to attract and hold their converts, around which they group their schools and seminaries, and provide retreats for their i > I A'\ !l '1/ m CHRISTIAN CHINAMAN PKEACHINO. 'i^ A NATIVE MINISTRY. 149 missionaries. Some oi: these establishments have grown to large dimensions, and prepare hundreds of catechists and native clergymen." , A NATIVE MINISTRY. The great work of evangelizing China must be car- ried on largely by the Chinese themselves. All the Churches in Christendom can scarcely hope to do more than furnish sufficient missionaries to plant the germs of the Gospel in diiferent parts ot that vast empire, in the hope that God will raise up native missionaries to carry on the good work ; and this hope has not been disappointed. There have been several native mis- sionaries who have proved very eloquent and success- ful in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their countrymen. The picture on the opposite page shows one of these standing in a doorway, and proclaiming to a group in the street the unsearchable riches of Christ. They seem to be very intelligent and docile hearers, and doubtless the seed thus sown in many places is followed with very blessed results. On the subject of a native ministry the Rev. Dr. Doolittle, for many years missionary to China, writes as follows : "The native helper has many advantages over the foreigners. He can move noiselessly among his coun- trymen without attracting notoriety or exciting curi- osity. He dresses as thry dress, he eats as they eat, and there is nothing in his external appearance to prejudice them against him, or to arouse their cupidity. " The necessary expenses of the native helper are i I I (i I: I i " ! :\ \\ . (.,,!■ r: i ■ 1 ^Tl' [ I ili! 1 If 160 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. much less than those of the foreign missionary. The monthly stipend of the former varies from eight to twelve or fifteen dollars, which includes house-rent, his own board and clothing, and the support of a small family. On itinerating excursions into the country his expenses also are comparatively small, while his efficiency and usefulness are great. " The foreigner is liable to many and long interrup- tions in his labours because of disease or the effects of disease. The fact that he is not a native, and not accustomed from his infancy to the diet, the climate, etc., of China, militates against his activity and his usefulness. He cannot endure exposure to heats, damps and the climate changes as well as a native can who is habituated to the changes of temperature and the peculiarities of food and water in the section of the empire where he has lived all his life. " The missionary must spend much of his time in learning the language, spoken and written, and, at the best, even after many years of study, has an im- perfect, not to say inadequate, knowledge of it. The native helper speaks his mother tongue. While both are in a certain sense always learners of the local dialect and the written language, the missionary can seldom hope to compete with an able and educated native helper in the fluency, vigour and aptness with which he uses the Chinese language, either by the voice 01 the pen. " The missionary may never expect to acquire such a perfect and useful knowledge of the superstitions and idolatries prevalent in China as the native Christian 1 II RKV. WONG KONG, CHAIRMAN OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHINA MISSION, yiRST CHINESE ORDAINED DEACON. 1' , '■ \'i ■ '• 1 ' 1 i . Ml ' 1 i ii>^ ; ' i I i; !i ' 158 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. Missionary Society. On hearing that his offer of service was accepted, he began to arrange his plans for future action. These plans involved his removal to Canton, where he believed there was a more ample and appropriate sphere of labour. Having hired apartments, as before, Mr. Piercy continued his study of the language, and soon began to hold religious services for the benefit of the natives. Soon after his arrival at Canton he writes : " As to the field before me, I need not say it is large. I can look two miles to the west, and two and a half to the north ; and in this small space are crowded the abodes and persons of four hundred thousand human beings. Through every street of this given space I can pass unmolested, and in many cases I can enter shops and leave a tract or speak a few minutes with the people. They come into the preaching-room, and, in many instances, pay close attention to the speaker. The idolatry and temple rites have no hold on their hearts, but as seasons of show and mirth, of amuse- ment and relaxation from business." Other missionaries were soon sent out. A boys' school was commenced under auspicious circum- stances. The work of the Mission was going on hope- fully when the commencement of hostilities between Great Britain and the Empire of China seriously in- terrupted the work, and obliged the missionaries to take refuge in Macao, in the month of November, 1856. But during the period of their comparative exile the brethren were not idle ; they continued the study WESLETAN MISSION. 159 of the language with unabated application, and held meetings for religious instruction and worship with the people as they had opportunity. It was during their sojourn at Macao that three of their earliest converts, who had accompanied them, were admitted to the Church by baptism, after long training and a .full conviction of their sincerity and soundness in the faith of the Gospel. For nearly two years they were obliged to continue in exile, during which period they held four meetings weekly for the benefit of the Chinese by whom they were surrounded at Macao. At the same time they were constantly employed in study and in distributing tracts and copies of the Scriptures. At length, toward^ the close of 1858, the success of the Allied Powers having secured the objects for which the war was undertaken, the restoration of peace was followed by the re-occupation of Canton as a station of the Society. From the commencement of the work considerable difficulty had been experienced in obtaining suitable missionary premises, which had in every instance to be hired, as the Society was not in a position to erect buildings of their own. But in 1860, by a munifi- cent legacy of £10,000, especially for the India and Chinp Missions, the Committee were enabled to make arrangements for the erection of commodious chapels, schools and mission premises in different parts of Canton. As the new places of worship were opened from time to time, a fresh impulse was given to the work, which continued to advance slowly but gradu- ally in all its departments. Ii II i|: m i ni. ii i: ' ■i" : ;; i ■ '■■ r|' ! 1 : iJI WESLEYAN MISSION. 161 The China Mission having now become well estab- lished, the work advanced from ye a* to year, if not rapidly, yet with marked improveinent and uniform- ity. Ten years after its establishment Mr. Piercy writes thus : V ^^ hat obstacles has Divine Providence removed during these ten years ! Now all the country is open before us. Men are wanted who will give themselves to the work of evangelizing this country in its length and breadth, who are willing to leave the old posts and penetrate into new localities in the very heart of the empire, and encounter the difficul- ties of opening up new fields of labour." • In connection with the new Mission at Han-kow a new element was brought into operation, as an im- portant auxiliary to evangelistic work, namely, the dispensing of medicine to the afflicted. The Chinese have a high opinion of the skill and benevolence of Europeans, and they will make application for their medicine when nothing else would induce them to come in contact with the western strangers. The plan adopted was to dispense medicine gratuitously to the poor, and to give spiritual counsel and instruc- tion to the invalids, as far as practicable. A commo- dious hospital was accordingly fitted up in connec-. tion with the mission premises, and days appointed for the application of patients. When the poor suf- ferers were assembled, one of the missionaries, already acquainted with the language, delivered an address before the doctor commenced the examination of each case respectively ; and whilst he was afterwards busily engaged in the dispensary, conversations were con- 11 'I ■ 1. 1 !1 !i i I \-M t • I 1: 162 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. tinued with the waiting patients in the adjoining chapel. The people distinctly understood that in con- nection with the healing of the body the missionaries sought the salvation of the soul ; a.id yet they came together in large numbers, and not only received with gratitude the medicine prescribed, but often listened with devout attention to the instructions given. During the first year 18,764 patients were actually registered, with others admitted irregularly. The persons applying for medical aid were of every rank and degree, from the haughty grandee to the poor beggar in. the streets, and from every province in the empire. Much suffering was relieved, many diseases cured, some lives preserved, and the moral effect pro- duced was, in many instances, very gratifying, con- sidering the strong prejudices and other obstacles which had to be encountered in the prosecution of the work. Some who had received benefit from the medi- cine of the missionaries began to regard them as their friends and benefactors, attended to their religious counsel, were broaght under the renewing influence of Divine grace, and there is reason to hope that they will be their "joy, and the crown of their rejoicing, in the day of the Lord Jesus." The Wesleyan Mission to China is in active and vigorous operation, and in li'il its departments — evan- gelical, educational and medical — it has already been a means of both temporal and spiritual good to many ; and with God's blessing on the zealous and persever- ing labours of His servants, still greater success may be expected in time to come, i> I '^l Ml Hi. I' :'!' 'J jr 1 CHmESli liOV, \l 164 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. The Wesleyan Missionary Report of 1893 records 55 chapels and other preaching places, 22 mission- aries, and 46 local preachers, besides 82 catechists and teachers and 10 "Joyful News" evangelists. There were also 1,295 native converts and 158 on trial, and 383 pupils in Mission schools. From the same Report the following items of work in China are gleaned : " Our work at Fatshan hospital has been carried on without interruption during the year. There have been upwards of eight thousand attendances of pa- tients at the hospital. More than eight hundred visits have been paid to private patients at their homes. Nearly two hundred surgical operations have been performed, and though these include some of the most serious operations known to modern surgery, we are thankful to say that all the patients operated upon in the hospital during the year have recovered. By this successful treatment of disease we are winning the respect and gratitude of the people in the town and neighbourhood, and are thus preparing the way for the successful preaching of the Gospel. But, more than this, we have in the hospital itself unique opportunities of direct evangelical work, and these have not been neglected. Conversions have taken place during the year. Drunkards, sorcerers and gamblers are so changed that mothers and wives gratefully testify to the power of the Gospel, and neighbours and friends wonderingly acknowledge -a change which they can- not understand. There have also been conversions in the families of our members. Mothers, wives and brothers, who formerly persecuted their Christian METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS. 165 relatives and evaded the missionary, now join in wor- ship. Of these some are enrolled as candidates for baptism, while several have been received into Church fellowship by the rite of baptism." METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS IN CHINA. "There are now in China under the direction~and Koocnow, care of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis- copal Church," writes the Rev. G. W. Woodall, " four fully organized Missions, of which we will now give a sketch in their historical order : "1. The Foochow Mission. — At the date of r- organization, 1847, there was not a representative of ?lHi li 111 ! J "itll I 1 m I- 166 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. I Dill American Methodism in all Asia; but the gates of China had been so providentially thrown open to the world, that our denomination could not help seeing the index finger of God directing their attention to this great field, ' white unto the harvest.' Together with the ' open door,' circumstances at home combined to convince the Church of its duty. In the spring of 1835 the * Missionary Lyceum ' of the Wesley an Uni- versity at Middletown, Conn., thought seriously of establishing a Mission in the interior of Africa, but before coming to any decision the discussion assumed broader proportions, and they asked, * What country now presents the most promising field for missionary exertion ?* Immediately the claims of Africa seemed eclipsed by the magnificent opportunity to enter the gates of the Chinese Empire. It was resolved that our Church should at once enter this field with both missionaries and a press. "It was resolved also to appoint a committee to prepare an address to the Church on the subject. B. F. Teflft, D. P. Kidder and E. Wentworth were selected. Their work was well done. Their paper, three columns long, appeared in the Christian Advocate of May 15, 1835. It set forth most vividly the field, its claims upon the Church, and the prospects of rich harvests to be garnered into the kingdom of God. In the same month in which the article appeared the anni- versary of the Missionary Society was held, and Dr. Figk, as by inspiration, made a most impressive and eloquent speech, recommending a mission to China and proposing an immediate subscription for the pur- METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS. 167 pose. One gentleman offered to be one of ten to give $10,000 for the inauguration and support of the work ; $1,450 was actually subscribed, and on May 20 the Board recommended, on the strength of this, that the Bishops select and appoint a suitable man to go and CHRISTIAN CUINICSK LADY. organize a Mission in the Empire of China. Strange to say, ten years elapsed before the field was really entered. Difficulties arose that seemed insurmount- able. From lack of faith or ardour or the means or the right man the Church hesitated and vacillated. " It was at this point that Judson Dwight Collins, who had been converted in the great revival at Ann Arbor, in 1838, at the age of fourteen, and had after- 'i ; '111 I' I ^\ I 1 i\ J i'L i !i I h I l" 168 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. wards entered the first class of the Ann Arbor Univer- sity, Mich., presented himself as a candidate for work in China. He had twice written to the Mission Secre- tary, Dr. Durbin, but had been told that as we had no mission in China, his application could receive no official action. He then wrote to Bishop Janes, bui; received no assurance that he would be appointed. The sublime faith of this young hero then came to the front, and he wrote again, * Bishop, engage me a place before the mast, and my own strong arm will pull me to China and support me while there.' It is needless to say that the Bishop made the appointment or that the Board confirmed it, for with such an in- viting field coupled with the great faith and zeal of the right man, the Church would seem to be flying in the face of Providence if they had refused him. Rev. M. C. White and wife were also appointed, when again months of delay ensued, for the Board were uncertain at what point they should locate the Mission. They were necessarily restricted in their choice to the five open ports. " Finally the preference of the Committee on loca- tion was given to Foochow, the capital of the Fo-kien province, situated on the Min River, thirty miles from its mouth. It was a field of no ordinary character. In the city itself and suburbs could be found half a million souls thronging their hillsides, lanes and rivers. As the capital of the province it was the political centre. The literati thronged to its examination halls, and it has since become the commercial centre of a population of twenty-six millions of inhabitants. METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS. 169 With what a sense of responsibility and with what anxiety that little missionary band must have ap- proached the shores of that vast field ! The entrance at Foochow was to be the ' open sesame ' to the whole empire, for from this Mission were to come the foun- ders of the Central, North and West China Missions. TKMr'LK IN MIX ItlVKU, AHOVK KOOCHOW. " Upon their arrival they knelt in devout thanks- giving to the God who had so safely brought them over the deep, and in sincere prayer that He would make them messengers of light and peace to the myriads of benighted souls around them. Thus, after eleven years of prayer and hesitation, Methodism found a foothold in China, and so firmly are we now planted there that every probability is in favour of our staying there forever. In the river, just opposite •i'l i V V ■ \'\\ «l. 170 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. li I : 1 !,; I' m ^1 s r the native city, is a small island, but densely popu- lated, called 'middle island.' It is joined to the city by the celebrated 'Bridge of Ten Thousand Ages,* constructed upon thirty-eight solid buttresses. Upon thip island the missionaries were able to secure prem- ises for their occupation. Chinese dwellings they were, of course, and needed much repair and remodel- ling. This done, they were safely housed, and they then applied themselves with great devotion to the study of the language. " Only those who have been in China can appreciate what the study of that language means. Abb^ Hue said that * it was invented by the devil to keep the missionaries out.' And the Rev. Mr. Milne, colleague of Rev. Robert Morrison, the first Protestant mission- ary to China, claimed that * to acquire the Chinese is a work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah.'* Even without much of the language they could administer out of their little stock of medi- cine to the sick, and were often very successful in treating some cases that the native physicians had failed to relieve. They could also distribute tracts and portions of Scripture, which had been translated by Dr. Medhurst, which they did by the thousand with great zeal and earnestness. " For a decade of years several missionaries fell vic- tims to disease, and others had, through ill-health, to return to America. A walk in the little Mission cemetery would reveal many names that are familiar METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS. 171 to the Church, among them Mrs. I. W. Wiley, the early wife of our late Bishop, who, by a strange provi- dence, while on his second episcopal visit to China, died at Foochow and is buried beside her. But the pictures were .not all of hardship and sadness. In 1857 the day seemed to be dawning? for China. On Sabbath, July 14 of that year, the first convert was baptized. A few months later his wife and two chil- dren were also converted, and during the year thir- teen adults and three children were baptized. This filled the hearts of our missionaries with joy and hope. The Christians were joined into a class. Sunday- schools were formed, and a Methodist Episcopal church was organized — the first in the empire. " These were but the drops before the shower. New reinforcements kept arriving to take the places of those who had either died or returned to the United States on account of their health, so that the work kept on apace. The statistics of 1892 show that this Mission has 7 presiding elders' districts, 26 foreign mission- aries, 171 native preachers, of whom 63 are ordained, besides 78 native agents of Woman's Missionary So- ciety. The membership is 3,069 ; probationers, 2,790 ; average attendance on Sunday worship, 6,740 ; adults baptized, 852 ; children, 286 ; number of Sabbath- schools, 140 ; number of Sabbath-school scholars, 3,584. " There is not space to give any account of the work of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society at Foo- chow, which would form a most interesting paper by itself ; nor yet to tell of the grand work that is being «! 1 1 , i 1 i 1 1 1 1 i 1 «J '■i I , t !i- il GOING TO MARKET. HH, MM^M y '■'■ ... kcfv,~ 1^ METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS. 173 accomplished by the Foochow College, the gift of a Chinese merchant, Mr. Ahok, still residing there and taking a great interest in the affairs of the Mission and the spread of the Gospel in his native land. " What the influence of the Girls' School and the College will be as they send out Christian women into the homes of China, and Christian men into the public offices and business houses, only the future can tell, but we can safely predict that they will be no small factor in the moulding of the Chinese Empire of the future, 'i ' . "2. The Central China Mission. — In the year 1867 the superintendent of the Foochow Mission in- formed the Board that plans were maturing for push- ing on with the Gospel into Central and North China. Rev. V. C. Hart and Rev. E. S. Todd were selected to explore the region of the Yang-tse Valley in Central China. Kiu-kiang, at the mouth of the Poyang Lake, was selected as the most available site for the head- quarters of the new Mission. In less than a year (November, 1868) Mr. Hart reported that they had received thirty-seven on probation. From such an auspicious beginning the Mission has passed through many vicissitudes, and, in spite of them, is to-day one of the most successful of the M. E. Church. " The Mission has been largely extended, and now reaches four hundred miles along the banks of the Yang-tse river. Besides Kiu-kiang there are three other central stations. Each of these stations has a population surrounding it reaching into the millions, and we believe that at no very distant period the Rll li' : ill" I :< .;,. 174 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. Kt 1 1 i ' ; ■ ' 1 I ■i, 1 ■i M\ * I'! I Ill I i ' i i •'■ 'I 176 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. of their ranks by sickness or death, opposition by the Chinese to the occupation of new points; but over these and all difficultie , through Christ, the Mission has been more than conqueror, constantly gaining in membership, always enlarging its borders and increas- ing in chapels, schools and hospitals, so that to-day it may be regarded as one of the strongest Christianizing influences upon the Chinese Empire. In 1892 this Mission had 5 presiding elders' districts, 33 mission- aries, 19 native preachers, of whor i 6 were ordained, 70 other native helpers 1,434 members, 976 proba- tioners, 19 Sunday-schools, and 1,331 Sunday-school scholars. "4. The West China Mission. — The vast field comprising the western half of China was a great at- traction to our Church, and in 1887 it was determined to enter it with the Gospel. Dr. Wheeler was selected to take the leadership, and Rev. Spencer Lewis was to be his associate. "After spending a year of preparation and study within the Central China Mission, they proceeded up the rapids of the Yang-tse — a tedious and dangerous journey of five or six weeks, and fiuallj'^ arrived at Chung- king, which was to be their headquarters. An excellent property was offered for sale to the Mission, which was purchased and speedily remodelled to ac- commodate our foreign missionaries. Other mission- aries were sent, and for several years success attended their labours, when suddenly the whole enterprise was brought to an untimely end by a riot, instigated by the military students who were gathered there for the ( A METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS. 177 triennial examinations. All our property was razed to the ground and our missionaries narrowly escaped with their lives. " The following extract is from the Missionary So- ciety's Annual Report : — ' This Mission, recently driven out from Chung-king, 1,400 miles from the sea, and its property destroyed by a mob, has been re-estab- lished. Rev. V. C. Hart, Superintendent of the Cen- tral China Mission, was appointed to visit, inspect, and take steps toward the restoration of this West China Mission. Brother Hart's long experience in China, his knowledge of the people and of their cus- toms, and his thorough acquaintance with their lan- guage, rendered him eminently fit for such a service. It involved great labour and sacrifice on his part, and yet he entered upon and performed it most success- fully. To him the re-establishment of our work in West China is very largely due. As indemnity for property destroyed has been paid, no fear of further disturbance is felt. The field in Western China is immense, and once fairly occupied will yield a vast return for the labour bestowed upon it. Two good men and true are already there, and they should be followed by others as soon as possible. This little one will yet become a thousand.' In 1892 there were 11 missionaries and 9 native helpers, 39 members and 35 probationers." The Superintendent's report of the Central China Mission for 1893 contains the following encouraging features : — " Once more, with grateful hearts, we sub- mit to the Church the record of a year's labour on 12 : } ii^ 5*1 1 I f if'! !ii;r III 4 V. V. s fA-C^i*"' ( i ■f. X y. s METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSIONS. 179 this great mission field. The riots of last year, which so effectually stayed our progress for several months, cling to us only as the memory of some horrible night- mare. We occasionally hear the mutterings of coming storms, but we have seen His bow in the clouds and do not fear. Our Church is on a more solid basis than ever before. Revivals are no longer talked of as events which may be looked for in the distant future, ' when we shall have worked up to them.' They have come, and we expect them to continue in increasing power until all China is redeemed. The old mourners' bench is here, and many of our native helpers have bowed before it until they have learned its value. I have witnessed conversions in magnifi- cent churches, country school-houses, frontier dugouts, tents, and in open fields, among all classes of people in a Christian land, and now on the other side of the globe, among a people who have for many centuries grovelled in ignorance, superstition and idolatry, and the process is always the same, followed by the same clear and pointed testimony, whether spoken in Eng- lish or Chinese." The report of the Manager of the Central China Press states : — " Oi./ Mission Press has a magnificent sphere for usefulness, located as it is in the centre of this great empire, with a population around us of over 300,000,000 who speak the Mandarin dialect, a large proportion of whom are able to read. These we are come to teach the errors of idolatry and ancestral worship, and to lead to a knowledge of the true God and of His Son, Jesus Christ, that they may become ■liiii^ . .1 'J' I! I ■t;! M' liiiii k 1, v-W- li 1 II 1 ,11 •11 180 CHINA AND ITS PEOP[,E. 'I ' i il .1 - :^iti 'i \h n i' i partakers with us of His glorious salvation; and our Mission Press is a very important factor in this great work. We are sending out large quantities of Chris- tian pamphlets and sheet tracts for the enlightenment of the heathen, as well as Church papers and Sunday- school literature, and Bible helps for the benefit of Christians." Rev. Spencer Lewis, Superintendent of the West China Mission, writes as follows concerning a native ministry : — " Though embarrassed by a depleted force of missionaries, w^e have had good help from native preachers, who are constantly increasing in efficiency. They are not literary men in the Chinese sense, but are becoming learned in the Scriptures and are earnest and zealous. We hope that with the training we can give them, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, they will be greatly blessed in winning their countrymen to Christ. We are convinced that China is to be saved mainly through the labours of a trained and devoted native ministry. Every missionary should regard it his highest privilege to train such a band of workers. To this end the best preparation of mind and heart wall not come amiss in those who enlist for this field. A journey was undertaken by Dr. Can right and my- self to Chen-tu. The journey was by horseback, three hundred miles, and return by boat, over four hundred miles. Altogether the foreign and native workers of the Mission have travelled during the year an aggre- gate of between five and six thousand miles. Thib province has been sown thickly with books during the last decade or two, yet of those who read atten- i|(t! jaL^^4*i^^<^'^ 111'! ! I h j'ii ^ TVi'ICAL WaLLKU C'lTV IN CHINA I, 182 CttlNA AND ITS I'KOpr.K. tively but few seem to comprehend much of the miian- m^\ Thus books are not so much the demand of the present as the living preacher, to go everywhere ex- plaining the truth. The number of hospital patients during the year was nearly three hundred, and the number treated at the city dispensary and in villages was somewhere between eight and ten thousand." Rev, H. Olin Cady reports for Chen-tu as follows : — " There is an immense iield about this city. A circle with a radius of seventy-five miles, with this city as a centre, takes in twenty-live cities and over two hun- dred and tifty market villages. I was glad to wel- come, in May, our Canadian brethren, and to be able to give them shelter until they could get homes of their own. We are brethren, and there is work for ten times our united forces." MISSIONS OF THE METHQDIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. The following account of these Missions is abridged from the admirable Hand Book of Methodist Missions, by the Rev. I. G. John, D.D., Missionary Secretary of the M. E. Church, South : April 24, 1848, the two missionaries (Revs. Charles Taylor and Benjamin Jenkins) and their wives stood on the tieck of the little ship Cleone, in Boston Har- bour. A voyage to China in the slow sailing vessels of that day was a different affair from one in the ele- gant cars and first-class steamers that now bear them swiftly across continent and ocean. The cabin of the Cleone was ten by fourteen feet in size, and seven feet M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, MISSIONS. 188 in height. The staterooms were six feet by four, with berths two feet in width. August 12, 1848, after a voyage of one hundred and sixteen days, they anchored at Hong-Kong. Owing to the illness of his wife, Dr. Jenkins was detained here until the following May. Dr. Taylor and his wife proceeded up the coast to Shanghai, which had been selected as their field. He reached his destina- tion in September, 1848. Dr. Taylor succeeded in purchasing a plot of ground a third of an acre in extent on the bank of the Yang- king-pang, near a narrow wooden bridge, and built on it a temporary dwelling. Though small it was more convenient and healthy than the Chinese house they had occupied. The next year he managed to purchase a small addition to the lot, and with assist- ance from the Church at home was able to enlarge the Mission house and build a chapel that would seat one hundred and fifty Chinese. The first service in it was held by Dr. Taylor in January, 1850. The stream near the house was usually alive with boats and the bridge often thronged with people. Every day the door of the chapel was opened and passers-by invited to come in and hear the "Jesus doctrines." The location being outside the city walls, our brethren did not possess the advantages enjoyed by other mis- sionaries whose Boards had been able to provide for them commodious chapels in the city. They were glad to be permitted to preach for their missionary brethren when ill or absent, and to address large crowds in the temples or other places of public resort. 184 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. In 1851 the hearts of the missionaries rejoiced over the first-fruits of their toil. Liew-sien-sang, Dr. Jen- kins' teacher, and his wife renounced Buddhism and accepted the religion of Christ. A large company of Chinese filled the chapel when they were baptized. At the end of the service Liew ascended the pulpit and addressed the congregation, setting forth his rea- A BCBDEN BEABEB. sons for abandoning idolatry and embracing Christ. He soon commenced preaching on Sundays in the chapel, and during the week " in the large inclosure of the temple dedicated to the tutelary guardian of the city." Often hundreds listened to his message. His death, which occurred in 1866, was mourned by missionaries and native Christians as a great loss to the general cause of Christ. M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, MISSIONS. 185 In May, 1852, Rev. W. G. E. Cunnyngbam and wife sailed for China. Tliey reached their destination on October 18, and a short time after their arrival the doctor wrote thus : " We see enough around us to awaken the deepest sympathies of our hearts. Could Christians at home spend the day with us in this pagan land, no sermon or missionary address would be needed to induce them to do their duty in giving of the abundance with which God has blessed them to support the missionary or distribute the Word of Life." The year 1853 brought unexpected troubles to the Mission. The empire was convulsed by the Taiping rebellion. Nanking and Ching-kiang had fallen into the hands of the insurgents, During the year a band of insurgents, professing to be acting in concert with Taiping, captured Shanghai. The mayor of the city was killed, the public officers seized, the records de- stroyed, and a sort of military government established. All business was suspended and all missionary work, except the distribution of books, was broken up. Rev. Dr. Cunnvnojham soon found himself in the midst of formidable difficulties. The imperial troops charged with the task of retaking Shanghai were soon before its walls. On the 29th of September the first attack was made in full view from his house, and within three hundred yards of his fence. Battles were now a daily occurrence. He was often in great danger. The house was seriously injured by the cannonading from the city walls. The roof was shat- tered and the wall pierced by balls. When closing \ 'J i I,' ''I , it ilM 11 hit i,i I i:;: f • i 186 CHINA ANl) ITS PEOPLE. i ; I' f! : '1 •i'l I; •' Iff III the gates of the Mission premises one nif^ht he felt on his cheek the wind of a two-ounce ball from a " gin- gal," a long-range gun used by the Chinese. It cut down a bamboo a few feet from his face. God holds his servants in the palm of his hand. The country for miles round was devastated, villages, towns and hamlets were laid in ashes, and Shanghai crowded with soldiers and refugees. In 1854 the Mission was reinforced by seven mis- sionaries. Vigorous efforts were made to repair the injuries the property had suffered during the war, and to organize on a broader scale the general work of the Mission. Dr. Cunnynghara, in his report, calls special atten- tion to the importance of female schools. " Individ- uals," he said, " may become converts to Christianity, but until the mothers become Christians the homes must remain pagan." The treaty of 1858 having provided that Chris- tianity, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, should be tolerated throughout the empire, the missionaries began to push out into the regions beyond. They were now free not only to preach the Gospel, but to establish mission homes, churches and schools. A new era had, under the hand of God, opened to the labourers in this vast empire. In 1859 it was decided to open a Mission in Soo- chow, about ninety miles north-west from Shanghai. Its position as a commercial and literary emporium suggested its importance as a missionary centre. The Taiping insurgents had taken Chang-chow and !| :! i I ^::if i' I ]'■■ i il: i' fir CHINESE ARTIST. 1' . I i f ,.«^.. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^/ ^ >^ !'• ^' J S^ 1.0 I.I 11.25 ■45 |£D ys 1^ Ui §M 12.2 2.0 Ui Its 1.4 I 1^ o^ •vl V] *>. ^^ f. ^:^* ^ HiotQgraphic Sdences Corporatton 33 WIST MAIN STRIil WeBST«R,N.Y. 14510 {7H^)tn^4i03 4' ' s ' -: ;. „ .'.'■'■ ■ , . ■. ' ''"• "-..■.■ ^' ' ' ■. . ■ '^\ ■ ' ' .'.'■■ ■''<:, ■ ,:- ■ ' s, ■■.,■ "^ ' ' ■ .' • ' ^ : » :- !■ I' 188 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. il Soochow, and in July they visited Shanghai. " They approached us," wrote Dr. Cunnyngham, " through the flames and smoke of burning villages and hamlets, laden with spoil, and stained with the blood of inno- cent men, women and children; their retreat was marked by the most revolting scenes of cruelty and beastly outrage upon the helpless towns through which they passed." They found the city in possession of the English and French, and after a sharp collision retired "with the promise to return and drive the foreigners into the sea." The treaty between the allied powers and China in October ended the seclu- sion of China and, it is hoped, prepared the way for the final establishment of Christianity in that land. The native force in 1875 was increased to five by ' the addition of two men, who had entered the service and were preparing for the ministry. The Mission was greatly strengthened by the erection of a new church on the mission lot. It was called the " Church of the Goo4 News." One man had come sixteen miles to be baptized and received into the Church. About forty native Christians met around the table of our Lord, some of whom had come eighty and a hundred miles to be present at the dedication. In 1876 a fresh impulse was given to our Mission in China by the visit of Bishop Marvin, accompanied by Rev. E. R. Hendrix. Their letters greatly stirred the Church respecting its duty to this long-negleoted field. Another result of equal, if not greater, import- ance was accomplished. The presence and adminis- tration of Bishop Marvin in the China Mission demon- ill M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, MISSIONS. 189 strated the peculiar adaptation of Methodist economy to the wants and work of the foreign field. The leading event of 1877 was the arrival, in No- vember, of Rev. W. R. Lambuth, M.D., and the open- ing of a medical department in the Mission. He made several visits to the interior, preachinor and dispensing medicine to those who applied for relief. These visits demonstrated the great value of medical work in con- nection with the preaching o* the Word among the Chinese. The people have great confidence in the medicines of the foreign physician, and the relief which the medical missionary is able to afford gives him access to multitudes who cannot be reached through any other agency. In some cases people came five miles to be treated. One woman was brought on a wheelbarrow. One poor woman asked for some " heart medicine." She said, " I get excited sometimes, and my heart gets very mad, for my rela- tions treat me cruelly. I want to scratch their faces and say bad things. Can't you give me something for my heart?" Some will smile at the request. Christ would have wept. It was the cry of a soul conscious of its greatest need. In May, 1880, Dr. W. R. Lambuth opened an opium hospital within the walls of Shanghai near the Tea Garden. Amcng other regulations he required the patients to abandon the use of the drug at once and entirely. They were to be confined in their rooms under lock and key three days, and in the hospital yard two weeks. They were to pay a fee of two dol- lars, covering all expenses. It was also arranged that IS \s ii, ;i^:: n H I I I I 190 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. prayers should be held morning and evening, and one daily sermon, to all of which the inmates were cor- dially invited. By July he had forty patients, three of whom were women. They were of all grades of consumers, of from 57.98 grains up to 289.9 grains, apothecaries' weight. The treatment was he.oic, and CHINESE SAMPAN. Dr. Lambuth says that he was not without grave apprehensions when the door of the ward was pad- locked. He says that for three days the unnatural appetite asserted its savage claims; but in nearly every case the fourth day found the patient free from its thralls, but weakened by the struggle. On the ;jir CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 101 fifth day a normal appetite set in, and they improved rapidly. The following report for 1893 indicates the condi- tion of the Mission for that year : — Ordained preachers, 20 ; local preachers, 10 ; preachers on trial, 7 ; native members, 371 ; foreign members, 24 ; adults baptized, 23 ; infants baptized, 13 ; number of Sunday-schools, 23 ; number of Sunday-school scholars, 943 ; colleges, 2 ; teachers, 13 ; pupils, 236 ; day-schools, 14 ; pupils, 316 ; one hospital and one dispensary ; patients, 7,354 native parsonages, 3. MISSIONS OF THE CANADIAN METHODIST CHURCH. For some years the Methodist Church in Canada had a prosperous Chinese Mission in British Columbia, organized at the instance of a Christian merchant of Montreal. The very efficient superintendent of this Mission is Rev. J. E. Gardner, who speaks Chinese like a native. He is the son of a Chinese missionary, and was himself born in China and has acquired a thorough knowledge of the language. With him are associated a couple of native Chinese assistants, and very much has been accomplished by his agency. A number of Chinamen have been baptized both at Vic- toria and New Westminster. In connection with the Chinese Sunday-school of the Metiop^^litan Church, Toronto, conversions also took place, and native Chi- nese became by baptism members of the Church. It was felt, however, that the needs of the great empire of China demanded aggressive missionary work on the part of the Canadian Church in that ■I 'P If .11 J;i i 1 i I I I I \i \ : \ I '''II i\ ill 192 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. vast country. The Church was fortunate in securing, as leader and superintendent of its new Mission, the services of the Rev. Dr. Virgil C. Hart, recently an honoured missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church in China, who had a familiar acquaintance with the country. The Rev. Dr. Hart, the present Saperintendent of the West China Mission, was born in Jefferson Co., New York, in 1840. He was a farmer's boy, and had but little schooling until after he was seventeen. His first prayer after his conversion was for the Lord to make him a missionary. He went to Governeur Wesleyan Seminary in 1857, and the money which took him there and paid his ex- penses for one term was obtained by chopping one hundred and eighty cords of wood, three feet in length, for a neighbouring farmer. In 1861 he entered Garrett Biblical Institute, where he graduated in 1865. During the summer of 1864 he was in the Christian Commission at Vicksburgh and Natchez, and in August, 1865, was mairied to " one of the best women living." In June, 1865, he was appointed missionary to China, and ordained the following month. He sailed for China December 20, 1865, in a clipper ship via Capetown, and reached Hong-Kong May 17, 1866, and Foochow the last of May. He was sent to Kiu- kiang in 1867, and was appointed Superintendent of the Mission in 1869 by Bishop Kingsley. He did considerable itinerating during 1868 and 1869, concerning which he writes as follows: — "It - k-' I I to 'A n 13 I i 1 i ! ; ■ 1 1 • ii '. ! If. ; ■' I I I ill lr\ •■ ;:l ! -.l"- ^1 194 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. \ was an entirely new field, and the people were wild with excitement wherever I went. I was stoned out of one city and my wheelbarrow of books scattered about the streets. I was pushed across a high bridge at another place, and kicked soundly; the surging mass of infuriated ruffians calling from behind to pitch me into the river, thirty feet below." Mr. Hart writes as to what has been accomplished : " Now, over that whole district where I was so rudely treated, the Wesley an and our own Mission have sta- tions, and not less than one hundred and fifty Chris- tians. " I have seen the work grow from nothing to have four great centres — Kiu-kiang, Wu-Hu, Nanking and Ching-kiang, and I have had the privilege of baptizing about one hundred and fifty persons." In 1881 Mr. Hart returned to America greatly shat- tered in health, but after resting a year was enabled to return to China and resume the work in which he most delighted and where he laboured so efficiently. In a private letter then received from him he wrote: — "The most trying circumstances of a mis- sionary's life, and that which causes him the most anxiety and pain, and which require the most courage and patience, cannot be written. The blackness of heathendom cannot be described. The work of the Church has extended gradually in the face of terrible difficulties. We must not flatter ourselves that our greatest difficulties are over. The battle proper has not begun." Dr. Hart again returned to America on account of CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 195 his health and put through the press his interesting volume on Western China and a visit to the great Buddhist centre of Mount Omei — a most interesting volume of missionary adventure. In 1891 Dr. Hart returned to China as the Superintendent of Canadian Methodist Missions. Journey from Shanghai. It was decided that the Canadian Mission should be planted at Se-Chuen, an extensive province on the borders of Thibet, containing a vast population, which presents an almost unbroken field for Missions. The Canadian party, consisting of Dr. and Mrs. Hart, Geo. E. Hartwell, B.D., and Mrs. Hart well, 0. L. Kilborn, M.D., and Mrs. Kilborn, D. W. Stevenson, M.D., and Mrs. Stevenson, went first to Shanghai and thence travelled by boat two thousand miles up the great Yang-tse-kiang river to Chen-tu, within three hun- dred miles of Thibet. Much of this journey was made in small river boats, which had to be dragged or tracked by gangs of natives. Dr. Hart thus describes in familiar letters some of his adventures on that two thousand mile journey : "Here we are in front of Chiikentang, each boat tied with bamboo ropes to piles of cobble stones thrown together by the boatmen. A long plank extends from our boat to the shore. This is our fifty-third day from Ichang, and some of us are getting just a bit tired, and possibly a little impatient to see the city of ' Perfect Delights,* twelve miles above us. " ' Fifty-three days in Chinese boats ! What were !'): I e 2 E 5 j^'-' i ? '' 3 < c = Z 'A £ a 3> a OANAblAN METHOt)IST MISSIONS. 197 you doing for so many days?' We were travelling, of course, and have gone nearly one thousand miles in that time, sailing, rowing and tracking — mostly tracking. Each boat has about twenty men, and they hitch themselves to a long bamboo rop'^, which is at- tached to the mast, and they pull HI horses from daylight until dark. *A strange way to travel in this age of railroads and steamers, and in the world's oldest empire !' Yes, indeed it is, because steamers could run anywhere on the river to this place, and much higher, and not occupy much more than eight days in the trip. " As the river runs we are quite one thousand miles from Ichang, where we took these clumsy junks, and more than two thousand miles from] Shanghai, where we commenced our journey. Since leaving Ichang we haven't seen anything to remind us of modern times except the telegraph line which stretches from cliff to cliff up the river bank to Chung-king, and the few missionaries and foreign gentlemen residing at Chung- king and SUcheu-foo. Some one says, ' What a dismal journey !' By no means ; we have had a real pled,sure trip, reading, writing, walking along the river banks and talking to the people, and occasionally making the rocks resound with Christian hymns sung from the Canadian Hymnal. " * Put what about the rapids and sharp rocks, and the holes punched in the bottom of the boats, and the snapping of ropes, and the boats making a few con- centric circles like tops V I had almost forgotten, there are a few fierce rapids, such as Tsin and Yieh, I 1 i\ m ■ 1' tSf ■! 1 |i fl ;f ■ ,1 t , ;:I!J I in I 198 CHINA AKD rW PEOPLIS. where we add a hundred men and boyn to our team, and are pulled over the foaming, seething falls. " The town where we are anchored is a very large one, and exports coal to the salt wells, which are just above us, upon the opposite bank of the river. Hun- dreds of large buildings, with lofty frame-work like church steeples, arc seen scattered over the hills for miles. Many hundreds of junks are anchored there, waiting for the caked salt, which is boiled from the brine drawn from the deep wells with oxen. The salt is caked like maple sugar, is the colour of granite, and looks like Urk gray sand when pounded in the mort»-r. It is perfectly clean, and considered much better than white salt. " While taking a little exercise upon the bank above our boats I was attracted by twenty or more cormo- rants sitting upon small skiffs which the men row about after the birds, while they dive into the river and bring up fish. It is no uncommon thing to see fishermen carrying their skiffs upon their backs from point to point and the birds sitting upon the tops of the upturned boats. The cormorant is a clumsy, un- attractive bird, and seems stupid enough when on land ; but it is an expert swimmer, and will bring up fish weighing two pounds. While I stood looking at the process, quite a crowd of men and boys gathered about me and looked in amazement at my face, hat and clothes without saying a word until I addressed them in their own language. Then came volleys of the queerest questions you ever heard. A middle- aged man inspected me pretty thoroughly except my CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 199 teeth, and said, ' Are you a hundred years old ?' He quite wilted when I gave my age, and he found him- self five years my senior. * Well,' he said, * your beard is white.' The people take me for a genuine patriarch, and would not be very much surprised if I were to tell them that I am two hundred years old. SEDAN CHA.a. "The fellows were greatly emboldened by their success and plied me afresh with every conceivable question, such as, what are your boots made of ? what material is your collar ? and when I said of leather and linen it was pretty hard for them to believe, especially as to the collar. ' So white and tine ! Our linen,' and an old waist flap is lifted for my inspec- tion, ' is black and coarse as a fish net.' M l.t ; if I I' ■I ■ ' I.! ! ifii'i iP4 200 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. "It would please you to see how quickly a foreign- dressed lady will take a crowd away from even me. Mrs. Kilborn, within five minutes' walk of our boat, had near a hundred admiring boys, women and men, mostly boys, following her. I came upon the crowd .// and tried to draw it after me, but not a solitary being was left for me. If you want good following out here, you must have a lady with you. " The ignorance of the masses is appalling, and the indifference in most places is more so. Here is a vast empire and only one or two newspapers published by the Chinese, and these are seldom seen away from the Eastern open ports. A land without colleges or high schools, and without railroads. What is done in East- ern or North China will be known to but the few here. No political questions trouble them. No ques- tions except the chopsticks and rice bowl, and how to fill it, are considered important to the masses. The little boys are better behaved in this province than in other parts of China. They know how to throw stones and scream 'foreign devil' in the East. We never get any stones or hear ' foreign devil ' in this province, or if so, very rarely. " There are about twelve millions of boys and young men in this one province where the Canadian Metho- dist Mission is to be established. What are you going to do for these boys, all of them your brothers ? I am sure you want them to know more than they now know. You desire to remove their ignorance and , give them as good a chance for knowledge and suc- cess in the world as the boys of Canada have, and CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 201 above all, a knowledge of the living God. The men and women in our party can reach but a few out of the millions. You must come to our help and send out many earnest self-sacrificing young men — young men who are willing to dare to do. The City of Delights. " We were three hundred miles above Chung-king. Clouds of smoke upon our right pointed out the great salt wells. A large white pagoda looked down upon us from a lofty hill in the centre of the brine district, and seemed to beckon us forward, through ravines and vales of surprising beauty, to the forest-clad bluifs which hide the beautiful * City of Delights ' from our view. The day is warm, and a film of purple mist partially screens us from the direct rays of the sun. A faint breeze stirs slightly the mulberry leaves upon the myriads of low-cropped trees. This is also a silk district, and hundreds of thousands of the people care for the trees, feed the silkworms, gather the cocoons, and prepare them for the manufacturers. " The city to which we are going has been a famous place for the weaving and marketing of silks, and more than half the city and district is engaged in this beautiful industry. To the west of us are high moun- tains, and beyond, towering over all, is seen the won- derful peak called Omei. You may imagine my feel- ings upon the morning wo journeyed up the river Fuh, when, after long looking in the direction of the sacred mount, at last the clouds dissolved and the I; 'Jl ',1' ! f i 1 iil^-ll i;l i i m u mm 202 CHINA AND ITS I'EOPLE. dark outlines of the mountain were clearly seen upon the hazy background. "This is Buddha's land. On every side we see something to remind us of the Indian god. We have met with innumerable stones all along the river's banks, four feet high, one foot wide, and about the same in thickness, each having a hideous carved face and head, with six characters chiselled upon the body stone, which read, ' Nan-Wu-0-Mi-To-Fuh !' ' All hail, Amita Buddha!' All travellers are supposed to re- peat the phrase as they journey by. They are charms to alleviate sorrows and frighten away evil influences. We are in full view of the * City of Delights.' The weary 'trackers' pull us up the Yo for a hundred yards, and in doing so wade far out into the stream to get the boat around the shallow headland. With a yell they drop the bamboo cable and rush on board, seize the oars, and with unwonted vigour work the clumsy sticks. In a few moments the strong current strikes us, and we go spinning down to the bluff, and and to where two streams meet. A bamboo cable is stretched from the city to the bluff at this season of the year. I was wondering how we were to cross, when a boatman lifted the cable from the water, and all hands fell to and pulled us to the opposite shore. "Anchored, or rather tied, to the shore, we had nearly two days to visit and study the city. I am going to tell you what may be seen. Three things were of great interest to me — the city itself, the ' Great Buddha/ and the famous Mantsz Caves. We will visit the city first, and do so on foot, for we can C5 > n > o > 1 ■ ; t' \' .'ii 'i. v\- 204 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. see much more than from a covered sedan chair. We walked up the steep bank and entered directly a wide dirty street. The boat population hang about this street, which is along the river's bank and outside of the city wall. Here I met my captain so finely dressed that I scarcely knew him ; there, at a square table, sat half a dozen of the sailors drinking tea and smoking, and they gave me a hearty welcome to join them. On we went till we made a sharp turn to the right, where we entered the city by the east gate. Very soon we found ourselves in a wide, clean street, cool and airy, with shops given up almost entirely to the silk trade. " The people received us very pleasantly, and stared much less than in some other cities. Did not hear 'foreign devil' or any other abusive words while in the city. We strolled first to the China Inland Mis- sion chapel, where two single men are living and working among the people. They dress in the native costuixie, shave their heads and wear a tail just like the Chinese — a very questionable practice, for they are known as foreigners at first sight. I am more and more persuaded that it is best to wear simple European clothing. Thus we appear what we are. The novelty, even, of outlandish garments soon wears off, while our blue eyes, long noses, red hair, etc., re- main standing jokes, " The ' City of Delights ' rises gradually from the river until the crest of the hill is reached. Here are temples of ancient date — now in bad repair — and enormous flowering trees. We climbed to the highest i \ ~ CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 205 point, and from an old, battered Taoist temple could see the whole city and country, near and far. Abreast were the beautiful bluffs four hundred feet high, cov- ered with sub-tropical forests out of which peeped temples and pagodas, and upon the face of one of the cliffs could be seen the mighty statue of Mehah Buddha, over three hundred feet high, carved from the solid rock. As I gazed, Cape Town with Table Mountain came to mind, and I saw, in fancy, the won- derful panorama which burst upon my view when half-way up its side twenty-six years ago ; I recalled Quebec and the world-renowned view from its won- derful pinnacle; I thought of Naples, as seen from San Martino, and other views that I have had, but somehow I could not conjure any picture more beauti- ful than the one spread out before me. " We called a rowboat and went across the river, and landed at the lower bluff, and walked to its sum- mit, shaded by a wealth of trees and tiowering vines. We visited great temples, saw many large idols, and chatted with the priests and abbot. The buildings were very tine and cool. " Our one thought was to reach the Great Buddha. In going we passed a great number of Mantsz caves. What is a Mantsz cave ? Long centuries ago there were semi-savages living all along these rivers, and they dug and hewed and chiselled themselves homes in the sandstone cliffs. They are of all sizes and plans. Some small and low, barely large enough for two or three persons; others seventy feet deep, with large side rooms and small recesses seven to eight feet high, il u ; l! 'I »( ,)■ 206 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. and beautifully tunnelled into the solid rock. These aborigines went so far in some instances as to orna- ment the doorways with fantastic designs. These caves are reckoned by the thousands, showing that once this country had a large population of cave-men. " I found some ancient inscriptions upon the sides of the openings, but none that would throw any light upon their age or the character of the people that first inhabited them. " At last I saw the curly-headed giant — the Bud- dhist messiah — towering in stately grandeur among the forest trees upon the edge of the cliff. From feet, at the surface of the river, to crown of head, is con- siderably over three hundred feet. His head, or crown, carved in thirteen tiers of stones, represents the hair of the god. I leaped over the palings and stood upon the centre of his moss-grown head. The head is not far from thirty feet in diameter and with face quite sixty feet long. What a head and face ! I durst not look over the abyss, and after a hasty survey betook myself to another quarter, and there studied the monster in stone. Where is his equal ?" A Sad Bereavement. The mission party at length reached their destina- tion, Chen-tu, in May, 1892. They were soon over- whelmed, however, with a painful bereavement in the sudden death of Mrs. Kilborn by cholera. Of this sad event Dr. Kilborn writes as follows : "My darling wife and I invariably studied the language together, and we had made exactly equal j^^^f^"^'-- ■■■•'#'*« •^r'^ •-> . ^fl^Bl^T''*'^'^^?* 77:^7^: T "•■^ ^ yHsid* (, ,*' t^ *('/.' - »' 'f5 fejfeijS. V::':.!'iJJ8^i^fe-'v'' ii' THE I.ATIC MKij, U, L. KIl.UUHN fri -ji 1 .1-' 208 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. progress up to the day of her death, in both reading the characters and speaking. We were both planning and looking anxiously forward to the time when I should be able to begin dispensary work, and she would assist me in compounding and dispensing drugs. Now all this is altered, for the Lord has taken her. We trust that all the supporters of our mission cause will earnestly pray that God may yet bless our work even though He takes away His workers." Mrs. Kilborn, or Jennie Fowler, as her dear vounjj friends will still think of her, was born in the Presby- terian manse at Bass River, New Brunswick, in 1867. From her earliest youth she was of studious habits, always giving her study hour preference over all other engagements. So eager was she to acquire knowledge, and so close was {her application, that her health suf- fered in consequence. A goodly number of prizes testify to her success in both school and college. In 1890 she received her degree of B.A. from Queen's College, Kingston, to which place her father had re- moved some years previously. Of an active and cheerful disposition, she was a favourite with her companions, and formed many friendships which, we doubt not, will be renewed in the better land. Her sympathy and consideration for others w^as such that self was forgotten and sacrificed, and she preferred to endure pain rather than witness the sufferings of others. While a diligent student and friend, she did not neglect the higher and more important duties of the Christian. From childhood until she left the parental CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 209 roof she was an earnest worker in the Sabbath -school, first as scholar, then as teacher ; her faith, as her hus- band expresses it, being " simple but bright." To Mrs. Kilborn's father the blow has been very sore, the more so as only nineteen months had passed since Mrs. Fowler was called to her heavenly reward, where mother and daughter, now united, are singing the song of the redeemed. The " lonely grave " will likely speak with no un- certain utterance to the workers left bohind, who still must fight if they would win. As Dr. Hart says, "We mourn the death of Sister Kilborn, and weep with the bereaved husband, but we shall be inspired by her unselfish and generous life to do and dare for the Master. Her grave will be a constant reminder to those in Chen-tu to work for the Master while it is day." We are very sure this sentiment will be echoed by the entire Church. Missionary Progress. Although the missionaries in this field were ap- pointed in 1891, yet owing to various circumstances they did not reach the city of Chen-tu till May, 1892. The Mission, therefore, is scarcely two years old, and the time has not come to compile statistical tables or distribute the missionaries to different centres. The Rev. V. C. Hart, D.D., reports in 1893 as follows : " The past year was filled with incidents common to the lot of all new missions in China. The initial period is often very trying and barren of visible re- sults, especially such as can be tabulated for the edifi- U • ''if II m I iii'i \> ■i •i VI 210 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. I ; i: cation of the Home Church. A shadow fell upon us the second week of the year in the sudden death of Mrs. Kilborn. While we mourned her loss, we have felt that even such a loss may work out for us an enduring blessing. The young and devoted husband mastered the trying situation, and has exhibited a cheerfulness born of the blessed Comforter. "At the close of last year a reading-room was opened to the public in front of our rented house. We can say, without any reserve, that it has met our most sanguine expectations. Thousands upon thousands of men, women and children have entered the attractive room and gazed at charts, maps and pictures hung upon the walls, and have read the smaller books and purchased some thousands. "Early in the year Drs. Kilborn and Stevenson opened a dispensary, but were so overwhelmed with the new work that study was out of the question. It was closed, and the doctors betook themselves to the study of the language. No doubt it was wise to do as they did. When they resume their practice they will be far better prepared for its duties. " We have been fortunate enough to secure an ex- cellent property in a good quarter of the city, within easy access of the parade ground, which is invaluable as a place for exercise. We have already opened a school with twenty-nine pupils, nine of whom are girls. The school opens at 7,30 a.m. ; prayers at 8.30. At prayers we have a Bible lesson. The pupils are bright and are learning with great eagerness. We w M > w CO W W w c o w w 5« !• : ' I 1? ' M rt 212 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. trust that this may grow to be an institution of great influence in this section of the city. " I am more and more convinced that the mission- ary's work is to be largely with the children. Our next step will be to have a large Sunday-school. To illustrate the importance of this kind of work : While I pen these lines a dozen Chinese ladies and small girls are calling upon Mrs. Hart and my daughter, who would scarcely venture if this school was not here. We not only reach the ears of the children in the school, but everything said is retailed to their parents, brothers and sisters. "In the next reinforcement to this Mission there should be one man sent to take full charge of the educational interests. To do much evangelistic work out of our immediate surroundings, means full equip- ment in the language, a larger force, and native assist- ants. This is the seed-sowing period, and is of as much importance as the harvest time. To faithfully guard the door of the Church is one of our present duties, and if neglected, unfavourable results may be expected in the years to come. China, it must be re- membered, is morally very low, and corrupt to the core. There is no public condemnation of the most flagrant crimes and vices, except such as may appear in occasional proclamations. Social vices fester, and opium smoking and eating of the poison are fast undermining all the virtues the country ever pos- sessed. In her helplessness China will yet cry for deliverance, and blessed will be the hands extended to rescue her. CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 213 "We know of no better methods to employ in win- ning the people than have been tried. The preaching of the Gospel, the healing of the sick, and the educa- tion of the youth are surely Divinely-appointed means and must eventually succeed. We begin a new year with the expectation of God's blessing, and look forth upon our vast field knowing that the truth must finally triumph. Our hearts have been made glad to hear of the interest awakened in our behalf, and we rejoice in prospect of our expected reinforcements." The Rev. George E. Hartwell, B.D., reports : "On June 27th, 1892, Dr. O. L. Kilborn and myself moved to the Pearly Sand Street Mission. July 10th our much-beloved sister, the wife of Dr. 0. L. Kilborn, was called to her heavenly reward. The safety of the rest of the party, who were more or less exposed to cholera, gave birth to the thought of fleeing to the mountains. July 16th a most beautiful retreat was reached, and two months of hard study was obtained. Gospel seeds were sown among the hardy moun- taineers during our stay. The efforts of the doctors to cure their ills were greatly appreciated. " November 3rd, the anniversary of our landing in China, the dispensary was opened. While patients were waiting the Gospel was preached. Sabbath morning services have been well attended. What kind of soil has received the seed sown is not yet manifest ; we pray, however, as the field is large, that there may be some good ground which will bring forth a hundred-fold. " The Book Room was opened at the very first and ^m If lii h 'i it- hi t V. f m vfin ■\ t k m * i ' w 214 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. has proved a most useful institution. Upon the wall are maps, charts, Christian tracts, pictures and the Ten Commandments. A counter contains a variety of tracts and small books, Bibles, magazines, etc. The tracts are short expositions of Christian truths, namely, * Plan of Redemption,' ' God's True Doctrine,' * The True Saviour,' * Idols False,' etc., etc. Thousands CITY WALL, PKKIN" of people have visited this room. To study the map of the world is itself an education to a people who believe China is the centre of not only the earth but the universe, as many have believed that the planets revolve around the earth. Nicely dressed people often sit for hours reading the books and tracts. The man in charge came to us a heathen. He has regu- CANADIAN Mi.rHODIST MISSIONS. 215 i 1 larly attended our services, read the Scriptures, and now has made a stand for Christ. This room has also done much to remove suspicion. The Chinese are in- quisitive. They want to know all about the foreigner, how many there «,re, what their names are, where they are from, and what they are doing. Our good- natured book-man patiently answers these questions, explains our object in coming, and sells the books and tracts. Over two thousand books, tracts and calen- dars have been sold this year. "At the beginning of the Chinese New Year, on February 22nd, a school was opened upon the Mission premises. A Chinese teacher was engaged, on condi- tion that he obtained fifteen scholars. Over forty pupils were registered at the close of the first month. From one to two hours are spent daily teaching these children. A text-book containing the fundamental truths of Christianity is memorized in the school. Our duty is to explain the text, teach the Catechism, and Jastruct in singing. This has been, thus far, a most satisfactory work. The boys are just at the right age to be influenced. The truths of Christianity are being imprinted on their minds in a manner that can never be erased. The outside effect is good. Every family that is represented at the school is naturally kindly disposed to the foreigner. The people passing our place know that we have opened a school for children who cannot afford to pay, and think kindly of us. It is a work that will teU in the future. Their assistance in singing in the public wor- ship is of great value. Chinese boys and girls can be Mr ! 'f :« i *i1 li i, ill ' It I :\ \ m 216 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. taught to sing very sweetly and correctly. In our regular prayer-meeting four have, of their own accord, led in prayer. Inese four may be termed inquirers or probationers. Two of this number are especially interesting, as we trust God has sent them to us to be labourers in His vineyard." The Rev. 0. L. Kilborn, M.D., reports : " The Conference year had scarcely begun when, on July 10th, 1892, the Lord called me to pass through what is surely the heaviest affliction He ever permits to come upon His children. But His gracious prom- ises came to me, and slowly the Lord led me along until I am able to realize that the great, compassionate heart of our Father in heaven is full of sympathy and love. He is too wise to err, and too good to be un- kind. On November 3rd, 1892, we celebrated the first anniversary of the day we landed on Chinese soil, by the formal opening of our dispensary. We had eighteen patients in the forenoon. In the even- ing the dozen or more missionaries of Chen-tu met in our compound for an earnest English prayer-meeting. " In less than two weeks Dr. Stevenson and I found ourselves working from morning till night two days a week, and after that we had to close our doors earlv every dispensary day because of the numbers. The well-to-do classes began to come on days other than dispensary days. They offered us our fee and would not be refused. We were invited out to see patients in their homes, and sometimes went to three or four different parts of this big city in one d y. We were frequently called to save opium suicides, sometimes in CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 217 the middle of the night. By the middle of December Dr. StevensoD and I were absolutely cut off from language study. From Monday morning till Satur- day night was one continuous round of duties. Even Sunday was not a day of rest for us doctors. We were far enough on in Chinese to manage to treat patients, but we could not talk intelligently with them about the Gospel or any other subject, much less could we preach a sermon. "After prayerful consideration it was decided to close the dispensary until we were farther on in Chi- nese. The Chinese are very persistent, and it was not easy for us to turn away patients whom we knew we could help. Since January, then, we have been bend- ing all our energies to the acquisition of this difficult language. We praise the Lord for progress made in Chinese, and we trust that when the dispensary and our big hospital, that we look forward to here, are opened up permanently, we shall be set free for preaching, teaching, conversation, etc., as well as the treatment of patients. Of one thing our experience during the past year has assured us, namely, that in our medical work we have a very ready access to the hearts of a great multitude of the people of this city and sur- rounding country. May He who is all-powerful grant that the seeds of His everlasting Gospel may grow and develop in their ignorant, superstitious and idola- trous hearts, until all these things shall be put away — only Jesus shall reign supreme — to the eternal glory of God the Father." 1 !■• ; I 'J\' a I 'wr ^mmmmm U t? i ft ,■1 o o a O S3 CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 219 )i 4 U U H O u 33 Eh Mrs. A. M. Stevenson writes from Chen-tu, in April, 1893, as follows : "There are over thirty pupils in the day-school, two of whom are girls. It is considered unnecessary for girls to have an education in China. These attend service on Sunday as well as Sunday-school, where they learn the catechism. It brings the tears to see them as they sing ' Jesus loves me ' and * I am so glad that our Father in heaven.' Think of the iniiuences at home or on the street. " A retired official has sold Dr. Hart his own prop- erty for the Mission and given the customary feast. It was really two feasts — one for the men one day, and a second for the womon another. We were first treated to tea, after which pipes were brought in ; but as our women had explained to them that we do not smoke, they did not offer them to us. After waiting about four hours, and meeting the four other guests in exquisitely embroidered satins and silks, we were invited to ' eat rice,' as the Chinese sav. How- ever, they had about twenty-six courses before the rice was brought on. " The hostess asked me to * please explain the doc- trine.' As I had asked the Lord for an opportunity and words to use, I felt that this was the former, so made my ' maiden effort.' It was little I could say ; but it did me good, whether it did them or not. We think of having definite work among the women when we are settled in the new place. Of course, in foreign dress -..o cannot go into the homes. They must come to us. However, as I have a long native outer gar- i: I !l , n !• 220 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ment, I mean to visit several houses near the wall where it is quiet. " Our first probationer has been taken. My woman is also a probationer. I think she is as good a Chris- tian as I am. When we came she lived on a mud floor ; the hens perching upon the chair- backs or table were as much at home as she. Now her room is very tidy and entirely different. Pray for them that the last remains of superstition may be uprooted from their hearts by the power of the Spirit. We have a right to expect great things from God. " Several years ago a poor washer-woman here was converted and carried the good news to her country home. As a result there is now a most flourishing church. Her friends seem to have caught her truly earnest spirit. She has been known to pray all night for a penitent. So the others are willii^g and glad to go on preaching tours to other villages, stopping at. inns, the most wretched excuse for comfort ; nor do they wish pay. They also contribute to the support of their pastor. As there are no foreigners there, there are of course no rice-Christians. I wish I had time to go into the details of some of these Chris- tians' lives. They suffer persecution for His sake." Chinese Idolatry. Dr. D. W. Stevenson writes in August, 1893, as follows : "Once more in a temple! Not the temple of a living God, but of Buddhism ! Idolatry in China is dirty inside and out. Dense darkness ! and they f iaa W at. tl< a CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 221 know not what they worship. There are probably one hundred people who come to worship here daily. Out of these, three-fourths may not know even the names of the jijods. I have seen men make six pros- trations before the big Buddha, and then turn around and ask somebody if this was the Pearly Emperor (the great god of the Taoists), and afterwards nrob- ably light his pipe at the incense sticks burning before the idol. The idols are supposed to be awakened each time by the beating of a gong. There are a million or more different gods in China. Every hill, star, noted official and trade furnishes its quota. In ninety-nine per cent, of cases they were formerly men, but turned into gods by order of the Emperor, to be feared and appeased. The bad women in all Chinese cities have their patron god, to whom they burn incense. As a man and ruler he had quite a history. One must como to a heathen land to appreciate the sunken and superstitious condition of the natural man. " The ordinary Chinaman does not speak of belong- ing to any Church or religion. They only think of those * who eat the Church's rice,' such as priests and nuns, as belonging to any Church. Therefore the regular worshipper is a religious triangle or tripod, who calls at all the temples of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and bows before their gods in the hope that this will save them from calamity and sickness. If we were to put up on these hills a big foreign idol, and call it Yah-Suh (Jesus), there might be thousands come and bow at it and burn incense, hoping that their crops, health, etc., might be protected ; but, of m iJi ■i '! Is-i J If ! hifi If li^i ! pi ^' ,, i' 7 ■'■^.••■' t- . • V .'■;t;,.vv::;jt;;;;. ( I . . . •,... ». •:. '.u ■ •■ ; ■ ■■■■ . ■/■ ■ /■ M% ■^:--^m':'\-:^-'-->'^ "W— tr •!,-';?•■■. .C- v., r rv-.'!-,, >J-' 9 » -.■■•■v.;-,! vv ^»&a;-. 1 'X' ":■::'■;; :i'ir'' y Jim ►J o o » H Si O ca o c 3 >(| ii':' ;nf ' 1 ^^»^ ^ • CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 223 course, visit all the other gods in the community for fear of giving offence. The difficulty is not to get them to accept a god, but tp accept only One God. " We want teachers to tell these people they have souls, to train them to be useful, and to take their right place in the home and nation. Slave girls are sold very cheaply in Chen-tu. Foot-binding wastes many lives. I have had to treat the mortified stumps and see the bare bones protruding. " The other day I asked my teacher if his wife were one mile away in one direction, and his father ten miles in the other direction, and both sent word that they were sick of the same disease, and wanted him to give them medicine, to whom should he go first. The answer came quickly, ' To my father, of course ! even if there are other brothers.* Ancestral worship is a heathenish monster. " Dr. Kilborn and I, this last spring, went on a book- selling trip up north, through the Chen-tu plain. We also wished to spy out the land for future mission work. We were only gone a week, and walked three- fourths of the way, selling our books along the very interesting highways in old China. In that time we had passed through five strange walled cities. Prob- ably most of these have a population as large as Lon- don, Ontario. They had no missionaries. Just here may I ask the reader, what are you doing to give us the twenty-five missionaries we are praying for ? Friend, you and I will probably be silent in fifty years ; but shall these walled cities have many happy Christian homes by that time ?" m II 1 1 1 1 i n . Mi l-n vv V ! i 1 i 'i 1 i nt V 224 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. A Helping Hand to Missions. We take the following from the Missionary Out- look for September, 1893 : "All who know our good brother, Rev. D. V. Lucas, D.D., know that he is deeply interested in Mis- sions, and manifests that interest in a practical way. Sympathizing deeply with our new Mission to China, and thinking that the education of a Chinese boy at our Mission school might prove one of the best ways of multiplying the seed sown, he corresponded with Dr. Hart, who recently sent him the following note from Chen-tu : "'Dear Bro. Lucas, — According to agreement I am sending you a photo of the young man we have taken for you. He is standing in front of our house, and by the side of our daughter Estella. He is act- ing the part of professor in Chinese to her. She has picked up a good bit already from him. Your Chi- nese boy's name is Liu Chang King.' " Dr. Lucas encloses the photograph — which we re- produce — with the following letter : "'For many years I have thought a great deal about China and her teeming millions, who know so little of Christ and His life-giving and joj'-imparting love. About tive years ago I read an account of a good Congregational brother who is devoting his life to the noble work of procuring blind boys in China, teaching them to read by means of the raised alpha- bet, then putting them in thronged places on the streets to read portions of the New Testament to t I J\ i 1^1 I I 1 !^H-' n'^i f I . i 15 '■ li 226 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. the passers-by. The account stated that fifty dollars would educate a Chinese blind boy for this work. I resolved to send the good man the necessary amount as soon as I could find it possible to do so, in the midst of many other pressing claims. I was in England when I read of the decision of your committee to start a Mission in China. I returned just in time to attend the farewell meeting of the dear brethren just starting for their great work. It occurred to me at the meeting that a boy who could see would, in all probability, be more useful than one who is blind, so I commissioned Dr. Hart to choose for me a bright lad to be educated at my experse. He is going to cost a good deal more money than the blind one would have done ; but then, with two good eyes, he ought to be worth more. I have a hope that I may be able to have a blind boy also at work for Jesus. I am asking Dr. Hart, who tells me that even now my boy can repeat Chinese classics by the yard, to have him so thoroughly taught the New Testament that he can repeat the whole of it from memory — a task quite within the scope of Chinese mental possi- bilities. " * Dr. Hart writes me that he has given him my name also, and that the lad is very proud of it. Let all who read my boy's name in your Outlook send up a prayer that God may greatly bless him, and make him a great blessing to his countrymen.' • »» The Chen-tu Mission. The Rev. David Hill, of the Wesleyan Chinese Mis- !l T^ CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 227 sion, referring to the Canadian Methodist Missions in China, says : " The Chinese Mission work, in which the Methodists of Canada have embarked, is a stupendous work. They need to brace themselves up for intenser effort. It is no easy task upon which they have entered. Thank God that missionaries are going in increasing numbers to that land. Four hundred missionaries met there a little time ago, and they asked for one thousand more missionaries. Two hundred have gone out during the past year. "Your missionaries have gone to the far West. There are special characteristics in that centre which you have selected. It is a provincial capital. There is the Viceroy, who holds sway over seventy millions of people. There is also a judge, a treasurer, and a Government department of the Literary Chancellor. This Literary Chancellor has charge of the examina- tions conducted in that ciiy. "In that city, every third year (sometimes more frequently) all the literary men throughout that province are gathered together for the purpose of a literary examination. They are together for about a fortnight. Nine days are spent in the examina- tions. There are about ten thousand students coming up for examination. These gentlemen are the most influential in the province. They are men of educa- tion and business. Now, if only while these men are there for examination a blow could be struck which would reach their hearts, what a wonderful work might be done ! Throughout the eighteen capitals of i ji • \ i> ! I I VI til \ ■ 1' n A'l I i • II "; !i 228 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. China there are one hundred and fifty thousand gen- tlemen assenbled for examination. Now, if these could only be reached ! It is not always easy to preach to them. So the missionaries' plan had been to reach them by the press. They printed for circu- lation the best tract they had on the Trinity. They BUDDHIST PRIESTS PLAYING AT CHESS. struck off ten thousand copies. A body of mission- aries met there, and when the first batch of students came out of their cells they distributed copies of the tract among them ; and this was continued till all the students had been supplied. Then, they are con- tinually meoting with men who have bought their CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 229 en- ese to een cu- tiey iion- ents ■the I all con- iheir books. Thus the foundations of the work are being laid. "A few years ago in -North China, where these literary examinations were coming on, the mission- aries met together and prayed for light as to what to do. They decided to give the students subjects to be examined in. They prepared papers and offered prizes. The questions were so arranged that they would have to read the tracts before they could answer the questions. They were asked questions about the atonement and other kindred subjects. They were thus compelled to look at these questions. One hun- dred and eleven gentlemen sent in papers prepared on these themes. The missionaries examined the papers and gave prizes accordingly. He cited instances of conversion resulting from such work. Protestants had something to learn from the Roman Catholic workers there. While we must keep free from all civil entanglements — which they do not — yet we may imitate their charitable work. "The field taken up by the Canadian Methodist Church was one of the most fearful opium-smoking districts of China. One-third of the cultivated land is given up to the cultivation of the poppy. England taught China to smoke opium. We ought to stir our- selves to put this evil down. He pictured the opium - smoker as the most degraded of men. He rejoiced in the truth that the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost of humanity. It is easy to go to respectable men and speak to them. He had spoken of one man; but millions oi our fellowmen p. I ■It ill i: ■ra 230 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. Ai. l\ are dragged down by this vice. China, he said in conclusion, needs what the world needs. She needs not war-ships, nor railways, but what your heart needs, and mine. China needs Jesus ! " Medical Missions in China. David W. Stevenson, M.D., of the Canadian Mis- sion, writes as follows : " Gracey states, ' Every third person who lives and breathes upon the earth, who toils under the sun, sleeps under God's stars, or sighs and suffers beneath the heaven, is a Chinese. At least every fourth child born into the world looks into the face of a Chinc-i ^ mother, while twice the population of Canada departs the lands of Sinim annually without a knowledge of the Gospel. Think of it ! eighteen magnificent prov- inces, each as large as Great Britain, fifteen hundred great walled cities, some seven thousand towns, and over one hundred thousand villages are open to the preaching of the glorious Gospel.* " Medical missions havo, with God's blessing, opened Siam, Corea, Jeypore, Cashmere, and large portions of Burmah and China. When Dr. Allen, merely stand- ing within the closed doors of Corea, was called to Min Yon Ik, the nephew of the king, he found thir- teen surgeons trying to staunch his wounds by filling them with wax. "Dr. Peter Parker, who went out in 1835, almost opened China to the Gospel at the point of his lancet. His grert eye hospital become noted the world over. Dr. Kerr has followed him, and during his connection CANADIAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 231 ^ with the Canton hospital over 610,000 people have been relieved, 22,139 operations performed, and 7,399 vaccinations. This hospit.al is safer than a gunboat, said a British consul, in troublesome times. "Leonore Howard, M.D., the feeble but plucky- daughter of a Canadian physician, was sent in 1877 by American Method'sts to Pekin. Lady Li, the wife of the Viceroy, the officer next to the Emperor, was taken seriously ill. As a last resort Dr. Howard was sent for, who, in consultation with Dr. McKenzie, saved her life. In thankfulness His Excellency has built two large hospitals there. Miss Howard had graduated at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and President Angell's name was on her diploma. This man was chosen by the United States Government as a com- missioner to form a more favorable treaty with China, and the New York Herald stated that the successful termination was largely due to Dr. Howard's influ- ence on the Viceroy. " Miss Kitt, M.D., of Tsing Chien Fu, has had four hundred women waiting before her doorstep at four o'clock in the morning. Many had to be turned away. One said, * This is the fourth time I h^ve come, hav- ing been turned away three times. My home is six- teen miles from the city, and I have to hire a wheel- barrow.* " Dr. Y. May King was the first Chinese woman to »tudy medicine. She took the honours of her class in the Woman's Medical College of New York. She returns as a Methodist missionary. Surely the Lord is coming to darkest China with healing in His wings. I 1 ■ • ■' f 1 ! J u t 'f 1 i: M M f MERCANTILE WAREHOUSE, PEKIN. CAKADlAN METHODIST MISSIONS. 233 " On the clearest of Canadian nights look for one hour at all the stars visible to the naked eye. During that same hour nearly twice their number in the proud land of the Celestials will sink into Christless graves forever beyond our reach. " The Missionary Committee of the Canadian Meth- odist Church have resolved, in humble dependence upon God, and with confidence in the sympathy and co-operation of our people, to establish a Mission in the great province of Se-Chuen. As a centre of opera- tions the capital, a city of 400,000 named Chen-tu, has been selected. The staff of workers as now consti- tuted is two evangelists and two medical men. It may seem as if the medical feature is given undue prominence. But Chinese missionaries will hope the same proportion may be kept up. Se-Chuen borders on Thibet (the last and only unopened heathen door), as well as on six other of the most unenlightened provinces of China. This province has a telegraph line, salt and coal mines, and iron works. It produces apples, potatoes, corn, hemp, cherries, plums, straw- berries, cabbages, spinach, turnips and sugar cane. In the wide west there must be sixty million people who never saw a missionary. In this one province alone there are one hundred and thirty great walled cities without a single missionary. The agonizing cry still goes up, * Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no physicifitn there ?' " The Chinese know nothing of surgery, anatomy physiology or a medical diploma. But they give pint doses of herbal, beetle, and tiger-claw mixtures. The hf m I ii' u 234 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. i^ skins of serpents, frogs caught at high noon on the fifth day of the fifth moon, are dried, powdered, and administered alone or in combination with other solu- tions. The superstitions, social sins and diseases of China can be better treated, bodily and spiritually, by the medical missionary. Fevers, agues, leprosy, dys- pepsia and smallpox are frightfully common ; while half the population have skin, ear and eye diseases. Some of the causes are uncleanness, shaving the ears, smoky rooms, and forced continued crying when mourning for the dead. " There are more people in China to each doctor than are contained in three Ontarios. If the Parent Board as well as the Woman's give each ten doctors to West China in the next five years, we may start a medical college and have one doctor for each five great walled cities." The darkest cloud of heathenism rests upon the minds and hearts of the women of China, and it is of the first importance that they be instructed and en- lightened. There is an immense field and great need for women physicians, a need as great or greater than that of India. Dr. Macleish, of Amoy, states that " the conditions of Chinese social life are such as to render it necessary that a separate institution should be provided for women, where they may receive advice and treatment from an educated physician of their own sex." Dr. J. G. Kerr, in one of his hospital reports, tells us that " the Chinese women of the better class endure a vast amount of sufiering rather than submit to what modern medical science requires for METHODIST NEW CONNEXION MISSIONS. 235 the diagnosis of disease and its treatment. The pro- found ignorance of the native faculty, and the seclu- sion and modesty of the female members of most families, open an unlimited field in China for the lady physicians." MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST NEW CONNEXION CHURCH. In 1859 this Church decided to enter China, and Rev. John Innocent and Rev. William A. Hall were commissioned for the work. They entered and com- menced work in Shanghai, studying the language and surveying the field. At Tientsin, the great seaport of North China, they were the pioneers. The work has expanded into three circuits. At Tientsin they have a fine establishment in the British Compound. It has 5 missionaries, 10 native helpers, 2 out-stations, 3 churches, and 105 members. The college for training native preachers has 1 principal, 1 native teacher, and 18 students. The female college for training native women and girls has 4 native women and 12 girls. The village of Chu Chia Tsai is about one hundred and forty miles south of Tientsin. The Mission was opened under peculiar conditions. A farmer of the village was led by a dream to visit Tientsin and listen to the foreign preaching. He became a sincere be- liever in Christ, and when he returned he took with him a supply of Bibles, hymn books, and religious publications. On reaching home he openly confessed his faith in Jesus as the Saviour of the world, invited his neighbors to his house, read the Bible to them, ! .!.'. ■i .1 -i'l ■ f biii CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. and told of his conversion. The people of the vil- lage were awakened; the work extended out into the district, and ere long an earnest appeal was sent to Tientsin for a missionary. They gladly responded and regular work was opened, and now the circuit embraces upwards of three hun- EAST FLOWERY GATE, PEKIN. dred miles of the province and more than forty native churches. Near the city of Taiping, north of Tientsin, are extensive mines, worked by a syndicate of Chinese mandarins. They applied to the Mission for a medi- cal missionary, offering him facilities for evangelistic work among the workmen. The missionary was sup- plied, and an extensive circuit was formed around the OTHER MISSIONS IN CHINA. 237 Tang San collieries, extending to the city of Yung Ping Fu, near the old wall. The policy of the Church has been to carry on the work chiefly by the aid of native help. The remark- able success of the Mission is largely due to the effi- ciency of the native preachers it has trained in its theological school at Tientsin. In 1891, with 7 mis- sionaries in the field, they had 40 native preachers and catechists, 1,301 members, 227 candidates for membership, 52 chapels, 19 schools, and 178 scholars. In Shan-tung they have a hospital with beds for 30 in-patients and a dispensary, under the cV.arge of a medical missionary. Patients come from all parts of the district, often as many as thirty a day. This enterprise is adding largely to the influence of the missionaries and the success of the Mission. A num- ber of pious native women have been employed in teaching the Gospel to their heathen sisters with marked success. They are unable to read or write, but being endowed with the retentive memories for which the Chinese are remarkable, they can recite appropriate selections from the Bible, catechisms and hymns to the women, and explain them with remark- able force and effect. In Tientsin they have a col- lege for the training of these female workers. The women it is sending out are carrying the Gospel to homes and individuals that are inaccessible to the male missionaries. OTHER MISSIONS IN CHINA. We cannot give with such fulness of detail an ac- ii;!| ^ f S: i i ij • ilii- ;' ij !;'•; M il i^i i'l ' < ir iHi ^ ■ 238 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. count of the other Missions in China. The following, however, is an enumeration, with statistics up to the latest attainable date, of the principal Protestant Mis- sions in that country : Bible Christian Church. — In 1885 two mission- aries were sent out under the China Inland Mission. To meet the expense a general fund was raised, to which the members contributed liberally. Six mis- sionaries were sent to the province of Yun-nan — three to Yun-nan, the capital of the province, and three to the city of Chang-fung-foo. The work has prospered. A ten days* revival in the capital recently led to the conversion of a number of the natives to Christ. The Church a few years ago was supporting four mission- aries. A native church with seven members has been formed, and the day-school was prosperous. Tracts and Bibles that set forth the teaching and work of Christianity were circulated. Preaching and books, with the medical treatment of opium patients, awak- ened much attention, and secured the confidence of the people. In 1888 they had a station at Yun-nan, which was served by Rev. T. G. Vanstone and wife and S. Pollard, and another at Chang-fung-foo, served by Rev. S. T. Thorne and wife and F. T. Dymond. United Methodist Free Church. — The China Mission of this Church was opened in 1864 by Rev. W. R. Fuller, at Ning-po. He was soon joined by Rev. John Mara. In 1868 Rev. T. W. Gal pin joined the Mission. He remained in the work about ten years. In 1871 Rev. Robert Swallow became his fellow- labourer and opened work in one of the suburbs of CHOOK-SING-TOON— TYPICAL CHINESE LANDSCAPE, •; . i 1 1 ' V ^ .; I:M ■if 'i\ 4 1 ; 1 { . i' Jl, : i, ; lil, 240 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ii Ning-po. A little later they wore joined by Rev. R. I. Exley. He was a zealous missionary, but ere he could carry out his plans consumption closed his labours. His place was filled by Rev. W. Soothill, who was sent out to open a new station at Wen-chow. The war with France had embittered the Chinese at Wen- chow against foreigners, and a riot followed, in which the Mission premises were destroyed and the Mission discontinued. When peace was restored the Chinese Government made ample compensation for all losaes, and the work was resumed and has since been carried on successfully. In 1886 Mr. Swallow and family returned to Eng- land. His chief object was to prepare for the work of a medical missionary. His object accomplished, he returned with his wife to Ning-po, where they carr* on their work with greatly increased success, l^s^ Mission in 1889 reported 3 stations, 3 ordained mis- sionaries, and 325 members. The American Board has sixty-nine mission sta- tions in China — the Foochow Mission, with a station at Foochow city and suburbs ; the North China Mis- sion, with stations at Kalgan, Paoting-fu, Pekin, Shan- tung, Tientsin and Tung-cho ; the Shanse Mission, with a station at Tai-yuen-fu, and a number of other sta- tions. There are 46 male and 54 female missionaries. The Committee on the Annual Report says : " We are not to expect in China easy conquests like those gained among Sandwich Islanders, who, before the coming of missionaries, had thrown away their gods in disgust, or of other savage tribes, who, at OTHER MISSIONS IN CHINA. 1.41 least, were compelled to own the superior knowledge and power of those who offered them a new religion. But if the work attempted is great, the results aimed at and confidently looked for are of corresponding magnitude. Every conquest gained in such a nation for Christ prepares the way for those greater and more glorious. Every inch of ground won among so slow-moving a people may with faithful care and labour be held. "A converted Chinaman is at once a missionary, and, in many cases, will be found already equipped for successful service in the vineyard of the Lord. In the changes already wrought in China by missionary labour, and especially in the changed disposition of the people toward such labour, there is food for en- couragement and hope." The Presbyterian Church in the United States has in China the Canton, Ming-po, Shan-tung and Pekin Missions. The last annual report shows the number of native preachers has been increased to 27, Bible-women to 17, chapels to 45, and membership to 4,084. In every point there has been a steady ad- vance. At the Ning-po station it is reported " there has been a steady and important growth, not only in numbers, but in the general character of the people. Those who have died have borne good testimony to the last of genuine conversion. In the midst of perse- cution and social embarrassment, the native Chris- tians have borne a good record. Only four out of a membership of five hundred have been expelled, although the native sessions maintain a strictness 16 :ill J ') A (ir % V. ... \ ii u 242 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. of discipline far beyond that observed in our own country.' The Reformed Church in America baa a Mission at Amoy and vicinity. It reports 856 communicants and 219 scholars in 12 schools. A report made by r BUMMER PALACE, "HILL OF THE TEN THOUSAND AGES," PEKIN. Dr. Kip says, "The number of hearers has alto- gether outgrown the accommodation for them. In connection with this there has been a gratifying ad- vance in some places in the matter of the support of the Gospel. In addition to this is another hopeful \h OTHER MISSIONS IN CHINA. 243 feature, namely, that the churches are beginning to undertake mission work among the Hakkas. It is true these people are only distant some four days' hard journey, but the difference of language makes it a more serious undertaking, and one that, we dcabt not, will have a reflex influence on the churches, cor- responding to that which you at home enjoy from engaging in foreign missions." The Presbyterian Church, Soutf, of the United States, have Missions in Hang-chow and Soo-chow. The last annual report showed 32 missionaries, of whom 16 were female. The Protestant Episcopal Church have the headquarters of their Mission at Shanghai, and have also stations at Woo-chang, Han-kow, Ning-po, Foo- chow, Hong-Kong and Pekin. The missionary staff consists of 55 missionaries, 57 native workers, and 536 communicants, also, successful medical missions. The American Baptist Missionary Union has sixty-seven mission stations in China, with headquar- ters at Swatow, Ning-po and Zao-hying. "At many, but not at all, of the out-stations, the church organiza- zation is such that they may be considered branch churches, sustaining a relation to the central church similar to that which city mission stations at home sustain to the parent or suppor+^ng church. We have thought it best to continue ^nch relations until the branch churches can nearly or quite support their pastor, when they will be considered independent churches, belonging to what will then be an associa- tional organization." 1 :\ m ! < M s . i f?i :l >S '\ CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. Statistics of these Missions show 88 native workers, 24 Bible- women, 23 schools with 325 pupils, and 1,535 resident church members. The Committee on the Missions in China at the last annual meetinjv said: "Hundreds have been baptized in China, and amonjy the Chinese in Siam. The medical missionary is an important aj^ent in the propagation of the Gospel in China. Miss Daniells has given special attention to this branch, and has assisted more than one thousand patients during the past year." The American Southern Baptists commenced work in Shanghai in 1847. Forty-one stations have since been established. Dr. Yates writes from China : " The time has come for a general movement to the front, for a vigorous charge. For this work we want vigorous men with stout hearts — men who are ready to make an offering of themselves for the advance- ment of Christ's kingdom, and, if necessary, to suffer for His sake." There are 33 foreign missionaries, 23 native workers, and 806 communicants. The American Woman's Union Missionary Society have a very successful school at Shanghai. The American Ejble Society commenced work in China in 1876. Its headquarters are at Shanghai, and it is accomplishing an important work in circu- lating the Scriptures, chiefly through the missionaries of the different societies. The Presbyterian Church of Canada have a Mis- sion in the island of Formosa, about eighty miles from the mainland, with a population of about 3,000,000. ; ; I AUDIKNCE OF FOUKIUN KEPHESENTATIVKS AT COUKT, IMPERIAL CITY OF PEKIN. H' , ! I 246 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. I ii . '■ The people are much like the Chinese, but possess no written language, though there are many dialects. The natives are not so given to trickery and deceit as the Chinese, and are more tolerant to foreigners. They are, however, a fierce and warlike people, the skulls of foes they have killed forming part of the ornamen- tation of their huts. The Canadian Mission was begun in 1872 by Rev. George Leslie MacKay, D.D., Oxford County, Ontario. Dr. MacKay's Chinese wife has been very helpful to him in gaining the attention of the women. His opinion from the first was that the work of evangel- izing the people must be accomplished through a native agency. As soon, therefore, as he had acquired a sufficient knowledge of the language himself he sought young men with a view of training them to become preachers and teachers. His first convert was the Rev. Gian Cheng Hoa, through whose influence many young men were reached. These were formed into a band and thoroughly trained in theology, the natural sciences, and, as far as practicable, in medical practice and surgery. When a student was ready for independent work a district was assigned to him, and he went to work as a local preacher. A chapel and a house for the preacher was erected, and soon a regular congregation was organized, with elders and deacons. In this way the work has spread over the whole of northern Formosa, where Dr. MacKay now superin- tends 60 churches, 60 native preachers, a well-equipped college with 35 students, two large hospitals, and a girls' school. The number of bapUzed members is OTHER MISSIONS IN CHINA. 247 nearly 3,000. In 1890 the people contributed $1,143.85. The amount of work done in so short a time, and chiefly through the marvellous energy and zeal of one man, causes us to exclaim, ** What hath God wrought !" Encouraged by the success of the Formosa Mission the Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1888 sent the Rev. J. Goforth to northern Honan, on the mainland, where he was joined in 1889 by Mr. McClure and Mr. McGillivray. There is also a very interesting Scottish Presby- terian Mission to the blind in China, of whom there are supposed to be half a million. After eight years' effort a system was invented whereby a Chinese blind man or lad of average intelligence could learn to read and write within two months. German. — The Rhenish Missionary Society have missionaries at Hong-Kong, Long-hau and Canton* The Basel Missionary Society have missionaries at Hong-Kong, Chonglok, Sinon, Lilong and Yunon. British. — The British and Foreign Bible Society entered China in 1843, and have agents at Shanghai operating chiefly through the missionaries of the dif- ferent Societies. The Church Missionary I'^ociety commenced a Mission at Shanghai in 1844, and now have six Missions and employ 22 colporteurs. The Presbyterians commenced work in 1847, and have Missions at Swatow, Amoy and Tai-wan-fu. The National Bible Society of Scotland have agents and colporteurs in Che-foo. The China Inland Mission commenced work in 1865, and have stations in nearly every province. The United Presbyterian Church 'I ; ' [ il ' I 248 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. < ;< h'H M nil of Scotland commenced work in 1865, and have 18 stations and out-stations. The United Methodist Free Church commenced work at Ning-po in 1868. The Irish Presbyterian Church commenced work at Newchwanjr in 1869. The Church of Scotland coin- COVERED ALTAR, TEMPLE OP HEAVEN, PEKIN. menced work at Ichanor in 1878. The Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East have Mis- sions in China and two schools at Foochow. The London Missfonary Society have stations at Pekin, Tientsin, Han-kow, Shanghai, Amoy, Canton and Hong-Kong, with 38 English missionaries and l;^ OTHER MISSIONS IN CHINA. 249 their wives, besi«les 13 female missionaries and 9 ordained native pastors. Tliroughout its Missions in China the Society enjoys* the assistance of a number of very intellij^ent and earnest native preachers. The China. Inland Mission was formed in 1865, because of the overwhelming.; necessity for some fur- ther ettbrt to spread the knowledge of the Gospel among the unevangelized millions of China, which at that time had only ninety-seven Protestant mission- aries among its hundreds of millions of people. This Mission is evangelical and interdenominational. Duly qnalitied candidates for missionary labour, whether ordained or unordained, are accepted. The present staff (I89'i) of the Mission numbers 554, namely, mis- sionaries and their wives, 172 ; unmarried mission- aries, 207; associates, 115. Of this total the mission- aries from North America number 40. There are also 323 native helpers, whose whole time is given up to Mission work as pastors, evangelists, colporteurs, Bible- women, etc.; 05 of these are unpaid. Some of the missionaries, having private property, have gone out at their own expense, and do not accept anything from the Mission funds. The others have gone out in dependence upon God for temporal supplies, with the understanding that the Mission does not guaran- tee any inconte whatever, and knowing that, as the Mission does not go into debt, it can only minister to those connected with it as the funds sent in from time to time may allow. The missionaries and native helpers are supported by contributions sent to the offices of the Mission without personal solicitation. I r ft , i 'i . ; 1^ ,'' i • ! ' 1 "^' 1 [iJL 250 CHfxA AND ITS PEOPLE. The income for 1892 was $167,199.20 from all sources — America, Great Britain, Europe, etc. Stations have been opened in ten out of the eleven provinces which were previously without Protestant missionaries. About 106 stations and 101 out-stations have been opened, in all of which there are either missionaries or resident native helpers. Over 5,000 converts have been baptized; and deaths, removals and discipline leave over 3,600 now in fellowship as members of 107 organized churches ; 673 of these were baptized in 1892. \i t OBSTRUCTIONS TO MISSIONS. The Rev. J. H. Mac Vicar, late of Han-kow, writes in substance as follows about the recent Chinese riots : " In 1891 wars and rumours of wars filled the air for some months, and the missionaries were subjected to terrible suspense. The people arose and shouted that the * foreign devils ' in China should be driven into the sea. The feeling of hatred against the foreign element became intense, and even the servants left the houses of the missionaries for fear of being massa- cred. The foreigners expected death at any moment. Then came the news of terrible riots in neighboring provinces, where nuns were dragged before the offi- cials and charged with practising witchcraft. Build- ings were looted and burned to the ground, and sol- diers, who were sent presumably to render protection to the foreigners, actually turned their coats inside out and joined in the looting. Hospitals even were OfiSTfttJCTlONS to MISSIONS. 251 attacked. Graves were dug up, and the eyes of the dead plucked out and arms cut off. The mob were complete masters of the situation. In spite of the commands of the military mandarins, they continued the looting. Serious troubles took place in the Wes- leyan Methodist district, in which two missionaries were brutally massacred, their heads being split open and their bodies pelted with stones. This rioting con- tinued in all districts, even in. face of the commands of the mandarins and edicts of the viceroy, and it was not until the foreign powers themselves threatened to put down the riots that there was any peace. It was astonishing how quick the people were to obey the command of the officials then. All was then smiles, and the Chinaman who had only a short time before threatened to burn and kill, came with an open hand and pleasant face. " As the Chinese were a semi-civilized nation the cause of the troubles was not that the riots were the outcome of barbarism, as was the case in the Fiji Islands and like places. Nor was it, as was generally supposed by Christians at home, the outcome of the barbarous treatment meted out to Chinese subjects in America, for at that time the Geary law had not been passed. In like manner may be dismissed the theory of incipient rebellion ; for though it was true that the standard of revolt was raised before the year came to an end, it was in distant Mongolia, and all the circum- stances indicated that the uprising in the north had no connection with the demonstrations against for- eigners further south. It was the peculiar and intense if } i\ hi I III J ^1 i- i! ' : li I , - : H iLh ■ '■: I I . I: f\ I-l! A STREET IX SHANGHAI. 'ii OBSTRUCTIONS TO MISSIONS. 253 dislike to interference or enlightenment from out- siders. "The trouble with the* Chinamen was pig-headed, flat-footed exclusiveness. They still consider that theirs is the only kingdom beneath the heavens. It is a race pride. They never wanted intercourse with • other nations, nor do they want it now. The feeling was anti-foreign, and not anti-missionary, They say, when they see the missionary coming, ' Here comes the man who wants to steal our trade.' They con- sider him only one in disguise who comes to steal from them. The educated Chinaman hates the for- eigner with a hate that only he can feel. They con- sider their light and culture and literarv institutions in danger of being destroyed. They consider out- siders are intruding barbarians. " Perhaps the most conspicuous exhibitions of race hatred had come from the officials, who could have quelled the riots at the commencement if they had so desired. Perhaps nowhere in the whole wide world could instances of more revolting duplicity be cited against officialdom than in China. They declared their inability to control the element ; but on other occasions, when they wished it, they have not the slightest difficulty in controlling the populace. "The persistent publication and circulation of de- famatory literature and cartoons was one exhibition of native hostility, chiefly in the northern provinces, to the missionaries. No doubt there were certain in- judicious missionary methods in vogue in China which could not but be held responsible for the frequent re- >,f 1 Km 254 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ^M.J currence of trouble — responsible, at least, to the ex- tent that they afforded a too ready handle for stirring up the passions of the common people. But China will never be any better until it is Christianized. The Chinaman will never be anything else than what he is under the teaching of Confucius. He must have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no hope for China outside of this. It cannot advance with- out it." ;rl ^ ; ! 1 .'! i PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA. The progress of Christianity in China has been dis- couragingly slow — more so than in any other portion of the globe. At the end of seven years Morrison had one convert; at his death, in 1834, there were only four. Fifteen years after the translation of the Bible (a work which occupied twelve years of time) there were only four native Christians in the whole empire to read it. In 1843 there were six converts reported ; in 18.55, 361 ; in 1863, 2,000 ; in 1873, 6,000 ; in 1882, 20,000; in 1885, 25,000. In 1890 the Shanghai Con- ference reported 31,000 communicants and 100,000 native nominal Christians ; in 1891 the communicants returned number 40,350. This represents the gain during forty -nine years, as work only fairly began in 1842, when China fir^t became open for resident mis- sionaries at the treaty ports. Taking simply the ratio of increase, Dr. Legge, at the London Conference, said: "The converts have multiplied during thirty- five years at least two-thousand-fold, the rate of .increase being greater year after year. Suppose it THE CITIES OF CHINA. 255 'i s should continue the same for other thirtj -five years, then in A.D. 1913 there will be in China twenty-six millions of communicants, and a professedly Christian community of one hundred millions." A memorable missionary conference was held at Shanghai in 1890. More than 400 delejijates, repre- senting over forty separate organizations, were present. One decision arrived at will have a far-reaching in- fluence, namely, to undertake the production of a Standard Version of the Bible, which in various edi- tions may suit alike the scholar and the peasant. The difficulty in making such a version may be learned from, the fact that the language has a singular in- capacity for expressing sacred ideas, so much so that for half a century translators have doubted what name to use for God — " the Chinese tongue seeming to be Satan's master-device to exclude the Gospel." The latest missionary statistics for the whole of China are as follows : — Number of Societies, 30 ; sta- tions, 1,071 ; ordained missionaries, 537 ; native or- dained ministers, 247 ; churches, 439 ; Sabbath-school scholars, 10,377 ; common schools, 700 ; communi- cants, 40,350; native contributions for all purposes, $36,865. Ml IL it I I' 8 " . !t i THE CITIES OF CHINA. We now give a brief account of some of the prin- cipal cities of China in which missionary operations have been conducted, beginning with the capital of the empire : Ml 256 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. THE CITY OF PEKIN. The city of Pekin, the capital of China, has a popu- latior* of about two millions, and is divided into two cities — the Chinese citv, with an area of fifteen square CHINESE JVNK. miles, and the Tartar city, with an area of twelve square miles. Both of these divisions are enclosed by walls about thirty feet high, twenty-five feet thick at the base, and twelve feet at the top. The Tartar city consists of three enclosures, one within another, each surrounded by ils own wall. THE CITY OF PEKIN. 257 Hi The innermost contains the imperial palace and its surrounding buildings ; the second is occupied by the several offices appertaining to the government, and by many private residents who receive special p.r- mission to reside within its limits; and the outer one, for the most part, consists of dwelling-houses, with shops in the larger avenues. The Chinese city is more populous than the Tartar city. The houses are built of brick, and seldom ex- ceed one story in height. The environs of the city are occupied with groves, private mansions, hamlets and cultivated fields. Mr. C. B. Adams thus describes his visit to Pekin, which is probably the oldest capital in the world : "It would be difficult to imagine anything more enjoyable than the three days' sail up the Peiho. The peaceful glide through the golden autumn days and moonlit nights, on the winding river, was the realiza- tion of the ideal in travelling. Early on the third morning we came to a stop in front of a very high battlemented wall, along whose base lines of laden camels were led, and groups of curious carts, with two large heavy wheels, no springs, and flat floors without seats, were waiting for hire. The camels were taking tea to Russia : the carts were Pekin carts, in which the cross-legged occupant runs a fair chance of having his sens^** jolted out over the flag-paved highways leading to the c.ipital. "It was evening as wo entered Pekin, just before the gfites were closed. We were therefore spared the din and confusion of midday traffic, that we have 17 258 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. . !■ ■ ' ' ■i kI since always regarded with increasing- wonder and dismay. During the busy hours there is an uninter- rupted procession of camels, carts, mule litters, chairs, wheelbarrows, heavily laden carts with tandem teams, crowds of pedestrians — lines of wretched beggars squatting along the wall, mingling their pitiful peti- tions in shrill voices with the yells and imprecations of the drivers — so that the arch overhead echoes with a deafening uproar. "All foreigners reside in the Tartar city, but the glimpse we got of it was not more encouraging than what we had seen beyond its gates ; in fact, it all looks like a vast suburb. The streets, ungraded and unpaved, are dust-swept in winter and quagmires in summer, with green suffocating pools in the hollows, that would create a pestilence in any other climate. The odours beggar description. Garbage and slops are thrown in front of the houses, and the city scaven- gers — dogs, rag-pickers and magpies — feast at their leisure. " Notwithstanding the dirt there are certain fea- tures that make the streets picturesque; the 'bit of colour,' so much in demand, is never wanting. The banks are showily carved and gilded ; there are signs, streamers and tassels of all shades on the shops ; big auction tents, made of thousands of bits of rags, where the energetic auctioneer — as naturally ho should do on the opposite side of the world — begins at the high- est possible price and bids down. There is an unend- ing variety of combination in the colours worn by both sexes, Tartar women do not disfigure their feet THE CITY OF PEKIN. 259 as the Chinese people do. They wear shoes like the men, or with an elevation under the sole of the foot, the toe or heel being unsupported. The small-footed HOW WK WERE BOARDED BY CHINESE AND DISPERSED THEM. {Voyage of Yacht "Sunbeam.") women, contrary to our ideas, walk a great deal, and even work in the fields, though it must be confessed their gait is neither rapid nor graceful, as they balance themselves with their arms. Both women and qhil- I' ill; I Ml* . Hi'., »" *■ 260 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. dren wear artificial flowers in their hair, and rarely in the coldest weather any head-dress, while the men have wadded hoods, fur ear-protectors, and various kinds of hats. They wear the most beautiful silk gowns with what was originally a handsome silk jacket, but now marred by use and with a long line of black grease down the back from their queues. All the well-to-do people dress in silk and satin, while cotton, well wadded in winter, and sheepskin worn with the * skinny side out,' protect the poorer. "The mandarin has a sable coat, and a feather hanging from the button of his hat. There is some- thing dignified and elegant in his salutation as he shakes his own hands and makes a graceful bow. His formal and polite questions are : your age, your fortune, it' your nest is full, and if smallpox has yet visited it. It is thought unfortunate if a child passes a certain age without having contracted this disease, it being comparatively without danger to the young. " We will put the beggars in as the shadow in the street picture. Were there ever any people with so little of the human being about them ? They are not even Chinamen — they have no pig-tails — but their thick black hair stands in a bushy mass about their smeared, haggard faces ; their only covering a bit of sheepskin that they hold about their shoulders, reach- ing half-way to the knee, or a bundle of fluttering rags — little or no protection against the keen winter wind. Most trades in China are protected by guilds, and it is said neither beggars nor thieves are behind the more honourable professions in this respect. Each THE CITY OP PEKIN. 261 IT' I , ( has its king, and by paying a certain yearly tribute to the robber king you can insure your house against molestation. " Every kind of ware is hawked about the streets : travelling kitchens with soup, rice and mysterious messes ; the confectioner, with sticks of candied crab apples and peanut candy ; the barber, plying his voca- tion at the door; the packman, with groups of women around him, choosing artificial flowers and trimming- silk ; the knife sharpener, the man who rivets china, the pedicure, each with his distinctive call, rattle or bell ; and the Taoist priest, banging his gong till he is paid to be quiet — all keep the echoes lively. After nightfall each man, as he walks along, sings to keep away the evil spirits. There are street lamps, but they are only lighted on holy days, which nearly always fall on moonlight nights. "Funerals are the most gorgeous pageants. The embroideries used on the bier are unsurpassed in beauty of material and design. Armies of ragamuffins, d'^cked out in all the paraphernalia of the occasion, bear red staffs and umbrellas, while a deafening music is kept up as the procession moves on. The family, dressed in white — which they wear as mourning for a prescribed time — follow in carts. They burn gold and silver paper that the deceased may have funds, horses, carts, houses or palaces, men and women ser- vants — all he may want is burnt in effigy, often life size. He is buried with pomp ; his descendants wor- ship at his tomb, and any titles that may accrue to them revert to him, instead of descending to the chi^ Ill 4 I ! i ' ij ill 'I Ml 1 1 •'■ I 262 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. dren. Thus a man may die a coolie and live in mem- ory as a prince. " Foreign residents at Pekin are restricted entirely to oflBcials, being composed of members of the Eng- lish, Russian, United States, German, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish and Japanese legations, the custom service and the Tung Wen Kuan College. There are also a a number of English and American missionaries. " The only pleasant walk is on the city wall, a little world of itself, forty-two feet high. Trees, grass and wild flowers grow through the stones, and in the autumn it is bright with morning-glories of every shade, and a good harvest of hay is gathered. " There is a halo of mystery that hangs about the court and all appertaining thereto. All state affairs at the palace are transacted after midnight, at which time the city gates are opened for officials to pass back and forth. When on rare occasions the Emperor leaves the palace, the public is notified of the streets he will take, and that they are closed to them, so that it is impossible even to catch a glimpse of him. The road he follows is covered with yellow earth (the im- perial colour), and the inns at which he stops are hung with yellow satin brocade. During his minority he leaves the capital only to worship at the tomb of his ancestors. " There has been but one audience granted to for- eign representatives, which was during the last reign. This memorable event, which the diplomatists of the two worlds valiantly fought for months to bring about, meeting with a stubborn resistance on the part THE CITY OF tEKm. ^63 of the Chinese government, took place on the 29th of June, 1873. The fight had been to get the Chinese to accede to the foreign ministers' dispensing with the Ko-tn, or prostration, on being presented to the Em- peror, which had been from time immemorial required at the court of China. Genuflexions were equally- impossible for the diplomatic corps, so our less impos- ills I 1 ill UOQUB FORTS, PEARL RIVER, NEAR CANTON. ing but easily performed bow was at last agreed upon. The audience took place in an out-building, called the Tgu Kuang Ko, or Purple Pavilion, outside the palace walls, and near the Catholic church, Pei Tang. After hours of waiting the foreign representatives were in- troduced into the hall, where the Emperor sat cross- legged on his throne. They stood behind a table, some distance from him, and deposited their letters 264 CHINA AND Its PEOPLE. 1-^ of credence on it. The Emperor murmured some words to Prince Kung in Manchu, and he came and repeated them to the ministers, and in five minutes this imposing scene, which the London Times called ' breaking the magic circle,' was at an end." The engraving on page 211 represents one of the busiests parts of Pekin, giving only specimens of the people who daily assemble here. Aside from the carts which fill the roadway, venders of all sorts of wares move up and down crying their goods, while work- men, such as cobblers and tinkers, and even black- smiths, bring their movable shops and carry on their trades in the streets. Even the barbers ply their call- ing in the midst of the crowds. Here, also, the beg- gars congregate, and there are so many of this class that they have given their name to the bridge. " Pekin," writes Rev. Frank S. Dobbins, " greatly disappoints the expectations of almost every foreign visitor. It is not as large as we had supposed. Its walls, houses, temples and public buildings are all in a state of decay ; its streets are filthy and narrow and dark ; and the whole city has a poverty-stricken ap- pearance. Yet the city has this interest : that it is over three thousand years old ; that it is the seat of the Chinese Government ; and that the highest forms of Chinese worship are to be found here. In the noisy, crowded streets, the bustling, jostling, shouting multitude pursue their occupations. It is only when one retires to the solitudes of the Imperial temple that he can escape the noise and din, the stenches and dust, of the Imperial City. THE CITY OF PEKIN. 265 " These temples, once beautiful structures, are situ- ated in the southern section of Pekin, quite near the Wall. The chief est is the Altar to Heaven, situated in a park about a square mile in extent. Several high brick walls surround the temple enclosure. The magnificent structures, with all their delicate work- manship, are utterly neglected, as are also those of the Temple of Agriculture. Dust and dirt cover every- thing. Bishop Wiley tells how, when he visited these temples, with his foot he scraped away more than an inch of dirt on the floor, and discovered thus a ' most beautiful mosaic work of porcelain tiles.* "The Pavilion of Heaven, or the lofty dome in imitation of the vault of heaven, as some explain and describe it, is really a tine-looking object. It is circu- lar, and, as a keeper of the grounds informed me, was ninety-nine feet high, consisting of three stories. It is erected on the centre of a magnificent platform, constructed of white marble, twenty-five or thirty feet high. The outside of the pavilion and the tiling on its top are of a deep blue colour, in imitation of the azure vault of heaven. It is the finest and most imposing structure, especially when beheld from a distance, which I have seen in Chinfo "Every spring the Emperor, with his attendants, proceeds to the park of the Temple of Agriculture. Here, in a specially reserved plot of ground, and in the presence of the mandarins and other high officers, the Emperor pushes a plough through furrow after farrow, then rakes the ground and sows it with seed. This being accomplished, he and his officials proceed i 'I 266 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. . I'! . if ' ^i: to the Temple of Agriculture near by, which is dedi- cated to Shang-ti (Supreme Being), who is here wor- shipped as the 'Divine Husbandman.' Prayers are said to the gods of land, of grain, of ocean, wind, thunder and rain. " Thus among the Chinese * God has not left Him- self without a witness among them, in that He does good, and sends them rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.' Yet, alas ! they worship Him not; and even the worship of the gods of their own devising is half-hearted and careless." The Methodist Episcopal missionary in Pekin writes in 1892 : "Asbury chapel is situaterl inside of the Mission compound in Pekin and has a seating capacity of be- tween three and four hundred. The usual Sabbath morning audience is composed of the teachers and students of the college, preparatory and intermediate departments of the university, the pupils of the young ladies* seminary, and a considerable number of men and women composing the local membership. These together constitute an audience of more than average intelligence, and inspire the best thoughts of all who are privileged to preach to them. " The Sabbath-school, for lack of room, is embarrass- ingly large. Five hundred and fifteen were present at the last session. Of this number over two hundred were boys and girls from heathen families, who are attracted by curiosity and picture cards, but who learn verses of Scripture and are taught to sing the hymns of Zion. This department of church work is ; 'I ' THE CITY OP PEKIN. 267 capable of great development, and from it we may look for good results. It is a great gain to be greeted kindly by the children of the surrounding neighbour- hood instead of being reviled as formerly ; and it is not to be forgotten that in China, as elsewhere, the children hold the keys to the parents' hearts." THE PEARL RIVER, NEAR CANTON. There is also in Pekin a Methodist university, with a dormitory large enough to accommodate one hun- dred or more students. This building is called " Dur- bin Hall," in honour of the distinguished pulpit orator. The plan provides for a central building with two pavilions so connected as to occupy three sides of a square. The medical work of the Methodist hospital at I Ii' ' 268 CHINA AND ITS PBOPLB. Pekin reports for the year ending April 12, 1892: New cases at hospital dispensary, 1,493; subsequent visits at dispensary, 3,449 ; patients seen on country missions and in the schools, 1,510; total, G,452. Another hospital of the same Church in northern China in 1892 reports visits to dispensaries, 11,857; hospital patients, 98; out patients, G4; total, 12,019; surgical operetions, 188. THE CITY OF SHANQIIAI. A recent English tourist thus describes his visit to Shanghai : " What a magnificent town ! The Venice of the East, it seemed to me, with its long procession of stately buildings in the Venetian Palace style on its Bund, recalling the Grand Canal and its procession of pal- aces. A little before midnight of the 17th of Novem- ber, 1891, we anchored in the river of China, the fourth river of the world, the Yang-tse-kiang, in one of the southernmost mouths of its seventy-mile delta, and at daylight steamed up to Woo-sung, whence, at about nine a.m., the agent's launch carried us up the Wang-po, a two hours' trip to Shanghai. The first English words which saluted us were ' Empire Brew- ery.' I was much interested in a Chinese tea-house, and Chinese buildings, with clusters of queer little turn-up-toed roofs. But we were all alike soon lost in contemplation of Shanghai, which burst upon us with a turn of the river. Out in the stream lay big two-funnelled P. &; 0. and Messageries boats and the British gun-boat Wanderer. ?)! : THE CITY OF SHANGHAI. 269 " The mouth of the Yanj?-tse was full of junks with brown rattaned sails. All had go^ijgling eyes painted on their bows, as had the* pretty little sampans. The passenger boats are very queer things, with their tall, lanky, rattaned sails, ridiculously out of proportion to their size, as tall as the masts of a large steamer, worked by a whole wave of strings, like the stretchers of a Japanese kite ; the masts themselves without a shroud or a stay, in spite of their ridiculous height. These boats are generally sailed under the English flag, to avoid the periodical squeezes to which the native craft are subjected by the mandarins. " The most noteworthy European building in Shang- hai is, of course, the handsome Anglican cathedral, built, by the late Sir Gilbert Scott, of red and black brick — looking, under the clear Chinese sky, like one of the great brick churches of mediaeval Italy. It was the first spot we visited in Shanghai, the first place I have ever visited in the mainland of Asia. One might have been back in England. Truly the Island Queen is great, where subjects under alien stars the width of the world away, and in the teeth of the nation most stubborn in opposition, have built up a bit of England such as they build broadcast in her magnificent Indian Empire. "The streets present a very curious appearance, being hung with long, coloured sign-boards, which have the appearance of banners streaming. Among these, glinting out brightly in the sunlight, are gor- geous lanterns and coloured lamps, so that the streets present a festive aspect even on ordinary occasions. n ill rt |! ;■ li ,.'.1'. n '1 ■ lii I i II '! t Vi i: ' 270 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. The names of the streets are characteristic of Chinese inflation of style. I am staying in the street of Benevolence and Love. One street is called Street of Everlastinpj Love. " One day I took some photographs of some of the queer wheelbarrows used by the native population in place of the jinrikishas, adopted from Japan, for the Europeans. They are a cross between a huge wheel- barrow and a jaunting-car, and sometimes one will see a whole family of Chinamen on the two sides. More often one side is given up to luggage and the other to passengers. These wheelbarrows are about the size of a costerinonger's barrow. The one iu the picture on page 172 is carrying a hog to market. "There is a continuation of the Bund, almost at right angles with it, connected by a hog-backed bridge — hog-backed because the Tai-Tai, a sort of native governor, objected both to a drawbridge and to a bridge that boats could not pass under at the highest tide. Formerly a large revenue was derived by charging two cash (about 3-20 of a cent) for every barrow driven over it. The economical soul of John Chinaman writhed at this expense, and they used to get out of it in this way : There was no charge for foot passengers or burdens carried, so each wheel- barrow carried a pole, u-nd when they came to the bridge the barrow man and the man in the ba'< row, unless he preferred paying the two cash, unshipped the wheel of the barrow, slung it on one end of the pole and the barrow at the other, and carried them over the bridge. The weight was nothing to a China- THE CITY OF CANTON. 271 man. Twice one day we saw pianos in heavy pack- ing cases carried slung on poles by only four coolies apiece. The jinrikishas are not so good as in Japan. They are commoner, and, in spite of their bright scarlet linings, dirtier, and drawn by a much lower class of coolie, who does not understand anything. THE FRENCH CONSULATE, CANTON. But they are cheap, only thirty-eight American cents for a whole day's hire, and only two and a quarter cents for a short ride." THE CITY OF CANTON. Lady Brassey thus describes her visit to Hong- Kong and Canton : "The junks are the most extraordinary-looking % I In i 272 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. rri: « 'f craft I ever saw, with high, overhanging sterns and roll-up, or rather draw-up, sails, sometimes actually made of silk, and puffed like a lady's net ball dress. Then their decks are so crowded with lumber, live and dead, that you wonder how the boats can be navigated at all. But still they are much more picturesque than the Japanese junks, and better sea boats. The sam- pans are long boats, pointed at both ends, and pro- vided with a small awning. They have deep keels, and underneath the floor there is one place for a cook- ing fire, another for an altar, and a third where the children are stowed to be out of the way. In these sampans whole families, sometimes five generations, live and move and have their being. I never shall forget my astonishment when, going ashore very early one morning in one of these strange craft, the pro- prietor lifted up what I had thought was the bottom of the boat, and disclosed three or four children packed away as tight as herrings, while under the seats were half-a-dozen people of larger growth. The young mother of the small family general ly rows with the smallest baby strapped on to her back, and the next- sized one in her arms, whom she is also teaching to row. The children begin io row by themselves when they are about two years old. The boys have a gourd, intended for a life-preserver, tied round their necks as soon as they are born. The girls are left to their fate, a Chinaman thinking it rather an advantage to lose a daughter or two occasionally. Many of these satnpan people have never set foot on shore in their li THE CITY OF CANTON. 273 lives, and this water-life in China is one of the most extraordinary features of the country. "A lieutenant from the. flag-ship came on board and piloted us into a snug berth, among the men-of-war, and close to the shore, where we were immediately surrounded by sampans, and pestered by pertinacious Chinese clambering on board. The donkey-engine, with well-rigged hose, soon, however, cleared the decks, bulwarks and gangways, and we were not bothered any more. " * PiDQiN English.' — It is very trying to one's com- posure to hear grave merchants, in their counting- houses, giving important orders to clerks and compra- dors in what sounds, until one gets accustomed to it, like the si''*est of baby-talk. The term really means ' business English ' ; and certain it is that most China- men you meet understand it perfectly, though you might just as well talk Greek as ordinary English to them. * Take piecey missisy one piecey bag topside,' seems quite as difficult to understand as ' Take the lady's bag upstairs' would be; but it is easier to a Chinaman's intellect. *' The Chinese part o^' the town stands quite away from the foreign settlement. It is dirty and crowded in spite of its wide streets, and the large, gaily- coloured houses have the names and advertisements of their proprietors painted all across them. "As we were walking in the Chinese recreation ground, a man picked my pocket of a one-dollar note. Mr. Freer and the Doctor saw, pursued and caught him. He vehemently protested his innocence, but to IS i 1 I I \ • I t 1 ,: I- ■ in' I r ' lii li 274 CHIXA AND ITS PEOPLE. no avail. They proceeded to strip him, found the note, gave him a good shaking, and told him to go. This the rascal proceeded to do with the utmost celer- ity. He stood not upon the order of his going, but went at once. " About one o'clock we reached Whampoa, the lead- ing port of Canton. Here are to be seen the remains of the old Bogue Forts, knocked down by the French ENTRANCE TO CHINESE VILLAGE. and English guns. The Pearl River, as well as all the little supplementary creeks, was alive with junks and sampans — masts and sails stuck up in every direc- tion, gliding about among the flat paddy-fields. Such masts and sails as they are ! The mandarins' boats, ef [ ecially, are so beautifully carved, painted and deco- r.it( i, that they look more as if they were floating abou! for ornament than for use. Just about two H; IM, THE CITY OF CANTON. 275 o'clock our large steamer was brought up close along- side the wooden pier as easily as a skiff, but it must require some skill to navigate this crowded river without accident. " We landed, and, after proceeding a short distance along the dirty street, came to a bridge with iron gates, which were thrown open by the sentry. After crossing a dirty stream we found ourselves in the foreign settlement — Shameen, it is called — walking on nice turf, under the shade of tine trees. The houses of the merchants which line this promenade are all fine, handsome buildings, with deep verandahs. "About three o'clock we started in five chairs, with Man-look-chin for our guide. No Chinaman, except those employed by foreigners, is allowed to cross any of the bridges over the stream, which completely sur- rounds the foreign settlement, and makes the suburb of Shameen a perfect island. There are iron gates on each bridge, guarded by sentries. The contrast in the state of things presented by the two sides of the bridge is most marvellous. From the quiet country park, full of large villas and pretty gardens, you emerge into a filthy city, full of a seething, dirty population, and where smells and sights of the most disgusting description meet you at every turn. People who have seen many Chinese cities say that Canton is the cleanest of them all. What the dirtiest must be like is therefore beyond my imagination. The suh- urbs of tie city, where all sorts of cheap eating-shops abound — where the butchers and fishmongers expose the most uutempting-looking morsels for sale, and im m il II ii 'I llf 1^ II H'1 lit U ^::?^'^ m; 1 t 276 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. vr "e there are hampers of all sorts of nasty-looking compounds, done up ready for the buyer of the small- est portion to take home — are especially revolting. "The streets of the city are so narrow that two chairs can scarcely pass one another, except at certain points. The roofs of the houses nearly meet across the roadway, and. in addition, the inhabitants fre- quently spread mats overhead, rendering the light below dim and mysterious. Every shop has a large vermilion- coloured board, with the name of its occu- pant written in Chinese characters, together with a list of the articles which he sells, hung out in front of it, so that the view down the narrow streets is very bright and peculiar. These highways and byways are not unlike the bazaars at Constantinople and Cairo, and different wares are also sold in different localities, after the Eastern fashion. "In the Temple of the Five Hundred Gods are as many carved wooden statues, thickly gilt, all very ugly, and all in different attitudes, standing round the statue of a European in sailor's costume, said to be meant for Marco Polo ; but whoever it may be, evi- dently considered an object at least of veneration, if not of worship. " Quitting the pretty cool suburb we passed through more dirty streets until the heart of the city had been reached. We went next to the wedding-chair shop, where they keep sedan chairs for hire whenever a wedding occurs. Even the commonest are made gor- geous by silver gilding and lacquer, while the best are really marvels of decorative art, completely covered 09 H (5. Mi I \ I I 11. '■ 278 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. with the blue lustrous feathers of a kind of kingtisher. In shape they are like a square pagoda, and round each tier are groups of figures. There are no windows to these strange conveyances, in which the bride is carried to her future home, closely shut up, with joss- sticks burning in front of her. Recently there have been two sad accidents. In one case the journey was long, there was no outlet for the smoke of the joss- sticks, and when they arrived and opened the chair the bride was found dead from suffocation. The other accident occurred through the chair catching fire while it was passing through some narrow street under an archway. The bearers became frightened, put down their burden, and ran away, leaving the poor bride locked up inside to be burnt to death. "In Treasury Street you can buy burning-sticks measured to mark the time. They are extremely cheap, but perfectly accurate, and there seems little doubt that they have been used by the Chinese for thousands of years before the Christian era. "The whole of the White Cloud Mountain is one vast cemetery — it is the Chinese Holy of Holies, whither their bodies are sent, not only from all parts of China, but from all parts of the world. Frequently a shipload of 1,500 or 1,600 bodies arrives in one day. The steamboat company charges forty dollars for the passage of a really live Chinaman, as against one hundred and sixty dollars for the carriage of a dead celestial. The friends of the deceased often keep the bodies in coffins above ground for several years, until the priests announce that they have discovered a lucky THE CITY OF CANTON. 279 day ami a lucky spot for the interment. This does not generally happen until he — the priest — finds he can extract no more money by divination, and that no more funeral feasts will be given by the friends. We passed through what they call the city of the dead, where thousands of coffins waiting for inter- ment were lying above ground. The coffins are large and massive, but very plain, resembling the hollowed- out trunk of a tree. The greatest compliment a Chi- nese can pay his older relatives is to make them a present of four handsome longevity boards for their coffins." " Canton," writes a recent lady tourist, " is one of the finest of Chinese cities. The people are intelli- gent, active and business-like ; and its narrow streets are tilled with a stream of men and women, as un- ceasing as the stream that flows over London bridge daily. As I pass along the streets in a chair, it is one continued fight for passage-room ; and the various collisions that occur provoke groans on both sides, from the chair-bearers and carriers of goods. Now a great basket of green bumps against the sides, and now a pig enclosed in a basket is brought up as^ainst the chair, to the mutual alarm of pig and passenger. Presently another chair comes down in the opposite direction, and perhaps contains a portly mandarin in official garb; then a great shouting ensues on both sides, and a tangle, in which the mandarin makes the most of his opportunity to look at the foreign lady. Then the chairs extricate themselves, and on patter the bearers. The men rush on, provoking, it may be, 11 1 :i THE CITV OF NING-PO. 281 in their hot haste the occasional unfriendly sound of ' Frankeie ' (foreign devil), or sometimes the worst threat, ' chhate ' (kill)." a 'J. o THE CITY OF NING-PO. Ning-po is a city on the river of the same name, with a population of 500,000. It is surrounded by a dilapidated wall about six miles in circumference, twenty-five feet high and fifteen feet broad at the top, with five gates. The streets are long and broad, and the town is intersected by canals and connected with its suburbs by a bridge of boats. There are several temples, the most remarkable of which is a brick tower one hundred and sixty feet high, said to have been erected eleven hundred years ago. In 1843 a missionary hospital was established at Ning-po, and all classes have resorted to it for surgical assistance. The ground in the neighbourhood is flat and exceed- ingly fertile, but a range of barren hills runs along the seashore. The principal manufactures are silk, cotton and woollen goods, and there are very exten- sive salt works. Vessels of about three hundred tons can come up to the city, while those of greater size load and unload at the mouth of the river. Ning-po was taken by the British in 1841, and occupied for some months. It was one of the five ports opened to general intercourse by the treaty of August 26, 1842. The Roman Catholics and several Protestant sects have flourishing Missioiis here. 11: * IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // #/>..t^ Z/j 1.0 1.1 1.25 1^12^ |Z5 ■so *^^ M^H ■^ liii 12.2 Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STRUT WltSTM.N.Y, MSM (7U)«7)-4S0S 4r ^ 6^ •.»:, 282 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. ? OUTLOOK FOR PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN CHINA. On this subject Rev. B. C. Henry, a Presbyterian missionary at Canton, China, writes as follows : " The whole structure of heathenism is being under- mined and weakened in a way that only the future can reveal. Some hint of its growing influence is seen in the rival hospital established to cope with the missionary hospital ; in the preaching halls opened to counteract the effect of the daily proclamation of the Gospel ; and in free schools opened in imitation of the Mission schools. " In the great city temple of Canton the worshippers had fallen off to such an extent that the lease of the place, which was formerly considered a profitable speculation, often commanding six or seven thousand dollars a year, for a term of three years went a-beg- ging, no one being willing to undertake it for more than a few months at a time. The people were de- serting the shrines, and the temple-keepers, who de- pend for their living on the sale of materials for worship, were in despair, and bitterly denounced the preachers of Jesus, who had shaken the faith of the people in their gods. "Another fact that has come repeatedly to our notice is that not all the Christians are found within the churches. There are many hidden ones scattered through the land, living faithful lives, but shut off from their fellow Christians, or prevented by some obstacle from joining the company of believers in the church. OUTLOOK FOR PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN CHINA. 283 h " By the constant and wide-spread proclamation of the truth in scores of churches and preaching-rooms, in hundreds of market-centres and populous villages ; by the instruction of thousands of children and youth in the schools ; by the sale and distribution of hun- dreds of thousands of gospels and Christian tracts, the people are coming to know what the Gospel is. It is not an exaggerated statement to say that there are in the province of Canton to-day hundreds of thousands of people who have a sn^cient knowledge of the truth to save them, were it but quickened into life by the Spirit of God. As far as mere outward preparation goes, there is nothing to prevent a veri- table Pentecost of blessing coming to the Church in Canton. " The great conflict between truth and error is to be fought in this land of the Dragon. All the forces of error, symbolized in that national emblem, are arrayed against the truth, as symbolized in the Cross. Her population embraces nearly one-half of the people in the whole pagan world, and should therefore absorb one-half the energies of the Church in her foreign mission work. It is the duty of the Church to con- sider the proportionate claim of China beside those of other nations, and also to reflect upon the permanency of results attained in that land." On the same subject the Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., remarks : " It is not a little significant to note how Providence is compelling the great Christian powers of our day to face this problem ; how active and persistent the il k\ CHINESE WHEELBARROW, WITH SAIL. OUTLOOK FOR PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN CHINA. 285 Chinese question is becoming in America, in Australia, in the South Sea, in the policies of Great Britain and Russia. * The Chinese be upon thee,' is the haunting dread of many a land, and the trouble will not cease until Christian love has had its rights, until this people have been won to an abiding place in the kingdom of Christ. This is a question beyond the composing of armies and ironclads, which neither treaties nor em- bassies, neither congress nor parliament, can solve. It is the debt of Christian love which we owe to the greatest empire and the most populous nation of modern times, a debt which nothing but the Gospel of our Lord, freely given and exemplified in thousands of lives, and held up to their view till its wonted miracle is wrought, can ever quite discharge. "Let the Chinese, sought out with patience and won with Christian love, become a new creation in Christ Jesus ; at once all jarring collisions, all violent antipathies, all divided interests, will cease, and the Christian Church will be doubled in volume and in power. Words are powerless to convey, the imagina- tion fails to comprehend, the meaning and grandeur of such a miracle ; and yet this is the very task which God appoints to our times, and by a thousand voices is bidding us to attempt boldly and at once. This is not the only great enterprise to which the age is sum- moned ; at home and abroad, many another august undertaking lies immediately before this generation and cannot be neglected. But this, also, is upon us, in all its vast dimensions and unfathomed meaning ; God does not permit us either to ignore it or to evade : 1 ■! !! ■ ;i ' :; i r '; i; 286 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. it. And it becomes us to face our whole duty and measure the unspeakable privileges of our times by the unparalleled opportunities God has set before us. The sun has looked on nothino; like it since St. Paul and his companions were led forth of the Holy Ghost to the evangelization of the Roman Empire. And we are the chosen of God for this august service. " The missionary force now at work in China bears no comparison with the needs of the field. We seem but playing at the evangelization of this people. In China not one in 400 ever heard the name of Christ, or has as yet had the opportunity of hearing that name. No one deems the missionary force in Micro- nesia too largej and yet in a total population of 100,000 seven men are at work, or one to every 14,000 souls. In China the rate is one to every 818,000 souls. "The wealth in the hands of Christian people is increased beyond all conceptions of our fathers. It grows ten times as fast as it is applied to Christian uses. Nothing but the most liberal givinpj, continued through long periods, can deliver us from the perils which are induced by our enormous wealth and aggra- vated by its hoarding. It will call for great numbers of our youth, and of the choicest and best among them all". SOME PROBLEMS SOLVED BY METHODISM IN CHINA. Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., for many years a Method- ist missionary in China, writes as follows : N PROBLEMS SOLVED BY METHODISM IN CHINA. 287 "What were the problems Methodism was called to meet in China ? It had to meet : " 1. Intense bigotry. For ages the people had been trained to consider China as the great central king- dom of the world, its Emperor being the august Son of Heaven, and all foreigners being "outside bar- barians." With an arrogant assumption of superiority was combined a thorough-going contempt for the bar- barians who were so unfortunate as to have been born outside of the Chinese Empire. Such a people could not be expect'id to take readily to a new doctrine in- troduced among them by the despised barbarians. " 2. As was natural, this bigotry was mingled with deep-seated prejudice against foreigners. The idea that any one could be prompted by simple benevo- lence to come to them, in order to make known the precepts of a pure religion, was to the Chinese mind absurd and incredible. Some other motive must therefore be looked for. It was easy to suppose that the missionaries were spies sent out to ascertain the resources of the country, to become acquainted in a clandestine way with everything their sovereigns mii^ht desire to know. They were accordingly re- garded with suspicion. Their professions of good will were looked upon as a hypocritical cloak to hide their evil designs. The course of foreign trade, and of the dealing of Western governments with China, had done little to remove, but very much to intensify this prejudice. In defiance of right, and in utter conflict with the teachings of Christianity, the trade in opium had been forced upon China, against the 'H !.l i s _p' iff I'M f Hlif.1 f'i '(., II 'Jill, ■ 'IB 'I',', ■•ril ii' I 'i ^■% mm mil, .'iiliiiili li !l ' i !l Bll!lljjll,| 2 S a: B u a a: PROBLEMS SOLVED BY METHODISM IN CHINA. 289 earnest opposition of her rulers, and was pouring its death-dealing streams' through all the avenues of trade. Everywhere misery and degradation marked the path of the accursed traffic. Is it any wonder prejudice deepened into hatred against the foreigner. "3. Superstition is a natural ally of bigotry and prejudice, and this, too, the missionary must encounter. No building could be erected for dwelling or for church without somehow becoming a centre to attract evil in- fluences, so that malaria, pestilence and death were to be apprehended by its presence. When a girls' board- ing-school was to be opened, and invitations were sent for parents to send their daughters, and weeks went by without a pupil's appearing, it was ascertained that the people believed that our purpose was to scoop out the girls' eyes, to make opium out of them ! " Such bigotry was not to be overcome in a moment. Such prejudices were not to yield in an hour. Such superstitions were not to be banished in a single day. But this work must be done in some considerable de- gree before Christianity could get a fair hearing. A difficult language must be learned. Dictionaries and other helps must be made. The seed-sowing must be protracted and patient. The harvest would be long delayed. Can this impetuous Methodism consent to such an order of things ? Such was the problem when the work began. All these difficulties were en- countered. Sickness and death depleted the Mission. Through these early years of sickness and disaster, of sad disappointments, of conflicts and trials, with no apparent results in actual conversions, Methodism 19 290 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. proved its power to ' hold on,' to obey the divine com- mand, and to wait for results. The workers believed the divine promise, ' in due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not' Knowing that the determination of the * due season ' was wi.^h Him who sent them forth, they laboured on in faith. Nearly a decade had passed when the first convert !vas received, in 1857. " And now that converts began to be received, the next problem to be solved was, Will the peculiarities of Methodism be adapted to the Chinese character ? For Methodism has its peculiarities, which differen- tiate it from other forms of Christianity. Methodism has insisted on free play for the emotional ntiture in religion. How will it succeed in a nation whose people are noted for repressing their emotions, whose classics teach them to hide their feelings, whose char- a is stoical ? Let the following example answer t' .. question : The native preachers of the Foochow Mission kneel in earnest prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit, and plead for purifying power ; and as the gray dawn appears there are yet kneeling and pleading disciples, genuine sons of Wesley, who say : " ' With Thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day ! ' Methodism has vindicated its emotional character among the Chinese. " Methodism had always insisted on the preaching of the Gospel to bring sinners at once to Christ. But here was a country in regard to which men were say- ing 'You can't expect to do much with the adults of such a land; you must begin to train up chil- PROBLEMS SOLVEP RY METHODISM IN CHINA. 291 dren under Christian Coachings, and look to the next generation for results.* How will Methodist theories work here ? Well, the missionaries preached imme- diate salvation for all. The first convert was a man forty-seven years old ; and of the first eight, one was sixty-nine ; two were over fifty ; two Vtween forty and fifty ; and three between thirty p;.i forty. And of the three thousand members gathered in 1889, the large majority were adults, who have been brought to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. Ching Ting, a sorcerer, an opium smoker, a man of vile life, beyond middle age, hears from the pulpit, * Jesus can save you from all your vsins.* The wonderful mes- sage attracts him; he becomes an earnest inquirer. By-and-bye he comes to the \nissionary with a radiant face, exclaiming, 'I know it! I know it! Jesus can save me from all my sins ; for He has done it already !' The opium pipe is banished, sorcery is abandoned, vile habits are forsaken, and Ching Ting goes forth to lead hundreds of his countrymen to Christ. v'' • "Methodism has a way of taking converted men, and making exhorters and local preachers of them, and sending them out to save other men. How will this work in China ? Will men just out of heathenism be able to preach ? Let Kiu-taik, the painter, answer, as he sells out his tools and stock-in-trade, and goes out over hill and dale with the simple message of the Gospdl. Let Po Mi, the young soldier, answer, as he gives up his chance of military promotion, and be- comes a herald of salvation ! Let Yu Mi answer, as he puts his Testament by the side of his anvil, nd 292 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. studies it between his strokes, and then when Sunday comes goes out to proclaim its saving truths ! " Methodism has proved itself in China able and ready, as of old, to bring man from the farm, the anvil, the workshop and the teacher's desk, into the ministry. "Methodism has a peculiar system of ministerial Hupply — the itinerancy. How will this work in China, PAKT OK GREAT WALL, WITH TOWERS, CHINA. where attachment to home and kindred is very strong, and where the people are opposed to any change ? It is no uncommon thing, when you ask a man how long he has lived in the village in which you find him, to be answered, *Five or six hundred years!' by which he means, of course, that his family or clan has been there for that period. Some said, * We must give up this feature of Methodism here.' I recall now the de- parture of Hu Yong Mi from Foochow, when he was PROBLEMS SOLVED BY METHODISM IN CHINA. 293 appointed to a station twelve miles away up the river. His friends gathered around him at the dock, and wept as they said good-bye. You might have sup- posed that he was going into some wilderness of sav- ages. But he has since, as Presiding Elder, travelled districts extending over hundreds of miles. With abundant experience, we can now affinr. that the itiner- ancy works well in China. " But will class-meetings and quarterly conferences and annual conferences work in China ? As Method- ism has grown, class-meetings have increased. Quar- terly conferences have come in naturally ; love-feasts are enthusiastic. So well adapted are all these Meth- odist institutions to the Chinese that our brethren of the Church of England have found it well to adopt them. "The annual conferences are thoroughly Method- istic in spirit. They open with 'And are we yet alive ?' They close with, 'And let our bodies part !' The ex- amination 01 character is rather more thorough than in our home conferences. A brother's character is under consideration. It is complained that he is hardly up to the mark as a preacher ; but some one remarks that his wife is a very excellent and useful woman, and the preacher is allowed to keep his place on his wife's merits. Is there not a family likeness to our home conferences here? When a candidate was praised as being a good scholar, Ing Kwang, him- self an excellent scholar, said, ' Yes ; but what we want to know is, has he "gifts, grace and usefulness"?* When Bishop Wiley organized the first conference of 294 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. Chinese Methodism in 1877 ho wrote home : 'If it had not been for the strange language and dress, i could hardly have noticed any difference, so well prepared were these native preachers for all the business of a conference. You would have been surprised to see with what accuracy and good order everything went forward.' Methodism has proved that her ecclesias- tical arrangements are adapted to China. " Another peculiarity of Methodism is the liberty it has always given to women in its services. How will this operate in a land where woman is repressed and held in low esteem ? It was found difficult to get women to come to church, and it could only be done by having a partition to shut off the women from the men. But as the Gospel was preached, a gradual emancipation was going on. When the first women were received as converts, it was actually a question whether they should have a name in baptism — it being the Chinese idea that a married woman needs no name. Women are now speaking in our class< meetings and love-feasts, and enjoying the same liberty that they enjoy in our services at home. The partition is already gone from nearly all our churches, and will soon be entirely extinct. "I mention only one more feature of Methodism, and that is its constitutional habit of pushing on. No sooner is one place fairly occupied than it reaches out for another. With an ambition like Alexander's, only that it is holy and unselfish, it is ever longing for ' more worlds to conquer.' Methodism in China has > TESTIMONY IN FAVOUR OF CHINESE CHRISTIANS. 295 lost none of its characteristics as an aggressive form of Christianity/' TESTIMONY IN FAVOUR OF CHINESE CHRISTIANS. Rev. F. J. Masters, D.D., writes : "In China about fifty thousand men and women have made an open profession of the Christian faith, have given evidence of a change of heart and life, and have been admitted to the churches of the different Protestant Missions. In addition to this there are over a hundred thousand more who are regularly at- tendants at the Mission churches. All this is prac- tically the result of only twenty-five years of Chris- tian work. "The steadfastness of Chinese Christians under peisecution is a powerful evidence of the genuineness of their conversion. The popular opinion is that a. Chinaman professes Christianity for mercenary ends, and can change his faith as easily a.s he changes his coat. It is difficult to discover what temporal gain attaches to the Christian profession of a man who finds himself cast out of family, clan, guild, and em- ployment, cursed as he walks down the street, and counted as the filth and ofiscouring of the earth. I have seen men who. on announcing their Christian faith, have been deserted b} parents, wife, and breth- ren ; others who have meekly borne bonds and stripes and imprisonments, because they would not renounce iheir faith. " Their liberality to the Church is one of the evi- dences of the sincerity of their profession of the Chris- 296 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. , ! t tian religion. Taking into account their scanty means and the large part of their income which is sent home for the support of their families in China, the liber- BRINB WELLS AND DKILL, 8E-CIIUEN, CHINA. ality of the Christian Chinese of California is unsur- passed by any body of Christians in the world." Dr. B. C. Henry, of Canton, China, says : " The char- I. WOMAN S MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 297 ?1 acter of the five thousand Christians in Canton will compare favorably with the Christians of any land." Rev. Jra M. Condit, for twenty-five years a Presby- terian missionary to the Chinese, writes : " As a rule, I have as much faith in the religion of Chinese Chris- tian professors as I have in that of our own people." woman's missionary SOCIETY. The Woman's Missionary Society of the Canadian Methodist Church has exhibited a deep interest in those oriental lands. For some years it maintained a score of missionary workers in the Empire of Japan, whose labours have been attended with very encourag- ing success. It has also had a number of devoted and efficient labourers among the Chinese on the Pacific coast. A representative of the Woman's Missionary Society, Miss Brown, accompanied the first Canadian missionary party. By the time the missionaries reached Shanghai, Dr. D. W. Stevenson and Miss Brown concluded that they could best do the work of life together, and were married just before the party left Shanghai for their future field of labour. The second instalment of missionaries sent out by the Woman's Missionary Society consisted of Miss Retta Gifibrd, M.D., and Miss Susie Brackbill, who left Toronto January 26th, 1893. They remained at Shanghai till October, employed chiefly in the study of the language and of missionary methods. In August, 1893, another reinforcement of the Cana- dian Methodist Mission left Vancouver, consisting of Rev. J. Endicott, B.A., Mrs. Endicott, and H. Mather -Jii 298 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. Hare, M.D., sent out by the General Missionary So- ciety. Joining Miss Dr. GifFord and Miss Brackbill, the whole party were met by Dr. O. L. Kilborn, who came from Chen-tu to conduct them on their long journey of two thousand miles to that city. We have already read the cheering correspondence of Mrs. Dr. Stevenson. The new contingent will greatly strengthen the Canadian Mission labouring to build up the Redeemer's kingdom on the extreme western border of the great " Flowery Empire." We have referred also in previous pages to the valu- able services rendered by the representatives of the Woman's Missionary Societies of the other Churches labouring in China. SE-CHUEN THE HEART OF ASIA. The Rev. Dr. Ashmore, of Swatow, writes : "Missionary success in W^estem China means the exaltation of a pure Christian influence in Central Asia and the erection of a barrier against the Moslem fanaticism and intolerance and Russian Greek Church superstition. An advance there is an attack on the Russian and Moslem rear. The great province of Se-Chuen, with its thirty or forty millions of people, is the real heart of Central Asia." [This is where the Canadian Mission is situated.] " Humanly speaking, as goes Se-Chuen, so will go Kan-Su on the north, Yun-Nan on the south, and Thibet on the west ; and as they go, so along with them will go scores of out- lying clans and tribes and kindreds. We hesitate not to say it — the key to great Central Asia is Se-Chuen, SE-CHUEN THE HEART OF ASIA. 299 and Se-Chuen only. The key is not to be sought for through the medium .of any one, or any dozen, or any dozen dozen of petty tribes and families and clans around the border and up and down among the hills. It is therefore of inestimable importance that Chris- tian Missions should hold Se-Chuen in force, and should do it speedily. The battle for religious ascend- ency in Central Asia will not be fought and won among any of the hills and spurs of the Himalayas, but in rich and fertile Se-Chuen ; not among wild and wandering tribes, disintegrated and disconnected, but among that well-organized and well-governed forty millions of one civilization and one speech who are established in the valleys of Se-Chuen, up toward the head waters and along the tributaries of the Upper Yang-tse." Rev. Dr. V. C. Hart thus describes a visit to the great salt wells and fire wells of Se-Chuen : "It may seem incredible that seventeen hundred years ago the Chinese of Se-Chuen possessed sufficient mechanical skill and enterprise to bore through the solid rock to the depth of from two to five thousand feet. These wells, but six inches in diameter, worked piece-meal through rocks to such depths and by com- paratively clumsy appliances, present a stronger argu- ment to my own mind in favour of the latent power of this race than do their walls and canals. I was told by a number of intelligent aged men that the wells varied from a few scores of feet to five thousand nine hundred English feet. To convince myself of the accuracy of their statements, I visited a medium-sized 300 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. well within the town. Mr. Wang, the proprietor, is a very intelligent and wealthy gentleman, and has charge of forty such wells. The bamboo tube was in process of lifting as we entered. After a few minutes it came to view, and the contents, consisting of a strong gaseous fluid, were discharged into a receptacle and carried by an aqueduct to the great vat. The water-buffaloes, three in number, were now unhitched and the tube replaced. We stood at the wheel — one about twenty-two feet in diameter. Very slowly at first it unwound the rope, but after a few seconds the celerity was so great that we had to stand at some distance and hold our hats on. T*i about twenty min- utes all the rope had been paid out — fifty-one com- plete turns of say sixty feet each — 3,366 feet. The iron pans used for evaporating are about six feet in diameter, weigh a thousand pounds each, and cost forty dollars. The salt is sold at wholesale for one cent and a quarter per pound. There are thousands of these brine wells. I was taken through one factory where there were quite one hundred pans. The gov- ernment tax on what was sold to merchants amounts per annum to near $686,500. The total product must be near 190,000 tons, which at $26 per ton would realize $4,940,000. " I asked the owner of one of these large establish- ments how long he had been in the salt business. He laughed heartily and said with dignity, ' Ever since the first Emperor of the Min dynasty — for twenty generations, sir.' I could scarcely repress a feeling of H > a n X 302 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. admiration for the aged aristocrat, as he stroked his long gray beard, and showed in his face evident signs of family pride and self-complacency over the remark- able success which had crowned their efforts. The * fire wells,' which are only few compared with the brine wells, are about of the same depth. The gas which they emit is utilized for lighting purposes in the salt factories, and for heat under the evaporating pans." THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. On page 301 we give an illustration of the Great Wall, built upon the northern boundaries of the empire two hundred years before the Christian era. It was designed as a defence against the warlike Tar- tars, but is now quite useless. It is the most gigantic work of defence ever erected by man. It runs from a point on the coast of Liau-tung in a westerly direc- tion to the Yellow River, thence in a northern and again in a north-western direction to its termination making, with its windings, a length of 1,250 or 1,500 miles. In some places it is a simple rampart ; in others a solid foundation of granite ; while the eastern sec- tion has a height of from fifteen to thirty feet, and a breadth such that six horsemen may ride abreast upon it. There are brick towers upon it at different inter- vals, about forty feet high. The 'wall passes through the valleys and over lofty mountain ranges. What energy and patience the Chinese must have had to build this enormous structure, which has lasted now J A VISION OF THE FUTURE. 303 for over two thousand years ! We give also a smaller cut of a section of this wall on page 292. A VISION OF THE FUTURE. Dr. Hart thus concludes his fascinating narrative of a missionary journey in China : "The reader, having followed my footsteps over comparatively unbeaten paths in this marvellously interesting empire, cannot have failed to form a very high estimate of the province of Se-Chuen, for its natural resources, for its almost tropical luxuriance and unrivalled beauty. Secluded as it has been by natural barriers from that free intercourse with other provinces, which electricity and steam are about to remove, it has remained up to the present time a sort of wonderland — an undefined territory even to the average Chinaman. Steam will tame the wild rapids of its mighty river, and bring an unimagined commer- cial prosperity to its wealthy centres. Kailroads will convey its rich products safely and quickly into Kan- Su and Thibet. All central Asia will hold out earner hands for its multifarious productions, and thus it will, become a highway of nations. Looking at this prov- ince in its present and possible future relations, it challenges the world for a grander field in which to test the heroic spirit of modern missionary enterprise. " It presents to the eye of faith a picture of sublime grandeur, the realization of which must come through devotion at home and stubborn conflicts there ; through gifts and prayer by those who would support so good a cause, and by more than ordinary sacrifice by those 304 CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. called to enter this distant field. There is no short road to the coveted goal. It will only be reached through sore trials, such as come to every ardent and successful worker of reform — in sacrifices not to be weighed in the little balance which determines the value of separation from country, friends and Chris- tian civilization. Here, as elsewhere, there are pre- sented problems which require mature thought from gifted men and women, to solve which will demand long and patient endurance in well-doing. To plan, to work, to pray is the lot of the intrusted ambassador, even when the heart is bursting with grief at the in- difference around him ; at the stubbornness and hatred manifested on every face. We shall see the conse- crated task borne in light and darkness alike. The worker, now lifted up by hopeful prospects, then as surely cast down, abased and liumbled in the dust. " ' But noble souls, through dust and heat, Rise from disaster and defeat The stronger ; And, conscious still of the divine Within them, lie on earth supine No longer.'" THE END, di no shorfc reached ient and ot to be ines the d Chris- are pre- ht from demand plan, to assador, ) the in- l hatred I Gonse- B. The then as iust. J^^