THE WORLD ON CHINA · Society & Everyday Life
23 chapters
Bard writes the temper of daily life: an indifference to exactness, a disregard of the clock, a tolerance of discomfort. Some of his verdicts are hard to read now. The domestic detail he set down is very fine.
Jupcine by outward manifestations, the’ Chinese are undeniably the most courteous nation on the face of the earth. The code of politeness is so complicated, however, and its requirements are so extravagant that, in most cases, form replaces substance. For instance, Chinese of the middle and upper classes: rarely go about on foot; they ride in wheelbarrows, litters, or otherwise. When two of them meet, the rules of etiquette require them to exchange greetings standing on the ground ; afterwards, each one must insist upon the other’s resuming his place first, although the order of precedence, as determined by age or social standing, may be perfectly well known to both parties.
As a consequence of this custom, they often turn their heads, pretending not to see their very best friends, in order to avoid the tediousness of I A
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all these ceremonies, while they do not hesitate to greet a European, as a mere nod will suffice for him. The same wearisome forms are observed when several persons enter a room or sit down at table. It is who shall be first, without infringing upon the law of precedence, for should one be guilty of that offence he would for ever afterwards be classed as a man of inferior attainments. In business relations with foreigners, the natives offer their hands to be shaken, instead of clasp-ing them, raising them to the level of their faces and shaking them themselves, as_ they must do when greeting one of their own country-men.
Matters of etiquette have added many a note of difficulty to the diplomatic relations between the Chinese and foreigners. For instance, official buildings have large double doors in front and single doors at the side. Only those of a rank equal or superior to that of the receiving func-tionary may be admitted at the front entrance. For years the consular body was not received by the viceroy: of Canton, because the gentlemen composing it refused to enter the official building through the side door. Personally they were all of a rank inferior to that of the viceroy, but they objected on the ground that it would be derogatory to the dignity of the several countries they represented if they were to enter through
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the small doors. We may add that, in the course of time, the viceroy was induced to yield the point.
Interviews with the Emperor were still more difficult of arrangement. These did not take place until 1873, and then after an almost daily discussion for a period of six months. The Chinese were willing to consent to the interview, but they insisted upon the performance of the kotow, which even the princes of the blood never omit. This consists of prostrating oneself three times, striking the floor with the forehead three times at each prostration.
The foreign ministers absolutely refused “to perform this ceremony, insisting that the govern-ments they represented were the equals of China, and that, in their own countries, no such for-malities were required of them on approaching their rulers. The Chinese yielded only after being threatened with a severance of all diplo-matic relations. It was finally decided that three bows before the dais on which the Emperor sat should replace the Zo¢ow, and, in 1898, the French minister walked up on the platform and addressed the Emperor directly, an example afterwards fol-lowed by Prince Henry of Prussia.
To appreciate the importance the Chinese attach to these prostrations, which the mission-aries have never refused to perform, one needs
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only to know that the Emperor himself is not exempt from them. The ceremonial to which he is subjected when he presents himself before the Empress Dowager, as prescribed by a decree of February 1, 1894, is as follows :
“We, Empress Dowager, will give a banquet on the second day of the coming March to the Emperor and his Court at the Tzening palace. Before seating himself the Emperor shall advance to the foot of the throne, and shall make the £otow three times. When refreshments are served, the head eunuch, acting for us, shall offer the Emperor a cup of tea with cream. The cup shall be pre-sented in this manner: the head officer of the guard of the Imperial Dairy shall bring it to the door of the throne-room; here he shall deliver it to the chief eunuch, and the Emperor shall receive it at the foot of the dais, where he shall drink it on his knees after having made the Zotow. He shall then thank us by another fotfow. After-wards tea shall be offered, in order of precedence, to the members of the court by guards of the servant body.”
We shall pass over the wine, which was to be served according to the same ceremonial, and quote the close of the decree.
“When the entertainment is over, the Emperor, standing in the centre of the apartment, before the throne, shall tender us his thanks by making
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the £otow three times ; after which, the courtiers shall perform the same ceremony.”
The dress-sword worn with diplomatic uniforms was also the subject of a lengthy discussion. It remained, but foreigners were obliged to yield on the question of eye-glasses and spectacles. Those of the diplomats who have defective eyesight are obliged to rely upon some obliging colleague to guide them about during official receptions.
Etiquette often seriously interferes with busi-ness as well as official relations. Mr. Holcombe tells us of an American who, having an affair with a mandarin, called upon the latter at his home. He was most courteously received, and a servant immediately brought in tea. The mandarin took a cup in both hands, lifted it as high as his fore-head, and ceremoniously presented it to his visitor. The latter, being thirsty, took the cup and drained it. His host’s manner instantly changed. Instead of being respectful, he became insolent. He would hear nothing of business and the luckless visitor was fairly chased out of the house.
The American had committed two infractions of the laws of Chinese politeness. He should have received the cup standing, and, more im-portant still, he should not have tasted a drop or tea until his host had set the example, which would also have been the signal for his own de-parture. If he had been the mandarin’s known
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equal or superior, he could have drunk any number of cups of tea, but being a stranger, the host took this way of discovering his station, as revealed by his knowledge or ignorance of social usages.
Ignorance on these points is unknown among educated Chinamen. Etiquette is taught in the schoolroom and constitutes an integral part of the native education. Hence the contempt felt by the Chinese for foreigners who consider such matters of little importance.
The ceremonious forms of expression used in ordinary conversation seem very amusing to the European listener. It is a fixed rule that one must speak of himself and of all belonging to him in the humblest of terms, and use the most exalted language in referring to the person or property of another. Whether two mandarins or two beggars meet and accost each other, this is a sample of their conversation :
“What is your honourable name?”
‘Your insignificant brother’s name is Wang.”
‘Where is your noble dwelling?”
“ The hovel in which I hide myself is in designating the place.
‘* How many precious sons have you ?”
“T have only five stupid little pigs.”
It is a gross offence to call a native by his name. A superior may do this, but he becomes furious if even a twin brother thus addresses him.
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It must be either “honourable older brother” or “ honourable younger brother,” or some such form of expression. Foreigners usually solve the diffi-culty by applying to their servants the names of their functions, as boy, coolie, gardener, cook, mafoo (coachman), and so on.
The following anecdote serves to illustrate the self-effacing phase of Chinese politeness :
A Chinaman, wearing his finest gown of silk, called at a house where he happened to disturb a rat, which was regaling itself out of a jar.of oil, standing on a beam over the door. In its sudden flight, the rat upset the oil over the luckless visitor, ruining his fine raiment. While the man was still pale with rage, his host appeared, and after the customary greetings, the visitor accounted for his appearance in this wise :
‘As I was entering your honourable dwelling, I frightened your ‘honourable rat ; while it was trying to escape, it upset your honourable jar of oil over my poor and insignificant clothing. This explains the contemptible condition in which I find myself in your honourable presence.”
I found in this maxim of Chinese politeness the explanation of the strange behaviour of our com-prador during the illness of one of his children. Knowing the child to be in a dangerous condition, I inquired after him with much solicitude. The father replied in a smiling, careless manner that
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the boy would probably die. Considerably shocked by this absence of sensibility, I referred to it in conversation with a person who knows the Chinese better than I do.
‘You are wrong in your judgment,” he assured me. ‘‘ The father might be suffering his very utmost, still it would be his duty, according to Chinese etiquette, not to sadden you and hold your attention to a thing of so little importance as his sorrow. The same etiquette requires you to offer him consolation, in spite of his apparent indifference.”
I had to confess that I had been so shocked at the man’s heartlessness that I had not thought him in need of consolation.
With these people, a refusal or disagreeable truth of any kind must always be expressed in more or less evasive circumlocutions. Our habit of saying just what we mean is extremely shock-ing to them. On the other hand, we consider the subterfuges with which they cloak their real thoughts as proof of their spirit of hypocrisy and dissimulation. This is but another of the many causes of the lack of sympathy between them and foreigners.
A domestic, desiring an increase of salary, or smarting under his loss of “face” because of a reproval, will never tell his master that he wishes to leave his service for these reasons. He will
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instead invent the illness or death of some of his relatives, or claim that he himself is sick. If the master really values the servant and wishes to retain him, he can inquire of others as to the real cause of his discontent. After learning what the trouble is, if he desires to redress the grievance, he must do so while pretending to believe in the invented pretext, otherwise his servant would lose his “face,” and the master’s concessions would not prevent his departure.
If a native desires to borrow anything of a neighbour who does not wish to lend, the latter never gives the true reason for his refusal, as that would be discourteous in the extreme. He gives some other reason, joining to it the most expan-sive regrets at being obliged to deny anything to such a deserving person as the would-be borrower, and all this when it is perfectly obvious that he has an abundance of what he was asked to lend.
The custom, in case of dispute, of not insulting one’s antagonist directly, but his family instead, proceeds from the native’s love of devious ways. Nothing can more effectively wound an enemy than to pretend that his ancestors were criminals, prevaricators, or something equally unworthy. He will feel such accusations much more deeply than if the same opprobrious terms were applied to himself.
The following anecdote serves as an illustration
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of the pains taken by domestics to preserve their ‘‘face,” that is, appearances. One of our friends struck his dey for provocations he himself knew to be insufficient. He hastened to soothe the injured servant’s feelings by means of the gift of a few dollars, which the latter accepted. Some hours later he was astonished at hearing the explosion of fireworks in front of his house, and, on looking out, he saw a crowd collected there. Upon inquiry, he learned that the dey had given the money to another domestic to buy fireworks. The explosion of these proclaimed to all that the master had committed an error. Not being able to exact a public apology, the servant took this way to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of those who had witnessed the blow.
DISREGARD FOR SINCERITY AND EXACTNESS
From the national disregard for sincerity and exactness emanate the exasperating practices of fraud, dissimulation, trickery, and squeezing, which are the cause of so much of the antipathy existing between the Chinese and foreigners. We speak on this subject from positive know-ledge. An association of several years with natives of all ranks—merchants, domestics, artisans, and mandarins—authorises us to assert that the bent of their minds is such that they absolutely refuse to admit that two and two make four. They will try to persuade one that it makes three or five ; and as all disputes invariably lead to the intervention of the obliging arbiter, who is disposed to conciliate both parties, he will decide that it makes three and a half. In the chapteron ‘*Money,” we shall see the bewildering effects of this lack of exactness in the financial system.
The postal service is often severely taxed by this absence of precision. It is quite common for letters to bear this address: “To my Grand-
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mother,” or “Tomy Uncle,” and nothing more. Abbé Huc relates the following incident :
“ Having something to send to Peking, I in-formed a teacher whom I employed that he might profit by the occasion to enclose a letter to his mother, from whom he had not heard for four years. He thereupon called up one of his pupils, gave him a sheet of paper, and said: ‘ Write to my mother, and be quick about it, as the courier is waiting.’
‘“Much astonished, I asked if the child was acquainted with his mother. I was told that he was not. ‘How can he know what you have to say to her?’ I inquired. To this question I received the following convincing reply : ‘Why should he not know? He has studied literary composition for two years, and is familiar with elegant forms of expression. Do you think he does not know how a son should address a mother?’ The pupil soon returned with the letter not only written but sealed, and the master solemnly addressed it. The missive would be suited to any mother whatever in the Empire, and all would have experienced the same pleasure in hearing it read to them.”
It has been our experience in more than one business transaction, after a long discussion over the price of merchandise sold, as we supposed, by the Chinese pound of sixteen ounces, to discover
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at the last moment that it was to be weighed by the pound of twelve ounces. Then the bargain-ing had to be begun all over again.
In travelling, if the distance is indicated in miles, one must find out whether they are long or short ones. That will depend upon the diffi-culties to be overcome. On adown grade, it may be forty miles from one point to another, but the return will be sixty miles, according-to the state-ment of the native. This enables him to gauge his charges.
Measures of length and area, although having the same name, differ in value according to their application. Thus, the foot for measuring wood is not the foot for measuring stone ; those who have had occasion to build houses in this land of uncertainties realise the confusion consequent upon this variety of values. The fan, chan, and mow, agrarian measures, vary to infinity in different localities. .
Census-taking is accomplished with such extra-ordinary approximation that no one really knows the population of the country, the government least of all. Here, it is true, there are strong financial reasons for dissimulation. In making bargains—we speak from actual experience—the natives will use every effort to leave matters in an unsettled, equivocal condition, and it is exceed-ingly difficult to entrap them in a dilemma from
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which they cannot extricate themselves. Any method that can be employed to subvert their trickery may be resorted to without scruples, it seems.
During the war with Japan, ambassadors were sent bearing a letter from the Emperor to the Mikado, looking towards preliminaries for peace. The missive deplored in grandiloquent phrases the misunderstanding which divided the two nations. As for power to arbitrate, none was conferred upon the messengers beyond that of approving of the arguments advanced if they were advantageous, and of rejecting them if they were not. The Japanese, Orientals themselves, sent the messengers back at once, and it finally became necessary to despatch Li Hung-Chang himself with explicit powers to arrange terms of peace.
During our residence in China, we had a daily experience of this mode of procedure on a much more modest theatre of action. As soon as there arose the slightest difficulty in business matters, we received visits from the friends of the interested party. He did not appear in person, for fear that he would be forced into a decision on the spot by the summary arguments of the European, who does not care to waste time. The employment of an intermediary served to prolong the chicanery.
With such a mental bent, the practice of down-right fraud becomes perfectly easy and natural.
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As we have had material proof, there is not a single article of Chinese merchandise that is honestly handled by the native. We shall treat of this subject at greater length in the chapter on “ Merchants.”
A writer on China relates the following anec-dote :
‘‘On one occasion, the Secretary of the Ameri-can Legation was to receive from a native magis-trate several hundred ounces of silver, as an indemnity for the annoyance of American citizens by the populace. A written contract stipulated the purity and weight of the metal. The sum was sent in small packages, each claiming by its label to contain fifty ounces.
‘Knowing the predisposition of certain man-darins, the American procured a correct balance, and, selecting a package at random, weighed it. The balance marked forty-seven ounces. Other packages were weighed with the same result. The whole was then sent back to the mandarin with the message that unless silver of the proper purity and weight was forthcoming within an hour, the agreement would be considered null, and a report sent in to Peking. In reply, the correct sum in ingots was despatched.
“On the afternoon of the same day, the Ameri-can accepted an invitation to dine at the man-darin’s home. The latter came forward to greet
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him, and said, laughing heartily : ‘I tried to palm off some inferior silver on you this morning, as I thought you would not know the difference, being a foreigner; but it seems that you know more about such things than I do.’ He then pro-ceeded to relate that he had prepared two packages of ingots, holding himself in readiness to send the good ones in case his little trick should be dis-covered.’
Although the love of truth is taught in theory in the Chinese sacred books, lying is not con-sidered dishonourable in practice. On the con-trary, it is considered a proof of fesse and mental acuteness. It forms a part of the native educa-tion, and no one is at all offended when told that he is not speaking the truth. He merely laughs and remarks that you are shrewder than he is. The mysterious code of honour that proscribes untruthfulness has no existence for him. He recognises only “face,” its counterfeit. To lose or keep his “face” is the all-important thing, and he can lie and not lose his “face” if he can find a skilful way of extricating himself in case he is detected.
The squeeze harmonises very well with the care taken to preserve the face. This English word is the term applied to all commissions more or less clandestine, levied on the transactions of daily life. It occupies the supreme place in China ;
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nothing escapes it. The underpaid mandarin and all his subordinates systematically squeeze the people. <A definite ~égzme would increase official salaries and thus remove the necessity of adding to them by irregular practices of which every one knows and which every one tolerates.
The squeezing system is as old as the Empire itself. It is said to date back to the epoch when servants and hired persons in general were given only their board and clothing for their services. However true this may be, it is certain that the squeeze is firmly established everywhere at the present time, and it seems quite impossible to eradicate the evil.
In a general way, Chinese servants are honest ; that is, they will steal nothing belonging to their employers. The head one, the doy, is responsible for the linen, silver, furniture, clothing, and even the jewellery, and it is rare that any of these articles are missing. Formerly, native servants could even be entrusted with the master’s purse ; at present, the number of foreigners employed makes this impossible. Still, honest though they may be, they do not hesitate to squeeze everybody. They never complain of an increase of labour, even preferring employment in houses where much entertaining is done, the squeeze being more important.
Foreigners have vainly attempted to put an end
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to these extortions in their households by making their purchases themselves. In such cases the servant, in nowise disconcerted, calmly follows his master about, collecting his commissions from all thé shopkeepers patronised. He is expected, and the dealer covers this risk so generously by extra charges that, in general, the foreigner would profit by permitting his servant to do the pur-chasing in the first place and pocket his squeeze. We may add that the domestic usually informs himself as to what point he may squeeze his master with impunity.
If the latter seeks to escape from this question-able impost, there is no limit to the trickery to which he is liable to be exposed, all tending towards the re-establishment of the practice he fancies he has suppressed. He may buy scales and think he thus secures himself against false weights, only to discover that they are marked ac-cording to the scale of fourteen instead of sixteen ounces. He may get a true balance and keep it under lock and key. His provisions will then be correctly weighed, but his cook will manage to return a portion to the dealer, and keep the money he receives in payment.
Neither will the dismissal of the servant sup-press the practice. His successor may be even worse, for he will not only appropriate his own squeeze, but also enough more to compensate
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his predecessor. We are told of a Minister of one of the Legations in Peking who, desiring to put an end to squeezing among his servants, dis-missed his porter, the principal agent in levying it. Years afterwards, he discovered that his corps of domestics, headed by the new porter, had paid the discharged man his regular wages until his death, and had even defrayed his funeral ex-penses. They also had an account at the bank, the income from which was divided among them three times a year.
It is useless to argue with the Chinese concern-ing the immorality of the time-honoured custom, practised by every one in authority, in every social grade. All know of its existence, and it is held to be legitimate, at least by those who profit by it.
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Trg, either his own or that of others, has abso-lutely no value to the Chinaman. We never knew a native to be prompt in keeping an appointment. Those who aimed to be exact arrived at least half an hour late; others came at any hour of the day excepting the one fixed, and no one ever offered the least apology for his tardiness.) He did not consider that necessary.
In the performance of their daily tasks, the simplest time-saving devices are entirely ignored. The idea of using a cart to transport material from one part of a building-yard to another seems never to have entered their minds. Instead, they make innumerable trips to carry only a few bricks. The ground around a building in course of con-struction exactly resembles a beehive ; the looker-on is simply confounded by the great number of useless comings and goings. The tools used are wretched and ineffective, but no power on earth could induce them to adopt others. Happening
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one day to notice our gardener digging up weeds with a little knife, we purchased a hoe and demon-strated to him that by its use he could uproot more weeds in a few minutes than in an hour by using his knife. He took the tool, examined it with admiration, and the very next day, while taking a morning walk in the garden, we found him industriously digging up weeds with his little knife. .
When working for themselves at home, the natives begin their tasks no matter when, and stop at any time. It is not at all uncommon for them to work far into the night after sleeping half the day. The foreigner who has the misfortune to live in the neighbourhood of Chinese houses is able to sleep only at the most unseemly hours. The chatter is kept up until a late hour, for no people are more garrulous, and sleep is entirely banished. In the morning, when the European is obliged to go to his business, the disturbers of the evening before are locked in slumber. Nothing is more difficult than to induce native servants to retire at a proper hour; but, on the other hand, one may be -certain that as soon as the midday meal is over they will give themselves up to the pleasure of a prolonged siesta, and they are much offended if any service is required of them at such a time.
A friend explained the misuse of time so
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universal in China by the fact that the people look forward to no weekly day of rest. Nothing urges them to set apart a certain portion of work to be accomplished between Sundays, each day and hour having its share. Children attend school from daylight until dark, with no recreation and no recess except that needed for refreshment, and this every day in the year but one—New Year's Day. Thus, at an early age, they gain the impression that time is limitless.
The pedagogic system also lends itself to this strange confusion of time. Each pupil works on his own account, studying his lesson out loud, as long as he pleases. When ‘he thinks he has it committed, he goes up to the master, and, stand-ing with his back towards him, so that he cannot possibly see into the book, he proceeds to recite. No questions are asked and no explanation is ever offered: the exercise consists only in repeating texts committed to memory without the least exer-cise of the reason. Only a people with disregard for time could have invented a system of writing which it requires a lifetime to master, so that when one finally comes into possession of the instrument and can begin to study, he is at the threshold of old age.
In their intercourse with the Chinese, Euro-peans are obliged to submit to the torture of innumerable repasts and endless visits. Mr.
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who come, but never take their leave.” More-over, it is quite impossible to learn at once the object of a Chinaman’s visit. He will talk of a thousand things, all having no connection what-ever with the matters that brought him, drink tea, smoke pipe after pipe, and only at the moment of his departure will he incidentally men-tion the business in hand. To do otherwise would be contrary to all rules and customs. This is but another instance of the love of indefiniteness in which he revels. To go straight to the point and make his errand known at once would stamp him as a person destitute of astuteness and of all knowledge of affairs.
Even when one is well acquainted with a native, it becomes necessary to have recourse to a com-prador (a business agent), in order to arrange the preliminaries of any transaction whatever. Many times, on reaching our office in the morning, we have found awaiting us men whom we knew perfectly well. They could have stated their busi-ness at once, but they did no such thing. They remained the whole forenoon, playing checkers with the comprador, and it was only after our return from the midday meal that we were made acquainted with the business matter they came to propose. Then would follow another delay ;' samples of their wares had to be sent for. Although
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they knew that these would have to be shown before a bargain could be made, they never brought them with them on their first visit. When we had anything to sell them, the amount of time wasted was still greater.
A disregard for the value of time is also shown in Chinese amusements. Plays last whole days, the audience eating, drinking, and smoking at the theatre. Those who smoke opium, and they are numerous, have only a few hours at best at their disposal for the transaction of business. The rest of the time is passed in the ecstatic torpor follow-ing the harmful dissipation. The simple act of smoking requires a great amount of time. Pipes have minute bowls, and after each puff they must be refilled and relighted. The necessity of economising in matches causes the smoker to hold in his fingers. .a, little roll of straw paper which burns slowly. -By blowing upon this in a certain direction, it will flame up and serve as a match in lighting the pipe.
The divisions of time are indicated with suffi-cient exactness in China by the terms morning and evening. If one promises anything for the morning he will be prompt if he keeps his word any time between six o’clock and noon. If the natives carry watches, it is because the ticking amuses them. They neglect to wind them, and they cannot be made to comprehend that the
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foreigner values his minutes, and becomes im-patient when he is made to lose even a few of them. We certainly must impress Chinamen much as the restless, turbulent dog does the lazy treacherous cat.
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To love comfort and procure it for himself is evidently the act of a civilised man, but a people can be civilised without being comfortable. The France of the eighteenth century, the grand szécle, fully illustrates this fact. It considered itself highly civilised, and the world shared this opinion to the point of open imitation ; still, no one who visits the palace of Versailles to-day will say that it is a comfortable habitation, in the modern sense of the word. It is not at all extraordinary that with such a conservative nation as the Chinese, conditions existing everywhere in Europe a hundred years ago are still to be met with.
The civilised man is the one who lives in society, under the government of certain moral laws, comfort being only a material sign of his civilisation. This granted, even while admitting that the Chinese are a civilised people, we have no hesitancy in asserting that they are the most uncleanly, the most regardless of the commonest laws of hygiene, of any nation in existence.
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Their cities are surrounded by lofty walls, limiting their area without regard to the increase of their population. The streets are narrow, and the crowding is simply incredible. Those streets in which two sedan chairs can pass without one being lifted above the other are rare outside of Peking.
In nearly all the cities the principal streets are
‘paved, or rather were paved. The sewers, when
there are any, run through the centre. These are also loosely covered with flagging, and the odours escaping from them are intolerable to the foreigner, although they in no wise inconvenience the native. The unpaved streets are full of filth of every description. Hogs, usually black ones, roam about at will, wallowing in the mire and doing duty as scavengers.
We have still the most vivid recollection of the extraordinary differences of level of the streets of Tientsin, and of the ruts in which our pousse-pousse stuck fast. We have visited many Chinese cities and we are undecided as to which one deserves the palm for uncleanliness. It should fall to Peking, perhaps. Unlike the other cities, this has broad avenues, the level of which has been so raised by centuries of accumulations that the primitive houses are now almost underground. Shops and installations of every kind usurp the passage-way in such a manner that, despite the
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width of the streets, circulation is not much freer than elsewhere.
To realise fully what a neglected city can be-come, one has only to visit Peking on a rainy day. This city was constructed on a pretentious plan. Its spacious avenues, and its towering walls sur-mounted at intervals with graceful pagodas, cer-tainly made it, at the epoch in which it was built, the most beautiful capital in the whole civilised world. To-day, alas! the streets are denuded of their paving in spots, vehicles drop into the holes, and it may be truthfully said that the once splendid thoroughfares are an impediment to circulation.
We made our first visit to Peking on a stormy day. Our cart, destitute of springs, jolted over the broken pavements, pounding our flesh to a jelly, besides threatening to overturn at every moment and plunge us into great black holes of mire. The streets on which the Legation build-ings stand deserve special mention. Here our mule sank in the mud up to his flanks, and we were seriously disquieted as to the eventuality of a shipwreck in the ocean of filth, The hotel where we stayed and the French Legation stand side by side, but we were obliged to hire a con-veyance to carry us from one to the other, as lakes of mud divided them. In dry weather the dust is simply suffocating.
In all the cities and towns there is a veritable
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overflow into the streets of all the industries and even of the domestic occupations. The portion in front of each house is considered by the occu-. pant as belonging to him, to be put to whatever use he sees fit, often to the grcat annoyance of passers-by. The natives have no interest in public property as such. If they can utilise any part of it for private purposes, they do not hesi-tate to doso. The pavements and the walls of cemeteries are carried off to the very last brick, when they are left unguarded.
The highways or public roads are in the worst of conditions. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, they are the property of the
_person through whose fields they run. He has to pay taxes on them just the same as he does on the rest of his property, while deriving no more benefit from them than others do. As might be expected, he reduces the public thoroughfare to its simplest expression, often a path. Next, the eagerness of the farmer to secure fertilising material, which is very scarce owing to the small number of beasts of burden, causes him to dig up the soil in the road over which animals have passed, and spread it over his field. As this practice has been carried on for ages, the roads have become ditches, whicih in rainy weather are transformed into canals. When two carts meet, it often becomes necessary to lift one over the
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other. We have seen natives, their felt shoes and ragged clothing steeped in mud, tug for hours trying to extricate their miserable vehicles from the mire. Their patience under these trying con-ditions was always admirable, and, we may add, we never saw any attempts at bettering matters during dry weather.
The illumination in the cities barely deserves the name. In Peking a story is current among the foreign population to this effect: Eighty thousand taels are appropriated annually for the lighting of the city; the official in charge of the matter takes 40,000 as his squeeze and gives the other 40,000 to a subordinate with orders to provide the illumination. This last hands over 20,000 to his subordinate, and so on, from distri-bution to distribution, until the original sum is reduced to a few copper cash, given toa coolie to buy oil and a wick; this is placed on a plate on the ground. A beggar comes along and drinks the oil—and such is the lighting of Peking.
Chinese inns are destitute of even the most ordinary sanitary arrangements, and the filthiness is simply beyond conception. In the courtyards animals—mules, ponies, and camels—are huddled together, and the stamping, crying, and braying effectually prevent a European from getting a wink of sleep, although Chinese travellers do not seem to be disturbed. As Abbé Huc states, if fifty
30
INDIFFERENCE TO COMFORT
donkeys were to bray together, successively, or not at all, it would be the same to a native. The and howling of the hundreds of dogs that infest barking every city do not annoy him in the least ; neither do the carcasses of those that have starved to death. They decay where they drop, unless some shrewd speculator offers their flesh for sale, for, in China, little that is edible escapes the voracity of a population always on the verge of starvation.
The houses of the natives rest on the ground without cellars, and are cold and damp. The doors are always swinging, and for this .reason afford little protection from cold in winter. The windows, with their paper panes, keep out neither cold, rain, heat, nor dust. We are told that a mandarin who visited America stated that the prisons of that country were more comfort-able than his vamen.
In the open ports, window-glass, imported from Europe, is now much used; in villages on the coast, ground shells are used for panes, but they admit little light. Nowhere are openings numerous, and they are never so arranged as to permit the circulation of air. In summer it is quite impossible to remain inside of a native house. Most of them are also the asylums of vermin as numerous as varied, the inns deserving special mention in this particular.
31
THE CHINESE AT HOME
Excepting in the northern part of the country, houses are not supplied with any heating appa-ratus. In the homes of the rich one sometimes sees braziers in which charcoal bricks are burnt. The people keep warm by putting on extra cloth-ing, wearing it in the house as well as outdoors. In the north the dang is a very insufficient substi-tute for the stove of the Westerner. It is a box-like structure built of masonry across an end of the room, and upon it all the family sleep. It is heated from the inside by fires of grass or charcoal. As one fire goes out before the next one is started, the occupants of the bed alternately roast and freeze. Neither this nor the fumes of gas filling the room prevents the native from sleeping soundly.
Most Chinese houses possess but one cooking utensil—a large basin with a very thin bottom, set inmasonry. Only one dish can be prepared at a time, and while this is cooking not even a bowl of hot water can be procured. The forests having been destroyed long ago and the coal-mines being as yet only superficially exploited, the fuel used consists chiefly of twigs and dried grass. These must be constantly supplied under the basin, which can be heated with little fire because of its thin bottom. Hot-water stores are numerous in the cities. Water is bought to warm up the rice, which is cooked in large quantities in order to save fuel.
32
INDIFFERENCE TO COMFORT
Chinese of all classes are indifferent to the comforts of a bed. When they have one at all, it is usually a wooden affair with no mattress or pillows. Their heads, or necks rather, rest upon a piece of bamboo, lacquered wood, a polished brick, or nothing at all. Women usually place some-thing under their necks so as not to disarrange their hair, which is not dressed every day.
The native costume is rational enough -in sum-mer. Two garments are worn, a sack and wide trousers, which are often tied down around the ankle. Women and men dress nearly alike. The clothing is made of cotton cloth, generally dyed blue, and the rich wear long gowns of silk, often richly embroidered. In winter the garments are wadded with cotton or silk waste, and fur is worn by those who can afford it. The entire absence of undergarments leaves the body exposed to the currents of air which circulate between the skin and the wadded clothing.
Although many farmers are engaged in sheep-raising, wool is not spun or woven, except in some of the remote western provinces. The natives never wash or mend their clothes, and the winter garments present a grotesque appearance when they are torn and the wadding protrudes through the holes. The appearance of a beggar in his rags and tatters simply defies description,
The custom of shaving the front of the head,
33 Cc
THE CHINESE AT HOME
introduced by the Manchu conquerors, has nothing to be said in its favour. In winter men wear caps of satin, velvet, or fur, to which they sometimes add a sort of hood if the weather is very severe. In summer their skulls are exposed to the burning sun, deprived of the covering pro-vided by nature. Women wear no hats, no matter what the weather may be. In winter they adorn their heads with bands of velvet, and in summer with artificial flowers, braided straw, and mock jewellery, all of which protects neither from the sun-‘nor the cold. Contrary to the state of things in Europe, men are rarely bald and women are frequently so,
Gloves are never worn by the Chinese, and they are the objects of great curiosity when seen on Europeans. The natives protect their hands by their long sleeves, but when they have work to do they do not hesitate to expose them to the weather uncovered. Pockets are never seen. The very few who use handkerchiefs thrust them into the front of their blouses. If they have papers to carry, they tuck them in their belt or the string tied around their waists, and they are generally lost. The newspapers are full of advertisements of lost cheques or other important documents.
The native foot-gear is absurd. It leaves the instep uncovered, furnishes no warmth, and soaks
34
INDIFFERENCE TO COMFORT
through in the slightest rain, the soles being only a collection of rags and papers sewed together. Although we have seen Chinamen plunge into the-rivers in summer, we may safely state that even the wealthy take little care of their persons and rarely bathe. It has been said that the Chinese are washed but twice in a lifetime—at birth and death. The only ablutions we have ever seen taken regularly consist of wiping the face and hands with the napkins wet in hot water that are distributed after meals in the houses of the well-to-do. In tea-houses, boys go about supplying patrons with these wet napkins.
A foreign lady, unacquainted with the customs of the Chinese, being struck by the unclean ap-pearance of a child, asked the mother how often she washed him. Much offended, the woman replied that she had not washed him since he was born. Whoever sees a group .of native children at close range may be assured de vzsu of the authenticity of this anecdote.
We have frequently had occasion to travel with Chinamen both on railroads and on steamboats, and their total disregard for the most elementary rules of cleanliness and propriety has always shocked and often inconvenienced us. Those who travel first class on boats are accompanied by a numerous suite. All shut themselves in their cabin, where they generally have their meals, and
35
THE CHINESE AT HOME
from which emerge the mingled odours of fried onions, opium, and other things no less disagree-able. The captain of a steamer plying on the Yangtze under the English flag told the writer that, although he made it a rule never to carry the natives first class, he had once permitted him-self to be persuaded in favour of a Chinese lady who was well recommended to him. She and her attendants shut themselves in their cabin as usual, and all went well until the dinner hour. When all were seated at the table, they were startled by a loud quacking. The sound proceeded from the quarter occupied by the Chinese lady. Surprised at this proximity of a poultry-yard, the captain called the servant and inquired what it all meant. The man gravely replied that his mistress had taken her ducks into the cabin with her. The lady and her fowls were at once unceremoniously hustled below, and the captain vowed never again to break his rule in favour of any native whatever.
36
CHINESE NURSE CARRYING A CHILD
THERE are no old bachelors in China. As soon as a boy reaches maturity, he is married off by his parents, who consider it the first of their duties to assure to him masculine progeny to worship him and them after death. The parties most interested are in nowise consulted concern-ing this union, which is solely the affair of the elders. After the bride is selected, the; boy’s parents send to those of the girl a sum to com-pensate them for the expenses of her education —buy her, in fact. She is then taken to the home of the bridegroom, and here she is to live for ever afterwards. She cannever return to the paternal roof, even if she is left a widow, if she wishes to merit the title of a faithful spouse.
The bride-elect is attired in a full red gown which completely envelops her, and an enormous red hat draped with a red veil is placed on her head, entirely hiding her features. Thus attired, she is shut up in a litter having sides of richly embroidered red flannel with no openings. This
37
THE CHINESE AT HOME
chair, with its prisoner, is preceded by a whole procession bearing the articles of her trousseau and her household furniture. A band of musi-cians, more noisy than harmonious, heads the cortége, which proceeds at a brisk trot to the groom’s home, where she is to live until her marriage, and also after it.
After the girl alights she is immediately ex-posed to the criticism, more or less favourable, of the female members of the family she is about to enter. They express their opinions in her pre-sence exactly as if she were a newly purchased animal destined to recruit the stock of the farm. The poor creature’s martyrdom now begins. To accentuate more clearly her dependent position, an old woman stands beside her during the marriage ceremony, holding her arms and making with them the proper salutations. All the rela-tives and friends are invited to pay their respects. The arrival of each one is announced by the din of musicians, and the groom, bride, and family greet the newcomer with complimentary phrases and many bows, shaking their own clasped hands in front of their faces. The bride makes none of these gestures unaided, the matron beside her assisting her. The ceremony lasts several days sometimes, or as long as guests continue to arrive. When it is over, the young couple are quite worn out from fatigue and loss of sleep.
38
WOMEN
From the very first the young wife is compelled to submit to her husband’s mother in every particular, and the latter usually proceeds to wreak upon her hapless daughter-in-law vengeance for what she herself was made to suffer when she was a bride. The wife becomes the slave of the entire household, being treated with great dis-respect until the time when she becomes a mother ; then matters change, especially if the child born isa son. It is not at all a matter of surprise that there are so many suicides among young married women, as their lot in life is often a wretched one.
As a corollary of the complete absence of consent on the part of the interested parties to a marriage, young men and women never associate together. The sexes do not mingle at school for the simple reason that girls in general do not receive any education. There are exceptions to this rule in different cities—Nanking, for example, where about ten per cent. of the girls go to school until they are thirteen years of age.
According to the statements of many travellers who have written on the subject of China, there are no male Chinese who cannot read and write. We know this to be erroneous, as in our busi-ness journeys into the various provinces we have found many Chinamen who could not decipher the documents we presented to them.
39
THE CHINESE AT HOME
An investigation made in 1891 by the European officials revealed a proportion of about seventy per cent. of illiterate persons. Admitting that women furnished more than half that number, it would still leave about thirty per cent. of the male population that cannot read and write. Notwithstanding this, it remains a fact that education of a certain kind is well extended and held in much respect, as it alone capacitates a man for holding office.
But to return to our topic of Chinese women. It is a very great impropriety, when talking with a Chinaman, to inquire about the female members of his family, or, in fact, to refer to them in any way. If he himself is compelled to do so, he always uses the most objectionable of terms. Except in the open ports, one never sees a native in company with his wife and daughters, We have never met a Chinese woman at a dinner party, with the exception of singers and dancers hired to entertain the company.
The laws of the country permit a man to have as many wives as he can support, but the first oné retains the title, and the sons of the others are considered as belonging to her. Although the Chinese woman suffers constant humiliation as a wife, she has an all-powerful influence over her children, even when they themselves are grandparents. When she dies, her sons
40
WOMEN
wear mourning for her for three months, but her husband would cover himself with ridicule if he were to exhibit the slightest grief at her loss. The husband may re-marry as often as he pleases, but the widow who does so is not considered respectable. If she commits suicide ‘on her husband’s tomb, posthumous honours are accorded to her. In any event, she shows her respect to the memory of her deceased spouse , by devoting herself to his parents for the remainder of her days. The great majority of Chinese are not polygamous, and their language seems to reflect their ideas on the subject. The character standing for one woman under a roof signifies “peace”; that standing for two signifies “quarrel” ; for three, “ intrigue and disorder.”
Personally, we have always found Chinese women morose and forbidding. The unattractive aspect life presents to them is perhaps partially responsible for this. Be that as it may, their love of contention is constantly manifest, and the torrent of words flowing from their lips, their strident tones and fierce expression stamp them as veritable harpies. There are, of course, ex-ceptions to this general rule.
The women of the poorer classes perform the most arduous labours, but the wives of the rich live in absolute idleness. To indicate their con-dition and their exemption from every kind of
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
hand-labour, even embroidery, they wear their finger-nails immoderately long, sometimes en-casing them in covers of gold or silver, or orna-menting them with bells. In the open ports, women are occasionally seen in the shops, but usually tradesmen go to the houses for orders.
It is extremely difficult for the women to walk about. The absurd practice of compressing the feet makes them little better than cripples, but these deformed feet mark social position and give their possessor an opportunity of marrying into a rich family. In the rural districts, this mutilation prevents women from being of much assistance in agricultural pursuits. One sees them in the fields carrying little stools about with them; by the use of these they are able to accomplish something at binding ; still, Chinese agriculture is deprived of the assistance so effectively ren-dered by women in many other lands. The fact that they cannot carry any weight, such as a pail of water, explains, perhaps, why so little of it is used either on the clothing or the person. The custom of compressing the feet flourishes espe-cially in the centre of the country, women of the north and south being generally exempt from the barbarous practice.
42
In the worship of ancestors we have the key-stone to the arch of the social structure of this strange country. Hundreds of millions of living Chinamen are bound to thousands of millions of dead ones. - This cult induces parents to marry off their children almost before maturity so that there shall be offspring to make their lives after death pleasant by means of worship and oblations. No matter how great the squalor, there must be many children in a family ; if there are none, some are adopted; and in certain districts children even become articles of merchandise.
There are many statements made concerning the fate of young children in China. Some writers do not hesitate to assert that female in-fants are fed to the pigs. While this is not strictly true, still the poverty of parents and the mortality of children are both so great that the dead bodies are often thrown out into the street, where they are devoured by the pigs that roam about at will. In Peking and many other large
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
cities, carts are driven about to collect these bodies, which are taken outside the city limits and plunged into quicklime. This explains the absence of small graves in the fields, and a child’s funeral procession is never seen.
Children who are dangerously ill are often abandoned in the open country to die, otherwise their spirits might return to annoy the inhabi-tants of the house. Male children are most highly prized, since they alone are qualified to practise ancestor-worship ; and a son who wishes to be agreeable to the authors of his days sends them presents of coffins, which are received with grati-tude, carefully preserved, and exhibited to friends with pride.
The dead are buried on the family estate ; it there is not room for all, a spot is leased from a neighbour. The interment is not beneath the -surface; the coffin is set on the ground and the dirt is heaped up over it. Sometimes the fields are so thickly covered with mounds that there is little room left for cultivation ; such an economic waste would be keenly felt in any other country.
Funeral expenses for parents are the most sacred of obligations, and it is not uncommon for the living to sell their estates to the very last foot, and often their houses, to be able to render proper homage to the deceased. As marriages are also costly affairs, wives being bought, it is easy to
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ANCESTOR-WORSHIP
account for the poverty everywhere so apparent in China.
The sons of a deceased parent must in theory wear mourning for three years, reduced in practice to twenty-seven months, and sometimes to a year. One hundred days is the limit among the least pious of the Manchus. All occupation is sup-posed to cease during this time. Officials alone conform to this regulation, usually resigning their positions during the period of mourning.
Natives who die far from home in nearly every case are found to have made provisions for having their bodies carried back to their native villages, there to receive the worship that alone secures repose to the spirit. The Chinese associations of San Francisco and other cities, which have this ‘end in view,’ are well known. Associations of this kind, on a smaller scale of operation, exist in the various provinces in China, and in all of these places visitors see quantities of coffins piled up ready for immediate use.
During our residence in China we had the opportunity of witnessing the preparations for a funeral of a man of importance in the business world, and we were amazed at the expense of the proceedings. The deceased was the superin-tendent of a cotton-spinning factory and our near neighbour. The richly decorated coffin contain-ing the embalmed body was placed in the large
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
reception-room, where the ancestral tablets were kept. Every day costly food and drink were placed beside it, and, I may add, this was con-scientiously eaten and drunk afterwards by the members of the family and the priests. __
Buddhist priests, elaborately costumed, recited litanies with responses all day long. At night they were relieved by Taoists, also richly garbed, and wearing their hair piled up high on their heads, while the Buddhists were shaven. This ceremony lasted for six months. During this time there were collected around the coffin paper representations of all the objects used by the deceased in his daily life. We saw furniture of every description, horses, carriages, servants, litters, and clothing, all made of paper.
On the day of the funeral these had their place in the procession, and were burned at the grave, together with a great amount of gold and silver ingots made of gilt and silver paper. The smoke of these articles is believed to minister to the needs of the spirit. The practice of putting costly viands beside the grave (and eating them afterwards) and of burning paper objects is repeated at in-tervals, and the waste thus entailed is simply enormous.
Authorities have greatly exaggerated the spirit of conservatism among the Chinese on the subject of the removal of graves, and have even feared
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ANCESTOR-WORSHIP
that their widespread distribution would be a serious obstacle in the way of construction of railroads. Experience has proved the contrary to be true. All the tombs lying in the track of the railroads from Peking to Shanhaikuan and from Woosung to Shanghai were cleared away, as well as those lying within the foreign concessions. These removals were accomplished without great difficulty by virtue of a sufficient monetary con-sideration.
The belief on the part of the natives that, if all the graves were to be cleared away, there would follow a change of dynasty is scrupulously encouraged by the present rulers. But, on the other hand, if no change of dynasty is effected, in a few more centuries tillable land will have entirely disappeared under the encroachment of tombs.
47
Tue Chinese are in no sense of the word a pious people, their only vital cult being ancestor-worship. Three forms of religion are recognised, however: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. We might say that the three mentioned are in reality but one, as in all the temples images of Confucius, Laotze, and Buddha fraternise on the same altar. This does not prevent hosts of special gods from being distributed about in other parts of the temple.
The moral code governing the Chinese is that taught by Confucius. This philosopher founded no religion, although in his writings he incident-ally gave his sanction to certain existing rites. Spiritual problems did not concern him, and he expressly declares that it is far more important for men to fulfil their duties towards their parents and society than to worship unknown spirits.
Confucius was born in the year 551 B.c. In 200 B.c. Emperor Kao Tsu offered sacrifices at his tomb, but it was not until the year 1 of the
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A GUARDIAN OF THE TEMPLE DOOR
RELIGIONS
Christian era that a temple was erected to his memory. To-day these temples may be num-bered by thousands. The doctrines of Confucius have been diffused by commentators and are now embodied in nine sacred books, to which reference will be made further on.
It must be stated, to the honour of the Chinese, that no people, ancient or modern, ever possessed a sacred literature more completely exempt from licentious ideas, and that at no epoch has their worship been associated with orgies or human sacrifices similar to those of which traces may be found in the history of every pagan people. This vitalising purity is perhaps the reason for the prolonged existence of the social order of things. The sacred books commend all virtues’ and con-demn all vices. They .teach parental respect, humility, contempt for riches, horror of injustice, charity, love of labour and study. It is very unfortunate for the well-being and prosperity of China that these precepts are not followed more closely, particularly by those in authority.
Taoism, founded by Laotze, a contemporary of Confucius, although his elder, seems to be respon-sible for the multitude of superstitions to which the Chinese are a prey. Tao means “way.’ It would seem that Laotze first used the word to indicate the way a man should walk in order to overcome evil. Later ‘‘ Way” was personified
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
and regarded as the first Being in the universe. Eternity and invisibility are attributed to him, but he is not able to help those on earth. All that men have to do is to contemplate him and strive to keep in the ‘“ way.”
When Taoism first appeared as a definite factor in the history of China, in about the third century, it was a mere collection of superstitions. It was afterwards modified by Buddhism, some of the doctrines and practices of which it accepted and incorporated. It still adheres to its old supersti-tions, although in its treatises it enjoins much of the Buddhist and Confucian morality. We may add that the spirituality of the teachings of Taoism is entirely ignored to-day by those priests who style themselves its followers. _
We are told in a Chinese legend that, about the time of the birth of Christ, the reigning Emperor was informed in a dream of the birth of a wise man in the West and bidden to send a messenger to greet him. He obeyed, and this messenger, who travelled over India, brought back Buddhism into China, where its temples now dot the land. The Buddhist priests, who constitute a hierarchy under the control of the Emperor, are as ignorant as their Taoist confréres. The bonzes, as these priests are termed, recite prayers transcribed from the Sanscrit, the meaning of which has entirely disappeared.
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RELIGIONS
A particular form of Buddhism, termed Lama-ism, is practised in Tibet and Mongolia. Buddh-ism was introduced into Tibet in the seventh century a.D. by Srong Tsan Kampo (a fellow countryman of the founder of the religion), who established the capital now known as Lassa. His zeal was shared by his two queens, who are said to have founded the La Brang and Ra Mochay, two of the most famous religious houses in the province. Dissensions and civil war followed, and there was a second introduction of religion into Tibet. The priests were termed Lamas, and the position of the head one was made hereditary. The religion flourished for three hundred years, the abbots breaking the vows of célibacy. A re-former then appeared at Lassa, and at his death, in 1419, he left three monasteries peopled with thirty thousand monks. A return to celibacy on the part of the priests was insisted upon. Under this reformer the colour of sacerdotal vestments was changed from red to yellow. He left two dis-ciples who were bidden to reincarnate themselves from generation to generation. They are believed to have done this, and they are now known by the titles of Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama.
The second incarnation of the Dalai: Lama organised the body of spiritual dignitaries known as the living Buddhas. These number 160, and are registered by the Government of Mongolia.
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
There are thirty in Tibet, seventy-six in Mon-golia, thirty-five in Kokonor, five in Chaudo, and fourteen in Peking.
In the seventeenth century (the fifteenth, ac-cording to some authorities) the two Lamas, long in possession of both the temporal and spiritual power in Tibet, were persuaded to send an am-bassador to the Court of the Manchu ruler who was about to overthrow the Ming dynasty. The result was that the Manchu dynasty henceforth accorded their protection to the Lamas of Tibet. In the eighteenth century a revolt against the Regent installed by the Dalai Lama led to the intervention of Chinese armies. The Regent was made king, but his authority could not be main-tained. After a certain lapse of time, a fresh revolution caused the Chinese to instal two high commissioners to rule Tibet in the name of the Emperor. This system is still in operation ; it was these commissioners who prevented Abbés Huc and Gabet from coming into the presence of the Dalai Lama, whom they were desirous of con-verting to Christianity. No foreigners have ever been able to enter within the precincts of the sacred city until recently, when English troops under Colonel Younghusband not only entered the city, but also desecrated the temple of the Dalai Lama, forcing his signature to a treaty. between Tibet and the English Government.
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RELIGIONS
The government of Tibet is at present in the hands of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, and a council of four regents under the surveillance of the Chinese commissioners. The authority of China is kept paramount by the long minority of the successive incarnations of the Grand Lamas. Until a relatively short time ago, the parents of the Dalai Lama arranged to have him reincar-nated in the body of a child selected to please themselves. Since it sometimes happened that their choice differed from that of the Emperor, in 1792 it was decreed that henceforth the choice of the living Buddha should be made by lot.
When the Dalai Lama enters upon his period of blissful repose, the priests inform themselves concerning all male children born about that time, and especially as to whether any miraculous signs accompanied their birth, The information so gathered is transmitted to the Chinese commis-sioner at Peking. As a consequence, a certain number of babes are carried by their parents to Lassa. Tickets bearing their names are placed in a golden urn, and one is drawn out by lot. When the child thus selected reaches the age of two or three years, he is crowned with great pomp, and, naturally, during his long minority, the power rests entirely in the hands of the Chinese commissioners. ;
The Panchen Lama, claimed by the Tibetans
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
to be more spiritual than the Dalai, resides at Tashilumbo, about seven hundred from Lassa. His name signifies “the beloved apostle,” and he does not concern himself with temporal affairs. The sixth incarnation of the Panchen Lama, Lobtsang Tanishi, was invited by Emperor Kien Lung to come to Peking to participate in the celebration of his seventieth birthday, in 1780. It was for the reception of this dignitary that the famous temples of Jehol, the Imperial summer residence, were built on the model of those Tashilumbo in Tibet. The illustrious visitor fell a victim to small-pox, and although his body was sent back to Tibet, a magnificent mausoleum was erected to his memory in the temple he had occu-pied at Peking, where his priestly garments are still preserved.
To assure their domination over the Mongol tribes, who are devotees of Lamaism, the Em-perors of China have erected temples and monas-teries in profusion in Peking and its environs. A famous one in the province of Shansi attracts thousands of Mongol pilgrims. Converts to Christianity are extremely rare among Lamaists, and they are immediately banished from the community. In Mongolia, where the simple, patriarchal system of religious government is practised, banishment from the community means nothing short of death.
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RELIGIONS
The present Buddhist pantheon contains but one goddess: the Goddess of Mercy. She is often represented bearing a child in her arms, when the resemblance to the Assumption of the Virgin is striking. The number of minor gods is very great, one writer visiting a temple in which there were 2049. The God of War and the Goddess of Mercy receive the most homage.
The ‘Emperor, the Son of Heaven and the sole priest to officiate in the Temple of the Sun, repairs twice a year to Peking, where he worships and offers up sacrifices. He protects Buddhism and Taoism, but he prostrates himself only in the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of Confucius. In the others he merely bows before the Buddha, as chief of the numerous idols of the Taoistic pan-theon. Women are excluded from within the precincts of the Temple of the Sun.
The Chinese have small altars in their homes before which they make offerings to various gods. Their chief cult, however, is the worship of an-' cestors, whose tablets occupy prominent places in their living-rooms. They believe that the spirits of their dead hover around the home or the tomb, and that they can work good or evil to the sur-vivors of the family in proportion to the honour or the neglect ‘which they receive.
In the outward practice of religion there are no ceremonies calling the faithful together. Worship
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
consists in burning joss-sticks before the images of the gods to be propitiated, while the crafty priest beats a gong or rings a bell to attract the deity’s notice to the worshipper. In Mongolia there are prayer-mills in the temples, as well as in private dwellings. These are wheels having prayers pasted upon them, which are set whirling after the god’s attention has been attracted by a loud noise. Abbé Huc tells of an ingenious Mongol who had his prayer-mill operated by a little waterfall, so that he could gain the favour of the gods without any loss of time on his part. It might be added that when the gods are not found to be propitious to the wishes of the worshippers, the latter do not hesitate to punish them, and we are told of a magistrate who applied the bamboo to a recalcitrant god with such force that the deity was reduced to dust.
The religious spirit is very unequally diffused in China. In many portions of the country, especially in the north, there are hundreds of abandoned temples and vast districts without priests of any kind. Ancestor-worship alone is universal. In the north and north-west there are thousands of Mohammedans of Persian origin. They have never been molested in the practice of their faith (there being twenty-four mosques in Peking), but they are turbulent and not disposed to submission to the domination of the mandarins.
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RELIGIONS
Rebellions are frequent among them, and if a great prophet were to appear as a leader, they might give serious trouble-to the Son of Heaven.
In the province of Honan, near the middle of the Empire, there is a village of Jews who have been installed there from time immemorial, and who practise their own religious ceremonies with-out opposition. The Christian religion has made little headway in centuries.
On this subject, Mgr. Reynaud, Bishop of Ningpo, ‘says in his book, ‘Une autre Chine,” written in 1897:
‘Conversion to Christianity imposes upon the natives material sacrifices which would cost them much, and which they refuse to make. In many localities the farmer cultivates the opium-poppy in place of rice, which is worth much less. Christians are not permitted to do this. In such cases, by changing their religion the Chinese must change their condition in life and seek some other way of gaining a livelihood, which is a very diffi-cult thing to do in a country where every occupa-tion is fairly swarming with competitors. Thus, in spite of a degree of willingness, these poor ‘ people, even when converted, are more or less tempted to renounce a religion which bids fair to endanger their means of earning a living.
“There are also a thousand superstitions, which, like an immense network, bind together
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all the details of Chinese life. There are those for births, marriages, and deaths, for thé beginning and the end of the year, and for the phases of the moon. Oracles are consulted when a man is sick, when he builds a house, moves, opens a shop, goes to school, or attends a funeral, when there is a public procession, or prayers for the cessation of a drought ora plague. One might say that the natives do not make a motion or take a step with-out being subservient to some of the superstitions which apply to all ages and conditions. These enter into the woof of public and private life as a necessary element, and it seems impossible to shake off so tyrannical a force, from which nothing escapes. An incalculable amount of courage is needed to enable a convert to break the chain which binds all men together, and not only courage is needed, but also ‘face.’
“ Although for a great number of Chinamen the superstitions are little else than local customs, practised without conviction, solely for the sake of doing what others do, on the other hand, there are some who are fervently attached to them, considering them full of meaning and importance. These last are pious natures to whom a cult is a necessity in order to satisfy their consciences.
‘Many of these devoted spirits have acquired pretended merit by serving idols, reciting chaplets, making distant pilgrimages to famous temples,
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buying suffrages for the next life from the bonzes, and performing other like acts. Conversion would demand a sacrifice of all these spiritual treasures, the fruits of so much effort and so many years. They would have to destroy the things they adore, cast the idols out from their homes, and this thought deters them, even when their souls are troubled.
“Others have fasted for ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years perhaps ; never during that interval have they smoked, drunk wine, or tasted of fish or meat. They have partaken only of vegetables, spices, and tea, and all this to assure themselves of happiness in another world. When we suc-ceed in convincing them that, in spite of their good intentions, they are on the wrong road, they desire to abstain still for the sake of the true good. The mere idea of breaking their rule of life fills them with a fear which is easy of comprehension. It makes some of them really seriously ill.
“To all these scruples of conscience we may add the apprehension on the subject of ‘face.’ The cult of the ‘face’ in China resembles the fear of public opinion with other nations, only it is much stronger, more universal and tyrannical. To ‘lose the face’ is to become ridiculous, and, in many instances, death is preferable. In be-coming a Christian, the native has to encounter this formidable prejudice. By renouncing the
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superstitions of his ancestors, he exposes himself to the contempt of his fellow men.
“But the most delicate point of all, the most difficult step to take, the sacrifice equally great for the heart and ‘face,’ is the renunciation of ancestor-worship. This cult is so profoundly rooted and so universal that many regard it as the chief obstacle in the way of conversion in China. The sacred books give filial piety the first place among the virtues. In practice it occupies that place, and one can offer no more scathing insult ‘to a son than to term him impious. It is the only insult that can affect certain lawless ones who mock at everything else. An impious son is not a man—he is a monster. Native Christians who cannot participate in the rites of ancestor-worship are often exposed to the cruel anger of their families and often to still more cruel torture.
“There exist numerous and varied prejudices against the work and intentions of missionaries, causing defiance and hatred. These may be compared to a fan, waved to frighten the people and cause the banishment of the missionaries. Powerful mandarins and 4¢teratz do not hesitate to sully the Christian religion by coarse paintings and infamous libels. Although their calumnies are absurd, they are not destitute of influence. The most improbable among them seem to be the most accredited and widespread. For example,
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the belief that missionaries tear out the heart, liver, and eyes of children is almost universal in the country. In 1870 the murderers of the Sisters of Charity at Tientsin exhibited to the populace a bottle of pickled onions found in the convent, with the statement that they were the eyes of children torn out and preserved. It is evident that much time and strenuous efforts will be required to dispel such prejudices.
“The scholars are the scourge of the country, forming as they do the controlling and especially the agitating class. They are not urged to study by the love of letters or the taste for philosophy ; instead, they want position and influence. Many of them are simply tyrants in their domains, They are pharisees, ever ready to spread sedition and excite the populace to uprising.
“ Although the causes operating against the spread of Christianity are both numerous and powerful, they are not such insuperable obstacles as to discourage effort. They do not make the Christianising of China a morally impossible work. They rather accentuate the merit and sincerity of those engaged in it.
“Those who judge China too harshly are often not in a position to know it; many speak of it according to tradition; nearly all exaggerate or generalise too much, applying to all the Chinese reproaches which all are far from deserving.
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Especially is it a mistake to expect more from them than from other pagans or from the old Christians of Europe, to whom they have wrong-fully been compared,
“We are not claiming that all of them are good and honest, but we do claim that many among them live better lives than they are given credit for, that they are capable of conversion, and would make good Christians.”
We have quoted from the work of Mgr. Reynaud at length because it is interesting to know the opinion of one of the most authoritative members of the foreign missions in China and one who has had opportunities of witnessing the effects of Christian teaching on the native character.
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AtTHouGH the Chinese are not pious, and are disposed to make the official religions, Buddhism and Taoism, responsible for the defections of their priestly exponents, they are, on the other hand, exceedingly superstitious.
The most universal of their superstitions, from which no Chinaman is exempt, it is safe to say, is that of the fung-shuy. Literally, this means “‘wind and weather.” No foreigner has ever offered a satisfactory explanation of this supersti-tion; its existence and effects only have been recorded. It is for fear of the fung-shuy that mines are not exploited. }It is because the steeples of Catholic churches might interrupt the com-munication of the /fung-shuy with those living near, that they are so often objected to by the natives. All sorts of diplomacy had to be exercised before permission was gained to ornament the cathedral in Peking with spires.
If a man builds a chimney on his house, and if a neighbour complains that his /ung-shuy is
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thereby inconvenienced, the chimney will have to be taken down, unless the locality is an open port. A few years ago, at one of the treaty ports, the viceroy opposed the erection of European houses on a hill, gravely stating in his report to the Emperor that the dragon upon which the foundation of the city rested had his veins and arteries under this hill, and that the weight of the houses would seriously inconvenience him.
The fung-shuy plays the réce of werewolf, and from the cradle to the grave all the acts of the Chinese are performed with due regard to its existence. It must be consulted before a marriage or a burial, and it would be a brave man indeed who would venture to act in opposition to its decrees. Soothsayers voice its wishes, and they are consulted as to propitious days for every undertaking, even to starting on a journey or opening a shop. ‘We never saw a junk raise its anchor without a previous ringing of gongs and bells, or a display of fireworks to frighten away any evil spirits which might be pa near to work harm to the craft.
During a solar eclipse, attributed to a dragon desirous of swallowing the sun, there is a truly formidable din of gong music and explosions, intended to put the monster to flight. Although supplied with astronomers capable of explaining the phenomenon, the Court shares the fear of the
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people, as is indicated by the following edict, published in the official newspaper, the Pekzng Gazette :
‘‘The bureau of astronomy advises us that on the first day of the twenty-fourth year of our reign there will be a total eclipse of the sun. We find ourselves filled with apprehension at this dire news, and we seek to discover within ourselves the sins which have brought down the wrath of Heaven upon our land. We hereby command that the celebration of the New Year be modified, that the banquets usually given on that day be omitted, and that all the members of the Court, in modest attire, unite in praying to Heaven for mercy on our country.” (September 3, 1897.)
The natives take a great amount of pains and spend large sums of money in their efforts to ward off those spirits who are unfavourable to the pro-jects of the living. Being fertile in combina-tions, the most enlightened among them generally manage to effect their purposes by means of con-cessions of greater or less importance. As an example, certain mandarins succeeded in gaining permission to work the coal-mines in Pechili and Hupek, but long and arduous negotiations will be needed before China’s great mineral deposits will be seriously interfered with.
A Chinaman must not die in his bed, for in such a case his spirit would return to haunt the
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place. He is therefore placed outside on a board when the final moment approaches. If there is not time to accomplish this, the bed must be destroyed and the arrangement of the chamber entirely changed. After the death of our comprador his successor refused to occupy his office until we changed its appearance. This we did by dividing it into two parts by means ofa glass partition: even then he was afraid of being haunted by the spirit of the deceased, although the man died at home. It is needless to say that many frauds are. prac-tised by the priests ; a single example will serve to illustrate the methods employed by spiritual leaders to impose upon the credulity of the people. . When there is a death of an adult in the family, priests are summoned to exorcise the spirit of the deceased. They spread sand on the floor, and as there are always rats or cats in the house, the tracks of these animals on the sand are held to be those of the departing spirit of the dead person. The number and kind of impostures thus prac-tised are almost beyond belief. Superstition is fostered by means of a book called the Vui/z, a collection of tales and incidents intended to inculcate moral lessons. It was pre-pared in part under the Sung dynasty, its firs edition appearing in 1031; since that time it has received numerous additions. A personage called Shang-ti, a sort of judge in the underworld, 66
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figures in all the stories as the one who decides upon rewards and punishments. Hell and purga-tory are‘treated of, and when Christian mission-aries preach their religion, the natives think that Shang-ti is being referred to. None of the priests give their sanction to this book, still it is freely and gratuitously distributed by well-intentioned persons, it being the general belief that one may hope to gain the favour of the gods by seeing that it reaches the multitude.
This work recommends the-expiation of sins by ‘good acts, and as a supreme reward to women they are promised transformation into men. For men, the greater part of these moral tales promise success in examinations as a reward of merit, and: the descendants of those who distribute the Yad will have the most brilliant of all. Punishments are to be inflicted sometimes in this world, some-times in the next. The wicked will be killed by lightning or tormented in various ways in the infernal regions, Physicians will be changed into donkeys for having caused the death of their patients by theirignorance. The edifying tales of this collection attribute all sorts of merits to those who do not partake of the flesh of animals, and who buy live fish and birds to set them at liberty. As a matter of course, the rich are always wicked and the poor virtuous.
We will quote a few of the stories: “Shon of
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Kai-ting, a youth of eighteen, was struck by light-ning. A flame was seen hovering about the soles of his shoes ; on examination, it was found that these were made of layers of printed paper.” The Chinese hold printed paper in the greatest respect. It is carefully collected from the streets and other places, and carried, at certain seasons, to be burnt with appropriate ceremonies in the temple of Confucius.
“The adopted son of a very rich man delighted in law-suits. He was arrogant to excess, with pity on neither age nor poverty, and feared no evil. After some years, he was seized with a dis-ease of the throat. He could swallow nothing, and he grew so emaciated that his bones nearly pierced through his flesh. One day he shut him-self up in his clamber ; becoming alarmed, his wife went into the room and found him trans-formed into a donkey, with the exception of one foot.”
‘“‘Lin was a poor man, but he believed that prosperity would come to him if-he could procure some land with a propitious fuxg-shuy as a burial-place for his parents. He therefore forged a title to some property, removed the graves of the real owner’s parents and replaced them by those of his own. His father afterwards appeared to him ina dream and said: ‘ The field of happiness is in the heart and not in having a good fung-shuy. Those
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who steal land shall have neither prosperity nor posterity.’ Lin and his family ended their days in prison.”
“Under the Ming dynasty, Tsai, a physician of great renown, distributed medicines gratuic-ously to the poor. One day his wife fell into a trance and visited the underworld. There she saw a mandarin who said to her: ‘Your son has no particular merit and has no remarkable act accredited to him, but on account of his father’s good deeds he shall receive a diploma of the third degree ; the examiner has received orders from here to that effect.”
‘In the temple of Tchao Fien Kong, in Nan-king, there lived a priest who was greatly dis-figured by a malady. All remedies failed to cure him. One evening he met a young man who ‘said to him: ‘Do you know me?” The priest replied that he did not. The young man said, ‘When you were governor under the Sung dynasty, you had me put to death with seventeen members of my family. I have been seeking for you for three hundred years to avenge myself, and I have found you at last.’ The priest died that very night.”
Judging from this treatise on morals, the Chinese must have a vague notion of metempsychosis,
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Tue first trace of the Christian religion to be found in China is an inscription and monument in the ancient capital, Si-gnan-fu, dating back to the year 635. This inscription, of which there is a facsimile in the Bibliothéque Nationale, in Paris, proves that at this remote epoch the Catholic religion was widely disseminated and even in a flourishing condition. A Roman mis-sionary named Olopen, who went to China in the first half of the seventh century, found that he had been preceded by the Nestorians, a Christian sect that proscribed images, especially those of the Virgin Mary, as signs of idolatry, having for their symbol the Cross alone.
In 651 the first Catholic church was built, during the reign of Emperor Kai-tsung. In 712 the first persecution provoked by the bonzes was directed against the Christians, but in 744 the Emperor received a Roman priest with honour. An inscription dated 781 shows that at this epoch the king of the city of Ten-Yen, also generalis-
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simo of the armies of So-Fan, was a Christian. Catholic churches were built under Emperor -Ten-tsung, who died in 783.
No traces of missionaries are to be found again in the history of China until 1246, under the Yuen dynasty. At this date, Pope Innocent IV., alarmed by.the threatened invasion of the Tartars, planned to convert them to Christianity, and to this end sent among them two Franciscan priests. After suffering the greatest privations, these men succeeded in reaching the Court of Kuyuk Khan, who had them assist in his coronation, then sent them back with a haughty letter to the Pope, ex- . pressing the sentiment that he could not under-stand why any one should want to convert his people, as they stood in no need of such a thing.
After the death of this Emperor, in 1248, Saint Louis sent more priests into Tartary bearing gifts. The Regent accepted the gifts, then sent the missionaries back with a response little more encouraging than that of his predecessor. Saint Louis was not disheartened, however, and he again sent out two Franciscan monks. On December 27, 1253, they arrived at the Court of Mangu Khan, the grandnephew of Genghis Khan; but they were not any more successful than the others. The successor of this Emperor, Kublai Khan, founder of the dynasty of the Yuen, sent Marco Polo to the Pope with an
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ambassador, asking for missionaries to teach the Christian faith. Gregory X. responded by send-ing out two Dominican friars.
Another priest, despatched by Nicholas IV., was well received by the reigning Emperor, and was Bishop of Peking for the period of forty-two years. The Emperor was tolerant of the Christian creed, although he himself believed what the majority of his countrymen believe to-day, namely, that there is but one religion, the form of which has been varied by wise men according to time and place.
From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century there is a hiatus in the history of missions in China. In 1371 thirteen missionaries, and in 1391 twenty-six more, set out for the extreme East, none of them ever being heard of after-wards. The interest of the Pope and the Church seemed to be revived at the period when Francois Xavier went to Japan. Heembarked in 1541 and reached Japan in 1549. From there he went to China, but, worn out with fatigue, he died in 1552.
The Dominican Order began working in the fourteenth century for the conversion of Asia. One of their priests penetrated into China in 1565. He was so successful in his labours that the man-darins, becoming alarmed, drove him out of the Empire.. Another Spanish priest entered the country in 1575, and he was also driven out. In
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1579 the celebrated Abbé Ricci went to Canton. This priest commanded the respect of the Emperor by his knowledge of geography, astronomy, and mathematics. He was given a house at Peking and was supported by the Government in return for his services as a scholar. He profited by his position to make converts to the number of two hundred, many of them being persons of note. These last were of the greatest service to him in the translation of the religious books. Abbé Ricci wisely tolerated Chinese ceremonies and rites, especially that of ancestor-worship.
His successor forbade these, and thus began the contention that has worked such harm to the cause of Christianity in China. In 1618 Emperor’ Wan-li, hitherto tolerant, ordered all the mission-aries to leave the Empire, and forbade any native to profess Christianity, and the church and resi-dence in Peking were closed. The successor of Wan-li, who ascended the throne in 1620, being menaced with the loss of his crown, was persuaded to summon to his aid Portuguese soldiers and to recall the missionaries.
They returned, and to certain of them was entrusted the task of correcting the calendar, a work hitherto performed’ by Mohammedan as-tronomers, who committed many errors. One of the most noted of these missionaries was Adam Schall. In 1634 Emperor Tchung-tchen was
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obliged to quell an insurrection and also to keep the Tartars out of the country. In this dilemma he persuaded Schall to drop his work as the advocate of a religion of peace, and put himself at the head of a foundry of guns of heavy calibre to be placed on the walls of Peking.
When the Ming dynasty was overthrown and replaced by the Manchu Emperor, Schall was permitted to remain in Peking, and in 1650 an Imperial decree set its seal of approval upon the Christian religion and authorised the construction of achurch. Abbé Schall was also made presi-dent of the Board of Mathematics, with the privi-lege of naming the seventy members composing the body. On the death of the first Manchu Emperor, the Mohammedan astronomers per-suaded the Regent to cast Schall and his com-panions into prison. They were condemned to death, but owing to a trembling of the earth and a fire in the palace, they were liberated. Schall died in 1666.
During this period, with the exception of the four employed at Court, the missionaries were relegated to Canton and forbidden to circulate about in China. The restored Mohammedans committed such fresh errors in the calendar, how-ever, that recourse was had to Abbé Verbiest, Schall’s successor. It was this priest who super-intended the construction of the magnificent in-
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struments to be seen to-day in the observatory in Peking. He died in 1688, and was buried at the Emperor’s expense.
The French minister, Louvois, sent four priests to China on both a geographical and a religious mission.” Embarking March 3, 1685, at Brest, they reached Ningpo July 24, 1687. From there they went to Peking, where Emperor Khang-hi, who was well disposed towards the Catholic religion, gave them a residence within the walls of the Yellow City and had a church built for them. Owing to the Imperial favour, Christian influence was extended on all sides. The Jesuits had wisely ignored the question of rites so in-opportunely agitated by Abbé Longobardi. The Society of Foreign Missions, founded in 1663, entered upon the scene, and the Catholic religion prospered.
In 1692, following a treaty of peace with Russia, to the conclusion of which a missionary a¢taché of the ambassador contributed, religious liberty was established anew. The Imperial favour was further strengthened by the fact that the Emperor was cured of a dangerous fever by quinine administered by a missionary.
Meanwhile, the contentions between the Spanish Dominicans, who forbade the rites, and the Jesuits, who tolerated them, had been carried to Rome, when Pope Clement XI. believed it to be
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his duty to decide in favour of the Dominicans. He therefore sent a delegate to China to inform the Emperor that native Christians were forbidden to take part in the rites, notably that of ancestor-worship. The Emperor, hitherto so favourably disposed towards the Christians, received the messenger coldly and sent him back to his own country. He caused the members of his suite to be imprisoned and also the Bishop of Peking, Mgr. Maigrot. The Bishop was condemned to banishment and returned to Rome, where he died in 1730. A greater blunder than this committed by the Pope could not have been made from the point of view of the interests of the Christian religion in China.
A fresh edict of the Emperor imposed upon missionaries the obligation of approving of Chinese rites, and of promising never to return to Europe. Those who refused were compelled to leave the country. The interpreter of the Legation, Abbé Appiani, was tried and exiled to Canton, where he remained a prisoner for twelve years.
Having failed in his mission to the Emperor, the Pope’s delegate decided in 1707 to publish the decree of Clement in his own name. He was at once imprisoned and taken to Macao. From his retreat he continued to direct the mission according to the pontifical decree. He was made
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a cardinal, and died in 1711 at the early age of forty-three.
Emperor Khang-hi accorded such favour to the missionaries that he appointed one of their number, Abbé Pedrini, as tutor to his fourth son, who was to succeed him later under the name of Yung-tcheng. In 1715 this priest had the un-lucky inspiration to dictate a memoir to the Emperor, attempting to persuade him to approve of the decision of the Court of Rome. After the Pope’s edict was published in 1716, Abbé Pedrini was cast into prison, chained, and beaten. He was liberated only at the request of his former pupil. On the occasion of the ambassage of the legate Mezzabarba, he was again chained and beaten. He remained in prison until the death of Khang-hi. Under the reign of this Emperor, Jesuit priests had been employed to make a new map of China.
Under Yung-tcheng, Khang-hi’s successor, a violent persecution began. In the first year of this Emperor’s reign, the Board of Rites advised keeping at Court those Europeans who could be made useful because of their learning, and sending the rest to Macao. Churches were changed into public works, and the Catholic religion rigorously proscribed. This measure was approved by the Emperor.in 1724. Later, three Jesuits, retained at Court, presented a petition to the Emperor,
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begging him to annul the edict of proscription. They received this reply :
‘Europeans settled in the province of Fu-kien (the Spanish Dominicans) wish to blot out our laws and worry our subjects. Those in authority in this province have called our attention to this state of affairs, and we must heed their warning, as we are compelled to do in all matters affecting the whole of the Empire.
“You say that your law is not a false law and we believe you ; if we considered it a false law, what-would there be to prevent us from de-stroying your churches and driving you out of the land? False laws are those which, under the pretence of teaching virtue, serve to kindle the spirit of revolt. What would you say if we were to send a flock of bonzes and lamas into your country to preach their doctrines ?
“ Abbé Ricci came into China during the first year of Wan-hi’s reign. We shall not dwell upon what the Emperor did at that time. You were then few in number ; you did not have your people and your churches in every province. It was not until our father’s reign that your doctrines were sown broadcast all over the land. Wesaw it, but dared say nothing ; but, although you succeeded in deceiving our father, you cannot hope to de-ceive us. Your law urges you to make all the Chinese Christians. In case you succeed,- what
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will we become? The subjects of your kings. The converts you make will recognise no authority except yours. We are well aware that at the present time there is little to fear ; but when your ships bring thousands and ten-thousands, grave disorders might follow.”
Pope Benoist XIII. had sent out two Jesuit priests to congratalate Yung-tcheng on the occa-sion of his accession to the throne; they reached Peking in 1725. They were given an audience, in company with the other missionaries in the capital. After the customary prostrations, the Emperor had tea served to his guests, and ad-dressed these words to them: “All religions tend towards good and have the same end in view; . but none of them can for a moment be compared to the religion of the scholars of China.” That was all he could be induced to say. When he died in 1735, little was left of the work accom-plished by the missionaries. ;
His successor, Kien-lung, continued his policy. He had all the native ‘Christians in Peking arrested, and issued a decree stating that only those Europeans who could render ” themselves useful because of their learning could remain, and that these must refrain from attempting to make converts among the Chinese or Tartars. The rest were confined to Canton, which they left only in disguise and by travelling at night.
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Abbé Castiglione, an Italian Jesuit, was favoured by the Emperor because of his talent for painting. Abbé Parennin, and afterwards his successor, Abbé Gaubil, were also favoured on account of their knowledge of Chinese and Manchu. They were placed at the head of the Imperial College, where they taught the Latin and Tartar lan-guages to those who were to serve as interpreters in diplomatic relations with Russia. Another priest, Abbé Benoist, made himself appreciated by installing jets of water in the summer palace, and by superintending drawings of a map of China and of Kien-lung’s battles, which were engraved in France by Cochin, by order of Louis XV.
July 11, 1742, Pope Benoist revived the old dispute concerning rites, issuing a bull proscribing them under the severest penalties. Even at this day, all Catholic missionaries who go to China are required to take an oath in presence of their Bishop to support this decree to the letter, and a copy of the oath has to be sent to the Pope.
As was to be expected, persecutions redoubled. Missionary after missionary was put to death or banished. During the period between 1797 and 1805, only three succeeded in gaining admittance to Peking. Emperor Kia-k’ing, who ascended the throne in 1796, issued a decree, at the very beginning of his reign, forbidding missionaries to
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remain in China under pain of death. In 1811, without annulling this decree, the same Emperor authorised Abbés Riberio, Serra, and Pires to re-main in Peking, as president and members of the Board of Mathematics. To offset this, he ordered | the destruction of several churches and of the Portuguese Lazarist convent in Peking. Until 1834 the missions were left under the care of Chinese priests headed by Abbé Sue, who had withdrawn to Mongolia. With the death of Mgr. Pires, the last missionary member of the Board of Mathematics disappeared. In 1834 a Lazarist, Abbé Mouly, afterwards Bishop of Peking, joined the Chinese priest Sue in Mongolia and assumed the direction of the missions.
It may be remarked in passing that commercial agents have never been the objects of persecution in China, and yet it was through their interests that the first blow was struck at the native supre-macy at home, in the opium war. Financial in-terests thus succeeded in accomplishing what the shedding of innocent blood had failed to do.
An act of tolerance for missionaries was secured in 1844, through the efforts of M. de Lagrénée, who had been sent to China to effect a commercial treaty. At his solicitation, Viceroy Ky-in wrote a letter to the Emperor, begging him to exempt from persecution those native and other Christians who lived blameless lives before the law. The
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Emperor granted his request, and proclaimed an edict to this effect. In remained a dead letter for a long time, however, and the persecutions went on.
In 1851, Abbé Vacher of the Foreign Missions was arrested in the province of Yunnan and smothered in prison. In 1845, Abbé Huc, whois authority for most of the details presented in this chapter, undertook, in company with Abbé Gabet, to carry out the audacious plan of going to Lassa to preach the gospel of Christ to the Lamas them-selves. The Chinese commissioners did not allow them to enter the sacred territory. Owing to the tact and coolness of the two priests, they succeeded in interesting a’mandarin in their favour, and he arranged to have them return to Canton protected by an escort. In fact, they received honours all along the route, thanks to their protector.
These two missionaries travelled all over China in 1843, and they found only faint traces of the religion once so widespread and prosperous. They had the good fortune to succeed in interesting the higher classes in the progress of European science. They had a standing in Court, and from this vantage-point they could certainly have converted the whole of China as easily as the Buddhists had done before them. Neither the Buddhists nor the Taoists exercise any positive influence in the political affairs of the Empire ; all religions are
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tolerated so long as they do not interfere with native politics and rites. The missionaries found a country in which there was no State religion beyond a certain homage paid to Confucius.
It is not too presumptuous to affirm the belief that but for the impolitic insistence of the Popes regarding rites the Christian religion would to-day be solidly implanted in China, and that the ancient Empire, enlightened by missionaries, would long ago have felt the vivifying breath ofa new life and joined the march of modern progress, instead of being forced to do so at the cannon’ mouth.
In 1867 there was another great uprising and persecution in the province of Fu-kien. The churches and chapels were demolished, and the Dominicans were forced to flee with their converts to the mountains for safety. Since that time the condition of missionaries has been much amelio-rated. They are free to propagate their doctrines and to obtain property in all parts of the country. France has been the protector of the Catholic missions in the extreme East from. the very first. In 1897, Germany. demonstrated its intentions to protect its missionaries in a practical manner by occupying the Bay of Kiaochao in Shantung as an indemnity for the massacre of two of their number. This is the first time in the history of the country that a massacre of missionaries has
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been made the occasion for territorial acquisi-tion.
In 1878 the populace, excited by the mandarins and scholars, massacred the Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul at Tientsin. The unfortunate women were not merely put to death, but they were literally cut into fragments, so that identification was impossible. Although at that time the French had enough troops in the province to reduce the city to ashes, a pecuniary indemnity and the punishment of the offenders were the only com-pensations asked or received. Long negotiations were even necessary in order to obtain permission to erect a commemorative chapel on the scene of the event.
According to reliable authorities, the German occupation of the Bay of Kiaochao and the wanton killing of several natives by the German soldiers was the immediate cause of the Boxer rebellion that had been brewing for a century. Although hostilities were directed against all foreigners in general, the missionaries and Christian institu-tions seemed to be the objects of the most spiteful attacks. It is doubtful if such an uprising will ever again be witnessed in China. The old Empire seemed to be taking its final stand in defence of all its superstitions and rites. The “boneless giant” was overthrown, and to rest peacefully on the traditions of the past will hence-
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forth become impossible. China must move forward and work out her salvation along modern lines.
It may be stated that the uprisings of which the missionaries are the victims are never the result of pious fanaticism ; the Chinese are too indifferent in matters of religion for that. They are rather the work of mandarins and scholars, who fear seeing their influence escape from them. Self-interest is always’to be found at the base of all the acts of the natives, Sentiment is not their strong point, either in matters of religion or government. This helps to explain the slow pro-gress of the Christian religion in their country.
A few statistics may not be out of place here. In Mongolia, the Belgian Catholic missions esti-mate that there are about 20,000 Catholics among 20,000,000 inhabitants. In Manchuria there were, in 1884, 23 missionaries connected with the Foreign Missions, 12 Sisters of Charity, and 12,530 Christians. In North Shantung there were, in 1891, 14 Italian Franciscansand 18,145 Catholics; in South Shantung, 15 German. priests and 2150 Catholics ; in Szechuen, 100 priests of the Catholic missions and about 100,000 Christians ; in Hupeh, 34 Italian Franciscans and 4589 Christians; i Kiangsi the Lazarists had 200,000 Christian fol-lowers; in Anhwei, in 1898, 40 Jesuit priests governed 10,839 Christians, and in Kiangsu, 116
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priests of the same order had charge of 104,338 Christians ; in Chehkiang, 13 Lazarists had the spiritual control of gooo Chinese ; in Fu-kien, in 1891, 27 Spanish Dominicans had charge of 36,000 Christians ; in Kwantung, there were 31 Catholic missionaries and about 50,000 Christians, and in Yunnan, 23 priests of the foreign missions and 10,000 Christians. Statistics from Pechili, Shansi, Shensi, Honan, Hunan, Kweichow, and Kwangsi are not to be obtained. Notwithstand-ing all our researches, we have been unable to find any official documents outside of the custom-house report, from which we have taken the figures for 1891, and a list published by the Society of Jesus from which we have taken the statistics for 1898 for Anhwei and Kiangsu.
The information which we have been able to obtain gives us a total of 498 Catholic mission-aries with 400,000 converts. Adding to this 200,000 for the provinces from which no statistics can be obtained will, we believe, be a fair estimate. In the provinces we have mentioned above there were, in 1891, 596 Protestant missionaries with 52,000 followers. Giving them 20,000 for the other provinces will, perhaps, be nearly correct, as there are many in which there is not a single convert, as one of the missionaries stated in a letter which I read, and in which he deplored fourteen years of useless labour in Mongolia.
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Protestant missionaries did not seriously begin ‘their work in China until about the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The Catholic missions have important sources of revenue from the property they have acquired in the open ports, which has steadily increased in value. Some of it yields a yearly income greater than the original purchase price. With these revenues and funds sent from Europe they sup-port their churches, numerous schools, hospitals, dispensaries, and orphanages.
The Protestant missionaries, nearly all married men, also maintain schools, orphanages, dispen-saries, and hospitals. Although they necessarily endure many privations and hardships, their lot is much more endurable than that of Catholic priests. They have comfortable dwellings, wherever pos-sible, and often go to the mountains or to Japan to escape the heat of summer.
Both Catholics and Protestants do a vast amount of literary work, and to them we owe many translations of Chinese books. Among others, we may mention the famous Dictionary by Dr. Morrison, and the translation of the Chinese classics by Dr. Legge, Professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford.
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MISSIONARIES (continued) Since there are ‘‘ two sides to every question,” in the language of the adage, it might be well to hear what the Orientals themselves have to say on the subject of missionaries. In an article entitled “Why China Hates Missionaries,” a Japanese member of the Faculty of a great American University explains the native attitude.
“In China nothing is more complicated, more difficult of solution, or fraught with more danger, and therefore urgent of a speedy solution, than the missionary question. It is complicated, because it involves not only the question of religion but also that of political rights and social customs. It is a conflict between an uncompromising faith on one side and an equally uncompromising faith in its ethical phase on the other. It is a conflict conducted by people in pursuance of a divine call to spread the light of the gospel of their Lord in the midst of a people at once the proudest and the most conceited in the world, a people with a devotion to their faith that neither bayonet nor
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cannon nor even the sacking of their capital has been sufficient to shake.
‘‘ Nothing can be nobler than the motive of the missionary in his willingness to sacrifice life itself in the service of his Master. Yet nothing could be more lamentable than the outcome of mission-ary effort in China when. we remember that for the death of two of her missionaries Germany seized Kiaochao and a whole province; and, following the maltreatment of a French. mission-ary, a French gunboat appeared, demanded, and received an enormous indemnity and also exten-sive mining and industrial concessions.
‘‘ The Chinese believe in their Bible as sincerely as the most orthodox Christian does in his. They believe it contains all the wisdom that is worth learning in this world. To suppose that there should be anything else would be equal to telling a Christian that there ought to be an addition to the New Testament. Yet the doctrines of the Chinese Bible are denounced, and other teachings are offered that are about as alien to the Chinese mind as air is to fish.
‘For instance, the command to leave father and mother and cleave unto the wife is alien to the doctrine of ancestral worship, and the non-acceptance of such Christian teaching is accom-panied by warnings that pagans and heathens and their souls will undergo the tortures of eternal
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and unquenchable fires. Do you suppose such condemnations are palatable to the Chinese ?
“Among the crowds who gather about the missionaries are some characters who are un-worthy, and who are known as ‘rice’ Christians ——men and women who profess to believe in the teachings of the missionaries for the purpose of obtaining the .rice they dole out. The native converts become objects of odium, not because of their new beliefs, but because they have forsaken native customs, and because they refuse to con-tribute to the religious and national festivals. This latter feature has been made the subject of an edict which suppresses persecution for failure to contribute, but no official sanction can prevent the local ostracism of the people or avert the hatred aroused toward the cause of the default— the missionary. The native convert guilty of misconduct is sure to have the support of the missionary in the lower court, and the gunboat support in the court of last resort.
‘‘The assumption of social and official rank by the missionaries is another source of annoyance. The privilege of riding in chairs, of the royal green colour, and reserved only for officials, was assumed by the missionaries, and by treaty was demanded and secured to them. These things, I take it, are the chief causes of the outrages and hatred of the Chinese towards the missionaries.
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-Now let us look at the methods of propagandism adopted by the missionaries as viewed from the Chinese standpoint.
‘In the first place, the missionaries have not yet agreed as to the Chinese word to express the single Deity, and, as a consequence, the Jesuits, the English,-and the Americans have each em-ployed a different word for the title. The Jesuits employ a word which means ‘ Lord of Heaven.’ The Americans prefer a word which means ‘ True Spirit,’ and the English missionaries use a word which means ‘Supreme Lord.’
“The doctrines preached are so variant that they must be perfectly bewildering to the Chinese. Not only does this apply within the two great divisions of Christianity, the Roman Catholics and the Protestants, but especially within the denominations of the latter. At work in China are the Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, Christian Scientists, the Churches of England, Scotland, and Canada, and lastly, the Mormons, if not the disciples of Dowie. Of course these various denominations are not on good terms with one another, and are pronouncing anathemas upon one another’s heterodoxy.
“A third thing that is repugnant is the clumsy style in which the Bible has been translated into Chinese. It is not conducive to wide reading by intelligent natives, and it is an offence to all, for
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none require more grace of diction and beauty of style than the Chinese. The present translation is to the Chinese mind what a philosophical treatise translated into broken English would be to the Anglo-Saxon. Then, too, the customs of the ancient Jews have no interest to the Chinese, and there does not appear any sufficient reason why those customs should be accepted by them. “A fourth offence is given the Chinese in the employment of women as missionaries. It is unnecessary to state that the position of woman in China is different from what it is in Western countries, or that the presence of women as mis-sionaries is a source of much misunderstanding and misrepresentation. In China women have been rigidly excluded from society for centuries, and how must it appear to the natives to see women from the West walking about the streets at all hours of the day, often arm in arm with men, and hear them urging the adoption of a religion in an attempt at Chinese that is about as good as the Chinese laundryman’s English. From a religious standpoint, they have as much effect as Ingersoll would have upon a Presbyterian. “Yet I would not for one moment say that missions in China have been a failure, or that they have done more ill than good, for in the diffusion of secular knowledge through their schools, and by the establishment of hospitals and
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the example of their noble lives, which are object-lessons of justice and kindness, no sane person will deny that good has been done.
“T admire the Christian courage and the cease-less effort of those who have left dear homes and have planted themselves among the hostile Chinese to give their lives for them. They need no praise of mine, for their memorials are kept in the fleshly tablets of the heart.
“In surveying the whole history of missions in China, one does not see a ray of hope until one comes to the Chinese-American treaty of 1903. In that treaty is a clause which takes the first great step toward the solution of the missionary problem in China. This clause provides that missionaries shall not interfere in lawsuits, and that no distinction shall be made in the Chinese courts to Christian converts. Onthe other hand, the convert is exempted from contributions to the temples and idols, and the missionary may pur-chase land for the erection of buildings for mission purposes, but not for the benefit of the individual. Thus, for the first time, mission work in China is built upon a foundation of fairness.”
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To MAKE use of a stereotyped expression, China is at the “turning-point of her history.” The war with Japan was the electric shock which caused her great inert body to thrill with life. In the glare following the bolt, the consternation of those in authority was for an instant visible; then a deep silence fell over all, and it seemed as if the nation was about to drop back into its lethargic slumber. But Europeans, enlightened at last as to the real weakness of this vast agglomeration of men, rushed in after spoils, and Chinese governors realised at last that it would be for ever impossible for them to sink back into their apathetic indifference.
They have, therefore, attempted to head the reforms which they know to be imminent. For a time young scholars—among them Kang Yu Wei, an exile since the revolution of the Palace, September 1898, which restored the power to the conservatives—flattered themselves that they had been successful in urging the Emperor along
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in the way of reform, where the conservat.ves had - failed. From their attempts came the establishment of the numerous organs of publicity to which we shall briefly refer, without omitting mention of the older ones.
There are at present not less than seventy journals and periodicals published in China, including those which are either purely literary or devoted to special subjects, such as Medicine, Agriculture, Mathematics, and the like. gE
Heading the list, we find the venerable Peking Gazette, the oldest newspaper in the world, established a thousand years ago. This is the official organ of the Government. In it are published all the Imperial decrees, the reports of ministers and censors, and for this reason it con-stitutes an invaluable historical record. In it are also exposed the abuses of the administration, the reason for the dismissal of officials, and much other matter usually glossed over or entirely suppressed. Nothing is veiled or concealed, and-in no country in the world are public affairs exposed with such absolute frankness, Neither is any Government more sincere, in appearances at least, in its consideration for the welfare and wishes of the governed.
In support of this statement, we will quote a few extracts from some comparatively. recent numbers of the Gazette -
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“May 4, 1897.—The fact has come to our knowledge that Mongol nobles, on coming into possession of their titles, never fail to exact sums of money from their subordinates. We order that in future these sums shall not be paid, and that those nobles found guilty of extortion shall be punished.”
‘““May 4, 1897.—We have received a report from the censor Chow Ch’eng-Kwang, exposing the practices of provincial magistrates in dealing with cases of theft or murder, and the illegal torture to which they have recourse. When cases of this kind present themselves it is the duty of the magistrates to deal with them without delay, so that our people may not suffer from their negligence. Instead, our censors report that magistrates allow proceedings to drag and also provoke complications, so that they them-selves may profit by them. Furthermore, illegal tortures are employed to force witnesses to testify in a manner to suit the magistrate, and justice is not impartially meted out. We exhort viceroys and governors to keep constantly on the watch for fraud and unfairness in judicial proceedings and to expose those magistrates who are guilty of such offences.”
" “May 10, 1897.—We have received a report
from the Brigadier-General of Kupeik-wu, de-
nouncing officers who, through gross negligence, 96
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have permitted soldiers of the various banners to draw pay and rations twice. We order that these officers be reported to the war council. As it is probable that this is not an isolated occurrence, we order all the Manchu generals to make an investigation and forward their reports to us.”
“November 13, 1897.—It is customary for viceroys and governors of provinces to send us annually a printed confidential report concerning their subordinates. Through these reports we are able, in a measure, to ascertain the merits of the functionaries to whom we have confided the care of our people. This being the case, the following is inexplicable : We at one time received a report from Tan Chang-lin, viceroy of the two Kwang provinces, lauding Chon Tien-lin, prefect of Sz’enfu, representing him as a reliable, capable and honest man. Now Shih Nien-tsu, ex-governor of Kwangsi, sends us an entirely differ-ent report ; he claims that this prefect is a person of ordinary capacity, whose conduct in general is such as to render him unfit for his important position. This calls for explanation. We order the governors of Kwangsi and of Kwangtung to investigate the matter and inform us as to whether the prefect in question enjoys the esteem of the people under him. Let neither governor be influenced by any personal prejudice for or against the individual in question.”
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“December 9, 1897.—-The censor Chang-chaolan denounces the practice, prevalent among the magistrates, of speculating with the cereals stored in the public granaries, with the result that they become bankrupt and are unable to settle their accounts with the Government. The func-tionaries should constantly bear in mind that every walled city must reserve in its public granaries a quantity of cereals proportioned to its population, to be distributed in case of inundations, famine, war or other disaster. They are authorised, however, to sell a certain portion of the old stock and re-plenish it with the fresh harvest. Instead of doing that, the censor accuses them of allowing the old grain to mould in the granaries and of selling the fresh for their own profit. It is easy to foresee what the result of such a course would be in time of need. We seriously exhort the divers viceroys and governors of our provinces to look into this matter and order the entire stock of cereals to be sold, the proceeds to be placed at interest. Furthermore, we order each magis-trate to submit to us each year an exact account of the amounts so placed and of the contents of the public store-houses.”
From these extracts, it is evident that great corruption exists among the officials throughout the Empire. It is equally evident that there exists a system of control, more or less effective,
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and a great desire to minister to the needs of the people. That there are many honest officials is well known by those who have had years of in-tercourse with the Chinese; one of these, Chang Chi-tung, is well known throughout Europe. If an energetic ruler were to rally these efficient, well-disposed spirits and unite them into an aggressive whole, the future of the country would be full of promise.
The reform party had at one time for its organ a sheet called Chinese Progress, appearing three times a week, and afterwards supplemented by a daily of the same name. When Kang Yu Wei was summoned to Peking to explain his plans of reform, this journal was declared the official organ. His associates at Shanghai, alarmed at so great a preferment, refused to accept it and hastened to change the name of their paper, sending the collection on hand as a gift to Kang Yu Wei. The Chinese Progress became the Universal Gazette, and, after the overthrow of the reform party and the execution of Kang’s brother, it severed all relations with the opposi-tion. There are still in Shanghai seven daily .papers, published in the concessions, that advo-cate reform. In the same city, Catholic mis-sionaries publish a Sczextific Review, which gives political news; and English missionaries publish two papers containing both political and religious
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matter. There are also published at Shanghai seven Chinese journals of the kind only too well represented in many large cities, especially in Paris. These have numerous readers, principally among the lower classes.
The titles of some of the periodicals published in Chinese will convey an idea of the subjects claiming public attention. We give an incom-plete list: Journal of New Sctences, Journal of Mathematics, Journal of Agriculture, The Edu-cator, Journal of Medical Sctences, Journal of Commerce and Industry, Educator of Children, Review for the Chinese Student, and the Hunan Journal of New Sciences, this last being of special note as it is published in Changska, the Chinese city in which the anti-foreign sentiment is the most violent.
Three native newspapers are published in Canton, the subscription price being only three or four dollars a year. All subjects are treated in these, with a certain reserve where politics are concerned. In the various publications we find articles on the telephone, electricity, the improve-ment of waterways, extravagance of funerals, the comparison of native and foreign methods of education, the foreign press, international law, the opium trade, frauds in examinations, military reforms, opium culture, filial piety, and many other subjects of timely importance. All this
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indicates a quickening of thought and a broaden-ing of interest which are of good omen for the future.
Divers other journals are published in Hong-kong, Tientsin, Hankow, Hangchow, and in Manchuria. Most of these are the work of English and American missionaries, and we lack information as to the number of their readers or their influence.
The power of the press is recognised by all intelligent Chinamen. Chang Chi-tung says in a pamphlet: ‘‘ Through the medium of the various newspapers which circulate in nearly every province, scholars, occupied hitherto exclusively with the philosophy of Confucius, and peasants, living in remote regions or on mountains, will at last learn something of the country they inhabit. Men who have always dwelt in the cloudland of theory will be brought face to face with the fact that there are real tangible things in the world around them which must be recognised and dealt with.”
Acommon and time-honoured way of expressing opinion in China is by means of placards posted over the doors of the homes of magistrates and other officials, criticising their administration, These have often served to provoke popular uprisings, great numbers of them having beeri noticed before important anti-foreign demonstra-
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tions, such as those of Tientsin, Wuhu, and Kuchung.
In his work on China, Abbé Huc speaks of public readers, who wander from town to town, reciting interesting passages in the national his-tory and commenting upon them, in imitation of the Greek rhapsodists. They find many listeners, the natives being only too willing to drop the business in hand at the slightest pretext. These readers sometimes enact the vé/e of agitators, and it is highly probable that they played an active part in inciting the Taiping Rebellion, which nearly ruined the country.
The last few years have seen a great develop-ment in books of educational value. Many that were once within the reach of the rich alone have become accessible to all, owing to improvements in the processes of printing and illustrating. A compilation of modern Chinese authors in forty volumes costs only about six or seven dollars. The classics and theit commentators have been reprinted : the twenty-four histories, the Kanghi Dictionary, and an Encyclopedia of 1620 volumes being the most important. This fact is worthy of note and augurs well for the instruction of the middle classes in China; and we may add that books of travel on Russia, England, France, Italy, and Belgium have also been published.
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THEORETICALLY, public offices in China can be held only by those who have successfully passed their examinations. These tests are open to all without regard to origin, the rich and the poor being able to compete in them on a footing of the most perfect equality.
There are three degrees to be attained. The first is received for passing the examination held at the capital of the district. A higher degree may be obtained at the annual examination held at the capital of the province ; the highest degree is conferred upon those who succeed in passing the examinations held every three years at Peking. The diploma obtained at the district examination confers the privilege of becoming a candidate for subordinate positions, but those who aspire to higher offices must continue their studies and re-ceive higher honours.
There is no age limit to these successive compe-titions ; persons may take part in them over and over again after repeated failures, and many pass
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their whole lives in attempting to secure the highest degree. This may be conferred by the Emperor upon candidates ninety years of age, who have been successful in the first two exami-nations, and who have presented themselves regularly at Peking, but the diploma thus con-ferred does not give the right to. hold public office.
The examinations, especially those of Peking, -are reputed to be very severe. An official com-mittee verifies the titles of the candidates, making sure that they are provided with diplomas giving them the right to enter into the competition. Then a sealed envelope, bearing a device upon its exterior and the name of the candidate within, is sent to the examiners. After a second committee assures itself that the candidate carries no con-cealed notes or papers on his person, he is given writing material and a theme. He is then locked up in a room, or cell, rather, for about twenty-four hours, his door being guarded by sentinels to prevent him from receiving any communication from the outside. The written papers, sealed and numbered, are sent to a third committee, together with the sealed envelope containing the candi-date’s name. This last is not opened until after the papers have been examined, so that the mem-bers of the board do not know who the writer is until they have passed judgment.
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About fourteen thousand candidates present themselves at Peking for every triennial exami-nation, and of these not more than fifteen hundred succeed in getting their degrees. Legibility of writing has an important effect upon the decision of the judges, a single slip of the pen being often considered a sufficient cause for withholding a diploma. On_ several occasions censors have called attention to abuses in the examination system. Some writers have stated that the sub-jects of the theses could be discovered beforehand by means of bribery, that the decisions of the examiners were also for sale, and that rich can-didates often found it convenient to hire poor scholars to pass the examinations under their names, afterwards buying the diplomas received.
The laws against the corruption of examiners are extremely severe, and life itself must pay the penalty if the offence is clearly proven. The Peking Gazette of January 31, 1894, records the condemnation to death of a man who wrote to an examiner, directing his attention to half a dozen candidates and enclosing a cheque for ten thousand taels. The report further states that the writer of the letter had no bank account, which fact may have had something to do with the severity of the punishment inflicted.
The education of the Chinese is merely one long exercise of the memory. On entering school
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at the age of five or six years, children begin with three classics for character. These are collections of little moral stories, in which pupils are taught to honour their parents, worship their ancestors, fear the Emperor, shun bad company, and many other things of similar import. From these books they get some notion of the seasons, the cardinal points, cereals, domestic animals, musical nota-tion, numbers, the general history of their country, and the names of the dynasties that have succeeded one another. This book has to be learned by heart, and the pupil must also learn to write all the characters it contains.
This accomplished, the student is given another work containing a list of the honourable surnames of the country, which must also be committed to memory. Every official must have a surname which is to be found in this list. Next comes a complete collection of Family Jewels, or moral precepts, bearing upon all matters of public and private life.
When the pupil knows this by heart, he is given the keystone of Chinese education—the nine books of Confucian classics. Portions of these are entirely incomprehensible at the present time, but for all that they must be committed to memory. The comprehensible parts form a treatise on morals of genuine value. Exercises
_in versification and some study of history and 106
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geography complete the course. It may be added that the historical and geographical information is deduced from classics written hundreds of years before the Christian era.
The examination system was established about eleven hundred years ago by an Emperor of the Tang dynasty. Previous to that time public officials were named by the people. The system has practically remained unchanged; recently however, Chang Chi-tung, Viceroy of Nanking, introduced some slight modifications. In exami-nations for the second degree he required a knowledge of cértain of the sciences, and as yet candidates have shown themselves weak in this direction. In 1898 an Imperial decree generalised the measures proposed by this Viceroy; the results of this innovation cannot be known for some years to come.
As the Chinese are devoted to gambling of every description, the examinations are often made the occasion for speculation. A lottery at Canton formerly sold chances on the winning candidates, exactly as if they were race-horses. The names were drawn by lot, and the person holding the lucky number received a sum varying according to the rank obtained by the candidate. The profits of the institution were so considerable that the proprietors paid the viceroy nearly half a million dollars for the concession.
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In 1874 the Central Government, spurred to action by the corruption wrought in the exami-nation system by this speculation, declared it illegal. It continued in operation until 1894 under another name, when an edict recalled the viceroy and several other officials interested in the affair. We must believe that this attack of virtue was not permanent, since in the Peking Gazette of October 31, 1897, we read of a manager of a lottery in Hongkong who was ordered to be arrested for having neglected to pay a sum of 600,000 taels for the privilege of the monopoly.
Although those holding diplomas are eligible to positions under the administration, their offices must be paid for in addition. This is considered perfectly legal, as many official decrees amply testify. Besides the payment of sums of money to the Government, valuable gifts must also be made to those upon whom the nomination de-‘pends. This custom frequently leads to fraud. We were acquainted with a resident of Shanghai who held the position of superintendent of an arsenal, Afterwards he was given the appointment of ¢aotat. He died soon after his promotion to this’ last office, and it was then discovered that 250,000 taels of the arsenal funds were missing. This money had doubtless been used to buy the new position, and the unfortunate man died before he could replace it.
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Every Chinese official is surrounded by a group of satellites, who must be propitiated by gifts, of varying sizes before the ear of their master can be reached, and immense sums in fees are required before one can obtain an audience with the Emperor. Although there are honest mandarins, the general rule is not to scorn small profits. Still, as complaints against the administration of a mandarin generally end in an enforced division of his spoils with his superiors, he holds his rapacity in check, so as not to be compelled to share with any one.
Civil and military positions are divided into nine classes, distinguished by buttons madé of coral, crystal, or copper, fastened on the tops of official caps. Thus reference is made to the “mandarin of the crystal button ” (the fifth grade), or ‘‘of the coral button” (the first grade), and so on. The word “ mandarin ” is unknown in China, as are also the words “ China” and “Chinese.” In the north the Chinese are called ‘‘ Sons of Han,” and in the south, “Sons of Tang.” The word ‘“‘mandarin ” comes from the Portuguese mandar (to command). Civil and military officers are designated by the term Aouang-fou.
Although all high offices are at the disposal of the Central Government, the latter takes no part in the administration of the provinces beyond the nomination or recall of functionaries chosen from
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the candidates who have passed successful exami-nations. The governmental system largely re-sembles that of a federation, with responsibility attached at every stage, beginning with the family. To repeat, the central power exercises only a general control, and, although the Emperor is the father of all the Sons of Han, the source of all law, and the supreme authority, his govern-ment never degenerates into tyranny over the people ; these suffer from the oppression of those in authority with whom they come into immediate contact. .
China has no home debt, nor could it have any. The Emperor never borrows from his subjects— he takes whatever he needs, since it belongs to him as the head of the family. Neither is the eldest son of the Emperor necessarily his heir. He may appoint his successor, selecting the son who shows the greatest aptitude for governing. One of the ablest Emperors of the present dynasty was the fourteenth son; and the reigning Emperor, Kwang Hsu, is the nephew of his predecessor.
Crowning the edifice of the Chinese Govern-ment we find the Censorate, which sits in judg-ment on all officials, not excepting the Son of Heaven himself. When the present Emperor, then a child of three, was being borne along in his uncle’s funeral procession, a censor delivered to his attendant a missive protesting against his
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accession to the throne, and in proof of the sin-cerity of his conviction he committed suicide in presence of the new monarch.
In 1871 a censor boldly apposed his opinions to those of Prince Kung, then at the head of the Government, and the latter preferred breaking his word pledged to the American Minister to braving the disapproval of the censor, although the rank of - the latter was much inferior to that of the prince.
That this courageous independence js still an attribute of certain of their number is demon-' strated by two successive reports of the censor An Wei-tsun, one directed against the powerful Li Hung Chang and Tsen Yu-ying, Viceroy of Yunnan, and the other against the Dowager Empress herself, the terrible and vindictive Tze-hsi-tuan-yu, for which he was recalled and sen-tenced to penal servitude at the military posts of Mongolia. We quote the reports, which were published in the Peking Gazette :
“July 18, 1894.—When we compare Li Hung Chang with the Marquis Tso Tsung-tang and note the great riches, power, and influence of the former and his family and the honest poverty of the illus-trious Tso, no great penetration is needed to enable us to decide as to which one merits the title of patriot and honest man.”
“ December 28, 1894.—Her Majesty has always interfered with matters of State, without any right
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to do so. How will she be able to justify her conduct to her Imperial ancestors and also to her confiding and loyal people ?”
This idea of the responsibility of those in authority is firmly fixedin the Chinese mind. The Emperor is considered responsible to Heaven for the well-being of his people, to whom he’ owes all his exertions, time, and thoughts. Officials must answer to their chief for their good government of those under them, and this responsibility is no vain word. They know this and they are careful not to oppress their charges to the point of open revolt.
The Peking Gazette gives daily proofs of the importance attaching to good government. We quote from this sheet at random :
“May 26, 1895.—Wang Lien, provisional governor of Hunan, reports that Wang Hsun, sub-prefect of Ch’ienchon, lately imprisoned for having had two persons on trial beaten so severely that they died in consequence, is himself dead, Since the law requires that sentence be passed in spite of the death of the offender, this magistrate is hereby condemned to receive one hundred blows of the bamboo. His two subor-dinates, who administered the beating, are con-demned to receive ninety blows each; as they also ‘died in prison, all that can be done is to record this sentence,”
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“February 23, 1894.—The governor of Shan-tung is declared responsible for the conduct of his subordinates charged with the transfer of farmers from the districts inundated by the Yellow River to a more protected territory. These farmers were compelled to abandon their homes in such haste that thousands of them died of want. Because of this fact, several functionaries are recalled.”
“March 1, 1894.—An imperial decree reminds governors and viceroys of their obligations to make a triennial report on the conduct and ad-ministration of their subordinates.”
“May 16, 1894.—A woman unjustly im-prisoned having committed suicide, the magistrate responsible is hereby recalled.”
“July 12, 1895.—A censor, accused of having permitted one of his subordinates to extort one hundred taels under threats of denunciation, is recalled.” ‘
“July 22, 1895.—Officials are recalled for not having been able to prevent the smuggling of salt.”
“July 28, 1895.—Three judges are recalled for having terrorised and maltreated a woman called as witness, to the point of causing her to commit suicide.”
‘May 12, 1897.—A magistrate is recalled and sent for trial to the capital of the province for not
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preventing a riot, caused by the rivalry of two Mohammedan sects.”
We might prolong this list indefinitely, but we will limit ourselves to one. more incident. About thirty years ago a mandarin was mur-dered by soldiers; as a result, thirty-three functionaries—prefects, sub-prefects, and super-intendents—were declared responsible and be-headed, and the governor and treasurer of the province were exiled.
The entire family is held responsible for- the acts ~of any of its members, and for cértain offences, such as an attempt on the life of the Emperor, all are executed, even to the babe in arms.
The ¢efao, or dean of the village, elected by universal suffrage, is responsible for the conduct of the families of his domain. The sub-prefect, prefect, governor, and viceroy are all responsible in different degrees. An inundation and a famine are laid at the door of the governor or the vice-roy, whoare “father and mother to the people,” to use an official expression.
We shall again have recourse to the inexhaust-ible Gazet¢e to illustrate the manner in which Chinese law fastens responsibilities :
“May 31, 1895.— An idiot murders his mother. No extenuating circumstances are ad-mitted. He is condemned to die by being cut
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0 pieces, the punishment for parricides. His brother, the ¢epao of the village, and the imme-diate neighbours are all condemned to receive one hundred blows of the bamboo for not having informed the authorities of the murderer’s mental condition.” ,
“July 12, 1895.—A young man, while intoxi-cated, kills his grandfather. He is condemned to death by being cut into: pieces. For not having taught his son sobriety, his father is condemned to witness his execution and to receive forty blows of the bamboo before and after the execution.”
The check against tyranny on the part of governors lies chiefly in the fear of an uprising of the people. Yet the oppression must be very great for this to happen, as the punishments are cruel and the mandarins rarely fail to avenge themselves after order is restored.
On the other hand, the people show their appreciation of a good ruler. The gift of the umbrella of honour is one of these tokens. Another is to request the magistrate to donate his dress-boots at the end of his term of office, to be hung up over one of the gates of the city.
A very interesting example of the relations existing between the people and those in authority is furnished by a riot’ which took place in June 1889, in Hsiang-Shan, near Ningpo. The opium farmers of the district agreed to pay the
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authorities eight hundred dollars a year “zm tax, and, in return, they were not to be molested in their occupation. In 1888 a collector's office was installed in Hsiang-Shan, and a tax of twenty four dollars per fzcw/ was levied on opium. This tax could not be collected at first because of the opposition of the farmers. Finally, in the spring of 1889, they became resigned and went to pay it. The collector then imprudently added five dollars extra to defray the expenses of collection. The farmers rebelled at this, destroyed the office, and pursued the collector to the door of the yamen in which he took refuge. A mandarin attempting to quiet the mob was also obliged to flee for. safety. The people then dispersed. The notables offering afterwards to replace the obnoxious tax by a yearly contribution of two thousand dollars, the farmers accepted; the collector was replaced, the mandarin reduced a grade, and the leaders of the mob were punished.
Fear of punishment holds the people in submis-sion, and by having the leaders of the Taiping Re-bellion executed, Li Hung Chang showed a more complete knowledge of the exigencies of the Government than did Gordon, who promised them their lives after their surrender at Soochow. It may be added that nowhere in the world is such a vast agglomeration of men kept in order and obedience, without police or military force, with
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such a minimum of public functionaries. If European nations should ever decide to divide the Empire and administer the divisions them-selves, the expenses would be so increased that taxes to cover them would become unbearable. The Chinese expect the Government to inter-fere with their affairs as little as possible. Arbi-tration in cases of disagreement is largely prac-tised. Farmers band themselves together to protect their crops from marauders, and in certain localities, like Manchuria, exposed to the invasion of nomads, merchants’ guilds are permitted by the Government to levy taxes on vehicles and beasts of burden with which to defray the expenses of escorts for their pack-trains. Mandarins have often offered to assume the protection of trade fora fixed compensation, but the merchants have always refused, preferring to control their own affairs. Chinese colonies in Siberia are miniature re-publics, with an elder responsible to the Govern-ment, to which they pay no taxes. The famous exactions of the mandarins are in a measure obligatory. Like the rest of the Chinese, they live on little, and since the death of Li Hung Chang there are no rich men in China in the European sense of the word. If a prefect saves twenty or thirty thousand dollars during his three years of office, he is well satisfied. The salaries are ridiculously small, viceroys receiving only
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about sixty dollars a month. The surplus of certain sources of revenue fall to them, to be sure, but even this does not make a great sum. It follows that they do not pay the wages of their hirelings, and thése last squeeze them from the people in the most open and shameless manner. Nepotism is everywhere rampant, and when a member of a family enters into a mandarin’s yamen, the rest all follow; a prefect’s hirelings sometimes number hundreds. According to Abbé Huc, the maladministration of the Chinese Government is also largely due to the instability of its personnél, The Manchu dynasty, wisely refraining from removing Chinese officials and ‘replacing them by Tartars, took the precaution to allow no -fuctionary to hold office for a longer period than three years, and also exacted that the official should not be a native of the province in which he was employed. This system has been effective enough in preventing plotting among functionaries, but its objectionable features have also made themselves manifest. Officials live at their posts like strangers, taking little interest in the welfare of people to whom they are bound by no tie, their only care being to amass as much wealth as possible. They are deaf to remon-strances and accusations, since, at the expirations of their term of office, they will go to some other part of the Empire.
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Another consequence of this instability of personnel is that functionaries, often entirely ignorant of the dialect spoken by the people they govern, and always of the affairs pertaining to their posts, are at the mercy of assistants who belong to the district and who become the verit-able administrators. The writer has had occasion to verify the truth of these statements at Shang-hai, in a matter pertaining to the French munici-pality. It concerned the transmission of a title of property, to expedite which the functionaries exacted such an extortionate fee that the dignity: of the French administration forbade its con-sideration for a moment. Under three different prefects the negotiations could not be brought to a conclusion, and the title was finally handed over only when the French Consul seized the territory bought and paid for by the municipality, hoisted the national flag, and threatened the in-tervention of gunboats if any one ventured to touch it.
At the present time the Government is less effective than ever and abuses are innumerable. This is because the power is largely in the hands of an old woman, endowed with a will of iron, and absolutely blind to the disintegration of the Empire. Her energy is devoted to preserving the authority to herself and her minions, and of hoarding up wealth. She is the impersonation of
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the old Chinese tradition, thoroughly imbued with the belief in the superiority of the Middle Kingdom.
Nowhere is the weaknessof the Government more apparent than at the Court itself, where the Emperor is neither feared nor obeyed. We will again glance at the Peking Gaztte :
“May 12, 1894.—The equipage of the Em-press was not ready at the appointed hour.”
“January 4, 1895.—Prisoners were delivered by an armed band, almost under the walls of the Imperial palace.”
“January 11, 1895.—Censor Chin Yu de-nounces the infraction of the established laws governing the nomination of candidates for lucra-tive posts. The Secretaries of the Minister of Finance have had the audacity to form a league and at the expiration of their terms of office to exchange positions among themselves, without notifying their chiefs nor awaiting the appoint-ments of the Emperor. Because of this, candi-dates listed for these places have no chance of ever securing them. We hereby order the subordinates of a new minister to be more watch-ful in order to prevent a recurrence of sucha state of affairs.”
“‘October 19, 1895.—The grooms and chair-bearers of the Chinese ministers have confiscated rice intended for the examiners and their subor-
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dinates, in spite of orders given to punish them for such an act.”
“January 1, 1897.—The guards of the Treas-ury, in complicity with some robbers of the city, collected at the doors of the vaults, and, when these were opened, profited by the occasion to commit thefts.”
“March 1, 1897.—A eunuch of the suite of Prince Chun and eighteen men belonging to his servant: body kidnapped a Jumber merchant at the door of his yamen and informed his family that he would be held for ransom.”
Although these are seemingly trifling events, they are significant as showing the disorder pre-valent in high places.
Another powerful influence bearing upon the internal administration of China is that furnished by the /ztevatz. These are the scholars-who have successfully passed their examinations, and in consequence expect to be appointed to offices. They represent the opposition. They are every-where present, spying on the conduct of the mandarins whom they hope to replace, ready to criticise every act. Their opinions carry great weight with the people, because of their learning. Mandarins fear them, as they are the ones who carry the complaints of the people to thei superiors.
The censors are in constant communication
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with these Ztevatz, and it would seem that their influence might be salutary. Unfortunately they are learned only in the precepts of Confucius, They are totally ignorant of practical] affairs and are the most fanatical enemies of foreigners, whom they regard as the agents of perversion of the doctrines of their philosophy. They are promi-nent in all massacres, and they sent the Taotai of Tientsin the umbrella of honour a short time before he was condemned to penal servitude for not having prevented the massacre of the Sisters of Charity in 1870.
The hostility of the members of the Central Government to European ideas is largely due to their complete ignorance of foreign lands and their inhabitants, an ignorance so dense that we are told of a high dignitary, sent to Europe in 1870, who took the precaution to have one hundred and fifty pounds of salt put in his lug-gage for fear he would not find any on the way. At this day, even, we find water-colours for the use of students representing foreigners with ears reaching down to the ground, or with the short legs and long arms of gorillas. It is not at all strange that they do not care to become ac-quainted with such monsters.
Another misfortune for China is that the Chinese themselves are uninterested in the destiny of their country. We have conversed with natives
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of all classes, especially with intelligent merchants of important social standing, and all without ex-ception have shown themselves as indifferent to the attempts of the reform party as if it all con-cerned the inhabitants of the moon. It may be that their extreme prudence prevents them from encroaching upon the political ground so jealously guarded by the mandarins.
The reform party has as yet accomplished but little, owing to the lack of plan or system in its attempts. With the name they believe they have the substance, forgetting that a change in the ideas and customs of centuries must be made very slowly. In every part of the Empire something is being attempted. This will be spoken of at greater length in another chapter.
The noted Viceroy, Chang Chi-tung, one of China’s ablest statesmen, says in a pamphlet :
“Of late, attempts have been made to imitate European methods, many of which, it must be confessed, have been unsuccessful. We note several reasons for these failures. Certain indi-viduals, occupied exclusively with their own in-_terests, have thought only of themselves and have lacked the courage to follow up the enterprises begun. Then, too, the necessary expenses of exploitation have been the subject of too much consideration, and, for this reason, projects pro-moted on one side and neglected on the other
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have brought no good results. Again, the Court itself lacks firmness in its decisions. At one time reforms are urged ; at another time they are for-bidden. We buy machines and lack the men capable of operating them. We have ships and no sailors. All this shows lack of intelligence in efforts laudable in themselves.”
The people know nothing of the failures of the experiments made by the Government. As before remarked, so long as their immediate interests are not interfered with, they care little for politics. Confucius says, ‘‘ He who holds no office under the Government should not concern himself with its workings.” Abbé. Huc tells us that on one occasion, when in a large company of Chinamen, he attempted to sound them as to the choice of a successor to the Emperor. He could elicit only this reply :
“““Why need we worry ourselves and weary our brains with these vain conjectures? The mandarins are there to take care of the affairs of the Government. They are paid for that; let them earn their money, and let us not torment ourselves with what does not concern us. We would be foolish to bother ourselves with politics for nothing.’
“«Quite right!’ agreed the rest. Then we were reminded that our tea was cold and our pipe dead.”
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We ourselves noted the indifference with which the natives received the news of their battles and disasters during the Chino-Japanese War. One would have thought it all concerned some other country instead of their own.
Before leaving the subject of government, we will refer to the eunuchs, traces of whose baneful influence are to be found in the decline of all the dynasties that have succeeded one another in the history of the country. All the officers of the palace are eunuchs, and when the gates of the Yellow City are closed at sunset, there is but one male within its walls—the Son of Heaven himself.
Eunuchs are the privilege of the Emperor and of certain members of the royal family. The first mention of them in the history of China occurred in the year 1100 B.c., under the Chu dynasty. Their quasi-official 7é/e is relatively recent. It was begun in 1100 a.D. by the’ famous Emperor Ho-ti of the Tsin dynasty, whose victorious troops penetrated as far as Judea, under the leadership of the great general Pan-Chao.
The Emperor is entitled to three thousand eunuchs ; in reality, he has only two thousand. The princes and princesses of the blood have a right to thirty each; the nephews and young children of the Emperor to twenty each, and the cousins to ten. The descendants of the princes of the Iron Crown, who aided Chun-Tchi to
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establish the present dynasty, also have ten eunuchs at their disposal.
The eunuchs of the palace must be furnished by the princes, each bzing required to supply eight every five years, receiving in payment 250 taels apiece for them. These must be guaranteed eunuchs, who have been in their service for a term of years. This method of recruiting would be entirely inadequate if it were not supplemented by an open register kept at the palace in which candidates come to inscribe their names, many prrents selling their children for this purpose:
Eighteen of the Emperor’s eunuchs are Lamas, representing on earth the eighteen Lo-Han, assistants of the Goddess of Mercy, Kuan-Gin. These attend to the spiritual needs of the ladies of the palace. When one of the number dies, he is replaced by a confréve who is extremely desirous of the succession, without regard to his vocation, the place being very lucrative. Three hundred eunuchs are actors ; they present plays before the ladies, and give special and official representations before the Emperor.
The body of eunuchs is divided into forty-eight classes, each one possessing special privileges and duties. Each section has at its head a eunuch of the rank of mandarin of the sixth and seventh classes; the superior commander has the rank of mandarin of the third class. The ordinary salary
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of a eunuch consists of rice and two taels a month, but no other class of Chinamen are such adepts in the practice of the famous ‘“‘ squeeze.”
Eunuchs are light-hearted and fond of amuse-ment. They are much attached to children, and, in lack of these, to animals, especially dogs. Gambling is their favourite pastime and to it they devote all their leisure. Nearly all of them smoke opium, which they are permitted to use in the palace
During the minority of Khang-hi, the second Emperor of the Manchu dynasty, the four regents forbade the bestowal of offices and dignities upon eunuchs ; since that time, they have not had occa-sion to play political ~éves. They still possess a certain influence in the matter of nominations, as their recommendations in this direction are often heeded and, it is needless to add, are well paid for by candidates.
The Chinese custom for the succession of titles among the nobility is worthy of consideration. With the exception of a few titles, which are hereditary for ever, rank is not transmitted as it isin Europe. The son of a prince of the first rank is himself of the second rank; his son will be prince of the third rank, and so on down to the twelfth rank. After that, the descendants drop into obscurity, unless, in the course of the trans-mission of titles from greater to less, fresh personal
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services entitle their possessors to a few grades of advancement. One can but admire the wisdom of a law which thus returns to the ranks those families whose members have rendered no service to the State during twelve generations.
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NowuereE is the abyss separating theory from practice broader and deeper than in the adminis-tration of justice in China. The laws are in the aggregate relatively moderate and humane ; many precautions are taken to prevent or correct abuses, and yet the courts offer only a picture of corruption, extortion, and cruel injustice.
All the paraphernalia of a municipal or police court stand on the porches of the homes of Chinese magistrates. There may be seen a platform covered with red felt, upon which are a table and a chair also covered with red. Within reach are whips, bamboos, and other instruments of punish-ment and torture. On one side are a gong and hammer ; in theory, this gong can be struck at any hour of the day or night, by any one needing judicial assistance. On hearing it, the magis-trate is supposed to don his official gown and come out to listen to the complaint. Hence the saying, “ The eye of Justice never sleeps.”
The decisions of this court are not always final ;
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in certain cases appeals may be taken to the higher courts, and even to the Emperor himself, where a final judgment may be rendered, signed by nothing less than the vermilion pencil itself.
The judge is the only person who remains seated during a trial. The accused and witnesses get down on their hands and knees, remaining in that position as long as the magistrate is present. This custom leads to many complications and dis-cussions when Europeans and Americans figure among the witnesses.
Imprisonment is not listed among the penalties of the Chinese Jaw. Prisons are merely houses of detention for witnesses and condemned persons who are awaiting the execution of their sentences. Prisoners are not even supplied with food by the authorities ; that is the affair of their families and friends.
This is the source of the greatest abuses, from which the mixed court of the foreign settlement in Shanghai is not exempt, as was proved by a recent investigation. Jailers extort exorbi-tant sums from the families and friends of the prisoners, and if they are not paid over the victims may be left to die of hunger. The investigation also revealed the fact that sometimes prisoners whose term had expired were still detained to be further “squeezed.” If such things are possible where foreigners are in control, we can judge
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of the- state of things in exclusively Chinese prisons.
No words can fitly describe the horrors of a native prison. All sanitary arrangements are lacking, and, in consequence, the most repulsive forms of uncleanliness are to be met with on every hand. This condition of things is the more un-justifiable when we remember that the prisons are the temporary homes of witnesses and prisoners for debt, as well as for accused persons, who, according to Western codes, are considered inno-cent until proved guilty. Still, in view of the filth and discomforts of the homes of the poor, : if the prisons resembled even the worst ones of Europe, far from inspiring dread, half the popula-tion might be induced to commit crimes in order to secure comfortable lodgings.
There are no lawyers in the Chinese courts. Notwithstanding numerous prohibitions, their places are in a measure supplied by parasites called ‘‘ seekers,” in lack of a better term. Cases are decided not only according to the laws, which are being constantly revised and augmented by new decrees, but also according to precedent. It is the business of the ‘‘seekers ” to find a prece-dent, and this they always succeed in doing. These persons are generally rich, and they be-come the intermediaries employed to corrupt judges.
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A large and dangerous latitude is given to the judge in the matter of securing correct testimony. He rarely requires a witness to take an oath, arguing that if a person wished to testify falsely, no oath would restrain him, as perjury is not con-sidered a criminal offence. He does not expect either the accused or the witnesses to tell the truth. He examines them separately at first and afterwards together, carefully noting their contra-dictions and facial expressions. If he cannot form an opinion from this, it is in his power to cause to be beaten the witness suspected of testifying falsely. It is not uncommon for a judge to pause in his examinations and order a satellite to strike a witness on the mouth until blood flows.
Abbé Huc relates that he noticed a judge hold-ing some counters having numbers inscribed on them. At intervals, during a trial, he would toss one out on the floor. An assistant would pick it up and read its number aloud. It informed him as to the number of blows of the bamboo the witness was to receive. After these were ad-ministered, the examination continued.
Witnesses are often kept on their knees, loaded with chains, for hours, or hung up by the thumbs and left without food or drink. As may be ima-gined, the natives avoid law-suits as much as possible. Still, as many of the //trés earn a living by means of them, being assistants of the judges,
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they often succeed in arousing the contentious nature of the natives for their own profit.
When complaints against the practices of the magistrates were brought to Emperor Kwang-hi, he replied that, in view of the great subdivision of territory and the quarrelsome character of the Chinese, it was well for his subjects to live in fear of the law and have recourse to it as seldom as possible. He favoured settling disputes by allowing old men and deans of villages to be the arbiters.
Mr. Holcombe tells us that he once saw three Chinamen accused of theft treated in the follow-ing manner: Each one had his arms firmly tied behind his back by the wrists. Ropes were then fastened to the knots and the victims were hung up to atree. They remained there, exposed to the burning sun for three hours, and when taken down they were unconscious. Their shoulders were dislocated and badly swollen. When they were revived they still protested their innocence, but seeing preparations being made for worse tortures still, they finally pleaded guilty. Such tortures are expressly forbidden by law, and in their reports magistrates never mention having had recourse to them in order to compel witnesses to testify in a manner to suit them.
We will cite one more instance illustrating Chinese methods of securing testimony. The
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accused was a native Christian who was perse-cuted by his neighbours because of his religion. A murder was charged to him, although he had not left the mission at all on the day when the crime was committed.
The examination ran thus:
The Sub-prefect: You were seen on the spot where the murder was committed. Do you con-fess that you were there?
The Accused; \ have been at the mission since the 7th of August; so I could not have been there.
The Sub-prefect : But the 7th was the day of the murder. Give him five hundred blows of the bamboo; he must confess,
(The murder had been committed on the night of the 9th or roth of August. After the punish-ment had been administered the examination went on. a Sub-prefect : Do you confess that you were there?
The Accused; 1 could not have been; I was in the city at the mission building.
The Sub-prefect: Give him anothet five hundred blows across the shoulders. It is absolutely neces-sary for you to confess that you were on the spot when the crime was committed.
The Accused: 1 could not have been there and in the city at the same time. Besides, if I had
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done the deed, I should have run away. Would I have dared remain and be brought to trial?
The Sub-prefect : You are too talkative. Give him two hundred slaps on the face. You must confess.
The Accused: 1 was not there.
The Sub-prefect : Two hundred more blows on the thigh.
At this juncture a clerk of the court went up to the unfortunate man, and said: ‘‘ You had better confess ; there are worse tortures waiting for you if you persist in denying the accusation.”
| The Sub-prefect : Well, are you ready to con-fess?
The Accused: 1 was not there, but as I cannot endure any more torture, I will say that I was.
The Sub-prefect: Ah, so he confesses at last! Take him to prison !
The victim, covered with blood and wounds, unable to walk a step, was carried off by the assistants, who first took the cruel and useless pre-caution to put heavy chains on his neck, hands, and feet.
Strangely enough, the natives do not strongly resent this mode of treatment, doubtless because they have been so accustomed to it for genera-tions that it is held to be inevitable. In “My Diary on a Chinese Farm,” Mrs. Archibald Little relates that while she was passing the summer at
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a farmhouse, her watch and several other articles of value were stolen. She reported the matter to the proper authorities who at once, without any apparent reason, arrested the son of the family and proceeded to wrest a confession from him by the aid of the kind of torture just referred to.
Convinced that the boy was innocent, Mr. Little investigated and found that vagabonds had been seen in the neighbourhood at the time the thefts were committed. He had them followed up and arrested, and they proved to be the guilty ones. The son was, of course, released, and his parents gave a feast to celebrate his return, to which Mr. and Mrs. Little were invited. Neither could endure the ordeal. The boy, who had been strong and healthy, was a physical wreck, barely able to walk. In Western countries, parents would have demanded and doubtless received satisfac-tion : in China, nothing of the kind was thought of.
There are five methods of punishment recog-nised by Chinese law: the rod, the cangue, branding, banishment, and death. Sending anony-mous letters leading to fatal consequences is punishable by strangulation.
The law declares that the person upon whose premises a dead body is found shall be held re-sponsible, and be required to prove that he is not the murderer. As a consequence, it follows that one can do no more injurious act to an enemy
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than to go on his premises to die, by suicide or otherwise, as getting within the clutches of the magistrates and their satellites means certain ruin financially. Suicide being so common in this strange land, it often happens that a person kills himself before his enemy’s door merely for revenge.
A woman of Chinkiang claimed six copper cash from a shopkeeper, who refused to give it to her. She thereupon drank some opium and died in the shop. The proprietor was obliged to buy a coffin and have her buried. He then hired priests to banish her spirit from ‘the premises, so that he would not be harassed by it in the future. He thus paid out more than twenty dollars rather than have recourse to law.
There are three methods of capital punishment : strangulation, decapitation, and cutting into pieces by a process called Ang che. The first method is the least infamous,.the last, the most so. It is inflicted only for parricide, high treason, and crimes against the Imperial family.
As Confucius taught that the first duty of every man is to restore his body intact to his ancestors, large sums of money are often paid by the friends of decapitated criminals for the privilege of sew-ing the heads to the bodies before burial. This is never granted except on condition that the head shall be attached face backwards. This belief in
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the necessity of keeping the body whole is the greatest obstacle in the way of surgical practice among the Chinese. Many would prefer death to submitting to the amputation of a limb: It is absolutely dangerous for a foreign surgeon to undertake an operation, as, in case of failure, his life might be imperilled, especially if he be in a locality remote from protection.
Condemned men of distinction are often invited to commit suicide, this being considered the most respectable way of getting out of the world. The victim receives a lacquered box wrapped in yellow silk, inside of which he finds a coil of white silk cord. If this mute but eloquent suggestion is not heeded within twenty-four hours, the public executioner performs his duty.
The cangue is a wooden frame, like the top of a table, three feet long by two feet nine inches wide. It is made in pieces which, when fitted together, leave a hole in the centre large enough for the victim’s neck. It weighs from thirty-three to one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Upon it is tacked a placard giving the name, age, residence, and crime of the wearer. This unpleasant collar must be worn day and night. The prisoner cannot lie down, and he must be fed, as he is not able to reach his mouth.
In the concessions, foreigners are tried by consular courts, and Chinese by a mixed court,
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composed of a native judge appointed by the
Chinese authorities, and a foreigner. In suits between Chinese and foreigners, if the Chinaman is the defendant, the case is tried before a mixed court ; if the plaintiff, before the consular court, made up of the consul and two other notables.
. Chinese are tried according to their own laws, and, with the exception of torture, they receive the same sentences as in the Chinese courts: the bamboo, cangue, and banishment. Imprisonment for a certain period is sometimes included in the list of punishments. Imprisonment for debt is practised in the concessions, and in the case of failure on the part of the natives to execute con-tracts; it proves very effective. The custom of releasing prisoners on bail has been adopted.
As illustrating a phase of the Chinese character and also the way of fixing responsibility, we will cite a report of the governor Yan Ch’ang-chun, taken from the Peking Gazette of January 2, 1894. It concerns a family who, fearing being taken before a magistrate, deliberately murdered a sick relative before their enemy’s door, for motives of revenge. They were all farmers of the district of
* Tat’unghsien, living in the walled Mohammedan village of which Ma Chang-shu was sub-prefect.
Chang Yu-lung and Chang Chang-shih, his wife, were the son and daughter-in-law of the old woman who was murdered. As the walls of the
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village needed repairing, on April 25, 1893, Chang Yu-lung went to a neighbouring Buddhist village and borrowed a cart from a Chinese named Chu, to be used in carrying material with which to restore the wall. By accident, the cart was injured, and when Chang took it back, its owner refused to accept it, exacting a new one in its place. As Chang refused to comply with this demand, the Chinese held him a prisoner in their village and threatened to deliver him up to the authorities in case he persisted in refusing to buy a new cart.
At the same time, a complaint was made to the sub-prefect of the Mohammedan village, Ma Chang-shu, and he was asked to force Chang to make the required restitution. The sub-prefect thereupon informed the Chang family of the detention of their relative, and advised them each to contribute a portion of the sum needed to buy a new cart and thus save all further trouble. He also falsely stated that his superior knew of the affair, and that he had decided that the Changs must purchase a new cart to replace the broken one, and that each should contribute to the sum required for this purpose, as the wall was of equal advantage to them all.
On hearing this, a family council was held in order to decide on the course to be pursued. As none of them could think of either buying a new
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cart or of appearing before a magistrate, Chang Hai-shu, a nephew of the sick woman, and Chang Chang-shih, the daughter-in-law and the wife of the man held by the Chinese Buddhists, decided to carry the old woman to the premises of the prefect, cut off her head, hide it, and then accuse the official of the murder. The Changs were influenced to make this decision by the sub-prefect’s false statement regarding the opinion of his superior. They felt convinced that the prefect either favoured the Chinese or else feared them to the point of consenting to anything they would demand without trying to come to the aid of his co-religionists.
Chang Hai-shu, a fierce, dominating character, so completely overruled the other members of his family that they finally consented to his plot. On the evening of April 25, at half-past nine o'clock, the relentless nephew and the daughter-in-law persuaded the old woman to allow Chang-hai, another nephew, to carry her to the house of the prefect, to beg him to assist her son to get his freedom. On reaching the place, Chang-hai dropped the old woman on the ground with such force that she was stunned. While she was in this condition, Chang Hai-shu gave Chang Chang-shih a sabre and ordered her to cut off her mother-in-law’s head. The young woman attempted to do this without success. Restored to conscious-
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ness by the pain, the old woman began to call for help. Fearing she would be heard, Chang Hai-shu forced Chang-hai to complete the murder, the daughter-in-law having fainted. Chang-hai severed the head from the body in two blows, and it was thrown into the river. One of the party, Ma-lin-niao-ts’ih-erh, fled before the crime was committed.
The Changs now returned to their homes, in-tending to come the next day and accuse the prefect of the crime. But before they could do this, the authorities were informed and the mur-derers were arrested and brought to justice. For having murdered an aunt and mother-in-law, Chang Hai-shu, Chang-hai, and Chang Chang-shih were condemned to death by being cut into pieces, and the execution took place without waiting for the approval of the Board of Punish-ments. Chang Hai-shu’s head was exposed on the spot of the crime.
Ma-lin-niao-ts’ih-erh, although not related to the victim nor present at the murder, was still con-sidered guilty and sentencedtoreceive one hundred blows of the bamboo and be banished a distance of 3000 . Chang Yu-lung, the victim’s son, who had been held by the Chinese and knew nothing of the crime, although its primary cause, was also sentenced to receive one hundred blows and be banished 3000 4% For having deceived the
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Changs by telling them that his superior had decided that they must buy a new cart or‘else be brought before a magistrate, the sub-prefect received the same sentence. The case of the prefect, who knew nothing of the matter, but whose name had been used by his subordinate, did not have to be passed upon, as he diéd before the matter was settled. Another remote cause of the murder was the claim of the owner of thé cart, who was held to be guilty in a certain degree and who was sentenced to receive eighty blows of the bamboo. .
The most noticeable fact about this curious judgment was the pains taken by the magistrate to punish every one in any way connected with the crime, either directly or indirectly. One can readily understand why the Chinese dread legal proceedings. The rapacity of the peasant is also brought strongly to light in this official and authentic report. Chinese of the lower classes are capable of the worst excesses when their immediate interests are at stake. This quality is the one appealed to in any attempt to excite the masses. As we have seen elsewhere, one of the most serious obstacles in the way of the propaga-tion of Christian doctrines is the refusal of the converted to contribute towards the expenses of the native rites, and the consequent additional tax on the unconverted.
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N a country where a hand-labourer earns only from two to five cents a day and supports a family on his wages, one must be poor indeed to be reduced to mendicity. Labourers in Europe lead lives which the majority of Chinese would consider luxurious. Those natives who with their families eat meat twice a month earn a good living. Their diet consists principally of rice, cooked without salt, and eaten with bitter herbs to give it a flavour. Sometimes there is a bit of fish, fresh or salted, or a slice of pork, but these occasions are very rare. The labourer lives literally from hand to mouth, and if he does not earn the sum needed each day, he and his family go without food. Everything that can be eaten is sold, even to tainted meat. Decayed fruit is always in the market, and purchasers are not lacking.
The great preoccupation in China is not to relieve the hand-worker, but, on the contrary, to divide and subdivide labour so as to provide
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employment for the greatest possible number. This explains why the authorities have always been so averse to the introduction of machinery : the mandarins are afraid that those thus crowded out of employment will give themselves up to riot and disorder. Men defend to the death the right to their particular work. In 1897 bloody en-counters took place between the boatmen of Hankow and those of Wu-chang and Hanyang, the former accusing the latter of having offered their services on a portion of the river bank which the Hankow men considered their fief. Terror reigned until the troops sent by the viceroy arrived.
In this land where labour is so strenuously fought for nothing goes to waste; and when a man is reduced to beggary it is because he is absolutely destitute. We have seen beggars in Peking perfectly naked in midwinter. Nothing could be more horrible to look upon than the specimens of humanity that collect around the gates of Chinese cities. They are afflicted with every ailment known to°mankind. Those who can walk go about begging from door to door, and woe to the person who refuses them the pittance for which they ask! The next day they will return with companions, and if they are not given alms, this will continue unti] the number reaches hundreds. It is said that the beggars
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are organised and have a king and a queen. Each man has his district assigned to him, and certain merchants pay the organisation a yearly stipend so as to remain unmolested. There are a few native charitable institutions in China, among others one for receiving abandoned children, but the good intentions of these homes are thwarted by the pillage which is practised within their walls.
Those of the Western world who consider themselves originators of socialistic theories would do well to remember that “there is nothing new under the sun.” Abbé Huc tells us of an experiment made in the twelfth century for the betterment of the poor, the conception of which would have been a credit to a modern thinker. The scheme was originated by a scholar named Wang-ngan-che, who enjoyed the favour of Emperor Chen-tsung. According to it, the State was to control all the resources of the Empire and become the sole, universal employer. Courts or boards were to be established all over China, empowered to fix the prices of wages, provisions and merchandise daily. For a certain number of years the rich alone were to pay taxes. The sums thus received were to be kept in reserve in the State treasury to be distributed among the aged, the poor, and those who could not find employment.
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The State was to be the sole owner of all lands. In every district there was to be a Board of Agri-culture, whose duty it should be to apportion this land among farmers annually, and give them the seed necessary for planting, but only on condition that an equivalent value be returned in seed or other produce. In order to have every part of the Empire productive according to its adapta-bility, the board was to decide what seed should be planted in certain localities, providing the same. In case of a failure in the crops in any region, food-stuffs were to be brought from locali-ties where there was a superabundance.
The advocates of this system believed that by following it comfort and well-being would be assured to all classes in all districts, as this radical reform would cause the crumbling away of large fortunes, and the consequent levelling of the rich and the poor. Won over by these plausible theories, the Emperor gave their author full authority to put them into execution. It appears from the testimony of contemporary historians that the enterprise was not successful, and the people were reduced to a more miserable condition than before.
The grain given to them for seed was diverted from the purpose intended. Some of it was con-sumed, and some of it sold or exchanged for other commodities. Farmers lost their interest in their
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work and refused to toil for what was to be given to others. Then, too, the expenses of carrying on such a system of control were enormous, and it became a subject of dispute as to who should defray them—the State or the farmers,
On the death of Chen-tsung, his favourite minister was removed from power, and his suc-cessor laboured to destroy every trace of his government. Eleven years later, on the death of the new minister, the system of Wang-ngan-che was fully tested again, with such disastrous re-sults that his memory was devoted to execration, and the Socialists were driven out of the Empire. The exiles went beyond the Great Wall and spread over the deserts of Tartary, where the formidable invasion of Genghis Khan was being planned, and they doubtless lent very valuable aid to this great movement.
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Wuat is termed the Chinese army is composed, in time of peace, of a motley collection of indi-viduals, broken down by poverty and opium, decorated with gay oriflammes, and armed for the most part with old-fashioned match-locks of various sizes and lengths. It is recruited with volunteers excepting in Manchuria, where military service is obligatory. We once saw Li Hung Chang’s guards armed with Mausers, and the Taotai of Shanghai’s men carried guns of this model at the reception of Prince Henry of Prussia, in 1898 ; but everywhere else we have seen the old-style guns, and during the Chino. Japanese War bamboos were used in drilling recruits. But what is lacking in guns is made up in flags—one for every eight men—and as these are multi-coloured, the effect is very picturesque, to say the least. Each soldier is supplied with an oil-cloth parasol, carried in a shoulder-belt ; to this is often added a fan, kept in the sleeve, or thrust in the blouse. We have never seen any knapsack or camp outfit of any kind.
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The long queues are coiled up on top of the head, and covered with a little turban. In hot weather this arrangement is unpleasant and un-healthful, and when it rains the heavy weight of wet hair on the skull must certainly cause great discomfort. For this reason wet weather is dreaded above all things, in civil as well as in military life. During the battle of Pingyang rain fell in torrents, and the soldiers opened their parasols, thrusting the handles down inside of their collars. As was to be expected, the Japanese found the men easy targets, since in addition to his parasol each one wore large disks of white cloth bearing the number of the regiment on his breast and back. The wonder is that any escaped with their lives.
The foot-gear is as absurd as the head-covering. It consists either of felt-soled slippers, that wet through at the slightest dampness, or coarse hob-nailed shoes, that stick fast in the mud and cover the feet with blisters. The only foot-covering in which the Chinese march easily is the straw sandal. The Japanese also use these, but they are perishable. At least a pair a day is required for each man, and the army must therefore be followed by an immense supply. Some of the troops, who have been drilled by European officers, have adopted a species of uniform, but the foot-gear has remained unchanged, and so long as the
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queue is worn, a military head-covering is simply impossible.
We are told that there are still thousands of soldiers who are actually afraid of the guns they carry, and who turn their heads and shut their eyes when they fire. Even those who have learned to take deliberate aim do not hesitate to fire at objects a mile away. It was these ideas of marksmanship that permitted the Chinese to bombard Blagoveschenk for nineteen days with-out doing any damage beyond wounding or killing a dozen people, breaking some bricks, and shat-tering window-panes. Often the artillerymen do not know how to handle modern cannon. Some time ago an Austrian war-ship, entering the port of Hankow, saluted the forts. The latter at-tempted to return the courtesy, but after five or six discharges, they stopped short. The Chinese commander afterwards excused this by saying :-“After the third artilleryman had been killed, we decided to stop firing.”
The profession of arms is held in little honour in China. A military mandarin occupies only the fourth rank, and it is the least intelligent of the lettrés who present themselves for examination for the profession of arms. Their education for this consists in memorising the sacred books, the same as their civil confréres, and in learning to ride and shoot the bow. They are classified
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according to the weight they can hold out at arm’s length. Such qualifications, it is needless to state, count for little in modern warfare.
We saw the Tartar cavalry during the Chino-Japanese War. It represented the very limit of poverty. The wretched little ponies, covered with filth, with the straw padding protruding from holes in their saddles, and their equally unkempt riders, were anything but martial in appearance. The men were armed with bows and a sort of yataghan, and were headed by trumpeters who made an insupportable din.
Both the commissariat and the field-hospital service are unknown in the Chinese army. During the late war, the authorities reluc-tantly gave permission to some women, wives of English missionaries, to accompany the army in the capacity of nurses. They could not understand, however, how any one could be so foolish as to wish to take care of the wounded when human life possesses such little value. ;
The soldiers must support themselves out of their salaries, and when these are left unpaid, as they often are, the men are compelled to live by marauding. At the close of the late war with Japan, many of the soldiers were left penniless in foreign provinces, hence were obliged to pillage in order to reach their homes. The Peking
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Gazette is full of records of the misdeeds of dis-banded soldiers or deserters.
For many years each viceroy has had his own army and could employ whomever he pleased to drillthem. At the present time many Europeans are hired for this purpose, and large sums of money are expended by the Government. These funds are diverted from their proper channels, however, and the troops are poorly drilled and the arsenals comparatively empty.
In these arsenals, as well as in all Chinese factories, European surveillance is a necessity if good results are to be expected. This the natives would like to dispense with, and where they suc-ceed in so doing the results of their efforts are lamentable. In many of the arsenals Chinese educated in Europe are in control. Experience proves that they do not equal Europeans, as they quickly forget what they learned superficially or sometimes mechanically.
At the arsenal at Nanking natives are in control, and still the institution prospers. The Chinese are very proud of this fact: they never fail to remind visitors that they are their own masters. ‘“ All thatis very evident!” sarcastically remarked a Russian officer, as he noticed green sprouts on the logs from which gun-stocks were to be made; they evidently did not know that the wood to be used for such purposes should be
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perfectly seasoned. Furthermore, they concluded that a cannon sent them by Krupp was too long, so they proceeded to shorten it. They also decided to make solid shells, that is, shells that would not burst!
In the Peking Gazette we find such statements as the following :
“ Decree of October 31, 1897.—Prizes awarded to those members of the Imperial Guard who hit the target with their arrows when mounted. Prizes for the same by soldiers on foot.”
“March 16, 1895.—Inspection of the troops at Foochoo by the viceroy. According to his re-port, they showed skill in the use of their swords and shields. Their officers were also proficient with the bow, both when mounted and on foot.”
“May 22, 1895.—Report of the governor of Anhui, recalling five officers for lack of skill with the bow and arrow.”
We will not weary the reader with the reports of the inefficiency and maladministration of officers with which its pages are filled: the pay-roll con-taining names of soldiers who have never been seen, and soldiers giving themselves up to pillage with the more or less tacit understanding of their superiors, who in this way dispense with paying them their salaries. Nowhere in the country is disorder more complete than in everything
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pertaining to the army, judged by the reports of the officers themselves.
It does not follow that the Chinese are incapable of making good soldiers. They are patient, sober, hardy, and amenable to discipline, and when pro-perly drilled, fed, and paid, they compare favour-ably with the soldiers of other nations, They have their peculiarities, it is true, but perhaps these would disappear under proper military dis-cipline. For instance, when attacked in front, they fight well; but a flank or rear movement, threatening their line of retreat, throws them into a panic. The English officers noticed this both in the opium war and the Taiping Rebellion. They also avoid a hand-to-hand encounter and never wait-for bayonet charges.
It is recorded in history that the Manchu troops showed great bravery in the War of 1842.. When Chinkiang was captured by the English, the Tartars who had taken refuge in the citadel perished to the very last man. Those who re-mained in the city committed suicide after first destroying their wives and children. Military honour forbade them to surrender. This point of honour has often deprived the nation of its very strongest and most-needed officers. During the campaigns of 1842, 1860, and the Chino-Japanese War, the bravest officers did not hesi-tate to commit suicide after their defeats, and the
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Peking Gazette covered them with posthumous honours in consequence.
The Imperial army, called the Army of Eight Banners, is recruited from the Manchus, the Mongols, and the descendants of those Chinese of the north who united with the conquerors to
overthrow the Ming dynasty in 1643 and 1644.
Each of the Eight Banners has a contingent from these three sources. All adult Manchus form a part of it and receive the rice tribute. A corps of three or four thousand men, selected from the Eight Banners, constitute the Imperial Guard. In addition, an army of eighteen to twenty thousand men, cavalry, artillery, and infantry, was formed in 1862, under the name of the Army of Peking. It was drilled from 1862 to 1865 by English officers, and its present efficiency may be imagined when we are told that its manceuvres are the ones in vogue at that time.
The provincial troops are designated as the Armies of the Green Flag. They comprise both land and naval forces, and perform garrison and police service. They are supposed to number four or five thousand men each, but in all cities where soldiers are stationed one sees only a few inferior-looking men wearing uniforms. The late war demonstrated plainly that even if there is an army on paper in time of peace, its effectiveness is far from complete. We saw the soldiers on
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duty on the occasion of Prince Henry’s visit. Their arms and uniforms were new, and their complete absence of form showed plainly that they had been recruited merely for the occasion.
There has been no Chinese navy since the Chino-Japanese War. It was annihilated at Wei-hai-wei and at Port Arthur almost without giving battle. And yet it would seem that the recruiting of seamen would be easy enough in a country where an immense population lives by fishing, and must in consequence, possess nautical quali-ties of a high order.
The Squadron of the North was commanded by an old English commodore, who cut a sorry figure from a military point of view. The native officers, with few exceptions, exhibited either downright cowardice or rank incapacity. A small percentage of them had been trained in European or American naval schools, but no important com-mands were entrusted to these. Admiral Ting, who commanded at Wei-hai-wei, could not take the sea without being ill ; for this reason he kept in port during the whole war, and was driven about in the most shameful manner by the Japanese fleet. He committed suicide, and thus secured posthumous honours for himself instead of the punishment which would certainly have been inflicted upon him had he survived.
We were personally acquainted with a French
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naval officer, who was at one time appointed in-spector of the Pechili fleet. He was never given an opportunity to perform the duties of his position ; on the other hand, he was ordered by Li Hung Chang to construct a spur of railroad for the Tientsin arsenal. He protested, saying that his military education had not qualified him for laying ties and rails. To this Li Hung Chang replied that Europeans know how to do everything, and the officer was obliged to build the road.
Positions in the army and navy, like those in the civil government, are to be obtained only by means of generous bribes prid to those having appointments at their disposal. This fact would of itself account for the inefficiency of the military department of the Government, notwithstanding the outlay of enormous sums of money. It is owing to this system that painted clay shells were exhibited to Li Hung Chang, at an inspection of the Tientsin arsenal, and also that the French naval officer above referred to was never per-mitted to inspect anything, although appointed inspector-general of the Chinese fleet.
At the present time a new fleet is being built under the direction of French officers, and a new army is being formed and drilled. Military colleges even are established, equipped with European instructors.
We must not forget to mention Chinese war-
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junks—flat-bottomed craft with enormous eyes painted on their prows (literally to see with) and armed with old cast-iron guns. These harmless war-engines, manned by equally inoffensive sailors, rarely in uniform, are in evidence everywhere. They seem to be used chiefly for the transporta-tion of mandarins. It is claimed by the natives that they serve to keep pirates respectful, but it is our belief that the presence of ‘foreign warships in Chinese waters has done more to destroy piracy than was ever accomplished by war-junks, formid-able as they may appear.
The Chinese themselves boast of their love of peace. Sir Chentung Liang-Cheng, the Ambassador to the United States, says on this subject in a recent essay :
“The spread of Confucianism sounded the knell of militarism in China. Now for two thou-sand years China has not swerved an iota from steadily pursuing a consistent policy of peace. This may be put down to the fact that all the men who have played a prominent part in Chinese affairs have invariably been true followers of Con-fucius. The result is that in China the saying, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword,’ is not a high-sounding boast, but an active principle of government. It is the scholar that is to-day the ruler of the Empire. The soldier holds a lower place. This subordination of the fighter to the
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thinker is recognised throughout the length and breadth of the land.
“It may be urged that the Chinese people have brought much unnecessary trouble upon them-selves by this firm adherence to the principles of peace. It is true they have left their country practically exposed to foreign invasion. They maintain no effective army ; they have no battle-ships. These weaknesses are patent to all. He that runs may read. But China’s strength does not lie so near the surface. Perhaps the severest crisis which the nation has passed through was in the thirteenth century, when the Mongols under Genghis Khan, after carrying fire and sword into the heart of Europe, swept everything before them inChina. From this staggering blow it recovered with astonishing rapidity.
“Strange as it may seem, the enlightened opinion of the world is steadily coming around to the position with regard to militarism which was reached by China two thousand years ago. With the view of reducing the possibility of war as much as possible, arbitration is the method now best recommended for the settlement of inter-national disputes This is a step in the right direction, but so long as nations are armed to the teeth, there is always a strong temptation to test the effectiveness of the weapons they possess.
“So long as there is powder in the magazines,
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OF THE BEGGARS, SHANGHAI
THE ARMY AND NAVY
there is always danger of an explosion from a flying spark. The day, however, seems to be still far distant when the nations of the earth will agree to a general disarmament. But until this consummation is reached, the peace of the world can never be absolutely secured.”
16% L
ENcLanpD has concessions in all the open ports, twenty-five in number. France has concessions in Shanghai, Hankow, Canton, Chunking, and Tientsin. Other industrial concessions have been granted to the various powers, and of these we shall treat briefly farther on. When turned over to the foreigners, the former concessions were encumbered with tombs, for the removal of which the consent of the natives had to be gained. Monetary considerations were effective in over-coming their scruples of conscience in most instances.
Colonies made up of the merchants established in the country finally became separate munici-palities. Streets were built, an effective lighting system was established, and a police force organ-ised and supported. The model concession is that of Shanghai, and the English are rightfully proud of what they have been able to accomplish with-out outside aid, by means of self-taxation. __
In this city the English and American colonies
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are united under the name of the foreign settle-ment. Here we find harbours, where ships from all over the world ride at anchor, and mansions erected by merchant princes at a time when fortunes were to be made in a few years. The suburbs are dotted with beautiful villas, with spacious lawns, and many shade-trees. An immense track serves not only as a racecourse, but also as an athletic ground, where games of all kinds—foot-ball, cricket, golf, polo, and tennis—are played. This was sold to the colony for a nominal sum, on condition that it be reserved as a playground for all time. In the smaller ports are similar parks. Even the French have felt the influence of this love for outdoor amusement, and they now indulge freely in sports unknown in their own land a few years ago.
The races held at Shanghai every spring and fall bring an influx of visitors from the neighbour-ing ports, and even from Hongkong and Yoko-hama. These races are unique in one respect: the mounts must all be members of the Jockey Club, no professional being permitted to ride. Horse-breeding cannot be carried on, as the sires and dams are carefully retained in Mongolia and Manchuria; still, care in keeping and selection has greatly improved the condition of the Chinese pony.
The women of the Shanghai concession have
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a club where outdoor sports are indulged in during the summer months and elegant parties are given in winter.
Equestrianism is a popular form of amusement with both sexes. After the harvests are gathered, a paper hunt across the country every Saturday calls out the best social element of the city. Barriers are plentiful, owing to the profusion of ditches and canals for irrigation. One club keeps a pack of hounds. Foxes were brought over from England at one time, but the venture proved a failure, as the animals could find no shelter in a strange country and were taken at once. At present a sportsman trails a sponge saturated with an odoriferous oil, and the hounds follow the scent. Small game abounds in certain localities and these supply excellent sport. In the immediate vicinity of Shanghai the natives manage to secure most of this game, but hunting parties go up the Yangtze in house-boats, some of which are fitted up with great elegance.
There are theatres in the concessions, built by private subscription. In Shanghai two amateur companies, one French, the other English, vie with each other in the excellence of their pro-ductions. Few theatres in Europe furnish more delightful entertainments. The foreign settlement is controlled by a municipal council, in which representatives of both the nationalities composing
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it may sit. The budget is fixed by a general assembly of taxpayers. The police and the courts are under the authority of the consular body. In the French concession the consul alone administers justice and controls the police. He is president by right of the municipal council, but he delegates his power to an elected president.
Although the laws made for the government of the concessions forbid the presence of China-men upon them, still great numbers are to be found: two hundred and fifty thousand in the foreign settlement and five thousand in the French concession. Besides these, countless numbers have settled close to the boundaries. The laws were evaded by the adoption of European names. Unfortunately, no one thought of reserving a zone from which native houses should be excluded; the result is that Chinamen practically crowd Europeans out. Chinese houses which accommodate hundreds of inmates being in greater demand than European dwellings, it is not uncommon for the latter to be demolished to make room for the former ; hence, as the number of foreigners increase, the number of houses to accommodate them diminishes. From a sanitary point of view, it is better to have the natives within the concessions, under the control of the foreigners, than just outside, where epidemics are of frequent occurrence.
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The foreign settlement in Shanghai is policed by Europeans, Sikhs, and natives; the French, by Europeans and natives. The number is in general sufficient to keep respectful the three hundred thousand natives of the concessions and the few hundred thousand outside. In addition, the residents have formed companies of volun-teers, comprising infantry, cavalry, and artillery.
During our residence in Shanghai we wit-nessed two uprisings, one caused by a strike of wheelbarrow pushers, and the other by a dispute over the clearance of the cemeteries in the French concession. The first was quelled without blood-shed by the police, aided by the volunteers and the marine regulars. In the second it became necessary to kill a few natives who had demolished a police station and threatened to invade the con-cessions.
In regard to industrial concessions, the foreign public cannot act too warily, and if they wish to avoid loss, they would do well to consult firms of good repute in China before making any invest-ment. Information should be asked concerning the region in question, its products, the disposi-tion of its inhabitants, the attitude of its officials, the local difficulties to be encountered, the means of transportation, and the demand for the new supply to be produced. The small outcome which has resulted from the concessions which
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were reported some years ago proves that this advice is much needed.
A change is coming over the Chinese, and they are learning a few lessons from Japan. They are no longer inclined to allow their country to become a happy hunting-ground for concessions for the purpose of enriching foreigners. They have the ability to manage such things them-_ selves, if they choose to exert themselves. Ina recent report of the commercial AZ¢taché to the English Legation at Peking, we find this state-ment: ‘It has generally been believed that little confidence can be reposed in any Chinese under-taking subject to official influence. That assuinp-tion would now, however, appear to stand in need of revision, as everywhere native syndicates are being formed for the construction of railways or the opening of mines with Chinese capital only.” In future, therefore, we may conjecture that con-cessions to foreigners will only be granted on _ special and very strict.conditions.
The control of mines and railways in China has passed from the hands of the Bureau of Mines and Railways into those of the newly created Board of Commerce, which signalises its taking charge thereof by publishing new sets of regula-. tions containing many features not likely to con-duce to a rapid development or opening up of the country. The guiding principle sought to be
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established in these is that, in all undertakings of this nature, Chinese capital must predominate.
If, in the case of a Chinese company, the aid of foreign capital has to be invoked, the amount borrowed must not exceed fifty per cent. of the whole; and foreign companies must reserve thirty per cent. of their capital to be taken up by the Chinese. No mortgage can be executed for an amount exceeding thirty per cent. of the original estimate of the cost of construction of a railway or of erecting a mining installation, and then only machinery and buildings may be pledged. No lien can be given on the land. Within six months after the granting of any rail-way concession by the board to Chinese or foreigners the survey of the line must be com-menced, and six months after the completion of the survey construction must begin.
Applicants for railway concessions cannot apply for mining rights in connection therewith, and all contracts entered into must be subject to the approval of the board. No mining licence can be applied for in respect to an area greater than ten square miles, the length not to exceed four times the breadth. Prospecting licences, available for one year, only give the holder the right to make a surface examination of the ground.
At the present time, practical financiers from various countries are at work on concessions
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obtained in widely scattered portions of the Empire, building harbours, laying railroads, and developing mines, as it is well known that almost every mineral deposit known to nature has been lavishly distributed under the soil of old China.
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First of all Chinese products we shall mention opium, the both harmful and beneficent drug that, more than anything else, caused the opening of China to foreign influence. The cultivation of this has attained mammoth proportions in many provinces, to the great detriment of cereals and also of the health and well-being of the natives.
All social classes are addicted to the vice of opium-smoking. We are acquainted with many very intelligent Chinamen who are incapable of devoting more than two or three hours a day to business, the rest of their time being passed in dreams and somnolence. Now that the culture of the poppy has been authorised by the Govern-ment, and improvements in means of communi-cation facilitate the distribution of its product, no one can foresee the end of the evil.
We can form some idea of the gravity of the situation when we learn that in the small city of Chee-fu, the open port of Shantung, which numbered only 32,500 inhabitants in 1891, there
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were at that time 132 opium dens, without count-ing the number of Chinese who smoked at home. At Wenchow, 80,000 population, there were in 1891, 1130 dens.
The cultivation of the poppy has now almost supplanted that of wheat and peas. Fortunately, rice-lands are not adapted to it, otherwise the food staple.might fall into neglect. The Govern-ment has made repeated attempts to forbid, or at least to restrict, this culture, but the mandarins have never lent their hearty support to the measure.
The plant is now cultivated in twelve of the eighteen provinces, and its product varies in value according to the locality in which it is produced, that of Szechuen being the costliest, and that of Yunnan the cheapest. It is needless to state that a product of such value does not escape adultera-tion. A small amount of Indian opium serves to disguise the taste of the various foreign substances added.
In some cities, temperance societies have been formed, the members of which pledge themselves not only to abstain but also to refuse to employ smokers as domestics, workmen, or clerks. Little good has been accomplished, however, for as long as the middle and higher classes indulge in opium-smoking, the lower classes will always find employers who will overlook their vice.
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The trade in opium is an important source of revenue to the Chinese Government, still, every-thing goes to show that a large part of the native product circulates without passing through the custom-house. As the coasts are not patrolled, Chinese junks can easily carry it from one point to another. The custom-house officers in all the ports report an immense falling off in the impor-tations, which is not accounted for by the amount of the native opium passing through the customs. From statistics given, it is estimated that at least sixty thousand piculs of native opium are smuggled annually, thus depriving the Govern-ment of many thousands of dollars of revenue.
Silk is another of the chief products of China. Commerce in this reaches back to the remote ages of antiquity. The Arabs traded with the Chinese in the earlier part of the Christian era, if not before. The Romans obtained silk through the intermediary of the Persians, and it is not too much to suppose that they came into direct con-tact with the Chinese. Silk-spinning and weav-ing probably originated in China, where at the present day only two kinds of fabric are used: silk and cotton.
The silk markets are at Shanghai and Canton ; France, Switzerland, Italy, and the United States are the most important customers. The central market for the distribution of raw silk was formerly
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in London, but of late, Lyons, Zurich, and Milan have deprived the English of this monopoly. The inspectors are chiefly French.
Most of the silk exported by China is produced by the worm that feeds on mublberry-leaves. Another silk-worm, called the wild worm, is reared in Shantung and Manchuria; this feeds on oak-leaves, and the silk produced is used chiefly in the manufacture of écru pongee. :
Formerly, all the work of reeling and spinning from the cocoons was performed by hand, but at present both the hands and machinery are used, the latter producing the best material. In hand-spinning, the water in which the cocoons are soaked is heated with charcoal, and the uneven-ness of its temperature is one of the causes of the inferiority of the product. Then, too, the peasant does not take the pains to filter the water used in the basins, and the silk is more or less soiled in consequence. Broken threads are often clumsily joined, making knots on the surface of the woven material.
The Chinese are careless by nature, and good and bad cocoons are tossed into the basin together. The proper number is not always used and this causes a variation in the size and strength of the thread. The result of all this is that the quality of the product is affected not only by the species of worm and perfection of the cocoon, but also by
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the lack of efficiency on the part of the hand-labourer. The native buyers, who collect the raw silk spun by the peasants throughout the country, classify it by branding it with a mark called a chop. The goods thus bought and marked are ‘in greater or less demand according to the reliability of the merchant. Certain of the chops have acquired a sufficiently wide reputation to become the standard for the regulation of prices. The most famous is the Gold Kilin.
Up to 1895 there were only four steam spinning~ mills in the country, located at Shanghai; but, after the Chino-Japanese War, the introduction of machinery was authorised all over the Empire. Twenty-four mills were installed in Shanghai, two in Chinkiang, and two in Soochow. One was also set up at Wuchang by the Viceroy Chang Chi-tung. The result of all this was that the supply of cocoons was entirely inadequate to furnish 9000 basins instead of 1500.
In view of this fact, the peasants set about rearing great quantities of worms, without regard to the quantity of leaves they were able to supply as food. The consequence was that, being insuf-ficiently nourished, they became an easy prey to disease, and the cocoons were feeble and unpro-ductive, while their price and also that of hand-labour doubled.
It is easy to calculate the losses thus entailed
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on mills installed without foresight. Most of them have not the capital necessary for their successful operation and are sustained by borrowing. In those factories that have native superintendents the usual pillage is carried on, workmen are not looked after, the spinning is badly done, and much unmarketable material is produced in con-sequence. Because of all these drawbacks, many have been obliged to close their doors.
The prefect of Hangchow has opened a school of sericulture, which is presided over by a China-man who was sent to France by the Commissioner of Customs to study the subject.
Tea, China’s third great export, grows on the hills of Hupeh, Kiangsi, Fu-kien, and Chekiang. There are several harvests, succeeding one another tapidly from May to July. The natives begin picking the leaves when they are young and tender, and this first harvest yields the most finely-flavoured teas. The second and third pick-ings produce the bulk of the yield, as the leaf is full-grown. The very largest leaves are gathered at the final picking, to be ground into dust or made into bricks for the Siberian and Mongolian trade.
After the leaves are gathered, they are put into cotton bags, which are laid in boxes having holes in the bottom. Natives then trample on these bags, pressing a greenish juice out of the leaves, which is chiefly tannin. Afterwards, the leaves
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are rolled by hand into different shapes, placed in baskets, and left to ferment ; finally, ‘they are roasted, unless the tea is intended for home consumption.
All these operations are performed by the small growers in places more or less suitable for the purpose. The huts are often so unclean and open to the weather that defective preparations are the result. Each year inspectors, called tea-tasters, mostly Russian, sometimes English, visit Hankow, Shanghai, and Foochow, during the season. ‘They taste the teas and classify them according to the excellence of their flavours.
India and Ceylon have become successful com-petitors of China in tea culture. The Indian teas are for the most part the product of a plant which grows on the plains and attains a height of about thirty feet. These shrubs furnish an enormous quantity of leaves, rich in tannin. The process of rolling them by machinery and curing them in the open air causes most of this injurious element to be retained. This tea is cheaper than the Chinese product and makes such a highly coloured infusion that the same leaves may be used several times. For these reasons it is largely consumed in England, to the detriment of the more delicately-flavoured Chinese teas, It is claimed that- the Chinese plant, cultivated on the hills of Darjeeling and in the valley of the
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Kangra, and cured by machinery, is superior in flavour to the hand-rolled tea of China. The inhabitants of some of the Chinese provinces, seeing their tea neglected, have transplanted the English shrub, an experiment to be regretted.
Tea bricks are made chiefly in Hankow, where the industry is under the control of very important Russian houses. These bricks are sent to Siberia by various routes, by Batoum and the caravans and fleets of the Volga, or by Tientsin and cara-vans. In 1897 the London route was tried, and thence to the mouth of the Yenesei by way of steamers. This brick tea is indispensable to the Siberians and Mongols, who mix up their flour with infusions of the herb. Small bricks, the size of chocolate cakes, serve as money in certain portions of Siberia.
Among the other important products of China, we find cotton—cultivated in the valley and on the delta of the Yangtze, and consumed chiefly by the spinning-mills of Shanghai, Ningpo, and Hankow —flax, jute, tobacco, sugar-cane, and silk fabrics. Furs are largely used by the natives, whose clothing, as we have elsewhere stated, is made of cotton or silk, wadded or not according to the season. Notwithstanding this home demand, 1,791,080 pieces of fur of different values were articles of exportation in 1897. They were chiefly hides of the cat, dog, fox, lamb, sheep,
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goat, hare, marten, squirrel, ermine, marmot, and among them were a few tiger and leopard skins.
Other articles of exportation are fur rugs, camel’s hair, pig’s bristles, horsehair, feathers, calfskins, and musk. This last article is obtained from the male musk-deer which inhabits the mountains of Tibet. It is exported in the natural bag or pouch, and is often much adulterated. Vegetable oil is exported, although much is used by the natives in the manufacture of candles. Braided and woven straw is an important article of exportation. This work is not done in factories, asin Japan. It is often the work of the entire population of a village, each one working at home on a small piece. These are bought up, and baled for exportation.
The home consumption of oil is very great ; the natives eat an enormous quantity of fried food, and as there is no butter and little lard, they have recourse to oil. This is manufactured by the most primitive processes; it is usually nau-seous, but it has the advantage of being cheap. The exportation of rice and salt is forbidden by law. There is a great number of other products which circulate from province to province, being used for home consumption.
The farmers of China are extremely poor. It is to be hoped that with the betterment of means of communication—the construction of railroads
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and the opening up to navigation of the internal waterways of the country—the products of their industry will be able to reach the open ports and find purchasers, We can form some idea of the disadvantage under which they now labour when we are told that, in the northern regions of the country, forty per cent. of the population are pro-ducers and sixty per cent. are carriers. Wool, hides, cereals, and such products, burdened with the expense of hand transportation, leave small profits in the hands of the producers.
Rice, the great food staple, is cultivated every-where, even on the highways, in the regions adapted to it. The tools employed by farmers are the most primitive. The chief ones are a wooden plough which merely scratches the surface of the ground, and a spade about the size of one’s hand. Every tool that requires the use of much strength is out of favour.-
Nearly all the work is done by hand. Men even draw ploughs, although mules are also used. Irrigation is everywhere practised, and the con-trivances used for this purpose are often very clumsy. The water buffalo helps here, and is also used for trampling and ploughing. Cattle being scarce, there is a dire lack of fertilising material. For this everything is used, even to the hair cut from the head. The absence of capital with which to build highways, and the scarcity of
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beasts of burden prevent any extensive farming in the mountainous districts. In certain lakes there are floating islands made of bamboos woven together and covered with soil. These are the homes of a numerous population, and upon them crops are raised.
The small domain upon which the Chinese family lives is seldom divided. When a son marries, his wife comes to live in the paternal home, and the addition. of a new mouth to be fed is perhaps a partial reason for the hostility shown to the newcomer.
In the north and west, wheat and barley are grown, and we have also seen fields of buck-wheat. Oats and corn form a. part of the food-stuffs of the natives in these localities. In the province of Kansu, bread is made in the Euro-pean fashion, but almost everywhere else it is fried or boiled. A highly intoxicating liquor is made from rice. It is served hot in small cups and is universally drunk. After it has been rectified and allowed to age in flasks it is not dis-agreeable to the foreigner, but usually it is crudely manufactured and has an unpleasant taste.
A curious custom of the Chinese illustrates the importance the Government attaches to agricul-ture. On the first day of the second period of springtime, the Emperor repairs to the Temple of Agriculture with three princes, nine persons
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of rank, and a numerous suite. After a religious service, all go out into a field, where the Emperor turns eight furrows with a gold-handled plough. The head of the Board of Revenue walks on his right with the whip, and the head mandarin of the province on his left with the seed, which still another person sows in the furrows behind the sovereign. The three princes turn six furrows each, and the nine dignitaries eighteen each. All , are accompanied by mandarins; finally, old men, chosen from among the farmers, complete the labour by covering the furrows. The grain har-vested from this field is carefully stored in gran-aries to be used for offerings. Each mandarin is supposed to repeat this ceremony in his par-ticular province, but for many years the custom has been observed only by the Emperor.
We will add a word on the subject of fish-cul-ture. The natives have turned to profit the con-siderable number of fish to be found in the Blue River and the lakes feeding it, but whether their methods deserve the name of pisciculture we shall leave the reader to decide. Bamboo screens are used to collect the eggs floating on the surface of the water, and funnel-shaped nets are used for the small fry. These are then carried about the country and sold to the farmers to be used in stocking their pools. Food, consisting of the yolks of eggs, and cooked beans and herbs cut up:
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fine, is furnished for a time, after which no atten-tion is paid to the fish excepting to catch them. As species brought from the Blue River do not reproduce in the ponds, the operation of stocking has to be repeated. It is needless to state that such summary methods would be unsuccessful outside of tropical waters.
182
THE strangest confusion prevails in the monetary system of the country. The unit is the tael, which is not a coin but a certain weight of silver, a Chinese ounce, of which there are sixteen to the catty, or hundredth part of a picul. Money is minted in silver ingots, each weighing a certain number of taels. When one seeks to discover the exact weight of the unit, he takes the first step in a labyrinth the end of which he can hardly hope to reach.
The tael decided upon by the treaties, to be used in commercial transactions between China and the foreign powers, is that of Canton. This should weigh 37.783 grains, but it usually weighs only 37.58. Then there is the current tael of Chanping or Shanghai, which weighs 36.6 grains. Still another is the revenue tael, the one recog-nised by the laws controlling exports and imports. Furthermore, each city has several different taels, Tientsin holding the record for confusion. The commercial tael of this city is the Hangping,
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worth from four to six per cent. more than that of Shanghai.
The business operations carried on in taels are liquidated in two ways: in dollars or in silver ingots. It was not until the sixteenth century that Spanish dollars made their appearance in China, probably through the medium of Spanish merchants established in the Philippines. This coin has now dropped from circulation. The Mexican dollar is the one most used, and at Shanghai no other is known. These dollars are imported from London chiefly, a few being brought from America.
The natives always examine a dollar before accepting it, but as there are differences of appreciation, some may accept what others will refuse. Banker§ in the south of China have formed the habit of stamping every dollar so that they can recognise it, and either accept it at its full value or refuse to do so, This multitude of stamps applied to coins speedily renders them unfit for use. They become so concave that they cannot be piled up, and they are finally returned to the mint to be recoined. In Shanghai they are merely marked with Chinese ink. Here there is an exchange, where the number of taels to the dollar is fixed four times a day. The number has a tendency to rise during the silk and tea harvests, also when, by reason of exportation
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to the interior, or to Hongkong or Corea, dollars become scarce. Theoretically, one hundred dollars equal 72.6 taels and the Mexican dollar equals 0.9027.
Monetary subdivisions of five, ten, twenty, and fifty cents are accepted in the open ports, but they have very little circulation in the interior. The Peiyang dollar, coined at the Tientsin mint, is current in northern China, but is unknown in the centre and south. In Manchuria the Chinese authorities have put in circulation a dollar coined at Kirin, equivalent to 984 copper cash.
Silver is imported in bars or rectangular blocks, which are sent to the mints to be cast into ingots. These mints are extremely primitive. The bars are heated in a brazier, then cut by means of a hatchet and hammered into pieces of about fifty taels in weight, according to the judgment of the operator. The fragments are heated in a crucible, and enough copper is thrown into the molten mass to make the purity approximately equal to that of the Shanghai tael. The molten silver is poured into moulds clumsily imitating the Chinese shoe in shape. They are then cooled in water and sent to the assayer. Mints must be provided with a licence from the local authorities, who do not interfere in their operations, but the law severely punishes counterfeiters.
In Shanghai the number of mints is limited to
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seven, each having four furnaces. They can turn out to the value of seventy thousand taels daily, a small number when we consider that ten million are needed for the business in the city. The assayers’ laboratories are also established by the Government, which has nothing to do with their operation. They are located in all the chief cities; Shanghai has two: one for trade in the north, the other for the south. Their installation is even more rudimentary than that of the mints. A table, an ink-bottle, and a balance seem to be all that is required. The purity of the silver is indicated by the appearance. The expert notes the colour of the metal, the shapes of the little holes and ridges which form on the sides of the ingot during the moulding, making it resemble a fine sponge, and the appearance of the circles which form chiefly near the middle of the interior face when it is cooling. The whiter the colour, the smaller and deeper the holes and ridges, the finer and closer the circles, the purer the silver. The weight of the ingot is inscribed on its interior face with Chinese ink. If its purity is greater than is required by the Shanghai standard, the ingot is stamped with a mark to indicate the premium to be added to the inscribed weight. If it is below the standard, it is returned to the mint. Banks store their money in cellars or vaults in boxes containing sixty ingots apiece, and these 186
MONEY
are carried back and forth by coolies. This ex-plains the item of transportation, which is deducted from the face of a Chinese cheque when it is cashed at a bank. One can judge of the compli-cations consequent upon this system of conver-sion of taels of different values into ingots of different weight and purity, especially as assayers of different localities refuse to honour the stamps of other cities.
In those portions of China where the dollar is not accepted—and there are many such—frac-tional payments are made by cutting up the ingots when copper cash is not used. The hand-balance used in weighing these fragments has two sets of markings: one for receipts and one for expenditures.
When a party enters into a commercial transac-tion of any nature, he must know what kind of taels are to beconsidered. In Peking house-rent is paid in taels of lightest weight those of Canton ; bills for merchandise must be paid in taels of heavier weight, those of Hangping; other ac-counts are settled with other taels, and so on. These various values furnish the Chinese with manifold opportunities for that bargaining in which they invariably indulge, no matter how small the transaction.
We have yet to speak of the national coin, the sapek, or copper cash. It has been said in jest
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that when one meets a cart loaded with copper cash, some one is on his way to pay a debt of a dollar or so. Force is given to this statement when we learn that eight English pounds of cash make a dollar. These coins have square holes in the centre so that they can be strung like beads in lengths of five hundred or one thousand. We find traces of the sapek in history about the year 2354 B.c., and perhaps it is the very oldest coin. For more than forty centuries it has been the only cozm minted in China. It is made of copper and various alloys, zinc being the principal one. At first these coins were made in various shapes, as those of spades, swords, and knives, but finally they were made round with an opening in the centre. This last form appeared at about the time of King Daniel’s reign. Some coins dating back to the fifteenth century are still in circulation, but these are held to be modern by collectors. One of the Emperors of the past decided to double his amount of funds by simply giving copper cash double its value. Traces of this measure still exist in certain parts of the country, so that if a note specifies double cash, twice as much is owed as if they were single cash. There is also another variation in the value of copper cash. A certain Emperor tried to introduce into circulation coins made of iron. In this he failed, but a compromise was effected by which 85 sapeks, 188
MONEY
or cash, were to count fora hundred. This number was afterwards changed to 77, so prices on mer-chandise are fixed with regard to the number of sapeks to the hundred, whether 77 or 85. A last attempt at corrupting the national money was made by the coinage of a large cash, one being equal in value to twenty small ones. As it weighed only four times as much it was refused everywhere, with the exception of Peking, where a limited number circulate at their real value.
Cash made of sand, zinc, and copper are also coined. In money exchanges one sees clerks sorting these out from genuine cash. They are in circulation, and in certain parts of the province of Honan the natives go to market with two kinds of money: real and counterfeit. Some articles are bought with one, some with the other. Certain articles have two prices—one in good money, the other in bad. The dodging spirit of the Chinaman is well adapted to all these com-plications.
Special banks issue paper money, after furnish-ing a sufficient guaranty to the Government. These bills have a variable value, mostly mini-mum; they are redeemable at sight in copper cash or silver. They are not much more con-venient to handle than the other moneys to which reference has been made. Before a person can accept them he has to inform himself as to the
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kind of money they call for, whether genuine or counterfeit copper cash, or whether strings of 850, 770, or 500 cash are to be used for the 1000.
In Manchuria copper cash is so scarce that when one presents a cheque at the bank issuing it, he receives one-eighth or one-tenth of its value in cash and an order on another bank for the remainder. This performance is repeated until seven or eight establishments have been visited. Checks for one tiao (164 copper cash) alone are wholly redeemable.
What simply confounds the imagination is the fact that, with such a monetary system, trade is very active in every part of the Empire. In 1877 the representative of the European powers sent a note to the Chinese Minister recommending a change in the financial system. The Chinese Cabinet acknowledged the value of the arguments set forth, and expressed the desire to see the reforms suggested brought about. They added that, following a general law governing all ques-tions affecting the entire Empire, it would be necessary to submit the measure to the provincial authorities. This was done, and all were opposed to any change. The suppression of the compli-cated system in use would put an end to the benefits of both banks and mandarins, so they were in favour of leaving matters in their existing condition. :
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We have not spoken of gold, since it is not used as money. Jewellery is made of it, and in the form of bullion it is exported by foreign banks to pay their debts. As yet, little gold is mined in China. The auriferous sands in Manchuria are being washed at the present time, and that is about the only method of gold-mining practised.
According to a recent report, in November 1902, the Government granted exclusive mining rights in the north-west of Fu-kien to certain Chinese and French capitalists. A French mining engineer of high repute, who had been prospecting there, made a careful survey of the goldfields of the Shao-wu district. These are described as very valuable, and it is proposed to form a company with a capital of $1,250,000 to begin working them.
19!
Un.ike European budgets, which present tables of receipts on one side and of expenditures on the other, the Chinese system opposes each expense with a determined revenue. Itis to be remarked that there is no attempt to make the prevision accord with the reality, and, this prevision once established, even if the revenue becomes greater or falls below, the budget unalterably bears the same figures.
The most curious illustration of this state of things is furnished by the land-tax. When there is a deficit in any of the provinces, if there is no hope of bringing the revenue up to the prevision, the balance is made up by the Government. If the revenue exceeds the previsionary sum, the surplus must be disguised under different names —gifts, donations of the rich, and so on—the laws forbidding the increase of the land-tax. The viceroys and governors are blamed, it seems, only when they remit less than eighty per cent. of the taxes collected ; if they remit more than this, they
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are rewarded. When a large surplus falls to the collector, he is expected to be very generous in his gifts to the governor, literary chancellor, pro-vincial judge, and so on down the scale of under-lings. There is a deficit in the provinces of the Yangtze which is still attributed to the influence of the Taiping Rebellion, quelled forty years ago. It is a well-known fact that all the land of these provinces is in a high state of cultivation, being more productive, if anything, than before the rebellion.
An instance quoted by the English consul at Shanghai, in 1897, furnishes us some information regarding Chinese methods.
The clearance duty at a certain collector’s port for a Chinese junk chartered by a foreigner was twelve thousand copper cash (seven and a half taels). The foreigner did not complain of the ex-cessive amount of the tax, but asked for a receipt. One for four taels was given him. Not being able to convince the Chinese collector that he should have a receipt for the entire sum paid, he applied to his consul for aid in either obtaining a return of his money or-else a proper receipt. In the correspondence that followed, the Chinese authori-ties stated very explicitly that the sum of four taels would cover the duty, as could easily be seen by consulting the tariff list, but that the tael mentioned was not the tael in the ordinary sense
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of the word ; it was such a sum as would ef a legal tael at Peking, and, in consequence, included the cost of casting (official money being silver ingots), loss of weight, expenses of transportation, and collection. From all this it was clearly evi-dent that a receipt for only four taels could be given. In other words, the expense of collection in this particular case amounted to nearly one hundred per cent.
The tax on land is about two hundred cash per mow, or three-quarters of a tael per acre. Con-sidering one-half of Chinese territory tillable, we have 400,000,000 acres; this would furnish a revenue of 300,000,000 taels. Even allowing a falling off of one-third because of drought, inun-dation, or civil war, and a reduction of one-half a tael per acre in the rate of taxation, there would still remain an income of 138,000,000 taels, a sum far removed from 25,000,000 taels actually accounted for. The remainder is doubtless diverted from its proper channels, and _ this with the full knowledge and consent of the Government.
The provinces of Kiangsu and Chekiang pay their taxes in rice, sending nearly 100,000 tons to the capital annually for this purpose. One-sixth of this is sent by the old route of the Grand Canal ; the rest is transported by water in Chinese junks or steamers of the China Merchant
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Company. Enormous sums are charged by these for transportation.
By examining the methods in practice, it will be seen that in this strange land nothing is simple and direct. The value of the rice is fixed from time to time by proclamation, this value being based on the current market price plus a sum re- . presenting the cost of transportation and various other expenses. It thus happens that the duty is reckoned 6n a value two or three times as great as the market price.
The governor of the district, who is also the collector, purchases the rice and stores it in ware-houses; or, rather, he has his colleague at the warehouse buy it, thus doing away with the pos-sibility of any discussion as to its quality. The grain then passes into the hands of ‘the trans-portation companies which are to deliver it at Tungchow, near Peking.
To begin with, an allowance of twelve per cent. is made to these companies for loss of weight in transit; that is, for every one hundred piculs re-ceived, the companies are authorised to deliver only eighty-eight piculs at Tungchow. The cost of transporting 100,000 tons absorbs 1,500,000 taels. There is not a foreign company that would not carry it for one-third or even one-quarter of this sum.
The Government has the monopoly of the salt-
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trade. For the purpose of taxation of this pro-duct, China is divided into seven districts, no one of which, in theory, can sell its salt in a neigh-bouring territory. Because of the Taiping Rebel-lion, Szechuen supplied Hunan and Hupeh, and this provisory state of things still exists.
Salt is obtained by the evaporation of sea-water and from the wells and marshes of Szechuen and Shansi. It must be sold either by the Govern-ment, which keeps it stored in warehouses, or by licensed dealers, who are given control of certain districts. These licences are perpetual, and may be transmitted from father to son for genera-tions. Their prices vary, a licence in Hwai being worth twelve thousand taels. They confer the right to purchase a certain amount of salt from the Government storage-houses and sell it again in a given territory. The profits of the transaction depend upon the place selected. When the dealer ships his stock to his territory, it is again stored in a bonded warehouse, from which it is sold. Here he enters his name upon the books of the house and also gives up his licence. The lots are sold in the order of these entries, the licences are then returned, and their holders may then begin another operation.
The cost of salt varies greatly, ranging from one and a half to two copper cash per Chinese pound of six hundred grains at the seashore, to
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eight or ten cash ‘per pound in some districts— Hwai, for example. The selling price ranges from twenty-five cash a pound in Fu-kien and Chekiang to sixty or more in Hwai and Szechuen.,
The yearly consumption is estimated at 25,000,000 piculs, Taking five cash as the aver-age cost per pound and forty as the average selling price, we see that consumers pay 62,000,000 taels for what costs only 7,300,000—a difference of 54,700,000 taels. It would seem that out of this amount the Government should receive more than the 13,500,000 taels, the amount recorded.
The toll system of taxation is the most com-plicated one in operation in China. The tolls collected at the stations, aptly termed “ squeeze-stations” by foreigners, are known as likins. They were initiated. in 1853, becoming universal throughout the Empire in 1860-61, to furnish funds for the repression of the Taiping Rebellion. They were intended to be provisory, but, in every country, the provisory easily becomes the definite in the matter of taxation.
Stations for the collection of likins are in-numerable, being only twenty miles apart along the Grand Canal. There is supposed to be a definite rate of taxation, but it is quite impossible to obtain any precise information on this point, either from the merchants or the mandarins, no
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one appearing to interest himself in the matter of rates. This’ system of taxation accords well with the lack of precision inherent in the native character. Shippers often avoid the annoyance by means of a yearly subscription. Thus the Syndical Chamber of Fabrics at Shanghai for years paid for its consignments to Soochow by subscription. They constituted a monopoly, and those outside the Chamber were ruinously over-taxed.
One of the commonest ways of avoiding full payment of the likins is to declare a quantity of merchandise below its real weight. This is done with the complicity of the authorities, small gifts being useful and even necessary in making arrange-ments of this kind. A similar inexactness exists in the system of land taxation. Titles to pro-perty never mention the dimensions of lots or farms. Because .of this, it is prudent for the foreign purchaser to have his lots accurately sur-veyed under the direction of his consul.
The likins become exorbitant when goods are transported long distances, That they retard in-ternal commerce and should be abolished is the opinion of all; but so long as they are tolerated, under a regular system of administration they should certainly yield more than the thirteen mil-lion taels actually accounted for annually.
In the list of likins is included a tax on licences
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required by certain industries. At Soochow, there is a tax on textile industries and also on the manu-facture of bricks. This furnishes a contradiction to the assertion of a Chinese general, well-known in Europe, that in his country no one is compelled to pay for the privilege of being a manufacturer or a merchant.
In the same list are placed the taxes levied in Wenchow on junks on each of their trips, part of which goes to the judge, part to the governor, and part to the commander of the garrison. On all sides, in fact, are innumerable taxes for the benefit of every official. It is impossible to estimate the amount of these, as they are more or less arbitrary.
The maritime customs furnish the only reliable item of the Imperial revenue. The service is admirably administered by Europeans, with Sir Robert Hart as inspector-general. Under his efficient management, the annual receipts have grown from four million to twenty-two million taels and more. Besides these maritime duties others are levied on merchandise transported in junks. These are under the administration of the Chinese, with the usual results. A glance at the river at Shanghai, with its forests of masts belonging to junks of from four to six hundred tons burden, would convince the most superficial observer that the thirty-three thousand taels
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accounted for barely represent the receipts of a week instead of a year.
It is the same with the tax onopium. Accord-ing to the only statistics we have been able to find, only about one-sixth of the revenue from this pro-duct finds its way into the national treasury.
The revenues from the likins are distributed in the most singular manner. They are not ex-pected to be turned over in full to the Government, to be redistributed under its supervision. A part flows into provincial treasuries to be drawn out and used for a great variety of purposes. In fact, a list of these would fill a volume. Such or such an arsenal is supported by a tax on opium or salt in a distant province ; a certain school is endowed with likins from another district. Other specified funds are used for the support of troops, techni-cal colleges, and other institutions, and so on indefinitely.
It is the opinion of all authorities on the subject that the revenues of China are capable of being greatly augmented, thus adding to the nation’s available capital. This can be brought about only by acomplete reform in the system of internal taxation. As may be readily imagined, any such attempts will be desperately resisted by the mandarins, who would thus be deprived of the magnificent prebends falling to them under the existing arrangements
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It is commonly said that a Chinaman is a born merchant. He possesses commercial aptitude, it is true, but he understands business in a par-ticular fashion, He is, first of all, a speculator. There is no game of chance within his reach, in legitimate business or otherwise, of which he does not avail himself, and if one wishes to find idle capital he must go outside of China. The facili-ties for credit, and the fiduciary circulation estab-lished in China ages before Europe thought of such a thing, have accustomed the natives to a daring in business that often gives them an advantage over their European competitors. There is not a Chinaman engaged in mercan-tile business who does not risk much more than a foreigner with equal capital would dare to do.
This system rests upon the banks as a basis. Their paper is current within the radius in which they operate, and it is not uncommon for a bank with a capital of ten thousand taels to have in
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circulation bills to the value of two hundred thou-sand. It is not their capital that warrants the issue; it is their loans. A word on rates of interest will not be out of place here. ‘The Chinese reckon interest by the day instead of the month or year, and the rate varies every day, and some-times several times a day. It fluctuates from three to thirty per cent. yearly. The borrower has the satisfaction of following these variations in the amount owed, and it is a very interesting little game, to him at least.
The Chinaman appreciates the value of an obligation, and in general he respects it. For him to fail to honour his signature, it is necessary that circumstances absolutely prevent him from doing so. The commercial integrity of the native, so far as paying his debts is concerned, is unimpeach-able. In the preliminary bargaining there is no scheming to which he will not stoop in order to secure the advantage ; but the bargain once made, he will faithfully execute his part of it. Heis a_ gambler, like his Japanese brother, but, unlike the latter, he gambles in good faith. There is a dark side to his transactions, however, of which we will speak farther on.
In the silk trade the Chinese merchant is never ‘required to sign a contract. The European dealer records the terms and that is all that is necessary ; there is never any discussion over them. In other
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branches of business it is well to require signed contracts. As bearing upon this subject, we may again note that in the concessions the Chinese custom of imprisoning for debt has been preserved. On the mere complaint of the creditor, a debtor, or, in his place, his wife, son, mother, or head clerk, may be seized and imprisoned. The Chinese admit the legality of this proceeding, especially in the concessions, where they can be realised on giving bail. The practice is expedi-tive and also effective.
In wholesale dealings, where there is no time for interminable bargaining, one can persuade a Chinaman to name his price at once, but in retail business it is quite different. It is not the value of the commodity that determines its price, but the ‘quality of the prospective purchaser. For instance, a European pays a higher price for a given article than a native, unless he knows how to speak Chinese, in which case he is accorded the favour shown to the Sons of Heaven. But when a native deals with a native, the bargaining is interminable. Neither buyer nor seller will name a price at once, as that would deprive the transaction of all its importance. The advantage finally rests with the most adroit, the most per-suasive and tireless. ‘Time is not considered in the least.
A native’s initial capital is rarely known, More
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than one important merchant has started with the purchase of a box of matches, to be sold one by one to wheelbarrow pushers to light their lanterns. Because of the use of copper cash, dealings can be carried on on an infinitely small scale. Owing, too, to the high rate of interest, capital has a circulation whose activity is unsurpassed in any other country in the world. It is very interest-ing to read the arguments advanced by the supporters of the law which fixed the legal rate at thirty per cent. Even the most illustrious European political economists could not refute many of them.
Although the Chinaman is a man of his word in all that pertains to the fulfilment of his con-tracts, as we have before stated, this’does not prevent fraud in the quality of the merchandise delivered. A long business career in China warrants the statement that a native merchant never hesitates to deliver fraudulent or inferior merchandise, if he believes he can do so without being detected, thus rendering indispensable the inspection of merchandise before shipment. We have had come under our notice the most singular deceptions, from which their author could derive no possible benefit, practised merely to gratify a perverted disposition. We have found small shot in cocoons, the holes through which they were introduced being carefully sewed up and covered
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with silk. This practice secures to the seller a very small gain in weight and to the buyer an enormous loss, as all such cocoons sink to the bottom of the hot-water basins and constitute waste material to be sold at a very low price. Chinese indigo cannot be used, its colouring principle being utterly destroyed by the various adulterations introduced by each intermediary that handles the product. Philippine indigo, reputed to be the best in the world, has had the bad fortune to pass into the hands of Chinese merchants. To-day the Japanese alone purchase a small quantity, other buyers absolutely refusing to handle it.
We have found needles in the stems of feathers, introduced with great pains to increase their weight. The down of ducks is often inflated in quantity by the addition of chicken feathers cut up fine ; and it requires hundreds of women wark-ing weeks to remove what could so easily have been left out. Everything that admits of the addition of water or.mud receives a generous supply. Cotton, wool, down, and hides are often thus treated. Bricks and pieces of iron are to be found in bales of merchandise. These frauds often render the goods unsaleable, but this fact does not prevent their recurrence.
We remember a little incident which serves to illustrate this tendency. Our comprador bought
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some hides for us from the natives. They were rolled up in large bundles, wound round and round with heavy ropes. Knowing that it would be impossible to discover their true weight, our man did not hesitate to provide himself with false scales. The sellers knew of this, but were not aggrieved. Each party had obtained an advan-tage and both were delighted in consequence. In fact, every self-respecting merchant has scales with two sets of markings: one for buying and the other for selling.
The Chinese have three days in the year for settling up their accounts, the most important being New Year’s. On this day every man examines his financial condition and attempts to discharge his liabilities. From what we know of the credit system, it goes without saying that these settlements are often merely fictitious. Old debts are paid by contracting new ones, which in their turn will not be cancelled until the following New Year’s. This annual custom has the advantage, however, of putting an end to immediate finan-cial embarrassments and of forcing out of business those merchants whose credit is entirely dead. On New Year's Day the streets of the cities present a picturesque appearance. People carrying lanterns start out at daybreak to settle their accounts, and these lights are not ex-tinguished until the last debt is paid; then only
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is the bearer willing to acknowledge that the sun of the New Year has risen.
The division of labour practised in every branch of Chinese industry is seen at its height in com-mercial affairs. Upon entering a shop one is astonished at the extravagant number of clerks in proportion to the size of the stock and the capital it presumably represents. This is partially ex-plained by the fact that as soon as a native sets himself up in business, he considers it his duty to employ all his relatives as well as those of his wife. They have a proverb which says, ‘‘ When the fire is lighted, all the family should be kept warm.”
The practice of making the employees sharers in the profits of a business is almost universal in China. Even the coolie who sweeps the shop has his interest. In fact, the co-operative spirit is developed everywhere in the extreme. In each large city there is a guild composed of the merchants of the province, in which the interests of the corporations are considered. These syndi-cates court the favour of the mandarins whenever possible, but at need they do not hesitate to openly oppose them.
Most of the disagreements among merchants are regulated by these guilds, their decisions being final. They are in reality chambers of com-merce ; they regulate trade, fix taxes, support fire-
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companies and lifeboats, and render assistance to needy members, Together with the dettrdés they form a wholesome check to the oppression of the mandarins, who always have them to reckon with,
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ForeIcn merchants in China, both exporters and importers, are engaged principally in wholesale trade. Retail business is, for the most part, in the hands of the natives. A few foreigners have opened stores where clocks, watches, jewellery, and novelties are sold, and these are fairly pros-perous. Pharmacies are usually kept by Euro-peans, who, following the English system, are not required to hold diplomas; along with drugs they sell photographic supplies and perfumeries. In the silk trade it is possible to deal directly with the native merchants, as they all speak pidgin English. Those dealing in other articles of mer-chandise speak no English at all; as foreigners rarely speak Chinese, the services of a business agent orcomprador becomea necessity. This agent furnishes all sorts of information, and in addition does all the preliminary bargaining in which the Chinese so love to indulge. In silk houses there is also a comprador, but he performs the duties of cashier, head clerk, head packer, and so on.
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Articles imported into the country for Chinese consumption are often of a very inferior quality. An exception is to be made in the case of English cotton fabrics. These are of coarse weave, but they must be strong and durable, as they are to be used for garments for both sexes. As these garments are of unvarying shape, a certain width is demanded ; and in order to secure their patron-age, manufacturers must conform to this require-ment.
The greater part of the mercantile houses are English; next in importance are the German, followed by French, American, Swiss, and others. The number of German houses has greatly aug-mented since 1870, and they now are important rivals of the English. The silk trade is chiefly in the hands of the French and Swiss, and the tea trade is carried on mostly by the Russians, Japan has a considerable exchange commerce with the country.
The principal banks are English ; there is one Russian bank, one French, one German, one Japanese, and one native bank. The last is devoted almost exclusively to financing home enterprises, such as railroads, under the control of the Government.
England is also at the head of the navigation companies which carry on the trade between China and the rest of the world. Sixty-five per
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cent: of the tonnage belongs to that country. A Chinese steamship company has a coast and river trade, competing with the English, both being very prosperous. The opening of interior waters to foreign navigation offers an extremely profit-able field for enterprise.
Numerous native insurance companies, both fire and life, have been established with foreign capital, and they pay good dividends in spite of the existence of many English and German com-panies. The natives highly appreciate the value of insurance. In Shanghai and other open ports fires of incendiary origin were formerly very common. The evil spread so rapidly that at last summary measures were taken by those in authority. The Chinaman whose building burned was arrested and held in custody until he could prove that the fire was accidental. Previous to that time, many found the insurance companies of great assistance in enabling them to settle up their accounts on New Year's Day.
The principal articles imported into China for Native use are cotton fabrics, English, Indian, and Japanese cotton yarns, woollens, American, Russian, and Sumatran petroleum, metals, aniline dyes, exclusively from Germany, window-glass, watches, clocks, wines and liquors, ribbons, and parasols of both European and Japanese manu-facture.
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Shanghai and Hongkong are the centres of distribution of importations, the former city leading. Of the cotton fabrics imported, about one-fourth is of American manufacture, a small fraction is Japanese, and the rest is English. English cotton yarns have been almost entirely supplanted by the Indian product, which in its turn is submitted to Japanese competition. ' The Indian yarns are spun chiefly in mills installed with English capital.
Wool occupies a comparatively small space in the list of importations, but a demand for this product is steadily increasing. Petroleum is im-ported in barrels or cans, these last being after-wards used for a great variety of purposes. The oil is stored in warehouses to be reshipped into the interior. As barrels are not manufactured in China, large paper jars encircled with bamboo hoops are used. These are strong, but they. would not withstand a sea-voyage. Of late years Russian and Sumatran oils have entered into competition with the American product. In the near future, China may produce its own oil. Ex-perts are even now boring for petroleum in the regions of the Upper Yangtze, on behalf of a German syndicate.
The importation of metals is also increasing. This demand will lessen when the country exploits its own vast mineral deposits. In the year 1903
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three thousand tons of pure antimony were brought down from the province of Hunan and an equal amount of antimony ore. Japan purchased two thousand tons, and a large quantity went to the United States. In the same year the iron mines of Tayeh yielded fifty thousand tons of ore, which was shipped to Japan. In return for a loan of three million yen, these mines have now been mortgaged to a Japan syndicate for a period of thirty years. A Japanese engineer is to be engaged, and the Imperial foundry is to purchase from seventy thousand to one hundred thousand tons of ore annually. The Hanyang Iron Works manufactures steel rails of excellent quality. The output for 1903 was estimated at sixteen thousand tons, which were sold at the average price of thirty-two dollars per ton.
. The aniline colours imported are exclusively German, owing to the pains taken by manufac-turers of that country to conform to the needs of their patrons by shipping the dyes in small bottles or boxes. China is the land of infinitely small transactions, and in our trips into the interior of the country, we have seen the contents of these small bottles being sold out at retail. In the port of Pakhoi we found an importation of 80,216 bottles of aniline dyes valued at less than ten thousand dollars, and yet every bottle was labelled with an attractive chromo-lithograph.
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Window-glass is much’ appreciated by the natives. Its use, like that of petroleum, will be greatly extended with the improvement in means of transportation. Time-pieces figure as a con-siderable item in the list of importations. The Chinese value them highly, and those who can afford the luxury of a watch often buy them in pairs. It is safe to assert that the figures of the custom list do not represent the exact importa-tion of watches. Being small, they can be easily smuggled, in spite of all the efforts of the Govern-ment to prevent it. Wines and liquors are among the few articles imported from France. These are chiefly consumed by foreigners, the Chinese preferring their national beverage of rice-wine.
Ribbons, chiefly figured and brocaded, are used by the women to decorate their robes in place of the embroidery once so universal among the better classes. Japanese parasols are rapidly supplant-ing those of European manufacture. The Chinese also make parasols of oil-cloth, with bamboo sticks. These are sold very cheap and every one owns one, even the soldiers, who are often seen without their guns, but never without their parasols in their shoulder-belts.
Among the metals imported, we find gold and silver. With gold, the balance is slightly in favour of China, its exportation exceeding its importation. With silver it is different. In view
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of the fact that there isa constantly increasing demand for this metal to supply funds for the ex-pansion of industries, the construction of railroads, and other branches of the economic development which may be said to have been fairly launched in the country, and also that it is replacing the inconvenient copper cash in many business trans-actions, it will have to be imported for many years to come.
We will close this chapter by a brief considera-tion of the subject of commercial treaties. At the close of the various clashes between European and Chinese troops, treaties have been made securing, among other measures, certain advan-tages to foreign merchants transacting business in China. We have already called the attention of the reader to the multiplicity of tolls levied by the provincial governments on every side. One of the aims of these treaties was to secure an exemption of the foreign trader from these taxes, and permit foreign merchandise to reach native consumers after the payment of the maritime customs alone.
This was to be accomplished by the issue of transit passes. These passes are custom-house certificates stating that the duties have been properly paid in the case of importations, and a guarantee that they will be properly paid in the matter of exports. In both cases the
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dealers are to be exempted from a'l payment of likins.
The provincial authorities speedily found ways of evading this provision of the treaties. In the matter of exports, a tax called /o¢z is levied on the producer or first buyer. Cocoons, for instance, which are taxed one and a half taels per picul, are taxed six taels, under the transit-pass system, before leaving the place of production. If the foreign purchaser refuses to pay this, the pro-ducer or agent is summoned to the collector’s office, and as a mandarin has irresistible means of persuasion, in which imprisonment, the bamboo, and similar arguments figure conspicuously, the visitor pays, and the six taels figure in the selling price. Tea is also ruinously overtaxed at the place of production. To such an extent is this carried that the goose that lays the golden egg is in danger of dying from it. The attention of the mandarins has been repeatedly called to this fact, but they pay no heed to the warnings.
The weakness of the system of transit passes lies in the fact that the work of exempting mer-chandise on which the tax has already been paid is left to those provincial officials directly inter-ested in violating the terms of the treaties which suppress their revenues. In practice, passes are turned over to native agents, who are thereby authorised to buy or sell outside of the open ports
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on the part of the foreign firms in whose names the certificates were issued.
From this it follows that as Chinamen do the actual buying, they must pay the likins. The number of foreign merchants is very limited. They are permitted to establish themselves only in certain open ports. Those on the Yangtze, from the mouth to the source, are considered by the Chinese merchants as tributaries to the Shang-hai market ; no foreigner is permitted to engage in wholesale trade in any of these ports, although retail trade is open to him.
The natives guard against the intrusion of foreigners on this territory by boycotting those who open establishments, and by destroying the credit of those of their patrons who are convicted of buying of or for any of the boycotted firms. The pass system is exclusively under Chinese management; this explains why, at Canton, for instance, goods imported by steamships are taxed at the custom-house, in accordance with the terms of the treaties; then, immediately afterwards, shippers are compelled to pay a provincial likin, and a defence tax for the military needs of the province. After the payment of these three taxes, the merchandise can circulate only within a limited area, at the boundaries of which are fresh toll stations.
Although the treaties stipulate that foreigners
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may establish themselves anywhere within the limits of Canton, they are, in reality, forced together on a small concession. If a landlord should be so unlucky as to lease a building in the city to a foreigner for commercial purposes, he would be subjected to innumerable annoyances and persecutions by the mandarins. The small foreign settlement is constantly watched by spies, and if a native is discovered in the act of trans-porting any goods for his principals without pay-ing the various tolls, he .is treated as a smuggler. The powerful merchants’ guilds co-operate with the mandarins in their opposition to the free-pass system.
The experience of Mr. Andrew, in 1896, throws a light on the proceedings of the mandarins where transit passes are concerned. He went to Wuchow with a stock of cotton fabrics and yarns, properly provided with transit passes for his merchandise. On reaching his destination, he found that he had been preceded by a Govern-ment boat carrying messengers to forbid the natives buying his goods. He evenhad difficulty in getting food for himself and hismen. The English consul at Canton interfered, and after two months of negotiation the restriction was removed and he was able to sell his stock at a great loss. He secured indemnity, it is true, a long time afterwards, but no one has since attempted to
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repeat his undertaking. Since that time internal navigation has been opened to foreigners, and certain of the likins have passed under the control of the Imperial customs. It will be long, however, before all annoyances will be removed, for the simple reason that the mandarins will defend their revenues as long as possible.
_So the conflict between the interests of the provincial governments and the Central Govern-ment goes on. It will doubtless cease only when a network of railroads and telegraphs makes rapid communication between the provinces and the capital possible. Then the Central Government can keep itself fully informed as to the obedience and efficiency of its provincial magistrates, thus making reforms possible.
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Is industrial Europe really menaced by Asiatic competition, especially that of China and Japan ? Is the yellow peril as imminent as many persons profess to believe? In reply to these questions we will affirm that, while it is not impossible that such a state of things may ultimately come to pass, in our opinion, based upon facts and obser-vation, such a day is very far distant.
_ True it is that China is no longer the “ King-dom of Peasants” that it was a quarter of a century ago. Extensive industries of various kinds have been introduced and are already well along in the line of development. A trip to Shanghai will enlighten the observer as to the transformation. On both sides of the river are long lines of industrial edifices. On the right we see the Oriental and Cosmopolitan Docks, and tank-houses bearing the sign, ‘ Royal Dutch Petroleum.” On the left are great spinning-mills ; opposite the city at Putung tower the chimneys of the International Cotton Mill, around which a
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whole village has sprung up. This factory employs twenty-five hundred workmen, and the arsenal at Kiang-nan, further down the river, employs three thousand.
The first sight of Hankow is even more impres-sive. The chimneys of Wuchang and Hanyang, on opposite sides of the river, pour out clouds of smoke over the twin cities. On the left side the textile industries are exploited; on the right it is metallurgy. The two “royal” mills at Wuchang employ three thousand men, while the iron and steel works at Hanyang are capable of turning out eighty tons of rails every twenty-four hours, twelve hundred men being employed. It is stated that, in 1899, Japan had no steel works comparable to these.
Let us pass down to Hongkong. In the picturesque valleys of the river Min we find arsenals in which seventeen hundred men can work comfortably. Hongkong itself boasts of the largest sugar refineries in the world; it also has various other industries: spinning-mills, glass-works, match-factories, and so on.
In point of fact, China has at its disposal all the elements necessary to the development of great industries. Its coal deposits are among the richest in the world, and, although they are as yet imperfectly exploited, they produce enough to feed the new industries. The Kaiping mines
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supply the northern roads with fuel, and the steel works of Hanyang and the Mint at Nankin use coal from the Ping-chang mines. As this coal is too full of phosphorus to be used in the manufac-ture of coke for the blast furnaces, this product is imported from Japan. Iron and other minerals exist in abundance, waiting only to be released from their imprisonment.
In addition to these natural resources, China has at her disposal at least eighty million work-men, whose average salary ranges from ten to thirty cents a day. At Macao, tea-sorters earn _ ten or eleven cents a day, and spinners receive twelve cents for eleven hours’ labour. The spinners at Wuchang, where no women are em-ployed, receive twenty cents a day, and the women of the International Cotton Mill begin with ten cents and after becoming expert receive thirty cents. The workmen in the arsenal at Foochoo receive about twenty-five cents a day. In the steel works at Hanyang, the best workmen earn ten dollars a month, and the coolies receive from fifteen to eighteen cents a day. Labourers on the railroads average about twenty cents a day, while native compositors in European printing establishments earn as much as thirty dollars a month.
In view of all these advantages, it might seem that the danger of a yellow peril isa very threaten-
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ing one, but there are other conditions to be con-sidered before rendering a final judgment. To begin with, China has no capital. It is safe to assert that it never will have so long as its finances are so badly administered, with the mandarins in control. The people are extremely poor, marriages, burials, taxes, and the expenses connected with ancestor-worship exhausting all their funds and plunging them into debt. Even mandarins who are reputed wealthy are only so by comparison, and the whole Government budget is inferior to that of the city of Paris alone. :
With such limited resources, the Chinese have attempted to instal various manufacturing plants without foreign assistance. In almost every in-stance the results have been lamentable. Scarcely were the buildings erected, when money had to be borrowed for the purchase of machinery, then for raw material. Many have never been able to open their doors, their promoters becoming totally bankrupt.
Even with those that succeeded in starting, the results have been unsatisfactory. Besides being devoured by interest on their borrowed capital, the Chinese are poor managers after a business has reached a certain magnitude. In their at-tempts to do without foreign tutelage, serious errors are often made. We know of a silk-
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spinning factory where no provision was made for water basins for soaking cocoons. Another in-stance serves to illustrate the naiveté of the well-intentioned native z#dustriels. Some important Chinese capitalists formed a stock company with a capital of two hundred thousands dollars to develop a coal mine near Amoy. They did not push their self-confidence to the point of attempt-ing to do without outside assistance, but, instead of addressing themselves to a European, they decided that a Chinaman who had been employed in a European factory would do just as well. They accordingly secured the services of a former clockmaker of the arsenal at Foochoo. In their opinion a good clockmaker ought to be a good mining engineer. The improvised engineer had the first mine dug on the seashore. After it had reached a certain depth it was flooded, and the enterprise was ruined,
Nepotism is the scourge of the Chinese indus-trial world. As soon as a factory is in operation, all the relatives and friends of the owners are employed, without regard to fitness or skill. They work the greatest injury to the business, especially as each has his private financial in-terests to look out for. Those in authority close their eyes to the nefarious practices of their em-ployees, expecting the latter to see nothing in their turn. Even where foreign superintendents are
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employed, matters are not much improved, as their complaints are not heeded by the native owners.
A yellow peril need not be feared from Chinese enterprises. The danger, if any, will come from industries established with European capital and managed exclusively by Europeans. The only chance of competitive success, even in such cases, would lie in the cheapness of native hand-labour. Now there is much to be said on the subject of native hand-labour. It is generally of an inferior quality, and for every sort of work requiring muscular exertion it requires at least three Chinamen to perform the work of one European. This being the case, Chinese wages are not much lower than those of most European countries.
In the silk-spinning industry it has been clearly demonstrated that native workwomen, in factories controlled by Europeans, accomplish more work in a given time than Italian or French spinners. But, as has been remarked elsewhere, much of the work of spinning silk is done by hand in peasants’ huts, or in mills under native super-vision. In both cases the products are usually inferior.
In other industries the results are not so good. The Chinese are naturally indolent, careless, and uncleanly. A visit to the large factories under
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native control will convince the most sceptical of the truth of this assertion. In the mint at Shanghai we found the men idling about, and in other places visited an overseer as well as some workmen were actually napping. Words cannot fitly describe the disorder and filthiness to be met with in many of the native factories. The Nanking Mint furnishes a goodexample. This is equipped with first-class modern machinery, but it is so encumbered with rags, old boxes, and débris of all kinds that it resembles the back of a grocery establishment. The disorder in the engine-rooms cannot be compared to that existing in the annexed shops, which are arranged in the Chineso style. These are little better than stalls open on one side, and in them the employees work, eat, sleep, and smoke. As there are two sets of men—a day and a night shift, — sleepers and smokers are always mingled with the workers. There are barbers and hair-dressers and even story-tellers connected with the estab-lishment.
We can picture a new industrial China, fitted out with modern machinery, under the direction of expert European superintendents, but we cannot suppose that the workman alone will remain stationary amidst this general progress. He will have ambitions and desires unknown to his
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require higher wages for his services, and as men skilled in the use of the new machinery will not be over-abundant, he will get -what he asks. This supposition is sustained by the actual facts. In the cotton-mills in Shang-hai salaries have quadrupled during the last twenty years, while the wages of coolies ,work-ing on the Hankow - Peking railroad have doubled.
It may be urged that the Chinese are at least docile and can be induced to work any number of hours a day. They are not so meek and obedient as many imagine. Strikes occur among them as well as among Europeans. They appre-ciate the value of union in labour, and an increase in their prosperity will not lessen this appreciation. A few years ago there was a strike among the employees of the iron works at Hanyang, because a promise made to them was not kept. Mutinies are ‘common among the coolies employed in building railroads, caused chiefly by the exactions of the contractors.
Much might also be said on the subject of the debasement of silver and its effect on the country, but space forbids. Suffice it to say that if a yellow peril awaits the industrial world, that world will be prepared to meet the eventuality, even if it should mean a redistribution of the centres of production. It would be indeed surprising if a
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land newly born to industrial life should, for centuries, find itself in a condition to supplant nations having behind them the experience of generations of enlightened capitalists and skilled, alert workmen,
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Tue words “China” and “Chinese” are un-known to the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom, with the exception of those who speak foreign languages. An ancient custom applied to the people the name of the reigning dynasty. In obedience to this, the Chinese should have changed their name as often as they changed dynasties. Instead, the people of the north call themselves “Sons of Han,” after the Han dynasty of the second century B.c., and those of the middle of the Empire are ‘Sons of Tang,” of the seventh century A.D.
The generally accepted explanation of the adoption of the word ‘‘China” by foreigners is that the Malay race were in contact with the natives at the epoch in which they called them-selves the “Sons of Tsin,” the third century B.c. Corrupting “Tsin,” the Malays pronounced it Tchina, which the Portuguese and English trans-lated into “China.” If the Chinese had followed their early custom, they would call themselves
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the new “Sons of Tsin,” the Manchu dynasty having adopted that vocable, which signifies “pure.”
Before giving the long list of Chinese dynasties, we will refer briefly to the fabulous period of their history which they possess in common with all other nations. The conformity of certain passages of the Chinese Sacred books with the Mosaic record is worthy of remark. A few quotations will illustrate this :
‘“‘ He who is himself the beginning and the end, created heaven and earth.” —Tchuang-tse.
“There is a life that did not receive life.”— Lie-tse.
“When heaven and earth were created, there was neither man nor woman; Nu-hoa kneaded clay and of it made a man; this is the true origin of the human race.” —Tung-fu-t’ung.
“There was at first only heaven and earth, and afterwards one man and one woman,”— Confucius.
“ On the summit of the Kuen-lun mountains is a garden where soft zephyrs blow unceasingly. This garden stands near the closed gates of heaven.” —Ho-nan-tse.
“Man lived with the beasts; the universe was but one great family where virtue reigned and death was unknown.”—Tchuang-tse.
‘The inordinate desire for knowledge caused
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the downfall of the human race.” — Ho-nan-tse.
“Waters spread over the face of the earth, covering all things.”—-Confucius.
“Under Yao the country had no form, and stagnant waters covered the land on all sides.”— Mencius.
According to Chinese mythology the Father of the universe was Pan-ku. Three kings succeeded him: the king of heaven, the king of earth, and the king of men. Confucius dates the beginning of the history to the reign of Fu-si, supposed to have been from 2953 to 2838 B.c. This was the Age of Gold. Virtue reigned on the earth and with it happiness and abundance.
With the great Emperor Hoang-ti, who regu-lated the calendar (2637 B.c.), we enter upon the historic field with more certainty. The history of his reign is that of long struggles with rivals whom he conquered and reduced to obedience. Chinese annals record the moderation he exhibited in his wars, limiting himself to the destruction of leaders and sparing the people. He built roads and ships, and, among other useful acts, estab-lished the decimal system of weights and measures still in use.
His son, Chaohon, left few traces in history. To him is attributed the organisation of the Chinese administration and the division of the
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officers of the crown into different classes, distin-guished by outward signs. His nephew, Chwenhio, who succeeded him, is represented as the restorer and even the founder of the science of astronomy. He also extended the borders of the Empire to Tonkin on the south and Manchuria on the north.
His great grandson, Yao, was one.of China's greatest Emperors. He was famed for his solici-tude for his people’s welfare. The following words are attributed to him: “If my people are cold, it is I who am to blame. If my people are hungry, it is my fault. If my people commit crime, I ought to consider myself the really guilty one.” It is not strange that the Chinese have cherished the memory of a ruler who expressed such principles at an epoch when, elsewhere in the world, force and tyranny alone controlled the relations between governors and the governed.
Yao had associated his son-in-law, Chun, with himself in the ruling of the Empire, and on the death of the Emperor he was proclaimed suc-cessor, in place of Yao’s son. Chun, in his turn, shared the power with Yu, afterwards surnamed the Great, who drained the swamp lands, making them fit for cultivation. He also left precepts for government which are carefully stored up in the sacred books and taught even to this day.
On the death of Chun, 2208 z.c., Yu was pro-
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claimed Emperor. He reigned seven years, and, before his death, he ordered the banishment of the man who invented the process of making an intoxicating beverage from rice. To the period of these first Emperors dates the proverb: “What the people judge worthy of reward or punishment is what heaven desires to reward or punish.”
Up to the reign of Emperor Yu, the throne had descended to the most worthy, and he himself named the president of his council as his successor ; but, owing either to the gratitude of his subjects or the ambition of his son Tiki, the latter took the crown; the custom of transmitting the power to a member of the family was thus established, although it need not be a son who succeeds, Tiki became the founder of the first Chinese dynasty, which took the name of Hia.
Seventeen Emperors now succeeded one another, sullying the throne by excesses worthy of the Romans, and in 1776 B.c. the nobles over-threw the last sovereign of the family, replacing him by Chin Tang, the founder of the Chang dynasty. His reign was marked by a great famine, coinciding with the Egyptian famine of the time of Pharaoh and Joseph.
There were twenty-eight Emperors of this dynasty, and Chinese annals mention the invasion of India by Sesostris, in 1627 B.c., under the reign
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of Taivu. Under the reign of Pankeng (1401-1374 B.C.) the changes in the bed of the Yellow River, the “terrible traveller,” as Abbé Gandar calls it, were noted, and the capital was estab-lished near the present site of Peking. The rules of government left by Pankeng to this day excite the admiration of the commentators on the classics.
This dynasty fell in 1109 B.c. The last Chang Emperor, Tchen-si, an unpopular tyrant, was overthrown by Wu-wang, King of Si-po, the founder of the Tchow, or Chow, dynasty. Tae-kung, the Minister of Wu-wang, raised from poverty and obscurity to his exalted position, has left treatises on warfare and the manner of governing well which are among the classics of the present day.
The art of writing was known before the advent of the Tchow dynasty. The earliest specimens preserved are tablets of bamboo engraved with the stylus. Under this dynasty China was a federa-tion of small states, under the general control of the Emperor. The history of these times details a very elaborate court ceremonial, the remains of which form the mandarinal etiquette of the present day.
During this epoch, cowry (shells) began to be replaced by copper money. Music, both instru-mental and vocal, and painting became known,
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The chief food-stuffs were rice, cabbage, pork, and fish, and the chief beverage was samschu, or rice-wine. In the history of the time, mention is made of garments of silk.
About the year 1005 B.c., Emperor Monwang made a journey into Tibet. Some authorities assert that he visited Persia and Syria and was received by Semiramis, but this is disputed. Before his reign, horses were unknown in China, but in the records of his time mention is made of eight, which he sent to the royal pastures.
The second Emperor of the Tchow dynasty was Tchen-wang. Tchow-kung, his uncle and prime minister, had a son named Peking, who studied the same lessons as the young Emperor: when the latter committed an error his cousin was punished, on the ground that, if he had set a good example, the Emperor would not have failed. The advice of this rigid father to his son, whom he sent out to govern a province, has been pre-served.
“Go, my son,” he said, “and govern the people whom the Emperor has put under your charge; be their friend rather than their master, their father rather than their ruler; let their interests be yours; let your chief aim be to administer justice and to make yourself easy of approach.”
It was owing to the wise rules of government established by Tchow-kung, that the Tchow
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dynasty maintained itself on the throne for eight centuries.
During this period the siege of Troy took place, Zoroaster founded the religion of the fire-worshippers in Persia, Saul was King of Israel, Solomon built the Temple, and Lycurgus gave laws to Sparta. Following these events came the Babylonish Captivity, the appearance of Buddha, the Conquest of Asia Minor by Cyrus, the defeat of Darius at Marathon, of Xerxes at Salamis, the Peloponnesian War, the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, and the Roman conquests down to the Punic Wars.
It was during the reign of Ling-wang of the Tchow dynasty that Confucius was born (551 B.c.), the throneless king, the master-teacher of ten thousand generations. He claimed to be only the medium of transmission of the social, political and moral principles of Chinese antiquity as set forth by the semi-fabulous Emperors Yao, Chun, and Yu the Great. These are the principles upon which the Chinese Government rests at the pre-sent time. ‘By the length of the race we can know the strength of the horse,” say the Chinese ; “and the length of his existence shows the heart of a man.”
The extraordinary longevity of this system of government is attributed by the early Jesuit mis-sionaries to the doctrine of filial piety and paternal
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authority ; others consider it due to the practice, established later, of opening all positions to the most capable, without regard to rank or origin ; hence, as men of learning and capacity have always been employed by the Government, the opposi-tion has been without competent leaders.
Towards the close of the Tchow dynasty, the people of Tsin enacted the 7é/e of the Franks in Gaul, suppressing the feudal system and giving to the United States their first absolute ruler. Tsin-chi-hoang-ti, King of Tsin, founded the Tsin dynasty in 247 B.c. Within a few years, this ruler had consolidated the eight kingdoms of the country into an Empire. He built military roads and forts and raised a great army with which to resist the attacks of the Tartars, who unceas-ingly harassed the borders of the country. His reign was a bloody one, and because of this his memory was execrated. It is said that he sacrificed 1,400,000 men in carrying out his plans of conquest.
During this reign the opposition of the scholars, who saw themselves neglected, and who, in all ages, have represented the reactionary party, led to a violent crisis. In the year 213 B.c. the Emperor convoked an assembly of governors and other officials, and also of scholars, for the purpose of learning their opinions on his government. The remarks of one sycophant, who went so far
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as to depreciate all former Emperors, excited the wrath of a scholar who stated, among other things, that he considered it advisable to abolish the Empire and divide the country up into states. The Emperor's adviser, Li-sseh, was called upon to reply to these statements. He did so, by asserting that the Zettrvés had no knowledge of the practical necessities of the Government, that, keeping their eyes on the past, they were ignorant of the times in which they lived ; he accordingly denounced them as enemies of the public welfare.
A decree was thereupon issued ordering all books to be burnt, with the exception of works on medicine, agriculture, magic, and the history of the house of Hoang-ti. An immense auto-de-fe followed. Some of the scholars succeeded in clandestinely saving many volumes. It is to this minister, Li-sseh, that the Chinese owe the characters now used in writing—the ‘‘cement of their nationality,” in the opinion of some writers. To illustrate: If words, such as ‘ man,” were to be represented by objects among the white races, notwithstanding the different ways of pronuncia-tion, written language would become a common vehicle of ideas which would assure and preserve the unity of the race.
In the year 214 B.c., Tsin-che-hoang-ti had the Great Wall built from Kalgal to Shan-hai-kuan. The first suspension bridges were built by order
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of this Emperor. He ended his reign by a last act of cruelty : the putting to death of his own son, Tu-fu. At his death a great number of women, children, servants, and friends were immolated on his funeral pile, in obedience to his orders.
Eul-che-hoang succeeded him. This Emperor was under the control of a eunuch, and gave himself up to the worst excesses. He poisoned his brother, and had Li-sseh, his predecessor's wise minister, hacked to pieces. The all-powerful eunuch governed so badly that revolts arose on all sides. At last the Emperor committed suicide, and his grandson Tsin-che-hoang suc-ceeded to the throne. With his own hand this ruler took the life of the eunuch who had given so much offence. It was, however, too late to stem the tide of revolt. He was put to death by insurgents, and the ashes of his unworthy grand-father were scattered to the winds. The leader of the rebellion founded the house of Han, 202 B.c. He subjugated the Western provinces, founded a library, and established the first code fixing the penalties for crimes. In this dynasty was.an Empress named Lu, who was celebrated for her crimes and incapacity.
Wwu-ti, 122 B.c., subdued the Empire of the Huns, Bactrians, and all the region of the Oxus. Paper and ink were invented under the Han dynasty. Previous to this, silk and a fluid made
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of powdered brick mixed with water were used for writing. The drama and marionettes also made their appearance. Hereditary nobility was conferred upon the descendants of Confucius, the oldest member of the family having the rank of duke at Court. During this dynasty Buddhism was introduced into China in the year 67 a.D.
This house also perished because of the per- -nicious influence of eunuchs, which led to a revolt headed by General ‘Tsao-tsao. After his death, his son Tsao founded the Kingdom of Wee in the north of China, 220 a.p. In Kiangsi another pretender formed the Kingdom of Wu; the descendants of the House of Han were driven into Szechuen, to which they gave the name of the Kingdom of Chu. This period, known under the name of the Period of the Three Kingdoms, was fertile in wars which gave birth to chivalric romances and heroic exploits, the recital of which thrills the Chinese heart even at the present day.
During this time Greece had passed under the domination of Rome, its literary growth arrested for ever. Hannibal was overcome, Christ cruci-fied, and the Gauls conqucred by Julius Cesar. Augustus was hailed as Emperor, and St. Paul was carried in chains to Rome.
The Three Kingdoms.were again united into a single Empire by the King of Wee, who founded the second dynasty of Tsin (265-419). This
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ruling House was followed by those of Sung, -Ts'i, Leang, Tch’en, and Sui, all of which had an ephemeral existence. It was a period of dis-sension and civil wars, the most important event being the beginning of the Grand Canal.
A capable general, Li-che-min, re-established order and placed his father, Prince Tung, on the Imperial throne. He succeeded his father in 626, under the .title of Tang-tae-tsung. Under his reign, six years after the Hegira, the religion of Mohammed made its appearance in China. A century and a half later four thousand Arab warriors, Summoned to suppress an insurrection, settled in the country. They preserved their faith, but their individuality disappeared.
From 684 to 703 the throne was occupied by Empress Wu, an extravagant princess, who issued a decree fixing the days on which different kinds of flowers were to bloom. This dynasty saw the production of forty-eight thousand poems, which filled nine hundred volumes. The practice of compressing the feet of women also dates from this epoch. The deformed stumps were desig-nated by the poetic name of “lilies of gold.”
Paper money was authorised by one of the last Emperors of this dynasty, but the issue by govern-ment banks soon disappeared to give place to that of private institutions. The Peking Gazette, the oldest newspaper in existence, was established at
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this epoch. Printing had been invented by the Chinese near the close of the sixth century. The process did not resemble that of Gutenberg, in which movable type was used. Engraved wooden blocks took the place of type, and this method of printing is still largely practised in China.
Eunuchs again succeeded in acquiring power under the Tang dynasty. In 826 they assassi-nated Emperor Kingstong, and placed his brother Wentsong on the throne. Although their creature, the Emperor detested them and instigated a plot to exterminate them. This proved a failure, and, in revenge, the eunuchs assembled their partisans and in a single day struck down sixteen hundred mandarins. Wentsong remained under their con-trol until his death in 840. His brother Wutsong was next placed on the throne by the eunuchs, to _the exclusion of his nephews, whom they killed. Wutsong was the first Emperor who opposed the Buddhist priests. By an edict he commanded them to leave their religious houses and return to their families. Wutsong died in 846, when the eunuchs established Suentsong on the throne. This ruler also tried without success to escape from their evil influence.
His successor, Hsien-tung, re-established the Buddhists in their privileges, and had brought from India a bone of Sakya-muni, the founder of the religion. This was received with solemn cere-
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monies. Acelebrated poet of theday, Han Wen-‘kung, protested emphatically against this act of superstition. He urged that the Empire already possessed good laws and that there was no need of going to distant lands in search of others; he further asserted that it was absurd to receive with honour the bone of a man who, if he had presented himself in person, would have been sent back to his native land because of the spiritual disorder wrought by his doctrines. This severe censor was banished by being appointed governor of a wild region, which he civilised. He was re-called later and died overwhelmed with honours, receiving the posthumous title of Prince of Literature.
Chao-tsong, one of the successors of Hsien-tung, offended the eunuchs, and in consequence was deposed and imprisoned by them. This time the ministers rebelled, restored the Emperor, and deprived the eunuchs of their administrative functions. General Chu-wen, afterwards created Prince of Leang, had them massacred, sparing only thirty of the very old or very young. Chao-tsong was soon afterwards assassinated by order of his liberator, who also had the Emperor’s family and ministers drowned. One son was spared and placed on the throne. He afterwards abdicated in favour of the successful general, and was finally assassinated in gos.
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It was during the reign of the Tang dynasty that the Mussulmans were checked by Charles Martel on the banks of the Loire, that Rome be-came independent under its first Popes, and that Egbert and Alfred the Great became the first Kings of England.
On ascending the throne in 905, General Chu-wen, Prince of Leang, took the name of Tai-tsu Hoang-ti. He was immediately forced to wage war with a rival general named Likeyong, whose son continued the struggle and proclaimed him-self Emperor with the title of Chwang-tong. Tai-tsu Hoang-ti’ was assassinated by his son, who in turn was killed by his brother Moti. The latter, besieged in his capital, committed suicide. Thus ended the Leang dynasty.
Chwang-tung, master of China, perished in a revolt of his troops. His adopted brother ascended the throne with the title of Mingtsong. Both of these rulers claimed to be continuators of the Tang dynasty. In 937 the Tartars had established the Leau dynasty in the north of China. It furnished nine Emperors, who reigned in Corea, Manchuria, and a part of Mongolia.
Three unimportant dynasties, terming them-selves Tsin, Han, and Tchow, succeeded one another on the throne, in the midst of perpetual warfare. In 950, Chow Kwang Yn, a general, was proclaimed Emperor by his troops. He took
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the title of Tai-tsu and gave the name of Sung to his dynasty. He encouraged the return of the scholars who had been neglected and kept at a distance during the reign of the small dynasties, when war was the only thing thought of. He took an interest in the welfare of his subjects and promulgated the law forbidding the execution of the death sentence without the consent of the sovereign of the Empire. This law is still in force. Exceptions are sometimes made to this rule, but an account must always be rendered to the Emperor. Tai-tsu was compelled to wage many wars to establish his power ; in these he was successful, and he left his throne to his brother Taitsong. Wars with the Tartars occupied the reign of this Emperor and also that of his successor, Chintsong I.
It was under Chintsong II. that the socialistic experiment to which reference has been made elsewhere was: fully tested. The poor were exempt from taxes and the rich overcharged. The new laws were most fully enforced in the province of Shensi, with the result that the entire population was reduced to poverty. Agriculture was neglected, and the lands became unproductive in consequence. When the results became mani-fest, the experiment was given up.
Under Chetsong of this dynasty (1085-1100), the eunuchs contrived to get back into power.
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The Tartars still continued to harass the Empire, and, in 1117, Hoe-tsung formed an alliance with one of their chiefs, who had been proclaimed Emperor, and founded the Kin dynasty. This Emperor put an end to the domination of the house of Leau, making their head a prisoner (1125). He followed up this victory by claim-ing all the territory north of the Yellow River. The Empire was now divided between the rulers of the Kin and the Sung dynasties. Quarrels between them were constant until Genghis Khan established harmony by suppressing them both. The Kin capital was at Peking, and the Sung capital at Nanking. The Grand Canal was pro-longed to Peking in order to assure the provision-ing of the capital.
From the first part of the reign of the Sung dynasty dates the practice of inoculation for small-pox among the Chinese, To be sure, they usually caught the disease by their methods, but they thus inoculated themselves. Acupuncture has also been practised in the country from this time. Medical students learn to insert the needles with precision by practising on manikins pierced with little holes and enveloped in a linen cloth. Plane and spherical trigonometry were known at this epoch, and the study of mathematics was held in great favour.
The Sung dynasty ended the century before
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the Norman conquest of England. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio had appeared, but English, French, German, and Spanish litera-tures were still in their infancy. Chinese litera-ture was in full flower at this distant epoch, its most famous works having already appeared.
During the long struggle between the Kin and the Sung dynasties, the power of the Mongols had been increased by successful battles, and when, in 1210, their chief, the famous Genghis Khan, invaded the Kin Empire, Litsong of the Sung dynasty lent him aid on condition that he was to share the Mongol conquests. But, as was to be expected, after the destruction of the Kin power in 1234, the claims of the Sung ruler were denied and the Tartars kept their acquisitions. Undera son of Genghis Khan, 500,000 men invaded China, the conquest of which was completed by his successors, Kuyuk, Mangon, and Kublai Khan.
Litsong died in 1264. His successor, -Tutsong, entrusted his affairs to an incapable minister and sought to drown his sorrows in drunkenness and excesses. The last of the dynasty of Sung, who had taken refuge at Hankow with his mother, the Empress Regent, was captured and taken to the Court of Kublai(1276). One of the relatives, elected Emperor, held out against the Tartars until 1278, when his cause was destroyed for
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ever in a naval battle. His minister, Lu-sion-fu, seeing that all was lost, cast his wife and children into the sea; then, seizing his royal master in his arms, he leapedin after them. During the war of the Mongol Emperors against the Kin Empire, the sound of cannon was heard for the first time at the siege of Kae-fung-fu.
It was during the reign of Kublai Khan that Marco Polo made his famous voyage. In 1255 two Venetian merchants, the father and uncle of Marco, set out from Constantinople with jewels and other merchandise. They passed a year on the Caspian Sea among the Tartars, three years at Bokhara, and in 1261 they reached the Court of Kublai, where they remained several years. This ruler sent them back with an ambassador and a letter to the Pope, asking for missionaries to teach the Christian faith.
Gregory X. sent out two Dominicans, and young Marco accompanied them. He became the favourite of the Emperor, in whose service he remained seventeen years. In 1280 the three Venetians took part in the conquest of the southern provinces of China, and Marco Polo was appointed governor. In 1295 they returned to their own country, and in 1298 Marco Polo, then a prisoner of the Genoese, dictated the account of his travels. When he died, in 1324, he was a member of the grand council of Venice,
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Kublai Khan sent out a great naval expedi-tion against Japan, but he was repulsed, his fleet sharing the fate of the celebrated Spanish Armada.
This ruler introduced a paper money made of the bark of trees, organised a postal service for carrying communications between all parts of his vast empire, and also a police system. This latter was so efficient that it was said a traveller could go from one end of the kingdom to the other without being molested. He introduced the living Buddha into Tibet, completed the Grand Canal, and had cast the two magnificent bronze instruments that one sees to-day in the entrance court of the Observatory. When he died, in 1294, he left the greatest empire upon which the sun ever shone, extending from the Arctic Ocean to the Strait of Malacca, and from the Japan Sea to the Caspian on the west.
Kublai was succeeded by his grandson Timor (Tcheng-tsung in Chinese), This Emperor reigned two years and was succeeded by his nephew Wu-tsung, who built the Temple of Confucius. This ruler was followed by Jen-tsung, then In-tsung, who, having tried to oppose the domination of the Buddhist priests, was assassinated by his adopted son. In 1324 Tae-tsung came to the throne, and in 1329 Wen-tsung. This last is the first Mongol Emperor
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who honoured Genghis Khan as the founder of his dynasty, and who offered sacrifices in the Temple of the Sun. He received a priest from Tibet at Court with so much favour that he aroused the hatred of the J/ettrés. He was succeeded in 1333 by Chun-ti, then only thirteen years old. When the young Emperor grew up to manhood he gave himself up to pleasure, paying no heed to threatening revolts, and in 1352 southern China rose against him. Dis-couraged by defeat, Chun-ti withdrew to Tartary, abandoning the Empire to the Chinese dynasty of Ming.
The founder of this famous dynasty was a Buddhist priest, who afterwards became a soldier of fortune and joined the insurgents who were trying to shake off the Mongol yoke. Some claim that he was nothing more than a robber chief. It is probable that the insurgents were mainly bands of brigands. In such cases, if they succeeded in their undertakings, they are regarded as heroes ; if they failed, they are merely robbers in the eyes of history. However it might be, Tchow-yuen-tchang soon found himself at the head of a large army and was crowned Emperor under the title of Hung-yu. The Mongols were drivén beyond the Great Wall, and the capital of the new province was established at Nanking. Mongolia itself became a Chinese province under
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the third Emperor, the conqueror of Cochin China and Tonkin, and the Court was removed to Peking, which city was made the capital of the Empire.
The Mongol Emperors had paid no heed to the welfare of the people and had put forth no efforts to organise a good government. ‘They had acted as conquerors only, and had neglected to honour the education which forms the basis of the Chinese system of government. They had, in fact, re-mained strangers in the land they governed. When the new Emperor declared that rulers should try to minister to the needs of their sub-jects instead of considering their own pleasures and interests, he appealed to the sentiments dearest to the hearts of the Chinese, who for more than forty centuries have cherished the conviction expressed by their first great Emperors, embodied in all their classics, that governors have serious obligations toward the governed.
Hanlin College, the Chinese University, was rescued from the oblivion into which it had fallen under the Mongols. The codes were remade, schools were established in all the cities, and public libraries were opened. These last were maintained until the close of the reign of the great Manchu ruler, Kuen-lung. The Ming Emperor also established charitable institutions for old men and orphans. His moderation was shown by his
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attitude on the subject of Mongol prisoners,— taken into the interior of China, where their turbulence and unrest were so great that their massacre was asked for. ‘Send them back to their own country,” he said, ‘‘and give them the means of subsistence until they can earn their own livings. We feel convinced that their unrest comes from homesickness for their own land.”
One of the heroes of Chinese history, General Suta, assisted greatly in the defeat of the Mongols. Kuen-lung says of him in his ‘ History of China”;
‘“‘Suta was very reserved, but he was endowed with great penetration. He was on terms of equality with the officers under him, sharing their good and bad fortunes, and, it is needless to say, they were devoted to him. He was remarkable for his modesty. He had conquered a capital, three provinces, and carried several hundred cities by assault; yet when he returned, he came quietly, without even an escort, and was found at his house conversing with some learned pro-fessors. All his life he was respectful in the presence of the Emperor, and he carried himself with such reserve that one would have believed him incapable of talking. The Emperor spoke of him in these terms: ‘ My orders received, he set out to execute them; his task accomplished, he returned without pride or noise. A man of
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greater integrity does not exist than my General Suta; he is as pure and clean as the sun and the moon.’”
Hung-Wu established the Chinese costume and the ceremonial of rites. He reduced the eunuchs to the rank of servants of the palace, and, in 1394, he had a new map of China drawn by the missionaries at Court. He died in 1399; his son Kien-wen-ti was dethroned, after a bloody war, by his uncle, who had himself proclaimed Emperor, in 1403, under the name of Yung-lo. This Emperor, who died jin 1424, had the Imperial city of Peking built on its present site. As we have stated elsewhere, no capital in the world in the fifteenth century could approach it in splendour.
Ying-tsung, the successor of Yung-lo, had to struggle against a revolt of the Tartars. Hehad the indiscretion to give the command of the army to a eunuch, who was defeated. He then led his troops in person, but he, too, was overcome and was carried prisoner into Tartary. His brother reigned from 1450 until 1458. After the latter’s death, Ying-tsung was set free and restored to power. He occupied the throne until his death in 1465.
His son Hientsong succeeded him. He intro-duced two unpopular measures, which did much to weaken the affection of the people for the Ming
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dynasty. The first was to form a council of eunuchs to decide on matters of life and death.
The most terrible tyranny was the result of this
absurd measure, which was repealed after five
years of operation. The second error was the-re-establishment of feudalism by the bestowal of great estates on members of the Imperial family.
Feudalism had not existed in China for centuries,
and no institution could have been more un-
popular with a people ardently attached to ideas
of equality. They could not calmly see given to
one man land enough to furnish support to a
hundred families,
Hientsong died in 1487. To his son, Hiaot-song, is due the creation of public granaries, which still exist and which are kept full in pre-vision of time of famine. In 1505 the throne was occupied by Montsong, a weak prince, whose reign was fertile in revolts and conspiracies. A grandson of Hientsong, named Che-tsung, suc-ceeded him in 1522. His reign was marked by *ravages of the Tartars in the north of China and by three Japanese invasions, all of which were unsuccessful. The will of this sovereign contained this curious confession :
“For forty-five years I have occupied the throne and few reigns have been so long. My duty was to serve Heaven and to care for my people. Knowing this, I yet allowed myself to
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be deceived by impostors, who promised me im-mortality. This error led me to set a bad example to my nobles and my subjects. I desire to repair the evil by this confession, which I wish to have published after my death all over the Empire.” In spite of his weakness, this Emperor, in 1524, built the portion of Peking known to-day as the Chinese city, south of the Tartar city. Its walls were built in 1564. He was followed by his son, Mutsong, who reigned from 1566 until 1573, nothing important transpiring during his reign. Wan-li, the son of Wutsong, was less fortunate. Revolts and Japanese invasions disturbed his kingdom. In 1560 the Portuguese secured a foothold in Macao, where they obtained permis-sion from the local authorities to establish a depét for merchandise. At about the same time, the Spanish took possession of the Philippines. Here they found a Chinese colony, which developed so rapidly that it excited the jealousy of the new owners. In 1602 three mandarins went to the Philippines with a mission which they were un--able to deliver, because the Spanish could not understand Chinese, nor the Chinese speak Spanish. The impetuous southern imagination of the Spaniards, suspecting that a spirit of revolt was being fostered among the colonists, determined to exterminate them, and, within a few months, twenty thousand Chinamen were massacred.
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The Spaniards then gave thanks to St. Francis for their success, which was certainly an equi-vocal one, as they had ruined their colony, which owed its prosperity to Chinese labour. The native Government, indifferent to the fate of its emigrant subjects, exacted no explanation of this wholesale slaughter.
New colonies, forgetful of the brutality of the Spanish, soon replaced the old ones. At a later period, when they had become too numerous, there was fresh extermination. It is not at all surprising that these successive massacres, made in obedience to those principles which dictated the destruction of the Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in Peru, should have left a lasting impression on the minds of the Chinese as to the barbarity of foreigners in general.
The Chinese Government, having lent assist-ance to the opponents of the Manchu Nurhachon, came into conflict with him in 1617. This was the beginning of the tempest which was to destroy the Ming dynasty. The incapacity of the Chinese generals brought them defeat after defeat, and the situation was far from favourable when Wan-li died in 1620. General Ting-bi, an able officer, had succeeded in arresting the progress of the invaders when Emperor Tienki, the successor of Kwantsong, who died aftera reign ofa few weeks, was weak enough to yield to the intrigues of the
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eunuchs and recall Ting-bi. The result of this act immediately manifested itself. The Chinese troops were overcome in every encounter in spite of their artillery, which they did not know how to use.
This was the signal for revolt in all directions. Nurhachon died in 1626, master of the peninsula of Liaotung. His successor, Taitsong, invaded Corea, and when Tsong-ching, the last of the Ming dynasty, ascended the throne in 1627, the Manchus advanced on Peking. This city was defended by a capable general, whom the eunuchs had assassinated for alleged complicity with the enemy. Taitsong was sent beyond the Great Wall for some unknown reason, and he did not return to China until 1634. The Chinese were defeated in several engagements, when General Wue-san-kui checked the progress of Taitsong. The latter died in 1643, leaving the conquest of China uncompleted.
Meanwhile, a brigand chief, named Li-tsi-tchang, had undertaken the conquest of northern China. In 1641 he overran Shensi and Honan. In 1642 he captured the city of Kae-fung-fu and burnt it. He next occupied Si-ngan-fu, and pro-claimed himself Emperor with the name of Li-kung. The troops sent to fight him passed under his banners. He gained entrance to Peking, through treason, April 1644, when the Emperor
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committed suicide together with the Empress and some faithful mandarins, Li-kung now ascended the throne ; he had the body of the late Emperor cut in pieces and two of his sons killed. The eldest was saved.
General Wu-san-kui, who had remained loyal to the dead Emperor, summoned the Manchus to his aid. Li-kung then fled with the Imperial treasure. The Tartars were welcomed as libera-tors, and the son of their king was proclaimed Emperor. Wuc-san-kui went in pursuit of the enemy, and on his return he lent his aid to the new Government, on conditions that no Chinese woman should ever become a member of the Imperial harem, and that the Tartar dress should not be obligatory with women. Heé exacted, furthermore, that the first place in the triennial examinations should not be given to a Tartar. On the other hand, he was willing to adopt the Tartar custom for men, that is, to shave the head and wear the queue. The south of China resisted this last provision for years ; but when they found that opposition was useless, they compromised by coiling the objectionable braid up under their turbans, as it is still worn in Amoy and Swatow. At the present time, however, no matter from what part of the country they have emigrated, nor to what foreign land, the Chinese faithfully preserve their queues, and force of arms would be
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needed to induce them to renounce the custom force of arms imposed upon them.
Descendants of the Ming dynasty were pro-claimed Emperors in the south of China, but they were divided among themselves, and the Tartar troops annihilated them after fifteen years of war-fare. The epoch of the Mings, which now came to an end, was famous for its literary activity and the great progress of civilisation made during its existence. The blue porcelains of this time are highly prized by collectors. A colossal encyclo-peedia of twenty-two thousand volumes in four sets appeared during this period. Only one set has been preserved, and this is in an imperfect condition. The table of contents alone numbers three thousand pages. Under Yung-lo, the Im-perial library contained not less than one million volumes. During the ascendency of this dynasty, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Moors, Henry IV. reigned in France, America was dis-covered, and Vasco da Gama discovered the route to the Indies. Shakespeare, Rabelais, Descartes, Luther, Copernicus, Cervantes, Galileo, Machia-velli, and Tasso also flourished.
After the fall of the House of Ming, the Manchus stationed Tartar garrisons everywhere, prudently retaining Chinese officials, in order to keep the natives interested in the new Govern-ment. They took the precautionary measures,
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however, to permit no functionary to fill a position for more than three years, and in a province of which he was not a native. They thus protected themselves against any chance of conspiracy in favour of the fallen dynasty, but they also struck a fatal blow at Chinese civilisation and prosperity.
As has been stated in another chapter, these officials, appointed for only three years, are intent in amassing as much money as possible, to the detriment of the public welfare. Even if they were well disposed, the period of service is too short to enable them to undertake improvements, which might be neglected by their successors. The result is that they take little interest in what is transpiring around them, allowing roads, canals, walls, and arsenals to fall into ruin. This ex-plains why the traveller is impressed by the state of abandonment and decay he finds a in the Empire.
Tartar women do not compress the feet and Tartar men rarely marry Chinese women. For the rest, the conquerors have been absorbed by the conquered, whose language they have adopted, and of whose literature and past they consider them-selves as co-heirs. Manchu is studied at Court, but only asan official language. . The bow is still held in great respect in the army, as the weapon that brought victory to the Manchu Emperors.
Emperor Chun-tche died in 1661, and the
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Chinese Louis XIV., the great K’ang-hi, ascended the throne at the age of eight years, with a council of four regents. The first act of these was to condemn to death the chief of the eunuchs, and to issue a decree forbidding any of their number to attain to any office or dignity.
On the death of the Regent Sui, the young Emperor, then but fourteen years old, took the reins of government. He attempted many reforms, among them the abolishment of small feet. He issued a decree to this effect, but the prejudice in favour of compression was too deeply rooted, and at the end of four years the decree was annulled.
The son of General Wu-san-kui had been held at Court as a hostage. Suspecting the loyalty of the father, K’ang-hi invited him to come to Peking. He made the same reply as William the Conqueror : that if the Emperor pressed him, he would come, but at the head of eighty thou-sand men. His son fomented a plot, which a traitor betrayed, and the leaders were executed.
Wu-san-kui, who had subdued Yunnan, Szech-uen, Shensi, and the region to the north, took up arms to revenge his son, but death intervened. His other son continued the war for a time, but he finally committed suicide and the struggle ended.
In the year 1720 a Russian ambassador came
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to Peking with letters from the Czar, Peter the Great. Much difficulty followed regarding the ceremony of reception. The Chinese required the ambassador to perform the customary pros-trations on approaching their sovereign; this the Russian refused to do, and he was finally received according to Western forms. Since that epoch there has been a Russian embassy at Peking.
K’ang-hi died in 1722. His reign was noted, among other things, for the protection accorded to missionaries. Under his patronage there appeared an anthology in one hundred volumes, an encyclopedia in one hundred and sixty volumes, a botanical treatise in one hundred volumes, the philosophical writings of Chu-Hsi in sixty-six volumes, and a dictionary containing forty thou-sand characters.
During the long reign of K’ang-hi, the tribes that harassed the boundaries of the Empire had been steadily pushed -backwards. We cannot enter into the details of this border warfare, but at the Emperor’s death Chinese domination was assured in Central Asia, both in the north and south, and all the possible enemies of the country had been driven beyond the deserts, after long and arduous expeditions, carried on with vigour and determination.
The succeeding Emperor, Yung-chang, died in 1735. His reign was marked by the persecution
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of the Christians, and this was continued by Emperor Kien-lung. In 1775 this Emperor made a successful expedition into Tibet against the Miaotse ; he invaded Nepaul and conquered the Gurkhas, penetrating within sixty miles of the frontiers of India. In 1780 he invited the Pan-chen Lama of Tibet to visit him at Jehol, and for his accommodation built the temples still so much admired. He also caused to be prepared a cata-logue of all the books in the Imperial library, with critical notices on each, and a topography of the Empire in five hundred volumes. He himself was a poet, and wrote 33,950 poems in spite of his numerous occupations, and his coun-cils and audiences, which usually began before daybreak.
Almost the sole representative of the Manchu literature, excepting Kien-lung, is a writer named Lan-lu-chow, who prepared a collection of judg-ments and twenty volumes of letters and essays. In these last we find vehement criticisms o1 Buddhism, whose priests and nuns are repre-sented as working the greatest harm to the people by their extortions and corrupting examples. Like the Court of Rome, China possesses a list of books whose publication is prohibited either because of immorality or of the revolutionary doctrines they contain. Writings advocating the return of the Ming dynasty are included in the
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latter number. After a reign of sixty years, Emperor Kien-lung abdicated in favour of his son Kiak’ing. Shortly before egiving up his throne he gave an audience to the English embassy, headed by Lord Macartney. —
During the reign of Kiak’ing secret societies came into existence in China, the chief one being the White Lotus. The names of these organisa-tions give no hint of their reasons for existence. It seems that they are a sort of free-masonry, created to interfere in the affairs of government, or to look after the interests of the country. So far, their chief vé/e has been opposition to foreigners. An attempt on the Emperor’s life in the streets of Peking attracted attention to the White Lotus society, and it was soon after merged into one called Divine Reason, and later into that of the Triad. Later, as we shall see, the Society of Boxers came into prominence.
In 1816 another English embassy led by Lord Amherst was to be given an audience. After much discussion, it was decided that the ambas-sadors could dispense with the 4ofow, a favour also accorded to Lord Macartney. The embassy, which reached Peking after a rapid voyage, was escorted to the Summer Palace after making a tour of its walls. On their arrival, word was sent the ambassadors that the Emperor wished to receive them at once. As they had had no rest,
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and as their uniforms had not arrived, they con-sidered themselves unceremoniously treated, and refused to obey the summons, although they were assured that they would be received in European fashion. The result was that they were dismissed without seeing the Emperor.
This was the beginning of a long struggle, ended in our own times in favour of Europeans, to compel the Emperors of China to treat with European nations as equal with equal. In the opinion of the Chinese, ignorant as they are of the rest of the world, and surrounded by tributary nations, no other kingdom can for a moment com-pare with their own. They had seen Portuguese merchants and the missionaries submit to their humiliating prostrations, and they continued to insist that no one had the right to approach their Emperor without rendering him the homage they themselves never dispense with.
Wewill note in passing the occupation of Macao by the English fleet in 1802 and 1808, for the purpose of preventing the French from making it a base of operation. The Chinese violently pro-tested against this, claiming that the Portuguese had only leased Macao, and that the English were committing a violation of territory which should be punished by force. The English were compelled to withdraw, and the pride of the Chinese was greatly increased in consequence. A
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Russian ambassador who refused to perform the prostraticns was also ordered to return to his own country.
A census taken by order of Kiak’ing, in 1812, showed a population of 362,447,183 inhabitants. But for wars, inundations, famines, plagues, and, above all, the Taiping and Mohammedan rebel-lions, it is probable the population would be double to-day, as no people in the world are so prolific.
Kiak’ing died in 1820, and his son, Taukuang, succeeded him. In 1828 an act of piracy led China to accord to France as an indemnity the privilege of establishing a consul at Canton. Trade with Canton had been carried on for a great number of years through the intermediary of a syndicate of Chinese merchants called Hong, which was responsible to the mandarins. The latter derived many advantages from this associa-tion, the collectors of customs especially reaping a large personal profit. When, in 1853, the privileges of the East India Company were abolished, Lord Napier was sent to Canton to protect English interests there. His credentials were returned to him by the viceroy, who ex-pressed himself as willing to treat with a company of merchants, but who refused to recognise the representative of a nation which did not present itself as a tributary. Orders were given to the
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Chinese to sever all commercial relations with foreigners; Lord Napier withdrew to Macao, where he died without accomplishing his mission. In 1837, on the petition of European merchants, transmitted through the Chinese Hong, a new director, Captain Elliott, was authorised to remain at Canton to oversee merchants and sailors,
As at this epoch exportation was only of moderate importance in China, the balance of trade, owing to the importation of opium, was largely in favour of Europeans, and the Chinese were compelled to pay in silver all:debts that could not be paid in products. A report to the Emperor, in 1833, had shown that during a period of eleven years nearly sixty million taels—an enormous sum for that time—had been sent out of the Empire. Although poor economists, the Chinese were correct in their conclusions that at this rate the country would soon become im-poverished, since this great sum of money was represented by no service rendered and by no merchandise left in the country other than the harmful drug, opium.
In 1837 the president of Hanlin College called the Emperor's attention to the fact that if ten million taels were to pass out of the country an-nually, it would soon be reduced to bankruptcy. Numerous memorials were published in the Peking Gazette, and it was decided that the only
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way of destroying the evil was to strike at its root —expel foreigners, and destroy all the opium that could be found. Captain Elliott in his turn with-drew to Macao; the English made a fruitless naval demonstration, and matters remained un-changed until the war, improperly termed the Opium War.
We say improperly so termed because, as we have seen, the trouble arose from the disquieting exportation of funds from China, and it can be seen from official documents that England did not seek to protect the trade in opium, and did not even mention it in the treaty of peace. The use of opium was henceforth forbidden and offenders were executed in front of European warehouses, Captain Elliott issued a circular stating that the Government of Her Majesty would not interfere in any way if the Chinese deemed it proper to confiscate opium.
A Chinese commissioner, Lin, was appointed to go to Canton and stop the opium trade. Captain Elliott had delivered to this commissioner, through English dealers, 20,291 cases of the drug, which was mixed with lime and salt water and thrown into the sea at low tide. Agents were stationed on the shore to see that none was saved; a native who tried to collect a small quantity was beheaded on the spot.
Lin next issued a decree prohibiting the trade
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in opium under the severest penalties, accompany-ing it with a list of English merchants to whom he attempted to apply the law. In order to put an end to the exportation of silver, he ordered that every ship entering the harbour of Canton should carry away an amount of Chinese mer-chandise equal to the English cargo brought in. The director of the English interests retired to Macao once more. Relations between the coun-tries remained tense until an event transpired which precipitated a crisis. A Chinaman being killed in a quarrel with some English sailors, Lin demanded that the offenders be delivered up to justice. His request was refused. Afterwards, an encounter with pirates, in which an English-man was wounded, gave the impression of the complicity of Chinese authorities in revenge for the murder of the Chinaman. At the same time, Lin called the people to arms to expel the foreigners, and furthermore ordered them not to furnish provisions to the hated intruders. On November 3, 1839, two English warships en-countered a Chinese fleet, attacked it, and put it to flight. An Imperial decree then ordered the complete expulsion of foreigners and the cessation of foreign trade relations,
We have not space to detail the struggle that followed; we shall merely note the method of procedure which we find in all the encounters
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between Europeans and the Chinese: namely, such a joint progress of negotiations and military operations as to enable the latter to retract the granting of valuable concessions in case of success in arms. Thus Hongkong was ceded to the English by the Chinese Minister Keshen and an indemnity granted by him, and at the same time the Emperor summoned troops from all over the Empire, stating in a decree that] the rebellious foreigners were about to deliver up their leaders at Peking to be dealt with according to the laws. Hostilities ended with the taking of Canton and the occupation of the Chusan Islands and the Delta of the Blue River.
August 29, 1842, the ‘treaty of Nanking was made. This secured tothe English, among other things, an indemnity of twenty one-million dollars, , the definitive cession of Hongkong, and the open-ing of the ports of Shanghai, Canton, Foochow, Amoy, and Ningpo. At the time of the ratifica-tion of this treaty the English ambassador, Sir Henry Pottinger, declared that his Government would accord no protection to the opium trade, and he invited the Chinese authorities to take the needed measures to prevent smuggling. As the smuggling still continued on a large scale, with the assistance of English merchants, the Chinese never succeeded in comprehending why the Government which disapproved of this illegal
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trade was not able to prevent its subjects from engaging in it.
Taukuang died in 1850, leaving the throne to his fourth son, Hienfung. In 1856 a ship flying the English flag was searched in the harbour of Canton, at the instigation of a Chinaman who recognised a pirate among the crew. The craft was captured by the Chinese and the English flag hauled down; this was in direct violation of the ‘treaty of Nanking, which provided for the inter-vention of the English consul in cases of. dispute. In reply to the ‘protest of Consul Parkes, the natives set fire to the foreign residence, massacred the crew of the postal ship at Hongkong, and carried the-heads of the victims through the neighbpuring villages. The English fleet seized the forts again, but the regiments sent from ‘Europe to lend aid were detained in India to crush a revolt of the Sepoys, and it was not until 1858 that the English again took Canton and its obstinate viceroy, Yeh. In his yamen was found the treaty of Nanking, which fact showed that the Emperor had never been informed of the extent of the concessions made to foreigners.
On February 25, 1856, Abbé Chapdelaine was taken prisoner and martyrised. To obtain repa-ration for this act, France allied itself with the English just after the bombardment of Canton. Baron Gros of France with eleven vessels, Lord
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Elgin of England with fifteen, Count Potiatin of Russia with one ship, and Mr. Reid of the United States with two ships, appeared at the mouth of the Pei-ho and demanded an audience with the Emperor, which was refused. On May 20, 1856, the allies seized the forts of Taku, and in June the first treaty of Tientsin was signed.
This provided for the establishment of a tariff list, and by it the trade in opium was for the first time legalised by the adoption of a duty of thirty taels a case. In March 1859, Baron Gros and Lord Elgin left China, delegating M. de Bour-boulon and Sir Frederick Bruce to attend to the ratification of the treaty. The following month the Peking Gazette solemnly announced the flight — of the barbarians. In June 1859, eighteen English and French ships escorted the repre-sentatives to the mouth of the Pei-ho. They found the river barred, and when they attempted to force a passage they were attacked and re-pulsed. Three artillerymen were drowned and four hundred and seventy-four men disabled, eight of whom were officers, one being the English Admiral.
France and England could not rest quietly under such an affront. A new expedition was decided upon: this consistsd of two hundred ships carrying ten thousand English troops under General Grant and three thousand French under
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General Montauban. The forts were quickly carried. The English had brought with them from Hongkong a Chinese regiment drilled by Europeans, which fought valiantly. The allies soon occupied Tientsin and started to march on Peking. Envoy after envoy was despatched to prevent their advance, but none of them had been empowered to treat with the enemy, and it was evident that the Emperor simply wished to gain time. At last a nephew of the Emperor stated — that he was authorised to make terms; he was then informed that a treaty would be concluded only at Tungchow, under the very walls of Peking.
An Anglo-French commission was now sent forward, and after a discussion lasting five hours arrangements were completed for a meeting with the Chinese commissioners to be held September 18, at Tungchow. When the commission went back to the allied troops to inform them of the arrangements made, they found the place occupied by a large native army, and they were taken prisoners. Captain Chanoine, afterwards made a general, effected his escape, but most of the rest, including Consul Parkes, were put to death ina variety of ways, all brutal beyond conception. The bodies of Abbé Duluc and the English artillery captain Brabazon were devoured by dogs. Of the thirteen Frenchmen captured, the
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Chinese gave up only six after the capture of the Summer Palace, but in what a condition!
The Chinese were defeated at Chan-chia-wan, on September 18, and at the bridge of Palikao, on September 21. Learning that the remains of the army had reorganised within the grounds of the Summer Palace, the allies determined to attack it within the enclosure. The French reached the place first. MM. de Pina, artillery officer, and Vivinon, ship’s ensign, scaled the walls and unaided sustained the attacks of some Tartars, who seriously wounded them. Their comrades coming to their assistance, the gates were soon opened. Unfortunately no one thought of sending a detachment of cavalry to make a detour of the walls, so the Emperor, with his women and eunuchs, escaped along the road leading to Jehol in Mongolia. The allies now pillaged the palace. Priceless treasures, the collections of ages, filled immense rooms. These were ruthlessly seized, heavily embroidered silks being used as sacks in which to carry off the booty.
When Lord Elgin learned of the fate of the victims lured to their death at Tungchow, he gave the order to burn the palace, in spite of the refusal of General Montauban to allow his troops to take part in the work of destruction. The Imperial library was destroyed and Chinese
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pillagers completed the work by burning eleven palaces. The beauty of these could be imagined from their remains ; one was a pure Louis XV. marvel.
On October 9g the allies pitched their tents under the walls of Peking and planted their artillery close to the palace. Prince Kung, the Emperor’s brother, had been left in the city to treat with the allies, but, wild with fear, he did not know what to decide. Finally, on October 15, he opened the gates. A new treaty was concluded with England on the 24th, and with France on the 25th. The most important provision of these treaties, and the one which cost Chinese pride the most, was the establishment in Peking of ambassadors representing the nations who more and more deeply urged upon the conservative Chinese the necessity of treating with them on terms of equality.
During all the time that China was thus measuring her strength with that of foreign powers, the Taiping Rebellion was raging within her borders. In 1850 there were various up-risings inspired by secret societies of China. Finally, a disappointed scholar, named Hung-siu-tsuen, assumed the leadership of a band of insurgents, under the title of the Divine Prince. He had been instructed in the Protestant religion, and, although not converted to the faith, he made
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free use of scriptural quotations, and it is said that his banners bore a cross as a symbol. It is certain that in the eyes of some missionaries he passed for the man predestined to bring about the triumph of the Christian religion in China, The missionary who had instructed him went to join him in Nanking, when he was soon undeceived as to the man’s real nature.
After having seized the delta of the Blue River the Divine Prince established himself in Nanking, whose garrison he massacred, not excepting the wives and children of the Manchu soldiers. In 1853 the Taipings marched towards Peking, reaching the gates of Tientsin. Their frequent delays saved the capital. In 1855 the invading army that had been sent northward melted away. The English sent one of their warships, having on board Sir George Bonham, to interview the Taiping leader. The reply of the Divine Prince to the overtures’ made by the English showed that it was not only in Peking that China was considered the first of nations.
Sir George Bonham and his _ interpreter, Meadows, found the Divine Prince surrounded by a harem and served by women. From the time of his occupancy of Nanking until his fall in 1865 he was never seen at the head of his troops. He led a life of idleness and debauchery, while his principal lieutenant, Chung-wang, who was
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possessed of extraordinary capacity and energy, carried the war in all directions. The leader of the rebellion had bestowed the title of Prince upon the peasants of which his staff was com-posed. The rank incapacity of the Chinese generals, together with their rivalries, permitted this band of brigands to devastate the country and commit the greatest atrocities for a period of nearly fifteen years.
It was during this rebellion, in April 1853, that the volunteer corps was organised in Shanghai. An uprising of the secret society of the Triads placed the Chinese city in the hands of the rebels. The Imperial troops besieged it without success. The French Admiral, Laguerre, lent them the aid of four hundred marines. A breach was opened, but the insurgents took refuge in the houses and opened a fire which caused the assailants to recoil with a loss of sixty marines killed and wounded. The siege continued and the rebels were finally destroyed in a desperate sortie. It was not until 1860 that Prince Kung, one of the regents of the Government during the minority of the Emperor, learned from the lips of the English ambassador the truth concerning the rebellion, it having been concealed by bulletins of continual victories issued by the Chinese generals. This fact is a strong evidence of the maladministration of
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An American named Ward organised a com-pany of European volunteers in the pay of the Imperial army. This corps became the nucleus of the Anglo-Chinese army commanded by Colonel Gordon, which took the pretentious title of the “ Ever-Victorious Army.” It plainly showed that when the natives are well drilled and com-manded they possess sterling military qualities, as it was owing to them that the rebellion was finally crushed out. The Franco-Chinese contin-gent also took part in the struggle.
Gordon was the captain of the engineering corps that had been engaged in making a topographical survey of the delta. His intimate knowledge of the country was of infinite service to him when he was placed in command of the Anglo-Chinese Corps. His military talents and his cool bravery gave him a great ascendency over the native troops, whom he led to victory in numerous assaults, and who remained loyal to him in defeat. He tendered his resignation after the taking of Soochow, not wishing to assume the responsibility of the execution of the nine rebel leaders, whose lives had been promised them, but who were executed by order of Li Hung-Chang. The latter held that they had come into his presence with unshaved heads, and had taken an insolent tone.
Gordon was offered a high commission and a
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sum of ten thousand taels for the services he had rendered, but he refused both. He returned to the army, however, to finish his work, and when he retired finally only Nanking remained in the hands of the Taipings. The Imperial troops made a breach in the wall of this city with a mine of forty thousand pounds of powder. The Divine Prince then committed suicide by swallowing a gold leaf.
During all this, Emperor Hienfung had re-mained at Jehol, surrounded by reactionaries, seeking means to avenge his disasters. He died there August 22, 1861. He had named his son Chiseang as his successor, with a council of regents chosen from among the most inflexible conservatives. When, on the first of the follow-ing November, the young Emperor made his entry into Peking, Prince Kung, with the con-sent of the Empress mother and the Dowager Empress, arrested the regents, to whom the silken cord was sent. Chiseang’s name was changed to Tung Chi.
In 1856 a Mohammedan revolt broke out in the province of Yunnan; this was caused by dis-putes with the Chinese, whose cause the mandarins espoused. This rebellion was-not crushed until 1873, after seventeen years of warfare, which left Yunnan depopulated and devastated. In 1870 the massacre of the Sisters of Charity, to which
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we have referred elsewhere, took place. Ten Sisters were literally torn to pieces. The French Consul, M. Fontanier, the Chancellor of the Con-sulate, M. Simon, the Chancellor of the French Legation, M. Thomasson and his wife, and a young Russian couple were also put to death. The mandarins excused themselves to the Russian Minister by saying that they thought the young Russians were French. An indemnity and the tardy rebuilding of the burnt chapel in 1897 were the only compensations received, while the Tartar general who encouraged the murderers received posthumous honours in 1897.
Tung Chi died of small-pox January 12, 1875. His nephew, the present Emperor, then a child of three, was placed on the throne under the name of Kwang Hsu. Prince Kung was made Prime Minister, and the Dowager Empress, Hienfung’s widow, was appointed regent together with the mother of the young Emperor. The latter died in 1895, leaving the Dowager Empress mistress of the situation. Empress Alhuta, Tung Chi’s widow, disappeared under mysterious circum-stances.
It was during this reign that France established its protectorate over Anam and Tonkin. In 1884 Prince Kung was stripped of all his authority, and Li Hung-Chang entered upon his harmful career. The war with Japan soon came to demonstrate
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that the lessons inflicted upon the Chinese by the Europeans had been of no avail. They were found as unprepared as they were after the treaty of Tientsin, notwithstanding the fact that enor-mous sums had been paid out for war material and naval armaments. The battle of Ping-yang, in which the natives surrendered after losing five hundred men, and the naval battle of the Yalu showed the incredible incapacity of their officers. The capture of Port Arthur, the impregnable fortress whose fortifications had cost the Govern-ment thirty million dollars, was accomplished with a loss to Japan of eighteen killed and two hundred and fifty wounded. The three hundred cannon, twenty-five million shells, and thirty-four million cartridges which the fortress contained fell into the hands of the enemy without their being obliged to strike a blow, so to speak.
The only semblance of honourable defence was made by Admiral Ting (who could not take the sea without being ill) at Wei-hai-wei; this he held from January 29 until February 9, 1894, against the Japanese fleet. His colleagues on land sur-rendered the fort to the Japanese, who did not even have their artillery with them, on account of the bad condition of the roads. The captors then turned the guns of the fort against the fleet. The rest is known; the treaty of Shimonoseki, the intervention of Russia, France, and Germany to
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THE CHINESE AT HOME
preserve Liaotung peninsula for China; in pay-ment for this service the abandonment of Port Arthur to Russia, of Kiaochao Bay to Germany, of Wei-hai-wei to England, and Kwang-chan-fu to France.
During the early part of the year 1898 the Chinese Government made an attempt at reform, inspired by the example of Western nations. The proposed measures, dealing as they did with the provincial revenues, and with a change in the requirements of examinations, were in direct opposition to the financial interests of the man-darins. Another reform measure affected the high officials of the central administration. It had been one of their most highly prized prerogatives to open memorials addressed to the Emperor and decide whéther or not these should be delivered to him. As Kwang Hsu wanted to know what was transpiring within his Empire, he ordered all memorials to be delivered to him directly and immediately after their receipt. Healso instructed his viceroys and governors to make use of the telegraph to inform him as to affairs within their jurisdiction. The construction of railroads was encouraged, so that communication between the different parts of the country might be more rapid and complete. All these measures aroused the bitter opposition of the mandarins, who saw them-. selves ruined if their extortions and oppressions
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were to become known to the Emperor. They found a powerful ally in the Dowager Empress, who found it convenient to restrict the power of the young reformer who advocated such dangerous proceedings.
All these events culminated, in the year 1900, in the uprising of another society, the Boxers. The causes of this were manifold apparently, but there was only one great one at the root: the hatred of foreigners, foreign influence, and foreign innovations. The people were led to believe that by making one supreme, universal effort they could for ever expel the ‘ Western devils,” and live in their own way, free from outside interfer-ence.
Although the trouble had been brewing for years and the foreign residents had been warned of the danger several times, no one seemed to consider the matter seriously until the blow was struck and thousands of innocent lives were sacri-ficed. The immediate causes of the uprising are plainly apparent. First, there was the vexatious question of missionaries. This subject has been fully treated elsewhere. Then the political humiliations that had been forced upon the Empire furnished another reason for discontent. For the first time, foreigners had gained posses-sion of portions of Chinese territory, within the Empire itself. Where would it all end? the
283
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natives anxiously asked themselves. The occupa-tion of Kiaochao Bay by the Germans, without any formality whatever, was especially irritating. This irritation was increased by the ulterior con-duct of the German soldiers, who treated the inhabitants of the neighbouring province with great brutality, and burned and dynamited whole villages. It was not by chance that the head-quarters of the Boxers was at the capital of Shantung, nor that the German Consul was killed in Peking. Strange as it may seem, the victory of the Boers over the English in the early stages of the Boer War was not without its effect upon the Chinese. An English missionary, who watched events at close range, assured the writer that it was the example of the Boers that urged the systematic destruction of the railroad between Peking and Tientsin. The spring of 1900 was marked by a drought in the northern part of the country. In Chihli, Shansi, Shensi, and Kansu the lands could not be tilled. The superstitious natives considered this a proof of the evil influence of foreigners. The gods having control of the elements were angry because of the concessions granted to foreigners. Placards were posted up in great numbers in many provinces. On one it was stated that, the Catholic and Protestant religions not rendering homage to Buddhism, and thereby exciting the anger of Heaven and Earth, 284
OUTLINE OF NATION’S HISTORY
clouds of rain would not again visit the earth. It went on to state that “eight millions of soldiers are about to descend from the heavens and sweep off all the foreigners and purify the Empire. And until these foreigners are exterminated, the rain will surely never come to us.” When such placards appear in numbers in China, the day of trouble is never far distant.
Agitators were also busy among the people, telling of wells poisoned by foreigners, of work-men on railroads being plunged into vats of boil-ing water, their oil being needed to lubricate the wheels of locomotives and their eyes for electric lights. At the bidding of these agitators, every-thing European was proscribed. No more kero-sene—an accursed light; no more Russian coins —the money of devils; no more compromises with the barbarians !
The mandarins encouraged the demonstrations by every means in their power, and soon the uprising was general. The weak and isolated were naturally the first victims of the fury of the populace, missionaries, Christians, and parties of surveyors and prospectors in the interior being the first to fall. The movement soon spread to Peking, the abode of the rich and powerful. We all know the history of the siege there. The ruin wrought was great and, in some cases—as in the destruction of Hanlin College with its valuable
285
THE CHINESE AT HOME
library—irreparable. Baron von Ketteler, the German Consul, was murdered on his way to the Tsung-li Yamen (the Board of Foreign Affairs) by a Chinaman wearing the insignia of an official. This convinced the Foreign Ministers in Peking that war was imminent, and they at once pro-ceeded to fortify their position so as to defend themselves until relief could reach them. Fortu-nately, some of them had seen military service. Sir Claude Macdonald had been in an English regiment, and Mr. Conger had been captain and major in an Illinois company during the Civil War. They were of the greatest service in this dire extremity.
For nearly sixty days the little garrison, with its native dependents, had to defend itself against the besiegers. Records of the time make especial mention of the heroism of Bishop Favier of the Peitang, a Roman Catholic Cathedral two miles distant from the Legation, in the north central part of the Tartar city. This cathedral had always been considered offensive to the fung-shuy of the region, because of its tall spire. It now became the target of attack, but it escaped serious injury. An orphanage near by was not so fortunate. An enormous mine was exploded under one of the buildings, killing one hundred and twenty native Christians, forty-eight of whom were children. During the entire siege the
286
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Bishop had had no communication with the out-side world, and his salvation bordered on the miraculous.
Meanwhile, foreign troops rapidly mobilised and marched to the relief of the besieged. It is said that the Dowager Empress and her suite did not leave the city until just before their arrival, and that all the movements of the besiegers were directed by Jung Lu, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial army. This proves that the move-ment was supported by the Government, and by the stern old Empress herself.
In his work on China, General Wilson bears interesting testimony to this fact.
“There seems to be no room left to doubt the absolute union of the Empress Dowager, Imperial princes, many high officials, members of the Council and Tsung-li Yamen, and the command-ing generals of the regular army with the Boxers in the attempt to exterminate the native Christ-ians, the missionaries of all sects, the foreign merchants and business men, and finally the diplomatic representatives of all the treaty powers. It seems to be equally certain that this movement was pressed in the hope and conviction on the part of those directing it that it would certainly result in the death or expulsion of every foreigner from the borders of the Empire. The wicked coalition between the elements of Chinese power
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began to show indications of dissolution when its failure became probable, and this did not occur till it was certain that the relief column gathered from Japan, Manila, America, Cochin China, India, South Africa, Germany, Italy, and Russia had assembled at Taku and begun its victorious march to Tientsin and Peking.”
After it was seen that the movement to expel the foreigners was a failure, Li Hung-Chang, Viceroy of the province of Chihli, set about re-storing order with a strong hand. It was not long before all armed resistance throughout north-east China was at an end.
Many different opinions as to the future of China are held by authorities on the subject. Whether its integrity as a nation will be main-tained, whether it will be parcelled out among European powers, or whether, together with Japan, it will form a powerful Asiatic empire, capable of resisting the attacks of the Western world, are matters. for coming centuries to decide. By the victory of Japan in the late war with Russia, the Chinese problem may present an entirely unexpected aspect.
The death of the Dowager Empress may start a train of events of far-reaching importance. At last, in the twilight of her crafty and eventful life of seventy years, this powerful queen seems to be broadening mentally and morally. She has come
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to hold a greater regard for higher civilisation, especially as exemplified in England and America. Only recently, Western ears were startled by the announcement that China had become a signatory of the Geneva convention, and that the Empress, who had much to do indirectly with bringing on the present gigantic struggle in the Far East, had started a Chinese Red Cross organisation with a subscription of one hundred thousand taels.
Like most occupants of thrones, the Empress possesses sufficient names to indicate royal rank, Of these there are nine, but she is called simply Tze-hsi. She claims to be a reformer, in her way, but she asks the world to remember that she has to accomplish the reformation not only of her relatives and retinue about the palace, but of some three hundred million subjects, most of whom regard innovation and iniquity as inter-changeable terms. One may question her pro-fessions of reformation, but her ability to rule with a firm hand cannot be doubted. Looking back over Chinese history for fifty years or more, one marvels that the vast Empire has held together under the hard knocks which it has repeatedly received. That it has done so remains a monument to the energy and firm grasp of this remarkable woman.
It is fitting that this outline of the history of China should close with an account of the life of
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the Empress. It is the general impression that Tze-hsi's parents were of the lowest social grade, but this is untrue. Her father was a Manchu nobleman, who at one time held an important government post at Peking. Misfortune assailed him, and he drifted from place to place, finally reaching Canton in almost utter destitution. His two children, however, were destined for great things—the son to a generalship in the Chinese army, and the daughter to the Chinese throne, to reign in solitary grandeur over a quarter of the world’s inhabitants.
At the lowest ebb of his fortunes, the father sold his daughter, a healthy and handsome girl, to General Ti-Du, a distant relative of the Emperor, for fifty taels. Almost from the commencement of her career as a slave she stood high in the re-gard of her new master and his wife. They had no children of their own, and the girl, according to Chinese ideals, was extraordinarily attractive. They regarded her as beautiful, charming in manner, talented, and diplomatic. Teachers were employed for her; she learned reading, writing, ethics, astronomy, and other female accomplish-ments, and before she was fifteen years old she was regarded as one of the cleverest and most desirable young women in Canton.
In 1850, when Tze-hsi was sixteen years old, the young Emperor of China issued a proclama-
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tion requesting all girls of Manchu descent to present themselves at the Imperial palace in Peking, that they might be examined for admis-sion into the ranks of the ruler’s secondary wives. The young girl read this proclamation, and after much trouble she persuaded her “ pocket parents,” as they are called in China, to allow her to enter the competition. They changed her legal status from slave to adopted daughter, dressed her as became the daughter of a Manchu nobleman, and sent her to Peking. Of over six hundred girls who passed before the Empress Dowager of that time—the arbiter of qualifications—only ten were accepted, but among them was Tze-hsi.
It was a wonderful leap—a slave girl one day, among the highest women in the land the next. The shrewd girl did not permit exultation to get the better of her judgment. She set about plan-ning to gain the favour of the Emperor. Five years after her entry into the Imperial palace she presented the Emperor with an heir to the throne —the Empress being childless—and from that time her ascendency was complete. She still, however, paid flattering attention to the Empress, and treated the lesser wives with unusual con-sideration, never presuming on her exalted posi-tion. By this policy she conquered all. Members of the Imperial family, nobles of the Court, and great men of the Empire in due time all passed
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under her domination ; they became the creatures of her will, the pieces in the shrewd game she played for undisputed supremacy of power.
Her invasion of the field of statecraft and _first collision with other master minds over questions of national policy was in 1860, following the capture of Peking by the English and French allies. The Prince of I and a Secretary of State named Shu-Shun were bitter opponents of con-cessions to the “foreign devils.” Tze-hsi, while hating foreigners none the less, was wiser and advised conciliation. A great contest was waged for influence over the Emperor. Despite all their efforts, Tze-hsi and her confederates lost ground. At this stage the Emperor died suddenly “of a bad chill.” It is not related to what extent human agencies aided the “ chill.”
The dying Emperor published an edict appoint-ing the Prince of I and his party regents during his son’s minority, but a few days after the funeral Peking was thrown into a state of excitement by the appearance of an edict, supposed to represent the mature deliberations of the new monarch, then four years old, which appointed his mother and the Imperial Empress as regents, The other party naturally protested, with the result that the Prince of I and another nobleman were graciously permitted to hang themselves, while the public executioner cut off the head of the Secretary of
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State. Tze-hsi then openly took the reins of government.
In her relations with the Powers, the scheming Empress was not slow in showing that, while she was averse to reckless insult and defiance, she had no notion whatever of allowing her country to be overrun and managed by foreigners. Deplor-able affairs, such as the murder of Missionary Burlingame and the massacre of the Catholic Sisters in Tientsin, though not traceable directly to her, were due to men who enjoyed her confi-dence, and whose crimes she treated with sus-picious leniency. She believed implicitly, and had been taught from childhood that the govern-ment of- China must inevitably fall if the “ foreign devils” penetrated the sanctities and obtained any control of its affairs.
When her son Tung-chih reached the age when he should have assumed the functions of ruler, he turned out a miserable failure. A period of strife ensued between the real and nominal heads of State. The strong-minded mother coolly set aside whatever decrees of the Emperor she pleased, and soon “the son of heaven” mounted the dragon’s back and, as the saying goes in China, “became a guest on high.” It has always been believed that Tze-hsi assisted fate in removing her son to a higher sphere of activity, although the fact of her complicity was never proved.
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This self-willed woman did not concern herself with laws of succession, but determined that point for herself. Prince Kung’s eldest son was the legal heir, but her nephew, the infant son of Prince Chun, suited her better. One night the latter was taken from his nursery and placed on the vacant throne. Those who objected to this violation of law suddenly disappeared from human sight.
Since the death of her husband, this remarkable Oriental woman has practically been the State. The great power she has exerted is due mainly to her innate force of will and her capacity for work. That she has always been crafty, cruel, and over-bearing cannot bg denied even by her.admirers. She is past mistress in the arts of duplicity. There are few who do not believe that the Boxer uprising some years ago that threatened the peace of the world, endangered the lives of thousands of foreigners, and brought the allied armies of civilisation in haste to Peking, was secretly engendered and fostered by her. It nearly proved her undoing, but from her point of view it seemed a means to an end, and she has never scrupled over the means to gain a desired end.
In spite of all the ugliness of her official life, however, one cannot but acknowledge the con-summate force of her master mind. One must be entirely familiar with conditions in China to appreciate the huge task this Catherine of the
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East has accomplished—the task of holding the country together, of keeping at bay the nations of Europe who have been persistently urging reforms that endangered her throne by threaten-ing to precipitate civil war.
Such is the story of the strange old woman who in the twilight of life seems to be undergoing a change of view, whose mental and moral horizon seems to be enlarging. It is said that her grand-nephews, who stand close to the throne—the Emperor being childless—are to be given a thorough English education. Recently she has encouraged young men of royal and noble families to visit other countries and assimilate ideas of Occidental progress. She has permitted them to complete their education in the great universities of Europe and America. Perhaps she feels that, after all, there is a higher and better civilisation than that which China has attained in her wall-environed career of centuries.
INDEX
AGRICULTURE, tools, 179, 180; ceremonies of, Temple of, 181
Allies, 272, 275
Amherst, Lord, 264
Amoy, 224, 258, 270
Anam, 280
Ancestor-worship, 43-47; 55, 56, 60, 73, 89
Andrew, Mr., 218
Anhwei, Chinese province, 85
Appiani, Abbé, 76 .
Army, 149-152; maladministration of, 155; Eight Banners, 156; of Green Flag, 156
Arsenals, 153
Articles of exportation, 172-178
Assayers’ laboratories, 186
Banks, 186, 187, 189, 201, 210, 241
Beggars, 145, 146
Benoist, Abbé, 80
Benoist XIII., Pope, 79, 80
Blagoveschenk, bombardment of, 151
Board of Mathematics, 74, 81; of Rites, 77; of Agriculture, 147; of Commerce, 167
Bonham, Sir George, 276
Bonzes, 50
Bourboulon, M. de, 272
Boxer rebellion, 84, 264, 283-288
Bruce, Sir Frederick, 272
Buddhism, 48; priests constitute hierarchy, 50; introduced into China, 50, 240; into Tibet, 51; living Buddhas, 51; intro-duced into Tibet, 249, 263
Burlingame, Missionary, 293
Canat, Grand, 194, 241, 246, 249 Cangue, 136, 138, 139 Canton, 79, 162, 266, 271 : . Cash, copper, or sapek, the national coin, 187-189, 215 Castiglione, Abbé, 80 Censors, 110, 121 Census, 13, 266 Ceylon, 176 297
INDEX
Chang, Chi-tung, viceroy of Wuchang, 99, 101, 107, 123 174
Chaohon, Emperor, 231
Chao-tsong, Emperor, 243
Chapdelaine, Abbé, 271
Chekiang, or Chehkiang, Chinese province, 86, 175, 194, 197
Chen-tsung, or Chintsong II., Emperor, advocate of socialism, 146, 148, 245
Chetsung, Emperor, 254, 255
Chihli, Chinese province, 86
Children, 43, 44 :
Chinese characteristics, 1, 6-10; insincerity, 11-13; trickery, 14, 16, 18; disregard for time, 20-25 ; methods of study, 22; of business, 23, 24 ; uncleanliness, 35-36
Chinkiang, taken by English, 155, 174
Chino-Japanese War, 125, 149, 150, 152) 155, 157, 280
Ching Tang, Emperor, founder of Chang dynasty, 223
Chiseang, or Tung Chi, 279
Chop, 174
Chow dynasty 234
Chow Kwang Yn, General, 244
Christian religion, 57; first trace of, 70; Dominican contention over rites, 73, 75, 76; persecutions, 77-85
Chu dynasty, 125
Chun, Emperor, 220, 232
Chung-wang, Taiping lieutenant, 276
Chun Tchi, Emperor, established present dynasty, 125
Chun-ti, Emperor, 250
Chu-wen, General, 227, 243, 244
Chwang-tung, Emperor, 244 -
Chwenhio, Emperor, founder of the science of astronomy, 232
Cities, 27-30
Classes, civil and military, distinguished by buttons on cap, 109
Clement XI., Pope, 75
Cochin China, 80
Comprador, 7, 23, 205, 209
Compression of women’s feet, 42, 241
Concessions, 162—169
Confucius, not a founder of a religion, 48; doctrines of, 49, 137, 230, 231, 236, 240
Conger, Mr., 286
Co-operation, 207; 208
Cotton, 177
Courts of Justice, 129, 138
Cowry, 234
Davai Lama, 51-53 Dollars, 184-187 Dominicans, 72, 75, 76; 83 298
INDEX
Dowager Empress, Tze-hsi-tuan-yu, I11, 119, 279, 280, 283, 287, 288-295 Dress 33, 36,
EpucaTIOn, 105, 106
Elgin, Lord, 271, 272, 274
Elliott, Captain, 267, 268 .
Emperor, Son of Heaven, 55, 573 head of family, r10, 125 Etiquette, 1-8, 262
Eul-che-hoang, Emperor, 239
Eunuchs, 125-127, 239, 242, 243) 245) 254, 261 Examinations, 103-108
Face, 8, 9, 10, 16, 58, 59
Farmers, 178
Favier, Bishop, 286
Fertilisers, 29, 179
Feudal system, 237, 254
Fish-culture, 181, 182
Floating islands, 180
Foochoo, 222, 224, 270
Foreign settlement, in Shanghai, 130, 162-166; in Canton, 218 Fu-kien, Chinese province, 78, 83, 86, 175, 191, 197 Funerals, 44-47
Fung-shuy, 63, 64, 286
Furs, 177
Fu-si, Emperor, Age of Gold, 231
Gaset, Abbé, 52, 82
Gandar, Abbé, 234
Gaubil, Abbé, 80
Gazette, Peking, oldest newspaper in the world 95, quotations from, 95-98, 105, 108, I12-115, 120, 121, 139-143, 152-156, 241, 267, 272
Genghis Khan, 71, 148, 246, 247, 250
Gold, 191, 214
Gordon, Colonel, 116, 278-279
Government, 110-128; longevity of system attributed to, 238
Grant, General, 272
Gregory X., Pope, 72, 248
Gros, Baron, 271, 272
Guilds, merchants’, 117, 207, 218
Han dynasty, 239, 240
Han, sons of, 109, 110, 229 Hand-labourers, 225
Hangchow, Io!, 175
Hankow, I01, 145, 151, 162, 176, 220
. 299
INDEX
Hanlin College, 251, 267, 285
Han Wenkung, prince of literature, 243
Hanyang, 145, 213, 221, 222
Hart, Sir Robert, 199
Hiaotsong, Emperor, 254
Hienfung, Emperor, 251, 279
Hientsong, Emperor, 253 Z
Hoang-ti, Emperor, regulated the calendar (2637 B.c.), built roads and ships, established the decimal system of weights and measures, 231
Hoe-tsung, Emperor, founded Kin dynasty, 246
Honan, Chinese province, 86, 257
Ho-nan-tse, 230
Hong, 266, 267
Hongkong, to1, 212, 221, 270-273
Hoti, Emperor, 125
Houses, 31
Hsien-tung, Emperor, 242
Hue, Abbé, 12, 30, 52, 56, 82, 102, 118, 124, 132, 146
Hunan, Chinese province, 86, 213
Hung-wu, Emperor, 250
Hupeh, Chinese province, 85, 175
Hwai, 196
I, Prince of, 292
Illiteracy, 40 .
Imported articles, 211-215 Industries, 225, 226 Innocent IV., Pope, 71 Insurance, fire and life, 211 Interest, rates of, 202-204 Iron Crown, princes of, 125
Jenox, Temple of, 54, 263
Jesuits, 75, 77
Jews, 57
Judges, 130, 132 :
Jung Lu, commander of Imperial army during Boxer rebellion, 287
KairinG, mines of, 221 Kai-tsung, Emperor, 70 Kang, 32 Kang Yu Wei, reformer, 93, 94 K’ang-hi, Emperor, 261, 262 Kansu, Chinese province, 180 Kao Tsu, Emperor, 48 Kiak’ing, Emperor, 264-266 300
INDEX
Kiangsi, Chinese province, 85, 97s 175, 240 Kiangsu, Chinese province, 85. 193 Kiaochao, Bay of, 83, 84, 89, 282; 284 Kien Lung, 54, 79: 263, 264
Kotow, 3, 4, 5» 264
Kouang-feu, 109
Kuan-Gin, Goddess of Mercy, 55, 126 Kublai Khan, 71, 247-249
Kuchung, 102
Kung, Prince, 110, 275, 277, 280 Kuyuk Khan, 70
Kwang-chan-fu, 282
Kwang Hsu, Emperor, 110, 280 Kwangsi, Chinese province, 86 Kwantung, Chinese province, 86, 97 Kweichow, Chinese province, 86
Lacréne&e, M. de, 81
Laguerre, Admiral, 277
Lamas, 51, 82
Land-tax, 194-196
Lan-lu-chow, Manchu writer, 263
Laotze, founder of Taoism, 48
Lassa, residence of Dalai Lama, 51, 53, 82 Lawyers, 131
Leang, Prince of, 243, 244
Liang-Cheng, Sir Chentung, Minister to U.S., opinion on war,
159-161
Liaotung peninsula, 282
Li-che-min, General, 241
Li Hung-Chang, 111, 116, 117, 149, 158, 278, 280, 288
Likeyong, General, 244
Likin tax, 116, 197, 198
Li-kung, Emperor, 258
Lin, 268, 269
Ling-wang, Emperor, 236
Li-sseh, Prime Minister, invented characters used in writing, - 238, 239
Literati, or lettrés, the ruling class, 60, 121, 132
Li-tsi-tchang, robber chieftain, 257
Litsong, Emperor, 247
Little, Mrs. Archibald, 135
Living Buddhas, 51
Lo-Han, 126
Longobardi, Abbé, 75
Loti, 216
Lu, Empress, 239
301
INDEX
Macao, 76, 77, 222, 265-267, 269
Macartney, Lord, 264
Macdonald, Sir Claude, 286
Maigrot, Mgr., 77
Manchuria, 101, 117, 149, 185, 190, 191, 232
Marco Polo, 71, 248
Maritime Customs, 199, 200
Mencius, 231 ;
Mercantile houses, 210
Merchants, Chinese, speculators, 201; respect obligations, 202; practice fraud, 204-206
Mines, 167-169
Ming dynasty, 156, 250-252, 256, 257, 259
Mingtsong, Emperor, 244
Mints, 185, 186, 222, 226
Missionaries, 70-93; opinion of Japanese Professor on the sub-ject, 88-93
Mohammedans settled in China, 56, 73, 74, 241, 279
Monetary system, 183-191
Mongolia, 52, 56, 81, 86
Montauban, General, 273
Montsong, Emperor, 254
Monwang, Emperor, introduced horses into China, 1005 B.c.,
235 Mouly, Abbé, 81
NANKING, Mint of, 222, 226, 246; treaty of, 270, 271, 276
Napier, Lord, 266, 267
Navigation Companies, 210, 211
Navy, 157-159
Nepotism, 118, 224
Nestorians, 70
New Year's Day, 22, 206
Newspapers and periodicals, number, 95; subjects treated, roo influence, 1o1
Nicholas IV., Pope, 72
Nurhachon, the Manchu, 256, 257
OrFicers, public, 117, 158, 259
Olopen, 70
Opium, 170-172; trade in, 171, 172, 200, 268 Opium War, 81, 155, 268
Pancuao, General, 125
Panchen, Lama, 51, 53, 263
Pankeng, Emperor (1401-1374 B.C.), changes in bed of Yellow River noticed, capital established near Peking, 234
302
INDEX
Pan-ku, Father of the universe, 231
Parennin, Abbé, 80
Parkes, Consul, 271
Pechili, fleet of, 158
Pedrini, Abbé, 72, 77
Pei-he, battle of, 272
Peitang, 286
Peking, 28, 30, 79, 80, 156, 187, 234s 246, 251, 273 274, 275 Peking (Prince of that name), 235
Philippines, 255, 2 36 Pingyang, battle of, 150, 281
Pires, Abbé, 81
Placards, or posters, 101, 284 Potiatin, Count, 272
Pottinger, Sir Henry, 270 Prayer-mills, 56
Prince Henry of Prussia, 3, 149, 157 Printing invented, 242
Prisons, 130, 131
Punishment, methods of, 136-138
Raitways, 167-169
Readers, public, 102
Reforms, 123, 282
Reid, Mr., 272 .
Religion, forms of, 48; outward, practices, 55, 56 Reynaud, Mgr., Bishop of Ningpo; opinions of, 57-62 Riberio, Abbé, 81
Ricci, Abbé, 73,78
Rice, 194, 195; rice-wine, 179, 233
Roads, 29
Sant Louis, 71
Sakya-muni, or Buddha, 242
Salaries, 117, 118
Salt, 195-197
Samschu, 235
Schall, Adam, 73, 74
Seekers, 131
Sericulture, school of, 175
Serra, Abbé, 81
Shanghai, 99, 119, 162, 163, 164, 166, 174, 183, 184, 185, 186, 193, 211, 220, 226, 227, 270, 277
Shansi, Chinese province, 86, 196, 199
Shantung, Chinese province, 85, 284
Shensi, 86, 245
Silk, 172-175, 202, 210
Silver, 185, 214, 227
393
INDEX
Si-gnan-fu, ancient capital of China, 70, 257
Sisters of Charity in Tientsin, 61, 84, 122, 279 293
Socialism, 146-148
Societies, secret, 264, 277, 253; temperance, 171; foreign missions, 75
Squeeze, 16-19
Srong Tsan, Kampo, 51
Strikes, 166, 227
Sue, Abbé, 81
Suentsong, Emperor, 242
Suicide, 137, 138, 157
Sung dynasty, 241, 245
Superstitions, 57, 58, 63-69
Suta, General, 252, 253
Swatow, 258 -
Szechuan, Chinese province, 85, 171, 196, 197, 241, 261
TAEL, 183
Taiping, rebellion, 102, 116, 155, 193, 275, 279
Tai-tsu, Emperor, founder of Sung dynasty, 245
Tai-tsu Hoang-ti, Emperor, 244
Taitsong, Emperor, 245
Taku, forts seized, 272
Tang, sons of, 109, 229
Taeea, 48; founded by Laotze, 49; modified by Buddhism, 50,
3 reel of Shanghai, 108 artars, 118, 152, 155, 237, 244, 245, 247, 253, 254, 259, 260 Tashilumbe, aden of Panchen tan Er aa Taukuang, Emperor, 271 Taxes, 192-200, 215-219 Tcheng-tsung, Emperor, 249 Tchen-si, last Chang Emperor, 234 Tchow-kung, 235 Tea, 175-177, 222 Temples, 55, 250 Ten-tsung, Emperor, 71 Tepao, 114, I15-Testimony, methods of securing, 132-136 Three Kingdoms, period of, 240 Tibet, 51-54 Tientsin, 101, 102, 162, 272, 273 Tiki, Emperor, founder of first Chinese dynasty, Hia, 223 Timor, Emperor, 249 Ting, Admiral, 157, 281 Ting-bi, General, 256 Titles, succession of, 127, 128 Tonkin, 232, 280 304
INDEX
Treaties, commercial, 191, 209-211; of Tientsin, 272; with England and France, 275 ; of Shimonoseki, 281
Tsao, King of Wee, 240
Tsao-tsao, General, 240
Tsin, sons of, 229, 230, 237
Tsin-che-hoang-ti, Emperor, built Great Wall, first suspension bridges, 238
Tsin-chi-hoang-ti, King of Tsin, 237, 238; second dynasty, 240
Tsong-ching, last of Ming dynasty, 257
Tsung-li Yamen, 286
Tung, Prince, 241
Tung Chi, Emperor, 279, 280
Tung-chih, son of Dowager Empress, 293
Tungchow, 195, 273, 274
Tutsong, Emperor, 247
Tze-hsi, see Dowager Empress
UmbrELLa of honour, 115, 122
Vacuer, Abbé, 82 Verbiest, Abbé, 74
WAGES, 222, 225, 227
Wang-ngan-che, socialist, 146, 148
Wan-li, Emperor, 73 :
Ward, General, American organiser of the “ Ever-Victorious Army,” 278
Wei-hai-wei, 157, 281
Wenchow, 199 :
Wilson, General, opinion of, 287, 288
Women, 37-42, 92, 152, 163
Wu, Empress, fixed days for the flowers to bloom, literary activity great, foot-compression begun, 241
Wuchow, 218
Wuhu, 102
Wu-san-kui, General, 257, 258, 261
Wutsong, Emperor, 242; built Temple of Confucius, 249
Wu-wang, King of Sipo, founder of Chow dynasty, 234, art of writing invented, 234
Xavier, Frangois, 72
Yuuu, battle of the, 281 Yamen, 116, 118
Yamen, Tsung-li, 286 Yangtze, 193, 217
Yao, Emperor, 231, 232, 236 Yellow City, 75) 125
395 2
INDEX
Yellow River, Hoang-ho, the “ terrible traveller,” 234 Ying-tsung, Emperor, 253
Younghusband, Colonel, led troops into Lassa, 52
Yu, the Great, drained swamp lands, 232, 236
Yuli, 66-69
Yung-Chang, Emperor, 262
Yung-lo, Emperor, had Peking built on present site, 253, 259 Yung-tcheng, 77, 79
Yunnan, Chinese province, 86, 171, 261, 279
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