and Tung king by father Gaubil, in the "Lettres Edifiantes," and in
the last volume of the French translation of the Kang m[)u]h. Annam
had been conquered by Chinese colonies, and its civilization is
therefore Chinese. This was already stated in Tavernier's masterly
description of Tunking, "Recueil de plusieurs Relations," Paris, 1679,
p. 168. Leyden, not knowing Chinese, has made some strange mistakes in
his famous dissertation regarding the languages and literature of
Indo-Chinese nations. Asiatic Researches, vol. x. 271, London edition,
1811.
[29] In Chinese _Lung lae_ (7402, 6866 Mor.); this name is taken from
the metropolis of this kingdom, called by the European travellers in
the beginning of the seventeenth century, _Laniam_, _Laniangh_, or
_Lanshang_. Robt. Kerr, General History and Collection of Voyages and
Travels, Edinburgh, 1813, vol. viii. 446, 449.--The Burmas call this
country Layn-sayn; "Buchanan on the Religion and Literature of the
Burmas." Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. 226, London edition, 1810, 4to.
The kingdom of Laos was conquered about the end of the year 1828, by
the Siamese; the king, his two principal wives, his sons, and
grandsons, amounting in all to fourteen persons, were cruelly killed
at Bangkok. The Protestant missionaries, Thomlin and Guzlaff, saw nine
of the relations of the king in a cage at Bangkok, the 30th of
January, 1829. The First Report of the Singapore Christian Union,
Singapore, 1830, Appendix xv. Is _Lang lae_ a mistake for _L[)u]h
lae_, which is mentioned in the _Hae kw[)o] hëen këen_, p. 214? There
occurs no _Lung lae_ in this work; where the Indo-Chinese nations are
described under the title _Nan yan she_; i.e. History of the Southern
ocean.
[30] People living in the same state of society, have usually the same
customs and manners. It is said of the celebrated _Buccaneers_, that
they laid aside their surnames, and assumed nicknames, or martial
names. Many, however, on their marrying, took care to have their real
surnames inserted in the marriage contract; and this practice gave
occasion to a proverb still current in the French Antilles, _a man is
not to be known till he takes a wife_. See the Voyages and Adventures
of William Dampier, and History of the Buccaneers, p. 87. Women cut
the characters for common Chinese books; and, therefore, the Chinese
say, so many mistakes are found in ordinary publications. The
character _pa_ (8123) in _Tung hae pa_ is by such a mistake always
written _p[)i]h_ (8527).
[31] He called himself Hëo hëen (3728, 3676,) after having received a
recompense from government for his robberies. See p. 75.
[32] Our author anticipates here a little; this will be clear by a
subsequent paragraph, p. 13.
[33] _Shan_ is a mountain in Chinese; _Ling_ is a chain of mountains
or _sierra_. The Chinese geographers say, the Mei ling mountain
branches out like a tree; and they describe in particular two, the
south-east and the south-west branches from Canton. They speak
likewise of Woo Ling, or five sierras, in reference to five different
passes by which these mountains are divided; but there are now more
passes. See a compilation, already quoted, regarding Canton, made by
order of the former governor _Yuen_, and printed at Canton last year,
1830, in eighty books, under the title _Ling nan y ung shuh_: i. e.
_Memoirs regarding the South of the Sierra_, book 5. vol. ii, p. 1.
[34] The Chinese possess itineraries and directories for the whole
empire, for every province, and for every large town or place; I shall
therefore always extract the notices which are to be found in the
_Itinerary of the Province Kwang tung_ (_Kwang tung tsuen too_,)
referring to the places mentioned in our text.
_Hwy_ is _Hwy chow foo_, from Pekin 6365 le, and easterly from Canton
400 le; one town of the second, and ten towns of the third rank are
appended to this district-metropolis. The whole district pays 14,321
leang, or tael. Here is the celebrated _Lo fow_ mountain. Lo fow
consists really of two united mountains, of which one is called _Lo_
and the other _Fow_, said to be three thousand six hundred _chang_ in
height, or 36,000 feet (?). The circumference is about 500 le. Here
are the sixteen caverns where the dragon dwells, spoken of in the
books of the Tao sect. You meet on these mountains with bamboo from
seventy to eighty feet in circumference. Kwang tung tsuen too, p. 5v.
_Chaou_ is _Chaou chow foo_, from Pekin 8,540 and easterly from Canton
1,740 le; eleven towns of the third rank belong to it. The whole
district pays 65,593 leang, or tael. A tael is equal to 5.798 decimal,
troy weight; and in the East-India Company's accounts the tael of
silver is reckoned at six shillings and eightpence sterling. _Foo_ is
the Chinese name for the first class of towns; _Chow_ for the second,
_Hëen_ for the third. I sometimes have translated _Chow_ by
district-town, and _Hëen_ by borough, or market-town.
[35] _Kaou_ is _Kaou chow foo_, from Pekin 7,767, north-west from
Canton 930 le; the district, and five towns of the third class, paying
together 62,566 leang, are dependent on the district-metropolis.
_Lëen_ is _Lëen chow foo_, from Pekin 9,065, from Canton 1,515 le; the
district and two towns, paying together 1,681 leang, are dependent on
the district-metropolis.
_Luy_ is _Luy chow foo_, from Pekin 8,210, westerly from Canton 1,380
le; the district and its towns, paying together 13,706 leang, are
dependent on the district-metropolis.
_Këung_ is _Këung chow foo_, the capital of the island _Hae nan_ or
Hainan, from Pekin 9,690, south-west from Canton 1,680 le; three
district towns, and ten towns of the third class, paying together
89,447 leang, are dependent on this capital. There is a town also
called _Këung shan hëen_, and both town and capital take their name
from the mountain _Këung_.
_Kin_ is _Kin chow_, dependent on _Lëen chow foo_, and far from it 140
le.
_Tan_ is _Tan chow_, a town of Hainan, south-west from the capital 370
le; the area of the town is 31 le.
_Yae_ is _Yae chow_, a town of Hainan, southerly from the capital of
the island 1,114 le. About this town many pirates have their
lurking-place. This circumstance may have caused the mistake of
Captain Krusenstern, stating that in A.D. 1805, the pirates who infest
the coast of China had obtained possession of the whole island of
Hainan.
_Wan_ is _Wan chow_, a town of Hainan, in a south-easterly direction
from the capital of the island 470 le.
[36] _Kwang_ is _Kwang tung s[)a]ng_, or the metropolis of the
province Kwang tung (Canton). Ten departments (foo), nine districts
(chow), and seventy-eight towns of the third class (hëen), are
dependent on the provincial city, and pay together in land-tax
1,272,696 leang, excise 47,510 leang, and in other miscellaneous taxes
5,990 leang. The import duties from the sea-side with measurement of
foreign vessels is said in the _Kwang tung tsuen too_, p. 3v, to
amount to 43,750 leang. All duties together of the province of Canton
amount to 1,369,946 taels, about £450,000. The lists of population
gave last October (1830) 23,000,000 (?) for the whole province, and we
now see that the Chinese pay less duties (every inhabitant about
fourpence halfpenny) than the population of any country of Europe. I
received the population lists from _Ahong_, an intelligent Chinese,
well known to the English residents at Canton. Distance from Pekin
about 6,835 le.
The subject concerning the population of China, and the amount of the
_land-rent_, the _poll-tax_, and other miscellaneous taxes, is
surrounded by so many difficulties, that the writer of this dares not
to affirm any thing about these matters until he has perused the new
edition of _Tay tsing hwy tëen_. For the present he will merely
remark, that in book 141, p. 38, of the said work, the population of
China Proper for the year 1793 is reckoned at 307,467,200. If we add
to this number the population of Chinese Tartary, it will certainly
amount to the round number of 333,000,000, as reported by Lord
Macartney.
_Chow_ is _chow king foo_, from Pekin about 4,720, north-west from
Canton 360 le. There is certainly some mistake in the Chinese
Itinerary; how could Canton be only 6,835, and Chow king foo 7420 le?
The imperial edition of the Tay tsing hwy tëen (book 122, p. 6 v.)
only gives 5,494 le as the distance from Canton to Pekin; there seems
to be a different sort of le. The district and eleven towns of the
third class, paying together 162,392 leang depend on the district
metropolis.
With the aid of the Chinese Itineraries and the new edition of the
_Tay tsing hwy tëen_ (printed 1797, in 360 large volumes) it would be
an easy task to compile a "Chinese Gazetteer."
[37] I found no particulars concerning these two small _islands_ (Chow
signifies island) in the Canton Itinerary; and I looked in vain on the
great map of the Chinese sea-coast in the Hae kw[)o] hëen këen for
their position.
[38] The town _Sin hwy_ is south-west from Canton 230 le; its area is
138 le (?) and the taxes amount to 28,607 leang. This place suffered
much from the pirates. I find no proper name for the river on which
Sin hwy lies in the Chinese maps, it is merely called _Këang_, river.
Near this place is the island where the last emperor of the Sung cast
himself into the sea (1280).
[39] The word _pe_ (8335) cannot be translated in any European
language. It means a vice common in Asia.
[40] The pirates probably made use of the term _saou_ (8833) and not
of _tse_ (10575), because _saou_ written with a different character
(8834), is the general term for boats and ships. _Paou_ must be
considered as the lieutenant or first minister of Mistress _Ching_,
she being herself of the family _Sh[)i]h_.
[41] It will be very interesting to compare the regulations of Paou
with those of the Buccaneers. When these pirates had got a
considerable booty, each person, holding up his hand, solemnly
protested that he had secreted nothing of what he had taken.--Voyage,
l. c. p. 95.
[42] The _San po_ (8788, 8608) are national spirits, and, as it seems,
not connected with Buddhism; there is a great variety in the number of
these good old mothers, who by the different emperors have been
declared saints, or spirits, for the Emperor of China is likewise the
pope in his empire. Dr. Morrison has an interesting article on these
old women in his Canton Vocabulary. _Kang he_ mentions only two _Po_
(s. v.), who may be considered as spirits. This is a character of
which the Buddhists are very fond; perhaps the translator may be
wrong, and that _San po_ is merely the Sanscrit word _Swayam-bhú_.
[43] Our author shews every where his partiality for Chang paou.
[44] The author said just before that the dominion of the pirates in
the Chinese sea lasted about ten years; but he only describes the
transactions of the last three years, when their power and strength
was at the highest point. He begins to give particulars from the 7th
moon of the 13th year of Këa king, which corresponds nearly to the
beginning of September 1808.
[45] There are three wretched forts at the Hoo mun, the mouth of the
Canton river, which could scarcely hinder any European vessel from
passing through.
[46] One of the islands marked upon European maps is called _The
Ladrones_: these Ladrones, so called from the pirates, have all
particular names on Chinese maps.
[47] In the first preface of the Hae kw[)o] hëen këen it is
particularly stated, that the map of the sea-coast of China became
first known to its editor by the expeditions against the pirates.
[48] There are, as is stated in my preface, some vulgar or provincial
characters in this history; here (p. 1.) occurs a character not to be
found in Kanghe, composed out of the fifty-sixth radical and the group
Leaou or Lew (7061, 7203). My whole library being locked up in the
Custom-house, I am not able to consult a dictionary of the Canton
dialect, therefore the meaning of these characters can only be guessed
at by etymology. The etymology of the characters gives sometimes a
better meaning than any dictionary, and sometimes it may entirely
mislead us; there is no reliance on etymology. Usage is the only
master of the Chinese, as of all other languages.
[49] Hëang shan is a considerable place between Macao and Canton. I
passed this town in the beginning of October 1830. Distance from
Canton 150 le in an eastern direction.
[50] It was, as we have before stated, the policy of Chang paou to
befriend himself, when possible, with the lower sort of people.
[51] Here the author himself says _Te ming_ (9955, 7714) "name of a
place." To find out the names of places and persons, and distinguish
the titles of the different officers employed by government, is often
a very difficult task. The last character in the name of this place,
_pae_, is very seldom found; it is the fourth character of the
division of eight strokes, rad. 177.--See Kanghe. O is, in the Canton
dialect, commonly pronounced like A, in Italian.
[52] These are large vessels with windows, from 200 to 500 tons; they
are called by Europeans by the Chinese name, in the Canton dialect,
junks; _chuen_ is the Mandarin pronunciation. The foreign trade of
Cochin-China and Tung king is almost exclusively with China, that to
Siam, Singapur, and Malacca, being inconsiderable. The Cochin-Chinese
government tried some years ago to open a regular trade with Calcutta;
but this undertaking partly failed on account of the heavy duties on
foreign sugar in the possessions of the East-India Company. Sugar is a
great article of export in Cochin-China and Siam.
[53] On the large map of the coast of China from Corea to
Cochin-China, called _Yuen_ (12542) _hae tsuen too_, this place is
called _Lao wan shan_, "the old ten thousand mountains," and is
exactly opposite to the Bocca Tigris in a direct southerly direction.
[54] The sails of Chinese vessels are often called Mats, for they are
really nothing else than matting.
[55] _Le_: this itinerary measure, as we have remarked, is different
in different parts of the empire; it is generally considered that 250
le make a degree of latitude.
[56] This they did probably to look more ferocious. Plutarch observes
of Sylla, that "the ferocity of his aspect was heightened by his
complexion, which was a strong _red_, interspersed with spots of
white."
[57] _Mun_ means an _entrance_ or _mouth_; few of these places are to
be found, even in the particular maps of the province Kwang tung in
the _Tay tsing hwy teen_.
[58] _Paou_, the first character of 8233, is in our own history always
used in the signification of _cannon_. The word meant in former times
an engine for throwing stones, and so it is used in the history of the
Han dynasty. This gave rise to the opinion that the Chinese had guns
and gunpowder long before its discovery in Europe. How could these
extraordinary engines have escaped the discriminating genius of Marco
Polo, had they existed in China?
[59] The three provinces which have Këang (5500) in their name the
same as the two Kwang, Kwang to the east (tung) and Kwang to the west
(se), are usually united under one governor and one deputy governor.
[60] Previously they robbed only in the open sea, outside the Canton
river.
[61] The river discharges itself by many channels into the sea.
[62] _Tung kwan hëen_ is easterly from Canton 150 le, its area amounts
to 180 le, and pays 44,607 leang land-rent, or taxes. There are many
small islands belonging to the district of Tung kwan.
[63] _Fan yu hëen_, near Canton. The place where European ships anchor
belongs to this Hëen; its area amounts to 140 le, and pays 48,356
leang. I looked in vain for some notices regarding the many small
villages which are to be found in the sequel of the page. Some of them
are merely mentioned in the Itinerary of the province Canton. The
reader may compare the account of Richard Glasspoole in the Appendix.
[64] These are names of different sorts of Chinese vessels or junks.
[65] In the original Kin (6369). Kin cannot be the common cash (Tung
pao) for then the sum would be too trifling--8 to 900 are to be got in
Canton for a Spanish dollar. If Kin were used for dollar, or tael,
which is very probable, the sum is enormous. Richard Glasspoole states
that the pirates demanded indeed ten thousand dollars!--See the
Appendix.
[66] _Hoo mun_. The following notice on the Chinese tiger is taken
from the geography of Mookden, and translated by Father Amiot. Eloge
de la ville de Moukden par Kien long, p. 249. "Au-delà de nos
frontières (Mookden), il y a une espèce de tigre, dont la peau est un
fort beau blanc, sur lequel il y a, par intervalles, des taches
noires. Ces espèces de tigres sont plus méchants et plus féroces que
les autres." Father Amoit adds, that these tigers are called _Hoo_ by
the Chinese, and _Tasha_ by the Manchow.
[67] The Chinese geographers and historians are very well acquainted
with Siam; there is an interesting description of this empire in the
Hae kwo hëen këen, p. 21, and in the 57th book, p. 13, of the memoirs
concerning the south of the Mei ling mountains. That Siam acknowledges
the supremacy of China, was known to the most early European
travellers. Cluver says (in his Introductio in omnem Geographiam
Wolfenbuttelæ, 1694, 4to., p. 473), that "Rex Siamensis irruptione
crebriori Tartarica pressus, Chano denique Chinensi sese beneficiarium
aut vasallum submisit." Mendez Pinto, who was in that country in the
year 1540, states that the king of Siam acknowledged the supremacy of
China; Bernhardi Vareni Descriptio regni Japoniæ et Siam; Cantabrigiæ
1673-8, p. 128.
[68] It is impossible to translate the names of vessels of different
descriptions. The large are the Chang lung, or great dragon vessels
which by the Chinese law are forbidden to be used by any private
person; these are the Mandarin, or government vessels. The pirates
nevertheless had such vessels, as likewise the daring smugglers, who
bring the opium from Lintin, or Linting, to Canton. The amount of the
opium trade in the port of Canton was, in the year 1829-30, equal to
12,057,157 Sp. dollars.
[69] One of the English sailors, who had been taken prisoner. "The
pirates frequently obliged my men to go on shore and fight with the
muskets, which did great execution; the Chinese principally using bows
and arrows. They have match-locks, but use them very
unskilfully."--See Appendix.
[70] A shih, or stone, contains four keun: a keun thirty kin or catty,
the well known Chinese weight: a catty is equal to one pound and a
third English.
[71] _Nan hae hëen._ Its area amounts to 278 le, and it pays 63,731
leang. The European factories in Canton lie in this district, and the
monastery opposite to the factories is usually from the name of the
district called the _Hae nan sze_, the temple of Hae nan. The district
of every place is called by the name of the place, and we must
therefore speak of the town and district Nan hae.
[72] This simple note of the Chinese author better illustrates the
religion of China than many learned dissertations. All the deities,
those of Greece and Rome, of China and India, are derived from two
sources; both the powers of nature and highly gifted human beings were
deified. These powers of nature, and the virtues and vices of men
being in every community nearly similar, the same gods and goddesses
are found everywhere; only their external form and shape is different.
Every province, every town, and every village of China has its
particular tutulary saint, or god, and on the day of his festival his
effigy is carried in public. There is no essential difference in this
respect between China and those countries where Roman Catholicism is
yet in its highest vigour. The effigies of the Chinese gods and
goddesses are all of the human shape; they have no monsters like India
and Egypt, under which it was once the fashion to seek for
extraordinary wisdom and astonishing science. Lucian has already taken
the liberty of laughing at these deities, and at the writers, the
prophets, and sophists, who try to find some sense in all this vulgar
display of nonsense, by which the people are deluded. Lucian de
Sacreficiis s. f. where he laughs at the Jupiter with a ram's head, at
the good fellow Mercurius with the countenance of a dog, etc. [Greek:
Krioprosôpon men ton Dia, chynoprosôpon de ton beltison Ermên chai ton
Pana holon tragon], etc. See the pleasant story of Jupiter with the
ram's head in Herodotus, II. 42.
[73] The strong winds (Tay fung) in the Chinese sea begin about the
middle of September, or just before the equinox.
[74] It is not stated in the Chinese text, whose father rushed
forward, whether it was the father of the lady, or of Wei tang chow.
[75] I must again remark that there is a false character in our text:
it should be Në[)e], 7974 in the Tonical Dictionary of Dr. M.
[76] I am compelled to give a free translation of this verse, and
confess myself not quite certain of the signification of the poetical
figures used by our author. _F[=u]ng_ signifies a hollow pyramid
filled with combustibles; _y[=e]n_ signifies the smoke caused by
combustion; _tse[=a]ng_ signifies the spar or yard in a boat or ship,
to which the sail is attached, and _ying_ is shadow. It seems that the
author alludes to the spar or yard-arm, at which _Mei ying_ was
fastened by the pirate; but what he means by _shadow_ I do not really
know, perhaps _ying_ is in the place of _Mei ying_.
[77] The Chinese characters are printed like the other portion of the
work. I have divided them according to the verses. Only the first
eight lines have a regular metre of five feet, or words, and as the
author himself says, his song is then at an end; but the language
still remains poetical, and for that reason it was thought proper to
divide also the remaining lines like verses. Every word must be
considered as consisting of one syllable or sound, even if we write it
with three or four vowels. Poetry is perhaps more esteemed in China,
than in any other country in the world. The late governor-general of
Kwang tung and Kwang se, his Excellency Yuen, published the poems of
his daughter, who died when only nineteen years of age. Most of the
emperors of China wrote verses, and I have, if I remember rightly, an
imperial collection printed at the command of Këa king of many
volumes, containing the poetry of the crowned heads of China. The
reader may easily imagine that the Chinese have many works on poetry;
I am also in possession of a Chinese _Gradus ad Parnassum_ in ten
large volumes, in which are to be found, divided under different
heads, all the fine expression and poetical images of the classical
poets. Mr. Davis has given some excellent specimens of Chinese poetry
in his elegant dissertation on that subject.
[78] Verbally "monkeys and birds," a sort of birds which according to
Dr. Morrison are something similar to our crows.
[79] In the memoirs concerning the south of the Mei ling mountains,
three books (from 9-11 incl.) are filled up with a description of the
seas, rivers, and lakes, of the province of Canton. Book ninth begins
with a general description of the Chinese seas, and of the different
entrances from the sea-side; then follows a particular description of
the sea near Canton and Hainan, and of the different Tides at various
places. The mariner would certainly be gratified by a translation of
this part of the work. The translator has often remarked the
extraordinary phenomenon of the fiery appearance of the sea, during
his residence in China. In the before-mentioned work, b. ix. p. 5 v,
we read the following notice concerning this phenomenon:
"_The fire in the sea_: It happens sometimes that sea waves
have such a luminous appearance, as if the whole sea were full
of fire. If you cast any thing into the sea, it becomes
luminous like a star; but you do not see this during moonlight.
Wood having in itself no fire, receives a fiery appearance,
after having been passed through the water."