THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES IN MEMORY OF CARROLL ALCOTT PRESENTED BY CARROLL ALCOTT MEMORIAL LIBRARY FUND COMMITTEE eLIMPSES ; .... l HE RIENT The Manners, Customs, Life and History of the People of ... CHINA, JAPAN AND COREA The . . PHILLIPINE, CAROLINE AND LADRONE ISLANDS With an ACCOUNT of AMERICAN NAVAL AND MILITARY OPERATIONS in the PHILIPPINES. BY TRUMBULL WHITE Author of "The World's Columbian Exposition," "War in the East," " Silver and Gold," etc. With Illustrations by TETTOKU MORIMOTO, J. C FIREMAN and others Copyright 1898 4. H. WILLARD PREFACE. ONE of the results of the war between the United States and Spain has been to arouse the liveliest curiosity regarding the na- tions of the East. What ideas the general public had regarding the " Flowery Kingdom," the " Land of the Mikado " and the ** Hermit Nation " were very shadowy. Of the Philippines, they knew still less. The thunder of Admiral Dewey's guns on that fateful May morn- ing woke, not only the echoes of Manila Bay, but the American people to a pardonable curiosity regarding these rich and fertile islands peopled for the most part by wild, fierce tribes which have been under the domination of Spain for upwards of three centuries. An intelligent curiosity is often a rich endowment, and in no way can a laudable spirit of inquiry be so legitimately gratified, as by a study of the history of remote countries ; such as is presented in this work. Commerce and religion, alike, prompt us to regard all men as brethren. The whole world is becoming knit together into one great family. Electricity brings to us daily, and with the rapidity of thought ; news from all lands. But these communications do not speak in the same way to all. To many, these communications are all but valueless, for notwith- standing a genuine wish for extended knowledge, the}' know little or nothing of the countries of which they read, and as a conse- quence, news of them, or, from them, is neither intelligible nor interesting. It is imperfectly understood, and forgotten nearly as soon as read. On the other hand, to the man of culture, all is intelligible and clear, and the information acquired takes its place in his well- ordered mind, and is added to his store of knowledge. Especially in America, no one can afford to be ignorant of the history and conditions of other lands. The uninformed man can- not take a proper position in an intelligent community; he feois v 2226983 vi PREFACE. afraid to express himself, and is humiliated and rendered unhappy by a sense of his inferiority. It is with the view of putting it in the power of every in- habitant of this country to enroll himself in the well informed class, that the following work has been complied. The intelligent reader will perceive that it is not a mere, bald record of dry details, but that, while no fact of importance has been omitted, it seizes more particularly on such salient events as are typical of the periods and countries described, and by exhibit- ing these in fuller detail, gives the reader an insight into the lives of the people described, as well as showing the productions, in- dustries and resources of each land, with its modes of govern- ment and present political situation. China, the " Middle Kingdom,'' is a land of contradictions. Japan, the "Day's Beginning," has a history that is more like a romance than a series of facts. Corea, " The Land of Morning Culm," is quaint, picturesque and little known. The interest in these remote empires is absorbing ; fantastic peoples, gorgeous temples, streets ablaze with kaleidoscopic coloring, grotesque ob- jects, massive idols ; pass in glittering panoramic effect. There are 1.200 islands in the Philippine group the richest islands on the globe. Agricultural methods are three hundred years out of date. Thirteen distinct and separate tongues are spoken. Fortunes are made in hemp, sugar, indigo, cocoanuts and scores of other products of these wonderful islands. The jungles swarm with hummingbirds, parrots and other birds of brilliant plumage. The suburbs of Manila, the capital city, are residences of artistic design, adorned with a profusion of cultivated flowers. Descriptions of the Caroline and Ladrone Islands are also added, and increase the fascination of the volume. The aim has been to overlook nothing that the reader will de- sire to learn concerning the countries treated, and to advance the great cause of popular education. To the young, the work will prove of inestimable value since for them it must possess such in- terest as to lead them from the vicious literature of the day, and inculcate a desire for wholesome reading and an ambition to be well informed. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. CHINA, THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM. CHAPTER I. History from the Earliest Times to First Contact with European Civilization ..... M CHAPTER II. History from First Contact with European Civ- ilization to the Outbreak of the War with Japan 71 CHAPTER III. The Chinese Empire, its Geography, Govern- ment, Climate, and Products ..... 99 CHAPTER IV. The Chinese People, their Personal Character- istics, Manner of Life, Industries, Social Customs, Art, Science, Literature, and Religion .... 196 PART II. JAPAN, THE ISLAND EMPIRE. CHAPTER V. History from the Earliest Times to First Contact with European Civilization ..... 18T CHAPTER VI. History from First Contact with European Civ- ization to the Present Time How the United States Opened Japan to the World ..... 296 CHAPTER VII. The Japanese Empire, its Geography, Govern- ment, Climate, and Products ..... 966 CHAPTER VIII. The Japanese People, their Personal Charac- teristics, Manner of Life, Industries, Social Customs, Art, Science, Literature, and Religion . . . 918 PART HI. COREA, THE HERMIT NATION. CHAPTER IX. History from the Earliest Times to the Present ........ 317 CHAPTER X. The Kingdom of Corea, its Geography, Govern- ment, Climate, and Products ..... 858 vii viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. The Coreans and how they Live, their Per- sonal Characteristics, Industries, Social Customs, Art, Science, Literature, and Eeligion .... 371 PART IV. THE PHILIPPINES. CHAPTER XII. Discovery and Conquest, Description of the Islands and the Islanders; with an account of the Char- acteristics, Habits, Customs, Passions, Amusements and Homes of the Philippinos . . . . 391 CHAPTER XIII. The City of Manila, Descriptions of the Old and New Cities, Their half Spanish, half Oriental aspects, Occupations of the Populace, Their Homes, Churches, etc., and many interesting facts regarding the Metropolis of the Philippines ...... 405 CHAPTER XIV. The Carolines and Ladrones, Coral Oases in a desert of Ocean, Savages who have Orders of Nobility but no Clothes, Wonderful Fertility, Vegetation, Value and Beauty of the Islands, A Queer People with Queerer Customs ...... . 4i(j CHAPTER XV. The Conquest of Manila, Destruction of the Spanish Fleet, Capture of the City by the Land and Naval Forces of the United States . . . 427 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Native Village in the Philippines, . Chinese Emperor, King of Coreu and Chinese Officials, Chinese Llea of Creation, . . Emperor Shun Plowing, View from Summer Palace, Peking, Chinese Temple, .... Image of Confucius, .... Manch'H>rian Ministers, Great Wall of China, Buddhist Priest, .... Chinese Archers, .... Cninese Writer, Chinese Cannoniers, .... Anejent Chinese Arch, A Chinese Lodging House, . Chinese Priest, .... Man of Swatow, .... Chinese Paper-Making, Chinese Peasant, Peiho District, . Battle of Crickets, Chinese Mandarin, . . . . Gate at Peking. Oi>ium Smokers, .... Chinese Miners, .... Chinese Farm Scene, Chinese Tea Farm, .... Chinese Street Scene, Chinese Farmer, .... An Imperial Audience, Preparation of Vermicelli, . Chinese Ladies, .... Palanquin of a High Official, The Governor of a Province, Chinese Protected Cruiser Chih-Tuen, Punishment by the Cangue, Flogging a Culprit, .... Port Arthur Transports Entering the Inner Harbor, Port Arthur Japanese Coolies Removing Chinese Dead, A Typhoon, ..... Bandaging the Feet, .... The Seat of the War, The Punishments of Hell, . Chinese Gait, ..... School Boy, ..... Chinese School, .... Chang Yen HOOD, . . PAGE Frontispiece. 32 35 36 37 42 46 47 50 52 57 59 63 65 69 75 76 79 82 85 87 89 91 101 108 109 111 113 117 119 122 125 126 127 130 131 133 143 150 151 156 158 162 163 164 Hi 0*) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Chinese School Girl, ..... Chinese Artist, . . Chinese Barber, ... Porter's Chair, . Female Types and Costumes, Buddhist Temple. ..... Temple of Five Hundred Gods, at Canton, Japanese Musician, .....( The Mikado and His Principal Officers, . Japanese God of Thunder, .... Japanese God of Hiding, . Japanese Peasantry, . . . Japanese God of War, .... Tokio Types and Costumes, Japanese Musician, ..... Japanese Silk Spinner, .... Colossal Japanese linage, . Japanese Female Types, Shinto Tom pie, ..... Japanese God of "Wind, .... Dai mios of Japan, ..... Sketch Showing Development of Japanese Army, Buddhist Priest, ..... Japanese Junk, . . . . . Old Time Japanese Ferry, .... Scenes of Industrial Life, .... Japanese Bell Towers, .... Image of Buddha, ..... Japanese Samurai or Warrior of the Old Time, Japanese General of the Old Time, Japanese Bridge, Baptism of Buddha, ..... Woman of Court of Kioto, .... Chinese Coolie, ..... Japanese Gymnasts Kioto, Formosan Type, ..... Entrance to Nagasaki Harbor, Fuji-yams, ...... Japanese Idols, ..... Japanese Jugglers, ..... Japanese Court Dress, Old Style, . Dressing the Hair, ..... Child Carrying Baby, .... Japanese Bath, ..... Japanese Couch, ..... Geisha Girls Playing Japanese Musical Instruments, Japanese Alphabet, New, .... Japanese Alphabet, Old, .... Shinto Priest, ...... Street Scenes, ...... Groop of Ainos, ..... Rats as Rice Merchants, .... Corean Landscape, ..... Pagoda at Seoul, ..... Corean Soldiers, ..... Old Man in Corea, ..... Corean Mandarins. ..... Colossal Ooreau Idol Un-jin Miriok, Map Showing Japan, C.rea and Part of China, 167 168 169 171 175 178 181 184 185 189 190 191 19f! 197 19!) 200 205 207 209 211 212 213 215 218 21 ii 221 229 232 233 234 235 239 249 254 255 258 261 267 271 277 281 285 289 292 295 301 302 303 305 30S 311 313 316 323 324 325 333 343 353 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Corean Bull Harrowing, Corean City Wall, Gate of Seoul, . Oorean Magistrate and Servant, Statesman ou Monocycle, Corean Brush Cutter, Porters With Chair, . Corean Boat, Corean Eggseller, Corean Band of Musicians, . Location of the Philippines, Port of Manila, Caroline Warrior, Ladrone Native, Ladrone Belle, Captain-General Augusti, Street in Cavite, Battery at Cavite, Admiral Montojo, . . Insurgent General, . . General Aguinaldo. . . 361 362 365 369 373 374 375 381 383 387 392 404 421 423 425 428 429 431 438 434 436 INTRODUCTION. WHERE are the Philippine Islands ? is a question often heard, but not often answered. Lying so completely off the usual line of travel, little is known of the Philipine group or its people, save in a very general way. Boys and girls at school learn the name of the cluster of islands, but because they appear on the map as not much more than dots, they regard them as of no importance and soon forget their location. So far as verified knowledge goes, the Philippines are as fabulous today, as they were when the Spanish seized them under Philip II. At that time the islands were looked upon as a field of missionary, rather than commercial enterprise an atonement for Spanish cruelties in America. The story of the Philippines is fascinating to every one, but especially to those who are interested in strange modes of life and in the habits of people who have had little contact with civiliza- tion. Such are the Bocals, by many supposed to be the Aborigines of the Archipelago and of Malay origin. They are the laziest people that live, unless it be the Pan ays of Borneo. Then there are the Negritos, small, black people who live in the inner fast- nesses and inacessible recesses of the mountains. They have kinky hair, and somewhat resemble the African races, there is nothing in history or tradition to show that they belong in Africa, or have ever had any relations with it or with its races. There are five distinct races in the Philippines. The Malays predominate ; they are inveterate gamblers, and their chief amusement is cock- fighting. The flora of the island is bewildering. There are over thirty varieties of orchids in the forests and lilies of mammoth propor- tions that are never seen out of the tropics. Carnations in phe- nomenal variety, literally cover acres of ground. Geraniums grow like trees. The Philippine valleys are inconceivably fertile, and rare woods abound in limitless plenty. Manila, the capital, is a typical eastern metropolis. The "old (24) INTRODUCTION. 25 city " is walled, and above the walls appear roofs and towers of churches and monasteries of mediaeval design. The Caroline Islands contain groups of people who confer orders of nobility, but wear no clothes. The Lad rones, or "Robber" Islands are inhabited by a queer people with queerer customs. The characteristics, lives and houses of these people have hitherto been unwritten history. CHINA, Japan and Corea are a strange trinity to most of u i, the Western world. Separated from us by long distances and by immense differences in race, in language, in religion, and in cus- toms, they have been known here only through the writings of the comparatively few travelers who exchange visits. China, " The Flowery Kingdom," as it is called in the oldest classical writings, is as full of natural wonders, quaint peoples and temples as any of the more exploited picturesque regions of the world, and Chinese government is one of the great wonders of history. Quaint and curious Canton, with its streets a mass of indescribable color, is one of the most bewildering places in the world ; and there is no city in the kingdom without its startling revelations to the " outside barbarians." To the Chinese we owe the invention of the mariner's compass, (even if their north ^sour south on the instrument.) The stupendous barrier called the Great Wall of China, for fifteen hundred miles runs over mountains, crosses rivers, descends into valleys, traverses marshes upon piles. Its mass far exceeds that of the Pyramids, and the material in it would girdle the earth with a wall four feet thick and twelve feet high. Canals are plentiful, railroads few. Agriculture is an art not a corner of waste ground is to be seen, even the very rivers are cultivated, for in some places they are covered with floating gardens. Temples and priests are numberless, for China has a famous religious history. There is no state religion. Worship ia a fashion. The patriarchal principle in government extends to the family. The parent's will is supreme, the child's obedience complete. Punishment by fines and imprisonment are not com- mon. In capital cases, off goes a man's head : in lesser crimes to his back comes the lash or bamboo, or he is exposed in the stocks. Chinese manners and customs are mirth provoking. Not ol*~ 2 26 INTRODUCTION. is the compass reversed, but when a Chinaman bows, he puts his hat on ; when he mourns, he wears white ; for blacking his shoes, he uses chalk ; mounts his horse on the off side ; the men are dressmakers and milliners and carry fans; the women smoke; the old men fly kites and the boys look on. The men wear their hair as long as possible and in cues; the women tuck theirs up. The post of honor in China is on the left. We do not like Chinese music, nor they ours. Yet they play on over fifty different kinds of wind and stringed instruments, and play a great deal. Their costumes are the same as they were a thousand years ago. Edu- cation is highly esteemed and widely diffused. Their language has no alphabet. The strange people in this strange land are full of contradic- tions, yet they are an example to every nation in industry, pa- tience, economy and peace. Civilization owes too much to the Chinese, to decry them. They have taught us arts which are invaluable. We copy their ce- ramics and use their silks and toys. Boast as we will of the discov- ery of the compass, printing and gunpowder, they used all in advance of us. But they do not take to strange notions till they have made them part of themselves. Railroads, telegraphs, improved machinery,. are abominations, yet their highest officials are studying these things, and making efforts to educate a sufficient number of their people to introduce them, so as not to do violence to the estab- lished thoughts and customs of the people. The recent triumphs of Japan have disturbed the serenity of Chinese self-complacency, and the possibility of improvement glimmers vaguely in the minds of Mandarin and Emperor. Japan, up to a very short time ago, through the pen and tongue of poets and artists who have visited this land, has been thought to be merely a country of beautiful flowers, charming ladies, fan- tastic parasols, fans and screens. Such misrepresentation has long impressed the western mind, and the people hardly imagined Japan as a political power, enlightened by a perfect educational system and developed to a high pitch of excellency in naval and military arts. Viewing it from the humane standpoint, Japan is, indeed, the INTRODUCTION. 27 true standard-bearer of civilization and progress in the far east. Politically, she, with her enterprising genius, youthful courage and alert brain, has lifted herself into the ranks of the most powerful nations of the earth, and compelled the whole of the western powers to reckon her as a "living force," as she has proved her right to a proud place among the chief powers of the world. Commercially, she has demonstrated herself the mistress of the Pacific and Asiatic seas. The unbroken series of victories over China, in the recent war, was viewed with amazement by the eyes of the world, and the world wondered how one of the most artistic people in the world could fight against sober, calm Chinamen. But more than once the world has seen that an artistic nation could fight. The Greeks demonstrated this long ago, and the French in latter times have given a shining example. The history of Japan reveals the true color of the Japanese as a war- like nation and brilliant fighters. Far back in the past, beyond that shadowy line where legend and history blend, their story has been one of almost continual war, and the straightest path to dis- tinction and honor has, from the earliest times, led across the battlefield. The ancestor of the Japanese people, who claim to have de- scended from high heaven, seems to have been the descendants of the ancient Hittites, the warlike and conquering tribe once settled in the plain of Mesopotamia. The first Mikado was Jimmu, whose coronation took place two thousand five hundred and fifty- four years ago, long before Alexander the Great thought he had conquered the world, or Julius Caesar had entered Gaul. The present Mikado is the one hundred and twenty-second lineal de- scendant of Jimmu, and the unbroken dynasty has continued for twenty-five centuries. A policy that was adopted by the Japanese government in the seventeenth century, was an injurious one for its national devel- opment. Up to this time, foreign intercourse was free, and com- merce flourished. But now the Japanese resolved to expel all foreigners, and Tokugawa, the founder of the Tai-Kun shogunate, vigorously enforced this measure and carried it so far that all foreign merchants except a few Dutch were expelled from the 28 INTRODUCTION. country. No foreigners (except the Dutch) were allowed in this forbidden land, and no native was permitted to leave his own country. Thus Japan was cut off from the rest of the world and as the Empire furnished different varieties of production which amply supplied the needs of the nation without any inconvenience, commerical intercourse with foreign lands was not absolutely necessary. In the course of time Japan had for- gotten all about the outside world, and so, the world neglected her. The people, however, enjoyed a profound peace by this policy. Ignoring the rise and fall of other nations, the dwellers in this ocean-guarded paradise, cultivated arts and learning and devel- oped their own civilization, which is quite different from what we now call the civilization of the nineteenth century. Suddenly this tranquillity that had continued for two hundred and fifty years, was broken, when in 1853 the warships of Commodore Perry ap- peared in the Bay of Yeddo with letters from the President of the United States requesting open ports for American commerce. The Japanese were dumbfounded, having never seen steamships until then. By 1860, the relations sought were granted, and a Japanese Embassy arrived in the United States. This was the real begin- ning of Japanese intercourse with other nations. Japan saw at once that the western nations were far in advance of her in the arts of war and diplomacy, and that to exist in the field of struggle for existence, she must adopt the same means by which European nations stand. Hence the whole nation of Japan, since the inter- course with the western people, has struggled with the utmost energy, to adopt what is called the nineteenth century civiliza- tion. In 1868, a revolution took place, from which the New Japan suddenly emanated. The old feudal regime was cast away. The social system was completely reorganized. New and enlightened criminal and civil codes were enacted; the modes of judicial pro- cedure were utterly revolutionized ; the jail system radically im- proved ; the most effective organization of police, of posts, of rail- ways, of telegraphs, telephones and all means of communication were adopted ; enlightened methods of national education were employed ; and the Christian religion was welcomed for the sake of INTRODUCTION. 29 innovation. The Imperial Constitution was promulgated and the Imperial Diet, consisting of two houses the House of Lords and House of Commons elected by popular vote, was founded. Freedom of thought, speech and faith was established ; the system of an influential press and party rapidly grew up. Such is the progress which Japan has achieved in the past twenty-five years. It is a mistake to say that the Japanese are merely imitating western civilization. The Japanese mind was fully developed and enlightened, when the time came to grasp western civilization, and mentally were so enlightened as to be able to digest European science and art at a glance. What it has taken the most enlightened of modern nations centuries to accom- plish, Japan has done in a single generation. The Japanese people are moral, temperate, industrious, polite, ingenious and tasteful, and few countries are so beautified by nature and art. Every where are evidences of industry and taste, and scarcely an inch of ground is wasted. Fields of grain and fruit and vegetables are on every side, concealing the slight bam- boo fences which divide them, and giving the appearance of an undulating sea of verdure. Nagasaki, with one of the most beauti- ful harbors in the world, comparatively modern Yokohama the chief port of the Empire, and Tokio, the capital, are the principal cities, and especially in the latter are the Japanese characteristics displayed. It is a country of crookedness, until the mind is used to it. Horses are stalled with their heels to the feeding trough ; carpenters pull their planes toward them, and saw in the same way ; painters paint their pictures upside down. Our calendar and a gold and silver currency are in use, but the dollar is sub- divided into fractions not larger than a quarter of a cent. A handful of these coins will hardly pay for a meal. The Japanese are fertile in amusements and can get more amuse- ment out of nothing than any people except the Chinese. Their street bands are continually on the go; troupes of jugglers move about for the amusement of the children, and kite-makers and kiteflyers stream in gangs to the suburbs. A Jap can beat a Chinaman every day in ingenious devices for kites, as well as for fans. The fan is as much a part of Japanese dress as the hat or coat, 30 INTRODUCTION. and its management is a great point in etiquette. Japanese dress is somewhat like the Chinese, but is more artistic. The robes of the higher classes are very costly and the court dresses are almost fantastic, and so elaborate as to be really clumsy. There is coziness, cleanliness and completeness about Japanese domestic life. You put off your sandals before entering a house, lest you dirty the matting. Walls are always decorated with paper designs, which are frequently changed. In winter, a bowl sunk in the floor, filled with live coals and covered with matting, will impart a pleasant warmth. The language is not unlike the Chinese, and their literature is very fruitful. Besides the sacred books and histories, are many youthful story books designed to teach courage and self-devotion. Though not an emotional people, the Japanese delight in street pageantry, and a procession on a festal day is a curiosity. Every participant is hilarious, and there is much beating of drums, blow- ing of horns and show of fantastic designs. Girls marry young from sixteen to twenty. They are given in marriage by their parents, with gifts toward housekeeping. Priests marry the wealthy, but the middle classes marry by a sort of Quaker ceremony, in the presence of witnesses. All Japanese parents, even the poorest, teach their children with great care and gentleness. Indeed the fathers and mothers seem to be but overgrown children, and as fond of pastime as if young. Schools are numerous, and education compulsory. An illiterate Japanese is an exceptional sight. Japan is a hopeful country, and is rushing along on the heels of progress with a rapidity that springs from full population, high education and acquired wealth. Of Corea the general public knows little more than its name. For several thousands of years it has been the battleground of its rapacious neighbors, suffering territorial loss in consequence ; and the inhabitants for the most part, claim to be in utter ignorance of their origin. CHINA CHINESE MUSICIAN. CHINESE EMPEROR, KING OF COREA, AND CHINESE OFFICIALS HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CHINA FROM THE EARLI- EST TIMES TO FIRST CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION. Origin of Chinese People Legends Golden Age of China Beginnings of Authentic History Dynasty of Chow Cultivation of Literature and Progress Music, Slavery, House- hold Habits Three Thousand Years Ago Confucius and his Work-*First Emperor of China Burning of Books Han Dynasty Famous Men of the Period Paper Money and Printing Invasions of Tartars and Mongols Sung Dynasty Literary Works Famous Chinese Poet Literature, Law and Medicine Kublal Khan Ming Dynasty Private Library of a Chinese Emperor Founding of the Present Dynasty Connection Between Chinese History and the Rest of the World. Obscurity shrouds the origin of the Chinese race. The Chinese people cannot be proved to have originally come from anywhere beyond the limits of the Chinese empire. At the remotest period to which investigations can satisfactorily go back, without quitting the domain of history for that of legend, we find them already in existence as an organized, and as a more or less civilized nation. Previous to that time, their condition had doubtless been that of nomadic tribes, but whether as immigrants or as true sons of the soil there is scarcely sufficient evidence to show. Conjecture, however, based for the most part upon coincidences of speech, writing or manners and customs, has been busy with their ultimate origin; and they have been vari- ously identified with the Turks, with the Chaldees, with the earliest inhabitants of Ireland, and with the lost tribes of Israel. The most satisfactory, however, of recent conclusions, based on most careful investigations are as follows : The first records we have of them represent the Chinese as a band of immigrants settling in the north-eastern provinces of the modern empire of China and fighting their way amongst the aborigines much as the Jews of old forced their way into Canaan against the various tribes which they found in possession of the land. It is probable that though they all entered China by the same route they separated into bands almost on the threshold of the empire, one (33) 34 WHENCE CAME THE PEOPLE OF CHINA? body, those who have left us the records of their history in the ancient Chinese books, apparently following the course of the Yellow river, and turning southward with it from its northern- most bend, settling themselves in the fertile districts of the modern provinces of Shan-hsi and Honan. But as it is believed also that at about the same period a large settlement was made as far south as Anam of which there is no mention in the books of the northern Chinese, we must assume that another body struck directly southward through the southern provinces of China to that country. Many writers answer the question that arises as to whence these people came, by declaring that research directly points to the land south of the Caspian sea. They find many reasons in the study of languages which furnish philological proof of this assertion. And they affirm that in all probability the outbreak in Susiana of possibly some political disturbance in about the 24th or 23rd century B. C., drove the Chinese from the land of their adoption and that they wandered eastward until they finally settled in China and the country south of it. Such an emigration is by no means unusual in Asia. We know that the Ottoman Turks originally had their home in northern Mongolia, and we have a record of the movement at the end of last century of a body of six hundred thousand Kalmucks from Russia to the confines of China. It would appear also that the Chinese came into China possessed of the resources of western Asian culture. They brought with them a knowledge of writing and astronomy as well as of the arts which primarily minister to the wants and comforts of mankind. According to one native authority, China, that is, the world was evolved out of chaos exactly 3,276,494 years ago. This evolution was brought about by the action of a First Cause or Force which separated into two principles, active and passive, male and female. Or as some native writers explain it, out of a great egg came a man. Out of the upper half of the egg he created the heavens and out of the lower half he created the earth. He created five elements, earth, water, fire, metal and wood. Out of the vapor from gold he created man and out of vapor from wood he created woman. Traditional pictures of CHINESE LEGENDS OF THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. 85 this first man and first woman represent them wearing for dress, girdles of fig leaves. He created the sun to rule the day, the moon to rule the night, and the stars. Those who care to go deeper into these traditions than the limits of this work permit will find ample material for interesting research in the analogies to Christian history. These principles, male and female, found their material embodiment in heaven and earth and became the father and mother of all things, be- ginning with man, who was immediately asso- ciated with them in a triumvirate of creative powers. Then ensued ten immense periods, the last of which has been made by some Chinese writers on chronology to end where every sober his- tory of China should begin, namely, with the establishment of the Chow dynasty eleven hundred years before the birth of Christ. During this almost im- measurable lapse of time, the process of development was going on, involving such discoveries as the pro- duction of fire, the construction of houses, boats and wheeled ve- hicles, the cultivation of grain, and mutual communication by means of writing. The father of Chinese history chose indeed to carry us back to the court of the Yellow Emperor, B. C. 2697, and to introduce CHINESE IDEA OF CREATION. 36 THE GOLDEN AGE OF CHINA, LONG AGO. us to his successors Yao and Shun and to the great Yu, who by his engineering skill had drained away a terrible inundation which some have sought to identify with Noah's flood. This flood was in Shun's reign. The waters we are told rose to so great a height that the people had to betake themselves to the mountains to escape death. Most of the provinces of the existing empire were inundated. The disaster arose, as many similar dis- asters, though of less magnitude, have since arisen, in consequence of the Yellow river bursting its bounds, and the great Yu was appointed to lead the waters back to their channel. With unre- mitting energy he set about his task, and in nine years succeeded in bringing the river under his control. During this period so absorbed was lie in his work, that we are told he took heed neither EMPEROR SHUN PLOWING. of food nor clothing, and that thrice he passed the door of his house without once stopping to enter. At the completion of his labors he divided the empire into nine instead of twelve provinces, and tradition represents him as having engraved a record of his toils on a stone tablet on Mount Heng in the province of Hoopih. As a reward for the services he had rendered for the empire, he was invested with the principality of Hea, and after having occupied the throne conjointly with Shun for some years he suc- ceeded that sovereign on his death in 2308 B. C. But all these things were in China's " golden age," the true record of which is shrouded for us in the obscurity of centuries. VIEW FROM SUMMER PALACE, PEKING. BEGINNINGS OF AUTHENTIC CHINESE HISTORY. 39 There were a few laws, but never any occasion to exact the penalties attached to misconduct. It was considered superfluous to close the house door at night, and no one would even pick up any lost property that lay in the high road. All was virtue, happiness and prosperity, the like- of which has not since been known. The Emperor Shun was raised from the plow handle to the throne simply because of his filial piety, in recognition of which wild beasts used to come and voluntarily drag his plow for him through the furrowed fields, while birds of the air would hover round and guard his sprouting grain from the depredations of insects. This of course is not history ; and but little more can be said for the accounts given of the two dynasties which ruled China be- tween the "golden age " and the opening reigns of the House of Chow. The historian in question had not many sources of information at command. Beside tradition, of which he largely availed himself, the chief of these was the hundred chapters that had been edited by Confucius from the historical remains of those times, now known as the " Book of History." This contains an unquestionable foundation of facts, pointing to a comparatively advanced state of civilization, even so far back as two thousand years before our era-; but the picture is dimly seen and many of its details are of little practical value. This calculation declares that with Yu began the dynasty of Hea which gave place in 1766 B. C. to the Shang dynasty. The last sovereign of the Hea line, Kieh Kwei, is said to have been a monster of iniquity and to have suffered the just punishment for his crimes at the hands of T'ang, the prince of the state of Shang, who took his throne from him. In like manner, six hundred and forty years later, Woo Wang, the prince of Chow, overthrew Chow Sin, the last of the Shang dynasty, and established himself as the chief of the sovereign state of the empire. It is only with the dynasty of the Chows that we begin to feel ourselves on safe ground, though long before that date the Chinese were undoubtedly enjoying a far higher civilization than fell to the share of most western nations until many centuries later. The art of writing had been already fully developed, having passed, if we are to believe native researches from an original sys- 40 RISE OF THE DYNASTY OF CHOW. tern of knotted cords, through successive stages of notches on wood and rude outlines of natural objects down to the phonetic stage in which it exists at the present day. Astronomical obser- vations of a simple kind had been made and recorded and the year divided into months. The rite of marriage had been sub- stituted for capture ; and although cowries were still employed and remained in use until a much later date, metallic coins of various shapes and sizes began to be recognized as a more practicable medium of exchange. Music, both vocal and instrumental, was widely cultivated : and a kind of solemn posturing filled the place that has been occupied by dancing among nations farther to the west. Painting, charioteering and archery were reckoned among the fine arts ; the cross bow especially being a favorite weapon either on the battle field or on the chase. The people seem to have lived upon rice and cabbage, pork and fish, much as they do now ; they also drank the ardent spirit distilled from rice vulgarly known as u Samshoo " and clad themselves in silk, or their own coarse home stuffs according to the means of each. All this is previous to the dynasty of Chow with which it is now proposed to begin. The Chows rose to power over the vices of preceding rulers, aided by the genius of a certain duke or chieftain of the Chow state, though he personally never reached the imperial throne. It was his more famous son who in B. C. 1122 routed the forces of the last tyrant of the semi-legendary period and made himself master of China. The China of those days consisted of a number of petty principalities clustering round one central state and thus constituting a federation. The central state managed the common affairs, while each one had its own local laws and administration. It was in some senses a feudal age, somewhat similar to that which prevailed in Europe for many centuries. The various dukes were regarded as vassals owing allegiance to the sovereign at the head of the imperial state, and bound to assist him with money and men in case of need. And in order to keep together this mass, constantly in danger of disintegration from strifes within, the sovereigns of the House of Chow were forever summoning these vassal dukes to the capital and making them renew, with ceremonies of sacrifice and potations of blood, their FORMATION OF THE EMPIRE. 41 vows of loyalty and treaties of alliance. At a great feast held by Yu after his accession, there were, it is said, ten thousand princes present with their symbols of rank. But the feudal states were constantly being absorbed by one another. On the rise of the Shang dynasty there were only somewhat over three thousand, which had decreased to thirteen hundred when the sovereignty of the Chows was established. The senior duke always occupied a position somewhat closer to the sovereign than the others. It was his special business to protect the imperial territory from invasion by any malcontent vassal ; and he was often deputed to punish acts of insubordina- tion and contumacy, relying for help on the sworn faith of all the states as a body against any individual recalcitrant. Such was the political condition of things through a long series of reigns for nearly nine centuries, the later history of this long and famous dynasty being simply the record of a struggle against the increasing power and ambitious designs of the vassal state of Ching, until at length the power of the latter not only outgrew that of the sovereign state, but successfully defied the united efforts of all the others combined together in a league. In 403 B. C. the number of states had been reduced to seven great ones, all sooner or later claiming to be "the kingdom," and contending for the supremacy until Ching put down all the others and in 221 B. C. its king assumed the title of Hwang Ti or emperor and determined that there should be no more feudal principalities, and that as there is but one sun in the sky there should be but one ruler in the nation. It is interesting to glance backward over these nine hundred years and gather some facts as to the China of those days. The religion of the Chinese was a modification of the older and sim- pler forms of nature worship practised by their ruder forefathers. The principal objects of veneration were still heaven and earth and the more prominent among the destructive and beneficient powers of nature. But a tide of personification and deification had begun to set in and to the spirits of natural objects and in- fluences now rapidly assuming material shape had been added the spirits of departed herpes whose protection was invoked after death by those to whom it had been afforded during life. 3 42 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHOW DYNASTY. The sovereign of the Chow dynasty worshipped in a building which they called "the hall of light," which also served the pur- pose of an audience and council chamber. It was 112 feet square and surmounted by a dome; typical of heaven above and earth beneath. China has always been remarkably backward in architectural development, never having got beyond the familiar roof with its turned up corners, in which antiquaries trace a CHINESE TEMPLE. likeness to the tent of their nomad days. Hence it is that the "hall of light" of the Chows is considered by the Chinese to have been a very wonderful structure. Some have said that the Pentateuch was carried to China in the sixth century B. C., but no definite traces of Judaism are discoverable until several centuries later. The Chow period was pre-eminently one of ceremonial observ- - > * *> CULTIVATION OF LITERATURE AND PROGRESS. 43 ances pushed to an extreme limit. Even Confucius was unable to rise above the dead level of an ultra formal etiquette, which occupies in his teachings a place altogether out of proportion to any advantages likely to accrue from the most scrupulous com- pliance with its rules. During the early centuries of this period laws were excessively severe and punishments correspondingly barbarous ; mutilation and death by burning or dissection being among the enumerated penalties. From all accounts there speedily occurred a marked degeneracy in the characters of the Chow kings. Among the most conspicuous of the early kings was Muh, who rendered himself notorious for having promulga- ted a penal code under which the redemption of punishments was made permissible by the payment of fines. Notwithstanding the spirit of lawlessness that spread far and wide among the princes and nobles, creating misery and unrest throughout the country, that literary instinct which has been a marked characteristic of the Chinese throughout their long his- tory continued as active as ever. At stated intervals officials, we are told, were sent in light carriages into all parts of the empire to collect words from the changing dialects of each district ; and at the time of the royal progresses the official music masters and historiographers of each principality presented to the officials appointed for the purpose, collections of the odes and songs of each locality, in order, we are told, that the character of the rule exercised by their princes should be judged by the tone of the poetical and musical productions of their subjects. The odes and songs as found and thus collected were carefully preserved in royal archives, and it was from these materials, as is commonly believed, that Confucius compiled the celebrated " She King " or " Book of Odes." One hundred years before the close of the Chow dynasty, a great statesman named Wei Yang appeared in the rising state of Ch'in and brought about many valuable reformations. Among other things he introduced a system of tithings, which has en- dured to the present day. The unit of Chinese social life has always been the family and not the individual ; and this states- man caused the family to be divided into groups of ten families to each, upon a basis of mutual protection and responsibility. 44 THE CHINESE THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO. The soil of China has always been guarded as the inalienable property of her imperial ruler for the time being, held in trust by him on behalf of a higher and greater power whose vice-regent he is. In the age of the Chows, land appears to have been culti* vated upon a system of communal tenure, one-ninth of the total produce being devoted in all cases to the expenses of government and the maintenance of the ruling family in each state. Copper coins of a uniform shape and portable size were first cast, accord- ing to Chinese writers, about half way through the sixth century B. C. An irregular form of money, however, had been in circu- lation long before, one of the early vassal dukes having been advised, in order to replenish his treasury, to " break up the hills and make money out of the metal therein ; to evaporate sea water and make salt. This," added his advising minister, " will benefit the realm and with the profits you may buy up all kinds of goods cheap and store them until the market has risen ; estab- lish also three hundred depots of courtesans for the traders, who will thereby be induced to bring all kinds of merchandise to your country. This merchandise you will tax and thus have a suffici- ency of funds to meet the expenses of your army." Such were some of the principles of finance and political economy among the Chows, customs duties being apparently even at that early date a recognized part of the revenue. The art of healing was practised among the Chinese in their prehistoric times, but the first quasi-scientific efforts of which we have any record belong to the period with which we are now dealing. The physicians of the Chow dynasty classify diseases under the four seasons of the year headaches and neuralgic affections under spring, skin diseases of all kinds under summer, fever and agues under autumn, and bronchial and plumonary complaints under winter. The public at large was warned against rashly swallowing the prescriptions of any physician whose family had not been three generations in the medical profession. When the Chows went into battle they formed a line with the bowman on the left and the spearman on the right flank. The centre was occupied by chariots, each drawn by three or four horses harnessed abreast. Swords, daggers, shields, iron headed clubs, huge iron hooks, drums, cymbals, gongs, horns, banners and MUSIC, SLAVERY, HOUSEHOLD HABITS. 45 streamers innumerable were also among the equipment of war. Quarter was rarely if ever given and it was customary to cut the ears from the bodies of the slain. It was under the Chows, a thousand years before Christ, that the people of China began to possess family names. By the time of Confucius the use of surnames had become definitely estab- lished for all classes. The Chows founded a university, a shadow of which remains to the present day. They seem to have had theatrical representations of some kind, though it is difficult to say of what nature these actually were. Music must have already reached a stage of considerable development, if we are to believe Confucius himself, who has left it on record that after listening to a certain melody he was so affected as not to be able to taste meat for three months. Slavery was at this date a regular domestic institution and was not confined as now to the purchase of women alone ; and whereas in still earlier ages it had been usual to bury wooden puppets in the tombs of princes, we now read of slave boys and slave girls barbarously interred alive with the body of every ruler of a state, in order, as was believed, to wait upon the tyrant's spirit after death. But public opinion began during the Confucian era to discountenance this savage rite, and the son of a man who left instructions that he should be buried in a large coffin between two of his concubines, ventured to disobey his father's commands. We know that the Chows sat on chairs while all other eastern nations were sitting on the ground, and ate their food and drank their wine from tables ; that they slept on beds and rode on horse- back. They measured the hours with the aid of sun dials; and the invention of the compass is attributed, though on somewhat insufficient grounds, to one of their earliest heroes. They played games of calculation of an abstruse character, and others involving dexterity. They appear to have worn shoes of leather, and stock- ings, and hats, and caps, in addition to robes of silk ; and to have possessed such other material luxuries as fans, mirrors of metal, bath tubs, and flat irons. But it is often difficult to separate truth from falsehood in the statement of Chinese writers with re- gard to their history. They are fond of exaggerating the civiliza- tion of their forefathers, which, as a matter of fact, was sufficiently 46 CONFUCIUS AND HIS WORK. advanced to command admiration without the undesirable coloring of fiction they have thus been tempted to lay on. Of the religions of the Chinese we will speak in a succeeding chapter, but it must be said here that during the Chow dynasty was born the most famous of Chinese teachers, Confucius. He was preceded about the middle of the dynasty by Lao-tzu, the founder of an abstruse system of ethical philosophy which was destined to develop into the Taoism of to-day. Closely following, and partially a contemporary, came Confucius," a teacher who has been equalled in his influence upon masses of the human race by Bud- dha alone and approached only by Mahomet and Christ." Confucius de- voted his life chiefly to the moral amelioration of his fellow men by oral teaching, but he was also an author of many works. A hundred years later came Mencius, the record of whose teachings also forms an important part of the course of study of a modern student in China. His pet theory was that the nature of man is good, and that all evil tendencies are necessarily acquired from evil communications either by heredity or association. It was during this same period that the literature of the Chinese language was founded. Of this subject, and some of the famous works, more will be said in a succeeding chapter devoted to literature and education. In their campaign against the prevailing lawlessness and IMAGE OF CONFUCIUS. MANCHOORIAN MINISTERS. WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD WAS DOING. 49 violence, neither Confucius nor Mencius was able to make any headway. Their preachings fell on deaf ears and their peaceful admonitions were passed unheeded by men who held their fiefs by the strength of their right arms, and administered the affairs of their principalities surrounded by the din of war. The feudal system and the dynasty of the Chows were tottering when Con- fucius died although it was more than two hundred years after when Ch'in acquired the supremacy. The nine centuries covered by the history of the Chows were full of stirring incidents in other parts of the world. The Trojan war had just been brought to an end and JEneas had taken refuge in Italy from the sack of Troy. Early in the dynasty Zoroaster was founding in Persia the religion of the Magi, the worship of fire which survives in the Parseeism of Bombay. Saul was made king of Israel and Solomon built the temple of Jerusalem. Later on Lycurgus gave laws to the Spartans and Romulus laid the first stone of the Eternal City. Then came the Babylonic captivity, the appearance of Buddha, the conquest of Asia Minor by Cyrus, the rise of the Roman Republic, the defeats of Darius at Marathon and of Xerxes at Salamis, the Peloponnesian War, the retreat of the Ten Thousand, and Roman conquests down to the end of the first Punic war. From a literary point of view the Chow dynasty was the age of the Vedas in India ; of Homer, ^Eschylus, Herod- otus, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Aristotle and Demosthenes in Greece ; and of the Jewish prophets from Samuel to Daniel ; and of the Talmud as originally undertaken by the scribes subsequent to the return from the captivity in Babylon. It has been stated that the imperial rule of the Chows over the vassal states which made up the China of those early days, was gradually undermined by the growing power and influence of one of the latter, the very name of which was transformed into a by- word of reproach, so that to call a person " a man of Ch'in " was equivalent to saying in vulgar parlance, " He is no friend of mine." The struggle between the Ch'ins and the rest of the empire may be likened to the struggle between Athens and the rest of Greece though the end in each case was not the same. The state of Ch'in vanquished its combined opponents, and finally established a dynasty, shortlived indeed, but containing among 50 THE FIRST EMPEROR OF CHINA. the few rulers who sat upon the throne, only about fifty years in all, the name of one remarkable man, the first emperor of the united China. On the ruins of the old feudal system, the landmarks of which his three or four predecessors had succeeded in sweeping away, Hwang Ti laid the foundations of a coherent empire which was GREAT WALL OP CHINA. to date from himself as its founder. He sent an army of 300,000 men to fight against the Huns. He dispatched a fleet to search for some mysterious islands off the coast of China ; and this ex- pedition has since been connected with the colonization of Japan. He built the Great Wall which is nearly fourteen hundred miles in length, forming the most prominent artificial object on the surface THE BURNING OF THE BOOKS. 61 of the earth. His copper coinage was so uniformly good that the cowry disappeared altogether from commerce with this reign. Ac- cording to some, the modern hair pencil employed by the Chinese as a pen was invented about this time, to be used for writing on silk ; while the characters themselves underwent certain modifi- cations and orthographical improvements. The first emperor de- sired above all things to impart a fresh stimulus to literary effort ; but he adopted singularly unfortunate means to secure this de- sirable end. For listening to the insidious flattery of courtiers, he determined that literature should begin anew with his reign. He therefore issued orders for the destruction of all existing books, with the exception of works treating of medicine, agriculture and divination and the annals of his own house ; and he actually put to death many hundreds of the literati who refused to comply with these commands. The decree was obeyed as faithfully as was possible in case of so sweeping an ordinance and for many years a night of ignorance rested on the country. Numbers of valuable works thus perished in a general literary conflagration, popularly known as " the burning of the books ; " and it is partly to accident and partly to the pious efforts of the scholars of the age, that posterity is indebted for the preservation of the most precious relics of ancient Chinese literature. The death of Hwang Ti was the signal for an outbreak among the dispossessed feudal princes, who, however, after some years of disorder, were again reduced to the rank of citizens by a successful peasant leader who adopted the title of Kaou Ti, and named his dynasty that of Han, with himself its first emperor. From that day to this, with occasional interregnums, the empire has been ruled on the lines laid down by Hwang Ti. Dynasty has succeeded dynasty but the political tradition has remained un- changed, and though Mongols and Manchoos have at different times wrested the throne from its legitimate heirs, they have been engulfed in a homogeneous mass inhabiting the empire, and in- stead of impressing their seal upon the country, have become but the reflection of the vanquished. The stately House of Han ruled over China for four hundred years, approximately from 200 B. C. to 200 A. D. During the whole period the empire made vast strides towards a more settled state of prosperity and civilization, 52 HISTORY OF THE HAN DYiVASTY. although there were constant wars with the Tartar tribes to the north and the various Turkish tribes on the west. The communi- cations with the Huns were particularly close, and even now traces of Hunnish influence are discernible in several of the recognized surnames of the Chinese. This dynasty also wit- nessed the spectacle, most unusual in the east, of a woman wielding the imperial sceptre ; and hers was not a reign calcu- lated to inspire the people of China with much faith either in the virtue or the administrative ability of the sex. In Chinese history however, her place is that of the only female sover- eign who ever legitimately occupied the throne. It was under the Han dynasty that the religion of Buddha first became known to the Chinese people, and Taoism began to develop from quiet philosophy to foolish superstitions and practices. It was also dur- ing this period that the Jews appear to have founded a colony in Honan, but we cannot say what kind of a reception was accorded to the new faith. In the glow of early Buddhism, and in the exciting times of its subsequent persecution, it is probable that Judaism failed to attract much serious attention from the Chinese. In 1850 certain Hebrew rolls were recovered from the few remaining descendants of former Jews ; but there was then no one left who could read a word of them, or who possessed any knowledge of the creed of their forefathers, beyond a few tradi- tions of the scantiest possible kind. But the most remarkable of all events connected with our present period, was the general revival of learning and author- BUDDHTST PRIEST. FAMOUS MEN OF THIS PERIOD. 53 ship. The Confucian texts were rescued from hiding places in which they had been concealed at the risk of death ; editing com- mittees were appointed, and immense efforts made to repair the mischief sustained by literature at the hand of the first emperor. Ink and paper were invented and authorship was thus enabled to make a fresh start, the very start indeed, that the first emperor had longed to associate with his own reign, and had attempted to secure by such impracticable means. During the latter portion of the second century B. C., flourished the " Father of Chinese History." His great work, which has been the model for all sub- sequent histories, is divided into one hundred and thirty books, and deals with a period extending from the reign of the Yellow emperor down to his own times. In another branch of literature, a foremost place among the lexicographers of the world may fairly be claimed for Hsu Shen, the author of a famous dic- tionary. Many other celebrated writers lived and prospered dur- ing the Han dynasty. One man whose name must be mentioned insured for himself, by his virtue and integrity, a more imper- ishable fame than any mere literary achievement could bestow. Yang Chen was indeed a scholar of no mean attainments, and away in his occidental home he was known as the " Confucius of the west." An officer of government in a high position, with every means of obtaining wealth at his command, he lived and died in comparative poverty, his only object of ambition being the reputation of a spotless official. The Yangs of his day grum- bled sorely at opportunities thus thrown away ; but the Yangs of to-day glory in the fame of their great ancestor and are proud to worship in the ancestral hall to which his uprightness has be- queathed the name. For once when pressed to receive a bribe, with the additional inducement that no one would know of the transaction, he quietly replied " How so ? Heaven would know ; earth would know ; you would know and I should know." And to this hour the ancestral shrine of the clan of the Yangs bears as it name " The Hall of the Four Knows." It was in all probability under the dynasty of the Hans that the drama first took its place among the amusements of the people. It is unnecessary to linger over the four centuries which con- 54 ADVANCE IN THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. nect the Hans with the T'angs. There was not in them that dis- tinctness of character or coherency of aim which leave a great impress upon the times. The three kingdoms passed rapidly away, and other small dynasties succeeded them, but their names and dates are not essential to a right comprehension of the state of China then or now. A few points may, however, be briefly mentioned before quitting this period of transition. Diplomatic relations were opened with Japan ; and Christianity was intro- duced by the Nestorians under the title of the "luminous teach- ing." Tea was not known in China before this date. It was at the close of this transitional period that we first detect traces of the art of printing, still in an embryonic state, and it seems to be quite certain that before the end of the sixth century the Chinese were in possession of a method of reproduction from wooden blocks. One of the last emperors of the period succeeded in adding largely to the empire by annexation toward the west. Embassies reached his court from various nations, including Japan and Cochin China, and helped to add to the lustre of his reign. The three centuries A. D. 600-900, during which the T'angs sat upon the throne, form a brilliant epoch in Chinese history, and the southern people of China are still proud of the designa- tion which has descended to them as " men of T'ang." Emperor Hsuan Tsung fought against the prevailing extravagance in dress; founded a large dramatic college; and was an enthusias- tic patron of literature. Buddhism flourished during this period in spite of edicts against it. Finally, it gained the favor of the emperors and for a time overpowered even Confucianism. It was during the reign of the second emperor of the T'angs and only six years after the Hegira that the religion of Mahomet first reached the shores of China. A maternal uncle of the prophet visited the country and obtained permission to build a mosque at Canton, portions of which may perhaps still be found in the thrice restored structure which now stands upon its site. The use of paper money was first introduced by the government toward the closing years of the dynasty ; and it is near to this time that we can trace back the existence of the modern court PAPER MONEY AND PRINTING. 55 circular and daily record of edicts, memorials, etc., commonly known as the Peking Gazette. Another unimportant transition period, sixty years in duration, forms the connecting link between the houses of T'ang and Sung. It is known in Chinese history as the period of the five dynasties, after the five short-lived ones crowded into this space of time. It is remarkable chiefly for the more extended practice of printing from wooden blocks, the standard classical works being now for the first time printed in this way. The discredit- able custom of cramping women's feet into the so-called "golden lilies " belongs probably to this date, though referred by some to a period several hundred years later. It has been said before that the age of the T'angs was the age of Mahomet and his new religion, the propagation of which was destined to meet in the west with a fatal check from the arms of Charles Martel at the battle of Tours. It was the age of Rome independent under her early popes; of Charlemagne as emperor of the west; of Egbert as first king of England; and of Alfred the Great. The Sung dynasty extended from about A. D. 960 to 1280. The first portion of this dynasty may be considered as on the whole, one of the most prosperous and peaceable periods of the history of China. The nation had already in a great measure settled down to that state of material civilization and mental culture in which it may be said to have been discovered by Europeans "a few centuries later. To the appliances of Chinese ordinary life it is probable that but few additions have been made even since a much earlier date. The national costume has indeed undergone subsequent variations, and at least one striking change has been introduced in later years, that is, the tail, which will be mentioned later. But the plows and hoes, the water wheels and well sweeps, the tools of artisans, mud huts, junks, carts, chairs, tables, chopsticks, etc., which we still see in China, are doubtless approximately those of more than two thousand years ago. Mencius observed that the written language was the same, and axle-trees of the same length all over the empire ; and to this day an unaltering uniformity is one of the chief char- acteristics of the Chinese people in every department of life. 56 INVASIONS OF THE TARTARS AND MONGOLS., The house of Sung was not however without the usual troubles for any length of time. Periodical revolts are the special feature of Chinese history, and the Sungs were hardly exempt from them in a greater degree than other dynasties. The Tartars too, were forever encroaching upon Chinese territory and finally overran and occupied a large part of northern China. This resulted in an amicable arrangement to divide the empire, the Tartars retaining their conquests in the north. Less than a hundred years later came the invasion of the Mongols under Genghis Khan, with the long struggle which eventuated in a complete overthrow of both the Tartars and the Sungs and the final establishment of the Mongol dynasty under Kublai Khan, whose success was in a great measure due to the military capacity of his famous lieuten- ant Bayan. From this struggle one name in particular has sur- vived to form a landmark of which the Chinese are justly proud. It is that of the patriot statesman Wen T'ien-hsiang, whose fidelity to the Sungs no defeats could shake, no promises under- mine ; and who perished miserably in the hands of the enemy rather than abjure the loyalty which had been the pride and almost the object of his existence. Another name inseparably connected with the history of the Sungs is that of Wang An-shih who has been styled " The Inno- vator " from the gigantic administrative changes or innovations he labored ineffectually to introduce. The chief of these were a universal system of militia under which the whole body of citizens were liable to military drill and to be called out for service in time of need ; and a system of state loans to agriculturists in order to supply capital for more extensive and more remunerative farm- ing operations. His schemes were ultimately set aside through the opposition of a statesman whose name is connected even more closely with literature than with politics. Ssu-maKuang spent nineteen years of his life in the compilation of " The Mirror of History," a history of China in two hundred and ninety-four books, from the earliest times of the Chow dynastj' down to the accession of the house of Sung. A century later this lengthy production was recast in a greatly condensed form under the superintendence of Chu Hsi, the latter work at once taking rank as the standard history rtr. CHINESE ARCHERS. LITERARY WORK OF THE SUNG DYNASTY. 59 of China to that date. Chu Hsi himself played in other ways by far the most important part among all the literary giants of the Sungs. Besides holding, during a large portion of his life, high official position, with an almost unqualified success, his writings are more extensive and more varied in character than those of any other Chinese author ; and the complete collection CHINESE WRITER. of his great philosophical works, published in 1713, fills no fewer than sixty-six books. He introduced interpretations of the Con- fucian classics, either wholly or partially at variance with those which had been put forth by the scholars of the Han dynasty and received as infallible ever since, thus modifying to a certain extent the prevailing standard of political and social morality. 60 A FAMOUS CHINESE POET. His principle was simply one of consistency. He refused to in- terpret certain words in a given passage in one sense and the same words occurring elsewhere in another sense. And this principle recommended itself at once to the highly logical mind of the Chinese. Chu Hsi's commentaries were received to the exclusion of all others and still form the only author- ized interpretation of the classical books, upon a knowledge of which all success at the great competitive examination for literary degrees may be said to entirely depend. It would be a lengthy task to merely enumerate the names in the great phalanx of writers who flourished under the Sungs and who formed an Augustan Age of Chinese literature. Exception must however be made in favor of Ou-Yang Hsiu, who besides being an eminent statesman, was a voluminous historian of the immediately preceding dynasties, an essayist of rare ability, and a poet ; and of Su Tung-p'o whose name next to that of Chu Hsi fills the largest place in Chinese memorials of this period. A vigorous opponent of " The Innovator," he suffered banishment for his opposition ; and again, after his rival's fall, he was similarly punished for further crossing the imperial will. His exile was shared by the beautiful and accomplished girl " Morning Clouds," to whose inspiration we owe many of the elaborate poems and other productions in the composition of which the banished poet beguiled his time ; and whose untimely death of consumption, on the banks of their favorite lake, hastened the poet's end, which occurred shortly after his recall from banishment. Buddhism and Taoism had by this time made advances toward tacit terms of mutual toleration. They wisely agreed to share rather than to quarrel over the carcass which lay at their feet ; and from that date they have flourished together without prejudice. The system of competitive examinations and literary degrees had been still more fully elaborated, and the famous child's primer, the " Three Character Classic," which is even now the first step- ping stone to knowledge, had been placed in the hands of school boys. The surnames of the people were collected to the number of four hundred and thirty-eight in all; and although this was admittedly not complete, the great majority of those names which were omitted, once perhaps in common use, have altogether disap- LITERATURE, LAW, AND MEDICINE. 61 peared. It is comparatively rare nowadays to meet with a person whose family namejs not to be found within the limits of this small collection. Administration of justice is said to have flour- ished under the incorrupt officials of this dynasty. The func- tions of magistrates were more fully defined; while the study of medical jurisprudence was stimulated by the publication of a volume which, although combining the maximum of superstition with the minimum of scientific research, is still the officially recognized text book on all subjects connected with murder, suicide and accidental death. Medicine and the art of healing came in for a considerable share of attention at the hands of the Sungs and many voluminous works on therapeutics have come down to us from this period. Inoculation for small-pox has been known to the Chinese at least since the early years of this dynasty if not earlier. The irruption of the Mongols under Genghis Khan, and the comparatively short dynasty which was later on actually estab- lished under Kublai Khan, may be regarded as the period of transition from the epoch of the Sungs to the epoch of the Mings. For the first eighty years after the nominal accession of Genghis Khan the empire was more or less in a state of siege and martial law from one end to the other ; and then in less than one hundred years afterwards the Mongol dynasty had passed away. The story of Ser Marco Polo and his wonderful travels, familiar to most readers, gives us a valuable insight into this period of brill- iant courts, thronged marts, fine cities, and great national wealth. At this date the literary glory of the Sungs had hardly begun to grow dim. Ma Tuan-lin carried on his voluminous work through all the troublous times, and at his death bequeathed to the world " The Antiquarian Researches," in three hundred and forty-eight books, which have made his name famous to every student of Chinese literature. Plane and spherical trigonometry were both known to the Chinese by this time, and mathematics generally began to receive a larger share of the attention of scholars. It was also under the Mongol dynasty that the novel first made its appearance, -a fact pointing to a definite social ad- vancement, if only in the direction of luxurious reading. Among 62 KUBLAI KHAN AND HIS REIGN. other points may be mentioned a great influx of Mohammedans, and consequent spread of their religion about this time. The Grand Canal was completed by Kublai Khan, and thus Cambaluc, the Peking of those days, was united by inland water communication with the extreme south of China. The work seems to have been begun by the Emperor Yang Ti seven cen- turies previously, but the greater part of the undertaking was done in the reign of Kublai Khan. Hardly so successful was the same emperor's huge naval expedition against Japan, which in point of number of ships and men, the insular character of the enemy's country, the chastisement intended, and the total loss of the fleet in a storm, aided by the stubborn resistance of the Jap- anese themselves, suggests a very obvious comparison with the object and fate of the Spanish Armada. The age of the Sungs carries us from a hundred years previous to the Norman Conquest down to about the death of Edward III. It was the epoch of Venetian commerce and maritime supremacy; and of the first great lights in Italian literature, Dante, Petrarch and Boccacio. English, French, German and Spanish literature had yet to develop, only one or two of the earlier writers, such as Chaucer, having yet appeared on the scene. The founder of the Ming dynasty rose from starvation and ob- scurity to occupy the throne of the Chinese empire. In his youth he sought refuge from the pangs of hunger in a Buddhist monas- tery ; later on he became a soldier of fortune, and joined the ranks of the insurgents who were endeavoring to shake off the alien yoke of the Mongols. His own great abilities carried him on. He speedily obtained the leadership of a large army, with which he totally destroyed the power of the Mongols, and finally established a new Chinese dynasty over the thirteen provinces into which the empire was divided. He fixed his capitol at Nan- king, where it remained until the accession of the third emperor, the conqueror of Cochin China and Tonquin, who transferred the seat of government back to Peking, the capitol of the Mongols, from which it has never since been removed. For nearly three hundred years, from 1370 to 1650, the Mings swayed the destinies of China. Their rule was not one of unin- terrupted peace, either within or without the empire ; but it was o FOUNDING THE MING DYNASTY. 66 on the whole a wise and popular rule, and the period which it covers is otherwise notable for immense literary activity and for considerable refinement in manners and material civilization. From without, the Mings were constantly harrassed by the encroachments of the Tartars; while from within the ceaseless intriguing of the eunuchs was a fertile cause of trouble. Chief among the literary achievements of this period, is the ANCIENT CHINESE ARCH. gigantic encyclopedia in over twenty-two thousand books, only one copy of which, and that imperfect, has survived out of the four that were originally made. Allowing fifty octavo pages to a book, the result would be a total of at least one million one hundred thousand pages, the index alone occupying no fewer than three thousand pages. This wonderful work is now probably rotting, if not already rotted beyond hope of preservation, in 66 A CHINESE EMPEROR'S PRIVATE LIBRARY. some damp corner of the imperial palace at Peking. Another im portant and more accessible production was the so-called " Chinese Herbal." This was a compilation from the writings of no fewer than eight hundred preceding writers on botany, mineralogy, entomology, etc., the whole forming a voluminous but unsci- entific book of reference on the natural history of China. Shortly after the accession of the third emperor, Yung Lo, the imperial library was estimated to contain written and printed works amounting to a total of about one million in all. A book is a variable quantity in Chinese literature, both as regards num- ber and size of pages ; the number of books to a work also vary from one to several hundred. But reckoning fifty pages to a book and twenty or twenty-five books to a work, it will be seen that the collection was not an unworthy private library for any em- peror in the early years of the fifteenth century. The overthrow of the Mings was brought about by a combina- tion of events of the utmost importance to those who would un- derstand the present position of the Tartars as rulers of China. A sudden rebellion had resulted in the capture of Peking by the insurgents, and in the suicide of the emperor who was fated to be the last of his line. The imperial commander-in chief, Wu San- kuei, at that time away on the frontiers of Manchooria engaged in resisting the incursions of the Manchoo-Tartars, now for a long time in a state of ferment, immediately hurried back to the capitol but was totally defeated by the insurgent leader and once more made his way, this time as a fugitive and a suppliant, toward the Tartar camp. Here he obtained promises of assistance chiefly on condition that he would shave his head and grow a tail in accordance with Manchoo custom, and again set off with his new auxiliaries toward Peking, being reinforced on the way by a body of Mongol volunteers. As things turned out, the com- mander arrived in Peking in advance of these allies, and actually succeeded with the remnant of his own scattered forces in routing the troups of the rebel leader before the Tartars and the Mon- gols came up. He then started in pursuit of the flying foe. Meanwhile the Tartar contingent arrived and on entering the capitol the young Manchoo prince in command was invited by the people of Peking to ascend the vacant throne. So that by the FOUNDING OF THE PRESENT RULING DYNASTY. 67 time Wu San-kuei reappeared, he found a new dynasty already established and his late Manchoo ally at the head of affairs. His first intention had doubtless been to continue the Ming line of emperors ; but he seems to have readily fallen in with the arrange- ment already made and to have tendered his formal allegiance on the four following conditions : That no Chinese woman should be taken into the imperial se- raglio ; that the first place at the great triennial examination for the highest literary degrees should never be given to a Tartar ; that the people should adopt the national costume of the Tartars in their everyday life : but that they should be allowed to bury their corpses in the dress of the late dynasty ; that this condition of costume should not apply to the women of China who were not to be compelled either to wear the hair in a tail before marriage as the Tartar girls do, or to abandon the custom of compressing their feet. The great Ming dynasty was now at an end, though not destined wholly to pass away. A large part of it may be said to remain iu the literary monuments. The dress of the period survives upon the modern Chinese stage ; and when occasionally the alien yoke has galled, seditious whispers of " restoration " are not al- together unheard. Secret societies have always been dreaded and prohibited by the government ; and of these none more so than the famous " Triad Society," in which heaven, earth, and man are supposed to be associated in close alliance, and whose watchword is believed to embody some secret allusion to the downfall of the present dynasty. In the latter part of the sixteenth century, the civilization of western Europe began to make itself felt in China by the advent of the Portuguese, and this matter will be returned to iu the fol- lowing chapter. In other parts of the world, eventful times have set in. In England we are brought from the accession of Richard II. down to the struggle between the king and the commons and the ulti- mate establishment of the commonwealth. We have Henry IV. in France and Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain. In England, Shakspeare and Bacon; in France, Rabelais and Descartes; in Germany, Luther and Copernicus ; in Spain, Cervantes ; and in 68 IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. Italy, Galileo,Machiavelli andTasso; these names to which should be added those of the great explorers, Columbus and Vasco de Gama, serve to remind one of what was meanwhile passing in the west. FROM FIRST CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN CIVILIZA- TION TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR. How the Western Nations Formed the Acquaintance of China First Mention of the Orient by Grecian and Roman Historians Introduction of Judaism Nestorian Missionaries Bring Christianity Marco Polo's Wonderful Journey Roman Missionaries in the Field Dissentions among Christians Discredit their Work Work of the Jesuits The Dynasty of the Chiugs Splendid Literary Labors of Two Emperors Englands First Embassy to China The Opium War Opening the Ports of China Treaties with Western Nations The Tai-Ping Rebellion The Later Years of Chinese History. The works of several Greek and Roman historians, principally those of Ptolemy and Arian, who lived in the second century, contain references of a vague character to a country now generally believed to be China. Ptolemy states that his information came from the agents of Macedonian traders, who gave him an account of a journey of seven months from the principal city of eastern Turkestan, in a direction east inclining a little south. It is probable that these agents belonged to some of the Tartar tribes of Central Asia. They represented the name of this most eastern nation to be Serica, and that on the borders of this kingdom they met and traded with its inhabitants, the Seres. Herodotus speaks of the Isadores as a people in the extreme north-east of Asia. Ptolemy also mentions these tribes as a part of Serica and under its sway. Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman historian of the fourth century, speaks of the land of the Seres as surrounded by a high and continuous wall. This was about six hundred years after the great wall of northern China was built. Virgil, Pliny, Ricitus and Juvenal refer to the Seres in connection with the Seric garments which seem to have been made of fine silk or gauze. This article of dress was much sought after in Rome by the wealthy and luxurious, and as late as the second century, is said to have been worth its weight in gold. From the length and description of the route of the traders, the description of the mountains and rivers which they passed, the character of the people with whom they traded and the articles of traffic, the evi- dence seems almost conclusive that the nation which the Greeks and Romans designated by the name of Serica is that now known (71) 72 INTERCOURSE WITH WESTERN NATIONS. to us as China. The particular countries visited by the caravam which brought the silk to Europe, were probably the dependencies or territories of China on the west, or possibly cities within the extreme north-west limit of China proper. The introduction of Judaism into China is evidenced by a Jewish synagogue which existed until quite recently in Kai-fung- foo, a city in the province of Honan. Connected with this synagogue were some Hebrew manuscripts, and a few worshippers who retained some of the forms of their religion, but very little knowledge of its real character and spirit. There is a great deal of uncertainty as to when the Jews came to China, though they have, no doubt, resided there for many centuries. Nestorian missionaries entered China some time before the seventh century. The principal record which they have left of the success of their missions is the celebrated Nestorian monu- ment in Fen-gan-foo. This monument contains a short history of the sect from the year 630 to 781, and also an abstract of the Christian religion. The missionaries of this sect have left but few records of their labors or of their observations as travelers, but the churches planted by them seem to have existed until a com- paratively recent period. The Romish missionaries who entered China in the beginning of the fourteenth century, found them possessed of considerable influence, not only among the people, but also at court, and met with no little opposition from them in their first attempts to introduce the doctrines of their church. It seems to be true that during the period of nearly eight hundred years in which Nestorian Christianity maintained its foothold in China, large numbers of converts were made. But in process of time the Nestorian churches departed widely from their first teachings. After the fall of the Mongolian empire they were cut off from connection with the west, and not having sufficient vitality to resist the adverse influences of heathenism the people by degrees relapsed into idolatry or took up the new faiths that were introduced. The first western writer, whose works are extant, who has given anything like full and explicit explanation respecting China is Ser Marco Polo. He went to China in the year 1274, in company with his father and uncle, who were Venetian noblemen. At this SER MARCO POLO'S JOURNEY TO CHINA. 73 time, the independent nomad tribes of central Asia being united in one government, it was practicable to reach eastern Asia by passing through the Mongolian empire. Marco Polo spent twenty-four years in China, and seems to have been treated kindly and hospitably. After his return to Europe he was taken prisoner in a war with the Genoese, and during his confinement wrote an account of his travels. The description he gives of the vast territories of China, its teeming population, and flourishing cities, the refinement and civilization of its people, and their curious customs, seemed to his countrymen more like a fiction of fairyland than sober and authentic narrative. It is said that he was urged when on his death bed to retract these statements and make confession of falsehood, which he refused to do. He was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable travelers of any age. During the period of the Mongolian empire which comprer hended under its sway the greater part of Asia from China on the east to the Mediterranean on the west, an intense desire was kindled in the Roman church to convert this powerful nation to its faith. Among the first and the most noted of the missionaries sent to China at this time, was John of Mount Corvin, who reached Peking in 1293. He was afterward made an archbishop. From time to time bishops and priests were sent out to re-enforce this mission, but they met with indifferent success; and when the Mongols were driven from China the enterprise was abandoned as a complete failure. After the fall of the Mongolian empire, direct overland communication with eastern Asia was interrupted, and for about two hundred years China was again almost com- pletely isolated from the western world. The use of the magnetic needle, and improvements in naviga- tion, made a new era in intercourse with the Orient. It is sup- posed that the first voyage from Europe to China was made by a Portuguese vessel in 1516. From this period commercial inter- course with China became more frequent, and various embassies were sent to the Chinese court by different nations of Europe. Unfortunately the growing familiarity of the Chinese with west- ern nations did not increase their respect and confidence in them. This was due partly to the servility of most of the embassies to Peking, but principally, no doubt, to the want of honesty and 5 74 DISSENSIONS BETWEEN THE SECTS. the general lawlessness of most of the traders from the west. The consequence was that the Chinese became desirous of re- stricting foreign intercourse, and exercising as strict surveillance over their troublesome visitors as possible. Immediately after connection was established between Europe and the far east by sea, another and a more successful effort was made by the Roman church to propagate its faith in the Chinese empire, this being coincident with the growth of the exchange of business. Francis Xavier, in his attempt to gain an entrance into the country, died on one of the islands of the coast in 1552. Toward the close of the Sixteenth century the Portuguese ap- peared upon the scene, and from their " concession " at Macao, at one time the residence of Camoens, opened commercial relations between China and the west. They brought the Chinese, among other things, opium, which had previously been imported over- land from India. They possibly taught them how to make gun- powder, to the invention of which the Chinese do not seem, upon striking a balance of evidence, to possess an independent claim. About the same time Rome contributed the first installment of those wonderful Jesuit fathers whose names yet echo in the em- pire, the memory of their scientific labors and the benefits they thus conferred upon China having long survived the wreck and discredit of the faith to which they devoted their lives. At this distance of time it does not appear to be a wild statement, to as- sert that had the Jesuits, the Franciscans, and the Dominicans been able to resist quarreling among themselves, and had they rather united to persuade papal infallibility to permit the incor- poration of ancestor-worship with the rites and ceremonies of the Romish church, China would at this moment be a Catholic coun- try and Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism would long since have receded into 'the past. Of all these Jesuit missionaries, the name of Matteo Ricci stands by common consent upon the long list. He established himself in Canton in the garb of a Buddhist priest in 1581. He was a man of varied intellectual gifts and extensive learning, united with indomitable energy, zeal and perseverance, and great prudence. In 1601 he reached Peking in the dress of a literary gentleman. He spent many years in China. He associated with DISSENSIONS BETWEEN THE SECTS. 75 the highest personages in the land. He acquired an unrivalled knowledge of the book language, and left behind him several CHINESE PRIEST. valuable treatises of a metaphysical and theological character, written in such a polished style as to command the recognition 76 BEGINNING OF THE REIGNING DYNASTY. and even the admiration of the Chinese. One of his most inti- mate friends and fellow workers was the well-known scholar and statesman, Hsu Kuang-chi, the author of a voluminous com- pendium of agriculture, and joint author of the large work which introduced European astronomy to the Chinese. He was appointed by the emperor to co-operate with other Jesuit mis- sionaries in reforming the national calendar, which had gradually reached a stage of hopeless inaccuracy. He wrote independently several small scientific works ; also a severe criticism of the Buddhist religion, and finally, not least in importance, a defense of the Jesuits, addressed to the throne, when their influence at court had begun to excite envy and distrust. Hsu Kuang-chi forms the sole exception in the history of China of a scholar and a man of means and position 011 the side of Christianity. The age of the Chings is the age in which we live, but it is not so familiar to some persons as it ought to be that a Tartar and not a Chinese sovereign is now seated on the throne in China. For some time after the accession of the first Manchoo emperor, there was - =r " V ^S^^^^^^^k considerable friction between the MAN OF SWATOW. tW n **' , ^ ^g^ of the empire by the Manchoos was followed by a military occupation of the country, which survived the original necessity, and has remained part of the system of government until the present day. The dynasty thus founded, partly by accident as it seems, as was related in the last chapter, has remained in power through the entire period of intercourse with western nations. The title adopted by the first emperor of the line was Shun-che. It was during the reign of this sovereign that Adam Schaal, a German Jesuit, took up his residence at Peking and that the first Russian embassy, 1656, visited the cap- ital. But in those days the Chinese had not learned to tolerate THE GREATEST OF THE CHING RULERS. 77 the idea that a foreigner should enter the presence of the Son of Heaven unless he were willing to perform the prostration known as the Ko-t'ow, and the Russians not being inclined to humor any such presumptuous folly left the capital without opening negotiations. Of the nine emperors of this line, from the first to the present, the second in every way fills the largest space in Chinese history. Kang Hi, the son of Shun-che, reigned for sixty-one years. This sovereign is renowned in modern Chinese history as a model ruler, a skillful general and an able author. During his reign Thibet was added to the empire, and the Eleuths were successfully sub- dued. But it is as a just and considerate ruler that he is best re- membered among the people. He treated the early Catholic priests with kindness and distinction, and availed himself in many ways of their scientific knowledge. He promulgated sixteen moral maxims collectively known as the " Sacred Edict," forming a complete code of rules for the guidance of every day life, and presented in such terse, yet intelligible terms, that they at once took firm hold of the public mind and have retained their position ever since. Kang Hi was the most successful patron of literature the world has ever seen. He caused to be published under hi? own personal supervision the four following compilations, known as the four great works of the present dynasty : A huge thesaurus of extracts in one hundred and ten thick volumes ; an encyclopedia in four hundred and fifty books, usually bound in one hundred and sixty volumes ; an enlarged and improved edition of a herbarium in one hundred books ; and a complete collection of the important philosophical writings of Chu Hsi in sixty-six books. In addition to these the emperor designed and gave his name to the great modern lexicon of the Chinese language, which contains over forty thousand characters under separate entries, accompanied in each case by appropriate citations from the works of authors of every age and every style. The monumental encyclopedia contains articles on every known subject, and extracts from all works of authority dating from the twelfth century B. C. to that time. As only one hundred copies of the first imperial edition were printed, all of which were presented to princes of the blood and high officials, it is rapidly becoming extremely rare, and it is 78 HEARING MODERN TIMES. not unlikely that before long the copy in the possession of the British museum will be the only complete copy existing. A cold caught on a hunting excursion in Mongolia brought his memorable reign of sixty-one years to a close, and he was succeeded on the throne by his son Yung Ching. The labors of the missionaries during the years of this last reign have been effective in establishing many churches and bishoprics, and in making many thousands of converts. But the suspicions in the minds of the Chinese rulers that the Christians were leagued with rebels, as well as the controversies between the different sects, antagonized the authorities. Under the third Manchoo emperor, Yung Ching, began that violent persecution of the Catholics which continued almost to the present day, and in the year 1723 an edict was promulgated prohibiting the further propagation of this religion in the empire. From this time the Roman Catholics were subjected to this persecution except for a few alternate periods of comparative toleration. They have re- tained their position in the face of great difficulties and trials, and since the late treaties with China the number of their converts has rapidly increased. After a reign of twelve years, Yung Ching was gathered to his fathers, having bequeathed the throne to his son Kien Lung. This fourth emperor of the dynasty enjoyed a long and glorious reign. He possessed many of the great qualities of his grandfather, but he lacked his wisdom and moderation. His generals led a large army into Nepaul and conquered the Goorkhas, reaching a point only some sixty miles distant from British territory. He carried his armies north, south, and west, and converted Kuldja into a Chinese province. But in Burinah, Cochin China, and Formosa his troops suffered discomfiture. During his reign, which ex- tended over sixty years, a full Chinese cycle, the relations of his government with the East India Company were extremely unsat- isfactory. The English merchants were compelled to submit to many indignities and wrongs ; and for the purpose of establishing a better international understanding Lord Macartney was sent by George III. on a special mission to the court of Peking. The ambassador was received graciously by the emperor, who accepted the presents sent him by the English king, but owing to his MONUMENTAL LITERARY LABORS. 81 ignorance of his own relative position, and of even the rudiments of international law, he declined to give those assurances of a more equitable policy which were demanded of him. Like his illustrious ancestor, Kien Lung was a generous patron of literature, though only two instead of five great literary monu- ments remain to mark his sixty years of power. These are a magnificent bibliographical work in two hundred parts, consisting of a catalogue of the books in the imperial library, with valuable historical and critical notices attached to the entries of each ; and a huge topography of the whole empire in five hundred books, beyond doubt one of the most comprehensive and exhaustive works of the kind ever published. Kang Hi had been a volumin- ous poet ; but the productions of Kien Lung far outnumber those of any previous or subsequent bard. For more than fifty years this emperor was an industrious poet, finding time in the intervals of state duties to put together no fewer than thirty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty separate pieces. In the estimation however of this apparently impossible contribution to poetic literature, it must always be borne in mind that the stanza of four lines is a favorite length for a poem and that the couplet is not uncommon. Even thus a large balance stands to the credit of a Chinese em- peror, whose time. is rarely his own, and whose day is divided with wearisome regularity, beginning with councils and audiences long before daylight has appeared. We gain a glimpse into Kien Lung's court from the account of Lord Macartney's embassy in 1795, which was so favorably received by the venerable monarch a short time previous to his abdication, and three years before his death, and forms such a contrast with that of Lord Amherst to his successor in 1816. In 1795, at the age of eighty-five years, Kien Lung abdicated in favor of his fifteenth son who ascended the throne with the title of Kea King. During the reign of Kea King, a second English embassy was sent to Peking, in 1816, to represent to the emperor the unsatis- factory position of the English merchants in China. The envoy, Lord Amherst, was met at the mouth of the Peiho and conducted to Yuen-ming-yuen or summer palace, where the emperor was re- siding. On his arrival he was officially warned that only on con- dition of his performing the Ko-t'ow would he be permitted to 82 PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES AT WORK. behold "the dragon countenance." This of course was impos CHINESE PEASANT, PEIHO DISTRICT. sible-, and he consequently left the palace without having slept 9 night under its roof. PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES AT WORK. 83 Meanwhile the internal affairs of the country were even more disturbed than the foreign relations. A succession of rebellions broke out in the western and northern provinces and the sea- boards were ravaged by pirates. While these disturbing causes were in full play the emperor died, in 1820, and the throne de- volved upon Tao Kuang, his second son. It was during the reign of Kea King that Protestant missionaries initiated a syste- matic attempt to convert the Chinese to Christianity ; but the religious toleration of these people, which on the whole has been a marked feature in their civilization of all ages, had been sorely tried by the Catholics and but little progress was made. In an- other direction some of the early Protestant missionaries did great service to the world at large. They spent much of their time in grappling with the difficulties of the written language ; and the publication of Dr. Morrison's famous dictionary and the achievements of Dr. Legge were the culmination of these labors. Under Tao Kuang both home and foreign affairs went from bad to worse. A secret league known as the Triad Society, which was first formed during the reign of Kang Hi, now as- sumed a formidable bearing, and in many parts of the country, notably in Honan, Kwang-hsi, and Formosa, insurrections broke out at its instigation. At the same time the mandarins continued to persecute the English merchants, and on the expiration of the East India Company's monopoly in 1834 the English government sent Lord Napier to Canton to superintend the foreign trade at that port. Thwarted at every turn by the presumptuous obsti- nacy of the mandarins, Lord Napier's health gave way under the constant vexations connected with his post, and he died at Macao after but a few months' residence in China. The opium trade was now the question of the hour, and at the urgent demand of Commissioner Lin, Captain Elliot, the super- intendent of trade, agreed that all opium in the hands of English merchants should be given up to the authorities. On the 3rd of April, 1839, twenty thousand two hundred and eighty-three chests of opium were, in accordance with this agreement, handed over to the mandarins, who burnt them to ashes. This demand of Lin's, though agreed to by the superin- tendent of trade, was considered so unreasonable by the English 84 OPIUM TRADE AND THE WAR. government that in the following year war was declared against China. The island of Chusan and the Bogue forts on the Canton river soon fell into the English hands, and Commissioner Lin's successor sought to purchase peace by the cession of Hong Kong and the payment of an indemnity of 16,000,000. This conven- tion was, however, repudiated by the Peking government, and it was not until Canton, Amoy, Ningpo, Shanghai, Chapoo and Chin-keang Foo had been taken by the British troops, that the emperor at last consented to come to terms, now of course far more onerous. By a treaty made by Sir Henry Pottinger in 1842 the cession of Hong Kong was supplemented by the open- ing of the four ports of Amoy, Foochow Foo, Ningpo, and Shanghai to foreign trade, and the indemnity of $6,000,000 was increased to $21,000,000. Without noticing the other points at issue and the merits of the dispute concerning them, it is considered by the world at large that one of the blackest pages in the records of the history of civilization is that which tells of the forcing of the opium traffic upon the Chinese by Great Britain. The Chinese people were making most strenuous efforts to abolish the traffic in opium and the habit of its use, which had been introduced from India, and which was rapidly becoming the curse of the nation. But for commercial motives, in this Victorian age of civilization, England sent to force compliance with the demand of her mer- chants in China that the sale of the drug be legalized. The rapid spread of the use of opium among the hundreds of millions of Chinese, dating from this time, may be charged against En- gland, in the long account which records the oppression and the shame of her dealings with whatever eastern nation she has played the game of war and colonization and annexation. Death put an end to Tao Kuang's reign in 1850, and his fourth son, Hien Feng, assumed rule over the distracted empire which was bequeathed him by his father. There is a popular belief among the Chinese that two hundred years is the natural life of a dynasty. This is one of those traditions which are apt to bring about their own fulfilment, and in the beginning of the reign of Hien Feng the air was rife with rumors that an effort was to be made to restore the Ming dynasty to the throne. OB HOW THE TAI-PING REBELLION BEGAN. 87 such occasions there are always real or pretended scions of the required family forthcoming. And when the flames of rebellion broke out in Kwang-hsi a claimant suddenly appeared under the title of Teen-tih, " heavenly virtue," to head the movement. Bui he had not the capacity required to play the necessary part, and the affair languished and would have died out altogether had not a leader named Hung Sew-tseuen arose, who combined all the qualities required in a leader of men, energy, enthusiasm, and religious bigotry. As soon as he was sufficiently powerful he advanced northward into Honan and Hoopih, and cap- tured Woo-chang Foo, the capital of the last named province, and a city of great com- mercial and strate- gical importance, situated as it is at the junction of the Han river with the Chiang. Having made this place secure he advanced down the river and made himself mas- ter of Gan-ting and the old capital of the empire, Nanking. Here in 1852 he estab- lished his throne, and proclaimed the commencement of Tai- ping dynasty. For himself he adopted the title of Teen-wang, or " heavenly king." For a time all went well with the new dynasty. The Tai-ping standard was carried northward to the walls of Tien-tsin and floated over the towns of Chin-keang Foo and Soochow Foo. Meanwhile the imperial authorities had by their stupidity raised another enemy against themselves. The outrage on the English flag perpetrated on board the Chinese lorcha "Arrow," at Canton CHINESE MANDARIN. 88 CHINA AT WAR WITH ENGLAND. in 1857, having been left unredressed by the mandarins, led to the proclamation of war by England. Canton fell to the arms oi General Straubenzee, and Sir Michael Seymour in December of the same year, and in the following spring the Taku forts at the mouth of the Peiho having been taken, Lord Elgin, who had in the meantime arrived as plenipotentiary minister, advanced up the river to Tien-tsin on his way to the capital. At that city, however, he was met by imperial commissioners, and yielding to their entreaties he concluded a treaty with them which it was arranged should be ratified at Peking in the following year. But the evil genius of the Chinese still pursuing them, they treacherously fired on the fleet accompanying Sir Frederic Bruce, Lord Elgin's brother, proceeding in 1860 to Peking, in fulfillment of this agreement.' This outrage rendered another military ex- pedition necessary, and in conjunction with the French govern- ment, the English cabinet sent out a force under the command of Sir Hope Grant, with orders to march to Peking. In the sum- mer of 1861 the allied forces landed at Peh-tang, a village twelve miles north of the Taku forts, and taking these intrenchments in the rear captured them with but a trifling loss. This success was so utterly unexpected by the Chinese, that leaving Tien-tsin unprotected they retreated rapidly to the neighborhood of the capital. The allies pushed on after them, and in reply to an in- vitation sent from the imperial commissioners at Tung-chow, a town twelve miles from Peking, Sir Harry Parkes and Mr. Loch, accompanied by an escort and some few friends, went in advance of the army to make a preliminary convention. While so engaged they were treacherously taken prisoners and carried to Peking. This act precipitated an engagement in which the Chinese were completely routed, and the allies marched on to Peking. After the usual display of obstinacy the Chinese yielded to the demand for the surrender of the An-ting gate of the city. From this vantage point Lord Elgin opened negotiations, and having secured the release of Sir Harry Parkes and the other prisoners who had survived the tortures to which they had been subjected, and hav- ing burnt the summer palace of the emperor as a punishment for their treacherous capture and for the cruelties perpetrated on them, he concluded a treaty with Prince Kung, the representative PUNISHMENT FOR TREACHERY. 89 of the emperor. By this instrument the Chinese agreed to pay a war indemnity of $8,000,000 and to open six other ports in China, one in Formosa, and one in the island of Hainan to foreign trade, and to permit the representatives of the foreign governments to reside at Peking. GATE AT PEKING. Having thus relieved themselves from the presence of a foreign foe, the authorities were able to devote their attention to the suppression of the Tai-ping rebellion. Fortunately for them- selves, the apparent friendliness with which they greeted th 6 90 CHINESE GORDON AND HIS WORK. arrival of the British legation at Peking enlisted for them the sympathies of Sir Frederic Bruce, the British minister, and in- clined him to listen to their request for the services of an English officer in their campaign against the rebels. At the request of Bruce, General Staveley selected Major Gordon, since generally known as Chinese Gordon, who was killed a few years ago at Khartoom, for this duty. A better man or one more peculiarly fit for the work could have been found. A numerous force known as " the ever victorious army," partly officered by foreign- ers, had for some time been commanded by an American named Ward and after his death by Burgevine, another American. Over this force Gordon was placed, and at the head of it he marched in conjunction with the Chinese generals against the Tai-pings. With masterly strategy he struck a succession of rapid and tell- ing blows against the fortunes of the rebels. City after city fell into his hands, and at length the leaders at Soochow opened the gates of the city to him on condition that he would spare their lives. With cruel treachery, when these men presented them- selves before Li Hung Chang to 'offer their submission to the em- peror, they were seized and beheaded. On learning how lightly his -word had been treated by the Chinese general, Gordon armed himself, for the first time during the campaign with a revolver, and sought out the Chinese headquarters intending to avenge with his own hand this murder of the Tai-ping leaders. But Li Hung Chang having received timely notice of the righteous anger he had aroused took to flight, and Gordon, thus thwarted in his immediate object, threw up his command feeling that it was im- possible to continue to act with so orientally-minded a colleague. After considerable negotiation however, he was persuaded to return to his command and soon succeeded in so completely crip- pling the power of the rebels that in July 1864, Nanking, their last stronghold, fell into the hands of the imperialists. Teen- wang was then already dead, and his body was found within the walls wrapped in imperial yellow. Thus was crushed out a rebellion which had paralyzed the imperial power in the central provinces of the empire and which had for twelve years seriously threatened the existence of the reigning dynasty. Meanwhile in the summer following the conclusion of the OPIUM SMOKERS. MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH CATHOLICS. 93 treaty of Peking, 1861, the emperor, Hien Feng, breathed his last at Jehol, an event which was in popular belief foretold by the appearance of a comet in the early part of the summer. He was succeeded to the throne by his only son, a mere child, and the off- spring of one of the imperial concubines. He adopted the name of Tung Chih. On account of his youth the administration of affairs was placed in the hands of the two dowager empresses, the wife of the last emperor and the mother of the new one. These regents were aided by the counsels of the boy emperor's uncle, Prince Kung. Under the direction of these regents, though the internal affairs of the empire prospered, .the foreign relations were dis- turbed by the display of an increasingly hostile spirit towards the Christian missionaries and their converts, which culminated in 1870 in the Tien-tsin massacre. In some of the central prov- inces reports had been industriously circulated that the Roman Catholic missionaries were in the habit of kidnapping and mur- dering children, in order to make medicine from their eyeballs. Ridiculous as the rumor was, it found ready credence among the ignorant people, and several outrages were perpetrated on the missionaries and their converts in Kwang-hsi and Sze chwan. Through the active interference, however, of the French min- ister on the spot, the agitation was locally suppressed only to be renewed at Tien-tsin. Here also the same absurd rumors were set afloat, and were especially directed against some sisters of charity who had opened an orphanage in the city. For some days previous to the massacre on the 21st of June, reports increasing in alarm reached the foreign residents that an outbreak was to be apprehended, and three times the English consul wrote to Chung How, the superintendent of the three northern ports, calling upon him to take measures to subdue the gathering passions of the people which had been further danger- ously exasperated by an infamous proclamation issued by the prefects. To these communications the consul did not receive any reply, and on the morning of the 21st, a day which had ap- parently been deliberately fixed for the massacre, the attack was made. The mob first broke into the French consulate and while the consul, M. Fontanier, was with Chung How endeavoring to 94 PUNISHMENT OF THE MURDERERS. persuade him to interfere, two Frenchmen and their wives, and Father Chevrien were there murdered. While returning the consul suffered the same fate. Having thus whetted their taste for blood, the rioters then set fire to the French cathedral, and afterward moved on to the orphanage of the sisters of mercy. In spite of the appeals of these defenseless women for mercy, if not for themselves at least for the orphans under their charge, the mob broke into the hospital, killed and mutilated most shock- ingly all the sisters, smothered from thirty to forty children in the vault, and carried off a still larger number of older persons to prisons in the city, where they were subjected to tortures of which they bore terrible evidence when their release was at length affected. In addition to these victims, a Russian gentle- man with his bride, and a friend, who were unfortunate enough to meet the rioters on their way to the cathedral, were also mur- dered. No other foreigners were injured, a circumstance due to the fact that the fury of the mob was primarily directed against the French Roman Catholics, and also that the foreign settle- ment where all but those engaged in missionary work resided, was at a distance of a couple of miles from the city. When the evil was done, the Chinese authorities professed themselves anxious to make reparation, and Chung How was eventually sent to Paris to offer the apologies of the Peking cab- inet to the French government. These were ultimately accepted ; and it was further arranged that the Tien-tsin prefect and district magistrate should be removed from their posts and degraded, and that twenty of the active murderers should be executed. By these retributive measures the emperor's government made its peace with the European powers, and the foreign relations again assumed their former friendly footing. The Chinese had now leisure to devote their efforts to the sub- jugation of the Panthay rebels. This was a great Mohammedan uprising which dated back as far as 1856 and which had for its object the separation of the province of Yun-nan into an inde- pendent state. The visit of the adopted son of the rebel leader, the sultan Suleiman, to England, for the purpose of attempting to enlist the sympathies of the English government in the Pau- thay cause, no doubt added zest to the action of the mandarins, EMPEROR RECEIVES THE MINISTERS. 95 who after a short but vigorous campaign, marked by scenes of bloodshed and wholesale carnage, suppressed the rebellion and restored the province to the imperial sway. Peace was thus brought about, and when the empresses handed over the reigns of power to the emperor, on the occasion of his marriage in 1872, tranquility reigned throughout the eighteen provinces. The formal assumption of power proclaimed by this marriage was considered by the foreign ministers a fitting oppor- tunity to insist on the fulfillment of the article in the treaties which provided for their reception by the emperor, and after much negotiation it was finally arranged that the emperor should receive them on the 29th of June, 1873. Very early therefore on the morning of that day, the ministers were astir and were conducted in their sedan chairs to the park on the west side of the palace, where the}- were met by some of the ministers of state, who led them to the " Temple of Prayer for Seasonable Weather." Here they were kept waiting for some time while tea and confectionery from the imperial kitchen, by favor of the emperor, were served to them. They were then conducted to an oblong tent made of matting on the west side of the Tsze-kwang pavilion, where they were met by Prince Kung and other ministers. As soon as the emperor reached the pavilion, the Japanese ambassador was introduced into his pres- ence and when he had retired the other foreign ministers entered the audience chamber in a body. The emperor was seated facing southward. On either side of his majesty stood, with Prince Kung, several princes and high officers. When the foreign min- isters reached the center aisle they halted and bowed one and all together ; they then advanced in line a little further and made a second bow ; and when they had nearly reached the yellow table on which their credentials were to be deposited they bowed a third time ; after which they remained erect. M. Vlangaly, the Russian minister, then read a congratulatory address in French, which was translated by an interpreter into Chinese, and the ministers making another reverence respectfully laid their letters of credence upon the yellow table. The emperor was pleased to make a slight inclination of the head tosvards them, and Prince Kung advancing to the left of the throne and falling upon his 96 CEREMONIES OF THE RECEPTION. knees, had the honor to be informed in Manchoo that his majesty acknowledged the receipt of the letters presented. Prince Kung, with his arms raised according to precedent set by Confucius when in the presence of his sovereign, came clown by the steps on the left of the desk, to the foreign ministers, and respectfully re- peated this in Chinese. After this he again prostrated himself, and in like manner received and conveyed a message to the effect that his majesty hoped that all foreign questions would be satis- factorily disposed of. The ministers then withdrew, bowing repeatedly, until they reached the entrance. Thus ended the first instance during the present century of Europeans being received in imperial audience. Whether under more fortunate circumstances the ceremony might have been re- peated it is difficult to say, but in the following year the young emperor was stricken down with the small-pox, or " enjoyed the felicity of the heavenly flowers," and finally succumbed to the disease on the twelfth of January, 1875. With great ceremony the funeral obsequies were performed over the body of him who had been Tung Chih, and the coffin was finally laid in the imperial mausoleum among the eastern hills beside the remains of his pred- ecessors. His demise was shortly afterwards followed by the death of the girl empress he had just previously raised to the throne. For the first time in the annals of the Ching dynasty, the throne was now left without a direct heir. As it is the office of the son and heir to perform regularly the ancestral worship, it is necessary that if there should be no son, the heir should be, if possible, of a later generation than the deceased. In the present instance this was impossible, and it was necessary therefore that the lot should fall on one of the cousins of the late emperor. Tsai-teen, the son of the Prince of Chun, a child not quite four years old, was chosen to fill the vacant throne, and the title con- ferred upon him was Kuang Su or " an inheritance of glory." Scarcely had the proclamation gone forth of the assumption of the imperial title by Kuang Su, when news reached the English legation at Peking of the murder at Manwyne, in the province of Yun-nan, of Mr. Margary, an officer in the consular service who had been dispatched to meet an expedition sent by the Indian MURDER OF AN ENGLISH EXPLORER. 97 government, under the command of Colonel Horace Browne, to discover a route from Birmah into the south-western provinces of China. In accordance with conventional practice, the Chinese government, on being called to account for this outrage, attempted to lay it to the charge of brigands. But the evidence which Sir Thomas Wade was able to adduce proved too strong to be ignored even by the Peking mandarins, and eventually they signed a con- vention in which they practically acknowledged their blood guilti- ness, under the terms of which some fresh commercial privileges were granted, and an indemnity was paid. At the same time a Chinese nobleman was sent to England to make apology, and to establish an embassy on a permanent footing at the court of St. James. Since that time the Chinese empire has been at peace with all foreign powers until the eruptions of the recent months. There have been some narrow escapes from war with the European countries holding possessions on the southern Chinese border, but serious results have not followed. Ministers have been maintained in China by the western nations, and by China in the western capitals. Under the child Kuang Su, who came to the throne in 1875, we have seen the completion of Chinese re-conquests in Central Asia and the restoration of Kuldja by the Russians. For many years the progressive party in the nation's councils, under the leadership of Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of Chihli, gradually ap- peared to gain ground, amply posted as the court of Peking was in the affairs of western countries. Even the old conservative party, of which the successful and the aged general Tso Tsung- tang was the representative, has vastly modified its tone in the last twenty years. It is true that the short experimental line of railway which had been laid down between Shanghai and Wusung was objected to, and finally got rid of by the Chinese government ; but the reason for this apparently retrograde step arose out of the not very scrupulous means employed by the promoters of the scheme, and out of the very natural dislike of an independent state to be forced into innovations for which it may not be altogether pre- pared. Since that time several telegraph lines have been con- structed, beginning with the first one between Peking and 98 CHINA'S SLOW PROGRESS. Shanghai, which formed the final connecting link between the capital of the Chinese empire and the western civilized world. The freedom of residence has been greatly extended to foreigners living in China. Travel has become safer, and popular hatred towards foreigners not as apparent. Slow as it has been to take effect, nevertheless the influence of closer association with western civilization has made its impress on the Chinese nation, and the extreme conservatism in many details has been compelled to waver. The stories of the war which are to follow will indicate much of the characteristics of the later day history of the empire. THE CHINESE EMPIRE. Origin of the Name of China, aud What the Chinese Call their Own Country Depend- encies of the Empire China and the United States in Comparison Their Many Physical Similarities Mountains and Plains The Fertile Soil Provinces of China Rivers and Lakes Climate Fauna and Flora Industries of the People Commerce with Foreign Nations The Cities of China Forms of Government and Administration. Until recent years the word China was unknown in the empire which we call by that name, but of late it has become more familiar to the Chinese, and in certain regions they are in fact adopting it for their own use, owing to the frequency with which they hear it from the foreigners with whom they are doing busi- ness. The name was no doubt introduced in Europe and America from the nations of Central Asia who speak of the Chinese by various names derived from that of the powerful Ching family, who .held sway many centuries ago. The names which the Chinese use in speaking of themselves are various. The most common one is Chung Kwo, the " Middle Kingdom." This term grew up in the feudal period as a name for the royal domain in the midst of the other states, or for those states as a whole in the midst of the uncivilized countries around them. The assump- tion of universal sovereignty, of being the geographical center of the world, and also the center of light and civilization that have been so injurious to the nation, appear in several of the moat ancient names. In the oldest classical writings the country is called the Flowery Kingdom, flowery presenting the idea of beautiful, cultivated, and refined. The terms Heavenly Flowery Kingdom, and Heavenly Dynasty are sometimes used, the word heavenly presenting the Chinese idea that the empire is estab- lished by the authority of heaven, and that the emperor rules by divine right. This title has given rise to the contemptuous epithet applied to the race by the Europeans, " The Celestials." The Chinese empire, consisting of China proper and Man- chooria, with its dependencies of Mongolia, I-li and Thibet, em- braces a vast territory in eastern and central Asia, only inferior (99) 100 DEPENDENCIES OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE. in extent to the dominions of Great Britain and Russia. The dependencies are not colonies but subject territories ; and China proper itself indeed, has been a subject territory of Manchooria since 1644. China proper was divided nearly two hundred years ago into eighteen provinces; and since the recent separation of the island of Formosa from Fn-chien, and its constitution into an independ- ent province, we may say that it now consists of nineteen. These form one of the corners of the Asiatic continent, having the Pacific ocean on the south and east. They are somewhat in the shape of an irregular rectangle, and including the island of Hainan lie between 18 and 49 degrees north latitude and 98 and 124 degrees east longitude. Their area is about two million square miles, while the whole empire has an area more than twice that large. In giving a correct general idea of China one cannot perhaps do better than to institute a comparison between it and the United States, to which it bears a striking resemblance. It occu- pies the same position in the eastern hemisphere that the United States does in the western. Its line of sea coast on the Pacific resembles that of the United States on the Atlantic, not only in length but also in contour. Being found within almost the same parallels of latitude, it embraces almost the same variety of climate and production. A river as grand as the Mississippi, flowing east, divides the empire into nearly two equal parts, which are often designated as "north of the river" and "south of the river." It passes through an immense and fertile valley, and is supplied by numerous tributaries having rise in mountain ranges on either side and also in the Himalayas on the west. The area of China proper is about two-thirds that of the states of the American union. The resemblance holds also in the artificial divisions. While our country is divided into more than forty states, China is divided into nineteen provinces. As our states are divided into counties, so each province has divisions called fu and each fu is again divided into about an equal number of hien. These divis- ions and subdivisions of the provinces are generally spoken of in English as departments or prefectures, and districts, but they are CHINESE MINERS. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES. 103 much larger than our corresponding counties and townships. And similarly to our own system of government, each of these divisions and subdivisions has its own capital or seat of civil power, in which the officers exercising jurisdiction over it reside. The outer dependencies of the Chinese empire are comparatively sparsely populated, and in this work, when China, without spec- ification, is mentioned, it is intended to refer to the eighteen provinces exclusively, which include the vast proportion of the population, intelligence and wealth of the empire. As to the physical features of China proper, the whole terri- tory may be described as sloping from the mountainous regions of Thibet and Nepaul towards the shores of the Pacific on the east and south. A far extending spur of the Himalayas called the Nanling, or southern range, is the most extensive mountain system. It commences in Yun-nan, and passing completely through the country enters the sea at Ningpo. Except for a few steep passes, it thus forms a continuous barrier that separates the coast regions of south-eastern China from the rest of the country. Numerous spurs are cast off to the south and east of it, which appear in the sea as a belt of rugged islands. On the borders of Thibet to the north and west of this range, the country is mount- ainous, while to the east and from the great wall on the north to the Po-yang Lake in the south, there is the great plain comprising an area of more than two hundred thousand square miles and supporting in the five provinces contained in it more than one hundred and seventy-five million people. In the north-western provinces the soil is a brownish colored earth, extremely porous, crumbling easily between the fingers, and carried far and wide in clouds of dust. It covers the sub -soil to an enormous depth and is apt to split perpendicularly in clefts which render traveling difficult. Nevertheless by this cleavage it affords homes to thousands of the people, who live in caves ex- cavated near the bottom of the cliffs. Sometimes whole villages are so formed in terraces of the earth that rise one above another. The most valuable quality of this peculiar soil is its marvelous fertility, as the fields composed of it require scarcely any other dressing than a sprinkling of its own fresh loam. The farmer in this way obtains an assured harvest two and even three times a 104 MOUNTAINS, PLAINS AND PROVINCES. year. This fertility, provided there be a sufficient rainfall, seems inexhaustible. The province of Shan-hsi has borne the name for thousands of years of the " granary of the nation," and it is, no doubt, due to the distribution of this earth over its surface, that the great plain owes its fruitfulness. Geographically speaking the arrangement of the provinces of China is as follows: On the north there are four provinces, Chihli, Shan-hsi, Shen-hsi, and Kan-su ; on the west two, Sze- chwau, the largest of all, and Yun-nan ; on the south two, Kwang-hsi and Kwang-tung ; on the east four, Fu-chien, Cheh- chiang, Chiang-su, and Shan-tung. The central area enclosed by these twelve provinces is occupied by Honan, An-hui, Hoopih, Hunan, Chiang-hsi, and Kwei-chau. The latter is a poor prov- ince, with parts of it largely occupied by clans or tribes supposed to be the aborigines. The island of Formosa, lying off the coast of Fu-chien, ninety miles west of Amoy, is about two hundred and thirty-five miles in length, fertile and rich in coal, petroleum, and camphor wood. The first settlement of a Chinese population took place only in 1683, and the greater part of it is still occupied by aboriginal tribes of a more than ordinary high type. The population of these provinces is immense, but the various esti- mates and alleged censuses fluctuate and vary so much that it is impossible to give a definite number as the total. It is a safe estimate however to say that the population of the Chinese empire approximates four hundred million, or considerably more than one-fourth the population of the world, and nearly as much as the total of all Europe and America. One of the most distinguishing features of China is found in the great rivers. These are called for the most part " ho " in the north and "chiang" (kiang) in the south. Two of these are famous and conspicuous among the great rivers of the world, the Ho, Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, and the Chiang, generally mis- named the Yang-tsze. The sources of these two rivers are not far from one another. The Ho rises in the plain of Odontala, which is a region of springs and small lakes, and the Chiang from the mountains of Thibet only a few miles distant. The Ho pur- sues a tortuous course first to the east and north until it crosses the great wall into Mongolia. After flowing a long distance TWO GREAT RIVERS OF CHINA. 105 Southward of tLe Mongolian desert, to the northern limit of Shen- hsi, it then turns directly south for a distance of five hundred miles. A right angle turns its course again to the eastward and finally north-eastward, when it flows into the Gulf of Pechili in the province of Shan-tung. The Chiang on the contrary turns south where the Ho turns north, and then after a general course to the eastward and northward, roughly paralled with its fellow, flows into the Eastern Sea, not far from Shanghai. Both rivers are exceedingly tortuous and their courses are only roughly outlined here. Almost the very opening of Chinese history is an account of one of the inundations of the Ho River, which has often in course of time changed its channel. The terrible calamities caused by it so often have procured for it the name of "China's sorrow." As recently as 1887 it burst its southern bank near Chang Chau, and poured its mighty flood with hideous devastation, and the destruction of millions of lives, into the populous province of Honan. Each of these rivers has a course of more than three thousand miles. They are incompar- ably the greatest in China, but there are many others which would be accounted great elsewhere. In connection with inland navigation must be mentioned the Grand Canal, intended to con- nect the northern and southern parts of the empire by an easy water communication ; and this it did when it was in good order, extending from Peking to Hankow, a distance of more than six hundred miles. Kublai Khan, the first sovereign of the Yuan dynasty, must be credited with the glory of making this canal. Marco Polo described it, and compliments the great ruler for the success of his work. Steam communication all along the eastern seaboard from Canton to Tien-tsin has very much superseded the use of the canal and portions of it are now in bad condition, but as a truly imperial achievement it continues to be a grand memo- rial of Kublai. The Great Wall was another vast achievement of human labor, constructed more than two thousand years ago. It has been alleged a myth at some times, but its existence has not been denied since explorations have been made to the north of China Proper. It was not as useful as the canal, and it failed to answei the purpose for which it was intended, a defense against the in 7 106 CHINA'S WONDERFUL GREAT WALL. cursions of the northern tribes. In 214 B. C. the Emperor Che Hwang Ti determined to erect a grand barrier all along the northern limit of his vast empire. The wall commences at the Shan-hsi pass on the north coast of the Gulf of Pechili. From this point it is carried westward till it terminates at the Chia-yu barrier gate, the road through which leads to the " western re- gions." It is twice interrupted in its course by the Ho River, and has several branch and loop walls to defend certain cities and dis- tricts. Its length in a straight line would be one thousand two hundred and fifty-five miles, but if measured along its sinuosities this distance must be increased to one thousand five hundred. It is not built so grandly in its western portions after passing the Ho River, nor should it be supposed that to the east of this point it is all solid masonry. It is formed by two strong retaining walls of brick rising from granite foundations, the space between being filled with stones and earth. The breadth of it at the base is about twenty-five feet, at the top fifteen feet, and the height varies from fifteen to thirty feet. The surface at the top was once covered with bricks but is now overgrown with grass. What travelers go to visit from Peking is merely a loop wall of later formation, enclosing portions of Chihli and Shan-hsi. China includes many lakes, but they are not so commanding in size as the rivers. There are but three which are essential to mention. These are the Tung-ting Hu, the largest, having a cir- cumference of two hundred and twenty miles, about in the center of the empire ; the Po-yang Hu, half way between the former and the sea ; and the Tai Hu, not far from Shanghai and the Yang-tsze River. The latter lake is famous for its romantic scenery and numerous islets. The peculiarities of climate along the Chinese coast are due in great measure to the northern and southern monsoons, the former prevailing with more or less uniformity during the winter, and the latter during the summer months. These winds give a greater degree of heat in summer and of cold in winter than is experienced in the United States in corresponding latitudes. At Ningpo, situated in latitude 30, about that of New Orleans, large quantities of ice are secured in the winter for summer use. It is, however, very thin measured by what we think proper ice for CLIMATE OF CHINA. 107 perservatiou. In this part of China snow not infrequently falls to the depth of six or eight inches, and the hills are sometimes covered with it for weeks in succession. In the northern prov- inces the winters are very severe. In the vicinity of Peking, not only are the canals and rivers closed during the winter, but all commerce by sea is suspended during two or three months, while in the summer that part of China is very warm. The period of the change of the monsoon, when the two opposite currents are struggling with each other is marked by a great fall of rain and by the cyclones which are so much dreaded by mariners on the Chinese coast. The southern monsoon gradually loses its force in passing northward, and is not very marked above latitude 32, though its influence is decidedly felt in July and August. With the exception of the summer months the climate of the northern coast of China is remarkably dry ; that of the southern coast is damp most of the year, especially during the mouths of May, June, and July. In different parts of the country almost every variety of climate can be found, hot or cold, moist or dry, salubrious or malarial. The ports which were at first opened as places of residence for foreigners were unfortunately among the most unhealthful of the empire, not so much from the enervating effects of their southerly latitude as from their local miasmatic influences, being situated in the rice-producing districts and surrounded more or less by stagnant water during the summer months. Under the later treaties which opened new ports in the north, as well as interior cities, foreigners have been permitted to live in regions whose climates will compare favorably with most parts of our own country. The Chinese themselves consider Kwang-tung, Kwang- hsi, and Yun-nan to be less healthful than the other provinces; but foreigners using proper precautions may enjo}- their lives in every province. The Chinese are essentially an agricultural people, and from time immemorial they have held agriculture in the highest esteem as being the means by which the soil has been induced to supply the primary wants of the empire, food. Of course the climate and the nature of a district determine the kind of farming appro- priate to it. Agriculturally China may be said to be divided 108 WHERE FOREIGNERS LIVE. into two parts by the Chiang. South of that river, speaking generally, the soil and climate point to rice as the appropriate crop, while to the north lie vast plains which as clearly are best designed for growing wheat, barley, oats, Indian corn and other cereals. Culinary or kitchen herbs, mushrooms, and aquatic veg- etables, with ginger and a variety of other condiments, are every- where produced and widely used. From Formosa there comes sugar, and the cane thrives also in the southern provinces. CHINESE FARM SCENE. Oranges, pomegranates, peaches, plantains, pineapples, mangoes, grapes, and many other fruits and nuts are supplied in most markets. The cultivation of opium is constantly on the increase. Of course the use of tea as a beverage is a national characteris- tic. The plant does not grow in the north, but is cultivated ex- tensively in the western provinces and in the southern. The in- fusion of the leaves was little if at all drunk in ancient limes, but now its use is universal. Fu-chien, Hoopih, and Hu-nan produce 110 ANIMALS WILD AND DOMESTIC. the greater part of the black teas ; the green comes chiefly from Cheh-chiahg and An-hui ; both kinds comes from Kwang-tung and Sze-chwan. Next to silk, if not equally with it, tea is China's most valuable export. From rice and millet the Chinese distill alcoholic liquors, but they are very sparingly used and it is a com- pliment to the temperate inclinations of the people, that immedi- ately upon the opening of tea houses many years ago, the places for selling liquor found themselves empty of business and were soon compelled to close. Birds and animals are found in great variety, though the coun- try is too thickly peopled and well cultivated to harbor many wild and dangerous beasts. One occasionally hears of a tiger that has ventured from the forest and been killed or captured, but the lion was never a denizen of China and is only to be seen rampant in stone in front of temples. The rhinoceros, elephant, and tapir are said still to exist in the forests and swamps of Yun- nan ; but the supply of elephants at Peking for the carriage of the emperor when he proceeds to the great sacrificial altars has been decreasing for several reigns. Both the brown and the black bear are found, and several varieties of the deer family, of which the musk deer is highly valued. Among the domestic animals the breed of horses and cattle is dwarfish and no attempts seem to be made to improve them. The ass is a more lively animal in the north than it is in European countries or America, and receives much attention. About Peking one is struck by many beautiful specimens of the mule. Princes are seen riding on mules, or drawn by them in handsome litters, while their at- tendants accompany them on horseback. The camel is seen only in the north. Many birds of prey abound, including minos, crows, and magpies. The people are fond of songbirds, especially the thrush, the canary, and the lark. The lovely gold and silver pheasants are well known, and also the mandarin duck, the em- blem to the Chinese of conjugal fidelity. Many geese too are reared and eaten, while the ducks are artificially hatched. The number of pigs is enormous and fish are a plentiful supply of food. The people are very fond of flowers and are excellent gardeners, but their favorites are mostly cultivated in pots instead of in beds. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 113 Silk, linen, and cotton furnish abundant provision for the clothing of the race. China was no doubt the original home of silk. The mulberry tree grows everywhere and silk worms flourish as widely. In all provinces some silk is produced, but the best is furnished from Kwang-tung, Sze-chwan, and Cheh- chiang. From the twenty-third century B. C. and earlier, the care of the silk worm and the spinning and weaving of its produce have been the special work of women. As it is the duty of the sovereign to turn over a few furrows in the spring to stimulate the people to their agricultural tasks, so his consort should per- CHINESE FARMER. form an analogous ceremony with her silk worms and mulberry trees. The manufactures of silk are not inferior to or less brill- iant than any that are produced in Europe, and nothing can ex- ceed the embroidery of the Chinese. The cotton plant appears to have been introduced some eight hundred years ago from Eastern Turkestan and is now cultivated most extensively in the basin of the Chiang River. The well known nankeen is named for Nan- king, a center for its manufacture. Of woolen fabrics the pro- duction is not large, but there are felt caps, rugs of camels hair and furs of various kinds. 114 MINERAL RESOURCES. While the Chinese have done justice to most of the natural capabilities of their country, they have greatly failed in develop- ing its mineral resources. The skill which their lapidaries display in cutting the minerals and jewels is well known, but in the development of the utilitarian minerals they have been very negligent. The coal fields of China are enormous, but the major- ity of them can hardly be said to be more than scratched. Im- mense deposits of iron ore are still untouched. Copper, lead, tin, silver, and gold are known to exist in many places, but little has been done to make the stores of them available. More attention has been directed to their mines since their government and com- panies began to have steamers of their own and a scheme has been approved by the government for working the gold mines in the valley of the Amoor River. With the government once conscious of its mineral wealth, there is no limit to the results which it may bring about. The commerce of China with the western nations has been con- stantly on the increase for many years. The number of vessels entering and clearing at the various treaty ports is now between thirty thousand ^and thirty-five thousand annually, and the. value of the whole trade, import and export, approximates $300,000,000 annually. Of course the two principal exports are tea and silk. About half of the trade is done by means of vessels under the British flag, and nearly half of the remainder are vessels of foreign type, but owned by Chinese and sailing under the Chinese flag. The capitals of the different divisions of the empire are all walled cities, and these form a striking feature of the country. There are important distinctions between the cities of the third class, most of which are designated as hien, a few as cheo and others as ting. Though varying considerably in size, these differ- ent cities present nearly the uniform appearance. They are sur- rounded by walls from twenty to thirty-five feet in height, and are entered by large arched gateways which open into the principal streets and are shut and barred at night. These walls are from twenty to twenty-five feet thick at the base and some- what narrower at the top. The outside is of solid masonry from two to four feet thick, buiU of hewn stone, or bricks backed with THE CITIES OF CHINA. 115 earth, broken tiles, etc. There is generally a lighter stone facing on the inside. The outside is surmounted by a parapet with em- brasures generally built of brick. The circumferences -of the provincial cities vary from eight to fifteen miles ; those of the f u cities from four to ten miles, and those of the hien cities from two or three to five miles. Some of the larger and more important cities contain a smaller one, with its separate walls, enclosed within the larger outside walls. This is the Tartar or military city. It is occupied exclusively by Tartars with their families, forming a colony or garrison, and numbering generally several thousand soldiers. In times of in- surrection and rebellion the emperor depends principally upon these Tartar colonies to hold possession of the cities where they are stationed. In such emergencies the inhabitants of these en- closed Tartar cities, knowing that their lives and the lives of theii families are at stake, defend themselves with great desperation. The provincial capitals contain an average population of nearly one million inhabitants ; the fu cities from one hundred thousand to six hundred thousand or even more, while the cities of the third class, which are much more numerous, generally contain several tens of thousands. The most of these towns of different classes have outgrown their walls, and frequently one-fourth or even one-third of the inhabitants live in the suburbs-, which in some oases extend three or four miles outside the walls in differ- ent directions. Property is less valuable in these suburbs, not only because it is removed from the business parts of the city, but also because it is more liable to be destroyed in times of re- bellion. All the names to be found on even our largest maps of China, are the names of walled cities, and many of those of the third class are not down for want of space. The total number of these cities is more than one thousand seven hundred. From the number and size of the cities of China it might be inferred that they contain the greater portion of the inhabitants of the empire. This is however by no means the case. The Chinese are mainly an agricultural people and live for the most part in the almost innumerable villages which everywhere dot its fertile plains. A detached or isolated farm house is seldom seen. The country people live in towns or hamlets for the sake of society 116 CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE VILLAGES. and mutual protection. Most of the cities, even the smaller ones, have thousands of these villages under their jurisdiction. In the more populous parts of China will frequently be found, within a radius of three or four miles, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred of these villages. The estimate of population made on a previous page gives an average population of about three hundred persons to the square mile, while that of Belgium and some other European countries is greater. Perhaps no country in the world is more fertile and capable of supporting a dense population than China. Every available spot of ground is brought under cultivation, and nearly all the land is made use of to provide food for man, pasture fields being almost unknown. The masses of China eat very little animal food, and what they do eat is mostly pork and fowls, the raising of which requires little or no waste of ground. The comparatively few horses and cattle and sheep which are found in the country are kept in stables, or graze upon the hill tops, or are tethered by the sides of canals. Taking these facts into con- sideration, that an extended and exceedingly fertile country un- der the highest state of cultivation, is taxed to its utmost ca- pacity to supply the wants of a frugal and industrious people, the estimate of population need not excite incredulity. Nearly -all of the cities marked on our maps of the coast of China, are now open ports for traffic and residence of foreigners The most northerly of these is Niuchwang and the most south- ern Pak-hoi, while between these familiar names are those of Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Tien-tsin and several others. Interior cities that have been opened to foreigners include a number on the Chiang River, the one farthest inland being I-chang. Peking is also accessible to foreigners ; and several ports on the islands of Hainan and Formosa are opened by treaty. The population of these cities cannot be told with much exactness, as the Chinese census can scarcely claim accuracy. But the largest cities, such as Canton and Peking, are generally credited, in common with several others even smaller, with passing the million mark. The Chinese government is one of the great wonders of history. It presents to-day the .same character which it possessed more 118 THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. than three thousand years ago, and which it has retained ever since, during a period which covers the authentic history of the world. The government may be described as being in theory a patriarchal despotism. The emperor is the father of his people, and just as in a family the father's law is supreme, so the emperor exercises complete control over his subjects, even to the extent of holding, under certain recognized conditions, their lives in his hands. But from time immemorial it has been held by the high- est constitutional authorities that the duties existing between the emperor and his people are reciprocal, and that though it is the duty of the people to render a loyal and willing obedience to the emperor, so long as his rule is just and beneficent, it is equally incumbent upon them to resist his authority, to depose him, and even to put him to death, in case he should desert the paths of rectitude and virtue. As a matter of fact however, it is very difficult to say what ex- tent of power the emperor actually wields. The outside world sees only the imperial bolts, but how they are forged or whose is the hand that shoots them none can tell. The most common titles of the emperor are Hwang-Shang, "The August Lofty One," and Tien-Tsz, " The Son of Heaven." He lives in unap- proachable grandeur, and is never seen except by members of his own family and high state officers, save once a year when he gives audience to few foreign diplomats. Nothing is omitted which can add to the dignity and sacredness of his person or character. Almost everything used by him or in his service is tabooed from the common people, and distinguished by some peculiar mark or color so as to keep up the impression of awe with which he is re- garded, and which is so powerful an auxiliary to his throne. The outward gate of the palace must always be passed on foot, and the paved entrance walk leading up to it can be used only by him. The vacant throne, or even a screen of yellow silk thrown over a chair, is worshipped equally with his actual presence, and an im- perial dispatch is received in the provinces with incense and pros- tration. The throne is not strictly and necessarily hereditary, though the son of the emperor generally succeeds to it. The emperor appoints his successor, but it is supposed that in doing so he will 5 l ^ \r,. .'W'-,- /' '--M/. '.',! ;i'./vSr=^ > ( If mt 120 POSITION OF THE EMPEROR. have supreme regard for the best good of his subjects, and will be governed by the will of heaven, indicated by the conferring of regal gifts, and by providential circumstances pointing out the in- dividual whom heaven has chosen. Of course in the case of un- usually able men, such as the second and fourth rulers of the present dynasty, their influence is more felt than that of less energetic rulers ; but the throne of China is so hedged in with ceremonials and so padded with official etiquette that unless its occupant be a man of supreme ability he cannot fail to fall under the guidance of his ministers and favorites. In governing so large a realm, of course it is necessary for the emperor to delegate his authority to numerous officers who are regarded as his agents and representatives in carrying out the imperial will. What they do the emperor does through them. The recognized patriarchal character of the government is seen in the familiar expressions of the people, particularly at times when they consider themselves injured or aggrieved by their officers, when they are apt to say, '"A strange way for parents to treat their children." The government of the empire, omitting the regulation of the imperial court and family, or the special Manchoo department, is conducted from the capital, supervising, directing, controlling the different provincial administrations, and exercising the power of removing from his post any official whose conduct may be irregular or dangerous to the state. There is the Grand Cabinet, the privy council of the emperor, in whose presence it meets daily to transact the business of the state, between the hours of 4:00 and 6:00 A. M. Its members are few and hold other offices. There is also the Grand Secretariat, formerly the supreme council, but under the present dynasty very much superseded by the Cabinet. It consists of four grand and two assistant grand secretaries, half of them Manchoos and half Chinese. The business on which the Cabinet deliberates comes before it from the six boards or Luh-pu. These are departments of long standing in the government, having been modeled on much the same plan during the ancient dynasties. At the head of each board are two presidents, called Shang-shu, and four vice- presidents called Shi-lang, alternately a Manchoo and a Chinese. There are three subordinate grades of officers in each board, GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCES. 123 with a great number of minor clerks, and their appropriate de- partments for conducting the details of the general and peculiar business coming under the cognizance of the board, the whole being arranged in the most business-like style. The six boards are respectively of Civil Office, of Revenue, of Ceremonies, of War, of Punishments, and of Works. In 1861 the changed relations between the empire and foreign nations led to the formation of what may be called a seventh board styled the Tsung-li Yamen, or Court of Foreign Affairs. There is also another important department which must be mentioned, the censorate, members of which exercise a supervision over the board, and are entrusted with the duty of exposing errors and crimes in every department of government. Distributed through the provinces they memorialize the emperor on all subjects con- nected with the welfare of the people and the conduct of the government. Sometimes they do not shrink even from the dan- gerous task of criticising the conduct of the emperor himself. The different boards are all charged with the superintendence of the affairs of the eighteen provinces into which the empire is divided. Fifteen of these provinces are grouped into eight vice- royalties, and the remaining three are administered by a governor. Each province is autonomous, or nearly so, and the supreme authorities, whether viceroys or governors, are ^practically inde- pendent so long as they act in accordance with the very minute regulations laid down for their guidance. The principal function of the Peking government is to see that these regulations are carried out, and in case they should not be to call the offending viceroy or governor to account. Below the governor-general or governor of a province, are the lieutenant-governor, commonly called the treasurer, the provincial judge, the salt-comptroller, and the grain-intendant. The provinces are further divided for the purposes of administration into prefectures, departments, and districts. Each has its officers, magistrates, and a whole host of petty underlings. The rank of the different officials in these provinces is indicated by a knob or button on the top of their caps. In the two highest it is made of red coral ; in the third it is clear blue ; in the fourth it is lapis lazuli ; in the fifth of crys- tal ; in the sixth of an opaque white stone ; and in the three 124 EXTORTION OF THE OFFICIALS. lowest it is yellow, of gold or gilt. They also wear insignia or badges embroidered on a square patch in the front or back of their robes, representing birds on the civilians and animals on the military officers. Each viceroy raises his own army and navy, which he pays, or sometimes unfortunately does not pay, out of the revenues of the government. He levies his own taxes, and except in particular cases is the final court of appeal in all judicial matters within the limits of his rule. But in return for this latitude allowed him, he is held personally responsible for the good government of his territory. If by any chance serious disturbances break out and continue unsuppressed, he is called to account, as having by his misconduct contributed to them, and he in his turn looks to his subordinates to maintain order and execute justice within their jurisdiction. Of himself he has no power to remove or punish subordinate officials, but has to refer all complaints against them to Peking. The personal responsibility resting upon him of maintaining order makes him a severe critic on those who serve under him, and very frequently junior officials are im- peached and punished at the instigation of their chief. Incapable and unworthy officials, constant opium smokers, those who mis- appropriate public money, and those who fail to arrest criminals, are those who meet swift punishment. On the whole the con- duct of junior officials is carefully watched. As has been already said, the affairs of each province are ad- ministered by the viceroy, or governor, and his subordinates, and speaking generally their rule is as enlightened and as just as could be expected in an oriental country where public opinion finds only a very imperfect utterance. Official purity and justice must be treated as comparative terms in China. The constitu- tion of the civil service renders it next to impossible that any office holder can be clean-handed. The salaries awarded are low, out of all proportion to the necessary expenses pertaining to the offices to which they are apportioned, and the consequence is that in some way or other the officials are compelled to make up the deficiency from the pockets of those subject to them. As a rule, mandarins seldom enter office with private fortunes, and the wealth therefore, which soothes the declining years of veteran 126 EXTORTION OF THE OFFICIALS. officials, may be fairly assumed to be ill-gotten gain. There are laws against these exactions, and very often some magistrate is degraded or executed for levying illegal assessments. The im- munity which some mandarins enjoy from the just consequences of their crimes, and the severity with which the law is vindicated THE GOVERNOR OF A PROVINCE. in the cases of others for much lighter offenses, has a sinister as- pect. But in a system of which bribery and corruption practi- cally form a part, one need not expect to find purity in any direc- tion. And it is not too much to say that the whole civil service is, judged by an American standard, corrupt to the core. The people however are lightly taxed and they readily submit to lira- FEW MANDARINS ARE REGRETTED. 129 ited extortion so long as the rule of the mandarin is otherwise just and beneficent. How rarely does a mandarin earn the respect and affection of the people is obvious from the great parade which is made on the departure from their posts of the very occasional officials who are fortunate enough to have done so. Archdeacon Gray relates that during his residence of a quarter of a centurjr at Canton he only met one man who had entitled himself to the regret of the people at his departure. When the time came for this man to leave the city, the people rose in multitudes to do him honor and begged for him to return if he could. A somewhat similar scene occurred at Tien-tsin in 1861, on the departure of the most be- nevolent prefect that the city had ever seen. The people accom- panied him beyond the gate on his road to Peking with every token of honor and finally begged from him his boots, which they carried back in triumph and hung up as a memento in the temple of the city god. Going to the opposite extreme, it sometimes happens that the people, goaded into rebellion by a sense of wrong, rise in arms against some particularly obnoxious man- darin and drive him from the district. But the Chinese are essentially unwarlike, and it must be some act of gross oppres- sion to stir their blood to fever heat. A potent means of protection against oppression is granted to the people by the appointment of imperial censors throughout the empire, whose duty it is to report to the throne all cases of misrule, injustice, or neglect on the part of the mandarins which come to their knowledge. The same tolerance which is shown by the people towards the shortcomings and ill deeds of the officials, is displayed by these men in the discharge of their duties. Only aggravated cases make them take their pens in hand, but when they do, it must be confessed that they show little mercy. Neither are they respecters of persons ; their lash falls alike on all from the emperor on his throne to the police- runners in magisterial courts. Nor is their plain speaking more amazing than the candor with which their memorials affecting the characters of great and small alike are published in the Pe- king Gazette. The gravest charges, such as of peculation, neg- lect of duty, injustice, or incompetence, are brought against 130 CRUELTIES IN THE COURTS. mandarins of all ranks and are openly published in the official paper. In the administration of justice the same lax morality as in other branches of government exists, and bribery is largely re- sorted to by litigants, more especially in civil cases. As a rule money in excess of the legal fees has in the first instance to be paid to clerks and secretaries before a case can be put down for hearing, and a decision of the presiding mandarin is too often in- fluenced by the sums of money which find their way into his PUNISHMENT BY THE GANGITE. purse from the pockets of either suitor. But the greatest blot on Chinese administration is the inhumanity shown to both culprits and witnesses in criminal procedure. Tortures of the most pain- ful and revolting kind are used to extort evidence, and punish- ments scarcely more severely cruel are inflicted on the guilty parties. Flogging with bamboos, beating the jaws with thick pieces of leather, or the ankles with a stick, are some of the pre- liminary tortures applied to witnesses or culprits who refuse to give the evidence exoected of them. Further refinements of HORRORS OF PUNISHMENT. 131 cruelty are reserved for hardened offender^ by means of which infinite pain and often permanent injury are inflicted. It follows as a natural consequence that in a country where torture is thus resorted to the punishments inflicted on criminals must be proportionately cruel. Death, the final punishment, can unfortunately be inflicted in various ways, and a sliding scale of capital punishments is used by the Chinese to mark their sense of the varying heinousness of murderous crimes. For parricide, natricide and wholesale murders, the usual sentence is that of FLOGGING A CULPRIT. Ling-che, or " ignominious and slow death." In the carrying out of this sentence the culprit is fastened to a cross, and cuts varying in number, at the discretion of the judge, from eight to one hun- dred and twenty are made first on the face and fleshy parts of the body, next the heart is pierced, and finally when death has been thus caused, the limbs are separated from the body and divided. During a recent year ten cases in which this punishment was in- flicted were reported in the official Peking Gazette. In ordinary cases of capital punishment execution by beheading is the com- 132 HORRORS OF PUNISHMENT. mon mode. This is a speedy and merciful death, the skill gained by frequent experience enabling the executioner in almost every case to perform his task with one blow. Another death which is less horrible to Chinamen, who view any mutilation of the body as an extreme disgrace, is by strangulation. The privilege of so passing out of the world is accorded at times to influential crimi- nals, whose crimes are not of so heinous a nature as to demand their decapitation ; and occasionally they are even allowed to be their own executioners. Asiatics are almost invariably careless about the sufferings of others, and the men of China are no exception to the rule. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the horrors of a Chinese prison. The filth and dirt of the rooms, the brutality of the jailers, the miserable diet, and the entire absence of the commonest sanitary arrangements make a picture which is too horrible to draw in detail. Chinese law-givers have distinguished very markedly between crimes accompanied and unaccompanied with violence. For offenses of the latter description, punishments of a comparatively light nature are inflicted, such as wearing a wooden collar, and piercing the ears with arrows, to the ends of which are attached slips of paper on which are inscribed the crime of which the cul- prit has been guilty. Frequently the criminals bearing these signs of their disgrace are paraded up and down the street where their offense was committed, and sometimes in more serious cases they are flogged through the leading thoroughfares of the city, preceded by a herald who announces the nature of their mis- demeanors. But to give a list of Chinese punishments will be to exhaust the ingenuity of man to torture his fellow creatures. The subject is a horrible one and it is a relief to turn from the dingy prison gates and the halls of so-called justice. After this review of the impersonal, and the material, and the official character of the Chinese empire as a nation, let us now turn to the more personal consideration of the people themselves, their characteristics, and their manner of life and thought. w THE CHINESE PEOPLE. Severity of the Judgment of Americans and Chinese Against One Another Each Sees the Worst Side of the Other Characteristics of the Chinese, Their Physique, Temperament, and Morals Tests of Intellectuality Marriage Customs of the Chinese The Engagement The Wedding Ceremony The Position of Women Concubinage Divorce Family Relation- shipsDress of Men and Women Distorted Feet versus Queues-Chinese Houses and Home Life Children Education and Schools National Festivities Music and Art Chinese Religions Language and Literature. In treating of the personal characteristics and customs of the Chinese people it is the desire of the writer to get away from the hackneyed descriptions of pigtails, shaven heads, thick soled shoes, assumption of dignity and superiority, and great ignorance concerning many subjects with which we are familiar, which usually mark the pages of articles and books concerning this race. The Chinaman is believed by many to be the personification of stupidity, and many writers who wish to make readable matter gladly seize upon and exaggerate anything which can be made to appear grotesque and ridiculous. It would be but a poor answer to these views to say that they correspond remarkably with those which the Chinese entertain of us. They also enjoy a great deal of pleasantry at our expense, finding it almost impossible to re- gard otherwise than as ludicrous our short cropped hair, tight fit- ting, ungraceful, and uncomfortable looking clothes, men's thin soled leather shoes, tall stiff hats, gloves in summer time, the wasp-like appearance of ladies with their small waists, our remark- able ignorance of the general rules of propriety, and the strange custom of a man and his wife walking together in public ! These views we can aiford to laugh at as relating to comparatively trivial matters, but they think they have the evidence that we are also inferior to them in intellectuality, in refinement, in civili- zation, and especially morals. It is evident that one party or the other has made a serious mistake, and it would be but a natural and reasonable presumption that both may have erred to some extent. We should look at this matter from an impartial stand- point, and take into view not simply facts which are compara- C185) 136 CHINA VERSUS THE UNITED STATES. tively unimportant and exceptional, but those which are funda- mental and of widespread influence, and should construe these facts justly and generously. We should take pains not to form the judgment that because a people or a custom is different from our own it is therefore necessarily worse. There are many reasons why unfair judgments have been formed by us against the Chinese and by the Chinese against Europeans and Americans. Each nation is apt to see the worst side of the other. It so happens that the Chinese who have come to America are almost all from the southern provinces and from the lower classes of the worst part of the empire. We have formed many of our impressions from our observation of these low class adventurers. They on the other hand have not received the treatment here which would cause them to carry back to China kindly opinions of Americans. In China the same or similar conditions have existed. In the open ports, where a large foreign commerce has sprung up, an immense number of Chinese congregate from the interior. Many of them are adventurers who come to these places to engage in the general scramble for wealth. The Chinamen of the best class are, as a matter of fact, not the most numerous in the open ports. Moreover foreign ideas and customs prevail to a great extent in these foreign communities, and the natives, whatever they might have been originally, gradually become more or less denational- ized, and present a modified type of their race. The Chinese be- ing every day brought into contact with drunken sailors and un- scrupulous traders from the west, new lessons are constantly learned from them in the school of duplicity and immorality. The Chinese of this class are no fitting type of the race. It is an accepted fact that the great seaports of the world, where inter- national trade holds sway, are the worst centers of vice, and no estimate of a people formed from these cities can be just. The Chinese as a race are of a phlegmatic and impassive tem- perament, and physically less active and energetic than European and American nations. Children are not fond of athletic and vigorous sports, but prefer marbles, kite flying, and quiet games of ball or spinning tops. Men take an easy stroll for recreation, but never a rapid walk for exercise and are seldom in a hurry or RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHINESE. 137 excited. They are also characteristically timid and docile. But while the Chinese are deficient in active courage and daring, they are not in passive resistance. They are comparatively apathetic as regards pain and death, and have great powers of physical en- durance as well as great persistency and obstinacy. Physical development and strength and longevity vary in different parts of the empire. In and about Canton, as well as in most parts of the south, from which we have derived most of our impressions of China, the people are small in stature ; but in the province of Shau-tung in the north, men varying in height from five feet eight inches to six feet are very common, while some of them are considerably taller. In this part of China too, one frequently finds laborers more than seventy years of age working daily at their trades, and it is not unusual to hear of persons who have reached the age of ninety or more. The intellectuality of the Chinese is made evident by so many obvious and weighty facts, that it seems strange that persons of ordinary intelligence and information should ever have ques- tioned it. We have before us a system of government and code of laws which will bear favorable comparison with those of European nations, and have elicited a generous tribute of admira- tion and praise from the most competent students. The practical wisdom and foresight of those who constructed this system are evidenced by the fact that it has stood the test of time, enduring longer than any other which man has devised during the world's history ; that it has bound together under one common rule, a population to which the world affords no parallel, and given a de- gree of prosperity and wealth which may well challenge our won- der. It is intelligent thought which has given China such a prominence in the east and also in the eyes of Christendom. She may well point with pride to her authentic history reaching back through more than thirty centuries ; to her extensive literature, containing many works of sterling and permanent value ; to her thoroughly elaborated language possessed of a remarkable power of expression; to her list of scholars, and her proficiency in belles- lettres. If these do not constitute evidences of intellectuality, it would be difficult to say where such evidences could be found, or 9 138 LACK OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. on what basis we ourselves will rest our claim of intellectual superiority. China has been so arrogant and extravagant in her assumptions of pre-eminence, that we have perhaps for this very reason been indisposed to accord to her the position to which she is fairly en- titled. It should be remembered, that ignorant until recently of western nations, as they have been of her, she has compared her- self simply with the nations around her, and a partial excuse for her overweening self conceit may be found in the fact that she only regarded herself as the nations with which she is acquainted have regarded her. She has been for ages the great center of light and civilization in eastern Asia. She has given literature and religion to Japan, to Corea, and to Manchooria, and has been looked up to by these and other smaller nations as their acknowl- edged teacher. The Japanese have produced no great teachers or sages which they would presume to compare with those of China ; and it is clearest evidence of their acknowledgment of the literary superiority of the Chinese that they use Chinese classics as text books in their schools much as we do those of Greece and Rome. It is true that the Chinese know hardly anything of the modern arts and sciences and that there is no word in their lan- guage to designate some of them ; but how much did our ancestors know two hundred years ago of chemistry, geology, philosophy, anatomy, and other kindred sciences. What did we know fifty years ago of the steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph ? And is our comparative want of knowledge a few years ago and that of our ancestors to be taken as evidence of inferiority of race and intellect? Furthermore, if we go back a few hundred years we are apt to find many things to establish the claims of the Chinese as a superior rather than inferior race. There are excellent grounds to credit the Chinese with the invention or discovery of printing, the use of the magnetic needle, the manufacture and use of gunpowder, of silk fabrics, and of chinaware and porcelain, and there seems no doubt that the Chinese discovered America from the westward, long before the discoveries of Europeans. Intellectual power manifests itself in a variety of ways, and glaring defects are often found associated in the same individual with remarkable powers and capabilities, as particular faculties MORALITY OF THE CHINESE. 139 both of mind and body are often cultivated and developed at the expense of others. Chinese education has very little regard to the improvement of the reasoning powers, and Chinese scholars are deficient in logical acumen and very inferior to the Hindoos in this respect ; but in developing and storing the memory they are without a rival. Again their system of training effectually discourages and precludes freedom and originality of thought, while it has the compensating advantages of creating a love of method and order, habitual subjection to authority, and a remark- able uniformity in character and ideas. Perhaps the results which they have realized in fusing such a vast mass of beings into one homogeneous body, could have been reached in no other way. The morality of the Chinese presents another subject about which there is a wide difference of opinion. It may be a matter of interest and profit to turn for a moment to the views which the Chinese generally entertain of our morality, and their reasons for these views. They are all familiar with the fact that foreign- ers introduced opium into China, in opposition to the earnest and persistent remonstrances of the Chinese government ; that out of the opium trade grew the first war with China; and that when the representatives of Christian England urged the Chinese gov- ernment to legalize the trade and make it a source of revenue, the Chinese emperor replied that he would not use as a means of revenue that which brought suffering and misery upon his people. The Chinese form their opinions of western morality to a great extent from the sailors on shore-leave at the open ports, and these men are proverbially vicious under such circumstances. For years foreigners of this class have commanded many of the piratical fleets on the coasts of China, and foreign thieves and robbers have infested many of the inland canals and rivers. In business dealings with strangers from western lands the natives find that duplicity and dishonesty are not confined to their own people. Replying to our criticism of the system of concubinage, the Chinese point to the numerous class of native women in the foreign communities, fostered and patronized by foreigners alone, who appear in the streets with an effrontery which would be re- garded as utterly indecent and intolerable in most Chinese cities. 140 TWO ENGLISH OPINIONS. The large importation from Europe of obscene pictures which are offered at every hand, is another fact which the educated Chinese cites in answer to criticisms of his people's morality. On the general subject of morality and Chinese moral teach- ing, two quotations from the writings of eminent Englishmen who lived in China for many years are pertinent. Sir John Davis saj r s : " The most commendable feature of the Chinese system is the general diffusion of elementary moral education among the lower orders. It is in the preference of moral to physical instruction that even we might perhaps wisely take a leaf out of the Chinese book, and do something to reform this most mechanical age of ours." The opinion of Thomas Taylor Meadows is thus expressed : " No people whether of ancient or modern times has possessed a sacred literature so completely ex- empt as the Chinese from licentious descriptions and from every offensive expression. There is not a single sentence in the whole of their sacred books and their annotations that may not when translated word for word be read aloud in any family in En- gland." It must be acknowledged that the Chinese give many evidences, not only in their literature, but also in their paintings and sculp- ture, of a scrupulous care to avoid all indecent and immoral asso- ciations and suggestions. In referring to the above peculiarity of Chinese views and customs, these remarks are not, of course, concerning the private lives and practices of the people, but of their standard of propriety and of what the public taste requires, in objects which are openly represented to be seen and admired by the young and old of both sexes. The government of the empire is modeled on the government of a household, and at the root of all family ties, says one of the Chinese classics, is the relation of husband and wife, which is as the relation of heaven and earth. Chinese historians record that the rite of marriage was first instituted by the Emperor Fuh-he, who reigned in the twenty-eighth century B. C. But before this period there is abundant evidence to show that as amongst all other peoples the first form of marriage was by capture. At the present day marriage is probably more universal in China than in any other civilized country in the world, for it is regarded PRELIMINARIES TO MARRIAGE. 141 as something indispensable and few men pass the age of twenty without taking to themselves a wife. To die without leaving be- hind a son to perform the burial rites and to offer up the fixed periodical sacrifices at the tomb, is one of the most direful fates that can overtake a Chinaman, and he seeks to avoid it by an early marriage. Like every other rite in China that of marriage is fenced in with a host of ceremonies. In a vast majority of cases the bride- groom never sees his bride until the wedding night, it being con- sidered a grave breach of etiquette for young men and maidens to associate together or even to see one another. Of course it does occasionally happen that either by stealth or chance a pair become acquainted ; but whether they have thus associated, or whether they are perfect strangers, the first formal overture must of necessity be made by a professional go-between, who having received a commission from the parents of a young man, proceeds to the house of the young woman and makes a formal proposal on behalf of the would-be bridegroom's parents. If the young lady's father approves the proposed alliance, the suitor sends the lady some presents as an earnest of his intentions. The parents next exchange documents which set forth the hour, day, month, and year when the young people were born, and the maiden names of their mothers. Astrologers are then called in to cast the horoscopes, and should these be favorable the engagement is formally entered into, but not so irrevocably that there are not several orthodox ways of breaking it off. But should things go smoothly, the bridegroom's father writes a formal letter of agreement to the lady's father, accompanied by presents, consisting in some cases of sweetmeats and a live pig, and in others of a goose and gander, which are regarded as em- blems of conjugal fidelity. Two large cards are also prepared by the bridegroom, and on these are written the particulars of the engagement. One is sent to the lady and the other he keeps. She in return now makes a present to the suitor according to his rank and fortune. Recourse is then again had to astrologers to fix a fortunate day for the final ceremony, on the evening of which the bridegroom's best man proceeds to the house of the lady and conducts her to her future home in a red sedan chair, 142 DESCRIPTION OF THE WEDDING CEREMONY. accompanied by musicians who enliven the procession by wedding airs. At the door of the house the bride alights from her sedan, and is lifted over a pan of burning charcoal laid on the threshold by two "women of luck," whose husbands and children must be living. In the reception room the bridegroom awaits his bride on a raised dais, at the foot of which she humbly prostrates herself. He then descends to her level, and removing her veil gazes on her face for the first time. Without exchanging a word they seat themselves side by side, and each tries to sit on a part of the dress of the other, it being considered that the one who succeeds in so doing will hold rule in the household. This trial of skill over, the pair proceed to the hall, and there before the family altar worship heaven and earth and their ancestors. They then go to dinner in their apartment, through the open door of which the guests scrutinize and make their remarks on the appearance and demeanor of the bride. This ordeal is the more trying to her, since etiquette forbids her to eat anything, a prohibition which is not shared by the bridegroom, who enjoys the dainties provided as his appetite may suggest. The attendants next hand to each in turn a cup of wine, and having exchanged pledges, the wedding ceremonies come to an end. In some parts of the coun- try it is customary for the bride to sit up late into the night an- swering riddles which are propounded to her by the guests ; in other parts it is usual for her to show herself for a time in the hall, whither her husband does not accompany her, as it is con- trary to etiquette for a husband and wife ever to appear together in public. For the same reason she goes to pay the customary visit to her parents on the third day after the wedding alone, and for the rest of her wedded life she enjoys the society of her hus- band only in the privacy of her apartments. The lives of women in China, and especially of married women, are such as to justify the wish often expressed by them that in their next state of existence they may be born men. Even if in their baby days they escape the infanticidal tendencies of their parents, they are regarded as secondary considerations compared with their brothers. The philosophers from Confucius downward have all agreed in assigning them an inferior place to men. THE POSITION OF WOMEN. 145 When the time comes for them to marry, custom requires them in nine cases out of ten, as we have seen, to take a leap in the dark, and that wife is fortunate who finds in her husband a con- genial and faithful companion. There is but one proper wife in the family, but there is no law against a man's having secondary wives or concubines ; and such connections are common enough wherever the means of a family are sufficient for their support. The concubine occupies in the family an inferior position to the wife, and her children, if she has any, belong by law to the wife. There are seven legal grounds for divorcing a wife : disobedi- ence to her husband's parents ; not giving birth to a son ; Disso- lute conduct; jealousy; talkativeness; thieving, and leprosy. These grounds however may be nullified by "the three considera- tions : " If her parents be dead ; if she has passed with her hus- band through the years of mourning for his parents ; and if he has become rich from being poor. So many are the disabilities of married women, that many girls prefer going into nunneries or even committing suicide to trust- ing their future to men of whom they can know nothing but from the interested reports of the go-between. The re-marriage of widows is regarded as an impropriety, and in wealthy families is seldom practiced. But among the poorer classes necessity often compels a widow to seek another bread winner. Some, however, having been unfortunate in their first matrimonial venture, refuse to listen to any proposal for a re-mar- riage, and like the young girls mentioned above seek escape by death from the importunities of relatives who desire to get them off their hands. A reverse view of matrimonial experiences is suggested by the practice of wives refusing to survive their hus- bands 5 and putting a voluntary end to their existence rather than live to mourn their loss. Such devotion is regarded by the people with great approbation and a deed of suicide is generally per- formed in public and with great punctiliousness. The picture here given of married life in China has been nec- essarily darkly shaded, since it is, as a rule, only in its unfortu- nate phases, that it affords opportunity for remark. Without doubt there are many hundreds of thousands of families in China 146 HOME LIFE OF WOMEN. which are entirely happy. Happiness is after all a relative term, and Chinese women, knowing no higher status, are as a rule con- tent to run the risk of wrongs which would be unendurable to an American woman, and to find happiness under conditions which are fortunately unknown in western countries. The family tie in China is strong and the people are clannish. They seldom change their place of residence and most of them live where their ancestors have lived for many generations. One will frequently find the larger portion of a small village bearing the same name, in which case the village often takes its name from the family. Books on filial piety and the domestic relations recommend sons not to leave their parents when married, but to live together lovingly and harmoniously a's one family. This theory is carried out in practice to some extent, in most instances. In the division of property some regard is had to primogeniture, but different sons shave nearly equally. The eldest simply has a somewhat larger portion and certain household relics and valu- ables. The position of woman is intermediate between that which she occupies in Christian and in other non-Christian countries. The manner in which the} r regard their lot may be inferred from the fact related on a previous page, that the most earnest desire and prayer in worshipping in Buddhist temples is, generally, that they may be men in the next state of existence. In many families girls have no individual names, but are simply called No. One, Two, Three, Four, etc. When married they are Mr. So-and-so's wife, and when they have sons they are such-and-such a boy's mother. They live in a great measure secluded, take no part in general society, and are expected to retire when a stranger or an acquaintance of the opposite sex enters the house. The claim of one's parents and brothers upon his affections is considered to be paramount to that of his wife. A reason given for this doctrine in a celebrated Chinese work is that the loss of a brother is irrep- arable but that of a wife is not. Women are treated with more respect and consideration as they advance in years ; mothers are regarded with great affection and tenderness, and grandmothers are sometimes almost worshipped. It must be further said that the Chinese have found the theory of inferiority of women a very STYLE OF MEN'S DRESS. 147 difficult one to carry out in practice. There are many families in which the superiority of her will and authority is sufficiently manifest, even though not cheerfully acknowledged. The rules and conventionalities which regulate social life are exceedingly minute and formal. Politeness is a science, and gracefulness of manners a study and discipline. The people are hospitable and generous to a fault, their desire to appear well in tfiese respects often leading them to expenditures entirely dis- proportionate to their means. When under the influence of passion, quarrels arise, the women resort to abuse in violent language, extreme in proportion to the length of time during which the feelings which prompted them have been restrained. Men bluster and threaten in a man- ner quite frightful to those unaccustomed to it, but seldom come to blows. In cases of deep- resentment the injured party often adopts a mode of revenge which is very characteristic. Instead of killing the object of his hate, he kills himself on the doorstep of his enemy, thereby casting obloquy and the stigma of murder on the adversary. In matters of dress, with one or two exceptions, the Chinese must be acknowledged to have used a wise discretion. They wear nothing that is tight fitting, and make a greater difference between their summer and winter clothing than is customary among ourselves. The usual dress of a coolie in summer is a loose fitting pair of cotton trousers and an equally loose jacket; but the same man in winter will be seen wearing quilted cotton clothes, or if he should be an inhabitant of the northern provinces a sheepskin robe, superadded to an abundance of warm clothing intermediate between it and his shirt. By the wealthier classes silk, satin, and gauze are much worn in the summer, and woolen or handsome fur clothes in the winter. Among such people it is customary except in the seclusion of their homes, to wear both in summer and winter long tunics coming down to the ankles. In summer non-official Chinamen leave their heads uncovered, but do not seem to suffer any inconvenience from the great heat. On the approach of summer an edict is issued fixing the day upon which the summer costume is to be adopted throughout the empire, and again as winter draws near, the time for putting on 148 WOMAN'S DRESS. winter dress is announced in the same formal manner. Fine straw or bamboo forms the material of the summer hat, the out- side of which is covered with fine silk. At this season also the thick silk robes and the heavy padded jackets worn in winter are exchanged for light silk or satin tunics. The winter cap has a turned-up brim and is covered with satin with a black cloth lin- ing, and as in the case of the summer cap a tassel of red silk covers the entire crown. The wives of mandarins wear the same embroidered insignia on their dresses as their husbands, and their style of dress as well as that of Chinese women generally bears a resemblance to that of the men. They wear a loose fitting tunic which reaches below the knee, and trousers which are drawn in at the ankle after the bloomer fashion. On state occasions they wear a richly embroidered petticoat coming down to the feet, which hangs square both before and behind and is pleated at the sides like a Highlander's kilt. The mode of doing the hair varies in almost every province. At Canton the women plaster their back hair into the shape of a teapot handle, and adorn the sides with pins and ornaments, while the young girls proclaim their unmarried state by sutting their hair in fringe across their foreheads after a fashion not unknown among ourselves. In most parts of the country, flowers, natural when obtainable and artificial when not so, are largely used to deck out the head dresses, and consider- able taste is shown in the choice of colors and the manner in which they are arranged. Thus far there is nothing to find fault with in female fashions in China, but the same cannot be said of the way in which they treat their faces and feet. In many countries the secret art of removing traces of the ravages of time with the appliances of the toilet table has been and is practised ; but by an extravagant and hideous use of pigments and cosmetics, the Chinese girl not only conceals the fresh complexion of youth, but produces those very disfigurements which furnish the only possible excuse for artificial complexions. Their poets also have declared that a woman's eyebrows should be arched like a rainbow or shaped like a willow leaf, and the consequence is that wishing to act up to the idea thus pictured, China women with the aid of tweezers COMPRESSION OF WOMAN'S FEET. 151 remove all the hairs of their eyebrows which straggle the least out of the required line, and when the task becomes impossible even with the help of these instruments, the paint brush or a stick of charcoal is brought into requisition. A comparison of one such painted lily with the natural healthy complexion, bright eyes, laughing lips, and dimpled cheeks of a Canton boat girl, for example, is enough to vindicate nature's claim to superiority over art a thousand fold. But the chief offense of Chinese women is in their treatment of BANDAGING THE FEET. their feet. Various explanations are current as to the origin of the custom of deforming the women's feet. Some say that it is an attempt to imitate the peculiarly shaped foot of a certain beautiful empress ; others that it is a device intended to restrain the gadding-about tendencies of women ; but however that may be, the practice is universal except among the Manchoos and the Hakka population at Canton, who have natural feet. The feet are first bound when the child is about five years old and the muscles of locomotion have consequently had time to develop. 152 ORIGIN OF THE QUEUE. A cotton bandage two or three inches wide is wound tightly about the foot in different directions. The four smaller toes are bent under the foot, and the instep is forced upward and back- ward. The foot therefore assumes the shape of an acute triangle, the big toe forming the acute angle and the other toes, being bent under the foot, becoming almost lost or absorbed. At the same time, the shoes worn having high heels, the foot becomes nothing but a club and loses all elasticity. The consequence is that the women walk as on pegs, and the calf of the leg having no exercise shrivels up. Though the effect of this custom is to produce real deformity and a miserable tottering gait, even foreigners naturally come to associate it with gentility and good breeding, and to estimate the character and position of women much as the Chinese do, by the size of their feet. The degree of severity with which the feet are bound differs widely in the various ranks of society. Country women and the poorer classes have feet about half the natural size, while those of the genteel or fashionable class are only about three inches long. Women in the humbler walks of life are therefore often able to move about with ease. Most ladies on the other hand are practi- cally debarred from walking at all and are dependent on their sedan chairs for all locomotion beyond they own doors. But even in this case habit becomes a second nature and fashion triumphs over sense. No mother, however keen may be her recollection of her sufferings as a child, or however conscious she may be of the inconveniences and ills arising from her deformed feet, would ever dream of saving her own child from like imme- diate torture and permanent evil. Further there is probably less excuse for such a practice in China than in any other country, for the hands and feet of both men and women are naturally both small and finely shaped. The Chinese insist upon it that the custom of compressing women's feet is neither in as bad taste nor so injurious to the health as that of foreign women in compress- ing the waist. The male analogue of the women's compressed feet in the shaven forepart of the head and the braided queue. The custom of thus treating the hair was imposed on the people by the first emperor of the present dynasty, in 1644. Up to that time the Chinese FOOD AND HOW IT IS EATEN. 153 had allowed the hair to grow long, and were in the habit of drawing it up into a tuft on the top of the head. The introduc- tion of the queue at the bidding of the Manchoorian conqueror was intended as a badge of conquest, and as such was at first un- willingly adopted by the people. For nearly a century the natives of outlying parts of the empire refused to submit their heads to the razor and in many districts the authorities rewarded converts to the new way by presents of money. As the custom spread these bribes were discontinued, and the converse action of treating those who refused to conform with severity, completed the conversion of the empire. At the present day every China- man who is not in open rebellion to the throne, shaves his head with the exception of the crown where the hair is allowed to grow to its full length. This hair is carefully braided, and falls down the back forming what is commonly known as the " pig tail." Great pride is taken, especially in the south, in having as long and as thick a queue as possible, and when nature has been nig- gardly in her supply of natural growth, the deficiency is supple- mented by the insertion of silk in the plait. The staff of life in China is rice. It is eaten and always eaten, from north to south and from east to west, on the tables of the rich and poor, morning, noon, and night, except among the very poor people in some of the northern non-rice producing provinces where millet takes its place. In all other parts the big bowl of boiled rice forms the staple, of the meal eaten by the people, and it is accompanied by vegetables, fish and meat, according to the circumstances of the household. Among many people, however, there is a disinclination to eat meat, owing to the influence of Buddhism. The difference in the quality and expense of the food of the rich from that of the poor, consists principally in the con- comitants eaten with the rice or millet. The poor have simply a dish of salt vegetables or fish, which costs comparatively little. The rich have pork, fowls, eggs, fish and game prepared in various ways. Before each chair is placed an empty bowl and two chop-sticks, while in the middle of the table stands the dishes of food. Each person fills his basin from the large dishes, or is supplied by the servants, and holding it up to his chin with his left hand h* lo 154 FOOD PRODUCTS OF CHINA. transfers its contents into his mouth with his chop-sticks with the utmost ease. The chop-sticks are held between the first and second, and the second and third fingers, and constant practice enables a Chinaman to lift up and hold the minutest atoms of food, oily and slippery as they often are, with the greatest ease. To most foreigners their skillful use is well nigh impossible. To the view of the Chinese the use of chop-sticks is an evidence of superior culture ; and the use of such barbarous instruments as knives and forks, and cutting or tearing the meat from the bones on the table instead of having the food properly prepared and severed into edible morsels in the kitchen, evidences a lower type of civilization. The meats most commonly eaten are pork, mutton, and goat's flesh, beside ducks, chickens, and pheasants, and in the north deer and hares. Beef is never exposed for sale in the Chinese markets. The meat of the few cattle which are killed is disposed of almost clandestinely. There is a strong and almost universal prejudice against eating beef, and the practice of doing so is de- claimed against in some of the moral tracts. Milk is hardly used at all in the eighteen provinces, and in many places our practice of drinking it is regarded with the utmost disgust. It must be confessed that in some parts of the country less savory viands find their place on the dinner table. In Canton, for example, dried rats have a recognized place in the poulterers' shops and find a ready market. Horse flesh is also exposed for sale, and there are even to be found dog and cat restaurants. The flesh of black dogs and cats, and especially the former is preferred as being more nutritive. Frogs form a common dish among the poor people and are, it is needless to say, very good eating. In some parts of the country locusts and grasshoppers are eaten. At Tien-tsin men may commonly be seen standing at the corners of the streets frying locusts over portable fires, just as among ourselves chestnuts are cooked. Ground-grubs, silk- worms and water-snakes are also occasionally treated as food. The sea, lakes, and rivers abound in fish, and as fish forms a staple food of the people the fisherman's art has been brought to a great degree of perfection. The same care as in the production pf fish is extended to that of ducks and poultry. Eggs are arti- FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 157 ficially hatched in immense numbers, and the poultry markets and boats along the river at Canton are most amazing in their extent. The funerals of grown persons, and especially of parents, are as remarkable for burdensome ceremonies, extravagant manifesta- tions of grief and lavish expense, as those of children are for their coldness and neglect. Candles, incense and offerings of food are placed before the corpse, and a company of priests is engaged to chant prayers for the departed spirit. An abundance of clothing is deposited with the body in the coffin and various ceremonies are performed during several days immediately after that, and on every subsequent seventh day, closing with the seventh seven. When the coffin is carried out for burial, men and women follow in the procession clothed in coarse white gar- ments, white being used for mourning. Inasmuch as the coffin must remain in the hall for forty-nine days, naturally they are prepared with a great deal of care. Very thick planks are used in its construction, cut from the hardest trees, caulked on the outside and cemented on the inside, and finally varnished or lacquered. Sometimes a coffin containing a body is kept in the house for a considerable length of time after the forty-nine days have expired, while arrangements are being made for a burying place and other preliminaries are attended to. The lids being nailed down in cement they are per- fectly air-tight. The notions which Chinamen entertain concerning the future life rob death of half its terrors and lead them to regard their funeral ceremonies and the due performance of the proper rites by their descendants as the chief factors of their future well being. Among other things the importance of securing a coffin according to the approved fashion is duly recognized, and as men approach old age they not infrequently buy their own coffins, which they keep carefully by them. The present of a coffin is considered a dutiful attention from a son to an aged father. The choice of a site for the grave is determined by a profes- sor of the " FungShuy " superstition, who, compass in hand, ex- plores the entire district to find a spot which combines all the qualities necessary for the quiet repose of the dead. When such 158 CURIOUS BURIAL CUSTOMS. a favored spot has been discovered a priest is called in to deter- mine a lucky day for the burial. This is by no means an easy mat- ter and it often happens that the dead remain unburied for months or even years on account of the difficulties in the way of THE PUNISHMENTS OF HELL. From Chinese Drawings. choosing either fortunate graves or lucky days. The ceremonies of the interment itself and of mourning that follows are most elaborate in character, and too much involved for detailed descrip- tion here. CURIOUS BURIAL CUSTOMS. 169 But universal as the practice of burying may be said to be in China there are exceptions to it. The Buddhist priests as a rule prefer cremation, and this custom, which came with the religion they profess from India, has at times found imitators among the laity. In Formosa the dead are exposed and dried in the air; and some of the Meaou-tsze tribes of central and southern China bury their dead, it is true, but after an interval of a year or more, having chosen a lucky day, they disinter them. On such occasions they go accompanied by their friends to the grave, and having opened the tomb they take out the bones and having brushed and washed them clean they put them back wrapped in cloth. The necessity in the Chinese mind that their bones must rest in the soil of their native land with their ancestors, has made to exist some peculiar practices among the colonizing Chinese in the United States and other countries. The bones of those who die thus far away from home are carefully preserved by their coun- trymen and shipped back, sometimes after many years, to find a resting place in the Middle Kingdom. It is a curious circumstance that in China where there exists such a profound veneration for everything old, there should not be found any ancient buildings or old ruins. That there is an abundant supply of durable materials for building is certain, and for many centuries the Chinese have been acquainted with the art of brick making, yet they have reared no building possessing enduring stability. Not only does the ephemeral nature of the tent, which would indicate their original nomadic origin and rec- ollection of old tent homes, appear in the slender construction of Chinese houses, but even in shape they assume a tent-like form. Etiquette provides that in houses of the better class a high wall shall surround the building, and that no window shall look out- ward. Consequently streets in the fashionable parts of cities have a dreary aspect. The only breaks in the long line of dismal wall are the front doors, which are generally closed, or if not, movable screens bar the sight of all beyond the door. Passing around one such screen one finds himself in a court-yard which is laid out as a garden or paved with stone. From this court- yard one reaches, on either side, rooms occupied by servants, or 160 PLAN OF THE HOUSES. directly in front, another building. Through this latter another court-yard is reached, in the rooms surrounding which the family live, and behind this again are the women's apartments, which not infrequently give exit to a garden at the back. Wooden pillars support the roofs of the buildings, and the in- tervals between these are filled up 'with brick work. The window-frames are wooden, over which is pasted either paper or calico, or sometimes pieces of talc to transmit the light. The doors are almost invariably folding doors ; the floors either stone or cement ; and ceilings are not often used, the roof being the only covering to the rooms. Carpets are seldom used, more especially in southern China, where also stoves for warming pur- poses are known. In the north, where in the winter the cold is very great, portable charcoal stoves are employed and small chaf- ing dishes are carried about from room to room. Delicate little hand-stoves, which gentlemen and ladies carry in their sleeves, are very much in vogue. In the colder latitudes a raised plat- form or dais is built in the room, of brick and stone, under which a fire is kindled with a chimney to carry off the smoke. The whole substance of this dais becomes heated and retains its warmth for several hours. This is the almost universal bed of the north of China. But the main dependence of the Chinese for personal warmth is on clothes. As the winter approaches garment is added to garment and furs to quilted vestments, until the wearer assumes an unwieldy and exaggerated shape. Well-to-do Chinamen seldom take strong exercise, and they are therefore able to bear clothes which to a European would be unendurable. Of the personal comfort obtainable in a house, Chinamen are strangely ignorant. Their furniture is of the hardest and most uncompromising nature. Chairs macle of a hard black wood, angular in shape, and equally unyielding divans, are the only seats known to them. Their beds are scarcely more comfortable, and their pillows are oblong cubes of bamboo or other hard material. For the maintenance of the existing fashions of female head dressing, this kind of pillow is essential to women at least, as their hair, which is only dressed at intervals of days, and which is kept in its shape by the abundant use of bandoline, would-be crushed and disfigured if lain upon for a moment. Women, FURNISHINGS OF THE HOUSES. 161 therefore, who make any pretension of following the fashion, are obliged to sleep at night on their backs, resting the nape of the neck on the pillow and thus keeping the head and hair free from contact with anything. The ornaments in the houses of the well-to-do are frequently elaborate and beautiful. Their wood carvings, cabinets, and ornamental pieces of furniture, and the rare beauty of their bronzes and porcelain, are of late years well known and much sought for in our own country. Tables are nearly uniform in size, furnishing a seat for one person on each of the four sides, and tables are multiplied sufficiently to accommodate whatever number requires to be served. When guests are entertained, the two sexes eat separately in different rooms, but in ordinary meals the members of the family of both sexes sit down together with much less formality. The streets in the towns differ widely in construction in the northern and southern portions of the empire. In the south they are narrow and paved, in the north they are wide and unpaved, both constructions being suited to the local wants of the people. The absence of wheel traffic in the southern provinces makes wide streets unnecessary, while by contracting their width the sun's rays have less chance of beating down on the heads of passers and it is possible to stretch awnings from roof to roof. It is true that this is done at the expense of fresh air, but even to do this is a gain. Shops are all open in front, the counters form- ing the only barrier. The streets are crowded in the extreme, and passage is necessarily slow. This inconvenience is avoided in the wide streets of the cities of the north, but these streets are so ill kept that in wet weather they are mud and in dry they arts jovered inches deep in dust. Of the large cities of the north and south Peking and Canton may be taken as typical examples and certainly, with the excep- tion of the palace, the walls, and certain imperial temples, the streets of Peking compare very unfavorably with those of Canton. The walls surrounding Peking are probably the finest and best kept in the empire. In height they are about forty feet and the same in width. The top, which is defended by massive battle- ments, is well paved and is kept in excellent order. Over each 162 HORRORS OF INFANTICIDE. gate is built a fortified tower between eighty and ninety feet high. The power of a Chinese father over his children is complete except that it stops short with life. -The practice of selling chil- dren is common, and though the law makes it a punishable offense, should the sale be effected against the will of the children, the prohibition is practically ignored. In the same way a law exists making infanticide a crime, but as a matter of fact it is never acted upon ; and in some parts of the country, more especially in CHINESE CART. the provinces of Chiang-hsi and Fu-chien, this most unnatural offense prevails among the poorer classes to an alarming extent. Not only do the people acknowledge the existence of the practice, but they even go the length of defending it. It is only however abject poverty which drives parents to this dreadful expedient, and in the more prosperous and wealthy districts the crime is almost unknown. Periodically the mandarins inveigh against the inhumanity of the offense and appeal to the better instincts of the people to put a stop to it ; but a stone which stands near a HORRORS OF INFANTICIDE. 163 pool outside the city of Foochow bearing the inscription, " Girls may not be drowned here," testifies with terrible emphasis to the futility of their endeavors. The large number of cast-a-way bodies of dead infants seen in many parts of China is often regarded, though unjustly, as evi- dence of the prevalence of this crime. In most instances, however, it really indicates only the denial of burial to infants. This is due, at least in many places, to the following superstition : When they die it is supposed that their bodies have been inhabited by the spirit of a deceased creditor of a previous state of existence. The child during its sickness may be cared for with the greatest tenderness, but if it dies parental love is turned to hate and resentment. It is regarded as an enemy and intruder in the family who has been exacting satisfaction for the old unpaid debt ; and having occasioned a great deal of anxiety, trouble, and expense, has left nothing to show for it but disappoint- ment. The uncared for and uncoffined little body is cast away anywhere ; and as it is carried out of the door the house is swept, crackers are fired, and gongs beaten to frighten the spirit so that it may never dare enter the house again. Thus do superstitions dry up the fountains of natural affection. The complete subjection of children to their parents is so firmly imbued in the minds of every Chinese youth, that resist- ance to the infliction of cruel and even unmerited punishment is seldom if ever offered, and full-grown men submit meekly to be flogged without raising their hands. The law steps in on every occasion in support of parental authority. Filial piety is the leading principle in Chinese ethics. SCHOOL BOY. 164 SCHOOL LIFE OF THE CHILDREN. School life begins at the age of six, and among the wealthier classes great care is shown in the choice of master. The stars having indicated a propitious day for beginning work, the boy presents himself at school, bringing with him two small candles, some sticks of incense, and some paper money, which are burnt at the shrine of Confucius, before which also the little fellow prostrates himself three times. There being no alphabet in Chinese the pupil has to plunge at once into the middle of things and begins by learning to read. Having mastered two elementary books, the next step is to the *' Four Books." Then follow the "Five Classics," the final desire of Chinese learning. A full CHINESE SCHOOL. comprehension of these Four Books and Five Classics, together with the commentaries upon them, and the power of turning this knowledge to account in the shape of essays and poems, is all that is required at the highest examination in the empire. This course of instruction has been exactly followed out in every school in the empire for many centuries. The choice of a future calling, which is often so perplexing in our own country, is simplified in China by the fact of there being but two pursuits which a man of respectability and education can follow, namely the mandarinate and trades. The liberal professions as we understand them are unknown in China. The CHANG YEN HOON. CHOICE OF A VOCATION. 167 judicial system forbids the existence of the legal profession ex- cept in the case of official secretaries attached to the mandarins' courts; and medicine is represented by charlatans who prey on the follies of their fellowmen and dispense ground tiger's teeth, snake's skins, etc., in lieu of drugs. A lad, or his parents for him, has therefore practically to consider whether he should attempt to compete at the general competitive examinations to qualify him for office, or whether he should embark in one of the numerous mercantile concerns which abound among the money- making and thrifty Chinese. The succession of examinations leading up to the various hon- orary degrees and official positions, are complicated and exacting. The suc- cessful candidates have great honor attached to them, and are the promi- nent and successful people of the empire. These ex- aminations are open to I every man in the empire of whatever grade, unless he belong to one of the fol lowing four classes, or be the descendant of one such within three generations; actors, prostitutes, jailers, and executioners and ser- vants of mandarins. The theory with regard to these people is that actors and prostitutes being devoid of all shame, and execu- tioners and jailers having become hardened by the cruel nature of their offices, are unfit in their own persons or as represented by their sons to win posts of honor by means of the examinations. The military examinations are held separately, and though the literary calibre of the candidates is treated much in the same way as at the civil examinations, the same high standard of knowledge is not required ; but in addition skill in archery and in the use of warlike weapons is essential. It is illustrative of SCHOOL GIRL. 168 TEACHERS AND SCHOLARS. the backwardness of the Chinese in warlike methods, that though they have been acquainted with the use of gunpowder for some centuries, they revert in the examination of military candidates to the weapons of the ancients, and that while theoretically they are great strategists, strength and skill in the use of these weapons are the only tests required for commissions. Persons of almost every class and in almost every station of life make an effort to send their boys to school, with the hope that they may distinguish themselves, be advanced to high posi- tions in the state, and reflect honor upon their families. Of those who compete for literary honors a very small proportion are success- ful in attaining even the first degree, though some strive for it for a lifetime. These unsuc- cessful candidates and the graduates of the first and second degrees, form the important class of literary men scattered throughout the empire. The large proportion of this class are compara- tively poor, and their CHINESE ARTIST. services may be ob- tained for a very small remuneration. They are employed to teach the village schools. Rich families in different neighborhoods often assist in keeping up the school for the credit of the village, and opportunities for obtaining an education are thus brought within the reach of all. Graduates of the first and second degrees, generally have the charge of more advanced pupils, and many are engaged as tutors in private families, commanding higher wages. They are also em- ployed as scribes or copyists, and to write letters, family histories, BUSINESS AND THE TRADES. 169 genealogies, etc. In the larger cities schools are established by the government, and in many places free schools are supported by wealthy men, but these institutions do not seem to be popular and are not flourishing. Though trade practically holds its place as next in estimation to the mandarinate, in theory it should follow both the careers of husbandry and of the mechanical arts. All land is held in free-hold from the govern- ment, and princi- pally by clans or families, who pay an annual tax to the crown, amount- ing to about one- tenth of the pro- duce. As long as this tax is paid regularly the owners are never dispossessed, and properties thus re- main in the hands of clans and fami- lies for many gen- erations. In order that farming oper- ations shall be properly conduct- CHINESE BARBER. ed, there are estab- lished in almost every district agricultural boards, consisting of old men learned in husbandry. By these veterans a careful watch is kept over the work done by the neighboring farmers, and in the case of any dereliction of duty or neglect of the pre- scribed modes of farming, the offender is summoned before the district magistrate, who inflicts the punishment which he con- 11 170 MODES OF TRAVEL. aiders proportionate to the offense. The appliances of the Chinese for irrigating the fields and winnowing the grain are excellent, but those for getting the largest crops out of the land are of a rude and primitive kind. Among their artisans the Chinese number carpenters, masons, tailors, shoemakers, workers in iron and brass, and silversmiths and goldsmiths, who can imitate almost any article of foreign manufacture ; also workmen in bamboo, carvers, idol makers, needle manufacturers, barbers, hair- dressers, etc. Business men sell almost every kind of goods and commodities wholesale and retail. Large fortunes are amassed very much in the same way and by the same means as are now in our own country. The wealth of the rich is invested in lands or houses, or employed as capital in trade or banking, or is lent out on good security, and often at a high rate of interest. Traveling in China is slow and leisurely, and the modes of it vary greatly in different parts of the empire. In many of the provinces, especially along the coast and in the south, canals take the place, for the most part, of roads. In the vicinity of Ningpo the country is supplied with a complete network of them, often intersecting each other at distances of one or two miles or less. Farmers frequently have short branch canals running off to their houses, and the farm boat takes the place of the farm wagon. Heavy loaded passage or freight boats ply in every direction. The ordinary charge for passage is less than one-half a cent per mile. The boats are admirably adapted to the people and circum- stances, being built for comfort rather than for speed. These water courses then, with the rivers which are so numerous, fur- nish the most general way of traveling throughout the empire. In the north, where the country is level and open, the existence of broad roads enables the people to use rude carts for the con- veyance of passengers and freight. Mules are used for riding purposes, and palanquins borne by two horses, or sedan chairs carried by two coolies, are popular ways of traveling. The sea- going junks are very much larger than the river craft, and differ- ent in construction. The best ones are divided into water tight compartments and are capable of carrying several thousand tons HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS. 171 of cargo. They are generally three-masted and carry huge sails made of matting, Although the Chinese have the compass, they are without the knowledge necessary for taking nautical observations, so they either hug the land or steer straight by the compass until they reach some coast with which they are familiar. In these circum- stances it is easy to understand why the loss of junks and lives on the Chinese coast every year is so great. The immense number of people who live in boats on the rivers in southern China, render the terrible typhoons which sweep the sea and land espec- ially destructive. For the most part these boat-people are not of Chinese origin but are remnants of the aborigines of the country. - /, . PORTER'S CHAIR. That the race has ever survived is a constant wonder, seeing the hourly and almost momentary danger of drowning in which the children live on board their boats. The only precaution that is ever taken, even in the case of infants, is to tie an empty gourd between their shoulders, so that should they fall into the water they may be kept afloat until help comes. They are born in their boats, they marry in their boats, and die in their boats. The Chinese calendar and the festivities that accompany differ- ent seasons and anniversaries, are peculiarly interesting and different from our own, but space forbids any detailed account of them. The four seasons correspond to ours, and in addition to 172 HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS. the four seasons the year is divided into eight parts called "joints," or divisions, and these are again subdivided into six- teen more called " breaths," or sources of life. There are forty festivals of China which are celebrated with observances generally throughout the empire and are considered to be important. They do not occur at regular intervals, and there is no periodical day of rest and recreation corresponding at all to our Sunday. The festivities of the new year exceed all others in their prominence and continuance, and in the universality and enthusiasm with which they are observed. " The Feast of Lanterns " and " The Festival of the Tombs " are two of the most interesting of Chinese festivals. The ninth day of the ninth month is a great time for flying kites. On that day thousands of men enjoy the sport and immense kites of all grotesque shapes fill the air. Theaters are very common in China, but the character and associations of the stage are very different from those of western lands and are very much less respected. Actors are regarded as an inferior class. Females do not appear upon the stage, but men act the part of female characters. Gambling is very common in China and is practiced in a variety of ways. Its ill effects are acknowledged, and there are laws prohibiting it, but they are a dead letter. There are many kinds of stringed and reed instruments used by the musicians of China. Bells, also, are very numerous, and ex- cellent sweet toned bells are made. A careful watch is kept over the efforts of composers by the imperial board of music, whose duty it is to keep alive the music of the ancients and to suppress all compositions which are not in harmony with it. It is difficult for western ears to find anything truly beautiful in Chinese music. The medical art of China is not of a sort to win much admira- tion from us. The Chinese know nothing of physiology or an- atomy. The functions of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain are sealed books to them and they recognize no distinction between veins and arteries and between nerves and tendons. Their deeply rooted repugnance to the use of a knife in surgery or to post-mortem examinations prevents the possibility of their acquiring any accurate knowledge of the position of the various organs. They consider that from the heart and pit of the stomach MEDICAL PRACTICE. ITS all ideas and delights proceed, and that the gall bladder is the seat of courage. Man's body is believed to be composed of the five elements, fire, water, metal, wood, earth. The medical pro- fession in China is an open one, for there are no medical colleges and no examination tests to worry the minds of would-be practi- tioners. Some doctors have prescriptions as valuable and of the same sort as those prepared from herbs and vegetables by many an old woman in our own country settlements. On the other hand, some of the most ridiculous remedies are given, such as tiger's teeth, gold and silver leaf, and shavings of rhinoceros horns, or ivory. Fortunately for the people imflammatory diseases are almost unknown in China, but small-pox, consump- tion, and dysentery rage almost unchecked by medical help; skin diseases are very prevalent, and cancer is by no means uncommon. Of late the practice of vaccination has begun to make its way among the people. There are hosts of superstitions among the Chinese people, and their beliefs regarding spirits and the influence of the dead, of sorcerers, and of devils, are myriad. These superstitions pervade every rank of society, from the highest to the lowest. The general term applied to the whole system of superstition and luck is fung-shwuy, and the practitioners and learned men in this science are called upon to determine what action shall be taken in all sorts of circumstances. There are benevolent societies in China corresponding in variety and almost in number to those of Christian lands. There are orphan asylums, institutions for the relief of widows, and for the aged and infirm, public hospitals and free schools, together with other kindred institutions more peculiarly Chinese in their character. In some parts of China schools for girls exist, taught by female teachers. In most places, however females are seldom taught letters, and schools for their benefit are not known. Foreigners in establishing them invariably give a small sum of money or some rice for each day's attendance, and it is thought that these schools could not be kept together in any other way. The Chinese describe themselves as possessing three religions, or more accurately three sects, namely, Joo keaoa. the sect of scholars, Fuh keaou, the sect of Budaha , and Tao keaou, the 174 CONFUCIANISM. sect of Tao. Both as regards age and origin, the sect of scholars, or as it is generally called, Confucianism, represents pre-eminently the religion of China. It has its root in the worship of Shang-te, a deity associated with the earliest traditions of the Chinese race. This deity was a personal god, who ruled the affairs of men, re- warding and punishing as appeared just. But during the troub- lous times which followed the first sovereigns of the Chow dynasty, the belief in a personal deity grew dim, until when Con- fucius began his career there appeared nothing strange in his atheistic teachings. His concern was with man as a member of society, and the object of his teaching was to lead him into those paths of rectitude which might best contribute to the happiness of the man, and to the well-being of the community of which he formed a part. Man, he held, was born good and was endowed with qualities, which when cultivated and improved by watchful- ness and self-restraint, might enable him to acquire godlike wisdom. In the system of Confucius there is no place for a personal god. Man has his destiny in his own hands to make or mar. Neither had Confucius any inducement to offer to en- courage men in the practice of virtue, except virtue itself. He was a matter-of-fact, unimaginative man, who was quite content to occupy himself with the study of his fellow men, and was dis- inclined to grope into the future. Succeeding ages, recognizing the loftiness of his aims, eliminated all that was impracticable and unreal in his system, and held fast to that part of it that was true and good. They clung to the doctrines of filial piety, brotherly love, and virtuous living. It was admiration for the emphasis which he laid on these and other virtues, which has drawn so many millions of men unto him and has adorned every city of the empire with temples built in his honor. Side by side with the revival of the Joo keaou, under the in- fluence of Confucius, grew up a system of a totally different nature, which when divested of its esoteric doctrines and reduced by the practically minded Chinamen to a code of morals, was destined in future ages to become affiliated with the teachings of the sage. This was Taoism, which was founded by Lao-tzu, who was a contemporary of Confucius. The object of his teaching wad to induce men, by the practice of self-abnegation, to reach M O I TAOISM. 177 absorption in something which he called Tao, and which bears a certain resemblance to the Nirvana of the Buddhists. The primary meaning of Tao is " the way," " the path," but in Lao-tzu philosophy it was more than the way, it was the way -goer as well. It was an eternal road ; along it all beings and things walked ; it was everything and nothing, and the cause and effect of all. All things originated from Tao, conformed to Tao, and to Tao at last returned. It was absorption into this "mother of all things" that Lao-tzu aimed at. But these subtilties, to the common people were foolishness, and before long the philosophical doc- trine of the identity of existence and non-existence assumed in their eyes a warrant for the old Epicurean motto, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." The pleasures of sense were substituted for the delights of virtue, and to prolong life the votaries began a search for elixirs of immortality, and charms. Taoism quickly degenerated into a system of magic. To-day the monopoly which Taoist priests enjoy as the exponents of the mysteries of nature, inherited from the time when they sought for natural charms, makes them indispensably necessary to all classes, and the most confirmed Confucianist does not hesitate to consult the shaven followers of Lao-tzu on the choice of the site for his house, the position of his family graveyard, or a fortunate day for undertaking an enterprise. Apart from the practice of these magical arts, Taoism has become assimilated with modern Confucianism and is scarcely distinguishable from it. The teachings of Lao-tzu bore a sufficient resemblance to the musings of Indian sages, that they served to prepare the way for the introduction of Buddhism. A deputation of Buddhists ar- rived in China in the year 216 B. C., but were harshly treated, and returned to their homes without leaving any impress of their religion. It was not until some sixty years after Christ, in the reign of the Emperor Ming Ti, that Buddhism was actually in- troduced. One night the emperor dreamed that a monster golden image appeared and said, "Buddha bids you to send to the west- ern countries to search for him and to get books and images." The emperor obeyed, and sent an embassy to India which re- turned after an absence of eleven years bringing back images, the sacred writings, and missionaries who could translate these 178 BUDDHISM. scriptures into Chinese. Thus was introduced into China the knowledge of that system which in purity and loftiness of aim takes its place next to Christianity among the religions of the world. From this time Buddhism grew and prevailed in the land. The Buddhism of China is not, however, exactly that of India. The Chinese believe in a material paradise, which is obviously BUDDHIST TEMPLE. inconsistent with the orthodox belief in Nirvana. Like the other faiths of China, orthodox Buddhism could not entirely satisfy the people. Like the Jews of old they were eager after signs, and self interest made their spiritual rulers nothing loth to grant them their desire. From the mountains and monasteries came men who claimed to possess the elixir of immortality, and pro- UNION OF THREE FAITHS. 179 claimed themselves adepts in witchcraft and sorcery. By magic incantations they exorcised evil spirits, and dissipated famine, pestilence, and disease. By the exercise of their supernatural powers they rescued souls from hell, and arrested pain and death. In the services of the church they added ritual to ritual. By such means they won their way among the people, and even sternly orthodox Confucianists make use of their services to chant the liturgies of the dead. But while superstition compels even the wise and the learned to pay homage to this faith, there is scarcely an educated man who would not repudiate a sugges- tion that he is a follower of Buddha; and though the common people throng the temples to buy charms and consult astrologers, they yet despise both the priests and the religion they profess. But Buddhism has after all been a blessing rather than a curse in China. It has to a certain extent lifted the mind of the peo- ple from the too exclusive consideration of mundane affairs, to the contemplation of a future state. It has taught them to value purity of life more highly ; to exercise self-constraint and to for- get self; and to practise charity towards their neighbors. It will be seen that no clearly defined line of demarcation sep- arates the three great sects of China. Each in its turn has bor- rowed from the others, until at the present day it may be doubted whether there are to be found any pure Confucianists, pure Buddhists, or pure Taoists. Confucianism has provided the moral basis on which the national character of the Chinese rests, and Buddhism and Taoism have supplied the supernatural ele- ment wanting in that system. Speaking generally then, the re- ligion of China is a medley of the three great sects which are now so closely interlaced that it is impossible either to classify or enumerate the members of each creed. The only other relig- ion of importance in China is Mohammedanism, which is confined to the south-western and north-western provinces of the empire. In this faith also the process of absorption in a national mixture of beliefs is making headway. And since the suppression of the Panthay rebellion in Yun-nan, there has been a gradual decline in the number of the followers of the prophet. The speech and the written composition of the Chinese differ more than those of any other people. The former addresses it- 180 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. self, like all other languages, to the mind through the ear ; the latter speaks to the mind through the eye, not as words but as symbols of ideas. All Chinese literature might be understood and translated though the student of it could not name a single character. The colloquial speech is not difficult of acquisition, but the written composition is slow of learning by foreigners. " Pidgin English " is a mixed Chinese, Portuguese and English language, which is a creation of the necessities of communication between Chinese and foreigners at the open ports, while neither party had the time or means or wish to acquire an accurate knowledge of the language of the other. " Pidgin " is a Chinese attempt to pronounce our word business, and the materials of the lingo are nearly all English words similarly represented or mis- represented. The idiom on the other hand is entirely that of colloquial Chinese. Foreigners master it in a short time so as I o carry on long conversations by means of it, and to transact im- portant affairs of business. This jargon is passing away. Chinese who know English and English who know Chinese are increasing in number from year to year. In the first two chapters, containing a sketch of Chinese his- tory, mention has been made of the greater literary works pro- duced in the early centuries of the empire ; and the calamity of the burning of the books has been described. Of the famous classics which are yet cherished we will not speak again here. After the revival of literature, and the encouragement given to it by the successors of the emperor who destroyed the libraries of the empire, the tide has flowed onward in an ever-increasing volume, checked only at times by one of those signal calamities often overtaking the imperial libraries of China. It is note- worthy that however ruthlessly the libraries and intellectual cen- ters have been destroyed, one of the first acts of the successful founders of succeeding dynasties has been to restore them to their former completeness and efficiency. The Chinese divide their literature into four departments, classical, philosophical, historical and belles lettres. The " nine classics," of which we have already spoken as being the books studied by every Chinese student, form but the nucleus of the immense mass of literature which has gathered around them. POSSIBILITIES OF CHINA. 181 The historical literature of China is the most important branch of the national literature. There are works which record the purely political events of each reign, as well as those on chronol- ogy, rites and music, jurisprudence, political economy, state sac- rifices, astronomy, geography, and records of the neighboring countries. On drawing, painting, and medicine much has been written. Poems, novels, and romances, dramas, and books written in the colloqual style, are frequent in the Chinese litera- TEMPLE OP FIVE HUNDRED GODS, AT CANTON. ture. There is no more pleasant reading than some of their his- torical romances, and some of the best novels have been trans- lated into European languages. There is, however, considerable poverty of imagination, little analysis of character, and no inter- weaving of plot in the fiction. The glance that we have taken at the habits and customs of life among the Chinese people, shows that while they lack many of the things that we have been taught to believe essential to 182 POSSIBILITIES OF CHINA. civilization, they nevertheless are equipped with many good things. They have the same human instincts, and are ready and able to absorb learning with great rapidity, when once they be- come convinced of the value of it. It is their conservatism and their belief that they are the only truly civilized people in the world, while all others are barbarians, that has made them so slow to adopt any of the better things of western civilization. JAPAN JAPANESE MUSICIAN. THE MIKADO AND HIS PRINCIPAL OFFICERS. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JAPAN FROM THE EARLI- EST TIMES TO FIRST CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION. The Oldest Dynasty in the World and its Records The First Emperor of Japan Some or the Famous Early Rulers Invasion and Conquest of Corea by the Empress Jingo How Civilization Came from Corea to Japan The Rise of the Dual System of Government- Mikado and Shogun Expulsion of the Hojo Dynasty of Shoguns The Invasion of tha Mongol Tartars Annihilation of the Armada Corruption of the Shogun Rule Growth of the Feudal System Another Conquest of Corea Founding of the Last Dynasty of Shoguns Advance of Japan in the Age of Hideyoshi. In a historical sketch of the life of a nation which counts twenty -five centuries of recorded history, but the briefest out- line can be given. The scope of such a work as this does not admit of minute historical details. When it is said that tradi- tions exist carrying back the history for a number of years which requires several hundred ciphers to measure, the effort to relate even an outline becomes almost appalling. Until the twelfth cen- tury of our era, Europe did not know even of the existence of Japan ; and the reports which were then brought by Marco Polo, who had learned of the island empire of Zipangu from the Chinese were as vague as they were enticing. The successes of the Jesuit missionaries led by Xavier, and the commercial inter- course established by the Portuguese in the latter part of the 16th century, and by the Dutch somewhat later, promised to dis- close the mysteries of the far Pacific empire ; but within a few generations these were more hopelessly than ever sealed against foreign intrusion. Only forty years ago the United States ot America knocked at the door of Japan, met a welcome under protest, and the country began to open to western civilization. Even yet the great mass of the people of our own country have far from a right conception of the ancient civilization which has for ages prevailed in these islands of the Pacific. The Japanese imperial dynasty is the oldest in the world. Two thousand five hundred and fifty-four years ago in 660 B. C., C187) 188 THE OLDEST DYNASTY IN THE WORLD. the sacred histories relate that Jimmu Tenno commenced to reign as the first Mikado, or Emperor of Japan. The sources of Japanese history are rich and solid, historical writings forming the largest and most important divisions of their voluminous literature. The period from about the ninth century until the present time is treated very fully, while the real history of the period prior to the eighth century of the Christian era is very meagre. It is nearly certain that the Japanese possessed no writing until the sixth century A. D. Their oldest extant com- position is the " Kojild," or " Book of Ancient Traditions." It may be called the Bible of the Japanese. It comprises three volumes, composed A. D. 711-712, and is said to have been preceded by two similar works about one hundred years earlier, but neither of these have been preserved. The first volume treats of the creation of the heavens and earth, the gods and goddesses, and the events of the holy age or mythological period. The second and third give the history of the mikados from the year i ^660 B. C.) to the year 1280 of the Japanese era. It was first printed in the years A. D. 1624-1642. The "Nihongi" completed A. D. 720 also contains a Japanese record of the mytnological period, and brings down the annals of the mikados to A. D. 699. These are the oldest books in the language. They contain so much that is fabulous, mythical or exaggerated, that their statements especially in respect of dates cannot be ac- cepted as true history. A succession of historical works of apparent reliability illustrate the period between the eighth and the eleventh centuries, and still better ones treat of the mediaeval period from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. The period from 1600 to 1853 is less known than others in earlier times, because of mandates that existed forbidding the production of contemporary histories. Whatever may be the actual fact, Jimmu Tenno is popularly believed to have been a real person and the first emperor of Japan. He is deified in the Shinto religion, and in thousands of shrines dedicated to him the people worship his spirit. In one official list of mikados he is named as the first. The reigning Emperor refers to him as his ancestor, from whom he claims unbroken descent as the 123rd member of this dynasty. The FIRST EMPEROR OF JAPAN. 189 seventh day of April is fixed as the anniversary of his ascension to the throne and that day is a national holiday on which the birth, the accession and death of this national hero are still annually celebrated. Then one may see flags flying from both public and private buildings, and hear the reverberations of a royal salute fired by the ironclad navy of modern Japan from Krupp guns, and by the military in French uniforms from Remington rifles. The era of Jimmu is the start- = as>~^>^! iug point of Jap- " ' anese chronology, and the year I of the Japanese era is j that upon which j he ascended the ' throne at Kashiwa- vara. In the beginning there existed, ac- cording to one in- terpretation of the somewhat perplex- ing Shinto mythol- ogy, chaos, which contained the germs of all things. From this was evolved a race of heavenly beings and celestial " Kami" of whom Tzanagi, a male, and Izanami, a female, were the last individuals. Other authori- ties on Shinto maintain that infinite space and not chaos existed in the beginning ; others again that in the beginning there was one god. However, all agree as to the appearance on the scene of Izanagi and Izanami, and it is with these we are here con- cerned ; for by their union were produced the islands of Japan, JAPANESE GOD OI l&O JAPANESE ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION. and among their children were Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and her younger brother, Susanoo, afterward appointed god of the sea. On account of her bright beauty the former was made queen of the sun, and had given to her a share on the govern- ment of the earth. To Ninigi-no-mikoto, her grandson, she afterward consign- ed absolute rule over the earth, sending him down by the floating bridge of heaven upon the summit of the mountain Kirishim a-yama. He took with him the three Japanese regalia, the sacred mirror, now in one of the Shinto shrines of Ise; the sword, now treas- ^ Nagoya ; and the ball of rock crys- tal in possession of the emperor. On the accomplish- ment of the de- scent, the sun and the earth receded from one another, and communica- tion by means of the floating bridge ceased. Jimmu Tenno, the first historic emperor of Japan, was the great grandson of Ninigi-no-mikoto. According to the indigenous religion of Japan, therefore, 8. religion which even since the adoption of western civilization hap JAPANESE GOD OF RIDING. : -- JAPANESE PEASANTRY. SACREDNESS OF THE MIKADO. 193 been patronized by the state, the mikados are directly descended from the sun goddess, the principal Shinto divinity. Having re- ceived from her the three sacred treasures, they are invested with authority to rule over Japan as long as the sun and moon shall endure. Their minds are in perfect harmony with hers; there- fore they cannot err and must receive implicit obedience. Such is the traditional theory as to the position of the Japanese emperors, a theory which was advanced in its most elaborate form, as recently as the last century, by Motoori, a writer on Shinto, which of late years has no doubt been much modified or even utterly discarded by many of the more enlightened among the people. Even yet, however, it is far from having been abandoned by the masses. The mikados being thus regarded as semi-divinities, it is not surprising that the very excess of veneration showed them tended more and more to weaken their actual power. They were too sacred to be brought much into contact with ordinary mortals, too sacred even to have their divine countenances looked upon by any but a select few. Latterly it was only the nobles immediately around him that ever saw the mikado's face ; others might be admitted to the imperial presence, but it was only to get a glimpse from behind a curtain of a portion of the imperial form, less or more according to their rank. When the mikado went out into the grounds of his palace in Kioto, matting was spread for him to walk upon ; when he left the palace precincts he was borne in a sedan chair, the blinds of which were carefully drawn down. The populace prostrated themselves as the procession passed, but none of them ever saw the imperial form. In short, the mikados ultimately became virtual prisoners. Theoretically gifted with all political knowledge and power, they were less the masters of their own actions than many of the humblest of their subjects. Although nominally the repositories of all authority, they had practically no share in the management of the national affairs. The isolation in which it was deemed proper that they should be kept, prevented them from acquiring the knowledge requisite for governing, and even had that knowledge been obtained, gave no opportunity for its manifestation. From the death of Jimmu Tenno to that of Kimmei. in whose 194 THE REIGN OF THE GOOD SUJIN. reign Buddhism was introduced, A. D. 571, there were thirty mikados. During this period of one thousand three hundred and thirty-six years, believed to be historic by most Japanese, the most interesting subjects are the reforms of SujinTenno, the military expeditions to eastern Japan by Yamato-Dake, the invasion of Corea by the Empress Jingo Kogo, and the introduction of Chinese civilization and Buddhism. Sujin-or Shujin, B. C. 97-30, was a man of intense earnestness and piety. His prayers to the gods for the abatement of a plague were answered, and a revival of religious feeling and worship ensued. He introduced many forms in the practices of religion and the manners of life. He appointed his own daughter priestess of the shrine and custodian of the symbols of the three holy regalia, which had hitherto been kept in the palace of the mikado. This custom has continued to the present time, and the shrines of Uji in Ise, which now hold the sacred mirror, are always in charge of a virgin princess of imperial blood. The whole life of Sujin was one long effort to civilize his half savage subjects. He regulated taxes, established a periodical census, and encouraged the building of boats. He may also be called the father of Japanese agriculture, since he encouraged it by edict and example, ordering canals to be dug, water courses provided, and irrigation to be extensively carried on. The energies of this pious mikado were further exerted in de- vising a national military system whereby his peacably disposed subjects could be protected, and the extremities of his realm extended. The eastern and northern frontiers were exposed to (he assaults of the wild tribes of Ainos, who were yet unsubdued. Between the peaceful agricultural inhabitants and the untamed savages a continual border war existed. A military division of the empire into four departments was made, and a shogun or general appointed over each. The half subdued inhabitants in the extremes of the realm needed constant watching, and seem to have been as restless and treacherous as the indians on our own frontiers. The whole history of the extension and development of the mikado's empire is one of war and blood, rivalling that of our own country in its early struggles with the Indians. This constant military action and life in a camp resulted, in the course THE GREAT EMPRESS JINGO. 195 of time, in the creation of a powerful and numerous military class, who made war professional and hereditary. It developed that military genius and character which so distinguish the modern Japanese and mark them in such strong contrast with other na- tions of eastern Asia. Towards the end of the first century A. D., Yamato-Dake, son of the emperor Keiko, reduced most of the Ainos of the north to submission. These savages fought much after the manner of the North American Indian, using their knowledge of woodcraft most effectually, but the young prince with a well equipped army em- barked on a fleet of ships and reaching their portion of the island, fought them until they were glad to surrender. It was in the third century that the Empress Jingo invaded and conquered Corea. In all Japanese tradition or history, there is no greater female character than this empress. She was equally renowned for her beauty, piety, intelligence, energy and martial valor. To this woman belongs the glory of the conquest of Corea, whence came letters, religion and civilization to Japan. Tradition is that it was directly commanded her by the gods to cross the water and attack Corea. Her husband, the emperor, doubting the veracity of this message from the gods, was forbid- den by them any share in the enterprise. Jingo ordered her generals and captains to collect troops, build ships, and be ready to embark. She disguised herself as a man, proceeded with the recruiting of soldiers and the building of ships, and in the year 201 A. D. was ready to start. Before starting, Jingo issued these orders for her soldiers : " No loot. Neither despise a few enemies nor fear many. Give mercy to those who yield but no quarter to the stubborn. Rewards shall be apportioned to the victors, punishments shall be meted to the deserters." It was not very clear in the minds of these ancient filibusters where Corea was, or for what particular point of their horizon they were to steer. They had no chart or compass. The sun, stars and the flight of birds were their guide. None of them be- fore had ever known of the existence of such a country as Corea, but the same gods that had commanded the invasion protected the invaders, and in due time they landed in southern Corea. 196 INVASION AND CONQUEST OF COREA. The king of this part of the country had heard from his messen- gers of the coming of a strange fleet from the east, and terrified exclaimed, " We never knew there was any country outside of us. Have our gods forsaken us ? " It was a bloodless invasion, for there was no fighting to do. The Coreans came holding white flags and surrendered, offering to give up their treas- ures. They took an oath to become hostages and be tributary to Japan. Eighty ships well laden with gold and silver, articles oJ wealth, silks and pre- cious goods of all kinds, and eighty hostages, men of high families, were given to the con- querors. The stay of the Japanese army in Corea was very brief, and the troops returned in two months. Jingo was, on her arrival, de- livered of a son, who in the popular estimation of gods and mortals holds even a higher place of honor than his mother, who is believed to have conquered southern Corea through the power of her yet unborn illustrious offspring. The motive which induced the invasion into Corea seems to have been mere love of war and conquest, and the Japanese still refer with great pride to this, their initial exploit on foreign soil. The son O.iin. who became the emperor, was, after his death, JAPANESE GOD OF WAR. TOKIO TYPES AND COSTUMES. CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION REACHES JAPAN. 199 deified and worshipped as the god of war, Hachiman, and down through the centuries he has been worshiped by all classes of people, especially by soldiers, who offer their prayers and pay their vows to him. Ojin was also a man of literary tastes, and it JAPANESE MUSICIAN. was during his reign that Japan began to profit from the learning of the Coreans, who introduced the study of the Chinese lan- guage, and indeed the art of writing itself. During the immedi- ately succeeding centuries various emperors and empresses were 1200 CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION REACHES JAPAN. eminent for their zeal in encouraging the arts of peace. Archi- tects, painters, physicians, musicians, dancers, chronologists, arti- sans and fortune tellers were brought over from Corea to instruct the people, but not all of these came at once. Immigration was gradual, but the coming of so many immigrants brought new blood, ideas, methods and improvements. Japan received from China, through Corea, what she has been receiving from America and Europe for the last forty years a new civilization. The records report the arrival of tailors in 283 and horses in 284 from Corea to Japan. In 285 a Corean scholar came to Japan, and re- siding at the court, instructed the mikado's son in writing. In 462 mulberry trees were planted, to- gether with the silk worm, for whose sus- tenance they were implanted, from China or Corea. And this marks the begin- ning of silk culture in Japan. When in 552 the company of doctors, astronomers and mathematicians came from Corea to live at the Japanese court, they brought with them Buddhist missionaries, and this maybe called the intro- duction of continental civilization. Beginning with Jingo, there seems to have poured into the island empire a stream of immi- grants, skilled artisans, scholars and teachers, bringing arts, litera- ture and religion. This was the first of three great waves of foreign civilization in Japan. The first was from China, through Corea, in the sixth ; the second from western Europe in the fif- teenth century; the third was from America, Europe and the world, in the decade following the advent of Commodore Perry. In the eighth century, during the greater part of which the capital of the country was the city of Nara, about thirty miles JAPANESE SILK SPINNER. NOBLE FAMILIES BEGIN TO RISE. 201 from Kioto, Japan had largely under the government of empresses reached a most creditable stage of progress in the arts of peace. Near the close of the eighth century the emperor Kuwammu took up his residence at Kioto, which until 1868 remained the capital of the country, and is even now dignified with the name of Saikiyo, or " Western Capital." Here he built a palace very unlike the simple dwelling in which his predecessors had been content to live. It had a dozen gates, and around it was reared a city with twelve hundred streets. The palace he named " the Castle of Peace," but for years it proved the very centre of the feuds which soon began to distract the country. This did not happen however until some centuries after the death of Kuwammu. But even after his time there were not wanting indications that the control of affairs was destined to slip into the hands of certain powerful families at the imperial court. The first family to rise into eminence was that of Fujiwara, a member of which it was that got Kuwammu placed upon the throne. For centuries the Fujiwaras controlled the civil affairs of the empire, but a more important factor in bringing about the reduction of the mikado's power and the establishment of that strange system of government which was destined to be so char- acteristic of Japan, was the rise into power of the rival houses of Taira and Minamoto, otherwise called respectfully Hei and Gen. This system of government has almost always been misunderstood in America and Europe. Two rulers in two capitals gave to for- eigners the impression that there were two emperors in Japan, an idea that has been incorporated into most of the text books, and encyclopedias of Christendom. Let it be clearly understood how- ever that there never was but one emperor in Japan, the mikado, who is and always was the only sovereign, though his measure of power has been very different at different times. Until the rise and domination of the military classes, he was in fact, as well as by law, supreme. With the feuds of Hei and Gen commences an entirely new era in the history of the country, an era replete with tales alike of bloodshed, intrigue and chivalry. We see the growth of a feudal system at least as elaborate as that of Europe, and strangely 13 202 BIRTH OF FAMILY FEUDS. enough, assuming almost identical forms, and that during the same period. The respective founders of the Taira and Minamoto families were Taira Takamochi and Minamoto Tsunemoto, two warriors of the tenth century. Their descendants were for generations military vassals of the mikado, and were distinguished by red and white flags, colors which suggest the red and white roses of the rival English houses of Lancaster and York. For years the two houses served the emperor faithfully; but even before any quarrel had arisen between them, the popularity of the head of the Minamoto clan, with the soldiers with whom he had been placed, so alarmed the emperor Toba (1108-1124, A. D.) that he issued an edict forbidding the Samurai, the military class, of any of the provinces, from constituting themselves the retainers of either of these two families. It was in the year 1156 that the feuds between the two houses broke out, and it arose in this way. At the accession of Go-Shir- akawa to the throne in that year, there were living two ex-em- perors who would seem to have voluntarily abdicated ; one of them, however, Shutoku, was averse to the accession of the heir, being himself anxious to resume the imperial power. His cause was es- poused by Tameyoshi, the head of the Minamoto house, while among the supporters of Go-Shirakawa was Kiyomori, of the house of Taira. In the conflict which followed, Go-Shirakawa was success- ful, and immediately thereafter we find Taira Kiyomori appointed Daijo-Daijin, or prime minister, with practically all political power in his hands. On the abdication within a few years of the mikado, the prime minister was able to put whatever member of the im- perial house he willed upon the throne ; and being himself allied by marriage to the imperial family, he at length saw the accession of his own grandson, a mere babe. Thus, to use the term con- nected with European feudalism of the same period, the mayor of the palace virtually, though not nominally, usurped the imperial functions. The emperor had the name of power but Kiyomori had the reality. But this state of matters was not destined to last long. The Minamotos were far from being finally quieted. The story of the revival of their power is a romantic one, but we cannot dwell ROMANCE AND HISTORY COMBINED. 203 upon it. It was in the battle of Atiji that Kiyomori seemed at length to have quelled his rivals. Yoshitomo, the head of the Minamoto clan was slain in the fight, but his beautiful wife Tokivva succeeded in escaping with her three little sons. Tokivva's mother, however, was arrested. This roused tie daughter to make an appeal to Kiyomori for pardon. She did so, presenting herself and children to the conqueror, upon whom her beauty so wrought that he granted her petition. He made her his concubine, and not withstanding the remonstrances of his retainers, also spared the children who were sent to a monastery, there to be trained for the priesthood. Two of these children became famous in the history of Japan. The eldest was Yoritomo the founder of the Kamakura dynasty of shoguns, and the babe at the mother's breast was Yoshitsune, one of the flowers of Japanese chivalry, a hero whose name even yet awakens the enthusiasm of the youth of Japan and who so im- pressed the Ainos of the north whom he had been sent to subdue, that to this day he is worshiped as their chief god. A Japanese has even lately written a book in which he seeks to identify Yoshitsune with Genghis Khan. It is unnecessary to dwell on the circumstances which brought Yoritomo and Yoshitsune into note ; how the two brothers raised the men of the eastern provinces, and after a temporary check at the pass of Hakone, succeeded in utterly routing the Taira forces in a dreadful battle, half by land and half by sea, at the straits of Shimonoseki. Suffice it to say, that Yoshitsune having been slain soon after a famous victory, through the treachery of his brother Yoritomo, who was jealous of his fame and popu- larity, that warrior was left without a rival. Yoritomo received from the emperor the highest title which could be conferred upon him, that of Sei-i-tai-shogun, literally "Barbarian-subjuga- ting great general." This title is generally contracted to shogun, which means simply general. Thus appointed generalissimo of all the imperial forces, he looked about for a city which he might make the center of his power. This he found in Kamakura about fifteen miles westward of the site of the modern Yokohama. Thus before the close of the twelfth century was founded that system of dual government which lasted with little change until 204 ORIGIN OF THE SYSTEM OF DUAL GOVERNMENT. the year 1868. The Mikado reigned in Kioto with the authority of his sacred person undisputed; but the shogun in his eastern city had really all the public business of the country in his own hands. It was he who appointed governors over the different provinces and was the real master of the country ; but every act was done in the name of the emperor whose nominal power thus remained intact. Yoritomo virtually founded an independent dynasty at Karnakura, but it was not destined to be a lasting one. His son Yoriye succeeded him in 1199, but was shortly afterwards deposed and assassinated; and the power though not the title of shogun passed to the family of Yoritomo's wife, that of Hojo, different members of which swayed the state for more than a century. After a checkered career of various shoguns of the Hojo family, their tyranny became supreme. None of the family ever seized the office of shogun, but in reality they wielded all and more of the power attaching to the office. The political history of these years is but that of a monotonous recurrence of the exaltation of boys and babies of noble blood to whom was given the semblance of power, who were sprinkled with titles and deposed as soon as they were old enough to be troublesome. In an effort made by the ex-emperor Gotoba to drive the usurping Hojo from power the chains were riveted tighter than ever. The imperial troops were massacred by the conquering Hojo. The estates of all who fought on- the emperor's side were con- fiscated and distributed among the minions of the usurpers. The exiled emperor died of a broken heart. The nominal Mikado of Kioto and the nominal shogun at Kamakura were set up, but the Hojo were the keepers of both. The oppression, the neglect of public business and the carousals of the usurpers became intoler- able. Armies were raised spontaneously to support the emperor and the Ashikaga leader in their revolt against the existing evils. All over the empire the people rose against their oppressors and massacred them. The Hojo domination which had been par- amount for nearly one hundred and fifty years was utterly broken. The Hojo have never been forgiven for their arbitrary treatment OPPRESSIONS OF THE USURPING HOJOS. 205 of the Mikados. Every obloquy is cast upon them by Japanese historians, dramatists, poets and novelists, and yet there is an- other side to the story. It must be conceded that the Hojos were able rulers and kept order and peace in the empire for more than a century. They encouraged literature and the cultivation of the arts and sciences. During their period the resources of the country were developed, and some branches of useful handicraft and fine arts were brought to a perfection never since surpassed. To this time belongs the fa- mous image carver, sculptor and architect, Unkei, and the lacquer artists who are the "old masters" in this branch of art. The military spirit of the people was kept alive, tactics were improved, and the methods of governmental administration simplified. Daring this period of splen- did temples, monasteries, pagodas, colossal images and other monuments of holy zeal, Hojo Sadatoki erected a monument over the grave of Kiyomori at Hiogo. Hojo Tokimune raised and kept in readiness a permanent war fund so that the military ex- penses might not interfere with the revenue reserved for ordinary government expenses. To his invincible courage, patriotic pride, and indomitable energy are due the vindication of the national honor and the repulse of the Tartar invasion. During the early centuries of the Christian era, Japan and China kept up friendly intercourse, exchanging embassies on vari- ous missions, but chiefly with the mutual object of bearing con- gratulations to an emperor upon his accession to the throne. The civil disorders in both countries interrupted these friendly rela- COLOSSAL JAPANESE IMAGE FIFTY FEET HIGH. 206 FRIENDSHIP OF CHINA AND JAPAN. tions in the twelfth century, and communication ceased. When the acquaintance was renewed in the time of the Hojo it was not on so friendly a footing. In China the Mongol Tartars had overthrown the Sung dynasty and had conquered the adjacent country. Through the Coreans the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, at whose court Marco Polo and his uncles were then visiting, sent letters demanding tribute and homage from Japan. Chinese envoys came to Kamakura, but Hojo Tokimune, enraged at the insolent demands, dismissed them in disgrace. Six embassies were sent, and six times re- jected. An expedition from China consisting of ten thousand men was then sent against Japan. They landed, were attacked, their commander was slain, and they returned, having accom- plished nothing. The Chinese emperor now sent nine envoys to announce their purpose to remain until a definite answer was re- turned to their master. They were called to Kamakura, and the Japanese reply was given by cutting off their heads. The Jap- anese now began to prepare for war on land and sea. Once more Chinese envoys came to demand tribute. These were decapi- tated. Meanwhile the armada was preparing. Great China was coming to crush the little strip of land that refused homage to the invincible conqueror. The army numbered one hundred thousand Chinese and Tartars, and seven thousand Coreans in ships that whitened the sea. They numbered three thousand five hundred in all. It was in July, 1281, that the sight of the Chinese junks greeted the watchers on the hills of Daizaifu. Many of the junks were of immense proportion, larger than the natives of Japan had ever seen, and armed with the engines of European warfare which their Venetian guests had taught the Mongols to construct and work. The naval battle that ensued was a terrible one. The Japanese had small chance of success in the water, owing to the smallness of their boats, but in personal valor they were much superior, and some of their deeds of bravery are inspiringly inter- esting. Nevertheless the Chinese were unable to effect a landing, owing to the heavy fortifications along the shore. The whole nation was now roused. Re-enforcements poured in from all quarters to swell the hosts of defenders. From the mon- asteries and temples all over the country went up unceasing JAPANESE FEMALE TYPES. JAPAN REFUSES TRIBUTE TO CHINA. 209 prayer to the gods to ruin their enemies and save the land of Japan. The emperor and ex-emperor went in solemn state to the SHINTO TEMPLE. chief priest of Shinto, and writing out their petitions to the gods sent him as a messenger to the shrines of Ise. It is recorded as a 210 INVASION AND DEFEAT OF THE CHINESE. miraculous fact that at the hour of noon as the sacred envoy arrived at the shrine and offered a prayer, the day being perfectly clear, a streak of cloud appeared in the sky that soon overspread the heavens, until the dense masses portended a storm of awful violence. One of those cyclones called by the Japanese tai-fu, of appalling velocity and resistless force, such as whirl along the coast of Japan and China during late summer and early fall of every year, burst upon the Chinese fleet. Nothing can withstand these maelstorms of the air. We call them typhoons. Iron steam- ships of thousands of horse power are almost unmanageable in them. The helpless Chinese junks were crushed together, impaled on the rocks, dashed against the cliffs or tossed on land like corks on the spray. Hundreds of the vessels sank. The corpses were piled on the shore or floating on the water so thickly that it seemed almost possible to walk thereon. The vessels of the sur- vivors in large numbers drifted or were wrecked upon Taka island, where they established themselves and cutting down trees began building boats to reach Corea. Here they were attacked by the Japanese, and after a bloody struggle, all the fiercer for the despair on the one side and the exultation on the other, were all slain or driven to the sea to be drowned except three, who were sent back to tell their emperor how the gods of Japan had de- stroyed their armada. This was the last time that China ever attempted to conquer Japan, whose people boast that their land has never been defiled by an invading army. They have ever ascribed the glory of the destruction of the Tartar fleet to the interposition of the gods of Ise, who thereafter received special and grateful adoration as the guardian of the seas and the winds. Great credit and praise were given to the Lord of Kamakura, Hojo Tokimune, for his energy, ability and valor. The author of one native history says, "The repulse of the Tartar barbarians by Tokimune and his preserving the dominions of our Son of Heaven were sufficient to atone for the crimes of his ancestors." Nearly six centuries afterward when " the barbarian " Perry anchored his fleet in the bay of Yeddo, in the words of the native annalist, " Orders were sent by the imperial court to the Shinto priest at Ise to offer up prayers for the sweeping away of the bar- RULE OF THE ASHIKAGA FAMILY. 211 barians." Millions of earnest hearts put up the same prayers theii fathers had offered full}'- expecting the same result. To this day the Japanese mother hushes her fretful infant by the question, u Do you think the Mongols are coming?" This is the only serious attempt at invasion ever made by any nation upon the shores of Japan. The internal his- tory of Japan dur- ing the period of time covered by the actual or nom-, inal rule of the Ashikaga family, from 1336 until^ 1573, except the very last years of it, is not very at- tractive to a for- eign reader. It is a confused picture of intestinal war. It was by foul means that Ashi-. kaga Takugi, one of the generals who overthrew the Hojos, attained the dignity of shogun, and a period of more than two centuries, during JAPANESE GOD OF THE WIND. which his descend- ants held sway at Kamakura, was characterized by treachery, bloodshed and almost perpetual warfare. The founder of this line secured the favor of the mikado Go-Daigo, after he was re- called from exile, upon the overthrow of the military usurpation. Ashikaga soon seized the reins in his own hands. The mikado fled in terror, and a new mikado was declared in the person of 212 RISE AND PERFECTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. another of the royal family. Of course this man was willing to confer upon Ashikaga, his supporter the title of shogun. Kama- kura again became a military capital. The duarchy was restored, and the war of the northern and southern dynasties began, to last fifty-six years. The act by which more than any other the Ashikagas earned the curses of posterity, was the sending of an embassy to China in 1401, bearing presents, acknowledging in a measure the authority of China, and accepting in return the title of Nippon O, or king of Japan. This which was done by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third of the line, was an insult to the national dignity for which he has never been forgiven. It was a needless humiliation of Japan to her arrogant neighbor and done only to exalt the vanity and glory of the usurper, who, not content ,with adopting the style and equip- age of the mikado, wished to be called a king and yet dared not usurp the imperial throne. Japan of all the Asiatic nations .seems to have brought the feudal system to the highest state of per- fection. While in Europe the na- tions were engaged in throwing off the feudal yoke and inaugurat- ing modern government, Japan was riveting the fetters which stood intact until 1871. The dairaios were practically independent chieftains, who ruled their own provinces as they willed ; and the more ambitious and power- ful did not hesitate to make war upon the neighboring clans. There were on all sides struggles for pre-eminence in which the fittest survived, annexing to their own territories those of the weaker class which they had subdued. Nor was it merely rival clans that were disturbing the country. The Buddhist clergy DAIMIOS OP JAPAN. SKETCH SHOWING DEVELOPMENT OF THE JAPANESE ARMY FROM 1867 TO THE PRESENT. RISE AND PERFECTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 215 had acquired immense political influence, which they were far from scrupulous in using. Their monasteries were in many cases castles, from which themselves living amid every kind of luxury. BUDDIIIST PRIESTS. they tyrannized over the surrounding country. The history of these often reads strikingly like that of the corresponding insti- tutions in Europe during the middle ages ; indeed the hierarchical 216 THREE GREAT MEN AND THEIR CAREERS. as well as the feudal development of Europe and Japan have been wonderfully alike. Probably the three names most renowned in Japan are No- bunaga, Hideyoshi and lyeyasu. The second and third of these were generals subordinate to the first, who deposed the Ashikaga shoguns, persecuted the Buddhists, encouraged the Jesuits, and restored to a great extent the supremacy of the mikado. The Buddhists look on this leader as an incarnate demon sent to de- stroy their faith. He was a Shintoist, with bitter hatred for the Buddhists, and never lost an opportunity to burn property of his enemies or butcher priests, women, and children of that faith. These who have just been named, by their prowess and the strength of their armies, rose to highest positions among the dai- mios. When these three great men appeared, the country was in a most critical state. The later Ashikaga shoguns had become as powerless as the mikado himself in the management of affairs. Nobunaga first rose into note. By successive victories, he became ruler of additional provinces, and his fame became so great that the emperor committed to him the task of tranquilizing the country. He deposed first one usurping shogun and then another, and thus came an end to the domination of the Ashikagas. No- bunaga was now the most powerful man in the country, and was virtually discharging the duties of shogun though he never ob- tained the title. Hideyoshi became virtual lord of the empire, after the assassination of Nobunaga. He rose from the ranks of the peasants to the highest position in Japan under the emperor. Having in connection with Nobunaga and lyeyasu reduced all the Japanese clans into subjection, he looked abroad for some foreign power to subdue. The immoderate ambition of Hideyoshi's life was to conquer Corea, and even China. Under the declining power of Ashikaga, all tribute from Corea had ceased and the pirates who ranged the coasts scarcely allowed any trade to exist. We have seen how it was from Corea that Japan received Chinese learning and the arts of civilization, and Coreans swelled the number of Mongol Tar- tars who invaded Japan with the arrnada. On the other hand Corea was more than once overrun by Japanese armies, even CONQUEST OF COREA' BY HIDEYOSHI. 217 partly governed by Japanese officials, and on different occasions had to pay tribute to Japan in token of submission. Japanese pirates too were for six hundred years as much the terror of the Chinese and Corean costs as were the Danes and Norsemen of the shores of the North Sea. The discontinuance of the embassies and tribute from Corea, thus afforded the ambitious general a pre- text for disturbing the friendly relations with Corea, by the dis- patch of an embassador to complain of this neglect. The behav- ior of this embassador only too clearly reflected the swagger of his overbearing lord, and the consequence was an invasion of Corea. Hideyoshi promised to march his generals and army to Peking, and divide the soil of China among them. He also scorned the suggestion that scholars versed in Chinese should accompany the expedition. Said he, " This expedition will make the Chinese use our literature." Corea was completely overrun by Hideyoshi's forces, although the commander himself was unable to accompany the expedition, owing to his age and the grief of his mother. Further details of this invasion will be found later in the histori- cal sketch of Corea. It may be said here however, that the con- quest terminated in gloriously, and reflects no honor on Japan. The responsibility of the outrage upon a peaceful nation rests wholly upon Hideyoshi. The Coreans were a mild and peaceable people, wholly unprepared for war. There was scarcely a shadow of provocation for the invasion, which was nothing less than a huge filibustering scheme. It was not popular with the people or the rulers, and was only carried through by the will of the mili- tary leader. The sacrifice of life on either side must have been great, and all for the ambition of one man. Nevertheless, a party in Japan has long held that Corea was by the conquests of the third and sixteenth centuries a part of the Japanese empire, and the reader will see how 1772 and again in 1775 the cry of " On to Corea " shook the nation like an earthquake. After the deaths of Nobuuaga and Hideyoshi, Tokugawa lyey- asu was left the virtual ruler of Japan. At first he governed the country as regent, but his increasing popularity awoke the jeal- ousy of the partisans of Hideyori, the son of Hideyoshi, who was nominated as his successor, as well as of Nobunaga's family. 14 218 YEDDO BECOMES THE SEAT OF THE SHOGUN. These combined to overthrow him, and the consequence was the great battle of Sekigahara, fought in 1600, in which lyeyasu came off completely victorious. Three years later, he was appointed by the emperor shogun. Like Yorotomo he resolved to select a city as the center of his power, and that which seemed to him most suitable was not Kamakura, which ere this had lost much of its glory, but the little castle town of Yeddo, about thirty-five miles farther north. Here he and his successors, and the dynasty he founded, swayed the destinies of Japan from 1608 until the restoration in 1868. JAPANESE JUNK. It is not difficult to account for the tone of admiration and pride with which a modern Japanese speaks of " The age of Taiko." There are many who hold that Hideyoshi, or Taiko, was the real unifier of the empire. Certain it is that he origi- nated many of the most striking forms of national administra- tion. In his time the arts and sciences were not only in a very flourishing condition, but gave promise of rich development. The spirit of military enterprise and internal national improvement was at its height. Contact with the foreigners of many nations awoke a spirit of inquiry and intellectual activity ; but it was on o r 1 o H > I 2 w w W POSITION OF JAPAN AT THIS PERIOD. 221 the seas that genius and restless activity found their most con- genial field. This era is marked by the highest production in marine archi- tecture, and the extent and variety of commercial enterprise. The ships built in this century were twice the size and vastly the superior in model of the junks that now hug the Japanese shores or ply between China and Japan. The pictures of them pre- SCENES OP INDUSTRIAL LIFE. (From a Japanese Album.) served to the present day, show that they were superior in size to the vessels of Columbus, and nearly equal in sailing qualities to the contemporary Dutch and Portuguese galleons. They were provided with ordnance, and a model of a Japanese breech-load- ing cannon is still preserved in Kioto. Ever a brave and adven- turous people, the Japanese then roamed the seas with a freedom 222 POSITION OF JAPAN AT THIS PERIOD. that one who knows only of the modern bound people would scarcely credit. Voyages of trade, discovery or piracy have been made to India, Siam, Birmah, the Philippine Islands, Southern China, the Malay Archipelago and the Kuriles, even in the fif- teenth century, but were more numerous in the sixteenth. The Japanese literature contains many references to these adventur- ous sailors, and when the records of the far east are thoroughly investigated, and this subject fully studied, very interesting re- sults are apt to be obtained showing the widespread influence of Japan at a time when she was scarcely known by the European world to have existence. HISTORICAL SKETCH FROM THE COMING OF THE FIRST EUROPEAN TRAVELERS TO THE PRESENT TIME. A New Dynasty of Slioguns Mendez PInto's Visit Arrival of the Jesuit Missionaries- Kind Reception of Christianity Quarrels Between the Sects Beginning of Christian Per- secution Expulsion of the Missionaries Torture and Martyrdom The Massacre of Shim, abara Expulsion of all Foreigners Closing the Door of Japan History of the Last Sho- gunate Arrival of Commodore Perry's Fleet The Knock at the Door of Japan An Era of Treaty Making Rapid Advance of Western Manners and Ideas in Japan Attacks on For- eigners The Abolition of the Shogunate Japan's Last Quarter Century. Hitherto we have seen two readily distinguishable periods in the history of Japan, the period during which the mikados were the actual as well as the nominal rulers of the empire ; and the period during which the imperial power more and more passed into the hands of usurping mayors of the palace, and the country was kept in an almost constant ferment with the feuds of rival noble families which coveted this honor. Successively the power, although not always the title, of shogun, had been held by members of the Minamoto, Hojo, Ashikaga, Ota and Toyo- tomi families. With lyeyasu we pass into a third period, like the second in that the dual system of feudal government still pre- vailed, but unlike it in that it was a period of peace. Much strife had accompanied the erection of the fabric of feudalism, but it now stood complete. The mikado in Kioto and the daimios in their different provinces, alike ceased to protest against the dual administration. Within certain limits they had the regulation of their own affairs; the mikado was ever rec- ognized as the source of all authority, and the daimios in their own provinces were petty kings ; but it was the shogun in Yeddo who, undisputed, at least in practice, whatever some of the more powerful daimios may have said, swayed the destinies of the em- pire. Let us now note the policy which the Shoguns adopted towards the foreigners who as missionaries or merchants had found their (223) 224 THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPLORATION. way to Japan, and the course of settlement and trade of foreigners. It seems now certain that when Columbus set sail from Spain to discover a new continent, it was not America he was seeking, but the land of Japan. Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler, had spent seventeen years, 1275-1292, at the court of the Tartar emperor Kublai Khan, and while in Peking had heard of a land lying to the eastward, called in the language of the Chinese, Zip- angu, from which our modern name Japan has been corrupted. Columbus was an ardent student of Polo's book, which had been published in 1298. He sailed westward across the Atlantic to find this kingdom. He discovered not Japan, but an archipelago in America on whose shores he eagerly inquired concerning Zip- angu. Following this voyage, Vasco de Gama and a host of other brave Portuguese navigators sailed into the Orient and came back to tell of densely populated empires enriched with the wealth that makes civilization possible, and of which Europe had scarcely heard. Their accounts fired the hearts of the zealous who longed to convert the heathen, aroused the cupidity of traders who thirsted for gold, and kindled the desire of monarchs to found empires in Asia. Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese adventurer, seems to have been the first European who landed on Japanese soil. On his return to Europe he told so many wonderful stories that by a pun on his Christian name he was dubbed "the mendacious." His nar- rative was, however, as we now know, substantially correct. Pinto while in .China had got on board a Chinese junk, com- manded by a pirate. They were attacked by another corsair, their pilot was killed, and the vessel was driven off the coast by a storm. They made for the Liu Kiu Islands, but unable to find a harbor, put to sea again. After twenty-three days' beating about, they sighted the islands of Tanegashima and landed. The name of the island, " island of the seed," was significant. The arrival of these foreigners was a seed of troubles innumerable. The crop was priestcraft of the Worst type, political intrigue, re- ligious persecution, the inquisition, the slave trade, the propaga- tion of Christianity by the sword, sedition, rebellion, and civil war. Its harvest was garnered in the blood of sixty -thousand Japanese. FIRST ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS IN JAPAN. 225 The native histories recount the first arrival of Europeans in 1542, and note that year as the one in which fire-arms were first introduced. The pirate trader who brought Pinto to Japan cleared twelve hundred per cent, on his cargo, and the three Por- tuguese returned to China loaded with presents. The new market attracted hundreds of Portuguese adventurers to Japan, who found a ready welcome. The missionary followed the mer- chant. Already the* Portuguese priests and Franciscan friars were numerous in India. Two Jesuits and two Japanese who had been converted at Goa, headed by Xavier, landed at Kagoshima in 1549. Xavier did not have great success, and in a short time left Japan disheartened. He had, however, inspired others who followed him, and their success was amazingly great. The success ef the Jesuit missionaries soon attracted the attention of the authorities. Organ tin, a Jesuit missionary in Kioto, writing of his experiences, says that he was asked his name and why he had come to Japan. He replied that he was the Padre Organtin and had come to spread religion. He was told that he could not be allowed at once to spread his religion, but would be informed later on. Nobunaga accordingly took counsel with his retainers as to whether he would allow Christianity to be preached or not. One of these strongly advised not to do so, on the ground that there were already enough religions in the coun- try, but Nobunaga replied that Buddhism had been introduced from abroad and had done good in the country, and he therefore did not see why Christianity should not be granted a trial. Organtin was consequently allowed to erect a church and to send for others of his order, who, when they came, were found to be like him in appearance. Their plan of action was to care for the sick, and so prepare the way for the reception of Christi- anity, and then to convert every one and make the thirty-six pro- vinces of Japan subject to Portugal. In this last clause we have an explanation of the policy which the Japanese government ultimately adopted towards Christianity and all foreign innova- tions. Within five years after Xavier visited Kioto, seven churches were established in the vicinity of the city itself, while scores of Christian communities had sprung up in the south-west. 226 RAPID PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. In 1581 there were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand native Christians. In 1583 an embassy of four young noblemen was dispatched by the Christian daimios to the pope to declare themselves vassals of the Holy See. They returned after eight years, having had au- dience of Phillip II. of Spain, and kissed the feet of the pope at Rome. They brought with them seventeen Jesuit missionaries, an important addition to the list of religious instructors. Spanish mendicant friars from the Philippine Islands, with Dominicans and Augustinians, also flocked into the country, teaching and zealously proselyting. The number of " Christians " at the time of the highest success of the missionaries in Japan was, according to their own figures six hundred thousand, a number that seems to be no exaggeration if quantity and not quality are considered. The Japanese less accurately set down a total of two million nominal adherents to the Christian sects. Among the converts were several princes, large numbers of lords, and gentlemen in high official positions, and beside generals of the army and admirals of the navy. Churches and chapels were numbered by the thousand, and in some provinces crosses and Christian shrines were as numerous as the kindred evidences of Buddhism had been before. The methods of the Jesuits appealed to the Japanese, as did the forms and symbols of the faith, but the Jesuits began to attack most violently the character of the native priests, and to incite their converts to insult their gods, burn the idols and desecrate the old shrines. As the different orders, Jesuits, Franciscans and Augustinians increased, they began to clash. Political and religious war was almost universal in Europe at the same time, and the quarrels of the various nationalities followed the buccaneers, pirates, traders and missionaries to the distant seas of Japan. All the foreigners, but especially Portuguese, then were slave traders, and thousands of Japanese were bought and sold and shipped to China and the Philippines. The sea ports of Hirado and Nagasaki were the resorts of the lowest class of adventurers of all European nations, and the result was a continuous series of uproars, broils and murders among the foreigners. Such a picture of foreign influ- ence and of Christianity as the Japanese saw it was not calcur FRIGHTFUL PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 227 lated to make a permanently favorable impression on the Japanese mind. Latterly Nobunaga had somewhat repented of the favor he had shown to the new religion, though his death occurred before his dissatisfaction had manifested itself in any active repression- Hideyoshi had never been well disposed to Christianity, but other matters prevented him from at once meddling with the policy of his predecessors. In 1588 he ventured to issue an edict com- manding the missionaries to assemble at Hirado, an island off the west coast of Kiushiu and prepared to leave Japan, and the missionaries obeyed, but as the edict was not enforced they again returned to the work of evangelization in private as vigorously as ever, averaging ten thousand converts a year. The Spanish mendicant friars pouring in from the Philippines, openly defied Japanese laws. This aroused Hideyoshi's attention and his decree of expulsion was renewed. Some of the churches were burned. In 1596 six Franciscan and three Jesuit priests with seventeen Japanese converts were taken to Nagasaki and there burned. When Hideyoshi died, affairs seemed to take a more favorable turn, but only for a few years. lyeyasu was as much opposed to Christianity as Hideyoshi, and his hatred of the new religion was intensified by his partiality for Buddhism. The new daimios, carrying the policy of their predecessors as taught them by the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their faith. The native converts resisted, even to blood and the taking up of arms. The idea of armed rebellion among the farmers was some- thing so wholly new that lyeyasu suspected foreign instigation. He became more vigilant as his suspicions increased, and resolving to crush this spirit of independence and intimidate the foreign emissaries, met every outbreak with bloody reprisals. lyeyasu issued a decree of expulsion against the missionaries in 1600, but the decree was not at once carried into effect. The date of the first arrival in Japan of Dutch merchants was also 1600. They settled in the island of Hirado. In 1606 an edict from Yeddo forbade the exercise of the Christian religion, but an outward show of obedience warded off active persecution. Four years later the Spanish friars again aroused the wrath of the 228 HORRORS OF THE PERSECUTION. government by defying its commands and exhorting the native con- verts to do likewise. In 1611 lyeyasu obtained documentary proof of what he had long suspected, the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject state. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits and hundreds of native priests were embarked by force on board junks and sent out of the country. The next year the shogun pushed matters to an ex- treme with Hideyori, who was entertaining some Jesuit priests, and laid siege to the castle of Ozaka. A battle of unusual ferocity and bloody slaughter raged, ending in the burning of the citadel and the total defeat and death of Hideyori and thou- sands of his followers. The Jesuit fathers say that one hundred thousand men perished in this brief war. The exiled foreign friars kept secretly returning, and the shogun pronounced sentence of death against any foreign priest found in the country. lyemitsu, the next shogun, restricted all foreign commerce in Nagasaki and Hirado ; all Japanese were forbidden to leave the country on pain of death. Any European vessel approaching the coast was at once to be referred to Nagasaki, whence it was to be sent home ; the whole crew of any junk in which a missionary should reach Japanese shores were to be put to death ; and the better to remove all temptation to go abroad, it was decreed that no ships should be constructed above a cer- tain size and with other than the open sterns of coasting vessels. Fire and sword were used to extirpate Christianity and to paganize the same people who in their youth were Christianized by the same means. Thousands of the native converts fled to China, Formosa and the Philippines. The Christians suffered all sorts of persecutions and tortures that savage ingenuity could devise. Yet few of the natives quailed or renounced their faith. They calmly let the fire of wood, cleft from the crosses before which they once prayed consume, them. Mothers carried their babes to the fire or the edge of the precipice rather than leave them behind to be educated in pagan faith. If any one doubt the sincerity and fervor of the Christian converts of to-day, or the ability of the Japanese to accept a higher form of faith, or their willingness THE SIEGE AND MASSACRE OF SHIMABARA. 231 to suffer for what they believe, he has but to read the accounts of various witnesses to the fortitude of the Japanese Christians of the seventeenth century. The persecution reached its climax in the tragedy of Shima- bara in 1637. The Christians arose in arms by tens of thousands, seized an old castle, repaired it and fortified it, and raised the fl;ig of rebellion. The armies of veterans sent to besiege it expected an easy victory, and sneered at the idea of having any difficulty in subduing these farmers and peasants. It took two months by land and water, however, of constant attack before the fort was reduced, and the victory was finally gained only with the aid of Dutch cannon furnished under compulsion by the traders of Deshima. After great slaughter the intrepid garrison surrend- ered, and then began the massacre of thirty-seven thousand Christians. Many of them were hurled into the sea from the top of the island rock of Takaboko-shima, by the Dutch named Pappenberg, in the harbor of Nagasaki. The result of this series of events was that the favorable policy adopted by lyeyasu in regard to foreign trade was completely reversed. No foreigners were allowed to set foot on the soil of Japan, except Chinese and a few Dutch merchants. The Dutch gained the privilege of residing in confinement on the little island of Deshima, a piece of made land in the harbor of Nagasaki. Here under degrading restrictions and constant surveillance lived less than a score of Hollanders, who were required every year to send a representative to Yeddo to do homage to the shogun. They were allowed one ship per annum to come from the Dutch East Indies for the exchange of the commodities of Japan for those of Holland. Says Doctor Griffis in his study of this era of Japanese history, " After nearly a hundred years of Christianity and foreign inter- course, the only apparent results of this contact with another religion and civilization were the adoption of gunpowder and fire-arms as weapons, the use of tobacco and the habit of smok- ing, the making of sponge cake, the naturalization into the lan- guage of a few foreign words, the introduction of new and strange forms of disease, among which the Japanese count the scourge of the venereal virus, and the permanent addition to 232 A CENTURY OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS EFFECTS. that catalogue of terrors which priest and magistrate in Asiatic countries ever hold as welcome, to overawe the herd. For cen- turies the mention of that name would bate the breath, blanch the cheek and smite with fear as with an earthquake shock. It was the synomyn of sorcery, sedition, and all that was hostile to the purity of the home and the peace of society. All over the empire, in every city, town, village and hamlet ; by the roadside, ferry or mountain pass ; at every entrance to the capitol, stood the IMAGE OF BUDDHA. public notice boards on which with prohibitions against the great crimes that disturbed the relations of society's government was one tablet written with a deeper brand of guilt, with a more hid- eous memory of blood, with a more awful terror of torture, than when the like superscription was affixed at the top of a cross that stood between two thieves on a little hill outside Jerusalem. Its daily and familiar sight startled ever and anon the peasants who clasped hands and uttered a fresh prayer ; the Bonze, or Buddhist priest, to add new venom to his maledictions ; the magistrate to ENGLISH EFFORTS TO OPEN TRADE. 233 shake his head ; and to the mother a ready word to hush the crying of her fretful babe. That name was Christ. So thor- oughly was Christianity or the " corrupt sect " supposed to be eradicated before the end of the seventeenth century, that its existence was historical, remembered only as an awful scar on the national memory. No vestiges were supposed to be left of it, and no knowledge of its tenets was held save by a very few scholars in Yeddo, trained experts who were kept as a sort of spiritual blood hounds to scent out the adherents of the accursed creed. It was left to our day since the recent opening of Japan, for them to discover that a mighty fire had been smoldering for over two cen- turies beneath the ashes of persecutions. As late as 1829 seven persons, six men and an old woman, were crucified in Ozaka on suspicion of being Christians and communica- ting with foreigners. When the French brethren of the Mission Apostolique of Paris came to Nagasaki in 1860, they found in the villages around them over ten thou- sand people who held the faith of their fathers of the seventeenth century. The Portuguese were not the only race to attempt to open a permanent trade with Japan. Captain John Saris, with three ships, left England in April, 1611, with letters from King James I. to the "Emperor " (shogun) of Japan. Landing at Hirado he was well received, and established a factory in charge of Richard Cocks. The captain and a number of the party visited Yeddo and other cities and obtained from the shogun a treaty defining the privileges of trade, and signed Minamoto lyeyasu. After a tour of three months Saris arrived at Hirado again, having 15 JAPANESE SAMURAI OR WARRIOR OF THE OLD TIME. 234 PERIOD OF THE LAST SHOGUNATE. visited Kioto, where he saw the splendid Christian churches and Jesuit palaces. After discouraging attempts to open a trade with Siam, Corea and China, and hostilities having broken out between them and the Dutch, the English abandoned the project of per- manent trade with Japan, and all subsequent attempts to reopen it failed. Will Adams, who was an English pilot, and the first of his nation in Japan, arrived in 1607 and lived in Yeddo till he died thirteen years later. He rose into favor with the shoguns and the people by the sheer force of a manly, honest character. His knowledge of shipbuilding, mathematics, and foreign affairs made him a very useful man. Although treated with kindness and honor, he was not allowed to leave Japan. He had a wife and daughter in England. Adams had a son and daughter born to him in Japan, and there are still living Japanese who claim descent from him. One of the streets of Yeddo was named after him, and the people of that JAPANESE GENERAL OP THE OLD TIME, street still hold an annual cele- (From a Native Drawing.) bration on the fifteenth of June in his honor. The history of the two centuries and a half that followed the triumphs of lyeyasu is that of profound peace and stern isolation. We must pass rapidly in review of them. This great shogun took pains to arrange the empire after the appointment to the office, in such a way that the shoguns of the Tokugawa family? the dynasty which he founded, should have strictest power and most certain descent. His sons and daughters were married where they would be most powerful in influence with the great families of daimios. It must not be forgotten that lyeyasu and GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE EMPIRE. 235 his successor were both in theory and in reality vassals of the emperor, though they assumed protection of the imperial person. Neither the shogun nor the daimios were acknowledged at Kioto as nobles of the empire. The lowest kuge, or noble, was above the shogun in rank. The shogun could obtain his appointment only from the mikado. He was simply the most powerful among the daimios, who had won that pre-eminence by JAPANESE BRIDGE. the sword, and who by wealth and power and a skillfully wrought plan of division of land among the other daimios was able to rule. In 1600 and the years following, lyeyasu employed an army of three hundred thousand laborers in Yeddo improving and building the city. Before the end of the century, Yeddo had a population of more than half a million, but it never did have, as the Hollanders guessed and the old text books told us, two million five hundied 236 GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE EMPIRE. thousand souls. Outside of Yeddo the strength of the great unifier was spent on public roads and highways, post stations, bridges, castles and mines. He spent the last years of his life engaged in erasing the scars of war by his policy of conciliation, securing the triumphs of peace, perfecting his plans for fixing in stability a system of government, and in collecting books and manuscripts. He bequeathed his code of laws to his chief retainers, and advised his sons to govern in the spirit of kindness. He died on the eighth of March, 1616. The grandson of lyeyasu, lyemitsu, was another great shogun, and it was he who established the rule that all the daimios should visit and reside in Yeddo during half the year. Gradually these rules became more and more restrictive, until the guests became mere vassals. Their wives and children were kept as hostages in Yeddo. During his rule the Christian insurrection and massacre at Shimabara took place. Yeddo was vastly improved, with aqueducts, fire watch towers, the establishment of mints, weights and measures. A general survey of the empire was executed ; maps of various provinces and plans of the daimios' castles were made ; the councils called Hiojo-sho (discussion and decision), and Wakadoshiyori (assembly of elders), were established and Corean envoys received. The height of pride and ambition which this shogun had already reached, is seen in the fact that in a letter of reply to Corea he is referred to as Tai Kun, (" Tycoon "), a title never conferred by the mikado on any one, nor had lyemitsu any legal right to it. It was assumed in a sense honorary or meaning- less to any Japanese, unless highly jealous of the mikado's sover- eignty, and was intended to overawe the Coreans. The approxi- mate interpretation of it is " great ruler." Under the strong rule of the Tokugawa shoguns, therefore, the long distracted Japanese empire at length enjoyed two-and-a-half centuries of peace and prosperity. The innate love of art, litera- ture, and education, which almost constant warfare had prevented from duly developing among the people, had now an opportunity of producing fruit. And as it had shown itself in former inter- vals of rest, so was it now. Under the patronage of lyeyasu was composed the Dai Nihon Shi, the first detailed history of Japan. Tsunayoshi, his successor, 1681 to 1709, founded at Seido a Cou- UNDER THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS. 237 fucian university, and was such an enthusiast for literature that he used to assemble the princes and high officials about him and expound to them passages from the Chinese classics. Yoshimune, another shogun, was much interested in astronomy and other branches of science, beside doing much to improve agriculture. Legal matters also engaged his attention ; he altered lyeyasu's policy so far as to publish a revised criminal code, and improved the administration of the law, forbidding the use of torture except in cases where there was flagrant proof of guilt. He built an astro- nomical observatory at Kanda and established at his court a pro- fessorship of Chinese literature. lyenori, shogun from 1787 to 1838, threw the classes of the Confucian university open to the public. Every body from the nobility down to the masses of the people began to appreciate literary studies. Maritime commerce within the limits of the four seas was encouraged by the shogun's government, regular service of junks being established between the principal ports. Nor must it be forgotten that to the Tokugawas is due the foundation of the great modern city of Yeddo with its vast fortifi- cations and its triumphs of art in the shrines of Shiba and Uyeno. It was at this period too that the matchless shrines of Nikko were reared in memory of the greatness of lyeyasu and lyemitsu. The successors of the former, the shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty, fourteen in all, were with one exception buried alternately in the cemeteries of Zozoji and Toyeizan, in the city districts of Shiba and Uyeno. But throughout all this period of peace and progress the light of the outer world was excluded. The people made the best use of the light they had, but after all it was but dim. The learning by rote of thousands of Chinese characters, and the acquisition of skill in the composition of Chinese and Japanese verse, were little worthy to be the highest literary attainments possible to the most aspiring of the youth of Japan. In the domain of art there was more that was inviting, but scientific knowledge was tantaliz- ingly meagre and that little was overlaid with Chinese absurdities. When we consider that the isolation of the country was due to no spirit of exclusiveness in the national character, that indeed it was the result of a policy that actually went against the grain of 238 AMERICA KNOCKS AT THE DOOR. the people, how many restless spirits must there Lave been during these long years, who kept longing for more light. Fortunately there was one little chink at Deshima, in the harbor at Nagasaki, and of this some of the more earnest were able to take advantage. Many instances are recorded and there must be many more of which we can know nothing, of Japanese students displaying the truest heroism in surmounting the difficulties that lay in the way of their acquiring foreign knowledge. Let us now see how there came at length an unsettled dawn, and after the clouds of this had cleared, a dazzling inpouring of the light. It was the American Union which opened the door of Japan to western civilization. It had been desired by all of the European nations, as well as by the United States, to obtain access to Japanese ports. Supplies were frequently needed, particularly water and coal, but no distress was ever considered a sufficient excuse for the Japanese to permit the landing of a foreign vessel's crew. Shipwrecked sailors frequently passed through seasons of great trial and danger, before they were restored to their own people. Even Japanese sailors who were shipwrecked on other shores, or carried out to sea, were refused re-admission to their own country when rescued by foreigners. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry of the American navy, urged upon President Millard Fillmore the necessity and possi- bility of making some sort of a treaty with the exclusive empire. It was decided that the most effective way to advance tins desire was to sail into the bay of Yeddo with a squadron sufficient to command respect. A fleet was assigned to the undertaking, under the command of Perry, and the American vessels sailed away to the Orient to rendezvous at the chief city of the Liu Kiu islands, Napha. From Napha the fleet sailed for Japan, the Susquehanna, the flagship, the advance of the line of the ships of seventeen nations. It was on the seventh day of July, 1853, under a sky and over a sea of perfect calm, that the four American warships appeared off Uraga in the Bay of Yeddo. Without delay the officials of Uraga emphatically notified the " barbarian " envoy that he must go to Nagasaki, where all business with foreigners had to be done. The barbarian refused to go. He informed the messengers BAPTISM OF BUDDHA. JAPAN'S DOOR HALF AJAR. 241 that he was the bearer of a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan ; that he had sailed as near as possible to the destination of the letter and would now deliver it and continue it on its way by land, but he would not retrace his path until the letter was delivered. The shogun lyeyoshi on re- ceiving information of such decision, was exceedingly troubled and called his officials to a council. Alarm was wide spread, and it was ordered that strict watch should be kept along the shore to prevent the barbarian vessels from committing acts of violence. During the eight days while Commodore Perry's fleet was wait- ing in the Bay of Yeddo, the boats of his ships were busily engaged in taking soundings and surveying the shores and the anchorage. No sailors were permitted to land, and no natives were molested. Every effort was made to indicate to the Japanese the desire for a peaceful friendship. A learned Chinese scholar was sent by the shogun to Uraga, who acted as an official and eminent interpreter in an interview with the American envoy. Continued councils were called by the shogun, not only of his chief officers but of the daimios, the nobles, and the retired nobles of Yeddo. The citizens of Yeddo and the surrounding villages were in great tumult, fearing that there would be a war, for which the country was totally unpre- pared. Meanwhile the envoy was impatiently demanding an answer. At last, after eight days, the patience and the impa- tience, combined with the demonstrations made by the vessels of the fleet, which were highly impressive to the Japanese who had never seen a steamboat, won success for Commodore Perry's message. A high Japanese commissioner came to Uraga, pre- pared a magnificent pavilion for the ceremonies, and announced himself ready to receive the letter to the emperor. With great pomp and ceremony the Americans landed and in this pavilion with proper formalities, delivered the letter and presents from the president. Then having, for the first time in history, gained several important points of etiquette in a country where etiquette was more than law or morals, the splendid diplomat and warrior Perry sailed away with his fleet July 17, 1853. It was in response to a temporizing policy on the part of Japan, and to the good judgment and careful decision of Commodore 242 JAPAN TAKES TIME TO THINK. Perry, that the fleet sailed away without demanding an immediate reply to his letter. The American envoy was informed that in a matter of so much importance a decision could not be at once reached, and that if he now left, he would on his return get a definite answer. No wonder there was commotion. The nine- teenth century had come suddenly into contact with the four- teenth. The spirit of commerce and the spirit of feudalism, two great but conflicting forces, met in their full development, and the result was necessarily a convulsion. We are hardly surprised to hear that the shogun died before Commodore Perry's return, or that during the next few years the land was harassed by earth- quakes and pestilences. Perry's second appearance was in February, 1854, this time with a much larger fleet. A hot debate took place in the shogun's council as to the answer that should be given. The old daimio of Mito, the head of one of the three families, which, forming the Tokugawa clan, furnished the occupants of the shogunate, wanted to fight and settle the question once for all. " At first," he said, " they will give us philosophical instruments, machinery and other curiosities ; will take ignorant people in ; and trade being their chief object they will manage to impoverish the country, after which they will treat us just as they like, per- haps behave with the greatest rudeness and insult us, and end by swallowing up Japan. If we do not drive them away now we shall never have another opportunity." Others gave contrary advice, saying, " If we try to drive them ;iway they will immediately commence hostilities, and then we shall be obliged to fight. If we once get into a dispute we shall have an enemy to fight who will not be easily disposed of. He does not care how long he will have to spend over it, but he will come with myriads of men-of-war and surround our shores com- pletely ; however large a number of ships we might destroy, he is so accustomed to that sort of thing that he would not care in the least. In time the country would be put to an immense expense and the people plunged into misery. Rather than allow this, as we are not the equals of foreigners in the mechanical arts, let us have intercourse with foreign countries, learn their drill and tactics, and when we have made the nation as united as one SIGNING OF THE FIRST TREATY. 243 family, we shall be able to go abroad and give lands in foreign countries to those who have distinguished themselves in battle." The latter view carried and a treaty with the United States was signed on the thirty-first of March, 1854. Now be it ob- served that the shogun did this without the sanction of the mikado, whom indeed he had never yet consulted on the matter, and that he subscribed himself Tai Kun, ("Tycoon,") or great ruler, a title to which he had no right and which if it meant any- thing at all involved an assumption of the authority of supreme ruler in the empire. This was the view naturally taken by Perry and by the ambassadors from European countries who a few years later obtained treaties with Japan. They were under the impression that they were dealing with the emperor; and hearing of the existence of another potentate living in an inland city, surrounded with a halo of national veneration, they con- ceived the plausible but erroneous theory that the tycoon was the temporal sovereign, and this mysterious mikado the spiritual sovereign of the country. They little dreamed that the so-called tycoon was no sovereign at all, and that consequently the treaties which he signed had no legal validity. The shogun could ill afford thus to lay himself open to the charge of treason. From the first there had been a certain class of daimios who had never heartily submitted to the Tokugawa administration. The principal clans which thus submitted to the regime under protest against what they considered a usurpation, an encroachment on the authority of the mikado, whom alone they recognized as the divinely appointed ruler of Japan, were those of Satsuma, Choshiu, and Tosa. As the years of peace cast their spell over the nation, making the people forgetful of war and transforming the descendants of lyeyasu into luxurious idlers, much more like impotent mikados than successors of the energetic soldier and law-giver, their hopes more and more arose that an opportunity would be given them to overthrow the shogunate and bring about the unification of the empire at the hands of the mikado. Their time had now come. The shogun was enervated and he had so far forgotten himself as to open the country to foreign trade,*without the sanction of the " Son of Heaven." It was this illegal act of the shogun that precipitated 244 THE TREATY WAS TREASON. the confusion, violence and disaster of the next few years, reach- ing ultimately in 1868 to the complete overthrow of his own power and the restoration of the mikado to his rightful position as actual as well as nominal ruler of the empire. Fearing the consequences of the illegal act into which he had been driven, the shogun lost no time in sending messengers to Kioto to inform the mikado of what had happened and seek his sanction to the policy adopted. It was plead in excuse for the course of conduct, that affairs had reached such a condition that the shogun was driven to sign the treaty. The emperor in great agitation summoned a council. The decision was unanimous against the shogun's action, and the messengers were informed that no sanction could be given to the treaty. The next import- ant step was not taken until July, 1858, when Lord Elgin arrived with propositions on the part of Great Britain for a treaty of amity and commerce. He was unaccompanied by any armed force, and brought a steam yacht as a present from Queen Vic- toria to the tycoon of Japan. A few months later treaties were entered into with all the leading powers of Europe, but if there was a political lull be- tween 1854 and 1858, the poor Japanese had distractions of a very different kind. From a violent earthquake and consequent conflagration, one hundred and four thousand of the inhabitants of Yeddo lost their lives. A terrific storm swept away one hun- dred thousand more, and in a visitation of cholera thirty thou- sand persons perished in Yeddo alone. Moreover, just when the treaties were being signed, the shogun lyesada died, *' as if," says Sir R. Alcock, " a further victim was required for immolation on the altar of the outraged gods of Japan." The political tempest that had been gathering now swept over the nation. For the next ten years there was so much disorder, intrigue, and bloodshed, that Japan became among the western nations a byword for treachery and assassination. Defenseless foreigners were cut down in the streets of Yeddo and Yokohama and even in the legations. Twice was the British legation attacked, on one of the occasions being taken by storm and held for a time by a band of free-lances. No foreigner's life was safe. Even when out on the most trivial errand, every foreign resident YEARS OF VIOLENCE AND DISASTER. 245 was accompanied by an armed escort furnished by the shogun's government. It is needless to give an account of all the different assassinations, successful or attempted, which darkened the period. The secretary to the American legation was cut down near Shiba, Yeddo, when returning from the Prussian legation with an armed escort; a Japanese interpreter attached to the British legation was fatally stabbed in broad daylight while standing at the legation flagstaff ; one of the guard at the same legation murdered two Englishmen in the garden and then com- mitted suicide : an Englishman was cut down on the highway between Yokohama and Yeddo by certain retainers of the daimio of Satsuma, whose procession he had unwittingly crossed on horseback ; and these were not all. It is not a satisfactory answer to say that hatred of foreigners was the leading motive that inspired all these acts of violence. This was no doubt more or less involved, but the true explana- tion is to be found in the hostility of the mikado's partisans to the shogun's government. All possible means were taken to thwart the shogun and bring him into complications with the ambassadors at his court. Every attack on a foreigner brought fresh trouble upon the Yeddo government and hastened its col- lapse. Long before foreigners arrived, the seeds of revolution had sprouted and their growth was showing above the soil. It is to the state of political parties and of feudalism at this epoch in Japanese history, and not to mere ill will against foreigners, that this policy of intrigue and assassination must be ascribed. It would take too long to discuss all the complications of this period and to inquire, for instance, how far when the Japanese government failed to arrest and execute the murderer of Mr. Richardson, the British were justified in demanding an indemnity of $500,000 from the shogun and $125,000 from the dairnio of Satsuma, or in enforcing their demands with a threatened bom- bardment of Yeddo and an actual bombardment of Kagoshima. It is out of our scope here to inquire into the shelling of the batteries of the daimio of Choshiu, at Shimonoseki, in turn by the Americans, British, French and Dutch, the men of Choshiu having fired upon some Dutch, American, and French vessels that had entered the straits against the prohibition of the Japanese. 246 HARD TIMES FOR THE SHOGUN. An indemnity of $3,000,000 was also exacted and distributed among these nations. Such stern measures doubtless appeared to the foreign ambas- sadors necessary to prevent the expulsion or even the utter ex- termination of foreigners. Whether their policy was mistaken or not, certain it is that they can have had no adequate concep- tion of the difficulties with which the shogun had to contend. The position of that ruler was one of such distraction as might well evoke for him the pity of every disinterested onlooker. Do as he would, he could not escape trouble ; on the one side were the mikado's partisans ever growing in power and in determina- tion to crush him, and on the other were the equally irresistible foreigners with their impatient demands and their alarming threats. He was as helpless as a man between a wall of rock and an advancing tide. The internal difficulties of the country were increased by dis- sensions which broke out in the imperial court. The clans of Satsuma and Choshiu had been summoned to Kioto to preserve order. For some reason the former were relieved of this duty, or rather privilege, and it therefore devolved exclusively upon the Choshiu men. Taking advantage of their position, the Choshiu men persuaded the mikado to undertake a progress to the province of Yamato, there to proclaim his intention of taking the field against foreigners ; but this proposal roused the jealousy of the other clans at the imperial court, as they feared that the men of Choshiu were planning to obtain possession of the mikado's per- son and thus acquire pre-eminence. The intended expedition was abandoned, and the men of Choshiu, accompanied by Sanjo, afterward prime minister of the reformed government, and six other nobles who had supported them, were banished from Kioto. The ill feeling thus occasioned between Choshiu and Satsuma, was fomented by an unfortunate incident which occurred at Shimonoseki early in 1864. The former clan recklessly fired upon a vessel, which being of European build they mistook for a foreign one, but which really belonged to Satsuma. Thus Choshiu was in disfavor both with the shogun and with the mikado, and in this year we have the strange spectacle of these two rulers leaguing their forces together for its punishment. ABOLITION OF THE SHOGUNATES. 247 August 20, 1864, the Choshiu men advanced upon Kioto, but were repulsed with much slaughter, only however after the greater part of the city had been destroyed by fire. The rebell- ion was not at once quelled ; indeed the Choshiu samurai were proving themselves more than a match for the troops which the shogun had sent against them, when at length the imperial court ordered the fighting to be abandoned. Simultaneously with the Choshiu rebellion the shogun had to meet an insurrection by the daimio of Mito, in the east. His troubles no doubt hastened his death, which took place at Osaka in September, 1866, shortly be- fore the war against Choshiu terminated. Then there succeeded Keiki, the last of the shoguns. It should be noted, however, that before this the mikado's sanction had been obtained to the foreign treaties. In Novem- ber, 1865, British, French, and Dutch squadrons came to anchor off Hiogo, of which the foreign settlement of Kobe is now a suburb, and sent letters to Kioto demanding the imperial con- sent. The nearness of such an armed force was too great an argument to be withstood, and the demand was granted. Little more than a year after his accession to the shogunate Keiki re- signed. In doing so he proved himself capable of duly apprecia- ting the national situation. Now that foreigners had been ad- mitted, it was more necessary than ever that the government should be strong, and this, it was seen, was impossible without the abolition of the old dual system. He had secured the mikado's consent to the treaties, on the condition that they should be revised, and that Hiogo should never be opened as a port of foreign commerce. But the end had not yet come. On the same day when the shogunate was abolished, January 3, 1868, the forces friendly to the Tokagawas were dismissed from Kioto, and the guardianship of the imperial palace was committed to the clans of Satsuma, Tosa, and Geishiu. This measure gave Keiki great offense, and availing himself of a former order of the court which directed him to continue the conduct of affairs, he marched with his re- tainers and friends to Ozaka and sent a request to the mikado that all Satsuma men who had any share in the government should be dismissed. To this the court would not consent, and 248 IMPERIALISM IN THE ASCENDANT. Keiki marched against Kioto with a force of thirty thousand men, his declared object being to remove from the mikado his bad counselors. A desperate engagement took place at Fushimi, iii which the victory was with the loyalists. But this was only the beginning of a short but sharp civil war, of which the principal fighting was in the regions between Yeddo and Nikko. The restoration was at last complete. Proclamation was made " to sovereigns of all foreign nations and their subjects, that per- mission had been granted to the shogun Yoshinobu, or Keiki, to return the governing power in accordance with his own request ; " and the manifesto continued: "henceforward we shall exercise supreme authority both in the internal and external affairs of the country. Consequently the title of emperor should be substituted for that of tycoon which had been hitherto employed in the treaties." Appended were the seal of Dai Nippon, and the signa- ture of Mutsuhito, this being the first occasion in Japanese history on which the name of an emperor had appeared during his life- time. With the triumph of the imperial party one might have ex- pected a return to the old policy of isolation. There can be no doubt that when the Satsuma, Choshiu, and other southern clans commenced their agitation for the abolition of the shogunate, their ideas with regard to foreign intercourse were decidedly retrogressive. But after all, the leading motive which inspired them was dissatisfaction with the semi-imperial position occupied by the upstart Tokugawas ; to this their opposition to foreigners was quite secondary. It so happened that the Tokugawa shoguns got involved with foreigners, and it was so much the worse for the foreigners. To go deeper, what was at the bottom of this desire was the overthrow of the shogunate. Doubtless their patriotism, what they had at heart, was the highest welfare of their country, and this they believed impossible without its unifi- cation. Their primary motive then, being patriotism, we need not be surprised that they were willing to entertain the notion that perhaps after all the prosperity of their country might best be insured by the adoption of a policy of free foreign intercourse. This idea more and more commended itself, until it became a conviction ; and when they got into power they astonished the RADICAL CHANGES BY THE MIKADO. 251 world by the thoroughness with which they broke loose from the old traditions and entered upon a policy of enlightened reforma- tion. To the political and social revolution which accompanied the restoration of the mikado in 1868, there has been no parallel in the history of mankind. One of the first acts of the mikado after the restoration, was to assemble the kuges and daimios and make oath before them " that a deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures be decided upon by public opinion; that impartiality and justice should form the basis of his action ; and that intellect and learn- ing should be sought for throughout the world in order to estab- lish the foundations of the empire." In the mid-summer of 1868, the mikado, recognizing Yeddo as really the center of the nation's life, made it the captial of the empire and transferred his court thither ; but the name Yeddo, being distasteful on account of its associations with the shogunate, was abolished, and the city re- named Tokio, or " Eastern Capital." At the same time the an- cient capital Kioto, received the new name of Saikio or " West- ern Capital." For the creation of a central administration, how- ever, more was necessary than the abolition of the shogunate and the establishment of the mikado's authority. The great fabric of feudalism still remained intact. Within his own territory each daimio was practically an independent sovereign, taxing his subjects as he saw fit, often issuing his own- currency, and some- times even granting passports so as to control intercourse with neighboring provinces. Here was a formidable barrier to the consolidation of the empire. But the reformers had the courage and the tact necessary to remove it. The first step towards the above revolution was taken in 1869, when the daimios of Satsuma, Choshiu, Hizen, and Tosa ad- dressed a memorial to the mikado requesting his authorization for the resignation of their fiefs into his hands. Other nobles followed their example, and the consequence was the acceptance by the mikado of control over the land and revenues of the dif- ferent provinces, the names of the clans however being still pre- served, and the daimios allowed to remain over them as governors, each with one-tenth of the former assessment of his territory as rental. By this arrangement the evil of too suddenly termina- 252 ANNIHILATING FEUDALISM. ting the relation between the clans and their lords was sought to be avoided, but it was only temporary; in 1871 the clan system was totally abolished, and the country redivided for administra- tive purposes, with officers chosen irrespectively of hereditary rank or clan connection. But the payment of hereditary pensions and allowances of the ex-daimios and ex-samurai proved such a drain upon the national resources that in 1876 the reformed government found it neces- sary to compulsorily convert them into capital sums. The rate of commutation varied from five years' purchase in the case of the largest pensions, to fourteen years' in that of the smallest. The number of the pensioners with whom they had thus to deal was three hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and twenty-eight. The act of the daimios in thus suppressing them- selves looks at first sight like a grand act of self-sacrifice, as we are not accustomed to see landed proprietors manifesting such disinterestedness for the patriotic object of advancing their coun- try's good. But the vast majority of daimios had come to be mere idlers, as the greater mikado had been. Their territories were governed by the more able and energetic of their retainers, and it was a number of these men that had most influence in bringing about the restoration of the mikado's authority. Intense patriots, they saw that the advancement of their country could not be realized without its unification, and at the same time they cannot but have preferred a larger scope for their talents, which service immediately under the mikado would give them. From being ministers of their provincial governments, they aspired to be ministers of the imperial government. They were successful ; and their lords, who had all along been accustomed to yield to their advice quite cheerfully, acquiesced when asked for the good of the empire to give up their fiefs to the mikado. One result of this is that while most of the ex-daimios have retired into private life, the country is now governed almost exclusively by ex-samurai. Such sweeping changes were not to be accomplished without rousing opposition and even rebellion. The government incurred much risk in interfering with the ancient privileges of the samurai. It is not surprising that several rebellions had to be put down during the years immediately succeeding 1868. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN JAPAN. 253 Dr. William Elliot Griffis, in his exhaustive and interesting work, " The Mikado's Empire," discusses at length the change of Japan from feudalism to its present condition, the abolition of the shogunate, and the rebellions that followed that event. He declares that popular impression to be wrong which suggests that the immediate cause of the fall of the shogun's government, the restoration of the mikado to supreme power, and the aboli- tion of the dual and feudal systems, was the presence of foreign- ers on the soil of Japan. The foreigners and their ideas were the occasion, not the cause, of the destruction of the dual system of government. Their presence served merely to hasten what was already inevitable. The history of Japan from the abolition of feudalism in 1871 up to the present time, is a record of advance in all the arts of western civilization. The mikado, Mutsuhito, has shown himself to be much more than a petty divinity, a real man. He has taken a firm stand in advocacy of the introduction of western customs, wherever they were improvements. The imperial navy, dockyards, and machine shops have been a pride to him. He has withdrawn himself from mediaeval seclusion and assumed divinity, and has made himself accessible and visible to his subjects. He has placed the empress in a position like to that occupied by the consorts of European monarchs, and with her he has adopted European attire. In the latter part of June, 1872, the mikado left Tokio in the flagship of Admiral Akamatsu, and made a tour throughout the south and west of his empire. For the first time in twelve centuries the emperor of Japan moved freely and un- veiled among his subjects. Again in the same year Japan challenged the admiration of Christendom. The coolie trade, carried on by Portuguese at Macao, in China, between the local kidnappers and Peru and Cuba, had long existed in defiance of the Chinese government. Thousands of ignorant Chinese were yearly decoyed from Macao and shipped in sweltering shipholds, under the name of " passen- gers." In Cuba and Peru their contracts were often broken, they were cruelly treated, and only a small portion of them re- turned alive to tell their wrongs. The Japanese government had with a fierce jealousy watched the beginning of such a 254 DESTROYING THE COOLIE TRADE. traffic on their own shores. In the last days of the shogunate, coolie traders came to Japan to ship irresponsible hordes of Japanese coolies and women to the United States. To their everlasting shame, be it said some were Americans. Among the first things done by the mikado's government after the restora- tion, was the sending of an official who effected the joyful delivery of these people and their return to their homes. So the Japanese set to work to destroy this nefarious traffic. The Peruvian ship Maria Luz, loaded with Chinese, entered the port of Yokohama. Two fugitive coolies in succession swam to the English war ship Iron Duke. Hearing the pite- ous story of their wrongs, Mr. Watson, the British charge" d'affaires, called the attention of the Japanese authorities to these illegal acts in their waters. A protracted enquiry was in- stituted and the coolies landed. The Japanese refused to force them on board against their will, and later shipped them to China, a favor which was grate- fully acknowledged by the Chinese government. This act of a pagan nation achieved a grand moral victory for the world and humanity. Within four years the coolie traffic, which was but another name for the slave trade, was abolished from the face of the earth, and the coolie prisons of Macao were in ruins. Yet the act of freeing the Chinese coolies in 1872 was done in the face of clamor and opposition, and a rain of protests from CHINESE COOLIE. IN CONTACT WITH WESTERN NATIONS. the foreign consuls, ministers, and a part of the press. Abuse and threats and diplomatic pressure were in vain. The Japanese never wavered, but marched straight to the duty before them, the liberation of the slaves. The British chargd and the American consul, Colonel Charles O. Shepherd, alone gave hearty support and unwavering sympathy to the right side. During the same year, 1872, two legations and three consulates were established abroad, and from that time forward the number has been increasing until the representatives of Japan's govern- ment are found all over the world. Scores of daily newspapers and hundreds of weeklies have been furnishing the country with information and awakening thought. The editors are often men of culture or students returned from abroad. The Corean war project had, in 1872, become popular in the cabinet and was the absorbing theme of the army and navy. During the Tokugawa period Corea had regularly sent embassies of homage and congratulation to Japan ; but not relishing the change of affairs in 1868, disgusted at the foreiguizing tendencies of the mikado's government, incensed at Japan's departure from Turanian ideals, and emboldened by the failure of the French and American expeditions, Corea sent insulting letters taunting Japan with slavish ti'uckling to the foreign barbarians, declared herself an enemy, and challenged Japan to fight. About this time a Liu Kiu junk was wrecked on eastern Formosa. The crew was killed by the savages, and, it is said, eaten. The Liu Kiuans appealed to their tributary lords at Satsuma, who referred the matter to Tokio. English, Dutch, American, German, and Chinese ships have from time to time been wrecked on this can- nibal coast, the terror of the commerce of Christendom. Their war ships vainly attempted to chastise the savages. Soyejima, with others, conceived the idea of occupying the coast, to rule the wild tribes, and of erecting light houses in the interests of commerce. China laid no claim to eastern Formosa, all trace of which was omitted from the maps of the " Middle Kingdom." In the spring of 1873, Soyejima went to Peking and there, among other things granted him, was an audience with the Chinese em- peror. He thus reaped the results of the diplomatic labors of half a century. The Japanese ambassador stood upright before Atf EXPEDITION TO FORMOSA. the " Dragon Face " and the " Dragon Throne," robed in the tight black dress-coat, trousers, and linen of western civilization, bearing the congratulations of the young mikado of the "Sun- rise Kingdom " to the youthful emperor of the " Middle King- dom." In the Tsung-li Yamen, Chinese responsibility over eastern Formosa was disavowed, and the right of Japan to chas- tise the savages granted. A Japanese junk was wrecked on Formosa, and its crew stripped and plundered while Soyejima was absent in China. This event piled fresh fuel on the flames of the war feeling now popular even among the unarmed classes. Japan at this time had to struggle with opposition within and without, to every move in the direction of ad- vancement in civilization. Says Griffis, "At home were the stolidly conservative peasantry backed by ignor- ance, superstition, priest- craft, and political hostility. On their own soil they were fronted by aggressive foreign- ers who studied all Japanese questions through the spec- tacles of dollars and cents and trade, and whose diplo- matists too often made the principles of Shylock their system. Outside the Asiatic nations beheld with contempt, jealousy and alarm the departure of one of their number from Turanian ideas, principles, and civilization. China with ill-concealed anger, Corea with open defiance taunted Japan with servile submission to the ' foreign devils.' " For the first time the nation was represented to the world by FORMOSAN TYPE. WHAT THE EMBASSY ACCOMPLISHED. 259 an embassy at once august and plenipotentiary. It was not a squad of petty officials or local nobles going forth to kiss a toe, to play the part of figure-heads, or stool-pigeons, to beg the aliens to get out of Japan, to keep the scales on foreign eyes, to buy gun-boats, or to hire employees. A noble of highest rank, and blood of immemorial antiquity, with four cabinet ministers, set out to visit the courts of the fifteen nations having treaties with Dai Nippon. They were accompanied by commissioners representing every government department, sent to study and re- port upon the methods and resources of foreign civilizations. They arrived in Washington February 29, 1872, and for the first time in history a letter signed by the mikado was seen outside of Asia. It was presented by the ambassadors, robed in their an- cient Yamato costume, to the President of the United States on the 4th of March, Mr. Arinori Mori acting as interpreter. The first president of the free republic, and the men who had elevated the eta to citizenship stood face to face in fraternal accord. The one hundred and twenty-third sovereign of an empire in its twenty-sixth centennial saluted the citizen ruler of a nation whose century aloe had not yet bloomed. On the 6th of March they were welcomed on the floor of Congress. This day marked the formal entrance of Japan upon the theater of universal his- tory." In its subordinate objects the embassy was a signal success. Much was learned of Christendom. The results at home were the splendid series of reforms which mark the year 1872 as epochal. But in its prime object the embassy was an entire failure. One constant and supreme object was ever present, be- yond amusement or thirst for knowledge. It was to ask that in the revision of the treaties the extra-territoriality clause be stricken out, that foreigners be made subject to the laws of Japan. The failure of the mission was predicted by all who knew the facts. From Washington to St. Petersburg point-ti^ank refusal was made. No Christian governments would for a mo- ment trust their people to pagan edicts and prisons. While Japan slandered Christianity by proclamations, imprisoned men for their beliefs, knew nothing of trial by jury, of the habeas corpus writ, or of modern jurisprudence ; in short while Japan 260 REBELLION STAMPED OUT. maintained the institutions of barbarism, they refused to recog- nize her as a peer among nations. At home the watchword was progress. Public persecution for conscience' sake vanished. All the Christians torn from their homes and exiled and imprisoned in 1868 were set free and re- stored to their native villages. Education advanced rapidly, pub- lic decency was improved, and the standards of Christendom attempted. While in Europe Iwakura and his companions in the embassy kept cognizant of home affairs. With eyes opened by all that they had seen abroad, mighty results, but of slow growth, they saw their country going too fast. Behind the war project lay an abyss of ruin. On their return the war scheme brought up in a cabinet meeting was rejected. The disappointment of the army was keen and that of expectant foreign contractors pitiable. The advocates of war among the cabinet ministers resigned and re- tired to private life. Assassins attacked Iwakura, but his injuries did not result fatally. The spirit of feudalism was against him. On the 17th of January, the ministers who had resigned sent in a memorial praying for the establishment of a representative assembly in which the popular wish might be discussed. Their request was declined. It was officially declared that Japan was not ready for such institutions. Hizen, the home of one of the great clans of the coalition of 1868, was the chief seat of dis- affection. With perhaps no evil intent, Eto, who had been the head of the department of justice, had returned to his home there and was followed by many of his clansmen. Scores of officials and men assembled with traitorous intent, and raised the cry of " On to Corea." The rebellion was annihilated in ten days. A dozen ringleaders were sent to kneel before the blood pit. The national government was vindicated and sectionalism crushed. The Formosan affair was also brought to a conclusion. Thir- teen hundred Japanese soldiers occupied the island for six months, conquering the savages wherever they met, building roads and fortifications. At' last the Chinese government in shame began to urge their claims on Formosa and to declare the Japanese intruders. For a time war seemed inevitable. The THE SATSUMA REBELLION. 263 man for the crisis was Okubo, a leader in the cabinet, the master spirit in crushing the rebellion, and now an ambassador at Peking. The result was that the Chinese paid in solid silver an indemnity of $ 700,000 and the Japanese disembarked. Japan single-handed, with no foreign sympathy, but with positive opposition, had in the interests of humanity rescued a coast from terror and placed it in a condition of safety. In the face of threatened war a nation having but one-tenth the population, area, or resources of China, had abated not a jot of its just demands nor flinched from battle. The righteousness of her cause was vindicated. The Coreau affair ended happily. In 1875 Kuroda Kiyotaka with men of war entered Corean waters. Patience, skill, and tact were crowned with success. On behalf of Japan a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce was made between the two coun- tries February 27, 1876. Japan thus peacefully opened this last of the hermit nations to the world. The rebellions which we have mentioned were of a mild type compared with that which in 1877 shook the government to its foundations. In the limits of our space it is impossible to enter deeply into the causes of the Satsuma rebellion. Its leader, Saigo Takamori, was one of the most powerful members of the reformed government until 1873 when he resigned as some of his prede- cessors had done, indignant at the peace policy which was pur- sued. A veritable Cincinnatus, he seems to have won the hearts of all classes around him by the Spartan simplicity of his life and the affability of his manner, and there was none more able or more willing to come to the front when duty to his country called him. It is a thousand pities that such a genuine patriot should have sacrificed himself through a mistaken notion of duty. Ambition to maintain and extend the military fame of his coun- try seems to have blinded him to all othef more practical consid- erations. The policy of Okubo and the rest of the majority in the cabinet, with its regard for peace and material prosperity, was in his eyes unworthy of the warlike traditions of old Japan. But we cannot follow out the story of this famous rebellion how Saigo established a private school in his native city of Kagoshima for the training of young Shizoku in military tactics, how the re- ports of the policy of the government more and more dissatisfied 264 THE SATSUMA REBELLION. him, until a rumor that Okubo had sent policemen to Kagoshima to assassinate him precipitated the storm that had been brewing. This report was not supported by satisfactory evidence, although the Kagoshima authorities extorted a so-called confession from a policeman. Okubo was too noble to be guilty of such an act. It was only after eight months of hard fighting, during which victory swayed from one side to another, and the death of Saigo and his leading generals when surrounded at last like rats in a trap, and the expenditure of over forty million yen, that the much tried government could freely draw breath again. The people of Satsuma believe that Saigo's spirit has taken up its abode in the planet Mars, and that his figure may be seen there when that star is in the ascendant. By this time railways, telegraphs, lighthouse service, and a navy were well under construction in native works. Two national exhibitions were held, one in 1877 and the second in 1881; the hitter particularly was a pretentious one and a great success. In 1879 Japan annexed the Liu Kiu islands, bringing their king to Tokio, there to live as a vassal, and reducing the islands to the position of a prefecture in spite of the warlike threats of China. In the same year occurred the visit to Japan of General Grant while he was on his tour around the world. The famous American was entertained most enthusiastically by the citizens of Tokio for some two weeks in July. The enthusiasm awakened by his visit among the citizens was remarkable. Arches and illuminations were on every hand for miles. The entertain- ment provided by the Japanese for their distinguished guests at ;iny time is so unique when seen by western eyes that it is always impressive and delightful. UMITS AND POSSESSIONS OF THE JAPANESE EM- PIRE. The Islands and their Situation The Famous Mountain Fujl-yama Rivers and Canals Ocean Currents and Their Effect on the Japanese Climate Japan not a Tropical Country Flora and Fauna The Important Cities Strange History of Yokohama Commerce Min- ing Agricultural Products Ceramic Art Government of the Realm. The empire of Japan is a collection of islands of various dimen- sions, numbering nearly four thousand, and situated to the east of the Asiatic continent. Only four of these however, are of size sufficient to entitle them to considerable fame, and around these a sort of belt of defense is formed by the thousands of islets. Dai Nippon is the name given by the natives to their beautiful land, and from this expression, which means Great Japan, our own name for the empire has been taken. Foreign writers have very often blundered in calling the largest island Nippon or Niphon. This more properly applies to the entire empire, while the main island is named in the military geography of Japan, Hondo. This word itself means main land. The other three im- portant islands are Kiushiu, the most southeasterly of all ; Shikoku, which lies between the latter and Hondo; and Yesso, which is the most northerly of the chain. Japan occupies an important position on the surface of the globe, measured by political and commercial possibilities. Its position is such that its people may not unreasonably hope to form a natural link between the Occident and the Orient. Lying in the Pacific Ocean, in the temperate zone and not in the torrid, as many have the thought, it bends like a crescent off the conti- nent of Asia. In the extreme north, near the island of Saghalien, the distance from the main land of Asia is so short that it is little more than a day's sail in a junk. At the southern extremity, where Kiushiu draws nearest to the Corean peninsula, the distance to the main land is even less. Between this crescent of islands and the Asiatic main land is enclosed the Sea of Japan. For more than four thousand miles eastward stretches the Pacific Ocean, with no stopping point for steamers voyaging to San 17 (265) 266 ISLANDS OF THE EMPIRE. Francisco unless they diverge far from their course for a call at Honolulu. The island connections of Japan are numerous. To the south are the Liu Kiu islands, which have been annexed to Japan, and still farther the great island of Formosa. To the north are the Kurile islands, which extend far above Yesso and were ceded to Japan by Russia in return for Saghalien, over which rule was formerly disputed. The chain is almost continuous, although broken and irregular, to Kamtchatka, and thence prolonged by the Aleutian islands in an enormous semicircle to Alaska and our own continent. The configuration of the land is that resulting from the com- bined effects of volcanic action and wave erosion. The area of the Japanese islands is about one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, or nearly as great as the New England and Middle States. But of this surface nearly two-thirds consists of mountain land, much of it still lying waste and uncultivated though appar- ently capable of tillage. On the main island a solid backbone of mountainous elevations runs through a great portion of its length, with subordinate chains extending at right angles and rising again in the other islands. The mountains decrease in height towards the south and there are few highlands along the sea coast. The range is reached by a gradual rise from the sea, until the back- bone of the great island chain is reached. Japan rises abruptly from the sea, and deep water begins very close to the shore, in- dicating that the entire range of islands may be properly char- acterized as an immense mountain chain thrown up from the bottom of the ocean. The highest peak is Fuji-yama, which rises to a height of more than twelve thousand feet above the sea. It is a wonderfully beautiful mountain, and is the first glimpse that one has of land in approaching Yokohama from the Pacific Ocean. Of the position which this mountain occupies in the affections and traditions of the Japanese, mention will be made in a later chapter. The islands forming the empire of Japan are comprehended in these limits; between twenty-four degrees and fifty-one degrees north latitude, and one hundred and twenty-four degrees and one hundred and fifty -seven degrees east longitude. That is, speaking FUJI-YAMA. 267 roughly, it lies diagonally in and north of the subtropical belt, and has northern points corresponding with Paris and Newfound- land, and southern ones corresponding with Cairo and the Bermuda islands ; or coming nearer home, it corresponds pretty nearly in latitude with the eastern coast line of the United States, added to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and the contrasts of climate in the latter island and in Florida are probably not more remarkable than those which are observed in the extreme northern and southern regions of Japan. The most striking geographical feature of Japan is the Inland FUJI-YAMA.. Sea, which is one of the beauties of the world. It is a long, irregularly shaped arm of the sea, -with tides and rapid currents, of variable width and no great depth, studded with innumerable thickly wooded islands. It is the water area which separates Hondo from Shikoku and Kiushiu, and is often spoken of as the Japanese Mediterranean. One or two of the rivers of Japan, such as the Sumida, on the banks of which Tokio, the capital, lies, and which is about as broad as the East River between New York and Brooklyn, are 268 RIVERS. worthy of note. Here at the present time are situated several ship yards, and many modern craft built in the American fashion may be seen along the shore. Here it may be mentioned that any particular appellation given to a river in Japan holds good only for a limited part of its course, so that it changes its name per- haps four or five times in flowing a few hundred miles. Indeed the river which passes through the city of Ozaka changes its name four times within the city limits. Most of the larger rivers in the main land run a course tending almost north and south. The general contour of the land is such that they must be short, but this direction gives them the greatest length possible. There are brief periods of excessively heavy rain, and they are often then in fierce flood, carrying everything before them and leaving great plains of water-worn stones and gravel around their mouths. There are many picturesque waterfalls which attract travelers and command the admiration of native artists and poets. The rivers at a short distance from their outlets are rendered navigable chiefly by the courage and expertness of the boatmen, who are among the most daring and skillful in the world. Till recently little has been done to deepen river channels or protect their banks, except in the interest of agriculture. In the lower courses, where broad alluvial plains of great fertility have been formed, they are frequently intersected by numerous shallow canals, for the most part of comparatively recent excavation, but some of them are many centuries old and these have been of im- mense service in keeping up communication throughout the country. In spite of their shallowness and rapid silting, some of the rivers of Japan are capable of being improved so as to admit of the passage of steam vessels of the largest size, and there are fine natural inlets and spacious bays which form harbors of great excellence. The Japanese coast is usually steep and even precipitous. Its chief natural features, such as sunken rocks, capes, straits, en- trances to bays and harbors and the mouths of rivers are now well marked with beacons or lighthouses of modern construction. The tides are not great, and in Yeddo bay the rise is only about four feet on an average. In spring tides it rarely exceeds six feet, and in general the height of the flood tide is never very GREAT OCEAN CURRENTS. 269 great. Navigation in summer is somewhat dangerous and diffi- cult, owing to the mists and fogs which are deemed by its sailors to be the great scourge of Japan. Indeed these malarious cloud banks are probably as dangerous to the health of the landsmen as they are to the safety of the mariner. While a large area of land lying under shallow water, during rice cultivation, may have some share in the formation of these dangerous mists, there is the more general cause which is readily to be found in the ocean cur- rents. Japan occupies a striking position in these currents which flow northward from the Indian ocean and the Malay peninsula. That branch of the great Pacific equatorial current called the Kuro Shiwo, or dark tide or current, on account of its color, flows in a westerly direction past Formosa and the Liu Kiu islands, strik- ing the south point of Kiushiu and sometimes in summer send- ing a branch up the Sea of Japan. With great velocity it scours the east coast of Kiushiu and the south of Shikoku ; thence with diminished rapidity it envelopes the group of islands south of the Bay of Yeddo ; and at a point a little north of Tokio it leaves the coast of Japan and flows northeast towards the shores of America, ultimately giving to our own Pacific coast states a far milder climate than the corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic coast. The yearly evaporation at the tropics, of fully fourteen or fif- teen feet of ocean water, causes the great equatorial current of the Pacific to begin its flow. When the warm water reaches the colder waters to the northward, condensation of the water-laden air takes place, with the resulting formation of great cloud banks. The water appears to be of a deep, almost indigo-blue color, whence the name given to the current by the Japanese. Fish occur in great numbers where the Arctic current of fresher, lighter, and cooler water meets the warm salt stream from the south, amidst great commotion. The analogy of this great cur- rent to the Gulf stream of the Atlantic is apparent, and there can be no doubt as to its great influence on the climate of Japan. A difference of from twelve to sixteen degrees may be observed in passing from its waters to the cold currents from the north, and the effect of this on the atmosphere is very marked. The sudden 270 JAPANESE CLIMATE. and severe changes of temperature are often noticed on the southern coast of Japan and even in Yeddo bay. They are evi- dently due to eddies or branch currents from the great streams of cold and warm water which interweave themselves in the neighborhood. In the island of Yesso, the most northerly of the large ones, the extremes of temperature are nearly as great as in New En- gland. In the vicinity of Tokio the winter is usually clear and mild, with occasional sharp frosts and heavy falls of snow. In summer the heat is oppressive for nearly three months. Even at night the heat remains so high that sleep becomes almost impos- sible, the air being oppressive and no breeze stirring. The great- est heat is usually from the middle of June to early in September. The cold in winter is much more severe on the northwestern coast, and the roads across the main island are often blocked with snow for many months. In Yokohama the snow fall is light, not often exceeding two or three inches. The ice seldom exceeds an inch in thickness. Earthquake shocks are frequent, averag- ing more than one a mouth, but of late years there have been none of great severity. The winds of Japan are at all seasons exceedingly irregular, frequently violent, and subject to sudden changes. The north- east and easterly winds are generally accompanied by rain, and are not violent. The southwest and westerly winds are generally high, often violent, and accompanied with a low barometer. It is from the southwest that the cyclones or typhoons almost in- variably come. On clear and pleasant days, which in the neigh- borhood of Yokohama prevail in excess of foggy ones, there is a regular land and sea breeze at all seasons. The rainfall is above the average of most countries, and about two-thirds of the rain- falls during the six months from April to October. The flora of Japan is exceedingly interesting, not only to botan- ists and specialists, but to casual travelers and readers. The use- ful bamboo flourishes in all parts of the land; sugar cane and the cotton plant grow in the southern part; tea is grown almost everywhere. The tobacco plant, hemp, corn, mulberry for silk- worm food, rice, wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, potatoes, and yams are all cultivated. The beech, the oak, maples, and pina FAUNA. 273 trees in rich variety ; azaleas, camelias, etc., grow in the forests. Some of the more characteristic plants are wisteria, cryptomeria, calceolaria and chrysanthemums. Various varieties of evergreens are grown, and the Japanese gardeners are peculiarly expert in cultivating these trees in dwarf forms of great beauty. Many familiar wild flowers can be gathered, such as violets, blue-bells, forget-me-nots, thyme, dandelions, and others. The woods are rich in ferns, among which the royal fern is conspicuous, and in orchids, ivies, lichens, mosses and fungi. The beautiful locusts, though imported, may now fairly be considered as naturalized. There are many water lilies, reeds and rushes, some of which are of great beauty and others of utility. The mammalia of Japan are not numerous. In ancient times, before the dawn of history, two species of dwarf elephants ex- isted in the plains around Tokio. There are many monkeys in some parts, even in the extreme northern latitudes. Foxes abound and are regarded with reverence. Wolves and bears are destructive in the north. There are wild antelopes, red deer, wild boars, dogs, raccoons, badgers, otters, ferrets, bats, moles, and rats ; while the sea is specially rich in seals, sea-otters, and whales. The country has been found quite unsuitable for sheep, but goats thrive well, although they are not much favored by the people. Oxen are used for draught purposes. Horses are small but are fair quality, and the breed is being improved. The cats are nearly tailless. The dogs are of a low, half-wolfish breed. There are some three hundred varieties of birds known in Japan. Few of them are what we call song-birds, but the- lark is one brilliant exception. Game birds are plentiful, but are now pro- tected. Insects are very numerous, as no traveler will dispute, and Japan is a great field for investigation by entomologists. Locusts are often destructive, and mosquitoes are a great pest. Bees, the silk worm and the wax-insect are highly appreciated. There are several kinds of lizards, a great variety of frogs, seven or eight snakes, including one deadly species, and two or three kinds of tortoise. The crustaceans are numerous and inter- esting, and of fish there is extraordinary variety, especially those found in salt water. Oysters and clams are excellent and plentiful. 274 JAPAN'S GREAT CITIES. Let us now turn to the temporal affairs of the people who dwell in this island empire, their cities, their industries^ and to their government. Japan like its oriental companion, China, is a country of great cities, although the smaller empire has not so many famous for their size as has China. With scarcely an exception these greater cities are situated at the heads of bays, most of them good har- bors and accessible for commerce. The largest of these cities, of course, is the capital Tokio, which doubtless passes a million in- habitants, although it is impossible that it should justify the American tradition of not many years ago, that its numbers were twice a million. Tokio, or the old city of Yeddo, is situated near the head of Yeddo Bay, but a few miles from Yokohama, and but little farther from Uraga where the first reception to Commodore Perry was given. Among the other more important cities on the sea coast are Nagasaki, Yokohama, Hakodate, Hiogo, Ozaka, Hiroshima, and Kanagawa. Nagasaki is situated on the southwest coast of the island of Kiushiu, and is built in the form of an amphitheater. The Euro- pean quarter in the east, stands upon land reclaimed from the sea at considerable labor and expense* Desima, the ancient Dutch factory, lies at the foot, and behind it is the native part of the town. The whole is sheltered by high wooden mountains. The city of Nagasaki was almost the first which attracted the at- tention of foreigners, partly from its being already known by name from the Dutch colony established there ; partly because it was the nearest point to China and a port of great beauty ; and also because before the political revolution which overthrew the power of the shogunate, the daimios of the south were there en- abled, owing to its distance from Yeddo, to transact foreign affairs in their own way unmolested. This comparative import- ance did not last long, for affairs soon began to be concentrated in Yokohama, and the opening of the ports of Hiogo and Ozaka further reduced it to a secondary rank among commercial towns. It is still, however, a busy place and a great portion of the naviga- tion of the Japanese seas passes by its beautiful port. But it is not a town of the future, and will be supplanted in prosperity to considerable extent by the more northern cities. YOKOHAMA. 275 Vokohama, situated on the Gulf of Yeddo, owes its rise and im- portance to the merchants who came to seek their fortunes in the empire of the rising sun immediately after the signature of the treaties which threw open the coasts of Japan to adventurous foreigners. When Perry, with his augmented fleet, returned to Japan in February, 1854, the Japanese found him as inflexibly firm as ever. Instead of making the treaty at Uraga he must take it nearer Yeddo. Yokohama was the chosen spot, and there on the 8th of March, 1854, were exchanged the formal articles of convention between the United States and Japan. By the treaty of Yokohama, Shimoda was one of the ports opened to Americans. Before it began to be of much service the place was visited by an earthquake and tidal wave, which over- whelmed the town and ruined the harbor. The ruin of Shimoda was the rise of Yokohama. By a new treaty Kanagawa, three miles across the bay from Yokohama, was substituted for Shimoda. The Japanese government decided to make Yokohama the future port. Their reasons for this were many. Kanagawa was on the line of the great highway of the empire, along which the proud Daimios and their trains of retainers were continually passing. With the antipathy to foreigners that existed, had Kanagawa been made a foreign settlement, its history would doubtless have had many more pages of assassination and incendiarism than did Yokohama. Foreseeing this, even though considered by the foreign ministers a violation of treaty agreements, the Japanese government immediately set to work to render Yokohama as con- venient as possible for trade, residence and espionage. They built a causeway nearly two miles long across the lagoons and marshes to make it of easy access. They built granite piers, custom house and officers' quarters, and dwellings and store houses for the foreign merchants. After a long quarrel over which should be the city, the straggling colony of diplomats, missionaries, and merchants of Kanagawa finally pulled up their stakes and joined the settlement of Yokohama. Yokohama was settled in a squatter-like and irregular manner, and the ill effects of it are seen to this day. When compared with Shanghai, the foreign metropolis of China, it is vastly inferior. The town grew slowly at first. Murders and assassinations of 276 RISE OF THE CITY. foreigners were frequent during the first few years. Diplomatic quarrels were constant, and threats of bombardment from some foreign vessel in the harbor of frequent occurrence. A fire which destroyed nearly the whole foreign town seemed to purify the place municipally, commercially, and morally. The settlement was rebuilt in a more substantial and regular manner. As the foreign population grew, banks, newspaper offices, hospitals, post- offices, and consulate buildings reappeared in a new dignity. Fire and police protection were organized. Steamers began to come from European ports and from San Francisco. Social life began as ladies and children came, and houses became homes. Then came the rapid growth of society and the finer things. Churches, theaters, clubs, schools were organized in rapid succession. Tele- graph connection with Tokio, and thence around the globe, was accomplished, and the railway system increased rapidly. Within the thirty-five years of the life of Yokohama, it has grown from a fishing village of a few hundred to a city of fifty thousand people. Its streets are lighted with gas and electricity; its stores are piled full of rare silks, bronzes and curios. At present the foreign population of Yokohama numbers about two thousand residents. In addition to these the foreign transient population, made up of tourists and officers and sailors of the navy, and the merchant marine, numbers between three thousand and six thousand. Several daily newspapers, beside weeklies and monthlies, printed in English, furnish mediums of communication and news. Yoko- hama has become and will remain the great mercantile center of American and European trade in Japan. Hiogo, or rather Kobe, as the foreign part has been called since the concession, is near Ozaka, both towns being situated on the inland Sea of Japan, near the south end of the Island of Niphon. Kobe is a considerable foreign settlement, with many fine houses and spacious warehouses. Ozaka, which contains more than half a million inhabitants, is one of the chief trading cities of Japan, and an immense proportion of the merchandise imported into the empire passes through it. The commerce between Japan and western nations, European and American, increases year by year. England enjoys the profits from more than half of the total interchange, the United W en W i c o o TRANS-OCEANIC COMMERCE. 279 States is second, with a large portion of the remainder, and the rest of the commerce is divided among Germany, France, Holland, Norway, and Sweden. It is impossible to obtain figures recent enough to be a satisfactory index of the total volume of commerce annually, but it is now very many millions of dollars a j^ear. Japan exports tobacco, rice, wax, tea, silks, and manufactured goods, such as curios, bronzes, lacquer ware, etc. The principal imports of Japan are cotton goods, manufactures of iron, ma- chinery of all sorts, woolen fabrics, flour, etc. Mining in Japan is seldom carried on by modern methods, and the mineral wealth has not been developed as it will be within a few years. In almost every portion of Japan are found ores of some kind and there is scarcely a district in which there are not traces of mines having been worked. No mines can be worked without special license of the government, and foreigners are ex- cluded from ownership in any mining industry. Japan seems to be fairly well, though not richly, provided with mineral wealth. The mines include those for gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, tin, plumbago, antimony, arsenic, marble, sulphur, alum, salt, coal, petroleum, and other minerals. The annual export of tea amounts to nearly thirty million pounds, of which considerably more than half is shipped from Yokohama. All Japanese tea is green and the United States is the chief customer for it. The exact area of Japan is not known, though it is computed at nearly one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, with a population of more than two hundred persons to a square mile. The number of acres under cultivation is about nine million, or one-tenth of the entire area. Not one-fourth of the fertile portion of Japan is yet under cultivation. Immense portions of good land await the farmers' plow and seed to return rich harvests. For centuries the agricultural art has been at a standstill. Pop- ulation and acreage have increased, but the crop in bulk and quantity remains the same. The true wealth of Japan consists in her agricultural and not in her mineral and manufacturing re- sources. The government and intelligent classes seem to be awakening to this fact. The islands are capable of yielding good crops and adapted to support the finest breeds of cattle. With 280 GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN. these branches of industry increased to the extent that they de- serve, the prosperity of the empire will show constant increase. The ceramic art of Japan and the art of the lacquer worker are two that have helped to make Japanese wares famous in the western world. The various wares of porcelain and faience are made in Japan in quality and art inferior to none in the world. Since the restoration to power of the mikado in 1868, the gov- ernment of Japan has been growing nearer and nearer into the forms of western monarchical governments. In a prior chapter the promise of the young mikado to advance the freedom of his people, and ultimately to adopt constitutional forms of rule, has been quoted. In the later years he has been aiming for the ful- fillment of this promise. Supporting him, the party of progres- sionists, largely influenced by contact with European and Amer- ican civilization, urge on every reform. The present government is simply the modernized form of the system established more than a thousand years ago, when centralized monarchy succeeded simple feudalism. After the emperor comes the Dai Jo Kuan, which is practically a supreme cabinet, and following this, three other cabinets of varying powers and duties. The council of ministers is made up of the heads of departments, the foreign office, home office, treasury, army, navy, education, religion, pub- lic works, judiciary, imperial household, and colonization. The Dai Jo Kuan directs the three imperial cities and the sixty-eight ken or prefectures. The provinces are now merely geographical divisions. In the course of the efforts to bring the Japanese forms of gov- ernment more into harmony with those of Europe and America, many important changes have been made. A system of nobility was devised, and titles were granted to those who were considered to be entitled to them, whether by birth or achievement. The four or five ranks included in this system closely follow the Eng- lish models. The judiciary, too, has been remodeled in many details to make it approach the western system. The methods of procedure are gradually conforming nearer and nearer to our own, as well as the names and jurisdiction of the courts. The Japanese people have been exceedingly anxious of late years to expunge the extra- CONSTITUTION AND PARLIAMENT. 281 territoriality clause which appears in the treaties with all western nations. It provides, in effect, that offenses by a foreigner against a Japanese shall be judged in a consular court presided over by the consul of that country whence the foreigner comes. In other words, Japanese courts have no jurisdiction over the doings of JAPANESE COURT DRESS, OLD STYLE. foreigners having consuls in that country. This provision has become very obnoxious to the Japanese people, placing them on a level, as it does, with barbaric and semi-barbaric countries, where like provisions hold. This has been one of the potent fac- tors in influencing Japan to adopt western legal methods. Recent 18 282 CONSTITUTION AND PARLIAMENT. treaties which have been drawn with the United States and with England provide that this clause shall be expunged, and if they are finally agreed upon we may soon see Japan more absolutely independent than she has yet been. In 1890 a constitution was granted to Japan by the emperor, and a few months later legislative bodies for the first time began deliberation in Tokio. The powers of this parliament are con- stantly increasing. The war between China and Japan has been a strong influence to weld the people of opposing political faiths into harmony, and in parliament conservatives and radicals alike have risen in patriotism, and have been glad to cast votes for every measure that would hold up the hands of those who were bearing the battles. With a government drawing for itself lines parallel with those of enlightened western nations, increasing the freedom of its people, the power of the people's legislators, and the honesty of the people's courts, Japan has every right to name herself as worthy of a place in full brotherhood with the family of civilized nations. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE. Difference of Opinion as to the True Significance of Their Rapid Adoption of Western Civilizati. >n Physique of Man and Woman Two Great Classes of the Population The Samurai The Agricultural Laborer Wedding Ceremonies Elopements Japanese Babies Sports of Childhood and of Age Dress of Man and Woman Food Homes of the People Family Life Art, Science, Medicine, Music Language and Literature Religion. In such a state of transition are the Japanese people them- selves, as truly as the government, that it is difficult to describe their personal characteristics. Different observers reach different conclusions as to their personality. One affirms that great quick- ness of imitation and judgment in discovering what is worth imi- tating, seem to be the prominent characteristics of the Japanese. They want originality and independence of thought, and character which accompanies it. The Japanese are not slow in adopting the inventions of modern civilization, and even in modifying them to suit their own convenience, but, says another observer, that they will ever add anything of importance to them may be doubted. The same is true in a political point of view. The more enlightened of the Japanese are already beginning to recog- nize the superiority of the European forms of government. The upper classes are all sedulously imitating Paris and London fashions of dress. In our own country we have seen the preva- lence of an offensive Anglomania among certain classes of society in the larger cities, but in Japan a corresponding mania for the forms of western civilization has become almost universal, and is reaching the real bulk of the nation. Such extraordinary capacity for change may mark a versatile but unreliable race ; for it seems hard to believe that a people who are parting with their ancestral notions with such a total absence of any pangs of sorrow, will be likely to adhere with much steadfastness to anew order of things. On the other hand, other students of this movement take it to be only a most gratifying indication that Japan was a nation which had outgrown its narrow limits of thought and learning, ready to adopt whatever was good, and yearning for it when the oppor- (283) 284 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RACE. tunity came, with a strength that made rapid assimilation of ideas entirely proper, and no sign of instability. It is to be hoped that the latter interpretation is. the right one. In moral character the average Japanese is frank, honest, faith- ful, kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, and loyal. Love of truth for its own sake, chastity, and temperance are not characteristic virtues. A high sense of honor is cultivated by the Samurai. In spirit the average artisan and farmer is lamb- like. In intellectual capacity the actual merchant is mean, and his moral character low. He is beneath the Chinaman in this re- spect. The male Japanese is far less overbearing and more chivalrous to woman than any other Asiatic. In political knowl- edge, or gregarious ability, the countryman is a baby and the city artisan a boy. The peasant is a pronounced pagan, with supersti- tion ingrained into his inmost nature. In reverence to elders and to antiquity, obedience to parents, gentle manners, universal courtesy, and generous impulses the Japanese are the peers of any and superior to many peoples of Christendom. The idea of filial obedience has been developed into fanaticism and is the main blot of paganism and superstition. The Japanese in physique are much of the same type as the Spaniards, and inhabitants of the south of France. They are of middle or low stature. The men are about five feet six inches in height or a trifle less on an average, while the women rarely ex- ceed five feet. When dressed the Japanese look strong, well pro- portioned men, but when in the exceedingly slight costumes which they very often are pleased to adopt, it is then apparent that though their bodies are robust their legs are short and slight. Their heads are somewhat out of proportion to their bodies, being generally large and sunk a little between the shoulders, but they have small feet and delicate hands. The resemblance the Japanese bear to the Chinese is not nearly as marked as popular opinion would have it. The faces of the former are longer and more regular, their noses more prominent, and their eyes less sloped. The men are naturally very hirsute, but they never wear beards. Their hair is glossy, thick, and always black. Their eyes are black, their teeth white and slightly prominent. The shade of their skin is totally unlike the yellow complexions of the JAPANESE PHYSIQUE. 285 Chinese ; in some cases it is very swarthy or copper colored, but the most usual tint is an olive brown. Children and young people have usually quite pink complexions. The women follow the Chinese type a little closer. The eyes are narrower and sloped upward, and the head is small. Like the men their hair is glossy and very black, but it never reaches the length of American women's hair. They have clear, some- times even perfectly white skin, especially among the aristocracy, oval faces, and slender, graceful forms. Their manners are peculiarly artless and simple. But the harmony of the whole is spoiled in many instances by an ugly depression of the chest, which is sometimes observed in those who are otherwise handsomest and best formed. About the end of the eighth century a reform was insti- tuted in the military system of the empire, which had be- come unsatisfactory and de- fective. The court decided that all those among the rich peasants who had capacity and were skilled in archery and horsemanship, should compose the military class, and that the remainder, the weak and feeble, should con- tinue to till the soil and apply themselves to agriculture. This was one of the most significant of all the changes in the history of Japan. Its fruits are seen to-day in the social constitution of the Japanese people. Though there are many classes, there are but two great divisions of the Japanese, the military and the agricultural. This change wrought a complete severance of the soldier and the farmer. It lifted np one part of the people to a plane of life on which travel, adventure, the profession and pursuit of arms, letters, and the cultivation of honor and chivalry were possible, DRESSING THE HAIR. 286 CASTE IN JAPAN. and by which that brightest type of Japanese men, the Samurai was produced. This is the class which for centuries has monopo- lized arms, polite learning, patriotism, and intellect of Japan. They are the men whose minds have been open to learn, from whom sprung the ideas that once made and later overthrew the feudal system, which wrought the mighty reforms that swept away the shogunate in 1868, and restored the mikado to ancient power, who introduced those ideas that now rule Japan, and sent their sons abroad to study the civilization of the west. To the Samurai Japan looks to-day for safety in war and progress in peace. The Samurai is the soul of the nation. In other lands the priestly and the military castes were formed, in Japan one and the same class held the sword and the pen ; the other class, the agricultural, remained unchanged. Left to the soil to till it, to live and die upon it, the Japanese fanner has remained the same to-day that he was then. Like the wheat, that for successive ages is planted as wheat, sprouts, beards and fills as wheat, the peasant with his horizon bounded by his rice fields and water courses or the timbered hills, his intellect laid away for safe keeping in the priest's hands, is the son of the soil. He cares little who rules him unless he is taxed beyond the power of flesh and blood to bear, or an overmeddlesome official policy touches his land to transfer, sell or divide it. Then he rises to rebel. In time of war he is a disinterested and a passive spectator and he does not fight. He changes masters with apparent unconcern. Amidst all the ferment of ideas induced by the contact of western civilization with Asiatic within the last four decades, the farmer stolidly remains conservative. He knows not nor cares to hear of it and hates it because of the heavier taxes it imposes upon him. The domestic solemnities of the Japanese, marriage especially, are made the subjects of deep and careful meditation. In the upper classes marriage is arranged between two young people when the bridegroom has reached his twentieth and the bride her sixteenth year. The will of the parents is almost without excep- tion the dominating power in the matrimonial arrangements, which are carried out according to agreement among the relatives, but love affairs of a spontaneous kind form a large element in the MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 287 romantic literature of Japan. The wedding is preceded by a be- trothal, which ceremony offers an occasion for the members of both families to meet one another ; and it not unfrequently hap- pens that the future couple then learn for the first time the wishes of their parents respecting their union. If perchance the bride- groom elect is not satisfied with the choice, the young woman re- turns home again. With the introduction of other western ideas, this inconvenient custom is little by little falling into disuse. Nowadays, if a young man wishes to marry into a family of good position or one which it would be advantageous to his prospects to enter, he endeavors first to see the young lady, and then if she pleases him he sends a mediator, chosen usually from amongst his married friends, and the betrothal is arranged without any further obstacle. Even more American-like than this, however, there are many instances, and the number is constantly increasing, in which the match is the result of mutual affection, and sometimes elope- ments are known to occur among the best families. When things are carried through conventionally, the betrothal and wedding are usually solemnized on the same day and without the assistance of any minister of worship. The customary cere- monies are all of a homely nature, but at the same time are ex- tremely complicated and numerous. Upon the day fixed, the trousseau of the young bride and all the presents she has received, are brought to the home of the bridegroom, where the ceremony is to be performed, and arranged in the apartments set apart for the affair. The bride arrives soon afterward, dressed in white and escorted by her parents. The groom, arrayed in gala costume, receives her at the entrance of the house, and conducts her into the hall where the betrothal takes place. Here grand prepa- rations have been made. The altar of the domestic gods has been decorated with images of the patron saints of the family and with different plants, each having its symbolical meaning. When all have taken their places according to the recognized form of precedence, the ceremony is begun by two young girls, who hand around unlimited quantities of saki to the guests. These two damsels are surnamed the male and female butterfly, the emblems of conjugal felicity, because according to popular notion butterflies always fly about in couples. The decisive cere- 288 THE WEDDING CEREMONY. mony is tinged with a symbolism which has a considerable touch of poetry in it. The two butterflies, holding between them a two- necked bottle, approach and offer it to the engaged couple to drink together from the two mouths of the bottle till it is emptied, which signifies that husband and wife must drain together the cup of life whether it contain nectar or gall ; they must share equally the joys and sorrows of existence. The Japanese is the husband of one wife only, but he is at lil erty to introduce several concubines under the family roof. This is done in all classes of society, especially amongst the daimios. It is asserted that in many of the noble families the legitimate wife not only evinces no jealousy, but has even a certain pleasure in seeing the number of her household thus augmented, as it supplies her with so many additional servants. In the middle classes, however, the custom is often the cause of bitter family dis- sentions. The heavy expenses of the marriage ceremonies often occasion considerable domestic strife and misery, at least if the} 7 are cele- brated according to all the established conventionalities. Debts are then incurred which perhaps the young couple are unable to meet, so that when other expenses grow, and trouble or misfor- tune overtake them, they are speedily plunged into the deepest distress and indigence. The natural consequence of these arbi- trary customs is the increase of runaway matches. The elope- ment, however, is usually wisely winked at by the parents, who feign great lamentation and anger, then finally assemble their neighbors, pardon their recreant children, and circulate the inevi- table saki, and the marriage is considered as satisfactory as if per- formed with all the requisite formalities. The birth of a child is another occasion for the meeting of the whole circle of relations, and the consumption of a great man; more bumpers of saki. The baptism of the young Japanese citizen takes place thirty days later, when the infant is taken to the temple of the family divinity to receive its first name. The father has previously written three different names upon three separate slips of paper, which are handed over to the officiating bonze or priest. The latter throws them into the air, and the piece of paper which in falling first touches the ground contains JAPANESE BABIES. 289 the name which is to be given to the child. There are no god- parents, but several friends of the family declare themselves the infant's protectors and make it several presents, among which is a fan if it be a boy, or a pot of rouge if a girl. The Japanese child is early taught to endure hardships, and is subjected from its infancy to all the small miseries of life, so far as may be thought wise for its training. The mother nurses it till it is two years of age, and carries it continually about with her attached to her back for con- venience. The children are daintily pretty, chubby, rosy, sparkling-eyed. The children's heads are shaved in all curious fashions, some with little topknots, and others with bald spots. The way the babies are carried is an improvement upon the Indian fashion. He is lugged on the back of his mother or his sister, maybe scarcely older than himself, either strapped / loosely but safely, with his head just peering above the shoulder of the bearer, or else enclosed in a fold of the garment she wears. It is a pop- ular belief among travelers that Japanese babies are the best in the world and never cry, but the Japanese themselves claim no such distinction for the little ones, very proud of them though they are, and affirm that they CHILD CARRYING BABY. have their fits of temper as well as American babies. Education is not forced too early upon the children, but nature is allowed its own way during the first years of childhood. Toys, pleasures, fetes of all kinds, are liberally indulged in. One writer has said that Japan is the paradise of babies ; not only is this true but it is also a very delightful abode for all who love play. The contrast between the Japanese and Chinese character in this re- spect is radical. The whole character, manners, and even the dress of the sedate and dignified Chinaman, seems to be in keep- 290 SPORTS OF YOUNG AND OLD. ing with that aversion to rational amusement and athletic exer- cises which characterize that adult population. In Japan, on the contrary, one sees that children of the larger growth enjoy with equal zest, games which are the same or nearly the same as those of the little ones. Certain it is that the adults do all in their power to provide for the children their full quota of play and harmless sports. A very noticeable change has passed over the Japanese people since the recent influx of foreigners, in respect of their love of amusements. Their sports are by no means as numerous or elaborate as formerly, and they do not enter into them with the enthusiasm that formerly characterized them. The children's festivals and sports are rapidly losing their importance, and some are rarely seen. There is no country in the world in which there are so many toy shops for the sale of the things which delight children. Street theatrical shows are common. Sweet meats of a dozen strange sorts are carried by men who do tricks in gym- nastics to please the little ones. In every Japanese city there are scores if not hundreds of men and women who obtain a livelihood by amusing the children. There are indoor games and outdoor games, games for the day time and games for the evening. Japanese kite flying and top spinning are famous the world over, and experts in these sports come to exhibit their adeptness in our own country. In the northern provinces, where the winters are severe, Japanese boys have the same sports with snow and ice, coasting, sliding, fighting mimic battles with snowballs, that are known to our own American boys. Dinners, tea parties, and weddings, keeping store, and playing doctor, are imitated in Japanese children's games. On the third day of the third month is held the wonderful " Feast of Dolls " which is the day especially devoted to the girls, and to them it is the greatest day in the year. The greatest day in the year for the boys is on the fifth day of the fifth month, when they celebrate what is known as the " Feast of Flags." A Japanese attains his majority at fifteen years of age. As soon as this time has arrived he takes a new name, and quietly discards the pleasures of infancy for the duties of a practical life. His first care, if he belong to the middle classes, is the choice of CHOOSING A BUSINESS. 291 a trade or profession. The opportunities for this choice are much greater than in China, just as the scope of Japanese learning and life has increased in the last quarter century. Practically all of the businesses and trades that we know in our own country are to day known in Japan, those which were not there before, having crept in with the advent of the foreigners. The Japanese young man, if he is to be a merchant or to learn a trade, serves an ap- prenticeship for a period sufficient to fit him for the mastery of his work, and then it is he provides himself with a wife. The dress of the Japanese is changing in harmony with the in- troduction of other foreign habits. Custom has always obliged married women to shave their eyebrows and blacken their teeth, but of late years the practice has been decreasing and now it does not prevail among the better classes and in the larger cities. They have also made a most immoderate use of paint, covering their brow, cheeks, and neck with thick coats of rouge and white. Some have even gone so far as to gild their lips, but the more modest have been content to color them with carmine, and the excessive use of paints is diminishing. The kirimon, a kind of long, open dressing gown, is worn by every one, men and women alike. It is a little longer and of bet- ter quality for the women, who cross it in front and confine it by a long wide piece of silk, or other material tied in a quaint fashion at the back. The men keep theirs in its place by tying a long straight scarf around them. The Japanese use no linen, the women alone wearing a chemise of silk crepe, but it must be re- membered that they bathe daily or even oftener, and that sim- plicity of dress is affected by all. The middle classes wear in addition to the kirimon, a doublet and pantaloons. These are also worn in winter by men of the lower orders, the pantaloons fitting tightly, and made of checked cotton. The peasants and porters usually wear a loose overall in summer, made of some light paper material, and in winter not un- frequently consisting of coarse straw. The women also envelop themselves in one or several thickly wadded mantles. Linen gloves with one division for the thumb are very generally worn. Sandals are made of plaited straw, and in bad weather are dis- carded for wooden clogs, raised from the ground by means of two 292 THE DRESS OF MEN AND WOMEN. bits of wood under the the and heel. As might naturally be ex- pected, locomotion under such circumstances is performed with difficulty, and the hobbling gate which these props necessitate has often been commented on. This peculiarity is most noticeable among the women, whose naturally easy gait is almost as much diverted from its normal movement by these small stilts as that of their sisters in the west by their high heeled shoes. The costume of the country is exactly alike for both the lower and higher classes, with the difference that the latter always wear silk material. The costumes worn by officials, and those of the nobility, are dis- tinguished by the amplitude of the folds and the rich- ness of the texture. Wide flowing pantaloons are often substituted for the kirimon, which trail on the ground, complete- ly concealing the feet, and give the wearer the appear- ance of walking on his knees, which indeed is the delu- sion it is intended to produce. A kind of overcoat with wide sleeves reaching to the hips .completes the costume. The dwelling houses of the Japanese are well adapted to their manners of life, except that they are not always sufficient pro- tection against severe cold. Rich and poor live side by side, although in Tokio there are still traces of the castes of the feudal age, and there are also growing tendencies in the rising mercantile and moneyed classes to separate themselves from the common mass. There are now great portions of the capital densely popu- JAPANESE BATH. DWELLINGS OF THE JAPANESE. 293 lated by the working classes only, and quite destitute of any open spaces of practical value for health and recreation. The proverb " Every man's house is his castle," might very readily be appropriated by the Japanese, whose home, however humble it may be in all other respects, is always guarded by a moat. In a feudal mansion the moat was usually deep enough to prove a genuine obstacle. While it is still almost universally re- tained, the muddy water is hidden in summer time by the leaves of the lotus, and the bridges are not drawn. The smaller gentry imitate the grandeur of those above them, and when at last we come down to the lowest level we still find a miniature moat which is often dry, of a foot or so in breadth, and at most about two inches deep. In houses of some pretensions there is an enbankment behind the moat, with a hedge growing above it. Behind this there is either a wall or fence of bamboo, tiles, or plaster. As the name of the street is not to be found at the street corner as with us, it is repeated on every doorway. The towns are divided into wards and blocks, and the numbers of the houses are often confused and misleading. A slip of white wood is nailed on one of the posts of the gate, and is inscribed with the name of the street or block, the number, name of house holder, numbers and sexes of house- hold. The gates of the larger houses are heavy, adorned with copper or brass mountings, and often studded with large nails. When one enters by the gate there is generally found a court, from the sides of which the open verandas of the building may be reached. The verandas are high and there is a special entrance by heavy wooden stairs. The court is sometimes paved with large stones, and sometimes it is left bare or covered with turf. The gardens even of somewhat humble mansions are graced with carved stone lanterns. The well placed near the kitchen often has a rim of stone around it, and the bucket is raised by a beam or a long bamboo. In front of the doorway there is a small space unfloored called the doma, where one takes off his shoes after announcing himself by calling, or by striking a gong suspended by the door post. There is often only one story in Japanese houses, and very rarely more than two. Almost all of them are built of wood; the ground 294 INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE. floor is raised about four feet above the ground, the walls are made of planks covered with coarse mats ; and the roof is sup- ported by four pillars. In a two-storied house the second story is generally built more solidly than the first ; experience having shown that the edifice can thus better resist the shock of an earthquake. Sometimes the walls are plastered with a coating of soft clay or varnish, and are decorated with gildings and paint- ings. The stair to the second story is very steep. The ceilings are composed of very thin, broad planks, and are lower than we are accustomed to, but it must be remembered that the people do not sit on chairs and have no high beds or tables. Doorways, or rather the grooved lintels in which the screen doors slide, are very low and the Japanese, who are always bowing, seem to enjoy having an unusual number of them to pass through in extensive houses. No room is completely walled in, but each one opens on one or more sides completely into the garden, the street, or the adjoining room. Sliding shutters, with tissue paper windows, the carpentry of which is careful and exact, move in wooden grooves almost on a level with the floor, which is covered with padded woven mats of rushes. As a protection against the severities of the weather rain shutters are also used. All Japanese dwellings have a cheerful, well-cared-for appear- ance, which in a great measure is the result of two causes ; first, that every one is bound constantly to renew the paper coverings of the outside panels, and next that the frequent fires which each time make immense ravages often render it necessary to recon- struct an entire district. In the interior the houses are generally divided into two suites of apartments, the one side being appor- tioned to the women as private rooms, and the other side being used for the reception rooms. These apartments are all separated from one another by partitions made of slight wooden frames, upon which small square bits of white paper are pasted, or else a kind of screen is used which can be moved at pleasure and the room enlarged or contracted according as the occasion requires. Towards nightfall these screens are usually folded up so as to allow a free passage of air throughout the house. The mats of rushes or rice straw which carpet the floors are about three inches thick, and are soft to the touch. They are of BEDS AND OTHER FURNITURE. 295 uniform size, about six feet by three, and this fact dominates all architecture in Japan. Estimates for building houses and the cutting of wood rest upon this traditional custom. The inhab- itants never soil them with their boots but always walk bare- footed about the house. The mat in Japan answers the purpose of all ordinary furniture, and takes the place of our chairs, tables, .tnd beds. For writing purposes only do they use a low round ^able about a foot high, which is kept in a cupboard and only "'.rough t out when a letter has to be written. This they do -reeling before the table, which they carefully put away again JAPANESE COUCH. when the letter is finished. The meals are laid upon square tables of very slender dimensions, around which the whole family gather, sitting on their heels. In the walls are recesses with sliding doors into which the bed- ding is thrust in the daytime. At bedtime out of these recesses are taken the soft cotton stuffed mattresses and the thick cover- lets of silk or cotton which have been rolled up all day, and these are spread upon the mats. The Japanese pillows are of wood, with the upper portions stuffed or padded, and in form something like a large flat iron. Sometimes each one contains a little 296 CONFLAGRATIONS. drawer in which the ladies put their hairpins. When a Japanese has taken off his day garments he rests his head on this wooden pillow and composes himself to sleep. Everything is put away in the morning, all the partitions are opened to give air, the mats are carefully swept, and the now completely empty chamber ia transformed during the day into an office, sitting room, or dining room, to become again the sleeping apartment the following night. Clothes are kept in plaited bamboo boxes usually covered with black or dark green waterproof paper. The furniture is very simple, and there are often in the best houses no chairs, no tables, no bedsteads. There may be some low, short-legged side tables of characteristic Japanese pattern and one or two costly vases or other ornaments, a few pictures which are changed in deference to guests and seasons, some flowers or dwarf trees in vases and a lamp or two. There are, however, two pieces of furniture which are to be found in the houses of every class. These are the brazier and the pipe box, for the Japanese is a great tea drinker and a constant smoker. Every hour in the day his hot water must be ready for him, and the brazier kept burning both day and night both in summer and winter. The principal meal takes place about the middle of the day, and after it the family indulge themselves with several hours' sleep, so that at this time the streets are almost deserted. In the evening they have another meal, and then devote the rest of the time till bedtime to all kinds of amusements. In the highest Japanese circles the dinner hour is sometimes enlivened by music from an orchestra stationed in an adjoining room. In summer a well-planned Japanese house is the very ideal of coolness, grace and comfort. In winter it is the extreme of misery. There are no fire-places and there is unmitigated venti- lation. People keep themselves warm by holding themselves close over some morsels of red hot charcoal in a brazier, and frost bite is very common. At night, when cold winds blow, a heat- ing apparatus is put beneath the heavy cotton coverlets. It often gets overturned ; a watchman from his ladder-like tower sees afar off a dull red glow, bells begin to clang, and soon the city is in an uproar of excitement over another conflagration. In a few JAPANESE MINIATURE GARDENS. 297 hours a great fan-shaped gap has appeared in the city. One goes at day-break to find the scene of destruction, but it has already almost disappeared. Crowds of carpenters have rushed in, and have already done much to erect on the hot and smoking ruins wooden houses nearly as good as those swept away by the fire of the night before. The yashikis or palaces in which the people of rank reside, are nothing more than ordinary houses grouped together and sur- rounded by whitewashed outhouses, with latticed windows of black wood. These outhouses serve a two-fold purpose, as habi- tations for the domestics, and as a wall of the enclosure. Always low, and usually rectangular, they look very much like ware- houses or barracks. The palace of the sovereign has, however, a certain character of its own. It is a perfect labyrinth of courts and streets formed by the many separate houses, pavilions, and corridors or simple wooden partitions. The roofs are supported by horizontal beams varnished white, or gilded at the extremities, and decorated with small pieces of sculpture, many of which are very beautiful works of art. The ancient palace of the Tycoons is remarkable for boldness and richness of outline. Everything breathes a spirit of the times when the power and prosperity of the shogunate was at its height. Upon the ceilings of gold, sculptured beams cross each other in squares, the angles where they meet being marked by a plate of gilt bronze of very elegant design. The greatest novelties in the eyes of foreigners are the gardens attached to every house. The smallest tradesman has his own little plot of ground where he may enjoy the delights of solitude, take his siesta, or devote himself to copious potations of tea and saki. These gardens are often of exceedingly small size. They consist of a quaint collection of dwarf shrubs, miniature lakes full of gold fish, lilliputian walks in the middle of diminutive flower beds, tiny streams over which are little green arches to imitate bridges, and finally arbors or bowers beneath which a rabbit might scarcely find room to nestle. The Japanese are as strict in the observance of etiquette at a funeral as at their marriage ceremonies. The rites take place both at the time of the actual interment, and afterwards at the 19 298 FUNERAL CUSTOMS. festivals celebrated in honor of the gods on these occasions. There are two kinds of funerals, interment and cremation. Most of the Japanese make known during life either to the heir or to some intimate friend their wishes respecting the mode of the disposal of their remains. When the father or mother in a family is seized with a mortal illness and all hope of recovery is past and the end approaching, the soiled garments worn by the dying per- son are removed and exchanged for perfectly clean ones. The last wishes of the dying one are then recorded on paper. As soon as life has departed all the relations give way to lamentations ; the body is carried into another room, covered with a curtain and surrounded by screens. In the higher classes the body is watched for two days, but in the lower it is buried a day after death. Contrary to the customs at marriage ceremonies, the bonzes or priests preside over all the funeral rites. It is they who watch beside the dead until the time for interment. This is usually carried out by men who make it their profession. The corpse is placed in a coffin, somewhat of the shape of a round tub, in a squatting position, with the head bowed, the legs bent under, and the arms crossed ; the lid of the coffin is then fastened down by wooden pegs. The funeral procession proceeds to the temple, the bonzes marching first, some carrying flags, others different sym- bols, such as little white boxes full of flowers, others wringing small hand-bells. Then follows the corpse, preceded by a long tablet upon which is inscribed the new name given to the deceased. The eldest son follows, and then the family, intimate friends, and domestics. The nearest relations are dressed in white which is the color worn for mourning. When the procession arrives at the temple the coffin is placed before the image of the god and then various ceremonies com- mence, the length of which is regulated by the rank of the de- ceased, as with us. After that all the friends and acquaintances return home, whilst the relations turn to the place where the body is to be laid. If the deceased has expressed the desire that his body should be burned, the coffin is carried from the temple to a small crematory a short distance away. It is there placed upon a kind of stone scaffold, at the base of which a fire is kept burning until the body is consumed. The men employed in this PROGRESS OF EDUCATION. 299 work draw out the bones from the ashes by means of sticks, the remaining ashes are placed in an urn, and carried to the tomb by the relations. The burials of the poor outcasts from society ate very simple. The body is interred at once without entering in the temple, or else it is burnt in some waste spot. Japanese cemeteries are most carefully cherished spots, and are always bright with vendure and flowers. Each family has its own little enclosure, where several simple commemorative stones stand. Once a year a festival for the dead is held. It is cele- brated at night. The cemetery is illuminated by thousands of colored fires, and the whole population resort there, and eat, drink, and enjoy themselves in honor of their dead ancestors. Their incapacity for conceiving sorrow is one of the most characteristic features of the Japanese. Perhaps this psychologi- cal phenomenon is due to the influences amidst which this happy people have the privilege of living. It is an indisputable fact that where nature is bright and beautiful the inhabitants themselves of that particular spot, like the scenery, seem to expand under its sweet influence and to become bright and happy. Such is the case with the Japanese, who while yielding almost unconsciously to these influences, deepen them by their eager pursuit of all things gay and beautiful. Japan is progressive enough that it has a compulsory system of education, which is sure to be ultimately fatal to idolatrous religions. There are more than three million children in the elementary schools, not to mention those in the higher institu- tions. The ability to read and write is almost universal among the people. Steady improvement is observed from year to year, in the attendance and quality of the government schools. The various schools in connection with the protestant and Roman missions, which are numerous and influential are also well at- tended and constantly growing. A large number also of the wealthier classes have their children taught privately at home. The average attendance of the Japanese children at the schools is nearly one-half the total number of school age. Education is very highly esteemed by every class, and all are willing to make genuine sacrifices to obtain it for their children. Penmanship is laid great stress upon, and there are many 300 MEDICAL AND SURGICAL SCIENCE. different styles in use. The blackboard is used in all schools now, and the artistic tendencies of the people are often well dis- played on it. The Arabic numerals are fast displacing the old Chinese system. A great many of the methods of European and American teaching have been introduced into Japan, and their use is constantly on the increase. Universities and academies supported by the government have been chiefly under the direction of American and European pro- fessors, and the western languages are taught everywhere. In addition to this educational element introduced into the country, there is that brought in by the large number of Japanese young men who have been sent to the universities of the United States, Germany, France, and England to complete their education. In our own colleges these young men have" ranked with the highest as linguists, scientists, and orators. The influence that they have exerted in Japan, where they have invariably taken a high posi- tion, either officially or educationally, has been most beneficial to the advance of learning in the island empire. The excessive cleanliness of the Japanese, the simplicity of their apparel, which allows their bodies to be so much exposed to the open air, added to the salubrity of their country, might rea- sonably lead one to imagine that they enjoy excellent health. Such however is not the case. Diseases of the skin, and chronic and incurable complaints are very prevalent. The hot baths are the great remedies for everything, but in certain cases the aid of the physicians is enlisted. These form a class of society which has existed from a very early date, and enjoy certain privileges. They are divided into three classes, the court physicians, who are not permitted to practice elsewhere, the army physicians, and lastly the common physicians, not employed by the government, who attend all classes of the community. As no formalities used to be required for the practice of medicine, each member entered on the career at his pleasure and practiced according to his own theories on the subject. It is a profession often handed down from father to son, but it is not a lucrative one, and is looked upon as an office of little importance or consideration. Medical men nevertheless abound in Japan, and in addition to recognized practitioners, there is a class of quacks exactly answer- MUSIC. 301 ing to those of our own country. Their science principally par- takes of the nature of sorcery. Where hot baths fail to produce the desired effect, they have recourse to acupuncture and cauter- isation. Acupuncture consists in pricking with a needle the part affected, a mode of healing which has been practiced from time immemorial in the east. After the skin has been stretched suffi- ciently tight, the needle is thrust in perpendicularly either by rolling between the fingers or by a direct gentle pressure, or else by striking it lightly with a small hammer made for the purpose. Cauterisation is performed with little cones called moxas, formed GEISHA GIRLS PLAYING JAPANESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. of dried wormwood leaves, and prepared in such a manner as to consume slowly. One or more of these is applied to the diseased part and set alight. The mode of cauterising wounds has fre- quently the effect of strongly exciting the nervous system, but does not seem to improve the general health of the patient ma- terially. The national university of Tokio has a medical depart- ment in connection with it, which teaches medical science accord- ing to our own western methods. Hospitals exist in the large cities of Japan which are similarly equipped to those of our own 302 MUSIC. country, and are under the direction of physicians and surgeons, most of whom are either Europeans and Americans, or Japanese who have been educated in medical colleges abroad. Many young women of Japan have come to America to take courses in nursing in our great hospitals and training schools, and on their return to Japan are spreading the knowledge they have thus gained. Music is one of the most cultivated of the fine arts of Japan, and Japanese tradition accords it a divine origin. The Japanese have many stringed, wind, and percussion instruments, but the general favorite is the sam-sin or guitar with three strings. There are also the lutes, several kinds of drums and tambourines, fifes, JAPANESE ALPHABET, NEW. clarionets, and flageolets. The Japanese have no idea of harmony. A number of them will often perform together, but they are never in tune. They are not more advanced in melody ; their airs recall neither the savage strains of the forest nor the scientific music of the west. In spite of this their music has the power of charming them for hours together, and it is only among the utterly unedu- cated classes that a young girl is to be found unable to accompany herself in a song on the sam-sin. In the department of jurisprudence great progress has been made. Scarcely any nation on earth can show a more revolting list of horrible methods of punishment and torture in the past, and none lan show greater improvement in so short a time. The cruel and LAW AND LANGUAGE. 303 blood-thirsty code was mostly borrowed from China. Since the restoration, revised statutes and regulations have greatly decreased the list of capital punishments, reformed the condition of prisons, and made legal processes more in harmony with mercy and justice. The use of torture to obtain testimony is now entirely abolished. Law schools have also been established and lawyers are allowed to plead, thus giving the accused the assistance of counsel for his defense. The Japanese tongue has for a long time been regarded merely * 5^ & y J: & li J? /t 3 fc f <* t *. t* N it ."'.'' ' ' OUTLOOK FOR JAPAN. 313 have neither king, princes nor lords, but in every hamlet the affairs of the community are vested in the hands of the oldest and most influential member. Although the intelligence of the Ainos is very little developed, they evince great aptitude for knowledge and eagerly seize every opportunity for acquainting themselves with Japanese laws and customs. The London Times, in 1859, predicted that " The Chinaman would still be navigating the canals of his country in the crazy RATS AS RICE MERCHANTS. From a Japanese Album. old junks of his ancestors when the Japanese was skimming along his rivers in high pressure steamers, or flying across the country behind a locomotive." The railway is now in fact stretching its iron tracks in every direction over the islands; the telegraph spreads its web all over the country ; street car lines are in every city ; the printing press rattles merrily in every moderate sized country town ; and the Japanese who have always read much, now read ten times more than they ever did before. Technical 20 CH OUTLOOK FOR JAPAN. education of the higher kind is telling upon the people, and many works are now undertaken from which the authorities would have shrunk a few years ago as being impossible for them to grapple with. Original investigation in many lines has been pursued, and particularly in the study of earthquake phenomena has Japan given to the world results of extreme value. The influence of the modern scientific spirit is immense and ever growing. Western influence in its better nature is constantly on the increase. It appears to-day as if Japan were to be the civilizing influence in the east of Asia. COREA COREAN LANDSCAPE. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF COREA, THE HERMIT NATION. Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Land Founding the Kingdom of Cho-sen The Era of the Three Kingdoms Dependence on China and Japan Period of Peace and Prosperity Inva- sion of Corea by the Japanese in the Sixteenth Century Introduction of Christianity The Modern History of Corea Breaking down the Walls of Isolation The French Expedition American Relations with Corea Ports Opened to Japanese Commerce The Year of the Treaties A Hermit Nation no Longer. Until recent years our knowledge of the remarkable country of Corea, known indeed to the general public by little more than its name, has been limited to the meagre and scanty information im- parted to us by Chinese and Japanese sources. After having been for several thousands of years the scene of sanguinary and murderous feuds between the various races and tribes who peopled the peninsula, and of the intrigues and wars of conquest of its rapacious neighbors, Corea succeeded after its final union under the sway of one ruler, but with considerable loss of terri- tory, in driving back the invaders behind its present frontiers, en- forcing since that time with an iron rule, that policy of exclusion which effectually separated it from the whole outer world. Corea, though unknown even by name in Europe until the sixteenth cen- tury, was the subject of description by Arab geographers of the middle ages. The Arab merchants trading to Chinese ports crossed the Yellow Sea, visited the peninsula, and even settled there. The youths of Shinra, one the Corean states, sent by theii sovereign to study the arts of war and peace at Nanking, the mediaeval capital of China, may often have seen and talked with the merchants of Bagdad and Damascus. As has been said, nearly all that the western world was able to learn about Corea until recent years, has been collected from Chinese and Japanese sources, which confine themselves mainly to the historical and political connection with these countries. The meagre early accounts owed to Europeans on this interesting subject, originate either from shipwrecked mariners who have 317 $18 WHENCE CAME THE COREANS. been cast upon the inhospitable shores of Corea and there been kept imprisoned for some time, or from navigators who have ex- tended their voyages of discovery to these distant seas and who have touched a few prominent points of the coast. Like almost every country on earth, Corea is inhabited by a race that is not aboriginal. The present occupiers of the land drove out or conquered the people whom they found upon it. They are the descendants of a stock who came from beyond the northern frontier. It may not be a wrong conjecture, which is corroborated by many outward signs, to look for the origin of the people in Mongolia, in a tribe which finally settled down in Corea after roaming about and fighting its way through China. We may also take those who bear the unmistakable stamp of the Caucasian race to have come from Western Asia whence they had been driven by feuds and revolutions. At the conclusion of the long wars which have at last led to the union of the different states founded by various tribes, a partial fusion had taken place, which, though it has not succeeded in eradicating the outer signs of a different descent, at least caused the adoption of one language and of the same manners and customs. Most of the Coreans claim to be in complete darkness and ignorance of their own origin ; some declare quite seriously that their ancestors have sprung from a black cow on the shores of the Japan sea, while others ascribe their origin to a mysterious and supernatural cause. The first mention of the inhabitants of Corea we find in old Chinese chronicles about 2350 B. C., at which period some of the northern tribes are reported to have entered into a tributary con- nection with China. The first really reliable accounts, however, commence only with the twelfth century B. C., at which time the north-westerly part of the peninsula first stands out from the dark. The last Chinese emperor of the Shang dynasty was Chow Sin, who died B. C. 1122. He was an unscrupulous tyrant, and one of his nobles, Ki Tsze, rebuked and remonstrated with his sover- eign. His efforts were hopeless, and the nobles who joined him in protest were executed. Ki Tsze was cast into prison. A re- volt immediately ensued against the tyrant; he was defeated and THE IIRST KINGDOM. killed, and the conqueror Wu Wang released the prisoner and appointed him prime minister. Ki Tsze however refused to serve one whom he believed to be an usurper and exiled himself to the regions lying to the north-east. With him went several thousand Chinese immigrants, most the remnant of the defeated army, who made him their king. Ki Tsze reigned many years and left the newly founded state in peace and prosperity to his successors. He policed the borders, gave laws to his subjects, and gradually introduced the principles and practices of Chinese etiquette and polity throughout his domain. Previous to his time the people lived in caves and holes in the ground, dressed in leaves, and were destitute of manners, morals, agriculture and cooking. The Japanese pronounce the founder's name Kishi, and the Coreans Kei-tsa or Kysse. The name conferred by the civ- ilizer upon his new domain was that now in use by the modern Coreans, " Cho-sen," or " Morning Calm." The descendants of Ki Tsze are said to have ruled the country until the fourth century before the Christian era. Their names and deeds are alike unknown, but it is stated that there were forty-one generations, making a blood line of eleven hundred and thirty-one years. The line came to an end in 9 A. D., though they had lost power long before that time. This early portion of Cho-sen did not contain all of the territory of the modern Corea, but only the north-western portion of it. While the petty kingdoms of China were warring among one another, the nearest to Cho-sen encroached upon it and finally seized the colony. This was not to be permanent however, and there ensued a series of wars, each force becoming alternately suc- cessful. The territory of Cho-sen grew in area and the kingdom increased in wealth, power and intelligence undertheruleof King Wie-man, who assumed the authority 194 B. C. Thousands of Chinese gentry fleeing before the conquering arms of the Han usurpers settled within the limits of the new kingdom, adding greatly to its prosperity. In 107 B. C., after a war that had lasted one year, a Chinese invading army finally conquered the kingdom of Cho-sen and annexed it to the Chinese empire. The conquered territory included the north half of the present kingdom of Corea. 3120 THE ERA OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. Things remained in this condition until about 30 B. C.,at which time a part of Cho-sen taking advantage of the disorders which had broken out afresh in China, separated itself from the empire and again formed a state by itself, but still remained tributary ; while the other portions of the old kingdom for some time longer remained under Chinese rule, until they also joined the portion that had been freed. Up to this period Cho-sen forming the north-west of the present Corea, had been the only part of that country that had become more closely connected with China. The tracts to the north-east, south-west and south were occupied by different independent tribes, and little more is known of them than that they were ruled by chiefs of their own clan. In course of time three kingdoms, Korai, Hiaksai, and Shinra, were formed out of these various elements, subsisting by the side of Cho-sen, at a later date fighting either beside or against China, and almost incessantly at feud with each other, until Shinra gained the pre- dominance about the middle of the eighth century A. D. and kept the same up to the sixteenth century. It was then supplanted in the leading position by Korai, which united under its supremacy all those parts of Corea which had hitherto been separate, and constituted the whole into a single state. Like the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Wales, these Corean states were distinct in origin, were conquered by a race from without, received a rich infusion of alien blood, struggled in rivalry for centuries, and were finally united under one nation with one flag and one sovereign. Hiaksai was for a while the leading state in the peninsula. Buddhism was introduced from Thibet in 384 A. D. And to this state more than any other part of Corea, Japan owes her first impulses towards the civilization of the west. The kingdom pros- pered until the decade from 660 to 670, when it was overrun and practically annihilated by an army of Chinese, despite the aid of four hundred junks and a large body of soldiers sent from Japan to the aidof Corea. Korai of course took its turn in struggling with the Dragon of China. Early in the seventh century China had been defeated, and for a generation peace prevailed. But the Chinese coveted Koraian territory and again an invading fleet attacked the country. COREA'S GIFT TO JAPAN. 321 It took years to complete the conquest, but finally all Korai with its five provinces, its one and seventy-six cities and its four or five millions of people, was annexed to the Chinese empire. Shinra, in the south-west of the peninsula, was probably the most advanced of all of the states. It was from this kingdom that the tradition reached Japan which tempted the Amazonian queen of Japan, Jingo, to her invasion and conquest. The king of Shinra submitted and became a declared vassal of Japan, but in all probability Shinra was far superior to the Japan of that early day in everything except strength. From this kingdom came a stream of immigrants which passed into Japan carrying all sorts of knowledge and an improved civilization. It is well to remember from this point that the Japanese always laid claim to the Corean peninsula and to Shinra especially as a tributary nation. They supported that claim not only whenever embassies from the two nations met at the court of China, but they made it a more or less active part of their national policy. During this period Buddhism was being steadily propagated, learning and literary progress increased, while art, science, archi- tecture were all favored and improved. Kion-chiu, the capital of Shinra, was looked upon as a holy city, even after the decay of Shinra's power. Her noble temples, halls and towers stood in honor and repair, enshrining the treasures of India, Persia, and China, until the ruthless Japanese torch laid them in ashes in 1596. From the year 755 A. D. up to the beginning of the tenth cen- tury, Shinra maintained its undisputed rule over the other countries of the peninsula, but about this time successive revolts occurred, Shinra was conquered, and the three kingdoms now united were called Korai, a name which was retained to the end of the fourteenth century. The kingdoms now thoroughly sub- dued, never recovered their old position and independence, and composed from that time forward the undivided kingdom of Corea, such as it has been maintained until the present day. In 1218 A. D. the king of Corea promised allegiance to the Chinese emperor Taitsou who was the Mongol Genghis Khan. Here we find explanation for some features of the war now in progress between China and Japan. Corea has at various times 322 COREA'S VASSALAGE TO JAPAN AND CHINA. acknowledged its dependence upon both of these countries. The Japanese laid claim to Corea from the second century until the 27th of February, 1876. On that day the mikado's minister plenipotentiary signed the treaty recognizing Cho-sen as an independent nation. Through all the seventeen centuries, which according to their annals elapsed since their armies first com- pleted the vassalage of their neighbor, the Japanese regarded the states of Corea as tributaries. Time and again they enforced their claim with bloody invasion, and when through a more enlightened policy the rulers voluntarily acknowledged their former enemy as an equal, the decision cost Japan almost im- mediately afterward seven months of civil war, twenty thousand lives, and $50,000,000 in treasury. The mainspring of the " Satsuma rebellion " of 1877 was the official act of friendship by treaty, and the refusal of the Tokio government to make war on Corea. It seemed until 1877 almost impossible to eradicate from the military mind of Japan the conviction that to surrender Corea was cowardice and a stain upon the national honor. From the ninth century onward to the sixteenth century, the relations of the two countries seem to be unimportant. Japan was engaged in conquering northward her own barbarians. Her intercourse, both political and religious, grew to be so direct with the court of China, that Corea in the Japanese annals sinks out of sight except at rare intervals. Nihon increased in wealth and civilization, while Cho-sen remained stationary or retrograded. In the nineteenth century the awakened "Sunrise Kingdom " has seen her former self in the " Land of Morning Calm," and has stretched forth willing hands to do for her neighbor now what Corea did for Japan in centuries long gone by. It must never be forgotten that Corea was the bridge on which civilization crossed from China to the archipelago. About 1368 the reigning King of Corea refused vassalage to China. His troops refused to repel the invasion that threat- ened, and under their General Ni Taijo, deposed the king. Taijo himself was nominated king. He paid homage to the Chinese emperor and revived the ancient name of Cho-sen. The dynasty thus established is still the reigning family in Corea, though the direct line came to an end in 186i. The Coreans in ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRESENT COREAN DYNASTY. 523 their treaty with Japan in 1876, dated the document according to the four hundred and eighty-fourth year of Cho-sen, reckoning from the accession of Ni Taijo to the throne. One of the first acts of the new dynasty was to change the location of the national capital to the city of Han Yang, situated on the Han river about fifty miles from its mouth. The king enlarged the fortifications, enclosed the city with a wall of masonry, and built bridges, renaming the city Seoul or "capital." He also redivided PAGODA AT SEOUL. the kingdom into eight provinces which still remain. An era of peace and flourishing prosperity ensued, and in everything the influence of the Chinese emperors is most manifest. Buddhism, which had penetrated into every part of the country, and had become in a measure at least the religion of the state, was now set aside and disestablished. The Confucian ethics were dilli- gcntly studied and were incorporated into the religion of the state. From the early part of the fifteenth century, Confucian- ism flourished, until it reached the point of bigotry and intoler- ance, so that when Christianity was discovered to be existing among the people, it was put under the ban of extirpation, and its followers thought worthy of death. At first the new dynasty sent tribute regularly to the shogun of Japan, but as intestinal war troubled the Island Empire and 324 JAPAN'S GREAT INVASION OF COREA. the shoguns became effeminate, the Coreans stopped their tribute and it was almost forgotten. The last embassy from Seoul was sent in 1460. After that they were never summoned, so they never came. Under the idea that peace was to last forever, the nation relaxed all vigilance ; the army was dis- organized and the castles were fallen into ruin. It was while the country was in such a condition that the summons of Japan's great conqueror came to them, and the Coreans learned for the first time of the fall of Ashikaga and the temper of their new master. As the Mongol conquerors issuing from China had used Corea as their point of departure to invade Japan, so Hideyoshi resolved to make the peninsula the road for his armies into China. He sent an envoy to Seoul to demand tribute, and then, angered at the utter failure of his mis- sion, commanded the envoy and all his family to be put to death. A second ambassador was sent with more success, and presents and envoys were ex- changed. Hideyoshi, however, became enraged at the indifference of the Coreans to assist him in his dealings with China, and resolved to humble the peninsular kingdom, and China, her overlord. The invasion of Corea was made as related in the earlier chapters on Japan. The Coreans were poorly prepared for war, both as to leaders, soldiers, equipments and fortifications. The Japanese swept everything like a whirlwind before them, and entered the capital within eighteen days after their landing at Fusan. The accounts of the war are preserved in detail, and are exceedingly interesting, but the limits of this volume compel their omission to provide space for the war of 1894-5. At first Chinese armies coming to reinforce the Coreans were defeated and turned back, but another effort of the allies was. more effec- tive and the Japanese troops found advance turned to retreat. The Japanese armies concentrated at Seoul to receive the ad- COREAN SOLDIERS. CHRISTIAN CHAPLAINS WITH THE ARMY. 325 vance of the allies numbering some two hundred thousand. The capital was burned by the -Japanese, nearly every house being destroyed, and hundreds of men, women, and children, sick and well, living quietly there, were massacred. The allied troops were beaten back in a ferocious battle, but hunger reached both armies, pestilence entered the Japanese camp, and both sides were utterly tired of war and ready to consider terms of peace. Konishi, the general of the Japanese army, had been con- verted to Christianity by the Portuguese Jesuits. During this period of tiresome wait- ing he sent to the superior of the missions in Japan ask- ing for a priest. In response to this request came Father Gregorio de Cespedes and a Japanese convert. These two holy men began their labors among the Japanese armies, preaching from camp to camp, and administering the right of baptism to thou- sands of converts, but their work was stopped by the jealousy of the Buddhist power. The Jesuits in Japan were then being expelled for their political machinations, and the chaplains in Corea were brought under the same ban. Konishi was called back to Japan with the priest and was unable to convince the shogun of his innocence. A few Corean converts were made during this time, and one of them a lad of rank, was afterward educated in the Jesuit seminary at Kioto. He endeavored to return to Corea as a missionary, but the condition of affairs in Japan interrupted his intentions and in 1625 he was martyred OLD MAN IN COREA. 326 CHRISTIAN CHAPLAINS WITH THE ARMY. during the prosecutions of the Christians. Of the large number of Corean prisoners sent over to Japan, many became Christians. Hundreds of others were sold as slaves to the Portuguese. Others rose to positions of honor under the government or in the households of the daimios. Many Corean lads were adopted by the returned soldiers or kept as servants. When the bloody per- secution broke out, by which many thousand Japanese found death, the Corean converts remained steadfast to their Christian faith, and suffered martyrdom with fortitude equal to that of their Japanese brethren. But by the army in Corea, or by the Christian chaplain Cespedes, no trace of. Christianity was left in the land of Morning Calm, and it was two centuries later before that faith was really introduced. The fortunes of the war alternated, and finally, after deeds of heroism on both sides, a period of inaction ensued, the result of exhaustion. At this time Hideyoshi fell sick and died, September 9, 1598, at the age of sixty-three years. Almost his last words were, " Recall all my troops from Cho-sen." The orders to em- bark for home were everywhere gladly heard. It is probable that the loss of life in the campaigns of this war was nearly a third of a million. Thus ended one of the most needless, unpro- voked, cruel, and desolating wars that ever cursed Corea. More than two hundred thousand human bodies were decapitated to furnish the ghastly material for the " ear-tomb " mound in Kioto. More than one' hundred and eighty-five thousand Corean heads were gathered for mutilation, and thirty thousand Chinese, all of which were despoiled of ears and noses. It is probable that fifty thousand Japanese left their bones in Corea. Since the invasion the town of Fusan, as before, had been held and garrisoned by the retainers of the Daimio of Tsushima. At this port all the commerce between the two nations took place. From an American point of view, there was little trade done be- tween the two countries, but on the strength of even this small amount Earl Russell in 1862 tried to get Great Britain included as a co-trader between Japan and Corea. He was not, however, successful. A house was built at Nagasaki by the Japanese gov- ernment which was intended as a refuge for Coreans who might be wrecked on Japanese shores. Wherever the waifs were picked ADVANCE OF THE MANCHOOS. 327 up, they were sent to Nagasaki and sheltered until a junk could 'ue dispatched to Fusan. The possession of Fusan by the Japanese was, until 1876, a perpetual witness of the humiliating defeat of the Coreans in the war of 1592-1597, and a constant irritation to their national pride. Yet with all the miseries inflicted on her, the humble nation learned rich lessons, and gained many an advantage even from her enemy. The embassies which were yearly dispatched to yield homage to their late invaders were at the expense of the latter. The Japanese pride purchased the empty bubble of hom- age by paying nil the bills. The home of the Manchoos was on the north side of the Ever- white mountains. From beyond these mountains was to roll upon China and Corea another avalanche of invasion. By the sixteenth century the Manchoos had become so strong that they openly defied the Chinese. Formidable expeditions previous to the Japanese invasion of Corea kept them at bay for a time, but the immense expenditure of life and treasure required to fight the Japanese drained the resources of the Ming emperors, while their attention being drawn away from the north, the Manchoo hordes massed their forces and grew daily in strength. To re- press the rising power in the north, and to smother the life of the young nation, the Peking government resorted to barbarous cruelties and stern coercion. Unable to protect the eastern bor- der of Liao Tung the entire population of three hundred thou. sand souls, dwelling in four cities and many villages, were re- moved westward and resettled on new lands. Fortresses were planned in the deserted land to keep back the restless cavalry raiders from the north. Thus the foundation of the neutral strip of fifty miles was unconsciously laid, and ten thousand square miles of fair and fertile land west of the Yalu were abandoned to the wolf and tiger. What it soon became it remained until yes- terday a howling wilderness. In 1615 the king of the Manchoo tribes was assassinated as the result of a plot by the Ming emperor. This exasperated the tribes to vengeance and they began hostilities. China now had to face another great invasion. Calling on her vassal, Corea, to an army of twenty thousand men, she ordered them to join 328 COREAN TREACHERY. the imperial army about seventy miles west of the Yalu River. In the battle which ensued the Coreans were the first to face the Manchoos. The imperial legions were beaten, and the Coreans seeing which way the victory would turn, deserted from the Chinese side to that of their enemy. This was in 1619. Enraged by alternate treachery to both sides from the Coreans, the Man- choos invaded Corea in 1627, to which time the war had been prolonged. They crossed the frozen Yalu in February, and at once attacked and defeated the Chinese army. They then began the march to Seoul. Town affier town was taken as they pressed onward to the capital, the Coreans everywhere flying before them. Thousands of dwellings and stores of provisions were given to the flames and their trail was one of blood and ashes. After the siege of Seoul began, the king sent tribute offerings to the invaders, and concluded a treaty of peace, by which Corea again exchanged masters, this time confessing subjection to the Mauchoo sovereign. As soon as the invading army had with- drawn, the Corean king, confident that the Chinese would be ultimately successful over the Manchoos, annulled the treaty. No sooner were the Manchoos able to spare their forces for the purpose than they again marched into Corea and overran the peninsula. The king now came to terms, and in February, 1637, utterly renounced his allegiance to the Ming emperor, gave his two sons as hostages, and promised to send an annual embassy with tribute to the Manchoo court. After the evacuation of Corea the victors inarched into China, where bloody civil war was raging. The imperial army of China had been beaten by the rebels. The Manchoos joined their forces with the imperialists and defeated the rebels, and then demanded the price of their victory. Enter- ing Peking they proclaimed the downfall of the house of Ming. The son of the late king was set upon the dragon throne, and as we have seen in a foregoing chapter the royal house of China came to be a Manchoo family. When, as it happened the very next year, the shogun of Japan demanded an increase of tribute to be paid in Yeddo, the court of Seoul plead in excuse their wasted resources, consequent upon the war with the Manchoos, and their heavy burdens newly laid TRIBUTE TO TWO NEIGHBORS. 329 upon them in the way of tribute to their conqueror. Their excuse was accepted. Twice within a single generation had the little peninsula been devasted by mighty invasion that laid waste the country. In 1650 a captive Corean maid, taken prisoner in their first invasion, became sixth lady in rank in the imperial Manchoo household. Through her influence her father, the ambassador, obtained a considerable reduction of the annual tribute that had been fixed by treaty. Other portions of the tribute had been re- mitted before, so that by this time- the tax upon Corean loyalty became very slight, and the embassy became one of ceremony , rather than a tribute bringing. In the seventeenth century some information about Corea began to reach Europe, first from the Jesuits in Peking, who sent home a map of the peninsula. There is also a map of Corea in a work by the Jesuit Martini, published in 1649 in Amsterdam. The Cossacks who overran northern Asia brought reports of Corea to Russia, and it was from Russian sources that Sir John Campbell obtained the substance of his history of Corea. In 1G45 a party of Japanese crossed the peninsula, and one of them on his return wrote a book descriptive of their journey. 1707 the Jesuits in Peking began their great geographical enterprise, the survey of the Chinese empire, including the outlying vassal kingdoms. A map of Corea was obtained from the king's palace at Seoul and sent to Europe to be engraved and printed. From this original most of the maps and supposed Corean names in books published since that time have been copied. The first known entrance of any number of Europeans into Corea was that of Hollanders belonging to the crew of the Dutch ship Hollandra which was driven ashore in 1627. Coasting along the Corean shores, John Wetterree and some companions went ashore to get water, and were captured by the natives. The magnates of Seoul probably desired to have a barbarian from the west, as useful to them as was the Englishman Will Adams to the Japanese in Yeddo, where the Corean ambassadors had often seen him. This explains why Wetterree was treated with kindness and comparative honor, though kept as a prisoner. When the Manchoos invaded Corea in 1635, his two companions were killed 21 330 FIRST EUROPEANS IN COREA. in the war, and Wetterree was left alone. Having no one with whom he could converse he had almost forgotten his native speech, when after twenty-seven years of exile, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, he met some of his fellow Hollanders, and acted as interpreter to the Coreans. In the summer of 1653 the Dutch ship Sparwehr was cast on shore on Quelpaert island, off the southwest coast of Corea. The local magistrate did what he could for the thirty-six members of the crew who reached the shore alive, out of the sixty-four on board. On October 29th the survivors were brought by the officials to be examined by the interpreter Wetterree. The latter was very rusty in his native language, but regained it in a month. Of course the first and last idea of the captives was how to escape. They made one effort to reach the sea shore, but were caught and severely punished, after which they were ordered to proceed to the capital. Wherever they went the Dutchmen were like wild beasts on exhibition. When they once reached the palace they were well treated, and were assigned to the body guard of the king as petty officers. Each time that the Manchoo envoy made his visit to the capital the captives endeavored to enlist his sym- pathy and begged to be taken to Peking, but all such efforts re- sulted in failure and punishment. The suspicions of the govern- ment were aroused by the studies which the Dutchmen pursued, of the climate, the topography, and the products of the country, and by their attemps to escape, and in 1663 they were separated and put into three different towns. By this time fourteen of the number were dead and twenty-two remained. Finally, early in September 1667, as their fourteenth year of captivity was drawing to a close, the Dutchmen escaped to the seacoast, bribed a Corean to give them his fishing craft, and steered out into the open water. A few days later, they reached the northwestern islands in the vicinity of Kiushiu, Japan, and landed. The Japanese treated them kindly and sent them to Nagasaki, where they met their countrymen at Desima. The annual ship from Batavia was then just about to return, and in the nick of time the waifs got on board, reached Batavia, sailed for Holland, and in July, 1668, stepped ashore at home. Hendrik Hamel, the supercargo of the ship, wrote a book on his return re- CHRISTIANITY IN COREA. 331 counting his adventures in a simple and straightforward style. It has been translated into English and is a model work of its sort. The modern introduction of Christianity in Corea dates little more than a hundred years ago. Some Corean students studying with the famous Confucian professor Kwem, during the winter of 1777, entered into discussion of some tracts on philosophy, mathe- matics, and religion just brought from Peking. These were translations of the writings of the Jesuits in the imperial capital. Surprised and delighted, they resolved to attain if possible to a full understanding of the new doctrines. They sought all the in- formation that they could from Peking. The leader in this movement was a student named Stonewall. As his information accumulated, he gave himself up to fresh reading and meditation, and then began to preach. Some of his friends in the capital, both nobles and commoners, embraced the new doctrines with cheering promptness and were baptized. Thus from small be- ginnings, but rapidly, were the Christian ideas spread. But soon the power of the law and the pen were invoked to crush out the exotic faith. The first victim was tried on the charge of destroying his ancestral tablets, tortured, and sent into exile, in which he soon after died. The scholars now took up weapons, and in April, 1784, the king's preceptor issued the first public document officially directed against Christianity. In it all parents and relatives were entreated to break off all relations with Christians. The names of the leaders were published, and the example of Thomas Kim, the first victim, was cited. Forthwith began a violent pressure upon the believers to renounce their faith. Then began an exhibition alike of steadfast faith and shameful apostasy, but though even Stonewall lapsed, the work went on. The next few years of Christianity were important ones. The leaders formed an organization and as nearly as they could on the lines of the Roman Catholic church. Instructions were sent from Peking by the priests there, and the worship in Corea became quite in harmony with that of the Western church. But the decision that the worship of ancestors must be abolished, was, in the eyes of the Corean public, a blow at the framework of society and state, and many feeble adherents began to fall away. December 8, 1791, Paul and Jacques Kim were decapitated for refusing to 332 YEARS OF MARTYRDOM. recant their Christian faith. Thus was shed the first blood for Corean Christianity. Martyrdom was frequent in this early his- tory of the Christian church in Corea, but in the ten years following the baptism of Peter in Peking in 1783, in spite of persecution and apostasy, it is estimated that there were four thousand Chris- tians in the peninsula. The first attempt of a foreign missionary to enter the Hermit Kingdom from the west was made early in 1791. This was a Portuguese priest who endeavored to cross the Yalu River to join some native Christians, but was disappointed in meeting them and returned to Peking, Two years later a young Chinese priest en- tered the forbidden territory, and was hidden for three years in the house of a noble woman, where he preached and taught. Three native Christians who refused to reveal his whereabouts were tortured to death and were thrown into the Han River. From the beginning of this century the most bitter general per- secutions against Christians was enforced. The young Chinese priest, learning that he was outlawed, surrendered himself to re- lieve his friends of the responsibility of protecting him, and was executed. The woman also who had so long sheltered him was beheaded. Four other women who were attendants in the palace, and an artist who was condemned for painting Christian subjects were beheaded near the u Little Western Gate " of Seoul. The policy of the government was shown in making away with the Christians of rank and education who might be able to direct af- fairs in the absence of the foreign priests, and in letting the poor and humble go free. It is impossible to catalogue the martyrs and the edicts against Christianity. The condition of the Christians scattered in the mountains and forests, suffering poverty, hunger, and cold, was most deplorable. In 1811 the Corean converts addressed letters to the Pope begging aid in their distress. These however could not be answered in the way they desired, for the Pope himself was then a prisoner at Fontainebleau and the Roman propaganda was nearly at a standstill. In 1817 the king and court were terrified by the appearance off the west coast of the British vessels Alceste and Lyra, but be- yond some surveys, purchases of provisions, and interviews with COREAN MANDARINS. MARTYRDOM OF FRENCH PRIESTS. 335 some local magistrates, the foreigners departed without opening communication with them. Ffteen years later the British ship Lord Amherst passed along the coasts of Chulla, seeking commer- cial connections. On board was a Protestant missionary, a Prus- sian. He landed on several of the islands and attempted to gain some acquaintance with the people, but made little progress. The year 1834 closed the first half century of Corean Christianity. It is not strange that persecutions resulted from the advance of Roman Catholic strength in Corea, for the Corean Christians as- sumed naturally the righteousness of the Pope's claim to tem- poral power as the vicar of heaven. The Corean Christians not only deceived their magistrates and violated their country's laws, but actually invited armed invasion. Hence, from the first, Christianity was associated in patriotic minds with treason and robbery. After the restoration of the Bourbons in France and the strengthening of the Papal throne by foreign bayonets, the mis- sionary zeal in the church was kindled afresh, and it was resolved to found a mission in Corea. The first priest to make entrance was Pierre Philibert Maubant, who reached Seoul in 1836, the first Frenchman who had penetrated the Hermit Nation. A few months later another joined him, and in December, 1838, Bishop Imbert ran the gauntlet of wilderness, ice, and guards at the frontier, and took up his residence under the shadow of the king's palace. Work now went on vigorously, and in 1838 the Chris- tians numbered nine thousand. At the beginning of the next year the party in favor of extirpating Christianity having gained the upper hand, another persecution broke out with redoubled violence. To stay the further shedding of blood, Bishop Imbert and his two priests came out of their hiding places and delivered themselves up. They were horribly tortured, and decapitated September 21, 1839. Six bitter years passed before the Christians again had a foreign pastor. Since 1839 the government had tripled its vigilance and doubled the guards on the frontier. The most strenuous efforts to pass the barriers repeatedly failed. Andrew Kim is a name to be remembered in the history of Christianity in Corea. Year after year he worked to enter Corea, or once in, to advance the 336 MARTYRDOM OP FRENCH PRIESTS. cause, or when rejected to help others in the work. He was or- dained to the priesthood in Shanghai, and finally in company with two French priests, in September, 1845, sailed across the Yellow Sea, and landed on the coast of Chulla, to make his final effort to spread Christianity, among the Coreans. During July of the same year, the British ship Samarang was engaged in surveying off Quelpaert and the south coast of Corea. Beacon fires all over the land telegraphed the news of the presence of foreign ships, and the close watch that was kept by the coast magistrates made the return of Andrew Kim doubly dangerous. These records of perseverenco, of distress, of martyrdom, from the pages of missionary work in Corea, written in the blood of native converts, who bore their cross with equal bravery to that of the Roman fathers, may be surprising to some who have been unfamiliar with the history of the Corean peninsula. But they are convincing testimony to controvert the assertions of some incredulous ones who affirm that the "heathen " are never really Christianized, but are always ready to return to their idols in times of trial. There is no country that can show braver examples of fortitude, in enduring trial for the support of the faith, than the " Hermit Nation." Three priests in disguise were now secretly at work in Corea, Andrew Kim, a native convert, and the Frenchmen, Bishop Ferreol, and his companion Daveluy. Kim was captured and in company with half a dozen others was executed September 16th. While he was in prison the Bishop heard of three French ships which were at that time vainly trying to find the mouth of the Han River and the channel to the capital. Ferreol wrote to Captain Cecile, who commanded the fleet, but the note arrived too late and Kim's fate was sealed. The object of the fleet's visit was to demand satisfaction for the murder of the two French priests in 1839, but after some coast surveys were made and a threatening letter was dispatched the ships withdrew. During the summer of 1845, two French frigates set sail for the Corean coast, and August 10th went aground, and both vessels became total wrecks. The six hundred men made their camp at Kokun island, where they were kindly treated and furnished with provisions, although rigidly secluded and guarded against all communication with the main land. An English ship from Shanghai rescued the crews. During the ensuing eight years re- ALARM IN COREA. 337 peated efforts were made by missionaries and native converts to enter Corea and advance the work there, and the labor of prop- agation progressed. A number of religious works in the Corean language were printed from a native printing press and widely circulated. In 1850 the Christians numbered eleven thousand, and five young men were studying for the priesthood. Regular mails sewn into the thick cotton coats of the men in the annual embassy were sent to and brought from China. The western nations were beginning to take an interest in the twin hermits of the east, Corea and Japan. In 1852, the Russian frigate Pallas traced and mapped a portion of the shore line of the east coast, and the work was continued three years later by the French war vessel Virginie. At the end of this voyage the whole coast from Fusan to the Tumen was known with some accuracy and mapped out with European names. It was in the intervening years, 1853 and 1854, that Commodore Perry and the American squadron were in the waters of the far east, driving the wedge of civilization into Japan. The American flag, however, was not yet seen in Corean waters, though the court of Seoul was kept informed of Perry's movements. A fresh reinforcement of missionaries reached Corea in 1857. When three years later the French and English forces opened war with China, took the Peiho forts, entered Peking, and sacked the summer palace of the Son of Heaven, driving the Chinese emperor to flight, the loss of Chinese prestige struck terror into all Corean hearts. For six centuries China had beea in Corean eyes the synonym and symbol of invincible power. Copies of the treaties made between China and the allies, granting freedom of trade and religion, were soon read in Corea, causing intense alarm. But the most alarming thing was the treaty between China and Russia, by which the Manchoo rulers surrendered the great tract watered by the Amoor river and bordered by the Pacific, to Russia. It was a rich and fertile region, with a coast full of harbors, and comprising an area as large as France. The boundaries of Siberia now touch Corea. With France on the right, Russia on the left, China humbled, and Japan opened to the western world, it is not strange that the rulers in Seoul trembled. The results to Christianity were that within a few 338 INTRIGUES IN THE COURT. years thousands of natives fled their country and settled in the Russian villages. At the capital, official business was suspended and many families of rank fled to the mountains. In many in- stances people of rank humbly sought the good favor and pro- tection of the Christians, hoping for safety when the dreaded invasion should come. In the midst of these war preparations, the French missionary body was reinforced by the arrival of four o their countrymen who set foot on the soil of their martyrdom October, 1861. The Ni dynasty, founded in 1392, came to an end January 15, 1864, by the death of King Chul-chong, who had no child, before he had nominated an heir. Palace intrigues and excitement among the political parties followed. The widows of the three kings who had reigned since 1831 were still living. The eldest of these, Queen Cho, at once seized the royal seal and emblems of authority, which high-handed move made her the mistress of the situation. A twelve -year-old lad was nominated for the throne, and his father, Ni Kung, one of the royal princes, became the actual regent. He held the reins of government during the next nine years, ruling with power like that of an absolute despot. He was a rabid hater of Christianity, foreigners, and progress. The year 1866 is phenomenal in Corean history. It seemed to the rulers as if the governments of many nations had con- spired to pierce their walls of isolation. Russians, French- men, Englishmen, Americans, Germans, authorized and un- authorized, landed to trade, rob, kill, or what was equally ob- noxious to the regent and his court, to make treaties. This and the rapid progress of Christianity now excited the anti-Christian party, which was in full power at the court, to clamor for the en- forcement of the old edict against the foreign religion. Vainly the regent warned the court of the danger from Europe. Forced by the party in power, he signed the death warrants of bishops and priests and promulgated anew the old laws against the Christians. Within a few weeks fourteen French priests and bishops were tortured to death, and twice as many native mis- sionaries and students for the priesthood suffered like fate. Scores of native Christians were put to death, and hundreds more were in prison. In a little over a month, all missionary operations FRENCH EXPEDITION TO SEOUL. 339 came to a standstill. The three French priests who remained alive escaped from the peninsula in a Chinese junk, and finally reached Chefoo October 26. Not one foreign priest now remained in Corea, and no Christian dared openly confess his faith. Thus after twenty years of nearly uninterrupted labors, the church was again stripped of her pastors, and at the end of eighty-two years of Corean Christianity the curtain fell in blood. With Bishop Ridel as interpreter and three of his converts as pilots, three French vessels were sent to explore the Han River and to make effort to secure satisfaction for the murder of the French bishops and priests in the previous March. They entered/ the river September 21, and two of the vessels advanced to Seoul, leaving one at the mouth of the river. One or two forts fired on the vessels as they steamed along, and in one place a fleet of junks gathered to dispute their passage. A well-aimed shot sunk two of the crazy craft, and a bombshell dropped among the ar- tillerists in the redoubt, silenced it at once. On the evening of the 25th, the two ships cast anchor and the flag of France floated in front of the Corean capital. The hills were white with gazing thousands, who for the first time saw a vessel moving under steam. The ships remained abreast of the city several days, the officers taking soundings and measurements, computing heights, and mak- ing plans. Bishop Ridel went on shore in hopes of finding a Christian and hearing some news but none dared to approach him. While the French remained in the river not a bag of rice nor a fagot of wood entered Seoul. Eight days of such terror, and a famine would have raged in the city. Seven thousand houses were deserted by their occupants. When the ships re- turned to the mouth of the river two converts came on board. They informed Ridel of the burning of a "European" vessel, the General Sherman, at Ping- Yang, of the renewal of the persecu- tion, and of the order that Christians should be put to death with- out waiting for instructions from Seoul. Sailing away, the ships arrived at Chefoo, October 3. The regent, now thoroughly alarmed, began to stir up the country to defense. The military forces in every province were called out, and the forges and blacksmith shops were busy day and night in making arms of every known kind. Loaded junks 340 REPULSE OF THE FRENCH. were sunk in the channel of the Han to obstruct it. Word was sent to the tycoon of Japan informing him of the trouble, and begging for assistance, but the Yeddo government had quite all it could do at that time to take care of itself. Instead of help two commissioners were appointed to go to Seoul and recommend that Corea open her ports to foreign commerce as Japan had done, and thus choose peace instead of war with foreigners. Before the envoys could leave Japan the tycoon had died, and the next year Japan was in the throes of civil war, the shogunate was abolished, and Corea was for the time utterly forgotten. Another fleet of French vessels sailed from China to Corea, consisting of seven ships of various kinds, and with six hundred soldiers. The force landed before the city of Kang-wa on the island of the same name, and captured the city without difficulty on the morning of October 16. Several engagements in the same vicinity followed, all of them successful to the French until they came to attack a fortified monastery on the island some ten days later. Here they were repulsed with heavy loss to themselves and to the foe. The next morning to the surprise of all and the anger of many, orders were given to embark. The troops in Kang-wa set fire to the city which in a few hours burned to ashes. The departure of the invaders was so precipitate that Corean patriots to this day gloat over it as a disgraceful retreat. In the palace at Seoul the resolve was made to exterminate Christianity, root and branch. Women and even children were ordered to the death. Several Christian nobles were executed. One Christian who was betrayed in the capital by his pagan brother, and another fellow believer, were taken to the river side in front of the city, near the place where the two French vessels had anchored. At this historic spot, by an innovation unknown in the customs of Cho-sen, they were decapitated and their head- less trunks held neck downward to spout out the hot life blood, that it might wash away the stain of foreign pollution. Upon the mind of the regent and court the effect was to swell their pride to the folly of extravagant conceit. Feeling themselves able almost to defy the world, they began soon after to hurl their de- fiance at Japan. The results of this expedition were disastrous all over the east. Happening at a time when relations between EFFECTS OF THE RETREAT. 341 foreigners and Chinese were strained, the unexpected return of the fleet filled the minds of Europeans in China with alarm. The smothered embers of hostility to foreign influence, steadily gathered vigor as the report spread through China that the hated Frenchmen had been driven away by the Coreans. The fires at length broke out in the Tien-tsin massacre of 1870. It was this same year, 1866, that witnessed the marriage of the young king, now but fourteen years old, to Min, the daughter of one of the noble families. Popular report has always credited the young queen with abilities not inferior to those of her royal husband. The Min or Ming family is largely Chinese in blood and origin, and beside being preeminent among all the Corean nobility in social, political, and intellectual power, has been most strenuous in adherence to Chinese ideas and traditions with the purpose of keeping Corea unswerving in her vassalage and loyalty to China. American associations with Corea have been peculiarly interest- ing. The commerce carried on by American vessels with Chinese and Japanese ports made the navigation of Corean waters a ne- cessity. Sooner or later shipwrecks must occur, and the question of the humane treatment of American citizens cast on Corean shores came up before our government for settlement, as it had long before in the case of Japan. Within one year the Corean government had three American cases to deal with. June 24, 1866, the American schooner Surprise, was wrecked off the coast of Wang-hai. The approach of any foreign vessel was especially dangerous at this time, as the crews might be mistaken for French- men and killed by the people from patriotic impulses. Neverthe- less, the captain and his crew, after being well catechised by the local magistrate and by a commissioner sent from Seoul, were kindly treated and well fed and provided with the comforts of life. By orders of Tai-wen Kun, the regent, they were escorted on horseback to Ai-chiu and after being feasted there were con- ducted safely to the border gate. Thence after a hard journey via Mukden they got to Niuchwang and to the United States consul. The General Sherman was an American schooner that had the second experience with the Coreans. The vessel was owned by 342 AMERICAN AFFAIRS IN COREA. a Mr. Preston who was making a voyage for health. At Tien-tsiu the schooner was loaded with goods likely to be salable in Corea, and she was dispatched there on an experimental voyage in the hope of thus opening the country to commerce. The complement of the vessel was five white foreigners and nineteen Malay and Chinese sailors. The white men were Mr. Hogarth, a young Englishman, Mr. Preston, the owner, and Messrs. Page and Wilson, the master and mate of the vessel, and the Rev. Mr. Thomas, a missionary, who were Americans. From the first the character of the expedition was suspected, because the men were rather too heavily armed for a peaceful trading voyage. It was believed in China that the royal coffins in the tombs of Ping- Yang were of solid gold, and it was broadly hinted that the expedition had something to do with these. The schooner, whether merchant or invader, sailed from Chefoo and made for the mouth of the Tatong River. There they met the Chinese captain of a Chefoo junk who agreed to pilot them up the river. He stayed with the General Sherman for two days, then leaving her he returned to the river's mouth, and sailed back to Chefoo. No further direct intelligence was ever received from the unfortunate party. According to one report the hatches of the schooner were fastened down after the crew had been driven beneath, and set on fire. According to another, all were de- capitated. The Coreans burned the woodwork for the iron and took the cannon for models. The United States steamship Wachusett, dispatched by Admiral Rowan to inquire into the matter, reached Chefoo January 14, 1867, and took on board the Chinese pilot of the General Sher- man. Leaving Chefoo they cast anchor two days later at the mouth of the large inlet next south of the Tatong River, thinking that they had reached their destination. A letter was dispatched to the capital of the province demanding that the murderers be produced on the deck of the vessel. Five days elapsed before the answer arrived, during which the surveying boats were busy. Many natives were met and spoken with, who all told one story, that the Sherman's crew were murdered by the people and not by official instigation. In a few days an officer from one of the villages appeared. He would give neither information nor satis- _. ' r THE GENERAL SHERMAN CASE. 345 faction, and the gist of his reiteration was "go away as soon a& possible." Commander Shufeldt, bound by his orders, could do nothing more, and being compelled also by stress of weather came away. Later in the year Dr. Williams, Secretary of the United States Legation at Peking, succeeded in obtaining an interview with a member of the Corean embassy, who told him that after the General Sherman got aground she careened over as the tide receded, and her crew landed to guard or float her. The natives gathered around them, and before long an altercation arose. A general attack began upon the foreigners, in which every man waa killed by the mob. About twenty of the natives lost their lives. Dr. Williams' comment is, " The evidence goes to uphold the presumption that they invoked their sad fate by some rash or violent act towards the natives." The United States steamship Shenandoah was sent to make further investigation, and this version of the story was given to the commander. The Coreans said that when the Sherman arrived in the river, the local officials went on board and addressed the two foreign officers of the ship in respectful language. The latter grossly insulted the native dignitaries. The Coreans treated their visitors kindly, but warned them of their danger and the un- lawfulness of penetrating into the country. Nevertheless, the foreigners went up the river to Ping-Yang where they seized the ship of one of the city officials, put him in chains, and proceeded to rob the junks and their crews. The people of the city aroused to wrath, attacked the foreign ship with firearms and cannon ; they set adrift fire rafts and even made a hand to hand fight with knives and swords. The foreigners fought desperately, but the Coreans overpowered them. Finally the ship caught fire and blew up with a terrible report. This story was not, of course, believed by the American officers, but even the best wishers and friends of the Sherman adventurers cannot stifle suspicion of either cruelty or insult to the natives. Remembering the kind- ness shown to the crew of the Surprise it is difficult to believe that the General Sherman's crew was murdered without cause. In 1884 Lieutenant J. B. Bernadon, of the United States navy, made a journey from Seoul to Ping- Yang, and being able to speak 22 346 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONS. Corean, secured the following information from native Christians : The governor of Ping- Yang sent officers to inquire the mission of the Sherman. To gratify their curiosity large numbers of the common people set out also in boats which the Sherman's crew mistook for a hostile demonstration and fired guns in the air to warn them off. When the river fell the Sherman grounded and careened over, which being seen from the city walls, a fleet of boats set out with hostile intent and were fired upon. Officers and people now enraged, started fire rafts, and soon the vessel, though with white flag hoisted, was in flames. Of those who leaped into the river most were drowned. Of those picked up one was the Rev. Mr. Thomas, who was able to talk Corean. He explained the meaning of the white flag, and begged to be sur- rendered to China. His prayer was in vain. In a few days all the prisoners were led out and publicly executed. In the spring of 1867 an expedition was organized by a French Jesuit priest who spoke Corean, having been a missionary in the country ; a German Jew named Ernest Oppert ; and the inter- preter at the United States consulate in Shanghai, a man named Jenkins. These worthies, it is said, conceived a plan to steal the body of one of the dead Corean monarchs, and hold it for ransom. With two steam vessels and a crew of sailors, laborers, and cool- ies, the riffraff of humanity, such as swarm in every Chinese port, they left Shanghai the last day of April, steamed to Naga- saki, and then to the west coast of Corea, landing in the river which flows into Prince Jerome Gulf. The steam tender which accompanied the larger vessel took an armed crowd up the river as far as possible, and from this point the march across the open country to the tomb was begun. Their tools were so ineffective that they could not move the rocky slab which covered the sar- cophagus, and they were compelled to give up their task. Dur- ing their return march they were attacked by the exasperated Coreans, but were able to protect themselves without great diffi- culty. During the remainder of their buccaneering trip, which lasted ten days, they had various skirmishes and two or three of their party were killed. On their return to Shanghai the Amer- ican of the party was arrested and tried before the United States consul, but it wa.s impossible to prove the things with which Jen- SEEKING A TREATY. 347 kins was charged, and he was dismissed. A few years later Op- pert published a work in which he told the story of his different voyages to Corea, including this last one. In writing of the last he takes pains to gloss over the intentions of his journey and to explain the good motives behind it. The representations made to the department of state at Wash- ington by the United States diplomatic corps in China concerning these different attempts to enter Corea, directed the attention of the United States government to the opening of Corea to Ameri- can commerce. The state department in 1870 resolved to under- take the enterprise. Frederick F. Low, minister of the United States to Peking, and Rear Admiral John Rodgers, commander in chief of the Asiatic squadron, were entrusted with the delicate mission. The American squadron consisted of the flagship Colo- rado, the corvettes Alaska and Dimitia, and the gunboats Monoc- acy and Palos. In spite of the formidable appearance of the navy, the vessels were either of an antiquated type, or of too heavy a draft, with their armament defective. All the naval world in Chinese waters wondered why the Americans should be content with such old fashioned ships unworthy of the gallant crews who manned them. The squadron anchored near the mouth of the Han River May 30, 1871. Approaching the squadron in a junk, some natives made signs of friendship and came on board without hesitation. They bore a missive acknowledging the receipt of the letter which the Americans had sent to Corea some months before, by a special courier from the Chinese court. This reply announced that three nobles had been appointed by the regent for a conference. The next day a delegation of eight officers of the third and fifth rank came on board, evidently with intent to see the minister and ad- miral to learn all they could and gain time. They had little authority and no credentials, but they were sociable, friendly and in good humor. Neither of the envoys would see them, because they lacked rank and credentials and authority. The Corean en- voys were informed that soundings would be taken in the river and the shores would be surveyed. The best judges of eastern diplomacy think that this mission was very poorly managed. These envoys were sent ashore, and 348 BRAVE FIGHTING. at noon on the 2nd of June the survey fleet moved up the river. The fleet consisted of four steam launches abreast, followed by the Palos and Monocacy. But a few minutes passed until from a fort on the shore a severe fire was opened on the moving boats. The Americans promptly returned the fire, with the result that the old Palos injured herself by the cannon kicking her sides out. The Monocacy also struck a rock and began to leak badly, but after hammering at the forts until they were all silenced, the squadron was able to return down the river and not greatly in- jured. Strange to say only one American was wounded and none were killed. It was a strong evidence of the poor marksmanship of Corean gunners. Ten days were now allowed to pass before further action was taken, then the same force started up the river again, enlarged by twenty boats conveying a landing force of A x hundred and fifty men. These were arranged in ten companies of infantry and seven pieces of artillery. The squadron proceeded up the river on the morning of the 10th of June, and soon after noon, having demolished and emptied the first fort, the troops were landed. The next day they began the march and soon reached another fortification which was deserted. Here all of the artillery was tumbled into the river and the fort was named Monocacy. In another hour, another citadel was reached, attacked, and con- quered by the united efforts of the troops on shore and the ves- sels in the stream. The final charge of the American troops up a steep incline met a terrible reception. The Coreans fought with furious courage in hand to hand conflict. Finally the enemy was completely routed, some three hundred and fifty of them being killed. On the American side three were killed, and ten wounded. Before the day was over two more forts were captured. The result of the forty-eight hours on shore, of which only eigh- teen were spent in the field, was the capture of five forts, probably the strongest in the kingdom, fifty flags, and four hundred and eighty-one pieces of artillery. The work of destruction was car- ried on and made as thorough as fire, ax and shovel could make it, and this was all on Sunday, June 11. Early on Monday morning the whole force was re-embarked in perfect order, in spite of the furious tide. The fleet moved dowii WAR WITH THE HEATHEN. 349 the stream with the captured colors at the mast heads, and towing the boats laden with the trophies of victory. Later in the day the men slain in the fight were buried on Boisee Island, and the first American graves rose on Corean soil. Admiral Rodgers, having obeyed to the farthest limit the orders given him, and all hope of making a treaty being over, the fleet sailed for Chefoo on the 3rd of July, after thirty-five days' stay in Corean waters. " Our little war with the heathen," as the New York Herald styled it, attracted slight notice in the United States. In China the expedition was looked upon as a failure and a defeat. The popular Corean idea was that the Americans had come to avenge the death of pirates and robbers, and after several battles had been so surely defeated that they dare not attempt the task of chastisement again. When the mikado was restored to supreme power in Japan, and the department of foreign affairs was created, one of the first things attended to was to invite the Corean government to resume ancient friendship and vassalage. This summons, coming from a source unrecognized for eight centuries, and to a regent swollen with pride at his victory over the French and his success in extir- pating the Christian religion, was spurned with defiance. An in- solent and even scurrilous letter was returned to the mikado's government. The military classes, stung with rage, formed a war party, but the cabinet of Japan vetoed the scheme and in October, 1873, Saigo, the leader of the war party, resigned and was re- turned to Satsuma to brood over his defeat. In 1873 the young king of Corea attained his majority. His father Tai-wen Kun, the Regent, by the act of the king was re- lieved of office and his bloody and cruel lease of power came to an end. The young sovereign proved himself a man of some mental vigor and independent judgment, not merely trusting to his ministers, but opening important documents in person. He was ably seconded by his wife, to whom was born in the same year an heir to the throne. The neutral belt of land, long inhabited by deer and tigers, had within the last few decades been overspread with squatters, brig- ands, and outlaws. The depredations of these border ruffians 350 NEUTRAL STRIP ABOLISHED. had become intolerable both to China and Corea. In 1875 Li Hung Chang sending a force of picked Chinese troops with a gunboat to the Yalu broke up the nest of robbers and allowed settlers to enter the land. Two years later the Peking government shifted its frontier to the Yalu River, and Corean and Chinese territory was separated only by flowing water. The neutral strip was no more. In 1875 some sailors of one of the Japanese ironclads, landing near Kang-wa for water, were fired on by Corean soldiers under the idea that they were Americans or Frenchmen. The Japanese before this time had adopted uniforms of foreign style for their navy. Retaliating, the Japanese two days later stormed and dis- mantled the fort, shot most of the garrison, and carried the spoils to the ships. The news of this affair brought the wavering minds of both the peace and the war party of Japan to a decision. An envoy was dispatched to Peking to find out the exact relation of China to Corea, and secure her neutrality. At the same time an- other was sent with the fleet to the Han River, to make if possi- ble a treaty of friendship and open ports. General Kuroda hav- ing charge of the latter embassy, with men of war, transports, and marines, reached Seoul February the 6th, 1876. About the same time a courier from Peking arrived in the capital, bearing the Chinese imperial recommendation that a treaty be made with the Japanese. The temper of the young king had been mani- fested long before this by his rebuking the district magistrate of Kang-wa for allowing soldiers to fire on peaceably disposed people, and ordering the offender to degradation and exile. Arinori Mori in Peking had received a written disclaimer of China's re- sponsibility over Corea, by which stroke of policy the Middle Kingdom freed herself from all possible claims of indemnity from France, the United States, and Japan. After several days of negotiation the details of the treaty were settled, and on February 27 the treaty in which Chosen was rec- ognized as an independent nation was signed and attested. The first Corean embassy which had been accredited to the mi- kado's court since the Twelfth century, sailed from Fusanin a Jap- anese steamer, landing at Yokohama, May 29. By railroad and steam cars they reached Tokio, and on the first of June the envoy JAPAN AND COREA MAKE TREATY. 351 had audience of the mikado. For three weeks the Japanese amused, enlightened and startled their guests by showing them their war ships, arsenals, artillery, torpedoes, schools, buildings, factories, and offices, equipped with steam and electricity, the ripened fruit of the seed planted by Perry in 1854. All attempts of foreigners to hold any communication with them were firmly rejected by the Coreans. Among the callers with diplomatic powers from the outside world in 1881, each eager and ambitious to be the first in wresting the coveted prize of a treaty, were two British captains of men-of-war and a French naval officer, all of whom sailed away with rebuffs. Under the new treaty Fusan soon became a bustling place of trade with a Japanese population of some two thousand. Public buildings were erected for the Japanese consulate, chamber of commerce, bank, steamship company, and hospitals. A news- paper was established, and after a few years of mutual contact at Fusan the Coreans, though finding the Japanese as troublesome as the latter discovered foreigners to be after their own ports were opened, with much experience settled down to endure them for the sake of a trade which was undoubtedly enriching the country. Gensan was opened May 1, 1880. An exposition of Japanese, European, and American goods was established for the benefit of trade with the Coreans. Russia, England, France, Italy, and the United States all made efforts in the next few months to make treaties with Corea, and all were politely rejected. Early in 1881 Chinese and Japanese influence began to be enlisted in favor of the United States in the effort to make a treaty. Li Hung Chang, China's liberal states- man, wrote a letter to a Corean gentleman in which he advised the country to seek the friendship of the United States. The Chinese secretary of legation at Tokio also declared to the Co- reans that Americans were the natural friends of Asiatic nations, and should be welcomed. It began to look more hopeful for the United States to secure her treaty through the influence of the Chinese than that of the Japanese, on whom we had previously depended. One of the most important moves in the advancement of Corea's civilization was the sending of a party of thirty-four prominent men to visit Japan, and further study the problem of 352 AMERICAN TREATY SIGNED. how far western ideas were adapted to an oriental state. The leader of this party, after his return from Japan, was dispatched on a mission to China, where his conference was chiefly with Li Hung Chang. He had now a good opportunity of judging the relative merits of Japan and China. The results of this mission were soon apparent, for shortly after, eighty young men were sent to Tien-tsin where they began to diligently pursue their studies of western civilization as it had impressed itself on China in the arsenals and schools. The spirit of progress made advance from the beginning of 1882, but discussion reached fever heat in deciding whether the favor of Japan or China should be most sought, and which for- eign nation should be first admitted to treaty rights. An event not unlooked-for, increased the power of the progressionists. Kozaikai urged the plea of expulsion of foreigners in such intem- perate language that he was accused of reproaching the sovereign. At the same time a conspiracy against the life of the king was discovered. Kozaikai was put to death, many of the conspirators were exiled, and the ringleaders were sentenced to be broken alive on the wheel. The progressionists had now the upper hand, and early in the spring two envoys went to Tien-tsin to inform Americans and Chinese that the Corean government was ready to make a treaty. Meanwhile Japanese officers were drilling the Corean soldiers in Seoul. The American diplomatic agent, Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, arrived in the Swatara off Chemulpo May 7. Accompanied by three officers he went six miles into the interior, to the office of the Corean magistrate, to formulate the treaty. Two days after- ward the treaty document was signed, in a temporary pavilion on a point of land opposite the ship. Both on the American and Corean side this result had been brought about only after severe toil and prolonged effort. Four days after the signing of the American treaty, the crown- prince, a lad of nine years old, was married in Seoul. This year will be forever known as the year of the treaties. Within a few months treaties were signed by Corea with Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and China. Within a week there appeared in the harbor of Chemulpo two American, three British, one French, one OUTBREAK IN SEOUL. Coo Japanese, one German and five Chinese armed vessels; all of them except the French had left by June 8, to the great relief of the country people, many of whom had fled to the hills when the big guns began to waste their powder in salutes. The Japanese legation in Seoul now numbered about forty per- sons. They seemed to suspect no imminent danger, although the old fanatic and tyrant Tai-wen Kun was still alive and plotting. He was the centre of all the elements hostile to innovation, and being a man of unusual ability, was possessed of immense influ- ence. During the nine years of his nominal retirement from of- fice, this bigoted Confucianist who refused to know anything of the outer world waited his opportunity to make trouble. Just then the populace was most excited over the near presence of the foreigners at Chemulpo, the usual rainfall was withheld, and in the consequent drought the rice crop was threatened with total failure. The sorcerers and the anti-foreign party took advantage of the situation to play on the fears of the superstitious people. The spirits displeased at the intrusion of the western devils were angry, and were cursing the land. While the king was out in the open air praying for rain July 23, a mob of sympathizers with the old regent attempted to seize him. The king escaped to the castle. Some mischief-maker then started the report that the Japanese had attacked the ro} r al castle and had seized the king and queen. Forthwith the mob rushed with frantic violence upon the legation, murdering the Japanese policemen and students whom they met on the streets, and the Japanese military instructors in the barracks. Not satisfied with this, the rioters, numbering four thousand men, attacked and de- stroyed the houses of the ministers favoring intercourse. Many of the Mins and seven Japanese were killed. The Japanese le- gation attaches made a brave defence to the night attack which was made on them. Armed only with swords and pistols, the Japanese formed themselves into a circle, charged the mob, and cut their way through it. After an all night march through a se- vere storm, the little band fighting its way for much of the time, reached In-chiun at three o'clock the next day. The governor re- ceived them kindly and supplied food and dry clothing, then post- ing sentinels to watch so that the Japanese could get some rest 356 JAPANESE FORCE RESPECT. In an hour the mob attacked them there, and they were again compelled to cut their way out. They now made for Chemulpo, the seaport of the city, and about midnight, having procured a junk, they put to sea. The next morning they were taken on board a British vessel which was surveying the coast, and a few days later were landed at Nagasaki. Without hesitation the Japanese government began prepara- tions for a military and naval attack. Hanabusa, the minister to Corea and his suite were sent back to Seoul, escorted by a mili- tary force. He was received with courtesy in the capital whence he had been driven three weeks ago. The fleet of Chinese war ships was also at hand, and everything was apparently under the control of Tai-weu Kun, who now professed to be friendly to for- eigners. At his audience with the king, Hanabusa presented the demands of his government. These were nominally agreed to, but several days passing without satisfactory action, Hanabusa having exhausted remonstrance and argument left Seoul and re- turned to his ship. This unexpected move, a menace of war, brought the usurper to terms. On receipt of Tai-wen Kun's apologies, the Japanese envoy returned to the capital and full agreement was given to all the demands of Japan by the Corean government. The insurgents were arrested and punished, the heavy indemnity was paid, and an apology was sent by a special embassy to Japan. Within the next few days Tai-wen Kun was taken on board a Chinese ship at the orders of Li Hung Chang and taken to Tien-tsin. It is generally believed that this action was practically a kidnapping, but whether to rescue Tai-wen Kun from the dangers which threatened him or to maintain China's old theory of sovereign control over Corean rulers it is hard to know. The treaty negotiated with the United States was duly ratified by our senate, and Lucius H. Foote was appointed minister to Corea. General Foote reached Chemulpo in the United States steamship Monocacy May 13, and the formal ratifications of the treaty were exchanged in Seoul six days later. The guns of the Monocacy, the same which shelled the Han forts in 1870, fired the first salute ever given to the Corean flag. The king responded by sending to the United States an embassy of eleven persons led by COREANS IN AMERICA. 357 Min Yong Ik and Hong Yong Sik, members respectively of the conservative and liberal parties. Their interview with President Arthur was in the parlors of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, on September 17. All the Coreans were dressed in their national custom, which they wore habitually while in America. After spending some weeks in the study of American Institutions in several cities, part of the em- bassy returned home by way of San Francisco, leaving one of their number at Salem, Mass., to remain as a student ; while Min Yong Ik and two secretaries embarked on the United States steamship Trenton, and after visiting Europe, reached Seoul in June, 1884. GEOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, CLIMATE AND PRO- UCTS OF COREA. Geographical Limits of Corea Characteristics of the Coast Line The Surface Configura- tion of the Country Isolation Made Easy by the Character of its Boundaries Rivers of the Peninsula Tiie Climate Forests, Plants, and Animals Products of the Soil and of the Mine Extent of Foreign Trade The Eight provinces of Corea, Their Extent, Cities, and History Government of the Corean Kingdom The Dignitaries and their Duties Corruption in the Administration of Official Duties Buying and Selling Office The Executive and the Judiciary. For many a year the country of Corea has been known in little more than name. Its territory is a peninsula on the east coast of Asia, between China on the continent, and the Japanese islands to the eastward. It extends from thirty-four degrees and thirty minutes to forty-three degrees north latitude, and from one hundred and twenty-four degrees and thirty minutes to one hundred and thirty degrees and thirty minutes east longitude, between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. The Yellow Sea separates it from the southern provinces of China, while the Sea of Japan and the Strait of Corea separate it from the Japanese islands. It has a coast line of about one thousand seven hundred and forty miles, and a total area of about ninety thousand square miles. The peninsula, with its outlying islands, is nearly equal in size to Minnesota or to Great Britian. In general shape and relative position to the Asiatic continent it resembles Florida. Tradition and geological indications lead to the belief that an- ciently the Chinese promontory and province of Shan-tang, and the Corean peninsula were connected, and that dry land once covered the space filled by the waters joining the Gulf of Pechiii and the Yellow Sea. These waters are so shallow that the eleva- tion of their bottoms but a few feet would restore their area to the land surface of the globe. On the other side also, the Sea of Japan is very shallow and the Straits of Corea at their greatest depth have but eighty-three feet of water. The east coast is high, mountainous, and but slightly indented, 358 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COASTS OF COREA. 359 with very few islands or harbors. The south and west shores are deeply and manifoldly scooped and fringed with numerous islands. From these island-skirted shores, especially on the west coast, mud banks extend out to sea beyond sight. While the tide on the east coast is very slight, only two feet at Gensan, it increases on the south and west coasts in a north direction, rising to thirty-three feet at Chemulpo. The rapid rise and fall of tides, and the vast area of mud left bare at low water, cause frequent fogs, and render the numerous inlets little available except for native craft. On the west coast the rivers are frozen in winter, but the east coast is open the whole winter through. Quelpaert, the largest island, forty by seventeen miles, lies sixty miles south of the main land. Port Hamilton, between Quelpaert and Corea, was for a time an English possession, but in 1886 was given to China. The Russians are generally believed to have an overweening desire for the magnificent harbor of Port Lazaref on the east coast of the Corean mainland. In its policy of exclusion of all foreigners, the government has had its tasks facilitated by the inaccessible and dangerous nature of the approaches to the coast. The high mountain ranges and steep rocks of the east coast, and the thousands of islands, banks, shoals and reefs extending for miles into the sea on the western and southern shores, unite to make approach exceedingly difficult, even with the best charts and surveys at hand. In the middle of the northern boundary of Corea, is the most notable natural feature of the peninsula. It is a great mount- ain, the colossal Paik-tu or " ever white " mountain, as it is known from the snow that rests upon its summit. When the Man- choorians pushed the Coreans farther and farther back, they reached this mountain, which marked the natural barrier which they were able to make their permanent boundary line. Accord- ing to native account, which in Corea is seriously believed, the highest peak of this mountain reaches the moderate elevation of forty four miles. It is famous as the birthplace of Corean folk lore, and a great deal that is mythical hangs about it still. On the top of the peak is a lake thirty miles in circumference. From this lake flow two streams, one to the north-east, the Tumen, which enters the Sea of Japan ; and the other to the south-west, 360 RIVERS OF THE PENINSULA. the Yalu river, which flows into the Corean bay at the head of the Yellow Sea. Corea is therefore in reality an island. These two rivers and the lake forming the northern boundary are about four hundred and sixty miles from the ocean at the southern end of the peninsula. The greatest width of the country is three hundred and sixty miles and its narrowest about sixty miles. The Tumen river separates Corea from Manchooria, except in the last few miles of its course, when it flows by Russian terri- tory, the south-eastern corner of Siberia. The Yalu river also divides Corea from Manchooria. The rivers of Corea are not of great importance except for drainage and water supply, being navigable but for short distances. On the west coast the chief rivers are the Yalu, the Ching-chong, the Tatong, the Han, the Kum ; the Yalu is navigable for about one hundred and seventy miles and is by far the greatest of all in the peninsula. The Han is navigable to a little above Seoul, eighty miles ; the Tatong to Ping- Yang, seventy-five miles; and the Kum is navigable for small boats for about thirty miles. In the south-eastern part of the peninsula the Nak-tong is navigable for small boats to a dis- tance of one hundred and forty miles. The Tumen river, which forms the north-eastern boundary between Corea and Siberia, is not navigable except near the mouth. It drains a mountainous and rainy country. Ordinarily it is shallow and quiet, but in spring its current becomes very turbulent and swollen. Occupying about the same latitude as Italy, Corea is also, like Italy, hemmed in on the north by mountain ranges, and traversed from north to south by another chain. The whole peninsula is very mountainous, some of the peaks rising to a height of eight thousand feet. The climate of the country is excellent, bracing in the north, with the south tempered by the ocean breezes in summer. The winters in the north are colder than those of American states in the same latitude, and the summers are hotter. The heat is tempered by sea breezes, but in the narrow enclosed valleys it becomes very intense. The Han is frozen at Seoul for three months in the year, sufficiently to be used as a cart road, while the Tumen is usually frozen for five months. Various kinds of timber abound, except in the west, where FAUNA AND FLORA. 361 wood is scarce and is sparingly used ; and in other parts the want of coal has caused the wasteful destruction of many a forest. The fauna is very considerable and besides tigers, leopards, and deer, includes pigs, wild cats, badgers, foxes, beavers, otters, martens, bears, and a great variety of birds. The salamander is found in the streams as in western Japan. The domestic animals are few. The cattle are excellent, the bull being the usual beast of burden, the pony very small but hardy, fowls good, the pigs inferior. Immense numbers of oxen are found in the south, furnishing the meat diet craved by the people, who eat much more of fatty food than the Japanese. Goats are rare. Sheep are imported from China only for sacrificial purposes. The dog serves for food as well as for companionship and de- fense. Of birds the pheas- ants, falcons, eagle, crane, and stork are common. Among the products are rice, wheat, beans, cotton, hemp, corn, sesame, and perilla. Ginseng grows wild ^x." in the Range mountains and COREAN BULL HARROWING. [ s also much cultivated about Kai-seng, the duties upon it, notwithstanding much smuggling, yielded about half a million dollars annually. Iron ore of excellent quality is mined ; and there are copper mines in several places. The output of the silver mines is very small, but the customs returns for 1886 show the value of gold exported that year to be $503,296. The principal industries are the manufacture of paper, mats woven of grass, split-bamboo blinds, oil paper, and silk. The total value of the foreign im- ports in 1887 was 12,300,000, two-thirds representing cotton goods ; the native exports reached about $700,000, chiefly beans and cow hides. The foreign vessels entering the treaty ports yearly number about seven hundred and fifty, of some two hun- 23 362 INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCIAL LIFE. erred thousand tons burden. Three-fourths of the trade is with Japan and more than one-fifth with China ; British goods go by way of these countries. Until 1888 business was done chiefly by barter, imports being exchanged largely for gold dust, and Japanese silk piece goods being a current exchange for trade inland. In that year the mint at Seoul was completed, and a beneficial effect on commerce resulted from the introduction of a convenient and sufficient coinage. Seoul is connected by tele- graph with Taku, Port Arthur, Chemulpo, Gen- san, and Fusan. Corea is divided into eight pro- vinces, three on the east coast and five on the west coast. These eight pro- vinces are divided into sixty districts with about three hundred and sixty cities, only sixty of which however are entitled to the name, the remain- der distinguishing themselves from the larger hamlets and villages merely by the walled-in residence of the chief govern- ment official. Only a portion of each real city is walled in ; but it must not be thought that these walls are in any way similar to those to be found in China, where even second and third rate cities are protected by high and strong fortifications with moats. Corean walls are usually about six feet high, miserably constructed, of irregular and uneven stone blocks, and nearly every one of them would tumble down at the first shock of a ball fired from a modern gun. COEEAN CITY WALL. HISTORY OF THE NEUTRAL STRIP. 363 Corea has for centuries successfully carried out the policy of isolation. Instead of a peninsula, her rulers strove to make her an accessible island, and insulate her from the shock of change. She has built, not a great wall of masonry, but a barrier of sea and river-flood, of mountain and devastated land, of palisade and cordon of armed sentinels. Frost and snow, storm and winter, she hailed as her allies. Not content with the sea border, she desolated her shores lest they should tempt the foreigner to land. In addition to this, between her Chinese neighbor and herself she placed a neutral space of implanted, unoccupied land. This strip of forest and desolated plain twenty leagues wide, has stretched for three centuries between Corea and Manchooria. To form it, four cities and many villages were suppressed and left in ruins. The soil of these former solitudes is very good, the roads easy, and the hills not high. The southern boundary of this neutral ground has been the boundary of Corea, while the northern boundary has been a wall of stakes, palisades and stone. Two centuries ago, this line of walls was strong, high, guarded and kept in repair, but year by year at last, during a long era of peace, they were suffered to fall into decay, and except for their ruins exist no longer. For centuries only the wild beasts, fugitives from justice, and outlaws from both countries have inhabited this fer- tile but forbidden territory. Occasionally borderers would culti- vate portions of it, but gathered the produce by night or stealth- ily by day, venturing on it as prisoners would step over the dead line. Of late years the Chinese government has respected the neutrality of this barrier less and less. Within a generation large portions of this neutral strip have been occupied ; parts of it have been surveyed and staked out by Chinese surveyors, and the Corean government has been too feeble to prevent the occu- pation. Though no towns or villages are marked on the map of this neutral territory, yet already a considerable number of small settlements exist upon it, and it was through them that the over- land marches of the Japanese army from Corea into Manchooria had to be made. The province which borders this neutral territory, is that of Ping-Y"ang or " Peaceful Quiet." It is the border land of the kingdom, containing what was for centuries the only ackuowl- 364 PROVINCE OF PING-YANG. edged gate of entrance and outlet to the one neighbor which Corea willingly acknowledged as her superior. The battle of Ping- Yang recently fought, is only one of many which have interrupted the harmony of the province of " Peaceful Quiet." The town nearest the frontier and the gateway of the kingdom is Wi-ju. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Yalu river, and surrounded by a wall of light colored stone. The annual embassy always departed for its overland journey to China through its gates. Here also are the custom house and vigilant guards, whose chief business it was to scrutinize all persons entering or leaving Corea. Nevertheless most of the French missionaries have entered the mysterious peninsula through this loop-hole, disguising themselves as wood cutters, crossing the Yalu river on the ice, creeping through the water drains in the grand wall, and passing through this town, or they have been met by friends at appointed places along the border, and thence have traveled to the capital. Further details as to the political condition of this neutral strip will be included in a succeeding chapter, preliminary to the outbreak of the war. The Tatong river, which forms the southern boundary of the province, is the Rubicon of Corean history. At various epochs in ancient times it was the boundary river of China or of the rival states within the peninsula. About fifty miles from its mouth is the city of Ping- Yang, the metropolis and capital of the province and the royal seat of authority from before the Christian era to the tenth century. Its situation renders it a natural stronghold. It has been many times besieged by Chinese and Japanese armies, and near it many battles have been fought. The next province to the south is that of Hwanghai or the " Yellow Sea " province. This is the land of Corea that projects into the Yellow Sea directly opposite the Shan-tung promontory of China, on which are the ports of Chefoo and Wei-hai-wei. Tien-tsin, the seaport of Peking, is a little farther east. From these ports since the most ancient times, the Chinese armadas have sailed and invading armies have embarked for Corea. Over and over again has the river Tatong been crowded with fleets of junks, fluttering the dragon banners at their peaks. To guard against these invasions signal fires were lighted on the hill-tops WHERE INVADING ARMIES FOUGHT. 365 which formed a cordon of flame and sped the alarm from coast to capital in a few hours. This province has been the camping ground of the armies of many nations. Here, beside the border forays which engaged the troops of the rival kingdom, the Japanese, Chinese, Mongols, and Manchoos have contended for victory again and again. The principal cities of this province are Hai-chiu the capital, Hwang-ju an old baronial walled city, and the commercial city of Sunto or Kai-seng. Rock salt, flints, ginseng, varnish, and brushes made of the hair of wolf tails, are the principal products of the province. Kiung-kei is the province which contains the national capital,' although it is the smallest of all. The city of Han Yang, or Seoul, is on the north side of the river, forty or fifty miles from its mouth. The name Han Yang means " the fort- ress on the Han river," while the common term ap- plied to the royal city is Seoul, which means "the capi- tal." The popula- tion of the city is between two hundred thousand and two hundred and fifty thousand. The natural advantages of Seoul are excel- lent, as it is well protected by surrounding mountains, and its suburbs reach the navigable river. The scenery from the city is magnificent. The walls are of masonry, averaging about twenty feet in height, with arched stone bridges over the water courses. The streets are narrow and tortuous. The king's castle is in the northern part. The islands in the river near the capital are inhabited by fishermen. Four great fortresses guard the approaches to the royal city, GATE OF SEOUL. 366 SEOUL AND ITS FORTIFICATIONS. all of which have been the scene of siege and battle in time past. The fortresses in succession are Suwen to the south, Kwang-chiu to the south-east, Sunto to the north and Kang-wa to the west. On the walls of the first three have been set the banners of the hosts of Ming from China and of Taiko from Japan, in the wars at the close of the sixteenth century. The Manchoo standard in 1637 and the French eagles in 1866 were planted on the ramparts of Kang-wa. Beside these castled cities there are forts and redoubts along the river banks crowning most of the commanding headlands. Over these the stars and stripes floated for three days in 1871 when the American forces captured the strongholds. Sunto is one of the most important, if not the chief commercial city in the kingdom, and from 960 to 1392 it was the national capital. The chief staple of manufacture and sale is the coarse cotton cloth which forms the national dress. Kang-wa on the island of the same name, at the mouth of the Han river, is the favorite fortress to which the royal family are sent for safety in time of war, or are banished in case of deposition. The province Chung Chong or " Serene Loyalty " is the next one to the southward facing the Yellow Sea. In the history of Corean Christianity this province will be remembered as the nursery of the faith. Here were made the most converts to the teachings of the French missionaries, and here persecutions were most violent. When the Japanese armies of invasion reached the capital in 1592, it was over the great highways from Fusan which cross this province. Chion-Chiu, the fortress on whose fate the capital depended, lies in the north-east of the province. The province contains ten walled cities, and like all its fellows it is divided into departments, right and left. The most southern of the eight provinces, Chulla or "Complete Network" is also the warmest and most fertile. It is nearest to Shanghai and to the track of foreign commerce. Considerable quantities of hides, bones, horns, leather, and tallow are exported to Japan. The beef supplied from the herds of cattle in the pas- tures of Chulla is famous, and troops of horses graze on the pas- ture land. The province is well furnished with ports and harbors. Christianity had quite a hold in this province, and when Corea THE SOUTH OF THE PENINSULA. 367 was partly opened to the world there were many believers found in the north who were descendants of Christian martyrs. The capital is Chon-chiu. The soil of the province was the scene of many battles during the Chinese invasions of 1592-97. The island of Quelpaert is about sixty miles south of the main- land. It is mountainous, with one peak called Han-ra more than six thousand five hundred feet high. On its top are three extinct craters within each of which is a lake of pure water. Corean children are taught to believe that the three first created men of the world still dwell on these lofty heights. The most south-easterly province of Corea, and therefore the nearest to Japan, is Kiung-sang or the "Province of Respectful Congratulation." It is one of the richest of the eight provinces as well as the most populous, and the seat of many historical associations with Japan. The city of Kion-chiu was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Shinra, and from here to Kioto, from the third to the tenth century, the relations of war and peace, letters and religion were continuous and fruitful. The province has always been the gateway of entrance and exit to the Japan- ese. Fusan, the port which was held by the Japanese from very ancient times, is well at the south-eastern extremity of the penin- sula. Its fortifications are excellent, and its harbor well protected. Populous cities encircle the bay on which Fusan stands, and from this point extend two great roads to Seoul. The influence of cen- turies of close intercourse with their neighbors, the Japanese, is strongly marked in this province. The " River Meadow," or Kang-wen province fronts Japan from the middle of the eastern coast directly north of Kiung-sang. It is a province of beautiful scenery and precipitous mountains. The capital is Wen-chiu. The women of the province are said to be the most beautiful in Corea. Ham-kiung, or complete view, is that part of Corean territory adjoining the boundary of Russia. The south-eastern boundary of Siberia, which has been pushed farther south after every Euro- pean war with China, touched the Tumen river, the northern boundary of Corea, in 1858. It is but a little ways from the mouth of the Tumen river to the forts of Vladivostok and Possiet in Russian territory. From these cities extends a telegraph 368 GREAT COREAN-MANCHOORIAN FAIR. across Siberia to the cities of European Russia, and here will be the terminus of the great Trans-Siberian railway now under construc- tion. Possiet is connected with Nagasaki by an electric cable. In the event of a war between China and Russia, the Czar would most probably make Corea the basis of operations. Thousands of Coreans have left their own country to dwell in the neighboring portions of Siberia, and most of them are from the province of Ham-kiung. Persecuted Christians from all over the Corean pen- insula have however escaped to Russia for protection for many years. The port of Gensan near Port Lazaref, fronting Broughton's Bay has been opened for trade since May 1, 1880, and has been an important strategic and commercial point ever since. The capital city of this province is Ham-hung and there are fourteen other walled cities within its limits. Until the Russians occupied the adjoining territory, an annual fair was held at the Corea city of Kion-wen which lies close to the border. Here the Manchoo and Chinese merchants bartered their wares for those of Corean, the traffic lasting but two or three days and sometimes only one day. At the end of the fair any lingering Chinese not soon across the border was urged over at the point of a spear. Foreigners found within the Corean limits at any other time were apt to be ruth- lessly murdered. The government of Corea, since the amalgamation of the differ- ent tribes and union of the various states five hundred years ago, has devolved upon an independent king, an hereditary mon- arch whose rule was absolute and supreme. Next in authority to the king are the three Chong, or high ministers. The chief of these is the greatest dignitary of the kingdom, and in time of mi- nority or inability of the king wields royal authority. The father of the present king ruled as regent up to the time when his son reached his majority in 1874. After the king and the three prime ministers, come the six heads of departments of government which rank next. These six department ministers are assisted by two other associates, the Cham-pan and the Cham-e. These four grades and twenty-one dignitaries constitute the royal council of Dai-jin, though the actual authority is in the three ministers. All of the department ministers make daily reports of their affairs, and refer matters of importance to the supreme council. There are also FORMS OF GOVERNMENT IN COREA. 3G9 three chamberlains who record every day the acts and words of the king. A daily government gazette called the Cho-po is issued for information on official matters. The general cast and method of procedure in the court and government were copied in the be- ginning after the great model in Peking. The rule of the king in Corea is absolute, and his will alone is law. There has always existed, indeed, the office of a high functionary whose special duty consists in watching and controlling the royal actions. Formerly this office really had some significance, but of late years it has possessed none whatever. Another very curious institution has been that of the declared or official favorite, a position generally filled by some member of a noble family, or by one of the ministers whose influence for good or for evil was paramount with his royal master. The titles of the prime ministers are Chief of The Just Government, The Just Governor of the Left, and The Just Governor of the Right. The six department min- isters are those of the interior, or office and public employ, finance, war, education, punishments or justice, and public works. The duties of the minister of foreign COREAN MAGISTRATE AND SERVANT.^.^ ^^ on ^ minigter Q f education. Each of the eight provinces is under the direction of a Kam-sa or governor. The cities are divided into six classes, and are governed by officers of corresponding rank. Towns are given in charge of the petty magistrates, there being twelve ranks or dignities in the official class. In theory, any male Corean able to pass the government examination is eligible to office, but the greater number of the best positions are secured by the nobles and their friends. The terms of office in these posts, from that of provincial governorship down to the lowest are only for two or 370 FORMS OF GOVERNMENT IN COREA. three years. At the end of that time the incumbent pays pur- chase money and is removed to another place. The natural result of this system is that the officials take little interest in their offices except to extort as much profit as possible from the people whom they are governing. With offices and honors sold to the highest bidder, the high officers sell justice and plunder their sub- ordinates, while these again try to indemnify themselves by further extortion. The magistrates lay great stress on the trifles of etiquette, and sumptuary laws exist referring to all sorts of the small things of life. The rule of the local authorities is very minute in all its ramifications. The system of making every five houses a social unit is universal. Every subject of the sovereign except nobles of rank must possess a passport testifying to his personality and must show his ticket on demand. Civil matters are decided by the ordinary civil magistrate, while criminal cases are tried by the military commandant. Very important cases are referred to the governor of the province, nd thence appealed to the high court in the capital. COREAN CHARACTERISTICS AND MANNERS OF LIFE. Physique of the People Rigid Caste System Slavery Guilds and Trade Unions Po- sition of Women Nameless and Oppressed Marriage and Family Life Burial and Mourn- ing Customs Dress and Diet Homes Home Life Children Education Outdoor Life- Music Literature Language Religion. The Corean people are mainly of a Mongolian type, though there is some evidence that there is a Caucasian element in the stock. They are a little larger and steadier of physique than the Japanese, or the Chinese of the south, more nearly approaching to the northern Chinese and even to the tribes in the northeast of Asia. Frequently individuals are met, with hair not quite black, and even blue eyes and an almost English style of face. The characteristics of the people are distinguished to advantage from that of their Chinese neighbors by the openness and frankness of their demeanor. The Coreans, even of the lower classes, are grave and sedate by nature, which, however, does not exclude a spirit of frank gayety shown on nearer acquaintance. They are thoroughly honest, faithful and good natured, and attach them- selves with an almost childlike confidence even to strangers and foreigners, when once they begin to trust in their sincerity. Firm, sure, and quick in his walk, the Corean possesses greater ease and a freer motion than the Chinese, to whom they are su- perior in height and bodily strength. On the other hand it can- not be denied that the Coreans rank considerably below the Chinese in cultivation of good manners, and they are wanting in that little polish which is not absent even among the lower classes of China and Japan. The peculiarity of the Corean race and the difference between the same and the neighboring nations, shows itself mainly in the strict and rigid division of the castes which part the various ranks of the population of the peninsula from each other, showing some analogy to the caste institutions prevailing among the Hindus in India. There exists, however, this notable difference between the two, that while with the latter this separation is based upon (371) 372 SYSTEM OF CASTE. religious principles and customs, no religious movement appears as its cause in Corea, where its origin seems solely attributable to political reasons, which have been maintained and kept up to our times by the government for reasons of its own. The forms of Corean society to this day are derived from feudal ranks and di- visions. The fruit and legacy of feudalism are seen in the serf- dom or slavery which is Corea's peculiar domestic institution. Speaking in general terms, society has four grades, following the king. These are the nobles and the three classes which come after them, in the last of which are " the seven low callings." In detail the grades may be counted by the scores. In the lowest grade of the fourth class are " the seven vile callings," that is, the merchant, boatman, jailer, postal or mail slave, monk, butcher, and sorcerer. The first and foremost rank, immediately after the king and the members of the royal family, who stand absolutely above and beyond these castes, is taken up by the so-called nobles, descendants of the old families of chieftains, who are again sub- divided into two degrees, the civil and the military nobility. These two classes of nobles, in the course of time, had possessed themselves of the exclusive right of occupying public office. Fol- lowing upon these we find the caste of the half nobles, numeri- cally a very weak class, which forms the transition from the no- bility to the civic classes. These also enjoy the right to fill cer- tain offices from their ranks, principally those of government sec- retaries and translators of Chinese. After these come the civic caste, which consists of the better and wealthier portion of the city inhabitants. This class counts amongst its numbers the mer- chants, manufacturers, and most kinds of artisans. Next follows the people's caste, which comprising the bulk of the people is naturally the most numerous of all and includes all villagers, farmers, shepherds, huntsmen, fishermen, and the like. The nobles are usually the slave holders, many of them having in their households large numbers whom they have inherited along with their ancestral chattels. The master has a right to sell or otherwise dispose of the children of his slaves if he so choose. Slavery or serfdom in Corea is in a continuous state of decline, and the number of slaves constantly diminishing. The slaves are those who are born in a state of servitude, those SLAVERY OR SERFDOM. 373 who sell themselves as slaves, and those who are sold to be such by their parents in times of famine or for debt. Infants exposed or abandoned that are picked up and educated become slaves, but their offspring are born free. The serfdom is really very mild. Only the active young men are held to field labor, the young women being kept as domestics. When old enough to marry, the males are let free by an annual payment of a sum of money for a term of years. Outside of private ownership of slaves, there is a species of government slavery which illustrates the persistency of STATESMAN ON MONOCYCLE. Native Drawing. one feature of the ancient kingdom of Korai perpetuated through twenty centuries. It is the law that in case of the condemnation of a great criminal, the ban shall fall upon his wife and children, who at once become the slaves of the judge. These unfortunates do not have the privilege of honorably serving the magistrate, but usually pass their existence in waiting on the menials in the various government offices. Only a few of the government slaves are such by birth, most of them having become so through judicial condemnation in criminal cases; but this latter class fare 374 GUILDS AND LABOR UNIONS. far worse than the ordinary slaves. They are chiefly females, and are treated little better than beasts. Nothing can equal the con- tempt in which they are held. By union and organization it has come to pass that the common people and the serfs themselves in Corea have won a certain degree of social freedom that is increasing. The spirit of asso- ciation is spread among the Coreans of all class- es, from the highest families to the meanest slaves. All those who have any kind of work or interest in common, form guilds, corpora- tions or societies which have a common fund contributed to by all for aid in time of need. Very powerful trade unions exist among the mechanics and laborers, such as hat- weavers, coffin-makers, carpen- ters, and masons. These societies enable each class to possess a mo- nopoly of trade which even a noble vainly tries to break. Sometimes they hold this right by COREAN BRUSH CUTTER. Native Drawing, writ purchased or ob- tained from govern- ment, though usually it is by prescription. Most of the guilds are taxed by the government for their monopoly enjoyed. They have their chief or head man who possesses almost despotic power, even in some guilds of life and death. One of the most powerful and best organized guilds is that of the porters. The interior commerce of the country being almost GUILDS AND LABOR UNIONS. 375 entirely on the backs of men and pack horses, these people have the monopoly of it. They number about ten thousand, and are divided by provinces and districts under the orders of chiefs and inspectors. They have very severe rules for the government of their guild, and crimes among them are punished with death at the order of their chief. They are so powerful that they pretend that even the government dare not interfere with them. They are honest and faithful in their business, delivering packages with PORTERS WITH CHAIR. Native Drawing. certainty to the most remote places in the kingdom. When they have received an insult, or injustice, or too low wages, they " strike " in a body and retire from the district. This puts a stop to all travel and business until the grievances are settled, or sub- mission to their own terms is made. Owing to the fact that the country at large is so lacking in the shops and stores common in other countries, and that instead fairs on set days are so numerous in the towns and villages, the guild of peddlers and hucksters is 376 WOMAN'S SECLUSION. very large and influential. This class includes probably two hundred thousand able bodied persons who in the various provinces move freely among the people, and are thus useful to government as spies, detectives, messengers, and in time of need, soldiers. The Corean woman has little moral existence. She is an in- strument of pleasure or of labor, but never man's companion or equal. She has no name. In childhood she receives indeed a sur- name by which she is known in the family and by near friends, but as she grows up none but her father and mother employ this appellation ; to all others she is " the sister " of such a one or " the daughter " of so and so. After her marriage her name is buried, and she is absolutely nameless. Her own parents allude to her by employing the name of the district or ward in which she is married. When she bears children she is " the mother " of so and so. When a woman appears for trial before a magistrate, in order to save time and trouble she receives a special name for the time being. In the higher classes of society etiquette requires that the children be separated after the age of eight or ten years. After that time the boys dwell entirely in the men's apartments to study and even to eat and drink; the 'girls remain secluded in the women's quarters. The boys are taught that it is a shameful thing even to set foot in the female part of the house. The girls are told that it is disgraceful even to be seen by males, so that gradually they seek to hide themselves when any of the male sex appear. These customs, continued from childhood to old age, result in destroying the family life. A Corean of good taste only occasionally holds conversation with his wife, whom he regards as being far beneath him. The men chat, smoke, and enjoy themselves in the outer rooms, and the women receive their parents and friends in the inner apartments. The men seek the society of their male neighbors, and the women on their part unite together for local gossip. In the higher classes, when a young woman has arrived to marriageable age none even of her own relatives except those nearest of kin, is allowed to see or speak to her. After their marriage women are inaccessible. They are nearly always confined to their apartments, nor can they even look out into the streets without permission from their lords. MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 377 There is, however, another side. Though counting for nothing in society, and nearly so in their family, they are surrounded by a certain sort of exterior respect. They are always addressed in the formulas of the most polite language. The men always step aside in the street to allow a woman to pass, even though she be of the poorer classes. There is also a peculiar custom which exists in Seoul which exhibits deference to the comfort of the women. A bell in the castle is struck at sunset, after which male citizens are not allowed to go out of their houses even to visit their neighbors. Women, on the contrary are permitted the free- dom of the streets after this time, consequently, as thej r are as- sured of safety, from seeing men or being seen by them, they take their exercise and enjoy the outdoors most heartily and freely at night. Marriage in Corea is a thing with which a woman has little or nothing to do. The father of the young man communicates with the father of the girl he wishes his son to marry. This is often done without consulting the tastes or character of either, and usually through a middleman or go-between. The fathers settle the time of the wedding, and a favorable day is appointed by the astrologers. Under this aspect marriage seems an affair of small importance, but in reality it is marriage only that gives one any civil rank or influence in society. Every unmarried person is treated as a child. He may commit all sorts of foolishness with- out being held to account. His capers are not noticed, for he is not supposed to think or act seriously. Even the unmarried young men of twenty-five or thirty years of age can take no part in social reunions or speak on affairs of importance. But mar- riage is emancipation. Even if mated at twelve or thirteen years of age, the married are adults. The bride takes her place among the matrons and the young man has a right to speak among the men and to wear a hat. The badge of single or married life is the hair. Before mar- riage the young man who goes bareheaded, wears a simple tress hanging down his back. In wedlock the hair is bound up on the top of the head and is cultivated on all parts of the scalp. Young persons who insist on remaining single, or bachelors who have not yet found a wife, sometimes, however, secretly cut off their hair 24 378 THE WEDDING DAY. or get it done by fraud in order to pass for married folks and avoid being treated as children. Such a custom however is a gross violation of morals and etiquette. On the evening before the wedding the young lady who is to be married invites one of her friends to change her virginal coiffure to that of a married woman. The bridegroom-to-be, also invites one of his acquaintances to do up his hair in manly style. On the marriage day in the house of the groom a platform is set up and richly adorned with decorative cloths. Parents, friends, and acquaintances assemble in a crowd. The couple to be married, who may never have seen or spoken to each other, are brought in and take their places on the platform face to face. There they remain for a few minutes. They salute each other with profound obeisance but utter not a word. This constitutes the ceremony of marriage. Each then retires upon either side; the bride to the female, and the groom to the male apartments, where feast- ing and amusement after fashions in vogue in Chosen take place. The expense of a wedding is considerable and the bridegroom must be unstinting in his hospitality. Any failure in this particu- lar may subject him to unpleasant practical jokes. On her wed- ding day the young bride must preserve absolute silence both on the marriage platform and in the nuptial chamber. Etiquette re- quires this at least among the nobility. Though overwhelmed with questions and compliments, silence is her duty. She must rest mute and impassive as a statue. It is the reciprocal salutation before witnesses on the wedding dais that constitutes legitimate marriage. From that moment a husband may claim a woman as his wife. Conjugal fidelity, oblig- atory on the woman, is not required of the husband, and a wife is little more than a slave of superior rank. Among the nobles the young bridegroom spends three or four days with his bride, and then absents himself from her for a considerable time to prova that he does not esteem her too highly. To act otherwise would be considered in very bad taste and highly unfashionable. Habituated from infancy to such a yoke and regarding them- selves as of an inferior race, most women submit to their lot with exemplary resignation. Having no idea of progress or of an in- fraction qf established usage they bear all things. They become DEATH AND BURIAL. 379 devoted and obedient wives, jealous of the reputation and well- being of their husbands. The woman who is legally espoused, whether widow or slave, enters into and shares the entire social estate of her husband. Even if she be not noble by birth she becomes so by marrying a noble. It is not proper for a widow to remarry. The fashion of mourning, the proper time and place to shed tears, and express grief, according to regulations, are rigidly pre- scribed in an official treatise, or " Guide to Mourners," published by the government. The corpse must be placed in a coffin of very thick wood, and preserved during many mouths in a special room prepared and ornamented for this purpose. It is proper to weep only in this death chamber, but this must be done three or four times daily. Before entering it the mourner must don a special suit of mourning clothes. At the new and full moon all the relatives are invited and expected to assist in the ceremonies. These practices continue more or less even after burial, and at in- tervals during several years. Often a noble will go out to weep at the tomb, passing days and nights in this position. Among the poor, who have not the means to provide a death chamber and expensive mourning, the coffin is kept outside their houses cov- ered with mats until the time for its burial. Though cremation is known in Corea, the most usual form of disposing of the dead is by burial. Children are wrapped up in the clothes and bedding in which they die and are thus buried. As all unmarried persons are reckoned as children their shroud and burial are the same. With the married the process is more costly, and more detailed and prolonged. The selection of a proper site for their tomb is a matter of profound solicitude, time, and money ; for the geomancers must be consulted with a fee. The tombs of the poor consist only of a grave and a low mound of earth. With the richer class monuments are of stone, some- times neat or even imposing, sometimes grotesque. Mourning is of many degress and lengths, and is betokened by dress, abstinence from food and business, visits to the tomb, offer- ings, tablets, and many visible indications detailed even to ab- surdity. Pure or nearly pure white is the mourning color, as a contrast to red, the color of rejoicing. When noblemen don the 380 MOURNING CUSTOMS. peaked hat which covers the face as well as the head, they are as dead to the world, not to be spoken to, molested, or even arrested, if charged with crime. This Corean mourning hat proved the helmet of salvation to Christians and explains the safety of the French missionaries who lived so long in disguise under its shel- ter, unharmed in the country where the police were ever on their track. The Jesuits were not slow to see the wonderful protection promised for them, and availed themselves of it at once and always, both while entering the well-guarded frontier and while residing in the country. Corean architecture is in a very primitive condition. The castles, fortifications, temples, monasteries, and public buildings cannot approach the magnificence of those of Japan or China. The dwellings are tiled or thatched houses, almost invariably one story high. In the smaller towns these are not arranged in regu- lar streets but are scattered here and there. Even in the cities the streets are narrow and tortuous. In the rural parts the houses of the wealthy are surrounded by beautiful groves, with gardens circled by hedges or fences of rushes or split bamboo. The cities show a greater display of red-tiled roofs, as only the officials and nobles are allowed this honor. Shingles are not much used. The thatchings are rice or barley straw. A low wall of uncemented stone five or six feet high, surrounds the dwellings. The foun- dations are laid on stone set in the earth, and the floor of the humble is the ground itself. The people one grade above the poorest, cover the hard ground with sheets of oiled paper which serve as a carpet. For the better class a floor of wood is raised a foot or so above the earth. Bed clothes are of silk, wadded cotton, thick paper, and furs. Cushions or bags of rice-chaff form the pillows of the rich. The poor man uses a smooth log of wood or slightly raised portion of the floor to rest his head upon. In most families of the middle class, the "kang" forms the vaulted floor, bed, and stove. It is as if we should make a bedstead of bricks and put foot -stoves un- der it. The floor is bricked over or built of stone, over flues which run from the fireplace at one end of the house to the chim- ney at the other. The fire which does the cooking is thus used to warm those sitting or sleeping in the room beyond. COREAN HOMES. 381 Three rooms are the rule in an average house, and these are for cooking, eating, and sleeping. In the kitchen the most notable articles are the large earthen jars for holding rice, barley or water. Each of them is big enough to hold a man easily. The second room, containing the " kang," is the sleeping apartment, and the next is the best room or parlor. Little furniture is the rule. Coreans, like the Japanese, sit not cross-legged but on their heels. CORE AN BOAT. Native Draining. Among the well-to-do, dog skins cover the floor for a carpet, or tiger skins serve as rugs. Matting is common. The meals are served on the floor on small low tables, usually one for each guest, but sometimes one for a couple. The best table service is of porcelain and the ordinary sort of earthenware with white metal or copper utensils. The tablecloths are of fine glazed paper and resemble oiled silk. No knives or forks are used ; but instead chopsticks and what is more common than in 382 MEALS, FOOD AND DRINK. China or Japan, spoons are used at every meal. The walls range in quality of decoration from plain mud to colored plaster and paper. Pictures are not known. The windows are square and latticed without or within, covered with tough oiled paper, and moving in grooves. The doors are of wood, paper, or plaited bamboo. Glass was till recently a nearly unknown luxury in Corea. The Corean liquor by preference is brewed or distilled from rice, millet, or barley. These alcoholic drinks are of various strength, color, and smell, ranging from beer to brandy. No trait of the Coreans has more impressed their numerous visitors than their love of all kinds of strong drink. No sooner were the ports of Corea opened to commerce than the Chinese established liquor stores, while European wines, brandies and whiskeys have entered to increase the national drunkenness. Although the Corean lives between the two great tea-producing countries of the world, he scarcely knows the taste of tea and the fragrant herb is little used on the peninsula. The staple diet has in it much more of meat and fat than that of the Japanese, and the average Corean can eat twice as much as the Japanese. Beef, pork, fowls, venison, fish, and game are consumed without much waste and rejected material. Dog flesh is on sale among the common butchers' meat. The women cook rice beautifully, and other well-known dishes are barley, millet, beans, potato, lily-bulbs, seaweeds, acorns, radishes, turnips, mac- aroni, vermicelli, apples, pears, plums, grapes, persimmons, and various kinds of berries. All kinds of condiments are much rel- ished. One striking fault of the Coreans at the table is their voracity. In this respect there is not the least difference between the rich and poor, noble or plebeian. To eat much is an honor, and the merit of a feast consists not in the quality but in the quantity of the food served. Little talking is done while earing, tor each sen tence might lose a mouthful. Hence, since a capacious stomach is a high accomplishment, mothers use every means to develop as elastic a capacity as possible in their children from very infancy. The Coreans equal the Japanese in devouring raw fish, and un- cooked food of all kinds is swallowed without a wry face. Fish VORACITY OF THE COREANS. 383 bones do not scare them. These they eat as they do the small bones of fowls. Nationally and individually the Coreans are very deficient in conveniences for the toilet. Bath tubs are rare, and except in the warmer days of summer, when the river and sea serve for immersion, the natives are not usually found under water. The need of soap and hot water has been noticed by travelers and writers of every nation. The men are very proud of their beards, and honor them as a distinctive glory and mark of their sex. Women coil their glossy black tresses into mas- sive knots and fasten them with pins, or gold and silver rings. Corea is famous as the land of big hats. Some of these head-cover- ings are so im- mense that the human head en- cased in one of them seems as but a hub in a cart wheel. In shape the gentleman's COREAN EGO-SELLEK. Native Drawing. hat resembles a flowerpot inverted in the center of a round table. Two feet is a common diameter, and the top, which rises in a cone nine inches higher, is only three inches wide at the apex. The usual material is bamboo, split to the fineness of a thread and woven. The fabric is then varnished or lacquered, and be- comes perfectly weatherproof. The prevalence of cotton cloth- ing, easily soaked and rendered uncomfortable, requires the ample 384 COSTUME OF MEN AND WOMEN. protection for the back and shoulders which these umbrella-like hats furnish. The wardrobe of the upper classes consists of the ceremonial and the house dress. The former as a rule is of fine silk, and the latter of coarser silk or cotton. They are of pink, blue, and other rich colors. The official robe is a long garment like a wrapper, with loose baggy sleeves. There are few tailors' shops, the women of each household making the family outfit. The under- dress of both sexes is a short jacket with tight sleeves, which for men reaches to the thighs, and for women only to the waist, and a pair of drawers reaching from waist to ankle. The females wear a petticoat over this garment, so that the Coreans say they dress like western women, and foreign-made hosiery and under- garments are in demand. Their general style of costume is that of the wrapper, stiff, wide, and inflated, with abundant starch in summer, but clinging and baggy in winter. The white dress of the Corean makes his complexion look darker than it really is. Footgear is either of native or of Chinese make. The laborer contents himself with sandals woven from rice-straw, which usually last but a few days. Small feet do not seem to be con- sidered a beauty, and the foot binding of the Chinese is unknown in Cho-sen. Judging from a collection of the toys of Corean children, and from their many terms of affection, and words relating to games and sports, festivals and recreation, and nursery stories, the life of the little ones must be pleasant. In the capital and among the higher classes, children's toys are very handsome, ranking as real works of art. They have many games played by the little ones quite similar to those of our own babies, and they delight in pets 5 such as monkeys and puppies. At school the pupils study out loud and noisily, according to the method all over Asia. Besides learning the Chinese characters and the vernacular alphabet, the children master arithmetic and writing. The normal Corean is fond of his children, especially of sons, who in his eyes are worth ten times as much as daughters. Such a thing as exposure of children is little known. The first thing inculcated in a child's mind is respect for his father. All insubordination is immediately and sternly le CLANNISH SPIRIT. 385 pressed. Far different is it with the mother. She yields to her boy's caprices, and laughs at his faults and vices without rebuke, while the child soon learns that a mother's authority is next to nothing. Primogeniture is the rigid rule. Younger sons at the time of their marriage, or at other important periods of life receive paternal gifts, but the bulk of the property belongs to the oldest son, on whom the younger sons look as their father. He is the head of the family, and regards his father's children as his own. In all eastern Asia the bonds of family are much closer than among Caucasian people of the present time. All the kindred, even to the fifteenth or twentieth degree, whatever their social position, rich or poor, educated or illiterate, officials or beggars, form a clan or more properly one single family, all of whose members have mutual interests to sustain. The house of one is the house of the other, and each will assist to his utmost, another of the clan to get money, office, or advantage. The law recognizes this system by levying on the clan the taxes and debts which in- dividuals of it cannot pay, holding the clan responsible for the in- dividual. To this they submit without complaint or protest. In- stead of the family being a unit, as with us, it is only the frag- ment of a clan, a segment in the great circle of kindred. The Coreans are fully as clannish as the Chinese, and in this lies one great obstacle to Christianity or to any kind of individual reform. China gave her culture to Corea and Corea passed it on to Japan. If we may believe Corean tales, then the Coreans have pos- sessed letters and writing during three thousand years. It is certain that since the opening of the Christian era the light of China's philosophy has shone steadily among Corean scholars. In spite of their national system of writing, the influence of the finished philosophy and culture of China has been so great that the hopelessness of producing a copy equal to the original became at once apparent to the Corean mind. The culture of their native tongue has been neglected by Corean scholars. The consequence is that after so many centuries of national life Corea possesses no literature worthy of the name. At present Corean literary men possess a highly critical 38G EDUCATION AND LITERATURE. knowledge of Chinese. Most intelligent scholars read the classics with ease and fluency. Penmanship is an art as much prized and as widely practiced as in Japan, and reading and writing constitute education. Corea has most closely imitated her teacher, China, in the use of education. She fosters education by making scholastic ability as tested in the literary examination, the basis of appointment to office. This civil service reform was established by the now ruling dynasty early in the fifteenth century. The Corean child, neglecting his own language, liter- ature, and history, studies those of China and the philosophy of Confucius, so that his education is practically that of the young man in China. The same classics are studied and the same at- tention is paid to memory cultivation. The competitive exami- nations too are very similar to those of China, and corresponding degrees are granted. The system of literary examinations, which for two or three centuries after its establishment was vigorously maintained with impartiality, is at present in a state of decay, bribery and official favor being the causes of its decline. The special schools of languages, mathematics, medicine, art etc., are under the patronage of the government, but amount to very little. The school of astronomy and the choice of fortunate days for state occasions is for the special service of the king. There is also a school of interpreters, charts, law, and horology. Although the Chinese language, writing and literature form the basis of education and culture in Chosen, yet the native language is distinct in structure from the Chinese, having little in common with it. The latter is monosyllabic, while the Corean is polysyllabic, as is the Japanese which the Corean closely re- sembles. No other language is so nearly affiliated to the Japanese as is the Corean. The Corean alphabet, one of the most simple and perfect in the world, consists of twenty-five letters, eleven vowels and fourteen consonants. They are made with easy strokes in which straight lines, circles, and dots only are used. As in Japan, so in Corea three styles of languages prevail, and are used as follows : Pure Chinese without any admixture of Corean, in books and writings on science, history aud govern- ment, and in the theses of the students and literary men ; in the books composed in the Corean language the vernacular syntax LANGUAGE. J87 serves as the framework, but the vocabulary is largely Chinese ; the Corean book style of composition which is written in the pure Corean language. Every one in Corea speaks the vernacular and not Chinese. The books which have been written in Corean, are chiefly primers or manuals of history, books on etiquette and ritual, and geog- raphy. There are also a few works of poetry written, in the vulgar dialect. BAND OP MUSICIANS. Native Drawing In passionate fondness for music the Coreans decidedly surpass all other Asiatic nations. Their knowledge is indeed primitive, however, not superior to that of their neighbors, and their instru- ments are of rude workmanship and construction. The principal of these instruments are the gong, the flute, and the two-stringed guitar, combining to make a music anything but harmonious. They always sing in falsetto, like the Chinese, in a monotonous and melancholy manner. The Coreans however possess a musical 388 RELIGION. ear, and they know how to appreciate and like to listen to foreign music very much, while the Chinese have not the slighest idea of harmony, and placing our music far below their own, look down upon our art with something like a feeling of pity. The fibres of Corean superstition, and the actual religion of the people of to-day, have not radically changed during twenty centuries in spite of Buddhism. The worship of the spirits of nature and the other popular gods is still reflected in superstition and practice. The Chinese Fung Shuy, which in Corean be- comes Pung-siu, is a system of superstition concerning the direc- tion of the everyday things of life, which is nearly as powerful in Corea as in the parent country. Upon this system, and perhaps nearly equal in age with it, is the cult of ancestral worship which has existed in Chinese Asia from unrecorded time. Confucius found it in his day and made it the basis of his teachings, as it had already been of the religious and ancient documents of which he was the editor. The Corean system of ancestral worship pre- sents no feature radically different from the Chinese. Confuci- anism, or the Chinese system of ethics, holds about the same position that it does in China. Taoism seems to be little studied. In Corean mouths Buddha becomes Pul and his " way " or doctrine Pul-to or Pul-chie. The faith from India has made thorough conquest of the southern half of the peninsula, but has only partially leavened the northern portion where the grosser heathenism prevails. The palmy days of Corean Buddhism were during the era of Korai, 905 to 1392 A. D. In its development, Corean Buddhism has frequently been a potent influence in national affairs, and the power of the bonzes has at times been so great as to practically control the court and nullify decrees of the king. As in Japan the frequent wars have developed the forma- tion of a clerical militia, able to garrison and defend their fortified monasteries, and even to change the fortune of war by the valor of their exploits. There are three distinct classes or grades of the bonzes or priests. The student monks devote themselves to learn- ing and to the composition of books and to Buddhist rituals. Then there are the mendicant and traveling bonzes who solicit alms and contributions for the erection and maintenance of the temples and monastic establishments. Finally the military BUDDHISM. 389 bonzes act as garrisons, and make, keep in order, and are trained to use weapons. Even at the present day Buddhist priests are made high officers of the government, governors of provinces, and military advisers. In the nunneries are two kinds of female de- votees, those who shave the head and those who keep their locks. The vows of the latter are less rigid. Excepting in its military phases, the type of Corean Buddhism approaches that of China rather than of Japan. The great virtue of the Coreans is their innate respect for and daily practice of the laws of human brotherhood. Mutual assist- ance and generous hospitality among themselves are distinctive national traits. In all the important events of life, such as mar- riages and funerals, each person makes it his duty to aid the family most directly interested. One will charge himself with the duty of making purchases; others with arranging the ceremonies. The poor, who can give nothing, carry messages to friends and relatives in the near or remote villages, passing day and night on foot and giving their labors gratuitously. When fire, flood or other accident destroys the house of one of their number, neighbors make it a duty to lend a hand to rebuild. One brings stone, an- other wood, another straw. Each in addition to his gifts in mate- rial devotes two or three days' work gratuitously. A stranger coming into a village is always assisted to build a dwelling. Hos- pitality is considered as one of the most sacred duties. It would be a grave and shameful thing to refuse a portion of one's meal to any person, known or unknown, who presents himself at eating time. Even the poor laborers at the side of the roads are often seen sharing their frugal nourishment with the passer-by. The poor man making a journey does not need elaborate preparations. At night, instead of going to a hotel, he enters some house whose exterior room is open to any comer. There he is sure to find food and lodging for the night. Rice will be shared with the stranger, and at bedtime a corner of the floor mat will serve for a bed, while he may rest his head on the long log of wood against the wall, which serves as a pillow. Even should he delay his journey for a day or two, little or nothing to his discredit will be harbored by his hosts. It is evident after this glance at the history, the conditions, and 390 GENEROSITY AND HOSPITALITY. the customs of the Coreans, that they have many excellent quali- ties, which require but the leavening influence of Christianity and western civilization to make them worthy members of the family of nations. It is quite possible that the influence of the Japanese-Chinese war, in its ultimate results, may reach this de- sirable consummation. THE CAROLINES. THE LADRONES. THE CONQUEST OF MANILA. LOCATION OP THE PHILIPPINES. (392) THE PHILIPPINES. Discovery of the islands Conquest by the Spanish Area Population Topography- Climate The Islanders Five distinct races The Bocals Characteristics Love for intox- icants Amusements Passions Homes Earthquakes Pretty women Their peculiarities Dress The Island controlled by priests The cigar industry A smoker's paradise Pa- triarchal customs Fertility of the soil Exquisite scenery Prodigious growth of flowers Orchids. THIS rich island group was discovered by Magellan in 1521, and at first was called Magellina, in honor of the Great Navigator. The Spanish did not obtain genuine sovereignty of the islands, however, until 1565, when Lopez de Legaspi conquered them and gave them their present name, after Philip of Austria later Philip II. of Spain. The Spaniards did not accomplish their con- quest without difficulty, for, although the natives were poorly armed, having only the weapons common to savage peoples throughout the world, they made a stout resistance, and all the military strength and strategy of the Spaniards were needed in order to subdue them. The islanders have since shown, by oft- repeated insurrections, their objection to Spanish rule, and be- tween 1565 and the insurrection of 1898 there has hardly been a decade in which Spanish troops have not been called upon to pacify one or another of the disturbed provinces. Spanish do- minion has never extended over more than one-half of the archi- pelago ; the other half being ruled by Mohammedan and savage tribes. There are 1,200 islands in the Philippine group, the greater number of which, however, are mere dots or islets, inhabited only by a few families. Insignificant as are most of these, the larger islands are of very respectable dimensions, the total area of the entire group being about 120,000 square miles. The twenty main islands cover about 92,000 miles. Luzon is the principal island, and Mindanao the next in importance. The islands are all of volcanic origin and each has a mountain range. The largest vol- cano on the islands is Mount Mayon, which is most beautifully situated and in shape a perfect cone. There are few large rivers, 25 (893) 394 TEMPERATURE OF MAMLA. but many small ones. It rains considerably in the islands and rainfalls are exceedingly heavy, a fall of eight inches in twenty- four hours having frequently been noted. A torrid heat prevails all the year round. The mean annual temperature of Manila is about ninety degrees, which indicates that in summer the thermometer stands above 100 regularly everyday, and approaches that mark closely during the night. Even in what is called the winter season a temperature of sixty-five to eighty-five degrees prevails, so that a Philippine winter would be deemed a toler- ably warm American summer. The heat is rendered almost unen- durable by the moisture in the atmosphere, for day and night, from year's end to year's end, the air is almost saturated ; the perspiration of the body does not dry, but stands in large drops, which fall off on the slightest movement. The heat is so intense in summer that Europeans frequently tumble over with heat apoplexy. Even the Spaniards do their business in the early hours, whiling away the heat of the day in sleep. The total population of the group is between 5,000,000 and 7,000,000, and contains representatives of five of the grand divi- sions of the human race. The smallest, most ancient, and least known to the Americans are the wild tribes ; small, black people, called Negritos. These inhabit the mountains of the interior, some of which are active volcanoes. These Negritos have kinky hair, and resemble some of the African races, but history or tradition fails to show that thej r belong in Africa, or have ever had any relations with it or its races. Apparently, they were the original inhabitants of the archipelago, and the Polynesians and Malays have successively encroached on them and driven them inland. They are all dwindling races, rapidly becoming extinct, unalterably savage, though often gentle in character, and limited in intelligence. When they are not safe from interference by other races they are wanderers, becoming hunters and fishers. When fairly safe from attack, they settle in small communities and raise rice and maize. Their dress is very slight. They marry each one woman, whom, unlike their neighbors, they do not buy. They live under a chief, who administers their laws and settles all disputes. Their lan- guage is made up of words from the language of their invaders. THE INHABITANTS. 395 The Indonisian race is the second people of the Philippines. They embrace Polynesians from the South seas and Hawaii, with a large Malay intermixture. Long before history, they invaded the islands and drove the Negritos inland, but later the Malays descended on them and drove them inland, so that now the Negritos are furthest inland, the Indonisians in the middle region and the Malays on the coast. The Indonisians are called " pagans " by both the Spanish and the Malays, but they are large, finely made, warlike, independent, and embrace the majority of the pop- ulation of the islands not yet conquered. The Malays form the great body of the population, occupy the Subio group exclusively, and form the main population on the other islands. They are of the familiar Malay type ; small, yel- low or brown, independent, aggressive, fanatical, enterprising, hard to bring to a civilized attitude on any matter. About a quarter of a million of these are Mohammedans, and are called Moors by the Spanish. The remainder, and great majority, are Christians nominally, but always Catholics, and are called Indies, or Indians. There are about 50,000 Chinese in the Philippines ; nearly all men. They are the middlemen of the business of the islands, live in the cities and towns and are very prosperous. Some of them have attained great wealth, and their social status is much above that of the average Chinese. About 15,000 Spanish comprise that element in the islands, and about one third of this number are Creole, or born on the islands. The remainder are officials and colonials. The language is Span- ish and many of the Indies use it. The seeker of strange modes of life and the student of the habits of people who have had little contact with civilization, and have primitive homes, can be satisfied by a visit to almost any of the other larger islands than Luzon in the Philippine Archipelago, as, for instance, Negros, Palawan, Mindanao and Samas. In any of these islands there can be found tens of thousands of na- tives, who, like generations of their ancestors, have never left their little island homes and have not the faintest idea that there is any world beyond their islands. Here the race is mixed, and the residents are almost of as light complexions as the residents of 396 HABITS OF THE PEOPLE. Manila. The } r oung men and women are comely, and a great many of the women between the ages of sixteen and twenty are of striking beauty. On many of the islands there live the Bocals, who are supposed by some to be the aborigines of the archipelago and to be of Malay origin. They are an interesting race for any anthropologist to study. They and the Panays in Borneo are the laziest people that live. They do absolutely nothing that is un- necessary for living and dreaming. They have immense families often twenty children in a, house, and there are a multitude of cases of parents having fifteen and eighteen boys and girls. Every family has its own house. The whole family, no matter how numerous, is crowded into one room at night, the sleepers reclining on heaps of dried banana leaves. Strange to say, the women are a cleanl}' people. They like to be near the sea so they can bathe in the waters of the ocean. They become expert surf riders and can scale the breakers in the wildest storms. Like seagulls, they ride the tossing rollers and smile at the ocean's maddest winds. In their little boats they sail over the blue bosom of the Pacific and cruise many miles away from their island shores. Their little crafts cross the chan- nel from island to island and visit all the ports in the archipel- ago. They are not afraid of the ocean solitudes, but are at home on its watery waste and find delight in its expanse of blue. They are proud of their teeth and take pains to frequently polish them with rude brushes made of the areca tree. The poorer people have no other cooking utensils than an earthen pot, and the aris- tocrats have a few cast-iron pans and big, rough earthen dishes. The natives of the Philippine Islands have a natural love for strong intoxicants, particularly whisky, and if their process of manufacturing it were not so extraordinarily slow they would all be hard drinkers. As it is, they drink all they can get. Their whisky is made from the juice of the sugar cane fermented and distilled. Of course, they have amusements. Man under every sky must have his fun, and the Malays are no exception to the rule. The principal amusement, from one end to the other of the Philippine Islands is gambling. Ever}'body gambles, and every- body devotes to gambling nearly all the time that he can spare from his meals and smoking. Two or three times every month, AMUSEMENTS OF THE MALAYS. 897 however, gambling is momentarily forgotten in the excitement of a cock-fight. Cocking mains are common in Manila and the other towns, and every great feast day of the church owes part of its attraction in the popular mind to the fact that, after the reli- gious services of the day are over, the cock-fighting begins, and is kept up as long as there are any cocks to continue the contest. The enthusiasm over the cock-fighting is of a boisterous char- acter, and the visitor at Manila on a church feast day has no diffi- culty in locating the building in which a cock-fight is going on by the shrieks and yells of the audience, who are encouraging their favorite birds. A Malay will bet his last copper on a cock-fight, and instances have been known of men who pawned every item of personal property in their possession and lost it when betting on a cock that they felt sure would win. The vices of the seaports have penetrated the interior and de- moralized the natives of the island towns, so that the Malay, whether he lives on the coast or in the interior, is essentially the same. The villages consist of collections of huts made of wattles and reeds, thatched with grass ; exceedingly primitive in charac- ter, they are suited to the climate, and quite good enough for the people who inhabit them, for why should a Malay take the time from gambling and cock-fighting to build a house, when a double armful of reeds will make the walls and a load of grass the roof; so he lives in his grass hut, through which the breezes can blow, and when he is obliged to venture forth during the rainy season keeps himself dry by enveloping his body in a thatched covering, made of the same materials which compose his roof, and places over his head an umbrella-shaped hat, also of grass, which per- fectly sheds the rain and keeps his cigarette from being extin- guished by the falling drops. Of what use, he says, are houses of stone, brick, or even of wood, for the earthquake and typhoon are incidents of weekly occurrence in his life. His grass hut cap stand the heaviest earthquake shock, and the tremors which bring down a stone building in ruins, do not effect his slender structure. When an earthquake occurs, as it does in some por- tions of the islands two to seven times a week, he is amused to see the Europeans jump up and run en dishabille out of their houses for fear the walls will fall upon them, sits under his grass 398 THE WOMEN OF THE PHILIPPINES. roof and enjoys the sensation, for even if his house does fall he crawls out from under his load of hay, and with the assistance of his wife and neighbors sets up the poles and recommences house- keeping, as though nothing had happened. The native women of the Philippines are, as a rule, excessively pretty and engaging creatures, with supple figures accentuated by the thinness of their garments, beautiful, languishing eyes, shaded with long lashes, and luxuriant, blue-black hair. This last is the chief glory of the Philippine beauty. It is long, rich, thick, made glossy both by the care bestowed on it and its frequent anointings with cocoanut oil. Often, too, it is cleaned and washed with lemon juice and oil, which has been made fragrant by infu- sions of odoriferous flowers. Some of the women wear it hang- ing down their backs, entirely unadorned, while others, especially the matrons, build it up in a kind of coil or knot, held by a golden comb and ornamented by pins or very frequently adorned by a bright, fragrant flower. They scorn bonnets or hats, but often throw a handkerchief over their heads, and, if the heat of the sun is very intense, carry a parasol for protection. Another admirable feature nearly all the women possess are liquid and languishing eyes, which are used with telling effect, and their third vanity is their very finely shaped feet that never know a stocking, but which are thrust into slippers without heels, tastefully and elaborately embroidered with gold or silver thread. The walk of the women is graceful, but rather coquettish, and when the clog is donned on wet days they move with a very peculiar swing, which is quite distinct from the Japanese totter. The thumb-nail of the right hand is allowed to grow very long, which assists them in playing the guitar, their favorite instru- ment. The dress of the Tagal women consists of a little skirt made of the famous pina cloth, having wide, short sleeves. This is worn loose, quite unbound to the figure, and reaches to the waist. Around it is girt a petticoat, called saya, made of silk, either striped or checked, but always of gay colors. Sometimes it is also of pina cloth ; the qualitj' and coloring frequently very beau- tiful and sometimes cheap and common. Out of doors another article of dress, a tapiz, or shawl, is wrapped tightly around the THEIR APPAREL. 399 loins and waist above the saya, and generally it is black or dark blue with narrow white stripes. A profusion of bracelets and chains and earrings, all of beautifully worked gold or silver, usually completes the toilet of a Tagal beauty. The more opu- lent possess very valuable jewels and often are seen with neck- laces and bracelets of diamonds and pearls. Over her neatly folded handkerchief the Tagal woman wears a crucifix, or a little bag of relics, suspended by a chain. Sometimes she will have a rosary of coral or pearls, and medals of copper or gold, bearing the figure of Our L&dy of Mexico or of Guadaloupe. This is not 'to be wondered at, when it is remembered that the Philippines have been controlled by monks and friars since 1569. At that time, the islands were looked upon as a field for missionary labor rather than as an opportunity for commercial enterprise. It was publicly given out that an atonement for the cruelties practiced by the Spaniards in America, was to be instituted. Owing to this policy, the influence of the religious orders has been paramount in the establishments and institutions of the colony, from the very first. Monks, priests, and friars are seen everywhere. The Philippine women of all ages children and old women, as well as young girls and matrons, smoke long cigars, chew the betel nut, dance, swim, and ride ; but the great ambition of every woman is to possess a dress, a scarf, or at least a handkerchief of the famous pina cloth. There is no more beautiful fabric manu- factured in any part of the world than this, which is made from the fiber of the pineapple leaf and is quite expensive ; a common shirt costs from four to ten dollars ; a whole dress costs at least twenty dollars ; and no less a sum than fifteen dollars has been paid for a single garment. A good average scarf, or handkerchief, brings from twenty-five to fifty dollars. When embroidered, a scarf of pina sometimes costs as much as a hundred and fifty dollars ! The most important industry that the women of the Philip- pines are engaged in is tobacco. In the making of cheroots none but women are employed, and there are no less than 4,000 busy in the factories of Manila alone. Men make the cigarillos, or small cigars, which are smoked by the natives, but women only are al- lowed to prepare and roll the cigars. It is estimated that 21,000 400 OCCUPATION OF THE WOMEN. women find employment in this business and only 1,500 men. Eacli room in the enormous factories contains from eight hundred to a thousand women, all of whom are seated, or rather squatted, on the floor. At intervals little round tables are placed, and at every one of these an elderly matron is stationed to keep watch over the dozen or so younger women and girls. The noise is ab- solutely maddening, as stones are used for beating out the leaf. A cigarmaker earns from six to ten dollars a month, which is quite sufficient to provide her with necessary comforts and leaves a bal- ance for dress. The married women, whose husbands earn their living for them in the field or factory, keep house in a primitive fashion. The pa- triarchal custom of making the lover serve in the house of his in- tended bride's father is universal in the Philippines. When the marriage takes place there is usually a feast of several days, and the bride of fifteen years is then taken to the little house which her husband has built with his own hands. The whole Philippine Archipelago is the smoker's paradise. Quantities of tobacco of the finest flavors grow in tropic luxuri- ance on the uplands, and every one is an adept at smoking. Boys and girls of ten use the weed hourly, and roll their own cigars with the deftness of their parents. It is a common sight to see in the streets of Manila a father and mother sauntering along with enormous cigars in their mouths, and followed by five or six children, varying in age from ten to twenty, all smoking. At the little theater in Manila, where a few performances are given each winter season, every one smokes, and the roof is so arranged that the smoky air can pass quickly away. In every home, whether in the country or in the heart of Manila, there are always heaps of dried tobacco leaves, tied in bunches, upon the floor or in a shed near the house, and the provident native lays in a stock of tobacco for household purposes several times a year as carefully as the American does the family supply of potatoes or flour. Strange as it may seem, very little tobacco is exported, and the reason given is that the Spanish for their own reasons have dis- couraged and ruined the exportation of the weed. Nowhere on the earth's surface has the Creator bestowed a greater fertility of soil, more exquisite scenery and variety of cli- SUBSTITUTE FOK WOOLEN GOODS. 401 mate. Neither Java nor Borneo, Sumatra, nor tlie fertile Celebes, excel the Philippines in richness, variety and magnificence of vegetation ; in undeveloped mineral wealth, or in all that gees to make a great and rich state under a stable, just and free govern- ment. Previous to 1810 no foreigner had a right to reside or trade in the islands. Since then, a most lucrative trade has been carried on by the Spaniards in cigars, tobacco, indigo, hemp, gold-