Pekin on the north.
Nankin in the middle.
Canton on the south.
Pekin is the grandest.
Nankin is the most learned.
Canton is the richest.
At Pekin is the emperor's palace. The gardens are exceedingly large, and
contain hills, and lakes, and groves within the walls, besides houses for
the emperor's relations.
At Nankin is the China tower. It is made of China bricks, and contains
nine rooms one over the other. It is two hundred feet high, a wonderful
height.
Of what use is it? Of none--of worse than none. It is a temple for
Buddha, and is full of his images.
At Canton there are so many people that there is not room for all in the
land; so thousands live on the water in bouts. Many have never slept a
single night on the shore. The children often fall overboard, but as a
hollow gourd is tied round each child's neck, they float, and are soon
picked up.
For a long while the Chinese would not allow foreigners to come into
their cities. A great many foreign ships came to Canton to buy tea and
silk; but the traders were forbidden to enter the town, and they lived in
a little island near, and built a town there called Macao.
But lately the Chinese emperor has agreed to permit strangers to come to
five ports, called Shang-hae, Ning-po, Foo-choo, Amoy, and Hong-Kong.
This last port, Hong-Kong, is an island near Canton, and the English have
built a city there and called it Victoria.
THE TWO RIVERS.--There is one called Yeang-te-sang, or "the Son of the
Ocean." It is the largest in Asia.
The other is the Yellow River, for the soft clay mixed with the water
gives it a yellow color.
LAKES.--There are immense lakes, covered with boats and fishermen.
But the best fishers are the tame cormorants, who catch fish for their
masters.
THE TWO GREAT WONDERS.--The great CANAL is wonder. It joins the two
rivers; so that a Chinese can go by water from Canton to Pekin.
The great WALL is a greater wonder, but not nearly as useful as the
canal.
This wall was built at the north of China to keep the Tartars out. It is
one thousand five hundred miles long, twenty feet high, and twenty-five
broad. But there were not soldiers enough in China to keep the enemies
out, and the Tartars came over the wall.
The Emperor of China is a Tartar.
The Empress does not have small feet, like the Chinese.
It is the Tartars who forced the Chinese to shave their heads, for they
used to tie up their hair in a knot at the top of their heads. Many of
the Chinese preferred losing their heads to their hair. Was it not cruel
to cut off their heads, merely because they would not shave them? But the
Tartars were very cruel to the Chinese.
KNOWLEDGE AND INVENTIONS.--We must allow that the Chinese are very
clever. They found out how to print, and they found out how to make
gunpowder, and they found out the use of the loadstone. What is that? A
piece of steel rubbed against the loadstone will always point to the
north. The Chinese found out these three things, printing, gunpowder,
and the use of the loadstone, before we in Europe found them out. But
they did not teach them to us; we found them out ourselves.
But there are two arts that the Chinese did teach us: how to make silk,
and how to make china or porcelain. And yet I should not say they taught
us; for they tried to prevent our learning their arts; but we saw their
silk and their porcelain, and by degrees we learned to make them
ourselves. A sly monk brought some silk-worm's eggs from China hidden in
a hollow walking-stick.
LANGUAGE.--There is no other language at all like the Chinese. Instead of
having letters to spell words, they have a picture for each word. I call
it a picture, but it is more like a figure than a picture. The Chinese
use brushes for writing instead of pens; and they rub cakes of ink on a
little marble dish, first dipping them in a little water, as we dip cakes
of paint. There is a hollow place in the marble dish, to hold the water.
What do you think the Chinese mean by "the four precious things?" They
mean the ink, the brush, the marble dish, and the water. They call them
precious because they are so fond of writing. Schoolmasters are held in
great honor in China, as indeed they ought to be everywhere. Yet schools
in China are much like those in Turkey, more fit for parrots than
children; only Chinese boys sit in chairs with desks before them, instead
of sitting cross-legged on the ground, as in Turkey. They learn first to
paint the words, and next to repeat lessons by heart. This they do in a
loud scream; always turning their backs to their masters while they are
saying their lessons to him.
The first book which children read is full of stories, with a picture on
each page. Would you like to hear one of these stories?
"There was a boy of eight years old, named Um-wen. His parents were so
poor that they could not afford to buy a gauze curtain for their bed, to
keep off the flies in summer. This boy could not bear that his parents
should be bitten by the flies; so he stood by their bedside, and
uncovered his little bosom and his back that the flies might bite him,
instead of his parents. 'For,' said he, 'if they fill themselves with my
blood, they will let my parents rest.'"
Would it be right for a little boy to behave in this way? Certainly not;
for it would grieve kind parents that their little boys should be bitten.
Poor little Chinese boys! They do not know about Him who was bitten by
the old serpent that we might not be devoured and destroyed.
PUNISHMENT.--The Chinese are very quiet and orderly; and no wonder,
because they are afraid of the great bamboo stick.
The mandarins (or rulers of towns) often sentence offenders to lie upon
the ground, and to have thirty strokes of the bamboo. But the wooden
collar is worse than the bamboo stick. It is a great piece of wood with a
hole for a man to put his head through. The men in wooden collars are
brought out of their prisons every morning, and chained to a wall, where
everybody passing by can see them. They cannot feed themselves in their
wooden collars, because they cannot bring their hands to their mouths;
but sometimes a son may be seen feeding his father, as he stands chained
to the wall. There are men also whose business it is to feed the
prisoners. For great crimes men are strangled or beheaded.
CHARACTER.--A Chinaman's character cannot be known at first. You might
suppose from his way of speaking that a Chinaman was very humble; because
he calls himself "the worthless fellow," or "the stupid one," and he
calls his son "the son of a dog;" but if you were to tell him he had an
evil heart, he would be very much offended; for he only gives himself
these names Thai he may _seem_ humble. He calls his acquaintance
"venerable uncle," "honorable brother." This he does to please them. The
Chinese are very proud of their country, and think there is none like it.
They have given it the name of the "Heavenly or Celestial Empire." They
look upon foreigners as monkeys and devils. Often a woman may he heard in
the streets saying to her little child, "There is a foreign devil (or a
Fan Quei"). The Chinese think the English very ugly, and called them the
"red-haired nation."
It must be owned that the Chinese are industrious: indeed, if they were
not, they would be starved. A poor man often has to work all day up to
the knees in water in the rice-field, and yet gets nothing for supper but
a little rice and a few potatoes.
The ladies who can live without working are very idle, and in the winter
rise very late in the morning.
Men, too, play, as children do here; flying kites is a favorite game.
Dancing, however, is quite unknown.
The Chinese are very selfish and unfeeling. Beggars may be seen in the
middle of the town dying, and no one caring for them, but people gambling
close by.
The Chinese have an idea that after a man is dead the house must be
cleansed from ghosts; so to save themselves this trouble, poor people
often cast their dying relations out of their hovels into the street to
die!
But in general sons treat their parents with great respect. They often
keep their father's coffin in the house for three months, and a son has
been known to sleep by it for three years. Relations are usually kind to
each other, because they meet together in the "Hall of Ancestors" to
worship the same persons. To save money they often live together, and a
hundred eat at the same table.
The Chinese used to be temperate, preferring tea to wine. There are
tea-taverns in the towns. How much better than our beer-shops! But lately
they have begun to smoke opium. This is the juice of the white poppy,
made up into dark balls. The Chinese are not allowed to have it; but the
English, sad to say, sell it to them secretly. There are many opium
taverns in China, where men may be seen lying on cushions snuffing up the
hot opium, and puffing it out of their mouths. Those who smoke opium have
sunken cheeks and trembling hands, and soon become old, foolish, and
sick. Why, then, do they take opium? Many of them say they wish to leave
it off, but cannot.
MISSIONARIES.--Are there any in China? Yes, many; and more are going
there. But how many are wanted for so many people! Missionaries travel
about China to distribute Bibles and tracts. One of them hired a rough
kind of chair with two bearers. In this he went to villages among the
mountains, where a white man had never been seen. The children screaming
with terror ran to their mothers. The men came round him to look at his
clothes and his white skin. They were much surprised at the whiteness of
his hands, and they put their yellow ones close to his to see the
difference. These mountaineers were kind, and brought tea and cakes to
refresh the stranger.
An English lady went to China to teach little girls; for no one teaches
them. She has several little creatures in her school that she saved from
perishing: because the Chinese are so cruel as to leave many girl-babies
to die in the streets; they say that girls are not worth the trouble of
bringing up.
One cold rainy evening, Miss Aldersey heard a low wailing outside the
street-door, and looking out she saw a poor babe, wrapped in coarse
matting, lying on the stone pavement. She could not bear to leave it
there to be devoured by famished dogs; so she kindly took it in, and
brought it up.
It is a common thing to stumble over the bodies of dead babies in the
streets. In England it is counted murder to kill a babe, but it is
thought no harm in China. Yet the Chinese call themselves good. But when
you ask a poor man where he expects to go when he dies, he replies, "To
hell of course;" and he says this with a loud laugh. His reason for
thinking he shall go to hell is, because he has not money enough to give
to the gods; for rich people all expect to go to heaven. Mandarins
especially expect to go there. If they were to read the Bible, they would
see that God will punish kings, and mighty men, and great captains, and
_all_ who are wicked.
[6] These are some of the sentences written in the old books:
"Never say, There is no one who sees me, for there is a wise
Spirit who sees all."
"Man no longer has what he had before the fall, and he has
brought his children into his misery. O! Heaven, you only can
help us. Wipe away the stains of the father, and save his
children."
"Never speak but with great care. Do not say, It is only a single
word. Remember that no one has the keeping of your heart and
tongue but you."
These sentences are like some verses in the Psalms and Proverbs;
and, it may be, they were spoken first by some holy men of old.