morning, both in winter and summer. He usually took some cordial to
fortify his stomach, and then repaired to his private devotions at one
of his temples. After this he read the dispatches of his great officers,
both civil and military, who from their different stations were ordered
to write to him directly, and not to the tribunals as had usually been
the case. About seven he took his breakfast of tea, wines, and
confectionary, when he transacted business with the first minister,
consulting with, or directing, him in the weighty matters of state,
previous to their appearing in regular form before the respective
departments to which they belonged. He had then a kind of levee, which
was usually attended by the Collaos, or ministers, and the presidents of
the departments or public boards. At eleven refreshments were again
served up and, after business was over, he either amused himself in the
women's apartments, or walked round his palace or gardens. Between three
and four he usually dined, after which he retired to his private rooms
and employed himself in reading or writing till bed-time, which was
always regulated by, and seldom later than, the setting of the sun.
He was fully persuaded that his uninterrupted health was chiefly owing
to his early retiring to rest, and early rising; an observation, indeed,
that in our country has grown into a maxim, and maxims are generally
grounded on truth. The late Lord Mansfield made a point for many years
of enquiring from all the aged persons, that at any time appeared before
him to give evidence, into their particular mode of living, in order
that he might be able to form some general conclusion with regard to the
causes of their longevity. The result of his observations was, that he
could draw no inference from their intemperance or abstemiousness with
regard to diet or drinking, but that they all agreed in one point, that
of being early risers.
_Tchien-Lung_ resigned the throne of China to his fifteenth son, the
present _Kia-king_, in February 1796, having completed a reign of sixty
years; and he died in the month of February 1799, at the advanced age of
eighty-nine years.
When the Tartars conquered China, they found all the great offices of
state filled by eunuchs, and the palace swarmed with these creatures;
the greater part was immediately displaced, and other Chinese of talent
and education were put into their places. Having, however, adopted the
laws and customs of the conquered, it became necessary to keep up the
usual establishment of women in the palace, the inevitable consequence
of which was the retention of a certain number of eunuchs to look after
them. And they are at this moment as numerous, perhaps, in all the
palaces, as they were at the conquest, but none of them are dignified
with any office of trust or importance in the state. They consider
themselves, however, as elevated far above the plebeian rank; and a
bunch of keys or a birch broom gives them all the airs and insolence of
office.
Of these eunuchs there are two kinds. The one is so far emasculated as
never to have the consolation of being a father; the other must submit
to lose every trace of manhood. The first are entrusted with the
inspection and superintendance of the buildings, gardens, and other
works belonging to the imperial palaces, which they are required to keep
in order. The _Rasibus_, as the missionaries call them, are admitted
into the interior of the palace. These creatures paint their faces,
study their dress, and are as coquettish as the ladies, upon whom
indeed it is their chief business to attend. The greatest favourite
sleeps in the same room with the Emperor, to be ready to administer to
his wishes; and in this capacity he finds numberless opportunities to
prejudice his master against those for whom he may have conceived a
dislike; and instances are not wanting where the first officers in the
state have been disgraced by means of these creatures.
They are equally detested and feared by the princes of the blood who
reside in the palace, by the court officers, and by the missionaries in
the employ of government. The latter find it necessary to make frequent,
and sometimes expensive, presents to those in particular about the
person of his Imperial Majesty. Should any of these gentlemen happen to
carry about with him a watch, snuff-box, or other trinket, which the
eunuch condescends to admire, there is no alternative; the missionary
takes the hint, and begs his acceptance of it, knowing very well that
the only way to preserve his friendship is to share with him his
property. An omission of this piece of civility has been productive of
great injury to the European. The gentleman who regulates and keeps in
order the several pieces of clock-work in the palace assured me, that
the old eunuch, who was entrusted with the keys of the rooms, used to go
in by night and purposely derange and break the machinery, that he might
be put to the trouble and expence of repairing it. This happened to him
so often that, at length, he became acquainted with the secret of
applying the proper preventive, which although expensive was still less
vexatious than the constant reparation of the mischief done to the
articles of which he had the superintendance.
The Chinese eunuchs are addicted to all the vices that distinguish these
creatures in other countries. There is scarcely one about the palace,
whether of the class of porters and sweepers, or of that which is
qualified for the inner apartments, but have women in their lodgings,
who are generally the daughters of poor people, from whom they are
purchased, and are consequently considered as their slaves. It is
difficult to conceive a condition in life more humiliating, or more
deplorable, than that of a female slave to an eunuch; but happily for
such females, in this country the mental powers are not very active.
Several of the missionaries assured me of the truth of this fact, which
indeed I have strong reasons for believing even of the _Rasibus_. The
keeper of the hall of audience once took me to his lodgings, but on
coming to the door he desired me to wait till he had made some
arrangements within; the meaning of which was, until he had removed his
lady out of the way; nor was he in the least displeased at my hinting
this to him. Being one of the favourite attendants of the ladies of the
court, he was of course a _black eunuch_. He was the most capricious
creature in the world; being sometimes extremely civil and
communicative, sometimes sullen, and not deigning to open his lips: and
whenever he took it into his head to be offended, he was sure to
practice some little revenge. I fancy he was clerk of the kitchen, for
the quality and the quantity of our dinner generally depended on the
state of his humour. When the report of the Embassador's making
conditions with regard to the ceremony of introduction first reached
_Yuen-min-yuen_, he was more than usually peevish, and conceived, as he
thought, a notable piece of revenge. Some pains had been taken to
arrange the presents in such a manner in the great hall as to fill the
room well, and set them off to the best advantage. The old creature,
determined to give us additional trouble and to break through the
arrangement that had been made, desired that the whole might be placed
at one end of the room. On my objecting to this he pretended to have
received the Emperor's order, and that at all events it must be obeyed;
and the reason he assigned for the change was, "that his Majesty might
see them at once from his throne, without being at the trouble of
turning his head."
The great number of these creatures about the palace of _Yuen-min-yuen_
made my residence there extremely disagreeable. They seemed, indeed, to
be placed as spies on our conduct. If I attempted to move ever so little
beyond the court of our apartments, I was sure of being watched and
pursued by some of them; to persist in my walk would have thrown the
whole palace in an uproar. I one day happened inadvertently to stray
through a thicket, which it seems led towards the apartments of the
ladies, but I had not proceeded far before I heard several squalling
voices in the thicket, which I soon recognised to be those of eunuchs.
They had run themselves out of breath in seeking me, and my old friend
of the kitchen was not to be pacified for putting him to the hazard, as
he pretended, of losing his head by my imprudence.
The eunuchs and the women are the only companions of the Emperor in his
leisure hours: of the latter, one only has the rank of Empress, after
whom are two Queens and their numerous attendants, which constitute the
second class of the establishment; and the third consists of six Queens,
and their attendants. To these three ranks of his wives are attached one
hundred ladies, who are usually called his concubines, though they are
as much a legal part of his establishment as the others. They would seem
to be of the same description, and to hold the same rank as the
handmaids of the ancient Israelites. Their children are all considered
as branches of the Imperial family, but the preference to the succession
is generally given to the male issue of the first Empress, provided
there should be any. This however is entirely a matter of choice, the
Emperor having an uncontrouled power of nominating his successor, either
in his own family or out of it. The daughters are usually married to
Tartar princes, and other Tartars of distinction, but rarely, if ever,
to a Chinese.
On the accession of a new Emperor, men of the first rank and situation
in the empire consider themselves as highly honoured and extremely
fortunate, if the graces of their daughters should prove sufficient to
provide them a place in the list of his concubines; in which case, like
the nuns in some countries of Europe, they are doomed for ever to reside
within the walls of the palace. Such a fate, however, being common in
China in a certain degree to all women-kind, is less to be deplored than
the similar lot of those in Europe, where one sex is supposed to be
entitled to an equal degree of liberty with the other; and as the
custom of China authorizes the sale of all young women by their parents
or relations to men they never saw, and without their consent previously
obtained, there can be no hardship in consigning them over to the arms
of the prince; nor is any disgrace attached to the condition of a
concubine, where every marriage is a legal prostitution. At the death of
the sovereign all his women are removed to a separate building, called
by a term which, divested of its metaphor, implies the _Palace of
Chastity_, where they are doomed to reside during the remainder of their
lives.
CHAP. VI.
Language.--Literature, and the fine Arts.--Sciences.--Mechanics, and
Medicine.
_Opinion of the Chinese Language being hieroglyphical erroneous.--Doctor
Hager's mistakes.--Etymological Comparisons fallacious.--Examples
of--Nature of the Chinese written Character.--Difficulty and Ambiguity
of.--Curious Mistake of an eminent Antiquarian.--Mode of acquiring the
Character.--Oral Language.--Mantchoo Tartar Alphabet.--Chinese
Literature.--Astronomy.--Chronology.--Cycle of sixty Years.--Geography.
--Arithmetic.--Chemical Arts.--Cannon and Gunpowder.--Distillation.
--Potteries.--Silk Manufactures.--Ivory.--Bamboo.--Paper.--Ink.
--Printing.--Mechanics.--Music.--Painting.--Sculpture.--Architecture.
--Hotel of the English Embassador in Pekin.--The Great Wall.--The Grand
Canal.--Bridges.--Cemeteries.--Natural Philosophy.--Medicine.--Chinese
Pharmacopoeia.--Quacks.--Contagious Fevers.--Small pox.--Opthalmia.
--Venereal Disease.--Midwifery.--Surgery.--Doctor Gregory's Opinion of
their Medical Knowledge.--Sir William Jones's Opinion of their general
Character._
If no traces remained, nor any authorities could be produced, of the
antiquity of the Chinese nation, except the written character of their
language, this alone would be sufficient to decide that point in its
favour. There is so much originality in this language, and such a great
and essential difference between it and that of any other nation not
immediately derived from the Chinese, that not the most distant degree
of affinity can be discovered, either with regard to the form of the
character, the system on which it is constructed, or the idiom, with any
other known language upon the face of the globe. Authors, however, and
some of high reputation, have been led to suppose that, in the Chinese
character, they could trace some relation to those hieroglyphical or
sacred inscriptions found among the remains of the ancient Egyptians;
others have considered it to be a modification of hieroglyphic writing,
and that each character was the symbol or comprehensive form of the idea
it was meant to express, or, in other words, an abstract delineation of
the object intended to be represented. To strengthen such an opinion,
they have ingeniously selected a few instances where, by adding to one
part, and curtailing another, changing a straight line into a curved
one, or a square into a circle, something might be made out that
approached to the picture, or the object of the idea conveyed by the
character as, for example, the character [Chinese: tián], representing
_a cultivated piece of ground_, they supposed to be the picture of an
inclosure, turned up in ridges; yet it so happens that, in this country,
there are no inclosures; the character, [Chinese: k[vo]u] a _mouth_, has
been considered by them as a very close resemblance of that object;
[Chinese: shàng] and [Chinese: xià] _above_ and _below_, distinctly
marked these points of position; the character [Chinese: rén],
signifying _man_, is, according to their opinion, obviously an
abbreviated representation of the human figure; yet the very same
character, with an additional line across, thus [Chinese: dà], which by
the way approaches nearer to the human figure, having now arms as well
as legs, signifies the abstract quality _great_; and with a second line
thus [Chinese: ti[=a]n] the material or visible _heaven_, between either of
which and _man_ it would be no easy task to find out the analogy; and
still less so to trace an affinity between any of them, and [Chinese:
qu[va]n] which signifies _a dog_.
It is true certain ancient characters are still extant, in which a rude
representation of the image is employed; as for instance, a circle for
the sun, and a crescent for the moon, but these appear to have been used
only as abbreviations, in the same manner as these objects are still
characterized in our almanacks, and in our astronomical calculations.
Thus also the _kingdom of China_ is designed by a square, with a
vertical line drawn through the middle, in conformity perhaps with their
ideas of the earth being a square, and China placed in its center; so
far these may be considered as symbols of the objects intended to be
represented. So, also, the numerals one, two, three, being designed by
[Chinese: y[=i]] [Chinese: èr] [Chinese: s[=a]n], would naturally suggest
themselves as being fully as convenient for the purpose, and perhaps
more so than any other; and where the first series of numerals ended,
which according to the universal custom of counting by the fingers was
at _ten_, the very act of placing the index of the right hand on the
little finger of the left would suggest the form of the vertical cross
[Chinese: shí] as the symbol or representation of the number ten.
I cannot avoid taking notice in this place of a publication of Doctor
Hager, which he calls an "_Explanation of the Elementary Characters of
the Chinese_." In this work he has advanced a most extraordinary
argument to prove an analogy between the ancient Romans and the Chinese,
from the resemblance which he has fancied to exist between the numeral
characters and the numeral sounds made use of by those two nations. The
Romans, he observes, expressed their numerals one, two, three, by a
corresponding number of vertical strokes I. II. III. which the Chinese
place horizontally [Chinese: y[=i]] [Chinese: èr] [Chinese: s[=a]n]. The
Romans designed the number ten by an oblique cross X, and the Chinese by
a vertical one [Chinese: shí]. This resemblance in the forming of their
numerals, so simple and natural that almost all nations have adopted it,
is surely too slight a coincidence for concluding, that the people who
use them must necessarily, at some period or other, have had
communication together. The Doctor however seems to think so, and
proceeds to observe, that the three principal Roman cyphers, I. V. X. or
one, five and ten, are denoted in the Chinese language by the same
sounds that they express in the Roman alphabet. This remark, although
ingenious, is not correct. _One_ and _five_, it is true, are expressed
in the Chinese language by the _y_ and _ou_ of the French, which it may
be presumed, were the sounds that the letters I. and V. obtained in the
ancient Roman alphabet; but with regard to the _ten_, or X, which, he
says, the Chinese pronounce _xe_, he is entirely mistaken, the Chinese
word for _ten_ in Pekin being _shee_, and in Canton _shap_. This error
the Doctor appears to have been led into by consulting some vocabulary
in the Chinese and Portuguese languages; in the latter of which the
letter X is pronounced like our _sh_. But admitting, in its fullest
extent, the resemblance of some of the numerals used by the two nations,
in the shape of the character, and of others in the sound, it certainly
cannot be assumed to prove any thing beyond a mere accidental
coincidence.
The earliest accounts of China, after the doubling of the Cape of Good
Hope, being written by Portuguese missionaries, and the Chinese proper
names still remaining to be spelt in the letters of that alphabet, have
led several etymologists into great errors, not only with regard to the
letter X, but more particularly in the _m_ final, and the _h_ incipient,
the former being pronounced _ng_, and the latter with a strong aspirate,
as _sh_. Thus the name of the second Emperor of the present dynasty is
almost universally written in Europe _Cam-hi_, whereas it is as
universally pronounced in China _Caung-shee_.
The learned Doctor seems to be still less happy in his next conjecture,
where he observes that, as the Romans expressed their _five_ by simply
dividing the X, or ten, so also the ancient character signifying _five_
with the Chinese was X or ten between two lines thus [Illustration]
indicating, as it were, that the number ten was divided in two; the
Doctor seems to have forgotten that he has here placed his cross in the
_Roman_ form, and not as the Chinese write it; and it is certainly a
strange way of cutting a thing in two, by enclosing it between two
lines; but the learned seldom baulk at an absurdity, when a system is
to be established. The Chinese character for five is [Chinese: w[vu]].
Of all deductions, those drawn from etymological comparisons are,
perhaps, the most fallacious. Were these allowed to have any weight, the
Chinese spoken language is of such a nature, that it would be no
difficult task to point out its relationship to that of every nation
upon earth. Being entirely monosyllabic, and each word ending in a vowel
or a liquid, and being, at the same time, deprived of the sounds of
several letters in our alphabet, it becomes necessarily incapable of
supplying any great number of distinct syllables. Three hundred are, in
fact, nearly as many as an European tongue can articulate, or ear
distinguish. It follows, of course, that the same sound must have a
great variety of significations. The syllable _ching_, for example, is
actually expressed by fifty-one different characters, each having a
different, unconnected, and opposite meaning; but it would be the height
of absurdity to attempt to prove the coincidence of any other language
with the Chinese, because it might happen to possess a word something
like the sound of _ching_, which might also bear a signification not
very different from one of those fifty-one that it held in the Chinese.
The Greek abounds with Chinese words. [Greek: kyôn], a _dog_, is in
Chinese both _keou_ and _keun_, expressive of the same animal; [Greek:
eu], _good_, is not very different from the Chinese _hau_, which
signifies the same quality; and the article [Greek: to] is not far
remote from _ta_, _he_, or _that_. Both Greeks and Romans might
recognise their first personal pronoun [Greek: egô] or _ego_ in _go_,
or as it is sometimes written _ngo_. The Italian affirmative _si_ is
sufficiently near the Chinese _shee_, or _zee_, expressing assent. The
French _étang_, and the Chinese _tang_, a pond or lake, are nearly the
same, and their two negatives _pas_ and _poo_ are not very remote.
_Lex_, _loi_, _le_, _law_, compared with _leu_, _lee_, _laws_ and
_institutes_, are examples of analogy that would be decisive to the
etymological inquirer. The English word _mien_, the countenance, and the
Chinese _mien_, expressing the same idea, are nothing different, and we
might be supposed to have taken our _goose_ from their _goo_. To _sing_
is _chaung_, which comes very near our _chaunt_. The Chinese call a cat
_miau_, and so does the Hottentot. The Malay word _to know_ is _tau_,
and the Chinese monosyllable for the same verb is also _tau_, though in
conversation they generally use the compound _tchee-tau_, each of which
separately have nearly the same meaning. The Sumatrans have _mau_ for
mother, the Chinese say _moo_. On grounds equally slight with these have
many attempts been made to form conclusions from etymological
comparisons. If I mistake not, the very ingenious Mr. Bryant makes the
word _gate_ a derivative from the Indian word _ghaut_, a pass between
mountains. Surely this is going a great deal too far for our little
monosyllable. Might we not with as great a degree of propriety fetch our
_shallow_ or _shoal_ from China, where _sha-loo_ signifies a flat sand,
occasionally covered with the tide? A noted antiquarian has been led
into some comical mistakes in his attempt to establish a resemblance
between the Chinese and the Irish languages, frequently by his having
considered the letters of the continental alphabets, in which the
Chinese vocabulary he consulted was written, to be pronounced in the
same manner as his own[14].
[14] For the curiosity of those who may be inclined to speculate in
etymological comparisons between the Chinese and other languages, I here
subjoin a short list of words in the former, expressing some of the most
striking objects in the creation, a few subjects of natural history, and
of such articles as from their general use are familiar to most nations,
these being of all others the most likely to have retained their
primitive names. The orthography I have used is that of the English
language.
The Earth _tee_
The Air _kee_
Fire _ho_
Water _swee_
The Sea _hai_
A River _ho_
A Lake _tang_
A Mountain _shan_
A Wilderness _ye-tee_
The Sun _jee-to_
The Moon _yué_
The Stars _sing_
The Clouds _yun_
Rain _yeu_
Hail _swee-tan_
Snow _swé_
Ice _ping_
Thunder _luie_
Lightning _shan-tien_
The Wind _fung_
The Day _jee_ or _tien_
The Night _ye_ or _van shang_
The Sky or Heaven _tien_
The East _tung_
The West _see_
The North _pee_
The South _nan_
Man _jin_
Woman _foo-jin_
A Quadruped _shoo_
A Bird _kin_
A Fish _eu_
An Insect _tchong_
A Plant _tsau_
A Tree _shoo_
A Fruit _ko-ste_
A Flower _wha_
A Stone _shee_
Gold _tchin_
Silver _in tse_
Copper _tung_
Lead _yuen_
Iron _tié_
The Head _too_
The Hand _shoo_
The Heart _sin_
The Leg _koo_
The Foot _tchiau_
The Face _mien_
The Eyes _yen-shing_
The Ears _cul-to_
The Hair _too fa_
An ox _nieu_
A Camel _loo-too_
A Horse _ma_
An Ass _loo-tse_
A Dog _kioon_
A Frog _tchoo_
A Sheep _yang_
A Goat, or mountain Sheep _shan-yang_
A Cat _miau_
A Stag _shan loo_
A Pidgeon _koo-tse_
Poultry _kee_
An Egg _kee-tan_
A Goose _goo_
Oil _yeo_
Rice _mee_
Milk _nai_
Vinegar _tsoo_
Tobacco _yen_
Salt _yen_
Silk _tsoo_
Cotton _mien-wha_
Flax Plant _ma_
Hemp _ma_
Wool (Sheep's Hair) _yangmau_
Coals _tan_
Sugar _tang_
Cheese, they have none but thick Milk _nai-ping_, or iced milk
A House _shia_
A Temple _miau_
A Bed _tchuang_
A Door _men_
A Table _tai_
A Chair _ye-tzé_
A Knife _tau_
A Pitcher _ping_
A Plough _lee_
An Anchor _mau_
A Ship _tchuan_
Money _tsien_