Z927 
 
 Benas 
 Ethics and Poetry of the Chinese
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 7 IfH^ylui /yuc^^ur/ 
 
 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 
 
 Authorities. 
 
 The Chinese Government. W. F. Mayer, London, 1876. 
 
 "Kace Problems on China." British and Foreign Evangelical Review. 
 
 " Chinese Classics." British Quarterly Review, 1878. 
 
 "Female Education in China." Leisure Hour, 1878. 
 
 " Life and Thought in China." Contemporary Revieiv, 1887. 
 
 " China : The Sleep and the Awakening." Marquis Tseng, Asiatic 
 
 Quarterly Reviexo, 1887. 
 " Progress in China." Grundy, Fortnightly Review, 1889. 
 Col. Olcott, Catechism of Buddhism. 
 
 Les Chinois Feints par eux memes. Col. Tcheng Ki Tong. 
 Voyage en Indo-Chine. L. de Carne, Paris, 1872. 
 Journal de mon troisieme Voyages d'exploration dans I'Empire Chinois. 
 
 Abbe A. David, Paris, 1875. 
 Uber die lange Dauer und entwicklung des Chinesischen Reich. N. Plath, 
 
 Munich, 1861. 
 
 &c., &c., &c. 
 
 I PROPOSE in this paper to lay before the Society a sketch 
 of the inner life, aims and aspirations of more than three 
 hundred and eighty millions of our fellow-creatures ; the 
 only family of human beings who can claim to have from the 
 remotest ages to the present day, kept the cradle of their 
 race and themselves in an unbroken historical continuity. 
 The Jews, who have marvellously retained their ethics and 
 racial instincts perhaps longer than any other Caucasian 
 race, must yield to the Chinese the merit of having pre- 
 served both their territory and their political organisation 
 intact. 
 
 202919
 
 2 THE ETHICS AND TOETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 I Jim not entoriiijj; into the field of comparative ethics, 
 nor ilo I wish to impress anj'ouc with the idea that I at all 
 disparage our western ideal of civilisation. I only ask for an 
 impartial and philosophic enquiry as to the claims the 
 Chinese have to hold a place among the nations of the 
 world, who have contributed their share to wean mankind 
 from a state of primitive savagery, to a useful form of com- 
 munal life. 
 
 It is most difficult for us, perhaps the most serious task, 
 for the philosophic mind to free itself entirely from inherited 
 prejudices. I remember conversing once with the great 
 Indian reformer, Chunder Sen, a man of transcendent intel- 
 lect, who had a supreme admiration for all that was health- 
 giving in our European customs and ethics, yet he admitted 
 to me that he himself could not easily overcome his inherited 
 prejudice against the use of flesh meat. 
 
 It has been jestingly observed, that if the pockets of 
 some of the agnostics of Latin countries were searched, 
 possibly an Agnus Dei or a sacred heart might be found on 
 their ring of charms. 
 
 No people had a greater prejudice against the bearded 
 strangers (barbarians) than had the great Koman nation ; 
 yet in the end the traditions of Rome would have been lost 
 but for these very barbarians. If anyone could have foretold 
 that the Roman people would in later years adopt the poems 
 of, what was in their estimation, the barbarian Jewish king 
 David, as sacred hymns, and chant and re-chant these verses 
 daily in all the Basilica of the Eternal City, it would have 
 seemed as ludicrous then, as though someone to-day were to 
 venture to predict that in a future time, some Chinese poet 
 might take rank with a Shakespeare or a Byron. 
 
 In fact, do we not ourselves associate ideas with modes 
 of expression, I will not say thought, which our educated 
 conscience warns us are erroneous? For instance, we asso-
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 3 
 
 ciate a German band with a wretched out-of-tune brazen 
 performance, whilst we at the same time know that Ger- 
 many produces some of the most tender and exquisite 
 writers of harmony, and many of the most skilful executants. 
 Again, an Italian organ-grinder and an Italian plaster-of- 
 paris image man revolt our artistic instincts, the one by its 
 machine-made inartistic harmony, the other by the soulless 
 lifeless lump of dough which seems to burlesque art; and yet 
 Italy, of all other countries, is the mother of much that is 
 true and beautiful, whether in the domain of harmony, the 
 brush, or the art plastic. It is just because both Germany 
 and Italy are artistic nations, that where the cup is full to 
 overflowing, there we find, as a rule, the froth and bubble as 
 well ; and we are apt to associate the froth and bubble often- 
 times with the generous liquid itself. It is a matter of fact 
 that those Germans and Italians, to whom none of their 
 countrymen would fling a centime, get a few coppers from 
 the country folk of people not their own. Hence so many of 
 them emigrate, and thus give a false impression to the 
 uncultured, untravelled, and unthinking multitude, respect- 
 ing the character of the masses of their countrymen at 
 home. 
 
 There is another pitfall from which we have to be 
 warned, and that is the influence of the unscientific and 
 superficial chronicler. For instance, the foreign professor, 
 who may live in Soho, or the neighbourhood of Leicester 
 Square, and who corresponds with some continental journal, 
 professes to instruct the people abroad about the English 
 nation, whereas he hardly knows the parish of St. Giles. 
 What does such a critic as this know of our sturdy Lan- 
 cashire men and their busy hives of commerce ; our York- 
 shire centres of industry; the charm of our lake district; 
 the brawny Highlander and his wild and romantic country ; 
 our beautiful Devonshire meads and their gentle yeomanry;
 
 4 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 or the grimy iron puddler of Dudley and West Bromwich ; yet 
 such writers profess to instruct about England. You have, 
 again, the foreign Commission Agents, who live a few years 
 in some of our important manufacturing centres. They 
 attend their lager beer houses in London, Liverpool, Man- 
 chester, or Bradford ; they go occasionally from Friday to 
 Monday perhaps to Brighton, Southport, Buxton, or their 
 nearest watering-place ; they remain with us just long 
 enough to make the money they want ; they go back to the 
 Vaterlaud, and these people tell you they know all about 
 England and the English ; nay, how many native born 
 Londoners are there who know extremely little of the land of 
 their birth. So that before presenting to you a few examples 
 of the ethics and poetry of the Chinese people, I venture to 
 entreat you to divest yourselves of any possible prejudice, 
 which I regretfully admit exists against the Chinese, in many 
 English-speaking countries, in the same degree as I warn 
 you of the prejudice which clings to the Italian organ- 
 grinder and the German brass band. I wish you also to 
 take cum grano salis the opinions of many Europeans who 
 happen to have lived a few years in the Treaty ports of 
 China, who have possibly associated only with the English 
 "set" over there, and have become saturated with our pre- 
 judices, going to China only to make money, and on their 
 return venturing to tell you they know all about China 
 and the Chinese. Their knowledge perhaps is about equal 
 to, or possibly slightly less than, that of our foreign friend 
 located in St. Giles, who presumes to be a popular educator 
 with regard to Great Britain. 
 
 To study the history and tendency of a people, we must 
 not merely visit the country as a tourist or as a commercial 
 adventurer, but it is necessary to take a deep introspective 
 view into their literature, religion, laws, ethics, and proverbs, 
 as well as to their political and social organisation. A
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 5 
 
 Gibbon, or a Mommsen, has described the inner life of 
 ancient Rome perhaps better than a local Roman quidnunc, 
 who may have been in the flesh in the Eternal city centuries 
 ago. These historians that I have mentioned have seen with 
 their brains what the other merely thinks he sees with his 
 eyes. Of course, those students who are satisfied without 
 examination that they are only dealing with the " heathen 
 Chinee," are no better than the prejudiced Chinaman of the 
 lower orders, who calls Europeans barbarians and whiskey- 
 drinking devils. These persons on both sides do not count 
 for much in the domain of philosophic thought, though, 
 alas, they do sometimes influence the material and political 
 relations of mankind with each other, and oftentimes pre- 
 judice gains a temporary victory. A child may not like the 
 multiplication table, but whether he likes it or not, it does 
 not alter the fact that twice two are four. 
 
 Suppose a Chinese author quoting the opinion of an 
 American Ex-Consul as to the position of womanhood in 
 Germany, the so-called typical land of culture. Now this is 
 what Ex-Consul Mr. Henry Ruffles says : — 
 
 I would not like to be a German peasant woman, I would much 
 prefer to be a German horse, for German horses are well treated and 
 well fed. The Germans are naturally kind to all dumb animals. 
 Women, however, receive none of these kind attentions and considera- 
 tions at the hands of the male portion of the community, but are 
 treated as if they were of a species lower than the brutes, with no feel- 
 ings and no souls. Woman is made to perform every kind of degrading 
 labour. She prepares the fields for planting, she drives the oxen and 
 holds the plough, and not unfrequently she takes the place of the ox 
 before the plough. She sows the seed and tills the soil, she shovels, 
 she hoes, she reaps, she gathers the harvest, she thrashes the grain 
 and carries it to the mill, she grinds it at the mill, she markets the 
 products of her small strip of laud to buy bread for her children and 
 beer for her lord and master. She does the work and drudgery in the 
 factories, she is the scavenger for cleaniug the streets, and gathering 
 offal in the cities and highways for enriching the land. She does
 
 6 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 everything but jilay soldier and hang about beer shops and drink beer 
 from earlj' morn until late at night like the German men, and these 
 occupations would be assigned to her provided they required hard 
 labour or drudgery of any kind. Yet they are strong and robust, and 
 perform what is called a man's labour. "While at work in the fields, 
 and it is only during the warm months of the year that they can, they 
 are only paid ten or twelve cents for a day's labour of twelve hours 
 (that is fivepence or sixpence English money). 
 
 When they board themselves they receive from 20 to 28 or 30 
 cents a day, or lOd. to Is. 3d. English sterling. 
 
 Might not a Chinese critic be reasonably expected to 
 deduce from this opinion, that however high the ideal of 
 woman may be in countries holding western ethics, in actual 
 practice it does not amount to much; and might not such 
 a student logically retort, when we point flippantly to the 
 practical position of women in some of the treaty ports of 
 China, that we ought to examine what the ideal position of 
 woman is, in Chinese religion and ethics, before we assume 
 that the Chinese Chowbenter's wife is the ideal of Chinese 
 womanhood. 
 
 As a magistrate, I had the personal experience in our 
 local tribunal, of an excellent heroic woman who nursed and 
 tended, and by her long and faithful watching, saved the 
 life of a desperately wounded canal-boatman with whom she 
 lived as his wife, absolutely refusing the earnest appeal of 
 the man in open court to marry with legal or religious form ; 
 "Nay," said she, "I love him, and he is a good man and 
 kind to me now, but the moment I am his wife he looks 
 upon me as his property, and he'll kick me like the rest of 
 them do." And vice versa, how many women are there that 
 have goaded their husbands almost to the verge of ruin, 
 madness, and despair, who have lost all their womanhood, 
 except, perhaps, as the poet Heine calls it, " their anatomi- 
 cal virtue?" Such instances as these, however, are the
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 7 
 
 exceptional diseases of western society, but not the ideal 
 high type of the true biblical wife, whom the royal sacred 
 writer describes as more precious than rubies. There is a 
 popular Chinese song of very ancient date, seven centuries 
 before the Christian era. It is in General Tcheng Ki Tong's 
 collection, published in the French language. I give you 
 two verses. I may add that, to the best of my belief, 
 although there are translations, there is no metrical version 
 in the English language of the ancient Chinese book of 
 verses — more of which anon. 
 
 Little Wife. 
 
 Outside the eastern city gate 
 
 Are many damsels fair and gay, 
 Like clouds are they in numbers great, 
 
 To them I have no word to say. 
 My little wife in robes of white 
 For me is my heart's sole delight. 
 
 Outside the ancient city towers 
 
 Await me maidens, sweet and gay, 
 Witli coloured robes and gorgeous flowers. 
 
 They tempt me from my mate astray. 
 But little wife in robes of white 
 For me is my heart's sole delight. 
 
 I have carefully studied the many adverse criticisms of 
 the Chinese people, and I find that they may be crystallised 
 into three main charges ; firstly, that woman does not hold 
 as high a social position as in European and western 
 communities generally ; secondly, that their deterrent and 
 punitive legislation is cruel ; and, thirdly, that the Chinese 
 personal habits are unsavoury, that their abodes are un- 
 cleanly, and that their general ideas of sanitation are either 
 very primitive or altogether wanting. The prejudices of 
 Europeans and English-speaking people generally have been 
 for the most part fostered by the experiences of the Treaty
 
 8 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 ports, and of Americans and Australians, where the froth of 
 Chinese emigration has overflown, and we hear much of the 
 unsavoury condition of the Chinese quarters and of their care- 
 less habits. Let me remind these adverse critics of what an 
 observant foreigner wrote of us in pre-reformation days. 
 Erasmus ascribes the frequent plagues in England to 
 the nastiuess, dirt, and slovenly habits of the people. 
 " The floors," said he, " are commonly of clay, strewed with 
 rushes, under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of 
 beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrement of dogs 
 and cats, and everything that is nasty." We have, however, 
 improved all this ofi" the face of the earth, so there is hope 
 for the Chinese likewise. 
 
 I venture to think I have shown that in sanitary matters 
 at least, China is what we were in former generations. It 
 occurs to me that the reply of many Chinese ladies to those 
 who adversely criticise their social position, would be very 
 much like the reply of those British matrons who do not 
 care to help their sisters to obtain political equality and 
 complete parliamentary enfranchisement, these like the 
 others say " We don't want to vote, we prefer to retain the 
 sphere we now occupy." As a matter of fact, monogamy is 
 the legal status of society in China. There is a recognised 
 inferior union, similar to that permitted by the " first " Code 
 Napoleon and the temporary morgantic alliances of the 
 German aristocracy known as *' standesherren," but law and 
 Chinese society permits only one wife. On the other hand, 
 a Chinese wife is a legal attorney for her husband. She can 
 give a receipt for him and take delivery or accept a transfer 
 for him ; she can veto or consent to the marriage of her 
 offspring, and she can endow them with her goods without 
 the consent of her husband. In fine, woman's position in 
 China is somewhat the Pauline one, but hardly as low as 
 that of St. Chrysostom. Paul says in 1 Timothy ii, 11,12,
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 9 
 
 " Let woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer 
 not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, 
 but to be in silence ; " whilst St. Chrysostom calls woman 
 " a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, 
 a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill." 
 The Fortnightly Review, in its issue of October, 1889, has a 
 remarkable article on the position of women in Asia, from 
 which I extract the following : — 
 
 No one could for a moment maintain that if a highly organised 
 specimen of the western women were picked out there could be found 
 amongst eastern women any one to match her in beauty, grace, purity, 
 and that highly specialised sense which we love to think of as refined 
 womanhood, but on the other hand, among western women there are 
 many whose infamy and depravity of nature it would be as equally dif- 
 ficult to match in the eastern world. Action and reaction are equal 
 everywhere. Development cannot proceed apace without starting at the 
 same time a retrograde course of degeneration. If the ideal aimed at 
 is high it cannot be astonishing that the majority failed to come any- 
 where near it, and many fall lower than if they had no ideal at all to 
 start with. The easterns are content with the mediocrity and material- 
 ism of this earth, their tread on it is firm and sure, and whilst failing to 
 produce brilliant results, their condition of morality is one of inherent 
 stability. We, like Icarus of old, spurn that which is material from 
 beneath our feet, and attempt to rise on wings of our own making 
 towards the ethereal expanse. May heaven grant that we may not, 
 like him, come crashing lower down than that level from whence we 
 sprung, and with disordered minds and broken np institutions find our- 
 selves wallowing once more amidst the filth of primitive savagery. — 
 Horace Victor. 
 
 With respect to punitive and repressive legislation, we in 
 England should be the last to throw stones upon another 
 people. The act of Henry VIII, 22, Cap. 12, enacts that a 
 sturdy beggar is to be whipped the first time ; his ears 
 cropped the second ; and if he again offend, to be sent to the 
 next gaol till the quarter sessions, there to be indicted for 
 wandering, loitering, and idleness, and if convicted shall
 
 10 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 suffer execution as a felon and an enemy to the common- 
 wealth. W. Heaton in his work, The Three Reforms of 
 Farliameiit, writes : — 
 
 " Oiir law recognised two hundred and twenty-three capital oflfences 
 It seems at iirst tliat there can scarcely be two hundred and twenty 
 three human actions worthj^ of even tlie mildest censure, but our stem 
 fathers found that number wortliy of death. If a man injured West- 
 minster Bridge he was hanged. If he appeared disguised on a public 
 road he was hanged. If he cut down young trees ; if he shot at rab- 
 bits ; if he stole property valued at five shillings ; if he stole anything 
 at all from a bleach field : if he wrote a threatening letter to extort 
 money ; if he returned prematurely from transportation ; for any of 
 these offences he was immediately hanged. In IRIG there wei'e at one 
 time 58 persons under sentence of death, one of these was a child ten 
 3'ears of age. This was England before 1880." 
 
 Before we enter upon the ethics and poetry of the 
 Chinese people, and having disposed of some of the negative 
 aspects of this great Mongolian family, we may now proceed 
 to examine some of their positive institutions. 
 
 The pith and kernel of society in China is the purity of 
 family life and the sanctity of the home. The father, the 
 mother and the offspring, are protected in all their legitimate 
 rights and aspirations, and respect for ancestry is carried 
 perhaps to extravagant dimensions. If a man attains a 
 position of dignity, not only is he ennobled, but his ancestor 
 likewise. There are few hereditary titles in China, but those 
 few have originally been ennobled on account of conspicuous 
 merit. As in Great Britain, the title descends to the eldest 
 son only, whilst the younger sons merge with the rest of the 
 people. Promotion to high office is attained by dint of 
 meritorious conduct and high culture. Children of the 
 humblest parentage have been appointed viceroys and man- 
 darins. Many men and women of the labouring classes pass 
 through a life of privation to save enough to educate one 
 exceptionally clever son. In the event of this lad gaining a
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 11 
 
 chief prize in the local school, which the government provide 
 everywhere free for " elementary" education, the parents feel 
 themselves amply rewarded in the homage paid by the 
 village or the district to the successful prize-winners. These 
 youths are carried on the shoulders of a deputation who wait 
 upon them, they are crowned with flowers, and at night the 
 streets are brilliantly illuminated. This annual prize day 
 forms a feature in Chinese social life. Every Chinese 
 mother looks forward with hope to this eventful day, for to 
 train up a prize-crowned sou is to raise her on a pedestal of 
 social importance. The Chinese cannot well understand the 
 English or American system of ministerial appointments, 
 that is to say, choosing a banker as first Lord of the 
 Admiralty, or a bookseller for the position of Minister of 
 War, or a briefless barrister to be appointed Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer. The Chinese insist upon a complete 
 apprenticeship and step-by-step training for government 
 appointments. They remark that we would not allow 
 our coat to be made by one who is not a tailor, nor would 
 we have our boots repaired by a blacksmith. " Every 
 occupation," say they, "requires apprenticeship and train- 
 ing." They taunt English and Americans with having 
 heaven-born legislators who are quite ready to mend a 
 constitution, but who would not attempt to repair a coat or a 
 pair of boots. The views of the Chinese Government are 
 identical with those of the Papacy, whose hierarchy and 
 priesthood permit no layman to take office in the church 
 proper. 
 
 The Government of China is strictly paternal. The 
 Emperor is the almost infallible ruler of his empire, just as 
 the Pope is the ruler of the Catholic Church. The Emperor 
 delegates his power to viceroys, mandarins, magistrates, and 
 thence to the lowest functionary, all of whom can be sus- 
 pended at will. Of course no human institution exists to
 
 12 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 which one might apply the term perfection. Necessarily the 
 exercise of so much absolute power does and must give 
 rise to instances and cases of injustice and peculation, but 
 these cases are exceptional, the Chinese people, though 
 a peiice-loving, well-educated, and well-disposed people, 
 would only tolerate their ancient system providing it 
 brought' them the maximum amount of, what was in their 
 estimation, communal comfort with the smallest discomfort, 
 and they accept their form of government with the same 
 contentment as a believing Catholic does that of his church. 
 The United States of America exhibit perhaps the very 
 antipodes of the Chinese system, and are certainly not free 
 from corruption or peculation. It would be difficult to 
 predict whether the free American institutions will endure 
 three thousand years hence, her polity having stood the test 
 of scarcely more than a century. The occurrence, a few 
 weeks ago, of two senators shooting at each other, one being 
 mortally wounded, does not look like political perfection. 
 Again, several Chinese writers have pointed out that if they 
 dared believe a tithe of the charges which each political 
 party in England inveighs against the other, they could 
 come to no other conclusion than that Great Britain is 
 divided into two governing clans, the one bloodthirsty 
 ruffians, the other incompetent noodles. 
 
 China points back with some pardonable pride that her 
 system has endured for more than four thousand years. 
 The Marquis Tseng points out, in his epoch-making article 
 in the Asiatic Quarterly Review entitled " China : the Sleep 
 and the Awakening," that his country has become rejuvenated 
 and quite ready to hold her own now against all comers, both 
 physically, intellectually, and commercially. The last chance 
 that Europe ever had of making China subservient to her 
 views, as with Hindoostan, was when the allied forces of 
 England and France marched through the country and took
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 13 
 
 possession of the capital, but the burning of the summer 
 palace near Pekin effected for the Chinese people, what the 
 Carthaginians did for Rome after the battle of Cannae. 
 China, the Marquis observes, is now wide awake, and will 
 hold her own against all comers. It is admitted that their 
 arsenal at Foo Choo is one of the finest in the world, and 
 they now turn out some of their own ironclads and Krupp 
 breech-loading guns. The best proof of their re-awakening 
 is that in the late struggle with France, our gallant neigh- 
 bours came off decidedly second best, and showed no 
 symptoms of regret when England hinted a friendly sugges- 
 tion of mediating. 
 
 Eeligion tempers the paternal government of the empire, 
 and to a great extent acts as a protective force against 
 injustice of all kinds. 
 
 Here again the Mongolian attitude towards religion is 
 the reverse of that of the western races. The Mongolian 
 is a creature deeply imbued with religious but not 
 theological influences. Man seems to him to require two 
 forms of sustenance, physical and spiritual, but towards 
 both he accords the same absolute liberty and toleration. 
 Just as if a human being chooses to live on salt fish 
 and mussels, that is simply his own affair. A Chinaman 
 may suggest that flesh meat and rice is a more desirable 
 food, but with the advice he is content. Neither he, nor a 
 European, would ever subject a man to political and social 
 disability, or persecute him because he chooses to eat 
 potatoes in preference to tomatoes, but the Chinaman pro- 
 ceeds in a like manner in his attitude towards spiritual 
 nourishment. He both teaches and preaches, but he declares 
 evei'y human being free to adopt his own special method of 
 spiritual sustenance. The government holds a benevolent 
 neutrality towards all, and only interferes if any form of 
 teaching attempts to infringe the law of the land. This was
 
 14 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 the cause of the crusliiiifij of the Taeping rebellion. The 
 Mahommedaus of that province, in their iconoclastic zeal, 
 began to demolish the shrines and altars of other faiths. 
 The government put down the perpetrators, not as followers 
 of Islam, but because they attempted a breach of the peace. 
 Now, that the Imperial law has been restored, they can and 
 do worship in their Mosques with all freedom, and enjoy the 
 fullest protection. No better illustration of the genial effect 
 of this universal toleration can be given, than the fact that 
 the Chinese have accomplished what no other power or 
 people have hitherto been able to do. That is, they have 
 quietly absorbed their Jewish element. The Jews of Kai 
 Fung Foo, who have been located there from pre-exilic 
 times, have step by step relinquished their time-honoured 
 institutions, and they are virtually indistinguishable from 
 the rest of the population in their habits and general 
 demeanour. They are now simply a community of Chinese 
 monotheists ; they have always enjoyed absolute religious 
 liberty and equality. This should be an object lesson to 
 many so-called civilised European communities. 
 
 Keligious uniformity does not exist in China. There are 
 three distinct religious groups, besides other subsidiary 
 forms, namely : the religion of Confucius ; the religion of 
 Laotse; and the religion of Fo, or Buddhism. Confucius 
 lived about six centuries before the Christian era. He 
 taught high ethical principles, and above all obedient 
 citizenship. The great aphorism of Confucius, " Never do 
 anything to others which you would not wish others to do to 
 you," is inscribed on almost every public edifice in the 
 empire. / Confucianism, however, seems to be a religion void 
 of sentiment, and does not appeal to the heart and sympathy 
 of the poor and suffering, j 
 
 The religion of Laotse, equally ancient, whatever may 
 have been its original inception, as at present practised is
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 15 
 
 anthropomorphism pure and simple in its crudest form. It 
 embraced some of the elements of Confucianism, and, later 
 on, absorbed Buddhism, and possesses a well-disciplined 
 priesthood, who appeal to the superstition of the ignorant 
 classes, and attract converts by appealing to the latent after- 
 death terrors of the uncultured masses, this being entirely 
 foreign to the teaching of the Buddha. The priests of 
 Laotse decorate their altars with flowers, light up innumer- 
 able candles, have paintings and statues of their holy saints. 
 Their priests wear gorgeous vestments ; they burn incense 
 during the service ; they mediate for pardon of sins ; they 
 encourage the adoration of relics ; they receive large fees for 
 repeating prayers for the repose of the souls of the departed ; 
 and, to devote themselves exclusively to their religious pro- 
 fession, they generally adopt celibacy. /The religion of ^ 
 Laotse furthermore owes some success to the hold it has ' 
 upon the women of China, and indirectly through them upon / 
 their husbands and children. Woman is flattered by the I 
 worship of a queen of heaven, which has no place in real I 
 Buddhism or in the Confucian system. / The godhead is 
 decidedly more personal in the Laotse worship than in either 
 of the other forms of religion. Thus the unlettered classes 
 flock to the altars and shrines of Laotse. Moreover, the 
 priests of Laotse make it a point never to argue as do the 
 priests of Buddha or the preachers of the Confucian doctrine. 
 They simply practise imposing functions, and ask blind 
 obedience from their followers. 
 
 The great bulk of the middle classes, the landowners, 
 agriculturists, and skilled operatives, are followers of the 
 religion of Fo, or Buddhism, The great teacher Buddha has 
 won the aff'ection and heart of the thinking portion of the 
 Chinese people. Unlike Confucius who appeals to a sense 
 of duty, and Laotse to unknown terrors of an after life, the 
 Buddha is loved and venerated for his own sake. His life
 
 16 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 speaks more eloquently to them than the Dbamma-pada 
 itself. His followers see in the life of their teacher, a prince 
 l)orn to succeed to a kingdom, nursed in the lap of every 
 luxurv, with palaces, equipages, and all earthly pleasures, 
 married to a beautiful wife, and father to a promising child; 
 yet the prince gives up all for his unbounded love of man- 
 kind. He quits in the dead of night his past glories, he 
 kisses his wife during her sleep, blesses his child, leaves 
 them in possession of all his fortune, doffs his roj'al apparel, 
 assumes the cotton shirt of a mendicant, and wanders penni- 
 less into the jungle to consider in solitude what are the real 
 aims and objects of life. After a period of hunger and a 
 long probation of poverty, he preaches a doctrine of universal 
 brotherhood, abolition of caste regardless of colour or privi- 
 lege, elevation of woman to equal social rank with man, 
 kindness to animals, care and tenderness in the treatment of 
 the deaf and dumb, the honour of honest poverty, the danger 
 of wealth, the forgiveness of wrong, patience under tribula- 
 tion, and love for their enemies. Buddha says, ** A man 
 who foolishly does me wrong I will return to him the pro- 
 tection of my ungrudging love, the more evil comes from 
 him, the more good shall go from me." 
 
 Forsaken by his own immediate race, repelled by all his 
 ancient friends, except his wife and child, — the princess 
 becoming a nun, and his son an apostle, — Buddha goes forth 
 among strangers, among the poorest and lowliest, teaches, 
 consoles, and comforts ; he dies in his eightieth year calmly, 
 surrounded by his followers, exclaiming, " Children, work 
 out your own salvation." There exists in all Mongolian 
 countries a deep popular love and veneration for Gautama 
 the Buddha ; to follow the Buddha is their watchword, to 
 live and die as the Buddha did is their ideal. The priest- 
 hood of Laotse, feeling how widespread was the appreciation 
 of Buddha, quietly absorbed his personage in their cult, and
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 17 
 
 have made the Buddha the supreme head of their countless 
 saints, though their practices and teachings are altogether 
 foreign to his teachings. The ignorant followers of Laotse 
 quietly worship Buddha as one of their many gods, without 
 any investigation, merely by the awe inspired by their priest- 
 hood. 
 
 We may thus classify the members of the three principal 
 religious systems of China. The doctrine of Confucius is 
 followed by the upper and ruling classes ; the vast majority of 
 the middle and respectable wage-earning classes follow the 
 cult of Buddha ; whilst the lowest and ignorant worship at 
 the shrines and altars of Laotse. So eclectic, however, are 
 the Mongolians that they each and all pay respect to one 
 another's feast days, and followers of Confucius make 
 obeisance to the shrine of Buddha, whilst the Buddhist 
 looks upon Confucius as a wise father and a great teacher. 
 Laotse quietly embraces them both. 
 
 In the political arrangements of the Mongolian world, 
 however high the ethics and the beautiful life of Buddha are 
 held up as the ideal, it is really the law of Confucius that 
 keeps their social fabric intact. Buddha's contempt for 
 wealth, his purely spiritual aims, his preference for celibacy 
 as the highest state of human perfection, his toleration of 
 the married state only as a concession to human weakness, 
 his constant reiteration that life is merely a preparation for 
 a blissful Nirvana, have won the adoration of the Mongolian 
 masses ; but the Chinese people being somewhat canny, 
 hardheaded, and fond of accumulating wealth, are really 
 guided in mundane affairs by the teachings of Confucius, 
 whose practical insight into the exigencies of real life, so 
 evident in all his laws, constitutes even for the Buddhist, 
 although he is loth to admit it, the linchpin of his social and 
 political organisation. Whilst Buddha for instance places 
 woman on an absolute equality with man, Confucius takes
 
 18 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 the Pauline view of womanhood, and the Chinese of every 
 section of society follow the latter rather than the former, 
 
 I ought to mention that Mahommedanism does form a 
 considerable section of the population in the border pro- 
 vinces, and it must be admitted is making marked progress. 
 Teachers of Islam and the Jesuit brothers are the two exotic 
 missionaries who make some headway among the followers 
 of Laotse, both by appealing to the fleshly instincts of the 
 Laotse believers. The Mahommedan induces him to enter 
 his fold by the promises of a carnal Paradise, whilst the 
 Jesuits inspire fear of a carnal infernal region and never- 
 ending carnal torments. The Chinese followers of Islam are 
 known for their sobriety, and general frugality. 
 
 An eminent Chinese official expressed to me, that the 
 cultured classes have great admiration for our Bible and its 
 ethics, but, he observed, the books contain the traditions of 
 the people of Palestine who knew nothing about the Chinese 
 or their history. He further stated that they had no antagon- 
 ism whatsoever to what he termed the " folk-lore" of the Old 
 and the New Testaments, but he maintained it only con- 
 cerns those who derive their religious aspirations from the 
 soil of Palestine. The Chinese treat our biblical history as 
 a work of great literary value, and respect it accordingly, 
 just as we do the ethics of Marcus Aurelius. 
 
 An extract from the Buddhist catechism, approved and 
 recommended for use in the Buddhist schools by H. 
 Sungamala Thero, High Priest of Sripada and Galle, and 
 head of the Widyodaya College at Colombo, may not be 
 without interest : — 
 
 Q. Of what religion are you ? 
 A. The Buddhist. 
 Q. What is a Buddhist ? 
 
 A. One who professes to be a fullower of the Lord Buddha and 
 accepts his doctrine.
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 19 
 
 Q. Was Buddha a god '.' 
 
 A. No. 
 
 Q. Was he a man ? 
 
 A. In form a man, but internally not like other men, that is to 
 say in moral and mental qualities he excelled all other men of his own 
 or subsequent times. 
 
 Q. Was Buddha his name ? 
 
 A. No ; it is the name of a condition or state of mind. 
 
 Q. What is its meaning ? 
 
 A. Enlightened, or he who has the perfect wisdom. 
 
 Q. Did he become Buddha in his splendid palaces ? 
 
 A. He left all and went alone into the jungle. 
 
 Q. Why did he do this ? 
 
 A. To discover the cause of our sufferings and the way to escape 
 from them. 
 
 Q. Was it not selfishness that made him do this ? 
 
 A. No : it was boundless love for all beings that made him sacri- 
 fice himself for their good. 
 
 Q. What did he sacrifice ? 
 
 A. His beautiful palaces, his riches, his luxuries, his pleasures, 
 his soft beds, his fine dresses, his rich food, his kingdom, he even left 
 his beloved wife and his only son. 
 
 Q. Did any other man ever sacrifice so much for our sake ? 
 
 A. Not one. That is why Buddhists so love him, and why good 
 Buddhists try to be like him. 
 
 Q. How old was Buddha when he left his royal condition? 
 
 A. Twenty-nine years. 
 
 The proverbs and maxims of the Chinese, like those of 
 most nations, are perhaps the truest reflection of the inner 
 life of the community, for were an epigram not like a mirror 
 wherein people at once recognise themselves the phrase 
 would not survive the author, perhaps not the day of its 
 utterance. Such accepted English epigrams as " Much cry 
 and little wool," " A stitch in time saves nine," " One half- 
 penny worth of bread to the intolerable amount of sack," 
 " Look before you leap," etc., are current phrases in English 
 speakuig communities, as the French would say hors
 
 20 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 de discussion, hence beyond criticism. Let us now observe 
 bow the Cbinese express themselves in their aphorisms ; 
 for instance, we say "Happy as a king" or "Happy 
 as a bird," whilst they have it " Happy as a fish in the 
 water," a fish really requiring nothing but peace and 
 tranquility, all his natural requirements being provided. 
 We say " Union is strength," the Chinese express it " One 
 single bamboo does not make a raft." Our aphorism " The 
 spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," the Chinese express 
 " One is more or less willing, the other more or less weak." 
 With the Mongolian the more or less comes in. We say 
 " Carrying coals to Newcastle," they observe " He is like a 
 blind man climbing up a mountain to admire the view." Our 
 " Penny saved is a penny earned," is in China " A daily 
 income is better than a fortune." We say " The walls 
 have ears," they observe "Don't speak in the street, there 
 are ears under the flagstones." For our remark of " A pill 
 to cure an earthquake," they have " Like the clown who 
 casts a net to catch a hurricane." I should observe that 
 many of these sayings are to be found in the writings of 
 Confucius. He credits them at his period with an antiquity 
 of more than two thousand years, so that many of the 
 maxims I have quoted date back to more than four thousand 
 years ago. One proverb deserves special notice which 
 declares the brotherhood of mankind. " In every human 
 form you see your kindred and your brother." The charge 
 of exclusiveness on the part of the Mongolian is decidedly 
 more political than ethical. Our biblical proverb " Can a 
 leopard change his spots or an Ethiopian his skin ? " with 
 them reads "Imperial dynasties may change, but human 
 nature never." The reverse of our thoroughly English 
 saying " Take care of yourself" is rendered by the Chinese 
 " Warmth for all and cold for yourself." Our proverb 
 " Heaven provides for all," they have " Every blade of grass
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 21 
 
 has its drop of dew." "When the water gets low the fish 
 begin to show," is somewhat like our saying of "Rats desert- 
 ing a sinking ship." The life of a miser they describe as a 
 man who falls in the sea and grasps the foam. That ancient 
 institution of the mother-in-law is not forgotten in the 
 Celestial Empire. They observe " The glances of a mother- 
 in-law are like the skies in early spring, very unreliable." 
 Again, " An ugly woman may satisfy her husband, but she 
 cannot conceal her ugliness from the critical view of her 
 mother-in-law." 
 
 I shall now proceed to quote a few Chinese proverbs 
 without comment : — 
 
 " Life has its destiny, but fortune depends upon Providence." 
 
 " Although the sea is immense yet oftentimes vessels meet." 
 
 " It is easy to make money, but not so easy to retain it." 
 
 " Pure gold is not afraid of the fire." ' 
 
 " An old bee will never touch a withered flower." 
 
 " A dotard's life is like the flicker of a candle in the wind." 
 
 " Endow not a son-in-law with overmuch money ; if thy daughter 
 
 is ill-treated she may return to thee, but if thy silver taels are ill- 
 treated, they will never find their way home to thee." 
 
 " No matter how high a tree may grow, yet the leaves fall to the 
 
 ground." 
 
 " A tree planted haphazard on the roadside often gives a welcome 
 
 shelter." 
 
 " To understand the sufferings of others you must have suffered 
 
 yourself" 
 
 " The hurricane has no chance against a well-rooted tree." 
 
 " A mandarin can easily equip a thousand soldiers, but he finds it 
 
 a harder task to provide a single general." 
 
 " We should seek new apparel and old men." 
 
 " When Heaven creates a mouth the food is created to fill it ; just 
 
 as every blade of grass has got its little root." 
 
 " Sweet is the great metropolis, but sweeter still is my dear little 
 
 village." 
 
 "A faithful man cannot be faithless even under fear of death." 
 " Of three familiarities observe two and avoid one : retain the
 
 22 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 respectful familiarity like mandarin to mandarin ; also the affectionate 
 
 familiarity like brother to brother; but avoid the insolent familiarity 
 
 that is like the ill-bred man whom your father accepts for a son- 
 in-law." 
 
 ** Mankind are not all {rood nor are all flowers beautiful. " 
 
 *' Do not be a slave to your children, they will find out their own 
 
 path to happiness when they grow up." 
 
 " True charity is to send fuel to the suffering in cold weather, not 
 
 in making presents to those who are rich." 
 
 " Train your child to help you when you are old, just as you fill a 
 
 money-box to make use of it when you are in waut " 
 
 ," First listen to the speech aud then give your judgment." 
 \ " The gates of the law are always open, but those who have rights 
 
 only and no money had better keep away." ^ 
 " A dead man has empty hands." 
 " An eyil act is an evil act, and, however cleverly done, is sure to 
 
 be found out." 
 
 " Charity that is done for the sake of notoriety is not worth 
 
 much." 
 ^ * " If you think there is no power in Heaven look at the lightning." 
 
 (This is a Laotse proverb.) 
 
 " A good bottle of wine oftentime elicits frank thoughts." 
 
 " Shame passes away but debts remain." 
 
 " To any one in a desperate hurry even his race horse seems to 
 
 stand still." 
 
 " Through the chink of a door a human being looks very small." 
 " The hammer strikes the axe, and the axe strikes the wood.'' 
 '* A near neighbour is better than a distant relative." 
 " A beggar does not succeed in chmbing up a rotten bough." 
 
 "Take your own advice first and consult others afterwards." 
 
 " Many a soft speech conceals a vindictive mind." 
 •' Ten rush-lights are not worth a single lamp." 
 " A man often shows his manhood after a long walk of soitow." 
 — -^sV4 clear conscience is better than a candle, for with the former 
 you can walk in the dark." 
 
 - — — " Jewels are seen at best when well set." 
 
 " A flower shows up better when it peeps through green leaves." 
 " To correct your neighbour is like attempting to cure leprosy." 
 " A stupid husband is afraid of his wife, a wise woman obeys her 
 husband."
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 23 
 
 " One switch for a good horse ; one word for a wise man." 
 
 " If men would only criticise themselves as they do others and 
 
 exercise the same charity for others as they have for themselves." 
 
 (This is a Buddhist proverb.) 
 
 '■ It is not the use of wine that makes the drunkard but the abuse 
 
 of it." 
 
 " When men are well-to-do they rarely burn incense, but the 
 
 moment they are in trouble they fall at the feet of Buddha." 
 
 " The failings of the great are as a rule exaggerated by the small." 
 " Talent is like the muscle, the more you train it the more it 
 
 develops." 
 
 " The mistake of the moment is oftentimes the sorrow of a life- 
 time." 
 
 " The anguish caused by envy is like a grain of sand in the eye." 
 "A wise man adapts himself to circumstances just like water 
 
 takes the shape of the bowl that contains it." 
 
 The Iliad of the Chinese is the Book of Verses, and 
 consists of a series of ballads, lyrics, and odes. They were 
 first collected in the reign of the Emperor Houti, about 
 seven centuries before the Christian era. They were subse- 
 quently edited by Confucius. The poem of the "Little 
 Wife " is in this collection. A short ballad of this period is 
 called the " Young Eecruit." * 
 
 * I ought to explain that I have been obliged to paraphrase rather than 
 literally translate the poetic effusions of the Chinese bards. 
 
 What Sir Edwin Arnold says of Japanese poetry holds good for the 
 Mongolian on the mainland. I extract the following from a letter written 
 by the author of the Light of Asia, dated Tmai-cho, Jan. 20th, 1890 : — 
 
 "Where they will complete a thing, nothing can be completer; the 
 microscope itself could find no flaw in the patient, faithful article turned 
 out. When, again, they merely desire to arouse the imagination, one 
 sweep of the brush, one turn of the dexterous wrist, and they have indi- 
 cated twenty leagues of blue distance, or limned a bird's wing in the very 
 act of beating. This latter manner also characterises their national 
 poetry. Bear with one little scrap of it, in order to realise how the 
 Japanese Muse can trust the quick fancies of her children in the domain of 
 song. A Japanese girl, going to her well in the morning, finds that a 
 convolvulus during the night has twined its crimson and purple bells and 
 green tendrils round the pail. It is too beautiful to disturb ! She abandons
 
 24 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 The Yoong Recruit. 
 I climb the bleak and arid peak, 
 And glance towards home that's far, yet nigh ; 
 Methinks I hear dear father speak, 
 Methinks I hear dear father sigh. 
 My lad is for a soldier gone, 
 He marches all the day and night; 
 My son is brave, he'll yet come home, 
 He'll perish not in deadly fight. 
 
 I climb the green and verdant hill, 
 And look tow'rds mother's holy ground ; 
 Methinks her voice is with me still, 
 Methinks I hear its gentle sound. 
 " My youngest boy's a-fighting gone, 
 No sleep by night, nor rest by day ; 
 My lad is kind, he'll fain come home, 
 His bones escape the deadly fray." 
 
 the bucket to the fragrant invader, and goes next door to fill her 
 domestic utensils. Out of this simple incident comes a famous song, done 
 in three lines and five words. These are : — 
 
 Tsurube torarete 
 Moral midsu. 
 The literal translation of which is — 
 
 Convolvulus 
 Bucket taking, 
 I borrow water. 
 And every Japanese ear understands, and every Japanese mind can delight 
 in, the photographic brevity with which the scene and the thought are thus 
 flashed, as it were, into the music and into the heart. But, to convey 
 these to a Western ear and understanding, it would be needful to expand 
 the Japanese poem into at least as many words as the following: — 
 The ' Morning-glory ' 
 Her leaves and bells has bound 
 My bucket-handle round. 
 I could not break the bands 
 Of those soft bands. 
 The bucket and the well to her I left ; 
 Lend me some water, for I come bereft. 
 And so must all the finer and subtler specimens of Japanese art — outside 
 as well as inside its classical poetry — be, as it were, translated and 
 expanded for the general Western comprehension."
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 25 
 
 I climb the snow-clad mountain high, 
 Afar lies elder brotlier's cot ; 
 Methinks I hear him gently say, 
 "Alack, my younger brother's lot, 
 To herd with fighting men and rude, 
 To strive with ruffians night and day ; 
 But brotlier 's bold, he'll brave the feud, 
 He'll live to win a hero's fight." 
 
 Although this poem is pre-Confucian and of remote 
 antiquity, we have vividly brought before us love of home, 
 aifection of child towards parent, respect for an elder brother, 
 and a decided preference for peaceful village life, rather than 
 the glorification of arms. Another specimen is a very simple 
 lyric, somewhat in the style of Robert Burns or Heine, 
 termed 
 
 True Love. 
 
 An honest and a fair young maid 
 Hath pledged her loving troth to me ; 
 She meets me at the Castle gate, 
 I wait the hour with ecstasy. 
 
 She brings a dainty sweet blue-bell, 
 The best, the rarest in the land ; 
 Oh, little flower I love thee well, 
 For thou hast left my darling's hand I 
 
 There is a Byronic ring in this poem : — 
 
 L.\MENTAT10N. 
 
 My pine -wood barque invites me now 
 To glide along the placid lake, 
 For sleep denies my fevered brow. 
 And grief will ne'er my heart forsake. 
 
 Think'st thou my heart is mirror-like 
 That thou can'st see what therein gnaws ? 
 Yea, e'en my brothers coldly speak 
 With icy word that never thaws.
 
 26 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 Thiuk'st thou mj' heart is like a pearl 
 Which thou can'st fashion to thy will ? 
 Or like a curtain thou can'st furl, 
 Or hang it up a void to till. 
 
 My friends despise and pass me by, 
 And shoot their venom shafts of hate ; 
 I kneel to Heav'n and there deny 
 The lying story thej^ relate. 
 
 At times the sun we cannot view, 
 For clouds obstruct its radiant sheen ; 
 The silvery moon is covered too, 
 Its disc, now great, now small, is seen. 
 
 So too my heart, men read not right, 
 I tire of all the world's delay ; 
 Oh I give me wings of Heavenly might 
 From this dull earth to fly away. 
 
 Another poem : — 
 
 The Two Friends. 
 
 Two gallant youths did plight their word 
 To rest in friendship ever true ; 
 They parted and away they erred 
 To distant lands with tidings few. 
 
 In later years a haughty peer 
 Was riding on a prancing steed, 
 And saw a humble peasant near 
 Scraping the soil to pluck a weed. 
 
 The noble lord descended now, 
 And clasped the peasant to his breast ; 
 " Oh ! brother found, oh, lift thy brow 
 And join thy friend that loves thee best." 
 
 The preservation of such poetry is the best living record 
 of the pulsation of a people. We find ruins of Palmyra aud 
 some remains of Carthage, but these nations have left 
 neither songs nor proverbs, hence we know nothing but
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 27 
 
 what their conquerors choose to tell us about them. If, for 
 example, only a few English epigrams survive the wreck of 
 our empire, such as "Time is money," "Fair play's a 
 jewel," " Home, sweet home," *' Let every man mind his 
 own business," subsequent ages would have a literary lime- 
 light thrown upon the ruined arch of Macaulay's prospective 
 New Zealander. 
 
 The Augustine, Elizabethan, or, as the French have it, 
 the Louis Quatorze and Golden period of Chinese classical 
 poetry and literature was during the Thang dynasty, cor- 
 responding with between 618 and 917 a.d. Buddhistic 
 influences then seemed to have penetrated the souls of their 
 bards. The Chinese call Tou Fou their greatest poet ; they 
 rank him with Dante or Milton, and he is entitled the Prince 
 of Poetry. I give an example of his writings. In the one 
 entitled " Contemplation " we can observe the Buddhist 
 spirit running through the effusion. 
 Contemplation. 
 
 Thou holy monk in silent cell, 
 
 Like me a speechless life lov'st well ; 
 
 We've spoken every earthly phrase, 
 
 Exhausted blame, exhausted praise. ' 
 
 Are not the flowers as mute as we ? ■ 
 
 Yea, e'en the stars move quietly ; 
 
 When thy great power, oh Heaven, I view, 
 
 I mutely say, " Thy work is true." 
 
 Another entitled 
 
 The Cell. 
 The early dawn of summer's morn 
 Peeps through the ancient convent cell ; 
 The golden sheen doth now adorn 
 The topmost trees where linnets dwell ; 
 The flowers now greet the rising sun. 
 Their perfume scents the air ; 
 The holy hymn has just begun. 
 The Monk bends deep in prayer.
 
 28 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 Tseng Ming Toug has a style of his own. He alter- 
 nates between grave and gay. I give a rendering of 
 
 Spring. * 
 
 Spring-time comes only once a j'ear, 
 
 And life, if ten times ten, 
 
 It advent's rare enough, I fear — 
 
 It comes but now and then ; 
 
 So, frien^, let's hail it with a glass, 
 
 A welcome twice and tlirice ; 
 
 The wine-cup, onward let it pass, 
 
 Oh ! never mind the price. 
 
 Li-Tai-Pe, one of the great bards of China, has written 
 many volumes of poetry. I select some of his poems : — 
 
 Thk Guitar. 
 
 The Cheng Yang stream, with gentle flow, 
 
 Would'st thou its sylvan borders know ? 
 
 Come, take my barque and glide along 
 
 Afar from city's busy throng, 
 
 Leavinsr strife and toil behind, 
 
 Thousand beauties there you find. 
 
 I loathe the busy hives of man, 
 
 Where house joins house; where schemers plan; 
 
 A poet I, I live another life, 
 
 Where nature smiles and peace replaces strife. 
 
 I once sought heated halls of revelry, 
 
 And fled, for no hearts there had sympathy. 
 
 Except one friend, whose heart and mind was pure ; 
 
 I cleaved to him, his love was ever sure ; 
 
 With him one eve I took my boat, 
 
 And as we gently onward float 
 
 We hear a voice so sweet, so soft at first, 
 
 Like heavenly tones on human hearing burst. 
 
 It louder grows, and tlien we hear the whole. 
 
 Like freedom's song from some erst shriven soul ; 
 
 And strings seemed strung by ne'er a human touch ; 
 
 Our glances speak, " Have ever ears heard such? "
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 29 
 
 A light approaches on a vessel's prow, 
 And then we see a gliding form below — 
 A craft with silken sails and gilded helm, 
 Both harp and song our senses overwhelm, 
 And on a gilded couch, 'mid flowers bestrewn, 
 We see a woman's hand the lyre attune. 
 We stopped our barque and gently waved 
 A signal, and its import craved, 
 A moment's converse with the tuneful player. 
 Answer comes, the seraph grants our prayer. 
 
 Ecstatic moments, gliding swift and fast, 
 Lengthen and lengthen into hours at last, 
 Till I, who ne'er believed a woman's heart, 
 At length found one, and could not now depart. 
 Oh ! form divine, would'st thou but share my love. 
 Not wanton-like, but blessed from above, 
 In wedlock pure I crave with thee to rest, 
 Oh ! say not nay to this my heart's request. 
 
 The beauteous lady heaved a gentle sigh, 
 And dropping tears streamed from her sparkling eye 
 ' Alas ! tis human like to find our fate 
 
 Meets us at last, and that, alas ! too late. 
 
 Would t'were my fate to be a poet's wife. 
 But listen well till I recount my life. 
 Tis years ago, thirteen I scarce could count. 
 My lyre I took, and soon began to mount 
 On fame's unsteady ladder, till I grew 
 A songstress queen that all the world then knew. 
 My soldier brothers died by foeman hands. 
 My mother winged her soul to better lands. 
 Though at my feet with all mankind as slaves. 
 Friendless I tossed like barque upon the waves. 
 Wild cheers of crowds and gems and flowers approve, 
 No kindly heart, none offer honest love. 
 I older grew, and then I saw full well, 
 How others of mj'^ craft in anguish fell ; 
 And then I feared my beauty might not last. 
 And what would be when face and voice had passed ?
 
 90 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 One night, I think I just had left the play, 
 A missive handed in, 'twas thus to say — 
 ' A man desired at some convenient time 
 To ask if yet the gift of heart was mine.' 
 I thought at length tliat some enamoured swain, 
 With sweet request to lead me to a fane, 
 "With wedded love to grant that life of rest 
 Which they who live on frail applause love best. 
 
 •' But lo, I saw a shrivelled form and old, 
 Who offered me his hoarded stores of gold, 
 And then I thought and thought: "Perchance ere long 
 I cease to please the ever fickle throng. 
 Nor love nor gold will then await my lot." 
 So I my better self for once forgot, 
 Consent I gave, and to the priest he led 
 The public's idol, and 'twas thus I wed. 
 
 " Oh ! thrice accursed from above 
 Is wedlock unhallowed by love ; 
 A wedlock that is like the fiUed-up grave, 
 The clod retains, but spirit cannot save. 
 
 " So is my ancient spouse who bought my life, 
 And has the lawful right to call me wife, — 
 I have the gold to purchase every whim, 
 All this I have, and yet my soul grows dim, — 
 He piles up wealth, but what for that care I, 
 When yearning for a life of love I sigh ? 
 Some weeks ago he left to bargain tea, 
 And thus for gain of pelf he leaves, me free. 
 A sudden thought came o'er my fevered brain 
 To take once more my old guitar again ; 
 Floating along the moonlit stream. 
 Dreaming a brief, but happy dream. 
 
 " 'Tis over now, so, gentle youth, farewell ! 
 Would 'twere my fate 'mid happier spheres to dwell. 
 But that, alas, is e'er so far from me. 
 God speed thee, poet, think sometimes of me !" 
 
 i 
 
 I
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 31 
 
 Her barque rowed east, my barque rowed west, 
 My friend now clasped me to his breast : 
 '• Alas, poor soul, thy life a blank appears." 
 I grasped his hand and burst in bitter tears. 
 
 The Spring. 
 
 The flowers of spring around me spread. 
 Radiant as the silken thread ; 
 The mulb'ry sheds its verdant leaf. 
 Yet why, Oh why, moan I with grief? 
 Oh, dearest one, if you but knew 
 How longingly I wait for you ! 
 A rustling sound, I think her near — 
 'Tis but the zephyr's breeze I hear. 
 
 Absence. 
 
 Beyond the snow-clad raountnin peak, 
 
 The golden sun sinks towards the west. 
 And through the clouds from out the east, 
 
 The silvery moon betokens rest. 
 My lattice window now I rise. 
 
 Unloose from folds my plaited hair, 
 From water lilies wafts uprise, 
 
 And zephyrs' wings refresh the air. 
 From bamboo leaves, stirred by the breeze. 
 
 The sparkling dewdrops gently fall, 
 My mandoline straightway I seize, 
 
 And string a dulcet madrigal. 
 The water lilies answer not. 
 
 The wind wafts on without reply. 
 Oh, what a dull and cheerless lot 
 
 Is all this world with thee not nigh ! 
 
 There are many poems in China singing the beauty of 
 spring-tide and flowers. The early season and the cult of 
 flowers seem to be an ever-welcome theme with the Chinese 
 poets. Pe Ku Hi is another poet whose writings possess
 
 32 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 considerable dramatic force. I give you a rendering of one 
 of his favourite poems, entitled 
 
 Etkrnal Love. 
 
 The Emp'ror Ming Noang desired to wed 
 
 The best and fairest ranid in all his land. 
 He tarried, and he tarried long, 'tis said, 
 
 Before he offer'd gift of throne and hand. 
 He'd wed the girl whose highest aim 
 Was love of truth and country's fame. 
 He heard the ancient house of Yong possessed, 
 
 With gold and lands and jewels rare, 
 A maiden sweet, whom all the poor had blessed. 
 
 Whose life was pure as angel fair. 
 The monarch came with pomp and might. 
 And straightway loved her there at sight. 
 
 Grand was the nuptial feast he had. 
 The lowliest churl that day was glad ; 
 The humblest folk throughout their lands 
 Blessed the link of the regal hands. 
 
 Sweet were the days of early love. 
 
 Like radiant sunshine from above. 
 
 Yet as the Emperor older grew 
 
 It seemed as though he had wed anew ; 
 
 And all his kindly plans in life 
 
 Were guided by his pious wife. 
 
 He gave her bowers of marbles rare 
 
 And jade and gems and jewels fair ; 
 
 Her brothers to the highest posts enthroned, 
 
 And countless districts now they owned. 
 
 Her kindred of the time gone by 
 
 Were classed with royal dignity. 
 
 But envy's tooth began to gnaw 
 The hearts of nobles when they saw 
 The Empress' kith and kin hold sway 
 In lauds that erst did them obey. 
 At last a secret plot they hatch 
 Their sov'reign lady to dispatch,
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 33 
 
 And rising in rebellion loud 
 With weapons they o'ermatch the crowd. 
 They seize tiie queen, no help is nigh, 
 With prayer on lips doth Empress die. 
 The best beloved Queen, the fair, the good 
 A mass of clay lies weltering in her blood. 
 
 The rebels having now achieved their aim 
 Lay down their arms, and thus their King acclaim 
 " 'Gainst thee, O Sire, we wish to draw no sword, 
 We love and venerate thy princely word ; 
 So, Sovereign, mount thy throne anew to reign. 
 We fought to seek our ancient rights again." 
 
 Now years roll on, a monarch rules alone, 
 
 Lip-loyal peers cannot his loss atone. 
 
 His palace void, his hearth is cold, 
 
 His joys are gone, he thus grows old. 
 
 And day by day, like monk in convent's gloom. 
 
 The monarch kneels beside a silent tomb. 
 
 One night when long the Emp'ror vigil kept, 
 
 And o'er his ruined life with grief he wept, 
 
 A holy monk, absorbed in prayer, 
 
 Seemed to stand before him there. 
 " Oh, royal brother, dry thy tear. 
 
 Thy lost one's better there than here." 
 
 The monarch hearing words of holy love, 
 " I hope," said he, " but, brother, can'st thou prove ?" 
 " I can, nay, will — this very hour. 
 
 My praj^ers and fasts give me the power 
 
 To visit heaven from time to time. 
 
 To hear celestial music chime. 
 
 Wilt send a missive to thy long lost Queen, 
 
 To her that now mid angels' paths is seen ? " 
 
 " Oh, mock me not, thou holy priest, 
 Can'st for my soul prepare such feast ? 
 Can'st give a hungry heart a crumb 
 Of solace, that for years hath none V
 
 84 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 The priest of Ling Kiing travelled fast 
 
 Until the azure skies were passed, 
 
 And, whirling in ethereal space, 
 
 A golden mountain soon did trace, 
 
 Behind a rock a golden gate 
 
 Where countless angels, watching, sat. 
 
 The monk his errand now declared. 
 
 The Empress hither swift repaired. 
 
 And rising from celestial couch 
 
 With heav'nly smile, her sweet approach 
 
 Sheds light around, and all seems bright ; 
 
 But she ! whose face like snow was white, 
 
 With graceful move a veil unfurls, 
 
 A veil bestrewn with azure pearls, 
 
 And to the holy monk, with sweet incline, 
 
 Speaks : " Father, hail j'ou now from husband mine ? 
 
 Oh ! thinks he still somewhat of me, 
 
 Retains he yet his dynasty? " 
 
 The holy monk, with accents grave, 
 
 In pious tone his message gave : 
 " Would you, if it were heaven's desire, 
 
 Descend to earth, rejoin our Sire ? " 
 
 She gently tossed her graceful head, 
 
 A sighing " No " at once she said. 
 " Tlie only spark of earth now left 
 
 Is lingering love of him bereft ; 
 
 All else is gloom, and dark appears. 
 
 Their smiles are false, and so their tears. 
 
 Here all is tranquil, never-ending peace. 
 
 From falsehood free, from sorrow all release. 
 
 Yet take this token to my love of old, 
 
 A bracelet made of thrice refined gold, 
 
 And say, if love of me rests pure as this, 
 
 In heav'n well meet with never-ending bliss. 
 
 Like tree whose branches interlace. 
 
 For all time one in pure embrace. 
 
 Tell him again, good monk, O say 
 I love him still ! 
 
 Eternity may end, but my love 
 Never will."
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 35 
 
 The Chinese have forestalled Europe with many inven- 
 tions. The manufacture of paper for ordinary uses, the art 
 of printing, the telescope, spectacles and eye-glasses, the 
 mariner's compass and gunpowder, have all been known in 
 the Celestial empire from remote ages. There is, carefully 
 preserved in the Asiatic Museum in St. Petersburg, a bank 
 note dated 1396 B.C., printed in blue ink on paper made 
 from the fibre of the mulberry tree, and a notice of the pains 
 and penalties following counterfeit. The note bears the 
 number, date of issue, the name of the bank, signature of 
 the official issuing it, indication of its value in figures, in 
 words, and in pictorial representation, in coins or heaps of 
 coins equal in amount to its face value. It was generally 
 thought that the Venetians were the inventors of modern 
 banking and bookkeeping and considered the triumph of 
 modern commercial enterprise, but this the Chinese claim, 
 and prove their claim.* The bank-note system at so remote 
 a period in China, shows three distinct phases of civilisation, 
 viz. : — the science of banking, the use of paper, and the art 
 ,of printing. An extract from a lecture by Professor Hele 
 Shaw, at the Marine Engineers' Institute in Liverpool, 
 shews that the cantilever system of the Forth Bridge and the 
 Eiffel Tower was known to the Celestials long before the 
 idea reached us. The professor says : — 
 
 The late Lord Napier of Magdala, in going over the Forth 
 Bridge some time ago while it was in an earher stage of progress, had 
 remarked to the engineer, " I presnme you touch your hat to the 
 Chinese?" The reply was "Certainly," because the engineer knew 
 that the Chinese were probably the first to adopt this kind of bridge. 
 
 The observatory at Pekin is the oldest in the world, 
 having been founded in 1279 by Kublai Khan, the first 
 Emperor of the Mogul dynasty. There are still in it three 
 
 • For an outline of the modern financial system of the Chinese 
 Empire, see Appendix.
 
 86 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 of the first instruments of observation. These were used for 
 the observation of Halley's comet in 1738, and may also be 
 used when twenty-two years lience this comet again appears. 
 The oldest observatory in Europe is that founded by King 
 Frederick III of Denmark on the Island of Hveen in the 
 Sound, and where the famous Danish astronomer, Tycho 
 Brahe, carried out his celebrated observations about the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, among others, that of the 
 bright star in Cassiopeia. The Paris observatory was estab- 
 lished in 1671, and that of Greenwich three years later. 
 
 A by no means partial critic on China writes in the 
 October issue of the Fortnightly : — 
 
 The frugality, industry, perseverance and capacitj^ which have 
 enabled them to extend, in the course of centuries, from the basin of 
 the Wei over the whole area of the immense empire which they now 
 rule, and to elaborate a system of ethics and of government, a litera- 
 ture and a social organisation difFering remarkably from our own, but 
 efficient to maintain cohesion and national prosperity, whilst the king- 
 doms of Western Asia were rising and disappearing in periodic 
 convulsions. Surely a race which has shewn this persistence, and 
 which gives evidence to-day of the same qualities, will end by proving ' 
 itself not inferior to its neighbours in capacity to adapt itself to the 
 new conditions with which it is brought in contact. — R S. Grundy. 
 
 Pei'haps the most dignified rebuke given to the outer 
 world by the Chinese Government was the unruffled manner 
 with which they settled the dispute between the rival nations 
 competing for the construction of railways in the Empire, a 
 full account of which is given in the Times of October 19th, 
 1889. 
 
 The contractors of England, France, Germany, and the 
 United States, all volunteered to send in competing plans, 
 and used all the political influence of their home Govern- 
 ments to secure the contracts for their respective countries. 
 The imperial Chinese Government very properly accepted all
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTOKY. 37 
 
 the various European plans and diagrams that were so 
 kindly sent for their inspection. They afterwards published 
 an edict, August 27th, 1889, announcing that, after mature 
 reflection, the Imperial Government would only construct 
 railways throughout the Empire by means of Chinese 
 Engineers, and with the aid of Chinese capital only, obtained 
 through their own native bankers. Another symptom of 
 their re-awakening, is the absence of any apologetic tone now 
 assumed by Chinese statesmen. Not only do they keenly 
 criticise European politics, but they now assume an attitude 
 of perfect equality, and claim to be able to return Europe 
 and America as many benefits as they receive from them. 
 
 General Tcheng Ki-Tong at the Ethnographic Congress 
 ill Paris, September, 1889, said : — 
 
 " A wonderful assimilation of the peoples was now going on. The 
 word " foreigner " was every day losing its value. It would soon have 
 to be dropped out of the French dictionary. We were all meltin? into 
 one great people, and would soon speak only of the East and of the 
 West. At present America was an obstacle between the two, but what 
 with river and iake steamers, railways and telegraphs, it was becoming 
 rather a highway than a terminus." General Tcheng Ki-Tong then 
 gave a rapid sketch of Chinese history, referring to the introduction of 
 Buddhism and ancestral worship. He dwelt on the influence of the 
 latter on Chinese society, which it bound into family groups. He 
 contrasted the family system of China with the European. In con- 
 clusion he remarked that the Chinese were learning the languages and 
 customs of the West, and he ex|)ressed a hope that Europeans would 
 devote their attention to the Chinese. They would perhaps find that 
 they had more to learn from China than China had to learn from 
 them. The speech of the General, thanks to his good delivery as 
 much as to the interest of the matter, was received with great 
 applause. 
 
 The fortunate geographical position of China has secured 
 her many advantages not given to other races. For instance, 
 the Jews were a puny people wedged in between a powerful 
 
 202919
 
 38 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, to say nothing of the 
 numerous kindred nomad Arab tribes. Thus they were 
 physically unable to hold their own against their powerful 
 neighbours, though from time to time they made a good 
 stand, and of the many failings of the ancient Jews, want of 
 valour was not one of them. The Chinese, however, ethno- 
 logically speaking, had almost the advantage of an island, 
 bounded as they were on the east by the ocean, on the north 
 by trackless ice-bound regions, and on the west by fierce, 
 warlike nomads, forming an impenetrable wall to the east- 
 ward march of Hellenism and Latinism. They were for 
 centuries isolated, and were thus enabled to work out their 
 national idiosyncrasies. 
 
 Could anyone have imagined, at the time of Queen 
 Elizabeth, when an embassy of semi-barbarous envoys from 
 Muscovy, bowing low to the Virgin Queen in Asiatic form, 
 and who were hardly credited with a better Christianity than 
 the Abyssinians possess at present, — could anyone then have 
 foreseen that the ruler of France two centuries later would 
 be a fugitive vanquished by Muscovite arms, and that their 
 legions would occupy Paris, and that the Muscovite capital 
 would rival Paris itself in luxury ? No philosophic thinker 
 will dare to speculate rashly as to what history may or may 
 not evolve. 
 
 Whether we shall be able to impress the Mongolian with 
 any of the present forms of the religions which we take 
 from the Old and New Testaments, is a problem which 
 is no part of the present enquiry. An ecclesia of the 
 Bible converted every other people that had no popular 
 sacred book of their own. Thus it was with Greece, with 
 Rome, the Gauls, the Celts, the Teutons, and the Slaves ; 
 none of the cults of these people possessed a popular Holy 
 Book. The followers of the Evangelists, drawing their ethics 
 and psalmody from the Sacred Books of Palestine, spread
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 39 
 
 their influence and their teaching wherever they came in 
 contact with a bookless community. But Islam, the Hindoo 
 Cliurch, and the Buddhist, each possess a popular and Holy 
 Book of their own, hence to influence these religionists is a 
 task of great difficulty. Sir Edwin Arnold addressed a 
 meeting of Japanese students at Tokio in December last, 
 and made use of the following words : — 
 
 "I must, indeed, be bold to say that, wherever the doctrines of the 
 Great Teacher of India have passed, they bring to the people adopting 
 them, or partiallj' adopting them, more or less of embellishment and 
 elevation. Nay, I believe it impossible that the religious tenets of the 
 Buddha should ever enter into the life of any large body of people 
 without stamping on the national character ineffaceable marks of the 
 placidity, the kindliness, the glad beliefs, and the vast consolations 
 embodied in the faith of Sakya Muni. Nor, believe me, is it ever 
 l)0ssible. in spite of the grave authorities which assert the contrary to 
 me, that Buddhism once entering a land should ever altogether and 
 Ihially depart from it. You will instantly think of India, and remind 
 me that the professed Buddhists there are to be numbered by scores or 
 hundreds, but I must answer that all Hindoo India is Buddhist in 
 heart and essence. The sea does not mark the sand more surely with 
 its tokens than Gautama has conquered, changed, and crystalUsed the 
 religious views of the Vedas and Vedantas, and so far from encourag- 
 ing anyone to hope that Buddhism will pass away from Japan, or from 
 any other of its homes, I announce my conviction that it will remain 
 here long enough to reconcile its sublime declarations with the loftj' 
 ethics of Christianity and with the discoveries of Science, and will be 
 for all of you who love and serve the East no enemy, but a potent, 
 necessary, and constant ally." 
 
 History seems to indicate that the Latin races, heirs of 
 imperial Rome, are scarcely able to retain the leadership of 
 the western world. Byzantium, Venice, Spain, France, each 
 in its turn, enjoyed supreme recognition. Now it would 
 appear to be the destiny of the Anglo-Teutonic families, 
 represented by Great Britain, the United States, and 
 Germany, to claim precedence in contemporary history. The
 
 40 THE ETHICS AND POETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 Slave is watching and preparing to come to the front should 
 the Teutonic races fall back in their civilising mission. But 
 behind the Slave is the Mongolian, to whom patience is 
 almost a religion. What destiny history has in store for 
 him lies concealed in the womb of time. The Marquis 
 Tseng,* formerly ambassador to the Court of St. James', in 
 an article previously quoted, uses these pregnant words: — 
 
 " China will surely and leisurely proceed The 
 
 world is not so near its end, that she need hurry, nor the 
 circles of the sun so nearly done, that she will not have time 
 to play the role assigned to her, in the work of nations." 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A WRITER in the Morning Post of January 28th, 1890, 
 gives some extracts from the CJiinese Times with reference 
 to the present financial position of the Empire. 
 
 A Chinese Budget is a novelty, so far, at least, as the Western 
 world is concerned, and an interesting novelty, too, in its way. It is 
 not, as most people are aware, the practice of the Celestial Govern- 
 ment to publish an annual statement of its income and expenditure for 
 the information of the people after the fashion of more progressive 
 countries , for the Finance Minister of the Brother of the Sun and 
 Moon is in the happy position of being accountable to no one save his 
 Imperial Master for the revenues of the State. Still, the official 
 estimates prepared come under the cognisance of the Pekin Board of 
 Control ; and based upon the figures there available the Chinese Times 
 gives us, for the first time, what may be regarded as an authoritative 
 summary of the ways and means of the Dragon Empire. From 
 the official returns made, it is estimated that the actual imperial 
 revenue of China amounts to 85,000,000 taels, or, roundly speaking, 
 £■21,250,000 per annum — not an extravagant sum by any means when 
 the extent of the Empire and its enormous population are taken into 
 
 • Since the above has been in type, the death of this distinguished 
 diplomatist has been announced.
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 41 
 
 account. The chief items of income are the Maritime Customs, which 
 yield just under .£4,000,000 ; the opium duty, which yields about 
 i;2, 000,000 ; the Inland Customs, from which .£1,125,000 are derived ; 
 the "Likiii," which stands for .£3,200,000; salt, which is responsible 
 for another ^3,200,000 ; the land tax, furnishing some £2,600,000 ; the 
 the tea tax, yielding .£450,000 ; salt merchants' tax, £320,000 ; pawn- 
 brokers' licenses, £180,000 ; and duties on sundries amounting in all 
 to about £4,000,000. This £21,250,000 is the sum which, it is calcu- 
 lated, reaches the Imperial Exchequer, but it is believed that nearly 
 twice as much is actually raised from the people by the provincial 
 officials, the moiety being absorbed by these functionaries, for local 
 purposes they assert, though it is to be presumed a goodly proportion 
 sticks to the fingers of these personages. As regards waste that is 
 alleged to go on in the provinces, it would be unfair to assert that the 
 whole of the difference between the amount levied and that which 
 reaches the Imperial Exchequer is lost to the people. The Chinese 
 are quite content that a portion of the official "squeezings" should 
 find its way to the pockets of their provincial administrators, but, as 
 the North China Herald remarks apropos of the matter, they are 
 pretty sharp in seeing that a reasonable part is actually spent in the 
 locality where the money is raised. 
 
 After the foregoing statement of revenue it will probably surprise 
 most people in this country to learn that the great bulk of the Chinese 
 people pay absolutely no taxes whatever, and contribute absolutely 
 nothing to the expenditure of the state. This is a feature of the 
 Chinese fiscal system which, for some inexplicable reason, has never 
 been referred to by any of the many authors who have written about 
 the Celestial Empire and its government. It is really only within the 
 past six or eight months that this feature of the Chinese system of 
 taxation has attracted the attention of an outsider, the United States 
 Minister at Peldn, who deemed it so remarkable by reason of its con- 
 trast to modes in vogue elsewhere, that he addressed a communication 
 on the subject to the Washington Government. In China there is 
 absolutely no tax on personalty, and only one tax on land. The 
 system of raising funds for the needs of the Government has been 
 brought to its present shape in the course of many centuries, and 
 operates in a very simple way. Take Pekin, the capital, which, in 
 respect of taxation, is typical of Chinese cities generally. Inside the 
 city there is no tax whatever on land, house, or personal property. 
 Goods brought through the gates of the town pay a " Likin " tax, a
 
 4"2 THE ETHICS AND TOETRY OF THE CHINESE, 
 
 sort of octroi duty, but are exempt afterwards. The only impost paid 
 ia couuection with real property is the duty on transfer from one party 
 to another. When a change of property is registered before the 
 registrar at the magistrates " Ya-men," the purchaser receives a 
 •' red deed," for which he pays 10 per cent, of the value of property 
 transferred to him. But even this exaction is not uniform, since it is 
 said it can be reduced, or even evaded altogether by oflBcial influence. 
 And, further, a transfer can be made by " white deed " without any 
 payment whatever, but the property stands in the original owner's 
 name, so that it resembles rather a mortgage than sale outright. The 
 only contributions besides this levied in the city are the pawnbrokers' 
 license-fees of about i'12 10s. per annum, wine-dealers' licenses about 
 .£12 a year, and other shops according to size. Pedlars pay nothing, 
 carters and donkey drivers a fifth of 1 per cent, on their fares, which 
 goes to the police for repairing roads and lighting the streets. But 
 this is really an official " squeeze " rather than a tax properly so called. 
 The fact remains that in the capital, as in all Chinese cities, the bulk 
 of the people pay not axes whatever. The " man who owns his 
 house and his lot, and his implements of labour, enjoys his earnings 
 without toll or deduction " of any kind. The British ratepayer v/ill 
 probably be inclined to envy the position, in this respect, of the 
 Chinese townsmen. 
 
 In the provinces, in the " Fu " or Prefecture, the bulk of the resi- 
 dents are similarly exempt from taxation. The case of the Prefecture 
 of " Shuntien-fu," in which Pekin is situated, is typical of the rural 
 districts under direct departmental control. The only direct contribu- 
 tion such districts make to the imperial Exchequer is in the form of a 
 land tax paid to the provincial or departmental magistrates. But this 
 land tax is far from being levied on land or house property of every 
 kind. It is entirely and solely levied upon arable land, all other real 
 property being exempt. And even on arable land the tax is not always 
 alike, but is strictly proportioned to its quality and producing power, so 
 as to render its incidence fair and equitable to those engaged in any gf 
 the many branches of husbandry followed by the Chinese. The land 
 is carefully surveyed by special officers appointed for the purpose from 
 time to time, and returned as good or inferor in quality, high or low in 
 situation, and the tax apportioned according to the crop-producing 
 capabilities gauged in this w^ay. It varies thus from 6i. to fis. an acre 
 Beyond this impost on land, the rural and provincial cultivators pay 
 nothing whatever in the shape of taxes. Outside the capital, Pekin,
 
 WITH PHASES IN THEIR HISTORY. 43 
 
 Chinese who are not " bannermen," that is, liable to military service, 
 may be called out when deemed needful to repair roads, and convey 
 chairs when the Emperor visits the locality, or other high functionaries 
 of state travel through the country — but for a mere trifle exemptions 
 can be secured. In other parts of China, the people have to help in 
 shipping the annual tribute of rice and salt. In these cases the 
 locality sends the quota of men needful, all liable to the service sub- 
 scribing to pay the labourers so engaged. But the land tax for the 
 whole empu'e reaches only, as the figures given at the outset show, the 
 comparatively insignificant total of about ^£2, 500, 000 so that its inci- 
 dence can scarcely weigh heavily upon the native agricultural interest. 
 Beyond this amount, the revenue of the empire is derived exclusively 
 from the salt monoply, the "' Likin," maritime and inland customs, 
 and the proceeds of the sale of honours and dignities. To this absence 
 of taxation of the body of the people it is. perhaps, only fair to ascribe 
 the permanence of the Celestial government and the general tran- 
 quillity and contentment of the Chinese race ; and many will, no doubt, 
 agree with the United States Minister at Pekin that the lesson of 
 taxation the Celestials teach might be profitably studied by more than 
 one of the states in the so-called civilised world.
 
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