. V .. ' . ' . '.4 ,-,>^. V' ■ '•■ ' I A STREET IN THE NORTH OK CHINA. To face f age i8i. CHINA. BY ROBERT K. DOUGLAS, OK THE URITISH .MLSEl.M, AND l'KOFEs>SOK OF CHINESE AT Kl.NGh. COLLEGE LONLrON. WITH M A P. I'L I'.l.lSHEl) INDEIC IHK 1)1 N h. 1' l< i \ ri[ lllli CUMMriTHK IIF (,KM-,U.\1. r.llliKAIl K K AM) )• 1 M (, A 1 U).\ Ari'ciixrEu nv the socrinA- iok runMuTiM. CHUISTIAX KNOULKOGE. LONDON: SUriiaV FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWl.EI )» .1 NORTHUMHKRI.AM) AVENUE, CHAKINC CROSS, W.C. ; 4J, l^lUEEN VICTOKIA STKEET, E.C. ; 48, I'lLCAUlLLV, \V. AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. NEW VOKK : F.. & J. K. YOUXr, & CO. 1SS2. PREFACE, I BEG gratefully to acknowledge the valuable aid I have received in the preparation of this work from ^r. Legge's " Chinese Classics," Archdeacon Gray's " China," Doolittle's " Social Life of the Chinese," the important linguistic, religious, and topographical writings of Dr. Edkins of Peking, Dennys's " Chinese Folklore," Mayers's " Chinese Reader's Manual," Sir John Davis's " Poetry of the Chinese," and other foreign, as well as native, works. Robert K. Douglas. British Museum, March 2^th, 1882. 2227607 / / CONTENTS, ■CHAPTER PAGE I. A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE I II. THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA ... 47 III. MARRIAGE 68 IV. THE NURTURE AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN S6 V. FOOD AND DRESS IO9 VI. AGRICULTURE 1 33 VII. MEDICINE 152 VIII. MUSIC 160 IX. ARCHITECTURE 1 73 X. DRAWING . 190 XI. TRAVELLING 1 97 XII. HONOURS 213 XIII. NAMES 223 XIV. THE CHINESE YEAR 23 1 XV. SUPERSTITIONS ........ 27O XVI. FUNERAL RITES 29O XVII. THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA .... 305 XVIII. THE LANGUAGE 33O XIX. THE LITERATURE . . . 356 CHAPTER I. A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. HE origin of the Chinese race is shrouded in some obscurity. The first records we have of them represent them as a band of immi- grants settHng in the north - eastern pro- vinces of the modern empire of China, and fighting their way amongst the abori- gines, much as the Jews of old forced their way into Canaan against the various tribes which they found in possession of the land. It is probable that though they all entered China by the same route, they separated into bands almost on the threshhold of the empire, one body, those who have left us the records B 2 CHIXA. of their history in the ancient Chinese books, apparently followed the course of the Yellow River, and, turning southward with it from its northern- most bend, settled themselves in the fertile districts of the modern provinces of Shansi and Honan. But as we find also that at about the same period a large settlement was made as far south as Annam, of which there is no mention in the books of the northern Chinese, we must assume that another body struck directly southward through the southern provinces of China to that country. The question then arises, where did these people come from ? and the answer which recent research gives to this question is, from the south of the Cas- pian Sea. In the chapter on the language we shall give the philological reasons which have led to this discovery. Here we will merely say that, in all probability, the outbreak in Susiana of, possibl}-, some political disturbance, in about the 24th or 23rd centur>' B.C., drove the Chinese from the land of their adoption, and that they wandered eastward until they finally settled in China and the countries south of it. Such an emigration is by no means unusual in Asia, We know that the Ottoman Turks origi- nally had their home in northern Mongolia, and we have a record of the movement, at the end of last century, of a bod\- of 600,000 Kalmucks from Russia HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 3 to the confines of China, It vv^ould appear also that the Chinese came into China possessed of the resources of Western Asian culture. They brought with them a knowledge of writing and astronomy, as well as of the arts which primarily minister to the wants and comfort of mankind. The invention of these civilising influences is traditionally attributed to the Emperor Hwang-te, who is said to have reigned from B.C. 2697-2597, But the name of this sovereign leads us to suppose that he never sat on the throne in China. One of his names, we are told, was Nai, anciently Nak, and in the Chinese paleographical collection he is described by a character composed of a group of phonetics which read Nak-kon-ti, The resemblance between this name and that of Nakhunte,^ who, according to the Susian texts, was the chief of the gods, is sufficiently striking, and many of the attributes belonging to him are such as to place him on an equality with the Susian deity. In exact accordance also with the system of Babylonian chronology he established a cycle of twelve years, and fixed the length of the year at three hundred and sixty days composed of twelve months, with an intercalary month to balance the surplus time. He further, we ^ Susian Texts — translated by Dr. J, Oppert — in " The Records of the Past,'' vol. vii. D 2 4 CHIXA. are told, built a Ling tai, or observator}*, reminding us of the Babylonian Ziggiiratii, or house of obserAa- tion, " from which to watch the movements of the heavenly bodies." The primitive Chinese, like the Babylonians, recog- nised five planets besides the sun and moon, and, with one exception, knew them by the same names. Jupiter, which among the Chaldeans was called " The planet," appears among the Chinese as " The one." To Babylonians, and Chinese also, ]\Iars was " King " and " Criminal,' and Saturn " King " and " Righteous- ness," while among the first \'enus was known as the " Queen of the defences of heaven," and among the latter as "Soldiers waiting."' ^Mercury, in both countries, was recognised by different names, from which fact it may possibly be inferred that it vs-as discovered by both peoples at a comparatively recent date. The various phases of these planets were carefully watched, and portents were derived from ever>- real and imaginary change in their relative positions and colours. A comparison between the astrological tablets translated by Professor Sayce and the astrological chapter (27th) in the She ke, the earliest of the Dynastic Histories, shows a remarkable ' Sayce's Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians, in the " Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archxolog)-,' vol. iii. HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 5 parallelism, not only in the general style of the fore- casts, but in particular portents which are so con- trary to Chinese prejudices, as a nation, and the train of thought of the people that they would be at once put down as of foreign origin, even if they were not found in the Babylonian records. Such, for example, are the constant references to the country of the " desert," the adverse fortunes of the empire, and the common occurrence of such expressions as " Soldiers arise." But the most curious coincidence is the occurrence of the forecast " Gold is exchanged " in both chronicles. Professor Sayce, being uncertain as to the exact translation, adds a query to the rendering just given, and in the Chinese we have but the words Tiii, " (Coin) is exchanged," and Pu/i titi, " (Coin) is not exchanged." In the reign of Chwan Hu (2513-2435 B.C.) we find according to the Chinese records, that the year, as among the Chaldeans, began with the third month of the solar year, and a comparison between the ancient names of the months given in the l/r/i ya, the oldest Chinese dictionary, with the Accadian equivalents, shows, in some instances, an exact identity. For example, in Chinese the fifth month was called Haou, "bright;" the ninth month Htien, "dark;" the tenth month Yang, " bright," " the sun," " the day ; " the eleventh month Koo, " a crime," " a failure ; " and the twelfth month Tsu, " heavy dew or rain." Turning 6 CHINA. now to the Accadian, we find that these months were respectively known as DJic dJicgar, " fire making fire ;" Yanyanua, " thick clouds ; " A^da suddu, " the cave of the rising of the sun ; " " the malediction of rain ; "* and lastly, " the month of mists." These parallelisms, together with a host of others which might be produced, all point to the existence of an early relationship between Chinese and Mesopota- mian culture ; and, armed with the advantages thus possessed, the Chinese entered into the empire over which they were ultimately to overspread themselves. But they came among tribes who, though somewhat inferior to them in general civilisation, were by no means destitute of culture. We learn from the "Book of History" that the first Chinese rulers employed men of the Le tribe to calculate the equinoxes, and a man of the Kwei people to determine the notes of music. As has been con- jectured by M. Terrien de La Couperie, these Kwei — remnants of whom are found to this day in northern Cambodia — were an Ar>-an people. They certainly possessed a literature which, Ave are told, contained a treatise on music, and to which the Kwei shoo, " the Kwei Books," probably refer. Like so many references to the aboriginal tribes ^ " Les Origines de I'Histoire d'apres la Bible." Par Francois Lenormant. HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 7 in the early histories, this expression, Kivei shoo, has been entirely misunderstood, and since the character Kwei, which in this case is to be read only as a phonetic, means Tortoise, the tradition has arisen that the Kwei shoo was a book written on the shell of a tortoise. In the same way we are told that the F'ung people came to court and delighted the Chinese emperor by their skill in dancing and sing- ing, and, as a token of their homage, presented him with some of their books. These F'ung people still exist in south-western China ; but, in defiance of this fact and of common sense, it has been universally ac- cepted by Chinese writers that, because the character used to represent the sound F'ung bears the meaning of phoenix, it was some of those birds that visited the Chinese court and displayed their accomplish- ments. Among such people, and others of a lower civilisa- tion, such as the Jungs of the west and the Teks, the ancestors of the Tekkc Turcomans, in the north, the Chinese succeeded in establishing themselves. The Emperor Yaou (2356-2255 B.C.) divided his kingdom into twelve portions, presided over by as many Pastors, in exact imitation of the duodenary feudal system of Susa with their twelve Pastor Princes. To Yaou succeeded Shun, who carried on the work of his predecessor of consolidating the Chinese power with energy and success. In his reign the first mention is 8 CHIXA. made of religious worship. We are told that " he sacrificed specially, but with the ordinary forms, to Shang-te ; sacrificed with purity and reverence to the six Honoured ones ; offered appropriate sacrifices to the hills and rivers, and extended his worship to the host of spirits." Much controversy has arisen as to the interpretation to be put upon the term Shang- te. By some he is regarded as having held the posi- tion among the ancient Chinese that Jehovah held among the Jews of old ; and certainl}- many of his attributes are the same as those belonging to the Jewish God. He was believed to exercise a minute and personal control over the fortunes of the Chinese. It was by his favour that kings rose to power ; and when, in consequence of their iniquities, he withdrew his CEgis from them, they fell to make room for others- better than they. He was the supreme ruler. About the derivation of the character ^ te, there has been as much difference of opinion as about the meaning of Shang-te. No satisfactory Chinese ety- mology has been found for it, and it is in all proba- bility nothing more than the eight point star of the Accadians ^ meaning " ruler." Combined with the character Shang, it may be translated supreme ruler, but we find it like the Accadian character applied to temporal rulers among the Chinese. Of the six Honoured ones Chinese writers have not been able HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 9 to offer any explanation. In the Susian texts, how- ever, we find that next in rank to the chief deity- were six gods of an inferior grade. In Shun's reign occurred the great flood which inun- dated most of the provinces of the existing empire. The waters, we are told, rose to so great a height, that the people had to betake themselves to the mountains to escape death. The disaster arose, as many similar disasters, though of a less magnitude, have since arisen, in consequence of the Yello\\- River bursting its bounds, and the " Great Yu '^ was appointed to lead the waters back to their channel. With unremitting energy he set about his task, and in nine years succeeded in bringing the river under control. During this period so ab- sorbed was he in his work that, we are told, he took heed neither of food nor clothing, and that thrice he passed the door of his house without once stopping to enter. At the completion of his labours he divided the empire into nine instead of twelve provinces ; and tradition represents him as having engraved a record of his toils on a stone tablet on Mount Heng, in the province of Hoopih. As a reward for the services he had rendered to the empire, he was invested wath the principality of Hea, and after having occupied the throne conjointly with Shun for some years, he succeeded that sovereign on his death, in 2208 B.C. With Yu began the dynasty of Hea, which gave lo CHINA. place, in 1766 B.C., to the Shang Dynasty. The last sovereign of the Hea line, Kieh kwei, is said to have been a monster of iniquity, and to have suffered the just punishment for his crimes at the hands of T'ang, the prince of the State of Shang, who took his throne from him. In like manner, six hundred and forty years later, Woo Wang, the Prince of Chow, over- threw Chow Sin, the last of the Shang Dynasty, and established himself as the chief of the sovereign state of the empire. By empire it must not be supposed that the empire, as it exi.sts at present, is meant. The China of the Chow Dynasty lay between the 33rd and 38th parallels of latitude, and the io6th and 119th of longitude only, and extended over no more than portions of the provinces of Pih chih-li, Shanse, Shense, Honan, Keang-se, and Shan-tung. This territory was re-arranged by Woo Wang into the nine principalities established by Yu, and in ac- cordance with his right as sovereign, he appointed over each a member of his own family or follow- ing, with the exception of one, the State of Sung, where a youthful scion of the Shang Dynasty was allowed to occupy the throne. Woo is held up in Chinese history as one of the model monarchs of antiquity. He dwelt, we arc told, with great earnest- ness on the importance of having the people taught thoroughly the duties of the five relations of society, viz., those of (i) ministers to their sovereign ; (2) HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. ii children to their parents ; (3) husband to wife ; (4) brother to brother ; (5) and friend to friend : of their being well fed, and of the proper observance of funeral ceremonies and sacrifices. In his adminis- tration of the affairs of the empire he was ably- seconded by his brother, the Duke of Chow, who on the death of Woo divided the government of the kingdom with the imperial successor, Ching (B.C. 1 1 15). Under the next ruler, K'ang (B.C. 1078-1053), the empire was consolidated, and the feudal princes one and all acknowledged their allegiance to the ruling house of Chow. But under succeeding sovereigns jealousies and strifes broke out among them, and their loyalty to their liege lord fluctuated with the power he exercised over them. From all accounts there speedily occurred a marked degeneracy in the cha- racters of the Chow kings. History tells us little about them, and that little does not generally re- dound to their credit. Among the most conspicuous of the early kings was Muh (ioor-947), who has rendered himself notorious for having promulgated a penal code, under which the redemption of punish- ments was made permissable by the payment of fines. The charge brought against him by historians, that this enactment first opened the door to the system of bribery and corruption which has since produced such evils in China, may possibly be well founded ; but, however this may be, it, at the time, 12 CHINA. only added one more source of evil to the growing disorder of the State. Already a spirit of lawlessness was spreading far and wide among the princes and nobles, and wars and rumours of wars Avere creating misery and unrest throughout the country. But, notwithstanding this, that literary instinct, which has been a marked cha- racteristic of the Chinese throughout their long historj', continued as active as ever. At stated inter\'als, officials, we are told, were sent in " light carriages " into all parts of the empire to collect words from the changing dialects of each district ; and at the time of the royal progresses the official music-masters and historiographers of each principalit}- presented to the officials of the sovereign state appointed for the pur- pose collections of the odes and songs of each locality, in order, we are told, that the character of the rule exercised by their several princes should be judged by the tone of the poetical and musical productions of their subjects. The odes and songs thus collected were carefully preser\-ed in the royal archives, and it was from these materials that, as is commonly be- lieved, Confucius compiled the celebrated She King, or Book of Odes, of which we shall speak hereafter. It is obvious that at the period of which we have been writing, the great variety of dialects existing, both in the states and among the feudatory tribes outside the frontiers, was giving rise to serious diffi- HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 13 culties in the way of administering the kingdom, and was fostering a tendency to separation among the various peoples. In addition to this the ancient characters of the language had, for reasons which will be hereafter explained, become to a great extent unintelligible. To correct these evils King Seuen (827-781) directed a man famous in Chinese history, She Chow by name, to invent a mode of writing known as Ta cJuien, or the Great Seal characters, in conformity with a system of a certain number of strokes, in order to establish a recognised centre of literary unity in the use of the written characters. Such an artificial system could only be made to serve the object proposed under the rule of a suc- cession of supremely-powerful sovereigns, and as such were denied to China at that period it failed entirely. Far from keeping up even the semblance of the authority exercised by the earlier Chow sovereigns, the successors of King Seuen failed to maintain any order among the subordinate princes. The hand of every man was against his neighbour, and a constant state of internecine war succeeded the peace and prosperity which had existed under the rule of Woo- wang. In the social relations was reflected the dis- order into which the political world had fallen. Filial piety had almost ceased to be, and great laxity in the marriage relations g-ave rise to deeds of reckless 14 CHINA licentiousness and atrocious violence. The example set by the princes of taking with their brides eight other ladies at once was followed without scruple in this degenerate age ; and chiefs, bent on the prosecu- tion of their own ambitious schemes, trod under foot the rights of the people, and hesitated not to use up the lives and property of their subjects in pursuance of their ends. " A host marches," says Mencius, speaking of this period, " and stores of provisions are consumed. The hungry are deprived of their food, and there is no rest for those who are called to toil. Maledictions are uttered by one to another with eyes askance, and the people proceed to the commission of wickedness. Then the royal ordinances are violated and the people are oppressed, and the supplies of food and drink flow away like water. The rulers yield themselves to the current ; or they urge their way against it ; they are wild ; they are lost . . . The crime of him who connives at and aids the wickedness of his ruler is small, but the crime of him who anticipates and excites that wickedness is great. The great officers of the present day are all guilty of this latter crime, and I sa}- that they are sinners against the princes . , . Sage kings do not arise, and the princes of the states give the reins to their lusts ... In their stalls there are fat beasts, and in their stables there are fat horses, but their people have the look of hunger, and in the fields there are those who HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 15 have died of famine. This is leading on beasts to devour men." A story, illustrative of the uncared-for state of the country and the oppression under which the people groaned, is told of Confucius. It chanced that on one occasion, as the Sage was journeying from the state of Loo to that of Ts'e, he saw a woman weeping by a tomb at the road-side. Having compassion on her, he sent his disciple, Tsze-loo, to ask her the cause of her grief. " You weep," said Tsze-loo, " as if you had experienced sorrow upon sorrow," " I have," said the woman ; " my father-in- law was killed here by a tiger, and my husband also ; and now my son has met the same fate." "Why then do you not remove from this place .-'" asked Confucius. " Because here there is no oppressive government," answered the woman. Turning to his disciples, Confucius remarked, " My children, remem- ber this, oppressive government is fiercer than a tiger." But in their campaign against the prevailing law- lessness and violence neither Confucius (550-478 B.C.) nor Mencius (371-288 B.C.) were able to make any headway. Their preachings fell on deaf ears, and their peaceful admonitions were passed unheeded by men who held their fiefs by the strength of their right arms, and administered the affairs of their principali- ties surrounded by the din of war. The main article of Confucius's political creed was the primary import- 1 6 CHINA. ance of strengthening and rehabilitating the kingdom of Chow in its supremacy over the surrounding states ; but the incompetency of its successive rulers levelled with the ground this castle in the air which he per- sisted in erecting, and he had scarcely passed away before it became evident that the sovereign sceptre of Chow would soon pass with the power A\hich was rapidly waning to one of the more vigorous states. As time went on and the disorder increased, super- natural signs added their testimony to the impend- ing crisis. The brazen vessels upon which Yu had engraved the nine divisions of the empire were observed to shake and totter as though foreshadowing the approaching change in the political position. IMeanwhile Ts'in on the north- west, Ts'oo on the south, and Tsin on the north, having vanquished all the other states, engaged in the final struggle for the mastery over the confederate principalities. The ultimate victory rested with the state of Ts'in, and in 255 B.C. Chaou-seang Wang became the acknowledged ruler over the "black- haired " people. Only four years were given him to reign supreme, and at the end of that time he was succeeded by his son, Heaou-wan Wang, who died almost immediately on ascending the throne. To him succeeded Chwang-seang Wang, who was followed in 246 B.C. by Che Hwang-te, the first Emperor of China. The abolition of feudalism, which was the HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 17 first act of Che H\vang-te raised much discontent among those to whom the feudal system had brought power and emoluments, and the countenance which had been given to the system by Confucius and Mencius made it desirable — so thought the emperor — to demolish once for all their testimony in favour .'A , of that condition of affairs, which he had decreed should be among the things of the past. With this object he ordered that the whole existing literature, with the exception of books on medicine, agriculture, and divination should be burned. The decree was obeyed as faithfully as was possible in the case of c 1 8 CHINA. SO sweeping an ordinance, and for many years a night of ignorance rested on the country. The con- struction of one gigantic work — the Great Wall of China — has made the name of this monarch as famous as the destruction of the books has made it infamous. Finding the Heung-nu Tartars were making danger- ous inroads into the empire, he determined with characteristic thoroughness to build a huge barrier which should protect the northern frontier of the empire through all time. In 214 B.C. the work was begun under his personal supervision, and though every endeavour was made to hasten its completion he died (209) leaving it unfinished. His death was the signal for an outbreak among the dispossessed feudal princes, who, however, after some years of disorder were again reduced to the rank of citizens by a successful leader, who adopted the title of Kaou-te, and named his dynasty that of Han (206). From that day to this, with occasional interreg- nums, the empire has been ruled on the lines laid down by Che H\vang-te. Dynasty has succeeded dynasty, but the political tradition has remained unchanged, and though Mongols and IManchoos have at different times wrested the throne from its legiti- mate heirs, they have been engulfed in the homo- geneous mass inhabiting the empire, and instead of impressing their seal on the country have become but the reflection of the vanquished. The dynasties HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 19 from the beginning of the earlier Han, founded, as stated above, by Kaou-te, are as follows : — B.C. A.D. The earlier Han Dynasty 206 — 25 A.D. The late Han 25 — 220 The Weil 220 — 280 The western Tsin 265 — 1^7 The eastern Tsin 317 — 420 The Sung 420 — 479 The Ts'e 479 — 502 The Leang 502 — 557 The Ch'in 557 — 589 Simultaneously with these — The northern Wei )> 386 — 534 The western Wei >) 535 — 557 The eastern Wei )> 534 — 550 The northern Ts'e M 550 — 577 The northern Chow M 557 — 589 The Suy >> 589 - 618 The T'ang )» 618 — 907 The later Leang » 907 — 923 The later T'ang )> 923 — 936 * Simultaneously with this dynasty there existed that of the Minor Han in Sze-chuen in 220-263, ^'^^ that of Wu 222-277. C 2 CHINA. A.D. A.D. The later Tsin Dynasty 936 — 947 The later Han „ 947 - 951 The later Chow „ 951 — 960 The Sung „ 960 — 1127 The Southern Sung „ 1127 — 1280 The Yuen „ 1280 - 1368 The Ming 1368 — 1644 The Ts'ing „ 1644 Simultaneously with some of these — The Leaou Dynasty 907 — 1125 The western Leaou „ 1125 — 11 68 The Kin „ 11 15 — 1280 The present Manchoo rulers of China are descend- ants of the Kin Tartars, and had their original home in the valley of the Hurka, a river which flows into the Sungari in about 46° 20' N. lat. and 129° 50' E. long. Under a succession of able leaders the tribe gained power and territory, and as time Avent on even reached the point of carrying on a not altogether unsuccessful guerilla warfare with the Ming rulers of China. In an evil moment, being hardly pressed by rebels in the south, the Chinese patched up a peace with the Manchoos, and went so far as to invite their assistance against the southern rebels. With alacrity the Manchoos responded to the call, and vanquished the common enemy. But HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. i\ when requested to withdraw again across the frontier they refused, and ended by placing the ninth son of their sovereign, Teen-ming, on the throne of Peking. The dynasty thus founded was st3ded the Ts'ing, or " Pure " dynasty, and the title adopted by the first emperor of the line was Shun-che. It was during the reign of this sovereign that Adam Schaal, a German Jesuit, took up his residence at Peking, and that the first Russian Embassy (1656) visited the capital. But in those days the Chinese had not learned to tolerate the idea that a foreigner should enter the presence of the Son of Heaven unless he were willing to perform the prostration known as the Ko-t'ow ; and the Russians, not being inclined to humour any such presumptuous folly, left the capital without opening negotiations. In 1 66 1 the Emperor Shunche became a "guest in heaven," or, in other words, died, and K'ang-he, his son, reigned in his stead. This sovereign is renowned in modern Chinese history as a model ruler, a skilful general, and an able author. During his reign, Tibet was added to the empire, and the Eleuths were successfully subdued. But it is as a just and considerate ruler that he is best remembered among the people. Among the most cherished monuments of his wisdom are the following " Sixteen Sacred Maxims," which are taught in every school throughout the empire, and which every can- 22 CHINA. didatc at the competitive examinations is expected to know by heart, together with the commentary thereon, by the imperial author's son and successor : — 1. " Esteem most highly filial piety and brotherly submission, in order to give due prominence to the social relations." 2. " Behave with generosity to the branches of your kindred, in order to illustrate harmony and benignit}-." 3. " Cultivate peace and concord in your neigh- bourhood, in order to prevent quarrels and litigation." 4. " Give importance to husbandry and to the culture of the mulberry-tree, in order to ensure a sufficiency of clothing and food." 5. " Show that you prize moderation and econom}", in order to prevent the lavish waste of your means." 6. " Make much of the colleges and seminaries, in order to make correct the practice of the scholars." 7. " Discountenance and banish strange doctrines, in order to exalt the correct doctrine." 8. " Describe and explain the laws, in order to warn the ignorant and obstinate." 9. " Exhibit clearly propriety and yielding courtes}-, in order that manners and customs may be perfected." 10. " Labour diligently at your proper callings, in oraer to give settlement to the aims of the people." 11. "Instruct your sons and younger brothers, in order to prevent their doing what is wrong." HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 23 12. "Put a stop to false accusations, in order to protect the honest and the good." 13. " Beware lest you shelter deserters, in order that you may avoid being involved in their punishments." 14. " Pay your taxes promptly and fully, in order to avoid urgent demands for your quota." 15. "Combine in hundreds and tithings, in order to put an end to thefts and robbery." 16. " Study to remove resentments and angry feel- ings, in order to show the importance due to the person and life." The support and patronage given to science and literature by K'ang-he marked the beginning of a new era in the intellectual life of the people. Under the guidance of the Jesuit missionaries at Peking he studied, and lent his countenance to, the various European sciences, more especially astronomy. To the cause of the native literature he devoted years of labour and vast sums of money. By his appointment a commission of scholars compiled a dictionary of the language, which is the best work of the kind, and which is called by his name ; and another illustrious company edited a vast encyclopedia, containing articles on every known subject, and extracts from all works of authority dating from the 12th cen- tury B.C. to that time. This huge work, which con- sists of five thousand and twenty volumes, is a monument of industrious research. But as only a 24 CHINA. hundred copies of the first imperial edition were printed, all of which were presented to princes of the blood and high officials, it is rapidly becoming ex- tremely rare, and it is not unlikely that before long the copy in the possession of the trustees of the British Museum will be the only complete copy existing. A cold, caught on a hunting excursion in Mongolia, brought his memorable reign of sixty- one years to a close, and he was succeeded on the throne by his son, Yung-ching, in the year 1722. After an uneventful reign of twelve years, Yung- ching was gathered to his fathers, having bequeathed his throne to his son, K'een-lung. This sovereign pos- sessed many of the great qualities of K'ang-he, but he lacked his wisdom and moderation. He carried his armies north, south, and west, but though he con- verted Kuldja into a Chinese province, and fought a successful campaign against the Nepaulese Gorkhas, fortune on the whole inclined rather to the standard of his enemies than to his own. In Burmah, Cochin China, and Formosa, his troops suffered discom- fitures, and even the Meaou-tsze tribes of Kwei-chow and Kwang-se proved themselves troublesome an- tagonists. During his reign, which extended over sixty years, — a full Chinese cycle — the relations of his government with the East India Company were extremely unsatisfactory. The English merchants were compelled to submit to many indignities and HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 25 wrongs : and for the purpose of establishing a better international understanding, Lord Macartney was sent by George III. on a special mission to the Court of Peking. The ambassador was received graciously by the emperor, who accepted the presents sent him by the English king, but owing to his ig- norance of his own relative position, and of the alpha- bet of international law, he declined to give those assurances of a more equitable policy which were demanded of him. In 1795, at the age of 85, he abdicated in favour of his fifteenth son, who ascended the throne with the title of Kea-K'ing. During this reign a second English embassy was sent to Peking (18 16), to represent to the emperor the unsatisfactory position of the English merchants in China. The envoy, Lord Amherst, was met at the mouth of the Peiho and conducted toYuen-ming-yuen, or summer palace, where the emperor was residing. On his arrival he was officially warned that only on condition of his performing the Ko-t'ow would he be permitted to behold " the dragon countenance." This, of course, was impossible, and he consequently left the palace without having slept a night under its roof. Meanwhile the internal affairs of the country were even more disturbed than the foreign relations. A succession of rebellions broke out in the northern and western provinces, and the seaboard was ravaged by pirates. While these disturbing causes were in 26 CHINA. full play Kea-k'ing died (1820), and the throne de- volved upon Taou-kwang, his second son. Under this monarch both home and foreign affairs Avent from bad to worse. A secret league, known as the Triad Society, which was first formed during the reign of K'ang-he, now assumed a formidable bearing, and in many parts of the country, notably in Honan, Kwang-se, and Formosa, insurrections broke out at its instigation. At the same time the mandarins continued to persecute the English merchants, and on the expiry of the East India Company's monopoly, in 1834, the English govern- ment sent Lord Napier to Canton to superintend the foreign trade at that port. Thwarted at every turn by the presumptuous obstinacy of the mandarins, Lord Napier's health gave way under the constant vexations connected with his post, and he died at Macao, after but a few months' residence in China. The opium trade was now the question of the hour, and at the urgent demand of Commissioner Lin, Captain Elliot, the superintendent of trade, agreed that all opium in the hands of English merchants should be given up to the authorities ; and more than this, he exacted a pledge from his countr>'men, that they would no longer deal in the drug. On the 3rd April, 1839, 20,283 chests of opium were, in accord- ance with this agreement, handed over to the man- darins, who burnt them to ashes. This demand of HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 27 Lin's, though agreed to by the superintendent of trade, was considered so unreasonable by the EngHsh government, that in the following year war was de- clared against China. The island of Chusan and the Bogue forts on the Canton river soon fell into our hands, and Commissioner Lin's successor sought to purchase peace by the cession of Hongkong and the payment of an indemnity of 6,000,000 dollars. This convention was, however, repudiated by the Peking government, and it was not until Canton, Amoy, Ningpo, Chapoo, Shanghai, and Chin-keang-foo had been taken by our troops, that the emperor at last consented to come to terms. These, as was only just, were now far more onerous. By a treat)^ made by Sir Henry Pottinger in 1842, the cession of Hong- kong was supplemented by the opening of the four ports of Amoy, Fuh-chow foo, Ningpo, and Shanghai, to foreign trade, and the indemnity of 6,000,000 dollars was increased to 21,000,000. Death put an end to Taou-kwang's reign in 1850, and his fourth son, Heen-fung, assumed rule over the distracted empire which was bequeathed him by his father. There is a popular belief among the Chinese that two hundred years is the natural life of a dynasty. This is one of those traditions which are apt to bring- about their own fulfilment, and in the beginning of the reign of Heen-fung the political air was rife with rumours that an effort was to be made to restore the ^8 ^ CHINA. Ming Dynasty to the throne. On such occasions there are always real or pretended scions of the required family forthcoming, and when the flames of rebellion broke out in Kwang-se, a claimant suddenly appeared under the title of T'een-tih, "heavenly virtue," to head the movement. But T'een-tih had not the capacity required to play the necessary part, and the affair languished and would have died out altogether, had not a leader, named Hung Sew- tseuen arose, who combined all the qualities re- quired in a leader of men — energy, enthusiasm, and religious bigotry. Having been converted to a pseudo- Christianity, he professed himself shocked at the iniquities of the pagan rulers of the land, and thus added to the thousands of restless, discontented spirits who joined his banner a larger following gathered from the upper classes. As soon as he was sufficiently powerful, he advanced northwards into Hoonan and Hoopih and captured Woo-chang foo, the capital of the last-named province, and a city of great commercial and strategical importance, situated as it is at the junction of the Han river with the Yang-tsze keang. Having made this place secure, he advanced down the river and made himself master of Gan-ting and the old capital of the empire, Nanking, Here, in 1852, he established his throne and pro- •claimed the commencement of the Tai-ping Dynasty. For himself he adopted the title of T'een-wang, or HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 29. " heavenly king." For a time all went well with the new dynasty. The Tai-ping standard was carried northward to the walls of T'ien-tsin, and floated over the towns of Chin-keang foo and Soochow foo. Meanwhile the imperial authorities had by their stupidity raised another enemy against themselves. The outrage on the English flag perpetrated on board the Lorcha Arroiv at Canton, in 1857, having been left unredressed by the mandarins, led to the procla- mation of war by England. Canton fell to the arms of General Straubenzee and Sir Michael Seymour in December of the same year, and in the following spring the Taku forts at the mouth of the Peiha having been taken, Lord Elgin, who had in the mean- time arrived as Plenipotentiary, advanced up the river to T'ien-tsin on his way to the capital. At that city, however, he was met by imperial commis- sioners, and, yielding to their entreaties, he concluded a treaty with them, which it was arranged should be ratified at Peking in the following year. But the evil genius of the Chinese still pursuing them, they treacherously fired on the fleet accompanying Sir Frederick Bruce, Lord Elgin's brother, when pro- ceeding, in i860, to Peking in fulfilment of this agree- ment. This outrage rendered another military expedition necessary, and, in conjunction with the French Government, the English Cabinet sent out a force under the command of Sir Hope Grant Avith 30 CHINA. orders to march to Peking. In the summer of 1861 the alHed forces landed at Peh-tang, a village twelve miles north of the Taku forts, and, taking these entrenchments in rear, captured them with but a trifling loss. This success was so utterly unexpected by the Chinese that, leaving T'ien-tsin unprotected, they retreated rapidly to the neighbourhood of the capital. The allies pushed ou after them, and, in reply to an invitation sent from the imperial com- missioners at Tung-chow, a town twelve miles from Peking, Sir Harry Parkes and Mr. Loch, accom- panied by an escort and some few friends, went in advance of the army to make a preliminary conven- tion. While so engaged they were treacherously taken prisoners and carried off to Peking. This act precipitated an engagement, in which the Chinese were completely routed, and the allies marched on to Peking. After the usual display of obstinacy the Chinese yielded to the demand for the surrender of the An-ting Gate of the city. From this vantage- point Lord Elgin opened negotiations, and, having secured the release of Sir Harry Parkes, Mr. Loch, and the other prisoners who had survived the tortures to which they had been subjected, and having burnt Yuen-ming-yuen, the summer palace of the emperor, as a punishment for their treacherous capture, and for the cruelties perpetrated on them, he concluded a treaty with Prince Kung, the representative of the HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 31 emperor. By this instrument the Chinese agreed to pay a war indemnity of 8,000,000 Taels, and to open the ports of New-chwang, Che-foo, Kin-keang, Chin- keang, Hankow, Pak-hoi, Tai-wan in Formosa, and a port in the island of Hainan, to foreign trade, and to permit the representatives of the foreign Govern- ments to reside in Peking. Having thus reHeved themselves from the presence of a foreign foe, the authorities were able to devote their attention to the suppression of the Tai-ping rebellion. Fortunately for themselves, the apparent friendliness with which they greeted the arrival of the British Legation at Peking enlisted for them the sympathies of Sir Frederick Bruce, the British Minister, and inclined him to listen to their request for the services of an English officer in their campaign against the rebels. At the request of Sir F. Bruce, General Staveley selected Major Gordon, since gene- rally known as Chinese Gordon, for this duty. A better man, or one more peculiarly fitted for the work could not have been found. A numerous force, known as " the ever-victorious army," partly officered by foreigners, had for some time been commanded by an American, named Ward, and after his death by Burgevine, another American. Over this force Gordon was placed, and at the head of it he marched, in conjunction with the Chinese generals, against the Tai-pings. With masterly strategy he 32 CHIXA. struck a succession of rapid and telling blows against the fortunes of the rebels. City after city fell into his hands, and at length the leaders at Soochow opened the gates of the city to him on condition that he would spare their lives. With cruel treacherj' when these men presented themselves before Le Hung-chang, the present Viceroy of Chih-li, to offer their submis- sion to the emperor, they were seized and beheaded. On learning how lightly his word had been treated by the Chinese general, Gordon armed himself, for the first time during the campaign, with a revolver, and sought out the Chinese head-quarters, intending to avenge with his own hand this murder of the Taiping leaders. But Le Hung-chang having received timely notice of the righteous anger he had aroused took to flight, and Gordon, thus thwarted in his immediate object, threw up his command, feeling that it was im- possible to continue to act with so orientally-minded a colleague. After considerable negotiation, however, he was persuaded to return to his command, and soon suc- ceeded in so completely crippling the power of the rebels that in July, 1864, Nanking, their last strong- hold, fell into the hands of the Imperialists. T'een- wang was then already dead, and his body was found within the walls wrapt in imperial yellow. Thus was crushed out a rebellion which had paralysed the imperial power in the central j provinces of HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 33 the empire, and which had for twelve years seriously threatened the existence of the reigning dynasty. Meanwhile, in the summer following the conclusion of the treaty of Peking, the Emperor Heen-fung breathed his last at Jehol (1861) — an event which was, in popular belief, foretold by the appearance of a comet in the early part of the summer — and was succeeded on the throne by his only son, who adopted the title of T'ung-che. Being quite a child at the time of his accession, the administration of affairs was placed in the hands of the empress and of the mother of T'ung-che, a lady who had not occupied the supreme post in the emperor's harem. Under the direction of these ladies, though the internal affairs of the empire prospered, the foreign relations were disturbed by the display of an increas- ingly hostile spirit towards the Christian missionaries and their converts, which culminated, in 1870 in the "T'ien-tsin massacre." In some of the central pro- vinces reports had been industriously circulated that the Roman Catholic missionaries were in the habit of kidnapping and murdering children, in order to make medicine from their eyeballs. Ridiculous as the rumour was, it found ready credence among the ignorant people, and several outrages were perpe- trated on the missionaries and their converts in Keang-se and Sze-chuen. Through the active inter- D 34 CHINA. ference, however, of the French minister on the spot, the agitation was locally suppressed, but only to be renewed again at T'ientsin. Here also the same absurd rumours were set afloat, and were especially directed against some sisters of charity who had opened an orphanage in the city. For some days previous to the massacre on the 21st June, reports increasing in consistency reached the foreign re- sidents that an outbreak was to be apprehended, and three times the English consul wrote to Chung How, the Superintendent of the three northern ports, call- ing upon him to take measures to subdue the gather- ing passions of the people, which had been further dangerously exasperated by an infamous proclamation issued by the prefect. To these communications the consul did not receive any repl}^, and on the morning of the 2 1st, a day which had apparently been de- liberately fixed upon for the massacre, the attack was made. The mob first broke into the French consulate, and while the consul, M. Fontanier, was with Chung Ho\\', endeavouring to persuade him to interfere, M. and Mad. Thomasin, M, and Mad. Chalmaison, and Pere Chevrien were there murdered On his way back to the consulate, M. Fontanier suffered the same fate. Having thus whetted their taste for blood, the rioters then set fire to the French cathedral, and afterwards moved on to the orphanage of the sisters of mercy. In spite of the appeals of these HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 35 defenceless ladies for mercy, if not for themselves, at least for the orphans under their charge, the mob broke into the hospital, and having "insulted, stripped, impaled, ripped open, and cut to pieces " the sisters, smothered from thirty to forty children in the vaults, and carried off a still larger number of older persons to the prisons in the city, where " they were subjected to tortures of which they bore terrible evidence when their release was at length effected.' In addition to these victims, a Russian gentleman, with his bride and a friend, who were unfortunate enough to meet the rioters on their way to the cathedral, were ruthlessly murdered. No other foreigners were injured, a circumstance due to the facts that the fury of the mob was primarily directed against the French Roman Catholics, and also that the foreign settlement, where all but those engaged in missionary work resided, is at a distance of a couple of miles from the city. When the evil was done, the Chinese authorities professed themselves anxious to make reparation, and Chung How was eventually sent to Paris to offer the apologies of the Peking cabinet to the French government. These were ultimately accepted ; and, it was further arranged that the T'ientsin prefect and district magistrate should be removed from their posts and degraded, and that twenty of the active murderers should be executed. D 2 36 CHINA. By these retributive measures the emperor's govern- ment made its peace with the European powers, and the foreign relations again assumed their former friendly footing. The Chinese had now leisure to devote their efforts to the subjugation of the Panthay rebels, who for some ten or twelve years had held almost undisputed possession of the province of Yunnan. The visit of the adopted son of the rebel leader, the Sultan Suleiman, to England, for the purpose of attempting to enlist the s}'mpathies of the English government in the Panthay cause, no doubt added zest to the action of the mandarins, who, after a short but vigorous campaign, suppressed the rebellion and restored the province to the imperial sway. Peace was thus brought about, and when the empresses handed over the reins of power to the emperor, on the occasion of his marriage in 1872, tranquillity reigned throughout " the eighteen pro- \inces.'" As in every act in the life of a Chinese emperor, the marriage of T'ung-che was surrounded with numerous and complex ceremonies. The bride had first to be chosen from the daughters of Manchoos, who were enrolled under one of the eight military banners. About a year before the marriage all girls of this class, who were of a specified age, were ordered to present themselves at the palace. Between six and seven hundred came, and these HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 37 were introduced into the presence of the dowager- empresses in batches of ten at a time. The result of this preHminary examination was that about fifty- were chosen, and the rest were sent back to their homes. A second interview with the empresses ended in the reduction of the selected number by one half, and by a continued process of sifting the candidates the lady, Ah-lu-te, was chosen as the " Phoenix " to mate the " Dragon." While these matters were proceeding, four young ladies were chosen as " Professors of matrimony " to instruct the emperor in the duties of the new relation, and, after much questioning of the stars, the officers of the Astro- nomical Board fixed upon the night between the 15th and the i6th of October for the supreme cere- mony. As the time approached the lady, Ah-lu-tc, who was the daughter of the only Manchoo who ever gained the title of Chwang-yuen, the highest prize to be won at the competitiv^e examinations, and four other ladies, who were destined to form the nucleus of the imperial harem, were lodged in a palace especially prepared and beautified for them in the imperial capital. The road between this palace and the imperial abode was carefully levelled and constantly sprinkled with sand, of the yellow imperial colour, and each morning long processions of bearers passed along it carrying the presents destined for the bride, which poured in from all parts of the empire. 38 CHINA. Cabinets, dishes, vases, basins, bowls, chairs, and a host of gold and silver articles of all kinds were borne on uncovered trays escorted by mandarins and troops, forming a daily spectacle for the idlers in the capital. On the day before the marriage a tablet of gold was sent to the bride, on which was inscribed the edict elevating her to the throne, together with an imperial sceptre and seal. The next day another procession, escorting " the Phoenix Chair," passed along to the bride's palace. At its head rode a Manchoo prince, attended by lesser chiefs eii grande tenue, the prince carrying in his hand the jade sceptre which is constantly held by the emperor. Thirty white horses followed closely on these imperial in- signia, and the rest of the cavalcade was made up of officials carrying banners, triple umbrellas adorned with embroidered representations of dragons and phoenixes, fans, and " golden melons " stuck on long poles. At eleven o'clock the same evening the same pro- cession, with the addition of the bride and the golden tablet, the sceptre and the seal, started for the im- perial palace. Every house was strictly closed along the route, which was guarded through its whole length by troops, and at the side of the bridal chair marched an official of the Astronomical Board carry- ing a lighted joss-stick, so marked as to indicate HISTOR V OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 39 portions of time, by means of which he regulated the pace of the procession, in order that it might arrive at the imperial palace at the fortunate moment of two in the morning. On arriving at the palace " the Great Pure Gate" was thrown open, and Ah-lu-te was carried through the outer courts to the great central court leading to the throne room. A herald then proclaimed, " The orders of His Sacred Majesty are fulfilled," and forthwith the dowager empresses came out to receive the bride. In her hands they placed pieces of uncoined gold and silver, and crossed them over her breast in such a way as to enable her also to carry a vase containing wheat, maize, rice, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and other articles, to symbolise all that earth produces. She then stepped from her sedan on to a small golden saddle, and thus entered her future home. The remaining ceremonies were similar in kind to those performed at the marriages of commoners, and thus Ah-lu-te became an empress, and her father, catching a reflection of his daughter's greatness, was made a Duke.^ On the day after the wedding the four ladies spoken of above, who were destined to become imperial concubines of the fiirst class, were brought into the palace, not through " the Great Pure Gate," but by a more obscure entrance on the * " Meeting the Sun," by William Simpson, F.R.G.S. 40 CHINA. north of the palace. The Book of Rites of the present dynasty, which regulates every official obser- vance in China, ordains that the number of these ladies should be increased to nine, that twenty-seven other young ladies should be chosen as concubines of the second class, and eighty-one as concubines of the third class. All these are subordinate to the empress^ who alone is entitled to enjoy the society of the em- peror at the time of full moon, and who, in theory at least, apportions to each the special household duties pertaining to her rank. The cost of maintaining so large and extravagant a household is enormous, and the looms of Soochow and Nanking are barely able to supply the host of ladies and attendants with the silks and satins required for their use. In 1877 the Pekhig Gazette announced that, during the preceding year, 370 rolls of satin, 500 rolls of brocaded satin, 3,400 rolls of silk gauze, 600 large handkerchiefs, 800 catties of sewing silk, 500 catties of white silk, and 3,000 pieces of fine calico, had been furnished by the imperial purveyor at Nan- king, besides the immense stores which were poured in from Hang-chow and Soochow. From the imperial porcelain factories at Kin-tih-chin 1 1,838 articles, con- sisting of fish bowls, flower vases, and ornamental jars of the first quality, were forwarded to the palace during the same year, in addition to an abundance of articles of a common kind, and destined for baser uses. HISTORY OF THE CHIXESE EMPIRE. 41 The formal assumption of power proclaimed by this marriage was considered by the foreign ministers a fitting opportunity to insist on the fulfilment of the article in the treaties which provided for their reception by the emperor, and after much negotiation it was finally arranged that the emperor should receive them on the 29th of June, 1873. "Very early, therefore, on the morning of that day the ministers were astir, and were conducted in their sedan-chairs to the park on the west side of the palace, where, having dismounted from their sedans, they were met by some of the ministers of State, who led them to the " Temple of Prayer for Seasonable Weather." Here they were kept waiting some time while tea and confectionery from the imperial kitchen, by favour of the emperor, were served to them. They were then conducted to an oblong tent made of matting on the west side of the Tsze-kwang Pavilion, where they were met by Prince Kung and other ministers. As soon as the emperor reached the Pavilion, the Japanese ambassador was introduced into his presence, and when he had retired the other foreign ministers entered the audience-chamber in a body. The emperor was seated, facing southwards. On either side of his Majesty stood, with the Prince of Kung, certain princes and high officers ; in all, four or five persons. When the foreign ministers reached the centre aisle they halted and bowed one 42 CHINA. and all together; they then advanced in line a little further and made a second bow ; and when they had nearly reached the yellow table — on which their cre- dentials were, as arranged, to be deposited — they bowed a third time ; after which they remained erect. M. Vlangaly, the Russian minister, then read a con- gratulatory address in French, which was translated by an interpreter into Chinese, and the ministers, making another reverence, respectfully laid their letters of credence on the yellow table. The emperor was pleased to make a slight inclination of the head towards them, and the Prince of Kung, advancing to the left of the throne, and falling upon his knees, had the honour to be informed in Manchoo that his Majesty acknowledged the receipt of the letters pre- sented. The Prince of Kung, with his arms raised (according to precedent set by Confucius Avhen in the presence of his sovereign), came down by the steps on the left of the dai's to the foreign ministers, and respectfully repeated this in Chinese. After this he again prostrated himself, and in like manner re- ceived and conveyed a message to the effect that his Majesty hoped that all foreign questions would be satisfactorily disposed of The ministers then withdrew, bowing repeatedly until they reached the entrance." i ' Pall Mall Gazette, May 21, 1874. HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 43 Thus ended the only instance dunng the present century of Europeans being received in imperial audience. Whether under more fortunate circum- stances the ceremony might have been repeated it is difficult to say, but in the following year the young emperor was stricken dovv^n with smallpox, or, as the Peking Gazette expressed it, " enjoyed the felicity of the heavenly flowers," and finally succumbed to the disease on the 12th of January, 1875. With great ceremony the funeral obsequies were performed over the body of him who had been T'ung-che, and the coffin was finally laid in the imperial mausoleum among the eastern hills beside the remains of his pre- decessors, Shun-che, K'ang-he, Yung-ching, K'een- lung, Kea-k'ing, Taou-kwang, and Heen-fung. For the first time in the annals of the Ts'ing dynasty the throne was now left without a direct heir. As it is the office of the son and heir to per- form regularly the ancestral worship, it is necessary that, failing a son, the heir should be, if possible, of a later generation than the deceased. In the present instance this was impossible, as there was no descen- dant of a posterior generation. It was necessary, therefore, that the lot should fall on one of the cousins of the late emperor, and Tsai-teen, the son of the Prince of Chun, a child not quite four years old, was chosen to fill the vacant throne. Kwang-su, or " an inheritance of glory," was the title conferred 44 CHINA. upon him, and it remains to be seen whether the events of his reign will justify so high-sounding a promise. Scarcely had the proclamation gone forth of the assumption of the imperial title by Kwang-su, when news reached the English Legation at Peking of the murder at Manwyne, in the Province of Yunnan, of Mr. Margary, an officer in the Consular Ser\-ice, who had been despatched to meet an expedition sent b}* the Indian Government, under the command of Colonel Horace Browne, to discover a route from J^urmah into the south western provinces of China. A more thoroughly competent officer than Mr. Mar- gary could not have been selected for the under- taking, and the choice made was fully justified by the way in which he performed the journey to Bhamo in Burmah, in spite of illness and of the many ob- stacles thrown in his way by the native officials. He left Shanghai, on his journey westward, on the 23rd August, 1874, and reached Bhamo, where he met Colonel Brown's party, on the 17th of the following January. On the i8th of February he once more turned his face eastward, in company with the Indian Expedition. Scarcely, however, had they begun their march, when rumours reached them that the frontier Chinese were preparing to bar their progress. After his recent experience of the friendly disposition of the mandarins in this part of the country, Mar- HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 45 gary declined to attach any importance to these reports, and, with the concurrence of Colonel Browne, he started in advance of the party, accompanied only by his Chinese writer and servant, to ascertain the real facts of the case. From all accounts he reached Manwyne in safety, but, when visiting some hot springs in the neighbourhood of the town, he was treacherously knocked off his pony and murdered. In accordance with conventional practice the Chi- nese Government, on being called to account for this outrage, attempted to lay it to the charge of bri- gands. But the evidence which Sir Thomas Wade was able to adduce proved too strong to be ignored even by the Peking mandarins, and, eventually, they signed a convention in which they practically acknow- ledged their blood-guiltiness, under the terms of which some fresh commercial privileges were granted, and an indemnity, part of which, viz. ^10,000, was handed over to the family of Mr. Margary, was paid to the English Government. At the same time the " ex- pectant Vice-President," Kwo Sung-taou, was sent to England to apologise for this breach of international amity, and to establish an embassy on a permanent footing at the Court of .St. James. With the conclu- sion of this agreement the friendly relations between the two governments, which at one time during the negotiations were seriously imperilled, were renewed, 46 CHINA. and have since been maintained. After two years residence in this country Kwo Sung-taou resigned his post, and was succeeded by Ts'eng Ta-jin, a son of the celebrated soldier and statesman Ts'eng kwo-fan. CHAPTER II. THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. HINESE government may be described as being in theory a patriarchal des- potism. The emperor is the father of his people, and just as in a family the father's law is supreme, so the emperor exercises complete control over his subjects, even to the ex- tent of holding under certain recognised conditions their lives in his hands. But from time immemorial it has been held by the highest constitutional authorities, by Confucius and Mencius among the rest, that the duties existing between the em- peror and his people are reciprocal, and that, though it is the duty of the people to render a loyal and willing obedience to the emperor so long as his rule is just and beneficent, it 48 CHIXA. is equally incumbent on them to resist his authority, to depose him, and even to put him to death in case he should desert the paths of rectitude and virtue. As a matter of fact, however, it is very difficult to say what extent of power the emperor actually wields. The outside world sees only the imperial bolts but how they are forged, or whose is the hand that shoots them, none can tell. Of course, in the case of unusually able men, such as K'ang-he (1661-1722) and K"een-lung (1735-1795), the second and fourth rulers of the present d}'nasty, their influence is more felt than that of less energetic rulers ; but the throne of China is so hedged in with ceremonials, and so padded with official etiquette, that unless its occu- pant be a man of supreme ability, he cannot fail to fall under the guidance of his ministers and favourites. To assist him in the government he has a council of -state : the members of which, five in number, dail}- transact the business of the empire in the imperial presence between the hours of four and six in the morning. Then there are the Grand Secretariat ; the Tsiing-le Yamini, or Foreign Office ; the six boards, viz. : the Le poo, or Board of Civil Office ; the Hoo poo, or Board of Revenue ; IhQ Le poo, or Board of Ceremonies ; the Ping poo, or Board of War ; the Hiiig poo, or Board of Punishments ; and the Kuug poo, or Board of Works, and several minor offices, all charged with the superintendence of the affairs of the THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 49 eighteen provinces into which the empire is divided. Fifteen of these provinces are grouped into eight viceroyalties, and the remaining three are adminis- tered by governors. Each province is autonomous, or nearly so, and the supreme authorities, whether viceroys or governors, are practically independent so long as they act in accordance with the very minute regulations laid down for their guidance. The prin- cipal function of the Peking government is to see that these regulations are carried out, and in case they should not be, to call the offending viceroy or governor to account. Subordinate to the viceroys are the governors of each province, under whom again arc prefects and sub-prefects, then come in- tendants of circuits, next district magistrates, and after them a whole host of petty officials. Each viceroy raises his own army and navy, which he pays, or sometimes, unfortunately, does not pay, out of the revenues of his government. He levies his own taxes, and, except in particular cases, is the final court of appeal in all judicial matters within the limits of his rule. But in return for this latitude allowed him he is held personally responsible for the good government of his territory. If by any chance serious disturbances break out and continue unsup- pressed, he is called to account as having by his mis- conduct contributed to them, and he in his turn looks to his subordinates to maintain order and execute E 50 CHINA. justice within their jurisdictions. Of himself he has no power to remove or punish subordinate officials, but has to refer all complaints against them to Pe- king. The personal responsibility resting upon him of maintaining order makes him a severe critic on those who ser\-e under him, and the Peking Gazette bears evidence to the frequency with which junior officials are impeached and punished at the instiga- tion of their chiefs. The following decree, which appeared in the Peking Gazette of the 13th Sep- tember, 1877, furnishes a good example of the usual charges and customary punishments brought against and awarded to offending officers : — " A decree based upon a memorial from Le Han-chang, viceroy of Hoo Kwang, and Wan T'ung-tsioh, governor of Hoopih, who have solicited the degradation or compulsory retirement, respectively, of certain incapable or un- worthy officials. In the case of Shoo Tsaou, depart- ment magistrate of Kiun Chow, declared to be wanting in natural ability and shallow in acquired knowledge, and of indifferent reputation — of Le Tsang-yaou, district magistrate of E-ch'eng, declared to have set official prescription at nought in his business arrangements, and to have made himself unacceptable to the people — and of Niu Fuh-kea, declared to be inspired with a false and treacherous disposition, and to have employed deceitful repre- sentations in his transaction of affairs ; the sentence THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 51 is that the deHnquents be forthwith stripped of their rank and office. Chang Han, sub-prefect of Han- Yang foo, being decrepit from age, and beyond the possibiHty of active exertion, is to be compulsorily retired." Other charges, such as of opium-smoking, mis- appropriation of pubHc monies, and failure to arrest criminals, meet with like punishments. On the whole the conduct of junior officials is carefully watched ; and though it may not unfrequently happen that they are unjustly charged with offences, their causes are, when such cases become apparent, im- partially vindicated, and their accusers, of whatever rank, are brought to the bar of justice. Not long since, for an offence of this nature, the lieutenant- governor of the province of Honan was dismissed from his office, and the governor was degraded three steps of rank for having countenanced the proceedings. As has been already said, the affairs of each pro- vince are administered by the viceroy or governor and his subordinates, and, speaking generally, their rule is as enlightened and as just as could be ex- pected in an oriental country where public opinion finds only a very imperfect utterance. Official purity and justice must be treated as comparative terms in China, The constitution of the civil sei-vice renders it next to impossible that any office-holder can be clean-handed in the European sense. The salaries E 2 52 CHINA. awarded are low, out of all proportion to the neces- sary expenses pertaining to the offices to which thcy are apportioned, and the consequence is, that in some way or other the officials are compelled to make up the deficiency from the pockets of those subject to them. Every legal precaution is taken to prevent this nefarious system, with the exception of the only one which might be expected to put a stop to it. All appointments are tenable for three years only, so that the holders of office arc naturally anxious to gain and keep the esteem and approval of their superiors, and so to administer affairs as not to raise audible discontent among the people ; on the other hand, it must be admitted that this regulation is apt to tempt a greedy and unscrupulous mandarin to make the most he can from each district over which he may hold these short terms of office. No mandarin is allowed to take office in his native province, and no relation, or even connection, is allowed to serve under him. How stringent is this rule appears from an edict lately published in the Peking Gazette, in which the governor of tlie province of Kwei-chow was re- buked for not having reported to the throne that he was about to connect himself with the family of an intendant of circuit in the same province by the betrothal of his third son to the intendant's second daughter, and in consequence of which proposed alliance the ambitious intendant was ordered to THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 53 another province. But all such regulations are powerless to prevent extortion in face of a positive necessity, and it would be just as useful to decree that black should be henceforth white, as that men whose salaries are insufficient to pay the wages of their underlings, should hold their hands when abundance is within their reach. As a rule mandarins seldom enter office with private fortunes, and the wealth therefore which soothes the declining years of veteran officials may be fairly assumed to be ill-gotten gain. A remark- able instance of a fortune thus acquired, and of the retributive " fleecing " which is not unfrequently in- flicted on the possessors of such plunder, occurred in the case of Hang Ke, who was superintendent of cus- toms at Canton prior to the year 1859, when he re- signed office. This man's salary was 2,400 taels, or about ;^8oo a year; the necessary expenses of his yamun or official residence were about 8,000 taels per month, and yet, when he resigned his seals of office, he retired with a fortune of 300,000 taels, or ;i^ 100,000. As is not unusually the case when a high official retires from his post, more especially if he is believed to have made money, Hang Ke was ordered to Peking, and before he had been many days in the capital one third of the ;^ioo,ooo had passed into the hands of members of the government. Well may ■ive ask, Qnis custodiet custodes ? But the old proverb 54 CHINA. that one man may steal a horse, and another man may not look over the fence, is peculiarly true as regards official extortion in China, as many less discreet men than Hang Ke have found to their cost. Not long since a district magistrate in the province of Kwei-chow was put to death by strangulation for having levied an illegal assessment of 6,050 taels only from certain communes of the Meaou-tsze abori- gines within his district. The immunity which some mandarins enjoy from the just consequences of their crimes, and the severity with which the law is vindi- cated in the cases of others for much lighter offences, has a sinister aspect. But in a system of which bribery and corruption practically form a part one need not expect to find purity in any direction, and it is not too much to say that the whole civil service is, judged by an English standard, corrupt to the core. The people however are very lightly taxed, and they readily submit to limited extortion so long as the rule of the mandarins is otherwise just and beneficent. But how rarely does a mandarin earn the respect and affection of the people is obvious from the great parade which is made on the departure from their posts of the very occasional officials who arc fortunate enough to have done so. Arch- deacon Gray states in his " China " that during his residence of a quarter of a century at Canton he only met one man who had entitled himself to the resjret THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. %^ of the people at his departure. On his leaving the city the inhabitants rose en masse to do him honour. " In the imposing procession which escorted him to sJcaoMPEj / the place of embarkation, and which took at least twenty minutes to pass a given point, were carried 56 CHINA. the silk umbrellas which had been presented to him by the people, and the red boards — of which there were probably three hundred — upon which high- sounding titles had been inscribed in honour of the faithful minister. The route was spanned at fre- quent intervals by arches. From these banners were suspended which bore, in large letters, painted or embroidered, such sentences as * The Friend of the People ' ; ' The Father of the People ' ; ' The Bright Star of the Province ' ; ' The Benefactor of the Age.' Deputations awaited his arrival at various temples, and he alighted from his chair to exchange compli- ments with them, and to partake of the refreshments provided for the occasion. But the formal arrange- ments could not speak so clearly to his popularity as the enthusiasm of the people. The silence generally observed when a Chinese ruler passes through the streets was again and again broken by hearty ex- clamations of ' When will your Excellency come back to us t ' At many points the crowd was so great as to interrupt the line of march, and the state chair was frequently in danger of being upset." A somewhat similar scene occurred at T'ientsin in the year 1861 on the departure of the prefect of that city. The people accompanied him beyond the gate on his road to Peking with every token of honour, and finally begged from him his boots, which they carried back in triumph, and hung up as a memento THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 57 of their hero in the temple of the city god. Going to the opposite extreme it sometimes happens that the people, goaded into rebellion by a sense of wrong, rise in arms against some particularly obnoxious mandarin and drive him from the district. But Chinamen are essentially unwarlike, and it needs must be some act of gross oppression to stir their blood to fever heat. A potent means of protection against oppression is granted to the people by the appointment of im- perial censors throughout the empire, whose duty it is to report to the throne all cases of misrule, in- justice, or neglect on the part of the mandarins which come to their knowledge. The same tolerance which is shown by the people towards the short- comings and ill-deeds of the officials, is displayed by these men in the discharge of their duties. Only aggravated cases make them take their pens in hand, but when they do it must be confessed that they show little mercy. Neither are they respectors of persons ; their lash falls on all alike, from the emperor on his throne to the police-runners in magisterial courts. Nor is their plain speaking more amazing than the candour with which their memorials affecting the characters of great and small alike are published in the Peking Gazette. The gravest charges, such as of peculation, neglect of duty, injustice, or incompetence, are brought against mandarins of all ranks, and arc 58 CHINA. openly published in the official paper. No doubt it is intended that the lesson implied by these publica- tions should have a salutary effect on the official readers, but their constant recurrence tends to lessen their value, and thus they probably serve less as warnings against wrong-doing than as hints what particular evil practices to avoid, and especially the unwisdom of falling out with a censor. In the administration of justice the same lax morality as in other branches of government exists, and bribery is largely resorted to by litigants, more especially in civil cases. As a rule money in excess of the legal fees has, in the first instance, to be paid to the clerks and secretaries before a case can be put down for hearing, and the decision of the pre- siding mandarin is too often influenced by the sums of money which find their way into his purse from the pockets of either suitor. But the greatest blot on Chinese administration is the inhumanity shown to both culprits and witnesses in criminal procedure. Tortures of the most painful and revolting kind are used to extort evidence, and punishments scarcely more severely cruel are inflicted on the guilty parties. Flogging with bamboos on the hind part of the thighs, or between the shoulders, beating the jaws with thick pieces of leather, or the ankles with a stick, are some of the preliminary tortures applied to witnesses or culprits who refuse to give the evidence THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 59 expected of them. Further refinements of cruelty are reserved for hardened offenders, by means of which infinite pain, and often permanent injury, are inflicted on the knee joints, fingers, ankles, &c. Occasionally the tortures pass the limits of en- durance, and death releases the victim from his III ^^^ .^«i.^ ^_ miseries ; but as a rule, in the " severe question," life is preserved, but at the expense of crippled limbs. The Turanians are so obtuse-nerved by nature that they probably do not feel pain as acutely as more sensitive races, and their nerves survive shocks Co CHIXA. A\ hich would prove fatal to a more finely organised people. It is this which enables them to pass through the horrors of the torture-chamber alive. ]t must of course be understood that though these tor- tures are unfortunately common, their intensity, and €ven their use, vary with the disposition of each mandarin in whose power it is to inflict them. To many, no doubt, their employment is as repugnant as it would be to an English judge, but to have to look for mercy on the chance of the presiding man- darin being of a kindly disposition, is a poor security for those v/ho enter a criminal court. It follows, as a natural consequence, that in a country where torture is thus resorted to the punish- ments inflicted on criminals must be proportionatel}' cruel. Death, the final punishment, can unfortunately be inflicted in various ways, and a sliding scale of capital punishments is used by the Chinese to mark their sense of the varying heinousness of murderous crimes. For parricide, matricide, and wholesale murders, the usual sentence is that of Ling c/ie, or "" ignominious and slow " death. In the carrying out of this sentence, the culprit is fastened to a cross, and cuts, varying in number, at the discretion of the judge, from eight to a hundred and twenty, are made first on the face and fleshy parts of the body, next the heart is pierced, and finally, when death has been thus caused, the limbs are separated from the body THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 6t and divided. During the year 1877 ten cases in which this punishment was inflicted were reported in the Peking Gazette ; in one of which, shocking to say, a lunatic was the sufferer, a circumstance which adds a weird horror to the ghastly scene. In ordinary cases of capital punishment execution by beheading is the common mode. This is a speedy and merciful death, the skill gained by frequent experience enabling the executioner in almost every case to perform his. task in one blow. On one occasion the author saw thirty-six men beheaded at Canton for robbery with violence. Two executioners were employed, and they finished their task in less than two minutes^ neither of them having once failed to sever the head from the body at the first stroke. The culprits were brought on to the ground heavily chained and in baskets, each basket being carried between two men and slung on a bamboo pole. On arriving at the ap- pointed spot, the men were more thrown than lifted out of the baskets, and were placed in a kneeling position. They were then arranged one behind the- other in two rows, and at a given signal by the pre- siding mandarin, the executioners, who had taken up their positions between the rows at each end, struck right and left. Another death which is less horrible to Chinamen, who view any mutilation of the body as an extreme disgrace, is by strangulation. The privilege of so 62 CHIXA. passing out of the world is accorded at times to influential criminals, whose crimes are not of so heinous a nature as demand their decapitation ; and occasionally they are even allowed to be their own executioners. In the year i86r, a prince of the blood who had been found guilty of treason had this favour extended to him. The "silken cord" was sent to him in his cell in the Board of Punishments, and he was left to consummate his own doom. But his ner\-e forsook him and the jailors were ultimately compelled to carry out the sentence of the law. Other and summary extra-judicial executions are carried out by the people with the silent consent of the officials in the case of kidnappers and others taken red-handed, and their nature is to a great extent moulded by circumstances. If a river should be close at hand the probability is that the criminal would be thrown bound into the water, but the more common mode of l)-nching is to bind the condemned wretch to a cross and to strangle him with a cord passed through a hole in the cross at the back of his neck. It is a fortunate provision of nature that the fear of death diminishes in direct ratio to the frequency of its probable incidence. Seasons of war and political disturbance, when the sword is bare and the executioner's hands are full, are generally times of reckless gaiety and thought- less living, and so in countries such as China, where THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 63 human life possesses, neither in the eyes of the judges nor of the people, the sacredness with which it is viewed in Europe, the people, far from being weighed down with a sense of the possible nearness of death, learn to look on its imminence with indifference and to despise its terrors. The uncertainty also which surrounds the fate of the condemned malefactor is apt to encourage a hope that fortune may be kinder to him than the judge, for it by no means follows that every man upon whom sentence of death is passed finds his way to the execution ground. The lists of condemned criminals are sent at stated times from all parts of the empire to Peking, and the Emperor, guided pretty much by chance, marks with a red pencil the names of a certain proportion on whom it is his imperial will that the sentence of the law should be carried out at the approaching jail delivery. On the morning of the day fixed for the execution the jailor enters the prison and reads out the names of the unfortunate ones, who are then taken before the judge to be officially identified, after which they are allowed a meal, which is supplied either by their friends or the prison authorities, mainly consisting, as a rule, of some narcotic, and are finally carried off to the execution ground. The names of those left in prison are sent up to Peking with the next batch, and those who are lucky enough to escape the vermilion pencil two or three times are generally 64 CHINA. sent off into banishment for life. In the old days, when the great wall was being built, such criminals were sent to work at that huge undertaking, but since that time they have been banished beyond the frontiers into either Mongolia or Manchuria. It may be that in some cases the indifference with which criminals leave their cells for the execution ground is to be traced to the supreme misery of their prison life, and to any one who has visited a Chinese prison this indifference is not surprising. Asiatics are almost invariably careless about the sufferings of others, and Chinamen are no exception to the rule. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the horrors of a Chinese prison. The filth and dirt of the rooms, the brutality of the jailors, the miserable diet, and the entire absence of the commonest sanitary arrangements, make up a picture which it is too horrible to draw in detail. During the war of i860, as before stated, two of our countrymen, Sir Harry Parkes and Mr. Loch, were treacherously taken prisoners, and were confined in the prison of the Board of Punishments at Peking. The extraordinary' fortitude of these men and the horrors of their surroundings may be imagined from the following passages from Mr. Loch's " Narrative of Events in China ": — " The discipline of the prison was in itself not very strict, and had it not been for the starvation, the pain arising from the cramped position in which the chains and ropes retained the THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 65 arms and legs, with the heavy drag of the iron collar on the bones of the spine, and the creeping vermin that infested every place, together with the occasional beatings and tortures which the prisoners were from time to time taken away for a few hours to endure, — returning with bleeding legs and bodies, and so weak as to be scarce able to crawl — there was no very great hardship to be endured . . . There is a small maggot which appears to infest all Chinese prisons ; the earth at the depth of a few inches swarms with them ; they are the scourge most dreaded by every poor prisoner. Few enter a Chinese gaol who have not on their bodies or limbs some wounds, either inflicted by blows to which they have been subjected, or caused by the manner in which they have been bound ; the instinct of the insect to which I allude appears to lead him direct to these wounds. Bound and helpless, the poor wretch cannot save himself from their approach, although he knows full well that if they once succeed in reaching his lacerated skin there is the certainty of a fearful, lingering, and agonizing death before him." In the provincial prisons the condition of the wretched culprits is even worse than in the Board of Punishments. Those who were present at the first inspection of the Canton prisons after the taking of that city in 1859, "^^ill never forget the sight which met their gaze. In one foul dark den, men in whom life yet lingered were F 66 CHINA. lying by the side of a corpse in an advanced stage of decomposition, and so pestilential was the atmos- phere that it was only possible to endure it for a moment. As the wretched creatures were dragged out to the light of day, and the full horror of their condition became apparent, English soldiers who were present wept as they had not wept since they were children, at the sight of such unutterable suffering.^ And there is no reason to suppose that the Canton prisons are not typical of the prisons throughout the empire ; on the contrary, the gross neglect and abominable cruelty of magistrates and jailors which are occasionally shown up in the Peking Gazette point to the conclusion that other jails are as foul, and other warders as brutal, as those of Canton. Chinese law-giv-ers have distinguished verj- markedly between crimes accompanied and unaccompanied with violence. For offences of the latter description punishments of a comparative!}- light nature are in- flicted, such as wearing the wooden collar, known among Europeans as the canque, and piercing the ears with arrows, to the ends of which are attached slips of paper on which are inscribed the crime of which the culprit has been guilty. Frequently the criminals, bearing these signs of their disgrace, are 1 " China," by Wingrove Cooke. ''=^^^fe .^^^^^-rr / A PRISONER IN THE CANQUE. 'J^o face page 66. THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 67 paraded up and down the street where their offence was committed, and sometimes, in more serious cases they are flogged through the leading thoroughfares of the city, preceded by a herald, who announces the nature of their misdemeanours. But to give a list of Chinese punishments would be to exhaust the ingenuity of man to torture his fellow-creatures. The subject is a horrible one, and it is a relief to turn from the dingy prison gates and the halls of so-called justice to the family life of the people. F2 ^PE ^s^^i ^1^^ 1 ^^^^2 ^^^ 5^§S9f v€«r^ 1 ^^^ I^^m ^/<^^^ ^^^ 1 CHAPTER III. MARRIAGE. E have said that the government of the empire is modelled on the government of a household, and at the root of all family ties, says one of the Chinese classics, is the relation of husband and wife, which is as the relation of heaven and earth. Chinese historians state that the rite of marriage was first instituted by the Emperor Fuh-he, who reigned in the twenty-eighth century B.C., and who or- dained, as a preliminary, that the intending bridegroom should present his future bride with a pair of prepared skins as an earnest of their engagement. But before this period there is abundant evidence to show that, as amongst all MARRIAGE. 69 other peoples, the first form of marriage in China Avas by capture. The modern character ^ cJiu^ meaning to marry, is said to bear in its construc- tion a reference to this old practice, made up as it is of an ear I^, a hand ^, and a woman 3^, thus commemorating the custom of bringing in captives by the ear, as is still done by Chinese soldiers in time of war. On the evening of the marriage the Chinese bridegroom either goes himself or sends a friend to bring his bride to his house, but always after dark, as if by stealth, and the ceremony, such as it is, is performed in his house. In the same way, but in a more primitive form, we find the bridegroom among a northern Mongolian tribe chasing his bride through the compartments of her father's tent, while old women go through the form of tripping him up and ■otherwise hindering him in his pursuit. And among 5ome Central Asiatic tribes the bridegroom chases his wife on horseback. But whether the pursuit is in a Siberian tent or on a Central Asiatic steppe, the result is the same, the bride gives in at last, and be- comes the property of her pursuer. Among our- selves, no doubt, the practice of a bridegroom going to take over his bride accompanied by a " best man " is a survival from the time when men took their wives by force, and the bridesmaids of the present day represent the defenders of their fortunate or unfortunate sister. 70 CHINA. But at the present day marriage is probably more universal in China than in any other civilised country in the world. It is regarded as something indispens- able, and few men pass the age of twenty without taking to themselves a wife. Chinese legislators have at all times encouraged early marriages as having a pacifying effect upon the people. A man who has giv^en hostages to fortune in the shape of a wife and children has a greater indiucement to follow in the paths of steady industry, and is less likely to throw in his lot with brigands and rebels, than a man who has but himself to think of, and is without any immediate ties. But besides this the Chinese believe, in common with the ancient Greeks, that " the shades of the unburied wander restlessly about without gaining admittance into Hades ; so that non-burial came to be considered the most deplorable calamity that could befall one, and the discharge of the last service a most holy duty."^ To die, therefore, without leaving behind a son to per- form the burial rites, and to offer up the fixed perio- dical sacrifices at the tomb, is one of the most direful fates that can overtake a Chinaman, and he seeks to avoid it by an early marriage. But " the gods, we are told, bestow not on men all their gifts at once," and it sometimes happens that the desired object is * Beaker's Gall us. MARRIAGE. 71 not obtained. As, however, among the ancient Jews the necessity of securing an heir is of such vital im- portance that in such cases the first wife has not unfrequently to make way for a second, and the practice of adoption comes to the relief of those to whom children are hopelessly denied. The Chinese, however, being monogamists, it is necessary that, before taking another wife, a man should divorce the existing one. Nor is this a difficult process, since any one of the seven pleas for divorce spoken of later on, would be enough for his purpose. Like every other rite in China, that of marriage is fenced in with a host of ceremonies. In a vast majority of cases a bridegroom never sees his bride until the wedding-night, it being considered a grave breach of etiquette for young men and maidens to associate together or even to see one another. Of course it does occasionally happen that either by stealth or by chance a pair become acquainted ; but whether they have thus associated or whether they are perfect strangers, the first formal overture must of necessity be made by a go-between, who, having received a commission from the parents of the young man, proceeds to the house of the lady and makes a formal proposal on behalf of the would-be bride- groom's parents. If the young lady's father ap- proves the proposed alliance, the suitor sends the lady some presents as an earnest of his intention. 72 CHIXA. The parents next exchange documents, Avhich set forth the hour, day, month, and year when the young people were born, and the maiden names of their mothers. Astrologers are then called in to cast the horoscopes, and should these be favourable, the engagement is formally entered into, but not so irrevocably that there are not left several orthodox ways of breaking it off. If, for instance, a china bowl should be broken, or an article be lost in the house of either within three days of the engagement, the circumstance is considered to be sufficiently un- lucky to warrant the instant termination of the nego- tiations. But should things go smoothly the bride- groom's father writes a formal letter of agreement to the lady's father, accompanied by presents, con- sisting in some cases of sweetmeats and a live pig, and in others of a goose and gander, which are re- garded as emblems of conjugal fidelity. At the same time the bridegroom prepares two large cards, on which are written the particulars of the engagement. On the outer side of the one which he keeps is pasted a paper dragon, and on the outside of the other, which is sent to the lady, appears a Phoenix. Each card is adorned with two pieces of red silk, which have their origin in the following legend : — " In the time of the T'ang dynasty — that is to say, about a thousand years ago — a man named Hwuy Ko while staying in the town of Sung met an old man reading MARRIAGE. a book by the light of the moon. In answer to Hwuy's inquiring look, the old man said, ' This is the register of the engagements for all marriages under heaven, and in my pocket I have red cords with which I connect the feet of those who are to become hus- band and wife. When these cords are once tied nothing on earth can change the destiny of the par- ties. Your future wife,' added he, ' is the child of the old woman who sells vegetables in yonder shop in the north of the town.' Upon hearing this Hwuy hurried off to the vegetable shop, and found the woman in charge possessed of such a hideous little infant of about a year old, that in his despair he hired a man to kill the child. Years afterwards the prefect of the town where Hwuy Ko then lived, gave him in mar- riage a beautiful young lady whom he affirmed was his own daughter. Seeing that his bride always wore an artificial flower over one of her eyebrows, Hwuy Ko asked her the reason of her doing so. ' I am the daughter,' replied she, ' of the Prefect's brother who died at Sung when I was an infant, leaving me to the care of an old woman who sold vegetables. One day when I was out with her in the street a ruffian struck me on my forehead, and made such a scar that I am obliged to wear this flower to hide the mark.' " Hwuy Ko then recognised the immutability of fate, and from that day to this red silk has been entwined in the marriage-cards of every pair in China. 74 CHIXA. Following on the exchange of these cards, presents varying according to the rank and fortune of the suitor are vicariously presented by him to the lady. Recourse is then again had to astrologers to fix a fortunate day for the final ceremony, on the evening of ^^■hich the bridegroom's best man proceeds to the house of the lady and conducts her to her future home in a red sedan chair, accompanied by musicians who — as in ancient Athens — enliven the procession with wedding-airs. At the door of the house the bride alights from her sedan, and is lifted over a pan of MARRIAGE. 75 burning charcoal, or a red-hot coulter, laid on the threshold by two " women of luck," whose husbands and children must be living. Sir John Lubbock states that this ceremony of lifting a bride over the 76 CHIXA. threshold exists in the four continents, and we know that in ancient Rome the bridegroom received his bride with fire and water, and presented these two elements to her touch. No full explanation has been given of this curiously- universal practice, but it may possibly be useful as conveying a hint to the lady that for the future she should stay at home and not face the dangers of re- crossing the threshold. In the reception-room the bridegroom awaits his bride on a raised dais, at the foot of which she humbly prostrates herself. He then descends to her level, and, removing her veil, gazes on her face for the first time. Without exchanging a word they seat them- selves side by side, and each tries to sit on a part of the dress of the other, it being considered that the one who succeeds in so doing will hold rule in the household. This trial of skill over, the pair pro- ceed to the hall, and there before the family altar worship heaven and earth and their ancestors. They then go to dinner in their apartment, through the open door of which the guests scrutinise and make their remarks on the appearance and demeanour of the bride. This ordeal is the more trying to her since etiquette forbids her to eat anything — a prohi- bition which is not shared by the bridegroom, who enjoys the dainties provided as his appetite may suggest. The attendants next hand to each in turn MARRIAGE. -jy a cup of wine, and, having exchanged pledges, the wedding ceremonies come to an end. In some parts of the country it is customary for the bride to sit up late into the night answering riddles which are pro- pounded to her by the guests ; in other parts it is usual for her to show herself for a time in the hall, whither her husband does not accompany her, as it is contrary to etiquette for a husband and wife ever to appear together in public. For the same reason she goes to pay the customary visit to her parents on the third day after the wedding alone, and for the rest of her wedded life she enjoys the society of her husband only in the privacy of her apartments. The lives of women in China, and especially of married women, are such as to justify the wish, often expressed by the fair followers of Buddha, that in their next state of existence they may be born men. Even if in their baby days they escape the infanti- cidal tendencies of their parents, and this they will certainly do unless the household is hard pressed by poverty, and even then the chances are greatly in favour of their surviving, they are regarded as secon- dary considerations compared with their brothers. The philosophers, from Confucius downwards, have all agreed in assigning them an inferior place to men. " Of all people," said Confucius, " women are the most difficult to manage. If you are familiar with them they become forward, and if you keep them at 78 CHINA. a distance they become discontented." When the time comes for them to marry, custom requires them, in nine cases out of ten to take, as we have seen, a leap in the dark, and that wife is fortunate who finds in her husband a congenial and faithful companion. If the reverse should be the case, the probability is that her career will be one of great unhappiness. Though society looks with a certain amount of dis- favour upon the practice of concubinage, except in case of the wife being childless, it still frequently obtains, and gives rise to much misery and heart- burnings in households. A concubine is generally bought, or occasionally is received as a present. She occupies in the family an inferior position to the wife, and her children, if she has any, belong by law to the wife. The lawgivers, accepting the general view of the inferiority of women, which is sufficiently indi- cated by the fact that they are marketable com- modities, have provided that a husband may divorce his wife for any one of the following seven faults : — 1. Disobedience to father-in-law or mother-in-law, 2. Barrenness, 3. Lewdness. 4. Jealousy. 5. Lep- rosy. 6. Garrulousness ; and 7, Stealing. On the other hand no offence, of whatever kind, on the part of the husband, gives a woman any right to claim a divorce from him. The consequence of this very one-sided legislation is, no doubt, to promote that courteous, humble, and conciliatory address and man- MARRIAGE. 79 ner which moralists say should mark a wife's conduct towards her husband ; and the same authorities hold that in no case should she do more than gently re- monstrate with him on any departure on his part from " right principles," and never so as to annoy or irritate him. So many are the disabilities of married women that many girls prefer going into Buddhist or Taouist nunneries, or even committing suicide, to trusting their future to men of whom they can know nothing but from the interested reports of the go-betweens. Archdeacon Gray, in his recent work on China, states that in 1873 eight young girls, residing near Canton, "who had been affianced, drowned themselves in order to avoid marriage. They clothed themselves in their best attire, and at eleven o'clock, in the darkness of the night, having bound themselves together, they threw themselves into a tributary stream of the Canton River." The re-marriage of widows is regarded as an im- propriety, and in wealthy families is seldom practised. But among the poorer classes necessity often compels a widow to seek another bread-winner. The leading paraphernalia of the first marriage is, however, denied her. Instead of the red wedding sedan, borne by four or more men, she has to go to her new home in a common, small, black or blue chair, carried by two bearers, and unaccompanied by the music which So CHINA. cheered her on her first journey on a similar errand. Some, however, having been possibly unfortunate in their first matrimonial venture, refuse to listen to any proposal for a re-marriage, and, like the young girls mentioned above, seek escape by death from the importunities of relatives who desire to get them off their hands. A reverse view of matrimonial experiences is sug- gested by the practice of wives refusing to survive their husbands, and, like the victims of suttee in India, putting a voluntary end to their existence rather than liv^e to mourn their loss. Such devotion is regarded by the people with great approbation, and the deed of suicide is generally performed in public, and with great punctiliousness. The follow- ing account of one such suicide at Fuhchow is taken from the Hong Kong Daily Press of January 20th, 1861 :— "A few days since," says the writer, "I met a Chinese procession passing through the foreign settlement, escorting a young person in scarlet and gold in a richly decorated chair ; the object of which, I found, was to invite the public to come and see her hang herself, a step she had resolved to take in conse- quence of the death of her husband, by Avhich she had been left a childless widow. Both being orphans this event had severed her dearest earthly ties, and she hoped by this sacrifice to secure herself eternal MARRIAGE: 8i happiness, and a meeting with her husband in the next world. Availing myself of the general invi- tation, I repaired on the day appointed to the indi- cated spot. We had scarcely arrived, when the same procession was seen advancing from the Joss house of the woman's native village towards a scaffold or gallows erected in an adjacent field, and surrounded by hundreds of natives of both sexes ; the female portion, attired in gayest holiday costume, was very numerous. I and a friend obtained a bench for a consideration, which, being placed within a few yards of the scaffold, gave us a good view of the perform- ance. The procession having reached the foot of the scaffold the lady was assisted to ascend by her ' male attendant, and, after having welcomed the crowd, partook with some female relatives of a repast prepared for her on a table on the scaffold, which she appeared to appreciate extremely. A child in arms was then placed upon the table, whom she caressed and adorned with a necklace which she had worn herself. She then took an ornamented basket con- taining rice, herbs, and flowers, and, whilst scattering them amongst the crowd, delivered a short address, thanking them for their attendance, and upholding the motives which urged her to the step she was about to take. This done, a salute of bombards announced the arrival of the time for the perform- ance of the last act of her existence, when a delay G 82 CHINA. was occasioned by the discovery of the absence of a reluctant brother, pending whose arrival let me de- scribe the means of extermination. The gallows was formed by an upright timber on each side of the scaffold supporting a stout bamboo, from the centre of which was suspended a loop of cord with a small wooden ring embracing both parts of it, which was covered by a red silk handkerchief, the whole being surrounded by an awning. " The missing brother having been induced to ap- pear, the widow now proceeded to mount on a chair placed under the noose, and, to ascertain its fitness for her reception, deliberately placed her head in it ; then, withdrawing her head, she waved a final adieu to the admiring spectators, and committed herself to its embrace for the last time, throwing the red handker- chief over her head. Her supports were now about to be withdrawn, when she was reminded by several voices in the crowd that she had omitted to draw down the ring which should tighten the cord round her neck ; smiling in acknowledgment of the re- minder she adjusted the ring, and, motioning away her supports, was left hanging in mid-air — a suicide. With extraordinary self-possession she now placed her hands before her, and continued to perform the manual chin-chin, until the convulsions of strangu- lation separated them and she was dead. The body was left hanging about half-an-hour, and then taken MARRIAGE. 83 down by her male attendants, one of whom imme- diately took possession of the halter, and was about to sever it for the purpose of appropriating a portion, when a struggle ensued, of which I took advantage to attach myself to the chair in which the body was now being removed to the Joss house, in order to obtain ocular proof of her demise. Arrived at the Joss house the body was placed on a couch, and the handkerchief withdrawn from the face disclosed un- mistakable proofs of death. This is the third in- stance of suicide of this sort within as many weeks. The authorities are quite unable to prevent it, and a monument is invariably erected to the memory of the devoted widovv\" Formerly these stately suicides were not unfre- quently presided over by some of the local authorities. But it is said that on one such occasion the lady made an excuse for leaving the scaffold, and never returned, since which misadventure no mandarin has been found bold enough to risk becoming the victim of the repetition of so annoying an hoax. The monuments generally raised to these suicides consist either of a tablet in one of the neighbouring temples, or an archway built across the street in which the victim lived. Monuments of a similar kind are earned by widows who have remained widows indeed, for forty or fifty years, and for such the imperial approbation is generally sought for and obtained, the edict an- G 2 84 CHINA. nouncing the gracious answer of the emperor always appearing in the Peking Gazette. The only ancient bar to marriage in China was consanguinity, as evidenced by the possession of identical surnames, but later legislation has declared marriages with a cousin on the mother's side, or a step-daughter, or a mother's sister, illegal, and, strictly speaking, punishable with death by strangulation. The picture here given of married life in China has been necessarily darkly shaded, since it is as a rule only in its unfortunate phases that it affords oppor- tunity for remark. As has been said of an empire, that household is fortunate which has no history, and without doubt there are many hundreds of thousands of families in China which are in that happy condition. The placid natures of Chinamen make them compara- tively safe depositories of power over their fellow creatures. A man who has been accustomed from his youth up to perform every little duty with a punctilious regard to the ceremonies which are proper to it, to regulate every motion of his body by fixed rules, and to consider every breach of the elaborate etiquette which surrounds his daily life, as a stain upon his character, is less likely to be actively cruel and violent than more unceremonious and warlike people ; and Chinese wives doubtless benefit by the peaceful tendencies of those observances. Happiness is after all a relative term, and Chinese MARRIAGE. 85 women, knowing no higher status, are, as a rule, content to run the risk of wrongs which would be unendurable to an English woman, and to find hap- piness under conditions which are fortunately un- known in western countries. CHAPTER IV. THE NURTURE AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. !HE main object of marriage being, as has been said, to obtain descendants, the accomplishment of the desire is attended with rejoicing, and with a mul- tiplicity of strange ob- servances. Even before the infant appears on the world's stage it is the object of superstitious rites. It is currently believed that every woman is represented in the other world by a tree or flower, and that consequently, just as grafting adds to the productiveness of trees, so adopting a child is likely to encourage a growth of olive branches. But if this method fails, it is held that the soil round the roots of the tree in the unseen THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 87 region requires changing, and a sorceress is hired to proceed thither to change the earth. Another method of securing the longed-for blessing of children is ** to obtain from the temple of the goddess of children a shoe which has been worn by her. This is taken home, and being placed beside the image or tablet of the goddess, receives equal worship ; and should the desired object be attained, a pair of shoes exactly resembling the one obtained must be returned to the temple." On becoming satisfied of the probable ful- filment of her wishes, the expectant mother's next desire is to discover of which sex her child will be. And to gain this knowledge, she adopts the simple expedient of adding to the number of her age in years that of the month, day, and hour she was born. Thus if twenty years old, and she was born in the sixth hour of the third day of the second montli, she would have a total of thirty-one. She then takes a .series of pictures of the thirty-six assistants of the goddess of children, sold for fortune-telling purposes, and, according to the sex of the child in the arms of the thirty-first, concludes that her child will be a boy or a girl. If the number of her age, etc., exceed thirty-six, she commences to count the first picture as number thirty-seven, and so on. If, however, she desires to make sure that her child will be a son, she gets up one morning at dawn, and, having put on her husband's clothes and cap, goes to 88 CHINA. the nearest well, and walks round it three times, always towards the left hand, and while so doinc;- watches her shadow in the water. If she gets back to the house without having been seen, and without anyone having known of her mission, the desire of her heart, so says the current belief, will be gratified. The day and hour on which the bab}^ is born are considered as portentous for the future good or evil of the child, as among our own north cowxiXxy folks. A child born on the fifth day of a month, and more certainly if on the fifth of the fifth month, will either commit suicide in after-life, or will murder his parents. But apart from these and some other ill-omened days, a child born at noon is believed to be a sure inheritor of wealth and honour, and he who first sees the light between nine and eleven will have a hard lot at first and afterwards great riches ; while the un- fortunate infant who appears between three and five is doomed to poverty and woe. As has been said by Mr. Dennys, in his "Folk-lore of China," "if the Chinese lay great stress on the hour of birth, we no less attribute to the day a talismanic influence over the future of the new-born child ; as witness the goodwives' rhyme : — Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursda)'s child has far to go. THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. Friday's child is loving and giving-, Saturday's child works hard for its living, But the child which is born on the Sabbath-daj', Is blythe and bonnie, and good and gay." The cries and movements of babies are carefully watched by the light of the regulations laid down by physiognomists, who say that if a baby cries long, he will live to be old ; but that if his cries are con- stantly intermittent, his life is precarious. Babies whose cries die out, or the tone of whose crying is deep, or who open their own eyes, or who constantly move their hands and feet, are doomed by the same authorities to early, death ; while a child who walks, teeths, and speaks early has a bad disposition, and will turn out to be unloveable. Swaddling clothes for babies are essential for the purpose of preventing contact with any evil influence which may interfere with the all-pervading principle of the season. For instance, should the time of year be spring or summer, then the life-producing prin- ciple is abroad, and it is of the utmost importance that the baby should be protected from the touch of anything that would counteract that principle existing in it. In the same way, in autumn and winter the gathering-in principle is prevailing, and care must be taken to ward off all contact with everything hostile to it. The first clothes worn by the infant should be made out of the coat and trousers of some old man 90 CHIXA. of seventy or eighty years, to ensure a like length of life to the wearer. But to return to the pre-clothes period : on the third day after its birth the baby is washed for the first time. The occasion is one of great moment, and the relations and friends are in- vited to take part in the ceremony. Each guest brings with him or her, as the case may be, an onion and some cash — emblems of keen-wittedness and wealth — which they present the child. Water, in which scented herbs and leaves have been fused, is used in the ablutions, and when the process is over all present join in oftering sacrifices to the Goddess of children for the mercy she has vouchsafed. At the end of a month the mother leaves her room for the first time, and the ceremonies of naming the baby, and of shaving its head, whether girl or boy, are gone through on the occasion. In contra- distinction to this rational and civilised regard for the mother, the aborigines in the Province of Kwei-chow preserve the curious custom, known as couvardc, which is, or was, also practised by the Basques among other peoples. The mother among these tribes gets up immediately after the birth of the child, and goes about her ordinary' duties, while the father goes to bed with the infant for a month ; the idea being that the life of the father and child is one, and that any harm happening to the father will affect injuriously the well-being of the infant. For a hundred days THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 91 the Chinese mother remains in the house, and at the end of that time goes with her infant to the temple of Kwan-yin — the Goddess of matrons — to return thanks for the possession of a child. On its first birthday, if the child be a boy, he is seated in a large sieve, in which are placed round him a set of money- scales, a pair of shears, a foot measure, a brass mirror, a pencil, ink, paper, ink-slab, a book or two, an abacus, and other implements and ornaments ; and the assembled friends watch to see which object he first handles, in order to gain an indication of his future career. The brightest hopes are entertained of his scholarship should he take up a book or pencil. To see him handle the money-scales is the next ambition of his parents, and the probability is that devices are not wanting to direct his attention to the objects which it is particularly desired he should touch. The power of a Chinese father over his children is as full as that possessed by the Roman father, and stops short only with life. The practice of selling children is common, and, though the law makes it a punishable offence should the sale be effected against the will of the children, the prohibition is practically ignored. In the same way a law exists in the statute- book making infanticide a crime, but as a matter of fact it is never acted upon ; and in some parts of the country, more especially in the provinces of Keang-se 92 CHINA. and Fuh-keen, this most unnatural offence prevails among- the poorer classes to an alarming extent. Not only do the people acknowledge the existence of the practice, but they even go the length of de- fending it. What, they say, is the good of rearing daughters ; when they are young they are only an expense, and when they reach an age when they might be able to earn a living, they marry and leave us. Periodically the mandarins inveigh against the inhumanity of the offence, and appeal to the better instincts of the people to put a stop to it ; but a stone which stands near a pool outside the city of Fuhchow, bearing the inscription, "girls may not be drowned here," testifies with terrible emphasis to the futility of their praiseworthy endeavours. It is only, however, abject poverty which drives parents to this dreadful expedient, and in the more prosperous and wealthy districts the crime is almost unknown. The complete subjection of children to their parents puts into the hands of these latter a power which is occasionally exercised with cruelty, as is implied by the existence of the laws which provide that a father who chastises his son to death, shall receive a hundred blows with the bamboo, and that sixty blows and a year's banishment shall be the punishment inflicted for the murder of a disobedient child or grandchild. So firmly is respect to parents imbued in the minds of every Chinese boy and youth, that resistance to THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 93 the infliction of cruel and even unmerited punish- ment is seldom if ever offered, and full-grown men submit meekly to be flogged without raising their hands. The law steps in on every occasion in sup- port of parental authority, and prison doors are readily opened at the request of parents for the reception of disobedient sons, with one curious exception, viz., a father cannot send his son for perpetual imprison- ment against the wishes of his son's wife. Over the property of sons the father's authority is as complete as over their liberty ; he is, however, occasionally called upon to pay debts incurred by his son, and contrarywise the son, if by any means possessed of property, is obliged to pay his father's debts. J- Filial piety is the leading principle in Chinese ethics. It is the point upon which every teacher, from Confucius downwards, has most strongly in- sisted, and its almost universal practice affords ground for the belief held by some that in the long con- tinuance of the empire the Chinese are reaping the reward held out in the fifth commandment of the Mosaic decalogue. " Filial piety," said Confucius, " consists in obedience ; in serving one's parents when alive according to propriety ; in burying them when dead according to propriety ; and in sacrificing to them according to propriety." In the " Book of Rites" it is laid down that "during the lifetime of his parents a son should not go abroad ; or, if he do 94 CHIXA. SO, then to a fixed place. When at home he should rise with the first cock-crow, and having washed and dressed himself carefully, should inquire what the wishes of his parents are as to the food they would eat and drink. He should not enter a room unless invited by his father, nor retire without permission ; neither should he speak unless spoken to."- These are not unheeded precepts, but are to this day ob- served, if not strictly to the letter, at least in the spirit. The only exception to the exercise of immediate parental control is when a son takes office. The emperor then stands to him in loco parentis, and though he is bound to conform to the recognised national customs with regard to parents, he is eman- cipated from their jurisdiction. When either of them die he is compelled to retire from office for three years, which in practice is by a fiction reduced to twenty-seven months. But in private life, as long as his parents live, he holds himself at their disposal, and is guided by them in the choice of his occupation and in every concern of life. School-life begins at the age of six, and among the wealthier classes great care is shown in the choice of a master. His excellences must be moral as well as mental, and his power of teaching must be unques- ' " Confucianism and Taouism." [S.P.C.K.] THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 95 tioned. The selection of a lucky dayfor beginningwork is confided to astrologers, who avoid above all other days those upon which Confucius and Tsang Hieh, the reputed inventor of writing, died and were buried. The stars having indicated a propitious day, the boy £ ^O/Vj/^T' presents himself at the school, bringing with him two small candles, some sticks of incense, and some paper- money, which are burnt at the shrine of Confucius, before which also the little fellow prostrates himself three times. There being no alphabet in Chinese, 96 CHINA. the pupil has to plunge at once in ificdias res and begins by learning to read the San tsce king, a work written in sentences of three characters, each containing a scrap of elementary knowledge. Having mastered the mysteries of this book he is x^^^^^ taught the Tsien tsze king, or the thousand character classic, which deals with somewhat more advanced subjects. The next step is to the " Four Books," known as the Ltm yu, or Confucian Analects ; the Ta heo, or the Great Learning ; the CJinng yung, or THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 97 the Golden Medium ; and the Maiig tsze, or Sayings of Mencius. Then follow the five classics, viz., the Yik king, or Book of Changes ; the Shoo king, or Book of History ; the Chun tsew, or Spring and Autumn Annals;" the She king, or Book of Odes; and the Le ke, or Book of Rites. This is the ultima thule of Chinese learning. A full comprehension of these four books and five classics, together with the com- mentaries upon them, and the power of turning this knowledge to account in the shape of essays and poems is all that is required at the highest examina- tions in the empire. Year after year these form the subjects of study of every aspiring scholar until every character and every phrase is, or should be, indelibly engraved on the memory. This course of instruction has been exactly followed in every school in the empire for many centuries, and the result is that there are annually turned out a vast number of lads all cast in the same mould, all possessed of a certain amount of ready-made knowledge, and with their memories unduly exercised at the expense of their thinking powers. The choice of a future calling, which is often so perplexing to English lads and their parents, is simplified in China by the fact of there being but two pursuits which a man of respect- ability and education can follow, namely, the man- darinate and trade. The liberal professions, as we understand them, are unknown in China. The judicial H 98 CHINA. system forbids the existence of the legal professions, except in the case of official secretaries attached to the mandarins' yamuns ; and medicine is, with a few exceptions, represented by charlatans, who prey on the follies of their fellow-men, and dispense such mon- strous nostrums as ground tigers' teeth, snakes' skins, etc., in lieu of drugs. A lad, or his parents for him, has, therefore, practically to consider whether the position he has held at school is sufficiently good, to justify his attempting to compete at the general competitive examinations to qualify him for office, or whether he should embark in one of the numerous mercantile concerns which abound among the money- making and thrifty Chinese. Should he prefer winning fame and gaining official rank he loses no time in perfecting himself in the books he studied at school, and in practising the art of writing essays, and penning verses. As soon as he considers himself sufficiently prepared to undergo the first ordeal he presents himself before the secretary of the magistrate of the district in which he lives, armed with a paper stating his name, age, place of residence, the names of his father, mother, grand- parents, and great grandparents, and giving a descrip- tion of his appearance, and especially the colour of his complexion. In return his name is entered as a candidate for the next examination, and he pays his fee in the shape of the purchase he is expected to make THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 99 of paper for the examination. On a day appointed by the magistrate, the candidates, who frequently number two or more thousands, according to the size of the district, go at daylight to the Kaou-pung-tsze, or examination-hall, in the magistrate's yamun. When all are assembled — the magistrate having taken his seat at a table covered with red cloth at the upper end of the hall — a notice-board is dis- played, on which appear three passages from the four books, on which the students are expected to write two essays and a poem. This constitutes the preliminary trial, and after a few days a list of the names of those who have passed is posted up at the yamun gate. The names of those who have done best are arranged in a centrifugal circle at the head of the list, while the rest are written side by side perpendicularly. The next examination, which lasts five days, takes place after only a short interval. The compulsory work on each of the first four days consists of an essay on a text from the four books and a poem, but on the third day an extra ode is optional, and so also on the fourth day are additional poems. On the fifth day part of an essay (which is purposely left incomplete) on a text from the same source is required. Again a list of the successful candidates is pub- lished, and to these the magistrate gives a congratul- atory feast. The scene is next changed to the H 2 loo CHINA. literary chancellor's yamuii in the prefectural cit\-, where those who have dined with the magistrate appear before the prefect as a preliminary to a final examination by the chancellor. This test also lasts five days, and is conducted exactly as those at the magistrate's yamun, the subjects being taken from the same books. In the same way it is customary for the prefect to entertain those who pass best at a dinner, and with this feast his part in the examina- tion ceases. The literary chancellor next then ex- amines those whose numbers — for he is not supposed to know their names — have been sent him by the prefect, and from them he selects the best men to the number laid down by law. These meet on a given day the successful competitors at the other district-examinations in the prefectures, when they are expected to write from memory one of the six- teen edicts of the Emperor K'ang-he, with the com- mentary thereon of his son, Yung-ching. This completes the examination, and on those who have survived the various tests is conferred the degree of Siu-ts'ai, or " Elegant Scholarship," which may be said to be the equivalent of our degree of Bachelor of Arts. Having donned the dress proper to their rank, the new graduates go in a body to pay their respects to the literary chancellor, before whom, at a word of command from the master of ceremonies, they perform the Kotow three times. Subsequently THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. they pay the same honour to the prefect, and they then disperse to their various homes. The examination for the next degree of Kil-jin is held in the provincial examination-hall in the provincial capital by two commissioners, especially sent for the purpose from Peking. These officials generally arrive a day or two before the date fixed for the examination, and take up their quarters in residences prepared for them in the city, the doors of which are immediately sealed up so as to prevent any contaminating influences from reaching them. On the day before the examination begins, they move into yamuns set apart for their use within the precincts of the " schools," accompanied by the governor of the province. During the night pre- ceding the examination, or very early on the morning of the day, the graduates, who generally number from six to eight thousand, enter the hall, and each takes possession of the cell set apart for him, and which bears a number correspondent to that on his roll of examination-paper. The cells are built in rows, and are about three feet wide, three and a half deep, and about six feet high. They have neither doors nor windows, and the furniture of each consists only of three or four pieces of wide board, which serve as bench and table during the day and a bedstead by night. Each competitor brings with him food for two days, and on entering is rigorously 102 CHINA. searched to see that he has no " cribs " with him. As soon as all are assembled, the doors are locked and sealed, and the examiners having vowed before Heaven that they will act justly, and without fear or favour, in the approaching ordeal, the work begins by the issuing to each student of four texts from the " Four Books," upon which he is expected to write three essays and a poem. Two days are given for the completion of these tasks, and at the end of that time the doors are thrown open, and those who have finished their work pass out under a salute of three guns and the beating of drums. Those who are not ready are allowed a few hours' additional time. Meanwhile, on the completion of each essay, it is carried to the assistant examiners, who, if they find any infringement of the canonical laws of composi- tion, cast it aside at once ; on the other hand, if they approve its contents, they mark it with a red circle, and forward a copy of it to the prefect, who, on re- ceiving it, beats the " recommending drum " sus- pended at his office. The original manuscript is in each case handed over to the custody of the governor, the copy only coming before the commissioners, in order to prevent the possibility of their recognising the handwriting of any possibly favoured competitors. After a day's interval the students reassemble, and with the same formalities write four essays and a poem on five texts from the " Five Classics." Again THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 103 they disperse for twenty-four hours, and a third time take their seats, or at least those of them whose papers have not been thrown out, for the final ordeal. This time they are given six texts on miscellaneous subjects, on which they have to write five essays and a poem. This completes the examination, and the doors having been opened for the last time, the com- petitors, together with the three or four thousand officials and servants who are employed by the government for the regulation and service of the hall, pour out into the city. As soon as the commissioners have satisfied themselves on the relative merits of the papers, they issue a list of the names of those to whom they award the degree of Ku-jin, or Master of Arts. To the new Ku-jin the governor of a province offers dubious hospitality in the shape of a feast, known as Luh ming, or Belling of the Deer, a name given to it from the fact, that an ode from the book of poetry bearing that name is chanted on the occa- sion. The elaborate pretensions of this festival are in inverse ratio to its merit, and in exchange for the honour done them, the graduates, at a given signal from the master of ceremonies, bow their heads to the ground three times before their host. Visits are afterwards made to the literary chancellor and other officials connected with the examinations. Immediately on winning their degrees, the graduates 104 CHINA. receive from the emperor, at the hands of the pro- vincial treasurer, a suit of clothes and a pair of boots. But these, like the governor's feast, are mere shadows of what they purport to be, and the difference between the value of really good articles and of the trash sent to the graduates remains in the treasurer's pocket. In the same way the money actually spent on conducting the examinations bears no proportion whatever to the amount charged on the imperial exchequer, but not a coin of the unexpended balance ever finds its way back to the treasur}'. The successful candidates, on return to their homes, are received with every mark of honour, and the parents-in-law of each give a grand entertainment in commemoration of the event. The honour attaching to literary degrees is so great, and the desire to possess them is so universal, that to suppose that the examinations are, unlike every other institution in China, free from bribery and corruption, is to mis- judge the tendencies of fallen human nature. It is a well known fact that the officials of all grades con- nected with the examinations are not unfrequently susceptible to the claims of friendship and the weighty persuasions of golden arguments. However elaborate may be the arrangements for the prevention of any underhand dealings, there may always be found means by which the essays of certain favoured indi- viduals find their way to the examiner, who is in- THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 105 terested in the success of the writers. Sometimes again, a candidate, distrustful of his abilities, succeeds, with the connivance of the necessary officials, in passing in a clever writer as a substitute who wins honour for him. If such practices are discovered, the perpetrators are immediately punished ; but the crime mainly consists in being found out. The examination for the next degree, of Tsin-sze, is held at Peking, in the spring of the year following that of the Kii-jin degree, and is presided over by a minister of state, an imperial prince, and three other examiners. The Kii-jin assemble to the number of about six thousand, from among whom only about three hundred and fifty are ultimately chosen for the higher honour. These candidates have to undergo a test-examination, known as Fii she, before being allowed to enter at the Hzvny she, or metropolitan competition. Those who are successful in this last trial obtain the provisional title oi Kiuig j-^^", until the time arrives for the Teen she, or palace-examination. On this occasion texts from the Four Books and Five Classics are given out, as at the provincial examina- tion, and the essays are examined by a special com- mission of imperial revisers. The candidate who passes first at this examination receives the title of Chivang-yiien and a post in the Han lin yuen, or " College of the Forest of Pencils," the highest literary body in the empire. The news of his success io6 CHINA. is carried with all speed to his native place, where the announcement is received with universal rejoic- ing, as conferring a lasting honour on the district. The second man receives the title of Pang-yen, or " Eye of the List," a name derived from the idea that he is second to the CJiivang-yuen, as the eye is below the forehead. The third is entitled T'an-hwa, or " searcher for a sprig of the olea fragrans," a plant which is held to symbolise literary success. Of the remaining successful candidates about one in three are admitted to the Han-lin College, and the remainder receive the degree of Tsin-sze. Subse- quently a final examination, known as the CJiaou K'aou, or Court-examination, is held in the palace, at which a theme chosen by the emperor is given out to the competitors. Finally, the graduates are admitted to an audience by the emperor, who entertains them at a feast. Those Tsin-sze who are not admitted to the Han-lin College receive appointments either to provincial offices, or to posts in connection with the six Boards. These examinations are open to every man in the empire, of whatever grade, unless he belong to one of the following four classes, or be the descendant of one such within three generations : 1st. Prostitutes ; 2nd. Actors ; 3rd. Executioners, and the servants of mandarins ; and 4th. Jailors. The theory with regard to these people is, that prostitutes and actors being THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN. 107 devoid of all shame, and executioners and jailors having become hardened by the cruel nature of their offices, are unfit, in their own persons, or as represented by their sons, to win posts of honour by means of the examinations. Not long since, an edict appeared in the Peking Gazette, ordering the instant removal from the rank of Kii-jin of a man named Nin Kwang-to, on its being discovered that his father had been a gate-keeper in the yamun of a district magistrate in Kwang-se. " It is contrary to law," said the edict, " that a low official underling should obtain registration in a district other than his own, and thus fraudulently gain access to the privilege of examination ; and it is most necessary that severe punishment should be meted out in this case." If no reward beyond the possession of the degrees attached to the successful candidates at the competitions, the probability is that no great stress would be laid on the enforcement of this regulation ; but the fact that the examination-hall is the only legitimate door to the mandarin's yamun makes it imperative, in the eyes of the law, that shameless and cruel persons should not be allowed to exercise rule over their fellow men. The military examinations are held separately, and though the literary calibre of the candidates is treated much in the same way, as at the civil examinations, the same high standard of know- ledge is not required ; but, in addition, skill in io8 CHINA. archery and in the use of warhke weapons is essential. At the first examination, which is held by the magistrates of each district, the candidates are ex- pected to show their proficiency in the use of the bow and arrow on foot. Those who succeed in passing successfully through this ordeal are required to shoot, still with a bow, from the back of a horse galloping at full speed. Three arrows are all that are allowed to the candidate, on each occasion. At the third examination their skill in the use of swords weighing from a hundred to a hundred and eighty pounds, is put to the test, and their strength is further tried by lifting heavy weights and drawing stiff bows. It is illustrative of the backwardness of the Chinese in warlike matters that, though they have been ac- quainted with the use of gunpowder for some cen- turies, they revert, in the examination of militar}' candidates, to the weapons of the ancients, and that while theoretically they are great strategists, strength and skill in the use of these weapons are the only tests required for commissions. CHAPTER V. FOOD AND DRESS. (y^[ N a country covering so large an area as China, with every variety both of climate and soil, it is difficult to generalise on such a subject as the food of the people. And yet in China, owing to the homogeneousness of the inhabitants, there is less difference in this respect than might be expected. To begin with, the staff of life in China is rice. It is eaten and always eaten from north to south and from east to west, except among the very poor people in some of the northern non-rice-producing provinces, where millet takes its place. In all other parts the big bowl of rice forms the staple of the meals eaten no CHINA. by the people, and it is accompanied by vegetables, fish, or meat, according to the circumstances of the household. Among some people there is a disinclina- tion to eat meat owing to the influence of Bud- dhism, which teaches the doctrine of the transmigra- tion of souls, and devout followers of that sect natu- rally avoid partaking of the flesh of any animal, which might possibly have been their dearest de- ceased friend or relation in another form of existence. But the more general reason for the preference of vegetables to meat is that they are cheaper. Im- mense quantities of cabbages, onions, garlic, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other kinds of vegetables are grown all over the southern provinces of the empire, and there are few families so poor as not to be able to give a relish to their meals by the use of some one or more of these. At the cottage meal a basin about the size of a small breakfast-slop-basin is placed opposite each person, and by the side a pair of chop-sticks, while in the middle of the table stands a big bowl of steam- ing rice. Each person fills his basin from this bowl, and, holding it up to his chin with his left hand, he shovels its contents into his mouth with his chop- sticks at an astonishing rate. The chop-sticks are held between the first and second, and the second and third fingers ; and constant practice enables a Chinaman to lift up and hold the minutest atoms of FOOD AND DRESS. iii food, oily and slippery as they often are, with the greatest ease. To most foreigners their skilful use is well nigh impossible, and at the houses of officials and others who are in the habit of entertaining " foreign devils," it has now become the practice, in deference to our awkwardness, to furnish us with knives and forks. But to return to the cottage dinner. Dotted about on the table are small bowls containing vegetables, or fish, or meats, as the case may be, chopped-up fine, and seasoned with soy and other sauces. Each diner helps himself as he is inclined from these common dishes with his chop-sticks between his mouthfuls of rice, and washes all down either with tea or warm water. Cold water is never drunk, as it is considered to be unwhole- some. The meats most commonly eaten are pork, mutton, goats' flesh, and beef, besides fowls, ducks, and pheasants, and, in the north, deer and hares. But in some parts of the country it must be confessed that less savoury viands find their place on the dinner- table. In Canton, for example, dried rats have a recognised place in the poulterers' shops, and find a ready market, not only among those who have a taste for them, but also among people who have a tendency to baldness, the flesh of rats being con- sidered an efl*ectual " hair-restorer." Horse-flesh is also exposed for sale, and there are even to be found CHINA. dog and cat restaurants. Describing from personal acquaintance one of these establishments, Archdeacon Gray says in his " China," " The flesh is cut into small pieces, and fried with water- chestnuts and garlic in oil. In the window^ of the restaurant dogs' carcasses are suspended, for the purpose, I suppose, of attracting the attention of passengers. Placards are sometimes placed above the door, setting forth that the flesh of black dogs and cats can be served up at a moment's notice. On the walls of the dining-room there are bills of fare. The following is a transla- tion of one : — Cat's flesh, one basin Black cat's flesh, one small basin Wine, one bottle Wine, one small bottle ... Congee, one basin Ketchup, one basin Black dog's grease, i tael, Black cat's eyes, one pair 10 cents. 5 » 3 » tI ■12 J) 2 cash. 4 cents. 4 » All guests dining at this restaurant are requested to be punctual in their payments." The flesh of black dogs and cats, and especially the former, are preferred as being more nutritive ; and on a certain day in the beginning of summer it is customary, in the south of China, for people to partake of dog's flesh to fortify themselves against FOOD AND DRESS. 113 the coming heat, and as a preventative against dis- ease. In the province of Shan-tung dog-hams are cured and exported. But the price of these makes their general use prohibitory, and places them within the reach only of wealthy gourmets, who have a taste for this particular food. In the immense encyclo- paedia compiled under the direction of the Emperor K'ang-he there is a receipt for hashed dog, which, by the rmmber of condiments, the quantity of wine, and profusion of adjuncts which are prescribed, indicates that it was made by some one who liked a good dish, and disliked the taste of dog. Among the wealthier classes the use of rice is diminished in proportion to the increased quantity of meat or fish eaten^ and at a dinner-party of the better kind it scarcely finds a place. On such an occasion the table is spread with what in Russia would be called Zakuska, or dinette, consisting of numbers of small dishes containing fruits — fresh, dried, and can- died ; chopped eggs ; ham, and other tasty morsels. The feast begins by the host pouring out a libation, and then taking wine generally with his guests, who raise the small wine-cups, which are not much bigger than thimbles, to their lips with the right hand, touching them with the left, and drink off their con- tents. Next follows a succession of courses, each consisting of a single dish, between each of which pipes are handed round and a few whiffs enjoyed. I 114 CHINA. Frequently the dinner is enlivened by the presence of singing-girls, or a play is performed for the amuse- ment of the guests. In the absence, however, of all such attractions the game of Che-mei, the Italian Mora, sometimes serves to make the inter\-al be- tween the courses seem shorter. Mr. Giles, in his " Chinese Sketches," gives the following •nieftu of a dinner which gives a good idea of the sort of viands offered by a Chinese gentleman to his guests : — Sharks' fins with crab sauce. Pigeons' eggs stewed with mushrooms. Sliced sea-slugs in chicken broth, with ham. Wild duck and Shantung cabbage. Fried fish. Lumps of pork fat fried in rice-flour. Stewed lily-roots. Chicken mashed to pulp, with ham. Stewed bamboo-shoots. Stewed shellfish. Fried slices of pheasant. Mushroom broth. Remove. — Two dishes of fried pudding, one sweet, the other salt. Sweetened duck. Strips of boned chicken fried in oil. Boiled fish, with soy. Lumps of par-boiled mutton fried in pork fat. FOOD AND DRESS. 115 Frogs form a common dish among poor people and are, it is needless to say, very good eating. They are caught with a rod and line, with a young live frog lately emerged from the tadpole stage, as bait. The young frog which is tied on to the line, is bobbed up and down in the water, and it is as a result of their snapping at it, that its elders are jerked out on to the bank. In some parts of the country locusts and grasshoppers are eaten. At T'ientsin men may commonly be seen standing at the corners of the streets frying locusts over portable fires, just as among ourselves chestnuts are cooked at the curb- stone. Ground-grubs, silkworms, and water-snakes are also occasionally treated as food. The sea, lakes, and rivers, abound in fish, which are caught in almost as many ways as there are found different species. Cod, mackerel, soles, shark, herring, shad, mullet, crabs, tortoises, turtles, prawns, crawfish, and shrimps, etc., are yielded up by the ocean, while the lakes, ponds, and rivers, swarm with carp, tench, eels, perch, bream, and other kinds. As fish forms a staple food of the people, there is every inducement to perfect the fisherman's art, and the natural ingenuity of Chinamen has enabled them to secure the greatest quantity of fish with the least possible trouble. The net and line are generally used, but in places where it is difficult to drag a net, or where the fish do not easily yield themselves up as I 2 u6 CHINA. victims to the line, they bring other agencies to bear. On some rivers and lakes cormorants are the chosen instruments for landing the prey. The fisherman launches his raft, which is about two and a half feet wide and about twenty feet long, carrying on it three or four cormorants and a basket for the fish. Each cormorant has a ring loosely fastened round his neck, and when the man has paddled the raft into a likely spot he gently pushes one of the birds into the water. The bird instantly dives, and, having caught his prey, rises to the surface and swims towards the raft. As it approaches; the man throws a landing-net over both the bird and the fish, and lifts them on the raft. Great pains are taken in training the cormorants, and it is seldom that they refuse to obey their master. Occasionally they show considerable intelligence, and two or three have been known to help to secure fish too large for a single bird. On some rivers fishermen use, at night, a long, low boat, having a white varnished board inclining from the side to the water. As the boat is propelled along in the moonlight, a stone which is towed alongside, of course below the surface, makes a rushing noise, which so alarms the fish that, attracted by the var- nished board they spring at it, and generally over it into the boat. The fear felt by fish at noise, and the attraction exercised over them by light is well known, and trading on these peculiarities. Chinamen drive FOOD AND DRESS. 117 them, by beating the water, into nets set for their reception. Sometimes, at night, a circular net is thrown off from boats. In the centre a boat is sta- tioned, on the bows of which a bright fire is kept burning. The other boats surround the outside of the circle at some little distance, and their occupants beat the water with bamboo poles. The fish, frigh- tened by the noise, and attracted by the fire, swim into the net, and their fate is sealed. Spearing fish with tridents is also common, and sharp, unbaited hooks, attached to lines fastened to floating buoys, are thrown into lakes and rivers, so as to catch any fish which may swim against them. All fishing-boats of any size have tanks of water on board, into which the fish are thrown the instant they are caught, and are then carried fresh to market, where the same care is generally taken to keep them alive until they find purchasers. But Chinamen are not content to depend entirely on the open water for their supply of fish. They breed large quantities themselves. The spring tides bring up the rivers fish, which deposit their spawn among the grass and rushes growing at the edge of the water. As soon as the young fish appear, they are caught in nets, and put into tanks in boats, where they are most carefully fed and tended until they are large enough to be transferred to the ponds prepared for them. Here they are fed with paste and the yokes of hard-boiled ii8 CHINA. eggs, and arc, eventually, drawn out to repay their nurses for the trouble they have had in rearing them. Oysters and cockles are also regularly fished for, and form a common article of food, and so with mussels, which, however, are sometimes turned into another source of gain. When fresh caught, minute images of Budda are put into the shell, and the mussels are thrown into ponds, where they are allowed to remain for some time. On being fished up again and opened, the little images are found covered with a coating of mother-of-pearl, and, in this state, find a ready sale among the superstitious. In the same way artificial pearls are produced. The same care in the production of fish is exten- ded to that of ducks and poultry. Not only are ducks bred in great quantities in the usual way, but eggs are artificially hatched in immense numbers. As soon as the ducklings make their appearance, they are sold to men who make it their business to rear them and prepare them for the market. Many thousands are often to be seen in an establishment of this sort. Sometimes the purchaser is owner of a duck-boat, on which he keeps his numerous broods. Once or twice a day he lands them on the river- bank to feed, and they soon learn to walk without hesitation, along a plank to and fro from the boat to the shore. Immense quantities are thus reared on the rivers in China, as a proof of which Archdeacon FOOD AND DRESS. ng Gray mentions that after a severe typhoon at Canton in 1862, during which a number of duck- boats were upset, the ducks released from captivity were so numerous, " that for upwards of a mile the surface of the Canton River was crowded with them." Poultry-farms are also numerous and large. The eggs are never eaten as among ourselves, but, when intended for the table, are boiled hard and preserved by one of several processes until they are six weeks or two months old, when they are considered ready for use. No use whatever is made of cow's milk by the Chinese, though, occasionally, human milk is given to old people as a restorative. The Mongolians, however, use it freely, and make a kind of rancid butter from it of which they are very fond, a conclusive proof of the wide gulf which separates, their tastes from ours. In matters of dress, with one or two exceptions,^ the Chinese must be acknowledged to have used a wise discretion. They wear nothing that is tight- fitting, and make a greater difference between their summer and winter-clothing than is customary^ among ourselves. The usual dress in summer of a coolie is a loose-fitting pair of cotton trousers, and an equally loose jacket; but the same man in winter will be seen wearing quilted cotton clothes, or, if he should be an inhabitant of the northern provinces, a I20 CHINA. sheepskin robe, superadded to an abundance of warm clothing intermediate between it and his shirt. By the wealthier classes silk, linen, and silk gauze are much worn in the summer, and woollen or more or less handsome fur clothes in the winter. Among such people it is customary, except in the seclusion of their homes, to wear, both in summer and winter, long tunics coming down to the ankles. Often these are fastened round the waist by a belt, to which are attached a number of ornamented appendages, such as a purse, snuff-bottle, tobacco-pouch, etc. The sleeves of the tunics are made long enough to cover the hands, and partly serve the purposes of pockets. The expression "a sleeve-full of snuff" is not at all uncommon in Chinese poetry, and small editions of books, especially of the classics, are called " sleeve- editions," in reference probably to the practice, com- mon to candidates at the examinations, of concealing " cribs " in their sleeves. In summer non-ofificial Chinamen leave their heads uncovered, and, though thus unprotected from the effects of the sun, do not seem to suffer any incon- venience from the great heat. Occasionally coolies doing heavy work, fasten a fan so as to ward off the sun's rays by means of their queues, which are then wound round their heads, instead of being allowed to hang down the back in the ordinary way. The dress of the mandarins is strictly defined by FOOD AND DRESS. sumptuary laws, and their ranks are distinguished by- badges worn on the breast and back of their robes, and by the knobs or buttons fixed on the top of the cap. The civilian badges are all representations of birds, while those worn by military men, as indicating the fierceness of their nature, are likenesses of beasts. Thus the first of the ten civilian ranks wears a Man- churian crane ; the second, a golden pheasant ; the third, a peacock ; the fourth, a wild goose ; the fifth, a silver pheasant ; the sixth, a lesser eyret ; the seventh, a mandarin duck ; the eighth, a quail ; the ninth, a long-tailed jay ; and the tenth, an oriole. The military officers have only nine insignia, which are as follows : — First, the unicorn ; second, the lion ; third, the leopard ; fourth, the tiger ; fifth, the black bear ; sixth, the mottled bear or tiger cat ; seventh, the tiger cat ; eighth, the seal ; and ninth, the rhinoceros. Since the establishment of the present dynasty, distinguishing buttons have been added to the caps in the case of both civil and military mandarins, and these are distributed among the nine ranks in the following order : — The first two, red coral ; the third, clear blue ; the fourth, lapis lazuli ; the fifth, quartz crystal ; the sixth, opaque white stone ; and the last three, gilt. In cases where the same coloured stone is worn by two ranks, that on the cap of the inferior one is carved, the Chinaman having the taste 122 CHIXA. to consider the plain stone the most distinguished. In the same way the emperor wears a pearl on his cap, and this, together with the remainder of his attire, is quite plain and unadorned. On the approach of summer an edict is issued fixing the day upon which the summer-costume is to be adopted throughout the empire, and again, as winter draws near, the time for putting on the winter-dress is announced in the same formal manner. Fine straw or bamboo forms the material of the summer-hat, the outside of which is covered with fine silk, over which falls a tassel of red silk cords from the top. At this season also the thick silk robes and hea\y padded jackets worn in winter are exchanged for light silk or satin tunics. The winter-cap has a turned-up brim, and is covered with satin, with a black cloth lining, and as in the case of the summer-cap a tassel of red silk covers the entire crown. The wives of mandarins wear the same embroidered insignia on their dresses as their husbands, and their style of dress, as well as that of Chinese women generally, bears a resemblance to the attire of the men. They wear a loose-fitting tunic which reaches below the knee, and trousers which are dra^\■n in at the ankle after the bloomer fashion. On state occa- sions they wear a richly embroidered petticoat coming down to the feet, which hangs square both before and behind, and is plaited at the sides like a Highlander's FOOD AND DRESS. 123 kilt. The mode of doing the hair varies in almost every province. At Canton the women of the people plaster their back-hair with a kind of bandoline, into TYPES OF CHINESE GIRLS. the shape of a tea-pot handle, and adorn the sides with pins and ornaments, while the young girls pro- claim their unmarried state by cutting their hair in a 124 CHINA. fringe across their foreheads after a fashion not unknown among ourselves. In most parts of the country, flowers, natural when obtainable, and artifi- cial when not so, are largely used to deck out the head-dresses, and considerable taste is shown in the choice of colours and the manner in which they are arranged. Thus far there is nothing to find fault with in female fashion in China, but the same cannot be said of the way in which they treat their faces and feet. In many countries the secret art of remov- ing traces of the ravages of time with the paint-brush has been and is practised ; but by an extravagant, and to European eyes hideous use of pigments and cos- metics, Chinese girls not only conceal the fresh com- plexion of youth, but produce those very disfigure- ments which furnish the only possible excuse for artificial complexions. Their poets also have de- clared that a woman's eyebrows should be arched like a rainbow or shaped like a willow-leaf, and the consequence is that, wishing to act up to the ideal thus pictured. Chinawomen with the help of tweezers, remove all the hairs of their eyebrows which straggle the least out of the required line, and when the task becomes impossible even with the help of these instruments, the paint-brush or a stick of charcoal is brought into requisition. Altogether the face of a bedizened Chinese lady is a miserable sight. The ghastly white of the plastered complexion, the FOOD AND DRESS. 125 ruddled cheeks, the artificial eyebrows, and the brilliantly painted lips may, as the abstract picture of a poet's brain, be admirable, but when seen in the concrete, can in no sense be called other than repul- sive. A comparison of one such painted lily with the natural, healthy complexion, bright eyes, laughing lips, and dimpled cheeks of a Canton boat girl, for example, is enough to vindicate Nature's claim to superiority over art a thousand- fold. But the chief offence of Chinese women is in the matter of their feet. Even on the score of fashion it is difficult to excuse a practice which in the first instance causes great and continued pain, and affects injuriously the physique of the victims during the whole of their lives. Various explanations are current as to the origin of the custom of deforming the women's feet. Some say that it is an attempt servilely to imitate the peculiarly shaped foot of a certain beautiful empress ; others that it is a device intended to act as a restraint on the gadding-about tendencies of women. But, however that may be, the practice is universal except among the Manchoos and the Hakka population at Canton. The feet are first bound when the child is about five years old. The four smaller toes are bent under the foot, and the instep is forced upwards and backwards. At the same time, the shoes worn, having high heels, the foot 126 CHINA. becomes as it were clubbed and loses all elasticity. The consequence is that the women walk as on pegs, and the calf of the leg having no exercise shrivels up. The degree of severity, however, with which the feet %\^x'^r^^ are bound, differs widely in the various, ranks of society, and women in the humbler walks of life are often able to move about with ease. Most ladies, on the other hand, arc practically debarred from FOOD AND DRESS. 127 walking at all, and are dependent on their sedan- chairs, and sometimes even on the backs of their at- tendants, for all locomotion beyond their own doors. But even in this case habit becomes a second nature. and fashion triumphs over sense. No mother, how- ever keen may be her recollection of her sufferings as a child, or however conscious she may be of the inconveniences and ills arisincr from her deformed 128 CHINA. feet, would ever dream of saving her own child from like immediate torture and permanent evil. Further, there is probably less excuse for such a practice in China than in any other country-, for the hands and feet of both men and women are naturally both small and finely shaped. But there is no idol which it is more difficult to overthrow than established custom, and there must needs be a complete revolution in the national tastes and ideas before the much-perse- cuted Chinese women will be allowed free use of the very pretty feet with which nature has endowed them. The male analogue of the women's compressed feet is the shaven forepart of the head and the plaited queue. The custom of thus treating the hair was imposed on the people by the first emperor of the present dynasty (1644). Up to that time the Chinese had allowed the hair to grow long, and were in the habit of drawing it up into a tuft on the topof the head. The introduction of the queue at the bidding of the Manchurian conqueror was intended as a badge of conquest, and as such was at first unwillingly adopted by the people. For nearly a century the natives of outlying parts of the Empire refused to submit their heads to the razor, and in many districts the authori- ties rewarded converts to the new way by presents of money. As the custom spread, these bribes were discontinued, and the converse action of treating FOOD AND DRESS. 129 those who refused to conform with severity, com- pleted the conversion of the empire. At the present day every Chinaman who is not in open rebelHon to the throne shaves his head, with the exception of the crown, where the hair is allowed to grow to its full length. This hair is carefully plaited, and falls down the back forming what is commonly known as the " pig-tail." Great pride is taken, especially in the south, in having as long and as thick a queue as possible, and when nature has been niggardly in her supply of natural growth, the deficiency is supple- mented by the insertion in the plait of silk. The northerners are less given to this form of vanity than their southern brethren, and are as a rule con- tent only to tie the ends of the queue plaits with a piece of silk. But among all classes great value is attached to the possession of the queue, and in the commonest forms of abuse there is generally claimed for the object of opprobium, an additional title to infamy in the assertion that he is zvoo peeii, " tail-less." As a general rule the head is shaved about once in ten days, though men who are particular as to their appearance do not allow their hair to grow half that time. As it is impossible for a man to shave his ov/n head, the barber's trade is a large and flourishing one, and is carried on in shops, and in the streets by itinerant barbers, who carry suspended at the two K 130 CHINA. ends of a bamboo slung on the shoulders, all the implements of their trade, together with a stool for the customer to sit upon during the operation. Among the rich it is customary to summon a barber to their houses, and to most large yamuns there is a member of the fraternity attached, who gains his livelihood by keeping the heads of the occupants in order. The Chinese razor consists of a short blade, somewhat in the shape of a rounded isosceles triangle FOOD AND DRESS. 131 the long side being the edge. Hot water instead of soap is used to facilitate the operation of shaving, which is extended to the down on the cheeks. A Chinaman's face is singularly devoid of hair. Whiskers are very seldom seen, and the mustache is only allowed to grow after a man has arrived at the age of forty or upwards. On the occasion of the death of a near relative, it is customary to allow the hair to grow for a time as a sign of mental distraction K 2 132 CHINA. from excessive grief, and on the death of an emperor an edict is usually issued forbidding barbers to pFy their trade for a space of a hundred days. CHAPTER VI. AGRICULTURE. iUT though trade practic- ally holds its place as next in estimation to the mandarinate, in theory it should follow both the careers of husbandry and of the mechanical arts. From time immemorial the Chinese have held agriculture in the highest esteem as being the means by which the soil has been induced to supply the primary want of the people of the empire— food. All land is held in freehold from the Government, and princi- pally by clans, or families, who pay an annual tax to the Crown amounting to about one-tenth of the produce. On the death of the proprietor of a property it descends 134 CHINA. to his eldest son, but his possession is hampered b}' the law, which permits all his younger brothers and their families to settle on parts of the inheritance. Veiy often an arrangement is arrived at by which the cadets are bought off, but otherwise the heir has to submit, nolens volens, to their presence. On the occa- sion of a property changing hands, the fact has to be registered at the office of the district magistrate, and the new owner becomes responsible for the pay- ment of the Crown-tax. As long as this tax is paid regularly, the owners are never dispossessed, and properties thus remain in the hands of clans and families for many generations. In order to see that farming-operations are pro- perly conducted, agricultural boards are established in almost every district, consisting of old men learned in agriculture. By these veterans a careful watch is kept over the work done by the neighbouring farmers^ and in case of any dereliction of duty, or neglect of the prescribed modes of farming, the offender is summoned before the district magistrate, who inflicts the punishment which he considers proportionate to his offence. It is illustrative of the mechanical in- genuity of the Chinese, as well as of their absence of scientific knowledge, that their appliances for irrigating the fields and winnowing the corn are excellent, while those for getting the most out of land are of a rude and primitive kind. The plough, which is AGRICULTURE. 135 generally drawn by a buffalo or ox, does scarcely more than scratch the earth, and even this is only used in the large fields, the farmers of small en- closures being content to break up the surface soil with their hoes. Spades find no place among the weapons of farmers and gardeners, who also know nothing of wheelbarrows for agricultural purposes. A small harrow is used to break up the clods left by the plough or hoe, and a reaping-hook gathers in the crops which grow up from the scarcely-turned soil. The absence of good farming in this respect naturally necessitates, in most parts, the constant employment of manure, which is applied frequently and in great quantities. The varieties are endless, being not only those of the kinds employed among ourselves, but consist also of the sweepings from the streets, feathers of birds, the refuse hair from barbers' shops, the remnants of exploded crackers, etc. Of course, the climate and the nature of a district determine the kind of farming appropriate to it. Agriculturally, China may be said to be divided into two parts by the Yang-tsze Keang. South of that river, speaking generally, the soil and climate point to the rice as appropriate crop, while to the north lie vast plains which as clearly are best designed for growing corn. Over the huge tract of loess country in northern China, little or no cultivation is necessary, neither is the use of manure required. A sufficient scratching 136 CHINA. of the light friable soil, to enable the farmer to sow his seed, is all that is needed in favourable years to secure a good crop. But throughout Nature there are always disadvantageous circumstances, or contin- gencies, attached to otherwise exceptionally favoured spots. And this " Garden of China " is dependent for its fruits on the fall of frequent showers. Water runs so quickly through the soil, that all traces and effects of the heaviest rains soon disappear, and a constant succession of temperate downfalls form> therefore, the kind of moisture best suited to it. When these fail, the crops fall off, and after such dry seasons, as those lately past, famine necessarily follows. The surface being far above the water-level irrigation is next to impossible, and the soil, dried to a fine powder, blows away, leaving the seeds exposed to the destructive influences of the sun and wind. On the alluvial plain of Chih-li the crops are not as large as those gathered on the loess in a good year, but on the other hand they are not liable to the same extreme vicissitudes. The late drought was as severe in Chih-li as in Shanse,but the extremity of want was much more severely felt in the latter province, and in those others covered with loess, than in Chih-li. Millet and Indian corn are largely grown in the northern half of the empire as well as wheat and barley. An entirely different system of agriculture is pur- AGRICULTURE. 137 sued in the cultivation of rice. The rice-fields are fenced in with low banks, the surface of soil being kept as much on a level as possible. Manure in large quantities is first of all strewn over the fields, which are then flooded with water. When in this condition the farmer wades on to the ground with his plough and buffalo, and turns up the slush and mud until the manure has become thoroughly mixed with the soil. His next object is to discover, by- means of his almanac, or by the advice of a fortune- teller, a propitious day for sowing his seed. This is not sown generally over the field, but in one corner of it, and the plants, as soon as they have grown to a sufficient size, are transplanted out in straight rows. The necessity for a copious supply of water con- tinues during the early growth of the plant, and as this supply is not by any means always obtainable from the usual resources of nature, artificial irrigation has to be largely resorted to. In securing the constant supply of water thus needed, the mechanical genius of the people has full play, and the contrivances invented and employed by them are ingenious and effective. If the difference of level between the supply of water, be it either a river or a pond, and the field to be irrigated, is but slight, a bucket held between two men, by ropes attached to its side, is commonly used. The men stand on the bank of the field, and by a 138 CHINA. constantly swinging motion fill the bucket and empty it on to the soil. When the dififerencc of level is such as to make this plan impossible a water-wheel and an endless chain-pump are used. This ingenious contrivance is thus described by Mr. Doolittle : — " One end of the box in which the chain, or rather rope, and its buckets pass, is placed at an angle of forty-five degrees, more or less, with the river, canal, or pond, whence the water is to be brought upon the neighbouring fields. This box is open at the top and both ends, and made very strong and light, one man carrying the whole apparatus with ease on his shoulders. The chain, with its buckets, passes over a horizontal shaft, which is supported by two perpen- dicular posts. One or more persons, steadying them- selves by leaning upon a horizontal .pole four or five feet higher than the shaft, and by walking or stepping briskly on short radiating arms, cause it to revolve on its axis, bringing up the water, which pours out of the upper end of the box. The faster the men walk, or step, the greater the quantity of water pumped up." In some parts of the country oxen or donkeys are employed to turn the water-wheels, by means of hori- zontal clogged wheels which turn the shaft over which the buckets pass. Occasionally, when prac- ticable, a stream supplies the motive-power, which transports a portion of itself to the field above. When AGRICULTURE. 139 the supply of water has to be drawn from a well, an upright post, some ten or twelve feet high, is fixed near it, on which a long cross-beam is balanced. From one end of this beam hangs a bucket, while on the other extremity is fastened a weight, generally a large stone, which is so regulated, that the only exertion required is to lower the bucket into the well. The stone at the end of the beam brings the bucket to the surface by its weight, and the water is then emptied into a conduit which carries it to the field or garden where it is required. The crop is generally fit to cut in a hundred days after the seed is put in. When it is cut, as it generally is, close to the ground, a sickle is used, and the sheaves are bound up and put into shocks, as corn is among ourselves; but in some parts of the country only the ears are reaped, and when this is the case, the reaper drags after him a basket on a small wheeled truck, into which he throws the cars as he severs them with a knife. The act of threshing is performed in different ways, in different parts of the country. Sometimes the thresher takes a double handful of the corn, and strikes it against the bars of an open frame in such a way that the grain falls through to the ground ; some- times, instead of an open frame, a tub is used, against the inside of which the corn is struck. In other places the corn is carried to a carefully swept 140 CHINA. threshing-floor, and is then threshed out with flails. Not unfrequently, also, the corn is trodden out by buffaloes, mules, or ponies, or is separated from the ear by means of rollers drawn by beasts of draught. Winnowing, in its most primitive form, is practised by many of the smaller farmers. A windy day is chosen to throw the grain and husks up in the air from the threshing-floor, with the usual result. But quite as generally, machines, not unlike those in use among ourselves are used. Most of these are turned by hand, but others draw their motive power either from water-wheels, or from oxen or donkeys. The mills for grinding the corn are worked by the same agencies. Tobacco, beans, tea-oil, sweet pota- toes, turnips, onions, fruits, and tea, are among the best-known products of Southern China. The tea-plant, which resembles a whortle-berr}', is grown from seed which is gathered in the winter months, and dried in the sun. In the beginning of the following spring the seeds are moistened and dried again, until they begin to sprout, when they are lightly covered with earth. As soon as the plants have grown four or five inches in height they are trans- planted to the plantations, where they are arranged in rows at a distance of two or three feet apart. No manure is used in the cultivation, but great care is taken to keep the ground clear from weeds. The blossom is white, and is not unlike the orange flower, AGRICULTURE. 141 and blooms in November. The plant itself, which is an evergreen, is allowed to grow to heights varying with the necessities of the plantations. In high and exposed positions the plant is kept low, that it may- avoid injury from storms and wind, while in more sheltered places it reaches the height of six or eight feet. The first crop of leaves is gathered from it at the end of the third year, but care is taken not to exhaust the plant by stripping it too closely. Thrice in the year the leaves are picked, in the third, fifth, and eighth months. The best leaves are the young ones, and, as the youngest are first picked, the earliest gathering is the best. Women and children are mainly employed in this work. Having been first dried in the sun, the leaves are then trodden out by naked-footed labourers, in order to break the fibres and extract the moisture. This done, they are heaped up. and allowed to heat for some hours, until they have become a reddish-brown colour. They are next rolled up by the hand, and are afterwards again ex- posed to the sun should the w^eather be propitious, but if not, they are slowly baked over charcoal fires. With this process their preparation for the market is complete, and they pass from the hands of the growers to those of the native merchants. By these purchasers they are carefully sifted, the leaves of dif- ferent sizes and ages are separated, and the stems and damaged leaves are removed. They are then 142 CHIXA. thoroughly dried in iron pans over slow fires, and are shipped to Europe and America. These processes differ slightly in the case of some teas, but they are all dried, trodden on, baked, and rolled, excepting green tea, which is not dried in the sun, but is fired, and is rubbed with the hands instead of being trodden on. The principal kinds of tea exported are Congou, which is grown in the provinces of Hoonan and Kwang-tung ; Souchong, the best of which is pro- AGRICULTURE. 143 duced in the north-eastern part of the province of Fuh-keen ; Flowery Pekoe and Oolong, or " Black dragon," which also comes from Fuh-keen ; scented Orange Pekoe and scented capers from Kwang-tung and Fuh-keen ; and green tea from the neighbourhood 144 CHINA. of Wooyucn in Keang-sc. Tea is drunk universally throughout the empire by all except those who are too poor to buy it ; but this was not always the case. In some places, as at Hang-chow, for example, wine- shops used to be as numerous as tea-shops are now. To the honour of the temperance of the people it is to be said, that when tea-shops were first introduced, they were received with such favour, that the publi- cans had to shut up their establishments. The price of teas in the country varies enormously, the common kinds being very cheap, while some of the choicest sorts fetch among native epicures such prices as make the export of them impossible. The orthodox way of making tea is to put a pinch of the leaves into a cup and to pour boiling water on them, the drinker being protected from swallowing the leaves by an inverted saucer, which covers the cup, and which is so held as to keep back the leaves during the act of drinking. Among ser\-ants and the poorer classes, however, when tea has to be made for a number of persons, tea-pots are used, and the landlords of way- side inns, and charitable people who seek to win for themselves a happy future, by attending to the com- forts of travellers here on earth, provide at stations along the high-road brews of the compound in large vessels. In point of antiquity the use of tea cannot com- pare with the cultivation of silk. History tells us that AGRICULTURE. 145 Se-ling she, the wife of Shin-nung (B.C. 2737-2697), was ■the first spinner of silk and weaver of cloth, for which discovery she has been canonised, and is annually- worshipped on a certain day in the ninth month. On that occasion the empress and her ladies worship at her shrine, and just as the emperor sets an example •of industry to the agriculturists throughout the empire, by ploughing a piece of land at the opening of spring, so the empress and her court stimulate the -busy fingers of Chinese housewives, by going through the form of collecting mulberry-leaves, feeding the palace silk-worms, and winding off some cocoons of silk. The eastern central and southern provinces of the empire are the home of the silk industry. There the mulberry-trees flourish, and there the climate best suits the insects. Great care is taken by the breeders in the choice and matching of the cocoons, and un- healthy or in any way deformed moths are destroyed as soon as they free themselves from their shells. " The number of eggs which one moth lays," says Archdeacon Gray, " is generally five hundred, and the period required for her to perform so great a labour is, I believe, about seventy-four hours. The females often die almost immediately after they have laid their eggs, and the males do not long survive them. The Qgg of the silk-worm, which is of a whitish or pale ash colour, is not larger than a grain L 146 CHINA. of mustard-seed. When eighteen days old the eggs are carefully washed with spring-water. The sheet of coarse paper or piece of cloth on which they arc laid, and to which they adhere, is very gently drawn through spring-water contained in a wooden or earthenware bowl. During the autumnal months the eggs are carefully kept in a cool chamber, the sheets of paper or pieces of cloth being suspended back to back from bamboo-rods placed in a hori- zontal position. In the tenth month of the Chinese year .... the sheets are rolled up, and then de- posited in a room, which is well swept, and free from all noxious influences. On the third day of the twelfth month the eggs are again washed, and then exposed in the air to dry. In the spring of the year, the eggs being now ready to be brought forth, the sheets are placed on mats, and each mat placed on a bamboo shelf, in a well-swept and well-warmed chamber, containing a series of shelves arranged along the walls. The shelves are almost invariably made of bamboo, the wood of Avhich emits no fragrance, aromatic wood being especially avoided as unsuitable for the purpose." As soon as the worms are hatched they are carefully tended and fed. Twice every hour during the first few days of their existence, they are given chopped mulberry-leaves. Gradually this number of meals is reduced to three or four in the day, when occasionally AGRICULTURE. 147 green-pea, black-bean, or rice-flour is mixed with their staple food. On the fourth or fifth day of their lives they fall into a sleep known among the Chinese as the " hair sleep," which lasts for twenty-four hours. Twice again, after similar periods, they enjoy long slumbers, and on the twenty-second day a deep sleep of still longer duration overtakes them. During these periods of rest the worms cast their skins, and finally reach their full size at the end of a month, when they appear of a deep yellow colour, and about the thick- ness of a man's little finger. After arriving at maturity the worms cease to eat, and begin to spin. As the silk issues from their mouths they move their heads from side to side, and thus envelope themselves in cocoons. When completely enclosed, they fall into a state of coma, and become chrysales. The shelves on which they are, are then placed near a fire to kill the chrysalids, which, when accomplished, the silk is unwound and the chrysalids are eaten. As many superstitions surround the cultivation of silkworms, as encumber every other occupation in China, and, as might be expected, most of them are founded on natural causes. Such are the beliefs based on the silkworm's love of clean- liness, that persons, before entering the room where they are kept, should be sprinkled with water in which mulberry-leaves have been soaked ; that no fish should on any account be brought into the I. 2 143 CHINA. chamber; that no woman who is pregnant, or who has lately become a mother, should have anythhig to do with them ; and that no one smelling of wine, ginger, garlic, or anything aromatic, should approach them. Speaking generally, the male principle is believed to be congenial to them, and the female principle to be the reverse. If this be really so, they are most unfortunate insects, since they are attended to almost exclusively by women and girls. They are said also to be peculiarly susceptible to thunder, and to all sudden and violent noises. The looms for weaving the silk are simple in con- struction, and are similar to the hand-looms used in Europe. The principal seats of the silk manufacture are Soo-chow, Hang-chow, Nanking, and Canton. The three first-named places are noted for the beauty of their silk stuffs, and they are those from which the imperial palace receives its annual stores of silks and satins. The Peking Gazette acknowledged the receipt from Soo-chow, in 1877, of a thousand rolls of satin for the Board of Revenue, and for the palace three hundred and seventy rolls of satin, three thousand four hundred rolls of silk gauze, six hundred large handkerchiefs, eight hundred catties of sewing-silk, five hundred catties of white silk, and three thousand pieces of fine calico ; while at the same time the superintendent of the imperial manufactory at Nan- king reported the completion of an order for five AGRICULTURE. 149 hundred rolls of yellow brocaded satin. Canton is famous for its gauzes, and Pak-kow, in the province of Kwang-tung, for its crape shawls. Besides the cultivated silkworms, there is, in less favoured parts of the empire, a kind known as " the wild silkworm," which feeds as surrounding cir- cumstances determine, on either the leaves of the pep- per-tree, or the ash, or a particular kind of oak. This species is far less manageable than its mulberry-fed relative, and is infinitely more hardy. Much less trouble is bestowed on the worms by the breeders but though the return of silk they yield is consider- able, it is not to be compared with the other kind, either in beauty or fineness. In the province of Shan-tung a great quantity of Nankeen silk is made from the cocoons spun by the " wild silkworms " of that province, and in Sze-chuen a large trade is carried on in silk similarly manufactured. Though inferior in quality to that grown in eastern China, yet in strength and durability Sze-chuen silk is far superior to it, and is able to compete successfully with it in the market. Being purely a Chinese product, silk was introduced into Europe by its native name (Sze), which it still retains under a guise sufficiently flimsy to leave it quite recognisable. The same is the case with satin (Sze-tun), and tea (Te). Another product which is peculiar to China, is white insect wax. This curious substance is pro- ISO CHINA. duced exclusively in the prefecture of Kea-ting Foo, in Sze-chuen, the climate of which district appears to favour the propagation of the disease, which is be- lieved by the natives to be the cause of the secretion of the wax. This belief is supported by the fact that, in the districts where the insects breed, only a small quantity of wax is made, and experience has there- fore taught the natives the advantage of breeding the insects in one district and removing them to another to produce the wax. The neighbourhood of Keen-chang, in the south of the province has been found most suitable for breeding-purposes, and it is there, therefore, that the breeding - processes are carried on, on a particular kind of evergreen tree, with large and ovate leaves. At the end of April, the breeders start, each with a load of the insects' eggs, for the district of Kea-ting Foo, a journey which, when made on foot, occupies about a fortnight. The road between the two districts is very mountainous, and as exposure to the heat of the sun would hatch the eggs too rapidly, the men travel only by night. At Kea- ting Foo the eggs are eagerly bought up, and are at once put upon the wax tree. " When the &g^ balls are procured," writes Baron Richthofen, " they are folded up,sixor seven together, in a bag of palm-leaves. These bags are suspended on the twigs of the trees. This is all the human labour required. After a few days the insects commence coming out. They spread AGRICULTURE. 151 as a brownish film over the twigs, but do not touch the leaves. The Chinese describe them as having neither shape, nor head, nor eyes, nor feet. It is known that the insect is a species of coccus. Gradually, while the insect is growing, the surface of the twigs becomes •encrustated with a white wax ; this is the wax. No care whatever is required. The insect has no enemy, and is not even touched by ants. In the latter half of August the twigs are cut off and boiled in water, when the wax rises to the surface. It is then melted and poured into deep pans. It cools down to a translucent and highly-crystalline substance. Two taels weight of eggs produce from two to three catties* of wax." * A Tixel = i^ oz., and a Catty = i5 Tacls. CHAPTER VII. MEDICINE. 'HE medical art in China, has a long ancestry, and dates back to the time when H\vang-te is said to have in. vented music, and many other arts which, added to the elegan- cies and comforts of life. The prevalence of disease and death among his subjects so affected him that, as it is said, he wrested from nature a knowledge of the operations of her opposing principles, and of the virtues of herbs and other medical remedies. The results of these studies he embodied in a work entitled the Nuy king, or the " Classic of the Interior," by means of the knowledge contained. MEDICINE. 155 in which, disease lost half its terrors, and the length of human life was extended, Chinese authors assume, with that complete self- complacency which is common to them, that the wide medical knowledge which was imparted to the world by Hwang-te, has since been so vastly in- creased that at the present time the science of medicine in China has reached its highest develop- ment. An acquaintance, however, with their medical practice and pharmacopoeia completely dispels this delusion, and brings us face to face with the fact that their knowledge of medicine is entirely empirical, and is based neither on accurate observation nor scientific research. Of physiology, or of human and compara- tive anatomy, they know nothing. The functions of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain are sealed books to them, and they recognise no distinction between veins and arteries, and between nerves and tendons. Their deeply-rooted repugnance to the use of the knife in surgery, or to post-mortem examina- tions prevent the possibility of their acquiring any accurate knowledge of the human frame, and their notion of the position of the various organs is almost as wild as their idea of their different functions ; which is saying a good deal, when one recollects that they consider that from the heart and pit of the stomach all ideas and delights proceed, and that the gall-bladder is the seat of courage. So firmly is this 154 CHINA. last belief held, and so strange is the perversion of their ideas on the subject of processes through which all food has to go, that it is not uncommon for men desirous of gaining additional courage to devour the gall of savage beasts, and even of notorious mur- derers and rebels who have expiated their crimes at the hand of the executioner. No Harvey has arisen in China to enlighten his countrymen on the circulation of the blood, and beyond having a general notion that it ebbs and flows, they know nothing of its movements. They even consider that there is a difference in the pulses on the two wrists, and not only this, but that there are differences to be observed in each pulse. And this they profess to account for by saying that the different parts of the pulse reflect the condition of the organs which they represent. For example, the parts of the pulse on the left wrist are believed to discover the state of the heart, small intestines, liver, gall-bladder, kidneys, and bladder ; while those on the right wrist reflect the condition of the lungs, larger intestines, spleen, stomach, gate of life, and membranes of the viscera. There are, also, they con- sider, seven distinct indications, given by the pulse, of the approach of death, and each of the seven passions is represented by pulsations which may be distinguished. Man's body is believed to be composed of the five MEDICINE. elements — fire, water, metal, wood, and earth — all of which are mysteriously connected with the five planets, five tastes, five colours, five metals, and five viscera. To keep these five antagonistic prin- ciples in harmony is the duty of the physician, and to restore the equilibrium when any one of them is in excess or deficiency, is the main object of his endeavours. The medical profession in China is in every sense an open one. There are no medical colleges, and no examination-tests exist to worry the minds of the would-be practitioners. And neither are diplomas asked for or granted. Any quack or the most igno- rant bumpkin may become a practising physician, and by his success or non-success in the profession, he stands or falls. Speaking generally, doctors in China may be divided into three classes : — namely, those who have inherited prescriptions of merit ; men, who having failed at the examinations, have taken to the study of medicine ; and the merest quacks. This classifi- cation is intelligible when it is remembered, that the practice of medicine is not based on any well-ascer- tained knowledge, but is simply empirical, and consists mainly in the use of herbs and vegetable medicines. Many an old woman in the country districts of England has as useful a pharmacopoeia as the most prosperous Chinese doctors, who, however, supple- 156 CHINA. ment the more efficacious remedies they possess by- others which have no remedial quahties at all. For example, among many herbal medicines, which un- doubtedly are more or less tonics, we find that the same qualities are ascribed to Stalachite, fresh tops of stag-horns, dried red-spotted lizards, silk-worm moths, black and white lead, tortoise-shell, and dog's flesh. By the same stretch of the imagination the bones and teeth of dragons, oyster-shells, loadstone, talc, and gold and silver leaf are regarded as astringents ; while verdigris, calcareous spar, catechu pearls, bear's gall, shavings of rhinoceros' horns, and turtle-shell, are used as purgatives. Elephant's skin, and, with a certain consistency, ivory-shavings are considered to be antidotes to poison. It has been calculated by Dr. Henderson, that out of the whole Chinese phar- macopoeia, three hundred and fourteen remedies are taken from the vegetable kingdom, about fifty from the mineral kingdom, and seventy-eight from the animal kingdom. All these remedies, good, bad, and indififcrcnt, are sanctioned by the medical board at Peking which has, in the exercise of its wisdom, divided all diseases into eleven classes ; viz., — diseases of the large blood-vessels, and small-pox ; diseases of the small blood-vessels ; diseases of the skin ; diseases of the eye ; of the mouth ; of the teeth ; of the throat ; of women ; of the bones ; and fevers and cases MEDICINE. 157 arising from acupuncture. Fortunately for the people whose health is at the mercy of these ignorant pro- fessors of the art of healing, inflammatory diseases, to which are attributable three-fifths of the mor- tality in England, are almost unknown in China, where, however, small-pox, phthisis, dysentery, and diarrhoea, rage almost unchecked by medical help, and skin diseases lay a heavy burden on the popula- tion. Of late the practice of vaccination has begun to make way among the people, having been first introduced to their notice by a pamphlet on the subject which was translated into Chinese by Sir George Staunton. Previously inoculation by putting the virus up the nose was universally employed, as it still is, by all, except those few who have been shown the better way by Sir G. Staunton. Cancer is by no means uncommon, and for this disease human milk is largely used. At the present time the empress dowager is said to be suffering from this frightful malady, and it is stated that in her case, the remedy referred to has been employed with the most beneficial results. The scale of doctors' fees is low, being from about sixpence in the case of poor people to five shillings in the case of wealthy persons ; but it will probably be considered that even this lower sum is more than an equivalent for the good likely to be gained from their advice. As a rule, when a lady is the sufferer, 158 CHINA. the doctor never sees his patient except in extreme cases, and is content to form his opinion of her ailment by feeling the pulse of her wrists, which are allowed to appear beneath the screen behind which she sits or reclines. One of the most curious and dangerous extra medicinal remedies used by the Chinese is acupuncture. This is generally resorted to in cases of chronic rheumatism or dyspepsia. For the first malady the needle, either hot or cold, is thrust boldly into the joint or joints affected, and though valueless as a curative, it is at least less dangerous than when applied for dyspepsia. In such cases it is thrust into the abdomen, regardless of the injury which is likely to be done to the intestines and organs. Among people of western nations and constitutions, this reckless use of the needle would constantly produce serious if not fatal evils, but thanks to the phlegmatic temperament of Chinamen, it does not often bring about mortal results. Occa- sionally patients are admitted to the foreign hospitals, suffering from injuries to intestines and liver inflicted by the needle, but these do not, as a rule, enter any more serious category than that of troublesome cases. Madness is by no means uncommon in China, but it is less conspicuous than in western lands, owing to the repressive treatment which the patients receive. On the first symptom of violence, they are bound down and kept so until their strength fails them or death releases them from their bondage. When MEDICINE. 159 harmless, they arc allowed to wander about, and in the northern provinces, where insanity seems to prevail more than in the south, the wretched creatures, clothed or unclothed, may be met with on the roads and in the streets. On one occasion, the present writer saw a maniac lying by the way-side, in the midst of winter, without a particle of clothing upon him. Lunatic asylums are unknown, and the malady is so little recognised by the mandarins that madmen are held responsible to the law for their acts prompted by mania. The ignorance prevailing among Chinamen ot chemistry and anatomy make their post-mortem examinations valueless, as may be gathered from the following finding, lately reported in the Peking Gazette^ in the instance of a suspected case of poisoning. " We find," wrote the coroners, " in the remains of Koh P'in-leen that there is no reddish exfoliation on the surface of the skull ; that the upper and lower bones of the mouth, the teeth, jaw- bones, hands, feet, fingers, toes, nails, and joints are all of a yellowish-white colour ; . . . through the remainder of the body the bones of all sizes are of a yellowish-white, showing no signs of the effects of poison ; and our verdict is that death in this case was caused by disease, and not by poison." The one point, in which, at an early period, the Chinese were in advance of ourselves was in their know- ledge of the value of mercury. CHAPTER VIII. MUSIC. USIC, like some of the other sciences, is said to have been invented by the Emperor Fuh - he (B.C. 2852-2737). He it was, we are told, who made the first She, a sort of lute. At first this in- strument had twenty-five strings, but, according to the legend, a damsel was one day playing on one such instrument before the Emperor Hwang-te, who became so affected to melancholy by the music, that he ordered that, from that time, the number of the strings should be reduced by one half To Fuh-he belongs also the credit of being the inventor of the ICin, another form of lute, and which stands in popular estima- MUSIC. i6? tion at the head of Chinese instruments. The name which was originally given it of Lung Kin points to the fact, which we have abundant evidence to prove, that the aborigines of China were musicians before the arrival of the Chinese. The Lung were a powerful tribe occupying a portion of south-western China, and judging from the name, it is reasonable to sup- pose that the knowledge of the K'in was first brought to the Court of Fuh-he by men of that race. The K'in was known also among the ancients as " a reminder of distant affairs," which would seem to indicate a geographically remote origin for it. History further tells us that, during his reign, men of the great Pung (Fung) tribe, which at that time occu- pied a large tract of country south of the Yang-tsze keang, arrived at court and made music. In considering these early chapters of ancient Chinese history, it is necessary to bear in mind that we are dealing with the mixed records of the aborigines and of the Chinese. So far in the history of music we are plainly in the pre-Chinese stage, but with the reign of Hwang-te the Chinese element is intro- duced. The account of Hwang-te's musical efforts are very interesting, and bear out in a remarkable degree the supposition that he was one of the rulers of the race when they had their homes in the south of the Caspian Sea. We are told that he sent his minister Ling-lun from the west of Ta hea to a par- M r62 CHINA. ticular valley in the Kwan-lun mountains, where he was ordered to make choice of bamboos fitted for musical pipes. Ta liea we know to have been Bactria, and Hwang-te must therefore have been living to the west of that country, exactly where we should expect to find him. Ling-lun did as he was told, and cut twelve pipes of varying lengths, so arranged as to emit the twelve demi-tones. These, it is said, he arrived at by listening to the singing of the Pungs, the voices of the men giving him, so runs the story, six demi-tones, and those of the women the remaining six. Here again it will be obser\-ed the help of the Pungs is called in, and it is worth mentioning that the descendants of these people and of the Lung and Kwei tribes who are still to be found in the south- western provinces of the empire, retain the same passion for music and dancing which made them famous in the time of Fuh-he, and subsequently. Chwan Hii, the next Emperor but one to Hwang-te, was born, we are told, at the Jo waterin Sze- chuen, and on reaching the throne, used to recall with pleasure, the sound made by the wind as it whistled through the forests of mulbeny-trees which grew in his native district. That he might again listen to such music, he sent a Fei-lung to the Jo water to imitate the sounds of the eight winds. The Fei-lung (Flying Dragon) tribe was one of the most important in primitive China. We read of them in the first chapter MUSIC. 163 of the YiJi king, and repeatedly in the earlier historical works. They were a branch of the great Lung people, who were divided into the Fei-lung, the Hwo-lung (Fire Dragons), the Ho-lung (River Dragons), &c. The existence of these prefixes has served to conceal the fact that the compound expressions represented tribal names, and has encouraged those who looked on all mentions of the Lung as so many myths in their incredulity. But in point of fact, they serve as confirmations of the opposite sense. In his recent work of travels in Cambodia, Mons. De- la-porte says that he encountered in his journeys several sections of the Kwei tribe, which were distinguished as Fei-kwei (Flying kwei), Hwo-kwei (Fire kwei), Ho-kwei (River kwei), and so on. The Fei-lung who w^as sent by Chwan Hii on the difficult mission of reproducing the sounds of the wind, is said to have been successful. By means of what instrument he preserved the notes we are not told, but as the invention of the Pan pipes is put down to this period, it is possible that they may have been the instrument chosen by the Fei-lung. Stringed and reed instruments, such as are used by the aboriginal tribes of China at the present day, were the first known. Next in order, probably, came drums, which seem, in the first instance, to have been used to excite warriors in the battlefield to deeds of prowess. M 2 i64 CHINA. Of these there are eight kinds, distinguished by names indicating their size and use. Stone seems also to have preceded metal as a musical substance. In the earliest classics we have mention of musical stones, which were sixteen in number, and were hung from a frame by cords. They were cut somewhat in the shape of a carpenter's square, one side being twice the length of the other. The stones played upon by the emperors are said to have been of jade, the use of which, for this purpose, was forbidden to subjects. MUSIC. 165 In most parts of the world the trumpet has held the first place among metal instruments, but in China the bell had the priority, and at the present day it still holds its own against the louder-tongued horn, which is used only as a military call, and in pro- cessions. Bells were originally made of six parts of copper to one of tin. Tongues were never used, but sound was emitted by striking the rim with a stick, or, in after-times, the knobs with which the bell was studded, and which were so arranged as to give out the different musical notes when struck. The form of the most ancient bells was square, but in sub- sequent ages they assumed the round shape, and at the present day are universally so made. They are moulded in every size, from the little Fiing ling, or " Wind-bell," which swings on the eaves of pagodas to the huge bells which hang in some of the most notable temples. One of the largest of these is in a temple at Peking, and forms a wonderful example of the mechanical ingenuity of the Chinese. It is about fifteen feet in diameter, twenty feet in height, and weighs about 53 tons. The lower rim is about a foot thick, and the whole bell is covered inside and out with the Chinese text of a long Buddhist litur- gical work. This bell is one of a set of five which were cast by order of the Emperor Yung-loh (a.d. 1403-1425). One of its companions hangs in the Drum-Tower at Peking, and, " in the stillness of the i66 CHINA. midnight hour, its deep mellow tone is heard at four miles distance throughout Peking as it strikes the watch." In the "Great Bell Tower" at Canton there is a huge bell, which, however, is never voluntarily- struck, as it is believed, that if it be sounded, some misfortune will overtake the city. The capture of the town by the English and French, in 1857, is said, by the natives, to have been the result of a shot from one of the guns of H.M.S. Encounter having struck and sounded the bell during the bombardment. As musical instruments bells are principally used at religious services and in processions. In ancient times they seem to have been generally sounded with drums. In the SJie king we have constant mention of bells and drums being used on the occasions of bringing home brides, or in royal processions. Some- times we hear of them concerted with other instru- ments, as when speaking of the expedition of King Yew to the Hwai the poet says, "AY;/ kin peal the bells, peal on, And the lutes in the concert we hear. Deep breathes the organ tone ; Sounding stones join their notes, rich and clear. The while through the vessel there ring The Ya and the Nati which they sing, And the dancers with flutes now appear." They were sounded also at the opening and the close of sacrificial rites, and were even attached to MUSIC. 1G7 the sacrificial knives. It was customary also to fasten them to the harness of horses driven by potentates, and to their carriages and banners. A more popular instrument than the bell is the gong, of which there are three kinds in common use, the Temple Gong, which, as its name implies, is used in temples; the Soochow Gong, which is shaped "like a boiler " ; and the Watch Gong, which is a small kind used to strike the watches. At religious ser- vices, on occasions of ceremony, and at theatrical performances, the gong bears a conspicuous part. But though considered an element of harmony by men, its sound strikes terror into evil spirits, and it is consequently used with pealing effect on all occasions when it is considered advisable to get rid of evil in- fluences. When a vessel puts to sea, when it returns to harbour, when a house is supposed to be haunted, or when any unnatural phenomena occur, such as an eclipse, the gongs are vigorously sounded to dispel the malign influences which are believed to be present. On the outbreak of a fire they are used as signals, first of all to indicate what quarter of the town is threa- tened ; next, by the rapidity of the beats, to make known the progress and fierceness of the fire, and again, by tolling, to show that the danger is over. Cymbals and horns are other metal instruments used by the Chinese. Flutes, fifes, clarionets, and conch shells, are, with i68 CHL\A. the " Reed Organ," the commonest wind-instruments. This last is made with a gourd, into the upper sur- face of which nineteen reed tubes are inserted. These reeds have holes near the base to prevent them emitting sounds, until stopped by the per- former. The mouth-piece, which is not unlike the spout of a kettle, is inserted in the side of the gourd, and the instrument is played either by drawing in the breath or by blowing. But the favourite instruments of the Chinese are stringed instruments. The Site and the KHu, of which mention has already been made, are the chief among these. " The K'in," says Dr. Wells Williams in his ' China,' " is very ancient, and derives its name from the word K'in, to prohibit, ' because it restrains and checks evil passions, and corrects the human heart.' It is a board about four feet in length and eighteen inches wide, convex above and flat beneath? where are two holes opening into hollows. There are seven strings of silk, which pass over a bridge near the wide end, through the board, and are tightened by nuts beneath: they are secured on two pegs at the smaller end. The sounding board is divided by thirteen studs, so placed that the length of the strings is divided, first into two equal parts, then into three, etc., up to eight, with the omission of the seventh. The seven strings enclose the compass of the ninth or two-fifths, the middle one being treated MUSIC. 169 like A upon the violin — viz., as a middle string, and each of the outer ones is tuned a fifth from it. This interval is treated like our octave in the violin, for the compass of the K'in is made up of fifths. Each of the outer strings is tuned a fourth from the alternate string within the system, so that there is a major tone, an interval tone less than a minor third, and a major tone in the fifth. The Chinese leave the interval entire, and skip the half tone, while we divide it into two unequal parts. It will, therefore, readily appear, that the mood or cha- racter of the music of the Kin must be very different from that of western instruments, so that none of them can exactly do justice to the Chinese air.'^. One of the peculiarities of performing on the lute, is sliding the left-hand fingers along the string, and the trilling and other evolutions they are made to execute." Besides the She and the 1\ in there are several kinds of fiddles and guitars, among the best-known of which are the P'i-P'a, a four-stringed guitar which is played with the fingers, the Yneh K'in, or " Moon K'inl' named from the moon-like shape of the sound-board, which has four strings standing in pairs, tuned as fifths to each other, and the Sn-chnn, or " Standard Lute," with twelve strings, yielding exactly the notes of the twelve LnJi or tubes invented by Ling- lun. MUSIC. 171 Music has at all times held an important part in the political system of the Chinese. Its influence for good or evil on the people is regarded as potent, and, according to a celebrated saying of Confucius, it gives the finish to the character which has first been established by the rules of propriety. So marked has the impression produced by it been held to be, that Confucius, when on his way to Ts'e, re- cognised, in the gait and manner of a boy whom he met carrying a pitcher, the influence of the Shaou music, and hurried on to the capital of the state that he might enjoy its excellencies to perfection. On another occasion, we are told that he perceived with delight, in the sound of stringed instruments and the singing at Woo-shing, the effect produced on a people turbulent by nature, by the rule of his disciple, Tsze- yo-w. But in this, as in other matters, Confucius only reproduced the opinions of those who had gone before him, and from the time that Ling-lun made the first pan-pipe, the influence of music on morals and politics has been an established creed amongst the Chinese. The purity of the prevailing music be- came the test of the virtues of the sovereign, and one of the gravest charges brought against the dissolute Chow Sin, the last emperor of the Yin Dynasty (B.C. 1 1 54-1 1 22) was that, to gratify his consort, the notoriously vicious T'an-ke, he substituted licentious airs for the chaste music of his ancestors. Time has 1/2 CHIXA. done little to change the opinions of the Chinese on this subject, and at the present day a careful watch is kept over the efforts of composers by the Imperial Board of Music, whose duty it is to keep alive the music of the ancients, and to suppress all compo- sitions which are not in harmony with it. CHAPTER IX. ARCHITECTURE. (3//T IS a curious cu-cum- stance that in China, a land where there exists such a profound ven- eration for everything old, there should not be found either any ancient buildings or old ruins- While every other nation possessing a his- tory has its monuments and remains, China has nothing which illustrates a past age, except possibly a few pagodas scattered over the land. No emperor has sought to hand down his name to generations yet to come by the erection of any building, useful or ornamental. It would seem as though their original nomadic origin haunted them still, and that the 174 CHINA. recollection of old tent-homes which were pitched to-day and struck to-morrow, still dominates their ideas of what palaces and houses should be. That there is an abundant supply of the most durable materials for building in the land is certain, and that for many centuries the Chinese have been acquainted with the art of brick-making is well- known, but yet they have reared no building pos- sessing enduring stability. Neither do they pos- sess any respect for ancient edifices, even when they have the odour of sanctity attaching to them. If any house in the empire should have been preserved, it should have been Confucius's, and yet we are told that in the reign of Woo-ti (140-86 B.C.), a prince of Loo pulled it down to build a larger one in its place. But not only does the ephemeral nature of the tent appear in the slender construction of Chinese houses, but even in shape they assume a tent-like form. The slope of the roof, and its up-turned corners, coupled with the absence of upper stories, all remind one irresistibly of a tent. The main supports, also, of the roof are the wooden pillars, not the walls, which only serve to fill up the intervening spaces, and form no addition to the stability of the building. As etiquette provides that, in houses of the better class, a high wall should surround the building, and that no window should look outwards, streets in the ARCHITECTURE. 175 fashionable parts of cities have a very dreary aspect. The only breaks in the long line of dismal wall, are the front-doors, which, however, are generally closed, ■or if by any chance they should be left open, moveable screens bar the sight of all beyond the doors of the immshang's, or doorkeeper's rooms. If, however, we pass round one such screen, we find ourselves in a courtyard, which may possibly be laid out as a garden, but more frequently is flagged with paving- stones. On either side are rooms usually occupied by servants, while in front is a building to which we have to ascend by two or three steps, and through which a passage runs, having a room or rooms on either side. At the other end of the passage a descent of two or three steps lands us in another courtyard, in the rooms surrounding which the family live, and behind this again are the women's appartments, which not unfrequently look into a garden at the back, A passage, either running along the inside of the courtyards or beyond them, enables servants and tradespeople to pass to any part of the house without trespassing on the central way, which is reserved for their betters. As has been already said, wooden pillars support the roofs of the build- ings, which are a reminiscence of the earlier tent, and the intervals between these are filled up with brick work, but often so irregularly, as to point plainly to their being no integral part of the construction. The 176 CHINA. window-frames are wooden, over which is pasted cither paper or calico, or sometimes pieces of talc are substituted, the better to transmit the light. The doors are almost invariably folding doors, and turn in wooden sockets. The floors of the rooms are generally either stone or cement, and when laid down with wood, are so uneven and creaky, as considerably to mitigate its advantages. Ceilings are not often used, the roof being the only covering to the rooms. As a rule, the roof is the most ornamental part of the building. The woodwork which supports it is intricate and handsome, the shape is picturesque, and the glazed tiles which cover it give it a bright aspect. A ridge-and-furrow-like appearance is given to it by putting, at regular intervals, on the under layer of flat tiles, lines of semi-circular tiles from the summit to the eaves. Yellow is the colour commonly used, both for temples and such houses which, by the sumptuary laws in force, are entitled to have glazed tiles. At the altar of heaven at Peking a magnificent effect is produced by the use of deep-blue glazed porcelain tiles, which in hue and brightness make no bad imitation of the sky above. Carpets are seldom used, more especially in south- ern China, where also stoves for warming-purposes are unknown. In the north, where, in the winter, the cold is very great, portable charcoal stoves are em- ployed, in addition to the heated kangs, and small A MANDARIN S YAMUN. To face pa^e ijo. ARCHITECTURE. 177 chafing dishes are carried about from room to room. But the main dependence of the Chinese for personal warmth is on clothes. As the Avinter approaches garment is added to garment, and furs to quilted vestments, until the wearer assumes an unwieldy and exaggerated shape. Well-to-do Chinamen seldom take strong exercise, and they are therefore able to bear a weight of clothes which to a European would be unendurable. Of the personal comfort obtainable in a house Chinamen are strangely ignorant. Their furniture is of the hardest and most uncompromising nature. Chairs, made of a hard, black wood, and of an angular shape, and equally unyielding divans, covered possibly with hard, red cushions, are the only seats known to them. Their beds are scarcely more com- fortable, and their pillows are oblong cubes of bam- boo, or other hard material. For the maintenance of the existing fashions of female head-dressing this kind of pillow is essential to women at least, as their hair, which is only dressed at intervals of days, and which is kept in its grotesque shapes by the abun- dant use of bandoline, would be crushed and dis- figured if lain upon for a moment. Women, therefore, who make any pretension of following the fashion, are obliged to sleep at night on their backs, resting the nape of the neck on the pillow, thus keeping the head and hair free from contact with anything. N 178 CHINA. The use of paint in ornamenting the inside of the roofs and other parts of the house is subject to sump- tuary laws, which regulate not only what shall be painted, but also what colours shall be used. No let or hindrance, however, is placed in the way of inter- nal ornament, and the wood carvings, representing flowers and fruits, which not unfrequently adorn the door-Avays and walls of the houses of the rich, are often extremely handsome,combiningbeautyof design with wonderful skill in execution. The shapes of their cabinets and ornamental pieces of furniture are very tasteful, and the rare beauty of their bronzes and ar- ticles of porcelain-ware, with which they delight to fill their rooms, are too well known to need mention here. On a hot day, the large reception-hall in a wealthy Chinaman's house, shaded from every ray of sun by the wide overhanging roof, lofty and spacious, is a welcome retreat, while the absence of carpets, and "stuff" from the furniture, gives it a refreshingly cool aspect. Like the country roads, the streets in towns differ widely in construction in the northern and southern portions of the empire. In the south, they are nar- row and paved, in the north, they are wide and unpaved. Both constructions are suited to the local wants of the people. The absence of wheel-traffic in the southern provinces makes wide streets unneces- sary, while, by contracting their width, the sun's rays ARCHITECTURE. 179 have less chance of beating down on the heads of passers by, and are the more easily altogether excluded -_,^- by the use of awnings stretched across from roof to N 2 i8o CHINA. roof. It is true that this is done at the expense of fresh air, but even to do this is a gain. Shops are all open in front, the counters forming the only barriers between the street and their contents. In the more populous parts of the empire the streets of large cities present a very animated appearance. Crowds of pedestrians, sedan-chairs carrying numbers of the wealthy and official classes, horsemen, and coolies carrying their loads balanced at each end of bamboos slung across their shoulders, jostle one another in the narrow thoroughfares, in such close and constant ARCHITECTURE. 18 1 proximity, that it is due only to the untiring patience and good humour of the crowd that any movement is possible. This inconvenience is avoided in the wide streets of the cities in the north, where the necessities of wheel-trafHc make more room necessary. But in the present degenerate condition of municipal regulations the wide streets are not an unmixed good. Though professing to be macadamised, they are destitute of " metal," with the natural consequences that in wet weather they are sloughs, and in dry seasons they are covered inches deep in dust. Of the large cities of the north and south, Peking and Canton may be taken as typical examples, and certainly, with the exception of the palace, the walls, and certain im- perial temples, the streets of Peking compare very unfavourably with those of Canton. The shops have a meaner and less prosperous look, and there is a general air of dirt and decay about the city. From the fact of the better class of houses being enclosed within high blank walls, the existence of the palaces belonging to the imperial princes, instead of bright- ening the aspect of the town, serves only to add to its dreariness. These palaces, or " foos," of which there are fifty at Peking, are given in perpetuity to certain princes of the blood for signal services, and also to sons of the emperor for their lives and for two later generations, the great grandson 1«2 CHINA. of the original recipient being in each ease obliged to resign the gift again to the sovereign. The general plan of one of these " foos " is thus described by Dr. Williamson : — " A foo has in front of it two large stone lions, with a house for musicians and for gate-keepers. Through a lofty gateway, on which are hung tablets inscribed with the prince's titles, the visitor enters a large, square court, with a paved terrace in the centre, which fronts the principal hall. Here, on days of ceremony, the slaves and depen- dants may be ranged in reverential position before the prince, who sits as master of the household, in the hall. Behind the principal hall are two other halls, both facing, like it, the south. These buildings all have five or seven compartments divided by pillars which support the roof, and the three or five in the centre are left open to form one large hall, while the sides are partitioned off to make rooms. Beyond the gable there is usually an extension called the wi-fang, literally, the ear house, from its resem- blance in position to that organ. On each side of the large courts fronting the halls is a side-house, ' siang fang,' of one or two stories. The garden of a foo is on the west side, and it is usually arranged as an ornamental park, with a lake, wooded mounds, fantastic arbours, small Buddhist temples, covered passages, and a large, open hall for drinking tea and entertaining guests, which is called Hwa-ting. Gar- A C111M'..SK r.AKDKX. roJiii:e page i8j ARCHITECTURE. . 183 den and house are kept private, and effectually guarded from the intrusion of strangers by a high wall, and at the doors a numerous staff of messengers. The stables are usually on the east side, and contain stout Mongol ponies, large Hi horses, and a goodly supply of sleek, well-kept mules, such as North China furnishes in abundance. A prince or princess has a retinue of about twenty, mounted on ponies or mules." As these Foos are built on an officially prescribed plan, there is very little variety among them, and the same sumptuary laws which regulate their con- struction, take cognizance also of the country mansions of the great. These were originally occupied only by "Kung" or Dukes, and were built on much the same model as the Foo, except that their grounds Avere more extensive, and the detached pavilions and summer-houses more numerous. The gardens sur- rounding these and other large country houses are wonderfully " landscaped." Every inequality of nature, whether hill or valley, rock or dale, is repre- sented in them, while artificial water, caverns, and grotesque bridges, complete the microcosm they are intended to represent. Every Chinese city is surrounded by a wall, which in the present state of the military knowledge of the people, is often sufficient to turn back the tide of war. These walls vary very much in height and state of 1 84 CHINA. repair with the circumstances of each city. Those surrounding Peking are probably the finest and best kept in the empire. In height they are about forty feet, and the same in width. The top, which is defended by massive battlements, is well paved, and is kept in excellent order. Over each gate, and there are twelve of them, is built a fortified tower between eighty and ninety feet high, and each gate is further defended on the outside by a large semi-circular enceinte, with walls of the same dimensions as those of the main wall. Seen from the wall, the city, like all Chinese cities, presents an uninteresting appearance. A CITY GATE, To face page 1S4. ARCHITECTURE. 185 The dwelling-houses, being both in height and con- struction alnnost identical, the scene is one of curious monotony, which is broken only by the up-lifted roofs of temples and palaces. In every city the temples form a noticeable feature, and prominent among them, are invariably those dedi- cated to Confucius. The law provides that at least one of these should be built in every city and market- town throughout the empire, and it is ordained with equal fixity that it should consist of three court- yards, built one behind the other, and all facing south. The entrances should be on the eastern and western faces of the outer court-yard, and only when a native of the district has won the supreme honour at the competitive examinations, viz., the title of Chwang- yuen, is the southern wall, which is always painted red, pierced for a gateway. Even when this is done, the right of passing through it is reserved only for emperors and Chwang-yuens, who alone also have the right of crossing the bridge which spans the semi-circular pond, which occupies part of the lower end of the courtyard. In the right-hand corner, at the upper end, is the house where the animals for sacrifice are kept, and on the opposite side is the pavilion where the chief worshipper rests when first entering the temple, and where he dons his official clothes. Across the northern end of the hall runs a large hall, in the middle of which is the "Gate of i£6 CHINA. Great Perfection," and through which, only those who are privileged to enter the temple by the southern wall, and to cross the bridge, are allowed to pass into the next or principal court. On each side of this are covered passages, containing the tablets of illustrious Confucianists, famous for their piety and learning. Cypresses grow in the intervening space, and here the worshippers prostrate themselves before the tab- let, or, in some cases, image of the Sage, which rests on an altar in the " Hall of Great Perfection," which faces southward. On either side of the high altar are arranged the tablets and altars of the four prin- cipal disciples of Confucius, and of the twelve " Wise j\Ien." In the hindermost court, stands the " Ances- tral Hall of Exalted Sages," which contains the tablets of the five ancestors of Confucius, of his half- brother, of the fathers of the principal disciples, and of other worthies. The largest Confucian temple at Peking is a very handsome structure. The roof, which is painted an azure blue, is elaborately deco- rated, and rows of cedar-trees, which are said to be upwards of five hundred years old, adorn the court- }ards. But its most interesting contents are a set of ten stone drums, on each of which is inscribed a stanza of poetry. It is currently believed that these drums were first shaped in the days of Yaou and Shun (B.C. 2356-2205), but, unfortunately for this theory, the forms of the characters point to their having been cut ARCHITECTURE. 187 at a considerably later period, probably in about the seventh or eighth century B.C. The Buddhist temples differ little in general con- struction from the Confucian temples. Like them they are built in a succession of courtyards, the minutiae of which are different, and in the all-impor- tant point of the objects of worship they are, of course, dissimilar. In place of the tablets of Con- fucius and his four disciples stand images of Buddha, Past, Present, and Future, and the shrines of the twelve Wise Men are exchanged for a number of idols representing the numerous incarnations of Buddha. In some few of the larger temples stand Dagobas, containing relics of the founder of the religion. " On each side," says Archdeacon Gray, ^' of the large courtyards, in which the principal halls of the temple are erected, are rows of cells for the monks, a visitors' hall, a refectory, and sometimes a printing-office, where the liturgical services used by the priests, new works on the tenets of Buddha, and tracts for general distribution are printed." Among the most ancient buildings in China are Buddhist pagodas, which were first built on the introduction of Buddhism into China from India. Originally they were designed as depositaries of relics of Buddha, but in later ages numbers have been erected to form the tombs of celebrated Buddhist priests, or as memorials of saintly personages, or i88 CHINA. again, to secure beneficial geon^antic influences for the surrounding districts. Pagodas are generally built of bricks, and are made to consist of an uneven number of stories ; five, seven, and nine being the most common numbers. In most cases the Avails are double, and between the inner and outer walls winds the staircase leading to the summit, from which, by- means of doorways, access is also obtained to the chambers on each flat. The outer wall, which in- \ ariably tapers, is usually octagonal, and its surface is broken by the projecting roofs of tiles which sur- mount the diflercnt stories. These roofs, turned up at the corners, covered with green glazed tiles, and hung about with bells, form the most attractive features of the building. In some pagodas containing relics of Buddha, as is the case with one at How- chow, no stories divide the interior of the pagoda, but in the centre of the ground floor rises a marble pagoda-shaped column, beneath which rests the relic, and upon the sides of which are carved 10,000 small images of Buddha. The most celebrated and magnificent pagoda ever built in China was the well-known porcelain tower at Nanking, which was erected by the Emperor Yung-loh (1403-142 5), to commemorate the virtues of his mother. The outer walls were built of bricks of the finest white porcelain, and the inner walls of ordinary bricks encased in richly-enamelled yellow ARCHITECTURE. 189 and red tiles. In shape it was an octagon. It con- sisted of nine stories, and stood about 270 feet in height. The pinnacle was surmounted by a large gilt ball fixed to the top of an iron rod, which was encircled by nine iron rings, and on the roof were fastened five large pearls for the purpose of protecting the city from as many evils. Nineteen years and pf 200,000 were spent in building this unique struc- ture, which, after standing for about 450 years, was destroyed by the Tai-ping rebels in 1856 so com- pletely, that one brick was not left standing on another. CHAPTER X. DRAWING. HE art of drawing is held in great esteem in China, and the works of the most renowned artists are eager- ly sought after, and are as carefully treasured as those of Raffaelle or Rubens are among ourselves. The art k claims for itself a great antiquity, and as is the case with some other arts, lave had its origin among the It is curious also to observe the cradle of much that has since increased the sum of Chinese civiliza- tion, is credited with having been the home of drawing as well as of the written character. Fuh-he, who invented the celebrated eight diagrams, made drawings and plans, we are s:mes. DRAWING. 191 told, in imitation of the records he found at the Jung river in Honan, and Hwang-te is said to have obtained a likeness of Ts'ang Hieh, the inventor of writing, from the Lo river. These and other tradi- tions appear to prove that the inscriptions drawn on the banks of the rivers by the aborigines of that part of China, served not only as materials for the formation of new characters by the Chinese, but also as patterns for designs. From that beginning, the art of drawing grew, and though it cannot be said that the Chinese are an artistic people, it is equally impossible to deny that they are possessed of great skill in producing won- derful effects with a few strokes of the pencil. They have never understood perspective, but at the same time some of their landscapes are admirable for their picturesqueness and for their life-like repre- sentations of nature. Their studies of trees, boughs, and flowers are exceedingly accurate and tasteful, and their use of colours is highly effective. But after all there is a sameness in their drawings which sug- gests that the art is mechanical, and a study of the works on drawing fully confirms the suspicion. In these we find detailed directions for representing every kind of scenery and under all circumstances. In all such works mountains and streams are de- scribed as the highest objects for the painter's skill, and the student is told how to depict their beauties 192 CHINA. under every varying circumstance of season and weather. The ideal mountain should have a cloud encircling its " waist," which should hide from view a part of the stream which should pour over rocks and waterfalls, down its sides. A temple or house, shaded and half-concealed by a grove, should be nestled in its embrace, and a high bridge should span the neighbouring torrent, over which a winding road, bordered by trees, should lead round the mountain. At inter\-als travellers should be seen mounting to the summit. Three sides of a rock, if possible, should be shown, and water should appear as though ruffled by wind. A ford is a fitting adjunct to a precipitous bank, and smoke and trees add to the picturesqueness of a stretch of water. A large sheet of water should always be dotted with sails. A solitary city in the distance and a market town at the foot of the mountain may be introduced with advantage. Houses should always form part of forest scener)-, and an old tree with broken and twisted roots is an appropriate finish to a rocky cliff. The boughs of trees having leaves, should be supple, but if bare, should be stiff Pine bark should be drawn as fishes' scales, and cedar bark is always, it should be remem- bered, entwining. The branches on the left side of a tree should be longer than those on the right. Rocks should be heavy above and slight beneath. There DRA WING. 193 should never be too much either smoke or cloud, nor should woods have too many trees. On a snowy day no cloud or smoke should be seen, and when rain is 4^ falling distant mountains should be invisible. Such are some of the directions given for landscape O 194 CHINA. drawing, and a glance at Chinese pictures of scener}* is enough to show how closely the rules of the text-books are followed. Writers on art advise artists, before beginning to paint a flower, to examine it carefully from above, so as to become thoroughly acquainted with its every aspect ; and to watch the shadow cast in bright moonlight by a bamboo tree on a white wall. The different aspects of the clouds in the four seasons should be carefully noted. In spring, clouds appear in harmonious concord, in summer, they con- gregate in profusion, in autumn, they are inter- mittent and light, and in winter, they are dark and cold. With the same minuteness every branch of the art is legislated for, and young artists desiring to make themselves proficient in any direction will find full instructions in the manuals published for their guidance. 'Admirable, however, as some of the effects produced are, the result of drawing by rule is to produce a considerable amount of purely mechan- ical skill, and to reduce the exercise of the imagina- tion to a minimum. The birds and flowers, moun- tains and streams, which seem to have been struck off in a few lines as the spirit of the artist moved him, are really the products of patient and repeated imitation, and the probability is, that the artist whose birds or flowers we all so much admire, would be quite DRA WING. 195 unable to draw a dog or a house, if suddenly called upon to do so. The books enforce the doctrine that there is no difference between learning to write and learning to draw. It is possible, by constant appli- cation, to learn to write characters correctly and elegantly, and the same is the case with pictures. This is not art of a high order, but it produces striking and well arranged effects. So skilful was, it is said, a certain artist of the third century in repre- senting insects, that having carelessly added the form of a fly to a picture he had painted for his sovereign, the emperor, on receiving the painting, raised his hand to brush the insect away. The rules which are laid down for landscape draw- ing cannot, of course, apply to portrait painting, in which the artist has to follow a fresh model in every picture ; and for this reason Chinese portraits are not generally successful. Occasionally, artists have arisen who have deservedly won renown in this branch of the art. One of the earliest of these was Maou Yen- chow, who, in the words of Mr. Mayers, " having been commissioned by Yuen-te, of the Han Dynasty (48-32 B.C.), to paint the portraits of the beauties of his harem, is said to have falsified the lineaments of the lovely Chaou Keun on being denied a bribe, and subsequently, on the lady's real beauty being dis- covered by the emperor, to have fled with her true portrait to the Khan of the Hiung-nu. The Khan, O 2 196 CHINA. fired by the hope of obtaining possession of so peerless a beauty, invaded China in irresistible force, and only consented to retire beyond the Wall when the lady was surrendered to him. She accompanied her savage captor, bathed in tears, until the banks of the Amur were reached, when, rather than go beyond the boundary, she plunged into the waters of the stream. Her corpse was interred on the banks of the river, and it is related, that the tumulus raised above her grave remained covered with un- dying verdure." X^^^^^ CHAPTER XI, TRAVELLING. RAVELLING in China is slow and leisurely. Time is of little or no object to the fortunate inhabitants of that country, who are con- tent to be carried for long distances by cart, boat, sedan-chair, or on horseback, without the least troubling themselves about the pace at which they journey. The pre- vailing modes of conveyance vary in ac- cordance with the nature of the country. In the north, where the country is level and open, the existence of broad roads enables the inhabitants to use carts for the conveyance of pas- sengers and goods. These carts are rude in con- 198 CHINA. struction and extremely uncomfortable. Those used as carriages consist of the bed of the cart, with a tilted cover and two wheels. They are entirely destitute of springs, and the passenger sits cross- legged on the bed of the cart, exactly above the axle, without any support for his back. Even on good roads such conveyances would be uncomfortable ; but in China, where the roads arc rarely, if ever, mended, and are either stone causeways or unmade tracks, they are, to all those who are not accustomed to them, instruments of torture. The great art in travelling in them is to sit bolt upright, and to allow the body to sway to and fro with the motion of the cart, and to avoid touching the sides. In Peking and other large cities, the private carriages of rich men sometimes have the wheels placed behind the cart, so that the cart itself is swung, as it were, between the animal drawing it and the axle. In this way, the severe jolts, which harass the passenger seated imme- diately above the axle, are avoided. Carts for the carriage of goods generally have only two wheels, though there are also waggons with four. ]\Iules are generally driven in private carriages and in the best hack carts, but other carts are drawn by ponies, donkeys, or oxen, as the convenience of the owner dictates. For riding purposes, also, mules are preferred to ponies. They are considered to be more manage- TRAVELLING. 199 able, and when taught, as they generally are, to amble, their pace is easy and expeditious. History tells us that horses are not indigenous to China, and this statement is borne out by the fact that the hieroglyphic now used for a horse was originally drawn to represent a donkey, the ears being long out of all proportion to those of a horse. Messengers and bearers of official despatches generally ride, but, as a rule, travellers prefer going long journeys either by cart or by boat. In the province of Shantung, and in other mountainous districts in northern China, a kind of horse palanquin is used by travellers. Either two ponies or two mules are harnessed in the poles, one in front and one behind, and thus carry the palanquin between them. But the most general way of travelling throughout the empire, is by boat. In every direction the natural " water highways " dissect the country, and in parts, where these fall short of the wants of the people, they are supplemented by canals. The boats are admirably adapted to the people and the cir- cumstances. They are built rather for comfort than for speed, and their clean and comfort- able cabins and easy motion form a most desirable contrast to the jolting of carts, the monotony of posi- tion necessary in a sedan-chair, or the fatigue of riding. The official junks in which mandarins travel are very like floating houses. They are fitted up 200 CHINA. with every convenience, and are manned by an arm)^ of boatmen, who tow, pole, or row the vessel along, as the case may be, when the wind is adverse. On all such boats the flag of the mandarin on board is hoisted on the mast. Less distinguished passengers have to put up with less commodious junks, but what they lack in com- fort, they make up in superior facilities for travelling. Not like the masts of mandarin junks, which are so arranged that the sail can only be hoisted when the wind is " right aft," the rig of the smaller passenger- TRAVELLING. 20 1 vessels is such, as to enable them to sail as near the wind as a Portsmouth wherry. They are consider- ably lighter also, and are consequently far more easily towed. The fore part of such vessels consists of a flush deck, the boards of which are movable, and the holds, which, in the day-time, these conceal. serve as sleeping-places for the crew. Captain Gill, in his " River of Golden Sand," thus describes the above-deck arrangements of the boat in which he lived during a part of his voyage up the Yang-tsze keang: — " The bows, for a space of twenty feet, were un- covered ; aft of this a house about twenty feet long 202 CHIXA. was built right across the deck, leaving no room to pass round the sides. There was a small open space aft of the house, and right over the stern another high building, where our skipper lived, was piled up to a great height. The house was about seven feet high, and was divided into four compartments, giving us a living room and two bedrooms for ourselves, and a room for the servants." The sea-going junks are very much larger than the river craft, and are built on different lines. They are high at both ends, and are square at bow and stern. On the latter is painted a phoenix standing on a rock in the midst of the ocean, and at the bows two large staring eyes, reminding one, as ]\Ir. Tylor has pointed out, of the eye of Osiris, which was painted on the Egyptian funeral-bark that carried the dead across the lake to the western burial-place. The Canton -English -speaking Chinese of Hong-kong have another explanation of the custom, " No have got eye," they say, " how can see ! no can see, how can savey ! " All junks of this kind are divided into water-tight compartments, and are capable of carry- ing several thousand tons of cargo. They are gene- rally three-masted, and carry a huge main-sail made like the others of matting. The rudder projects con- siderably beyond the stern, and is large in proportion compared with those of European vessels, giving the helmsman immense power of turning the vessel where TRA YELLING. 203 he Hsteth. The choice of feHcitous names by which to christen the junks is a matter of serious consideration to the owners who love to adorn the masts and rud- ders with mottoes of good omen. Though possessed of the compass Chinese sailors are W'ithout the know- ledge necessary for taking nautical observations, and consequently they are compelled to hug the land, or, where that is impossible, to trust themselves entirely to the guidance of the compass until they reach some coast with which they are acquainted. 204 CHINA. In these circumstances it may readily be imagined that the loss of junks and lives on the China coasts is annually very large. Xot only are there the ordinary difficulties of navigation to be contended with, but the southern waters are periodically visited by typhoons, which sweep the seas affected by them of every junk outside the shelter of harbour, and which, even within these limits, do incalculable damage. In 1862 and 1871 the neighbourhood of Canton was devastated by two such storms, and. says Archdeacon Gray, " these were, if possible, sur- passed in violence, and in the number of casualties which attended them, b}^ a typhoon which visited Hong-kong and Macao in the month of September, 1874. According to the inhabitants this distructive cyclone was the greatest calamity which had befallen Hong-kong and Macao within the memory of man." It has been reckoned that 20,ooo persons perished in the seas and rivers of the province of Kwangtung on that occasion. The immense number of people who live in boats on the rivers in this part of China render typhoons especially destructive. For the most part these boat-people are not of Chinese origin, but are remnants of the aborigines of the countr}'. They are known as Tanka, and are nearly related to the Miaou-tsze of southern and western China. At the present day there is not much in their appearance to 77?^ YELLING. 205 distinguish them from the Chinese, except that they are more vivacious in manner, and brighter in coun- tenance ; and they have so entirely discarded their own language in favour of Chinese that their speech in no way betrays them. They are regarded with an affectation of contempt by the Cantonese, who have nicknamed them SJninii ke, " Water fowl," or Hoi ch'at, " Sea otters." At various times they have been much persecuted, and attempts have not been want- ing to subject them to complete ostracism. Even now marriages between the Tankas and Cantonese are rarely celebrated, and their youths are not allowed to compete at the literary examinations. That the race has ever survived is a constant wonder, seeing the hourly and almost momentary danger of drown- ing, in which the children live on board their boats. That they do not all fall overboard from the unpro- tected decks is only another proof that human beings can adapt themselves to any circumstances. The only precaution that is ever taken, even in the case of infants, is to tie an empty gourd between their shoulders, so that, should they fall into the water, they may be kept afloat until help comes. Hardly a less cause for amazement is the way in which whole families and large families pack away in their boats. A space which would appear infinitely cramped and confined to one of ourselves serves a father and mother, sometimes a mother-in-law, and 2o6 CHINA. a host of children, for every purpose of Hfe. They are born in their boats, they marr}- in their boats, and die in their boats. One great advantage of travelling by boat in China is, that by so doing the traveller avoids the necessity of going to inns. He carries ever>'thing he wants with him. The sto\-e which cooks the boatmen's dinner cooks his also, and even in the smallest passenger boats he may sleep comfortably, protected by the mat-co\-ering from rain and cold. Compared with the accommodation commonly found in village - inns, boats are clean and commodious. Except in very large inns a single courtyard sur- TRA YELLING. 207 rounded by mean and dirty rooms is all that is at the disposal of travellers. The kitchen and offices adjoin the entrance, and in the four or five other apartments live the host and his family, and there also are lodged the travellers who present them- selves. In the north of China the most conspicuous object in a room of an inn is the kang, or raised brick bed place, which generally extends along the whole side of the chamber. It is built hollow, so as to admit, in cold weather, of a fire of brushwood being lit inside. The caloric thus communicated quickly heats the bricks through, and the weary traveller finds a warm place on which to roll himself in his bedding. But even when thus comfortably placed he must be a hardened sleeper who can forget in slumber the noises which are constantly going on around him. It is seldom that among the inhabitants of an inn there is not a guitar and a guitarist, and long into the night the melancholy notes of this instrument, which would be provocative of sleep were it not for the shrill long drawn-out notes which diversify Chinese airs, wail through the rooms. When at last these cease to disturb, the silence which follows only makes more audible the quarrels and fights between the ponies and mules which stand in the stable, or sometimes in the open court- yard. When towards morning these sounds have died away the traveller is fortunate if he is not tor- 2oS CHINA. merited with the crowinj^ of cocks, which not un- frequently landlords, and those of their guests who wish to make an early start, tie beneath their beds, and which, as may be imagined, keep up a shrill chorus on the approach of day. One other means of travelling remains to be noticed, and one which is peculiar to China, namely by wheelbarrow. On the plains in the northern portion of the empire it is not at all unusual to see one or two persons seated on a wheelbarrow, which is propelled by a man or men, whose labours arc lightened when going with the wind by a sail which is hoisted on a moveable mast. Dr. Williamson, in his "Journeys in North China," thus describes these means of conveyance : — " Here we met many of their extraordinary wheelbarrows moving along on dry ground with a sail set, each barrow having a great wheel in the centre, finely balanced. Those we saw were laden heavily, and had a large sheet of cloth set on a frame-work in front ; many of these sails were so rigged as to be capable of being raised or reefed at pleasure, the ropes or braces being at- tached to a hook close to the driver. We have never seen these wheelbarrows without pity ; the strain to the men who manage them is enormous ; indeed, we have never witnessed human beings under such hca\y labour. We met many with fourteen bean-cakes on one barrow, equal to seven small A W llKKl.IiAKKOW WITH SAIL. To /,u\- />ii£t: 209. TRA VELLING. 209 donkey-loads ; and often saw six bails of cotton on one barrow, though two are considered sufficient for a mule; but human labour is cheaper than animal. In many cases there were two men to one barrow, one dragging and another pushing ; but, in such cases, the load was increased." Another traveller, writing on this subject, also speaks of the enormous loads carried on these barrows : — " We saw a large wheelbarrow so heavily laden that, while it required only one man to guide and manage it from behind, two men were employed, one on each side, to steady and force it along, while a fourth man was engaged in driving two mules and one ass, which were fastened abreast to the front part of the vehicle, in order to assist in its progress." At the present day, however, there are not wanting signs that before long the " iron horse " will have to be added to the list of the means of travelling in China. The knowledge of the material results of Western civilisation which has been gained of late years by the officials of China, with the example set by Japan of the practicability of their adoption in Eastern countries, has stirred the minds of some of the most powerful men in China on the subject of introducing railways and telegraphs into the " flowery land." The advantages of railways also, in a military sense, will be a powerful argument for their adoption, and in the physical features of the country few ob- P 210 CHINA. stacks will be found to their construction. Over the vast plains of northern China scarcely a gradient would be necessary, and through the hilly and mountainous districts the routes marked out by the existing highways would easily yield to the engineer's skill. Both from their natural aptness, and from the fact of their striking all the great centres of trade, these highways will, when the time comes for laying down the rails, probably direct the course of the lines. Nothing is more suggestive of the former greatness of the empire, and of its present degenerate condition, than its magnificent system of highways, and the uncared-for, miserable state in which they now are. From Peking, as the political centre of the " middle kingdom," four great main roads radiate. One goes north to Urga by way of Seuen-hwa Foo, passing through the Great Wall at Chang-kea kow ; another enters Mongolia through the Koo-pei Kow, and passes in a north-easterly direction to Fung-ning, where it tiu'ns north-west and continues on to Dolanor ; a third strikes eastward by way of Tung-chow, Yung- ping Foo, Shan-hai-kwan, King-chow- Foo, Moukden, Kirin, Ning-gu-ta, and on to Poissiet, a Russian port on the eastern coast of the continent ; and a fourth, which trends in a south-westerly direction to Paou- ting Foo, Tai-yuen Foo, Tung-kwan, the celebrated fortress at the point where the Yellow^ River after TRA YELLING. pursuing a southerly course, turns eastward to the sea, and Se-ngan Foo in Shen-se. At this point it bifurcates, one branch turning north-west to Kan-suh and Tibet, and the other continuing the original direction through Sze-chuen to Siam. At Paou-ting Foo also, two highways diverge from the main road, one leading to Nanking and another to Nan-chang Foo on the Po-yang Lake, where travellers embark on the Kea River for Canton. The original construction of these roads was as masterly as their design was magnificent. The bridges by which they cross all but the largest rivers were all well built and many of them were handsome structures ; the passage through mountain-passes and hilly districts was in all cases ably executed in spite of often great engineering difficulties ; and the width of the road-ways, from seventy to eighty feet, gave ample room for the passage of camels, carts, sedan-chairs, and beasts of burden which frequented them. Many of these roads are planted on each side with rows of trees, and at every ten Chinese miles there stands a signal-tower, on which, in bygone days, when evil threatened, fires were lit, which at night gave warning of danger by their flames, and in the day-time were made to emit dense clouds of smoke to serve the same purpose. At frequent intervals are the remains of guard-houses, where soldiers used to be stationed for the protection of r 2 212 CHIXA. travellers, and wherever necessar}' wells and troughs are provided for the use of men and their beasts. Inns and tea-houses repeat themselves constantly along the lines of route, and post-horses stand ready prepared in the stables of the frequent post-houses to relieve at the instant the tired steeds of the official couriers. In cases of emergency these men are said to travel over two hundred English miles a-day. They carry a few hen's feathers fastened to the top of their lanterns as a signal of their commission, and their despatches are tied in a parcel on their backs. The speed with which these men travel is illustrated by the following mention made by Captain Gill, in his '• River of Golden Sand," of a nocturnal visit of one at a little village in Western China : — " The clatter of an imperial despatch from Peking awoke the echoes of the slumbering village at three o'clock in the morning : a few dogs barked, a cock crowed, but in less than a minute the rattle of the hoofs was lost in the distance, and the place lapsed into its normal silence." CHAPTER XII. HONOURS. jHE question of what should be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour is one which re- ceives different answers in almost every country in the world. In all, how- ever, some accession of dignity, or insignia of honour are the rewards awaiting those who have deserved well of their country. The satis- faction arising from popular fame is short- lived, and some more lasting evidence is therefore demanded of the favour of the sovereign. In China, the highest rewards for military services are unlike all other official honours which die with the wearer, and are hereditary. Nine titles of nobility^ 214 CHINA. viz., Kuiig, or duke, Hozv, or marquis, Pih, or earl, Tsze, or viscount, Na7i, or baron, and lying cJik Too- yii, K'e Too-yii, Yun K'e-yic, and Ngan K'e-yil, which may be considered equivalent to as many degrees of knighthood, are set apart for military heroes. With the exception of the last title, all these are hereditary during- a specified number of lives, ranging from twenty-six for a Kttng to one for a Yun K'e-yii. They have the peculiarity also, on occasions, of not only descending to future generations, but of ennobling the dead, and especially those who have been killed in battle. The system of conferring posthumous honours of various kinds is very common, and is not by any means confined to the victims of war. It is practised in the case of officials who lose their lives at sea or in the inland waters while travelling on duty, of virtuous sovereigns, of chaste widows, of filial sons, and of patriots. Such rewards are often only titles of honour, which are not hereditary, and which may be either conferred on the meritorious individual in person, or granted to him posthumously, or may be bestowed on his wife, or his parents, or his grand- parents. As in the case of the hereditary patents mentioned above, these titles are divided into nine ranks, each of which is subdivided into two grades, and are as follows : — i a. Kivang Ink ta foo, b. Yung Ink ta foo ; 2 a. Ts2e ching ta foo, b. T'ling fung ta HONOURS. 215 foo ; 3 a. T'ling e ta foo, b. Cluing e ta foo ; 4 a. CJinng /lien ta foo, b. 67^'<7^ e ta foo ; 5 a. Z^?/;/^