CHILDREN OF CHINA
“The good man is he who does not lose his child-heart.”--MENCIUS,
371-288 B.C.
“What the leaves are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood.
That to the world are children;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
That reaches the trunks below.
Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.
* * * * *
Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said;
For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.”
LONGFELLOW.
[Illustration: THE EMPEROR OF CHINA]
CHILDREN OF CHINA
BY
COLIN CAMPBELL BROWN
AUTHOR OF
“CHINA IN LEGEND AND STORY”
[Illustration]
WITH EIGHT COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS
OLIPHANTS LTD.
LONDON EDINBURGH
_Uniform with this Volume_
CHILDREN OF INDIA
By JANET HARVEY KELMAN
CHILDREN OF CHINA
By G. CAMPBELL BROWN
CHILDREN OF AFRICA
By JAMES B. BAIRD
CHILDREN OF ARABIA
By JOHN CAMERON YOUNG
CHILDREN OF JAMAICA
By ISABEL C. MACLEAN
CHILDREN OF JAPAN
By JANET HARVEY KELMAN
CHILDREN OF EGYPT
By L. CROWTHER
CHILDREN OF CEYLON
By THOMAS MOSCROP
CHILDREN OF PERSIA
By Mrs NAPIER MALCOLM
CHILDREN OF LABRADOR
By MARY LANE DWIGHT
CHILDREN OF SOUTH AMERICA
By KATHARINE A. HODGE
CHILDREN OF BORNEO
By EDWIN H. GOMES, M.A.
CHILDREN OF WILD AUSTRALIA
By HERBERT PITTS
Printed in Great Britain by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh
Bound by Anderson & Ferrier, St Mary Street, Edinburgh
TO
ROBIN, MARGERY AND HUGH
INTRODUCTORY LETTER
MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS,
There is a nook among the hills in far-away China to which, if only I
possessed the famous flying carpet, I should very much like to carry
you. To know it properly one ought to find it for oneself upon a day in
spring. The road to it runs at the foot of steep hills, on which the
grey earth peeps through a threadbare carpet of dry grasses.
Above these lower hills the mountain-sides are green, shading into
slate-colour and black; and when the sky clouds over, they look dark
and angry. The road rounds a corner and passes a wood: a few more steps
and the baby valley is in sight.
To leave the path and pick your way through some trees is the work of a
moment. You reach an open space like a little lawn. Above the lawn is
a bank, on which, among shrubs and scattered trees, many flowers are
growing.
A faint scent of almonds breathes in the air. You feast your eyes on
great wild roses and azaleas, rose-coloured, magenta, crimson--bushes
of red fire burning among ferns and green branches. Here, you notice
tufted flowers like feathers carved in ivory: there, white jasmine,
clematis and plants whose shining leaves are nearly covered by balls
of snow. Over the flowers and under the tree-tops great swallow-tailed
butterflies go whirling by. It is as if one of the old men of the hills
of whom Chinese stories tell, had opened a doorway in the mountain-side
and led you into a sweet wild garden of fairyland.
The daily round of life in China is bare enough, like a worn road
winding among hills; but when one comes to know the children of the
country, it is like finding a surprise garden where one had only looked
for rocks and boulders. The love of boys and girls, and the tenderness
and self-denial which they call forth among older people, are the
flowers that grow in this enchanted spot.
The flying carpet was lost long ago, when this old world forgot how to
be young, but you boys and girls sometimes weave one for yourselves and
fly off as far as Pekin or Peru. It is my hope in these pages to join
some of you in this pleasant task and carry you to some of the far-off
garden nooks of China.
_The Chinese_ by Sir John F. Davies, _Child Life in Chinese Homes_, by
Mrs Bryson, and _Chinese Slave Girls_, by Miss M. E. Talmage, are books
which have helped me to write about the children of China. I am sure
they will interest you by and by whenever you can find time to read
them. But the big Chinese city in which I live, and the hundreds of
villages round it, help me most of all to tell you about China and its
boys and girls, and I greatly hope that one day some of you may come
and see them for yourselves.
I am,
Your sincere friend,
C. CAMPBELL BROWN.
CHINCHEW, 1909.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY LETTER 6
I THE INVISIBLE TOP 11
II CHINESE BABIES 14
III THE CHILDREN’S HOME 18
IV SCHOOL DAYS 23
V GIRLS 30
VI GAMES AND RIDDLES 37
VII STORIES AND RIMES 42
VIII RELIGION 52
IX FESTIVALS 58
X SUPERSTITIONS 63
XI REVERENCE FOR PARENTS 73
XII FAITHFULNESS 76
XIII THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN 80
XIV MINISTERING CHILDREN 87
XV THE CHILDREN’S KING 94
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE EMPEROR OF CHINA _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
CHINESE BABIES 16
CHILD LEADING BUFFALO 20
KINDERGARTEN PUPILS 28
CHILDREN AT FOOD AND AT PLAY 40
GOING TO VISIT HIS IDOL MOTHER 60
PHŒNIX 84
SUNDAY SCHOOL, CHINCHEW 88
CHILDREN OF CHINA
CHAPTER I
THE INVISIBLE TOP
The beginning of the world, as it is described to Chinese boys and
girls, is stranger than a fairy tale. First of all, according to the
story, there was something called ‘khi’ which could not be seen, nor
touched, but was everywhere. After a time this ‘khi’ began to turn
round like a great invisible top. As it whirled round, the thicker
part sank downwards and became the earth, whilst the thinner part rose
upwards, growing clearer until it formed the sky, and so the heavens
and the earth span themselves into being. Presently, for the story
changes like a dream, there came a giant named Pwanku. For thousands
of years the giant worked, splitting masses of rock with his mallet
and chisel, until the sun, moon and stars could be seen through the
openings which he had made. The heavens rose higher, the earth spread
wider, and Pwanku himself grew six feet taller every day. When he died,
his head became mountains, his breath wind, and his voice thunder; his
veins changed into rivers, his body into the earth, his bones into
rocks and his beard into the stars that stream across the night sky.
But though all this is only ‘a suppose story’ of long ago, the first
part of it is wonderfully like what wise men in our time have told us
about the beginning of things.
Now we must talk of China as it is to-day. The country in which Chinese
children live is a land of hills and plains, covered with cities,
villages and temples. You can imagine how big it is when you remember
that Szechuan, which is but one of its eighteen provinces, is larger
than Great Britain and Ireland.
How China grew into a great empire is one of the most wonderful stories
of the world. Its people are said to have come from the west, across
the middle of Asia, settling at length in what is now the province of
Shansi, just where the Yellow River bends sharply eastwards. Small
at first and surrounded by savages, the baby kingdom soon began to
grow. Like the tiny tent of the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_,
which unfolded until an army could rest beneath the roof, China spread
until, a thousand years before the time of Our Lord, its borders on
the north and west were pretty much what they are to-day, and it had
crept southwards many miles beyond the Yellow River. The nation went
on growing, drawing other tribes and peoples into itself, until, not
long after King Alfred’s time, the mother kingdom, without counting its
subject countries, was fifteen times as large as Great Britain.
What is now the Chinese Empire is said to have been gained in peaceful
ways rather than by fighting, and this no doubt is partly true. The
people knew more than their neighbours did. Their life was better and
happier. One after another the tribes wanted to join them, and so the
kingdom grew until one of the great changes of the world was made. This
will help you to understand why the Chinese have always believed in
peace rather than force, and until lately have not cared for war.
The history of China at first, like that of other nations, is rather
misty. In spite of this, however, we can make out that long ago the
people had wise and good men to lead them, among whom were Yao and
Shun, the model rulers of the empire, and Yu the Great, who drained
the waters of a vast flood and cut down forests until the land was fit
to dwell in. Much has happened since then. Greece and Rome have risen,
flourished, and decayed. This nation, under many different families of
rulers, and in spite of some seventeen changes of capital, has outlived
them by centuries. Turks, Mongols and Manchus have fought against it,
and, as in the present day, at times have conquered the country, only
to be conquered in turn by the wonderful Chinese people.
Of all the many changes in China’s story, perhaps none has been more
startling than that which happened in 1908, when the Emperor Kwangsu
and the Empress Dowager died, within two days of each other. The whole
country was thrown into mourning, almost all the people going unshaved
for a hundred days, until long hair and bristling faces made the
Chinese world look sad indeed.
On the 2nd December of the same year, the Emperor Hsuan Tung, born in
1906, ascended the Dragon Throne, and so the oldest of Empires came to
have the youngest of sovereigns for its ruler, and the world discovered
that the greatest child on earth was a little Chinese boy. It is said
that the baby emperor, frightened by the sight of so many people in
state dress, began to cry when he was set upon the throne. He was soon
comforted, however, by some of the ladies-in-waiting, and sat quietly
until the grand ceremony was finished.
The little man is the first ruler of China who, from the beginning of
his reign, has had prayer offered for him by Christian people all over
the empire, and we may be sure that blessing will be given to him in
answer to these prayers. Boys and girls everywhere ought to ask God to
help the boy sovereign of the last great heathen empire of the world.
Here is a description which opens a window for us into his nursery:
“Young as he is, the emperor shows a great love of soldiers, and has
little spears and swords and horses among his playthings. The sight of
toy weapons will stop him from crying and make him laugh. His Majesty
is much pleased when a horse is shown to him, and will not be satisfied
until he has been lifted on to its back and taken for a ride.”