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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:59:38 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:59:38 -0700 |
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diff --git a/33485-h/33485-h.htm b/33485-h/33485-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fef1475 --- /dev/null +++ b/33485-h/33485-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12778 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Village Life In China, by Arthur H. Smith. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .poem {margin-left:15%;} + .note {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .center {text-align: center;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .smcaplc {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; color: gray; margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + p.dropcap:first-letter{float: left; padding-right: 3px; font-size: 250%; line-height: 83%; width:auto;} + .caps {text-transform:uppercase;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + .spacer {padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;} + + ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin solid gray;} + + .adverts {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + .adbox {border: solid 2px; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;} + + .bracket {font-size: 200%} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Village Life in China, by Arthur H. Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Village Life in China + A Study in Sociology + +Author: Arthur H. Smith + +Release Date: August 22, 2010 [EBook #33485] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VILLAGE LIFE IN CHINA *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Sharon Joiner, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<h1>Village Life in China</h1> +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> + +<div class="adverts"><div class="adbox"> +<p class="center"><i>TENTH THOUSAND<br />Chinese Characteristics</i></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>BY<br />Rev. ARTHUR H. SMITH, D.D.</i></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">For Twenty-six Years a Missionary of the American Board in China.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>With Sixteen Illustrations from Photographs, an index and a Glossary.</i></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>800, decorated cloth, $1.25</i></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">From The Independent.</p> + +<p>There is no glamour thrown over the race, neither is there failure to +recognize those qualities that have made them so backward in civilization, +so hostile to foreigners, so repugnant to many in our land. Everyone +interested in China or the Chinese should read the book.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">From The New York Times.</p> + +<p>If we are not to accept the studies that missionaries have made of the +Chinese, whose are we to accept? We do not mean the accounts of the +seminary young man who, fresh from his studies, lives in China for a +six-month, and then writes of his experiences, but of the men like the +author of this volume, who has had a residence of twenty-two years in +China.</p> + +<p>Mr. Smith’s volume is a highly entertaining one, showing uncommon +shrewdness, with keen analysis of character.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">From The Critic.</p> + +<p>There is all the difference between an intaglio in onyx and a pencil +scrawl on paper to be discovered between Mr. Smith’s book and the printed +prattle of the average globe-trotter. Our author’s work has been done, as +it were, with a chisel and an emery wheel. He goes deeply beneath the +surface.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">From The Standard.</p> + +<p>It is much the most interesting book upon China which we have ever read, +and it is specially valuable as a practical commentary upon the national +and social institutions of the Chinese, the natural effect of their long +isolation, and the benumbing effect of such a religion as has in great +part made them what they are.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">From The Living Church.</p> + +<p>That this is the most valuable account of the Chinese ever written is, we +believe, generally acknowledged.</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">From The Missionary Review of the World.</p> + +<p>Every chapter is a thesaurus of startling antithesis, humorous +portraitures, acute observation and marvelous sagacity.... The book is +most delightful reading, and will be found most fascinating. It is a +mirror of Chinese characteristics, as its name indicates. Within its pages +we have found a volume of aphorisms and sage sayings seldom embraced in +such a book.—<i>Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D.</i></p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><i>FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY<br /> +New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<span class="spacer"> </span>Chicago: 63 Washington Street<br /> +Toronto: 154 Yonge Street</i></p></div></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 396px;"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Chinese Villagers at Home</span></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> + +<h1>Village Life in China</h1> +<h3>A STUDY IN SOCIOLOGY</h3> +<p> </p> +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>ARTHUR H. SMITH, D.D.</h3> +<h4>AUTHOR OF<br />“Chinese Characteristics”</h4> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">New York</span><span class="spacer"> </span><span class="smcap">Chicago</span><span class="spacer"> </span><span class="smcap">Toronto</span><br />Fleming H. Revell Company<br />Publishers of Evangelical Literature</p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center">Copyright, 1899<br />by<br />FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2>Foreword</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">These</span> chapters are written from the standpoint of one who, by an extended +experience in China, has come to feel a profound respect for the numerous +admirable qualities of the Chinese, and to entertain for many of them a +high personal esteem. An unexampled past lies behind this great race, and +before it there may lie a wonderful future. Ere that can be realized, +however, there are many disabilities which must be removed. The longer one +is acquainted with China, the more deeply is this necessity felt. +Commerce, diplomacy, extension of political relations, and the growing +contact with Occidental civilization have, all combined, proved totally +inadequate to accomplish any such reformation as China needs.</p> + +<p>The Chinese village is the empire in small, and when that has been +surveyed, we shall be in a better condition to suggest a remedy for +whatever needs amendment. It cannot be too often reiterated that the +variety in unity in China is such, that affirmations should always be +qualified with the implied limitation that they are true somewhere, +although few of them may hold good everywhere. On the other hand, the +unity in variety is such that a really typical Chinese fact, although of +restricted occurrence, may not on that account be the less valuable.</p> + +<p>China was never so much in the world’s thought as to-day, nor is there any +apparent likelihood that the position of this empire will be less +conspicuous at the opening of the twentieth century. Whatever helps to a +better understanding of the Chinese people, is an aid to a comprehension +of the Chinese problem. To that end this volume is intended as a humble +contribution.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> +<h2>Acknowledgment.</h2> +<div class="note"> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Rev. Harlan P. +Beach for his invaluable criticisms and the kindly services rendered in +the proof-reading and piloting of this new voyager through the press.</p> + +<p>For the use of original photographs from which engravings have been made, +and are here published for the first time, the author and the publishers +desire to acknowledge their obligations to Mr. Robert E. Speer, Mr. +William Henry Grant, Albert Peck, M.D., Rev. W. C. Longden, and Miss J. G. +Evans.</p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="contents"> +<tr><td colspan="4" align="center"><small>PART I.—THE VILLAGE, ITS INSTITUTIONS, USAGES, AND PUBLIC CHARACTERS</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Glossary</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#I">I.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Chinese Village</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#II">II.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Construction of Villages</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#III">III.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village Nomenclature</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IV">IV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Country Roads</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#V">V.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Village Ferry</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VI">VI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village Wells</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VII">VII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Village Shop</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Village Theatre</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IX">IX.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village Schools and Travelling Scholars</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#X">X.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Chinese Higher Education—The Village High School—<br />Examinations—Recent Educational Edicts</span></td><td> </td><td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_110"><ins class="correction" title="original: 111">110</ins></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XI">XI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village Temples and Religious Societies</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XII">XII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Coöperation in Religious Observances</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIII">XIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Coöperation in Markets and Fairs</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIV">XIV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Coöperative Loan Societies</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XV">XV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Societies for Watching the Crops</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVI">XVI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village and City Rain-making</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVII">XVII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Village Hunt</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XVIII">XVIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village Weddings and Funerals</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIX">XIX.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">New Year in Chinese Villages</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XX">XX.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Village Bully</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXI">XXI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village Headmen</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="4" align="center"><small>PART II.—VILLAGE FAMILY LIFE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXII">XXII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Village Boys and Men</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXIII">XXIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Chinese Country Girls and Women</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span><a href="#XXIV">XXIV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Monotony and Vacuity of Village Life</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXV">XXV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Unstable Equilibrium of The Chinese Family</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_317">317</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVI">XXVI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Instability from Family Disunity</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_324">324</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="4" align="center"><small>PART III—REGENERATION OF THE CHINESE VILLAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XXVII">XXVII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">What can Christianity Do for China?</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td></tr></table> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2>List of Illustrations</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="8" summary="illustrations"> +<tr><td>Chinese Villagers at Home</td><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td colspan="3" align="right"><a href="#front"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Southern Village Scene<br />A Detail—The Village Well</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td><i>Facing</i></td><td><i>page</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_17">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Sawyers Preparing Lumber<br />Itinerant Blacksmith’s Employed by Villagers</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_25">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Village Cobbler<br />Village Broom-Maker</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_34">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Waiting for the Boat<br />Crossing the Ferry</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_41">40</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Strings of Chinese Cash<br />Preparing the Strings</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Threshing<br />An Afternoon Siesta</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The World’s Oldest Sacred Mountain, T‘ai Shan<br />Scenery Along the River Lin</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_140">141</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Going to Market<br />Chinese Market Scene</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Crop-Watcher’s Lodge<br />Reaping Millet</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_163">162</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span><span class="smcap">A Bridal Pair<br />Temporary Funeral Pavilion</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Entrance to a Yamen<br />Chinese Court of Justice</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_219">218</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chinese Punch and Judy<br />The Village Story-Teller</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_245">244</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Women Preparing Food<br />On the Way to the Feast</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_263">262</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">One of China’s Parasites—A Beggar<br />One of Her Sources of Strength—A Carpenter</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_311">310</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Little Old People<br />Going to a Christian School</span></td> + <td valign="middle"><span class="bracket">}</span></td><td> </td> + <td align="center">"</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_343">342</a></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2>Glossary</h2> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boy</span>, a term used by foreigners in China to denote the head-servant, +irrespective of his age.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cash</span>, Chinese copper coin with a square hole for stringing. The value of a +single cash may be taken as one-thousandth of a Mexican dollar. The cash +vary greatly in size. A “string” theoretically consists of a thousand +cash, but in many regions has but five hundred. The latter variety is at +present equal to one-third of a gold dollar.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Catty</span>, a Chinese pound, equal by treaty to one and one-third pounds +avoirdupois.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chin-shih</span>, “Entered Scholar.” The third literary degree; Doctor in +Literature.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chou</span>, a Sub-prefecture, sometimes with Districts under it, and often +without them.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chü-Jên</span>, “Selected man.” The second full literary degree; a Master of +Arts.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Compound</span>, an enclosure or yard, usually containing a number of buildings +belonging to a single family or establishment.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fêng-shui</span>, literally “wind and water.” A complicated system of geomantic +superstition, by which the good luck of sites and buildings is determined.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fu</span>, a Prefecture, governed by a Prefect, with several Districts under it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Han-lin</span>, “Forest of Pencils.” The last literary degree, entitling to +office.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hsien</span>, a District or Country, governed by the District Magistrate.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hsiu-ts‘ai</span>, “Flourishing Talent.” The lowest of the several literary +degrees; a Bachelor of Arts.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">K‘ang</span>, a raised platform of adobe or of bricks, used as a bed and heated +by means of flues.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">K‘o-t‘ou</span> or <span class="smcap">Kotow</span>, the act of prostration and striking the head on the +ground in homage or worship.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Li</span>, a Chinese measure of length, somewhat more than three of which equal +an English mile.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Squeeze</span>, a forced contribution exacted by those through whose hands the +money of others passes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tæl</span>, a weight of money equivalent to a sixteenth of a Chinese pound; an +ounce.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tao-T‘ai</span>, an officer of the third rank who is intendant of a circuit.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ya-mên</span>, the office and residence of a Chinese official.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<h2>PART I</h2> +<h3>The Village, Its Institutions, Usages and Public Characters</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> +<h3>THE CHINESE VILLAGE</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">There</span> are in India alone over half a million villages. In all Asia, not +improbably, there may be four times that number. By far the larger part of +the most numerous people on the globe live in villages. The traveller in +the Chinese Empire may start from some seaport, as Tientsin, and journey +for several months together in the same general direction, before reaching +its frontiers on the other side. In the course of such a tour, he will be +impressed as only one who has ocular evidence can be impressed with the +inconceivably great number of Chinese altogether outside of the great +centres of urban population. Contrary to the current notions of +Westerners, the number of great cities is not, relatively to the whole +population, anything like so large in China as in Western lands. Many of +the district cities, capitals of divisions analogous to what we call +counties, are merely large villages with a wall and with government +bureaus called yamêns. It is known that in India three-fourths of the +population are rural. In China there is perhaps no reason for thinking the +proportion to be less.</p> + +<p>On such a journey as we have supposed, the traveller unacquainted with the +Chinese, finds himself perpetually inquiring of himself: What are these +incomputable millions of human beings thinking about? What is the quality +of the life which they live? What is its content and its scope?</p> + +<p>Questions like these cannot be answered intelligently without much +explanation. The conditions and environment of Chinese life are so totally +unlike those to which we are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>accustomed, that it is unsafe to take +anything for granted. Amid certain fundamental unities the life of the +Chinese is full of bewildering and inexplicable variety. No matter how +long one may have lived in China, there is always just as much as ever +that he never before heard of, but which every one is supposed to have +known by intuition. The oldest resident is a student like the rest.</p> + +<p>This state of things is the inevitable result of the antiquity of Chinese +civilization, as well as of the enormous scale upon which it has operated +to produce its effects. It is a sagacious remark of Mr. A. R. Colquhoun<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> +that “the product resulting from duration multiplied by numbers must be +immense, and if to this we add a third factor, isolation, we have no right +to be surprised either at the complex character of Chinese civilization, +or at its peculiarly conservative form.” For this reason a connected and +orderly account of the phenomena of Chinese life we believe to be a +hopeless impossibility. It would require the combined information of all +the residents of China to make it complete, to coördinate it would be the +work of several life-times, and the resultant volumes would fill the +Bodleian library. The only practicable way to extend our knowledge of so +oceanic a subject, is to examine in more or less detail such phenomena as +happen to have come within our restricted horizon. No two persons will +have the same horizon, and no horizon will belt a sphere.</p> + +<p>A good way to see what is happening in a building would be to take its +roof off, could that be done without disturbing its inmates. If we wish to +comprehend the Chinese, we must take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> the roof from their homes, in +order to learn what is going on within. This no foreigner can do. But he +can imitate the Chinese who apply a wet finger to a paper window, so that +when the digit is withdrawn there remains a tiny hole, through which an +observant eye may see at least something. The heterogeneous, somewhat +disconnected, very unequally elaborated chapters which comprise this book, +have this in common, that they are all studies of the phenomena seen at a +peep-hole into the actual life of the Chinese people. Any one who knows +enough about the subject to be entitled to have an opinion, cannot help +perceiving how imperfect and inadequate they are. Yet they represent, +nevertheless, realities which have a human interest of their own.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp016top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Southern Village Scene.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 373px;"><img src="images/fp016bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">A Detail—The Village Well.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The traveller in China, constantly surrounded by countless towns and +hamlets, naturally thirsts to know in a general way the population of the +region which he is traversing. Should he venture, however, to ask any one +the number of people in a city, or the district which it governs, he would +get no other information than that there are “not a few,” or “who knows?” +Almost any intelligent person could tell approximately how many villages +there are in his own county, but as some of them are large and some small, +and as Chinese like other Orientals care absolutely nothing for statistics +and have the crudest notion of what we mean by an average, one is none the +wiser for their information.</p> + +<p>It appears to be well settled that no real dependence can be placed upon +the Chinese official returns, yet that they are the only basis upon which +rational estimates can be based, and therefore have a certain value. So +far as we are aware, efforts to come at the real population per square +mile, have generally proceeded from such extensive units as provinces, or +at least prefectures, the foundation and superstructure being alike a mere +pagoda of guesses.</p> + +<p>Some years ago an effort was made in a certain district to make a more +exact computation of the population of a very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> limited area, as a sort of +unit of measure. For this purpose a circle was taken, the radius of which +was twenty <i>li</i>, the foreign residence being at the centre. A list was +drawn up of every village having received famine relief in the year 1878, +so that it was not difficult to make a proximate guess at the average +number of families. The villages were 150 in number, and the average size +was taken as eighty families, which, reckoning five persons to the family, +gave a total of 60,000 persons. Allowing six miles to be the equivalent of +twenty <i>li</i>, the population of the square mile would be 531, about the +same as the average of the kingdom of Belgium (the most densely populated +country in Europe), which had in 1890 an average of only 534 to the square +mile.</p> + +<p>At a distance of a few miles beyond this circle, there is a tract called +the “Thirteen Villages,” because that is the number within a distance of +five <i>li</i>! This shows that the particular region in which this estimate +was made, happens to be an unfavourable one for the purpose, as a +considerable part of it is waste, owing to an old bed of the Yellow River +which has devastated a broad band of land, on which are no villages. There +is also a water-course leading from the Grand Canal to the sea, and a long +depression much below the general average, thinly occupied by villages, +because it is liable to serious inundation.</p> + +<p>For these reasons it seemed desirable to make a new count in a better +spot, and for this purpose a district was chosen, situated about ninety +<i>li</i> east of the sub-prefecture of Lin Ch‘ing, to which it belongs. The +area taken was only half the size of the former, and instead of merely +estimating the average population of the villages, the actual number of +families in each was taken, so far as this number is known to the natives. +The man who prepared the village map of the area is a native of the +central village, and a person of excellent sense. He put the population in +every case somewhat below the popular estimate so as to be certainly +within bounds. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> number of persons to a “family” was still taken at +five, though, as he pointed out, this is a totally inadequate allowance. +Many “families” live and have all things in common, and are therefore +counted as one, although as in the case of this particular individual, the +“family” may consist of some twenty persons. To the traveller in this +region, the villages appear to be both large and thickly clustered, and +the enumeration shows this to be the case. Within a radius of ten <i>li</i> +(three miles) there are sixty-four villages, the smallest having thirty +families and the largest more than 1,000, while the average is 188 +families. The total number of families is 12,040, and the total number of +persons at five to the family, is 60,200, or more than double the estimate +for the region with twice the diameter. This gives a population of 2,129 +to the square mile.</p> + +<p>So far as appearances go, there are thousands of square miles in southern +and central Chih-li, western and southwestern Shan-tung, and northern +Ho-nan, where the villages are as thick as in this one tract, the contents +of which we are thus able proximately to compute. But for the plain of +North China as a whole, it is probable that it would be found more +reasonable to estimate 300 persons to the square mile for the more +sparsely settled districts, and from 1,000 to 1,500 for the more thickly +settled regions. In any case a vivid impression is thus gained of the +enormous number of human beings crowded into these fertile and historic +plains, and also of the almost insuperable difficulties in the way of an +exact knowledge of the facts of the true “census.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> +<h3>CONSTRUCTION OF VILLAGES</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">It</span> is nearly 500 years since the great raid of the nephew of Hung Wu, +founder of the Ming Dynasty, from the southern capital of China, to what +is now known as Peking, then called the state of Yen. The celebrated +raider is popularly believed to have destroyed the lives of all those whom +he met, and to have reduced to an uninhabited desert the whole region from +the Yang-tzŭ River to Peking. This is described as “Yen Wang’s sweeping +the North.” After this ambitious youth had dispossessed his nephew, who +was the rightful heir to the throne, he took the title of Yung Lo, which +became a famous name in Chinese history. To repair the ravages which he +had made, compulsory emigration was established from southern Shan-hsi and +from eastern Shan-tung. Tradition reports that vast masses of people were +collected in the city of Hung-tung Hsien in southern Shan-hsi, and thence +distributed over the uncultivated wastes made by war. Certain it is that +throughout great regions of the plain of northern China, the inhabitants +have no other knowledge of their origin than that they came from that +city.</p> + +<p>It is a curious phenomenon that so practical a people as the Chinese, and +one having so instinctive a sense of the points of the compass that they +speak of a pain in “the east side” of the stomach, are indifferent to +regularity of form in their towns. Every Chinese city seems to lie four +square, but perhaps it is not too much to say that no Chinese city really +does so lie. On the contrary a city wall is always found to have certain +deliberate curves and irregularities which are designed for geomantic +purposes. In other words they bring good luck,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> or they keep off bad luck, +and are representations of the mysterious science of <i>fêng-shui</i> or +geomancy. It is for this reason that city gates must either not be +opposite one another, or if they are so, some obstruction must intervene +to prevent evil spirits from making a clean sweep of everything.</p> + +<p>It is customary in Western lands to speak of “laying out” a city or a +town. As applied to a Chinese village, such an expression would be most +inappropriate, for it would imply that there has been some trace of design +in the arrangement of the parts, whereas the reverse is the truth. A +Chinese village, like Topsy, “just growed,” how, or why, no one knows or +cares. At some remote and generally unascertainable time in the dim past +some families arrived from somewhere else, camped down, made themselves a +“local habitation,” (their name they probably brought with them), and that +was the village. It has a street, and perhaps a network of them, but no +two are parallel, except by accident, and no one of them is straight. The +street is the path which has been found by long experience to be a +necessary factor in promoting communication between the parts of the +village and the outside world. It is not only liable to take sudden and +inexplicable turns, but it varies in width at different points. Sometimes +in a village a quarter of a mile long, there may not be a single crossroad +enabling a vehicle to get from the front street to the back one, simply +because the town grew up in that way, and no one either could or would +remedy it, even if any one desired it otherwise. At right angles to the +main street or streets, run narrow alleys, upon which open the yards or +courts in which the houses are situated. Even the buildings which happen +to stand contiguous to the main street offer nothing to the gaze but an +expanse of dead wall. If any doorway opens on the highway, it is protected +from the evil influences which might else result, by a screen wall, +preventing any observation of what goes on within. A village is thus a +city in miniature, having all the evils of over-crowding, though it may be +situated in the midst of a wide<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> and comparatively uninhabited plain. +Whether land is dear or cheap, a village always has the same crowded +appearance, and there is in either case the same indifference to the +requirements of future growth.</p> + +<p>The mountains furnish an abundance of stone, from which dwellings situated +in such districts are built—dark, damp, and unwholesome at all seasons of +the year, but especially so in the time of heavy rains. Even more +unpleasant are the cave dwellings found in the loamy soil of loess +regions, lighted only from the front, and quite free from any form of +ventilation, a luxury for which no provision is made in the construction +of a Chinese dwelling.</p> + +<p>By far the most common material of which the Chinese build their houses is +that which happens to be nearest at hand. Bricks are everywhere made in +great quantities, almost always of the same colour as the clothes of the +people, a bluish gray. This tint is secured by sealing up the brick-kiln +perfectly tight, when the burning of the bricks is finished, and pouring +upon the concave top several hundred buckets of water, which, filtering +through the soil of which the top is composed, is instantly converted into +steam when it reaches the bricks, and alters their hue. The scarcity of +fuel, and an unwillingness to employ it where it seems like a waste leads +to the almost universal practice of burning the bricks too little to make +them valuable as a building material. Instead of becoming hard like stones +as do foreign bricks, and coated with a thick glazing, a large percentage +of Chinese bricks break merely by being handled, and when examined, they +are found to be like well-made bread, full of air-holes. Each of these +openings becomes a tube by which the bibulous bricks suck up moisture from +below, to the great detriment of the building of which they generally form +merely the foundations, or perhaps, the facings.</p> + +<p>The vast majority of country dwellings are made simply of the soil, +moulded into adobe bricks, dried till they cease to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> shrink. The largest +of these bricks are two or three inches thick, and a foot wide, and +perhaps twenty inches in length, weighing even when thoroughly dried more +than forty pounds. The cost of making those which are only dried in a +mould is not more than a cash a piece; those which are stamped while in +the mould with a heavy stone rammer, are worth three or four times as +much. If experts are employed to do this work, the outlay is greater as +the owner of the earth not only provides a man to carry the necessary +water, but he must furnish tea and tobacco for the workmen.</p> + +<p>The foundations of adobe houses, like those of all others, must be of +brick, and at the height of a foot or two above the ground will have a +layer of reeds or some other substance, designed to prevent the dampness +from rising into the walls, which crumble in such a case like candy houses +in a rain. There is so much soda in the soil of all parts of the Great +Plain of northern China, that unless extreme care is taken the best built +structures will, in a very few years, show signs of decay.</p> + +<p>The roof is meant to be supported by posts, no matter of what material the +house is built, and this material is regarded as only the filling between +them, but in the cheaper houses, the posts are often omitted to save +expense. As a result, in a rainy year thousands of houses are literally +soaked down whenever the moisture has sufficiently weakened the +foundations. In this way many persons are killed and many more injured. In +some districts one sees roofs made with the frame resembling that of a +foreign house, but the ordinary form is with king and queen posts. In +either case the timbers running lengthwise of the building support small +purlines upon which rest thin bricks, or more frequently reeds, mats, or +sorghum stalks, over which is spread the earth which forms the greater +part of all roofs. Their enormous weight when well soaked make them highly +dangerous after the timbers have become old and rotten. Where the roofs +are flat, they serve as depositories for the crops, and for fuel.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>If the village is situated in a low spot, the precaution is taken to throw +up a mound of earth on which to build. But whatever the nature of the +country, the removal of so much earth leaves a series of gigantic pits +around every village, which catch the drainage of the surrounding region +and the possession of which is disputed by ducks, geese, pigs and in +summer by small children clad only in the skin garments furnished by +nature.</p> + +<p>The abundant moisture is an inducement to the growth of luxuriant groves +of trees, which, seen at a distance, produce a charming effect. But on a +nearer approach it is seen that the fine old trees are employed +exclusively in shading the mud-holes, while the houses of the village are +exposed to the fiercest rays of the summer sun. Trees are indeed to be met +with in the village street, but they are not designed to shade a +courtyard, which is almost invariably utterly destitute of trees of any +sort. Even grapevines which would seem a natural and beautiful relief from +the hideous bareness of the prevalent earth colour, are, in some regions +at least, wholly tabooed. And why? Because, forsooth, the branches of the +grape point down, while those of other trees point up, hence it would be +“unlucky” to have grapevines, though not at all “unlucky” to roast all +through the broiling summer for the lack of their grateful shade.</p> + +<p>A man whose grandfather had been rich, and who was distinguished from his +neighbours by owning a two-story dwelling, informed the writer that he +could remember that his grandmother, who lived in the rear court, was +constantly fretting at the lofty buildings in front, and at the +magnificent elms which shaded the compound and left no place to dry +clothes! In course of time the family was reduced to poverty, the +two-story building was demolished, and the trees felled, so that the +present generation, like other families, swelters in a narrow courtyard, +with an unlimited opportunity (very little used) to dry their clothes. +Luxuries which are denied to dwelling-houses,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> are cheerfully accorded +to the gods, who have no clothes to dry, and a very small temple may have +in front of it a grove of very old trees.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp024top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Sawyers Preparing Lumber.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 373px;"><img src="images/fp024bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Itinerant Blacksmiths Employed by Villagers.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The architecture of the Chinese has been compendiously and perhaps not +inaccurately described as consisting essentially of two sticks placed +upright, with a third laid across them at the top. The shape of some +Chinese roofs, however they may vary among themselves, suggests the tent +as the prime model; though, as Dr. Williams and others have remarked, +there is no proof of any connection between the Chinese roof and the tent. +Owing to the national reluctance to erect lofty buildings, almost all +Chinese cities present an appearance of monotonous uniformity, greatly in +contrast with the views of large cities to be had in other lands.</p> + +<p>If Chinese cities are thus uninviting in their aspect, the traveller must +not expect to find anything in the country village to gratify his æsthetic +sense. There is no such word as “æsthetic” in Chinese, and, if there were, +it is not one in which villagers would take any interest. The houses are +generally built on the north end of the space reserved as a courtyard, so +as to face the south, and if additional structures are needed they are +placed at right angles to the main one, facing east and west. If the +premises are large, the front wall of the yard is formed by another house, +similar to the one in the rear, and like it having side buildings. However +numerous or however wealthy the family, this is the normal type of its +dwelling. In cities this type is greatly modified by the exigencies of the +contracted space at disposal, but in the country it rules supreme.</p> + +<p>The numerative of Chinese houses is a word which denotes division, +signifying not a room, but rather such a part of a dwelling as can +conveniently be covered by timbers of one length. As these timbers are +seldom very large or very long, one division of a house will not often +exceed ten or twelve feet in length, by a little less in width from front +to back. An ordinary house will comprise three of these divisions, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +there may be but one partition, forming one double and one single room. +There is no ceiling, and the roof, which is usually not lofty, is in full +view. Most doors are made with two leaves, projections above and below, +like pins, serving as the hinges. There is a movable doorsill, out of +which a small hole is often cut to admit of entrance and exit for the dogs +and cats. Such doors cannot be tightly closed, for the rude workmanship +and the unequal shrinkage of the wood always render it easy to see through +the many cracks.</p> + +<p>Almost all parts of the eighteen provinces are very hot in summer, but it +is only in some regions that a back door will be found opening opposite +the front one. The wooden grating, which does duty as a window, is built +into the wall, for security against thieves, and is often covered, even in +the heat of summer, with oiled paper. Doors do not open directly from +dwelling-houses to the street, and if there are any windows on the street +side of the house, they are very small and very high.</p> + +<p>Just inside the door is built the adobe support for the cooking-boiler, +the latter shaped like a saucer and made very thin in order to economize +fuel to the utmost. In all districts where provision is to be made for +heating the room, it is done by conducting the smoke from this primitive +range through a complicated set of flues, under the divan called a <i>k‘ang</i> +which serves as a bed, and which is merely an arrangement of adobe bricks. +If the houses are thatched with straw the opening for smoke must be near +the ground, as a precaution against fire.</p> + +<p>On the end of the <i>k‘ang</i> are piled the bed-quilts of the household and +whatever trunks or boxes they may be able to boast, for this is the only +part of the dwelling which is not likely to be damp. As the fire is so +near to the outer door where drafts are strong, as the flues are very +likely to get out of order, and as there are no chimneys worthy of the +name, it is inevitable that the smoke should be distributed throughout the +building with the greatest impartiality, often forming a coating of +creosote an inch or more in thickness.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>Above the cooking-range is fastened the image of the kitchen-god, +popularly supposed to be a deification of Chang Kung, a worthy who lived +in the eighth century of our era, and was able to live in perfect peace, +although nine generations simultaneously inhabited the same yard. Even his +hundred dogs were so polite as to wait for another, if any one of them was +late at a meal.</p> + +<p>The reigning emperor of the Tang Dynasty sent for Chang Kung, to inquire +the secret of such wonderful harmony, and calling for a pen, he is said to +have written the character denoting “Forbearance” a great number of times. +According to tradition the picture of this patriarch was placed in every +dwelling as a stimulus to the imitation of his example, a purpose for +which it unfortunately proves quite inert.</p> + +<p>That the dwellings of the Chinese are cold in winter, hot in summer, and +smoky all the year round is inevitable. Even in the coldest weather there +is no escape from the bitter cold, except as it may be got by curling upon +the <i>k‘ang</i>. For this reason Chinese women often speak of the <i>k‘ang</i> as +like an “own mother.” A room in which there is none is considered almost +uninhabitable. But from an Occidental point of view they are models of +discomfort. The heat is but slowly diffused, and during a long night one +may be alternately drenched with perspiration, and then chilled to the +bone as the heat diminishes. The adobe bricks of which the <i>k‘ang</i> is +composed crumble if an uneven pressure is made upon them, so that one +often finds the <i>k‘angs</i> in an inn full of pitfalls. They are always the +lodging places of a multitude of tiny monsters to which the Chinese are +too much accustomed to complain. Even when the adobe bricks are broken up +in the spring to be pulverized as manure—on account of the creosote—the +animal life lodged in the walls is apparently sufficient to restock the +universe.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that the title-deeds to land are in course of years +destroyed or lost, for there is in a Chinese house no proper place in +which they may be kept. The only closets are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> made by leaving out a few +bricks from the wall. A small board, resting on two pegs often forms the +only book-shelf to be found in the apartments even of men of letters. +Doors are locked by passing the link of a chain over a staple in the +door-frame above; but Chinese padlocks can generally be picked with a +wire, a chop-stick, or even with a dry weed, and afford no real +protection. Thieves are always provided with an assortment of keys, and +often get in by lifting the doors off the pins which serve as hinges. +Nothing is easier than to dig through adobe walls. In some of the rich +villages of Shan-hsi house-walls are built quite six feet thick to +discourage such penetration.</p> + +<p>The floor of all common dwellings is merely the earth, not smoothed but +beaten into fixed inequalities; this we are assured (in reply to a +question why smoothness is not cultivated) is much the best way, as by +this means every fluid spilled will run out of itself! In the corners of +the dwelling stand, lie, or hang, the numerous household articles for +which there is no other place. Jars of grain, agricultural implements, +clumsy looms for weaving cotton, spinning wheels, baskets of all sizes and +shapes, one or two benches, and possibly a chair, all seem to occupy such +space as is to be had, while from the sooty roof depend all manner of +articles, hung up so as to be out of the way—some of which when wanted +must be hooked down with a pole. The maxim “a place for everything, and +everything in its place” is inappropriate to a Chinese dwelling, where +there is very little place for anything.</p> + +<p>The small yard is in as great confusion as the house, and for the same +reason. Dogs, cats, chickens and babies enjoy a very limited sphere of +action, and generally take to the street, which is but an extension of the +court. If the family owns animals, some place must be found for them in +the yard, though when not in use they spend their time anchored by a very +short rope, attached to pegs sunk deep in the ground, in front of the +owner’s dwelling. Pigs are kept in a kind of well, with a brick wall to +prevent its caving in, and by climbing a very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> steep flight of brick +stairs they can ascend to a little kennel provided for them at the edge of +their pits—in many regions the only two-story domiciles to be found!</p> + +<p>The Chinese village is always a miniature city, not only by reason of its +internal arrangements—or lack of it—but often also in the virtue of the +fact that it is surrounded by a wall.</p> + +<p>Not many years ago several regiments stationed near the Yellow River, in +Shan-tung, mutinied, killed an officer and marched off to their homes. The +intelligence of this event spread throughout the province, and each region +feared to be visited by the soldiers who were sure to plunder and perhaps +to kill. So great was the panic that cities hundreds of miles from the +seat of the disturbance were packed with a multitude of farm-carts loaded +with villagers who had left their homes and abandoned their crops at the +beginning of the wheat harvest, trusting to find safety within city walls. +The losses sustained in consequence were immense.</p> + +<p>Events like this may occur at any time, and the great T‘ai P‘ing Rebellion +of half a century ago, together with its resultant disorders, left an +ineffaceable impression of the insecurity of an unwalled village. Although +the walls are seldom more than fifteen or twenty feet in height, whenever +a year of bad harvests occurs, and bands of plunderers roam about, the use +of even such defences is made obvious. Slight as is their value against an +organized, well-directed attack, experience shows that they are often +sufficient to accomplish the object intended, by diverting the stream of +invaders to other villages where they meet with no resistance. The least +rumour of an uprising in any quarter is often sufficient to stimulate the +villagers to levy a tax upon the land in order to repair their earthen +ramparts, in which, not without good reason, they place much more +dependence than in the cautious and dilatory movements of the local +authorities who are generally in no condition to cope with an organized +and resolute force, especially with those rebels who have a real +grievance.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE NOMENCLATURE</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> Chinese is justly termed a poetical language. The titles of emperors, +the names of men, the signs of shops, all have some felicitous meaning. It +is therefore somewhat of a disappointment to discover that the names of +Chinese villages, unlike those of cities, are not as a rule either +poetical or significant. The drafts upon the language by the incessant +multiplication of hamlets are too great to be successfully met. Nearly all +Chinese surnames serve as the designation of villages, as in other lands +the names of families are attached to the settlements which they make. +Sometimes two or more surnames are linked together to denote the village, +as Chang-Wang Chuang, the village of the Chang and the Wang families. It +often happens that in the changes, wrought by time, of the families for +whom the place was named not a single representative remains. In such +cases the name may be retained or it may be altered, though all +recollection of the circumstances of the change may be lost.</p> + +<p>The most conspicuous object in a Chinese village is generally a temple, +and this building often gives its name to the hamlet. Thus the wall +surrounding a temple is covered with red plaster, and the village is +dubbed Red Temple. In a few years the plaster falls off, but the name +sticks. Temples are frequently associated with the families which were +prominent in their construction, and the name of the village is very +likely to be derived from this source, as Wang Chia Miao, the Temple of +the Wang Family; the Hua Chia Ssŭ, the monastery of the Hua Family. If +there happen to be two temples of a similar appearance, the village may +get the title of Double Temple, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> in general any peculiarity in +edifices of this sort is likely to be stereotyped in the village name.</p> + +<p>The habit of using the names of families and temples to indicate the +villages is a fertile source of confusion through the indefinite +multiplication of the same name. There is no postal system in China +compelling each post office to have a designation which shall not be +confounded with others in the same province. Hence the more common names +are so exceedingly common that they lose all value as distinctive +designations. “Chang, Wang, Li, and Chao,” are the four surnames which the +Chinese regard as the most prevalent, the first two of them far +out-distancing all their competitors. The number of places in a given +district bearing the same, or similar names, is past all ascertaining; as, +say eight or ten Wang Family villages, the Larger Wang Village, the +Smaller Wang Village, the Front Wang Village, the Rear Wang Village, the +Wang Village Under-the-bank, and so forth. Even with this complexity, +distinction would be a much easier matter if the same name were always +used, but anything which has a Wang about it is like to be called simply +Wang Village, and only on inquiry is it to be learned which of all these +Wangs is the one intended.</p> + +<p>A similar ambiguity is introduced along the line of imperial highways, +where the hamlets at which food is sold, and where accommodations are +offered to travellers, are called “shops,” taking their distinctive title +from the distance to the district city,—as Five Mile Shop, Ten Mile, +Fifteen, Twenty, Thirty, and Forty Mile Shop. Each district city may have +“shops” of this kind on each side of it, and while the one twenty miles +(or li) north is Twenty Li Shop, so is the one twenty li south, to the +great confusion of the traveller, who after all is not sure where he is. +In addition to this ambiguity, the Thirty Li Shop of one city is liable to +be confounded with the Thirty Li Shop of the next city. It is a common +circumstance to find an insignificant hamlet with a name comprising four +or five characters, the local pronunciation of which is generally +difficult to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> catch, as the words are spoken as one prolonged, +many-syllabled sound. This leads to abbreviations, the same long title +having perhaps two or three different modes of utterance, to the +bewilderment of strangers, and to the intense amusement of the rustic born +on the spot, who cannot conceive what there can be so hard to understand +about a name which is to him as familiar as his own.</p> + +<p>Another source of confusion in the nomenclature of Chinese villages, is +the almost universal habit of varying one or more characters of a name +without any apparent reason. The alteration has no connection with +euphony, ease of pronunciation, or with any known cause whatever, but +seems to be due to an irresistible instinct for variety, and to an +antipathy to a too simple uniformity. Thus a village the proper title of +which is the Ancient Monastery of the Li Family, (Li Ku Ssŭ) is +generally called Li Kuang Ssŭ; a village known as that of Benevolence +and Virtue (Jên Tê Chuang), is ordinarily styled Jên Wang Chuang. +Analogous to this habit, is that of affixing two entirely distinct names +to the same little hamlet, neither name suggesting the other, and the +duplication merely serving to confound confusion. Thus a village which has +a name derived from a temple, like Hsüan Ti Miao (the temple to Hsüan Ti) +is also known as Chang Chuang (the village of the Chang Family), but as +there are many other villages of Chang families near by this, one will be +known by way of distinction, as the “Chang Family village which has a +temple to Hsüan Ti”! Many persons have occasion to write the names of +villages, who have but the scantiest knowledge of Chinese characters, and +they are as likely to indite a false character having the same sound as a +right one—nay, far more so—and thus it happens that there is a perpetual +uncertainty, never set at rest in any manner whatsoever, as to what the +real name of a place ought to be, for to all Chinese one name is as good +as another, and in such matters, as in many others, there appears to be no +intuition of right and wrong.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>Chinese villages are only individual Chinese amplified, and, like +individuals, they are liable to be nicknamed; and, as often happens with +human beings, the nickname frequently supplants the original, of which no +trace may remain in memory. This helps to account for the singular +appellations of many villages. A market-town on the highway, the wells of +which afford only brackish water, was called “Bitter Water Shop,” but as +this name was not pleasing to the ear, it was changed on the tax lists to +“Sweet Water Shop.” If any one inquires how it is that the same fountain +can send forth at the same time waters both bitter and sweet, he is +answered with conclusive simplicity, “Sweet Water Shop is the same as +Bitter Water Shop!” A village situated on the edge of a river was named +after the two leading families, but when the river rose to a great height +this name sunk out of sight, and there emerged the title, “Look at the +Water;” but even this alteration not being sufficient to satisfy the +thirst for variety, the name is written and pronounced as if it meant, +“Look at the Grave!” A hamlet named for the Liu Family had in it a bully +who appeared in a lawsuit with a black eye, and hence was called the +Village of Liu with the Black Eye. In another instance a town had the name +of Dropped Tooth, merely because the local constable lost a central +incisor (Lao Ya Chên); but in course of time this fact was forgotten, and +the name altered into “Market-town of the Crows,” (Lao Kua Chên) which it +still retains.</p> + +<p>A village in which most of the families joined the Roman Catholics and +pulled down all their temples, gained from this circumstance the +soubriquet of “No Gods Village” (Wu Shên Chuang). The following specimens +of singular village names are all taken from an area but a few miles +square, and could doubtless be paralleled in almost any other region. “The +Imperial Horse Yard” (Yü Ma Yüan). This title is said to have been +inherited from the times of the founder of the Sung Dynasty. It is +generally corrupted into “Sesame Garden,” (Chih Ma Yüan). “End of the +Cave,” a village situated on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> a great plain, with vague traditions of an +underground passage. “Seeing the Horse”; “Horse Words Village,” from a +tradition of a speaking animal; “Sun Family Bull Village”; “Female Dog +Village”; “Wang Family Great Melon Village”; “Separating from the King +Village”; “Basket Village of the Liu Village”; “Tiger-catching Village,” +and “Tiger-striking Fair”; “Duck’s Nest of the Chou Family”; “Horse +Without a Hoof”; “Village of Chang of the Iron Mouth”; “Ts‘ui Family Wild +Pheasant Village”; “Wang Family Dog’s Tooth”; “Village of the Benevolent +and Loving Magistrate”; “Village of the Makers of Fine-tooth Combs,” +(Pi-tzŭ-chiang Chuang), which is now corrupted into “The Village Where +They Wear Pug-noses”!</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 370px;"><img src="images/fp035top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Village Cobbler.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp035bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Village Broom-Maker.</span></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> +<h3>COUNTRY ROADS</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> contracted quarters in which the Chinese live compel them to do most +of their work in the street. Even in those cities which are provided with +but the narrowest passages, these slender avenues are perpetually choked +by the presence of peripatetic vendors of every article that is sold, and +by peripatetic craftsmen, who have no other shop than the street. The +butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker, and hundreds of other workmen +as well, have their representatives in perpetual motion, to the great +impediment of travel. The wider the street, the more the uses to which it +can be put, so that travel in the broad streets of Peking is often as +difficult as that in the narrow alleys of Canton. An “imperial highway” in +China is not one which is kept in order by the emperor, but rather one +which may have to be put in order for the emperor. All such highways might +rather be called low-ways; for, as they are never repaired, they soon +become incomparably worse than no road at all.</p> + +<p>If this is true of the great tines of travel over the empire, we must not +expect to find the village road an illustration of any doctrine of +political economy. Each of them is simply a forced contribution on the +part of the owner of the land to the general welfare. It is so much soil +on which he is compelled to pay taxes, and from which he gets no more good +than any one else. Each land-owner will, therefore, throw the road on the +edge of his land, so that he may not be obliged to furnish more than half +the way. But as the pieces of land which he happens to own may be, and +generally are, of miscellaneous lengths, the road will wind around so as +to accommodate the prejudices of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> the owner in this particular, which +explains the fact that in travelling on village roads it is often +necessary to go a great distance to reach a place not far off.</p> + +<p>An ordinary road is only wide enough for one vehicle, but as it is often +necessary for carts to pass one another, this can only be done by +trespassing on the crops. To prevent this the farmer digs deep ditches +along his land, resembling gas-mains. Each farmer struggles to protect his +own land, but when he drives his own cart, he too becomes a “trespasser”; +thus a state of chronic and immitigable warfare is established, for which +there is absolutely no remedy. The Occidental plan of setting apart a +strip of land of uniform width, free from taxes and owned by the state, +the grade of which shall be definite, is utterly beyond the comprehension +of any Chinese. Where land is valuable and is all private property, road +repairs are out of the question. There is no earth to repair with, and +without repair, the roads soon reach a condition beyond the possibility of +any repairs. Constant travel compresses and hardens the soil, making it +lower than the adjacent fields; perpetual attrition grinds the earth into +banks, which by heavy gales are blown in the form of thick dust on the +fields.</p> + +<p>In the rainy season the fields are drained into the road, which at such +times is constantly under water. A slight change of level allows the water +to escape into some still lower road, and thus a current is set up, which +becomes first a brook, and then a rushing torrent, constantly wearing out +its bed. This process repeated for decades and for centuries turns the +road into a canal, several feet below the level of the fields. It is a +proverb that a road 1,000 years old becomes a river, just as a +daughter-in-law of many years’ standing gradually “summers into a +mother-in-law.”</p> + +<p>By the time the road has sunk to the level of a few feet below the +adjacent land, it is liable to be wholly useless as a thoroughfare. It is +a canal, but it can neither be navigated nor crossed. Intercourse between +contiguous villages lying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> along a common “highway,” is often for weeks +together entirely interrupted. The water drained from the land often +carries with it large areas of valuable soil, leaving in its place a +yawning chasm. When the water subsides, the owner of the land sallies out +to see what has become of this section of his farm. It has been dissolved +in the canal, but if the owner cannot find that particular earth he can +find other earth just as good. Wherever the light soil called loam, or +“loess,” is found, it splits with a vertical cleavage, leaving high banks +on each side of a rent in the earth. To repair these, the owner takes the +soil which he needs from a pit excavated by the side of the road, or more +probably from the road itself, which may thus in a single season be +lowered a foot or more in depth. All of it is his land, and why should he +not take it? If the public wish to use a road, and do not find this one +satisfactory, then let the public go somewhere else.</p> + +<p>If a road becomes so bad as to necessitate its abandonment, a new one must +be opened, or some old one adapted to the altered circumstances. The +latter is almost sure to be the alternative; for who is willing to +surrender a part of his scanty farm, to accommodate so impersonal a being +as the public? In case of floods, either from heavy rains or a break in +some stream, the only feasible method is thought to be to sit still and +await the gradual retirement of the water. A raised road through the +inundated district, which could be used at all seasons, is a triple +impossibility. The persons whose land must be disturbed would not suffer +it, no one would lift a finger to do the work—except those who happened +to own land along the line of the route—and no one, no matter where he +lived, would furnish any of the materials which would be necessary to +render the road permanent.</p> + +<p>An illustration of this state of things is found in a small village in +central Chih-li, where lives an elderly lady, in good circumstances, a +part of whose land is annually subject to flood from the drainage of the +surrounding region. The evil was so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> serious that it was frequently +impossible to haul the crops home on carts, but they had either to be +brought on the backs of men wading, or, if there were water enough, +toilfully dragged along on stalk rafts. To this comparatively enlightened +woman occurred the idea of having her men and teams dig trenches along the +roadside, raise the road to a level above possible flooding, and thus +remedy the trouble permanently. This she did wholly at her own expense, +the emerging road being a benefit to the whole country-side. The following +winter, during which the contagious influenza was world-prevalent, there +were several cases in the village terminating fatally. After five or six +persons had died, the villagers became excited to discover the latent +cause of the calamity, which was traced to the new highway. Had another +death occurred they would have assembled with spades and reduced it to its +previous level, thus raising a radical barrier against the grippe!</p> + +<p>The great lines of Chinese travel might be made permanently passable, +instead of being, as now, interrupted several months of the year, if the +Governor of a Province chose to compel the several District Magistrates +along the line to see that these important arteries are kept free from +standing water, with ditches in good order at all seasons. But for the +village road there is absolutely no hope until such time as the Chinese +villager may come dimly to the apprehension that what is for the advantage +of one is for the advantage of all, and that wise expenditure is the +truest economy—an idea of which at present he has as little conception as +of the binomial theorem.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> +<h3>THE VILLAGE FERRY</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> the northern part of China, although the streams are not so numerous as +at the south, they form more of an obstruction to travel, on account of +the much greater use made of animals and of wheeled vehicles. The Chinese +cart is a peculiarly northern affair, and appears to be of much the same +type as in ancient days. The ordinary passenger cart is dragged by one +animal in the cities, and by two in the country. The country cart, +employed for the hauling of produce and also for all domestic purposes by +the great bulk of the population, is a machine of untold weight. We once +put the wheel of one of these carts on a platform-scale and ascertained +that it weighed 177 pounds, and the axle fifty-seven pounds in addition, +giving a total of 411 pounds for this portion of the vehicle. The shafts +are stout as they have need to be, and when the cart upsets—a not +infrequent occurrence—they pin the shaft animal to the earth, effectually +preventing his running away. Mules, horses, cows, and donkeys, are all +hitched to these farm carts, each pulling by means of loose ropes anchored +to the axle. To make these beasts pull simultaneously is a task to which +no Occidental would ever aspire, nor would he succeed if he did aspire. +General Wolseley mentions in his volume describing the campaign in 1860, +when the army marched on Peking, that at Ho Hsi Wu all the Chinese carters +deserted, and the British troops were totally unable to do anything +whatever with the teams.</p> + +<p>Under these conditions of travel, a Chinese ferry is one of the most +characteristic specimens of the national genius with which we are +acquainted. Ferries are numerous, and so are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> carts to be ferried. The +interesting thing is to watch the process, and it is a spectacle full of +delightful surprises.</p> + +<p>At a low stage of water the ferry-boat is at the base of a sloping bank, +down which in a diagonal line runs the track, never wide enough for two +carts to pass each other. To get one of these large carts down this steep +and shelving incline requires considerable engineering skill, and here +accidents are not infrequent. When the edge of the ferry is reached the +whole team must be unhitched, and each animal got on the boat as best may +be. Some animals make no trouble and will give a mighty bound, landing +somewhere or everywhere to the imminent peril of any passengers that may +be already on board. None of the animals have any confidence in the +narrow, crooked, and irregular gang planks which alone are to be found. +The more crooked these planks the better, for a reason which the traveller +is not long in discovering. The object is by no means to get the cart and +animals on with the minimum of trouble, but with the maximum of +difficulty, for this is the way by which hordes of impecunious rascals get +such an exiguous living as they have. When an animal absolutely refuses to +budge—an occurrence at almost every crossing—its head is bandaged with +somebody’s girdle, and then it is led around and around for a long time so +as to induce it to forget all about the ferryboat. At last it is led to +the edge and urged to jump, which it will by no means do. Then they twist +its tail—unless it happens to be a mule—put a stick behind it as a lever +and get six men at each end of the stick, while six more tug at a series +of ropes attached to the horns. After a struggle lasting in many cases +half an hour, often after prolonged and cruel beatings, the poor beasts +are all on board, where the more active of them employ their time in +prancing about among and over the human passengers, to their evident +danger.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the animals become excited and break away, plunging over the +edge of the ferry, which has no guards of any kind, and in such cases it +is not uncommon for them to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> floated away, or even lost. The writer +is cognizant of a case in which the driver was himself pulled into a swift +and swollen stream while struggling to restrain his mules, and was +drowned, a circumstance which probably caused his “fare”—a scholar on his +way to or from a summer examination—endless delay, as he would be +detained at the district yamên for a witness.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 373px;"><img src="images/fp040top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Waiting for the Boat.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp040bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Crossing the Ferry.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>But while we have been busy with the animals, we have neglected the cart, +which must be dragged upon the ferryboat by the strength of a small army +of men. There may be only one man or a man and a boy on a ferry, but to +pull a loaded cart over the rugged edges of the planks, up the steep +incline, requires perhaps ten or fifteen men. This is accomplished by the +process so familiar at Chinese funerals, the wild yelling of large bands +of men as they are directed by the leader.</p> + +<p>Every individual who so much as lays a hand upon the cart must be paid, +and the only limit is the number who can cluster around it. As in all +other Chinese affairs there is no regular tariff of charges, but the rule +is that adopted by some Occidental railway managers to “put on all the +traffic will bear.” Suppose for example that the passenger cart only pays +a hundred cash for its transport across the stream; this sum must be +divided into three parts, of which the ferry gets but one and the bands of +volunteer pullers and pushers on the two banks the other two-thirds. In +this way it often happens that all that one of these loafing labourers has +to show for his spasmodic toil may be four cash, or in extreme cases only +two, or even one.</p> + +<p>On the farther bank the scene just described is reversed, but occupies a +much shorter time, as almost any animal is glad enough to escape from a +ferry. The exit of the carts and animals is impeded by the struggles of +those who want to get a passage the other way, and who cannot be content +to wait till the boat is unloaded. There is never any superintendent of +the boat, any more than of anything else in China, and all is left to +chance or fate. That people are not killed in the tumultuous crossings is +a constant wonder.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>It is not unnatural for the Occidental whose head is always full of ideas +as to how things <i>ought</i> to be done in the East, to devise a plan by which +all this wild welter should be reduced to order. He would, to begin with, +have a fixed tariff, and he would have a wide and gently sloping path to +the water’s edge. He would have a broad and smooth gang-plank, over which +both animals and carts could pass with no delay and no inconvenience. He +would have a separate place for human passengers and for beasts, and in +general shorten the time, diminish the discomforts and occidentalize the +whole proceedings.</p> + +<p>Now stop for a moment and reflect <i>how</i> any one of these several “reforms” +is to be made a fact accomplished. The gently sloping banks will wash away +with the first rise of the river; who is to repair them? Not the boatman, +for “it is not the business of the corn-cutter to pull off the stockings +of his customers.” If the ferry is an “official” one, that only means that +the local magistrate has a “squeeze” on the receipts, not that there are +any corresponding obligations toward facilitating travel. Who is to +provide those wide gang-planks over which the passage is to be so easy? +Not the boatman. Not the passenger, whose only wish is to get safely over +for that single time. Not the swarm of loafers whose interest it is not to +have any gang-planks at all, or as nearly as possible none.</p> + +<p>And even if the roads were made, and the gang-planks all provided by some +benevolent despot, it would not be a week before the planks would be +missing, and all things going on as they have been since the foundation of +the Chinese world. The appointment of inspectors, police, etc., etc., +would do no manner of good, unless it should be to their interest to +further the reform, which would obviously never be the case.</p> + +<p>Imagine an Anglo-Indian official, whose knowledge of Oriental races and +traits is profound, in charge of the ferries for a single stretch, say of +the Grand Canal. What would he do?—what could he do, even if backed up by +a force theoretically irresistible? Nothing whatever to any lasting or +good purpose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> until the need of some alteration in their system, or rather +lack of system, forces itself upon the Chinese mind. How long in the +ordinary process of human evolution it would take to bring this about, it +is easy to conjecture. Think for an instant of the objections which would +be made on every hand to the innovations. Who are these fellows? What are +their motives? No Chinese can for a moment comprehend such a conception as +is embodied in the phrase <i>Pro bono publico</i>. He never heard of such a +thing, and what is more he never wants to hear of it.</p> + +<p>We have wasted an undue amount of time in crossing a Chinese river, for it +is a typical instance of flagrant abuses which the Chinese themselves do +not mind, which would drive Occidentals to the verge of insanity—if not +over the brink—and which it seems easy, but is really impossible to +remedy. <i>Mutatis mutandis</i>, these things are a parable of the empire. The +reform must come. It must be done from within. But the impulse can come +only from without.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE WELLS</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">On</span> the Great Plain of North China the wells are generally shallow, ranging +from ten to thirty feet in depth; one of fifty feet would be unusual, +though they are occasionally much deeper. The well is a very important +feature of the outfit of a Chinese village, though never the scene of +ablutions as in India. To save the labour of carrying water, all the +animals are led to the well to drink, and the resultant mud makes the +neighbourhood, especially in winter, very disagreeable. Rarely have they a +cover of any sort, and the opening being level with the surface of the +ground, it would seem inevitable that animals, children and blind persons, +should be constantly falling in,—as indeed, occasionally, but seldom +happens. Even the smallest bairns learn to have a wholesome fear of the +opening, and ages of use have accustomed all Chinese to view such dangers +with calm philosophy.</p> + +<p>The business of sinking wells is an art by itself, and in regions where +they are commonly used for irrigation, the villagers acquire a great +reputation for expertness in the process. A village which desires a new +well sends an invitation to the experts, and a party of men, numbering +perhaps fifteen or twenty, responds. Though the work is fatiguing, +difficult, and often dangerous, no money payment is generally offered or +desired, but only a feast to all the workers, of the best food to be had. +If the well is to be anything more than a water-pit, it is dug as deep as +can be done without danger of caving in, and then the brick lining is let +down from above. The basis of this is a strong board frame of the exact +size of the opening, and wide enough to place the walling upon. A section +of the wall is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> built upon this base, and the whole is firmly bound to the +baseboard within and without by ropes or reed withes. The lining then +resembles a barrel without the heads, and when completed is so strong +that, though it be subjected to considerable and unequal strains, it will +neither give nor fall apart.</p> + +<p>Several feet of the lining are lowered into the cavity, and as the digging +proceeds the lining sinks, and the upper wall is built upon it. If it is +desired to strike a permanent spring, this is accomplished by means of a +large bamboo tube to which an iron-pointed head is fixed. The tube is +driven down as far as it will go, the earth and sand being removed from +within, and when a good supply of water is reached the opening is bricked +up as usual. Such wells are comparatively rare, and proportionately +valuable.</p> + +<p>Wherever the soil and water are favourable for market-gardens, the +country-side abounds in irrigation wells, often only six feet in width, +and provided with a double windlass or sweep. One may meet the gardeners +carrying home the ropes, buckets, and the windlass itself, none of which +can safely be left out over night. Village wells are often sunk on ground +which is conjointly owned by several families. Like everything else +Oriental, they furnish frequent occasions now, as in patriarchal times, +for bitter feuds. Whenever one is especially unpopular in his village, the +first threat is to cut off his water supply, though this is not often +done.</p> + +<p>In some districts quicksands prevent the sinking of any permanent wells. +The villagers are obliged to be up all night in order to take their turn +at the scanty water supply, and fights are not infrequent. In a dry year +the suffering is serious. For evils of this sort tube-wells would seem to +provide a remedy, but thus far there has been great difficulty in getting +down to such a depth as to strike good water. The nature of the trouble +was aptly described by a coolie employed by a foreigner on a work of this +kind, who was asked why the pipe was not driven deeper. He replied that it +was, but “the deeper they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> went the more there wasn’t any water” It would +appear that in the direction of a good water supply, Western knowledge +might be applied for the benefit of great numbers of Chinese and on a +large scale, or if not on a large scale, then on a small one.</p> + +<p>As an illustration of the process by which this may be done, an experience +of many years ago in a Shan-tung village is worthy of mention. One of the +missionaries had the happiness of welcoming a second son to his household, +an event which seemed to the Chinese of such happy omen that they were +moved to unite in subscribing a fixed sum from each family in the village, +to purchase a silver neck ornament for the infant. As the suggestion was +not absolutely and peremptorily vetoed, the committee in charge went on +and ordered the silver chain and padlock, after which the delicate +question arose by what means this gift should be acknowledged. After +canvassing many plans, one was at length hit upon which appeared to +satisfy the requisite conditions, which were in brief that the thing +bestowed should be a distinct benefit to all the people, and one which +they could all appreciate. It was proposed to put a force-pump in a +village well not far from the mission premises, where much water was daily +drawn by a great many people with a great deal of labour. The force-pump +would make this toil mere child’s play. The plan was so plainly +fore-ordained to success, that one of the missionaries—although not +having the felicity of two sons—was moved to promise also a stone +watering trough, which in Chinese phrase, would be a “Joy to Ten Thousand +Generations.” The village committee listened gravely to these proposals +without manifesting that exhilaration which the obviously successful +nature of the innovation seemed to warrant, but promised to consider and +report later. When the next meeting of this committee with the +missionaries took place, the former expressed a wish to ask a few +questions. They pointed out that there were four or five wells in the +village. “Was it the intention of the Western foreign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> ‘shepherds’ to put +a ‘water-sucker’ into <i>each</i> of these wells?” No, of course not; it was +meant for the one nearest the mission premises. To this it was replied +that the trinket for the shepherd’s child had been purchased by uniform +contributions from each family in the village. Some of these families +lived on the front street and some on the back one, some at the east end +and some at the west end. “Would it be consistent with the ideal +impartiality of Christianity to put a ‘water-sucker’ where it could only +benefit a part of those for whom it was designed?”</p> + +<p>After an impressive silence the committee remarked that there was a +further question which had occurred to them. This village, though better +off than most of those about, had some families which owned not a foot of +land. These landless persons had to pick up a living as they could. One +way was by carrying and selling water from house to house in buckets. +According to the account of the shepherds the new “water-sucker” would +render it so easy to get water that any one could do it, and the +occupation of drawers of water would be largely gone. It could not be the +intention of the benevolent shepherds to throw a class of workmen out of +work. What form of industry did the shepherds propose to furnish to the +landless class, to compensate them for the loss of their livelihood? At +this point the silence was even more impressive than before. After another +pause the village committee returned to their questions. They said that +Western inventions are very ingenious, but that Chinese villagers “attain +unto stupidity.” As long as the Western shepherds were at hand to explain +and to direct the use of the “water-suckers,” all would doubtless go well; +but they had noticed that Western inventions sometimes had a way of +becoming injured by the tooth of time, or by bad management. Suppose that +something of this sort took place with the “water-sucker,” and suppose +that no shepherd was at hand to repair or replace it, what should then be +done after the villagers had come to depend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> upon it? This recalled the +fact that a force-pump had been tried several years before in Peking, in +the deep wells of that city, but the fine sand clogged the valves, and it +had to be pulled up again! In view of these various considerations, is it +surprising that the somewhat discouraged shepherds gave up the plan of +interfering with Oriental industries, or that the obligation to the +village was finally acknowledged by the payment of a sum of money which +they used ostensibly for the repair of the rampart around the village, but +which really went nobody knows where or to whom?</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> +<h3>THE VILLAGE SHOP</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> Chinese have always divided themselves into the four classes of +scholars, farmers, workmen, and merchants. Considering their singular +penchant for trade, it is a surprise to find them putting traders at the +foot of the list.</p> + +<p>If any one has an idea that the life of a Chinese dealer is an easy one, +he has a very inaccurate idea indeed, and the smallest investigation of +any specific case will be sufficient to disabuse him of it. Indeed there +are not many people in China whose life is an easy one, certainly not the +officials and the rich, who are at once the most envied and the most +misunderstood persons in the empire.</p> + +<p>In Shan-tung, every village of any size has its little “tsa-huo-p‘u,” or +shop of miscellaneous goods. It is not at all like a huckster’s shop at +home, for the goods kept are not intended to be disposed of at once. Many +of them may remain in stock for many years, but they will probably all be +worked off at last. Occidentals often suppose that the Chinese live on +“curry and rice.” Very few people in Shan-tung ever tasted rice in their +lives, but there is generally a small quantity kept at the “tsa-huo-p‘u” +in case there should be a call for use at feasts, or for the sick. There +is a good supply of red paper used for cards of invitation, and white +paper for funeral announcements, the need for which must be met promptly, +without waiting for a trip to a distant market-town. Besides this there is +a large stock of fire-crackers which are wanted whenever there is a +feast-day, a wedding or a funeral, and also paper money and other +materials for the idolatrous ceremonies which these <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>occasions involve. +There are many other kinds of wares, for there is almost nothing for which +a demand may not be made; but the greatest profit is derived from the +articles last named.</p> + +<p>Let not the reader, inexpert in Chinese affairs, suppose that the keeper +of the “tsa-huo-p‘u” sits all day in a chair awaiting customers, or spends +the intervals between their infrequent arrivals in playing Chinese fox and +geese or chess. He does nothing of the kind. If his shop is a very small +one it is not tended at all, but simply open when occasion serves. If it +is a larger affair, it requires the time of more than one person, not to +tend it but to carry on the rural trade. For the larger part of the +business of the “tsa-huo-p‘u” is not at home, but at five-day markets all +about. The proprietors of some shops take their wares to a fair every day +in the month, on the first and sixth to one place, on the second and +seventh to another, on the third and eighth to another, and on the fifth +and tenth to still another, by which time the circle is completed.</p> + +<p>Going to one of these markets is no holiday work. It is necessary to rise +either at daylight or before, select the goods to be taken, pack them +carefully, make an accurate list of them, and then wheel the barrow to the +fair, sometimes over very bad roads in very bad weather. Arrived at the +market-town there are no stalls or booths for the dealers to occupy, but +each plants himself in a spot for which he has to pay a small ground-rent +to the owner, who is always on hand to collect this rent. All day long the +barrow must be tended assiduously, bickering with all sorts and conditions +of men and women, and when the people have begun to scatter, the articles +must be packed up again, and the barrow wheeled home.</p> + +<p>Then comes the wearisome taking account of stock, in regard to which the +proprietor is exceedingly particular. In China nobody trusts anybody else, +for the excellent reason that he is aware that in similar circumstances it +might not be safe to trust himself. Hence the owner of the little shop, or +some one who represents him, looks carefully over the goods brought +home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> and compares them with the invoice made out in the morning. This +is a check upon the temptation to sell some things without giving an +account of them. The sales which have been made during the day are for +small sums only, and as all the cash has to be counted and strung on hemp +cords so as to make the full string of 1,000 cash (or 500 in some parts of +the country), this counting and stringing of the money takes a great deal +of time, and is very tiresome work when done by the quantity—though this +remark is applicable to most Chinese occupations viewed from an Occidental +point of view.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 367px;"><img src="images/fp051top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">STRINGS OF CHINESE CASH.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp051bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">PREPARING THE STRINGS.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The employee of the “tsa-huo-p‘u” gets his meals when he can, which is +after he has finished everything which his employer wants him to do. It is +necessary for him to be a rare hand if he is to be so useful that he will +not be sent away if business is slack when the year closes, or if the +proprietor gets better service from some one else. The supply of labour of +every description, is so excessive, that it is very hard to get a place, +and harder still to keep it.</p> + +<p>A country villager with whom the writer is well acquainted had too little +land to support his family, so he accepted the offer of a neighbour to +help him with the business which he had lately undertaken. This consisted +of sending four wheel-barrows daily to different villages to sell meat at +the markets. The men who did this had to rise long before daylight in +order to get the meat ready, that is to cut it from the bones, which are +disposed of at a separate rate. The weight of meat on each barrow had to +be entered and also the weight of the bones. On the return of the barrows +at night it was necessary to weigh what was left from the sales and +compare it with the returns of cash. This must be gone through with for +each barrow. The assistant to the meat-dealer had to keep in all <i>fourteen +different account books</i>. “But,” we said to him, “after the barrows are +gone, and before they come back, there must be a little interval of +comparative peace in which you can do what you like?” “Alas, no,” was the +reply, “it takes all of that time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> to balance up the fourteen entries of +the day before;” and judging from what one knows of Chinese bookkeeping +the time allowed would not be at all too much. Entries in Chinese +account-books are not set down in columns, so as to be conveniently added, +but strung along a page like stockings on a clothes-line. Each entry must +be treated by itself on the <i>suan-pan</i> or reckoning-board, and there is no +check against errors. Our informant was so tired of his contract that he +seized the occasion of a funeral in a family with which he was connected, +and which he was in theory bound to attend, to break away and make a brief +call on the foreign friend who had generally been able to sympathize with +certain of his previous woes.</p> + +<p>A year later the writer met him again, ascertained that he had abandoned +the intricate bookkeeping which selling meat appeared to involve, for +another kind of account-keeping in a well-to-do family, where there is a +good deal of land and much resulting activity. He was asked if he had any +time to read his book—of which he seemed to be fond—and he replied with +a decisive negative. Not if he got up early? No, indeed, he had to begin +work the minute he was dressed. Not if he went to bed a little later? +Certainly not; he had to go to bed late as it was—no time then. But he +might at least snatch a little leisure while he was eating. “Far from it,” +was the response, “the woman who is at the head of affairs takes that +opportunity to consult about the work.”</p> + +<p>In the case of firms having any considerable business, after the day’s +work is all over, the clerks are liable to be required to spend the +evening in untying all the numerous strings of cash that have come in, +with a view to the discovery of any rare coins that might be sold at a +special price. All is fish that comes to a Chinese net, and sooner or +later there is very little that does not find its way there to the profit +of its owner. If the time should ever come, as come it may, when the +far-distant West comes into close and practical competition with the +patient Chinese for the right to exist, one or the other will be +behind-hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> in the race and it is safe to venture the prediction that it +will <i>not</i> be the Chinese!</p> + +<p>The village shop keeps different kinds of weighing poles for buying and +for selling, works off all its uncurrent cash and bad bills on any one +upon whom it can impose, and generally drives a hard bargain with those +who deal with it, who retaliate in kind as opportunity offers. But as +elsewhere in this mixed world, much depends upon the individuality of its +head manager.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> +<h3>THE VILLAGE THEATRE</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">That</span> the Chinese are extravagantly fond of theatrical representations, is +well known to all who live in China. The Chinese trace the origin of the +stage to the times of the Emperor Ming Huang, of the T‘ang Dynasty (died +762) who, under an alias, is supposed to be worshipped as the god of +play-actors. It is a popular saying that if the players neglect to do +homage to this patron, they will altogether fail in their representations, +whatever these may be.</p> + +<p>With the history of the Chinese stage, we have in this connection no +concern. According to the Chinese themselves, it has degenerated from its +ancient function of a censor in morals, and has become merely a device for +the amusement of the people. It is a remarkable circumstance that while +the Chinese as a people are extravagantly fond of theatrical exhibitions +of all sorts, the profession of play-actor is one of the few which debars +from the privileges of the literary examinations. The reason for this +anomaly is said to be the degradation of the theatre by pandering to +vitiated or even licentious tastes. To what extent the plays ordinarily +acted are of this sort, it is impossible for a foreigner to decide. The +truth seems to be that the general (theoretical) contempt for the stage +and its actors in China, is a product of the moral teachings of +Confucianism, which uncompromisingly condemn the perversion of the right +uses of dramatic representation. But while this (theoretical) view is the +one which is constantly met, it is like many other Confucian doctrines, +chiefly remarkable for the unanimity with which it is disregarded in +practice.</p> + +<p>In what we have to say of Chinese theatres, we must <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>disclaim any +knowledge of them at first hand, that is to say, by listening to acted +plays. There are several obstacles to the acquisition of such knowledge by +this method, even were other difficulties lacking. Most Chinese plays are +laid out upon so extravagant a scale, as regards time, that they may be +spread over many hours, or possibly several days. The most indefatigable +European could not listen to the entire performance of any one of them, +without becoming utterly exhausted. The dialect in which the actors speak +is so different from the spoken language, that it is hard to form an idea +of what they are saying. The tone adopted is that shrill falsetto, which +is not only fatiguing to an Occidental hearer, but almost of necessity +unintelligible.</p> + +<p>When to these embarrassments are added the excruciating music, the +discomfort attending the dense crowds, and the universal confusion which +is an invariable concomitant of a Chinese theatre, it is not strange that +these representations have for Westerners very few attractions, after the +first glance has satisfied curiosity. This indifference on our part is +almost unintelligible to the Chinese. That a foreign traveller, who is +told of a theatre in full blast at the town at which he expects to spend +the night, should feel no joy, but should deliberately push on so as to +avoid spending the night at that place—this is to the Chinese profoundly +incomprehensible.</p> + +<p>Except in a few large cities, the Chinese have no theatres in our sense of +the term, provided with seats and enclosed by walls and roof. The stage is +a very simple affair, and is entirely open to inspection. Sometimes it is +built like a temple with an open front. But by far the larger part of the +rural representations of theatrical companies take place on a temporary +scaffolding which is put up for the purpose the night before the plays +begin, and is taken down the moment the last play closes. The players +resemble their ancient Grecian prototypes in that they are a migratory +band, going wherever they are able to find an engagement.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>The stage equipments, like the stage itself, are of the simplest order, +the spectator being required to supply by his imagination most of those +adjuncts in the way of scenery, which in our days, are carried to such +perfection in the theatres of the West. There is no division of a play +into separate acts or scenes, and what cannot be inferred from the dress, +or the pantomime of the actors, they must expressly tell to the audience, +as for example who they are, what they have been doing, and the like. The +orchestra is an indispensable accompaniment of a theatrical +representation, and not only bursts into every interval of the acting, but +also clangs with ferocity at such stirring scenes as a battle attack, or +to add energy to any ordinary event.</p> + +<p>Apropos of this resemblance between the Greek stage and the Chinese, which +must have struck many observers, Mr. H. E. Krehbiel (in an article +published in the <i>Century</i> for January, 1891) has declared that “the +Chinese drama is to-day in principle a lyric drama, as much so as the +Greek tragedy was. The moments of intense feeling are accentuated, not +merely by accompanying music, as in our melodrama, but by the actor +breaking out into song. The crudeness and impotency of the song in our +ears has nothing to do with the argument. It is a matter of heredity in +taste.”</p> + +<p>The village theatrical company owes its existence to some rich man, who +selects this as a form of investment. As all the available land in the +greater portion of China is wholly out of the market, it is not easy for +one who has more money than he can conveniently use to decide what to do +with it. If he should go into the theatrical business, it is not +necessarily with the expectation that the money will yield him a large +return, but in order to provide a popular amusement for a great number of +people, and at the same time receive a larger or smaller interest on the +amount invested.</p> + +<p>The person whose capital is used in the costumes, which are the main part +of the outfit of a Chinese theatre, is called the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> “Master of the chest.” +The whole outfit may be leased of him by an association of persons, who +pay a fixed sum for the use of the costumes, which must be kept in good +condition. In a first-class theatre, these costumes are very costly, and +include what are called “dragon robes,” and “python robes,” each with +double sets of inner garments, of fine quality, and handsomely +embroidered. Of these there are at least two suits, five suits of armour, +and numberless other articles of clothing, such as trousers, skirts, +boots, buskins, etc. Another “chest” contains the accoutrements of the +players, as swords, spears, and the like, made of gilded wood.</p> + +<p>The value of all these various equipments, in a well-furnished theatre, is +said to be fully $5,000, and in those of the cheaper sorts, two-thirds or +half as much. Each of the three “chests” in which the stage accoutrements +are stored, is in charge of three men, who are responsible for the +security and the care of the contents of the cases.</p> + +<p>The players are divided into classes which are called by different names, +the members of each class receiving pay according to the dignity of their +position. There are, for example, two individuals, one civil and one +military, who represent high-class historical characters, like Chiang +T‘ai-kung, etc. These actors are called <i>lao-shêng</i>. Another class styled +<i>hu-shêng</i>, represent personages like Wên Wang, or Chao K‘uang-yin. A +third class are assigned to characters like Lü Pu, etc., and these players +are called <i>hsiao-shêng</i>. In addition to these are persons of less +importance, who represent ladies, officials’ wives, young girls, or +others. After these come what may be called clowns, who are termed +“flowery-faced,” (<i>hua-lien</i>) subdivided into first, second and third. +These represent the bad characters, such as Chou Wang, Ts‘ao Ts‘ao, and +the like, down to the lowest class who take the most despised and hateful +parts of all. In addition to these main characters, there is a +considerable force detailed as soldiers, servants, messengers, or to +personify boatmen, innkeepers, and the like. The rear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> is brought up with +a large staff of cooks, water-carriers, etc., whose duty it is to provide +for the material comfort of the players in their vagrant life.</p> + +<p>Aside from the regular theatrical companies one frequently meets with +companies of amateurs who have inherited the art of giving performances on +a small scale called “a little theatre.” They are young farmers who +delight in the change and excitement of stage life, and who after the +crops are harvested are open to engagements until the spring work begins. +There may be only fifteen or twenty in the band, but the terms are low, +and the food furnished them much better than they would have had at home, +and when the season is over they may be able to divide a snug little sum +to each performer.</p> + +<p>The manager, or lessee of the theatrical equipment, is called a +<i>chang-pan</i>, and engages the players for a term of about ten months, +beginning early in the spring, and ending before the close of the year. +The whole company may number between fifty and a hundred men, and the best +actors may be engaged for sums ranging from the equivalent of a hundred +dollars for the most skilled, down to a few tens of dollars for the +inferior actors, their food in each case being furnished. It is thus easy +to see that the expense of maintaining a theatre is a vast drain upon the +resources of the lessee, and presupposes a constant succession of +profitable engagements, which is a presupposition not infrequently at a +great remove from the facts of experience.</p> + +<p>The lessee of the theatre supplies himself with the material for the +development of actors, by taking children on contract, or apprenticeship, +for a fixed period (often three years) according to a written agreement. +At the end of their apprenticeship, these pupils are at liberty to engage +in any company which they may elect, for whatever they can get, but during +their term of indenture, their time belongs to the man who has leased them +of their parents. The motive for such a contract on the part of the +parents, is to secure a support for the children. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>Sometimes children run +away from home and make engagements on their own account, attracted by the +supposed freedom of the player’s life.</p> + +<p>The amount which each child receives during the time of his +apprenticeship, is the merest pittance, and it is said that in three +months at most he can learn all that it is necessary for him to know. A +large part of his duties will be to strut about on the stage, and mouth +more or less unintelligible sentences in a grandiloquent tone. If the +number of plays in which he appears is large, the tax upon the memory may +be considerable, but Chinese children can learn by rote with amazing +facility, and constant practice must in a short time fix in his memory +everything which the young actor requires to remember.</p> + +<p>From an Occidental point of view, it would be hard to imagine anything +more remote from a life of pleasure, than the constant locomotion, routine +drudgery, uncertain and inadequate remuneration of the average Chinese +actor. We have never met one who did not admit that it was a bad life. A +leading Japanese actor is quoted as saying that the popular notions in +regard to the theatre of that country—which is probably in many respects +analogous to that of China—are as different from the reality, as clouds +from mud. “The hardships endured are as the suffering of Hades, and the +world is not benefited a fraction by the actors’ exertion, so they are not +useful to society. It is a life to fear and to dread.” There are probably +very few Chinese actors who have progressed so far as to entertain, even +for a moment, the thought whether their work is a good or an evil to +“society.”</p> + +<p>It is not uncommon to hear of an exceptionally intelligent District +Magistrate who issues proclamations strictly forbidding theatrical +performances within his jurisdiction, exhorting the people to save their +funds to buy grain and relieve the poor, or to set up public schools. But +the only way to enforce these sensible orders of an unusually paternal +official, is for him to make constant personal inspection, and see that +his commands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> are heeded. Otherwise, a sum of money judiciously spent at +the <i>yamên</i>, will buy complete immunity from punishment. Free schools and +charity are too tame for the taste of the people, who demand something +“hot-and-bustling,” which a theatrical performance most decidedly is.</p> + +<p>It is one of the contradictions which abound in the Chinese social life, +that while play-actors are theoretically held in very light esteem, the +representation of a play is considered as a great honour to the person on +whose behalf it is furnished. Instances have occurred in China, in which +such a representation has been offered by the Chinese to foreigners, as an +expression of gratitude for help received in time of famine. The motives +in such cases, however were probably very mixed, being composed largely of +a desire on the part of the proposers to gratify their own tastes, while +at the same time paying off in a public manner a technical debt of +gratitude.</p> + +<p>To suggest under such circumstances that the money which would have been +absorbed in the expenses of the theatre, should rather be appropriated to +the purposes of some public benefit, such as a free-school, would not +commend itself to one Chinese in a thousand. Only a limited number of +scholars could receive the benefit of a free-school, whereas a theatre is +emphatically for everybody. Moreover, a theatre is demonstrative and +obtrusively thrusts itself upon the attention of the general public in a +manner which to the Oriental is exceedingly precious, while to set up a +free-school would be “to wear a fine garment in the dark,” when no one +would know the difference.</p> + +<p>The occasion for the performance of a play is sometimes a vow, which may +have been made by an individual in time of sickness, the theatricals to be +the expression of gratitude for recovery. In the case of an entire +village, it is often the returning of thanks to some divinity for a good +harvest, or for a timely rain. A quarrel between individuals is frequently +composed by the adjudication of “peace-talkers” that one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> parties +shall give a theatrical exhibition by way of a fine, in the benefits of +which the whole community may thus partake. In view of the well-known +propensities of the Chinese, it is not strange that this method of +adjusting disputes is very popular. We have known it to be adopted by a +District Magistrate in settling a lawsuit between two villages, and such +cases are probably not uncommon.</p> + +<p>Sometimes there is no better reason for holding a theatre than that a sum +of public money has accumulated, which there is no other way to spend. A +foreigner could easily propose fifty purposes to which the funds could be +appropriated to much better advantage, but to the Chinese these +suggestions always appear untimely, not to say preposterous.</p> + +<p>When it has been determined to engage a theatre, the first step is to draw +up a written agreement with the manager, specifying the price. This will +vary from a sum equivalent to twenty-five dollars, up to several hundred +dollars. The former amount is, indeed, a bottom price, and would be +offered only to a very inferior company, which might be forced to accept +it, or even a less sum, as better in a slack season than no engagement at +all. During the time of the year, on the contrary, in which the demand for +theatricals is at the maximum, a company may have offers from several +villages at once. Rather than lose the double profit to be made, the +troupe is often divided, and a number of amateurs engaged to take the +vacant places, thus enabling the company to be in two places at the same +date.</p> + +<p>It is a common proverb that the country villager who witnesses a theatre, +sees only a great hubbub, a generalisation strictly within the truth. It +is upon this ignorance of the villager that the theatrical manager +presumes when he furnishes an inferior representation, instead of the one +for which his contract calls. But if the villager ascertains the fraud, +consisting either in deficiency of players or inferior acting, he rises in +democratic majesty, and “fines” the company an extra day or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> two, or even +three days, of playing as a penalty, and from this decision it would be +vain to appeal.</p> + +<p>The individual who communicates with the village which hires the +theatrical company, and who receives the money, is called the program +bearer (“<i>pao-tan ti</i>”). The scorn in which theatrical folk are supposed +to be held, appears to be reserved for this one individual alone. He makes +arrangements for the conveyance of all the trunks containing the equipment +from the previous place of playing, to the next one, and especially for +the transportation of the staging.</p> + +<p>In inland regions, where it is necessary to use animals, it requires a +great many carts to move about so much lumber, which must be done with +great expedition in order not to waste a day, at a time when engagements +are numerous; and, even to a Chinese, time is precious, because the food +and pay of so many persons have to be taken into the account. The carts +for this hauling are provided by the village which is to enjoy the +exhibition, being often selected by lot. Sometimes, however, a small tax +is levied on all the land in the village, and the carts are hired.</p> + +<p>The day previous to a theatre in any village is a busy one. Great +quantities of mats are provided, and in a short time some barren spot on +the outskirts of the hamlet begins to assume the appearance of an +impromptu settlement; for aside from the theatre itself, great numbers of +small mat-sheds are put up to be used for cook-shops, tea-shops, +gambling-booths, and the like. During the day, even if the village is but +a small one, the appearance is that of the scene of a very large fair.</p> + +<p>In the larger towns, where fairs are held at more or less regular +intervals, it is usual, as already mentioned, to begin them with a +theatrical exhibition, on the first day of which hardly any business will +be done, the attendants being mainly occupied in gazing at or listening to +the play. In such cases the attendants can frequently be safely estimated +at more than 10,000 persons. In large fairs there is generally a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>performance every day as long as the fair holds, an arrangement which is +found to be very remunerative from a financial point of view in attracting +attendance, and therefore customers.</p> + +<p>From a social point of view, the most interesting aspect of Chinese +village theatricals is the impression which is produced upon the people as +a whole. This impression may be feebly likened to that which is made upon +children in Western lands, by the immediate imminence of Christmas, or in +the United States by the advent of a Fourth of July. To theatrical +holidays in China every other mundane interest must give way.</p> + +<p>As soon as it is certain that a particular village is to have a theatre, +the whole surrounding country is thrown into a quiver of excitement. +Visits by young married women to their mothers’ homes, always occasions to +both mothers and daughters of special importance, are for a long time +beforehand arranged with sole reference to the coming great event. All the +schools in all the neighbouring villages expect at such times a holiday +during the whole continuance of the theatricals. Should the teacher be so +obstinate as to refuse it (which would never be the case, as he himself +wishes to see the play) that circumstance would make no difference, for he +would find himself wholly deserted by all his pupils.</p> + +<p>It is not only brides who take advantage of this occasion to visit their +relatives, but in general it may be said that when a village gives a +theatrical representation, it must count upon being visited, during the +continuance of the same, by every man, woman and child, who is related to +any inhabitant of the village and who can possibly be present. Every +Chinese family has a perfect swarm of relatives of all degrees, and the +time of a theatrical performance is an excellent opportunity to look in +upon one’s friends. Whether these friends and relatives have been invited +or not, will make no difference. In the case of ordinary villagers, the +visitors would come even if they knew for certain that they were not +wanted.</p> + +<p>It has frequently been remarked that hospitality as such <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>cannot be said +to be a characteristic Chinese virtue, although there is at all times such +a parade of it. But whatever one’s feelings may be, it is necessary to +keep up the pretence of overflowing hospitality, so that whoever comes to +the yard must be pressed to stay to a meal and to spend the night, however +anxious the host may be to get rid of him. On ordinary occasions, guests +will not stay without such an amount of urging as may suffice to show that +the invitation is <i>bonâ fide</i>, but during the continuance of a theatre it +often makes very little difference how lacking the host may be in +cordiality, the guests will probably decide to stay, as the play <i>must be +seen</i>.</p> + +<p>It is by no means an uncommon thing to find that in a village which has +engaged a theatrical troupe, every family is overrun with such visitors, +to such a degree that there is not space enough for them to lie down at +night, so that they are forced to spend it in sitting up and talking, +which may be easily conceived to be an excellent preparation for the +fatiguing duties of the morrow. As a theatre seldom lasts less than three +days, and sometimes more than four, it can be imagined what a tax is laid +upon the village which is overrun. When it is considered that every +married woman who returns to her home, as well as every woman who visits +any relative, always brings all of her young children, and that the latter +consider it their privilege to scramble for all that they can get of +whatever is to be had in the way of food, it is obvious that the poor +housekeeper is subjected to a tremendous strain, to which the severest +exigencies of Western life afford very few analogies.</p> + +<p>The cost of feeding such an army of visitors is a very serious one, and to +the thrifty Chinese it seems hard that fuel which would ordinarily last +his family for six months, must be burnt up in a week, to “roast” water, +and cook food for people whom he never invited, and most of whom he never +wished to see. It is a moderate estimate that the expense of entertainment +is ten times the cost of the theatre itself, realizing the familiar saying +that it is not the horse which costs but the saddle.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>The vast horde of persons who are attracted to the village which has a +theatre, has among its numbers many disreputable characters, against whom +it is necessary for the villagers to be constantly upon their guard. For +this reason, as well as on account of the necessity for being on hand to +look after the swarms of guests, the people of the village have little or +no opportunity to see the play themselves. Guests and thieves occupy all +their time! Eternal vigilance is the price at which one’s property is to +be protected, and the more one has to lose, the less he will be able to +enjoy himself, until the danger is over. It is a common observation that, +after a theatrical performance, there is not likely to be a single chicken +left in a village. To prevent them from being stolen by the expert +chicken-thieves, the villagers must dispose of their fowls in advance.</p> + +<p>Such being the conditions under which the Chinese village theatre is held, +it is surprising that so great a number of theatrical troupes contrive to +make a living—such as it is—out of so precarious an occupation, which is +likely to fail altogether during years of famine or flood (never few in +number), and also during the whole of each period of imperial mourning, +when actors are often reduced to extreme misery. One reason for their +passionate attachment to the theatre, must be found in the fact that for +the Chinese people there are very few available amusements, and for the +mass of the country people there is literally nothing to which they can +look forward as a public recreation, except a few feast days (often only +two or three in the year), the large fairs with accompanying theatricals, +or theatricals without fairs.</p> + +<p>It is evident that a form of exhibition which is so much valued by the +Chinese, may become an important agency in inflaming the minds of the +people. This is at times undoubtedly the case. Many instances have come to +the knowledge of foreigners, in which theatricals representing the +Tientsin massacre or some similar event, have been acted in the interior +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> China. In some cases this is doubtless done with the connivance of the +magistrates, and it is easy to see that the effect upon the minds of the +people must be very unfavourable, if it is held to be desirable to +maintain among the Chinese respect for foreigners.</p> + +<p>In China, as in other lands, it is easy for theatrical representations to +deal with current events which have a general interest. In a certain case +of warfare involving two different Counties, as to the right to make a +bank to prevent inundation, several lives were lost and a formidable +lawsuit resulted. The occurrences were of such a dramatic character that +they were woven into a play, which was very popular at a little distance +from the scene of the original occurrence.</p> + +<p>The representation of historical events, by Chinese theatres, may be said +to be one of the greatest obstacles to the acquisition of historical +knowledge by the people. Few persons read histories, while every one hears +plays, and while the history is forgotten because it is dull, the play is +remembered because it is amusing. Theatricals, it is scarcely necessary to +remark, do not deal with historical events from the standpoint of +accuracy, but from that of adaptation to dramatic effect. The result is +the greatest confusion in the minds of the common people, both as to what +has really happened in the past, and as to when it took place, and for all +practical purposes, fact and fiction are indistinguishable.</p> + +<p>Among the most popular Chinese plays, are those which deal with everyday +life, in its practical forms. Cheap and badly printed books, in the forms +of tracts, containing the substance of these plays, are everywhere sold in +great numbers, and aid in familiarizing the people with the plots.</p> + +<p>Our notice of the Chinese drama may fitly conclude with a synopsis of one +of these librettos, which contains a play of general celebrity, to which +references are constantly made in popular speech. It is said to have been +composed by a native of Shan-hsi, and is designed as a satire upon the +condition of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> society in which, as so often in China at the present day, +it is almost impossible for a teacher, theoretically the most honoured of +beings, to keep himself from starvation.</p> + +<p>It is a current proverb that in the province of Shan-tung, the number of +those who wish to teach school is in excess of those who can read! The +scene of this play is therefore appropriately laid in the land of the +sages Confucius and Mencius, and in a district within the jurisdiction of +the capital, Chi-nan Fu.</p> + +<p>The characters are only two in number, a teacher called Ho Hsien-shêng who +is out of employment, and reduced to extreme distress, and a patron named +Li, who wishes to engage a master for his boys, aged nine and eleven. The +teacher’s remarks are mixed with extensive quotations from the Classics, +as is the manner of Chinese schoolmasters, who wish to convey an +impression of their great learning. He affirms that his success in +instruction is such that he will guarantee that his pupils shall reach the +first degree of <i>hsiu-ts‘ai</i>, or Bachelor, in three years, the second of +<i>chü-jên</i>, or Master, in six, and attain to the eminence of <i>chin-shih</i>, or +Doctor, in twelve.</p> + +<p>The teacher begins by a poetical lament that he had lost his place as a +teacher, and that a scholar so situated is far worse off than a +handicraftsman, who, he says, has always enough to eat. After this, the +teacher comes on the stage, crying out like a peddler, “Teach School! +Teach School!” Upon this Li comes forward, suggests that a man who offers +to teach probably knows at least how to read, and explains that he feels +the need of some one in the family who can decipher the tax bills, etc., +but that he really cannot afford the expense of a teacher for his +children.</p> + +<p>He explains that his boys are dull, that the food of the teacher—the bill +of fare of which he details—will be poor and coarse. There will be only +two meals a day, to save expense, and at night there will be no fire. The +coverlet is a torn dogskin, no mat on the bed, only a little straw, and no +pillow. The salary is to be but 8,000 cash a year, but this is subject to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +a discount, 800 counting for 1000. The teacher is never to leave the +schoolyard while school is in session.</p> + +<p>The school will be held in a temple, hitherto occupied by nuns. These will +be removed to a side room, and the teacher will be required to strike the +bell, sweep out the building, and perform the other necessary services on +the first and fifteenth of each month, and these duties must be executed +with punctilious care. He is also cautioned not to allow his morals to be +contaminated by the nuns whose reputation is so proverbially bad. None of +his salary will be paid in advance, and a <i>pro rata</i> deduction will be +made for every day of absence. During the summer rains the teacher must +carry the children to school upon his back, that they may not spoil their +clothes and make their mother trouble. Whenever school has been dismissed, +the teacher is to carry water, work on the threshing floor, take care of +the children, grind in the mill, and do all and everything which may be +required of him. To all the foregoing conditions, the teacher cheerfully +assents, and declares himself ready to sign an agreement upon these terms +for the period of ten years!</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most instructive aspect of Chinese theatricals, is that which +takes account of them as <i>indices</i> to the theory of life which they best +express, a theory in which most Chinese are firm, albeit unconscious, +believers. It is a popular saying that “The whole world is only a +stageplay; why then should men take life as real?” It is in strict +accordance with this view, that the Chinese frequently appear as if +psychologically incapable of discriminating between practical realities +which are known to be such, and theoretical “realities” which, if matters +are pushed to extremities, are admitted to be fictitious.</p> + +<p>The spectacular theory of life is never for a moment lost sight of in +China, and it demands a tribute which is freely, unconsciously, +continually, and universally paid. It is upon this theory that a large +proportion of Chinese revelling is based, the real meaning being, “You +have wronged me, but I am not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> afraid of you, and I call upon all men to +witness that I defy you.” It is this theory upon which are grounded +nine-tenths of the acts which the Chinese describe as being done “to save +face,” that is, to put the actor right with the spectators, and to prove +to them that he is able to play his part and that he knows well what that +part is. Never, surely, was it more true of any land than of China, that</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 5em;">“All the world’s a stage,</span><br /> +And all the men and women merely players.”</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE SCHOOLS AND TRAVELLING SCHOLARS</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> prominent place given to education in China renders the Chinese +village school an object of more than common interest, for it is here that +by far the greater number of the educated men of the empire receive their +first intellectual training. While the schools of one district may be a +little better or worse than those of another, there is probably no country +in the world where there is so much uniformity in the standards of +instruction, and in all its details, as in China.</p> + +<p>There are in the Chinese Classics several passages which throw an +interesting light upon the views which have been handed down from +antiquity in regard to the education of children. One of these is found in +the writings of Mencius. Upon one occasion he was asked why the superior +man does not teach his own son. To this Mencius replied that the +circumstances of the case forbid it. The teacher should inculcate what is +correct. When he does so, and his lessons are not practiced, he follows it +up by being angry. Thus he is alienated from his son who complains to +himself that his father teaches one thing and practices another. As a +result the estrangement becomes mutual and deepens. Between father and +son, said Mencius, there should be no reproving admonitions to what is +good, because these lead to such alienations. The ancients, he declared, +exchanged sons, and one taught the son of another.</p> + +<p>Another significant passage is found in the Confucian Analects, and is as +follows, quoting, as before, Dr. Legge’s translation, “Ch‘ên K‘ang asked +Po Yü, the son of Confucius, saying, ‘Have you heard any lessons from your +father, different<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> from what we have all heard?’ Po Yü replied, ‘No; he +was once standing alone when I hurriedly passed below the hall, and he +said to me, “Have you learned the Odes?” on my replying, “not yet,” he +added, “If you do not learn the Odes, you will not be fit to converse +with.” I retired and studied the Odes. Another day he was in the same way +standing alone, when I hastily passed below the hall, and he said to me, +“Have you learned the Rules of Propriety?” on my replying, “not yet,” he +added, “If you do not learn the Rules of Propriety, your character cannot +be established.” I then retired and studied the Rules of Propriety. I have +heard only these two things from him.’ Ch‘ên K‘ang retired, delighted, +saying, ‘I asked about one thing, and I have got three things. I have +heard about the Odes, I have heard about the Rules of Propriety, and I +have heard that the superior man maintains a distant reserve toward his +son.’”</p> + +<p>Confucius was a master who felt himself to be in possession of great +truths of which his age was in deep need, and he offered his instructions +to rich and poor alike, upon the sole condition of receptivity. “I do not +open up the truth,” he said, “to one who is not eager to get knowledge, +nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have +presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn +the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.” For aught that appears, the +son of Confucius was wholly dependent for whatever he knew or received, +upon his father. According to Confucius, an acquaintance with the Odes, +and with the Rules of Propriety, form a very considerable part of the +equipment of a scholar. They embrace such subjects as could be +comprehended and assimilated, one would suppose, only by the assistance of +a competent teacher. That in the education of his own son, Confucius +should have contented himself with a casual question, and a single hint, +as to the pursuit of those branches which were in his eyes of preëminent +importance, is a circumstance so singular that if it were not handed down +upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> the same authority as the other facts in the life of the sage, we +might be disposed to doubt its credibility.</p> + +<p>The theory upon which the master acted is happily epitomized by Ch‘ên +K‘ang—“distant reserve.” Even to his own son the superior man is a higher +grade of being, whose slightest word contains fruitful seeds of +instruction. He expects his pupil to act upon a hint as if it were the +formal announcement of a law of nature. He is the sun around whom his +planets revolve, in orbits proportioned to the force of the central +attraction—an attraction which varies with the capacity to be attracted. +Yet in every case there is a point beyond which no pupil can go, he must +not come too near his sun.</p> + +<p>According to Occidental thought, the ideal of teaching is exemplified in +the methods of such educators as Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, whose stimulating +influence was felt over an entire generation. Upon the plan of Confucius +it is difficult to see, not how he could have won the love of his +pupils—which was probably remote from his thought and from theirs—but +how he could have permanently impressed himself upon any except the very +apt. Few are the pupils, we may be sure, who after a chance question and a +remark will retire and study unaided a branch of learning which, they are +told, will enable them to converse, or to “establish” their characters.</p> + +<p>Contrast with this method of Confucius that of James Mill, as detailed in +the autobiography of his son, John Stuart Mill. Here was a father, not a +professional philosopher, but a man of business, who amid the composition +of historical and other works, found time to superintend the education of +his son from the days of earliest infancy until mature manhood, not in the +ancient language only, but in history, philosophy, political economy, +composition, and even in elocution, and all with comprehensiveness of +plan, a labourious and unwearying persistence in teaching principles and +not rules, combined with scrupulous fidelity in minutest details. By this +patient assiduity and his father’s skillful direction, Mill was given a +start over his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> contemporaries, as he himself remarks, of at least a +quarter of a century, and became one of the most remarkably educated men +of whom we have any record. One could wish that to his “imaginary +conversations of literary men and statesmen,” Walter Savage Landor had +added a chapter giving a dialogue between Confucius and James Mill, “on +distant reserve as a factor in the education of sons.”</p> + +<p>It is far from being the fact that every Chinese village has its school, +but it is doubtless true that every village would like to have one, for +there is everywhere the most profound reverence for “instruction.” The +reasons given for the absence of a school are always that the village is +too poor, or too small, or both.</p> + +<p>In China every educated man is a potential schoolmaster, and most of those +who have the opportunity to do so take a school. It is one of the +allegorical sayings of the flowery land that “in the ink-slab fields there +are no bad crops,” which signifies that literature is a vocation standing +upon a firmer basis than any other. This is the theory. As a matter of +fact the Chinese teacher is often barely able to keep soul and body +together, and is frequently obliged to borrow garments in which to appear +before his patrons. His learning may have fitted him to teach a school, or +it may not. It has completely unfitted him to do anything else. It is +therefore a period of great anxiety to the would-be pedagogue when the +school cards are in preparation.</p> + +<p class="poem">“When the ground is clean, and the threshing-floor bare,<br /> +The teacher’s heart is filled with care,”</p> + +<p>says the proverb, and another adage is current, to the effect that if one +has a few bags of grain on hand, he is not obliged to be king over +children.</p> + +<p>To the enormous oversupply of school-teachers, it is due that one of the +most honourable of callings is at the same time one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> of the most ill-paid. +Teachers of real ability, or who have in some way secured a great +reputation, are able to command salaries in proportion; but the country +schoolmaster, who can compete for a situation within a very small area +only, is often remunerated with but a mere pittance—an allowance of grain +supposed to be adequate for his food, a supply of dried stalks for fuel, +and a sum in money, frequently not exceeding ten Mexican dollars for the +year. It is not very uncommon to meet teachers who have but one or two +pupils, and who receive for their services little or nothing more than +their food. To the natural inquiry whether it was worth his while to teach +for such a slender compensation, a schoolmaster of this class replied, +that it was better than staying at home with nothing to eat. It is a +current saying that the rich never teach school, and the poor never attend +one—though to this there are exceptions. It is a strange fact that one +occasionally meets schoolmasters who have never studied anything beyond +the Four Books, and who therefore know nothing of the Five Classics, an +outfit comparable to that of a Western teacher who should only have +perused his arithmetic as far as simple division!</p> + +<p>The proposition to have a school is made by the parents of the children, +and when it is ascertained that a sufficient number of names can be +secured, these are entered on a red card, called a school list +(<i>kuan-tan</i>). This is generally prepared by the time of the winter +solstice (December 21st), though sometimes the matter is left in abeyance +until the very end of the year, some six weeks later. On the other hand, +in some regions, it is customary to have the school card ready by the 15th +of the eighth moon, some time in August or September. The choice of a +teacher, like many other things Chinese, is very much a matter of chance. +It seems to be rather uncommon that a scholar should teach in his own +village, though this does often happen. The reason generally given for +this is that it is inconvenient for the pupils to be too near an +ex-preceptor who may make demands upon them in later years. Sometimes the +same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> teacher is engaged for a long series of years, while in other places +there is an annual change.</p> + +<p>Once the pupil’s name has been regularly entered upon the school list, he +must pay the tuition agreed upon, whether he ever attends the school or +not, no matter what the reason for his absence.</p> + +<p>Should serious illness prevent the teacher from beginning his duties at +all, the engagement is cancelled; but if he enters upon them, and is then +disabled, the full tuition is exacted from every scholar, just as if the +engagement had been completed.</p> + +<p>The wish of the school patron is to get as much work as he can out of the +teacher for the money paid him. The endeavour of the teacher is to get as +much money as he can, and to do as little work as he must. For this reason +he is always glad to have the names added after the school list has been +made out, because that will increase his receipts. The patrons frequently +object to this, because they think their own children will be neglected, +and unless all the patrons consent the addition cannot be made. They also +dislike to have the teacher bring a son or a nephew with him, lest the +slender salary should be insufficient for the food of both. In that event +the master might abandon the school before the year is over, as sometimes +occurs, but such teachers find it difficult to secure another school the +following year.</p> + +<p>The schoolhouse is an unoccupied room in a private house, an ancestral, or +other temple, or any other available place borrowed for the purpose. +Renting a place for a school seems to be almost or quite unknown. The +teacher does his own cooking, or if he is unequal to this task, he is +assisted by one of his pupils, perhaps his own son, whom he often brings +with him, albeit, as already mentioned, there is classical authority +against having a son taught by a father.</p> + +<p>The furniture required for each pupil is provided by his parents, and +consists simply of a table and a stool or bench.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> The four “precious +articles” required in literature are the ink-slab with a little well to +hold the water required to rub up the ink, the ink-cake, the brush for +writing, and paper.</p> + +<p>The Chinese school year is coincident with the calendar year, though the +school does not begin until after the middle of the first moon, some time +in February. There is a vacation at the wheat harvest in June, and another +and longer one at the autumnal harvest in September and October. The +school is furthermore dismissed ten or twenty days before the new year.</p> + +<p>Should the master not have been reëngaged he is likely to do very little +teaching during the last moon of the year, as he is much more interested +in arranging for the future than in piecing out the almost dead present. +The attendance of the scholars, too, is in any case irregular and +capricious, amply justifying the saying:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Once entered at the twelfth month’s door,<br /> +The teacher rules his boys no more.”</p> + +<p>Chinese education is based upon the wisdom of the ancients, and of those +ancients Confucius is held to be the chief. It is natural, therefore, that +upon the beginning of a school there should be special respect paid to the +Great Sage who is regarded as the patron of learning. Usages vary so much +that no generalizations are ever safe in China, but it is a singular fact +that instead of the altar, incense, candles, and formal prayers to +Confucius, which in some parts of the empire are in use at the beginning +of a year’s school, in the province of Confucius himself the ceremonies +are for the most part much simpler. At the feast to the teacher by the +patrons, the scholars are introduced and make two obeisances, one meant +for Confucius, and the other for the present preceptor. In this case there +is not only no image of the Sage, but no written character to represent +him. And even this modest ceremony is far from universal. A teacher of +twenty-five or thirty years’ <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>experience declared that he had never seen +this performed but once.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp077top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Threshing.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp077bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">An Afternoon Siesta.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The scholars in a Chinese school are expected to be on hand at an early +hour, and by sunrise they are, perhaps, howling vigourously away. When it +is time for the morning meal they return to their homes, and as soon as it +is finished, again return. About noon they are released for dinner, after +which they go back as before to school. If the weather is hot, every one +else—men, women, and children—is indulging in the afternoon siesta, but +the scholars are in their places as usual, although they may be suffered +to doze at their desks as well as they can, for half the rest of the day. +In this way the discipline of the school is supposed to be maintained, and +some allowance made at the same time for poor human nature. Were they +allowed to take a regular nap at home, the teacher fears with excellent +reason that he would see no more of them for the day.</p> + +<p>If Chinese pupils are to be pitied in the dog-days, the same is even more +true of the dead of winter, when the thermometer hovers between the +freezing-point and zero. The village school will very likely have either +no fire at all, or only such as is made by a pile of kindling or a bundle +of stalks lit on the earth floor, modifying the temperature but for a few +moments, and filling the room with acrid smoke for an hour. Even should +there be a little brazier with a rudimentary charcoal fire, it is next to +useless, and is mainly for the behoof of the master. The pupils will be +found (if they can afford such luxuries) enveloped in long winter hoods, +sitting all day in a state of semi-congelation.</p> + +<p>They generally do not leave the schoolhouse until it is too dark to +distinguish one character from another. When at length the scholars are +released, it is not for a healthful walk, much less for a romp, but to +return to their homes in an orderly and becoming manner, like so many +grown Confucianists. In some schools the scholars are expected to come +back in the evening to their tasks, as if the long and wearisome day were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +not sufficient for them, and this is, perhaps, universally the case in the +advanced schools where composition is studied.</p> + +<p>According to the Chinese theory, the employment of teacher is the most +honourable possible. Confucius and Mencius, the great sages of antiquity, +were only teachers. To invite a teacher, is compared to the investiture of +a general by the emperor with supreme command. In consequence of this +theory, springing directly from the exalted respect for learning +entertained by the Chinese, a master is allowed almost unlimited control. +According to a current proverb, the relation of teacher and pupil +resembles that of father and son, but the simile of a general would be a +more correct expression of a teacher’s powers. He is able to declare a +sort of martial law, and to punish with the greatest rigour.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest lines in the Trimetrical Classic declares that “to +rear without instruction, is a father’s fault”; “to teach without +severity, shows a teacher’s indolence.” It is common for boys to run away, +sometimes to great distances, because they have been punished at school. +The writer was told by a man in middle life that when he was a lad he had +been beaten by a preceptor of the same surname, because that teacher had +himself been beaten as a child by the pupil’s grandfather, the grudge +being thus carried on to the third generation! The ferule always lies upon +the teacher’s desk, and serves also as a tally. Whenever a scholar goes +out, he takes this with him, and is supposed to be influenced by the +legend upon one side, “go out reverentially,” and upon the other, “enter +respectfully.” Two pupils are not allowed to go out at the same time.</p> + +<p>The most flagrant offence which a pupil can commit is the persistent +failure to learn his task within the allotted time. For this misdemeanour +he is constantly punished, and often to the extent of hundreds of blows. +Considering how little correction is ever administered to Chinese children +at home, and how slight are the attempts at anything resembling family +government,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> it is surprising to what extreme lengths teachers are allowed +to carry discipline. Bad scholars, and stupid ones—for a stupid scholar +is always considered as a bad one—are not infrequently punished every +day, and are sometimes covered with the marks of their beatings, to an +extent which suggests rather a runaway slave than a scholar. As the pupil +dodges about, with the hope of escaping some of the blows, he is not +unlikely to receive them upon his head, even if they were not intended for +it. In a case of this sort, a pupil was so much injured as to be thrown +into fits, and such instances can scarcely be uncommon. As a general +thing, no further notice appears to be taken of the matter by the parent +than to see the master and ascertain the special occasion of his severity. +The family of the pupil is naturally anxious that the pupil shall come to +something, and is ready to assume as an axiomatic truth that the only road +to any form of success in life is by the acquisition of an education. This +can be accomplished only by the aid of the teacher, and therefore the +rules laid down by him are to be implicitly followed, at whatever expense +to the feelings of either father or son.</p> + +<p>In one case within the writer’s knowledge, a father was determined that +his son should obtain sufficient education to fit him to take charge of a +small business. The son, on the other hand, was resolved to return to his +fork and manure basket, and the teacher was invited to further the plans +of the boy’s father. When the time came to begin his education at school, +the lad absolutely declined to go, and like most Chinese parents in +similar circumstances, the father was perfectly unable to force him to do +what he did not wish to do. The only available plan was to have the boy +tied hand and foot, placed in a basket slung to a pole, and carried by two +men, like a pig. In this condition he was deposited at the schoolhouse, +where he was chained to two chairs, and not allowed to leave the building. +He was set the usual task in the Trimetrical Classic, to which, however, +he paid no attention whatever, although beaten as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> often as the teacher +could spare the time. The boy not only did not study, but he employed all +his strength in wailing over his hard lot. This state of things continued +for several days, at the end of which time it was apparent, even to the +boy’s father, that, as the proverb says: “You cannot help a dead dog over +a wall;” and the lad was henceforth suffered to betake himself to those +agricultural operations for which alone he was fitted.</p> + +<p>Different teachers of course differ greatly in their use of punishment, +but whatever the nature of the severities employed, a genuine Confucianist +would much rather increase the rigour of discipline than relax it. To his +mind the method which he employs appears to be the only one which is +fitted to accomplish the end in view. The course of study, the method of +study, and the capacity of the pupil, are all fixed quantities; the only +variable one is the amount of diligence which the scholar can be persuaded +or driven to put forth. Hence the ideal Chinese teacher is sometimes a +perfect literary Pharaoh.</p> + +<p>When the little pupil at the age of perhaps seven or eight takes his seat +in the school for the first time, neither the sound nor the meaning of a +single character is known to him. The teacher reads over the line, and the +lad repeats the sounds, constantly corrected until he can pronounce them +properly. He thus learns to associate a particular sound with a certain +shape. A line or two is assigned to each scholar, and after the +pronunciation of the characters has been ascertained, his “study” consists +in bellowing the words in as high a key as possible. Every Chinese regards +this shouting as an indispensable part of the child’s education. If he is +not shouting how can the teacher be sure that he is studying? and as +studying and shouting are the same thing, when he is shouting there is +nothing more to be desired. Moreover, by this means the master, who is +supposed to keep track of the babel of sound, is instantly able to detect +any mispronunciation and correct it in the bud. When the scholar can +repeat the whole of his task without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> missing a single character, his +lesson is “learned,” and he then stands with his back to the teacher—to +make sure that he does not see the book—and recites, or “backs,” it at +railway speed.</p> + +<p>Every educator is aware of the extreme difficulty of preventing children +from reading the English language with an unnatural tone. To prevent the +formation of a vicious habit of this sort is as difficult as to prevent +the growth of weeds, and to eradicate such habits once formed is often +next to impossible. In the case of Chinese pupils, these vices in their +most extreme form are well-nigh inevitable. The attention of the scholar +is fixed exclusively upon two things,—the repetition of the characters in +the same order as they occur in the book, and the repetition of them at +the highest attainable rate of speed. Sense and expression are not merely +ignored, for the words represent ideas which have never once dawned upon +the Chinese pupil’s mind. His sole thought is to make a recitation. If he +is really master of the passage which he recites, he falls at once into a +loud hum, like that of a peg-top or a buzz, like that of a circular saw, +and to extract either from the buzz or from the hum any sound as of human +speech—no matter how familiar the auditor may be with the passage +recited—is extremely difficult and frequently impossible.</p> + +<p>But if the passage has been only imperfectly committed, and the pupil is +brought to a standstill for the lack of characters to repeat, he does not +pause to collect his thoughts, for he has no thoughts to collect—has in +fact no thoughts to speak of. What he has, is a dim recollection of +certain sounds, and in order to recall those which he has forgotten, he +keeps on repeating the last word, or phrase, or sentence, or page, until +association regains the missing link. Then he plunges forward again, as +before.</p> + +<p>Let us suppose, for example, that the words to be recited are the +following, from the Confucian Analects, relating to the habits of the +master: “He did not partake of wine and dried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> meat bought in the market. +He was never without ginger when he ate. He did not eat much.” The young +scholar, whose acquaintance with this chapter is imperfect, nevertheless +dashes on somewhat as follows: “He did not partake—he did not +partake—partake—partake—partake—partake of wine and dried meat bought +in—bought in—bought in the market—market—the market—the market. He +was never without ginger—when—ginger—when-ginger—when he ate-he ate-he +ate-he-ate-ate-he did not eat-eat-eat-eat-eat without ginger when he +ate-he did not eat-did not eat much.”</p> + +<p>This is the method of all Chinese instruction. The consequence of so much +roaring on the part of the scholars is that every Chinese school seems to +an inexperienced foreigner like a bedlam. No foreign child could learn, +and no foreign teacher could teach, amid such a babel of sound, in which +it is impossible for the instructor to know whether the pupils are +repeating the sounds which are given to them, or not. As the effect of the +unnatural and irrational strain of such incessant screaming upon their +voices, it is not uncommon to find Chinese scholars who are so hoarse that +they cannot pronounce a loud word.</p> + +<p>The first little book which the scholar has put into his hands, is +probably the “Trimetrical Classic,” (already mentioned) so called from its +arrangement in double lines of three characters above and three below, to +a total number of more than 1,000. It was composed eight centuries and a +half ago by a preceptor for his private school, and perhaps there are few +compositions which have ever been so thoroughly ground into the memory of +so many millions of the human race as this. Yet of the inconceivable +myriads who have studied it, few have had the smallest idea by whom it has +written, or when. Dr. Williams has called attention to the remarkable fact +that the very opening sentence of this initial text-book in Chinese +education, contains one of the most disputed doctrines in the ancient +heathen world: “Men at their birth, are by nature radically good; in their +natures they approximate, but in practice differ<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> widely.” After two lines +showing the modifying effects of instruction, and the importance of +attention, the mother of Mencius is cited as an expert in object lessons +for her famous son. The student is next reminded that “just was the life +of Tou, of Yen; five sons he reared, all famous men.”</p> + +<p>The author then reverts to his main theme, and devotes several strenuous +sentences to emphasizing the necessity for instruction in youth, “since +gems unwrought can never be useful, and untaught persons will never know +the proprieties.” After a further citation of wonderful examples in +Chinese history, accompanied with due moralizing, there follow more than +sixty lines of a characteristically Chinese mosaic. The little pupil is +enlightened on the progressive nature of numbers; the designations of the +heavenly bodies; the “three relations” between prince and minister, father +and son, man and wife; the four seasons; the four directions; the five +elements; the five cardinal virtues; the six kinds of grain; the six +domestic animals; the seven passions; the eight kinds of music; the nine +degrees of relationship and the ten moral duties.</p> + +<p>Having swallowed this formidable list of categories, the scholar is +treated to a general summary of the classical books which he is to study +as he advances. When he has mastered all the works adjudged “Classic,” he +is told that he must go on to those of philosophers and sages, as in the +bill of particulars contained in the Trimetrical Classic. His special +attention is invited to history, which suggests a catalogue of the +numerous Chinese dynastic periods with the names, or rather the styles, of +a few of the important founders of dynasties. The list is brought down to +the first emperor of the present dynasty, where it abruptly stops at the +year 1644. A pupil who wishes to know the titles of the later emperors of +the Ch‘ing Dynasty can be accommodated when the same shall have been +overthrown, and therefore has become a suitable object of historical +study. The pupil is urged to ponder these records of history till he +understands things ancient and modern as if they were before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> his eyes, +and to make them his morning study and his evening task.</p> + +<p>The concluding section contains more of human interest than any of the +preceding parts, since we are told that the great Confucius once learned +something from a mere child; that the ancient students had no books, but +copied their lessons on reeds and slips of bamboo; that to vanquish the +body they hung themselves by the hair from a beam, or drove an awl into +the thigh; that one read by the light of glow-worms, and that another tied +his book to a cow’s horn. Among the prodigies of diligence were two, who, +“though girls, were intelligent and well informed.” The closing lines +strive to stimulate the ambition of the beginner, not only by the tales of +antiquity, but by the faithfulness of the dog at night, and the diligence +of the silk-worm and the bee. “If men neglect to learn, they are inferior +to insects.” But “he who learns in youth, and acts when of mature age, +extends his influence to the prince, benefits the people, makes his name +renowned, renders illustrious his parents, reflects glory upon his +ancestors and enriches his posterity.” If every Chinese lad does not +eventually become a prodigy of learning, it is certainly not the fault of +the author of this remarkable compendium, the incalculable influence of +which must be the justification of so extended a synopsis.</p> + +<p>Another little book, to which the Chinese pupil is early introduced, is +the list of Chinese surnames, more than 400 in number, and all to be +learned by a dead lift of memory. The characters are arranged in +quartettes, and when a Chinese tells another his own surname, it is common +to repeat all four, whereupon his auditor recalls which of the several +names having the same sound it may be. In some parts of the empire the +“Thousand Character Classic” follows the Trimetrical Classic, while in +other parts its use seems to be quite unknown. It comprises, as the name +implies, a thousand characters, not one of which is repeated. It is common +to use these characters instead of ordinal numbers to designate seats<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> in +the examination halls, so that it is desirable that scholars should be +familiar with the book.</p> + +<p>After the scholar has mastered the smaller ones, he passes on to the “Four +Books,” the Confucian Analects, the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the +Mean, and the works of Mencius. The order in which these books are taken +up varies in different places, but, as already observed, the method of +study is as nearly as possible invariable. Book after book is stored away +in the abdomen (in which the intellectual faculties are supposed to be +situated), and if the pupil is furnished with the clew of half a sentence, +he can unravel from memory, as required, yards, rods, furlongs or miles of +learning.</p> + +<p>After the Four Books, follow in varying order the Poetical Classic, the +Book of History, the Book of Changes, and the historical work of +Confucius, known as the Spring and Autumn Annals. To commit to memory all +these volumes, must in any case be the labour of many years. Usage varies +in different localities, but it is very common to find scholars who have +memorized the whole of the Four Books, and perhaps two of the later +Classics—the Odes and the History—before they have heard any +explanations even of the Trimetrical Classic, with which their education +began. During all these years, the pupil has been in a condition of mental +daze, which is denoted by a Chinese character, the component parts of +which signify a pig in the weeds (mêng). His entrance upon study is called +“lifting the darkness” (ch‘i mêng), and to teach the beginner is to +“instruct darkness.” These expressive phrases correspond to a fixed +reality. Of those who have committed to memory all the books named, some +of the brightest have no doubt picked up here and there, and as it were by +accident, an idea.</p> + +<p>Thoughtful Chinese teachers, familiar with the capacity of their pupils, +estimate that the most intelligent among them can not be expected to +understand a hundredth part of what they have memorized. The great +majority of them have about as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> accurate a conception of the territory +traversed, as a boy might entertain of a mountainous district through +which he had been compelled to run barefooted and blindfolded in a dense +fog, chased for vast distances by a man cracking over his head a long +ox-whip. How very little many scholars do grasp of the real meaning, even +after explanations which the teacher regards as abundantly full, is +demonstrated by a test to which here and there a master subjects his +scholars, that of requiring them to write down a passage. The result is +frequently the notation of so many false characters as to render it +evident, not only that the explanations have not been apprehended, but +that notwithstanding such a multitude of perusals, the text itself has +been taken only into the ear as so many sounds, and has not entered the +mind at all.</p> + +<p>The system of explanations adopted by Chinese teachers, as a rule, is +almost the exact opposite of that which, to an Occidental, would seem +rational. “In speech,” said Confucius, “one should be intelligible, and +that is the end of it.” The Confucian teacher, however, is often very far +indeed from feeling that it is necessary to be intelligible—that is to +say, to make it absolutely certain that his pupils have fully comprehended +his meaning. He is very apt to deliver his explanations—when a sufficient +number of years has elapsed to make it seem worth while to begin them at +all—<i>ex cathedra</i>, and in a stately, formal manner, his attention being +much more fixed upon the exhibition of his own skill in displaying his own +knowledge, than upon imparting that knowledge to his scholars. It is +common to hear it said of a teacher who has attained distinction, that +when he opens his mouth to explain the Classics, “every sentence is fit +for an examination essay.” This is considered to be the acme of praise. +Sentences which are suited to be constituent parts of examination essays, +are not, it is superfluous to remark, particularly adapted to the +comprehension of young schoolboys, who know nothing about examination +essays, the style of which is utterly beyond their powers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>The commentary upon the Classics written by Chu Hsi, in the twelfth +century, <span class="smcaplc">A. D.</span>, has come to have an authority second only to that of the +text itself. That no Chinese school-teacher leads his pupils to question +for an instant whether the explanation is accurate and adequate, is a +matter of course. The whole object of a teacher’s work is to fit his +pupils to compete at the examinations, and to prepare essays which shall +win the approval of the examiners, thus leading to the rank of literary +graduate. This result would be possible only to those who accept the +orthodox interpretation of the Classics, and hence it is easy to see that +Chinese schools are not likely to become nurseries of heresy. The very +idea of discussing with his pupils either text or commentary, does not so +much as enter the mind of a Chinese schoolmaster. He could not do so if he +would, and he would not if he could.</p> + +<p>The task of learning to write Chinese characters is a very serious one, in +comparison with which it is scarcely unfair to characterize the mastery of +the art of writing any European language, as a mere pastime. The correct +notation of characters is, moreover, not less important than the correct +recognition of them, for success in some of the examinations is made to +depend as much upon caligraphy as upon style.</p> + +<p>The characters which the teacher selects for the writing exercises of his +pupils, have no relation, strange as it may seem, to anything which he is +studying. These characters may at first be taken from little books of +rhymes arranged for the purpose, containing characters at once simple and +common.</p> + +<p>The next step is to change to books containing selections from the T‘ang +Dynasty poets, an appreciation of which involves acquaintance with tones +and rhyme, of which the pupil, as yet, knows nothing. The characters which +he now learns to write he has very likely never seen before, and they do +not at all assist his other studies. The only item of which notice is +taken, is whether the characters are well or ill-formed. Review there is +none.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>The reason for choosing T‘ang Dynasty poetry for writing lessons, instead +of characters or sentences which are a part of the current lesson, is that +it is customary to use the poetry, and is <i>not</i> customary to use anything +else, and that to do so would expose himself to ridicule. Besides this, +poetry makes complete sense by itself (if the pupil could only comprehend +it) while isolated characters do not. The consequence of this method of +instruction is that hundreds of thousands of pupils leave school knowing +very little about characters, and much of what they do know is wrong. The +method of teaching characters explains in part what seems at first almost +unaccountable, that so few ordinary persons know characters accurately. It +is an inevitable incident of the system, that to write some of the +commonest characters, referring to objects used in daily life, is quite +beyond the power of a man who has been for years at school, for he has +never seen them either written or printed. Thus in taking an inventory of +household property, there is not one chance in ten that the characters +will be written correctly, for they do not occur in the Classics, nor in +T‘ang Dynasty poetry. Not only so, but it is altogether probable that an +average graduate of the village school cannot indite a common letter, or +set down a page of any miscellaneous characters, without writing something +wrong.</p> + +<p>If the teacher is a man of any reputation, he has a multitude of +acquaintances, fellow students, any of whom may happen to call upon him at +the schoolhouse, where he lives. Chinese etiquette requires that certain +attentions should be paid to visitors of this sort, and while it is +perfectly understood that school routine ought not to be broken in upon by +unnecessary interruptions, as a matter of fact in most schools these +interruptions are a serious nuisance, to which the teacher often cannot +and oftener will not put a stop.</p> + +<p>The system here described, by which the whole time of the master is +supposed to be devoted to instructing his pupils, makes no allowances for +any absences whatever. Yet there are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> few human beings blessed with such +perfect health, and having such an entire freedom from all relations to +the external world, as to be able to conduct a school of this kind month +after month, with no interruptions.</p> + +<p>It frequently happens that the teacher is himself one of the literary army +who attends the examinations in hope of a degree. If this is the case, his +absences for this purpose will often prove a serious interruption to the +routine of the school. Some patrons appear to consider that this +disadvantage is balanced by the glory which would accrue to their school +in case its master were to take his degree while in their service. +Moreover, aside from the regular vacations at the feast times and +harvests, every teacher is sure to be called home from time to time by +some emergency in his own family, or in his village, or among his numerous +friends. Under these circumstances he provides a substitute if he happens +to find it convenient to do so. Such are nicknamed +“remote-cousin-preceptors” (<i>su-pai lao-shih</i>), and are not likely to be +treated with much respect. When the teacher is absent for a day, instead +of dismissing the school, he perhaps leaves it theoretically in the charge +of one of the older scholars. The inevitable consequence is, that at such +times the work of the school is reduced not merely to zero, but to forty +degrees below zero. The scholars simply bar the front door, and amuse +themselves in using the teacher’s ferule for a bat, and the Trimetrical +Classic, or the Confucian Analects, for a ball. The demoralization +attending such lawlessness is evidently most injurious to the efficiency +of the school.</p> + +<p>The irregularities of the master’s attendance are more than matched by +those of his scholars. The pressure of domestic duties is such that many +poorer families on one pretence or another are constantly taking their +children out of school. To-day the pupil must rake up fuel, next week he +must lead the animal that draws the seed drill, a month later he is taken +for two or three days to visit some relatives. Not long after there is in +the village, or perhaps in some neighbouring <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>village, a theatrical +entertainment, but in either case the whole school expects a vacation to +go and see the sport. As already remarked when describing theatricals, if +this vacation were denied they would take it themselves. Besides +interruptions of this sort, there are the spring and autumn harvests, when +the school is dismissed for two months and perhaps for three, and the New +Year vacation, which lasts from the middle of the twelfth moon to the +latter part of the first moon. But, extensive as are these intermissions +of study, the dog-days are not among them, and the poor pupils go droning +on through all the heat of summer.</p> + +<p>As the Chinese child has no Saturdays, no Sundays, no recesses, no variety +of study, and no promotion from grade to grade, nor from one school to +another, it is probable that he has enough schooling such as it is. As +every scholar is a class by himself, the absence of one does not interfere +with the study of another. Even if two lads happen to be reciting in the +same place, they have no more connection with each other than any other +two pupils. Of such a thing as classification the teacher has never heard, +and the irregular attendance of the scholars would, he tells you, prevent +it, even were it otherwise possible. Owing to the time required to hear so +many recitations, an ordinary school does not contain more than eight or +ten pupils, and twenty are regarded as beyond one teacher’s capacity.</p> + +<p>There is very little which is really intellectual in any part of the early +schooling of an ordinary Chinese boy. As a rule, the teacher does not +concern himself with his pupils further than to drag them over a specified +course, or at least to attempt to do so. The parents of the lad are +equally indifferent, or even more so. If the father himself can read, he +remembers that he learned to do so by a long and thorny road, and he +thinks it proper that his son should traverse it likewise. If the father +can not read, he at least recognizes the fact that he knows nothing at all +about the matter, and that it is not <i>his</i> business<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> to interfere. The +teacher is hired to teach—let him do it. As for visiting the school to +see what progress his son is making, he never heard of such a thing, and +he would not do it if he had heard of it. The teacher would say in his +manner if not in his words, “<i>What business have you here?</i>”</p> + +<p>A sufficient reason for spending all his time in the schoolroom is the +fact that it is practically impossible for a Chinese child to do any +studying amid the distractions of a Chinese household. Even for adult +scholars it is almost always difficult to do so. At his home the pupil has +no mental stimulus of any sort, no books, magazines or papers, and even if +he had them, his barren studies at school would not have fitted him to +comprehend such literature.</p> + +<p>The object of Chinese education is to pump up the wisdom of the ancients +into the minds of the moderns. In order to do this, however, it is +necessary to keep the stream in a constant flow, at whatever cost, else +much of the preceding labour is lost. According to Chinese theory, or +practice, a school which should only be in session for six months of the +year, would be a gross absurdity. The moment a child fails to attend +school, he is supposed (and with reason) to become “wild.”</p> + +<p>The territory to be traversed is so vast that the most unremitting +diligence is absolutely indispensable. This continues true, however +advanced the pupil may be; as witness the popular saying, “Ten years a +graduate (without studying), and one is a nobody.” The same saying is +current in regard to the second degree, and with not less reason.</p> + +<p>The necessity of confining one’s attention to study alone, leads to the +selection of one or more of the sons of a family as the recipient of an +education. The one who is chosen is clothed in the best style which his +family circumstances will allow, his little cue neatly tied with a red +string, and he is provided, as we have seen, with a copy of the Hundred +Surnames and of the Trimetrical Classic. This young Confucianist is the +bud and prototype of the adult scholar. His twin brother, who has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> not +been chosen to this high calling, roams about the village all summer in +the costume of the garden of Eden, gathering fuel, swimming in the village +mud-hole, busy when he must be busy, idle when he can be idle. He may be +incomparably more useful to his family than the other, but so far as +education goes he is only a “wild” lad.</p> + +<p>If the student is quick and bright, and gives good promise of +distinguishing himself, he stands an excellent chance of being spoiled by +thoughtless praises. “That boy,” remarks a bystander to a stranger, and in +the lad’s hearing, “is only thirteen years old, but he has read all the +Four Books, and all of the Book of Poetry, etc. By the time he is twenty, +he is sure to become a graduate.” When questioned as to his attainments, +the lad replies without any of that pertness and forwardness which too +often characterize Western youth, but, as he has been taught to do, in a +bashful and modest manner, and in a way to win at once the good opinion of +the stranger. His manner leaves nothing to be desired, but in reality he +is the victim of the most dangerous of all flatteries, the inferiority of +what is around him. In order to hold his relative position, it is +necessary, as already pointed out, to bestow the most unwearied attention +on his books. His brothers are all day in the fields, or learning a trade, +or are assistants to some one engaged in business, as the case may be, but +<i>he</i> is doing nothing, absolutely and literally nothing, but study.</p> + +<p>So much confinement, and such close application from the very earliest +years, can scarcely fail to show their effects in his physical +constitution. His brother hoes the ground, bare-headed throughout the +blistering heats of July, but such exposure to the sun would soon give him +the headache. His brother works with more or less energy all day long +(with intermittent sequence), but were <i>he</i> compelled to do the same the +result would not improbably be that he would soon begin to spit blood. +That he is physically by no means so strong as he once was, is undeniable. +He has very little opportunity to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> learn anything of practical affairs, +and still less disposition. The fact that a student has no time to devote +to ordinary affairs is not so much the reason of his ignorance, as is the +fact that for him to do common things is not respectable. Among the four +classes of mankind, scholars rank first, farmers, labourers, and merchants +being at a great remove.</p> + +<p>The two things that a pupil is sure to learn in a Chinese school are +obedience, and the habit of concentrating his attention upon whatever he +is reading, to the entire disregard of surrounding distractions. So far as +they go these are valuable acquirements, although they can scarcely be +termed an education.</p> + +<p>Every pupil is naturally anxious to get into the class of scholars, and +this he does as soon as he gives all his time to study; for whether he is +a real scholar or not, he plainly belongs to neither of the other classes. +We are told in the Confucian Analects that the master said, “The +accomplished scholar is not a utensil.” The commentators tell us that this +means that whereas a utensil can only be put to one use, the accomplished +scholar can be used in all varieties of ways, <i>ad omnia paratus</i>, as Dr. +Legge paraphrases it. This expression is sometimes quoted in banter, as if +in excuse for the general incapacity of the Chinese literary man—<i>he</i> is +not a utensil. The scholar, even the village scholar, not only does not +plow and reap, but he does not in any way assist those who perform these +necessary acts. He does not harness an animal, nor feed him, nor drive a +cart, nor light a fire, nor bring water—in short, so far as physical +exertion goes, he does as nearly as possible nothing at all. “The scholar +is not a utensil,” he seems to be thinking all day long, and every day of +his life, until one wishes that at times he would be a utensil, that he +might sometimes be of use. He will not even move a bench, nor make any +motion that looks like labour. Almost the only exception to this general +incapacity, is an exception for which we should hardly be prepared; it is +a knowledge, in many cases of the art<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> of cooking, in so far as it is +necessary for the practice of the scholar, who often teaches in a village +other than his home, where he generally lives by himself in the +schoolhouse.</p> + +<p>We have already alluded to the great oversupply of teachers of schools. +Many of them, owing to their lack of adaptation to their environment, are +chronically on the verge of starvation. It is a venerable maxim that +poverty and pride go side by side, and nowhere does this saying find more +forcible exemplification than in the case of a poor Chinese scholar. He +has nothing, he can do nothing, and in most cases he is unwilling to do +anything. In short, viewed from the standpoint of political economy, he is +good for nothing.</p> + +<p>One specimen of this class the writer once saw, who had been set at work +by a benevolent foreigner molding coal balls, an employment which +doubtless appeared to him and to the spectators as the substantial +equivalent of the chain-gang, and yet, to the surprise of his employer, he +accepted it rather than starve. A certain scholar of this description was +so poor that he was obliged to send his family back to her mother’s house, +to save them from starvation. The wife, being a skillful needle-woman, was +employed at good wages in a foreign family, but when her husband heard of +it he was very angry, not because he was unwilling to have her associate +with foreigners, who he was kind enough to say were very respectable, but +because it was very unsuitable that she, the wife of a scholar, should +work for hire! The wife had the sense and spirit to reply that, if these +were his views, it might be well for him to provide his family with +something to eat, to which he replied with the characteristic and ultimate +argument for refractory wives, namely, a sound beating!</p> + +<p>When one of these helpless and impecunious scholars calls upon a foreigner +whom he has met only once, or perhaps never even seen, he will not +improbably begin by quoting a wilderness of classical learning to display +his great—albeit unrecognized—abilities. He tells you that among the +five relations of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> prince and minister, husband and wife, father and son, +brother to brother, and friend to friend, his relationship to you is of +the latter type. That it would do violence to his conception of the duties +of this relation, if he did not let you know of his exigencies. He shows +you his thin trousers and other garments concealed under his scholar’s +long gown, and frankly volunteers that <i>any</i> contribution, large or small, +prompted by such friendship as ours to him will be most acceptable.</p> + +<p>While the conditions of the life of the village scholar are thus +unfavourable for his success in earning a living, they are not more +favourable to his own intellectual development. The chief, if not the +exclusive sources of his mental alimentation have been the Chinese +Classics. These are in many respects remarkable products of the human +mind. Their negative excellencies, in the absence of anything calculated +to corrupt the morals, are great. To the lofty standard of morality which +they fix, may be ascribed in great measure their unbounded and perennial +influence, an influence which has no doubt powerfully tended to the +preservation of the empire. Apart from the incalculable influence which +they have exerted on the countless millions of China for many ages, there +are many passages which in and of themselves are remarkable.</p> + +<p>But taken as a whole, the most friendly critic finds it impossible to +avoid the conviction, which forces itself upon him at every page, that +regarded as the sole text-books for a great nation they are fatally +defective. They are too desultory, and too limited in their range. +Epigrammatic moral maxims, scraps of biography, nodules of a sort of +political economy, bits of history, rules of etiquette, and a great +variety of other subjects, are commingled without plan, symmetry, or +progress of thought. The chief defects, as already suggested, are the +triviality of many of the subjects, the limitation in range, and the +inadequacy of treatment. When the Confucian Analects are compared, for +example, with the Memorabilia of Xenephon, when the Doctrine of the Mean +is placed by the side of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> the writings of Aristotle and Plato, and the +bald notation of the Spring and Autumn Annals by the side of the history +of Thucydides, when the Book of Odes is contrasted with the Iliad, the +Odyssey, or even the Æneid, it is impossible not to marvel at the measure +of success which has attended the use of such materials in China.</p> + +<p>Considering what, in spite of their defects, the Classics have done for +China, it is not surprising that they have come to be regarded with a +bibliolatry to which the history of mankind affords few parallels. It is +extremely difficult for us to comprehend the effect of a narrow range of +studies on the mind, because our experience furnishes no instance to which +the case of the Chinese can be compared. Let us for a moment imagine a +Western scholar, who had enjoyed a profound mathematical education, and no +other education whatever. Every one would consider such a mind +ill-balanced. Yet much of the ill effect of such a narrow education would +be counteracted. Mathematical certainty is infallible certainty; +mathematics leads up to astronomy, and a thorough acquaintance with +astronomy is of itself a liberal education. Besides this, no man in +Western lands can fail to come into vital contact with other minds. And +there is what Goethe called the Zeit-geist, or Spirit of the Age, which +exerts a powerful influence upon him. But in China, a man who is educated +in a narrow line, is likely, though by no means certain, to remain narrow, +and there is no Chinese Zeit-geist, or if there is, like other ghosts, it +seldom interposes in human affairs.</p> + +<p>The average Chinese scholar is at a great disadvantage in the lack of the +apparatus for study. In a Western land, any man with the slightest claim +to be called a scholar, would be able to answer in a short time, a vast +range of questions, with intelligent accuracy. This he would do, not so +much by means of his own miscellaneous information, as by his books of +reference. The various theories as to the location of the Garden of Eden, +the dimensions of the Great Pyramid, the probable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> authorship of the +Junius Letters, the highest latitude reached in polar exploration, the +names of the generals who conducted the fourth Peloponnesian war—all +these, and thousands of similar matters, could be at once elucidated by +means of a dictionary of antiquities, a manual of ancient or modern +history, a biographical dictionary, and an encyclopedia. To the ordinary +Chinese scholar, such helps as these are entirely wanting. He owns very +few books; for in the country where printing was invented, books are the +luxury of the rich.</p> + +<p>The standard dictionary of Chinese, is that compiled two centuries ago in +the K‘ang Hsi period, and is alleged to contain 44,449 characters, but of +these an immense number are obsolete and synonomous, and only serve the +purpose of bewildering the student. Within the past two generations the +Chinese language has undergone a remarkable development, owing to the +contact of China with her neighbours. All the modern sciences have +obtruded themselves, but there is no interest in the coördination of these +new increments to their language on the part of Chinese scholars, to whom +K‘ang Hsi’s lexicon is amply sufficient.</p> + +<p>In order to attain success in Chinese composition, it is necessary to be +acquainted with the force of every character, as a means to which, access +to this standard dictionary, would seem to be indispensable. Yet, though +invaluable, it is not in the possession of one scholar in fifty. Its place +is generally taken by a small compendium, analogous to what we should call +a pocket-manual, in which the characters are arranged according to the +sound, and not according to the radicals, as in K‘ang Hsi.</p> + +<p>Pupils are seldom taught the 214 radicals, and many persons who have spent +years at school have no idea how to use K‘ang Hsi’s dictionary, when it is +put into their hands. Within a circle of eight or ten villages, there may +be only a single copy, and if it is necessary to obtain more accurate +information than is to be had in the pocket-dictionary, the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>inquirer must +go to the village where there is a copy of K‘ang Hsi, and “borrow light” +there.</p> + +<p>But such an extreme measure is seldom considered necessary. The incessant +study of the Classics has made all the characters in them familiar. Those +who write essays can compose them with the aid of these characters only, +and as for miscellaneous characters—that is, those not found in the +Classics—why should one care for <i>them</i>? A good edition of K‘ang Hsi, +with clear type and no false characters, might cost, if new, as much as +the village schoolmaster would receive for his whole year’s work.</p> + +<p>At examinations below that for the second degree, a knowledge of history +is said to be as superfluous as an acquaintance with the dictionary. Nine +out of ten candidates at the lower examinations know little of the history +of China, except what they have learned from the Trimetrical Classic, or +picked up from the classics. The perusal of compendiums of history, even +if such are available, is the employment of leisure, and the composition +of essays as a business once entered upon, there is no leisure.</p> + +<p>One occasionally meets a teacher who has made a specialty of history, but +these men are rare. Historical allusions often lie afloat in the minds of +Chinese scholars, like snatches of poetry, the origin and connection of +which are unknown. Many scholars who have the knack of picking up and +appropriating such spiculæ of knowledge, acquire the art of dextrously +weaving them into examination essays and owe their success to this +circumstance alone, whereas if they were examined upon the historical +connection of the incidents which they have thus cited, they would be +unable to reply. But as long as the use of such allusions in essays is +felicitous, no questions are asked, and the desired end is attained. “The +Cat that catches the Rat is a good Cat,” says the adage, and it is no +matter if the Cat is blind, and the Rat is a dead one!</p> + +<p>The <i>Peking Gazette</i> occasionally contains memorials from officers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> asking +that certain sums be set apart for the maintenance of a library in some +central city, to aid poor students in the prosecution of their studies. If +there were libraries on a large scale in every district city, they would +be valuable and much-needed helps. But so far as appears, for all +practical purposes, they scarcely exist at all.</p> + +<p>The Chinese method of writing history, is what Sydney Smith called the +antediluvian, that, namely, in which the writer proceeds upon the +hypothesis that the life of the reader is to be as long as that of +Methuselah. Projected upon this tremendous plan, the standard histories +are not only libraries in size, but are enormously expensive in price. In +a certain District (or County) it is a well-known fact that there is only +one such history, which belongs to a wealthy family, and which one could +no more “borrow,” than he could borrow the family graveyard, and which +even if it could be borrowed would prove to be a wilderness of learning. +It is indeed a proverb, that “He that would know things ancient and +modern, must peruse five cartloads of books.”</p> + +<p>But even after this labour, his range of learning, gauged by Occidental +standards, would be found singularly inadequate. According to Chinese +ideas, the history of the reigning dynasty is not a proper object of +knowledge, and histories generally end at the close of the Ming Dynasty, +about 250 years ago. If any one has a curiosity to learn of what has +happened since that time, he can be gratified by waiting a few decades or +centuries, when the dynasty shall have changed, and the records of the +Great Pure Dynasty can be impartially written. Imagine a History of +England which should call a halt at the House of Hanover!</p> + +<p>The result of the various causes here indicated, combined with the grave +defects in the system of education, is that multitudes of Chinese scholars +know next to nothing about matters directly in the line of their studies, +and in regard to which we should consider ignorance positively +disgraceful. A venerable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> teacher remarked to the writer with a charming +naïveté that he had never understood the allusions in the Trimetrical +Classic (which stands at the very threshold of Chinese study), until at +the age of sixty he had an opportunity to read a Universal History, +prepared by a missionary, in which for the first time Chinese history was +made accessible to him.</p> + +<p>The encyclopedias and works of reference, which the Chinese have compiled +in overwhelming abundance, are as useless to the common scholar as the +hieroglyphics of Egypt. He never saw these works, and he has never heard +of them. The information condensed into a small volume like Mayers’ +Chinese Reader’s Manual, could not be drawn from a whole platoon of +ordinary scholars. Knowledge of this sort the scholar must pick up as he +goes along, remembering everything that he reads or hears; and much of it +will be derived from cheap little books, badly printed, and full of false +characters, prepared on no assignable plan, and covering no definite +ground.</p> + +<p>The cost of Chinese books being practically prohibitory to teachers who +are poor, they are sometimes driven to copy them, as was the habit of the +monks in the middle ages. The writer is well acquainted with a +schoolmaster who spent the spare time of several years in copying a work +in eight octavo volumes, involving the notation of somewhere between +50,000 and 100,000 characters, to the great injury of his health and of +his eyesight.</p> + +<p>The whole plan of Chinese study has been aptly called intellectual +infanticide. The outcome of it is that it is quite possible that the +village scholar who has the entire Classics at his tongue’s end, who has +been examined before the Literary Chancellor more times than he can +remember, may not know fact from fiction, nor history from mythology. He +is, perhaps, not certain whether a particular historical character lived +in the Han Dynasty or in the Ming Dynasty, though the discrepancy involves +a matter of 1,000 or 1,200 years. He does not profess to be positive +whether a given name represents a real <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>person, or whether it may not +perhaps have been merely one of the dramatis personæ of a theatrical play.</p> + +<p>He cannot name the governors or governors-general of three out of the +eighteen provinces, nor does he know the capitals of a third of those +provinces. It is enough for him that any particular place in China, the +location of which he is ignorant of, is “south-side.” He never studied any +geography ancient or modern, he never saw an ancient atlas nor a modern +map of China—never in fact heard of one.</p> + +<p>An acquaintance of the writer’s, who was a pupil in a mission school, sent +to a reading man of his village a copy of a Universal Geography in the +Mandarin Colloquial, the explanations of which would seem to render +mistake as to its purport almost impossible. Yet the recipient of the +work, after protracted study of it, could make nothing whatever of the +volume, and called to his aid two friends, one of whom was a literary +graduate, and all three of them puzzled over the maps and text for three +days, at the end of which time they all gave the matter up as an insoluble +riddle, and determined in despair to await the return of the donor of the +book, to explain what it was about!</p> + +<p>This trait of intellectual obtuseness, is far enough from being +exceptional in Chinese scholars. With a certain class of them, a class +easily recognized, it is the rule, and it is a natural outcome of the mode +and process of their education. Although the education of a Chinese +scholar is almost exclusively devoted to acquiring facility of +composition, it is composition of one variety only, the examination essay. +Outside of examination halls, however, the examination essay, even in +China, plays a comparatively small part, and a person whose sole forte is +the production of such essays often shows to very little advantage in any +other line of business. He cannot write a letter without allowing the +“seven empty particles” to tyrannize over his pen. He employs a variety of +set forms, such as that he has received your epistle and respectfully +bathed himself before he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> ventured to open it (a very exaggerated instance +of hyperbole), but he very likely neglects to inform you from what place +he is writing and if he is reporting, for example, a lawsuit, he probably +omits altogether several items of vital importance to a correct +comprehension of the case. In a majority of instances he is miserably +poor, often has no employment whatever, and no prospect of obtaining any. +If he becomes acquainted with a foreigner, you are aware, before he has +made three calls, that he is in quest of a situation. You inquire what he +can do, and with a pathetic simplicity he assures you that he <i>can</i> do +some things, and is really not a useless person. He can indeed, write from +a copy, or from dictation if an eye be constantly kept upon him to prevent +the notation of wrong characters. But it will not be surprising if his +employer finds that at whatever task he is set, he either does it ill, or +cannot do it at all.</p> + +<p>There are several criticisms which the average Occidental is sure to make +on the average Chinese schoolmaster. He always lacks initiative and will +seldom do anything without explicit directions. He is also painfully +deficient in finality, especially in the statement of his own affairs, +often consuming an hour wheeling in concentric circles about a point to +which he should have come in three minutes—that is, had he been +constructed intellectually as most Westerners are. Yet he has undoubted +intellectual abilities, not frequently surprising one by the keenness and +justice of his criticisms and comments. But his mind has been trained for +one line of work, and often for that alone. Every one knows that the minds +of the Chinese are not by nature analytic; neither are they synthetic. +They may suppose themselves to have the clearest perception of the way in +which a statement ought to be made, but a whole platoon of teachers will +not seldom spend several days in working over and over an epitome of some +matter of business which happens to be somewhat complicated, and after all +with results unsatisfactory to themselves, and still more so to the +Occidental who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> fails to understand why it could not have been finished in +two hours. The same phenomenon is often witnessed in their efforts to +assimilate unfamiliar works which are <i>not</i> geographical. If a reading man +is invited to peruse one and make an abstract of it, he generally +declines, remarking that he does not know how, a proposition which he can +speedily prove with a certainty equal to any demonstration in Euclid.</p> + +<p>The inborn conservatism of the Chinese race is exhibited in the average +literary man, whatever the degree of his attainments. To change his +accustomed way of doing anything is to give his intellectual faculties a +wrench akin to physical dislocation of a hip-bone. Chinese writing is in +perpendicular columns, and if horizontal reads from right to left—the +reverse of English. A fossilized Chinese whom the writer set to noting +down sentences in a ruled foreign blank-book could not be induced to +follow the lines as directed, but wished to make columns to which he was +used. When the foreign way was insisted upon, he simply turned the book +partly around and wrote on the lines perpendicularly as before! He would +not be a party to violent rearrangement of the ancient symbols of thought. +Such a man’s mind resembles an obsolete high bicycle—very good if one but +knows how to work it, but not quite safe for any others. There is another +similarity likewise in the circumstance that many Chinese who have some +degree of scholarship are not expecting to employ their intellectual +faculties except when they happen to be called for. One is often told by +Chinese who have gone from home for some considerable time, that he cannot +read something which has been offered to him, as he has left his glasses +at home, not supposing that he should have any use for them. A greater +intellectual contrast between the East and the West it might not be easy +to name.</p> + +<p>To almost all Chinese the <i>form</i> of a written character appears to be of +indefinitely greater importance than its meaning. Those who are learning +to read, or who can read only imperfectly, are generally so completely +absorbed in the mere <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>enunciation of a character, that they will not and +probably cannot pay the smallest attention to any explanation as to its +purport, the consideration of which appears to be regarded as of no +consequence whatever, if not an interruption. But the scholar and the new +beginner have this admirable talent in common, that they are almost always +able completely to abstract themselves from their surroundings, +disregarding all distractions. This valuable faculty, as already remarked +and a phenomenally developed verbal memory are perhaps the most enviable +results of the educational process which we are describing. As an +excellent example, however, of the degree to which verbal memory +extinguishes the judgment, may be mentioned a country schoolmaster (a +literary graduate) whom the writer interviewed in a dispensary +waiting-room as to the respective deserts of Chou, the tyrant whose crimes +put an end to the Ancient Shang Dynasty, and Pi Kan, a relative whom Chou +ordered disemboweled in mere wantonness in order to see if a Sage really +has seven openings in his heart. The teacher recollected the incident +perfectly, and cited a passage from the Classics referring to it, but +declined to express any judgment on the merits of these men as he had +forgotten what “the small characters” (the commentary) said about them!</p> + +<p>We have already adverted to some of the principal defects in the routine +of Chinese schools, but there is another which should not be omitted. +There is scarcely a man, woman or child in China, who will not spend a +considerable fraction of life in handling brass cash, in larger or smaller +quantities. It is a matter of great importance to each individual, to be +able to reckon, if not rapidly, at least correctly, so as to save trouble, +and what is to them of far more importance, money. It seems almost +incredible that for instruction in this most necessary of arts, there is +no provision whatever. To add, to subtract, to divide, to multiply, to +know what to do with decimal fractions, these are daily necessities of +every one in China, and yet these are things that no one teaches. Such +processes, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> the art of bookkeeping in Western lands fifty years ago, +must be learned by practical experience in shops and places of business. +The village schoolmaster not only does not teach the use of the abacus, or +reckoning board, but it is by no means certain that he understands it +himself. Imagine a place in England or in the United States where the +schoolboy is taught nothing of the rules of arithmetic at school, and +where he is obliged, if he desires such knowledge, to learn the simple +rules of addition, etc., from one person, those for compound numbers from +another person, not improbably in a distant village, the measurement of +land from yet a third individual, no one of them being able to give him +all the help he requires.</p> + +<p>The Chinese reckoning board is no doubt a very ingenious contrivance for +facilitating computation, but it is nevertheless a very clumsy one. It has +the fatal defect of leaving no trace of the processes through which the +results have been reached, so that if any mistake occurs, it is necessary +to repeat them all, on the reiterative principle of the House that Jack +Built, until the answer is, or is supposed to be correct. That all the +complicated accounts of a great commercial people like the Chinese, should +be settled only through such a medium, seems indeed singular. An expert +arrives at his conclusions with surprising celerity, but even those who +are <ins class="correction" title="original: familar">familiar</ins> with ordinary reckoning, become puzzled the moment that a +problem is presented to them beyond the scope of the ordinary rules. If +one adult receives a pound of grain every ten days, and a child half as +much, what amount should be allotted to 227 adults and 143 children, for a +month and a half? Over a problem as simple as this, we have seen a group +of Chinese, some of whom had pretensions to classical scholarship, wrestle +for half an hour, and after all no two of them reached the same +conclusion. Indeed the greater their learning, the less fitted do the +Chinese seem to be, in a mathematical way, to struggle with their +environment.</p> + +<p>The object of the teacher is to compel his pupils, first to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> Remember, +secondly, to Remember, thirdly and evermore to Remember. For every +scholar, as we have seen, is theoretically a candidate for the district +examinations, where he must write upon themes selected from any one of a +great variety of books. He must, therefore, be prepared to recall at a +moment’s notice, not only the passage itself, but also its connections, +and the explanations of the commentary, as a prerequisite for even +attempting an essay.</p> + +<p>Under the conditions of the civil service examinations, as they have been +conducted for many hundred years, a system of school instruction like the +one here described, or which shall at least produce the same results, is +an imperative necessity in China. A reform cannot begin anywhere until a +reform begins everywhere. The excellence of the present system is often +assumed and in proof, the great number of distinguished scholars which it +produces, is adduced. But, on the other hand, it is absolutely necessary +to take into account the innumerable multitudes who derive little or no +benefit from their schooling. Nothing is more common than to meet men who, +although they have spent from one to ten years at school, when asked if +they can read, reply with literal truth that their knowledge of characters +has been “laid aside”—in other words they have forgotten almost +everything that they once knew, and are now become “staring blind men,” an +expression which is a synonym for one who cannot read.</p> + +<p>It is a most significant fact that the Chinese themselves recognize the +truth that their school system tends to benumb the mental faculties, +turning the teachers into machines, and the pupils into parrots. On the +supposition that all the scholars were to continue their studies, and were +eventually to be examined for a degree, it might be difficult to suggest +any system which would take the place of the one now in use, in which a +most capacious memory is a principal condition of success.</p> + +<p>In the Village School, however, it is within bounds to estimate that not +one in twenty of the scholars—and more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>probably, not three in a +hundred—have any reasonable prospect of carrying their studies to +anything like this point. The practical result, therefore, is to compel at +least ninety-seven scholars to pursue a certain routine, simply because it +is the only known method by which three other scholars can compete for a +degree. In other words, nineteen pupils are compelled to wear a heavy +cast-iron yoke, in order to keep company with a twentieth, who is trying +to get used to it as a step towards obtaining a future name! If this +inconvenient inequality is pointed out to teachers or to patrons, and if +they are asked whether it would not be better to adopt, for the nineteen +who will never go to the examinations, a system which involves less +memorizing, and a wider range of learning in the brief time which is all +that most of the pupils can spend at school, they reply, with perfect +truth, that so far as they are aware there is no other system; that even +if the patrons desired to make the experiment (which would never be the +case), they could find no teacher to conduct it; and that even if a +teacher should wish to institute such a reform (which would never happen), +he would find no one to employ him.</p> + +<p>The extreme difficulty which men of some education often find in keeping +from starvation, gives rise to a class of persons known as Strolling +Scholars, (<i>yu hsiao</i>), who travel about the country vending paper, +pictures, lithographs of tablets, pens and ink. These individuals are not +to be confounded with travelling pedlars, who, though they deal in the +same articles, make no pretension to learning, and generally convey their +goods on a wheelbarrow, whereas the Strolling Scholar cannot manage +anything larger than a pack.</p> + +<p>When a Strolling Scholar reaches a schoolhouse, he enters, lowers his +bundle, and makes a profound bow to the teacher, who (though much +displeased at his appearance) must return the courtesy. If there are large +pupils, the stranger bows to them and addresses them as his Younger +Brothers. The teacher then makes some inquiries as to his name, etc. If he +turns out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> to be a mere pretender, without real scholarship, the teacher +drops the conversation, and very likely leaves the schoolroom. This is a +tacit signal to the larger scholars to get rid of the visitor. They place +a few cash on the table, perhaps not more than five, or even three, which +the Strolling Scholar picks up, and with a bow departs. If he sells +anything, his profits are of the most moderate description—perhaps three +cash on each pen, and two cash on each cake of ink. With a view to this +class of demands, a small fund is sometimes kept on hand by the larger +scholars, who compel the younger ones to contribute to it.</p> + +<p>If, however, the Strolling Scholar is a scholar in fact, as well as in +name, so that his attainments become apparent, the teacher is obliged to +treat him with much greater civility. Some of these roving pundits make a +specialty of historical anecdotes, and miscellaneous knowledge, and in a +general conversation with the teacher, the latter, who has not improbably +confined himself to the beaten routine of classical study, is at a +disadvantage. In this case, other scholars of the village are perhaps +invited in to talk with the stranger, who may be requested to write a pair +of scrolls, and asked to take a meal with the teacher, a small present in +money being made to him on his departure.</p> + +<p>It is related that a Strolling Scholar of this sort, being present when a +teacher was explaining the Classics, deliberately took off his shoes and +stockings in presence of the whole school. Being reproved by the teacher +for this breach of propriety, he replied that his dirty stockings had as +good an “odour” as the teacher’s classical explanations. To this the +teacher naturally replied by a challenge to the stranger to explain the +Classics himself, that they might learn from him. The Strolling Scholar, +who was a person of considerable ability, had been waiting for just such +an opportunity, and taking up the explanation, went on with it in such an +elegant style, “every sentence being like an examination essay,” that the +teacher was amazed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> and ashamed, and entertained him handsomely. If a +teacher were to treat with disrespect one whose scholarship was obviously +superior to his own, he would expose himself to disrespect in turn, and +might be disgraced before his own pupils, an occurrence which he is very +anxious to avoid.</p> + +<p>In China the relation between teacher and pupil is far more intimate than +in Western lands. One is supposed to be under a great weight of obligation +to the master who has enlightened his darkness, and if this master should +be at any time in need of assistance, it is thought to be no more than the +duty of the pupil to afford it. This view of the case is obviously one +which it is for the interest of teachers to perpetuate, and the result of +the theory and of the attendant practice is that there are many decayed +teachers roving about, living on the precarious generosity of their former +pupils.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> +<h3>CHINESE HIGHER EDUCATION—THE VILLAGE HIGH SCHOOL—EXAMINATIONS—RECENT EDUCATIONAL EDICTS</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">When</span> it is definitely decided that a pupil is to study for the +examinations, he enters a high school, which differs in many respects from +the ones which he has hitherto attended. The teacher must be a man of more +than average attainments, or he can neither gain nor hold such a place. +His salary is much greater than that given by the ordinary school. The +pupils are much harder worked, being compelled to spend almost all their +waking hours in the study of model examination essays. These are to be +committed to memory by the score and even by the hundred, as a result of +which process the mind of the student gradually becomes so saturated with +the materials of which they are composed, that he will always be able to +take advantage of the accumulations of his patient memorizing in weaving +his own compositions in the examination hall.</p> + +<p>During the preceding years of study he has already committed to memory the +most important parts of the literature of his native land. He is now +intimately familiar with the orthodox explanations of the same. He has +been gradually but thoroughly inducted into the mystery of tones and +rhymes, the art of constructing poetry, and the weaving of antithetical +couplets, beginning with the announcement that the heaven is high, +balanced by the proposition that the earth is thick, and proceeding to the +intricate and well-nigh inscrutable laws by which relation and +correlation, thesis and antithesis are governed. He has now to learn by +carefully graded stages the art of employing all his preceding learning in +the production of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> essay, which will hereafter constitute the warp and +the woof of his intellectual fabric. In future he will eat, drink, write, +talk, and sleep essays, essays, essays.</p> + +<p>Measured by Chinese standards, the construction of a perfect essay is one +of the noblest achievements of which the human mind is capable. The man +who knows all that has been preserved of the wisdom of the ancients, and +who can at a moment’s notice dash off essays of a symmetrical +construction, lofty in sentiment, elevated in style, and displaying a wide +acquaintance not only with the theme, but also with cognate subjects, such +a man is fit not only to stand before kings, but before the very Son of +Heaven himself.</p> + +<p>A high official called a provincial Literary Chancellor, (<i>Hsiao Yüan</i>), +is despatched from Peking to the provinces, to hold periodical +examinations once in three or twice in five years. Upon the occasion of an +emperor’s ascending the throne, his marriage, the birth of an heir, etc., +there are extra examinations bestowed as a favour (<i>ên k‘o</i>). When the +village scholar is able to produce an essay, and to write a poem that will +pass the scrutiny of this formidable Literary Chancellor, he may hope to +become a hsiu-ts‘ai or graduate. In order to fit him for this ordeal, +which is regarded by outsiders with awe, and is anticipated by the young +candidate himself with mingled hope and terror, it is necessary that he +should run the gauntlet of a long series of preliminary test examinations.</p> + +<p>Some months before the visit of the Chancellor is to take place, of which +notice is communicated to the Governor of the Province, and from him to +the District Magistrates, preparations are made by the latter officer for +the first examination, which is held before him, and in the District city. +It is part of the duty of some of the numerous staff of this official to +disseminate the notice of such an impending examination. In any Western +country, this would be accomplished by the insertion of a brief +advertisement in the official newspaper of the District, or County. In +China, where there are no newspapers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> the message must be orally +delivered. The high schools in which pupils are trained with special +reference to such examinations, are visited, and the day of the +examination notified. Literary graduates within the district, who must be +examined with reference to passing a higher grade, are also informed of +the date. A small sum, the equivalent of fifteen or twenty cents, is +expected by the yamên messengers as a solace for the “bitterness” which +they have suffered in distributing the notices. Notwithstanding this +clumsy method of circulating the notifications, it is rare that any one +concerned fails to receive the message.</p> + +<p>Those who intend to be examined, make their way to the city, a day or two +in advance of the time fixed, that they may rent quarters for the half +month which they will be obliged to spend there. If the student chance to +have friends in the city, he may avoid the expense of renting a place, and +if his home should be near the city, he may be able to return thither at +intervals, and thus lessen the expenditure; for all these trifles are +important to the poor scholar, who has abundant need of money. As many +scholars combine to rent one room or one house, the cost to each is not +great, perhaps the equivalent of one or two dollars. Each candidate must +furnish himself with provisions for half a month. In some district cities +there are special examination buildings, capable by crowding, of seating +600 or 800 persons. In other cities, where these buildings have either +never been built, or have been allowed to go to ruin, the examination is +conducted in the Confucian temple, or at the yamên of the District +Magistrate.</p> + +<p>On the first day of the examination, two themes are given out at daylight, +by which time every candidate must be in the place assigned him, and from +there he must not stir. The themes are each taken from the Four Books, and +the essay is not expected to exceed 600 characters. By nine or ten o’clock +the stamp of the examiner is affixed to the last character written in the +essay, preventing further additions if it should not be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> finished, and the +essays are gathered up. About eleven o’clock, the third theme is given +out. This is an exercise in poetry, the subject of which may be taken from +the Book of Odes, or from some standard poet. The poem is to be composed +of not more than sixty characters, five in each line. A rapid writer and +composer, may be able to hand in his paper by three or four in the +afternoon, and many others will require much longer. The limit of time may +be fixed at midnight, or possibly at daylight the next morning. The +physical condition of a scholar who has been pinned to his seat for four +and twenty hours, struggling to produce an essay and poem which shall be +regarded by the severest critic as ideal, can be but faintly imagined by +the Occidental reader.</p> + +<p>The next two days being devoted to the inspection of the wilderness of +essays and poems, the product of this first trial, the unhappy competitors +have leisure for much needed rest and sleep. On the morning of the fourth +day, the “boards are hung,” that is, the list of those whose essays have +passed, is exposed. If the whole number of candidates should be 500—an +extremely moderate estimate for a reasonably populous district—the +proportion of those whose hopes are at once wrecked may be half. Only +those whose names are posted after the first trial can enter the +succeeding one. If the subordinates of the magistrate perceive that a +great many names are thrown out, they may come kneeling before the +magistrate, knocking their heads, and begging that he will kindly allow a +few more names to pass. If he happens to be in good humour at the moment, +he may grant their request, which is not in the smallest degree prompted +by any interest in the affairs of the disappointed candidates, but on the +important principle, that the fewer the sheep, the smaller will be the +crop of wool.</p> + +<p>The only fee required for the examination is that paid for registration, +which amounts to about twenty cents. Not the name of the candidate only, +but those of his father and grandfather are to be recorded, to make it +sure that no one legally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> disqualified is admitted. The paper upon which +the examination essays and poems are written is of a special kind, sold +only at the yamên, and at a cost for each examination equivalent to about +ten cents, or fifty cents for the whole five examinations, but the +candidate must pay three-fifths of this amount for the first supply, +whether he is admitted to a further examination or not. If he is, he +becomes entitled to a rebate of this amount on his subsequent purchases.</p> + +<p>On the fifth or sixth day, those who have been selected from the whole +number examined, again file into the examination hall, and are seated +according to their newly-acquired rank for the second test. Three themes +are again propounded, the first from the Four Books, the second from one +of the Five Classics, the third a poetical one, in a manner similar to the +first examination. A day or two is allowed for the inspection of these +essays, when the boards are again hung, and the result is to drop out +perhaps one-half of the competitors.</p> + +<p>At the third examination the themes, which are given out somewhat later +than in the previous trials, are two in number, one from the Four Books, +the other poetical. About noon of this day, the magistrate has a meal of +vermicelli, rice, etc., sent to the candidates. By four in the afternoon +the hall is empty. After the interval of another day the boards are again +hung, indicating that all but perhaps fifty are excluded from further +competition.</p> + +<p>The fourth examination begins at a later hour than the third, and while +the number of the themes may be larger than before—all of them from the +Four Books—time is not allowed for the completion of any of them. In +addition to the classical themes, a philosophical one may be given. +Besides this, there are poetical themes, to be treated in a way different +from those in the preceding examinations, and much more difficult, as the +lines of poetry are subject also to the rules governing the composition of +antithetical couplets.</p> + +<p>The metre, whether five characters to a line, or seven, (the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> only +varieties to choose from), is left to the option of the candidate, who, if +he be a fine scholar and a rapid penman, may treat the same theme in both +ways. A meal is served as at the preceding trial, and by five or six +o’clock, the hall is empty. After the interval of another day, the fourth +board is hung, and the number who have survived this examination is found +to be a small one—perhaps twenty or thirty.</p> + +<p>A day later the final examination occurs. The theme is from the Four +Books, and may be treated fully or partially according to the examiner’s +orders at the moment. A poem is required in the five-character metre, and +also a transcript of some section of the “Sacred Edicts” of the Emperor +Yung Chêng. The design of the latter is to furnish a specimen of the +candidate’s handwriting, in case it should be afterward needed for +comparison. A meal is furnished as before, and by the middle of the +afternoon the hall is cleared. The next day the board is again hung, +announcing the names who have finally passed. The number is a fixed one, +and it is relatively lowest where the population is most dense. In two +contiguous districts, for example, which furnish on an average 500 or 600 +candidates, the number of those who can pass is limited, in the one case +to twenty and in the other to seventeen. In another district where there +are often 2,000 candidates, <i>only</i> thirty can pass. It thus appears that +the chances of success for the average candidate, are extremely tenuous.</p> + +<p>Every candidate for a degree, is required to have a “surety.” These are +selected from graduates of former years, who have advanced one step beyond +that of hsiu-ts‘ai, to that of ling-shêng hsiu-ts‘ai. The total number of +sureties is not necessarily large, perhaps four from each district, and +many of them may be totally unacquainted with the persons for whom they +become thus responsible. The nature of this responsibility is twofold, +first to guarantee that the persons who enter under a particular name, +really bear that name, and second that during the examination they will +not violate any of the established<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> rules. If a false name is shown to +have been entered, or if a violation of the rules occurs, the ling-shêng +would be held responsible, and would be likely to lose his own rank as a +graduate. Each candidate is required to furnish not only a surety, but +also an alternate surety, and in consideration of a present of from ten +cents to five or six dollars, the ling-shêngs are quite willing to +guarantee as many candidates as apply. They must be paid in advance, or +they will prevent the candidate from entering the examination hall.</p> + +<p>The preliminary examinations in the District city, having been thus +completed, are followed about a month later by similar ones in the +Prefectural city, before the Prefect, (chih-fu). Here are gathered +candidates from all the districts within the jurisdiction of the Fu city, +districts ranging in number according to density of population, from two +or three, to twelve or more. Those who have failed to pass the District +examinations are not on that account disqualified from appearing at the +Prefectural examinations, which, like the former, are intended to act as a +process of sifting, in preparation for the final and decisive trial before +the Literary Chancellor. The details of the Prefectural examinations are +similar to those already described, and the time required is about the +same. The number of candidates in a thickly-settled Prefecture, will often +amount to more than 10,000. As no ordinary examination building will +accommodate so many at once, they are examined in relays. The examinations +are conducted by the Prefect, but it by no means follows that those who +have been first in the District examinations will be so now. The order +changes, indeed, from day to day, but those who are constantly toward the +head of the list, are regarded as certain to pass the Chancellor’s +examination.</p> + +<p>The writer is acquainted with a man who at his examination for the first +degree, stood last in a list of seventeen, at the trial next before the +final one. But in that test he was dropped one number, missing his degree +by this narrow margin. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> grief and rage were so excessive as to +unbalance his mind, and for the greater part of his life he has been a +heavy burden on his wife, doing absolutely nothing either for her support +or for his own.</p> + +<p>Those who have already attained the degree of hsiu-ts‘ai, are examined by +themselves for promotion. The expense of obtaining sureties is confined to +the last two sets of examinations. The final trial before the Literary +Chancellor is conducted with far greater care and caution than the +preliminary ones before the local officials. The candidates having been +duly guaranteed and entered, are assigned to seats, distinguished by the +characters in the Millenary Classic, which as already mentioned, affords a +convenient system of notation, being familiar, and having no repeated +characters. The students are closely packed together, fifteen or twenty at +each table. The first table is termed “Heaven” after the first character +in the Millenary Classic, and its occupants are denoted as “heaven one,” +“heaven two,” etc. Each candidate notes his designation; for in the final +lists of those who have passed, no names are used, but only the +description of the seat as above described. Every student is carefully +searched as he enters the hall, to ascertain whether he has about him any +books or papers which might aid him in his task. The examination begins at +an extremely early hour, the theme being given out by sunrise. This theme +is written on a large wooden tablet, and is carried about to all parts of +the room, that each candidate may see it distinctly. It is also read out, +in a loud voice. By nine or ten o’clock another subject is announced from +the Four Books and a poetical theme in five-metre rhythm. A rapid writer +and composer might finish his work by one or two o’clock in the afternoon. +As in other examinations, those who have completed their tasks are allowed +to leave the hall at fixed times, and in detachments. By five or six <span class="smcaplc">P. M.</span> +the time is up, and the fatal stamp is affixed to the last character, +whatever the stage of the composition. During the whole of this +examination, no one is allowed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> on any pretext whatever to move from his +position. If one should be taken deathly sick, he reports to the +superintendent of his section, and requests permission to be taken out, +but in this case he cannot return. A student who should merely rise in his +seat and look around, would be beaten a hundred blows on his hand, like a +schoolboy (as indeed he is supposed to be), would be compelled to kneel +during the whole of the examination, and at the close would be ejected in +disgrace, losing the opportunity for examination until another year.</p> + +<p>Some years ago the examination hall of the city of Chi-nan Fu, the capital +of Shan-tung, was in a very bad condition. The Chancellor held the summer +examinations at that city, because the situation is near to hills, and to +water, and thus was supposed to be a little cooler than others. At one of +these examinations, a violent rain came on, and the roof of the building +leaked like a sieve. Many of the poor candidates were wet to the skin, +their essays and poems being likewise in soak, yet there they were obliged +to remain, riveted to their seats. The unhealthy season caused much +sickness, and many of the candidates suffered severely, seven or eight +dying of cholera while the examinations were in progress. That this is not +an exceptional state of things, is evident from the fact that it has since +been repeated. In the autumn examinations for 1888, at this same place, it +was reported that over one hundred persons died in the quarters, either of +cholera or of some epidemic closely resembling it. Of these, some were +servants, some copyists, some students, and a few officials. On the same +occasion one of the main examination buildings fell in, as a result of +which several persons were said to have been killed. The utterly +demoralizing effect of such occurrences is obvious.</p> + +<p>On the second or third day after the examinations the boards are hung, and +the number of those successful appears. Yet to make the choice doubly +sure, and to guard against fraud and accidents, still another examination +is added, which is final and decisive. In addition to the twenty or thirty +who have passed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> half as many more names are taken of those next highest, +making perhaps thirty or forty candidates, between whom the final choice +will lie. At this examination a theme from the Four Books is again +announced, on which only a fragment, the beginning, middle or end of an +essay, is to be produced, under the immediate eye of the Chancellor +himself. The number of those examined being so limited, it is easy to +supervise them strictly, and changes in the previous order are sure to +occur.</p> + +<p>When the results of this examination are posted, the persons who have +finally passed, and whose talents are definitely adjudged to be +“flourishing,” are for the first time known. Those who have failed at any +stage of the trial may return to their homes, but those who have “entered +school” must remain at the Prefectural city, to escort the Chancellor upon +his way to the next city where he is to hold examinations.</p> + +<p>The expenses of the Chancellor’s examination, to those who fail to pass, +are the same as those of the preceding ones. But for those who have +“entered” there are other and most miscellaneous expenses, illustrating +the Chinese aphorism that it is the sick man who must furnish the +perspiration. The fee to the ling-shêng who is surety, has been already +mentioned. There are also other fees or gratuities, the amount of which +will depend upon the circumstances of the student, but all of which must +be paid. The underlings who transact the business of the examination +receive presents to the amount of several dollars, the “board-hangers” +must be rewarded with a few hundred cash, etc., etc.</p> + +<p>As soon as the candidate is known to have “entered,” a strip of red paper +is prepared, announcing this fact, and a messenger is posted off to the +graduate’s home. For this service, a fee of several thousand cash is +expected. Large proclamations, called “Joyful Announcements,” are prepared +by establishments where characters are cut on blocks, and sold to +successful competitors, at the rate of three or four cents apiece. A poor +scholar may not be able to afford these luxuries,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> but those who can +afford it buy great numbers of them, sending them in every direction to +friends and relatives, who take care to have them properly posted. On +receipt of these notifications, it is customary for the friends of the +fortunate family to pay a visit of congratulation, at which they must be +handsomely entertained at a feast. Each one brings with him a present in +money, varying according to his circumstances, and his relations to the +family of the graduate. If the newmade Bachelor has a wide circle of +relatives and friends, especially if some of them happen to be occupying +official positions, he will not improbably receive enough in gifts of this +sort, to reimburse himself for the costs attending his examinations, and +in exceptional instances, his congratulatory presents may greatly exceed +the total of his expenses.</p> + +<p>The style of these notices is the same, a blank being left for the name +and rank of the graduate which is inserted in writing. It is a very common +practice in some regions to announce that the person concerned, “entered +as first on the list,” though as a matter of fact he may have been one of +the last. This is considered a very easy and desirable way to get a name, +though no one is deceived by the fraud, for when a dead wall is covered by +scores of these announcements, each recording the entry of some one as the +“first name,” it is obvious that the phrase is merely employed for +display.</p> + +<p>It would naturally be supposed that the result of competition so severe +and so protracted as that for the degree of hsiu-ts‘ai, would be certified +in the most careful manner, such as by a diploma bearing the seal of the +Chancellor. There is, however, nothing of the kind. The essays of the +successful candidates are supposed to be forwarded to the Board of Rites +in Peking, where it is to be hoped they eventually grow mouldy and +disappear, else the capital might be buried beneath the enormous mass. But +the individual whose talent is at last flourishing, has of that fact no +tangible evidence whatever. When it becomes desirable to investigate the +claim of a hsiu-ts‘ai, he is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> asked in what year he graduated, the name of +the examiner, the several themes propounded, etc. It will be difficult to +manufacture plausible replies, which will not give some clew to their +falsity. In one case of this sort within the writer’s knowledge, a man who +had been examined, but who did not pass, on being questioned gave the +name, the subjects, etc., which belonged to his own brother, who really +was a graduate. The man himself, as afterward appeared, was in prison at +the very time when he professed to have graduated.</p> + +<p>This absence of credentials for a degree so much coveted, makes it easy +for scholars of shrewdness, and real ability, to pass themselves off in +districts remote from their own, as having attained to a rank which they +have not in reality reached.</p> + +<p>A graduate is allowed to wear a plain brass button on his cap, which he +prefers to the pewter one given him on graduating. In case of violations +of law, the Magistrate of the District in which the offender lives, may +have his button taken away, and the graduate reduced to the level of any +other person. As long, however, as he continues to be a graduate, he +cannot be beaten like other Chinese, except on the palm of the hand. If a +Magistrate were to violate the rights of any graduate, the act would raise +a tornado about his head, before which he would be glad to retreat, for +the whole body of graduates would rise like a swarm of hornets to resent +the insult.</p> + +<p>The financial exigencies of the past generation or two have led to the +open sale of literary degrees, a practice resorted to on a great scale by +the Chinese Government, whenever there is any unusual pressure for funds, +such as the repair of the disasters caused by the change in the Yellow +River. It is often quite possible to buy the degree of hsiu-ts‘ai, for +about $100, and the purchaser is provided with a certificate, being in +this respect on a better footing than the graduate. But subscription +degrees are regarded with merited contempt, and their sale great as it has +been, does not appear to have seriously affected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> the regular +examinations, by diminishing the number of contestants.</p> + +<p>There are other methods than purchase of a degree, by which the candidate +for literary honours, whose means admit of it, may try to weight the wheel +of fortune in his favour. There are three common ways of providing oneself +with examination essays without undergoing the labour of composing them. +Of these the first is known as the “box plan,” (<i>hsiang-tzŭ</i>), and it +is not so much cramming, as padding. The Four Books and Five Classics seem +at first sight to afford an almost unbounded field for subjects of essays, +and as the Chancellor does not announce his themes until he enters the +hall, it is hopeless to attempt to ascertain them in advance. But the +shrewd Celestial has an empirical, if not a scientific acquaintance with +the doctrine of chances and of averages. He knows that in the course of +years, the same themes recur, and that essays which were composed long +before he was born are just as good in the present year as they ever were. +The “padding” method consists in lining one’s clothing with an immense +number of essays, the characters of which are of that minute kind known as +“fly-eye,” scarcely legible without a magnifying glass. Upon this scale, +it is easy to reduce an essay with 300 characters to a compass of extreme +insignificance, and a moderately “padded” scholar might be provided with +8,000 or 10,000 such essays. Sometimes they are concealed in the baskets +in which the students bring their provisions to the hall. By dint of a +complete index, the student who is padded, can readily ascertain whether +he is provided with an essay upon the passage desired, and though the +withdrawal of an essay from a pack might seem a more difficult feat, it is +easily done by the judicious expenditure of a fee to the guards both at +the door and within the hall. A variation of the padding method is to have +essays written all over the lining of the inner jackets, which are made of +white silk for this purpose.</p> + +<p>A second and very common way of obtaining essays without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> writing them, is +by purchase. In furtherance of this plan, there is a special system of +machinery, which (with appropriate financial lubrication) may be easily +set in motion.</p> + +<p>The purchase of an essay is one of those acts which in China can by no +possibility be concealed. “There is no hedge that excludes the wind,” and +the close proximity of so many witnesses would, in any case, render the +transaction in a manner a public one. Why then do not those scholars who +are honestly toiling for a degree, agree to expose the frauds by which +every one of them is so seriously wronged? It is not, indeed, an unknown +circumstance for a scholar to cry out, so as to attract the attention of +the examiners, when he witnesses the transfer of essays, but it is not +apparently a common act. The custom of selling essays, like other abuses +in China, is too universal and too ancient to be broken up, without the +steady coöperation of many forces, for which it is hopeless to look. The +Chinese dread to give offence by any such burst of indignation as would +be, for an Occidental, irrepressible. And so things go on in the old way. +As to the morality of the affair, if the consideration of it ever occurs +to any one, it is hard to make that appear culpable in a poor scholar, +which is legitimate for the emperor.</p> + +<p>The proportion of students who obtain their degrees unfairly must be +large, but there is no means of ascertaining the facts, even +approximately. No two examinations are alike, and in all of them much +depends upon the temper and vigilance of the presiding officer. In one +district in which the writer lived, there was an examination in which so +many persons obtained their degrees by fraud, that even the patience of +the most patient of peoples was exhausted. Some defeated candidate wrote a +complaint of the wrong, and tossed it into the examination hall where it +was brought to the attention of the Chancellor, who had all the successful +candidates examined on their essays, an examination which eleven out of +fifteen were unable to pass, having bought their essays, and the result +was their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>summary disgrace. Since this occurrence, much greater care has +been exercised at this particular examination than was formerly the rule. +In another district a candidate known to the writer succeeded in passing +the first of the two examinations before the Chancellor, but the second +was too much for him. His essay and poem were adjudged bad, and he was +beaten a hundred blows on the hand. It was then the custom to publish the +names of those who passed the best examination on the first trial before +the Chancellor, as already having attained a degree. This notice had +already been sent to the home of the candidate, who now had the exquisite +mortification of having his name erased, when the prize was already within +his grasp. The subordinates in the yamên of the Chancellor kneeled to his +Excellency, and implored him to overlook the amazing stupidity of this +candidate, which the great man was kind enough to do, and thus a degree +was wrested even from fate itself.</p> + +<p>At all varieties of examinations, there are present many persons who act +as essay brokers and as middle-men between those who have essays to sell, +and those who wish to buy. It is supposed that both the seller of the +essay and the purchaser will be among those examined, but the practical +difficulty arises from the uncertainty whether their respective seats in +the hall, which cannot be known in advance, will be within reach of each +other. As any two persons are very liable to be so far apart that +communication will be impossible, it is usual for the essay broker to +introduce a number of essay vendors to each intending purchaser, so that +the chances of effecting a transfer between any two of them may be +increased. To bind the bargain, before the essay is composed, a brief but +explicit contract is signed by the purchaser in the hall. The terms are +arranged on a sliding scale, called “first two and after two,” “first five +and after five,” etc. This signifies that it is agreed that the person who +furnishes the essay shall receive in any event a first payment of 20,000 +cash, or 50,000 cash, as the case may be, and should the purchaser win a +degree, there is to be an after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> payment of 200,000 cash, or 500,000 cash, +according to the terms. These payments are enforced by the brokers, who +must be well acquainted with the financial circumstances of the several +parties. These obligations, like gambling debts, cannot of course be +legally prosecuted, but the Chinese have in all such cases simple ways of +enforcing payment, such as raising a disturbance in an annoying and public +way.</p> + +<p>The reputation of having bought an examination essay is not one which any +candidate wishes to have made public authentically, however notorious the +fact may be, but the reputation of having bought an essay and of having +declined payment, would be intolerable. Some essay vendors frequent +examinations for a long series of years, with no view to obtaining a +degree for themselves, but in order to reap more substantial benefits from +their scholarship than a degree is likely to confer. If they have once +taken a degree themselves, they can only carry on this trade by assuming +the name of some candidate, to whom a fee must be paid for the privilege +of personating him. Graduates of the rank of Selected Men also carry on +this business, sometimes in a double way, taking a degree for the person +whom they personate, and also having leisure to write essays for sale, +after their own are finished, thus killing two birds with one stone. In +either case, it is necessary to bribe the ling-shêng who is the guarantee +of the identity of the undergraduate.</p> + +<p>The third method of obtaining the essays of other persons, is called +“transmission” (ch‘uan ti). This can only be accomplished by the +coöperation of the inspectors (hsün ch‘ang) who, like all other mortals, +are supposed to be perfectly open to considerations of temporal advantage, +if only arguments of sufficient strength are employed. As soon as the +Chancellor’s theme is announced, it is copied, and at a preconcerted +signal thrown over the wall of the examination premises to persons waiting +for it. Several scholars outside may have been previously engaged to write +essays for different persons within the hall. When the essays are finished +they are carefully done up,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> and at a signal, such as a call for a dog or +for a cat, are thrown over the wall to the watchman, who has been +previously paid to receive them. The inspector, also liberally fed, +ascertains from a private mark on each essay, for whom it is intended, and +while pacing back and forth through the hall, contrives to deliver them, +without being seen by the Chancellor. In one case, six persons were known +to have received their degrees, on the merits of essays which were brought +into the hall after being thrown over the wall in a single bundle. +Sometimes essays are concealed in the body of a harmless-looking +bread-cake, which is tossed carelessly from one candidate to another when +the lunches are eaten, with the connivance, no doubt, of the inspectors. +The District Magistrates sometimes post the Secretaries at the corners of +the examination hall, where it is easy to see all that goes on. But much +more often, it is probable, that the Magistrate takes little interest in +such details.</p> + +<p>In some examinations, the Chancellors are very strict, and forbid any of +the watchmen to enter the hall at all, which, of course, checkmates the +plan last described. Such instances are much more than offset by others, +in which the Chancellor does not remain through the examination himself, +but entrusts the conduct of affairs to his Secretaries. These +functionaries are then at liberty to furnish essays to candidates who can +afford to pay the heavy price necessary. In such cases, while ostensibly +examining the essays, the Secretaries find it easy to throw one of their +own under a stool, or in some place from which it may be readily captured +by the purchaser.</p> + +<p>In a case reported in the <i>Peking Gazette</i> some years since, a bold vendor +of essays succeeded in getting his paper conveyed to the individual for +whom it was intended, by hooking it on the garments of the venerable +Chancellor himself, who thus unconsciously became the bearer of the very +documents which he was endeavouring to suppress! The candidates at the +Chancellor’s examination are generally seated in such proximity, that +including those on each side, most of the students are within<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> easy reach +of ten or fifteen other persons. This renders the transfer of papers an +easy matter. In the second of these trials, when the number is reduced to +a mere handful, the students are often seated just as compactly as before.</p> + +<p>A scholar with whom the writer is acquainted, once found himself near a +poor fellow, who was utterly at a loss how to treat the theme from +Mencius, “Like climbing a tree to catch a fish.” A verbal arrangement was +hastily made for the purchase of an essay, but the usual written agreement +was omitted. The essay was indited in the lawless style of chirography +known as the “grass character,” and handed to the purchaser to be copied. +Here an untoward accident occurred, for the man who bought the essay +mistook two characters, when he copied out the paper, for two others which +they much resembled, thus ruining the chances of success. The poor scholar +begged off from the amount which he had agreed to pay, (which was about +ten dollars) on the plea of poverty. The angry essay-seller then raised a +kind of mob of students, went to the lodgings of his debtor and made an +uproar, the result of which was to extract from the latter about a dollar +and a half, which was all that could be got! The preceptor of the man who +sold the essay, who was himself one of the candidates at this examination, +claimed, with many others, that the essay which was sold, as represented +by the author, must certainly have resulted in a degree for the poor +scholar if he had not blundered in inditing false characters.</p> + +<p>Should an examiner overlook a wrong character, and the fact be afterward +made public, he might be degraded for his carelessness. A case of this +sort was reported a few years ago in the <i>Peking Gazette</i>. At the +triennial examination for the Han-lin, in the year 1871, after the essays +had been submitted to the Han-lin examiners, the nine most meritorious +ones were selected, and were sent in to the Empress Dowager—the Emperor +being under age—to have the award formally confirmed. The work of +greatest merit was placed uppermost, but the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> lady, who had an +imperial will of her own, was anxious to thwart the decision of the +learned pundits; and, as chance would have it, the sunlight fell upon the +chosen manuscript, and she discovered a flaw, a thinness in the paper, +indicating a place in the composition where one character had been erased +and another substituted. The Empress rated the examiners for allowing such +“slovenly work” to pass, and proclaimed another man, whose name was +Hsiang, as victor. This individual hailed from the province of +Kuang-tung—a province which had produced a Senior Wrangler but once in +250 years. On his return to his native province the successful scholar was +received by the local authorities with the highest possible honours. All +the families owning his surname who could afford to do so paid enormous +sums to be permitted to come and worship at his ancestral hall, for by +this means they established a <i>pseudo</i> claim to relationship, and were +allowed to place tablets over the entrances of their own halls inscribed +with the title Chuang Yüan, or Senior Wrangler. The superstitious +Cantonese believed that the sunbeam which revealed the fatal flaw was a +messenger sent from heaven!</p> + +<p>The fact that a man has taken the degree of hsiu-ts‘ai, does not release +him from the necessity of studying. On the contrary, this is called +“entering school,” and the graduate is required to present himself at each +triennial examination, to compete for the next step in the scale of +honours, that of ling-shêng hsiu-ts‘ai. The number of graduates who can +attain the rank of ling-shêng in any one year is limited. In a district +which graduates seventeen hsiu-ts‘ai, there may be but one or two +ling-shêng graduates passed at a time. There are, however, extra +examinations, as already explained, in case of the accession of an +Emperor, etc., and when a vacancy in the fixed number takes place through +death, an additional candidate is allowed to pass to fill the place. A +hsiu-ts‘ai is not allowed to decline the examination merely on account of +the improbability of his passing it; on the contrary, every graduate is +required<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> to compete as often as examinations occur. This is the theory, +but as a matter of fact, the payment of about a dollar and a half to the +underlings of the Superintendent of Instruction for the District will +enable the candidate to have an entry opposite his name, signifying that +he is “incapacitated by illness,” or is “not at home.” But after the +graduate has been examined ten times, and has persistently failed to show +any capacity for further advance, he is excused from examination +thereafter, and his name is dropped. At these examinations the candidates +are divided into four classes according to the respective merits of their +essays. If any candidate fails to get into the first three classes, he is +regarded as having forfeited his title to the grade of hsiu-ts‘ai, and he +loses his rank as such, unless the Chancellor can be prevailed upon to +excuse his “rotten scholarship,” and give the unfortunate student another +trial. Hence the proverb, “The hsiu-ts‘ai dreads the fourth class.” The +ling-shêng is entitled to a small allowance of about $10 a year, from the +Government, to assist him in the prosecution of his studies, though the +amount can hardly be regarded as proportioned to the difficulty of +attaining the rank which alone is entitled to receive this meagre help.</p> + +<p>The ling-shêng graduates are required to compete at the triennial +examinations, for the next step, which is that of kung-shêng. Only one +candidate can enter this rank at one examination unless there should be a +special vacancy.</p> + +<p>There are five varieties of kung-shêng, according to the time at which and +the conditions under which they have graduated. These scholars do not, +like the ling-shêng, act as bondsmen for undergraduates, nor do they like +them, have an allowance. They are permitted to wear a semi-official robe, +and are addressed by a title of respect, but in a pecuniary point of view +their honours are empty ones, unless they secure the place of +Superintendent of Instruction, which must, however, be in some district +other than their own. The kung-shêng and the hsiu-ts‘ai are at opposite +ends of one division of the long <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>educational road. The former is regarded +as a schoolboy, and the latter is for the first time a man, and need be +examined no more, unless he chooses to compete for the rank of Selected +Man, (chü-jên) an examination which has intricacies and perils of its own. +“The hsiu-ts‘ai,” says the proverb, “must have talent, but the chü-jên +must have fate,” that is, no amount of talent, by itself, will suffice to +win this higher rank, unless the fates are on one’s side, a proposition +which we are prepared to believe, from what has already been seen of the +lower grades of scholarship.</p> + +<p>At any part of the long process which we have described, it is possible to +become a candidate for honours above, by purchasing those below. A man of +real talent, studiously inclined, might for example buy the rank of +ling-shêng, and then with a preceptor of his own, and great diligence, +become a kung-shêng, a chü-jên, and perhaps at last an official, skipping +all the tedious lower steps. The taint of having climbed over the wall, +instead of entering by the straight and narrow way, would doubtless cling +to him forever, but this circumstance would probably not interfere with +his equanimity, so long as it did not diminish his profits. As a matter of +experience, however, it is probable that it would be more worth while to +buy an office outright, rather than to enter the field, by the circuitous +route of a combination of purchase and examinations.</p> + +<p>Whether to be examined or not is not always optional in China. A father +was determined that his son should study for a degree, which the son was +very unwilling to do, yielding however to compulsion. He was so successful +that at the age of nineteen he became a Bachelor, only to find that his +father’s ambition was far from satisfied, and that he now required him to +go on and work for the next degree of Selected Man. Perceiving that there +was no hope of escaping this discouraging task, the youth hung himself, +and was examined no more!</p> + +<p>The office of Superintendent of Instruction, is considered a very +desirable one, since the duties are light, and the income<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> considerable. +This income arises partly from a large tract of land set apart for the +support of the two Superintendents, partly from “presents” of grain +exacted twice a year after the manner of Buddhist priests, and partly from +fees which every graduate is required to pay, varying as all such Chinese +payments do, according to the circumstances of the individual. The +Superintendent is careful to inquire privately into the means at the +disposal of each graduate, and fixes his tax accordingly. From his +decision there is no appeal. If the payment is resisted as excessive, the +Superintendent, who is theoretically his preceptor, will have the +hsiu-ts‘ai beaten on the hands, and probably double the amount of the +assessment. If any of the graduates in a district are accused of a crime, +they are reported to the District Magistrate, who turns them over to the +Superintendent of Instruction, for an inquiry. The Superintendent and the +Magistrate together, could secure the disgrace of a graduate, as already +explained.</p> + +<p>The Government desires to encourage learning as much as possible, and to +this end there are in many cities, what may be termed Government +high-schools or colleges, where preceptors of special ability are +appointed to explain the Classics, and to hold frequent examinations, +similar to those in the regular course, as described. The funds for the +support of such institutions, are sometimes derived from the voluntary +subscriptions of wealthy persons, who have been rewarded by the gift of an +honourary title, or perhaps from a tax on a cattle fair, etc. Where the +arrangement is carried out in good faith, it has worked well, but in two +districts known to the writer, the whole plan has been brought into +discredit of late years, on account of the promotion to office of District +Magistrates who have bought their way upward, and who have no learning of +their own. In such cases, the management of the examination is probably +left to a Secretary, who disposes of it as quickly and with as little +trouble to himself as possible. The themes for the essays are given out, +and prizes promised for the best, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> instead of remaining to superintend +the competition, the Secretary goes about his business, leaving the +scholars who wish to compete to go to their homes, and write their essays +there, or to have others do it for them, as they prefer. In some +instances, the same man registers under a variety of names, and writes +competitive essays for them all, or he perhaps writes his essays and sells +them to others, and when they are handed in, no questions are asked. It +would be easy to stop abuses of this sort, if it were the concern or the +interest of any one to do so, but it is not, and so they continue. A +school-teacher with whom the writer is acquainted, happening to have a +school near the district city, made it a constant practice for many years, +to attend examinations of this sort. He was examined about a hundred +times, and on four occasions received a prize, once a sum in money +equivalent to about seventy-five cents, and three other times a sum equal +to about half-a-dollar!</p> + +<p>It is a constant wonder to Occidentals, by what motives the Chinese are +impelled, in their irrepressible thirst for literary degrees, even under +all the drawbacks and disadvantages, some of which have been described. +These motives, like all others in human experience are mixed, but at the +base of them all, is a desire for fame and for power. In China the power +is in the hands of the learned and of the rich. Wealth is harder to +acquire than learning, and incomparably more difficult to keep. The +immemorial traditions of the empire are all in favour of the man who is +willing to submit to the toils that he may win the rewards of the scholar.</p> + +<p>Every village as already explained, has its headmen. Among them the +literary graduate, provided he is also a practical man, will inevitably +take the lead. He will often come into relations with the District +Magistrate, which makes him a marked man among his fellows. He will be +constantly called upon to assist in the settlement of disputes, and every +such occasion will afford opportunities for the privilege, so dear to the +Chinese, of enjoying a feast at the expense of his neighbours, besides +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>putting them under an obligation to him for his trouble. At the weddings +and funerals within the large circle of his acquaintance he will be a +frequent guest, and always in the place of honour due to his literary +degree. This is especially the case in funeral ceremonies of those who are +buried with the most elaborate ritual. On these occasions the ancestral +tablet of the deceased is to be written, and as an important part of the +exercises a red dot over one character signifying King is to be placed, +thus changing it into the symbol denoting Lord. It is not uncommon to have +the performances connected with such funerals extended over several days, +each furnishing three excellent feasts, as well as abundant supplies of +opium for those who wish to smoke. In a country like China the +participation in revels such as these approach more nearly to paradisaic +bliss than anything of which the Chinese mind can conceive. Every scholar +is desirous of getting into such relations with his environment that +honours of this sort come to him as a matter of course. If he happens to +be very poor, they furnish a not unimportant part of his support, as well +as of his happiness.</p> + +<p>The village graduate who knows how to help in lawsuits by preparing +complaints, and by assisting in the intricate proceedings ensuing at each +stage is often able by means of the prestige thus gained, to get his +living at the expense of others more ignorant. No country offers a better +field for such an enterprise than China. Unbounded respect for learning +coexists with unbounded ignorance, and the experienced literary man knows +how to turn each of these elements to the very best account. In all lands +and in all ages, the man who is possessed with what is vulgarly termed the +“gift of the gab,” is able to make his own way, and in China he carries +everything before him.</p> + +<p>The range of territory which any aspirant for literary honours in China +must expect to traverse, is, as we have seen, continental. In order to +have any hope of success, he must be acquainted with every square inch of +it, and must be prepared to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> sink an artesian well from any given point to +any given depth. To the uneducated peasant, whose whole being is +impregnated with a blind respect for learning, amounting at times to a +kind of idolatry, such knowledge as this seems an almost supernatural +acquirement, and inspires all the reverence of which he is capable. The +thought of the estimate in which they will be held for the whole term of +their lives, is thus a powerful stimulus to scholars of ambition, even +under the greatest discouragements.</p> + +<p>There could scarcely be a better exemplification of what the Chinese +saying calls “superiority to those below, and inferiority to those above,” +than the position of the hsiu-ts‘ai. While he is looked upon by the vulgar +herd in the light we have described, by the educated classes above him he +is regarded, as we have so often termed him, as a schoolboy who is not yet +even in school. The popular dictum avers that though the whole body of +hsiu-ts‘ai should attempt to start a rebellion, and should be left +undisturbed in the effort for three years, the result would be failure, +albeit this proverb finds no support in the history of the great +rebellion, which originated with a discontented undergraduate who was +exasperated at his repeated failures to get his talent recognized. +Literary examinations, as we have abundantly seen, are like the game of +backgammon, an equal mixture of skill and luck, but the young graduate +easily comes to regard the luck as due to the skill, and thus becomes +filled to the full of that intellectual pride which is one of the greatest +barriers to the national progress of China.</p> + +<p>Differing by millenniums from the system just described is that recently +decreed after successful agitation by a few reformers. During the summer +of 1898 His Majesty Kuang Hsü, Emperor of China, issued several Edicts +which abolished the “eight-legged examination essay” as an avenue to the +attainment of literary degrees, and introduced in their place what was +termed Practical Chinese Literature, and Western Learning, which were to +be combined in Provincial and County Academies. Existing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> institutions +were to be remodelled after a more or less definite pattern set in Peking. +All except official temples (that is, those where offerings or services +were required from the Magistrates) were to be surrendered as seats of the +New Learning. Reports were demanded from Provincial Governors as to the +present status of these temples, and the future prospects for income from +them.</p> + +<p>These Edicts potentially revolutionized the intellectual life of China. +They were received very differently in different parts of the empire, but +there is no reason to doubt that they would have been widely welcomed by +an influential minority of the literati of China, who had in various ways +come to realize the futility of the present instruction for the needs of +to-day. The immediate effect was to bring Western Learning into universal +demand. Scholars who had never deigned to recognize the existence of +foreigners, were now glad to become their pupils and purchasers of their +text-books on a large scale. For a few weeks examination themes were +strongly tinctured with Western topics, and those who were able to show +any familiarity with those branches of learning were almost sure of a +degree. Correct answers to simple mathematical, geographical, or +astronomical questions are said to have rendered success certain, and it +is even alleged that a candidate in one place took his honours by writing +out and commenting upon the Ten Commandments, which he represented as The +Western Code of Laws.</p> + +<p>Toward the close of September, 1898, the Empress Dowager seized the reins, +suppressed her nephew, and nearly all reforms, educational and political, +were extinguished. A new Imperial University in Peking survived the storm, +but almost all of the extended and beneficent program of His Majesty was +relegated to the Greek Kalends. It is only a question of time when the +pendulum shall swing back, but every well-wisher of China hopes that it +may not be delayed until the national existence of the Chinese shall have +been lost.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE TEMPLES AND RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> process by which the inconceivably great numbers of Chinese temples +came to be is not without an interest of its own. When a few individuals +wish to build a temple, they call the headmen of the village, in whose +charge by long custom are all the public matters of the town, and the +enterprise is put in their care. It is usual to make an assessment on the +land for funds; this is not necessarily a fixed sum for each acre, but is +more likely to be graded according to the amount of land each owns, the +poor being perhaps altogether exempt, or very lightly taxed, and the rich +paying much more heavily. When the money is all collected by the managers, +the building begins under their direction. If the temple is to be a large +one, costing several hundred tæls, in addition to this preliminary tax, a +subscription book is opened, and sent to all the neighbouring villages, +and sometimes to all within a wide radius, the begging being often done by +some priest of persuasive powers, dragging a chain, or having his cheeks +pierced with spikes, or in some way bearing the appearance of fulfilling a +vow. The only motive to these outside contributions is the strong impetus +to the “practice of virtue,” which exists among the Chinese, and which can +be played upon to almost any extent. Lists of contributions are kept in +the larger temples, and the donors are expected to receive the worth of +their money, through seeing their names posted in a conspicuous place, as +subscribers of a certain sum. In some regions it is customary to set down +the amount given as much larger than it really is, by a fiction equally +agreeable to all concerned. Thus the donor of 250 cash sees his name +paraded as the subscriber of 1,000 cash, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> so throughout. These +subscriptions to temples are in reality a loan to be repaid whenever the +village subscribing finds itself in need of similar help, and the +obligation will not be forgotten by the donors.</p> + +<p>It is seldom safe to generalize in regard to anything in China, but if +there is one thing in regard to which a generalization would seem to be +more safe than another, it would be the universality of temples in every +village throughout the empire. Yet it is an undoubted fact that there are, +even in China, great numbers of villages which have no temple at all. This +is true of all those which are inhabited exclusively by Mohammedans, who +never take any part in the construction of such edifices, a peculiarity +which is now well known and respected though at the first appearance of +these strangers, it caused them many bitter struggles to establish their +right to a monotheistic faith.</p> + +<p>The most ordinary explanation of a comparatively rare phenomenon of a +village without a temple, is that the hamlet is a small one and cannot +afford the expense. Sometimes it may have been due to the fact that there +was no person of sufficient intelligence in the village to take the +initial steps, and as one generation is much influenced by what was done +and what was not done in the generations that have passed, five hundred +years may elapse without the building of a temple, simply because a temple +was not built five hundred years ago. In the very unusual cases where a +village is without one, it is not because they have no use for the gods; +for in such instances the villagers frequently go to the temples of the +next village and “borrow their light,” just as a poor peasant who cannot +afford to keep an animal to do his plowing may get the loan of a donkey in +planting time, from a neighbour who is better off.</p> + +<p>The two temples which are most likely to be found, though all others be +wanting, are those of the local god, and of the god of war. The latter has +been made much of by the present dynasty, and greatly promoted in the +pantheon. The former is regarded as a kind of constable in the next world, +and he is to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> be informed promptly on the death of an adult, that he may +report to the city god (“Ch‘êng Huang,”) who in turn reports to Yen Wang, +the Chinese Pluto.</p> + +<p>In case a village has no temple to the T‘u-ti, or local god, news of the +death is conveyed to him by wailing at the crossing of two streets, where +he is supposed to be in ambush.</p> + +<p>Tens of thousands of villages are content with these two temples, which +are regarded as almost indispensable. If the village is a large one, +divided into several sections transacting their public business +independently of one another, there may be several temples to the same +divinity. It is a common saying, illustrative of Chinese notions on this +topic, that the local god at one end of the village has nothing to do with +the affairs of the other end of the village.</p> + +<p>When the temple has been built, if the managers have been prudent, they +are not unlikely to have collected much more than they will use in the +building. This surplus is used partly in giving a theatrical exhibition, +to which all donors are invited—which is the only public way in which +their virtue can be acknowledged—but mainly in the purchase of land, the +income of which shall support the temple priest. In this way, a temple +once built is in a manner endowed, and becomes self-supporting. The +managers select some one of the donors, and appoint him a sort of +president of the board of trustees, (called a <i>shan chu</i>, or “master of +virtue”), and he is the person with whom the managers take account for the +rent and use of the land. Sometimes a public school is supported from the +income of the land, and sometimes this income is all gambled away by +vicious priests, who have devices of their own to get control of the +property to the exclusion of the villagers. When temples get out of +repair, which, owing to their defective construction, is constantly the +case, they must be rebuilt by a process similar to that by which they were +originally constructed; for in China there are as truly successive crops +of temples as of turnips.</p> + +<p>There is no limit to the number of temples which a single<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> village may be +persuaded into building. Some villages of three hundred families have one +to every ten families, but this must be an exceptional ratio. It is a +common saying among the Chinese that the more temples a village has, the +poorer it is, and also the worse its morals. But, on the other hand, the +writer has heard of one village which has none at all, but which has +acquired the nickname of “Ma Family Thief Village.” It seems reasonable to +infer from the observed facts that, when they have fallen into comparative +desuetude, temples are almost inert, so far as influence goes. But when +filled with indolent and vicious priests, as is too often the case, they +are baneful to the morals of any community. In the rural districts, it is +comparatively rare to find resident priests, for the reason that they +cannot live from the scanty revenue, and a year of famine will starve them +out of large districts.</p> + +<p>Temples that are a little distance from a village are a favourite resort +of thieves, as a convenient place to divide their booty, and also are +resting-places for beggars. To prevent this misuse, it is common to see +the door entirely bricked up, or perhaps a small opening may be left for +the divinity to breathe through!</p> + +<p>The erection of a temple is but the beginning of an interminable series of +expenses; for, if there is a priest, he must be paid for each separate +service rendered, and will besides demand a tax in grain of every villager +after the wheat and autumn harvests—exactions which often become +burdensome in the extreme. In addition to this, minor repairs keep up an +unceasing flow of money. If there is an annual chanting of sacred books +(called <i>ta chiao</i>), this is also a heavy expense.</p> + +<p>Temples which are not much used are convenient receptacles for coffins, +which have been prepared in the Chinese style before they are needed, and +also for the images of animals, made of reeds and paper, which are +designed to be burnt at funerals that they may be thus transported to the +spirit world. If the temple has a farm attached, the divinities are quite +likely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> to be obscured, in the autumn, by the crops which are hung up to +dry all about and even over them; for storage space under a roof is one of +the commodities most rare in the village.</p> + +<p>The temples most popular in one region may be precisely those which are +rarely seen in another, but next to those already named perhaps the most +frequently honoured divinities are the Goddess of Mercy (<i>Kuan Yin P‘u +Sa</i>), some variety of the manifold goddess known as “Mother” (<i>Niang +Niang</i>), and Buddha. What is called the “Hall of the Three Religions” +(<i>San Chiao T‘ang</i>), is one of the instructive relics of a time when the +common proposition that the “three religions are really one” was not so +implicitly received as now. In the Hall of the Three Religions, Confucius, +Lao-tzŭ (the founder of Taoism, or Rationalism), and Buddha, all stand +together on one platform; but Buddha, the foreigner, is generally placed +in the middle as the post of honour, showing that even to the Chinese the +native forms of faith have seemed to be lacking in something which +Buddhism attempts to supply. This place has not been obtained, however, +without a long struggle.</p> + +<p>Another form of genial compromise of rival claims, is what is called “The +Temple of All the gods” (<i>Ch‘üan shên miao</i>), in which a great variety of +deities are represented on a wall, but with no clear precedence of honour. +Temples to the god of Literature, (<i>Wên Ch‘ang</i>), are built by +subscriptions of the local scholars, or by taxes imposed by the District +Magistrate. It is impossible to arrive at any exact conclusions on the +subject, but it is probable that the actual cost of the temples, in almost +any region in China, would be found to form a heavy percentage of the +income of the people in the district.</p> + +<p> </p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="images"> +<tr><td><img src="images/fp141left.jpg" alt="" /></td> + <td><span class="spacer"> </span></td> + <td><img src="images/fp141right.jpg" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">The World’s Oldest Sacred Mountain, T‘ai Shan.</span></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="center"><span class="smcap">Scenery Along The River Lin.</span></td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> +<h3>COÖPERATION IN RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> genius of the Chinese for combination is nowhere more conspicuous than +in their societies which have a religious object. Widely as they differ in +the special purposes to which they are devoted, they all appear to share +certain characteristics, which are generally four in number—the +contribution of small sums at definite intervals by many persons; the +superintendence of the finances by a very small number of the +contributors; the loan of the contributions at a high rate of interest, +which is again perpetually loaned and re-loaned so as to accumulate +compound interest in a short time and in large amounts; and lastly, the +employment of the accumulations in the religious observance for which the +society was instituted, accompanied by a certain amount of feasting +participated in by the contributors.</p> + +<p>A typical example of the numerous societies organized for religious +purposes may be found in one of those which have for their object a +pilgrimage to some of the five sacred mountains of China. The most famous +and most frequented of them all is the Great Mountain (T‘ai Shan) in +Shan-tung, which in the second month of the Chinese year is crowded with +pilgrims from distant parts of the empire. For those who live at any +considerable distance from this seat of worship, which according to Dr. +Williamson is the most ancient historical mountain in the world, the +expense of travel to visit the place is an obstacle of a serious +character. To surmount this difficulty, societies are organized which levy +a tax upon each member, of (say) one hundred cash a month. If there are +fifty members this would result in the collection of 5,000 cash as a first +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>payment. The managers who have organized the society, proceed to loan +this amount to some one who is willing to pay for its use not less than +two or three per cent. a month. Such loans are generally for short +periods, and to those who are in the pressing need of financial help. When +the time has expired, and principal and interest is collected, it is again +loaned out, thus securing a very rapid accumulation of capital. Successive +loans at a high rate of interest for short periods, are repeatedly +effected during the three years, which are generally the limit of the +period of accumulation. It constantly happens that those who have in +extreme distress borrowed such funds, find themselves unable to repay the +loan when it is called in, and as benevolence to the unfortunate forms no +part of the “virtue practice” of those who organize these societies, the +defaulters are then obliged to pull down their houses or to sell part of +their farms to satisfy the claims of the “Mountain Society.” Even thus it +is not always easy to raise the sum required, and in cases of this sort, +the unfortunate debtor may even be driven to commit suicide.</p> + +<p>“Mountain Societies” are of two sorts, the “Travelling,” (<i>hsing-shan +hui</i>), and the “Stationary,” (<i>tso-shan hui</i>). The former lays plans for a +visit to the sacred mountain, and for the offering of a certain amount of +worship at the various temples there to be found. The latter is a device +for accomplishing the principal results of the society, without the +trouble and expense of an actual visit to a distant and more or less +inaccessible mountain peak. The recent repeated outbreaks of the Yellow +River which must be crossed by many of the pilgrims to the Great Mountain, +have tended greatly to diminish the number of “Travelling Societies,” and +to increase the number of the stationary variety.</p> + +<p>When the three years of accumulation have expired, the managers call in +all the money, and give notice to the members who hold a feast. It is then +determined at what date a theatrical exhibition shall be given, which is +paid for by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>accumulation of the assessments and the interest. If the +members are natives of several different villages, a site may be chosen +for the theatricals convenient for them all, but without being actually in +any one of them. At other times the place is fixed by lot.</p> + +<p>During the performance of the theatricals, generally three days or four, +the members of the society are present, and may be said to be their own +guests and their own hosts. For the essential part of the ceremony is the +eating, without which nothing in China can make the smallest progress. The +members frequently treat themselves to three excellent feasts each day, +and in the intervals of eating and witnessing theatricals, they find time +to do more or less worshipping of an image of the mountain goddess (<i>T‘ai +Shan niang-niang</i>) at a paper “mountain,” which by a simple fiction is +held to be, for all intents and purposes, the real Great Mountain. While +there does not appear to be any deeply-seated conviction that there is +greater merit in actually going to the real mountain than in worshipping +at its paper representative at home, this almost inevitable feeling +certainly does exist, and it expresses itself forcibly in nicknaming the +stationary kind “squatting and fattening societies” (<i>tun-piao hui</i>). But +while the Chinese are keenly alive to the inconsistencies and absurdities +of their practices and professions, they are still more sensible of the +delights of compliance with such customs as they happen to possess, +without a too close scrutiny of “severe realities.” The religious +societies of the Chinese, faulty as they are from whatever point of view, +do at least satisfy many social instincts of the people, and are the media +by which an inconceivable amount of wealth is annually much worse than +wasted. It is a notorious fact, that some of those which have the largest +revenues and expenditures, are intimately connected with gambling +practices.</p> + +<p>Many large fairs, especially those held in the spring, which is a time of +comparative leisure, are attended by thousands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> persons whose real +motive is to gamble with a freedom and on a scale impossible at home. In +some towns where such fairs are held, the principal income of the +inhabitants is derived from the rent of their houses to those who attend +the fair, and no rents are so large as those received from persons whose +occupation is mainly gambling. These are not necessarily professional +gamblers, however, but simply country people who embrace this special +opportunity to indulge their taste for risking their hard-earned money. In +all such cases it is necessary to spend a certain sum upon the underlings +of the nearest yamên, in order to secure immunity from arrest, but the +profits to the keeper of the establishment (who generally does not gamble +himself) are so great, that he can well afford all it costs. It is +probably a safe estimate that as much money changes hands at some of the +large fairs in the payment of gambling debts, as in the course of all the +ordinary business arising from the trade with the tens of thousands of +customers. In many places both men and women meet in the same apartments +to gamble (a thing which would scarcely ever be tolerated at other times), +and the passion is so consuming that even the clothes of the players are +staked, the women making their appearance clad in several sets of trousers +for this express purpose!</p> + +<p>The routine acts of devotion to whatever god or goddess may be the object +of worship are hurried through with, and both men and women spend the rest +of their time struggling to conquer fate at the gaming-table. It is not +without a certain propriety, therefore, that such fairs are styled +“gambling fairs.”</p> + +<p>The “travelling” like the “sitting” society gathers in its money at the +end of three years, and those who can arrange to do so, accompany the +expedition which sets out soon after New Year for the Great Mountain. The +expenses at the inns, as well as those of the carts employed, are defrayed +from the common fund, but whatever purchases each member wishes to make +must be paid for with his own money. On reaching their destination, +another in the long series of feasts is held, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> immense quantity of mock +money is purchased and sent on in advance of the party, who are sure to +find the six hundred steps of the sacred mount, (popularly supposed to be +“forty <i>li</i>” from the base to the summit), a weariness to the flesh. At +whatever point the mock money is burnt, a flag is raised to denote that +this end has been accomplished. By the time the party of pilgrims have +reached this spot, they are informed that the paper has already been +consumed long ago, the wily priests taking care that much the larger +portion is not wasted by being burnt, but only laid aside to be sold again +to other confiding pilgrims.</p> + +<p>If any contributor to the travelling society, or to any other of a like +nature, should be unable to attend the procession to the mountain, or to +go to the temple where worship is to be offered, his contribution is +returned to him intact, but the interest he is supposed to devote to the +virtuous object of the society, for he never sees any of it.</p> + +<p>The countless secret sects of China, are all of them examples of the +Chinese talent for coöperation in the alleged “practice of virtue.” The +general plan of procedure does not differ externally from that of a +religious denomination in any Western land, except that there is an +element of cloudiness about the basis upon which the whole superstructure +rests, and great secrecy in the actual assembling at night. Masters and +pupils, each in a graduated series, manuscript books containing doctrines, +hymns which are recited or even composed to order, prayers, offerings, and +ascetic observances are traits which many of these sects share in common +with other forms of religion elsewhere. They have also definite +assessments upon the members at fixed times without which, for lack of a +motive power, no such society would long hold together.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> +<h3>COÖPERATION IN MARKETS AND FAIRS</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> many parts of China the farmer comes much nearer to independence as +regards producing what he needs, than any class of persons in Western +lands. This is especially the case where cotton is raised, and where each +family tries to make its own clothing from its own crops. But even with +the minute and indefatigable industry of the Chinese, this ideal can be +only imperfectly reached. No poor family has land enough to raise all that +it requires, and every family not poor has a multitude of wants which must +of necessity be supplied from without. Besides this, in any district most +families have very little reserve capital, and must depend upon meeting +their wants as they arise, by the use of such means as can be secured from +day to day. The same comparative poverty makes it necessary for a +considerable part of the population to dispose of some portion of its +surplus products at frequent intervals, so as to turn it into the means of +subsistence. The combined effect of these various causes is to make the +Chinese dependent upon local markets to an extent which is not true of +inhabitants of Occidental countries.</p> + +<p>The establishment of any market, and even the mere existence of the class +of buyers and of sellers, doubtless involves a certain amount of +coöperation. But Chinese markets while not differing materially from those +to be found in other lands, exhibit a higher degree of coöperation than +any others of which we know. This coöperation is exhibited in the +selection both of the places and of the times at which the markets shall +be held. The density of population varies greatly in different provinces, +but there are vast tracts in which villages are to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> met at distances +varying from a quarter of a mile to two or three miles, and many of these +villages contain hundreds, and some of them thousands of families.</p> + +<p>At intervals of varying frequency, we hear of towns of still larger size +than these called <i>chên-tien</i>, or market towns, and in them there is sure +to be a regular fair. But fairs are not confined to the <i>chên-tien</i>, or +the needs of the people would by no means be met. Many of the inferior +villages also have a regular market, frequented by the neighbouring +population, in a circle of greater or smaller radius according to +circumstances. As a rule a village seems to be proud of its fair, and the +natives of such a place are no doubt saved a vast amount of travel for the +number of people who do not attend a fair is small.</p> + +<p>We have met with one case of a village which once had a market, and gave +it up in favour of another village, for the reason that the collection of +such a miscellaneous assemblage was not for the advantage of the children +and youth.</p> + +<p>The market is under the supervision of headmen of the town, and some +markets are called “official,” because the headmen have communicated with +the local magistrate, and have secured the issuing of a proclamation +fixing the regulations under which business shall be transacted. This +makes it easier to get redress for wrongs which may be committed by bad +characters who abound at village markets in the direct ratio of the number +of people assembled. Many of the larger markets bring together several +thousand people, sometimes exceeding ten thousand in number, and among so +many there are certain to be numerous gamblers, sharpers, thieves, and +pick-pockets, against whom it behoves every one to be upon his guard. It +occasionally happens that a feud arises between two sets of villages, as +for example over an embankment which one of them makes to restrain the +summer floods, which would thus be turned toward the territory of the +other villages. In such cases it is not uncommon for the parties to the +quarrel to refuse to attend each other’s markets, and in that case new +ones will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> be set up, with no reference to the needs of the territory, but +with the sole purpose of breaking off all relations between neighbours.</p> + +<p>In regions where animals are employed for farm-work, all the larger +markets have attached to them “live-stock fairs,” at which multitudes of +beasts are constantly changing hands. It is common to find these +live-stock fairs under a sort of official patronage, according to which +the managers are allowed to levy a tax of perhaps one per cent. on the +sales. Of this sum perhaps ten per cent. is required by the local +Commissioner of Education (<i>hsiao-li</i>) for the purpose of supporting his +establishment. The rest will be under the control of the village headmen, +perhaps for the nominal purpose of paying the expenses of a free school, +the funds for which not improbably find their way largely or wholly into +the private treasuries of those who manage the public affairs of the +village.</p> + +<p>The times at which village markets are held vary greatly. In large cities +there is a market every day, but in country places this would involve a +waste of time. Sometimes the market takes place every other day, and +sometimes on every day the numeral of which is a multiple of three. A more +common arrangement however seems to be that which is based upon the +division of the lunar month into thirty days. In this case “one market” +signifies the space of five days, or the interval between two successive +markets. It is in the establishment of these markets that coöperation is +best illustrated. If a market is held every five days, it will occur six +times every moon, for if the month happens to be a “small” one of +twenty-nine days, the market that belongs on the thirtieth is held on the +following day, which is the first of the next month. The various markets +will be designated by the days on which they occur, as “One-Six,” meaning +the market which is held every first, sixth, eleventh, sixteenth, +twenty-first, and twenty-sixth day of the moon. In like manner +“Four-Nine,” denotes the market attended on the fourth, ninth, +fourteenth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> nineteenth, twenty-fourth, twenty-ninth days, similarly +with the rest. Every village will probably have a market within reach +every day in the month, that is to say, every day in the year. In one +direction for example is to be found a “One-Six” market, in another +“Two-Seven,” in still others a “Three-Eight,” a “Four-Nine,” and a +“Five-Ten.” Some of these will be small markets, and some much larger, but +the largest one will be attended by customers, especially wholesale +dealers in cotton, cloth, etc., from great distances. The Chinese make +nothing of walking to a market three, eight, or even ten miles away; for +it is not a market only, but a kind of general exchange, where it is +proverbially likely that any one will meet any one else.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 376px;"><img src="images/fp148top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Going To Market.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 373px;"><img src="images/fp148bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Chinese Market Scene.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Every village being thus surrounded with a ring of markets, each of these +is also a cog in a wheel, playing into other wheels on each side of it. +All those who attend a large market come to have a wide acquaintance with +persons for great distances on each side of them, and the needs of all +persons both buyers and sellers are adequately met.</p> + +<p>The word which we have translated “market” (<i>chi</i>) denotes merely a +gathering, and another character, (<i>hui</i>) is reserved for an assemblage of +a much larger character, which is properly a fair. The number of persons +who attend these fairs frequently rises to between ten and twenty +thousand, giving a stranger the impression that the entire population of +several counties must have been turned loose at once. Fairs are to be +found in the largest Chinese cities, as well as in towns of every grade +down even to small hamlets, though the proportion of towns and villages +which support a fair is always a small one. It appears to be a general +truth that by far the larger part of these large fairs owe their existence +to the managers of some temple. The end in view is the accumulation of a +revenue for the use of the temple, which is accomplished by levying +certain taxes upon the traffic, and by the collection of a ground-rent. +The latter is also a feature of the village market, the proprietor of +each<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> bit of ground appearing at each market to collect of the persons who +have occupied his land, either a fixed amount, or a percentage upon their +sale or supposed sales.</p> + +<p>In the larger centres of population, it is common to find fairs held for a +month or more at a time, and in some places there are several of these +fairs every year, forming the centres of activity around which all the +life of the place revolves. In such places the inhabitants make a good +profit by renting buildings to the multitudes who come from a distance to +sell and to buy, and where this is the case, when the fair is not in +operation the city frequently appears to be nearly extinct. But trade no +sooner begins, than countless thousands throng the lately almost deserted +streets.</p> + +<p>In order to make a fair a success, it is necessary that the managers +should be men of enterprise and of sufficient business ability to deal +with the many difficulties which are likely to arise. They exercise a +certain supervision over everything, and are technically responsible for +what goes wrong, though this responsibility they frequently evade. In +order to attract a large attendance, it is generally necessary for fairs +which are to last four days, to begin with a theatrical representation, +which continues till the close. Sometimes, however, the players fail to +appear, and in that case the whole fair may come to nothing. These large +fairs are attended by merchants representing cities many hundred miles +distant, and dealing in every article which is likely to attract +customers.</p> + +<p>As the means of transportation are very inadequate and locomotion is +always slow and difficult, the merchants who go about from one fair to +another for many months of the year, lead a life, or rather an existence, +which is far from enviable. The half-month holiday with which the Chinese +year begins is no sooner over than the large fairs begin also, and they +continue with intermissions throughout the rest of the year. There is a +brief interval for the wheat harvest, an event of the greatest importance +to every class of the population, and the rainy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> season generally causes +another interruption, often so serious a one as to upset all plans for two +months or more.</p> + +<p>The principal coöperative element in fairs lies in so arranging them as to +dovetail into one another with least loss of time to the travelling +merchants. The success generally attained is offset by many conspicuous +failures, due to the Chinese thirst for gaining advantage over rivals, +irrespective of the interests of others, which in matters involving +coöperation, often results in disappointment. Thus, it is not uncommon to +find that while the posters announcing a fair have been put up all through +the country-side for an entire month, no one can tell when it is really to +begin. That the day for beginning is “fixed” is a point of no consequence +whatever, for with the exception of eclipses nothing in China is so +“fixed” that it is not subject to alteration, and this exception may be +thought to be due to the circumstance that eclipses are not under the +supervision of the Chinese. We have known repeated instances in which +persons who wished to attend a large fair, the date of which has been +“fixed” for generations, have travelled many miles at great inconvenience, +once and again, only to find that it was delayed owing to the fact that +nobody had come, every one being apparently engaged in waiting for every +one else. But infelicities like this are universal and constant in China, +where punctuality is “a lost art.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> +<h3>COÖPERATIVE LOAN SOCIETIES</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Among</span> the most characteristic examples of Chinese capacity for +combination, are Loan Societies, which seem everywhere to abound. The +object of these organizations is the same as that of similar associations +elsewhere, but it may be doubted whether the Chinese methods of procedure +are not unique. As in everything else Chinese, with a general similarity, +there is such divergence in detail, that it is sometimes very difficult +for natives of one district, even to comprehend the rules of the Loan +Societies of other and perhaps adjoining counties.</p> + +<p>The reasons for the extensive organization of these societies, are those +to which attention has been repeatedly called. Every Chinese has constant +occasion to use money in sums which it is very difficult for him to +command. The rate of interest is always so high, that a man who is +compelled to borrow a considerable amount, upon which he must pay interest +at two and a half, three, or even four per cent. a month, will not +improbably be swamped by the endeavour to keep up with his creditors, a +fact of which everyday experience furnishes countless examples. By +distributing the payments over a long period, and by the introduction of +an element of friendship into a merely commercial transaction, the Chinese +is able to achieve the happy result of uniting business with pleasure. Of +the measure of success attained we may be better able to judge, after an +examination of the processes pursued.</p> + +<p>The simplest of the many plans by which mutual loans are effected, is the +contribution of a definite sum by each of the members of the society in +rotation to some other one of their number.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> When all the rest have paid +their assessment to the last man on the list, each one will have received +back all that he put in and no more. The association is called in some +places the “Club of the Seven Worthies” (<i>Ch‘i hsien hui</i>). The technical +name for any association of the kind in which coöperation is most +conspicuous, is <i>Shê</i>. The man who is in need of money (<i>Shê-chu</i>) invites +certain of his friends to coöperate with him, and in turn to invite some +of their friends to do the same. When the requisite number has been +secured, the members (<i>Shê-yu</i>), assemble and fix the order in which each +shall have the use of the common fund. This would probably be decided by +lot. Unless the amount in question is a very trifling one, every meeting +of the members for business purposes will be accompanied with a feast +attended by all the partners, and paid for either by the one for whose +benefit the association was organized, or by the person whose turn it is +to use the common fund.</p> + +<p>At the first feast, given by the organizer of the association, each of the +members attends provided with the sum agreed upon, let us suppose 10,000 +cash, which is paid over to the headman, 60,000 cash in all, to be used by +him, for a certain fixed period, say a year. The next year, the feast is +given by the person who drew the second lot; the headman puts 10,000 cash +into the treasury, and each of five other members the same sum, all of +which is paid over to number three, who in like manner employs it for a +year, when in the same way the fourth takes his turn. At the end of six +years each of the seven members will have had a turn, each will have +received 60,000 cash without interest, and each will have paid out 60,000 +cash for which he has likewise received no interest. Each one will have +been accommodated with the handling of a larger sum than he could have +otherwise obtained, at the end each one has lost nothing in money, but has +had six more or less excellent feasts, a matter from a Chinese point of +view of some practical importance, however lightly it might be esteemed by +a Westerner.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>It would seem that the simple form of coöperative borrowing here +described, is by no means so common as some of the various societies in +which interest is paid, and it is not perhaps surprising that this should +be the case. The Chinese are so much in the habit of paying an +extortionate sum for the use of the money of others, that it doubtless +appears to the average borrower that if he has exacted a high interest, he +has made a better bargain than if he had received no interest at all, +although he must eventually pay out just as much interest as he receives, +and is demonstrably no better off at the final payment than if he had +borrowed and lent, disregarding interest altogether.</p> + +<p>The methods of societies which exact interest for loans, differ greatly in +every detail, and there is evidently no limit to the variations which +local custom may adopt in any particular district. In some regions the +ordinary number of members appears to be sixteen as in the case just +supposed. In others, the number rises to thirty or even more. Sometimes +the meetings are held annually, in other districts the usual rule is +semiannual meetings, in the second and eighth moons. In societies where +the rate of interest is fixed, the only thing to be decided by lot, or by +throwing dice, will be the order in which the members draw out the common +fund. This may not improbably be determined at the first meeting, each +member taking his turn in accordance with the excellence or otherwise of +his throws with the dice. But if, as often happens, the interest is left +open to competition, this competition may take place by a kind of auction, +each one announcing orally what he is willing to pay for the use of the +capital for one term, the highest bidder taking the precedence, but no +member ever has a second turn. If the oral method of competition is not +used, a still better plan may be adopted. This consists of prepared slips, +like ballots, noting an offer of interest, deposited by each member in a +box, the highest bidder getting the precedence, and in case of like +amounts offered by different bidders a second <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>ballot to decide who will +add the most to his previous offer. It is easy to see that in this way, +the interest to be paid might not be the same for any two loans, in which +case there would seem to be inevitable some complexity in the accounts. +But for the most part, the Chinese appear to take involved computations of +this nature with surprising facility, especially considering the limited +practice in mathematics which most of them have enjoyed.</p> + +<p>For the sake of greater simplicity, we will take a case in which the +interest for each period is assumed to be one-fifth of the principal, in +which the number of members is ten, besides the organizer of the society, +and in which the amount loaned by each member is 10,000 cash. It is also +assumed that in this case the headman for whose benefit the lending was +begun, does not repay the loan in money, but only in spreading at each +meeting a feast of specially good quality. The interest is of the nature +of a “bank discount,” and is therefore collected in advance, the only +certain way, it may be remarked, to collect it at all. Each man, it will +be observed, with the exception of the first, actually receives only 8,000 +cash, but repays to each one who follows him in drawing, a full 10,000. +The result will be best seen in a tabulated form, as follows:</p> + +<p>(The headman makes the feast only, but does not repay the loan.)</p> + +<p>The headman receives from each member 10,000 cash (ten strings) 10 X 10 = 100.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="numbers"> +<tr><td>Number</td><td align="right">2</td><td>receives</td><td>9 X 8 =</td><td align="center">...</td><td>72</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">3</td><td align="center">"</td><td>8 X 8 =</td><td>64 + 10 =</td><td>74</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">4</td><td align="center">"</td><td>7 X 8 =</td><td>56 + 20 =</td><td>76</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">5</td><td align="center">"</td><td>6 X 8 =</td><td>48 + 30 =</td><td>78</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">6</td><td align="center">"</td><td>5 X 8 =</td><td>40 + 40 =</td><td>70</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">7</td><td align="center">"</td><td>4 X 8 =</td><td>32 + 50 =</td><td>82</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">8</td><td align="center">"</td><td>3 X 8 =</td><td>24 + 60 =</td><td>84</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">9</td><td align="center">"</td><td>2 X 8 =</td><td>16 + 70 =</td><td>86</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">10</td><td align="center">"</td><td>1 X 8 =</td><td> 8 + 80 =</td><td>88</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">11</td><td align="center">"</td><td>9 X 10 =</td><td align="center">...</td><td>90</td></tr></table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>In the following modification of the plan of loan, the headman pays back +his loan, like the other members, and also provides each feast, which is +regarded as his interest.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="xyz"> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="right">Headman</td><td>receives</td><td> 10 X 10 strings = 100</td></tr> +<tr><td>Number</td><td align="right">2</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 9 X 8 = 72 + 10 = 82</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">3</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 8 X 8 = 64 + 20 = 84</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">4</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 7 X 8 = 56 + 30 = 86</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">5</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 6 X 8 = 48 + 40 = 88</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">6</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 5 X 8 = 40 + 50 = 90</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">7</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 4 X 8 = 32 + 60 = 92</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">8</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 3 X 8 = 24 + 70 = 94</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">9</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 2 X 8 = 16 + 80 = 96</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">10</td><td align="center">"</td><td> 1 X 8 = 8 + 90 = 98</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">"</td><td align="right">11</td><td align="center">"</td><td>10 X 10 = 100</td></tr></table> + +<p>In these examples it will be observed that the earlier each member draws +his money, the less he gets on his investment. In the case last supposed, +the final recipient, who has no interest to pay, but who receives interest +from all but the headman, gets back all his money in a lump, with interest +upon it. As already remarked, for the sake of simplicity we have +disregarded the actual time for which the money is loaned, and for +convenience have assumed a rate of interest which would probably be below +the real one. It is evident that so far as financial considerations go, +taken by themselves, it is for the advantage of the partners to come as +late in the drawing as possible. But it is far from being the case that +financial considerations are the only matters to be taken into account. +The man who needs money, and who can never be sure of getting as much as +he needs upon any better terms than these, will gladly take it as soon as +he can get it, arranging the wedding for which he perhaps wishes to employ +it, to suit the time of the loan.</p> + +<p>Like other human contrivances, Chinese loan societies are to be judged by +their results. The practical operation of these organizations often +presents an instructive view of many aspects of Chinese life. The man for +whose benefit the society is got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> together does not find that others are +hungering and thirsting to do him a good turn, unless they clearly see +their way to recover what they put in, with liberal interest. It is +therefore often necessary to use a great deal of persuasion, to induce one +to join, and especially to persuade him to bring in others. No one is +willing to enter into a society of this kind unless it is reasonably +certain that every member will meet every assessment, for if any +individual fails to pay, everything is at a deadlock. To guard against +this, it is customary to have security, or bondsmen, in some instances the +headman acting as bail for all the rest. In case of failure on the part of +any member to meet his payment, the headman is then required to pay the +amount lacking, and this he is of course very unwilling to do, however +freely he has engaged to do so. Troubles of this nature lead to many +fights, and if this extreme measure is not resorted to, it is not at all +unlikely that the person technically responsible will try the familiar +method of begging off, striving to induce a creditor to accept a +<i>k‘o-t‘ou</i> in place of cash. If sufficient pressure can be brought to bear +in favour of any defaulting member, this plan may succeed in its object, +as well as in breaking up the loan society.</p> + +<p>Where the number is enlarged to more than a score, as in some districts, +the probability that some one will fail to meet his obligations is greatly +increased. It is also a fatal objection to these long loans, that before +the whole term of years elapses, it is morally certain that something will +occur to disturb the very unstable financial equilibrium of the members. +For instance, the T‘ai-p‘ing rebellion, with its long train of sorrows, +and the continual famines and floods of later years in Northern China, +have tended to bring loan societies into discredit, because experience has +shown that thousands of persons have put into them what could never be +recovered. It is the almost unanimous testimony of the Chinese whom the +writer has consulted on the subject, that in these days such societies +fail to accomplish their uses, and are little better than a fraud.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +Whether a man loses by them, or not, will depend, however, mainly on his +own skill in keeping out of those which are unsafe, regardless of the +pressure which may be brought to bear upon him. Some men will tell you +that they have been partners several times and have never lost their +capital, or only lost it once, while others have a totally different +account to give.</p> + +<p>A Chinese whose easy-going disposition made him a valuable neighbour to +those who wished to borrow without being at the inconvenience of repaying, +stated that he had been six times a member of a loan society, and while +once the capital had been doubled by a fortunate speculation, on each of +the five other occasions he had lost all, or nearly all, put in. That such +experiences are far from being uncommon, is testified by a current adage, +to the effect that if a man has been in a loan society with another three +separate times, if he has not been cheated, he has at least been robbed!</p> + +<p>After the foregoing account of Coöperative Loan Societies was written, a +suit was reported in the Hong Kong papers, which well serves to illustrate +the legal difficulties which seem to puzzle not only the lawyers, but +apparently the Judges also, for the case which was first heard in July, +came on for another hearing upon appeal the next January, and was not +decided until the following March. There were four plaintiffs and four +defendants. It appeared that twelve men decided to form a Money Loan +Association, one of them being trustee, and taking up the subscriptions. +Each member undertook to pay $50 per month, by which a sum of $600 would +be made up. Each month the members were to meet at a dinner, paid for by +each of the members in turn, and at these dinners tenders were received +for the fund of $600, the member offering the highest interest getting the +“pool,” less the amount of interest. After the association had run for +eight months, the headman or trustee failed in business, disappeared, and +the association came to an end.</p> + +<p>The four persons who had paid money into the association<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> for eight +months, and who had received no benefit, sued the other four members who +had ceased to pay their subscriptions after the failure in business of the +trustee. The defence was that the only person responsible was this +trustee, and that all the sums claimed had been paid to him by the +defendants. The Acting Chief Justice, who heard the case, was of the +opinion that the subscriptions not paid were due, and that the trustee had +no authority from the other members to receive beforehand any +contributions, and the Justice accordingly gave judgment for the +plaintiffs.</p> + +<p>The case was appealed, and counsel stated upon its coming up that it was +appealed on a question of law. He related the circumstances of the case, +and maintained that there was no contract between either of the plaintiffs +and the four defendants jointly or severally, that they would pay a sum of +$200. The only contract proved and shown, was a contract that each of the +members would contribute to a common fund which he might not get in the +first instance, but which he was certain to get some time. He therefore +submitted that there was no contract at common law on which this action +could be maintained, and that there was absolutely no means of deciding +the issues in such a case.</p> + +<p>To this statement, the opposing counsel replied by admitting that there +was a certain amount of difficulty in working out the scheme as a whole, +yet unless their Lordships held that these men were liable in this case, +the prosecutors were practically deprived of any remedy at all. He +submitted that this was against the whole intention of the association, +which was in a certain sense for profit, for the mutual help of its +members, and the common good of all. To hold that no action was +maintainable individually, would be holding out a premium for dishonesty, +because the man who got the first payment would then leave the Colony.</p> + +<p>At this point the Justice remarked that this was what very often happened. +In delivering his opinion, the Justice said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> that he thought the case was +a claim for money lent, but it had been treated as a claim for the return +of $50 from each of the defendants in respect of a money loan association. +At the trial the defendants had denied that they had made any contract +with the plaintiffs, and referred to the fact that certain meetings of the +association had been held, and that the other meetings had not been +regularly called in accordance with the articles of association. That +being so, he held that there was no contract between the various members +of the association, which would enable one member to sue another, and +therefore he decided in favour of the appellants.</p> + +<p>The Puisne Judge said that the contract entered into, was either one +between the defendants and one of the plaintiffs, or else it was a mutual +contract between the defendants, and the other members of the association. +In the first case the plaintiffs could not recover, and if it was a mutual +contract between all the members of the association, there ought to be a +suit in equity to ascertain what were the various rights of the parties, +and all the members of the association must be parties to that action. And +so he also gave judgment in favour of the appellants, with costs. The +money which had been paid into court, pending the appeal, would be paid +out.</p> + +<p>Whoever takes the trouble to follow these arguments, and the facts upon +which they rest, ought to be convinced of several propositions: that it is +very easy to make arrangements to pay out money to Chinese; that it is +very easy not to get that money back again; that when there is a hitch in +the intricate business of adjustment, it is not unlikely to take all the +lawyers and Judges of a Crown Colony nine months to find out the law and +equity, and that when the case has been decided it is difficult for an +ordinary mortal to judge whether the decision was right or wrong!</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2> +<h3>SOCIETIES FOR WATCHING THE CROPS</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> a country where the poor are in such a majority as in China, and where +the fields are altogether open, it is desirable if not necessary to have +some plan by which property so unprotected can be effectively watched. In +every orchard, as soon as the fruit begins to show the smallest sign of +ripeness, the owner keeps some of his family on guard day and night, until +the last apricot, plum or pear is removed from the trees. The darker and +the more rainy the night, the more is vigilance required, so that a family +with a bearing orchard is under the most absolute bondage to this property +for a part of every year. During the months of July and August the fields +are dotted with little booths some of them overrun with climbing vines, +and each of these frail tenements is never for a moment deserted until the +crops have all been removed. In some regions the traveller will observe +these huts built upon a lofty staging so as to command a wide view, and +they are often put up even in fields of sorghum, which would not seem +likely to be stolen. But the lofty growth of this stalwart plant is itself +a perfect protection to a thief, so that it is much more difficult to +watch than crops far less elevated from the ground. Growing to an altitude +of from ten to fifteen feet, it completely obscures the horizon, and +practically obliterates all landmarks. So far as knowing where one goes, a +traveller might as well be plunged into an African jungle. Even the +natives of a region sometimes get lost within a few <i>li</i> of their own +village on a cloudy day. The autumn crops of Shan-tung consist of the +innumerable kinds of millet, sorghum, (which, though called “tall millet,” +has no affinity with real millet;) beans; Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> corn, or maize; peanuts; +melons and squashes; sweet-potatoes and other vegetables (the others +mostly in small patches); hemp; sesame; and especially cotton. There are +many other items, but these are the chief.</p> + +<p>Of all these diverse sorts of produce, there are hardly more than two +which do not cause the owners anxiety, lest they be stolen from the field. +The heads of sorghum and of millet are easily clipped off. Nothing is +easier than rapidly to despoil a field of corn, or to dig sweet-potatoes. +The latter, indeed, are not safe from the village dogs, which have learned +by ages of experience that raw vegetable food is much better than no food +at all. What requires the most unceasing vigilance, however, are the melon +patches and the orchards. Of watermelons, especially, the Chinese are +inordinately fond. Every field is fitted with a “lodge in a garden of +cucumbers,” and there is some one watching day and night. The same is true +of the “fruit rows,” familiarly called <i>hang-tzü</i>. Birds, insects, and man +are the immitigable foes of him who has apples, pears, peaches, plums, +cherries, apricots and grapes. If the orchard is of any size, there may be +collusion between the thieves, who appear at both ends at once. Both sets +cannot be pursued. The crows and the blue-jays are the worst bird robbers, +but they can be scared off, especially with a gun. The human pilferers are +not to be so easily dealt with. The farmer’s hope is that seeing that some +one is on guard they will go elsewhere, and steal from those not on guard. +<i>Hence everybody is obliged to stand guard over everything.</i></p> + +<p>Where the population is densest, the extent to which this must be carried +passes belief. In such regions about dusk an exodus sets forth from a +village like that in the early morning to go to the fields to work. By +every path the men, women, and even children stream forth. Light wooden +beds, covered with a layer of the stiff sorghum stalk, are kept out in the +fields for constant use. A few sorghum stalks are twisted together at the +top, and a piece of old matting tacked on the sunny side, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>and under +such a wretched shelter sits a toothless old woman all day and all night +with alternations.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 376px;"><img src="images/fp162top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Crop-Watcher’s Lodge.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 370px;"><img src="images/fp162bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Reaping Millet.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Very few farmers have their land all in one plot. A farm of not more than +eighty Chinese acres may consist of from five to fifteen pieces lying on +different sides of the village. And how do you contrive to “watch all +these all night”? you inquire. “Oh we have to go from one to the other,” +you are told. In the case of cotton, the temptation to pick that of others +is absolutely irresistible. The watchman sees some one at the end of the +field meandering slowly along with a basket on his arm, picking cotton as +he goes. The watchman yells, “Who are you?” and the figure moves along a +little faster, but does not stop picking. If he disappears into the patch +of some one else, that is success. But should the watchman become angry, +as he certainly will, and should he pursue, as he is likely to do, and +should he overtake, as is possible, then the trouble begins. Should the +thief not get away in the scuffle, he ought to be taken before the village +headmen and dealt with. If from another village, he probably will be tied +up in the village temple, possibly beaten, and subsequently released upon +payment of a fine. But the real difficulty is that many of the thieves are +from the same village as the owners of the land the products of which they +are appropriating. Not improbably they are “cousins” of the farmer +himself. Perhaps they are his “uncles” or even his “grandfathers.” If so, +that complicates matters very much. Chinese ideas of <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i> are +to our thought laxity itself under the most favourable conditions. But +these conditions are the most unfavourable. The unity of the family is as +that of a compound individual.</p> + +<p>It is to afford some relief from these almost insupportable evils that +societies for watching the crops have originated. They are by no means of +universal occurrence, but like most other Chinese institutions, are to be +met with in some districts, while others immediately adjoining may be +wholly unacquainted with their working. We have known a District +Magistrate in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> trying a case in which one of the defendants was a +professional watcher of the crops, to be completely mystified by the term +“crop-watcher” which had to be explained to him, as if to a foreigner, +although he was himself a native of an adjacent province.</p> + +<p>The villages which have entered into some one of the associations for the +protection of their crops, generally proclaim this fact by painting or +whitewashing upon the side of some conspicuous temple four characters +(<i>Kung k‘an i p‘o</i>,) signifying that the fields are looked after in +common. This proposition embodies a meaning which varies in different +places. Sometimes it denotes that a certain number of persons are on guard +each night, in which case the number (or some number which purports to be +the real one) will perhaps be found posted on a temple wall with a view to +striking awe into intending depredators (in case they should be persons of +education), by showing how numerous are the chances of detection.</p> + +<p>When a fixed number of persons is employed, the expense is shared by the +village, being in fact a tax upon the land, paid in the direct ratio of +the amount of land which each one owns. In other cases the arrangement for +guarding standing crops is entered into by a single village, or more +probably by a considerable number of contiguous villages. The details are +agreed upon at a <ins class="correction" title="original: meeeting">meeting</ins> called for the purpose in some temple convenient +to all the villages, and the meeting is attended by representatives of +each village interested. At this meeting are settled the steps to be taken +in case of the arrest of offenders. This is a matter of supreme +importance, being in fact the pivot upon which the whole machinery turns. +If there is weakness here, the whole machine will be a failure.</p> + +<p>It must be borne in mind that the reason for the organization of such a +society as this is the fact that so many poor people everywhere exist, +whose only resource is to steal. In the consultations preliminary to the +organization of a crop-protecting league, the poor people of the various +villages concerned have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> no voice, but they must be considered, for they +will contrive to make themselves felt in many disagreeable ways. It will +be agreed that any person owning land in any village belonging to the +league is bound to seize and report any person whatever whom he may find +stealing the crops of any person in any of these villages. But as this is +the weakest point of all such agreements among the Chinese, it is further +provided that if any person finds some one stealing and fails to seize and +report the offender, and if the fact of this omission is ascertained, the +person guilty of such omission shall be held to be himself guilty of the +theft, and shall be fined as if he were the thief.</p> + +<p>To provide an adequate tribunal to take cognizance of cases of this sort, +the representatives of the several villages concerned, in public assembly +nominate certain headmen from each village, who constitute a court before +which offenders are to be brought, and by which fines are to be fixed. +When a thief is captured he is brought to the village, and the men +appointed for the purpose are summoned, who hear the report of the +captors, and decide upon the fine. In cases of special importance the +village gong may be beaten, so as to collect the headmen with the greater +celerity. Much will depend upon what kind of a man the culprit is, and +upon the status of the family to which the culprit belongs may be. There +are some well-to-do people who are not above stealing the crops of others, +and such persons are certain to be subjected to a heavy fine by way of +“exemplary damages.” The select-men who manage these cases have no regular +way of punishing offenders but by the infliction of a fine, though +culprits are undoubtedly sometimes tied up and beaten by exasperated +neighbours, as the writer at one time happened to see for himself. But +such cases must be relatively rare. The fines imposed must be paid +immediately, and should this be refused or delayed, the penalty would be +an accusation at the yamên of the District Magistrate, which being backed +by all the principal men of the village, or of a group of villages,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> would +be certain to issue in the punishment of the prisoner, as the Magistrate +would be sure to assume that a prosecution of this nature was well +grounded. The poorest man would have reason to dread being locked up in a +cangue for a month or two at the busy time of harvest, when it is +especially important for him to be at liberty.</p> + +<p>The coloured resident of Georgia who complained that a black man had no +chance in that State, being obliged “to work hard all day and steal all +night in order to make an honest living,” represented a class to be found +in all parts of China, and a class which must be taken into account. +Wherever arrangements are made for the protection of the crops from +thieves, it is a necessary adjunct of the rules that the owners of the +fields must follow the judicious plan of Boaz of ancient Bethlehem, who +ordered his reapers not to be too careful to gather closely, that the +gleaners might not glean in vain. Matters of this sort, even to the length +of the stubble which shall be left in the fields, are not infrequently the +subject of agreement and of regulation, for they are matters of large +importance to many poor people.</p> + +<p>In districts where the <i>kao-liang</i> (or sorghum) plant is cultivated it is +common to strip off some of the lower leaves with a view, as one is told, +to allowing the stalks “to breathe” more freely that the grain may ripen +better. Where this practice prevails, the day on which the stripping of +the leaves shall begin is sometimes strictly regulated by agreement, and +no person, rich or poor, is allowed to anticipate the day. But on that day +any one is at liberty to strip leaves from the fields of any one else, +provided he does not go above the stipulated height on each plant. These +leaves are much prized as food for animals. The day before the stripping +of <i>kao-liang</i> leaves is to begin, warning is sounded on the village gong, +and the next day all the people make this their main business.</p> + +<p>Far more important than leaf-stripping is the regulation of the gleaning +of cotton. In many parts of China, the cotton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> crop is the most valuable +product of the soil, and it enjoys the distinction of being perhaps the +only article raised in the empire which is to every man, woman and child +an absolute necessity. As soon as the cotton-picking season sets in, women +and children in the regions where this is the staple crop are absorbed in +this fatiguing labour to the exclusion of almost everything else. With the +first frost falls, the best of the season has passed, though the cotton +balls continue to open for a long time afterward. It is considered to be +the prerogative of the poor people to pick cotton wherever they can find +it after a certain (or rather a very uncertain) date, and the +determination of this date is settled in some districts by a proclamation +of the Magistrate himself, for no lesser authority would be heeded. But in +other regions this affair, like most others, is altogether relegated to +local agreement, either of a single village, or a group of villages with +each other. The day upon which it first becomes lawful to pick +indiscriminately in any cotton field, a joyful one for the poor, is called +“relaxation of punishment,” because the fines are no longer to be +enforced. At this time swarms of people are to be seen streaming to the +fields, and many people go great distances from home, because the picking +there is better. An acquaintance of the writer remarked that his wife had +been gone from home for more than ten days gleaning in some region where +the crops were better than nearer home, sleeping meantime in any doorway +or cart-house from which she was not driven away.</p> + +<p>It sometimes happens that the rich people attempt to exclude the poor from +the large estates belonging to the former, but this is seldom successful, +and can never be good policy. The writer once saw a dispute between the +owner of a large cottonfield and many hundred poor women and children who +were about to precipitate themselves upon the remnants of the crop. Even +while the debate as to the proprieties of the case was in progress, a very +large number of the poor people who cared much more for the cotton than +for the proprieties, pressed on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> to gather what they might, leaving others +to settle the question of abstract right as pleased themselves.</p> + +<p>Reference has been repeatedly made to the fines imposed for a violation of +the village laws or agreements, and it was remarked that the crucial point +of the protection of crops, is found here. It is customary to employ the +fines collected from such offenders for the purpose of hiring a theatrical +company, which always proves to be a very expensive method of enjoying a +surplus of money, since the incidental expenses of a theatrical +representation, especially in the entertainment of guests, are often ten +times greater than the sum paid to the players.</p> + +<p>Spending the night in the fields during the harvest season, when the +ground is generally saturated with moisture, constantly induces malaria, +rheumatism and pneumonia, as well as many other ailments. But the +necessity is imperative, and all risks must be disregarded, or there would +be nothing to eat for a year. The quarrels which inevitably arise from +crop pilfering and the other concomitants of an autumn harvest, give rise +to serious feuds, as well as to devastating lawsuits, the money cost of +which may be a thousand times the value of the property in question. But +under such conditions every Chinese crop is gathered in year by year, and +such have apparently been perpetuated from the earliest dawn of Chinese +history.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE AND CITY RAIN-MAKING</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">It</span> is one of the eccentricities of the Chinese, that although they have +developed elaborate philosophies, none of them have led them to confidence +in the uniformity of nature. Polytheism has no basis for such a view. Thus +it comes about that in an empire which is one of the most conspicuous +examples of homogeneity the world has ever seen, neither the people nor +their rulers have any fixed opinions as to the causes upon which the +rain-fall depends. In the province of Shan-tung a great variety of beings +real and imaginary are worshipped to cause the fall of water to adjust +itself to the needs of the farmers. Among the divinities thus honoured are +the Goddess of Mercy who in the south of China is generally regarded as +male; the God of War; the Dragon God, or Lung Wang; and a Tai Wang, which +is popularly supposed to be incarnated in a serpent, frequently a +water-snake, but in default of that a common garter-snake will do just as +well. Whenever one of these Tai Wangs is discovered, it is common to +notify the nearest local official, and it is expected that he will go and +worship it. Many years ago Li Hung Chang performed this service at +Tientsin, where there is a very large temple to Tai Wang.</p> + +<p>As if these incongruous adjuvants of nature were not enough, there are +some who worship Yü Huang Shang Ti, or Pearly Emperor Supreme Ruler, and +still others think they have warrant in offering sacrifice and worship to +“Sun Ta Shêng,” who is nothing more than an imaginary character in the +novel known as “Travels to the West.” Sun was originally a monkey hatched +by a process of evolution out of a stone, but his exploits are so many and +so striking that the popular mind has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> settled on him as a suitable being +to superintend the rain-fall. Yet his worship is apparently limited, and +like that of all the divinities mentioned extremely irregular. The same +village that worships the God of War now, may worship the Goddess of Mercy +next time, perhaps on the principle of judicious rotation.</p> + +<p>Besides all these, there is another and quite a different plan in +extensive use. In the ancient but now ruined city of Han Tan Hsien, (in +Western Chih-li) there is a temple on the premises of which there is a +famous well, in which are a vast number of iron tablets. Whenever there is +a scarcity of rain, it is almost always a last resort, after the District +Magistrate has made the rounds of all the temples in and about his city, +to post off an official messenger to Han Tan Hsien—a journey of several +days—to get an iron tablet out of the well. The messenger takes an iron +tablet from the city whence he starts on which is inscribed the date of +the journey, and the name of the District which makes the petition, and on +his arrival repairs to the Taoist temple, where for a certain sum he is +provided with another iron tablet taken from the well, into which the +tablet now brought is thrown.</p> + +<p>On his return journey the messenger is supposed to eat nothing but bran, +and to travel at the top of his speed day and night. His arrival is +anxiously awaited. And now emerges a characteristic Chinese performance. +The counties through which his route lies are not unlikely just as much in +need of rain as the one which sends the messenger: the people of these +districts not infrequently waylay the messenger temporarily, and “borrow” +his tablet, which is thus “invited” to the other district, and the +rain-fall will take place there, instead of in the one to which it ought +to belong.</p> + +<p>At first glance it certainly appears singular that so practical a people +as the Chinese can put the least faith in mummeries of this sort, but the +truth seems to be that very little actual faith is exercised, these +performances only taking place in default of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> acquaintance with the +laws which govern the meteorology of the empire. Besides this, the months +in which the most resort is had to such performances are the fifth and the +sixth, and these are the ones in which the rain-fall is due. As a limit of +some ten days is generally set for the efficacy of these petitions, it is +extremely likely that the term will be coincident with a fall of rain, +which fall will be credited to the petition; whereas the failure of the +petition is set down to some wholly different reason.</p> + +<p>An incident which occurred in one of the western counties of Shan-tung +makes plain even to the most obtuse Chinese intellect the inconveniences +of a wrong theory of the universe. A party of villagers with flags and a +drum were on their way to a temple to pray for rain. They met a man +leading a horse, on which was seated a married woman returning from one of +the customary visits to her mother’s family. She had a child in her arms, +and the hired labourer leading the horse had on a wide straw hat. Now it +is one of the eccentricities of the inaccurate views of those who pray for +rain to non-existent monkeys and to garter-snakes, that they also +entertain misconceptions as to the causes which hinder rain. Foreigners +carrying umbrellas have been mobbed as the efficient cause of drought. The +water-spouts of a new consulate in a treaty-port have been complained of +as drawing off the moisture that was meant for the whole province. So in +this case the big straw-hat of the rustic was resented as +“contra-indicated”—as the physicians say—by the rain-prayers. The +peasant was roared at, and a long pike-staff was thrust into his hat which +was thrown from his head upon the horse, which being frightened pulled +away and plunged ahead. The woman could not keep her seat, first dropping +her child which was dashed to the ground and killed. The woman’s foot +caught in a stirrup and she was dragged for a long distance and when the +horse was at length stopped she too was dead. She was pregnant, so that in +one moment three lives had been sacrificed. The hired man ran on a little +way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> to the woman’s home, told his story, and as the men of the family +happened to be at home, they all seized whatever implements they could +find and ran after the rain-prayers, with whom they fought a fierce battle +killing four or five of them outright. The case went into the District +yamên, and what became of it then, we do not know.</p> + +<p>Among the other eccentricities of rain-producing, is the borrowing of a +god from one village for use in another. If he succeeds in getting rain he +is taken back in honour; otherwise he is not unlikely to be left where he +happened to be deposited when worshipped, the villagers—like a set of +commissioners for educational examination—being solely influenced by +“results.” In other instances if the god does not show signs of +appreciation of the need of rain, he may be taken out into the hot sun and +left there to broil, as a hint to wake up and do his duty. A bunch of +willows is thrust into his hand, because the willow is sensitive to the +smallest moisture. It is a common saying in China that “when the Floods +wash away the temple of Lung Wang (the Dragon King) it is a case of not +knowing one’s own folks.” Yet this is what constantly happens.</p> + +<p>It is more than forty years since the Yellow River changed its course to +its present one, taking the bed of a small stream known as the Clear River +and bringing with the turbid torrent devastation and utter ruin. During +more than an entire generation Central Shan-tung has been cursed with +“China’s Sorrow,” and even when the course was altered again in 1887, the +Government spent fabulous sums, and at last brought the stream back again +into its former bed—a feat which few foreigners who saw the new channel +thought it possible to execute.</p> + +<p>The next year the region was visited by a corps of Dutch engineers, who +made an elaborate survey and published an exhaustive report, to which the +Chinese Government paid no attention whatever. The plea at that time was +lack of money, but the funds could have been had if the execution of the +work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> had been put into foreign hands, than whom no more competent ones +than the Dutch could have been found. But at the time when the Director +General of the Yellow River—a title the humour of which is lost on the +Chinese—memorialized the Throne on the necessity of employing foreign +science for this otherwise hopeless task, his proposal was rebuked by the +Empress Dowager as “premature and ostentatious!”</p> + +<p>According to Chinese ideas the “Three Harmonies” are “Heaven, Earth, and +Man.” All three of them are at present out of sorts with each other. What +is imperatively needed is a reconciliation, but this can never be had +until the Chinese come to a more accurate appreciation of the limits of +the powers of each of the triad. A new set of men would soon make a new +earth, and then the heavens would be found to be well enough as they are. +In the course of ten years enough water falls for the use of all, and not +too much to be managed. But man must learn how to control it, and until he +does so, “Heaven, earth and man” will never be in right relations.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h2> +<h3>THE VILLAGE HUNT</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">There</span> are parts of the wide province of Shan-tung, in which there are +great sheets of clear and deep water much frequented by water-fowl, +especially in the autumn and in the winter. In any Western land these +districts would be the paradise of hunters, but here the ducks and the +geese go their several ways in “peace and tranquillity along the whole +road,” undisturbed by the gun of the sportsman or the pot-hunter. This is +due to an old-time custom of the yamên in the Prefectural city contiguous +to the largest marshes, of levying a squeeze on the results of the +gunner’s toil, a squeeze so comprehensive and virtually prohibitory in its +action that water-fowl are practically out of the market altogether.</p> + +<p>There is a record in the life of Dr. Medhurst, one of the pioneer +missionaries in China, and father of Sir Walter Medhurst, sometime Her +Majesty’s Consul-General in Shanghai, of a trip which he and a companion +made north from Shanghai along the coasts of Shan-tung. Their plan was to +debark from the fishing junk in which they had taken passage, cut across +from one headland to another and then rejoin their vessel to repeat the +same process farther on. In this way they succeeded in penetrating to a +few fishing villages and had conversation with a handful of people all +along shore. With charming frankness the historian of this pioneer tour +mentions that they nowhere saw any wild animals. We can readily believe +him, for even at this advanced stage of extended exploration, the only +wild animal that the most experienced traveller is likely to see is the +hare, albeit there are sundry others such as weasels, a kind of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +ground-fox, and the like, which do not obtrude themselves to any extent in +public.</p> + +<p>It is said that in the little kingdom of Denmark the citizens have a +winter sport which consists in a general and organized hunt for hares on +the part of all the male population of a very extended territory, starting +from a given point and working in a definite direction, under precise and +carefully observed rules. At the close of the hunt there is a great feast +to which all are welcomed, and the whole performance is one to which there +is much anxious looking forward on the part of the young and vigorous +country-folk. It is strange to meet with a custom of the same kind in +China, but there is an ancient district in Shan-tung, known as P‘ing-yüen, +or Level-plains, where the Danish custom flourishes in full force, but +minus the very important concluding feast. For where is the Chinese who +would have the courage or indeed the means to welcome the countless swarms +of his country-side to enjoy the pleasure of eating at somebody else’s +expense?</p> + +<p>The whole arrangement of this combination hunt is in the hands of a few +impecunious fellows who have the right of “protecting” merchants at the +great fairs from imposition by other rascals, by means of levying a +prophylactic black-mail of their own on a certain day at the principal +market of the region. A man who has no single spear of hair on his head +passes up and down the crowded lanes of the market, and calls out that on +such and such a day there will be an attack by all the people of the +“north district” on the hares. This notice is repeated with varied +iteration, until the word is comprehended by all those within hearing, +each one goes home and tells the rest of the village, and on the set day +all are ready for the fray. The reason for having the notice circulated by +a bald man exclusively is the eminently Chinese one that in the Mandarin +dialect the word for Bald—T‘u—and that for Hare are identical in sound. +This circumstance once led to a very singular error on the part of a +bright little child of certain foreigners<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> living in Shan-tung. One of the +employees of the establishment had been off somewhere on a donkey, and +while he was leading it homeward the beast broke away and galloped off. A +lad who was cutting grass in the neighbourhood saw the fleeing animal, +rushed out and caught it, holding it till the rider came up. On their +reaching home the dramatic story was told in the hearing of the lad, and +the capture of the donkey was accredited to a little “T‘u-tzŭ” or +“Bald-boy.” The foreign child heard the thrilling narrative which he duly +retailed at the parental dinner-table, only he translated the name +“T‘u-tzŭ” as Hare, the only kind of t‘u-tzŭ of which he had ever +heard!</p> + +<p>On the day appointed for the hare-hunt, almost the whole population of the +district to be beaten up turn out to help in the sport. They often stand +as thick together as soldiers in ranks. The frightened hares go from one +side to the other of the wide-spreading ring, but as every one of the +human assailants has a stick and many of them have two, the chances of +escape for the hare are reduced below zero. It is a law of the game that +whoever succeeds in seizing a hare must hold it aloft, and in a loud tone +cry out, “I raise it” (chü), after which it is his, and no one can take it +from him lawfully. Nevertheless, Chinese human nature is much like the +article in other parts of the world, and the results are apt to be serious +quarrels, fights, broken heads and limbs and perhaps lawsuits. But with +that practical talent for which Chinese officials are distinguished, the +Magistrates refuse to hear any case arising from these conditions, so that +it is necessary to have them settled, as by far the majority of all +Chinese law cases are, out of court by “peace-talkers.”</p> + +<p>How easy it is for quarrels to arise even among a most peaceable people +like the Chinese, with or without a hare-hunt, is illustrated by an +incident which occurred some years since, many of the actors in which are +well known to the writer.</p> + +<p>A few villagers were returning late on a moonlight night from a funeral in +another village. Nearing their own hamlet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> they came on two young fellows +chopping down small trees of the kind called date (a jujube or rhamnus). +They were getting ready clubs for the combined hare-hunt next day. On +being hailed, the youths, who were trespassing on the territory of their +neighbouring village, fled to their home pursued by the others. The latter +returned to their own village and maliciously spread the report that the +young men had been cutting <i>pine trees from the clan graveyard</i>. Although +it was late at night a posse was soon raised to go to the other village +(about a mile off) and demand satisfaction. The village was asleep, but +some headmen were at last aroused who begged their visitors to postpone +the matter till daylight, when the case would be looked into and the +culprits punished, and any required satisfaction given.</p> + +<p>To the reasonable request, only reviling was retorted, and the band +returned to their own village filled with fury. A gong was beaten, every +man in the village aroused and every male of fit age forced to accompany +the mob armed with clubs, poles, etc., to attack the other village. The +latter happened to have a mud wall and gates kept closed at night. So +large a band made a great noise, and soon roused their antagonists by +their abusive language. The village elders struggled to keep the gates +closed, but they were overborne by the hot blood of the youth, who were +resolved, since they must have it, to give their assailants all the +satisfaction they wanted. The gates once opened, a furious battle ensued, +and the women who clambered to the flat-house tops and struggled to see +what was going on heard only the dull whacks of heavy blows. Several men +were knocked senseless, and on the cry that they had been killed, the +battle was renewed until the attacked were driven inside their village, +each side having several men wounded, some of them severely. One old man +had his skull beaten in with a carrying pole and was born home +unconscious, in which condition he remained for a week or two.</p> + +<p>The next morning the attacking village went out and chopped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> down three +little pine-trees growing in their own cemetery (as “proof” of the injury +done by the other party), and proceeded to the District city to enter a +complaint. The other village of course did the same. The first village +took with them the old man, unconscious, and apparently in a moribund +condition. Each party had to arrange its yamên expenses before a step +could be taken, and as the case was a serious one, these were heavy. The +Magistrate dared not decide either way until it was seen whether the +wounded recovered. An epileptic, half-witted boy captured by one side, who +avowed his responsibility for the trouble (perhaps scared nearly to death) +was cruelly beaten till he was half dead for so doing. The matter dragged +on for a long time, and at length was decided on no principle either of +law or of equity—as is the case with so many suits—each side settling +its own debts, and neither side winning. The village attacked had +squandered at the yamên 300 strings of cash, and the attacking party 500! +The old man at last recovered, and peace reigned in Warsaw and its +suburbs.</p> + +<p>Now what was the <i>motive</i> for all this? Was there a feud between these +villages? By no means, but exceptional amity, six or eight families being +connected by marriage. Was there any special provocation? None whatever; +all comprehensible <i>motives</i> led to a continuance of peace, but war and +bloodshed followed just the same. Much may be accounted for by Chinese +passion, but how can passion be suddenly made out of nothing? It is the +current fashion to explain all phenomena, celestial and terrestrial, in +terms of the development theory. Given heredity, education and environment +and you have the man, and society. But it is questionable whether this +classification is as exhaustive as it seems. At times another factor +appears to be required. It is what Edgar Poe called the Imp of the +Perverse.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> Chinese share with the rest of the human race a desire to make a +marriage ceremony an occasion of joy. One of the most frequent periphrases +for a wedding, is the expression “joyful event.” It is in China +preëminently true that the highest forms of “joy,” find expression in +eating. While marriage feasts are no doubt to be found in all lands at all +times, they are especially Oriental, and are characteristic of the +Chinese.</p> + +<p>Owing to the extent and the intricate ramifications of Chinese +relationships, the number of persons who must be invited to a wedding is +very large. In some regions it is customary for women only to contribute a +“share” (<i>fên-tsŭ</i>) to a wedding, while the men give a present at that +part of the ceremony when the bridegroom salutes the guests in turn with a +prostration. As the name of each guest is called to be thus honoured, he +hands over the amount of his offering. But in other places men and women +contribute in the same way. Of two things, however, one may be confident; +that nearly all those invited will be present either in person or by a +representative; and that nearly every woman will be accompanied by +children, who contribute nothing to the revenues, but add enormously to +the expenses.</p> + +<p>Marriage customs in China certainly vary widely, but of such a thing as +being present at “the ceremony,” but not at “the wedding breakfast,” we +have never heard. Indeed, it can scarcely be said that, in our sense of +the word, there is any “ceremony.” Whatever may be added or subtracted +from the performances, the essence of a Chinese wedding seems to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>consist +in the arrival of the bride at her future home. The “feast” is the main +feature of the occasion. Sometimes the relatives are not invited at all +upon the wedding day, but at a subsequent one; yet it is not the less true +that when the guests do come, the “feast” is the centre and soul of the +occasion.</p> + +<p>If there is anything which the Chinese have reduced to an exact science, +it is the business of eating. The sign of real friendship is to invite a +man to a meal, and it is a proverbial saying that he who comes bearing a +vessel of wine on his shoulder and leading a sheep, is the truly +hospitable man, for he shows by his acts that his invitation is a real +one. The great mass of the Chinese spend their days in a condition which +is very remote from affluence, but the expenses of weddings and funerals +in the mere matter of eating, are such as must, from the extent of such +expenses and the frequency of the occasions upon which they are required, +reduce any but a very affluent family to utter poverty.</p> + +<p>Under the pressure of these inexorable circumstances, the Chinese have +long ago hit upon an application of the share principle, by means of which +wedding and funeral feasts become quite practicable, which would otherwise +remain an utter impossibility. It can seldom be known with certainty how +many guests will attend a wedding, or funeral, but the provision must be +made upon the basis of the largest number likely to appear. Each guest, or +rather each family, is not only expected, but by a rigid code of social +etiquette required, as already mentioned, to contribute to the expenses of +the occasion by a “share.” This will sometimes be in food, but the general +practice is to bring money, according to a scale which is perfectly +understood by every one. The amount varies greatly in different places, +from a trifling sum of the value of about five or six cents up to a +quarter of a dollar or more, according to the degree of intimacy between +the persons, and the ability of the guests to contribute. In some parts of +China, the ordinary amount taken to such a feast seems to be twice as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +great as in others. Sometimes the standard is so well understood, that the +phrase “a share” has a local meaning as definite as if, for example, the +sum of 250 cash were expressly named.</p> + +<p>In some places while the rate of “a share” for a funeral is 250 cash, that +for a wedding is just double. This is because the food at a funeral is +“plain” (<i>su</i>), while that for the wedding is of meat (<i>hun</i>) and much +more expensive. It is not uncommon to find that “a share” for a person who +comes from another city or district is two or three times that of a native +of the place where the feast is given. To give only the same as a native +would do would be considered for the person from a distance as a loss of +“face”!</p> + +<p>It is a characteristic example of Chinese procedure that the sums +contributed upon occasions of this sort are in reality seldom what they +profess to be. If local custom considers ninety-eight or ninety-six cash +as a hundred, the temptation to put in a less number as a contribution is +generally too strong to be resisted; the more so as in the confusion of +receiving the numerous amounts, it is generally difficult to tell which +particular string of cash was sent in by which persons, although the +amounts are all entered in an “account,” to be presently noticed.</p> + +<p>Those householders who are very anxious to keep exact track of the +relative honesty of the respective contributors, sometimes do so by having +ready a long cord to which each successive sum of cash is tied by its +string, after the sum is entered on the account. When the proceedings are +ended, it will then be possible for the master of the house to go over the +multitudinous strings of cash, ascertaining how much each one is short, +and tracing it to its donor by its place on the cord, corresponding to the +order of entry in the account-book. But this plan is not regarded with +favour by the guests, and is not generally adopted, because it makes so +much trouble. The advantage of it is that it enables the householder to +pay off the debt to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the family which gave short cash, at exactly the same +rate, whenever they invite him to a wedding or a funeral. In some places +it is well understood that though each guest contributes “a share” of 250 +cash, it will take five “shares” to make 1,000, since every “hundred cash” +is in reality only eighty.</p> + +<p>It is the duty of the committee which looks after the finances, to take +charge of all sums which may be brought by the guests, and to keep a +record of the amount paid by each. This is a matter of great importance, +as every such contribution occupies the double position of a repayment of +some similar gift to the family of the giver, by the family which now +receives the gift, and also of a precursor of similar return gifts in time +to come. The amount which is sent by each person will depend upon the +relations existing between the families, and especially upon the amount +received by them on some former similar occasion. To disregard the +unwritten code which demands from guests proportional contributions, is +regarded as a grave offence against decorum, because of its serious +consequences to the family concerned, in diminishing their receipts.</p> + +<p>To attend a feast, but not to bring any contribution, either in money or +in kind, seems to be practically unknown, though it constantly happens +that the quantity of food which on certain occasions may be substituted +for money, is less than half of what is eaten by the donor. This is +especially the case when the giver is a woman, who, as already mentioned, +is likely to bring one or more voracious children, who must be pacified by +food at every stage of the performances, their capacities being apparently +absolutely unlimited.</p> + +<p>In cities and large towns, the business of managing a wedding or a funeral +feast, is conducted much as it would be in any country of the West. A food +shop contracts to deliver so many bowls of food of a definite quality and +at a fixed price. Provision is also made for additional supplies should +the number of guests be unexpectedly great. But if the feast is to be on a +large scale, it is not unlikely that the cooking will be done<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> on the +premises by the professional caterers. It is usual to speak of an affair +of this sort as embracing so many “feasts,” a “feast” denoting not a +single individual, as might be supposed, but the number who can sit at one +table. This number, like everything Chinese, varies in different places. +Sometimes it is eight, and the phrase, “eight fairy table” is the common +designation of the articles of furniture required for the purpose.</p> + +<p>In other regions, while all the tables are of the same size and shape as +these, one side is left open for convenience in passing the food, and a +“feast” signifies six persons only. When the feasts are provided by +contract, the establishment also furnishes waiters, who convey the food to +the guests, and to these waiters a small gratuity is given at the close.</p> + +<p>The number of families who are within reach of facilities such as these, +is but a small proportion of those who are obliged to arrange for feasts +at weddings and funerals. For those to whom no such resource is open, +there is no other way but to put the matter into the hands of certain +experts, of great experience in such matters—a class of persons to be +found everywhere. Every village or group of villages can furnish a +professional cook, who devotes much of his time to the conduct of affairs +of this sort. If he is a man of wide reputation, and employed by rich +families, he will have a number of assistants who work under his +direction, all of whom at the close of the feast will be rewarded with +suitable gratuities.</p> + +<p>The staff of persons into whose hands the business of arranging for a +feast is committed, is divided into three departments or committees, the +Stewards (<i>chih fang</i>), the Culinary Department (<i>ch‘u-fang</i>), and Finance +Department (<i>chang-fang</i>). Each of them is a check upon the other two, +although in the smaller and less expensive affairs all three will +naturally run together and be merged in a single head. The Stewards +purchase such supplies as are supposed to be necessary, embracing the best +which the local market affords.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>In the northern part of China, the two items which prove the most +expensive are wheaten bread-cakes (<i>man-t‘ou</i>) and wine. If the +accommodation of the dwelling admit of it, the articles which have been +bought for the feast are placed in a separate apartment, under the +exclusive charge of one of the stewards, by whose order alone can anything +be paid out to the kitchen, on demand of the head cook. But in practice it +is found that at this point there is always a serious leak, for many of +the relatives and neighbours of the family which is to have the feast, +will send over their children to the storeroom to “borrow” a few +bread-cakes, or a few cups of wine. For a steward to refuse (as a +foreigner would be likely to do), is to incur the ill-will of the family +which wishes to “borrow,” and the only advantage to the steward would be +that he would be reviled, which no Chinese relishes. As a matter of +practice therefore, it is customary to “give to him that asketh,” and from +him that would “borrow” not to turn away, even though, as the old English +saying runs, “Broad thongs are cut out of other people’s leather.”</p> + +<p>It not infrequently happens that the stewards who are in charge of the +entertainment are smokers of opium, in which case the expenses are sure to +be much heavier than otherwise. It has also come to be a custom in some +regions, to furnish opium to the guests at weddings, and this may become +an item of a very elastic nature. Besides this, a man who smokes opium is +naturally incapacitated from taking even ordinary care of the stores under +his charge. If he is himself a smoker, and if opium is one of the articles +provided for the occasion, it will not be strange if all his opium-smoking +comrades embrace the opportunity to visit him, when they must be invited +to take a pipe—of course at the expense of the master of ceremonies.</p> + +<p>The disappearance of wine and bread-cakes, on occasions of this sort, even +before a single bowl of food has been set before a guest, suggests the +evaporation of water on a hot summer day. It was reported to the writer, +that on the occasion of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> funeral in a neighbour’s family, about sixty +catties of wine vanished, without leaving behind any trace of its devious +course.</p> + +<p>The reason for such occurrences, which are of universal notoriety, is not +that the stewards are not able to do that which they are set to do, nor is +the explanation necessarily to be found in their indifference to the +interests of the host. The real seat of the difficulty is, that every +family sufficiently well-to-do to have a large feast is surrounded with a +swarm of poor relatives, who have no other opportunities than these to +make their connection of any service to themselves, and who on such +occasions are determined not to be ignored. A poor family of the same +surname as the host will stand at the door of the mansion where a great +feast is in preparation, with bowls in hand, demanding that a share of the +good things in course of being served shall be apportioned to them. Even +if the master of the house should absolutely refuse his consent, and if +the stewards should follow his directions and give nothing, it would be of +no avail, for the poor family would raise such an uproar as practically to +prevent further proceedings, and all the guests would take the part of the +poor relatives, exhorting the host to give them what they asked.</p> + +<p>The habit of levying tribute upon those who happen to be in a position to +pay it, is, as already remarked, deeply rooted in Chinese life. To what +this practice leads, may be seen in the extreme cases of which one now and +then hears, such as the following, detailed to the writer by the principal +sufferer. A man had a dispute with one of his uncles about a tree, the +value of which did not amount to more than a dollar. As he was a person +without force of character, and unable to get his rights, he was obliged +to “eat loss.” This enraged his wife to such an extent that she hung +herself. It was now open to her husband to bring a suit at law, accusing +the other party of “harrying to death” (<i>pi ssŭ</i>) the deceased wife. +Perhaps this would have been the best plan for the injured husband, but +“peace-talkers” persuaded him to compromise the matter for a money<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +payment. The other party had a powerful advocate in a relative who was a +notorious blackleg, expert in lawsuits, and who freely gave his advice. +Even under these advantages, the middlemen into whose hands the matter was +put, decided that the uncle should pay 30,000 cash to the family of the +woman, as a contribution to the funeral, which was done.</p> + +<p>It is not usual to make much parade over the funerals of suicides, unless +the sum to be expended is exacted from those who are supposed to have +impelled to the suicide. In this instance, half the amount paid would have +been amply sufficient for the funeral and for all its expenses. The +“family friends” of the husband, uncles, cousins, nephews, etc., took +charge of the proceedings, which they contrived to drag out for more than +a week, and when the funeral was over, the husband, whose crops had been +that year totally destroyed by floods, ascertained that these “family +friends” had not only made away with the 30,000 cash awarded as a fine, +but that he was saddled with a debt of immediate urgency amounting to +20,000 more for bread-cakes and wine, which had been consumed (as alleged) +by the “family friends” during the protracted negotiations. No clear +accounts of the expenditure were to be had, and the only thing of which +the poor husband was sure, was that he was practically ruined by his +“family friends.”</p> + +<p>It is always taken for granted by the Chinese, that any family rich enough +to spend a large amount of money on the funeral of a parent, will be +mercilessly pillaged on that particular occasion. The reason for this is +that, at such a time, the master of the house is (theoretically) overcome +by grief, and ordinary propriety requires that he himself should take no +part in the management of affairs, but should give his exclusive attention +to the mourning rites. Even though he clearly perceives that everything is +going wrong, he must act as if he were blind and deaf, and also dumb. Long +practice has made the Chinese very expert in such an accomplishment, +which, it is needless to say, for an Occidental would be difficult, not to +say impossible.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> If the householder is a man for any reason generally +unpopular, his disadvantages will be greatly increased, as is illustrated +by the following case, narrated to the writer by a man who lived within +two miles of the village in which the event occurred.</p> + +<p>A wealthy man lost his father, and made preparations for an expensive +funeral. He took a hundred strings of cash in a large farm-cart, and went +to a market to buy swine to be slaughtered for the feast. On the way he +was waylaid <i>by a party of his own relatives</i>, and robbed of all the +money, in such a way as to render recovery of it hopeless. Having +afterward bought four swine and an ox (a most generous provision for the +feast), the arrangements were put into the hands of managers (<i>tsung-li</i>) +as usual. These persons found themselves wholly unable to restrain the +raids made upon the stores by “friends,” neighbours and others, and the +night before the funeral was to occur, thieves broke into the storeroom +and carried off every scrap of meat, leaving nothing whatever for the +feast. The managers were frightened and ran away. The feast was of +necessity had with nothing but vegetables and was of a sort to bring the +householder into disgrace. As a result he was afraid to try to have any +more funerals, and there are at present on his premises two unburied +coffins awaiting sepulture, perhaps by the next generation.</p> + +<p>As soon as the “shares” have all been sent in and reckoned up, it is known +how much the host is out of pocket by the affair, and this information is +so far from being private that it is sometimes at once announced to the +guests, and if the amount is a large one the host gets credit for doing +business on an extensive scale, regardless of expense. This gives him a +certain amount of honour among his neighbours, and honour of a kind which +is particularly prized. Among poor families, where “face” is of much less +consequence than cash, it is not uncommon to find the feasts on a scale of +such extreme economy that the cost is very trifling, although the “shares” +are as great as at much better entertainments. It occasionally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>happens +that a family is able to reduce the expenses so that the contributions are +large enough to cover them, and even to leave a margin. A man who has +carried through an enterprise of this sort is regarded as worthy of a +certain admiration; and not without reason, for the feat implies +generalship of no mean order.</p> + +<p>Another illustration of the application of coöperative principles is found +in the organization of the men of a village into details, or reliefs, as +bearers of the catafalque of a specified size, each having its own leader. +Whenever a funeral is to take place, notice is sent to the head of the +division whose turn it is to serve, and he calls upon the men of his +detail in a regular order. If any one is not on hand to take his turn, he +is subjected to a fine.</p> + +<p>In country districts, the funeral catafalque, with its tremendous array of +lacquered poles upon which it is borne, is often the property of a certain +number of individuals, who are also ordinary farmers. On being summoned to +take charge of a funeral, they often perform the service gratuitously for +people living in their own village, but charging a definite sum for the +rent of the materials, which sometimes represent a considerable capital. +Wedding chairs are often owned and managed in the same way, of which the +advantage is that an investment which it is so desirable for the community +to have made, and which is too large for an individual, is made by a +company, the members of which receive a small dividend on its cash outlay, +and an acknowledgment in food, presents, etc., of the manual labour +involved in serving those who invite their aid.</p> + +<p>The principle is capable of indefinite expansion. The writer once lived in +a Chinese village, where there was a “Bowl Association,” owning 100 or 200 +bowls which were rented to those who had occasion for a feast, at such a +rate as to be remunerative to the owners, and at the same time more +economical to the householder than the purchase of a great number of +dishes for which on ordinary occasions he would have no use.</p> + +<p> </p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="images"> +<tr><td><img src="images/fp188left.jpg" alt="" /></td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td><img src="images/fp188right.jpg" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">A Bridal Pair.</span></td><td> </td><td align="center"><span class="smcap">Temporary Funeral Pavilion.</span></td></tr></table> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>Societies for the assistance of those who have funerals are of common +occurrence, and are of many different kinds. There is special reason for +the organization of such leagues (called <i>pai-shê</i>), since, while weddings +may be postponed until suitable arrangements can be made, it is generally +difficult, and sometimes impossible, to do the same with a funeral.</p> + +<p>Sometimes each family belonging to the league pays into the common fund a +monthly subscription of 100 cash a month. Each family so contributing is +entitled upon occasion of the death of an adult member of the family (or +perhaps the older generation only) to draw from this fund, say, 6,000 +cash, to be used in defraying the expenses. If there is not so much money +in the treasury as is called for by deaths in families of the members, the +deficiency is made up by special taxes upon each member. According to a +plan of this sort, a subscriber who drew out nothing for five years would +have contributed the full amount to which he is entitled, without +receiving anything in return. A mutual insurance company of this nature is +probably entered into on account of the serious difficulty which most +Chinese families experience in getting together ready money. From a +financial point of view there may be nothing saved by the contribution, +but practically it is found to be easier to raise 100 cash every month, +than to get together 6,000 cash at any one time.</p> + +<p>Another form of mutual assistance in the expenses of funerals is the +following: A man whose parents are well advanced in life knows that he may +at any time be called upon to spend upon the ceremonies at their death an +amount which it will be difficult to raise. He therefore “invites an +association” (<i>ch‘ing hui</i>), each member of which is under obligation upon +occasion of the death of a parent to contribute a fixed sum, say 2,000 +<i>cash</i>. The membership will thus be composed exclusively of those who have +aged parents. The number of names may be forty, which would result, +whenever a call shall be made, in the accumulation of 80,000 cash. With +this sum a showy funeral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> can be paid for. It is customary to provide in +the document which each signs, and which is deposited with the organizer +of the association, that the funeral shall be conducted on a specified +scale of expense, nor can the funds be diverted to any other use than for +a funeral.</p> + +<p>Whenever a member wishes for his own use to make a call for the quota from +each member, he must previously find two bondsmen, who will be surety for +him that he will continue to pay his share on demand, otherwise the other +subscribers might be left in the lurch. Only those known to be able to +meet their assessments would be likely to be invited to join such an +association, and if for any reason a member should fail to furnish his +quota, he would be heavily fined.</p> + +<p>At each funeral, all the subscribers to the funeral fund are present <i>ex +officio</i>, and it is not necessary for them to contribute any other share +than that represented by the 2,000 cash of the assessment. Each member of +the association appears in mourning costume, and wailing as would become a +near relative of the deceased. The presence of so large a number of +mourners in addition to those really near of kin, gives a great deal of +“face” to the individual whose parent has died, and this is perhaps quite +as attractive a feature of the arrangement as the financial assistance.</p> + +<p>If it should happen that for a long time no one dies in the families of +any subscribers to the funeral fund, it may be thought best to summon the +members to a feast, at which the project is broached of making a call for +a share to be used for a wedding, or some other purpose outside of the +constitutional limits of the society. In any arrangement of this nature +the feast is an indispensable concomitant of the proceedings. Without it +nothing can begin, and without it nothing can end.</p> + +<p>Associations of this nature are much more common in connection with +funerals than with weddings, yet they are not unknown for the latter +purpose. A family, for example, wishes to marry a son on a scale which the +family resources will not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> warrant. It then resorts to an expedient, which +is called “drawing friends by means of other friends.” Let us suppose that +it is desired to raise the sum of 100,000 cash. A hundred cards of +invitation are prepared, ten of which are sent to ten friends of the +family, who are invited to a preliminary feast. These friends receive the +extra cards of invitation, and each one gives a card to nine other +“friends” of his own, who agree to attend the wedding in question, each +one bringing with him as a share a string of cash. By this means a family +with little wealth and few connections is able suddenly to blossom out at +a wedding with a hundred guests (many of whom nobody knows), and all +expenses are provided for by the liberal contribution of the “friends,” +and of the friends of the “friends.”</p> + +<p>The only motive for the act, on the part of the original “friends” is +friendship, and the gustatory joy of the wedding feast. The only motives +for the friends of the “friends,” are their friendship, and the same +joyful feast. It is needless to observe that the 100,000 cash thus +suddenly raised is a <i>debt</i>, which the family receiving it must repay in +future contributions.</p> + +<p>To a Westerner, it doubtless appears a preposterous proceeding to saddle a +family with a liability of this sort, for the mere sake of a temporary +display. But love of display is by no means confined to the Chinese, +although doubtless they are satisfied with manifestations of it which to +us are far from being attractive. It is a characteristic in the Chinese +conduct of affairs, to make heavy drafts on the future in order to satisfy +a present need. Many a family will sell all their land, and even pull down +their house, to provide for a funeral of a parent, because to bury the +deceased without a suitable display would be a loss of “face.” And this +irrational procedure is executed with an air of cheerfulness and of +conscious virtue, which seems to say, “Behold me! I will do what is +becoming at any personal inconvenience whatever!”</p> + +<p>The elaborateness of a Chinese funeral may be roughly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>determined in +advance by calculating the product of two factors, the age (especially the +rank of the deceased by generations) and the social rank of the family. As +soon as a death occurs the wailing begins, and at once, or possibly at +sunset, the temple of the local-god is visited to make the announcement to +him, accompanied with more wailing. Further exercises of this sort take +place on “the third day,” that is in some regions the next day, which is +held to be to all intents “the third”! In case of an affair of great +ceremony there will be special performances on every seventh day (a +strange and apparently unique survival of the hebdominal division in +China) for seven times, the funeral occurring on the forty-ninth day. +During the whole of this period there is no quiet time for the distracted +family. Perhaps both Buddhist and Taoist priests are chanting their Sacred +Books in extemporized mat-shed pavilions of a tawdry splendour; for it is +often considered safest in the dim uncertainty as to the best way to reach +the regions of the blest, to take passage by both of these religious +routes. Excruciating music rends the air from morn till eve, and bombs are +detonating at frequent intervals to terrify malignant spirits, and to +delight the swarms of village boys who riot in ecstasies during the whole +procedure.</p> + +<p>English-speaking peoples have been criticised for taking their pleasures +sadly. The Chinese, on the contrary, often contrive to get through their +mourning not without considerable enjoyment. Under no other mundane +circumstances is so much to be had to eat on such easy terms. The adage +says truly,</p> + +<p class="poem">“When old folks die, the rest feed high.”</p> + +<p>The strain upon the exiguous resources of a single courtyard or set of +yards in preparing food simultaneously for the guests, often numbering +hundreds, is very great; yet the inevitable waiting, the crowding, the +turmoil, and discomfort are all borne without a tenth of the complaint and +resentment which a tithe of the same annoyances and provocations would +probably cause<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> the readers of these lines. In China there is no other way +to bury the dead, and there never has been any other way. Ceremony is the +very life of the Chinese race, and on no other occasion is ceremony so +triumphantly tyrannical as at a Chinese funeral. Yet in the most showy +pageantry there is likely to be an element of unutterable shabbiness. In +city processions flags, banners, umbrellas, screens, and handsome wooden +tablets shining with lacquer and glittering with gilt are carried in great +numbers before and behind the coffin of notables, but the bearers are not +infrequently dirty, ragged beggars, straggling along without aim and +without order. Little or nothing of this is to be seen in the rural +districts, but the confusion and disorderliness are omnipresent and +inevitable. There is in the Chinese language no word meaning solemn, for +there is no such thing as solemnity in the Chinese Empire.</p> + +<p>White being the mourning colour, at a funeral swarms of people appear, +some with a mere fillet about their head, others with square caps, and +others with a more abundant display, up to those whose near relationship +to the deceased requires that they be covered entirely with the coarse +cloth which denotes the deepest depth of mourning, their feeble steps +being supported by a short stick of willow upon which they ostentatiously +lean, particularly at the numerous junctures when wailing is to take +place. Generally speaking, the wearers of white are those who come within +the “Five Degrees of Relationship” (wu fu), that is, all directly +descended from one’s grandfather’s grandfather (the steps being indicated +in Chinese by separate names for each generation, to wit, <i>kao</i>, <i>tsêng</i>, +<i>tsu</i>, <i>fu</i>, and <i>shên</i>, viz., three generations of “grandfathers,” my +father, and myself). The family in mourning furnishes material for all the +cloud of mourners, but if the married daughters are provided by their +husband’s family with a supply, this is a mark of special honour. +Sometimes women are seen proudly carrying a huge bolt of wholly +superfluous cloth on their arm all through a funeral, furnishing a public +testimonial that their husbands or fathers-in-law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> have done the correct +thing, thus giving the daughter-in-law a large supply of “face.”</p> + +<p>Since family graveyards are surrounded by planted fields, if a funeral +happens to be held in the spring or early summer, it is inevitable that by +the trampling of so many persons much damage should be done to growing +crops. A space twenty feet wide or more would be required by the bearers +of a catafalque, and if the funeral is a large one it will be followed all +the way by a dense crowd. The unhappy owners of adjacent land sometimes +provide themselves with shovels, and throw quantities of earth into the +air so as to fall on the heads of the trespassers on their grain, as a +protest (like all Chinese protests wholly futile) against the invasion of +their rights.</p> + +<p>Angry words and reviling are not infrequent concomitants of Chinese +funerals, for the provocation is often grievous. To interfere with a +funeral is a serious offence, but disputes sometimes arise between the +participants. The writer once saw a coffin left for many days by the side +of a public road because the bearers of the two coffins that were to have +been buried together, differed as to which set should first leave the +village, the disagreement terminating in a fight and an angry lawsuit, +pending the settlement of which the dead man could not stir.</p> + +<p>It is when the almost interminable feasts are at last over, and the loud +cry is raised, “Take up the coffin,” that the funeral’s climax has +arrived. Sixteen bearers, or some multiple of sixteen (and the more the +better) wrestle with the huge and unwieldy burden of the ponderous coffin +and the enormous catafalque supporting it. Only the bearers in the +immediate front can see where they are going, so that it is necessary that +a funeral director take charge of their motions, which he does by shrill +shouts in a falsetto key ending in a piercing cry by no means unlike the +scream of a catamount. To each of his directive yells the whole chorus of +bearers responds with shouts resembling those of sailors heaving an +anchor. These cries mingled with the ostentatious wails of the mourners +piled into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> a whole caravan of village farm-carts, combine to produce a +total effect as remote from our conception of what a funeral ought to be +as can easily be imagined. When, by a slow and toilful progress, the +family graveyard has been reached, the lowering of the coffin into the +grave—sometimes a huge circular opening—is the culminating point of the +many days of excitement. The cries of the director become shrieks, the +responses are tumultuous and discordant, every one adding his own +emendations according to his own point of view, and no one paying any +attention to any one else. Thus, amid the explosion of more crackers and +bombs, the fiercer wails of the mourners, the shouts of the bearers and +the grave-diggers, and the buzz of the curious spectators, the Chinese is +at last laid away to his long rest.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h2> +<h3>NEW YEAR IN CHINESE VILLAGES</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">If</span> the foreigner who has lived in China long enough to take in its +external phenomena, but not long enough to perceive the causes of them, +were to explain to one of less knowledge his views as to the leading +features of the change from one Chinese year to another as exhibited in +the life of the Chinese, he would probably name (and with much +plausibility) one or more of the following particulars.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>DUMPLINGS</h4> + +<p>The customs of different parts of the wide empire doubtless vary, but +probably there is no part of it in which either dumplings or some similar +article are not inseparably associated with New Year’s Day, in the same +way as plum-pudding with an English Christmas, or roast-turkey and mince +pie with a New England Thanksgiving. As compared with Western peoples the +number of Chinese who are not obliged to practice self-denial either in +the quantity or the quality of their food, and in both, is small. The diet +of the vast mass of the nation is systematically and necessarily +abstemious. Even in the case of farmers’ families who are well enough off +to afford the year round good food in abundance, we do not often see them +indulging in such luxury. Or if the males of the elder generation indulge, +the women and children of a younger generation are not allowed to do so. +Hereditary economy in the item of food is a marked Chinese trait. To “eat +good things” is a common phrase denoting the occurrence of a wedding, a +funeral, or some occasion upon which “good things” cannot be dispensed +with. To eat cakes of ordinary grain on New<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> Year’s Day, and not to get +any dumplings at all, is proverbially worse than not to have any New Year.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the keen joy with which every member of a Chinese family looks +forward to the dietetic aspect of their New Year, the still keener joy +with which every member is absorbed in devouring all he can get of the +best there is to be got, and the scarcely less keen joy with which each +one recalls the details of the menu when the family is once more launched +upon the Sahara of ordinary fare—these are full of suggestion and +instruction to Occidentals who habitually have so much to eat that they +seldom secure the best sauce of gnawing hunger, and are more likely than +not to be bored by being asked out to an elaborate dinner with many +courses. The most robust imagination finds it impossible to conceive of a +Chinese who should take this view of what always appeals to the finest +feelings of his nature. There is therefore much reason in placing +Dumplings in the forefront of a Chinese New Year.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>REUNION</h4> + +<p>No feast-day in any Western land—the two previously mentioned not +excepted—can at all compare with Chinese New Year, as regards powers of +traction and attraction. We consider the gathering of families on these +special occasions as theoretically desirable, and as practically useful. +But we have this fatal disadvantage; our families divide and disperse, +often to the ends of the earth, and a new home is soon made. Whole +families cannot be transported long distances, especially at inclement +seasons of the year, even if average dwellings would hold them all.</p> + +<p>But in China, the family is already at home. It is only some of its male +members who are absent, and they return to their ancestral abode, with the +infallible instinct of the wild fowl to their southern haunts. If vast +distances should make this physically impossible—as is the case with the +countless Shan-hsi men scattered over the empire doing business as +bankers, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>pawn-brokers, etc., or as happens with many from the northern +provinces who go “outside the Great Wall,”—still the plan is to go home, +perhaps one year in three, and the time selected is always at the close of +the year.</p> + +<p>A cat in a strange garret, a bird with a broken wing, a fish out of water +are not more restless and unhappy than the average Chinese who cannot go +home at New Year time. In addition to his personal deprivations, he has +the certainty of being ridiculed not only by the persons with whom he is +obliged to stay, but also by the people of his own village when he does go +home. The Chinese dread ridicule, even more than they dread the loss of a +good meal, and unless the circumstances are altogether exceptional, one +can depend upon it that every Chinese can only be kept away from his home +at New Year by circumstances over which he has no control. There is, +therefore, good ground for regarding reunion as a leading feature of a +Chinese New Year.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>NEW CLOTHES</h4> + +<p>Whoever takes even a superficial view of the Chinese in their towns, +cities and villages during the period from the first day of the first moon +to the fifteenth of the same, will be struck with the display of new and +bright-coloured garments. Every article of apparel, both of the men and of +the women, and still more of the children, may be of any or all the colors +of the rainbow. The Chinese do not seem to us to be conspicuous for what +we call good taste, but rather at times to emulate the vagaries of the +African savages, and never more so than at this time of holiday show. +Combinations of colour which would cause Western ladies to shrug their +shoulders, and to shiver with horror, appear to recommend themselves to +the Chinese taste as the correct thing, and as good form. Bright green and +blue, accompanied by deep scarlet, purple, lilac or orange, do not seem to +“kill each other,” as our modistes would shudderingly affirm, but they +convey such evident and such universal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> pleasure to wearers and spectators +alike, that it becomes plain to the most prejudiced foreigner, that here, +at least, his standards do not apply. In consideration of the stress which +the Chinese lay upon this feature of their great anniversary, we should be +justified in assuming fine clothes as a main characteristic of the +occasion.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>RELIGIOUS RITES</h4> + +<p>The very first aspect in which Chinese New Year presents itself, no matter +in what part of the world we happen to meet it, is that of noise. All +night long, there is a bang! bang! bang! of firecrackers large and small, +which, like other calamities, “come, not single spies, but in battalions.” +The root of all this is undoubtedly connected with religion, as in other +similar performances all over the world. But though the explosion of +gunpowder is the most prominent, it is far from being the most important +act of New Year worship. There is the despatch of the last year’s +kitchen-god, generally on the twenty-third of the twelfth moon, and the +installation of his successor at the close of the year. On the last +evening of the year, there is the family gathering either at the ancestral +temple, or should there not be one, in the dwelling-house, for the worship +of the tablets of the past few generations of ancestors. In some parts of +China ancestral tablets are comparatively rare among the farming and +working people, and the place of them as regards the practical worship at +New Year’s eve, is taken by a large scroll, containing a portion of the +family genealogy, which is hung up, and honoured with prostrations and the +burning of incense. On the morning of the second day of the new first +moon, perhaps at other times also, all the males of a suitable age go to +the family or clan graveyard, and there make the customary offerings to +the spirits of the departed. There has been considerable controversy among +foreigners expert in Chinese affairs as to the true value of these various +rites from a religious point of view, but there is no doubt on the part +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> any one that they constitute a most essential ingredient in a Chinese +New Year, and that in the present temper of the Chinese race, a New Year +without such rites is both inconceivable and impossible. We do well, +therefore, to place Religious Rites prominently in our catalogue.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>SOCIAL CEREMONIES</h4> + +<p>It requires but a slight acquaintance with the facts, however, to make us +aware that while the ceremonies connected with the dead are important, +they are soon disposed of once for all, and that they do not form a part +of the permanent New Year landscape. It is quite otherwise with the social +ceremonies connected with the living. The practice of New Year calls, as +found in some Western lands is a very feeble parody of the Chinese usage. +We call on whom we choose to call upon, when we choose to go. The Chinese +pays his respects to those to whom he must pay his respects, at the time +when it is his duty so to do and from this duty there is seldom any +reprieve. For example, not to press into undue prominence local practices, +which vary greatly, it may be the fashion for every one to be up long +before daylight. After the family salutations have been concluded, all but +the older generation of males set out to make the tour of the village, the +representatives of each family entering the yard of every other family, +and prostrating themselves to the elders who are at home to receive them. +This business goes by priority in the genealogical table, as military and +naval officers take rank from the date of their commissions. Early +marriages on the part of some members of a collateral branch of a large +clan, late marriages on the part of other branches, the adoption of heirs +at any point, and other causes, constantly bring it about that the men +oldest in years are by no means so in the order of the generation to which +they belong. Thus we have the absurd spectacle of a man of seventy posing +as a “nephew”—or, if worst comes to worst—as the “grandson” of a mere +boy. One often hears a man in middle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> life complain of the fatigues of the +New Year time, as he being of a “late generation,” is obliged “to kotow to +every child two feet long” whom he may happen to meet, as they are “older” +than he, and in consequence of this inversion of “relative duties,” the +children are fresh as a rose, while the middle-aged man has lame knees for +a week or two!</p> + +<p>If the first day is devoted to one’s native town or village, the +succeeding ones are taken to pay calls of ceremony upon one’s relatives +living in other towns or villages, beginning with the mother’s family, and +branching into relationships the names of which few foreigners can +remember, and which most cannot even comprehend. That all this social +ceremony is upon the whole a good thing cannot be doubted, for it prevents +many alienations, and heals in their early stages many cases of strained +relations. Yet, to us such a formal and monotonous routine would prove +insufferable.</p> + +<p>To the Chinese, these visits are not only an important part of New Year, +presumptively they are in real sense New Year itself. Every visit involves +a “square meal,” and (from the Chinese point of view) a good time. To omit +them, would be not only to deprive oneself of much pleasure, it would be +to commit a social crime, which would almost certainly give great offence.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>NATIONAL LEISURE</h4> + +<p>Greater familiarity with the conditions and details of Chinese life lead +us to wonder that so laborious a people find <i>time</i> for all this junketing +and vain display. The marvel is indeed a permanent one, but it ceases to +surprise us when we have once taken in the fact that the whole Chinese +race have as a unit, practically agreed to deduct from the twelve +available months, an entire half moon, from New Year till the Feast of +Lanterns. Within this twenty-fourth part of the year, nothing shall be +done which can be left undone. The outgo is to be put down to the expense +account of the whole year, and the main <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>purpose is to have a good time. +This period thus becomes a safety-valve for the nation, which else might +go distraught in all its otherwise ceaseless toils. If the Chinese did not +as a rule, work so hard, they could not so heartily enjoy their long +vacation. If they did not so heartily enjoy their vacation, they could not +during the rest of the year work so well. We are therefore authorized, in +arranging our table of contents of the Chinese New Year, to give large +place to the almost complete cessation of productive industry. It is the +epoch of national leisure.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>GAMBLING</h4> + +<p>It is a venerable maxim that “Satan finds some mischief still, for idle +hands to do.” Probably no race that ever lived could resist the strain of +such a sudden transition from constant industrial activity, to complete +industrial inactivity, to be followed half a month later by the old +routine and another year of bondage. They could not resist the strain, +that is to say, without a corresponding reaction; neither can the Chinese. +It is not in human nature to find consecutive enjoyment merely in the +directions which have been named, without trying to go farther and to get +more. This is precisely what the Chinese do, and they do it by the +excitement of gambling. This, with opium smoking, is the greatest vice in +China, and the most ruinous. But after all, taking the country districts +through, the proportion of gamblers among the working classes, so far as +we are aware, is limited, though vast sums are everywhere annually +squandered in this way. But the remarkable thing is that at New Year’s +time all restrictions seem to be removed, and both men and women give +themselves up to the absorbing excitement of cards, dominoes, etc., with +money stakes of varying amount, and with no fear or even thought of future +evil harvests. In the abstract, gambling is of course recognized as wrong +and not to be indulged, as likely to lead to trouble. But at New Year’s +time “everybody does it,” “it is only for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> amusement,” and “there is +nothing else to do,”—the latter an important fact to be taken account of +at a time when even cooking is often prætermitted as much as possible. +Merchants do not take down their shutters, but one can hear the clerks +noisily gambling inside. Innkeepers will not open their front doors, but +landlord and servants are all gambling together and will refuse to stop a +game to feed your animals or get you a meal, telling you that it is no +time to travel, and that business is business, and amusement amusement.</p> + +<p>Old women and young women squatted on their mats or their <i>k‘angs</i>, +feverishly shuffle their cards and pay their little stakes, and all are +having a good time.</p> + +<p>That this state of things will not stop suddenly on the day after the +Feast of Lanterns, is obvious. It often never stops at all, but goes on +with a widening and lengthening trail of ruin, not ending even with the +grave, but lasting to the third and fourth generation. Surely we are right +in calling gambling a leading feature of a Chinese New Year. And yet after +all, perhaps we have not got to the bottom of the matter.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>DEBT-PAYING</h4> + +<p>However little attention he may pay to the Chinese calendar, every +foreigner in China is sure to be reminded in a very effective way of the +approach of the close of the Chinese year, long before the edge of the New +Year is to be seen above the horizon. At some time during the twelfth +moon, the “boy” makes his appearance, and with an unusual animation in his +unanimated face, explains that owing to a combination of circumstances +which seem to be to a large extent incapable of elucidation to us, he is +obliged to request the advance of his wages for the current month, and +also for the one to come. This may be contrary to rule, doubtless is so, +but owing to the combination above alluded to, is an imperative necessity. +Otherwise ruin impends. It is not long before a similar statement is made +by the cook, with regard to his affairs, and by the various coolies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> as to +theirs. In each case the necessity turns out upon investigation to be so +real, and the pressure of the combination of circumstances so powerful, +that we are, in a manner, forced to do violence to our own judgment, in +order to avert the imminent ruin of those who are in our employ, and in +whom we feel, perhaps, some interest. But it is a long time before it +occurs to us to look into the matter more deeply than sufficiently to +ascertain what everybody knew before, that Chinese New Year is preceded by +a universal season of debt-paying from which no one is exempt. If we +insist upon following up any specific case with a rigid examination into +its remoter causes, we soon learn from the principal party such facts as +appear to justify his assertion of an emergency, and also that there is +nothing peculiar in his case, but that other people are in the same +predicament. If these inquiries are carried far enough, and deep enough, +they will bring to light the seven deadly sins of Chinese social +financiering.</p> + +<p>1. <i>Everybody always needs to borrow.</i> That the business of the world even +in Western lands depends upon the borrowing of money, and that credit is +the largest factor in trade, are positions which we do not for a moment +forget. But Chinese borrowing is of a different type from that with which +the great expansion of modern commerce has made us familiar. We do not +affirm that there are not Chinese who do not need the money of other +people for the conduct of their affairs, but only that these people are so +rare that they may as well be disregarded. The whole scale of Chinese +living and the whole system of economics are of such a sort, that as a +rule there is but a narrow margin of financial reserve. With all their +practicality and skill in affairs, it is a constant source of wonder that +so few Chinese ever have anything to fall back upon. One reason for this +is the fact that it is very difficult for them to accumulate a reserve, +and another equally potent is the fact that there is nothing which can be +safely done with it pending its use. There are no savings-banks, and there +are no investments which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> are safe. The only thing which can be done with +ready money, is to lend it to those who need it, which is generally done +with some reluctance, as the lender justly fears lest he should never +again see either interest or principal. Whoever has a wedding in his +family, is liable to have to borrow money to carry it through, and if it +be a funeral the necessity will be still more urgent. He needs money to +start in business, and he needs more to settle up at the end of the year, +when, if their own accounts are to be trusted, nine Chinese out of ten who +engage in business in a small way, find that they have “lost money”; +though this often signifies that they have not realized so much as they +had hoped. In short it is hard to find a Chinese to whom the loan of a sum +of money at any time, would not be as welcome as “water to a fish in a dry +rut.” It is this all-prevailing need which smoothes the surface of the +spot where the pit is to be dug.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Everybody is obliged to lend money.</i> We have just remarked that the +man who happens to have a little surplus cash does not like to lend it, +lest he should never see it again. But there are various kinds and degrees +of pressure which can be brought to bear upon the capitalist. One of these +is connected with the solidarity of the Chinese family, or clan. If one of +the members has money which he might lend and another is desperately in +need of it, the latter will get a member of the generation higher than +that to which the capitalist belongs, to intercede for him. This may be +done unwillingly, but it will probably be done. To a sufficient amount of +pressure of this ancestral description, the capitalist will find it best +to yield, though not improbably against his financial judgment. But every +Chinese is from infancy accustomed to the idea that it is seldom easy to +have one’s own way in all things, and that when one cannot do as he would, +he must do as he must. If the borrower does not belong to the same family +or clan as the lender, the difficulty will be greater, but it may perhaps +be overcome by the same description of pressure, by means of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> friends. A +would-be borrower is often obliged to make a great many kotows before he +can secure the favour of a loan (at an extortionately high rate of +interest), but he is much aided in his efforts by the Chinese notion that +when a certain amount of pressure has been brought to bear, a request +<i>must</i> be granted, just as one of a pair of scales must go down if you put +on enough weights. Thus it comes about that in all ranks of Chinese, the +man who has, is the man who must be content to allow to share in his +wealth (for a handsome remuneration).</p> + +<p>3. From the foregoing propositions, it follows with inevitable certainty, +that <i>almost everybody owes some one else</i>. There is never any occasion to +ask a Chinese whether he owes money. The proper formula is, How much do +you owe, and to whom, and what is the rate of interest?</p> + +<p>4. <i>No Chinese ever pays cash down, unless he is obliged to do so.</i> To us +this may appear a most eccentric habit, but it seems to be almost a law. +The Chinese has learned by ages of experience, that he no sooner pays away +money to satisfy one debt, than he needs that same money to liquidate +other debts. In their own figuratively expressive phrase, a single cup of +water is wanted in three or four places at once, and the supply is always +as inadequate, as the classical “cup of water to put out the fire in a +cart-load of fuel.” Knowing this with a keenness of apprehension which it +is difficult for us to appreciate, the Chinese holds on fast to his cash +till it is wrung from him by a force which overcomes his own tenacity of +grip.</p> + +<p>5. <i>No Chinese ever pays a debt till he is dunned.</i> To us this also seems +a strange practice. Most of us have grown up with a fixed idea that as a +debt must be paid, “if it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it +were done quickly.” The mind of a Chinese operates in quite a different +way. His view is, “If it must be done, it were best done when it is done +as deliberately as the case admits.”</p> + +<p>6. It seems also to be the rule, that <i>no Chinese will pay his debts till +he has been dunned a great number of times</i>. Here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> again he is at the +opposite pole from that which we occupy. We do not like to be dunned, and +would rather make considerable sacrifices than to have needy persons +dogging us for the collection of debts which we honestly owe, which we +must ultimately pay, and not to arrange for the payment of which at once +is more or less of a disgrace. By “we” we mean of course the average +foreigner, for it is not to be denied that Western lands have their full +proportion of impecunious and shameless rascals who “live off the interest +of their debts,” and who swindle all those whom they can. But the Chinese +of whom we are speaking do not belong to this class. The mass of the +Chinese people we believe to be honest, and they fully intend to pay all +that they owe, but they do not intend to pay until they are ready to do +so, and neither gods nor men can tell when that will be. It is a current +saying that when a person has many debts he is no longer concerned about +them, just as when one has many parasites he ceases to scratch!</p> + +<p>7. In a large proportion of cases, <i>the Chinese who pays a debt, pays but +a part of it at a time</i>. The rest he will try to get together in the +“third month,” “the ninth month,” or at the “end of the next year.” The +practical outcome of these last three peculiarities is, that the twelfth +moon of every Chinese year is a time of maximum activity all over the +empire. One would suppose that a vast amount of work was being +accomplished, but the facts are otherwise. One is reminded of the Witch in +“Alice Behind the Looking-Glass,” where the child was hurried along on a +broomstick at such a rate as to take her breath away. She thought she must +be traversing illimitable space, but when this idea was communicated to +the Witch, the latter only laughed, and replied that this was nothing at +all, for they had to go like that to “keep up with things” and if they +were really to get ahead to any extent, the rate of travel must be +enormously faster than that! The racing around of the Chinese in their +final moon, is just “to keep up with things.” Every shop, no matter how +trifling the sum<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> total of its business, has its army of runners out, each +“demanding debts,” or rather endeavouring to do so; for to achieve it is +no such easy matter. The debtor is himself a creditor, and he also will be +occupied in the effort to call in the sums which are owing to him. Each +separate individual is engaged in the task of trying to chase down the men +who owe money to him, and compel them to pay up, and at the same time in +trying to avoid the persons who are struggling to track <i>him</i> down and +corkscrew from him the amount of his indebtedness to them? The dodges and +subterfuges to which each is obliged to resort, increase in complexity and +number with the advance of the season, until at the close of the month, +the national activity is at fever heat. For if a debt is not secured then, +it will go over till a new year, and no one knows what will be the status +of a claim which has actually contrived to cheat the annual Day of +Judgment. In spite of the excellent Chinese habit of making the close of a +year a grand clearing-house for all debts, Chinese human nature is too +much for Chinese custom, and there are many of these postponed debts which +are a grief of mind to many a Chinese creditor.</p> + +<p>The Chinese are at once the most practical and the most sentimental of the +human race. New Year <i>must not</i> be violated by duns for debts, but the +debt <i>must</i> be collected New Year though it be. For this reason one +sometimes sees an urgent creditor going about early on the first day of +the year carrying a lantern looking for his creditor. His artificial light +shows that by a social fiction the sun has not yet risen, it is still +yesterday and the debt can still be claimed!</p> + +<p>We have but to imagine the application of the principles which we have +named, to the whole Chinese empire, and we get new light upon the nature +of the Chinese New Year festivities. They are a time of rejoicing, but +there is no rejoicing so keen as that of a ruined debtor, who has +succeeded by shrewd devices in avoiding the most relentless of his +creditors and has thus postponed his ruin for at least another twelve +months.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> For, once past the narrow strait at the end of the year, the +debtor finds himself again in broad and peaceful waters, where he cannot +be molested. Even should his creditors meet him on New Year’s day, there +could be no possibility of mentioning the fact of the previous day’s +disgraceful flight and concealment, or indeed of alluding to business at +all, for this would not be “good form,” and to the Chinese “Good Form” +(otherwise known as Custom), is the chief national divinity.</p> + +<p>An ingenious device by which to secure the desirable result that a family +shall be sure to have a supply of the food most indispensable for a proper +treatment of guests at the festive New Year season, is found in what are +called New Year Societies. Each member of the society contributes a few +hundred or perhaps a thousand cash a month for the first five months of +the year, until the wheat harvest in June when wheat is at its lowest +price, for example 1,200 cash for 100 catties or picul. During the five +months which have elapsed, the money thus assessed upon the members has +been put at interest, and has already accumulated a handsome income. As +soon as the new wheat is in the market, the loans are all called in, and +the treasurer takes the whole of the sum belonging to the association and +invests it in wheat. This he keeps until the close of the year, by which +time it is not at all unlikely that the price of the grain has doubled. He +then exchanges the wheat, at the current rate, with some maker of +bread-cakes (<i>man-t‘ou</i>), and these are divided among the stockholders. In +this way, each one gets not only the benefit of the interest on loans for +five months, but also nearly or quite double the value of the wheat bought +just after harvest. Sometimes the monthly payments are continued +throughout the year, and the sum is then expended in a lump for +bread-cakes, wheat, cotton, or whatever each family most needs for the New +Year season. In societies of this kind, the rate of interest is sure to be +at least three per cent. per month, and perhaps four per cent. The amounts +borrowed are usually small, and each borrower must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> have a security from +among the contributors to the fund. In case payment is not forthcoming at +the due date, the next step is to raise an uproar, and if possible to +collect the debt by force. The inevitable and universal uncertainty and +difficulty attending the collection of any money on loan, give emphasis to +the adage that “where the profit is large, the risk is correspondingly +great.”</p> + +<p>Extortionate as are the ordinary rates of Chinese interest, ranging from +twenty-four to forty eight or more per cent. per annum, there are other +ways than direct loans, by which even greater profits may be gathered. The +passion for gambling seems to be all-pervasive among the Chinese, and it +is perhaps a greater bar to the prosperity of the common people than any +other habit of their lives. Many of the phenomena of Chinese coöperation +are associated with gambling practices, from which the profit to those who +manage the finances is very great. In all cases where there is money to +loan, it is possible to employ it for gaming, under the direction of the +managers, or trustees. Those who are in the habit of gambling do not stop +when their supply of money fails, but draw upon the bank of the loan +association at terms which are agreed upon, but which differ according to +circumstances. In an emergency, it might happen that a person whose +fortune had failed him, would be obliged to borrow of the bank, say 800 +cash, which in a short time he must replace with 1,000. At the end of the +year when the accounts are made up and the money paid in, it is equally +divided among the contributors of the society, whether they may have used +the capital for gambling or not. In case they have borrowed a part of the +capital and are not able to repay it, their debt is set against their +contribution, and they lose their investment.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h2> +<h3>THE VILLAGE BULLY</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">No</span> adequate understanding of the life of the Chinese is possible without +some comprehension of the place therein of the bully, and conversely it +might almost be said that a just apprehension of the character and +functions of the Chinese bully is equivalent to a comprehension of Chinese +society.</p> + +<p>So far as we know, the Chinese bully is a character peculiar to China. By +this it is not of course meant that other lands do not have and have not +always had their bullies, but that the mode in which Chinese bullies exert +their power is unique. It depends largely upon the peculiar +characteristics of the Chinese race, prominent among which is the desire +for peace, and a reluctance to engage in a quarrel. The traits of a bully +among a savage and warlike people such as our ancestors once were, and of +a bully among such a quiet folk as the Chinese, are inherently different.</p> + +<p>The Chinese have many terms to designate the individual whom we have +termed a bully, among which one of the most common is that which means +literally “bare-stick” (<i>kuang-kun</i>), in allusion to the fact that those +who are most frequently bullies are generally those who have no property +to lose. But the general term is applicable to any one who plays the part, +whatever his social condition may be, and it is in this sense that we +shall employ it.</p> + +<p>In considering the social functions of the bully, it is necessary to +distinguish him from several classes of persons, to any one of which he +may belong, but from each one of which he may be different. These four +classes are,—first, headmen of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> the village (called also, as we have +already remarked, by many other names); second, intermediaries (not +“middlemen” in the technical sense, but those who as peace-talkers, +intervene in the affairs of others) etc.; third, beggars; and lastly +thieves.</p> + +<p>In China next in importance after the division of human beings into two +sexes, is another classification which every Chinese instinctively adopts. +According to this arrangement, all members of society are rated according +to their probable behaviour under bad treatment, just as the chemist +considers all substances in the light of their capacity for combination +with other elements.</p> + +<p>In the popular speech of the people, every Chinese villager is said to be +either “<i>lao-shih</i>” or not “<i>lao-shih</i>.” The words “<i>lao-shih</i>” mean +<ins class="correction" title="original: literary">literally</ins> “old and solid,” or in a derived sense gentle, tractable, from +which again arises a third signification of stupid, and gullible. The +highest degree of this latter quality is expressed in the phrase +“<i>ssü-lao-shih</i>,” which literally denotes one who is “dead-stupid”; that +is, one who can be imposed upon to any extent. Such a one, in a common +adage, is compared to the toes on an old woman’s feet, which have been +suppressed all their life, without any power of asserting themselves.</p> + +<p>The village bully is, (as we used to be taught of vulgar fractions) of +three kinds, simple, compound, and complex. The simple bully is a unit by +himself, managing his own affairs with his own resources. The compound +bully calls to his aid the power of numbers, and the mysterious and almost +irresistible talent for combination inherent in the Chinese. The complex +bully is not a bully merely, but has some business or profession, in the +management of which he is materially aided by the fact that he is a man to +be feared.</p> + +<p>In his simplest form, a Chinese bully is a man of a more or less violent +temper and strong passions, who is resolved never to “eat loss,” and under +all circumstances to give as good (or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> as bad) as he gets. Fortunately for +the peace of society, the overwhelming majority of the Chinese belong to +the “<i>lao-shih</i>” variety. In order to secure the reputation of being <i>not +“lao-shih,”</i> a shrewd villager will sometimes adopt the expedient, not +unknown to other lands, of wearing his clothes in a loose and rowdy-like +fashion, talking in a boisterous tone, and resenting contradiction or any +overt lack of compliance with his opinions.</p> + +<p>His cap is worn studiedly awry; his outer garment instead of being +decorously fastened, is left purposely unlooped; his abundant hair is +braided into a loose cue apparently as thick as his arm, the plaiting +beginning several inches away from the head: the end of the cue is +generally coiled about his neck or over his head (a gross breach of +Chinese etiquette), as if to show that he thirsts for a fight. His outer +leggings are not improbably so tied as to display a lining which is more +expensive than the outside; and his shoes are invariably worn down at the +heel, perhaps to make an ostentatious display of a silk embroidered <i>heel</i> +to the cotton stocking—a touch of splendour adapted to strike awe into +the rustic beholder. In a time of intense excitement over alleged +kidnapping of children, we have known a man to be apprehended in open +court and examined as a bad character, because the colour of his clothes +was unusual.</p> + +<p>By persistently following out his peculiar lines of action, he will not +unlikely succeed in diffusing the impression that he is a dangerous man to +interfere with, and will in consequence be let severely alone. A cat of +even a small experience will not improbably manifest considerable +hesitation before attempting to swallow a lizard. It is evident, +therefore, that if any small reptile is obliged to associate with cats, +the art of simulating a lizard is a valuable one. The grade of bully of +which we are now speaking is in all Chinese society too common to attract +much notice, and he can be avoided by letting him alone. His weapons, like +the walls of Chinese cities, are defensive only.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>Much more to be dreaded is the bully who will not let others alone, but +who is always inserting himself into their affairs with a view to +extracting some benefit for himself. The most dangerous type of these men +is the one who makes very little ado, but whose acts are ruinous to those +whom he wishes to injure. Such a one is aptly likened to a dog which bites +without showing his teeth.</p> + +<p>The tactics which such a man adopts to establish his claim to the rank of +“village king,” are the same with which we are only too familiar in other +lands, and which an advancing civilization has not yet succeeded in +rendering wholly obsolete. If there is no overt act which he sees his way +to commit, he can always pick a quarrel by reviling, which is regarded as +throwing down a glove of defiance. Not to notice such a challenge is from +a Chinese standpoint almost impossible. “To be reviled and to feel no +pain,” this is the Chinese ideal of shamelessness. Nothing is rarer than +to find a Chinese who has been reviled, and who, when he was strong enough +to demand an apology, has allowed the matter to drop.</p> + +<p>The intricate constitution of Chinese society is such that there is a +great variety of acts which, while they may not be directly hostile, must +be understood in the light of a challenge. If for example a bully has let +it be known that he is determined that a theatrical representation shall +take place the next autumn in his village, for some one to oppose it might +not improbably be such an act of hostility as to amount to a challenge. +The bully must then see that the theatre is engaged, or his “face” is +lost, which one may be sure will never happen as long as he is able to +prevent it.</p> + +<p>There is always about one of these village bullies a general atmosphere of +menace, as if he were thirsting for an opportunity to issue an ultimatum. +He often does so, in a singularly vague manner, the significance of which +is, however, perfectly well understood. If A is the bully, and B is known +to oppose him, then A publicly states that if B does so and so, A will +not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> put up with it (<i>pu suan t‘a</i>, literally, “will not take the +account,” but insinuating a dark hint as to consequences). If B takes the +hint and quietly retires, there is peace, but otherwise there is war.</p> + +<p>One of the qualifications which is very convenient for the village bully, +although not absolutely indispensable, is physical strength. One of the +nicknames of the local bully as just remarked, is that of village king. +Among those whose <i>forte</i> is violence, the king must be a man who has +inherent power, “the man who can,” for it is impossible to say at what +moment all his strength will be needed in some fight.</p> + +<p>It is in view of this consideration, that it is very common for young +fellows who wish to distinguish themselves among their comrades, to take +systematic lessons in “fist-and-foot,” that is, in gymnastics. A high +degree of skill in wrestling, and the ability (as alleged) to deliver such +a blow with the fist as shall knock out a brick from a wall a foot thick, +are in many circumstances valuable accomplishments.</p> + +<p>The writer is well acquainted with a young man who enjoyed the reputation +of being the strongest person in his village. Being sent on an errand to a +distant city, he had occasion to pass through a smaller city some forty +<i>li</i> from his home, where he was not known. Here a number of bullies, who +happened to be gathered in front of the district yamên, struck with his +rusticity, stopped him, and demanded who he was and where he was going. +His replies to their inquiries not being sufficiently prompt to give +satisfaction, he was set upon by several men, who attacked him +simultaneously. Here his “fist-and-foot” skill was of great service; for +though two men were on top of him, he was able to seize the ankle of one +of them and to give it such a fearful twist as almost to dislocate the +joint, whereupon his assailants, howling with pain, were only too glad to +release him. At a later date the matter was looked into, and at the feast +which the attacking party was compelled to give, by way of apology, one of +those present hobbled around<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> in a particularly feeble manner, and freely +expressed the opinion that upon this occasion he had mistaken his man!</p> + +<p>In the numerous cases in which persons are imposed upon by a bully who is +too much for them, their earliest thoughts are how it may be practicable +to collect a band of men, expert in the “fist-and-foot” practices, and +make an attack upon the aggressive party, by which means he may be +suppressed. The writer once met a man whose home is in a village noted as +the headquarters of a daring and unscrupulous band of thieves. Having been +robbed by them with no prospect of any redress through legal channels, +this man collected a band of athletes and attacked the thieves in the +vicinity of the village where they made their home, so belabouring them +that the band removed its headquarters elsewhere.</p> + +<p>It is a useful, but by no means a necessary qualification of the bully, +that he should be a poor man, with nothing to lose. Poverty in China is +often a synonym for the most abject misery and want. The entire +possessions of great numbers of the people would not amount in value to +five dollars, and thousands of persons never know whence the next meal is +to come. Such persons would in European countries constitute what are +called “the dangerous classes.” In China, unless their distress is +extreme, they do not mass themselves, and they seldom wage war against +society as a whole. But individuals of this type may, if they have other +requisite abilities, become “village kings,” and order the course of +current events much according to their own will.</p> + +<p>Such persons, in the figurative language of the Chinese, are called +“barefoot men,” in allusion to their destitute condition, and it is a +common saying that “the barefoot man (otherwise known as ‘mud-legs’) is +not afraid of him who has stockings on his feet,” for the former can at +once retreat into the mud, where the latter dare not follow. In other +words, the barefoot man is able to hold in terror the man who has property +to lose, by an open or an implicit threat of vengeance, against which the +man of property cannot safeguard himself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>The forms which this vengeance will take vary according to circumstances. +One of the most common is that of incendiary fires, which, in a thickly +inhabited village, where there is often a large accumulation of fuel +stacked up, is a mode of attack particularly to be dreaded. It is always +easy to set a fire, but difficult and frequently impossible to extinguish +it. We have known numberless instances of this sort, in which, despite all +diligence, no one was ever detected in setting the fire. The terror which +such fires inspire is so great, that the man who is thought to be +specially liable to them may be marked and avoided for that reason alone. +It is considered unsafe to have anything to do with him, much less to aid +him in extinguishing his fires. In one case of this sort, the same +individual was repeatedly visited with incendiary fires, and on the last +occasion all his carts were totally destroyed, nothing remaining but the +tires of the wheels. It was afterward found that strong leather straps had +been used to bind the wheels to the framework of the shed in which they +were kept, so that any attempt to drag the carts out was certain to fail.</p> + +<p>Another method by which the bully signifies his dissatisfaction with his +enemy, is by injuring his crops. In a country where the farms are +subdivided into mere fragments, every farmer’s land is contiguous to that +of a great number of other persons. As already mentioned a large farm will +often consist of scores of different pieces of ground, which have been +bought as opportunity offered. When the land is planted, and again when +the harvest is gathered, excellent opportunity is afforded for disputes. +The little bushes which serve as boundaries of the fields of different +owners, in regions where stone posts are too expensive, are readily +destroyed or removed, and in any case the boundaries are more or less +inexact, leaving room for uncertainty as to the precise point at which one +piece of ground ends and another begins.</p> + +<p>It is in such situations as this that the bully is at his best. It is well +understood that <i>he</i> will suffer no loss, and that whoever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> happens to be +his neighbour, will literally have “a hard row to hoe.” There are +sometimes sections of ground, such as those belonging to public uses, +river embankments, the land of certain temples, and the like, which no one +but a bully could cultivate at all, because the crops must be defended +against invasion from all quarters, and only a bully can furnish the +necessary skill and ferocity to protect himself.</p> + +<p>In his essay on Lord Clive, Macaulay mentions the circumstance which was +still remembered in Shropshire, that in his boyish days the great Indian +soldier “formed all the idle lads of the town into a kind of predatory +army, and compelled the shopkeepers to submit to a tribute of apples and +half-pence, in consideration of which he guaranteed the security of the +windows.” Young Robert Clive had hit upon the precise principle by which +the Chinese bully maintains himself in perpetual rule, a principle indeed +as old as the race:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">“The good old rule, the simple plan</span><br /> +That those should take who have the power,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And those should keep who can.”</span></p> + +<p>The means of enforcing these exactions is always at hand, and is expressed +in one fateful and compound noun, <i>law-suit</i>. The bully who understands +his business is well acquainted with every one at the district yamên, and +is in fact one of their best customers, or rather the man who brings them +their custom. The yamên is the spider’s web, and the bully is the large +insect which drives the flies into the net, where it will go ill with them +ere they escape.</p> + +<p>If his adversary is rich, the bully may adopt the plan of leaving a bag of +smuggled salt in the doorway of the rich man, at the same time taking care +to have a “salt inspector” ready to seize the salt, and bring an +accusation against the man of means as a defier of the law. The “salt +inspectors” are themselves smugglers, selected for their expertness in the +art, and like all other underlings in Chinese official life they are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +quite free from the trammels of any sort of conscience. From a suit of +this kind no rich man would be likely to escape without the sacrifice of +many thousand strings of cash, being not improbably forced to furnish the +funds for repairing a city wall, for rebuilding a temple, or some other +public work. The capacity to conduct successfully a lawsuit is in China +what it must have been in Bagdad during the time of the Caliph Haroun Al +Raschid to wear the Cap of Darkness and Shoes of Swiftness. Such agencies +defy all foes except those similarly equipped. And as in the Arabian +Nights there are many stories of magicians warring with magicians who also +“did so with their enchantments,” in like manner when Chinese bullies meet +in a legal fight at a yamên, it is a battle of giants.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 375px;"><img src="images/fp218top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Entrance to a Yamen.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 370px;"><img src="images/fp218bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Chinese Court of Justice.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The most expert of all this dreaded class is the bully who is also a +literary man, perhaps a <i>hsiu-ts‘ai</i>, or Bachelor of Arts, and who thus +has a special prestige of his own, securing him a hearing where others +would fail of it, guaranteeing him immunity from beating in open court, to +which others are liable, and enabling him to prepare accusations for +himself or others, and to be certain of the bearing of these documents +upon the case in hand.</p> + +<p>These advantages are so great, that it is not uncommon to find persons who +make no secret of the fact that their main motive in submitting to the +toils requisite to gain the lowest literary degree, is that they may be +able, during the rest of their lives, to make use of this leverage as a +means of raising themselves and of harming their neighbours. Any Chinese +bully is greatly to be feared, but none is so formidable as the literary +bully.</p> + +<p>One other type of Chinese bully must not fail of mention, for it is in +some respects the most unique of all, to wit the female bully. Her traits +are, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, the same as those of the individuals already +mentioned, but her mere existence is so great a departure from our +ordinary conceptions of Chinese social life, that it needs a word of +explanation. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> is simply an evolution of her surroundings. Skill in +speech, physical violence in act, and an executive talent are her +endowments, and her usefulness to the perennially hungry “wolves and +tigers” of the yamên is such that she is called their draught-horse to +draw victims. Like her male compatriots, she is able from her value to the +underlings of the yamên to conduct a lawsuit of her own, without any of +those numberless and vexatious expenses which suck out the lifeblood of +ordinary victims. This makes her a terrible, if not an invulnerable, foe, +and those who are wise will beware of her. According to a Chinese proverb, +a woman is more to be dreaded in such cases than a graduate of the second +degree. It is a saying of a certain humorous philosopher, that “one hornet +can break up a whole camp-meeting, when he feels well.” How much mischief +one Chinese bully can accomplish in an average lifetime, it is impossible +to estimate.</p> + +<p>While the government of China appears to have elements of extreme +stability, it is at the same time often practically weak in the very +points where it most needs strength, namely, in its capacity to put forth +powerful and sudden efforts. Whenever any uprising of the people takes +place, there is generally nothing to prevent its gaining a great momentum, +owing to the incapacity of the local authorities to cope with it. The same +phenomenon is seen in any personal affray between single individuals. +There are no police to arrest the one who commits a breach of the peace, +and it is only by the intervention of third parties, friendly to the +principals, that order is restored. But if either of the parties is able +to bring a large force to bear upon the person whom he attacks, he is +almost certain to be victorious.</p> + +<p>It is at this point that the organisation of the followers of the bully +proves a formidable foe to the peace of Chinese society. Let us suppose +that a man has a violent personal quarrel with an enemy. An outbreak of +their feud occurs at a great fair, such as abound at almost all seasons of +the year. One of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> men is intimate with another man who is a +professional bully and who has within call a number of associates who can +be depended upon in an emergency. The man who knows the bully goes to him +and tells him of the grievance and asks his help. The bully lets it be +known among his comrades that a friend is in need of assistance, and that +their services will be called for. The party assembled goes to that +section of the fair-ground where congregate the dealers in sticks used for +supports for awnings, etc., and each man “borrows” a stout sapling, +promising to return it later. With this lawless band, like the forces of +Robin Hood, the bully sets upon his victim and wins an easy victory. None +of the spectators will interfere in a brawl of this sort, for the +consequences might be most serious. It does not follow that there is any +regular organization among the rough members of the dangerous classes who +are assembled, except that they are ready to unite in anything which +promises the joy of battle, and a probable reward in the shape of a +complimentary feast.</p> + +<p>Cases of this sort, which are by no means of infrequent occurrence, +exhibit the weakness of the Chinese government, but they also exhibit its +strength. If the millions of China were not satisfied with the existing +rule, nothing would be easier than for them to unite and overthrow it. But +the security of the government is based mainly upon the well-understood +and well-ascertained fact that the people as a whole have no wish to +overturn the system under which they live, as well as upon the equally +indisputable fact that, with the Chinese, effective combination is an +exceedingly difficult matter.</p> + +<p>The assemblage of bands of men under the virtual direction of a leader is +a menace to the peace of the whole region in which they live, and it is +not strange that Magistrates of such Districts live a life which is not to +be envied. As plunder is often the real object of these combinations, the +yamên of the Magistrate is as likely to be the point of attack as any +other place, which makes it necessary that the official shall provide<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +himself with trained athletes, who shall be able to meet and repel +assaults made at night. Cases are occasionally reported in the <i>Peking +Gazette</i>, where in spite of this precaution the yamên was robbed, and the +seal actually carried off, to the ruin of the Magistrate, upon whom +perhaps the people are glad to be revenged.</p> + +<p>The existence of such small and lawless forces in the midst of Chinese +social life, quiet and orderly as that life ordinarily is, renders it +certain that outbreaks will continually occur. But these attacks are not +all from one side. There are in Chinese many proverbial sayings referring +to the tiger, which have a metaphorical significance, and really denote +the person whom we have named the bully, who is regarded as a social +tiger. One of these sayings is to the effect that a tiger who has wounded +too many men, is liable to fall into a mountain ravine. This means that +the bully who has made enemies of too many people will at last himself +fall into trouble, and then his enemies will be able to have their revenge +upon him.</p> + +<p>Cases of this sort are constantly occurring, and often result in one or +more murders, which must be reported, and which are sometimes narrated in +detail in the <i>Peking Gazette</i>. It is not uncommon to hear of instances in +which bullies have been attacked by large bands of men, many of them +formerly the victims of the bully. Sometimes he is kidnapped, and +sometimes he is killed outright. The method by which the village wars and +clan fights of the Fu-kien and Kuang-tung provinces are conducted, +probably bears a close analogy to these proceedings. They appear to be +trials of strength between neighbouring rivals, conducted upon the plan of +warfare during the middle ages in which the feudal system reigned. The +local Magistrates take care not to interfere too soon or too far, lest it +be the worse for them. When the fight is over the officers put in an +appearance, arrests are made, and the machinery of government recovers +from its temporary paralysis.</p> + +<p>We have spoken of the literary bully as one of those most to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> be dreaded +in China. But there is another qualification which a bully may possess, +either with or without that of learning, which makes him an almost +irresistible enemy. If he belongs to a family, one or more members of +which are in official life and have a certain degree of power with the +official class, such a man is a dangerous foe. Instances are constantly +coming to light, not only in the native papers of China but also in +memorials in the <i>Peking Gazette</i> (to which we have so frequently had +occasion to refer), showing how difficult, or rather how altogether +hopeless, it is to deal with such offenders. Even in cases of the most +wanton murder, there is always some way by which the matter can be +adjusted, and there is no assurance that the influential culprit gets any +real punishment at all.</p> + +<p>The following instance which occurred more than a generation ago, in a +District near to that in which the writer lived for a long time, +illustrates the kind of proceedings to which reference is made.</p> + +<p>During the eighteenth century there lived in that County a family named +Lu, one of the members of which attained to the lofty eminence of <i>Ko +Lao</i>, or Grand Secretary. A family of this class, especially if it should +be the only one of the sort in the District, exerts a commanding +influence, and it is necessary for the local Magistrate to conduct himself +discreetly, in order not to win the ill-will of such a powerful +corporation. It is well if he is able to collect from them even the +ordinary land-tax, which all the soil of the empire is supposed to pay.</p> + +<p>It is related of this family that, upon one occasion having been ordered +by the District Magistrate to collect this tax, the local constable was +unable to do as he was told. Having been repeatedly beaten for his +delinquencies in this respect, he presented himself at the entrance of the +premises of his wealthy neighbour, and with earnest prostrations begged +the gatekeeper to intercede for him, and get the tax paid.</p> + +<p>The elderly widow who was the manager of the establishment, having been +informed of this plea, ordered her cart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> harnessed, and proceeded to the +District Magistrate’s yamên, for an interview. The official perhaps +entertained a wild hope that she had come to settle up her arrears of +taxes, and even planned to borrow a sum of money of her, but she soon +dispelled this idea, by telling him in so many words that she herself +required a “loan” of a certain number of thousands of tæls, which the +Magistrate was obliged to promise to get for her, at the earliest possible +moment. As she rose to take her leave, she remarked incidentally that her +gatekeeper had been much annoyed by some of the yamên underlings who hung +about the premises under pretence of wanting a grain-tax, adding that she +should expect to hear no more of such proceedings in future!</p> + +<p>Upon another occasion, while the <i>Ko Lao</i> himself was alive, a complaint +was made to the District Magistrate that a son of the <i>Ko Lao</i> had a +maidservant, who was virtually imprisoned in the family mansion. She was +originally hired having been betrothed, but although it was time for her +to be married, her employer refused to let her go. The Magistrate sent for +the son of the <i>Ko Lao</i>, made known the charge, and desired the release of +the person detained. He even went to the length of beating the attendant +of the Lu family, who had accompanied his master, the latter being himself +too lofty a subject for punishment. The son went to his home in a towering +rage, and wrote a letter to his father in Peking, detailing the +circumstances. Soon after this, the Magistrate received the news of his +promotion from the grade of Sub-prefect to that of Prefect, in the +province of Ssŭ-ch‘uan.</p> + +<p>The journey to a new post is often a most serious matter for an official, +and where, as in this case, he has the entire empire to cross, the trouble +and expense are very great. He had no sooner reached this distant post, +than he received a notification that he was promoted to another in the +province of Yün-nan, again involving an expensive and tedious journey. +When he had at length taken up the duties of this office it was only to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +be informed that he was promoted afresh to the high rank of Tao-t‘ai in a +region beyond the Great Wall. He now began to perceive the significance of +this strange series of events, and wholly unable either to bear the ills +which he already had, or to support the prospect of perhaps greater ones +yet to come, he “swallowed gold,” and thus escaped further promotion and +ruin!</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE HEADMEN</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Many</span> of the phenomena of village life which we shall have occasion to +notice, are instances of the Chinese talent for coöperation.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no more important exemplification of this principle is to be found +in Chinese society than that embodied in the local self-government of the +small communities of which the greater part of the empire is composed. The +management of the village is in the hands of the people themselves. At +first this condition of affairs is liable to be mistaken for a pure +democracy, but very slight inquiry is sufficient to make it evident that +while all matters of local concern are theoretically managed by the +people, in practice the burden falls not upon the people as a whole, but +upon the shoulders of a few persons, who in different places are called by +different titles and whose functions differ as much as their designations.</p> + +<p>The apparent dead-level uniformity of China is found upon investigation to +be subject to surprising variations, not only in parts of the empire +remote from one another, but in those which are separated by but a short +distance. On this account it is difficult to generalize in regard to the +government of villages in general, but easy to describe that of some +villages, with the explanation that elsewhere the same results may be +attained by means slightly different, or by the same means under different +names.</p> + +<p>Every Chinese village is a little principality by itself, although it is +not uncommon for two or more which are contiguous and perhaps otherwise +linked together, to manage their affairs in unison, and perhaps by the +same set of persons.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> These headmen are sometimes styled <i>village elders</i> +(<i>hsiang chang</i>, or <i>hsiang lao</i>), and sometimes they are termed merely +managers (<i>shou shih jên</i>). The theory in regard to these persons is that +they are chosen, or rather nominated, by their fellow-townsmen, and +confirmed in their position by the District Magistrate. In some regions +this is actually done, and for the good conduct of the headmen in their +office the leading land-owners are required to become a security.</p> + +<p>The designation “village elders” might be understood to denote that the +persons who bear it are the oldest men in the village, but this is not +necessarily the case. Neither are they necessarily the wealthiest men, +although it is probable that every family of property will be in some way +represented among them. They are not necessarily men of literary +attainments, although this may be the case with a few.</p> + +<p>In those regions where the method of selection is most loose, the number +of headmen has no necessary relation to the size of the village; the +position is not hereditary, neither is there any fixed time of service. A +man may act in this capacity at one time, and refuse or neglect to do so +at another time. Where this plan prevails, the headmen are not formally +chosen, nor formally deposed. They drop into their places—or perhaps +climb into them—by a kind of natural selection. The qualities which fit a +villager to act as headman are the same which contribute to success in any +line of business. He must be a practical person who has some native +ability, acquainted with the ways of the world, as well as able and +willing to devote upon occasion an indefinite amount of time and attention +to the affairs which may be put in his charge.</p> + +<p>The duties and functions of the headmen are numerous. They may be +classified as those which have relation to the government of the District, +those which relate to the village as such, and those which concern private +individuals, and are brought to the notice of the headmen as being the +persons best able to manage them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>Of the affairs which concern the government, the most important is the +imperial land or grain-tax, the nature of which and the mode of collecting +which vary greatly. Calls are constantly made by the local officials for +government transportation, provision for the entertainment of officers on +government business, materials for the repairs of the banks of rivers, +work on river-banks, patrols for the Imperial roads at the season of year +when travel is at its maximum, and many other similar objects.</p> + +<p>The medium through whom the District Magistrate communicates with the +village, is the “local constable,” (called the <i>ti-fang</i> or <i>ti-pao</i>,) and +this individual has necessarily intimate relations with the headmen, who +constitute the executive board, through which alone definite action is +taken.</p> + +<p>Among affairs which relate to a village as such, are to be named the +construction and repair of the wall (if it has one), and the care of the +gates (if they are closed at night), the establishment and supervision of +fairs and markets, the engagement of theatrical companies, the organized +watching of the crops, together with the punishment of persons detected in +violating the rules which have been agreed upon, the building and repair +of temples, the sinking of wells for the use of the village, or the +cleaning of those which are already in use, and a great variety of other +similar duties, depending upon the situation of the village and its +traditions and circumstances.</p> + +<p>It is a noteworthy fact that the government of China, while in theory more +or less despotic, places no practical restrictions upon the right of free +assemblage by the people for the consideration of their own affairs. The +people of any village can if they choose meet every day in the year. There +is no government censor present, and no restriction upon liberty of +debate. The people can say what they like, and the local Magistrate +neither knows nor cares what is said. The government has other security +for itself than espionage, and by a system of graded responsibility, is +able to hold all its subjects under strict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> control. But should +insurrection break out, these popular rights might be extinguished in a +moment, a fact of which all the people are perfectly well aware.</p> + +<p>The methods of Chinese management being what they are, it is not +surprising that those who are in the position of headmen find it, or +rather make it to their advantage to stay in it. The ways in which this +comes about are numerous.</p> + +<p>There is in every village an unceasing supply of matters which do not +belong to the public, but which must be adjusted by some man or men who +are in the habit of transacting business, and who not only know what is to +be done but how to do it. There are always Chinese who like to engage in +these affairs, such as the adjustment of domestic quarrels, differences +between neighbours, and the like. The headmen of the village will be +certain to be frequently called upon for services of this sort.</p> + +<p>But such labours, onerous as they often are, will be acknowledged only by +the thanks of those interested, and a participation in the inevitable +final feast. It is quite otherwise with such public matters as the +collection of material for public uses, and the disbursement of public +funds. Every village has numerous enterprises which involve the handling +of money, and these enterprises must be in the hands of those competent to +take charge of them.</p> + +<p>There is not in such cases that constant struggle between the “ins” and +the “outs,” which is seen in lands where the democracy is of a more +flagrant type than in China. Yet even in China such contests do sometimes +occur. We know of one village in which the public business had for a long +time been monopolized by a band of men who had subjected themselves to the +criticisms of those who, although younger, felt sure that they were not on +that account the less capable. The result of the criticisms was that the +incumbents withdrew from their places, leaving them to those who offered +the criticisms, a method of adjustment which is known to be practiced in +the government of the empire.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>But it is probable that cases of such easy victory are relatively rare, +for the reason that the “ins” have every opportunity to keep themselves in +their position and they are for the most part not at all sensitive to +criticism, being quite content to reap the substantial benefits of their +position, and to leave the talking to spectators. In the ordinary matters +of routine, it is easy for them to find abundant precedents for almost any +irregularity, and to the Chinese precedents are most precious, as marking +out the natural limits of human action.</p> + +<p>In many villages but a small portion of the population can read well +enough to inspect accounts, and many of those whose knowledge is equal to +this strain upon it, have no practical familiarity with public business, +with which they have never had any opportunity to become acquainted.</p> + +<p>Many who clearly recognize the evils attending the methods in which the +business of their village is managed, do not for two excellent reasons +make any protest. In the first place, to do so would raise a storm about +their heads, which they have no wish to encounter. Even if the movement +should prove completely successful, and the present incumbents should all +be removed from their places, it would be difficult, not to say +impossible, to find others who would manage matters upon any plan +essentially different. A change would be simply the removal of a well-fed +swarm of flies, to make way for a set much more hungry, a substitution +against which the fox in the fable wisely remonstrated. The Chinese wholly +agree with the sagacious fox.</p> + +<p>The course which matters take when complaint is really made, may be +understood by an illustrative example with which the writer is acquainted. +During one of the years in which the Yellow River made destructive breaks +in central Shan-tung, an order was issued that all the counties in the +province accessible to the river should furnish a certain quota of millet +stalks to be used in the repair of the river-banks. These stalks were to +be paid for in ready money by the government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> agents. But as some of the +counties were situated more than two days’ journey from the river-banks, +the amount received for the stalks did not cover the cost of the feed of +men and animals for so long a journey. Besides this, the government +officials had a ready means by which to exercise complete control over +those who brought the stalks, by refusing to take over the material or to +weigh it until such time as the officials might be ready. By this means, +both men and teams were kept on expense, so that at last the persons who +hauled stalks were only too glad to be allowed to depart without any pay +at all for the loads which they had brought.</p> + +<p>Abuses of this sort were said to be exceedingly common at that time, +although on subsequent occasions we have been assured by those who have +taken stalks to river-embankment, that full pay in good money was +invariably given. In the village to which we refer, the business of +providing and delivering the stalks was put by the District Magistrate +into the hands of an elderly headman, a literary graduate. This man +naturally called about him some of his former pupils, who did the +practical part of the work. They took stalks three times to the place of +deposit, and received in payment about 70,000 cash. Taking advantage of +the general uncertainty which prevailed in regard to payments, these +managers rendered no accounts to the village, but proceeded to appropriate +a certain part of their receipts to their own use.</p> + +<p>Matters continued in this way for more than a year, when some of those who +were dissatisfied, called a public meeting in a village temple, and +demanded a clear account of receipts and expenses, which for reasons well +understood, it was impossible to give. Finding that the affair was +becoming serious, the graduate got some residents of the same village to +“talk peace” to the excited villagers. Their argument was this: “If we +press this matter, and take it before the District Magistrate, the old +graduate, who is really altogether innocent, will lose his button and will +be disgraced. The others concerned will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> all be beaten, and this will +engender hatred and feuds which will last for generations.” The middlemen +then proposed that by way of settlement a feast should be prepared by the +graduate, at which a representative of every surname in the village should +be present, and this plan being adopted, because nothing else was +feasible, the matter was buried in compulsory oblivion. This is a type of +a large class of cases.</p> + +<p>In many villages, there are those who are never so happy as when they are +in a disturbance with others, and such men will be a thorn in the side of +any “board of aldermen” to whose councils admission is not to be had. It +is very common indeed to hear of lawsuits arising about village temples, +and there is good reason to believe that it is exceptional to meet with a +large ancestral temple, in connection with which quarrels have not arisen +and perhaps lawsuits been prosecuted.</p> + +<p>In some districts the temples are built rather from a general impulse to +do as others do than from any sense of the need of such structures, which +become a perpetual tax on the revenues of the people and a source of +dispute. In such regions it is a common thing to meet with temples from +which the priests have been ousted, or which they have voluntarily +abandoned, finding the place too hot for them.</p> + +<p>In one instance of this description, which occurred near the writer’s +home, a certain prominent headman set on foot a lawsuit which drove +several priests from a Buddhist monastery, and left only one priest where +before there had been many. After the priests had left, this headman +kindly took charge of the temple lands, and absorbed the entire income +himself to the exclusion of the priest, dispensing altogether with +rendering any account whatever for the proceeds. Even the cart and the +harness which belong to the temple, are in this man’s yard as if they were +his own.</p> + +<p>Intelligent men of this village, when asked why some of them do not +protest against this usurpation, always make the same reply: “Who wants to +stir up a lawsuit, out of which he will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> gain nothing but loss? It is +certainly no affair of mine.” This particular village is scarcely a type +of the average, but it is a very fair sample of the more flagrant cases in +which a small knot of men fasten themselves upon a Chinese community, by +the same process by which many years ago the Tweed ring saddled themselves +upon the city of New York. If any objection is made to their procedure, +the ring inquire disdainfully, in the language of Mr. Tweed, “What are you +going to do about it?” And all the people hasten to reply, “Oh, nothing at +all. It is all right as it is.”</p> + +<p>An instance of the facility with which trouble may arise in village +affairs was afforded in this same town, during one of the years in which +heavy rains threatened the lands of the village. A part of these lands +were situated in a region subject to inundation, and the rest on higher +ground. As soon as the danger of a flood became apparent, the village +headmen ordered relays of men to work on a bank, which was made of +whatever soil was at hand, and in order to strengthen this bank, the +standing millet was pulled up by the roots, and buried in the earthwork. +Those whose crops were thus ruined, had for this loss no redress whatever. +It is held that the exigency of a public need justifies any injury of this +kind, the persons who benefit by the sacrifice, always largely in the +majority, having no disposition to make up the incidental losses. Some +days after this occurred, the headmen went about collecting a definite +assessment from each acre of land in the village, for the purpose of +paying for the labour upon the bank previously made. They visited the +house of one of the men whose crops had been destroyed, at a time when he +chanced to be away from home and were met by his son, who not only +manifested no awe of the village authorities, but expressed his +indignation at the destruction of the family crops, and declared that +instead of being called upon to contribute to the cost of the ruin which +had been wrought, his family ought to be reimbursed for their own losses. +However compatible such a view may appear with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>abstract justice, to the +minds of the village headmen this was nothing less than rank treason of +the most dangerous type.</p> + +<p>When the head of the family returned, it was to find that the headmen had +already left the village on their way to the District city, to enter a +complaint against him, as one who refused to pay his just dues to the +defence of the village. A lawsuit begun upon such a basis meant nothing +less than a calamity greater than any flood that was likely to overtake +him, so the distracted father hastened to pursue the headmen with offers +of adjustment, made through third parties. By dint of an immense amount of +talking, the headmen were induced to return to the village, without +entering the city and making a formal complaint.</p> + +<p>The father of the offending lad then appealed to certain friends living in +another village, to come and intercede for him with the outraged guardians +of the welfare of his own village. In the course of the next forenoon, the +persons who had been entrusted with this difficult task, made their way to +the village, and had interviews with some of the headmen. It was +impossible to get all of these men together at any one time, but one set +was first seen, and then another, until the matter had been thoroughly +discussed in all its bearings. These conferences, including plans of +adjustment offered, modified, rejected, amended, and afterward brought up +again and again, actually consumed the whole day, and all the next night +until the crowing of the cocks announced the dawn, and it was not until +daylight on the second day, that the weary and disgusted “middlemen” +returned to their own village, having at last succeeded in securing a +reduction of the proposed fine, which was to have been an exemplary one, +to a merely nominal amount.</p> + +<p>This instance is a type of countless cases everywhere in which the evil +forces of Chinese society effect a coöperation of their own, seriously +modifying all other social phenomena, and leading to results of great +importance.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> +<h2>PART II</h2> +<h3>Village Family Life</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h2> +<h3>VILLAGE BOYS AND MEN</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">There</span> is a passage in one of the oldest Chinese Classics, the Book of +Odes, which, in describing the palace of an ancient king, shows in a +striking light the relative estimation at that remote time put upon boys +and upon girls. After speaking of the dreams of the king, the poet adds a +couple of stanzas, which, according to Dr. Legge’s translation, are as +follows:</p> + +<p class="poem">Sons shall be born to him; they will be put to sleep on couches;<br /> +They will be clothed in robes; they will have sceptres to play with;<br /> +Their cry will be loud.<br /> +They will be (hereafter) resplendent with red knee-covers,<br /> +The (future) king, the princes of the land.<br /> +Daughters will be born to him. They will be put to sleep on the ground;<br /> +They will be clothed with wrappers; they will have tiles to play with.<br /> +It will be theirs neither to do wrong nor to do good.<br /> +Only about the spirits and the food will they have to think,<br /> +And to cause no sorrow to their parents.</p> + +<p>From the sentiment of this poem alone it would be easy to determine the +Chinese of to-day to be lineal descendants of their ancient ancestors.</p> + +<p>The early years of a Chinese boy are spent in what, viewed from the +experience of a decade later, must appear to him a condition of supreme +happiness. He is welcomed to the household with a wild delight, to which +it is wholly impossible for an Occidental to do any justice. He begins +life on the theory that whatever he wants, that he must have; this theory +is also the one acted upon by those who have him in charge, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> an extent +which seems to us, who occupy the position of impartial critics, truly +amazing. A Chinese mother is the literal slave of her children. If they +cry, they must be coddled, most probably carried about, and at whatever +expense, if it is possible to prevent such a terrible state of things. +They must not be allowed to cry continuously. In this respect, at least, +it does not appear that there is much distinction between the treatment of +boys and girls.</p> + +<p>The names given to Chinese children, like those of the babies of North +American Indians, are frequently suggested by whatever happens first to +attract the father’s attention, such as Basket, Cart, etc. Each year of +the cycle of twelve has an animal which “belongs to” it, as Dog, Cat, +Chicken, Tiger, Horse or Monkey, and all these names are constantly +employed. If when the child is born an old grandmother happens to be three +score and ten, he is not improbably dubbed “Seventy.” Many have no other +appellation than a numerical one such as Three, Five, or Six, to the +hopeless confusion of an inquirer. If the child seems to be of a good +constitution he may receive the title of Stone, or Solid. Should he be +plump, he is likely to be styled Little Fat One; if dark coloured, Little +Black One. Bad Temper, and Little Idiot are common, and if all the +previous children have died, the last one may go by the name of Great +Repairs.</p> + +<p>When the parents are peculiarly fearful lest an only boy should be made +away with by malicious spirits, they often call him by a girl’s name in +order to deceive the powers of evil, and thus beat them at their own game. +Another plan with the same end in view is a nominal adoption into another +family, where the children spend at least a portion of their time, the +spirits being thus hopelessly perplexed as to which family really owns the +child! Slave Girl, and Old Woman are names sometimes given to boys under +these conditions. A man who had more girls than he desired, called one of +them Enough Hawks (Kou Ying), while another little maid was outfitted +with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> the happy title “Ought-to-have-been-a-Boy” (Kai Tzŭ). Girls are +frequently named for birds, fruits, and flowers.</p> + +<p>All the preceding are “milk-names,” or “small names,” which strangers must +be careful even should they know them, never to employ. No greater insult +can be put upon an adult Chinese than to revile him in public by his +“small name”—a by no means infrequent occurrence—which seems to convey +the implication that the reviler knows all about his antecedents and holds +them in supreme contempt.</p> + +<p>It is a highly convenient arrangement of Chinese family nomenclature, that +the names of each member of the same generation (within certain defined +degrees of cousinship) furnish a clue to his relationship to the rest. +Thus, if a man’s surname is Wang, his family name (which can be either two +characters or one) may be compounded with the character denoting Spring, +in which case one brother might be called Wang Spring-Flowers, the next +Wang Spring-Fragrance, a third Wang Spring-Fields, and so universally for +that generation as far away among the cousins as the Spring influence +penetrates. These family names are theoretically recorded in carefully +kept registers, and must not be repeated in later generations, or only +after the lapse of a due number of generations. Memorials sometimes appear +in the <i>Peking Gazette</i> from high officials asking permission to have a +family name altered, since a repeated title has inadvertently been taken.</p> + +<p>This use of the same characters in Chinese family names has often been +compared to the Anglo-Saxon habit of bestowing upon brothers names of +which one syllable is constant, as Edward, Edwin, Edmund, Edgar, etc.</p> + +<p>Besides the name, there is the “style,” often much more in use than any +other designation, which may be bestowed upon the owner by a friend. It is +common by a respectful familiarity to prefix to the first character of the +style, the honourific “Old,” (<i>Lao</i>) making still another title. Thus +supposing Mr. Wang Spring-Fragrance has the style of Illustrious Virtue, +his common<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> appellation may be Wang Old Illustrious, his other names being +used as alternatives. The result of all this is that a single Chinese not +infrequently appears to be three and sometimes four, since students have +also their examination names, differing, strange to say, from any which +they have hitherto borne. The confusion attending the addressing of +Chinese letters in correspondence would be intolerable to an Occidental.</p> + +<p>Aside from the ambiguities already mentioned, it sometimes appears to the +writer of a letter a happy expedient to employ a title on the back of his +epistle, known only to himself and to the recipient, to the great +bewilderment of the persons through whose hands the missive may pass. We +have seen a Chinese teacher invited to inspect the address of a letter of +this sort, the destination of which neither he nor any one else could +decide. Yet it subsequently turned out that the epistle was meant for his +own son! With all this labyrinth of future complexity the village boy is +very little concerned, often passing through life without any name at all +to speak of.</p> + +<p>In this connection it is worth noting that the foreigner in China suffers +from a chronic embarrassment as to how to address a Chinese. There is in +the language no term answering to our Mister or Master, the nearest +equivalent being the words Elder-born or Seignor (<i>Hsien-shêng</i>). The +expression properly connotes a Teacher in reality or by courtesy, and +although applied indiscriminately to blind men (even if they should be +beggars) will not serve for general use. Honourific terms abound, but in +the rural regions these are not in use, and are but dimly comprehensible. +On the principle that “Within the four seas all are brethren,” it is the +Chinese habit to <i>assume the existence</i> of a relationship, so that the +passing stranger may appropriately call out to one whom he has never seen +before: “Great elder-brother may I borrow your light and inquire whether +this is the right road to Peking?” Should the person addressed be an old +man, the title would be changed to Uncle or Grandfather. The fact that the +term for an older uncle differs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> from that for a younger one, embarrasses +the foreigner by forcing upon him a decision of the difficult question +which one to use, for deciding which point he often has absolutely no +data.</p> + +<p>A Chinese married woman has literally no name at all, but only two +surnames, her husband’s and her father’s, so that when these chance to be +common ones, it is impossible by this means to discriminate one woman from +another. If Chinese women are to be addressed by strangers at all, there +is even more embarrassment than in the case of men. In some regions the +term Elder-sister-in-law (<i>sao-tzŭ</i>) serves indiscriminately for any +woman, but in others Aunt (<i>la-niang</i>) must be used, while in yet others +nothing is appropriate but Grandmother (<i>nai-nai</i>) which elsewhere would +be equivalent to Old Granny. When there happen to be three generations of +women in the same family to dub them all “Grandmother” (especially if one +of them is a girl in her teens just married) is flagrantly absurd. Beggars +at the other gates clamour to have their “Aunts” bestow a little food, and +the phrase Old Lady (<i>lao T‘ai-t‘ai</i>) is in constant use for any woman +past middle life.</p> + +<p>The age at which a boy is too large to be carried is a very indefinite +one, and it is common to see distracted mothers staggering with their +little goat-feet under the weight of children half their own size, lugging +their offspring about for the reason that “they would not stand it” to be +put down. A preparatory discipline of this nature is not adapted to teach +children independence, self-control, or any useful lessons, and the result +is such as might have been expected. But the Chinese child is an eminently +practical being, and he finds by experience that, when there are half a +dozen children smaller than himself, the period of his own supreme rule +has passed away, and has passed away never to return. To this altered +condition he soon learns to adapt himself.</p> + +<p>Of that sympathy for childhood as such, which is so distinguishing a part +of our modern civilization, an average Chinese father has no conception +whatever. By this is not meant that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> he is not fond of his children, for +the reverse is most palpably true. But he has no capacity for entering +into the life of a child, and comprehending it. His fondness for his +children is the result of the paternal instinct, and is not an intelligent +and sympathetic appreciation of the mind of a child. He not only has no +conception of such a thing, but he would not be able to understand what is +meant by it, if the possibility of such sympathy were pointed out. The +invariable reply to all suggestions, looking toward such sympathy coming +from a foreigner, seems to be, “Why, he is only a mere child!” It is by +the slow moulding forces of maturing life alone that the boy is expected +to learn the lessons of life, and these lessons he must learn +largely—though not altogether—by himself.</p> + +<p>To most Chinese children, there is very little that is attractive in their +own homes. The instinct of self-preservation does of course lead them to +fly thither, as soon as they meet with any repulse from without, but this +instinct they share with animals.</p> + +<p>Chinese courtyards are almost invariably very contracted, and allow little +scope for enterprising youth to indulge in any but the most crude and +simple forms of amusement. The Chinese lad generally has but few toys, and +those of the simplest and most clumsy description. At certain festivals, +especially in the cities, one sees the children loaded down with all +varieties of playthings often of a flimsy and highly inexpensive +character. In the country the same phenomenon is observed wherever there +has been a large fair, at which the provision for the children is always +on a scale commensurate with their known wants. But of these articles made +of earth, paper, bits of cloth, clay, reeds, sugar, and other perishable +substances, nothing will be left when the next moon shall have completed +its orbit. In regions where bamboo is to be had, there are a few more +serviceable and less fragile articles constructed expressly for the +children, and such articles doubtless have a longer lease of life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>That Chinese parents should take occasion to have a romp with their +children, or even to engage with them in any game whatever, is, so far as +we have observed, a thing wholly outside of the range of their wildest +imagination. Children have very few games which can be played in the +house, and the time which is to our little ones the cream of the whole +day, that namely in which they can gather “around the evening lamp,” is to +the Chinese a period of dismal obscurity. By the dim light of a small and +ill-trimmed wick, dipped into a few spoonfuls of crude vegetable oil, the +evening’s occupations are carried on as best they may be; but to a +foreigner a Chinese home is at such times most ideally comfortless, +especially if the season be winter. No wonder that those members of the +family who can do so, are glad to crawl upon the more or less perfectly +warmed <i>k‘ang</i>, and wrap themselves in their wadded bedclothes. During the +portion of his existence in which the father and the mother of the Chinese +child most gladly forsake him, kind Morpheus takes him up, and claims him +for his own.</p> + +<p>The outdoor games of Chinese children are mostly of a tame and +uninteresting type. Tossing bits of earth at a mark, playing shuttlecock +with his toes and heels, striking a small stick sharpened at the ends so +as to make it jump into a “city,” a species of “fox and geese,” a kind of +“cat’s-cradle,” a variety of “jack-stones,”—these are among the most +popular juvenile amusements in the rural regions with which we happen to +be acquainted. Chinese cities have allurements of their own, some of which +do not differ essentially from those found in other parts of the world +than China. But even in the country, where restrictions are at a minimum, +Chinese lads do not appear to take kindly to anything which involves much +exercise. One does not ordinarily see them running races, as foreign boys +of the same age cannot fail to do, and their jumping and climbing are of +the most elementary sort. We have never heard of a crow which was so +injudicious as to build its nest in a spot where it would be visible to +the eye of an Anglo-Saxon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> boy, unless the owner of the eye had previously +made a long journey with it to a distance from all human habitations. But +Chinese crows build their huge nests in all sorts of trees, in and about +every Chinese village. It is not uncommon to see an old poplar with ten or +twelve of these huge nests of sticks, which are undisturbed from year to +year and from generation to generation.</p> + +<p>The writer once counted twenty-four such nests in a single moderate sized +elm, and this in the suburbs of a Chinese city. Buddhist teachings in +regard to the sacredness of animal life do not suffice to account for the +singular inviolability which crows’ nests enjoy in China. In the spring +they are sometimes defended with the query; “How would you like to have +your house pulled down?” But in a region where every stick of fuel is +precious, what sacredness can attach to a bushel or two of large twigs, +when the crows have visibly done using them? Neither does superstition in +regard to ill-luck arising from demolition of the nests of crows explain +their security, although at first sight this may seem to be the case. +Extensive inquiries have satisfied us that the true explanation is simply +the natural one, that the Chinese boy is <i>afraid</i> to climb so high as a +crow’s-nest. “What if he should fall?” says every one when applied to for +information on the point, and it is this unanswered and unanswerable +question which seems to protect young Chinese crows from age to age.</p> + +<p>The Chinese boy can seldom get access to running water; that is to say, +the proportion of Chinese who can do so is infinitesimal. Most of them +have no lakes, rivers, or ponds in which they can plunge and learn to +swim, or in which they can fish. The village mud-hole is the nearest +approach to the joys of a “watering-place” to which Chinese children can +ordinarily aspire. These excavations are the hole whence the material for +the village houses was originally dug. During the summer time these pits, +many of them as large as a dry-dock, are filled to the brim with dirty +water, and at such times they <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>are sure to be surrounded by groups of +children clad in the costume of the garden of Eden, enjoying one of the +few luxuries of their mundane existence. When the boys are too large to +indulge in this amusement, there is much reason to fear that most of them +have taken their last bath, no matter to what age their lives may be +prolonged!</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp244top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Chinese Punch and Judy.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 373px;"><img src="images/fp244bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Village Story-Teller.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>If he cannot fish, neither can the Chinese boy go a-hunting, for in the +most populous parts of the plains, of which so large a portion of the +empire is composed, there is nothing to hunt. A few small birds, and the +common hare, seem to constitute the objects most frequently shot, but +except in the case of the limited number of those who make a business of +securing such game to sell as a means of support, there are very few +persons who devote their energies to any form of hunting. Indeed, the +instinct which is said to lead the average Englishman to remark “It is a +fine day, let us go and kill something,” is totally lacking in the +Chinese.</p> + +<p>In those relatively limited parts of the empire where ice forms to a +sufficient thickness to bear the weight of human beings, one does see +considerable frolicking upon frozen rivers and ponds. But the propulsion +of the ice-sleds with passengers is a matter of business with those +boatmen who during the season of navigation have no other means of earning +a living. Chinese children do not take to them as our boys do to sleds, +and even if they wish to do so, their parents would never dream of +furnishing the children with such an ice-sled simply for amusement. To +earn one, as a boy at home earns a sled or a pair of skates, by doing +extra work, by picking up old iron, and other similar expedients, would be +for a Chinese lad an impossibility.</p> + +<p>If the amusements of the Chinese lad are relatively scanty and +uninteresting, there is one feature of his life which is a fixed fact, and +upon which nothing is allowed to intrude. This is his work. The number of +Chinese children within any given area is literally incalculable, but it +may be safely laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> down as a general truth, that by far the larger part +of these children are for the greater part of their time made to do some +useful work. There is scarcely any handicraft in which even the very +smallest children cannot be utilized, and it is for this reason in part +that hereditary occupations are so commonly the rule. The child bred up to +one mode of physical activity is fitted for that, if he is fitted for +nothing else. If he is the son of a farmer, there is a very small portion +of the year during which there is not some definite work for him to do, by +way of assisting in the cultivation of the land. This is no doubt true of +farming everywhere, but the unfailing industry of the Chinese and the +heavy pressure of the common poverty give to this fact an emphasis not so +strongly felt in other lands.</p> + +<p>But even if the work on the land were all done, which is never the case +until the winter has actually set in, there are two occupations at which +the children may be set at any time, and at which more myriads of young +persons are probably employed, than in any other portion of the planet. +These two employments are gathering fuel and collecting manure. In a land +where the expense of transportation forbids the use of coal in places +distant even a few miles from the mouth of the pit, it is necessary to +depend upon what comes from the soil in any particular place, for fuel to +cook the food and furnish such warmth as can be got. Not a stalk, not a +twig, not a leaf is wasted. Even at the best, the products of a field ill +suffice in the item of fuel for the wants of those who own it. The Chinese +habit of constantly drinking hot water, which must be furnished afresh as +often as it cools and for each chance comer, consumes a vast amount of +fuel over and above what would be strictly required for the preparation of +food. The collection and storage of the fuel supply is an affair second in +importance only to the gathering of the crops. But in every village, a +considerable although varying proportion of the population is to be found +who own no land. These people pick up a precarious living as they can, by +working for others who have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> land, but their remuneration is slight, and +often wholly insufficient for the food supply of the many mouths +clamouring to be filled.</p> + +<p>Farm labourers can be hired by the year in Shan-tung, for a sum equal to +not more than five dollars in gold, with food but no perquisites. If the +year has an intercalary month the labourer sometimes gets less than two +cents a day. When refugees from regions flooded by the Yellow River +abound, workmen can be obtained at merely nominal wages.</p> + +<p>The writer has known an able-bodied boy engaged for a year for a sum equal +to about a dollar and a half (gold). In another case a lad was offered +about a dollar for a year’s toil, and was required to find some one as +security that he would not abscond!</p> + +<p>For the fuel wherewith to cook the exiguous supplies of this uncertain +food, the family is wholly dependent upon what the children can scratch +together. Any intermission of this labour is scarcely less a check upon +the means of existence, than the interruption of the work of the +bread-winner himself. In this dismal struggle for a basket full of leaves +and weeds, the children of China expend annually incomputable millenniums +of work.</p> + +<p>In the midst of such a barren wilderness as constitutes the life of most +Chinese children, anything which breaks the dull monotony is welcomed with +keen joy. The feast-days, the annual or semiannual fairs held at some +neighbouring town, an occasional theatrical exhibition, the humbler Punch +and Judy performance, the peripatetic story-teller, the unfailing +succession of weddings and funerals, and most of all the half-month +holiday at New Year all serve as happy reliefs to the unceasing grind of +daily toil.</p> + +<p>There is one incident in the life of the Chinese lad, which assumes in his +eyes some degree of importance, to which most Occidental boys are +strangers. This is the ceremony of donning the cap, in other words of +becoming a man and his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>marriage. The age at which this takes place is far +from being a fixed one, but is often in the vicinity of sixteen. The +customs observed vary widely, in some rural districts they frequently +consist in nothing more exciting than the playing by a band of music in +the evening before his marriage, and a visit on the part of the young man +to each house in the village where he makes his prostration, much as at +New Year, and is henceforth to be considered a full-grown man, and is +protected to some extent from snubs because he is “only a child.”</p> + +<p>The more conspicuous part of the affair, however, is the wedding. This +proceeding is based upon principles so radically different from those to +which we are accustomed, that it is generally hard for a Westerner to +become reconciled either to the Chinese theory or to the practice. To us, +marriage seems suitable for persons who have attained, not merely years of +puberty, but a certain maturity of development compatible with the new +relations which they now assume. We regard the man and wife as the basis +and centre of a new family, and there is ancient and adequate authority +for the doctrine that they should leave father and mother. In China it is +altogether otherwise. The boy and girl who are married are not a new +family, but the latest branch in a tall family tree, independent of which +they have no corporate existence.</p> + +<p>It is by no means uncommon for boys to be married at the age of ten, +although this is regarded as a trifle premature. The physical, +intellectual, or moral development of the parties concerned has nothing +whatever to do with the matter of their marriage, which is an affair +controlled by wholly different considerations. Sometimes it is hastened +because an old grandmother is in feeble health and insists upon seeing the +main business of life done up before she is called away. Sometimes the +motive is to settle the division of a piece of property so that it shall +be impossible for the elder heirs to retreat from the settlement. Quite as +often the real motive for hastening the wedding is the felt need in the +boy’s family of an additional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> servant, which need will be supplied by the +introduction of a new bride. It is for this reason that so many Chinese +women are older than their husbands. When they are betrothed, the bigger +they are the better, because they can do all the more work.</p> + +<p>To a Chinese, there is no more sense of incongruity in marrying a little +slip of a boy, simply because he is young, and perhaps not more than half +the size of his bride, than there would be in playing checkers with +buttons, and then crowning the first button that happened to get to the +king-row. What signified whether the button is a small one or a large one, +since it has reached the last row, and has now a set of moves of its own, +a fact which must be recognized by doubling itself. It is not otherwise +with the Chinese boy. He is a double button, it is true, but he is nothing +but a button still, and a small one, and is only an insignificant part of +a wide and complicated game.</p> + +<p>During the celebration of a Chinese wedding it does not strike the +spectator that the bridegroom is the centre of interest, and the bride is +so only for the time being, and in consequence of the curiosity which is +felt to see what sort of a bargain the family has made in getting her. The +young man is ordered out of the apartment where he has been kept in +ambush—according to the custom in some regions—like an ox for the +sacrifice. He is to fall upon his knees at a word of command, and kotow +with intermittent sequence to a great variety of persons, until his knees +are stiff and his legs lame. His eyes are fixed upon the ground, as if in +deepest humility, and the most awkward Chinese youth will perform the +details of this trying ordeal with a natural grace, with which the most +well-bred Occidental youth could scarcely hope to vie, and which he +assuredly could not hope to surpass.</p> + +<p>When the complicated protracted ceremonies are all over, our young lad is, +it is true, a married man, but he is not the “head” of any family, not +even of his own. He is still under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> the same control of his father as +before, his bride is under the control of the mother-in-law, to a degree +which it is difficult for us to comprehend. If the youthful husband is +trying to learn to compose essays, his marriage does not at all interrupt +his educational enterprise and as soon as the ceremonies are over he goes +on just as before. If he is dull, and cannot make the “seven empty +particles”—the terror of the inexpert Chinese essayist—fit into his +laborious sentences to the satisfaction of his teacher, he is not unlikely +to be beaten over the head for his lack of critical acumen, and can then +go weeping home to have his wife stick a black gummy plaster over the area +of his chastisement. We have known a Chinese boy who had the dropsy in an +aggravated form but who could not be persuaded to take a single dose of +medicine that was at all bitter. If he was pressed to do so by his fond +mother, he either fell into a passion, or cried. If he was not allowed to +eat two whole watermelons at a time his tactics were the same, a domestic +scene either of violent temper, or of dismal howling grief. He was merely +prolonging into youth the plan universally adopted in the childhood of +Chinese children. Yet this sensitive infant of seventeen had been married +for several years, and leaves a widow to mourn the circumstance that +drugs, dropsy, and watermelons, have blighted her existence.</p> + +<p>It is far from being an infrequent circumstance for boys who have been +married early, on occasion of some grievance, to run crying to their +mothers for comfort as they have been in the habit of doing, and to be met +with the chilling inquiry: “Why do you come to me? If you want anything, +go to <i>Her</i>!”</p> + +<p>By a strange exception to the otherwise almost uniform prudishness of +Chinese practice, on the occasion of a wedding it is common—although by +no means universal—for guests to take the liberty of going into the +apartment set apart for the married pair, inspecting the bride as if she +were an animal just purchased at a market, openly expressing whatever +criticisms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> may occur. In this as in everything else customs differ +greatly, but the phrase “playing pranks in the bridal room” (<i>nao +tung-fang</i>) testifies to the frequency of the occurrence. In the year +1893, a native newspaper of Canton reported a case in which the bride was +actually killed in this way, by having cold water poured on her, the +perpetrators being fined $200 for “consolation money,” and all the costs +of remarrying.</p> + +<p>It is a postulate of Chinese ethics that no branch of any family should be +allowed to be without its living representative, in order that the +ancestral rites may be duly performed. As it constantly happens that there +are no sons, it becomes necessary to adopt those of other brothers, or +failing these the grandson of an uncle, or the great-grandson of a +granduncle. Sons thus adopted are on the same footing as if they were own +children, and cannot be displaced by such sons born later. The +universality of these adoptions often makes it difficult to ascertain with +precision the real relationship of a man to others of his family. +Sometimes he continues to call his real father by that title, and +sometimes he terms the uncle who has adopted him his “father” and his own +father “uncle.” Again, he may be nominally adopted by an uncle, but +continue to live with his own parents as before. The adoption of relatives +is expressed by the general term “crossing over,” (<i>kuo</i>) and it is a +sufficiently important feature of Chinese life to serve as the subject for +a treatise rather than for a paragraph. It enters into the warp and woof +of all Chinese family life, which cannot be comprehended without taking +into account the substratum upon which the universal practice rests. While +it is rooted in ancestral worship it is kept alive among even the poorest +classes in the social scale by their very poverty. If a man has no heir he +can be compelled to adopt some one of the numerous candidates who are +thirsting to enter into prospective possession of even a small holding. +But whoever is thus adopted becomes responsible for the funeral expenses +of the one who adopts him. Innumerable lawsuits arise out of these complex +conditions.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>If there are no suitable persons for adoption among the family or clan of +the adopter, he is often obliged to content himself with the son of his +sisters, or even the grandchildren of his aunts. To our thought one +“nephew” is as good as another, but it is otherwise with a Chinese, to +whom the children of his sister (being of a different surname) are much +farther off than those of his brothers. Besides this, on occasion of the +death of the adopter, the position of a sister’s son is liable to be very +insecure. Rather than take such an heir many Chinese will pick up a mere +stranger, but in this case he can be easily got rid of should he turn out +unsatisfactory. Outsiders thus adopted although they may be as filial and +in every way as satisfactory as an own son, never escape the stigma of +being only “picked up,” and this taint lasts to distant generations. A man +told the writer that he was wholly without influence in the village where +he was born, since his grandfather had been adopted as a stranger.</p> + +<p>There is still another method of securing a son which is far less common +than we should expect it to be. This is that of finding a suitable husband +for a daughter, and then adopting him as a son. By this means the parents +are enabled to have the services of an own daughter all their lives—a +rare privilege in China, and an adopted heir of this kind is certainly +much more closely bound to the family than any other of a different family +would be likely to be. But there are not many clans which do not have a +number of candidates available for an adoptive vacancy. It would be +necessary to conciliate whoever was entitled to adoption by dividing the +property with him, which, in the case of those with but small resources, +would be tantamount to perpetual pauperism. For this reason most cases of +“calling a son-in-law” occur in families where there are no sons of +brothers or cousins available.</p> + +<p>As a rule every Chinese is as wide awake to opportunities for laying claim +to the property of some one else, as a cat apparently asleep is to seize +an injudiciously venturesome bird. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> writer is acquainted with a man +who had adopted a son-in-law in legal form, but who at the funeral of his +own father was surprised to see a large band of strangers enter his +courtyard clad in mourning, and set up a simultaneous wail for their +“Uncle,” “Grandfather,” etc., according to the alleged relationship. Upon +inquiry he learned that they came from a village at some distance, and +bearing the same surname as the deceased had determined to claim kinship +with him in order to fall heirs to the property which consisted of but +little more than enough to support a moderate sized family. The result was +a lawsuit in which the pretenders being unable to produce any family +register to the purpose, were severely beaten by the District Magistrate +as a penalty for their presumption.</p> + +<p>One is constantly surprised in China to hear that a Chinese whose name he +knows perfectly well, has taken an entirely different surname, so that Mr. +Wang Spring-Flowers suddenly appears as Mr. Ma Illustrious-Virtue. This is +called “reverting to the original name,” and may be due to any one of a +great variety of causes. Even while these lines are being committed to +paper, a friend of the writer has called to mention the experiences +through which he has recently passed, a résumé of which may throw a little +light on the Chinese theory and practice of adoption. This man is the +second of four brothers, the eldest of whom was adopted into a somewhat +distant branch of the family, and has three sons. Number two has two sons, +the youngest of whom is adopted by number three, who has none of his own. +Number four died some time ago without a son. The funeral has never been +held, and the body has been encoffined awaiting a favourable time, that is +to say, a period of financial prosperity. Number four owed to a grain-shop +in which numbers two and three are interested, several hundred strings of +cash. To pay up this debt and to have a proper funeral, would require the +sale of all the forty acres of land, so that the right of adoption has not +seemed worth contesting. But of late a son of number one has set up a +claim to this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>inheritance, and it is this which has been in active +dispute for a period of twelve days. To adjust the matter, “peace-talkers” +have been summoned to the number of <i>thirty-eight</i>, many of them literary +graduates. There have been angry disputes between them and some of the +members of the family, and an actual fight. The “peace-talkers” were +reviled, and took revenge by beating the son of number one who was in +fault. This involved fresh complications, which had just been settled by a +final feast.</p> + +<p>During the course of the intricate controversies the eight and thirty men +had by no means omitted to eat and drink (one of the leading functions of +“peace-talkers” and for the sake of which many quarrels are purposely +stirred up, and many more kept unsettled for long periods). They consumed +in all seventy catties of wine, and a hundred more of bread-cakes, and the +total cost to number two is about two hundred and thirty strings of cash, +one hundred of which are paid by number two to number one’s family as +“consolation money.” Yet in this whole matter the financial interest of +number two is absolutely nil!</p> + +<p>Another of the many devices which the Chinese have chosen for perpetuating +a branch of the family which might otherwise become extinct, is to have a +single individual represent two branches. Thus suppose there are two +brothers only one of whom has a son, he may be married to two wives, one +for each branch. The establishment must be a double one, and he will +probably be obliged to divide his time equally between his partners, even +having to change all his clothing in going from one house to the other. It +is needless to remark that the jealousies thus provoked are such as would +destroy any home.</p> + +<p>If there is very little sentiment connected with the introduction of a +daughter-in-law into a family, on the part of the husband’s family at +least, there is often not much more on the occasion of her death. But this +is generally regretted, if for no other reason, on account of the trouble +and expense involved.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> Perhaps there is no single particular in which the +Orient and the Occident differ more widely than in the utter disregard of +Orientals for what we understand by privacy and for quiet. The lack of the +latter is indeed often vaguely felt, but as it is a blessing known only by +the imaginative faculty and never from experience, its absence has none of +the intolerable features which we should associate with it. The moment +that any Chinese is ill, the first step is to send in every direction to +notify all sorts and grades of relatives, many of whom will feel it their +stern duty to drop whatever they are doing, no matter what its importance, +to go, and “take a look.” This inspection not infrequently extends for +days and sometimes for weeks, when the presence of the relative has not +the smallest relation to the care of the sick person, except as a +hinderance by adding to the throng that hover over the patient, each with +his endless questions as to how he feels <i>now</i>, and each with fertile +suggestions as to articles of food vying with one another in +preposterousness. Few of us would not welcome death as a relief from the +experiences incident to serious illness under Chinese conditions, but +under these conditions all Chinese are born, live, and die.</p> + +<p>If a sick person is considered to be beyond the possibility of recovery, +the next step is to “put on the clothes,” that is, those in which he is to +be buried, a process which involves pulling him about to an extent which +it is distressing to contemplate. In the case of old men there are +sometimes angry disputes about the property in the immediate presence of +death, and in that of wives—especially younger ones—if there is any +considerable property, it will not be strange if the house is visited by +relays of go-betweens intent upon proposing an eligible successor to the +one about to depart, so as to be certain to forestall other offers. These +negotiations may take place in the immediate presence of the dying woman, +perhaps two or more strangers striving at the same time to get a hearing +with their rival proposals!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>The writer is acquainted with a family in which this took place, and one +of the offers was accepted, but the sick woman contrived not to die after +all! The agreement, however, was valid, and the prospectively stricken +husband thus found himself provided with <i>two lawful wives</i>, each of whom +subsequently bore him sons. Strange to say the family life is in this +instance a comparatively peaceful one. Should a wife die, it is often a +short time before the marriage of the next one takes place, an interval +regulated not by sentiment, but by the difficulty of raising funds. Soon +after the wedding may come the funeral of the predecessor.</p> + +<p>In theory a Chinese lad becomes of age at sixteen, but as a practical +thing he is not his own master while any of the generation above him +within the five degrees of relationship remain on the mundane stage. To +what extent these relatives will carry their interference with his +affairs, will depend to a large extent upon their disposition, and to some +extent upon his own. In some households there is a great amount of +freedom, while in others life is a weariness and an incessant vexation +because Chinese social arrangements effectually thwart Nature’s design in +giving each human being a separate personality, which in China is too +often simply merged in the common stock, leaving a man a free agent only +in name.</p> + +<p>Taking it in an all around survey there is very little in the life of the +village boy to excite one’s envy. As we have already seen, he generally +learns well two valuable lessons, and the thoroughness with which they are +mastered does much to atone for the great defects of his training in other +regards. He learns obedience and respect for authority, and he learns to +be industrious. In most cases, the latter quality is the condition of his +continued existence and those who refuse to submit to the inexorable law, +are disposed of by that law, to the great advantage of the survivors. But +of intellectual independence, he has not the faintest conception or even a +capacity of comprehension. He does as others do, and neither knows nor +can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> imagine any other way. If he is educated, his mind is like a subsoil +pipe, filled with all the drainage which has ever run through the ground. +A part of this drainage originally came, it is true, from the skies, but +it has been considerably altered in its constituents since that time; and +a much larger part is a wholly human secretion, painfully lacking in +chemical purity. In any case this is the content of his mind, and it is +all of its content.</p> + +<p>If, on the other hand, the Chinese youth is uneducated, his mind is like +an open ditch, partly vacant, and partly full of whatever is flowing or +blowing over the surface. He is not indeed destitute of humility; in fact +he has a most depressing amount of it. He knows that he knows nothing, +that he never did, never shall, never can know anything, and also that it +makes very little difference what he knows. He has a blind respect for +learning, but no idea of gathering any crumbs thereof for himself. The +long, broad, black and hopeless shadow of practical Confucianism is over +him. It means a high degree of intellectual cultivation for the few, who +are necessarily narrow and often bigoted, and for the many it means a +lifetime of intellectual stagnation.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h2> +<h3>CHINESE COUNTRY GIRLS AND WOMEN</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> Chinese are as practical a people as ever had a national existence, +and we know of no reason to suppose that the Chinese ever had the least +doubt that a substantial equality of the sexes in point of numbers is a +condition of the continued propagation of the race. Certainly no race was +ever more careful to keep itself propagated, or has ever met with greater +success in the undertaking. Yet the Chinese are almost the only people +boasting an ancient and developed civilization who despise their own +daughters who are married into the families of others, and are by that +process lost to their own because according to ancient custom they can +offer no sacrifices for their parents when the latter are dead. It is for +this reason that the popular saying declares that the most ideally +excellent daughter (literally a daughter with the virtues of the eighteen +Lo-hans) is not equal to a splay-footed son. This sentiment is endorsed by +all Chinese consciously and unconsciously, in a manner to show that it is +interwoven with the very fibres of their being. Its ultimate root is the +same as that of so many other human opinions, pure selfishness.</p> + +<p>The Chinese girl when she makes her first appearance in the world is very +likely to be unwelcome, though this is by no means invariably the case. +The ratio in which fortune-tellers allot happiness is generally about five +sons to two daughters. “Whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” +With theories like those of the Chinese about the unavailability of +daughters for the performance of ancestral rites, and with the Chinese +nature as it is, it is not to be wondered at that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> great pressure of +poverty leads to the crime of infanticide upon an enormous scale. For +aught that appears, this has always been the case. It is not that the +Chinese conscience does not recognize the murder of girl babies as wrong, +but that the temptation to such murder, especially the temptation to the +disappointed and often abused mother, is too strong to be resisted by any +motives which have the opportunity to act upon her.</p> + +<p>Much has already been done by those who have had most opportunity to learn +the facts, toward exhibiting the real practice of the Chinese in the +matter of destroying female infants. Yet no more can be safely predicated +than that this is a crime which to some extent everywhere prevails, and in +some places to such a degree as seriously to affect the proportion of the +sexes. It seems to be most common in the maritime provinces of the +southern part of China, in some districts of which it is by the Chinese +themselves regarded as a terrible and a threatening evil. Native tract +societies publish books exhorting the people against the practice, and +magistrates occasionally issue proclamations forbidding it, but it is +evident that the nature of the offence is such that no laws can touch it, +and nothing short of the elevation of the mothers themselves to a far +higher point of view than they now occupy, can have any permanent effect +upon Chinese female infanticide.</p> + +<p>Next to the destruction of the lives of female infants, the Chinese +practice most revolting to our Western ideas is the sale of their +daughters, at all periods from infancy up to a marriageable age. The +usages of different parts of the empire vary widely, but the sale of +girls, like infanticide, seems to flourish most in the maritime provinces +of the south, where it is conducted as openly as any other traffic. That +the parents are generally impelled to this extreme step simply by the +pressure of poverty we are quite ready to believe. Yet the knowledge that +the girl must be separated from her family at a later period, and that +this parting is irrevocable, must tend to reconcile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> many Chinese parents +to an anticipation, by a few years, of the inevitable. Of the miseries +which girls who have been thus sold are likely to endure, it is +unnecessary to speak in detail, but enough is known on the subject to lead +us to regard the practice with horror. If the parents do not feel able to +keep their daughter until she is old enough to be married, and yet do not +wish to sell her, Chinese custom has invented another expedient, which is +a compromise between the two. This is the well-known “rearing-marriage,” +by which the girl is made over to the family into which she is to be +married, and is by that family brought up, and married whenever their +convenience dictates. There are manifest and grave objections to this +practice, but there can be no doubt that it is far better than the custom +of child marriages, which lead to so much wretchedness in India. In some +instances the relations with the family of the girl are wholly broken off, +when she is taken for a “rearing-marriage,” and in all cases it is +regarded as a confession of poverty and weakness, which places the girl’s +family at much more than their usual disadvantage, at best sufficiently +great. When a girl is brought up in the family the son of which is to +become her future husband, it is of course wholly out of the question that +the parties should not have the fullest opportunities to become acquainted +with each other’s disposition, however they may be forbidden by usage to +speak to one another. There is and can be very little sentiment about +Chinese matches, but anything which tends to make the parties to one of +these matches better able to adapt themselves to the inevitable friction +of after life, cannot fail to have its advantages. Whether the parties to +a “rearing-marriage” are or are not on the whole happier than those +married in the ordinary way, is a question which no Chinese would be +likely to ask, for the reason that he has no associations connecting +marriage with happiness, but rather the reverse, and if the question is +proposed by a foreigner, he is not likely to be made much the wiser by the +replies which he receives.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>The practice of binding the feet of Chinese girls is familiar to all who +have the smallest knowledge of China, and requires but the barest mention. +It is almost universal throughout China, yet with some conspicuous +exceptions, as among the Hakkas of the south, an exception for which it is +not easy to account. The custom forcibly illustrates some of the innate +traits of Chinese character, especially the readiness to endure great and +prolonged suffering in attaining to a standard, merely for the sake of +appearances. There is no other non-religious custom peculiar to the +Chinese which is so utterly opposed to the natural instincts of mankind, +and yet which is at the same time so dear to the Chinese, and which would +be given up with more reluctance.</p> + +<p>It is well known that the greatest emperor who ever sat upon the throne of +China dared not risk his authority in an attempt to put down this custom, +although his father had successfully imposed upon the Chinese race the +wearing of the queue as a badge of subjection. A quarter of a millennium +of Tartar rule seems to have done absolutely nothing toward modifying the +practice of foot-binding in favour of the more rational one of the +governing race, except to a limited extent in the capital itself. But a +few <i>li</i> away from Peking, the old habits hold their iron sway. The only +impulse toward reform of this useless and cruel custom originated with +foreigners in China, and was long in making itself felt, which it is now, +especially in the central part of the empire, beginning to be.</p> + +<p>The observations which may be made with regard to the industry of Chinese +boys, are equally applicable—<i>mutatis mutandis</i>—to Chinese girls. In all +lands and in all climes, “woman’s work is never done,” and this is most +especially true of China, where machinery has not yet expelled the +primitive processes of what is literally manufacture, or work by the hand. +The care of silk-worms, and the picking, spinning, and weaving of cotton, +are largely the labour of women, to which the girls are introduced at a +very early age. The sewing for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> Chinese family is a serious matter, +especially as the number of families who can afford to hire help in this +line is a very trifling proportion. But aside from this employment, in +which a Chinese girl who expects to be acceptable to the family of her +mother-in-law must be expert, girls can also be made useful in almost any +line of home work to which the father may be devoted. In the country +districts all over the empire, boys and girls alike are sent out to +scratch together as much fuel as possible, for the preparation of the +food, and this continues in the case of the girls until they are too large +to go to any distance from home. It is not an unmeaning appellation, which +is given to girls generally, that of <i>ya-t‘ou</i>, or “slave-girl,” used just +as we should say “daughter.” To a foreigner, this sounds much like the +term “nigger” applied to black men, but to the Chinese there is a fitness +in the designation, which they refuse to surrender.</p> + +<p>With the exception of such limited raids as she may have been able to make +in early childhood, and occasional visits to relatives, most Chinese girls +never go anywhere to speak of, and live what is literally the existence of +a frog in a well.<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small> Tens of thousands of them have never been two miles +away from the village in which they happened to be born, with the +occasional exception of the visit to the mother’s family just mentioned, +where they are not improbably regarded as terrible beings who cannot be +exterminated, but who are to be as much as possible repressed. If the +nieces on the mother’s side are numerous, as is often the case, there is +some reason for dread of the visits, on the part of the bread-winners, for +no Chinese mother can be dissociated from her flock of children, whose +appetites are invariably several horse-power strong, and who,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> like +their elders, are all excessively fond of enjoying the pleasure of eating +at some one else’s expense.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp262top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Women Preparing Food.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 370px;"><img src="images/fp262bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">On the Way to the Feast.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>It is when the married daughters of a large family have all returned to +their parents to spend a few days or weeks, that the most dramatic scenes +of childhood occur. Self-control and unselfishness have not been a feature +in the culture of any one of the numerous cousins thus brought together in +a cluster which frequently resembles those on the inside of a beehive. +Each of the young generation has the keenest instinct for getting as much +of the best of what is to be had as any one else, and if possible more. +This leads to occasional “scenes of confusion, and creature complaints,” +in which each small participant publishes his or her version of the +particular squabble in piercing tones, which soon summon the whole +establishment to the scene of action. Judicious parents would punish the +children all round for their complicity in such a quarrel, which is most +often based upon alleged or supposed inequalities in distribution of food. +But Chinese parents are seldom judicious, and the most that can be +expected is that the mother will call off her child or children, and +“yell” it, or them. “Yelling” a person is the act of proclaiming in a loud +and piercing voice the disapprobation on the part of the “yeller” of the +conduct of the “yellee,” often accompanied by reviling language, and +frequently also with promises to “beat” and “kill” the said “yellee” in +the event of further provocation. These remarks are interpreted by the +“yellee” as a hint to stop, a feat which is at length accomplished after a +period of more or less spasmodic and convulsive recrimination.</p> + +<p>But if, as often happens, each of the mothers feels called upon from a +high sense of duty to take a firm stand for the rights of her offspring, +the case becomes much more serious. Each of the mothers will then scream +simultaneously, to the accompaniment of the wails, yells, and reviling of +the whole half-dozen or more of her posterity, while above the general +clamour may be distinctly caught the shrill shrieks of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>grandmother, +whose views, whatever difficulty they may have in getting themselves +heard, must eventually prevail when peace once more reigns in the domestic +teapot. After one of these family cyclones, the atmosphere gradually +becomes cleared again, and things go on as before; but we have known a +particularly spirited married daughter, who exhibited her dissatisfaction +with the terms of settlement of a dispute of this sort by refusing to +speak to her sisters for some days together.</p> + +<p>With the humdrum routine of her life at home, the occasional visits to +relatives, and now and then a large fair or a theatrical exhibition, the +Chinese girl grows to be what we should call a “young schoolgirl,” by +which time all her friends begin to be very uneasy about her. This +uneasiness, we need scarcely remark, has not the smallest connection with +her intellectual nature, which, so far as any culture which it receives is +concerned, might as well be non-existent. Unless her father happens to be +a schoolmaster, and at home with nothing to do, he never thinks of +teaching his daughter to read. Even in the case of boys, this would be +exceptional and irregular, but in the case of girls it is felt to be +preposterous. And why? asks the incredulous foreigner. It will take the +average Chinese a long time to explain the nature of his objection, and +when he does so he will not have stated the whole of the case, nor have +gone to the root of the matter. The real difficulty is that to educate a +girl is like weeding the field of some other man. It is like putting a +gold chain around the neck of some one else’s puppy, which may at any +moment be whistled off, and then what will have become of the chain? It is +a proverbially mean man in China, who, when marrying his daughter, wants +to be paid for the food he has wasted upon her up to the date of marriage. +But the expression illustrates clearly one of the underlying assumptions +of Chinese society, that it is the body of the girl for which the parents +are responsible, and not the mind. To almost any Chinese it would probably +appear a self-evident proposition that to spend time, strength, and much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +more money in educating the daughter-in-law of some one else is a sheer +waste. But, you say to him, she is your daughter. “Not after she is +married,” he replies; “she is theirs, let them educate her themselves if +they want her educated.” “Why should I teach her how to read, write and +reckon, when it will never do me any good?” With which utilitarian +inquiry, the education of most Chinese girls has been banished from human +thought for the space of some millenniums.</p> + +<p>The anxiety which all her friends begin to feel about a Chinese girl, as +soon as she attains any considerable size, is exhibited in the inquiries +which are made about her whenever she happens to be spoken of. These +inquiries do not concern her character or her domestic accomplishments, +much less her intellectual capacity—of which she has, theoretically, none +to speak of—but they may all be summed up in the single phrase, “Is she +said?” meaning by the term “said” “betrothed.” If the reply should be in +the negative, the intelligence is received in much the same way as we +should receive the information that a foreign child had been allowed to +grow to the age of sixteen without having been taught anything whatever +out of books. “Why?” we should say, “what is the explanation age of this +strange neglect?” The instinctive feeling of a Chinese in regard to a girl +is that she should be betrothed as soon as possible. This is one of the +many points in regard to which it is almost impossible for the Chinese and +the Anglo-Saxon to come to terms. To the latter the betrothal of a mere +child, scarcely in her teens, is a piece of absolute barbarity.</p> + +<p>As soon as a Chinese girl is once betrothed, she is placed in different +relations to the universe generally. She is no longer allowed such freedom +as hitherto, although that may have been little enough. She cannot go +anywhere, because it would be “inconvenient.” She might be seen by some +member of the family into which she is to marry, than which it is hardly +possible to think of anything more horrible. “Why?” the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>irrepressible +Occidental inquires; and is quenched by the information that “it would not +be proper.”</p> + +<p>The imminent risk that the girl might in some unguarded moment be actually +<i>seen</i> by the family of the future mother-in-law is a reason why so few +engagements for girls are made in the town in which the girl lives, an +arrangement which would seem to be for the convenience of all parties in a +great variety of ways. It would put a stop to the constant deceptions +practiced by the middle-women, or professional match-makers, whose only +object is to carry through whatever match has been proposed, in order to +reap the percentage which will accrue to the agent. It would do away with +the waste of time and money involved in transporting brides from one of +their homes to the other, often at great inconvenience and loss. It would +make the interchange of little courtesies between the families easy and +frequent. But for all these advantages the Chinese do not seem to care, +and the most frequent explanation of the neglect of them is that there +would be the risk already mentioned. When these two families are such as +would in the ordinary course of events be likely to meet, nothing is more +amusing to a foreigner than to watch the struggles which are made to avert +such a catastrophe. One is reminded of some of our childhood’s games, in +which one party is “poison” and the other party is liable to be “poisoned” +and must at all hazards keep out of the way. The only difference between +the cases is that in the Chinese game, <i>each party</i> is afraid of being +“poisoned,” and will struggle to prevent it. There is one set of +circumstances, however, in which, despite their utmost efforts, Fate is +too much both for the poisoners and the poisoned. If during the betrothal +a death of an older person takes place in the family of the mother-in-law, +it is generally thought necessary that the girl (who is considered as +already “belonging” to that family) should be present and should perform +the same reverence to the coffin of the deceased as if she had been +already married. She is (theoretically) their daughter; why<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> should she +not come and lament like the rest?<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small> If it is possible to arrange it, +however, the marriage will be hastened, in the event of a death of a +person belonging to an older generation, even if a later date had been +previously set.</p> + +<p>To a foreigner, the Chinese habit of early engagements appears to have no +single redeeming feature. It hampers both families with no apparent +corresponding advantages, if indeed there are advantages of any kind. It +assumes, what is far from certain, and often not at all likely, that the +relative position of the two families will continue to be the same. This +assumption is contradicted by universal experience. Time and change happen +to all, and the insecurity of human affairs is nowhere more manifest than +in the tenure of Chinese property. Families are going up and coming down +all the time. It is a well-settled principle in China that matches should +be between those who are in the same general circumstances. Disregard of +this rule is sure to bring trouble. But if early betrothals are the +practice, the chances of material alteration in the condition of each of +the families are greatly increased. When he is engaged, the character of +the boy, upon which so much of a bride’s happiness is to depend, has not +perhaps been formed. Even if it has been formed, it is generally next to +impossible for the girl’s family to learn anything authentic as to what +the character is, though to all appearance it would be so easy for them to +ascertain by latent methods. But as a rule, it would appear that they do +not concern themselves much about the matter after the engagement is +proposed and accepted, and at no time do they give it a hundredth part of +the investigation which it seems to us to warrant. If the boy becomes a +gambler, a profligate, or dissipated in any other way, there is no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +retreat for the family of the girl, no matter to what extremities they may +be driven. Chinese violation of the most ordinary rules of prudence and +common sense in the matter of the betrothal of their daughters is, to a +Westerner, previous to experience and observation, almost incredible.</p> + +<p>A Chinese marriage engagement begins when the red cards have been +interchanged, ratifying the agreement. These are in some districts +formidable documents, almost as large as a crib-blanket, and are very +important as evidence in case of future trouble. It is very rare to hear +of the breaking of a marriage engagement in China, though such instances +do doubtless occur. In a case of this sort the card of the boy’s family +had been delivered to the other family, at which point the transaction is +considered to be definitely closed. But an uncle of the betrothed girl, +although younger than the father of the girl, created a disturbance and +refused to allow the engagement to stand. This made the matter very +serious, but as the younger brother was inflexible, there was no help for +it but to send the red acceptance card back by the middleman who brought +it. This also was a delicate matter, but a Chinese is seldom at a loss for +expedients when a disagreeable thing must be done. He selected a time when +all the male members of the boy’s family were in the wheatfield, and then +threw the card declining the match into the yard of the family of the boy, +and went his way. None of the women of the family could read, and it was +not until the men returned that it was discovered what the document was. +The result was a lawsuit of portentous proportions, in which an accusation +was brought against both the father of the girl and against the middleman. +This case was finally adjusted by a money payment.</p> + +<p>The delivery of the red cards is, as we have remarked, the beginning of +the engagement, the culmination being the arrival of the bride in her +chair at the home of her husband. The date of this event is generally +dependent upon the pleasure of the boy’s family. Whatever accessories the +wedding may have,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> the arrival of the bride is the <i>de facto</i> completion +of the contract. This becomes evident in the case of second marriages, +where there is often, and even proverbially, no ceremony of any sort which +must be observed. The Chinese imperial calendar designates the days which +are the most felicitous for weddings, and it constantly happens that on +these particular days there will be what the Chinese term “red +festivities” in almost every village. This is one of the many instances in +which Chinese superstitions are financially expensive. On “lucky days” the +hire of sedan-chairs rises with the great demand, while those who +disregard luck are able to get better service at a lower price. There is a +tradition of a winter in the early part of this century when on a +“fortunate day” many brides were being carried to their new homes during +the progress of a tremendous snowstorm which blinded the bearers and +obliterated the roads. Some of the brides were frozen to death, and many +were taken to the wrong places. On the other hand in a blistering summer, +cases have been known where the bride was found to be dead when the chair +was deposited at the husband’s home. The same bridal sedan-chair may be +used many times. In regions where it is the custom to have all weddings in +the forenoon, second marriages are put off until the afternoon, or even +postponed until the evening, marking their minor importance.</p> + +<p>That the only <i>essential</i> feature of a Chinese wedding is the delivery of +the bride at her husband’s home, is strikingly shown in those not very +uncommon instances in which a Chinese is married without himself being +present at all. It is usually considered a very ill omen to change the +date set for a wedding, especially to postpone it. Yet it sometimes +happens that the young man is at a distance from home, and fails to return +in time. Or the bridegroom may be a scholar, and find that the date of an +important examination coincides with the day set for his wedding. In such +a case he will probably choose “business before pleasure” and the bride +will be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> “taken delivery of” by older members of his family, without +disturbing his own literary ambitions.</p> + +<p>Of the details of Chinese weddings we do not intend to speak. There are +wide variations of usage in almost all particulars, though the general +plan is doubtless much the same. The variations appertain, not to the +ceremonies of the wedding alone, but to all the proceedings from beginning +to end. It is supposed that the explanation of the singular and sometimes +apparently unaccountable variation in these and other usages, found all +over China, may be due to the persistent survival of customs which have +been handed down from the time of the Divided Kingdoms. But very +considerable differences in usage are to be met with in regions not far +apart, and which were never a part of different kingdoms. The saying runs, +“Customs vary every ten <i>li</i>,” which seems at times to be a literal truth.</p> + +<p>In the south of China, as we have already remarked, the transfer of money, +at the engagement of a daughter, from the parents of the boy to those of +the girl, assumes for all practical purposes the aspect of a purchase, +which, pure and simple, it often is. But in other parts of China we never +hear of such a transaction, but only of a dowry from the bride’s family, +much in the manner of Western lands at times. Vast sums are undoubtedly +squandered by the very wealthy Chinese at the weddings of their daughters, +and it is a common adage that to such expenditures there is no limit. But +in weddings in the ordinary walks of life, to which all but a small +fraction of the people belong, the impression which will be made upon the +observant foreigner will generally be that there is a great amount of +shabby gentility, a thin veneer of display beneath which it is easy to see +the real texture.</p> + +<p>In this as in everything relating to Chinese usages it is impossible to +make general statements which shall at the same time be accurate. There +are regions in northern China where the money exacted from the family of +the future bridegroom is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> so considerable, that what remains after the +real bridal outfit has been purchased is a positive source of profit to +the father. There are also other districts where local custom requires the +bridegroom’s family to give very little or even nothing at all for dowry, +but exacts heavily from the bride’s family. There must be a large supply +of clothing, and bedding; even when at her own home the young married +woman must sew for her husband’s family, and the one which furnishes the +bride is subject to a constant series of petty exactions.</p> + +<p>The bridal chair is often itself a fit emblem of a Chinese wedding. Looked +at from a distance, it appears to be of the most gorgeous description, but +on a nearer view it is frequently perceived to be a most unattractive +framework covered with a gaudy set of trappings sometimes much worn and +evidently the worse for wear. In some cases there is a double framework, +the outer of which can be lifted entirely off, being too clumsy to be got +into a courtyard. The inner chair can be carried through the narrow doors +of any Chinese yard, or, if required, into the house itself.</p> + +<p>The bride is no sooner out of the chair than the process of dismantling +the bridal chair begins, in the immediate sight of all the guests, and as +a matter of course. The Chinese is not a victim of sentiment, and he fails +to see anything incongruous in these proceedings. It not infrequently +happens that the resplendent garment worn by the bride is hired for the +occasion, a fact of which the guests present are not likely to be +ignorant. We once saw a garment of this sort which the bride had just +taken off, delivered to the headman in charge of the bridal chair and of +the accompanying paraphernalia. Upon examining it to make sure that it was +in as good condition as when it was hired, this man found, or professed to +find, a grease-spot upon it, which not only attracted his attention but +excited his wrath. He began to talk in loud and excited tones, waxing more +and more furious until the guests were all called away from their other +occupations to listen to the dispute. Yet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> foreign spectator was +probably the only person present to whom it occurred that this was an +untimely and unseemly proceeding, out of harmony with the time and the +circumstances.</p> + +<p>The arrival of a first baby is, in the life of a Chinese wife, a very +different event from the like occurrence in the life of a wife in +Occidental lands. If the child is a boy, the joy of the whole household is +of course great, but if on the contrary it is a girl, the depression of +the spirits of the entire establishment is equally marked. In such a case, +the young wife is often treated with coldness, and not infrequently with +harshness, even if, as sometimes happens, she is not actually beaten for +her lack of discretion in not producing a son. If she has had several +daughters in succession, especially if she has borne no son or none which +has lived, her life cannot be a pleasant one.</p> + +<p>There is a story of a certain noble English lord, who had more daughters +than any other member of the aristocracy. When on the Continent +travelling, he walked out one day with six of his daughters. Some one who +saw him, remarked to a companion, “Poor man.” The noble lord overheard the +observation, and turning to the person who made it, replied, “Not so +‘poor’ as you think; I have six more at home!” It is questionable whether +any Chinese could be found who would not sympathize with the comment of +the bystander, or who would agree with the reply of the father. Indeed, we +have serious doubts whether, among all the innumerable myriads of this +race, there ever lived a Chinese who had twelve daughters living at once.</p> + +<p>It is one of the postulates of Chinese propriety that however much a wife +may continue to visit at the maternal home, (and on this point the usages +in some regions are very liberal), her children must all be born at their +father’s house. This is a rule of such unbending rigour that a breach of +it is considered a deep disgrace, and in the effort to avoid it women will +sometimes submit to extreme inconveniences, and run the most serious +risks, not infrequently, it is said, meeting in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>consequence with painful +and humiliating accidents. To the Occidental question as to the reason for +this powerful prejudice against a confinement at a mother’s home, the +Chinese are able to give no better reply than an affirmation that, if such +an event should happen, the mother’s family may be expected to become very +poor. This superstition is so strong that in some localities, if such an +event has happened, it is customary for the family of the husband to +harness a team to a plough, and, proceeding to the home of the girl’s +parents, plough up their courtyard. The son-in-law must also cook a kettle +full of millet or rice for his mother-in-law, by which means the dire +extremity of poverty may be avoided. Perhaps, after all, the idea at the +bottom of these singular performances is merely the thoroughly Chinese one +that, if a married daughter and her children are to come upon her mother’s +family for their support, poverty will be the certain result, a view which +has in it some reason.</p> + +<p>A description of the ceremonious superstitions common among the Chinese on +occasion of the birth of a child, especially of a son, and most especially +of a firstborn son, would fill a volume. These are far more rigorously +observed in the southern part of the empire than at the north, and more in +cities than in the country village, where many of these customs may be +wholly unknown.</p> + +<p>There is the highest Chinese classical authority for the proposition that +if a mother is really anxious to do the best that she can for her infant, +although she may not succeed perfectly, she will not come far short of +success. There is equally trustworthy Occidental medical authority for the +statement that, as applied to Chinese women, this proposition is a gross +error. Undoubtedly superstition directly or indirectly destroys the lives +of many Chinese children. But this cause, which is complex in its +operations, is probably much less efficient for evil than the utter lack, +on the part of the parents, of the instinct of conformity to the most +obvious of Nature’s laws.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>The newborn infant is laid upon the k‘ang where it is sometimes warmly +covered, and sometimes exposed to excessive changes of temperature. Many +children continue to nurse at the breast for a series of years, and +whenever they cry this is the sole method of effectually quieting them, +even though they be thus fed an hundred times a day. When the baby is +large enough to eat miscellaneous food, there is almost no restraint +either upon the kind or the quantity. He is allowed to swallow unripe +fruits and melons to almost any extent, and raw sweet-potatoes or turnips +are gnawed on by very small infants in arms.</p> + +<p>When children are able to run about they are likely to be constantly +nibbling at something, often sucking their father’s tobacco pipe, +sometimes producing serious weakening of the system and atrophy. In Shan +hsi mere babies learn to smoke opium, which thus becomes at once a natural +and an invincible appetite.</p> + +<p>Taking into account the conditions of their early life, it is by no means +improbable that more than half the whole number of Chinese infants die +before they are two years old. This result is greatly promoted by many of +those superstitions which sometimes have more than the force of law. Thus +in some regions there is an absolute interdict on seeing either mother or +child until forty days shall have elapsed from its birth. During this +critical period myriads of young lives disappear almost without the +knowledge of near neighbours. Similar bans are laid upon the period of +some of the most common and most fatal of infantile diseases, such as +measles, diphtheria, and smallpox, the mortality frequently attending +which is enormous.</p> + +<p>Multitudes of Chinese children die in fits, the causes of which are +sufficiently obvious to foreigners who see the carelessness with which +Chinese children are handled. We have known a Chinese mother, in a moment +of dissatisfaction, to throw her young and naked infant out of doors into +a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>snowbank. Another cut off one of her baby’s fingers with a pair of dull +shears, to save it from fits, and was rewarded by seeing it die in +convulsions. Such a practice is said to be not uncommon. “Who would have +supposed that it would have done so?” her mother remarked to a foreigner. +But even if the young mother were endowed with the best of judgment, it +would still be impossible for her to secure proper care for her children, +for the reason that she is herself only a “child”<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small> and in her management +of her children, as in other affairs, is wholly subject to the dictation +of her mother-in-law, as well as to the caprices of a platoon of aunts, +grandmothers, etc., with whom nearly all Chinese courtyards swarm.</p> + +<p>The severe labour entailed upon Chinese women in the drudgery of caring +for large families, assisting in gathering the crops, and other outside +toils, and the great drafts made upon their physical vitality by bearing +and nursing so many children, amply suffice to account for the nearly +universally observed fact that these women grow old rapidly. A Chinese +bride, handsome at the age of eighteen, will be faded at thirty, and at +fifty wrinkled and ugly.</p> + +<p>It has been already remarked that the life of the Chinese village woman is +an apt illustration of the inherent impossibility that woman’s work should +ever be <i>done</i>. Before her own children have ceased to be a constant care +by day and by night, grandchildren have not improbably made their +appearance, giving the grandmother little peace or rest. The mere +preparation of the food for so many in the single kettle which must serve +for everything, is a heavy task incessantly repeated. All articles of +apparel, including shoes, are literally manufactured or done by hand, and +so likewise is the supply of bedding or wadded quilts which like the +wadded garments must be ripped open from time to time, cleaned and +renewed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>Women and girls take their share of watching the orchards and the melon +patches, etc., by day, and sometimes by night as well. When the wheat +harvest comes on, all the available women of the family are helping to +gather it, and in the autumn harvest likewise every threshing-floor +abounds with them, and their countless children. In cotton growing +districts the women and girls are busy a large part of the time in the +fields, and often earn the only pin-money which they ever see by picking +cotton for others.</p> + +<p>The preparation of this indispensable staple for use occupies the hands of +millions of Chinese women, from its collection in the field—a most +laborious work since the plant grows so low—to its appearance as +garments, and its final disappearance as flat padding to be used in +shoe-soles. The ginning, the “scutching” or separation of fibres, the +spinning, the cording, the winding and starching, and especially the +weaving are all hard and tiresome work, and that too without end in sight +while life lasts. In some regions every family owns a loom (one of the +clumsy machines exiled from the West a century ago) and it is not uncommon +for the members of a family to take turns, the husband weaving until +midnight, when the wife takes up the task till daylight, (often in cellars +two-thirds underground, damp, unventilated, and unwholesome). Even so it +is frequently difficult to keep the wolf away from the door. Within the +past few years the competition of machine twisted cotton yarns is severely +felt in the cotton regions of China, and many who just managed to exist in +former days are now perpetually on the edge of starvation. This is the +“seamy side” of “progress.”</p> + +<p>The fact that Chinese girls are married so young, and that they have not +been taught those lessons of self-control which it is so important for +them to learn, suffices to demonstrate the absolute necessity for the +existence of the Chinese mother-in-law as an element in the family. A +Chinese married woman must address her mother-in-law as “mother,” but for +precision<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> is allowed to refer to her as “mother-in-law mother.” A Chinese +woman calling on a foreign lady asked the latter (in the presence of her +husband) about her family in the homeland. The lady mentioned that she had +“a mother-in-law,” upon which the Chinese woman in an awed whisper +pointing to the foreign gentleman, inquired: “<i>Won’t he beat you for +saying that?</i>”</p> + +<p>A great deal is heard of the tyranny and cruelty of these mothers-in-law, +and there is a firm basis of fact for all that is so often said upon that +point. But it must at the same time be borne in mind that without her the +Chinese family would go to utter ruin. The father-in-law is not only +unfitted to take the control which belongs to his wife, even were he at +home all the time which would seldom be the case, but propriety forbids +him to do any such thing, even were he able. In families where a +mother-in-law is lacking, there are not unlikely to be much greater evils +than the worst mother-in-law. Abuse of the daughter-in-law is so common a +circumstance, that unless it be especially flagrant, it attracts very +little attention.</p> + +<p>It would be wholly incorrect to represent this as the normal or the +inevitable condition to which Chinese brides are reduced, but it is not +too much to affirm that no bride has any adequate security against such +abuse. It assumes all varieties of forms, from incessant scolding up to +the most cruel treatment. If it is carried to an extreme pitch, the +mother’s family will interfere, not legally, for that they cannot do, but +by brute force. In a typical case of this sort, where the daughter-in-law +had been repeatedly and shamefully abused by the family of her husband, +which had been remonstrated with in vain by the family of the girl, the +latter family mustered a large force, went to the house of the +mother-in-law, destroyed the furniture, beat the other family severely, +and dragged the old mother-in-law out into the street, where she was left +screaming with what strength remained to her, and covered with blood, in +which condition she was seen by foreigners. These proceedings are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +designed as a practical protest against tyranny and an intimation that +sauce for a young goose may be in like manner sauce for an older one also. +One would suppose that the only outcome of such a disturbance as this +would be a long and bitter lawsuit, wasting the property of each of the +parties, and perhaps reducing them to ruin. But with that eminent +practicality which characterizes the Chinese, the girl was carried off to +the home of her parents, “peace-talkers” intervened, and the girl was +returned to her husband’s home upon the promise of better treatment. This +would probably be secured, just in proportion to the ability of the girl’s +family to enforce it.</p> + +<p>In another case reported to the writer, similar in its nature to the one +just mentioned, the girl was sent to her husband, after “peace-talkers” +had adjusted the affair, and was locked up by the mother-in-law in a small +room with only one meal a day. Within a year she had hanged herself.</p> + +<p>It is not the ignorant and the uneducated only who thus take the law into +their own hands on behalf of injured daughters. We have heard of a case in +which the father of the girl who drowned herself was a literary graduate. +He raised a band of men, went to the home of his son-in-law, and pulled +down the gate-house to the premises, and some of the buildings. In the +resulting lawsuit he was severely reproved by the District Magistrate, who +told him that he had no right to assume to avenge his own wrongs, and that +he was only saved from a beating in court by his literary degree.</p> + +<p>A still more striking example was offered by an official of the third +rank, whose daughter’s wrongs moved him to raise an armed band and make an +attack upon the house of the son-in-law. This proved to be strong and not +easily taken, upon which the angry Tao-t‘ai contented himself with +reviling the whole family at the top of his voice, exactly as a coolie +would have done. Wrongs which can only be met with such acts as this, on +the part of those who <ins class="correction" title="original: are are">are</ins> the most conservative members of Chinese +society, must be very real and very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> grievous. In the very numerous cases +in which a daughter-in-law is driven to suicide by the treatment which she +receives, the subsequent proceedings will depend mainly upon the number +and standing of her relatives. The first thing is to notify the family of +the deceased that she has died, for without their presence the funeral +cannot take place, or if it should take place the body would have to be +exhumed, to satisfy her friends that the death was a natural one, and not +due to violence, which is always likely to be suspected. A Chinese in the +employ of the writer, was summoned one day to see his married daughter in +another village, who was said to be “not very well.” When the father +arrived, he found her hanging by her girdle to a beam!</p> + +<p>In cases of this sort, a lawsuit is exceptional. There are several +powerful considerations which act as deterrents from such a step as +sending in an accusation. It is almost always next to impossible to prove +the case of the girl’s family, for the reason that the opposite party can +always so represent the matter as to throw the blame on the girl. In one +such instance, the husband brought into court a very small woman’s shoe, +explaining that he had scolded his wife for wearing so small a one, which +unfitted her for work. He alleged that she then reviled him, for which he +struck her (of which there were marks), whereupon she drowned herself. To +a defence like this, it is impossible for the girl’s family to make any +reply whatever. The accusation is not brought against the husband, but +against the father-in-law, for practically the law does not interfere +between husband and wife. It is only necessary for the husband to admit +the fact of having beaten his wife, alleging as a reason that she was +“unfilial” to his parents, to screen himself completely. We have heard of +a suit where in reply to a claim of this sort, the brother of the girl +testified that she had been beaten previous to the alleged “unfilial” +conduct. This seemed to make the magistrate angry, and he ordered the +brother to receive several hundred blows for his testimony, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> decided +that the husband’s family should only be required to provide a cheap +willow-wood coffin for the deceased.</p> + +<p>Another even more efficient cause deterring from such lawsuits, is the +necessity of holding an inquest over the girl’s body. This is conducted +with the utmost publicity, upon the Oriental plan of letting the public +see how the matter really stands. A threshing floor is turned into an +official arena, a set of mat-sheds are put up, and the whole village soon +swarms with yamên-runners. The corpse of the deceased is laid uncovered on +a mat exposed to the sight of every one, before and during the inquest. In +order to avoid the shame of such exposure, and the great expense, the most +bitter enemies are often willing enough to put the matter in the hands of +“peace-talkers.” These represent the village of each of the principals, +and they meet to agree upon the terms of settlement. These terms will +depend altogether upon the wealth or otherwise of the family of the +mother-in-law. If this family is a rich one, the opposite party always +insist upon bleeding it to the utmost practicable extent. Every detail of +the funeral is arranged to be as expensive to the family as possible. +There must be a cypress-wood coffin, of a specified size and thickness, a +certain variety of funeral clothes, often far in excess of what the coffin +could by any possibility contain, and some of them made perhaps of silk or +satin. A definite amount is required to be spent in hiring Buddhist or +Taoist priests, or both, to read masses at the funeral. It is considered +disgraceful to compound with the family of the mother-in-law, by receiving +a money payment, instead of exacting all this funeral show, but doubtless +such compositions are sometimes made. As a business arrangement merely, it +is evidently more to the interest of all parties to pay the girl’s +relatives say two hundred strings of cash, rather than to expend a +thousand strings on a funeral which can do no one any good. But Chinese +sensitiveness to public sentiment is so extreme, that such settlements for +a mere transfer of cash must be comparatively rare.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>The wedding outfit of a bride is often very extensive, but in case of her +suicide none of it goes back to her family. We have heard from +eyewitnesses of many cases in which huge piles of clothing which had been +required for the funeral of such a suicide from the family of the +mother-in-law, have been burnt in a vast heap at the grave. We know of one +instance in which all the wedding outfit, which had been a large one, +wardrobes, tables, mirrors, ornaments, etc., was taken out upon the street +and destroyed in the presence of the girl’s family. The motive to this is +of course revenge, but the ultimate effect of such proceedings is to act +as an imperfect check upon the behaviour of the mother-in-law and her +family toward the daughter-in-law, for whom while she lives the laws of +the land have no protection.</p> + +<p>When the funeral actually takes place, under conditions such as we have +described, there is great danger that despite the exertions of the +“peace-talkers” from both sides, the dispute may break out anew. At sight +of the girl’s livid face, the result of death by strangulation, it will +not be strange if, excited by the spectacle, her family cry out “Let her +be avenged! Let her be avenged!” To keep the women of the girl’s family +quiet at such a time, is beyond the power of any collection of +“peace-talkers,” however numerous and respectable. If the respective +parties are restrained from mutual reviling and from a fight, the funeral +is regarded as a successful one. The girl’s family complain of everything, +the coffin, the clothing, the ornaments for the corpse, and all the +appointments generally. But they are soothed by the comforting reminder +that the dead are dead, and cannot be brought to life, and also that the +resources of the family of the mother-in-law have been utterly exhausted, +the last acre of land mortgaged to raise money for the funeral, and that +they are loaded besides with a millstone of debt.</p> + +<p>It is an ancient observation that one-half the world does not know how the +other half lives. It is quite possible to dwell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> among the Chinese for a +long time without becoming practically acquainted with their modes of +settling those difficulties to which their form of civilization makes them +especially liable.</p> + +<p>The best way to study phenomena of this sort is through concrete cases. A +single instance, well considered in all its bearings, may be a window +which will let in more light than a volume of abstract statements. Whoever +is disposed to enter into such studies will find in China the material +ready to his hand, and it will not be strange if it is forced upon his +attention whether he desires to contemplate it or not, as happened in the +following highly illustrative case. Many years ago a Chinese teacher in +the writer’s employ had leave of absence for a definite period, but when +that period had expired he failed to make his appearance. This is so +common, or rather so almost universal an occurrence in China, that it +might have passed with only a temporary notice, but for the explanation +which the teacher afterward gave of his inability to return, an +explanation which appeared to be so peculiar that he was requested to +reduce it to the form of a written statement, of which the following is a +synopsis.</p> + +<p>An elder sister of the teacher was married to a very poor man in a village +called the “Tower of the Li Family,” an insignificant hamlet consisting of +only four families. In a year of great famine (1878), both the sister and +her husband died, leaving three sons, all married. Of these the second +died, and his widow remarried. The wife of the elder nephew of the teacher +also died, and this nephew married for his second wife a widow, who had a +daughter of her own, twelve years of age. This widow enjoyed the not very +assuring reputation of having beaten her former mother-in-law, and also of +having caused the death of her first husband. The wife of the third nephew +was a quarrelsome woman, and the two sisters-in-law were always at sword’s +points, especially as all four of the adults and their four children +shared the house and land together.</p> + +<p>In the month of August of that year the third nephew started<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> for a +distant market, with a boat-load of watermelons. On leaving he ordered his +wife to fetch his winter garments, which she refused to do, upon which +they had a fight, and he left. The next day was cold and rainy. The elder +nephew was sitting in a neighbour’s house, and heard his wife engaged in a +violent quarrel with her sister-in-law, but he did not even rise to look +into the merits of the case, and no other neighbour intervened to exhort +to peace. The younger sister-in-law left the house in a fury, and from +that time she disappeared. About noon her continued absence became +alarming to the elder brother, who searched for her till dark, and then +sent word to her mother’s family at a village called “The Little Camp” two +<i>li</i> distant. This family, upon hearing of the disappearance of their +daughter, raised a company of ten or a dozen persons, went over to the +“Tower of the Li Family,” entered the yard, and smashed all the water-jars +and other pottery-ware which they could. “Peace-talkers” emerged, and +succeeded in preventing the attacking party from entering the house, or +the damage would have been still greater.</p> + +<p>After they had gone, the “Lord-of-bitterness” (<i>i. e.</i>, the elder brother) +begged his friends to interfere and “talk peace,” for as he was a resident +of a small village, he could not for a moment stand before the men of “The +Little Camp,” which is a large village. These latter belonged to one of +the numerous small sects which are styled “black-doors,” or secret +societies. In these societies there is often a class of persons called +“Seers” or “Bright-eyes” (<i>ming-yen</i>), who profess to be able to tell what +progress the pupils have made in their learning of the doctrine. +Sometimes, as in this instance, they also undertake the functions of +fortune-tellers. To the Bright-eye of their sect, the Little Campers +applied for information as to what had become of the missing woman. In +response they learnt that she had been beaten to death and buried in the +yard of the “Lord-of-bitterness.” Upon hearing this, the family of the +murdered woman went to every door in their village, making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> a kotow at +each door, a common and significant mode of imploring their help. Thus a +large force was raised, which went to the “Tower of the Li Family,” armed +with spades to dig up the body. Warned of their coming, all the male +residents of this latter village fled, the family of the +“Lord-of-bitterness” taking refuge at the village in the house of the +local constable who had charge of several villages. The teacher in +question, being a near relative of the “Lord-of-bitterness,” and a man of +intelligence and pleasant manners, was asked to look after the house of +his nephew, which he did. Owing to his presence and his politeness, no +further damage was then done to the property, but the whole yard was dug +over to find the body. On the failure of this quest, the Bright-eye +modified the former announcement by the revelation that the body was +outside the yard, <i>but not more than thirty paces distant</i>. The search was +kept up with spades and picks by day and by night for a week. After +repeated attempts had been made by the Lord-of bitterness to get the +matter adjusted, and after the other party had refused to listen to any +terms, the latter lodged an accusation in the District Magistrate’s yamên. +The Magistrate heard the case twice, but each time the family of the +missing woman behaved in such an unreasonable and violent manner that the +official dismissed their case, merely ordering the local constable to +enlist more peace-talkers, and make the parties come to some agreement.</p> + +<p>It happened that about that time another case somewhat resembling this had +occurred in that neighbourhood, in which a woman was suspected of having +drowned herself. On this account a sharp watch was kept at the ferry of +the District city, some miles lower down the river, for any floating body.</p> + +<p>About the time of the Magistrate’s decision, a woman’s body appeared +abreast of the ferry and was identified as that of the missing woman from +the Li Family Tower. The official held an inquest, in which all parties +made diligent search for wounds, but none being found the Magistrate +compelled the family of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> the woman to affix their thumb marks to a paper +recognizing this fact. He ordered the Lord-of-bitterness to buy a good +coffin, clothes, and prepare other appointments for a showy funeral, +including chanting by Buddhist priests, and to have the body taken to his +house. He also instructed the constable once more to secure peace-talkers, +to arrange the details and to hold the funeral.</p> + +<p>But the Little Campers proved to be the most obstinate of mortals, and +would not only listen to no reason, but drove the peace-talkers from their +village with reviling language, never so exasperating to a Chinese as when +employed against those who are sacrificing their interests for those of +the public. At this juncture the husband of the drowned woman returned +from the watermelon market, went himself to the home of his late wife, and +expostulated with her family and also urged peace through still other +third parties. But the Little Campers insisted upon funeral paraphernalia +which would have cost 10,000 strings of cash.</p> + +<p>One more effort at compromise was made, by the visit of an uncle of the +teacher who was guarding the house of the Lord-of-bitterness, to the +Little Campers. The latter now altered their demands to a payment of 800 +strings of cash, which by much chaffering was eventually reduced to 400. +The Lord-of-bitterness offered 250 strings, but this was rejected with +disdain.</p> + +<p>Upon the failure of these numerous negotiations, the local constable +presented another complaint to the Magistrate, reciting the facts in the +repeated refusal, on the part of the family of the woman, to come to any +terms. The Magistrate, recognizing the case as one in which the relatives +were resolved to make the utmost possible capital out of a dead body, +ordered eight men from his own yamên to go on that very day and attend the +funeral, in order to insure that there should be no breach of peace. These +yamên-runners, after the customary Chinese manner, hoped to be bribed to +do as they were ordered and did not go to the place at all. The +Lord-of-bitterness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> and all his neighbours continued in obscurity, but in +the interval the men from the Little Camp again gathered their hosts, and +made four more visits to the premises at the Li Family Tower, breaking +everything which they could lay their hands upon. The next day the +yamên-runners arrived, and the Lord-of-bitterness, now thoroughly +exasperated, succeeded in collecting a force of several hundred men from +other villages, intending at all hazards to hold the funeral and also to +have a general fight, if need arose. But the men of the Little Camp failed +to put in an appearance at this time, and the funeral accordingly at last +took place. The friends of the woman, however, obstinately refused to +consider the matter as settled, at which point the curtain falls, with a +plentiful promise of future lawsuits, fights, and ruin.</p> + +<p>The reader who is sufficiently interested in the inner-working of the life +of the Chinese to follow the tangled thread of a tale like this, is +rewarded by the perception of several important facts. It is an axiom in +China that the family of the married daughter holds its head down, while +the family of the man whom she has married holds its head up. But in case +of the violent death of the married woman all this is reversed, and by a +natural process of reaction the family of the married woman becomes a +fierce and formidable antagonist.</p> + +<p>Principles such as these have but to be put in issue between two large +villages, or families, and we have the well-known clan fights of southern +China, in all their perennial bitterness and intensity. One of the weakest +parts of the Chinese social fabric is the insecurity of the life and +happiness of woman, but no structure is stronger than its weakest part, +and Chinese society is no exception to this law. Every year thousands upon +thousands of Chinese wives commit suicide, tens of thousands of other +persons are thereby involved in serious trouble, hundreds of thousands of +yet others are dragged in as co-partners in the difficulty, and millions +of dollars are expended in extravagant funerals and ruinous lawsuits. And +all this is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> outcome of the Confucian theory that a wife has no rights +which a husband is bound to respect. The law affords her no protection +while she lives, and such justice as she is able with difficulty to exact +is strictly a <i>post mortem</i> concession.</p> + +<p>The reality of the evils of the Chinese system of marriages is evidenced +by the extreme expedients to which unmarried girls sometimes resort, to +avoid matrimony. Chinese newspapers not infrequently contain references to +organized societies of young maidens, who solemnly vow never to wed. The +following paragraphs are translated from a Chinese newspaper called the +<i>Shih Pao</i>:</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>SUICIDE AS A VIRTUE.</h4> + +<p>There is a prevailing custom in a district called Shun-tê in the Canton +province, among female society to form different kinds of sisterhoods such +as “All pure” sisterhoods, “Never-to-be-married” sisterhoods, etc. Each +sisterhood consists of about ten young maidens who swear vows to heaven +never to get married, as they regard marriages as something horrid, +believing that their married lives would be miserable and unholy; and +their parents fail to prevail upon them to yield.</p> + +<p>A sad case has just happened: a band of young maidens ended their +existence in this world by drowning themselves in the Dragon River because +one of them was forced by her parents to be married. She was engaged in +her childhood before she joined this sisterhood. When her parents had made +all the necessary arrangements for her marriage she reported the affair to +the other members of her sisterhood who at once agreed to die for her +cause, if she remained constant to her sworn vows to be single and +virtuous. Should she violate the laws of the sisterhood and yield to her +parents, her life was to be made most unpleasant by the other members and +she was to be taunted as a worthless being. She consulted with them as to +the best mode of escaping this marriage, and they all agreed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> to die with +her, if she could plan to run away from her parents on the night of the +marriage.</p> + +<p>As there were many friends to watch her movements, it was almost +impossible for her to escape, so she attempted her life by swallowing a +gold ring, but any serious consequence that might have resulted was +prevented by the administration of a powerful emetic. She was finally +taken by force and made over to the male side, to her great grief. +According to the usual custom she was allowed to return to her parents. +During all this time she was planning a way to escape to her sisters. By +bribing the female servants she was taken one night to her sisters under +the cover of darkness. The sisters at once joined with her in terminating +their lives by jumping into the Dragon River with its swift currents, +which rapidly carried them off.</p> + +<p>This kind of tragedy is not uncommon in this part of the land. The +officials have from time to time tried to check the formation of such +sisterhoods, but all their efforts were in vain. Girls must have reasons +of their own for establishing such societies. Married life must have been +proved by many in that region to have been not altogether too sweet. +However, such wholesale suicide must be prevented by law if the parents +have no control over their daughters.</p> + +<p>It is well known that Chinese law recognizes seven grounds for the divorce +of a wife, as follows: childlessness, wanton conduct, neglect of husband’s +parents, loquacity (<i>to yen</i>), thievishness, jealousy, malignant disease. +The requisites for a Chinese wife are by no means sure to be exacting. A +man in the writer’s employ, who was thinking of giving up his single life, +on being questioned as to what sort of a wife he preferred, compendiously +replied, “It is enough if she is neither bald nor idiotic.” In a country +where the avowed end of marriage is to raise up a posterity to burn +incense at the ancestral graves, it is not strange that “childlessness” +should rank first among the grounds for divorce. It would be an error, +however, to infer that simply because they are designated in the Imperial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +code of laws, either this or any other of the above mentioned, are the +ordinary occasions of divorce.</p> + +<p>It is always difficult to arrive at just conclusions in regard to facts of +a high degree of complexity, especially in regard to the Chinese. But so +far as we can perceive, the truth appears to be that divorce in China is +by no means so common as might be expected by reasoning from the law just +quoted. Probably the most common cause is adultery, for the reason that +this is the crime most fatal to the existence of the family.</p> + +<p>But it must be distinctly understood that in every case of divorce, there +is a factor to be taken into account which the law does not even consider. +This is the family of the woman, and, as we have seen, it is a factor of +great importance, and by no means to be disregarded. It is very certain +that the family of the woman will resist any divorce which they consider +to be unjust or disgraceful, not merely on account of the loss of “face,” +but for another reason even more powerful.</p> + +<p>In China a woman cannot return to her parent’s home after an unhappy +marriage, as is often done in Western lands, <i>because there is no +provision for her support</i>. Enough land is set apart for the maintenance +of the parents, and after that has been provided for, the remainder is +divided among the brothers. No lot or portion falls to any sister. It is +this which makes it imperative that every woman should be married, that +she may have some visible means of support. After her parents are dead, +her brothers, or more certainly her brothers’ wives, would drive her from +the premises, as an alien who had no business to depend upon their family +when she “belongs” to another. Under this state of things, it is not very +likely that a husband would be allowed to divorce his wife except for a +valid cause, unless there should be some opportunity for her to “take a +step,” that is, to remarry elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Next to adultery, the most common cause of Chinese divorce is thought to +be what Western laws euphemistically term incompatibility, by which is +meant, in this case, such constant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> domestic brawls as to make life, even +to a Chinese, not worth living. It is needless to remark that when things +have reached this pitch, they must be very bad indeed. Every one of the +above cited causes for divorce evidently affords room for the loosest +construction of the facts, and if the law were left to its own execution, +with no restraint from the wife’s family, the grossest injustice might be +constantly committed. As it is, whatever settlement is arrived at in any +particular case, must be the result of a compromise, in which the friends +of the weaker party take care to see that their rights are considered.</p> + +<p>We have repeatedly referred to the imperative necessity that every Chinese +youth should be married. To a foreigner there is a mixture of the +ludicrous and the pathetic in the attitude of the average parent, in +regard to a marriage of a son who has nearly reached the age of twenty and +is still single. It is a Chinese aphorism of ancient times that when sons +and daughters are once married, “the great business of life has been +despatched.” Chinese parents look upon the marriage of their sons just as +Western parents look upon the matter of taking young boys out of their +early dresses and putting them into trousers. The serious part of life +cannot be begun until this is done, and to delay it is ridiculous and +irrational.</p> + +<p>There is a sentiment of false modesty which forbids the persons most +interested in a marriage, even to refer to it. It is often impossible for +any one but the mother to hint to a girl that it is time she were +betrothed, an announcement which is naturally the frequent occasion for +stormy scenes.</p> + +<p>A Chinese teacher well known to the writer, having graduated from a +missionary college at the age of twenty-three, remembered that he was not +betrothed. When matters had been arranged without his appearing to be +aware of the fact (although he was consulted at each step) it became +necessary to visit his home to arrange with his parents the time of the +marriage. But the sensitive young man refused to go on this errand +himself, and posted off a “yard uncle,” urging as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> more than sufficient +reason: “How could <i>I</i> speak to my father and mother about such a thing as +that?”</p> + +<p>Since this paragraph was written a Chinese friend called on the writer +with an air of pleased embarrassment about “a little matter” which seemed +to interest him. He is more than forty years of age, and had never been +married. He has two brothers, all three sharing in common a property +amounting to less than two English acres. This brother had been at home +for some months, during which there was no mention of matrimony, nor any +thought of it. Having left home for a few weeks, before the time was +nearly expired the elder brother posted off a special messenger to a +distance of more than 300 li to mention to him the fact that he had +suddenly arranged a betrothal for this forty years old bachelor, to a girl +of seventeen, whose friends were now pressing for an immediate execution +of the contract. The interview closed with the expression of an earnest +wish on the part of the Chinese that his foreign friend would see his way +clear to “a loan” of twenty strings of cash for the bride’s outfit, the +bridegroom having no independent property whatever, and no income. The +comment of ninety-nine out of an hundred Chinese on this match, or on any +other in similar circumstances would be compendiously condensed in the +single word “<i>hao</i>,” meaning when fully explicated, “It is well; this is +what certainly ought to be done now.” Questions of expense appear to them +as irrelevant as they would to us if the matter was the burial of a +parent.</p> + +<p>Chinese parents are never willing to run the risk of having the marriage +of any of their children, especially the sons, postponed until after the +death of their parents. They often feel uncertain whether the children +already married will be willing to make the proper provision for the +event, or indeed that they will let it take place at all. Affairs of this +sort involve the partition of the land, with a portion to each married +son, and it is not in human nature to wish to multiply the sharers in a +property which is too often at the best wholly inadequate. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> this +cause, every prudent parent wishes to see this “main business of life,” +put through while he is able to superintend the details.</p> + +<p>The inexorable necessity for the marriage of sons is not suspended by the +fact that the child is wholly unsuited for a real marriage, or indeed +incapable of it. Cases constantly occur, in which a boy who is a hopeless +and helpless cripple is married to a girl, whose family only assent to the +arrangement, because of the advantageous terms which are offered. Children +who are subject to epileptic or other forms of fits, those who are more or +less insane, and even those who are wholly idiotic, all may have, and do +have, wives, provided only that the families of the boys were in good +circumstances. The inevitable result of this violation of the laws of +nature, is an infinity of suffering for the girls whose lives are thus +wrecked, and the evolution of a wealth of scandal.</p> + +<p>There is another feature of Chinese married life, to which little +attention seems to have been paid by foreigners, but which is well worth +investigation. It is the kidnapping of legally married wives. The method +by which this may be accomplished, and the difficulty of tracking those +who do it, may be illustrated by the following case, with the principal +parties in which, the father and father-in-law of the bride, the writer is +acquainted, having been present at the wedding in December, 1881.</p> + +<p>The bride herself, was, as so often, a mere child. On her frequent visits +to her native village, which local custom allows, the bride did not spend +much of her time at her own home, where she was probably not made very +welcome by her step-mother, but went instead to her grandmother’s, who was +old, half blind, and ill supplied with bedding. In a neighbouring yard +lived a cousin of the girl, who was a “salt inspector,” that is, one whose +duty is to seize dealers in smuggled salt. His wife was the daughter of a +widow, who was reported to be herself a dealer in smuggled salt, of course +with the connivance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> of her son-in-law. This couple were said to have been +married without the intervention of go-betweens, and hence the most +flagitious conduct was to be expected from them. The girl got into the +habit, whenever she visited her village, of going to the house of this +cousin, and not to that of her father. The cousin was absent much of the +time, on his business in connection with the suppression (or the sale) of +smuggled salt. Upon one occasion, after a ten days’ visit to her native +village she returned to the home of her husband (also a mere child), where +she stayed five days, and then went again to her own village. A younger +sister-in-law, sixteen years of age, went with her two-thirds of the way, +at which point the bride sent her escort back and proceeded alone. Some +days after this the own sister of the bride met the father-in-law at a +fair, and inquired why the bride did not return to her own village as +agreed. Her absence from both homes was thus for the first time +discovered. The steps taken to follow her are an excellent illustration of +certain phases of Chinese life. It is almost impossible in China for any +one to do anything so secretly that some other persons do not know of it, +and in an affair so serious as the disappearance outright of a young +bride, the chances of successful concealment would seem to be very slight.</p> + +<p>The father-in-law of the girl went to the village where she had lived, and +learned that upon the occasion of her home visits the child had been +allowed to go where she pleased, and that once after coming in from her +cousin’s, she had been heard to remark that she herself was worth as much +as five ounces of silver. It was also reported that the wife of the cousin +had been observed waiting for the missing girl, on the night she was last +seen at the time when she dismissed the sister-in-law who had accompanied +her. This was all the clue that could be got.</p> + +<p>The father-in-law now presented a petition to the District Magistrate, +reciting the facts and accusing the girl’s father, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> others. This was +followed by counter accusations from the father, the cousin, and his +mother-in-law. The official reply to the complaint was an order to the +local constable to find the girl. The constable was a wholly incompetent +person, and could not have found her if he had tried. A second petition to +the Magistrate was followed by the same reply. This signified that there +was no hope from that official, who took no interest in the matter.</p> + +<p>After these repeated failures of justice, the poor father-in-law resolved +to make one more trial, a desperate expedient, but the only one which was +left. He seized the occasion of the passing of the District official +through that village, to kneel in Front of the sedan-chair and proclaim +his grievance. The Magistrate merely repeated what had been said in court, +that he knew nothing about the matter; that it was not his business to +find the cattle of those who might lose them, neither was it his function +to recover daughters-in-law. He also expressed the opinion that the +father-in-law was lacking in proof of his case, and was falsely accusing +parties who were innocent, and then ordered his chair to proceed.</p> + +<p>The only remaining hope of tracing the missing person was to follow up +chance dues. In such a case, no one will give any information whatever, no +matter what he may know, for the reason that the possible effect may be to +drag him as witness into a fearful lawsuit, which is only one step removed +from being the principal victim oneself. This is so universal a deterrent +in a quest of this sort as almost to bar all progress. Those who were +interested in this particular case were led to recall another, which +occurred many years before in a village immediately contiguous, where the +wife of a man who was working for some one else was taken off (of course +with her consent) while he was absent. In this instance, although the +husband was able to ascertain to what village she had been taken, yet as +it was a large one he could never get any further trace of her, and she +died there. The writer is personally acquainted with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> two families in +which such occurrences have taken place, and with a third, the wife in +which, when living with her first husband who divorced her, was to have +been kidnapped, if the plan could have been carried out.</p> + +<p>It is of course impossible to form any correct idea as to the extent to +which the kidnapping of married women is carried in China, but there are a +few little windows through which glimpses may be had of regions beyond our +ordinary vision. Such glimpses may be frequently gained from accounts +published in Chinese native newspapers, in which such accounts often form +a staple topic. In the absence of any acquaintance with the wider +interests of the empire, these piquant personalities seem to many Chinese +very entertaining, as items of a similar sort do to certain readers in +Western lands. Such gossip is collected at the yamêns, where many of the +cases reported have already reached the stage of a prosecution, and others +are quietly adjusted by “peace-talkers.” Similar information may also be +obtained from occasional memorials printed in the <i>Peking Gazette</i>. It not +seldom happens that these kidnapping cases lead to murder, and perhaps to +wholesale fighting, ending in many deaths, which render it necessary for a +Governor to report the facts and proceedings to Peking. From data of this +sort one would infer that, as the proverb says, “The crow is everywhere +equally black.”</p> + +<p>We have spoken of the sale of girls by their parents, and have now to +refer to the more or less common cases of the sale of wives by their +husbands. This is generally due to the press of poverty, and the writer is +acquainted with a Chinese who, being deeply in debt, was thrown into +prison from which he found deliverance hopeless. He accordingly sent word +to his relatives to have his wife sold, which was done, and with the +proceeds the man was able to buy his escape. The frequency of such sales +may be said to bear a direct ratio to the price of grain.</p> + +<p>There is another method of selling wives, with which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> Chinese are +acquainted, which can be adopted whenever the pressure of life at home +becomes too hard to be borne. The husband and wife then start off on a +begging expedition toward a region in which the crops have been good. In a +bad year, there are thousands of such persons roaming about the country, +picking up a scanty subsistence wherever they can. The man who wishes to +sell his wife represents her as his sister, and declares that they are +forced by hunger to part company. He reluctantly makes up his mind to sell +her to some one who is in need of a wife, and who can get one more cheaply +by this process than by any other. To this arrangement the woman tearfully +assents, the money is paid to her “brother,” and he departs, to be seen no +more. After a few days or a few weeks in her new home, the newly married +“sister” contrives to steal out in the evening with all of her own clothes +and as many more as she can collect, and rejoins her “brother,” setting +out with him for “fresh woods and pastures new.” With that keen instinct +for analogy which characterizes the Chinese, they have invented for this +proceeding the name of “falconing with a woman,” likening it to the sport +of a man who places his hawk on his wrist, and releases it when he sees +game in sight, only that the bird may speedily return. It is a popular +proverb, that “playing the falcon with a woman” implies a plot in which +two persons are concerned.</p> + +<p>An inquirer is told that in some districts this practice of “falconing” is +exceedingly common, for the supply of gullible persons who hope to buy a +wife at a cheaper rate than usual never fails.</p> + +<p>The Chinese ridicule any one who seems to be infatuated with a bargain in +which a woman is concerned, but it is not improbable that under similar +circumstances they themselves would do the same. An old fellow living in +the same village as the writer bought a woman under what he considered +exceptionally profitable conditions, and lest she should escape, he +anchored her in the yard fastened to a peg like a donkey. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> neighbours +laughed at him, and he at them, until the woman suddenly disappeared, an +event which reduced him to a more sober view of the “five relations.”</p> + +<p>Chinese public sentiment is altogether on the right side of this question, +but Chinese practice is not under the guidance of sentiment of any kind. +It is proverbial that a judicious man will never marry a woman who has a +living husband, for the sufficient reason that he never can foresee the +consequences, which are often serious. But the instinct of trying to cheat +Fate is in all Chinese most vigorous. “Cheaper than an animal,” was the +self-complacent comment of a Chinese friend of the writer’s in regard to +his own second marriage where he had paid no money for his wife, but only +an allowance for outfit. But when the elder sister-in-law had been heard +from, this same individual was dissolved in tears for many moons, since +his future peace seemed to have been wrecked.</p> + +<p>It is a natural sequence to the Chinese doctrine of the necessity of +having male children that, in case this becomes unlikely, a secondary +wife, or concubine, should be taken, with that end in view. As a matter of +fact this practice is confined to a comparatively small number of +families, mainly those in fairly good circumstances, for no others could +afford the expense. The evils of this expedient are well recognized, and +it is fortunate for Chinese society that resort is not had to it on a much +greater scale than appears to be the case. The practical turn of the +Chinese mind has suggested to them a much simpler method of arriving at +the intended results, by a much less objectionable method. This is the +well-known adoption of children from collateral branches of the family, +already mentioned, so as to keep the line of succession intact, and +prevent the extinction of any particular branch.</p> + +<p>It not infrequently happens that the son in a family dies before he is +married, and that it is desirable to adopt, not a son, but a grandson. +There is however, to the Chinese, a kind of paradox in adopting a +grandson, when the son has not been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> married. To remedy this defect after +the boy had died unmarried would, to the practical Occidental, appear +impossible, but it is not so to the sentimental Chinese. To meet this +exigency they have invented the practice of <i>marrying the dead</i>, which is +certainly among the most singular of the many singular performances to be +met with in China.</p> + +<p>In order to keep the line of succession unbroken, it is thought desirable +that each generation should have its proper representatives, whether they +really were or were not links in the chain. It is only in families where +there is some considerable property that this question is likely to arise. +Where it does arise, and where a lad has died for whom it is thought +desirable to take a post-mortem wife, the family cast about to hear of +some young girl who has also died recently. A proposition is then made, by +the usual intermediaries, for the union of these two corpses in the bonds +of matrimony! It is probably only poor families to which such a +proposition in regard to their daughter would be made; to no others would +it be any object. If it is accepted, there is a combination of a wedding +and a funeral, in the process of which the deceased “bride” will be taken +by a large number of bearers to the cemetery of the other family, and laid +beside her “husband”! The newly adopted grandson worships the corpse of +his “mother,” and the other ceremonies proceed in the usual way.</p> + +<p>The writer was personally acquainted with a Chinese girl who after her +death was thus “married” to a dead boy in another village. Upon being +questioned in regard to the matter, her father admitted that it was not an +entirely rational procedure, but remarked that the girl’s mother was in +favour of accepting the offer. The real motive in this case was +undoubtedly a desire to have a showy funeral at the expense of another +family, for a child who was totally blind, and whose own parents were too +poor at her death to do more than wrap her body in a mat.</p> + +<p>The practice of marrying one dead person to another is very far from +uncommon to China. Its ultimate root is found in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> famous dictum of +Mencius, that of the three lines of unfilial conduct the chief is to leave +no posterity. This utterance is one upon which the whole domestic life of +the Chinese seems to have rested for ages. It is for this reason that +those Chinese who have not yet married are accounted as of no importance. +When they die, they are, if children, “thrown out” either literally or +figuratively, and are not allowed a place in the family graveyards. These +belong exclusively to those who are mated, and occasional bachelors must +expect no welcome there. The same principle seems to be applicable to +those who have died, and whose wives have remarried. It is for such cases +that the strange plan of marrying a living woman to a dead husband has +been invented. The motive on the part of the woman could be only that of +saving herself from starvation, a fate which often hangs imminent over +poor Chinese widows who do not remarry. The motive on the part of the +family of the deceased husband is to make the ancestral graves complete. +If the family of the deceased is not moderately well off, they would not +go to the expense and trouble of bringing in a wife for a dead husband. +But if she were well off, the widow would probably not have remarried. It +thus appears the marriage of a living woman to a dead man is likely to be +confined to cases where the family being poor, the widow remarried, but +where the family circumstances having subsequently materially improved, it +became an object to arrange as already explained to fill the threatened +graveyard gap.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps for this reason that cases of such marriage appear to be +relatively rare, so rare indeed, that many even intelligent and educated +Chinese have never heard of them at all, and perhaps stoutly deny their +existence. Sufficient inquiry, however, may not improbably develop here +and there specific cases of conformity to this custom, so repellent to our +thought, but to the Chinese natural and rational.</p> + +<p>As already mentioned, in cases where it has been decided to adopt a son, +and where there are no suitable candidates within<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> the family circle, a +lad may be taken from a different family, sometimes related, sometimes +connected, sometimes neither related nor connected, and sometimes he may +even be a total stranger merely “picked up.” The result of this latter +practice especially is often very disappointing and painful for the couple +who have gone to so much trouble to find an heir, and who too often +discover that they have spent their strength in vain, and that filial +piety is not a commodity to be had for the asking.</p> + +<p>But whatever its attendant evils, which are undoubtedly many and great, +the Chinese plan of adoption is always incomparably preferable to that of +bringing into the yard a “little wife.” It is by no means singular that +the Chinese have given to the relations between the real wife and the +supplementary one, the significant name of “sipping vinegar.”</p> + +<p>We happen to have been personally acquainted with several families in +which a concubine had been introduced. In two of them, the secondary wives +had been bought because they were to be had at a cheap rate in a year of +famine. One of these poor creatures came one day running into the yard of +a Chinese family with whom the writer was living, screaming and +dishevelled, as the result of “vinegar sipping.” The man who had taken her +openly reviled his mother in the most shameless way, upon her remonstrance +at the act.</p> + +<p>In a second instance, a man past middle-life thought by this means to make +sure of a son, but was greatly disappointed in the result. He was in the +habit of inviting elderly Chinese women of his acquaintance to go to his +house, and “exhort” his wives to stop “sipping vinegar,” a labour which +was attended with very negative results. When he died, the last wife was +driven out to return to her relatives, although for a country villager her +husband was reputed to be a fairly rich man. In cases where the concubine +has a son, in the event of her husband’s death, if affairs are properly +managed, she has a portion of land set apart for her like any other wife.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>In a third case a neighbour of the writer, a man in middle-life, had a +wife about forty years of age, two others having died, one of them leaving +a daughter now twenty years of age. The father was absent from home much +of the time, engaged in business in Peking. With Chinese thus situated, it +often appears to be a particularly happy solution of a difficulty to have +two wives, the legal wife at home, and the “small one” at the place where +the husband spends most of his time. When the man returned to his home, he +brought this secondary wife with him, an act very well adapted to promote +“vinegar sipping.” This additional wife was a mere child much younger than +the daughter of her husband.</p> + +<p>At the next New Year it was reported that the man would not allow his +proper wife to go to the ancestral graves, but insisted upon taking his +young concubine to do the sacrificing. Other injurious reports, true or +false, were circulated in regard to his behaviour toward his proper wife, +and his intentions in the future to abandon or divorce her, and these soon +reached the village of which she was a native. The result was a deputation +of a considerable number of elderly men from that village to the one in +which the husband lived. This deputation instituted proceedings by +summoning the head of the husband’s clan to meet them. But a large number +of young men from that same village, having heard of the affair, could not +wait for the elders to adjust the matter by slow Chinese diplomacy, but +came in a body to the house of the husband, and without any ceremony made +an attack upon it, breaking down the barred door and throwing themselves +with violence upon the defenceless husband.</p> + +<p>The attacking party had armed themselves with <i>awls</i>, but not, according +to their own account, with knives. It was late at night when the onslaught +was made, and it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The +husband was at once over-powered, and was subsequently found to have +seventeen awl-stabs on his chest, and two savage knife-cuts on his back, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>penetrating to the lungs. It was alleged by the attacking party that the +latter wounds must have been made by some of the man’s immediate +neighbours who were personal enemies, and who, hearing the outcry, rushed +in only to find that their enemy was defenceless and open to their attack +(which could not be proved against them), a circumstance of which they +took care to avail themselves. The attacking party having thus placed +themselves in the wrong, were obliged, upon being prosecuted at law, to +get an influential company of intermediaries to help them out of the +difficulty. This was at last accomplished according to the usual Chinese +method—a great deal of head knocking and a great many feasts for the +injured party.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding such instructive object-lessons as these, with which all +parts of China must to a greater or less extent abound, many of those who +think that they can afford to do so continue to repeat the experiment, +although the adage says: “If your wife is against it, do not take a +concubine.” If this advice were to be adopted, it is not improbable that +the practice of concubinage in China would become practically extinct.</p> + +<p>A traveller through China often notices in the villages along his route +that in the early morning most of the men seem to be assembled by the +roadside, each one squatting in front of his own door, all busily engaged +in shovelling in their food with chopsticks (appropriately called +“nimble-sons”), chatting meantime during the brief intervals with the +neighbour nearest. That the entire family should sit down to a table, +eating together and waiting for one another, after the manner of the +inhabitants of Western lands, is an idea so foreign to the ordinary +Chinese mind as to be almost incomprehensible.</p> + +<p>This Chinese (and Oriental) habit is at once typical and suggestive. It +marks a wholly different conception of the family, and of the position of +woman therein, from that to which we are accustomed. It indicates the view +that while man is <i>yang</i>, the male, ruling, and chief element in the +universe, woman is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> <i>yin</i>, “dull, female, inferior.” The conception of +woman as man’s companion is in China almost totally lacking, for woman is +not the companion of man, and with society on its present terms she never +can be. A new bride introduced into a family has visible relations with no +one less than with her “husband.” He would be ashamed to be seen talking +with her, and in general they seem in that line to have very little to be +ashamed of. In those unique instances in which the young couple have the +good sense to get acquainted with each other, and present the appearance +of actually exchanging ideas, this circumstance is the joke of the whole +family circle, and an insoluble enigma to all its members. We have heard +of cases in which members of a family where there was a newly married +couple, kept a string in which was tied a knot, every time that they were +heard to speak to one another. This cord would be subsequently exhibited +to them in ridicule of their intimacy!</p> + +<p>A Chinese bride has no rational prospect of happiness in her new home, +though she may be well dressed, well fed, and perhaps not abused. She must +expect chronic repression through the long years during which she is for a +time in fact, and in theory always, a “child.” Such rigorous discipline +may be necessary to fit her for the duties of her position, when she shall +have become herself a mother-in-law, and at the head of a company of +daughters-in-law, but it is a hard necessity. That there are sometimes +genuine attachments between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law it would +be a mistake to deny, for in such rare cases human nature shows its power +of rising superior to the conventional trammels in which it finds itself +by iron customs bound.</p> + +<p>To defend herself against the fearful odds which are often pitted against +her, a Chinese wife has but two resources. One of them is her mother’s +family, which, as we have seen, has no real power, and is too often to be +compared to the stern light of a ship, of no service for protection in +advance, and only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> throwing a lurid glare on the course which has been +passed over, but which cannot be retraced.</p> + +<p>The other means of defence which a Chinese wife has at her command +is—herself. If she is gifted with a fluent tongue, especially if it is +backed by some of that hard common sense which so many Chinese exhibit, it +must be a very peculiar household in which she does not hold her own. Real +ability will assert itself, and such light as a Chinese woman possesses +will assuredly permeate every corner of the domestic bushel under which it +is of necessity hidden. If a Chinese wife has a violent temper, if she is +able at a moment’s notice to raise a tornado about next to nothing, and to +keep it for an indefinite period blowing at the rate of a hundred miles an +hour, the position of such a woman is almost certainly secure. The most +termagant of mothers-in-law hesitates to attack a daughter-in-law who has +no fear of men or of demons, and who is fully equal to any emergency. A +Chinese woman in a fury is a spectacle by no means uncommon. But during +the time of the most violent paroxysms of fury, Vesuvius itself is not +more unmanageable by man.</p> + +<p>If a Chinese husband happens to be a person of a quiet habit, with no +taste for tumults, he may possibly find himself yoked to a Xantippe who +never for an instant relaxes the reins of her dominion. In such cases the +prudent man will be glad to purchase “peace at any price,” and whatever +the theory may be, the woman rules. Such instances are by no means +infrequent. This is witnessed as well by what one sees and hears in +Chinese society as well as by the many sayings which refer to the +“man-who-fears-what-is-inside,” that is, the “hen-pecked man.” Although it +is an accepted adage that</p> + +<p class="poem">“A genuine cat will slay a mouse,<br /> +A genuine man will rule his house,”</p> + +<p>yet there are numerous references to the punishment of +“kneeling-by-the-bedside-holding-a-lamp-on-the-head,” which is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +penalty exacted by the regnant wife from her disobedient husband.</p> + +<p>If a Chinese woman has the heaven-bestowed gift of being obstreperous to +such a degree that, as the sayings go, “people do not know east from +west”; that “men are worn out and horses exhausted”; that “the mountains +tremble and the earth shakes,” this is unquestionably her surest +life-preserver. It is analagous to the South American toucan, which is +said to frighten away enemies by the mere exhibition of itself, they not +caring to wait for further and detailed proofs of its capacities of +execution. But if such an endowment has been denied her, her next best +resource is to pursue a course exactly the opposite, in all circumstances +and under all provocations <i>holding her tongue</i>. To most Chinese women, +this seems to be a feat as difficult as aërial navigation, but now and +then an isolated case shows that the difficult is not always the +impossible.</p> + +<p>The present position of woman in China is a heritage of the remote past, +as is illustrated by the most ancient Chinese literature, an example of +which heads the present chapter. The instructions and the prohibitions in +the Book of Rites, one of the oldest and most venerated classical works, +embody fundamental principles which have always governed the Chinese in +their treatment of women. The essence of the Chinese classical teaching on +this subject is, that woman is as inferior to man as the earth is inferior +to heaven; and that she can never attain to full equality with man.</p> + +<p>According to Chinese philosophy death and evil have their origin in the +<i>Yin</i>, or female principle of Chinese dualism, while life and prosperity +come from the subjection of it to the <i>Yang</i>, or male principle; hence it +is regarded as a law of nature to keep woman completely under the power of +man, and to allow her no will of her own. The result of this theory and +the corresponding practice is that the ideal for women is not development +and cultivation, but submission. Women can have no happiness of their own, +but must live and work for men, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> only practical escape from this +degradation being found in becoming the mother of a son. Woman is bound by +the same laws of existence in the other world. She belongs to the same +husband, and is dependent for her happiness on the sacrifices offered by +her descendants.<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small></p> + +<p>It is occasionally objected that to attribute the evils attending the lot +of woman in China to the moral system which has molded and preserved that +empire, is as inaccurate as it would be to hold Christianity responsible +for all the moral evils found in Christian lands. Between the two cases +there is, however, this fundamental difference. Every moral evil has from +the beginning been antagonized by Christianity. Those evils that still +flourish do so in spite of it, and against its unceasing efforts and +incessant protest. Christianity acting upon the relatively lofty +conception of woman, held by the Teutonic races, has gradually brought +about that elevation of the sex which we now witness in full development. +The theory of Confucianism, on the other hand, is both erroneous and +defective. It is therefore no exaggeration to charge a large part of the +evils from which Chinese women suffer to this efficient cause. It is +moreover highly important to remember that neither for evils arising from +wrong moral teaching nor for others, has Chinese ethics ever furnished +either preventive or remedy.</p> + +<p>We must, therefore, regard the position of women in China, as the ultimate +outcome and a most characteristic fruitage of Confucianism. In our view it +has been a bitter fruit, and in recapitulation we would lay emphasis upon +seven deadly sins in the relation of that system to woman.</p> + +<p>I. Viewed from a purely Chinese point of view there is no inherent +objection to the education of Chinese women. In one of the huge Chinese +encyclopedias, out of 1,628 books,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> 376 are devoted to famous women, and +of these four chapters treat of female knowledge, and seven others of the +literary productions of women, works which have been numerous and +influential. But as compared with the inconceivable numbers of Chinese +women in the past, these exceptional cases are but isolated twinkles in +vast interstellar spaces of dense darkness. Yet in view of the coming +regeneration of China, their value as historical precedents to antiquity +loving Chinese is beyond estimation.<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small></p> + +<p>Rare and unimportant exceptions aside, Chinese women are provided with no +education. Their minds are left in a state of nature, until millions of +them are led to suppose that they have no minds at all, an opinion which +their fathers, husbands and brothers often do much to confirm, and upon +which they then habitually act.</p> + +<p>II. The sale of wives and daughters. This comes about so naturally, and it +might almost be said so inevitably, when certain conditions prevail, that +it is taken by the Chinese as a matter of course. Except in years of +famine it appears in some parts of the empire to be rare, but in other +parts it is the constant and the normal state of things for daughters to +be as really sold as are horses and cattle.</p> + +<p>There are sections of northern China in which it is not uncommon for a man +who has contracted debts which he cannot otherwise pay, to part with a +daughter as a last resort. But there are other districts where the +practice cannot be exceptional, as is evident from the great number of +girls who, one is told, have been procured from this region. If the +Chinese themselves are questioned about the matter, the fact is always +admitted, the custom is reprobated, but the universally conclusive inquiry +is propounded: “<i>What help is there for it?</i>”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> In the present condition of +the empire this interrogatory is unanswerable.</p> + +<p>III. Too early and too universal marriages. A considerable part of the +unhappiness caused by Chinese marriages may fairly be charged to the +immaturity of the victims. To treat children as if they were adults, while +at the same time treating them as children who require the same watch and +ward as other children, does not appear to be a rational procedure, nor +can it be claimed that it is justified by its results. That a new pair +constitute a distinct entity to be dealt with independently, is a +proposition which Confucianism treats with scorn, if indeed it ever +entertains such a conception at all. The compulsory marriage of all girls +forces all Chinese society into cast-iron grooves, and leaves no room for +exceptional individual development. It throws suspicion around every +isolated struggle against this galling bondage, and makes the unmarried +woman seem a personified violation of the decrees of heaven and of the +laws of man.</p> + +<p>IV. Infanticide of female infants. This is a direct, if not a legitimate +result of the tenet that male children are absolutely indispensable, +applied in a social system where dire poverty is the rule, and where an +additional mouth frequently means impending starvation. In a chapter in +her “Pagoda Shadows,” on “The Extent of a Great Crime,” Miss Fielde +combines a great variety of testimony taken from several different +provinces, in the following paragraph. “I find that 160 Chinese women, all +over fifty years of age, had borne 631 sons, and 538 daughters. Of the +sons, 366, or nearly sixty per cent., had lived more than ten years; while +of the daughters only 205, or thirty-eight per cent., had lived ten years. +The 160 women, according to their own statements, had destroyed 158 of +their daughters; but none had ever destroyed a boy. As only four women had +reared more than three girls, the probability is that the number of +infanticides confessed to is considerably below the truth. I have +occasionally been told by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> woman that she had forgotten just how many +girls she had had, more than she wanted. The greatest number of +infanticides owned to by any one woman is eleven.”</p> + +<p>Infanticide will never cease in China, until the notion that the dead are +dependent for their happiness upon sacrifices offered to them by the +living shall have been totally overthrown.</p> + +<p>V. Secondary wives. Concubinage is the natural result of the Confucian +theory of ancestral worship. The misery which it has caused and still +causes in China is beyond comprehension. Nothing can uproot it but a decay +of faith in the assumption underlying all forms of worship of the dead.</p> + +<p>VI. Suicides of wives and daughters. The preceding causes, operating +singly and in combination, are wholly sufficient to account for the number +of suicides among Chinese women. The wonder rather is that there are not +more. But whoever undertakes to collect facts on this subject for any +given district will not improbably be greatly surprised at the +extraordinary prevalence of this practice. It is even adopted by children, +and for causes relatively trifling. At times it appears to spread, like +the smallpox, and the thirst for suicide becomes virtually an epidemic. As +already mentioned, according to the native newspapers, there are parts of +China in which young girls band themselves into a secret league to commit +suicide within a certain time after they have been betrothed or married. +The wretchedness of the lives to which they are condemned is thoroughly +appreciated in advance, and fate is thus effectually checkmated. It would +be wrong to overstate the evils suffered by woman in China, evils which +have indeed many alleviations, and which are not to be compared to those +of her sisters in India or in Turkey. But after all abatements have been +made, it remains true that the death-roll of suicides is the most +convincing proof of the woes endured by Chinese women.</p> + +<p>VII. Overpopulation. The whole Chinese race is and always has been given +up with a single devotion to the task of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> raising up a posterity, to do +for the fathers what the fathers have done for the grandfathers. In this +particular line, they have realized Wesley’s conception of the ideal +church in its line, where, as he remarked, the members are “All at it, and +always at it.” War, famine, pestilence sweep off millions of the +population, but a few decades of peace seem to repair the ravages of the +past, which are lost to sight, like battlefields covered with wide areas +of waving grain.</p> + +<p>However much we may admire the recuperative power of the Chinese people as +a whole and individually, it is difficult not to feel righteous +indignation toward a system which violates those beneficent laws of nature +which would mercifully put an end to many branches of families when such +branches are unfitted to survive. It is impossible to contemplate with +equanimity the deliberate, persistent, and uniform propagation of poverty, +vice, disease and crime, which ought rather to be surrounded with every +restriction to prevent its multiplication, and to see this propagation of +evil and misery done, too, with an air of virtue, as if this were of +itself a kind of religion, often indeed the only form of religion in which +the Chinese take any vital interest.</p> + +<p>It is this system which loads down the rising generation with the +responsibility for feeding and clothing tens of thousands of human beings +who ought never to have been born, and whose existence can never be other +than a burden to themselves, a period of incessant struggle without +respite and without hope.</p> + +<p>To the intelligent foreigner, the most prominent fact in China is the +poverty of its people. There are too many villages to the square mile, too +many families to the village, too many “mouths” to the family. Wherever +one goes, it is the same weary tale with interminable reiteration. +Poverty, poverty, poverty, always and evermore poverty. The empire is +broad, its unoccupied regions are extensive, and its undeveloped resources +undoubtedly vast. But in what way can these resources be so developed as +to benefit the great mass of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> Chinese people? By none, with which we +are acquainted, or of which we can conceive, without a radical disturbance +of the existing conditions. The seething mass of over-population must be +drawn off to the regions where it is needed, and then only will there be +room for the relief of those who remain.</p> + +<p> </p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="images"> +<tr><td><img src="images/fp310left.jpg" alt="" /></td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td><img src="images/fp310right.jpg" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">One of China’s Parasites—a Beggar.</span></td><td> </td><td align="center"><span class="smcap">One of her Sources of Strength—a Carpenter.</span></td></tr></table> +<p> </p> + +<p>It is impossible to do anything for people who are wedged together after +the manner of matches in a box. Imagine a surgeon making the attempt to +set the broken leg of a man in an omnibus in motion, which at the time +contained twenty other people, most of whom also had broken legs which +likewise require setting! The first thing to do would be to get them all +unloaded, and to put them where they could be properly treated, with room +for the treatment, and space for breathing. It is, we repeat, not easy to +perceive how even the most advanced political economy can do anything of +permanent benefit for the great mass of the Chinese without a +redistribution of the surplus population. But at this point practical +Confucianism intervenes, and having induced the begetting of this swarm of +human beings, it declares that they must not abandon the graves of their +ancestors, who require their sacrifices, but must in the same spot +continue to propagate their posterity to continue the interminable +process.</p> + +<p>The world is still large, and it has, and for ages will doubtless continue +to have, ample room for all the additional millions which its existing +millions can produce. The world was never so much in need of the Chinese +as to-day, and never, on the other hand, were the Chinese more in need of +the world. But if China is to hold its own, much more if it is to advance +as other nations have advanced and do advance, it must be done under the +lead of new forces. Confucianism has been a mighty power to build up, and +to conserve. But Confucianism with its great merits has committed many +“Deadly Sins,” and of those sins it must ultimately suffer the penalty. +Confucianism as a developing force is a force, which is spent. Sooner or +later it must give way to something stronger, wiser, and better.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h2> +<h3>THE MONOTONY AND VACUITY OF VILLAGE LIFE</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">It</span> is difficult to project ourselves backward to the times of our +great-grandfathers when mails were carried on horseback, the postman +leisurely knitting stockings as he rode. Yet however slow, measured by +modern standards, the rural life of a century and more ago, it was a +varied life, ultimately anastomosing with the great currents of the age. +The rate of progress of thought has no necessary correlation to the +versatility or the virility of mental processes. Our ancestors may perhaps +have been peasants, but they were an integral part of the land in which +they dwelt, and they rose and fell with the national tides of life like +boats in a harbor.</p> + +<p>A Chinese village is physically and intellectually a fixture. Could one +gaze backward through a vista of five hundred years at the panorama which +that vast stretch of modern history would present, he would probably see +little more and little less than he sees to-day. The buildings now +standing are not indeed five hundred years old, but they are just such +houses as half a millennium ago occupied the same sites, “similar and +similarly situated.” Some families that then lived in adobe dwellings now +flourish under roofs of tile in houses of brick. Other families have +become extinct. Now and then a new one may have appeared, but this is +irregular and exceptional. Those who now subsist in this collection of +earth-built abodes are the lineal descendants of those who lived there +when Columbus discovered America. The descendants are doing just what +their ancestors did, no more, no less, no other. They cultivate the same +fields in the same way (albeit a few of the crops are modern); they go to +the same markets in the same invariable order; buy, sell, and wear the +same articles; marry and are given in marriage according to the same +pattern.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>It was a shrewd suggestion of a philosopher that if we wish to understand +a people, we should note what things they take for granted. The +pre-suppositions of a Chinese villager are the same as those of his +ancestry near and remote. There is in a Chinese village as such no +intellectual life. If there happen to be literary men living in it, they +form a little clique by themselves, largely out of relation to their +neighbours, and likewise to most of their own families. It is an ancient +aphorism that “Scholars talk of books—butchers of pigs.” We have already +abundantly seen that the processes of Chinese education are narrowing +processes, fitting the accomplished student to run only in grooves. It is +almost incredible how narrow these ruts become. Each literary examination +is a crisis at which one either becomes a graduate or does not; in either +case the result, whether appertaining to the student himself, the pupils +whom he has coached, or his own sons, is contemplated purely as a personal +and an individual matter. It is a literary lottery upon which much has +been risked, and out of which it is desirable to recover if possible a +prize. If that is out of the question all interest in the literary +business is at an end.</p> + +<p>Unlike his representative in Western lands, the Chinese village scholar is +not a centre or source of illumination to others. His life is the ideal of +“subjectivity”—the quintessential essence of selfishness. It is a +venerable superstition of the Chinese that though the graduate does not +emerge from his own door, he knows the affairs of all under heaven. As we +have already had occasion to point out, among the many rhetorical +exaggerations of Chinese proverbial philosophy this aphorism may be held +to take the lead. The typical scholar knows nothing whatever about +all-under-heaven. He has no decided opinions one way or the other as to +whether the earth is round or flat, for it is no concern of his. Neither +is the current history of his own country. National affairs belong to the +mandarins who get their living by them; what have such matters to do with +a literary man who has taken his degree?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>The writer is acquainted with an ex-schoolmaster who went into a business +which often led him to a distance from home. About a year after peace had +been concluded with Japan, this much-travelled merchant inquired during +the progress of a call if we could inform him how the war turned out, +explaining that he had heard such contradictory accounts at the capital of +his province and at Tientsin that he knew not what to believe, and had +judiciously held his mind entirely in suspense until he had an opportunity +to see his foreign friend, who might, he thought, know for certain!</p> + +<p>Linked with this dense ignorance and more impenetrable indifference is a +most unbounded credulity. Faith in the <i>fêng-shui</i>, or geomancy of a +district is still as firmly rooted as ever in the minds of the leading +literary men of the empire, as is shown by memorials in the <i>Peking +Gazette</i> calling for changes in buildings, the erection of lucky towers, +etc., because the number of successful competitors is not greater.</p> + +<p>A scholar who thinks it necessary to beat drums in order to save the sun +in an eclipse from the “Dog” which is devouring it, receives with implicit +faith the announcement that in Western lands the years are a thousand days +in length, with four moons all the time. If some one who has dabbled a +little in chemistry reports to him a rudimentary experiment in which +carbonic dioxide poured down a trough extinguishes a row of burning +candles, he is at once reminded that The Master refused to speak of feats +of magic, and he dismisses the whole topic with the verdict: “Of course it +was done by malign spirits.”</p> + +<p>In this fertile soil every kind of mischievous tale takes root downward, +and in due time bears its bitter fruit, as many foreigners in China know +to their cost. Were it not for the credulity of the literary men in China, +riots against foreigners would seldom or never occur. It is a melancholy +fact that vast numbers of this class, especially in the rural districts, +are profoundly convinced of the truth of the worst allegations made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +against the men of the West, while still greater numbers are absolutely +indifferent to the matter unless it happens in some way to affect +themselves.</p> + +<p>The learned and semi-intelligent vacuity of the village scholar is more +than matched by the ignorant vacuity of his illiterate neighbours. If he +happens to have travelled, the latter has indubitably the better education +of the two, for the reason that it is based (as far as it goes) upon +facts. But if he is a typical villager he has never been anywhere to speak +of, and knows nothing in particular. His conversation is filled with +unutterable inanities till he is gathered to his fathers. In every Chinese +village one sees, except at the busiest times, groups of men sitting in +the sunshine in winter, in the shade in summer, on some friendly stick of +timber, and clustered in the little temples which constitute the village +exchange. Even in the depth of winter they continue to huddle together in +a vain effort to be comfortable as well as sociable, and chatter, chatter +all the day, or until it is time to go to their meals. The past, present, +and future state of the weather, the market prices, local gossip, and +especially the details of the latest lawsuit form the warp and woof of +this unending talk. What the Magistrate asked of Chang when he was +examined, what Chang replied, what Wang retaliated, as well as what the +Official had to say to <i>that</i>, with interminable iterations and profuse +commentary furnish the most interesting and the most inexhaustible themes +for discourse.</p> + +<p>For any official changes unless it be that of his own District Magistrate +the villager cares very little. At a time when it was supposed that His +Majesty Kuang Hsü had been made way with, the writer remarked to a Chinese +friend that there was reason to fear that here was an empire without an +Emperor. A villager of the sluggish type just mentioned, who had heard +nothing of the news from Peking, inquired of what country the observation +had been made, and when the answer had been given that it was the Central +Empire, he reflected for a moment,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> and merely replied, “Oh”, with the air +of one who had feared it might be worse! Yet the rustic of this class is +shrewd in his own affairs, and by no means deficient in practical +intelligence. He is passionately fond of hearing story-tellers and of +witnessing plays having for their heroes the great men of the Three +Kingdoms seventeen hundred years ago, and on occasion he might be able to +tell us much about these characters and their deeds. But modern and +contemporaneous history is out of his line, and lacks flavour. It is most +literally none of his business, and he knows nor cares nothing about it. +The whole map of Asia might be reconstructed, and it would have for him no +interest whatever, provided it did not increase his taxes nor raise the +price of grain.</p> + +<p>We have already mentioned that the villager who has been far from home is +a conspicuous exception to the general vacuity of mind so often to be met. +He has a rich and a varied experience which he is willing although not +forward to relate. But it is a striking fact that the man of this sort +when he returns to go abroad no more, tends speedily to relapse into the +prevailing type. He may have been in every one of the Eighteen Provinces, +or possibly in foreign lands, yet on his settling down to his old ways he +has no more curiosity to know what is going on elsewhere, than a man who +had at some time in his life been shipwrecked would have to know what had +become of the schools of fish with which for a time he was in fortuitous +proximity. When it is considered how vast a proportion of the whole +population live in villages, and when we contemplate in detail the +meagreness and poverty of the mental output, an impressive conception is +gained of the intellectual barrenness of the Flowery Empire. The phenomena +which we everywhere see are the outward expression of inner forces which +have been at work for more than two thousand years. The longer they are +considered and the more thoroughly they are understood the more profoundly +will it be seen and felt that the “answer to Confucianism is China.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a><ins class="correction" title="original: XXVI">XXV</ins></h2> +<h3>UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM OF THE CHINESE FAMILY</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> family is the unit of Chinese social life and, as we have often had +occasion to observe, the Chinese Family is a highly complex organization, +with many aspects which sometimes appear mutually contradictory. To the +consideration of one of these polyhedral faces we now turn, asking the +reader to bear well in mind that while what we have to say contains +important truth, this is but one out of many points of view.</p> + +<p>The instability of the equilibrium of the Chinese family arises from its +constitution, from its environment, and from the relation between the two. +Let us first glance at some of the exterior causes. In a large portion of +the empire the rain-fall is more or less uncertain, rendering famine a +perpetual possibility. Within the past quarter of a century foreigners in +China have had superabundant opportunities to study the phenomena of +famine upon a great scale. The misery thus occasioned is inconceivable, +but we wish to refer only to the resultant disruption of families. Nothing +is more common than to find that the father has gone to some distant +region hoping to secure a bare sustenance leaving the wife and children to +shift for themselves. This is not because he does not care for them, nor +because he desires the separation, but because there is literally “no help +for it.”</p> + +<p>Large portions of the empire are liable to inundation, often with little +or no warning. Those who contrive to save themselves wander off whither +they can, generally in family groups, but not infrequently one by one.<small><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">[7]</a></small> +Children are born and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> children die on these haphazard journeys nowhither. +The elders die too, and sometimes a marriageable girl is disposed of for +life to some husband who could not afford the expense of an ordinary +wedding. It is proverbial that there are no ceremonies for a second +marriage, and whenever a family is broken up, it is highly probable that +all the widows will soon find partners, the union liable to be +discontinued whenever there is again a scarcity of food.</p> + +<p>Political disturbances which often rise to the dignity of small rebellions +operate in the same way as famines and floods. In any of these cases +families once widely dispersed are not likely again to recombine.</p> + +<p>It is not in times of special stress only that families are parted. In +several of the provinces of China a considerable proportion of the adult +males earn their living at great distances from home.</p> + +<p>Myriads of Chinese from the northern portion of China get such a +livelihood as they can in Manchuria or elsewhere beyond the Great Wall, +hundreds or thousands of miles from home, to which multitudes never +return. Innumerable Chinese mothers never learn what has become of their +sons, who went away in early youth to be heard of no more. Communication +is irregular and uncertain, and uniformly untrustworthy. No wonder the +current adage declares that when the son has gone a thousand miles the +mother grieves.<small><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">[8]</a></small> The Chinese Enoch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> Arden perhaps returns from an +absence of possibly ten or it may be twenty years, enters his house, +throws down his bundle and without a question or a greeting to any one, +proceeds to take a solacing smoke. He may have been away so long that no +one recognizes him, and perhaps he is taken for a tramp and warned off. +But he merely replies “Why should I not make myself at home in my own +house?” and resumes his smoking, leaving details to be filled in later.</p> + +<p>The equilibrium of every Chinese family is liable to be disturbed by an +evil which may not unlikely work more mischief than an ordinary +earthquake—to wit, a lawsuit. There is not a day in the life of any +Chinese when his peace, his prosperity, and possibly his life may not be +endangered by some complication for which he is not in any way +responsible, but from which escape is practically impossible. Let not the +reader suppose that most Chinese are entangled in the meshes of the law, +for this is not the case. But there is always the unavoidable liability. A +moment of uncontrollable passion on the part of any one of a score of +persons, may precipitate a crisis involving the expenditure of the greater +part of one’s resources, subjection to protracted detention in jail, to +torture, to punishment of immeasurable barbarity, and to virtual +starvation in prison unless the means of the family are drained to prevent +it. Not every lawsuit has within it such phenomena as these, but they are +everywhere potential, for no one can predict where or how any suit will +end. It is not alone the principals who suffer in cases of this sort, for, +as the current saying runs, “When one family has trouble none of the four +neighbours are in peace.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>Attention has been repeatedly called to the familiar fact that practically +no Chinese can maintain financial independence. To a foreigner nothing is +more amazing than the reckless manner in which a debt is contracted which +subsequently proves to have within it the fruitful seeds of ruin for the +whole family. It is vain to ask why the money was borrowed. One might as +well inquire why one is so wet who has been out all night in a Scotch +mist. Ages of experience have made the Chinese relentless creditors, and +woe to him who owes but cannot pay. China is full of small dealers with a +limited capital, who do well enough in ordinary years. A very small +percentage contrives to get so far ahead as to buy land, and thus the +family is rooted to the soil. But a far larger number lose the capital +invested, are obliged to sell their little holdings to pay their dues, and +thenceforth they join the great, hopeless, landless class. A single +failure of one important crop may carry with it consequences of this kind +to many small dealers. In China the man or the family which is loaded with +a debt beyond the recuperative power of the debtor, finds itself upon an +oiled toboggan-slide at the bottom of which is remediless ruin.</p> + +<p>In the families of the poor there is no margin of any kind for sickness, +but sickness comes impartially to every grade of life. When the +bread-winner is laid aside, when the mother of a little flock is no longer +able to keep the simple domestic machinery in motion, then indeed trouble +has arrived. If a young married woman is sick, the first step is to send +for her mother; for ordinarily no one in the family into which she has +married has the time or disposition to take care of her, least of all the +husband, who regards himself as aggrieved by her disability, and who is +often far more inclined to expect the family of his wife to bear all the +resultant expenses, than to meet them himself. One of the legal occasions +for divorce is chronic illness, although we have never heard of a single +instance where formal steps were taken for that reason. It is a current +saying that in the presence of a long continued sickness there is no +filial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> son. How great the family strain often is, there are many things +to prove. In the midst of it all one is sometimes agreeably surprised to +find an amount of tenderness and forbearance worthy of all praise. But in +the constitution of Chinese society these exhibitions are and must be in a +great minority. A man well known to the writer in speaking of the serious +symptoms of a disease of his wife, remarked that he had asked her how long +she expected to keep up the groans called forth by the intolerable agonies +of terrible and incurable ulcers, and that for his part he had offered to +provide her with a rope that she might relieve him of his inconvenience, +and herself of her miseries, though upon being remonstrated with for such +an inhuman view of the case, he frankly admitted that his troubles had +made him “stupid.” It is a significant saying in such instances that the +sufferer although poor has contracted a rich man’s malady.</p> + +<p>The disintegrating forces which operate in the Chinese family are more +efficient in the homes of the poor than of the rich, because there is less +power of resistance. But there are two of these agencies which imply a +certain degree of prosperity ere they can be fully developed, the gambling +and the opium habit, twin vices of the Chinese race. Each leads by swift +and relentless steps to destruction, and in each case there ensues at last +what is virtually a paralysis of the will, making amendment impossible. +Against these gigantic evils there is in Chinese society no safeguard +whatever, no preventive influences, and no remedies. It would be easy to +illustrate in terrible detail how these forces act insidiously, +universally and irresistibly. The wonder is that the track of devastation +is not even wider. They take rank among the most destructive +instrumentalities in Chinese social life. It is very rare indeed to hear +of reform from either of these vices, when there has been no impulse +imparted from without, and it is rarer that there is any one who can and +who will impart it.</p> + +<p>To this dark catalogue of maleficent forces must be added<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> one more, +violation of social morality. To what extent this prevails in any given +place it is impossible for any Chinese—much less for any foreigner—to +say with authority. There is among the people, despite their loquacity—an +instinct of reticence in every way commendable. Little value is placed +upon infant life. The air is always full of rumors and suspicious +whispers, so that the judicious will believe nothing of which there is not +positive evidence. The Chinese code of morals is a lofty one, both in +theory and in practice. The social arrangements are all made with a +carefulness which to the Occidental seems mere prudery, but which the +accumulated experience of millenniums has convinced the Chinese to be not +only wise, but indispensable.</p> + +<p>Yet in the conditions of everyday life it is simply impossible that +theoretical regulations should be reduced to practice. The elderly women +die, and courtyards are left from sheer necessity in a condition to invite +catastrophe. Against a bad father-in-law especially if he be a +widower—there is in the Chinese social economy no provision and no +defence. It is proverbial that insinuations lurk about the dwelling-place +of widows. In a word it may almost be said that no one has absolute +confidence in any one else.</p> + +<p>In spite of all apparent evidence to the contrary, there is adequate +reason to believe that Chinese social morality at its best is fully equal +to that of any Western land. Yet it is necessary to take careful note of +the circumstance that the consequences of a lapse from virtue are +destitute of the ameliorations with which we have become familiar. The +principal concern of every one interested is the “face” of the family +involved, and to save this imaginary self-respect it may be necessary for +some one to commit suicide, which is done with the smallest provocation at +all times. No Chinese is ever quite free from the dread that some one of +his household may take this step. Provision is expressly made in Chinese +law for the punishment of those who can be proved to have “urged to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +death” others; a crime which is treated as manslaughter. This fact alone +would serve as a <ins class="correction" title="original: guage">gauge</ins> of the wide interval between the civilizations of +the west and of China.</p> + +<p>All Chinese may be said to have strongly developed an attachment to the +family in which they were born, and most of them have also strong family +affections running in specific and limited channels, and by no means +evenly distributed. They share with the rest of the race a desire to make +their families perpetual, and when they fail, as they so frequently do, +their failure is the more conspicuous by reason of their inalienable +attachment to their natal soil. In order more deeply to explore some of +the causes of their want of success, it will be necessary to go farther +below the surface of the Chinese family.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h2> +<h3>INSTABILITY FROM FAMILY DISUNITY</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">To</span> give a correct diagnosis of the inner causes of the disunity of Chinese +social and family life without at the same time grossly misrepresenting +both the Chinese character and society, is a hopeless undertaking. Merely +to note even the most authentic and typical facts is to convey an +impression which is incorrect because it is not proportional. Every family +contains within itself the seeds of disunity, and if they do not in all +cases produce their appropriate harvest, it is because they are mercifully +blighted or counteracted in their development.</p> + +<p>Of each Chinese family a full half has had or will have interests largely +at variance with those of the other half. Every Chinese wife came by no +choice of her own from some other family, being suddenly and irrevocably +grafted as a wild stock upon the family tree of her husband. As we have +already seen, she is not received with enthusiasm, much less with +affection (the very idea of which in such a connection never enters any +Chinese mind) but at best with mild toleration, and not infrequently with +aggressive criticism. She forms a link with another set of interests from +which by disruption she has indeed been dissevered, but where her +attachments are centred. The affection of most Chinese children for their +mothers is very real and lasting. The death of the mother is for a +daughter especially the greatest of earthly calamities. Filial piety in +its cruder and more practical aspects constantly leads the married +daughter to wish to transfer some of the property of the husband’s family +to that of her mother. The temptation to do so is often irresistible, and +sometimes continues through life, albeit with many dramatic checks. The +Chinese<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> speak of this habit in metaphorical phrase as “a leak at the +bottom” which is proverbially hard to stop. It is a current saying that of +ten married daughters, nine pilfer more or less. It is not uncommon to +hear this practice assigned as one of the means by which a family is +reduced to the verge of poverty. The writer once had occasion to acquaint +a Chinese friend with the fact that a connection by marriage had recently +died. He replied thoughtfully: “It is well she is dead; she was +gluttonous, she was lazy; and beside she stole things for her mother!”</p> + +<p>Visits to the mother’s family constitute by far the most substantial joys +in the life of a young Chinese married woman. It is her constant effort to +make them as numerous as possible, and it is the desire of her husband’s +family to restrict them, since her services are thus partially lost to +them. To prevent them from being wholly so, she is frequently loaded down +with twice as much sewing as she could do in the time allowed, and sent +off with a troop of accompanying children, if she has reached so advanced +a stage as to be a mother of a flock. An invasion of this kind is often +regarded with open dissatisfaction by her father and brothers, and what +could be more natural than her desire to appease them by the spoils which +she may have wrested from the Philistines?</p> + +<p>After the death of her mother the situation has materially altered. The +sisters-in-law have now no restraint on their criticisms upon her +appearance with her hungry brood, and her whole stay may not improbably be +a struggle to maintain what she regards as her rights. It is one of the +many pathetic sights with which Chinese society abounds to witness the +effort to seem to keep alive a spark of fire in coals which have visibly +gone out. Not to have any “mother’s family” to which to go is regarded as +the depth of misery for a married woman, since it is a proclamation that +she no longer has any one to stand up for her in case she should be +abused. To discontinue altogether the visits thither is to some extent a +loss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> of face, which every Chinese feels keenly. We have known an old +woman left absolutely alone in the world, obliged at the age of +ninety-four to gather her own fuel and do whatever she wanted done for +herself, except draw water, which was furnished her by a distant relative +as an act of special grace. Her poverty was so abject that she was driven +to mix fine earth with the little meal that sufficed for her scanty food, +that it might last the longer. Yet this poor creature would sometimes be +missed from her place, when it was reported that she had gone on a visit +to her “mother’s family” consisting of the great-grandchildren of those +whom she had known in youth!</p> + +<p>By the time a married woman had reached middle life her interest in her +original home may have greatly weakened. There are now young marriageable +girls of her own growing up, each of whom in turn repeats the experience +of her mother. To their fathers and also to their brothers these girls are +at once a problem and a menace. Could the birth-rate of girls be +determined by ballot of all the males of full age, it is probable that in +a few generations the Chinese race would become extinct. The expression +“commodity-on-which-money-has-been-lost,” is a common periphrasis for a +girl. They no sooner learn a little sewing, cooking, etc., than they are +exported, and it is proverbial that water spilled on the ground is a +synonym for a daughter. “Darnel will not do for the grain-tax, and +daughters will never support their mothers.” These modes of speech +represent modes of thought, and the prevailing thought, although happily +not the only thought of the Chinese people.</p> + +<p>Girls as a rule have next to no opportunities for cultivating friendships +with one another. The readiness with which under favourable condition such +attachments are formed and perpetuated, shows how great a loss is their +persistent absence. When it is considered that each Chinese family +consists not of a man and his wife and their children, but of married +sons, and of their several wives, each one introduced into the circle in +the same compulsory way, each with a strong and an uncurbed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> will, yet +powerless to assert herself except by harsh speeches and bad temper, it is +evident that the result is not likely to be unity.</p> + +<p>In the eye of Chinese law brothers are equal, and though the elder has +some advantages, a portion larger than that of the others is not one of +them. Sometimes the young married pair are given an outfit, say of cotton, +for spinning and weaving, and are thenceforth expected to support +themselves by this capital and their own added labour. Not infrequently an +unequal distribution of the land is made among several brothers by the +father while living, a wrong for which there is no remedy other than +remonstrance. Neither if the father should conceive the idea of depriving +a son of any portion at all in the land, is there effective redress.</p> + +<p>Should the property be held in common according to Chinese traditions, it +is a physical, a psychological, and a moral impossibility that there +should not be ceaseless friction among so many claimants for what is often +at best a most inadequate support.</p> + +<p>The Chinese ideal is to hold the family property in common indefinitely. +But the Chinese themselves are conscious that theirs is not an ideal +world, so that division of the land cannot always be postponed. It not +infrequently happens that one of the sons becomes discontented, and +commissions one of the neighbours to tell the father that it is time to +effect a division. At such times the family affairs are put into the hands +of third parties who are supposed to be entirely disinterested, but +sometimes the family has itself so well under control as to be able to +dispense with this important assistance. The middlemen who have to conduct +operations, begin by taking an inventory of the numerous pieces of land, +the buildings, etc., which they then appraise roughly, endeavouring to +separate these assets into as many portions as there are to be shares. A +certain part of the land is set aside for “nourishing the old age” of the +parents; and perhaps another section is reserved for the wedding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> expenses +of unmarried daughters or younger sons. What remains is to be divided, +which is accomplished by grouping the portions, and writing the +descriptions of the several pieces of land, houses, etc., on pieces of +paper which are rolled up and placed in a rice-bowl. This is shaken up and +it is a courtesy to allow the youngest son to draw first. Whatever is +noted on his bit of paper represents his share, and so on until all are +drawn. The household furniture, water-jars, utensils of every kind, and +all the grain and fuel on hand must be all taken out in public in the +presence of the middlemen to be sure that nothing is secreted. We have +known a particularly obstreperous son to come to his father’s house the +day after a division, and under pretence of looking for something which he +had lost, to feel in every jar and pot to be sure that no beans or millet +had escaped him. In a family where harmony reigns, all this trouble is +avoided, but such are altogether exceptional. Shrewd Chinese estimate that +out of every ten families which “divide” seven, if not nine, will have a +domestic tempest as a concomitant, and these storms vary all the way from +a short, sharp squall, to a hurricane which leaves everything in a wreck.</p> + +<p>It is the Chinese theory that parents are to be taken care of in old age +by their children either in combination or in rotation. But cases in which +aged mothers have a portion to themselves, doing all their own cooking and +most of the other necessary work are everywhere numerous. A Westerner is +constantly struck with the undoubted fact that the mere act of dividing a +property seems to extinguish all sense of responsibility whatever for the +nearest of kin. It is often replied when we ask why a Chinese does not +help his son or his brother who has a large family and nothing in the +house to eat, “We have <i>divided</i> some time ago.” The real explanation is +perhaps to be found in the accumulated exasperations of the larger part of +a lifetime, once delivered from which, a Chinese feels that he can +judiciously expend his energies in looking out for Number<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> One, leaving +the rest of the series to do the same as best they may.</p> + +<p>If a member of a family is absent when a division is made, it is common to +hear that advantage has been taken of that fact to assign to him a portion +which he would not have quietly accepted had he been present. This is +particularly the case with the family debts, often aggregating a large +sum. Sometimes a young man is forced to begin life weighted down with +several hundred thousand cash worth of these liabilities due to some +unprofitable partnership of his father with his uncles—which may have +extended over a period of perhaps many years.</p> + +<p>Another most undesirable but unavoidable asset is “empty grain-tax land!” +This means a liability to pay the tax on land which is non-existent, but +which has been made to appear to exist by mismeasurements in former years, +either by accident or design. Suppose, for example, that a family has a +hundred acres of land, which has to be sold in small pieces from time to +time as occasion arises. Each surveying party works from such indefinite +boundaries as the stump of an aged mulberry bush to another stump which +may prove to be missing. The one who buys the land will use his best +efforts to see that he gets good measure, which it is no concern of the +measurers to refuse. No one knows exactly what is left until some final +measurement becomes necessary, when it often appears that there is a +shortage of a considerable amount. From deficits like this there arises +the necessity of paying “empty taxes,” and though the tax itself is +sufficiently solid and substantial, there is no way known to Chinese +practice by which such injustice can be rectified. The son who finds +himself saddled with this sort of a burden is not likely to contribute to +the harmony of the household in future, and were he ever so much inclined +to bury the matter in oblivion and “eat a dumb man’s loss,” his wife would +never stop talking about it, unless she chanced to be dumb herself. A +complete catalogue of the possible and indeed inevitable occasions which +produce family alienations and bitterness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> would of itself fill a volume, +but those which have been suggested may serve as samples of them all.</p> + +<p>It deserves mention that when the strain has reached the breaking point, +especially when it is difficult for the aggrieved individual to go off to +a great distance and escape his woes, he is often seized by the idea of +administering poison to the person hated. Were the list of toxic +substances available to the Chinese larger, poisoning would be far more +frequent than at present. As it is cases are everywhere to be heard of, +and occasionally foreigners are the victims.</p> + +<p>While this chapter was in preparation a Chinese friend called to ask +advice. He had a nephew thirty-six years of age, who until recently had +never been married. He is a dull witted man, with very little property, +and had never been regarded as a desirable match. About five months +previous to the recent occurrence which led to the request for advice, a +girl aged sixteen was found who had a deformity in one limb preventing her +from making a match. A go-between proposed her for this bachelor and it +was arranged that he should pay her family eight strings of cash for +“bridal outfit,” and in due time the marriage took place. As might have +been expected it was a conspicuously infelicitous one. On the twenty-sixth +day of the first moon of the current year, the husband ate a bowl of +millet which seemed to him to have a singular taste, but he did not +suspect poison until he had taken it all, when he saw arsenic at the +bottom. After violent retching he was somewhat relieved. The next day but +one the same thing occurred, the symptoms being graver. He vigorously +remonstrated, and his bride left for her home some miles away. The husband +was now very ill, and was waited on for some days by his uncle, at the +times of whose visit for advice the nephew’s life was supposed to be out +of danger. The uncle wanted to know what should be done about it. In an +empire where “talkativeness” is a legal ground for divorce, it naturally +appeared to an Occidental that repeated, albeit clumsy attempts at +poisoning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> might be equally so. But the uncle explained that there was a +sister-in-law who objected. Why? Apparently because having invested eight +strings of cash in a wife it was a pity to lose her for a mere trifle like +this! The matter was put into the hands of peace-talkers, who arranged +that the relative who had brought the bride the arsenic should kotow to +the man poisoned by the arsenic, and that the family of the bride should +pay the injured husband fifteen strings of cash wherewith to recruit his +depleted vitality. Meantime the bride remained at her mother’s home, where +one of the women was said to have beaten her a little. She is not +divorced, her husband being reluctant to proceed to such extremities, in +part on account of the large investment originally made, and in part for +fear of ridicule. In due time she will probably be sent back to his home +to resume her experiments in the art of making home happy.</p> + +<p>Thus far we have spoken of disunity of Chinese families as promoted by +that intense subjectivity to which we give the name selfishness. There +are, however, many other factors to be taken into account, which have to +do with racial habits and race traits.</p> + +<p>To affirm that every Chinese is a natural liar is a grievous error. On the +contrary we believe the Chinese to be by far the most truthful of +Asiatics. Yet there can be no doubt that disingenuousness is to them a +second nature. It runs through the warp and woof of their life.</p> + +<p>A witness in a Chinese lawsuit (where veracity is more than ordinarily +important) usually begins his mixture of three-tenths fact with +seven-tenths fiction with the remark: “I will not deceive Your Honour.” In +this he speaks the truth, for His Honour knows perfectly well that the +witness is lying, and the witness knows that His Honour knows it. The only +question is in regard to the percentage of falsehood, and as to which +particular statements come under that head. The same principles are in +operation in the family life as in court. Most husbands know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> better than +to confide the real state of their affairs to their wives. Children in +turn constantly conceal from their parents what ought to be known, and are +themselves deceived whenever it becomes convenient to do so. A Chinese +woman known to the writer when a mere child was one day told by her mother +that she must not go upon the street to play as usual, but must remain in +the house and have her clothes changed. This was done, and before she knew +it, she was thrust into a sedan-chair, and was on the way to the house of +her “husband,” for this was her marriage! The conditions which would make +such an occurrence possible, would produce quite naturally many phenomena +of a disagreeable description. It is a popular adage that “She who knows +how to behave as a daughter-in-law will prevaricate at both her homes, +while the inexpert daughter-in-law reveals what she knows at each of +them”—and is in constant trouble in consequence.</p> + +<p>Despite their disadvantages wives may contrive to conceal from their +husbands the fact that they have a little property in the hands of some +member of the wife’s family. The writer is acquainted with a Chinese +almost sixty years of age, who has a flock of grandchildren, but who will +have nothing to do with his wife nor she with him. During all their +married life, between thirty and forty years, he has cherished the +suspicion that she has somewhere at interest a considerable sum of money +which she will not share with him. It is certainly not true that all +Chinese deceive one another, but it is surely true that there is always +danger of it, which everywhere begets unrest and suspicion. It is also an +allied phenomenon that the principals in a matter may be totally unable to +ascertain the real facts with which every one else is perfectly +acquainted, but which no one will tell.</p> + +<p>Mencius remarked that the feeling of pity is common to all men, and what +was true in his day is no less so now. At the same time there are wide +differences in its exhibition. Every Chinese is a seasoned soldier in the +warfare of life and is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>accustomed to every form and grade of misery. His +first thought at such a spectacle is not, Cannot something be done about +it? but if he has a thought at all it is far more likely to be, Why should +I do anything about it? Ages of hereditary experience have taught him not +too rashly to indulge in sentimental benevolence which may have +disagreeable sequelæ. A Chinese remarked in the writer’s hearing while +glancing at the corpse of a man who had died far from home under painful +circumstances: “This plaything will be hard to transport.” Of what we call +sympathy he had not the smallest conception. A few years later this same +individual was seized by the District Magistrate of the county in which he +lived, thrust into the standing-cage (a punishment far more horrible than +the slicing process, since the victim is conscious but is in a position of +acute agony without food or water until he miserably perishes) with no +definite charge of any kind against him, and with no trial whatever. The +only comment of many of these who had once known him well, was either that +it was just what might have been expected, or that it was probably just +what he deserved.</p> + +<p>The typical Chinese is a good-natured, even-tempered, peaceable +individual, ready to do his part in life without shirking, and asking only +for fair treatment. But as the placid surface of many lakes is often +lashed into fury by sudden and violent winds pouring down through mountain +gorges, so the equilibrium of the Chinese is liable to be destroyed by +gusts of terrible passion, instantly transforming him from a quiet member +of a well ordered society, into an impressive object-lesson on the reality +of demon possession. Whether life is worth living has been thought “to +depend upon the liver.” In China one might rather affirm that it hinges +upon the spleen. Some of our readers may not be unfamiliar with a legend +of a distinguished American who was provided by his kind father with a +little hatchet which he tried upon a favourite cherry tree with marked +success. When the father discovers this, he asks who did the deed, upon +which the child handsomely confesses, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> is clasped to his father’s arms +with the remark that he would rather lose many cherry trees than to have +his son tell a lie. The whole occurrence probably did not consume more +than ten minutes. To illustrate some of the traits of disunity already +mentioned, let us translate this incident into Chinese.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hua Hsing-tun was a well-to-do farmer, who had in his courtyard a +handsome pomegranate tree of which he was very proud. His youngest son one +day got hold of a sickle, which had been sharpened ready to cut wheat the +next morning. With this implement he chopped at everything he saw, and +among the rest, at the pomegranate tree which fell at the third blow. +Seeing what mischief he had done, he ran to the other end of the village +where he played with some boys whom he told that a cousin (the third son +of his fourth uncle) had done the deed. This was overheard by a neighbour +who passed on to the other end of the village just in time to hear Mr. Hua +angrily roaring out the inquiry who had spoiled his pet tree. During a +lull in the storm the neighbour, who had stepped into the courtyard to see +what was the matter, confided to another neighbour that it was the nephew +who had done the mischief. The neighbours soon depart. As no one in the +yard knows anything about the tree, Mr. Hua, white with rage, continues +his bawling upon the village street, denouncing the individual who had +killed his tree. An older son who has just come up, having heard the story +of the two neighbours, repeats it to his father, who gaining at last a +clue, rushes to his fourth brother’s yard, only to find no one at home but +his sister-in-law, whom he begins to revile in the most outrageous manner. +For an instant only she is surprised, then takes in the situation and +screams at her brother-in-law, returning his revilings with compound +interest added. He retreats into the alley and thence to the street, +whither she follows him, shrieking at the top of her voice.</p> + +<p>At this juncture the unfortunate nephew alleged to be the author of the +mischief attracted by the clamour comes home,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> when the infuriated uncle +administers a great deal of abusive language relative to his illegitimate +descent from a base ancestry, as well as a stunning blow with a stick. +This drives the mother of the child to frenzy, and she attacks her +brother-in-law by seizing his queue, being immediately pulled off by the +second brother, and some neighbours, there being now fifty or more +spectators. The fourth sister-in-law is forcibly dragged back to her own +yard by several other women, screaming defiance as she goes, and ends by +scratching her own face in long furrows with her sharp nails, being +presently covered with blood. Her husband has now come in furious at the +insult to his family, reviles the elder brother (and his ancestry) +declaring that he will immediately go to the yamên and lodge a complaint. +He takes a string of cash and departs on this errand, but is subsequently +followed several miles by six men, who spend two hours in trying to get +him to return, with the promise that they will “talk peace.” About +midnight they all reach home. Most of the next five days is spent in +interviews between third parties, who in turn have other conferences with +the principals. At the expiration of this period all is settled. Mr. Hua +the elder is to make a feast at an expense of not less than ten strings of +cash, at which he shall admit that he was in error in reviling this +sister-in-law at that time; the younger brother is to accept the apology +in the presence of fourteen other men who have become involved in the +matter at some of its stages. When the feast has been eaten, “harmony” is +restored. But what about the author of all this mischief? Oh, “he is only +a child.” With which observation the whole affair is dismissed, and +forgotten.</p> + +<p>Chinese quarrels are objectionable by reason of their suddenness, their +violence, and their publicity. The last named feature is the one most +repugnant to Western civilization which has not yet learned how to avoid +domestic disputes itself. As every occurrence immediately becomes public +property, the element of “face” at once enters in, demanding an +adjustment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> which shall put the injured party right in the presence of the +rest of creation always conceived as looking critically on.</p> + +<p>One of the most melancholy phenomena of Chinese life is the suddenness, +the spontaneity, the inexorableness with which natural affection and all +kindly relations under certain conditions seem absolutely to wither up. If +a member of a clan comes into collision with the prejudices of the +generation above his own, or even with that to which he himself belongs, +his grandfather, father, great uncles, uncles, cousins, and brothers often +promise to break his legs, rub out his eyes with quick-lime, and the like, +and not infrequently carry these threats into execution. It is constantly +mentioned as a mitigation of an attack with violence, that there was no +intention to <i>kill</i> the individual, only to maul him till he had so many +broken bones that he could not stir!</p> + +<p>If the matter comes to a lawsuit, it is a common cry that no compromise +shall ever be made, until the opponent has parted with his last piece of +land. The suspense of mind under which many Chinese habitually live, +uncertain whether these menaces will be carried into execution, would +drive an Occidental to insanity or to suicide, or both. A frequent ending +to a stormy conference is the dark hint: “We shall see about this later.”</p> + +<p>The Chinese are firm believers in the doctrine of rewards and punishments. +A man who has been conspicuous for his evil deeds will meet no shadow of +sympathy when trouble of any sort overtakes him. He is a tiger in a pit. +Such an one who was attacked with worm-breeding corrosive ulcers, dragged +himself to the terrace of one of the temples of his native village, where +he lay sometimes in a coma, and at others screaming with pain. His +neighbours would revile him as they passed with the comment: “It is +heaven’s vengeance!”</p> + +<p>The Chinese character often abounds in amiable alleviations of conditions +which would seem at first sight to make existence intolerable. In the +breasts of the Chinese, as in ours, Hope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> springs eternal. His +generalizations from the experience of others as well as his own, render +him measurably certain that in the long-run almost nothing will go right. +He expects to meet insincerity, suspicion, and neglect, and he is rarely +disappointed. He will often be dependent upon those who would be glad to +get rid of him, and who keep him constantly aware of this fact. He knows +as certainly before as after the event that the loans which he is obliged +to make will not be repaid at the proper time, nor in full; that the +promised assistance if given at all will be rendered grudgingly, and +perhaps turned into open hostility. It is proverbial that he has in his +mind “two hundred next years” but he is not infrequently perfectly aware +that no number of “next years” will ever suffice to get him straight with +the world. Yet amid all this he generally maintains a serene cheerfulness +which to us would be as impossible as comfortable respiration in the foul +atmosphere of a Chinese sleeping-room. He is used to it—we are not. A man +of this type weighted with a termagant wife, who had become exasperated by +the unexpected remarriage of a brother of her husband for twenty years a +widower, and who filled the house with a tempest in consequence, said to +the writer that for the past three months he had not drawn “one peaceful +breath!” This was not mentioned by way of complaint, but as one might +refer in reply to an inquiry about a troublesome corn on the toe. Under +stress of this sort many Chinese exhibit a degree of forbearance to which +it is to be feared we have no counterpart in the West, where individual +rights have not for ages been merged in those of the family. Such persons +are said to “eat a dumb man’s injury,” and the number of them is +proverbially unlimited, for the class is immortal.</p> + +<p>No one who is intimately acquainted with their real life is likely to +exaggerate the evils from which the Chinese suffer, since the strongest +representation often seems to come short of the truth. But every one finds +himself asking by what means it would be possible to forefend some of +these evils. Since many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> of them appear to be inseparably associated with +that poverty which is apparently the keynote of Chinese discords, one is +tempted to imagine that if poverty were abolished, family disunity also +would largely disappear. Something may be said in favour of this theory, +but it fails in presence of the undoubted fact that the evils to be +remedied are perhaps quite as prevalent among those Chinese who are fairly +well off, as among the poor, besides being much more conspicuous and +irrepressible.</p> + +<p>Moral discord can be cured only by radical and not by superficial +remedies. Yet there is one prescription of an economic as distinguished +from a moral type which were it tried on a large scale for a generation or +two might work such a revolution that China would hardly know itself. If +marriages could be invariably postponed until the partners had arrived at +mature age, and if on occasion of the marriage of each son the family +property were divided so that a conflict of interests were no longer +unavoidable, a whole continent of evils would be nipped in the bud.</p> + +<p>At the inquiry held in marine courts as to the reasons for the wreck of +great steamers with all their passengers and cargo, in the Formosan +Channel, it is often shown that the vessel was acted upon by a powerful +but hidden current which made ruin inevitable. The hereditary habits of +the Chinese in the agglomeration of large numbers of individuals under one +head constitute a drift toward disunity and disintegration. We firmly +believe that the strain upon the temper and the disposition incident to +the mechanical collocation of so many human beings in one compound-family +on the Chinese plan is one which no society in the world could endure, +because it is more than human nature can bear. It is certain that the +resultant evils are inevitable, insufferable, and by any means at the +command of the Chinese incurable.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p> +<h2>PART III</h2> +<h3>Regeneration of the Chinese Village</h3> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span></p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII</h2> +<h3>WHAT CAN CHRISTIANITY DO FOR CHINA?</h3> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">However</span> <ins class="correction" title="original: inadequte">inadequate</ins> or imperfect our survey of the life of the Chinese +Village may have been, it must at least have shown that it has defects of +a serious character. It is therefore a legitimate question how they are to +be remedied, on the supposition that they can be remedied at all.</p> + +<p>It is certainly conceivable that there might be many remedial agencies set +at work with varying degrees of success; but as a matter of fact, so far +as we are aware, there is but one the friends of which have been +stimulated to try on any extended scale. That sole agency is Christianity. +It thus becomes an inquiry of great moment, what effect the introduction +into China of Christianity in its best form may be rationally expected to +exert upon the springs of the national life and character of the Chinese. +What can Christianity do for the Chinese family? What can it do for the +Chinese boy and girl?</p> + +<p>In the first place it can take better care of them. The dense and +impenetrable ignorance which sacrifices so large a proportion of Chinese +infants during the first two years of their life, might perhaps be +counteracted in other ways, but it is probably safe to predict that it +never would be. To the Chinese girl the practical introduction of +Christianity will mean even more than to her brother. It will prevent her +from being killed as soon as she is born, and will eventually restore her +to her rightful place in the affections of her parents. It is never enough +merely to point out the folly, danger, or sin of a given course of action. +There must be moral as well as intellectual enlightenment, coöperation in +a new social order, the stimulus both of precept and example, and adequate +moral sanctions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> This can be furnished by Christianity alone. History +testifies that if Christianity begins to lose its power, the dormant +forces of human selfishness, depravity and crime reassert themselves in +infant murder.</p> + +<p>Christianity will call into existence a sympathy between parents and +children hitherto unknown, and one of the greatest needs of the Chinese +home. It will teach parents to govern their children, an accomplishment +which in four millenniums they have never made an approach to acquiring. +This it will do, not as at present by the mere iterative insistence upon +the duty of subjection to parents, but by showing parents how first to +govern themselves, teaching them the completion of the five relations by +the addition of that chiefest one hitherto unknown, expressed in the words +Our Father. It will redeem many years during the first decade of +childhood, of what is now a mere animal existence, filling it with +fruitfulness for a future intellectual and spiritual harvest.</p> + +<p>It will show Chinese parents how to <i>train</i> as well as how to govern their +children—a divine art of which they have at present no more conception +than of the chemistry of soils. It will put an end to the cruelty and +miseries of foot-binding. Toward this great reform there was never in +China the smallest impulse, until it had long been urged by Christian +forces. If it shall prove at length to have successfully taken root in +China apart from Christianity, that fact would be a luminous star in the +East showing that there are no Chinese walls which may not ultimately fall +before the blast of Christian trumpets.</p> + +<p>Christianity will revolutionize the Chinese system of education. Such a +revolution might indeed take place without reference to Christianity. The +moral forces which have made China what it is, are now to a large extent +inert. To introduce new intellectual life with no corresponding moral +restraints, might prove far more a curse than a blessing, as it has been +in the other Oriental lands. Christian education will never make the +mistake so often repeated of seeking for fruits where there have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> been +no roots. It starts from a fixed point and moves onward to a definite end.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 374px;"><img src="images/fp342top.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Little Old People.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="bbox" style="width: 500px; height: 372px;"><img src="images/fp342bottom.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Going to a Christian School.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Christian education will teach the Chinese child his own tongue in a +rational manner. It will abbreviate to the greatest possible extent “the +toils of wandering through the wilderness of the Chinese language to +arrive at the deserts of Chinese literature.” It will awaken the child’s +hibernating imagination, enormously widen his horizon, develop and +cultivate his judgment, teach him the history of mankind, and not of one +branch only. Above all it will arouse his conscience, and in its light +will exhibit the mutual interrelations of the past, the present, and the +future. It will create an intellectual atmosphere in the home, causing the +children to feel that their progress at school is intimately related to +instruction at home, and has a personal interest to the parents and to the +family as a whole. The value of such a stimulus, now totally lacking in +most Chinese homes, is beyond calculation, and would of itself easily +double the mental output of every family into which it entered.</p> + +<p>Christianity will provide for the intellectual and spiritual education of +girls as well as boys, when once the Christian point of view has been +attained. The typical Chinese mother is “an ignorant woman with babies,” +but she is not the Chinese ideal woman as the long list of educated ladies +in many dynasties (a number too considerable to be ignored but too +insignificant to be influential) abundantly shows. A Chinese girl told her +foreign friend that before Christianity came into her life, she used to go +about her work humming a ballad, consisting of the words: “The beautiful +teacup; the painted teacup; the teacup, the teacup, the beautiful, +beautiful teacup.” Contrast the outlook from such an intellectual +mouse-hole with the vista of a maiden whose thoughts are elevated to the +stars and the angels. By developing the neglected spiritual nature, +Christianity will broaden and deepen the existing rills of natural +affection into glorious rivers wide and deep, supplementing the physical +and the material by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>intellectual and the divine. By cultivating a +fellowship between mothers and daughters in all these and in other lines, +it will make it easier for children to love their fathers and respect +their mothers, and will fill the lives of both parents and children with +new impulses, new motives and new ambitions. It will impel mothers to give +their daughters much needed instruction in their future duties as +daughters-in-law and as wives, instead of throwing them overboard as now, +often in mere childhood, expecting them to swim untaught, against the +current, and in the dark.</p> + +<p>It will for the first time provide and develop for the daughters girl +friendships, adapted to their long-felt but uncomprehended needs. The +education of Chinese women is a condition of the renovation of the empire. +No nation, no race can rise above the status of its mothers and its wives. +How deftly yet how surely Christianity is beginning to plant its tiny +acorns in the rifts of the granitic rock may be seen in the surprising +results already attained. When the present isolated and initiatory +experiments shall have had time to bring forth fruit after their kind, it +will be clearly perceived that a new and an Imperial force has entered +into the Chinese world.</p> + +<p>Christianity wherever introduced tends to a more rational selection of +partners for its sons and daughters than has ever been known before. In +place of the mercenary considerations which alone find place in the +ordinary practice of the Chinese, it naturally and inevitably leads to the +choice of Christian maidens for daughters-in-law, and Christian youths for +sons-in-law. It attaches weight to character, disposition and acquirements +instead of to wealth and to social position alone. A Christian community +is the only one in China where it is possible to learn with certainty all +important facts with regard to those who may be proposed for matrimonial +engagements, because it is only in such a community that dependence can be +placed upon the representations of third parties. As Christian communities +come more and more to distinct self-consciousness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> more and more care +will be exercised in making matches. Christians are indeed the only +Chinese who can be made to feel that caution in this direction is a +religious duty. The result of this process continued for an extended +period will produce by “natural selection” a distinctly new type of +Chinese, physically, intellectually, and morally the superiors of all +types about them and therefore more fitted to survive.</p> + +<p>Chinese customs will not be rashly invaded, but the ultimate tendency will +be to postpone marriage to a suitable age, to consider the preferences of +the principal parties—so far as they may have any—and to make wedlock a +sacred solemnity instead of merely a social necessity.</p> + +<p>Christianity will make no compromise with polygamy and concubinage, but +will cut the tap-root of a upas-tree which now poisons Chinese society +wherever its branches spread. Christianity will gradually revolutionize +the relations between the young husband and his bride. Their common +intellectual and spiritual equipment will have fitted them to become +companions to one another, instead of merely commercial partners in a +kettle of rice. The little ones will be born into a Christian atmosphere +as different from that of a non-Christian household as the temperature of +Florida from that of Labrador. These forces will be self-perpetuating and +cumulative.</p> + +<p>Christianity will purify and sweeten the Chinese home, now always and +everywhere liable to devastating hurricanes of passion, and too often +filled with evil-speaking, bitterness and wrath. The imperative inhibition +of all manner of reviling would alone do more for domestic harmony than +all the wise maxims of the sages mechanically learned and repeated could +accomplish in a lifetime. Indeed, Christianity will take these +semi-animate precepts of the dead past, breathe into them for the first +time the breath of life, and then reinforce them with the Word of the Lord +and the sanctions of His Law.</p> + +<p>Christianity will introduce a new and a potent factor into the social life +of the Chinese by its energy as a prophylactic.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> Chinese society has a +virtuous talent for “talking peace” when there is no peace, and when +matters have come to such a pitch that a catastrophe appears inevitable. +But the remedy almost invariably comes too late. Chinese “peace-talking” +is usually a mere dust-storm, unpleasantly affecting the eyes, the ears, +the nostrils of every one exposed to it, thinly covering up the +surrounding filth with even impartiality, while after all leaving the +whole of it just where it was before. Christianity is an efficient +sanitary commission which aims at removing everything that can breed +pestilence. In this it will not, indeed, entirely succeed, but its +introduction upon a large scale will as certainly modify Chinese society, +as a strong and steady north-east wind will eventually dissipate a dense +fog.</p> + +<p>As has been already remarked, perhaps there is no single Chinese custom +which is the source of a larger variety of mischief than that of keeping +large family organizations in a condition of dependence upon one another +and upon a common property, instead of dividing it up among the several +sons, leaving each free to work out his own destiny. The inevitable result +is chronic discontent, jealousy, suspicion, and on the part of many +indolence. This is as clearly perceived by the Chinese as by us, indeed +far more so, but hereditary cowardice, dread of criticism, and especially +of ridicule prevent myriads of families from effecting the desired and +necessary division, lest they be laughed at. Christianity is itself a +defiance of all antecedent public opinion, and an appeal to a new and an +illuminated understanding. Christian communities will probably more and +more tend to follow the Scriptural plan of making one man and one woman a +new family, and by this process alone will save themselves an infinity of +misery. This will be done, not by the superimposition of any force from +without, but by the exercise of a common sense which has been at once +enlightened to see and emboldened to act, attacking with courage whatever +needs amendment.</p> + +<p>Christianity will introduce an entirely new element into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> friendships +of the Chinese, now too often based upon the selfish considerations +suggested by the maxim of Confucius, “Have no friends not equal to +yourself.” Friendship is reckoned among the Five Relations and occupies a +prominent place in Chinese thought as in Chinese life. But after all is +conceded in regard to it which can be reasonably claimed, it remains true +that its benefits are constantly alloyed by mutual insincerity and +suspicion, and not infrequently by jealousy. This the Chinese themselves +are ready to admit in the frankest manner; but as they have no experience +of friendships which arise from conditions above and beyond those of the +material issues of everyday life, no remedy for existing evils is ever +thought of as possible. Those Chinese who have become intimate with +congenial Christian friends, recognize at once that there is a flavour and +a zest in such friendships not only unknown before, but absolutely beyond +the range of imagination. Amid the poverty, barrenness, and +discouragements of most Chinese lives, the gift of a wholly new +relationship of the sort which Christianity imparts is to be reckoned +among the choicest treasures of existence.</p> + +<p>The theory of the Chinese social organization is admirable and beautiful, +but the principles which underlie it are utterly inert. When Christianity +shows the Chinese for the first time what these traditional principles +really mean, the theories will begin to take shape as possibilities, even +as the bones of Ezekiel’s vision took on flesh. Then it will more clearly +appear how great an advantage the Chinese race has enjoyed in its lofty +moral code. The Classical but not altogether intelligible aphorism that +“within the Four Seas all are Brethren,” requires the Christian teaching +regarding a common Father to make it vital to Chinese consciousness. When +once the Chinese have grasped the practical truth of the Fatherhood of God +and the Brotherhood of Man, the starlight of the past will have been +merged into the sunlight of the future.</p> + +<p>In China the family is a microcosm of the empire. To amplify<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> +illustrations of the <i>modus operandi</i> of Christianity on a wider scale +beyond the family is superfluous. What Christianity can do in one place it +can do in another. Though soils and climate vary, the seed is the same. +For the changes which Christianity alone can affect, China is waiting +to-day as never before. Her most intelligent thinkers—too few alas, in +number—recognize that <i>something</i> must be done for her. They hope that by +the adoption of certain formulæ, educational, industrial, economical, +China may be saved, not perceiving that her vital lack is neither Capital +nor Machinery, but Men. The New China is to be penetrated by numerous +railways, and by steam navigation of its inland waters. Vast industrial +enterprises such as mines and factories will call for great supplies of +labour from the most numerous people on earth. In the management of these +immense and varied interests, in the conduct of the new education which +China cannot dispense with, in the administration of all branches of its +government China must have men of conscience, and of sterling character. +It has hitherto been impossible to secure any such men except by +importation; how is it to be otherwise in the future? Only by the +cultivation of conscience and character as they have been cultivated in +lands to which China is at last driven to turn for help. Like all +processes of development this will be a slow one, but it will be sure; and +aside from it there is literally no hope for China.</p> + +<p>With its other great benefits Christianity will confer upon China real +patriotism, at present existing almost entirely in the blind impulses of +the bias of national feeling. During the political crises of the past few +years, the great mass of the Chinese people have been profoundly +indifferent to the fate of their country, and in this respect there has +been little distinction between scholars, farmers, merchants, and coolies. +Each individual has been chiefly occupied in considering how in any +cataclysm impending he could make with fate the best bargain for himself. +If there are any exceptions to this generalization,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> so far as we know +they consist exclusively of those who have been acted upon by forces from +outside of China.</p> + +<p>The Christian converts are now sufficiently numerous to show in what +direction their influence will be felt in the not distant future. They are +keenly alive to what is taking place in the empire, and they may almost be +said to be the only Chinese in it who are so. China will never have +patriotic subjects until she has Christian subjects, and in China as +elsewhere Christianity and patriotism will be found to advance hand in +hand.</p> + +<p>It must be distinctly understood that all which we have said of the +potency of Christianity as of “unwasting and secular force” is based upon +the conception of it as a moral power “producing certain definite though +small results during a certain period of time, and of a nature adapted to +produce indefinite similar results in unlimited time.” It is therefore +eminently reasonable to point out that under no circumstances can it +produce its full effects in less than <i>three complete generations</i>. By +that time Christian heredity will have begun to operate. A clear +perception of this fundamental truth would do much to abate the impatience +alike of its promotors and its critics.</p> + +<p>There are some Occidentals with large knowledge of China who seriously +raise the question, What good can Christianity do in China? Of what use is +it for a Chinese to be “converted”?</p> + +<p>To infer from any phenomena of Chinese life that the Chinese do not need a +radical readjustment of their relations is to judge most superficially. +Patient and long continued examination of these phenomena in their endless +variety and complexity, shows clearly the imperative necessity of a force +from without to accomplish what all the forces from within operating +unimpeded for ages have been powerless to effect. To those who know the +Chinese people as they are the question what good Christianity can do +them, answers itself. Of the necessity of a new power the Chinese +themselves are acutely conscious. If what has been already set forth in +proof of the proposition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> that there is imperative need of renovation is +regarded as irrelevant or inadequate, then further debate is indeed vain.</p> + +<p>But it may be objected that the views here taken of the efficacy of the +remedy are exaggerated. Those Chinese who have had the best opportunity to +become acquainted with the nature of the benefits which Christianity +affords, perceive its adaptation to China’s need. All that is required to +render the proof to every reasonable inquirer as complete as evidence can +be made, is a searching and scientific analysis of known facts. The case +for Christianity in China may rest solely upon the transformations which +it actually effects. These are not upon the surface, but they are as real +and as capable of being accurately noted as the amount of the rain-fall, +or the precession of the equinoxes. They consist of revolutionized lives +due to the implanting of new motives and the influence of a new life. They +occur in many different strata of society, and with the ever widening +base-line of Christian work they are found in ever increasing numbers. At +first few and isolated, they are now counted by scores of thousands. Among +them are many immature and blighted developments, as is true of all +transitional phenomena everywhere; but the indisputable residuum of +genuine transformations furnish a great cloud of witnesses in the presence +of which it is unnecessary to inquire further what good Christianity will +do the Chinese, and of what use it will be to a Chinese to be converted. +It will make him a new man, with a new insight and a new outlook. It will +give back his lost soul and spirit, and pour into all the avenues of his +nature new <i>life</i>. There is not a human relation in which it will not be +felt immediately, profoundly, and beneficently.</p> + +<p>It will sanctify childhood, ennoble motherhood, dignify manhood, and +purify every social condition. That Christianity has by no means yet done +for Western lands all that we expect it to do for China, we are perfectly +aware. Christianity has succeeded wherever it has been practiced. It is no +valid objection to it that it has been misunderstood, misrepresented<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> and +ignored. Whatever defects are to be found in any Christian land, not the +most unintelligent or the most sceptical would be willing to be +transplanted into the non-Christian conditions out of which every +Christian land has been evolved. It must be remembered also that although +the lessons of Christianity are old, the pupils are ever new. Each +generation has to learn its lesson afresh. It has well been said that +heredity, so mighty a force for evil, has not yet been captured for +Christianity on any large scale, and its reserves turned to the +furtherance of Christian forces. When it has been so taken captive, +progress upward will be greatly accelerated.</p> + +<p>How long it will take Christianity to renovate an empire like China, is a +question which may be answered in different ways, but only hypothetically. +First by historical analogies. It took eight centuries to develop the +Roman Empire. It has taken about as long to mold Saxon, Danish, and Norman +elements into the England of to-day. Each of these race-stocks were at the +start barbarous. The Chinese are an ancient and a highly civilized race, a +fact which may be in some respects a help in their Christianization, and +in others a hindrance. Taking into account the intensity of Chinese +prejudices, the strength of Chinese conservatism, the vast numbers +involved and their compact, patriarchal life, we should expect the first +steps to be very slow. Reckoning from the general opening of China in +1860, fifty years would suffice for a good beginning, three hundred for a +general diffusion of Christianity, and five hundred for its obvious +superseding of all rival faiths. Reasoning from history and psychology +this is perhaps a probable rate of progress, and its realization would be +a great result.</p> + +<p>There is however a different sort of forecast which appeals to many minds +more powerfully. It must be remembered that spiritual development, like +that of races, is slow in its inception, but once begun it takes little +account of the rules of ratio and proportion. The intellectual, moral, and +spiritual forces of Christianity are now far greater than they have ever +been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> before. The world is visibly contracted. The life of the man of +to-day is that of “a condensed Methusaleh.” The nineteenth century +outranks the previous millennium. Great material forces are but types and +handmaids of the great spiritual forces which may be reinforced and +multiplied—as they have been at certain periods of the past—to a degree +at the present little anticipated.</p> + +<p>Putting aside all consideration of the time element, we consider it +certain that what Christianity has done for us it will do for the Chinese, +and under conditions far more favourable, by reason of the high +vitalization of the age in which we live, its unfettered communication, +and the rapid transfusion of intellectual and spiritual forces. The +forecast of results like these is no longer the iridescent dream which it +once appeared. It is sober history rationally interpreted. When +Christianity shall have had opportunity to work out its full effects, it +will be perceived to have been pervasive leaven in the individual heart, +in society, and in the world. Whether it is to take five centuries or +fifty to produce these results appears to be a matter of altogether minor +importance in view of certain success in the end.</p> + +<p>There are in China many questions and many problems, but the one great +question, the sole all-comprehending problem is how to set Christianity at +work upon them, which alone in time can and will solve them all.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>END</strong></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p> +<h2>Index</h2> + +<p> +Abacus, Chinese, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Abdomen, the seat of intellect, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Actors debarred from literary degrees, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">different grades, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">salaries, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Adobe houses, construction, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Adoption, conditions, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aged, occasional hard lot of the, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Analects” quoted, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Architecture of China described, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Arnold of Rugby <i>vs.</i> Confucius, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +“Backing” the lesson, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illustration, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Betrothal, evils of early, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bookkeeping, difficult in Chinese, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Book of Surnames,” <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Books copied by poor scholars, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Borrowing, its universal necessity, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Bowl associations,” <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /> +<a name="boys" id="boys"></a><br /> +Boys and men, village:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">infancy of, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“milknames” given them, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why called by girls’ names, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">names a clue to relationship, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“style,” <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">secret titles used on letters, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">titles for men, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">boys carried about for years, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chinese fathers not sympathetic with childhood, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">boys’ amusements and toys, <a href="#Page_242">242-245</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">do not rob birds’ nests, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">work of boys, <a href="#Page_245">245-247</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their wages, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">outings, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“donning the cap” on arriving at majority, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">getting married, <a href="#Page_248">248-250</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adoption of sons, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adopting a daughter’s husband, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“reverting to original names,” <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two branches of a family represented by one man, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">treatment in serious illness, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">subordination of men to the elder relationships, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">summary of village boy’s limitations, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bricks, colour and manufacture of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adobe, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bridal chair, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its dismantling, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bully, the village:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">peculiar to China, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chinese traits favouring his existence, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">names, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">differentiated from four cognate classes of society, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dual classification of villagers, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">three varieties of bully, <a href="#Page_212">212-225</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dress of bullies, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how one becomes a “village king,” <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gymnastic preparation, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poverty as a qualification, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bullies as incendiaries, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as crop injurers, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feeders to the yamêns, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devices used against the rich, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the literary bully, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the female bully, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">organization of a bully’s followers, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacks on yamêns, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">worsted, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">power when influential, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an illustration of such a bully, <a href="#Page_223">223-225</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Candidates for examination, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Carts, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how drawn, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span><br /> +Cash, one way of securing rare coins, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cash payments rare, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cave dwellings, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chang Kung, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chên-tien, or market towns, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Christianity, what can it do for China? it can care for children physically, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it creates sympathy between parents and children, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it teaches child-training, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">it will revolutionise education, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will educate girls as well as boys, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will foster girl friendships, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will lead to Christian choice of partners in marriage, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will postpone marriage to a suitable age, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will oppose polygamy and concubinage, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will sweeten and purify home life, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will be a true peacemaker, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will make man and wife the unit of society, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will change ideals of friendship, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will implant Christian idea of brotherhood, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will improve the government, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">will implant patriotism, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the time required for this process, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">this prophecy based on past accomplishment, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christianity’s ultimate triumph, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Chu Hsi’s Commentary, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cities irregular in form and reason therefor, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">monotonous appearance, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Civilization unable to vitally change China, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Classics,” their excellencies, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their defects, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Classification unheard of in Chinese schools, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Colquhoun’s volume and its importance, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, note.<br /> +<br /> +Concubinage, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300-302</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Confucius and his son, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his theory of teaching, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">honoured in schools, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Constables, local, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Conversation, topics of, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cotton-gathering and manufacture, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cotton-gleaning, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Courtyard, arrangement of buildings in a, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">animals in, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Crop-watching societies, why necessary, <a href="#Page_161">161-164</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of watchers’ lodges, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fate of captured thieves, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">announcing the existence of a society, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how expense is borne, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agreement entered into, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trial and punishment of thieves, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fines, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on health, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Daughters, infancy of, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dead, marrying to the, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Degrees, sale of, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">three methods of falsely securing, <a href="#Page_122">122-126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">motives leading men to compete for degrees, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Democracy in China apparent, not real, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dictionary, standard Chinese, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Digging through walls by thieves, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Display, Chinese love of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Distant reserve,” a Chinese factor in education, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +District officials’ occasional objections to theatres, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Divorce, seven grades of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dogs destroyers of crops, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Door-locking and thieves, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dunning must be repeated, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Educational Edicts of 1898, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">results, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span><br /> +Education, Chinese theories of, <a href="#Page_71">71-73</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its object, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Education of girls unnecessary, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Emigration made necessary in Yung Lo’s time, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Essay brokers, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Essay, its place in Chinese education, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Examinations announced, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>District Examinations</i>, first day, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second to fourth days, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fees, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second examination on fifth or sixth day, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">third examination, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fourth examination, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fifth examination, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of successful candidates small, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Prefectural Examinations</i>, their character, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of candidates, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">severity of hall regulations, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fees of successful candidates, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“joyful announcements,” <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">honours paid successful candidates, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">diplomas lacking, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">literary buttons and their forfeiture, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">result of negligence of examiners, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examinations required after first degree is obtained, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fairs, shopkeepers preparing for, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gambling at temple fairs, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">differentiated from markets, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">numbers attending, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">duration, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">essentials to their success, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opened by a play, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +“Falconing” with a woman, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Family disunity:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why marriage is an element in this, <a href="#Page_324">324-326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disunity due to daughters, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to married sons living at home, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to distribution of property, <a href="#Page_327">327-329</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to “empty grain-tax land,” <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to poisoning propensities, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to lack of mutual confidence, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to lack of sympathy and pity, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to “face,” <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to transmigration ideas, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">due to domestic brawls, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">partial remedy for this disunity, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Family, unstable equilibrium of the Chinese:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unit of social life, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">equilibrium affected by famine, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by inundation, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by rebellions, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by the labour market, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by lawsuits, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by debts, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by sickness, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by gambling and opium among the wealthy, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by social immorality, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Farmers in China comparatively independent, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Farms in various plots, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Feast” in its technical sense, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ferries, why essential in the North, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">loading animals and carts on the boats, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unloading, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why ferry reforms are deemed impossible, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ferule and its uses, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Financiering, seven deadly sins of Chinese, <a href="#Page_204">204-208</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Five Classics,” <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Five degrees of relationship, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foot-binding, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foreigners attacked in theatres, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Four Books,” <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Freedom of assembling, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Funerals:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of suicides, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why pillaging occurs at rich men’s funerals, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fate of unpopular survivors, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">announcing funeral expense deficits, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">coöperative bearers, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">catafalque ownership, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral aid societies, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two factors determining elaborateness of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rites of the “seven sevens,” <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shabby paraphernalia, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mourning costume, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">blocking the procession, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral director’s duties, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at the grave, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Gathering fuel and manure, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> +<a name="girls" id="girls"></a><br /> +Girls and women in China:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">girls’ inferiority to boys, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unwelcome at birth, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reasons for female infanticide, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sale of daughters, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“rearing marriage,” <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">foot-binding, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">girls’ employments, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confined at home, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">married daughter’s return home and its consequences, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">daughters rarely taught to read, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anxiety about girl’s betrothal, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">restrictions after betrothal, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evils of early engagements, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engagement cards, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrival of bridal chair, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“lucky days” sometimes unlucky, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">delivery of bride essential feature of wedding, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dowry, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth of first baby, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">children must be born at their father’s house, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">faulty care of infants and children, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mortality of infants, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early senility of women, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">incessant labours of women, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">daughter- and mother-in-law, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abuse of daughters-in-law and consequent retaliation, <a href="#Page_277">277-279</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lawsuits in such cases are rare, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">result of bride’s suicide, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a typical case, <a href="#Page_282">282-286</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of women suicides, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suicide a virtue, extract from the <i>Shih Pao</i>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">grounds of divorce, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why women must be married, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prudishness in speaking about marriage, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sons should be married before parents’ death, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage to epileptics, idiots, etc., <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">kidnapping of wives, <a href="#Page_292">292-295</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wives sold by husbands, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“cheaper than an animal,” <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concubines, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300-302</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marrying the dead, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">men and women do not eat together, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">husband and wife do not converse, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wife’s twofold defence, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hen-pecked husbands, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">classical teaching concerning women, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confucianism’s seven sins against woman: lack of education, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sale of wives and daughters, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early and too universal marriage, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">female infanticide, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">secondary wives, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suicide of wives and daughters, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">overpopulation, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +God of Literature, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +God of War, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Government high schools or colleges, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Government, weaknesses of Chinese, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its strength, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Grapevines unlucky in yards, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Greek drama in some respects like the Chinese, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hare hunting in Denmark, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Harrying to death,” <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Headmen, village: names, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">qualifications, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">duties and functions, <a href="#Page_227">227-229</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“ins” and “outs,” <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why incompetents are not removed, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">result of complaints illustrated, <a href="#Page_230">230-232</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">facility with which troubles arise in village life, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +High schools, how different from common schools, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Government high schools, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +History, Chinese, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +History taught through plays, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hospitable man described, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Houses of stone, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of bricks, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">of adobe, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their roof, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rooms, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">doors, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">windows, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">k‘angs, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">floors, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">furnishings, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Hsien District, conditions in, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, note.<br /> +<br /> +Hsiu-ts‘ai obliged to attend examinations after graduation, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ice-sleds, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Illness announced and the results, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Imperial University in Peking, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Incendiary fires, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Infanticide of girls, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition to, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Infant mortality, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Intellectuality without stimulus except in school, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intellectual obtuseness, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Interest per month, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +K‘ang, construction and use of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kidnapping wives, <a href="#Page_292">292-295</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kinship claimed for inheritance, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kitchen god, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at New Year, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Kung-shêng’s rank, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lending a necessity, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Letters, ambiguity of address, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Letter-writing, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Life in villages, monotony and vacuity of: villages a fixture, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their intellectual life in grooves, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">illiteracy a source of vacuity, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">topics of conversation, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indifference to happenings outside the village, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">travelled villagers speedily stagnate, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Li Hung Chang honouring snakes, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Literary chancellor’s duties, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Live-stock fairs, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Loan Societies, object, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">simplest form, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feasts, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">societies charging interest, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">method of securing loans, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tables illustrating their working, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">insuring payment, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">risks involved, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hong Kong lawsuit <i>re</i> such societies, <a href="#Page_158">158-160</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Local deity, T‘u-ti, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lord Clive a Chinese bully in boyhood, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Lord-of-bitterness,” <i>i. e.</i>, elder brother, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Markets, why necessary, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">harmful to morals, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“official” markets, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number attending, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">use made of market taxes, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">market-day nomenclature, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“market” and “fair” differentiated, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">taxes levied, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">coöperation most helpful in one respect, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Mencius’ view of teachers, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Men (See <a href="#boys">Boys and men</a>).<br /> +<br /> +Mill, James, and his method of teaching, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mind, characteristics of the Chinese, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">like a high bicycle, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ming Huang, the god of actors, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mohammedans exempt from temple assessment, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mothers-in-law, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Names of villages derived from surnames, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">from temples, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confusion in names, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">names derived from distances, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">villages nicknamed, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">singular names, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Naming children, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a clue to relationship, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +New Year in China:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dumplings, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">family reunions, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">new clothes essential to, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">New Year religious rites, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its social ceremonies, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">universal leisure of the time, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gambling, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">debt-paying, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lantern search for debtors, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +New Year Societies:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fees, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of funds, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">consequences if not paid, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gamblers’ use of its funds, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +“Odes, Book of,” quoted, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Parents, care of in Chinese theory, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Partial payments in China, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Peking Gazette</i>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pig-styes, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pits near villages, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Poisoning in China, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Population of China:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ignorance of the Chinese people concerning it, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">official ignorance on the subject, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attempts of foreigners to ascertain density in certain districts, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">too great, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Poverty characteristic of China, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its alleviation, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Property, distribution of, <a href="#Page_327">327-329</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Proverbs:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concerning teachers, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">school discipline in last month, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">necessity of continuous study, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reading required, if one would know history, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">funeral feasts, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">girls <i>vs.</i> boys, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">obstreperous women, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">daughters useless to mother’s family, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Punctuality a lost art in China, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Rain-making:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gods connected therewith, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">iron tablets used, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why these methods seem efficacious, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">detrimental influences, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">punishment of unsuccessful rain-gods, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Reforms in China, how to be secured, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">difficult in educational matters, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Relationships, assumed, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Religious societies, four characteristics of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two varieties of “Mountain Societies,” <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">program on reaching the mountain, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the secret sects, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Roads in villages used as shops, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“low-ways,” <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why crooked, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flanked by ditches, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in rainy season often rivers, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">method of making new ones, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">road-building and la grippe, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Scholars “not utensils,” <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">economically they are useless, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an exception, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">begging of foreigners, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">without adequate literary apparatus, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their ignorance of history, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of geography, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their conservatism, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lack of literary judgment, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ignorance of arithmetic, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strolling scholars, <a href="#Page_107">107-109</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">functions at funerals, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in lawsuits, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">subjectivity of, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gullibility, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">riots due to their credulity, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Schoolboy beginning his studies, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">honoured in the family, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a spoiled child, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of study, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Schoolhouses, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their furniture, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Schools in villages, why important, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prevalence of schools, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abundance of teachers, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">salaries, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">school lists, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">arrangements concerning tuition, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">schoolhouses, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">furniture, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">duration of school year, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vacations, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">honour shown to Confucius, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">school hours and intermissions, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">heating schoolrooms, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returning from school, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">severity of discipline, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shouting in study, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“backing,” <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">books studied, <a href="#Page_82">82-85</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“explaining,” <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writing exercises, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">studies interrupted by teacher’s guests and his examinations, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">playing in the school, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">irregular attendance of pupils, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lack of classification, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">no genuine intellectual work done, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two valuable lessons learned at school, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">do not teach arithmetic, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their strength and weakness, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Screens before gates, their use, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Secret sects, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Seers or “bright-eyes,” <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shan-tung productions, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shops in villages, goods sold, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">headquarters from which to radiate to fairs, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hard lot of clerks, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">case of meat seller, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cheating methods, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Sorghum, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stripping off lower leaves, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Strolling scholars, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Style” of individuals, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Suicide, punishment for inciting to, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Superintendent of Instruction, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Surety” for literary candidates, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Surnames, Book of,” <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Surnames, the four common ones, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +T‘ai Shan’s historical importance, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its pilgrimages, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“Mountain Societies,” <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Taxes on “empty grain-tax land,” <a href="#Page_329">329</a><br /> +<br /> +Teacher’s hard lot as pictured in a play, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in proverbs, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in experience, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">do not teach in their own towns, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their manner of life, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">honourable position, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unlimited power, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to pupils, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">substitute teachers, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Western criticism of, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Temples to be used as schoolhouses, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how village temples came to be built, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reasons for their absence in some villages, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">two gods most commonly honoured with temples, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">uses made of building fund surplus, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resorts of thieves and beggars, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">temple expenses, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as receptacles of coffins and funeral paraphernalia, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">different deities in same temple, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">temple tax at fairs, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lawsuits over, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Theatre, its origin in China, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">little understood by foreigners, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the stage and its equipment, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the theatre an investment, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">costumes, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">classes of players, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amateurs, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">child apprentices, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plays a public benefit, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">occasions for giving a play, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cost of presenting it, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the “program bearer,” <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">transporting stage properties, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">preparations for a theatre, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">used as a device for attracting customers for fairs, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">impression made by a play, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plays as a social factor, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a drain upon hosts, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">subjects of plays, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">synopsis of one, <a href="#Page_66">66-68</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the theatre an index of the Chinese theory of life, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Thieves’ action at theatres, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">use temples as resorts, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +“Thousand Character Classic,” <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Title deeds often lost, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span><br /> +Torture as a means of raising temple funds, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +“Trimetrical Classic” quoted, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">origin, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">epitomised, <a href="#Page_82">82-84</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its allusions often not understood, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Village hunt, why possible in populous China, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the bald annunciator of the hare-hunt, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the hunt described, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resulting quarrels, <a href="#Page_176">176-178</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Villages, number of in India, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the residence of most Chinese, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">irregularly laid out, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how first settled, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">streets and alleys, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">overcrowding, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">village walls and their use, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nearness of one to another, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">each village a principality, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +“Vinegar sipping,” <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Wages of farm labourers, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of boys, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Washington and the cherry tree in Chinese, <a href="#Page_333">333-335</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Weddings:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a “joyful event,” <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wedding contributions, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bride’s arrival the essence of the wedding, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exposition of the “share” principle, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">account-keeping at weddings, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">duties of the wedding committee, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">city and village caterers, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">three “wedding committees,” <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“borrowing” provisions, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opium smoking stewards, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poor relatives at weddings, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“drawing friends,” <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pranks at, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Week, unique survival of the, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wells, manner of digging, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">driven wells, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">occasions of feuds, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unpopular people forbidden to use, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Western ideas needed for Chinese well-diggers, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how a force pump was refused by a village, <a href="#Page_46">46-48</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Western Learning Edict, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wife of Tao-t‘ai envying a dog, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, note.<br /> +<br /> +Woman (See <a href="#girls">Girls and women</a>).<br /> +<br /> +Women have no name, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">terms used, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Writing Chinese very difficult, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Yellow River, “China’s Sorrow,” <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<div class="adverts"> +<p class="center"><strong>Selections from</strong><br /><strong><big>Fleming H. Revell Company’s</big></strong><br /><strong>Missionary Lists</strong></p> + +<p class="center"><br />New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br /> +Chicago: 63 Washington Street<br /> +Toronto: 154 Yonge Street</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong><i>MISSIONS, CHINA.</i></strong></p> + +<p>Chinese Characteristics.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Rev. <span class="smcap">Arthur H. Smith</span>, D.D., for 25 years a Missionary in China. +With 16 full-page original Illustrations, and index. <i>Sixth thousand. +Popular edition.</i> 8vo, cloth, $1.25.</p> + +<p>“The best book on the Chinese people.”—<i>The Examiner.</i></p></div> + +<p>A Cycle of Cathay;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Or, China, South and North. With personal reminiscences. By <span class="smcap">W. A. P. +Martin</span> D.D., LLD., President Emeritus of the Imperial Tungwen +College, Peking. With 70 Illustrations from photographs and native +drawings, a Map and an index. <i>Second edition.</i> 8vo, cloth decorated, +$2.00.</p> + +<p>“No student of Eastern affairs can afford to neglect this work, which +will take its place with Dr. William’s ‘Middle Kingdom,’ as an +authoritative work on China.”—<i>The Outlook.</i></p></div> + +<p>Glances at China.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Rev. <span class="smcap">Gilbert Reid</span>, M.A., Founder of the Mission to the Higher +Classes. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, 80c.</p></div> + +<p>Pictures of Southern China.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Rev. <span class="smcap">James MacGowan</span>. With 80 Illustrations. 8vo, cloth, $4.20.</p></div> + +<p>A Winter in North China.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Rev. <span class="smcap">T. M. Morris</span>. With an Introduction by Rev. <span class="smcap">Richard Glover</span>, +D.D., and a Map. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.</p></div> + +<p>John Livingston Nevius,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>For Forty Years a Missionary in Shantung. By his wife, <span class="smcap">Helen S. C. +Nevius</span>. With an Introduction by the Rev. <span class="smcap">W. A. P. Martin</span>, D.D. +Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, $2.00.</p></div> + +<p>The Sister Martyrs of Ku Cheng.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Letters and a Memoir of <span class="smcap">Eleanor</span> and <span class="smcap">Elizabeth Saunders</span>, Massacred +August 1st, 1895. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, $1.50.</p></div> + +<p>China.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Rev. <span class="smcap">J. T. Gracey</span>, D.D. <i>Seventh edition</i>, revised. 16mo, paper, +15c.</p></div> + +<p>Protestant Missions in China.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By <span class="smcap">D. Willard Lyon</span>, a Secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement. +16mo, paper, 15c.</p></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong><i>Missions, China and Formosa.</i></strong></p> + +<p>James Gilmour, of Mongolia.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>His Diaries, Letters and Reports. Edited and arranged by <span class="smcap">Richard +Lovett</span>, M.A. With three photogravure Portraits and Illustrations. +8vo, cloth, gilt top, $1.75.</p> + +<p>“It is a vivid picture of twenty years of devoted and heroic service +in a field as hard as often falls to the lot of a worker in foreign +lands.”—<i>The Congregationalist.</i></p></div> + +<p>Among the Mongols.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Rev. <span class="smcap">James Gilmour</span>. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.</p></div> + +<p>James Gilmour and His Boys.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Being Letters to his Sons in England. With facsimiles of Letters, a +Map and other Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.</p></div> + +<p>Griffith John,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Founder of the Hankow Mission, Central China. By <span class="smcap">William Robson</span>. +Missionary Biography Series. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>John Kenneth Mackenzie,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Medical Missionary to China. With the Story of the first Chinese +Hospital. By Mrs. <span class="smcap">Mary I. Bryson</span>. With portrait. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.</p></div> + +<p>The Story of the China Inland Mission.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By <span class="smcap">M. Geraldine Guinness</span>. Introduction by <span class="smcap">J. Hudson Taylor</span>, F.R.G.S. +Illustrated, 2 volumes, 8vo, cloth, each, $1.50.</p></div> + +<p>From Far Formosa:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Island, its People and Missions. By Rev. <span class="smcap">G. L. Mackay</span>, D.D., 23 +years a missionary on the island. Well indexed. With many +Illustrations from photographs by the author and several Maps. <i>Fifth +thousand. Popular edition.</i> 8vo, cloth, $1.25.</p></div> + +<p>China and Formosa.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Story of the Mission of the Presbyterian Church of England. By +Rev. <span class="smcap">James Johnson</span>, editor of “Missionary Conference Report, 1888.” +With 4 Maps and many Illustrations, prepared for this work. 8vo, +cloth, $1.75.</p></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong><i>MISSIONS, JAPAN.</i></strong></p> + +<p>Rambles in Japan,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Land of the Rising Sun. By Rev. Canon <span class="smcap">H. B. Tristram</span>, D.D., +F.R.S. With forty-six illustrations by <span class="smcap">Edward Whymper</span>, a Map, and an +index. 8vo, cloth, $2.00.</p> + +<p>“A delightful book by a competent author, who, as a naturalist, +writes well of the country, while as a Christian and a humanitarian +he writes with sympathy of the new institutions of new Japan.”—<i>The +Independent.</i></p></div> + +<p>The Gist of Japan:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Islands, their People, and Missions. By Rev. <span class="smcap">R. B. Peery</span>, A.M., +Ph.D., of the Lutheran Mission, Saga. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth +decorated, $1.25.</p> + +<p>This book does not pretend to be an exhaustive treatise of an +exhaustless topic; it does pretend to cover the subject; and +whosoever is eager to know the “gist” of those matters Japanese in +which Westerners are most interested—the land, the people, the +coming of Christianity, the difficulties and prospects of her +missions, the condition of the native Church—will find it set down +in Dr. Peery’s book in a very interesting, reliable, instructive, and +condensed form.</p></div> + +<p>The Ainu of Japan.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Religion, Superstitions, and General History of the Hairy +Aborigines of Japan. By Rev. <span class="smcap">John Batchelor</span>. With 80 Illustrations. +12 mo, cloth, $1.50.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Batchelor’s book, besides its eighty trustworthy illustrations, +its careful editing, and its excellent index, is replete with +information of all sorts about the Ainu men, women, and children. +Almost every phase of their physical and metaphysical life has been +studied, and carefully noted.”—<i>The Nation.</i></p></div> + +<p>The Diary of a Japanese Convert.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By <span class="smcap">Kanzo Uchimura</span>. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.</p> + +<p>“This book is far more than the name indicates. It is the only book +of its kind published in the English language, if not in any +language. It is something new under the sun, and is as original as it +is new. It has the earmarks of a strong and striking individuality, +is clear in diction, forceful in style, and fearless in +criticism.”—<i>The Interior.</i></p></div> + +<p>A Maker of the New Japan.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Joseph Hardy Neesima, the Founder of Doshisha University. By Rev. <span class="smcap">J. +D. Davis</span>, D.D., Professor in Doshisha. Illustrated. <i>Second edition.</i> +12mo, cloth, $1.00.</p> + +<p>“The life is admirably and spiritedly written, and its hero stands +forth as one of the most romantic and inspiring figures of modern +times, a benefactor to his own country and an object of tender regard +on our part; for it was to the United States that Mr. Neesima turned +for light and help in his educational plans.”—<i>The Examiner.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong><i>MISSIONS, PACIFIC ISLANDS.</i></strong></p> + +<p>John G. Paton,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Missionary to the New Hebrides. An Autobiography, edited by his +brother. With an Introductory Note by Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D. +Illustrated. <i>Tenth thousand.</i> 2 vols., 12mo, cloth, gilt top, boxed, +net, $2.00; <i>cheaper edition</i>, 1 vol., 12mo, cloth, $1.50.</p> + +<p>“We commend to all who would advance the cause of Foreign Missions +this remarkable autobiography. It stands with such books as those Dr. +Livingstone gave the world, and shows to men that the heroes of the +cross are not merely to be sought in past ages.”—<i>The Christian +Intelligencer.</i></p></div> + +<p>Bishop Patterson,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Martyr of Melanesia. By <span class="smcap">Jessie Page</span>. Missionary Biography Series. +Illustrated. <i>Thirteenth thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>James Calvert;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Or, From Dark to Dawn in Fiji. By <span class="smcap">R. Vernon</span>. Missionary Biography +Series. Illustrated. <i>Tenth thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>From Darkness to Light in Polynesia.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>With Illustrative Clan Songs. By <span class="smcap">Rev. William Wyatt Gill</span>, LL.D. +Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, $2.40.</p></div> + +<p>John Williams,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Martyr Missionary of Polynesia. By <span class="smcap">Rev. James J. Ellis</span>. +Missionary Biography Series. Illustrated. <i>Thirteenth thousand.</i> +12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>Among the Maoris;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Or, Daybreak in New Zealand. A Record of the Labors of Marsden, +Selwyn, and others. By <span class="smcap">Jessie Page</span>. Missionary Biography Series. +Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>Pioneering in New Guinea,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1877-1894. By <span class="smcap">James Chalmers</span>. With a Map and 43 Illustrations from +Original Sketches and Photographs. 8vo, cloth, $1.50.</p> + +<p>“It reveals a splendid character, and records a noble apostolic work. +It is a notable addition to our missionary literature of the high +class.”—<i>The Standard.</i></p></div> + +<p>James Chalmers,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Missionary and Explorer of Rarotonga and New Guinea. By <span class="smcap">William +Robson</span>. Missionary Biography Series. Illustrated. <i>Fourteenth +thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong><i>MISSIONS, AFRICA.</i></strong></p> + +<p>The Personal Life of David Livingstone.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Chiefly from his unpublished journals and correspondence in the +possession of his family. By <span class="smcap">W. Garden Blaikie</span>, D.D., LL.D. With +Portrait and Map. <i>New, cheap edition.</i> 508 pages, 8vo, cloth, $1.50.</p> + +<p>“There is throughout the narrative that glow of interest which is +realized while events are comparatively recent, with that also which +is still fresh and tender.”—<i>The Standard.</i></p></div> + +<p>David Livingstone.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>His Labors and His Legacy. By <span class="smcap">A. Montefiore</span>, F.R.G.S. Missionary +Biography Series. Illustrated. 160 pages, 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>David Livingstone.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Mrs. <span class="smcap">J. H. Worcester</span>, Jr., Missionary Annals Series. 12mo, paper, +net, 15c.; flexible cloth, net, 30c.</p></div> + +<p>Reality vs. Romance in South Central Africa.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Being an Account of a Journey across the African Continent, from +Benguella on the West Coast to the mouth of the Zambesi. By <span class="smcap">James +Johnston</span>, M.D. With 51 full-page photogravure reproductions of +photographs by the author, and a map. Royal 8vo, cloth, boxed, $4.00.</p></div> + +<p>The Story of Uganda.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>And of the Victoria Nyanza Mission. By <span class="smcap">S. G. Stock</span>. Illustrated. +12mo, cloth, $1.25.</p> + +<p>“To be commended as a good, brief, general survey of the Protestant +missionary work in Uganda.”—<i>The Literary World.</i></p></div> + +<p>Robert Moffat,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Missionary Hero of Kuruman. By <span class="smcap">David J. Deane</span>. Missionary +Biography Series. Illustrated. <i>25th thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>Robert Moffat.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By <span class="smcap">M. L. Wilder</span>. Missionary Annals Series. 12mo, paper, net, 15c.; +flexible cloth, net, 30c.</p></div> + +<p>The Congo for Christ.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Story of the Congo Mission. By Rev. <span class="smcap">John B. Myers</span>. Missionary +Biography Series. Illustrated. <i>Tenth thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>On the Congo.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Edited from Notes and Conversations of Missionaries, by Mrs. <span class="smcap">H. +Grattan Guinness</span>. 12mo, paper, 50c.</p></div> + +<p>Samuel Crowther, the Slave Boy</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Who became Bishop of the Niger. By <span class="smcap">Jesse Page</span>. Missionary Biography +Series. Illustrated. <i>Eighteenth thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p> + +<p>“We cannot conceive of anything better calculated to inspire in the +hearts of young people an enthusiasm for the cause,”—<i>The +Christian.</i></p></div> + +<p>Thomas Birch Freeman.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Missionary Pioneer to Ashanti, Dahomey and Egba. By <span class="smcap">John Milum</span>, +F.R.G.S. Missionary Biography Series. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p> + +<p>“Well written and well worth reading.”—<i>The Faithful Witness.</i></p></div> + +<p>Seven Years in Sierra Leone.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Story of the Missionary Work of Wm. A. B. Johnson. By Rev. <span class="smcap">Arthur +T. Pierson</span>, D.D. 16mo, cloth, $1.00.</p> + +<p>Johnson was a missionary of the Church Missionary Society in Regent’s +Town, Sierra Leone, Africa, from 1816 to 1823.</p></div> + +<p>Among the Matabele.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By Rev. <span class="smcap">D. Carnegie</span>, for ten years resident at Hope Fountain, twelve +miles from Bulawayo. With portraits, maps and other illustrations. +<i>Second edition.</i> 12mo, cloth, 60c.</p></div> + +<p>Peril and Adventure in Central Africa.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Illustrated Letter to the Youngsters at Home. By <span class="smcap">Bishop Hammington</span>. +Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, 50c.</p></div> + +<p>Madagascar of To-Day.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A Sketch of the Island. With Chapters on its History and Prospects. +By Rev. <span class="smcap">W. E. Cousins</span>, Missionary of the London Missionary Society +since 1862. Map and Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.</p></div> + +<p>Madagascar.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Its Missionaries and Martyrs. By Rev. <span class="smcap">W. J. Townsend</span>, D.D. Missionary +Biography Series. Illustrated. <i>Tenth thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>Madagascar.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By <span class="smcap">Belle McPherson Campbell</span>. Missionary Annals Series. 12mo, paper, +net, 15c.; flexible cloth, net, 30c.</p></div> + +<p>Madagascar.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Country, People, Missions. By Rev. <span class="smcap">James Spree</span>, F.R.G.S. Outline +Missionary Series. 16mo, paper, 20c.</p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong><i>MISSIONS, AMERICA.</i></strong></p> + +<p>On the Indian Trail,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>And Other Stories of Missionary Work among the Cree and Saulteaux +Indians. By <span class="smcap">Egerton R. Young</span>. Illustrated by <span class="smcap">J. E. Laughlin</span>. 12mo, +cloth, $1.00.</p> + +<p>Mr. Young is well known to readers of all ages as the author of “By +Canoe and Dog Train,” “Three Boys in the Wild North Land,” and other +very popular books describing life and adventure in the great +Northwest. The stories in this new book tell of some very exciting +incidents in his career, and describe phases of life among the +American Indians which are fast becoming things of the past.</p></div> + +<p>Forty-two Years Among the Indians and Eskimos.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Pictures from the Life of the Rt. Rev. John Harden, first Bishop of +Moosonee. By <span class="smcap">Beatrice Batty</span>. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.</p></div> + +<p>Vikings of To-Day;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Or, Life and Medical Work among the Fishermen of Labrador. By <span class="smcap">Wilfred +T. Grenfel</span>, M.D., of the Deep Sea Mission. Illustrated from Original +Photographs. <i>Second edition.</i> 12mo. cloth $1.25.</p> + +<p>“The author has been in charge of the work since its inception, and +writes, accordingly, with special authority and wealth of detail, +both as to the methods of work and as to the people—the fearless, +patient Vikings—to whom he has dedicated his life.”—<i>The Examiner.</i></p></div> + +<p>Amid Greenland Snows;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Or, The Early History of Arctic Missions. By <span class="smcap">Jesse Page</span>. Missionary +Biography Series. Illustrated. <i>Tenth thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>Kin-da-Shon’s Wife.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>An Alaskan Story. By Mrs. <span class="smcap">Eugene S. Willard</span>. Illustrated. <i>Third +edition.</i> 8vo, cloth, $1.50.</p> + +<p>“From beginning to end the book holds the attention. Mrs. Willard has +shown herself peculiarly well qualified to write such a +book.”—<i>Public Opinion.</i></p></div> + +<p>David Brainerd,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Apostle to the North American Indians. By <span class="smcap">Jesse Page</span>. Missionary +Biography Series. Illustrated. <i>Twelfth thousand.</i> 12mo, cloth, 75c.</p></div> + +<p>South America, the Neglected Continent.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>By <span class="smcap">Lucy E. Guinness</span> and <span class="smcap">E. C. Millard</span>. With a Map in colors and many +other illustrations. Small 4to, paper, 50c.; cloth, 75c.</p></div></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> A consideration of the important crisis through which the Chinese +Empire is passing at the close of the century, does not fall within the +scope of a work like the present. All who are interested in that subject +should not omit to read attentively Mr. Colquhoun’s “China in +Transformation,” London and New York, 1898, embodying the matured +convictions of an accomplished traveller, and an experienced Oriental +administrator, with an exceptional first-hand acquaintance with China.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> A Chinese woman for many years employed in the writer’s family, +remarked that for a long time after she was married she was never allowed +to leave the narrow courtyard in her hamlet. The wife of a Tao-t‘ai told a +foreign lady that in her next existence she hoped to be born <i>a dog</i>, that +she might go where she chose!</p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> We have known occasional instances in which a betrothed girl was not +required to attend the funeral of her future father-in-law or +mother-in-law, a trying ordeal which she must be glad to escape. Sometimes +when she does attend, she merely kneels to the coffin, but does not +“lament,” for usage is in this, as in other particulars, very capricious.</p> + +<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> A Chinese woman whose parents are living, is constantly referred to +not only as a “girl,” but as an unmarried girl (<i>ku-niang</i>), although she +may be herself the mother of half-a-dozen children.</p> + +<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> See a small pamphlet on “The Status of Woman in China,” by Dr. Ernst +Faber, Shanghai, 1889, containing many illustrative classical citations.</p> + +<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> For ample illustration of this subject see Dr. Ernst Faber’s “The +Famous Women of China,” Shanghai, 1890, and “Typical Women of China,” by +the late Miss A. C. Safford, an abridged translation of a famous and +authoritative Chinese work.</p> + +<p><a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">[7]</a> An extreme case of chronic misery from this cause is found in the +Hsiên District of Chih-li, where there is a section wedged in between the +high artificial banks of two rivers. Every year many villages are deluged +as matter of course, and the houses have been repeatedly destroyed. No +autumn crop can ever be raised here, but wheat is put in after the waters +have subsided. In the winter one sees many of the houses with doors and +windows plastered up, almost all the inhabitants having gone off in droves +to beg a living where they can, returning the next spring to look after +their wheat. This has become a regular practice even with families who own +fifty or sixty acres of land, and who elsewhere would be called well off.</p> + +<p><a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">[8]</a> A case of this sort came to the writer’s notice in which a man from +Ho-nan had gathered a stock of goods amounting to more than the value of +fifty Mexican dollars, and departed for Manchuria, nearly 1,500 miles +distant, in order to learn what had become of his sister’s son who had +left home in anger. The goods were disposed of to pay travelling expenses, +but the journey of a few months as planned, was lengthened to more than a +year. The poor man fell sick, his goods were spent, and he was many months +slowly begging his way back, and after all had learned nothing of his +nephew.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></p> + +<p>Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to a nearby paragraph break.</p> + +<p>The text in the list of illustrations is presented as in the original text, but the links +navigate to the page number closest to the illustration’s loaction in this document.</p> + +<p>Other than the corrections noted by hover information, inconsistencies in +spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Village Life in China, by Arthur H. 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