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diff --git a/old/cvchn10.txt b/old/cvchn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3788892 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cvchn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5185 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext The Civilization of China, by Giles + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +THE CIVILIZATION OF CHINA + +by Herbert A. 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Consul at Ningpo + + + + +PREFACE + + The aim of this work is to suggest a rough outline of Chinese + civilization from the earliest times down to the present period of + rapid and startling transition. + + It has been written, primarily, for readers who know little or + nothing of China, in the hope that it may succeed in alluring them + to a wider and more methodical survey. + +H.A.G. + + Cambridge, + May 12, 1911. + + + + +THE CIVILIZATION OF CHINA + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FEUDAL AGE + +It is a very common thing now-a-days to meet people who are going to +"China," which can be reached by the Siberian railway in fourteen or +fifteen days. This brings us at once to the question--What is meant by +the term China? + +Taken in its widest sense, the term includes Mongolia, Manchuria, +Eastern Turkestan, Tibet, and the Eighteen Provinces, the whole being +equivalent to an area of some five million square miles, that is, +considerably more than twice the size of the United States of America. +But for a study of manners and customs and modes of thought of the +Chinese people, we must confine ourselves to that portion of the whole +which is known to the Chinese as the "Eighteen Provinces," and to us +as China Proper. This portion of the empire occupies not quite two- +fifths of the whole, covering an area of somewhat more than a million +and a half square miles. Its chief landmarks may be roughly stated as +Peking, the capital, in the north; Canton, the great commercial +centre, in the south; Shanghai, on the east; and the Tibetan frontier +on the west. + +Any one who will take the trouble to look up these four points on a +map, representing as they do central points on the four sides of a +rough square, will soon realize the absurdity of asking a returning +traveller the very much asked question, How do you like China? Fancy +asking a Chinaman, who had spent a year or two in England, how he +liked Europe! Peking, for instance, stands on the same parallel of +latitude as Madrid; whereas Canton coincides similarly with Calcutta. +Within the square indicated by the four points enumerated above will +be found variations of climate, flowers, fruit, vegetables and animals +--not to mention human beings--distributed in very much the same way +as in Europe. The climate of Peking is exceedingly dry and bracing; no +rain, and hardly any snow, falling between October and April. The +really hot weather lasts only for six or eight weeks, about July and +August--and even then the nights are always cool; while for six or +eight weeks between December and February there may be a couple of +feet of ice on the river. Canton, on the other hand, has a tropical +climate, with a long damp enervating summer and a short bleak winter. +The old story runs that snow has only been seen once in Canton, and +then it was thought by the people to be falling cotton-wool. + +The northern provinces are remarkable for vast level plains, dotted +with villages, the houses of which are built of mud. In the southern +provinces will be found long stretches of mountain scenery, vying in +loveliness with anything to be seen elsewhere. Monasteries are built +high up on the hills, often on almost inaccessible crags; and there +the well-to-do Chinaman is wont to escape from the fierce heat of the +southern summer. On one particular mountain near Canton, there are +said to be no fewer than one hundred of such monasteries, all of which +reserve apartments for guests, and are glad to be able to add to their +funds by so doing. + +In the north of China, Mongolian ponies, splendid mules, and donkeys +are seen in large quantities; also the two-humped camel, which carries +heavy loads across the plains of Mongolia. In the south, until the +advent of the railway, travellers had to choose between the sedan- +chair carried on the shoulders of stalwart coolies, or the slower but +more comfortable house-boat. Before steamers began to ply on the +coast, a candidate for the doctor's degree at the great triennial +examination would take three months to travel from Canton to Peking. +Urgent dispatches, however, were often forwarded by relays of riders +at the rate of two hundred miles a day. + +The market in Peking is supplied, among other things, with excellent +mutton from a fat-tailed breed of sheep, chiefly for the largely +Mohammedan population; but the sheep will not live in southern China, +where the goat takes its place. The pig is found everywhere, and +represents beef in our market, the latter being extremely unpalatable +to the ordinary Chinaman, partly perhaps because Confucius forbade men +to slaughter the animal which draws the plough and contributes so much +to the welfare of mankind. The staple food, the "bread" of the people +in the Chinese Empire, is nominally rice; but this is too costly for +the peasant of northern China to import, and he falls back on millet +as its substitute. Apples, pears, grapes, melons, and walnuts grow +abundantly in the north; the southern fruits are the banana, the +orange, the pineapple, the mango, the pomelo, the lichee, and similar +fruits of a more tropical character. + +Cold storage has been practised by the Chinese for centuries. Blocks +of ice are cut from the river for that purpose; and on a hot summer's +day a Peking coolie can obtain an iced drink at an almost +infinitesimal cost. Grapes are preserved from autumn until the +following May and June by the simple process of sticking the stalk of +the bunch into a large hard pear, and putting it away carefully in the +ice-house. Even at Ningpo, close to our central point on the eastern +coast of China, thin layers of ice are collected from pools and +ditches, and successfully stored for use in the following summer. + +The inhabitants of the coast provinces are distinguished from the +dwellers in the north and in the far interior by a marked alertness of +mind and general temperament. The Chinese themselves declare that +virtue is associated with mountains, wisdom with water, cynically +implying that no one is both virtuous and wise. Between the +inhabitants of the various provinces there is little love lost. +Northerners fear and hate southerners, and the latter hold the former +in infinite scorn and contempt. Thus, when in 1860 the Franco-British +force made for Peking, it was easy enough to secure the services of +any number of Cantonese, who remained as faithful as though the attack +had been directed against some third nationality. + +The population of China has never been exactly ascertained. It has +been variously estimated by foreign travellers, Sacharoff, in 1842, +placing the figure at over four hundred millions. The latest census, +taken in 1902, is said to yield a total of four hundred and ten +millions. Perhaps three hundred millions would be a juster estimate; +even that would absorb no less than one-fifth of the human race. From +this total it is easy to calculate that if the Chinese people were to +walk past a given point in single file, the procession would never +end; long before the last of the three hundred millions had passed by, +a new generation would have sprung up to continue the neverending +line. The census, however, is a very old institution with the Chinese; +and we learn that in A.D. 156 the total population of the China of +those days was returned as a little over fifty millions. In more +modern times, the process of taking the census consists in serving out +house-tickets to the head of every household, who is responsible for a +proper return of all the inmates; but as there is no fixed day for +which these tickets are returnable, the results are approximate rather +than exact. + +Again, it is not uncommon to hear people talking of the Chinese +language as if it were a single tongue spoken all over China after a +more or less uniform standard. But the fact is that the colloquial is +broken up into at least eight dialects, each so strongly marked as to +constitute eight languages as different to the ear, one from another, +as English, Dutch and German, or French, Spanish, Italian and +Portuguese. A Shanghai man, for instance, is unintelligible to a +Cantonese, and so on. All officials are obliged, and all of the better +educated merchants and others endeavour, if only for business +purposes, to learn something of the dialect spoken at the court of +Peking; and this is what is popularly known as "Mandarin." The written +language remains the same for the whole empire; which merely means +that ideas set down on paper after a uniform system are spoken with +different sounds, just as the Arabic numerals are written uniformly in +England, France and Germany, but are pronounced in a totally different +manner. + +The only difficulty of the spoken language, of no matter what dialect, +lies in the "tones," which simply means the different intonations +which may be given to one and the same sound, thus producing so many +entirely different meanings. But for these tones, the colloquial of +China would be absurdly easy, inasmuch as there is no such thing as +grammar, in the sense of gender, number, case, mood, tense, or any of +the variations we understand by that term. Many amusing examples are +current of blunders committed by faulty speakers, such as that of the +student who told his servant to bring him a goose, when what he really +wanted was some salt, both goose and salt having the same sound, +/yen/, but quite different intonations. The following specimen has the +advantage of being true. A British official reported to the Foreign +Office that the people of Tientsin were in the habit of shouting after +foreigners, "Mao-tsu, mao-tsu" (pronounced /mowdza/, /ow/ as in +/how/), from which he gathered that they were much struck by the head- +gear of the barbarian. Now, it is a fact that /mao-tsu/, uttered with +a certain intonation, means a hat; but with another intonation, it +means "hairy one," and the latter, referring to the big beards of +foreigners, was the meaning intended to be conveyed. This epithet is +still to be heard, and is often preceded by the adjective "red." + +The written characters, known to have been in use for the past three +thousand years, were originally rude pictures, as of men, birds, +horses, dogs, houses, the numerals (one, two, three, four), etc., +etc., and it is still possible to trace in the modified modern forms +of these characters more or less striking resemblances to the objects +intended. The next step was to put two or more characters together, to +express by their combination an abstract idea, as, for instance, a +/hand/ holding a /rod/ = father; but of course this simple process did +not carry the Chinese very far, and they soon managed to hit on a +joint picture and phonetic system, which enabled them to multiply +characters indefinitely, new compounds being formed for use as +required. It is thus that new characters can still be produced, if +necessary, to express novel objects or ideas. The usual plan, however, +is to combine existing terms in such a way as to suggest what is +wanted. For instance, in preference to inventing a separate character +for the piece of ordnance known as a "mortar," the Chinese, with an +eye to its peculiar pose, gave it the appropriate name of a "frog +gun." + +Again, just as the natives and the dialects of the various parts of +China differ one from another, although fundamentally the same people +and the same language, so do the manners and customs differ to such an +extent that habits of life and ceremonial regulations which prevail in +one part of the empire do not necessarily prevail in another. Yet once +more it will be found that the differences which appear irreconcilable +at first, do not affect what is essential, but apply rather to matters +of detail. Many travellers and others have described as customs of the +Chinese customs which, as presented, refer to a part of China only, +and not to the whole. For instance, the ornamental ceremonies +connected with marriage vary in different provinces; but there is a +certain ceremony, equivalent in one sense to signing the register, +which is almost essential to every marriage contract. Bride and +bridegroom must kneel down and call God to witness; they also pledge +each other in wine from two cups joined together by a red string. Red +is the colour for joy, as white is the colour for mourning. Chinese +note-paper is always ruled with red lines or stamped with a red +picture. One Chinese official who gave a dinner-party in foreign +style, even went so far as to paste a piece of red paper on to each +dinner-napkin, in order to counteract the unpropitious influence of +white. + +Reference has been made above to journeys performed by boat. In +addition to the Yangtsze and the Yellow River or Hoang ho (pronounced +/Hwong haw/), two of the most important rivers in the world, China is +covered with a network of minor streams, which in southern China form +the chief lines of transport. The Yangtsze is nothing more than a huge +navigable river, crossing China Proper from west to east. The Yellow +River, which, with the exception of a great loop to the north, runs on +nearly parallel lines of latitude, has long been known as "China's +Sorrow," and has been responsible for enormous loss of life and +property. Its current is so swift that ordinary navigation is +impossible, and to cross it in boats is an undertaking of considerable +difficulty and danger. It is so called from the yellowness of its +water, caused by the vast quantity of mud which is swept down by its +rapid current to the sea; hence, the common saying, "When the Yellow +River runs clear," as an equivalent of the Greek Kalends. The huge +embankments, built to confine it to a given course, are continually +being forced by any unusual press of extra water, with enormous damage +to property and great loss of life, and from time to time this river +has been known to change its route altogether, suddenly diverging, +almost at a right angle. Up to the year 1851 the mouth of the river +was to the south of the Shantung promontory, about lat. 34 N.; then, +with hardly any warning, it began to flow to the north-east, finding +an outlet to the north of the Shantung promontory, about lat. 38 N. + +A certain number of connecting links have been formed between the +chief lines of water communication, in the shape of artificial +cuttings; but there is nothing worthy the name of canal except the +rightly named Grand Canal, called by the Chinese the "river of locks," +or alternatively the "transport river," because once used to convey +rice from the south to Peking. This gigantic work, designed and +executed in the thirteenth century by the Emperor Kublai Khan, +extended to about six hundred and fifty miles in length, and completed +an almost unbroken water communication between Peking and Canton. As a +wonderful engineering feat it is indeed more than matched by the +famous Great Wall, which dates back to a couple of hundred years +before Christ, and which has been glorified as the last trace of man's +handiwork on the globe to fade from the view of an imaginary person +receding into space. Recent exploration shows that this wall is about +eighteen hundred miles in length, stretching from a point on the +seashore somewhat east of Peking, to the northern frontier of Tibet. +Roughly speaking, it is twenty-two feet in height by twenty feet in +breadth; at intervals of a hundred yards are towers forty feet high, +the whole being built originally of brick, of which in some parts but +mere traces now remain. Nor is this the only great wall; ruins of +other walls on a considerable scale have lately been brought to light, +the object of all being one and the same--to keep back the marauding +Tartars. + +Over the length and breadth of their boundless empire, with all its +varying climates and inhabitants, the Chinese people are free to +travel, for business or pleasure, at their own sweet will, and to take +up their abode at any spot without let or hindrance. No passports are +required; neither is any ordinary citizen obliged to possess other +papers of identification. Chinese inns are not exposed to the +annoyance of domicilary visits with reference to their clients for the +time being; and so long as the latter pay their way, and refrain from +molesting others, they will usually be free from molestation +themselves. The Chinese, however, are not fond of travelling; they +love their homes too well, and they further dread the inconveniences +and dangers attached to travel in many other parts of the world. +Boatmen, carters, and innkeepers have all of them bad reputations for +extortionate charges; and the traveller may sometimes happen upon a +"black inn," which is another name for a den of thieves. Still there +have been many who travelled for the sake of beautiful scenery, or in +order to visit famous spots of historical interest; not to mention the +large body of officials who are constantly on the move, passing from +post to post. + +Among those who believe that every nation must have reached its +present quarters from some other distant parts of the world, must be +reckoned a few students of the ancient history of China. Coincidences +in language and in manners and customs, mostly of a shadowy character, +have led some to suggest Babylonia as the region from which the +Chinese migrated to the land where they are now found. The Chinese +possess authentic records of an indisputably early past, but +throughout these records there is absolutely no mention, not even a +hint, of any migration of the kind. + +Tradition places the Golden Age of China so far back as three thousand +years before Christ; for a sober survey of China's early civilization, +it is not necessary to push further back than the tenth century B.C. +We shall find evidence of such an advanced state of civilization at +that later date as to leave no doubt of a very remote antiquity. + +The China of those days, known even then as the Middle Kingdom, was a +mere patch on the empire of to-day. It lay, almost lozenge-shaped, +between the 34th and 40th parallels of latitude north, with the upper +point of the lozenge resting on the modern Peking, and the lower on +Si-an Fu in Shensi, whither the late Empress Dowager fled for safety +during the Boxer rising in 1900. The ancient autocratic Imperial +system had recently been disestablished, and a feudal system had taken +its place. The country was divided up into a number of vassal states +of varying size and importance, ruled each by its own baron, who swore +allegiance to the sovereign of the Royal State. The relations, +however, which came to subsist, as time went on, between these states, +sovereign and vassal alike, as described in contemporary annals, often +remind the reader of the relations which prevailed between the various +political divisions of ancient Greece. The rivalries of Athens and +Sparta, whose capitals were only one hundred and fifty miles apart-- +though a perusal of Thucydides makes one feel that at least half the +world was involved--find their exact equivalent in the jealousies and +animosities which stirred the feudal states of ancient China, and in +the disastrous campaigns and bloody battles which the states fought +with one another. We read of chariots and horsemanship; of feats of +arms and deeds of individual heroism; of forced marches, and of night +attacks in which the Chinese soldier was gagged with a kind of wooden +bit, to prevent talking in the ranks; of territory annexed and +reconquered, and of the violent deaths of rival rulers by poison or +the dagger of the assassin. + +When the armies of these states went into battle they formed a line, +with the bowmen on the left and the spearmen on the right flank. The +centre was occupied by chariots, each drawn by either three or four +horses harnessed abreast. Swords, daggers, shields, iron-headed clubs +some five to six feet in length and weighing from twelve to fifteen +pounds, huge iron hooks, drums, cymbals, gongs, horns, banners and +streamers innumerable, were also among the equipment of war. Beacon- +fires of wolves' dung were lighted to announce the approach of an +enemy and summon the inhabitants to arms. Quarter was rarely if ever +given, and it was customary to cut the ears from the bodies of the +slain. Parleys were conducted and terms of peace arranged under the +shelter of a banner of truce, upon which two words were inscribed-- +"Stop fighting." + +The beacon-fires above mentioned, very useful for summoning the feudal +barons to the rescue in case of need, cost one sovereign his throne. +He had a beautiful concubine, for the sake of whose company he +neglected the affairs of government. The lady was of a melancholy +turn, never being seen to smile. She said she loved the sound of rent +silk, and to gratify her whim many fine pieces of silk were torn to +shreds. The king offered a thousand ounces of gold to any one who +would make her laugh; whereupon his chief minister suggested that the +beacon-fires should be lighted to summon the feudal nobles with their +armies, as though the royal house were in danger. The trick succeeded; +for in the hurry-skurry that ensued the impassive girl positively +laughed outright. Later on, when a real attack was made upon the +capital by barbarian hordes, and the beacon-fires were again lighted, +this time in stern reality, there was no response from the insulted +nobles. The king was killed, and his concubine strangled herself. + +Meanwhile, a high state of civilization was enjoyed by these feudal +peoples, when not engaged in cutting each other's throats. They lived +in thatched houses constructed of rammed earth and plaster, with +beaten floors on which dry grass was strewn as carpet. Originally +accustomed to sit on mats, they introduced chairs and tables at an +early date; they drank an ardent spirit with their carefully cooked +food, and wore robes of silk. Ballads were sung, and dances were +performed, on ceremonial and festive occasions; hunting and fishing +and agriculture were occupations for the men, while the women employed +themselves in spinning and weaving. There were casters of bronze +vessels, and workers in gold, silver, and iron; jade and other stones +were cut and polished for ornaments. The written language was already +highly developed, being much the same as we now find it. Indeed, the +chief difference lies in the form of the characters, just as an old +English text differs in form from a text of the present day. What we +may call the syntax of the language has remained very much the same; +and phrases from the old ballads of three thousand years ago, which +have passed into the colloquial, are still readily understood, though +of course pronounced according to the requirements of modern speech. +We can no more say how Confucius (551-479 B.C.) pronounced Chinese, +than we can say how Miltiades pronounced Greek when addressing his +soldiers before the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.). The "books" which +were read in ancient China consisted of thin slips of wood or bamboo, +on which the characters were written by means of a pencil of wood or +bamboo, slightly frayed at the end, so as to pick up a coloured liquid +and transfer it to the tablets as required. Until recently, it was +thought that the Chinese scratched their words on tablets of bamboo +with a knife, but now we know that the knife was only used for +scratching out, when a character was wrongly written. + +The art of healing was practised among the Chinese in their +pre-historic times, but the earliest efforts of a methodical +character, of which we have any written record, belong to the period +with which we are now dealing. There is indeed a work, entitled "Plain +Questions," which is attributed to a legendary emperor of the Golden +Age, who interrogates one of his ministers on the cause and cure of +all kinds of diseases; as might be expected, it is not of any real +value, nor can its date be carried back beyond a few centuries B.C. + +Physicians of the feudal age classified diseases under the four +seasons of the year: headaches and neuralgic affections under +/spring/, skin diseases of all kinds under /summer/, fevers and agues +under /autumn/, and bronchial and pulmonary complaints under /winter/. +They treated the various complaints that fell under these headings by +suitable doses of one or more ingredients taken from the five classes +of drugs, derived from herbs, trees, living creatures, minerals, and +grains, each of which class contained medicines of five flavours, with +special properties: /sour/ for nourishing the bones, /acid/ for +nourishing the muscles, /salt/ for nourishing the blood-vessels, +/bitter/ for nourishing general vitality, and /sweet/ for nourishing +the flesh. The pulse has always been very much to the front in the +treatment of disease; there are at least twenty-four varieties of +pulse with which every doctor is supposed to be familiar, and some +eminent doctors have claimed to distinguish no fewer than seventy-two. +In the "Plain Questions" there is a sentence which points towards the +circulation of the blood,--"All the blood is under the jurisdiction of +the heart," a point beyond which the Chinese never seem to have pushed +their investigations; but of this curious feature in their +civilization, later on. + +It was under the feudal system, perhaps a thousand years before +Christ, that the people of China began to possess family names. +Previous to that time there appear to have been tribal or clan names; +these however were not in ordinary use among the individual members of +each clan, who were known by their personal names only, bestowed upon +them in childhood by their parents. Gradually, it became customary to +prefix to the personal name a surname, adopted generally from the name +of the place where the family lived, sometimes from an appellation or +official title of a distinguished ancestor; places in China never take +their names from individuals, as with us, and consequently there are +no such names as Faringdon or Gislingham, the homes of the Fearings or +Gislings of old. Thus, to use English terms, a boy who had been called +"Welcome" by his parents might prefix the name of the place, +Cambridge, where he was born, and call himself Cambridge Welcome, the +surname always coming first in Chinese, as, for instance, in Li Hung- +Chang. The Manchus, it must be remembered, have no surnames; that is +to say, they do not use their clan or family names, but call +themselves by their personal names only. + +Chinese surnames, other than place names, are derived from a variety +of sources: from nature, as River, Stone, Cave; from animals, as Bear, +Sheep, Dragon; from birds, as Swallow, Pheasant; from the body, as +Long-ears, Squint-eye; from colours, as Black, White; from trees and +flowers, as Hawthorn, Leaf, Reed, Forest; and others, such as Rich, +East, Sharp, Hope, Duke, Stern, Tepid, Money, etc. By the fifth +century before Christ, the use of surnames had definitely become +established for all classes, whereas in Europe surnames were not known +until about the twelfth century after Christ, and even then were +confined to persons of wealth and position. There is a small Chinese +book, studied by every schoolboy and entitled /The Hundred Surnames/, +the word "hundred" being commonly used in a generally comprehensive +sense. It actually contains about four hundred of the names which +occur most frequently. + +About two hundred and twenty years before Christ, the feudal system +came to an end. One aggressive state gradually swallowed up all the +others; and under the rule of its sovereign, China became once more an +empire, and such it has ever since remained. But although always an +empire, the throne, during the past two thousand years, has passed +many times from one house to another. + +The extraordinary man who led his state to victory over each rival in +turn, and ultimately mounted the throne to rule over a united China, +finds his best historical counterpart in Napoleon. He called himself +the First Emperor, and began by sending an army of 300,000 men to +fight against an old and dreaded enemy to the north, recently +identified beyond question with the Huns. He dispatched a fleet to +search for some mysterious islands off the coast, thought by some to +be the islands which form Japan. He built the Great Wall, to a great +extent by means of convict labour, malefactors being condemned to long +terms of penal servitude on the works. His copper coinage was so +uniformly good that the cowry disappeared altogether from commerce +during his reign. Above all things he desired to impart a fresh +stimulus to literary effort, but he adopted singularly unfortunate +means to secure this desirable end; for, listening to the insidious +flattery of courtiers, he determined that literature should begin anew +with his reign. He therefore determined to destroy all existing books, +finally deciding to spare those connected with three important +departments of human knowledge: namely, (1) works which taught the +people to plough, sow, reap, and provide food for the race; (2) works +on the use of drugs and on the healing art; and (3) works on the +various methods of foretelling the future which might lead men to act +in accordance with, and not in opposition to, the eternal fitness of +things as seen in the operations of Nature. Stringent orders were +issued accordingly, and many scholars were put to death for concealing +books in the hope that the storm would blow over. Numbers of valuable +works perished in a vast conflagration of books, and the only wonder +is that any were preserved, with the exception of the three classes +specified above. + +In 210 B.C. the First Emperor died, and his youngest son was placed +upon the throne with the title of Second Emperor. The latter began by +carrying out the funeral arrangements of his father, as described +about a century later by the first and greatest of China's +historians:-- + +"On the 9th moon the First Emperor was buried in Mount Li, which in +the early days of his reign he had caused to be tunnelled and prepared +with that view. Then, when he had consolidated the empire, he employed +his soldiery, to the number of 700,000, to bore down to the Three +Springs (that is, until water was reached), and there a firm +foundation was laid and the sarcophagus placed thereon. Rare objects +and costly jewels were collected from the palaces and from the various +officials, and were carried thither and stored in huge quantities. +Artificers were ordered to construct mechanical crossbows, which, if +any one were to enter, would immediately discharge their arrows. With +the aid of quicksilver, rivers were made--the Yangtsze, the Yellow +River, and the great ocean--the metal being made to flow from one into +the other by machinery. On the roof were delineated the constellations +of the sky, on the floor the geographical divisions of the earth. +Candles were made from the fat of the man-fish (walrus), calculated to +last for a very long time. The Second Emperor said: 'It is not fitting +that the concubines of my late father who are without children should +leave him now;' and accordingly he ordered them to accompany the dead +monarch into the next world, those who thus perished being many in +number. When the internment was completed, some one suggested that the +workmen who had made the machinery and concealed the treasure knew the +great value of the latter, and that the secret would leak out. +Therefore, so soon as the ceremony was over, and the path giving +access to the sarcophagus had been blocked up at its innermost end, +the outside gate at the entrance to this path was let fall, and the +mausoleum was effectually closed, so that not one of the workmen +escaped. Trees and grass were then planted around, that the spot might +look like the rest of the mountain." + +The career of the Second Emperor finds an apt parallel in that of +Richard Cromwell, except that the former was put to death, after a +short and inglorious reign. Then followed a dynasty which has left an +indelible mark upon the civilization as well as on the recorded +history of China. A peasant, by mere force of character, succeeded +after a three-years' struggle in establishing himself upon the throne, +206 B.C., and his posterity, known as the House of Han, ruled over +China for four hundred years, accidentally divided into two nearly +equal portions by the Christian era, about which date there occurred a +temporary usurpation of the throne which for some time threatened the +stability of the dynasty in the direct line of succession. To this +date, the more northern Chinese have no prouder title than that of a +"son of Han." + +During the whole period of four hundred years the empire cannot be +said to have enjoyed complete tranquillity either at home or abroad. +There were constant wars with the Tartar tribes on the north, against +whom the Great Wall proved to be a somewhat ineffectual barrier. Also +with the Huns, the forbears of the Turks, who once succeeded in +shutting up the founder of the dynasty in one of his own cities, from +which he only escaped by a stratagem to be related in another +connexion. There were in addition wars with Korea, the ultimate +conquest of which led to the discovery of Japan, then at a low level +of civilization and unable to enter into official relations with China +until A.D. 57, when an embassy was sent for the first time. Those who +are accustomed to think of the Chinese as an eminently unwarlike +nation will perhaps be surprised to hear that before the end of the +second century B.C. they had carried their victorious arms far away +into Central Asia, annexing even the Pamirs and Kokand to the empire. +The wild tribes of modern Yunnan were reduced to subjection, and their +territory may further be considered as added from about this period. + +At home, the eunuchs gave an immense deal of trouble by their restless +spirit of intrigue; besides which, for nearly twenty years the +Imperial power was in the hands of a famous usurper, named Wang Mang +(pronounced /Wahng Mahng/), who had secured it by the usual means of +treachery and poison, to lose it on the battle-field and himself to +perish shortly afterwards in a revolt of his own soldiery. But the +most remarkable of all events connected with the Han dynasty was the +extended revival of learning and authorship. Texts of the Confucian +Canon were rescued from hiding-places in which they had been concealed +at the risk of death; editing committees were appointed, and immense +efforts were made to repair the mischief sustained by literature at +the hands of the First Emperor. The scholars of the day expounded the +teachings of Confucius as set forth in these texts; and although their +explanations were set aside in the twelfth century, when an entirely +new set of interpretations became (and remain) the accepted standard +for all students, it is mostly due to those early efforts that the +Confucian Canon has exercised such a deep and lasting influence over +the minds of the Chinese people. Unfortunately, it soon became the +fashion to discover old texts, and many works are now in circulation +which have no claim whatever to the antiquity to which they pretend. + +During the four hundred years of Han supremacy the march of +civilization went steadily forward. Paper and ink were invented, and +also the camel's-hair brush, both of which gave a great impetus to the +arts of writing and painting, the latter being still in a very +elementary stage. The custom of burying slaves with the dead was +abolished early in the dynasty. The twenty-seven months of mourning +for parents--nominally three years, as is now again the rule--was +reduced to a more manageable period of twenty-seven days. Literary +degrees were first established, and perpetual hereditary rank was +conferred upon the senior descendant of Confucius in the male line, +which has continued in unbroken succession down to the present day. +The head of the Confucian clan is now a duke, and resides in a palace, +taking rank with, if not before, the highest provincial authorities. + +The extended military campaigns in Central Asia during this period +brought China into touch with Bactria, then an outlying province of +ancient Greece. From this last source, the Chinese learnt many things +which are now often regarded as of purely native growth. They imported +the grape, and made from it a wine which was in use for many +centuries, disappearing only about two or three hundred years ago. +Formerly dependent on the sun-dial alone, the Chinese now found +themselves in possession of the water-clock, specimens of which are +still to be seen in full working order, whereby the division of the +day into twelve two-hour periods was accurately determined. The +calendar was regulated anew, and the science of music was +reconstructed; in fact, modern Chinese music may be said to +approximate closely to the music of ancient Greece. Because of the +difference of scale, Chinese music does not make any appeal to Western +ears; at any rate, not in the sense in which it appealed to Confucius, +who has left it on record that after listening to a certain melody he +was so affected as not to be able to taste meat for three months. + + + +CHAPTER II + +LAW AND GOVERNMENT + +In the earliest ages of which history professes to take cognizance, +persons who wished to dispose of their goods were obliged to have +recourse to barter. By and by shells were adopted as a medium of +exchange, and then pieces of stamped silk, linen, and deerskin. These +were followed by circular discs of copper, pierced with a round hole, +the forerunners of the ordinary copper coins of a century or two +later, which had square holes, and bore inscriptions, as they still do +in the present day. Money was also cast in the shape of "knives" and +of "trouser," by which names specimens of this early coinage (mostly +fakes) are known to connoisseurs. Some of these were beautifully +finished, and even inlaid with gold. Early in the ninth century, bills +of exchange came into use; and from the middle of the twelve century +paper money became quite common, and is still in general use all over +China, notes being issued in some places for amounts less even than a +shilling. + +Measures of length and capacity were fixed by the Chinese after an +exceedingly simple process. The grain of millet, which is fairly +uniform in size, was taken as the unit of both. Ten of these grains, +laid end-ways, formed the inch, ten of which made a foot, and ten feet +a /chang/. The decimal system has always prevailed in China, with one +curious exception: sixteen ounces make a pound. How this came to be so +does not appear to be known; but in this case it is the pound which is +the unit of weight, and not the lower denomination. The word which for +more than twenty centuries signified "pound" to the Chinese, was +originally the rude picture of an axe-head; and there is no doubt that +axe-heads, being all of the same size, were used in weighing +commodities, and were subsequently split, for convenience's sake, into +sixteen equal parts, each about one-third heavier than the English +ounce. For measures of capacity, we must revert to the millet-grain, a +fixed number of which set the standard for Chinese pints and quarts. +The result of this rule-of-thumb calculation has been that weights and +measures vary all over the empire, although there actually exist an +official foot, pound and pint, as recognized by the Chinese +government. In one and the same city a tailor's foot will differ from +a carpenter's foot, an oilman's pint from a spirit-merchant's pint, +and so on. The final appeal is to local custom. + +With the definitive establishment of the monarchy, two hundred years +before the Christian era, a system of government was inaugurated which +has proceeded, so far as essentials are concerned, upon almost uniform +lines down to the present day. + +It is an ancient and well-recognized principle in China, that every +inch of soil belongs to the sovereign; consequently, all land is held +on consideration of a land-tax payable to the emperor, and so long as +this tax is forthcoming, the land in question is practically freehold, +and can be passed by sale from hand to hand for a small conveyancing +fee to the local authorities who stamp the deeds. Thus, the foreign +concessions or settlements in China were not sold or parted with in +any way by the Chinese; they were "leased in perpetuity" so long as +the ground-rent is paid, and remain for all municipal and such +purposes under the uncontrolled administration of the nation which +leased them. The land-tax may be regarded as the backbone of Chinese +finance; but although nominally collected at a fixed rate, it is +subject to fluctuations due to bad harvests and like visitations, in +which cases the tax is accepted at a lower rate, in fact at any rate +the people can afford to pay. + +The salt and other monopolies, together with the customs, also +contribute an important part of China's revenue. There is the old +native customs service, with its stations and barriers all over the +empire, and the foreign customs service, as established at the treaty +ports only, in order to deal with shipments on foreign vessels trading +with China. The traditional and well-marked lines of taxation are +freely accepted by the people; any attempt, however, to increase the +amounts to be levied, or to introduce new charges of any kind, unless +duly authorized by the people themselves, would be at once sternly +resisted. As a matter of fact, the authorities never run any such +risks. It is customary, when absolutely necessary, and possibly +desirable, to increase old or to introduce new levies, for the local +authorities to invite the leading merchants and others concerned to a +private conference; and only when there is a general consent of all +parties do the officials venture to put forth proclamations saying +that such and such a tax will be increased or imposed, as the case may +be. Any other method may lead to disastrous results. The people refuse +to pay; and coercion is met at once by a general closing of shops and +stoppage of trade, or, in more serious cases, by an attack on the +official residence of the offending mandarin, who soon sees his house +looted and levelled with the ground. In other words, the Chinese +people tax themselves. + +The nominal form of government, speaking without reference to the new +constitution which will be dealt with later on, is an irresponsible +autocracy; its institutions are likewise autocratic in form, but +democratic in operation. The philosopher, Mencius (372-289 B.C.), +placed the people first, the gods second, and the sovereign third, in +the scale of national importance; and this classification has sunk +deep into the minds of the Chinese during more than two thousand years +past. What the people in China will not stand is injustice; at the +same time they will live contentedly under harsh laws which they have +at one time or another imposed upon themselves. + +Each of the great dynasties has always begun with a Penal Code of its +own, based upon that of the outgoing dynasty, but tending to be more +and more humane in character as time goes on. The punishments in old +days were atrocious in their severity; the Penal Code of the present +dynasty, which came into force some two hundred and fifty years ago, +has been pronounced by competent judges to take a very high rank +indeed. It was introduced to replace a much harsher code which had +been in operation under the Ming dynasty, and contains the nominally +immutable laws of the empire, with such modifications and restrictions +as have been authorized from time to time by Imperial edict. Still +farther back in Chinese history, we come upon punishments of ruthless +cruelty, such as might be expected to prevail in times of lesser +culture and refinement. Two thousand years ago, the Five Punishments +were--branding on the forehead, cutting off the nose, cutting off the +feet, mutilation, and death; for the past two hundred and fifty years, +these have been--beating with the light bamboo, beating with the heavy +bamboo, transportation for a certain period, banishment to a certain +distance, and death, the last being subdivided into strangling and +decapitation, according to the gravity of the offence. + +Two actual instruments of torture are mentioned, one for compressing +the ankle-bones, and the other for squeezing the fingers, to be used +if necessary to extort a confession in charges of robbery and +homicide, confession being regarded as essential to the completion of +the record. The application, however, of these tortures is fenced +round in such a way as to impose great responsibility upon the +presiding magistrate; and in addition to the risk of official +impeachment, there is the more dreaded certainty of loss of influence +and of popular esteem. Mention is made in the code of the so-called +"lingering death," according to which first one arm is chopped off, +then the other; the two legs follow in the same way; two slits are +made on the breast, and the heart is torn out; decapitation finishes +the proceedings. It is worthy of note that, although many foreigners +have been present from time to time at public executions, occasionally +when the "lingering death" has been announced, not one has established +it as a fact beyond a doubt that such a process has ever been carried +out. Not only that; it is also well known that condemned criminals are +allowed to purchase of themselves, or through their friends, if they +have any, spirits or opium with which to fortify their courage at the +last moment. There is indeed a tradition that stupefying drinks are +served out by the officials to the batches of malefactors as they pass +to the execution ground at Peking. It would still remain to find +executioners capable of performing in cold blood such a disgusting +operation as the "lingering death" is supposed to be. The ordinary +Chinaman is not a fiend; he does not gloat in his peaceful moments, +when not under the influence of extreme excitement, over bloodshed and +cruelty. + +The generally lenient spirit in which the Penal Code of China was +conceived is either widely unknown, or very often ignored. For +instance, during the excessive summer heats certain punishments are +mitigated, and others remitted altogether. Prompt surrender and +acknowledgment of an offence, before it is otherwise discovered, +entitles the offender, with some exceptions, to a full and free +pardon; as also does restitution of stolen property to its owner by a +repentant thief; while a criminal guilty of two or more offences can +be punished only to the extent of the principal charge. Neither are +the near relatives, nor even the servants, of a guilty man, punishable +for concealing his crime and assisting him to escape. Immense +allowances are made for the weakness of human nature, in all of which +may be detected the tempering doctrines of the great Sage. A feudal +baron was boasting to Confucius that in his part of the country the +people were so upright that a son would give evidence against a father +who had stolen a sheep. "With us," replied Confucius, "the father +screens the son, and the son screens the father; that is real +uprightness." To another questioner, a man in high authority, who +complained of the number of thieves, the Master explained that this +was due to the greed of the upper classes. "But for this greed," he +added, "even if you paid people to steal, they would not do so." To +the same man, who inquired his views on capital punishment, Confucius +replied: "What need is there for capital punishment at all? If your +aims are worthy, the people also will be worthy." + +There are many other striking features of the Penal Code. No marriage, +for instance, may be contracted during the period of mourning for +parents, which in theory extends to three full years, but in practice +is reckoned at twenty-seven months; neither may musical instruments be +played by near relatives of the dead. During the same period, no +mandarin may hold office, but must retire into private life; though +the observance of this rule is often dispensed with in the case of +high officials whose presence at their posts may be of considerable +importance. In such cases, by special grace of the emperor, the period +of retirement is cut down to three months, or even to one. + +The death of an emperor is followed by a long spell of national +tribulation. For one hundred days no man may have his head shaved, and +no woman may wear head ornaments. For twelve months there may be no +marrying or giving in marriage among the official classes, a term +which is reduced to one hundred days for the public at large. The +theatres are supposed to remain closed for a year, but in practice +they shut only for one hundred days. Even thus great hardships are +entailed upon many classes of the community, especially upon actors +and barbers, who might be in danger of actual starvation but for the +common-sense of their rulers coupled with the common rice-pot at home. + +The law forbidding marriage between persons of the same surname is +widely, but not universally, in operation. No Smith may marry a Smith; +no Jones may marry a Jones; the reason of course being that all of the +same surname are regarded as members of the same family. However, +there are large districts in certain parts of China where the people +are one and all of the surname, and where it would be a great hardship +--not to mention the impossibility of enforcing the law--if +intermarriages of the kind were prohibited. Consequently, they are +allowed, but only if the contracting parties are so distantly related +that, according to the legal table of affinity, they would not wear +mourning for one another in case of death--in other words, not related +at all. The line of descent is now traced through the males, but there +is reason to believe that in early days, as is found to be often the +case among uncivilized tribes, the important, because more easily +recognizable, parent was the mother. Thus it is illegal for first +cousins of the same surname to marry, and legal if the surnames are +different; in the latter case, however, centuries of experience have +taught the Chinese to frown upon such unions as undesirable in the +extreme. + +The Penal Code forbids water burial, and also cremation; but it is +permitted to the children of a man dying at a great distance to +consume their father's corpse with fire if positively unable to bring +it back for ordinary burial in his native district. The idea is that +with the aid of fire immediate communication is set up with the +spirit-world, and that the spirit of the deceased is thus enabled to +reach his native place, which would be impossible were the corpse to +remain intact. Hence the horror of dying abroad, common to all +Chinese, and only faced if there is a reasonable probability that +their remains will be carried back to the ancestral home. + +In spite of the above law, the cremation of Buddhist priests is +universal, and the practice is tolerated without protest. Priests who +are getting on in years, or who are stricken with a mortal disease, +are compelled by rule to move into a certain part of their monastery, +known as the Abode of a Long Old Age, in which they are required--not +to die, for death does not come to a good priest, but--to enter into +Nirvana, which is a sublime state of conscious freedom from all mental +and physical disturbance, not to be adequately described in words. At +death, the priest is placed in a chair, his chin supported by a +crutch, and then put into a wooden box, which on the appointed day is +carried in procession, with streaming banners, through the monastery, +and out into the cremation-ground attached, his brother priests +chanting all the while that portion of the Buddhist liturgies set +apart as the service for the dead, but which being in Pali, not a +single one of them can understand. There have, of course, been many +highly educated priests at one time and another during the long reign +of Buddhism in China; but it is safe to say that they are no longer to +be met with in the present day. The Buddhist liturgies have been +written out in Chinese characters which reproduce the sounds of the +original Indian language, and these the priests learn by heart without +understanding a word of their meaning. The box with the dead man in it +is now hoisted to the top of a funeral pyre, which has been well +drenched with oil, and set alight; and when the fire has burnt out, +the ashes are reverently collected and placed in an urn, which is +finally deposited in a mausoleum kept for that purpose. + +Life is remarkably safe in China. No man can be executed until his +name has been submitted to the emperor, which of course means to his +ministers at the capital. The Chinese, however, being, as has been so +often stated, an eminently practical people, understand that certain +cases admit of no delay; and to prevent the inevitable lynching of +such criminals as kidnappers, rebels, and others, caught red-handed, +high officials are entrusted with the power of life and death, which +they can put into immediate operation, always taking upon themselves +full responsibility for their acts. The essential is to allay any +excitement of the populace, and to preserve the public peace. + +In the general administration of the law great latitude is allowed, +and injustice is rarely inflicted by a too literal interpretation of +the Code. Stealing is of course a crime, yet no Chinese magistrate +would dream of punishing a hungry man for simple theft of food, even +if such a case were ever brought into court. Cake-sellers keep a sharp +eye on their wares; farmers and market-gardeners form associates for +mutual protection, and woe to the thief who gets caught--his +punishment is short and sharp. Litigation is not encouraged, even by +such facilities as ought to be given to persons suffering wrongs; +there is no bar, or legal profession, and persons who assist +plaintiffs or defendants in the conduct of cases, are treated with +scant courtesy by the presiding magistrate and are lucky if they get +off with nothing worse. The majority of commercial cases come before +the guilds, and are settled without reference to the authorities. The +ordinary Chinese dread a court of justice, as a place in which both +parties manage to lose something. "It is not the big devil," according +to the current saying, "but the little devils" who frighten the suitor +away. This is because official servants receive no salary, but depend +for their livelihood on perquisites and tips; and the Chinese suitor, +who is a party to the system, readily admits that it is necessary "to +sprinkle a little water." + +Neither do any officials in China, high or low, receive salaries, +although absurdly inadequate sums are allocated by the Government for +that purpose, for which it is considered prudent not to apply. The +Chinese system is to some extent the reverse of our own. Our officials +collect money and pay it into the Treasury, from which source fixed +sums are returned to them as salaries. In China, the occupants of +petty posts collect revenue in various ways, as taxes or fees, pay +themselves as much as they dare, and hand up the balance to a superior +officer, who in turn pays himself in the same sense, and again hands +up the balance to his superior officer. When the viceroy of a province +is reached, he too keeps what he dares, sending up to the Imperial +exchequer in Peking just enough to satisfy the powers above him. There +is thus a continual check by the higher grade upon the lower, but no +check on such extortion as might be practised upon the tax-payer. The +tax-payer sees to that himself. Speaking generally, it may be said +that this system, in spite of its unsatisfactory character, works +fairly well. Few officials overstep the limits which custom has +assigned to their posts, and those who do generally come to grief. So +that when the dishonesty of the Chinese officials is held up to +reprobation, it should always be remembered that the financial side of +their public service is not surrounded with such formalities and +safeguards as to make robbery of public money difficult, if not almost +impossible. It is, therefore, all the more cheering when we find, as +is frequently the case, retiring or transferred mandarins followed by +the good wishes and affection of the people over whom they have been +set to rule. + +Until quite recently, there has been no such thing in China as +municipal administration and rating, and even now such methods are +only being tentatively introduced in large cities where there are a +number of foreign residents. Occupants of houses are popularly +supposed to "sweep the snow from their own doorsteps," but the repair +of roads, bridges, drains, etc., has always been left to the casual +philanthropy of wealthy individuals, who take these opportunities of +satisfying public opinion in regard to the obligations of the rich +towards the poor. Consequently, Chinese cities are left without +efficient lighting, draining, or scavengering; and it is astonishing +how good the health of the people living under these conditions can +be. There is no organized police force; but cities are divided into +wards, and at certain points barriers are drawn across the streets at +night, with perhaps one watchman to each. It is not considered +respectable to be out late at night, and it is not safe to move about +without a lantern, which is carried, for those who can afford the +luxury, by a servant preceding them. + +One difference between life in China and life in this country may be +illustrated to a certain extent in the following way. Supposing a +traveller, passing through an English village, to be hit on the head +by a stone. Unless he can point out his assailant, the matter is at an +end. In China, all the injured party has to do is to point out the +village--or, if a town, the ward--in which he was assaulted. Then the +headman of such town or ward is summoned before the authorities and +fined, proportionately to the offence, for allowing rowdy behaviour in +his district. The headman takes good care that he does not pay the +fine himself. In the same way, parents are held responsible for the +acts of their children, and householders for those of their servants. + + + +CHAPTER III + +RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION + +The Chinese are emphatically not a religious people, though they are +very superstitious. Belief in a God has come down from the remotest +ages, but the old simple creed has been so overlaid by Buddhism as not +to be discernible at the present day. Buddhism is now the dominant +religion of China. It is closely bound up with the lives of the +people, and is a never-failing refuge in sickness or worldly trouble. +It is no longer the subtle doctrine which was originally presented to +the people of India, but something much more clearly defined and +appreciable by the plainest intellect. Buddha is the saviour of the +people through righteousness alone, and Buddhist saints are popularly +supposed to possess intercessory powers. Yet reverence is always +wanting; and crowds will laugh and talk, and buy and sell sweetmeats, +in a Buddhist temple, before the very eyes of the most sacred images. +So long as divine intervention is not required, an ordinary Chinaman +is content to neglect his divinities; but no sooner does sickness or +financial trouble come upon the family, than he will hurry off to +propitiate the gods. + +He accomplishes this through the aid of the priests, who receive his +offerings of money, and light candles or incense at the shrine of the +deity to be invoked. Buddhist priests are not popular with the +Chinese, who make fun of their shaven heads, and doubt the sincerity +of their convictions as well as the purity of their lives. "No meat +nor wine may enter here" is a legend inscribed at the gate of most +Buddhist temples, the ordinary diet as served in the refectory being +strictly vegetarian. A tipsy priest, however, is not an altogether +unheard-of combination, and has provided more than one eminent artist +with a subject of an interesting picture. + +Yet the ordeal through which a novice must pass before being admitted +to holy orders is a severe tax upon nerve and endurance. In the +process of a long ritual, at least three, or even so many as nine, +pastilles are placed upon the bald scalp of the head. These are then +lighted, and allowed to burn down into the skin until permanent scars +have been formed, the unfortunate novice being supported on both sides +by priests who encourage him all the time to bear what must be +excruciating pain. The fully qualified priest receives a diploma, on +the strength of which he may demand a day and a night's board and +lodging from the priests of any temple all over the empire. + +At a very early date Buddhism had already taken a firm hold on the +imagination of Chinese poets and painters, the latter of whom loved to +portray the World-honoured One in a dazzling hue of gold. A poet of +the eighth century A.D., who realized for the first time the inward +meaning of the Law, as it is called, ended a panegyric on Buddhism +with the following lines:-- + + O thou pure Faith, had I but known thy scope, + The Golden God had long since been my hope! + +Taoism is a term often met with in books about China. We are told that +the three religions of the people are Confucianism, Buddhism, and +Taoism, this being the order of precedence assigned to them in A.D. +568. Confucianism is of course not a religion at all, dealing as it +does with duty towards one's neighbour and the affairs of this life +only; and it will be seen that Taoism, in its true sense, has scarcely +a stronger claim. At a very remote day, some say a thousand, and +others six hundred, years before the Christian era, there flourished a +wise man named Lao Tzu, which may be approximately pronounced as +/Loudza/ (/ou/ as in /loud/), and understood to mean the Old +Philosopher. He was a very original thinker, and a number of his +sayings have been preserved to us by ancient authors, whom they had +reached by tradition; that is to say, the Old Philosopher never put +his doctrines into book form. There is indeed in existence a work +which passes under his name, but it is now known to be a forgery, and +is generally discarded by scholars. + +The great flaw in the teaching of the Old Philosopher was its +extremely impractical character, its unsuitability to the needs of men +and women engaged in the ordinary avocations of life. In one sense he +was an Anarchist, for he held that the empire would fare better if +there were no government at all, the fact being that violence and +disorder had always been conspicuous even under the best rulers. +Similarly, he argued that we should get along more profitably with +less learning, because then there would be fewer thieves, successful +thieving being the result of mental training. It is not necessary to +follow him to his most famous doctrine, namely, that of doing nothing, +by which means, he declared, everything could be done, the solution of +which puzzle of left everybody to find out for himself. Among his +quaint sayings will be found several maxims of a very different class, +as witness his injunction, "Requite evil with kindness," and "Mighty +is he who conquers himself." Of the latter, the following illustration +is given by a commentator. Two men meeting in the street, one said to +the other, "How fat you have grown!" "Yes," replied his friend, "I +have lately won a battle." "What do you mean?" inquired the former. +"Why, you see," said the latter, "so long as I was at home, reading +about ancient kings, I admired nothing but virtue; then, when I went +out of doors, I was attracted by the charms of wealth and power. These +two feelings fought inside me, and I began to lose flesh; but now love +of virtue has conquered, and I am fat." + +The teachings of the Old Philosopher were summed up in the word /Tao/, +pronounced as /tou(t)/, which originally meant a road, a way; and as +applied to doctrines means simply the right way or path of moral +conduct, in which mankind should tread so as to lead correct and +virtuous lives. Later on, when Buddhism was introduced, this Taoism, +with all its paradoxes and subtleties, to which alchemy and the +concoction of an elixir of life had been added, gradually began to +lose its hold upon the people; and in order to stem the tide of +opposition, temples and monasteries were built, a priesthood was +established in imitation of the Buddhists, and all kinds of ceremonies +and observances were taken from Buddhism, until, at the present day, +only those who know can tell one from the other. + +Although alchemy, which was introduced from Greece, via Bactria, in +the second century B.C., has long ceased to interest the Chinese +public, who have found out that gold is more easily made from the +sweat of the brow than from copper or lead; and although only a few +silly people now believe that any mixture of drugs will produce an +elixir of life, able to confer immortality upon those who drink it; +nevertheless, Taoism still professes to teach the art of extending +life, if not indefinitely, at any rate to a considerable length. This +art would probably go some way towards extending life under any +circumstances, for it consists chiefly in deep and regular breathing, +preferably of morning air, in swallowing the saliva three times in +every two hours, in adopting certain positions for the body and limbs, +which are also strengthened by gymnastic exercises, and finally, as +borrowed from the Buddhists, in remaining motionless for some hours a +day, the eyes shut, and the mind abstracted as much as possible from +all surrounding influences. The upshot of these and other practices is +the development of "the pure man," on which Chuang Tzu (/Chwongdza/), +a Taoist philosopher of the third and fourth centuries B.C., to be +mentioned again, writes as follows: "But what is a pure man? The pure +men of old acted without calculation, not seeking to secure results. +They laid no plans. Therefore, failing, they had no cause for regret; +succeeding, no cause for congratulation. And thus they could scale +heights without fear; enter water without becoming wet, and fire +without feeling hot. The pure men of old slept without dreams, and +waked without anxiety. They ate without discrimination, breathing deep +breaths. For pure men draw breath from their heels; the vulgar only +from their throats." + +Coupled with what may be called intellectual Taoism, as opposed to the +grosser form under which this faith appeals to the people at large, is +a curious theory that human life reaches the earth from some +extraordinarily dazzling centre away in the depths of space, "beyond +the range of conceptions." This centre appears to be the home of +eternal principles, the abode of a First Cause, where perfectly +spotless and pure beings "drink of the spiritual and feed on force," +and where likeness exists without form. To get back to that state +should be the object of all men, and this is only to be attained by a +process of mental and physical purification prolonged through all +conditions of existence. Then, when body and soul are fitted for the +change, there comes what ordinary mortals call death; and the pure +being closes his eyes, to awake forthwith in his original glory from +the sleep which mortals call life. + +For many centuries Buddhism and Taoism were in bitter antagonism. +Sometimes the court was Buddhist, sometimes Taoist; first one faith +was suppressed altogether, then the other; in A.D. 574 both were +abolished in deference to Confucianism, which, however, no emperor has +ever dared to interfere with seriously. At present, all the "three +religions" flourish happily side by side. + +The Chinese believe firmly in the existence of spirits, which they +classify simply as good and evil. They do not trouble their heads much +about the former, but they are terribly afraid of the latter. Hideous +devils infest dark corners, and lie in wait to injure unfortunate +passers-by, often for no cause whatever. The spirits of persons who +have been wronged are especially dreaded by those who have done the +wrong. A man who has been defrauded of money will commit suicide, +usually by poison, at the door of the wrongdoer, who will thereby +first fall into the hands of the authorities, and if he escapes in +that quarter, will still have to count with the injured ghost of his +victim. A daughter-in-law will drown or hang herself to get free from, +and also to avenge, the tyranny or cruelty of her husband's mother. +These acts lead at once to family feuds, which sometimes end in +bloodshed; more often in money compensation; and the known risk of +such contingencies operates as a wholesome check upon aggressive +treatment of the weak by the strong. + +Divination and fortune-telling have always played a conspicuous part +in ordinary Chinese life. Wise men, of the magician type, sit at +stalls in street and market-place, ready for a small fee to advise +those who consult them on any enterprise to be undertaken, even of the +most trivial kind. The omens can be taken in various ways, as by +calculation based upon books, of which there is quite a literature, or +by drawing lots inscribed with mystic signs, to be interpreted by the +fortune-teller. Even at Buddhist temples may be found two kidney- +shaped pieces of wood, flat on one side and round on the other, which +are thrown into the air before an altar, the results--two flats, two +rounds, or one of each--being interpreted as unfavourable, medium, and +very favourable, respectively. + +Of all Chinese superstitions, the one that has been most persistent, +and has exerted the greatest influence upon national life, is the +famous Wind-and-Water system (/feng shui/) of geomancy. According to +the principles which govern this system, and of which quite a special +literature exists, the good or evil fortunes of individuals and the +communities are determined by the various physical aspects and +conditions which surround their everyday life. The shapes of hills, +the presence or absence of water, the position of trees, the height of +buildings, and so forth, are all matters of deep consideration to the +professors of the geomantic art, who thrive on the ignorance of +superstitious clients. They are called in to select propitious sites +for houses and graves; and it often happens that if the fortunes of a +family are failing, a geomancer will be invited to modify in some way +the arrangement of the ancestral graveyard. Houses in a Chinese street +are never built up so as to form a line of uniform height; every now +and again one house must be a little higher or a little lower than its +neighbour, or calamity will certainly ensue. It is impossible to walk +straight into an ordinary middle-class dwelling-house. Just inside the +front door there will be a fixed screen, which forces the visitor to +turn to the right or to the left; the avowed object being to exclude +evil spirits, which can only move in straight lines. + +Mention of the ancestral graveyard brings to mind the universal +worship of ancestors, which has been from time immemorial such a +marked feature of Chinese religious life. At death, the spirit of a +man or woman is believed to remain watching over the material +interests of the family to which the deceased had belonged. Offerings +of various kinds, including meat and drink, are from time to time made +to such a spirit, supposed to be particularly resident in an ancestral +hall--or cupboard, as the case may be. These offerings are made for +the special purpose of conciliating the spirit, and of obtaining in +return a liberal share of the blessings and good things of this life. +This is the essential feature of the rite, and this it is which makes +the rite an act of worship pure and simple; so that only superficial +observers could make the mistake of classifying ancestral worship, as +practised in China, with such acts as laying wreaths upon the tombs of +deceased friends and relatives. + +With reference to the spirit or soul, the Chinese have held for +centuries past that the soul of every man is twofold; in a popular +acceptation it is sometimes regarded as threefold. One portion is that +which expresses the visible personality, and is permanently attached +to the body; the other has the power of leaving the body, carrying +with it an appearance of physical form, which accounts for a person +being seen in two different places at once. Cases of catalepsy or +trance are explained by the Chinese as the absence from the body of +this portion of the soul, which is also believed to be expelled from +the body by any violent shock or fright. There is a story of a man who +was so terrified at the prospect of immediate execution that his +separable soul left his body, and he found himself sitting on the +eaves of a house, from which point he could see a man bound, and +waiting for the executioner's sword. Just then, a reprieve arrived, +and in a moment he was back again in his body. Mr. Edmund Gosse, who +can hardly have been acquainted with the Chinese view, told a similar +story in his /Father and Son/: "During morning and evening prayers, +which were extremely lengthy and fatiguing, I fancied that one of my +two selves could flit up, and sit clinging to the cornice, and look +down on my other self and the rest of us." + +In some parts of China, planchette is frequently resorted to as a +means of reading the future, and adapting one's actions accordingly. +It is a purely professional performance, being carried through +publicly before some altar in a temple, and payment made for the +response. The question is written down on a piece of paper, which is +burnt at the altar apparently before any one could gather knowledge of +its contents; and the answer from the god is forthwith traced on a +tray of sand, word by word, each word being obliterated to make room +for the next, by two men, supposed to be ignorant of the question, who +hold the ends of a V-shaped instrument from the point of which a +little wooden pencil projects at right angles. + +Another method of extracting information from the spirits of the +unseen world is nothing more or less than hypnotism, which has long +been known to the Chinese, and is mentioned in literature so far back +as the middle of the seventeenth century. With all the paraphernalia +of altar, candles, incense, etc., a medium is thrown into a hypnotic +condition, during which his body is supposed to be possessed by a +spirit, and every word he may utter to be divinely inspired. An +amusing instance is recorded of a medium who, while under hypnotic +influence, not only blurted out the pecuniary defalcations of certain +men who had been collecting in aid of temple restoration, but went so +far as to admit that he had had some of the money himself. + +This same influence is also used in cases of serious illness, but +always secretly, for such practices, as well as dark /seances/ for +communicating with spirits, are strictly forbidden by the Chinese +authorities, who regard the employment of occult means as more likely +to be subversive of morality than to do any good whatever to a sick +person, or to any one else. All secret societies of any sort or kind +are equally under the ban of the law, the assumption--a very +justifiable one--being that the aim of these societies is to upset the +existing order of political and social life. The Heaven-and-Earth +Society is among the most famous, and the most dreaded, partly perhaps +because it has never been entirely suppressed. The lodges of this +fraternity, the oath of fidelity, and the ceremonial of admission, +remind one forcibly of Masonry in the West; but the points of conduct +are merely coincidences, and there does not appear to be any real +connexion. + +Among the most curious of all these institutions is the Golden Orchid +Society, the girl-members of which swear never to marry, and not only +threaten, but positively commit suicide upon any attempt at coercion. +At one time this society became such a serious menace that the +authorities were compelled to adopt severe measures of repression. + +Another old-established society is that of the Vegetarians, who eat no +meat and neither smoke nor drink. From their seemingly harmless ranks +it is said that the Boxers of 1900 were largely recruited. + +For nearly twenty-five centuries the Chinese have looked to Confucius +for their morals. Various religions have appealed to the spiritual +side of the Chinese mind, and Buddhism has obtained an ascendancy +which will not be easily displaced; but through all this long lapse of +time the morality of China has been under the guidance of their great +teacher, Confucius (551-479 B.C.), affectionately known to them as the +"uncrowned king," and recently raised to the rank of a god. + +His doctrines, in the form sometimes of maxims, sometimes of answers +to eager inquirers, were brought together after his death--we do not +know exactly how soon--and have influenced first and last an enormous +proportion of the human race. Confucius taught man's duty to his +neighbour; he taught virtue for virtue's sake, and not for the hope of +reward or fear of punishment; he taught loyalty to the sovereign as +the foundation stone of national prosperity, and filial piety as the +basis of all happiness in the life of the people. As a simple human +moralist he saw clearly the limitations of humanity, and refused to +teach his disciples to return good for evil, as suggested by the Old +Philosopher, declaring without hesitation that evil should be met by +justice. The first systematic writer of Chinese history, who died +about 80 B.C., expressed himself on the position and influence of +Confucius in terms which have been accepted as accurate for twenty +centuries past: "Countless are the princes and prophets that the world +has seen in its time--glorious in life, forgotten in death. But +Confucius, though only a humble member of the cotton-clothed masses, +remains with us after numerous generations. He is the model for such +as would be wise. By all, from the Son of Heaven down to the meanest +student, the supremacy of his principles is freely and fully admitted. +He may indeed be pronounced the divinest of men." + +The Son of Heaven is of course the Emperor, who is supposed to be +God's chosen representative on earth, and responsible for the right +conduct and well-being of all committed to his care. Once every year +he proceeds in state to the Temple of Heaven at Peking; and after the +due performance of sacrificial worship he enters alone the central +raised building with circular blue-tiled roof, and there places +himself in communication with the Supreme Being, submitting for +approval or otherwise his stewardship during the preceding twelve +months. Chinese records go so far as to mention letters received from +God. There is a legend of the sixth century A.D., which claims that +God revealed Himself to a hermit in a retired valley, and bestowed on +him a tablet of jade with a mysterious inscription. But there is a +much more circumstantial account of a written communication which in +A.D. 1008 descended from heaven upon mount T'ai, the famous mountain +in Shantung, where a temple has been built to mark the very spot. The +emperor and his courtiers regarded this letter with profound reverence +and awe, which roused the ire of a learned statesman of the day. The +latter pointed out that Confucius, when asked to speak, so that his +disciples might have something to record, had bluntly replied: "Does +God speak? The four seasons pursue their courses and all things are +produced; but does God say anything?" Therefore, he argued, if God +does not speak to us, still less will He write a letter. + +The fact that the receipt of such a letter is mentioned in the +dynastic history of the period must not be allowed to discredit in any +way the general truth and accuracy of Chinese annals, which, as +research progresses, are daily found to be far more trustworthy than +was ever expected to be the case. We ourselves do not wholly reject +the old contemporary chronicles of Hoveden and Roger of Wendover +because they mention a letter from Christ on the neglect of the +Sabbath. + +In Chinese life, social and political alike, filial piety may be +regarded as the keystone of the arch. Take that away, and the +superstructure of centuries crumbles to the ground. When Confucius was +asked by one of his disciples to explain what constituted filial +piety, he replied that it was a difficult obligation to define; while +to another disciple he was able to say without hesitation that the +mere support of parents would be insufficient, inasmuch as food is +what is supplied even to horses and dogs. According to the story-books +for children, the obligation has been interpreted by the people at +large in many different ways. The twenty-four standard examples of +filial children include a son who allowed mosquitoes to feed upon him, +and did not drive them away lest they should go and annoy his parents; +another son who wept so passionately because he could procure no +bamboo shoots for his mother that the gods were touched, and up out of +the ground came some shoots which he gathered and carried home; +another who when carrying buckets of water would slip and fall on +purpose, in order to make his parents laugh; and so on. No wonder that +Confucius found filial piety beyond his powers of definition. + +Now for a genuine example. There is a very wonderful novel in which a +very affecting love-story is worked out to a terribly tragic +conclusion. The heroine, a beautiful and fascinating girl, finally +dies of consumption, and the hero, a wayward but none the less +fascinating youth, enters the Buddhist priesthood. A lady, the mother +of a clever young official, was so distressed by the pathos of the +tale that she became quite ill, and doctors prescribed medicines in +vain. At length, when things were becoming serious, the son set to +work and composed a sequel to this novel, in which he resuscitated the +heroine and made the lovers happy by marriage; and in a short time he +had the intense satisfaction of seeing his mother restored to health. + +Other forms of filial piety, which bear no relation whatever to the +fanciful fables given above, are commonly practised by all classes. In +consequence of the serious or prolonged illness of parents, it is very +usual for sons and daughters to repair to the municipal temple and +pray that a certain number of years may be cut off their own span of +life and added to that of the sick parents in question. + +Let us now pause to take stock of some of the results which have +accrued from the operation and influence of Confucianism during such a +long period, and over such swarming myriads of the human race. It is a +commonplace in the present day to assert that the Chinese are +hardworking, thrifty, and sober--the last-mentioned, by the way, in a +land where drunkenness is not regarded as a crime. Shallow observers +of the globe-trotter type, who have had their pockets picked by +professional thieves in Hong-Kong, and even resident observers who +have not much cultivated their powers of observation and comparison, +will assert that honesty is a virtue denied to the Chinese; but those +who have lived long in China and have more seriously devoted +themselves to discover the truth, may one and all be said to be +arrayed upon the other side. The amount of solid honesty to be met +with in every class, except the professionally criminal class, is +simply astonishing. That the word of the Chinese merchant is as good +as his bond has long since become a household word, and so it is in +other walks of life. With servants from respectable families, the +householder need have no fear for his goods. "Be loyal," says the +native maxim, "to the master whose rice you eat;" and this maxim is +usually fulfilled to the letter. Hence, it is that many foreigners who +have been successful in their business careers, take care to see, on +their final departure from the East, that the old and faithful +servant, often of twenty to thirty years' standing, shall have some +provision for himself and his family. In large establishments, +especially banks, in which great interests are at stake, it is +customary for the Chinese staff to be guaranteed by some wealthy man +(or firm), who deposits securities for a considerable amount, thus +placing the employer in a very favourable position. The properly +chosen Chinese servant who enters the household of a foreigner, is a +being to whom, as suggested above, his master often becomes deeply +attached, and whom he parts with, often after many years of service, +to his everlasting regret. Such a servant has many virtues. He is +noiseless over his work, which he performs efficiently. He can stay up +late, and yet rise early. He lives on the establishment, but in an +out-building. He provides his own food. He rarely wants to absent +himself, and even then will always provide a reliable /locum tenens/. +He studies his master's ways, and learns to anticipate his slightest +wishes. In return for these and other services he expects to get his +wages punctually paid, and to be allowed to charge, without any notice +being taken of the same, a commission on all purchases. This is the +Chinese system, and even a servant absolutely honest in any other way +cannot emancipate himself from its grip. But if treated fairly, he +will not abuse his chance. One curious feature of the system is that +if one master is in a relatively higher position than another, the +former will be charged by his servants slightly more than the latter +by his servants for precisely the same article. Many attempts have +been made by foreigners to break through this "old custom," especially +by offering higher wages; but signal failure has always been the +result, and those masters have invariably succeeded best who have +fallen in with the existing institution, and have tried to make the +best of it. + +There is one more, and in many ways the most important, side of a +Chinese servant's character. He will recognize frankly, and without a +pang, the superior position and the rights of his master; but at the +same time, if worth keeping, he will exact from his master the proper +respect due from man to man. It is wholly beside the mark to say that +he will not put up for a moment with the cuffs and kicks so freely +administered to his Indian colleague. A respectable Chinese servant +will often refuse to remain with a master who uses abusive or violent +language, or shows signs of uncontrollable temper. A lucrative place +is as nothing compared with the "loss of face" which he would suffer +in the eyes of his friends; in other words, with his loss of dignity +as a man. If a servant will put up with a blow, the best course is to +dismiss him at once, as worthless and unreliable, if not actually +dangerous. Confucius said: "If you mistrust a man, do not employ him; +if you employ a man, do not mistrust him;" and this will still be +found to be an excellent working rule in dealings with Chinese +servants. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A.D. 220-1200 + +The long-lived and glorious House of Han was brought to a close by the +usual causes. There were palace intrigues and a temporary usurpation +of the throne, eunuchs of course being in the thick of the mischief; +added to which a very serious rebellion broke out, almost as a natural +consequence. First and last there arose three aspirants to the +Imperial yellow, which takes the place of purple in ancient Rome; the +result being that, after some years of hard fighting, China was +divided into three parts, each ruled by one of the three rivals. The +period is known in history as that of the Three Kingdoms, and lasted +from A.D. 220 to A.D. 265. This short space of time was filled, +especially the early years, with stirring deeds of heroism and +marvellous strategical operations, fortune favouring first one of the +three commanders and then another. The whole story of these civil wars +is most graphically told in a famous historical romance composed about +a thousand years afterwards. As in the case of the Waverley novels, a +considerable amount of fiction has been interwoven with truth to make +the narrative more palatable to the general reader; but its basis is +history, and the work is universally regarded among the Chinese +themselves as one of the most valuable productions in the lighter +branches of their literature. + +The three to four centuries which follow on the above period were a +time of political and social disorganisation, unfavourable, according +to Chinese writers, to the development of both literature and art. The +House of Chin, which at first held sway over a once more united +empire, was severely harassed by the Tartars on the north, who were in +turn overwhelmed by the House of Toba. The latter ruled for some two +hundred years over northern China, while the southern portions were +governed by several short-lived native dynasties. A few points in +connexion with these times deserve perhaps brief mention. + +The old rule of twenty-seven months of mourning for parents was +re-established, and has continued in force down to the present day. +The Japanese sent occasional missions, with tribute; and the Chinese, +who had already in A.D. 240 dispatched an envoy to Japan, repeated the +compliment in 608. An attempt was made to conquer Korea, and envoys +were sent to countries as far off as Siam. Buddhism, which had been +introduced many centuries previously--no one can exactly say when-- +began to spread far and wide, and appeared to be firmly established. +In A.D. 399 a Buddhist priest, named Fa Hsien, started from Central +China and travelled to India across the great desert and over the +Hindu Kush, subsequently visiting Patna, Benares, Buddha-Gaya, and +other well-known spots, which he accurately described in the record of +his journey published on his return and still in existence. His object +was to obtain copies of the sacred books, relics and images, +illustrative of the faith; and these he safely conveyed to China by +sea from India, via Ceylon (where he spent three years), and Sumatra, +arriving after an absence of fifteen years. + +In the year A.D. 618 the House of T'ang entered upon its glorious +course of three centuries in duration. Under a strong but dissolute +ruler immediately preceding, China had once more become a united +empire, undivided against itself; and although wars and rebellions +were not wanting to disturb the even tenor of its way, the general +picture presented to us under the new dynasty of the T'angs is one of +national peace, prosperity, and progress. The name of this House has +endured, like that of Han, to the present day in the popular language +of the people; for just as the northerners still delight to style +themselves "good sons of Han," so are the southerners still proud to +speak of themselves as "men of T'ang." + +One of the chief political events of this period was the usurpation of +power by the Empress Wu--at first, as nominal regent on behalf of a +step-child, the son and heir of her late husband by his first wife, +and afterwards, when she had set aside the step-child, on her own +account. There had been one previous instance of a woman wielding the +Imperial sceptre, namely, the Empress Lu of the Han dynasty, to whom +the Chinese have accorded the title of legitimate ruler, which has not +been allowed to the Empress Wu. The latter, however, was possessed of +much actual ability, mixed with a kind of midsummer madness; and so +long as her great intellectual faculties remained unimpaired, she +ruled, like her successor of some twelve centuries afterwards, with a +rod of iron. In her old age she was deposed and dismissed to private +life, the rightful heir being replaced upon his father's throne. + +Among the more extravagant acts of her reign are some which are still +familiar to the people of to-day. Always, even while her husband was +alive, she was present, behind a curtain, at councils and audiences; +after his death she was accustomed to take her place openly among the +ministers of state, wearing a false beard. In 694 she gave herself the +title of Divine Empress, and in 696 she even went so far as to style +herself God Almighty. In her later years she became hopelessly +arrogant and overbearing. No one was allowed to say that the Empress +was fair as a lily or lovely as a rose, but that the lily was fair or +the rose lovely as Her Majesty. She tried to spread the belief that +she was really the Supreme Being by forcing flowers artificially and +then in the presence of her courtiers ordering them to bloom. On one +occasion she commanded some peonies to bloom; and because they did not +instantly obey, she caused every peony in the capital to be pulled up +and burnt, and prohibited the cultivation of peonies ever afterwards. +She further decided to place her sex once and for all on an equality +with man. For that purpose women were admitted to the public +examinations, official posts being conferred upon those who were +successful; and among other things they were excused from kneeling +while giving evidence in courts of justice. This innovation, however, +did not fulfil its promise; and with the disappearance of its vigorous +foundress, the system also disappeared. It was not actually the first +time in Chinese history that the experiment had been tried. An emperor +of the third century A.D. had already opened public life to women, and +it is said that many of them rose to high office; but here too the +system was of short duration, and the old order was soon restored. + +Another striking picture of the T'ang dynasty is presented by the +career of an emperor who is usually spoken of as Ming Huang, and who, +after distinguishing himself at several critical junctures, mounted +the throne in 712, in succession to his father, who had abdicated in +his favour. He began with economy, closing the silk factories and +forbidding the palace ladies to wear jewels or embroideries, +considerable quantities of which were actually burnt. He was a warm +patron of literature, and schools were established in every village. +Fond of music, he founded a college for training youth of both sexes +in this art. His love of war and his growing extravagance led to +increased taxation, with the usual consequences in China--discontent +and rebellion. He surrounded himself by a brilliant court, welcoming +men of genius in literature and art; at first for their talents alone, +but finally for their readiness to participate in scenes of revelry +and dissipation provided for the amusement of a favourite concubine, +the ever-famous Yang Kuei-fei (pronounced /Kway-fay/). Eunuchs were +appointed to official posts, and the grossest forms of religious +superstition were encouraged. Women ceased to veil themselves, as of +old. At length, in 755, a serious rebellion broke out, and a year +later the emperor, now an old man of seventy-one, fled before the +storm. He had not proceeded far before his soldiery revolted and +demanded vengeance upon the whole family of the favourite, several +unworthy members of which had been raised to high positions and loaded +with honours. The wretched emperor was forced to order the head eunuch +to strangle his idolized concubine, while the rest of her family +perished at the hands of the troops. He subsequently abdicated in +favour of his son, and spent the last six years of his life in +seclusion. + +This tragic story has been exquisitely told in verse by one of China's +foremost poets, who was born only a few years later. He divides his +poem into eight parts, dealing with the /ennui/ of the monarch until +he discovers /beauty/, the /revelry/ of the pair together, followed by +the horrors of /flight/, to end in the misery of /exile/ without her, +the /return/ when the emperor passes again by the fatal spot, /home/ +where everything reminds him of her, and finally /spirit-land/. This +last is a figment of the poet's imagination. He pictures the +disconsolate emperor sending a magician to discover Yang Kuei-fei's +whereabouts in the next world, and to bear to her a message of +uninterrupted love. The magician, after a long search, finds her in +one of the Isles of the Blest, and fulfils his commission accordingly. + + Her features are fixed and calm, though myriad tears fall, + Wetting a spray of pear-bloom, as it were with the raindrops of + spring. + Subduing her emotions, restraining her grief, she tenders thanks + to His Majesty. + Saying how since their parting she had missed his form and voice; + And how, although their love on earth had so soon come to an end, + The days and months among the Blest were still of long duration. + And now she turns and gazes towards the above of mortals, + But cannot discern the Imperial city, lost in the dust and haze. + Then she takes out the old keepsake, tokens of undying love, + A gold hairpin, an enamel brooch, and bids the magician carry + these back. + One half of the hairpin she keeps, and one half of the enamel + brooch, + Breaking with her hands the yellow gold, and dividing the enamel + in two. + "Tell him," she said, "to be firm of heart, as this gold and + enamel, + And then in heaven or on earth below we two may meet once more." + +The magnificent House of T'ang was succeeded by five insignificant +dynasties, the duration of all of which was crowded into about half a +century. Then, in A.D. 960, began the rule of the Sungs (pronounced +/Soongs/), to last for three hundred years and rival in national peace +and prosperity any other period in the history of China. The nation +had already in a great measure settled down to that state of material +civilization and mental culture in which it has remained to the +present time. To the appliances of ordinary Chinese life it is +probable that but few additions have been made since a very early +date. The dress of the people has indeed undergone several variations, +but the ploughs and hoes, the water-wheels and well-sweeps, the tools +of the artisans, mud huts, carts, junks, chairs, tables, chopsticks, +etc., which we still see in China, are probably very much those of two +thousand years ago. Mencius, of the third century B.C., observed that +written characters had the same form, and axle-trees the same breadth, +all over the empire; and to this day an unaltering uniformity is one +of the chief characteristics of the Chinese people in every department +of life. + +In spite, however, of the peaceful aspirations of the House of Sung, +the Kitan Tartars were for ever encroaching upon Chinese territory, +and finally overran and occupied a large part of northern China, with +their capital where Peking now stands. This resulted in an amicable +arrangement to divide the empire, the Kitans retaining their conquests +in the north, from which, after about two hundred years, they were in +turn expelled by the Golden Tartars, who had previously been subject +to them. + +Many volumes, rather than pages, would be required to do justice to +the statesmen, soldiers, philosophers, poets, historians, art critics, +and other famous men of this dynasty. It has already been stated that +the interpretation of the Confucian Canon, accepted at the present +day, dates from this period; and it may now be of interest to give a +brief account of another remarkable movement connected with the +dynasty, though in quite a different line. + +Wang An-shih (as /shi/ in /shirk/), popularly known as the Reformer, +was born in 1021. In his youth a keen student, his pen seemed to fly +over the paper. He rose to high office; and by the time he was forty- +eight he found himself installed as confidential adviser to the +emperor. He then entered upon a series of startling political reforms, +said to be based upon new and more correct interpretations of portions +of the Confucian Canon, which still remained, so far as explanation +was concerned, just as it had been left by the scholars of the Han +dynasty. This appeal to authority was, of course, a mere blind, +cleverly introduced to satisfy the bulk of the population, who were +always unwilling to move in any direction where no precedent is +forthcoming. One of his schemes, the express object of which was to +decrease taxation and at the same time to increase the revenue, was to +secure a sure and certain market for all products, as follows. From +the produce of a given district, enough was to be set aside (1) for +the payment of taxes, and (2) to supply the wants of the district; (3) +the balance was then to be taken over by the state at a low rate, and +held for a rise or forwarded to some centre where there happened to be +a demand. There would be thus a certainty of market for the farmer, +and an equal certainty for the state to make profits as a middleman. +Another part of this scheme consisted in obligatory advances by the +state to cultivators of land, whether these farmers required the money +or not, the security for the loans being in each case the growing +crops. + +There was also a system of tithing for military purposes, under which +every family having more than two males was bound to supply one to +serve as a soldier; and in order to keep up a breed of cavalry horses, +every family was compelled to take charge of one, which was provided, +together with its food, by the government. There was a system under +which money payments were substituted for the old-fashioned and +vexatious method of carrying on public works by drafts of forced +labourers; and again another under which warehouses for bartering and +hypothecating goods were established all over the empire. + +Of all his innovations the most interesting was that all land was to +be remeasured and an attempt made to secure a more equitable incidence +of taxation. The plan was to divide up the land into equal squares, +and to levy taxes in proportion to the fertility of each. This scheme +proved for various reasons to be unworkable; and the bitter opposition +with which, like all his other measures of reform, it was received by +his opponents, did not conduce to success. Finally, he abolished all +restrictions upon the export of copper, the result being that even the +current copper "cash" were melted down and made into articles for sale +and exportation. A panic ensued, which Wang met by the simple +expedient of doubling the value of each cash. He attempted to reform +the examination system, requiring from the candidate not so much +graces of style as a wide acquaintance with practical subjects. +"Accordingly," says one Chinese author, "even the pupils at the +village schools threw away their text-books of rhetoric, and began to +study primers of history, geography, and political economy"--a +striking anticipation of the movement in vogue to-day. "I have myself +been," he tells us, "an omnivorous reader of books of all kinds, even, +for example, of ancient medical and botanical works. I have, moreover, +dipped into treatises on agriculture and on needlework, all of which I +have found very profitable in aiding me to seize the great scheme of +the Canon itself." But like many other great men, he was in advance of +his age. He fell into disfavour at court, and was dismissed to a +provincial post; and although he was soon recalled, he retired into +private life, shortly afterwards to die, but not before he had seen +the whole of his policy reversed. + +His career stands out in marked contrast with that of the great +statesman and philosopher, Chu Hsi (pronounced /Choo Shee/), who +flourished A.D. 1130-1200. His literary output was enormous and his +official career successful; but his chief title to fame rests upon his +merits as a commentator on the Confucian Canon. As has been already +stated, he introduced interpretations either wholly or partly at +variance with those which had been put forth by the scholars of the +Han dynasty, and hitherto received as infallible, thus modifying to a +certain extent the prevailing standard of political and social +morality. His guiding principle was merely one of consistency. He +refused to interpret words in a given passage in one sense, and the +same words occurring elsewhere in another sense. The effect of this +apparently obvious method was magical; and from that date the +teachings of Confucius have been universally understood in the way in +which Chu Hsi said they ought to be understood. + +To his influence also must be traced the spirit of materialism which +is so widely spread among educated Chinese. The God in whom Confucius +believed, but whom, as will be seen later on, he can scarcely be said +to have "taught," was a passive rather than an active God, and may be +compared with the God of the Psalms. He was a personal God, as we know +from the ancient character by which He was designated in the written +language of early ages, that character being a rude picture of a man. +This view was entirely set aside by Chu Hsi, who declared in the +plainest terms that the Chinese word for God meant nothing more than +"abstract right;" in other words, God was a principle. It is +impossible to admit such a proposition, which was based on sentiment +and not on sound reasoning. Chu Hsi was emphatically not a man of +religious temperament, and belief in the supernatural was distasteful +to him; he was for a short time under the spell of Buddhism, but threw +that religion over for the orthodoxy of Confucianism. He was, +therefore, anxious to exclude the supernatural altogether from the +revised scheme of moral conduct which he was deducing from the +Confucian Canon, and his interpretation of the word "God" has been +blindly accepted ever since. + +When Chu Hsi died, his coffin is said to have taken up a position, +suspended in the air, about three feet from the ground. Whereupon his +son-in-law, falling on his knees beside the bier, reminded the +departed spirit of the great principles of which he had been such a +brilliant exponent in life--and the coffin descended gently to the +ground. + + + +CHAPTER V + +WOMEN AND CHILDREN + +The Chinese are very fond of animals, and especially of birds; and on +the whole they may be said to be kind to their animals, though cases +of ill-treatment occur. At the same time it must be carefully +remembered that such quantum of humanity as they may exhibit is +entirely of their own making; there is no law to act persuasively on +brutal natures, and there is no Society for the Prevention of Cruelty +to Animals to see that any such law is enforced. A very large number +of beautiful birds, mostly songless, are found in various parts of +China, and a great variety of fishes in the rivers and on the coast. +Wild animals are represented by the tiger (in both north and south), +the panther and the bear, and even the elephant and the rhinoceros may +be found in the extreme south-west. The wolf and the fox, the latter +dreaded as an uncanny beast, are very widely distributed. + +Still less would there be any ground for establishing a Society for +the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the very name of which would +make an ordinary, unsophisticated Chinaman stare. Chinese parents are, +if anything, over-indulgent to their children. The father is, indeed, +popularly known as the "Severe One," and it is a Confucian tradition +that he should not spare the rod and so spoil the child, but he draws +the line at a poker; and although as a father he possesses the power +of life and death over his offspring, such punishments as are +inflicted are usually of the mildest description. The mother, the +"Gentle One," is, speaking broadly, a soft-hearted, sweet-natured +specimen of humanity; one of those women to whom hundreds of Europeans +owe deep debts of gratitude for the care and affection lavished upon +their alien children. In the absence of the Severe One, it falls to +her to chastise when necessary; and we even read of a son who wept, +not because his mother hurt him, but because, owing to her advanced +age, she was no longer able to hit him hard enough! + +Among other atrocious libels which have fastened upon the fair fame of +the Chinese people, first and foremost stands the charge of female +infanticide, now happily, though still slowly, fading from the +calculations of those who seek the truth. Fifty years ago it was +generally believed that the Chinese hated their female children, and +got rid of them in early infancy by wholesale murder. It may be +admitted at once that boys are preferred to girls, inasmuch as they +carry on the family line, and see that the worship of ancestors is +regularly performed in due season. Also, because girls require +dowries, which they take away with them for the benefit of other +families than their own; hence the saying, "There is no thief like a +family of five daughters," and the term "lose-money goods," as +jestingly applied to girls, against which may be set another term, "a +thousand ounces of gold," which is commonly used of a daughter. Of +course it is the boy who is specially wanted in a family; and little +boys are often dressed as little girls, in order to deceive the angels +of disease and death, who, it is hoped, may thus pass them over as of +less account. + +To return to the belief formerly held that female infanticide was +rampant all over China. The next step was for the honest observer to +admit that it was not known in his own particular district, but to +declare that it was largely practised elsewhere. This view, however, +lost its validity when residents "elsewhere" had to allow that no +traces of infanticide could be found in their neighbourhood; and so +on. Luckily, still greater comfort is to be found in the following +argument,--a rare example of proving a negative--from which it will be +readily seen that female infanticide on any abnormal scale is quite +beyond the bounds of the possible. Those who have even a bowing +acquaintance with Chinese social life will grant that every boy, at +about the age of eighteen, is provided by his parents with a wife. +They must also concede the notorious fact that many well-to-do Chinese +take one or more concubines. The Emperor, indeed, is allowed seventy; +but this number exists only on paper as a regulation maximum. Now, if +every Chinaman has one wife, and many have two, over and above the +host of girls said to be annually sacrificed as worthless babies, it +must follow that the proportion of girls born in China enormously +outnumbers the proportion of boys, whereas in the rest of the world +boys are well known to be always in the majority. After this, it is +perhaps superfluous to state that, apart from the natural love of the +parent, a girl is really, even at a very early age, a marketable +commodity. Girls are sometimes sold into other families to be brought +up as wives for the sons; more often, to be used as servants, under +what is of course a form of slavery, qualified by the important +condition, which can be enforced by law, that when of a marriageable +age, the girl's master shall find her a husband. Illegitimate +children, the source of so much baby-farming and infanticide +elsewhere, are practically unknown in China; and the same may be said +of divorce. A woman cannot legally divorce her husband. In rare cases +she will leave him, and return to her family, in spite of the fact +that he can legally insist upon her return; for she knows well that if +her case is good, the husband will not dare to risk the scandal of an +exposure, not to mention the almost certain vengeance of her affronted +kinsmen. It is also the fear of such vengeance that prevents mothers- +in-law from ill-treating the girls who pass into their new homes +rather as servants than daughters to the husband's mother. Every +woman, as indeed every man, has one final appeal by which to punish an +oppressor. She may commit suicide, there being no canon, legal or +moral, against self-slaughter; and in China, where, contrary to +widespread notions on the subject, human life is held in the highest +degree sacred, this course is sure to entail trouble and expense, and +possibly severe punishment, if the aggrieved parties are not promptly +conciliated by a heavy money payment. + +A man may divorce his wife for one of the seven following reasons:-- +Want of children, adultery, neglect of his parents, nagging, thieving +(i.e. supplying her own family with his goods, popularly known as +"leakage"), jealous temper and leprosy. To the above, the humanity of +the lawgiver has affixed three qualifying conditions. He may not put +her away on any of the above grounds if she has duly passed through +the period of mourning for his parents; if he has grown rich since +their marriage; if she has no longer any home to which she can return. + +Altogether, the Chinese woman has by no means such a bad time as is +generally supposed to be the case. Even in the eye of the law, she has +this advantage over a man, that she cannot be imprisoned except for +high treason and adultery, and is to all intents and purposes exempt +from the punishment of the bamboo. Included in this exemption are the +aged and the young, the sick, the hungry and naked, and those who have +already suffered violence, as in a brawl. Further, in a well-known +handbook, magistrates are advised to postpone, in certain +circumstances, the infliction of corporal punishment; as for instance, +when either the prisoner or they themselves may be under the influence +of excitement, anger or drink. + +The bamboo is the only instrument with which physical punishment may +legally be inflicted; and its infliction on a prisoner or recalcitrant +witness, in order to extort evidence, constitutes what has long been +dignified as "torture;" but even that is now, under a changing system, +about to disappear. This must not be taken to mean that torture, in +our sense of the term, has never been applied in China. The real facts +of the case are these. Torture, except as already described, being +constitutionally illegal, no magistrate would venture to resort to it +if there were any chance of his successful impeachment before the +higher authorities, upon which he would be cashiered and his official +career brought abruptly to an end. Torture, therefore, would have no +terrors for the ordinary citizen of good repute and with a backing of +substantial friends; but for the outcast, the rebel, the highway +robber (against whom every man's hand would be), the disreputable +native of a distant province, and also for the outer barbarian (e.g. +the captives at the Summer Palace in 1860), another tale must be told. +No consequences, except perhaps promotion, would follow from too +rigorous treatment in such cases as these. + +Resort to the bamboo as a means of extorting the confession of a +prisoner is regarded by the people rather as the magistrate's +confession of his own incapacity. The education of the official, too +easily and too freely turned into ridicule, gives him an insight into +human nature which, coupled with a little experience, renders him +extremely formidable to the shifty criminal or the crafty litigant. As +a rule, he finds no need for the application of pain. There is a +quaint story illustrative of such judicial methods as would be sure to +meet with full approbation in China. A magistrate, who after several +hearings had failed to discover, among a gang accused of murder, what +was essential to the completion of the case, namely, the actual hand +which struck the fatal blow, notified the prisoners that he was about +to invoke the assistance of the spirits, with a view to elicit the +truth. Accordingly, he caused the accused men, dressed in the black +clothes of criminals, to be led into a large barn, and arranged around +it, face to the wall. Having then told them that an accusing angel +would shortly come among them, and mark the back of the guilty man, he +went outside and had the door shut, and the place darkened. After a +short interval, when the door was thrown open, and the men were +summoned to come forth, it was seen directly that one of the number +had a white mark on his back. This man, in order to make all secure, +had turned his back to the wall, not knowing, what the magistrate well +knew, that the wall had been newly white-washed. + +As to the punishment of crime by flogging, a sentence of one or two +hundred--even more--blows would seem to be cruel and disgusting; +happily, it may be taken for granted that such ferocious sentences are +executed only in such cases as have been mentioned above. An acute +observer, for many years a member of the municipal police force in +Shanghai, whose duty it was to see that floggings were administered to +Chinese criminals, stated plainly in a public report that the bamboo +is not necessarily a severe ordeal, and that one hundred blows are at +times inflicted so lightly as to leave scarcely a mark behind, though +the recipient howls loudly all the time. Those criminals who have +money can always manage to square the gaoler; and the gaoler has +acquired a certain knack in laying on, the upshot being great cry and +little wool, very satisfactory to the culprit. Even were we to accept +the cruellest estimate in regard to punishment by the bamboo, it would +only go to show that humanitarian feelings in China are lagging +somewhat behind our own. In /The Times/ of March 1, 1811, we read +that, for allowing French prisoners to escape from Dartmoor, three men +of the Nottingham militia were sentenced to receive 900 lashes each, +and that one of them actually received 450 lashes in the presence of +pickets from every regiment in the garrison. On New Year's Day, 1911, +a eunuch attempted to assassinate one of the Imperial Princes. For +this he was sentenced to be beaten to death, some such ferocious +punishment being necessary, in Chinese eyes, to vindicate the majesty +of the law. That end having been attained, the sentence was commuted +to eighty blows with the bamboo and deportation to northern Manchuria. + +The Chinese woman often, in mature life, wields enormous influence +over the family, males included, and is a kind of private Empress +Dowager. A man knows, says the proverb, but a woman knows better. As a +widow in early life, her lot is not quite so pleasant. It is not +thought desirable for widows to remarry; but if she remains single, +she becomes "a rudderless boat;" round which gathers much calumny. +Many young women brave public opinion, and enter into second nuptials. +If they are bent upon remarrying, runs the saying, they can no more be +prevented than the sky can be prevented from raining. + +The days of "golden lilies," as the artificially small feet of Chinese +women are called, are generally believed to date from the tenth +century A.D., though some writers have endeavoured to place the custom +many centuries earlier. It must always be carefully remembered that +Manchu women--the women of the dynasty which has ruled since 1644--do +not compress their feet. Consequently, the empresses of modern times +have feet of the natural size; neither is the practice in force among +the Hakkas, a race said to have migrated from the north of China to +the south in the thirteenth century; nor among the hill tribes; nor +among the boating population of Canton and elsewhere. Small feet are +thus in no way associated with aristocracy or gentleness of birth; +neither is there any foundation for the generally received opinion +that the Chinese lame their women in this way to keep them from +gadding about. Small-footed women may be seen carrying quite heavy +burdens, and even working in the fields; not to mention that many are +employed as nurses for small children. Another explanation is that +women with bound feet bear finer children and stronger; but the real +reason lies in another direction, quite beyond the scope of this book. +The question of charm may be taken into consideration, for any +Chinaman will bear witness to the seductive effect of a gaily-dressed +girl picking her way on tiny feet some three inches in length, her +swaying movements and delightful appearance of instability conveying a +general sense of delicate grace quite beyond expression in words. + +The lady of the tenth century, to whom the origin of small feet is +ascribed, wished to make her own feet like two new moons; but whether +she actually bound them, as at the present day, is purely a matter of +conjecture. The modern style of binding inflicts great pain for a long +time upon the little girls who have to endure it. They become very shy +on the subject, and will on no account show their bare feet, though +Manchu women and others with full-sized feet frequently walk about +unshod, and the boat-girls at Canton and elsewhere never seem to wear +shoes or stockings at all. + +The "pigtail," or long plait of hair worn by all Chinamen, for the +abolition of which many advanced reformers are now earnestly pleading, +is an institution of comparatively modern date. It was imposed by the +victorious Manchu-Tartars when they finally established their dynasty +in 1644, not so much as a badge of conquest, still less of servitude, +but as a means of obliterating, so far as possible, the most patent +distinction between the two races, and of unifying the appearance, if +not the aspirations, of the subjects of the Son of Heaven. This +obligation was for some time strenuously resisted by the natives of +Amoy, Swatow, and elsewhere in that neighbourhood. At length, when +compelled to yield, it is said that they sullenly wound their queues +round their heads and covered them with turbans, which are still worn +by natives of those parts. + +The peculiar custom of shaving the head in front, and allowing the +hair to grow long behind, is said to have been adopted by the Manchus +out of affectionate gratitude to the horse, an animal which has played +an all-important part in the history and achievements of the race. +This view is greatly reinforced by the cut of the modern official +sleeves, which hang down, concealing the hands, and are shaped exactly +like a pair of horse's hoofs. + +In many respects the Manchu conquerors left the Chinese to follow +their own customs. No attempt was made to coerce Chinese women, who +dress their hair in styles totally different from that of the Manchu +women; there are, too, some tolerated differences between the dress of +the Manchu and Chinese men, but these are such as readily escape +notice. Neither was any attempt made in the opening years of the +conquest to interfere with foot-binding by Chinese women; but in 1664 +an edict was issued forbidding the practice. Readers may draw their +own conclusions, when it is added that four years after the edict was +withdrawn. Hopes are now widely and earnestly entertained that with +the dawn of the new era, this cruel custom will become a thing of the +past; it is, however, to be feared that those who have been urging on +this desirable reform may be, like all reformers, a little too +sanguine of immediate success, and that a comparatively long period +will have to go by before the last traces of foot-binding disappear +altogether. Meanwhile, it seems that the Government has taken the +important step of refusing admission to the public schools of all +girls whose feet are bound. + +The disappearance of the queue is another thing altogether. It is not +a native Chinese institution; there would be no violation of any +cherished tradition of antiquity if it were once and for ever +discarded. On the contrary, if the Chinese do not intend to follow the +Japanese and take to foreign clothes, there might be a return to the +old style of doing the hair. The former dress of the Japanese was one +of the numerous items borrowed by them from China; it was indeed the +national dress of the Chinese for some three hundred years, between +A.D. 600-900. One little difficulty will vanish with the queue. A +Chinese coolie will tie his tail round his head when engaged on work +in which he requires to keep it out of the way, and the habit has +become of real importance with the use of modern machinery; but on the +arrival of his master, he should at once drop it, out of respect, a +piece of politeness not always exhibited in the presence of a foreign +employer. The agitation, now in progress, for the final abolition of +the queue may be due to one or all of the following reasons. +Intelligent Chinese may have come to realize that the fashion is +cumbrous and out of date. Sensitive Chinese may fear that it makes +them ridiculous in the eyes of foreigners. Political Chinese, who +would gladly see the re-establishment of a native dynasty, may look to +its disappearance as the first step towards throwing off the Manchu +yoke. + +On the whole, the ruling Manchus have shown themselves very careful +not to wound the susceptibilities of their Chinese subjects. Besides +allowing the women to retain their own costume, and the dead, men and +women alike, to be buried in the costume of the previous dynasty, it +was agreed from the very first that no Chinese concubines should be +taken into the Palace. This last condition seems to be a concession +pure and simple to the conquered; there is little doubt, however, that +the wily Manchus were only too ready to exclude a very dangerous +possibility of political intrigue. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LITERATURE AND EDUCATION + +The Chinese people reverence above all things literature and learning; +they hate war, bearing in mind the saying of Mencius, "There is no +such thing as a /righteous/ war; we can only assert that some wars are +better than others;" and they love trade and the finesse of the +market-place. China can boast many great soldiers, in modern as well +as in ancient days; but anything like a proper appreciation of the +military arm is of quite recent growth. "Good iron is not used for +nails, nor good men for soldiers," says the proverb; and again, "One +stroke of the civilian's pen reduces the military official to abject +submission." On the other hand, it is admitted that "Civilians give +the empire peace, and soldiers give it security." + +Chinese parents have never, until recent days, willingly trained their +sons for the army. They have always wished their boys to follow the +stereotyped literary curriculum, and then, after passing successfully +through the great competitive examinations, to rise to high civil +office in the state. A good deal of ridicule has been heaped of late +on the Chinese competitive examination, the subjects of which were +drawn exclusively from the Confucian Canon, and included a knowledge +of ancient history, of a comprehensive scheme of morality, initiated +by Confucius, and further elaborated by Mencius (372-289 B.C.), of the +ballads and ceremonial rites of three thousand years ago, and of an +aptitude for essay-writing and the composition of verse. The whole +curriculum may be fitly compared with such an education as was given +to William Pitt and others among our own great statesmen, in which an +ability to read the Greek and Roman classics, coupled with an intimate +knowledge of the Peloponnesian War, carried the student about as far +as it was considered necessary for him to go. The Chinese course, too, +has certainly brought to the front in its time a great many eminent +men, who have held their own in diplomacy, if not in warfare, with the +subtlest intellects of the West. + +Their system of competitive examinations has indeed served the Chinese +well. It is the brightest spot in the whole administration, being +absolutely above suspicion, such as attaches to other departments of +the state. Attempts have been made from time to time to gain admission +by improper means to the list of successful candidates, and it would +be absurd to say that not one has ever succeeded; the risk, however, +is too great, for the penalty on detection may be death. + +The ordeal itself is exceedingly severe, as well for the examiners as +for the candidates. At the provincial examinations, held once in every +third year, an Imperial Commissioner, popularly known as the Grand +Examiner, is sent down from Peking. On arrival, his residence is +formally sealed up, and extraordinary precautions are taken to prevent +friends of intending candidates from approaching him in any way. There +is no age limit, and men of quite mature years are to be found +competing against youths hardly out of their teens; indeed, there is +an authenticated case of a man who successfully graduated at the age +of seventy-two. Many compete year after year, until at length they +decide to give it up as a bad job. + +At an early hour on the appointed day the candidates begin to +assemble, and by and by the great gates of the examination hall are +thrown open, and heralds shriek out the names of those who are to +enter. Each one answers in turn as his name is called, and receives +from the attendants a roll of paper marked with the number of the open +cell he is to occupy in one of the long alleys into which the +examination hall is divided. Other writing materials, as well as food, +he carries with him in a basket, which is always carefully searched at +the door, and in which "sleeve" editions of the classics have +sometimes been found. When all have taken their seats, the Grand +Examiner burns incense, and closes the entrance gates, through which +no one will be allowed to pass, either in or out, dead or alive, until +the end of the third day, when the first of the three sessions is at +an end, and the candidates are released for the night. In case of +death, not unusual where ten or twelve thousand persons are cooped up +day and night in a confined space, the corpse is hoisted over the +wall; and this would be done even if it were that of the Grand +Examiner himself, whose place would then be taken by the chief +Assistant Examiner, who is also appointed by the Emperor, and +accompanies the Grand Examiner from Peking. + +The long strain of three bouts of three days each has often been found +sufficient to unhinge the reason, with a variety of distressing +consequences, the least perhaps of which may be seen in a regular +percentage of blank papers handed in. On one occasion, a man handed in +a copy of his last will and testament; on another, not very long ago, +the mental balance of the Grand Examiner gave way, and a painful scene +ensued. He tore up a number of the papers already handed in, and bit +and kicked every one who came near him, until he was finally secured +and bound hand and foot in his chair. A candidate once presented +himself dressed in woman's clothes, with his face highly rouged and +powdered, as is the custom. He was arrested at the entrance gate, and +quietly sent home to his friends. + +Overwork, in the feverish desire to get into the Government service, +is certainly responsible for the mental break-down of a large +proportion of the comparatively few lunatics found in China. There +being no lunatic asylums in the empire, it is difficult to form +anything like an exact estimate of their number; it can only be said, +what is equally true of cripples or deformed persons, that it is very +rare to meet them in the streets or even to hear of their existence. + +As a further measure of precaution against corrupt practices at +examinations, the papers handed in by the candidates are all copied +out in red ink, and only these copies are submitted to the examiners. +The difficulty therefore of obtaining favourable treatment, on the +score of either bribery or friendship, is very much increased. The +Chinese, who make no attempt to conceal or excuse, in fact rather +exaggerate any corruption in their public service generally, do not +hesitate to declare with striking unanimity that the conduct of their +examination system is above suspicion, and there appears to be no +valid reason why we should not accept this conclusion. + +The whole system is now undergoing certain modifications, which, if +wisely introduced, should serve only to strengthen the national +character. The Confucian teachings, which are of the very highest +order of morality, and which have moulded the Chinese people for so +many centuries, helping perhaps to give them a cohesion and stability +remarkable among the nations of the world, should not be lightly cast +aside. A scientific training, enabling us to annihilate time and +space, to extend indefinitely the uses and advantages of matter in all +its forms, and to mitigate the burden of suffering which is laid upon +the greater portion of the human race, still requires to be +effectively supplemented by a moral training, to teach man his duty +towards his neighbour. From the point of view of science, the Chinese +are, of course, wholly out of date, though it is only within the past +hundred and fifty years that the West has so decisively outstripped +the East. If we go back to the fifteenth century, we shall find that +the standard of civilization, as the term is usually understood, was +still much higher in China than in Europe; while Marco Polo, the +famous Venetian traveller of the thirteenth century, who actually +lived twenty-four years in China, and served as an official under +Kublai Khan, has left it on record that the magnificence of Chinese +cities, and the splendour of the Chinese court, outrivalled anything +he had ever seen or heard of. + +Pushing farther back into antiquity, we easily reach a time when the +inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom "held learning in high esteem, while +our own painted forefathers were running naked and houseless in the +woods, and living on berries and raw meat." In inventive, mechanical +and engineering aptitudes the Chinese have always excelled; as witness +--only to mention a few--the art of printing (/see below/); their +water-wheels and other clever appliances for irrigation; their +wonderful bridges (not to mention the Great Wall); the "taxicab," or +carriage fitted with a machine for recording the distance traversed, +the earliest notice of which takes us back to the fourth century A.D.; +the system of fingerprints for personal identification, recorded in +the seventh century A.D.; the carved ivory balls which contain even so +many as nine or ten other balls, of diminishing size, one within +another; a chariot carrying a figure which always pointed south, +recorded as in existence at a very early date, though unfortunately +the specifications which have came down to us from later dates will +not work out, as in the case of the "taxicab." The story goes that +this chariot was invented about 1100 B.C., by a wonderful hero of the +day, in order to enable an ambassador, who had come to the court of +China from a far distant country in the south, to find his way +expeditiously home. The compass proper the Chinese cannot claim; it +was probably introduced into China by the Arabs at a comparatively +late date, and has been confused with the south-pointing chariot of +earlier ages. As to gunpowder, something of that nature appears to +have been used for fireworks in the seventh century; and something of +the nature of a gun is first heard of during the Mongol campaigns of +the thirteenth century; but firearms were not systematically employed +until the fifteenth century. Add to the above the art of casting +bronze, brought to a high pitch of excellence seven or eight centuries +before the Christian era, if not earlier; the production of silk, +mentioned by Mencius (372-289 B.C.) as necessary for the comfort of +old age; the cultivation of the tea-plant from time immemorial; also +the discovery and manufacture of porcelain some sixteen centuries ago, +subsequently brought to a perfection which leaves all European +attempts hopelessly out-classed. + +In many instances the Chinese seem to have been so near and yet so +far. There is a distinct tradition of flying cars at a very remote +date; and rough woodcuts have been handed down for many centuries, +showing a car containing two passengers, flying through the clouds and +apparently propelled by wheels of a screw pattern, set at right angles +to the direction in which the travellers are proceeding. But there is +not a scrap of evidence to show what was the motive power which turned +the wheels. Similarly, iron ships are mentioned in Chinese literature +so far back as the tenth century, only, however, to be ridiculed as an +impossibility; the circulation of the blood is hinted at; added to +which is the marvellous anticipation of anaesthetics as applied to +surgery, to be mentioned later on, an idea which also remained barren +of results for something like sixteen centuries, until Western science +stepped in and secured the prize. Here it may be fairly argued that, +considering the national repugnance to mutilation of the body in any +form, it could hardly be expected that the Chinese would seek to +facilitate a process to which they so strongly object. + +In the domain of painting, we are only just beginning to awake to the +fact that in this direction the Chinese have reached heights denied to +all save artists of supreme power, and that their art was already on a +lofty level many centuries before our own great representatives had +begun to put brush to canvas. Without going so far back as the famous +picture in the British Museum, by an artist of the fourth and fifth +centuries A.D., the point may perhaps be emphasized by quotation from +the words of a leading art-critic, referring to painters of the tenth +and eleventh centuries:--"To the Sung artists and poets, mountains +were a passion, as to Wordsworth. The landscape art thus founded, and +continued by the Japanese in the fifteenth century, must rank as the +greatest school of landscape which the world has seen. It is the +imaginative picturing of what is most elemental and most august in +Nature--liberating visions of storm or peace among abrupt peaks, +plunging torrents, trembling reed-beds--and though having a fantastic +side for its weakness, can never have the reproach of pretty tameness +and mere fidelity which form too often the only ideal of Western +landscape." + +Great Chinese artists unite in dismissing fidelity to outline as of +little importance compared with reproduction of the spirit of the +object painted. To paint a tree successfully, it is necessary to +produce not merely shape and colour but the vitality and "soul" of the +original. Until with the last two or three centuries, nature itself +was always appealed to as the one source of true inspiration; then +came the artist of the studio, since which time Chinese art has +languished, while Japanese art, learned at the feet of Chinese artists +from the fourteenth century onwards, has come into prominent notice, +and is now, with extraordinary versatility, attempting to assimilate +the ideals of the West. + +The following words were written by a Chinese painter of the fifth +century:-- + +"To gaze upon the clouds of autumn, a soaring exaltation in the soul; +to feel the spring breeze stirring wild exultant thoughts;--what is +there in the possession of gold and gems to compare with delights like +these? And then, to unroll the portfolio and spread the silk, and to +transfer to it the glories of flood and fell, the green forest, the +blowing winds, the white water of the rushing cascade, as with a turn +of the hand a divine influence descends upon the scene. . . . These +are the joys of painting." + +Just as in poetry, so in pictorial art, the artist avoids giving full +expression to his theme, and leaving nothing for the spectator to +supply by his own imaginative powers. "Suggestion" is the key-note to +both the above arts; and in both, "Impressionism" has been also at the +command of the gifted, centuries before the term had passed into the +English language. + +Literature and art are indeed very closely associated in China. Every +literary man is supposed to be more or less a painter, or a musician +of sorts; failing personal skill, it would go without saying that he +was a critic, or at the lowest a lover, of one or the other art, or of +both. All Chinese men, women and children seem to love flowers; and +the poetry which has gathered around the blossoms of plum and almond +alone would form a not inconsiderable library of itself. Yet a +European bouquet would appear to a man of culture as little short of a +monstrosity; for to enjoy flowers, a Chinaman must see only a single +spray at a time. The poorly paid clerk will bring with him to his +office in the morning some trifling bud, which he will stick into a +tiny vase of water, and place beside him on his desk. The owner of +what may be a whole gallery of pictures will invite you to tea, +followed by an inspection of his treasures; but on the same afternoon +he will only produce perhaps a single specimen, and scout the idea +that any one could call for more. If a long landscape, it will be +gradually unwound from its roller, and a portion at a time will be +submitted for the enjoyment and criticism of his visitors; if a +religious or historical picture, or a picture of birds or flowers, of +which the whole effort must be viewed in its completeness, it will be +studied in various senses, during the intervals between a chat and a +cup of tea. Such concentration is absolutely essential, in the eyes of +the Chinese critic, to a true interpretation of the artist's meaning, +and to a just appreciation of his success. + +The marvellous old stories of grapes painted by Zeuxis of ancient +Greece, so naturally that birds came to peck at them; and of the +curtain painted by Parrhasius which Zeuxis himself tried to pull +aside; and of the horse by Apelles at which another horse neighed--all +these find their counterparts in the literature of Chinese art. One +painter, in quite early days, painted a perch and hung it over a river +bank, when there was immediately a rush of otters to secure it. +Another painted the creases on cotton clothes so exactly that the +clothes looked as if they had just come from the wash. Another +produced pictures of cats which would keep a place free from rats. All +these efforts were capped by those of another artist, whose picture of +the North Wind made people feel cold, while his picture of the South +Wind made people feel hot. Such exaggerations are not altogether +without their value; they suggest that Chinese art must have reached a +high level, and this has recently been shown to be nothing more than +the truth, by the splendid exhibition of Chinese pictures recently on +view in the British Museum. + +The literary activities of the Chinese, and their output of +literature, have always been on a colossal scale; and of course it is +entirely due to the early invention of printing that, although a very +large number of works have disappeared, still an enormous bulk has +survived the ravages of war, rebellion and fire. + +This art was rather developed than invented. There is no date, within +a margin even of half a century either way, at which we can say that +printing was invented. The germ is perhaps to be found in the +engraving of seals, which have been used by the Chinese as far back as +we can go with anything like historical certainty, and also of stone +tablets from which rubbings were taken, the most important of these +being the forty-six tablets on which five of the sacred books of +Confucianism were engraved about A.D. 170, and of which portions still +remain. However this may be, it was during the sixth century A.D. that +the idea of taking impressions on paper from wooden blocks seems to +have arisen, chiefly in connexion with religious pictures and tracts. +It was not widely applied to the production of books in general until +A.D. 932, when the Confucian Canon was so printed for the first time; +from which point onwards the extension of the art moved with rapid +strides. + +It is very noticeable that the Chinese, who are extraordinarily averse +to novelties, and can hardly be induced to consider any innovations, +when once convinced of their real utility, waste no further time in +securing to themselves all the advantages which may accrue. This was +forcibly illustrated in regard to the introduction of the telegraph, +against which the Chinese had set their faces, partly because of the +disturbance of geomantic influences caused by the tall telegraph +poles, and partly because they sincerely doubted that the wires could +achieve the results claimed. But when it was discovered that some wily +Cantonese had learnt over the telegraph the names of the three highest +graduates at the Peking triennial examination, weeks before the names +could be known in Canton by the usual route, and had enriched himself +by buying up the tickets bearing those names in the great lotteries +which are always held in connexion with this event, Chinese opposition +went down like a house of cards; and the only question with many of +the literati was whether, at some remote date, the Chinese had not +invented telegraphy themselves. + +Moveable types of baked clay were invented about A.D. 1043, and some +centuries later they were made of wood and of copper or lead; but they +have never gained the favour accorded to block-printing, by which most +of the great literary works have been produced. The newspapers of +modern days are all printed from moveable types, and also many +translations of foreign books, prepared to meet the increasing demand +for Western learning. The Chinese have always been a great reading +people, systematic education culminating in competitive examinations +for students going back to the second century A.D. This is perhaps a +suitable place for explaining that the famous /Peking Gazette/, often +said to be the oldest newspaper in the world, is not really a +newspaper at all, in that it contains no news in our sense of the +term. It is a record only of court movements, list of promoted +officials, with a few selected memorials and edicts. It is published +daily, but was not printed until the fifteenth century. + +Every Chinese boy may be said to have his chance. The slightest sign +of a capacity for book-learning is watched for, even among the +poorest. Besides the opportunity of free schools, a clever boy will +soon find a patron; and in many cases, the funds for carrying on a +curriculum, and for entering the first of the great competitions, will +be subscribed in the district, on which the candidate will confer a +lasting honour by his success. A promising young graduate, who has won +his first degree with honours, is at once an object of importance to +wealthy fathers who desire to secure him as a son-in-law, and who will +see that money is not wanting to carry him triumphantly up the +official ladder. Boys without any gifts of the kind required, remain +to fill the humbler positions; those who advance to a certain point +are drafted into trade; while hosts of others who just fall short of +the highest, become tutors in private families, schoolmasters, +doctors, fortune-tellers, geomancers, and booksellers' hacks. + +Of high-class Chinese literature, it is not possible to give even the +faintest idea in the space at disposal. It must suffice to say that +all branches are adequately represented, histories, biographies, +philosophy, poetry and essays on all manner of subjects, offering a +wide field even to the most insatiate reader. + +And here a remark may be interjected, which is very necessary for the +information of those who wish to form a true estimate of the Chinese +people. Throughout the Confucian Canon, a collection of ancient works +on which the moral code of the Chinese is based, there is not a single +word which could give offence, even to the most sensitive, on +questions of delicacy and decency. That is surely saying a good deal, +but it is not all; precisely the same may be affirmed of what is +mentioned above as high-class Chinese literature, which is pure enough +to satisfy the most strait-laced. Chinese poetry, of which there is in +existence a huge mass, will be searched in vain for suggestions of +impropriety, for sly innuendo, and for the other tricks of the +unclean. This extraordinary purity of language is all the more +remarkable from the fact that, until recent years, the education of +women has not been at all general, though many particular instances +are recorded of women who have themselves achieved success in literary +pursuits. It is only when we come to the novel, to the short story, or +to the anecdote, which are not usually written in high-class style, +and are therefore not recognized as literature proper, that this +exalted standard is no longer always maintained. + +There are, indeed, a great number of novels, chiefly historical and +religious, in which the aims of the writers are on a sufficiently high +level to keep them clear of what is popularly known as pornography or +pig-writing; still, when all is said and done, there remains a balance +of writing curiously in contrast with the great bulk of Chinese +literature proper. As to the novel, the long story with a worked-out +plot, this is not really a local product. It seems to have come along +with the Mongols from Central Asia, when they conquered China in the +thirteenth century, and established their short-lived dynasty. Some +novels, in spite of their low moral tone, are exceedingly well written +and clever, graphic in description, and dramatic in episode; but it is +curious that no writer of the first rank has ever attached his name to +a novel, and that the authorship of all the cleverest is a matter of +entire uncertainty. + +The low-class novel is purposely pitched in a style that will be +easily understood; but even so, there is a great deal of word- and +phrase-skipping to be done by many illiterate readers, who are quite +satisfied if they can extract the general sense as they go along. The +book-language, as cultivated by the best writers, is to be freely +understood only by those who have stocked their minds well with the +extensive phraseology which has been gradually created by eminent men +during the past twenty-five centuries, and with historical and +biographical allusions and references of all sorts and things. A word +or two, suggesting some apposite allusion, will often greatly enhance +the beauty of a composition for the connoisseur, but will fall flat on +the ears of those to whom the quotation is unknown. Simple objects in +everyday life often receive quaint names, as handed down in +literature, with which it is necessary to be familiar. For instance, a +"fairy umbrella" means a mushroom; a "gentleman of the beam" is a +burglar, because a burglar was once caught sitting on one of the open +beams inside a Chinese roof; a "slender waist" is a wasp; the "throat +olive" is the "Adam's apple"--which, by the way, is an excellent +illustration from the opposite point of view; "eyebrow notes" means +notes at the top of a page; "cap words" is sometimes used for +"preface;" the "sweeper-away of care" is wine; "golden balls" are +oranges; the "golden tray" is the moon; a "two-haired man" is a grey- +beard; the "hundred holes" is a beehive; "instead of the moon" is a +lantern; "instead of steps" is a horse; "the man with the wooden +skirt" is a shopman; to "scatter sleep" means to give hush-money; and +so on, almost /ad infinitum/. + +Chinese medical literature is on a very voluminous scale, medicine +having always occupied a high place in the estimation of the people, +in spite of the fact that its practice has always been left to any one +who might choose to take it up. Surgery, even of an elementary kind, +has never had a chance; for the Chinese are extremely loath to suffer +any interference with their bodies, believing, in accordance with +Confucian dogma, that as they received them from their parents, so +they should carry them into the presence of their ancestors in the +next world. Medicine, as still practised in China, may be compared +with the European art of a couple of centuries ago, and its +exceedingly doubtful results are fully appreciated by patients at +large. "No medicine," says one proverb, "is better than a middling +doctor;" while another points out that "Many sons of clever doctors +die of disease." + +Legend, however, tells us of an extraordinary physician of the fifth +century B.C. who was able to see into the viscera of his patients--an +apparent anticipation of the X-rays--and who, by his intimate +knowledge of the human pulse, effected many astounding cures. We also +read of an eminent physician of the second and third centuries A.D. +who did add surgery to this other qualifications. He was skilled in +the use of acupuncture and cautery; but if these failed he would +render his patient unconscious by a dose of hashish, and then operate +surgically. He is said to have diagnosed a case of diseased bowels by +the pulse alone, and then to have cured it by operation. He offered to +cure the headaches of a famous military commander of the day by +opening his skull under hashish; but the offer was rudely declined. +This story serves to show, in spite of its marvellous setting, that +the idea of administering an anaesthetic to carry out a surgical +operation must be credited, so far as priority goes, to the Chinese, +since the book in which the above account is given cannot have been +composed later than the twelfth century A.D. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PHILOSOPHY AND SPORT + +Chinese philosophy covers altogether too large a field to be dealt +with, even in outline, on a scale suitable to this volume; only a few +of its chief features can possibly be exhibited in the space at +disposal. + +Beginning with moral philosophy, we are confronted at once with what +was in early days an extremely vexed question; not perhaps entirely +set at rest even now, but allowed to remain in suspense amid the +universal acceptance of Confucian teachings. Confucius himself taught +in no indistinct terms that man is born good, and that he becomes evil +only by contact with evil surroundings. He does not enlarge upon this +dogma, but states it baldly as a natural law, little anticipating that +within a couple of centuries it was to be called seriously in +question. It remained for his great follower, Mencius, born a hundred +years later, to defend the proposition against all comers, and +especially against one of no mean standing, the philosopher Kao +(/Cow/). Kao declared that righteousness is only to be got out of +man's nature in the same way that good cups and bowls are to be got +out of a block of willow wood, namely, by care in fashioning them. +Improper workmanship would produce bad results; good workmanship, on +the other hand, would produce good results. In plain words, the nature +of man at birth is neither good nor bad; and what it becomes +afterwards depends entirely upon what influences have been brought to +bear and in what surroundings it has come to maturity. Mencius met +this argument by showing that in the process of extracting cups and +bowls from a block of wood, the wood as a block is destroyed, and he +pointed out that, according to such reasoning, man's nature would also +be destroyed in the process of getting righteousness out of it. + +Again, Kao maintained that man's nature has as little concern with +good or evil as water has with east or west; for water will flow +indifferently either one way or the other, according to the conditions +in each case. If there is freedom on the east, it will flow east; if +there is freedom on the west, it will flow west; and so with human +nature, which will move similarly in the direction of either good or +evil. In reply, Mencius freely admitted that water would flow either +east or west; but he asked if it would flow indifferently up or down. +He then declared that the bent of human nature towards good is +precisely like the tendency of water to flow down and not up. You can +force water to jump up, he said, by striking it, and by mechanical +appliances you can make it flow to the top of a hill; but what you do +in such cases is entirely contrary to the nature of water, and is +merely the result of violence, such violence, in fact, as is brought +into play when man's nature is bent towards evil. + +"That which men get at birth," said Kao, "is their nature," implying +that all natures were the same, just as the whiteness of a white +feather is the same as the whiteness of white snow; whereupon Mencius +showed that on this principle the nature of a dog would be the same as +that of a an ox, or the nature of an ox the same as that of a man. +Finally, Mencius declared that for whatever evil men may commit, their +natures can in nowise be blamed. In prosperous times, he argued, men +are mostly good, whereas in times of scarcity the opposite is the +case; these two conditions, however, are not to be charged against the +natures with which God sent them into the world, but against the +circumstances in which the individuals in question have been situated. + +The question, however, of man's original nature was not set +permanently at rest by the arguments of Mencius. A philosopher, named +Hsun Tzu (/Sheundza/), who flourished not very much later than +Mencius, came forward with the theory that so far from being good +according to Confucius, or even neutral according to Kao, the nature +of man at birth is positively evil. He supports this view by the +following arguments. From his earliest years, man is actuated by a +love of gain for his own personal enjoyment. His conduct is +distinguished by selfishness and combativeness. He becomes a slave to +envy, hatred, and other passions. The restraint of law, and the +influence and guidance of teachers, are absolutely necessary to good +government and the well-being of social life. Just as wood must be +subjected to pressure in order to make it straight, and metal must be +subjected to the grindstone in order to make it sharp, so must the +nature of man be subjected to training and education in order to +obtain from it the virtues of justice and self-sacrifice which +characterize the best of the human race. It is impossible to maintain +that man's nature is good in the same sense that his eyes see and his +ears hear; for in the latter there is no alternative. An eye which +does not see, is not an eye; an ear which does not hear, is not an +ear. This proves that whereas seeing and hearing are natural to man, +goodness is artificial and acquired. Just as a potter produces a dish +or a carpenter a bench, working on some material before them, so do +the sages and teachers of mankind produce righteousness by working +upon the nature of man, which they transform in the same way that the +potter transforms the clay or the carpenter the wood. We cannot +believe that God has favourites, and deals unkindly with others. How, +then, is it that some men are evil while others are good? The answer +is, that the former follow their natural disposition, while the latter +submit to restraints and follow the guidance of their teachers. It is +indeed true that any one may become a hero, but all men do not +necessarily become heroes, nor is there any method by which they can +be forced to do so. If a man is endowed with a capacity for +improvement, and is placed in the hands of good teachers, associating +at the same time with friends whose actions display such virtues as +self-sacrifice, truth, kindness, and so forth, he will naturally +imbibe principles which will raise him to the same standard; whereas, +if he consorts with evil livers, he will be a daily witness of deceit, +corruption, and general impurity of conduct, and will gradually lapse +into the same course of life. If you do not know your son, says the +proverb, look at his friends. + +The next step was taken by the philosopher Yang Hsiung (/Sheeyoong/), +53 B.C. to A.D. 18. He started a theory which occupies a middle place +between the last two theories discussed above, teaching that the +nature of man at birth is neither wholly good nor wholly evil, but a +mixture of both, and that development in either direction depends +altogether on environment. A compromise in matters of faith is not +nearly so picturesque as an extreme, and Yang's attempted solution has +attracted but scant attention, though always mentioned with respect. +The same may also be said of another attempt to smooth obvious +difficulties in the way of accepting either of the two extremes or the +middle course proposed by Yang Hsiung. The famous Han Yu, to be +mentioned again shortly, was a pillar and prop of Confucianism. He +flourished between A.D. 768 and 824, and performed such lasting +services in what was to him the cause of truth, that his tablet has +been placed in the Confucian temple, an honour reserved only for those +whose orthodoxy is beyond suspicion. Yet he ventured upon an attempt +to modify this important dogma, taking care all the time to appear as +if he were criticizing Mencius rather than Confucius, on whom, of +course, the real responsibility rests. He declared, solely upon his +own authority, that the nature of man is not uniform but divided into +three grades--namely, highest, middle, and lowest. Thus, natures of +the highest grade are good, wholly good, and nothing but good; natures +of the lowest grade are evil, wholly evil, and nothing but evil; while +natures of the middle grade may, under right direction, rise to the +highest grade, or, under wrong direction, sink to the lowest. + +Another question, much debated in the age of Mencius, arose out of the +rival statements of two almost contemporary philosophers, Mo Ti (/Maw +Tee) and Yang Chu. The former taught a system of mutual and +consequently universal love as a cure for all the ills arising from +misgovernment and want of social harmony. He pointed out, with much +truth, that if the feudal states would leave one another alone, +families cease to quarrel, and thieves cease to steal, while sovereign +and subject lived on terms of benevolence and loyalty, and fathers and +sons on terms of kindness and filial piety--then indeed the empire +would be well governed. But beyond suggesting the influence of +teachers in the prohibition of hatred and the encouragement of mutual +love, our philosopher does little or nothing to aid us in reaching +such a desirable consummation. + +The doctrine of Yang Chu is summed up as "every man for himself," and +is therefore diametrically opposed to that of Mo Ti. A questioner one +day asked him if he would consent to part with a single hair in order +to benefit the whole world. Yang Chu replied that a single hair could +be of no possible benefit to the world; and on being further pressed +to say what he would do if a hair were really of such benefit, it is +stated that he gave no answer. On the strength of this story, Mencius +said: "Yang's principle was, every man for himself. Though by plucking +out a single hair he might have benefited the whole world, he would +not have done so. Mo's system was universal love. If by taking off +every hair from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot he could +have benefited the empire, he would have done so. Neither of these two +doctrines is sound; a middle course is the right one." + +The origin of the visible universe is a question on which Chinese +philosophers have very naturally been led to speculate. Legend +provides us with a weird being named P'an Ku, who came into existence, +no one can quite say how, endowed with perfect knowledge, his function +being to set the gradually developing universe in order. He is often +represented pictorially with a huge adze in his hand, and engaged in +constructing the world out of the matter which has just begun to take +shape. With his death the detailed part of creation appeared. His +breath became the wind; his voice, the thunder; his left eye, the sun; +his right eye, the moon; his blood yielded rivers; his hair grew into +trees and plants; his flesh became the soil; his sweat descended as +rain; and the parasites which infested his body were the forerunners +of the human race. This sort of stuff, however, could only appeal to +the illiterate; for intellectual and educated persons something more +was required. And so it came about that a system, based originally +upon the quite incomprehensible Book of Changes, generally regarded as +the oldest portion of the Confucian Canon, was gradually elaborated +and brought to a finite state during the eleventh and twelfth +centuries of our era. According to this system, there was a time, +almost beyond the reach of expression in figures, when nothing at all +existed. In the period which followed, there came into existence, +spontaneously, a principle, which after another lapse of time resolved +itself into two principles with entirely opposite characteristics. One +of these principles represented light, heat, masculinity, and similar +phenomena classed as positive; the other represented darkness, cold, +femininity, and other phenomena classed as negative. The interaction +of these two principles in duly adjusted proportions produced the five +elements, earth, fire, water, wood, and metal; and with their +assistance all Nature as we see it around us was easily and rapidly +developed. Such is the Confucian theory, at any rate so called, for it +cannot be shown that Confucius ever entertained these notions, and his +alleged connexion with the Canon of Changes is itself of doubtful +authenticity. + +Chuang Tzu (/Chwongdza/), a philosopher of the third and fourth +centuries B.C., who was not only a mystic but also a moralist and a +social reformer, has something to say on the subject: "If there is +existence, there must have been non-existence. And if there was a time +when nothing existed, then there must have been a time before that, +when even nothing did not exist. Then when nothing came into +existence, could one really say whether it belonged to existence or +non-existence?" + +"Nothing" was rather a favourite term with Chuang Tzu for the exercise +of his wit. Light asked Nothing, saying: "Do you, sir, exist, or do +you not exist?" But getting no answer to his question, Light set to +work to watch for the appearance of Nothing. Hidden, vacuous--all day +long he looked but could not see it, listened but could not hear it, +grasped at but could not seize it. "Bravo!" cried Light; "who can +equal this? I can get to be nothing [meaning darkness], but I can't +get to be not nothing." + +Confucius would have nothing to say on the subject of death and a +future state; his theme was consistently this life and its +obligations, and he regarded speculation on the unknown as sheer waste +of time. When one of three friends died and Confucius sent a disciple +to condole with the other two, the disciple found them sitting by the +side of the corpse, merrily singing and playing on the lute. They +professed the then comparatively new faith which taught that life was +a dream and death the awakening. They believed that at death the pure +man "mounts to heaven, and roaming through the clouds, passes beyond +the limits of space, oblivious of existence, for ever and ever without +end." When the shocked disciple reported what he had seen, Confucius +said, "These men travel beyond the rule of life; I travel within it. +Consequently, our paths do not meet; and I was wrong in sending you to +mourn. They look on life as a huge tumour from which death sets them +free. All the same they know not where they were before birth, nor +where they will be after death. They ignore their passions. They take +no account of their ears and eyes. Backwards and forwards through all +eternity, they do not admit a beginning or an end. They stroll beyond +the dust and dirt of mortality, to wander in the realms of inaction. +How should such men trouble themselves with the conventionalities of +this world, or care what people may think of them?" + +Life comes, says Chuang Tzu, and cannot be declined; it goes, and +cannot be stopped. But alas, the world thinks that to nourish the +physical frame is enough to preserve life. Although not enough, it +must still be done; this cannot be neglected. For if one is to neglect +the physical frame, better far to retire at once from the world, since +by renouncing the world one gets rid of the cares of the world. There +is, however, the vitality which informs the physical frame; that must +be equally an object of incessant care. Then he whose physical frame +is perfect and whose vitality remains in its original purity--he is +one with God. Man passes through this sublunary life as a sunbeam +passes through a crack; here one moment, and gone the next. Neither +are there any not equally subject to the ingress and egress of +mortality. One modification brings life; then comes another, and there +is death. Living creatures cry out; human beings feel sorrow. The bow- +case is slipped off; the clothes'-bag is dropped; and in the confusion +the soul wings its flight, and the body follows, on the great journey +home. + +Attention has already been drawn to this necessary cultivation of the +physical frame, and Chuan Tzu gives an instance of the extent to which +it was carried. There was a certain man whose nose was covered with a +very hard scab, which was at the same time no thicker than a fly's +wing. He sent for a stonemason to chip it off; and the latter plied +his adze with great dexterity while the patient sat absolutely rigid, +without moving a muscle, and let him chip. When the scab was all off, +the nose was found to be quite uninjured. Such skill was of course +soon noised abroad, and a feudal prince, who also had a scab on his +nose, sent for the mason to take it off. The mason, however, declined +to try, alleging that the success did not depend so much upon the +skill of the operator as upon the mental control of the patient by +which the physical frame became as it were a perfectly inanimate +object. + +Contemporary with Chuang Tzu, but of a very different school of +thought, was the philosopher Hui Tzu (/Hooeydza/). He was particularly +fond of the quibbles which so delighted the sophists or unsound +reasoners of ancient Greece. Chuang Tzu admits that he was a man of +many ideas, and that his works would fill five carts--this, it must be +remembered, because they were written on slips of wood tied together +by a string run through eyelets. But he adds that Hui Tzu's doctrines +are paradoxical, and his terms used ambiguously. Hui Tzu argued, for +instance, that such abstractions as hardness and whiteness were +separate existences, of which the mind could only be conscious +separately, one at a time. He declared that there are feathers in a +new-laid egg, because they ultimately appear on the chick. He +maintained that fire is not hot; it is the man who feels hot. That the +eye does not see; it is the man who sees. That compasses will not make +a circle; it is the man. That a bay horse and a dun cow are three; +because taken separately they are two, and taken together they are +one: two and one make three. That a motherless colt never had a +mother; when it had a mother, it was not motherless. That if you take +a stick a foot long and every day cut it in half, you will never come +to the end of it. + +Of what use, asked his great rival, is Hui Tzu to the world? His +efforts can only be compared with those of a gadfly or a mosquito. He +makes a noise to drown an echo. He is like a man running a race with +his own shadow. + +When Chuang Tzu was about to die, his disciples expressed a wish to +give him a splendid funeral. But Chuang Tzu said: "With heaven and +earth for my coffin and my shell; with the sun, moon and stars as my +burial regalia; and with all creation to escort me to my grave,--are +not my funeral paraphernalia ready to hand?" "We fear," argued the +disciples, "lest the carrion kite should eat the body of our Master;" +to which Chuang Tzu replied: "Above ground I shall be food for kites; +below ground for mole-crickets and ants. Why rob one to feed the +other?" + +Life in China is not wholly made up of book-learning and commerce. The +earliest Chinese records exhibit the people as following the chase in +the wake of the great nobles, more as a sport than as the serious +business it must have been in still more remote ages; and the first +emperors of the present dynasty were also notable sportsmen, who +organized periodical hunting-tours on a scale of considerable +magnificence. + +Hawking was practised at least so far back as a century before Christ; +for we have a note on a man of that period who "loved to gallop after +wily animals with horse and dog, or follow up with falcon the pheasant +and the hare." The sport may be seen in northern China at the present +day. A hare is put up, and a couple of native greyhounds are +dispatched after it; these animals, however, would soon be distanced +by the hare, which can run straight away from them without doubling, +but for the sudden descent of the falcon, and a blow from its claw, +often stunning the hare at the first attempt, and enabling the dogs to +come up. + +Sportsmen who have to make their living by the business frequently +descend to methods which are sometimes very ingenious, and more +remunerative than the gun, but can hardly be classified as sport. +Thus, a man in search of wild duck will mark down a flock settled on +some shallow sheet of water. He will then put a crate over his head +and shoulders, and gradually approach the flock as though the crate +were drifting on the surface. Once among them, he puts out a hand +under water, seizes hold of a duck's legs, and rapidly pulls the bird +down. The sudden disappearance of a colleague does not seem to trouble +its companions, and in a short time a very considerable bag has been +obtained. Tradition says that Confucius was fond of sport, but would +never let fly at birds sitting; which, considering that his weapon was +a bow-and-arrow, must be set down as a marvel of self-restraint. + +Scores of Chinese poets have dwelt upon the joys of angling, and +fishing is widely carried on over the inland waters; but the rod, +except as a matter of pure sport, has given place to the businesslike +net. The account of the use of fishing cormorants was formerly +regarded as a traveller's tale. It is quite true, however, that small +rafts carrying several of these birds, with a fisherman gently +sculling at the stern, may be seen on the rivers of southern China. +The cormorant seizes a passing fish, and the fisherman takes the fish +from its beak. The bird is trained with a ring round its neck, which +prevents it from swallowing the prey; while for each capture it is +rewarded with a small piece of fish. Well-trained cormorants can be +trusted to fish without the restraint of the ring. Confucius, again, +is said to have been fond of fishing, but he would not use a net; and +there was another sage of antiquity who would not even use a hook, but +fished with a straight piece of iron, apparently thinking that the +advantage would be an unfair one as against the resources of the fish; +and declaring openly that he would only take such fish as wished to be +caught. By such simple narratives do the Chinese strive to convey +great truths to childish ears. + +Many sports were once common in China which have long since passed out +of the national life, and exist only in the record of books. Among +these may be mentioned "butting," a very ancient pastime, mentioned in +history two centuries before the Christian era. The sport consisted in +putting an ox-skin, horns and all, over the head, and then trying to +knock one's adversary out of time by butting at him after the fashion +of bulls, the result being, as the history of a thousand years later +tells us, "smashed heads, broken arms, and blood running in the Palace +yard." + +The art of boxing, which included wrestling, had been practised by the +Chinese several centuries before butting was introduced. Its most +accomplished exponents were subsequently found among the priests of a +Buddhist monastery, built about A.D. 500; and it was undoubtedly from +their successors that the Japanese acquired a knowledge of the modern +/jiu-jitsu/, which is simply the equivalent of the old Chinese term +meaning "gentle art." A few words from a chapter on "boxing" in a +military work of the sixteenth century will give some idea of the +scope of the Chinese sport. + +"The body must be quick to move, the hands quick to take advantage, +and the legs lightly planted but firm, so as to advance or retire with +effect. In the flying leap of the leg lies the skill of the art; in +turning the adversary upside down lies its ferocity; in planting a +straight blow with the fist lies its rapidity; and in deftly holding +the adversary face upwards lies its gentleness." + +Football was played in China at a very early date; originally, with a +ball stuffed full of hair; from the fifth century A.D., with an +inflated bladder covered with leather. A picture of the goal, which is +something like a triumphal arch, has come down to us, and also the +technical names and positions of the players; even more than seventy +kinds of kicks are enumerated, but the actual rules of the game are +not known. It is recorded by one writer that "the winners were +rewarded with flowers, fruit and wine, and even with silver bowls and +brocades, while the captain of the losing team was flogged, and +suffered other indignities." The game, which had disappeared for some +centuries, is now being revived in Chinese schools and colleges under +the control of foreigners, and finds great favour with the rising +generation. + +Polo is first mentioned in Chinese literature under the year A.D. 710, +the reference being to a game played before the Emperor and his court. +The game was very much in vogue for a long period, and even women were +taught to play--on donkey-back. The Kitan Tartars were the most +skilful players; it is doubtful if the game originated with them, or +if it was introduced from Persia, with which country China had +relations at a very early date. A statesman of the tenth century, +disgusted at the way in which the Emperor played polo to excess, +presented a long memorial, urging his Majesty to discontinue the +practice. The reasons given for this advice were three in number. "(1) +When sovereign and subject play together, there must be contention. If +the sovereign wins, the subject is ashamed; if the former loses, the +latter exults. (2) To jump on a horse and swing a mallet, galloping +here and there, with no distinctions of rank, but only eager to be +first and win, is destructive of all ceremony between sovereign and +subject. (3) To make light of the responsibilities of empire, and run +even the remotest risk of an accident, is to disregard obligations to +the state and to her Imperial Majesty the Empress." + +It has always been recognized that the chief duty of a statesman is to +advise his master without fear or favour, and to protest loudly and +openly against any course which is likely to be disadvantageous to the +commonwealth, or to bring discredit on the court. It has also been +always understood that such protests are made entirely at the risk of +the statesman in question, who must be prepared to pay with his head +for counsels which may be stigmatized as unpatriotic, though in +reality they may be nothing more than unpalatable at the moment. + +In the year A.D. 814 the Emperor, who had become a devout Buddhist, +made arrangements for receiving with extravagant honours a bone of +Buddha, which had been forwarded from India to be preserved as a +relic. This was too much for Han Yu (already mentioned), the leading +statesman of the day, who was a man of the people, raised by his own +genius, and who, to make things worse, had already been banished +eleven years previously for presenting an offensive Memorial on the +subject of tax-collection, for which he had been forgiven and +recalled. He promptly sent in a respectful but bitter denunciation of +Buddha and all his works, and entreated his Majesty not to stain the +Confucian purity of thought by tolerating such a degrading exhibition +as that proposed. But for the intercession of friends, the answer to +this bold memorial would have been death; as it was he was banished to +the neighbourhood of the modern Swatow, then a wild and barbarous +region, hardly incorporated into the Empire. There he set himself to +civilize the rude inhabitants, until soon recalled and once more +reinstated in office; and to this day there is a shrine dedicated to +his memory, containing the following inscription: "Wherever he passed, +he purified." + +Another great statesman, who flourished over two hundred years later, +and also several times suffered banishment, in an inscription to the +honour and glory of his predecessor, put down the following words: +"Truth began to be obscured and literature to fade; supernatural +religions sprang up on all sides, and many eminent scholars failed to +oppose their advance, until Han Yu, the cotton-clothed, arose and +blasted them with his derisive sneer." + +Since the fourteenth century there has existed a definite +organization, known as the Censorate, the members of which, who are +called the "ears and eyes" of the sovereign, make it their business to +report adversely upon any course adopted by the Government in the name +of the Emperor, or by any individual statesman, which seems to call +for disapproval. The reproving Censor is nominally entitled to +complete immunity from punishment; but in practice he knows that he +cannot count too much upon either justice or mercy. If he concludes +that his words will be unforgivable, he hands in his memorial, and +draws public attention forthwith by committing suicide on the spot. + +To be allowed to commit suicide, and not to suffer the indignity of a +public execution, is a privilege sometimes extended to a high official +whose life has become forfeit under circumstances which do not call +for special degradation. A silken cord is forwarded from the Emperor +to the official in question, who at once puts an end to his life, +though not necessarily by strangulation. He may take poison, as is +usually the case, and this is called "swallowing gold." For a long +time it was believed that Chinese high officials really did swallow +gold, which in view of its non-poisonous character gave rise to an +idea that gold-leaf was employed, the leaf being inhaled and so +causing suffocation. Some simple folk, Chinese as well as foreigners, +believe this now, although native authorities have pointed out that +workmen employed in the extraction of gold often steal pieces and +swallow them, without any serious consequences whatever. Another +explanation, which has also the advantage of being the true one, is +that "swallowing gold" is one of the roundabout phrases in which the +Chinese delight to express painful or repulsive subjects. No emperor +ever "dies," he becomes "a guest on high." No son will say that his +parents are "dead;" but merely that "they are not." The death of an +official is expressed by "he is drawing no salary;" of an ordinary man +it may be said that "he has become an ancient," very much in the same +way that we say "he has joined the majority." A corpse in a coffin is +in its "long home;" when buried, it is in "the city of old age," or on +"the terrace of night." To say grossly, then, that a man took poison +would be an offence to ears polite. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +RECREATION + +To return, after a long digression. The age of manly sport, as above +described, has long passed away; and the only hope is for a revival +under the changing conditions of modern China. Some few athletic +exercises have survived; and until recently, archery, in which the +Tartars have always excelled, was regarded almost as a semi-divine +accomplishment. Kite-flying has reached a high level of skill. Clever +little "messengers" have been devised, which run up the string, +carrying fire-crackers which explode at a great height. There is a +game of shuttlecock, without the battledore, for which the feet are +used as a substitute; and "diavolo," recently introduced into Europe, +is an ancient Chinese pastime. A few Manchus, too, may be seen skating +during the long northern winter, but the modern inhabitant of the +Flowery Land, be he Manchu or Chinese, much prefers an indoor game to +anything else, especially when, as is universally the case, a stake of +money is involved. + +Gambling is indeed a very marked feature of Chinese life. A child +buying a cake will often go double or quits with the stall-keeper, to +see if he is to have two cakes or nothing, the question being settled +by a throw of dice in a bowl. Of the interval allowed for meals, a +gang of coolies will devote a portion to a game of cards. The cards +used are smaller than the European pack, and of course differently +marked; they were the invention of a lady of the Palace in the tenth +century, who substituted imitation leaves of gilt paper for real +leaves, which had previously been adopted for playing some kind of +game. There are also various games played with chequers, some of great +antiquity; and there is chess, that is to say, a game so little +differing from our chess as to leave no doubt as to the common origin +of both. In all of these the money element comes in; and it is not too +much to say that more homes are broken up, and more misery caused by +this truly national vice than can be attributed to any other cause. + +For pleasure pure and simple, independent of gains and losses, the +theatre occupies the warmest place in every Chinaman's heart. If +gambling is a national vice in China, the drama must be set off as the +national recreation. Life would be unthinkable to the vast majority if +its monotony were not broken by the periodical performance of stage- +plays. It is from this source that a certain familiarity with the +great historical episodes of the past may be pleasantly picked up over +a pipe and a cup of tea; while the farce, occasionally perhaps erring +on the side of breadth, affords plenty of merriment to the laughter- +loving crowd. + +Ability to make Chinamen laugh is a great asset; and a foreigner who +carries this about with him will find it stand him in much better +stead than a revolver. When, many years ago, a vessel was wrecked on +the coast of Formosa, the crew and passengers were at once seized, and +confined for some time in a building, where traces of their +inscriptions could be seen up to quite a recent date. At length, they +were all taken out for execution; but before the ghastly order was +carried out, one of the number so amused everybody by cutting capers +and turning head over heels, that the presiding mandarin said he was a +funny fellow, and positively allowed him to escape. + +With regard to the farce itself, it is not so much the actual wit of +the dialogue which carries away the audience as the refined skill of +the actor, who has to pass through many trials before he is considered +to be fit for the stage. Beginning as quite a boy, in addition to +committing to memory a large number of plays--not merely his own part, +but the whole play--he has to undergo a severe physical training, part +of which consists in standing for an hour every day with his mouth +wide open, to inhale the morning air. He is taught to sing, to walk, +to strut, and to perform a variety of gymnastic exercises, such as +standing on his head, or turning somersaults. His first classification +is as male or female actor, no women having been allowed to perform +since the days of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung (A.D. 1736-1796), whose +mother was an actress, just as in Shakespeare's time the parts for +women were always taken by young men or boys. When once this is +settled, it only remains to enrol him as tragedian, comedian, low- +comedy actor, walking gentleman or lady, and similar parts, according +to his capabilities. + +It is not too much to say that women are very little missed on the +Chinese stage. The make-up of the actor is so perfect, and his +imitation of the feminine voice and manner, down to the smallest +detail, even to the small feet, is so exact in every point, that he +would be a clever observer who could positively detect impersonation +by a man. + +Generally speaking, a Chinese actor has many more difficulties to face +than his colleague in the West. In addition to the expression of all +shades of feeling, from mirth to melancholy, the former has to keep up +a perpetual make-believe in another sense, which is further great +strain upon his nerves. There being no scenery, no furniture, and no +appointments of any except the slenderest kind upon the stage, he has +to create in the minds of his audience a belief that all these missing +accessories are nevertheless before their eyes. A general comes upon +the scene, with a whip in his hand, and a studied movement not only +suggests that he is dismounting from a horse, but outlines the animal +itself. In the same manner, he remounts and rides off again; while +some other actor speaks from the top of a small table, which is +forthwith transfigured, and becomes to all intents and purposes a +castle. + +Many of those who might be apt to smile at the simple Chinese mind +which can tolerate such absurdities in the way of make-believe, +require to be reminded that the stage in the days of Queen Elizabeth +was worked on very much the same lines. Sir Philip Sidney tells us +that the scene of an imagined garden with imagined flowers had to do +duty at one time for an imagined shipwreck, and at another for an +imagined battlefield, the spectator in the latter case being helped +out by two opposing soldiers armed with swords and bucklers. Even +Shakespeare, in the Prologue to his play of /Henry V/, speaks of +imagining one man to be an army of a thousand, and says:-- + + Think, when we talk of horses that you see them + Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; + For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings. + +Here, then, is good authority for the quaint system that still +prevails in China. + +Hundreds of Chinese pilgrims annually went their weary way to the top +of Mount Omi in the province of Ssuch'uan, and gaze downward from a +sheer and lofty precipice to view a huge circular belt of light, which +is called the Glory of Buddha. Some see it, some do not; the Chinese +say that the whole thing is a question of faith. In a somewhat similar +sense, the dramatic enthusiast sees before him such beings of the mind +as the genuine actor is able to call up. The Philistine cannot reach +this pitch; but he is sharp enough to see other things which to the +eye of the sympathetic spectator are absolutely non-existent. Some of +the latter will be enumerated below. + +The Chinese stage has no curtain; and the orchestra is on the stage +itself, behind the actors. There is no prompter and no call-boy. Stage +footmen wait at the sides to carry in screens, small tables, and an +odd chair or two, to represent houses, city walls, and so on, or hand +cups of tea to the actors when their throats become dry from +vociferous singing, which is always in falsetto. All this in the face +of the audience. Dead people get up and walk off the stage; or while +lying dead, contrive to alter their facial expression, and then get up +and carry themselves off. There is no interval between one play and +the next following, which probably gives rise to the erroneous belief +that Chinese plays are long, the fact being that they are very short. +According to the Penal Code, there may be no impersonation of emperors +and empresses of past ages, but this clause is now held to refer +solely to the present dynasty. + +For the man in the street and his children, there are to be seen +everywhere in China where a sufficient number of people gather +together, Punch-and-Judy shows of quite a high class in point of skill +and general attractiveness. These shows are variously traced back to +the eighth and second centuries B.C., and to the seventh century A.D., +even the latest of which periods would considerably antedate the +appearance of performing marionettes in this country or on the +Continent. Associated with the second century B.C., the story runs +that the Emperor of the day was closely besieged by a terrible Hun +chieftain, who was accompanied by his wife. It occurred to one of his +Majesty's staff to exhibit on the walls of the town, in full view of +the enemy, a number of manikins, dressed up to a deceptive resemblance +to beautiful girls. The wife of the Hun chieftain then persuaded her +husband to draw off his forces, and the Emperor escaped. + +By the Chinese marionettes, little plays on familiar subjects are +performed; many are of a more serious turn than the loves of Mr. +Punch, while others again are of the knock-about style so dear to the +ordinary boy and girl. Besides such entertainments as these, the +streets of a Chinese city offer other shows to those who desire to be +amused. An acrobat, a rope-dancer or a conjurer will take up a pitch +right in the middle of the roadway, and the traffic has to get on as +best it can. A theatrical stage will sometimes completely block a +street, and even foot-passengers will have to find their way round. +There is also the public story-reader, who for his own sake will +choose a convenient spot near to some busy thoroughfare; and there, to +an assembled crowd, he will read out, not in the difficult book- +language, but in the colloquial dialect of the place, stories of war +and heroism, soldiers led to night-attacks with wooden bits in their +mouths to prevent them from talking in the ranks, the victory of the +loyal and the rout and slaughter of the rebel. Or it may be a tale of +giants, goblins and wizards; the bewitching of promising young men by +lovely maidens who turn out to be really foxes in disguise, ending as +usual in the triumph of virtue and the discomfiture of vice. The fixed +eyes and open mouths of the crowd, listening with rapt attention, is a +sight which, once seen, is not easily forgotten. + +For the ordinary man, China is simply peopled with bogies and devils, +the spirits of the wicked or of those unfortunate enough not to secure +decent burial with all its accompanying worship and rites. These +creatures, whose bodies cast no shadow, lurk in dark corners, ready to +pounce on some unwary passer-by and possibly tear out his heart. Many +a Confucianist, sturdy in his faith that "devils only exist for those +who believe in them," will hesitate to visit by night a lonely spot, +or even to enter a disused tumbledown building by day. Some of the +stories told are certainly well fitted to make a deep impression upon +young and highly-strung nerves. For instance, one man who was too fond +of the bottle placed some liquor alongside his bed, to be drunk during +the night. On stretching out his hand to reach the flask, he was +seized by a demon, and dragged gradually into the earth. In response +to his shrieks, his relatives and neighbours only arrived in time to +see the ground close over his head, just as though he had fallen into +water. + +From this story it will be rightly gathered that the Chinese mostly +sleep on the ground floor. In Peking, houses of more than one storey +are absolutely barred; the reason being that each house is built round +a courtyard, which usually has trees in it, and in which the ladies of +the establishment delight to sit and sew, and take the air and all the +exercise they can manage to get. + +Another blood-curdling story is that of four travellers who arrived by +night at an inn, but could obtain no other accommodation than a room +in which was lying the corpse of the landlord's daughter-in-law. Three +of the four were soon snoring; the fourth, however, remained awake, +and very soon heard a creaking of the trestles on which was the dead +body dressed out in paper robes, ready for burial. To his horror he +saw the girl get up, and go and breathe on his companions; so by the +time she came to him he had his head tucked well under the bedclothes. +After a little while he kicked one of the others; but finding that his +friend did not move, he suddenly grabbed his own trousers and made a +bolt for the door. In a moment the corpse was up and after him, +following him down the street, and gaining gradually on him, no one +coming to the rescue in spite of his loud shrieks as he ran. So he +slipped behind a tree, and dodged right and left, the infuriated +corpse also dodging right and left, and making violent efforts to get +him. At length, the girl made a rush forward with one arm on each +side, in the hope of thus grabbing her victim. The traveller, however, +fell backwards and escaped her clutch, while she remained rigidly +embracing the tree. By and by he was found senseless on the ground; +and the corpse was removed from the tree, but with great difficulty, +as the fingers were buried in the bark so deep that the nails were not +even visible. The other three travellers were found dead in their +beds. + +Periodical feasting may be regarded as another form of amusement by +which the Chinese seek to relieve the monotony of life. They have +never reserved one day in seven for absolute rest, though of late +years Chinese merchants connected with foreign trade have to some +extent fallen in with the observance of Sunday. Quite a number of days +during the year are set apart as public holidays, but no one is +obliged to keep them as such, unless he likes, with one important +exception. The festival of the New Year cannot be ignored by any one. +For about ten days before this date, and twenty days after it, the +public offices are closed and no business is transacted, the seal of +each official is handed over for safe keeping to the official's wife, +a fact which helps to dispose of the libel that women in China are the +down-trodden creatures they are often represented to be. All debts +have to be paid and accounts squared by midnight on the last day of +the old year. A few nights previously, offerings of an excessively +sticky sweetmeat are made to the Spirit of the Hearth, one of whose +functions is that of an accusing angel. The Spirit is then on the +point of starting for his annual visit to heaven, and lest any of the +disclosures he might make should entail unpleasant consequences, it is +adjudged best that he shall be rendered incapable of making any +disclosures at all. The unwary god finds his lips tightly glued +together, and is unable to utter a single word. Meanwhile, fire- +crackers are being everywhere let off on a colossal scale, the object +being to frighten away the evil spirits which have collected during +the past twelve months, and to begin the year afresh. The day itself +is devoted to calling, in one's best clothes, on relatives, friends +and official superiors, for all of whom it is customary to leave a +present. The relatives and friends receive "wet" gifts, such as fruit +or cakes; officials also receive wet gifts, but underneath the top +layer will be found something "dry," in the shape of silver or bank- +notes. Everybody salutes everybody with the conventional saying, "New +joy, new joy; get rich, get rich!" Yet here again, as in all things +Chinese, we find a striking exception to this good-natured rule. No +one says "Get rich, get rich!" to the undertaker. + +A high authority (on other matters) has recently stated that the +Chinese calendar "begins just when the Emperor chooses to say it +shall. He is like the captain of a ship, who says of the hour, 'Make +it so,' and it is so." The truth is that New Year's Day is determined +by the Astronomical Board, according to fixed rules, just as Easter is +determined; and it may fall on any day between the 21st of January and +the 20th of February, but neither before the former date nor after the +latter date, in spite even of the most threatening orders from the +Palace. This book will indeed have been written in vain if the reader +lays it down without having realized that no such wanton interference +on the part of their rulers would be tolerated by the Chinese people. +But we are wandering away from merry-making and festivity. + +In their daily life the Chinese are extremely moderate eaters and +mostly tea-drinkers, even the wealthy confining themselves to few and +simple dishes of pork, fowl, or fish, with the ever-present +accompaniment of rice. The puppy-dog, on which the people are +popularly believed to live, as the French on frogs, is a stall-fed +animal, and has always been, and still is, an article of food; but the +consumption of dog-flesh is really very restricted, and many thousands +of Chinamen have never tasted dog in their lives. According to the +popular classification of foods, those who live on vegetables get +strong, those who live on meat become brave, those who live on grain +acquire wisdom, and those who live on air become divine. + +At banquets the scene changes, and course after course of curiously +compounded and highly spiced dishes, cooked as only Chinese cooks know +how, are placed before the guests. The wine, too, goes merrily round; +bumpers are drunk at short intervals, and the wine-cups are held +upside down, to show that there are no heel-taps. Forfeits are exacted +over the game of "guess-fingers," for failure to cap a verse, or for +any other equally sufficient (or insufficient) reason; and the penalty +is an extra bumper for the loser. + +This lively picture requires, perhaps, a little further explanation. +Chinese "wine" is an ardent spirit distilled from rice, and is +modified in various ways so as to produce certain brands, some of +which are of quite moderate strength, and really may be classed as +wine. It is always drunk hot, the heat being supplied by vessels of +boiling water, in which the pewter wine-flasks are kept standing. The +wine-cups are small, and it is possible to drink a good many of them +without feeling in the least overcome. Even so, many diners now refuse +to touch wine at all, the excuse always being that it flushes the face +uncomfortably. Perhaps they fear an undeserved imputation of +drunkenness, remembering their own cynical saying: "A bottle-nosed man +may be a tee-totaller, but no one will believe it. To judge from their +histories and their poetry, the Chinese seem once upon a time to have +been a fairly tipsy nation: now-a-days, the truth lies the other way. +An official who died A.D. 639, and was the originator of epitaphs in +China, wrote his own, as follows:-- + + Fu I loved the green hills and white clouds . . . + Alas! he died of drink! + +There are exceptions, no doubt, as to every rule in every country; but +such sights as drunken men tumbling about the streets, or lying +senseless by the roadside, are not to be seen in China. "It is not +wine," says the proverb, "which makes a man drunk; it is the man +himself." + +Even at banquets, which are often very rich and costly, unnecessary +expense is by no means encouraged. Dishes of fruit, of a kind which no +one would wish to eat, and which are placed on the table for show or +ornament, are simply clever imitations in painted wood, and pass from +banquet to banquet as part of the ordinary paraphernalia of a feast; +no one is deceived. The same form of open and above-board deception +appears in many other ways. There are societies organized for visiting +in a comfortable style of pilgrimage some famous mountain of historic +interest. Names are put down, and money is collected; and then the +party starts off by boat or in sedan-chairs, as the case may be. On +arriving at the mountain, there is a grand feast, and after the +picnic, for such it is, every one goes home again. That is the real +thing; now for the imitation. Names are put down, and money is +collected, as before; but the funds are spent over a feast at home, +alongside of a paper mountain. + +Another of these deceptions, which deceive nobody, is one which might +be usefully adapted to life in other countries. A Chinaman meeting in +the street a friend, and having no leisure to stop and talk, or +perhaps meeting some one with whom he may be unwilling to talk, will +promptly put up his open fan to screen his face, and pass on. The +suggestion is that, wishing to pass without notice, he fails to see +the person in question, and it would be a serious breach of decorum on +the part of the latter to ignore the hint thus conveyed. + +Japan, who may be said to have borrowed the civilization of China, +lock, stock and barrel--her literature, her moral code, her arts, her +sciences, her manners and customs, her ceremonial, and even her +national dress--invented the folding fan, which in the early part of +the fifteenth century formed part of the tribute sent from Korea to +Peking, and even later was looked upon by the Chinese as quite a +curiosity. In the early ages, fans were made of feathers, as still at +the present day; but the more modern fan of native origin is a light +frame of bamboo, wood or ivory, round or otherwise, over which silk is +stretched, offering a convenient medium for the inscription of poems, +or for paintings, as exchanged between friend and friend. + +The same innocent form of deception, which deceives nobody, is carried +out when two officials, seated in sedan-chairs, have to pass one +another. If they are of about equal rank, etiquette demands that they +should alight from their chairs, and perform mutual salutations. To +obviate the extreme inconvenience of this rule, large wooden fans are +carried in all processions of the kind, and these are hastily thrust +between the passing officials, so that neither becomes aware of the +other's existence on the scene. The case is different when one of the +two is of higher rank. The official of inferior grade is bound to stop +and get out of his chair while his superior passes by, though even now +he has a chance of escape; he hears the gong beaten to clear the way +for the great man, whose rank he can tell from the number of +consecutive blows given; and hurriedly turns off down a side street. + +An historical instance of substituting the shadow for the reality is +that of the great general Ts'ao Ts'ao, third century A.D., who for +some breach of the law sentenced himself to death, but satisfied his +sense of justice by cutting off his hair. An emperor of the sixth +century, who was a devout Buddhist, and therefore unable to +countenance any destruction of life, had all the sacrificial animals +made of dough. + +The opium question, which will claim a few words later on, has been +exhaustively threshed out; and in view of the contradictory statements +for and against the habit of opium smoking, it is recognized that any +conclusion, satisfactory to both parties, is a very remote +possibility. The Chinese themselves, who are chiefly interested in the +argument, have lately come to a very definite conclusion, which is +that opium has to go; and it seems that in spite of almost invincible +obstacles, the sincerity and patriotism which are being infused into +the movement will certainly, sooner or later, achieve the desired end. +It is perhaps worth noting that in the Decree of 1906, which ordered +the abolition of opium smoking, the old Empress Dowager, who was +herself over sixty and a moderate smoker, inserted a clause excusing +from the operation of the new law all persons already more than sixty +years of age. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MONGOLS, 1260-1368 + +Lack of patriotism is often hurled by foreigners as a reproach to the +Chinese. The charge cannot be substantiated, any more than it could be +if directed against some nation in Europe. If willingness to sacrifice +everything, including life itself, may be taken as a fair test of +genuine patriotism, then it will be found, if historical records be +not ignored, that China has furnished numberless brilliant examples of +true patriots who chose to die rather than suffer dishonour to +themselves or to their country. A single instance must suffice. + +The time is the close of the thirteenth century, when the Mongols +under Kublai Khan were steadily dispossessing the once glorious and +powerful House of Sung, and placing the empire of China under alien +rule. Disaster followed disaster, until almost the last army of the +Sungs was cut to pieces, and the famous statesman and general in +command, Wen (pronounced /One/) T'ien-hsian, fell into the hands of +the Mongols. He was ordered, but refused, to write and advise +capitulation, and every effort was subsequently made to induce him to +own allegiance to the conquerors. He was kept in prison for three +years. "My dungeon," he wrote, "is lighted by the will-o'-the-wisp +alone; no breath of spring cheers the murky solitude in which I dwell. +Exposed to mist and dew, I had many times thought to die; and yet, +through the seasons of two revolving years, disease hovered around me +in vain. The dank, unhealthy soil to me became Paradise itself. For +there was that within me which misfortune could not steal away; and so +I remained firm, gazing at the white clouds floating over my head, and +bearing in my heart a sorrow boundless as the sky." + +At length he was summoned into the presence of Kublai Khan, who said +to him, "What is it you want?" "By the grace of the Sung Emperor," he +replied, "I became His Majesty's Minister. I cannot serve two masters. +I only ask to die." Accordingly, he was executed, meeting his death +with composure, and making an obeisance in the direction of the old +capital. His last words were, "My work is finished." Compare this with +the quiet death-bed of another statesman, who flourished in the +previous century. He had advised an enormous cession of territory to +the Tartars, and had brought about the execution of a patriot soldier, +who wished to recover it at all costs. He was loaded with honours, and +on the very night he died he was raised to the rank of Prince. He was +even canonized, after the usual custom, as Loyalty Manifested, on a +mistaken estimate of his career; but fifty years later his title was +changed to False and Foul and his honours were cancelled, while the +people at large took his degraded name for use as an alternative to +spittoon. + +Two names of quite recent patriots deserve to be recorded here as a +tribute to their earnest devotion to the real interests of their +country, and incidentally for the far-reaching consequences of their +heroic act, which probably saved the lives of many foreigners in +various parts of China. It was during the Boxer troubles in Peking, at +the beginning of the siege of the legations, that Yuan Ch'ang and Hsu +Ching-ch'eng, two high Chinese officials, ventured to memorialize the +Empress Dowager upon the fatal policy, and even criminality, of the +whole proceedings, imploring her Majesty at a meeting of the Grand +Council to reconsider her intention of issuing orders for the +extermination of all foreigners. In spite of their remonstrances, a +decree was issued to that effect and forwarded to the high authorities +of the various provinces; but it failed to accomplish what had been +intended, for these two heroes, taking their lives in their hands, had +altered the words "slay all foreigners" into "protect all foreigners." +Some five to six weeks later, when the siege was drawing to a close, +the alteration was discovered; and next day those two men were +hurriedly beheaded, meeting death with such firmness and fortitude as +only true patriotism could inspire. + +The Mongols found it no easy task to dispossess the House of Sung, +which had many warm adherents to its cause. It was in 1206 that +Genghis Khan began to make arrangements for a projected invasion of +China, and by 1214 he was master of all the enemy's territory north of +the Yellow River, except Peking. He then made peace with the Golden +Tartar emperor of northern China; but his suspicions were soon +aroused, and hostilities were renewed. In 1227 he died, while +conducting a campaign in Central Asia; and it remained for his +vigorous grandson, Kublai Khan, to complete the conquest of China more +than half a century afterwards. So early as 1260, Kublai was able to +proclaim himself emperor at Xanadu, which means Imperial Capital, and +lay about one hundred and eighty miles north of modern Peking, where, +in those days known as Khan-baligh (Marco Polo's Cambaluc), he +established himself four years later; but twenty years of severe +fighting had still to pass away before the empire was finally subdued. +The Sung troops were gradually driven south, contesting every inch of +ground with a dogged resistance born of patriotic endeavour. In 1278 +Canton was taken, and the heroic Wen T'ien-hsiang was captured through +the treachery of a subordinate. In 1279 the last stronghold of the +Sungs was beleaguered by land and sea. Shut up in their ships which +they formed into a compact mass and fortified with towers and +breastworks, the patriots, deprived of fresh water, harassed by +attacks during the day and by fire-ships at night, maintained the +unequal struggle for a month. But when, after a hard day's fighting, +the Sung commander found himself left with only sixteen vessels, he +fled up a creek. His retreat was cut off; and then at length +despairing of his country, he bade his wife and children throw +themselves overboard. He himself, taking the young emperor on his +back, followed their example, and thus brought the great Sung dynasty +to an end. + +The grandeur of Kublai Khan's reign may be gathered from the pages of +Marco Polo, in which, too, allusion is made to Bayan, the skilful +general to whom so much of the military success of the Mongols was +due. Korea, Burma, and Annam became dependencies of China, and +continued to send tribute as such even up to quite modern times. +Hardly so successful was Kublai Khan's huge naval expedition against +Japan, which, in point of number of ships and men, the insular +character of the enemy's country, the chastisement intended, and the +total loss of the fleet in a storm, aided by the stubborn resistance +offered by the Japanese themselves--suggests a very obvious comparison +with the object and fate of the Spanish Armada. + +Among the more peaceful developments of Mongol rule at this epoch may +be mentioned the introduction of a written character for the Mongol +language. It was the work of a Tibetan priest, named Baschpa, and was +based upon the written language of a nation known as the Ouigours +(akin to the Turks), which had in turn been based upon Syraic, and is +written in vertical lines connected by ligatures. Similarly, until +1599 there was no written Manchu language; a script, based upon the +Mongol, was then devised, also in vertical lines or columns like +Chinese, but read from left to right. + +Under Kublai Khan the calendar was revised, and the Imperial Academy +was opened; the Yellow River was explored to its source, and bank- +notes were made current. The Emperor himself was an ardent Buddhist, +but he took care that proper honours were paid to Confucius; on the +other hand, he issued orders that all Taoist literature of the baser +kind was to be destroyed. Behind all this there was extortionate +taxation, a form of oppression the Chinese have never learned to +tolerate, and discontent led to disorder. Kublai's grandson was for a +time an honest ruler and tried to stem the tide, but by 1368 the +mandate of the Mongols was exhausted. They were an alien race, and the +Chinese were glad to get rid of them. + +Chinese soldiers are often stigmatized as arrant cowards, who run away +at the slightest provocation, their first thought being for the safety +of their own skins. No doubt Chinese soldiers do run away--sometimes; +at other times they fight to the death, as has been amply proved over +and over again. It is the old story of marking the hits and not the +misses. A great deal depends upon sufficiency and regularity of pay. +Soldiers with pay in arrear, half clad, hungry, and ill armed, as has +frequently been the case in Chinese campaigns, cannot be expected to +do much for the flag. Given the reverse of these conditions, things +would be likely to go badly with the enemy, whosoever he might be. + +Underneath a mask of complete facial stolidity, the Chinese conceal +one of the most exciteable temperaments to be found in any race, as +will soon be discovered by watching an ordinary street row between a +couple of men, or still better, women. A Chinese crowd of men--women +keep away--is a good-tempered and orderly mob, partly because not +inflamed by drink, when out to enjoy the Feast of the Lanterns, or to +watch the twinkling lamps float down a river to light the wandering +ghosts of the drowned on the night of their All Souls' Day, sacred to +the memory of the dead; but a rumour, a mere whisper, the more +baseless often the more potent, will transform these law-abiding +people into a crowd of fiends. In times when popular feeling runs +high, as when large numbers of men were said to be deprived suddenly +and mysteriously of their queues, or when the word went round, as it +has done on more occasions than one, that foreigners were kidnapping +children in order to use their eyes for medicine,--in such times the +masses, incited by those who ought to know better, get completely out +of hand. + +A curious and tragic instance of this excitability occurred some years +ago. The viceroy of a province had succeeded in organizing a +contingent of foreign-drilled troops, under the guidance and +leadership of two qualified foreign instructors. After some time had +elapsed, and it was thought that the troops were sufficiently trained +to make a good show, it was arranged that a sham fight should be held +in the presence of the viceroy himself. The men were divided into two +bodies under the two foreign commanders, and in the course of +operations one body had to defend a village, while the other had to +attack it. When the time came to capture the village at the point of +the bayonet, both sides lost their heads; there was a fierce hand-to- +hand fight in stern reality, and before this could be effectively +stopped four men had been killed outright and sixteen badly wounded. + +Considering how squalid many Chinese homes are, it is all the more +astonishing to find such deep attachment to them. There exists in the +language a definite word for /home/, in its fullest English sense. As +a written character, it is supposed to picture the idea of a family, +the component parts being a "roof" with "three persons" underneath. +There is, indeed, another and more fanciful explanation of this +character, namely, that it is composed of a "roof" with a "pig" +underneath, the forms for "three men" and "pig" being sufficiently +alike at any rate to justify the suggestion. This analysis would not +be altogether out of place in China any more than in Ireland; but as a +matter of fact the balance of evidence is in favour of the "three +men," which number, it may be remarked, is that which technically +constitutes a crowd. + +Whatever may be the literary view of the word "home," it is quite +certain that to the ordinary Chinaman there is no place like it. "One +mile away from home is not so good as being in it," says a proverb +with a punning turn which cannot be brought out in English. Another +says, "Every day is happy at home, every moment miserable abroad." It +may therefore be profitable to look inside a Chinese home, if only to +discover wherein its attractiveness lies. + +All such homes are arranged more or less on the patriarchal system; +that is to say, at the head of the establishment are a father and +mother, who rank equally so far as their juniors are concerned; the +mother receiving precisely the same share of deference in life, and of +ancestral worship after death, as the father. The children grow up; +wives are sought for the boys, and husbands for the girls, at about +the ages of eighteen and sixteen, respectively. The former bring their +wives into the paternal home; the latter belong, from the day of their +marriage, to the paternal homes of their husbands. Bachelors and old +maids have no place in the Chinese scheme of life. Theoretically, +bride and bridegroom are not supposed to see each other until the +wedding-day, when the girl's veil is lifted on her arrival at her +father-in-law's house; in practice, the young people usually manage to +get at least a glimpse of one another, usually with the connivance of +their elders. Thus the family expands, and one of the greatest +happinesses which can befall a Chinaman is to have "five generations +in the hall." Owing to early marriage, this is not nearly so uncommon +as it is in Western countries. There is an authentic record of an old +statesman who had so many descendants that when they came to +congratulate him on his birthdays, he was quite unable to remember all +their names, and could only bow as they passed in line before him. + +As to income and expenditure, the earnings of the various members go +into a common purse, out of which expenses are paid. Every one has a +right to food and shelter; and so it is that if some are out of work, +the strain is not individually felt; they take their rations as usual. +On the death of the father, it is not at all uncommon for the mother +to take up the reins, though it is more usual for the eldest son to +take his place. Sometimes, after the death of the mother--and then it +is accounted a bad day for the family fortunes--the brothers cannot +agree; the property is divided, and each son sets up for himself, a +proceeding which is forbidden by the Penal Code during the parents' +lifetime. Meanwhile, any member of the family who should disgrace +himself in any way, as by becoming an inveterate gambler and +permanently neglecting his work, or by developing the opium vice to +great excess, would be formally cast out, his name being struck off +the ancestral register. Men of this stamp generally sink lower and +lower, until they swell the ranks of professional beggars, to die +perhaps in a ditch; but such cases are happily of rare occurrence. + +In the ordinary peaceful family, regulated according to Confucian +principles of filial piety, fraternal love, and loyalty to the +sovereign, we find love of home exalted to a passion; and bitter is +the day of leave-taking for a long absence, as when a successful son +starts to take up his official appointment at a distant post. The +latter, not being able to hold office in his native province, may have +a long and sometimes dangerous journey to make, possibly to the other +end of the empire. In any case, years must elapse before he can +revisit "the mulberry and the elm"--the garden he leaves behind. He +may take his "old woman" and family with him, or they may follow later +on; as another alternative, the "old woman" with the children may +remain permanently in the ancestral home, while the husband carries on +his official career alone. Under such circumstances as the last- +mentioned, no one, including his own wife, is shocked if he consoles +himself with a "small old woman," whom he picks up at his new place of +abode. The "small old woman" is indeed often introduced into families +where the "principal old woman" fails to contribute the first of "the +three blessings of which every one desires to have plenty," namely, +sons, money, and life. Instances are not uncommon of the wife herself +urging this course upon her husband; and but for this system the +family line would often come to an end, failing recourse to another +system, namely, adoption, which is also brought into play when all +hope of a lineal descendant is abandoned. + +Whether she has children or not, the principal wife--the only wife, in +fact--never loses her supremacy as the head of the household. The late +Empress Dowager was originally a concubine; by virtue of motherhood +she was raised to the rank of Western Empress, but never legitimately +took precedence of the wife, whose superiority was indicated by her +title of Eastern Empress, the east being more honourable than the +west. The emperor always sits with his face towards the south. + +The story of Sung Hung, a statesman who flourished about the time of +the Christian era, pleasantly illustrates a chivalrous side of the +Chinese character. This man raised himself from a humble station in +life to be a minister of state, and was subsequently ennobled as +marquis. The emperor then wished him to put away his wife, who was a +woman of the people, and marry a princess; to which he nobly replied: +"Sire, the partner of my porridge days shall never go down from my +hall." + +Of the miseries of exile from the ancestral home, lurid pictures have +been drawn by many poets and others. One man, ordered from some soft +southern climate to a post in the colder north, will complain that the +spring with its flowers is too late in arriving; another "cannot stand +the water and earth," by which is meant that the climate does not +agree with him; a third is satisfied with his surroundings, but is +still a constant sufferer from home-sickness. Such a one was the poet +who wrote the following lines:-- + + Away to the east lie fair forests of trees, + From the flowers on the west comes a scent-laden breeze, + Yet my eyes daily turn to my far-away home, + Beyond the broad river, its waves and its foam. + +And such, too, is the note of innumerable songs in exile, written for +the most part by officials stationed in distant parts of the empire; +sometimes by exiles in a harsher sense, namely, those persons who have +been banished to the frontier for disaffection, maladministration of +government, and like offences. A bright particular gem in Chinese +literature, referring to love of home, was the work of a young poet +who received an appointment as magistrate, but threw it up after a +tenure of only eighty-three days, declaring that he could not "crook +the hinges of his back for five pecks of rice a day," that being the +regulation pay of his office. It was written to celebrate his own +return, and runs as follows:-- + +"Homewards I bend my steps. My fields, my gardens, are choked with +weeds: should I not go? My soul has led a bondsman's life: why should +I remain to pine? But I will waste no grief upon the past: I will +devote my energies to the future. I have not wandered far astray. I +feel that I am on the right track once again. + +"Lightly, lightly, speeds my boat along, my garments fluttering to the +gentle breeze. I inquire my route as I go. I grudge the slowness of +the dawning day. From afar I descry by old home, and joyfully press +onwards in my haste. The servants rush forth to meet me: my children +cluster at the gate. The place is a wilderness; but there is the old +pine-tree and my chrysanthemums. I take the little ones by the hand, +and pass in. Wine is brought in full bottles, and I pour out in +brimming cups. I gaze out at my favourite branches. I loll against the +window in my new-found freedom. I look at the sweet children on my +knee. + +"And now I take my pleasure in my garden. There is a gate, but it is +rarely opened. I lean on my staff as I wander about or sit down to +rest. I raise my head and contemplate the lovely scene. Clouds rise, +unwilling, from the bottom of the hills: the weary bird seeks its nest +again. Shadows vanish, but still I linger round my lonely pine. Home +once more! I'll have no friendships to distract me hence. The times +are out of joint for me; and what have I to seek from men? In the pure +enjoyment of the family circle I will pass my days, cheering my idle +hours with lute and book. My husbandmen will tell me when spring-time +is nigh, and when there will be work in the furrowed fields. Thither I +shall repair by cart or by boat, through the deep gorge, over the +dizzy cliff, trees bursting merrily into leaf, the streamlet swelling +from its tiny source. Glad is this renewal of life in due season: but +for me, I rejoice that my journey is over. Ah, how short a time it is +that we are here! Why, then, not set our hearts at rest, ceasing to +trouble whether we remain or go? What boots it to wear out the soul +with anxious thoughts? I want not wealth: I want not power: heaven is +beyond my hopes. Then let me stroll through the bright hours, as they +pass, in my garden among my flowers; or I will mount the hill and sing +my song, or weave my verse beside the limpid brook. Thus will I work +out my allotted span, content with the appointments of Fate, my spirit +free from care." + +Besides contributing a large amount of beautiful poetry, this author +provided his own funeral oration, the earliest which has come down to +us, written just before his death in A.D. 427. Funeral orations are +not only pronounced by some friend at the grave, but are further +solemnly consumed by fire, in the belief that they will thus reach the +world of spirits, and be a joy and an honour to the deceased, in the +same sense that paper houses, horses, sedan-chairs, and similar +articles, are burnt for the use of the dead. + + + +CHAPTER X + +MINGS AND CH'INGS, 1368-1911 + +The first half of the fourteenth century, which witnessed the gradual +decline of Mongol influence and power, was further marked by the birth +of a humble individual destined to achieve a new departure in the +history of the empire. At the age of seventeen, Chu Yuan-chang lost +both his parents and an elder brother. It was a year of famine, and +they died from want of food. He had no money to buy coffins, and was +forced to bury them in straw. He then, as a last resource, decided to +enter the Buddhist priesthood, and accordingly enrolled himself as a +novice; but together with the other novices, he was soon dismissed, +the priests being unable to provide even for their own wants. After +this he wandered about, and finally joined a party of rebels commanded +by one of his own uncles. Rapidly rising to the highest military rank, +he gradually found himself at the head of a huge army, and by 1368 was +master of so many provinces that he proclaimed himself first emperor +of the Great Ming dynasty, under the title of Hung (/Hoong/) Wu, and +fixed his capital at Nanking. In addition to his military genius, he +showed almost equal skill in the administration of the empire, and +also became a liberal patron of literature and education. He organized +the present system of examinations, now in a transition state; +restored the native Chinese style of dress as worn under the T'ang +dynasty, which is still the costume seen on the stage; published a +Penal Code of mitigated severity; drew up a kind of Domesday Book +under which taxation was regulated; and fixed the coinage upon a +proper basis, government notes and copper /cash/ being equally +current. Eunuchs were prohibited from holding official posts, and +Buddhism and Taoism were both made state religions. + +This truly great monarch died in 1398, and was succeeded by a +grandson, whose very receding forehead had been a source of much +annoyance to his grandfather, though the boy grew up clever and could +make good verses. The first act of this new emperor was to dispossess +his uncles of various important posts held by them; but this was not +tolerated by one of them, who had already made himself conspicuous by +his talents, and he promptly threw off his allegiance. In the war +which ensued, victory attended his arms throughout, and at length he +entered Nanking, the capital, in triumph. And now begins one of those +romantic episodes which from time to time lend an unusual interest to +the dry bones of Chinese history. In the confusion which followed upon +the entry of troops into his palace, the young and defeated emperor +vanished, and was never seen again; although in after years pretenders +started up on more than one occasion, and obtained the support of many +in their efforts to recover the throne. It is supposed that the +fugitive made his way to the distant province of Yunnan in the garb of +a Buddhist priest, left to him, so the story runs, by his grandfather. +After nearly forty years of wandering, he is said to have gone to +Peking and to have lived in seclusion in the palace there until his +death. He was recognized by a eunuch from a mole on his left foot, but +the eunuch was afraid to reveal his identity. + +The victorious uncle mounted the throne in the year 1403, under the +now famous title of Yung Lo (/Yoong Law/), and soon showed that he +could govern as well as he could fight. He brought immigrants from +populous provinces to repeople the districts which had been laid waste +by war. Peking was built, and in 1421 the seat of government was +transferred thither, where it has remained ever since. A new Penal +Code was drawn up. Various military expeditions were despatched +against the Tartars, and missions under the charge of eunuchs were +sent to Java, Sumatra, Siam, and even reached Ceylon and the Red Sea. +The day of doubt in regard to the general accuracy of Chinese annals +has gone by; were it otherwise, a recent (1911) discovery in Ceylon +would tend to dispel suspicion on one point. A tablet has just been +unearthed at Galle, bearing an inscription in Arabic, Chinese and +Tamil. The Arabic is beyond decipherment, but enough is left of the +Chinese to show that the tablet was erected in 1409 to commemorate a +visit by the eunuch Cheng Ho, who passed several times backwards and +forwards over that route. In 1411 the same eunuch was sent as envoy to +Japan, and narrowly escaped with his life. + +The emperor was a warm patron of literature, and succeeded in bringing +about the achievement of the most gigantic literary task that the +world has ever seen. He employed a huge staff of scholars to compile +an encyclopaedia which should contain within the compass of a single +work all that had ever been written in the four departments of (1) the +Confucian Canon, (2) history, (3) philosophy, and (4) general +literature, including astronomy, geography, cosmogony, medicine, +divination, Buddhism, Taoism, handicrafts and arts. The completed +work, over which a small army of scholars--more than two thousand in +all--had spent five years, ran to no fewer than 22,877 sections, to +which must be added an index occupying 60 sections. The whole was +bound up (Chinese style) in 11,000 volumes, averaging over half-an- +inch in thickness, and measuring one foot eight inches in length by +one foot in breadth. Thus, if all these were laid flat one upon +another, the column so formed would rise considerably higher than the +very top of St. Paul's. Further, each section contains about twenty +leaves, making a total of 917,480 pages for the whole work, with a +grand total of 366,000,000 words. Taking 100 Chinese words as the +equivalent of 130 English, due to the greater condensation of Chinese +literary style, it will be found that even the mighty river of the +/Encyclopedia Britannica/ "shrinks to a rill" when compared with this +overwhelming specimen of Chinese industry. + +It was never printed; even a Chinese emperor, and enthusiastic patron +of literature to boot, recoiled before the enormous cost of cutting +such a work on blocks. It was however transcribed for printing, and +there appear to have been at one time three copies in existence. Two +of these perished at Nanking with the downfall of the dynasty in 1644, +and the third was in great part destroyed in Peking during the siege +of the Legations in 1900. Odd volumes have been preserved, and bear +ample witness to the extraordinary character of the achievement. + +This emperor was an ardent Buddhist, and the priests of that religion +were raised to high positions and exerted considerable influence at +court. In times of famine there were loud complaints that some ten +thousand priests were living comfortably at Peking, while the people +of several provinces were reduced to eating bark and grass. + +The porcelain of the Ming dynasty is famous all over the world. Early +in the sixteenth century a great impetus was given to the art, owing +to the extravagant patronage of the court, which was not allowed to +pass without openly expressed remonstrance. The practice of the +pictorial art was very widely extended, and the list of Ming painters +is endless, containing as it does over twelve hundred names, some few +of which stand for a high level of success. + +Towards the close of the sixteenth century the Portuguese appeared +upon the scene, and settled themselves at Macao, the ownership of +which has been a bone of contention between China and Portugal ever +since. It is a delightful spot, with an excellent climate, not very +far from Canton, and was for some time the residence of the renowned +poet Camoens. Not far from Macao lies the island of Sancian, where St. +Francois Xavier died. He was the first Roman Catholic missionary of +more modern times to China, but he never set foot on the mainland. +Native maps mark the existence of "Saint's Grave" upon the island, +though he was actually buried at Goa. There had previously been a +Roman Catholic bishop in Peking so far back as the thirteenth century, +from which date it seems likely that Catholic converts have had a +continuous footing in the empire. + +In 1583, Matteo Ricci, the most famous of all missionaries who have +ever reached China, came upon the scene at Canton, and finally, in +1601, after years of strenuous effort succeeded in installing himself +at Peking, with the warm support of the emperor himself, dying there +in 1610. Besides reforming the calendar and teaching geography and +science in general, he made a fierce attack upon Buddhism, at the same +time wisely leaving Confucianism alone. He was the first to become +aware of the presence in China of a Jewish colony, which had been +founded in 1163. It was from his writings that truer notions of +Chinese civilization than had hitherto prevailed, began to spread in +the West. "Mat. Riccius the Jesuite," says Burton in his /Anatomy of +Melancholy/ (1651), "and some others, relate of the industry of the +Chinaes most populous countreys, not a beggar, or an idle person to be +seen, and how by that means they prosper and flourish." + +In 1625 an important find was made. A large tablet, with a long +inscription in Chinese and a shorter one in Syraic, was discovered in +central China. The inscription, in an excellent state of preservation, +showed that the tablet had been set up in A.D. 781 by Nestorian +missionaries, and gave a general idea of the object and scope of the +Christian religion. The genuineness of this tablet was for many years +in dispute--Voltaire, Renan, and others of lesser fame, regarding it +as a pious fraud--but has now been established beyond any possibility +of doubt; its value indeed is so great that an attempt was made quite +recently to carry it off to America. Nestorian Christianity is +mentioned by Marco Polo, but disappears altogether after the +thirteenth century, without leaving any trace in Chinese literature of +its once flourishing condition. + +The last emperor of the Ming dynasty meant well, but succumbed to the +stress of circumstances. Eunuchs and over-taxation brought about the +stereotyped consequence--rebellion; rebellion, too, headed by an able +commander, whose successive victories soon enabled him to assume the +Imperial title. In the capital all was confusion. The treasury was +empty; the garrison were too few to man the walls; and the ministers +were anxious to secure each his own safety. On April 9, 1644, Peking +fell. During the previous night the emperor, who had refused to flee, +slew the eldest princess, commanded the empress to commit suicide, and +sent his three sons into hiding. At dawn the bell was struck for the +court to assemble; but no one came. His Majesty then ascended the Coal +Hill in the palace grounds, and wrote a last decree on the lapel of +his robe: "WE, poor in virtue and of contemptible personality, have +incurred the wrath of God on high. My ministers have deceived me. I am +ashamed to meet my ancestors; and therefore I myself take off my +crown, and with my hair covering my face await dismemberment at the +hands of the rebels. Do not hurt a single one of my people." He then +hanged himself, as also did one faithful eunuch; and his body, +together with that of the empress, was reverently encoffined by the +rebels. + +So ended the Ming dynasty, of glorious memory, but not in favour of +the rebel commander, who was driven out of Peking by the Manchus and +was ultimately slain by local militia in a distant province. + +The subjugation of the empire by the victors, who had the disadvantage +of being an alien race, was effected with comparative ease and +rapidity. It was carried out by a military occupation of the country, +which has survived the original necessity, and is part of the system +of government at the present day. Garrisons of Tartar troops were +stationed at various important centres of population, each under the +command of an officer of the highest military grade, whose duty it was +to co-operate with, and at the same time watch and act as a check +upon, the high authorities employed in the civil administration. Those +Tartar garrisons still occupy the same positions; and the descendants +of the first battalions, with occasional reinforcements from Peking, +live side by side and in perfect harmony with the strictly Chinese +populations, though the two races do not intermarry except in very +rare cases. These Bannermen, as they are called, in reference to eight +banners or corps under which they are marshalled, may be known by +their square heavy faces, which contrast strongly with the sharper and +more astute-looking physiognomies of the Chinese. They speak the +dialect of Peking, now regarded as the official or "mandarin" +language, just as the dialect of Nanking was, so long as that city +remained the capital of the empire. + +In many respects the conquering Tartars have been themselves conquered +by the people over whom they set themselves to rule. They have adopted +the language, written and colloquial, of China; and they are fully as +proud as the purest-blooded Chinese of the vast literature and +glorious traditions of those past dynasties of which they have made +themselves joint heirs. Manchu, the language of the conquerors, is +still kept alive at Peking. By a fiction, it is supposed to be the +language of the sovereign; but the emperors of China have now in their +youth to make a study of Manchu, and so do the official interpreters +and others whose duty it is to translate from Chinese into Manchu all +documents submitted to what is called the "sacred glance" of His +Majesty. In a similar sense, until quite a recent date, skill in +archery was required of every Bannerman; and it was undoubtedly a +great wrench when the once fatally effective weapon was consigned to +an unmerited oblivion. But though Bannermen can no longer shoot with +the bow and arrow, they still continue to draw monthly allowances from +state funds, as an hereditary right obtained by conquest. + +Of the nine emperors of the Manchu, or Great Ch'ing dynasty, who have +already occupied the dragon throne and have become "guests on high," +two are deserving of special mention as fit to be ranked among the +wisest and best rulers the world has ever known. The Emperor K'ang Hsi +(/Khahng Shee/) began his reign in 1662 and continued it for sixty-one +years, a division of time which has been in vogue for many centuries +past. He treated the Jesuit Fathers with kindness and distinction, and +availed himself in many ways of their scientific knowledge. He was an +extraordinarily generous and successful patron of literature. His name +is inseparably connected with the standard dictionary of the Chinese +language, which was produced under his immediate supervision. It +contains over forty thousand words, not a great number as compared +with European languages which have coined innumerable scientific +terms, but even so, far more than are necessary either for daily life +or for literary purposes. These words are accompanied in each case by +appropriate quotations from the works of every age and of every style, +arranged chronologically, thus anticipating to some extent the +"historical principles" in the still more wonderful English dictionary +by Sir James Murray and others, now going through the press. But the +greatest of all the literary achievements planned by this emperor was +a general encyclopaedia, not indeed on quite such a colossal scale as +that one produced under the Ming dynasty and already described, though +still of respectable dimensions, running as it does in a small-sized +edition to 1,628 octavo volumes of about 200 pages to each. The term +encyclopaedia must not be understood in precisely the same sense as in +Western countries. A Chinese encyclopaedia deals with a given subject +not by providing an up-to-date article written by some living +authority, but by exhibiting extracts from authors of all ages, +arranged chronologically, in which the subject in question is +discussed. The range of topics, however, is such that the above does +not always apply--as, for instance, in the biographical section, which +consists merely of lives of eminent men taken from various sources. In +the great encyclopaedia under consideration, in addition to an +enormous number of lives of men, covering a period of three thousand +years, there are also lives of over twenty-four thousand eminent +women, or nearly as many as all the lives in our own /National +Dictionary of Biography/. An original copy of this marvellous +production, which by the way is fully illustrated, may be seen at the +British Museum; a small-sized edition, more suitable for practical +purposes and printed from movable type, was issued about twenty years +ago. + +Skipping an emperor under whose reign was initiated that violent +persecution of Roman Catholics which has continued more or less openly +down to the present day, we come to the second of the two monarchs +before mentioned, whose long and beneficent reigns are among the real +glories of the present dynasty. + +The Emperor Ch'ien Lung (/Loong/) ascended the throne in 1735, when +twenty-five years of age; and though less than two hundred years ago, +legend has been busy with his person. According to some native +accounts, his hands are said to have reached below his knees; his ears +touched his shoulders; and his eyes could see round behind his head. +This sort of stuff, is should be understood, is not taken from +reliable authorities. It cannot be taken from the dynastic history for +the simple reason that the official history of a dynasty is not +published until the dynasty has come to an end. There is, indeed, a +faithful record kept of all the actions of each reigning emperor in +turn; good and evil are set down alike, without fear or favour, for no +emperor is ever allowed to get a glimpse of the document by which +posterity will judge him. Ch'ien Lung had no cause for anxiety on this +score; whatever record might leap to light, he never could be shamed. +An able ruler, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and an +indefatigable administrator, he rivals his grandfather's fame as a +sovereign and a patron of letters. His one amiable weakness was a +fondness for poetry; unfortunately, for his own. His output was +enormous so far as number of pieces go; these were always short, and +proportionately trivial. No one ever better illustrated one half of +the cynical Chinese saying: "We love our own compositions, but other +men's wives." He disliked missionaries, and forbade the propagation of +the Christian religion. + +After ten years of internal reorganization, his reign became a +succession of wars, almost all of which were brought to a successful +conclusion. His generals led a large army into Nepaul and conquered +the Goorkhas, reaching a point only some sixty miles distant from +British territory. Burma was forced to pay tribute; Chinese supremacy +was established in Tibet; Kuldja and Kashgaria were added to the +empire; and rebellions in Formosa and elsewhere were suppressed. In +fifty years the population was nearly doubled, and the empire on the +whole enjoyed peace and prosperity. In 1750 a Portuguese embassy +reached Peking; and was followed by Lord Macartney's famous mission +and a Dutch mission in 1793. Two years after the venerable emperor had +completed a reign of sixty years, the full Chinese cycle; whereupon he +abdicated in favour of his son, and died in 1799. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +CHINESE AND FOREIGNERS + +A virtue which the Chinese possess in an eminent degree is the rather +rare one of gratitude. A Chinaman never forgets a kind act; and what +is still more important, he never loses the sense of obligation to his +benefactor. Witness to this striking fact has been borne times without +number by European writers, and especially by doctors, who have +naturally enjoyed the best opportunities for conferring favours likely +to make a deep impression. It is unusual for a native to benefit by a +cure at the hands of a foreign doctor, and then to go away and make no +effort to express his gratitude, either by a subscription to a +hospital, a present of silk or tea, or perhaps an elaborate banner +with a golden inscription, in which his benefactor's skill is likened +to that of the great Chinese doctors of antiquity. With all this, the +patient will still think of the doctor, and even speak of him, not +always irreverently, as a foreign devil. A Chinaman once appeared at a +British Consulate, with a present of some kind, which he had brought +from his home a hundred miles away, in obedience to the command of his +dying father, who had formerly been cured of ophthalmia by a foreign +doctor, and who had told him, on his deathbed, "never to forget the +English." Yet this present was addressed in Chinese: "To His +Excellency the Great English Devil, Consul X." + +The Chinaman may love you, but you are a devil all the same. It is +most natural that he should think so. For generation upon generation +China was almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. The +people of her vast empire grew up under influences unchanged by +contact with other peoples. Their ideals became stereotyped from want +of other ideals to compare with, and possibly modify, their own. +Dignity of deportment and impassivity of demeanour were especially +cultivated by the ruling classes. Then the foreign devil burst upon +the scene--a being as antagonistic to themselves in every way as it is +possible to conceive. We can easily see, from pictures, not intended +to be caricatures, what were the chief features of the foreigner as +viewed by the Chinaman. Red hair and blue eyes, almost without +exception; short and extremely tight clothes; a quick walk and a +mobility of body, involving ungraceful positions either sitting or +standing; and with an additional feature which the artist could not +portray--an unintelligible language resembling the twittering of +birds. Small wonder that little children are terrified at these +strange beings, and rush shrieking into their cottages as the +foreigner passes by. It is perhaps not quite so easy to understand why +the Mongolian pony has such a dread of the foreigner and usually takes +time to get accustomed to the presence of a barbarian; some ponies, +indeed, will never allow themselves to be mounted unless blindfolded. +Then there are the dogs, who rush out and bark, apparently without +rhyme or reason, at every passing foreigner. The Chinese have a saying +that one dog barks at nothing and the rest bark at him; but that will +hardly explain the unfailing attack so familiar to every one who has +rambled through country villages. The solution of this puzzle was +extracted with difficulty from an amiable Chinaman who explained that +what the animals, and indeed his fellow-countrymen as well, could not +help noticing, was the frowzy and very objectionable smell of all +foreigners, which, strangely enough, is the very accusation which +foreigners unanimously bring against the Chinese themselves. + +Compare these characteristics with the universal black hair and black +eyes of men and women throughout China, exclusive of a rare occasional +albino; with the long, flowing, loose robes of officials and of the +well-to-do; with their slow and stately walk and their rigid formality +of position, either sitting or standing. To the Chinese, their own +language seems to be the language of the gods; they know they have +possessed it for several thousand years, and they know nothing at all +of the barbarian. Where does he come from? Where can he come from +except from the small islands which fringe the Middle Kingdom, the +world, in fact, bounded by the Four Seas? The books tell us that +"Heaven is round, Earth is square;" and it is impossible to believe +that those books, upon the wisdom of which the Middle Kingdom was +founded, can possibly be wrong. Such was a very natural view for the +Chinaman to take when first brought really face to face with the West; +and such is the view that in spite of modern educational progress is +still very widely held. The people of a country do not unlearn in a +day the long lessons of the past. He was quite a friendly mandarin, +taking a practical view of national dress, who said in conversation: +"I can't think why you foreigners wear your clothes so tight; it must +be very difficult to catch the fleas." + +As an offset against the virtue of gratitude must be placed the deep- +seated spirit of revenge which animates all classes. Though not +enumerated among their own list of the Seven passions--joy, anger, +sorrow, fear, love, hatred and desire--it is perhaps the most over- +mastering passion to which the Chinese mind is subject. It is revenge +which prompts the unhappy daughter-in-law to throw herself down a +well, consoled by the thought of the trouble, if not ruin, she is +bringing on her persecutors. Revenge, too, leads a man to commit +suicide on the doorstep of some one who has done him an injury, for he +well knows what it means to be entangled in the net which the law +throws over any one on whose premises a dead body may thus be found. +There was once an absurd case of a Chinese woman, who deliberately +walked into a pond until the water reached up to her knees, and +remained there, alternately putting her lips below the surface, and +threatening in a loud voice to drown herself on the spot, as life had +been made unbearable by the presence of foreign barbarians. In this +instance, had the suicide been carried out, vengeance would have been +wreaked in some way on the foreigner by the injured ghost of the dead +woman. + +The germ of this spirit of revenge, this desire to get on level terms +with an enemy, as when a life is extracted for a life, can be traced, +strangely enough, to the practice of filial piety and fraternal love, +the very cornerstone of good government and national prosperity. In +the Book of Rites, which forms a part of the Confucian Canon, and +contains rules not only for the performance of ceremonies but also for +the guidance of individual conduct, the following passage occurs: +"With the slayer of his father, a man may not live under the same sky; +against the slayer of his brother, a man must never have to go home to +fetch a weapon; with the slayer of his friend, a man may not live in +the same state." Being now duly admitted among the works which +constitute the Confucian Canon, the above-mentioned Book of Rites +enjoys an authority to which it can hardly lay claim on the ground of +antiquity. It is a compilation made during the first century B.C., and +is based, no doubt, on older existing documents; but as it never +passed under the editorship of either Confucius or Mencius, it would +be unfair to jump to the conclusion that either of these two sages is +in any way responsible for, or would even acquiesce in, a system of +revenge, the only result of which would be an endless chain of +bloodshed and murder. The Chinese are certainly as constant in their +hates as in their friendships. To use a phrase from their own +language, if they love a man, they love him to the life; if they hate +a man they hate him to the death. As we have already noted, the Old +Philosopher urged men to requite evil with good; but Confucius, who +was only a mortal himself, and knew the limitations of mortality, +substituted for an ideal doctrine the more practical injunction to +requite evil with justice. It is to be feared that the Chinese people +fall short in practice even of this lower standard. "Be just to your +enemy" is a common enough maxim; but one for which only a moderate +application can be claimed. + +It has often been urged against the Chinese that they have very little +idea of time. A friendly Chinaman will call, and stay on so +persistently that he often outstays his welcome. This infliction is +recognized and felt by the Chinese themselves, who have certain set +forms of words by which they politely escape from a tiresome visitor; +among their vast stores of proverbs they have also provided one which +is much to the point: "Long visits bring short compliments." Also, in +contradiction of the view that time is no value to the Chinaman, there +are many familiar maxims which say, "Make every inch of time your +own!" "Half-an-hour is worth a thousand ounces of silver," etc. An +"inch of time" refers to the sundial, which was known to the Chinese +in the earliest ages, and was the only means they had for measuring +time until the invention or introduction--it is not certain which--of +the more serviceable /clepsydra/, or water-clock, already mentioned. + +This consists of several large jars of water, with a tube at the +bottom of each, placed one above another on steps, so that the tube of +an upper jar overhangs the top of a lower jar. The water from the top +jar is made to drip through its tube into the second jar, and so into +a vessel at the bottom, which contains either the floating figure of a +man, or some other kind of index to mark the rise of the water on a +scale divided into periods of two hours each. The day and night were +originally divided by the Chinese into twelve such periods; but now-a- +days watches and clocks are in universal use, and the European +division into twenty-four hours prevails everywhere. Formerly, too, +sticks of incense, to burn for a certain number of hours, as well as +graduated candles, made with the assistance of the water-clock, were +in great demand; these have now quite disappeared as time-recorders. + +The Chinese year is a lunar year. When the moon has travelled twelve +times round the earth, the year is completed. This makes it about ten +days short of our solar year; and to bring things right again, an +extra month, that is a thirteenth month, is inserted in every three +years. When foreigners first began to employ servants extensively, the +latter objected to being paid their wages according to the European +system, for they complained that they were thus cheated out of a +month's wages in every third year. An elaborate official almanack is +published annually in Peking, and circulated all over the empire; and +in addition to such information as would naturally be looked for in a +work of the kind, the public are informed what days are lucky, and +what days are unlucky, the right and the wrong days for doing or +abstaining from doing this, that, or the other. The anniversaries of +the death-days of the sovereigns of the ruling dynasty are carefully +noted; for on such days all the government offices are supposed to be +shut. Any foreign official who wishes to see a mandarin for urgent +business will find it possible to do so, but the visitor can only be +admitted through a side-door; the large entrance-gate cannot possibly +be opened under any circumstances whatever. + +No notice of the Chinese people, however slight or general in +character, could very well attain its object unless accompanied by +some more detailed account of their etiquette than is to be gathered +from the few references scattered over the preceding pages. Correct +behaviour, whether at court, in the market-place, or in the seclusion +of private life, is regarded as of such extreme importance--and +breaches of propriety in this sense are always so severely frowned +upon--that it behoves the foreigner who would live comfortably and at +peace with his Chinese neighbours, to pick up at least a casual +knowledge of an etiquette which in outward form is so different from +his own, and yet in spirit is so identically the same. A little +judicious attention to these matters will prevent much unnecessary +friction, leading often to a row, and sometimes to a catastrophe. +Chinese philosophers have fully recognized in their writings that +ceremonies and salutations and bowings and scrapings and rules of +precedence and rules of the road are not of any real value when +considered apart from the conditions with which they are usually +associated; at the same time they argue that without such conventional +restraints, nothing but confusion would result. Consequently, a +regular code of etiquette has been produced; but as this deals largely +with court and official ceremonial, and a great part of the remainder +has long since been quietly ignored, it is more to the point to turn +to the unwritten code which governs the masses in their everyday life. + +For the foreigner who would mix easily with the Chinese people, it is +above all necessary to understand not only that the street regulations +of Europe do not apply in China; but also that he will there find a +set of regulations which are tacitly agreed upon by the natives, and +which, if examined without prejudice, can only be regarded as based on +common sense. An ordinary foot-passenger, meeting perhaps a coolie +with two buckets of water suspended one at each end of a bamboo pole, +or carrying a bag of rice, weighing one, two, or even three +hundredweight, is bound to move out of the burden-carrier's path, +leaving to him whatever advantages the road may offer. This same +coolie, meeting a sedan chair borne by two or more coolies like +himself, must at once make a similar concession, which is in turn +repeated by the chair-bearers in favour of any one riding a horse. On +similar grounds, an empty sedan-chair must give way to one in which +there is a passenger; and though not exactly on such rational grounds, +it is understood that horse, chair, coolie and foot-passenger all +clear the road for a wedding or other procession, as well as for the +retinue of a mandarin. A servant, too, should stand at the side of the +road to let his master pass. As an exception to the general rule of +common sense which is so very noticeable in all Chinese institutions, +if only one takes the trouble to look for it, it seems to be an +understood thing that a man may not only stand still wherever he +pleases in a Chinese thoroughfare, but may even place his burden or +barrow, as the fancy seizes him, sometimes right in the fairway, from +which point he will coolly look on at the streams of foot-passengers +coming and going, who have to make the best of their way round such +obstructions. It is partly perhaps on this account that friends who go +for a stroll together never walk abreast but always in single file, +shouting out their conversation for all the world to hear; this, too, +even in the country, where a more convenient formation would often, +but not always, be possible. Shopkeepers may occupy the path with +tables exposing their wares, and itinerant stall-keepers do not +hesitate to appropriate a "pitch" wherever trade seems likely to be +brisk. The famous saying that to have freedom we must have order has +not entered deeply into Chinese calculations. Freedom is indeed a +marked feature of Chinese social life; some small sacrifices in the +cause of order would probably enhance rather than diminish the great +privileges now enjoyed. + +A few points are of importance in the social etiquette of indoor life, +and should not be lightly ignored by the foreigner, who, on the other +hand, would be wise not to attempt to substitute altogether Chinese +forms and ceremonies for his own. Thus, no Chinaman, and, it may be +added, no European who knows how to behave, fails to rise from his +chair on the entrance of a visitor; and it is further the duty of a +host to see that his visitor is actually seated before he sits down +himself. It is extremely impolite to precede a visitor, as in passing +through a door; and on parting, it is usual to escort him to the front +entrance. He must be placed on the left of the host, this having been +the post of honour for several centuries, previous to which it was the +seat to the right of the host, as with us, to which the visitor was +assigned. At such interviews it would not be correct to allude to +wives, who are no more to be mentioned than were the queen of Spain's +legs. + +One singular custom in connection with visits, official and otherwise, +ignorance of which has led on many occasions to an awkward moment, is +the service of what is called "guest-tea." At his reception by the +host every visitor is at once supplied with a cup of tea. The servant +brings two cups, one in each hand, and so manages that the cup in his +left hand is set down before the guest, who faces him on his right +hand, while that for his master is carried across and set down in an +exactly opposite sense. The tea-cups are so handed, as it were with +crossed hands, even when the host, as an extra mark of politeness, +receives that intended for his visitor, and himself places it on the +table, in this case being careful to use /both/ hands, it being +considered extremely impolite to offer anything with one hand only +employed. Now comes the point of the "guest-tea," which, as will be +seen, it is quite worth while to remember. Shortly after the beginning +of the interview, an unwary foreigner, as indeed has often been the +case, perhaps because he is thirsty, or because he may think it polite +to take a sip of the fragrant drink which has been so kindly provided +for him, will raise the cup to his lips. Almost instantaneously he +will hear a loud shout outside, and become aware that the scene is +changing rapidly for no very evident reason--only too evident, +however, to the surrounding Chinese servants, who know it to be their +own custom that so soon as a visitor tastes his "guest-tea," it is a +signal that he wishes to leave, and that the interview is at an end. +The noise is simply a bawling summons to get ready his sedan-chair, +and the scurrying of his coolies to be in their places when wanted. +There is another side to this quaint custom, which is often of +inestimable advantage to a busy man. A host, who feels that everything +necessary has been said, and wishes to free himself from further +attendance, may grasp his own cup and invite his guest to drink. The +same results follow, and the guest has no alternative but to rise and +take his leave. In ancient days visitors left their shoes outside the +front door, a custom which is still practised by the Japanese, the +whole of whose civilization--this cannot be too strongly emphasized-- +was borrowed originally from China. + +It is considered polite to remove spectacles during an interview, or +even when meeting in the street; though as this rather unreasonable +rule has been steadily ignored by foreigners, chiefly, no doubt, from +unacquaintance with it, the Chinese themselves make no attempt to +observe it so far as foreigners are concerned. In like manner, it is +most unbecoming for any "read-book man," no matter how miserably poor +he is, to receive a stranger, or be seen himself abroad, in short +clothes; but this rule, too, is often relaxed in the presence of +foreigners, who wear short clothes themselves. Honest poverty is no +crime in China, nor is it in any way regarded as cause for shame; it +is even more amply redeemed by scholarship than is the case in Western +countries. A man who has gained a degree moves on a different level +from the crowd around him, so profound is the respect shown to +learning. If a foreigner can speak Chinese intelligibly, his character +as a barbarian begins to be perceptibly modified; and if to the knack +of speech he adds a tolerable acquaintance with the sacred characters +which form the written language, he becomes transfigured, as one in +whom the influence of the holy men of old is beginning to prevail over +savagery and ignorance. + +It is not without reason that the term "sacred" is applied above to +the written words or characters. The Chinese, recognizing the +extraordinary results which have been brought about, silently and +invisibly, by the operation of written symbols, have gradually come to +invest these symbols with a spirituality arousing a feeling somewhat +akin to worship. A piece of paper on which a single word has once been +written or printed, becomes something other than paper with a black +mark on it. It may not be lightly tossed about, still less trampled +underfoot; it should be reverently destroyed by fire, here again used +as a medium of transmission to the great Beyond; and thus its +spiritual essence will return to those from whom it originally came. +In the streets of a Chinese city, and occasionally along a frequented +highroad, may be seen small ornamental structures into which odd bits +of paper may be thrown and burnt, thus preventing a desecration so +painful to the Chinese mind; and it has often been urged against +foreigners that because they are so careless as to what becomes of +their written and printed paper, the matter contained in foreign +documents and books must obviously be of no great value. It is even +considered criminal to use printed matter for stiffening the covers or +strengthening the folded leaves of books; still more so, to employ it +in the manufacture of soles for boots and shoes, though in such cases +as these the weakness of human nature usually carries the day. Still, +from the point of view of the Taoist faith, the risk is too serious to +be overlooked. In the sixth of the ten Courts of Purgatory, through +one or more of which sinners must pass after death in order to expiate +their crimes on earth, provision is made for those who "scrape the +gilding from the outside of images, take holy names in vain, show no +respect for written paper, throw down dirt and rubbish near pagodas +and temples, have in their possession blasphemous or obscene books and +do not destroy them, obliterate or tear books which teach man to be +good," etc., etc. + +In this, the sixth Court, presided over, like all the others, by a +judge, and furnished with all the necessary means and appliances for +carrying out the sentences, there are sixteen different wards where +different punishments are applied according to the gravity of the +offence. The wicked shade may be sentenced to kneel for long periods +on iron shot, or to be placed up to the neck in filth, or pounded till +the blood runs out, or to have the mouth forced open with iron pincers +and filled with needles, or to be bitten by rats, or nipped by locusts +while in a net of thorns, or have the heart scratched, or be chopped +in two at the waist, or have the skin of the body torn off and rolled +up into spills for lighting pipes, etc. Similar punishments are +awarded for other crimes; and these are to be seen depicted on the +walls of the municipal temple, to be found in every large city, and +appropriately named the Chamber of Horrors. It is doubtful if such +ghastly representations of what is to be expected in the next world +have really any deterrent effect upon even the most illiterate of the +masses; certainly not so long as health is present and things are +generally going well. "The devil a monk" will any Chinaman be when the +conditions of life are satisfactory to him. + +As has already been stated, his temperament is not a religious one; +and even the seductions and threats of Buddhism leave him to a great +extent unmoved. He is perhaps chiefly influenced by the Buddhist +menace of rebirth, possibly as a woman, or worse still as an animal. +Belief in such a contingency may act as a mild deterrent under a +variety of circumstances; it certainly tends to soften his treatment +of domestic animals. Not only because he may some day become one +himself, but also because among the mules or donkeys which he has to +coerce through long spells of exhausting toil, he may be unwittingly +belabouring some friend or acquaintance, or even a member of his own +particular family. This belief in rebirth is greatly strengthened by a +large number of recorded instances of persons who could recall events +which had happened in their own previous state of existence, and whose +statements were capable of verification. Occasionally, people would +accurately describe places and buildings which they could not have +visited, while many would entertain a dim consciousness of scenes, +sights and sounds, which seemed to belong to some other than the +present life. There is a record of one man who could remember having +been a horse, and who vividly recalled the pain he had suffered when +riders dug their knees hard into his sides. This, too, in spite of the +administration in Purgatory of a cup of forgetfulness, specially +designed to prevent in those about to reborn any remembrance of life +during a previous birth. + +After all, the most awful punishment inflicted in Purgatory upon +sinners is one which, being purely mental, may not appeal so +powerfully to the masses as the coarse tortures mentioned above. In +the fifth Court, the souls of the wicked are taken to a terrace from +which they can hear and see what goes on in their old homes after +their own deaths. "They see their last wishes disregarded, and their +instructions disobeyed. The property they scraped together with so +much trouble is dissipated and gone. The husband thinks of taking +another wife; the widow meditates second nuptials. Strangers are in +possession of the old estate; there is nothing to divide amongst the +children. Debts long since paid are brought again for settlement, and +the survivors are called upon to acknowledge false claims upon the +departed. Debts owed are lost for want of evidence, with endless +recriminations, abuse, and general confusion, all of which falls upon +the three families--father's, mother's, and wife's--connected with the +deceased. These in their anger speak ill of him that is gone. He sees +his children become corrupt, and friends fall away. Some, perhaps, may +stroke the coffin and let fall a tear, departing quickly with a cold +smile. Worse than that, the wife sees her husband tortured in gaol; +the husband sees his wife a victim to some horrible disease, lands +gone, houses destroyed by flood or fire, and everything in an +unutterable plight--the reward of former sins." + +Confucius declined absolutely to discuss the supernatural in any form +or shape, his one object being to improve human conduct in this life, +without attempting to probe that state from which man is divided by +death. At the same time, he was no scoffer; for although he declared +that "the study of the supernatural is injurious indeed," and somewhat +cynically bade his followers "show respect to spiritual beings, but +keep them at a distance," yet in another passage we read: "He who +offends against God has no one to whom he can pray." Again, when he +was seriously ill, a disciple asked if he might offer up prayer. +Confucius demurred to this, pointing out that he himself had been +praying for a considerable period; meaning thereby that his life had +been one long prayer. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE OUTLOOK + +There is a very common statement made by persons who have lived in +China--among the people, but not of them--and the more superficial the +acquaintance, the more emphatically is the statement made, that the +ordinary Chinaman, be he prince or peasant, offers to the Western +observer an insoluble puzzle in every department of his life. He is, +in fact, a standing enigma; a human being, it may be granted, but one +who can no more be classed than his unique monosyllabic language, +which still stands isolated and alone. + +This estimate is largely based upon some exceedingly false inferences. +It seems to be argued that because, in a great many matters, the +Chinaman takes a diametrically opposite view to our own, he must +necessarily be a very eccentric fellow; but as these are mostly +matters of convention, the argument is just as valid against us as +against him. "Strange people, those foreigners," he may say, and +actually does say; "they make their compass point north instead of +south. They take off their hats in company instead of keeping them on. +They mount a horse on its left instead of on its right side. They +begin dinner with soup instead of dessert, and end it with dessert +instead of soup. They drink their wine cold instead of hot. Their +books all open at the wrong end, and the lines in a page are +horizontal instead of vertical. They put their guests on the right +instead of on the left, though it is true that we did that until +several hundred years ago. Their music, too, is so funny, it is more +like noise; and as for their singing, it is only very loud talking. +Then their women are so immodest; striding about in ball-rooms with +very little on, and embracing strange men in a whirligig which they +call dancing, but very unlike the dignified movements which our male +dancers exhibit in the Confucian temple. Their men and women shake +hands, though know from our sacred Book of Rites that men and women +should not even pass things from one to another, for fear their hands +should touch. Then, again, all foreigners, sometimes the women also, +carry sticks, which can only be for beating innocent people; and their +so-called mandarins and others ride races and row boats, instead of +having coolies to do these things for them. They are strange people +indeed; very clever at cunning, mechanical devices, such as fire- +ships, fire-carriages, and air-cars; but extremely ferocious and +almost entirely uncivilized." + +Such would be a not exaggerated picture of the mental attitude of the +Chinaman towards his enigma, the foreigner. From the Chinaman's +imperturbable countenance the foreigner seeks in vain for some +indications of a common humanity within; and simply because he has not +the wit to see it, argues that it is not there. But there it is all +the time. The principles of general morality, and especially of duty +towards one's neighbour, the restrictions of law, and even the +conventionalities of social life, upon all of which the Chinaman is +more or less nourished from his youth upwards, remain, when accidental +differences have been brushed away, upon a bed-rock of ground common +to both East and West; and it is difficult to see how such teachings +could possibly turn out a race of men so utterly in contrast with the +foreigner as the Chinese are usually supposed to be. It is certain +that anything like a full and sincere observance of the Chinese rules +of life would result in a community of human beings far ahead of the +"pure men" dreamt of in the philosophy of the Taoists. + +As has already been either stated or suggested, the Chinese seem to be +actuated by precisely the same motives which actuate other peoples. +They delight in the possession of wealth and fame, while fully alive +to the transitory nature of both. They long even more for posterity, +that the ancestral line may be carried on unbroken. They find their +chief pleasures in family life, and in the society of friends, of +books, of mountains, of flowers, of pictures, and of objects dear to +the collector and the connoisseur. Though a nation of what the Scotch +would call "sober eaters," they love the banquet hour, and to a +certain extent verify their own saying that "Man's heart is next door +to his stomach." In centuries past a drunken nation, some two to three +hundred years ago they began to come under the influence of opium, and +the abuse of alcohol dropped to a minimum. Opium smoking, less harmful +a great deal than opium eating, took the place of drink, and became +the national vice; but the extent of its injury to the people has been +much exaggerated, and is not to be compared with that of alcohol in +the West. It is now, in consequence of recent legislation, likely to +disappear, on which result there could be nothing but the warmest +congratulations to offer, but for the fact that something else, more +insidious and deadly still, is rapidly taking its place. For a time, +it was thought that alcohol might recover its sway, and it is still +quite probable that human cravings for stimulant of some kind will +find a partial relief in that direction. The present enemy, however, +and one that demands serious and immediate attention, is morphia, +which is being largely imported into China in the shape of a variety +of preparations suitable to the public demand. A passage from opium to +morphia would be worse, if possible, than from the frying-pan into the +fire. + +The question has often been asked, but has never found a satisfactory +answer, why and how it is that Chinese civilization has persisted +through so many centuries, while other civilizations, with equal if +not superior claims to permanency, have been broken up and have +disappeared from the sites on which they formerly flourished. Egypt +may be able to boast of a high level of culture at a remoter date than +we can reach through the medium of Chinese records, for all we can +honestly claim is that the Chinese were a remarkably civilized nation +a thousand years before Christ. That was some time before Greek +civilization can be said to have begun; yet the Chinese nation is with +us still, and but for contact with the Western barbarian, would be +leading very much the same life that it led so many centuries ago. + +Some would have us believe that the bond which has held the people +together is the written language, which is common to the whole Empire, +and which all can read in the same sense, though the pronunciation of +words varies in different provinces as much as that of words in +English, French, or German. Others have suggested that to the +teachings of Confucius, which have outlived the competition of Taoism, +Buddhism and other faiths, China is indebted for the tie which has +knitted men's hearts together, and enabled them to defy any process of +disintegration. There is possibly some truth in all such theories; but +these are incomplete unless a considerable share of the credit is +allowed to the spirit of personal freedom which seems to breathe +through all Chinese institutions, and to unite the people in +resistance to every form of oppression. The Chinese have always +believed in the divine right of kings; on the other hand, their kings +must bear themselves as kings, and live up to their responsibilities +as well as to the rights they claim. Otherwise, the obligation is at +an end, and their subjects will have none of them. Good government +exists in Chinese eyes only when the country is prosperous, free from +war, pestilence and famine. Misgovernment is a sure sign that God has +withdrawn His mandate from the emperor, who is no longer fit to rule. +It then remains to replace the emperor by one who is more worthy of +Divine favour, and this usually means the final overthrow of the +dynasty. + +The Chinese assert their right to put an evil ruler to death, and it +is not high treason, or criminal in any way, to proclaim this +principle in public. It is plainly stated by the philosopher Mencius, +whose writings form a portion of the Confucian Canon, and are taught +in the ordinary course to every Chinese youth. One of the feudal +rulers was speaking to Mencius about a wicked emperor of eight hundred +years back, who had been attacked by a patriot hero, and who had +perished in the flames of his palace. "May then a subject," he asked, +"put his sovereign to death?" To which Mencius replied that any one +who did violence to man's natural charity of heart, or failed +altogether in his duty towards his neighbour, was nothing more than an +unprincipled ruffian; and he insinuated that it had been such a +ruffian, in fact, not an emperor in the true sense of the term, who +had perished in the case they were discussing. Another and most +important point to be remembered in any attempt to discover the real +secret of China's prolonged existence as a nation, also points in the +direction of democracy and freedom. The highest positions in the state +have always been open, through the medium of competitive examinations, +to the humblest peasant in the empire. It is solely a question of +natural ability coupled with an intellectual training; and of the +latter, it has already been shown that there is no lack at the +disposal of even the poorest. China, then, according to a high +authority, has always been at the highest rung of the democratic +ladder; for it was no less a person than Napoleon who said: +"Reasonable democracy will never aspire to anything more than +obtaining an equal power of elevation for all." + +In order to enforce their rights by the simplest and most bloodless +means, the Chinese have steadily cultivated the art of combining +together, and have thus armed themselves with an immaterial, invisible +weapon which simply paralyses the aggressor, and ultimately leaves +them masters of the field. The extraordinary part of a Chinese boycott +or strike is the absolute fidelity by which it is observed. If the +boatmen or chair-coolies at any place strike, they all strike; there +are no blacklegs. If the butchers refuse to sell, they all refuse, +entirely confident in each other's loyalty. Foreign merchants who have +offended the Chinese guilds by some course of action not approved by +those powerful bodies, have often found to their cost that such +conduct will not be tolerated for a moment, and that their only course +is to withdraw, sometimes at considerable loss, from the untenable +position they had taken up. The other side of the medal is equally +instructive. Some years ago, the foreign tea-merchants at a large +port, in order to curb excessive charges, decided to hoist the Chinese +tea-men, or sellers of tea, with their own petard. They organized a +strict combination against the tea-men, whose tea no colleague was to +buy until, by what seemed to be a natural order of events, the tea-men +had been brought to their knees. The tea-men, however, remained firm, +their countenances impassive as ever. Before long, the tea-merchants +discovered that some of their number had broken faith, and were doing +a roaring business for their own account, on the terms originally +insisted on by the tea-men. + +There is no longer any doubt that China is now in the early stages of +serious and important changes. Her old systems of education and +examination are to be greatly modified, if not entirely remodelled. +The distinctive Chinese dress is to be shorn of two of its most +distinguishing features--the /queue/ of the man and the small feet of +the woman. The coinage is to be brought more into line with commercial +requirements. The administration of the law is to be so improved that +an honest demand may be made--as Japan made it some years back--for +the abolition of extra-territoriality, a treaty obligation under which +China gives up all jurisdiction over resident foreigners, and agrees +that they shall be subject, civilly and criminally alike, only to +their own authorities. The old patriarchal form of government, +autocratic in name but democratic in reality, which has stood the +Chinese people in such good stead for an unbroken period of nearly +twenty-two centuries, is also to change with the changes of the hour, +in the hope that a new era will be inaugurated, worthy to rank with +the best days of a glorious past. + +And here perhaps it may be convenient if a slight outline is given of +the course marked out for the future. China is to have a +"constitution" after the fashion of most foreign nations; and her +people, whose sole weapon of defence and resistance, albeit one of +deadly efficiency, has hitherto been combination of the masses against +the officials set over them, are soon to enjoy the rights of +representative government. By an Imperial decree, issued late in 1907, +this principle was established; and by a further decree, issued in +1908, it was ordered that at the end of a year provincial assemblies, +to deliberate on matters of local government, were to be convened in +all the provinces and certain other portions of the empire, as a first +step towards the end in view. Membership of these assemblies was to be +gained by election, coupled with a small property qualification; and +the number of members in each assembly was to be in proportion to the +number of electors in each area, which works out roughly at about one +thousand electors to each representative. In the following year a +census was to be taken, provincial budgets were to be drawn up, and a +new criminal code was to be promulgated, on the strength of which new +courts of justice were to be opened by the end of the third year. By +1917, there was to be a National Assembly or Parliament, consisting of +an Upper and Lower House, and a prime minister was to be appointed. + +On the 14th of October 1909 these provincial assemblies met for the +first time. The National Assembly was actually opened on the 3rd of +October 1910; and in response to public feeling, an edict was issued a +month later ordering the full constitution to be granted within three +years from date. It is really a single chamber, which contains the +elements of two. It is composed of about one hundred members, +appointed by the Throne and drawn from certain privileged classes, +including thirty-two high officials and ten distinguished scholars, +together with the same number of delegates from the provinces. Those +who obtain seats are to serve for three years, and to have their +expenses defrayed by the state. It is a consultative and not an +executive body; its function is to discuss such subjects as taxation, +the issue of an annual budget, the amendment of the law, etc., all of +which subjects are to be approved by the emperor before being +submitted to this assembly, and also to deal with questions sent up +for decision from the provincial assemblies. Similarly, any resolution +to be proposed must be backed by at least thirty members, and on being +duly passed by a majority, must then be embodied in a memorial to the +Throne. For passing and submitting resolutions which may be classed +under various headings as objectionable, the assembly can at once be +dissolved by Imperial edict. + +There are, so far, no distinct parties in the National Assembly, that +is, as regards the places occupied in the House. Men of various shades +of opinion, Radicals, Liberals and Conservatives, are all mixed up +together. The first two benches are set aside for representatives of +the nobility, with precedence from the left of the president round to +his right. Then come officials, scholars and leading merchants on the +next two benches. Behind them, again, on four rows of benches, are the +delegates from the provincial assemblies. There is thus a kind of +House of Lords in front, with a House of Commons, the representatives +of the nation, at the back. The leanings of the former class, as might +be supposed, are mostly of a conservative tendency, while the +sympathies of the latter are rather with progressive ideas; at the +same time, there will be found among the Lords a certain sprinkling of +Radicals, and among the Commons not a few whose views are of an +antiquated, not to say reactionary, type. + +With the above scheme the Chinese people are given to understand quite +clearly that while their advice in matters concerning the +administration of government will be warmly welcomed, all legislative +power will remain, as heretofore, confined to the emperor alone. At +the first blush, this seems like giving with one hand and taking away +with the other; and so perhaps it would work out in more than one +nation of the West. But those who know the Chinese at home know that +when they offer political advice they mean it to be taken. The great +democracy of China, living in the greatest republic the world has ever +seen, would never tolerate any paltering with national liberties in +the present or in the future, any more than has been the case in the +past. Those who sit in the seats of authority at the capital are far +too well acquainted with the temper of their countrymen to believe for +a moment that, where such vital interests are concerned, there can be +anything contemplated save steady and satisfactory progress towards +the goal proposed. If the ruling Manchus seize the opportunity now +offered them, then, in spite of simmering sedition here and there over +the empire, they may succeed in continuing a line which in its early +days had a glorious record of achievement, to the great advantage of +the Chinese nation. If, on the other hand, they neglect this chance, +there may result one of those frightful upheavals from which the +empire has so often suffered. China will pass again through the +melting-pot, to emerge once more, as on all previous occasions, +purified and strengthened by the process. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +1. /The Chinese Classics/, by James Legge, D.D., late Professor of + Chinese at Oxford. + +A translation of the whole of the Confucian Canon, comprising the Four +Books in which are given the discourses of Confucius and Mencius, the +Book of History, the Odes, the Annals of Confucius' native State, the +Book of Rites, and the Book of Changes. + +2. /The Ancient History of China/, by F. Hirth, Ph.D., Professor of + Chinese at Columbia University, New York. + +A sketch of Chinese history from fabulous ages down to 221 B.C., +containing a good deal of information of an antiquarian character, and +altogether placing in its most attractive light what must necessarily +be rather a dull period for the general reader. + +3. /China/, by E. H. Parker, Professor of Chinese at Victoria + University, Manchester. + +A general account of China, chiefly valuable for commercial and +statistical information, sketch-maps of ancient trade-routes, etc. + +4. /A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/, by H. A. Giles, LL.D., + Professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge. + +This work contains 2579 short lives of Chinese Emperors, statesmen, +generals, scholars, priests, and other classes, including some women, +from the earliest times down to the present day, arranged +alphabetically. + +5. /A Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire/, by L. Richard. + +This work is rightly named "comprehensive," for it contains a great +deal of information which cannot be strictly classed as geographical, +all of which, however, is of considerable value to the student. + +6. /Descriptive Sociology (Chinese)/, by E. T. C. Werner, H.B.M. + Consul at Foochow. + +A volume of the series initiated by Herbert Spenger. It consists of a +large number of sociological facts grouped and arranged in +chronological order, and is of course purely a work of reference. + +7. /A History of Chinese Literature/, by H. A. Giles. + +Notes on two or three hundred writers of history, philosophy, +biography, travel, poetry, plays, fiction, etc., with a large number +of translated extracts grouped under the above headings and arranged +in chronological order. + +8. /Chinese Poetry in English Verse/, by H. A. Giles. + +Rhymed translations of nearly two hundred short poems from the +earliest ages down to the present times. + +9. /An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art/, by H. + A. Giles. + +Notes on the lives and works of over three hundred painters of all +ages, chiefly translated from the writings of Chinese art-critics, +with sixteen reproductions of famous Chinese pictures. + +10. /Scraps from a Collector's Note-book/, by F. Hirth. + +Chiefly devoted to notes on painters of the present dynasty, 1644- +1905, with twenty-one reproductions of famous pictures, forming a +complementary supplement to No. 9. + +11. /Religions of Ancient China/, by H. A. Giles. + +A short account of the early worship of one God, followed by brief +notices of Taoism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Mahommedanism, +and other less well-known faiths which have been introduced at various +dates into China. + +12. /Chinese Characteristics/, by the Rev. Arthur Smith, D.D. + +A humorous but at the same time serious examination into the modes of +thought and springs of action which peculiarly distinguish the Chinese +people. + +13. /Village Life in China/, by the Rev. Arthur Smith. + +The scope of this work is sufficiently indicated by its title. + +14. /China under the Empress Dowager/, by J. O. Bland, and E. + Backhouse. + +An interesting account of Chinese Court Life between 1860 and 1908, +with important sidelights on the Boxer troubles and the Siege of the +Legations in 1900. + +15. /The Imperial History of China/, by Rev. J. Macgowan. + +A short and compact work on a subject which has not been successfully +handled. + +16. /Indiscreet Letters from Peking/, by B. Putnam Weale. + +Though too outspoken to meet with general approbation, this work is +considered by many to give the most faithful account of the Siege of +the Legations, as seen by an independent witness. + +17. /Buddhism as a Religion/, by H. Hackmann, Lic. Theol. + +A very useful volume, translated from the German, showing the various +developments of Buddhism in different parts of the world. + +18. /Chuang Tzu/, by H. A. Giles. + +A complete translation of the writings of the leading Taoist +philosopher, who flourished in the fourth and third centuries B.C. + + + + + +End if The Project Gutenberg Etext The Civilization of China, by Giles + diff --git a/old/cvchn10.zip b/old/cvchn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bccb683 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cvchn10.zip |