The Women of the Middle Kingdom
 
 DR. HO KING ENG.
 
 By 
 
 R. L. McNABB, A. M. 
 
 Formerly Missionary in China 
 
 CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND PYE 
 NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS
 
 COPYIIICHT, 1903, BY 
 JENNINGS AND PY
 
 TO THE 
 
 WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 WORKERS OF ALL ORTHODOX CHURCHES, 
 WHO ARE LABORING FOR THE UPLIFTING 
 AND CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE WOMEN 
 OF CHINA, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IN this little volume an attempt is made to de- 
 scribe the condition of the women of China; many 
 of their peculiar customs, both social and religious, 
 are explained ; and the earnest and successful efforts 
 of lady missionaries in China are described. The 
 ripe fruit of missionary work is illustrated by giving 
 a biographical sketch of a "Christian Chinese Lady," 
 Mrs. Sia Ahok. That the reader may appreciate 
 the possibilities of pagan womanhood at its best, a 
 description is given of that remarkable woman, the 
 Dowager Empress of China. 
 
 In preparing this work the author has not only 
 drawn from his own observations and investigations 
 in China, but has searched through many books on 
 things Chinese written by various authors, in order 
 to find facts that would illustrate the subjects under 
 discussion. Credit is given to these authors in the 
 
 7
 
 8 Preface. 
 
 body of this book. Names of individual mission- 
 aries are not given, for time and space would fail 
 me if I undertook to describe the work of each 
 missionary heroine. For the sake of clearness, and 
 in order to make each chapter as independent as 
 possible of every other chapter, a few facts have 
 been used more than once in the preparation of this 
 volume. R. L,. McNABB.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE TRIALS OF THEIR CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, - 13 
 
 II. THEIR DRESS, WORK, AND AMUSEMENTS, - - 25 
 
 III. THEIR STATUS IN THE HOME AND SOCIETY, - - 37 
 
 IV. How THEY ARE BETROTHED AND MARRIED, 51 
 
 V. THE HOUSES IN WHICH THEY LIVE, AND THE 
 
 CUSTOMS AND RITES ATTENDING THEIR BURIAL, 64 
 
 VI. THEIR RELIGIOUS CONDITION, - ... go 
 
 VII. WHAT is BEING DONE FOR THEIR CHRISTIANIZATION ? 94 
 
 VIII. WHAT is BEING DONE FOR THEIR CHRISTIANIZATION ? 
 
 CONTINUED, ... - 107 
 
 IX. MRS. Si A AHOK, A CHINESE CHRISTIAN LADY, - 124 
 
 X. THE CHINESE EMPRESS DOWAGER, - 144
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 DR. HO KING ENG, Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 THE BABY TOWER, 14 
 
 SMALL SHOES WORN BY BOUND-FOOTED WOMEN, - - 22 
 
 How HINGHUA WOMEN DRESS THEIR HAIR, - 28 
 
 NATIVE WOMEN GRINDING AT THE MILL, - - - 34 
 
 CHINESE MARRIAGE SCENE (Chinese water-color painting), 52 
 
 CHINESE MARRIAGE SCENE (just before unveiling the bride), 62 
 
 KUSHAN MONASTERY AND MOUNTAIN NEAR FOOCHOW, 68 
 
 A DECEASED WIFE OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA, 78 
 
 IMAGE OF BUDDHA AND A PRIEST AT His DEVOTIONS, - 86 
 GROUP OF CHINESE GODDESSES, INCLUDING THE GODDESS 
 
 OF MERCY AND QUEEN OF HEAVEN, ... 92 
 BOARDING-SCHOOL GIRLS, CHUNG KING, .... 98 
 THE ANGEL MONUMENT SENT OUT FROM ENGLAND TO 
 MARK THE RESTING-PLACE OF THE ENGLISH MAR- 
 TYRS WHO WERE KILLED AT HUA SANG, NEAR FOO- 
 
 CHOW, BY THE VEGETARIAN REBELS, AUGUST I, 1895, IO2 
 
 MARY CROOK MEMORIAL ORPHANAGE, FOOCHOW, - 108 
 
 ELIZABETH SKELTON DANFORTH HOSPITAL, KIUKIANG, 122 
 
 MRS. AHOK AND MAID, - 126 
 
 THE EMPRESS DOWAGER, - - 144 
 RECEPTION OF FOREIGN MINISTERS BY THE IMPERIAL 
 
 COURT. - 158
 
 The Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE TRIALS OF THEIR CHILDHOOD 
 AND YOUTH. 
 
 THE Chinese, unless talking with foreigners, 
 never call their country China. Multiplied millions 
 of the interior population of that vast country have 
 never heard the term. About 250 B. C. the great 
 Tsin (Chin) Dynasty ruled that country. The peo- 
 ple of India spoke of China as "The land of the 
 Tsin Dynasty." When the Romanists entered India 
 they Latinized the word Tsin, making it Tsina or 
 China. Thus the "Western world" came to know 
 the land of Confucius by the name China. 
 
 Cathay, which was derived from Ki-tah, the 
 name of an emperor who ruled in the tenth cen- 
 tury, is another name that foreigners apply to China. 
 It may be called the poetic name, for Western poets, 
 
 13
 
 14 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 when they sing of that land, call it "Far Cathay." 
 But the Chinese never use the name. 
 
 The "Celestial Empire" is a name that is some- 
 times used by Chinese as well as by foreigners, and 
 is derived from "Teen Chow," meaning "Celestial 
 Dynasty." As applied to that country it means the 
 "kingdom which the dynasty appointed by heaven 
 rules." Southern China is emphatically "the Land 
 of Flowers." Every kind of flowering plant or tree 
 that I have ever seen, from the tiny pansy to the 
 majestic "Beauty of India" (a tree as large as our 
 forest trees, that has a beautiful bright pink flower), 
 grows in that semi-tropical region. Hence that 
 country is frequently called the "Land of Flowers." 
 
 China's sacred or classical name is "Chung- 
 Kwok," "Middle Kingdom." A Chinese map of 
 the world would represent China as the center of 
 all things earthly, with the United States, England, 
 and other lands as small islands clustering around 
 the coasts of that "Middle Land." 
 
 Dr. S. Wells Williams, who has doubtless writ- 
 ten the greatest work on China, gave that work the 
 title, "The Middle Kingdom." 
 
 Out of this list of names "The Middle King- 
 dom" is doubtless the most appropriate one for a 
 book that describes that strange land. Hence "The
 
 tc
 
 Trials of Childhood and Youth. 15 
 
 Women of the Middle Kingdom" is the best name 
 for a book that gives an account of the women of 
 that country. 
 
 When the girl baby first opens her quaint 
 little eyes in a Chinese home be it a hut or pal- 
 ace she is greeted with a frown. No one in the 
 household is made happy by her advent. She is, 
 like her Redeemer, despised and rejected of men. 
 Her swaddling clothes may become her burial 
 clothes, for infanticide is a common practice in 
 China. Her father may cast her into some baby 
 tower, where birds may come and feast upon her 
 flesh. She may find a watery grave in a neighbor- 
 ing river whose pitiless waves hush forever her 
 child-cry. She may be buried alive in the mud 
 floor of the dark and dingy room where she was 
 born. As sad as the custom of infanticide is in 
 China, it is no worse than it was in India or other 
 heathen countries with the possible exception of 
 Japan. If a Western person reproves a Chinaman 
 for this crime, he may retort by saying, "It is no 
 worse to kill the child after it is born than before, 
 and there is no risk to the mother's life." 
 
 To what extent infanticide prevails is hard to 
 determine. The statement that is going the rounds 
 of the newspapers that seventy-five per cent of the
 
 1 6 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 children of China are killed at birth is false. Boys 
 are seldom if ever put to death. After there are 
 two or more girls born to one father and mother 
 the girl babies that come to life in that family 
 may soon be put to death. 
 
 Orphanages and foundling homes have been 
 established by the missionaries into which many 
 waifs have been gathered. A native Christian doc- 
 tor was present when an infant girl was born to 
 heathen parents, who were anxious for the advent 
 of a son. The angry grandfather seized the child 
 and threw it into the back yard. The Christian doc- 
 tor rescued the child, and took it to the orphanage. 
 The cruel parents refused to grant the doctor any- 
 thing in which to wrap the little outcast. Many 
 of these little ones have been rescued. Raised under 
 the fostering care of Christian matrons, and edu- 
 cated in the mission schools, they become the wives 
 of native Christian ministers and laymen, teachers 
 in day-schools, or Bible-readers in the secluded fe- 
 male departments of Chinese homes. If the little 
 creature is allowed to stay in the home of her parents 
 she is treated as an intruder, and is not considered 
 as a member of the family. She is considered as 
 a member of her future husband's family. If asked 
 the number of his children, her father will give
 
 Trials of Childhood and Youth. 17 
 
 the exact number of his boys, but will not mention 
 his daughters. If he happens to have no sons, he 
 will say in the most pathetic tone of voice, so as 
 to stir the sympathy of the inquirer, "I have one 
 insignificant girl." She is not only an unmention- 
 able article, but she may be an unnamed article in 
 the household. She may be just numbered. An 
 old woman who used to come to carry away the 
 kitchen refuse with which to feed her pigs was 
 called "thirteen." That was the only name she had. 
 She was the thirteenth girl that was allowed to live 
 among her grandfather's descendants. 
 
 If the girl is allowed to live, an uncertain fate 
 awaits her. She may be sold to be a bondmaid 
 of some small-footed occupant of the inner apart- 
 ments of a wealthy mandarin. When she reaches 
 a marriageable age, the mandarin in whose family 
 she has been a slave is obliged to sell her to become 
 a wife of some lowly laborer, thus changing the 
 form of her bondage, but still leaving her, in a 
 sense, a slave. She may be kidnaped by bad men 
 and sold into a life of shame. Wicked men of the 
 Occident pay these kidnapers handsome prices for 
 Chinese girls. Many of them are kept in the for- 
 eign communities of China. Others of these help- 
 less creatures are sent to Australia, Singapore, and
 
 1 8 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 America, to become the slaves of licentious wretches. 
 This crime prevails to such an alarming extent 
 among the foreigners in China that the North China 
 Herald (which is not by any means a missionary 
 journal) says: 
 
 "Almost daily girls are enticed to Shanghai and 
 sold like so many sheep and cattle. The girls are 
 taught to play the native guitar, to sing, and lead 
 a shameful life. Rods, whips, and burning hot 
 opium-needles are used to torture these creatures 
 in order to make them show off their accomplish- 
 ments. Were a record of the brutal treatment of 
 these girls made known, the world would be 
 shocked. \ This would not be allowed in the Chinese 
 city, but in the foreign part of the city it prevails 
 to an alarming extent.'^ 
 
 The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal 
 says: "It is true that there are sinks of iniquity 
 in Shanghai; places where the worst of vices are 
 openly flaunted, such as would not be tolerated in 
 the adjoining heathen city." I Remember it is 
 the foreign part of Shanghai that is referred to 
 and not the native city, and also remember that both 
 the newspapers quoted are foreign papers and not 
 Chinese.^ 
 
 This state of affairs is not confined to Shanghai,
 
 Trials of Childhood and Youth. 19 
 
 for nearly every foreign community is in the same 
 condition in a less or greater degree. Many a 
 Chinese girl is sold by her parents with the dis- 
 tinct understanding that she is to go to America 
 to become the wife of a rich Chinese merchant; 
 but when she reaches her destination she finds she 
 is in the clutches of a human monster, and is com- 
 pelled to eke out an existence that is worse than 
 death. The price of girls varies according to their 
 age and use to which they are put. The price of 
 a bondmaid is about two dollars for each year of 
 her age. A girl twelve years old was sold at Foo- 
 chow for forty thousand cash (about thirty-six dol- 
 lars in silver). If a girl is to lead a life of degra- 
 dation she will bring a price two or three times as 
 high as a bondslave. Chinese parents are gener- 
 ally unwilling on any consideration to sell their 
 daughters for such a career. When the girl is 
 bought with the understanding that she is to be 
 a bondmaid, and is then put into a life of shame, 
 the perpetrators of the crime are liable to be severely 
 punished by the magistrate. 
 
 If a Chinese girl escapes these dangers and 
 remains in her father's home, and finally becomes 
 the wife of some Chinese youth, yet is her life not 
 to be desired by an Occidental lady. Confucius,
 
 20 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 the great sage, teaches that she must be subject 
 to the three obediences. While in her father's 
 house she must obey him; when married she must 
 obey her husband; and when her husband is dead 
 she must obey her own son. Filial piety is so deeply 
 impressed upon her mind that no self-torture is 
 considered too great for her to bear that she may 
 relieve her parents. If a Chinese doctor should 
 intimate that a broth made from human flesh would 
 restore her sick parent to health, she would not 
 hesitate to sacrifice some of her own flesh for that 
 purpose. A girl once tried to cut some of the flesh 
 from the fleshy portion of her body with which to 
 make a broth for her sick mother, but her courage 
 failed her and she then cut and unjointed a portion 
 of one of her fingers and made the broth. This 
 act of filial piety was brought to the attention of 
 the emperor, and he ordered that a stone arch or 
 gateway should be erected to commemorate the 
 deed. 
 
 Not one girl in a thousand is educated. Of 
 what use is it to educate a creature whose chief 
 end is to bear children, and who is supposed to 
 spend her life in the inner apartments? Surely 
 she is not worth educating. So reasons her more 
 favored brother, father, or husband. Thus her
 
 Trials of Childhood and Youth. 21 
 
 mind remains as cramped and undeveloped as do 
 her bound feet. 
 
 The foot-binding custom is one of the singular 
 and sad features of Chinese life. The boys do 
 not have their feet bound. In South China the 
 custom is mostly confined to the middle and upper 
 classes. Even the poor are anxious to have one 
 girl with bound feet, to keep up the standing of the 
 family. As a rule, the farmers and the other laboring 
 classes do not bind the feet of their daughters; 
 for the female is expected to perform manual labor, 
 and if her feet are bound her usefulness will be 
 interfered with. In North China the women of all 
 classes bind their. feet; but the feet of the laboring 
 women are not bound so small as to interfere much 
 with their work. Manchu-Tartar ladies, Hakka 
 (a nomadic class of people) women, secondary 
 wives, bondmaids, and courtesans, as a rule, have 
 large feet. Thus the bound feet of a Chinese lady 
 indicate her standing in society. They indicate that 
 she is not a Tartar, a nomadic Hakka, a secondary 
 wife, or a bondslave. Her brothers and husband 
 manifest great pride in her tiny feet, and call them 
 "golden lilies." If a rude Chinaman were asked 
 why the feet of the women were bound, he would 
 say, "To keep them from gadding about." A
 
 22 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Chinese gentleman would doubtless answer such a 
 question as follows: "Many centuries ago when 
 there was a native dynasty upon the throne, an 
 empress was born with naturally deformed or club 
 feet. She was ashamed of her feet, and persuaded 
 the emperor to require all the ladies admitted to 
 the palace to have their feet bound to look like her 
 feet." The process of foot-binding commences 
 when the child is about five years old, and continues 
 to the day of her death, unless she should happily 
 become a Christian or come in touch, directly or 
 indirectly, with the teachings of Christianity. 
 
 A long cotton bandage two or three inches wide 
 is thrown over the four small toes, and they are 
 drawn under and pressed up into the fleshy part of 
 the foot. Being held in that position, they become 
 stunted and cease to grow. The heel is drawn down 
 and the center of the foot is pressed up until the 
 instep bulges out in front of the ankle bone. The 
 great toe is left out, and forms the acute angle of 
 a triangle. The bandage is bound tightly about 
 the foot in different directions. The sole of the 
 shoe is made on the principle of an inclined plane 
 of forty-five degrees. The heel rests on the back 
 and the upper part of the incline, and the great 
 toe goes into the shoe while the instep bulges out
 
 SMALL SHOES WORN BY BOUND-FOOTED WOMEN.
 
 Trials of Childhood and Youth. 23 
 
 above the shoe. The large toe being all that goes 
 into the shoe, the girl practically walks on her 
 great toe. The process is painful, and sometimes 
 the foot is injured to such an extent that it has 
 to be taken off. When foreign ladies first com- 
 menced to go to China they laced themselves 
 tightly and wore large hoop-skirts. When they 
 talked to the Chinese women about the foot-binding 
 custom, the Oriental lady would answer by saying 
 that it was not as bad to bind the feet as the waist, 
 for the Western woman in binding her waist in- 
 jured her heart, lungs, and other internal organs. 
 And as to the hoop-skirt, the Chinese lady said she 
 could not understand why the foreign lady wore 
 a chicken-coop under her gown. 
 
 This sad custom "is the mark of a Chinese lady, 
 and indispensable to a suitable betrothal. Betrothal 
 takes place very early in life, and a little girl whose 
 feet are permitted to attain the usual (natural) 
 size would not be chosen for the first or principal 
 wife." 
 
 Bound feet are not a mark of wealth, but of 
 gentility. This custom is one of the greatest obsta- 
 cles to the spread of the gospel among the women 
 of China. It is difficult for these crippled creatures 
 to go about. Thus many of them are kept from
 
 24 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Church services. Then, when the girls and women 
 become Christians, they are obliged to unbind their 
 feet, and in this way break caste and injure their 
 standing in society. This becomes a stumbling- 
 block to many a woman of China, and she draws 
 back and prefers to continue to be a hobbling and 
 tinseled lady of leisure, to being a humble follower 
 of the Christ.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THEIR DRESS, WORK, AND AMUSE- 
 MENTS. 
 
 WHEN it is finally decided that the Chinese 
 girl-baby's life will be spared, she is wrapped in 
 swaddling clothes, like her little Jewish sister, and 
 tenderly laid beside her mother. When a month 
 old her head is shaved, and she is clothed in a dress 
 of bright red color. When she is four months old 
 she is allowed to sit alone. A chair, prettily 
 painted, gilded, and furnished with rollers, is pre- 
 pared. The child, properly dressed, is seated in the 
 chair, the seat of which has been well smeared with 
 molasses candy, a gift from her maternal grand- 
 mother. The candy is intended to stick the child 
 to the chair that she can the more easily learn to sit 
 upright. On her first birthday a thank-offering, 
 furnished by the maternal grandmother, is offered 
 before the goddess of children called "Mother," 
 who is supposed to have special care of children 
 until they are sixteen years old. The girl also 
 
 25
 
 26 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 receives some fine clothing, bracelets, and head or- 
 naments from the maternal grandmother. After 
 the first shaving of the head already referred to, 
 all the head is kept shaved in summer (until the 
 fifth year), except two tufts, which are allowed to 
 grow, one on each side of the head; these are sup- 
 posed to be charms, and are said to be conducive 
 to health. This custom of head shaving is surely 
 conducive to cleanliness, if not to health; for lice, 
 which are altogether too numerous in China, are 
 thus deprived of a harboring place. Among the 
 extremely poor, the girls, as well as the boys, wear 
 but little if any clothing in warm weather until 
 they reach their seventh year. Some wear simply 
 an apron-shaped pocket or cluster of pockets, such 
 as a carpenter uses to carry nails in. Sometimes 
 these pockets are beautifully embroidered. After 
 the seventh year the girls wear garments that are 
 so made as to show but little of the form of the 
 body. Their clothing as a rule is becoming, neat, 
 and exceedingly modest. 
 
 The two fundamental articles of dress for a 
 woman are a pair of loose trousers and an equally 
 loose-fitting tunic. A lady's trousers are exactly 
 the same in shape as a man's. Although a woman 
 is considered dressed when she has on trousers and
 
 Dress, Work, and Amusements. 27 
 
 tunic, yet a lady of high standing always wears 
 a thin innermost garment, that fits closely and is 
 tightly buttoned up; while her outer garments vary 
 in number and color according to the weather and 
 her age. Girls usually wear brighter colors than 
 women. A divided skirt is also very commonly 
 worn. This has the trace of the trousers about it; 
 "trousers unfinished," as it were, one piece hangs 
 in front down to the ankles, as an apron, and 
 another piece hangs behind in the same way; while 
 embroidery and numerous plaits in vertical lines 
 adorn them. A girdle of cord is worn about the 
 waist, to which are fastened the lower undergar- 
 ments. The laboring women wear black, while the 
 indoor females usually wear blue dresses, made from 
 grass-cloth and cotton. The well-to-do classes 
 array themselves in embroidered dresses made of 
 silk, satin, and crape. The dress fits tightly about 
 the throat, has wide sleeves, that frequently expose 
 the wrists and hands adorned with bracelets and 
 rings. 
 
 The styles in dress change so slightly and so 
 gradually that the superficial observer may not no- 
 tice any change in fashion. About the only thing 
 that has ever caused a complete change in styles 
 of dress has been a change in dynasty, although,
 
 28 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 in the course of twenty-five or thirty years, the 
 sleeves may be noticed to be a little wider or a 
 little narrower. 
 
 Two extreme classes alone wear hats, the large- 
 footed laboring women and the women that are 
 admitted to court society. The female coolies wear 
 sun-hats, two or three feet in circumference, made 
 of bamboo and coming to a point at the top. The 
 hats of mountain women and girls are four or five 
 feet in circumference. They are made of straw, 
 have a hole in the center, and a veil hanging down 
 all around the outer edge. These females wear 
 their hair in one knot on the top of the head. The 
 hole in the center of the hat is placed over the knot 
 of hair and long hairpins are thrust through the 
 knot, thus holding the hat in position on the head. 
 The hats of the court ladies are of the same general 
 style as those worn by their husbands. With the 
 afore-mentioned exceptions the ladies never wear 
 hats. The boat-women frequently tie a red hand- 
 kerchief over their heads. A broad band, either 
 plain or embroidered, is sometimes worn across 
 the forehead in winter, to guard against intense 
 cold. One writer says: 
 
 "In all ranks of society the hair of the women 
 of China is always beautiful; it is always black,
 
 o
 
 Dress, Work, and Amusements. 29 
 
 glossy, and luxuriant, arranged with taste and 
 beauty, adorned with flowers, or often put in the 
 shape of their favorite but fabulous bird the Chi- 
 nese phoenix a long fold of rich dark hair reach- 
 ing out behind the head, representing the tail, with 
 two others extending from the side of the head, 
 representing its extended wings, while another 
 cluster gracefully bends over the forepart of the 
 head, terminating in a bright metallic appendage, 
 representing the bird's bill, which rests upon the 
 forehead. In scarcely any grade of society is this 
 beautiful ornament of the head found disheveled 
 or neglected." 
 
 While the foregoing description is in the main 
 correct, yet there are some styles of fixing the hair 
 that are far from beautiful. The women of dif- 
 ferent prefectures arrange their hair differently, 
 and a traveler can tell when he passes from one 
 district to another by the way the women dress 
 their raven locks. Girls always wear bangs. A 
 great variety of hairpins is used, from a common 
 metallic pin to costly gold pins ornamented with 
 the sacred jadestone. Hairpins, it is said, were 
 first used in China about three thousand years ago, 
 during the Chow dynasty, and were made of bam- 
 boo wood. Ivory pins were first used about
 
 30 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 651 B. C. Tortoise-shell pins came into use about 
 300 B. C. During the reign of the great Chi 
 Huangte, 250 B. C., gold and silver hairpins be- 
 came the fashion. 
 
 A daughter of China seemingly takes more pride 
 in her ear-rings than any other portion of her 
 toilet. Wire hoops, three or four inches in 
 diameter, with a ball on one end, are a very com- 
 mon style of ear-ring. A cluster of gold or silver 
 leaves, resembling different tree leaves, fastened 
 neatly to a hook, forms another style. Still another 
 style consists of an "eardrop" made of jade, ivory, 
 pearl, silver, or gold. Finger-rings and breastpins 
 are worn by all classes. 
 
 Possibly there is no nation that is so fond of 
 fans as the Chinese. Palmleaf fans, bamboo fans, 
 feather fans, paper fans, silk fans, fans large and 
 fans small, fans of all shapes and texture, are used. 
 Gigantic fans are carried by little slave girls as 
 they accompany their mistresses when they make 
 their fashionable visits. "The silk of which some 
 of these fans are made is actually spun by the 
 silkworm on the bamboo frame which surrounds 
 the fans." 
 
 A deserted wife is spoken of figuratively as an 
 "autumn fan," from the inscription written on a
 
 Dress, Work, and Amusements. 31 
 
 fan, and sent to her royal master, by a lady of the 
 court who found herself deserted by her lordly 
 husband and cast away like a fan in autumn: 
 
 " This silken fan then deign accept, 
 
 Sad emblem of my lot, 
 Caressed and cherished for an hour, 
 Then speedily forgot." 
 
 The tiny shoes of the bound-footed females are 
 made of cloth sometimes of beautifully embroid- 
 ered silk or satin the sole being of leather. The 
 large-footed women have shoes with very thick 
 white soles. They also wear socks instead of 
 stockings. Many of the laboring women go bare- 
 footed or simply wear straw sandals. 
 
 The Chinese government undertakes to control 
 the dress of its officers and their wives. Dr. Gray 
 describes the dress that the law requires court 
 women to wear as follows: 
 
 "A lady attending court wears a hat precisely 
 similar in shape and texture to that worn by her 
 husband on such occasions. The law distinctly 
 states with regard to the winter costume, that the 
 hat to be worn shall be covered with dark satin, 
 and the inside lined with dark cloth. The brim 
 is to be turned up, which gives it the appearance 
 of what used to be known as the 'porkpie' hat.
 
 32 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 The apex must be adorned with a tassel of red silk 
 so long and so thick as to cover the entire 
 top. . . . The summer hat is made either of 
 fine straw or very thin strips of bamboo or rattan ; 
 the outside covered with very fine silk, with a 
 tassel of red silk cords on the top. The border 
 must not turn up. The rim must be covered with 
 gold lace and the inside lined with red gauze. 
 
 "To the back of the hat are attached two long 
 silk ribbons, which hang down over the shoulders. 
 A simpler hat is occasionally worn. The outer and 
 inner tunics are of the same length. From the 
 back of the neck-band of the outer tunic two rib- 
 bons hang gracefully down. In front of her hat 
 a duchess wears three gold ornaments. Around 
 her neck is a purple satin scarf which hangs down 
 in front. The front portion of the scarf has, in the 
 center, a fringe of gold thread. Above this is a 
 figure of a phoenix, and below it that of a dragon, 
 embroidered in gold thread. Immediately above 
 the fringe is fixed a large pearl. 
 
 "Three ear-rings are placed in the lobe of each 
 ear, and from each ring hangs a valuable pearl. 
 The outer tunic worn by a duchess is of purple 
 satin, and has a deep border of gold. On the front 
 of a tunic figures of two dragons are embroidered
 
 Dress, Work, and Amusements. 33 
 
 in gold thread, and on the back a figure of one 
 dragon only. From the back of the neck-band are 
 suspended two long silk ribbons, on each of which 
 are sewn several precious stones or pearls. The 
 inner tunic is of blue silk, and has a deep border 
 of gold adorned with precious stones. On the 
 front of the inner tunic a' figure of a dragon is 
 embroidered in gold thread. On each side of the 
 tunic figures of four, on each cuff a figure of one, 
 and on each sleeve a figure of two dragons are 
 embroidered. From the back of each neck-band of 
 the inner tunic, two long ribbons are suspended, 
 each of which is covered with pearls. The skirt 
 worn by a duchess is of red satin. Upon it are 
 embroidered in gold thread several figures of walk- 
 ing dragons." 
 
 The women of the upper classes have little more 
 to do than to see that the household duties are not 
 neglected by the slave girls. They also spend much 
 time in making fancy embroidery and various kinds 
 of needlework. Farmers' wives and daughters do 
 as much of the field work as their husbands and 
 brothers. Female burden-bearers go to the timber- 
 clad hills and mountains, cut and bring home or 
 take to market on their own shoulders from sev- 
 enty-five to one hundred and twenty-five pounds of 
 3
 
 34 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 wood. Everything is sold by the pound. Women 
 scavengers are to be found in every city and village. 
 Every tea-hong employs scores, if not hundreds, 
 of female tea-pickers. Flowers, fruits, vegetables, 
 candies, and nuts are carried from house to house 
 by female hucksters. The boat-women and girls 
 frequently man the smaller river crafts. Needle 
 manufacturers employ girls to file, drill, polish, and 
 sharpen needles. Mock money used for supersti- 
 tious and religious purposes is mostly made by 
 females. These laboring women board themselves, 
 and get but from fifty to one hundred cash each 
 day, or about two and one-half to five cents in 
 American money. 
 
 The monotonous life of the females of the inner 
 apartments, the toilsome existence of women of the 
 common people, the abject drudgery of the slave 
 girls, go on day after day, with few or no amuse- 
 ments to relieve the humdrum tide of affairs. An 
 occasional visit from lady friends, a wedding, birth- 
 day, or religious festival when females feast alone, 
 unobserved by men may add a bright spot now and 
 then to the otherwise uneventful life of the high- 
 class women. Sometimes groups of women may 
 be seen at a theatrical performance in some temple 
 court. Wealthy men, especially officers, on some
 
 Dress, Work, and Amusements. 35 
 
 special occasions, may engage a theatrical troupe 
 to give a weeks' entertainment in the central court 
 of the family home. This affords the imprisoned 
 females a period of pleasure without appearing in 
 public. No lady ever takes part in a theatrical 
 performance. Boys dressed as females impersonate 
 women and girls. Female burden-bearers will occa- 
 sionally set down their loads near a theatrical plat- 
 form in the village or city temple, and enjoy them- 
 selves for a moment in spite of the vulgar epithets 
 hurled at them by rude men and boys. Puppet 
 shows are at stated times held in front of the shrine 
 of some goddess, or in the house court of some one 
 of the gentry, for the especial entertainment of the 
 gentler sex. Blind singing women are frequently 
 seen in the large cities. "Toward the close of day 
 numbers of blind women, neatly dressed and guided 
 by aged women, may be seen traversing the streets. 
 They are professional singers, and are invited into 
 the houses and shops of the citizens where, for 
 small sums, they will sing nearly the whole night 
 long." This apparent anomaly in Chinese society 
 of having public female singers, gives not only en- 
 tertainment to the men in the shops, but the females 
 of the household enjoy their singing in the recep- 
 tion rooms of the harems.
 
 36 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 The seventh day of the Chinese New Year is 
 a special holiday for ladies. They resort in large 
 numbers to gardens and parks. They go in bands 
 for mutual protection. Little footed women can 
 be seen on that day, toddling along on their crip- 
 pled appendages, supported by their female slaves. 
 Sometimes the bondmaids carry their mistresses on 
 their backs. This outing is greatly enjoyed by the 
 fashionable prisoners of the inner female apart- 
 ments. 
 
 Promiscuous dancing is unknown. The Chinese 
 condemn unequivocally the mingling of the sexes 
 as seen in the fashionable Western ball. Their 
 condemnation of this curse of Occidental society is 
 none too strong ; but they have gone to the opposite 
 extreme, and, by the absurd seclusion of respectable 
 women, drive many men to seek female society in 
 the company of a certain class, "who, in order to 
 fit them for their life, are educated in music and 
 taught such accomplishments as will render their 
 society more acceptable."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THEIR STATUS IN THE HOME AND 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 THE; position that woman occupies in China is 
 far below that allotted to her in Christian lands, 
 but it is above her position in India and many other 
 heathen countries. The ancient sages of China 
 taught that, after boys and girls reached the age 
 of seven, "they should not occupy the same mat, 
 nor eat together." Among the middle and upper 
 classes the girls are not allowed to hang their 
 clothes on the same pegs that their brothers do, 
 nor may they use the same place to bathe in. The 
 wife should not eat with her husband. Among the 
 lower and poorer classes these non-essential cus- 
 toms are not observed. China's greatest teacher 
 says: "Man is the representative of heaven, and 
 is supreme in all things. On this account, woman 
 can determine nothing for herself, and should be 
 subject to the three obediences to her father, hus- 
 band, and son. Her business is to prepare food and 
 
 37
 
 38 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 wine. Beyond the threshold of her own apartments 
 she should not be known for evil or for good. If 
 her husband die, she should not marry again." 
 
 Confucius's married life was a sad one. Some 
 say he was divorced. His unhappy family relations 
 seem to have embittered the life of womankind in 
 China through succeeding generations. Having 
 seemingly lost faith in the gentler sex, he consigns 
 the wife to the position of a slave instead of a 
 helpmeet for her husband. The necessity of having 
 male progeny is the only reason he assigns for the 
 marriage relations. If the first wife is not the 
 mother of a son, the husband is justified, by Con- 
 fucianism, in taking any number of secondary wives 
 until a son is born. "Of all unfilial acts," says 
 Mencius, "that is the most unfilial, to fail to be the 
 father of a son." As a result of this teaching our 
 almond-eyed sister has her homelife darkened with 
 polygamy. Even though she is the primary wife, 
 she is not the first woman of the household. 
 
 She may be superior to the secondary wives, 
 and be able to make them "toe the mark," yet In 
 that household is a woman to whom she must show 
 obedience, and that is the mother of her husband. 
 She is practically a servant to her mother-in-law; 
 and fondly does she look forward to the day when
 
 Status in the Home and Society. 39 
 
 she will be a mother-in-law, and make her son's 
 wife feel her authority. 
 
 In whatever grade of society the woman is found 
 she is held in subjection to the will of her husband. 
 In the homes of the well-to-do and rich she is 
 completely secluded from male society, and among 
 the lower classes this is true to a limited extent. 
 The rules of seclusion are more strictly enforced 
 in some localities than in others. Dr. Nevius gives 
 an instance, in the province of Shantung, of a 
 stranger being driven out of a village by a mob on 
 account of taking the liberty of asking a woman in 
 the street the road to an adjoining town. "In 
 many places the women are found thronging the 
 streets, bearing heavy burdens, performing the most 
 menial services, competing with rough and half- 
 naked men in feats of strength and labor, herself 
 as boisterous and masculine as they." Strangers 
 might say that no women are seen in the streets of 
 China, when perhaps one-third of the burden-bearers 
 they pass are women dressed so much like their 
 brothers that it is difficult to distinguish them. 
 
 The woman of the upper class passes a life of 
 seclusion and comparative idleness. She may be 
 called wife, but to her it is a hollow title; for she 
 is more the plaything of her husband. She can
 
 40 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 spend her time making embroidery, fashioning her 
 clothes, ornamenting her tiny shoes, cultivating her 
 musical talent, entertaining her lady callers, or 
 amusing and gratifying the whims of her masterful 
 husband and mother-in-law, without expecting any 
 return for her kindness and love. On high occa- 
 sions, such as birthdays, weddings, and some fes- 
 tivals, it is customary for the tinseled lady of the 
 inner apartments to invite her female friends to 
 spend a day or two with her, and, while her lord 
 is entertaining his male guests in the gaudy open 
 reception-rooms, she and her lady guests while awav 
 their time playing cards, gossiping, eating and 
 drinking, and enjoying themselves after a Chinese 
 fashion. The sexes never mingle in their social feasts. 
 When the female guests return to their homes, the 
 hostess gives a present to each, consisting of a 
 sponge-cake and other sweetmeats. If she fails to 
 do this, she is pronounced by her guests as defi- 
 cient in breeding and very inhospitable. "It is easy 
 to determine who is the first and principal wife in 
 the establishment. She is more dignified in her 
 appearance, and more easy and free in her manners, 
 taking the lead in everything, doing the honors of 
 the house and table, issuing orders to the servants, 
 evidently not considering the smaller wives, as they
 
 Status in the "Home and Society. 4! 
 
 are sometimes called, on an equality with her. She 
 claims to be the mother of the household, and looks 
 upon all the children born in the house as her own." 
 When she becomes the mother of a son, she rises 
 in the estimation of her husband, and inside that 
 household, henceforth, is treated almost as his 
 equal. 
 
 The woman of the middle class has more free- 
 dom than her more exalted sister. She is sometimes 
 seen in company with other ladies, enjoying an out- 
 door ramble, while the highest lady must go in a 
 closed sedan-chair, seeing no one and not being 
 seen. The tottering gait of the middle-class women, 
 caused by their bound feet, as well as the silken 
 garments they wear, causes them to be distinguished 
 from the female laborer and domestic. "These 
 waving willows," as the Oriental poet loves to call 
 them, steady themselves with walking-sticks or by 
 resting on the shoulder of a bondmaid or small 
 boy or girl. These women, in spite of their crip- 
 pled appendages, have been known to walk ten and 
 fifteen miles a day. Although they are allowed to 
 hobble about more or less at their pleasure, yet 
 they must abide in the female apartments when their 
 husbands receive guests. It is a bad breach of 
 etiquette for a guest to inquire concerning the health
 
 42 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 of the lady of the house. The host may conde- 
 scend to answer such an impolite question by say- 
 ing that "the occupant of the inner apartment is 
 well." 
 
 The wives and daughters of small farmers and 
 laborers spend their time much as their husbands 
 and brothers do. Their feet, if bound at all, are 
 much larger than those of the higher classes. They 
 work in the fields, carry burdens, and do all kinds 
 of physical labor, except carrying sedan-chairs. 
 While engaged in menial labor, they are usually 
 accompanied by husband, brother, or son, and thus 
 are protected from the rude and vulgar rabble. 
 
 The females of the boat-people a class of peo- 
 ple who are compelled to live in boats are as much 
 at home in managing the boat as the males. Many 
 boats are manned by women, while the men are on 
 a fishing expedition. I once saw a wife at one oar 
 and three children less than twelve years of age 
 at the other, pulling against the tide, while the 
 father of the household (or boathold) sat leisurely 
 smoking his pipe. If one of the children should 
 fall overboard, the mother would plunge in after 
 it, and bring it back in safety to its floating home. 
 The land- women call these boat- women "water- 
 fowls."
 
 Status in the Home and Society. 43 
 
 The secondary wives of the higher classes are 
 scarcely more than servants in the household until 
 they become mothers. A filial son is expected to 
 marry as his first wife the girl that his parents 
 may secure for him ; but he is at liberty to choose 
 his own secondary wives. Thus it sometimes occurs 
 that the first wife is uncongenial, and a second or 
 third wife becomes the favorite, and even fares 
 better than the legal head of the harem. 
 
 So evil are the effects of polygamy that many 
 girls commit suicide rather than marry. Dr. Gray 
 gives the following account : "In one street alone 
 in the Honam suburb of Canton I knew four 
 families in which there were ladies who positively 
 refused to marry, on the grounds that, should their 
 husbands become polygamists, there would remain 
 for them a life of unhappiness. To avoid marriage, 
 some become Buddhist or Tauist nuns; others pre- 
 fer death to marriage. During the reign of Tau- 
 Kwang, fifteen virgins, whom their parents had 
 affianced, met together, upon learning of the fact, 
 and resolved to commit suicide. They flung them- 
 selves into a tributary stream of the Canton River, 
 in the vicinity of the village where they lived. The 
 tomb in which the corpses were interred is called 
 the 'Tomb of the Virgins.'"
 
 44 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Polygamy is not the only cause of trouble in 
 the family. The husband is master, and he not 
 infrequently shows his authority by beating his 
 wives. Sometimes these poor creatures are injured 
 so badly that they die. The mother-in-law usually 
 sides with her son in domestic trouble, and thus 
 adds fuel to the already kindled fire. Arthur H. 
 Smith gives an account of a mother-in-law whose 
 family consisted only of herself, her son, and her 
 son's wife, who exercised such a tyranny over the 
 two latter that they were never allowed to sleep 
 together. If the son wished to please his mother, 
 he did so by beating his wife. The latter, being 
 accused of having appropriated to her own use a 
 skein of thread which did not belong to her, was 
 so abused in consequence that she threw herself into 
 a well, whence she was rescued by her husband. 
 Her mother brought her to the foreign home in 
 which the mother was employed as a nurse, and 
 the daughter, having passed a few days in this 
 seclusion, remarked, with a bitter reference to her 
 previous abode, that "it was so peaceful that it 
 seemed like heaven." 
 
 An instance came under my own observation 
 that shows how the gospel will cause the mother- 
 in-law to be a protector. We (the missionaries and
 
 Status in the Home and Society. 45 
 
 native pastor) had been holding street services in 
 a large village, and on our way back to our homes 
 we called on some native Christian families. As 
 we approached the home of one of these families, 
 we heard some loud weeping, and saw two women 
 in great distress, and soon found out that the 
 younger of the two women had just received a 
 severe whipping by her husband, and his mother, 
 instead of siding with him, reproved him for his 
 unkindness, and was trying to console her daughter- 
 in-law. The husband said his wife had overcharged 
 in selling some goods, and he thought it his duty 
 to punish her for so doing. His mother had told 
 him she believed it was wrong for a Christian to 
 beat his wife. He said he had never supposed it 
 was wrong. We told him his mother was right. 
 He went to his wife and asked her to forgive him, 
 which she did, and she also said she would hunt up 
 the person whom she had overcharged and make 
 it right. This shows the mellowing influence of the 
 gospel on a Chinese mother-in-law, husband, and 
 wife. It might not be a bad idea for some so- 
 called Christian people in America to try the same 
 antidote. 
 
 Husbands sometimes sell their wives to become 
 the wives of other men. When this is done, the
 
 46 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 wife must give her consent. A document is drawn 
 up and signed with the names of the husband and 
 wife, stating the object of the sale, and, after it has 
 been stamped by a hand or foot of both these par- 
 ties, smeared over with black ink, it is turned over 
 to the purchaser. 
 
 A husband can divorce his wife for any of seven 
 reasons, to wit : unfilial conduct toward his parents, 
 adultery, jealousy, loquacity, theft, virulent disease, 
 or barrenness. "There does not seem to be any 
 lawful reason to justify a wife in leaving her hus- 
 band. The idea of divorcing her husband for adul- 
 tery, or for any reason whatever, is one which 
 excites a smile, as absurd and preposterous, when- 
 ever mentioned to the Chinese. Duty with her is 
 simply and solely to follow her husband, submit 
 to his caprices and the domination of his parents, 
 until death releases her, or she is sold by him or 
 divorced." (Doolittle.) There are three reasons 
 which should prevent a wife from being divorced. 
 If she has been faithful to his parents while they 
 lived ; if he, being poor and unknown when married, 
 comes to honor and riches while she is his wife; 
 if her parents are dead and she has no other home 
 to which she can go these reasons, unless the case
 
 Status in the Home and Society. 47 
 
 be a very exaggerated one, would prevent her from 
 being divorced. 
 
 When the first wife dies, the second wife does 
 not advance to her place. The secondary wives are 
 not allowed to die in the home unless they have 
 borne children. When it is seen that death is ap- 
 proaching, the poor, childless creature is carried 
 to an outhouse, where she expires. 
 
 If the husband dies, the first wife is supposed 
 never to marry again. She is to belong to the 
 same husband in the future world. She may be- 
 come a secondary wife or a concubine of some other 
 man, but, in the Chinese sense, she is never married 
 again. She rides in a red bridal-chair but once. 
 If she is true to her husband, she will remain in his 
 father's family in perpetual widowhood. If she re- 
 mains a dutiful daughter-in-law, ever showing re- 
 spect for her dead husband, and faithfully caring 
 for and looking after the education of his children, 
 some one may call the emperor's attention to her 
 faithfulness, and he may direct that an archway be 
 erected to commemorate her virtuous deeds. 
 
 It may not be generally known that a singular 
 form of sutteeism prevails in some parts of China. 
 It is not done by burning as in India. Sometimes
 
 48 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 the widow will take poison (most frequently opium), 
 and lie down and expire beside her husband's body. 
 Some drown themselves, others starve themselves, 
 and still others hang themselves. Sometimes, when 
 the widow is loath to take her own life, her own 
 relations and those of her husband will try to per- 
 suade her to the act, hoping to have the family 
 honored by having a memorial portal erected, by 
 command of the emperor, in honor of the devoted 
 widow. When the suttee is to be performed by 
 hanging, a scaffold is erected in or near the house of 
 the widow. "At the appointed time she ascends the 
 platform and sprinkles some water around on the 
 four sides of it. She then scatters several kinds 
 of grain around in different directions. These are 
 clone as omens of plenty and prosperity in her 
 family. After being seated in a chair on the plat- 
 form, she is generally approached by her own 
 brothers, and her husband's brothers, who worship 
 her. This is sometimes accompanied by the offer- 
 ing to her of tea or wine. When everything is ready, 
 she steps upon a stool, and, taking hold of the rope, 
 which is securely fastened to a high portion of the 
 platform or the roof of the house, adjusts it about 
 her own neck. She then kicks the stool away from 
 under her, and thus becomes her own murderer."
 
 Status in the Home and Society. 49 
 
 (Doolittle.) The story is told of a widow who, after 
 she had been worshiped on the scaffold, suddenly 
 remembered that she had forgotten to slop the pigs. 
 She excused herself, and, promising to return, 
 hastened away to feed the swine, and never re- 
 turned. A mandarin who had come to honor the 
 occasion with his presence, and do obedience to the 
 widow, was so chagrined that no mandarin has 
 ever graced a suttee with his presence since that 
 day. 
 
 As singular as it may seem, some Chinese women 
 have arisen in the face of obstacles until they occupy 
 the foremost positions in the empire. During the 
 Tang Dynasty a woman occupied the throne and 
 ruled China with an iron hand. Although she was 
 cruel, yet Empress Wu's reign of forty years was 
 one of prosperity. The present empress dowager 
 exercises more influence in the empire than the 
 young emperor. Another anomaly is, that the most 
 popular idols in China are goddesses. The goddess 
 of mercy is worshiped far more than Buddha. 
 
 As sad and lonely as the secluded life of the 
 Chinese woman is, it has doubtless been more or 
 less of a protection to her. The Chinese women 
 are, as a rule, virtuous. Vile women can be found 
 in every neighborhood; but they were kidnaped 
 4
 
 50 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 when they were children, or parents on the verge 
 of starvation have sold their daughters to a life of 
 shame, or widows have been sold by heartless rela- 
 tives of their husbands to become the victims of 
 vice. Missionaries are sometimes able to save help- 
 less girls and widows from this living death. A few 
 years ago a Christian widow was about to be sold 
 by heathen relatives. The widow made known her 
 trouble to a missionary lady, who bought her for 
 $120, and thus rescued her from a life of sorrow. 
 She was afterward married to a Christian husband. 
 When China becomes a Christian nation, then can 
 her afflicted daughters enjoy the freedom of the 
 women of Christendom. Japan has undertaken to 
 give to her daughters Western freedom without a 
 Christian civilization to protect them, and the result 
 is that virtuous women in Japan are relatively fewer 
 than in China.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HOW THEY ARE BETROTHED AND 
 MARRIED. 
 
 THE supreme object for which a girl is born 
 so teach the sages of the Middle Land is that she 
 may get married and become the mother of sons. 
 The dark-eyed little creature has this so deeply im- 
 pressed upon her mind by her Confucian parents 
 that it is seldom that a girl ever enters a protest 
 against being betrothed to whomsoever her parents 
 or guardian may choose to affiance her. As a rule, 
 she is not consulted on the subject, and frequently 
 knows nothing of the matter until the betrothal is 
 consummated. Then it is too late to object; for 
 betrothal is as sacred as a marriage in the eyes of 
 the Chinese. Sometimes the young miss commits 
 suicide before the day of marriage; but this is not 
 because she objects to the marriage relation, so much 
 as to the polygamous features of Oriental married 
 life. So binding is a betrothal that, when her 
 affianced dies, the girl is expected to leave the house 
 of her father, and spend her life in the home of the 
 
 51
 
 52 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 parents of the dead. If she is a true Confucianist 
 she will never marry, but lives in perpetual seclusion 
 as a virgin. Sometimes her own parents and those 
 of her dead fiance will try to persuade her to remain 
 in her fathers' house and be married to another man. 
 They do this for fear, after going to the dead young 
 man's parents' home to live, she may regret her 
 decision, and conclude to marry, and thus bring 
 disgrace on both families. In case of a betrothal, 
 red threads are interchanged between the contract- 
 ing parties. The Chinese figuratively say the feet 
 of the affianced are bound together with the threads. 
 
 When a betrothed person dies, the expression 
 "broken thread" is used in speaking of the sad event. 
 The custom of using red threads is explained by 
 the Chinese as follows: 
 
 "In the time of the Tang dynasty, Ui-Ko was 
 once a guest in the city of Sung. He observed an 
 old man by the light of the moon reading a book, 
 who addressed him thus : 'This is the register of the 
 engagements in marriage for all places under the 
 heavens. In my pocket I have red cords, with which 
 I tie the feet of those who are to become husband 
 and wife. When this cord has been tied, though the 
 parties are of unfriendly families or of different 
 nations, it is impossible to change their destiny.
 
 CHINESE MARRIAGE SCENE. 
 
 (From a Chine 
 
 Dior painting.'
 
 How Betrothed and Married. 53 
 
 Your future wife/ said the old man, 'is the child of 
 the old woman who sells vegetables in yonder shop at 
 the north.' In a few days Ui-Ko went to see her, 
 and found the old woman had in her arms a girl 
 about a year old and exceedingly ugly. He hired 
 a man, who went and, as he supposed, killed the 
 girl. Fourteen years afterward, in the country of 
 Siong-Chiu, was a prefect whose family name was 
 Mo, who gave Ui-Ko in marriage a girl who, he 
 affirmed, was his own daughter. She was very beau- 
 tiful. On her eyebrow she always wore an artificial 
 flower. Ui-Ko constantly asking her why she wore 
 the flower, she at length said : 'I am the daughter of 
 the prefect's brother. My father died in the city 
 of Sung when I was an infant. My nurse was an 
 old woman who sold vegetables. One day she took 
 me with her out into the streets, when a robber 
 struck me.. The scar of the wound is still left on 
 my eyebrow.' " 
 
 The red threads indicate that heaven has de- 
 cided who are to be husband and wife in this as well 
 as the next life. Ui-Ko had finally to marry the girl 
 that the fates had fixed upon as his bride. Thus 
 since the betrothal as well as the marriage is fixed 
 by Heaven, and is for the future world as well as 
 this, many persons would refuse to rebetroth their
 
 54 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 sons to girls who had been affianced. Other per- 
 sons are not so scrupulous and would be willing to 
 betroth their sons to girls who had lost their affi- 
 anced, providing they could secure them on more 
 favorable terms than girls who had never been so 
 engaged. 
 
 Sometimes parents will agree to betroth their 
 unborn children, providing they prove to be of op- 
 posite sex. Thus many a little girl, when she comes 
 to know anything at all about life's relations, finds 
 she is bound for life to a child-husband; the mar- 
 riage proper may not be consummated until the 
 children are grown. Poor people sometimes buy a 
 girl baby or rescue a female waif, and raise her in 
 their family to become the future wife of their son. 
 Their poverty would not allow them to pay the price 
 of a grown girl, and then they have her services in 
 their family while she is growing up. Missionaries 
 and native Christians are taking radical measures 
 against "child-betrothals," because the girl is prac- 
 tically a slave, and involuntary marriage is consid- 
 ered wholly anti-Christian. The masters of bond- 
 maids are obliged to allow them to marry, but stipu- 
 lated prices are paid for them. Such marriages do 
 not end the slave life; for the families into which 
 they marry are usually poor, or they become sec-
 
 How Betrothed and Married. 55 
 
 ondary wives in wealthy families and servants to 
 a brutal husband, domineering mother-in-law, and 
 irritated first wife. 
 
 If the girl happens to be an only child, and the 
 father does not desire to become a polygamist that 
 he may be the father of a son, her parents may seek 
 out for her a husband who is willing to live in their 
 family and be to them a son, as well as a husband 
 to the daughter. The young man not only agrees 
 to marry the girl, but he must also assume the sur- 
 name of his father-in-law, and thus becomes heir of 
 the family estate. 
 
 If the girl's father is rich, he may seek out some 
 well-educated but poor young man who may aspire 
 to be a mandarin, and bestow upon him a valuable 
 dowry providing he will marry the daughter, and 
 thus enable him to become the father-in-law of a 
 literary son-in-law, who may some day be a civil 
 officer. 
 
 It is considered a great disgrace for a widow to 
 marry again as a primary wife. She is to belong to 
 the same husband in the future existence; hence to 
 marry as principal wife results in confusion of rela- 
 tions in the next world. She may become a sec- 
 ondary wife to some man which is simply a form 
 of concubinage but to become a legal wife after
 
 56 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 her husband's decease is considered scandalous. 
 No son of a rich and fashionable family ever mar- 
 ries a widow for his primary wife. Poor families 
 frequently marry a son to a widow, because widows 
 are cheaper in price than virgins. Riding in the 
 gorgeous red bridal-chair is a privilege only allotted 
 to first wives. These chairs can be hired at any 
 well-kept "chair stand." They are arranged so that 
 the bride is completely shut in from public gaze 
 during the journey to the home of the bridegroom. 
 She rides in the wedding-chair but once. Widows 
 and other women that become secondary wives are 
 quietly taken to their so-called husband's home in a 
 common black sedan-chair. 
 
 Although many Chinese deny that girls are sold 
 to become wives, yet it is undoubtedly true that a 
 stipulated amount is paid the father of the girl before 
 the betrothal is consummated. The Chinese explain 
 this by saying that all this amount, and more too, 
 comes back to the bridegroom's family in the form 
 of dowry from the bride's family. This is probably 
 true in many instances, but not in the large majority 
 of cases. In the case of secondary wives the pur- 
 chaser examines the female offered for sale, as a 
 stock-man would examine an animal, at the same 
 time making remarks about her in a depreciating
 
 How Betrothed and Married. 57 
 
 way, thus trying to make her father believe she is 
 not worth so much money, and endeavoring to buy 
 her at a lower figure. A secondary wife is much 
 cheaper in price than one that is to occupy the po- 
 sition of first lady of the harem under the husband's 
 mother. When an inferior wife enters the home 
 for the first time, she must kneel down and do obei- 
 sance to, and worship, the primary wife. 
 
 Persons of the same family name are not allowed 
 to marry; but in some provinces relatives of a dif- 
 ferent clan name may intermarry. The Chinese 
 seem to think that sameness of name and not same- 
 ness of blood is a cause of incest or "confounds the 
 marriage relation." In some parts of the empire 
 a man is not allowed to marry his cousin, nor his 
 stepdaughter, nor his aunt, nor the sister of his 
 mother. If he does so, he is put to death by strangu- 
 lation. 
 
 The betrothal and marriage customs differ in 
 many important features in different parts of the 
 empire. In all sections a go-between is employed, 
 through whom all important transactions are con- 
 ducted. These match-makers may be of either sex. 
 They are paid for their services, and depend on such 
 work for a livelihood. The go-between is first 
 employed by the family of the young man, and after
 
 58 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 the introductory steps in the betrothal are taken and 
 responded to favorably, the girl's family employ 
 him also. 
 
 Marriage is more the business of the family than 
 of the contracting parties; hence the young people 
 must get married, whether they wish to or not. The 
 girl is seldom consulted on the subject. Frequently 
 the betrothal is consummated without the girl know- 
 ing of the transaction. She is then notified, and told 
 to prepare for the wedding, that may take place at 
 no very distant day. The father of the young man 
 calls a go-between and makes inquiry concerning 
 a young lady that would be a suitable companion for 
 his son. The middle-man is ever ready to make a 
 suggestion. He is supposed to be acquainted with 
 all the families in the region round about that may 
 contain marriageable girls. 
 
 Affiances are usually made between young people 
 of families of about the same standing in society. 
 The go-between receives from the young man's 
 father two large red cards, united together much like 
 the back of a book are fastened together. On the 
 outside of one of these cards is a figure of the golden 
 dragon, and on the inside is written the family name, 
 the name of the young man, his age and year, day 
 and hour of his birth. On the outside of the other
 
 How Betrothed and Married. 59 
 
 card is a gilt figure of the sacred phoenix. These 
 are the contracting cards. The middle-man takes 
 the cards, and goes to a certain family, and inquires 
 upon what conditions the parents would affiance 
 one of their daughters. If the money consideration 
 is satisfactory, he then inquires the exact hour of 
 the girl's birth, and immediately repairs to an as- 
 trologer and has the horoscope of both young people 
 cast to see if they were born upon lucky hours, and 
 if their marriage will be fortunate. He then makes 
 his report to the father of the young man, and if 
 everything is satisfactory, the betrothal money is 
 paid, and after threading four needles with red 
 threads, two of them are fastened in each of the 
 red contracting cards, and the go-between is dis- 
 patched with them to the parents of the girl. The 
 money having been paid over, the two cards are 
 torn apart. The one with the dragon on it is kept 
 by the girl's family, and the one with the phoenix, 
 after the girl's family name, age and year, month, 
 day, and hour of birth is written on it, is returned 
 to the young man's family. These cards are kept in 
 the respective families as evidence of the betrothal 
 contract. Presents are interchanged between the 
 families in honor of the event. The marriage may 
 take place in a few weeks, and it may be delayed,
 
 60 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 as in the case of child betrothals, for years. If the 
 affianced are grown, the marriage is likely to take 
 place as soon as the various arrangements for the 
 wedding can be perfected. A fortune-teller selects 
 a lucky time for the event. In some places the mar- 
 riage is always at night-time. 
 
 A few days before the wedding the bridegroom's 
 father sends presents of various eatables to the 
 bride's family. He also sends a wild-goose and a 
 gander. The gander is retained, and the goose is 
 returned to the young man's family. The Chinese 
 say that a wild-goose and a gander mate but once, 
 and hence are emblems of a happy marriage. Each 
 family feasts upon its respective fowl in honor of the 
 approaching wedding. Various other preliminary 
 ceremonies, too numerous to describe such as sift- 
 ing out the "four eyes" from the bride's clothes, 
 "expelling the filth" from the bridegroom's clothes, 
 the taking the bridal furniture to the bridegroom's 
 home, etc. are gone through with before the wed- 
 ding-day. 
 
 When the fortunate day arrives, the bridegroom 
 sends a bridal chair for the bride, accompanied by 
 a band of music, banner-bearers, and men laden with 
 presents for the bride's family. When the proces- 
 sion reaches the home of the girl, certain formalities
 
 How Betrothed and Married. 61 
 
 are gone through with; then the bride enters the 
 chair, wailing as if her heart would break ; for she 
 then ceases to be numbered in her father's family. 
 The sedan is closed, and the wedding pageant winds 
 its way toward the bridegroom's home. Flaming 
 torches, discordant music, and bursting firecrackers 
 proclaim the approach of the marriage train. The 
 great doors of the house are thrown open, and the 
 bridal chair is carried in and placed in the inner 
 court. The bridegroom, arrayed in gorgeous robes 
 and fan in hand, approaches the chair, and knocks 
 at its door. The bride steps out, but her head and 
 face are completely covered with a red veil. She 
 seems to be perfectly helpless. Her lady attendants 
 take her in charge, and she is carried on the back 
 of one of these attendants over a pan of redhot 
 charcoal. The bridegroom takes his position on a 
 stool, and the bride kneels down and knocks her 
 head against the ground before her lord. An at- 
 tendant mingles wine in two wine-cups that are tied 
 together with red strings. The bride and groom sip 
 together the mingled wine, as an emblem that their 
 lives are to become one. The parents of the bride 
 and groom are worshiped, incense is burned before 
 the ancestral tablets, and prayers are offered to the 
 family ancestors and gods. The newly-married
 
 62 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 couple sit down on the side of the bridal bed, and 
 the young husband lifts the veil from the bride's 
 face, and probably looks upon her countenance for 
 the first time. The marriage company now enter 
 the banqueting hall, where a feast has been prepared 
 for the bridegroom's parents. The bride assumes 
 the position of waiter, and serves wine to her father- 
 in-law and mother-in-law, and then kneels at their 
 feet, and twice knocks her head on the ground before 
 each of them. After this a repast is prepared for the 
 bride. She takes her position on the east side of the 
 table. Her mother-in-law then presents to her a 
 cup of wine. Before she is allowed to drink it, she 
 must kneel at the feet of her mother-in-law and do 
 obeisance by knocking her head against the ground 
 before her ladyship. 
 
 In some parts of China the bride is treated to 
 a fusillade of foolish questions and rude remarks by 
 the guests, who thus seemingly try to test her pa- 
 tience. The bridegroom's relatives and friends may 
 keep her up the greater part of the night plying her 
 with riddles, and if she fails to solve them she must 
 pay a forfeit of cakes to each of the parties present- 
 ing the riddles. This singular custom is accom- 
 pained with much drinking, and sometimes drunken 
 brawls ensue, resulting in murder.
 
 CHINESE MARRIAGE SCENE. 
 
 Just before the unveiling of the bride.
 
 How Betrothed and Married. 63 
 
 The wedding proper is followed by feasts and 
 other festive gatherings in the homes of the friends 
 of the bride and groom. Weddings among the rich 
 are attended with great display and much expense. 
 The common people and poor follow suit as far as 
 they can. I knew of a boatman whose yearly salary 
 amounted to $50 to spend $300 in betrothal money, 
 presents, and wedding feasts. It would take six 
 years' salary to pay his wedding expenses. One 
 redeeming feature in all this display and expense 
 is that it occurs but once. It makes no difference 
 how many secondary wives a man may take, there 
 is no display, and the only expense is what the con- 
 cubines actually cost. How sad is domestic life 
 in the land of Confucius!
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE HOUSES IN WHICH THEY LIVE, 
 
 AND THE CUSTOMS AND RITES 
 
 ATTENDING THEIR BURIAL. 
 
 THE family tie is strong among the Chinese. 
 Although the men and women have but little to do 
 in the matter of choosing their life companions, yet 
 they frequently manifest much affection for each 
 other in their domestic relations. The people are 
 clannish, and migrate but little. Most of them live 
 where their ancestors settled thousands of years ago. 
 Frequently a large village is found whose inhabit- 
 ants bear the same family name. Probably they are 
 descendants of one ancient family, and the town has 
 grown up on the original country-seat. The Chinese 
 live in cities or villages. Now and then a lone house 
 will be found on some mountain or hill side, or in 
 some cozy dale; but this is quite exceptional. The 
 streets, as a rule, are crowded, narrow, and filthy, 
 and are thronged with hucksters, urchins, dogs, cats, 
 and pigs. The business-houses and dwellings are, 
 scarcely without an exception, one story. The fam- 
 
 64
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 65 
 
 ilies of most of the shopkeepers live in dirty, 
 cramped-up quarters at the rear of their places of 
 business. In these dismal places the females are 
 housed, seldom getting a fresh breath of air or ray 
 of sunlight to invigorate their sluggish existence. 
 An elderly woman may assist in the shop, or a 
 bright-faced girl less than seven years of age may 
 play among the customers ; but the other females 
 of the storekeeper's family are supposed to be in- 
 visible. 
 
 The houses of the poor in South China are mud 
 huts, with tile or thatch roofs ; the floors are mother 
 earth pounded flat and hard; very infrequently tile 
 floors are seen. The windows are holes in the walls 
 about fourteen inches square, across which wooden 
 bars are placed. 
 
 Rude, unpainted square tables, backless wooden 
 stools, and beds consisting of two wooden benches 
 about four feet long, upon which are laid some 
 boards covered with rush matting, make up the nec- 
 essary household furniture. In winter, straw mat- 
 ting is used on the beds instead of the rush matting. 
 In North China the bed (kang) is made of brick, 
 and is arranged so it can be heated. "To Occidentals 
 who wish to feel positive heat from some source dif- 
 fusing itself in grateful currents all over the body 
 5
 
 66 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 a Chinese kang on a cold night is a very inadequate 
 substitute for the chimney-corner or the stove. . . . 
 The whole family is huddled together on this ter- 
 race (kang). The material of which it is composed 
 becomes infested with insects, and, even if the adobe 
 bricks are annually removed, there is no way to se- 
 cure immunity from these unwelcome guests, which 
 are fixed occupants of the walls of all classes of 
 dwellings." (Arthur Smith.) The winter bed- 
 covering is simply a thick cotton comfortable; in 
 summer, only a cotton coverlet is used. Feather- 
 beds and spring mattresses are never used. A lady 
 doctor fresh from America was greatly touched 
 when she first saw the sick in the hospitals lying on 
 hard board beds. She went to work among the for- 
 eign community people, and soon raised $500, with 
 which she purchased spring cots to place in the hos- 
 pital. The sick were cozily put to rest on the cots 
 the first evening ; but what was the doctor's chagrin 
 next morning to find all her patients lying on the 
 floor. She never afterwards could get one of them 
 to lie on a spring cot. They said they felt as though 
 they were falling all the time. 
 
 The framework of some of the huts of the poor 
 is wood, while the parts of the walls between the 
 frames consist of bamboo lath covered with mud
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 67 
 
 plaster. The houses of the middle class are built 
 of the same material as the huts of the poor, al- 
 though some of them are extravagant enough to use 
 brick. The mud houses are durable, and sometimes 
 quite comfortable. The foundations are made of 
 stone or brick. Then a bottomless and topless box, 
 about five feet long, eighteen inches wide, and eight- 
 een inches deep, is placed on the foundation at one 
 corner, and the box is pounded full of damp earth. 
 Then the box is loosened and lifted off, leaving a 
 mud brick of the dimensions of the box. The box 
 is then placed on the wall at the end of the newly- 
 made brick, and again pounded full of mud, thus 
 making another brick. This process is kept up until 
 a layer of mud bricks covers the foundation. Then 
 another course of bricks is made, and another, and 
 another, and so on, until the required height is 
 reached. A roof is then put on, and the walls are 
 left to dry. The walls are usually built after the 
 rainy season is over, and become quite dry before 
 the wet weather begins again. They get exceedingly- 
 hard, and often stand for centuries. Our house in 
 China was a Chinese mud house foreignized; we 
 found it very comfortable. 
 
 The swayback roof, with eaves turning up at the 
 corners, is the universal style. All the houses of the
 
 68 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 well-to-do and rich are built around open inclosures 
 or courts. The American house is usually sur- 
 rounded by a yard; the Chinese yard is surrounded 
 by a house. Some Chinese houses have several open 
 courts, varying in size from fifteen feet square to 
 fifty by a hundred feet. The smaller ones are called 
 heaven's wells. They are usually paved with tile. 
 Sometimes they are decorated with trees and flower- 
 ing plants, and form convenient breathing places for 
 the caged inmates of the inner apartments. No 
 heating stoves are found in Chinese houses. Little 
 hand-braziers or earthenware hand-stoves are car- 
 ried by all classes, and are commonly fastened by a 
 belt to the front of the body underneath the clothes. 
 If these little stoves do not furnish sufficient heat, 
 the deficiency is made up by additional clothing. 
 The cook-stoves are mud ranges about three feet 
 high, three feet wide, and as long as need be, accord- 
 ing to the number of the members of the family. 
 The kitchens are generally in front of the houses. 
 The outside of a large Chinese house presents 
 a blank appearance. The windows and nearly all 
 the doors open into the court, leaving the outer walls 
 devoid of openings, except the large double doors 
 in the front of the building. The dwellings of the
 
 KUSHAN MONASTERY AND MOUNTAIN NEAR FOOCHOW.
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 69 
 
 wealthy are not only supplied with the best of Chi- 
 nese furniture, porcelain and lacquer, but elegant 
 foreign pictures, sofas and bric-a-brac are frequently 
 seen in them also. 
 
 The houses of the officials are built according to 
 certain prescribed laws. The following description 
 of the house of an officer of the first class can be 
 taken as a sample of the best houses in China : The 
 foundation must be twenty inches deep. The house 
 must have nine open courts, each surrounded with 
 private apartments. The pillars that support the 
 vaulted roofs must be of wood painted black. The 
 ridge-beams of the vaulted roofs are gilded, and fig- 
 ures of flying dragons decorate the roofs. In the 
 private apartments the roofs are painted with images 
 of dragons, phoenixes, and cheluns. Porcelain fig- 
 ures of dragons, dolphins, and cheluns adorn the 
 outside of the roofs. In the front of the house is a 
 large gate with a vaulted roof; the gate has three 
 doorways. The doors are painted green or black, 
 and have two large copper rings supported by lion's 
 heads made of the same material. In front of the 
 door is a high wall built to keep out spirits, which 
 are supposed always to go in a straight line, and 
 hence are not able to find their way around the wall.
 
 70 Women of the Middle Kingdom 
 
 The windows are ornamented with lattice-work and 
 (glass being never used) wooden blinds, which are 
 shut at night-time to keep out the cold. 
 
 The houses are seldom swept. Among the mid- 
 dle and lower classes, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, and 
 even cattle, may be found in the house courts. The 
 cats, dogs, chickens, and hogs find their way into 
 the central reception-room. Ancestral tablets and 
 the family gods have niches and shrines set apart 
 for them in all the houses. There is a neglected, 
 dreary, tumble-down appearance to nearly all the 
 Chinese dwellings. Everything seems to be in a 
 state of decay. 
 
 The Chinese woman, whether her home be 
 a thatch-roofed mud hut or gilded palace, knows 
 nothing of the freedom and little of the com- 
 fort that her Western sisters enjoy; for she is a 
 slave girl, a plodding laborer, or a tinseled play- 
 thing in the house of her lord. Her home is her 
 prison, and her husband is the prison master. 
 
 The burial customs of the Chinese are exceed- 
 ingly sad, although in a sense interesting. It is a 
 very common thing to find bodies of dead infants 
 wrapped up in matting, lying beside the city walls, 
 floating in the streams, or suspended from the 
 branches of trees, to keep them from being devoured
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 71 
 
 by dogs; or hid away in baby houses small struc- 
 tures with a small hole in the side, that have been 
 erected for that purpose. These bodies being most 
 frequently female, have led many persons to think 
 that infanticide is still more common that it really is. 
 Superstition more frequently than poverty is the 
 cause of this denial of burial to infants. The par- 
 ents, as a rule, take the utmost care of the sick baby, 
 and seemingly do all in their power to restore it to 
 health ; but as soon as the little one dies, the parental 
 affection is turned to hate, and it is called a "Twan- 
 ming kwei" short-lived devil. Its body is supposed 
 to have been possessed with the spirit of a deceased 
 creditor of a former state of existence. The child 
 is regarded as an intruding enemy, which has been 
 living off of the family and trying to exact satisfac- 
 tion for the old debt; it has occasioned a great 
 amount of trouble, expense, and sorrow, and has 
 left nothing but utter disappointment to the care- 
 worn parents. In their indignation, the father and 
 mother cast out the uncoffined body, sweep the 
 house, light firecrackers, and beat gongs to drive 
 away the intruding spirit, that it may never enter 
 the house again. Heathenism and superstition 
 change loving parents into hateful rejecters of their 
 own offspring. The corpses of all children are not
 
 72 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 so treated; but many are, and especially those of 
 girl babies. 
 
 When an adult is about to die, the burial clothes 
 are brought and placed beside the dying person. 
 The family all surround the bed, and as soon as the 
 breath is out of the body, they all break out simul- 
 taneously into loud weeping and wailing. They say 
 they do this as a formal adieu to the departed. All 
 beyond death is enshrouded in darkness ; hence they 
 light candles and burn incense in order to light the 
 spirit on its way. The body is dressed, and the old- 
 est son approaches and kneels down before the dead, 
 and places wine, vermicelli, and rice to the lips of 
 the corpse three times, while the other members of 
 the family kneel around, and pour out their lamen- 
 tations. Immediately after the offering of rice, 
 vermicelli, and wine, a miniature sedan-chair and 
 diminutive chair-bearers made of bamboo paper, to- 
 gether with four cups of wine and eight cakes, are 
 burned. The chair and the chair-coolies are intended 
 for the use of the dead in the unseen world, and are 
 spiritualized by fire ; for it is supposed that the spirit 
 would prefer to ride than to go afoot in the infernal 
 regions ; the cakes are to feed the coolies. 
 
 When the body is placed in the coffin, all the 
 relatives again break forth with loud cries and lam-
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 73 
 
 entations. Ashes, lime, and bundles of pith are 
 placed in the coffin with the corpse. The coffin, 
 which is made of heavy thick plank, is then closed 
 and hermetically sealed. In the case of the rich, it 
 is painted ; every seventh day it is painted again 
 until the forty-ninth day, when the seventh coat of 
 paint or lacquer is put on. Then it is ready for 
 burial, providing a lucky place has been found in 
 which to bury the dead. One spirit of a Chinese 
 that is supposed to sleep with the body for every 
 Celestial is supposed to have three spirits, one of 
 which sleeps in the coffin remains in the room 
 with the unburied body until the interment takes 
 place ; and if the body is buried in an unlucky place, 
 this spirit can not rest, but comes back and haunts 
 the relatives until the body is buried in a lucky place. 
 While the coffined body is kept in the house, incense 
 is continually burned before the dead. A table, 
 chair, and a wooden framework made of bamboo 
 are placed in the presence of the spirit. An incense- 
 bowl, chopsticks, rice-bowl, and wine-cup are placed 
 on the table for the accommodation of the spirit. 
 A longevity picture a likeness of the departed 
 is hung upon the wall. All this is done for the com- 
 fort and convenience of the spirit. The spirit not 
 being able to talk, its wants are discovered by the
 
 74 Women of the Middle Kingdom 
 
 flipping of two copper cash that have been tied 
 together. "When the family wish to ask anything 
 of the dead, these cash are taken by some one and 
 held in the smoke of the incense kept burning on 
 the table, the person at the same time making the 
 inquiry or stating the circumstances in such a way 
 that an affirmative or negative reply, 'yes' or 'no,' 
 can be given. When he has done speaking, the cash 
 are dropped on the table. If their relative positions 
 on the table are the same as when dropped, the reply 
 given by the deceased to the question asked is re- 
 garded as affirmative. If different, the reply is re- 
 garded as negative." 
 
 Relatives sleep beside the coffin. They bring hot 
 water in a basin every morning to the side of the 
 coffin, that the dead may wash; food is brought at 
 meal-time and placed beside the coffin, and when 
 bedtime comes the members of the family bid the 
 dead good-night. 
 
 These peculiar customs are kept up until the 
 forty-ninth day, when the family, if rich, place a 
 large supply of uncooked food, wood, wine, and 
 water on the table. An abundance of mock money 
 is also provided and burned ; it is supposed this be- 
 comes real money in the other world. This is all 
 done to give the dead a gentle hint that she must
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 75 
 
 henceforth cook her own food, and must also pur- 
 chase more when this supply is gone, because the 
 relatives do not intend to cook the food or make pur- 
 chases for her any longer. Sometimes clothes, serv- 
 ants, homes, and furniture made of paper, are 
 burned, and thus sent on to the spirit-world; for it 
 is thought that the spirit will have need of all these. 
 When the family can afford it, priests are hired to 
 take general charge of most, if not all, of these 
 ceremonies. These priests also, at stated times, beat 
 gongs, ring cymbals, and chant weird liturgies in 
 order to pacify and bring repose to the disembodied 
 soul. 
 
 Mourning for a mother continues for twenty- 
 seven months. During all this time no silk is worn ; 
 officials resign their offices and retire from public 
 life. Confucius was in retirement three years after 
 the death of his mother. 
 
 In 1882, Li Hung Chang resigned his official 
 position and retired to mourn the death of his 
 mother. The government was passing through try- 
 ing circumstances, and could not do without his 
 wise counsel for twenty-seven months; hence the 
 emperor and the queen regent requested him, 
 after one hundred days of mourning, to return 
 to his official duties. They said: "The ques-
 
 76 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 tions of the hour are attended with much diffi- 
 culty, and the viceroy should struggle to repress 
 his private sorrow, looking upon the affairs of 
 State as of the first importance, and striving to 
 make some return to us for our kindness to him. 
 This will be the conduct that will inspire his 
 mother's mind with the comforting conviction that 
 her son, following the precepts early instilled into 
 him, is devoting himself to the service of his coun- 
 try, and fervent is our hope that this view of the 
 matter will commend itself to the viceroy." 
 
 The great viceroy protested earnestly against re- 
 turning to duty before the appointed days of mourn- 
 ing were over. He said: "A sense of shame would 
 continue to harrass him. He therefore prays their 
 Majesties, in pitying recognition of the reality of 
 their foolish servant's grief, to recall their com- 
 mands and graciously permit him to vacate his post 
 and observe the full term of mourning; that the 
 autumn frosts and spring dews may in the course 
 of time witness some alleviation of his bitter regrets. 
 . . . Thus, little by little, now with loud weep- 
 ing and now with silent sobs, has their Majesties' 
 servant told them his piteous tale; and the anxiety 
 with which he awaits their commands is beyond his
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 77 
 
 power to express." His wishes were not granted, 
 and he was obliged to return to the duties of State 
 at the end of one hundred days of mourning. 
 
 The soul of the deceased that is to be born again 
 must linger in the infernal regions until the time 
 of rebirth comes. A sort of a servant imp or devil 
 is furnished by the kings of Hades to pilot this soul, 
 so it will not lose the way to the land of shades. The 
 relatives are anxious that the little imp shall do his 
 work faithfully ; hence a goodly supply of rice, a rice- 
 bowl, and chopsticks are placed for his use on the 
 table in front of the dead. Mock-money is also 
 burned, to furnish the imp with some ready cash 
 to meet the expenses of the journey. 
 
 The third soul goes into the ancestral tablet, and 
 its spiritual desires are satisfied by the frequent 
 burning of incense, offerings of food and wine, as 
 well as almost daily worship by the relatives that 
 linger on the shores of time. The poor bury their 
 dead almost immediately after death if they bury 
 the body at all. They can not afford the great ex- 
 pense attending the regular and continuous cere- 
 monies for the dead. These sudden burials are 
 termed "blood burials," and are considered disgrace- 
 ful. Frequently the corpses of the poor are put in
 
 78 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 rude unpainted coffins, and left for years unburied, 
 until some charitable persons inter the neglected 
 bodies. 
 
 The well-to-do and rich should be buried at the 
 end of forty-nine days. Frequently the priests who 
 have been hired to find a lucky burial-place have 
 been unable to find a suitable spot. (The longer 
 the priests can put off the funeral the more money 
 they are likely to get for their services.) Fre- 
 quently the last rites are delayed for years. The 
 coffined bodies are kept in the houses of the rela- 
 tives, or stored away in little rest-houses, or covered 
 with waterproof matting and placed in the dense 
 shade of some sacred banyan-tree. There are mul- 
 tiplied thousands of unburied coffins, with bodies in 
 them, of rich and poor, in the Fuh-Kien province, and 
 possibly in all the provinces in China. Visitors are 
 frequently put to sleep in rooms containing the cof- 
 fined dead. White is the badge of mourning. The 
 relatives of the dead wear coarse white garments. 
 Men wear white strings braided into their queues, 
 and white buttons on their caps. The rich are buried 
 with much pomp and display. In Central China the 
 dead are buried near the surface, and a conical 
 tumulus is built over the grave. In the Fuh-Kien 
 province the omega, or horseshoe, tomb is the style.
 
 A DECEASED WIFE OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.
 
 Houses in Which They Live. 79 
 
 The graves of the poor are much the same as the 
 graves in America. Sometimes these graves are 
 plastered over with cement or artificial stone. After 
 many years the graves of the poor are opened; the 
 bones are taken out and sealed up in small earthen 
 pots, and then reburied, and the old grave is used 
 again for the body of some other poor son or daugh- 
 ter of Adam. 
 
 The Chinese have been burying in the same 
 graves for three thousand years. Vast stretches of 
 country, mostly hillsides, are literally covered with 
 graves for miles and miles. "What a solemn 
 thought that all these myriads have gone down to 
 fill idolatrous graves, without any knowledge of the 
 God that made them, and of Jesus Christ whom he 
 has sent!" (Nevius.) If they had any knowledge 
 of the true God, that knowledge had been bedimmed 
 by sin and beclouded by superstition and idolatry.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THEIR RELIGIOUS CONDITION. 
 
 THE Chinese are decidedly religious; this is es- 
 pecially true of the females. Temples, wayside 
 shrines, altars, and ancestral halls abound. I have 
 noticed extravagant statements in the American 
 newspapers and magazines to the effect that the 
 temples in China were falling into disuse, and that 
 the people were forsaking the gods of their fathers, 
 and that if Christianity were not soon accepted by 
 the people the Chinese erelong would be like the 
 Hawaiians were, when the missionaries first landed 
 at Honolulu, without a religion and without objects 
 of worship. So far as my observation went, I found 
 no warrant for such radical statements. The first 
 temple I visited was being thoroughly remodeled 
 and repaired, and so I found many temples under- 
 going repairs. Christianity is making rapid progress 
 in China, but it is doing so by rooting out and dis- 
 placing, not three religions that have lost their grip 
 upon the masses, but three religions that are deeply 
 rooted in the hearts, lives, and practices of the peo- 
 
 80
 
 Religious Condition. 81 
 
 pie. It may be said that the temples are not kept 
 free from dust, cobwebs, and vermin; that many 
 of them have a torndown and neglected appearance. 
 All this is equally true of the homes of the people 
 that frequent them. The Chinese never repair or 
 clean anything until circumstances compel them to 
 do so. As a rule the temples are kept in a better 
 state of repair than the dwellings of the masses. 
 
 Confucianism assigns women to a position of 
 slavery, yet multiplied thousands of Chinese women 
 are Confucianists. Since Confucius taught that the 
 female should be subject to the three obediences 
 to her father, husband, and son it seems strange 
 that the women are such devout worshipers of the 
 sage. 
 
 The teaching of Confucianism concerning ances- 
 tral worship may be the bond that binds the heart 
 of womankind to a system that degrades the gentler 
 sex. If a woman is faithful in impressing the cen- 
 tral doctrine of the Confucian system, filial piety, 
 upon the minds of her children, she will not only be 
 obeyed by her offspring, but will also be worshiped 
 by them. Her descendants will prepare an ancestral 
 tablet in which one of her spirits will dwell (she 
 is supposed to have three spirits, one of which, after 
 she is dead, stays in this tablet, another abides in 
 6
 
 82 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 the tomb with the body, while the third goes to 
 Hades and awaits the time of rebirth), and before 
 which her relatives will prostrate themselves; offer 
 sacrifices of food; burn paper money, candles, and 
 incense; cause the theatrical plays to be rendered 
 
 for the benefit and entertainment of her soul that 
 
 
 
 dwells therein. She is willing to be considered in- 
 ferior to her father, husband, or son yea, willing 
 to be treated as their slave if she can thereby merit 
 the reverence and worship of her kindred after she 
 has "shuffled off this mortal coil." Though she may 
 be despised on this side of death, yet she hopes to 
 become a worshipful object on the other side. Con- 
 fucianism holds out this crumb of comfort to the 
 downtrodden female of the "Inner Land," and she 
 seemingly rolls it under her tongue as a sweet mor- 
 sel. The home of her soul will be a wooden tablet, 
 and her devotees will be her lineal descendants. 
 Confucianism, on account of its doctrines of filial 
 piety which culminated in ancestral worship, has a 
 tremendous grip upon all classes of people in China. 
 This filial piety is based not so much on love as fear. 
 If a child neglects to care for a parent while living, 
 or fails to worship before the tablet that contains 
 the soul of his dead ancestor, the spirit of the angry 
 parent will be sure to haunt his footsteps, and dis-
 
 Religious Condition. 83 
 
 asters of every description will come upon the un- 
 filial child. Hope of being protected by them is also 
 an element in the acts of religious homage to an- 
 cestors. The spirit is not expected to feed upon the 
 material elements of the food offered, but simply to 
 appropriate the odors or exhalations or vapors aris- 
 ing therefrom, the grosser elements being eaten by 
 the party making the offering; the dead and the 
 living are thus supposed to feast together. 
 
 Tauism offers to the daughters of China fewer 
 real attractions, and possibly more degradation, than 
 does Confucianism, yet the women are more de- 
 voted Tauists than are the men. 
 
 The teaching of Confucius was mostly ethical 
 and political. Beyond ancestral worship he said but 
 little about religion. His disciples said he did not 
 discourse on the gods. When asked about death 
 he answered, "Imperfectly acquainted with life, how 
 can I know of death?" The hearts of the people 
 were not satisfied with moral and political instruc- 
 tion ; they longed, yea, thirsted after immortality, 
 and wished to know something about the life beyond. 
 The immortality so dimly hinted at in ancestral wor- 
 ship was also recognized in Tauism, if not borrowed 
 from it. Bishop Wiley says, "Confucius borrowed 
 his best ideas of immortality from Lao-tsze." The
 
 84 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 founder of Tauism also presented clearer ideas of 
 God. He said: "Before the existence of chaos, 
 which preceded the origin of the heavens and the 
 earth, there existed a solitary Being, immense and 
 silent, immutable and always acting without chang- 
 ing in himself. This Being we shall regard as the 
 Parent of the universe. I am ignorant of his name, 
 but I designate him by the word Reason." Confu- 
 cianism failing to provide for the spiritual longings 
 of man's nature was supplemented by the speculative 
 accounts of God and the universe as found in the 
 rationalistic writings of Lao-tsze. But alas ! Tauism 
 is not what its speculative founder intended it to be. 
 He did not claim to be more than a man, but his fol- 
 lowers worship him as a god. Tauism, starting 
 with a faint idea of the true God (borrowed doubt- 
 less from the primeval religion handed down across 
 the flood by Noah), has degenerated until the Tau- 
 istic pantheon contains images representing nearly 
 everything "in the heavens above, and in. the earth 
 beneath, and in the waters under the earth." A 
 grosser form of idolatry can scarcley be thought of. 
 It is true that the Chinese have not gone as far 
 as the Greeks and Romans, and deified lust, but lust- 
 ful forms of worship are common. So obscene are 
 some of the forms of worship performed by mothers,
 
 Religious Condition. 85 
 
 who are anxious to have sons, that it would be im- 
 proper for these rites to be described in a paper pre- 
 pared for the eye of the public. 
 
 Possibly the one thing that attracts women to 
 the Tauist shrines is a certain form of the doctrine 
 of soul-sleeping. One of her souls is to sleep with 
 the body in the tomb, and unless the body is buried 
 in a spot whose fung-shui, or luck, is good, the soul 
 can not rest in peace. It is the business of the Tau- 
 ist priests to find a lucky burial-place, offer sacri- 
 fices, and chant weird ritualistic ceremonies for the 
 rest of her soul. Buddhist priests are sometimes 
 luck doctors; but "the rudiments of this magic art 
 are to be found in ancient China," and hence this 
 science of luck does not properly belong to Bud- 
 dhism, which is exotic. Although the belief that the 
 repose of their soul depends on their acceptance of 
 Tauism, yet there are other superstitious attractions 
 for women in this system. In domestic life the 
 Chinese housewife wishes the special help of the 
 kitchen god ; when she desires a son, she wants the 
 favor of the goddess that determines the sex in chil- 
 dren; when she is about to become a mother, she 
 courts the care of the goddess of midwifery; while 
 she has a family growing up, she clamors for the 
 watch-care of the goddess whose duty is to care for
 
 86 /omen of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 children ; when a child is about to be married, a 
 Tauist priest must be employed to perform certain 
 religious rites; and when death enters the family, 
 the services of the priest are indispensable. Thus 
 Tauism touches the life of the Chinese female in a 
 thousand different ways, and, like the devif-fish, 
 holds her in its strong embrace until her life is 
 sapped away. 
 
 The third religion of China, Buddhism, also finds 
 the larger numbers of its votaries among the gentler 
 sex. This finds its explanation in the doctrine of 
 the transmigration of souls. Woman, that has come 
 up through successive births from a shellfish or ser- 
 pent or some other lower order of existence, hopes 
 by one more birth to become a man, and thus cease 
 to be an inferior creature a slave. Dr. Nevius 
 says: "The worshipers in Buddhist temples are for 
 the most part women, and they are advanced in age. 
 The young women are confined to their houses by 
 the multiplicity of their domestic duties and the cus- 
 toms of the country which forbid them appearing 
 in public. The older women having comparatively 
 little to do, and, reminded by their age of the neces- 
 sity of preparing for the future state, spend much 
 of their time in the temples. In accordance with the 
 doctrine of the transmigration of souls so prominent
 
 Ax IMAGE OF BUDDHA AND A PRIEST AT HIS DEVOTIONS.
 
 Religious Condition. 87 
 
 in the Buddhist system, the great end in the worship 
 of Buddha is to secure a more favorable position in 
 the future state, in which it is supposed individuals 
 will ascend and descend in the scale of existence ac- 
 cording to the preponderance of their merits or de- 
 merits in this life. In consequence of the inferior 
 station of women in China and their peculiar trials, 
 being a woman is regarded as a great misfortune, 
 and, in the bitterness incident to their present life, 
 they console themselves with the hope that their 
 earnest devotion at the shrine of Buddha will gain 
 for them the position of a man in the future state. 
 They suppose that the neglect of worship would re- 
 sult in being born again in one of the lower orders 
 of animals." Thus their devotion is based upon the 
 hope of being a man and the fear of becoming an 
 animal in the future world. 
 
 One of the saddest sights to be seen in Buddhist 
 countries is a sad-faced mother going about, looking 
 into the eyes of a cat, dog, or pig, to see if she can 
 discover the image of her dead child ; for she fears 
 it may have been reborn a beast. And yet there 
 are some American mothers that pride themselves 
 in being Buddhists, or Theosophists (possibly a 
 more pleasing term). Theosophy is nothing more 
 nor less than sugar-coated Buddhism. The Bud-
 
 88 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 dhists of India and Japan claim that the Theos- 
 ophists of America are Buddhists. Possibly the 
 secret of the apparent devotion of Madam Blavatsky 
 and Mrs. Besant might be found in an abnormal 
 desire to become dashing colonels after their next 
 birth. Possibly the Madam is to-day a precocious 
 youth in some East India sahib's family. Even 
 Buddhism has degenerated until it has become 
 beastly and sensual. Beside the image of Buddha 
 in the temples may be found a monkey idol. The 
 monkey is worshiped in all Buddhist countries. The 
 monkey is believed to have special charge of ghosts, 
 witches, and elves; hence the females worship him 
 that he may protect them from the evil influences of 
 these dreaded beings. The tiger is worshiped be- 
 cause he "is supposed to have the power of absorb- 
 ing or counteracting the pernicious influences which 
 cause children to become sick." 
 
 Animal worship is not confined to Buddhism, 
 for the Tauists have also deified beasts. So mingled 
 are the lower forms of these two religions that it is 
 almost impossible to distinguish between them. 
 Some of the finest temples I have ever seen have 
 been dedicated to animals; such as the fox, horse, 
 dog, rabbit, lizard, or dragon. The most popular 
 object of worship in China, not excepting Buddha,
 
 Religious Condition. 89 
 
 is the Goddess of Mercy. She is a deified Buddhist 
 nun. She is supposed to have special power in de- 
 termining the sex of unborn children, hence is espe- 
 cially worshiped by all that desire male offspring. 
 Since all Chinese desire male children, and do not 
 wish to be afflicted with girls, the popularity of this 
 goddess is easily explained. She is represented with 
 a child in her arms. She is sometimes represented 
 with many hands, by which she is enabled to pour 
 blessings on many people. She is frequently called 
 the "thousand-handed Goddess of Mercy." There 
 is a strong resemblance between the Goddess of 
 Mercy as worshiped by Buddhists and the Virgin 
 Mary as worshiped by Roman Catholics. This is 
 recognized by the Chinese. Once, when visiting a 
 Buddhist temple with other missionaries, the head 
 priest came out to greet us. He supposed that we 
 were Roman Catholics; hence when we entered the 
 temple he took us to the idol of the Goddess of 
 Mercy, and said she was "All the same as the Virgin 
 Mary." There is a strong resemblance between 
 Buddhism and Romanism in many of their outer 
 manifestations. This is admitted by Romanists 
 themselves. They try to explain these similarities 
 by saying the devil counterfeited the true religion 
 when he manufactured Buddhism. But the weak-
 
 90 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 ness in this explanation is that all these features 
 were in Buddhism many years before there was a 
 pope at Rome. 
 
 Doctor Nevius says, in pointing out these similar- 
 ities, that they "both have a supreme and infallible 
 head ; the- celibacy of the priesthood ; monasteries 
 and nunneries; prayers in an unknown tongue; 
 prayers to saints and intercessors, and especially and 
 principally to a Virgin with a child ; also prayers for 
 the dead; repetition of prayers, with the use of the 
 rosary ; works of merit and supererogation ; self-im- 
 posed austerities and bodily inflictions; a formal 
 daily service, consisting of chants, burning of can- 
 dles, sprinkling of holy waters, bowings, prostra- 
 tions, marching and countermarching. Both have 
 also fast-days and feast-days ; religious processions ; 
 images and pictures, and fabulous legends; and re- 
 vere and worship relics, real and pretended." 
 
 Possibly, when Romanism first came in contact 
 with Buddhism in Western and Central Asia, Ca- 
 tholicism took on these popular forms of Buddhism, 
 which finally drove out the true spirit of Chris- 
 tianity, and the simpler forms of primitive worship 
 were displaced by almost endless rites and cere- 
 monies. 
 
 Buddhist and Tauist nuns are as common in
 
 Religious Condition. 91 
 
 China as Roman nuns in America, and possibly they 
 are just as virtuous, self-sacrificing, and useful. Dr. 
 Gray gives the following account of the self-imposed 
 mortification of a Tauist nun : "I saw a devotee who 
 had caused herself to be inclosed in a brick tower, 
 having resolved to remain in this solitary confine- 
 ment until she had obtained funds sufficient to enable 
 her to rebuild the temple in the courtyard of which 
 her temporary prison stood. The tower was pro- 
 vided with a small aperture, through which she re- 
 ceived her food and could see all persons passing 
 that way. As they approached she was able to 
 command their attention by means of a long rope 
 attached to the clapper of a bell which was hung in 
 the center of the gateway." The same authority 
 makes the following statement about Buddhist nuns : 
 "Aspirants are received into the nunneries at the 
 early age of ten, and their novitiate continues until 
 they have attained their sixteenth year. At this 
 period the female mind is considered as mature, and 
 they are called upon to take the veil. The ceremony 
 consists in the candidate making a declaration in the 
 presence of the idol of Koan-Yan, the Goddess of 
 Mercy, that she will maintain a state of perpetual 
 virginity ; that she will eat neither fish, nor flesh, nor 
 fowl ; that she will drink no wine ; and that she will
 
 92 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 endeavor to carry out in her daily life the tenets 
 embodied in the religion of Buddha." All the Bud- 
 dhist nuns do not live up to their vows, as the fol- 
 lowing from Doolittle's "Social Life of the Chinese" 
 will indicate: "As the [provincial] treasurer was 
 passing by a certain nunnery in the city [Foochow] 
 during the evening, his attention was arrested by the 
 numerous lights connected with the establishment, 
 and the manifest proof that it was improperly visited 
 by men. After making ample inquiries in regard to 
 the dissolute life of the nuns, he determined to sup- 
 press the nunneries in the city, and oblige the in- 
 mates to marry or leave that section of the country. 
 Very many gladly changed their state of single 
 blessedness for the state of matrimony, a sufficient 
 number of men being found to marry them." This 
 extermination of Buddhist nunneries occurred over 
 sixty years ago, and the city of Foochow has been 
 compartively free from Buddhist nuns from that day 
 to this. 
 
 Considering the corrupt forms of religion that 
 have so long held womanhood in subjection in China, 
 it is wonderful that the women of that trans-Pacific 
 land are as virtuous as they are. The licentious 
 rites of Buddhism that are practiced by wives desir- 
 ing sons are fully as degrading as those of Tauism,
 
 o 
 
 56 
 O 
 
 G 
 "0 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 <-\ 
 
 5 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 c 
 
 o 
 o
 
 Religious Condition. 93 
 
 and this undue desire for male offspring is born of 
 Confucianism; hence a threefold degradation is 
 brought upon motherhood by this trinity of relig- 
 ions. The three religions one ethical, another 
 philosophical, and all in their present corrupt forms 
 exceedingly demoralizing are practically one in the 
 thoughts and practices of the common people. One 
 has compared the three religions to three serpents: 
 "The first serpent swallowed the second serpent up 
 to the head, beyond which it could not go. The 
 second serpent swallowed the third to the same ex- 
 tent. But the third serpent, having a mouth of in- 
 definite capacity, reached around, and, finding the 
 tail of the first, also swallowed this serpent up to 
 its head, leaving only three heads visible and an ex- 
 ceedingly intimate union between all three of the 
 bodies. Buddhism swallowed Tauism, Tauism swal- 
 lowed Confucianism, but at last the latter swallowed 
 both Buddhism and Tauism together, and thus the 
 three religions are one." 
 
 What is being done to rescue the womanhood 
 of the "Flowery Land" from the embrace of the 
 three-headed serpentine religion, and from the de- 
 grading customs of a heathen civilization that is 
 hoary with age, will be set forth in the chapters that 
 are to follow.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WHAT IS BEING DONE FOR THEIR 
 CHRISTIANIZATION. 
 
 THE first convert in Europe was a woman; the 
 first convert in the Sandwich Islands was a woman ; 
 but the first convert in China was a man. These 
 facts are significant. If Lydia had been a Chinese, 
 or the "queen mother" in Hawaii had been empress 
 dowager in the "Middle Kingdom," they possibly 
 would have been preceded into the kingdom of grace 
 by their more favored brothers ; for the Chinese lady 
 is secluded from male society. Under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, even the logical Paul would not have 
 been allowed to present the "unsearchable riches 
 of Christ" to the "secluded women of Cathay." 
 One of the serious questions that confronted the 
 early Christian workers in the land of Confucius 
 was how to reach the women of China. Custom for- 
 bade women to appear in a promiscuous congrega- 
 tion. If they gathered in congregations by them- 
 selves, no minister, foreign or native, would be* al- 
 lowed to address them. Sometimes a small group 
 
 94
 
 What is Being Done. 95 
 
 of females would draw near enough to get a few 
 crumbs of the bread of life that was being broken 
 to their fathers and brothers, and then they would 
 hasten away for fear some wicked person would hurl 
 vile epithets at them. This obstacle was partly over- 
 come by putting partitions through the middle of 
 the churches to within a few feet of the pulpit. The 
 sexes were thus shut off from each other's gaze, 
 but all could hear and see the speaker. (No co- 
 quetting is allowed in a Chinese congregation.) 
 After the churches had been arranged so that the 
 women could sit in seclusion and listen to the mes- 
 sage of salvation, a few of the more elderly came to 
 the services ; but the women, as a rule, did not come. 
 The bound feet of the women made it so difficult 
 for them to get about that, unless the church was 
 near, they did not attend. To hire chair-bearers 
 every time they wished to attend services was too 
 expensive ; to walk was too painful ; and these being 
 their only means of locomotion, many were kept 
 away from the sanctuary. 
 
 The missionaries and native pastors, when visit- 
 ing among the families, were not even allowed to 
 ask after the health of the female members of the 
 household. Pastoral work among the wives and 
 daughters was thus wholly interrupted. Custom
 
 96 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 shut out the missionary doctor from the gentler 
 sex. He would not be allowed within the inner 
 apartments except in very rare cases. Many a wife, 
 mother, or daughter suffered and died who might 
 have been helped by foreign skill. Not only did the 
 seclusion and foot-binding customs shut in the 
 woman and shut out the Christian pastor and doc- 
 tor, but the females, being reared in ignorance, 
 could not have read a Bible or tract if it had been 
 put in their hands. Thus the doors that had been 
 shut by custom were locked by ignorance. 
 
 The missionaries knew full well that China would 
 never be Christianized unless the mothers and 
 daughters could be reached, their minds and hearts 
 enlightened by the truth of the gospel, and their 
 feet set free to run on errands of mercy. The wives 
 of the missionaries, it is true, could gain access to 
 the female apartments of the Chinese homes; but 
 they were burdened by the domestic ties and duties, 
 and could not give the attention to the work that 
 was necessary. 
 
 The women of the Occident grasped the magni- 
 tude of the question, and set themselves to solve it. 
 Educated young women were sent to China to open 
 up schools, hospitals, foundling homes, and to ad- 
 minister the healing art to the bodies, and "leaves
 
 What is Being Done. 97 
 
 from the tree of life" to the souls of their perishing 
 sisters of the Orient. So successful have the lady 
 missionaries been in this noble work that many 
 hundreds of girls and women have been educated, 
 multitudes of the gentler sex crowd the churches, 
 and thousands have professed to have obtained the 
 knowledge of their sins forgiven. 
 
 How have the lady missionaries brought about 
 these grand results? Possibly the first lady mis- 
 sionaries sent to China for exclusive work among 
 the girls and women arrived in that far-away land 
 in 1858; they were two sisters. The first year was 
 spent in acquiring a knowledge of the language. 
 Their active work was commenced in 1859 by open- 
 ing a boarding-school for girls. The enrollment the 
 first year amounted to one girl, who was permitted 
 to attend by "allowing other members of her family 
 to come and remain with her to watch over her and 
 guard against her having her eyes gouged out, or 
 being spirited away bodily, while she slept, by the 
 foreign devils." The next year eight girls attended 
 the school. Two were from heathen families. "Dur- 
 ing the year one of them was stolen by her mother, 
 who wished to bind her feet, despite the entreaties of 
 the young ladies, and another was taken home on 
 pretense of making a visit. Her parents, after mak- 
 7
 
 98 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 ing numberless excuses to lengthen her stay at home, 
 said she could not return because she was being in- 
 terested in Christianity, and they feared it would 
 result in her refusing the one to whom they had be- 
 trothed her in her infancy." The third year found 
 fifteen girls in the school, who were reported to have 
 been "diligent, obedient, and truthful." Girls are 
 admitted to these schools with the understanding that 
 they take the six years' course of study. A grand- 
 father objected to one of his granddaughters enter- 
 ing the Christian boarding-school because she ought 
 to marry according to Chinese custom and present 
 him with great-grandsons long before her years of 
 schooling were over. In the face of all obstacles, 
 the system of boarding-schools for girls has de- 
 veloped until hundreds of these Christian centers of 
 life have been opened in the darkness of far Cathay. 
 With very few exceptions, the girls educated in 
 these schools become Christians. When they re- 
 turn to their homes they become witnesses for Christ. 
 While their mothers and sisters gather about them, 
 they read the story of Jesus, and explain his wonder- 
 ful promises. Even their fathers and brothers listen. 
 The truth thus finds entrance to the home's, minds, 
 and hearts that had long been closed against it. 
 Missionaries and native pastors frequently find whole
 
 What is Being Done. 99 
 
 families ready for baptism that had been led to Christ 
 by these educated Christian girls. 
 
 Many of these young ladies, when they have 
 finished their education, open up day-schools in their 
 native villages, in which they teach the rudimentary 
 principles of an education, and instruct the girls of 
 the community in the truths of the gospel. In this 
 way one Chinese Christian schoolteacher reaches and 
 molds scores of her own sex for Christ and right- 
 eousness. These day-schools are being opened in 
 thousands of centers of population. Gradually are 
 the chains being broken that have long bound 
 womanhood in seclusion, and the captive daughters 
 of the "Land of Sinim" are learning to know and 
 enjoy the freedom of God's children. The native 
 pastors find their helpmates from among these 
 boarding-school girls. Some of them are good public 
 speakers, and while their husbands are busy sowing 
 the seed in distant neighborhoods, they, like Susan- 
 nah Wesley, gather the local flock together, and 
 break unto the hungry souls the bread of life. 
 
 Another fruit of these schools is a system of 
 schools for married women. When the wives and 
 mothers have once tasted of the riches of God's 
 Word they wish to learn to read the precious truth 
 for themselves. Schools have been established in
 
 ioo Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 which they are taught to read the colloquial language. 
 Some of these women will learn to read quite readily 
 in six or eight months. The Bible is their principal 
 text-book. The teaching in these schools is mostly 
 done by native women who have been educated in 
 the girls' boarding-schools, and who have also taken 
 a special course of instruction in Bible study. The 
 lady missionaries not only prepare these teachers for 
 their work, but also carefully superintend the wo- 
 men's schools. It is a touching sight to see these 
 women poring over their books. Some of them 
 have babies strapped to their backs (the customary 
 way of carrying a small child in China) as they try 
 to master their lessons. The language being tonal, 
 every word has to be uttered loudly and distinctly. 
 When twenty or thirty women are reading at the 
 top of their voices, and half a dozen children are 
 mingling their plaintive cries or merry laughter with 
 the shrill notes of the mothers, it forms a musical 
 exhibition not soon to be forgotten. From these 
 noisy schools have come some excellent Bible stu- 
 dents, who go forth to read the Holy Word in the 
 homes of their less-favored sisters. 
 
 Missionaries select from among the pupils of the 
 girls' schools and women's schools the best students, 
 especially those that show an aptness for Scripture
 
 What is Being Done. 101 
 
 teaching, and, after giving them thorough intruc- 
 tion, assign them to the special work of Bible-read- 
 ers or deaconesses. These women are admitted to 
 the female apartments of the Chinese homes, where 
 no pastor, native or foreign, is allowed to enter. 
 The Churches are reaping an abundant harvest as 
 the fruit of the seed-sowing done by these native 
 deaconesses. 
 
 One day one of these Bible-readers came to a 
 missionary and told him that there were twenty-five 
 or thirty persons in a certain village that had been 
 converted and desired to be baptized. The mission- 
 ary was surprised, and asked the deaconess who 
 had led these people to Christ? She said she had 
 been going there in her evangelistic work ; even the 
 men had listened as she read and explained the 
 Word. A goodly number of both sexes had been 
 converted, and desired baptism. The missionary 
 went to the village, called the converts together, 
 and questioned them carefully concerning their 
 knowledge of the Bible, and was astonished at their 
 fund of Scripture truth. Then he requested them 
 all to tell their Christian experience. He said 
 that some of the clearest statements of religious ex- 
 perience he had ever heard from new converts came 
 from the lips of those men and women brought to
 
 IO2 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Christ by the native deaconess. Among them was 
 a woman of remarkable history. She had been 
 known from the time she was seventeen years old 
 to the day she was converted (when she was nearly 
 seventy years of age) as the head devil of all that 
 region. She was a demoniac. Demoniacal posses- 
 sion is common in China. This is admitted by 
 medical missionaries and European and American 
 doctors that are practicing in China. Demoniacs 
 have quiet moods; the Bible-reader would take ad- 
 vantage of these quiet spells, and read and talk to 
 the demoniac about Jesus and how he cast out 
 demons when he was on earth. This she continued 
 to do from time to time until enough truth was 
 stored in the poor woman's mind to form a basis 
 for saving faith, and she was gloriously saved, and 
 the devil cast out. This liberated daughter of Eve 
 became an efficient worker for Christ. The fore- 
 going shows how a strong Christian society sprang 
 up as the fruit of the seed sowed by a native Bible- 
 reader who was educated in a woman's mission 
 school. 
 
 These schools are stirring up the heathen people, 
 who refuse to send their daughters to Christian 
 schools, to do something for the education of their 
 girls. They say that if the Christian Chinese ed-
 
 H 
 
 a ' 
 
 M 
 
 W > 25 
 
 K * H 
 
 H < ui 
 
 X M 
 
 M ^ 2 
 
 r 2 
 
 w o 
 o r 
 
 >* 
 
 O 2 
 
 Si
 
 What is Being Done. 103 
 
 ucate both their boys and girls, then the on-coming 
 generations of Christian people will be smarter than 
 the heathens, and will dominate things ; hence many 
 of the higher classes of heathen people are com- 
 mencing to educate their daughters. 
 
 Others are beginning to see the benefit of the 
 Western education for their girls, and are opening 
 up schools where they can get even a higher educa- 
 tion. The following, taken from a missionary letter 
 sent from China, will indicate the plans that are 
 being matured by the Chinese for the education of 
 their daughters : "It has been proposed and planned 
 by some of the leading officials of China to found a 
 school at Shanghai for Chinese girls and women, 
 which is to grow into a university for training 
 teachers for girls' schools all over China. The 
 founders propose to guarantee liberty of conscience 
 and opportunity for religious teaching and Sabbath 
 observance. They plan to deal directly with foot- 
 binding, concubinage, and girl slavery." Leading 
 lady missionaries, and some thoroughly educated 
 Chinese Christian young women, have been invited 
 to accept positions as instructors in this school. 
 Verily China does move! 
 
 The girls' day-schools being established in differ- 
 ent cities and villages, and the corps of native Bible-
 
 104 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 readers becoming large, and these workers being 
 scattered over extensive districts, made it necessary 
 that certain lady missionaries should be appointed 
 to superintend these important lines of work, and 
 also give special attention to evangelistic work 
 among the women. The superintending of the 
 girls' day-school and deaconess work being done 
 by the lady missionary evangelists has come to be 
 classified as "evangelistic work." These evangelists 
 make tours over large districts, examining the day- 
 school scholars, giving special instruction and coun- 
 sel to the teachers and Bible-readers, and, together 
 with the latter, visiting and holding religious services 
 with women and girls that are hid away from the 
 faces of men. These workers meet many obstacles. 
 One lady evangelist says: "Now and then we come 
 to a home where we are very warmly received, not 
 only as visitors but as messengers. . . . The women 
 are so eager to be taught that it is difficult to get 
 away from them. Being new in the work, I was 
 delighted at their eagerness to hear and equally 
 surprised to find the doors shut against us on our 
 next visit. Personally I believe some of these 
 women were in earnest, but I think that they showed 
 their interest too plainly, and so were not allowed 
 to see us again. In one house a woman was able
 
 What is Being Done. 105 
 
 to conceal her interest until she had been taught 
 again and again, and had gotten quite a hold of the 
 gospel, and then her husband found it out and beat 
 her, and kept the door always shut against us." 
 
 This same lady gives us another bit of her ex- 
 perience that shows how this evangelistic work is 
 done: "A woman invited me into her cottage, and 
 added as I followed, 'I care very much to listen.' 
 She listened a long time, asking questions where 
 my meaning was not clear. She said, 'If all you say 
 is true, my kitchen god is useless; nothing but a 
 piece of colored paper; I might as well destroy it.' 
 I quite agreed and suggested that there was no time 
 like the present, so she brought and dstroyed it in 
 my presence. I thanked God and took courage. 
 Since then she has sent me her Kwoen-diah (spirit 
 money for merit making) which she supposed to be 
 worth $1,000 each, saying they were worthless and I 
 could have them." The following will illustrate how 
 the native workers are regularly drilled for their 
 work. "There is one part of my duty I have not 
 mentioned, and that is, daily instructing the Bible- 
 women. With those who have been employed for 
 years, and are diligent, careful Bible-readers, this 
 is not necessary. . . . We devote the greater 
 part of each morning to reading the Bible together,
 
 io6 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 and trying to get clear and intelligent notions of 
 its teachings. To me this is a very pleasant em- 
 ployment, and I trust will be useful to them." 
 
 Possibly no Christian work is more fruitful of 
 good than that which is being done by these lady 
 evangelists and their native helpers.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WHAT IS BEING DONE FOR THEIR 
 CHRISTIANIZATION ? Continued. 
 
 FOUNDLING Homes have been established by 
 the missionary women of nearly all the Christian de- 
 nominations working in "Inner Land." The Ro- 
 man Catholics were first to commence this benevolent 
 movement that has for its object the rescuing of baby 
 girls from the sudden and cruel death to which their 
 own parents have assigned them. For some unac- 
 countable reason this charitable work of the Roman 
 Catholics was greatly misunderstood by the Chinese. 
 The slanderous report went abroad that the waifs 
 were cruelly treated ; that the foreigners scooped out 
 their eyes and used them to manufacture medicine. 
 It was commonly reported that the foundlings were 
 not only treated in that way, but that the Roman 
 Catholics spirited away children from villages and 
 cities to supply their foreign medicine factories. If 
 a child were lost or carried off by wolves, suspicion 
 immediately rested upon the kind-hearted Roman 
 missionaries, and frequently a riot followed. The 
 107
 
 io8 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Roman orphanages, as well as the other Roman 
 Catholic missionary buildings, are usually inclosed 
 in walled compounds. The somber walls cast a 
 mysterious aspect over the Foundling Homes. The 
 people, being shut out, and not knowing what is 
 going on within the inclosure, surmise that the 
 rumors are true. These surmisings breed hatred, 
 and frequently this hatred is not satisfied until the 
 Foundling Homes are reduced to ashes. 
 
 When the Protestants commenced work in China 
 they found that the orphan-rescue work was in such 
 ill repute among the Chinese that they were loath to 
 take it up. At first the waifs were rescued and 
 placed in the families of Chinese, who were willing 
 to care for them if they were paid for so doing. 
 This plan proved to be too great a financial burden ; 
 consequently, Foundling Homes were quietly 
 opened, and the rescue work became a part of the 
 regular program of the woman's missionary move- 
 ment. A representative of this noble line of Chris- 
 tian endeavor says : 
 
 "The Foundling Rescue Home is another work 
 which has grown up and taken so good a footing 
 that it would be a difficult matter, indeed, to dispense 
 with it now. It is a work that needs to be carefully 
 watched and guarded, lest by any means one of the
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 JO
 
 What is Being Done. 109 
 
 scandalous reports, which those who hate us are 
 so ready to circulate, should be started from some 
 really preventable cause. So far as I can see, every- 
 thing is done that can be done to guard against 
 suspicion. The babies are nursed outside by Chinese 
 foster-mothers till they are over a year old, for which 
 the said foster-mother is paid the usual price given 
 by the natives when they require the same service 
 for some treasured baby boy (alas! baby girls are 
 not worth enough for that in the eyes of the heathen 
 Chinese) ; viz., a dollar a month. When the baby 
 is over a year old, it comes into the Home. A for- 
 eign lady has charge of the Home. The house is 
 always open to visitors ; nothing is concealed in any 
 way ; we are and must always be, ready to do any- 
 thing that tends to disarm suspicion. In spite of the 
 carefulness of the missionaries, evil rumors have 
 at different times been circulated against foundling 
 rescuers. Once an evil report was circulated about 
 a certain orphanage. The Christians took it up vig- 
 orously, and having traced it home to a young stu- 
 dent in the city, compelled him to make an apology 
 and spend a fixed sum on the charitable work of 
 buying coffins for poor people left unburied for lack 
 of money." Many girl babies have been rescued from 
 the hands of their would-be murderous parents and
 
 no Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 brought to these Homes, tended, reared, and edu- 
 cated, and have become affectionate wives and 
 mothers in native Christian homes, or Bible-readers 
 and schoolteachers, who spend their whole time in 
 Christian work. 
 
 Efforts are put forth, not only to rescue infant 
 girls that have been cast off by their Confucian pa- 
 rents, but the Christian missionaries are endeavoring 
 to overthrow the cruel footbinding custom that 
 makes life a continuous torture to the females that 
 are allowed to live. It is so difficult for people who 
 have never been in China to realize the magnitude 
 of this crime against the gentler sex; or with what 
 tenacity the people, and even the women themselves, 
 cling to the custom. 
 
 When the Manchu-Tartars conquered China in 
 1644 they tried to break up the footbinding custom, 
 but failed. They could impose the cue (which was 
 wholly a Tartar custom) upon the Chinese men as 
 a badge of loyalty to the Manchu dynasty ; but they 
 could not stop the bandaging of feet among the 
 women. Manchu-Tartar ladies have natural feet. 
 Girls and women that enter Christian schools, and 
 especially those that become Christians, are expected 
 to unbind their feet. By most of the Christian 
 Churches, unbinding is made absolutely obligatory
 
 What is Being Done. in 
 
 upon all females that join the Church, unless the 
 bones of the feet have been broken, in which cases 
 the feet can not be unbound. By tract-literature, 
 by preaching, by house-to-house instruction, and by 
 teaching in the schools, this custom is being grad- 
 ually undermined. A lady missionary gives the fol- 
 lowing account of the unbinding of a little girl's 
 feet: "Her feet had been tightly bound for at least 
 four years, but we obtained leave to free them. As 
 I was taking off the bands of cloth one evening, 
 some of the other little girls were near. At the sight 
 of the deformed members, one exclaimed, 'This kind 
 of feet is the devil's invention.' Then, looking at 
 her own, which were unbound a year or so ago, she 
 said, 'Now I have God-made feet.' To which the 
 others echoed, 'And so have I, and so have I.' Little 
 Chu-Lan was very patient ; she suffered a good deal 
 from inflammation for a week or two, but she is now 
 able to use her feet as God intended she should." 
 An evangelistic lady gives her experience as fol- 
 lows: "At first, of course, my words fell upon hea- 
 then ears, and had little effect, if any; but as I 
 gathered a Sabbath class, and gained the love of the 
 women, I was soon cheered by seeing one and an- 
 other gradually loosening the bandages ; after a time 
 they would show me how much larger the new pair
 
 ii2 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 of shoes had to be made, and some young wives 
 with Christian husbands continued to enlarge until 
 their shoes were fully two inches longer than when 
 they began. With the old women we had to be con- 
 tent with loosening the bandages more gradually." 
 
 The study of the Word sometimes leads the peo- 
 ple to unbind their feet, as the following incident 
 related by a lady missionary shows: "I was most 
 gratified when a dear woman came from one of the 
 out stations to be baptized, bringing some children 
 with her. ... I urged on her consideration the 
 duty of Christians about unbinding, when she in- 
 terrupted me by saying, 'O, teacher, I knew what 
 you would say; but see, there is no need. See! 
 our feet are only covered with stockings.' Deeply 
 thankful, I drew from her the following story : 'My 
 husband was reading one evening at worship about 
 the Good Shepherd, and how kind and tender the 
 Lord Jesus was. I listened well, for they were 
 such sweet words. In the night I lay awake, and 
 the story filled my mind, when suddenly I remem- 
 bered that next morning was my customary time 
 for bathing and tightening the bandages of our 
 children's feet. O, I thought, what grief will their 
 cries cause the loving heart of Jesus! Can I, too, 
 cause them pain and not sin against God? I had
 
 What is Being Done. 113 
 
 no peace then until I made up my mind that next 
 day I would begin to unbind, and continue until we 
 should need only stockings. We use no bandages 
 now.' In this family were three fine healthy girls, 
 and one of twelve who was adopted for the son's 
 wife." 
 
 As a rule, it is difficult to make the people under- 
 stand the sinfulness of the custom and get them to 
 consent to unbind. Sometimes, when the women 
 unbind their feet, their husbands will beat them 
 severely and compel them to rebind. Many pa- 
 rents will take their daughters out of school rather 
 than have their feet unbound. Even Christian 
 mothers sometimes have severe struggles with their 
 pride before they can consent to have their daugh- 
 ters' feet unbound. To have large feet means, fre- 
 quently, to be classed with the Tartars, laboring 
 women, bondwomen, or courtesans. How humil- 
 iating such treatment would be! Take the follow- 
 ing illustration : "A woman from an old and re- 
 spected family, who bears herself with the dignity 
 and complacency of a queen, gave herself and her 
 family to God. She brought her two daughters a 
 distance of four hundred miles to put them into 
 school. Being fully convinced that footbinding is 
 a sin against the Creator and his children, she ex- 
 8
 
 H4 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 pected to have her daughters' feet unbound. The 
 shoes and stockings were brought forth, and the 
 process of unbinding was begun. Then, to the sur- 
 prise of those who beheld, and probably to the sur- 
 prise of the old lady herself, a struggle set up in the 
 mother's heart a struggle between the force of 
 old customs and prejudices and the power of the 
 new faith. Though at first she smiled in happy 
 resignation, and said, 'God's will be done; let the 
 feet be unbound,' a moment later some power 
 from the past caught away the smile, and left a 
 face twitching with emotion and furrowed by slow 
 tears. With sighs and wringing of hands, she 
 walked across the floor to return and beg, 'Unbind 
 only the feet of one, and let the other child's feet 
 remain as they are.' Then reproving herself, she 
 took up her restless walking. Finally she stood still 
 and said, with sober, earnest face, 'Go on. It shall 
 be done.' Thus ended one of the many contests 
 brought on by the contact of a heathen practice 
 with Christian principle." 
 
 This mother knew that her daughters would have 
 to suffer the jeers and scoffs of derisive relatives 
 and neighbors; hence the desperate struggle in her 
 breast. Heathen parents, as a rule, prefer to have 
 their daughters suffer untold agony with their
 
 What is Being Done. 115 
 
 cramped-up feet rather than have them lose standing 
 in society. 
 
 A little girl was brought to the mission hospital 
 to be treated for ulceration of the feet, caused by 
 footbinding. The case had gone too far and the 
 little creature died. "This poor girl's mother had 
 bound her feet at the age of six, and after some time 
 the toes ulcerated and began to suppurate, and one 
 or two fell off. This was not heeded at first; the 
 child being encouraged to wish for very small feet, 
 and the loss of some of the toes making it a cer- 
 tainity, she could expect to secure a wealthy hus- 
 band and a life of ease, eventually. The ulceration 
 spread, however, and for years she had to bear 
 torment, until at last, unable to stand on her 
 feet, she took to her bed. The parents, trying na- 
 tive medicines without effect, went to the foreign 
 doctor. From the first a cure was seen to be im- 
 possible. Amputation was the only prospect of 
 saving life, and, with this end in view, she was 
 kept in the hospital some weeks and carefully 
 nourished. Notwithstanding every effort she be- 
 came gradually weaker (the operation could not 
 be performed), and finally blood-poisoning and de- 
 lirium intervened till she passed away in great ag- 
 ony. In her delirium she cried: 'Mother, mother,
 
 n6 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 don't beat me. I will be good. Save life! Bitter! 
 bitter! exceeding bitter! O my feet! Pain, pain, 
 unceasing pain ! Do n't bind so tight mother.' 
 With these piercing words upon her lips she passed 
 away." 
 
 A lady missionary doctor tells of a sad case: 
 "One morning a girl about twelve years of age was 
 brought to me. By the penetrating odor which en- 
 compassed her it was very easy to realize that there 
 were forces in and around her somewhere, working 
 in inverse order. Her friends, who, judging from 
 appearances, were in good circumstances, said she 
 was a native of Foochow, had had her feet bound in 
 Canton, and they feared the bandaging had been 
 too tight and that the feet were not doing properly ; 
 at any rate, not so well as they wished. Would 
 I be kind enough to examine them, and see if their 
 surmises were not correct? I certainly would, but 
 not with pleasure; that odor and pleasure being in- 
 compatible. One of the feet fell off when the ban- 
 dages were unloosened. With the other it was 
 necessary to sever some of the ligaments. The 
 stumps are similar to those of a Symes amputation." 
 
 The foregoing are not isolated cases. Many 
 girls lose their feet, and not infrequently their lives, 
 in the endeavor to bring their lower appendages
 
 What is Being Done. 117 
 
 into the smallest compass possible. The girls that 
 unbind have much to endure. Returning from the 
 mission schools with large feet, they attract much 
 attention. Many things, hard to bear, are said 
 against them, and even called after them in the 
 streets of their native village. As a rule they bear 
 these insults bravely. 
 
 All missionaries and native pastors take part in 
 the crusade against dwarfing the feet; but the mis- 
 sionary ladies having the general oversight of the 
 Christian work among the women and girls of China, 
 are the special leaders in the movement. The out- 
 look is most encouraging. Not only is the mission- 
 ary army making a bold, determined attack upon 
 the custom, but many of the literati, even some 
 who are not Christians, are taking the matter up 
 more and more, giving to it their names, their time 
 and their money. The anti-footbinding workers, 
 missionaries, native Christians and non-Christians, 
 are organized into a society which has for its object 
 the utter eradication of this cruel custom. 
 
 A Chinese official at Foochow has issued a proc- 
 lamation against footbinding, forbidding the expen- 
 diture of money on the custom. Viceroy Chang 
 Chi-tung has written an introduction to an anti- 
 foot-binding tract. The movement is thus spreading
 
 n8 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 among the literati and official families as well as 
 among the more lowly classes. Since the Chinese 
 Court has returned to Peking, the Empress Dow- 
 ager has cast her influence in favor of the anti- 
 foot-binding crusade. She has gone so far as to 
 issue an edict against foot-binding. This work, 
 that was taken up and pushed with Christian earnest- 
 ness by the faithful lady missionaries, has grown 
 in strength and influence, and bids fair to sweep 
 the torturous custom from the "Flowery Land." 
 
 The medical work carried on by the Woman's 
 Foreign Missionary Societies among the girls and 
 women has developed into one of the greatest Chris- 
 tianizing influences in China. The suffering fe- 
 males shut in from the healing art as administered 
 by the male medical missionaries were allowed to 
 languish, pine away, and die rather than receive the 
 curative remedies from the hand of man. The lady 
 doctors find ready access to the female apartments 
 of many ladies from which even the lady evangel- 
 ists are excluded. Hospitals are established, and na- 
 tive females are educated as nurses and doctors. 
 An excellent corps of Chinese assistants are to be 
 found in nearly every hospital. Some of the assist- 
 ants, after careful training under medical mission- 
 aries, are sent to America and Europe to perfect
 
 What is Being Done. 119 
 
 themselves in their profession. Thus the Chinese 
 are being prepared to take care of their own sick.* 
 
 The medical work has frequently opened 
 the way into neighborhoods and families for the 
 evangelistic workers. A missionary says: "I re- 
 member that when I was endeavoring to establish 
 a station in the interior city of Hang-Chow, and 
 the people were regarding me with considerable 
 prejudice and suspicion, one day, while I was speak- 
 ing to a crowd in the street, a soldier forced his way 
 toward me, and addressing me very cordially and 
 respectfully, pointed to a deep scar on his cheek. He 
 said that he had once been severely wounded in bat- 
 tle, and that in the hospital in Shanghai, Dr. 
 
 had dressed and healed his wounds and saved his life. 
 Another man in the same company said that he had 
 
 received similar kindness from Dr. in Ningpo. 
 
 Both testified that in the hospital they were taught 
 the same doctrine that I was preaching. Hundreds 
 and thousands such as these are scattered along the 
 coast and in some of the interior provinces, and 
 are constantly bearing testimony in our favor." 
 
 Connected with the hospitals are chapels where 
 a Bible-woman reads and explains the Scriptures 
 
 *See Frontispiece a picture of Dr. Hii King Eng, who has charge 
 of one of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society's Hospitals at 
 Foochow.
 
 izo Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 to the people that come to be treated. Many who 
 come simply to be healed of some bodily disease 
 receive healing of the soul by the Great Physician. 
 Frequently the missionaries find an unexpected but 
 joyous welcome in new communities, because some 
 persons who had been healed in the hospitals have 
 returned to their homes and told their neighbors 
 and relatives of the medical skill and kindness of 
 the foreigners and especially of the Physician of 
 Souls. They back up their statements by showing 
 that though they were once sick they are well, and 
 though they were once blind now they see. These 
 object lessons of Christian kindness, medical skill, 
 and healing grace prepare the way for the estab- 
 lishing of Christian Churches in the neighborhoods. 
 A medical lady gives the following account : "During 
 the year . . . interesting trips have been made 
 into the country. The first one was made by Miss 
 and myself to the capital of the province to at- 
 tend the wife of an officer. We brought her home 
 with us, and while here undergoing treatment she 
 studied the Bible every day and enjoyed it very 
 much. Later, when she returned home, she recov- 
 ered completely, and now two of her sons are in the 
 mission school. Her husband gave $100 for the
 
 What is Being Done. 121 
 
 dispensary, . . . and he said he would help us 
 in raising money for the hospital." 
 
 The wife of Li Hung Chang, China's greatest 
 statesman, was as gracious and kind as she was 
 clever. Unlike most Chinese wives, she was a real 
 helpmate to her husband. "She was treated during 
 a critical sickness by a medical missionary lady, and 
 an intimate friendship grew up between them. Lady 
 Li established a hospital in Tientsin, and she was 
 instrumental in establishing charities for the poor." 
 
 The foregoing instances show how the medical 
 work unlocks the doors of the homes of the higher 
 classes and admits the lowly Nazarene. The fol- 
 lowing shows how the prejudices of the people are 
 overcome by medical work: 
 
 "One woman, who had a very interesting his- 
 tory, came to our dispensary, and we asked her if 
 she could not come to the hospital for regular treat- 
 ment; but she was too timid to come, and staid 
 away for several days, and when she did return she 
 was persuaded to remain, and soon came to trust 
 us and to confide in us. She said her husband was 
 a Christian and she had persecuted him, and hated 
 foreigners, and believed all the bad things she 
 had heard of foreigners. ... It was beautiful
 
 122 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 to watch the unfolding of her faith, and she came 
 to understand and believe in the one true 
 God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. She 
 manifested her love by her many deeds of kindness 
 to the other patients." 
 
 A lady doctor was opening up a new medical 
 work. Before she had received her supply of surg- 
 ical instruments a man came to have a finger ampu- 
 tated. (Men will come to the lady physicians, but 
 they will not allow the male physicians to doctor their 
 wives.) The doctor says: "Though I had no ban- 
 dage to control hemorrhage; no one to give him 
 anaesthetics; no instruments save those of my 
 pocket case; yet he bravely sat down by my table 
 and without a groan allowed me to perform the 
 operation. I had to call my cook-boy to assist me, 
 as my student was too frightened to render any help. 
 It was not remarkable that the finger, despite a 
 skin-graft, was slow of healing. He came nearly 
 every day for dressing for months. During that 
 time he was learning much of soul disease, and, as 
 a result of prayer and teaching, has become a Chris- 
 tian, and will soon receive baptism. His gratitude, 
 as he solely had to support his aged mother, who 
 nearly starved while he was incapacitated for work, 
 was unbounded."
 
 What is Being Done. 123 
 
 Both sexes are thus reached by these noble fe- 
 male medical missionaries. No class of workers are 
 doing more for the evangelization of the "Central 
 Flowery Land" than the lady missionaries in their 
 functions of teachers, evangelists, and doctors. The 
 work being done by Woman's Foreign Missionary 
 Society ladies is greatly supplemented by the efforts 
 of the wives of missionaries sent out by other Boards. 
 These married ladies go to the expense of hiring 
 servants to care for their children, and to do most 
 of their household work, that they may devote as 
 much time as possible to missionary work. They 
 thus frequently save the missionary society the ex- 
 pense of sending out and supporting an extra mis- 
 sionary. I know of one such lady that had the gen- 
 eral oversight of three Bible-readers, a women's 
 school, girls' school, and eight girls' day-schools. 
 The united efforts of Christian women working 
 along all these lines have brought multiplied thou- 
 sands of the women of the Middle Kingdom to the 
 Christian churches, and thousands to sit, like Mary, 
 at the feet of Jesus.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MRS. SIA AHOK, A CHINESE CHRISTIAN 
 LADY. 
 
 A CHINESE merchant in the city of Foochow, by 
 the name of Ahok, was early impressed with the 
 truthfulness of Christianity; but he struggled on in 
 semi-pagan darkness for more than thirty years be- 
 fore he made a full surrender and became a whole- 
 hearted Christian. Business complications were 
 such as to retard his progress into the light. His 
 partners in his vast mercantile interests were heath- 
 ens ; and so complicated were his business entangle- 
 ments with them that he thought they could not dis- 
 solve partnership without bringing more or less 
 financial disaster upon the members of the firm. The 
 heathen partners were loath to sacrifice one-seventh 
 of their weekly trade by closing their places of busi- 
 ness on Sunday. Mr. Ahok saw that he could not 
 be a thorough Christian and not observe the Sab- 
 bath. Thus he remained undecided for long years. 
 He was always kind to the missionaries, and assisted 
 them, directly or indirectly, financially as well as 
 
 124
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 125 
 
 by his personal influence. He was among the very 
 first to welcome the new missionaries and invite them 
 to his home to enjoy his hospitality. One lady mis- 
 sionary said : "Very soon after my arrival in China, 
 in 1878, a mandarin called at the schoolhouse to bid 
 me welcome. I was astonished, and asked him why 
 he had called to welcome me to Foochow. 'Because,' 
 he answered, 'you have come to teach my country 
 people about the true God.' 'Are you a Christian?' 
 I asked. 'No,' he said; 'but I like Christianity. I 
 go to church sometimes, and I know the doctrine is 
 true and the preachers are good.' We had a very 
 interesting conversation, and when he left I pressed 
 him to send his wife to see me." This mandarin 
 was Mr. Ahok. In this manner he was accustomed 
 to welcome each new missionary of the Cross that 
 arrived at the "Happy City," as the Chinese call 
 Foochow. 
 
 Mr. Ahok put forth many efforts to bring his 
 wife and family under Christian influences. The 
 females of his household were not as favorable to the 
 truth as he was. His own mother and his wife's 
 mother spent much time in his home; they, as well 
 as Mrs. Ahok, had their private apartments well 
 stocked with idols. These high-class ladies were 
 slow to believe that Christians and Christianity were
 
 126 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 what they were- represented to be. They thought 
 that Christians "talked good, but did not live good." 
 They finally concluded that they would make unex- 
 pected calls on the foreign ladies, and study their 
 home life. One day the missionary quoted above 
 was surprised by her servant running in and ex- 
 claiming, "Kuniong, the Tai Tai is coming!" (Ku- 
 niong means unmarried lady, and Tai Tai is the 
 title of a rich Chinese lady. "Which Tai Tai?" 
 asked the missionary. "Hoke Lee Sing Sang Ny- 
 iong," answered the servant. Then chair-coolies 
 were seen, bearing closed sedan-chairs, and crying 
 out as they approached, "Twai a Twai a" (a great 
 person is coming). The sedans were set down, and, 
 continues the lady missionary, "several slave girls 
 and other attendants helped out of their chairs and 
 led in the two ladies. They were Mrs. Ahok and 
 her mother. They had come to luncheon, and did 
 not let me know because they wanted to see an Eng- 
 lish luncheon without preparation. They staid all 
 afternoon, looking into all my English things and 
 listening to all the matron and I said." The mis- 
 sionary lady was engaged by Mr. Ahok to teach 
 the females of his family. When the school sum- 
 mer vacation came the missionary was again sur- 
 prised by Mrs. Ahok making the request to be per-
 
 MRS. AHOK AND MAID.
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 127 
 
 mitted to spend the time with her. "Why do you 
 wish to stay with me?" asked the lady missionary. 
 "O," she answered, "you say all that is nice ; I want 
 to come and see if you live as you talk." "But," 
 urged the missionary, "I have only one room and one 
 bed; how can you come?" "O," she answered, "I 
 will send a bed and have it put up in your room, and 
 I will bring my own servant to wait upon me." "She 
 came," said the missionary, "and followed me about 
 everywhere, asking me to translate all my home 
 letters, and all I wrote home. She joined me in 
 prayer night and morning ; that is, she listened while 
 I prayed. One night I went to bed with a bad 
 headache, and I could not have family worship. In 
 the middle of the night she heard me awake, and 
 said, 'Is your head better ?' 'No/ I answered. 'Then 
 I do not believe in your God,' she said; 'for you 
 worshiped him, and I asked him to make you better.' 
 This led to a profitable conversation on asking ac- 
 cording to God's will." Once, while spending some 
 time in Mrs. Ahok's home, this lady missionary 
 noticed that her actions were carefully watched by 
 the mother of her hostess. She said: "Each morn- 
 ing she was in the room before I dressed. Each 
 day I endeavored to be before her and failed, until 
 one day I arose in the dark and then she refused
 
 i2g Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 to leave for her breakfast. I wondered why she 
 wanted so much to see me dress. The morning was 
 wearing away. At last she said, 'Are you not going 
 to pray this morning?' 'Yes,' I answered, 'I have 
 prayed.' 'And you did not let me see you,' she said, 
 in an aggrieved tone. 'Why,' I asked, 'do you wish 
 to see me pray?' 'O, it is so very funny,' she re- 
 plied. 'You pray to nothing. How can nothing 
 hear you?' Here was a lovely opportunity, and so 
 I went on telling of our God, who is a spirit per- 
 vading everywhere with his presence, seeing all we 
 do, hearing all we say. She listened with rapt at- 
 tention." 
 
 It was found no easy task to teach the women. 
 One day, when the Bible-lesson was about the Good 
 Shepherd, and the missionary was comparing her 
 pupils to sheep that needed the care of the Good 
 Shepherd, they seemed greatly amused. "What is 
 the matter?" asked the missionary. "Why," they 
 said, "you say we are as sheep, and we have no 
 wool on our backs, and we have not four legs." The 
 missionary tried again, and told them of our utterly 
 lost condition, and how Jesus left his heavenly home 
 to come to seek us like a shepherd would seek a 
 lost sheep. Then they laughed outright, and when 
 asked the cause, they said, "O, Kuniong, you are
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 129 
 
 wrong to-night ; we are not lost ; we are all at home." 
 The faithful missionary did not lose heart. Al- 
 though her lady pupils were somewhat over-inquisi- 
 tive, and, from a Western standpoint, even impu- 
 dent in inquiring into her private home life, and 
 seemed at times disrespectful, yet she could see that 
 a favorable impression was being made. 
 
 Mr. Ahok had finally surrendered himself to the 
 Savior. On one of his business trips to Hong-Kong 
 he made up his mind to unite with the Church, which 
 he did. When he returned to Foochow he identified 
 himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He 
 was greatly worried because his partners objected 
 to closing the places of business on the Sabbath. 
 After much prayer and godly counsel from the mis- 
 sionaries, he gained the victory. With the begin- 
 ning of the New Year the stores were closed. He 
 also commenced a weekly prayer-meeting for the 
 benefit of the employees. Mr. Akok wrote as fol- 
 lows concerning his Sabbath closing and his religious 
 devotions: "My two stores are closed on Sundays 
 from the beginning of the Chinese New Year. I 
 continue to have Wednesday meetings in my store, 
 and Friday meetings at my residence, and I hope 
 God will lead me aright." Mr. Ahok took great in- 
 terest in the work being done for the religious in- 
 9
 
 130 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 struction of the women of his family. Once the 
 missionary called on him to close the Bible-study 
 with prayer. He did, and he prayed very plainly for 
 each one present. A part of his prayer was like this : 
 "O, God Almighty, for Jesus thy Son's sake, 
 look down on my mother. She has one hundred 
 idols, and her heart is so hard. Make her soft to 
 worship thee, for she is nearly eighty years old. 
 There is my wife, too. She has been learning about 
 thee, but she does not want to give up her idols, 
 and she does not worship thee ; make her a changed 
 heart. Then her mother, she reads thy Word, but 
 she does not believe in thee. My oldest son's wife 
 is very hard ; she will not trust thee." Thus he men- 
 tioned each by name. That prayer was answered in 
 the very near future. To be childless is a great af- 
 fliction for a Chinese wife. Such was the condition 
 of Mrs. Ahok. Mr. Ahok's first wife was a mother 
 of sons ; hence she was held in great honor. One day 
 when Mrs. Ahok was receiving her regular Bible-les- 
 son she seemed very sad. The missionary asked 
 her the cause of her sorrow. She said, "O, Kuniong, 
 I am so unhappy ; I am not head in my own house. 
 You know here in China, 'without children without 
 honor.' Mr. Ahok's first wife had children. She 
 died, then Mr. Ahok married me. I have been his
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 131 
 
 wife twelve years, and he wants me to rule, and I 
 can not because I have no child. Would not your 
 God give me one ? Did he ever give any one a son ?" 
 The missionary turned to the story of Hannah, and 
 read it, and said, "It is true ; God can do all things ; 
 and we are told to make our request known to him." 
 Then they knelt, and Mrs. Ahok led in prayer for the 
 first time. She said, "O, God, Jehovah, I come to 
 thee, now ; help me not to doubt ; teach me this 
 good doctrine ; give me thy Holy Spirit, and please 
 give me a son for Jesus' sake. Amen." 
 
 The prayer was answered, and the Ahok family 
 was brightened by the advent of a son. He was 
 known as "the Christian-Doctrine Boy." Mrs. Ahok 
 ceased to worship idols. She said, "I can no longer 
 worship idols, but I do not know how to be a true 
 Christian; I must pray to be taught." There was 
 great rejoicing in the Ahok family. Mr. Ahok wrote 
 concerning the third day of festivities as follows: 
 
 "I was very busy yesterday receiving presents 
 from my friends, and attending my guests. I had a 
 dinner party last evening. It is a Chinese cus- 
 tom that, three days after the birth of a baby in 
 the family, the friends and relatives make presents 
 of chickens and vermicelli for the baby's mother to 
 eat; and the families have to give dinners to their
 
 132 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 friends in returning thanks for their presents. I 
 received a great many chickens and vermicelli. I 
 think if Mrs. Ahok could eat all of them, she would 
 become twice larger than she is now." 
 
 After the missionary teacher had returned to 
 England, Mr. Ahok wrote her a letter in which he 
 reported the following good news: "I am happy 
 to tell you that on the i8th of June last my mother 
 (eighty years old), wife, and brother, and his wife, 
 were baptized, and I hope that they will carry on 
 Christian work, and be worthy, true, and earnest 
 Christians." Mrs. Ahok's own account of her con- 
 version is as follows : 
 
 "I never thought of God, nor had any desire 
 after him, but, in his great love and mercy, he had 
 compassion on me, and sent one of his servants 
 to me to my own home. ... At first I could 
 not understand her message, and my heart was all 
 darkness; but by and by the light began to shine. 
 It was as you have often seen at sunrise, first a faint 
 light, when nothing is seen distinctly; then the sun 
 itself appears, and in a flood of light all is clear. 
 So it was in my heart when Christ came in ; all my 
 doubts and fears vanished, and I found a joy and 
 peace I never knew before. But my difficulty then 
 was to confess that I was a follower of the Lord
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 133 
 
 Jesus, a member of the despised band of Christians. 
 I thought I would rather die than acknowledge it, 
 and was tempted to think I might worship Christ in 
 secret. But this also I took to the Savior, and told 
 him my weakness and fear of confessing I was his 
 servant, and," she added with her face all aglow, 
 "he took it all away, and I now feel neither fear nor 
 shame, and it is my greatest joy to go to the houses 
 of my rich friends, and plead with them to give up 
 their idols, and find the same peace that I have 
 found in serving God." 
 
 Mrs. Ahok gave her strength to work among the 
 wealthy, because, being a rich woman of high stand- 
 ing herself, she could find access to the "high-class" 
 women when the common Bible-reader and foreign 
 missionary were frequently excluded. She was also 
 kind and generous to the poor. A letter that she 
 wrote to a missionary teacher who had much to do 
 with leading her to Christ will show the peculiar 
 traits of this godly Chinese lady. 
 
 "FoocHow, February 16, 1888. 
 "Mv DEAR MRS. FAGG, Many thanks for your 
 letter and the book and cards, which you so kindly 
 think of me to send them, and gave me. I am so 
 
 NOTB. This letter is not changed from the form in which it came 
 from Mrs. Ahok's pen.
 
 134 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 sorry that I could not write and thank you before 
 this, as I had not the time, and learned little Eng- 
 lish ; but I am so thankful and glad that Mrs. Sing 
 is staying with me for the Chinese New Year. She 
 helped me to write this letter to you. I had very 
 bad sore eyes last month. I could not see or do 
 anything, but very thankful to say that I am so much 
 better now ; not quite well yet. I must put on spec- 
 tacles. I can not read any letters without them. 
 This is the Chinese New Year. You are very often 
 in my thoughts, and often think of your goodness 
 and kindness to me and to Charley; when he was 
 very ill you took care and nursed him well. I never 
 forget it. When are you coming back to Foochow 
 again? I should like to see you, hoping you will 
 come here some day for a change if you could. Mrs. 
 Stewart, Mrs. Sing, and some of the ladies used to 
 go with me to the city to visit the rich people, and 
 tell them of the great love of God to sinners. They 
 all were very nice and attentive to hear, but they have 
 not made up their minds to believe. Also used to 
 visit the houses near my house, and also to Po-Na- 
 Sang, too. We pray God to open their eyes that they 
 may see Jesus as their Savior, who came to save 
 them. I hope I shall be able to work again after 
 the Chinese New Year, if nothing happens. 
 
 "I dare say you have heard about my mother. 
 She has been baptized last year. She sends her 
 love to you. She comes here very often to the 
 prayer-meeting, and also to the service on Sundays.
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 135 
 
 She very often thinks of you, and should like to see 
 you, too. My children Charley and Jimmy go to 
 the Sunday-school now every Sunday. I asked a 
 Christian teacher to teach them last year in my 
 house. They learned the Bible picture-book, and 
 they know some of the stories from the first to the 
 thirtieth picture quite well. My second daughter- 
 in-law and her husband have been disgraced, and 
 disbehaved themselves. I am quite grieved about 
 them. They have gone from my house, which I 
 am sorry to say. My second daughter-in-law was 
 very ill last year. She wished to be baptized, and 
 was baptized, but was very sorry what happened 
 with her now. Please, will you kindly pray for her 
 and her husband, that they may see of their own 
 sins, and come back again to God? If they are 
 humble to him, he will not turn them away. My 
 eldest daughter-in-law is very hard-hearted; she 
 was exhorted by many friends, and prayed for, but 
 she has not made up her mind to believe in the Lord 
 Jesus as her Savior; I am very sorry for her; but 
 we pray God to open her eyes that she may some 
 day come out boldly to confess the Lord Jesus, and 
 trust him as her Savior. Last Conference, Misses 
 Newcombe invited me to stay with them for a week. 
 I went to the meeting every day. I walked over 
 with them to go, and to come back six times a day, 
 and I did not feel tired or hurt my feet at all ; I feel 
 quite well and strong, and was much refreshed. I 
 enjoyed it very much. My little boy Jimmy went
 
 136 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 with me, too, to stay with the Newcombes ; he went 
 to the meeting, and heard about giving up wine, 
 so he has given up wine now. He bought a but- 
 ton, which has a Chinese character Kai-Chin. If 
 anybody invited him to the feast and gave him 
 wine, he would say, 'No, I have given up wine.' I 
 hope he will keep it all the days oi his life. 
 
 "I am very sorry to tell you that Mr. Stewart 
 is not well yet. I am afraid if he is not well he 
 will go to England, and we shall be so sorry to lose 
 them. Last March Mr. Ahok went to Singapore, 
 to Hong-Kong, to Amoy, and Formosa, all about 
 five months. He went to the jail and prison to teach 
 to the heathens about the gospel of Christ. While 
 he was in Singapore he had very nice times there. 
 Last night Mr. Ahok started to Hong-Kong for 
 some engagements; he said that he would be back 
 in a fortnight. Dr. Corey is going home soon, as 
 she is very ill. 
 
 "I am going to tell you about the great marriage 
 of the son of the richest man in Formosa to the great- 
 granddaughter of the great mandarin in Foochow, 
 whose grave so many people used to see, near the 
 recreation-ground. It is a very beautiful, big grave. 
 His great-granddaughter married the richest man's 
 son in Formosa. He came to Foochow to be mar- 
 ried. It was a very grand wedding. I never saw 
 such a wedding. It was a very great crowd of peo- 
 ple; thousands of people went to see the bride, 
 whether rich or poor. The bride had to stand on
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 137 
 
 the table, where the people could see her. Some 
 of the chairs and benches broke down on account 
 of the crowd of people, who knocked about and 
 made such a rouse; but the headman of the wed- 
 ding did not say anything, lest they would make an 
 uproar. This custom is that any people can go and 
 see. They went to see the bride from 7 to II o'clock 
 at night. The headman was very good and patient. 
 He dared not say a word to make the people angry or 
 send them away. About four hundred people car- 
 ried the tablets and the bride's presents, just like 
 they carried procession. Some of the missionary 
 ladies should like to go and see the bride, but they 
 would not allow it, as they are so afraid that many 
 of the Chinese will come and see, too, and to make a 
 rouse again, in case they should get some troubles. 
 They said, before they go back to Formosa, that 
 they will come out to my house, and invite some of 
 the ladies to come and see the bride; I wish you 
 went to see her. Last Wednesday the bride's 
 mother-in-law came to wish me a happy New Year. 
 She will come again before they go away, and stay 
 here on their way to Formosa. This lady knows 
 about the Bible. She says it is a good doctrine. 
 Some of the missionaries in Formosa gave her 
 some books and Bible to read. I talked to her about 
 this religion. She seemed very nice about it. The 
 prayer-meeting of Friday evening, held in the house 
 by you, we still keeping it now, and we have it every 
 Friday. The American Church appointed Mr. Sia,
 
 138 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 one of the Chinese clergymen, to go to America to 
 tell the people there about the work here; so Mr. 
 Sites goes with him to America to translate it for 
 him. The Church appointed Mr. Ahok to go, but 
 he can not leave his work, so they asked Mr. Sia 
 to go instead of him. I heard you have four daugh- 
 ters; you are quite rich with daughters. Please 
 give my kind regards to Mr. Fagg and to yourself. 
 "Yours affectionately, 
 
 "SiA AHOK." 
 
 Mrs. Ahok, in accordance with the earnest so- 
 licitation of the English missionaries, went to Eng- 
 land to plead with the Christians of that land to 
 send more missionaries to help rescue the perish- 
 ing women of China. The visit and addresses of 
 this noble woman created a profound impression 
 wherever she went throughout the United King- 
 dom. The following extract from one of her ad- 
 dresses should appeal to the hearts of all lovers of 
 humanity : 
 
 "Since I have been here, what has struck me 
 more than anything is, that the women of England 
 have such wonderful blessings from God. I see 
 them go out, even at night; I think they must be 
 very strong. As I see the blessings that they en- 
 joy, it makes my heart still more pity China. I am
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 139 
 
 anxious to tell you something about my country- 
 women. Many here may know it already, but I 
 should like to remind those who do not, that in 
 China there is the cruel custom of binding women's 
 feet, and it makes it almost impossible for them to 
 leave their own houses or to walk outdoors. I my- 
 self have bound feet, and it is extremely difficult 
 for me to move about. You may ask how I was 
 able to come to England. It is solely trusting in 
 God's great power. I have heard some people say 
 that I am come to England for pleasure; but I do 
 not think there can be much pleasure in coming 
 as I have done. That long journey alone is enough 
 to make one cry. My one thought is to get back 
 to my own country as quickly as I can, after doing 
 the duty which God has called me to do. Since I 
 have been here these two months, I have never once 
 been out for my own amusement; but every day 
 I have had some opportunity of speaking to people 
 about the needs of the Chinese women, and that is 
 all my heart desires. 
 
 "One thing especially filled my heart with pity 
 as I think of my sisters in China, the time of their 
 death. I have myself been with those who are 
 passing out of the life into the unknown darkness ; 
 they murmur that they see evil spirits coming for
 
 140 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 them, and say, 'I see this and that other spirit/ so 
 that one attendant dare not stay in the room alone 
 with them ; there must be five or six people. They 
 say the evil spirits are filling the room, and com- 
 ing to take away that poor soul. Sometimes, as 
 the watchers beside the dying hear the cry of an 
 owl, of which they have great fear in China, they 
 think it is the messenger from the other world, 
 calling the soul of the departing one. The reason 
 of this terrible dread and anguish of mind is that 
 they do not know the love of God, but worship 
 evil spirits. Many of them, when they are very, 
 very ill indeed, do not ask the doctor to give them 
 medicine, but send and inquire at the idol temples 
 what medicine should be taken. If a man is very 
 ill indeed, they send to the great temple at Foo- 
 chow, and pray to seven or eight idols for his re- 
 covery. These things ought to fill your heart with 
 compassion. 
 
 "I will give you a few words of my own experi- 
 ence. Some years ago I worshiped idols, just as these 
 women do now, and seemed to be quite under the 
 power of the idols ; but now, thanks to God's great 
 mercy, he has delivered me. My husband's mother, 
 who had also become a Christian, died about two 
 years ago; her death was perfect peace, so different
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 141 
 
 from that I told you just now of the heathen's death- 
 bed. As we sat in the room with her, we asked her 
 if she was afraid, and her answer was, 'It is all 
 peace,' and so she passed away to be with her 
 Savior." 
 
 Mr. Ahok was greatly pleased to have his wife 
 visit England in the interest of Christian missions 
 in China. But a sad experience was to come to 
 him and his. Before his loved companion returned 
 from her journey in the interests of her country- 
 women he heard the call of the Master, "Come up 
 higher." As soon as Mrs. Ahok heard of her hus- 
 band's sickness she turned her face homeward. She 
 returned to China by the way of Canada, which is 
 the shortest route; but she was too late. One of 
 the native workers asked Mr. Ahok a short time 
 before his death, "Is your heart at peace ?" He said, 
 "Yes." Again the native Christian said, "Be anx- 
 ious for nothing." He said, "No; it is the will 
 of God." He, in this state of mind, sank peace- 
 fully to rest. His Christian life was full of good 
 works. One of the greatest acts of his life was 
 the founding of the Anglo-Chinese College at Foo- 
 chow. He gave $10,000 to this noble work. A fine 
 property, that must have cost $25,000 originally, 
 was offered for sale. This property was purchased
 
 142 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 with the $10,000, and donated to the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church for college purposes. Over two 
 hundred and fifty Chinese youths are now enrolled 
 in the school, and it is doing most excellent Chris- 
 tian work. 
 
 It would have been a great comfort in his last 
 moments to have had his loved wife with him, but 
 he did not murmur. He said, "I leave her to God." 
 Mrs. Ahok did not learn of his death until on the 
 house-boat on her way up the river from the 
 steamer anchorage. Dr. Sites (who had been the 
 one missionary of all others in whom Mr. Ahok 
 trusted the most) tenderly broke the sad news to 
 her. "She sat like a statue for some time, then 
 utterly broke down." 
 
 Everything was done to comfort her that could 
 be done by both missionaries and native Christians. 
 She frequently said between her sobs, "If I could 
 only see him once more, and tell him all I have 
 done in England !" Since the death of her husband, 
 Mrs. Ahok has given her whole time to Christian 
 work among the rich and official families of Foo- 
 chow. The life of this gentle Christian Bible-reader 
 is "like ointment poured forth." She sheds fra- 
 grance wherever she goes. 
 
 The Ahok homestead consisted of two large
 
 A Chinese Christian Lady. 143 
 
 dwelling-houses; one, a native structure, furnished 
 entirely according to the Chinese style; the other 
 is a foreign building, elegantly furnished with the 
 best of Brussels carpet, sofas, easy-chairs, pictures, 
 bookcases, bric-a-brac, and other fine foreign fur- 
 niture, as well as exceptionally fine specimens of 
 Chinese porcelain and lacquer. Mrs. Ahok, in her 
 great zeal for the Christianization of the high-class 
 ladies, set apart her handsome foreign residence for 
 a school in which these representatives of the Chi- 
 nese elite might receive a Christian education.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE CHINESE EMPRESS DOWAGER. 
 
 THE empress dowager, who is now practically 
 the Empress of China, was not a slave-girl in her 
 childhood, as was commonly reported by newspaper 
 correspondents. Neither was she the daughter of 
 a Canton candy-huckster, who by her uncommon 
 beauty attracted the attention of a passing officer. 
 Through this officer a knowledge of her beauty first 
 reached the ear of Emperor Hien-fung. The "Son 
 of Heaven," so says the story, sent for her, and 
 she became a member of his harem, then second 
 wife, and finally Empress of China. These romantic 
 stories are doubtless products of the highly-imagina- 
 tive minds of some globe-trotters. 
 
 Dr. W. A. P. Martin, ex-president of Tung-wen 
 ColK-ge at Peking, says her father's family was 
 Manchu-Tartar, and "of noble blood." Mr. W. E. 
 Curtis, writing about the empress says, "She is 
 the daughter of a Manchu soldier, who was a Tautai, 
 or governor at Wuhu." Thus these pretty romances 
 must be given up and prounounced apocryphal, for 
 
 144
 
 THE EMPRESS DOWAGER.
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 145 
 
 there is no better authority on "things Chinese" 
 than Dr. Martin. 
 
 Many girls in China are not considered worth 
 naming. They are simply numbered; but the little 
 bundle of female humanity that was to be the ruler 
 of 400,000,000 people was given a name. She was 
 called Tszchi Toanyu Kanghi Chuangeheng Chin- 
 hien Chung Sih. No wonder she became a great 
 woman, if there is anything in a name. 
 
 Being a Tartar, her feet were never bound. 
 When a girl her complexion was sub-olive, and her 
 eyes and hair were a dull black. Emperor Hien- 
 fung chose her for his second wife. His first wife 
 being childless, when Tszchi presented him with a 
 son, he was so overjoyed that he broke custom and 
 advanced her to the position of empress, the real 
 legal empress retaining, nominally, precedence. The 
 empresses occupied separate palaces. That of Tszchi 
 was known as the West Palace, while the childless 
 queen, whose name was Tsi An, occupied the East 
 Palace. 
 
 Emperor Hien-fung fled into exile when the 
 English and French armies approached Peking 
 during the second "Chinese war." He died while 
 he was hiding from his European enemies. The 
 capital city was taken, and the beautiful summer 
 
 10
 
 146 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 palace was pillaged. When the death of the em- 
 peror became known, two ambitious "princes of the 
 blood" took possession of the boy king, the son of 
 Tszchi, and became his self-appointed guardians. 
 They tried to reconcile the queen mothers (one the 
 legal mother and the other the real mother of the 
 youthful heir to the throne) by proclaiming them 
 joint regents during the minority of the little em- 
 peror. Prince Kung, an uncle of the boy sovereign, 
 challenged the authority usurped by the self-ap- 
 pointed guardians, Su Shun and Toan-hoan, and 
 had them decapitated, for he believed, as did the 
 queen regents, that they intended to make way with 
 the dowager empresses, the prince himself, and pos- 
 sibly the young emperor. The dowager empresses 
 showed their appreciation of this action of Prince 
 Kung by appointing him joint regent with them- 
 selves. The prince soon became altogether too 
 officious to suit the queen regents, and they planned 
 to get rid of him. Charges were trumped up against 
 him, the chief of which was that he treated His 
 Majesty, the emperor (a boy ten years of age) 
 disrespectfully. 
 
 Prince Kung was degraded from all his offices, 
 and stripped of his titles. Soon the empresses dow- 
 ager had it proclaimed that the prince was very
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 147 
 
 penitent, and had thrown himself prostrate at the 
 feet of the "Son of Heaven," and begged his for- 
 giveness. Then the prince was restored to all his 
 offices save being co-regent, and all his titles were 
 restored to him, and an extra title was thrown in for 
 good measure. The whole thing was a ruse to get 
 rid of Prince Kung as joint regent. Empress 
 Tszchi was undoubtedly the moving spirit in this 
 successful political game. The two widow em- 
 presses seemed to get along harmoniously in their 
 unique positions as joint widows and joint regents. 
 They were also sisters. They were exceedingly 
 tender-hearted and generous toward their subjects. 
 During the terrible famine in the Shansi Province 
 they refused to have meat prepared for their house- 
 holds, declaring that they would eat no meat while 
 their subjects were starving. Thus they saved sev- 
 enty-five dollars daily from their own tables, and 
 turned the money into the famine-fund. 
 
 Tszchi had her queenly heart saddened by the 
 death of her son, Tung-Chi, after he had reigned but 
 a short time. A council of princes, led by the mother 
 of the dead emperor, selected Kuang-Hsu, a cousin 
 of Tung-Chi, to succeed to the throne. The em- 
 press of the Eastern Palace then adopted Kuang- 
 Hsu as her son, and he ascended the "chair of state,"
 
 148 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 April 12, 1875, when he was only four years old, 
 and the empresses dowager continued to act as co- 
 regents. In 1880 the empress of the Eastern Pal- 
 ace died, and Tszchi became absolute in authority 
 as sole regent. This authority she continued to ex- 
 ercise until March 4, 1889, when her ward, having 
 reached the age of eighteen (or, counting him a 
 year old at birth, as the Chinese do, he was nine- 
 teen), assumed the reins of government. 
 
 For thirty years Tszchi exercised authority as 
 regent in an empire where women are despised. 
 She proved herself to be the ablest ruler China 
 has had since the days of Kien-lung; and undoubt- 
 edly the ablest of China's long line of empresses. 
 
 Her love for the people and her patriotism have 
 not waned with her age. On her sixtieth birthday 
 her subjects presented her with $10,000,000 as an 
 expression of their esteem. This vast sum she 
 turned into the war fund to help her struggling 
 nation in the short but bloody war with Japan. The 
 Christian women of China remembered the empress 
 dowager on that sixtieth birthday by presenting her 
 with a handsome copy of the New Testament. She 
 received it very graciously. It doubtless created 
 an impression in the palace, for the emperor sent
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 149 
 
 immediately to the nearest Bible-house and pur- 
 chased a copy for himself. 
 
 When Prince Henry of Prussia was received 
 by the emperor, the hand of the "Son of Heaven" 
 trembled as he shook the palm of the doughty Ger- 
 man; but the empress dowager received the prince 
 with the greatest composure, and asked him many 
 intelligent questions. Henry was surprised to find 
 her possessed of such marked mental ability. 
 
 The chief advisers of the empress dowager in 
 matters of state during her thirty years' regency 
 were Prince Kung and Li Hung Chang. They 
 doubtless exercised a great influence in court af- 
 fairs, but Tszchi was far from being clay to be 
 molded at their will. She has a will of her own, 
 and frequently exercised it. From a Chinese stand- 
 point she is a progressive woman. China made slow 
 but steady advancement toward Western ways of 
 doing things during the long period of her regency. 
 Those persons who expected China to adopt West- 
 ern methods as rapidly as did Japan were prone 
 to be disappointed. The young emperor found out 
 to his sorrow that it is best to make haste slowly in 
 the "Flowery Land." His rashness caused a reaction 
 that greatly delayed the wheels of progress. If he
 
 150 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 had been more moderate in pushing his reforms, 
 he might have become the Moses of China, who 
 would have finally liberated his nation from the 
 thralldom of antiquated customs and laws. But 
 by endeavoring to make the sleepy old giant move 
 with the rapidity of a Western mail-train, he aroused 
 the ire of the mandarins. These so-called wise men 
 appealed to Empress Tszchi, and she immediately 
 seized the reins of government, and sent the young 
 emperor into retirement. 
 
 The conservative Celestial statesmen wished to 
 receive their instructions from the throne in the 
 good, old-fashioned way written with the vermil- 
 lion pencil on yellow paper, and delivered by courtly 
 couriers appointed for that sacred duty by His Maj- 
 esty, the emperor. To use the foreign devil's tel- 
 egraph to send these imperial edicts was sacrilegious, 
 even though it saved a month of precious time. The 
 plans of His Majesty, by which he would displace 
 the time-honored system of Confucian education 
 with a system based on foreign ideas, and that taught 
 modern science and philosophy, were considered so 
 revolutionary, and such an insult to China's great- 
 est sage, that they could not be tolerated at all. To 
 grant concession after concession to foreign corpo- 
 rations, allowing them to build railroads, operate
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 151 
 
 steamship-lines, and develop mechanical industries, 
 would result in throwing thousands of burden-bear- 
 ers and boatmen out of employment, and would 
 doubtless cause the graves that contained the dust 
 of the Celestial dead to be disturbed. He also issued 
 an edict that Buddhist temples should be used as 
 schoolhouses. Imagine what an uproar there would 
 be if the President (providing he had the author- 
 ity) would issue an edict that all American churches 
 should be used as schoolhouses ! Then, the "Son 
 of Heaven" so forgot his dignity as to mount a 
 bicycle and take a header. In all these things the 
 youthful potentate, in the eyes of the Confucian 
 scholars, greatly erred, and was compelled to prac- 
 tically abdicate in favor of his aunt, the empress 
 dowager. The reaction that caused the downfall of 
 Kuang-Hsu was a sad thing for foreigners in China, 
 and especially for missionary work in that land. 
 
 Those that are in a position to know, say that 
 during the nine years that Kuang-Hsu had, to all 
 outward appearances, controlled the affairs of state, 
 Empress Dowager Tszchi was the unseen power 
 behind the throne and dictated the policy of the gov- 
 ernment. Nearly every important reform move- 
 ment had her sanction, and it was only when the 
 emperor became uncontrollably rash, and had lost
 
 152 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 his influence with the conservative element, and 
 with even the better representatives of the radical 
 element, that Empress Tszchi hastened from her 
 palace at Echo Park, and placed herself at the head 
 of the Celestial Government in the Forbidden City. 
 Being forced by circumstances to take her stand 
 with the Conservatives, she was compelled to exe- 
 cute those advisers that had caused the young em- 
 peror to make his so-called blunders. She had the 
 choice of either sending the emperor into retire- 
 ment and punishing his counselors, or losing her 
 influence with the Conservatives and letting the 
 reins of government slip out of her fingers alto- 
 gether. She chose the former. When the aggres- 
 sion of foreigners aroused the people, and they in- 
 augurated the Boxer Rebellion, she was charged 
 with being in collusion with the rebels. And pos- 
 sibly she was. When we remember that the Boxer 
 Movement at the first was directed as much against 
 the empress dowager and the Manchu dynasty as 
 against other foreigners in China, then Tszchi 's 
 astuteness becomes still more evident. She saw 
 clearly the only way she could save the throne to 
 the Manchus was to coquette with the Boxers, and 
 turn an Anti-Manchu Movement into an Anti-for- 
 eign Movement, with herself and the Manchu princes
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 153 
 
 as leaders. By so doing she was enabled to keep 
 herself in the saddle and a Manchu on the throne. 
 She is charged with duplicity during the reign of 
 terror in Peking. It is said she "both encouraged 
 the Boxers and protected the legations." This was 
 probably true also. If she had not protected the 
 foreign legations, they doubtless would have been 
 swept out of existence in a single week. If she 
 had allowed them to be annihilated, she knew full 
 well that the foreign nations would have dethroned 
 the Manchus, and probably her own life would have 
 been forfeited. If she had not coquetted with the 
 Boxers, and had revealed the fact to them that she 
 was protecting the foreigners, they would have 
 doubtless turned against her, and with the large half 
 of the imperial army that had gone over to the 
 Boxers, they would have defeated the pro-foreign 
 branch of the army, would have killed Emperor 
 Kuang-Hsu, and forced her to take her own life. 
 With wonderful tact she played the foreign and 
 anti-foreign factions against each other, and thus 
 kept the Boxers and the rebel army from concen- 
 trating all their energy on the foreign legations, 
 and in this way saved the foreigners, and at the 
 same time retained her influence over the Boxers, 
 and also saved the throne to the Manchus. In a
 
 154 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Bismarck this would be called statesmanship, but 
 in Manchu Tszchi it is called unpardonable du- 
 plicity. 
 
 When the foreign armies reached Peking, and 
 the empress dowager, emperor, and Chinese court 
 fled in consternation from the city, it was declared 
 that the end had come to Manchu authority in 
 China. Another declaration was that Peking would 
 never be the capital city again; for the fugitive 
 ruler would never return to the Forbidden City 
 after it had been desecrated by the foreign devils. 
 Still another prediction was that the dowager em- 
 press would never dare to return to Peking, even if 
 the emperor and his court did. In spite of these 
 predictions, the Manchu dynasty is still in authority, 
 the emperor again occupies his palace in the Forbid- 
 den City, and the dowager empress still holds the 
 reins of government. The return of the Chinese 
 court to Peking was the most remarkable episode, 
 in many respects, in the annals of the Manchu dy- 
 nasty. Thirteen million taels, about $9,100,000 in 
 gold, were spent in preparing the way and paying 
 the expenses of the journey from Hsi-An-fu. A 
 special train of twenty-two cars, decorated with 
 imperial yellow, carried the court from Paoting-fu to 
 the capital city, a distance of but about seventy
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 155 
 
 miles, while the long journey from Hsi-An-fu was 
 made in sedan-chairs and other antiquated Chinese 
 vehicles. The entrance into the city was more like 
 that of a returning conqueror than a fugitive ruler. 
 The following description of the court's return to 
 Peking was written by Dr. H. H. Lowry: 
 
 "The imperial party was carried on special trains 
 on the railway to within two miles of the city wall. 
 There an improvised station had been erected on 
 the spot where the former buildings had been de- 
 stroyed by the Boxers. Over the platform extended 
 an awning of yellow silk. On one side of the plat- 
 form were the tents for the accommodation of the 
 emperor and the royal family ; and on the other side 
 were the tents for the provincial and metropolitan 
 officials. The road thence to the palace was leveled 
 and covered with fresh yellow earth. 
 
 "Inside the city the foreign-drilled troops of 
 Yuan Shih-k'ai lined each side of the street. The 
 soldiers were dressed in heavy marching order, and 
 made a fine appearance. 
 
 "The Ch'ien-men great street was crowded with 
 thousands of Chinese; but, unfortunately for them, 
 just before the time appointed for the emperor to 
 pass they were all unceremoniously driven from 
 from the street, and orders were given that all shop-
 
 156 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 doors should be closed. It was also expected that 
 all windows would be curtained to prevent the peo- 
 ple within being seen, but the execution of this order 
 was easily evaded. A thin gauze covering was 
 placed over the windows, through which the spec- 
 tators could be as distinctly seen as before. 
 
 "After the imperial baggage had passed, fol- 
 lowed by the military escort of infantry and cavalry, 
 with General Ma at their head, the first chair to ap- 
 pear was that of Prince Ching, preceded and fol- 
 lowed by a large number of attendants on horseback. 
 Shortly afterward the cry was passed along the 
 street by the policemen that the emperor was ap- 
 proaching. The soldiers immediately kneeled and 
 presented arms. It proved to be a false alarm, and 
 after three of the emperor's horses, with yellow 
 saddles and blankets on, had passed, the soldiers 
 and police resumed their upright position. 
 
 "As the emperor approached, there was perfect 
 quiet on the street. Soldiers and police were again 
 on their knees. He was borne by eight bearers. 
 The chair was surrounded by an escort of a hundred 
 or so of officials. 
 
 "After a suitable interval came the empress dow- 
 ager, surrounded by a much larger and more im- 
 posing cavalcade than accompanied the emperor.
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 157 
 
 On her left rode Yuan Shih-k'ai, the viceroy of this 
 province, and on her right Ts'en Ch'un-ch'uan, the 
 governor of Shansi. It was reported that the em- 
 press dowager entered the city with fear and trem- 
 bling, not knowing what foul trap the foreigners 
 had laid for her capture, but certainly her face gave 
 no such indication. She was attracted by the faces 
 of so many foreign ladies at the windows of the 
 dispensary, and turned toward them with an ex- 
 pression of the greatest interest. 
 
 "Other chairs and carts contained the empress 
 and members of the imperial family, and soon as 
 they passed the crowds of officials and people filled 
 the street from side to side. Often there were six 
 carts abreast, and locomotion was almost impossible. 
 
 Inside the circular inclosure of the Ch'ien gate 
 a halt was made, and the emperor entered the shrine 
 of the God of War to worship. The empress dow- 
 ager worshiped in both the temples that of the 
 Goddess of Mercy as well as the God of War. She 
 was attracted by the crowds of foreigners on the city 
 wall watching the procession, and she stopped and 
 bowed to them." 
 
 In all this display more honor was shown to the 
 dowager empress than to Emperor Kuang-Hsu 
 himself. Before the return it was said that a prop-
 
 158 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 osition was being discussed to allow the empress 
 dowager to come back to Peking, providing she 
 would take no part in the government, and would 
 agree not to interfere with the authority of the em- 
 peror. She would be permitted to live in the sum- 
 mer palace, distant from the emperor, and be given 
 an assured allowance for her support the remainder 
 of her life. But when her excellency concluded to 
 return she asked no one's permission. She now 
 exercises as much authority as she ever did. Some 
 say she has a stronger grasp upon power than ever 
 before. She asserted her supremacy some time ago 
 by granting an audience in the sacred hall in the 
 Forbidden City to the ministers of foreign coun- 
 tries. At this reception the dowager empress occu- 
 pied the throne, while the emperor sat behind a small 
 table on her right. Chinese officers declare that the 
 empress dowager disapproved of "Boxerism;" that 
 her wishes were overruled by the Boxer leaders, 
 and that her edicts during the rebellion were garbled. 
 All this is hard to believe, yet she showed commend- 
 able zeal in suppressing the West China Boxer 
 troubles that raged during the summer of 1902. A 
 few weeks after the return of the Imperial Court, 
 the dowager empress invited the ladies of the for- 
 eign legations to visit her in her palace. This in-
 
 RECEPTION OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS BY THE 
 IMPERIAL COURT.
 
 Chinese Empress Dowager. 159 
 
 vitation was accepted, and the reception proved to 
 be an event of great importance, not simply because 
 it was unprecedented in the annals of Chinese his- 
 tory, but because it was a splendid piece of diplo- 
 macy. It placed the dowager empress in a more 
 favorable light in the estimation of the Western 
 world, and gave her an excuse for breaking down 
 the wall of seclusion that kept the Manchu and Chi- 
 nese ladies of princely birth from associating with 
 foreign ladies. 
 
 In the wake of this reception came another given 
 by Mrs. Conger, wife of the American minister. 
 Invitations were sent to the Chinese women of noble 
 rank. This move, made by Mrs. Conger, was 
 ridiculed by many of the female members of the 
 other foreign ministers' families. They did not be- 
 lieve the invitations would be accepted. 
 
 "The question was: Would or would not the 
 Chinese ladies of noble rank come out of their 
 seclusion and accept an invitation to dine with for- 
 eigners ? In all the historic millenniums of heaven's 
 empire, no such precedent could be found ; but Mrs. 
 Conger sent her invitation, though many of the wise 
 ones laughed. But their laughter was suddenly 
 stopped; for on March I4th a procession of princesses, 
 headed by the yellow palanquin of the princess im-
 
 160 Women of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 perial, Yung Shou, adopted daughter of the dow- 
 ager empress, entered the American legation by ap- 
 pointment, followed by a host of attending eunuchs. 
 Nine princesses of the blood, or wives of princes, 
 a duchess, and a lady interpreter, formed the party. 
 An elaborate tiffin was served by Mrs. Conger, as- 
 sisted by five American ladies connected with the 
 staff of the legation and four young women mission- 
 aries, who acted as interpreters. These Manchu 
 ladies had never before been inside a foreign house, 
 and one of them, it is said, had never before seen 
 a white woman. After Mrs. Conger had proposed 
 the health of the empress, and it had been drunk 
 from the high-lifted teacups, the princess royal de- 
 livered a personal message from the dowager, who 
 hoped that her happy relations with the American 
 ladies and with the country they represent would 
 never be severed." (From August Friend, 1902.) 
 
 We should not judge this remarkable woman by 
 Western or Christian standards of morals or -con- 
 duct. Her life and actions have been shaped by 
 Confucian standards so far as morals are concerned, 
 but as a woman she has broken through the barriers 
 placed about womankind by the great sage, and has 
 boldly pushed herself to the front until she is without 
 a peer among the women of Chinese history.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 OCT05199Z 
 
 UMIR! 
 
 Of ^ * i -) ^m 
 APR 2 8 1999 
 
 Form L'J-Series 444
 
 A 000 133 880 5