with the existence even of that vast extent of country comprehended
under the name of China, the difficulties of access to any part of it
when known, the peculiar nature of the language which, as I have
endeavoured to prove, has no relation with any other either ancient or
modern, the extreme jealousy of the government towards foreigners, and
the contempt in which they were held by the lowest of the people, may
serve, among other causes, to account for the very limited and imperfect
knowledge we have hitherto obtained of the real history of this
extraordinary empire: for their records, it seems, are by no means
deficient. For two centuries at least before the Christian era, down to
the present time, the transactions of each reign are amply detailed
without any interruption. They have even preserved collections of copper
coins, forming a regular series of the different Emperors that have
filled the throne of China for the last two thousand years. Such a
collection, though not quite complete, Sir George Staunton brought with
him to England.
Before this time, when China consisted of a number of petty states or
principalities, the annals of the country are said to abound with
recitals of wars and battles and bloodshed, like those of every other
part of the world. But, in proportion as the number of those distinct
kingdoms diminished, till at length they were all melted and amalgamated
into one great empire, the destruction of the human race by human means
abated, and the government, since that time, has been less interrupted
by foreign war, or domestic commotion, than any other that history has
made known. But whether this desirable state of public tranquillity may
have been brought about by the peculiar nature of the government being
adapted to the genius and habits of the people, which in the opinion of
Aristotle is the best of all possible governments, or rather by
constraining and subduing the genius and habits of the people to the
views and maxims of the government, is a question that may admit of some
dispute. At the present day, however, it is sufficiently evident, that
the heavy hand of power has completely overcome and moulded to its own
shape the physical character of the people, and that their moral
sentiments and actions are swayed by the opinions, and almost under the
entire dominion, of the government.
These opinions, to which it owes so much of its stability, are grounded
on a principle of authority which, according to maxims industriously
inculcated and now completely established in the minds of the people, is
considered as the natural and unalienable right of the parent over his
children; an authority that is not supposed to cease at any given period
of life or years, but to extend, and to be maintained with undiminished
and uncontrouled sway, until the death of one of the parties dissolves
the obligation. The Emperor being considered as the common father of his
people is accordingly invested with the exercise of the same authority
over them, as the father of a family exerts on those of his particular
household. In this sense he takes the title of the _Great Father_; and
by his being thus placed above any earthly controul, he is supposed to
be also above earthly descent, and therefore, as a natural consequence,
he sometimes styles himself the _sole ruler of the world_ and the _Son
of Heaven_. But that no inconsistency might appear in the grand fabric
of filial obedience the Emperor, with solemn ceremony at the
commencement of every new year, makes his prostrations before the
Empress Dowager, and on the same day he demands a repetition of the same
homage from all his great officers of state. Conformable to this system,
founded entirely on parental authority, the governor of a province is
considered as the father of that province; of a city, the father of that
city; and the head of any office or department is supposed to preside
over it with the same authority, interest, and affection, as the father
of a family superintends and manages the concerns of domestic life.
It is greatly to be lamented that a system of government, so plausible
in theory, should be liable to so many abuses in practice; and that this
fatherly care and affection in the governors, and filial duty and
reverence in the governed would, with much more propriety, be expressed
by the terms of tyranny, oppression, and injustice in the one, and by
fear, deceit, and disobedience in the other.
The first grand maxim on which the Emperor acts is, seldom to appear
before the public, a maxim whose origin would be difficultly traced to
any principle of affection or solicitude for his children; much more
easily explained as the offspring of suspicion. The tyrant who may be
conscious of having committed, or assented to, acts of cruelty and
oppression, must feel a reluctance to mix with those who may have
smarted under the lash of his power, naturally concluding that some
secret hand may be led, by a single blow, to avenge his own wrongs, or
those of his fellow subjects. The principle, however, upon which the
Emperor of China seldom shews himself in public, and then only in the
height of splendor and magnificence, seems to be established on a policy
of a very different kind to that of self-preservation. A power that acts
in secret, and whose influence is felt near and remote at the same
moment, makes a stronger impression on the mind, and is regarded with
more dread and awful respect, than if the agent was always visible and
familiar to the eye of every one. The priests of the Eleusinian
mysteries were well acquainted with this feature of the human character,
which is stronger in proportion as the reasoning faculties are less
improved, and which required the enlightened mind of a Socrates to be
able to disregard the terror they inspired among the vulgar. Thus also
_Dei[=o]ces_, as Heredotus informs us, when once established as king in
Ecbatana, would suffer none of the people, for whom before he was the
common advocate, to be now admitted to his presence, concluding that all
those who were debarred from seeing him, would easily be persuaded that
his nature, by being created king, was transformed into something much
superior to theirs. A frequent access indeed to men of rank and power
and talents, a familiar and unrestrained intercourse with them, and a
daily observance of their ordinary actions and engagements in the
concerns of life, have a tendency very much to diminish that reverence
and respect which public opinion had been willing to allow them. It was
justly observed by the great Condé, that no man is a hero to his
valet-de-chambre.
Considerations of this kind, rather than any dread of his subjects, may
probably have suggested the custom which prohibits an Emperor of China
from making his person too familiar to the multitude, and which requires
that he should exhibit himself only on particular occasions, arrayed in
pomp and magnificence, and at the head of his whole court, consisting of
an assemblage of many thousand officers of state, the agents of his
will, all ready, at the word of command, to prostrate themselves at his
feet.
The power of the sovereign is absolute; but the patriarchal system,
making it a point of indispensable duty for a son to bring offerings to
the spirit of his deceased parent in the most public manner, operates as
some check upon the exercise of this power. By this civil institution,
the duties of which are observed with more than a religious strictness,
he is constantly put in mind that the memory of his private conduct, as
well as of his public acts, will long survive his natural life; that his
name will, at certain times in every year, be pronounced with a kind of
sacred and reverential awe, from one extremity of the extensive empire
to the other, provided he may have filled his station to the
satisfaction of his subjects; and that, on the contrary, public
execrations will rescue from oblivion any arbitrary act of injustice and
oppression, of which he may have been guilty. It may also operate as a
motive for being nice and circumspect in the nomination of a successor,
which the law has left entirely to his choice.
The consideration, however, of posthumous fame, would operate only as a
slender restraint on the caprices of a tyrant, as the history of this,
as well as other countries, furnishes abundant examples. It has,
therefore, been thought necessary to add another, and perhaps a more
effectual check, to curb any disposition to licentiousness or tyranny
that might arise in the breast of the monarch. This is the appointment
of the Censorate, an office filled by two persons, who have the power
of remonstrating freely against any illegal or unconstitutional act
about to be committed, or sanctioned by the Emperor. And although it may
well be supposed, that these men are extremely cautious in the exercise
of the power delegated to them, by virtue of their office, and in the
discharge of this disagreeable part of their duty, yet they have another
task to perform, on which their own posthumous fame is not less involved
than that of their master, and in the execution of which they run less
risk of giving offence. They are the historiographers of the empire; or,
more correctly speaking, the biographers of the Emperor. Their
employment, in this capacity, consists chiefly in collecting the
sentiments of the monarch, in recording his speeches and memorable
sayings, and in noting down the most prominent of his private actions,
and the remarkable occurrences of his reign. These records are lodged in
a large chest, which is kept in that part of the palace where the
tribunals of government are held, and which is supposed not to be opened
until the decease of the Emperor; and, if any thing material to the
injury of his character and reputation is found to be recorded, the
publication of it is delayed, out of delicacy to his family, till two or
three generations have passed away, and sometimes till the expiration of
the dynasty; by that indulgence they pretend, that a more faithful
relation is likely to be obtained, in which neither fear nor flattery
could have operated to disguise the truth.
An institution, so remarkable and singular in its kind in an arbitrary
government, could not fail to carry with it a very powerful influence
upon the decisions of the monarch, and to make him solicitous to act, on
all occasions, in such a manner, as would be most likely to secure a
good name, and to transmit his character unsullied and sacred to
posterity. The records of their history are said to mention a story of
an Emperor, of the dynasty or family of _Tang_, who, from a
consciousness of having, in several instances, transgressed the bounds
of his authority, was determined to take a peep into the historical
chest, where he knew he should find all his actions recorded. Having
made use of a variety of arguments, in order to convince the two censors
that there could be nothing improper in the step he was about to take,
as, among other things, he assured them, he was actuated with the desire
only of being made acquainted with his greatest faults, as the first
step to amendment, one of these gentlemen is said to have answered him
very nobly, to this effect: "It is true your Majesty has committed a
number of errors, and it has been the painful duly of our employment to
take notice of them; a duty," continued he, "which further obliges us to
inform posterity of the conversation which your Majesty has this day,
very improperly, held with us."
To assist the Emperor in the weighty affairs of state, and in the
arduous task of governing an empire of so great an extent, and such
immense population, the constitution has assigned him two councils, one
ordinary, and the other extraordinary; the ordinary council is composed
of his principal ministers, under the name of Collao, of which there are
six. The extraordinary council consists entirely of the princes of the
blood.
For the administration of the affairs of government, there are six
boards or departments, consisting of,
1. The Court of Appointments to vacancies in the offices of government,
being composed of the minister and learned men, qualified to judge of
the merits of candidates.
2. The Court of Finance.
3. The Court of Ceremonies, presiding over the direction of ancient
customs, and treating with foreign Embassadors.
4. The Court for regulating military affairs.
5. The Tribunal of Justice.
6. The Board of Works.
These public functionaries resolve upon, recommend, and report to the
Emperor, all matters belonging to their separate jurisdictions, who,
with the advice of his ordinary and, if considered to be necessary, of
his extraordinary council, affirms, amends, or rejects their decrees.
For this purpose, the late Emperor never omitted to give regular
audience in the great hall of the palace every morning at the hours of
four or five o'clock. Subordinate to these supreme courts held in the
capital, are others of similar constitution established in the different
provinces and great cities of the empire, each of which corresponds
with its principal in Pekin.
It would far exceed the limits of the present work, were I to enter into
a detail of their code of laws, which indeed I am not sufficiently
prepared to do. They are published for the use of the subject, in the
plainest characters that the language will admit, making sixteen small
volumes, a copy of which is now in England; and I am encouraged to hold
out a reasonable hope, that this compendium of the laws of China may,
ere long, appear in an able and faithful English translation, which will
explain, more than all the volumes that have hitherto been written on
the subject of China, in what manner a mass of people, more than the
double of that which is found in all Europe, has been kept together
through so many ages in one bond of union. This work[23] on the laws of
China, for perspicuity and method, may justly be compared with
Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. It not only contains
the laws arranged under their respective heads, but to every law is
added a short commentary and a case.
[23] It is called the _Ta-tchin Leu-Lee_, the laws and institutes under
the dynasty _Ta-tchin_, which is the name assumed by the present family
on the throne.
I have been assured, on the best authority, that the laws of China
define, in the most distinct and perspicuous manner, almost every shade
of criminal offences, and the punishment awarded to each crime: that the
greatest care appears to have been taken in constructing this scale of
crimes and punishments; that they are very far from being sanguinary:
and that if the practice was equal to the theory, few nations could
boast of a more mild, and, at the same time, a more efficacious
dispensation of justice. Of all the despotic governments existing, there
is certainly none where the life of man is held so sacred as in the laws
of China. A murder is never overlooked, except in the horrid practice of
exposing infants: nor dares the Emperor himself, all-powerful as he is,
to take away the life of the meanest subject, without the formality at
least of a regular process, though, as will be seen in the case of the
late prime minister of _Kien-Long_, the chance of escaping must be very
slender, where he himself becomes the accuser. So tenaciously however do
they adhere to that solemn declaration of God delivered to Noah--"At the
hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,"--that the good
intention is oftentimes defeated by requiring, as I have elsewhere
observed, from the person last seen in company with one who may have
received a mortal wound, or who may have died suddenly, a circumstantial
account, supported by evidence, in what manner his death was occasioned.
In attempting to proportion punishments to the degrees of crimes, indeed
of awarding the same punishment for stealing a loaf of bread and taking
away the life of man, the Chinese legislators, according to our notions,
seem to have made too little distinction between accidental manslaughter
and premeditated murder. To constitute the crime, it is not necessary to
prove the intention or malice aforethought; for though want of intention
palliates the offence, and consequently mitigates the punishment, yet
it never entirely excuses the offender. If a man should kill another by
an unforeseen and unavoidable accident, his life is forfeited by the
law, and however favourable the circumstances may appear in behalf of
the criminal, the Emperor alone is invested with the power of remitting
the sentence, a power which he very rarely if ever exercises to the
extent of a full pardon but, on many occasions, to a mitigation of the
punishment awarded by law. Strictly speaking, no sentence of death can
be carried into execution until it has been ratified by the monarch. Yet
in state crimes, or in acts of great atrocity, the viceroy of a province
sometimes takes upon himself to order summary punishment, and prompt
execution has been inflicted on foreign criminals at Canton when guilty
only of homicide. Thus, about the beginning of the last century, a man
belonging to Captain Shelvocke had the misfortune to kill a Chinese on
the river. The corpse was laid before the door of the English factory,
and the first person that came out, who happened to be one of the
supercargoes, was seized and carried as a prisoner into the city, nor
would they consent to his release till the criminal was given up, whom,
after a short inquiry, they strangled. The recent affair of the
unfortunate gunner is well known. An affray happened in Macao a few
years ago, in which a Chinese was killed by the Portuguese. A peremptory
demand was made for one of the latter, to expiate the death of the
former. The government of this place, either unable or unwilling to fix
on the delinquent, proposed terms of compromise, which were rejected and
force was threatened to be used. There happened to be a merchant from
Manilla then residing at Macao, a man of excellent character, who had
long carried on a commerce between the two ports. This unfortunate man
was selected to be the innocent victim to appease the rigour of Chinese
justice, and he was immediately strangled[24].
[24] Various accidents having happened at different times to
Chinese subjects in the port of Canton, which have generally led to
disagreeable discussions with the Chinese government, the supercargoes
of the East India Company thought proper, on a late occasion of a person
being wounded by a shot from a British ship of war, to make application
for an extract from the criminal code of laws relating to homicide, in
order to have the same translated into English, and made public. This
extract consisted of the following articles:
1. A man who kills another on the supposition of theft, shall be
strangled, according to the law of homicide committed in an affray.
2. A man who fires at another with a musquet, and kills him
thereby, shall be beheaded, as in cases of wilful murder. If the
sufferer be wounded, but not mortally, the offender shall be sent
into exile.
3. A man who puts to death a criminal who had been apprehended, and
made no resistance, shall be strangled, according to the law
against homicide committed in an affray.
4. A man who falsely accuses an innocent person of theft (in cases
of greatest criminality) is guilty of a capital offence; in all
other cases the offenders, whether principals or accessaries, shall
be sent into exile.
5. A man who wounds another unintentionally shall be tried
according to the law respecting blows given in an affray, and the
punishment rendered more or less severe, according to the degree of
injury sustained.
6. A man who, intoxicated with liquor, commits outrages against the
laws, shall be exiled to a desert country, there to remain in a
state of servitude.
In this clear and decisive manner are punishments awarded for every
class of crimes committed in society; and it was communicated to the
English factory from the viceroy, that on no consideration was it left
in the breast of the judge to extenuate or to exaggerate the sentence,
whatever might be the rank, character, or station of the delinquent.
The process of every trial for criminal offences, of which the
punishment is capital, must be transmitted to Pekin, and submitted to
the impartial eye of the supreme tribunal of justice, which affirms or
alters, according to the nature of the case. And where any peculiar
circumstances appear in favour of the accused, an order for revising the
sentence is recommended to the Emperor, who, in such cases, either
amends it himself, or directs the proceedings to be returned to the
provincial court, with the sentiments of the supreme tribunal on the
case. The proceedings are then revised, and if the circumstances are
found to apply to the suggestions of the high court, they alter or
modify their former sentence accordingly[25].
[25] The following law case, which is literally translated,
from a volume of reports of trials, published in the present reign of
_Kia-King_, and with which I have been favoured by a friend (who was
himself the translator), will serve to shew the mode of proceeding in
criminal matters of the provincial courts of judicature. The
circumstances of the transaction appear to have been enquired into
fairly and impartially, and no pains spared to ascertain the exact
degree of criminality. Being given to me about the time when the trial
took place of Smith, for the murder of the supposed _Hammersmith ghost_,
I was forcibly struck with the remarkable coincidence of the two cases,
and with the almost identical defence set up by the Chinese and the
English prisoners, and on that account it excited more interest than
perhaps it might otherwise be considered to be entitled to.
_Translation of an Extract from a Collection of Chinese Law Reports,
being the Trial, Appeal, and Sentence upon an Indictment for Homicide by
Gun firing._
At a criminal court held in the province of Fo-kien, upon an indictment
for shooting, and mortally wounding a relation; setting forth, that
_She-fo-pao_, native of the city of _Fo-ngan-sien_, did fire a gun, and
by mischance, wound _Vang-yung-man_, so that he died thereof.
The case was originally reported, as follows, by _Vu-se-Kung_,
sub-viceroy of the province of Fo-kien:
The accused _She-fo-pao_, and the deceased _Vang-yung-man_, were of
different families, but connected by marriage, were well known to each
other, and there had always been a good understanding between them.
In the course of the first moon, of the 25th year of _Kien-long_,
_She-fo-pao_ cultivated a farm on the brow of a hill belonging to
_Chin-se-kien_, and which lay in the vicinity of certain lands
cultivated by _Vang-yung-man_ and _Vang-ky-hao_, inasmuch as that the
fields of _Vang-yung-man_ lay on the left of those of _She-fo-pao_,
which were in the center, and those of _Vang-ky-hao_ on the right side
of the declivity of the hill. It occurred that on the 7th day of the 9th
moon of the same year, _She-fo-pao_ observing the corn in his fields to
be nearly ripe, was apprehensive that thieves might find an opportunity
of stealing the grain; and being aware, at the same time, of the danger
which existed on those hills from wolves and tygers, armed himself with
a musquet, and went that night alone to the spot, in order to watch the
corn, and seated himself in a convenient place on the side of the hill.
It happened that _Vang-ky-hao_ went that day to the house of
_Vang-yung-man_, in order that they might go together to keep watch over
the corn in their respective fields. However _Vang-yung-tong_ the elder
brother of _Vang-yung-man_, conceiving it to be yet early, detained them
to drink tea, and smoke tobacco until the second watch[26] of the night,
when they parted from him, and proceeded on their expedition, provided
with large sticks for defence.
_Vang-ky-hao_ having occasion to stop for a short time upon the road,
the other _Vang-yung-man_ went on before, until he reached the boundary
of the fields watched by _She-fo-pao_.