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diff --git a/42904-0.txt b/42904-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b559ac --- /dev/null +++ b/42904-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3381 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42904 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 42904-h.htm or 42904-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42904/42904-h/42904-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42904/42904-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://archive.org/details/chinachi00blakrich + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + [)a] represents the character a-breve. + + + + + +Menpes Crown Series + +CHINA + + * * * * * + +BY THE SAME ARTIST + + BRITTANY + 75 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + _Square Demy 8vo._ + + PARIS + 24 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + _Large Crown 8vo._ + + INDIA + 75 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + _Square Demy 8vo._ + + THE THAMES + 75 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + _Square Demy 8vo._ + + SIR HENRY IRVING + 8 PENCIL, AND TINT PORTRAITS + 6¼ X 4 _inches_ + + VENICE + 100 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + _Square Demy 8vo._ + + JAPAN + 100 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + _Square Demy 8vo._ + + WAR IMPRESSIONS + 99 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + _Square Demy 8vo._ + +PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK · SOHO SQUARE · LONDON · W. + +_AGENTS_ + + AMERICA + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + AUSTRALASIA + OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE + + CANADA + THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. + 27 RICHMOND ST. WEST, TORONTO + + INDIA + MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. + MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY + 309 BOW BAZAAR ST., CALCUTTA + + * * * * * + + + [Illustration: A SHOEMAKER] + + +CHINA + +by + +MORTIMER MENPES + +Text by + +SIR HENRY ARTHUR BLAKE, G.C.M.G. + + + + + + + +London +Adam and Charles Black +1909 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + PAGE + Description of China; Her Early History; Tartar Garrisons; + Chinese Soldiers; Family Life; Power of Parents; Foot-Binding 1 + + + CHAPTER II + + Marriage Customs; Ancestral Halls; Official Hierarchy; + Competitive Examinations; Taxation; Punishments; Torture; + Story of Circumstantial Evidence 15 + + + CHAPTER III + + Gradations of Chinese Society; Agriculture; _Fung Sui_; + Pawn Offices; River Boats and Junks; The Bore at Haining; + Fishing Industry; Piracy on Rivers; Li Hung Chang; The + West River; Temples of the Seven Star Hills; Howlick 33 + + + CHAPTER IV + + The Yangtze; Opium; Conclusions of Singapore Commission; + British and German Trade in the Far East; Town and Country + Life; Chinese Cities; Peking; Temple of Agriculture; + Spring Ceremony of Ploughing by the Emperor and his Court 56 + + + CHAPTER V + + Peasant Cultivators; Religious Beliefs; Theatricals; Famine; + Life in Coast Cities; Canton; Guild-Houses; Beggar Guild; + Official Reception by Viceroy; Chinese Writing; Life of + an Official 72 + + + CHAPTER VI + + Houses of Wealthy Inhabitants; Flower-Boats; Reform + Movement among Chinese Women; Shanghai Women's + Convention; Women's Superstitions; Chinese Ladies; + Fashions; Visiting 100 + + + CHAPTER VII + + General Description of Hong Kong; Happy Valley; Peak + District; Night View of Harbour; Typhoon; Energy of + Survivors; The Streets; Early Morning Life of the City; + Chinese Workmen; The Barber; The Sawyer; The Stonecutter; + The Coolie; Gambling; Some Street Games 111 + + + CHAPTER VIII + + Dragon-Boat Races; Festival at Macao; New Year; New + Year Customs; Hong Kong Races; Curious Forms of + Gambling; Charitable Institutions of Hong Kong; The + Future of China 126 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +BY MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E. + + + 1. A SHOEMAKER _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + 2. A QUIET CANAL 8 + + 3. A STUDENT 17 + + 4. SAMPANS 24 + + 5. CHOPSTICKS 33 + + 6. ON THE WAY TO MARKET 40 + + 7. A GRANDFATHER 49 + + 8. A SUMMER HOUSE 56 + + 9. A QUIET GAME OF DRAUGHTS 65 + + 10. WAITING FOR CUSTOMERS 72 + + 11. A CHINESE GIRL 89 + + 12. JUNKS AT EVENTIDE 96 + + 13. A TYPICAL STREET SCENE 105 + + 14. A STREET STALL 112 + + 15. ON A BACKWATER 121 + + 16. A TEMPLE 128 + + Also 64 Facsimile Reproductions in Black and White + + _These Illustrations were Engraved and Printed by the + Menpes Printing Company, Ltd., Watford, under the personal + supervision of Miss Maud Menpes_ + + + + +CHINA + + [Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +In attempting even a slight sketch of China, its physical features, or +some of the manners and customs of the various peoples whom we +designate broadly as the Chinese, the writer is confronted with the +difficulty of its immensity. The continuous territory in Asia over +which China rules or exercises a suzerainty is over 4,200,000 square +miles, but China Proper, excluding Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, and +Turkestan, consists of eighteen provinces, covering an area of +1,530,000 square miles, with a population of about 410,000,000, or +about twelve and a half times the area of the United Kingdom, and ten +times its population. + +This area is bounded on the west by southern spurs from the giant +mountain regions of Eastern Tibet, that stretch their long arms in +parallel ranges through Burma and Western Yunnan, and whose snow-clad +crests send forth the great rivers Salween and Mekong to the south, +the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers to the east, to fertilize the most +productive regions on the surface of the globe. + +It is this conformation that has so far presented an insurmountable +barrier to the construction of a railway from Bhamo in Burmese +territory to the high plateau of Yunnan, from whence the province of +Szechwan, richest of all the eighteen provinces in agricultural and +mineral wealth, could be reached. Some day the coal, iron, gold, oil, +and salt of Szechwan will be exploited, and future generations may +find in the millionaires of Szechwan Chinese speculators as able and +far-seeing as the financial magnates who now practically control the +destinies of millions in the Western world. + +The portion south of the Yangtze is hilly rather than mountainous, and +the eastern portion north of that great river is a vast plain of rich +soil, through which the Yellow River, which from its periodical +inundations is called China's Sorrow, flows for over five hundred +miles. + +In a country so vast, internal means of communication are of the first +importance, and here China enjoys natural facilities unequalled by any +area of similar extent. Three great rivers flow eastward and +southward--the Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, in the north, the Yangtze in +the centre, and the Pearl River, of which the West River is the +largest branch, in the south. The Yangtze alone with its affluents is +calculated to afford no less than 36,000 miles of waterways. The river +population of China comprises many millions, whose varied occupations +present some of the most interesting aspects of Chinese life. + +The population of China is composed of different tribes or clans, +whose records date back to the dynasty of Fuh-hi, 2800 B.C. Sometimes +divided in separate kingdoms, sometimes united by waves of conquest, +the northern portion was welded into one empire by the conqueror, +Ghengis Khan, in A.D. 1234, and seventy years later the southern +portion was added by his son, Kublai Khan, who overthrew the Sung +dynasty. It was during his reign that China was visited by Marco Polo, +from the records of whose travels we find that even at that time the +financial system of the Far East was so far advanced that paper money +was used by the Chinese, while in the city of Cambaluc--the Peking of +to-day--Christian, Saracen, and Chinese astrologers consulted an +astrolabe to forecast the nature of the weather, thus anticipating the +meteorological bureaux of to-day. + + [Illustration] + +There are, however, still districts in the southern portion of China +where the aboriginal inhabitants have never accepted the position of +complete incorporation with the Chinese neighbours. In the mountain +district between the provinces of Kwangtung and Hunan a tribe exists +known as the Yu people, in whose territory no Chinese officials are +permitted to reside, nor do they allow strangers to enter their towns, +which are built on crags difficult of access and capable of offering a +stubborn resistance to attack. Their chief occupation is forestry, the +timber being cut during the winter and floated down the mountain +streams when in flood. Their customs are peculiar. Among them is the +vendetta, which is practised by the Yu alone of all the people in the +Far East. But no woman is ever injured; and even during the fiercest +fighting the women can continue their work in the fields with safety. +Their original home was in Yunnan and the western part of Kwangsi, +from whence they were driven out by the Chinese in the time of the +Sung dynasty. The Yu, Lolos, Miao-tse, Sy-fans, etc. (all Chinese +names expressive of contempt, like our "barbarians"), are stated by +Ma-tonan-lin and other Chinese historians to have been found +inhabiting the country when, six thousand years ago, it was occupied +by the ancestors of the Chinese, who came from the north-west. The +savage inhabitants were gradually driven into the hills, where their +descendants are still found. Their traditions point to their having +been cannibals. Intermarriage with the Chinese is very rare, the +Chinese regarding such a union as a _mésalliance_, and the aboriginal +peoples as a cowardly desertion to the enemy. The embroideries worked +by the women are different from those of the Chinese and, I am +informed, more resemble the embroideries now worked at Bethlehem. They +are worked on dark cloth in red, or sometimes red and yellow. + + [Illustration] + +After the time of Kublai Khan, succeeding centuries found the various +divisions of the Chinese again disunited, in accordance with a very +old Chinese proverb frequently heard at the present day, "Long united +we divide: long divided we unite"; but the final welding took place +under Shun-chi, who established the Tsing dynasty in 1644, and imposed +upon all Chinese people, as a permanent and evident mark of +subjection, the shaving of the front portion of the head and braiding +of the back hair into a queue after the Tartar fashion--an order at +first resented bitterly, but afterwards acquiesced in as an old +custom. To this day the removal of the queue and allowing the hair to +grow on the front portion of the head is regarded as a casting off of +allegiance to the dynasty. In the Taiping rebellion that raged in the +southern provinces from 1850 to 1867, and which down to its +suppression by Gordon and Li Hung Chang is computed to have cost the +lives of twenty-two and a half millions of people, the removal of the +queue and allowing the hair to grow freely was the symbol adopted by +the rebels. + +To secure the empire against future risings, the Manchu conquerors +placed Tartar garrisons in every great city, where separate quarters +were allotted to them, and for two hundred and sixty years these +so-called Tartar soldiers and their families have been supported with +doles of rice. They were not allowed to trade, nor to intermarry with +the Chinese. The consequence was inevitable. They have become an idle +population in whom the qualities of the old virile Manchus have +deteriorated, and supply a large proportion of the elements of +disorder and violence. Of late, the prohibition against entering into +business and intermarrying with the Chinese has been removed, and they +will ultimately be absorbed into the general population. + +From the point of view of a trained soldier these Tartar "troops" were +no more than armed rabble, with the most primitive ideas of military +movements; but in the north the exigencies of the situation have +compelled the adoption of Western drill, adding immensely to the +efficiency but sadly diminishing the picturesqueness of the +armies--for there is no homogeneous territorial army, each province +supplying its own independent force, the goodness or badness of which +depends upon the energy and ability of the viceroy. + +The pay of a Chinese soldier is ostensibly about six dollars a month, +which would be quite sufficient for his support were it not reduced to +about half that amount by the squeezes of the officers and +non-commissioned officers through whose hands it passes. He receives +also one hundred pounds of rice, which is not always palatable, the +weight being made up by an admixture of sand and mud to replace the +"squeeze" by the various hands through which the rice tribute has +passed. + +While under arms he is clothed in a short Chinese jacket of scarlet, +blue, or black, on the front and back of which are the name and symbol +of his regiment. The sleeves are wide and the arms have free play. The +shape of the hat varies in every corps, the small round Chinese hat +being sometimes worn, or a peakless cap, while some regiments wear +immense straw hats, which hang on the back except when the sun is +unduly hot. The trousers are dark blue of the usual Chinese pattern, +tied round the ankles. The costume is not unsoldierlike, and when in +mass the effect is strikingly picturesque; but it must not be inferred +that all the men on a large parade are drilled soldiers. An order to +the officer commanding to parade his corps for inspection not seldom +interferes seriously with the labour force of the day. He draws the +daily pay of, say, two thousand men, but his average muster may not +exceed three hundred. This is a kind of gambling with Fortune at which +China is disposed to wink as being merely a somewhat undue extension +of the principle of squeeze that is the warp and woof of every Chinese +employee, public or private. But he must not be found out; therefore +seventeen hundred coolies are collected by hook or by crook, and duly +attired in uniform, possibly being shown how to handle their rifles at +the salute. The muster over, the coolies return to their work, and the +arms and uniform are replaced in store until the next occasion. + + [Illustration: A QUIET CANAL.] + + [Illustration] + +The officers are chosen from the better classes, except when a more +than usually ferocious robber is captured, when sometimes his supposed +bravery is utilized by giving him an army command. The young officers +undergo some kind of elementary training. In Canton it was until +lately the custom to have an annual examination of their proficiency +in riding and archery. In a field outside the city a curved trench +about five feet wide and two feet deep was cut for about two hundred +and fifty yards. At intervals of fifty yards were erected close to the +trench three pillars of soft material each six feet high by two feet +in diameter. Into each of these pillars the candidate, who was +mounted on a small pony and seated in a saddle to fall out of which +would require an active effort, was required to shoot an arrow as he +passed at a gallop. With bow ready strung and two spare arrows in his +girdle, he was started to gallop along the trench that was palpably +dug to prevent the ponies from swerving, as the reins were flung upon +his neck. As the candidate passed within two or three feet of the +pillar targets the feat would not appear to have been difficult. If +all three arrows were successfully planted the candidate was at the +end of the course received with applause, and his name favourably +noted by the mandarins, who sat in state in an open pavilion close by. +But this description would not at present apply to the northern +provinces, where some of the armies are apparently as well drilled, +armed, and turned out as European troops. That Chinese troops are not +wanting in bravery has been proved; and if properly led a Chinese +drilled army of to-day might prove as formidable as were the hosts of +Ghengis Khan, when in the thirteenth century they swept over Western +Asia and into Europe as far as Budapest. + + [Illustration] + +It has been stated that the empire has been welded together by its +conquerors, but perhaps it would be more correct to say that it +coheres by the almost universal acceptance of the ethics of +Confucius, whose wise precepts--delivered five hundred years before +the birth of Christ--inculcated all the cardinal virtues, and included +love and respect for parents; respect for the Prince; respect for and +obedience to superiors; respect for age, and courteous manners towards +all. He held that at their birth all men were by nature radically +good, but "as gems unwrought serve no useful end, so men untaught will +never know what right conduct is." + +The bedrock upon which the stability of China has rested for over two +thousand years is the family life, the patriarchal system reaching +upwards in ever-widening circles, from the hut of the peasant to the +palace of the Sovereign. The house is ruled by the parents, the +village by the elders, after which the officials step in, and the +districts are governed by mandarins, whose rank of magistrate, +prefect, taotai, governor, or viceroy indicate the importance of the +areas over which they rule, each acting on principles settled by +ancient custom, but with wide latitude in the carrying out of details. +Nothing is more charming in respectable Chinese families than the +reverential respect of children for their parents, and this respect is +responded to by great affection for the children. It is a very pretty +sight to see a young child enter the room and gravely perform the +kotow to his father and mother. No young man would dare to eat or +drink in the presence of his father or mother until invited to do so. +Among the princely families the etiquette is so rigid that if a son is +addressed by his father while at table he must stand up before +answering. + +It is sometimes assumed that the custom of wealthy Chinese having two, +three, or more "wives" must lead to much confusion in questions of +inheritance, but there is no real difficulty in the matter, for +although the custom allows the legalized connection with a plurality +of wives, there is really but one legal wife acknowledged as being the +head of the house. She is called the kit-fat, or first wife, and +though she may be childless all the children born of the other "wives" +are considered as being hers, and to her alone do the children pay the +reverence due to a parent, their own mothers being considered as being +in the position of aunts. Strange though it may appear to Western +ideas, this position seems to be accepted by the associated wives with +equanimity. The custom probably originated in the acknowledged +necessity to have a son or sons to carry on the worship at the family +ancestral hall, where the tablets of deceased members are preserved. +Sometimes instead of taking to himself a plurality of wives a man +adopts a son, who is thenceforth in the position of eldest son, and +cannot be displaced, even though a wife should afterwards bear a son. +A daughter is on a different plane. She is not supposed to be capable +of carrying out the family worship, and cannot perpetuate the family +name. A daughter, too, means a dower in days to come, so sometimes a +father determines, if he has already a daughter, that no more shall be +permitted to live. This determination is always taken before the birth +of the infant daughter, the child in that case being immersed in a +bucket of water at the instant of its birth, so that from the Chinese +point of view it has never existed; but female children who have +practically begun a separate existence are never destroyed. In such +cases the father is quite as fond of the daughter as of the sons, and +in families where tutors are engaged the girls pursue their studies +with their brothers. + + [Illustration] + +The power of the parents is practically unlimited, extending even to +life or death. A mother might kill her son without fear of legal +punishment, but if, in defending himself, he killed his parent, he +would be put to death by the lin-chi--or death by a thousand cuts--a +horrible punishment reserved for traitors, parricides, or husband +murderers. Indeed, while theoretically the woman is in China +considered inferior, the kit-fat, or principal wife, is really the +controller of the family, including the wives of her sons. She rules +the household with a rod of iron, and has considerable, if not a +paramount, influence in the conduct of the family affairs. The wife of +an official is entitled to wear the ornaments and insignia of her +husband's rank, and in the Imperial Palace the Dowager-Empress of the +day is probably the most important personage in the empire after the +Emperor. + + [Illustration] + +In a Hong Kong paper a short time ago there appeared a paragraph +reciting that a wealthy young Chinese, whose mother controlled a large +business in Canton, had been spending the money of the firm too +lavishly, the attraction of motor-cars and other vehicles of +extravagance being too powerful for him. After various endeavours to +control him, the mother at length prepared chains and fetters, and had +him locked up. He, however, escaped, and the irate mother announced +her intention to exercise her maternal rights on his return by cutting +the tendons of his ankles and thus crippling him. The account +proceeded to say that this treatment is often resorted to by irate +parents with prodigal sons. + +The most incomprehensible custom among Chinese women of family is that +of foot-binding, which is generally begun at the age of three or four, +the process being very slow. Gradually the toes, other than the great +toe, are forced back under the sole, so that when the operation is +complete the girl is only able to hobble about on the great toes. When +a Chinese lady goes out, not using her sedan chair, she is either +carried by a female slave pick-a-back, or walks supported on either +side by two female attendants. Nevertheless, Chinese women of the +humbler classes are sometimes to be seen working in the fields with +bound feet. Why their mothers should have inflicted the torture upon +them, or why, when they had come to years of discretion, they did not +attempt to gradually unbind their feet, seems incomprehensible. The +explanation is that not alone would the unbinding inflict as much +torture, but slaves and their descendants are not permitted to bind +the feet; the deformity is therefore a badge of a free and reputable +family, and a girl with bound feet has a better prospect of being well +married than her more comfortable and capable sister, upon whom no +burden of artificial deformity has been placed. The origin of the +custom is lost in the mists of antiquity. One would imagine that the +example of the Imperial family ought to have had an effect in changing +it, for the Manchu ladies do not bind their feet; but though several +edicts have been issued forbidding it, the custom still continues. To +Western eyes, bound feet are as great a deformity as is the +tight-lacing of European ladies to the Chinese; but physically the +former is much less injurious than the latter, which not alone deforms +the skeleton, but displaces almost every one of the internal organs. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + [Illustration] + + +The marriages are arranged in a somewhat similar manner to that of the +Irish peasants. The negotiations are usually begun by a go-between +instructed by the young man's family, the etiquette of the entire +proceeding being rigidly adhered to. There is one insurmountable +objection to unrestricted choice--the bridegroom and bride must not +bear the same name, except in the province of Honan, where the +prohibition is disregarded. The extent of this restriction will be +realized when we remember that among the four hundred millions of +Chinese there are not much over a hundred family names. There may be +four millions of Wongs, but no man of that name may marry any one of +the four millions. As marriage is the principal event of a Chinese +woman's life, she has crowded into it as much gorgeous ceremonial as +the circumstances of her parents will allow. The day before she +leaves her ancestral home her trousseau and presents are forwarded to +her new home. At the wedding of a daughter of a wealthy gentleman in +Canton a few years ago, seven hundred coolies were engaged in +transporting in procession all these belongings, some of the presents +being of great beauty and value. The next day the bridegroom arrived +with his procession of two hundred men--some on horseback, some armed +and in military array--trays of sweetmeats, and numbers of children +representing good fairies. The inevitable red lanterns, with a band, +led the procession, which was brought up by a dragon thirty feet long, +the legs being supplied by boys, who carried their portion on sticks, +and jumping up and down gave life and motion to the monster. + +The bridal chair in which the bride was carried was elaborately carved +and decorated. Its colour was red, picked out with blue feathers of +the kingfisher carefully gummed on, which has the effect of enamel. On +arrival at her new home, the bride was met with the usual ceremonies, +and was carried over the threshold on which was a fire lighted in a +pan, lest she should by any chance be accompanied by evil influences. + +This carrying of the bride over the threshold is sometimes practised +in the Highlands of Scotland, the ceremony having been observed when +Her Royal Highness Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, first entered +Inveraray Castle as a bride. + +The day after the wedding it is the custom for the bride to cook her +husband's rice, the fire being made from wood, which forms part of her +trousseau, as she is supposed to bring everything necessary for the +purpose to her new home. At a wedding at Macao not long ago, on +proceeding to perform the usual ceremony, it was found to the +consternation of the bride that no firewood had been sent. Her +mother-in-law good-naturedly offered to give her the wood, but this +the proud bride would by no means permit. Calling her amah, she +directed her to fetch two rolls of silk, each worth about forty +dollars, and with them she cooked the rice. When next her father came +to see her she told him of the occurrence. He said, "You did right, my +daughter; you have saved your father's face"; and on his return he +promptly dispatched a hundred coolies laden with firewood, which was +more than the bridegroom's house could hold. + + [Illustration: A STUDENT.] + +The ceremony of the "teasing of the bride" is sometimes trying for +her, but in good families propriety is rarely outraged. Here is an +account of such a ceremony which took place in the house of one of our +friends the day after her marriage. The ladies' dinner was over when +we arrived; the gentlemen had not yet come up from their dinner at +the restaurant. This evening the bride had gone round the tables +pouring out samshu, a ceremony that her mother-in-law had performed on +the previous evening. The bride came into the room wearing a gorgeous +and elaborate costume of red, the long ribbon-like arrangements over +her skirt, huge open-work collar of red and gold, and the bridal crown +on her head. The veil of pearls was looped back from her face, and she +looked arch and smiling. It was quite a relief to see her after the +shrinking, downcast girl of the previous evening. When the gentlemen +came the "teasing" of the bride began. She was given various puzzles +to solve, two or three of which she undid very deftly. An intricate +Japanese puzzle was produced, but the mother-in-law would not allow it +to be given to the bride to solve, as she said it was too difficult. +The bridegroom came in, and the gentlemen present demanded that he and +the bride should walk round the room together, which they did, and +were then made to repeat the peregrination. There was a demand that +the pearl veil, which had been let down, should be hooked back that +all present might see her face. This was done. Then a sort of poetic +category was put to her, a gentleman of the family standing near to +judge if she answered correctly. The bride was told to ask her husband +to take her hand; to ask him what he had gained in marrying her, and +so on. The bride had to go round the room saluting and offering tea +to the various gentlemen. To one or two relatives she kotowed, and one +or two kotowed to her. This, of course, was a question of seniority. +Some of the questions and remarks made on the bride must have been +trying and unpleasant to any young lady, but being in Chinese they +were incomprehensible to us. The idea of the custom is to test the +temper, character, and cleverness of the bride. + + [Illustration] + +In the case of people of the lower orders, the ceremony must be more +than unpleasant, as there is sometimes rough horseplay, the +unfortunate bride being insulted, and now and again pinched severely. +But she must show no display of temper or resentment at the rough +process, as it would be taken as an indication that she did not +possess the qualification of non-resisting submission to her husband. + +Each family possesses an ancestral "hall," where are kept the tablets +of every defunct member of the family, before which incense sticks are +burnt daily, and where once or twice a year all the members of the +family within reach attend to lay offerings before the tablets in a +spirit of reverence. Should a man disgrace his family he is often +repudiated as a member, and at his death no tablet will be placed for +him in the ancestral hall. The consequence is that his descendants +cannot present themselves for the competitive examinations upon which +all official position depends. + +The family lands are apportioned annually, and from one particular +portion the contribution must be paid towards the expenses of the +local temple, including the theatrical performances that cost +considerable sums. This portion of the family land is cultivated by +each member of the family in turn. If the tenant be a Christian he +declines to pay the money for purposes to which he claims to have a +conscientious objection. Increased expense therefore falls upon the +other members of the family, who feel that the secession has placed an +additional burden upon them. The result is a feeling of antagonism to +Christianity; otherwise religious intolerance is not characteristic of +the Chinese. + +The official hierarchy in China is peculiarly constituted. China is, +like all democracies, intensely autocratic, and, within certain +bounds, each official is a law unto himself. To become an official is +therefore the ambition of every clever boy. At the triennial +examinations held in the capitals of provinces, from 150,000 to +200,000 candidates present themselves, who have passed successfully +preliminary competitive examinations held annually at various places. +To compete in these examinations a certificate must be produced by the +candidate that he is a member of a known family. If unsuccessful, he +may go on competing at every triennial examination held during his +life. Here we see the importance of family tablets in the ancestral +hall. No barber, or actor, or member of the boat population may +compete. + +At Canton, and also at Nanking and other great cities, may be seen the +examination halls and the rows of cells in which the candidates--after +being rigidly searched to ensure that no scrap of paper or writing is +retained that could assist them in the tremendous pending effort of +memory--are strictly confined during the time that the examinations +last. In Canton there are over eleven thousand; in Nanking there are +many more. The lean-to cells are built in rows, and measure three feet +eight inches in width by five feet nine inches in length, being six +feet high in front and nine feet in the back. From this cell the +candidate may not stir, except as an acknowledgment of failure, and +many die during the trial. At Nanking during an examination an average +of twenty-five deaths occurred daily. + +Those who win the prizes are at once appointed to office, and are +received at their homes with great honour. Of those who have passed +lower down, some are allocated to different provinces, where they +remain in waiting at the expense of the viceroy until some situation +becomes vacant. Once appointed they are eligible for promotion to the +position of prefect or taotai, or governor, or even viceroy. In all +these promotions money plays no inconsiderable part, and a wealthy man +may purchase mandarin's rank without the drudgery of examination, as +is not unknown in countries that boast of more advanced civilization. +In some cases, if a boy shows great intelligence and aptitude for +learning, a syndicate is formed by his family, and no expense is +spared upon his education. Should he be successful and attain a +position of importance, his family rise with him in wealth and +influence, and the syndicate turns out a productive speculation. The +whole system of examination is one of cramming, which, with +competitive examinations, was adopted by England from the Chinese. + + [Illustration] + +The Chinaman who has passed the examination and received what we +colloquially term his B.A. degree, even though he obtains no official +employment, holds himself above all manual labour, and however poor he +may be he belongs thereafter to the body of _literati_ known as the +gentry, who are consulted on all matters affecting the district in +which they reside. It is not easy to know how they live, but the +Chinese, like all Easterns, have a great respect for men of letters, +and have not yet become so civilized as to abandon higher ideals for +the degrading worship of wealth. There is probably found for such men +suitable employment in their localities that works into the social +economy. There are, of course, among them some lazy ones who, for want +of regular work, abandon themselves to the solace of opium-smoking; +but the class is a valuable leaven in the mass of the population. + +The viceroy of a province is really semi-independent. His nominal +salary in a province of possibly sixty millions of inhabitants is +£1000 or £2000 a year, out of which he must supply an army, possibly a +navy, internal customs, and civil service. + +The taxes are very much at his discretion, with the exception of the +settled duty paid by the cultivators on seed corn, that being the way +in which the land tax is levied. That paid, the small cultivator is +practically free from official interference, and such a man in China +if quiet and honest is as free as any man of his position elsewhere. + +This method of levying a land tax is most ingenious, and has existed +from time immemorial. The land is taxed, not proportionate to its +area, but to its productive capacity. Of two plots of equal area one +may produce a return from two bushels, while the other being poorer +soil will require wider sowing and take but one bushel. All seed must +be procured through the official, who levies an equal rate upon it. +The same idea governs the computation of distance. A road to the top +of a hill may be counted and carriage paid for ten li, the return +down hill being measured as five or six, it being assumed that the +muscular exertion and time are in both cases being paid for at the +same rate. + +There are, besides the seed tax, likin, or internal customs, levied on +transport of all commodities between districts, and various imposts +upon traders. When a man has amassed any wealth he is bled pretty +freely. Should a loan be requested it could only be refused at a risk +that he would not care to face, and any idea of its repayment is out +of the question. But should the demands exceed the bounds of custom +there is a check. The people of all classes know pretty well how far +the cord may be drawn before it breaks. Should the demands be +excessive the people put up their shutters, refusing to do any +business, and memorial the Throne. Should such a state of affairs +continue for any time even a viceroy would be recalled. Such a state +of affairs existed a few years ago in Canton over a proposal to +collect a new tax. The people resisted, and at length the viceroy +yielded. + +The principles on which the viceroy acts are adopted in a lesser +degree by all officials, but the people seem to understand the custom +and accept it, and in the ordinary business of life justice is on the +whole administered satisfactorily. + + [Illustration: SAMPANS.] + +There are, of course, exceptions. In the province of Kwangtung the +house of a well-to-do man living in the country was attacked by a +numerous band of armed robbers. The owner stoutly defended his house +and having killed three of the assailants the robbers decamped. But +this was not the end of it, for the indignant robbers lodged a +complaint with the magistrate, who summoned the owner of the assailed +house to appear, which he did with fear and trembling. He was obliged +to pay a hundred and fifty dollars before he was admitted to the +presence of the magistrate, who, instead of commending him for his +bravery, scolded him roundly, and ordered him to pay the funeral +expenses of the three dead robbers. The system of payments to +everybody connected with the court, from the judge downwards, would +appear to be destructive of every principle of justice; but a highly +educated Chinese official, who held the degree of a Scotch university +and who had experience of the colony of Hong Kong, when speaking on +the subject, declared that he would rather have a case tried in a +Chinese court than in a British, for while he knew what he would pay +in the first, in the colonial court the lawyers would not let him off +while he had a dollar to spend. + +When the territory of Kowloon was leased from China and added to the +colony of Hong Kong (after some armed resistance by the inhabitants, +who had been led to believe that with the change of the flag terrible +things would happen to them), local courts were established giving +summary jurisdiction to their head-men sitting with a British +magistrate, but a proviso was inserted that no lawyer or solicitor +should practise in these courts. The result was peaceful settlement of +disputes, generally by the arbitration of the British magistrate, at +the joint request of both parties to the dispute. + +The punishments inflicted in Chinese courts are severe, and sometimes +very terrible. The ordinary punishment for minor offences is the +cangue and the bastinado. The cangue is a three-inch board about three +feet square, with a hole in the centre for the neck. When this is +padlocked on the neck of the culprit he is placed outside the door of +the court, with his offence written upon the cangue, or is sometimes +allowed to walk through the town. In this position he cannot feed +himself, as his hands cannot reach his head, nor can he lie down or +rest in comfort. Sometimes the hands are fastened to the cangue. The +punishment is more severe than that of our old parish stocks, but the +idea is the same. Were it in the power of a troublesome fly to +irritate a Chinaman, which it is not, he might suffer grave discomfort +if the insects were active. + + [Illustration] + +The bastinado is a different matter. This is administered by placing +the prisoner on his face, his feet being held by one man and his head +by another. The blows are inflicted with a large bamboo or with two +small ones. The large bamboo looks more formidable, but though the +strokes are heavy they break no bones, and do but little injury. The +small bamboos are used in a different manner. Taking one in each hand, +the operator sits down and strikes the culprit rapidly with alternate +strokes, apparently mere taps. These are hardly felt for the first +fifty or sixty taps, and the skin is not broken; but after this phase +the flesh below the skin becomes regularly broken up, and the agony is +very great. The recovery from this severe punishment is slow, as the +tissues are destroyed for the time being. + +These are, however, the light punishments; torture for the purpose of +extracting evidence is still inflicted, and in pursuance of a custom +that down to a late period had acquired the force of a law, that no +person should be executed except he had confessed his crime, the +palpable difficulty of that apparently beneficent rule was surmounted +by the administration of torture, until the victim was reduced to such +a state of mutilation and despair that he was prepared to state +anything that would secure for him relief from his sufferings by a +speedy death. It must be acknowledged that the pressure of the torture +has now and again secured valuable evidence from unwilling witnesses +that may have been capable of independent proof, but as a rule such +evidence was utterly untrustworthy. + +The following story was told to me by a Chinese gentleman who had +personal knowledge of some of the persons concerned. + +A son and daughter of two wealthy families were married. At the +conclusion of the first evening's ceremonies the bride and bridegroom +retired to their apartments, which were separated from the main house. +Some time after they had retired, hearing a noise overhead, the +bridegroom got up and putting on his red bridal dress he lit a candle +and went up to the loft. Here he found a robber, who had entered +through a hole in the roof, and who, seeing himself detected, after a +short struggle plunged a knife into the bridegroom and killed him. He +then assumed the bridegroom's dress, and taking the candle in his hand +he boldly went down to the chamber where the bride awaited the return +of her husband. As Chinese brides do not see their husbands before +marriage, and as she was somewhat agitated, she did not perceive that +the robber was not her newly married spouse. He told her that he had +found that a robber had entered the house, but had made his escape on +his appearance. He then said that as there were robbers the bride had +better hand her jewels to him, and he would take them to his father's +apartments and place them in the safe. This she did, handing over +jewels to the value of several thousand taels. The robber walked out, +and he and the jewels disappeared. + + [Illustration] + +Early next morning the father of the bridegroom came to visit his son, +and on entering the apartment was told by the bride that she had not +seen her husband since he took the jewels to have them deposited in +safe keeping. The father on hearing the story went up to the loft, +where he found the dead body of his son. He searched about and in one +of the courtyards outside he found a strange shoe. + +For the wedding a number of the friends of the family had assembled +who were, as usual, accommodated in the house. Among them was a young +man, a B.A., and most respectably connected. The father taking the +strange shoe went round all the guests, who had just arisen. On +comparing the shoe he found that it belonged to the young B.A., who +was wearing its fellow, the other shoe being that of his murdered son. +The father was a cautious man, so instead of taking immediate action +he returned to the young widow and questioned her closely. He asked if +she could identify the man whom she had mistaken for her husband. She +said that she could not. He begged her to think if there was any mark +by which identification was possible, and after thinking for a time +she answered "Yes," that she now remembered having remarked that he +had lost a thumb. The father returned to the guest chamber and asked +the B.A. for explanation of his wearing the son's shoe, for which he +accounted by the statement that having occasion to go out during the +night he had stumbled in crossing one of the courtyards and lost his +shoe in the dark, and groping about had found and put on what he +thought was his own. Upon examining his hands he was found to be minus +a thumb. The father having no further doubt caused him to be forthwith +arrested and taken before the prefect. The young man denied all +knowledge of the murder, saying that he had a wife and child, was well +off, and was a friend of the murdered bridegroom. He was put to the +torture and under its pressure he confessed that he was the murderer. +The body had been examined and the extent of the wound carefully +measured and noted. Asked to say how he had disposed of the knife with +which the murder had been committed, and what had become of the +jewels, he professed his inability to say, though tortured to the last +extremity. He was then beheaded. His uncle, however, and his widow +would not believe in his guilt, and they presented to all the superior +authorities in turn petitions against the action of the prefect, who +ought not to have ordered the execution until corroborative proof of +the confession had been secured by the production of the knife and +the jewels, but the officials refused to listen to them. At length +they appealed to the viceroy, who, seeing their persistence, concluded +that there must be something in a belief that braved the gravest +punishment by petitioning against a mandarin of prefect rank. He sent +for the father and widow of the murdered man, who repeated the story, +which seemed almost conclusive evidence of the young man's guilt. He +asked the widow if she remembered from which hand the thumb was +missing of the robber to whom she had given the jewels. She replied, +"Yes, perfectly. It was the right." He then sent for the petitioning +widow and asked her from which hand her husband had lost a thumb. She +answered, "The left." Then recalling the father of the murdered man he +bade him try to recollect if he had ever known any other man wanting a +thumb. He said that there was such a man, a servant of his whom two +years before he had dismissed for misconduct. Asked if he had noticed +the dismissed man during the time of the wedding the answer was that +he had, but he had not seen him since. + + [Illustration] + +The viceroy then had inquiry made, and the man was traced to another +province, where he was living in affluence, with a good shop, etc. He +was arrested, and under torture confessed the crime and told where he +had concealed the knife and disposed of the jewels. The knife had a +wide blade that coincided with the width of the wound, and a portion +of the jewels were recovered, some having been pawned, some sold. The +prefect was degraded and punished for culpable want of due care in +having executed the man without securing complete proof by the +production of the knife and the jewels. + +The case is curious as showing the danger that lurks in all cases of +circumstantial evidence, and also, from a purely utilitarian point of +view, the failure and success of the system of torture. It will always +be to me a source of deep gratification that during my administration +of the government of Hong Kong, in the case of two murderers +surrendered from that colony and convicted after a fair trial and on +reliable evidence, I induced the then viceroy to break through the +immemorial custom, and have the criminals executed without the +previous application of torture, though they refused to confess to the +last. The precedent once made, this survival of barbarous times will +no longer operate in cases of culprits surrendered from under the +folds of the Union Jack, and awakening China may, I hope, in such +matters of criminal practice soon find herself in line with the other +civilized nations of the world, to the relief of cruel injustice and +much human suffering. + + [Illustration: CHOPSTICKS.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + + [Illustration] + + +In China the gradations of the social fabric as generally accepted are + + First.--The _literati_; for mind is superior to matter. + + Second.--The agriculturist; for he produces from the soil. + + Third.--The artisan; for he is a creator from the raw + material. + + Fourth.--The merchant; for he is a distributor. + + Fifth.--The soldier; for he is but a destroyer. + +However superficially logical this division is, the Chinese have +failed to realize that the army is an insurance and protection, +wanting which all other classes may be destroyed; but the fallacy has +had an unfortunate influence upon China, for until within a few years +the various so-called armies were simply hordes of undisciplined men, +whose officers were, as I have before said, sometimes robbers +reprieved on account of supposed courage and given command of +so-called soldiers. But this is now changed, and such armies as those +of Yuan Shi Kai and Chang Chi Tung (viceroy at Hankow) are well +disciplined and officered. This viceroy adopted an effective method of +combating the contempt with which the army was regarded by the +_literati_. He established a naval and agricultural college, and +colleges for the teaching of geography, history, and mathematics, and +formed all the students into a cadet corps. When I was in Hankow the +viceroy invited me to see his army of eight thousand men, who were +then on manoeuvres in the neighbourhood, and on my arrival I was +received by a guard of honour of one hundred of these cadets, whose +smart turn-out and soldierly appearance impressed me very favourably. +They were well clothed and well armed, as indeed were all the troops, +whom I had an opportunity of inspecting during the manoeuvres under +the guidance of a German captain in the viceroy's service, who was +told off to accompany me. I have no doubt that many of those cadets +are now officers, and will tend to raise the character of the army. + +The importance of agriculture is emphasized by the annual ceremony of +ploughing three furrows by the Emperor at the Temple of Agriculture in +the presence of all the princes and high officials of Peking. Furrows +are afterwards ploughed by the princes and the high officers of the +Crown. Agriculture is the business of probably nine-tenths of the +population, and in no country in the world is the fertility of the +soil preserved more thoroughly. In the portions of China visited by me +no idle land was to be seen, but everywhere the country smiled with +great fields of grain or rape or vegetables, alternating with +pollarded mulberry trees in the silk-producing districts, while +extensive tracts of the beautiful pink or white lotuses are grown, the +seeds of which as well as the tuberous roots are used for food and the +large leaves for wrappers. Nothing in the shape of manure is lost in +city, town, or village; everything goes at once back to the fields, +and nowhere in China is a river polluted by the wasted wealth of city +sewers. On the banks of the canals the cultivators even dredge up the +mud and distribute it over their fields by various ingenious devices. + +The rural population is arranged in village communities, each village +having its own head-man and elders, to whom great respect is shown. +Sometimes there is a feud between two villages over disputed +boundaries or smaller matters, in which case, if the elders cannot +arrange matters, the quarrel may develop into a fight in which many +lives are lost. Nobody interferes and the matter is settled _vi et +armis_. + + [Illustration] + +But this absence of local government control has its drawbacks; for +as sugar attracts ants, so unprotected wealth attracts robbers, and +gang robberies are frequent, generally by armed men, who do not +hesitate to add murder to robbery. Nor are these attacks confined to +distant rural districts. Only a few months ago an attack was made upon +a strongly built and fortified country house belonging to one of the +wealthiest silk merchants in Canton, who had specially designed and +built the house to resist attack, and had armed his retainers with +repeating rifles. Twenty-five boats, containing about three hundred +men, came up the river, and an attack was made at six p.m. that lasted +for seven hours. At length the fortified door was blown in by dynamite +and the house taken. Eighty thousand dollars' worth of valuables was +carried off, and the owner and his two sons were carried away for +ransom. Several of the retainers were killed and thirteen of the +robbers. + +The country people are very superstitious and dislike extremely any +building or work that overlooks the villages, as they say that it has +an unlucky effect upon their _fung sui_, a term that means literally +wind and water, but may be translated freely as elemental forces. This +superstitious feeling sometimes creates difficulty with engineers and +others laying out railways or other works. The feeling is kept alive +by the geomancers, whose mysterious business it is to discover and +point out lucky positions for family graves, a body of an important +person sometimes remaining unburied for years pending definite advice +from the geomancer as to the best position for the grave, which is +always made on a hill-side. They also arrange the lucky days for +marriages, etc. When the telegraph was being laid between Hong Kong +and Canton, the villagers at one point protested loudly against the +erection of a pole in a particular position, as they were informed +that it would interfere with the _fung sui_ of the village. The +engineer in charge, who fortunately knew his Chinese, did not attempt +to oppose them; but taking out his binoculars he looked closely at the +ground and said, "You are right; I am glad the geomancer pointed that +out. It is not a favourable place." Then again apparently using the +glasses, he examined long and carefully various points at which he had +no intention of placing the pole. At length he came to a spot about +twenty yards away, which suited him as well as the first, when after a +lengthened examination he said, with an audible sigh of deep relief, +"I am glad to find that this place is all right," and the pole was +erected without further objection. + +While gang robberies are frequent, there is not much petty theft, as +in small towns the people appoint a local policeman, who is employed +under a guarantee that if anything is stolen he pays the damage. In +small matters this is effective. + + [Illustration] + +The necessity for making villages secure against ordinary attack is +palpable, and many villages in country districts are surrounded by +high walls that secure them from such attack. In some, guns of ancient +pattern are mounted on the walls. + +The prosperity of a town is shown by the number of pawnshops, which +are always high towers solidly built and strongly fortified. The +Chinese pawnshop differs from those of Western nations, as it is not +merely a place for the advance of money upon goods deposited, but also +the receptacle for all spare valuables. Few Chinese keep their winter +clothing at home during summer, or vice versa. When the season changes +the appropriate clothing is released, and that to be put by pawned in +its place. This arrangement secures safe keeping, and if any balance +remains in hand it is turned over commercially before the recurring +season demands its use for the release of the pawned attire. Sometimes +very valuable pieces of jewellery or porcelain remain on the hands of +the pawnshop keeper, and interesting objects may from time to time be +procurable from his store. + +Next to agriculture in general importance is the fishing industry, in +which many millions of the population are engaged, the river boat +population forming a class apart, whose home is exclusively upon their +boats. To describe the variety of boats of all kinds found in Chinese +waters would require a volume. The tens of thousands of junks engaged +in the coasting trade and on the great rivers vary from five to five +hundred tons capacity, while every town upon ocean river or canal has +its house boats, flower boats, or floating restaurants and music +halls, passenger boats, fishing boats, trading boats, etc. On these +boats the family lives from the cradle to the grave, and while the +mother is working the infant may be seen sprawling about the boat, to +which it is attached by a strong cord, while a gourd is tied to its +back, so that if it goes overboard it may be kept afloat until +retrieved by the anchoring cord. In Hong Kong, where it is computed +that there are about thirty thousand boat people in the harbour, the +infant is strapped to the mother's back while she sculls the boat, the +child's head--unprotected in the blazing sun--wagging from side to +side until one wonders that it does not fly off. + + [Illustration] + +The large junks, with their great high sterns and bold curves, and +with the setting sun glinting on their yellow sails of matting, are a +sight to stir the soul of an artist. Many of these carry guns, as the +dangers of gang robberies on shore are equalled by that of piracy on +sea or river, the West River having the most evil reputation in this +respect. The unwillingness of junks to carry lights at night, lest +their position should invite piratical attack, adds to the dangers of +collision, and necessitates extreme caution after sunset in navigating +the southern coasts of China. These junks convey all the cargo from +the coast and riverside towns to the treaty ports, through which all +trade between China and foreign nations is exchanged. The high square +stern affords accommodation for the crew, but no man dares to +desecrate the bow by sitting down there. On one occasion when we went +by canal to Hangchow we stopped at Haining to observe the incoming of +the great bore that at the vernal equinox sweeps up the river from the +bay, and affords one of the most striking sights in the world. While +preparing to measure the height of the wave by fixing a marked pole to +the bow of a junk lying high and dry alongside, which was most civilly +permitted by the junkowner, one of the gentlemen sat down on the bow, +upon which the junkowner tore him away in a fury of passion and made +violent signs to him to leave the ship. Our interpreter coming up at +the moment heard from the irate junkman what had occurred. He pointed +out that the bow was sacred to his guardian deity, and such an insult +as sitting down on the place where his incense sticks were daily burnt +was sure to bring bad luck, if not destruction. Explanations and +apologies on the score of ignorance followed, and a coin completed the +reconciliation. The origin of touching the cap to the quarter-deck on +our ships originated in the same idea, the crucifix being carried at +the stem in the brave days of old. + + [Illustration: ON THE WAY TO MARKET.] + +The great wave or bore that I have just mentioned formed about six +miles out in the bay, and we heard the roar and saw the advancing wall +of water ten minutes before it arrived. The curling wave in front was +about ten feet high and swept past at the rate of fourteen miles an +hour, but the vast mass of swirling sea that rose behind the advancing +wall was a sight more grand than the rapids above Niagara. I measured +accurately its velocity and height. In one minute the tide rose nine +feet nine inches on the sea wall that runs northward from Haining for +a hundred miles. It is seventeen feet high, splendidly built with cut +stone, and with the heavy stones on top (four feet by one foot) +dovetailed to each other by iron clamps, similar to those I afterwards +saw at the end of the great wall of China, where it abuts on the sea +at Shan-hai-kwan. + + [Illustration] + +If the land is thoroughly cultivated the same may be said of the +waters, for in sea, river, lake, or pond, wherever water rests or +flows, there is no device that ingenuity can conceive that is not used +for the capture of fish, which enters largely into the food of the +people; and no cultivation is more intensive than pisciculture, a +fishpond being more valuable than ten times its area of cultivated +land. Sometimes the pond belongs to a village, and nothing comes amiss +that may serve to feed the fish, from the grass round the borders of +the pond to the droppings of the silkworms in silk-producing +districts. In such cases the village latrine is generally built over +the pond; it may, therefore, be understood that Europeans generally +eschew the coarse pond fish and prefer fresh or salt sea fish. These +pond fish grow very rapidly, and are taken by nets of all shapes and +sizes. Sometimes a net forty feet square is suspended from bamboo +shears and worked by ropes and pulleys, the net being lowered and +after a short time, during which fish may be driven towards it, slowly +raised, the fish remaining in the net, the edges of which leave the +waters first. In ponds of large area forty or fifty men may be seen, +each with a net twelve to fifteen feet square suspended from a bamboo +pole, all fishing at the same time. The entire pond is gone over, and +as the fish are kept on the move large numbers are thus taken. They +are then if near a river placed in well boats and sent alive to +market. During the summer months the bays around the coast are covered +by thousands of these large square nets. A net sometimes eighty feet +square is fastened at each corner to poles, long in proportion to the +depth of the water, the other ends of which are anchored by heavy +weights. The men who work the nets live in a hut built upon long poles +similarly weighted, and securely stayed by cables anchored at the four +cardinal points of the compass. From the hut platform the net is +manipulated by a bridle rope worked by a windlass. When the net is +raised the fish fall into a purse in the centre, from which they are +removed by men who row under the now suspended net and allow the fish +to drop from the purse into the boat. These nets are set up sometimes +in nine to ten fathoms. I have never seen them used in any other bays +than those on the coast of China, where, it may be observed +incidentally, there is hardly any perceptible growth of seaweed, and +one never perceives the smell of the sea or feels the smack of salt +upon the lips, as we do on our coasts. + + [Illustration] + +I have said that the devices for the capture of fish are endless, from +the large nets just described to the small fish trap set in every +trench or gap through which water flows. But they do not end here, for +about Ichang, on the Yangtze, otters are trained to drive fish into +the nets; and on the lakes and canals a not unusual sight is a boat or +raft with eight cormorants, who at the word of command go overboard +and dive in pursuit of the fish. Sometimes the bird is recalcitrant, +but a few smart strokes on the water close beside it with a long +bamboo sends the bird under at once. When a fish is caught and +swallowed the cormorant is taken on board and being held over a basket +the lower mandible is drawn down, when out pops the fish uninjured, +the cormorant being prevented from swallowing its prey by a cord tied +round the lower part of the neck. + +But the most curious device for the capture of fish is practised on +the Pearl and West Rivers, where one sees poor lepers seated in the +stern of a long narrow canoe along the side of which is a hinged board +painted white. This they turn over the side at an angle during the +night, and the fish jumping on to it are dexterously jerked into the +boat. In the Norwegian fjords, baskets are sometimes hung or nets +fastened under the splashes of whitewash marking the position of rings +let into the rocky cliff where the yachts may tie up in an adverse +wind. The fish jumping at the white mark, which possibly they mistake +for a waterfall, are caught in the net or basket suspended below. + + [Illustration] + +The boat population of the inland waters are liable to the same +dangers from armed robbery as are their brothers on land, for the +river pirates are a constant source of trouble. Even the large river +steamers of the American pattern plying on the West River under the +command of European officers are not always safe, though great +precautions are taken, as the robbers sometimes embark as passengers +if they know of any specie or valuables being on board, and at a +given point produce revolvers and hold up the captain and crew, +carrying off their booty in a confederate boat. On this account +launches are not permitted to tow lighters with passengers alongside +lest they should step on board, and in all large steamers the lower +deck used by Chinese is separated from the upper by a companion-way +with iron railings and locked door, or with an armed sentry standing +beside it. About six years ago two stern-wheel passenger boats left +Hong Kong for the West River one evening, to enter which the course +was usedly laid north of Lintin, an island in the estuary of the Pearl +River. The leading boat number one for some reason took a course to +the south of Lintin, whereupon the captain of number two came to the +conclusion that she was being pirated, so changing his course and +blowing his whistle loudly he pressed on with a full head of steam and +opened fire upon number one with rifles. Number one returned the fire, +assuming that number two had been pirated and was attacking him. He +steered back to Hong Kong and made a running fight, a hot fire being +maintained until the boats had actually entered the harbour, when they +were met by a police launch and the mistake was discovered. Over three +hundred shots were fired, but happily nobody was hit. It is not a year +since a train of seven or eight house-boats, full of passengers and +towed by a steam launch that plies between Hangchow and Suchow on the +Grand Canal, was held up by river pirates, who rifled the train as +American trains are now and again held up in the Western States of +America. These evidences of lawlessness are only the natural +consequences of the neglect of the primary duty of a government to +make effective police arrangements for the due protection of life and +property, for Chinese under proper control are naturally law-abiding +and peaceable. The Chinese system does not contemplate any police +arrangements outside the principal cities. The small village +communities arrange their own police, but there is no official means +of combating the more serious offences short of a military expedition. +The salutary principle of prevention is ignored and the fitful efforts +of government devoted to punishment. This system doubtless acts as a +deterrent when the punishment follows the crime so frequently as to +impress upon evildoers the sense of its probability. Therefore it is +that a strong viceroy makes a quiet province. When pointing out to Li +Hung Chang the advisability of controlling a town well known as a +headquarters of pirates, his Excellency answered quietly, "We will +exterminate them." He ruled the province of the two Kwangs with a rod +of iron, and left Canton to the profound regret of every man who had +property exposed to attack. + + [Illustration] + +Li Hung Chang was the most able of the many able officials of China. +He was supposed to have had strong Russian sympathies, but had he been +in Tientsin or Peking instead of Canton when the Boxer trouble was +brewing, it is probable that the dangerous conspiracy would never have +been allowed to come to a head. The viceroys at Nanking and Hankow +maintained peace in their provinces, though the "big knife" movement +had its origin in their districts, and Li Hung Chang was as strong a +man as either, or stronger. When he left Canton to try to reach Peking +it was too late, and the issue had been joined between the Chinese +Court and the foreign Powers. He would have done better had he +remained in the turbulent southern province that he had ruled so +sternly and efficiently. Dangerous as was the Boxer movement, it +showed clearly the want of cohesion between the different portions of +the Chinese empire. When the trouble broke out in the north, there +were a large number of Cantonese students at Tientsin College, whose +lives were as unsafe as if they were foreigners. Some Chinese +gentlemen waited upon me on the subject. They were in great distress, +as they had no means of getting their sons away. They begged me to +endeavour to get the young men sent down by the British Consul, and +undertook to pay any amount up to ten thousand dollars for the expense +of chartering a ship. I telegraphed, guaranteeing the amount, to the +British Consul, who kindly chartered a ship for the transit of the +young men. The bill of over nine thousand dollars was at once paid by +the Chinese gentlemen who had requested my good offices. + +The fact is that between different provinces, speaking different +patois, there exists in many cases a settled antipathy that has been +handed down from the feuds and wars of bygone centuries. To this day +the junks from Swatow land their cargoes in Hong Kong at a wharf where +Swatow coolies are employed; did they land it at a wharf worked by +Cantonese, there would certainly be disorder, and possibly fighting, +before the discharge of the cargo. + +The traveller in China is impressed with the vastness of its extent, +the fertility of its various countries, the grandeur of its rivers, +the beauty and boldness of its bridges, the strength of its city +walls, the contrast of wealth and squalor in the cities, the untiring +industry of the people. A more detailed knowledge compels admiration +for their proficiency in arts and crafts. + + [Illustration: A GRANDFATHER.] + +A journey up the West River leads through the gorges, which gives one +an idea of the teeming life of the Chinese water world. The West River +is, next to the Yangtze, the one most often coming under the notice of +foreigners, for the river is the principal scene of piratical attacks. +Indeed, no native boat known to have valuable property on board was, +some years ago, safe from attack if it did not pay blackmail, and +carry a small flag indicating that it had done so. Perhaps the most +curious craft on the river is the stern-wheel boats, worked by man +power. Sixteen coolies work the wheel after the manner of a treadmill, +four more standing by as a relief. The work is very hard, and coolies +engaged in this occupation do not live long; but in China that is a +consideration that does not count, either with workman or master. +Rafts float slowly down the yellow waters of the broad river-rafts +three to four hundred yards long, with the "navigators" comfortably +encamped; great junks, with their most picturesque fan-shaped sails; +at every town a crowd of "slipper" boats, as sampans are called, which +have a movable hood over the forepart, under which passengers sit. At +Sam-shui, the principal station of the Imperial Customs in the river, +a dragon-boat shoots out with twelve men. In it are carried a large +red umbrella and a green flag, the umbrella being a symbol of honour, +while around the sides are painted the honorific titles of the owner +or person to whom it is dedicated. From here comes the matting made at +Taiking that is sold by retail at ten dollars for a roll of forty +yards. + +Beyond Kwongli Island the gorges begin, through which the West River +debouches on the plains on its journey to the sea. From the island one +hundred and fifty acute sugar-loaf summits can be counted, and the +tortuous gorges wind past a succession of steep valleys that must have +been scored out when the mountain range was upheaved at a period of +very great torrential rains. + +Above the gorges the old town of Sui-hing is rather featureless, but +is a landing-place for the Buddhist monasteries, built at various +elevations on the precipitous sides of seven masses of white marble +rising from the plain and called the Seven Stars. These old +monasteries here and elsewhere are marvellously picturesque, perched +as they usually are in situations that can only be reached by steep +climbing. The temple is at the base of the cliff, and contains fine +bronze figures of Kunyam, the goddess of mercy, with two guardians in +bronze at her side. The figures are about ten feet high, and are +supposed to be over one thousand years old. There is also a bronze +bell said to be of still older date. + +Through a great cave and up marble steps the marble temple is +approached in which is a seated figure of the Queen of Heaven. The +sculptured figure, like the temple itself, is hewn from the solid +rock, the statue of the Queen of Heaven being in a shrine close by an +opening through which the light strikes upon the well carved statue +and drapery of white marble with a fine effect. The country round the +Seven Stars is perfectly flat, and devoted to the growth of rice, +fish, and lotus plants. In a large pond beneath the temple a water +buffalo is feeding on the floating leaves of lilies, while its calf +calmly swims beside the mother, now and again resting its head upon +her quarter. One realizes how large a part the water buffalo plays in +Chinese economy, for without it the cultivation of rice would be +seriously curtailed. The buffalo ploughs the inundated field, wading +in the mud literally up to its belly, when no other animal could draw +the primitive plough through the deep mud. In the town of Sui-hing +excellent pewter work is made, and here also are fashioned various +articles from the white marble of the Seven Stars, the carving of +which shows excellent workmanship. + + [Illustration] + +West of Sui-hing lies the city of Wuchow, where the Fu-ho River joins +the West River. Once a suspension bridge existed over the Fu-ho, and +two cast-iron pillars about nine feet high and twelve inches in +diameter are still standing, and have stood for several centuries. The +pillars have both been welded at about four feet from the ground. I do +not know if cast-iron can now be welded; if not, it is a lost art that +certainly was known to the Chinese. + +Below Wuchow, on the right bank of the river, is a district that will +one day attract the big game sportsman. Here the tigers are so +plentiful and so dangerous that the inhabitants do not dare to leave +their homes after four or five o'clock in the afternoon. Farther down, +on the left bank, is one of the most important Buddhist monasteries in +China--Howlick--which accommodates about two hundred monks, and can +take in an equal number of guests, who at certain seasons retire to +the monastery for rest and reflection. It is situated about two miles +from the river at an elevation of fifteen hundred feet. Approached by +a steep pathway, at the entrance of which stand or sit two grey-robed +monks armed with spears so as to be able to repel bad characters, and +which as it approaches the monastery is formed into long flights of +steps, Howlick is built upon a terraced plateau in the midst of +primeval forest and close by a most picturesque gorge. The monastery +is the resort of a large number of pilgrims, and Buddhist services +take place daily in the temple, which, unlike most temples in China, +is perfectly clean and well appointed. When I visited it the service +was being intoned in strophe and antistrophe, the chanters at each +recurrent verse kneeling and touching the ground with their foreheads. +The only accompaniment was drums and gongs, the time being marked by +tapping a wooden drum of the Buddhist shape, but all was very subdued. +One monk played two or three gongs of different sizes, one being only +about six inches in diameter. The two long tables on which the books +of the readers were placed were loaded with cakes and fruit. The +fronts were hung with rich embroideries. Such a service is paid for by +the pilgrims, who receive the food placed upon the tables and +distribute it to their friends. + +I had subsequently a long conversation with the abbot, who was most +kind and hospitable. He said the monks had their own ritual, and so +far as I could see Howlick is an independent community. In the +monastery were many shrines, at each of which was a regular sale of +sticks, beads, etc., in which a roaring trade was being done by the +monks. In the lower reception room was a number of women, who +purchased prayers written by a monk while they waited. For each prayer +they paid from sixty cents to a dollar. + +The difference in the level of the West River in the wet and dry +seasons is about forty feet in its narrow parts. As the waters recede +a considerable amount of land is left on the banks available for +cultivation and enriched by the deposit from the heavily laden flood +waters. These river borders are not allowed to lie idle, for as the +river recedes they are carefully cultivated, and crops of vegetables +and mulberry leaves taken off before the next rising of the waters. +The river banks are then a scene of great activity. In the district +about Kumchuk, in which sericulture is a considerable industry, the +banks of the river are all planted with mulberry, which ratoons +annually and bears three crops of leaves, at each stripping six or +seven leaves being left at the top. The worms are fed at first on +finely shredded leaves, which have to be changed at least twice daily, +the minute young worms being removed to the fresh leaves with the end +of a feather. The worms begin to spin in thirty-seven days and +continue spinning for seven days. Along the river are many apparently +wealthy towns, some showing by a perfect forest of poles like masts +with inverted pyramids near the top that a large number of the +inhabitants had successfully passed the examinations and received +degrees, which entitled them to raise these poles as an honorific +distinction before their houses. All mandarins have two such poles +erected in front of their yamens. + + [Illustration] + +The West River is at present the principal approach to the province +of Yunnan, from which province and from the western portions of +Kwangsi a large cattle trade is water-borne to Canton and Hong Kong. +From time to time these supplies are intercepted by the river pirates, +who sometimes meet their deserts. On one occasion the inhabitants of a +certain town, incensed at the murder of one of their people, turned +out _en masse_ and followed the piratical boat down the river, firing +upon her until every one of the robber gang was killed. + + [Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + [Illustration] + + +The West River sinks into insignificance when compared with the +Yangtze, the great river over which is carried the greater portion of +the commerce of China. From Wusung, the port of Shanghai, to +Hankow--six hundred miles inland--battleships can be navigated, and +some direct foreign trade is carried on by the cities upon its banks, +though Shanghai is the great centre of foreign trade for all the +Yangtze region. The history of the Yangtze is given annually by that +most complete and interesting epitome of statistical knowledge--the +returns of trade and trade reports by the various Commissioners of the +Imperial Maritime Customs. Here everything is dealt with that bears +upon the general condition of the country, and one can read at a +glance the causes of fluctuations in supply, demand, and prices. In +one report we read that production was interfered with by rebellion +following a drought. The insurgents, to the number of ten thousand, +had armed themselves with hollowed trees for guns, and jingals as well +as swords and spears. In the first encounters the insurgents got the +better of the Government "troops," who were probably of the ancient +type, but on the appearance of two thousand foreign drilled troops +they were dispersed. The hollowed trees that did duty for guns was a +device not uncommon in old China. The same substitute for cast-iron +was tried by the Philippine insurgents in the uprising against Spain; +but they had taken the precaution of adding iron rings. They had also +large numbers of wooden imitations of Snider rifles, beautifully made, +that must have looked formidable, so long as no pretence was made to +shoot. The jingal is still in common use in remote districts in China, +and was used against our troops in the slight engagements that took +place when, under agreement with the Imperial Chinese Government, we +proceeded to take over the leased territory of Kowloon. It is a +matchlock, the barrel being ten feet long and the bore one inch. In +the event of the spherical ball finding its billet, the wound would be +of no light matter; but the chances in favour of the target are many, +for the jingal requires three men for its manipulation, two of whom +act as supports for the barrel, which rests on their shoulders, while +the third primes the pan and manipulates the match. When the gun is +fired, and the crew of three recover from the shock, it is carried to +the rear for reloading, an operation that cannot be performed in a +hurry. In the event of a rapid retreat the jingal remains to become +the spoil of the captor. At short range, and used against a crowd, a +number of jingals would probably be effective, and would present a +formidable appearance; but the heroic days of short ranges, waving +flags, cheering masses, and flashing steel have passed, and the +trained soldier of to-day looks to his sights and to his cover. + + [Illustration: A SUMMER HOUSE.] + + [Illustration] + +If one could follow the ramifications of our trade through the coast +ports and rivers and creeks of China, the various products of cotton +and velvets, woollen goods, copper, iron, tinned plates, cement, dyes, +machinery, oil, railway materials, pepper, sugar, and tea dust, with a +host of other things, what an immense mass of useful and interesting +information one would acquire. From the ship to the junk, from the +junk to the boat, from the boat to the wheelbarrow, or the mule, and, +lastly, to the toiling coolie, who alone can negotiate the dizzy paths +of the more remote villages, or the frail means of transport over the +raging torrents of the mountain districts. I have said that seaweed is +almost unknown on the Chinese coast, and, curiously enough, seaweed +is imported in considerable quantities, being used as a food, as in +Ireland. The rock seaweed (called dillisk) and carrageen moss are +used. For these imports are exchanged a long list of commodities, +including eggs, hides (cow and buffalo), skins of all animals (from +ass to weazel), silk, tea, tobacco, wood, sesamum, and opium, the +latter, mainly from the provinces of Shensi, Szechwan, and Yunnan, +being among the most important of the exports. I find on looking over +the annual returns of trade for the Yangtze ports for 1906, that the +imports of opium for the year amounted to sixty-two thousand one +hundred and sixty-one piculs, while the quantity exported amounted to +six hundred and forty-three thousand three hundred and seventy-seven +piculs. It would be interesting to know if the arrangement entered +into by the British Government, that the export of opium from India +shall diminish by one-tenth annually until it has ceased, is +reciprocal, in so far that not alone shall the exports of the drug +from China be diminished in the same proportion, but the area under +poppy cultivation be similarly controlled. If no such arrangement has +been made, China will have once more demonstrated her astuteness in +dealing with unconsidered outbursts of European sentiment. The +statements made from time to time by anti-opium enthusiasts have been +made in all sincerity, and generally with a desire to approach +accuracy as nearly as possible; but, nevertheless, they are merely +general statements, made under no authority of reliable statistics, +and not seldom unconsciously coloured by an intense desire to +emphasize an evil that they consider it impossible to exaggerate. But +while it would be extremely difficult to examine systematically into +the actual state of opium consumption and its effects upon the +population as regards moral degradation and physical deterioration in +any Chinese district, these inquiries have been made and reliable +statistics obtained in Hong Kong and Singapore, and calculations based +on the known consumption of opium in China have been made by competent +persons, the result being to show that the statements so loosely made +as to the destructive effects of opium-smoking in moderation are not +borne out on close examination. My own observation of the Chinese in +Hong Kong--a practically Chinese city where every man was free to +smoke as much opium as he could afford to purchase--tallies with the +conclusion of the exhaustive inquiries since undertaken by order of +the home Government. The mass of the Chinese population are very poor, +and can support themselves and their families only by incessant +labour. When the day's work is done, the coolie who indulges in +opium--a very small percentage of the whole--goes to an opium shop, +where, purchasing a small quantity of the drug, he retires to a bench +or couch, sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend, in which case they +lie down on either side of a small lamp and proceed to enjoy their +smoke, chatting the while. The pipe is a peculiar shape, looking +like an apple with a small hole scooped in it, and stuck on the +mouth orifice of a flute. Taking with a long pin looking like a +knitting-needle a small quantity (about the size of a pea) of the +viscous-prepared opium from the box in which it is sold, the +smoker roasts it over the flame of the small lamp until it is of a +consistency fit to be placed in the bowl of the pipe, on the outer +portion of which the pellet has been kneaded during the heating +process. Then placing the bowl to the flame, two or three deep whiffs +are taken and swallowed, which exhausts the pellet, when the bowl is +cleared out and the process repeated until a state of dreamy slumber +or complete torpor is reached, on awaking from which the smoker leaves +the place. + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + +When one remembers the exhausting nature of coolies' work in a seaport +town it is clear that if opium were smoked to excess the results would +be apparent in opium-sodden loafers and beggars; but the contrary is +the case, for in no town on earth is the population more efficient and +industrious. + +A valuable report has lately been issued by the Commission appointed +by the governor, to whom the following questions were referred. + +(1) The extent to which excessive indulgence in the smoking of opium +prevails in the Straits Settlements. + +(2) Whether the smoking of opium + + (a) in moderation + (b) in excess + +has increased in the said Settlements. + +(3) The steps that should be taken ... to eradicate the evils arising +from the smoking of opium in the said Settlements. + +The Commission included a bishop, three members of the Legislative +Council, including the Chinese member, and three independent +gentlemen. They examined seventy-five witnesses, including every class +in the population, twenty-one of whom were nominated by the anti-opium +societies, and presented a report of three hundred and forty-three +paragraphs, from which I cull the following excerpts. + + Par. 76. We are firmly convinced that the main reason for + taking to the habit of smoking opium is the expression + among the Chinese of the universal tendency of human nature + to some form of indulgence. + + Par. 77. The lack of home comforts, the strenuousness of + their labour, the severance from family association, and + the absence of any form of healthy relaxation in the case + of the working classes in Malaya, predispose them to a form + of indulgence which, both from its sedative effects and in + the restful position in which it must be practised, appeals + most strongly to the Chinese temperament. + + Par. 91. In the course of the inquiry it has transpired + that life insurance companies with considerable experience + of the insurance of Chinese lives are willing, _ceteris + paribus_, to accept as first-class risks Chinese who smoke + two chees (116 grains) of chandu a day, an amount that is + by no means within the range of light smoking, and we are + informed that these insurance companies are justified in + taking these risks. It appears therefore that, in the view + of those remarkably well qualified to judge, the opium + habit has little or no effect on the duration of life, and + there is no evidence before us which would justify our + acceptance of the contrary view. + + Par. 96. We consider that the tendency of the evidence + supports us in the opinion we have formed, as the result of + our investigations, that the evils arising from the use of + opium are usually the subject of exaggeration. In the + course of the evidence it has been pointed out to us that + it is difficult even for a medical man to detect the + moderate smoker, and it is improbable that the moderate + smoker would obtrude himself upon the attention of + philanthropists on whose notice bad cases thrust + themselves. The tendency of philanthropists to give undue + prominence to such bad cases, and to generalize from the + observation of them, is undoubtedly a great factor in + attributing to the use of opium more widely extended evils + than really exist. + + Par. 106. The paralysis of the will that is alleged to + result from opium-smoking we do not regard as proved, many + smokers of considerable quantities are successful in + business, and there is no proof that smokers cannot fill + positions of considerable responsibility with credit and + reliability. + + [Illustration] + +Referring to statements made that the dose must inevitably be +constantly increased, the report observes as follows in + + Par. 112. We have, further, evidence given in many concrete + cases that the dose has not been increased during + considerable periods, and we have the remarkable absence of + pauperism that should be strikingly prevalent if the + theories mentioned above were reasonably applicable to + local indulgence in opium. + +On the question of enforcing prohibitive legislation, the report +observes in + + Par. 133. The poppy is at present cultivated in India, + China, Turkey, and Persia, and it may, we consider, be + assumed that short of universal suppression of the + cultivation effectively carried out, prohibition in one + would lead to extended cultivation in others. + +The report goes on to deal with the substitution of morphia for opium +as demanding the gravest consideration, its effects being infinitely +more deleterious than the smoking of opium. + +It will be interesting to see how the International Commission that +has recently met at Shanghai has dealt with the question. The Imperial +Chinese Government has issued drastic regulations, and an Imperial +edict has decreed that the growing of the poppy and the smoking of +opium shall cease; but the people of China have a way of regarding +Imperial edicts that clash with their customs as pious aspirations. If +it succeeds, it will have effected a change more complete than any +that has taken place since the adoption of the shaved head and the +queue at the command of the Manchu conquerors. + + [Illustration: A QUIET GAME OF DRAUGHTS.] + + [Illustration] + +The proportion of the volume of trade under the various foreign flags +shows of late years a considerable diminution of our trade and an +increase of that carried in German bottoms; but this difference in the +supply of commodities, while it shows a loss to our shipping, is more +apparent than real as regards the commodities themselves. For the last +half century or more a large quantity of cotton and other goods +ordered through British houses was procured in Germany and shipped +from English ports. But with the passing of the Merchandise Marks Act, +a change was soon observed. When the astute Chinese trader saw printed +upon his cotton cloth the advertisement that it was made in Germany, +he asked the German Consul about it, and concluded that it would be +better business to order it from the maker direct, which he did. The +equally astute German arrived at the conclusion that as this large +direct trade had developed it would be well to build the ships to +carry it under its own flag, and save the transport and turnover in +England. The result was a great increase of German shipping to the +East, and with the increase of German argosies came the proposal, as a +natural sequence, that a German navy should be created to ensure +their protection. Thus the Act that was hailed with such appreciation +became the greatest and most valuable advertisement ever given by one +nation to another, and German technical knowledge, thoroughness, and +business capacity have taken full advantage of the situation. Ten +years ago the German flag in Hong Kong harbour was comparatively +infrequent. To-day the steamers of Germany frequently outnumber our +own in that great port. + +The life of town and country is more sharply divided in China than in +Europe, for the absence of local protection drives all wealthy men to +the security of the walled towns and cities. The aspect of all the +great cities south of the Yangtze is pretty much the same, and there +is not much difference in the life of the communities. The cities are +encircled by walls about twenty-five feet high and from fifteen to +twenty feet on top, with square towers at intervals, and great +gateways at the four cardinal points. The north gate at Hangchow, at +the extremity of the Grand Canal, is the most beautiful that I have +seen in China. Eight stone monoliths supported an elaborate structure +of three stories narrowing to the summit that was finished by a +boat-shaped structure with ornamental ends and a curved roof. Every +portion of the great structure of stone was beautifully carved, the +upper portions being perforated. The carved work was exquisite, +figures standing in bold relief, and flowers and foliage being +undercut so that a stick could have been passed behind them. The walls +of Nanking and Suchow are each thirty-six miles in circumference, but +within the walls are large areas that have probably never been built +over. The vacant spaces may always have been used for agricultural +purposes, the crops enabling the inhabitants to withstand a siege. +Many of the splendid buildings of these old cities have disappeared or +are now in ruins, but here and there the tiled roofs, beautiful in +their curved design and brilliant glaze of green or yellow enamel, +remain to testify to the innate artistic feeling of the Chinese +people. The Ming tombs at Nanking, with the mile-long approach through +a double row of elephants, camels, chitons, horses, etc., each ten and +a half feet high and carved from a single block, are monuments that, +unlike the great bronze astronomical instruments that erstwhile +adorned the walls of Peking, no conquering host could carry away. On +the back of each of the elephants is a heap of stones, every Chinese +who passes feeling it a religious duty to wish, generally either for +wealth or a son, when he casts up a stone. If it remains, the answer +is favourable; if not, he continues his course in sadness, but not +without hope. The porcelain tower of Nanking has disappeared, but the +bronze summit, fifteen feet in diameter, remains on its site. + +Inside the city walls the streets are narrow and sometimes filthy. +Smells abound, but Chinese are apparently oblivious to what we +consider offensive smells; and from a hygienic point of view it is +certain that foul smells are better than sewer-gas, which, though it +cannot be characterized as dirt, is decidedly matter in the wrong +place. + + [Illustration] + +Peking is unlike any of the southern cities. Its streets are wide, and +the mixture of peoples from the north gives variety and colour to the +street scenes. Here one meets long strings of laden camels bearing +their burdens from Mongolia, and issuing grumbling protests as they +follow the bell of their leader. Peking carts with richly ornamented +wheels but no springs ply over the raised centre of the broad but +filthy streets, the mud of winter and the dust of summer assuaging the +jolting of the picturesque but uncomfortable vehicles. Sometimes in +the carts are richly apparelled ladies, who are attended by mounted +servants. Now and again may be seen immense funeral biers bright with +red lacquer and gilding, and resting upon a platform of bamboos large +enough to admit from twenty to fifty or sixty bearers. Should the +funeral be that of a high official, as many as a hundred bearers are +sometimes engaged. This is a form of ostentation impossible in the +narrow streets of the southern cities. Peking is really four cities +within the immense outer walls, which are fifty feet high and +probably thirty or forty feet broad on top. On the portion of the wall +commanding the legations some of the hardest fighting of the siege +took place. The Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Agriculture are +situated to the right and left of the south gate of the outer wall. +Each temple stands in a park, and in the one the Emperor on the first +day of the Chinese New Year offers a sacrifice on the great white +marble terrace, and prays for blessings upon all his people, while in +the Temple of Agriculture the Emperor, attended by all the great +officials, attends on the first day of spring for the performance of +the ceremonies, as laid down by ancient custom. This ceremony in +honour of the opening of spring is one of the principal functions of +the year. The Emperor, with all the Court, attends at the Temple of +Agriculture in state to plough a furrow. The buffalo that draws the +plough is decorated with roses and other flowers, and the plough is +covered with silk of the Imperial yellow. The ground has been +carefully softened, and a hard path arranged on which the Emperor +walks while he guides the plough, before doing which he removes his +embroidered jacket and tucks up the long silk coat round his waist, as +a carpenter does when he wants to get his apron out of the way and +leave his legs free. After his Majesty has ploughed his furrow, three +princes, each with a buffalo and plough decorated with red silk, +plough each three furrows, followed by nine of the principal +officials, whose ploughs and buffaloes are decorated like those of the +princes. A rice is then sown called the red lotus, which when reaped +is presented as an offering--half on the altar at the Temple of +Agriculture, half on that before the tablets of the Imperial family in +the royal ancestral hall. + +This ceremony is of very ancient date, and indicates the high position +held by the agriculturist in the estimation of the Chinese. In the +books of Chow, written probably about 1000 B.C., in writing against +luxurious ease, it is written, "King W[)a]n dressed meanly, and gave +himself to the work of tranquillization and to that of husbandry." + +To Peking, as the centre of Chinese official life, flock all the +higher mandarins from time to time, each high official--viceroy, +governor, or taotai, or lower ranks--to give an account of their +stewardship at the expiration of their term of office, and to solicit +a renewed appointment. Should a viceroy have acquired, say, three +millions of dollars during his three years' term of office, it will be +necessary for him to disburse at least one million in presents to +various palace officials before he can hope for an audience and for +further employment. Many of the officials put their savings into +porcelain rather than invest them in speculation, or deposit them in +savings banks. Some of this porcelain is buried or concealed in a safe +place, and when the owner requires money he disposes of a piece. It is +thought in England that great bargains of valuable porcelain can be +picked up in any Chinese town. This is a mistake. Of course, great +bargains may possibly be picked up anywhere, but good porcelain is +highly valued in China as in Europe. Shown a very fine vase by the +principal dealer in curiosities of Peking, he quoted the price at +seventeen thousand dollars. The result of the Chinese custom of buying +porcelain as a savings bank investment, and its re-sale when money is +required, is a constant traffic in good porcelain, which can generally +be procured, at its full value. + + [Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V + + [Illustration] + + +The peasant cultivator of China spends a life of intermittent +industry. In the north there is but one annual crop, but in the south +two crops are grown. The principal cultivation being rice, he is +perforce constrained to the system of co-operation, as, there being no +fences, all the rice crop of a large flat area, sometimes minutely +subdivided, must be reaped at the same time, so that when the crop has +been removed the cattle and buffaloes may roam over the flat for what +pasturage they can pick up before the flooding of the land and +preparation for the next crop. + + [Illustration: WAITING FOR CUSTOMERS.] + +In the event of any farmer being late with his sowing, he must procure +seed of a more rapidly growing kind, some kinds of rice showing a +difference of a month or more in the time that elapses from sowing to +reaping. But even when the crop is down and growing, no grass that +may be found on the edges of the paths or canals is allowed to go +to waste. Small children may then be seen seated sideways on the broad +backs of the buffaloes while the beasts graze upon the skirting +pasture, the children preventing them from injuring the growing crops. + + [Illustration] + +The first crop is sown about April and reaped early in July, the +second late in July and reaped at the end of September. After the +rice, which has generally been sown very thickly in a nursery, has +been transplanted to the flooded fields and taken root, the ground is +gone over and the mud heaped with the feet around each plant. The +ground is manured when the rice is about a foot high with pig manure, +mixed with lime and earth, and scattered by hand at a time when the +water is low. If the crop looks poor the manure is carefully applied +round each plant, and sometimes if it is still very backward, when the +water is around it, the manure is poured over it in a liquid state. +The water is kept on the rice field until a very short time before +reaping, and after the crop is in full ear the Chinese like to have +three days' rain, which they say improves the yield very materially. + +When the rice is six or eight inches over the water, which is then +about three inches deep, large flocks of ducks and geese may be seen +feeding on the frogs, etc., to be found in the paddy fields (paddy is +the term for rice before it has been husked), attended by a man or +boy, who carries a long bamboo pole with a bunch of bamboo leaves tied +at the top. When the evening comes a shake of his pole brings all the +flock, sometimes numbering hundreds, out of the field, and as they +emerge on the path the last duck or goose receives a whack of the +bunch of leaves. It is amusing to see how this is realized by the +birds, who waddle along at top speed to avoid being last. Once on the +path the herd goes in front, and, placing his pole against the base of +a bank, all the flock jump over it, being counted as they go. Ducks +are reared in amazing numbers in Southern China, the eggs being +hatched in fermenting paddy husks. Every country shop has displayed a +number of dried ducks, the fowl being cut in half and spread out under +pressure. But as articles of food nothing comes amiss; rats are dried +in the same way and sold, though the house rat is not usually eaten, +the rat of commerce being the rodent found in the rice fields. Besides +rice, the farmer grows crops of rape, fruit, and a large quantity of +vegetables. Mulberry trees are the main crop in the silk regions, and +in the provinces bordering the Yangtze tea is produced, while to the +westward the cultivation of the poppy assumes large proportions. In +the economy of the Chinese farmer the pig plays as prominent a part +as in Ireland, for the pig is a save-all, to which all scraps are +welcome. The Chinese pig is usually black. It has a peculiarly hollow +back, the belly almost trailing on the ground, and it fattens easily. +A roast sucking-pig is always a _pièce de resistance_ at a feast. + +The Chinese farmer is thrifty, but he has his distractions in +card-playing and gambling in various ways that could only be devised +by Chinese ingenuity. He loves a quail fight or a cricket fight, the +latter being an amusement that sometimes brings a concourse of +thousands together. A large mat-shed is erected and in this is placed +the cricket pit. The real arena of the fight is a circular bowl with a +flat bottom about seven inches in diameter. Two crickets being placed +in it are excited to fury by having their backs tickled by a rat's +bristle inserted in the end of a small stick, such as a pen handle. +The rival crickets fight with great fury until one turns tail and is +beaten. Many thousands of dollars are wagered at times upon these +contests, and the most intense excitement prevails. When a man has +been fortunate enough to capture a good fighting cricket he feeds it +on special meal. Such a known cricket sometimes changes hands for a +considerable sum. After all, the value of a cricket, like a +race-horse, is what it may be able to win. As the initial expense of +a cricket is only the trouble of catching it, this is a form of +excitement within reach of the poorest, and the villager may have in +gambling for a cash (the tenth part of a cent) as much excitement as +the richer town-dweller who wagers in dollars. + + [Illustration] + +The farmer's house is not luxurious in its furniture, but it is +sufficient for his wants. With the exception of the table almost +everything is made of bamboo, which, with the aid of fire and water, +can be bent to any shape, but there is great diversity in the lamp of +pottery or pewter or brass, the latter being somewhat similar in shape +to the ancient Roman lamp. The bed is simply a flat board, over which +a grass or palm leaf mat is laid. The pillow is a half round piece of +pottery about ten inches long and four inches high. A common form is +that of a figure on hands and knees, the back forming the pillow. The +careful housewife places her needlework inside the pillow, which makes +an effective workbasket. In winter the pottery pillow is replaced by +one of lacquer and leather, which is not so cold. Over his door will +be found a beehive, made of a drum of bamboo two feet long by twelve +inches in diameter and covered with dried clay, while his implements +of husbandry--consisting of a wooden plough of the same shape as may +be seen on Egyptian ancient monuments, and which with the harness he +carries on his shoulder to the field, a hoe, and a wooden "rake" of +plain board to smooth the mud on which the rice will be sown--can be +accommodated in the corner. He is not very clean and has a lofty +contempt for vermin; but sometimes he will indulge in the luxury of a +flea-trap, made of a joint of bamboo three inches in diameter, the +sides cut out, leaving only enough wood to preserve the shape. This he +carries in his sleeve, but what he inserts as a trap I have not been +able to discover. + + [Illustration] + +Apart from his gambling his distractions are a visit to the temple +before or after crop time, a marriage, a funeral, a procession, or a +pilgrimage to one of the seven holy mountains of China. He has not +often more than one wife, who, being entirely at his mercy, rules him +with a rod of iron, and to whom as a rule he leaves the emotional part +of the religion of the family. To her falls all the anxious care of +the children, and horrible fears assail her lest the evil spirits, +against whose machinations all the ingenuity of her religious +superstitions is exerted, should get possession of any of her boys. To +this end she will dress the boys as girls, and indulge in +make-believes that would not puzzle the silliest devil that ever +tormented a Chinese mother. Nor does she neglect religious duties, for +she will be seen in the temple praying devoutly, and then taking up +the two kidney-shaped pieces of wood, flat on one side and round on +the other, that are found on the altar before the god, she will place +the flat sides together between her palms and flinging them up observe +the position in which they fall. If both flat sides come up, it is +good; if the round, then it is evil; if one of each, there is no +answer. This she repeats three times; or going to a bamboo in which +are a number of canes, each bearing a number, she shakes it, as Nestor +shook the helmet of Agamemnon, until one falls out, when she looks for +the corresponding number among a quantity of yellow sheets of paper +hung upon the wall where she reads the mystic answer to her prayer. + +It is not easy for the casual inquirer to understand the religious +beliefs of the Chinese. In many ways intensely materialistic, the +people have a living faith, at least in reincarnation or recurring +life; and while their spiritual attitude is rather a fear of evil +demons than a belief in a merciful God, yet there is among them a +spirit of reverence and of thankfulness for favours received. One day +at Chekwan Temple--a very fine and richly ornamented temple on the +Pearl River--I saw a fisherman and his family enter with a basket of +fish and some fruits, which he laid upon the altar. Then, first +striking the drum to call the attention of the god, the family prayed +devoutly, while the father poured a libation seven times upon the +altar. I asked the priest what it meant, and he answered that the man +had had a good take of fish the previous night and was returning +thanks. Sometimes when a member of the family is ill they will go to +the temple and have a prayer written, then burning the paper, they +take home the ashes, and administer them as a medicine. Again, in a +temple in Canton one pillar is covered with paper figures of men, +which are tied to the pillar upside down. Asking the meaning I was +told that these were tied on by the light-o'-loves of young Chinese +who, having taken a wife, had put an end to the temporary arrangements +as common in a Chinese city as in the centres of Western civilization. +The abandoned ones vainly hoped that by timely incantations and tying +on of the figures their protectors might be induced to return to them. +But the great annual excitement to the peasant under normal conditions +is the theatrical performance that takes place in every district. The +company brings its own theatre, an enormous mat-shed erection capable +of accommodating an audience of a thousand people. This is erected in +a few days, and for a week or more historical or social plays are +performed. The actors make up and dress upon the stage, on which the +more prominent members of the audience are sometimes accommodated. All +the actors are men, as women are not allowed to perform; but the men +who take women's parts could not be distinguished from females, and +some are very highly paid. The dresses are very gorgeous. In +historical plays all the actors wear long beards and moustaches which +completely cover the mouth. The bad character of the play is always +distinguished by having the face darkened and with a white patch on +the nose. The play is in the form of an opera in which the singers +intone their parts in a simple recurring time, being accompanied in +unison by a couple of stringed instruments of curious form; but when +an important entry is made or one of the oft-recurring combats take +place, large cymbals clash with deafening noise. This is never done +while the singing dialogue is proceeding. The properties are in a +large box on the stage. If an actor is going over a bridge the +attendants, who are moving about, place a table with a chair at either +side, put over it a cloth, and the bridge is complete. The actor walks +over and the table is removed. Should he mount a horse, or get into a +chair, conventional movements convey the fact to the audience. In the +combats one man is always slain. Then the attendant walks forward and +drops a roll of white paper or cloth before him, when the slain man +gets up and walks out. In Japan matters are somewhat differently +done. There are always two attendants in black with wide flowing +sleeves, who are supposed to be invisible. When a character is slain +one stands in front, spreads his arms, and the defunct walks off, the +invisible attendant moving after him, keeping between him and the +audience. + + [Illustration] + +In social plays the actors are no longer in gorgeous historic +costumes, but are clad in modern dress. When a very poor man came on +he indicated his poverty by making the movements of cracking vermin on +his clothes between his nails. + +It is singular how little one misses the scenery, and the audience +takes the keenest interest in the plays, sometimes being moved to +tears at the tragic parts. + +The position of the actor is very low in the Chinese scale, no actor +or child of an actor being permitted to present himself for public +examination; the brotherhood of the sock and buskin is a very large +community. + +When the play is finished, if there are wealthy men present servants +come in laden with strings of copper cash, which are laid upon the +stage. + +But these are the incidents of country life in normal times. When +rains are short and rivers run low, and the rice crop fails, then +gaunt famine stalks over the arid land, and discontent and misery are +apt to lead to grave local troubles, the people looking upon such a +visitation as a direct intimation that the Emperor, as represented by +the local officials, had incurred the displeasure of heaven and lost +the confidence of the gods. This feeling makes for rebellion, and +rebellion in China, when it is faced by Government, is dealt with in a +manner so ruthless as to make one shudder. + +In 1903 a famine with the usual concomitants developed in the province +of Kwangsi, and harrowing descriptions of the condition of affairs +came to Hong Kong, where a relief committee was formed at once. An +official was sent up on behalf of the committee to inquire and report, +and on his return he gave an account of what he had seen. A +troublesome rebellion had broken out, and in the course of its +suppression many prisoners had been taken. These wretches, with large +numbers of criminals, were being executed, a general gaol delivery +being thus effected, the magistrate holding that as there was not +enough food for honest people none could be spared for criminals. The +starving population had been reduced to such extremity that they were +eating the bodies. At the same time the authorities and the gentry +were doing everything in their power to relieve the suffering of the +people; but all were miserably poor, and no taxes were being +collected. The Hong Kong Relief Committee's representative, who had +taken a first consignment of rice with him, was offered every +facility by the magistrate, who not alone gave him a guard, but sent a +launch to tow the rice junk up the river, sending a guard with it. The +state of brutality to which the community had been reduced was shown +by the following occurrence related to the representative by one of +his guards, who told the story with an evident feeling that the +incident redounded to the credit of the "party of order." A short time +before, information having reached the local authority of the +whereabouts of a "robber family," a party, including the narrator, +went to the village and seized the entire family. The man they cut +open, took out the entrails, cooked and ate them in the presence of +the dying wretch. They cut the breasts off the woman, cooked and ate +them in the same way. The woman he described as sobbing during the +operation. The two were then killed. As the "soldiers" did not care to +kill the children themselves, they handed knives to a number of +surrounding children, who hacked the little ones to death. + + [Illustration] + +This is a lurid story, but the sequel shows that even in China danger +lurks in too ferocious exercise of despotic power, however well +intended. The magistrate was unceasing in his efforts to cope with the +famine, with the added troubles of a rebellion, in fighting which the +advantage was not always with his troops. Rice was being poured into +the famine districts by committees established in Hong Kong and +Canton, and every assistance that could be given was afforded to them +by the magistrate, who was an educated gentleman and apparently full +of pity for the famishing people. His unvarying civility to the +working members of the Hong Kong committee who were engaged in the +distribution was at the close of their proceedings duly and gratefully +acknowledged; but the warm thanks of the committee never reached him. +A new viceroy had been appointed to Canton, who, on proceeding to the +famine district to make personal inquiry, found that the magistrate +had not been just, but had executed as criminals innocent people, +among them being a secret agent sent up by the viceroy in advance to +inquire into the real state of affairs. On finding this he degraded +the magistrate, who thereupon committed suicide. When one reads of the +reckless ferocity with which life was taken it is astonishing that he +was not put an end to by poison long before the interference of the +viceroy; for poisoning is not unknown, the plant named in China +muk-tong being used. It is inodorous and tasteless, but if boiled in +water used for tea it is almost certain death. + + [Illustration] + +The life of the coast cities where East meets West is full of +interest. Every treaty port has its foreign concession, where the +consuls reign supreme, and a Western system of police and municipal +arrangements is adopted. Tientsin, Shanghai, Ningpo, Fuchow, Amoy, and +Canton, as well as the Yangtze ports, all have on their borders large +areas over which the Chinese Government has abandoned its territorial +rights, and all offences or disputes are dealt with in European +magistrates' or consular courts with the exception of Shanghai, where +for certain offences the cases are tried in a mixed court, under the +jurisdiction of a Chinese and a European magistrate. The sudden +contrast from the foreign concession at Shanghai to the Chinese city +is most striking; on the one side a splendid bund along the river +bank, well kept public gardens, an excellent police force (mounted and +foot), broad streets in which are fine shops displaying the newest +European patterns, well appointed gharries standing on their appointed +ranks for hire at moderate fares, and for the poorer Chinese the +ubiquitous Chinese wheelbarrow--mentioned by Milton--that is palpably +the one-wheeled progenitor of the Irish jaunting-car. The axle of the +barrow is in the centre, the large wheel working in a high well on +either side of which are two seats. There is no weight on the handles +when the legs are lifted; the barrow coolie has therefore only to +preserve the balance and push. These barrows are used everywhere in +the Yangtze region, and are suitable for carrying heavy loads over +interior tracks too narrow for two wheels. In Shanghai they are not +alone used for transport of heavy burdens, but form the usual means of +locomotion for the Chinese of the labouring class who prefer the +luxury of driving to walking. In the morning, as in the evening, when +going to work or coming from it, as many as six people may be seen +sitting three a side and being pushed along by one coolie with +apparent ease, or now and again one or two men on one side are +balanced by a large pig tied on the other. + + [Illustration] + +Along the river front, where the bund is prolonged into Chinese +territory, the Western influence is seen in the police arrangements, +Chinese police, or "lukongs," being similarly attired as their Chinese +brethren in the "Settlements." But inside the walls the scene changes, +and the Chinese city is found, simple but not pure, as Shanghai city +is among the very dirtiest in all China. Yet it has its picturesque +and somewhat imposing spots near the great temples. Outside the city +bounds is the usual burial-place, on the border of the flat plain that +surrounds Shanghai. Here the custom is to deposit the coffins on the +ground, the tombs being sometimes built of brick, or the coffin being +covered with thatch, while in some cases the coffins are simply left +upon the ground without any covering. It must be explained that the +Chinese coffin is a peculiarly solid case, built in a peculiar manner +with very thick slabs of wood In every direction are peach orchards, +which when in blossom present as beautiful a sight as the famed cherry +blossom of Japan. All around the plain is intersected with deep +drains, the muddy bottoms of which the sporting members of the +Shanghai Hunt Club now and again make involuntary acquaintance. The +position of Shanghai, situated as it is near the mouth of the Yangtze, +marks it out as the future emporium of the commerce of Central China, +through which must ebb and flow the ever-growing trade of nine of the +eighteen provinces of the Middle Kingdom. The social intercourse +between the foreign and the Chinese communities is very restricted, a +restriction that cannot be laid entirely at the door of either side; +but until the division becomes less clearly and sharply marked there +can be no well grounded prospect of such community of feeling as will +make trade relations comfortable, when the now blinking eyes of the +sleeping giant have fully opened and he realizes his strength and +power to command attention to his demand for reciprocal rights among +the great nations of the earth. + + [Illustration] + +To a foreigner the most impressive city in China is Canton, with its +teeming population and intense activity. The foreign settlement of +Shameen lies along the bank of the Pearl River, and on the land side +is surrounded by a canal, the only entrance to the settlement being +over two carefully guarded bridges. Here everything is purely +Western--Western architecture, Western lawns, Western games; the flags +of all the foreign nations fly over their respective consulates; and +but for the Chinese domestics that one sees here and there, one might, +if he turned his gaze from the river, with its maze of junks and boats +of every kind, forget that he was not walking in the wealthy +residential suburb of a European town. But once over the bridge and +past the solid rows of stores--once the godowns of the European +hongs--every trace of European influence is gone, and we enter through +the city walls into a scene such as has existed in Chinese cities for +centuries. The streets vary in width from six to ten feet, and are all +flagged with granite slabs, and in these narrow streets is a dense +mass of blue-robed Chinese, all intent upon business except when a +foreigner enters into a shop to make a purchase, which always attracts +a curious and observing crowd. Narrow as are the streets, the effect +is still more contracted by the hanging sign-boards, painted in +brilliant colours and sometimes gilt letters, that hang outside each +shop. These sign-boards are sometimes ten to twelve feet long, and +each trade has its own particular colouring and shape. The effect +of the sign-boards, the colour of the open shops, and the gay lanterns +that hang at almost every door, is very fine, and gives an idea of +wealth and artistic sentiment. Every shop removes its shutters in the +morning, and as there are usually no windows, the effect is that of +moving through an immense bazaar, in which every known trade is being +carried on, while the wares are being sold at an adjoining counter. In +one shop will be found the most expensive silks and other stuffs, or +rather in a row of shops, for each particular business affects certain +parts of the street. Thus at one end may be a succession of shops with +the most delicate and beautiful commodities, while the continuation is +devoted to butchers' stalls, or fishmongers', the sudden transition +being proclaimed to every sense, and outraging our feeling of the +fitness of things. In the shops will be seen men at work upon the +beautiful fans for which Canton is famed; in another the shoemaker or +the hatter ply their more homely trade. Tailors, stocking-makers, +carpenters, blacksmiths, all are diligently at work, while here and +there, poring carefully over a piece of jewellery or brass or silver +work, may be seen the feather-worker attaching the delicate patterns +made with the brilliant feathers of the kingfisher, the work being so +minute that young men and boys only can do it, and so trying that +their eyesight can only stand it for about two years. At the corners +of the streets are seen tea-houses, the entire front being elaborately +carved from ground to roof and glittering with brilliant gilding. +Ivory-cutters carry on their trade, and jade and porcelain are +displayed. A great feature in many of the streets is the bird shops, +filled with singing birds or birds of brilliant plumage, of which the +Chinese are very fond, wealthy Chinese gentlemen giving sometimes +large sums for ivory cages for their favourites. In places the streets +are covered for short distances. These gay shops are not usually found +in the side streets, where the rougher trades--the butcher, the +fishmonger, and the greengrocer--predominate. In these particular +streets the smells are to European sense simply abominable, but +appreciation or otherwise of smells is possibly a racial as well as an +individual peculiarity. Among us musk is the delight of some and the +horror of others. + + [Illustration: A CHINESE GIRL.] + + [Illustration] + +Although too narrow for wheeled traffic, the noise of the streets is +considerable, as coolies, carrying great baskets of goods or perhaps +vegetables, shout panting warnings to the crowd, and all must make way +for the laden coolie. Now and again a mandarin rides past, attended by +his servants, or is carried in his official chair, when everybody +makes way for him with the most surprising alacrity. It is easy to +see that the people recognize the all but despotic power that always +notes the officials of a practically democratic community. The general +idea that strikes a stranger when going for the first time through +these narrow streets with their dense crowds is one of awe, feeling as +if enmeshed in the labyrinths of a human ant-hill, from which there +could be no hope of escape if the crowd made any hostile movement. But +the interests of Canton are not exhausted in her crowded streets, with +the marvellous absence of any jostling--the chair coolies never +touching anybody with their chairs, even though they fill up half the +width of the streets--for there are the various temples that have been +described _ad nauseam_; the water clock that has been going for over +six centuries; the mint, where the Government produces from time to +time coins of not always clearly determined fineness; and the City of +the Dead, where for a moderate payment an apartment may be engaged, in +which a deceased member of a family can be accommodated until such +time as the geomancer can find an auspicious position for the grave. +Some of these apartments, which are all kept admirably clean, have +tables on which are left the pipe of the inmate, while paper figures +stand by to hand him, if necessary, the spiritual aroma of his +favourite food when alive. + + [Illustration] + +The guild-houses of Canton are well built and richly ornamented +structures. These guild-houses are the club-houses of various +provinces, or the local club of the members of different trades. Even +the beggars have their guild in Canton, where strange members of that +ancient and honourable profession may obtain accommodation, and +permission to ply their occupation as mendicants on payment of a fee. +Every beggar so licensed carries a badge, bearing which he has the +right to enter a shop and demand alms. Among the procession of +mandarins with their brilliant entourage who assembled to meet Liu Kun +Yi, the viceroy at Nanking, on his return from Peking, in 1900, was +the mandarin head of the beggars. He was arrayed in the correct and +rich robes of his rank, and had his place in the procession exactly as +the other mandarins, who were each surrounded or followed by their +staff and their troops. The mandarin of the beggars' guild was carried +in his official chair, and around him and following him was the most +extraordinary and motley crowd of beggars, all in their workaday rags +and tatters. Had they but arms of any sort they might have given +points to Falstaff's ragged regiment. Every shopkeeper is visited at +least once daily by a member of the fraternity, and whether by law or +by custom he must contribute some small amount. The system is possibly +a form of outdoor relief, and if one but knew its inner working it +would probably be found to be a fairly satisfactory solution of a +difficulty that is exercising the wits of anxious social investigators +in England. + +If the shopkeeper refuses to submit to the customary demand he may +find a beggar, afflicted with some loathsome disease, seated at the +door of his shop, where he will remain until the honour of the guild +has been satisfied by a suitable donation, for there will be no stern +policeman to order the persistent beggar to move on. One of the most +painful sights that I have ever seen was a collection of lepers who +had been allowed to take possession of a small dry patch in the middle +of a deep swamp in the new territory of Kowloon. The only entrance was +by a narrow path roughly raised over the swamp level. Here they had +constructed huts from pieces of boxes, through which the rain entered +freely. Each morning the miserable creatures dragged themselves to the +neighbouring villages, the inhabitants of which charitably placed rice +for them before their doors. I have never seen a more miserable +collection of human beings. I had proper huts erected for them on +neighbouring high ground, where at least they were free from the +danger of being flooded out, and had shelter from rain and wind. There +is a regular leper hospital in Canton. + + [Illustration] + +It must not be assumed that Canton is entirely a town of retail +shops, for there are many important factories there, some of the +houses of business covering large areas, where hundreds of men are +employed in the various manufactures. Crowded as is the business part +of the city, one wonders that it is not devastated by fire; but over +every shop vessels of water are kept upon the roof, ready for instant +service. The value of land is very great, the average value being +fourteen dollars a square foot, which is roughly about sixty thousand +pounds per acre. But the narrow streets of Canton can be very imposing +when a high foreign official is paying a visit of ceremony to the +viceroy. On one side of the street is a continuous line of +soldiers--the streets are too narrow for a double line--each company +with its banner, while the other side is occupied by a dense crowd +that fills the shops and stands silently to see the procession of +official chairs go by. The streets are not alone swept, but carefully +washed, so that they are perfectly clean. At each ward-gate is +stationed half a dozen men with long trumpets, like those upon which +Fra Angelico's angels blew their notes of praise, and from these +trumpets two long notes are sounded--one high, the other low. In the +courtyard of the viceroy's yamen is stationed a special guard of about +one hundred and fifty men, richly dressed and carrying such arms as +one sees in very old Chinese pictures--great curved blades on long +poles, tridents, etc.--while thirty or forty men stand with banners +of purple, yellow, blue, or red silk, each some twelve feet square, +mounted on poles at least twenty feet long. The effect is singularly +picturesque. The viceroy's yamen is situated more than a mile from the +river, so that a large number of troops are required to line the +streets. The yamen is surrounded by an extensive park, in which is +some good timber. Another fine park surrounds the building once +occupied by the British Consul, but now used by the cadets of the +Straits Settlements and Hong Kong, who on appointment to the Colonies +are sent for two years to Canton, there to study Chinese. + + [Illustration] + +However busy the high official in China may be, his daily life is +passed in quiet, if not in peace. With him there are no distracting +sounds of street traffic, no hoot of motor-cars, no roar and rumble of +motor-omnibuses, no earthquake tremors from heavy cart traffic. The +streets are too narrow for this, and the yamen and the office are +separated from any possible interference with business by street +noises. The business of the yamen is, however, rarely done in +solitude, for the yamen "runners," as the crowd of lictors and +messengers are called, overrun the entire place, and the most +important conversations are carried on in the presence of pipe-bearers +and other personal attendants, to say nothing of curious outsiders, +that almost precludes the possibility of inviolable secrecy. It is +possible that where foreigners are not mixed up in the matter there +may not be so many anxious listeners, but there are few things about a +yamen that are not known by those whose interest it is to know them. + +The official proceeds with his work upon lines that have been deeply +grooved by custom, and however energetic he may be, he is careful not +to make violent changes, nor will he hastily leave the beaten track. +As a rule, no community becomes violently agitated by inaction on the +part of a government or of an official, however much it may be +deprecated. In China the only fear in such a case would be from the +action of the censors, who are appointed in various parts of the +empire, and who have proved by their denunciation of even the highest +officials for sins of omission, as well as commission, that China +possesses among her officials men whose fearlessness and independence +are equal to that of men of other races, whose honoured names have +come down to us in song and story. + + [Illustration: JUNKS AT EVENTIDE.] + + [Illustration] + +The rigid etiquette of China preserves a dignity in the conduct of all +public business, and it is against the first principles of an educated +Chinaman to use rough or harsh terms that would be considered vulgar. +The written language is so capable of different interpretations that +in treaties with China, which are generally written in three +languages--Chinese, French or English--and the language of the +contracting countries, it is always stipulated that in construing the +terms of the treaty one of the two languages, not the Chinese, is to +be taken as interpreting its true meaning. This does not necessarily +infer dishonest intentions on the part of the Chinese; but the fact is +that as each one of the many thousands of Chinese characters may mean +more than one thing, the real meaning has sometimes to be inferred +from the context, so that there are peculiar difficulties attending +the close and accurate interpretation of a treaty or dispatch. It is +popularly supposed that Sir Robert Hart and Sir J. McLeavy Brown are +the only foreigners who have complete mastery of the art of writing +Chinese so as to ensure the accurate expression of the meaning to be +conveyed. The yamen of a high official, with his residence, covers a +large area, as no house is built more than one story high. Such a +building might by its dominating height interfere disastrously with +the _fung sui_ of even a city, and is always bitterly resented. The +steeples of churches have something to answer for in this way in +keeping alive the spirit of antagonism fostered by the daily +maledictions of the Chinese, who bear patiently with submission rather +than acquiescence the presence of a dominant foreign influence that, +if they have any living superstition on the subject, must convey to +them an impression of evil. The yamen usually consists of a series of +courtyards, off which are built the apartments for the numerous staff +as well as the private apartments of the family, and in one of these, +when the business of the day is concluded, the official receives the +visits of his friends and smokes the calumet of peace, or plays one of +those complicated games of Chinese chess to whose intricate rules and +moves our game of chess is simplicity itself. Sometimes after his work +he indulges in his pipe of opium, after the manner of our own +three-bottle men of the last century. The late Liu Kun Yi, the able +Viceroy of Nanking, who with Chang Chi Tung, his neighbouring viceroy, +kept the Yangtze provinces quiet through the Boxer troubles was a +confirmed opium-smoker. But one thing he never does--he never hurries. +Haste is to him undignified, and he eschews it. In his official +dealings he will adopt methods that would not pass muster in our +courts; but from the Emperor to the coolie those methods are +understood and accepted. Much might be written on the ethics of what +we call official corruption; but let the facts be what they may, the +people understand the system, the Government understand it, and there +is no popular demonstration against it. Nor must we forget that +official "irregularity" is not unknown outside China. + +The social side of the life of a Chinese mandarin is not confined to +his own yamen. He is fond of visiting his friends and engaging in +intellectual conversation over a friendly cup of tea--and such tea! We +have no idea in Europe of the exquisite delicacy of the best Chinese +tea as prepared by a Chinese host. The tea is made by himself, the +leaves being only allowed to remain in the freshly boiled water for +four or five minutes. It is then poured into cups of delicate +porcelain, about the size of a liqueur glass, and sipped without the +addition of milk or sugar. After the tea has been drunk, the aroma of +the cup is enjoyed. The perfume is delicious. + + [Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + [Illustration] + + +The houses of the wealthy inhabitants are on the east side of the +city, and are separated from the streets by high walls. On entering +the grounds, the visitor passes through several courtyards and +reception halls, supported on beautifully carved granite pillars, a +wealthy Chinese gentleman sparing no expense in the lavish and +tasteful decoration of his home. From the courtyards one enters the +gardens, in which there is invariably a pond in which water-flowers-- +lilies, lotus, etc.--are grown, and in which there are shoals of +goldfish. A rockery is generally added, with quaintly contrived +approaches and caverns, and a bridge over the pond leads now and again +to a small island on which a decorated tea-house has been erected. The +bridge is always angular, like those that are seen on the old blue +china plates. In one large house, from which the owner was absent, +were some specimens of hammered iron-work that were the very +perfection of artistic workmanship. They were blades of grass, reeds, +and flowers, each specimen being placed in a window between two panes +of glass. These specimens of iron-work were made about four hundred +and fifty years ago by an artist whose name is still held in honour. +Large sums have been offered for them, but the fortunate owner holds +them more precious than gold. + +A great feature of Canton is its flower-boats, of which many hundreds +are moored together, and form regular streets. These boats are all +restaurants, and here the wealthy young Chinamen entertain each other +at their sumptuous feasts. The giver of the entertainment always +engages four or five young women for each guest, who sit behind the +gentlemen and assist in their entertainment. As the feast is a long +function, consisting of many courses, it is not necessary for the +guests to be present during the entire function. Sometimes a guest +will put in an appearance for one or two courses. Music is played and +songs are sung, and possibly there may be ramifications of the +entertainment into which one does not pry too closely; but again there +are regulated customs in China openly acknowledged and less harmful +than the ignored but no less existing canker that has eaten into the +heart of Western civilization. + +The wives and daughters of officials are in small towns at a certain +disadvantage, for etiquette demands that they shall confine their +visits to their social equals, who are not many. In large cities they +have the ladies of the wealthy merchants to visit, and they are by no +means devoid of subjects of conversation. They take a keen interest in +public affairs, and exercise no small an amount of influence upon +current topics. Many of the Chinese ladies are well educated, and have +no hesitation in declaring their views on matters connected with their +well-being. A very short time ago there was in Canton a public meeting +of women to protest against an unpopular measure. One result of +missionary effort in China has been the education of a large number of +Chinese women of different classes in English, which many Chinese +ladies speak fluently. When Kang Yu Wei, the Chinese reformer, was in +Hong Kong, having taken refuge there after his flight from Peking, his +daughter was a young Chinese lady who spoke only her own language. Two +years later, during which time the family had resided in the Straits +Settlements, this lady passed through Hong Kong, speaking English +fluently. She was on her way to the United States to pursue her +studies. + +The movement for reform that has begun to agitate China is by no +means confined to the men. In 1900 a women's conference met in +Shanghai, under the presidency of Lady Blake, to consider the question +of the home life of the women of China. The conference sat for four +days, during which papers were read by both European and Chinese +ladies on various social questions and customs affecting all classes +of the women of China. The conference covered a wide range of +subjects:--Treatment of Children; Daughters-in-law; Betrothal of Young +Children and Infants; Girl Slavery in China; Foot-binding; Marriage +Customs; Funeral Customs; Social Customs; and its proceedings contain +valuable accounts at first hand of the conditions and customs of women +from every part of the Middle Kingdom. The following remarks were made +by the president at the conclusion of the conference. + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration: A TYPICAL STREET SCENE.] + +"We have now concluded the consideration of the subjects that were +selected for discussion at this conference on the 'Home Life of +Chinese Women.' We have all, I am sure, been keenly interested in the +excellent papers and addresses with which we have been favoured, +containing so much information from all parts of this vast empire that +must have been new to many of us. I regret to find that the lot of +Chinese women, especially of the lower classes, appears on closer +observation even less agreeable than I had thought. The hard fate of +so many of the slave-girls, for example, must excite the pity and +sympathy of all men and women not altogether selfishly insensible to +human sufferings from which they are exempt. But while we have been +gazing on a good deal of the darker side of the lives of the women and +girls of China, we must not forget that shadows cannot exist without +light, so there must be a bright side in life for many Chinese women, +and some of the papers read have shown us that no small number of +Chinese ladies, independently of European influences, extend +noble-minded and practical charity to those amongst their humbler +neighbours who may stand in need of such assistance. Possibly some of +us may be too apt to judge the better classes of the Chinese by the +standards of the lower orders, with whom as a general rule Europeans +are chiefly thrown. How would the denizens of our ancient cathedral +closes, or the occupants of our manor-houses at home, like foreigners +to judge of them by the standard of the inhabitants of the lower +stratum of our society and the waifs and strays, who too often in +other lands bring the reverse of credit to their country? I cannot +help hoping, likewise, that as habit becomes second nature--and that +to which we are accustomed seems less dreadful, even when +intrinsically as bad--so some things that to us would make +existence a purgatory may not be quite so terrible to the women of +China as they appear to us. I would fain hope that even in such a +matter as foot-binding there may be some alleviation to the sufferings +of those who practise it, in the pride that is said to feel no pain. +Of the deleterious effects of the practice--physically and +mentally--there can be no doubt, and it is most satisfactory to find +that the spark of resistance to the fashion of foot-binding has been +kindled in many parts of China. As new ideas permeate the empire, I +have no doubt the women of China will not be greater slaves to +undesirable fashions or customs than are the women of other lands. The +greater number of the ills and discomforts of Chinese women, I cannot +help thinking, must be eradicated by the people of China themselves; +all that outsiders can do is to place the means of doing so within +their reach. As year by year the number increases of cultivated and +enlightened Chinese ladies, trained in Western science and modes of +thought, while retaining their own distinctive characteristics, so +will each of them prove a stronger centre from which rays of good +influence will reach out to their country-women. I was once given a +flower that had rather a remarkable history. I was told that somewhere +in Greece a mine had been found that was supposed to have been worked +by the ancient Greeks. Its site was marked by great heaps of rocks and +refuse. The Greeks of old, great as was their genius, which in some +ways exceeded that of modern days, were not acquainted with a great +deal that science has revealed to us, and in examining these heaps of +stones and rubbish flung out of the mine in days of old, it was found +that most of it contained ore, the presence of which had never before +been suspected, but which was sufficient in amount to make it worth +while submitting the refuse to a process that would extract the latent +wealth. So the great heaps of stone were removed, for smelting or some +such process, and when they were taken away, from the ground beneath +them sprang up plants, which in due time were covered with beautiful +small yellow poppies of a kind not previously known to gardeners. It +is supposed that the seed of the flowers must have lain hidden in the +earth for centuries. May it not be like this with China? In her bosom +have long lain dormant the seeds of what we call progress, which have +been kept from germinating by the superincumbent weight of ideas, +which, while they may contain in themselves some ore worth extracting, +must be refined in order to be preserved, and must be uplifted in +order to enable the flowers of truth, purity, and happiness to +flourish in the land. Two of the heaviest rubbish heaps that crush +down the blossom progress are ignorance and prejudice. I trust that +the conference just held may prove of use in removing them." + + [Illustration] + +Whatever may be thought of the relative prudence of choosing one's own +wife, or having the young lady provided by family diplomacy, as is the +Eastern custom, there is no doubt that Chinese women make affectionate +wives and mothers. A forlorn woman at Macao, day after day wailing +along the shore of the cruel sea that had taken her fisher-husband, +waving his coat over the sea, burning incense, and calling upon him +unceasingly to return to her, was a mournful sight; and I have seen +distracted women passing the clothes of their sick children to and fro +over a brisk fire by a running stream, and calling upon the gods they +worshipped to circumvent the demons to whose evil action all sickness +is attributed. Indeed, the loss of the husband himself would, in the +average Chinese opinion, be better for the family than the loss of an +only son, as without a male descendant the ancestral worship, on which +so much depends for the comfort of the departed members, cannot be +carried out in proper form. That the terrors of superstition enter +largely into the Chinese mind is clearly shown, but there is also +present the saving grace of faith in the possibility of assuaging +whatever may be considered the discomforts of the after life, and +Chinese are particular in ministering to the wants of the departed. I +have seen in Hong Kong two women gravely carrying a small house, +tables, chairs, and a horse, all made of tissue paper and light +bamboo, to a vacant place where they were reverently burnt, no doubt +for the use of a departed husband. This is the same faith that raised +the mounds over the Scandinavian heroes, who with their boats or +war-horses and their arms were buried beneath them. + +When a child is born, a boat made similarly of tissue paper and fixed +on a small bundle of straw is launched upon the tide. If it floats +away, all will be well; if flung back upon the shore, there is gloom +in the house, for Fortune is frowning. Or, when members of the family +are lost at sea, similar boats with small figures seated in them, and +with squares of gold and silver paper representing money placed at +their feet, are sent adrift. Such boats are constantly to be seen +floating in the harbour of Hong Kong, each one a sad emblem of +poignant sorrow, with that desperate anxiety of those bereft to reach +behind the veil that lies in the sub-conscious mind of all humanity. + + [Illustration] + +This is the mournful aspect of Chinese life, especially among the +poorer classes. But Chinese ladies, though they take their pleasures +in a different manner, are no less actively engaged in the amenities +of social intercourse than are their Western sisters. Violent +physical exercise does not appeal to them--our compelling muscularity +is a hidden mystery to all Eastern people--but visiting among +themselves is constant, and the preparation for a visit, the powdering +and painting, the hair-dressing, and the careful selection of +embroidered costumes, is as absorbing a business as was the +preparation of the belles of the court of _Le Roi Soleil_. To the +European man the fashion of a Chinese lady's dress seems unchanging--a +beautifully embroidered loose jacket, with long pleated skirt and wide +trousers, in strong crimson or yellow, or in delicate shades of all +colours--but Western women probably know better, as doubtless do the +Chinese husbands and fathers, who are usually most generous to the +ladies of the family. The general shape is unchanging, for in China it +is considered indelicate for a woman to display her figure; but the +Chinese milliner is as careful to change the fashion of the embroidery +at short intervals as is the French _modiste_ to change the form of +the robe. Therefore there are always to be procured in the great towns +beautiful embroidered costumes in excellent order that have been +discarded at the command of tyrant fashion as are the dresses of the +fashion-driven ladies of the West. + + [Illustration] + +The etiquette of the preliminaries of a visit is as rigid as is the +etiquette of all social intercourse in China; the scarlet visiting +card, three or four inches wide and sometimes a foot long--its +dimensions being proportioned to the social position of the +visitor--being first sent in, and returned with an invitation to +enter, while the hostess dons her best attire and meets the visitor at +the first, second, or third doorway, according to the rank of the +latter, and the elaborate ceremonial on entering the room. These +accomplished, the conversation follows the lines that conversation +takes where ladies meet ladies all the world over. The friendly pipe +is not excluded, and probably books, children, cooks, social +incidents, and possibly local politics, form the media of +conversation. The social customs of China do not afford much +opportunity for scandal; but who can say? Cupid even in China is as +ingenious as he is mischievous. Games, too, are indulged in, the +Chinese card games being as mysteriously intricate as is their chess. + +Should the guest bring her children, the little ones all receive +presents, these delicate attentions being never neglected; indeed, the +giving of presents at the New Year and other annual festivals is a +settled Chinese custom. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + [Illustration] + + +Though Hong Kong, when handed over to Great Britain in 1841, was a +practically uninhabited island, it has now a population of 377,000, of +which 360,000 are Chinese. The city of Victoria is situated round the +southern shore of the harbour, and is, next to London, the greatest +shipping port in the world. Behind the city steep hills rise to the +height of over 1,800 feet, their rugged sides scored by well +constructed roads and dotted over with handsome buildings, while a +cable tramway leads to the Peak (1,200 feet high), where fine houses +and terraces afford in summer accommodation for the European +residents, who find in its cool heights relief from the oppressive +temperature of the sea level. It is hard to say whether Hong Kong is +more beautiful from the harbour or from the Peak. From the one is seen +the city crowded round the shore behind the broad praya or sea front, +and sweeping up the precipitous sides of the hills--spreading as it +climbs from street to terrace, from terrace to villa, up to the very +Peak--terrace and villa nestled in the everlasting verdure of the +luxuriant tropics, varied by blazes of colour from tree, shrub, and +climber, the blue masses of hydrangea at the Peak vying with the +brilliant masses of purple bougainvillia, or yellow alamanda of the +lower levels, the whole bathed in such sunshine as is rarely seen in +temperate regions, while above the blue sky is flecked with light +fleecy clouds. Away to the eastward is the happy valley, a flat oval, +around which the hill-sides are devoted to a series of the most +beautifully kept cemeteries in the world. Here Christian and +Mohammedan, Eastern and Western, rest from their labours, while below +them, in the oval valley, every sport and game of England is in full +swing. + +From the Peak we look down upon the city and the harbour, and our gaze +sweeps onward over the flat peninsula of Kowloon to the bare and +rugged hills that sweep from east to west. But the interest centres in +the magnificent harbour, on whose blue bosom rest the great steamers +of every nation trading with the Far East, round whose hulls are +flitting the three hundred and fifty launches of which the harbour +boasts, whose movements at full speed in a crowded harbour bear +witness to the splendid nerve of their Chinese coxswains. Out in the +harbour, towards Stonecutter's Island, the tall masts of trim +American schooners may be seen, the master--probably part owner--with +sometimes his wife on board, and with accommodation aft that the +captains of our largest liners might envy, while the thousands of +Chinese boats of all descriptions look like swarms of flies moving +over the laughing waters of the bay. The hum of the city is inaudible, +and even the rasp of the derricks that feed the holds of the +steamships or empty them of their cargoes comes up with a softened +sound, telling its tale of commercial activity. + + [Illustration: A STREET STALL.] + +At night the scene is still more enchanting, for spread out beneath +are gleaming and dancing the thousands of lights afloat and ashore. +The outlines of the bay are marked by sweeping curves of light, and +the myriad stars that seem to shine more brightly than elsewhere are +mirrored in the dark waters, mingling with the thousands of lights +from the boats and shipping. + +This is normal Hong Kong, and in the warm season, for in winter it is +cold enough to demand the glow of the fire and the cheerful warmth of +furs. But the beautiful harbour lashed to wild fury by the dreaded +typhoon is a different sight. All may look well to the uninitiated, +who wonders to see groups of sampans and lighters, sometimes twenty or +more, being towed by single launches to Causeway Bay, the boat harbour +of refuge; but the gathering clouds in the south-east, the strong +puffy gusts of wind, and the rapidly falling barometer with the +characteristic pumping action, warn the watchful meteorological staff +that the time has come to hoist the warning signal, while in addition +the south-easterly heave of the sea gives notice to the careful +sea-captain that he had better not be caught in narrow waters except +with both anchors down and a full head of steam ready. + +With a blackening sky, increasing wind, and troubled sea there is no +longer room for doubt, and active preparations are made ashore and +afloat. While cables are lengthened, top hamper made snug, and steam +got up on sea, all windows are carefully fastened with hurricane bars +on shore, for should a window be blown in when the typhoon is at its +height there is no knowing how far the destruction may extend, the +walls being sometimes blown out and the contents of the house +scattered over the hill-side. I have seen such a typhoon that reached +its maximum in the early morning. The whole harbour was foaming with a +devil's dance of wild waters, hidden by a thick blanket of spray, +through which from time to time great waves were dimly seen dashing +over the high wharf premises, or godowns, of Kowloon, while +minute-guns of distress boomed from out the wrack of sea and mist, +heard as dull thuds in the howling of the mighty typhoon, and calling +for help that none could give. By ten o'clock the typhoon had swept +on to the north, leaving scores of ships and junks sunk in the +harbour, a mile of sampans smashed to pieces at the Kowloon wharves, +and hundreds of victims beneath the now moderating seas, while the +harbour was filled with floating bales of merchandise. + + [Illustration] + +The incident was the means of demonstrating the organizing capacity of +the Chinese. As soon as the sea had moderated sufficiently to allow a +launch to live, I sent for a Chinese gentleman and suggested that +something should be done to relieve the sufferers and rescue those who +still required assistance, and found that already the guild had sent +out two powerful launches, one with coffins for the drowned, the +other, with a doctor on board, equipped with the necessary means of +succour for the injured, and food for those who had lost their all. +Steaming along the Kowloon shore an hour afterwards, where the +wreckage of boats was heaving and falling in a mass of destruction +twenty to thirty feet wide along the sea wall, there was no sign, as +might have been expected, of stunned despair; but the crowd of +boat-people, men and women, who had escaped with their lives were +working with a will and as busy as bees, each endeavouring to save +something from the smashed wreckage of what had been their home, the +men jumping from one heaving mass to another, diving betimes and +struggling with the adverse buffets of fate with an energy none the +less for their stoical acceptance of the inevitable. + +Although Hong Kong is a British possession it is essentially a Chinese +city. British supervision has seen to it that the streets are wide and +all the houses well and solidly built, save a few remaining houses of +the era preceding the creation of a sanitary board, and cleanliness of +house and surroundings is secured by careful and unremitting +inspection. The shops are a mixture of European architecture and +Chinese decoration, which runs into rich and elaborate carving and +gilding. Outside are hung the same pendant signs that give such colour +to the streets of Canton. Blue is the predominant colour worn by all +Chinese, save the sweating coolies who toil along the quays of the +great port, and the blue crowd that fills the busy streets harmonizes +with the surrounding colours. The splendid buildings in what are +called the principal streets, where banks, hotels, and counting-houses +of the important European firms are situated, with the shops that +cater more especially for the wants of foreign residents and tourists, +differ but little from the architecture of a European city, while the +shops contain all that purchasers can require of European wares, or +Chinese and Japanese products wherewith to tempt the inquiring +tourist. But the wealthiest part of the city is in the Chinese +quarter, and here property has changed hands at startling figures, +sometimes at a rate equal to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds an +acre. Here the shops are purely Chinese, and every trade may be seen +in operation, while the doctor puts up a sign that he cures broken +legs, or the dentist displays a small board, from which hang five or +six long strings of molars of portentous size showing every phase of +dental decay. Everywhere is seen a teeming population instinct with +ceaseless activity. Rickshaws rush past, these most convenient little +carriages for hire having one coolie in the shafts, while private +rickshaws have one or two in addition pushing behind; or the more +sedate chair swings by, borne by two or four coolies, the men in front +and rear stepping off with different feet so as to prevent the +swinging of the chair. The shops in this quarter have abandoned the +glass front and are open, save when at night they are closed by planks +set up and fastened with a bar behind the last two. The shop is then +secure from any attempt to break in from the outside; but cases are on +record where armed robbers have slipped in at the last moment and, +closing the plank which secured them from observation, produced +revolvers and walked off with the contents of the till, leaving the +terrified owner and his assistants bound and gagged while they made +their escape. + + [Illustration] + +The early life of the city is an interesting study. At five o'clock +the people are astir. The working men apparently take their morning +meal in the streets, where tables are erected on which are large +vessels of rice, and of boiling congee (a mixture of rice flour and +water), piles of vegetables of various sorts chopped fine, dishes of +scraps of meat, including the uncooked entrails of fowls, pieces of +fish, and relishes of soy and other sauces. The hungry customer is +handed a bowl half full of rice, on which is placed small portions of +the various vegetables and a piece of meat, or some scraps of +entrails, over all is poured a ladle full of the boiling congee, and +the repast is ready. With his chopsticks the customer, holding the +bowl to his wide open mouth, shovels in nearly as much rice as it will +hold, then picking from the bowl pieces of the luscious morsels with +which it is garnished, he lays them on the yet untouched rice, when he +closes his mouth and proceeds with the process of mastication and +deglutition. Each mouthful is a course, and the same process is +repeated until the morning meal is complete. Hard by may be seen a +purveyor of whelks, which are a favourite food, especially with boys, +who have all the excitement of gambling in satisfying their hunger. +The whelks are in a basket, to the handle of which a dozen pieces of +wire with crooked ends are attached by long cords. A small boy appears +and lays a cash upon the stall, at the same time drawing from a deep +bamboo joint a bamboo slip, one of the many in the pot. At the end of +the slip is a number, or a blank, and the hungry lover of chance may +find the result of his first venture a blank, or he may be fortunate +enough to draw a prize with a number, which represents the number of +whelks that he is to receive. These he deftly picks out with one of +the crooked wires. They must, of course, be consumed "on the +premises," for the cautious caterer takes no chances by permitting the +wire to be detached from the cord. Boys are active and unscrupulous, +and crooked wires cost money. Balls of rice flour, fried in lard, are +another favourite food of the streets, and sweetmeats of appalling +stickiness and questionable preparation are always to be found in +Chinese quarters. The morning crowd is always good-humoured, chaffing +and laughing with a heartiness that explodes the European idea of +Chinese stolidity and want of expression. + + [Illustration] + +The Chinese workman eats but twice a day. His morning meal is between +six and eight o'clock, and his afternoon meal is at four. + +By this time the boats have arrived from Kowloon with their loads of +vegetables, and the small hawkers are busily carrying them from house +to house for the consumption of Chinese households, while the outlying +greengrocers are being supplied with their daily stock, in the setting +out of which great care is exercised, the Chinese greengrocer having +an artistic eye for effect. No small shop does a more flourishing +business than the druggist's and herbalist's, the Chinese having faith +in the use of "simples," though remedies including the calcined teeth +of tigers and vertebræ of serpents are not without their moral effect, +and the mystery of a pill three-quarters of an inch in diameter has +yet to be fathomed. At the Chinese New Year, tied up over every door +will be seen a small bundle of vegetables, consisting of five plants: +the _Acorus calamus_, representing a sword, and the _Euphorbia_, a +fighting-iron, to ward off evil spirits; the onion, to guard against +the spirit of malaria; the _Artemisia vulgaris_ and the _Davallia +tennifolia_. This charm is as efficacious as the house leek that, in +the imaginative pre-national school days, was carefully planted on the +roof of Irish cottages as a sure preservative against fire. + + [Illustration: ON A BACKWATER.] + +But the busiest man in the early morning is the barber, for the +Chinese workman does not shave his own head, and small crowds assemble +in each barber's shop, where tongues wag freely, and some read the +morning papers while awaiting their turn. However great the crowd, +there is no sign of hurry in the manipulation of the placid barber. +Not alone is the front of the head shaved, but the eyebrows and +eyelashes are attended to; then the ears are explored and cleaned with +minute care; and, lastly, the client is massaged and shampooed while +he sits bent forward, the hammering upon back and sides being by no +means gentle, and ending with a resounding smack with the hollowed +palm of the barber's hand. The constant manipulation of the ears is +supposed to be injurious as tending to produce deafness, but without +it the customer would not consider that he had value for his thirty +cash, the usual fee--about one-third of a cent. The end of the +operation is the plaiting of the long queue, which between the real +and the false hair freely used reaches nearly to the heels, and is +finished by a silk tassel plaited into the end. Sometimes a man may be +seen plaiting his own queue, which he does by taking it over the rung +of a ladder, and moving backwards so as to preserve the strain. + +Among the skilled workmen, the sawyer and the stonecutter are most in +evidence to the ordinary visitor, who is astonished to see a squared +log two feet in diameter being sawn by a single man. Having got the +log into position, one man with a frame-saw does the whole business. +He stands on top, and the work is extremely arduous; but an enormous +amount of timber is sawn in this way. The stonecutter has a lighter +job. The Chinese are very expert quarrymen, and cut out by iron or +wooden wedges great blocks of granite, the wedge-holes having been +prepared by iron chisel-headed bolts. Wooden wedges are then driven in +and wetted, the expansion of the wedge forcing out the block, which +requires but little squaring, so carefully is the cleavage effected. + +One generic difference between the physical formation of Western and +Eastern races is the facility with which the latter can sit upon their +heels. An Asiatic will sink down upon his heels with as much ease and +with as restful comfort as can a European upon a chair; and in +stonecutting the workman may be seen sitting upon the stone on which +he is working, sometimes seated on the edge while chiselling the +perpendicular side below him. In this position a row of workmen look +at a distance like a row of vultures sitting upon a ledge. + +The lowest form of labour in Hong Kong is the work of the coolies, who +carry coals and building materials to the Peak district; and here we +have a striking evidence of the patient industry and extraordinary +ingenuity with which the piece-work labourer secures the largest +possible amount of result from the day's labour. Up the steep +hill-side every brick or basket of sand and lime that has gone to +build the houses and barracks of the Peak district has been carried up +in the double baskets, suspended from the bamboo carrying-pole of a +working coolie, who is paid by the load. Now a heavy load, sometimes +weighing a hundredweight, carried up very steep roads for two miles or +so, means slow progress, with many rests. The coolie manages to reduce +the intervals of rest to the smallest compass. Placing two loads +together, he carries one for fifty yards and there deposits it, +returning for the second, which is carried up one hundred yards. +Dropping that, he--or she, for the matter of that, for the coolie +hill-carriers are sometimes women, not seldom old and feeble--returns +to the first load and carries the burden fifty yards beyond the +second, which is in turn taken up in the same way. There is no +standing idle or sitting down to rest, the only relief being that of +dropping the load and walking back down hill to take up the one left +behind. This system of overlapping saves all the time that otherwise +must be lost in resting, as no human being could carry up a load to +the Peak without frequent intervals of rest. + + [Illustration] + +After the day's work is ended the workman does not affect a tavern. He +dearly loves a game, or, more strictly speaking, a gamble; and while +all gambling-houses are put down with a strong hand, no conceivable +official ingenuity could circumvent the gambling propensities of a +people whose instruments of games of chance are not confined to cards +or dice. The number of seeds in a melon, or any other wager on +peculiarities of natural objects will do as well, and afford no +damning evidence should an officious member of the police force +appear. The game of chi-mooe is not confined to the working people, +but is a favourite game with all classes, and the shouts and laughter +that accompany it now and again bring complaints from the neighbours +whose rest is disturbed. The game is simple and is played by two. One +suddenly flings out his hand with one, two, or more fingers extended, +at the same moment the other must guess the number. Curling has been +called the roaring game, but no curler ever made a greater racket than +two excited chi-mooe players. One would imagine that the guessing of +the number of fingers extended must be a matter of pure chance, but a +Chinese gentleman assured me that in the flinging forward of the hand +there is a muscular difference in the form if one, two, three, or more +fingers are to be extended, and this difference is observed with +lightning rapidity by an expert player. + +However content the adult Chinaman may be with sedentary amusements, +the energy of youth is in full force in the Chinese schoolboy. He is +rapidly acquiring a taste for European games, such as cricket and +football, but he has always played the game of hopscotch, but little +differing from the game played in an English village. Where a ring can +be formed he also plays a game of shuttlecock, the only instrument +being a cork or piece of light wood with two or three feathers to +regulate its flight and fall. This is played solely with the feet, the +shuttlecock being kicked from one to the other with extraordinary +dexterity. The shuttlecock is often kept up for five or even ten +minutes at a time, foot and eye working together with wonderful +precision. + + [Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + [Illustration] + + +There is one sport in which the adult Chinaman shines. Each year in +the month of June the boatmen and fishermen hold a festival at which +the great feature is the dragon-boat races. The dragon-boat is about +ninety feet long and only wide enough to admit of two men with paddles +sitting side by side on each thwart. In this boat from sixty to eighty +men are seated, while in the centre stands a man with a drum or gong +before him on which he beats the time. A man stands at the stern with +a long steering paddle, and a boy sits in front with two lines in his +hands attached to a large dragon's head with which the bow is adorned, +and which moves from side to side as the lines are pulled. Two +contending boats paddle to the starting-buoy and at a signal they are +off. The frantic encouragement of the men beating time, the furious +but rhythmic splash of nearly two hundred paddles in the onrushing +boats, and the natural movement from side to side of the brightly +coloured dragons' heads, is one of the finest and most inspiriting +sights imaginable. Every muscle is strained, and no sport on earth +shows for the time a more tremendous effort of muscular energy. +Sometimes in the excitement of the race the boats collide, in which +event the race must be run again, for the mixture of paddles makes it +impossible to disentangle without a dead stop. But such a +_contretemps_ leads to no mischief or quarrelling. The accident is +treated good-humouredly all round, and it only means another race. On +the river at Canton literally thousands of boats make a line to see +the races paddled. There are no police and no stewards of the course, +but no boat ever attempts to break the line or cause any obstruction. + +The Chinese delight in festivals and spectacular effects, in which +they give proof of organizing capacity. A very striking festival was +that in honour of a son of the god of war, held at Macao every tenth +year in the intercalary moon. It was a guild procession--watchmakers, +tailors, shoemakers, etc. Each guild had carried before it a great +triangular, richly embroidered banner, also an umbrella of honour. +Many had also a long piece of embroidery carried horizontally on +poles. There were ornamental chairs of the usual type, some with +offerings to the gods, some with wooden drums. Each guild had its +band; some string bands, some reeds and gongs, some Chinese viols and +mandolins, the latter being frequently played while held over the head +or resting on the back of the neck. Each guild marched two and two +behind the band, the members being dressed in mauve silk coats and +broad red or yellow sash tied round the waist with richly embroidered +ends down each leg. The watchmakers' guild all carried watches on the +right breast. Children, richly dressed in mediæval costume, were +mounted on caparisoned ponies, and some guilds had cars on which were +allegorical groups of children. In some cases, by an ingenious +arrangement of an iron frame, a child held a sword at length which, +apparently, pierced another child through back and breast. The variety +of these groups was very great. From time to time the procession +stopped, and then the children were taken down for a rest, the iron +frames being disconnected from their easily detachable sockets. In the +meantime each group was attended by men who held umbrellas over the +children to protect them from the sun. + +Each guild had its attendant coolies carrying stools, and when the +procession stopped the members at once sat down, starting up at once +on the sound of a gong that regulated the halting and starting, when +the stools were taken up by the coolies. + + [Illustration: A TEMPLE.] + +The procession finished with a dragon carried by twenty-six men. It +was a hundred and forty feet long, the back of green and silver +scales, the sides being stripes of red, green, pink, and yellow silk. +This dragon was preceded by a man, who danced before it with a large +ball representing the moon. At this the dragon made dashes from one +side of the street to the other, but was staved off by another, who +carried a ball surrounded by gilt rays. This probably represented the +sun saving the moon from being swallowed by the dragon, as is supposed +to take place in an eclipse. The dragon went along the street with +sinuous rushes from side to side. Where there was room it wound round +and round, but uncoiled on the touch upon its tail of the gilt ball +with the golden rays. The procession took an hour and a half to pass a +given point. The most perfect order prevailed, the crowd keeping a +clear space. At the finish each guild went to its own district, and +the decorations were carefully stowed away for future use. + + [Illustration] + +Such a festival is, of course, a local holiday; but the only legal +Chinese holidays are at the New Year, when all business is suspended. +The viceroy puts his seal away; the governor and the magistrate follow +suit; the merchant closes his place of business and squares his books, +while his employees take the opportunity to revisit their homes in +the country. The shopkeeper generally has a feast for all his people, +at the conclusion of which he makes a speech, wishing each and all a +"Happy New Year," in certain cases adding, "and I hope that you, and +you," mentioning the names, "will obtain good situations." This is a +delicate intimation to the persons named that their services are +dispensed with. In ordinary Chinese business affairs all accounts are +closed and balanced and all debts paid at the New Year. + +In Hong Kong the cessation from business lasts for ten days. At this +time booths are erected on either side of several streets in the +Chinese quarter, on which are displayed everything that appeals to the +fancy of the crowds with which the streets are thronged day and night. +There is an enormous sale of a white bell-shaped flower, something +like a large erica, known as the New Year flower; goldfish in glass +globes are a favourite purchase, and on the stalls rigged up under +cover are thousands of articles to suit the fancy of all classes. The +heterogeneous stocks-in-trade are evidently got together by roving +pedlars or collectors, who find their annual harvest at New Year. Here +may be purchased everything, from a piece of bronze or porcelain to a +small clay figure, of which a dozen may be bought for a couple of +cents. Sometimes an article of real value may be picked up by a seeker +after second-hand chances, while eager children spend their cents in +smaller investments; but the annual bazaar has one peculiarity that +speaks well for the masses of the Chinese people. In all the thousands +of articles and pictures exhibited for sale there is not to be seen +the slightest indication of even a suspicion of immodesty. + +Over every door is now found a small ornament of peacock's feathers, +that being a lucky emblem. The social ceremonies are many and +elaborate. New Year visits of congratulation are paid; the family +graves are visited, and due honours paid to the dead; and presents are +offered and accepted. During the holidays immense quantities of +fire-crackers are exploded, a string costing many dollars being +sometimes hung from an upper balcony, the explosion of the crackers, +with loud sounding bombs at intervals, lasting for several minutes, +and filling the street with apparently the sharp crackle of musketry +and the boom of heavy guns. At the end of the festival the streets are +filled with the vermilion paper that covered the exploded fireworks. + + [Illustration] + +Next to the New Year's fair, the most interesting study in Hong Kong +was the crowds who came down from Canton and the outlying districts of +Kwangtung province for the annual race-meeting--a European institution +that flourishes at every coast port in China, the horses being hardy +little Mongolian ponies, and the sport excellent. During the three +days' racing it was the custom practically to allow a Saturnalia, and +the police closed their eyes to offences against the gambling laws, +only pouncing upon faked pu-chee boxes, loaded dice, or other unfair +instruments of gambling. On the race-course these gamblers plied their +trade between the races, and afforded an opportunity of seeing the +most diverse and curious games of chance and skill. One game I do not +remember to have seen elsewhere. Round a flat stone was drawn a circle +with a diameter of about five feet, divided into spaces radiating from +centre to circumference. On the stone the proprietor placed a heap of +copper coin. The players placed their stakes in any division chosen; +then the proprietor placed a weight on his head, from which he jerked +it at a distance of about twelve feet. If the weight hit the heap of +coin he took the stakes, but if it fell on one of the divisions, the +player who staked on that division took the heap of coin on the stone. + +Again, on a board was painted a number of Chinese characters, on any +one of which the players placed their stakes. The proprietor then +handed a bag to a player, who took out a handful of disks, like +draughtsmen, on each of which was a character. The handful was placed +on the table and sorted, each character being placed on the +corresponding character on the board. The player received as many +times his stakes as there were characters drawn corresponding to that +on which he had placed his money. If no corresponding character was +drawn, then he lost. + +In pursuance of a determined effort to stop the ravages of plague, the +custom of winking at what were undoubtedly irregularities was +abandoned, so as to check the influx of the many thousands of +"sporting" vermin to Hong Kong at race time, and once stopped the +custom could not be permitted to again establish itself. + +It must not be assumed that all the interests of Hong Kong are +exhausted by a cursory or even a lengthened examination of its streets +and outdoor amusements. Hong Kong boasts of excellent schools, the +Queen's College and St. Joseph's Schools being the largest. There is +an excellent boarding-school for the sons and daughters of Chinese +gentlemen, where the utmost care is exercised in the supervision of +the pupils; a medical college exists in which the entire course of +medical education can be taken; and it is now proposed to establish a +university that may yet be the centre of higher education for Chinese +students. + +The charities of China are not sufficiently realized; but while there +is no general organization of charitable societies, as in European +countries, individual charity is widespread. The poor receive gifts +of clothing in winter; in times of famine or of scarcity rice is often +distributed free, or sold under cost price, or coffins are supplied to +the poor. In Hong Kong the Chinese community have built a well +equipped hospital for general patients, and also a plague hospital for +the reception of the victims of this scourge that has annually visited +the city for the past fifteen years. + +There is also in connection with the "Tung Wa" hospital an institution +called the Pow-li-un-kok, where orphan children are taken, as are also +received the children who from time to time are rescued by the police +from harpies who are carrying them through Hong Kong for the purpose +of selling them as domestic slaves. These children are brought up, and +the boys placed in situations where they can earn their living, while +arrangements are made for the marriage of the girls when they reach a +marriageable age. Chinese frequently take girls from the institution +as wives. It is also used as a rescue home for fallen and friendless +girls for whom also husbands are often found. + + [Illustration] + +These are but brief sketches of phases of Chinese life as it presents +itself to one who has had no opportunity for the study of cause and +effect that would require long years of careful observation. We know +but little of the real China. The average European, if he thinks of +China at all, sets her down as a nation just emerging from barbarism, +untruthful, deceitful, and having more than her share of original sin. +On the other hand, the Chinese who have come in contact with foreign +Powers regard them as bullies, who have by their destructive prowess +forced themselves upon the Middle Kingdom and deprived the Emperor and +his government of their sovereignty over the various concessions at +the treaty ports. No definite complaint has been formulated on this +matter so far; but it must not be assumed that there is no feeling of +irritation on the subject in the minds of many of the educated +Chinese. The phenomenal successes of Japan in war, and the rapidity +with which she has compelled her acceptance on terms of equality by +foreign nations, has set the Chinese a-thinking, and we know not how +soon the demand for reconsideration of foreign relations may become +inconveniently pressing. + +The death of the late Dowager-Empress and of the young Emperor, whose +sudden and mysterious death was the crowning tragedy of years of +sorrow and restraint, has placed upon the Imperial throne an infant +whose father (the Regent) is a prince of enlightened and progressive +views. Already great changes have been made, and greater still are +projected. The isolation of centuries is being modified, and in nearly +three thousand schools in China the English language is being taught, +and Western methods of instruction are being introduced. Many internal +reforms are being considered, and the principle of the training to +arms of all young men has been decided upon. If we take even one-tenth +of the population as being liable to military training, it would give +a crop of recruits of forty millions! It remains to be seen if such an +evidence of power will set in motion the military instinct, or if a +different system of education may not result in a demand for drastic +changes in the whole system and constitution of government. There is +in the Southern Provinces a strong leaven of opinion formed by +students who have been trained in the colleges of the United States. +Their aspirations are mainly on Republican lines; but I do not find +that this solution commends itself to the people of the Northern +Provinces. + + [Illustration] + +The establishment of local councils has been decided upon, the +inevitable result of which will be the lessening of the autocratic +power of provincial officials. Whether the change will result in the +increase of efficiency or the decrease of corruption time alone will +tell; but we may rest assured that however loudly reformers may demand +changes of system and custom, the present generation will be very slow +to move. When the Chinese people do move the advance will be probably +steady, and will certainly be maintained. Should a military instinct +be evolved, an alliance with Japan might at a future period form the +strongest combination in the world, and when that time arrives the +present system of extra-territoriality of the concessions, so +convenient for foreigners, will go by the board. + +At present, however, China offers in her markets an object for the +keen competition of the manufacturing nations of the world, in which +the British manufacturer bids fair to be beaten, especially by our +friends in Germany, whose watchword in commerce, as in everything +besides, is "thorough." + +The awakening of China means her entrance into strong competition for +her full share of the trade of the world. With her great commercial +capacity and enormous productive power she will be able to a large +extent to supply her own wants, and will certainly reach out to +distant foreign markets. Exploration discloses the fact that in bygone +ages Chinese influence has reached to the uttermost parts of the +globe. It is to be found in the ornaments of the now extinct Bæthucs +of Newfoundland, and in the buried pottery of the Incas of Peru, while +in Ireland a number of Chinese porcelain seals have been discovered at +different times and in some cases at great depths, the period, judging +from the characters engraved upon them, being about the ninth century +A.D. It may be that with the increase of commercial activity, wages +will rise to such an extent as to bring the cost of production in +China to the level of that of other nations; if not, then the future +competition may produce results for the wage-earners of Liverpool, +Birmingham, and Manchester evoking bitter regret that the policy of +coaxing, worrying, bullying, and battering the Far Eastern giant into +the path of commercial energy has been so successful. Given machinery, +cheap labour, unsurpassed mineral deposits, and educated determination +to use them, and China will prove a competitor before whom all but the +strongest may quail. + +The only competition for which she will never enter is a competition +in idleness. Every man works to the full extent of his capacity, and +the virile vigour of the nation is intact. + +With the coming change in her educational system that will strike off +the fetters of competitive memorizing and substitute rational +reflection, China must be a potent factor in the affairs of the world. +When that time comes let us hope that the relations between China and +the British Empire will be the outcome of mutual confidence and +goodwill. + + +_Printed by the Menpes Printing Co., Ltd., Watford._ + + [Illustration] + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have +been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42904 *** |