Transcriber Note
Text emphasis denoted as _Italics_ and =Bold=.
CHINA AND THE CHINESE
China
AND THE CHINESE
BY
EDMUND PLAUCHUT
TRANSLATED AND EDITED
BY
Mrs. ARTHUR BELL (N. D'Anvers)
AUTHOR OF 'THE ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF ART,' 'LIFE OF GAINSBOROUGH,'
'THE SCIENCE LADDERS,' ETC.
WITH FIFTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED
13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET
1899
_All rights reserved._
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
This brightly written little book by the well-known French author, Edmund
Plauchut, who has spent many years in China, is the first of the new
series known as the "Livres d'or de la Science" recently commenced by MM.
Schleicher Frères of Paris. It gives in a succinct form a very complete
account of the Chinese, both past and present, their religion, their
literature, and their time-honoured customs. Touching but lightly on the
many vexed questions of modern diplomacy, it yet presents a very true
picture of the problems European statesmen have to solve in connection
with the inevitable partition of the Celestial Empire, and will, it is
hoped, be found of real service to those who wish to be abreast with the
times, yet who have not the leisure to read the longer and more exhaustive
books on the subject which are continually appearing.
Nancy Bell,
_Southbourne-on-Sea,
May 1899._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
The delight of exploring unknown lands--Saint Louis and
the Tartars of olden times--The Anglo-French force enters
Pekin--Terror of the "Red Devils"--The "Cup of Immortality"--The
"Sons of Heaven"--Hong-Kong as it was and is--The Treaty of
Tien-tsin--The game of "Morra"--First Tea-party in the Palace
of Pekin--Chinese agriculture and love of flowers--Chinese
literati--An awkward meeting between two of them--Love of poetry
in China--Voltaire's letter to the poet-king--The Chinese
army--The _Shu-King_, or sacred book of China--Yao and his
work--Chung, the lowly-born Emperor--The Hoang-Ho, or "China's
Sorrow"--Yu the engineer and his work--Chung chooses Yu to reign
after him--The foundation of the hereditary monarchy in China 1
CHAPTER II
Trip up the Shu-Kiang river--My fellow-passengers and their
costumes--A damaged bell--Female peasants on the river-banks--I
am caught up and carried off by a laughing virago--Arrival at
Canton--Early trading between China and Ceylon and Africa,
etc.--The Empress Lui-Tseu teaching the people to rear
silk-worms--The treaties of Nanking and Tien-tsin--Bombardment
of Canton--Murder of a French sailor and terrible revenge--M.
Vaucher and I explore Canton--The _fétes_ in honour of the
Divinity of the North and of the Queen of Heaven--General
appearance of Canton--An emperor's recipe for making tea--How tea
is grown in China--The Fatim garden--A dutiful son--Scene of the
murder of the Tai-Ping rebels--The Temple of the five hundred
Genii--Suicide of a young engineer--Return of his spirit in the
form of a snake 33
CHAPTER III
General Tcheng-Ki-Tong and his book on China--The monuments
of China--Those the Chinese delight to honour--A Chinese
heroine--Ingredients of the "Cup of Immortality"--Avenues of
colossal statues and monsters in cemeteries--Imperial edict in
honour of K'wo-Fan--Proclamation of the eighteenth century--The
Emperor takes his people's sins upon himself--Reasons for
Chinese indifference to matters of faith--Lao-Tsze, or the old
philosopher--His early life--His book, the _Tao-Teh-King_--His
theory of the creation--Affinity of his doctrine with
Christianity--Quotations from his book 57
CHAPTER IV
Lao-Tsze and Confucius compared--The appearance of Kilin, the
fabulous dragon, to the father of Confucius--Early life of the
Philosopher--The death and funeral of his mother--His views on
funeral ceremonies--His visit to the King of Lu and discourse on
the nature of man--Confucius advocates gymnasium exercises--His
love of music--His summary of the whole duty of woman--He
describes the life of a widow--He gives a list of the classes of
men to be avoided in marriage--The seven legitimate reasons for
the divorce of a wife--The three exceptions rendering divorce
illegal--The missionary Gutzlaff's opinion of Confucius' view of
woman's position--The Philosopher meets a man about to commit
suicide--He rescues him from despair--He loses thirteen of his
own followers 73
CHAPTER V
My voyage to Macao--General appearance of the port--Gambling
propensities of the Chinese--Compulsory emigration--Cruel
treatment of coolies on board ship--Disaster on the
Paracelses reefs--The _Baracouns_--The grotto of Camoens--The
_Lusiads_--Contrast between Chinese and Japanese--Origin of the
yellow races: their appearance and language--Relation of the
dwellers in the Arctic regions to the people of China--Russian
and Dutch intercourse with the Celestials--East India Company's
monopoly of trade--Disputes on the opium question--Expiration of
charter--Death of Lord Napier of a broken heart--Lin-Tseh-Hsu
as Governor of the Kwang provinces--The result of his measures
to suppress trade in opium--Treaty of Nanking--War of
1856-1858--Treaty of Tien-tsin and Convention of Pekin--Immense
increase in exports and imports resulting from them 97
CHAPTER VI
French aspirations in Tonkin--Margary receives his
instructions--Work already done on the Yang-tse--Margary
is insulted at Paï-Chou--He awaits instructions in vain at
Lo-Shan--The Tung-Ting lake--A Chinese caravanserai--The explorer
leaves the river to proceed by land--He meets a starving
missionary--Kwei-Chou and the French bishop there--A terrible
road--Arrival at the capital of Yunnan--Armed escort from
Bhâmo--Meeting between Margary and Colonel Browne--Threatening
attitude of natives--Margary crosses the frontier alone--Colonel
Browne's camp surrounded--Murder of Margary outside
Manwyne--Importance of Yunnan and Szechuan to Europeans 118
CHAPTER VII
Sir Thomas Wade demands his passports--Retires to man-of-war
off Tien-tsin--Interviews with Li-Hung-Chang--Convention of
Che-Foo--Description of Ichang on the Yang-tse--The Manchester
of Western China--Pak-hoï and its harbour--A magnificent
pagoda--Ceremony of opening the port to foreign trade--New
Year's _féte_ at Pak-hoï--The game of Morra--Description
of Wenchow--Temples and pagodas turned into inns--Wahn
and its native officials--Dislike of mandarins, etc., to
missionaries--Beautiful surroundings of the town--An eclipse of
the moon expected--The eclipse does not keep time--Excitement
of the people--The dragon attacks the moon at last--Threatening
message from the Emperor to the astronomers--Two astronomers
beheaded in B.C. 2155--Reasons for importance attached to
eclipses in China 135
CHAPTER VIII
I land at Shanghai--The Celestial who had never heard of
Napoleon--Total value of exports and imports to and from
Shanghai--What those exports and imports are--The devotion of
the Chinese to their native land--The true yellow danger of
the future--I am invited to a Chinese dinner at Shanghai--My
yellow guests--The ladies find me amusing--Their small feet
and difficulty in walking--A wealthy mandarin explains why
the feet are mutilated--Sale of girls in China--Position of
women discussed--A mandarin accepts a Bible--Our host takes
us to a flower-boat--Description of boat--My first attempt at
opium-smoking--A Celestial in an opium dream 151
CHAPTER IX
Great commercial value of opium--Cultivation of the
poppy--Exports of opium from India--What opium is--Preparation
of the drug--Opinions on the English monopoly of the trade
in it--Ingenious mode of smuggling opium--Efforts of Chinese
Government to check its importation--Proclamation of the Viceroy
Wang--Opinion of Li-Shi-Shen on the properties of opium--The
worst form of opium smoking--Its introduction to Formosa by the
Dutch--Depopulation of the island--Punishments inflicted on
opium-smokers--Opinions of doctors on the effects of opium-eating
or smoking--Chinese prisoners deprived of their usual pipe--The
real danger to the poor of indulgence in opium--Evidence of
Archibald Little--The Chinese and European pipe contrasted 166
CHAPTER X
Missionary effort in China--First arrival of the
Jesuits--Landing of Michael Roger--Adam Schaal appointed Chief
Minister of State--The scientific work of the Jesuits--Affection
of the young Emperor Kang-Hi for them--Arrival of other
monks--Fatal disputes between them and the Jesuits--The Pope
interferes--Fatal results for the Christians--Speech of
Kang-Hi--Expulsion of the Jesuits--Concessions to Europeans in
newly-opened ports--Hatred of foreigners at Tien-tsin--Arrival of
French nuns--Their mistakes in ignoring native feeling--Chinese
children bought by the Abbé Chevrier--A Chinese merchant's
views on the situation--Terrible accusations against the
Sisters--Murder of the French Consul and his assistant--The
Governor of Tien-tsin responsible--Massacre of the Abbé Chevrier
and one hundred children--The Lady Superior and her nuns cut to
pieces and burnt--The guilty Governor Chung-Ho sent to Paris as
envoy--No proper vengeance exacted by the French--Other sisters
go to Tien-tsin 184
CHAPTER XI
The Great Wall--Its failure as a defence--Forced labour--Mode
of construction--Shih-Hwang-Ti orders all books to be
burnt--Mandarins flung into the flames--The _Shu-King_ is
saved--How the sacred books came to be written--The sedan-chair
and its uses--Modern hotels at Pekin--Examination of students for
degrees--Cells in which they are confined--Kublai Khan conquers
China--Makes Pekin his capital--Introduces paper currency--The
Great Canal--Address to the three Philosophers--Marco Polo's
visit to Pekin--His description of the Emperor--Kublai Khan's
wife--Foundation of the Academy of Pekin--Hin-Heng and his
acquirements--Death of Kublai Khan--Inferiority of his
successors--Shun-Ti the last Mongol Emperor--Pekin in the time of
the Mongols--When seen by Lord Macartney--The city as it is now 205
CHAPTER XII
Fall of the Mongol dynasty--The son of a labourer chosen
Emperor--He founds the Ming dynasty--Choo becomes Tae-tsoo, and
rules with great wisdom--He dies and leaves his kingdom to his
grandson--Young-lo attacks and takes Nanking--The young Emperor
burnt to death--Young-lo is proclaimed Emperor, and makes
Pekin his capital--First European visits China--Tartar chief
usurps supreme power--Dies soon after--Foundation of present
dynasty--Accession of Shun-Che--Chinese compelled to shave their
heads--The old style of coiffure in China--Care of the modern
pig-tail 227
CHAPTER XIII
The Founder of the Ch'ing dynasty--A broken-hearted
widower--The Louis XIV. of China--The Will of
Kang-Hy--Young-t-Ching appointed his successor--The character
of the new Emperor--Mission of Lord Macartney--He refuses
to perform the Ko-too, or nine prostrations--Interview with
Young-t-Ching--Results of the Mission to England--Accession of
Kien-Long--He resolves to abdicate when he has reigned sixty
years--Accession of Taou-Kwang--The beginning of the end--An
adopted brother--War against China declared by England--The Pekin
Treaty--Prince Hassan goes to visit Queen Victoria--The Regents
and Tung-Che--Foreign Ministers compel the young Emperor to
receive them 235
CHAPTER XIV
A child of four chosen Emperor--The power of the Empress
Dowager--The Palace feud--The Palace at Pekin--A Frenchman's
interview with the Emperor--The Emperor's person held
sacred--Coming of age of the Emperor--An enlightened
proclamation--Reception of the foreign ministers in
1889--Education of the young monarch--He goes to do homage at the
tombs of his ancestors--A wife is chosen for him--His secondary
wives--China, the battle-ground of the future--Railway concessions 251
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. VIEW OF HONG-KONG TAKEN FROM ABOVE THE TOWN 3
2. CHINESE SOLDIERS 5
3. CHINESE WEAPONS 6
4. CHINESE HELMET AND QUIVER 7
5. A YOUNG CHINESE WOMAN 8
6. A CHINESE COURTESAN 9
7. HWANG-TIEN-SHANG-TI, THE GOD OF HEAVEN 11
8. A CHINESE MANDARIN 15
9. ANCIENT CHINESE COSTUMES 17
10. ANCIENT CHINESE COSTUMES 18
11. A YOUNG CHINESE POET 21
12. A NAUGHTY PUPIL 28
13. A CHINESE BRIDGE SPANNING THE HOANG-HO 31
14. A PAGODA 34
15. A STREET IN CANTON 40
16. A WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE WITH HER BABY 41
17. A CHINESE MANDARIN 42
18. A GONG-RINGER 43
19. A CHINESE ACTOR 44
20. A CHINESE ACTOR IN A TRAGIC PART 47
21. A VILLA NEAR CANTON 51
22. GENERAL TCHENG-KI-TONG 58
23. LAO-TSZE 67
24. THE HOUSE IN WHICH CONFUCIUS WAS BORN 75
25. PORTRAIT OF CONFUCIUS 76
26. A FUNERAL PROCESSION IN CHINA 77
27. CHINESE TOMBS 78
28. A CHINESE CEMETERY 80
29. A YOUNG CHINESE MARRIED LADY 88
30. A MARRIAGE PROCESSION 92
31. A DESPERATE MAN 94
32. THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS 95
33. CHINESE PEASANT CRUSHING RICE 122
34. A CHINESE FERRYMAN 124
35. A MANDARIN'S HOUSE 127
36. PORTRAIT OF HIS EXCELLENCY LI-HUNG-CHANG 138
37. ICHANG 141
38. A CHINESE DYER AT WORK 143
39. A CHINESE VISITING CARD 144
40. A CHINESE RESTAURANT. AFTER THE REPAST 156
41. A CHINESE JUNK 165
42. AN OPIUM-SMOKER 179
43. OPIUM PIPES 181
44. REQUISITES FOR OPIUM-SMOKING 183
45. A TEMPLE AT TIEN-TSIN 195
46. THE GREAT WALL 206
47. BURNING OF MANDARINS AND HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS,
BY ORDER OF SHIH-KWANG-TI 209
48. A STREET IN PEKIN 214
49. NIGHT-WATCHMEN IN PEKIN 216
50. A CHINESE GENERAL IN HIS WAR-CHARIOT 220
51. PORCELAIN TOWER AT NANKING 222
52. MONOLITHS AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE TOMBS OF THE
MING EMPERORS 231
53. CHINESE BRONZES 233
54. PORTRAIT OF ONE OF THE CHINESE EMPERORS OF THE
CH'ING DYNASTY, PROBABLY KIEN-LONG 242
55. ONE OF THE REGENTS DURING THE MINORITY OF TUNG-CHE 249
56. A CHINESE SEDAN-CHAIR AND BEARERS 255
57. A BONZE TORTURING HIMSELF IN A TEMPLE, AFTER A
CHINESE PAINTING 260
58. THE TOWN AND BRIDGE OF FUCHAN 265
CHINA AND THE CHINESE
CHAPTER I
The delight of exploring unknown lands--Saint Louis and the Tartars of
olden times--The Anglo-French force enters Pekin--Terror of the "Red
Devils"--The "Cup of Immortality"--The "Sons of Heaven"--Hong-Kong as
it was and is--The Treaty of Tien-tsin--The game of "Morra"--First
Tea-party in the Palace of Pekin--Chinese agriculture and love of
flowers--Chinese literati--An awkward meeting between two of them--Love
of poetry in China--Voltaire's letter to the poet-king--The Chinese
army--The _Shu-King_, or sacred book of China--Yao and his work--Chung,
the lowly-born Emperor--The Hoang-Ho, or "China's Sorrow"--Yu the engineer
and his work--Chung chooses Yu to reign after him--The foundation of the
hereditary monarchy in China.
I do not deny the happiness of a life spent beneath the shadow of the
belfry of one's native place, in all the unruffled peace of one's own
home, surrounded by one's own family; but, after all, what are such
joys as these compared to those of the explorer who goes forth to meet
the unknown ready for all that may betide, making fresh discoveries at
every turn, gladly facing all dangers and rejoicing in the ever-changing,
ever-widening horizon before him? Who would care to forego the joys of
memory, the power of living over again in old age the adventures of youth,
of seeing once more with the mind's eye the wonders of the far-distant
lands visited when the mind was still buoyant, the sight still undimmed,
the limbs still in all the vigour of manhood? Happy mortal indeed is he
who, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the discoverer, looks upon death
itself not as the end of all things, but the threshold of a new world, the
beginning of yet another journey fraught with the deepest interest, to a
bourne all the more fascinating because of the deep mystery in which it is
shrouded.
This was how I reasoned with myself when I was a mere lad eagerly
devouring the accounts of the work of the great early explorers, Marco
Polo, the Dupleix, La Pérouse, Bougainville, Dumont D'Urville, Christopher
Columbus, Mungo Park, the Landers, etc., not to speak of Swift's
fascinating romance _Gulliver's Travels_, and the yet more thrilling
_Robinson Crusoe_ of Defoe. Like all boys with vivid imaginations, I was
fired with a longing to emulate all these heroes, and said to my mother:
"I have made up my mind to be a sailor!"
[Sidenote: HONG-KONG]
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--VIEW OF HONG-KONG TAKEN FROM ABOVE THE TOWN.]
My ardour was, however, quickly quenched when I saw my mother's beautiful
eyes fill with tears at the thought of parting from me. This did not
prevent me from leaving France a few years later, for I found myself
whilst still quite a young man free to go whither I would, and I made
up my mind to make many a long and interesting journey. Of course I
expected to meet with dangers and misfortunes, but I felt sure that any
such drawbacks would be more than counterbalanced by the grand sights it
would be my privilege to witness. My anticipations were in every way fully
realized, and if after wandering all over the world I refrain from saying
with Terence: "I am a man, and nothing in the nature of man is strange to
me;" it is merely because poets alone are privileged to speak with such
egotistical assurance.
I had already spent a considerable time in Oceania and a few months in
Egypt, when I landed at Hong-Kong on the very threshold of the ancient
Chinese Empire, which, according to well-authenticated annals, is older
even than the mighty and venerable Egypt of the Pharaohs. I went to China
as much to study her past on the spot as to be one of the first to hail
that transformation which, when I arrived, was already on the eve of its
inauguration, and is now rapidly becoming an accomplished fact. There was,
indeed, urgent need for haste if I wished to study that moribund China
so long closed to Europeans before the great change came, and cared to
gaze upon her far-stretching table-lands girt about by heights crowned
with never-melting snow, ere their solitudes were broken in upon by the
desecrating steam-engine, in districts whence in mediæval times great
hordes of yellow-skinned, fierce-eyed barbarians, their long black hair
floating on their shoulders, swept westward to devastate Europe.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--CHINESE SOLDIERS.]
[Sidenote: SAINT LOUIS OF FRANCE]
In those days five hundred thousand Tartars invaded Russia, took
possession of Moscow, burnt Cracow, and penetrated as far as Hungary.
Saint Louis of France, who was then on the throne, stood in the greatest
dread of them, but this did not prevent him from making a joke about them,
quoted by the Sieur de Joinville, which, considering the state of affairs
at the time, speaks well for his pluck and sense of humour. "Mother," he
said to Queen Blanche of Castille, "if these Tartars come here, we must
make them go back to the Tartarus from which they come!"
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--CHINESE WEAPONS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--CHINESE HELMET AND QUIVER.]
[Sidenote: WHOLESALE SUICIDE]
Time, however, never fails to bring about the poetic justice of revenge.
Six centuries after the sack of Cracow a little Anglo-French force
entered Pekin with drums beating and flags flying, pillaged the Imperial
Palaces, and returned to Europe laden with rich spoil. Chinese, Tartars,
Mongols, and Manchus had all alike allowed themselves to be beaten by
a mere handful of resolute men. What had they to oppose to European
tactics, European weapons, and above all European discipline? Bows and
arrows, old-fashioned muskets, spears, and shields adorned with fantastic;
designs. There, was nothing for them to do but to run away; not that they
were cowards, for they never have any fear of death, but simply because
resistance was hopeless. Most of the generals in command of the army
followed the usual custom in cases of defeat, and voluntarily emptied the
bowl of poisoned opium to save themselves from being triumphed over by
their enemies. At Pekin, Canton, and many other centres of population in
the vast Empire, the terrified women flung themselves into the wells to
escape the violent death they expected the "red devils" would otherwise
have inflicted on them. Only some forty years ago what did that immense
multitude of Asiatic men and women know about us Europeans? Just about as
much and no more than we did of them. One thing only is certain, that in
the heroic days of the founders of the dynasty, from Hwang-Ti, the yellow
Emperor, to Khiang-Luanh, the poet sovereign more than one ruler of China
had drunk from the cup of immortality, that is to say, the cup of poison,
rather than live to see the enemy enter his palaces as a conqueror.
Enervated by a long course of self-indulgence, the Sons of Heaven, as the
Emperors of China proudly style themselves, have degenerated terribly, and
what with their own weakness and the arrogant encroachments of the eunuchs
who guard the Imperial harem, many of the sovereigns would have been
deposed, but for the intervention, now of an Empress-Dowager, now of some
favourite wife, who, seizing the reins of power, has wielded the sceptre
with virile strength and skill.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--A YOUNG CHINESE WOMAN.]
[Sidenote: TWO POTENT POISONS]
In 1851, when the English took possession of the island of Hong-Kong, it
was but a rugged conical-shaped rock, dreary and forbidding in appearance.
The Chinese then living on it were enraged at the intrusion of the
foreigners, and one of them, the only baker on the island, resolved to
dispose of all the intruders at one blow. He decided to poison them, and
with this end in view he put arsenic into all the bread he supplied to
the foreigners. He over-reached himself, for the dose was too strong, and
suspicion was at once aroused. Those who tasted the bread escaped with
violent sickness, and the English were not going to abandon the place for
a reason so insignificant as that.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--A CHINESE COURTESAN.]
Hong-Kong is now a maritime port of the first rank, and its harbour is
one of the finest and most beautiful in the whole world. The town boasts
of hotels managed on the European system, and the slopes of the rocks
are covered from the sea-shore to the highest point of the island with
tasty villas. It is to opium, that other poison responsible for the death
of so many Celestials, and as potent in its effects as the arsenic with
which the patriotic baker tried to kill off all the foreigners, that
Hong-Kong owes its immense prosperity. The French did much to aid the
English in inaugurating that prosperity in 1857 and 1858, when they joined
them as allies in the brief campaign which resulted in the taking of
Canton and the signing of the celebrated Treaty of Tien-tsin. The various
stipulations of that treaty, the full significance of which the Chinese do
not seem to have realized at the time, included the right to the allies
of appointing diplomatic agents to the Court of Pekin, and the opening of
five fresh ports to European commerce, whilst a strip of territory on the
mainland, opposite to the island of Hong-Kong, was ceded to the British
colony. The benefits which accrued to France were small, but the increase
of British trade was enormous, and from that time to this the grand
harbour has been: one of the chief naval stations of the East.
In spite of its prosperity and importance, however, the town is anything
but a pleasant place to stop in, and the foreign visitor soon gets tired
of being jostled about by busy coolies and tipsy sailors. The great
delight of the latter is to get drunk in the brandy-stores of Victoria
Street, and then to dance, not, strange to say, with women, but without
partners, to the music of a violin and a big drum. In the evening the
floating and resident population alike resort in crowds to the opium-dens
and houses of ill fame in the upper portions of the town. No one seems
to feel any shame at being seen to enter these places, the windows of
which are wide open, so that all can look into the brightly illuminated
rooms, whence proceeds the sound of oaths in all manner of languages,
whilst the loud clash of gongs mingles with the muffled songs of the
Chinese beauties, and every now and then a shower of crackers is flung
into the street below, bursting into zigzags of fire on the heads of the
startled passers-by. In the eyes of the masters of the island, the intense
commercial activity of the day atones for the dissipations of the night.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--HWANG-TIEN-SHANG TI, THE GOD OF HEAVEN.
(_In the Guinet Museum._)]
[Sidenote: THE GAME OF MORRA]
Contact with Europeans has, however, done little if anything to modify the
ideas and customs of the Chinese. A few of the great native merchants,
it is true, are willing now and then to drink a glass of champagne with
the representatives of foreign houses, and teach them the game of Morra,
which, strange to say, is to all intents and purposes the same as that
played all over Italy, and is so well described by Mrs. Eaton in her _Rome
in the Nineteenth Century_. "Morra," she says, "is played by the men, and
merely consists in holding up in rapid succession any number of fingers
they please, calling out at the same time the number their antagonist
shows.... Morra seems to differ in no respect from the _Micure Digitis_
of the Ancient Romans." If it be a fact, as some assert, that the various
races of the world are more truly themselves in their games than in their
work, this similarity in a pastime played by people so different as the
Chinese and the Italians, would have a deep psychological significance.
However that may be, drinking champagne and playing Morra together do
not lead to any real friendship or intimacy between the Celestials and
their hated foreign guests. There is not, and it seems as if there never
could be, any true _rapprochement_, and this fact is at the root of the
anxiety of statesmen for the future, in spite of the apparent progress
made in the introduction of European ideas into the very stronghold of
Chinese fanaticism, the Palace of Pekin, where a few months ago, on the
occasion of her birthday, the Dowager Empress held that first reception of
European ladies which was hailed by the European press as the commencement
of a new era for China. An account of this historic tea-party may well
be added here, for its being given was truly among the most remarkable
events which have taken place in the century now so near its close. It
seems that Lady Macdonald, the wife of the British Minister, was the prime
mover in bringing about this startling innovation in the customs of the
most conservative of all modern nations. The fact that it was the guests
themselves who compelled the hostess to invite them, detracted not at all
from the cordiality of their reception. Received at the entrance to the
precincts of the Palace by numerous mandarins in brilliant costumes, the
visitors were carried on State chairs to the electric tramway, strange
anomaly in such a stronghold of retrogression as the capital of the
Celestial Empire, and thence escorted to the audience-chamber by a group
of ladies of the Court specially selected to attend them.
[Sidenote: A STRANGE TEA-PARTY]
In the throne-room, the Empress and her unfortunate son, the nominal
ruler of China, were seated side by side on a raised dais, behind a table
decorated with apples and chrysanthemums in the simple but effective
Chinese manner. Presents and compliments were exchanged, a grand luncheon
was served, over which the Princess Ching presided, and when tea was
handed round later the Dowager Empress again appeared and sipped a little
of the national beverage from the cup of each minister's wife. Finally,
when the time for leave-taking came, the astute Dowager, giving way to an
apparently uncontrollable burst of emotion, embraced all her visitors in
turn. Time alone can prove whether this kiss were indeed one of peace or
of future betrayal. In the eyes of the Court officials and their ladies it
must have appeared far more startling than any of the political changes
with which the air is rife.
The Chinese people, who know next to nothing of what is going on, and are
more ignorant of the transformation taking place than even illiterate
Europeans, are as indifferent to the past as to the future; they have been
accustomed for centuries to obey unchanging laws of a wisdom acknowledged
by even hostile critics; and startling innovation touching their own lives
is the one thing which moves them out of their constitutional apathy.
Agriculture is the favourite occupation of the Chinese, and they consider
the tilling of the ground almost a religious duty. It has been customary
for many ages for the supreme ruler to turn over a few furrows at the
beginning of the agricultural year, that is to say the spring, and in
all the provinces of the vast empire a similar ceremony is performed by
the delegate of the Emperor. Flowers are everywhere cultivated, though
generally in pots, with an enthusiasm amounting to passion, and marvellous
skill is shown in the growing of dwarf trees, which produce quantities
of fruit. In a word, vegetation in China is stamped with an originality
setting it apart from that of any other country. In irrigation and the use
of manure Chinese gardeners were long far in advance of western nations.
The chief ambition of every native of China is to leave behind him sons
who on his death will give to his memory the homage he himself rendered
to that of his own father, for it is in the reverence in which ancestors
are held that the Chinese concentrate all their religious feeling. Even
Shang-Ti, or the God of Heaven, Buddha, Lao-tsze, and Confucius only take
secondary rank as compared with these ancestors.
[Sidenote: CHINESE LITERATI]
The Literati, or scholars of China, have won their much-coveted
distinction by many very severe examinations in the so-called King, or
the five sacred books, and in the works of the great philosophers. Armed
with the diploma securing to him the rank of a scholar, its fortunate
possessor may aspire to the very highest functions of the empire. So very
many win that diploma, however, and the numbers increase so rapidly every
year, that, as in France and in England, there are not enough appointments
for those qualified to receive them. In spite of this, the scholar even
when out of place commands the respect of all who have not been promoted
to the grade he has won. In his interesting account of his travels in
Asia, Marcel Monnier gives a very pregnant illustration of the state of
things I have been describing.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--A CHINESE MANDARIN.]
"As I was leaving the rampart," he says, "I witnessed a curious scene
illustrative of the esteem in which--in this land where an hereditary
aristocracy does not exist--is held the one ennobling rank, that of being
the owner of a paper diploma. My bearers had just entered a very narrow
causeway between two rice-fields, when they were suddenly brought to a
halt by another chair coming from the opposite direction. This chair was
occupied by a young man in elegant attire, wearing spectacles, and with
a general air about him of being pleased with himself. Apparently he was
a scholar fresh from examinations. The bearers on each side parleyed
together, but neither seemed disposed to yield place to the others. The
discussion seemed likely to be interminable, when the scholar intervened,
and addressing the chief of my bearers, shouted haughtily to him:
"'Why don't you get out of the way of a licentiate of Kan-Su?'
"My chief porter, a big sturdy fellow of about forty, did not move, but
without budging an inch replied with equal haughtiness:
"'A licentiate? And of what year, pray?'
"Then without giving the other time to answer, he quickly dived into the
little leather-bag hanging from his waist-band, brought out a greasy
paper, and proudly unfolded it as if it were a flag, before the eyes of
his astonished questioner.
"'Look!' he said.
"The young man took the paper with the very tips of his fingers, but he
had scarcely glanced at the magic inscription on it before he handed it
back with a respectful inclination of the head, at the same time ordering
his men to withdraw. My porter, too, had his diploma, and he had had it
for a long time. That of recent date had to give way to the earlier one.
My chair passed on in triumph, whilst that of the newly-created scholar
humbly waited at the side of the road in the rice-field."
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--ANCIENT CHINESE COSTUMES.
(_Univers Pittoresque._)]
[Sidenote: CHINESE HONESTY]
The Chinese have the trading instinct as fully developed as have the
descendants of Shem. They carry on commerce with the same wonderful
_finesse_, the same keen eye for a bargain, and they are as fond of money
as the Jews themselves. At the same time in really important affairs they
are as much to be trusted, as thoroughly loyal to the other side, as any
great merchant of the City of London, or the _Rue du Sentier_ in the
French capital. These Chinese traders gave credit for enormous sums to the
first foreign firms which had the audacity to found the Canton factories.
On the faith of their signatures alone guaranteeing eventual payment,
the heads of these foreign firms found themselves trusted with whole
cargoes of tea and silks. After the failure of the Union Bank, of the
_Comptoir national d'Escompte_, and certain great American houses, this
giving of credit was discontinued, but that it was ever granted remains a
most significant fact. One proof of the extreme caution which succeeded
the extraordinary confidence is, that there are no branches of the great
Chinese firms of Shanghai and Hong-Kong in Paris, Marseilles, or Lyons.
This is really no great loss, for the West will be invaded all too soon by
the yellow races.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--ANCIENT CHINESE COSTUMES.
(_Univers Pittoresque._)]
[Sidenote: BONZES AND BONZESSES]
In Asia there are many more mystic dreamers and poets than is generally
supposed. A Chinese mystic is called a bonze, or talapoin, the former word
being of Japanese origin, introduced to China by Europeans. Women who
devote themselves to a religious life are called bonzesses, but as certain
abuses crept in of a kind which can readily be imagined, a very wise law
was passed some time ago forbidding any woman to become a priestess till
after her fortieth year, and certain censors have long advocated a yet
further higher limit of age.
Amongst young women of the higher classes in the remote East, especially
amongst those whose beauty destines them for the harem, poetry is
held in high esteem. On the richly-lacquered screens and on the
delicately-coloured fans so popular in China, are many representations
of frail Chinese or Japanese beauties, tracing certain letters of the
Mandarin alphabet with a fine pencil held in their tapering fingers with
the characteristic pink nails. The words formed by these letters make up
poetic phrases imbued with all the freshness and grace of the fair young
girls who transcribe them. In them are sung the praises of the flowers
of the hawthorn, the peach-tree, the sweet-briar, and even of a certain
savoury tea. More than one Chinese Emperor has done homage to the Muses,
and the most celebrated of these crowned poets was Khian-Lung, of the
Tartar Manchu dynasty, who died at the end of the eighteenth century,
and to whom Voltaire addressed the celebrated letter in verse of which
the royal recipient was probably only able to understand, and that with
considerable difficulty, the last few lines of which are quoted here:
Receive, Celestial King, the compliments I write
To one whose mighty throne stands on a double height!
The western world knows well, in spite of all my crimes,
I have a deep regard for monarchs who make rhymes.
O thou whose soul is lit by Art's poetic fires,
I pray thee tell me if your prosody requires
That you in far Pekin, like us, must e'en submit
To bind your thoughts in rules to make the tenses fit?
Thus, if you choose to take the Alexandrine beat.
Two equal lines must walk on six plain, equal feet,
And so, one half for rhyme, the other for the sense,
The whole of one great work to half you may condense!
The fame of two other Chinese poets, who flourished in the eighth century
of our era, has also come down to us. These were Tchu-Fu and Li-Tai-Pé,
who, as was Malherbe in France, were the first to reform poetry in their
native land, laying down certain rules, which are still observed in the
present day.
The peace enjoyed for so long a period by the country under consideration
has led to the profession of arms being held of small account. Until quite
recently all the "warriors" had to do was to put down local revolts, or to
win for themselves a good drubbing from some aggrieved foreigner.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--A YOUNG CHINESE POET.
(_Univers Pittoresque._)]
[Sidenote: THE CHINESE ARMY]
The weakness and defective organization of Asiatic armies is well known,
and is proved afresh at every contact with a European force. The thorough
inefficiency of that of China was forcibly brought out in the recent
war with Japan, when the latter country showed itself to be so far in
advance of its antagonist in every way. Nothing but drilling by European
officers, for at least half a century, could make Chinese soldiers at
all formidable to white troops. It is just the same with the people of
the Corea, Annam, Tonquin, and Siam. It will, of course, be urged: but
look at the Japanese, they too belong to the despised yellow races, yet
have they not proved themselves able to organize a campaign? are they
not full of warlike energy and martial ability? do they not also take
high rank as imaginative artists? In what do the white races excel? To
all these queries we reply, the assumption that the Japanese belong to
the same race as the yellow natives of the continent of Asia has to be
proved. The children of the land of chrysanthemums and of the rising sun
indignantly repel this hypothesis, and such authorities on ethnology as
Kœmpfer, Golownin, Klaproth, and Siebold also reject it. Moreover, in this
world everything is relative, and because the Japanese troops, armed with
weapons of precision, were able to beat the badly-equipped Chinese forces,
it does not follow that they could do the same if pitted against European
soldiers. Whether they could or not still remains to be proved.
Before penetrating into the interior of the country, and studying the
actual customs of the inhabitants at the present day, it will be well
to glance back to the remote times when China first became a nation.
Very interesting details of those early days have been preserved in the
traditions of the Celestials, and from them we gather that the first
dwellers in the land lived, as did so many of the races of Europe, in the
forests, or in caves, clothing themselves in the skins of the wild beasts
slain in the chase, whose flesh supplied them with food.
The first efforts at civilization appear to have been made in the
North-west of the vast country, amongst the tribes camped on the banks
of the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River. The chiefs of these tribes gradually
contracted the habit of making regular marriages, and living a home life
with their families. To protect their wives and children they built huts;
they discovered how to make fire, and with its aid to fashion agricultural
implements and weapons. They knew how to distinguish plants good for
food from those dangerous to human life; they fixed precise dates for
the commencement of each of the four seasons; invented various systems
of calligraphy, finally adopting the one still in use; and they acquired
the art of weaving silk and cotton, which, according to the eminent
sinologist, Leblois of Strasburg, recently deceased, they learnt from
watching spiders at work.
[Sidenote: THSIN-CHI-HWANG-TI]
Until the third century B.C. China was divided into small states,
the weaker tributary to the stronger, the latter independent. The
too-celebrated Emperor Thsin-Chi-Hwang-Ti, who two hundred years before
the Christian era ordered the destruction by fire of all books, united
the various little kingdoms into one, and it was only in his time that
the Chinese Empire properly so called began. At this period, too, the
name of Thsina, or China, originally that of the district governed by the
incendiary, came to be given to the whole country.
The most important historical documents are those making up what is called
the _Shu-King_, dating from about B.C. 500, and written by a certain
Kwang-Tsen. This valuable book has been translated into French by P.
Gaubil and L. Biot, and its history is very romantic. It was supposed
that every copy had been burnt by the agents of Thsin-Chi-Hwang-Ti, but
an old literate, Fu Chang by name, had learnt it by heart, and later, one
copy engraved on pieces of bamboo was found hidden in the wall of an old
house which was being pulled down.
This sacred book, which is indeed a literary treasure, is now more than
2300 years old, and it contains extracts from works yet more ancient, so
that it is the very best guide in existence to the early history of China.
It begins with a description of a chief named Yao, who, according to
official Chinese chronology, flourished some 2350 years before the
Christian era. If the portrait is not flattered, Yao must have been a
perfect man. He lived in the province now known as Chen-si, and, like some
great illumination, he attracted to himself all the barbaric hordes in
the neighbourhood. His first care was to teach them to honour the Shang
Ti, or Tien, that is to say, the Supreme God. He also employed certain
men to watch the course of the heavenly bodies, or rather to continue the
study of the stars begun before his time, not from any curiosity as to the
science of astronomy strictly so called, but that agriculturists might
learn the right seasons for the work they had to perform. According to
the _Shu-King_ the year was already divided in China into 366 days, and
these days into four very strictly-defined periods, beginning at the times
enumerated below:
[Sidenote: THE WISDOM OF YAO]
1. The day and night of equal length, marking the middle of the spring
season, or what is now known in Europe as the Equinox.
2. The longest day, marking the middle of the summer, now called the
summer solstice.
3. The day and night of equal length, marking the middle of the autumn.
4. The shortest day, marking the middle of the winter solstice.
Yao having asked for a man capable of aiding him to govern his people
well, his own son was the first to be suggested as a suitable person, but
he was rejected, the father saying: "He is deficient in rectitude, and
fond of disputing." Another candidate was sent away because he did a great
deal of unnecessary talking about things of no value, and pretended to
be humble although his pride was really boundless. Then a certain Chung
was brought forward, renowned for his virtues in spite of his obscure
birth. Although he was the son of a blind father and of a wicked mother
who treated him cruelly, whilst his brother was puffed up with excessive
pride, Chung yet loyally performed his filial duties, and even succeeded
as it were unconsciously in correcting the errors of his relations, and
saving them from the commission of serious crimes. He was quoted as the
greatest known example of the practice of that most honoured of all
virtues in China, filial piety, which is looked upon by the Celestials as
the source of every good action of justice and of humanity.
Chung therefore was chosen, and he did not disappoint the hopes Yao had
founded upon his rectitude and ability. The sacred book praises the
justice of his administration, and he succeeded Yao on that great ruler's
death, proving that the hereditary principle was considered dangerous
in China even at that remote date. He commenced his reign by offering
to the Supreme God, and performed the customary ceremonies in honour of
the mountains, the flowers and the spirits, then held in veneration. He
took the greatest pains to ensure that justice should be done to all. It
is evident that there were schools in his day, for he gave orders that
nothing but the bamboo should be used for the correction of insubordinate
pupils. Chung wished faults committed without malice prepense to be
pardoned, but severe punishments to be inflicted on the incorrigible and
on those who abused their strength or their authority. He was anxious,
however, that judges under him should temper their justice with mercy.
[Sidenote: A LOWLY-BORN RULER]
The ministers of state had names suggesting a pastoral origin, for they
were all called Mon, a word answering to our shepherd. When Chung gave
them their appointments, he would say to them: "You must treat those who
come from a distance with humanity, instruct those who are near to you,
esteem and encourage men of talent, believe in the virtuous and charitable
and confide in them, and lastly have nothing to do with those whose
manners are corrupt." He would also say to them sometimes: "If I do wrong
you must tell me of it; you would be to blame if you praise me to my face
and speak differently of me when my back is turned."
The _Shu-King_ tells us further that having appointed a man skilled in
music to teach that art to the children of the great ones of his kingdom,
Chung said to him: "See that your pupils are sincere and polite, ready to
make allowances for others, obliging and sedate; teach them to be firm
without being cruel; inculcate discernment, but take care that they do not
become conceited." He appointed a censor to preside over public meetings
where speeches were made, saying to him: "I have an extreme aversion for
those who use inflammatory language; their harangues sow discord, and do
much to injure the work of those who endeavour to do good; the excitement
and the fears they arouse lead to public disorders."
Would it not be well for a similar formula to be pasted up in every place
of public meeting at the present day?
Every three years Chung instituted an inquiry into the conduct of the
officials in his dominions, recompensing those who had done well, and
punishing those who had done ill. Few other sovereigns have merited the
eulogy pronounced on Chung by one of his ministers: "His virtues, said the
critic, are not tarnished by faults. In the care he takes of his subjects,
he shows great moderation, and in his government his grandeur of soul
is manifest If he has to punish, _the punishment does not descend from
parents to children;_ but if he has to give a reward, the benefit extends
to the descendants of those recompensed. With regard to involuntary
errors, he pardons them without inquiring whether they are great or small.
Voluntary faults, however apparently trivial, he punishes. In doubtful
cases the penalty inflicted is light, but if a service rendered is in
question, the reward is great. He would rather run the risk of letting
a criminal escape the legal punishment than of putting an innocent
person to death." The same minister thus defines a fortunate man: "He
is one who knows how to combine prudence with indulgence, determination
with integrity, reserve with frankness, humility with great talents,
consistency with complaisance, justice and accuracy with gentleness,
moderation with discernment, a high spirit with docility, and power with
equity."
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--A NAUGHTY PUPIL.]
[Sidenote: A BOASTFUL ENGINEER]
The Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River, the mighty stream which rises in Thibet
and flings itself into the Gulf of Pechili after a course of some 3000
miles, had from time immemorial been the cause of constant and terrible
catastrophes in the districts it traversed. Chung therefore sent for
a talented engineer named Yu, and ordered him to superintend the work
of making canals and embankments to remedy the evil. There had been
a specially destructive inundation just before this appointment, and
the sacred book contains Yu's own account of what he had accomplished,
couched, it must be owned, in anything but modest terms. "When," he says,
"the great flood reached to heaven; when it surrounded the mountains and
covered the hills, the unfortunate inhabitants were overwhelmed by the
waters. Then I climbed on to the four means of transport. I followed the
mountains, and I cut through the woods. I laid up stores of grain and meat
to feed the people. I made channels for the river, compelling them to flow
towards the sea. In the country I dug canals to connect the rivers with
each other. I planted seed in the earth, and by dint of work something to
live upon was won from the soil."
The memory of these vast undertakings has remained engraven on the minds
of the Chinese, and they still think of Yu with undying gratitude. For
all that, however, the Hoang-Ho has continued to be a menace to the
Empire, for in 1789, and again in 1819, it overflowed its banks, causing
a considerable amount of damage to property, and killing countless
numbers of the river-side population. Only twelve years ago the
wayward river, justly called by the sufferers from its ravages "China's
sorrow," burst its southern embankment near Chang-Chan in the inland
province of Shen-Hsi, and poured in one great mass over the whole of the
densely-populated Honan, drowning millions of helpless people, and undoing
the work of centuries. In a word, what the erratic river will do next is
one of the chief problems of the physical future of China. It has already
shifted its course no less than nine times in its troubled career; and
on account of the great rapidity of its stream it is of little use for
navigation. Could Yu have foreseen the destruction of all the grand works
of which he boasted, he would probably have taken a less exalted view of
what he had accomplished.
However that may be, his contemporaries were so impressed by his ability,
and the great Chung so admired his virtue and talent, that he was chosen
as heir in the life-time of that mighty sovereign. The dialogue said to
have taken place between the Emperor and his subject on the question of
the succession to the throne is curious and interesting:
"Come," said Chung to Yu, "I have been reigning for thirty-three years; my
advanced age and growing infirmities prevent me from giving the necessary
application to affairs of state. I wish you to reign instead. Do your
utmost to acquit yourself worthily of the task."
"I am not virtuous enough to govern well," replied Yu; "the people will
not obey me."
He then recommended some one else.
Chung, however, insisted in the following terms:
"When we had everything to fear from the great inundation, you worked
with eagerness and rectitude; you rendered the greatest services, and
your talents and wisdom were made manifest throughout the whole country.
Although you have led an unassuming life with your family, although you
have served the State well, you have not considered that a reason to
dispense with work, and this is no ordinary virtue. You have no pride;
there is no one in the country superior to you in good qualities. None
other has done such great things, and yet you do not set a high value on
your own conduct. There is no one in the country whose merit excels your
own."
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--A CHINESE BRIDGE SPANNING THE HUANG-HO.]
[Sidenote: YU BECOMES EMPEROR]
So Yu became chief ruler, and his name was associated by posterity with
that of Yao and of Chung. The sacred book has preserved many of his
sayings, and I will quote the most beautiful here:
"He who obeys reason is happy, he who resists it is unhappy. Virtue is the
foundation of good government; the first task of government is to provide
the people governed with all that is necessary for their subsistence and
preservation. The next thing is to make the population virtuous; to teach
them the proper use of everything; and lastly, to protect them from all
which jeopardizes their health or their life. The prince who understands
men well will appoint none to public offices but those who are wise; his
generous heart and liberality will win him love."
When Yu died, the chiefs of the people unfortunately failed to carry on
the custom of choosing as a successor to the throne the wisest and most
illustrious of their number. The law of hereditary right was recognized,
and dynasties henceforth succeeded each other in China as elsewhere, each
lasting a long or short time according to whether the people were or were
not satisfied. There was, however, one salutary exception to the usual
interpretation of the hereditary principle. The reigning Emperor could
choose as his successor the son he considered the most intelligent of his
children; and as a Chinese ruler generally has at least fifty children,
without counting the girls, there is no difficulty in making a selection.