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CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

COLLECTION
CHINA AND THE CHINESE

 

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CHARLES WILLIAM WASON
CLASS OF 1876
1918
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JOHN CHINAMAN
PRINTED BY TURNBULL AND SPEARS
FOR
J. GARDNER HITT, 37 GeorGEe STREET, EDINBURGH.
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Lonpon: MARSHALL BROTHERS, 10 PATERNOSTER Row.

G.iascow: JoHN SmiTH AND Son, 19 RENFIELD STREET.
JOHN CHINAMAN

AIS WAYS AND NOTIONS

BY

Rev. G. COCKBURN, M.A.

FORMERLY OF ICHANG

Edinburgh
J. GARDNER HITT, 37 GEORGE STREET
1896
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Wasm
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\ 33-7/
To

WM. L. BUCHANAN, Esq,

MERCHANT IN GLASGOW

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR

“To produce and to nourish,
to produce and have not, to act
and expect not, to enlarge and
cut not of —this is called sublime
virtue," —LAO-TSE,.
PREFACE

ANOTHER book on China demands a word of
explanation. The writer does not flatter himself
that he is possessed of keener vision than others,
but he may have looked from a somewhat dif-
ferent standpoint. The attempt is to portray the
representative man of the people and not to deal
technically or exhaustively with things Chinese.
All the author claims is sufficient opportunity of

observation, whether he has used it well or ill.

New DEER, 2nd Fed. 1896.
CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE

PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS . i 13
The Typical Chinaman — Fetichism — Grane —_
Coercing the Deities —-Totemism— The Dragon —
Animal Folk- Lore—Changelings— Naturalism—The
Supreme Ruler—Astrology—Lucky Days—The Fung-
shuz—Luck in Counters—Sign-boards—Worship of
the Dead—Hungry Ghosts—Graves—Coffins—Burial
of the Poor—Conveying the Ghost—A Letter to the
Devil—Burning the Demons.

CHAPTER II

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS . 43
Education Appreciated—The School aad the Tesier
—Method of Teaching—Nature of the Language—
Course of Study—Higher Education—Confucius—His
Philosophy—His Politics—Shih Whang-ti—Sphere of
Women—Confucius on Religion—The Old Philo-
sopher—Evolution.

CHAPTER III
THE THREE RELIGIONS . 69
Nature of the Gods—Want of eis noi:
tion of Buddhism—Failure of its Philosophy—Buddhist
Temples—The Priesthood—Stipends—Mass—Trustees
of Temples—Prayers in an unknown Tongue—Heaven
and Hell—The Ritual—Salvation by Works—Merit
9
10 CONTENTS

PAGE
and Demerit—Moral Results—Resemblance to Roman-

ism—Taoism—The Taoist Clergy—The Taoist Pope—
Spiritualism—Exorcism—The Temple and the Stage
—Sectaries and Mahometans—Latitudinarianism.

CHAPTER IV

GOVERNMENT AND THE MANDARINS. THE ARMY,

Law, AND MEDICINE . : . . . 91
The Golden Age — Origin of the Chinese — Early
Civilisation—Power of Assimilation—The Emperor—
Nobility — Officials — The District Magistrate — His
Duties—Administration of the Law—Punishments—
Aversion to Litigation—Self-made Men—Pawnbrokers
—A General Strike—The Army—Lawyers—Doctors,

CHAPTER V
LAND AND TAXES ‘ - , ‘ »  IIQ

Land Tenure — Minerals — Mining — Coal — Salt —
Transfer of Land — Tenants — Agriculture — Native
Opium—Manuring—Pisciculture—Market Gardening
—Custom Houses—Cause of Riots—I.M. Customs—
Direct $Taxation—Canals—Embankments—Irrigation
—The Great Wall—City Walls—Roads.

CHAPTER VI
SociaL Lire ; ‘ ; ‘ : . 150
Headmen — No Lapsed Masses — Trade Unions —
Guilds — Strikes — Zterat? and Gentry—Farmers—
Artisans — Wages — Traders — Bankers—Bargains—
Transport—Inns—The Peace Kept—The Chinaman
on the British Constitution.
CONTENTS TI

CHAPTER VII

PAGE
THE CHINAMAN AT HoME F ‘ - 176

Position of Women— Widows—Polygamy—Divorce—
Suicide—The Inner Apartments — Marriage — Foot-
binding—Female Infanticide—Female Slaves—Inheri-
tance—Kinship—Names — The House — Furniture—
Etiquette — Bedrooms — Dress — Toilet — Food —
Banquets— Wine— Water—Duplicity—Amusements—
Active Sports — Dandies — Epidemics—Gambling—
Light Literature—Art—Music—Vices.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CHINAMAN REFLECTED IN HIS OWN MIRROR. 213
Proverbs—Obiter Dicta—A Last Word.
CHAPTER I

PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS

The Typical Chinaman — Fetichism — Charms—Coercing the
Deities — Totemism— The Dragon — Animal Folk-Lore —
Changelings—Naturalism—The Supreme Ruler—Heaven and
Earth—Astrology—Lucky Days—The Fung-shui—Luck in
Counters and Sign-boards—Worship of the Dead—Hungry
Ghosts—Graves—Coffins—Burial of the Poor—Conveying
the Ghost—A Letter to the Devil—Burning the Demons.

THE typical Chinaman is a man of the lower
middle class; a master tradesman, a small shop-
keeper, or a farmer. Law-abiding and thrifty,
sober and industrious, his virtues are homely
and of home growth, but they wear well. In
no country, perhaps, is there a larger propor-
tion of the people above the condition of day-
labourers and yet compelled to practise fru-
gality and work hard for their daily bread.
Mandarins and Emperors may come and go,
but the ordinary Chinaman holds on the even

tenor of his way. It is to him that I would
13
14 JOHN CHINAMAN

introduce the reader. He has many good quali-
ties and a host of prejudices, the guiding
principle of his life being to walk in the old
paths. He is redolent of the native soil, and in
this age of folk-lore and place-literature deserves
not to be overlooked. He is a relic of primeval
times, and to primeval times we must go if we
would understand his notions and his ways.
Fetichism, which is the lowest stage of human
thought and religious belief, has left many
traces in China. Sacred trees, fountains and
stones, to which the natives devote paltry offer-
ings, are abundant—more numerous, in fact,
than most residents suppose. These objects are
not considered to be divinities, nor even the
abode of spirits. The Chinese say they are ding,
z.é., possessed of some mystic potency; but as
they do not formulate their belief in clear-cut
creeds and dogmas, it is very difficult to get any-
thing from them that is sufficiently definite to the
Western mind. It is enough for them that these
things are mg, and that the worship, or whatever
we may term it, is an ancient custom in the
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 15

locality. The average Chinaman feels no call to
explain or to defend it ; he laughs at its absurdity
when you begin to talk with him, and inwardly
marvels at the foreigner’s curiosity; for his own
part, things must have come to a pretty pass if
he must rack his brains before complying with an
old custom which is the reverse of onerous,
Closely allied to the foregoing is the universal
use of charms. One of the most potent is a stone
from the Zaz Shan, Great Mountain. The Tai
Shan is celebrated in legend ; and it is firmly be-
lieved that neither demon, ghost, nor evil influence
will come near a stone from the famous hill. But
neither good spirits nor bad are supposed to
know everything. A wide-awake Chinaman will
always undertake to cheat the devil; and he
seldom troubles to procure a stone from the
veritable mountain, when he can get a likely
block at the nearest quarry. A board will do, or
even a piece of the brick wall plastered. If
there be anything by the door-post bearing the
inscription in large characters, “ This is a stone
from the Tai Shan,” no bad luck nor unearthly
16 JOHN CHINAMAN

visitors will invade his dwelling. The mere sight
of it is like brandishing a whip before slaves; but
how beings so stupid as not to distinguish a stick
from a stone should be credited with ability to
read the crabbedest of all orthography is a large
question. A Chinaman’s answer is the familiar
and all sufficient “old custom.” My own con-
jecture is that it is of a piece with the sentiment
of my old teacher, that I might well shorten our
hours of study, as I should know the language
well enough when I had consumed a sufficient
quantity of China rice and water. Unless the
literary attainments of the demons are to be
credited to the climate, the problem must be
given up. My pundit’s plea for less work was
not altogether a pretence. Some Chinese ladies
were visiting my wife when I called out some-
thing in English, and one of them asked our
native nurse what it meant. She replied that she
did not know. “Not know! How long have
you been here?” “Two years.” “You have
eaten the foreigners’ rice for two years, and you
do not understand their talk!”
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 17

Wormwood and sedge are in as much repute as
rowan tree and woodbine formerly were in our
own country for a similar purpose. Indeed, if we
accept Sir John Lubbock’s definition of Fetichism
as “that stage of religious thought in which man
supposes he can force the deities to comply with
his desires,” almost the whole of Chinese religion
is still in this stage. In times of drought or
excessive rain the image of the god who presides
over the weather is taken from the temple and
set outside that he may know how he has been
mixing up the seasons, and get a taste of the
miserable effects of his own negligence: If a
man’s favourite domestic deity proves unpropitious,
he has no scruple in using the image to boil his
kettle, throwing it on the dunghill, or taking it to
the pawnshop. One sometimes overhears a wor-
shipper in the temples, at the close of his
devotions, tell the divinity that if he does not
show more favour, he will receive no more incense,

candles, and prostrations,

The dragon is the grand totem of the country ;

B
18 JOHN CHINAMAN

and with the partial exception of the dragon, no
animal, real or supposititious, is worshipped by
the Chinese. The Imperial dragon has five
claws, and no subject is permitted to represent:
the monster with more than four. He has no
wings, but rides on the wind and pours down
floods upon the earth. Other dragons inhabit
the earth and the deep. The Emperor sits on
the dragon throne, and the national ensign is
the dragon flag.

Caves are the peculiar haunt of the dragon,
especially those containing springs or pools.
Every district has its cave, sacred to the dragon
king, where pilgrimages are made in times of
drought. On these occasions, a lizard caught in
the cave is frequently put in a jar and worshipped
as the representative of the dragon king. At
other times the pilgrims content themselves with
worshipping the images of the gods which are in
the cave, it being generally converted into a sort
of temple. If the drought is very great, the
district magistrate may have to go in sackcloth
and sandals to fetch water from the sacred pool,
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 19

which is carried to the district city and poured
out with much ceremony.

The dragon may be over-active as well as too
remiss. Some time ago the Ichang magistrate
put out proclamations that the Chzao, the dragon
of floods, was to visit the locality, and disaster
could only be avoided by scaring him away. To
effect this, the peasants were advised to dig deep
pits in the earth, as if they intended to capture
the creature.

The “in, often called the unicorn, is a huge
monster, half-dog, half-tiger, covered with scales.
It is supposed to devour avaricious and incom-
petent officials: and has not appeared of late
years. The fung-whang, or phoenix, is always
represented as a bird of the pheasant tribe.

The tortoise, the hare, and the fox are reckoned
uncanny creatures, and few care to kill a dog.
Amongst the lower orders there is little prejudice
against canine flesh, which may always be had
in the market under the name of earth mutton,
but a right-minded Chinaman does not like to
shorten the days of an animal which once did
20 JOHN CHINAMAN

meritorious service, At the time of the flood, of
which they have many stories—how far original
and how far derived from Mahometan and
Christian sources, it is impossible to say—a dog,
which had been shut out of the ark, swam after it
with a few ears of rice sticking to his tail. The
Chinaman feels gratitude for the preservation of
his favourite cereal.

Many will not eat beef, and others avoid it
unless certified that the animal has died a natural
death. This is not due to religious prejudice, but
arises from the sentiment that the animal which
ploughs the fields should not be brought to the
shambles. Our own aversion to horse flesh must
have arisen in the same way, as it was eaten by
our ancestors, and our prejudice against it cannot
well spring from the Mosaic Law, or our scruples
would have extended to the pig, the hare, and
the oyster.

The swallow and the bat are lucky animals,
and a mandarin feels flattered when he is likened
to a wild goose. The monkey is the emblem of
stupidity and perverseness. Its physical endow-
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 21

ment is excellent, but in the wild state it shows
no remarkable instinct, and when domesticated,
learns neither good manners nor useful work.
The lizard is poisonous, and is possessed of the
evil eye. A well-known story relates how several
members of a family took successively ill and
died with all the symptoms of poisoning. The
mandarin was informed, and came to make in-
vestigations on the spot. It turned out that all
had been seized after eating millet pottage made
by the daughter-in-law, and the circumstantial
evidence was strong against her. Still the man-
darin hesitated to pronounce sentence, and had
an idea there was something in the case no witness
had brought forward. The woman was ordered
to make a mess of pottage in the mandarin’s
presence the same as before. As the savoury
odour filled the house the eagle eye of the official
saw a lizard creep from a cranny in the roof and
gaze fixedly into the cauldron. The whole
mystery of death in the pot was explained, and
an innocent woman acquitted.

The souls of animals, as well as evil spirits, often
22 JOHN CHINAMAN

enter the body of young children. Chang Chi-
tung, Viceroy of Nanking, is reputed to be
animated by the soul of a monkey, which was
kept as a pet in his paternal home and dis-
appeared about the time of his birth. His
Excellency bears several marks on his body
similar to those on the monkey, and proof posi-
tive is found in his personal habits, which are
decidedly simian. The great man never bathes
and seldom washes—at the best, a Chinaman’s
ablutions consist in rubbing himself down with a
damp cloth. The Viceroy never changes his
underclothes, but puts on an upper garment to
repair the waste underneath. He never undresses,
and seldom goes to bed, but doubles himself up
in his arm chair for a nap at odd moments, With
all this he enjoys the best of health, and his
activity is incessant. Report has it that he is
well acquainted with the story himself, and by no
means resents it.

Plants and their properties receive a due share
of attention, but the stories connected with them

are neither so numerous nor so interesting. A
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 23

twig of the peach tree figures prominently in
magic, and Confucius himself believed that the
future might be divined by the leaves of the
trefoil. The bamboo seeds in years of famine,
and the chrysanthemum is the emblem of wedded
love because it blooms in autumn.

Our typical Chinaman is full of these quaint
stories and old world notions, and seldom fails to
forecast the fortunes of the day from the first
sight or sound of the morning. One of the most
unlucky things is to hear a monkey hooting,
or the sound of the gongs as a prisoner is being
led to execution, before tasting food. But enough
has probably been said on the whole subject.

What may be termed Naturalism is the primi-
tive cult of China. The worship of the spirits of
wind, rain, clouds, water, mountains, land, and
grain, is lost in the mists of antiquity, and is still
observed at an altar of earth outside the South
Gate of a city by the mandarin of the place.
The god of land and grain is worshipped by
farmers, and the god of thunder, who may, how-
24 JOHN CHINAMAN

ever, be modern, with the beak of a bird and
armed with a mallet, is held in universal awe.
Otherwise this ancient cult has fallen greatly into
decadence, pushed aside by later deities of more
pronounced personality.

Alongside of these nature gods, the Chinese
worshipped Shang-ti, the Supreme Ruler; but
there is no record of a time when he was regarded
as the sole deity. The old notices are confused
and dim, and it must be remembered that we
possess these documents only in the form in
which they have been transmitted by the Con-
fucian school. They were honest transmitters,
but they complain that their materials were frag-
mentary and uncertain. It becomes a nice
question to determine how far the received text
is tinged by the opinions of the editors. As they
stand, the old documents would lead us to
suppose that the worship of Heaven and Earth
is as old as the worship of Shang-ti. Anciently,
as at the present day, some Chinese regarded
Heaven and Earth in a material way, and some
not. Confucius uses Heaven and Earth as the
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 25

equivalent of Shang-ti. Is the identification older
than his day? No man could put his ideas
in clearer language when he wished, but Con-
fucius was a statesman—a pity he lived before
Parliament and the Caucus, for his language upon
these points is so delightfully ambiguous that
there are two sections among the Sinologues, one
holding that the sage believed in a personal God,
and the other that he did not. A two-fold ten-
dency probably existed in China from an early
time, one to identify Shang-ti with Heaven and
Earth, the other to limit the worship of the
Supreme Being to the supreme man, the
Emperor. Primitive monotheism has partly
degenerated into blank materialism, and partly
become crystallized in the gorgeous ritual of
Imperial worship. It has long ceased to be a
living force. Still, one hears the peasants speak
in a reverent way of Z7en Lao-yeh, the Mandarin
of Heaven, but they offer him no worship. Every
Chinaman, however, worships Heaven and Earth.
Scholars may be metaphysical in their ex-
planations, but there is no evading the fact that
26 JOHN CHINAMAN

the typical man of the people is a thorough-going
materialist. At the best, Chinese ideas of God
are eminently unsatisfactory, but such as they
are, no possible ingenuity can evolve them from
Chinese Naturalism; nor has any hypothesis
been suggested that will bear inspection, but the
view that they are the fading rays of-a clearer
light, which they did not like to retain in their
knowledge.

As might be supposed, astronomy plays an
important part in things Chinese, but nothing to
the réle assigned it among Aryan nations. The
Chinaman has his myths, but he sets his heroes
to drain the marshes of the Yellow River, instead
of chasing each other round the zodiac and
playing hide-and-seek with the revolving seasons.
The summer and winter solstices are special
times of Imperial worship, and the new and full
moon are seasons of sanctity. The month is
lunar, and on the first and fifteenth people leave
off work an hour or two earlier,and expect a flesh.
dinner. The most careless then pay their respects
to their ancestors, and hang a lantern outside
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 27

their doors at night. Moon cakes are eaten on
the fifteenth of the eighth moon, but the sun and
moon are not worshipped, and the popular star
gods are of Taoist origin, forming no part of the
original nature worship.

Astrology is believed in as a matter of course
and of ancient custom, nor will the typical China-
man commence any undertaking without con-
sulting the Imperial Almanac for a, lucky day.
This is an official publication compiled by a
board at Peking, closely resembling Zadkiel and
Old Moore. Private enterprise in almanac
making is strictly forbidden—a wise provision,
for were there no standard authority to refer to
in the matter of lucky days, business would be at
a dead lock.

Other influences besides the stars are perceived
to have a bearing upon mundane affairs, and the
Chinese philosopher has his own ideas about
causality. He takes for granted that the whole
universe is permeated with subtle essences, and
swarms with supernatural beings. The question
is, how to secure the good and escape the bad.
28 JOHN CHINAMAN

The science of the /fung-shuz decides that, by
diagnoses and prescriptions too intricate for the
ordinary man ; but there are numerous professors
whose skill may be commanded upon reasonable
terms. My old teacher was a noted expert and
firm believer in the art, and took great pains to
instruct me in its principles, on telling him that
the science was unknown in my own country.
The brilliant and benevolent idea occurred to the
old man of initiating me into the mysteries of
luck, and he felt assured, if I would return to my
ancestral home and put his lessons into practice,
I should attain to great prosperity in a land
where people went about their business in a hap-
hazard manner.

Fung-shuz literally means wind and water, and
to the uninitiated barbarian seems simple enough,
but to the inhabitant of the Flowery Land it is
a name to conjure with. Good and vivifying
influences and benignant spirits come from the
sunny South; for the sun is yang, the active
principle in nature. Bad influences come from
the North ; and the East is generally better than
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 29

the West. The science rests on an astronomical
basis, and a compass with astrological and cabal-
istic signs is used to lay down the bearings. But
it soon leaves the heavens and becomes of the
earth earthy. Everything may be upset by the
configuration of the land, the course of running
water, surrounding buildings, the prevailing winds,
or conspicuous objects in the distance. The first
thing is to discover the veins of the earth, in
determining which the above are the chief factors.
The most fortunate spot of all is termed the
dragon’s pulse; but after you have secured it,
all may be spoiled by your neighbour building
an addition to his house or digging a well, to
intercept your luck below or your benign in-
fluences above. Ina Chinese law court obstruc-
tion of the fung-shuz is as good a plea as blocking
an ancient light or cutting off a water supply
among ourselves. A Chinaman tells you he does
not like splitting the heavens and riving the
earth. Opposition to railways, steam engines,
factories, and foreign-built houses are invariably
founded on the fung-shue, Quite recently a mine
30 JOHN CHINAMAN

was ordered to be closed because it would in-
terfere with the imperial graves about fifty miles
distant, disturb the repose of former emperors,
and imperil the present dynasty. Another
savant attributes the calamities of his country
to the sacred characters of his language being
painted on tea boxes, and, he is credibly in-
formed, irreverently trodden under barbarian
feet across the sea. The theory that Tenterden
Steeple was the cause of the Goodwin Sands is
an excellent instance of the /ung-shuz, and it
was fairly matched three years ago by the natives
of Shanghai, who declared that the bad condition
of the Woosung Bar was due to the new tower
that had been built on the English Cathedral.
During my residence in Ichang, the natives spent
upwards of £3000 building a temple on the top
of a hill overlooking the city, as the best means
of improving local industries. The object was to
make the roof of this temple higher than the top
of a neighbouring hill from which the influences
were bad. Near the same place is another hill
with the shoulder of it cut away by a wealthy
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 31

family to improve the luck of their ancestral
burying-place.

To secure a lucky spot for a grave, a dwelling-
house, or a place of business, is as essential as to
commence upon an auspicious day; but should
the fung-shuz be bad, improvement is not hope-
less. A useful device, very much employed, is to
build a blank wall a few yards before the door.
This serves as a barrier against the demons,
whilst there is a way round the end for benign
influences. Much depends on how the walls of
the house stand to the points of the compass, the
mountain tops, and the adjacent streams. If
placed at the right angle, the good will come to
stay and the bad will fly off at a tangent. Very
often it is enough to put up a charm or paint a
devil’s head facing the obnoxious quarter, and
one sometimes sees the plaster model of a
cannon mounted on the roof to keep unearthly
visitors at bay. Neither disease nor remedy,
however, is likely to be discovered by an amateur.
When there is prolonged sickness or other mis-
fortune in his home, it is as natural for a China-
32 JOHN CHINAMAN

man to consult the professor of luck as it is for
us to call the doctor and inspect the drains. A
simple remedy usually puts all to rights, but
when there is a European in the case nothing
will do but to pull down his house, by a riot if
need be. The mandarins profess themselves to
be utterly powerless, but when they have any
project of their own in hand, it is marvellous
how easily the populace is appeased and danger
averted. The /ung-shuz never prevented a battery
being built and armed with Krupp guns; nor had
the Viceroy at Wuchang insurmountable diffi-
culty with his cotton factory and iron works with
steam tramways and tall stalks. Yet, should the
Viceroy lose his head, as is quite possible one of
these days, the man in the street will put it all
down to his tampering with the fung-shuz, and it is
very questionable if the official class be one whit
more enlightened than the plebeians.

A shopkeeper often imagines his success to
be bound up with his old counter. The native
banker with whom I did business was a thriving
man and made no secret of this opinion, taking
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 33

in good part any chaff about his counter being
patched until it had lost its identity, or the need
of moving into larger premises to meet the re-
quirements of his trade. I had the good fortune
to be considered by him a lucky person to have
dealings with, having, for my own convenience it
must be confessed, persuaded him to deal in ex-
changes on the foreign banks at Hankow and
Shanghai. The business grew in his hands, and
proved lucrative. In purchasing some property
for the Mission, over £200 had suddenly to be
paid down to complete the bargain. Several
weeks would elapse before I could procure an
order on a foreign bank, and in my difficulty I
turned to my friend the native banker. He at
once advanced the money, charged no interest,
and would accept neither security nor even my
written acknowledgment of the sum advanced.

In the palmy days of Hankow, before the
British housewife had developed a taste for
Indian tea, one of our clansmen flourished as
storekeeper at the Port. An observant native
marked his luck, and came to the conclusion

Cc
34 JOHN CHINAMAN

that it was associated with his sign-board.
When the Scotsman retired, the Chinaman got
hold of his sign, put it on his own store, and
proclaiming to all the world that his name was
Macgregor, did business and prospered in his
turn. When last I passed through the street
I looked for the emblem of clan Alpine, but
it had apparently succumbed to the tooth of
time.

When a Chinaman imagines that the luck is
with him, he usually succeeds; and as every
traveller speedily discovers, when his boatmen
or his coolies are decidedly against moving on
or making a halt, it is wise to let them take
their own way. To a certainty their fears will
bring their fulfilment.

A lucky spot and a lucky day are desiderata
at all times, but absolute essentials for the in-
terment of the dead. The other world is a
shadowy, cheerless place, and the welfare of
the departed largely depends on the services
rendered them by the living. There must be
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 35

a decent funeral on a lucky day, and the grave
must be in a spot where the /ung-shuz is good.
But the departed always require more than that,
and the full ritual of ancestral worship claims
the sanction of Confucius, who pronounced the
characteristic maxim, “Serve the dead as you
would serve the living.” Not easy to comply
with, but the representative Chinaman does his
best, and those few who may differ from him
in their opinions are very careful to conform to
him in their practice. Twice a year, at least,
food and drink are offered to the spirits of an-
cestors; and on these occasions piles of paper
money and paper clothes, miniature houses and
representations of all the necessaries of life, paper
sedan chairs and paper bearers, paper opium,
pipes, and lamps, the implements of gambling
and the requisites of pleasure, everything which
could conduce to the comfort of the dead, judging
by their predilections when alive—all are burnt
with appropriate ceremonies, and filial piety has
no misgivings that the transparent shams are
transmitted as ghostly realities to the right
36 JOHN CHINAMAN

parties in the land of shades: The most miser-
able of all fates is to wander in Hades as a
hungry ghost; and there is nothing else in store
for those who leave no male descendants to
minister to their wants. Chinese philanthropy
largely takes the form of ministering to the
hungry ghosts. On what may be called All
Souls’ Day, troops of Buddhist and Taoist priests
are hired to say mass for their repose; moun-
tains of paper money and clothes are burnt for
the benefit of indigent spectres; and at night
myriads of small paper lamps are lighted and
sent floating down the Yangtse River to light
the spirits of the drowned on their way to Sheol.
When the feast is over, a Chinaman no longer
hears the shrieking of unhappy sprites in the
howling of the night wind, and dreads neither
blight upon his crops nor murrain on_ his
cattle.

With all its puerility there is much in An-
cestral Worship that appeals to right feeling,
and it is impossible not to see in it a blind
groping for something to worship, nearer than
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 37

the dim and distant Supreme Ruler, and more
human than the impersonation of rain and storm.
A man’s own ancestors are the beings in the
Spiritual world most near at hand and most
ready to help. Their names are engraved on
the ancestral tablet, which is the most sacred of
a Chinaman’s penates. On all occasions of im-
portance he prostrates himself before this tablet,
and with burning incense and lighted candles
presents the sacrifice of food and drink. Twice
a year ancestors are also worshipped at the
graves, and the graves repaired. This is usually
made the excuse for a family picnic, and is one
of the rare occasions on which a Chinese-woman
may enjoy a day in the open air. There is a
meal al fresco, and as the household returns in
the afternoon it is felt that they can hold up
their heads with the best, having duly celebrated
their ancestral rites and fixed a bunch of white
paper streamers upon the graves to bear testi-
mony to the fact.

There are no graveyards, and an old grave
is never opened for a fresh interment. Graves
38 JOHN CHINAMAN

occur everywhere except inside city walls. For
miles in the neighbourhood of a town the hills are
thickly studded with the abodes of the dead ; but
in the fields and by the wayside the symbols of
mortality are ever present. Only on the change
of a dynasty may graves be levelled, and when
the present Manchus came to the throne they
made it a special act of grace not to insist upon
it. As might be supposed, no inconsiderable
portion of the country is given over to the dead,
but fortunately the luckiest situation for a grave
is on high or rising ground, the places least valu-
able for cultivation. A hole is made in the
ground, sufficient to admit the coffin, and a mound
like a haycock is heaped above it. Sometimes,
in damp places especially, the coffin is placed on
the surface and built over with bricks, plastered
and white-washed. People provide their funeral
requirements before death, and the most esteemed
gift a dutiful son can give to an aged parent is a
handsome and substantial coffin. It is carried
through the streets with flags and music, and re-
ceived with the greatest pleasure. The chief
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 39

corner of the best apartment in the house is
assigned to it, and one seldom enters a Chinese
drawing-room, or guest hall, without finding
several coffins in it. Nor are they always empty.
The funeral may be delayed for years, waiting
for a lucky day, or until the purchase of a lucky
spot for a grave can be effected, for absent
members of the family to return, for money to
perform the obsequies with appropriate ¢/az, or
for convenient means of transporting the body to
the family resting-place in a distant part of the
empire. The coffin is made of expensive wood
several inches thick, often a foot, lined inside
with chunam made of lime and wood oil, hard as
stone, and well coated outside with the excellent
native varnish, of a dark colour. The body,
dressed in the finest clothes, is packed with
quicklime, and, objectionable as it seems to have
the mouldering remains of humanity in a room
occupied by the living, it is very rarely that the
faintest odour can be detected.

All Chinese cannot be buried in this fashion.
The poor are placed in a rough shell of old
40 JOHN CHINAMAN

boards, and laid side by side, as close as they will
pack, in the public burying-ground, and covered
in the scantiest manner with mother earth. The
public burying-ground is often utterly inadequate,
and coffins are piled above each other in a huge
heap, and bodies in all stages of decomposition
are devoured by dogs and kites. In other cases
the coffin is abandoned by the wayside, or left to
moulder on the hills. Children are seldom buried
with any ceremony, but wrapped in a piece of
matting and thrown without the gates, or con-
signed to the baby tower, a round building with-
out a door, but with several openings in the wall
to admit the bodies, which is conspicuous in most
populous places.

In conclusion, it may be noted that Ancestral
Worship, although not idolatry in the strict sense,
is irreconcilable with any system of monotheism,
and, apart from the puerility of much of it, is in-
compatible with progress. A man feels himself
as much bound to the ways of his forefathers as
he is attached to their person. All innovation is
unfilial. The typical Chinaman may admit that
PRIMITIVE SURVIVALS 41

your plans are feasible, but he finds heresy and
schism in driving a cart when his grandfather
wheeled a barrow. Confucius denounces those
who worship their ancestors and yet presume to
innovate on their plans.

At funerals a white cock is placed on the
coffin to convey the soul from the house to the
grave. The mourners wear white sackcloth, and
when their means can afford it, there is a long
procession with banners, a howling company of
professional mourning women, and bands of
priests in full canonicals chanting prayers, burn-
ing incense, beating drums and gongs, and firing
crackers. As soon as life is extinct, a priest is
employed to write a letter to the devil, giving
the deceased a good character. When several
children die successively in a family, they
imagine there is some demon with a grudge
against them who is entering their children and
spiriting them away. The only way of putting
a stop to the calamity is to-take the child as
soon as it expires, or even while it still draws
breath, to make sure the demon has not escaped,
42 JOHN CHINAMAN

and burn its body to ashes. This is done out-
side among the graves. The child is placed in
a rough coffin and set on a pile of firewood.
They carry out the child unobservédly to the
graves, and as soon as the sticks are lighted
run off. Whether they imagine that they burn
up the evil spirit, or only give it a blaze to
frighten it, I could never ascertain. It is an
“old custom,” and, as they believe, a sure cure
for infant mortality, and they enquire no further.
CHAPTER II

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS

Education Appreciated—The School and the Teacher—Method
of Teaching—Nature of the Language—Course of Study—
Higher Education—Confucius—His Philosophy—His Politics
—Shih Whang-ti—The Sphere of Women—Confucius on
Religion—The Old Philosopher—Evolution.

THE schoolmaster is abroad in China. “ Rear
pigs and not children,” says the proverb, “if you
do not educate them.” But there is no system
of national schools, nor compulsory attendance,
education being so highly prized that the need
for these is not felt. It is a thing unheard of in
Central China for a person, who can afford it, to
allow his boys to play the truant or remain un-
taught. All but the very poorest can there read
and write, but in some districts, more especially
in the South, book learning is not so common.
There are Government and endowed academies
for students preparing for the literary examina-

tions, but elementary schools are all private ad-
43
44 JOHN CHINAMAN

ventures, taught by candidates who have failed
at the examinations, or graduates who are poor
and have not secured Government appointments.
The school is a room in a dwelling-house, a
mud cabin, or a mat shed, where twenty or
thirty scholars are collected, each bringing his
own desk. The teacher is at his desk seven
days in the week, and his labours commence at
dawn and finish at dusk. The bamboo rod is
much in evidence, for “in teaching without
rigour the schoolmaster is at fault.” The work
is hard and the remuneration poor enough, ten
or twelve shillings a year from each scholar,
seldom more than the wages of a day labourer,
but no man in the community is more highly
honoured than the teacher.

The same books are used in all schools, and
the scholar commits them to memory. The
literary language differs from the colloquial,
and the pupil has made considerable progress
in reading and writing before the meaning of
a single character is explained. There are no
home lessons, and the scholars are not taught in
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS = 45

classes. Each one goes up with his book to the
master, and has a sentence read to him; he then
returns to his seat, where he repeats the words
over and over at the top of his voice, swinging
his body to and fro to assist the memory. In
due course he returns to the master’s desk,
wheels round, “backs the book,” in scholastic
phrase, and shouts out what he has learned
in a stentorian chant. The noise is agonizing,
and the monotony of memorizing is varied only
by lessons in writing, in which the Chinese use
a small brush and China ink ground and mixed
on a small slab as required. No other branches
are taught at school.

Secondary education consists in reading the
commentaries and mastering the details of the
Confucian Classics. Couplets are composed ina
very artificial measure, and essays written in a
stilted and antiquated style upon themes selected
from the works of the sage. But there is neither
grammar, rhetoric nor logic, for the Chinese
language and ratiocination withstand all attempts
to be reduced to rule. The same word, written
46 JOHN CHINAMAN

and pronounced in the same way, may usually be
a noun, a verb, or an adjective, even a preposition
or conjunction, according to its position in the
sentence, and arbitrary usage. The position of
words counts for much, but Chinese is pre-
eminently a language of fixed phrases. Certain
principles may be discovered, but exceptions are
so numerous that there is no sure guide but a
knowledge of the use and wont in each case.
The language is monosyllabic, and the sounds
are remarkably few. In the Mandarin dialect
all syllables are open, or end in a nasal x or zg.
The number of separate vocables is under 500,
but as each word is pronounced with a certain
fixed tone, a Chinese ear can distinguish more
than 1000 different sounds. There are four
fundamental tones, but they are liable to be
sub-divided, and in this way they amount in
some dialects to as many as eight. The tone
is not an accent, but comes near a musical note.
Even with this device to eke out the paucity
of sounds, the number of symphonous words
is extremely great: c, dear, deer; you, yew,
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS = 47

ewe. Ambiguity in speaking is usually avoided
by reduplication, as we might say sheep ewe,
tree yew. There is no inflection. It is surprising
in how many cases the context is a sufficient
guide, and where more is needed separate words
are employed for number, gender, voice, and
tense. There is no alphabet, each word having
its own distinctive mark or character ; but there
are 214 radicals, one or other of which must enter
into each character, unless it be itself one of the
radicals. The form of a character is little guide
even to a scholar either to sound or sense, and in
different parts of China the characters are pro-
nounced very differently. In the South-East the
number of dialects, mutually unintelligible, is very
great; but in the rest of China some sort of Man-
darinis spoken. Although they cannot talk to each
other, people all write the same character. They
read it differently, but the meaning is as plain to
all as the multiplication table to the various
nations of Europe. With the Chinese character
already in existence, the invention of Volopuk
seems a work of supererogation. The written
48 JOHN CHINAMAN

language is extremely terse, whilst the spoken
is very diffuse. This terseness would be sacrificed
by any system of alphabetic or phonetic writing,
and the one. language of the empire would
become a group of tongues as different as the
various forms of Teutonic speech. These draw-
backs, together with their innate conservatism,
have induced the Chinese to cling to their
hieroglyphics although they have known about
alphabetic writing for ages. A Chinaman will
never allow that the indication of a sound can
be as definite and expressive as the symbol of a
thing.

The geography, history, and laws of China are
acquired in studying the classics, whilst no
information about foreign languages and nations
or Natural Science is deemed worthy of attention.
Arithmetic is learned in the counting-house by
those who pursue a mercantile career. In
making computations they use an abacus with
two beads on the upper portion of the wire
and five on the lower. Their money, weights,
and measures are all decimal, except that there
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS — 49

are 16 ounces in a Chinese pound (lbs. 14
Avoir.).

The universal primer is the San-tse-King,
Three Character Classic, a jingling metrical
conglomeration in lines of three syllables. It
opens with the statement that man’s nature is
good, but his practice will be defective if he
grows up uneducated. “If you do not learn
when you are young, what will you do when
you are old?” It enumerates the elements—
fire, earth, wood, water, metal, the sorts of grain
cultivated, and the animals reared for food. It
gives the dynasties that have reigned in China,
and anecdotes of sundry worthies, not forgetting
old Mung’s mother (the mother of Mencius), who
had much trouble in finding a place of dwelling
in which her young son would not be con-
taminated by vile surroundings. The object of
the book is to serve as an introduction to the
Confucian Classics. After the primer comes a
dry list of Chinese surnames, and perhaps the
Two Thousand Character Classic, two thousand
different characters strung metrically together

D
50 JOHN CHINAMAN

without a single repetition, and, as may be sup-
posed, with very little rhyme or reason. Having
digested these light brochures, and “backed the
book” without mispronouncing or omitting a
single syllable, the aspirant to literary distinc-
tion attacks in turn the Great Learning, the
Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects of Con-
fucius, and the Memorabilia of Mencius. These
are the Four Books, and a common school educa-
tion seldom goes much beyond this stage. An
ordinary workman can often repeat the whole of
them from memory, which appears to outsiders to
be the only faculty that is much cultivated ; but
for memory no European comes near a China-
man. The natives, however, value education
because it familiarizes the young idea with the
“rejuvenating doctrines ” of the national sage.
After the “Four Books” come the Five King
or Classics; Spring and Autumn (a historical
chronicle written by Confucius), the Book of
Ceremonies, the Book of History, the Book of
Poetry (ancient ballads), and the I-King, or Book
of Changes. This last is believed to contain the
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS © 51

sum of all wisdom, but the Chinese confess that
the key to it has been lost in these degenerate
times. European sinologues mostly consider it a
very fragmentary and obscure work on divination
and fortune-telling. It is the oldest of Chinese
books. The received text is faulty, and there are
no materials extant for a satisfactory revision.

From the hedge school to the Forest of Pencils
there is no variation in the above curriculum.
Education begins and ends with Confucius, and
an idea of what the scholars really do learn
may best be gathered from a short account of
the sage.

Confucius was born in the state of Lu, in the
modern province of Shantung, in the year B.C. 551,
and died B.c. 479. His father was a military
officer who married a second time late in life,
and although his lineage is traced to the ancient
kings of China, the family was in decayed circum-
stances. China was then divided into a number
of petty states under a feeble hegemony, and
Confucius spent his life in the service of various
52 JOHN CHINAMAN

princelings. He shifted from court to court,
but could find no one to brook so upright a
minister and so severe a monitor. He was often
an outcast, and in the direst poverty refused to
accept place or presents from those he considered
tyrants; but did not scruple to tell a lie when it
would serve his turn. In retirement he taught a
school .or academy, and had seventy favourite
disciples. His life was a sad one, for which it is
evident he had largely himself to blame, and we
should form a lower estimate of the man did we
not know the enthusiasm and devotion he in-
spired in those who knew him best. His son was
little better than a fool, but his grandson inherited
no small portion of the temper and ability of the
sage. His descendants are still numerous, and
the head of the family enjoys the only hereditary
patent of nobility in China proper. He divorced
his wife and died defeated, among his last words
being the verse of an ancient ballad :—

“The great mountain must crumble ;
The strong beam must break ;
And the wise man wither away like a plant.”
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 53

He was tall and of a commanding presence, of
a swarthy complexion, austere and of few words,
punctilious in dress and manners, and apparently
his sole relaxation was to accompany his voice
upon the lute. His disciples relate that he was
particular about clothes and food. In entering a
room he would not tread on the doorstep. “He
required his sleeping dress to be half as long
again as his body.” “The fur robe of his undress
was long, with the right sleeve short.” “He did
not eat meat that was not properly cut, nor what
was served without the proper sauce, nor anything
that was not in season.” “He took a little ginger
after his meals.” He ate sparingly and accord-
ing to measure, but drank wine (beer or whisky ?)
according to his natural thirst. To such-like
minutize his disciples attach as much importance
as to weightier matters.

“No intelligent monarch arises ; there is not
one in the Empire that will make me his master.
My time has come to die.” Such was his lament
when he felt his end approaching; and certain
remarks show that he had very little, if any, hope
54 JOHN CHINAMAN

beyond the grave. But no sooner was he dead
than Duke Gae exclaimed, “There is none now
to assist me on the throne,” and caused a temple
to be built, where he offered sacrifice to the sage.
In the year B.C. 194 the Emperor visited his
tomb and sacrificed an ox. Henceforth honours
have been showered upon his memory, and by
none more than the present Manchu occupants
of the throne. In every Chinese city there is a
temple to Confucius, where the officials have to
offer stated worship. There is no image in it,
only a memorial tablet, and other tablets to his
most famous followers. The worship is the same
as that paid to the gods, but Confucius is not re-
garded as a god but as a perfect man. Over the
gate of his temple is inscribed, “ Equal to Heaven
and Earth.” He is “the one man of ten thousand
ages,” and in every Chinese school the scholar
must bend to the tablet of Confucius before taking
his seat.

The greatest thing about him is his personality,
and the way he has stamped it upon the nation.
Confucius is the ideal Chinaman, just as “John
SCHOOLS AND. SCHOOLMASTERS 55

Bull” is the ideal Englishman. In worshipping
him they are offering incense to themselves.
He wrote little, but his conversation has been
recorded by his disciples. He collected and re-
edited the ancient literature of China. He was a
“transmitter and not a maker.” He repudiates
being the author of what he taught. Considerable
portions of what are loosely called the Confucian
Classics were written by subsequent generations
of scholars, and the canon closes with the Memor-
abilia of Mencius, B.C. 372-289. The inspiration
claimed for this heterogeneous pile is that it was
written or sanctioned by sages who natually em-
bodied the right way. Confucius, however, claims
no more for himself than to be a diligent student
of antiquity and a lover of the old paths, which
are in accordance with the principles of Heaven
and Earth—laws of nature come as near his
meaning as any idea familiar to us.

His philosophy is moral and political, the sum-
mum bonum being the Empire brought to a state
of happy tranquillity. There is no attempt to
construct a psychology, but the axiom is laid
56 JOHN CHINAMAN

down that man’s nature is radically good, and
nothing is required but good examples and the
dissemination of right principles. These are “dis-
played in the records.” The five cardinal virtues
are benevolence, uprightness of mind, propriety
of demeanour, knowledge, and good faith. The
five prime relationships are between sovereign
and subject, father and son, elder brother and
younger, husband and wife, friend and friend.
“Filial piety and fraternal submission are the
root of all benevolent action.” But Confucius
says nothing of the duty of parents to their
children, and it is quite in accordance with his
principles that there is no law in China against
infanticide. In popular tracts the kindness of
parents is always represented as pure benevolence
to their children, and no argument is adduced to
stimulate parental care beyond pointing out that
children ill brought up will neither reverence their
parents when alive nor worship them with the
proper ceremonies when dead. Whatever their
age, children are in abject subjection to their
parents. They must yield implicit obedience,
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS _ 57

and can hold no property which the father may
not claim.

Confucius states the golden rule in its obverse
form. “What you do not like when done to
yourself do not do to others.” This is “the com-
pass and the square” for measuring human con-
duct. Stated merely as a prohibition, it falls far
short of the Gospel precept. “ Recompense injury
with justice, and recompense kindness with kind-
ness.” He leaves very little room for repentance.
“You cannot carve in a rotten stick.” “If you
sin against Heaven, you have nowhere to pray
" to,” but the sense of sin is very indistinct. In the
Chinese language there is but one word, ¢suz, both
for sin and crime. It means also a mistake or a
breach of etiquette, and very often amounts to no
more than our conventional phrase, “ Beg your
pardon.” This indistinctness is a very accurate
reflection of the Confucian teaching.

In politics Confucius had nothing better to
recommend than benevolent despotism; but he
was no preacher of passive obedience. He justi-
fies the deposition of bad rulers, and condemns
58 JOHN CHINAMAN

the infliction of punishment where there has been
no instruction; but he did not rise to what we
would call national education. He dreamt of
princes searching out the worthy to bear rule,
and they would be guides and fathers to the
people, who would bend to their benignant sway
“like corn to the breeze.” He considered it
would be as easy to make a nation happy as
“to look on the back of your hand.” The
country was torn by civil strife, yet he accepted
the feudal system as destined to go on for ever,
and could only hope for intelligent princes to
arise, and propose’ such rose-water cures for
disorder as returning to the old court cere-
monies. He is great upon etiquette and the
right use of names. But he is not quite so
absurd as a Westerner may suppose, for to the
Oriental mind there is much in a name and a
form. Still, it was not Confucius who tran-
quillised China, but the greatest enemy of his
system who has ever arisen. Shih Whang-ti,
B.C. 221, the Prince of Tsun, in Western China,
attaining the chief power, became actual Emperor
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 59

instead of suzerain. He abolished feudalism
and established the present plan of government
by graded officials holding office for a fixed
term. His line soon came to an end, and Con-
fucianism regained ascendancy, but it made no
attempt to undo the work of the reformer. It
was Shih Whang-ti who burnt the Confucian
books with the exception of the I-king, which
he probably considered too obscure to be un-
settling. His memory is held in loathing by
the Chinese, who re-echo the sentiments of the
Confucianists which they are taught at school,
but his name deserves to be better known than
it is as the only statesman who ever framed a
constitution which has endured for more than
two and twenty centuries. There will be an-
other burning ‘of the books, or its equivalent,
when China comes to its awakening.

The vision of Confucius was bounded by the
“Four Seas” which enclosed the “Middle King-
dom.” Only the “black-haired people” were
capable of improvement. The “outer barbar-
ians” are to be governed by “misrule.” These
60 JOHN CHINAMAN

principles have brought his followers much grief
since they came in contact with European
Powers.

The Master had a poor opinion of woman.
Her sphere is the home and the family. She
should attend to the kitchen and the nursery,
but should know nothing of the outer world or
her husband’s affairs. He sets down the dis-
tempers of his time very largely to husbands
listening to their wives’ advice, and expressly
states that it is the greatest depravity for a man
to leave his father and his mother and cleave
to his wife. A woman is allowed no standing
in the eye of the law. Not only does Confucius
assign to her a subordinate position, but he does
not suppose she would profit by a school educa-
tion. He sets her down as being essentially of
an inferior nature, and in no sense a help-meet
for man. He says there are very few women
who are not jealous, but the unfortunate illus-
tration he adduces is the usually ill-concealed
chagrin of. the wife who finds herself supplanted
by a handmaid in the affections of her lord.
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 61

Under all circumstances his will should be her
pleasure. Confucius says he found “girls and
servants the most difficult persons to behave to,”
and we can well believe him.

He says nothing of a future life or judgment to
come, but rests his system on a purely secular and
utilitarian basis, But in this life the way of
transgressors is not invariably so hard, nor is
virtue so evidently its own reward as to render a
morality which takes account of no higher con-
siderations very binding in actual practice. He
accepted, or at least he did not openly dispute,
the primitive ideas spoken of in the last chapter.
He warned his disciples not to offend the pre-
judices of the vulgar; but at the same time he
asked them, “If you cannot serve men how can
you serve the gods?” He would not speak of
monstrosities, feats of strength, or the gods. The
category is his own, and is sufficiently indicative
of his attitude. He prefers to use the impersonal
term Heaven to the name Shang-ti. He says
Heaven is intelligent, but, like his followers at
the present day, he appears to have some con-
62 JOHN CHINAMAN

ception of an intelligent principle or law which is
not conjoined with personality. He insists on
the worship of ancestors, and probably believed
in ghosts, which subsist for a time after death and
gradually become dissipated. This is the pro-
fessed belief of his disciples at present. They
often justify their worship of the sage by saying
that his personality was so strong as not yet to
have become defunct. In all Confucian writings
spirit means no more than an attenuated form
of matter, or an ethereal emanation from
it.

It is not correct to say that Confucianism,
whilst not strictly speaking a religion, supplies
the place of religion to those who profess it. It
does no such thing. Confucianism never saved a
single Chinaman from the silliest superstition.
Explain and minimize it as we may, every
Chinese, the mandarin as much as the coolie,
worships Buddhist and Taoist idols; and this
idolatry they all confess Confucius does not
sanction, and is contrary to the whole spirit of his
system. Religion is put in the background, but
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 63

there is nothing supplied that either satisfies or
supplants the religious instinct.

It is just possible for a European to turn
Mahometan or Buddhist ; no one but a Chinaman
ever professed to be a Confucianist. A millennium
in the past, no future at all, and nothing better to
do for the present than return to the primitive
institutions of Yao and Shun and the duke Chow,
do not beget enthusiasm in the Western mind.
The sage has given his countrymen a good con-
ceit of themselves, but his utilitarian teaching has
not made them true patriots. He has, however,
made them ultra-conservatives, with the rooted
conviction that every change is a change for the
worse, But Chinese conservatism has a good
many planks of the platform of British radicalism.
Confucius is hard on capitalists and the non-
productive classes. He is against hereditary
legislators, believes in the nationalisation of the
land, and holds that each family should be
possessed of five hens and a pig.

The fifth century B.C. was prolific in sages, and
64 JOHN CHINAMAN

China had more than one. But of the life of
Lao-tse, the Old Philosopher, by which designa-
tion he is generally known, there is almost
nothing authentic. He is said to have been
named Li, and to have been keeper of the records
at the Court of Chow. He is the acknowledged
head of the Taoists, but his system has little in
common with the vagaries of that sect. Of his
writings we possess only a small treatise, about
the size of St Mark’s Gospel, upon zao. There is
great diversity of opinion as to what he meant by
the term, which may be translated, way, reason,
doctrine, word. The best native commentaries
prefer way, a road that may be walked in.

There is an apocryphal story that the two wise
men once met. Lao-tse could see no good in
digging up the “rotten bones” of antiquity, and
the man of ancient ceremonies confessed that he
had met a dragon who mounted on the wind
and soared through the clouds to heaven. The
dialogue is a late invention, but Livy himself
puts no more appropriate speeches in the mouths
of his heroes. Confucius is much among the
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 65

“rotten bones,” and Lao-tse very often in the
clouds,

The opening sentence of the Zao-teh-hing is a
good specimen. “The Way (¢ao) that may be
wayed (tao, as a verb,) is not the eternal way.
The name which can be named is not the eternal
name. Non-existence is named the antecedent of
heaven and earth; and existence is named the
mother of all things.” “Existence and non-ex-
istence mutually originate each other.” “These
two are one and the same.” “The Way is all-
pervading.” “ The Way is ever inactive; and yet
leaves nothing undone.” “The Way produced
unity ; unity produced duality ; duality produced
trinity ; and trinity produced all things.” “The
great thing is to lay hold of the Way, by non-
action, meditation, and introspection.” “By non-
action there is nothing that may not be done.
One might undertake the government of the
world without ever taking any trouble.”

He supposed the Way to have existed before
God, and like Confucius he had no conception of
spirit but as an attenuated form of matter.

E
66 JOHN CHINAMAN

But Lao-tse was no mere dreamer. Confucius
laid down the rule, “If the scholarly man be not
grave, he will not call forth any veneration, and
his learning will not be solid,” to which the old
philosopher retorts, “If some men would but
abandon their sageness, and cast away their wis-
dom, the people would be benefitted a hundred
fold.” In direct opposition to the Master he re-
commends to “recompense injury with kindness.”
Confucius could not see that wisdom and virtue
might accomplish their ends without being joined
with power in the state, but Lao-tse exhorts his
disciples: “Find your great in what is little, and
your many in the few.” “Water is good to
benefit all things; while it does not strive, but
runs to the place which all men disdain. Inas-
much as it does not strive no one dislikes it.”
“To produce and to nourish, to produce and
have not, to act and expect not, to enlarge and
cut not off—this is called sublime virtue.” “The
sage is the good Saviour of men. He rejects
none.” “The bad men are the material of the
good men.” Very different sentiments these from
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 67

those of Confucius, who dismissed unapt scholars
and would not “carve in a rotten stick.”

The treatise of Lao-tse is not canonical, and
the student who applied it in his essay at the
public examinations to establish any doctrine
would doubtless secure a blank mark, still it is
included in an authoritative list of books to be
read for example of life and instruction of
manners.

Both systems accept material evolution and
are based on the same cosmology. In the be-
ginning was Chaos, the absolute, the limitless,
the great extreme. In process of time arose the
yang and ying, the active and passive principles,
symbolised as light and darkness, male and fe-
male, motion and rest. By action and inter-
action, ebb and flow, these two produced the
universe as we now see it. Heaven and earth,
gods and men, animals and plants, and the five
elements, things seen and unseen, are all the
products of the same evolving forces. Intelli-
gence, the Tao (Way), or Li (Principle) is ab-
solute; but personality or self -consciousness
68 JOHN CHINAMAN

arises from the “great abyss” as the product of
development. Often have I heard an educated
Chinaman maintain that it was utterly repugnant
to his mind that personality could precede matter
or the material universe be created by spirit, but
he had no difficulty in conceiving spirit and con-
sciousness to be evolved from matter.
CHAPTER III

THE THREE RELIGIONS

Nature of the Gods—Want of Reverence—Introduction of Budd-
hism—Failure of its Philosophy—Buddhist Temples—The
Priesthood—Stipends—Mass—Trustees of Temples—Prayers
in an Unknown Tongue—Heaven and Hell—The Ritual—
Salvation by Works—Merit and Demerit—Moral Results—
Resemblance to Romanism—Taoism—The Taoist Clergy—
The Taoist Pope—Spiritualism—Exorcism—The Temple and
the Stage—Sectaries and Mahometans—Latitudinarianism.

WITH such a theory of the universe, the China-
man believes none of his gods to be omnipotent,
omniscient, or eternal. They are unseen beings,
very much to be dreaded, because his knowledge
of them is very uncertain, but it does not follow
that it is impossible to deceive them or to bend
them to his will. As to their moral nature, many
are bad, some are good, and most, like man him-
self, are a mixture of the two. Like the moira of
the old Greeks, there is a power behind the gods.
When taxed with levity and want of rever-

ence, the Chinaman replies that his worship is
69
70 JOHN CHINAMAN

good enough for the beings it is offered to; and
when inconsistencies and contradictions are
pointed out, he has the ready answer that there
are many rival powers and conflicting interests in
the yang kzen, the world of sight, and he supposes
it must be the same in the yzug zen, the world of
shade or spirit. He is very sensitive to a per-
sonal insult, but he bears you no ill-will because
you are a heretic, and laughingly tells you that
neither you nor he knows anything for certain.
Very possibly all parties are right: why should
there not be as many rival pantheons as there are
rival nations? For his own part, what was good
enough for his father is good enough for him.
Further discussion is needless, for that time at
any rate.

How the Chinaman became possessed of his
patchwork of a religion may be clearly traced
and is far from having received the attention it
deserves. When Confucianism succeeded in
placing an insurmountable barrier between the
common people and the Supreme Ruler, it sup-
plied nothing that could satisfy their religious
THE THREE RELIGIONS 71

cravings ; even patriotism which has sometimes
taken the place of religion was a thing only for
kings and rulers. The common people had only
Heaven and Earth—the material heavens and
earth they would be to them—and the ghosts of
their ancestors left. Their souls could not live by
these and their daily toil. Men were bound to ask
the questions upon which Confucius had refused to
speak, and it was India that gave an answer.

The received account is that the Emperor
Mingti had a dream in the year 65 A.D. that a
sage had appeared in the West, and despatched
an embassy to bring reliable accounts of his
teaching. In the mountains of Thibet his emis-
saries turned southward and came in contact with
Buddhism on the banks of the Ganges. They
returned to China with three Hindoo priests, a
few Sanscrit books, and some relics of Buddha.
This was the introduction of idolatry into China,
and gods more human than the Chinese had
known. The Brahminic revival in India sent
crowds of Hindoo priests to China. As many as
three thousand laboured in the country as mis-
72 JOHN CHINAMAN

sionaries at one time, but it was long before the
new faith obtained a firm footing.

As a philosophy Buddhism failed to carry any
of the positions of Confucius, and gradually
settled down, if we may use the figure, in the
territory which the master had not made his own.
The Confucianists attacked its morality and not
its credentials. The celibacy of the priests, their
claim to peculiar sanctity, the turning of men’s
thoughts from the affairs of life, were specially
obnoxious. But Buddhism touched true chords
in the human heart. On the future life it gave
forth no uncertain sound ; it presented gods with
human sympathies; it held out hope to those
who were defeated in this life; it dazzled the
populace with gorgeous ceremonies; it had
austerities for the devout and the self-denying ;
it sold indulgences to those who preferred religion
by proxy. The Chinese accepted transmigration,
but they are not usually strong believers in its
extreme form. Yet all admit the luz whet, the
revolving wheel, by which retribution is awarded
for the deeds done in the body,
THE THREE RELIGIONS 73

Buddhist temples abound everywhere. They
are filled with images of the living, in marked
distinction to the temples of Confucius which
contain only the memorials of the dead. The
idea is that of a school. The lesser gods are
arranged in rows along the sides of a hall listen-
ing to the instructions of Buddha who is seated
on a throne at the upper end. The doctrine of
the Nirvana took little hold on China, and has
been superseded by a sensual paradise called the
Western Heaven. I have examined hundreds
of Buddhist temples in Central China, but never
came across but one devotee who was sitting in
contemplation in anticipation of annihilation.
The Nirvana is not, however, strictly annihila-
tion, but a state of which nothing can be pre-
dicated, neither being nor not-being, absorption
in the great abyss.

There are three grades of divinities :—Fuh
(Buddha), the enlightened ; Lohan (Arhan), those
who have conquered evil passions; Pusah (Bod-
hisattwa), those who adopt Buddhist doctrines
with great vigour. The chief Buddha is Shakya-
14 JOHN CHINAMAN

muni, an Indian prince. His highest title is /u-
fat, he who comes (from nowhere and goes no-
where). Amida Buddha, O-mi-to-fuh, Buddha of
the boundless age, is more popular in China.
O-mi-to-fuh is muttered as a prayer and ejacu-
lated as an oath. Instead of a bad road being
mended, these mystic syllables are often engraven
upon the rock where the path is particularly
dangerous. The Lohans, eighteen in number,
sixteen Hindoos and two Chinese, are very little
worshipped, but ornaments are often made with
small figures of the Lohans and worn as charms.
The Pusahs are countless in number, and being
supposed to retain no small portion of ordinary
human feeling, are the most worshipped of all.
So much so, that Pusah is the colloquial term
for a god of any kind; but it would be con-
sidered a great insult to call Confucius a Pusah.
The only professed followers of Buddhism are
the priests. All others say they are followers
of the three religions, Confucianism, Buddhism,
and Taoism; or profess to call no one master
but the national sage. The priests call them-
THE THREE RELIGIONS 75

selves seng, members of assembly, but their
common designation is hosang, a name of very
doubtful origin and significance. They are celi-
bates and live under monastic rule, dropping
their family name. They do not worship their
ancestors, and, of course, have no descendants.
Hence no one likes his son to become a priest ;
and although some who are weary of life seek
the seclusion of a monastery and others become
monks to gain an easy living, the ranks of the
priesthood are mainly recruited by children
bought with temple funds from poor parents.
They shave their heads quite bare, and if the
priest be fully ordained, there are nine small
round scars above his forehead left by the burn-
ing of the moxa at his consecration. They wear
a peculiar dress, but it is seldom of the sacred
yellow; and not one in ten is a strict vegetarian,
as demanded by the Buddhist creed. Their cere-
monial robes are gorgeously embroidered, but
their large images are of clay and the smaller
of wood, made without art, and decked with
paint and tinsel. Very few temples contain any
76 JOHN CHINAMAN

articles of value, and such as they have they
are always willing to sell to the European
collector of curios.

Some temples have large endowments, but
the income from this source is inadequate to
maintain the crowd of priests. A few solicit
alms, going through the streets with bowl and
wallet, beating the “wooden fish,” an instrument
shaped like a human skull, but their chief means
of livelihood is the offerings of worshippers at
the temples, and most of all: fees for saying
mass. On the occasion of a death, no one, not
even the strictest of Confucianists, neglects to have
priestly prayers said for the dead. This is done
at the house of the departed; inside the house
if sufficiently large, otherwise in the street before
the door. The priests bring their ceremonial
robes, missals, drums, and images at nightfall.
A table is arrayed with idols, lighted candles,
burning incense, and sacred utensils. Round it
the priests howl their prayers in monotonous
intonation, varying the proceedings with genu-
flexions and twistings of the fingers to an ac-
THE THREE RELIGIONS 77

companiment of crackers, drums, and gongs. If
sufficient money be forthcoming this goes on till
gray dawn, and the amount that can be squeezed
out of the family decides the number of times
which the ceremony has to be repeated to get
the soul out of purgatory. Filial sons pay hand-
somely for the repose of a father or a mother,
but the saying of mass by Buddhist and Taoist
priests detracts in no way from the necessity of
observing the primitive ancestral rites. These
have been overlapped but not superseded by
Buddhism.

A few temples are the property of individual
wealthy families, but generally they are built
by subscription and managed by the people of
the district. Some are entirely in the hands
of the resident priests, but whoever may act as
trustees, the civil power is always ready to step
in to prevent abuses. Occasionally a temple is
demolished by the mob when the priests are
notoriously scandalous. Chinese do not like
their women to frequent the temples; and I
have seen official proclamations posted at the
78 JOHN CHINAMAN

door of certain temples, warning the people not
to allow their wives and daughters to go there.
These the priests dare not tear down.
Buddhist prayers are in Sanscrit, the sounds
being represented as nearly as possible by Chinese
characters. The knowledge of Sanscrit is alto-
gether obsolete among Chinese priests—I never
could hear of one who pretended even to know
the letters—and they have gone on for ages re-
peating their prayers mechanically in an unknown
tongue from these transliterations. Heaven and
hell are peopled with divinities, graded accord-
ing to the model of the Chinese government, and
they have made no scruple of admitting to their
temples many idols of Taoist origin. The early
Buddhists were great preachers, but the practice
has fallen into complete desuetude. Now-a-days
the priest does nothing except for ready money.
There is no Sunday, and no social worship.
Chinese Buddhism is selfish and disintegrating.
When a man goes to worship, it is usually to ask
the favour of some deity in his undertakings, or
to enquire what luck will attend him. The priest
THE THREE RELIGIONS 79

rings a bell to attract the attention of the god,
usually fires a cracker to keep off evil spirits, who
cannot stand the smell of gunpowder, lights two
candles and three sticks of incense, intones a
prayer, and hands the lots to the worshipper, who
knocks his head on the ground and casts them.
If unfavourable he tries again, probably turning
to another image, or going to a rival temple.
Salvation by works is the unchanging nucleus
of the protean forms of this religion. There are
no beings in the spirit world so powerful as
mortal men who have obtained freedom from
desire by their own merits. Every action brings
its own reward. The wheel must continue to
turn until every sentient being becomes a Buddha
and passes into the Nirvana. The ordinary
Chinaman is in no hurry about such a consum-
mation, but contents himself with aiming at the
Western Heaven, or such modicum of merit as
will prevent his being next born a woman or
inferior animal. The repetition of prayers, acts
of worship, and deeds of charity are all valuable
means of accumulating merit. Merit is transfer-
80 JOHN CHINAMAN

able, and the priest has always on hand a large
stock from his works of supererogation, which he is
prepared to part with for a consideration. When
he can find customers he conducts a sort of
spiritual exchange, giving for ready money bills
payable on demand in the other world. Any
sin may be compounded for by a corresponding
merit. All that is needed is to keep the balance
on the right side. There are lists of all conceiv-
able actions with the amount of their merit and
demerit accurately appraised. Rightly expended,
a small sum will cover a multitude of sins.

This idea has taken an enormous hold on the
Chinese. A street beggar never asks alms, but
calls on the passers by to embrace the oppor-
tunity of accumulating merit. Merit is readily
acquired by saving life. A favourite method is
to buy a jar full of shrimps, which are brought
to market alive, and empty them in the river.
Buddhism has done something to inculcate kind-
ness to animals, but it has done a great deal
by weakening the barriers between man and the
lower animals to bring about that callousness to
THE THREE RELIGIONS 81

the sanctity of human life which is so marked a
feature of the far East. It has taught self-denial
for a selfish end, and must be held largely respon-
sible for the ingratitude from which their best
friends cannot acquit the Chinese as a race. Still
Buddhism is very far from being destitute of good.
It has kept a future life and future retribution be-
fore the Chinese. It has taught them patience
under suffering, and, in its own way, charity to all
men.

The resemblance of Buddhism to Roman
Catholicism has been often pointed out. The
Jesuit fathers declared it to be a caricature of the
Mother Church devised by the enemy of man.
The rosary, the pastoral staff, prayers in an un-
known tongue, mass for the dead, adoration of
saints and relics, images with glories round their
head, the celibacy and tonsure of the clergy, in-
cense, bells, candles, the exorcism of evil spirits,
abstaining from meats, the selling of indulgences,
monastic rules, and vows of poverty, are common
to both systems. Both affect a dim religious light
in their places of worship, intone their prayers,

F
82 JOHN CHINAMAN

pronounce the benediction with only the three
front fingers extended, have priestly vestments,
and consider priestly services to be an opus opera-
tum, very much independent both of the wor-
shipper and the celebrant, so long as the latter
is properly ordained and goes through the pre-
scribed forms. Possibly they derive their ritual
from the same source, but what would really
interest the student of human nature and the
devout Christian would be the elucidation of
those longings in the human heart that call forth
priestcraft, mystery, and ritualism.

Buddhism, even in its Chinese development, is
largely metaphysical. Taoism rests on another
foundation. Laotse himself would have treated
religion and ethics as branches of Natural Science.
The eternal way is not discoverable, but in casting
about for a way that men may walk in, he came
very near the position of modern science. He
formulated no complete system, and left his
followers to carry out his principles in their own
way. They became recluses dreaming of a
THE THREE RELIGIONS 83

corporeal immortality, pursuing researches into
alchemy and astrology. Their great object was
the composition of the golden pill, or elixir ot
life. The rise of Buddhism compelled them to
organize in self-defence. They borrowed the
ritual and ceremonies of their opponents, and
fought them with their own weapons. But they
adhered to materialism. The soul is, as it were,
an essence, distilled in the alembic of discipline
of the body. It is not the spirit, but the body
that is to be purged of dross. Their gods are
appropriate to a religion based on materialism.
The stars are divine : magicians, hermits, warriors,
popular heroes, all have a place in the pantheon.
The god of literature, the gods of diseases, the
god of wealth, the god of the kitchen, belong to
Taoism. It appropriated the old nature gods,
reproduced the Supreme Ruler as the Gemmy
Ruler, embraced dragons, genii, the phoenix and
other supernatural creatures. It took the fung-
shut as specially its own, and became learned
in luck and fortune telling. In its temples, it
attempts to surround the gods with the glories
84 JOHN CHINAMAN

of paradise. It is a darker superstition than
Buddhism, and does its best to supply the
ordinary Chinaman with a religion that will be
in accord with his natural desires.

There are two classes of priests, monks and
secular clergy. The former live in monasteries
under rules similar to the Buddhists, the latter
marry and live in their own houses, holding
licenses from the Taoist Pope. This personage,
styled the Teacher of Heaven, lives in the
Province of Ngan-whui, and is a descendant of
Chang Tao-ling, a famous magician, who lived
about the time of our Saviour. He is recognised
by the emperor, and holds rank as a high official,
being supposed to hold all the demons under his
control.

The Taoist priest is ready to say mass for the
dead or perform any ceremony of the Buddhists,
but his chief business lies in spells and charms.
They employ sleight of hand, and possess some
knowledge of chemistry, optics and other
branches of natural science. A Buddhist priest
is ready to show everything and tell everything,
THE THREE RELIGIONS 85

but the Taoist keeps back much from the
European. Their temples are open and there
is no difficulty about their ordinary worship, but
their seances which take place at night are not
readily to be observed with the care that one
could wish. Their mediums, apparently in a
state of trance, their muscles rigid and their eyes
starting from the sockets, give forth utterances
which are taken as the voice of the god. They
resent investigation, and at private seances to
which an unbeliever would not be admitted the
natives report table turning, writing on the sand
by a suspended twig of peach tree, and the
appearance of bodies floating in the air. The
Taoist priest can point out a thief, lay a ghost,
charm away an ague, and secure a fair wind
or a good bargain. He can fix a small mirror
above the door of a house to keep away the devil,
who turns in terror when he sees his own likeness,
or like another St Patrick, he will write a charm
to drive away the bugs and fleas. No native
house is without it, but I can testify it is a fraud.
Buddhist and Taoist priests never enter into
86 JOHN CHINAMAN

controversy with each other, and, hold little
intercourse. Although they have many cere-
monies and gods in common they do not join
in their worship. Occasionally they are to be
seen in each other’s temples on a friendly visit.
Taoist priests wear the old national dress of
China, and put the hair up in a top-knot. The
pig-tail and ordinary Chinese dress were intro-
duced by the Manchus.

The temples of both sects are externally alike,
and the inside arrangement, in reality distinct,
seems much the same to a cursory visitor. There
is no fixed day of worship. The door is always
open, and anyone may enter. The European
gives no offence by examining and handling
everything and asking questions. In one corner
will be a pleasure party at dinner, in another a
group of idlers gossipping with the priests, or a
company of gamblers intent upon their play. A
temple is always provided with a stage, and does |
duty as a theatre. The profession of an actor
is accounted disreputable, but the pieces re-
presented, although seldom edifying, are not as
THE THREE RELIGIONS 87

a tule specially objectionable. The performance
is by daylight, and the plays are of such intoler-
able length that they run on for days. The
audience has to stand, but no one remains for
the whole piece, the connection being so loose
that it is unnecessary. There is no scenery, but
the get-up of the characters is excellent. They
all declaim in the same high falsetto voice, to an
accompaniment of gongs and cymbals, but the
mimicry and by-play are often cleverly done.

In a temple no one takes the slightest notice
of any worshipper that may drop in except the
priest who is engaged for the ceremony, and
takes care to have forehand payment. When
his devotions are over, a man sees no impropriety
in taking the burning incense before his deity to
light his pipe. There is no solemnity or rever-
ence manifest, but a single syllable omitted, or a
genuflection at the wrong place, necessitates the
repetition of the whole ceremony. The priest
would be quite ready to throw dice for double
fees or quits with any one who desired his
services.
88 JOHN CHINAMAN

Besides the three authorised religions there
are numerous sects, The most important is the
Mahometans, who form a considerable portion of
the inhabitants in the north-west. They have
been well-nigh exterminated in the south-west.
All over China they are to be found in the
towns, inn-keeping being their speciality. They
are the loosest of all the professors of Islam, and
are to be distinguished from other Chinese only
by their aversion to pork and the absence of
idols in their houses. They are not debarred
from office, and many hold commissions in the
army. As officers they have certain idolatrous
rites to perform, but get over the difficulty by
writing the characters chen chu, True Lord, their
name for God, on a piece of red paper which is
placed before the image or tablet. By this de-
vice the true believer saves his conscience and
the latitudinarian Chinese are quite content with
outward conformity. A bath sometimes in the
mosque on Friday is the only religious duty re-
quired from the ordinary member. The mosque
looks externally like an ordinary Chinese build-
THE THREE RELIGIONS 89

ing. There are no minarets, and no public call
to prayer. Whether the latter is dispensed with
because it would be against the law, or because
it would not be responded to, is a matter of
doubt.

The other sects, like the White Lily sect, the
Vegetarians, the Religion of the Burning Lamp,
are treated as secret societies, and proscribed by
law. How far they are offshoots of Buddhism
and Taoism, and how far they are political in
their aims, it would be difficult to say. When a
mandarin excites a tumult by extortion, it is
always his safest cue to represent it as due to
a secret society which must be stamped out.
They have harped on the same string respecting

riots against Europeans, which have been proved
up to the hilt to be of their own instigation.

No one can tell what a Chinaman’s religion is.
He observes all that I have described as primi-
tive, with more or less mental reservation—the
worship of heaven and earth and of his ancestors.
He believes in luck, the fung-shuz, ghosts, and
demons. He takes from Buddhism and Taoism
90 JOHN CHINAMAN

just what suits himself, and always contributes
to the temples of both sects. He attaches no
importance to such mummeries himself, but his
wife, his mother, or his neighbours are very
superstitious, and he is not a man to quarrel
about trifles. To oblige a friend he is quite
ready to add Christianity to his religious re-
pertory—but he does not believe in an exclusive
religion. He has been most aptly described
as an adherent of all sects and a member of
none. But he has no priest who is a minister
of all denominations, a phenomenon that some-
times makes an appearance to reply to a toast
at a public dinner. The civil magistrate is ex
officio the bishop of Confucianism. His magis-
tracy is his diocese, and the literati priests and
deacons, The priests of Budd and Tao must
be regularly ordained, or their ministrations are
good for nothing. Heresy does not mean the
holding of heterodox opinions, but unauthorised
additions or omissions in the ritual. A China-
man is broad in his theology, high in his
ceremonial, and doubtful in his morality.
CHAPTER IV

GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS, THE ARMY,
LAW, AND MEDICINE

The Golden Age—Origin of the Chinese—Early Civilisation—
Power of Assimilation—The Emperor—Nobility—Officials—
The District Magistrate—His Duties—Administration of the
Law—Punishments—Aversion to Litigation—Self-made Men
—Pawnbrokers—A General Strike—The Army—Lawyers—
Doctors.

HAVING passed in review the notions which a

Chinaman is taught in the temple, at school, and

by the parental fireside, his political and civic

environment requires a brief notice before passing
on to his social and family life.

To understand other nationalities we must
know their history, but in the case of the Chinese
it is not necessary. There is nothing remark-
able about Chinese history but its length and its
monotony. The Chinese youth is taught that
Panku hewed out the heavens and the earth—the

permutations of the yang and ying having appar-
or
92 JOHN CHINAMAN

ently left them in a very chaotic state. Then
came the emperors of Heaven, Earth, and Man,
who reigned respectively 30,000, 20,000, and
10,000 years. Suijen discovered fire by rubbing
sticks. Yenchow taught men to build huts of
branches. In B.C. 2852 came Fuh-hi who taught
hunting, fishing, pasturage; established marriage,
appointed magistrates, made musical instruments,
and taught writing which superseded the use of
knotted cords. He reigned 115 years. The next
emperor, Shen-nung taught agriculture and estab-
lished markets. Then came Whang-ti, who made
pottery, wrought in metals, constructed a
calendar, discovered the medicinal properties of
plants, and divided China into provinces. His
queen reared silkworms and taught the arts of
spinning and weaving. Respectable Chinese
historians treat this period as mythical, but the
conviction is ingrained that civilization had its
origin in the Flowery Land.

In B.C. 2356 came the Confucian paragon, the
Emperor Yao. “ He was reverential, intelligent,
accomplished, and thoughtful — naturally and
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 93

without effort.” “He regulated and polished the
people. The result was universal concord.” Yao
looked out a worthy successor in Shun, having
taken him from the “ditches” and married him
to his daughter to test his fitness to bear rule.
Yao’s own son was unworthy, and he was set to
dig the ditches. According to Confucius, Shun
was “profound, wise, accomplished, intelligent,
mild, respectful, and entirely sincere.” Shun’s
son Yu drained the country which had been
inundated by the Yellow River. This was China’s
golden age. A Chinaman’s idea of progress is
backwards, to make things as nearly as possible
what he thinks they were 4000 years ago.

If this age ever existed, it has left no traces but
in the Confucian Classics. It was followed by a
long era of wars and intrigues among petty states,
which were joined in a loose confederacy. The
first ascertained date in Chinese history is an
eclipse of the sun, B.C. 775. Confucius could
trace the annals of his own native state of Lu
back only to B.C. 722. The Chinese people did
not have their origin then by any means, but it is
94 JOHN CHINAMAN

absurd to designate what goes before with the
name of history.

China really appears to have been peopled by
successive waves of emigrants, more skilful both
in peace and war than the aborigines, who came
from the North-West, down the basin of the Yellow
River. They were an agricultural people, dwelling
in walled villages, and pushed out fresh settlements
among the ruder tribes, who lived by fishing and
hunting. Confucius makes Yu to have ruled
over an empire as extensive as modern China, but
although born in Shantung himself, he never saw
the sea, the whole sea-board then being occupied
by “barbarians.” There are still many remnants
of these tribes in the mountains of the south and
west. Some appear to be allied to the Thibetans,
but most are kindred to the Burmese. They have
been partly exterminated and still more largely
absorbed by the Chinese, whose civilisation has
far greater power of assimilating lower races than
ours. Near Ichang there was a small native state
which was only subjugated in the last century.
Forty of the chiefs were entrapped and mas-
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 95

sacred. The rest of the tribesmen were merely
compelled to adopt the Chinese dress and customs
and obey Chinese magistrates. Already there is
no vestige of the old language left, and nothing
to remind the traveller that the people and dis-
trict have not always been thoroughly Chinese.

Since Shih Whang-ti instituted the present
order in B.C. 221, there have been many revolu-
tions but no change. He built the great wall
after he had driven back the Hiung-nu, or Huns,
and ever since China has remained isolated and
unchangeable, the Tartar races, who have entered
as conquerors, becoming in a short time as Chinese
as the Chinese themselves.

The emperor or Whang-ti—the term is almost
equivalent to the Roman Deus Augustus—styles
himself the Solitary Man or the Son of Heaven,
claiming to be the divine vicegerent upon earth.
He is above all kings and princes, and it is con-
trary to the traditions of Peking to treat with
other nations upon equal terms. The proof of
these pretensions is the fact that Heaven has
96 JOHN CHINAMAN

called him to sit on the Dragon Throne; but he
must make good his authority by ruling well.
The right of rebellion is part of the Chinese con-
stitution. A successful rebel would at once be
hailed as emperor by divine right. The emperor
de facto is to every good Confucianist the emperor
de jure.

The emperor’s person is sacred and his attri-
butes more than human. With a stroke of the
vermilion pencil he promotes and degrades the
gods as freely as his own officials. Meritorious
mandarins are canonized at death and temples
raised in their honour.

Nominally the emperor’s will is supreme, but
no constitutional monarch is so much bound by
law as he is by custom. Night and day, sleeping
and waking, two mandarins keep watch over him.
Should his majesty’s appetite be deficient, the
court physicians are immediately called in to
administer physic. They draw salary as long
as he is well, but their pay ceases when he is sick.
The emperor never leaves the palace grounds
except to worship at the imperial graves. Then
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 97

a number of close sedan chairs are provided, the
same as that which he occupies; the people have
to shut their doors and windows, and any one
caught peeping at the cavalcade is instantly
beheaded. He is a mere puppet in the hands
of the palace eunuchs. The real power is divided
between the Tartar princes and high Chinese
officials.

Amongst the Chinese proper there is no no-
bility. There are many decorations like our
orders of knighthood, and five ancient titles of
nobility are also bestowed, but the rank descends
a step with each generation and soon becomes
extinct. They are mere titles of honour and
carry with them no legislative or executive
powers, and as a rule the emperor prefers to
ennoble a man’s deceased ancestors and not his
unborn descendants. All honours conferred are
also liable to be revoked by a stroke of the
pencil.

There is no semblance of a parliament. The -
government is carried on by six administrative
boards at Peking, and Viceroys, Governors and

G
98 JOHN CHINAMAN

inferior mandarins in the provinces. Next to the
Governor are the Provincial Treasurer, Provincial
Judge, and Literary Chancellor; then come In-
tendants of Circuit, Prefects, and District Magis-
trates. This is the regular gradation, but there
are many special appointments.

The District Magistrate is the mandarin par
excellence. It is only with him that our typical
Chinaman comes into contact; and the less the
better, as when summoned to appear before him,
he grimly remarks that he is going to hell. The
district or skzen corresponds to our counties, being
of no fixed size. The eighteen provinces are
divided into more than 1200 districts. The
District Magistrate is styled the Ch¢-shien—the
man who knows the shen. He is judge, jury,
and counsel on both sides in all criminal and
civil lawsuits ; he is public prosecutor, head jailor,
and chief of police; he takes the census and
inspects education ; he is collector of excise and
customs, surveyor of public works and board of
trade ; he has charge of canals, roads, embank-
ments, and bridges; he is held responsible for
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 99

robbery, rebellion, and breaches of the moral law;
he has to keep the city walls in repair, inspect the
militia, see that the officers do their duty, regulate
the temples and the priesthood, and on many
occasions act as high priest himself. The blame
is fastened upon him for floods and droughts, and
at such times he has to head processions of
country people, clad in sackcloth and carrying

three burning joss sticks in his hand. In drought
he orders the South Gate of the city to be closed,

and in excessive rain the North. He then pro-
claims a time of fasting and humiliation to last
three days, during which no animal may be killed
or any flesh exposed for sale.

To obtain office is the goal of every Chinaman’s
ambition. The road to preferment lies through
the Literary Examinations, but it may also be
obtained by special merit. For a long time this
latter has been the most frequented path, and but
one consideration has been accounted merit—a
sufficient bribe. To assist in his duties, the man-
darin has at his own expense to maintain a staff
of secretaries and clerks and a whole regiment of
100 JOHN CHINAMAN

underlings. His pay is ordinarily about one
tenth of his necessary expenses, but as he is col-
lector of local revenue and disburser of local
expenses, something may be saved off the balance
that should go to the provincial treasury, and
there are other methods by which he is able to
recoup himself during the three years for which
he holds office. No one can be a magistrate in
his native province.

Chinese law is codified, but the code is rarely
appealed to, the principles laid down in the Con-
fucian classics and local usage deciding the case.
A point of equity would always overrule a point
of law. Prisoners and witnesses are examined by
the magistrate, who administers the bamboo
freely to elicit the truth, and for the recalcitrant
and evasive has more refined methods—suspension
by the thumbs, stretching on the rack, the inser-
tion of small pieces of bamboo below the nails,
and kneeling on broken crockery and hot chains.
No oath is ever administered, as none has been
discovered that is binding on the Chinese con-
science. The only way of avoiding these incon-
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS | 1or

veniences, if one has the misfortune to be involved
in the toils of the law, is the use of palm oil.
The law is swift and sure and eminently satis-
factory to the man who has a well-filled purse
and will use it freely. No advocates are allowed,
but I could never get a Chinaman to admit that
it was a disadvantage—it is the surer method to
fee the judge.

The punishments are barbarous. The prisons
are filthy dens in which criminals and those under
arrest herd together. A newcomer has to pay his
first-footing to the older inmates on arrival. The
rations are barely sufficient to sustain life, but
any luxuries, or even a day out to visit one’s
friends, may be obtained by paying the jailor.
Petty offences are punished by the bamboo,
which is applied to the proper part, and not as
the bastinado. Others are sent out with a wooden
collar, the cangue, round their neck—a sort of
portable pillory, bearing a label detailing their
offences. Capital punishment is usually by be-
heading with a sword, sometimes by strangling ;
and very often in Ichang criminals are exposed
102 JOHN CHINAMAN

in wooden cages in the streets until they die of
thirst and hunger. In a neighbouring district
they are placed up to the waist in a barrel of
quick-lime. A magistrate at Ichang put a man
to death by suspending him at the top of a pole
by a hand and a foot. The case was reported
and he narrowly escaped degradation, not on
account of cruelty, but for introducing an innova-
tion.

The principles of equity are the same every-
where, but Chinese law takes a peculiar view in
some cases. Embezzlement from an employer is
a lighter crime than ordinary theft. You ought
to employ only honest men, but you cannot
guard against a thief. For a servant who was
paid starvation wages to help himself, would not
be regarded as an offence at all. Forgery would
generally be treated as a case of ordinary fraud.

A Chinaman always tries to avoid going to
law, and has very little sympathy with those who
feel its lash. A good neighbour will settle his
disputes quietly by arbitration ; and criminals he
holds, if not guilty of one offence, have very likely
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 103

committed another. He has no admiration for
self-made men, unless they have made themselves
by their brains at the public examinations. He
never boasts that he is self-made, for that would
be to cast a slur on his worthy ancestors; and he
is never ashamed of his poor relations. When
some one who has rapidly become rich is pounced
upon by the harpies of the yamen, as the official
residence and court-house are called—being both
in the same building—he grins with inward satis-
faction. The yamen runners have a keen scent
for prey, and the risk of having a case trumped up
against him, which will cost money to get clear
of, is one to which the capitalist is constantly
exposed.

Pawnbrokers are wealthy and important per-
sonages. A mandarin who was leaving Ichang
thought he would have something out of one of
them, and sent a company of yamen runners
with a number of empty boxes to the pawnshop.
They had a long list of pretended valuables, said
to be inside, which they were commissioned to
pawn for nearly £150. The pawnbroker de-
104 JOHN CHINAMAN

murred, and wished a sight of the pledges. On
this the yamen runners threw down the boxes
in his shop, and refused to remain with a man
who doubted the magistrate’s list or questioned
the values he had affixed. The boxes were in
due course sent for by the mandarin, opened,
and found empty, on which the pawnbroker was
arrested on a charge of theft. He had little
profit off that year’s business. A man who
lived next door to me was glad to hush up for
a thousand dollars a charge of treason, because
sone children had fired a cracker, a sign of re-
joicing, in the courtyard of his house on a day
set apart for mourning for the deceased Empress.
A competent mandarin has many ways of eking
out his salary. Self-made men are safe game,
but he has to respect the old and well connected
families of the district. The literati and gentry,
as they are called, have a distinct standing, and
meet together in council. They could defy any
magistrate, but he has sufficient sympathy with
the class he belongs to himself rarely to come in
conflict with them.
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 105

It pays everybody to keep on terms with the
mandarin, but some of them are rapacious be-
yond even Chinese endurance. In such a case
there may be a riot, but the more characteristic
way is to institute a general strike. The great
man wakens some morning to find no barber in
attendance to shave his head and trim his pig-
tail. His butler tells him the barbers are on
strike. Presently the cook returns with an
empty basket—there is nothing in the market,
and the shops are shut. His excellency must
breakfast off the broken victuals of yesterday.
He calls his sedan chair—it is not the proper
thing for a magistrate to walk on foot—to go
out and see what is the matter. There are no
chair-bearers; they have decided not to work
to-day. By this time a crowd of coolies has
collected in the courtyard of the yamen, be-
seeching the father and mother of the people
to give them work or rice. If he try to dis-
perse the mob by force, there will be blows
upon both sides and blood will be spilt. Then
messengers will be sent post haste to inform
106 JOHN CHINAMAN

the Viceroy or Intendant of Circuit. A regi-
ment of soldiers will be sent down to restore
order, and an investigation will be held. One
or two will lose their heads as being ringleaders
in the disturbance, but the real instigators are
quite safe—no evidence will be forthcoming but
against some bad characters who are a pest to
the town. In any case, the mandarin will be
stripped of his decorations and dismissed the
service for incapacity ; if he be fortunate enough
to avoid a graver charge. These disturbances
are generally caused by some increase of the
taxes or stricter methods of levying them. If
wise, the mandarin requests a few of the head
men to sang liang, discuss the situation, and
makes the desired concessions. Order is re-
stored at once, and the people quietly resume
business. There is very little real public feel-
ing, and individual cases of injustice and ex-
tortion, while they add nothing to a magis-
trate’s popularity, rarely produce a tumult. But
it is otherwise when the craft of a class is in
danger.
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 107

The Chinaman does not like soldiers and
soldiering. He has no ambition for bubble re-
putation at the cannon’s mouth. “Good iron is
not made into nails, nor are good men turned
into soldiers.” But the Chinaman is no coward,
although the stigma is often fastened to him.
He is a plain matter of fact man, and does not
see the glory of making his body a target for
a miserable shilling a day. When there are
bullets flying he endeavours to get out of the
way. When tired of his life he commits suicide;
but faces danger like a man in the course of his
calling when there is money to be made.

The Tartar Bannermen form a royal body-
guard, and garrison a few Chinese towns. They
are soldiers by birth and profession, drawing an
allowance from the day they are born, and
buried at the expense of the exchequer, Except
the large feet of their women, there is little to
distinguish them from ordinary Chinese, with
whom they are not allowed to intermarry.

The army proper consists of provincial fen-
cibles, a certain number being maintained in
108 JOHN CHINAMAN

each prefecture from local revenue. Their chief
duties are to put down brigandage, guard the
cities, and escort the civil mandarins. Every
soldier carries a fan and an umbrella. They
are armed anyhow, with bamboo spears, bows
and arrows, native matchlocks, or discarded
European muskets. The colonel rides a mule
or a pony, which his attendant generally holds
by the tail. When his regiment goes through
drill, he sits in a folding chair and regales him-
self with a cup of tea. Military tactics are
designed to frighten more than to fight an
enemy. The display of flags and banners is
terrible, and attached to each battalion is a
troop of boys dressed in yellow skin-tights with
black stripes to resemble tigers. Others carry
bamboo shields with a devil’s head painted on
them to inspire terror.

The pay of a soldier is fairly good for China,
about £1 a month—when he gets it. If the pay
be irregular, his discipline is lax. He is per-
mitted to take his gun and shoot game in the
hills at any time. Others turn their uniform
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS tog

inside out and work as ordinary labourers, except
when required for a review, or ordered to turn
out on the arrival or departure of a mandarin.
Their numbers are far beneath the regulation
strength. The Ichang prefecture had an estab-
lishment of 3000, and deducted pay for as many
from the local revenue. About 300 soldiers were
actually kept, the balance of pay finding its way
into the pockets of the civil and military authori-
ties. This alone must have represented a squeeze
of £30,000 a year, and it was not the best egg in
the mandarin basket.

When the provincial authorities came on a
tour of inspection the whole city was paralysed.
Every labourer in town seemed to have turned
soldier. Dilapidated uniforms and rusty weapons
were turned out. Three thousand men of some
kind were presented on the parade ground,
and the inspecting officer drew up his report
in strict accordance with the “refresher”
received.

For foreign wars volunteers are enrolled. These
are the Chinese “braves,” so called from the
110 JOHN CHINAMAN

character yung, brave, being very conspicuously
painted on their jackets. When a district is
called upon to furnish so many volunteers, the
mandarin first clears out the prison and enrolls
the sweepings of the opium dens, then presses
all “known to the police” who can carry a rifle,
and sends off the rag-tag of the district as food
for powder. The wonder is that they fight so
well as they do. At Tientsin Li Hung-Chang
had about 60,000 troops drilled and armed on a
European model. Some of the other Viceroys
have a few thousand troops worth the name, but
the rank and file of the Chinese army is of the
character described. Only those who judged the
Chinese forces from these picked specimens could
have been surprised at the result of the war with
Japan.

If the average Chinaman has no love for the
civil powers he likes the military still less. I
remarked to an old disciple of Confucius who
was telling me how Pao-chow had risen from
selling fruit in the streets of Ichang to be a
great Chinese general, that he must be a man
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 111

of remarkable ability. “Ability: what kind of
ability is required to commit murder?”

Having dealt with the other liberal profes-
sions, we may finish law and pass on to medicine.
Although no advocates may appear in court, a
number of broken down schoolmasters pick up
a precarious living by writing out petitions for
litigants. A civil suit must originate in a petition
to the mandarin. To get it presented, the door-
keeper of the yamen must first be feed, and
every secretary through whose hands it passes
must receive an honorarium. When it reaches
the great man, a suitable tribute must be paid
to his justice; and the man who wishes to gain
his case will take care to enlist the sympathies
of the mandarin’s lackey and his wife’s nurse.
The pettifogger alluded to will provide witnesses
well drilled in the evidence they are to give.
In China the law has risks both for the counsel
and his client. It is a statutory offence to aid
and abet in lawsuits. A Chinese lawyer has to
reckon upon the chances of the bamboo, just as
112 JOHN CHINAMAN

a French editor counts upon the probabilities of
a duel.

The faculty of medicine is almost at as low
an ebb as the church and the bar. There are
no medical schools, and any one may practise
as a doctor who can find patients. The only
approach to a diploma is to give out that one’s
ancestors have professed the healing art for three
or seven generations. Dissection is not practised
and would not be permitted. They have the
crudest notions of anatomy and the functions of
the various organs. Their treatment of disease
is allopathic; and the ills that flesh is heir to
are divided into four classes, hot and cold, dry
and wet, which are to be combated by ap-
propriate antidotes. They believe in adjuvants,
and no physic will be effective without the proper
yin-st, They diagnose almost entirely by feeling
the pulse. This is done by placing three fingers
on the wrist, one for the pulse of the heart,
another for that of the lungs, and the third for
the pulse of the liver. A skilful doctor will feel
the pulse of a lady of quality, who cannot be
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS 113

seen by male visitors, by sitting in an adjoining
room and holding the end of a silken cord which
is tied round her wrist. Most patients bargain
with the doctor ; so much for a cure, and nothing
if he fails. A town physician in good practice
will not descend to this, but rides in a sedan
chair and charges as much as a shilling a visit.
He writes his prescriptions, which are dispensed
at the drug shop. The ordinary practitioner
keeps his own drugs, and never turns away a
patient.

For those who can afford it Corean ginseng,
worth almost its weight in gold, is a specific for
all diseases. The pharmacopceia contains rhubarb,
gentian, catechu, cardamums, nux vomica, cam-
phor, liquorice, sulphate of iron, nitre, prepara-
tions of arsenic and mercury, and many other
drugs used in Europe. But it contains a far
greater number of such substances as tiger’s
bones, serpent’s skins and serpent’s dung, which is
used as an eye salve, dried centipedes, toad’s skin;
every plant that grows and some part of every
animal that breathes. A prescription usually

H
114 JOHN CHINAMAN

contains twenty or thirty ingredients; and
although they have many valuable drugs, they
cannot be acquainted with their individual pro-
perties. For ordinary diseases they have doubt-
less discovered homely cures, but no doctor ever
refuses to treat a case, whether he knows anything
about it or not. Having no knowledge of
anatomy or physiology, their identification of
diseases must be most unreliable. They have no
tinctures or extracts or medical preparations.
The patient buys the raw materials and infuses
them, and drinks off the decoction at a draught.
The remains of the prescription left in the pot
are thrown into the street, under the charitable
impression that the unwary traveller who treads
upon the mess will carry off the patient’s disease.
Though they make no tinctures or extracts, they
are fond of pills and boluses and plasters. A
Chinaman is always taking medicine. When ill
he takes it as a cure, and when well as a preven-
tative of sickness,

In medicine they are probably not above two
centuries behind Europe, but their surgery is
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS | 115

worse than nothing. Their one operation is
acupuncture. Into any swelling or tumour in
any part of the body they are ready to thrust a
needle to let out the wind. A man suffering from
dropsy declares that it is wind, and the doctor
treats him by prescribing antidotes for that
element. On no account will they suffer an open
sore. As soon as an abscess bursts, the surgeon
sticks on a black plaster to keep in the pus. If
allowed to escape, the substance and vitality of
his body would ooze out. When the matter
burrows and makes a fresh exit by the side of the
plaster, another is put over the new opening.
This will go on till the whole mass, plasters and
all, falls away, leaving a huge ulcer. There are
tens of thousands of Chinese maimed for life by
the mistreatment of a simple boil. As in other
warm countries, inflammation of the eyes is
common, but the medical faculty is chiefly re-
sponsible for the extraordinary number of the
blind.

The Chinese have a horror of amputation,
which they look upon as a mutilation of the body,
116 JOHN CHINAMAN

and fear to be sent halt and lame into the other
world. A patient in a mission hospital often
prefers death to the loss of a hand or foot. For
this reason exposure in the cage is considered a
more merciful punishment than decapitation, and
the relatives of a man who has been beheaded
petition the magistrate for leave to sew his head
on again, a favour that is seldom granted, the head
being exposed over the city gate.

Bone setting is a separate art. They use no
splints, but bind up the broken limb with the
pliant bark of the ow tree. This speedily hardens,
and the results are frequently satisfactory. Tooth-
ache is ascribed to the presence of a worm, the
extraction of which is undertaken by old women,
who never fail to produce the maggot, after
poking in the sufferer’s mouth with a rusty wire.
Wounds are dressed with the universal black
plaster, a poultice of cow dung, or the half burnt
skin of a dog. The least objectionable method
is to bring the edges together and cover the part
with the fresh skin of a fowl which adheres
firmly.
GOVERNMENT AND MANDARINS | 117

Many of their cures are highly fanciful. For
baldness they prescribe soup made with a hedge-
hog. For paralysis they infuse the claws of owls
and kites. For jaundice they administer a hand-
ful of wood lice; Scottice, sclaters. Wine in
which tiger’s bones have been steeped is very
strengthening ; so are the lights of a pig, which
are the dearest flesh in the market. For con-
sumption and general debility they prescribe
human milk. It is extremely valuable in old age ;
and as it is not proper for a young woman to
approach any man but her husband, a hole
is made in the partition between two rooms
through which the wet nurse thrusts her breast
and the old gentleman sucks from the other
side.

* Doctors are the principal people who advertise,
posting imposing bills setting forth their nostrums.
Their cures are secret traditions in the family, and
the doctor is careful to gather his herbs in the
right quarter of the moon and under a favourable
conjunction of the planets.) When a man is sick
he is just as likely to call in a Taoist priest to
118 JOHN CHINAMAN

charm away the demon that causes the disease as
to seek aid from the doctor. Either plan is likely
to be efficacious, for, as evidenced by the mission
hospitals, the Chinaman is endowed with remark-
able recuperative powers.
CHAPTER V

LAND AND TAXES

Land Tenure—Minerals—Mining—Coal—Salt—Transfer of Land
—Tenants—Agriculture—Native Opium—Manuring—Pisci-
culture — Market Gardening — Custom Houses— Cause of
Riots—I. M. Customs—Direct Taxation—Canals—Embank-
ments—Irrigation—The Great Wall—City Walls—Roads.

THE land of China all belongs to the Emperor
as ultimate proprietor, and is subject to a small
land tax, which varies according to soil and
situation. This tax is payable at an office
attached to the yamen, of the district magis-
trate, and, before the development of foreign
trade and the establishment of the Maritime
Customs, was the most important source of im-
perial revenue. A list is kept of all the land
in the district and its possessors. Non-payment
of the tax for three years may lead to for-
feiture, and the law does not undertake to pro-
tect the interests of absentees. To have paid

the land tax on any property for three successive
1Ig
120 JOHN CHINAMAN

years without challenge, is a valid title to owner-
ship.

The possessor has a perpetual right of occu-
pancy, which he may transfer, sell, or mortgage,
and he may use the land as he pleases for
agricultural and building purposes. He may
open quarries and clay pits, but he has no
claim to the minerals in the bowels of the
earth. There is little difficulty about extract-
ing coal and iron in the native fashion at the
outcrop of the beds, but for the opening of
regular mines an imperial license would be
required, and a royalty would be charged. The
government is very chary in granting such
privileges, and all attempts made hitherto to
mine in the European manner have been
carried on by the government, or under direct
government control. Even could a permit be
obtained, no Chinese would put their money
in such a venture, knowing that under some
pretext or other the mandarins would appro-
priate the profit, if there was any. The
country has not been surveyed, but has been
LAND AND TAXES 121

traversed by competent geologists, and is
known to be extremely rich in minerals. Coal
is to be had plentifully and cheap in most
districts, and iron is abundant. The steamers
running to Ichang mostly used the native
coal. The chief difficulty was to procure a
steady supply of uniform quality. The best
was of good steaming quality, and for house-
hold purposes no better need be desired; but
although produced in the district the transport
was so dear that it could not be delivered
much under a pound a ton. Copper, lead,
white copper (a native alloy of various metals),
silver, gold, nitre, sulphur, salt, gypsum, etc.,
are produced by native processes. The minerals
will at some period be an inexhaustible source
of revenue and national wealth. At present
there is little got from anything but salt.

Salt is a government monopoly, and none is
allowed to be imported from abroad. It is
wrought in the provinces of Ngan-whui and
Sz-chuan, both in the form of rock salt and
brine. The brine is got from artesian wells,
122 JOHN CHINAMAN

which the Chinese have known how to bore
for ages. In Sz-chuan the brine is evaporated
by an inflammable gas which escapes from
fissures in the earth, and is conducted in bam-
boo pipes to the salt works. The salt is
heavily taxed at the mine, and in the course
of transport through the empire is subjected
to frequent duties both for local and imperial
revenue. The retail price at Ichang is about
two pence halfpenny a pound.

The transfer of land is extremely simple.
When the price is agreed upon, a deed is
written out in plain terms stating the bound-
aries and size of the property, the names of
the adjacent owners, and the price stipulated.
To this document, which any man of ordinary
education is competent to draw up, several
local witnesses affix their signature. It is then
taken to the district magistrate, who notifies
the neighbouring proprietors to see that the
boundaries are correct, and if there be no com-
plaint lodged, he affixes his seal, charging a
LAND AND TAXES 123

certain commission on the price. It usually
amounts to three per cent, but the cautious in-
vestor waits until the mandarin’s triennial term
of office is on the point of expiry, when he can
be got to transact business on more reasonable
terms rather than leave the ingathering of the
fees to his successor. The new proprietor’s
name is enrolled for the payment of the land
tax, and there is no further formality. Dis-
putes about ownership are rare.

When a person lets his land the law is very
favourable to the tenant. Money rents are un-
known. The landlord bargains for a fixed
portion of the chief crops, which is estimated
at so many tenths. The winter crops and
minor products usually belong entirely to the
tenant. When the harvest is reaped, the land-
lord may claim his share, or the amount is
settled by mutual valuation. No lease is neces-
sary. So long as a tenant cultivates the land,
he cannot be evicted, nor can the rent tithes
be increased on him. If he farms well, it is for
the advantage of both parties; and the landlord
124 JOHN CHINAMAN

and tenant have an equal interest in effecting
permanent improvements and keeping the soil
in good heart. Buildings give little trouble;
mud, bamboo, and thatch are plentiful, and the
farmer repairs his steading in his spare time.
Sons and other direct heirs may claim the
tenancy on the old terms, but there is no right
of sale. A tenant may leave at any time, but
he must leave all improvements to the landlord
without compensation. This apparent injustice
is an intentional device to get the people rooted
to their paternal acres, upon which all Confucian
economists declare the stability of the empire to
depend. There are few large estates, and such
as exist, are in a multitude of detached patches.
In the Ichang district one half of the farmers
own their own land. I have known good rice
land sold for £80 an acre. The Chinese farmer
leads a frugal and laborious life. He seldom
makes much money, but he has always an
abundance of the necessaries of life, and unlike
the Indian ryot is not under the thumb of the
money lender. That harpy, who battens under
LAND AND TAXES 125

the clemency of British rule, would not thrive
under the patriarchal government of the man-
darins. These gentry may oppress the people
themselves, but they deserve all credit for per-
mitting no one else to do so. A fat usurer
would be a rare caption for the myrmidons of
the yamen. A kind providence has so ordered
that one evil is usually destructive of another.
In outlying parts of the empire there are
tracts of unoccupied land, given in allotments
to emigrants who will settle and cultivate them,
paying land tax after a term of years. In
settled districts the uncultivated land is all in
the hands of private owners, but as an incentive
to reclamation no tax is levied upon new land for
a considerable period. There is a right of way
everywhere except through growing crops, but
indiscriminate pasturage and cutting of trees
and herbage are not permitted. The tracts
covered with graves in the vicinity of towns
are treated as public pasturages, but any injury
done to the graves is severely punished. There
are no game laws; and all the Justices in the
126 JOHN CHINAMAN

United Kingdom would fail to convince John
Chinaman that any one could have property in
wild animals until he had succeeded in catching
them.

Milk is not used as an article of diet, and
butter and cheese are unknown. Goat flesh is
eaten in winter, but considered too heating in
summer. Sheep—only the fat-tailed variety is
known—do not thrive in the Ichang district.
The common ox and the water buffalo are both
used in ploughing. Their flesh is little esteemed,
and is the cheapest in the market; but as they
are not fattened for the butcher, the only beef
to be obtained is from animals that are past
work, or have died of disease. There is in
Ichang a law, enforced by the bamboo, against
slaughtering healthy cattle. They should be
employed in the labours of the field, and their
destruction is regarded as killing the goose
that lays the golden eggs. Pork and poultry
are the favourite articles of flesh diet, and agri-
culture has to adapt itself to the tastes of
consumers. There are no large horses, but
LAND AND TAXES 127

ponies, mules, and donkeys are used for riding
and carrying burdens.

Sufficient pasturage for all requirements is
found on the hills, among the graves, and on
the banks of canals and streams. Agricultural
land is never sown out in grass, but the Chinese
are very careful to attend to the rotation of
crops. In a country of such vast extent and
variety of climate there are many local differ-
ences, but the methods employed at Ichang
hold generally true for the greater part of
China. Tillage is effected partly by a primitive
plough, little better than a crooked stick shod
with iron, drawn by an ox or buffalo, and partly
by digging, not with a spade, but with a power-
ful mattock or pick-axe. The fields are small,
often no larger than garden plots, and they are
as carefully hoed and kept as free of weeds.
The farms seldom exceed twenty acres. When
water can be had for rice cultivation, the fields
are levelled, in terraces if need be, and channels
made for irrigation, the same as in sewage farms
at home. Where even Chinese ingenuity and
128 JOHN CHINAMAN

Chinese labour cannot procure an adequate
supply of water, the land is allowed to retain
its natural configuration. There are few fences,
Rice is thickly sown in seed plots, which are
completely covered with water. The rice fields
are prepared by digging and ploughing; then
the water is turned on, and the farmer con-
tinues his work with a heavy harrow drawn by
an ox, until not a clod is left, himself wading
over the knees in mud. When the seedling
rice attains the height of four or six inches, it
is planted out in the fields of liquid mud.
The tufts speedily take root, and the fields are
kept covered with water until the grain begins
to ripen, when it is run off. The rice is reaped
by sickle, and after a short exposure to the
strong sun is beaten out by the flail, or trodden
out by (muzzled) oxen on a threshing floor
composed of hard earth. If the season be
early, there is sometimes a second crop of rice,
which pays best of all field produce.

The chief summer crops grown on dry land
are cotton, Indian corn, sesamum, and tall millet,
LAND AND TAXES 129

with small millet, sweet potatoes, and ground
nuts upon poor sandy soil. Buckwheat is also
a principal summer crop on poor land, and, along
with radishes, it is a favourite autumn crop. Our
ordinary cereals are winter crops, sown in Nov-
ember and reaped in April. Wheat, barley, peas,
and beans are extensively grown. A farmer has
always two crops off the same ground in the
course of a year, and sometimes three ; but occa-
sionally it is thought more profitable to work a
rice field as fallow in winter than to crop it. I
never saw rye in China; and oats, a wretched
bearded variety, are only grown on the tops of
high hills. Below oats comes the common potato,
then millet and Indian corn. To live upon oats
and potatoes is the Chinese picture of misery,
and the person who has only such fare as wheat,
millet, and Indian corn is said to “eat bitterness,”
and is considered to have neither the strength
nor the ability of his compatriot who sits down
to three or four great bowlfuls of boiled rice twice
aday. Contrary to the Irish opinion, there is a
strong prejudice against the potato as being ad-
I
130 JOHN CHINAMAN

verse to fecundity. Great quantities of rape are
grown in winter for oil from the seed, which is
used in cooking. Tall millet is chiefly employed
for the distillation of sawshu, a sort of coarse
whisky. Sesamum and ground nuts supply a
superior culinary oil. Beans and peas are made
into ¢owfu, a white cheesy-looking substance of
the consistence of curds. It is eaten along with
boiled rice, and the Chinese are fond of it, but
few Europeans succeed in acquiring the taste.
The peas and beans are ground up wet and
steeped in vats, the whole process resembling
the old Scotch method of preparing sowens.
Indian corn is made into vermicelli and “corn-
flour.” Wheat and barley flour is made into a
great variety of scones and cakes, some sweet,
some seasoned with salt and garlic, and many
cooked in boiling oil. It is also baked into a
sort of steamed bread, but rice is the Chinaman’s
staff of life.

Opium is extensively grown in the Ichang
prefecture, and that produced in the district of
Patung is now said to compare favourably with
LAND AND TAXES 131

the best that comes from India, greater care
having been bestowed upon it since the sem-
blance of prohibition was removed. It is a
profitable crop, but exhausts the soil. The
native product is about half the price of the
Indian drug, and will certainly drive it from
the Chinese market in a few years. There are
no reliable statistics, but it is well within the
mark to say that China already produces three-
fourths of the quantity she consumes. Opium
was known and grown in China before the East
India Company sent an ounce to Canton.

Most farmers have a few mulberry trees about
their houses and the boundaries of their fields.
The silk industry is capable of indefinite ex-
pansion, and little is needed but greater care in
winding to command a still higher price in the
foreign market. The cocoon ends, which used to
be thrown away by the natives, are now sold to
foreign merchants, who export them to Europe
to be worked up by improved machinery. Tea
is grown in many parts of the country, but in
strictly circumscribed areas. I have seen it culti-
132 JOHN CHINAMAN

vated on one side of a ravine and not at all upon
the other when there was a change in the geo-
logical formation. It is a grocers’ puff to speak
of the tea gardens of China. Each farmer has a
few bushes, and when intended for foreign export
he sells the green leaves to the country general
merchant. The different varieties of China tea
are produced by the skill of the native middle-
men in sorting and curing. The Chinese them-
selves give by far the best price for leaf of a fine
quality. The Russian merchants can afford to
buy finer “chops” than could be profitably sold
in London. The rubbish that the British matron
insists upon having at eighteenpence a pound has
in many cases already passed through a native
teapot, and has been skilfully doctored by some
Chinaman who has fired, rolled, and recoloured
the leaf, and has again been further improved by
the home mixer, who has added a quantity of
strong Indian tea rich in tannin. The flavour of
a really good tea is utterly destroyed by milk
and sugar, which are accompaniments never used
by the Chinese. They only sun-dry the leaf, and
LAND AND TAXES 133

infuse it by pouring boiling water on a pinch in
the bottom of the cup, nothing but inferior sorts
being put in a teapot.

The live stock which a farmer rears for market
consists of pigs and poultry, and possibly our de-
pressed agriculturists might do worse than turn
their attention more largely to these branches.
Pork is worth from fourpence to fivepence a
pound. A fowl sells from a shilling to eighteen-
pence, and eggs bring a farthing each, but they
are mostly of small size.

The Chinese farmer pays great attention
to manuring, and is incessant with the hoe.
Every leaf and scrap, down even to the shav-
ings of celestial scalps, carefully collected by
the barber, find their way to the dung pit, and
there are no wasted liquids about a homestead.
The Chinaman eschews chemical manures, going
upon the sensible theory of returning to the
soil everything that comes from it. Night-soil
is considered the best of all fertilizers, and
every morning he goes before breakfast, when
he commences the serious labours of the day,
134 JOHN CHINAMAN

with a pair of buckets to collect it in the towns
and villages. The method is as repulsive as it
is primitive, but if our farmers could devise
some practical way of utilizing sewage, they
would save their manure bills and increase
their crops; the rivers would not be polluted
nor would the citizens be poisoned with sewer
gas. In this matter and in land tenure, there
is reason to take a leaf out of the Chinaman’s
book, with as satisfactory results as in the in-
stitution of competitive examinations for govern-
ment employment, in which case we were not
ashamed to take the yellow man as our philo-
sopher and guide.

The Chinaman knows how to cultivate the
water as well as the land. He rears oysters
extensively, and even contrives to stimulate the
bivalve to produce pearls. The Yangtse affords
an inexhaustible supply of some twenty varieties
of fish, and its waters are constantly swept by
every description of net and line. Cormorants
are trained to catch fish, and at Ichang, when
LAND AND TAXES 135

the net is put down, a tame otter is sent to
raise the fish from the bottom, in much the
same way as sportsmen employ a dog to find
the game. At the proper season myriads of
young sile are caught by gauze nets in the
quiet nooks, and immediately transferred to a
large earthenware jar. When this is full of
tiny fish, about an inch in length, it is put in
a creel, which the vendor carries on his back
into districts removed from large streams. He
sells the contents by the cupful to farmers to
put in their ponds and reservoirs. Each cup-
ful taken out, which has the appearance of
thick broth, he replaces with a cupful of water,
giving the fish room to grow as he peddles his
ware. One wonders if the Fishery Board, with
science and high salaries, has done as much to
increase the food supply of the country as these
humble Chinamen who pursue pisciculture for
an honest penny.

The keeping of ducks is another characteris-
tic Chinese industry. The duck feeder of the
Yangtse has 600 to 1000 in his flock. He
136 JOHN CHINAMAN

rows a small boat in which he sleeps at night,
under a mat covering like a gipsy’s tent, whilst
his flock is folded on the shore like sheep in a
stake net. He moves up and down the river,
along the creeks and through the marshes with
his herd, resting in some convenient spot in
the breeding season. The eggs find a ready
market at better prices than fowl’s eggs, being,
when cured, a favourite delicacy, and no festive
board would be complete without salted duck.

As market gardeners the Chinese are un-
approachable. I think all our vegetables, and
many more, are cultivated, except parsnips,
Swedish turnips, and beetroot. Large radishes
generally take the place of the true turnip. In
summer there is an endless variety of melons,
gourds, cucumbers, egg-plant, chillies, etc.
Garlic is very much used, and many varieties
of haricot beans. The fruits at Ichang are
cherries, loquats, plums, apricots, peaches, pears
(large and coarse), apples (small crab), per-
simmons, oranges (common and Tangerine),
lemons, chesnuts, and walnuts, To these may
LAND AND TAXES 137

be added the tallow, oil, and varnish trees, all
important industries. In ponds and marshes
the sacred lotus is much cultivated for the root,
which is eaten as a vegetable, and made into
arrow-root. The seeds are a delicacy. Marshes
also supply the taro, the water-chesnut, and
the water-caltrop. Indigo, hemp, linen from a
species of nettle, and many other products are
profitably produced in the district, but the
account is not intended to be exhaustive, but
merely to show the reader that the Chinaman
knows how to take advantage of the resources
of his country.

As already indicated, imperial revenue is largely
dependent on the land and salt tax. Local
revenue is derived from local custom-houses.
These are exceedingly numerous, rendering it
impossible to take anything to market without
being pounced upon by the man at the receipt of
custom. The roads leading to a city both by land
and water are well guarded, and the squabbles
are endless. The statutory rate is of little conse-
138 JOHN CHINAMAN

quence, as the men in charge have weights and
measures of their own, which they insist on using.
They would be afraid to write a receipt for a
wrong rate, but as to malpractices in the measur-
ing, once the goods left their hands, they would
unblushingly aver that the aggrieved party had
not submitted the whole quantity to the court of
appeal. These devices are generally adverse to
the public, but when there is a choice of routes,
two custom-houses may compete for patronage.
As a means of counteracting smuggling and dis-
couraging the resort to a longer but less heavily
taxed road, native opium in transit through
Ichang used to be nominally taxed the proper
rate, but it was well known to the trade that
thirty two ounces were contained in the pound
weight that was used. For a short time, a China-
man was in command of one of the river steamers,
and she mysteriously anchored about nightfall a
few miles below the city. The native captain
and the local officials were in some large smug-
gling concern to defraud the Maritime Customs,
and had their scouts watching the movements
LAND AND TAXES 139

of the European officers, rendering a seizure im-
possible. Tonnage dues are charged on junks
navigating the rivers, as well as duty on their
cargoes, Instead of being centralised, the native
customs are sub-divided as much as possible
among a multitude of “squeezing” stations, A
big mandarin can always find employment for
his poor relations in the native customs. Besides
all these local custom houses for raising local
revenue, there are “Aim barriers on all the great
trade routes to collect money for imperial de-
fence. A more rotten, inefficient, and irritating
fiscal system it would be impossible to devise,
and the only consideration that induces the
Chinaman to submit to it is, when venality is
so rife, the hope of getting his goods through
cheaper than his rival. Produce and merchandise
of every description in transit from one part of
China to another have to pay toll to the authori-
ties of each district they pass through, A
basket of eggs is taxed before it can reach the
market; but I can remember the citizens of
Aberdeen submitting to the same thing. The
140 JOHN CHINAMAN

extension of steam navigation is opposed by the
officials tooth and nail: no wonder! they can
stop a junk and take their pound of flesh when-
ever they please, but goods sent by steamer pay
two and a half per cent. transit duty and go past
their squeezing barriers free. The introduction of
railways would hit the mandarin pocket still more
heavily, for the railway train like the steamboat
would pay no toll by the way. There would be
another universal two and a half per cent., which
would frank goods to their destination. This in
itself would be bad enough, but the last straw
has been added by collecting this transit duty
under European supervision and remitting it
honestly to Peking. These considerations have
ten times more weight than all other causes put
together in repressing railways and obstructing
steamers. The average Chinaman has no anti-
pathy to either, but the mandarinate has raised
the good old cry of Demetrius, “our craft is in
danger,” and f/ung-shuz is the stalking-horse. This
is the fanaticism at the root of all the riots in
China; and if missions be struck at first, it is
LAND AND TAXES 141

because they are regarded as the thin edge of the
wedge.

The Maritime Customs have charge of foreign
trade and coast and internal commerce, in so
far as the transport is effected by steamers and
sailing vessels of foreign build. On the Upper
Yangtse, between Ichang and Chungking, foreign
vessels are not allowed to run, but chartered
junks may enter at the Maritime Customs and
come under their regulations. A few articles
are exempt from duty, and some others, notably
tea and opium, pay higher rates, but the or-
dinary transit duty from the port of lading
to the port of discharge, is two and a half per
cent. ad valorem. In addition to this, there is
a duty on all imports and exports of five per
cent. Before reaching the consumer in the in-
terior of China, foreign goods pay this seven and
a half per cent., besides an indefinite amount of
squeezes after leaving the river steamer. The
Maritime Customs are under Sir Robert Hart,
as Inspector General. There is an outdoor
and indoor European staff composed of all
142 JOHN CHINAMAN

nationalities, besides a large native staff of
clerks, boatmen and messengers. There is an
efficient medical service, accurate meteorological
observations are taken, lighthouses, buoys, and
all facilities for navigation maintained. All in
all there is no better public service maintained
by any country. The revenue is remitted
directly to Peking, and is the only Chinese
security the foreign money-lender will look at.

Individually small, for the most part, the
multifarious and repeated duties levied on the
Chinese are enormous in the aggregate; but
they are mostly submitted to with passive
resignation, the trader adding the amount to
the price, and the consumer consoling himself
with the reflection that he need not purchase
if he dislikes the cost. There is no direct
taxation, which would be most offensive to the
Chinaman, who regards his house as his castle
and his business as his own affair. He would
keenly resent having the officials pry into the
profits of the one, or appraise the value of the
other; and to extract money for no service
LAND AND TAXES 143

rendered or favour promised and without any
hope of being recouped by the transaction, he
would resist as violently as highway robbery.
Far rather would the typical Chinaman put up
with the mandarin’s squeezes than submit to an
income tax. Even when the mandarin sends
a private messenger to inform the substantial
merchant that official expenses are heavy and
donations from patriotic citizens desirable, he
grins and bears it, knowing that his voluntary
gift will make a friend of the bench, should he
be annoyed by a litigious customer. But ask
questions about his income—you might as well
send a sanitary inspector to his house; life would
not be worth living upon these terms. Quite
recently, there was an exodus from Hongkong
when the latter was attempted.

The public works of greatest importance are
the canals and river embankments. The Grand
Canal from Peking to Hangchow is over 600
miles in length. It was made by Kublai Khan,
who was emperor of China from 1260 to 1295
144 JOHN CHINAMAN

A.D. From Cambula, or Peking, he ruled from
the Baltic to the Yellow Sea, from the Himalayas
to the Frozen Ocean. He has probably a better
title to Universal Conqueror than any other
monarch, and none has perpetuated his memory
and enlightened rule by a grander monument.
There are numerous canals of lesser magnitude
in many parts of China, which joined to the
excellent natural waterways provide large por-
tions of the empire with better means of com-
munication and transport than were possessed by
our own country before the introduction of railways.

Immense tracts of fertile and densely populated
land have been rescued from the water. From
the earliest ages to the present day, the Yellow
river has been “China’s Sorrow.” The Chinese
ate no despicable hydraulic engineers. When
the Yellow River last burst its banks and
spread devastation far and wide, Dutch experts
pronounced the stoppage of the breach almost
impossible. Yet the Chinese effected it by
native methods. On the Yangtse, whose rise
in summer by the spring rains and melting of
LAND AND TAXES 145

the snow in Thibet is from 35 to 45 feet, there
are miles on miles of huge embankments, some-
times faced with hewn stones, Were the dykes
to give way when the river is in flood, the town
of Shasi, with 200,000 inhabitants would be en-
gulphed in 30 feet of water. One may travel
in summer day after day on the plain of Hupeh
and see the boats many feet above his head.

Irrigation is fully as important as drainage. A
stream is not left to babble idly down a hillside,
but is twisted and turned and. drained off in a
hundred rills to irrigate the face of the mountain
which is cut into terraces, and what would natur-
ally be an-~arid barren moor is converted into
fertile rice fields. Rain water is stored in huge
reservoirs, and not unfrequently a mountain glen
is blocked by an embankment and made a
gigantic tank. When gravitation will not serve,
they use a variety of ingenious machines for
raising water to irrigate the fields. But all these
undertakings are carried through by private
enterprise, whilst canals and embankments are
in charge of the authorities.

K
146 JOHN CHINAMAN

Another remarkable public work is the Great
Wall, which was built by Shih Whang-ti 200
years before Christ. It is from 15 to 30 feet
high, with sufficient space on the top for the
defenders, with a parapet for shelter, and towers
at intervals, and is carried over hill and dale for
1250 miles. It was built to keep back the
Tartars, but has never been effective in stopping
an invasion; yet from the way it is spoken of
by Chinese, it must have done good service in
checking the roving hordes that were ready to
sweep down upon every harvest. In every dis-
trict there is a city, in which the Chz-shden, or
District Magistrate, has his yamen. The cities
are all walled in ancient fashion, and some are
of great extent. The walls of Nanking are sixty
miles in circuit, and it is a hard day’s journey to
walk round the walls of Wuchang, the provincial
capital of Hupeh. The Ichang walls are two
miles in circuit, and it is counted a small city.
There are often tracts of gardens, parade grounds,
and other open spaces within the walls, and the
suburbs are frequently more busy and populous
LAND AND TAXES 147

than the city proper. However large, towns
without walls and a resident magistrate of the
rank of Chi-shien are technically villages. To
this category belongs Hankow, the great mart
of central China, with a population of half a
million at least. Wuchang, Hanyang, and Han-
kow practically form one town, separated only
by the Yangtse and its tributary the Han, and
must between them contain over a million people.
City walls are from 20 feet to 30 feet high, 15 feet
or more broad on the top, with a serrated and
loop-holed parapet for defence, and arched gate-
ways defended by a tower and platform for
cannon. The walls are composed of an outer
and inner casing of dressed stone, with the
centre of beaten earth, the excavation of which
forms the moat. To keep the city walls in
repair is one of the prime duties of the magis-
trate. They would be no defence against a .
foreign enemy, but provide a sufficient refuge
in cases of local rebellion, which are of more

frequent occurrence than the outer world has
any knowledge of. In remote country places
148 JOHN CHINAMAN

the peasants construct walled enclosures on the
top of isolated hills, to which they can retire in
danger.

Roads and bridges are also under the care of
the magistrates, but China is still waiting for her
General Wade. Inland transport in the northern
provinces is mainly by mule-cart, but the roads
have generally received no making but what has
been given by the traffic of ages. They are
alternately channels of dust and ditches of mud.
Macadamising is unknown, and where the roads
have been made, they are paved with great
stones, and being kept in no repair, these are
tilted at all angles, Their last state is worse
than their first. In Central China the roads are
mere foot paths. The imperial post road from
Peking to the South-West provinces and frontier
of Burmah passes through Ichang. It is about
six feet in breadth, a very poor proportion to its
length, and bears evidence of once being paved
in the centre. There are in the district a few
stone bridges of excellent construction, quite
equal to the very best that can be built in this
LAND AND TAXES 149

country. Over the smaller streams they place
single slabs, sometimes 4o feet in length. These
huge blocks are carried overland by lashing two
strong beams to their sides, then making a net-
work of smaller cross-beams and bamboos. A
crowd of coolies get below the framework and
walk off with it on their shoulders, like a nest of
ants. The Chinese transported 80-ton guns in
this manner, and sent boilers and machinery for
woollen mills to the extreme north-west, which
are now rusting on the steppes of Tartary.
They also carried steam engines and mining
plant to Yunnan, to the same bootless purpose.
When they do appoint competent European
managers, mandarin interference and corruption
prevent the success of the enterprises. Railways
would be comparatively useless without road-
making, but progress in any direction is im-
possible so long as industry and government are
supposed to exist solely for the glory and emolu-
ment of the men who either purchase office or
get into power by their ability to write essays on
Confucianism.
CHAPTER VI

SOCIAL LIFE

Headmen—-No Lapsed Masses—Trade Unions—Guilds—Strikes
—Literati and Gentry—Farmers—Artisans—Wages—Traders
—Bankers—Bargains—Transport—Inns—The Peace Kept—
The Chinaman on the British Constitution.

IT is not easy to say where government ends and
social life begins. Headmen play an important
part in public affairs, yet they hold no commis-
sion or official rank. Towns are divided into
wards, and country districts into pu, or parishes,
each having a headman and a constable, who are
appointed by the people, with the concurrence of
the magistrate. Last of all, a tything man is set
over every ten families, both in town and country.
He is supposed to know the members of each
household and their mode of living. These head-
men adjust quarrels, and bring local wants before
the mandarin. They do much to promote the
peace and prosperity of the country, and it is
impossible not to be struck with the similarity of

150
SOCIAL LIFE 151

the system to the organisation of the Jews and
the original intention of the Presbyterian ruling
eldership.

Rich and poor live together, and there is more
familiarity between different classes than among
ourselves. A labourer never appeals in vain to
the man whom his mother or aunt has nursed.
Then, a Chinaman has always his guild to fall
back upon; and family feeling is: very strong.
They popularly speak of the “hundred names,”
but there are more Chinese surnames than that,
although the number is not large. The people of
the same name form in each district a sort of
clan, with an ancestral temple of their own.
They are ready, often too ready, to espouse the
cause of aclansman. From the causes enumerated
and other influences working in the same direc-
tion, it comes to pass that no Chinaman is
isolated, or prevented by mere poverty from
having some person of influence to go to in his
difficulties, who will advise him kindly and give
him a helping hand. Overcrowded as she is, with
multitudes ever on the brink of destitution,
152 JOHN CHINAMAN

China has no lapsed masses in her teeming cities
nor agrarian outrages in her country districts.
There are no socialists and nihilists, nor dis-
putes between labour and capital. This is partly
due to the system of government which leaves
the highest preferment, actually as well as
nominally, open to the son of the day labourer,
and partly to their social system and the excel-
lent organisation of their trade unions. Both
masters and men are compelled to be members.
Non-unionists are not permitted in the trade, and
agitators or paid officials would be suppressed by
the bamboo. All members of the guild, or union,
stand on an equal footing. The guild takes into
consideration and adjusts all questions affecting
the trade, organises theatricals and processions,
and forwards the coffins of deceased members to
their ancestral homes. The natives, or descend-
ants of natives of other provinces, residing in a
city, of whatever trade, form themselves into a
guild. These provincial guilds are often very
strong, and may carry an appeal from the local
authorities to the viceroy, or even the Emperor
SOCIAL LIFE 153

himself. Their guild-hall is fitted up as a temple
to the tutelary god of their province; the
trade-hall, likewise, being a temple to the
patron god, or saint, of the trade; and these
halls serve besides as council chambers, banquet-
ing rooms, and theatres. Even beggars must
join the union, and their dean of guild will under-
take to relieve any householder from the visits
of the fraternity upon payment of a slump sum
by the year. The thieves have also a union, and
the list of members is kept by the superintendent
of police at the yamen. Any one caught picking
and stealing without regularly joining the pro-
fession is doubly punished. There is an individual
in the district, hand in glove with the police, who
insures against larceny for a suitable premium.
Every farm house between Ichang and Shasi has
his mark on it. When he fails to recover the
goods, he pays their value honourably.

Even the magistrates are powerless when the
guilds combine against them, and the members
of any craft seldom fail to carry their point.
Two incidents that came under my observation
154 JOHN CHINAMAN

may serve to illustrate their tactics. Some boat-
men getting into a dispute with steamboat sailors
(native) about the fare were worsted in the melée,
and went and complained to the master of their
guild. Word was immediately passed round that
no boatmen were to load or unload cargo, or take
passengers off and on the steamer, which lay in
the middle of the river, advertised to sail that
evening. Seeing no way out of the difficulty, the
agent had an interview with the headman of the
guild, and business was at once resumed. Chinese
workmen do not quarrel with their rice, and their
demands are generally reasonable.

In the other case a European dismissed five
sawyers engaged by the day to cut wood. On
going in the forenoon to see how the work was
progressing, he found two laths cut, two men
absent, two pretending to adjust the saw, and
the fifth sitting smoking. Indignation got the
better of discretion, and he drove them off the
premises. Next morning he had a new set of
men, but no sooner did one of the old employees
appear upon the scene than they bundled up their
SOCIAL LIFE 155

tools and left. After a week spent in the vain
endeavour to get other men to do the work, he had
no alternative but send for the original five and pro-
mise to be more considerate. Had he threatened
to deduct from their wages the time he saw them
idle he would have come better on, but it saves
a world of trouble to contract for piecework.
Workmen never supplant each other, nor do
they permit strangers to work in the place until
they have joined the local guild; but they have
no objection to be under a foreman from a dif-
ferent place, provided he does nothing but super-
intend and plan. Coolies and boatmen are only
allowed to seek employment at their own jetty,
where there is a headman to whom the employer
makes complaint. Each man, however, makes
his own bargain with his employer, and may take
more, but dare not take less than the regulation
wage. Workmen are seldom troublesome if dealt
with fairly and in the right way. When I told
them I would not have building operations
carried on on Sunday, they never asked a full
day’s wages, as I expected, but enough to pay
156 JOHN CHINAMAN

for their food. A few of them found a day’s work
elsewhere, but the majority either visited their
friends or went to service. The contractor told
me those who rested did better work on the
other days. They do not object to do as they
are told, however unlike the native methods.
Under similar circumstances a European would
throw down his tools in disgust ; but the Chinese
tailor or shoemaker only asks for an old suit of
clothes or an old pair of boots, which he carefully
takes to pieces, and makes the new according to
the pattern.

Scholars are the highest of the four classes into
which the people are divided, there being, how-
ever, no barrier to prevent passing from one rank
to the other. Learned men hold up the light of
antiquity to the nation, and are the leaders of
society in town and country. The literati and
gentry have their own headmen, in addition to
those who are over the parish and tything. The
nature of their studies has been already indicated,
and there is a system of examinations conducted
by the Literary Chancellor of the province with
SOCIAL LIFE 157

a view to promoting learning throughout the
empire. The number of students who can at
one. time obtain the degree of S7u-¢sai (Budding
Genius) is fixed for each district according to
population and importance. The distinction con-
sequently implies very different literary attain-
ments in various parts of the country, but the
amount of study required is generally equal to
what is requisite for a degree at a British Uni-
versity. Fifty or a hundred candidates come
forward for every one that can obtain the
coveted distinction; but even to pass the pre-
liminaries conveys a certain status. The crowd
of competitors includes all ages from fourteen to
eighty ; and the man who appears regularly at
all examinations for sixty years without passing
is specially rewarded by the Emperor with the
degree of Budding Genius honoris causa, parallel
to what used to be nicknamed in Scotland “ Tomb-
stone Degrees.” This is the most honourable
distinction that can be acquired at the local
centre. After graduating, the literati have to
submit to periodical examinations to show that
158 JOHN CHINAMAN

they are not neglecting their books; and if lazy,
unruly, or detected assisting litigants, they are
stripped of their bachelors’ buttons. The button is
a knob on the top of a Chinese dress hat, signify-
ing official rank or literary distinction. It is of
gold, crystal, red coral, etc., according to the grade.

Most are satisfied with local honours, but the
ambitious proceed to the provincial capital with
the hope of becoming Chu-jen—promoted men.
At the provincial examination at Wuchang
there will sometimes be 13,000 candidates for
the sixty-one degrees allowed triennially to
Hupeh. The promoted men are eligible for
office, but few obtain it, unless backed by
money or influence. About one half of both
these degrees are sold by the examiner, and
the other half decided by merit. “Money
answereth all things,” as a very wise Asiatic re-
marked. Still, merit will come to the front in
China. The poor Chu-jen may proceed to
Pekin and compete for the higher degree of
entered scholar. Those who are successful are
presented to the Emperor, and immediately
SOCIAL LIFE 159

receive government employment. There is a
still higher examination for the Forest of
Pencils, the members of which are enrolled in
a sort of Royal Academy and receive salaries
from the state. From their numbers, the lowest
grade, the budding geniuses, are locally the
most influential, and are what is meant by the
famous literati of China. The gentry are those
who have obtained a similar distinction by
their patriotism. When the Peking exchequer
is low, its chronic condition, the right to wear
a button is conferred upon all who contribute
a certain amount to the necessities of the state.
It has been as low as ten taels. Along with
the empty honour, the wearing of a button
secures against the bamboo, when involved in
a lawsuit. There are many districts not pos-
sessed of half-a-dozen Chu-yen, and if a native
gains admission to the Forest of Pencils, his
name is enrolled in the archives of the city,
and certain municipal privileges connected with
the Confucian temple are enjoyed for all time
by the town.
160 JOHN CHINAMAN

The second class of the population consists
of farmers; and as an honour to their calling
and an incentive to industry the Emperor him-
self holds the plough once a year.

Artizans and labourers who manufacture raw
material are the third class. The usual term
of apprenticeship is three years,,the apprentice
eating his master’s rice, but receiving no wages,
A master tradesman may have six or eight
journeymen, occasionally fifty or a hundred;
but the methods are primitive, and there is
nothing like our factory system. The furniture
and implements in common use are clumsily
made, but tools often take a fine edge; and,
except at places famed for some special manu-
facture, the processes being traditional in the
families that follow the calling, there is no work
produced like the curios taken to Europe as
samples of Chinese dexterity; yet, an ordinary
carpenter or blacksmith is very ingenious, and
can imitate European patterns, or work from
a picture with a few verbal instructions. Men
with. a natural turn for mechanics are to be
SOCIAL LIFE 161

found, who can repair clocks and watches, with-
out ever having learned the trade Artizans
have few tools, and they are mostly unlike
ours. Perhaps a blacksmith is the only man
who would be at home in a Chinese workshop,
and even he would be sorely puzzled with the
bellows, which is a long wooden box, con-
structed on the principle of a syringe with a
nozzle at each end, getting a current of air
both from the forward and the backward stroke
of the piston. His brother artificer, the iron-
founder, would be nonplussed by an apparatus
so diminutive that blast, furnace, and crucible
may all be carried under the arm and set down
anywhere in the street by the peripatetic mender
of pots and pans.

Craftsmen and labourers are paid about the
same rate, not more than from eight pence to
a shilling a day. Away from the large treaty
ports, where wages are higher, as well as the
cost of living, a Chinaman considers himself in
a thriving way with twenty-five shillings a
month. A budding genius may be engaged

L
162 JOHN CHINAMAN

as teacher of the language for very little more.
The Chinese work from daylight to dark seven
days in the week, without more than twenty holi-
days in the course of the year; but when they are
at their work they do not work nearly so hard
nor yet so steadily as Europeans. The human
frame could not stand it. Of slightly inferior
strength to us, the Chinaman possesses great
endurance, and as stoker of a steamer, or at
other hard work, has no difficulty in taking
turn about with all competitors. Having no
labour saving machinery, the ultimate cost of
production is high. Carpenters’ work costs
about the same price as at home, but carving
and ornamental work of all kinds is very much
cheaper. A workman pays two pence half-
penny a day for board, which means _ boiled
rice and vegetables fried in oil, with a little
fish or pork occasionally. His clothes are
correspondingly cheap, and out of his small
wages he can save a larger proportion than the
British workman can of his. He is fond of
piece-work, when he lays his hands about him
SOCIAL LIFE 163

and can earn nearly double the ordinary rate,
but the native employer cannot abide the idea
of the man that is working to him earning such
wages. He thinks he can do better hiring by
the day and trusting to his eye and tongue
keeping the workman busy.

Traders come last, not as being the least in-
fluential, but because they only distribute the
fruits of other men’s industry, and are not con-
sidered so essential to the State. Every China-
man is a born merchant, and is always ready for
a bargain. He is never so happy as when count-
ing money, and the only coinage consisting of
brass “cash,” strung in hundreds and thousands
by a square hole in the centre, twenty-five to
thirty being equal to a penny, he finds plenty
of this congenial employment. Large sums are
paid in silver bullion, weighed in the balance.
The “ tael,” in which Chinese money is reckoned,
is not a coin, but a Chinese ounce of silver, equal
to an ounce and athird. The fineness, or touch
of the silver, which is generally very pure, and
the exact weight of the “tael” vary in each dis-
164 JOHN CHINAMAN

trict. The rate of exchange between “cash” and
silver is also continually fluctuating, the range in
Ichang being from 1300 to 1560 “cash ” per “ tael.”
Mexican dollars are employed in foreign trade,
but away from the ports they are taken only for
their weight as broken silver. “A shoe” of silver, or
“sycee,” as it is technically called, weighs a little
over fifty taels. There are smaller five and ten
tael pieces. Small change is procured by cutting
up the larger pieces with a hammer and chisel.
Weights and measures are decimal, with the sole
exception of sixteen Zang, or “taels,” to the zn,
or “catty.” One hundred “catties” make a Zan,
or “picul,’ equal to 1334 pounds. Lzang, kin,
and ¢am are the Chinese names, the others are
“ pidgin,” or Canton English, the ngua franca of
foreign trade. “ Pidgin” is the nearest approach
that the Chinaman can make to the word busi-
ness. Liquids are sold by weight, and grain by
measure. A Chinaman buys a pound of whisky,
a pint of rice, and a foot of cloth. The foot con-
tains ten inches, equal to fourteen of ours, but
the exact length varies in different districts and
SOCIAL LIFE 165

in different trades. A balance and weights are
employed when great accuracy is required, but a
Roman steelyard, the beam being made of wood,
however, is used for general purposes.

Shops are open in front, and closed at night by
heavy wooden shutters, fitted into a groove at the
top and bottom. Shopkeepers do not put their
names upon their signs, but choose such mot-
toes as Harmony and Benevolence, a Thousand
Profits, Propitious Happiness. As Chinese is
read from top to bottom, the carved and gilded
sign-boards are suspended vertically, or stuck
upright in stone sockets at the shop door. A
detailed account is often given on the sign-board
of the stock in trade, generally ending with the
remark that the goods are genuine and the prices
just. Many also exhibit one or other of the
following assuring notices:—“ One word hall”:
“No two prices asked”: “ A child three feet
high would not be cheated.” The enterprising
keeper of an opium den in Ichang displays this
legend :—“ A sniff of the fragrance would cause a
rider to dismount.” Chinese shopkeepers make
166 JOHN CHINAMAN

no secret of the worship of Mammon, for each
shop contains a small shrine to the god of
wealth, and incense is burned at it every morn-
ing. Proverbial wisdom cautions the intending
purchaser to ask the price at three shops, if he
does not want to be cheated. Every article has
to be bargained for, and the shopman is generally
contented with half he asks. The following
maxim is to be observed: “When the merchant
asks up to heaven in his price, bid down to earth
in your offer.” A portion of the profit is allowed
to shopmen upon everything they can sell above
the minimum price, which is indicated by a secret
mark. <A customer is frequently called back to
receive the article at his own offer. Buyers are
careful to guard against mistakes by taking their
own scales and measures along with them. A
Chinese shopkeeper would be as much surprised
at a customer who did not check the quantity as
at one who did not count the change.

Drafts on any part of China may be obtained
in the large towns, but cheques are not given
in payment of ordinary accounts. Banks issue
SOCIAL LIFE 167

“cash” notes, which are very convenient, as a
strong man can only carry about two pounds’
worth of the coin of the realm with a yoke
over his shoulder. The “cash” notes of a bank
have only a local circulation, as their issue is
under no sort of control. Any one may start a
bank and make paper money, but the difficulty
is to find customers and people who will accept
the notes. Some banks are very wealthy, but
they are of all gradations, down to the man
who seats himself at a table in the street, and
has no larger negotiations than changing a few
dollars into “cash” and cents.

There are no joint-stock companies or Govern-
ment consols, and almost the only way of in-
vesting money is to buy property, lend on
mortgage, or open a shop. Merchants fre-
quently pay three per cent. a month as interest,
but this exorbitant rate is largely due to the
risk of losing both principal and interest. It is
often cheaper to lose a debt altogether than to
attempt to enforce payment by law, an extreme
sample of which I once saw in a landlord sending
168 JOHN CHINAMAN a

men to take the roof off a house he had been
unfortunate enough to let to a tenant who would
neither remove nor pay rent. In a case of bank-
ruptcy each creditor seizes whatever he can lay
his hands on. If a man cannot meet his engage-
ments at the Chinese New Year, which is the
general money term, his credit is destroyed.

It is a point of honour to keep a bargain.
Lose or gain, he will stick to his contract, if he
be a decent man. When engaging servants or
hiring boatmen or coolies for a journey, the
bargain is not binding until they have received
a fastening penny. After they have taken their
“arles,” they may be depended upon, and the
man is either very careless or very bad to please
who does not find that they serve him well.
One may fall into the hands of sharpers, as in
other countries, but, generally, if a person treat
them justly and show that he knows honest ser-
vice when he gets it, he will have no reason to
complain. They are extremely kind, and never
complain for a little extra trouble. I never had
anything stolen by servants, boatmen, coolies or
SOCIAL LIFE 169

inn-keepers. They may take a “squeeze” when
they can get it, but I have yet to learn where
there is a district in which the stranger is not
taken advantage of by the native.
Pawnbroking is a highly respectable vocation,
and so universal that the traveller is often left
to infer the importance of the town he is coming
to by being told the number of pawn shops it
contains. Bundles of pawn tickets are always
to be seen on the street stalls. Purchasers
present the tickets, and on paying the deposit
money and the legal interest of one per cent.
a month, the pawnbroker is bound to produce
the articles and make good any damage they
may have suffered in his hands. He has
better means of preserving furs and fine cloths
than the people generally have themselves, and
they are frequently pawned during the summer
months as the best way of keeping them. The
pawnbroker also keeps a stock of finery to be
hired out. Naturally the mandarins pay a good
deal of attention to such a thriving industry,
and no small portion of their money is invested
170 JOHN CHINAMAN

in banks and pawn shops; not where they hold
office, but in their native districts, under the
management of brothers and nephews,

The greatest bar to internal trade and social
prosperity is the want of good roads, where the
waterways are not sufficient. Land transport is
by pack-mule, wheelbarrow, and human porter-
age. The regulation coolie load is eighty catties,
one hundred and six pounds and two thirds, to
be carried sixty 42, or twenty miles a day, a very
good burden for a man, and it usually exceeds
this amount. Coolies in towns carry a picul of
one hundred and thirty-three pounds and a
third, some taking double loads for double pay.
Travelling is done by boat, sedan chair, or on
foot. The house boat is very comfortable but
slow. Two coolies carry the sedan, but progress
is quicker by taking a third man to change.
They will cover twenty-five to thirty miles day
after day. Every traveller has to take his bed- .
ding and other necessaries along with him. The
inns on the roads in Central China are wretched,
and swarm with vermin. Frequently there is
SOCIAL LIFE 171

only a small room partitioned off for the inn-
keeper and his family, and the remainder of the
mud shanty is one large room, kitchen, dining-
room, and bedroom. There is one tub in which
the coolies wash their feet and the innkeeper
washes the dishes, not being too particular about
changing the water, and one cloth which serves
for all purposes. The traveller takes the door
off its hinges and spreads his bedding upon it
in the most out of the way corner, and wooes
Morpheus with thirty coolies around him, smok-
ing opium, gambling, telling stories, or practising
on musical (?) instruments. A free fight starts
up about midnight, with more high words than
bloodshed. The headman makes his appearance
before they proceed to extremities.

The peace is wonderfully preserved by these
headmen and the system of mutual responsibility
for neighbours and kindred. We wait until a
person is a criminal before the law steps in, but
in China the tything man or the head of a family
may complain to the Magistrate about any one
under their supervision who is getting into evil
172 JOHN CHINAMAN

habits and will not take warning. The mandarin
gives him advice, emphasised in the usual way.
The city guard represses rioting and robbery, but
pays no attention to common brawls, which end
in pulling each other about by the pig-tail, if the
elders cannot adjust them. As well as the city
gates, which are shut at nightfall, there are barrier
gates across the streets, by which a town is divided
at night into a number of isolated departments.
The carrying of arms is strictly forbidden; and
when out after dark every Chinaman is liable to
arrest who does not carry a lantern with his name
and address conspicuously written upon it. The
rule is not strictly enforced in peaceful times, but
as there are no street lamps, and the pitfalls are
many in the ill-kept streets, such a lantern is
usually a necessary prevention against broken
bones. On the outbreak of brigandage, or the
spread of disaffection, every householder has to
exhibit a list of his family at the door, with the
name of any other person who may be staying
with him. The tything man sees that these lists
are correct, and he may be called upon to compel
SOCIAL LIFE 173

one or two able-bodied men, taken in turn from
the families under his charge, to watch all night
as special constables, armed with short spears.
Every Chinaman, upon pain of being considered
a rebel, is bound to assist the officers of govern-
ment in the discharge of their duty. Country dis-
tricts are patrolled and guarded in the same way
as cities: and there existed a system of guard
houses and beacons at every five miles along the
chief roads, but they have fallen greatly into
neglect. By such simple methods the peace is
kept, and every man feels that he has a stake in
the country, or at least an interest in his town
and parish. When he sends his son to school he
has placed his foot on the first rung of the ladder
that leads to the premiership of the country. A
few shillings will buy all the books needed for
higher education, and expensive tuition will not
help him much. If he has the ability, hard study
will land him at the top. I doubt if with all our
boards, and elections, and tax-papers, we have
much to teach the Chinaman about social order
and local government.
174 JOHN CHINAMAN

The Chinaman never meddles with Imperial
politics ; and I have often tried, but always in
vain, to explain the British Constitution to a
native friend. “So, you elect your own man-
darins ; but I suppose they tax you all the same.”
“Very patriotic of these gentlemen to represent
you without being paid for it—but there will be a
good many pickings.” “Now, really, is that
small talk, or are those mandarins at their own
expense quite sound in the head?” or in native
phrase, “ Are their stomachs good?” ‘The
Chinese always place the seat of intelligence in
the gastric region, and not in the brain. “ Are
their stomachs good, to vex themselves and ruin
their families by neglecting their business, all for
the public weal?” Being assured upon this point,
he will remark—“ A Chinaman is not built that
way. What you tell me sounds as strange as the
tales in our story-books about the people with
square heads, the people with one eye and one
leg, those with a hole through their body, and the
land where women bear rule, which you laugh at
as ridiculous.” When sounded on the burning
SOCIAL LIFE 175

question of the franchise, the Chinaman placidly
observes—“ The vote! Why should I want a
vote? My grandfather never had one, and he
was highly respected and lived to an old age.”

Such are some of the views I have elicited
from my Chinese friends. They and we are cast
in a different mould ; but in their own way have
they not obtained some results that we are still
groping after, without any certainty of being on
the right track ?
CHAPTER VII

THE CHINAMAN AT HOME

Position of Women—Widows—Polygamy—Divorce—Suicide—
The Inner Apartments—Marriage—Foot-binding—Female
Infanticide—Female Slaves—Inheritance—Kinship—Names
—The House—Furniture—Etiquette—Bedrooms—Dress—
Toilet — Food — Banquets — Wine — Water — Duplicity —
Amusements — Active Sports — Dandies — Epidemics —
Gambling—Light Literature—Art—Music—Vices.

THE social unit is the family, and all Chinese
writers maintain that the family must be kept
pure if government is to be just or the country
prosperous. But their views are narrow. In
practice they have improved a little upon Con-
fucius, but they accept his theory. “A woman
can determine nothing of herself, and is subject
to the rule of the three obediences. When young,
she must obey her father and elder brother; when
married, she must obey her husband; when her
husband is dead, she must obey her son. She

may not think of marrying a second time.
176
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 177

Woman’s business is simply the preparation and
supplying of food. Beyond the threshold of her
apartments she should not be known for good or
evil.”

There exists a sentiment, but no law, against
the marriage of widows. It is not common
among mandarins and the wealthy, but amongst
the labouring class is more frequent than among
ourselves. Widowhood is an honourable estate.
Young widows, or girls whose betrothed hus-
bands have died, are accounted worthy of having
special monuments erected to their memory if
they decline a second marriage. Specially so
if they commit suicide through grief, or if the
girl voluntarily goes to wait upon the parents
of her betrothed. These monuments to virtuous
widows are as highly valued by Chinese families
as the right to armorial bearings by our own
esquires, In ancestral worship a mother is
honoured equally with the father, and the real
head of the house is frequently the old grand-
mother, who seldom fails to rule with a rod of
iron. A man would be ashamed to be seen

M
178 JOHN CHINAMAN

walking in the street with his wife, but he will
support his mother on his arm.

Polygamy exists in a modified form. A man
can have but one legal wife, but he may have as
many concubines as he pleases. They are simply
slaves, the servants of their mistress, who is the
mother of their children in the eye of the law.
All the children have equal privileges. These
secondary unions are supposed to be promoted
by the wife, if she have no son to perpetuate the
family and keep up the ancestral worship, but
she generally prefers to find a way out of the
difficulty by adopting a nephew of her husband.
The mass of the people are monogamists, and
many officials have but one wife. Others freely
avail themselves of the liberty allowed, and incur
no odium by so doing. The emperor is the only
person whose position renders a plurality of wives
imperative.

Divorce is very loose, but the principal or
secondary wife who has borne a son to her hus-
band cannot be put away. There is a provision
by which a man may send his wife to the magis-
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 179

trate to be disposed of to the highest bidder if
she proves unsatisfactory. At Ichang I never
knew of its being resorted to except by a few
peasants. These “mandarin beauties” are on
show at the yamen, but do not command a large
price. There is a proverb that a good husband
will not beat his wife, but there is no protection
against that or other forms of cruelty, and the
alarming number of female suicides is an index
of the misery that exists in the inner apartments.
It is, however, generally the mother-in-law and
not the husband who is blamed, and Chinese will
commit suicide for very trivial causes. It is the
resort of the apprentice who is detected pilfering
from his master; and when a man can find no
other way of being revenged on his enemy he
goes and commits suicide on his doorstep with
the idea that his ghost will haunt him.

It is rare to meet with women who can read
and write, and as one distinguished native author
pleads for the extension of female education
with the argument that even white mice may
be taught to turn a wheel, it may be inferred
180 JOHN CHINAMAN

that the blue-stocking is non-existent, and her
advent undreamt of. Women attend to house-
hold- duties, and are: not denied a voice in
domestic affairs. Young ladies are kept in
strict seclusion, but all women are freely allowed
to visit each other, the well-to-do riding in
curtained sedan chairs, and the wives of poor
people enjoy about as much liberty as else-
where. The members of a family usually take
their meals together, but females do not sit with
male visitors ; nor is it proper to take any notice
of them, should they happen to pass through
the room where guests are seated. In the “inner
apartments” it does not appear necessary to dis-
semble and pretend to such indifference. The
European visitor, at any rate, speedily sees
numerous holes being made in the paper covered
lattices that serve as windows, with wet finger
tips, and eager almond-shaped dark eyes peering
through, presumably belonging to the “ pearls”
within. Women are not exactly badly used,
but they are treated as inferiors, and regarded
with none of those tender and chivalrous feelings
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 181

which are the outcome of Christianity. One
rarely sees them doing anything beyond their
strength, or unsuited to their sex. The Hakka
women, however, are an exception. The coolie’s
wife has her silk dresses and jewelry of gold and
silver. Female clothes are all tailor made. In
poor families women do the cooking, but bestow
little care in keeping their houses tidy. When
washing, they sit down on a stool and hammer
the clothes on a big stone. They spend a great
deal of time gossiping and smoking tobacco,
which is used by all, male and female.
Marriage is a duty, which nothing but poverty
can excuse in a man, and as for the ladies, suitors
are so plentiful that all are married. There are
no old maids, and no name for them in the
language. Girls usually marry from fifteen to.
eighteen, and boys from seventeen to twenty.
The infant mortality is great, and I never knew
a Chinese family of my acquaintance in which
ten children attained the age of twenty. They
also age more rapidly than we do. Near rela-
tives and people of the same surname are for-
182 JOHN CHINAMAN

bidden to marry. The parties concerned have
no choice of their partners in life, all being
arranged by their parents, with the aid of
go-betweens. Betrothals frequently take place
in childhood. An astrologer is ae to
cast the horoscope of the two young people,
and it having been ascertained that the “doors
match,” slips of red paper, on which are written
eight characters, giving the names and nativities
of the bride and bridegroom are interchanged.
After this, the marriage engagement cannot be
broken off. Either party may turn cripple or
blind, or the boy may grow up a worthless young
man, or his family sink into poverty ; still there
is no escape for the bride. The bridegroom is
not supposed to see her face until the marriage
ceremony is over, and he lifts the bridal veil
of red cloth. Deceptions as gross as Laban’s
are easily and frequently practised. Parents
do not part with their daughters without a
substantial sum of money to compensate in
part for their up-bringing, and the bride never
has a dowry. The bridegroom has also to make
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 183

her presents of clothes and jewelry. He is a
lucky man if a year’s wages enable him to do
all this; but he would manage to get a widow
at half the outlay. The natives estimate the
prosperity of the times by the rise and fall of
the matrimonial market.

There are many diverse marriage customs, but
the legal part consists in the interchange of the
“eight characters,” followed by the home-taking
of the bride. The bride is carried to her future
home upon the marriage day in a red sedan chair,
never used on other occasions, accompanied by a
band of music and the discharge of fire-crackers.
The bride and bridegroom take a sip of wine out
of the same cup, and kneel together before the
bridegroom’s parents and the ancestral tablets of
the family. The newly married couple sit side
by side at the marriage feast, but custom does
not permit the bride to eat anything. After it is
over she is placed in the corner of a room, into
which men and women crowd indiscriminately,
and her small feet, the size of which is the great
test of female beauty, are placed on a footstool for
184 JOHN CHINAMAN

general admiration. Any passer by may go in
and have a look at the bride’s feet. She is made
the butt of ridicule and the object of coarse and
ribald jests, in which her own sex are foremost.
Trying as the ordeal must be, the bride would
consider herself and her family disgraced were
any part omitted, and the fun goes on fast and
furious the whole night long.

Foot-binding is a painful and tedious process,
inflicted in childhood. The small toes are bent
in succession under the sole of the foot, and kept
in position by tight bandages. Then the band-
ages are so applied that the foot is broken at the
instep and pressed downwards, whilst the heel,
which is greatly elongated, is pressed downwards
and forwards, The weight rests on the point of
the great toe and the heel, the total length of the
foot being three or four inches, and a fine lady’s
shorter. The use of the ancle joint is lost; the
muscles of the ball waste away ; and the vitality
of the whole limb below the knee is lowered, and
it becomes subject to obstinate sloughing ulcers.
The general health suffers less than might be
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 185

supposed from this barbarous metamorphosis of
the human foot into a “golden lily.” The use of
tight bandages can never be dispensed with in
after life, and the attempt to let the foot resume
its natural shape is as painful as the original
process. The custom is enforced neither by law
nor religion, but solely by fashion. Its origin is
obscure, but it has not prevailed for more than a
thousand years. The story is that the ladies of
the imperial harem first commenced it in imita-
tion of the club feet of a favourite concubine, her
deformity being supposed to be the source of
attraction. The example of their Manchu rulers,
whose women have large feet, has not produced
the slightest effect upon the Chinese. On the
conquest of the country the Manchus compelled
the men to shave their heads and adopt the pig-
tail, it being the custom previously to wear the
hair long tied up in a top-knot, like the Taoist
priests. They also succeeded in making them
wear the Tartar dress instead of the old national
costume, but they utterly failed to alter female
fashion, an edict against foot-binding having had
186 JOHN CHINAMAN

to be rescinded. In some parts small feet be-
token wealth, or at least a striving after gentility,
but in many districts both rich and poor are com-
pelled to submit to it, large feet being a mark of
prostitution.

Female infanticide is so prevalent in some dis-
tricts that a fourth of the female children are
estimated to be destroyed, but at other places,
as at Ichang, it scarcely appears to be more
common than we might expect it to be among a
heathen people. There are, however, multitudes
of female slaves, brought chiefly from the pro-
vince of Sz-chuan. The girls are sold by their
parents, and are recognised articles of commerce,
paying duty at the native custom-houses. I have
frequently seen a child of three or four hawked
in the streets for sale by its father. Female slaves
act as domestic servants, and are generally well
treated, public opinion compelling their owners
to see them married at a suitable age, when they
become possessed of all the rights of ordinary
Chinese women. They are often bought as
secondary wives, and thrifty parents frequently
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 187

purchase girls with the express purpose of bring-
ing them up and marrying them to their sons, a
cheap method of settling them in life. This is,
however, but one side of female slavery. There
are many speculators who bring up girls and
traffic in them for vice.

Sons inherit in equal portions and daughters
get nothing, as they pass into the family of their
husbands. There is little power of making a
will, The law of inheritance is influenced by
their peculiar family life. Not only does the
bride enter the family of her husband’s father
and become practically the servant of her mother-
in-law, but it is considered very commendable for
the members of a family to continue to live to-
gether after their parents’ death. Even when the
establishment of separate households becomes a
desideratum for the sake of peace, they often pre-
serve the family property intact, and divide the
rent or produce.

So long as his father is alive a man is a minor,
and cannot marry or engage in business against
his wish. A father may beat his son as he
188 JOHN CHINAMAN

pleases ; he may carry off his goods or lift his
wages; he may contract debt and send the
creditors to his son for payment of the account.
Chinese parents generally spoil their children
when young, and beat them unmercifully when
they get old enough to be mischievous.

Their system of reckoning kinship is more
complete than ours. There are different names
for brothers and sisters as they happen to be
older or younger than the speaker, different
names for uncles and aunts as they are on the
father’s or mother’s side, and a distinction is
drawn amongst cousins as they come through
the male and female, or elder and younger
branches of the family. No European pre-
tends to be thoroughly up in the scheme of’
Chinese relationship.

Chinese names are nearly as puzzling. Every
man has a surname, or clan name, which never
changes, unless by adoption or by entering the
Buddhist priesthood, when he drops it. But he
has a milk name, a family name, a literary name,
and so on. When a bachelor obtains his degree
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 189

he takes anew name. The milk names are such
as Beggar, Board, or Autumn Kid. One of my
friends called his son Thirty-Nine. That was
not his position in the family, but the age of the
happy father. They have the idea that the gods
will not send sickness on beggars or autumn
kids. When children fall sick they dress them
as Buddhist priests to conciliate the deities, or
put a collar round their necks and call them pigs
or puppies to cheat them. They have no names
like John or Thomas, but when they attain man-
hood choose such flowery designations as Golden
Mountain, Pervading Principle, Approaching
Happiness. They put these names on their
visiting cards, which are of red paper the size
of an octavo page, but do business under their
shop name, or “chop.” Ladies are usually
named after flowers. Common people are ad-
dressed as Teacher, officials as Old Grandfather
or Excellency,

A Chinaman’s house is a very cheerless abode,
and they have no good equivalents for home or
comfort. He feels most at ease in a dark corner.
190 JOHN CHINAMAN

I once engaged a coolie to take care of an empty
house, and on going to see that everything was
correct, saw no sign of bedding, and suspected he
might be spending his nights elsewhere, but he
set my mind at rest by pointing out his quarters
in a dark hole under the stair, which he had
selected as the most comfortable apartment in
the house. If the passengers on a river steamer
can gain admission to the hold, they take up
their quarters above the cargo in preference to
occupying the comfortable and airy cabins on
deck.

The ordinary workman’s house is a cabin of
mud or sun-dried bricks roofed with thatch,
without window or chimney. The poorest prefer
to have the kitchen outside, though it be only
a piece of matting to keep off the sun and rain.
Many live in tenements. of bamboo mats, or
reeds plastered with mud. The better class of
houses are built of burnt bricks and roofed
with small tiles. Both bricks and tiles are a
dark bluish grey. Stones are used for the
foundation, but not for building the walls, how-
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME IQt

ever good and plentiful they may be. The
bricks are very thin, and are laid on the flat
and set on edge alternately, forming a hollow
wall with binders at every layer. The walls
could not support the roof, which rests on
wooden pillars, but if well pointed or plastered
and securely coped to keep out the rain, they
last for a long time. Builders commence by
raising the frame-work and putting on the roof;
the walls are added as an afterthought. There
is a large ornamental gateway with a heavy
wooden door in front; then usually a small
courtyard before coming to the house proper,
the outer walls of which are not relieved by a
single window. The peculiar slope of the roof
and ornamental turned up corners indicate the
Tartar tent as the original model of the Chinese
architect. Light and air in such moderate
quantities as a Chinaman cares for, are admitted
by the heavenly well, a portion of the roof left
uncovered. Right at the back of it is the guest-
hall, the principal room of the house. Bedrooms
and private apartments are ranged along the
192 JOHN CHINAMAN

sides of the guest-hall, and derive a dim and
uncertain light through frames of lattice work,
covered with paper. The internal partitions are
made of wood, with curtains for doors, Large
houses contain suite after suite of rooms stretch-
ing backwards, with more heavenly wells to
admit light. Great expense may be incurred
in carving and gilding, but there are rarely
wooden floors to any of the rooms, and never
carpets. A second or third story may be added
in crowded towns, but an ordinary house is all
on the ground floor. It is as cold inside as in
the open. air, and although charcoal chafing
dishes are used for the hands and feet, the
main dependence for warmth is placed upon
robe above robe, lined with fur or quilted with
cotton. The soles of the boots are an inch
thick and composed of felt and paper, good
non-conductors. Draughty and damp and cold
as their houses are, the Chinese are not exces-
sively afflicted with coughs. A native house
is cool in summer, but intolerably stuffy and
malarious.
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 193

The furniture is ponderous, square, and un-
comfortable. The chairs are straight - backed,
angular, and never upholstered, although a small
hard cushion is placed upon them occasionally.
A row of small tea-tables and chairs is placed
along either side of the guest-hall, and at the
further end a dais for the honoured guests.
Above it is a shrine with the ancestral tablets,
family idols, and a few vases and other curios.
The guest-hall serves as dining and drawing-
room. Its walls are ornamented with drawings
and scrolls inscribed with maxims from the
classics, and antithetical couplets. The honoured
guest is seated at the upper end, on the left
hand of the host, who informs the visitor that
he expects great felicity to rest upon his dwelling
since he is thus honoured by a call. Instead of
shaking hands, a Chinaman clasps his own before
his breast and makes a low obeisance. To one
much his superior he goes on his knees and
knocks his head on the ground. He does not
ask if you are well, but whether you have eaten

your rice. Having rice and a good appetite,
N
194 JOHN CHINAMAN

you ought to be thankful. The weather is not
the universal topic of conversation. Your host,
or even a casual acquaintance, takes a kindly
interest in your welfare. He asks your honour-
able name, how old you are, how many children
you have, if your parents be alive, what is your
occupation, where you have come from, and
whither you are going. To omit any of these
queries upon introduction to him would be
excessively rude, and a plain hint that he did
not wish to cultivate your acquaintance. From
rich or poor you are offered the same tokens
of civility, a pipe of tobacco and a cup of tea.
Manners are taught at school, and a Chinaman
is always polite and never flurried. All classes
have the same etiquette, and a labourer receives
you in his mud cabin with the grace and ease
of a courtier. He can be rude enough when he
likes, but he never is a clumsy bumpkin.

In the dim and uncertain light of a Chinese
bedroom, we see that the walls are bare, the floor
unswept, and the roof garnished with cobwebs.
A bed, a couple of old chairs, a few boxes, a small
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 195

press, and perhaps a washstand, constitute the
furniture. In the north they sleep on platforms
heated by flues, but elsewhere the bedstead
consists of a few boards placed on trestles, or is a
huge poster of the box pattern. Mattresses are
dispensed with, and their place supplied by a
layer of straw with a quilt spread over it. Quilts
take the place of blankets, and sheets are little
used. The covers can be taken off the quilts and
washed, but it is not done very often. The
pillows are small and hard, and placed under the
back of the neck. Wrapped in Chinese quilts, a
European may sleep in an open shed, or under a
mat in a boat, when snow is on the ground, with-
out any bad effect. In summer a Chinaman often
takes a small form into the street and sleeps on
it, poised on his back, with no covering but a pair
of short cotton trousers.

He does without neckties, cuffs, collars, and
starched linen. His shirt and drawers are shaped
exactly like his jacket and trousers. In warm
weather he wears no other clothes indoors, but he
puts on a long gown of silk, blue calico, or white
196 JOHN CHINAMAN

grass cloth, when he goes out. As the cold
increases, he puts on a greater number of wadded
jackets, and cases his legs in wadded leggings.
His stockings are made of white calico, with the
seams so hard and uncomfortable that a taste is
spreading for foreign socks. The Chinese are
fond of flannel for underclothing, and could our
manufacturers instruct them in the way of wash-
ing it, they would buy large quantities.

Ladies’ garments are very similar to the male
attire. Their loose jacket is longer than that of
the men, but they never wear the long gown.
In some districts the wearing of a plaited skirt
over the trousers is common, but at Ichang it is
only done by the common people upon grand
occasions. Neither men nor women go bare-
footed, even the coolie has a pair of straw sandals,
and others always stockings and shoes. The
ladies’ toilet is elaborate, and contains no mystery,
as women of the poorer class perform it for each
other in the street. The hair is combed back
and fixed in a chignon, being stiffened by an
application of the glutinous water in which rice is
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 197

boiled. Artificial or real flowers and jewelled
head ornaments are freely used. Unengaged girls
wear their hair in a pig-tail like the boys, tied
with red instead of black braid. Engaged young
ladies put theirs up in a chignon, and married
women pull out the short hair round the temples,
They all paint, but there is no secret about it, and
the men admire it. The face is rubbed over with
sugar and water, then thickly dusted with white
powder. The cheeks and lips are painted with
vermilion, and the eyebrows darkened with char-
coal. A lady’s toilet is too elaborate to be per-
formed every day, and the small pillow preserves
the coiffure. Few of either sex are free from
vermin.

The Chinese are partial to soups and stews.
The meat is cut into small pieces convenient for
the chopsticks, and soup eaten with a porcelain
spoon. The thorough cooking which meat under-
goes, often in boiling oil or lard, is the only ex-
planation I can suggest for the immunity with
which they eat dead animals and all sorts of
carrion. Their cookery is quite one of the fine
198 JOHN CHINAMAN

arts, but they use too much grease and garlic, and
the ingredients are of too doubtful origin, to make
it tempting to Europeans. When Chinese entertain
their friends, they usually bargain with the keeper
of an eating-house to provide so many tables. The
tables are square and seat two persons at each
side, but whatever be the number at a table the
same quantity of food is served. There is no
table-cloth, and bones are thrown on the floor.
Each person is provided with a pair of chopsticks,
a porcelain spoon, a small wine cup, and one or
two diminutive saucers for sauce. Everything is
arranged in perfect order upon the polished table,
the centre of which is occupied by nine dishes
containing fruit and sweetmeats. As many tables
are spread as the number of guests demands.
When all are seated’ a kettle of hot spirits is
brought in, and they pledge each other. The
appetite is next whetted by roasted melon seeds,
sugar candy, and such like. The guests put in
their handkerchiefs whatever of the dessert they
do not eat, and when the table is cleared, the
substantial part of the repast is ushered in bya
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 199

stewed crab being placed upon the table. Then
comes a succession of fish, flesh, and fowl, swim-
ming in fat, and eaten without bread or rice; but
mushrooms and vegetables and pastry enter into
the composition of many of the dishes. Less
than nine of such courses is not counted respect-
able, and I have sat from four o’clock in the
afternoon till ten at night, and finally had to
succumb, without seeing any appearance of the
end. The kettle of spirits circulates freely and
tobacco pipes are handed round. As they warm
to the work, the chopsticks (lit. nimble boys)
are plied with such vigour that the guests cast
their coats. Everything is paid for, eaten or not,
and the host feels flattered by the voraciousness
of his friends ; and the loudness of their eructations
bears evidence to their inward satisfaction. They
play a game of forfeits by suddenly throwing out
the fingers from the closed hand, the opponent
endeavouring to guess the number they fall short
of ten, before he has had time to count. The
loser is compelled to drink a cup of spirits. The
dinner is brought to an end by a small basin of
200 JOHN CHINAMAN

plain boiled rice being handed to each guest, and
tea is brought in and cloths wrung through warm
water to wipe the hands. All lift the pieces
of food out of the same centre dish with their
chopsticks, and help each other to the daintiest
morsels. A guest may leave at any time by
rising from the table, bowing to the host, and
declaring that he can eat no more. In any case,
all take their departure as soon as the meal is over.

Chinese wine is fermented and distilled from
grain, usually tall millet. The vine is indigenous
to the country, but they do not make grape wine.
There are many varieties of this “samshu,” vary-
ing greatly in strength. The common sort is a
clear, coarse whisky, which is very potent, and
has a maddening effect on any sailors who may
be tempted to try it from its cheapness. There is
no restriction on its sale or manufacture, and a
bottle may be bought for twopence. Most
Chinese take a little with every meal, but never
at any other time. They are a sober people, and
in all probability we should be the same, if whisky
were so cheap and common that it was no treat
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 201

to offer it to any one. Tea is the liquor offered
to visitors at all hours of the day. The cup is
small, and there is neither sugar, milk, nor cake
along with it. The cup is replenished as it is
emptied, but to call the servant to bring in fresh
tea, is a polite hint to the guest to leave. A liking
for the infusion of the sun-dried leaf is readily
acquired, and there is no drink safer or more
refreshing in hot weather.

The water is bad, and cannot be used with-
out boiling. Wells and springs are worse than
the rivers, in which the impurity is chiefly mud,
which falls to the bottom of the vessel on the
addition of a little alum. The Chinese are quite
alive to the deleterious qualities of cold water,
which they set down to its coldness and raw-
ness. They suppose it to require cooking like
everything else. They drink only hot tea, and
wash and bathe in warm water. The detest-
able character of the water must be due to
organic matter to excess in the soil. At any
rate, an incautious draught from a clear spring
is very apt to cause diarrhoea.
202 JOHN CHINAMAN

The Chinese have always been a_ people
given to ceremony, and they flatter themselves
that they have a monopoly of good breeding.
Not many would sit down to their correspon-
dence without a copy of the complete letter-
writer at their elbow, from which they may cull
the phrases appropriate to every occasion. The
personal pronouns are only used between in-
timate friends, or to persons much inferior to
the speaker. A Chinaman would take great
offence at being told he was awkward in his
manner or blunt in his speech, but is not dis-
concerted in the slightest by an expression of
your conviction that he is deviating from the
truth. He compliments you on your shrewd-
ness, to throw you off your guard, and starts
off with a fresh string of fabrications. If you
manifest any sign of annoyance it is an evidence
of your “barbarity.” All this is as it should be.
The hero of a Chinese novel is praised when
he prevents unseemly disclosures by telling lies
all round.

The Chinaman contrives to get much enjoy-
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 203

ment at a cheap rate. He does not concern
himself with anything but his immediate sur-
roundings, but in his own circle, he always
knows the latest gossip, and is intimately ac-
quainted with his neighbour’s affairs. Tea-shops
take the place of newspapers ; the temple and the
theatre are both free and open; and there is gener-
ally something lively in the magistrate’s court.
There are periodical festivals with processions and
illuminations, the annual dragon-boat races, the
New-Year holidays, changes of magistrates, army
reviews, executions, and official proclamations.
Little interest is manifested in suicides and
boat accidents, for human life is cheap; but
the fullest details of the latest ghost are eagerly
inquired after, the recent portent in the sky is
discussed, and half-a-day is profitably spent at
anytime getting circumstantial accounts of the
baby that has been born with a head three
times as large as its body. The Chinaman is
not a loafer, but he is seldom in a hurry, and
is never taciturn. The triennial examinations
come round, and everybody has an interest in
204 JOHN CHINAMAN

-some of the competitors. Street porters dis-
cuss the theme prescribed for yesterday’s essay,
and when the list of successful candidates is
posted up, there is as great a crowd and as much
excitement as when the result of a contested
election is declared. Copies are hastily printed
off, and hawked through the streets at midnight.
The active sports of Europeans are a puzzle to
the natives. Lawn tennis never fails to attract a
crowd of spectators at every coign of vantage,
and it is amusing to mix with the onlookers and
hear their speculations as to the amount of the
stakes that could induce well-to-do people to
exert themselves so violently. When the game
was introduced to Ichang I had some difficulty
in persuading my native friends that the British
Consul and Commissioner of Customs had not
discovered a new and fascinating mode of
gambling. The Shanghai races are celebrated
throughout the eighteen provinces, and on ap-
proaching a remote hamlet the street gamins
have occasionally saluted me, not with the
familiar “Beat the foreign devil,” but with a
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 205

gleesome shout, “His excellency has come to
establish horse races.” The Chinese practise
archery a little as a pastime, but no one shoots
or fishes for sport. Old and young amuse them-
selves by taking out their cages and singing birds
when they go for an evening stroll on the city
wall. Graybeards fly kites—but it requires some
skill to fly a Chinese dragon-kite, composed of a
hundred pieces. Dandies disport themselves as
elsewhere, although there be no ladies abroad to
admire the spectacle, upsetting the theory that
the dude is a bye-product of the coquette. They
pride themselves on the elegance of their long
robes, the length of their finger nails, which be-
tokens them to be above the necessity of manual
labour, their jade bracelets, the grace with which
they manipulate their fans, and the size of their
spectacles, which indicates studious habits. They
affect the slow and grave demeanour of the sage,
and are at great pains to make themselves appear
older than they are. Age is honour in China.
All carry pocket mirrors, which they use in
public, and if they can grow a few hairs, rather
206 JOHN CHINAMAN

a difficult thing to do upon Mongolian lips, they
wear a moustache comb at the button hole of
their jacket. A moustache may be grown at
forty, and a beard at sixty; not sooner, unless
the wearer has official rank.

The Punch and Judy show is indigenous to
China, and there is no want of jugglers, acrobats,
peep-show men, wandering musicians and story
tellers. Instead of waiting until the end, the
street artiste sends round the hat about the
middle of his performance when it is at the
most interesting part, and if the coppers are
not forthcoming, decamps for a fresh pitch. Boys
whip their tops, play hop-scotch, and kick their
shuttlecocks. Quack doctors are numerous, ex-
tolling the virtues of their pills and plasters.
The spectacled gentleman seated at a small table
with writing materials before him will write a
letter, draw out a deed of sale, cast a horoscope,
or write a charm with equal facility. Blind men
scrape on a fiddle to call the attention of the
perplexed, whose doubts they will resolve ; for,
having lost their natural vision, they can see
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 207

into the future. Beggars and priests solicit alms,
and both promise a liberal recompense in the
future world. Hucksters, fruit-sellers, travelling
barbers, portable cook-shops, sedan chairs, loaded
coolies, the retinue of mandarins, pack mules,
and wheelbarrows crowd the narrow street,
which has no side walks. All struggle for a
passage with each other and the swarms of pigs
and pariah dogs. If there be any attempt at
sanitation it is in the form of a deep ditch in the
centre of the street, covered with rough flag
stones, having holes between the joinings that
would admit the foot of the unwary. The sewers
are always. choked, and every house has a re-
ceptacle for preserving whatever is valuable as
manure; yet the population flourishes and in-
creases in defiance of the laws of health. Cholera
and other epidemics are, however, seldom absent
from the towns, but a few sporadic cases occasion
no alarm. When very prevalent, they endeavour
to drive off the demons that cause the disease.
During an epidemic at Ichang the Brigadier-
General marched the troops to man the city walls
208 JOHN CHINAMAN

morning and evening, and striking up the gongs
and drums, kept them firing blank shot at the
invisible foe for an hour at a time.

Chess is a great indoor pastime. The board,
pieces, and moves are all peculiar. Dice, cards,
and dominoes are implements of gambling, also
taking up a handful of peas and guessing the
number, odd or even. The dice and dominoes are
similar to ours, but the cards are quite different.
Their games require no skill. A Chinese gambler
trusts to his luck and not his play. Grasshoppers
are caught in the season and made to fight. The
creatures fly at each other like cocks, and large
sums are staked upon the event. The spirit of
gambling is so strong that men frequently lose
everything they possess, and a school boy prefers
trying his luck to buying a farthing’s worth of
sweets. Gambling is punishable by law, but no
legislation can put it down.

Learned men are supposed to pass their dignified
leisure in friendly contests at composing verses.
But it is to be feared the dice-box and the opium
pipe and the latest scandal are as attractive to them
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 209

as to the vulgar. They may, however, frequently
be seen admiring specimens of good hand-writing
with the zsthetic fervour of Western connoisseurs
dwelling upon statuary and painting. They read
very little as an amusement or recreation. The
literature is not enticing. A novel in twenty-
four volumes is hardly light reading. Their
standard encyclopedia, recently reprinted in
Shanghai in six hundred volumes, is warranted
to contain no article which is not five hundred
years old. Far be it from me to cast doubt
on the elegance of Chinese literature—and the
elegance of an essay counts for much more than
its matter—but it is not interesting, and seems
intended for readers who expected to attain the
age of the antediluvians.

The “stupid people,” which is the fatherly
term constantly employed in official proclama-
tions for those who do not come under the head-
ings of literati, gentry, and soldiers, often amuse
themselves by asking riddles. There is a jar
with three mouths, full all day and empty all

night. Avs. A pair of trousers, There is a gentle-
oO
210 JOHN CHINAMAN

man with a red head, who sings when he goes
and is silent when he sits. Azs. A blue-bottle fly.
It will follow you for a thousand miles, but will
not enter.a house with you. Ams. Your shadow.
An emperor all day and a beggar at night. Ans.
A play-actor. Plays are always performed by
daylight, and the profession of an actor is dis-
reputable; whereas it is shrewdly surmised that
the beggar, who is misery itself on his daily
round, is often fairly comfortable when his work
is over.

The Chinese are artistic in their tastes, but fine
art does not exist. It has never got beyond the
stage of decoration. Their perspective is very
defective, and they usually dispense with shade,
holding it to be due to defect of vision. They
will draw and colour the petals of a flower or the
wing of a butterfly with perfect accuracy, but
they cannot compose a picture. Their statuary
is worse than their painting; and in both they
succeed best with the quaint and grotesque,
and fail most lamentably with the pathetic and
sublime. In jewelry and ivory carving they dis-
THE CHINAMAN AT HOME 211

play good taste and excellent workmanship. In
speaking of Chinese art, it must be remembered
that their artists are only journeymen tradesmen,
who have received no special training, and are
paid but ordinary tradesmen’s wages. Under the
circumstances their performances are worthy of
all praise.

Music is a necessary part of all ceremonies.
Confucius ascribed to it the power of reforming
the moral nature. It must have deteriorated since
his time, for that is anything but the effect it
now produces. Their scale is different from
ours, and the performers seem to foreign ears
merely to vie with each other in producing the
greatest volume of discordant noise. The na-
tional instrument is the gong, but they have a
great variety of drums, cymbals, flutes, clarionets,
guitars, and violins. The /aga produces a sound
exactly the same as the bagpipe chanter.

Gambling and sensuality are the great vices
of the Chinese, the latter taking unnatural forms
with terrible frequency. They are not more
deceitful than other Asiatics, but appear to have
212 JOHN CHINAMAN

greater boldness and success in practising their
tricks upon Europeans. They are adepts at
faking up antiques and curios. Very few ever
visited China without having some story to tell
of buying boiled rice for carved ivory, or such
like. There is but one way of avoiding being
cheated at times—never buy. Opium smoking
is on all fours with whisky drinking, The
“opium ghost” I know to be quite as bad as
the alcoholic wreck, despite a hundred blue-
books to the contrary. I am also aware that
nearly every Chinaman at Ichang indulges in a
little opium about the New Year and other high
occasions ; yet there is no sign of the people
being poisoned wholesale. But no Chinaman
ever defends opium on moral, and very seldom
upon medical grounds, as a cure for consumption
or antidote to ague. The seller of it will tell
you that it pays, and the smoker that he likes
it, but both admit that it is an expensive luxury
and an insidious foe, which a man is very much
better without.
CHAPTER VIII

THE CHINAMAN REFLECTED IN HIS OWN
MIRROR

Proverbs—Obiter dicta—A last word.

“THE man who has read the Tseng-Kwang (a
collection of proverbs) knows how to converse ;”
but it is not to improve our talking powers that
I now refer to the hoary compilation, but because
a Chinaman ever seasons his discourse with
ancient saws which throw a more accurate light
upon his character than any analysis by an
outsider.

“Customs vary in every place, but there is
no place like home.” “Chang-an may be a fine
city, but it will not do for a permanent residence.”
“Life and death depend on fate, and wealth
and poverty on the will of Heaven.” “Disease
may be cured, but not luck.” It is many a one’s
lot to have “An ambitious heart and an obscure

213
214 JOHN CHINAMAN

destiny.” “The lucky man always gets a fair
wind”; yet to all who will seize fortune at the
flood, “A day will come for threshing corn”
(in the open air). “When you see an oppor-
tunity, act.” “It is vain to lament after you
have missed your chance,” for “ Peaches only
blossom in the second month, and chrysanthe-
mums in the ninth.” Do not be too ambitious ;
“Tf you cannot hook fish, you may net shrimps.”

“A good work was never done without much
trouble.” “It is better to go home and make a
net than go to the river and wish for fish.” “ If
you strike a flint you will get fire,” but “ It some-
times thunders loudly and brings little rain.”
“ By perseverance you may grind an iron anchor
into a needle.” If you can do that, and “ Live on
cabbage shanks,” you will accomplish anything.
But there are absolute impossibilities, such as
“To force a hen to hatch chickens,” or “ To see
the hairs on the back of your neck,” or “ To cook
without rice.”

“By careful reflection all things grow easy,”
but “ What is done hastily is done badly.” Too
REFLECTED IN HIS OWN. MIRROR 215

many affairs are “ Like gourds in a tub of water
one pops up while you press another down.”
“ Seven hands and eight feet ” would be embarras-
sing superfluities, and “Eight pilots and seven
sailors ” do not facilitate navigation. “ Each man
to his trade” ; “Beat your own gong and sell
your own candy.” “The schoolmaster should
stick to his books, the crofter look after his pigs,
the priest go to the monastery, and the merchant
to his shop.” “A man of many trades can never
bring up his family.” A Chinaman is very in-
genious, but he will “Never attempt what is not
in his line” “A bad cook will spoil a good
dinner.”

“There are three rules for men in office: be
upright, be cautious, be diligent.” The pity is
that “ An honest magistrate cannot thrive.” “ Of
ten reasons for which a magistrate decides a case,
nine are not made public.” “Neither dogs nor
mandarins injure those who give them anything.”
“ Deceive, but do not insult a mandarin.” “The
court-house is a deep pit.” “The mandarin will
not pity your poverty, nor the devil your lean-
216 JOHN CHINAMAN

ness.” “If a word gets into court, nine bullocks
cannot pull it out.” ‘“ Win your lawsuit, and lose
your money.” “A cow goes amissing while you
are catching a cat.” “The dignity of office is
widely known,” but there exists a providence
whereby, “When the Emperor wishes a minister
to die, he dies.”

“To catch the big penny you must let the
little penny go.” “When taken in, say nothing
about it.” “Do not buy everything that is cheap,”
but try to “Make every penny serve two pur-
poses.” “Twenty per cent. on ready money is
better than thirty on credit.” A man in debt is
“Like a frog at the bottom of a well.” Avoid
lending your name, for “If you stand security for
the bow, you will be held responsible for the
arrow.” “When you visit the pawnshop, say
nothing about it.” “Those who are doing a good
trade never grudge the taxes.” “Who would rise
early if he saw no profit?”

“ Among a hundred men you will find all kinds
and colours.” “The present age is not to be
compared to antiquity.” “Good men are scarce.”
REFLECTED IN HIS OWN MIRROR 217

Some are “Lying machines,” with “The skin of
the face as thick as a wall,” and “Black hearts
and rotten livers.” “There are only two good
men ; one is dead, and the other not born.” “A
clever man understands a nod,” but “A conceited
man makes many mistakes.” “Good men suffer
much.” “They err greatly who will not take an
old man’s advice.” There are “Wolves in the
skins of sheep” even in China. Some men have
“Two tongues in one mouth.” Others are stupid,
“Wooden men,” mere “Leather lanterns.” Worse
still, some are “ Lumps of dregs,” “ Thick enough
to make porridge,” “ Unmindful of all the eight”
things which a Chinaman should practise. In
short, “Man is heaven and earth in minia-
ture.”

“Never say brother-in-law to a Buddhist
priest,” since he cannot lawfully marry. “Never
quarrel with a woman.” “Do not provoke man-
darins, customers, or widows.” ‘“ Nine women in
ten are jealous,” and “ Nothing will frighten a wilful
wife but a beating.” Conjugal felicity is not un-
known. Then, “ The husband sings and the wife
218 JOHN CHINAMAN

rejoices.” In any case, “It is better to be a poor
man’s bride than a rich man’s concubine.”

“Parents do not see their children’s faults” ;
true all the world over. “ Brothers are like hands
and feet.” “Though the left hand overcome the
right, no advantage is gained.” Still, “ Brothers
keep separate money accounts.” “A tried friend
is a treasure,” but some friendships are such
miserable affairs as the alliance between “The
scraper of an opium pipe and the potsherd” on
which it is cleaned. “Friends over meat and
drink, husband and wife whilst rice and fuel last.”
The three great vices are, “ Lechery, gambling,
and opium smoking.” “The truth is another
name for stupidity.”

“The poorer one gets, the more devils he
meets.” “The poor have peace when the rich
have trouble.” “The man who makes a fortune
by roguery will not enjoy it long.” “Money
covers many offences,” but “The rich can no
more suppress the village guilds than the moun-
tains can cover the sun.” “If poor, do not lose
your self-reliance, and if rich, do not act like a
REFLECTED IN HIS OWN MIRROR 219

fool.” Honest poverty is no disgrace, for “ The
Son of Heaven has straw-sandalled relations.”

“Those who lay up goodness enjoy happiness ;
those who lay up evil suffer grief.” “Virtue has
its reward, and vice its punishment, although re-
tribution may be long delayed.” Very good ; but
there is another proyerb, “If you talk of con-
science, you will have nothing to eat.”

“Man’s life is a stage-play.” “Man’s life is
like a candle in the wind or hoar-frost on the
tiles.” “What centenarian had 36,000 days of
pleasure?” “It is a light thing to starve to
death, but a serious matter to lose one’s virtue.”
“When the general’s wife dies, a hundred visitors
come to condole with him; but when he dies
himself, not a single soldier goes into mourning.”
“You may get another wife, but not another
mother.” “Any kind of life on earth is better
than being under the ground.”

Religion is at a low ebb and its ministers de-
spised. “The priest can read his missal, but he
does not understand it.” “Each day’s mass costs
three taels” (ten to twelve shillings). “Only those
220 JOHN CHINAMAN

become priests who can make a living at nothing
else.” “The cottage with its bamboo grove is
pleasanter than the monastery.” “The monastery
faces the nunnery;-there is nothing in that.”
“Three strokes of the axe will make an image of
Yang-sz” (the god of sailors). “It is superfluous
to put a beard on Yang-sz,” who is always
represented as a youth. “To bathe an idol,
is to put his godship to needless inconvenience.”
“You need not go and pray in the temple, if you
neglect the two Buddhas at home,” your father
and mother. “Though you do not believe in the
other gods, you must believe in Lei-Kung,” the
god of thunder. “To be struck by lightning is
a visible punishment.” All Chinese believe this,
and hold that it is a fate which only overtakes
the very wicked. “You may deceive men, but
you cannot deceive the gods.” If this be their
belief, they do not act upon it, and another pro-
verb is more descriptive of their practice. “The
stinking pig’s head is good enough to set be-
fore the smelless idol.” “Better do a kindness
at home than go on a pilgrimage.” “When you
REFLECTED IN HIS OWN MIRROR 221

have done your duty, abide by the will of
Heaven.”

The above are a few specimens of thousands of
proverbs in daily use by the Chinese. Many of
the most pointed have been omitted on account
of their vulgarity. Those given have been well-
nigh selected at random, but they may serve to
illustrate various phases of the Chinese mind and
character. They are not a people to be de-
lineated in a few sentences, and those who know
them best are the slowest to make general state-
ments or predict the future.

A Last WorbD.

I have introduced the reader to a phase of
human life which is bound to disappear before
the inroads of Western intercourse and civilisa-
tion. The empire may crumble to pieces, but the
Chinaman himself will retain his vitality, and is a
force that the world must reckon with. He is
not formidable with the rifle, but is invincible
with the spade, and a very good man at the
ledger. Left to himself, there is no reason why
222 JOHN CHINAMAN

he should not have gone on for another thousand
years as he has done in the past. His civilisation
is complete of its kind ; he has gone as far as his
principles will carry him. But we have not left
him alone, and will not leave him alone, and my
conviction is that we shall in the end be swamped
by Chinese cheap labour, unless we raise him to
our own level. What he most of all needs is a
wider, a deeper, and a truer morality and religion.
The attempt to impart this is so often pronounced
to be a failure that I may record my unprejudiced
opinion, based on a good many years’ experience
as a missionary. It is slow work, and disappoint-
ing many a time, but looking at the broad results,
they are greater than could have been reasonably
expected under all the difficulties. They are not
to be measured by a monetary standard, but
taken even upon such a basis, they are greater
than those obtained by a similar expenditure at
home. With all our churches, many people tell
us that Britain is going from bad to worse, and
yet they hold up their hands in amazement be-
cause 350,000,000 of heathen Chinese are not
REFLECTED IN HIS OWN MIRROR 223

converted by a handful of missionaries, each with
a parish as big as a dozen counties, in a few
years. “There never was a good work done
without much trouble.” The Prayer Book in
Chinese is a queer compound, and the Shorter
Catechism is unintelligible. Jesuit missions be-
came moribund the day it appeared a native con-
vert must become a Papist as well as a good
Christian. The Chinaman has no objection to
honest cloth from any merchant, but he makes
his jacket in his own fashion.

THE END.
PRINTED BY

TURNBULL AND SPEARS

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