THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/empireofchinapasOOtche (* THE LIBRARY OF THE ohiversityofiluhois THE RAND-McNALLY MAP OF CHINESE EMPIRE. 'B^agajibk- a ^'''■^* V I ' >V v'o-^A \ iUorldosM .«;SI „' s5\J^-v Joor €f,!:^S:lrO :JtiD‘^!!i^-§i^MiHES c /(^’ij^^^JK^Ta ko ru m I'uo'i'in y.'4'pESHAlMI lASjl>f J«V % Shira iBiihdul . Ulaii'Kc ^Ciedcrkoo f^TUIB'E iiainilorHamf ^ansi-Chov^ P^"T Tat-Vuair (lV''a"''i^>’i.''?o^ 'S A idaji: *^ow ^ _-T C< \sVi.\ ,„.anS"v ’?6,V«'*«VseOar' *Sai'0 -^^V» V !!«»> Vanc.^ )fc , " 'S'- f .1— >‘X^ooff^r?pChlea^^li »Ya SMi ^ Kia JngiC4May-l<«g ®«^ahMoDihj* * -1^ 1 * .C.-EnK»"“ Gulf of Statute Miles, 250=1 Inch. Claag-Xho mkawan |So7i*° oj^ Bay PREFACE Each chapter in this volume was prepared by the highes accessible authority on the subject treated. Readers we be lieve will take peculiar interest in the chapters by Genera’ Tcheng-ki-tong, for they reveal the remarkable breadth of view and keenness of perception of which the Chinese are capable. These chapters were written originally in French, but have been translated in a scholarly manner. Though the Chinese officer was more familiar with Paris and the French, with whom he lived a number of years, his observa- ^tions will be found to apply in many instances marvelously ell to American habits and customs. It is believed that, on the whole, this volume will be ound more comprehensive and authoritative than any pre- iously published on the Chinese Empire. THE PUBLISHERS. To CaUfornia anoBaek 176 pp., 176 illustrations. 5 cts. A Colorado Summer 50 pp., 80 illustrations. 3 cts. The Moki Snake Dance 60 pp., 64 illustrations. 3 cts. Grand Canon of Arizona 32 pp., 15 illustrations. 2 cts. New Mexico Health Resorts 88 pp., 27 illustrations. 2 cts. Arizona Health Resorts Mailed free for postage named if you mention “Globe Library.” 104 pp., 75 illustrations. 2 cts. Las Vegas Hot Springs 48 pp., 39 illustrations. 2 cts. ► They Tell the Story of wonderful sights and scenes,] and special resorts for touristy and homeseekers in the Gree West. They are published by the Santa Fe Route, are literary and artistic, a^ will make you better acquaint^ with the attractions of your oi land. C. A. HIGGINS, .A. G. P. A. , A. T. & S. F. Ry., L 1372 Great Northern Bldg. CHICAGO. CONTENTS Page Chapter B I. General Survey ii II. Chinese History 33 III. Recent Events in China . , , , « . 47 IV. Language and Literature » , • . , . 55 V. Government of China . « . o . « » 77 ^ VI. Customs and Manners 108 VII. Real Life at Ningpo . . • o . • .138 VIII. Woman — Marriage — Divorce , » „ « .170 IX. Religion and Philosophy 190 X. Finance and Commerce 196 XL Army and Navy « . , , » . . 209 Appendix. Lord Beresford’s Speech Before the Commer- cial Club, Chicago . .213 IIRONOLOGY OF CHINA . 223 PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING OF CHINESE NAMES As the Chinese language has no alphabet, but depends, on a combination of about five hundred syllables, foreigner^^ can only imitate the sounds of these syllable^ as nearly a, possible with the letters of their own alphabet. Chinese words are therefore to be pronounced precisely as they are spelled, with a sort of separate emphasis on each syllable. The difficulty lies in the fact that the vowels have differ- ent sounds in the different western languages. Thus, maps made in Germany will have one spelling and maps made in England will have another. For instance, the syllables chow or chou in English and chau in German are pronounced nearly alike, and closely resemble in sound the Chinese syllable found in Hang-chow, Foo-chow, etc. So in German has the same sound as ''oo’’ in English, and we have Chifu or Chefoo — the “i’’ in continental languages being pronounced much like our ^'e.'’ Thus Li Hung Chang should have the Li sounded like Lee, and in most cases '4’’ has its short or French sound. Kmxg- su might have been turned into English as Keang-soo, etc. The syllables soo, su and seu are really all the same, and merely represent a confusion in modern writing; so w^ith quang and kwang, etc. The long sound of '4” is usually represented by '^ai. 1 I in ShcMghai; some times by long sound. ‘ei.” “I” alone never has ( 8 ) CHINESE NAMES Sometimes the original Chinese syllables are treate separate words, as in Hong Kong; but it is more usual to write this name as one word, Hongkong, Someti the syllables are hyphenated, as in Tcheng-ki-tong; and method represents the Chinese pronunciation as well as The Chinese syllable kin or king seems to have a slig nasal sound, and formally the ‘'g’’ was written after the ‘hi but Pekin is almost universal now in place of Peking, thou: we have T ong-king where we used to have T onquin. It seems a pity that some recognized authority could r establish a uniform method of writing Chinese names. Th their pronunciation would offer no difficulty whatever, the English letters are supposed to be exactly equivalent the Chinese sound. In the present volume, in spite of som efforts to secure uniformity, we have found it impossib to establish a perfectly harmonious style. The following table shows the usual pronunciation Chinse names, whatever spelling is adopted : a = a in ah Pa pah Shara shah '-rah' e = a in ale Le la e = e Ke-lung ke'-lung'i Cheng-te Cheng '-ta' i = ee U lee i = i Chin-yuen chin'-yoo-en' u = oo Fu foo U = u Chung chung y ==ee Tsun-y tsun ' -ee ' Y-Chou ee ' -choo ' ae = i Ting-hae ting '-hi' Tong-lae tong'-H' ai = 1 Hoai ho'-i' Ai-chow i ' -chow ' ao = ah-o Macao mah-cah ' -o lyiao lee'-ah'-o au = ah-oo Matau mah'-tah'-oo Pitau pee'-tah'-oo CHINESE NAMES : ee-ah ee-eh ee-oo o-ah o-a 00 oo-ah oo-eh oo-ee = ee-ah-o = ee-oo-a = oo-a as oo-a ei = a-oo-o-a Hiayntong Cayuen Hoei Pei-ho Ho-kian Che-kiang Kien-Lung I-kien Cha-kiu lyiu-chou Kai-hoa Wei-hoe Fou-Chou Hou-pe Hua-Tsiang Se-clmen Yuen-Tcheou lyui-chow Seng-tniao-se Siuen-hwa Kuei-Chou Sung-pan-ouei Taolcheouoei hee-ine'-tong' cah'-yoo-en' ho '-a' pa '-ho' ho ' -kee-ahn ' cheh'-kee-ahng' kee-en'-lung' ee ' -kee-en ' chah'-kee-oo' lee-oo'-choo' ki'-ho-ah' wa'-ho-a' foo'-choo' hoo'-pa' hwah'-tsee-ang' sa'-choo-en' yoo-en'-choo' loo-ee'-chow' seng ' - mee-ah ' -o-sa see-oo-an ' -h wah ' koo-a'-choo' sung-pan'-oo-a' towl'-choo'-wa' :tch Chi-ching tehee '-tching ss Szechuen ssa'-choo-en' THE CHINESE EMPIRE PAST AND PRESENT CHAPTER I GENERAL SURVEY OF CHINA In extent, in square miles, and in gross amount of popu] lation, China is not only one of the greatest empires i the world, but one of the very greatest that has ever existed^ or, rather, that has ever cohered for so great a length of time. With all its dependencies and tributary states it may be considered as extending from the north of the sea of Japan to the river Sihon in the west — a space of 8i degrees, equal to 4,900 English miles. From north to south it stretches from the Ural mountains, in north latitude 50 degrees, to the southern border, about latitude 21 degrees, being 29 degrees, or nearly 2,300 English miles. Of this immense area China Proper measures about 1,200 geographi ical miles in length, and not much less in average breadth Beyond the widest limits are other regions, professing' dependence on the Celestial empire, or whose populations have the laws and manners, and speak or read the language^. ,of the Chinese; with whom, in fact, their own are almost identified. The climate of China presents every variety of tempera- ture, from the snows and chilling blasts of Siberia to th (n) / prching heat of the torrid zone, on its southern borders, other words, nearly every kind of climate may be found hin the limits of the empire. “No country,” says a ,ent writer, “presents greater diversities in its physical ography, productions and natural history than this extens- ^e territory, whether we regard its verdant and cultivated lains, or its sterile and solitary deserts, its mountains and valleys, its gigantic rivers, its cities teeming with intelli- it and civilized inhabitants, or its mountain fastnesses its forests, the abodes of wild beasts or marauding ban- ti. Its frontier barrier — the Great Wall — and its princi* ,al canal are justly regarded, from their magnitude and ptiquity, as among the wonders of the world.” The loftiest mountains are chiefly at the extremities of le empire, but in the interior are found many ridges, rang- g in elevation from 3,000 to 8,000 feet. Without consid- ring the difference and variety of original races (for China, 10 more than any other great country, was stocked by one ole race), the diversity of climate must of necessity have )roduced a wide difference in its inhabitants; for, to take only the extreme points, the people settled in the bleak egions of the north must have grown up unlike those inhab- ting the sultry and enervating south. Even a practiced uropean in China can, at mere sight, make an approxima- ion to the part of the empire to which any Chinese presented !) him may belong. The population, though less varied, erhaps, than any inhabiting an equal extent of territory in ,ny other part of the globe, presents this diversity as caused by climate, as also that which proceeds from difference of paces. Of these are many others blended and intermixed, E the principal elements or races are the Chinese, Manchu, ngol, Kalmuk, Korean and Tibetan. In its general aspect China presents a series of river ins or broad valleys of rivers, and of lowlands along the GENERAL SURVEY sea coast, divided by ranges of hills, which rise in maj places to a very considerable elevation. Yunnan, the soun western province, is exceedingly mountainous, and seni out two branches eastward, one of which separates t valley or basin of the Si-Kiang River from the coasts of the Gulf of Tongking ; the other separates it from the basin of the Yangtse-kiang River and its affluents, whose basins are themselves divided by ranges which diverge from eact other, and from the coasts of the east sea. The basin of thi Yangtse-kiang is separated from that of the Hwang-hc by a continuation of high land, which trends eastward fronr the Peling mountains on the borders of Tartary, but which terminating before it reaches the coast, leaves a broad allu- vial plain between the mouths of these two great rivers The remaining portion of the country lying between the Hwang-ho and Gulf of Pi-chi-li consists of the basin of the Pei-ho and the Eu-ho, having the hills of Shantung province on the south, and a cross range on the west, and communicating with the basin of the Hwang-ho by an open- ing at the angle formed by the two ranges. The appearance of even that portion of the country which has been traverse* during these last sixty years by Europeans is exceedingly diversified. Between Canton and Pekin, a distance of 1,200 miles, the first British embassy observed nearly every variety of surface, but each variety was very remarkably disposed in large broad masses. For many days they saw nothing but one continuous plain; for as many days they were hemmed in by precipitous mountains, naked and unvaried; and for ten or twelve days more their course lay through akes, swamps and morasses. There was a constant succes- fion of large villages, towns and cities, with consider lavigable riv*eis, communicating with each other f artificial canals. Both canals and rivers ith boat^n^arges. They saw no hed^ ;e THE CHINESE EMPIRE ^Praces from the sea. As yet its geology is very imperfectly Bio,wn. China, however, has been well mapped. The scien- »fic skill of the Jesuit missionaries accomplished a sur- vey of the whole on trigonometrical principles, so admirably .orrect as to admit of little improvement; and, with the jxception of the British possessions in India, there is no art of Asia so well laid down as China. Since the time of the Jesuits’ survey, however, an alter- ition has taken place in the divisions of the country, as the )rovinces, which then consisted of fifteen in all, have been ncreased, by the subdivision of three of the largest, to ighteen. The two principal rivers of China occupy a very high ank. The Yangtse-kiang and the great Yellow River sur- pass all the rivers of Europe and Asia, and are secondary only to the Amazon and the Mississippi in America. The Yangtse-kiang, or the “Son of the Sea,” rises in Kokonor, not far from the sources of the Yellow River. Making a circuitous course, and receiving the tribute of innumerable k treams and the superfluous waters of two immense lakes Rthe Tong-ting-hoo and the Poyang-hoo), it flows past ^Nanking into the ocean, which it reaches under the thirty- second parallel of latitude. This vast stream runs with such a strong current that Lord Amherst’s embassy found extreme difficulty in sailing up its course toward the Poyang lake. The Yellow River also rises in the country of Kokonor; .but while the Yangtse-kiang turns to the south, the Yellow [River strikes off abruptly to the north, passes across the at Wall, making an elbow round the ter!it,ory of then strikes back and again crosses t| ‘Great WallJ ^ws due south, and forms the boundary of Shan-| £om .which boundary/ it turns sharply to GENERAL SURVEY 15 east, and so flows on until it reaches the ocean in latitude 34 degrees. It is remarkable that the two great rivers of China, which rise at a small distance from each other, after taking such opposite courses, and being separated by fully fifteen degrees of latitude, should reach the sea within two degrees of the same point. The stream of the Yellow River is so excessively rapid as to be nearly unnavigable throughout the greater part of its course. It carries along with it a pro- digious quantity of yellow mud in a state of solution, and its frequent floods occasion great damage to the country and expense to the government in maintaining artificial embank- ments. But its waters fill numerous canals, which are fur- nished with locks, and carry fertility to many districts which would otherwise be dry and sterile. As for the internal commerce of the empire, the Chinese are rendered almost entirely independent of the rivers and of coast navigation by their Imperial Canal, which, in point of extent and magni- tude of undertaking, is, like the Great Wall, unrivaled by any other work of the kind in the known world. The flat, sandy and unproductive province in which Pekin is situated offers, according to universal report, little that is worthy of notice. The vast plateau, or elevated plain, which surrounds that capital, is entirely devoid of trees, but wood is procured from the nearest hills and mountains of Tartary. The province of Keang-nan, now divided into two, is described as the richest province in all China. It is famous for its silks and japanned goods, made principally at Suchow, a very ancient city. Nanking, the capital of the province, and at one time of the whole empire, measures seventeen English miles in circumference ; but only a corner of this vast area is now occupied by the habitations of men, the city having suffered greatly in the wars with the Tartars, and in consequence of the removal of the court and capital to Pekin. In the district of Hoey-chow-foo, the most^ - THE CHINESE EMPIRE southern part of the province, is grown the best green tea; the soil in which the tea-plants are reared is a decomposition of granite, abounding in feldspar, as is proved by the soil being extensively used in the manufacture of fine porcelain. Thus, as Davis observes, the same soil produces the tea and Ithe cups in which it is drunk. The adjoining province of Keang-sy is described as being, in natural scenery and climate, the most delightful part of the empire. Here the Poyang lake, in size approach- ing the character of an inland sea, spreads its broad waters and exhibits on its west side a long framework of strikingly eautiful mountain scenery. The maritime province of Chekiang competes with the reat province of Keang-nan in the production of silk and :he extent of its plantations of young mulberry trees, which re constantly lopped and renewed, as the most certain way of improving the silk spun by the worms which feed on the leaves. The younger the tree, the more tender the leaves ; and the more tender the leaves, the finer the silk. It is by want of attention to this rule that silk, in several parts of the continent of Europe and in various Asiatic countries, has deteriorated in quality. The principal city of this prov- ince is the celebrated Hang-chow, close to the famous lake Sy-hoo. This beautiful lake is about six miles in circum- ference, its water is quite limpid, and almost overspread with the beautiful water lily. It figures continually in Chinese tales, poems, apothegms, similes and songs, and is held as a place sacred to pleasure and enjoyment. Its extensive sheet of water is described as being covered with barges, which are splendidly fitted up, and appear to be the perpetual ^abodes of gayety and dissipation. The province of Fokien, ^ which is contiguous to Chekiang, and like it maritime, is [very far from being so fertile. But its inhabitants are the est sailors, and the boldest and most adventurous part of GENERAL SURVEY the Chinese population; they chiefly supply the Emperor’s war-junks with sailors and commanders; they build an immense number of the trading junks that are found in the seas of China and Malacca, and they furnish the greater part of the Chinese emigrants to foreign countries. Fokien, moreover, is the great country of the black teas; and our word Bohea is merely a corruption of Bu-ee, the name which the natives give to the hills on which those black teas are principally grown. The inland provinces of the empire, though surveyed by the Jesuits, are less known to Europeans, and are believed to be less suited to the purposes of commerce. One of the largest of them is Hoo-Kuang, which is divided by the vast lake, Tong-ting-hoo. To the southwest of this is the prov- ince of Kuang-sy ; and to the north of Kuang-sy, a moun- tainous province, inhabited by a race called Meaou-tse, who have ever defied the Chinese in the midst of their empire, and maintained their independence in their rugged country and mountain fastnesses in spite of every effort made by the Celestial emperors to subdue them. The greatest of Chinese armies have failed in penetrating into the country, and have < invariably retreated from that iron boundary with shame and heavy loss. The ridges occupied by these Meaou-tse are said to extend from west to east for the length of nearly 400 miles. The men do not shave off their hair like the Tartars and Chinese, but wear it tied up in the ancient fash- ion of the Celestials before they were conquered by the Manchu Tartars. The Chinese, who both hate and fear them, in affected contempt call them ‘^dog-men” and ‘'wolf- men,” and vow that they have tails like apes and baboons. There is hardly any intercourse between the two. The Chinese, without venturing into their mountains, purchase from them the timber trees of their forests ; and these, being thrown into the rapid rivers which intersect the upland THE CHINESE EMPIRE country, are floated down into the plains. The Meaou-tse manufacture carpets for their own use, and make Jiinen from a species of wild hemp. They are said to inhabit houses of one story, raised on tall piles^ and to stable their domestic animals under their houses. The province of Yunnan, the most western part of China Proper, borders on the Burmese territory, and extends nearly to Amara-pura, the old capital of that kingdom. It is extremely mountainous, and abounds in metals and other valuable minerals, among which is said to be good coal. The copper is said to be very fine, and nearly equal in quality to the copper worked in the islands of Japan. Gold is found in the sands of the rivers, and the Yangtse-kiang, in this part of its course, is called the ^^golden-sanded river.’^ To- ward the northwest of this province, and the borders of the Tibet country, is found the yak, or cow of Tibet, the tails of which are so famous. The people of the province use the tail-hairs in various manufactures, particularly carpets. Though presenting a more Alpine character than any other part of China Proper, Yunnan yet contains some extensive, broad and finely watered plains. The extensive province on the northeast of Yunnan is traversed by very lofty mountains, called the ‘‘Mountains of Snow.’’ These peaks, which are probably from io,ooo to 12,000 feet high, look over the mysterious, closed country of the Belli Lama. The province of Shensi, which also borders on Tibet, is said to abound in mineral wealth — in mines which have neither been worked nor visited by any people of the west for very many ages. Both this country and the adjoining province of Shansi, toward Pekin, abound in craters and other symptoms of extensive and tre- mendous volcanic action. Sulphur, tufa, salt-water lakes, hot wells, springs with jets of inflammable gas, pools of GENERAL SURVEY petroleum (which the Chinese burn in lamps), are found all through these regions. The countries contiguous to, and dependent on, China may be briefly dismissed. The region of Manchu Tartary consists of three provinces — i. Mougden, or Shing-King, commences at the eastern extremity of the Great Wall, and is bounded on the south by the Gulf of Pi-chi-li. Here, in the country from which they originally came, the emperors are buried. 2. Kirin, the second province of Manchu Tar- tary, is to the eastward of Mougden, and borders on Korea. Here the famous wild plant, ginseng, to which the Chinese attribute miraculous properties, is gathered, as an exclusive monopoly of the emperor. They would never believe that this plant could grow in any other part of the world ; but a few years ago some Americans carried the very same to Canton, it having been discovered in their New England States, in a climate and situation very similar to those of Eastern Tartary. 3. Heloong-keang, or '^the river of the Black Dragon,’’ is inhabited by the Tagours, and borders on the Russian territory. The river which gives its name to the province is, in fact, the Amur. All these regions are excessively cold in winter, and sterile, and thinly peopled. The population seems to be chiefly employed in tending sheep, or rearing horses and other cattle. As they approach the frontiers of the domin- ions of the Czar of Russia they become very independent of Chinese rule, yet they acknowledge the laws and follow most of the customs of the 'Uentral Kingdom.” The western or Mongol Tartars, commencing from the western line of the Great Wall, extend as a distinct race to the very borders of the Caspian Sea, where they, too, give the hand to the subjects of Russia. They are thor- oughly a nomadic people, wandering with their flocks from one region to another, dwelling in tents, and still making THE CHINESE EMPIRE use of the bow and arrow in warfare as in hunting. They appear to be all Buddhists ; the bonzes or priests, who accom- pany them in their wanderings, are called Shamans. They are governed through the medium of their own princes or khans, but a vast portion of them acknowledge a dependence on China. On the western side of China Proper are Jungaria, Tibet and East Turkestan, inhabited by Tartar tribes, who occupy inaccessible mountains and have hardly yet come into touch with civilization. Though but little subject to Chinese control, these large districts are reckoned a part of the Chinese empire. If we limit our observations to China Proper (which, it must be remembered, is about 1,400 English miles long and nearly as broad as it is long), and make every deduction for the less favored parts of the land, we must still admit, with our oldest travelers, that it deserves the name of a vast, a fertile, a wealthy and a beautiful country. China is uncommonly rich in vegetable productions. The southern provinces possess all that are found growing in the tropical regions. In other parts, oranges, lemons, teas, sugar-canes, rice, pomegranates, black and white mul- berries, the vine, walnut, chestnut, peach, apricot and fig are seen growing on the same spot of ground. Camelias, cypresses and bamboos, of all sorts and sizes, and in immense quantities, are also found. The mountains, for the most part, are covered with pines and other forest trees. The list we already possess of Chinese plants is a very copious one, but many new discoveries remain to gratify and reward botanical research. The principal object of cultivation is rice; but in the northwestern provinces, where there are many districts too cold and dry for this grain, rice is replaced by wheat. Yams, potatoes, turnips, onions, beans, and, above all, a white kind of cabbage, called potsai, are exten- GENERAL SURVEY sively and very carefully cultivated. The Chinese pay more attention to the manuring of the soil of their gardens and orchards than any other people, whether in the east or in the west. The zoology is very rich and varied ; for although China possesses scarcely any animals which are not to be found in some other countries, she has within her wide limits and diversified surface nearly all those which are found collect- ively in all the other countries of the globe. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the dromedary, abound in various parts. Bears are very common in the hilly country west of Pekin, and the paws of these animals, which abound in fat, are eaten by the Chinese as a delicacy. Deer of various kinds, from the majestic elk to the diminutive tippity, wild boars, foxes and other wild animals, swarm in some of the prov- inces. The lion, the Bengal tiger, the leopard, the ounce, the lynx, the hyena, the jackal and other savage creatures are found. According to the Jesuit missionaries, and to their successors in our own days, the tiger abounds to a fearful extent in some parts of the empire; but we are inclined to believe that a good many of the animals they saw in their lonely perambulations were not tigers, but leopards. The lion has become degenerate and scarce. The woods of the south swarm with the breed of a wild cat, which, though rather small, is fierce, and altogether untamable. This noxious creature is considered by Chinese epicures as an exquisite kind of game, and it is served up in ragouts and stews at table, after being fed for some time in a cage. Some of the native birds are very splendid. The gold and silver pheasants of China are now quite famiiiar to the eye in England. The still more splen- did bird, called the Reeves' pheasant, is still a rarity, even in China. Its tail feathers are of the extraordinary length of six feet, and surpassingly beautiful. It comes from the THE CHINESE EMPIRE ^cold climate of the north, and might be propagated in Eng- land in a natural state, but, unfortunately, Mr. Reeves could procure only four male birds. Another description is called by the eminent naturalist, Mr. Bennett, the medallion pheas- ant, from a beautiful membrane of resplendent colors, which is displayed or contracted according as the bird is more or less roused. The brilliant hues are chiefly purple, with bright red and green spots, which vary in intensity according to the degree of excitement. It should appear that this rare pheasant might be acclimated in most parts of Europe. The country abounds in wild fowls of all kinds. The immense flocks of geese and wild ducks, which, during the winter months, quite cover the Canton River, excite the notice of all strangers. In the summer season they migrate to the north. A handsome species of teal, usually called ''the mandarin duck,^’ is very common. Unlike its fellows, it generally roosts in high situations, upon trees or rocks. The fishing cormorant, which the Chi- nese have perfectly tamed and trained to their will, is well known by drawings, engravings and descriptions. It is a brown bird, of the pelican family, with yellow bill, white throat and whitish breast spotted with brown, having a com- pact rounded tail. While employed in diving and fishing for their masters, these birds are prevented from swallowing what they catch by means of a ring or tight collar passed over the lower part of the neck ; but when their work is over this ring is removed, and they are allowed to fish for them- selves or to feed upon the refuse. It is said, however, that they are sometimes so perfectly trained and disciplined as to need no restraint whatever — that they will finish the work for their masters before they think of themselves. On the Canton River, and on nearly every other considerable stream, there is a large aquatic population, dwelling in boats and barges, and seldom setting foot on shore. With two or three GENERAL SURVEY good fishing cormorants a family of this sort can nearly sup- port itself. Quails are very abundant, and the Chinese have trained them to fight, like our game cocks. The sport is much cherished by the common people, who will frequently stake all they possess on the result of a quail fight. A delicate species of ortolan makes its appearance in the neighborhood of Canton during the rice harvest. The Chi- nese call it the ^Tice bird.’’ In other parts of the empire crocodiles, alligators and monstrous serpents exist; but the neighborhood of Canton, though under the tropic, is little infested by these reptiles or by any venomous creatures. There is, however, a slender snake, between two and three feet long, which is very much dreaded by the natives, and the bite of which is said to cause inevitable death in a few hours. It is covered from head to tail with alternate bands of black and white, and is called by the Chinese the black-and-white snake. Fish are in great and almost endless variety. Besides those produced in the seas, gulfs, bays and estuaries, fresh- water fish (of which great care is taken) swarm in most of the rivers, lakes, canals and brooks. On the sea coast and at Canton the sturgeon is held in high estimation. Sir John F. Davis remarks, ‘The Chinese stew made from this fish is so palatable as to have been introduced at the tables of Europeans. Some gastronome or other has observed that every country affords at least one good dish/' Is stewed sturgeon the one good dish of China ? The beautiful gold and silver fishes v/hich ornament our vases and garden ponds came originally from China, where they are very numerous, They are a species of carp, and were carried by the Dutch first to Java and thence to Holland. But, according to another account, they were first brought to Europe by some of the missionaries, to whom we are indebted for many other im- portations, and for more information about China and the THE CHINESE EMPIRE aujacent countries than has been supplied from any other quarter or class of men. Among the insects of China there are some which call for notice even in a brief and general sketch like the present. A monstrous spider is found inhabiting trees, and attaining to such size and strength as to be able to catch and devour small birds, as our spiders do flies. Locusts sometimes com- mit extensive ravages, but it is said that their depredations do not usually extend over any great tract of country at once, and that they seldom appear two years successively. Eastward of the city of Canton, on a range of hills called Lo-fow-shan, there are butterflies of large size and night- moths of immense dimensions and most brilliant coloring, which are captured for transmission to the court at Pekin^ and for sale at Canton and other cities. Some of these insects measure nine inches across ; their ground color is a I rich and varied orange brown, in the center of each wing Ithere is a triangular transparent spot, resembling a piece of Pmica. Sphinx-moths, also of great beauty and size, are common around Canton, and in their splendid coloring, rapid, noise- less flight from flower to flower, at the close of day, remind one of the humming-bird. The common cricket is caught and sold in the markets for gambling, and persons of high rank, as well as the vulgar, amuse themselves by irritating two of these insects in a bowl, and betting upon which shall prove the conqueror. A gigantic species of the cicada — described as being more than four times the size of the cicada of the south of Italy and Greece — is very common among the trees in the neighborhood of Canton, and in every other part of the country where the climate is warm and the pine tree abundant. All through the summer its stridulous sound is heard from the trees and woods, with deafening loudness. Even those who have been stunned by the noise GENERAL SURVEY of the cicala in the pine forests of the Italian peninsula have been astonished and almost stunned by the Chinese insect. These loud sounds proceed solely from the males, the females being perfectly silent. This difference must have been known to the old Greek epigrammatist, who said, ‘^The male cicada leads a happy life, for he makes all the noise himself and his wife makes none.’’ Chinese boys often capture the males, tie a straw round the abdomen, so as to irritate the sounding apparatus, and carry them through the streets in this predicament, to the great annoyance of strangers. The fire-fly, or, as it is called here, the 'dantern- fly,” is very abundant in many parts of the empire. It is far larger than the fire-fly of Southern Europe, and said to be infinitely more luminous. It has orange-yellow wings, with black extremities. Its appearance, when seen flitting through the skirts of a thicket or grove, in the summer even- ings, is striking and poetical, and imparts a brilliant aspect to the shades of night. The pe-la-shoo, or wax-tree, affords nourishment to an insect which is smaller than a common fly, and which is supposed to belong to the coccus tribe, though it would appear not to have been as yet cor- rectly examined or classed by entomologists. It is covered with a white powder, which it imparts to the stem of the particular plant it inhabits, from the bark of which it is collected by the natives. This substance resembles beeswax, and is used as such. A casing of it, colored with vermilion, is often used to enclose the tallow candle. Small as are these insects, the quantity of wax is said to be very considerable. This wax is used as a medicine, as well as made into candles and tapers. The tree or shrub it inhabits resembles our privet. An insect, examined by the late Sir George Staun- ton, was completely covered with a white powder, and the stem of the shrub from which it was taken was whitened all over by a similar substance. Wax is also made from wild THE CHINESE EMPIRE and domestic bees, but honey is said not to be much in demand. The extent to which the written language is understood renders it one of the most remarkable that has ever been used among mankind. Dr. Morrison says : ‘‘The Chinese language is now read by a population of different nations, amounting to a large proportion of the human race, and over a most extensive geographical space, from the borders of Russia on the north, throughout Chinese Tartary on the : west, and in the east as far as Kamchatka ; and downward, | through Korea and Japan, in the Loo Choo islands. Cochin- ^ China, and the islands of that archipelago, on most of which are Chinese settlers, till you come down to the equinoctial line at Penang, Malacca, Singapore and even beyond it on Java. Throughout all these regions, however dialects may differ and oral languages be confounded, the Chinese written language is understood by all. The voyager and the mer- chant, the traveler arid the Chinese missionary, if he can write Chinese, may make himself understood throughout the whole of Eastern Asia.^’ The Chinese, as is well known, is a language to the eye, and understood by all the nations who have received and learned its extraordinary characters, however different their vernacular or spoken languages may be from the spoken languages of China. Mr. J. Crawfurd, on his embassy to Siam and Cochin-China, stopped at an island in the Gulf of Siam, which was inhabited only by a few poor Cochin- Chinese fishermen and their families. They could not speak a word of Chinese, but they could read Chinese characters ; and when Mr. Crawfurd’s interpreter wrote down questions in Chinese one of the head fishermen gave him intelligible replies in writing, in the same character. Not a word, not a syllable, was exchanged orally between the two, and yet GENERAL SURVEY Mr. Crawfurd obtained the information he wanted about the island. But if a knowledge of the written language will carry a traveler all through Eastern Asia, a familiarity with the spoken tongue is invaluable in China. It is a passport to the confidence of the people, and a full knowledge of the people is not to be obtained without it. A recent American missionary was returning home one evening on a narrow causeway running across the rice fields, when just ahead he saw a little boy standing by the side of his father. The child began to whimper on seeing the ogre of a barbarian coming, but the parent instantly pacified him by saying, ‘'Don’t cry, he won’t hurt you; he can talk Chi- nese.” Although China was, incontestably, a great empire in the flourishing time of the Greek republics, and at the later period when the Macedonian conqueror invaded India, it is now admitted on every hand that the Greeks had no knowl- edge of it at either of these periods. Alexander seems to have fancied that the remotest east ended with India. “Were modern conqueror to stop on the banks of the Ganges and sigh that he had no more nations to subdue, what has been admired in the pupil of Aristotle himself would be a mere absurdity in the most ignorant chieftain of our times.” Until some centuries after the death of Alexander the Great there is not in any Greek writer a single word or phrase that can be twisted or tortured, by any ingenuity, so as to signify China. The Romans, even as late as the time of the Emperor Augustus, or on the very eve of the Christian era, seem to have known no more of the Chinese than was known to the Greeks, whom they had succeeded as conquerors, colonists and explorers. The people mentioned by Horace and other Latin writers under the name of Seres were not Chinese, THE CHINESE EMPIRE but a people inhabiting a part of Asia (no doubt India) far to the westward of China; and these people furnished the Romans, not with silk, but with fine cotton manufactures — the gauzes and muslin of modern commerce. About 140 years after the birth of Christ Arrian first speaks of the Sinae, or Thinae, a people in the remotest parts of Asia, by whom were exported the raw and manufactured silks, which were brought by the way of Bactria (Bokhara) westward, to be sold at Rome, and the other great and luxurious cities of that empire. It must, at least, have been known by this date that there was some rich, extensive and civilized coun- ' try beyond the most eastern limits of India. The eager ' demand for silk, which was brought in continually increas- | ing quantities by land caravans through central Asia and | Asia Minor to the shores of the Mediterranean or Black Sea, , awakened curiosity as to the country of its production, prep- i aration and manufacture. Some twenty years after the | time in which Arrian wrote, the Roman emperor, Marcus Antoninus, dispatched an embassy to the ruler of the land of silks, without knowing with any precision where that country was situated. The mission embarked either on the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf, and appears to have pursued the same navigation (across the Indian Ocean, and along the coasts of India, Pegu, Siam and Malacca) which was after- ward commonly followed by the mariners and traders of Arabia. The learned De Guignes shows, from Chinese authors, that this expedition took place in A. D. 160. Like nearly every attempt of the kind in subsequent days, the mission of Antoninus appears to have been an entire failure, and to have returned without accomplishing any practical benefit to intercourse or trade between the two greatest empires in the world. It is believed that it was received at Low-Yang, at that time the capital, with ostentatious show and patronizing kindness. The embassy is noticed in an GENERAL SURVEY 29 old Chinese work, ''History Made Easy,’’ where it is stated that, in the reign of Wan-ti, of the dynasty of Han, a people came from India and other western nations with tribute ; and from that time foreign trade was carried on with Canton. This maritime trade, however, appears to have been very scanty, until it was taken up in good earnest by the enter- prising Arabs, who before the eighth century had a great factory at Canton, and extensive establishments and a very considerable Arab population in some other of the maritime parts of the empire. It appears to have been chiefly in the ships of these people that a very considerable number of Parsees, Jews and Nestorian Christians were conveyed to the Coromandel coast, and even to China, where they amounted to very many thousands by the middle of the ninth century. Carpini, St. Quintin, Rubruquis and the other missionary monks dispatched by Pope Innocent IV and Louis IX of France, in the middle of the thirteenth century, to the Grand Khan of the Tartars, in order to stop that people’s destruc- tive irruptions into Western Europe, never reached any region at all near to the frontiers of China. It was not until the return of the celebrated Venetian traveler Marco Polo, or, rather, not until Marco produced the written account of his travels (somewhere between the years 1298 and 1308), that a flood of Chinese light was let in upon Europe, and that the "Middle Kingdom” really ceased to be what it had so long been — a more than half fabulous country. AREA AND POPULATION Hitherto the population of China, it is believed, has been much over-estimated ; a recent estimate of the population of China proper will be found below. The following table gives a statement of the area and population of the whole of the Chinese Empire according to the latest estimates ; 80 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Area, English sq. miles. Population. China Proper Dependencies : 386,000,000 Manchuria 7,500,000 Mongolia 2,000,000 Tibet 651,500 6,000,000 Jungaria 147,950 600,000 East Turkestan 580,000 Totals 4218,401 402,680,000 According to official data referring to 1842, the popula- tion of the 18 provinces of China Proper and Formosa was 413,000,000; other estimates gave 350,000,000. In the fol- lowing table the figures with a * are from Chinese official data for 1882; those with a have the population of 1879; | Fukien is estimated on the basis of the census of 1844. ! Area, English Population per | Provinces — square miles. Population, square mile. Chilhi** 58,949 17,937,000 304 Shantung* 53,762 36,247,835 557 Shansi* 56,268 12,211,453 221 Honan* 22,115,827 340 Kiangsu* 44,500 20,905,171 470 Nganhwei 20,596,288 425 Kiangsi** 24,534,118 340 Chehkiang* 39,150 11,588,692 296 Fukien 22,190,556 574 Hupeh* 70,450 34,244,685 486 Hunan* 74,320 21,002,604 282 Shensi** 8,432,193 126 Kansu** . . 125,450 9,285,377 74 Szechuen* 67,712,897 406 Kwangtung with Hainan*.. 79,456 29,706,249 377 Kwangsi** 5,151,327 6S Kweichau* 7,669,181 118 Yunnan** 11,721,576 108 Totals 383,253,029 292 GENERAL SURVEY 31 The Island of Formosa was ceded to Japan in accordance with the terms of the treaty of peace ratified and exchanged at Chefoo on the 8th of May, 1895. The formal transfer of the Island was effected on the 2nd of June, 1895. In November, 1897, the Germans seized the Port of Kiaou-Chow, on the east coast of Shantung, and in January, 1898, obtained from the Chinese a 99 years’ lease of the town, harbor, and district. By agreement with the Chinese government, dated March 27, 1898, Russia is in possession of Port Arthur and Talienwan and their adjacent territories and waters, on lease for the term of 25 years, which may be extended by agreement. Within the territories and waters leased, Russia has sole military and naval control and may build forts and barracks as she desires. Port Arthur is closed to all vessels except Russian and Chinese men-of- war; part of Talienwan harbor is reserved exclusively for Russian and Chinese men-of-war, but the remainder is freely open to merchant vessels of all countries. To the north is a neutral zone where Chinese troops shall not be quartered except with the consent of Russia. The territory acquired here by Russia has been formed into the Russian province of Kwang Tung. For such period as Russia may hold Port Arthur, Great Britain is, by agreement with China, April 2, 1898, to hold Wei-Hai-Wei, in the province of Shantung. For defensive purposes Great Britain has, in addition, ob- tained a 99 years’ lease of territory on the mainland opposite the island of Hongkong. To compensate for these ad- vantages given to the Russians, British, and Germans, the Chinese Government granted to the French in April, 1898, a 99 years’ lease of the Bay of Kwang-Chau-Wan, on the coast of the Lien-Chow peninsula, opposite the Island of Hainan. In November, 1899, China conceded to France the possession of the two islands commanding the entrance of 32 THE CHINESE EMPIRE the bay. This territory has been placed under the authority of the Governor-General of French Indo-China. According to a return of the Imperial Customs authori- ties, the total number of foreigners resident in the open ports of China was 13,421 at the end of 1898. Among them were 5,148 British subjects, 2,056 Americans, 1,694 Japa- nese, 920 Frenchmen, 1,043 Germans, 1,082 Portuguese, 395 Spaniards, and 200 Swedes and Norwegians; all other nationalities being represented by very few members. About one-half of the total number of foreigners resided at Shanghai. The French municipality at that town entered on the extension of their concession on March i, 1900. RELIGION. Three religions are acknowledged by the Chinese as indigenous and adopted, viz. : Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The Emperor is considered the sole high priest of the Empire, and can alone, with his immediate representatives and ministers, perform the great religious ceremonies. No eccleciastical hierarchy is maintained at the public expense, nor any priesthood attached to the Confucian religion. The Confucian is the state religion, if the respect paid to the memory of the great teacher can be called religion at all. The bulk of the people, however, are Buddhist. There are probably about 30,000,000 Mohammedans, chiefly in the northeast and southwest. Roman Catholicism has long had a footing in China, and is estimated to have about 1,000,000 adherents, with twenty-five bishoprics besides those of Manchuria, Tibet, Mongolia, and Korea. Other Christian societies have stations in many parts of the country, the number of Protestant adherents being estimated at 50,000. Most of the aboriginal hill-tribes are still nature-worship- ers, and ethnically are distinct from the prevailing Mongo- loid population. CHINESE HISTORY CHAPTER II CHINESE HISTORY FROM THEIR OWN RECORDS So much for China as known to the western world. Let us now glance at Chinese history as described in the tradi- tions and literature of China herself. In the beginning, so Chinese writers relate, when all was darkness and confusion, there came from a vast mundane egg, which divided itself into two parts, a human being, who is and has always been known in Chinese annals as Poon-koo Wong. Of the upper portion of the shell, this being formed the heavens, and of the lower part he made the earth. To dispel the darkness by which all was enveloped he created with his right hand the sun to rule the day, and with his left hand the moon to rule the night. He made the stars also. Then he called into existence the five elements of earth, water, fire, metal and wood. Chinese writers say also that, in order to people the earth, Poon-koo Wong made a cloud of vapor rise from a piece of gold, and a similar cloud from a piece of wood. By breathing on them he gave to the vapor which arose from the gold, a male principle; and to that which ascended from the wood, a female principle. From the union of these two clouds or spirits sprang a son and daughter, Ying Yee and Cha-noee; and the descendants of this pair in due course of time overspread the whole coun- try. Thus, according to Chinese cosmogony, came into being the land of Han, and its vast population, in other words, the world and its inhabitants. In honor of Poon-koo m THE CHINESE EMPIRE Wong there are many temples throughout China. The idol of this hero of antiquity is an almost nude figure made of wood or clay. Around the loins is a representation of an apron of leaves. Such, say the Chinese, was his only cover- ing, there being no clothes in those earliest of days. The primordia of all countries are enveloped in much that is obscure and fabulous, and it is extremely difficult for the historian to fix the period when civil history had its beginnings. China is no exception, but there can, we think, be no doubt of the great antiquity of the Chinese Empire. It is not, we believe, rash to say that it has survived a period of 4,000 years, without having undergone any great change either in the laws by which it is governed or in the speech, manners and customs of its teeming population. It is gen- erally allowed that Celestial observations were made at Babylon 2,234 years before the birth of Christ, and such observations are probably the strongest evidence which any nation can produce in support of its claim to antiquity. These were not in any way associated with the history of sublunary events. Those made by the Chinese, on the con- trary, have served to mark the events of their national his- tory. They speak of an eclipse calculated in their country 2,155 years before Christ. That this eclipse really took place was proved by the calculations of the missionaries of the order of Jesus, who visited China in the sixteenth century. Gaubil, one of the early Roman Catholic missionaries to China — a man pre-eminently distinguished for his mathe- matical attainments — examined a series of thirty-six eclipses to which allusion is made in the writings of Con- fucius. After careful examination he concluded that of these thirty-six eclipses only two were false, and two un- certain. The correctness of the remaining thirty-two, he considered established beyond all reasonable doubt. Tin chronology of the Chinese, however, extends considerably CHINESE HISTORY 35 beyond the first of these eclipses, and is substantiated by satisfactory evidence as far back as the reign of the Em- peror Yaou. From the time of this sovereign, the history of China begins to assume the appearance of truth, whereas the account of preceding reigns is clouded with fable and uncertainty. It was an ancient belief of Chinese writers that there had existed a period of 2,267,000 and odd years between the time when the powers of Heaven and Earth first united to produce man as the possessor of the soil of China, and the time of Confucius. This having been accepted as a fact, it became necessary for the early historians to invent long lines of dynastic rulers to fill up the gap between the crea- tion and the period with which the Book of Historical Doc- uments commences. Accordingly, we find a series of ten epochs described as preceding the Chow dynasty. The events connected with most of these are purely fabulous, and it is not until we come down to the eighth period that we can trace any glimmer, however obscured, of history. This, we are told, commenced with the reign of Yew-chaou She (the Nest-having), who, if such a man ever existed, was probably one of the first of those who, as the immigrants increased and multiplied, was chosen to direct their coun- sels and to lead their armies. This chief induced them to settle within the bend of the Yellow River, the site of the modern province of Shansi, and taught them to make huts of the boughs of trees. Under the next chief, Suy-jin She (the Fire-producer), the grand discovery of fire was effected by the accidental friction of two pieces of dry wood. He taught the people to look up to Teen, the great creating, preserving, and destroying power ; and he invented a method of registering time and events, by making certain I knots on thongs or cords twisted out of the bark of trees. I N^xt to him followed Yung-ching She, and then Fuh-he, 36 THE CHINESE EMPIRE who separated the people into classes or tribes, giving to each a particular name, discovered iron, appointed certain days to show their gratitude to heaven, by offering the first-fruits of the earth, and invented the eight diagrams which serve as the foundation of the Yih-king. Fuh-he reigned 1 15 years, and his tomb is shown at Chin-choo, in the province of Shensi, at this day. His successor, Chin- nung, invented the plow; and from that moment the civ- ilization of China proceeded by rapid and progressive steps. As the early history of every ancient people is more or less vitiated by fable, we ought not to be more fastidious or less indulgent toward the marvelous in that of China, than we are toward Egyptian, Greek, or Roman history. The main facts may be true, though the details are in- correct; and though the accidental discovery of fire may not have happened under Suy-jin She, yet it probably was first communicated by the friction of two sticks, which at this day is a common method among almost all savages of producing fire. Nor is it perhaps strictly correct that Fuh-he made the accidental discovery of iron, by having burnt a quantity of wood on a brown earth, any more than that the Phoenicians discovered the mode of making glass by burning green wood on sand; yet it is not improbable that some such processes first led to these discoveries. And if it be objected against the history, that the reign of 115 years exceeds the usual period of human existence, this after all is as nothing, when compared with the contemporaneous ones recorded in biblical history. Thus, also, considerable allowances are to be deducted from the scientific discoveries of Chin-nung in botany, when we read of his having in one day discovered no less than seventy different species of plants that were of a poisonous nature, and seventy others that were antidotes against their baneful effects. The next sovereign, Hwang-te, was a usurper; but during his reign the Chinese are stated to have m.ade a CHINESE HISTORY very rapid progress in the arts and conveniences of civilized life; and to his lady, Se-ling-she, is ascribed the honor of having first observed the silk produced by the worms, of having unraveled their cocoons, and of having worked the fine filaments into a web of cloth. The tomb of Hwang- te is also preserved to this day in the province of Shensi. THE TIME OF CONFUCIUS But with the reign of Yaou (2356 B. C.) we emerge to some extent from the mist which hangs over the earlier records of China. Here Confucius takes up the strain, and though his narrative will not bear criticism, it yet furnishes us with some historical data. The character of Yaou and his successor Shun have been the theme of every writer on history from the time of Confucius down- ward. So strong was the force of the examples they set that virtue pervaded the land, crime was unknown, and the nation increased in size and prosperity. During the reign of Yaou the empire extended from 23° to 40° N. lat., and from the 6th degree of longitude west from Pekin to the loth degree east. He established his capital at Ke-choo in Shan-tung, and established marts and fairs throughout the land. After his death he was succeeded by Shun, who for some years had shared with him the responsibilities of government. It was during this period that the ‘'Great’’ Yu was employed to drain off the waters of the flood which had visited the north of China in con- sequence, probably, of one of the numerous changes in the course of the Yellow River. This work he accomplished after having expended nine years’ labor upon it, and as a reward for this and other services he was raised to the throne on the death of Shun. After him succeeded a ■ number of rulers, each one less qualified to govern than the last, until one Kee (1818 B. C.) ascended the throne. In 38 THE CHINESE EMPIRE this man were combined all the worst vices of kings. He was licentious, cruel, faithless, and dissolute. From such a one Heaven withdrew her protection. The people rose against him, and having swept away all traces of him and his bloody house, they proclaimed the commencement of a new dynasty, to be called the Shang dynasty, and their leader, Tang, they named the first emperor of the new line (1766 B. C.). Aided by wise counselors, this monarch restored to the country some of its former prosperity. But the same fatality which attended the descendants of Yu overtook also his successors. They became self-indulgent and effeminate. They lost all hold on the affections of their people, so that when Chow, aided and abetted by his consort Ta-ke, gave vent to passions of a more than usually cruel and debased nature, they revolted, and Woo-Wang ascended the throne as the first emperor of the Chow dynasty. Woo-Wang was all that tradition represents the founders of dynasties to have been. He was brave, talented, and virtuous, but he committed the mistake of dividing his kingdom into seventy-two feudal states in order that he might bestow principalities on his own relations and the descendants of former emperors. The fatal result of this subdivision soon became obvious. Jealousies sprang up among the princes, internecine wars raged unceasingly, and the allegiance of the feudatories to the central authority became daily w’eakened. Nor were the enemies of the empire confined to those within its borders, for, during the reign of Muh Wang (936 B. C.) we are told that the Tartars, of whom we now hear for the first time, taking advantage of the confusion which reigned within the limits of the empire, made predatory incursions into the states, and though they were invariably driven off, yet from this time they remained a constant source of danger and annoyance to the Chinese. Such was the state CHINESE HISTORY acted a pledge from the merchants that they would no longer deal in the drug. On the 3d April, 20,283 chests of opium were handed over to the mandarins and were by them destroyed — a sufficient proof that they were in earnest in their endeavors to suppress the traffic. This demand of commissioner Lin was considered by the English Govern- ment to amount tO' a casus belli, and in 1840 war was declared. In the same year the fleet captured Chusan, and in the following year the Bogue Forts fell, in con- sequence of which operations the Chinese agreed to cede Hongkong to- the victors and to pay them an indemnity of $6,000,000. As soon as this news reached Pekin, Ke Shen, who had succeeded commissioner Lin, was dismissed from his post and degraded, and Yih Shan, another Tartar, was appointed in his room. * But before the new com- missioner reached his post, Canton had fallen into the hands of Sir Hugh Gough, and shortly afterwards Amoy, Ningpo, Tinghai in Chusan, Chapoo, Shanghai, and Chin- keang Foo shared the same fate, and a like evil would have happened to Nanking had not the Imperial Government, dreading the loss of the ‘'Southern Capital,’’ proposed terms of peace. After much discussion. Sir Henry Pot- tinger, who had succeeded Captain Elliot, concluded, in 1842, a treaty with the imperial commissioners, by which the four additional ports of Amoy, Fuh-choy-Foo, Ningpo, and Shanghai were declared open to foreign trade, and an indemnity of $21,000,000 was to be paid to the Eng- lish. Nor was the remainder of the reign of Taou-kwang more fortunate than its beginning; the empire was com- pletely disorganized, rebellious outbreaks were of frequent occurrence, and the imperial armies were powerless to oppose them. So complete was the demoralization of the troops, that on one occasion the Meaou-tsze or hill tribes of Kwang-se defeated an army of 30,000 men sent against THE CHINESE EMPIRE them by the viceroy of the two Kwangs, In 1850, while these clouds were hanging gloomily over the land, Taou- kwang ‘^ascended on high,’’ and Hien-fung, his son, reigned in his stead. A cry was now raised for the reforms which had been hoped for under Taou-kwang, but Hien-fung possessed in an exaggerated form the selfish and tyrannical nature of his father, together with a voluptuary’s craving for every kind of sensual pleasure, and he lived to reap as he had sown. For some time Kwang-se had been in a very disturbed state, and when, on the accession of the new emperor, the people found that no relief from the oppres- sion they endured was to be given them, they broke out into open revolt and proclaimed a youth, who was said to be the representative of the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, as emperor, under the title of Tien-tih or ‘'Heavenly Virtue.” From Kwang-si the flames spread into Hoo-pih and Hoo-nan, and then languished from want of a leader and a definite political cry. Just at the moment, however, when there appeared to be a possibility that, by force of arms and the persuasive influence of money, the imperialists would re-establish their supre- macy, a leader presented himself in Kwang-si, whose energy of character, combined with great political and religious enthusiasm, speedily gained for him the suffrages of the discontented. This was Hung Sew-tseuen. Seizing on the popular longing for the return of a Chinese dynasty he proclaimed himself as sent by heaven to drive out the Tartars, and to restore in his own person the succession to China. At the same time having been converted to Christianity, and professing to abhor the vices and sins of the age, he called on all the virtuous of the land to extirpate rulers who, both in their public laws and in their private acts, were standing examples of all that was base CHINESE HISTORY 43 and vile in human nature. Crowds soon flocked to his standard. Tien-tih was deserted; and, putting himself at the head of his followers, Hung Sew-tseuen marched northwards into Hoo-nan and Hoo-pih, overthrowing every force which was sent to oppose him. The first city of importance which fell into his hands was Woo-chang Foo on the Yangtse-kiang, the capital of Hoo-pih. Situated at the junction of the Han River with the Yangtse- kiang, this city was a point of great strategical importance. But Hung Sew-tseuen was not inclined to rest upon his laurels, knowing full well that he must be able to call Nanking his before there would be any chance that his dreams of empire could be realized. Having made Woo- chang secure, he therefore moved down the river, and after taking Gan-king on his way he proceeded to the attack of Nanking. So widespread was the disaffection at this time throughout the country that the city was ripe for falling, and without much difficulty Hung Sew-tseuen in 1852 established himself within its walls, and proclaimed the inauguration of the Tai-ping dynasty, of which he nominated himself the first emperor under the title of Tien Wang or '‘Heavenly king.'’ For the next few years it appeared as though he had nailed the flag of victory to his staff. His armies penetrated victoriously as far north as Tien-tsin and as far east as Chin-kiang and Soochow, while bands of syirpathizers with his cause appeared in the neighborhood of Amoy. As if still further to aid and abet him in his schemes, England declared war against the Tartar dynasty in 1857, consequence of an outrage known as the “Arrow" affair. In December of the same year Canton was taken by an English force under Sir Michael Seymour and General Straubenzee, and a still further blow was struck against the prestige of the ruling government by the determination arrived at by Lord Elgin, who had 44 THE CHINESE EMPIRE been sent out as special ambassador, to go to Pekin and communicate directly with the emperor. In May, 1858, the Taku Forts were taken, and the way having thus been cleared of obstacles. Lord Elgin went up the Peiho to Tien-tsin en route for the capital. At Tien-tsin, however, he was met by the imperial commissioners, who persuaded him so far to alter his plans as to conclude a treaty with them on the spot, which treaty it was agreed should be ratified at Pekin in the following year. When, however, Sir Frederick Bruce, who had been in the meanwhile appointed minister to the court of Pekin, attempted to pass Taku to carry out this part of the arrangement, the vessels escorting him were fired on from the forts with such precision and persistency that he was compelled to return to Shanghai to await the arrival of a larger force than that which he then had at his command. As soon as news of this defeat reached England Lord Elgin was again sent out with full powers, and accompanied by a large force under the command of Sir Hope Grant. The French likewise took part in the campaign, and on August i, i860, the allies landed without meeting with any opposition at Peh-tang, a village twelve miles north of Taku. A few days later the forts at that place which had bid defiance to Sir Frederick Bruce twelve months previously were taken, and from thence the allies marched to Pekin. Finding further resistance to be hopeless, the Chinese opened negotiations, and as a guarantee of their good faith surrendered the An-ting gate of the capital to the allies. On the 24th of October the treaty of 1858 was ratified by Prince King and Lord Elgin, and a convention was sighed under the terms of which the Chinese agreed to pay a war indemnity of 8,000,000 taels. The Emperor Hien-fung did not have long to see the results of his new relations with the hated foreigner, but died in the summer of the CHINESE HISTORY following year, leaving the throne to his son Tung-chi, a child of five years old. The conclusion of peace with the allies was the signal for a renewal of the campaign against the Tai-pings, and benefiting by the friendly feelings of the English authorities engendered by the return of amicable relations, the Chinese government succeeded in enlisting Major Gordon of the Royal Engineers in their service. In a surprisingly short space of time this officer formed the troops, which had formerly been under the command of an American named Ward, into a formidable army, and with- out delay took the field against the rebels. From that day the fortunes of the Tai-pings declined. They lost city after city, and finally, in July, 1864, the Imperialists, after an interval of twelve years, once more gained possession of Nanking. Tien Wang did not survive the capture of his capital, and with him fell his cause. Those of his followers who escaped the sword of the victors dispersed throughout the country, and the Tai-pings ceased to be. With the measure of peace which was then restored to the country trade rapidly revived, and, with the exception of the province of Yun-nan, where the Mahometan rebels under Suleiman still kept the imperial forces at bay, prosperity was everywhere re-awakened. Against these foes the government was careless to take any active measures, until in 1872 Prince Hassan, the adopted son of Suleiman, was sent on a mission to England with the object of gain- ing the recognition of the Queen for his father's govern- ment. This step at once aroused the susceptibilities of the Imperial Government, and a large force was instantly organized and despatched to the scene of the rebellion. The war was now pushed on with vigor, and before the year was out the Mahometan capital Ta-le Foo fell into the hands of the Imperialists, and the followers of Suleiman at i 46 THE CHINESE EMPIRE that place and throughout the province were mercilessly exterminated. In the succeeding February the Regents — i.e., the dowager-empresses, who had governed the country since the death of Hien-fung — resigned their powers into the hands of the emperor. This long-expected time was seized upon by the foreign ministers to urge their right of audience with the emperor, and on the 29th of June, 1873, the privilege of gazing on the ^'sacred countenance'’ was accorded to them. From that time until his death from smallpox on the 12th of January, 1875, Tung-chi's name fails to appear in connection with any public act of import- ance. THE PRESENT IMPERIAL FAMILY The Emperor Tung-chi having died without issue, the succession to the throne, for the first time in the annals of the Tsing dynasty, passed out of the direct line, and a cousin of the deceased emperor, a princeling, said to be not quite four years old, was chosen to reign in his room, under the title of Kwang-seu or “Succession of Glory." Usually the emperor appoints his successor from among the members of his own family in the next younger genera- tion. In the present case, however, as Tung-chi failed to make an appointment, the Empress Dowager, Tszu-Hszi (born November 17, 1834), widow of the Emperor Hien- Fung, predecessor and father of Tung-chi, in concert with Prince Chun, arranged the appointment of Kwang-seu, infant son of Prince Chun. Tsait'ien Kwang-seu, son of Prince Chun, seventh brother of the Emperor Hien-Fung, was born August 2, 1872, and succeeded to the throne by proclamation January 22, 1875. He was married February 26, 1889. Having become of age, the young emperor nominally assumed government in March, 1887. In February, 1889, RECENT EVENTS IN CHINA 47 he undertook the full control, but on September 22, 1898, an imperial edict was issued announcing that the Emperor had resigned power to the Empress Dowager, who has since retained the direction of affairs. On January 24, 1900, it was declared by decree that Kuk Wei (whose official name is Pu Tsing), son of the Prince of Tuan, was successor of Tung-chi. Pu Tsing is only 14 years of age, and his succession is regarded as equivalent to Kwang-seu’s depo- sition. CHAPTER HI RECENT EVENTS IN CHINA LI HUNG CHANG The modern development of China is due more to Li Hung Chang than to any other single agency. He is im- mensely wealthy and has held nearly every post of honor that China could give him, though likewise at irregular in- tervals, he has been deprived of all position and power, his '‘yellow jacket’' has been taken from him, and his head has been in danger. He was born in 1819 of pure Chinese blood. In three successive literary examinations he stood first, and in 1847 was enrolled in the Hanlin or Imperial Academy, the highest literary degree in the empire. He was an official in the Imperial printing-office when the Tai- ping Rebellion broke out. In this war he became promi- nent, and was appointed governor of Kiang-su. He immediately saw the value of European military organization and equipment, and formed the "Ever Vic- torious Force,” a Chinese corps armed, drilled, and disci- plined according to European fashion, first under the direc- tion of the American, Ward, and then of the celebrated THE CHINESE EMPIRE Gordon. Henceforth Li threw all his force and influence into the adoption in China of Western arts’ and sciences. In 1870 he was made viceroy of Chihli,* the province in which Pekin is located. In 1872 he had thirty Chinese boys sent to the United States to be educated, and established a college in Pekin, under Dr. W. H. P. Martin. In 1880 he took advantage of the Russian war scare to improve the army and navy and establish the telegraph, which now comprises a network of over 10,000 miles. Sim- ultaneously he worked for railroads. A short line had been built in 1876 from Shanghai to Woosung, but this was bought and dismantled the next year by the Government. Li maintained, however, the agitation for railways until in 1888 an active beginning was made, and the work has gone steadily on ever since. In 1877 he bought four ironclads just built in England for the royal navy, and so laid the foundation of the present Chinese modern navy. He had likewise so cleverly man- aged diplomatic relations with France after their nominal victory in the war of i884-’85 over Formosa, that China got decidedly the best of it in the net result. Under his encouragement joint-stock companies have been organized for various industrial enterprises, such as silk, cotton, woolen, glass, and iron manufactures. Yet Li Hung Chang belongs to the native party and is ready to resist the encroachments of foreign nations with all the arts of diplomacy at his command. Reform in China is a very slow and difficult matter. The mass of the Chinese people do not want European civilization, do not want Christian methods, do not want foreigners on their soil ; and from time to time anti-foreign outbreaks are sure to occur. In 1891 there was a serious uprising, afterwards traced to influential scholars, and even officials; and the *Or Pi-chi-li. RECENT EVENTS IN CHINA 49 violent and scurrilous pamphlets and placards distributed were written by literati of rank. The same outbreak was revived in 1893, the recent uprising of the '‘Boxers” is but another form of the old hatred of the Christian and the foreigner. The word "Boxer” is a free English translation of the name of a recently formed Chinese society. The Chinese minister at Washington recently said (1900) that he had previously known nothing of this society, but that the name of the organization as given in the Chinese papers meant "Society for the Promotion of Harmony, Righteous- ness, and Athletics.” Evidently the "athletic” character has quite overshadowed any "harmony” and "righteous- ness” there may have been in the beginning. THE JAPANESE-CHINESE WAR Korea, a small peninsula extending south from Man- churia, was for a few hundred years prior to 641 A. D. tributary to Japan, and though the Chinese have claimed suzerainty since 2,000 B. C., the Japanese have from time to time attempted to regain their rights. Most of the business men and bankers are Japanese, and so is the great majority of the foreign population. Consequently two parties grew up in Korea, one favoring the control of Japan, and one hating all forms of Western art and culture (for which Japan now stands in the East). In 1877 China annexed a desolate neutral strip, 60 miles wide, on the west, and Japan by a naval demonstration secured a treaty in which both China and Japan recognized the complete independence of Korea. In the meantime Queen Cho, devoted to Chinese interests, had come into power in the Korean royal family. In 1882 Japan estab- lished a military guard in Korea to protect its legation 50 THE CHINESE EMPIRE from attack. In 1894 ^ rebellion broke out in the province of Chulla, and King Li Hi called on China for assistance. Li Hung Chang sent 2,000 men, but Japan protested that this was a violation of the treaty. Plotting and counter-plotting, intrigue and murder soon became rampant, and both sides were ready for war. When war appeared inevitable Russia declared she would not permit any acquisition of territory in Korea, and the United States, being bound by a special treaty, attempted mediation. The British government also took steps to avert the war, but in vain. None of the powers was prepared for forcible intervention. On July 20, 1894, the Chinese government, having chartered transports from the British, embarked 12,000 troops for Korea and they set sail from Taku. Most of these troops had been disembarked at Asan when the Jap- anese squadron appeared. Though the transport ''Kow Shing’’ was officered by Englishmen and flew the British flag, the Japanese forced the English off, and sunk the transport with 1,700 Chinese soldiers on board, after a sharp engagement. The same day another engagement was fought off Fontao Island. Other encounters followed. On July 31 the Japanese government declared that a state of war ex- isted between China and Japan. China issued a similar dec- laration. The whole burden of the war fell upon Li Hung Chang, who had made every effort to avoid hostilities. He appealed to Russia and England in vain, and the viceroys and gov- ernors of the various provinces of China itself refused aid. His army was strong, but not one-quarter as strong as the national army of Japan. His fleet was larger than that of Japan, but far inferior in organization. It was also crip- pled by the resignation of all the Scotch and English engi- RECENT EVENTS IN CHINA 51 neers. He could not raise money, as the men of wealth refused to take a loan of even 1,000,000 yen, whereas the Japanese raised 30,000,000 yen by patriotic subscription at once. The Japanese threw more than 40,000 troops into Korea, and the Chinese prepared an invasion from the north with 30.000. General Oshima commanded the Japanese. On September 16 a great battle was fought near the city of Ping Yang, the Japanese numbering 40,000, the Chinese 20.000. The result was a panic for the Chinese, only 5,000 trained troops of Li Hung Chang's army standing their ground. They fought till all were slain. The total Chinese loss in killed, wounded and prisoners was 16,000, while the loss of the Japanese was 30 killed and 270 wounded. THE BATTLE OF THE YALU RIVER The next day, the Japanese fleet came upon the Chinese fleet under Admiral Ting in the Yalu River, and a terrible naval battle followed. Ten of the finest cruisers and battle- ships were drawn up by the Chinese admiral in such a way as to protect his fleet of transports, and he had a second line of two cruisers and four torpedo boats. The Japanese fleet advanced and maneuvered at full speed, form- ing a column composed of nine cruisers as the fighting line, and three gunboats and five torpedo boats as a second line. The result was a complete victory for the Japanese. Some of the Chinese ships deserted with their cowardly captains ; others were burned and sunk, or run aground. The remnant of the Chinese fleet finally made for Port Arthur, where most of the vessels were laid up for repairs till another year. The battle was fierce in the extreme, lasting from one o'clock until dusk, and the Japanese fleet was so battered it was unable to follow up its victory, and tinder cover of night drew off, 52 THE CHINESE EMPIRE With the destruction of the Chinese army in Korea, Marshal Yamagata prepared to lead the Japanese forces in an invasion of Manchuria, which was successfully carried out in October. THE CAPTURE OF PORT ARTHUR Early in September another army was collected by the Japanese under the personal direction of the Emperor as commander-in-chief, and with this they planned an attack on Port Arthur. On November 6 Talienwan was attacked and captured, and on November 22 the sea forts of Port Arthur fell before the Japanese. The Chinese generals escaped early, and the troops, utterly demoralized, fled in disorder. About 18,000 troops were engaged on each side. The Japanese lost 250 killed and wounded, and the Chinese about 2,000. A vast supply of rice and coal, as well as the dockyard and arsenal fell into the hands of the Japa- nese. Also various vessels undergoing repairs after the Yalu fight were put in order and used against their former owners. THE CAPTURE OF WEI HAI WEI In the second week of January, 1895, a third Japanese army, numbering 25,000, proceeded against Wei-Hai-Wei. A regular siege was established. After various encounters, in which the Chinese got the worst of it and one of their commanders committed suicide, the Japanese entered the town February 2, to find it deserted. The harbor still re- mained in the hands of Admiral Ting. His position became untenable after the retreat of the army, however, and on February 12 he surrendered his entire fleet to Admiral Ito, and after writing a second letter asking that the date of surrender be postponed to February 16, committed suicide RECENT EVENTS IN CHINA 53 by poisoning. His example was followed by General Chang, commander of the military garrison, and by Commodore Liu. Admiral Ito restored one of the Chinese vessels in order that the bodies might be carried home in state, and as it steamed away the Japanese ships fired a salute of honor to the brave commander. A movement was now organized by General Nodzu against Niuchang, which fell into Japanese hands March 4. Ying-Kow, the fort, was captured March 6 with trifling loss, and General Nodzu advanced on Thien-Chuang-Thai, which was burned to the ground. PEACE The time for peace had now arrived. Li Hung Chang was stripped of all his honors and offices, except the vice- royalty of Chihli ; but as no one else could negotiate so well with a foreign government, the Empress had to resort to him again, and he, on the Chinese side, virtually negotiated the treaty of Shimoneski, signed by him on April 17. This treaty was full of hard terms, but Li reluctantly yielded tO’ the Japanese demand. The independence of. Korea was guaranteed by China ; the southern part of the province of Feng-Tien, including Port Arthur with all its docks and arsenals, and the island of Formosa and the Pescadore group, were ceded to Japan ; China was to pay an indemnity of 200,000,000 kuping taels, 50,000,000 in i six months, and the balance in seven equal installments within three years; certain ports were to be opened and minor rights and privileges were granted. Wei-Hai-Wei was held as a guarantee until the indemnity should be paid. ^ Li Hung Chang was again deprived of most of his offices, and did not return to Pekin, but the treaty was ' ratified. 54 THE CHINESE EMPIRE THE GAME OF GRAB On April 23 the Russian, French, and German min- isters at Tokio protested against the cession of the Liao- Tung peninsula and Port Arthur, as Japanese possession would be a menace to Pekin. As Japan could not go to war, she yielded. A period of quiet followed the Japanese war, and in 1896 Li Hung Chang made a visit in state to Europe and America. In 1898 the last installment of the indemnity fell due, and China applied to the British, Russian, and other gov- ernments for a loan. In vain ! The powers could not agree among themselves as to who should have the spoils. At length, however, a loan of 16,000,000 pounds sterling was arranged with the Shanghai and Hongkong Banking Cor- poration and the German Asiatic Bank, to be taken at 90 and pay per cent interest, redeemable in 45 years by means of a sinking fund, and secured by the unpledged customs and certain ‘dikin’’ taxes. The Japanese govern- ment took £2,000,000 of the new loan. Russia had long wanted a terminal port for her Trans-Siberian railway that would be free of ice in the winter, and now demanded a lease of Port Arthur and Ta- lienwan, which she secured. England objected, but was pacified by receiving a lease of Wei-Hai-Wei upon the Japanese evacuation. France at once demanded a lease of a bay on the southern coast of China, a concession for a railway, and other privileges. Germany had already taken advantage of the murder of some missionaries to secure a lease of Kiao-Chow and a concession for a railroad. The limits of Hongkong were also extended at this time. RISING OF THE BOXERS Peace seemed restored at length, but it was not to last long. The conservative, slow-thinking, superstitious LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 55 masses of China had been stirred up, and rebellion threat- ened the northern provinces. In May, 1900, the world was astonished at hearing news of an insurrection fomented by a society known as the ‘‘Boxers,’’ who attacked and burned most of the legations in Pekin, killed the Japanese chan- cellor of legation and the German minister^ Von Ketteler, and hundreds of the Chinese servants of foreigners and Chinese converts to Christianity. Troops were landed by the United States, Russia, Germany, England, Japan and France at Tien-tsin, and an expedition sent under Admiral Seymour for the relief of the legations at Pekin. The Chinese troops joined the rebels, and Admiral Seymour was forced back. In the meantime the Chinese forts at Taku had fired on the allied fleet, but were captured after a sharp battle. All these events are thought to portend the final fall of the Chinese empire. CHAPTER IV CHINESE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE The Chinese language is the chief among that small class of languages which includes the Tibetan, Cochin- Chinese, Burmese, Korean, and Chinese, and which is usually described as monosyllabic. It is language in its most archaic form. Every word is a root, and every root is a word. It is without inflection or even agglutination; its substantives are indeclinable, and its verbs are not to be conjugated ; it is destitute of an alphabet, and finds its expression on paper in thousands of distinct symbols. It is then a language of monosyllabic roots, which, as regards the written character, has been checked in its growth and crystallized in its most ancient form by the ^6 THE CHINESE EMPIRE early occurrence of a period of great literary activity, of which the nation is proud, and to the productions of which every Chinaman even of the present day looks back as containing the true standards of literary excellence. THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE But in treating of the two branches into which Chinese naturally divides itself, namely, the written medium or characters and the spoken medium or sounds, we propose to begin with the former. And in following this course we shall be doing no violence to the language, for it would be quite possible to separate the characters from the sounds, and to treat them as two languages, as indeed has already been partly done in Japan, where the Chinese characters were at one time in general use as representing the phonetic value of their Japanese equivalents. Beginning at the other end, but with a similar ultimate result, various members of the missionary body have published text-books and dictionaries in Romanized Chinese, that is to say, they have avoided the use of the characters by transcribing the sounds of the language in Roman letters. But since, though the characters are rich and copious to a degree, the sounds are out of all proportion poor, this last dismember- ment presents the language in a very denuded form, and is at the same time attended with difficulties which only the most sanguine can hope to see overcome. The neces- sity of distinguishing between words having the same sound can only be met by the adoption of distinct diacritical marks for each word ; and as one sound often represents as many as a hundred words, such a system cannot but be attended with confusion. The characters of the language form the medium which speaks to the eye, and may be described as the equivalents of the written words of other languages ; but unlike these. THE CHINESE EMPIRE .^eived another severe flogging for declaring that he was unable to give any evidence, the old man also died in prison. All foreigners who resided in Canton during the period that it was in the occupation of the allies, can certainly bear ample testimony to the praiseworthy manner in which the Allied Commissioners exerted themselves to put a stop to the cruelties practiced by the mandarins both in their prisons and courts of law. These establishments were vis- ited daily by European policemen, whose duty was to report lD' the Allied Commissioners whether the mandarins were ■laxing or not in the severity of their treatment towards ■le prisoners under their charge. On one occasion it hap- pened that the chief magistrate of the district of Punyu, who had frequently been warned to abandon the practice of tor- ture, was caught by the European inspectors in the very act ii inflicting a very severe punishment upon three prisoners, ' o had attempted to break out of jail on the preceding day. was arrested and brought into the presence of the Allied mmissioners, who sentenced him to undergo an impris- ent of forty days. The officials and gentry of Canton, dignant that one of themselves should be degraded and nished by foreign rulers, endeavored to stir up the people jo revolt. The Allied Commissioners hearing of the move- lent, published without delay the following excellent proc- ■ ation : — 'CLAMATION BY THE AlLIED COMMISSIONERS TO THE PEO- PLE OF Canton Inhabitants of Canton, one of your magistrates who is Tged with the administration of the district of Pun-yu, ds been arrested, and is now in confinement in the Yamen )f the Allied Commissioners, and it would appear from the j)etitions in his favor which have been presented to the l^ommissioners, that you are ignorant of the causes which lave led bis punishment. GOVERNMENT OF CHINA i Allied Commissioners, for the city of Canton wa^ then in poss^ion of the English and French troops, to ob- tain the freedom of Kan Wye and his son. Having heard their statements, he promised to interest himself in the mat- ter. The Allied Commissioners, to whose notice he sub- mitted the case, rendered all the assistance in their power, but without success. The governor-general, to whom they referred the matter, most positively affirmed that it was in the power of the two witnesses to give evidence of a very decided nature in the case. The father and son were fre- quently examined after this, and on each occasion they wer^ severely beaten for the tardy manner in which they gavel their evidence. This harsh treatment proved, after a few months, more than the son could endure, and he died in the prison. The relatives of the surviving prisoner, who had at- tained the ripe age of seventy years, fearing of course that n his detention in jail were much longer continued he als- would die in prison, urged the Allied Commissioners t intercede once more for his liberation. Mr. Commission* Pownall was on the occasion of the second appeal mo: kind, and requested the intercessor to go to the yamen of the magistrate of Pun-yu, in order to confer on the matter’ with that official in person. On his arrival at the yamen he was told that the chief magistrate had gone from home, ^ and that the hour of his return was very uncertain. He en tered the prison, however, and had an interview with th old men. Upon approaching him he was not a little dis* tressed to see that his mouA was jnucJ^ in cons quence of the severe blows which had been inflicted on thl preceding day. So swollen were his lips, gums and tongue that it was with great difficulty he held a conversation with the interpreter. On the following day another application was made by the Allied Commissiners to the viceroy for the liberation of the old man. It also was without success, and e had in the course of a few weeks, and a few days aft^^ LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE instead of being composed of letters of an alphabet, are either symbols intended to represent images, or are formed by a combination of lines, or of two or more such symbols. All characters, say the Chinese lexicographers, had their origin in single strokes, or in hieroglyphics, and this, no doubt, is a correct view of the case. Legends differ as to who was the first inventor of writing in China. One attributes the invention to Fuh-he (3200 B. C.), who is also said to have instituted marriage, and to have introduced the use of clothing, and who caused the knotted cords, which had been up to that time in use, to be superseded by characters founded on the shapes of his celebrated diagrams. Another record states that Tsang Ke who lived 2700 B. C., was the Cadmus of China. According to received native accounts, Tsang Ke was a man of extraor- dinary ability, and was acquainted with the art of writing from his birth. While wandering in the neighborhood of his house at Yang-woo, he one day met with a tortoise, and observing its shell distinctly and beautifully spotted, he took it home, and thus formed the idea of representing the objects around him. Looking upward he carefully observed the figures presented by the stars and the heavenly bodies; he then attentively considered the forms of birds, and of mountains and rivers, etc., and from them at length originated the written character. But however great the uncertainty may be as to who invented the first characters, we may take it for granted that they were simply pictures of the various objects of sense which were present to the eye of the writer. Thus, when he wished to express a mountain he wrote, as did also the ancient Egyptians, y\/\yy a symbol which is written at the present day |jy| • 0 now written served him to signify ‘‘the eye,’’ and so on. But such a written medium was naturally extremely limited, and by degrees, in some THE CHINESE EMPIRE ^instances by the addition of^strokes, and in others by a combination of one or more of these primary characters, ^ the written language has been formed as it is at the present day. THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE We will now pass on to the sounds of the language; and the first thing concerning them which strikes the student on becoming acquainted with his dictionary is their extreme poverty as compared with the characters. There are over 30,000 characters in the language, and these are represented to the ear by only 500 syllabic sounds. No doubt the adoption of primitives as phonetics, as has been already described, has contributed to this result, since it provided for the due expression of the syllables then existing, but for no more. And thus, though it vastly enriched the written language — one primitive producing as many as seventy-four derivatives — it at once put a stop to all increase in the number of sounds. . The difficulty then arose as to the way in which 500 syllables were to be made to represent in conversation the thousands of charac- ters in common use. And three methods have been adopted to prevent the confusion which at first sight would appear to be inevitable. These are — 1. By combining with the word which it is desired should be understood another, bearing a similar or supple- mentary meaning, to distinguish it by pointing to its mean- ing from other words bearing the same sound ; thus, for ‘‘to hear,’^ it is usual to say in conversation ^ ting keen, — ting meaning “to hear,’’ and keen “to see or perceive.” 2. As regards noun substantives, by placing certain classifying words between them and the numerals which precede them. These classifiers bear some resemblance to our expressions “herd,” “head,” “fleet,” “troop,” etc., and LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE have a certain reference to the nature of the substantives to which they are attached. For example, the word pa, ''to grasp with the hand,’' is used as a classifier to precede anything which is held in the hand, such as a knife, a spoon, a hatchet, etc. Instead of expressing, therefore, a knife by yih taou, which might either mean a knife, a small boot, or a fringe, the classifier is introduced to show which taou is meant, and a speaker would say yih pa faou, literally "a. grasped knife.” In like manner keen "a space,” is used as a classifier for houses and enclosures ; kan "a, root,” for trees, poles, clubs, etc. and so on. And thirdly, by dividing the words of the language among eight tones. These tones partake of the nature of musical intonations, and are divided by the Chinese into two series, the upper and the lower, and are called by them the upper even, the upper rising, the upper departing, the upper entering, the lower even, the lower rising, the lower departing, and the lower entering. To each character is allotted its appropriate tone, which if wrongly rendered is liable to give an entirely different meaning to the word from that intended by the speaker. This possibility will be understood when it is remembered that the thirty and odd thousand characters find expression in about 500 sounds, thus giving an average of one sound to sixty char- acters, and these figures show that at best the system of tones is but an incomplete solution of the difficulty, since, were this average of sixty characters equally distributed among the full eight tones, there would remain nearly eight characters of each sound identical both in sound and tone. But as a matter of fact, only the four tones of the upper series are in general use, tO' which sometimes the first or even tone of the lower series is added. The even tone is, as its name signifies, simply the ordinary tone of voice ; the rising tone gives to the voice somewhat of the effect of THE CHINESE EMPIRE an interrogation ; the departing tone, of doubtful surprise ; and the entering tone, of peremptory command. These may easily be illustrated by repeating our negative ‘‘no,’" first in the ordinary tone of conversation, secondly as an interrogation, thirdly as expressing doubtful surprise, and fourthly as a peremptory refusal: — thus i No — , 2 No 3 No\ , 4 No The difficulty of acquiring a knowledge of the tones proper even to the characters in common use is, as may be supposed, very great, and the only way to master them is to learn them, as the children learn them, from the lips of the natives themselves. No study of books will give the required knowledge. The Chinese learn them by ear alone, and if an educated man be asked to give the tone of an isolated character, he generally has to repeat a phrase in which the character occurs in order that his lips may tell his ear the intonation proper to it. It will be easily understood that the mistakes and diffi- culties into which this intricate system drives Chinese- speaking foreigners are often inconvenient and sometimes dangerous. Some years ago a petition on behalf of a Chi- nese criminal was presented by a wealthy Chinese merchant in person to the governor and council of Hongkong. A well known Chinese scholar undertook to interpret on the occasion, and the Chinaman began his speech with a refer- ence to our Kwai \ Kwok or ''Honorable kingdom,'’ as he designated England. Now the syllable kwai pronounced kwai f means "devil," and used in combination with kwok is an abusive term not uncommonly applied to any foreign country. Unfortunately the interpreter confused the two tones, and turning indignantly to the governor, he reported that at the very outset the petitioner had begun by speaking of England as "the devil kingdom." The just anger of the council knew no bounds, and it was only after some minutes of wild confusion that an explanation fol- LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 61 lowed, which saved the Chinaman from sharing the cell of the man for whom he was pleading. To a Chinaman such a mistake would be well-nigh impossible, for the tones form integral parts of the words, and to the ear of a native the difference between kwai in the ascending tone, and kwai in the descending tone, would be as great as between kwai and kwan. GRAMMAR Since, when a language is spoken and understood only in the country of its birth or adoption, the study of the grammar affecting it is, as far as the natives are concerned, comparatively unimportant, we find that little attention has been paid by the Chinese to the grammar of their language. But practically the grammar, which, as has just been stated, consists of rules for the construction of the sentence, has for many centuries been enforced by example, and by the censorship of the examiners at the competitive examinations. If then we observe the connection of words which these authorities have preserved, we find that in every Chinese sentence the subject comes first, then the verb, which is followed by the complement direct and the complement indirect, and further that, as is the case in most of the Turanian languages, every word which defines or modifies another invariably precedes it. For instance, the adjective precedes the substantive, the adverb the verb, the genitive the word which governs it, and the preposition the word governed by it. The above sketch, although necessarily brief, serves to show that by carefully following the laws of Chinese syntax, it is possible to express in Chinese, as exactly as in other languages, all the parts of speech in all their variety of number, gender, case, mood, tense, and person, and there- fore every shade of meaning which it is possible to convey 62 THE CHINESE EMPIRE by word of mouth. The difficulties of acquiring a knowl- edge of Chinese have hitherto shared that exaggeration which surrounds the unknown. It is time that the language was better understood, and at this period of the world’s history we cannot afford to leave unnoticed a language so ancient as to dwarf into insignificance the antiquity of Western tongues, and one which is the solitary medium of communication between 400,000,000 of our fellow-men. LITERATURE Having thus attempted to trace the growth of the written Chinese character from its first creation as a hiero- glyphic to its final development in the more modern ideophonetic form, and also the rules which govern the position of these characters in a sentence, our object will now be to show the use which Chinese authors have made of the characters and of the grammar to which they are subservient. It was obviously necessary to begin with the language, before dealing with the literature, since some of the leading characteristics of the literature are, as is the case in every tongue, plainly traceable to the structure of the language. The words of a sentence are as a piece of clay in the hands of a potter. If they be soft and pliable, that is to say, if they be capable of inflections and of syntactical motion, they may be moulded to express with varying vigor and force the highest fancies and noblest thoughts of an able writer in all the changing beauty of poetic diction or of rhetorical eloquence. But if on the other hand they be destitute of inflection, and be cramped by inexorable laws of position, which cannot for a moment be departed from, without a sacrifice of sense, the result must be that the literature of which they are the component parts will partake to some extent of their hard unyielding nature. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 63 If we turn for a moment to the poetry of ancient Greece and Rome, we find that some of the finest effects have been produced by the power which the inflectional nature of those languages gave of transposing the position of words in sentences, so as to give vigor and grace to the rhythm. To prove the truth of this we have only to take some striking passage, and compare it in the original with a plain straightforward translation in prose. The idea is the same in both, but how differently it appeals to the imagination of the reader. The gem is there, but it has lost the advantage of its setting. It must now be judged by .the prosaic rule of its intrinsic value, with no softening sur- roundings to add grace and brilliancy to its natural beauty. But the effective weapon which was thus placed in the hands of the poets and authors of ancient Greece and Rome has been completely denied to Chinese writers. As has been explained, the language is absolutely without inflec- tion, and the grammar consists so entirely of syntax, that no word can be moved out of its determined position in a sentence without either changing its value or rendering it meaningless. Thus the literature has lost much of the variety and elegance which belongs by nature to that of the polysyllabic languages. And we might go beyond this and say that the lack of that power of expression which is given by syntactical motion has been accompanied by a blighting influence on the imaginations of Chinese authors. Other causes, to which reference will presently be made, are also to some extent responsible for this result ; but in our re- view of the various branches of Chinese literature, we shall find that those which are most dependent for their successful development on the powers of imagination are those which least repay attention, and that the more excellent are those which contain simple narrations of facts, or consist of the arguments of the philosopher or of the man of science. 64 THE CHINESE EMPIRE But notwithstanding this the Chinese are eminently a literary, in the sense of a reading, people. The system of making competitive examinations the only royal road to posts of honor and emolument and the law which throws these open to everybody who chooses to compete, have caused a wider diffusion of book learning among the Chinese than is probably to be found among any other people. As to the date when the literature first took its rise, it is impossible to speak with any certainty. The vicissitudes which attended the early manuscripts and books which were collected by private individuals and in the imperial libraries have been such as to render the preservation of any ancient record a matter of wonder. Constant references are found in books to works which are said to have existed at early dates, but of many of these the titles are all that remain to us now. EARLIEST BOOKS One of the earliest published works on which we can lay our hands is the Book of Changes, the first, and tlie most revered, because the least understood, of the nine classics. This work first saw the light within a prison’s walls. In the year 1150 B. C. its author Wan Wang was, we are told, imprisoned for a political offense, and sought to while away the tedium of his confinement by tracing out a system of general philosophy from the eight diagrams and their 64 combinations invented by the Emperor Fu-he. These diagrams have been likened to the mystical numbers of Pythagoras, and the leading idea of Wan Wang’s system seems to have been founded upon the Chinese notions of the creation of the world, according to which all material things proceed from two great male and female vivifying elements, the Yin and the Yang, which in their turn owe their existence to the Tai keih, or the first great cause# LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 61 As Sir John Davis says, this ''might, with no great impro- priety, be styled a sexual system of the universe. They, that is to say the Chinese, maintain that when from the union of the Yang and the Yin all existences, both animate and inanimate, had been produced, the sexual principle was conveyed to and became inherent in all of them. Thus heaven, the sun, day, etc., are considered of the male gender; earth, the moon, night, etc., of the female. This notion pervades every department of knowledge in China. It exists in their theories of anatomy and medicine, and is constantly referred to on every subject. The chief divinities worshiped by the emperor as high priest of the state religion are heaven and earth, which in this sense appear to answer in some degree to the ouranos and ge in the cosmogony of the Greeks.’’ The style and matter of Wan Wang’s writings were, however, so cramped and vague that Confucius among others attempted the task of elucidating their dark places. Many years the sage spent in endeavors to make straight that which was so crooked ; and the only result attained has been to add some inexplicable chapters to an incom- prehensible book. But the fact that it gave rise to a system of divination saved it from sharing the fate which, in the year 221 B. C., befell all books except those on medicine, divination, and husbandry, at the hand of the Emperor Che Hwang-ti of the Tsin dynasty. This monarch ordered, for political reasons, the destruction of all the books to be found within the empire, except those on the subjects just mentioned. Fortunately, no monarch, how- ever powerful, is able to carry out to the letter an order of so inquisitorial a nature ; and the roofs of houses, the walls of dwellings, and even the beds of rivers, became the receptacles of the literary treasures of the nation until the tyranny was overpassed. The works of Confucius, the Book 66 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ‘ of History, the Book of Odes, the Spring and Autumn Annals, together with the Book of Rites, and the Four Books by the disciples of the sage and of Mencius, were all alike condemned to the flames. How all these were preserved we know not, but history tells us that, when in after years efforts were made to restore the Book of History, 28 sections out of the 100 composing the entire work were taken down from the lips of a blind man who had treasured them in his memory. One other was recovered from a young girl in the province of Honan. And these are all which would probably have come down to us, had not a complete copy been found secreted in the wall of Con- fucius’ house, when it was pulled down in the year 140 B.C. This Book of History takes us back to about the time of Noah. It consists of a number of records of the Yu, Hea, Shang, and Chow dynasties, embracing the period from the middle of the 24th century B. C. to 721 B. C. These, and a number of other MSS., attracted the attention of Confucius when he was at the court of Chow, and selecting those which he deemed of value, he compiled them in a work which he called the Shoo king or Book of History. This work, as Mr. Wells Williams says, ‘‘contains the seeds of all things that are valuable in the estimation of the Chinese; it is at once the foundation of their political system, their history, and their religious rites, the basis of their tactics, music, and astronomy.” For the most part it consists of conversations between the kings and their ministers, in which are traced out the same patriarchal principles of government as guide the rulers of the empire at the present day. “Virtue,” said the minister Yih, addressing the emperor, “is the basis of good government ; and this consists first in procuring for the people the things necessary for their sustenance, such as water, fire, metals, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 67 wood, and grain. The ruler must also think of rendering them virtuous, and of preserving them from whatever can injure life and health. When you would caution them, use gentle words, when you would correct, employ authority.’’ '‘Do not be ashamed of mistakes, and thus make them crimes,” was another piece of wholesome advice offered to the emperor by his advisers, the effect of which is still ob- servable in the outspoken confessions of official incom- petence which are daily to be rnet with in the columns of the Pekin Gazette, As we shall have occasion at a subseciuent stage to refer briefly to the compilation which stands next on the list of the classics ' — the Book of Odes — we pass on to mention a work whose dicta have entered into the very marrow of Chinese life — namely the Le ke^ or Book of Rites, This work is said to have been compiled by the duke of Chow in the 12 th century B. C., since which time it has ever been the guide and rule by which Chinamen have regulated all the actions and relations of their lives. No every-day ceremony is too insignificant to escape notice, and no social and domestic duty is considered to be beyond its scope. From the nature of its contents, therefore, it is the work of all the classics which has left the most palpable impression on the manners and customs of the people. Its rules are minutely observed at the present day, and one of the six governing boards at Pekin — the Board of Rites — is entirely concerned with seeing that its precepts are car- ried out throughout the empire. Speaking of this work, Callery says with justice, 'Tn ceremonial is summed up the whole soul of the Chinese, and to my mind the Book of Rites is the most exact and complete monograph that this nation can give of itself to the rest of the world. Its affections, if it has any, are satisfied by ceremonial ; its duties are fulfilled by means c>f 68 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ceremonial. Its virtues and vices are recognized by cere- monial; the natural relations of created beings are essen- tially connected with ceremonial ; in a word, for it ceremo- nial is man, the man moral, the man politic, and the man religious, in their numberless relations with the family, society, the state, morality, and religion.’’ CONFUCIUS AND MENCIUS But though each and all of the classics bear to some extent the impress of Confucius, only one, the Chun tsew, or Spring and Autumn Annals, was written by him. At first sight, therefore, a more than usual interest attaches to this book, which is not lessened by the statements made by the sage himself, and by contemporary scholars concerning it. 'The world,” says Mencius, "was fallen into decay, and right principles had dwindled away. Perverse dis- courses and oppressive deeds were again waxen rife. Cases were occurring of ministers who murdered their rulers, and of sons who murdered their fathers. Confucius was afraid, and made the Chun tsewJ^ As soon as it appeared, we are told that rebellious ministers quaked with fear and un- dutiful sons were overcome with terror. "Its righteous de- cisions,” said Confucius himself, "I ventured to make.” The title also of the book, we are told, was given it, because its commendations were life-giving like spring, and its censures life-withering like autumn. The expectant student might therefore be excused for anticipating in its pages an intellectual treat. He would look to have the history of the period dealt with treated as a sustained narrative, interspersed with sage reflections and deep analyses of the characters and circumstances of the time. He would expect to find praise and blame distributed with a discriminating pen, and the foul crimes of regicide and murder denounced in impassioned outbursts of indignation. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 69 But how different is the book when we take it up! In the words of Dr. Legge — ‘Tnstead of a history of events woven artistically together, we find a congeries of the briefest possible intimations of matters in which the court and state of Loo were more or less concerned, extending over 242 years, without the slightest tincture of literary ability in the composition, or the slightest indication of judicial opinion on the part of the writer. The paragraphs are always brief. Each one is designed to commemorate a fact ; but whether that fact be a display of virtue calcu- lated to command our admiration, or a deed of atrocity fitted to awaken our disgust, it can hardly be said that there is anything in the language to convey to us the shadow of an idea of the author’s feeling about it. The notices, for we cannot call them narratives, are absolutely unimpassioned. A base murder and a shining act of heroism are chronicled just as the eclipses of the sun are chronicled. So and so took place : that is all. No details are given ; no judgment is expressed.” The following extract from the annals of a year taken at random will be sufficient to show that Dr. Legge’s remarks are well founded: i. In the 15th year in spring the duke went to Tse. 2. A body of men from Tsoo invaded Seu. 3. In the third month the duke had a meeting with the marquis of Tse and others, when they made a covenant in Mow-Kew, and then went on to Kwang. 4. Kung-sun Gaou led a force and, with the great officers of the other princes, endeavored to relieve Seu. 5. In summer in the 5th month the sun was eclipsed. 6. In autumn in the 7th month an army of Tse and an army of Tsoo invaded Le. 7. In the 8th month there were locusts. 8. The duke’s daughter went to her home in Tsang. 9. On Ke-mao, the last day of the moon, the temple of E-pih was struck by 70 THE CHINESE EMPIRE lightning. lo. In winter a body of men from Sung invaded Tsaou/’ And so on page after page. Having thus reviewed the Five Classics, we will now briefly consider the Four Books which, together with those just mentioned, make up the full complement of the Nine Classics, The first three of them — the Ta-heo or Great Learning, the Chung-yung or the Doctrine of the Mean, and Lun-yu or Confucian Analects— diVe all by the pupils and followers of the sage, while the forth, the Mang-tsze, or the Works of Mencius, is by a disciple of that philosopher. All these, therefore, represent the views of Confucius, and if we ask what those views point to, we find that they may be summed up in the admonition: ‘Walk in the trodden paths.’’ For as Confucius said of himself, he came not to originate but to fulfill, and the primary object of his teach- ing was to revive in a dissolute age the purity, or supposed purity, of former generations ; to quote against the roues of his day the examples of the ancients, whom he believed to have been scrupulous in fulfilling the universal obligations existing between sovereign and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, and between friend and friend. He taught that man was a microcosm, and that by striving to improve himself by acquiring knowledge, by purifying his thoughts, by rectifying his heart, and by culti- vating his person, he would then be able to regulate his fam- ily. When he could regulate his family, he might then be able to govern a state ; and when he could govern a state, he might then be trusted to rule an empire. The empire was as one family; and as it was the part of the emperor to cherish and guard his people as a father does a child, so it was the duty of the people to render willing and submis- sive obedience to their sovereign. It is due to these political opinions that Confucius has become such an object of respect to both rulers and the f LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 71 ruled. The former see in his teaching a ready argument for the maintenance of their authority, and the people, believing that heaven has constituted for them rulers and teachers, whose duty it is to extend favor and maintain tranquillity throughout the empire, have at the same time learned to hold that when the ruler ceases to be a minister of God for good, he forfeits the title by which he holds the throne. Confucius was ambitious, and was a courtier as well as philosopher, and beyond this point he avoided in any shape or way indicating the manner in which an oppressive ruler should be induced to abdicate. No such consideration influenced his disciple Mencius, who, being superior to the ordinary ambitions of man, was superior also to their common timidities, and who with much boldness of utterance freely taught that the people were the most important element in a nation, and the sovereign was the lightest ; and he did not scruple to admit the conclusion that an iniquitous ruler should be dethroned, and, if cir- cumstances required it, that he should be put to death. The Confucian Analects and the Works of Mencius differ in their construction from the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, both of which are continuous treatises by individual authors; whereas the two first named are records of the sayings and doings of the two sages, com- piled from memory by their faithful disciples, and some- what resemble in construction, but at a vast interval, the plan of the Gospel narrative. We have dwelt at some length on the classics, because, since they are the sacred books of China, it is natural to suppose that in them we may find the mainspring of the national literature. Unfortunately, to some extent this is the case, and Confucius has much to answer for, both as regards his teachings and the literary model he bequeathed to his countrymen. Instead of encouraging his disciples to 72 THE CHINESE EMPIRE think for themselves, to look into their own hearts, and to acquire that personal knowledge that enables a man to stand alone, he led them out both by precept and example into the dreary waste of cold formalism, in which all individuality is lost, and all force and originality of thinking is crushed out. It may be said that, as far as his teachings were concerned, he strove to suit his system to the capacity of his audience ; and that he was successful in so doing is proved by the fact that for twenty-two centuries his name has been revered and his precepts have been followed by his countrymen of whatever rank and station in life. As has been well observed by Wells Williams, ‘Tf Confucius had transmitted to posterity such works as the Iliad, the De Ofdciis, or the Dialogues of Plato, he would no doubt have taken a higher rank among the commanding intellects of the world ; but it may be reasonably doubted whether his influence among his own countrymen would have been as good or as lasting. The variety and minute- ness of his instructions for the nurture and education of children, the stress he lays upon filial duty, the detail of etiquette and conduct he gives for the intercourse of all classes and ranks in society, characterize his writings from those of all philosophers in other countries, who, compara- tively speaking, gave small thought to the education of the young. The Four Books and the Five Classics would not, as far as regards their intrinsic character in comparison with other productions, be considered anything more than curiosities in literature, for their antiquity and language, were it not for the incomparable influence they have exerted over so many millions of minds.’’ But no such apology can be offered for the example he set them in the substance and style of his writings. And we are forced to the conclusion that, though a man of great LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 73 force of character, he was yet strangely devoid of imagina- tion, and that, in his blind admiration for the ancients, he constrained himself to walk humbly and passively in the paths that had been traced by others. At all events he has done his countrymen an irreparable injury. The inflexible sterility of the earliest specimens of literature might possibly have been the characterictic of a particular phase in the national mind, but Confucius helped to per- petuate it throughout all generations. As might be ex- pected, in no class of the literature is the effect thus pro- duced more apparent than in the commentaries on the classics. These works are to be numbered by thousands, and, with some few exceptions, they are, as has been said of the writings of the scribes at the time of our Lord, cold in manner, second-hand and iterative in their very essence ; with no freshness in them, no force, no fire ; servile to all authority, opposed to all independence ; never passing a hair's-breadth beyond the carefully watched boundary line of precedent; full of balanced inference and orthodox hesitancy, and impossible literalism ; elevating mere memory above genius, and repetition above originality. But whatever may be the shortcoming of Confucius as a writer, the respect he felt and inculcated for letters gave an impetus to literature. Following the example he set, men began to compile the histories of the various states; and authors with a turn for more original composition busied themselves with the production of works on such arts and sciences, including medicine, mathematics, law, and husbandry, as were known to them. It was just as this new industry was beginning to flourish that the Emperor Che Hwang-ti, to whom reference has already been made, an able and ambitious prince, ascended the throne. By a judicious mixture of force and diplomacy. 74 THE CHINESE EMPIRE he abolished the feudal states, into which the empire had up to his time been divided, and drew all power and author- ity into his own hands. Estimating the traditions of the past to be almost as potent as Confucius had supposed, and for that very reason deeming them as dangerous to the existence of his rule as Confucius had considered them to be beneficial to the empire, he determined to break with them once and for- ever. He therefore issued an order that all books should be burned, except those containing records of his own reign ; that all who dared to speak together about the Book of Odes or the Book of History (harmless subjects enough, one would think) should be put to death, and their bodies exposed in the market-place ; that those who should make mention of the past, so as to blame the present, should be put to death along with their relatives ; and that anyone possess- ing a book after the lapse of thirty days from the issuing of the ordinance should be branded and sent to labor on the Great Wall for four years. The publication of this edict was followed shortly afterwards by an order for the execution of upwards of 460 scholars who had failed to obey the mandate of the Emperor. Curiously enough it was during the reign of this un- compromising enemy to literature that the brush-pencil as at present used in China for writing purposes was in- vented — an invention which implies that about this time a substitute was found for the bamboo tablets which had up to that period served the purposes of paper. At first this new material was a kind of closely woven silk. But this was soon found to be as unsuitable for general pur- poses from its expense as the tablets had been from their cumbrousness ; and shortly after the establishment of the Han dynasty, when the decrees of Che Hwang-ti were re- versed and every encouragement was given by the state LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 75 to men of letters, the Marquis Tsae ''invented the manu- facture of paper from the inner bark of trees, ends of hemp, old rags, and fishing-nets.’’ The increased facility thus afforded for the multiplication of books was eagerly taken advantage of; and from the Annals of the Han dynasty, 206 B. C. to 25 A. D., we learn that the imperial library of that reigning house consisted of 3123 sections on the classics, 2705 on philosophy, 1318 of poetry, 790 on military affairs, 2528 on mathematics, and 868 on medicine. But at the end of the second century an insurrection, which brought the Han dynasty to a close, gave another check to the growing literary taste. And though the then reigning emperor, in his flight from his capital at Lo-yang, attempted to carry off the contents of the Imperial library, only half the books reached their destination at Chang-gan, and the remnant was shortly after given to the flames by the successful revolutionists. Such as had been the course of literature up to this time, so it continued until the close of the 6th century, when the art of printing, which became known in Europe nearly 900 years later, was invented in China. A well-known Chinese encyclopedia tells us that on the 8th day of the 12th month of the thirteenth year of the reign of Wan-ti (593 A. D.), it was ordained by a decree that the various texts in circu- lation should be collected, and should be engraved on wood, to be printed and published. Thus within a few years of the time when St. Augustine brought the enlightening — a civilizing agency second only to Christianity — was made known in China. But at first comparatively little use seems to have been made of the invention, for we are told that though it made some way during the Tang (618- 907) and the five following dynasties (907-960), it only influences of Christianity to Britain, the art of printing arrived at its full development under the Sung dynasty 76 THE CHINESE EMPIRE (960-1127). It was during this last epoch that a further improvement was made in the art by the introduction of movable types, by a blacksmith named Pe Ching. This inventor, writes M. Julien, used to take a paste of fine and glutinous clay, and make of it regular plates of the thick- ness of a piece of money, on which he engraved the characters. For each character he made a type, which he hardened at the fire. He then placed an iron plate on the table, and covered it with a cement composed of resin, wax, and lime. When he wanted to print, he took an iron frame divided by perpendicular threads of the same metal, and placing it on the iron plate, ranged his types in it. The plate was then held near the fire, and when the cement was sufficiently melted, a wooden board was pressed tightly upon it, so as to render the surface of the type perfectly even. This method was neither convenient nor expeditious, so says a Chinese writer, when only a few copies of a book were to be printed ; but when a large num- ber were required, it printed them off at a prodigious speed. At this and later periods the art of printing has been turned to no better purpose in China than to the publication of the histories of the various dynasties. Allied to these annals are the topographical works of China, which for breadth of scope and minuteness of detail are scarcely to be equaled in the literature of any other country. We must also refer to the historical and literary encyclopedias which form so very notable a feature in every library throughout the country. MODERN CHINESE LITERATURE In China, as elsewhere, the first development of literary talent is found in poetry. The songs and ballads which form the Book of Odes date back to a time long antecedent to the GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 77 production of any works of which we have knowledge. This notable collection has been followed by a great variety of songs, chants, lyrics, etc., but of epic poetry the Chinese know nothing. There is not even dramatic poetry, though they have a large dramatic literature which abounds with lyrics introduced to break the monotony of the dialogue. The theater in China, as it was in Greece, is national a religious. It is under the direct control of the law, and closed by public edict during all periods of public moui ing, while at the same time it plays a prominent part in the yearly religious festivals. The plays are made up incidents true to life, but they have no psychological inter( about them. There is no delineation of character, a there is nothing in the plot to make it more appropriate 1 the groundwork of a play than for that of a novel. T novels are equally barren and dreary. In short, the nati Chinese literature is no longer developing, and hope 1 only in the importation of foreign intelligence and ideas. The form of government of this vast empire is an abso- lute monarchy. The emperor regards himself as the inter- preter of the decrees of Heaven, and he is recognized by the people over whom he rules as the connecting link between the gods and themselves. He is designated by such titles as the Son of Heaven, the Lord of Ten Thousand Years, the Imperial Supreme ; and he is supposed to hold communion with the deities at his pleasure, and to obtain from them the blessings of which he, personally, or the nation may stand in need. This mighty monarch is assisted in the ad- CHAPTER V THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 78 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ministration of the government by a cabinet council, which consists of four great ministers of state. In addition to this council there are six supreme tribunals for the conduct, in detail, of all governmental business. These tribunals, which are designated by the general appellation of Loo-poo, are as follows First, that which is termed Lee-poo. This office is divided into four departments In the first of these, officers are selected to fill the various offices which are deemed necessary for the due administration of the affairs of the respective provinces and districts of the empire, ►rhe second takes cognizance of all such officials. The third affixes the seal to all edicts and proclamations ; and |the fourth keeps a register of the extraordinary merits and good services of distinguished men. The second board or ribunal is named HooH-poo, and to it is entrusted the care nd keeping of the imperial revenue. The third board is Earned Lee-poo. To it is entrusted the superintendence of all the ancient usages and religious rites of the people, md the preservation of all temples endowed by the imperial vernment. The fourth board is named Ping-poo. It 'S the care of all the naval and military establishment^* nroughout the empire. The fifth is called King-poo. has the supervision of all criminal proceedings. The sixtn and last, which is termed Kung-poo, superintends all pub- lic works, such as mines, manufactures, highways, canals, bridges, etc. Over each of these tribunals presides a chief minister, or counselor, whose duty it is to lay the decisions of his particular board before the cabinet council of four great ministers of state. When the decisions of the boards have been thoroughly discussed by the cabinet, they are submitted with becoming reverence to the notice of his im- perial majesty. The power of these ministers, however, is almost nominal, as the emperor regards himself as respon- sible to none but the gods, whom he is supposed to repre- GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 79 sent. The people are thus in the hands of the emperor as children in the hands of a parent. But though there is out- wardly a contempt manifested by the emperor for any or every suggestion which may be made to him by his min- isters, there can be no doubt that, in private, much heed is given by his majesty to the advice of all confidential ser- vants of the state. Very few, indeed, of the sovereigns oi China have been suffimiently imbued with the wisdom oi this world to be able to rule without the counsel or advice! of others. The sanction of the emperor to all laws and edicts is conveyed by a seal, and all remarks made by hi! majesty are recorded in letters of red, by what is styleo the vermilion pencil. THE CENSORS Besides the various councils there are two others- Too-cha-yun, and the Tsung-pin-fow. The former is board of censors. The censors are supposed to attend meetings of the board or councils already described, to certain whether or not intrigues or plots are being concj ed to weaken the stability of the government. Members^ this board are not unfrequently sent into the provinces to^ ascertain how matters of business are being conducted^ there. Spies are sometimes sent by the censors to different parts of the empire for the purpose of scrutinizing the public and private conduct of any official or officials upon whom suspicion may rest. Of these emissaries the local authorities and principal citizens of all large and influential cities stand in great awe. His Excellency An, a commis- sioner from this board, arrived at Canton in the autumn of the year 1862, and suddenly placed under arrest several unsuspecting officials and citizens of distinction; and in obedience to his orders, some of them, including the notori- 0 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ous Chong Shun and Too Pat, were executed in a most summary manner. In the Pekin Gazette of November 12, 1871, a state- ment was published — translated in the China Mail of De- cember 23, 1871 — to the effect that a censor had brought i to the imperial notice a case of triple murder, in which a k native of Chekiang was the complainant. The petitioner Lstated that his brother was intercepted on his way from ■market to purchase peas, and was surrounded, on account lof an old grudge, by a family of four brothers, with the as- ■||stance of two outsiders. Two men who were carrying ^[he peas were killed on the spot. The murderers then car- ried off the petitioner's brother to their house, where they ^onfined him, and afterward put him to death by the sword. j he matter was reported to the then district magistrate, Ng, |j|ut, in consequence of the Tai-ping rebellion, it could not be Pwestigated. Ng's successor in the magistracy. To, by ^ame, had the offenders arrested ; but through the artful de- ■dce of an underling, who had been bribed, they were set at ■rge. Emboldened by their liberation, the murderers dis- ^fcombed the coffins, and mutilated the remains of the de- ^B^ed, with a view to the destruction of all means of identi- W cation. For this offense, another magistrate, Wong, sent out officers to arrest them, but the police were resisted. The {^successor of this magistrate ordered the military to assist in the apprehension of the murderers, but they managed to make their escape. The matter had been allowed to remain in abeyance for fourteen years, although three lives were concerned. The prefect had been petitioned twenty-five times, the intendant of the circuit nine times, the governor once, and the governor-general once, and yet the complain- ant had not been able to obtain redress. Reference had inva- riably been made to the magistrate to have the murderers arrested, but they were allowed to enjoy their ease at home. Chinese Police Court. 4" > i I ’■t ; ''I ■ r 1 - ] j I •^^'1 ?i GOVERNMENT OF CHINA REGISTER OF BIRTHS^ DEATHS AND MARRIAGES The second of these two boards, the Tsung-pin-fow, consists of six high officials. These keep a register of the births, deaths, marriages, and relations of the princes of the blood royal, and report at times upon their conduct. The register in which the names of the lineal descendants of the imperial family are recorded is of yellow paper ; that in which the names of the collateral branches are recorded is of red paper. These records are submitted to the em- peror every ten years, on which occasions his majesty con- fers titles and rewards. These titles are divided into four classes, the first being hereditary, the second honorary, the third for services rendered to the state, and the fourth re- wards due to literary attainments. It is imperative upon the ministers constituting the board of Tsung-pin-fow to furnish at frequent intervals the various tribunals styled Loo-poo with reports as to which of the sons of the em- peror possesses in the highest perfection the essential quali- fications of a good sovereign. These reports, like all oth- ers, are submitted to the emperor. The emperor of China has the power of nominating his successor whether indeed the person nominated be a member of the blood-royal fam- ily or not. The desire to perpetuate his dynasty scarcely ever admits of the emperor selecting one to fill the throne who is not a member of the reigning family. As a general rule each emperor is succeeded by his eldest son. Should the latter be regarded as incapable of administering the af- fairs of state, the second or third son is called upon to reign. When the emperor is childless a selection is made from a collateral branch of the same dynasty. As in almost all Chinese families, or clans, the members of the imperial house are very numerous. At one time it was a practice to give official employment to each of these scions of roy- alty. The custom invariably entailed no ordinary degree of trouble and anxiety on the imperial government by giv- THE CHINESE EMPIRE ing rise to conspiracies and rebellions, and it was aban- doned. Each prince has now to rest satisfied with a high- sounding, but empty title of king — a royal rank of which he may be deprived in the event of any act on his part being deemed beneath the dignity of his family. THE emperor's WIVES The people of China are taught to regard the emperor as the representative of heaven, and the empress as the representative of mother earth. In this position she is sup- posed to exert an influence over nature, and to possess a transforming power. One of her principal duties is to see that, at stated seasons of the year, worship is duly and rev- erently paid to the tutelary diety of silkworms. It is also her duty carefully to examine the weaving of the silk stuffs which the ladies of the imperial harem weave and make into garments for certain state idols. The empress is sup- posed to be profoundly ignorant of all political matters. There are instances on record, however, of empresses of China having manifested the greatest knowledge of these subjects. The present empress-dowager^ — the mother of the late sovereign, Tung-chi — succeeded through her curi- ous inquiries into state affairs in bringing to life a con- spiracy of certain members of the cabinet council to depose and murder her son. The principal conspirators were de- capitated, whilst others, not so deeply implicated, were sent into perpetual banishment. But besides the empress, the emperor has other wives. These are eight in number, and have the rank and title of queen. These royal ladies are divided into two classes, the first of which consists of three, and the second of five queens. In addition to the wives there are, of course, several concubines. The choice of an empress and of queens turns solely on the personal qualities or attractions of those selected, without any reference whatever to their connections or fam- GOVERNMENT OF CHINA ily reputations. They are selected in the following manner. The empress-dowager with her ladies, or, in her absence, a royal lady who has been invested with authority for the purpose, holds what may not inapplicably be termed a ''drawing-room,’’ to attend which Tartar ladies and the daughter of bannermen are summoned from various parts of the empire. The lady pronounced to be the belle of the assembly is chosen to be in due time raised to the dig- nity of empress. Those who are placed next in personal attractions are selected for the rank of queen. The daugh- ters of bannermen of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks appear before the empress-dowager in order that a certain number of them may be appointed to fill the respective offices of "ladies” and women of the bedchamber. This cer- emony is, I believe, observed once a year. Queens were chosen for the ancient kings of Persia in a similar manner — to use the words of the book of Esther, in which we find evidence of the practice — "out of the choice of virgins,” The young ladies admitted into the imperial zenana are, as a rule, daughters of noblemen and gentlemen; but as personal beauty is one of the chief qualifications for the seraglio, the inmates of the palace are, in some instances, women who have been raised from the humbler walks of life. Indeed, a woman of the lower orders of society was, it is said, the mother of the Emperor Hien-Fung. She was the keeper of a fruit-stall, and being exceedingly fair and beau- tiful, she on one occasion attracted the attention of the chief minister of state, whilst he was passing in procession through the street in which she resided. Being greatly pleased with her beauty, he obtained for her a home under the imperial roof of Paou-kwang, where in due course she became the mother of the ill-fated sovereign, Hien-Fung. A wife was selected in this way for Pung-Chee. The name of their new empress was made known to the Chinese people by iht Pekin Gazette of the i ith of March, 1872. The procia*- wr THE CHINESE EMPIRE mation issued in the names of the two empresses dowager set forth that a lady named A-lut'e had been selected to become the kind companion of the emperor, the sharer of his joys, and the partaker of his sorrows. The Gazette further informed the people that she was the daughter of Ch-ung Chi, a junior officer in the Hanlin College. His rank, as evidenced by his buttons, corresponded to that of a prefect or ruler of a department. Ch-ung Chi is, as a matter of course, of Mongolian blood. He is also a ban- nerman of the plain blue banner. He is the son of one Saishanga, an officer of some notoriety in the early part of the previous reign, who lost the favor of his sovereign in 1853, owing to his inability to cope with the Tai-ping re- bellion. In consequence of the defeats which he sustained at the hands of the rebels, he was degraded, and withdrew from public life. In 1861, his private mansion-house in Pekin was confiscated by the government, and converted into the Tsung-li-Yamen. He is a man of great learning, having been Chuang-yuan, or first graduate (senior wrang- ler or senior classic), at the triennial examination for the doctor’s degree in 1865. The mother of A-lut’e is a daugh- ter of the late Puanhua, Prince of Cheng. This prince was the recognized leader of the anti-foreign party which, to- wards the close of the reign of Hien-fung gave so much trouble to the representatives of foreign nations. This party, however, was in the month of November, 1861, most fortunately overthrown by the Prince of Kung, who was upheld by the empress-mother. The leaders of the defeated anti-foreign party were tried and decapitated, and as a mark of imperial favor Tuanhua was permitted to terminate his existence by suicide. In the same issue of the Pekin Gazette to which we have alluded was a second decree, appointing three other ladies to become members of his imperial majesty’s harem. Of the ladies in question, the first is a GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 85 daughter of a clerk in the board of punishments ; the sec- ond is a daughter of a prefect ; and the third the daughter of Saishanga, the grandfather of A-lut’e. The ladies of the royal household are under the charge of eunuchs, who are called upon to discharge the usual duties of royal seraglios. OFFICIALS IN THE PROVINCES In each of the provinces into which the empire is divided there is a most formidable array of officials, all of whom act directly or indirectly under their respective boards or tri- bunals. Thus in the province of Kwang-tung, which we will select to illustrate the working of the government in each province, there are the following civil mandarins : — viz., a governor-general, a governor, a treasurer, a sub- commissioner, a literary chancellor, a chief justice, — the last four being of equal rank — six tautais of equal rank, ten prefects of equal rank, and seventy-two district or county rulers of equal rank. Each of these officials has a council to assist him in the discharge of the duties of his office. Besides these officials, every town and village in the empire has its governing body, so that the number of officials in each province is very great. The various classes of officers are in regular subordination. Thus, the governing body of a village is subordinate to the ruler of the district or county in which it is situated. The district or county ruler is sub- ject to the prefect of the department of which his district is a part. The prefect is, in turn, subordinate to the tautai ; the tautai to the chief justice or criminal judge ; and so on, step by step to the governor-general or viceroy. Each offi- cial stands in loco parentis to the subordinate immediately below him, while the mandarins are regarded as standing in a parental relation to the people they rule. The principle^ pervades all conditions of society down to the humblest subjects of the realm, »those who are in the higher walks of 86 THE CHINESE EMPIRE life acting the part of parents to those of an inferior grade, while over all is the all-embracing paternity of the emperor. Chinese officials of certain grades are not allowed to hold office in the provinces of which they are natives, nor are they, without imperial permission, allowed to contract marriages in the provinces in which they have been ap- pointed to hold office. To preclude the possibility of their acquiring too much local influence in the districts, or pre- fectures, or provinces where they are serving, they are re- moved, in some instances triennially, and in others sexen- nially, to other posts of duty. All officers are supposed to be appointed by the emperor on the recommendation of the board of ceremonies, the members of this board being especially regarded as the advisers of his imperial majesty in the bestowal of political patronage. The candidates for office are, or, according to law, ought to be, men who have graduated at the great literary examinations. The members of the board of ceremonies, however, are not at all unwilling, for a consideration, to submit to the notice of his majesty for office the names of men whose literary rank has been bought rather than attained by study. The salaries attached to government offices are very small. This is a system which leads to most scandalous and irregular proceedings. Thus the mandarins of China, though drawing quarterly from ,jthe imperial exchequer the smallest possible amount of pay, |are enabled, by the accumulated gains of fraud and avarice, to retire from office as men of wealth and substance. They are, and have been for a considerable time past, the very curse of the country, the palmerworm at the root of its prosperity. By their misrule they have plunged this fair land into that deplorable anarchy, confusion, and misery, for which it is now conspicuous among nations. The military mandarins of the province of Kwang-tung are also very numerous. Of this class the Tartar general is of course recognized as the head. GOVERNMENT OF CHINA The duties which devolve upon a governor-general, or governor of a province, are very arduous. He is responsi- ble to the emperor, who is responsible to the gods, for the general peace and prosperity of his province. It is his duty to take cognizance of all the officials, and to forward trien- nially to the board of civil appointments at Pekin the name of each officer under his administration, with a short report on his general behavior. The information is furnished to the viceroy or governor by the immediate superior of each officer. Should the governor-general be accused of any of- fense, an imperial commission to investigate the charge is at once appointed. OFFICIAL COSTUMES As we shall have occasion to point out more fully after- wards, there are nine marks of distinction by which the rank or position of officials of the Chinese Empire may be readily recognized. A member of the first class, or highest order of rank, wears on the apex of his cap a dark-red coral ball, or button, as it is more generally called. Members of the second class wear a light-red ball or button of the same size. The third class is distinguished by a ball of a light- blue, and the fourth by a ball of a dark-blue color. An of- ficial of the fifth class is recognized by a ball of crystal, whilst a ball of mother-of-pearl is the distinguishing badge of the mandarin of the sixth class. Members of the seventh and eighth classes wear a golden ball, and of the ninth and last class, a silver ball. Each officer may be further distin- guished by the decoration of a peacock's feather. This feather is attached to the base of the ball on the apex of his hat, and slopes downward. It is worn at the back. The first of the outer garments worn by an official is a long, loose robe of blue silk, richly embroidered with threads of gold. It reaches the ankles of the wearer, and is bound round his waist by a belt. Above this robe is a tunic of 88 THE CHINESE EMPIRE violet color, which extends a short way below the knees. The sleeves of this tunic are wide and very long, extending very considerably over the hand. They are usually folded back over the wrists. When an official is permitted to ap- proach the imperial presence with the view of conferring with his majesty, or of performing the kow-tow, which in China is the ordinary act of obeisance, etiquette prescribes that he shall wear the sleeves of the tunic stretched over his hands. This renders him more or less helpless. The custom is of ancient origin, and was adopted to preclude the possibility of any attempt on the life of the emperor by those whose duties call them occasionally into his presence. A custom precisely similar prevailed, it would appear, in the court of Persia. It is thus described by Mitford in his history of Greece: — “The court dress of Persia had sleeves so long that when unfolded they covered the hand ; and the ceremonial required of those who approached the royal presence to enwrap the hands so as to render them helpless.” On the breast-plate and back-plate of the tunic of a civil mandarin there is embroidered in silk a bird with wings outstretched, standing upon a rock in the midst of a tem- pestuous ocean, and gazing at the sun. This bird varies in kind acording to the rank of the wearer. Various emblems are used to indicate the different ranks of officials. Over his shoulders each officer wears a short tippet of silk, which is also richly embroidered, and which, by the device it bears, indicates the literary rank to which the wearer has attained. Round his neck there is a long chain of one hundred and eight balls or beads. It is called the Chu-Chu, and is in- tended to remind the wearer of the land of which he is a native. Of the one hundred and eight beads of which the chain consists seventy-two are supposed to represent so many precious stones, minerals^ and metals native to China ; GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 89 and the remaining thirty-six represent as many constella- tions or planets which shed their benign rays on the coun- try. To the left side of this chain are attached two very short strings of smaller beads, supposed to impress upon the mind of the wearer the reverence he owes to his ances- tors, and the filial piety at all times due to his parents and guardians ; to the right side of the chain is attached a short string of smaller beads, to remind the wearer of the alle- giance which he owes to the imperial throne of his country. These robes and decorations of state and office are not con- fined to officials only. Honorary rank can be purchased, and it is common to see respectable citizens not at all con- nected with the service of the government attired in costly and magnificent robes, similar in their decorations to those worn by the highest officers of state. OFFICIAL RESIDENCES AND OFFICES Government residences are provided for all Chinese of- ficials. They are called yamens, and in some cases are very extensive, occupying several acres of land. From the roof of the halls of many of these official residences are sus- pended richly gilded boards, on which in large Chinese characters are set forth good and excellent words. Some of these boards are the gifts of succeeding emperors to for- mer occupants who had distinguished themselves by their faithful services. To the yamens are attached public offices for the transaction of business, and to those which are re- spectively occupied by district rulers, prefects, tautais, chief justices, and revenue commissioners, very extensive prisons are attached. COURTS District rulers, prefects, and chief justices are the offi- cials more particularly appointed to preside in courts for the 90 THE CHINESE EMPIRE administration of justice in all cases which may come before them, whether of a civil or criminal nature. Each of these is assisted in the discharge of his duties by a deputy, or deputies. In order, however, to explain fully how justice is administered in China, it is necessary to state that an accused person is first brought before the gentry or elders of his village or district. These punish an offender if his crime be of a minor nature, either by imprisonment in one of the public halls of the village, or by exposing him in a cangue for some time at the corner of one of the most frequented thoroughfares of the village, or in the immedi- ate vicinity of the place where the crime was committed. Should the case, hovv^ever, appear to require the consideration of a higher tribunal, the prisoner, together with the depositions and com- ments on them, is forwarded by the gentry to the man- darin, or ruler of the poo to which the village belongs. A poo, as has been explained, is a political division of a prov- ince, and consists of a number of villages. On the 9th of July, 1873, examination of this kind was held in the village of Fong-chuen, in the county of Pun-yu, and was conducted by the elder of the village. A thief, called Lee Ayune, had been caught the night before in the act of robbing a house. The elders were not satisfied with his confession of that crime, and insisted upon his making a public declaration of all his thefts during the preceding four years. The facts they carefully recorded, and at the close of his examination the prisoner was forwarded, with the depositions, to the ruler of the poo. Should the mandarin, or ruler of the poo, find that it is within his jurisdiction to punish the prisoner, he does so. Should he decide that the case is one which ought to be submitted to the notice of his superior, he, without delay, sends the prisoner, together with the depositions, and his own comments on them, to the ruler of the district or GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 91 county of which the poo is a division. The district ruler resides in the county town, which like all county towns in China, is inclosed by a high castellated wall. Unless the case appears to require the consideration of a higher tri- bunal, the district ruler deals with it. Otherwise he sends the prisoner to the prefect of his department. The prefects reside in their respective cities, which are also inclosed by high cawStellated walls. If the prefect sends the case to a higher tribunal, the prisoner is sent to the provincial cap- ital. Here the provincial or criminal judge, or chief justice a'S we would term him, has his residence. The chief justice, who only tries those accused of capital offenses, submits his decisions to the notice of the governor-general, or gov- ernor of the province, as the case may be ; and before a sentence of the chief justice can be carried into effect, it is necessary that the criminal should be taken into the pres- ence of the governor-general, or governor, to make an ac- knowledgment of his guilt. Until certain questions have i been answered by the prisoner in the presence and in the i hearing of the governor-general, or his deputy, the sen- j tence recorded against his name can neither be ratified nor ^ carried into effect. Should the prisoner stand convicted of treason, or piracy, or highway robbery, the governor-gen- eral can order the execution of the prisoner without any reference whatever to the will of the emperor. Should a prisoner, however, be proved guilty either of patricide, or matricide, or fratricide, etc., it is the duty of the governor- general to bring the case under the notice of the members of the board of punishments at Pekin ; and the president of this board submits it in turn to the consideration of the members of the cabinet or great council of the nation. In due course it is laid by this august body before the emperor. It is said that his majesty carefully examines the deposi- tions of alj such cases before confirming the sentence and 92 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ordering the execution. It is also customary for the gov- ernor-general or governor to forward to Pekin at the close of each year a register of the names of criminals adjudged worthy of death. These registers are also received by the president of the board of punishments and forwarded through the cabinet council to the emperor, who inspects each register and with a vermilion pencil makes a red mark opposite to three or four names on each page. The regis- ters are then returned to the provincial governors in order that the law may take its course with regard to the pris- oners against whose names the imperial mark has been placed. On the receipt of the register from the emperor, the execution of these criminals is carried into effect with- out any loss of time. For the viceroy not to pay peremp- tory and implicit obedience to the imperial will in all mat- ters would be regarded as highly treasonable. The pris- oners whose names have been passed over by the vermilion pencil do not, however, obtain a free pardon. Their names are submitted a second and a third time to the imperial glance. Should they be passed over on the last occasion, the sentence of death is then commuted to transportation for life. In the prefectorial prison at Canton were three malefactors whose names had been submitted for the first time to the emperor, and whose good fortune it had been, so far, to escape the extreme penalty of the law. The governor of the prison cruelly observed in their hearing that they might not be so fortunate the next time their names were brought under the emperor's notice. One of the malefac- tors looked thoughtful, but the others, who were evidently desperadoes, seemed to think it a matter of the most per- fect indifference whether they were executed or sent into exile for the period of their natural lives. They would probably have declared themselves in favor of an ignomin- ious death at the hands of the common executioner. Such, GOVERNMENT OF CHINA however, is not the feeling of Chinese malefactors in gen- eral. Governors-general, or governors of provinces, are in certain cases invested with the power of life and death. Before the empire became so disturbed by anarchy and rapine they were the only officials to whom such powers were delegated. Now, however, it is not at all unusual for district rulers to hold commissions by which they are em- powered to put to death, without any reference whatever to a higher power, all traitorous and piratical subjects. TORTURE The mode in which trials are conducted in China is startling to all who live in lands where trial by jury is adopt- ed. Trials in Chinese courts of law are conducted by torture. This is carried to such an extent that people at home can scarcely be expected to give credence to an account of the ^ atrocities of the mandarins in their endeavors to punish I vice and to maintain virtue. As in England, however, be- 1 fore the seventeenth century, torture, although actually ap- plied by the administrators of justice, is not the law of the land. The courts in which trials are held are open to the general public; but the cruelties for which they are no- torious have left them deserted by visitors, so that they are now practically courts of justice with closed doors. In former times, moreover, it was usual, on the day of com- mission, to affix on the outer gates of the yamen a calendail or list of the cases to be tried, and of the prisoners' names. | This custom has long been disused and the calendar is now/ placed on a pillar in one of the inner courts of the yamen, where of course there is no chance of its attracting public attention. The judge when conducting a trial sits behind ai large table which is covered with a red cloth. The prisoner / is made to kneel in front of the table as a mark of respect * 94 THE CHINESE EMPIRE to the court, by whom he is regarded as guilty until he is proved to be innocent. The secretaries, interpreters, and turnkeys stand at each end of the table, no one being al- lowed to sit but the judge. At the commencement of the trial the charge is, as in an English court of justice, read aloud in the hearing of the prisoner, who is called upon to plead either guilty or not guilty. As it is a rare thing for Chinese prisoners — mercy being conspicuously absent in the character of the judges — to plead guilty, trials are very numerous. During the course of a trial the prisoner is asked a great many leading questions which have a ten- dency to criminate him. Should his answers be evasive, torture is at once resorted to as the only remaining expe- dient Let us describe a few of the simplest modes of torture. The upper portion of the body of the culprit having been uncovered, each of his arms — he being in a kneeling pos- ture — is held tightly by a turnkey, while a third beats him most unmercifully between the shoulders with a double cane. Should he continue to give evasive answers, his jaws are beaten with an instrument made of two thick pieces of leather, sown together at one end, and in shape not unlike the sole of a slipper. Between these pieces of leather is placed a small tongue of the same material, to give the weapon elasticity. The force with which this implement of torture is applied to the jaws of the accused is in some instances so great as to loosen his teeth, and cause his mouth to swell to such a degree as to deprive him for some time of the powers of mastication. Should he con- tinue to maintain his innocence, a turnkey beats his ankles by means of a piece of hard wood, which resembles a schoolboy’s ruler, and is more than a foot long. Torture of this nature not unfrequently results in the ankle bones being broken. Should the prisoner still persist in declar- GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 95 ^ ing his innocence, a severer mode of torture is practiced. This may be regarded as a species of rack. A large heavy tressel is placed in a perpendicular position, and the pris- oner, who is in a kneeling posture, is made to lean against the board of it. His arrns are then pushed backward and stretched under the upper legs of the tressel, from the ends of which they are suspended by cords passing round the thumb of each hand. His legs are also pushed backward and are drawn, his knees still resting on the ground, towards the upper leg of the tressel by cords passing round the large toe of each foot. When the prisoner has been thus bound, the questions are again put to him, and should his answers be deemed unsatisfactory, the double cane is applied with great severity to his thighs, which have been previously un- covered. Prisoners have been known to remain in this posi-\ tion for a considerable time, and the quivering motion of the> whole frame, the piteous moans, and the saliva oozing freely^ from the mouth, afforded the most uncontestable evidence of the extremity of the torture. Upon being released from the rack, they are utterly unable to stand. They are there-^ fore placed in baskets and borne by coolies from the court/ of justice, falsely so-called, to the house of detention on remand. In the course of a few days they are once more dragged out to undergo another examination. Even this torture occasionally fails in extorting a confession of guilt. In all such cases another still crueler torture is enforced. The prisoner is made to kneel under a bar of wood, six English feet in length, and is supported by two upright pillars or posts of the same material. When the back of his neck has been placed immediately under it, his arms are extended along the bar, and made fast by cords. In the hollow at the back of his knee joints is laid a second bar of equal dimensions, and upon this two men place them- selves, one at each end, pressing it down by their weight THE CHINESE EMPIRE upon the joints of the prisoner’s knees, between which and the ground chains are passed to render the agony less en- durable. This bar is occasionally removed from the inner part of the prisoner’s knee joints, in order that it may be made t o rest on the tendo A chillis. When in this latter po- sition, the same amount of pressure is applied to it, with the view of stretching the ankle joint. nut where are the witnesses? exclaims the reader. It would be wrong to say that no witnesses are examined in a Chinese court of justice. It is occasionally possible to see witnesses under examination before these dark tribunals. But as witnesses are also in some instances subjected to tor- ture, it is a matter of no ordinary difficulty for a foreigner who is ignorant of Chinese to distinguish which of the two unfortunate men kneeling before the judgment seat and re- ”^eiving castigation is the prisoner, and which is the witness, pn one occasion two men were kneeling before the /tribunal of the ruler of the Namhoi district of Can- ton. Both of them had chains around their necks, and as they were both occasionally beaten between the shoulders with a double cane, one very naturally concluded at first that they were companions in crime. One of them, however, as it turned out, was suspected of having a ‘perfect knowl- edge of the guilt of the other, who was upon his trial ; and the witness, who was very unwilling to give evidence, re- ceived a castigation. In a case of murder which was tried, |in i860, in the same court, two men, father and son, named Kan Wye and Kan Tai-chu, were called upon to bear testi- mony against the prisoner at the bar. They persistently de- clared that they were altogether ignorant of the circum- stances of the case. This ignorance was regarded by the court as feigned, and they w^re accordingly beaten and re- tained in custody. The relatives of these unfortunate wit- nesses earnestly entreated the author.^ to ask the GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 99 'Tn this matter the Allies have been guided by that re- gard for justice which is the ruling principle of their con- duct, and as your magistrates are unwilling to inform you themselves of the motive of the punishment inflicted on their colleague, the Commissioners have now no hesitation in doing so, seeing that, the vigorous measures to which they have had recourse have been adopted solely in the cause of humanity andTh the infer ests of the people. 'The use of torture iiTjudicial proceedings is revolting to the minds of all civilized people, and is also opposed to the laws of China. As long, therefore, as the present mili- tary rule continues in Canton, the allied commanders can- not tolerate practices that are contrary to humanity, on the part of any Chinese officials in carrying out their system of justice, nor can they suffer the people who, for the time, are intrusted to their protection to be subjected under their eyes to useless cruelties of this nature. "With this view they have constantly prohibited the use of torture in the native tribunals of this city, and they have repeatedly directed the attention of the magistrate of Pun- yu to the formal orders issued on this subject, but only to find that these orders have as frequently been disregarded by that functionary. At last the patience of the Allied Com- missioners has been exhausted by a recent act of brutality, consisting of crushing the legs of three prisoners, which has been committed by the Pun-yu, and they accordingly in- flict on him a punishment sufficiently exemplary to deter others from following his example. "Now that you have been made acquainted with the cause of the arrest of the Pun-yu, you should let justice take its course. His suspension need occasion you no anxi- ety, as other officers have been appointed to perform his functions. Continue, therefore, to attend quietly to vour 100 THE CHINESE EMPIRE turb the public tranquillity by foolish demonstrations, which are certain to draw down on the heads of the authors of them the most prompt and severe iMpishment. Dated Canton, July 17th, 1871/' This proclamation had the desired effect. The district ruler, however, who was so justly shorn of the dignity of his office, refused, at the expiration of his term of impris- onment, to resume his duties, and returned in the course of the following month to Pekin, in search of employment in a portion of the empire where there would be no possibil- ity of his suffering a check at the hands of foreign officials. CIVIL LAWSUITS The legal process observed in civil cases is not very dis- similar to that in the investigation of criminal cases. Should a dispute arise between two persons with regard to the right to houses or land, it is usual for the disputants to have recourse to arbitration. The persons called upon to arbi- trate are, generally, the principal residents or elders of the street or neighborhood. Should either party be dissatisfied with the decision of the arbitrators, the matter is taken into a court of law, and comes before the district ruler. The person taking the case into court has to incur great ex- penses in bribing the underlings about the yamen, to allow his petition to be submitted to the notice of this official. The petitioner, having liberally paid these people, is allowed to take up his position at the folding doors of one of the inner courts of the yamen, and, as the district ruler passes in or out, he falls upon his knees immediately in front of the ruler’s sedan chair. The magistrate calls upon his chair-bearers to stop, in order that he may ascertain the nature of the suppliant’s petition. When the district ruler ^netition, a day is at once appointed by him for GOVERNMENT OF CHINA lor ^not unusual for the judge to inflict torture. If of very great importance, the cause is appealed to a higher tribunal. It is not, however, to the provincial judge or chief justice that it is in the next instance submitted, but to the provincial treasurer. From his court there is a further appeal to that of the governor, or governor-general of the province. The decision of the governor or viceroy, however, is not final. An appeal can, in the next instance, be made to the governor or governor-general of the province adjoining that of which the disputants are natives, or in which they are residing. From the verdict of the highest tribunal of the neighboring province, there is a last appeal to the emperor, through the great council of the nation. In former times it was in the power of persons engaged in law-suits to appeal from the highest tribunal of their respective provinces to the em- peror in person. Now, however, it is imperative on those who are engaged in litigation to appeal to the tribunal of the adjoining province, before they can submit their case to the emperor. BRIBERY In all Chinese courts of law there is bribery and corrup- tion ; and the verdicts of the courts are much at the disposal of those who can pay the highest sum for them. There are in Chinese records many instances of officials, who have been bribed, seeking to defeat the ends of justice. One of the most memorable is a case of dispute which took place between two kinsmen, the one belonging to the clan or family of Ling, and the other to that of Laong, who were respectively named Ling Kwei-hing, and Laong Tin-loi. In the case in question the corrupt practices and gross in- justice of the mandarins were brought before the notice of the emperor, and received his majesty’s marked and well-merited condemnation. Ling Kwei-hing, the plaintiff, was a man of almost unbounded wealth and influence. Like 102 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Ahab, king of Israel, who in the midst of his riches pined so long as the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, was with- held from him, so Ling Kwei-hing could not rest until a small estate, the property of his relative Laong Tin-loi, should have become a portion of his already extensive do- mains. He sought to gratify his covetousness by claiming it as his own. The case was brought into the courts of law at Canton, and the judges of the various courts, who had been largely bribed, gave their verdict in favor of Ling Kwei-hing. Laong Tin-loi, knowing that justice was alto- gether on his side, and that the courts of law in which the case had been successively heard had been influenced against him through the plaintiff's wealth, resolved to set out on a journey to Pekin with the view of seeking redress at the hands of His Imperial Majesty, Yung-ching. This emperor, who, it is said, was remarkable for his love of justice, truth, and mercy, graciously received the suppliant. So fully satisfied was the emperor that Laong Tin-loi had suffered wrong at the hands of the mandarins, that he at once despatched an imperial commissioner named Hung Tai-pang to re-investigate the matter. The examination terminated in favor of Laong Tin-loi. Ling Kwei-hing, with every member of his family, one male excepted, was put to death. All the mandarins before whose respective tribunals the case had been brought were deprived of rank and dismissed from the imperial service. It would appear that Laong Tin-loi, previous to leaving Canton en route to Pekin, went to the jtemple in honor of Pak-Tai situated in the Yoong-kwong street, or the western suburb of Canton to seek the blessing and guiding care of the god. On his return, he placed on the walls of the temple — where it re- mains to this day — a votive tablet expressive of his grati- tude. The house in which Laong Tin-loi resided, and in which several members of his family were put to death by GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 103 Ling Kwei-hing, stands in the center of the village of Tam- chune, and is sometimes visited as a place of interest by native sight-seers and holiday-makers. The subject of the foregoing narrative is the burden of a popular Chinese play which, to the great gratification of the masses, is often per- formed on the stage of the Chinese theatre. THE YELLOW JACKET With the view of encouraging officials in the efficient discharge of their duties, honors of various kinds and grades are held out to them ; and the viceroys, and governors, and other high officers of state have special instructions to sub- mit to the notice of his imperial majesty the names of all officers, civil and military, serving under them and worthy of such honors. These are bestowed not only upon the living, but also upon the meritorious dead. They are much sought after. Dresses of honor, in texture, color, and shape similar to those worn by the emperor and the other members of the imperial family, are occasionally conferred upon officials, both civil and military, for distinguished serv- ices ; and to receive from the emperor the imperial yellow jacket is considered one of the highest honors. Marks of approbation similar to this were, it would appear from the book of Esther (vi. 8), occasionally bestowed by the ancient kings of Persia upon their subjects. Such a distinction was I conferred by Ahasuerus upon Mordecai the Jew; for he said, ''Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear . . . and let this apparel ... be delivered to the hand of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor.” We gather from the book of Genesis (xli. 42) that this custom prevailed also in Egypt. Nor were the j Jews strangers to it, if we rightly interpret a certain episode 1 in the friendship of David and Jonathan (I Samuel, j|=; xviii, 4). 104 THE CHINESE EMPIRE POSTHUMOUS PIONORS As we have already stated, conspicuous merits are in some instances recognized by posthumous honors. Thus the Pekin Gazette of November ii, 1871, contained the fol- lowing memorial:* — ‘Tseng-Kho-Fan, Viceroy of the two Kiangs, and Chang-Chih-Man, Governor of Kiang-Soo, in a joint me- morial humbly report to the throne the extraordinarily meritorious conduct of the late Chun-Choong-Yuen, Pre- fect of Kat-On, Prefecture in Kiang-Si, during the time the city was attacked by the Tai-ping rebels, eighteen years ago, in sacrificing his life to the cause of the government. When the city was besieged by the enemy, who numbered between 50,000 and 60,000, the mandarin in question defended it with a garrison of only 1,800 men strong; yet frequent sorties were made, in which the rebels were slaughtered in great numbers beyond calculation. One day a breach in the wall had been made, but the deceased took active meas- ures to have it mended, and while personally superintend- ing its reconstruction, he missed his footing, and fell from the wall, injuring his legs badly. On the eighth day of the twelfth moon in that year he went out again to attack the enemy, but was wounded in several places so that blood trickled down to his ankles. Famine raged within the city, and the people had to live on the flesh of dogs, and to use fuel in lieu of candles ; yet in this time of extreme diffi- culty and misery he most indefatigably maintained his po- sition until the beginning of the next year, when the rebels stormed the city from all sides, having previously laid pow- der mines underground to destroy the walls. Having ef- fected an entrance at the west gate, the rebels were bravely met by the deceased official and his eldest son, when they *The translation here given was published in the Hongkong, China, Mail of December 23d of the same year. GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 105 were both killed, and their heads cut off for exposure at the east gate. Of all the precedents on record none could equal with the present in point of merit. The memorialists therefore pray that authority be granted for a memorial temple to be erected to the dedication of the deceased offi- cial, who bravely defended an isolated city with a handful of men against a formidable enemy, numbering several tens of thousands strong, with no prospect of any relief from outside, and no food for the sufferers within. The son, moreover, shared the fate of the father and this was an act of loyalty as well as filial piety, which should not be com- pared with an ordinary case of self-sacrifice. Therefore a temple should be erected to their memory and to that of their followers in the noble cause.’^ As another example of posthumous honors we may cite the case of one of the memorialists themselves. When the news of the death of Tseng Kwo-fan from apoplexy, in March, 1872, reached the ears of the emperor, an edict was immediately issued, bestowing upon that departed worthy the posthumous title of Tai-Foo (vice-tutor to the em- peror), with the epitaph Wen-Chen (correct principles of lietrature). This title is seldom conferred, and during the past thousand years it has been bestowed upon seven per- sons only. A public funeral was also granted to the re- mains of this great man, and to defray the expense of it a sum of three thousand taels was drawn from the imperial exchequer. A public sacrifice, at the expense of the gov- ernment, was offered to the manes of the departed viceroy. By the command of the emperor, this ceremony was con- ducted by Muk Tang-foo, the Tartar general of Kiang-soo. Imperial commands were also given that tablets bearing the names and titles of the deceased should be placed, one in the temple in honor of ^'Illustrious Faithful Servants,’' and another in that which is dedicated to "Perfect and Virtuous 106 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Minister of State/^ The decree gave permission for the erection of temples in his honor at Honan, the province in which he was born, and in Kiang-soo, the province which, at the time of his death, he was so successfully governing. The edict further gave orders that the hereditary title of Marquis should at once be conferred upon his eldest son, and that his successor in office be commanded to report to the central government the names of all his surviving children, with a view of their being appointed to posts of honor. It added that any entry standing against his name in the official register must at once be erased. This last provision may require explanation. In China governmental registers are kept, in which are recorded, in some the mer- its, and in others the demerits of the various civil and military officials of the empire. This custom, which is of great antiquity, was also practiced by other nations. In the respective books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther there are several passages which afford evidence of the diligence shown in the early ages by the Persian government in keeping a record of the services of its officers ; and in several Greek writers there are also allusions to this prac- tice. PUNISHMENT OF OFFICIALS With the view of deterring officials, civil and military, from the commission of vice, it is also in the power of rulers of provinces to memorialize the throne for the pun- ishment of all such delinquents. In a copy of the Pekin Gazette which was published on the I2th of November, 1872, appeared an imperial edict in reply to a memorial on the part of one Li Hung Chang, requesting the degra- dation and dismissal of mandarins for misconduct and a manifest incapacity to arrest offenders. The edict ordered that the magistrate of Toong-ping Heen, in the province of Chihli, who had most signally failed in capturing the per- GOVERNMENT OF CHINA 107 petrators of a daring robbery, should at once be deprived of his button, and that, should he fail within a given time to arrest the offenders, he should be placed under arrest for examination and punishment. It contained the imperial commands for the immediate dismissal of one named Pui Fook-tak from the magistracy of Nam-woh Keen. He was represented as a man of ordinary abilities, and, although the offense preferred against him had not been substan- tiated, yet it was clear that he had called into his service men of evil reputation, and had in consequence lowered the dignity of his office. But promotion and honor on the one hand, and degradation and disgrace on the other, fail in a very lamentable manner to make the officials of China hon- est men. HONORS TO THE FAITHFUL Although Chinese officials are perhaps as a class the most corrupt state servants in the world, there are among them men of high integrity and honor. These exceptional men are held in high esteem by the people, who avail them- selves of every opportunity of doing them honor. During the writer's long residence at Canton he met only one such worthy. He was named Acheong, and for two years as governor ruled over the vast province of Kwang-tung. So many and great were the blessings which he conferred upon the people by his excellent administration, that they actually adored him ; and when he left Canton they rose en masse to do him honor. The ovation which he received from the citizens, who thronged the streets, was most impressive. In the imposing procession which escorted him to the place of embarkation, and which took at least twenty minutes to pass a given point, were carried the silk umbrellas which had been presented to him by the people, and the red boards — of which there were probably more than three hundred — upon which high-sounding titles had been in- 108 THE CHINESE EMPIRE scribed in honor of the faithful minister. The route was spanned at frequent intervals by arches. From these ban - ners were suspended which bore in large letters, painted or embroidered, such sentences as ‘The Friend of the People,’' “The Father of the People,” “The Father and Mother of the People,” “The Bright Star of the Province,” “The Benefactor of the Age.” Deputations awaited his ar- rival at various temples, and he alighted from his chair to exchange farewell compliments with them, and to partake of the refreshment provided for the occasion. But the formal arrangements could not speak so clearly to his pop- ularity as the enthusiasm of the people. The silence gen- erally observed when a Chinese ruler passes through the streets was again and again broken by hearty exclamations “When will Your Excellency come back to us?” At many points the crowd was so great as to interrupt the line of march, and the state chair was frequently in danger of being upset. It was evident that the mottoes which were in- scribed on the banners hung out on the route of this vir- tuous servant of the state, faithfully interpreted the public feeling. CHAPTER VI CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE CHINESE Of ideas that most people in the West entertain about the Chinese, some of the elements may be said to be, odd manners, “pigtails,” cramped feet, long nails, fans, paint- ings, rice-paper drawings, processions, concentric balls, lan- terns, chopsticks, eating rats, mice and bird’s-nest soup, popular infanticide and an utter want of benevolence. Following the order above given, we offer to the reader the result of observations continued during a period of CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 109 nearly fourteen years, hoping thereby to correct or confirm his preconceptions of the manners and customs of the Chinese. Oddness of Chinese Manners. — In watching the ^^every- day life’’ of the Chinese, it is impossible not to detect analo- gies to habits everywhere else. Thus, other people dress, live in houses, eat, drink, marry, give in marriage, bury their dead, are courteous to strangers, are fond of fun, love their progeny, etc.; and so do the Chinese. These are, as it were, instincts in the human race, which, like the instincts of the ant or the bee, have never changed since the creation of the world. However, in habits general as these, there are inci- dental forms that may differ; and in China they do differ oftentimes so remarkably from the ordinary types among us, that, to one visiting that country, of all odd things there a Chinaman appears at first sight to be the oddest. Not only in geographical position, but in notions and in practice, he seems to be at antipodes to ^Western bar- barians ;” and what you have heard bruited abroad in your home circle of the strange contrariety in his habits to yours, you will, in time, find confirmed by his ways and manners. To mention a few commonly noticed : In paying calls, you take your hat off, he keeps his cap on ; you advance and offer a hearty shake of the hand to your friend; but he, as he advances toward the host, closes his two fists, and shakes his own hands. At dinners (when you can afford it), you commence with fish and soup, etc., and end with a dessert of wines and fruits ; but he just turns the tables, beginning with fruits, wines, and biscuits, and winding up with fish and soup. At weddings, English ladies wear white ; Chinese ladies cannot wear white, but other colors. Instead of young bleoming bridesmaids trimmed in white, you may see old 110 THE CHINESE EMPIRE matrons rigged in black attendant on the anxious bride; and, for a honeymoon, the bride dispenses with a flight about the country to this and that spa, and satisfies herself with being caged up for the first month in her husband's house, and there is no need of any announcement when she may be ‘‘at home/' At funerals, black is not worn, but white ; and the dead are shrouded not in white, but in the gayest dresses. In amusements, it is not uncommon to see adults flying kites, and little urchins squatted on the ground looking on ; and shuttlecocks are battledored generally not by the hand, but the heel. In books, the name, when written outside, is inscribed on the bottom edge. The beginning of the book is what you would count the end. The running title is on the edge of each leaf. The paging is near the bottom, not at the top corner. Marginal notes are written at the top, not at the foot of the page; and in reading, you proceed from right to left, reading each column from top to bottom. Miscellaneous. — ^The surname announced does not fol- low “the Christian name," but precedes it. In kissing, the fond mother holds up her lovely babe to her nose to smell it, as she would a rose. In moonlight, no matter how bright, you bear your lighted lantern about with you. The seaman, in naming the points of the compass, says, “East, west, south, north." In launching a vessel, she is sent into the water sideways. The horseman should mount his horse ©n its right side. The scholar in reciting his lesson does not face his master, but turns his back upon him. In parties, do not wear light pumps, but as thick-soled shoes as you can get ; and, for blacking, they must be whitened with white-lead, and only the edges of the sole. The Pigtail. — In the imagery of a Westerner, the badge hy which the males in China are characterized is on his CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 111 head. No sooner is the word Chinaman pronounced, than he stands before the mind's eye — as delineated on the wil- low-pattern china vases, rice-paper pictures, etc. — with a flow of hair depending from the back of the head. To pro- duce such an appendage, the head is clean shaven in front and behind the crown alone being left untouched, from which the hair grows to its full length ^^unshaven, unshorn." This pigtail (as it is unceremoniously called by people from the West) on an average measures about a yard long; but it can be elongated by lengthening the braid of silk with which the hair is twisted, or by adding a tress to be purchased for a mite at any barber's shop. Although in truth they belong to the exception, I have met with many natives who seemed really careful of the cleanliness and neatness of their coiffure— early in the morning combing out the tufts, dressing them with an oleag- inous stuff, and braiding the long black hair with their own fingers. In good society, the rule is to shave the head once in ten days. This is considered necessary both for comfort and respectability. To let the frontal hair grow long marks a man to be in mourning or in the depths of poverty. On the pate of a newly shaven youth, there is occasion- ally a peculiarity that may attract the notice of a keen-eyed visitor. When your table boy comes from the barber's hands, with a well-glazed face and forehead, there is stick- ing round the border of his crown a circular ridge of bristles each hair short and stiff, and turned up like a fine-toothed comb. This that at first looks so odd, is explained on finding that the wearer is desirous to let the hairy border grow long enough to be braided with the main tress that flows gracefully behind. A very different solution this, certainly, from what appears in a book, entitled ‘Tanqui in China," in which the author remarks, ^This I imagine to 112 THE CHINESE EMPIRE be the usual way of dressing the head by single unengaged youths, and of course must be very attractive,’’ ix., to the fair sex. The common laborer often finds this ornamental plait inconvenient; yet, if at work, he can keep it out of the way by twisting it into a thick knot, or twining it about the head. Though at times an incumbrance, the poorest man is proud of this national badge, his queue. It is not un- usual for a raw Westerner, on landing, to draw some sport from '7^hn Chinaman’s tail;” but very soon he is made to learn that he must not meddle too freely with a badge so sacred to his Chinese friend. ^^Noli me tangere/' is the order of the tail as well as of the thistle. Yet vain as a na- tive is of his appendage, he can turn it to purposes — some- times useful. A sailor at sea lashes his rough cap round his head with his tail. A crotchety pedagogue with no other rod of correction at hand, on the spur of the moment lays his tail over the head and shoulders of the stubborn scholar. And, for a bit of fun, a wag will play a trick on his companions by tying two or three tails together, and suddenly starting his comrades off in opposite directions. The impression that the tail is universally worn by Chinese males, is on the whole correct — being fashionable among native Chinese as well as Manchus. However, there are a few exceptions. The complete shav- ing of the head is distinctive of the priesthood in the Bud- dhist religion ; while to let the hair grow long and bound up on the top of the head is the coiffure of the regular priests of the Taou sect. Very commonly you meet with wretched beggars who allow the hair to grow any length without cleaning or platting it ; and the unsubdued moun- taineers, called Meaou-tse, are said to be proud of what they consider a sign of independence, the unshaven head. The long hair, worn perhaps in the manner of the CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 113 Taouist priesthood, was from early times the habit of all China, until 200 years ago, when the new fashion was in- troduced by the Manchu dynasty on its taking possession of the throne. Two centuries have reconciled the natives of China to this badge of allegiance, and at the present time, more than ever, it has become the distinction between ^'royals'’ and ‘Tebels.’^ The insurrectionary movement — headed by the chieftain Taiping — goes by the name of ''the rebellion of long-haired rascals,’’ inasmuch as it insists on the re-adoption of the old style as the sign of admission within the ranks, namely, the natural growth of the hair upon the entire head, without being shaven, or cut, or platted, but bound in a top-knot. In one of the earliest protests issued by that brigand chief, with a catalogue of ten or twelve serious complaints against the supreme gov- ernment, the first is, "that the Chinese from the outset had their own style of wearing the hair; but these Manchus have compelled them to shave their heads and wear a long tail, so as greatly to resemble the commonest beast.” Upon this the following observations deserve to be quoted from the Edinburgh Review : "As to this charge against the Tartar Government, it must be observed that at its commencement, it only adopted the rule of almost all other dynasties in China at their foundation — the introduction of a slight alteration in the attire of the male population. The grievances here alleged might have been felt with some show of reason, and, indeed, in some places were avenged with great fury, by that gen- eration of Chinese which had first to submit to wearing the tail, a badge of subjection under the scepter of the Tartar conquerors, now adopted both by Chinese and Manchus. But, after a term of 200 years, to bring up this as the first in their list of grievances, sounds much like an effort to inflame the pride and animosity of the populace. This, in- 14 THE CHINESE EMPIRE deed, cannot be denied, when we read their appeal in an- other part of their proclamations: — ‘Ye Chinese, we do most earnestly wish to save you. The majority of you are Chinese : yet how can you be so silly and stupid as to shave off the hair of your heads in submission to these Tartars, and adopt their style of dress? How can you be content to remain the slaves and dogs of the Manchus ?’ ’’ The Cramped Foot. — While the badge of the man is in the head, that of gentility in the woman is in the foot. One of the earliest inquiries of a foreigner, when he visits that monster curiosity-shop — “the flowery land'' — is anent this point; and any newcomer from the West, be he never so modest, is sure to watch the pedicles of the first Chinese beauty or ugly he meets. But, should he bring up in the southern waters of China, the impression (common throughout Christendom) that the stinted foot is universal among Chinese women, is at once broken. The Canton boat-women (who are most expert at the oar) are the earliest to hail your approach to their shores, and they show by their naked foot that they find it more convenient to suffer this member to grow to its natural size. And, generally speaking, the female domestics of the Canton province pre- fer this freedom of nature. With truth, too, it may be averred, that among the lower classes, the popularity of this objectionable fashion is often but local. Thus, in Chusan and Ningpo, there is scarcely a single instance of a natural sized foot among the women, even the maid-servants. But in the north, particularly through the interior of the Canton, Kiangsi, the Chihkiang provinces, one observes females to whom the undistorted foot seems indispensable for the sake of livelihood. Among the camp-followers of the insurgent chief, who had been disturbing the heart of the empire, it was com- puted, in 1853, that there were, in the city of Nanking only, CUSTOMS AND JMANNERS ir about half a million women, collected from various parts of the country. These females were formed into brigades of 13,000, under female officers. Of these, 10,000 were picked women, drilled and garrisoned in the citadel. The rest had the hard drudgery assigned them of digging moats, making earthworks, erecting batteries, etc. Presuming that a good- sized foot would be a necessary qualification for a soldier's life in the Nanking garrison, or for engineering exploits inJ that singular campaign, we must give these Chinese Ama-) zons credit for having the foot undeformed. It appears that the Tartar families discountenanced such a malformation among their daughters. Although Dame Fashion had occasionally tempted some of them to follow the manners and customs of the conquered race in com- pressing the feet, these misdemeanors (it is said) have been checked by the vermilion pencil of the emperor. Both in 1838 and 1840, his majesty had to sigh out, ''0 temporal 0 moresT and, issuing his orders for reform, he threatened the heads of families with degradation if they persisted in irregularities of this stamp, and likewise warned the fair ladies, that, by falling into such low and vulgar habits they would unfit themselves for selection as ladies of honor for the inner palace. These remarks and instances go to show that there is a large and respectable minority of females in China with undistorted feet. But as it is an error to say that the cramped foot is uni- versal in China, it is no less a mistake to state, what has appeared in print, ‘‘that only parents of the wealthier sort can afford to their daughters the luxury of small feet.'' The streets and houses, in every town accessible to foreigners abundantly testify how this fashion is mimicked by all classes. Even among the poor, who are likely to appreciate the value of preserving it in its natural size, there is another THE CHINESE EMPIRE mode of calculating the profit and loss of the bandaged foot. When their daughters are given in marriage, ^^the golden lilies’’ (as their delicate feet are politely called) come in as a matter of no trifling pecuniary consideration. It is not at all improbable that many who have submitted to the tor- ture till marriage, have felt it absolutely necessary to loosen the bandages and set themselves free, to assist their khusbands in the garden or in the fields. Yet it is un- questionable that among the lower orders, too, as well as the richer, the custom is popular and fashionable. In gangs of female beggars which are passed in the streets of some of their cities, one sees those whose bodies are covered with rags and vermin, but whose feet are bound as tightly and squeezed to as minute dimensions as you might witness in any wealthy family. Not unusually what to your eye seems a foot duly bound and bandaged, is all sham, and got up for the sake of aping respectability. A nurse in the family, in her evolutions by day, will sport quasi-cramped feet ; but, when suddenly called up at midnight, will expose feet of ordinary and undeformed dimensions. The pretense is admirably kept up, in some instances, by wearing short stilts, with small wooden feet in elegantly embroidered shoes. The writer has seen the part of a Chinese actress played, one of whose chief attractions was a remarkably small and elegant foot. The gait, the manner, were entirely feminine. However, it turned out to be nothing but imita- tion to the very feet — all performed by a youth ! No one has ever been able to explain satisfactorily the reason for introducing this singular custom among the Chinese^ — ^whether to imitate small, delicate feet, or to keep women from gadding about, or to denote gentility and freedom from toil and hard work. Nor are the Chinese themselves agreed as to the precise date of its introduction, or thre real originator of the hideous deformity. CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 117 Certain it is that the fashion is not derived by tradition from the first descendants of Noah’s family. Some Euro- peans, who conceive that there is no species of mon- strosity but what must be laid at the door of the Tartar con- querors, boldly assert that the cramped foot was introduced by them 200 years since, when they mounted the throne of China. There is not the slightest foundation, however, for such an assertion. The written accounts of the natives, in tracing this custom, go much further back than 200 years. One author ascribes its origin to an infamous woman, Tankey, who lived B. C. iioo. She was empress at the time. Having been born with club-feet, she, by her mar- velous influence over her husband, induced him to adopt her form of foot as the model of beauty and to enforce by imperial edict the compression of the feet of female infants down to this imperial standard. Others are of opinion that the detestable custom arose 1700 years after her, or A. D. 600. According to them, the then reigning monarch Yangte, ordered a pet concubine to bandage her feet. On the sole of her shoe he had stamped the lotus flower ; and each step this royal mistress took, she left on the ground a print of the lotus, or water lily. On this account, to the present day, the bandaged feet of Chinese ladies are complimented as ‘^gold- en lilies.” But another account maintains that the fashion owes its existence to a whim of Le-yuh, a licentious and tyran- nical prince of the Tang dynasty, who held his court at Nan- king about A. D. 916. It seems that one day, as he was amusing himself, the thought struck him he might improve the appearance of the feet of a choice favorite in his harem, by bending the instep, and raising it into an arch, in his imagery something resembling the new moon. How a re- semblance was effected it is difficult to imagine. Neverthe- 118 THE CHINESE EMPIRE less, the courtiers were so taken with admiration of this contortion, that the novel form was immediately introduced into their families. There can be no doubt, but in the estimate of the Chinese nation this artificial deformity is an essential among the elements of feminine beauty— or, as a native writer says, ^'not to bind the foot is a disgrace.’’ Mr. Lay has justly observed, ‘'A foot two inches in length is the idol of a Chinaman, on which he lavishes the most precious epithets which nature and language can supply.” In reciting the ravishing charms of their ladies, they seldom, if ever, forget to mention the extreme smallness of the foot. Indeed, the more reduced it is, the more graceful and becoming it is thought to be. But for us to trace out any physical beauty in this odious cramping of the female foot, would be an im- possibility equal to that which a Chinese would feel in try- ing to detect any beauty in the shocking squeezing of the waists of Western women into taper forms. There have been among the Chinese themselves those who have been humane enough to deplore the unnatural practice, and have possessed the courage to condemn it. A talented writer, in the end of last century, in expressing his abhorrence of a custom so vicious, represents the Prince Le-yuh as the introducer of it, and on that account con- demned him to endure a term of 700 years’ punishment in one of the Buddhistic hells, which, he says, is but the first of a series of penalties awaiting the culprit through an inter- minable cycle of years to come. During the anarchy that prevailed at the accession of the present dynasty, a notorious robber-chief, who had a particular detestation of the club- feet of Chinese women, chopped off the feet of a very large number of females, and raised a vast pile of them. But the manes of those injured women are described not as crying for vengeance upon the bandit chief, but upon the CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 119 head of that unpopular and unlucky Prince Le-yuh, whom ' they regard as the real occasion of their sufferings. Heaven is represented as responding to the appeal of these unfortu- nates by sentencing the tyrant to make 1,000,000 pairs of , shoes for the women of China with his own fingers ! As to the age at which the foot of the poor girl is sub- jected to this cruel operation — ordinarily it is about the sixth or seventh year; although, among the wealthier 1 classes, shortly after the child has begun to walk. The | notion of ''iron shoes’" and "wooden shoe's” being used is a sheer figment in the brain of an over-imagina- tive foreigner. Only bandages are used. The object is not so much to make the foot smaller, as to cramp its growth into a certain shape. To force a contracted form, and to keep it in that shape, plain tight bandages are found quite sufficient, and these are not permanently to be removed until the desired figure be brought out. In notices of China, given a few years since, in "Annales de la Propagation de la Foi,” the Journalist observes : "As they wear two pairs of shoes, one upon the other, and always keep one on, night and day, their feet are in the shackles.” This does not agree with the custom of the people, as observed by others, and it is probable that the Romish missionary mistook the bandage on the foot for a pair of shoes. Generally, the result of such binding is, that four of the toes are bent under the sole, the big toe only being left free, and the instep is forced up into a bulge. Accordingly, the walk of "the little-footed celestials” is a short and quick step, with a swinging of the arms — precisely as in walking on one’s heels. The Chinese compare this to the waving of a willow before a gentle breeze ! Frequently, to support themselves in walking, these "waving willows” use an um- brella, make a walking-stick of an attendant, or lean upon the shoulders of a respectful grandson, A 120 THE CHINESE EMPIRE It cannot be doubted that cases of gangrene have oc- curred from such severe compression of the foot ; and loss of both feet, or of life, and other evils, might be detailed as arising out of this pernicious rule of fashion. But, the in- jurious effects to life and health from this tortuous position are not so certain as has been imagined. Mr. Lockhart, in his ‘'Medical Missionary Report of his Hospital at Chusan, in the year 1840-41,” observes: “Though several females came to the hospital affected with various diseases and with ulcers of the leg, only in one or two instances was there seen any ulcer or other disease apparently caused by the compression of the foot and the forced distortion of its bones. It cannot be said with any degree of certainty how far this practice is injurious to health ; but it would appear, from the observation of numerous instances among differ- ent classes of society, both in children and adults, that it does not cause so much misery as might be expected from the severe treatment to which the feet are subjected in in- fancy. And torturing as this treatment of the feet would appear to be, and unsightly as are its consequences, it is, perhaps, on the whole, not more injurious to health and comfort than are the practices inflicted by fashion on the female sex in Western nations.” If there really be pain or distress in feet so tightly bandaged, it is marvelous to watch the evident freedom from both, shown by women who can walk several miles a day — or by nurses, that seem to bear about their infant charges without discomfort — or by maid-servants, who with apparent ease perform more than the ordinary amount of duties undertaken by English servants. There is nothing like the distress we should expect shown by the young women, who, with feet like hoofs, go through strange pos- ture-making dances, or by the little girls that play about kthe streets and lanes. Women are fond of playing at shut- CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 121 tlecock, and, for the battledore, use the cramped foot, but apparently without annoyance. For instance, in a company of traveling jugglers, a woman will raise a four>legged table upon her two club feet, balance it in the air, and turn it round and round upon her two extremities, but without manifesting pain. To conclude this long paragraph on the foot fashion- able among the fair sex in China, we must declare that any one acquainted with Chinese society should hesitate in say- ing, as has been said in the ^'Annales de la Propagation de la Foi,’' that ''it is a great act of indecorum to look at a woman’s foot;” and to such a one the fable will sound equally ludicrous (given in Murray’s "China,” vol. ii. p. 266), "that a lady presents her feet as the surest darts with which a lover’s heart can be assailed.” Long Nails. — In a European picture of a fashionable Chinaman, his fingers are tipped with lengthy nails. Cer- tain instances occur of nails cultivated to extraor- dinary dimensions, both among men and women in China, — to be interpreted as significant of an easy life, or of devotion to literature. Not unfrequent samples of af- fectation of gentility like this occur, especially among cus- tom house officers, copyists, writers, or pedants, that haunt the houses of wealthy foreigners. One fellow went by the name "silver-nailed for, from their liability to be broken, he had to shield his talons in silver cases ; and another’s claws were so long that, when he walked abroad, he had to "sleeve them,” or tuck them under his wide sleeves. Chinese do not clip, pare, or bite their nails, as foreigners do. But to wear inordinately long nails can, by no means, be said to be a very common practice in China. It is the exception to the general rule. The Fan. — In the use of this there is no exception. It is a universal appendage with both sexes and all ranks — in the 122 THE CHINESE EMPIRE southern parts, almost all the year round ; in other parts, only in summer. To a European, on his arrival, few articles will be more novel than the fan seen in the hand or the belt of male and female, rich or poor, soldiers, scholars, and priests. The workman who can spare a hand, is industrious in flapping his fan with the one and laboring with the other. An officer has been seen going to battle waving his fan ; and on the authority of eye-witnesses of the attack on the Bogue forts in 1841, the native military were observed on those battlements coolly fanning themselves ^^amid showers of shot and shell.’^ Instead of a switch or cane, the fop in China flourishes his fan ; and the schoolmaster turns it upon the cranium or knuckles of the offending pupil. It appears that the Japanese employ the article for a purpose never witnessed in the Celestial country — as Dr. Siebold says, ''In Japan, a fan presented upon a kind of salver to the highborn criminal, is said to be the form of announcing his death- doom, and his head is struck off at the same moment he stretches it towards the fan.” The laborer, when he cannot use it, sticks it into the back of his collar or girdle, or "sleeves it;” but the man who can afford the luxury, slings upon his belt a worked silk case for his fan. The innocent article now spoken of, has less variety in shape than in the material of which it is made. Generally it is round, or leaf-like, or in the form of a sector. The pat- tern is either stiff and open, or pliable and folding; the former made of silk, palm-leaf, or feathers — the latter usu- ally of paper, sometimes of fine goose-feathers, or of beau- tifully carved ivory. Besides being fashionable, one of the principal uses to which the fan is appropriated, is that of a screen. Everywhere, where people cannot afford something better, they may be seen treading the streets under a broil- CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 123 ing sun, at 98 degrees in the shade, with naught between their bare heads and the scorching sun but a plain fan. Natives fan themselves and their children to sleep. Quite as commonly it answers the purpose of a refrigerator to cool the person. But so employed, it is not flapped in the quick, hurried fashion of Europeans, which must occasion much exertion, and actually raise the temperature of the body. It is worked quietly, gently, regularly, without exhausting one’s strength. If we mistake not, in the season of heat and mosquitoes, no punishment could be severer to a Chinaman than to deprive him of this valuable implement. The bulk of the people, living as they do in narrow lanes, low houses, and unventilated rooms, during the extreme summer months find this article indispensable to their comfort. The native passion for pictures, drawings, and auto- graphs, has large scope in the various fans abroad. Made of silk and satin, they admit of a great deal of embroidery- work. Paper fans have fancy sketches on them, chiefly flowers. An infinite lot is constantly on sale with maps and outlines engraven of one or other principal city in the em- pire — Nanking, Pekin, or Canton ; and, having every street and lane named, it forms a useful ^'guide” to a trav- eler visiting those cities. Others have the ^flions” and scenes of particular localities sketched out. There are few that are without choice and classic sentences written on them. The English taste for preserving in albums tho souvenirs of select friends, has its counterpart in the pas- sion of gentlemen in China, who, to obtain the autograph of a friend, have only to purchase a plain fan, in which the ^^elder brother” is requested to pen a sentence or two, sign and stamp it with his seal. This done, it is kept or carried about by the owner as a valuable treasure — a rare curiosity. Pictures and Rice-paper Drawings. — What must be evident to a visitor at any Chinese port, is the native taste 124 THE CHINESE EMPIRE for pictures, and the desire of shopkeepers to gratify what they well know to be a passion too among all strangers, for drawings, paintings, etc. But the best specimens to be obtained at Macao are not to be taken as fair samples of the native unassisted art. At Canton, Macao, and Hong- kong, there has been for years so much imitation of foreign productions, and not a little improvement has gradually crept over the designs of the native artists, from the in- fluence of Chinnery, an Englishman now deceased. That gentleman was for many years resident in Macao, and, much to his credit, lent his aid in suitable suggestions and instructions to some of the Canton draughtsmen ; Lamqua, for instance, known to foreigners for his portrait-painting, and his younger brother, Tingqua, for his sketches and miniatures. The effect of this upon the native artists of Canton may easily be guessed. Nevertheless, genuine specimens of uneducated artists are to be found in the south, but especially at the ports far- ther north. The rude designs of their pencillings are such as may be seen on the commonest ware, the finest porcelain, wood- engravings, or wall-scrolls. Although the want of perspec- tive is a glaring blunder in all their delineations, yet, from the wood-engravings in their topographies, or landscape sketches in their works on husbandry, which every foreigner meets with now-a-days, it is clear that experience has taught some of them, that, in describing the more distant objects, these should lessen in dimensions as they recede from the point of view. But they have not detected that the more remote the objects become, to give effect to them, the m.ore should their outlines diminish in distinctness. Well does Dr. Williams of Canton remark, ^'Objects are as much exhibited as possible on a flat surface, as if the painter drew his picture from a balloon, and looked at the country with a CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 125 vertical sun shining above him/' Accordingly, in the grouping of different figures together, they fail ridiculous- ly. Only in single parts and objects do they hit any like- ness. In the ideography of their written language, the pic- torial representations of some of their characters, though in short-hand; show a singular similitude to the objects in- tended. For fidelity in sketching single objects, and setting them off in colors, perhaps they are most happy in the painting of dresses, birds, insects, and flowers. Here they appear to copy nature with tolerable exactness, and are greatly assisted by their various bright and gay colors. Everywhere you find, from the pencil of Chinamen never instructed by a European master, pictorial represen- tations of the attitude of birds and the position of shrubs, that will surprise and please you, as unexpectedly natural and drawn to life. In their unassisted essays at portrait-painting they are certainly unsuccessful; their delineations of the ‘'human face divine" are so expressionless, and of the human figure so out of all proportion and unnatural. A piece with a group of human beings in it presents to your eye a carica- ture ludicrous in the extreme. Still, the Chinese are fond of pictures of men and things. Many a family, bereaved of its paterfamilias, is particular to have a portrait of the deceased hung up in the center hall of his residence. These may be had at any hour and any place for a mere trifle. Pictures for such an occasion are always on sale, though the only similitude they bear to the encofflned is a distressing opacity and lifelessness. Of course their great 1 men come under the pencil of the artist ; the fabulous heroes I particularly. Recently, foreigners of all grades — sailors and soldiers especially — have not been less honored, al- though presented in the most comic shapes and costumes ; 126 THE CHINESE EMPIRE • and British men-of-war, and “smoke-ships” or steamboats;, are painted on paper fans and on cloth in shapeless forms and outrageous daubs. The fantastic forms and colors in which British subjects figure on their picture-books might suggest that the pencil had purposely drawn pasquinades and caricatures of Englishmen, if we were not convinced that the native artists are so far in the rear. The local government of Pekin has an “Imperial Hall, in which there hang “portraits of emperors, empresses, sages, worthies, and celebrated ministers. Sir John Davis, in his “Sketches,” observes : “It would be the highest and most criminal act of disrespect in the greatest of his subjects to possess a portrait or a visible representation of the ‘Son of Heaven,’ the Emperor. This is not quite correct; for many native gentlemen, of- cials and private, have had possession of portraits of the Emperor, and have not concealed the matter. But, although they possesse'd these pictures of imperial majesty, there was no pretense that they resembled the person on the throne. On the breaking out of the Tai-ping insurrection, the European world (certainly not the Chinese) has been entertained with portraits of the present reigning emperor and of his insurgent antagonist. It is not at all improbable that the Chinese themselves have never seen those portraits : and, from the general style of portraits taken by the Chinese, it may be confidently as- serted that these pictorial illustrations offered to the English public have nothing of similitude to the grand personages intended. Yet the writer of “Christianity in China,” with the two pictures before him, separately engraven on his title-page, quietly sits down to elicit out of them the in- dividual characters of the Emperor Hien-fung and his rival Tai-ping-wang, and draws a contrast in the following quota- tion: “Two portraits, one of the emperor in China, and CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 127 the other of the insurgent chief, the crowned and the un- crowned; and, if we may judge from the physiognomical representations, we had almost said the woman and the man, the poltroon and the hero. Supposing the accuracy of the representations, we should deem the bpy-emperor a weak- ling, and the insurgent chief a man fit to lead the armies of an empire against a Caesar or a Napoleon. Commanding intellect, deep penetration, reflection, comprehension, in- tellectual resources, directness, determination, dignity, dar- ing--these are some of the attributes which the portrait of the insurgent betokens. It is the finest Chinese head we have seen; in fact, it can hardly be said to be Chinese.” Picture-painting in China is done on almost every kind of surface. On ivory, glass, and paper they are very suc- cessful. Paintings on leaves are remarkably curious, but rare, and high in price. The tissue on which this latter style is wrought is obtained from various kinds of trees — leaves of very close net-work being preferred. After the soft part has been removed from the leaf by maceration, the reticulated skeleton is thoroughly dried and covered with isinglass, and then the colors are laid on with pretty effect. But of their drawings those on “rice-paper” are most admired in Europe. By the name “rice-paper” the idea is conveyed that the soft, brittle ground of velvety surface on which the brilliant colors are laid, is made from rice-pulp. This, however, is incorrect. It is a pith of a plant of the bread-fruit genus, brought from the western parts of China, chiefly to Canton, where the manufacture of this paper and painting gives employment to several thousand hands. The outline is first laid on in India ink, by pressure. Then the rough delineation is filled up with the varieties of exquisite coloring matter. Processions. Without question the Chinese are fond of processions but more in the south than in the north. 128 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Both at Macao and Canton, there are corporations that go to enormous expense in the outfit of these parades. Chiefly they are got up in honor of the genii loci, which for the oc- casion are ornamented and promenaded. The members of the clubs are dressed out very gaily, and march forth as attendants on their penates, with all the pomp and tinsel they can muster; silk and satin flags, most elegantly em- broidered; bands of miusic; tables laden with sacrificial offerings, decked with flowers, images, and curiosities of every variety. To add to the diversions, groups of pedes- trians are equipped in various military uniforms — boys mounted on ponies or hobby-horses not larger than mas- tiffs, and aping the air, dress, and authority of mandarins, and young girls, like fairies, perched on twigs and branches of trees resting on men’s shoulders. Ivory Balls. — Next, what shall we say of the carved con- centric ivory balls — ten, twelve, or more, cut out, one with- in the other? It has long puzzled people how so intricate a piece of workmanship is fabricated. It has been conjec- tured that originally they are balls cut into halves, so strongly and nicely gummed or cemented together, that it is impossible to detect the junction. And we have seen it deliberately stated that attempts have been made by some to dissolve the union by soaking and boiling a concentric ball in oil — of course, to no purpose. The plain solution of the enigma obtained from more than one native artist, is the following: — A piece of ivory, made perfectly round, has several conical holes worked into it, so that their several apices meet at the center of the glob- ular mass. The workman then coxnmences to detach the in- nermost sphere of all. This is done by inserting a tool into each hole, with a point bent and very sharp. That instru- ment is so arranged as to cut away or scrape the ivory through each hole, at equi-distances from the surface. The Chinese Smoking Opium. J CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 129 implement works away at the bottom of each conical hole successively, until the incisions meet. In this way the inner- most ball is separated ; and to smooth, carve, and ornament it, its various faces are, one after the other, brought oppo- site one of the largest holes. The other balls, larger as they near the outer surface, are each cut, wrought, and polished precisely in the same manner. The outermost ball of course is done last of all. As for the utensils in this operation, the size of the shaft of the tool, as well as of the bend at its point, depends on the depth of each successive ball from the surface. Such is their mode of carving one of the most delicate and labyrinthic specimens of workmanship to be found in China or elsewhere. These ‘ Vheels within wheels” are intended chiefly for sale to foreigners: and numerous specimens annually are sent to England and America. The Lantern. — There is another article on which there is no little ingenuity shown by the Chinese, namely, that which figures with some prominence in European notions of China — the lantern. Probably no article of furniture in ‘‘the Celestial Empire” is more in use. Upon it, as upon other things, the native workman illustrates the skill and industry with which he can elaborate, and at the same time display a degree of taste in the variety of forms and the fanciful colorings in which the lantern appears. We are not now speaking of what is everywhere to be found — the plain candle or the simple lamp — but what they call ^'tung loong” “lamp-basket,” “candle-cage,” the cage or basket in which the light is lodged. It is of all sizes and shapes, and constructed of every sort of material. In dimensions, it ranges from the half-farthing toy for a child, or the penny hand-lantern for a poor man, up to the gorgeous specimen as large as a moderate-sized sitting-room, 12 or 16 feet in diameter, worth $500. This article may be had in every imaginable form, round, square, irregular, and like to birds. 130 THE CHINESE EMPIRE beasts, and fishes. So likewise the variety of material : the frame is generally of wood or bamboo, or wire, or basket- work — overlaid with silk, or paper, or glass, or horn, or cloth, or gauze or glue ; upon which we have decoration, or carving, or embroidery, or gilding, or painting. In these ^‘cages’" oil or candle is used ; but of gas-light they are totally ignorant. Their surprise and ecstasy in witnessing a good specimen of it is unbounded. A native of China, himself a great traveler in his own country, on visiting England some time since, was remarkably taken with this mysterious light. And in a few fugitive notes on England and the English, published among his countrymen, he makes the following remarks on this great curiosity ‘^On the roadside there stand’ lamp-posts, with beautiful lanterns, that, when lit at night, illumine the whole expanse of the heavens. The gas which burns in these lamps is pro- duced from coal, and, without question, is a most wonderful discovery; it jets forth a flame of light brighter than either the wax candle or the oil lamp can give. By it whole fami- lies enjoy light, and thousands of houses are simultaneously illuminated. In all the market-places and public thorough- fares, it is as clear and bright at midnight as at noontide, and, if I mistake not, as gay as our Feast of Lanterns. In fact, a city that is so illuminated might well be called 'a nightless city;’ for you may wander about it till break of day without carrying a lantern, and, go where you please, you meet with no interruption.” Some lanterns are peculiar in construction. There is a handy one, the frame of which is upon hinges, or clasps. When not used, it can fold up, to be put into a corner or a traveling-chest. The one in general use is the transparent lantern. This is constructed of long, thin splinters slit from bamboos, and woven into a network upon a plain frame. Such work gives employment to innumerable CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 131 hands. Care is taken to have the open meshes of the lattice- work nearly of the same size. The whole frame is glued over, to keep the splints together; and when dry, a sheet of fine thin paper is gummed over the frame. A coat or two of glue and varnish is then brushed over the whole. This, on drying, gives a transparency to the lantern. To finish the article, a piece of wire is tied over the top, by which it is slung on a stick, long enough for the purchaser to hold it by as he walks about. Both the top and the bottom of the lantern are open. The socket for the candle is fitted in at the bottom, to be taken out and in at pleasure. To fix it in its place, this socket has a light frame of wire stuck in it, which rises up through the larger opening at the top, where it is hooked on to the lantern-stick. There is what is called ''the dragon lantern.'' This is brought out only in spring and autumn, at a festival ob- served throughout the empire, for propitiating some fabu- lous monsters of the deep and the valley. This huge "dragon" representative is composed of sixty or eighty painted lanterns, jointed together, each of the size and shape of a beer-barrel, with large tapers stuck in the middle. The length of the symbolical figure often exceeds lOO feet. At the one end there is an enormous head with gaping jaws ; at the other a tremendous sweeping tail. To each joint there is fixed a pole for supporting the lengthy train. In that manner it is carried at night through the streets, or from village to village, the bearers as they walk in proces- sion conveying to the corpus of the "dragon" a remark- ably undulating movement, sometimes wriggling, some- times writhing. As one watches the "dragon proces- sion" at night crossing a flat country and through dark lanes, it has a most singular appearance, accompanied as it always is in Chinese waits, by men and boys shouting and screaming, with drums, gongs, and crackers, all out of tune. 132 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Among lantern curiosities in China, must be mentioned the tsow-na-tung, ‘'the stalking-horse lantern,’' occasionally used on festive occasions. It is large, and sometimes made of glass, with sockets for lighted tapers interspersed within the massive form. The interior has three or four light circular frames of wire, the one above the other, according to the size of the whole figure, each balanced upon small pivots. In these wiry globes there are small wind-flaps, so arranged that the draught of air rushing up from beneath sets them in revolution ; and upon these light cylinders there are perched figures of gaily dressed women or warriors, horses, and other animals. It is a fanciful automaton, in certain localities very popular. The common uses to which the lantern in China is put are numerous — some quite unknown in the European world. At night, it is unusual for the humblest individual to go the length of a street without this article. Even when the moon is at its full, the lantern is considered indispensa- ble. After a purchaser has selected his lantern, he has a painter to adorn it with flowers or figures, or some wise maxim, or he writes his own name upon it. Sedan-bearers and night watchmen always carry their lanterns ; and officers traveling at night do not fail to display their titles upon huge “cages” borne before them. The lantern is made into toys for children, in the form of fishes, birds, and horses ; and not unfrequently an urchin, yet scarcely able to walk, has his lantern-horse or phoenix. English officers, who themselves took part in repelling a midnight attack on the British troops in possession of the city of Ningpo in 1842, report that, as theChinese enemy, to the number of 3,000 or 4,000, attacked the city gates, they carried lighted lanterns overhead, so that they became marks for the British muskets ! Chopsticks and Food. — An essential utensil with a Chi- CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 133 naman is a pair of ''chopsticks/’ as foreigners call them, from the nimbleness with which the instruments are used.* For the same reason, they go among the natives by the name kw^ ai tsze, "quick lads.” Originally they were desig- nated choOy the character for which is compounded of the two signs for "bamboo” and "to help,” meaning "bamboo aids ;” called so, probably, because at first they were made of bamboo. In these days they are made of common wood, or the best ivory or silver. Chopsticks consist of two smooth sticks of the size of a long lead-pencil, the upper half square, the lower rounded. The two are taken up by the middle, and in the right hand. They are adjusted thus : the one "nimble lad,” at its upper end, lies in the hollow of the thumb and forefinger, and at its lower is fixed in be^ tween the tops of the middle and third fingers. This one is stationary. The other "lad” is movable ; it is held only by the tips of the thumb and forefinger. The couple act the part of pincers, and serve for picking up meat, fish, or veg- etables already minced. In eating cooked rice, or any other grain, the bowl is brought to the mouth, and "the sticks” are used in a particularly dexterous fashion to shovel in mouthfuls of the grain. In the higher ranks, Chinese tables are sometimes sup- plied with a kind of spoon, generally porcelain, rarely silver, — in shape resembling a child’s "pap-spoon.” It is fash- ionable, too, with the Chinese dandy to sport his "quick- lads’ sheath” dangling from his girdle. Often this is a case ornamented with tortoise-shell, and not unusually it carries a long knife. The question is oft repeated: "Don’t the Chinese eat rats ? Do they devour mice ?” etc. On this, we observe, that in their cooking, and their articles of diet too, they can im- part to us some suitable lessons, and instruct even a Soyer, — especially in places and times of scarcity. At the same *‘^Chop-chop’^ being used in the Canton-English brogue for "quick-quick.^^ 134 THE CHINESE EMPIRE time, we might give facts which would compel all to exclaim — doubtless as a Chinese would exclaim of the English, if he were positively assured that we eat ox-flesh, or if the contents of our huckster sausages were exposed to his view , — ^^Non est disputandum de gustihusT But of roasted rats and stewed mice, or of animals of this order cooked or eaten in any shape, we have never seen the semblance, never heard a hint among the Chinese themselves. A man may be cast down to the lowest depths of pover- ty, when he is glad enough to scrape and swallow the dregs and offscourings about him ; and, in a season of sore famine, hundreds in a town may be driven to devour what reptiles they may be able to catch. This may happen in any coun- try; — but, for that reason, to rank such abhorrent articles among the daily provisions at a Chinese mess, is not only heedless, it is unfair. We find in the Alta California of June, 1853, that a crusade was commenced against the Chinese in California, and one ground of assault was the reported addiction of the Chinese folk to rats, lizards, etc. The editor of that paper wrote a leader on the 15th of June, of which the following is an extract : ‘Tf there is one class of ‘nasty furriners’ — as Paddy pro- nounced all the Mexicans during the late war — more ill- favored, unfortunate, and forlorn among us than another, it certainly must be the Chinese. The length and breadth of popular sentiment against them in California is as a wide gulf, separating them more and more every day from the hope of obtaining established rights and privileges as citi- zens in the state. The depth of degradation to which they are fallen in public opinion is as the bottom of a deep pit, considerably beyond the reach of means of extrication. They are sunk immeasurably lower than the native Indians, in the estimation of the miners, — lower than the beasts that CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 135 prey upon the flesh of inferior animals ; for the bear, it is said, will turn from tainted meat, whereas ^John' despises nothing of the creeping or crawling kind. Rats, lizards, mud-terrapins, rank and indigestible shell-fish, 'and such small deer,’ have been, and continue to be, the food of the 'no ways particklar Celestial,’ where flour, beef, and bacon, and other fare suitable to the stomachs of 'white folk’ abound. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that tfie habits of the Chinese in California should excite ineffable disgust, and turn the stomach of the stoutest Anglo-Saxon.” A week after, a reply from a Chinese appeared, — written, we believe, by a former pupil of the Morrision school at Macao. We make the following selection from it : "Mr. Editor: — I am a Chinaman, and thank Shangti (God) that I am. I was taught to read and write after the English custom by a missionary at Macao, whom I also thank, as I can understand and appreciate the numerous acts of kindness shown to my countrymen by the great Fa Kee (American) people, especially the newspapers, whose delight it is to stigmatize my poor countrymen as a set of 'nasty furriners {Altay 15th June), who are sunk so low in the depth of degradation that extrication is impossible — lower than the digger Indian, or the beasts of the field that prey upon the flesh of inferior animals ;’ 'despising nothing of the creeping or crawling kind ;’ 'rats, lizards, rank and indigestible shell-fish, have been and still continue to be the food of the no ways particklar Celestial;’ 'utter inapplica- bility and aversion to follow those pursuits which our peo- ple insist they can only be useful in filling.’ Now, what I want is your proofs to make good your unkind statements. When or where did you ever see any of my countrymen eat rat, lizard, or earth-worm ? Have you ever visited any of our provision stores ? Did you ever see anything of the kind? Did you ever take the trouble of investigating, as 136 THE CHINESE EMPIRE you ought to have done before condemning in such un- feeling language our manners and customs? Or why do you wish to create a feeling of prejudice against my coun- trymen through the columns of your paper? Are we not already sufficiently ill-treated by those that profess to know better — so much so that we cannot pass along the streets without being subject to insult many times of the vilest kind? Now, that you may know the truth concerning some of our customs, know then (which likely you do know), that our empire numbers nearly, if not quite, one-half of the in- habitants of the earth ; in many places it is so densely popu- lated that it should not be considered a thing of such mon- strosity that some would be compelled to eat rats to prolong their lives. But I have never seen it done, and I ought to know and understand as well as any one the manners and customs that have been handed down to us since the days of Hu-Lou Tue. Then, why should our whole race be re- proached for doing what but a few ever did ? and what you think are worms, etc., are nothing more than a specie of crab or lobster, and other kind of meat cut fine and dried, which you are pleased to term rank and indigestible, fit only for the ostrich stomachs of ^ohn.’ ‘‘Now, is it not an admitted fact, that goo'd health de- pends upon the kind of food used ? Compare then the sick- ness and deaths of our countrymen to that of the would-be Christianized and civilized nations in California — their num- ber is as eight to one. Now, who eats the indigestible food?^’ It is not our object to lengthen this paragraph by addi- tional remarks on the diet of the people. We have only to add a word or two on ‘ffiird’s-nest soup.^’ The natives are doubtless fond of gelatinous stews and broths. On this account, fish-maws and sharks’ fins stand high in the esti- mate of gourmands ; but neither so high as the edible CUSTOMS AND MANNERS 137 ^^bird’s-nest/’ When stewed, or mixed with other meats, this is by no means unpalatable. ^'Much misconception for- merly existed in regard to the substance of which these nests are composed, but recent scientific experiments have established the fact that they consist of a species of seaweed (or rather of the mucilage of a seaweed), only found on the coast of Java and other islands of the Indian Archipelago. The quality of the nest varies considerably, according to the situation in which it is found. Those who are connois- seurs in the trade will select those nests which are found in the deepest recesses of the rocks. These are remarkable for their great transparency, and, from being continually exposed to an atmosphere that is impregnated with nitre, they necessarily imbibe a nitrous taste.’'* The bird that supplies this whimsical luxury for the Chinese table is a small swallow, the Hirundo esculenfa, which builds its nest on steep precipices and rocks that overhang the sea. It is found almost only in the islands of Malaysia. But the price paid to gratify this curious Chinese taste is very high. To procure the delicacy, the risk to life alone is tremendous — from the lofty, deep, and dangerous caverns frequented by the swallows ; — and, when brought to the Chinese market, the value is enormous — the finest kind often being sold at $4,000 per 100 lbs. For this reason it can appear only on the tables of the wealthy, and is not a common dish with other classes. *''Rambles in Java.” 138 THE CHINESE EMPIRE CHAPTER VII REAL LIFE IN NINGPO Perhaps no more vivid portrayal of life in a typical Chi- nese city has ever been offered to the public than Re. Wm. C. Milne's account of his visit to Ningpo. He writes as fol- lows : '‘Having canvassed and discussed the general views en- tertained by 'outer barbarians\about 'the Celestials/ may I invite the reader now to accompany me to some parts of China, where he may have an insight into the real condi- tion of 'the Chinese as they are.’ "As soon after landing as possible, I made my way for the west gate of the city, within which there is a lagoon called Hoo-se, on the eastern bank of which stood the family residence of Dr. Chang. This was a native practitioner I had met some months previously at Tinghai, between whom and myself there had grown a warm friendship. The sight of a solitary Englishman in the streets, a good while after sundown, created some stir. Curiosity was awakened ; and police-runners hastened with most pressing inquiries, who I was, and what my object in visiting Ningpo? "I jostled through the crowds, and at length, after a weary trudge through innumerable streets and lanes, reached my friend’s house safe and sound, heartily wel- comed by himself and family. However, I had scarcely been seated, when messenger after messenger from the prin- cipal offices arrived, repeating the inquiries about my name, objects, and attendants. Perceiving the anxiety that was abroad in consequence of my sudden appearance, I thought REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 139 it advisable officially to apprise the chief officer, the prefect of the department, of my arrival, and intrusted my host’s eldest son with my card and compliments for his worship. The youth returned in an hour with the prefect’s card and congratulations ; and, in the course of the same evening, one of his confidentials came with kind messages, and an invitation to wait upon him the following day. ‘'On awaking next morning, I was rather taken with the pleasant site of my host’s cottage, built on the side of a busy road and the brink of a city lake, at times the scene of much life and gaiety, and its open front set with a row of overhanging willows that threw an agreeable shade over the humble dwelling. "While we were at breakfast, the few, who from an early hour had been loitering about the house to catch the first glimpse of the foreigner, became a multitude. The door- screen was of no avail; and the paper windows were all pierced. Each hole and corner showed an eye of curiosity. "The venerable doctor entreated his fellow-citizens to be a little more polite to an English visitor, and tried to remonstrate with some for their want of good breeding. But it was all unavailing. The people would gratify their curiosity if they could ; and the crowd still increased. How- ever, there was no noise, no rushing, no crushing. They looked on in silence, wondering, as they made observations, how unlike the foreigner was to the representations they had seen in paint or read in proclamations ; — his face a little different from theirs ; his hair and his dress very different. But he was not ‘red-haired.’ He was not ‘without joints.’ He was not ‘black-faced.’ He was not ‘a bear’ nor ‘a monkey.’ He was not ‘fierce,’ nor was he ‘a devil.’ He could sit and talk Chinese. He was there eating Chinese food with Chinese friends, and could use the ‘quick lads’ as well as any of them. ‘Well! is this really an Englishman?’ 140 THE CHINESE EMPIRE A VISIT TO THE PREFECT ‘'After breakfast I started on foot to the office of the prefect, Shoo-Kungshow, whom I had yesternight prom- ised to visit. My aged friend Woo-siensang and Dr. Chang accompanied me. As all the official residences in the city and neighborhood had been destroyed during the war with England, his worship was occupying a temple not far from the west gate, ‘the Wanchang Koh,' The outer court of the building was very noisy with the hum of attendants, eager- ly rushing forward to get a glance at the new arrival. In due form I was ushered into the audience-room, by having cards sent in, etc. The room was quite cheerless and cold, destitute of ornament, and possessing only a row or two of cumbersome chairs. On his worship entering, he seemed greatly pleased to see me, and, what satisfied me more, he treated my teacher with marked respect; for before the treaty at Nanking, a native teacher would probably have been seized and imprisoned for being seen in company with a foreigner. The ta-laouyay (the style of addressing him, equivalent to ‘your worship’) was a short thick-set man, — head large, — face round and honest-looking, — features deep, — countenance intelligent and agreeable, — eyes large, black, quick, and expressive, — beard jet, long and pointed, and his upper lip overhung with tremendous mustaches. He wore an official cap, which had a fine plume of peacock- feathers behind, and was topped with a transparent crystal ball denoting the fifth rank of nobility. His dress was not gaudy, though of rich dark-colored satin ; around the neck there was slung a string of large, elegant beads, that fell over a square breastpiece of beautiful embroidery — a du- plicate of which was sewed upon his tunic, the one in front, and the other behind. On this breastpiece he had the badge REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 141 of his order embroidered the pikhein^ ^silver pheasant/ His voice was musical ; and, when he spoke, it was with an air of authority. At first his utterance was to me indistinct — partly from not being accustomed to the accent of Kiang-si his native province. He was only fifty-three years of age — an inquiry on which point (according to Chinese etiquette) was almost the first question that passed between us. ^Tn his deportment, he was dignified but not supercilious ; bland and affable, but by no means familiar ; and even now the favorable impression on my mind is as fresh as on the day it was made. Shoo-Kungshow was an officer often spoken of among the English during the war, and doubtless is still remembered by some as 'the fine old fellow.' "Two topics in particular engrossed our conversation at this interview. One was geography. He showed me a Chinese manual of geography in his library, which was ex- ceedingly imperfect and erroneous. Accommodated en- tirely to the narrow and exclusive views of the Chinese, it contained a most defective outline of the divisions of the world. The other subject was suggested by hi’s being in- formed that I was neither a merchant, nor a soldier, nor a civilian. 'What then?' 'A minister of Jesus Christ's relig- ion.' On finding that I was not a Catholic, he expressed surprise that, in Western lands, we should have two dif- ferent religions professing the name of Jesus. He asked what was the real point of difference — at the same time conjecturing it might consist in the one system inculcating the worship of the cross as he had witnessed among the Catholics in China, and the other declining to pay such homage. "On leaving the prefect, his worship expressed grati- fication in at last meeting with one who was not a soldier ; for he had seen too many of that rank during the last two or three years. 142 THE CHINESE EMPIRE A "CHINESE TRAITOR ” “Koo, an officer inferior to the prefect, though one of his official confidants, then led me into his worship’s sum- mer-house, where I was entertained with great urbanity, as well as with a profusion of tea, wine, cakes, fruits, etc. While sitting there, a man rushed in and dropped on his knees before Koo-laouyay. He was a Han-Kan or ‘Chinese traitor,’ that had been proscribed during the late war, for aiding and abetting the British. By the treaty of Nanking, the imperial reprieve had been obtained for all this class, and passes had been sent to each. Mr. Koo immediately requested him to rise from his kneeling pos- ture, and handed him to a seat, when he joined us in tea and talk. This officer, Koo, called on me next day; and, in his manner and inquiry, evinced no little candour and curiosity. He was particularly searching in his questions about England and other Western countries. A RICH man’s home "Having gone the round of etiquettish visits, the rest of the day was spent in looking round the city, my friend the doctor volunteering to act as guide. This was some- what to my advantage, for the aged man did what he could, by suasion, to keep at a distance the crowds that collected round to see a single stranger from a far country trading through the heart of their city. “In the course of my wanderings I called at the resi- dence of Mr. Lin, a gentleman of extensive reputation and large property. He chanced not to be at home, yet I was invited to look through his flower-garden, so highly spoken of by the citizens. The taste displayed in laying out these narrow grounds was certainly wonderful, as well 143 REAL LIFE AT NINGPO as the skill in grouping together in becoming proportions a complete epitome of rural scenery. Here there was a lake with its islets, there mountains, hills, and dales, orchards and jungles, barren rocks and green swards, peb- bly paths and chunam walks, all compressed within less than half an acre of land. Everywhere the eye fell on ele- gant slate slabs, squares of marble, needles of petrified wood, stunted firs, forced peach-trees, Japanese dwarf ce- dars, and bamboos, green, black, speckled square-stalked and round-stalked, etc. The rich, when they can afford it (and if they have a taste for it), have their grounds laid out much in the style I have described, not improbably for the sake of affording the females and children in their establishments means for recreation. Such attempts to bring within a narrow space an epitome of rural nature have been highly successful, and present an agreeable miniature of the picturesque scenery in country life to those that are confined within closed doors. In the midst of these tasteful arrangements, it is not unusual to erect a summer-house for study or amuse- ment. A small lagoon will invariably be found in such charming resorts, where goldfish and other varieties are reared, and the water lily in particular, a favorite with the Chinese for its wide open leaf and its fragrant flower. “Leaving the elegant mansion of Mr. Lin, I called on another gentleman of property, Mr. Tang, famous among his townsmen for his pencilings of the chrysanthemum. His manner was dignified and kind. The ladies of his fam- ily seemed curious to have a look at the stranger. It would of course have been out of place to introduce me to their gaze; yet, ever ingenious in devices to gratify inquisitive- ness, they contrived to prick the paper windows and peep through. Mr. Tang observed this, but made no objection to it. 144 THE CHINESE EMPIRE TEA-HOUSES ^Wearied with my walks, I hastened back to my lodg- ings ; but at evening I wandered abroad to have a look at the 'tea-houses’ of Ningpo, generally frequented after sun- set. Being at a distance from the heart of the city, where 'tea-houses’ and 'eating-houses’ abound, some of them very respectable, I found myself in one of a low order, with furniture wretched, tea poor, and company low. This is not to be taken as descriptive of the general character of these convenient establishments ; — by no means. And al- though those of the lowest rank may bear an affinity to the grog-shop in England, there is the marked difference in the beverage, I have without doubt seen strong drinks too freely used in some of these nominal 'tea-houses ;’ yet the common draught is that which 'cheers but does not ine- briate.’ Very large shops appropriated to tea-drinking are to be met with everywhere in Chinese towns, occupying extensive flights. On the floors of these rooms there stand square wooden tables, with benches and chairs sufficient to accommodate four to six people; and at the further end, there is the kitchen with ovens and stoves duly arranged, and bearing huge kettles, massive teapots, monster caldrons as large as yourself, all filled with hot water. Usually there is a goodly staff of waiters moving about, vigilant in their attentions, carrying small trays, with teacups of the warm decoction and plates of cakes and dried fruit, etc. Less than a farthing will obtain a refreshing cup of comfort. At every hour, morn and evening especially, the rooms are crowded. There is no prohibition of tobacco-smoking or gambling, but the reverse. Nor is there any restraint on loud and noisy conversation. Laborers and passengers are constantly dropping in for such appropriate conveniences, REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 145 as are offered in the shape of basins of warm water and rough (rather coarse) towels, for washing hands and face. Often music is conducted within, and, much like resorts of the same class in Europe, the tea-drinking houses in China form the evening refuges of the working classes for news and gossip, amusement or recreation. Accordingly, at that hour, you may see whole tables occupied by dice-playing and other games. Frequently, on winter nights, they are converted into rooms, where a man, popular for his powers of mimic and comic, is invited for a few cents to hold forth, and will rivet an audience for an hour or two by his recitals of strange legends and tales from ancient history. Besides, it is not uncommon for disputants to refer their quarrels to a ‘tea-shop assembly and I have known cases of libelous slander taken by the plaintiffs to a gathering in a tea-drinking establishment for adjudication. “ ‘Eating-houses’ sometimes are connected with tea- houses. In these a substantial meal can be had at a mo- ment’s notice. Some of them occupy large and commo- dious buildings. I have been in several that were two stories high, with the restaurants above and kitchens un- derneath. The bill of fare offered everything in season, at moderate charges. Those of the better class that I visited were well fitted up, and in most points corresponded to es- tablishments of the same name amongst ourselves. “One word or two about tea and the mode of making it. They have varieties of tea; but an officer I once visited produced a valuable packet of ^strengthening tea,’ prepared in Yun-nan province, and of great repute as a medical preparation. It looked much like common black tea, made up into round balls with paste or gum. But the taste of the infusion was exceedingly bitter. After descanting at some length in a rhapsodical strain, on the virtue of the beverage, he abruptly proceeded to assure me that there 146 THE CHINESE EMPIRE was another species superior still, indeed unequaled by any other tea for flavor, fineness, and scarcity; namely, the 'monkey tea.' This, he added, could be obtained only in small quantities, and in select spots. Growing on heights inaccessible to the foot of man, and approachable only by the . sagacious brute whose name it bears, he said it was col- lected by certain of the monkey species trained first to climb up the most lofty precipices, and, after filling their pouches with the delicious herb, to descend again to empty their contents into their masters’ baskets ! The delicacy of !the tea he pronounced to be beyond exception, and its value very high. Having himself tasted its sweets, he de- plored that he had it not in his power to treat me with a cup of the prime draught. On referring to Le Breton’s ‘La Chine en Miniature,’ I find the following notice of the same en Miniature,’ I find the following notice of the same article : ‘Dry and elevated situations are much more suit- able for the cultivation of tea than low and damp ones ; the consequence is, that the in-gathering is often very difficult, especially that of the best kind of tea. Men could not, without the greatest difficulty, hold on at the sides of the peaks ; one false step might be the cause of severe wounds, or at least injure or tear up the young trees. Sometimes the sides are so sharp and pointed that it would not be possible for men to climb up. To overcome this difficulty, a singular expedient has been resorted to. Mon- keys are dressed so as to be able to climb, and to gather the leaves off the tea-branches. One can easily conceive how difficult it is to have to make use of such helps, for the monkeys can only be guided on such occasions by an instinct purely mechanical. When they have descended the mountain that they have climbed with the help of cords, they receive for a reward some dainty for their taste.’ REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 147 ‘^The common mode of ^making tea/ among the ^tea- drinkingest people on the face of the earth/ is simply to put into a cup as much tea as you can pinch up with your fingers, pour upon it water at the boiling point, and cover the cup. The beverage is then sipped at pleasure, and a second edition obtained by repeating the application of boiling water. 'Tn families and shops, where visitors are constantly pouring in, a commodious teapot full of the decoction stands on a counter or a convenient side-table, surrounded by a bevy of teacups, to oblige the thirsty customer. Rain-water is the universal favorite for preparing the draught ; hence, in economical families, huge monster jars are constantly standing under the eaves of the houses, to catch every drop of the 'heavenly rain/ Strong tea is not preferred by the Chinese, black tea being the rule, green the exception. When decocted, it is drunk without any admixture of milk and sugar. These are used only by foreigners, and prob- ably to mollify the desagremens of the 'black draughts’ they are so fond of 'masking.’ As to sugar and milk, the for- mer is superabundant in China, and used for every imagin- able purpose except tea-drinking, but you will live long enough in the 'flowery land’ before your ears are startled by the milk-whoop, which in England is the morning salute to wake up the kitchen and nursery maids. I am now speaking of the Chinese, not of the habits of foreign vis- itors, who in this respect show that they will not always do in Rome as Rome does ; for they will have milk even in milkless China, and at length those tremendous water-buf- faloes (which one at first sight scarcely knows what to call, — hippopotamuses or rhinoceroses) have been trained and are drained to supply foreign tables at the several settle- ments, with thick milk for tea and coffee. .48 THE CHINESE EMPIRE WOMAN^S MILK “The first time I caught sight of milk in a Chinese street, it was in the hands of a female carrying a cup of what I thought to be the genuine unchalked article. ‘Excuse me, but what is that?' said I. Tt is milk,' she replied. ‘What milk? cow's or goat's?' ‘Woman's milk, sir.’ ‘Woman's milk! for what use?' ‘It has been bought for an aged neighbor.' ‘And what's the price of that cupful?’ ‘About eighty cash.' Subsequently I discovered that it is not un- usual for nursing women to sell their own milk, for moth- erless babes or octogenarians in second babyhood, the nurses drawing their own milk to vend it at 2d. or 3d. a cup. MILITARY PARADES “After my first day at Ningpo had passed off in rambles among official residences, flower gardens, and tea-houses, the second was occupied with another series of excursions, all diverse and instructive. Only two minutes' walk from my habitat, there was a parade-ground for military exer- cises. Ascertaining that the horse-archers were out, I has- tened to the spot immediately after breakfast. The ground occupied was perhaps 200 yards long by 50 broad. The officers present were of an inferior grade, ensigns and ser- geants, except the military judge that was seated under a canvas canopy. The archers were drawn up two deep, and called out in companies of eight men, to receive orders on their knees. They then went onward to the spot marked off, one after the other mounting his steed, setting it at full gallop, and firing his arrows. As each man shot off his handful, he returned, and kneeling before the superior, re- ceived his reprimand, or instructions, or approval. The REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 149 bull’s-eye, about sixty yards off from the canopy, was rep- resented by three red balls, painted one above the other upon a square sedge-mat nailed to a bamboo frame. The aim was to hit any of the balls, especially the centre one, while the horse was racing along the course. Some proved bad shots, others good, and every successful hit was an- nounced by drum-beating. ‘^The freedom I had in watching this review, formed a marked contrast to the restraints that not long before were laid on foreigners at Canton, who had expressed a wish to be present at one of their grand military exhibi- tions. As that proclamation reads, — 'The local authorities think, very properly, that it is their duty to keep a strict guard against their foreign visitors; accordingly, the Che- heen of Nanhae a few days ago issued a proclamation for- bidding them to repair to the parade-grounds to witness the military reviews which were there soon to take place. Two reasons were offered for this prohibition: first, lest having swords with them they should suddenly get into a rage and injure the bystanders ; and in the second place, lest they themselves should amid the crowds be trodden under foot: for these considerations, the Cheheen orders the hong merchants and linguists to do their duty, and prevent the foreigners from trespassing their proper limits.’ "Ten years after, I had an opportunity at Shanghai of attending a military parade of infantry and artillery, got up in preparation of the descent of the Kwang-si rebels, but the continued want of discipline was astonishing. There were five companies of the red, blue, white, yellow, and black flags respectively; with fifty privates, also one piece of artillery and gunners, in each. The evolutions and rev- olutions were destitute of rule and order. Besides artil- lery, there were ginjall and musket bearers. The muskets 150 THE CHINESE EMPIRE were of horrid material. The guns (130 pounds in weight) were dragged by six men. The cleaning rods were bam- boos pointed with stiff hair ; the ramrods nothing but bare poles ; and the cannon-matches cords of tow. The ginjalls were heavy, like field-pieces, and had to be borne on two men’s shoulders. The soldiers had no regimentals to dis- tinguish them, except perhaps that they had no rags. They wore red tasselled caps, each with a bit of cloth hanging on to his tassel, and colored according to the red, blue, etc., company to which he belonged. The officers literally were of the ‘Society of Odd Fellows,’ all tucking up their petticoats and robes, flaunting about, cutting military ca- pers, shouting out the word of command in a most dis- cordant fashion, and breaking up to refresh themselves with tea and tobacco. THE CITY WALLS “To return to Ningpo: When the ‘archer parade’ was over, accompanied by Woo-siensang, I sallied forth to the great city walls, intending to make their circuit. The entire circumference approached five miles; the average height twenty-five feet, exclusive of a parapet five feet high ; the width of the wall on the top fifteen, at its base twenty-two feet, and the material solid, — the lower part of stone and granite, the upper brick. Some parts were greatly dilap- idated ; and occasionally the ramparts so overrun with grass and weeds that I could with difficulty thread my way. In the wall there are six gates, each of them double, the inner supported by an outer one at a distance of at least twenty yards. The line of wall that runs off from the one side of the inner gate toward the outer, is the leading wall. This, describing a section of a parallelogram, meets the inner gate round at the other side. At the point of the inner gate REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 151 where the two parts of the leading wall approach each other, an arch is thrown across to join them, called the ‘moon-wall/ Over each gateway — inner or outer — a guard-house stood, that on the former being the larger, and two stories high. During my residence of seven months in Ningpo, these stations were unoccupied by guards, even at night. The city gates were generally closed a little after sunset, — though opened to any one who would pass a bribe of a few cash into the porter’s fist. I did not find here, as I subsequently found in other Chinese towns, that many dwelling houses were built on the walls, or even contiguous to them. On this account there was a clear walk along the base of the wall within the city, eight and ten feet in width. ^'Casting my eye over the interior of the several guard houses as I passed along the walls, it was impossible not to scan the traces of Englishmen that had been there. Our British soldiery, many months stationed there during the war with China, had beguiled their tedious moments by scribbling lines with lumps of charcoal, or scratching un- gainly figures with their bayonets. Nor is this a trick con- fined to Europeans. Side by side with their delineations, I deciphered the figurings of Chinese, too, who seemed equal- ly off-hand in writing names on walls, or cutting them out upon wood. ^"“POST NO BILLS ^^Nor was I less surprised here, as in other cities in China, to witness on the gateways numerous placards of different sizes and attractive shapes, — pasted up to apprize the ‘gentry and citizens,’ or ‘ladies and gentlemen,’ or ‘relig- ious services,’ ‘theatrical shows,’ ‘magisterial orders, ‘med- ical feats,’ etc. The rage for advertisement in China is quite 152 THE CHINESE EMPIRE as prolific as elsewhere; and among other curiosities in this class of production, I have seen fiery squibs on public char- acters, sober admonitions on sundry subjects, and quack puffs in every line of business. As in Europe, so in China, objection is taken to the placarding of bills upon private premises ; and you meet with notices to the effect, that ^Bills pasted up will be daubed over,’ — ‘Placards will be torn down’ — ‘You are not allowed to placard,’ and sometimes the polite request, ‘Pray do not paste your bills here.’ “the drum-loft’^ “During these perambulations, on spying a large lofty building in the heart of the city, I made for it. It was ‘the Drum-loft,’ an arch of wide span, surmounted by a guard- house. Standing as it does in the centre of the city, where the principal streets meet, the scene around was bustling and lively. According to the local records, this loft ex- isted prior to the fifteenth century, and has undergone a variety of changes. The object of the monument is denoted by its singular appellations, ‘the observatory,’ ‘the sea- sun radiance loft,’ and ‘the clear distance ;’ showing that the building was originally built for a guard-house, or a prominent part from which the surrounding country could be watched, in protecting the interests of the city and in- habitants. The popular name ‘Drum-loft’ is given to it from a huge drum kept there, to be used by the city watch- men in their ordinary night beats, especially in cases of emergency from foe or fire. “From the ‘Drum-loft’ I hastened back to the walls, where, as before, I met with few people, — these only such as had run up from the streets below, with a vacant curios- ity gazing at a plain Englishman. More frequently I came upon lean horses, here and there grazing in solitude on REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 153 the ramparts. Outside the walls, there is a moat of some extent that well nigh encircles the city. The northern and eastern faces of the city, supposed to be well enough guarded by the river, have no moat. But commencing at the north gate, it runs along the foot of the wall, west, south, and south and south-east, until it stops at what is called The Bridge-gate.’ This gives it a length of about three miles. It is deep, in some places perhaps forty yards wide, well supplied with water from the neighboring fields and river, and daily navigated by small boats. The Bridge-gate,’ one of the two eastern gates in Ningpo, is called so from a floating bridge thrown across the river right opposite. The bridge measures 200 yards in length and nearly six broad. It consists of planks firmly lashed and laid upon lighters, of which I counted sixteen closely linked by iron chains. Occasionally it was opened at a certain part for the passage of boats plying up and down. There was a busy market upon it, and the pas- sengers were so thickly jostled, that no man had time to gaze about him. It led into a bustling and populous suburb on the other side of the river. SCENERY ABOUT NINGPO ^^On this first visit to the walls of Ningpo, the scenery around was, I must say, agreeable; nor was it less so in my subsequent strolls here. The vast plain around the city was a magnificent amphitheatre, stretching away twelve, fifteen, and eighteen miles on the one side, to the foot of the distant hills, and on the other to the verge of the ocean. Many a pleasing and curious object arrested the eye. Turn it from the northwest, round by the south and southeast, there lay before me canals and water courses, cultivated fields, snug farm-houses, smiling cottages, fam- 154 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ily residences, hamlets and villages, family tombs, monas- teries, and temples. Toward the east the vision was bound- ed by rising mountains ; but between them and me the land scenery was much the same as already described, only that I could see more distinctly the river swarming with boats, and its banks studded with ice-houses. Nor was my curi- osity less amused or gratified as I turned the eye from without to look within the city. There, there were single and double-storied houses, low and irregular ; heavy prison- like mansions, family vaults, temples with their glittering roofs, official residences, examination halls, and the som- bre pagoda of Ningpo, to all which I must defer my visits to another day; for, worn out with this weary tramp on the city walls, I had to return to my host’s dwelling for refreshment. 'T have been particular in giving my jottings on the walls of this city, that I might acquaint the reader with what may be regarded a good sample of a walled town in China; for almost every town, even of ^the third,’ or low- est class, is, or has been at one time, walled. Yet it is not pretended that my rough description of Ningpo, though it be a city of considerable importance, can approach the reality in such large capitals as Nanking, Nanchang, or Pekin. A VISIT FROM THE PREFECT ‘^On reaching my lodgings, I found awaiting me a mark of respect unexpected though agreeable. Shoo ta laouyay, the prefect, had called to see me. It is a rule among offi- cials to return calls, in person or by proxy, the second day after the visit. I looked for nothing beyond the proxy. But while I felt honored by his worship’s personal atten- tions, I was specially pleased at it as an additional sign of the breaking up of official exclusiveness and vanity. The REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 155 prefect came with his usual retinue of criers, lictors, chain- bearers, and other attendants. ‘'Chinese magistrates rarely, if ever, go out, on duty at least, without a crowd of attaches of various orders. First you have ‘ragged rascals,’ with ornamental flags and poles, large lanterns, and red boards having the rank of the officer painted on them, running and shouting to the street passengers — ‘Retire, retire! keep silence, and clear the way!’ Gong-strikers follow, denoting at certain inter- vals by so many strokes, their master’s grade and office. Next come chain-bearers, rattan-bearers, whip-bearers, — significant of his judicial power. Alongside of the magis- terial chair there are servants trotting on foot, with um- brellas, pipes, and card-cases. The rear is brought up by one, two, or three seedy bamboo chairs, occupied by sec- retaries, scribes, and hangers-on. The number of chair- bearers depends on the rank of the officer. Most of the attendants wear red-tasselled caps. During the war v/ith China, the English entertained the notion that every China- man that flourished a red tuft on his bonnet must be a sol- dier, or one connected with native officials. So firmly did this idea seat itself in the minds of some of the British leaders of that expedition, that not a single individual on the island of Chusan was permitted to wear a tasselled cap ; and whoever might be seen with it in his hand, or in his house, was at once suspected and seized. If the hovel of a native happened to be searched, and a red-tasseled cap — never so torn, dirty, or musty — was found in a closet or a corner, it was concluded indisputable that the poor inmiate was a soldier, a kidnapper, or a disturber of the public peace. Indeed, for some time after the close of the war, while Chusan continued in the hands of the British, not a man of peace was allowed to sport such caps, not even the messengers from Ningpo sent by native officers with mes- 156 THE CHINESE EMPIRE sages to the foreign authorities at Tinghai. Such a course was followed in consequence of an erroneous impression. This kind of cap is worn not by the soldiery only, but by gentlemen’s servants, the messengers of officers, — even the lowest menial when he pays a visit of ceremony or celebrates a festive season. The cap is of cloth in winter, — of straw in summer, — with a tuft of red silk on the crown. As fes- tivities are by no means unfrequent during the year, a cap of this sort is an appendage necessary to the wardrobe of every police-runner, or chair-bearer, who ranks in the low- est of the plebeian classes. A MOHAMMEDAN TEMPLE ‘^On the first Sunday after reaching Ningpo, I had an interesting visit early in the morning from one of the two Mohammedan priests connected with the mosque in the city. It was quite a treat to hear a Chinaman converse about the One living and true God, the commandments of Jehovah, and some of the patriarchs of the Old Testa- ment. He spoke decidedly on the irrationality and wicked- ness of worshiping a plurality of gods, adducing the ex- press command of Jehovah that he himself alone should be the object of adoration. Of Jesus Christ this individual ap- peared to know little beyond the name. » ‘^My interview with this junior priest encouraged me much on a subsequent occasion to visit the mosque itself. Over its entrance were engraven the characters ^Hwiiy Hwuy Tang/ ^The Mohammedan Temple.’ In the first visit, I was fortunate to meet the senior priest, a native of Shantung, though of Arab descent, his ancestors having come from Medina, He himself was able to read the Koran, and talk Arabic with a degree of fluency ; but of Chinese reading and writing he was as ignorant as an Englishman REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 157 in England, although he had been born in China, could talk Chinese, and was a minister of religion among the Chinese. He lamented much that there were so few ad- herents to his creed at Ningpo, where they did not number more than twenty or thirty families, one or two of them of official rank. From this interesting man I learned that the stronghold of Mohammedanism lies in Hangchow, the capital of Chihkiang province, in which there are several mosques. His reigning desire was to make a pilgrimage to Mecca ; and with this view he put the minutest inquiries as to the distance of that city, and the length of voy- age, etc. ‘‘He took me into the place of worship, adjoining his private residence. On ascending a flight of steps, I was brought under a plain roof. Beneath this I observed scat- tered up and down, a quantity of old furniture and agricul- tural implements, covered with dust. To support the roof there ■ were pillars, ornam^ented with sentences from the Koran. As soon as I entered, my attention was attracted by a pair of small doors in the wall, within which I was told was the sacred seat, and on one side of it a little book-case, with the Mohammedan Scriptures in twenty- four parts. He showed me his canonicals, — simply a white robe and a pointed turban, — never worn but at religious services. He told me they professed to hold one day sacred in seven ; but if the followers of the Prophet had any urgent secular business on that day, they did not trouble them- selves to attend service. Happening to see on the threshold a tablet, called Lungpai, the ‘Dragon Tablet,’ similar to that found in any Chinese temple, with the inscription upon it — Hwangti, wansui wansui, wanwansui, equivalent to ‘The Emperor, the Everliving,’ etc., — I pointed it out and asked him how, if he regarded the spot as consecrated to the worship of Aloho , — the name he gave to the One living 58 THE CHINESE EMPIRE and true God, — he could permit such a tablet to stand there. He protested that he did not, and never would, pay religious homage to such a tablet or to any human sovereign. In evidence of the truth of his asseverations, he pointed to the low place given it on the ground floor, so far removed from the sacred seat. Further, he explained, that it was placed within the precincts of the mosque only for expediency's sake, for, if he and his disciples were charged by the ene- mies of Mohammedanism with disloyalty, they had only to appeal to the presence of the tablet. A MANDARIN ''On the fifth day of my residence at Ningpo, I had a message from the commander-in-chief of the Chihkiang province — his headquarters being then at Ningpo, — inquir- ing if I could supply him with a glass for a damaged tele- scope. It was entirely out of my power to meet this re- quest. I could only offer to send it to Hongkong to be repaired. But this did not suit his excellency. When, sub- sequently, I called upon the commander-in-chief, I found him an aged man, of a tall figure, and affected with paralysis of the right eye. His speech was slovenly, his manner in- dolent, though his notions sounded high and aristocratic. He wore a handsome red dress, and his official cap had a red coral button, with a slender plume of peacock-feathers. The attendants immediately about his chair were ensigns, sergeants, and corporals, with brass and opaque buttons. "About the same time I took the opportunity of waiting on several other mandarin authorities in Ningpo, — of which visits I offer the following summary. There was one of the name of Luh, who, during the peace negotiations with Great Britain, had fallen under the Imperial ban and lost his honors and office. Although the flush of health was diffused REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 159 over a fine oval countenance, it was evident he was much depressed in consequence of his recent degradation. The reputation in which he stood among his countrymen as a scholar was high. He was spoken of by the Ningpo citizen as one who had been very efficient in his department, and his removal from office was much regretted by the people. Ever since his return from Nanking, whither he had been summoned in the summer of 1842 by the Imperial com- missioners to assist in forming the treaty, he had conducted himself towards the English with uniform courtesy, as I can testify from personal knowledge ; and in losing him they also were deprived of the services of an enlightened Chinese friend. ''While I was seated in Mr. Luh's audience-room, Le- joolin, the successor of my friend Shoo-kungshow, entered. Being not above thirty-three years of age, he was con- sidered one of the fortunate men of his day, to enter at so early an age upon an office of such high importance. I was informed it was his literary attainments that had ob- tained for him favor at court. At nineteen he took the second degree of literary honors, and was at once appointed to the mayoralty in a neighboring city. In his remarkable intelligence and unassuming kindness, there was reason to hope that he would aid in promoting a liberal policy to- wards foreigners. "But my visit to a neighbor of Messrs. Luh and Le was attended by impressions the reverse of all made in my in- terview with those gentlemen. His name was Lung, then acting the part of mayor in Ningpo. His long, lank figure, — supercilious look, and affected condescension to speak with a foreigner, — chilled me, and awakened a suspicion that he was a man capable of doing dark deeds. Of this I had a melancholy proof that very day on leaving his office. In front of Lung’s visitors’ room, my eye caught a group 160 THE CHINESE EMPIRE of people collected in the middle of an area. As I ap- proached the spot, I saw an unfortunate culprit, with his knees bared, kneeling on a coil of iron chains. He was fixed in that horrid posture by having his hands tied behind his back to a stake that was held firmly in the ground by two men. If he swerved to the right or the left, a man on either side, armed with a whip, forced the tortured culprit back to his perpendicular position, by a lash or two on his bare head. The agonies of the poor fellow were evident, from his quiv- ering lips, pallid countenance, and tremulous voice implor- ing relief, which was refused with the cold mocking com- mand, ‘Confess or suffer.’ I left the spot speechless. TAOU TEMPLES “To leave this ‘chamber of horrors — Situate within the north gate of Ningpo, there were under one roof two tem- ples of the Taou sect, called the Yushing Kwan, which I repeatedly visited. Though the flight of buildings was ex- tensive, and there were not many priests about, everything seemed in good order, probably owing to its having been recently tenanted by some officers of state ; for when official residences are scarce or in ruin, temples, monasteries, and even nunneries, are converted into officers’ apartments. The authorities of Ningpo, having by the ravages of 1841 and 1842 been thrown out of house and home (for our British troops, although they spared private, did not spare official residences), were for a year or two obliged to bury themselves in the halls and cloisters of the priesthood. On my first visit, I found the Yushing temple lay close under the walls, and sheltered at the back by a thick grove of trees. The avenue from the outer lodge to the sanctum sanctorum was clean and cool, — overhung by the branches of lofty trees that rose up on each side of the walk and threw REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 161 a sombre quiet over the whole place. The chief priest, a man of short stature and slender make, but venerable in appearance and genteel in manners, politely volunteered to show me round the building. I passed from one corridor to another, but, throughout the immense building, met with only half a dozen inmates of the sacerdotal order. The spacious chambers and halls were occupied by sculptured, carved, or merely painted images, of all sizes, shapes, and ranks, young and aged, animal, human, devilish, and imag- ino-divine. A few of the inscriptions were awfully misap- plied. At the entrance-gate, for instance, this line ran be- low and ugly three-eyed monster, The three eyes that neither good nor evil can evade.’ THE BUDDHISTS ^^A little way on from this I observed another large gate- way, belonging to the temple of Lew-tsoo. Within that entrance, and under cover, there were seated four huge figures, ‘the four great Kin-kang,’ — probably standing there to the present day. One carries a lyre, ‘at the notes of which,’ they say, ‘the ears of the whole world are awak- ened.’ Another, with a black and ferocious face, flourished a drawn sword. A third sported a big umbrella, and is said by the simple elevation of this instrument, to have power to draw down to earth storms of thunder and rain. The fourth twists a long snake round his arm, to denote skill to tame wildness into submission. They were arranged two on each side of the passage. In the center gateway, an image faced you exactly as you entered, very stout and with the breast and upper abdomen exposed, seated on a large cloth bag, laughing and looking right jolly, with the two words inscribed overhead, Chih siaou, ‘the ever-laughing one.’ This is a representation of ’the Buddha that is to 162 THE CHINESE EMPIRE come/ Behind him there was an erect idol, called ^the Wei- to image, ^ or 'the Hoofah wei-to,' as he is said to be 'the protector of the Buddhist faith/ He was clad in armor, and seemed ready for the offensive or the defensive. With- in there was a crowd of other images, chiefly canonized heroes and disciples of this popular superstition. "Passing from that point, I made for a Buddhist mon- astery close by, — the Yenchingsze. There I found fifty priests. Adjoining it there was another, called Kwantang, still larger than any I had seen, and more ornamented. The images of Buddh here were the most gigantic I have ever set eyes on in China — ^the three principle representations of Buddh — the Shihkia, the Wanshoo, and the Poohien. Just behind that triad, there stood the 'Thousand-handed Kwan- yin,’ the Shiva of the Hindoos. On each side of these dii majoreSy there was a row of nine figures to represent some celebrated hermits and deified genii, called 'the Lohan,’ all in various postures and with different features. The priests spoke with regret at having lost an enormous metal bell that belonged to their temple, and which was carried off by the British when Ningpo fell into their hands. That bell of Ningpo’ now figures in the British Museum. "When I visited this temple, there were only fifty or sixty priests, who had come from different parts of the empire. Occasionally there are above i,ooo within these walls, whose sleeping-berths seemed destitute of every ves- tige of comfort, while the mess-room and kitchens looked the very reverse. In one of the kitchens a huge boiler was pointed out, in which, they said, as much rice could be boiled at one time as to feed about 2,000 persons. The head priest invited me into his sitting-room, where we conversed on a variety of subjects. He and his attendants listened to my remarks on the existence of the only true God and his claims to our homage; and, touching the Saviour Jesus Christ, it REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 163 appeared they had obtained, at different times, some por- tions of our Sacred Scriptures and of Christian tracts in Chinese. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TAOUIST AND BUDDHIST ''Without speaking of the difference in their doctrines, ceremonies, and canonicals, the marked distinction between the Taouist and Buddhist priests that I encountered on this occasion was this: — The priests of Buddha had their heads clean shaven, without a relic of hair left. Those of the Taouist religion, however, shaved as their countrymen generally did, — nourishing the hair upon the crown of the head, until it became long enough to make a kondeh, which they fixed with a hair-pin ; so that the only difference from the commonalty was in the Taouist priests tying up the hair in a tuft on the crown, while the people generally let it dangle in the form of a queue. ANOTHER TEMPLE "To pass on to other buildings in this city worth a visit: There was 'the palace of the God of the Eastern Range.’ — In China there are 'Five yohy’ or ranges of lofty mountains, that have given rise to a good deal of fabulous matter ; the Eastern chain, the Taishan mountains, in Shantung; the Western chain, the Hwashan, in Shensi ; the Southern chain, the Hungshan, in Hoopeh ; the Northern chain, the Hanshan, in Shansi; and the Central chain, the Sungshan, in Honan. Each is supposed to be the residence of a pre- siding deity. — To the resident genius of the Eastern range this building is consecrated. It lay to the south of the 'Bridge-gate,’ from which I discovered a path close under the city walls leading direct to it. The range of the edifice was long. It bore an elegant front decorated with a group 164 THE CHINESE EMPIRE of handsome reliefs, among which was embossed in gilt its name. On entering, I found it almost deserted. None of the regular priesthood made their appearance, nor were votaries to be seen. The only persons to be descied (except the door-keeper) were the mat-makers. It appeared to be more a mat-mart than a sacred building. The images were dusty and filthy, besides showing other signs of disuse and neglect. On pushing my way to the extreme end, I espied a gallery of idols, and attempted to ascend the staircase. As the doors were barred, admission could not be gained, and my attention was called to two notices, the one placed at the bottom of the right-hand flight of steps, warning '(those that eat) strong meat (and drink) wine not to enter the other upon the opposite side, advising 'the unclean’ per- son hastily to retire. Passing out to the street, I perceived a wicket on the right hand of the principal gateway. It was opened to me, and I was invited to look on illustrations in- tended to depict the terrors of hell. The apartment, a dark, dreary cell, is called teyohy 'the earthly dungeon.’ In the center of the ground-floor there were images of hideous aspect in threatening attitudes, and behind them groups of small figures in stucco relief plastered upon the wall, tO' exhibit the pains and penalties of hell. These were arranged in three or four rows, rising one above the other until they reached the ceiling. Each group had its judge, criminal, executioners, and peculiar form of punishment. The judges were attired as officers generally are, and the executioners as police-runners. The grade of penalties was varied ac- cording to the heinousness of the culprit’s crime, and the horrors of future punishment were depicted before the spectator in every possible form. To be whipped, to be bastinadoed, to be seared with red-hot irons, to be stran- gled, to be speared, to be beheaded, to be sawn asunder, to be flayed alive, to be squeezed, flattened, and crushed between REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 165 two thick planks, to be slit up, to be bored through and through, to have the eyes dug or chiselled out, to have the limbs torn off one by one, to be plunged from a cliff or a bridge into a dungeon below, or into a rapid torrent, to be pounded in a heavy mortar, to be .boiled in a hot-water caldron, to be burnt up in a furnace, to be baked at the stake, to have hot liquids poured down the throat, etc., etc., constitute the ideas of future punishments indulged in the books of this school, a counterpart of the torments inflicted by the Inquisition in Europe upon the magnanimous ad- herents to the Protestant faith. A LIBRARY ‘'En route I visited the T’ienyih-koh, a valuable reposi- tory of Chinese works, chiefly those published anterior to the opening of the present dynasty, — a collection said to be- long to the Fan family, a member of which was keeping it. The works were arranged in 300 classes, and the cases in which they were deposited were closely shut, to be opened only on special occasions. THE TOWER OF NINGPO ‘Turning from this spot, I bent my steps to the Tieii- fung t‘ah, named by foreigners the Tower of Ningpo,' the ‘Pagoda of Ningpo,’ or the ‘Ningpo Obelisk.’ As you as- cend the river from Chinhai and come within five miles of Ningpo, this is the most prominent object that arrests the eye ; and, to foreigners who visit the city, it is a point of no little attraction. As soon as they enter the east gate of the city, they make for it, and wend their way in a southwest direction. After shaping their course through number- less streets, it abruptly bursts upon their view, rising 160 feet over their heads, and towering high above the sur- 166 THE CHINESE EMPIRE rounding houses. This pyramid is hexagonal, and counts seven stories and above twenty-eight windows. At every window there is a lantern hung up; and when the obelisk is illuminated, which I have seen only once during my stay, the scene is very gay. On my visit, the building was in much need of repair, as it was daily becoming more dilapi- dated, and had already deviated considerably from the per- pendicular, so that it might not inappropriately be called ^the Leaning Tower of Ningpo.’ As it was in the keeping of a Buddhistic priest who lived in a monastery behind, I was under the necessity of awaiting his arrival. He, poor man, found it advantageous to keep the keys. It was in that way alone he could secure the largesses of his foreign vis- itors. By ascending a flight of narrow wooden steps that ran up in a spiral course through the interior of the column, I reached the uppermost story, from which one of the finest views one could desire opened : — the entire city and suburbs beneath; the valley of Ningpo, with its hamlets, villages, hills, mountain rivulets, and rivers all around; and, away in the distance, bounding the horizon, chains of mountains on the one hand, the sea with its islands on the other. Within the tower itself there was nothing to interest a visitor except the scribbling of Englishmen, some of whom seem to have been very solicitous to register their names on its dome for the benefit of posterity. The following was one of the many scratches : “ T. Anstruther, prisoner, September i6th, 1839 — February 23rd, 1840. T. Anstruther, free and master, October 13th, 1841.’ ^ in which a lapsus manus had entered an ante-date of 1839 and 1840, for 1840 and 1841. On descending from the lively spectacle I had been witnessing above, I found myself among ‘heaps of the slain the poorer classes having se- lected the outer base of the edifice, as a suitable spot on which to deposit the coffins of their dead. REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 167 ‘‘The date at which this tower was founded is exceeding- ly antique, indeed more ancient than the city itself. The district of Ningpo, in the time of the original Han dynasty, or at the opening of the Christian era, was very small. Dur- ing the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, it rose in im- portance. At the commencement of the tenth century, and in the reign of Taitsoo — the first monarch in the line of ‘the Five Dynasties’ which successively contended for the mas- tery — it was organized a larger district. During that em- peror’s short sway, the foundation of the city walls was laid by Hwangshing, a native of the place. But the ‘Tower of Ningpo,’ had been reared one hundred or one hundred and fifty years previous to that event. In raising this super- structure at that anterior date, the object sought for ac- corded precisely with the belief, which at the present day obtains through the whole empire, that the presence of such an edifice not only secures, to the site the protection and favor of heaven, if it already bears evidence of enjoying it, but represses any evil influences that may be native to the spot, and imparts to it the most salutary and felicitous omens. The tower has stood for the last i,ioo years. But its history during that period, as given in ‘the Annals’ al- ready referred to, has been much chequered. It has fallen to ruins and been rebuilt. It has been burnt almost to the ground and been reconstructed. It has been struck by lightning and been repaired. Its pinnacle has been blown down in a hurricane and has been restored. Some portions of it are now undergoing amendment. But its days appear to be numbered, and ere long its downfall may be an- nounced. THE LITERARY HALL “Still pursuing my walk, I came to Hien-Hiohkung, ‘the District Literary Hall.’ Each department in the em- 168 THE CHINESE EMPIRE pire owns a literary hall ; so also does each district. Ac- cordingly this city, being both a district and a department city, has two such halls. The district college was laid in ruins amid the disasters of 1841, and, when I visited it, was rising out of a mass of wrecked materials into a neat, order- ly, attractive range of buildings. In these days, there is more name and show than reality or utility in such an in- stitute. It was originally designed to Ee the residence of the literary officer, or government superintendent ap- pointed to preside over the interests of learning in the dis- trict, but especially to patronize and promote the studies and views of those candidates who should be so successful as to take the first degree. Here they were to pursue their daily studies, and to undergo their monthly examinations, under his immediate inspection. But, from the degeneracy of the age, it has almost become the seat of a sinecure. A CONFUCIAN TEMPLE ^The Department Hall, dedicated to Confucius, is a magnificent flight of very roomy buildings in the northern quarter of the city. It was occupied by the British officers in 1841. Its first foundations were laid in another part of the city, in the eighth century of the Christian era. It was removed to its present site three hundred years afterwards. There was little to interest the eye here beyond the exten- sive grounds, the capacious and vaulted halls, the gilded, carved, and decorated roofs, the pillars, walls, and tablets, commemorative of the virtues and honors of Confucius and his earliest and most renowned followers. The central tab- let of all, raised upon an elevated stone pedestal, bore the following inscription: — ^The Spiritual Seat of the Most Holy Teacher, Confucius.’ There was no image ; but be- fore this tens of thousands have paid divine adoration and worship, and a native of Ningpo informed me that ‘an- REAL LIFE AT NINGPO 169 niially, at the opening of the spring and the autumn seasons respectively, before this shrine they offer up to the most holy sage one cow, one sheep, one pig, with a certain num- ber of pieces of silk and a variety of sacrificial vessels filled with grain, dried fruits, and vegetables/ ICE-HOUSES ‘‘Rambling out of the city, I got into lumber-yards, dockyards, etc., and, among other curiosities, found ice- houses, on the banks of the river. Most of these ice-de- positories were not built under but above ground, generally on a platform of earth, so elevated as to be out of the reach of the freshets of the river and neighboring swamps. Upon this mound a bamboo frame was thrown and closely thatched over with paddy-straw. The ice had been taken from the surrounding fields, tanks, and ponds, which the proprietors of the ice-stores filled with water during the frost. When of a sufficient thickness, it was collected ; and as it was brought in each layer was covered with dry straw, to preserve it during the summer. Every ice-house had its drain to carry off the meltings. . The article was not used by the natives at Ningpo, except as an antiseptic for flesh and fish during the heats of summer. The people knew nothing of cooling liquids, except as they had observed foreigners use ice for that purpose ; and they were quite con- tent to sell me a basket of it for 3d, or 4d., a charge by no means extravagant during the dog-days. The population of Ningpo was supplied with fish caught several leagues from the coast; and as without ice it would have been al- together impracticable to bring it to town in an eatable state, the fishermen were regularly supplied with it from these houses. To keep the article from dissolving, the hatchways of the ice-junks were covered with straw and mats, constantly kept moist with sea-water. In a journal 170 THE CHINESE EMPIRE kept during one of the Burmese embassies from Ava to Pekin, — translated by Lieut.-Colonel Burney, — ^the follow- ing odd paragraph is to be found: — ‘For the use of the Chinese emperor in the hot season, the ice in the lake to the northwest of his palace-inclosure is broken open, as we saw, with hatchets, and axes, etc. ; and pieces about three or four cubits thick and two or three long, have holes made at one end, as is done by us to logs of timber, and are corT^ veyed by ropes and put into the moat surrounding the palace-inclosure. This ice melts and becomes water, in con- sequence of the increasing heat in the month of March.’ In this manner his Imperial majesty is iced during the summer ! — at least so imagination would have it. CHAPTER VIII. CHINESE WOMEN DESCRIBED BY A CHINAMAN. The Chinese woman is usually imagined as a pitiful being, scarcely able to walk, and imprisoned in her household among the servants and concubines of her husband. This is another flight of imagination to be cut short, however much it may hurt the feeelings of veracious travelers. There is a striking similarity between what is recounted on this head and the celebrated definition of a lobster, which a certain dictionary solemnly stated to be a “little red fish that walks backwards.” Of course it is hard to alter an opinion to which one is accustomed ; but in presence of evi- dence the most honest course is to own one’s mistake, and resolve not to be taken in again. Lobsters, then, are not red, nor ever have been; and a CHINESE WOMEN 171 Chinese woman walks just as well as you or I. She even runs upon her little feet, and, to add the last drop to the story-teller's bitter cup, she goes out walking, or in her palanquin, and has not even a veil to hide her from indis- creet gazers. What a curious book, for the Chinese, might be made with all that is said about them ! What would be their aston- ishment to find themselves so imperfectly known, when so many travelers have passed through their cities and received their hospitality ! But one of the least flattering errors, and one which I venture to rectify, is that which makes woman a ridiculous, grotesque being, without influence, created only to bring children into the world. This is a singular idea to create of our women. Certainly, they do not resemble women in the West; but they are women notwithstanding, with all those qualities impossible to define; and, with some slight shades of difference, all are daughters of Eve, if by that expression is to be under- stood the instinctive disposition which impels them to hen- peck the male sex. The best service to render a woman is to guide her, and to flatter her self-love by allowing her to believe she is guiding you. Our traditions allow us to promote the happiness of woman, inasmuch as with us the masculine is represented by the sun, and the feminine by the moon — the one illumi- nates, the other is illuminated ; the one is radiant with splen- dor, the other borrows from it its pale reflections. But the sun is a beneficent and generous luminary, and the light it bestows upon the moon has also the gift of illuxnination ; it has a tempered softness, calming the wounded spirit and soothing the passions of the heart. I have observed the sun is of the masculine gender in most languages, except in German, in which the moon is masculine and the sun feminine. This is a curious excep- 172 THE CHINESE EMPIRE tion, which would be much commented by a sage of the Celestial Empire. He would suppose the German women were occupied with politics, and managed the helm of the State, while the men worked at their daughters’ trousseaux. This would not be altogether conformable to the truth. However, since exceptions are said to prove rules, we may admit as a law the superiority of the masculine gender over the feminine. In China this law has the force of a law of Nature, and gives birth to certain consequences which have founded customs and created duties. Man and woman, as members of the family, have special duties, to which different systems of education are adapted. Their social position is settled beforehand, and each is brought up to follow the fitting direction. Man and woman then receive a separate education. The one is occupied with studies leading to State employment ; the other adorns her intelligence v\^ith useful knowledge, and learns the invaluable science of the household. We consider the depths of science a useless burden to women; not that we insult them by supposing they are inferior to us in ability to study art and science, but because it would be leading them out of their true path. Woman has no need to perfect herself: she is born perfect; and science would teach her neither grace nor sweetness — those two lords of the domestic hearth inspired by Nature. These principles are essential to Chinese manners, and what distinguishes them is that they are applied literally, like a necessity. Our women may be unacquainted with the ante-chambers of ministers and fashionable receptions, in which the Euro- pean woman assumes all the seductions of her sex to charm the society of men ; but they have no need to regret the loss. Her existence has no importance in a political point of view, and the men manage their own affairs ; but cross the thresh- CHINESE WOMEN 173 old of the house, and you enter her domain, governed with an authority that European women certainly do not possess^ In France, for instance, the wife follows the condition of her husband, but in no part of the world is she more subject to the husband. I was simple enough to suppose that this word ‘'condition’’ was of great significance, but I soon dis- covered that the law must be studied in order to under- stand it, and to perceive that it gives the wife no power whatever. By marrying, a woman becomes a minor, an outlaw — she is under guardianship ; and the law empowers the husband to prevent his wife from disposing of her own property. These are details of manners and customs which might well astonish the Chinese women. They can replace their husbands in every circumstance of ownership ; and the law recognizes their right to sell and to buy, to alienate common property, to draw bills, to give their children in marriage, and give them what dowry they please. In a word, they are free; and it will be the more easily under- stood that this should be the case when I state that in China there are neither notaries nor lawyers, and it has therefore been unnecessary to create legal exceptions in order to pro- vide employment for that class. Family life is the education which forms the Chinese woman, and she only aspires to be learned in the art of governing her family. She superintends her children’s education, and is content to devote her existence to her family. If fate gives her a good husband, she is certainly the happiest of women. I have said elsewhere that the honors obtained by the husband are shared by the wife, and that even by her chil- dren she may attain every satisfaction of vanity — that weak- ness of the human heart excusable in every clime. It is therefore her interest to marry, in order to elevate 174 THE CHINESE EMPIRE her rank ; it is even her interest to perform all the duties of maternity. The existence of our women is more to be envied than criticized, since it is conformable to the order established by Providence; and I know plenty of Europeans who would indorse my opinion if they dared. CONCUBINAGE. This subject would lose its interest if I forbore to men- tion concubinage: that is the catchword of this section of my essay. The ill-odor attaching to the word itself will prevent me from finding an impartial reader ; for you may have as many mistresses as you please, but not a concubine. It all de- pends upon the name. Had it been said the Chinese had mistresses, they would have escaped criticism. These are distinctions difficult to explain. The mistress or concubine in China differs from the mistress in Europe inasmuch as in China she is recognized — she is a kind of legitimate mis- tress. Circumstances may exist, quite easily, under which a marriage ceases to be what it ought to be. Special reasons may arise to cut short a husband’s matrimonial career. Fre- quently change of temper or infirmities may be the cause. In Europe men easily find mistresses, and the double menage is not an unknown institution in the Christian world. According to our social system, in which the future of the rising generation is the chief care, and in which the family prosperity is the family honor itself, the dispersion of children born out of wedlock would be contrary to estab- lished custom. Concubinage was therefore instituted with this object, and it leaves no excuse for seeking adventures away from home. The institution itself is very difficult to tolerate on first CHINESE WOMEN 175 acquaintance — to a European it appears indelicate ; but under the cloak of delicacy much greater crimes are com- mitted when children born of illicit unions are thrown upon the world with an ineffaceable stain upon their condition, and find themselves with neither resources nor family. I consider these evils graver than the brutality of concu- binage. What excuses the system is, that it is tolerated by the legitimate wife; and she at least knows the value of the sacrifice she makes ; for love binds hearts together in China as elsewhere. But true love weighs two evils, and in the family interest chooses the lesser. Monogamy is the character of Chinese marriage. The law punishes most severely any person who contracts a second marriage while the first exists. The institution of concubinage takes nothing from the indissolubility of mar- riage. I might even say, at the risk of surprising my lady readers, that it strengthens that indissolubility. The concu- bine can only enter a family with the authorization of the legitimate wife, and under certain conditions. This consent is not lightly given, and is only accorded in a spirit of devo- tion to the family, and in order that the husband may have children to honor their ancestors. I perceive that I am trying to excuse this custom rather than defend it, and am forgetting that after all it is only a faithful copy of the manners of ancient times. Do we not read in the Bible: ‘‘Now Sarah, Abram’s wife, bare him no children; and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto Abram, ‘Behold, now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee go in unto my maid ; it may be that I may obtain children by her,’ And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarah.” This is, then, the horrible example that our customs 176 THE CHINESE EMPIRE have copied. To be truthful, I ought to confess that, imi- tating in her turn the conduct of Hagar, a concubine will often abuse the peculiar situation she occupies, by despising the legitimate wife. These are the drawbacks of the insti- tution. Although therefore the custom exists, and is not considered immoral, it is not rare to find families into which a concubine will never be allowed to enter under any cir- cumstances. At all events, concubines are nearly always taken from the lower class, or from among poor relations. The children are considered to be the legitimate children of the legitimate wife, in case the latter has none of her own ; if, on the con- trary, the wife has children already, the others are consid- ered as recognized children — that is to say, as having the same rights as the legitimate children. The concubine is bound to obey the legitimate wife, and considers herself in her service. That is all! MARRIAGE. In China the old bachelor and old maid are considered phenomenal. I purposely begin the subject under the protection of this observation : I shall be the better enabled to make the most singular statements without exciting too much sur- prise. The old bachelor and old maid are essentially western productions; and that kind of existence is absolutely con- trary to our ideas. In Europe it is said every valid man is a soldier ; with us the same formula may hold good ; it suffices to substitute for the word ‘‘soldier’" that of “husband.” Quite seriously, celibacy is looked upon as a vice. Reasons must be given to excuse it. In the West one must have excuses to explain marriage. The details that follow are therefore necessarily curious. Confucian Temple, Forbidden City, Pekin. V ' 4 > CHINESE WOMEN 177 The Chinese marry at a very early age: usually before twenty. It is by no means rare to see young men of sixteen marry girls of fourteen; and there are grandmothers of thirty ! It is useless to seek climatic causes for this : it is a consequence of the family institution itself, and of the ancestral cultus. In the north and in the south of China, that is, in regions of tropical heat or of Siberian cold, the peculiarity remains the same: early marriage is universal throughout the empire. The first preoccupation of the parents is the boy’s mar- riage as soon as adolescence appears, and even long before that period they make their choice. They have already announced to friends their wish to unite their son to the daughter ofdhe latter. It is agreed between them to realize the wish when the time shall arrive. Often the choice of a wife falls within the circle of the family itself. There are also friends’ friends who busy themselves with making marriages, who serve as disinterested intermediaries, and sometimes couple the right persons. For with us, as else- where, marriage is a lottery, and the couple only know each other after they are married. To go courting is an unknown duty, and moreover one that our manners do not admit. In Europe, before mar- riage, a few weeks are given as an apprenticeship in the art of love. It is a sort of first stage, a kind of truce preceding the great battle, and the interval is filled up with fetes and great dinners. It is a charming existence, serving as preface to marriage, and whose memories will become all the more precious as the years of marriage roll on. It seems evident that nobody wishes to incur the responsibility of the pro- jected union. They say to the young people, ‘'Learn to ; know each other; you have two months, and then you can ' say ‘Yes,’ or ‘No.’ ” Do they know each other? or rather, \ can they know each other ? Evidently not. I conclude, then, 178 THE CHINESE EMPIRE that it is best for the parents to be the sole responsible matrimonial agents, and for the children to marry when they are told. I have heard the phrase : ‘The happiest period of mar- riage is before the marriage takes place.’' A Parisian would say that only a married man could have made that asser- tion; one must confess, however, that their manners are at least as curious as ours. Marriages are contracted upon the principle between families of the same social standing. Certainly there are eccentric marriages, but they are exceptions. When the choice is settled — that is, when the young girl has been fixed upon — the parents of the future husband make an official demand in marriage. That demand is fol- lowed by the ceremony of betrothal. On that occasion the parents exchange marriage con- tracts signed by the heads of the families and themselves. The heads of families with us replace the civil officers and notaries. Then the bridegroom sends the bride two bracelets of gold or silver, according to the fortune of the family, as betrothal presents. These customs are the same as in Europe; but in China they are accomplished without the presence of the bride. The bracelets are tied together by a scarlet thread, symbolizing the conjugal bond. The presentation of the wedding gift takes place some time afterwards, and is the occasion of pompous ceremonies. The bridegroom sends his bride a score or two baskets, richly ornamented and containing silk, cotton, embroidery, flowers — in a word, everything pertaining to the bride’s toilet. To these presents, which may be of great value, are added exquisite viands for the family, and in particular specially made cakes, which the family of the bride have to distribute to all their friends, with the official announcement of their daughter’s marriage. On her part the bride, after CHINESE WOMEN 179 receipt of the gift, sends her betrothed a dress, or the uni- form of his rank if he is already a Mandarin, to be worn on the wedding day. In each of the two families a great festival on the day of betrothal unites relations and mutual friends. The marriage has always to be celebrated during the year in which the present has been sent. On the eve of the day fixed for the ceremony the young girl’s parents send to the husband everything constituting his wife’s dowry — her dresses, plate, furniture, linen — in fact, all her house- hold goods. The transmission of these objects is always made the occasion of much ostentation. The evening of the same day at seven o’clock the hus- band’s family send his bride a palanquin lined with embroid- ered red satin. This is preceded by a band of musicians; servants carrying lanterns or torches; if the family has official rank, a red umbrella and a green fan (these are the official insignia), and the tablets upon which are inscribed all the titles the family has possessed for several generations, The same evening the bride’s family gives a grand dinner called "‘invitation,” and the palanquin is displayed in the middle of the apartment to be admired by the guests. Dur- ing the dinner the musicians sent by the son-in-law discourse joyful music. The husband’s family likewise gives a grand invitation dinner, and all the objects forming the bride’s - dowry are exposed to the general gaze. On the wedding day, in the morning, four persons, chosen among the rela- tives or friends of the bridegroom, proceed to the house of the bride and invite her to come to the house of her be- trothed. She gets into the palanquin and is carried by four or eight men, according to the rank of her family and of that she is about to enter. Her palanquin is preceded by the four envoys, and the procession thus formed proceeds to the house of the bride- groom’s family. Its arrival is announced by joyous flour- 180 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ishes of music and the detonation of fireworks. The palan- quin is then carried into the apartment where the family, the friends, bridesmaids, and groomsmen are assembled. One of the latter, carrying a metallic mirror before him, approaches the palanquin, the curtains of which are still close drawn, and salutes thrice. Then one of the brides- maids, drawing aside the curtain, invites the bride (who is still veiled) to alight and enter her room, where the bride- groom awaits her in ceremonial costume. This is the moment in which the pair see each other for the first time. After this interview they are taken to the drawing-room by two persons who have already been a long time married, and have had male children. These are the veterans of marriage, and we designate them ‘'the happy couple.’' In the middle of the drawing-room is a table upon which have been placed a censer, fruits, and wine. In our idea this table is exposed to the sight of heaven. The pair then prostrate themselves before the table to thank the Supreme Being for having created them, the earth for having nour- ished them, the Emperor for protecting, and their parents for educating them. Then the bridegroom presents his bride to the members of his family, and to those of his friends who are present. During the ceremony the music continues playing, and also during the dinner which succeeds it. The simplicity of these ceremonies is worthy of remark. They are neither religious nor civil. No priest or func- tionary is present; there is neither consecration nor legal act. The only witnesses of the marriage are God, the family^ and the friends. After dinner the doors of the house remain open all the evening, and all the neighbors and even the passengers in the street have the right to enter the house and see the bride, who stands in the drawing-room, sepa- CHINESE WOMEN 181 rated from the public by a table, upon which are placed two lighted candles. On the morrow it is the bride’s turn to take her husband to visit her own family, where the same ceremonies are performed. The foregoing is a general view of the marriage cere- mony. It only varies in rich families with respect to the splendor of details, and it may easily be imagined with what magnificence such an outline may be filled in. The marriages I have seen in high life in Paris are about the least lively proceedings imaginable. Nobody goes to the civil marriage, and those who tolerate the religious conse- cration are in a hurry to leave the church afterwards. The pair have scarcely returned before they change their dress and are off to the railway station. Really, it might be an improvement to have the mayor and clergyman in a sleeping car, and get the marriage over quickly before the train starts. The guests could assemble on the platform, and the locomotives might be requested to execute a chorus to work upon the bride’s feelings. I expect this is what it will come to by and by. I am simple enough to believe in the influence of cere- monies; they induce respect for the act accomplished. In spite of yourself, you feel the grandeur of something you are unable to define, but which nevertheless exists. Cere- monies make us conscious of a mystery, and by their aid we rise superior to our petty weaknesses. The less imposing the ceremony, the less important appears the act. For this rea- son marriage in Europe has lost its charm. Singular to state, the honors rendered to the dead re- main the same ; public ceremony is respected, and mourning is not a subject for discussion. The reason is, that the ceremonies of the living are easy to ridicule ; but in presence 182 THE CHINESE EMPIRE of death custom is left alone, and even the most practical refrain from interfering with the ceremony of grief. The cultivation of the serious has in modern civilization substituted itself for every other cult. Formerly there were customs of a fascinating description, as I have learned from ancient books ; people then lived in more direct communica- tion with Nature. I have noticed in these ancient descrip- tions many traits of resemblance to our present customs, which lead me to believe that change is not progress — or at least rarely so. When I examine the handsome dresses of the old times — the plumed hats and embroidered mantles — I am compelled to acknowledge how ugly are the black tubes used as headgear, and those curious black coats that every- body wears, especially the servants. I would wager that if a complete history of costumes and customs were written, their changes would be found to correspond with some event of a serious nature. Every local custom maintained love of the natal soil ; costume maintained rank. Nowadays in the West everybody looks like every- body else, and nobody cares much for anything. If this is the desired progress, it is complete, and I admire it without envy. DIVORCE. Divorce exists in China in a certain way. I have said that marriage created an indissoluble bond in the eyes of thg family; the legislator alone has introduced an exceptional disposition, and has only introduced it in the interest of the family itself. In truth, divorce is a legal necessity. The reader need not here expect to find an argument for or against the law of divorce. I am no competitor with either Alexandre Dumas fils or M. Naquet. I state what we think of divorce in China, and am unable to say what we should think of it if the family were organized in China as it is among Western nations. CHINESE WOMEN 183 Laws are made for societies according to their trans- formations; laws are the monuments of evolutions — I had almost said revolutions. All that I know is that in the year 253 before the Chris- tian era, the epoch at which our code was promulgated, divorce already existed in China. When was it first made legal? The answer is obscure, but Voltaire very pithily states : ‘‘Divorce originated about the same period as mar- riage; I believe marriage is a few weeks more ancient.’’ Wit finds a solution for every problem. Whatever may be the exact age of divorce, it has not been lightly instituted, and it has accompaniments in the code making it a serious matter. The law has foreseen certain circumstances unnecessary to specify, and which are within the knowledge of all married people. Upon this head the East and West are perfectly agreed. But we have some- thing original also. We have two grounds for divorce un- known in Europe: they consist in disobedience amounting to insult towards the parents of either of the married couple, and in sterility proved at a certain age fixed by the law. These principles will appear strange, no doubt ; but, re- calling the organization of the family as I have already de- scribed it, the reason for these two grounds of divorce may be understood. They will confirm the statement I have made as to the important position of the family in the social edifice of China. All these observations are but preliminary. The only interesting question with regard to divorce is whether it is practiced. Every one I have met, who has questioned me upon our customs, has always asked : “Do they divorce much in China?” The question surprised me at first, but on re- flection I comprehended that it was in fact the only impor- tant point. When for the first time the toothache compels you to go to a dentist, you ask your friends “if it hurts 184 THE CHINESE EMPIRE much/’ The unknown disquiets you. At the present time there is a similar feeling in France with regard to divorce: people are nervous, and so they ask, '^Do they divorce much in your country?” Be of good cheer, simple and timorous souls ! Divorce is not so dangerous as it looks. The fear of it makes it terrible, like the children’s bogey. To render it harmless it suffices to know that it is a remedy worse than the disease. This is its true definition in China. The possi- bility that it may be useful excuses its existence ; but it has the essential taint of a ‘^necessary evil,” because it is a testi- mony of human imperfection, and breaks the charm of mar- riage — that union projected and contracted by the family for the family. The only serious ground of divorce, except that of adul- tery, which is punished by the husband despotically, con- sists in sterility, seeing that the end of marriage is to give children to the family, to honor their parents and continue the ancestral cult. Well, then, even when sterility of the wife is proven at the legal age, even in that case the hus- band does not use his legal privilege. Divorce is a violent rupture; and to coldly determine upon it, a man must be able to forget the woman he has loved, in spite of her sterility. Can she be made responsible for a misfortune from which she suffers as much as her hus- band ? Of course not, and so the pair remain united. That is the result of experience. It is quite certain a man will reflect maturely before changing his life; he will ask him- self whether, if he takes another legitimate wife, he will have children ; perhaps after all it is a risk. * * * Why, then, sadden existence by such doubtful experiments? And so they remain united, and adopt a child from among the chil- dren of the family, conformably to the law of adoption. That CHINESE WOMEN is a means frequently employed to cure the misfortune of sterility, especially when the family is rich. If I were to multiply examples I should arrive at the same conclusion, that divorce, authorized by the law, is condemned by custom. It is an undeniable fact. Whatever may be said to the contrary, divorce is not a law of nature ; it is the consequence of a certain social condition ; and in fact, legal or illegal, does it not exist everywhere in this country ? What are separations but a kind of divorce ? Only I am in- clined to think that in the countries where divorce does not legally exist, there would, if it did exist, be fewer divorces than there are actually separations. To be divorced! sepa- rated if you like, but divorced ! they would think twice, as we do, before coming to that extremity ; half-measures are not sufficient to cause serious reflection. How many couples there are who separate, and who under the same circum- stances would not divorce! But I find I am pleading the cause of divorce, for which I ask pardon, because the re- spective situations of Western society and ours are absolutely different. With us a woman marries without dowry. The sublime phrase of Harpagon — ''without dowry’’ — would be devoid of meaning in China. Money and woman have no connection with each other; women do not inherit. I cer- tainly have no desire to slander the fair sex ; but that is one of the most fortunate arrangements of China, and one of the shrewdest. Marriage for money has no existence. I have sometimes tried to explain to my fellow-country- men what a marriage for money was, and they have always understood that it was a stroke of business, a bargain. With us the parents calculate long beforehand the honorable testi- monials of the family in which they seek a wife for their son, and seek information as to the virtues of the young girl. In the West they count up the amount of the dowry, and calculate the expectations — that is, of deaths of rela- THE CHINESE EMPIRE tions ; and when all is exactly counted and added up, and a round sum is arrived at, the marriage is arranged — bon parti! Is this not the fact? Why would Moliere’s sans dot be sublime if it were not the case? Marriages for money are the greatest insult that can be offered to women. They, however, do not appear to resent it, for while they allow themselves to be bought, they often have even the courage to sell themselves. I confess, divorce seems more necessary in such a social condition as this. Marriage is such a slender bond! Ah! our customs are more solid, more dignified; and I cannot^ with the best will in the world, admire this mixture of solemn traditions and of petty trivialties, resembling a performance of comic operetta. That, however, is not my business. The united couple is high in honor in China. An old song in the ‘‘Book of Verses’’ celebrates a united couple in a simple ode, of which the following is a translation : “ ‘The cock has crowed !’ says the wife. The man replies : ‘It is still dark. It is not yet day.’ “ ‘Rise and look at the heavens ! Already the morning star appears ; ’Tis time to depart. Remember thou To bring down with thine arrows The wild goose and duck. “ ‘Thou hast shot thy arrows with good aim. Let us drink a little wine. And pass our life together ; Let our music be in harmony. That no discord May offend our ears !’ ” CHINESE WOMEN 187 Such is the song of a pair who are neither Romeo nor Juliet, although the sentiment is worthy of them. She has no other ambition than to inculcate duties, and not to ideah ize a passion. And this hunter — do not suppose he is some poor mountaineer unworthy of your interest, obliged to hunt to sustain his wretched existence. It is a man of opulence, for the ode terminates thus: ‘‘Offer precious stones To thy friends who come to visit thee; They will take them away Hanging at their girdles.’^ I have said that divorce was condemned by custom. It is above all in aristocratic society that it is despised. Rather than give to publicity the secrets of private life, when the causes of rupture are not extremely grave, they prefer the system of mutual concessions. Moreover, the woman is from motives of vanity inter- ested in preserving peace, and not desiring a divorce, for she possesses nothing except the honors attaching to her rank as wife. Marriage gives a woman all the privileges enjoyed by the husband, even that of wearing the uniform of his rank. Under these conditions divorce would be the greatest folly ; and if the wife understands this, the marriage will remain unbroken. Although these arrangements are Chinese, they are not on that account less able. It is almost impossible in our country to say, Cherchez la femme. That is a Western idea. Women, as I will show in another chapter, are as happy in China as in Europe ; but not having the idea of person- ality too highly developed, they are not inclined to scandal or intrigue. 188 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Our aristocratic families are above everything aristo- cratic. They have that pride of rank which maintains decorous living, and occasions to laugh at their expense would be sought in vain. In the West the expression has been used : “I know no place where so many things happen as in the monde’’ That is true enough. Everything hap- pens there. This kind of monde is to be found everywhere ; but I have observed that in the West it is ridiculous, which in China is not the case. Among the working classes divorce occurs very rarely. There every member of the family works to earn the daily bread, and disputes are a waste of time. The father, mother, and children go to the fields together as in ancient times. If they quarrel, as no doubt they do sometimes, they soon make it up again. After rain fine weather! If it happens that the reasons of the dispute become grave — when, for instance the husband squanders the property of the com- munity, and the wife goes to the magistrate to obtain a divorce, that officer usually refrains from pronouncing a final decision. He is the judge, and in the exercise of his discretion he waits for his admonitions to produce a good effect upon the , culprit’s mind. His prudence is nearly, always clear-sighted. Finally, there is another consideration to be weighed by a wife determined to seek a divorce. This is the thought of her children, and the hopes she rests upon their future. In China it is the mother who brings up the children ; and we shall never be civilized enough to believe there can be a more perfect education. The mother transfers her ambition to the hearts of her children. By them she may bcome noble and honored ; and when such a feeling as this resides in a woman’s heart it is a force. In China we have made woman a being always hoping. It is this hope she opposes like a solid wall to the troubles that besiege her when her husband makes her too wretched. She is patient CHINESE WOMEN 1 in order that her children may by-and-by recompense her, and avenge her of her husband’s neglect. I could not terminate this study without a word upon adultery, which European law does not punish as a crime. With us it is admitted that the husband alone has the right to kill his wife when he finds her in Hagrcante delicto. That settles the question of divorce. So many absurdities, however, have been written in Europe with regard to punishments supposed to be inflicted in China on culpable wives, that I cannot refrain from quot- ing one of them. Alexandre Dumas fils says in his work, ''La Question du Divorce,” p. 85 : "In Tonquin and China a woman taken in adultery is awarded a punishment that Philyra, the mother of the centaur Chiron, had doubtless found very agreeable. True, h was a god who had assumed the form of a horse for her sake. After this punishment, an elephant trained to these executions seizes the woman with his trunk, raises her in the air, lets her fall, and crushes her under his feet.” I might be satisfied with the text as its own refutation. The absurd surpasses the probable. But this example shows the system adopted to depict our manners and customs. The fact is, there are fewer elephants in China than in France. There are perhaps two or three at Pekin shown as curiosities, as animals are in menageries. But it is the fashion to describe China as the stronghold of bar- barism. If there is in any part of the world some cruel, inhuman custom — what ! you cannot guess where ! In China, of course ! These extravagances of the imagination should be re- vised and either proved or retracted, were there no other motive than the abstract love of truth. THE CHINESE EMPIRE CHAPTER IX. CHINESE RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY FROM A CHINESE POINT OF VIEW. Religions have existed from all time. Primitively they constituted the mysterious bond uniting the creature to the Creator, and their symbols represented adoration and grati- tude. Under those so divergent forms expressing the sym- pathy of the human soul with the universal Spirit, we always find the idea of the supernatural joined to the most curious practices. In his soaring towards God, man’s imperfect nature causes frequent falls. But the initiatory flight is the highest. Religions are less complicated as we ascend the stream of Time; they seem to simplify thmselves and tend towards that unity which is our ideal of harmony and beauty. It seems as if at first they must have been worthy of the Deity. But that condition diminishes as the world grows older, and at length casts only feeble rays athwart the length- ening shadows upon the pathway of humanity, as on the evening of a fine summer’s day. I have felt that impression in studying our old books, and reading the admirable maxims of our sages. I have felt it also while seeking to decipher the secret of our destiny in the sacred books of the West. It appeared to me that the greatest intensity of the glorious light had died away, and that we now received only the last pale reflections. Everywhere I see the radiance of a truth whose beauty is the same, and I seem to hear an immense choir in which all the voices of heaven and earth join har- RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY moniously; and when, awaking from the enchantment of this dream, I listen to the tumultuous clamors of a world become a chaos of beliefs, my spirit is full of amazement, and I could doubt that truth existed, but that conscience forces me to believe in spite of myself. We have no occasion to envy the West its religious beliefs, although we do not look at them from the same standpoint. Moreover, I will not discuss the merits of religions. Man is so small seen from on high that it matters little in what manner he honors God. God understands all languages, and especially that which is expressed in silence by the movements of the spirit. We also have those who pray with the spirit, and those who pray with the lips. They have nothing in common. We have the ideal religion which compels the spirit to enter into itself, and we have the terrestrial religion expressed by movements of the arms and legs. In a word, we know what sincerity is, and what hypocrisy. Religions are at the same level as intelligence. We have a religion of the literary class which corresponds to the degree of culture of the most enlightened body in the empire. This is the religion of Confucius, or rather his philosophy; for his doctrine is that of the founder of a school who has enunciated moral maxims, but has not meddled with specu- lative theories upon the destinies of man and the nature of the divinity. Confucius lived in the sixth century before the Christian era, and his memory is in such veneration that there is no town in China without a temple erected in his honor. His philosophical system consists essentially in the education of the human heart; and the word ''education’’ is truly that which best expresses the aim of his teaching. To raise from earth the inert man abased by the bad use of his faculties ; to open his eyes to the azure splendor of the illimitable uni- verse; to accustom him by degrees to put ofiE his nullity, and THE CHINESE EMPIRE to feel himself a spirit, a being, thinking, willing and know- ing. To think, will, and know are the three steps of that education which begins with awakening and ends with science, and whose text-book contains the finest maxims that ever philosopher wrote upon humanity. We must not imagine, however, that the doctrine of Confucius is confined to maxims or to advice, without point- ing out a precise method. There is a most exact method in that doctrine, and it is really a practical course of moral education. I will try to explain the plan of it. The principle upon which the system rests is to main- tain the reason within fixed limits. Confucius said the human heart is like a galloping horse, which ‘^heeds neither rein nor voice’^ ; or like a torrent descending the rapid slopes of a mountain ; or like a fire breaking out. These are violent forces, which we must hope to keep within bounds, while maintaining their power without allowing them to develop. He said that the human heart has an invariable ideal — Justice and Wisdom; and that the five senses are so many powers of seduction turning it away from that ideal. The means that Confucius advises his adepts to use is to arm themselves beforehand against the danger of these seduc- tions, and the invincible weapon he gives them is Respect. Respect is the general sentiment which extends to every action of life. The first cause of corruption is negligence ; no quantity is so small as not to be taken into account by Reason. Negligence puts us in the power of habit, which has been cynically called a second Nature — as if Nature were not one and the same ! It is Respect extended to all the acts of life, above all the most insignificant, which turns away unhealthy influences and gradually performs the patient work of education. Confucius teaches us to observe that the five senses, as RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 193 they are defined, constitute faculties, but not endowments. Man, however, has received endowments from Nature, and he enumerates them. They are ; a respectful physiognomy, soft speech, acute hearing, piercing sight, passionless reflec- tion. These particular states of our faculties should be unremittingly developed. The basis, therefore, of the philosophic system of Con- fucius is Respect, as Charity is the basis of the evangelical doctrine. Respect addresses itself to actions; Charity to individuals — or, to speak more precisely, to ‘‘our neighbor.’’ I imagine — it is a caprice of imagination — that Con- fucius had a glimpse of that Charity which creates a “neigh- bor.” But our moralist dared not aim at such perfection; it required a divine presumption to believe in the existence of a “neighbor.” He preferred leaving the initiative of Charity to man; and if he gives him the key to arrive at human perfection, he does not despair of humanity receiving some benefit from it. I have no pretension to give religious lessons, still less to convert, inasmuch as Confucius leaves everyone free to worship God as he pleases. I will, however, remark that this system, which consists in raising the heart of man, in order to direct all his thoughts to God, as a sort of consequence of moral good, lacks neither grandeur nor logic. It seems right that the human being should adorn himself with all the splendors of virtue to communicate with the Divine Being; and to present adoration as an aim is an elevated, sublime idea, which satisfies the mind and cap- tivates the reason. I shall perhaps be accused of embellishing the subject, and only showing the beauty of theories. My reader knows better than I that books have magnificent bindings, and are very seldom opened — that precepts do not make everybody virtuous, and that to know them, and apply them, are dif- 194 THE CHINESE EMPIRE ferent operations. I have heard it said that our morality is like the dead languages that are no longer spoken — it has almost been called archaeological; but I am acquainted with other moralities which have had the same destiny ; and the maxims of Equality and Fraternity — I might even say of Liberty — appear to me to give more work to the speech- makers than to practical disciples. Criticism of this kind is not difficult : by turns the individuals composing the great tribe of man love to discuss the enormous motes in their neighbors’ eyes, and forget the imperceptible beam in their own. These are inconsistencies which throw into all the more relief the maxims of Confucius : for with a little more respect and less negligence life would be more dignified and more estimable. I return to the practical maxims. Confucius has a num- ber of small means to overcome great errors: it is like homoeopathy applied to the diseases of the mind. He for- bids, to cite one of these means, fixed ideas- — that is, preju- dice. He says all men are the same, the ancient and the modern; and the good of the one is the same as the good of the other: they do not differ. To imitate the ancients in the wisdom of their conduct, and to endeavor to know them, are the best means to know one’s self. In a word, he tries to create a general point of view, uniting all consciences. No one will escape its magnetism ; and without reserve, without the conception of another ideal, every spirit will turn towards the sun of the moral world to receive its beneficial light. He says likewise: ‘‘Enter the secret recesses of Nature, and study good and evil: you will be filled with the feeling of Nature her- self; and in spite of the vast dimensions of the universe, and the distances separating social situations, you will con- RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 195 ceive in your inmost soul the principle of the equality of creatures. ''If you maintain conscience, you will restrict desire, and arrive at the ideal of terrestrial life, which is tranquility of spirit. "Tranquility is a kind of vigilant attention. It is when tranquility is perfect that the human faculties display all their resources, because they are enlightened by reason and sustained by knowledge.’’ But I must stop short; it is unnecessary to further de- velop this magnificent doctrine, which constitutes one of the most splendid tributes made by man to his Creator. The ancient worship sanctioned by Confucius admitted neither images nor priests, but merely certain ceremonies forming the rules of a cultus. These ceremonies are but little noticed by minds occupied by the principles. Religious unity does not exist in China. Where does it exist ? Unity is a state of perfection nowhere to be found. But if China has several leading religions, I hasten to state she has but three. That is moderate enough. Besides the religion of Confucius, there is that of Lao- Tse, which is now only practiced by the lower class, and admits of metempsychosis; and the religion of Fo, or Bud- dhism, a doctrine appertaining to metaphysics, in which admirable points of view are to be found. According to Buddhism the material world is an illusion ; man should endeavor to isolate himself in the midst of Na- ture — to abstract himself. It is the doctrine of contempla- tion in God — that is to say, in the immaterial essence. The aim of this ideal life is to produce ecstasy ; then the divine principle takes possession of the soul, penetrates it, and death consummates the mystic union. Such is the abstract principle of that religion which h^s its temples, altars, and 19G THE CHINESE EMPIRE a pompous ritual. I may add that the Buddhist monks, who live in vast monasteries, possess great riches. In China, as in all other countries, there exist sincere believers and a great number of the indifferent. Indifference is a sort of negligence attaching to spiritual things ; it is a disease which receives no medical treatment. Wherever there are men there will be some who are indif- ferent. Religious hatred, however, has no place among our national customs; to me it is a source of arriazement. I can understand that one may hate — a person, for instance; but a religious idea — a religion! As to atheism, it has been called a product of modern civilization. We are not yet sufficiently civilized to have no belief. CHAPTER X. FINANCE AND COMMERCE. No general statement of the revenue and expenditure of China is made public, and such estimates as have been formed by Europeans are founded on financial reports of provincial governors published in the Pekin Gazette. Ex- cept the foreign maritime and a few native customs, the entire revenue is collected by provincial agents. The Board of Revenue at Peking issues annually to each of the pro- vincial governors a statement of the amount required from his province for the following year, and when to this amount is added the sum necessary for local administration, civil and military, the revenue to be provided by each collector is ascertained. The amount actually levied, however, great- ly exceeds this, and the surplus, which may amount to 50 FINANCE AND COMMERCE 197 or 70 per cent of the total, disappears in the form of costs, or in presents to official superiors, or remains in the hands of the collectors. The following estimate, taken from a report by Consul Jamieson of Shanghai, is based on figures for the three years preceding the Japanese war, and shov/s the sums accounted for by the provincial authorities : — Amount. Sources of Revenue — Taels.* Land tax, silver 25,088,000 Land tax, grain 6,562,000 Salt duty and likin 13,659,000 Likin on merchandise 12,952,000 Foreign maritime customs (1893) 21,989,000 Native custom-houses 1,000,000 Duty and likin no native opium 2,229,000 Miscellaneous duties 5,55o,oo<) Total 88,979,000 Branches of Expenditure — Amount. Remittances: Taels. Metropolitan administration, Manchu garrisons and the Imperial Household 19,478,000 Board of Admiralty (Pei-yang squadron) 5,000,000 Southern naval squadrons 5,000,000 Forts, guns and coast defense 8,000,000 Defense of Manchuria 1,848,000 Kansuh and Central Asia 4,800,000 Aids to Yunnan and Kweichow 1,655,000 Interest and repayment of foreign loans 2,500,000 Railway construction 500,000 Public works, river embankments, sea wall, etc 1,500,000 Customs administration, including maintenance of light- houses, beacons and revenue cruisers 2,478,000 Administration of 18 provinces, including cost of troops 36,220,000 Total 88,979,000 *Exchange value at present about 70c. 198 THE CHINESE EMPIRE The land tax varies in different provinces from 20c or 25c to $1.50 or more per acre. The rate of incidence is theoretically fixed, but under other names additional taxes are imposed on land. Salt is a government monopoly, all producers being required to sell to government agents, who, at a price which covers the duty, re-sell to merchants provided with ‘'salt warrants.’’ Likin is a tax imposed on merchandise in course of transportation, payable at ap- pointed barriers ; with it is now united a producers’ tax. The collection of the revenue on the Chinese foreign trade and the administration of the lights on the coast of China are under the management of the Imperial Cus- toms Department, the head of which is a foreigner (Brit- ish*), under whom is a large staff of European, American, and Chinese subordinates, the department being organized somewhat similarly to the English Civil Service. It has an agency in London. The receipts amounted to 7,872,257 haikwan taels, or $11,430,445.68 (ex. $1.44), in 1864, and, gradually increas- ing have risen to 22,503,397 haikwan taels (including 3,983,182 taels, opium likin), or $15,713,466.56 (ex. 70c.), in 1898. The supervision and collection of the general likin of the ports of Su-Chow and Kiu-Kiang, and of the districts of Shanghai and East Chi-Kiang, and of the salt likin of Ichang, the Hupeh district, and the Anhui district, were entrusted on March 2, 1898, to the Inspector-General of the Imperial Maritime Customs (see below). The total revenue to be derived therefrom was estimated at 5,000,000 haikwan taels. The first year of nominal control was spent mainly in preliminary observation, and steps are being taken towards a reform of Chinese abuses in this matter. ^This officer has long been Sir Robert Hart, a man greatly respected by all the Chinese. FINANCE AND COMMERCE 199 The existing debt of China has arisen almost entirely out of the recent war with Japan. In 1887 there was con- tracted a German loan of 5,000,000 marks in gold at 5^ per cent. In 1894 a foreign silver loan of £1,635,000 was raised at 7 per cent, and in February, 1895, a gold loan of £3,000,000, both on the security of the customs revenue, while other advances, on the same security, amounting to over £2,000,000, were obtained from local banks and foreign syndicates. Internal loans were also obtained amounting to nearly $24,000,000. The war indemnity to be paid to Japan amounted to 200,000,000 kuping, or Imperial Treasury, taels, and the compensation for the retrocession for the Liao-tung peninsula to 30,000,000 taels. Consequently, in 1895, another foreign loan was raised amounting to £15,820,- 000 at 5 per cent, and in March, 1896, an Anglo-German loan of £16,000,000 at 5 per cent was contracted. To pay off the balance of the war indemnity due to Japan a fur- ther loan of £16,000,000 was concluded on March i, 1898, with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank. This loan was secured on certain likin collections pledged by the Chinese Govern- ment, the collections being confided to the Inspector-Gen- eral of Customs. The outstanding amount of the foreign debt is about $263,500,000. PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY. China is essentially an agricultural country, and the land is all freehold, held by families on the payment of an annual tax. Lands and houses are registered, and when a sale takes place the purchaser, on informing the district ruler, receives, besides the document given by the seller, an official statement of the transfer for which he pays at the rate of 6 per cent of the purchase money. Land, how- ever, cannot be sold until all the near kindred have succes- 200 THE CHINESE EMPIRE sively refused to purchase. The holdings are in general small ; the farm animals are oxen and buffaloes ; the imple- ments used are primitive; irrigation is common. Horticul- ture is a favorite pursuit, and fruit trees are grown in great variety. Wheat, barley, maize, and millet and other cer- eals, with peas and beans, are chiefly cultivated in the north, and rice in the south. Sugar, indigo, and cotton are cultivated in the south provinces. Opium has become a crop of increasing importance. Tea is cultivated exclusively in the west and south, in Fu-Chien, Hupei, Hunan, Chiang- hsi, Cheh-Chiang, An-hui, Kwangtung, and Szechuen. The culture of silk is equally important with that of tea. The mulberry tree grows everywhere, but the best and the most silk comes from Kwangtung, Szechuen, Cheh-Chiang and Kiang-su. An important feature in the development of the Chinese industries is the erection of cotton mills in Shang- hai, and of filatures for winding silk from cocoons in Shang- hai, Canton and elsewhere. In Shanghai there are 26 fila- tures, with 8,500 basins, which can reel off 12,000 piculs of silk in a year. Two native cotton mills were started in 1890, and recently four foreign mill companies have been successfully floated. In 1898 the number of spindles erected in Shanghai was 313,000. All the 18 provinces contain coal, and China may be regarded as one of the first coal countries of the world. The coal mines at Kai-p’ing, Northern Chihli, under for- eign supervision, have been very productive ; those of Fang- shan-hsien supply Pekin with anthracite fuel. In Shan- tung the coal field of Poshan is at present the most pro- ductive, but at Changkiu-hsien, Ichou-fu, and I-hsien there are also promising coal fields. Coal is found also in Kansu. In Eastern Shansi there is a field of anthracite of an area of about 13,500 square miles, and in Western Shansi a field of bituminous coal of nearly equal importance. A Brit- FINANCE AND COMMERCE 201 ish syndicate has obtained a concession for the working of the mines in Shansi. In South Eastern Hunan the coal area covers about 21,700 square miles, containing both an- thracite and bituminous coal, and in some places the pro- duction is already considerable. In Central and Northern Sze-Chuen coal is abundant, and the coal traffic is stated to be enormous. Iron ores are abundant in the anthracite field of Shansi, where the iron industry is ancient, and iron (found in con- juction with coal) is worked in Manchuria. Copper ore is plentiful in Yunnan, where the copper mining industry has long existed, and near the city of Mengtse tin, lead, and silver are found. In Szechuen a mining concession has been granted to an English company, and six similar conces- sions are said to have been granted to the French. COMMERCE. The commercial intercourse of China is mainly with the United Kingdom and the British colonies. The following table shows the value of the foreign trade of China for five years in haikwan taels: — 1894.* 1895.* 1896.* 1897.* 1898.* Imports ..162,102,911 171,696,715 202,589,994 202,828,625 209,579,334 Exports ..128,104,522 143,293,211 131,081,421 163,501,358 i 59 , 037 »I 49 *These values are the actual market prices of the goods (imports and exports) in the ports of China ; but for the purposes of compari- son it is the value of the imports at the moment of landing and of the exports at the moment of shipping that should be taken. For this purpose from the imports there have to be deducted the costs incurred after landing, namely, the expenses of landing, storing and selling, and the duty paid ; and to the exports there have to be added the importer’s commission, the expenses of packing, storing and shipping, and the export duty. So dealt with, the value of the imports for 1897 comes to 177,915,163 haikwan taels and that of the exports to 181,769,995 haikwan taels; and the value of the imports 202 THE CHINESE EMPIRE During 1898 the principal countries participated in the trade of China as shown in the following table : — Imports from Exports to Total trade (value in haik- (value in haik- (value in haik- wan taels). wan taels.) wan taels). Great Britain 34,962,474 10,715,952 45,678,426 Hongkong 97,214,017 62,083,512 159,297,529 India 19,135,546 1,324,125 20,459,671 United States of America. 17,163,312 11,986,771 29,150,083 Continent of Europe (with- out Russia) 9,397,792 25,929,114 35,326,906 Japan 27,376,063* * 16,092,778* 43,468,841 Russia (in Europe and Asia) 1,754,088 17,798,207 19,552,29s The imports into China from Hongkong come origi- nally from, and the exports from China to that colony are further carried on to, Great Britain, Germany, France, America, Australia, India, the Straits, and other countries. The figures given above include the statistics of imports and exports at the treaty ports for the whole year ; and also the like statistics of the junk trade of Hongkong and Macao with the south of China (by the Kaulun and Lappa cus- tom houses). The chief imports and exports are as follows (1898) : — Imports — Haikwan taels. Opium 29,255,903 Cotton goods 77,618,824 Raw cotton 2,839,730 Woolen goods 3,190,169 Metals 9,787,077 Coal 5,280,626 Oil, kerosene 11,914,699 Seaweed, fishery products, etc 5,430,842 Exports — Haikwan taels. Tea 28,879,482 Silk, raw & manuf’d 56,103,719 Sugar 2,445,891 Straw braid 3,i3i,79i Hides, cow & buffalo 3,747,056 Paper i,74i,707 Clothing 1,982,672 Chinaware and pot- tery 1,504,307 for 1898 comes to 184,486,528 haikwan taels and that of the exports to 177,165,384 haikwan taels. *Including imports from Formosa, etc., haikwan taels.4,794,251 *Including exports to Formosa, etc., haikwan taels. . . 924,629 FINANCE AND COMMERCE \ Of the tea in 1898, 200,334 piculs (each 133 1-3 Ibs.^^ went to Great Britain, 896,538 piculs to Russia, 156,935 s piculs to the United States, 115,029 piculs to Hongkong, 42,744 piculs to Australia, out of a total of 1,538,600 piculs. The total export of tea has been as follows to foreign coun- tries in piculs: — 1885, 2,128,751; 1895, 1,865,680; 1896, 1,712,841'; 1897, 1,532,158; 1898, 1,538,600. China has besides an extensive coasting trade, largely carried on by British and other foreign as well as Chinese vessels. Foreign countries have, in virtue of various treaties with the Chinese government, the right of access to certain ports of the Empire. The following is a list of these treaty ports, with their estimated Chinese population and value of their direct foreign imports and exports for 1898: — Name and Province—* Population New-Chwang (Niuchwang), Shing- king 60,000 Tien-tsin, Pi-chi-li 1,000,000 Che-foo (Chifu)‘ Shan-tung. 35, 000 Choong-king, Sze-chuen 300,000 Ichang, Hoo-pe 34,000 Shasi, Hoo-pe. . . 73,000 Han-kow (Hankau), Ploo-pe. 800,000 Kow-Kiang, Kiang-se S5,ooo Wu-ho (Wu-hu), Ngan-hoei (Ngan- wei) 80,750 Chin-Kiang, Kiang-su 140,000 Shanghai, Kiang-su 586,000 Su-chow, Kiang-su 500,000 Ninpo, Che-kiang 255,000 Hang-Chow, Che-kiang 700,000 Wan-Chow, Che-kiang 80,000 Foo-Chow (Fuchau), Foo-kien (Fukien) 650,000 Amoy, Foo-kien 96,000 Swatow, Quang-tung (Kwang-tung) 35,000 Imports. Exports. $ 1,043,482 6,541,175 4,511,751 $ 5,156,387 7,379423 1,235,618 46,303 12,421 3,382 361,475 90,921,547 536,821 31,055 8,019 3,619,029 8,306,859 9,025,864 2,777403 2,549 689,521 49,602,889 9,443 2,778 4,122,861 1,150,222 2,891,964 204 ‘ THE CHINESE EMPIRE Name and Province — Population. Imports. Exports. Canton, Quang-tung 8,594,820 14,793,873 Wu-chow, Quang-see (Kwang-si) 50,000 2,005,642 824,373 Sam-shui, Quang-tung 892,488 96,515 Kongmun and Kumchuk, Quang-tung 742,386 40,006 Kowloon, Quang-tung 12,365,623 16,163,265 Lappa, Quang-tung 2,403,638 3,864,185 Kiung-chow, Quang-tung 1,433,280 1,195,801 Pakhoi, Quang-tung 1,700,453 1,278,500 Lung-chow, Quang-se 85,394 10,452 Meng-tsu, Yunnan 1,761,856 875,106 Se-mao, Yunnan 162,386 25,527 Yatung, Thibet (Tibet) Yochau (Yo-chow), Honan Santuao, Foo-kien (Fukien) Chingwangtao, Pi-chi-li Wusung, Kiang-su ‘ Since April, 1887, the customs stations in the vicinity of Hongkong and Macao have been placed under the man- agement of the foreign customs. The same service has also been charged with the collection of the so-called Likin (inland) tax on foreign opium imported, which is likely to result in a considerable increase of the foreign mari- time customs receipts. The port of Nanking, which the Chinese government consented to throw open by a treaty made with France in 1858, in which England participated under the ‘^most favored nation’' clause, had not been opened at the end of 1898. SHIPPING AND NAVIGATION. During the year 1898, 52,661 vessels, of 34,233,580 tons (43,164 being steamers of 32,896,014 tons), entered and cleared Chinese ports. Of these 22,609, of 21,265,966 tons, were British; 23,547, of 8,187,572 tons, Chinese; 1,831, of 1,685,098 tons, German; 2,262, of 1,569,134 tons, Japanese; 743, of 239,152 tons, American; 577, of 420,078 tons, French. FINANCE AND COMMERCE 205 INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS. China is traversed in all directions by numerous roads, and, though none are paved or metalled, and all are badly kept, a vast internal trade is carried on partly over them, but chiefly by means of numerous canals and navigable rivers. In February, 1898, the Chinese government agreed that all internal w^aterways should be open both to foreign and native steamers. In the north of China a considerable extent of railway (mostly British) has been constructed and is open for traf- fic. From Pekin to Tien-tsin, a distance of 80 miles, the line is open, and thence to Tang-ku on the coast, a distance of 27 miles. From Tang-ku it runs through the coal dis- trict to Shan-hai-kuan, 147 miles, and thence alon^ the coast, 1 13 miles, to Chen-Chou at the head of the Gulf of Liao- tung. As the railway approaches Chen-Chou, two lines branch oflf, one of 7 miles from Kao Chiao to Tien Chiao Chang on the coast; the other runs 30 miles inland from Nu Err Ho to the Nan Pao coal mines. The total length of line open from Pekin to Chen-Chou, including the two branches, Tn December, 1899, was 404 miles. The line is being continued round the head of the Liao-tung Gulf to Yung Kow, where the system will be connected by a Rus- sian branch line with the railway which is being constructed from Port Arthur and Talienwan to the Siberian railway. Another prolongation of the British line is being laid from Chen-Chou to Hsin Min Tun, 106 miles to the northeast, and about 40 miles west of Mukden. The Russian railway through Manchuria is being constructed and will probably be completed in 1902. The main line will have a length of 950 miles, and the South Manchuria branch to Port Arthur 650 miles. Towards the southwest Pekin is connected with Pao-ting-fu, the capital of the province of Chihli, by a line 88 miles in length, from which, at Liu Li Ho, a 206 THE CHINESE EMPIRE branch runs to the Chou Kow Tien coal fields, ten miles distant. The Pao-Ting-Fu line, constructed with British capital, was, in January, 1900, transferred to a Belgian syndicate, and will be extended southward to Hankow on the Yangtsze river. From the Yangtsze another projected line (American) will run to Canton. Railways (British) are to be constructed also for the development of the min- ing and petroleum industries of the province of Shansi, and others to connect the Honan mines with the Yangtsze river opposite Nanking, via Kaifong. The Shanghai-Wu- sung railway of 12 miles has been open for traffic since August, 1898. From Shanghai a projected line will run to Hang-Chow, Ningpo, Wenchow, and probably to Can- ton. Other lines (British) are to connect Chingtu in the province of Szechuen with Wuchow and with Canton. French lines are proposed to bring Tong-King into com- munication with the treaty ports of Mengtsz, Wuchow, and Pakhoi, and also with the province of Yunnan. The imperial Chinese telegraphs are being rapidly ex- tended all over the Empire. There is a line between Pekin and Tien-tsin, one hich connects the capital with the prin- cipal places in Manchuria up to the Russian frontier on the Amur and the Ussuri; while Niuchwang, Chefoo, Shang- hai, Yangchow, Suchow, all the seven treaty ports on the Yangtsze, Canton, Wuchow, Lungchow, and all the prin- cipal cities in the Empire are now connected with each other and with the capital. The line from Canton, westerly has penetrated to Yunnan-fu, the capital of Yunnan province, and beyond it to Manwyne, near the borders of Burmah. Shanghai is also in communication with Foochow, Amoy, Hashing, Shaoshing, Ningpo, etc. Lines have been con- structed between Foochow and Canton, and between Taku, Port Arthur^ cipd Seoul, the capital of Kore^; and the line FINANCE AND COMMERCE 207 along the Yangtsze Valley has been extended to Chungking in Szechuen province. The telegraph lines have a length of nearly 4,000 miles. There is direct overland communi- cation between Pekin and Europe. The postal work of the Empire is carried on, under the Minister of War, by means of post-carts and runners. In the eighteen provinces are 8,000 offices for post-carts, and scattered over the whole of the Chinese territories are 2,040 offices for runners. There are also numerous private postal couriers, and during the winter a service between the office of the Foreign Customs at Pekin and the out- ports. The Chinese Imperial Post Office was opened on February 2, 1897, the management being confided to the In- spector General of the Imperial Maritime Customs. China has also notified the Swiss government of her intention of joining the Universal Postal Union. MONEY, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Money. The sole official coinage and the monetary unit of China is the copper cash, of which about 1,600 — 1,700 equals i haik- wan tael, and about 1 1 equal i cent. The copper cash, how- ever, has risen in value ; the copper money purchasable for a tael of silver cost the government for metal alone 1.354 taels in 1 898, and this appreciation of copper has not only restricted coinage, but has led to the melting down of copper coin. The silver sycee is the usual medium of exchange. Large payments are made by weight of silver bullion, the standard being the Liang or tael, which varies at different places. The haikwan (or customs) tael, being one tael weight of pure silver, had a value equal in October, 1898, to about 70 cents, or 1.43 haikwan taels to a dollar. By an imperial decree, issued during 1890, the silver dol- lar coined at the new Canton mint is made current all over 208 THE CHINESE EMPIRE the Empire. It is of the same value as the Mexican and United States silver dollars, and as the Japanese silver yen. Foreign coins are looked upon but as bullion, and usually taken by weight, except at the treaty ports. WEIGHT. 10 Sze equals i Hu. 10 Hu equals i Hao. 10 Hao equals i Li (nominal cash). 10 Li equals i Fun (Candaren). 10 Fun equals i Tsien (Mace). 10 Tsien equals i Liang (Tael)— i 1-3 oz. avoirdupois by treaty. 16 Liang equals i Kin (Catty)— i 1-3 lbs. avoirdupois by treaty. 100 Kin equals i Tan (Picul)— 133 i -3 lbs. avoirdupois by treaty. CAPACITY. 10 Ko equals i Sheng. 10 Sheng equals i Tou (holding from to 10 Kin of rice and measuring from 1.13 to 1.63 gallon). Commodities, even liquids, such as oil, spirits, etc., are commonly bought and sold by weight. LENGTH. 10 Fun equals i Tsun (inch). 10 Tsun equals i Chih (foot) — 14.1 English inches by treaty. 10 Chih equals i Chang — 2 fathoms. I Li equals, approximately, 3 cables. In the tariff settled by treaty between Great Britain and China, the Chih of 14 i-io English inches has been adopted as the legal standard. The standards of weight and length vary all over the Empire, the Chih, for example, ranging from 9 to 16 English inches, and the Chang (equals 10 Chih) in proportion ; but at the treaty ports the use of the foreign treaty standard of Chih and Chang is becoming common. THE CHINESE ARMY AND NAVY 209 CHAPTER XI. THE CHINESE ARMY AND NAVY. The army of China comprises; — 1. The Eight Banners, nominally containing about 300,- 000 men, descendants of the Manchu conquerors and their allies. The number maintained on a war footing is from 80,000 to 100,000. The whole force is subdivided into three groups, consisting respectively of Manchus, Mongols, and Chinese, and forms a sort of hereditary profession within which intermarriage is compulsory. About 37,000 are sta- tioned in garrisons in Manchuria; the Imperial Guard at Pekin contains from 4,000 to 6,000. 2. The Ying Ping, or National Army, called also the Green Flags and the Five Camps (five being the unit of sub- division). This army consists of 18 corps, one for each province, under the Governor or Gover;ior-General. The nominal strength is from 540,000 to 660,000 men, of whom about 200,000 are available for war, never more than one- third being called out. The most important contingent is the Tientsin Army Corps, nominally 100,000 strong, really about 35,000, with modern organization, drill, and arms, employed in garrison duty at Tien-tsin, and at Taku and other forts. Besides these forces there are mercenary troops, raised in emergencies, and Mongolian and other irregular cavalry, nominally 200,000 strong, really about 20,000, but of no military value. The total land army on peace footing is put at 300,000 men, and on war footing at about 1,000,000, but 210 THE CHINESE EMPIRE the army, as a whole, has no unity or cohesion ; there is no proper discipline, the drill is mere physical exercise, the weapons are long since obsolete, and there is no transport, commissariat, or medical service. It is reported, with what truth we cannot say, that 900,000 Mauser rifles were imported into China between 1896 and 1900. The Chinese navy, during the war with Japan, disap- pointed those who regarded it as an effective fighting force. At the opening of hostilities, on July 25th, 1894, when the Kow Shing transport was sunk, an engagement took place between the Japanese cruiser Yoshino and the Tsi-Yuen, with other vessels, and the small Chinese cruiser Kuang-Yi was driven ashore and destroyed. In the battle of the Yalu (September 17th), or in immediate consequence of that action, the barbette armor-clad King Yuen, 2,850 tons, and the cruisers Chih Yuen, 2,300 tons, Chao Yung, 1,350 tons, Yang Wei, 1,350 tons, and Kuang Ki, 1,030 tons, were sunk or burned. Subsequently at Wei-Hai-Wei the barbette ship Ting Yuen and the cruiser Ching Yuen were sunk, and the armor-clads Chen Yuen and Ping Yuen were captured. The Chinese fleet is organized in district squad- rons, which are severally raised and maintained by the pro- vincial viceroys. At the conclusion of the war the Chen- Hai and the Kang Chi alone remained to China of her effective Pei Yang squadron. Some swift vessels have since been added to the fleet. Among these are the cruisers Hai Chi and Hai Tien (4,300 tons) launched in the Tyne in 1897 and 1898. They have 6-inch armored shields and a 5-inch deck, and they carry two 8-inch, ten 4.7-inch, and twelve 3-pr. Armstrong quick-firers. The speed is twenty-four knots. The small cruisers Hai-Yung, Hai Shen, and Hai Shew, 2,950 tons, have been launched at Stettin ( 1897) ; and three destroyers, the Hai THE CHINESE ARMY AND NAVY 211 Lung (33.6 knots), Hai Niu, Hai Ching, and Hai Hoha at Elbing. A French engineer, M. Doyere, has reorganized the arsenal of Foochow, and a torpedo gun vessel (817 tons) and a 20.5 knot torpedo boat are in hand there. The Chi- nese bluejacket is as good as any in the world; hence the value to Japan of an alliance with China, allowing her to officer the Chinese navy. APPENDIX THE OPEN DOOR. Lord Charles Beresford^'s Speech Before the Commer- cial Club, Chicago, Feb. i8, 1899. ‘^Now with regard to China. What did I find in China? I suppose you asked me to speak because I have just come from China. I found that the natural sources of China are simply enormous. They are incalculable. The possibilities of trade of the future are limitless, and I do not think any merchant or any man who understands these questions far better than I could do would disagree with me with regard to that point. ‘‘Even now with the energy and the enterprise of the for- eigner in China, I can assure you that we, the foreigner, have barely scratched the surface of that great country with regard to the possibility of trade in the future. You may ask me why is this ? There are three reasons. One is the extraordinary exclusiveness of the Chinese ; the distrust of the foreigner going into the country. Another is the dislike of the foreigner generally. And the third and most im- portant is the antiquated form of government in that coun- try. Those three causes really prevent those developments which are natural in a country that has the same resources as China. “Now comes the point of the future. Whatever the government of China says, whatever the feeling of the Chi- nese people may be — and we must always respect the feel- ings of the inhabitants of a country — it is absolutely certain that China will be opened up. I will give you my reasons : 214 APPENDIX ^'The greatest civilizer in the world is the railway — the line of communication. And various countries — your own country, in particular — have got concessions for building railways. I need not tell you, gentlemen, that when once the American has got a concession to do a thing it is certain to be done. Therefore, China is certain to be opened up in the near future by means of these railways. Even though China is an empire 4,000 years old, and they have prejudices 4,000 years old and hates 4,000 years old, that will not pre- vent China being opened up. But the whole question is a gigantic problem, and I do believe the opening up of China and the development of trade in China is the greatest question with regard to trade and commerce that we have had during this century or any century preceding it. ‘'The danger in regard to China is that China herself, from her effete government, may break up, owing to dis- turbances all over the country. What will happen then? Those countries that have properties in China, and have investments there, and have trade and commerce there, will naturally do their best to protect that trade and commerce. I myself saw signs of internal disturbances, but I could not rest there. I went and asked the viceroys. I have seen every one of the important men in China, barring two. ‘T have seen six of the eight viceroys who rule over sixty millions to seventy millions, and numbers of people of that sort, and these viceroys have told me that they are afraid of disturbances. I said the history of China is one long story of rebellions and tremendous crushings of those rebellions. “ ‘O, yes,’ they said, ‘but we have never been in the position that we are now. It is now a financial question. The whole of our available assets is devoted to paying the in- terest on foreign loans. The consequence is that we have got no money to carry on a provincial government. The APPENDIX 215 result IS that we are obliged to discharge a large number of our troops and we are obliged to underpay a large num- ber that remains. That is why we are afraid of disturb- ances.’ ‘'When I was in China the Province of Sze-chuen was the scene of one of the disturbances. The British Consul himself wrote me a letter in which he said there were 6,000,- 000 taels of property that belonged to Roman Catholic mis- sions that had been destroyed by one of the rebels in Sze- chuen. Since I came to your country I have read in the papers that those disturbances are becoming fomented all over the empire. Therefore it is not a question of what foreign powers are doing. It is China herself that will cause the breaking up. “How is China to be opened up in a peaceful manner with regard to the claims and the wishes of all nations ? I have a suggestion to make with regard to this. First and foremost, it is necessary for commerce and enterprise and industries and investments that China should hold the open door all through their empire. “What is the open door? It is merely that the treaties as they stand and exist now at this moment should be held to and not altered. What are the existing treaties ? They are treaties that no country is to extend its territory. No country is to have sovereign rights in China. The open door means, as you know, a fair field and no favors to all nations. It is well expressed by one of our leading states- men at home, Mr. Arthur Balfour: ‘An equal trade for traders of all nations.’ That has always been the policy of Great Britain. We hold to that policy because we know it is better for us, and it is a policy that is not inimicable to the interest of any other nation, and the traders of all nations can go and derive great advantages in any country where we hold domination or where we have colonies. 216 APPENDIX “Such a policy as the open door must be for the general good of the whole world, and naturally it is for the general good first and foremost of the commercial world. Indi- vidual industries in different instances may possibly suffer. But that is not our business. Our business is the vol- ume of trade, and it is to the advantage of our colonies if any number of Germans and Americans go to those colo- nies and carry out their business under the laws of those colonies. That increases the volume of British trade. It is the volume of British trade we have to look to and not the individual industry. “Once or twice in my visits to China I found some Brit- ish merchants complaining about their industry. I said: ‘My dear man, I cannot help you. We have made our great riches by the open door, and we must not change if your industry is hurt. I am sorry for it, but you must go and trade somewhere else, or trade on the same lines as the man who is cutting you out.’ We, as Britishers, cannot in any way interfere with the big, bold, free policy of the open door wherever we have dominion or wherever we have any power. As the result of that policy, not one of our colonies cost the British taxpayer one single shilling. “The great question is, the practical point is, how are we to keep this open door. I went carefully into all the trade statistics. I did not only take the opinion of my own countrymen, but I went to the Americans, and I shall ever be grateful for the way the American merchants received me in China. I went to the Germans. I shall be equally grateful to the Germans. I went to the Japanese, and I came to the conclusion that all the great trade interests in China are certainly centered in those four countries — America, Germany, Japan and Great Britain. My suggestion was that there should be some sort of commercial alliances or commercial understanding between those countries that APPENDIX 217 own the trade, with regard to future development of that trade. Russia and France have only import trade. That is the reason that I have suggested those other four coun- tries for a union in the nature of an alliance. ^The two countries, Russia and France, will naturally say that they have trade. So they have, they have got an import trade. Russia has a large amount of tea, and France has a large amount of silk, but both of those commodities are carried in British bottoms. ‘^My point is that the four countries that I have men- tioned should do something in order to keep the door open with regard to the future. Those four countries also do not want or wish to have any territory whatever. What they want is simply commercial freedom with regard to France and Russia. I do not say anything disrespectful to France or Russia, but in the past, history has shown us that they are countries that seek territory. If France and Russia want to get territory, there is no doubt they do it with the idea that they will benefit that country, but the point is that the four countries I have named do not want territory. They want commercial freedom. Therefore in my humble opinion they are the four countries to argue, to talk out what is best, with regard to keeping the door open in China. “The first essential to the open door would naturally be to keep China in its integrity, and the next essential must be that essential upon which every country exists at the present moment, which is an efficient military and police. It is not worth while putting out propositions of reform- ing the finances, of reforming the government, and doing all that sort of thing, unless you have the first essential in any- thing of that sort, and an efficient military and police. “Now as to the point of the Chinese being good soldiers. I do not think there are any people in the world in whom 218 APPENDIX the characteristics of the good soldier are better developed than in the Chinese. We must not judge at all by the last war. They were reported then to have run away. I do not know wliat the gentlemen in this room would have done if they had found themselves in the same position as the members of the Chinese army. saw the men themselves. There were thousands of them who had never seen a rifle. They were given rifles and were helped to the ammunition out of barrels by the hand- ful. You would hardly believe it in such days as these, but the ammunition was of thirteen different sorts, and a man who didn’t know what a rifle was, was given pistol ammu- nition for a breech-loading rifle. I will tell you what I should have done. I should have made tracks to the rear as fast as ever I could when I found the Japanese firing at me and I had a breech-loading rifle with pistol ammunition. ‘Tn our old war we had some hundred of coolies. I wasn’t up there myself, but many of my brother officers were. Those coolies were shot down by hundreds, but not one of them wavered. Why? Because we paid them loy- ally, according to our contract, and fed and clothed them according to our contract, which they never got from their own people. ^T have been all over one of their arsenals. I have seen the most excellent tools, a great number of American, Ger- man, and British tools, good tools and modern tools, in the arsenals and well able to do good work. But what are they doing? You will hardly believe it, they are absolutely in some of these arsenals making a sort of weapon that old Noah would have discredited for the ark. It is something between a rifle and a gun, because it is not carefully grooved. The longest one I ever saw was nine feet eight inches long. It weighed about fifty-two pounds. The pro- cess of maneuvering with it when you go into action is to APPENDIX 219 lay it along the shoulders of three men, who as a rule are not the same height. It is then fired by a fourth man who looks along the sight. But it is a breech-loading gun and they think it is perfectly wonderful. This is the weapon they arc turning out now by the hundreds. ‘T have inspected their armies. Personally with an in- terpeter I have put the troops through maneuvers. I tell you at this moment those men are splendid men if they were trained. But out of their vast armies they have only 7,000 men whom you can call properly drilled and they were drilled by the Germans. At this moment out of a supposed army of 200,000 men they have only 7,000 soldiers. The rest are coolies, but out of the material that they have they could make a most formidable army of 200,000 men, and could support it on the money they now spend and throw uselessly away in the manner that I have endeavored to explain to you. ‘T have seen remarks in some of your papers to the effect that my proposal is to put China under the tutelage or dominion of the four countries I have named. It is nothing of the sort. It is merely that we should furnish them officers and men to put this army in order for the benefit of the Chinese nation and the security of the trade with China, and help the future development of trade with those countries that now trade with China. ^There have been some remarks made as to this ques- tion of an alliance. I must confess that the word alliance is likely to be misunderstood. I have never said, or wished to say, or thought of saying, that America and Great Britain should have an alliance for offense and defense. It would be a most stupid thing to say. If Great Britain had some bother in Europe, what business is that of the Americans ? You don’t suppose that your people would think of going to war about such a question as that ? 220 APPENDIX “What I meant was a sort of commercial understand- ing. That is a better way ; an understanding with regard to China alone and with regard to the trade and commerce in China alone in order that we should help China itself, and help in helping her. That is all. The question of the clat- tering of fleets and of armies and all that sort of question, and making remarks that might be held as irritating to the two other great powers, is far from my wish, and I never said anything of the sort. I am merely speaking of trade and commerce in China, how best we can keep the open door, how my proposal or suggestion is calculated for peace, and in no way irritating to the other countries, and I mention the four countries because those four coun- tries are the countries that hold the trade now. “Take our two countries. If China is open to the world, as I hope she will be, why, with our energy, our enterprise, beyond all our capital, we must be the dominant power in the trade of China, although all nations have the same privi- leges as ourselves. I hope that it is understood now what I meant by an alliance of those four countries. The ques- tion of what you may call the crisis in the breaking up of China is only postponed, in my opinion. It is certain to come sooner or later, and isn’t it the business of us who have trade in China to look the question in the face and de- vise some means by which we can protect our trade and commerce in the future, some means that will not be offen- sive to other countries, and some means that will be for the benefit of ourselves in the way of trade and commerce ? “Now, let us take the other policy. I cannot conceive anything that is more mystifying, that is more unconclusive, or more irritating than what is called the ‘sphere of in- fluence’ policy. It is a policy of grab and of irritation. You have seen it lately in Africa. Everybody wants more than he has got ; everybody wants something that somebody else APPENDIX 221 has. The sphere of influence policy, in my opinion, is cer- \ tain to drift into war. ‘'One of your papers said: Tt is all very well, but American trade is good now; it is getting on capitally. Why do we want to interfere with this thing at all ?’ That is true. American trade is growing by leaps and bounds. But isn’t that talk rather like the man who says : T have j lived in this beautiful house all my life, full of pictures anr> - valuables, and so did my grandfather before me, and I anfl not going to have a fire service in it ; it has lasted so well.’* And he endeavors probably to put the fire service in the ^ house after the house is alight. It is better , to have the fire service in before, and then the house is protected. . ‘T do believe this, that in this question of China, with ^ regard to our coming closer together, I do honestly believe that it is the biggest question that the world has had to face this century. I believe if we keep the door open, that we are adopting a policy which is absolutely fair and square to all the nations of the earth and is absolutely good for China itself. I believe we shall do good not only to trade j and commerce, but to humanity and Christianity, and the whole world at large.” CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 223 CHRONOLOGY OF CHINA B. C. Supposed age of Confucius (Kungfutze), the philosopher. .. .551-479 Stupendous wall of China completed 21 1 Literature and the art of printing encouraged 202 Battle between Phraates and the Scythians; the Chinese aided the latter, and ravaged the coasts of the Caspian: their first appearance in history (Lenglet) 129 The religion of Laot-se begun 15 A. D. A form of Buddhism, or the religion of Fo, introuced about 68-81 Nankin becomes the capital 420 The atheistical philosopher, San-Shin, flourishes 449 The Nestorian Christians permitted to preach 635 They are proscribed and extirpated 845 China ravaged by Tartars, 9th to nth centuries. Seat of government transferred to Pekin 1260 Marco Polo introduces missionaries 1275 Kublai Khan establishes the Yuen or Mongol dynasty. .. .about 1275 Ming dynasty 1368 Canal, called the Yu Ho, completed about 1400 Europeans first arrive at Canton 1517 Macao is granted to the Portuguese 1536 Jesuit missionaries are sent from Rome 1575 The country is conquered by the eastern or Manchu Tartars, who establish the present reigning Tsing dynasty 1616-43 Tea brought to England 1660 An earthquake throughout China buries 300,000 persons at Pekin alone 1662 Galdan, a prince of Jangaria, conquers Kashgaria and becomes supreme in Central Asia, 1678; checked by Kang-hi, 1689; totally defeated 1695 Commerce with East India Company begins 1680 Jesuit missionaries preach 1692 Commercial relations with Russia 1719-27 224 THE CHINESE EMPIRE The Jesuits expelled 1724-32 Another general earthquake destroys 100,000 persons at Pekin, and 80,000 in a suburb 1731 Successful war in Central Asia; Davatsi and his opponent, Amur Sana, subdued by Keen-lung, 1755 et seq.; Kashgar, Khokand, the Khirgez, etc., annexed 1760 In a salute by an English ship in China, a gun was inadvert- ently fired, which killed a native ; the government demanded the gunner ; he was soon strangled 1785 Earl Macartney's embassy arrives at Pekin; his reception by the emperor Sept. 14 1793 [This embassy threw light on the empire; it appeared to be di- vided into 15 provinces, containing 4,402 walled cities; the population of the whole was given at 333,000,000; its an- nual revenues at £66,000,000; and the army, including the Tartars, 1,000,000 of infantry and 800,000 cavalry; the reli-' gion Pagan, and the government absolute. Learning, and the arts and sciences, were encouraged, and ethics studied.] He is ordered to depart Oct. 7 1793 And arrives in England Sept. 6 1794 The affair of the East India Company’s ship Neptune, when a Chinaman was killed 1807 Edict against Christianity 1812 Chinese rule in Central Asia weakened 1812 Lord Amherst's embassy; he leaves England Feb. 8 1816 [His lordship failed in the objects of his mission, having refused to make the prostration of the kotow, lest he should there- by compromise the majesty of England.] Temporary insurrection in Kashgar 1826, et seq. Exclusive rights of the East India Company cease April 22 1834 Free-trade ships sail for England April 25 1834 Lord Napier arrives at Macao to superintend British com- merce July 15 1834 Affair between the natives and two British ships of war; sev- eral Chinese killed Sept. 5 1834 Lord Napier dies, and is succeeded by Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Davis Oct. ii 1834 Opium dispute begins; the trade prohibited by the emperor. Nov. 1834 Chinese seize the Argyle and crew Jan. 31 1835 Opium burnt at Canton by Chinese Feb. 23 1835 Captain Elliot, chief British commissioner Dec. 14 1836 CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 225 A British commissioner settled at Canton March 1837 Admiral Maitland arrives at Macao July 12 1838 Commissioner Lin orders seizure of opium, March 18; Brit- ish and other residents forbidden to leave Canton, March 19; the factories surrounded and outrages committed March 24 1839 Captain Elliot requires British subjects to surrender to him all opium, promising them full value of it, March 27; half of it is given up as contraband to the Chinese, April 20; the remainder (20,283 chests) surrendered. May 21 ; Cap- tain Elliot and the British merchants leave Canton, May 24; the opium destroyed by the Chinese June 3 1839 Affair between the British and American seamen and the Chi- nese; a native killed July 7 1839 Hongkong taken Aug. 23 1839 The British boat Black Joke attacked, and the crew murdered, Aug. 24; the British merchants retire from Macao. Aug. 26 1839 Affair at Kow-lung between British boats and Chinese junks Sept. 4 1839 Attack by 28 armed junks on the British frigates Volage and Hyacinth) several junks blown up Nov. 3 1839 The British trade with China ceases, by an edict of the em- peror, and the last servant of the company leaves this day Dec. 6 1839 Edict of emperor interdicting all trade and intercourse with England forever Jan. 5 1840 The Hellas ship attacked by armed junks, May 22; blockade of Canton by a British fleet, by orders from Sir Gordon Bremer, June 28 ; the Blonde with a flag of truce fired on at Amoy, July 2; Ting-hai, in Chusan, surrenders, July 5; blockade established along the Chinese coast, July 10; Mr. Staun- ton carried off to Canton Aug. 6 1840 Captain Elliot, on board a British steamship, enters the Peiho river, near Pekin Aug. ii 1840 The ship Kite lost on a sandbank, and the captain’s wife and a part of the crew are captured by the natives, and confined in cages Sept. 15 1840 Lin finally degraded ; Keshin appointed imperial commissioner, Sept. 16; Capt. Elliot’s truce with him Nov. 6 1840 British plenipotentiaries off Macao Nov. 20 1840 Admiral Elliot’s resignation announced Nov. 29 1840 226 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Mr. Staunton released Dec. 12 1840 Negotiations cease, owing to breach of faith on the part of the Chinese emperor Jan. 6 1841 Chuen-pe and Tae-coc-tow, and 173 guns (some sent tO' Eng- land) captured Jan. 7 1841 Hongkong ceded by Keshin to Great Britain, and $6,000,000 agreed to be paid within ten days to the British authori- ties Jan. 20 1841 Hongkong taken possession of Jan. 26 1841 The emperor rejects Keshin’s treaty, Feb. ii; hostilities re- sumed, Feb. 23; Chusan evacuated, Feb. 24; rewards pro- claimed at Canton for the bodies of Englishmen, dead or alive; $50,000 to be given for chiefs Feb. 25 1841 Bogue forts taken by Sir G. Bremer; Admiral Kwan killed; 459 guns captured Feb. 26 1841 The British squadron proceeds to Canton, March i ; Sir H. Gough takes command of the army, March 2; hostilities again suspended, March 3; and again resumed, March 6; Keshin degraded by the emperor * .March 12 1841 Flotilla of boats destroyed. Canton threatened, the foreign fac- tories seized, and 461 guns taken by the British forces March 18 1841 New commissioners from Pekin arrived at Canton April 14 1841 Hongkong Gazette first published May I 1841 Captain Elliot prepares to attack Canton May 17 1841 Heights behind Canton taken May 25 1841 The city ransomed for $6,000,000 ; $5,000,000 paid down ; hostili- ties cease May 31 1841 British forces withdrawn, June i ; and British trade re-opened July 16 1841 Arrival at Macao of Sir Henry Pottinger, who, as plenipo- tentiary, proclaims the objects of his mission; Captain Elliot superseded Aug. 10 1841 Amoy taken and 296 guns destroyed Aug. 27 1841 The Bogue forts destroyed Sept. 14 1841 Ting-hae taken, 136 guns captured, and Chusan re-occupied by Oct. 13; Yu-yaou, Tsze-kee, and Foong-hua Dec. 28 1841 Chinese attack Ning-po and Chin-hae, and are repulsed with great loss, March 10; 8,000 Chinese are routed near Tze- kee March 15 1842 Cha-pou attacked, defenses destroyed May 18 1842 CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 227 The British squadron enters the river Kiang, June 13; capture of Woo-sung and of 230 guns and stores, June 16; Shang- hai taken June 19 1842 The British armament anchors near the ‘‘Golden Isle,*' July 20; Chin-Keang taken; the Tartar general and many of the garrison commit suicide, July 21 ; the advanced ships reach Nankin; Aug. 4; the whole fleet arrives and disem- barkation commences, Aug. 9; Keying arrives at Nankin, with full powers to treat for peace Aug. 12 1842 Treaty of peace signed before Nankin on board the Cornwallis by Sir Henry Pottinger for England, and Keying Elepoo* and Neu-Kien on the part of the Chinese emperor — [Conditions : lasting peace and friendship between the two empires; China to pay $21,000,000; Canton, Amoy, Foo- choofoo, Ningpo and Shanghai to be thrown open to the British, and consuls to reside at these cities ; Hongkong to be ceded in perpetuity to England, etc. ; Chusan and Ku- lang-su to be held by the British until the provisions are fulfilled**] Aug. 29 1842 *He took part (it was said without authority) in arranging the treaty of Tien-tsin in June, 1858. He was in consequence con- demned to death — ^by suicide. **The non-fulfillment of this treaty led gradually to the war of 1856-57. The ratification signed by Queen Victoria and the emperor formally exchanged July 22 1843 Canton opened to the British July 27 1843 Appointment of Mr. Davis in the room of Sir Henry Pottin- ger Feb. 16 1844 Bogue forts captured by the British April 5 1847 Hongkong and the neighborhood visited by a violent typhoon; immense damage done to the shipping; upwards of 1,000 boat-dwellers on the Canton river drowned Oct. 1848 H. M. steamship Medea destroys 13 pirate junks in the Chi- nese seas March 4 1850 Rebellion breaks out in Quang-si Aug. 1850 Appearance of the pretender, Tien-teh*** March 1851 ***The Emperor Taou-Kwang, who died Feb. 25, 1850, during the latter part of his reign, became liberal in his views, and favored the introduction of European arts ; but his son, the late Emperor, 228 THE CHINESE EMPIRE a rash and narrow-minded prince, quickly departed from his father’s wise policy, and adopted reactionary measures, particularly against English influence. An insurrection broke out in consequence, Au- gust, 1850, and quickly became of alarming importance. The insur- gents at first proposed only to expel the Tartars; but in March, 1851, a pretender was announced among them, first by the name of Tien- teh (Celestial Virtue), but afterward assuming other names. He is stated to have been a native of Quang-si, of obscure origin, but to have obtained some literary knowledge at Canton about 1835, and to have become acquainted at that time with the principles of Chris- tianity from a Chinese Christian, named Leang-afa, and also from the missionary Roberts in 1844. He announced himself as the restorer of the worship of the true God, Shang-ti, and derived many of his dogmas from the Bible. He declared himself to be the mon- arch of all beneath the sky, the true lord of China (and thus of all the world), the brother of Jesus, and the second son of God, and demanded universal submission. He made overtures for alliance to Lord Elgin in November, i860. His followers were termed Taepings, ‘‘princes of peace,” a title utterly belied by their atrocious deeds. The rebellion was virtually terminated, July 18, 1864, by the capture of Nankin, the suicide of Tien-Wang, and the execution of the military leaders. Defeat of Leu, the imperial commissioner, and destruction of half the army June 19 1852 Successful progress of the rebels; the Emperor applies to the Europeans for help, without success March and April 1853 The rebels take Nankin, March 19 and 20; Amoy, May 19; Shanghai Sept. 7 1853 And besiege Canton without success August-No vember 1854 The scanty accounts are unfavorable to the rebels,- the impe- rialists having retaken Shanghai, Amoy and many import- ant places.. 1855 Outrage on the British lorcha Arrow, in Canton river*. . .Oct. 8 1856 *It was boarded by the Chinese officers, 12 men out of the crew of 14 being carried off and the national ensign taken down. Sir J. Bowring, governor of Hong-Kong, being compelled to resort to hos- tilities, applied to India and Ceylon for troops. On March 3, 1857, the house of commons, by a majority of 19, censured Sir John for the “violent measures” he had pursued. The ministry (who took his part) dissolved the parliament, but obtained a large majority in the new on^. CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 229 After vain negotiations with Commissioner Yeh, Canton forts attacked and taken Oct. 23 1856 A Chinese fleet destroyed and Canton bombarded by Sir M. Seymour Nov. 3-4 1856 Imperialists defeated, quit Shanghai Nov. 6 1856 The Americans revenge an attack by capturing three forts Nov. 21-23 1856 Rebels take Kuriking Nov. 25 1856 Other forts taken by the British December 1856 The Chinese burn European factories Dec. 14 1856 And murder the crew of the Thistle Dec. 30 1856 The Mahometans of Panthay, in Yunan, become independent during the Tae-ping rebellion 1856 A-lum, a Chinese baker, acquitted of charge of poisoning the bread Feb. 2 1857 Troops arrive from Madras and England, and Lord Elgin ap- pointed envoy March 1857 No change on either side; Yeh said to be straitened for money; the imperialists seem to be gaining ground on the rebels. . . May 1857 Total destruction of the Chinese fleet by Commodore Elliot, May 25-27, and Sir M. Seymour and Commodore Keppel. . June I 1857 Blockade of Canton August 1857 Stagnation in the war — Lord Elgin departs to Calcutta, with assistance to the English against the Sepoys, July 16; re- turns to Hongkong Sept. 25 1857 Gen. Ashburnham departs for India, and Gen. Straubenzee assumes the command Oct. 19 1857 Canton bombarded and taken by English and French, Dec. 28-29, 1857; who enter it Jan. 5 1858 Yeh* sent a prisoner to Calcutta January 1858 -*He died peacefully at Calcutta, April 9, 1859. He is said to have ordered the beheading of about 100,000 rebels. The allies proceed toward Pekin and take the Pel-ho forts... May 20 1858 The expedition arrives at Tien-tsin May 20 1858 Negotiations commence, June 5; treaty of peace signed at Tien- tsin by Lord Elgin, Baron Gros and Keying (who signed the treaty of 1842) — [Ambassadors to be at both courts; freedom of trade; toleration of Christianity; expenses of 230 THE CHINESE EMPIRE war to be paid by China; a revised tariff; term I {bar- barian) to be no longer applied to Europeans] June 26, 28, 29 1858 Lord Elgin visits Japan and concludes an important treaty with the Emperor .Aug. 28 1898 The British destroy about 130 piratical junks in the Chinese seas August and September 1858 Lord Elgin proceeds up the Yangtse-Kiang to Nankin, Janu- ary; returns to England May 1859 Mr. Bruce, the British envoy, on his way to Pekin, is stopped in the river Pei-ho (or Tien-tsin) ; Admiral Hope attempt- ing to force a passage, is repulsed with the loss of 81 killed and about 390 wounded June 25 1859 The American envoy Ward arrives at Pekin, and, refusing to submit to degrading ceremonies, does not see the Emperor July 29 1859 Commercial treaty with the United States Nov. 24 1859 The English and French prepare an expedition against China. . October 1859 Lord Elgin and Baron Gros sail for China, April 26; wrecked near Point de Galle, Ceylon, May 23; arrive at Shanghai. . . June 29, i860 The war begins : the British commanded by Sir Hope Grant, the French by General Montauban. The Chinese defeated in a skirmish near the Pei-ho Aug. 12 i860 The allies repulse the Tae-ping rebels attacking Shanghai Aug. 18-20; and take the Taku forts, losing 500 killed and wounded; the Tartar General San-ko-lin-sin retreats Aug. 21 i860 After vain negotiations the allies advance toward Pekin; they defeat the Chinese at Chang-kia-wan and Pa-li-chiau Sept. 18 and 21 i860 Consul Parkes, Captains Anderson and Brabazon, Mr. De Norman, Mr. Bowlby (the Times* correspondent), and 14 others (Europeans and Sikhs), advance to Tung-chow, to arrange conditions for a meeting of the ministers, and are captured by San-ko-lin-sin ; Captain Brabazon and Abbe de Luc beheaded, and said to be thrown into the canal; others carried into Pekin Sept. 21 i860 The allies march toward Pekin; the French ravage the Em- peroPs summer palace, Oct. 6; Mr. Parkes, Mr. Loch and CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 231 others restored alive, Oct. 8; Captain Anderson, Mr. De Norman and others die of ill-usage Oct. 8-ii i860 Pekin invested ; surrenders, Oct. 12 ; severe proclamation of Sir Hope Grant Oct. 15 i860 The bodies of Mr. De Norman and Mr. Bowlby solemnly buried in the Russian cemetery, Pekin, Oct. 17 ; the summer palace (Yuen-ming-yuen) burnt by the British, in memory of the outraged prisoners Oct. 18 i860 Convention signed in Pekin by Lord Elgin and the Prince Kung, by which the treaty of Tien-tsin is ratified; apology made for the attack at Pei-ho (June 25, 1859) J a large indemnity to be paid immediately, and compensation in money given to the families of the murdered prisoners, etc. ; Kowloon ceded in exchange for Chusan, and the treaty and convention to be proclaimed throughout the empire Oct. 24 i860 Allies quit Pekin Nov. 5 i860 Treaty between Russia and China — the former obtaining free trade, territories, etc Nov. 14 i860 First installment of indemnity paid Nov. 30 i860 Part of the allied troops settled at Tien-tsin; consulate estab- lished Jan. 5 1861 Admiral Hope examines Yangtse-Kiang, etc Feb. 1861 English and French embassies established at Pekin March, 1861 The Emperor Heinfung dies Aug. 21 1861 Canton restored to the Chinese Oct. 21 1861 Ministerial crisis; several ministers put to death, Nov.; Kung appointed regent Dec. 13 1861 Advance of the rebels; they seize and desolate Ning-po and Hang-chow December 1861 They advance on Shanghai, which is placed under protection of the English and French and fortified January 1862 Rebels defeated in two engagements April 1862 English and French assist the government against the rebels — Ning-po retaken May 10 1862 French Admiral Protet killed in an attack on rebels. .. .May 17 1862 Captain Sherard Osborne permitted by the Britiish government to organize a small fleet of gunboats to aid the imperialists to establish order July 1862 Imperialists gain ground, take Kah-sing, etc October 1862 Tungani (Mahometan) revolt in Central Asia; massacre of 232 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Buddhists 1862 Commercial treaty with Prussia ratified Jan. 14 1863 The Imperialists under Col. Charles Gordon defeat the Tae-pings under Burgevine, etc October 1863 Gordon captures Sowchow (after a severe attack, Nov. 27 and 28) ; the rebel chiefs treacherously butchered by the Chinese Dec. 4-5 1863 Capt. Osborne came to China; but retired in consequence of the Chinese government departing from its engagements. . Dec. 31 1863 Gordon's successes continue January to April 1864 Repulsed; he takes Chang-chow-foo March 23 1864 He takes Nankin (a heap of ruins) ; Hun-seu-tseun, the Tien- wang, the rebel emperor, commits suicide by eating gold leaf, June 30; Chang- wang and Kan-wang, the rebel gener- als, are '^cut into a thousand pieces” July 18 1864 Great mortality among British troops at Kowloon January 1865 The Tae-pings hold Ming-chow; the Mahometan rebellion (Douganese) progressing in Honan January-March 1865 Tae-pings evacuate Ming-chow May 23 1865 Rebellion in the north advancing June 1865 A rebellion of the Nien-fei in the north; Pekin in danger. .July 1865 The Chinese general San-ko-lin-sin defeated and slain ; his son more successful July 1865 Prince Kung chief of the regency again Nov. 7 1865 Sir Rutherford Alcock, ambassador at Pekin Nov. 26 1865 Chinese newspaper, ‘‘Messenger of the Flying Dragon,” appears in London Jan. 14 1866 Great victory over the Nien-fei announced at Canton. March 13 1866 Chinese commissioners visit London June 1866 Rivalry of two great political chiefs in China, Li Hung ching and Tsen-kwo-fan July 1866 Reported victory of the Nien-fei over the Imperialists. .. .Dec. 1867 Mahomed Yakoob Beg defeats the Tungani, becomes supreme in Kashgar, 1866; is recognized by Europe 1867 The rebels seize Ning-po Oct. 1868 The people at Yang-chow, incited by the “literati” (learned classes), destroy the Protestant mission houses, Aug. 22; redress not obtained; a British squadron proceeds to Nan- kin, Nov. 8; the viceroy is superseded, and the British de- mands acceded to * ....... Nov. 14 i868 CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 233 Chinese embassy (Mr. Anson Burlinghame, Chin Kang, and Sun Chia Su) received by President Johnson at Washing- ton, June 5; they sign a treaty, July 4; arrive in London, Sept; received by the queen Nov. 20 1868 Chinese embassy received by the Emperor at Paris Jan. 24 1869 Pekin visited by the Duke of Edinburgh, incognito October 1869 Supplementary convention to the treaty of Tien-tsin (June, 1858) for additional commercial freedom, signed... Oct 24 1869 Burlinghame dies at St Petersburg Feb. 22 1870 Successful rebellion of Mahometans in northwest provinces reported May 1870 Cruel massacre of the French consul at Tien-tsin, Roman Cath- olic priests, Sisters of Mercy (22 persons), besides many native converts, and above 30 children in the orphanage, by a mob, with, it is said, the complicity of the authorities ; the missionaries were accused of kidnaping children June 21 1870 Increased hatred of the people to foreigners at Tien-tsin; luke- warm proceedings of the government against the murder- ers July 1870 Ma, a viceroy of Nankin, favorable to Europeans, assassinated About Aug. 22 1870 Chapels destroyed at Fatshan Sept. 21 1870 The French ultimatum refused ; the murderers of the nuns un- punished; Chinese warlike preparations reported. .Sept. 26 1870 Judicious mandate from the mandarin Tseng-kwo-fan, excul- pating the missionaries and condemning their massacre... October 1870 16 coolies beheaded^ Sept. 15, and 23 exiled; indemnity to the sufferers by the outrage ordered; reported Oct. 26 1870 End of the difficulty announced Nov. 3 1870 Chung-how, an envoy, arrives in London August 1871 Memorial addressed to the Chinese government by Mr. Hart, inspector of customs, recommending changes in civil and military administration Autumn, 1871 The young Emperor married Oct. 16 1871 Received at Paris; apologizes for Tien-tsin massacres, and re- ports redress Nov. 23 1871 Russia annexes Kuldja 1871 Wm. Armstrong Russell consecrated Anglican bishop of North China Dec. 187^ 234 THE CHINESE EMPIRE The Emperor’s majority 5 he assumes the government. .Feb. 23 1873 Talifoo, capital of the insurgent Panthay Mahometans, cap- tured; thousands massacred February 1873 Foreign ministers for the first time received by the emperor. . . . June 29 1873 Dispute with Japan, July- August; settled by treaty Oct. 31 1874 The Spark sails from Canton to Macao ; Captain Brady and Mr. Mundy, and a foreign crew and passengers; pirates, who came on board secretly, kill captain and others, and carry off booty, while on voyage; the wounded crew manage to reach Macao Aug. 22 1874 Death of the Emperor Jan. 12 1875 Proclamation of his successor, Tsai-tsin, son of Chun, 7th son of Taou-Twang (nephew of Kung) Feb. 4 1875 Exploring expedition under Col. Horace Browne to open a pas- sage from Burmah into Southwest China, December, 1874; Mr. Margary and 5 Chinese going before, killed at Man- wyne, Feb. 21 ; Col. Brown and his troops repulse an attack by Chinese, but retreat to Rangoon, Feb. 22; some of the party missing March 12 1875 Through negotiations of Mr. Wade, the Chinese government promises due reparation; announced September 1875 Edict permitting intercourse betwen chiefs of departments and foreign ministers, about Oct. 4; enjoining proper treatment of foreigners Oct. ii 1875 Telegram from Mr. Wade; he has obtained necessary guaran- tees, satisfaction for the murder of Mr. Margary, and con- cessions for foreign trade Oct. 18 1875 Gen. Lee-see-ta-hee ordered for trial, Feb. ii; Margary’s mur- derers said to be executed May 5 1876 First railway in China, from Shanghai to Oussoon (Woosung), (ii miles) ; trial trip, March 16 (at first opposed) ; publicly opened June 30 1876 Mr. Grosvenor and others, sent to inquire respecting the murder of Mr. Margary, arrive at the place and report the proposed punishment of the murderers June 1876 Chefoo convention; difficulties in the negotiations removed (the government agree to compensation to Mr. Margary’s family ; removal of commercial grievances ; opening of four ports ; proper official intercourse) ; said to be signed. Sept. 1x3; ratified .....Sept X 7 1876 CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 235 War against the Tungani ; Manas captured ; great massacre of rebels Nov. 6 1876 Accredited Chinese envoy (Quo-ta-Zhan) lands at Southampton Jan. 21 1877 Decree of equal rights to Chinese Christians Feb. i 1877 Dreadful famine in northern provinces 1877 Four more Chinese ports opened April i 1877 Opium smoking interdicted after 3 years; announced. . .August 1877 The railway from Shanghai bought to be stopped, Oct. 31 ; re- sumed December 1877 Quo-ta-Zhan (or Kuo-ta-Jen) first accredited minister at Lon- don; Liu-ta-Jen at Berlin About November 1877 Yakoob Beg of Kashgaria totally defeated by the Chinese gen- eral, Tso-tsung-tang; is assassinated, May; Kashgar and other towns captured; end of war December 1877 The Chinese minister’s first grand evening reception. . .June 19 1878 Destruction of mission property at Wu-shih-shan by a fanatical mob, unrestrained by the mandarins Aug. 30 1878 Famine abating; £48,303 for relief collected in England September 1878 The Shanghai railway plant removed to Formosa 1878 Chinese immigrants virtually excluded from Australia by a poll- tax 1878 Rebellion in Kwang-si announced October 1878 Chung-How, ambassador at St. Petersburg, demands the sur- render of Kuli Beg, a fugitive from Kashgar, and restitu- tion of the territory December 1878 Rebellion in Hainan, in Canton province; Li-Yang-tsai, who in- vades Annam, claims the throne by descent; reported January 1879 Marquis Tseng, the new Chinese ambassador, arrives in Lon- don, Feb. 28; presents his credentials to the Queen March 20 1879 Treaty with Russia, who agrees to evacuate the Kuldja terri- tory, China to pay an indemnity About June 1879 Li-Yang-tsai, rebel chief, captured; announced Dec. 2 1879 Chung-How, the late Chinese ambassador at St. Petersburg, imprisoned and the treaty disavowed Spring, 1880 Chinese from Kashgar said to invade Russian territory. .. .May 1880 Prospect of war; Col. Gordon goes to China from Bombay. June 1880 Li Hung Chang, governor of metropolitan provinces, fortifies 236 THE CHINESE EMPIRE approaches to the capital, June; visited by Col. Gordon.. July 1880 Chung-How released; proposed war with Russia given up; an- nounced July 15 1880 Thomas, Duke of Genoa, sails up the Yangtse-Kiang in an Italian vessel April 1880 Peace with Russia, who makes concessions negotiated by Mar- quis Tseng; treaty signed Aug. 19 1881 Complication with France respecting Tonquin September 1883 September 1883 Mr. Logan sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for killing a coolie at Canton September 1883 Canton greatly excited against foreigners October 1883 Correspondence of France and China respecting Tonquin pub- lished in the Times, both firm Oct. 29 1883 Warm reception of Sir Henry Parkes as British ambassador. . September 1883 China issues a circular claiming Annam as a dependency November 1883 Coup d'etat at Pekin effected by Prince Chun, father of the reigning Emperor, who becomes dictator ; Prince Kung and the viceroy, Li Hung Chang, deposed April ii, et seq. 1884 The Marquis Tseng recalled from Paris, announced May 2 1884 Replaced by Li Fong Pao About May 8, 1884 Treaty with France, signed by Captain Fournier and Li Hung Chang, at Tien-tsin; French protectorate of Annam and Tonquin recognized; three southern provinces opened to commerce May ii 1884 The Chinese break the treaty by attacking the French marching to occupy Langson 1884 The French demand evacuation of the Tonquin frontier forts, and £10,000,000 indemnity July 1884 The Vv^ay party at Pekin oppose the Empress and Li Hung Chang, the viceroy July 1884 The frontier towns to be surrendered, the indemnity refused, announced July 30 1884 China offers reduced indemnity August 1884 Kelung in Formosa bombarded and forts destroyed by alleged treachery by Admiral Lespes Aug. 5-6 1884 Admiral Courbet at Foochow Aug. 10 1884 Negotiations at Shanghai August 1884 CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 237 France declines mediation of the powers; France issues a cir- cular to the powers Aug. 17 1884 Indemnity claimed by France, reduced to £3,200,000, Aug. 19; refused by China 1884 The French ambassador, Semalle, leaves Pekin; war ensues. . . . Aug. 21 1884 Admiral Courbet with his fleet sails up the Min river unat- tacked; destroys the Chinese fleet with much slaughter, Aug. 23 ; bombards the arsenal at Foochow, and dismantles the forts; destroys the forts and batteries, etc., at Mingan and Kinpai; French killed, about 7; Chinese said to be about 1,000 Aug. 26-28, 1884 Li Hung Chang deprived of his highest offices. .About Aug. 28 1884 Chinese declaration of war in a manifesto to the people an- nounced Sept. 6 1884 Chinese said to be defeated at Kinpai Pass About Sept. 16 1884 H. M. gunboat Zephyr fired on by mistake, Sept. 6; Chinese apologize Sept. 18 1884 Europeans at Shanghai and other places protest against the war September 1884 Li Hung Chang reappointed viceroy About Sept. 24 1884 Admiral Courbet captures Kelung, Oct. i ; Admiral Lespes bombards Tamsui, Oct. 2 et seq.; lands; retires Oct. 8 1884 North and West Formosa blockaded Oct. 23 1884 Kelung occupied by French; little resistance Oct. 8 1884 I, 000 Chinese defeated near Tamsui, Nov. 2; repulsed in an attack on Kelung, announced Nov. 12 1884 Fruitless mediation of Earl Granville with Marquis Tseng, announced Dec. 10 1884 Reported Chinese defeat near Kelung Dec. 13 1884 The native press, originally official {Pekin Gazette, ancient), becomes political and popular. 1884 Foreign Enlistment Act proclaimed at Hongkong .Jan. 23 1885 French attack near Kelung, Chinese works carried Jan. 25 1885 Chinese defeated with much loss. . Jan. 31 1885 Two Chinese junks sunk by French torpedoes Feb. 15 1885 Bombardment of Chin-hae, at the mouth of the Yung-Kiang river March 2 1885 Siege of Tuyen Quan, much slaughter March 2-3 1885 Several forts at Kelung captured, sanguinary conflicts March 4-12 1885 238 THE CHINESE EMPIRE Sir Henry Parkes, ambassador, dies March 22 1885 Pescadores Islands captured March 30-31 1885 Preliminaries of peace, through intervention of Sir Robt. Hart, signed at Pekin about April 6; treaty signed June 9; ratified Nov. 28 1885 Sir Robert Hart, British ambassador, June 23; resigns about. . . Aug. 31 1885 Formosa evacuated About June 23 1885 Introduction of railways authorized — new policy; about. August 1885 Disputes with Japan settled; reported August 1885 The Emperor agrees to receive a papal agent to protect Roman Catholic missionaries * July 1885 Death of Tso Tsung-Tang, a great statesman and guardian of the King Sept. 4 1885 Sir John Walsham, British minister April 7 1886 Liu-shin-fun, ambassador for Great Britain, arrives. . .April 28 1886 M. Agliardi appointed Internuncio July 14 1886 The scheme suspended by the Pope through French opposition About Sept. 15 1886 Convention with many concessions by the British government respecting the Burmese frontiers and trade signed at Pekin July 24 1886 The French consent to the transfer of the Pehtang Cathedral from its contiguity with the palace November 1886 The Chinese annul the French protectorate over all Christians. . November 1886 Decanville railway successfully opened Nov. 21 1886 General proclamations for protection of Christian missionaries and converts, excluding foreign protection January 1887 Remarkable presents from the Emperor to Sir Halliday Ma- cartney, secretary of the British and other legations (for good services to China) received in London February 1887 The Emperor, aged 16, assumes the government Feb. 7 1887 Convention between Great Britain and China, resepcting Bur- mah and Tibet, signed July 24, and ratified Aug. 25 1887 Chinese fleet of five ironclads (three constructed in Britain) at Spithead, sail for China under Admiral Lang, with others lent by the Admiralty September 1887 Commercial treaty with France, 1886; signed and ratified August 1887 Reported convention of Li Hung Chang, the viceroy, with Count CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 1888 Mitkiewicz and an American syndicate for introduction ol railways, telegraphs, telephones, etc., and a loan, August; repudiated by the Chinese government October Overflow of the Hwangho, or Yellow River, causing immense destruction; about 1,500 populous villages destroyed, and the important city, Chuhsien Chen, narrowly escaped with loss of suburbs ; millions of persons said to have perished ; famine imminent ; the government active in providing relief September-October 1887 Treaty with United States to allow Chinese immigration for 20 years with some exceptions (lawful marriage and children, property worth $1,000, etc.) signed March 14, 1888; China refuses the ratification September The Empress-mother announces her resignation of the admin- istration of government, which is to be assumed by the Em- peror July 27 The Chinese Exclusion Act vigorously carried out at San Fran- \ cisco, and at other places Middle October !^8l Railway from Tien-tsin to Taku opened November 1888 Conventions with Italy and Germany for them to protect their missionaries, announced December issa New Roman Catholic cathedral at Pekin consecrated Dec. 8 188S Great famine in consequence of inundations of the Yangtse and Yellow River valleys announced January, 1889; relief money sent from London, above £30,000 (gratefully ac- knowledged) 1889 Riots at Chin-Kiang, the British consulate and foreigners’ houses burnt Feb. 4-5, 1889 Marriage of the emperor Feb. 25 1889 Hsieh Ta Jen appointed minister for London, Paris, Brussels and Rome, announced June 4 Luchow, in the province of Szechuen, destroyed by fire, about 1,200 persons perish June 27 The Yellow River again burst its banks, causing must destruc- tion About July 22 1889 The Yellow River bursts its banks at Shantung and inundates the country, and countless lives are lost, reported. .July 26 i88q Great inundations in North China through typhoons; about 5,000 persons perish, reported ^ Aug. t construction of a trunk railway from Pekin to Hankow, ^iles, proposed Auga i88d 1889 ^The cor ■^il lates y 26 i88g bout , 7og^H THE CHINESE EMPIRE nsurrection in the province of Fuhkien ; suppressed ; lOO insur- gents killed ; announced .... Sept. 9 1889 'Collapse of a temple theater at Hangting, near Shantung ; about ’ 250 persons killed.. Oct 13 1889 The project postponed through opposition December 1889 Insurrection in the Amour district of Manchuria ; reported suc- cess of the rebels; they size the town Lan-pei-tuah ; Im- perialists defeated in battles; announced December 1889 Imperial decree for reforms in the army and civil services ; pro- moted by the emperor January-February 1890 Convention for the opening of the Chung-King to commerce signed at Pekin March 31 1890 Death of the Marquis Tseng, eminent statesman April 12 1890 The Duke and Duchess of Connaught honorably received in Canton and Shanghai May 1890 F if floods at Pekin, Tungchow and Tien-tsin; business ‘stopped, Aug. 3; renewal of the Yellow River inundations early September ; also in the provinces Shantung and Chihli ; ^ great loss of life and prospects of famine reported. .Oct. 16 1890 Explosion of the government powder magazine at Canton, kill- ing many persons and destroying 200 houses, Aug. 15; a similar explosion at Taiping-Fu, 300 persons killed, re- ported Nov. 7 1890 Massacre of many native Christians at Jongtuytsin and other places by a fanatical society reported December 1890 \n imperial decree, granting audience of the emperor to rep- resentatives of foreign powers issued Dec. 12 1890 Death of Prince Chung, father of the Emperor, reported. .Jan. 2 1891 S 'isastrous floods in Shue-Shang, Wen-Chuan and other dis- tricts, about 1,000 lives lost Early February 1891 he first audience Marchs 1891 |Tvnti-European riots at Wuhu; much destruction; British con- sulate wrecked; the consul and his wife escape; quiet re- stored by force May 12-13 1891 "rench church and orphanage at Woosieh destroyed by fire. . . . June 9 1891 creased popular anti-foreign agitation throughout China, une; the diplomatic body appeal to the government; the ^mperor issues a decree for the protection of foreigners and ishment of aggressors About June 15 18^ life and much destruction by the rising of the Yangtse- CHONOLOGY OF CHINA Kiang About July 21 Continued persecution of foreigners; the imperial decree inef- fectual; the diplomatic body press the government About Aug. 18 189 j The Kolao Hui, a secret society, strongly opposed to foreigners and Christianity, active Summer 189 ij The American mission at Ishang destroyed Sept, ii 189 j The outrages against foreigners increase; the diplomatic body report to their respective governments About Sept. 15 i8| Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States unite for the common support of their people against Chinese violence, reported Sept. 21 1891 j Compensation paid to the sufferers in Wuhu by the Viceroy Oct. 23 1891I British squadron and other vessels at Nagasaki and other ports About Oct. 23 189^ A modus vivendi with the Chinese authorities arranged by the European ministers, reported Nov. ii Insurrection in Mongolia and North China against foreigners and native Christians; reported massacres, November; sup- pressed by the government troops after battles, with much slaughter Nov. 28-29 1891^ Agreement of the Hunan societies against Europeans, etc., pub- lished at Shanghai About Dec. 7 189] Memorials of the viceroys of Nanking and Hukuang (attribu- ting the anti-foreign outrages to baseless rumors circulated by conspirators) issued December The government pays indemnities amounting to £100,000 to Christian missions and others, and punishes Chinese officials and offenders December Mr. Christopher Gardner, British consul, and Dr. Griffith John, missionary, assert that the anti-foreign outbreaks originated with the local mandarins, aided by Chanhan (or Chou Han), an eminent Hunan scholar and writer of offensive placards, etc., reported December The rebels in the north, headed by Li Hung, defeated by Yulu, reported Jan. 3 Mr. Nicholas R. O’Conor appointed British minister at Pekin. . About March 4 ll^n, the agitator, ordered to be arrested, March 25 ; not oL-aiidlence THE CHINESE EMPIRE by the foreign ministers, rejected Early April 1892 ill for the stringent exclusion of Chinese immigrants from the United States, passed by congress Early May 1892 enewed outrages on European missionaries, April 27, reported June 14 1892 Great fire at Tchang; about 50 junks destroyed and 200 lives lost Sept. 4 1892 ^reat inundation by the Yellow River; 12 towns said to be de- stroyed; reported Sept. 23 1892 r. OUonor, British minister, warmly received informally by the Emperor Dec. 13 1892 The ancestors of Sir Halliday Macartney raised to mandarins, reported December 1892 Famine in North Shensi reported March 8 1893 The Chinese exclusion (immigration) act in the United States comes into effect; (107,475 in the States) May 5 1893 :ng Chao-quan appointed minister at St. James', reported... June 29 1893 mese exclusion amended bill passed by the United States senate Nov. 2 1893 nsurrection in Manchuria reported May 31 1894 Gen. Ting sent to suppress the rising, and to redress griev- ances, reported June 4; rebellion subsides June 14 1894 IvYar with Japan July 1894 fMurderous outrages on missionaries ; murder of the Rev. James Wylie, Presbyterian, by soldiers at Liao-Yang; the murderers beheaded and officers degraded, reported. Sept. 15 1894 k Treaty between China and United States ratified August 1894 ■Great fire in Chung King; many deaths Aug. 25 1894 [Disorganization of the government and its resources reported. . ^ August 1894 Prince Kung returns to power, announced October 1894 Imperial edict for the protection of foreigners and mission- aries Oct. 15 1894 Li Hung Chang (minister) superseded by Prince Kung with enlarged powers Nov. 4 1894 Rebellion at Wuhu; Admiral Fremantle proceeds there, re- ported Dec. 10 1894 rince Kung appointed president of the grand council, virtually dictator; Li Hung Chang returns to power Dec. 13 CHONOLOGY OF CHINA 243 189s 1895 1895 reported March 22, Treaty of peace with Japan concluded; April 17; ratifications exchanged Maly 8 Foreign mission houses at Chengtu and Szechuan destroyed by rioters; missionaries safe May 29-31 Loan of ii6,ooo,ooo sterling from France and Russia, reported. . June 1895 Treaty with France respecting boundaries, commerce, etc., signed at Pekin June 25 1895 Loan of 400,000,000 francs, 4 per cent, guaranteed by Russia, signed at Pekin, July 4, at St. Petersburg July 6 1895 Massacre of British missionaries (the Rev. R. W. Stewart, 8 ladies and 2 children) at Whasang, near Ku-cheng by a fanatical sect called Vegetarians Aug. i 1895 British and American missions attacked, hospitals destroyed at Fatshan Aug. 7 1895 The British government demand immediate redress. . .Aug. 17 1895 For dates of events in the Chinese- Japanese war, and othei recent occurences, see Chapter III., “Recent Events in China.” I [ Rand, McNally & Co.’s kleleftrated Indexed Pocket Maps Of States and Territories. Price, 25 cents each. 1 These maps are folded to ordinary pocket size. 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