FAMILY LIFE
Chinese character studied in the home--How marriages are arranged in
China--Love of husband and wife must be concealed--Daughters go out of
clan, sons remain--Story of a famous community in former
days--Solidarity of family--Story of general accused of
treason--Disposal of sons--Occupation of women in
homes--Wife-beating--Suicides of wives--Women treated as
inferior--Filial piety, views on--The famous book describing the
twenty filial sons--Filial piety not extensively carried out by the
Chinese.
If one desires to understand the Chinese, he must study the family life,
for there we find the secret for much that is amusing and perplexing in
their character. In all the long years of Chinese history, the ideal of
the family has been an exalted one. Ancient sages have dealt with much
eloquence upon it, and it has been made the model upon which the State has
been built up. It is declared in books written on China that the Chinese
Government is a patriarchal one, the meaning of which, put into simpler
language, is that the system by which this vast and ancient Empire is
ruled has been borrowed from any one of the countless homes that exist
throughout the land. It has been plainly stated by Confucius, more than
two thousand years ago, that a man that did not know how to rule his home
was quite unfit to govern a kingdom.
That the family ideal is held in the highest honour by every class of
society is evident from the fact that every one that can by any
possibility scrape together the amount required to be paid to the parents
of the young girl, gets married; whilst for every woman, without any
regard for her personal appearance or even for her infirmities, when the
marriageable age comes round, a marriage is arranged, and she is carried
to her husband's home with as much ceremony as though she were the most
beautiful woman in the land. If a woman does not get married it is her own
fault or that of her family, who for selfish or other reasons fail to make
the necessary arrangements for her, and never because her features are
uncomely or her complexion bad, or because she has some bodily infirmity
that in England would condemn her to a spinster's life, though she lived
to the age of Methuselah.
Let us now take the case of a family, such as one may see anywhere, and
look at the peculiar way in which it is built up and developed in
accordance with the antique methods that seem dear to the Yellow brain in
this land. A young man is going to be married. The parents have decided
that question for him, and they have called in a middle-woman, who does
all the selecting and all the courting that is possible in China, and by
her intrigues and falsehoods, the girl that is to be his bride is settled
for him absolutely, without any power of appeal from the sons or the
parents should they discover by and by that the young lady would be an
undesirable acquisition when she came into their home.
With us it is an accepted axiom that to secure the happiness of the
married couple, there must be love and there must be a thorough
acquaintance with each other. The Chinese hold that all that is Platonic
nonsense, and is the reasoning of a barbaric mind that has never come
under the benign influence of the sages and teachers of the Celestial
Empire. They declare that neither of those two things are requisite, and
they point to China, where marriage is the rule in social life, and where
a Divorce Court does not exist in all the length and breadth of the land,
as a convincing evidence that love at least is not at all a requisite for
marriage. The young man and his wife then begin their married life without
any knowledge of each other. They have never seen each other, and they
have never dared to inquire from their parents what their future partners
were like. To have done so would have filled the hearts of their fathers
and mothers with a shame so intense as to be absolutely unspeakable.
Their first look into the faces of each other, after the bride has been
carried with noise of music and firing of crackers in the crimson chair
into the home of her husband, must be one in which is concentrated the
agony and passion of two hearts, trying to read their fate for the years
that are to come, from what a bashful glance at each other's faces can
tell them. If either of them is disappointed, the wave of despair that
flashes through the heart is hidden behind those sphinx-like faces, and no
quivering of the lips and no glance of the coal-black eyes betrays the
secret that has sprung up within them.
They are both conscious that their marriage is a settled fact and that
there is no possibility of its ever being annulled, and so with the heroic
patience that the Chinese often show in ordinary life, they both determine
to make the best of things, knowing that in time love will grow, and
tender affection for each other will ripen amid the trials and disciplines
of life through which they will have to pass together.
The years go by, and without daring to show by word or look to the rest of
the world that they love each other, the deepest and the purest affection
has sprung up in their hearts. The Chinese language is full of tender
epithets and phrases full of poetry to express the emotions of love, but
the husband and wife may never use any of these excepting behind closed
doors where none can hear them but themselves.
In the course of time the family grows in numbers, and three sons and as
many daughters are born. There was indeed another girl, but as it was
considered that there were enough of them in the family, she was put to
death immediately after her birth, so she was never counted. As the years
rolled by, the children grew up and the boys were sent to school, whilst
the sisters were taught household work, such as cooking, mending and
embroidery. At last, when these latter arrived at the age of eighteen, the
services of middle-women were called into requisition, and they were
severally carried into other clans, for no person may marry a member of
his own, even though these may be counted by the thousands.
After a few years more, the same process was pursued with regard to the
sons, and three young brides were brought into the family circle to add to
its members and to increase its dignity and importance. And here it is
that we see the wide difference in the Oriental and Western conception of
the family. The latter believes in the hiving off of the children and the
formation of new homes, until finally very often only the old father and
mother are left solitary and alone in a house that used to resound the
livelong day with the sounds of laughter and merry voices.
The ideal of the former is to keep the sons in the home. They seldom if
ever leave that to start housekeeping for themselves. The daughters go out
and are lost to the clan, and are no longer looked upon as belonging to
it; but, on the other hand, their places are taken by the brides that come
from other clans, and so the balance is preserved. It is no uncommon thing
to meet with homes where fifty to a hundred people are housed in one
spacious compound, and where four generations of men, with their sons and
grandsons, a motley group where the sires of the home, with their hoary
flowing beards, and the infants in arms live in the common home.
It is recorded in Chinese history, that in early days there was a famous
branch of a well-known clan that numbered several thousand people, the
descendants of nine generations, that were all under the control of the
chieftain of the clan, and lived together in a series of large compounds,
that resembled a miniature walled city. The story went abroad that the
whole of this community lived in the most complete harmony. The men never
had any disagreements and the voices of the women and children were never
known to be raised in angry dispute. The very dogs even, touched by the
general atmosphere of peace that reigned over the miscellaneous crowds
that swarmed in this miniature town, seemed to lay aside their natural
ferocity, and all quarrelling and fighting had disappeared, and they lived
in the utmost harmony and contentment.
[Illustration: A WOMAN CARRYING BABY ON HER BACK.]
[Illustration: A WOMAN CARRYING BABY ON HER BACK.
_To face p. 24._]
Rumours of this wonderful settlement had spread throughout the province,
and had been carried by travellers to the palace of the Emperor. Being
somewhat concerned as to the truth of these, he determined to visit the
place, and see for himself if the facts were really as they were stated.
Accordingly on his next tour to the great mountain Tai-Shan, to worship
God from its summit, which the kings in those days were accustomed to do,
he called at this famous establishment. Never had such a gorgeous retinue
stopped in front of its doors. There was the Emperor in his vermilion
chair, carried by bearers dressed in the royal livery of the same colour.
In front marched a detachment of the Household Guards, great stalwart men,
that had been selected from the bravest that the fighting province of
Hunan could supply. Behind, in a long and splendid train, were the highest
nobles in the land, who were there to attend to the wants of their Lord
and Master, and to see that every strain of anxiety should be removed from
the royal mind. Further in the rear was a small army of servants of every
description, and cooks in abundance prepared to serve upon the imperial
table every delicacy and luxury that China itself could provide, or that
could be procured from other countries.
The prince of the clan received the Emperor on bended knees, and then he
was graciously allowed to stand up and conduct him over his little
kingdom. His Majesty, who had a keen common-sense mind, examined very
minutely into every detail of the life of this unique community.
He was perfectly satisfied with everything that he saw, and just before
leaving, whilst he was having some refreshment, he asked the chief what
system he employed to ensure such perfect order and harmony in such a
large and varied establishment, where even the very dogs seemed to have
caught the infection, and to have lost the quarrelsome disposition natural
to them.
He at once sat down, and taking up a pen he proceeded to fill a page with
Chinese hieroglyphics. Handing it to the Emperor on bended knees, he told
him that he would find there the secret of the source from whence the love
and unity that prevailed was to be found. With a good deal of curiosity
his Majesty glanced over the document. To his astonishment he discovered
that the writing was composed of one hundred identical words, whose
meaning was "Forbearance." "It is by forbearance in a hundred different
ways that this great company of people have arrived at its present
harmony," explained the prince. "Forbearance has been a mighty force with
us, and has helped us all to subdue our passions so that we have been able
to bear with the infirmities of one another."
The Emperor was so pleased that he took his pen and wrote out a sentence
expressive of his admiration for the masterly and statesmanlike manner in
which so large and varied a community had been ruled with such splendid
results to the country, and ordered it to be affixed over the main
entrance, so that every one should know that this great and harmonious
establishment possessed the royal approbation and protection.
It will be thus seen that a family in China has a much larger meaning
than it has with us. It is by no means the narrow thing it is in the West,
but spreads beyond the limits that are tolerated there. It in reality
includes the members of the collateral branches of either the father or
the mother, and these are often spoken of as though they were members of
the same home. A young fellow with whom you are acquainted introduces
another about the same age. You ask him who he is, and without a moment's
hesitation he says that he is his younger brother. For the moment you feel
perplexed, for you know as a fact that he never had a brother. After a
little further probing of the matter, you discover that he is the son of
his father's younger brother, in fact his cousin. You ask him why he did
not say so at the beginning, and thus save all misunderstanding. "But he
is my brother," the man repeats, with an amused stare on his face at the
density of the foreigner.
The intimate union that exists between the family so-called and those
nearest of kin makes a perfect tangle in Chinese relationships, and leads
to some very amusing and ludicrous developments. This is rendered all the
more easy because the Chinese marry young, oftentimes repeatedly, and not
uncommonly late in life, and so it happens that one occasionally meets an
elderly man who addresses as his grandfather a young fellow who is not
half his grandson's age.
The family basis that is thus broadened to include the nearest collateral
branches is real and effective. The tie that binds the various members
together is no merely sentimental bond. A particular member of the family,
for example, becomes wealthy. He has perhaps gone abroad and amassed a
considerable fortune, and he returns to his old home to enjoy it amidst
his kindred. In one sense it is his own to dispose of as he thinks best,
and yet every member of the extended family feels that he has a
proprietary right to the blessings that it brings with it. They gather
round him to give him a hearty welcome, and whilst they do so every heart
throbs with the expectation that any pecuniary difficulties from which
they may have been suffering will be removed as soon as their cases have
been made known to their wealthy relative.
But it is not simply in cases of good fortune that the solidarity of the
family is proved. It is seen most conspicuously when any misfortune comes
on any individual in it. Then all the rest are more or less affected by
it. A man, for instance, breaks the law, and in order to avoid being
arrested, flies from his home. When the officers come to take him they can
find no trace of him. One would naturally suppose that these men would
return and report to the mandarin that the criminal had fled, and that the
whole process of law would be stayed until the culprit himself could be
apprehended, but that is not so. They proceed to arrest any male member of
the family that they can lay their hands upon, whether it be a brother or
a cousin or a son, and carry him to the mandarin, who keeps him in prison
until the real offender has been caught.
An Englishman would say that is unjust, and if he were present when the
policeman made his capture he might possibly protest against the
illegality of the seizure. They would simply assure him that they were
quite within their rights. The man they had arrested, they would say, was
a member of the offender's family, and as they were all in the eye of the
Chinese law responsible for each other, they were quite justified in
arresting any one in it, and keeping him in prison until their relative
who had broken the law was either captured or had delivered himself up to
justice.
The laws of China are all based upon the assumption of the solidarity of
the family, and that in its prosperity or adversity all members of it must
take their share. Chinese history abounds with the most terrible
instances of the operation of this law.
On one occasion, a general in command of a division of the army, fancying
that he had been slighted by the Emperor because he had not been rewarded
as he thought his services deserved, began to intrigue against the dynasty
and to plot for its overthrow. As he was a famous man and had rendered
signal services to the State in many a brilliant campaign, it was some
time before any suspicion of his treasonable designs were at all
entertained by any one. At length, rumours faint and uncertain began to be
whispered about. These grew in intensity, until ere long the proofs of the
terrible conspiracy were so clear and definite that there could be no
question as to the man's guilt. He had been betrayed by a confederate who
was deep in his confidence, and who was terrified at the fearful
consequences that would happen to him were his guilt discovered. He
consequently determined to save himself by the sacrifice of his friend. In
the small hours of a dark and stormy night a small body of chosen troops
surrounded the house of the general, who was seized and hurried off to the
execution ground, where by torchlight his cries and his sorrows, as far as
this world was concerned, were speedily put an end to.
But the tragedy had only begun with the death of the unfortunate
conspirator. Revolution is a word of such a dread import in China, that it
can be expiated only by the death of the offender and by every member of
his family. As the general was a noted man, the Emperor decided that four
generations on the father's side and four on the mother's, in all eight
generations of absolutely innocent people, should be slaughtered without
any trial and without any opportunity of defending themselves.
The murderous edict was at once drawn up and signed by the vermilion pen,
and soldiers were sent out post haste to execute the decree, lest any of
the unfortunate victims should escape. And so it came to pass that eight
generations of people, without distinction of age or sex, were set upon
and ruthlessly murdered. The old man whose footsteps were tottering to the
grave, and the baby still in its mother's arms; the matron in the midst of
her family, and the young girls full of spirits and with the expectation
of many happy years before them, without a moment's warning were hacked
and stabbed to death, until not a single member of the clan was left alive
to tell the tale.
A Chinese family is in some respects a very interesting sight. The parents
in this land are passionately fond of their children, especially the boys,
and deny themselves for their sakes, and indulge them to such an extent
that many of the lads when they grow up become anything but a credit to
their homes. In the well-to-do families, the sons go to school from the
time they are seven or eight till they are fifteen or sixteen, when, if
they are not planning to be scholars, arrangements are made for them to go
into business, and they become clerks or book-keepers or assistants in
shops.
When the home is a poor one, the lads begin their life at a very early
age; there is no schooling planned for them. As soon as they can handle a
rake, they are sent out to collect firewood for the home. By and by, as
they grow in strength, a pair of baskets and a bamboo carrying-pole are
given them, and their life as coolies may be now said to have begun. The
coolie in China may be said to be the unbought slave that does the rough
and menial work of the Empire, and in large numbers of cases performs the
labours that the beasts of burden do in our home lands.
The girls until they are five or six are allowed to run about the house
and amuse themselves with the simple enjoyments that childhood is so
ingenious in inventing. After that comes the serious business of
foot-binding, when for several years they have to endure the most
agonizing pains during the hideous process of maiming and distorting the
feet, a procedure that nature never ceases for a single day to protest
against. There is no question but that whilst this cruel custom is so
dreadful that there is no language strong enough to condemn it, it has
undoubtedly had the effect of developing in the woman's character a heroic
fortitude, and a power of endurance that enables her to bear up against
many of the ills and trials that women are called upon to suffer during
the course of their lives.
From the standpoint of the West, a girl's life in China is a very
monotonous one. She has no dolls to while away her idle moments. She never
goes out to school, where she might meet other girls and give free play to
her exuberant spirits on the playground, or enjoy the fun and jollity that
girlhood knows so well how to appreciate. She may never take a walk, or
stroll out in the moonlight, or ramble along the seashore, or race up and
down the hillside. Her place is in the home, in the stuffy, ill-ventilated
rooms, where she eats out her heart in the dreary monotonous life to which
custom condemns her, and where her sole view of the great world outside is
through the narrow doors through which, when no one is looking, she may
catch a glimpse of the moving panorama that passes by them.
No wonder that the one day that to her is full of romance and poetry is
that on which the troupe of actors erect their boards right in front of
her house, and perform some comedy that fills every one with fits of
laughter, and lets her see a phase of life that she never dreamt existed
until these merry rogues acted it with such realistic power before her.
The passion for theatricals in China is a symptom of the unrest and
absolute weariness at the intolerable sameness that characterizes heathen
life in this land.
After a careful study of the family life of this great people, one
reluctantly comes to the conclusion that it is anything but a happy one.
The main cause for this is the absence of mutual love when the married
life begins, and the lower position that the woman occupies in the
estimation of the men everywhere. That there are happy homes where hearts
are knit to each other by true devotion and affection is undoubtedly the
case, but they are the exception and by no means the rule.
One very unpleasant evidence of this is the frequency with which
wife-beating is carried on by all classes. The Chinese, who adopt ten when
they wish to give any idea of comparative numbers, declare that in six or
seven families out of ten the husbands regularly beat their wives. Sixty
or seventy per cent of the husbands treating their wives in this rough and
brutal manner is a terrible commentary upon the home life of the Chinese,
and yet no one, as far as my observation goes, ever expresses any
condemnation of the custom. It seems to be considered as an inalienable
right that has come down from the ancient past, before the civilization of
the sages had begun to touch their forefathers with their humane
teachings, and with the intense conservatism of the Chinese, the husbands
continue to exercise it, whilst the great public looks on and takes no
step to stop the barbarous custom.
That the wives have never consented to this unwomanly and savage treatment
is evident from the fact of the large numbers of suicides amongst them
that occur annually in any given area that one may select at random. A
village is startled with the report that a woman has thrown herself into a
well. Some one happening to pass by at the moment observed the poor
creature with flushed face and flaming eyes throw herself headlong into
it. At once every one is mad with excitement. The women run shouting and
screaming to each other, expressing their loud commiseration; the men move
along with sphinx-like faces to see if help can be rendered, and the dogs
tear about yelping and barking and having free fights with each other.
The unfortunate woman is hauled out of the well with her long hair
dishevelled and streaming with water, and with a look of terror on her
face, as though death, when she came face to face with it, had filled her
with an unspeakable horror. She is quite dead, and so amid noise and
uproar and the wailing of her children, who have heard the terrible news,
she is carried to her home. It seems that she had had a few words with her
husband, and being high-spirited and independent, she had answered him in
a way that had been hurtful to his dignity as a man, and seizing a heavy
piece of wood, he had beaten her most unmercifully, without any thought as
to where the blows fell. With her body bruised and with her heart
breaking, and with her sense of womanhood utterly crushed out of her, she
determined that she would hide her disgrace in the well, and in doing so
would avenge herself most thoroughly on the man who had so injured her.
Her husband in his desolate home, though he might feel no sorrow for the
woman he had wronged, would be made to realize what a grievous mistake he
had made when he found that he had to attend to the details of the home
management that had hitherto been left to her care.
It must not be supposed that the Chinese husbands because they beat their
wives do not love them, for that is not the case. Looking at the Chinese
home in a rough and general way, one is struck with the fact that there is
really a great deal of mutual affection shown both by the husband and the
wife for one another. It is less demonstrative than with the peoples of
the West. Oriental thought and tradition are against the open
demonstration of the love that they feel for each other, still it is
unquestionably the fact that the great majority of the homes in this land
are bound together by a true and a solid affection.
The Chinaman, stolid and unemotional looking, has within him a world of
passion waiting till something rouses it, and then it breaks forth like
one of his own typhoons, reckless of what it may destroy. But beside this
fiery volcanic nature, that leads men who are accustomed to beat their
wives into the most cruel treatment of them, he is moved by forces that
would never influence us; so much so that the forty per cent. that treat
their wives with courtesy and respect are occasionally influenced to join
the ranks of the wife-beaters, simply to avoid the imputation that they
are afraid of them and dare not use the stick to them.
In that most charming and humorous book, _The Chinese Empire_, written by
Abbe Huc, he describes a scene that seems incredible, but which is a true
portrait of what frequently takes place throughout the country. He tells
of a man who was really fond of his wife and who for two or three years
lived on the most affectionate terms with her. He noticed that smiles
passed over the yellow visages of some of the young fellows that he was
acquainted with whenever they passed each other on the street. Flashes of
fun, too, made the black eyes of others gleam, as though the laughter
within them was too great to be suppressed. Furtive glances, too, were
cast upon him by men who seemed anxious not to catch his eye.
He was perplexed at these cryptic signs and tried to get an explanation.
At last one day, a kind friend enlightened him, and explained to him the
mysterious conduct of his neighbours, who, he said, were exceedingly
amused because he had never beaten his wife, and the only reason they
could think of was because he was afraid of her.
There is nothing in the world that a Chinaman dreads so much as being
laughed at. He can stand a great deal, but that stirs his soul in a way
that transforms the solemn, staid-looking Celestial into a raging wild
beast. "If that is all my neighbours have to be amused at," he said,
whilst passion was tearing his soul with a perfect storm of fury, "I can
soon prove to them that they are utterly mistaken, and I will show them in
a most convincing manner that they have been so."
Without a moment's delay he hastened home, and seizing the first heavy
implement that lay handy, he began to belabour his wife with it, with such
terrible effect that soon the air resounded with the shrieks and cries of
the unhappy woman. When the passion had died down, he confessed that he
had done wrong, but nothing could save his wife, for the injuries he had
inflicted on her had been so severe that in two or three days she died in
the greatest agony.
Chinese law in many respects is as curious as the Chinese mind. In civil
offences, it refuses to take the initiative, and if no complaints are put
before the mandarin, the most outrageous crimes, that in England would at
once set in motion the whole machinery of the law until ample justice had
been done upon the criminal, are left without any punishment. In this case
there was no one to bring any complaint before the authorities; for what
was the crime? A man had beaten his wife, but sixty per cent. of the
husbands throughout the Empire do that habitually. Public opinion had
nothing to say against him excepting that he had carried his beating a
little too far, for which he was a fool, for he would be simply so much
out of pocket when he came to purchase another wife.
The poor woman was dead, dead of a broken heart, dead from the awful
injuries that she had sustained, simply that her husband's face might be
preserved in the estimation of his neighbours; and now not a word of
sympathy for her, not a tear was shed, and scarcely a shadow passed over
the face of any one, as she travelled through unutterable sorrow into the
unknown land.
The inferior position that a woman holds in the estimation of the men is
shown in their absolute indifference to her when she happens to fall
sick. She is allowed to drag on in pain and weariness for weeks and
months, and the expense of a doctor and the medicines he might prescribe
are not entertained until she gets so seriously ill that without medical
aid she would inevitably die. A doctor is then called in to diagnose her
case, but one has a grim suspicion that the main factor in the husband's
willingness to sacrifice a few cash for his wife, was not any inordinate
love for her, but dread lest she should die and he would have to be out of
pocket in providing himself with another.
A Chinese doctor whose opinion I was one day asking with regard to this
very question, assured me that in his medical practice he had found the
men invariably opposed to the spending of money on their wives when they
were ill. "I was on one occasion," he said, "attending a country-woman for
some complaint. It was not a serious case, but it was such that if no
remedy had been applied, it might have grown into one that would have
caused her considerable inconvenience. I sent in my bill to the husband
for my attendance and for the medicines I had supplied, but he refused to
pay. It only came to forty cash (about a penny), but he declared that he
had not called me in, and therefore he would not accept my account. The
woman I knew had no money, and so I told her I would not charge her."
The Chinese family is supposed to be bound together by a virtue that is
unique in China, and which has never been looked upon with the same
reverence by any other country in the world as in it. I refer to filial
piety. There is no question but that this as an ideal virtue has been held
up before the nation during the whole length of its existence. Confucius
immortalized the subject by writing a book on it, and though it is wanting
in the nerve and vigour of his other classical works, because it is from
his pen it has through successive generations exercised a marvellous
influence in keeping up the national belief in this virtue amongst all
classes of society, from the Emperor on the throne down to the poorest
beggar that sits with sore legs and tattered garments by the roadside,
though his own parents perhaps years ago drove him on to the streets, and
because of his badness refused to recognize him as their son.
The utterance of the word "Hsiau," has an electrical effect upon any
Chinaman in whose hearing it is mentioned. The ordinary citizen will
discourse with you by the hour upon its beauties, and he will enlarge upon
the excellence and nobility of the children that carry it out in ordinary
life, especially when great obstacles exist in the performance of it. The
man upon whose face profligate is plainly written with the pen of whisky
and opium hears the word "Hsiau," and a softened look passes over it, and
his eyes lose their hardness, and any goodness that lay in his heart is
for the moment supreme. In fact, I have never yet met any one, scoundrel
or honest man, who has not been moved more or less by the mention of this
universally reverenced virtue.
Next in importance to the brochure of Confucius on filial piety is a book
quite as widely known, which is entitled _The Twenty-four Examples of
Filial Piety_. A brief account of twenty-four famous instances of devotion
to parents under various trying circumstances are given, and these are
printed age after age, and read eagerly by the people.
They are certainly most amusing reading, and they give the impression that
whatever other qualities the Chinaman may possess, he is endowed with a
strain of romance and poetry that explains how popular he can be when he
lets himself go. One story tells of a man who was looked upon as a model
for filial piety. His family consisted of his mother, himself and wife,
and a little infant son. Quite unexpectedly his mother falls dangerously
ill and is unable to eat any food. Distressed beyond measure at this, and
fearing lest she should die, he kills his child, and the milk that his
wife used to give to the little one is now absorbed by the sick mother.
This deed is evidently so pleasing to Heaven, that whilst he is digging a
grave in which to bury his murdered child, he suddenly comes upon a bar of
gold, which he at once accepts as a special present to himself for his
filial piety. Whilst he is congratulating himself on the good fortune that
has befallen him, he hears a cry from the mat in which he had wrapped his
son, and to his delight he finds that he has come to life again, without
any of the marks upon him to show the brutal treatment he had received
from his father. Returning home with the gold and the baby in his arms, a
fresh delightful surprise awaits him, for his mother comes to the door to
meet him, perfectly restored to health--another special favour from Heaven
to reward him for his devotion to her.
Another of these twenty-four is a young lad, who acts in such a way as to
excite the admiration of all who read his story. His mother had died and
his father married a second wife, who was exceedingly unkind to him. She
had a son of her own by a previous marriage, upon whom she lavished all
the love of her heart. After years of ill-treatment, his father one day
quite unexpectedly discovers the true state of the case, when he is so
enraged that he drives his wife and her beloved son from his home, and he
declares that he will never have anything more to do with them.
It is at this juncture that the filial piety that has immortalized the
young fellow's name is conspicuously manifested. He so pleads with his
father to forgive his stepmother that he is permitted to go and bring her
home again, though he is quite conscious that her return means sorrow to
himself.
[Illustration: AN OLD LADY.
_To face p. 39._]
He has successfully performed his mission, when lingering on the road he
is seized by a band of robbers, who decide, for reasons not stated, to
murder him. The stepmother hears of this, and filled with remorse and with
gratitude too, she takes her own son to the robbers' camp and offers them
him in exchange for the other, to be killed in his stead. The thieves are
so impressed with the noble self-denial of both stepmother and stepson,
that they all agree to abandon their evil lives and to become honest
citizens of the Empire, which they proceed to do at once, and the band is
broken up.
One of the most famous amongst the twenty-four heroes, however, is one
whose name it would seem to any one but a Chinaman ought to be covered
with infamy, instead of being inscribed on the roll of fame, and held up
for the admiration of the whole Empire. His name is Ting-lan, and it is
told of him that for many years he cruelly beat and ill-treated his
mother. One day he happened to be on the hillside caring for his flock of
goats, when he saw a young kid kneel down by its mothers side to drink. He
was so struck with this beautifully submissive action of the animal, that
he was led to think of how different had been his own conduct to his
mother. A wave of repentance swept over his heart, and he determined that
his whole future life should be an atonement for the wrongs he had done
her.
Just at this moment the old lady appeared coming over the hill towards
him, when Ting-lan, his heart filled with his good resolutions, ran
eagerly in her direction, to kneel down before her to confess his sins and
to tell her how he had determined to be a dutiful son in the future. The
mother, knowing nothing of the change of heart that had come over him, and
thinking that he was rushing at her to beat her, turned and fled in hot
haste, and threw herself into a deep and rapid river that flowed near by.
Her son, terrified and distressed beyond measure, jumped in after her in
his endeavour to save her, but all in vain. The fast-flowing stream had
claimed her as its victim, and no trace of the unhappy mother could be
found in the turbid waters that hid her from the gaze of her weeping son.
By and by there seemed to rise from the very spot where his mother had
disappeared a flat oblong piece of wood, which he seized upon eagerly as
the only memento that remained of her, and on this he had engraved her
name and the date of her death. Popular tradition holds that the first use
of the Ancestral Tablets, which are believed to contain the spirits of the
dead and which are worshipped twice a year by the living descendants,
began from this time and from this circumstance. If this is so, which is
extremely doubtful, then it may be said that Ting-lan was the originator
of a form of worship that is more powerful and more deep-seated than any
other in the whole of the Empire.
When the Chinese are asked how it is that such an unworthy character as
Ting-lan could be admitted into such a renowned gallery of national
worthies, the only reply you get is, "Oh, he repented, you know," as if
that were enough to condone years of cruel treatment of his mother, and
quite sufficient to entitle him to a more than common place amongst the
great moral teachers of his country. One cannot conceive of any other
nation in the world but the Chinese being willing to canonize such a very
doubtful character as Ting-lan.
The mere fact that there has been such a high ideal of filial piety
maintained from the very earliest days of Chinese history has been of
incalculable service to the Empire. It is an ideal that every one accepts,
and it must be admitted that but for it society in general and the home in
particular would have degenerated more than they have done in the passage
of the centuries. That there are as fine examples of filial piety to-day
as any of those recorded in the popular book that has been quoted is
unquestionable, but they are rare. A boy to be filial must be dutiful and
submissive, he must neither gamble nor smoke opium; whatever wages he
earns he must hand over to his parents; he must support them in old age,
and when they die he must perform the regular services to the spirits in
the grave and in the Ancestral Tablet, and in the Ancestral Hall.
From examination that I have made, the prevailing testimony is that not
more than one or two per cent, of the sons of the present day are in any
true sense filial. You speak to a young man about filial piety. His face
is leaden-hued, and has all the marks of the dissipated opium smoker. His
face lights up and he becomes eloquent as he expatiates on the virtue. You
examine into his home life, and you find that he is leaving his old
parents upon the very verge of destitution. He has borrowed money on the
farm, and he has carried off the best of the goods in the home and pawned
them. This man represents a large class who are all enthusiastic, in the
abstract, about filial piety, but who look on whilst the old father is
slaving himself to death, but who will not lift a finger to keep the wolf
away from the door.
You meet another young fellow who is not an opium smoker. He has the
appearance of robust health. He lives well and generously, for his salary
is an ample one. The ruddy hue on his face becomes tinged with a brighter
colour, as you talk with him about the duty of sons towards their parents,
and you feel now that you have a genuine case of filial piety such as
might be enrolled amongst the famous twenty-four. You ask him casually how
much he sends home regularly to the old folks in their country home. A
shadow falls over his face, he stammers and hesitates, and mumbles out
something about his expenses being so heavy that he has not been able to
spare anything out of his salary; but he says, and his face brightens up
as he does so, "I am going to send some as soon as I draw my next money."
For the moment he means to do this, but he never does.
That filial piety exists in China, in the books of its sages, in its light
literature, and in a deep sentiment imbedded in the hearts of all classes
of society, is a fact that no one who knows anything of this strange and
perplexing land can dispute. It is just as true, however, that in actual
practice it is no more prevalent here than it is in England or America, if
quite so much, and that the reputation that China has obtained for the
carrying out of this virtue is one that she does not deserve.