present a pretty complete identity with the Pan-y and the Pan-yao of
South Kwang-si; they are the debris of a very ancient race, which with
T. de Lacouperie may be called pre-Chinese. This early race, which bore
the name of _Pan-hu_ or _Ngao_, occupied Central China before the
arrival of the Chinese. According to M. d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, the
mountains and valleys of Kwei-chau where these Miao-tse still survive
were the cradle of the Pan-hu. In any case it seems certain that the
T'hai and the Man race came from Central Asia, and that, from the
anthropological standpoint, they differ altogether from the Mongol group
represented by the Chinese and the Annamese. The Man especially presents
striking affinities with the Aryan type."
Thus is again confirmed by the latest investigations, and by the
conclusions of some of the leading members of the French school of
anthropology, the view first advanced by me in 1879, that peoples of the
Caucasic (here called "Aryan") division had already spread to the utmost
confines of south-east Asia in remote prehistoric times, and had in
this region even preceded the first waves of Mongolic migration
radiating from their cradle-land on the Tibetan plateau[459].
Reference was above made to the singular lack of political cohesion at
all times betrayed by the Tai-Shan peoples. The only noteworthy
exception is the Siamese branch, which forms the bulk of the population
in the Menam basin. In this highly favoured region of vast
hill-encircled alluvial plains of inexhaustible fertility, traversed by
numerous streams navigable for light craft, and giving direct access to
the inland waters of Malaysia, the Southern Shans were able at an early
date to merge the primitive tribal groups in a great nationality, and
found a powerful empire, which at one time dominated most of Indo-China
and the Malay Peninsula.
Siam, alone of all the Shan states, even still maintains a precarious
independence, although now again reduced by European aggression to
little more than the natural limits of the fluvial valley, which is
usually regarded by the Southern Shans as the home of their race. Yet
they appear to have been here preceded by the Caucasic Khmers
(Cambojans), whose advent is referred in the national chronicles to the
year 543 B.C. and who, according to the Hindu records, were expelled
about 443 A.D. It was through these Khmers, and not directly from India,
that the "Sayamas" received their Hindu culture, and the Siamese annals,
mingling fact with fiction, refer to the miraculous birth of the
national hero, Phra-Ruang, who threw off the foreign yoke, declared the
people henceforth T'hai, "Freemen," invented the present Siamese
alphabet, and ordered the Khom (Cambojan) to be reserved in future for
copying the sacred writings.
The introduction of Buddhism is assigned to the year 638 A.D., one of
the first authentic dates in the native records. The ancient city of
Labong had already been founded (575), and other settlements now
followed rapidly, always in the direction of the south, according as the
Shan race steadily advanced towards the seaboard, driving before them or
mingling with Khmers, Lawas, Karens, and other aborigines, some now
extinct, some still surviving on the wooded uplands and plateaux
encircling the Menam valley. Ayuthia, the great centre of national life
in later times, dates only from the year 1350, when the empire had
received its greatest expansion, comprising the whole of Camboja, Pegu,
Tenasserim, and the Malay Peninsula, and extending its conquering arms
across the inland waters as far as Java[460]. Then followed the
disastrous wars with Burma, which twice captured and finally destroyed
Ayuthia (1767), now a picturesque elephant-park visited by tourists from
the present capital, Bangkok, founded in 1772 a little lower down the
Menam.
But the elements of decay existed from the first in the institution of
slavery or serfdom, which was not restricted to a particular class, as
in other lands, but, before the modern reforms, extended in principle to
all the kings' subjects in mockery declared "Freemen" by the founders of
the monarchy. This, however, may be regarded as perhaps little more than
a legal fiction, for at all times class distinctions were really
recognised, comprising the members of the royal family--a somewhat
numerous group--the nobles named by the king, the _leks_ or vassals, and
the people, these latter being again subdivided into three sections,
those liable to taxation, those subject to forced labour, and the slaves
proper. But so little developed was the sentiment of personal dignity
and freedom, that anybody from the highest noble to the humblest citizen
might at any moment lapse into the lowest category. Like most Mongoloid
peoples, the Siamese are incurable gamblers, and formerly it was an
everyday occurrence for a freeman to stake all his goods and chattels,
wives, children, and self, on the hazard of the die.
Yet the women, like their Burmese sisters, have always held a somewhat
honourable social position, being free to walk abroad, go shopping,
visit their friends, see the sights, and take part in the frequent
public feastings without restriction. Those, however, who brought no
dower and had to be purchased, might again be sold at any time, and
many thus constantly fell from the dignity of matrons to the position of
the merest drudges without rights or privileges of any kind. These
strange relations were endurable, thanks to the genial nature of the
national temperament, by which the hard lot of the thralls was softened,
and a little light allowed to penetrate into the darkest corners[461] of
the social system. The open slave-markets, which in the vassal Lao
states fostered systematic raiding-expeditions amongst the unreduced
aborigines, were abolished in 1873, and since 1890 all born in slavery
are free on reaching their 21st year.
Siamese Buddhism is a slightly modified form of that prevailing in
Ceylon, although strictly practised but by few. There are two classes or
"sects," the reformers who attach more importance to the observance of
the canon law than to meditation, and the old believers, some devoted to
a contemplative life, others to the study of the sunless wilderness of
Buddhist writings. But, beneath it all, spirit or devil-worship is still
rife, and in many districts pure animism is practically the only
religion. Even temples and shrines have been raised to the countless
gods of land and water, woods, mountains, villages and households. To
these gods are credited all sorts of calamities, and to prevent them
from getting into the bodies of the dead the latter are brought out, not
through door or window, but through a breach in the wall, which is
afterwards carefully built up. Similar ideas prevail amongst many other
peoples, both at higher and lower levels of culture, for nothing is more
ineradicable than such popular beliefs associated with the relations
presumed to exist between the present and the after life.
Incredible sums are yearly lavished in offerings to the spirits, which
give rise to an endless round of feasts and revels, and also in support
of the numerous Buddhist temples, convents, and their inmates. The
treasures accumulated in the "royal cloisters" and other shrines
represent a great part of the national savings--investments for the
other world, among which are said to be numerous gold statues glittering
with rubies, sapphires, and other priceless gems. But in these matters
the taste of the _talapoins_[462], as the priests were formerly called,
is somewhat catholic, including pictures of reviews and battle-scenes
from the European illustrated papers, and sometimes even statues of
Napoleon set up by the side of Buddha.
So numerous, absurd, and exacting are the rules of the monastic
communities that, but for the aid of the temple servants and novices,
existence would be impossible. A list of such puerilities occupies
several pages in A. R. Colquhoun's work _Amongst the Shans_ (219-231),
and from these we learn that the monks must not dig the ground, so that
they can neither plant nor sow; must not boil rice, as it would kill the
germ; eat corn for the same reason; climb trees lest a branch get
broken; kindle a flame, as it destroys the fuel; put out a flame, as
that also would extinguish life; forge iron, as sparks would fly out and
perish; swing their arms in walking; wink in speaking; buy or sell;
stretch the legs when sitting; breed poultry, pigs, or other animals;
mount an elephant or palanquin; wear red, black, green, or white
garments; mourn for the dead, etc., etc. In a word all might be summed
up by a general injunction neither to do anything, nor not to do
anything, and then despair of attaining _Nirvana_; for it would be
impossible to conceive of any more pessimistic system in theory[463].
Practically it is otherwise, and in point of fact the utmost religious
indifference prevails amongst all classes.
Within the Mongolic division it would be difficult to imagine any more
striking contrast than that presented by the gentle, kindly, and on the
whole not ill-favoured Siamese, and their hard-featured, hard-hearted,
and grasping Annamese neighbours. Let anyone, who may fancy there is
little or nothing in blood, pass rapidly from the bright, genial--if
somewhat listless and corrupt--social life of Bangkok to the dry,
uncongenial moral atmosphere of Ha-noi or Saigon, and he will be apt to
modify his views on that point. Few observers have a good word to say
for the Tonkingese, the Cochin-Chinese, or any other branch of the
Annamese family, and some even of the least prejudiced are so outspoken
that we must needs infer there is good ground for their severe
strictures on these strange, uncouth materialists. Buddhists of course
they are nominally; but of the moral sense they have little, unless it
be (amongst the lettered classes) a pale reflection of the pale Chinese
ethical code. The whole region in fact is a sort of attenuated China, to
which it owes its arts and industries, its letters, moral systems,
general culture, and even a large part of its inhabitants. _Giao-shi_
(_Kiao-shi_), the name of the aborigines, said to mean "Bifurcated," or
"Cross-toes[464]," in reference to the wide space between the great toe
and the next, occurs in the legendary Chinese records so far back as
2285 B.C., since which period the two countries are supposed to have
maintained almost uninterrupted relations, whether friendly or hostile,
down to the present day. At first the Giao-shi were confined to the
northern parts of Lu-kiang, the present Tonking, all the rest of the
coastlands being held by the powerful Champa (Tsiampa) people, whose
affinities are with the Oceanic populations. But in 218 B.C., Lu-kiang
having been reduced and incorporated with China proper, a large number
of Chinese emigrants settled in the country, and gradually merged with
the Giao-shi in a single nationality, whose twofold descent is still
reflected in the Annamese physical and mental characters.
This term Annam[465], however, did not come into use till the seventh
century, when it was officially applied to the frontier river between
China and Tonking, and afterwards extended to the whole of Tonking and
Cochin-China. Tonking itself, meaning the "Eastern Court[466]," was
originally the name only of the city of Ha-noi when it was a royal
residence, but was later extended to the whole of the northern kingdom,
whose true name is _Yueeh-nan_. To this corresponded the southern
Kwe-Chen-Ching, "Kingdom of Chen-Ching," which was so named in the ninth
century from its capital Chen-Ching, and of which our Cochin-China
appears to be a corrupt form.
But, amid all this troublesome political nomenclature, the dominant
Annamese nation has faithfully preserved its homogeneous character,
spreading, like the Siamese Shans, steadily southwards, and gradually
absorbing the whole of the Champa domain to the southern extremity of
the peninsula, as well as a large part of the ancient kingdom of Camboja
about the Mekhong delta. They thus form at present the almost exclusive
ethnical element throughout all the lowland and cultivated parts of
Tonking, upper and lower Cochin-China and south Camboja, with a total
population in 1898 of about twenty millions.
The Annamese are described in a semi-official report[467] as
characterised by a high broad forehead, high cheek-bones, small crushed
nose, rather thick lips, black hair, scant beard, mean height, coppery
complexion, deceitful (_rusee_) expression, and rude or insolent
bearing. The head is round (index 83 to 84) and the features are in
general flat and coarse, while to an ungainly exterior corresponds a
harsh unsympathetic temperament. The Abbe Gagelin, who lived years in
their midst, frankly declares that they are at once arrogant and
dishonest, and dead to all the finer feelings of human nature, so that
after years of absence the nearest akin will meet without any outward
sign of pleasure or affection. Others go further, and J. G. Scott summed
it all up by declaring that "the fewer Annamese there are, the less
taint there is on the human race." No doubt Lord Curzon gives a more
favourable picture, but this traveller spent only a short time in the
country, and even he allows that they are "tricky and deceitful,
disposed to thieve when they get the chance, mendacious, and incurable
gamblers[468]."
Yet they have one redeeming quality, an intense love of personal
freedom, strangely contrasting with the almost abject slavish spirit of
the Siamese. The feeling extends to all classes, so that servitude is
held in abhorrence, and, as in Burma, a democratic sense of equality
permeates the social system[469]. Hence, although the State has always
been an absolute monarchy, each separate commune constitutes a veritable
little oligarchic commonwealth. This has come as a great surprise to the
present French administrators of the country, who frankly declare that
they cannot hope to improve the social or political position of the
people by substituting European for native laws and usages. The Annamese
have in fact little to learn from western social institutions.
Their language, spoken everywhere with remarkable uniformity, is of the
normal Indo-Chinese isolating type, possessing six tones, three high,
and three low, and written in ideographic characters based on the
Chinese, but with numerous modifications and additions. But, although
these are ill-suited for the purpose, the attempt made by the early
Portuguese missionaries to substitute the so-called _quoc-ngu_, or Roman
phonetic system, has been defeated by the conservative spirit of the
people. Primary instruction has long been widely diffused, and almost
everybody can read and write as many of the numerous hieroglyphs as are
needed for the ordinary purpose of daily intercourse. Every village has
its free school, and a higher range of studies is encouraged by the
public examinations to which, as in China, all candidates for government
appointments are subjected. Under such a scheme surprising results might
be achieved, were the course of studies not based exclusively on the
empty formulas of Chinese classical literature. The subjects taught are
for the most part puerile, and true science is replaced by the dry moral
precepts of Confucius. One result amongst the educated classes is a
scoffing, sceptical spirit, free from all religious prejudice, and
unhampered by theological creeds or dogmas, combined with a lofty moral
tone, not always however in harmony with daily conduct.
Even more than in China, the family is the true base of the social
system, the head of the household being not only the high-priest of the
ancestral cult, but also a kind of patriarch enjoying almost absolute
control over his children. In this respect the relations are somewhat
one-sided, the father having no recognised obligations towards his
offspring, while these are expected to show him perfect obedience in
life and veneration after death. Besides this worship of ancestry and
the Confucian ethical philosophy, a national form of Buddhism is
prevalent. Some even profess all three of these so-called "religions,"
beneath which there still survive many of the primitive superstitions
associated with a not yet extinct belief in spirits and the supernatural
power of magicians. While the Buddhist temples are neglected and the few
bonzes[470] despised, offerings are still made to the genii of
agriculture, of the waters, the tiger, the dolphin, peace, war,
diseases, and so forth, whose rude statues in the form of dragons or
other fabulous monsters are even set up in the pagodas. Since the early
part of the seventeenth century Roman Catholic missionaries have
laboured with considerable success in this unpromising field, where the
congregations were estimated in 1898 at about 900,000.
From Annam the ethnical transition is easy to China[471] and its teeming
multitudes, regarding whose origins, racial and cultural, two opposite
views at present hold the field. What may be called the old, but by no
means the obsolete school, regards the Chinese populations as the direct
descendants of the aborigines who during the Stone Ages entered the
Hoang-ho valley probably from the Tibetan plateau, there developed their
peculiar culture independently of foreign influences, and thence spread
gradually southwards to the whole of China proper, extirpating,
absorbing, or driving to the encircling western and southern uplands the
ruder aborigines of the Yang-tse-Kiang and Si-Kiang basins.
In direct opposition to this view the new school, championed especially
by T. de Lacouperie[472], holds that the present inhabitants of China
are late intruders from south-western Asia, and that they arrived not as
rude aborigines, but as a cultured people with a considerable knowledge
of letters, science, and the arts, all of which they acquired either
directly or indirectly from the civilised Akkado-Sumerian inhabitants of
Babylonia.
Not merely analogies and resemblances, but what are called actual
identities, are pointed out between the two cultures, and even between
the two languages, sufficient to establish a common origin of both,
Mesopotamia being the fountain-head, whence the stream flowed by
channels not clearly defined to the Hoang-ho valley. Thus the Chin.
_yu_, originally _go_, is equated with Akkad _gu_, to speak; _ye_ with
_ge_, night, and so on. Then the astronomic and chronologic systems are
compared, Berossus and the cuneiform tablets dividing the prehistoric
Akkad epoch into 10 periods of 10 kings, lasting 120 Sari, or 432,000
years, while the corresponding Chinese astronomic myth also comprises 10
kings (or dynasties) covering the same period of 432,000 years. The
astronomic system credited to the emperor Yao (2000 B.C.) similarly
corresponds with the Akkadian, both having the same five planets with
names of like meaning, and a year of 12 months and 30 days, with the
same cycle of intercalated days, while several of the now obsolete names
of the Chinese months answer to those of the Babylonians. Even the name
of the first Chinese emperor who built an observatory, Nai-Kwang-ti,
somewhat resembles that of the Elamite king, Kuder-na-hangti, who
conquered Chaldaea about 2280 B.C.
All this can hardly be explained away as a mere series of coincidences;
nevertheless neither Sinologues nor Akkadists are quite convinced, and
it is obvious that many of the resemblances may be due to trade or
intercourse both by the old overland caravan routes, and by the seaborne
traffic from Eridu at the head of the Persian Gulf, which was a
flourishing emporium 4000 or 5000 years ago.
But, despite some verbal analogies, an almost insurmountable difficulty
is presented by the Akkadian and Chinese languages, which no
philological ingenuity can bring into such relation as is required by
the hypothesis. T. G. Pinches has shown that at a very early period, say
some 5000 years ago, Akkadian already consisted, "for the greater part,
of words of one syllable," and was "greatly affected by phonetic decay,
the result being that an enormous number of homophones were developed
out of roots originally quite distinct[473]." This Akkadian scholar
sends me a number of instances, such as _tu_ for _tura_, to enter; _ti_
for _tila_, to live; _du_ for _dumu_, son; _du_ for _dugu_, good, as in
_Eridu_, for _Gurudugu_, "the good city," adding that "the list could be
extended indefinitely[474]." But de Lacouperie's Bak tribes, that is,
the first immigrants from south-west Asia, are not supposed to have
reached North China till about 2500 or 3000 B.C., at which time the
Chinese language was still in the untoned agglutinating state, with but
few monosyllabic homophones, and consequently quite distinct from the
Akkadian, as known to us from the Assyrian syllabaries, bilingual lists,
and earlier tablets from Nippur or Lagash.
Hence the linguistic argument seems to fail completely, while the
Babylonian origin of the Chinese writing system, or rather, the
derivation of Chinese and Sumerian from some common parent in Central
Asia, awaits further evidence. Many of the Chinese and Akkadian "line
forms" collated by C. J. Ball[475] are so simple and, one might say,
obvious, that they seem to prove nothing. They may be compared with such
infantile utterances as _pa_, _ma_, _da_, _ta_, occurring in half the
languages of the world, without proving a connection or affinity between
any of them. But even were the common origin of the two scripts
established, it would prove nothing as to the common origin of the two
peoples, but only show cultural influences, which need not be denied.
But if Chinese origins cannot be clearly traced back to Babylonia,
Chinese culture may still, in a sense, claim to be the oldest in the
world, inasmuch as it has persisted with little change from its rise
some 4500 years ago down to present times. All other early
civilisations--Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian,
Hellenic--have perished, or live only in their monuments, traditions,
oral or written records. But the Chinese, despite repeated political and
social convulsions, is still as deeply rooted in the past as ever,
showing no break of continuity from the dim echoes of remote prehistoric
ages down to the last revolution, and the establishment of the Republic.
These things touch the surface only of the great ocean of Chinese
humanity, which is held together, not by any general spirit of national
sentiment (all sentiment is alien from the Chinese temperament), nor by
any community of speech, for many of the provincial dialects differ
profoundly from each other, but by a prodigious power of inertia, which
has hitherto resisted all attempts at change either by pressure from
without, or by spontaneous impulse from within.
What they were thousands of years ago, the Chinese still are, a frugal,
peace-loving, hard-working people, occupied mainly with tillage and
trade, cultivating few arts beyond weaving, porcelain and metal work,
but with a widely diffused knowledge of letters, and a writing system
which still remains at the cumbrous ideographic stage, needing as many
different symbols as there are distinct concepts to be expressed. Yet
the system has one advantage, enabling those who speak mutually
unintelligible idioms to converse together, using the pencil instead of
the tongue. For this very reason the attempts made centuries ago by the
government to substitute a phonetic script had to be abandoned. It was
found that imperial edicts and other documents so written could not be
understood by the populations speaking dialects different from the
literary standard, whereas the hieroglyphs, like our ciphers 1, 2,
3 ..., could be read by all educated persons of whatever allied form of
speech.
Originally the Chinese system, whether developed on the spot or derived
from Akkadian or any other foreign source, was of course pictographic or
ideographic, and it is commonly supposed to have remained at that stage
ever since, the only material changes being of a graphic nature. The
pictographs were conventionalised and reduced to their present form, but
still remained ideograms supplemented by a limited number of phonetic
determinants. But de Lacouperie has shown that this view is a mistake,
and that the evolution from the pictograph to the phonetic symbol had
been practically completed in China many centuries before the new era.
The _Ku-wen_ style current before the ninth century B.C. "was really
the phonetic expression of speech[476]." But for the reason stated it
had to be discontinued, and a return made to the earlier ideographic
style. The change was effected about 820 B.C. by She Choeu, minister of
the Emperor Sueen Wang, who introduced the _Ta-chuen_ style in which "he
tried to speak to the eye and no longer to the ear," that is, he
reverted to the earlier ideographic process, which has since prevailed.
It was simplified about 227 B.C. (_Siao Chuen_ style), and after some
other modifications the present caligraphic form (_Kiai Shu_) was
introduced by Wang Hi in 350 A.D. Thus one consequence of the "Expansion
of China" was a reversion to barbarism, in respect at least of the
national graphic system, by which Chinese thought and literature have
been hampered for nearly 3000 years.
Written records, though at first mainly of a mythical character, date
from about 3000 B.C.[477] Reference is made in the early documents to
the rude and savage times, which in China as elsewhere certainly
preceded the historic period. Three different prehistoric ages are even
discriminated, and tradition relates how Fu-hi introduced wooden,
Thin-ming stone, and Shi-yu metal implements[478]. Later, when their
origin and use were forgotten, the jade axes, like those from Yunnan,
were looked on as bolts hurled to the earth by the god of thunder, while
the arrow-heads, supposed to be also of divine origin, were endowed in
the popular fancy with special virtues and even regarded as emblems of
sovereignty. Thus may perhaps be explained the curious fact that in
early times, before the twelfth century B.C., tribute in flint weapons
was paid to the imperial government by some of the reduced wild tribes
of the western uplands.
These men of the Stone and Metal Ages are no doubt still largely
represented, not only amongst the rude hill tribes of the southern and
western borderlands, but also amongst the settled and cultured
lowlanders of the great fluvial valleys. The "Hundred Families," as the
first immigrants called themselves, came traditionally from the
north-western regions beyond the Hoang-ho. According to the Yu-kung
their original home lay in the south-western part of Eastern Turkestan,
whence they first migrated east to the oases north of the Nan-Shan
range, and then, in the fourth millennium before the new era, to the
fertile valleys of the Hoang-ho and its Hoei-ho tributary. Thence they
spread slowly along the other great river valleys, partly expelling,
partly intermingling with the aborigines, but so late as the seventh
century B.C. were still mainly confined to the region between the Pei-ho
and the lower Yang-tse-Kiang. Even here several indigenous groups, such
as the Hoei, whose name survives in that of the Hoei river, and the Lai
of the Shantong Peninsula, long held their ground, but all were
ultimately absorbed or assimilated throughout the northern lands as far
south as the left bank of the Yang-tse-Kiang.
Beyond this river many were also merged in the dominant people
continually advancing southwards; but others, collectively or vaguely
known as Si-fans, Mans, Miao-tse, Pai, Tho, Y-jen[479], Lolo, etc., were
driven to the south-western highlands which they still occupy. Even some
of the populations in the settled districts, such as the _Hok-los_[480],
and _Hakkas_[481], of Kwang-tung, and the _Pun-ti_[482] of the Canton
district, are scarcely yet thoroughly assimilated. They differ greatly
in temperament, usages, appearance, and speech from the typical Chinese
of the Central and Northern provinces, whom in fact they look upon as
"foreigners," and with whom they hold intercourse through "Pidgin
English[483]," the _lingua franca_ of the Chinese seaboard[484].
Nevertheless a general homogeneous character is imparted to the whole
people by their common political, social, and religious institutions,
and by that principle of convergence in virtue of which different
ethnical groups, thrown together in the same area and brought under a
single administration, tend to merge in a uniform new national type.
This general uniformity is conspicuous especially in the religious ideas
which, except in the sceptical lettered circles, everywhere underlie the
three recognised national religions, or "State Churches," as they might
almost be called: _ju-kiao_, Confucianism; _tao-kiao_, Taoism; and
_fo-kiao_, Buddhism (Fo = Buddha). The first, confined mainly to the
educated upper classes, is not so much a religion as a philosophic
system, a frigid ethical code based on the moral and matter-of-fact
teachings of Confucius[485]. Confucius was essentially a social and
political reformer, who taught by example and precept; the main
inducement to virtue being, not rewards or penalties in the after-life,
but well- or ill-being in the present. His system is summed up in the
expression "worldly wisdom," as embodied in such popular sayings as: A
friend is hardly made in a year, but unmade in a moment; When safe
remember danger, in peace forget not war; Filial father, filial son,
unfilial father, unfilial son; In washing up, plates and dishes may get
broken; Don't do what you would not have known; Thatch your roof before
the rain, dig the well before you thirst; The gambler's success is his
ruin; Money goes to the gambling den as the criminal to execution (never
returns); Money hides many faults; Stop the hand, stop the mouth (stop
work and starve); To open a shop is easy, to keep it open hard; Win your
lawsuit and lose your money.
Although he instituted no religious system, Confucius nevertheless
enjoined the observance of the already existing forms of worship, and
after death became himself the object of a widespread cult, which still
persists. "In every city there is a temple, built at the public expense,
containing either a statue of the philosopher, or a tablet inscribed
with his titles. Every spring and autumn worship is paid to him in these
temples by the chief official personages of the city. In the schools
also, on the first and fifteenth of each month, his title being written
on red paper and affixed to a tablet, worship is performed in a special
room by burning incense and candles, and by prostrations[486]."
Taoism, a sort of pantheistic mysticism, called by its founder, Lao-tse
(600 B.C.), the _Tao_, or "way of salvation," was embodied in the
formula "matter and the visible world are merely manifestations of a
sublime, eternal, incomprehensible principle." It taught, in
anticipation of Sakya-Muni, that by controlling his passions man may
escape or cut short an endless series of transmigrations, and thus
arrive by the Tao at everlasting bliss--sleep? unconscious rest or
absorption in the eternal essence? Nirvana? It is impossible to tell
from the lofty but absolutely unintelligible language in which the
master's teachings are wrapped.
But it matters little, because his disciples have long forgotten the
principles they never understood, and Taoism has almost everywhere been
transformed to a system of magic associated with the never-dying
primeval superstitions. Originally there was no hierarchy of priests,
the only specially religious class being the Ascetics, who passed their
lives absorbed in the contemplation of the eternal verities. But out of
this class, drawn together by their common interests, was developed a
kind of monasticism, with an organised brotherhood of astrologers,
magicians, Shamanists, somnambulists, "mediums," "thought-readers,"
charlatans and impostors of all sorts, sheltered under a threadbare garb
of religion.
Buddhism also, although of foreign origin, has completely conformed to
the national spirit, and is now a curious blend of Hindu metaphysics
with the primitive Chinese belief in spirits and a deified ancestry. In
every district are practised diverse forms of worship between which no
clear dividing line can be drawn, and, as in Annam, the same persons may
be at once followers of Confucius, Lao-tse, and Buddha. In fact such was
the position of the Emperor, who belonged _ex officio_ to all three of
these State religions, and scrupulously took part in their various
observances. There is even some truth in the Chinese view that "all
three make but one religion," the first appealing to man's moral nature,
the second to the instinct of self-preservation, the third to the higher
sphere of thought and contemplation.
But behind, one might say above it all, the old animism still prevails,
manifested in a multitude of superstitious practices, whose purport is
to appease the evil and secure the favour of the good spirits, the
_Feng-shui_ or _Fung-shui_, "air and water" genii, who have to be
reckoned with in all the weightiest as well as the most trivial
occurrences of daily life. These with the ghosts of their ancestors, by
whom the whole land is haunted, are the bane of the Chinaman's
existence. Everything depends on maintaining a perfect balance between
the Fung-shui, that is, the two principles represented by the "White
Tiger" and the "Azure Dragon," who guard the approaches of every
dwelling, and whose opposing influences have to be nicely adjusted by
the well-paid professors of the magic arts. At the death of the emperor
Tung Chih (1875) a great difficulty was raised by the State astrologers,
who found that the realm would be endangered if he were buried,
according to rule, in the imperial cemetery 100 miles west of Pekin, as
his father reposed in the other imperial cemetery situated the same
distance east of the capital. For some subtle reason the balance would
have been disturbed between Tiger and Dragon, and it took nine months to
settle the point, during which, as reported by the American Legation,
the whole empire was stirred, councils of State agitated, and L50,000
expended to decide where the remains of a worthless and vicious young
man should be interred.
Owing to the necessary disturbance of the ancestral burial places, much
trouble has been anticipated in the construction of the railways, for
which concessions have now been granted to European syndicates. But an
Englishman long resident in the country has declared that there will be
no resistance on the part of the people. "The dead can be removed with
due regard to Fung Shui; a few dollars will make that all right." This
is fully in accordance with the thrifty character of the Chinese, which
overrides all other considerations, as expressed in the popular saying:
"With money you may move the gods; without it you cannot move men." But
the gods may even be moved without money, or at least with spurious
paper money, for it is a fixed belief of their votaries that, like
mortals, they may be outwitted by such devices. When rallied for burning
flash notes at a popular shrine, since no spirit-bank would cash them, a
Chinaman retorted: "Why me burn good note? Joss no can savvy." In a
similar spirit the god of war is hoodwinked by wooden boards hung on the
ramparts of Pekin and painted to look like heavy ordnance.
In fact appearance, outward show, observance of the "eleventh
commandment," in a word "face" as it is called, is everything in China.
"To understand, however imperfectly, what is meant by 'face,' we must
take account of the fact that as a race the Chinese have a strong
dramatic instinct. Upon very slight provocation any Chinese regards
himself in the light of an actor in a drama. A Chinese thinks in
theatrical terms. If his troubles are adjusted he speaks of himself as
having 'got off the stage' with credit, and if they are not adjusted he
finds no way to 'retire from the stage.' The question is never of facts,
but always of form. Once rightly apprehended, 'face' will be found to be
in itself a key to the combination-lock of many of the most important
characteristics of the Chinese[487]."
Of foreign religions Islam, next to Buddhism, has made most progress.
Introduced by the early Arab and Persian traders, and zealously preached
throughout the Jagatai empire in the twelfth century, it has secured a
firm footing especially in Kan-su, Shen-si, and Yunnan, and is of course
dominant in Eastern (Chinese) Turkestan. Despite the wholesale
butcheries that followed the repeated insurrections between 1855 and
1877, the _Hoei-Hoei_, _Panthays_, or _Dungans_, as the Muhammadans are
variously called, were still estimated, in 1898, at about 22,000,000 in
the whole empire.
Islam was preceded by Christianity, which, as attested by the authentic
inscription of Si-ngan-fu, penetrated into the western provinces under
the form of Nestorianism about the seventh century. The famous Roman
Catholic missions with headquarters at Pekin date from the close of the
sixteenth century, and despite internal dissensions have had a fair
measure of success, the congregations comprising altogether over one
million members. Protestant missions date from 1807 (London Missionary
Society) and in 1910 claimed over 200,000 church members and baptized
Christians, the total having more than doubled since 1900[488].
The above-mentioned dissensions arose out of the practices associated
with ancestry worship, offerings of flowers, fruits and so forth, which
the Jesuits regarded merely as proofs of filial devotion, but were
denounced by the Dominicans as acts of idolatry. After many years of
idle controversy, the question was at last decided against the Jesuits
by Clement XI in the famous Bull, _Ex illa die_ (1715), and since then,
neophytes having to renounce the national cult of their forefathers,
conversions have mainly been confined to the lower classes, too humble
to boast of any family tree, or too poor to commemorate the dead by
ever-recurring costly sepulchral rites.
In China there are no hereditary nobles, indeed no nobles at all, unless
it be the rather numerous descendants of Confucius who dwell together
and enjoy certain social privileges, in this somewhat resembling the
_Shorfa_ (descendants of the Prophet) in Muhammadan lands. If any titles
have to be awarded for great deeds they fall, not on the hero, but on
his forefathers, and thus at a stroke of the vermilion pencil are
ennobled countless past generations, while the last of the line remains
unhonoured until he goes over to the majority. Between the Emperor,
"patriarch of his people," and the people themselves, however, there
stood an aristocracy of talent, or at least of Chinese scholarship, the
governing Mandarin[489] class, which was open to the highest and the
lowest alike. All nominations to office were conferred exclusively on
the successful competitors at the public examinations, so that, like the
French conscript with the hypothetical Marshal's baton in his knapsack,
every Chinese citizen carried the buttoned cap of official rank in his
capacious sleeve. Of these there are nine grades, indicated respectively
in descending order by the ruby, red coral, sapphire, opaque blue,
crystal, white shell, gold (two), and silver button, or rather little
globe, on the cap of office, with which correspond the nine
birds--manchu crane, golden pheasant, peacock, wild goose, silver
pheasant, egret, mandarin duck, quail, and jay--embroidered on the
breast and back of the State robe.
Theoretically the system is admirable, and at all events is better than
appointments by Court favour. But in practice it was vitiated, first by
the narrow, antiquated course of studies in the dry Chinese classics,
calculated to produce pedants rather than statesmen, and secondly by the
monopoly of preference which it conferred on a lettered caste to the
exclusion of men of action, vigour, and enterprise. Moreover,
appointments being made for life, barring crime or blunder, the
Mandarins, as long as they approved themselves zealous supporters of the
reigning dynasty, enjoyed a free hand in amassing wealth by plunder, and
the wealth thus acquired was used to purchase further promotion and
advancement, rather than to improve the welfare of the people.
They have the reputation of being a courteous people, as punctilious as
the Malays themselves; and they are so amongst each other. But their
attitude towards strangers is the embodiment of aggressive
self-righteousness, a complacent feeling of superiority which nothing
can disturb. Even the upper classes, with all their efforts to be at
least polite, often betray the feeling in a subdued arrogance which is
not always to be distinguished from vulgar insolence. "After the
courteous, kindly Japanese, the Chinese seem indifferent, rough, and
disagreeable, except the well-to-do merchants in the shops, who are
bland, complacent, and courteous. Their rude stare, and the way they
hustle you in the streets and shout their 'pidjun' English at you is not
attractive[490]." But the stare, the hustling and the shouting may not
be due to incivility. No doubt the Chinaman regards the foreigner as a
"devil" but he has reason, and he never ceases to be astonished at
foreign manners and customs "extremely ferocious and almost entirely
uncivilised[491]."
FOOTNOTES:
[375] _Ethnology_, p. 300.
[376] _Geogr. Journ._, May, 1898, p. 491. This statement must of course
be taken as having reference only to the historical Malays and their
comparatively late migrations.
[377] For the desiccation of Asia see P. Kropotkin, _Geogr. Journ._
XXIII. 1904; E. Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_, 1907.
[378] See J. Cockburn's paper "On Palaeolithic Implements," etc., in
_Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1887, p. 57 sq.
[379] "Le type. primitif des Mongols est pour nous dolichocephale" (_Les
Aryens au Nord et au Sud de l'Hindou-Kouch_, 1896, p. 50).
[380] Thus Risley's Tibetan measurements were all of subjects from
Sikkim and Nepal (_Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, Calcutta, 1896,
_passim_). In the East, however, Desgodins and other French missionaries
have had better opportunities of studying true Tibetans amongst the
Si-fan ("Western Strangers"), as the frontier populations are called by
the Chinese.
[381] _Op. cit._ p. 319.
[382] _Op. cit._ p. 327. Here we are reminded that, though the Sacae are
called "Scythians" by Herodotus and other ancient writers, under this
vague expression were comprised a multitude of heterogeneous peoples,
amongst whom were types corresponding to all the main varieties of
Mongolian, western Asiatic, and eastern European peoples. "Aujourd'hui
l'ancien type sace, adouci parmi les melanges, reparait et constitue le
type si caracteristique, si complexe et si different de ses voisins que
nous appelons le type balti" (p. 328).
[383] W. W. Rockhill, our best living authority, accepts none of the
current explanations of the widely diffused term _bod_ (_bhot, bhot_),
which appears to form the second element in the word _Tibet_
(_Stod-Bod_, pronounced _Teu-Beu_, "Upper Bod," _i.e._ the central and
western parts in contradistinction to _Maen-Bod_, "Lower Bod," the
eastern provinces). _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, Washington, 1895,
p. 669. This writer finds the first mention of Tibet in the form
_Tobbat_ (there are many variants) in the Arab Istakhri's works, about
590 A.H., while T. de Lacouperie would connect it with the Tatar kingdom
of _Tu-bat_ (397-475 A.D.). This name might easily have been extended by
the Chinese from the Tatars of Kansu to the neighbouring Tanguts, and
thus to all Tibetans.
[384] _Hbrog-pa_, _Drok-pa_, pronounced _Dru-pa_.
[385] The Mongols apply the name _Tangut_ to Tibet and call all Tibetans
_Tangutu_, "which should be discarded as useless and misleading, as the
people inhabiting this section of the country are pure Tibetans"
(Rockhill, p. 670). It is curious to note that the Mongol Tangutu is
balanced by the Tibetan _Sok-pa_, often applied to all Mongolians.
[386] _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, 1895, p. 675; see also S.
Chandra Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_, 1904; F. Grenard,
_Tibet: the Country and its Inhabitants_, 1904; G. Sandberg, _Tibet and
the Tibetans_, 1906; and L. A. Waddell, _Lhasa and its Mysteries, with a
record of the Expedition of 1903-1904_, 1905.
[387] _Isvestia_, XXI. 3.
[388] _Ethnology_, p. 305.
[389] _Abor_, _i.e._ "independent," is the name applied by the Assamese
to the East Himalayan hill tribes, the _Minyong_, _Padam_ and _Hrasso_,
who are the _Slo_ of the Tibetans. These are all affiliated by Desgodins
to the Lho-pa of Bhutan (_Bul. Soc. Geogr._, October, 1877, p. 431), and
are to be distinguished from the _Bori_ (_i.e._ "dependent") tribes of
the plains, all more or less Hinduized Bhotiyas (Dalton, _Ethnology of
Bengal_, p. 22 sq.). See A. Hamilton, _In Abor Jungles_, 1912.
[390] Not to be confused with the _Khas_, as the wild tribes of the Lao
country (Siam) are collectively called. Capt. Eden Vansittart thinks in
Nepal the term is an abbreviation of Kshatriya, or else means "fallen."
This authority tells us that, although the Khas are true Gurkhas, it is
not the Khas who enlist in our Gurkha regiments, but chiefly the Magars
and Gurungs, who are of purer Bhotiya race and less completely Hinduized
("The Tribes, Clans, and Castes of Nepal," in _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_;
LXIII. I, No. 4).
[391] _Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama_, p. 350 sq.
[392] "Voila, je crois, le vrai Tibetain des pays cultives du sud, qui
se regarde comme bien plus civilise que les pasteurs ou bergers du nord"
(_Le Thibet_, p. 253).
[393] _Notes on the Ethnology_, etc., p. 677. It may here be remarked
that the unfriendliness of which travellers often complain appears
mainly inspired by the Buddhist theocracy, who rule the land and are
jealous of all "interlopers."
[394] _Ibid._ p. 678.
[395] With it may be compared the Chinese province of _Kan-su_, so named
from its two chief towns _Kan_-chau and _Su_-chau (Yule's _Marco Polo_,
I. p. 222).
[396] "Buddhist Turks," says Sir H. H. Howorth (_Geogr. Journ._ 1887, p.
230).
[397] E. Delmar Morgan, _Geogr. Journ._ 1887, p. 226.
[398] "Whatever may have been the origin of polyandry, there can be no
doubt that poverty, a desire to keep down population, and to keep
property undivided in families, supply sufficient reason to justify its
continuance. The same motives explain its existence among the lower
castes of Malabar, among the Jat (Sikhs) of the Panjab, among the Todas,
and probably in most other countries in which this custom prevails"
(Rockhill, p. 726).
[399] T. Rice Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, 1907, pp. 110 and 465-6.
[400] At least no reference is made to the Bonbo practice in his almost
exhaustive monograph on _The Swastika_, Washington, 1896. The reversed
form, however, mentioned by Max Mueller and Burnouf, is figured at p. 767
and elsewhere.
[401] Sarat Chandra Das, _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_, 1881-2.
[402] This point, so important in the history of linguistic evolution,
has I think been fairly established by T. de Lacouperie in a series of
papers in the _Oriental and Babylonian Record_, 1888-90. See G. A.
Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, III. Tibeto-Burman Family,
1906, by Sten Konow.
[403] _Ladak_, London, 1854.
[404] G. B. Mainwaring, _A Grammar of the Rong (Lepcha) Language_, etc.,
Calcutta, 1876, pp. 128-9.
[405] _Outline Grammar of the Angami-Naga Language_, Calcutta, 1887, pp.
4, 5. For an indication of the astonishing number of distinct languages
in the whole of this region see Gertrude M. Godden's paper "On the Naga
and other Frontier Tribes of North-East India," in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._
1897, p. 165. Under the heading Tibeto-Burman Languages Sten Konow
recognises _Tibetan_, _Himalayan_, _North Assam_, _Bodo_, _Naga_,
_Kuki-Chin_, _Meitei_ and _Kachin_. The Naga group comprises dialects of
very different kinds; some approach Tibetan and the North Assam group,
others lead over to the Bodo, others connect with Tibeto-Burman. Meitei
lies midway between Kuki-Chin and Kachin, and these merge finally in
Burmese. Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, Vol. III. 1903-6.
[406] Almost hopeless confusion continues to prevail in the tribal
nomenclature of these multitudinous hill peoples. The official sanction
given to the terms _Kuki_ and _Lushai_ as collective names may be
regretted, but seems now past remedy. _Kuki_ is unknown to the people
themselves, while _Lushai_ is only the name of a single group proud of
their head-hunting proclivities, hence they call themselves, or perhaps
are called _Lu-Shai_, "Head-Cutters," from _lu_ head, _sha_ to cut (G.
H. Damant). Other explanations suggested by C. A. Soppitt (_Kuki-Lushai
Tribes, with an Outline Grammar of the Rangkhol-Lushai Language_,
Shillong, 1887) cannot be accepted.
[407] _Op. cit._
[408] See G. A. Grierson and Sten Konow in Grierson's _Linguistic Survey
of India_, Vol. III. Part II. Bodo, N[=a]g[=a] and Kachin, 1903, Part
III. Kuki-Chin and Burma, 1904.
[409] _The N[=a]ga Tribes of Manipur_, 1911, p. 2. Cf. J. Shakespear,
"The Kuki-Lushai Clans," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XXXIX. 1909.
[410] _Op. cit. p. 5._
[411] _Op. cit._ p. 122. A custom of human sacrifice among the Naga is
described in the _Journal of the Burma Research Society_, 1911, "Human
Sacrifices near the Upper Chindwin."
[412] It is a curious phonetic phenomenon that the combinations _kl_ and
_tl_ are indistinguishable in utterance, so that it is immaterial
whether this term be written _Kling_ or _Tling_, though the latter form
would be preferable, as showing its origin from _Telinga_.
[413] "The Aboriginal Tribes of Manipur," _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1887, p.
350.
[414] R. Brown, _Statistical Account of Manipur_, 1874.
[415] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, 1908, p. 96.
[416] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, 1908, pp. 96-7.
[417] G. Watt, _loc. cit._ p. 362.
[418] _The Chin Hills_, etc., Vol. I., Rangoon, 1896.
[419] _Op. cit._ p. 165.
[420] R. C. Temple, Art. "Burma," Hastings, _Ency. Religion and Ethics_,
1910.
[421] Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 9.
[422] Prince Henri d'Orleans writes "que les Singphos et les Katchins
[Kakhyens] ne font qu'un, que le premier mot est _thai_ et le second
birman." _Du Tonkin aux Indes_, 1898, p. 311. This is how the ethnical
confusion in these borderlands gets perpetuated. _Singpho_ is not
_Thai_, i.e. Shan or Siamese, but a native word as here explained.
[423] John Anderson, _Mandalay to Momein_, 1876, p. 131.
[424] Three skulls discovered by M. Mansuy in a cave at Pho-Binh-Gia
(Indo-China) associated with Neolithic culture were markedly
dolichocephalic, resembling in some respects the Cro-Magnon race of the
Reindeer period. Cf. R. Verneau, _L'Anthropologie_, XX. 1909.
[425] _The Loyal Karens of Burma_, 1887.
[426] R. C. Temple, _Academy_, Jan. 29, 1887, p. 72.
[427] Forbes, _Languages of Further India_, p. 61.
[428] _Ibid._ p. 55.
[429] G. W. Bird, _Wanderings in Burma_, 1897, p. 335.
[430] The Burmese is the most mixed race in the province. "Originally
Dravidians of some sort, they seem to have received blood from various
sources--Hindu, Musalm[=a]n, Chinese, Sh[=a]n, Talaing, European and
others." W. Crooke, "The Stability of Caste and Tribal Groups in India,"
_Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLIV. 1914, p. 279, quoting the _Ethnographic
Survey of India_, 1906.
[431] J. G. Scott, _Burma_, etc., 1886, p. 115.
[432] _Op. cit._ p. 118.
[433] "The Taungbyon Festival, Burma," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLV.
1915, p. 355.
[434] _Amongst the Shans_, etc., 1885, p. 233.
[435] Cf. the Shans of Yunnan, who are nearly all "tatoues, depuis la
ceinture jusqu'au genou, de dessins bleus si serres qu'ils paraissent
former une vraie culotte," Pr. Henri d'Orleans, _Du Tonkin aux Indes_,
1898, p. 83.
[436] For recent literature on Burma and the Burmese consult besides the
_Ethnographic Survey of India_, 1906, and the _Census Report_ of 1911,
J. G. Scott, _The Burman_, 1896, and _Burma_, 1906; A. Ireland, _The
Province of Burma_, 1907; H. Fielding Hall, _The Soul of a People_,
1898, and _A People at School_, 1906.
[437] Probably for _Shan-ts[)e], Shan-yen_, "highlanders" (_Shan_,
mountain), _Shan_ itself being the same word as _Siam_, a form which
comes to us through the Portuguese _Siao_.
[438] For the Laos see L. de Reinach, _Le Laos_, 1902, with
bibliography.
[439] Carl Bock, MS. note. This observer notes that many of the Ngiou
have been largely assimilated in type to the Burmese and in one place
goes so far as to assert that "the Ngiou are decidedly of the same race
as the Burmese. I have had opportunities of seeing hundreds of both
countries, and of closely watching their features and build. The Ngiou
wear the hair in a topknot in the same way as the Burmese, but they are
easily distinguished by their tattooing, which is much more elaborate"
(_Temples and Elephants_, 1884, p. 297). Of course all spring from one
primeval stock, but they now constitute distinct ethnical groups, and,
except about the borderlands, where blends may be suspected, both the
physical and mental characters differ considerably. Bock's _Ngiou_ is no
doubt the same name as _Ngnio_, which H. S. Hallett applies in one place
to the Mosse Shans north of Zimme, and elsewhere to the Burmese Shans
collectively (_A Thousand Miles on an Elephant_, 1890, pp. 158 and 358).
[440] "Les Pai ne sont autres que des Laotiens" (Prince Henri, p. 42).
[441] One Shan group, the Deodhaings, still persist, and occupy a few
villages near Sibsagar (S. E. Peal, _Nature_, June 19, 1884, p. 169).
Dalton also mentions the _Kamjangs_, a Khamti (Tai) tribe in the Sadiya
district, Assam (_Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 6).
[442] Much unexpected light has been thrown upon the early history of
these Ahoms by E. Gait, who has discovered and described in the _Journ.
As. Soc. Bengal_, 1894, a large number of _puthis_, or MSS. (28 in the
Sibsagar district alone), in the now almost extinct Ahom language, some
of which give a continuous history of the Ahom rajas from 568 to 1795
A.D. Most of the others appear to be treatises on religious mysticism or
divination, such as "a book on the calculation of future events by
examining the leg of a fowl" (_ib._).
[443] _Op. cit._ p. 309.
[444] A. R. Colquhoun, _Amongst the Shans_, 1885, Introduction, p. lv.
[445] _Op. cit._ p. 328.
[446] _Temples and Elephants_, p. 320.
[447] "Der Gesichtsausdruck ueberhaupt naehert sich der kaukasischen Race"
(_Im fernen Osten_, p. 959).
[448] Low's _Siamese Grammar_, p. 14.
[449] R. G. Woodthorpe, "The Shans and Hill Tribes of the Mekong," in
_Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1897, p. 16.
[450] _Op. cit._ p. 55.
[451] This omission, however, is partly supplied by T. de Lacouperie,
who gives us an account of a wonderful Lolo MS. on satin, red on one
side, blue on the other, containing nearly 5750 words written in black,
"apparently with the Chinese brush." The MS. was obtained by E. Colborne
Baber from a Lolo chief, forwarded to Europe in 1881, and described by
de Lacouperie, _Journ. R. As. Soc._ Vol. XIV. Part I. "The writing runs
in lines from top to bottom and from left to right, as in Chinese" (p.
1), and this authority regards it as the link that was wanting to
connect the various members of a widely diffused family radiating from
India (Harapa seal, Indo-Pali, Vatteluttu) to Malaysia (Batta, Rejang,
Lampong, Bugis, Makassar, Tagal), to Indo-China (Lao, Siamese, Lolo),
Korea and Japan, and also including the Siao-chuen Chinese system "in
use a few centuries B.C." (p. 5). It would be premature to say that all
these connections are established.
[452] _Op. cit._ p. 193.
[453] _Beginnings of Writing in Central and Eastern Asia, passim._ For
the Lolos see A. F. Legendre, "Les Lolos. Etude ethnologique et
anthropologique," _T'oung Pao II._ Vol. X. 1909.
[454] "Quelques-uns de ces Kiou-tses me rappellent des Europeens que je
connais." (_Op. cit._ p. 252).
[455] _Deux Ans dans le Haut-Tonkin_, etc., Paris, 1896.
[456] With regard to _Man_ (_Man-tse_) it should be explained that in
Chinese it means "untameable worms," that is, _wild_ or _barbarous_, and
we are warned by Desgodins that "il ne faut pas prendre ces mots comme
des noms propres de tribus" (_Bul. Soc. Geogr._ XII. p. 410). In 1877
Capt. W. Gill visited a large nation of _Man-tse_ with 18 tribal
divisions, reaching from West Yunnan to the extreme north of Sechuen, a
sort of federacy recognising a king, with Chinese habits and dress, but
speaking a language resembling Sanskrit (?). These were the _Sumu_, or
"White Man-tse," apparently the same as those visited in 1896 by Mrs
Bishop, and by her described as semi-independent, ruled by their own
chiefs, and in appearance "quite Caucasian, both men and women being
very handsome," strict Buddhists, friendly and hospitable, and living in
large stone houses (Letter to _Times_, Aug. 18, 1896).
[457] "Des paysannes nongs dont les cheveux etaient blonds, quelquefois
meme roux." _Op. cit._
[458] _L'Anthropologie_, 1896, p. 602 sq.
[459] "On the Relations of the Indo-Chinese and Inter-Oceanic Races and
Languages." Paper read at the Meeting of the Brit. Association,
Sheffield, 1879, and printed in the _Journ. Anthr. Inst._, February,
1880.
[460] In the Javanese annals the invaders are called "Cambojans," but at
this time (about 1340) Camboja had already been reduced, and the Siamese
conquerors had brought back from its renowned capital, Angkor Wat, over
90,000 captives. These were largely employed in the wars of the period,
which were thus attributed to Camboja instead of to Siam by foreign
peoples ignorant of the changed relations in Indo-China.
[461] How very dark some of these corners can be may be seen from the
sad picture of maladministration, vice, and corruption still prevalent
so late as 1890, given by Hallett in _A Thousand Miles on an Elephant_,
Ch. xxxv.; and even still later by H. Warington Smyth in _Five Years in
Siam, from 1891 to 1896_ (1898). This observer credits the Siamese with
an undeveloped sense of right and wrong, so that they are good only by
accident. "To do a thing because it is right is beyond them; to abstain
from a thing because it is against their good name, or involves serious
consequences, is possibly within the power of a few; the question of
right and wrong does not enter the calculation." But he thinks they may
possess a high degree of intelligence, and mentions the case of a
peasant, who from an atlas had taught himself geography and politics. P.
A. Thompson, _Lotus Land_, 1906, gives an account of the country and
people of Southern Siam.
[462] Probably a corruption of _talapat_, the name of the palm-tree
which yields the fan-leaf constantly used by the monks.
[463] "In conversation with the monks M'Gilvary was told that it would
most likely be countless ages before they would attain the much wished
for state of Nirvana, and that one transgression at any time might
relegate them to the lowest hell to begin again their melancholy
pilgrimage" (Hallett, _A Thousand Miles on an Elephant_, p. 337).
[464] "Le gros orteil est tres developpe et ecarte des autres doigts du
pied. A ce caractere distinctif, que l'on retrouve encore aujourd'hui
chez les indigenes de race pure, on peut reconnaitre facilement que les
Giao-chi sont les ancetres des Annamites" (_La Cochinchine francaise en
1878_, p. 231). See also a note on the subject by C. F. Tremlett in
_Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1879, p. 460.
[465] Properly _An-nan_, a modified form of _ngan-nan_, "Southern
Peace."
[466] Cf. _Nan-king_, _Pe-king_, "Southern" and "Northern" Courts
(Capitals).
[467] _La Gazette Geographique_, March 12, 1885.
[468] _Geogr. Journ._, Sept. 1893, p. 194.
[469] "Parmi les citoyens regne la plus parfaite egalite. Point
d'esclavage, la servitude est en horreur. Aussi tout homme peut-il
aspirer aux emplois, se plaindre aux memes tribunaux que son adversaire"
(_op. cit._ p. 6).
[470] From _bonzo_, a Portuguese corruption of the Japanese _busso_, a
devout person, applied first to the Buddhist priests of Japan, and then
extended to those of China and neighbouring lands.
[471] This name, probably the Chinese _jin_, men, people, already occurs
in Sanskrit writings in its present form: [Sanskrit symbol], _China_,
whence the Hindi [Arabic symbol], _Chin_, and the Arabo-Persian [Arabic
symbol], _Sin_, which gives the classical _Sinae_. The most common
national name is Chung-kue, "middle kingdom" (presumably the centre of
the universe), whence Chung-kue-Jin, the Chinese people. Some have
referred _China_ to the _Chin_ (_Tsin_) dynasty (909 B.C.), while Marco
Polo's _Kataia_ (Russian _Kitai_) is the _Khata_ (North China) of the
Mongol period, from the Manchu _K'i-tan_, founders of the Liao dynasty,
which was overthrown 1115 A.D. by the Nue-Ch[)a]n Tatars. Ptolemy's
_Thinae_ is rightly regarded by Edkins as the same word as _Sinae_, the
substitution of t for s being normal in Annam, whence this form may have
reached the west through the southern seaport of Kattigara.
[472] _Western Origin of the Early Chinese Civilization, from 2300 B.C.
to 200 A.D., or Chapters on the Elements Derived from the Old
Civilizations of West Asia in the Formation of the Ancient Chinese
Culture_, London, 1894.
[473] "Observations upon the Languages of the Early Inhabitants of
Mesopotamia," in _Journ. R. As. Soc._ XVI. Part 2.
[474] MS. note, May 7, 1896.
[475] C. J. Ball, _Chinese and Sumerian_, 1913.
[476] _History of the Archaic Chinese Writing and Texts_, 1882, p. 5.
[477] The first actual date given is that of Tai Hao (Fu-hi), 2953 B.C.,
but this ruler belongs to the fabulous period, and is stated to have
reigned 115 years. The first certain date would appear to be that of
Yau, first of the Chinese sages and reformer of the calendar (2357
B.C.). The date 2254 B.C. for Confucius's model king Shun seems also
established. But of course all this is modern history compared with the
now determined Babylonian and Egyptian records.
[478] Amongst the metals reference is made to iron so early as the time
of the Emperor Ta Yue (2200 B.C.), when it is mentioned as an article of
tribute in the _Shu-King_. F. Hirth, who states this fact, adds that
during the same period, if not even earlier, iron was already a
flourishing industry in the Liang district (Paper on the "History of
Chinese Culture," Munich Anthropological Society, April, 1898). At the
discussion which followed the reading of this paper Montelius argued
that iron was unknown in Western Asia and Egypt before 1500 B.C.,
although the point was contested by Hommel, who quoted a word for iron
in the earliest Egyptian texts. Montelius, however, explained that terms
originally meaning "ore" or "metal" were afterwards used for "iron."
Such was certainly the case with the Gk. [Greek: chalkos], at first
"copper," then metal in general, and used still later for [Greek:
sideros], "iron"; hence [Greek: chalkeus] = coppersmith, blacksmith, and
even goldsmith. So also with the Lat. _aes_ (Sanskrit _ayas_, akin to
_aurora_, with simple idea of brightness), used first especially for
copper (_aes cyprium, cuprum_), and then for _bronze_ (Lewis and Short).
For Hirth's later views see his _Ancient History of China_, 1908 (from
the fabulous ages to 221 B.C.).
[479] This term _Y-jen_ (_Yi-jen_), meaning much the same as _Man_,
_Man-tse_, savage, rude, untameable, has acquired a sort of diplomatic
distinction. In the treaty of Tien-tsin (1858) it was stipulated that it
should no longer, as heretofore, be applied in official documents to the
English or to any subjects of the Queen.
[480] See J. Edkins, _China's Place in Philology_, p. 117. The Hok-los
were originally from Fo-kien, whence their alternative name, _Fo-lo_.
The _lo_ appears to be the same word as in the reduplicated _Lo-lo_,
meaning something like the Greek and Latin _Bar-bar_, stammerers, rude,
uncultured.
[481] The _Hakkas_, _i.e._ "strangers," speak a well-marked dialect
current on the uplands between Kwang-tung, Kiang-si, and Fo-kien. J.
Dyer Ball, _Easy Lessons in the Hakka Dialect_, 1884.
[482] Numerous in the western parts of Kwang-tung and in the Canton
district. J. Dyer Ball, _Cantonese Made Easy_, Hongkong, 1884.
[483] In this expression "Pidgin" appears to be a corruption of the word
_business_ taken in a very wide sense, as in such terms as
_talkee-pidgin_ = a conversation, discussion; _singsong pidgin_ = a
concert, etc. It is no unusual occurrence for persons from widely
separated Chinese provinces meeting in England to be obliged to use this
common jargon in conversation.
[484] For the aboriginal peoples, with bibliography, see M. Kennelly's
translation of L. Richard's _Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese
Empire and its Dependencies_, 1908, pp. 371-3.
[485] _Kung-tse_, "Teacher Kung," or more fully _Kung-fu-tse_, "the
eminent teacher Kung," which gives the Latinised form _Confucius_.
[486] _Kwong Ki Chiu_, 1881, p. 875. Confucius was born in 550 and died
in 477 B.C., and to him are at present dedicated as many as 1560
temples, in which are observed real sacrificial rites. For these
sacrifices the State yearly supplies 26,606 sheep, pigs, rabbits and
other animals, besides 27,000 pieces of silk, most of which things,
however, become the "perquisites" of the attendants in the sanctuaries.
[487] Arthur H. Smith, _Chinese Characteristics_, New York, 1895. The
good, or at least the useful, qualities of the Chinese are stated by
this shrewd observer to be a love of industry, peace, and social order,
a matchless patience and forbearance under wrongs and evils beyond cure,
a happy temperament, no nerves, and "a digestion like that of an
ostrich." See also H. A. Giles, _China and the_ _Chinese_, 1902; E. H.
Parker, _John Chinaman and a Few Others_, 1901; J. Dyer Ball, _Things
Chinese_, 1903; and M. Kennelly in Richard's _Comprehensive Geography of
the Chinese Empire and its Dependencies_, 1908.
[488] See _Contemporary Review_, Feb. 1908, "Report on Christian
Missions in China," by Mr F. W. Fox, Professor Macalister and Sir
Alexander Simpson.
[489] A happy Portuguese coinage from the Malay _mantri_, a state
minister, which is the Sanskrit _mantrin_, a counsellor, from _mantra_,
a sacred text, a counsel, from Aryan root _man_, to think, know, whence
also the English _mind_.
[490] Miss Bird (Mrs Bishop), _The Golden Chersonese_, 1883, p. 37.
[491] H. A. Giles, _The Civilisation of China_, 1911, p. 237. See
especially Chap. XI., "Chinese and Foreigners," for the etiquette of
street regulations and the habit of shouting conversation.