Perang Dunia Timur. Jepang, Tiongkok, dan Korea/Bab 4

RAKYAT TIONGKOK.

Pergesekan Penghakiman Amerika dan Tiongkok Melawan Satu Sama Lain—Setiap Pihak Melihat Sisi Terburuk Pihak Lain—Karakteristik Tiongkok, Fisik, Temperamen, dan Moral Mereka—Uji Intelektualitas—Adat Perkawinan Tiongkok—Pertunangan—Upacara Pernikahan—Posisi Wanita—Pergundikan—Perceraian—Hubungan Keluarga—Busana Pria dan Wanita—Ikat Kaki versus Queues—Perumahan dan Kehidupan Rumah Tiongkok—Anak—Pendidikan dan Sekolah—Perayaan Nasional—Musik dan Seni—Agama Tiongkok—Bahasa dan Sastra.

Dalam memperlakukan karakteristik pribadi dan kebiasaan rakyat Tiongkok, ini menjadi keinginan penulis untuk menjauh dari deskripsi umum dari ekor babi, kepala yang dicukur, sepatu bersol tebal, asumsi martabat dan ketuanan, dan penghirauan besar terhadap banyak subyek yang familiar bagi kami, yang biasanya menandai halaman-halaman artikel dan buku tentang ras tersebut. Rakyat Tiongkokmeyakini banyak kepribadian bodoh, dan banyak penulis yang berharap untuk membuat bahan terbaca yang menonjolkan dan melebih-lebihkan hal apapun yang dapat menampilkan kkeanehan dan kekonyolan. ni tak lain akan menjadi jawaban buruk untuk pandangan yang menuturkan bahwa mereka sangat berkaitan dengan orang-orang Tiongkok yang menghibur kami. Mereka juga menikmati gagasan kesenangan besar pada kesimbulan kami, mendapatinya nyaris tak mungkin mengaitkan hal lain selain cukuran rambut mereka, busana yang nampak ketat, kurang anggun dan tak nyaman, sepatu kulit bersol tipis pria, topi tinggi, serung tangan pada musim panas, penampilan para perempuan yang nampak langsing dengan pinggang kecil mereka, penghirauan menonjol kami terhadap aturan umum kesopanan, dan kebiasaan aneh pria dan istrinya berjalan bersama di tempat umum! Pemandangan tersebut dapat membuat kami tertawa kala mengaitkannya dengan bahan serba-serbi dasar, namun mereka berpikir bahwa mereka memiliki bukti bahwa kami juga lebih rendah ketimbang mereka dalam intelektualitas, penyempurnaan, peradaban dan secara khusus moral. Ini membuktikan bahwa satu pihak atau pihak lainnya membuat kekeliruan serius, dan ini hanya akan menjadi anggpan alami dan beralasan yang keduanya timbul dari beberapa keberadaan. Kami harus melirik persoalan ini dari sudut pandang imparsial, dan mengambil pandangan yang bukan sekadar fakta yang pada dasarnya tak berpengaruh dan berpengecualian, namun orang-orang yang menjadi pengaruh fundamental dan menyebar, dan harus menghimpun fakta-fakta tersebut secara adil dan cerdik. Kami harus mengambil luka yang tak membentuk pembenaran bahwa karena rakyat atau kebiasaan berbeda dari kami sendiri sehingga sangat memperburuk.

Terdapat banyak alasan kenapa pembenaran tak adil dibentuk oleh kami melawan Tiongkok dan Tiongkok melawan Eropa dan Amerika. Setiap bangsa melirik sisi terburuk dari bangsa lainnya. Sehingga yang terjadi adalah bahwa Tionghoa yang datang ke Amerika nyaris semuanya dari provinsi-provinsi selatan dan dari kelas bawah dari bagian terburuk di kekaisaran tersebut. Kami membentuk banyak penekanan kami dari pengamatan kami terhadap para petualang kelas rendah. Di sisi lain, mereka tak menerima perlakuan yang akan membuat mereka kembali ke Tiongkok dengan opini baik Amerika.

Di Tiongkok, kondisi sama atau serupa timbul. Di pelabuhan-pelabuhan terbuka, tempat perdagangan asing besar timbul, sejumlah besar orang Tiongkok berkumpul dari dalam negeri. Kebanyakan dari mereka adalah petualang yang datang ke tempat-tempat tersebut untuk mengumpulkan kekayaan. Pada kenyataannya, warga Tiongkok dari kelas terbaik tidaklah berjumlah besar di pelabuhan-pelabuhan terbuka. Lebih lanjut, gagasan dan kebiasaan asing selaras dengan keberadaan besar dalam komunitas asing tersebut, dan penduduk asli, entah kami secara asli mendapatkannya, secara bertaham kurang lebih menjadi terdenasionalisasi, dan menghadirkan jenis modifikasi dari ras mereka. Setiap hari, Tiongkok menjalin kontak dengan para pelaut mabuk dan para pedagang tak tetap dari barat, pelajaran baru secara mutlak dipelajari dari mereka di sekolah duplisitas dan immoralitas. Warga Tiongkok dari kelas tersebut tidaklah selaras dengan jenis ras tersebut. Fakta yang diterima menyatakan bahwa pelabuhan-pelabuhan besar di dunia, tempat perdagangan mancanegara dilakukan, menjadi pusat terburuk, dan tak ada perkiraan rakyat yang terbentuk dari kota-kota tersebut yang dapat dibenarkan.

Tiongkok adalah ras bertemperamen flegmatik dan impasif, dan secara fisik yang kurang aktif dan bertenaga ketimbang bangsa-bangsa Eropa dan Amerika. Anak-anak tak menerapkan olahraga atletik dan berat, namun lebih ke permainan kelereng, menerbangkan layangan, dan sepak bola atau gasing. Pria membuat langkag mudah untuk rekreasi, namun tak pernah berjalan cepat untuk memutuskan dan khawatir atau terpikat. mereka juga secara karakteristik penakut dan penurut. Namun walau Tiongkok seringkali berani dan peduli, mereka tidaklah bergerak pasif. Mereka bersifat apatetik terhadap luka dan kematian, dan memiliki kekuatan besar dorongan fisik serta dorongan dan tantangan besar. Pengembangan dan kekuatan fisik serta umur beragam di belahan berbeda dari kekaisaran tersebut. Di dalam dan sekitaran Kanton, serta di sebagian besar wilayah selatan, kami banyak mendapatkan penekanan kami terhadap Tiongkok; orang-orang tersebut berukuran tubuh yang kecil; namun di provinsi Shan-tung di utara, orang-orangnya memiliki tinggi dari lima kaki delapan inchi sampai enam kaki pada umumnya, sementara beberapa dari mereka memiliki ukuran yang lebih tinggi. Di bagian Tiongkok tersebut juga, orang seringkali mendapati tenaga kerja berusia lebih dari tujuh puluh tahun bekerja sehar0hari dalam perdagangan mereka, dan bukanlah tak lazim mendengar orang-orang yang mencapai usia sembilan puluh tahun atau lebih.

Kecerdikan Tiongkok dibuktikan lewat sebagian besar fakta menonjol dan berborot. Orang-orang biasanya memiliki kecerdikan dan informasi yang dipertanyakan. Kami mendapati mereka memiliki sistem pemerintahan dan kitab hukum yang akan menyematkan perbandingan selaras dengan bangsa-bangsa Eropa, dan memicu sifat bijak dan terpuji dari banyak murid kompeten. Penerapan kebijaksanaan dan pengamatan orang-orang yang membangun sistem tersebut dibuktikan oleh fakta bahwa ini menghimpun uji waktu, mendorong orang lebih lama ketimbang lainnya sepanjang sejarah dunia; bahwa ini diikatkan bersama di bawah aturan umum, penduduk yang dunianya tak paralel, dan memberikan tingkat kemakmuran dan kekayaan yang sangat menekankan kebanggaan akan sejarah otentiknya yang dicapai sepanjang lebih dari tiga puluh abad; pada sastra khasnya, terkandung banyak karya murni dan bernilai permanen; sampai bahasa yang umum dipakai yang menerapkan kekuatan ekspresi menonjol; pada daftar cendekiawannya, dan ketonjolannya dalam belles-lettres. Jika tak ada bukti intelektualitas, sulit untuk berujar dimana bukti semacam itu dapat ditemukan, atau apa yang menjadi dasar diri mereka sendiri menghimpun klaim keunggulan kecerdasan mereka.

Tiongkok sangat arogan dan tinggi hati dalam anggapan terdahulunya, bahwa kami mungkin memiliki alasan tersebut yang diberlakukan untuk mencatatkan posisi yang layak disematkan. Harus diingat bahwa penghirauan sampai bangsa-bangsa barat terkini, seperti mereka menjadikannya, mereka membandingkan dirinya sendiri singkatnya dengan bangsa-bangsa di sekitarnya, dan separuh keputusan untuk melebih-lebihkan dirinya dapat ditemukan dalam fakta bahwa mereka hanya menganggap diri mereka sendiri sebagai bangsa yang dianggapnya terhormat. Mereka sepanjang berabad-abad menjadi pusat penerangan besar dan peradaban di Asia timur. Bangsa tersebut menyebarkan sastra dan agama ke Jepang, Korea, dan Manchuria, dan dilirik oleh bangsa-bangsa kecil lain tersebut sebagai guru pengetahuan mereka. Jepang tak menghasilkan guru-guru atau cerita-cerita besar yang akan kami anggap sebanding dengan Tiongkok; dan ia adalah bukti pengetahuan mereka paling jelas dari pengetahuan keunggulan sastra Tiongkok klasik yang mereka sebagai buku-buku pelajaran di sekolah-sekolah sebanyak yang didapati oleh kami di Yunani dan Roma. Tiongkok sebetulnya sulit mengetahui hal apapun dari seni rupa dan ilmu pengetahuan modern dan tak ada kata dalam bahasa mereka untuk menyematkan beberapa dari merekal namun bagaimana leluhur mereka pada dua ratus tahun silam mengetahui kimia, geologi, filsafat, anatomi dan ilmu lainnya. Apakah mereka pada lima puluh tahun silam mengetahui kapal uap, rel kereta api, dan telegraf? Dan perbandingan kami mendapati pengetahuan beberapa tahun silam bahwa leluhur mereka dipakai sebagai bukti kerendahan ras dan kecerdasan? Selain itu, jika kami mundur beberapa ratus tahun, kami mendapati banyak hal yang mengklaim Tiongkok lebih unggul ketimbang ras rendahan. Terdapat dasar untuk mengaitkan Tiongkok dengan reka cipta dan penemuan percetakan, pemakaian jarum magnetik, pembuatan dan pemakaian bubuk meriam, kain sutra, dan perangkat dan porselen, dan nampak tak meragukan bahwa Tiongkok menemukan Amerika dari bagian barat, lama sebelum penemuan bangsa Eropa.

Intellectual power manifests itself in a variety of ways, and glaring defects are often found associated in the same individual with remarkable powers and capabilities, as particular faculties 139both of mind and body are often cultivated and developed at the expense of others. Chinese education has very little regard to the improvement of the reasoning powers, and Chinese scholars are deficient in logical acumen and very inferior to the Hindoos in this respect; but in developing and storing the memory they are without a rival. Again their system of training effectually discourages and precludes freedom and originality of thought, while it has the compensating advantages of creating a love of method and order, habitual subjection to authority, and a remarkable uniformity in character and ideas. Perhaps the results which they have realized in fusing such a vast mass of beings into one homogeneous body, could have been reached in no other way.

The morality of the Chinese presents another subject about which there is a wide difference of opinion. It may be a matter of interest and profit to turn for a moment to the views which the Chinese generally entertain of our morality, and their reasons for these views. They are all familiar with the fact that foreigners introduced opium into China, in opposition to the earnest and persistent remonstrances of the Chinese government; that out of the opium trade grew the first war with China; and that when the representatives of Christian England urged the Chinese government to legalize the trade and make it a source of revenue, the Chinese emperor replied that he would not use as a means of revenue that which brought suffering and misery upon his people.

The Chinese form their opinions of western morality to a great extent from the sailors on shore-leave at the open ports, and these men are proverbially vicious under such circumstances. For years foreigners of this class have commanded many of the piratical fleets on the coasts of China, and foreign thieves and robbers have infested many of the inland canals and rivers. In business dealings with strangers from western lands the natives find that duplicity and dishonesty are not confined to their own people. Replying to our criticism of the system of concubinage, the Chinese point to the numerous class of native women in the foreign communities, fostered and patronized by foreigners alone, who appear in the streets with an effrontery which would be regarded as utterly indecent and intolerable in most Chinese cities. 140The large importation from Europe of obscene pictures which are offered at every hand, is another fact which the educated Chinese cites in answer to criticisms of his people’s morality.

On the general subject of morality and Chinese moral teaching, two quotations from the writings of eminent Englishmen who lived in China for many years are pertinent. Sir John Davis says: “The most commendable feature of the Chinese system is the general diffusion of elementary moral education among the lower orders. It is in the preference of moral to physical instruction that even we might perhaps wisely take a leaf out of the Chinese book, and do something to reform this most mechanical age of ours.” The opinion of Thomas Taylor Meadows is thus expressed: “No people whether of ancient or modern times has possessed a sacred literature so completely exempt as the Chinese from licentious descriptions and from every offensive expression. There is not a single sentence in the whole of their sacred books and their annotations that may not when translated word for word be read aloud in any family in England.”

It must be acknowledged that the Chinese give many evidences, not only in their literature, but also in their paintings and sculpture, of a scrupulous care to avoid all indecent and immoral associations and suggestions. In referring to the above peculiarity of Chinese views and customs, these remarks are not, of course, concerning the private lives and practices of the people, but of their standard of propriety and of what the public taste requires, in objects which are openly represented to be seen and admired by the young and old of both sexes.

The government of the empire is modeled on the government of a household, and at the root of all family ties, says one of the Chinese classics, is the relation of husband and wife, which is as the relation of heaven and earth. Chinese historians record that the rite of marriage was first instituted by the Emperor Fuh-he, who reigned in the twenty-eighth century B.C. But before this period there is abundant evidence to show that as amongst all other peoples the first form of marriage was by capture. At the present day marriage is probably more universal in China than in any other civilized country in the world, for it is regarded 141as something indispensable and few men pass the age of twenty without taking to themselves a wife. To die without leaving behind a son to perform the burial rites and to offer up the fixed periodical sacrifices at the tomb, is one of the most direful fates that can overtake a Chinaman, and he seeks to avoid it by an early marriage.

Like every other rite in China that of marriage is fenced in with a host of ceremonies. In a vast majority of cases the bridegroom never sees his bride until the wedding night, it being considered a grave breach of etiquette for young men and maidens to associate together or even to see one another. Of course it does occasionally happen that either by stealth or chance a pair become acquainted; but whether they have thus associated, or whether they are perfect strangers, the first formal overture must of necessity be made by a professional go-between, who having received a commission from the parents of a young man, proceeds to the house of the young woman and makes a formal proposal on behalf of the would-be bridegroom’s parents. If the young lady’s father approves the proposed alliance, the suitor sends the lady some presents as an earnest of his intentions.

The parents next exchange documents which set forth the hour, day, month, and year when the young people were born, and the maiden names of their mothers. Astrologers are then called in to cast the horoscopes, and should these be favorable the engagement is formally entered into, but not so irrevocably that there are not several orthodox ways of breaking it off. But should things go smoothly, the bridegroom’s father writes a formal letter of agreement to the lady’s father, accompanied by presents, consisting in some cases of sweetmeats and a live pig, and in others of a goose and gander, which are regarded as emblems of conjugal fidelity. Two large cards are also prepared by the bridegroom, and on these are written the particulars of the engagement. One is sent to the lady and the other he keeps. She in return now makes a present to the suitor according to his rank and fortune. Recourse is then again had to astrologers to fix a fortunate day for the final ceremony, on the evening of which the bridegroom’s best man proceeds to the house of the lady and conducts her to her future home in a red sedan chair, 142accompanied by musicians who enliven the procession by wedding airs. At the door of the house the bride alights from her sedan, and is lifted over a pan of burning charcoal laid on the threshold by two “women of luck,” whose husbands and children must be living.

In the reception room the bridegroom awaits his bride on a raised dais, at the foot of which she humbly prostrates herself. He then descends to her level, and removing her veil gazes on her face for the first time. Without exchanging a word they seat themselves side by side, and each tries to sit on a part of the dress of the other, it being considered that the one who succeeds in so doing will hold rule in the household. This trial of skill over, the pair proceed to the hall, and there before the family altar worship heaven and earth and their ancestors. They then go to dinner in their apartment, through the open door of which the guests scrutinize and make their remarks on the appearance and demeanor of the bride. This ordeal is the more trying to her, since etiquette forbids her to eat anything, a prohibition which is not shared by the bridegroom, who enjoys the dainties provided as his appetite may suggest. The attendants next hand to each in turn a cup of wine, and having exchanged pledges, the wedding ceremonies come to an end. In some parts of the country it is customary for the bride to sit up late into the night answering riddles which are propounded to her by the guests; in other parts it is usual for her to show herself for a time in the hall, whither her husband does not accompany her, as it is contrary to etiquette for a husband and wife ever to appear together in public. For the same reason she goes to pay the customary visit to her parents on the third day after the wedding alone, and for the rest of her wedded life she enjoys the society of her husband only in the privacy of her apartments.

The lives of women in China, and especially of married women, are such as to justify the wish often expressed by them that in their next state of existence they may be born men. Even if in their baby days they escape the infanticidal tendencies of their parents, they are regarded as secondary considerations compared with their brothers. The philosophers from Confucius downward have all agreed in assigning them an inferior place to men. 145When the time comes for them to marry, custom requires them in nine cases out of ten, as we have seen, to take a leap in the dark, and that wife is fortunate who finds in her husband a congenial and faithful companion.

There is but one proper wife in the family, but there is no law against a man’s having secondary wives or concubines; and such connections are common enough wherever the means of a family are sufficient for their support. The concubine occupies in the family an inferior position to the wife, and her children, if she has any, belong by law to the wife.

There are seven legal grounds for divorcing a wife: disobedience to her husband’s parents; not giving birth to a son; Dissolute conduct; jealousy; talkativeness; thieving, and leprosy. These grounds however may be nullified by “the three considerations:” If her parents be dead; if she has passed with her husband through the years of mourning for his parents; and if he has become rich from being poor.

So many are the disabilities of married women, that many girls prefer going into nunneries or even committing suicide to trusting their future to men of whom they can know nothing but from the interested reports of the go-between.

The re-marriage of widows is regarded as an impropriety, and in wealthy families is seldom practiced. But among the poorer classes necessity often compels a widow to seek another bread winner. Some, however, having been unfortunate in their first matrimonial venture, refuse to listen to any proposal for a re-marriage, and like the young girls mentioned above seek escape by death from the importunities of relatives who desire to get them off their hands. A reverse view of matrimonial experiences is suggested by the practice of wives refusing to survive their husbands, and putting a voluntary end to their existence rather than live to mourn their loss. Such devotion is regarded by the people with great approbation and a deed of suicide is generally performed in public and with great punctiliousness.

The picture here given of married life in China has been necessarily darkly shaded, since it is, as a rule, only in its unfortunate phases, that it affords opportunity for remark. Without doubt there are many hundreds of thousands of families in China 146which are entirely happy. Happiness is after all a relative term, and Chinese women, knowing no higher status, are as a rule content to run the risk of wrongs which would be unendurable to an American woman, and to find happiness under conditions which are fortunately unknown in western countries.

The family tie in China is strong and the people are clannish. They seldom change their place of residence and most of them live where their ancestors have lived for many generations. One will frequently find the larger portion of a small village bearing the same name, in which case the village often takes its name from the family. Books on filial piety and the domestic relations recommend sons not to leave their parents when married, but to live together lovingly and harmoniously as one family. This theory is carried out in practice to some extent, in most instances. In the division of property some regard is had to primogeniture, but different sons share nearly equally. The eldest simply has a somewhat larger portion and certain household relics and valuables.

The position of woman is intermediate between that which she occupies in Christian and in other non-Christian countries. The manner in which they regard their lot may be inferred from the fact related on a previous page, that the most earnest desire and prayer in worshipping in Buddhist temples is, generally, that they may be men in the next state of existence. In many families girls have no individual names, but are simply called No. One, Two, Three, Four, etc. When married they are Mr. So-and-so’s wife, and when they have sons they are such-and-such a boy’s mother. They live in a great measure secluded, take no part in general society, and are expected to retire when a stranger or an acquaintance of the opposite sex enters the house. The claim of one’s parents and brothers upon his affections is considered to be paramount to that of his wife. A reason given for this doctrine in a celebrated Chinese work is that the loss of a brother is irreparable but that of a wife is not. Women are treated with more respect and consideration as they advance in years; mothers are regarded with great affection and tenderness, and grandmothers are sometimes almost worshipped. It must be further said that the Chinese have found the theory of inferiority of women a very 147difficult one to carry out in practice. There are many families in which the superiority of her will and authority is sufficiently manifest, even though not cheerfully acknowledged.

The rules and conventionalities which regulate social life are exceedingly minute and formal. Politeness is a science, and gracefulness of manners a study and discipline. The people are hospitable and generous to a fault, their desire to appear well in these respects often leading them to expenditures entirely disproportionate to their means.

When under the influence of passion, quarrels arise, the women resort to abuse in violent language, extreme in proportion to the length of time during which the feelings which prompted them have been restrained. Men bluster and threaten in a manner quite frightful to those unaccustomed to it, but seldom come to blows. In cases of deep resentment the injured party often adopts a mode of revenge which is very characteristic. Instead of killing the object of his hate, he kills himself on the doorstep of his enemy, thereby casting obloquy and the stigma of murder on the adversary.

In matters of dress, with one or two exceptions, the Chinese must be acknowledged to have used a wise discretion. They wear nothing that is tight fitting, and make a greater difference between their summer and winter clothing than is customary among ourselves. The usual dress of a coolie in summer is a loose fitting pair of cotton trousers and an equally loose jacket; but the same man in winter will be seen wearing quilted cotton clothes, or if he should be an inhabitant of the northern provinces a sheepskin robe, superadded to an abundance of warm clothing intermediate between it and his shirt. By the wealthier classes silk, satin, and gauze are much worn in the summer, and woolen or handsome fur clothes in the winter. Among such people it is customary except in the seclusion of their homes, to wear both in summer and winter long tunics coming down to the ankles.

In summer non-official Chinamen leave their heads uncovered, but do not seem to suffer any inconvenience from the great heat. On the approach of summer an edict is issued fixing the day upon which the summer costume is to be adopted throughout the empire, and again as winter draws near, the time for putting on 148winter dress is announced in the same formal manner. Fine straw or bamboo forms the material of the summer hat, the outside of which is covered with fine silk. At this season also the thick silk robes and the heavy padded jackets worn in winter are exchanged for light silk or satin tunics. The winter cap has a turned-up brim and is covered with satin with a black cloth lining, and as in the case of the summer cap a tassel of red silk covers the entire crown.

The wives of mandarins wear the same embroidered insignia on their dresses as their husbands, and their style of dress as well as that of Chinese women generally bears a resemblance to that of the men. They wear a loose fitting tunic which reaches below the knee, and trousers which are drawn in at the ankle after the bloomer fashion. On state occasions they wear a richly embroidered petticoat coming down to the feet, which hangs square both before and behind and is pleated at the sides like a Highlander’s kilt. The mode of doing the hair varies in almost every province. At Canton the women plaster their back hair into the shape of a teapot handle, and adorn the sides with pins and ornaments, while the young girls proclaim their unmarried state by sutting their hair in fringe across their foreheads after a fashion not unknown among ourselves. In most parts of the country, flowers, natural when obtainable and artificial when not so, are largely used to deck out the head dresses, and considerable taste is shown in the choice of colors and the manner in which they are arranged.

Thus far there is nothing to find fault with in female fashions in China, but the same cannot be said of the way in which they treat their faces and feet. In many countries the secret art of removing traces of the ravages of time with the appliances of the toilet table has been and is practised; but by an extravagant and hideous use of pigments and cosmetics, the Chinese girl not only conceals the fresh complexion of youth, but produces those very disfigurements which furnish the only possible excuse for artificial complexions. Their poets also have declared that a woman’s eyebrows should be arched like a rainbow or shaped like a willow leaf, and the consequence is that wishing to act up to the idea thus pictured, China women with the aid of tweezers 151remove all the hairs of their eyebrows which straggle the least out of the required line, and when the task becomes impossible even with the help of these instruments, the paint brush or a stick of charcoal is brought into requisition. A comparison of one such painted lily with the natural healthy complexion, bright eyes, laughing lips, and dimpled cheeks of a Canton boat girl, for example, is enough to vindicate nature’s claim to superiority over art a thousand fold.

But the chief offense of Chinese women is in their treatment of their feet. Various explanations are current as to the origin of the custom of deforming the women’s feet. Some say that it is an attempt to imitate the peculiarly shaped foot of a certain beautiful empress; others that it is a device intended to restrain the gadding-about tendencies of women; but however that may be, the practice is universal except among the Manchoos and the Hakka population at Canton, who have natural feet. The feet are first bound when the child is about five years old and the muscles of locomotion have consequently had time to develop. 152A cotton bandage two or three inches wide is wound tightly about the foot in different directions. The four smaller toes are bent under the foot, and the instep is forced upward and backward. The foot therefore assumes the shape of an acute triangle, the big toe forming the acute angle and the other toes, being bent under the foot, becoming almost lost or absorbed. At the same time, the shoes worn having high heels, the foot becomes nothing but a club and loses all elasticity. The consequence is that the women walk as on pegs, and the calf of the leg having no exercise shrivels up. Though the effect of this custom is to produce real deformity and a miserable tottering gait, even foreigners naturally come to associate it with gentility and good breeding, and to estimate the character and position of women much as the Chinese do, by the size of their feet. The degree of severity with which the feet are bound differs widely in the various ranks of society. Country women and the poorer classes have feet about half the natural size, while those of the genteel or fashionable class are only about three inches long.

Women in the humbler walks of life are therefore often able to move about with ease. Most ladies on the other hand are practically debarred from walking at all and are dependent on their sedan chairs for all locomotion beyond they own doors. But even in this case habit becomes a second nature and fashion triumphs over sense. No mother, however keen may be her recollection of her sufferings as a child, or however conscious she may be of the inconveniences and ills arising from her deformed feet, would ever dream of saving her own child from like immediate torture and permanent evil. Further there is probably less excuse for such a practice in China than in any other country, for the hands and feet of both men and women are naturally both small and finely shaped. The Chinese insist upon it that the custom of compressing women’s feet is neither in as bad taste nor so injurious to the health as that of foreign women in compressing the waist.

The male analogue of the women’s compressed feet in the shaven forepart of the head and the braided queue. The custom of thus treating the hair was imposed on the people by the first emperor of the present dynasty, in 1644. Up to that time the Chinese 153had allowed the hair to grow long, and were in the habit of drawing it up into a tuft on the top of the head. The introduction of the queue at the bidding of the Manchoorian conqueror was intended as a badge of conquest, and as such was at first unwillingly adopted by the people. For nearly a century the natives of outlying parts of the empire refused to submit their heads to the razor and in many districts the authorities rewarded converts to the new way by presents of money. As the custom spread these bribes were discontinued, and the converse action of treating those who refused to conform with severity, completed the conversion of the empire. At the present day every Chinaman who is not in open rebellion to the throne, shaves his head with the exception of the crown where the hair is allowed to grow to its full length. This hair is carefully braided, and falls down the back forming what is commonly known as the “pig tail.” Great pride is taken, especially in the south, in having as long and as thick a queue as possible, and when nature has been niggardly in her supply of natural growth, the deficiency is supplemented by the insertion of silk in the plait.

The staff of life in China is rice. It is eaten and always eaten, from north to south and from east to west, on the tables of the rich and poor, morning, noon, and night, except among the very poor people in some of the northern non-rice producing provinces where millet takes its place. In all other parts the big bowl of boiled rice forms the staple of the meal eaten by the people, and it is accompanied by vegetables, fish and meat, according to the circumstances of the household. Among many people, however, there is a disinclination to eat meat, owing to the influence of Buddhism. The difference in the quality and expense of the food of the rich from that of the poor, consists principally in the concomitants eaten with the rice or millet. The poor have simply a dish of salt vegetables or fish, which costs comparatively little. The rich have pork, fowls, eggs, fish and game prepared in various ways.

Before each chair is placed an empty bowl and two chop-sticks, while in the middle of the table stands the dishes of food. Each person fills his basin from the large dishes, or is supplied by the servants, and holding it up to his chin with his left hand he 154transfers its contents into his mouth with his chop-sticks with the utmost ease. The chop-sticks are held between the first and second, and the second and third fingers, and constant practice enables a Chinaman to lift up and hold the minutest atoms of food, oily and slippery as they often are, with the greatest ease. To most foreigners their skillful use is well nigh impossible. To the view of the Chinese the use of chop-sticks is an evidence of superior culture; and the use of such barbarous instruments as knives and forks, and cutting or tearing the meat from the bones on the table instead of having the food properly prepared and severed into edible morsels in the kitchen, evidences a lower type of civilization.

The meats most commonly eaten are pork, mutton, and goat’s flesh, beside ducks, chickens, and pheasants, and in the north deer and hares. Beef is never exposed for sale in the Chinese markets. The meat of the few cattle which are killed is disposed of almost clandestinely. There is a strong and almost universal prejudice against eating beef, and the practice of doing so is declaimed against in some of the moral tracts. Milk is hardly used at all in the eighteen provinces, and in many places our practice of drinking it is regarded with the utmost disgust.

It must be confessed that in some parts of the country less savory viands find their place on the dinner table. In Canton, for example, dried rats have a recognized place in the poulterers’ shops and find a ready market. Horse flesh is also exposed for sale, and there are even to be found dog and cat restaurants. The flesh of black dogs and cats, and especially the former is preferred as being more nutritive. Frogs form a common dish among the poor people and are, it is needless to say, very good eating. In some parts of the country locusts and grasshoppers are eaten. At Tien-tsin men may commonly be seen standing at the corners of the streets frying locusts over portable fires, just as among ourselves chestnuts are cooked. Ground-grubs, silkworms and water-snakes are also occasionally treated as food. The sea, lakes, and rivers abound in fish, and as fish forms a staple food of the people the fisherman’s art has been brought to a great degree of perfection. The same care as in the production of fish is extended to that of ducks and poultry. Eggs are artificially 157hatched in immense numbers, and the poultry markets and boats along the river at Canton are most amazing in their extent.

The funerals of grown persons, and especially of parents, are as remarkable for burdensome ceremonies, extravagant manifestations of grief and lavish expense, as those of children are for their coldness and neglect. Candles, incense and offerings of food are placed before the corpse, and a company of priests is engaged to chant prayers for the departed spirit. An abundance of clothing is deposited with the body in the coffin and various ceremonies are performed during several days immediately after that, and on every subsequent seventh day, closing with the seventh seven. When the coffin is carried out for burial, men and women follow in the procession clothed in coarse white garments, white being used for mourning.

Inasmuch as the coffin must remain in the hall for forty-nine days, naturally they are prepared with a great deal of care. Very thick planks are used in its construction, cut from the hardest trees, caulked on the outside and cemented on the inside, and finally varnished or lacquered. Sometimes a coffin containing a body is kept in the house for a considerable length of time after the forty-nine days have expired, while arrangements are being made for a burying place and other preliminaries are attended to. The lids being nailed down in cement they are perfectly air-tight.

The notions which Chinamen entertain concerning the future life rob death of half its terrors and lead them to regard their funeral ceremonies and the due performance of the proper rites by their descendants as the chief factors of their future well being. Among other things the importance of securing a coffin according to the approved fashion is duly recognized, and as men approach old age they not infrequently buy their own coffins, which they keep carefully by them. The present of a coffin is considered a dutiful attention from a son to an aged father.

The choice of a site for the grave is determined by a professor of the “Fung Shuy” superstition, who, compass in hand, explores the entire district to find a spot which combines all the qualities necessary for the quiet repose of the dead. When such 158a favored spot has been discovered a priest is called in to determine a lucky day for the burial. This is by no means an easy matter and it often happens that the dead remain unburied for months or even years on account of the difficulties in the way of choosing either fortunate graves or lucky days. The ceremonies of the interment itself and of mourning that follows are most elaborate in character, and too much involved for detailed description here.

But universal as the practice of burying may be said to be in China there are exceptions to it. The Buddhist priests as a rule prefer cremation, and this custom, which came with the religion they profess from India, has at times found imitators among the laity. In Formosa the dead are exposed and dried in the air; and some of the Meaou-tsze tribes of central and southern China bury their dead, it is true, but after an interval of a year or more, having chosen a lucky day, they disinter them. On such occasions they go accompanied by their friends to the grave, and having opened the tomb they take out the bones and having brushed and washed them clean they put them back wrapped in cloth.

The necessity in the Chinese mind that their bones must rest in the soil of their native land with their ancestors, has made to exist some peculiar practices among the colonizing Chinese in the United States and other countries. The bones of those who die thus far away from home are carefully preserved by their countrymen and shipped back, sometimes after many years, to find a resting place in the Middle Kingdom.

It is a curious circumstance that in China where there exists such a profound veneration for everything old, there should not be found any ancient buildings or old ruins. That there is an abundant supply of durable materials for building is certain, and for many centuries the Chinese have been acquainted with the art of brick making, yet they have reared no building possessing enduring stability. Not only does the ephemeral nature of the tent, which would indicate their original nomadic origin and recollection of old tent homes, appear in the slender construction of Chinese houses, but even in shape they assume a tent-like form. Etiquette provides that in houses of the better class a high wall shall surround the building, and that no window shall look outward. Consequently streets in the fashionable parts of cities have a dreary aspect. The only breaks in the long line of dismal wall are the front doors, which are generally closed, or if not, movable screens bar the sight of all beyond the door. Passing around one such screen one finds himself in a court-yard which is laid out as a garden or paved with stone. From this court-yard one reaches, on either side, rooms occupied by servants, or 160directly in front, another building. Through this latter another court-yard is reached, in the rooms surrounding which the family live, and behind this again are the women’s apartments, which not infrequently give exit to a garden at the back.

Wooden pillars support the roofs of the buildings, and the intervals between these are filled up with brick work. The window-frames are wooden, over which is pasted either paper or calico, or sometimes pieces of talc to transmit the light. The doors are almost invariably folding doors; the floors either stone or cement; and ceilings are not often used, the roof being the only covering to the rooms. Carpets are seldom used, more especially in southern China, where also stoves for warming purposes are known. In the north, where in the winter the cold is very great, portable charcoal stoves are employed and small chafing dishes are carried about from room to room. Delicate little hand-stoves, which gentlemen and ladies carry in their sleeves, are very much in vogue. In the colder latitudes a raised platform or dais is built in the room, of brick and stone, under which a fire is kindled with a chimney to carry off the smoke. The whole substance of this dais becomes heated and retains its warmth for several hours. This is the almost universal bed of the north of China. But the main dependence of the Chinese for personal warmth is on clothes. As the winter approaches garment is added to garment and furs to quilted vestments, until the wearer assumes an unwieldy and exaggerated shape. Well-to-do Chinamen seldom take strong exercise, and they are therefore able to bear clothes which to a European would be unendurable.

Of the personal comfort obtainable in a house, Chinamen are strangely ignorant. Their furniture is of the hardest and most uncompromising nature. Chairs made of a hard black wood, angular in shape, and equally unyielding divans, are the only seats known to them. Their beds are scarcely more comfortable, and their pillows are oblong cubes of bamboo or other hard material. For the maintenance of the existing fashions of female head dressing, this kind of pillow is essential to women at least, as their hair, which is only dressed at intervals of days, and which is kept in its shape by the abundant use of bandoline, would be crushed and disfigured if lain upon for a moment. Women, 161therefore, who make any pretension of following the fashion, are obliged to sleep at night on their backs, resting the nape of the neck on the pillow and thus keeping the head and hair free from contact with anything.

The ornaments in the houses of the well-to-do are frequently elaborate and beautiful. Their wood carvings, cabinets, and ornamental pieces of furniture, and the rare beauty of their bronzes and porcelain, are of late years well known and much sought for in our own country. Tables are nearly uniform in size, furnishing a seat for one person on each of the four sides, and tables are multiplied sufficiently to accommodate whatever number requires to be served. When guests are entertained, the two sexes eat separately in different rooms, but in ordinary meals the members of the family of both sexes sit down together with much less formality.

The streets in the towns differ widely in construction in the northern and southern portions of the empire. In the south they are narrow and paved, in the north they are wide and unpaved, both constructions being suited to the local wants of the people. The absence of wheel traffic in the southern provinces makes wide streets unnecessary, while by contracting their width the sun’s rays have less chance of beating down on the heads of passers and it is possible to stretch awnings from roof to roof. It is true that this is done at the expense of fresh air, but even to do this is a gain. Shops are all open in front, the counters forming the only barrier. The streets are crowded in the extreme, and passage is necessarily slow.

This inconvenience is avoided in the wide streets of the cities of the north, but these streets are so ill kept that in wet weather they are mud and in dry they are covered inches deep in dust. Of the large cities of the north and south Peking and Canton may be taken as typical examples and certainly, with the exception of the palace, the walls, and certain imperial temples, the streets of Peking compare very unfavorably with those of Canton. The walls surrounding Peking are probably the finest and best kept in the empire. In height they are about forty feet and the same in width. The top, which is defended by massive battlements, is well paved and is kept in excellent order. Over each 162gate is built a fortified tower between eighty and ninety feet high.

The power of a Chinese father over his children is complete except that it stops short with life. The practice of selling children is common, and though the law makes it a punishable offense, should the sale be effected against the will of the children, the prohibition is practically ignored. In the same way a law exists making infanticide a crime, but as a matter of fact it is never acted upon; and in some parts of the country, more especially in the provinces of Chiang-hsi and Fu-chien, this most unnatural offense prevails among the poorer classes to an alarming extent. Not only do the people acknowledge the existence of the practice, but they even go the length of defending it. It is only however abject poverty which drives parents to this dreadful expedient, and in the more prosperous and wealthy districts the crime is almost unknown. Periodically the mandarins inveigh against the inhumanity of the offense and appeal to the better instincts of the people to put a stop to it; but a stone which stands near a pool outside the city of Foochow bearing the inscription, “Girls may not be drowned here,” testifies with terrible emphasis to the futility of their endeavors.

The large number of cast-a-way bodies of dead infants seen in many parts of China is often regarded, though unjustly, as evidence of the prevalence of this crime. In most instances, however, it really indicates only the denial of burial to infants. This is due, at least in many places, to the following superstition: When they die it is supposed that their bodies have been inhabited by the spirit of a deceased creditor of a previous state of existence. The child during its sickness may be cared for with the greatest tenderness, but if it dies parental love is turned to hate and resentment. It is regarded as an enemy and intruder in the family who has been exacting satisfaction for the old unpaid debt; and having occasioned a great deal of anxiety, trouble, and expense, has left nothing to show for it but disappointment. The uncared for and uncoffined little body is cast away anywhere; and as it is carried out of the door the house is swept, crackers are fired, and gongs beaten to frighten the spirit so that it may never dare enter the house again. Thus do superstitions dry up the fountains of natural affection.

The complete subjection of children to their parents is so firmly imbued in the minds of every Chinese youth, that resistance to the infliction of cruel and even unmerited punishment is seldom if ever offered, and full-grown men submit meekly to be flogged without raising their hands. The law steps in on every occasion in support of parental authority. Filial piety is the leading principle in Chinese ethics.

School life begins at the age of six, and among the wealthier classes great care is shown in the choice of master. The stars having indicated a propitious day for beginning work, the boy presents himself at school, bringing with him two small candles, some sticks of incense, and some paper money, which are burnt at the shrine of Confucius, before which also the little fellow prostrates himself three times. There being no alphabet in Chinese the pupil has to plunge at once into the middle of things and begins by learning to read. Having mastered two elementary books, the next step is to the “Four Books.” Then follow the “Five Classics,” the final desire of Chinese learning. A full comprehension of these Four Books and Five Classics, together with the commentaries upon them, and the power of turning this knowledge to account in the shape of essays and poems, is all that is required at the highest examination in the empire. This course of instruction has been exactly followed out in every school in the empire for many centuries.

The choice of a future calling, which is often so perplexing in our own country, is simplified in China by the fact of there being but two pursuits which a man of respectability and education can follow, namely the mandarinate and trades. The liberal professions as we understand them are unknown in China. The 167judicial system forbids the existence of the legal profession except in the case of official secretaries attached to the mandarins’ courts; and medicine is represented by charlatans who prey on the follies of their fellowmen and dispense ground tiger’s teeth, snake’s skins, etc., in lieu of drugs. A lad, or his parents for him, has therefore practically to consider whether he should attempt to compete at the general competitive examinations to qualify him for office, or whether he should embark in one of the numerous mercantile concerns which abound among the moneymaking and thrifty Chinese.

The succession of examinations leading up to the various honorary degrees and official positions, are complicated and exacting. The successful candidates have great honor attached to them, and are the prominent and successful people of the empire. These examinations are open to every man in the empire of whatever grade, unless he belong to one of the following four classes, or be the descendant of one such within three generations; actors, prostitutes, jailers, and executioners and servants of mandarins. The theory with regard to these people is that actors and prostitutes being devoid of all shame, and executioners and jailers having become hardened by the cruel nature of their offices, are unfit in their own persons or as represented by their sons to win posts of honor by means of the examinations.

The military examinations are held separately, and though the literary calibre of the candidates is treated much in the same way as at the civil examinations, the same high standard of knowledge is not required; but in addition skill in archery and in the use of warlike weapons is essential. It is illustrative of 168the backwardness of the Chinese in warlike methods, that though they have been acquainted with the use of gunpowder for some centuries, they revert in the examination of military candidates to the weapons of the ancients, and that while theoretically they are great strategists, strength and skill in the use of these weapons are the only tests required for commissions.

Persons of almost every class and in almost every station of life make an effort to send their boys to school, with the hope that they may distinguish themselves, be advanced to high positions in the state, and reflect honor upon their families. Of those who compete for literary honors a very small proportion are successful in attaining even the first degree, though some strive for it for a lifetime. These unsuccessful candidates and the graduates of the first and second degrees, form the important class of literary men scattered throughout the empire. The large proportion of this class are comparatively poor, and their services may be obtained for a very small remuneration. They are employed to teach the village schools. Rich families in different neighborhoods often assist in keeping up the school for the credit of the village, and opportunities for obtaining an education are thus brought within the reach of all. Graduates of the first and second degrees, generally have the charge of more advanced pupils, and many are engaged as tutors in private families, commanding higher wages. They are also employed as scribes or copyists, and to write letters, family histories, 169genealogies, etc. In the larger cities schools are established by the government, and in many places free schools are supported by wealthy men, but these institutions do not seem to be popular and are not flourishing.

Though trade practically holds its place as next in estimation to the mandarinate, in theory it should follow both the careers of husbandry and of the mechanical arts. All land is held in free-hold from the government, and principally by clans or families, who pay an annual tax to the crown, amounting to about one-tenth of the produce. As long as this tax is paid regularly the owners are never dispossessed, and properties thus remain in the hands of clans and families for many generations. In order that farming operations shall be properly conducted, there are established in almost every district agricultural boards, consisting of old men learned in husbandry. By these veterans a careful watch is kept over the work done by the neighboring farmers, and in the case of any dereliction of duty or neglect of the prescribed modes of farming, the offender is summoned before the district magistrate, who inflicts the punishment which he considers 170proportionate to the offense. The appliances of the Chinese for irrigating the fields and winnowing the grain are excellent, but those for getting the largest crops out of the land are of a rude and primitive kind.

Among their artisans the Chinese number carpenters, masons, tailors, shoemakers, workers in iron and brass, and silversmiths and goldsmiths, who can imitate almost any article of foreign manufacture; also workmen in bamboo, carvers, idol makers, needle manufacturers, barbers, hair-dressers, etc. Business men sell almost every kind of goods and commodities wholesale and retail. Large fortunes are amassed very much in the same way and by the same means as are now in our own country. The wealth of the rich is invested in lands or houses, or employed as capital in trade or banking, or is lent out on good security, and often at a high rate of interest.

Traveling in China is slow and leisurely, and the modes of it vary greatly in different parts of the empire. In many of the provinces, especially along the coast and in the south, canals take the place, for the most part, of roads. In the vicinity of Ningpo the country is supplied with a complete network of them, often intersecting each other at distances of one or two miles or less. Farmers frequently have short branch canals running off to their houses, and the farm boat takes the place of the farm wagon. Heavy loaded passage or freight boats ply in every direction. The ordinary charge for passage is less than one-half a cent per mile. The boats are admirably adapted to the people and circumstances, being built for comfort, rather than for speed. These water courses then, with the rivers which are so numerous, furnish the most general way of traveling throughout the empire.

In the north, where the country is level and open, the existence of broad roads enables the people to use rude carts for the conveyance of passengers and freight. Mules are used for riding purposes, and palanquins borne by two horses, or sedan chairs carried by two coolies, are popular ways of traveling. The sea-going junks are very much larger than the river craft, and different in construction. The best ones are divided into water tight compartments and are capable of carrying several thousand tons 171of cargo. They are generally three-masted and carry huge sails made of matting.

Although the Chinese have the compass, they are without the knowledge necessary for taking nautical observations, so they either hug the land or steer straight by their compass until they reach some coast with which they are familiar. In these circumstances it is easy to understand why the loss of junks and lives on the Chinese coast every year is so great. The immense number of people who live in boats on the rivers in southern China, render the terrible typhoons which sweep the sea and land especially destructive. For the most part these boat-people are not of Chinese origin but are remnants of the aborigines of the country. That the race has ever survived is a constant wonder, seeing the hourly and almost momentary danger of drowning in which the children live on board their boats. The only precaution that is ever taken, even in the case of infants, is to tie an empty gourd between their shoulders, so that should they fall into the water they may be kept afloat until help comes. They are born in their boats, they marry in their boats, and die in their boats.

The Chinese calendar and the festivities that accompany different seasons and anniversaries, are peculiarly interesting and different from our own, but space forbids any detailed account of them. The four seasons correspond to ours, and in addition to 172the four seasons the year is divided into eight parts called “joints,” or divisions, and these are again subdivided into sixteen more called “breaths,” or sources of life. There are forty festivals of China which are celebrated with observances generally throughout the empire and are considered to be important. They do not occur at regular intervals, and there is no periodical day of rest and recreation corresponding at all to our Sunday. The festivities of the new year exceed all others in their prominence and continuance, and in the universality and enthusiasm with which they are observed. “The Feast of Lanterns” and “The Festival of the Tombs” are two of the most interesting of Chinese festivals. The ninth day of the ninth month is a great time for flying kites. On that day thousands of men enjoy the sport and immense kites of all grotesque shapes fill the air. Theaters are very common in China, but the character and associations of the stage are very different from those of western lands and are very much less respected. Actors are regarded as an inferior class. Females do not appear upon the stage, but men act the part of female characters. Gambling is very common in China and is practiced in a variety of ways. Its ill effects are acknowledged, and there are laws prohibiting it, but they are a dead letter. There are many kinds of stringed and reed instruments used by the musicians of China. Bells, also, are very numerous, and excellent sweet toned bells are made. A careful watch is kept over the efforts of composers by the imperial board of music, whose duty it is to keep alive the music of the ancients and to suppress all compositions which are not in harmony with it. It is difficult for western ears to find anything truly beautiful in Chinese music.

The medical art of China is not of a sort to win much admiration from us. The Chinese know nothing of physiology or anatomy. The functions of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain are sealed books to them and they recognize no distinction between veins and arteries and between nerves and tendons. Their deeply rooted repugnance to the use of a knife in surgery or to post-mortem examinations prevents the possibility of their acquiring any accurate knowledge of the position of the various organs. They consider that from the heart and pit of the stomach 173all ideas and delights proceed, and that the gall bladder is the seat of courage. Man’s body is believed to be composed of the five elements, fire, water, metal, wood, earth. The medical profession in China is an open one, for there are no medical colleges and no examination tests to worry the minds of would-be practitioners. Some doctors have prescriptions as valuable and of the same sort as those prepared from herbs and vegetables by many an old woman in our own country settlements. On the other hand, some of the most ridiculous remedies are given, such as tiger’s teeth, gold and silver leaf, and shavings of rhinoceros horns, or ivory. Fortunately for the people inflammatory diseases are almost unknown in China, but small-pox, consumption, and dysentery rage almost unchecked by medical help; skin diseases are very prevalent, and cancer is by no means uncommon. Of late the practice of vaccination has begun to make its way among the people.

There are hosts of superstitions among the Chinese people, and their beliefs regarding spirits and the influence of the dead, of sorcerers, and of devils, are myriad. These superstitions pervade every rank of society, from the highest to the lowest. The general term applied to the whole system of superstition and luck is fung-shwuy, and the practitioners and learned men in this science are called upon to determine what action shall be taken in all sorts of circumstances.

There are benevolent societies in China corresponding in variety and almost in number to those of Christian lands. There are orphan asylums, institutions for the relief of widows, and for the aged and infirm, public hospitals and free schools, together with other kindred institutions more peculiarly Chinese in their character. In some parts of China schools for girls exist, taught by female teachers. In most places, however females are seldom taught letters, and schools for their benefit are not known. Foreigners in establishing them invariably give a small sum of money or some rice for each day’s attendance, and it is thought that these schools could not be kept together in any other way.

The Chinese describe themselves as possessing three religions, or more accurately three sects, namely, Joo keaou, the sect of scholars; Fuh keaou, the sect of Buddha; and Tao keaou, the 174sect of Tao. Both as regards age and origin, the sect of scholars, or as it is generally called, Confucianism, represents pre-eminently the religion of China. It has its root in the worship of Shang-te, a deity associated with the earliest traditions of the Chinese race. This deity was a personal god, who ruled the affairs of men, rewarding and punishing as appeared just. But during the troublous times which followed the first sovereigns of the Chow dynasty, the belief in a personal deity grew dim, until when Confucius began his career there appeared nothing strange in his atheistic teachings. His concern was with man as a member of society, and the object of his teaching was to lead him into those paths of rectitude which might best contribute to the happiness of the man, and to the well-being of the community of which he formed a part. Man, he held, was born good and was endowed with qualities, which when cultivated and improved by watchfulness and self-restraint, might enable him to acquire godlike wisdom. In the system of Confucius there is no place for a personal god. Man has his destiny in his own hands to make or mar. Neither had Confucius any inducement to offer to encourage men in the practice of virtue, except virtue itself. He was a matter-of-fact, unimaginative man, who was quite content to occupy himself with the study of his fellow men, and was disinclined to grope into the future. Succeeding ages, recognizing the loftiness of his aims, eliminated all that was impracticable and unreal in his system, and held fast to that part of it that was true and good. They clung to the doctrines of filial piety, brotherly love, and virtuous living. It was admiration for the emphasis which he laid on these and other virtues, which has drawn so many millions of men unto him and has adorned every city of the empire with temples built in his honor.

Side by side with the revival of the Joo keaou, under the influence of Confucius, grew up a system of a totally different nature, which when divested of its esoteric doctrines and reduced by the practically minded Chinamen to a code of morals, was destined in future ages to become affiliated with the teachings of the sage. This was Taoism, which was founded by Lao-tzu, who was a contemporary of Confucius. The object of his teaching was to induce men, by the practice of self-abnegation, to reach 177absorption in something which he called Tao, and which bears a certain resemblance to the Nirvana of the Buddhists. The primary meaning of Tao is “the way,” “the path,” but in Lao-tzu philosophy it was more than the way, it was the way-goer as well. It was an eternal road; along it all beings and things walked; it was everything and nothing, and the cause and effect of all. All things originated from Tao, conformed to Tao, and to Tao at last returned. It was absorption into this “mother of all things” that Lao-tzu aimed at. But these subtilties, to the common people were foolishness, and before long the philosophical doctrine of the identity of existence and non-existence assumed in their eyes a warrant for the old Epicurean motto, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” The pleasures of sense were substituted for the delights of virtue, and to prolong life the votaries began a search for elixirs of immortality, and charms. Taoism quickly degenerated into a system of magic. To-day the monopoly which Taoist priests enjoy as the exponents of the mysteries of nature, inherited from the time when they sought for natural charms, makes them indispensably necessary to all classes, and the most confirmed Confucianist does not hesitate to consult the shaven followers of Lao-tzu on the choice of the site for his house, the position of his family graveyard, or a fortunate day for undertaking an enterprise. Apart from the practice of these magical arts, Taoism has become assimilated with modern Confucianism and is scarcely distinguishable from it.

The teachings of Lao-tzu bore a sufficient resemblance to the musings of Indian sages, that they served to prepare the way for the introduction of Buddhism. A deputation of Buddhists arrived in China in the year 216 B.C., but were harshly treated, and returned to their homes without leaving any impress of their religion. It was not until some sixty years after Christ, in the reign of the Emperor Ming Ti, that Buddhism was actually introduced. One night the emperor dreamed that a monster golden image appeared and said, “Buddha bids you to send to the western countries to search for him and to get books and images.” The emperor obeyed, and sent an embassy to India which returned after an absence of eleven years bringing back images, the sacred writings, and missionaries who could translate these 178scriptures into Chinese. Thus was introduced into China the knowledge of that system which in purity and loftiness of aim takes its place next to Christianity among the religions of the world. From this time Buddhism grew and prevailed in the land.

The Buddhism of China is not, however, exactly that of India. The Chinese believe in a material paradise, which is obviously inconsistent with the orthodox belief in Nirvana. Like the other faiths of China, orthodox Buddhism could not entirely satisfy the people. Like the Jews of old they were eager after signs, and self interest made their spiritual rulers nothing loth to grant them their desire. From the mountains and monasteries came men who claimed to possess the elixir of immortality, and proclaimed 179themselves adepts in witchcraft and sorcery. By magic incantations they exorcised evil spirits, and dissipated famine, pestilence, and disease. By the exercise of their supernatural powers they rescued souls from hell, and arrested pain and death. In the services of the church they added ritual to ritual. By such means they won their way among the people, and even sternly orthodox Confucianists make use of their services to chant the liturgies of the dead. But while superstition compels even the wise and the learned to pay homage to this faith, there is scarcely an educated man who would not repudiate a suggestion that he is a follower of Buddha; and though the common people throng the temples to buy charms and consult astrologers, they yet despise both the priests and the religion they profess. But Buddhism has after all been a blessing rather than a curse in China. It has to a certain extent lifted the mind of the people from the too exclusive consideration of mundane affairs, to the contemplation of a future state. It has taught them to value purity of life more highly; to exercise self-constraint and to forget self; and to practise charity towards their neighbors.

It will be seen that no clearly defined line of demarcation separates the three great sects of China. Each in its turn has borrowed from the others, until at the present day it may be doubted whether there are to be found any pure Confucianists, pure Buddhists, or pure Taoists. Confucianism has provided the moral basis on which the national character of the Chinese rests, and Buddhism and Taoism have supplied the supernatural element wanting in that system. Speaking generally then, the religion of China is a medley of the three great sects which are now so closely interlaced that it is impossible either to classify or enumerate the members of each creed. The only other religion of importance in China is Mohammedanism, which is confined to the south-western and north-western provinces of the empire. In this faith also the process of absorption in a national mixture of beliefs is making headway. And since the suppression of the Panthay rebellion in Yun-nan, there has been a gradual decline in the number of the followers of the prophet.

The speech and the written composition of the Chinese differ more than those of any other people. The former addresses itself, 180like all other languages, to the mind through the ear; the latter speaks to the mind through the eye, not as words but as symbols of ideas. All Chinese literature might be understood and translated though the student of it could not name a single character. The colloquial speech is not difficult of acquisition, but the written composition is slow of learning by foreigners. “Pidgin English” is a mixed Chinese, Portuguese and English language, which is a creation of the necessities of communication between Chinese and foreigners at the open ports, while neither party had the time or means or wish to acquire an accurate knowledge of the language of the other. “Pidgin” is a Chinese attempt to pronounce our word business, and the materials of the lingo are nearly all English words similarly represented or misrepresented. The idiom on the other hand is entirely that of colloquial Chinese. Foreigners master it in a short time so as to carry on long conversations by means of it, and to transact important affairs of business. This jargon is passing away. Chinese who know English and English who know Chinese are increasing in number from year to year.

In the first two chapters, containing a sketch of Chinese history, mention has been made of the greater literary works produced in the early centuries of the empire; and the calamity of the burning of the books has been described. Of the famous classics which are yet cherished we will not speak again here. After the revival of literature, and the encouragement given to it by the successors of the emperor who destroyed the libraries of the empire, the tide has flowed onward in an ever-increasing volume, checked only at times by one of those signal calamities often overtaking the imperial libraries of China. It is noteworthy that however ruthlessly the libraries and intellectual centers have been destroyed, one of the first acts of the successful founders of succeeding dynasties has been to restore them to their former completeness and efficiency.

The Chinese divide their literature into four departments, classical, philosophical, historical and belles lettres. The “nine classics,” of which we have already spoken as being the books studied by every Chinese student, form but the nucleus of the immense mass of literature which has gathered around them. 181The historical literature of China is the most important branch of the national literature. There are works which record the purely political events of each reign, as well as those on chronology, rites and music, jurisprudence, political economy, state sacrifices, astronomy, geography, and records of the neighboring countries. On drawing, painting, and medicine much has been written. Poems, novels, and romances, dramas, and books written in the colloquial style, are frequent in the Chinese literature. There is no more pleasant reading than some of their historical romances, and some of the best novels have been translated into European languages. There is, however, considerable poverty of imagination, little analysis of character, and no interweaving of plot in the fiction.

The glance that we have taken at the habits and customs of life among the Chinese people, shows that while they lack many of the things that we have been taught to believe essential to 182civilization, they nevertheless are equipped with many good things. They have the same human instincts, and are ready and able to absorb learning with great rapidity, when once they become convinced of the value of it. It is their conservatism and their belief that they are the only truly civilized people in the world, while all others are barbarians, that has made them so slow to adopt any of the better things of western civilization. The war which this work records may prove to be the most effective means that could possibly have been devised to awaken China from the sleep of centuries, and convince her of the value and efficacy of western methods. If this prove true, a description of China written a generation in the future may have to describe the things here related as existing conditions, to be historical facts after twenty years.