THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL
BEING THE STORY OF AI DO
MRS. FAN'S second daughter came into the world under the shadow of
sorrow, for apart from the fact that she was a girl, whereas a boy had
been ardently desired, her first lusty yells revealed the fact that she
was born with a tooth visible. This was well known by every woman in the
village to indicate antagonism to her mother's life, and disaster would
surely ensue were she not promptly drowned or thrown out to perish by
the riverside.
Her fate seemed sealed, but that a woman seeing what a dear little baby
she was, was moved with pity, and declared herself willing to take the
responsibility of asserting that the child was hers in order that the
demons which were ordering these events might be deceived, and thus her
real mother would escape the fate which threatened her life, if the baby
were not killed.
An incredible amount of ingenuity is expended in China on deceptions
practised to mislead the _gwei_ or demon, whose influence you have cause
to fear. Being a malignant spirit, his object is to hurt that which you
specially value, therefore it is well to deceive him into thinking that
your precious son is only a useless girl, or even a little animal. This
is not difficult to manage, for the _gwei_, though powerful to work
evil, is a simple creature, and it is sufficient for him to see earrings
dangling from your boy's ears to make him think he sees a girl, or if
you call the child by some such name as "puppy," "little pig," "kitten,"
or "goat," he will quite fail to perceive that the object of your
affection is two legs short of what one might be led to expect.
When a _gwei_ has really determined to injure your child, it is
sometimes necessary to kill a dog and wrap your boy in its skin, that it
may be perfectly evident to the whole spirit world that if you are
bestowing any affection, it is only on a valueless beast. In the case of
Mrs. Fan's little girl, no _gwei_ could reasonably be supposed to attach
much value to her, and it was therefore sufficient for this neighbour to
pronounce herself willing to stand in the place of a mother. She was
allowed to live, and with painful frankness given the name of "One too
many."
After the month spent in the Opium Refuge, Mrs. Fan often saw the lady
missionaries either at Hwochow or in her own house, and when they were
joined by a lady who had no previous knowledge of the Chinese language,
Mrs. Fan was asked if little "One too many" might come and live with the
missionary so that her childish prattle should help the newcomer in
recognising the difficult sounds and tones. She was now eight years old
and permission was readily granted, so to Hwochow she went and became an
inmate of the Christian household there, her name being altered to the
now appropriate one of "greatly loved"--in Chinese, Ai Do.
The years passed by, and little Ai Do won the love and approval of all.
She received her education in the girls' school, and there grew up in
her the ambition to be a teacher, as her elder sister was. At fourteen
years of age she sat one Sunday evening reading her Bible, and came to
the words: "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; man looketh on the outward
appearance, the Lord looketh on the heart." She stopped and pondered,
realising with the force that can only come with conviction of the
Spirit of God, that while in "the outward" no one had fault to find with
her, yet the Lord looking on the heart saw her full of sin and
unreconciled to Him. In that hour her peace was made, and henceforth she
served and trusted God through all the vicissitudes of her short life.
She remained a pupil in the school until the year 1900, when Miss
Stevens and Miss Clarke went to Taiyueanfu, never to return. It was a
reign of terror during which rapine and murder stalked unhindered
through the land, and young women fled to the remotest districts where
they might claim a shelter.
The matter of Ai Do's marriage had been under consideration for some
time, she having now reached the age when custom exacts that this
important matter should be settled. Various suitors presented
themselves, but in most cases there was some hitch which prevented the
engagement from being finally settled. In one case the man lived on the
other side of the river, and this would cause difficulty in the girl's
frequent journeys from one home to the other; in another, the matter of
the sum required as dowry could not be finally fixed; in a third, she
would have been required to worship idols.
Amongst the number was a young man, favoured by Mrs. Fan but known as a
wild and dissolute youth, and the missionaries who had cared for Ai Do
so many years refused their consent to the engagement. Now they were
dead, and Mrs. Fan had scope for the exercise of the domineering will
which made her ruler of the home, for while she was an enthusiastic
follower of the Church she had never given evidence of personal
conversion.
It was certainly advisable that a young woman of Ai Do's age should not
be unmarried at that difficult time. Christians went in daily peril of
their lives, and the soldier was scarcely less to be dreaded than the
Boxer.
"No one uses good iron to make nails, and no one will use a good man to
make a soldier," says a Chinese proverb, which has been proved to be
only too true in many cases.
Hastily, and almost secretly, the formalities of the engagement were
performed, cards were exchanged which fixed the contract, and the
earrings, rings, and silk and satin garments were brought from the
bridegroom's home. Ai Do had heard much of this man, and his reputation
was such as to cause her the gravest misgivings. The household which
she was to enter as a bride would not require her to join in the
offering of nuptial sacrifices to idols because her future mother-in-law
had come under the sound of the Gospel, but more than this can scarcely
be said. The son to whom she was engaged had been brought up on a regime
of such extreme indulgence as can only be met with amongst an Oriental
people. His mother had never once restrained him in a childish
selfishness nor a manly vice. From a spoilt, inconsiderate, wilful
childhood he passed to a cruel, passionate, licentious manhood; finally,
he took to opium smoking and ruin threatened the home. His mother reaped
a bitter harvest of sorrow from the planting of those wasted years, and
now her urgent plea was: "My son is good at heart, and a virtuous bride
will soon work a reform in him."
Every relation and friend and neighbour had a say in the transaction,
only Ai Do must not be consulted, and though she weep and plead to be
left unmarried for a time yet, her tears and supplications can cause no
effect. In vain were the silver ornaments and fine clothes displayed
before her; she refused to take food and wept bitterly, not with the
conventional tears of the Chinese girl bewailing her virginity and
begging that she may not be torn from the shelter of her maiden home,
but with a real horror of the fate which awaited her.
The day dawned when she was dressed in the scarlet bridal clothes, a
voluminous embroidered satin gown over all; this came with the sedan
chair which was to carry her to her future home, being hired for the
occasion. Scarlet shoes were on her feet, a high tinsel crown on her
head, and covering her tear-stained face was a scarlet veil. In
accordance with the custom which demanded that the forehead of the bride
must be perfectly smooth, her front hair had been dragged out by the
roots and left her with an aching head.
At last all was ready, and she was in the embroidered sedan chair and
caught the last glimpse of the familiar faces. They disappear, and alone
she meets a cruel, loveless, unknown world.
A Chinese village wedding is a terrible ordeal for the bride. Her life
until that day has been guarded from every contact with the outer world,
and she has never spoken with a man outside the family circle. Her
arrival at her mother-in-law's home is the signal for a wild rush of
rough men to surround her chair. The curtain is lifted, insolent faces
stare, her personal appearance is commented upon in vile terms, her feet
being specially noticed because the artificial compression of this
member has resulted in giving it sexual importance in a woman's
appearance. Ai Do had a normal, unbound foot, and had to listen to lewd
insinuations levelled at her on this subject. All the while she must
patiently sit and wait until the appointed women of the bridegroom's
family are ready to conduct her indoors. The waiting is often for a
considerable time, for these new relations are going to make her feel
that she is a most unimportant and undesirable person, and her
mother-in-law is not even going to see her until the next day;
moreover, the longer she waits, the greater her chances of longevity.
When at last she is told to leave her chair she is followed by a crowd,
and holding the end of a scarlet sash which is thrust into her hand, she
finds herself in a courtyard where the ceremony is to take place.
In accordance with the contract made by the middleman, she is not asked
to worship heaven and earth nor the tablets of her husband's ancestors,
but two cups of wine are placed on the table, and she and her bridegroom
must each take one and sip the wine, the cups being joined together by a
scarlet thread. When this ceremony is over, she follows her bridegroom
to a room, still led by the sash, and when he enters he stands upon the
_kang_ and by walking around it demonstrates his position as head of the
new home.
Meanwhile the chair-bearers are clamouring for her dress, as another
young woman is waiting for the same gown and chair, and delay may cause
trouble. The bride is assisted on to the _kang_ by the women, her
husband having departed to make merry with his friends, and the ragged
opium smokers who carried her there leave, one wearing the crown of
tinsel on his head, laughing and joking at much which they have seen and
heard. From the moment that she is seated upon the _kang_, the bride
becomes the centre of attraction to an insulting crowd. Her shoes are
stolen, but knowing that this is likely she has provided herself with
additional pairs. For hours she sits there and hears the remarks made.
One will whisper that she is married to an irresponsible idiot, others
will tell her that he is blind or dumb, and knowing how often the
middlemen deceive, she waits with dread the moment when she will see for
herself more than she was able to do on arrival. At last the room is
cleared, and she has to face the final ordeal when she is left alone
with a totally unknown man. Even the hours of darkness are not
respected, and every youngster in the village has the right to enter the
courtyard at any hour of the night, tear down the paper windows, and
heap shame upon her head.
Christianity and the influence of the foreigner has done much to
revolutionise the wedding customs, but all this and more was endured by
Ai Do, and she found herself withal the wife of a depraved and vicious
man.
It was indeed a deliverance when the Hwochow girls' school reopened and
Ai Do was invited to teach in place of her elder sister, whose family
claims had increased so as to prevent her holding the post as formerly.
School was opened in a small courtyard which adjoined our own, and
twenty girls entered as pupils. Ai Do had all the characteristics of a
natural leader, and she easily controlled the girls and was much beloved
by them, for she had a kind disposition and the hidden sorrows of her
life had made her both strong and tender.
I think that her life in school was a time of unmixed happiness to her,
but the holidays had to be faced and contact with the man whom she could
only strive not to hate. His opium smoking habits increased, and the
pinch of poverty was felt in the home from which he was able to steal
so cunningly every article of value which might be exchanged for money
and spent on the drug.
A great joy came into Ai Do's life with the birth of a little son, and
she realised for the first time that matrimony was not solely a horror,
since it brought so much compensation in its train. The child was
publicly dedicated to God, and was its mother's joy for six brief
months.
At the end of that time, in the hot weather, it sickened with dysentery,
and in spite of her prayers and entreaties that she might be allowed to
deal with the disease as she had seen me deal with similar ailments, she
had to endure the torture of seeing it operated upon by a heathen
Chinese doctor, whose method of treatment was to use long needles which
he ran into its tender flesh. The needles were of course unclean, and
the child's death was doubtless hastened by the shock thus sustained.
She was spared the last sorrow of seeing its body thrown out to be
devoured by dogs and wolves through the fortunate advent of her father,
who insisted at her request that decent burial be given. This was a
cause of thankfulness for her to her life's end.
A year later, when her second son was born, the home was in a pitiful
condition. All the land which provided daily bread for the family was
gambled away, furniture and clothes had been sold or pawned for opium,
the wages she earned were all turned to the same use, and the poorest,
coarsest food was all that was procurable at a time when her strength
was quite insufficient to the strain imposed upon it.
As soon as the required month of purification was over, she returned to
us and then received all the care that love could suggest, but we soon
saw that she was going to escape from our poor, inadequate efforts to
protect and comfort her, into the care of the only One who could save
her from further sorrow. Phthisis took a rapid hold of her constitution,
and her strength daily declined. During this time she for the first time
opened her heart, and spoke out her sorrows and sufferings and those
deepest wrongs she had suffered which women have from time immemorial
hidden as a shameful secret. She spoke it all out now, and left me with
a determination that henceforth any one placed as she was should find an
advocate and protector in me to the extent of my ability.
Three months later she was carried back to her home, a dying woman, to
end her days. We were able to ride out and see her almost daily, and
once we found her very happy because in a dream she had seen a messenger
who called to her to cross the river, and when she shrank back I had
been there to assure her that angels would receive her to her Heavenly
Home.
That day her husband came into the room, and in my presence she for the
last time pleaded with him to leave the ways of sin and seek forgiveness
through repentance. To our care she committed her child, asking that we
would see that it was brought up as a Christian, and she also begged us
to insist on a Christian burial for herself. To the schoolgirls she sent
the message that they must meet her in her Master's presence, and a few
hours later "the bells of the city rang out for joy, and it was said to
her: 'Enter into the joy of thy Lord.'" The wail that went up from the
schoolgirls when I told them, I shall not forget; she was the first of
our company to pass over. Two days later the pupils of her class and
ourselves gathered with the family for a simple service in the courtyard
of her home. On the coffin the words were written at her own request,
"Until He come"--symbolic of the hope which sustained her through those
years of suffering, and kept her eyes ever upward turned to the promise
of the great day of deliverance. A congregation of some hundreds
assembled to see the unique sight of so many girls mourning for a
teacher and following the bier to the border of the village. The girls
and their parents showed their appreciation of Ai Do and her work by
presenting a large banner to the school in her memory. It was unveiled
on their behalf by the elders of the Church, and above the names of one
hundred girls who had been her pupils were inscribed the words: "She
rests from her labours, and her works do follow her."
We returned to take up the work which she had left, but with heavy
hearts, and the school and my study seemed empty without her presence. I
missed her help in consultation over difficulties and dealings with the
raw material which came into our hands at the beginning of each term.
Who could replace her? Her friend and companion who had helped her
during the past months was the only one to whom I could look, and she
was seemingly of too retiring a disposition to bear such
responsibility; but the "trees of the Lord are full of sap," and if a
leaf has fallen there is always a fresh one developing to replace it,
and Ling Ai was preparing for a development which was going to make her
that which she still is, my faithful and beloved fellow-missionary in
this place. With her quiet, gentle spirit she has won the confidence of
her pupils, and made possible for me that which apart from her
comradeship would have been impossible, the establishment of a large
school and training-college where in happy fellowship Chinese young
women are working together for the women and girls of their country.
THE POWERS OF DARKNESS
"What name hast thou? And he said, Legion!"
"Whensoever the impure spirit goeth out from the
man it passeth through waterless places seeking
rest; and not finding it there, it saith--
"I will return unto my house whence I came out;
"And coming, findeth it empty, swept and adorned.
Then goeth it and taketh along with itself other
spirits more wicked than itself--seven, and
entering it, findeth its dwelling there; and the
last state of that man becometh worse than the
first."--The Gospel according to Luke.