CHAPTER I

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Myths & Legends of China

By

E.T.C. Werner

H.B.M. Consul Foochow (Retired) Barrister-at-law Middle Temple Late

Member of The Chinese Government Historiographical Bureau Peking

Author of "Descriptive Sociology: Chinese" "China of the Chinese" Etc.

George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.

London Bombay Sydney

In Memoriam

_Gladys Nina Chalmers Werner_

Preface

The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the _Li tai shên hsien

t'ung chien_, in thirty-two volumes, the _Shên hsien lieh chuan_,

in eight volumes, the _Fêng shên yen i_, in eight volumes, and the

_Sou shên chi_, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I

have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also

consulted and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese

Superstitions by Père Henri Doré, comprised in the valuable series

_Variétés Sinologiques_, published by the Catholic Mission Press

at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ssu K'u Ch'üan Shu,

one of the few public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for

purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend

Mr Mu Hsüeh-hsün, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition,

for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and useful library

of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it

to a Japanese baron, was good enough to let me consult his extensive

collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but

owing to the fact that so very little work has been done in Chinese

mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this

subject to go direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to

Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh,

Shanghai, for permission to reprint from _Strange Stories from a

Chinese Studio_ the fox legends given in Chapter XV.

This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology

in any non-Chinese language. Nor do the native works include any

scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths.

My aim, after summarizing the sociology of the Chinese as a

prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments,

and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with limitations of

space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation of a

very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with

the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth in English dress

those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives

of Chinese mythology--those which live in the minds of the people and

are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which

are merely diverting without being typical or instructive--in short,

a true, not a distorted image.

_Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner_

_Peking_

_February_ 1922

Contents

Chapter

I. The Sociology of the Chinese

II. On Chinese Mythology

III. Cosmogony--P'an Ku and the Creation Myth

IV. The Gods of China

V. Myths of the Stars

VI. Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain

VII. Myths of the Waters

VIII. Myths of Fire

IX. Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc.

X. The Goddess of Mercy

XI. The Eight Immortals

XII. The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven

XIII. A Battle of the Gods

XIV. How the Monkey Became a God

XV. Fox Legends

XVI. Miscellaneous Legends

The Pronunciation of Chinese Words

_Mais cet Orient, cette Asie, quelles en sont, enfin, les frontières

réelles?... Ces frontières sont d'une netteté qui ne permet aucune

erreur. L'Asie est là où cesse la vulgarité, où naît la dignité,

et où commence l'élégance intellectuelle. Et l'Orient est là où sont

les sources débordantes de poésie._

_Mardrus_,

_La Reine de Saba_

CHAPTER I

The Sociology of the Chinese

Racial Origin

In spite of much research and conjecture, the origin of the Chinese

people remains undetermined. We do not know who they were nor whence

they came. Such evidence as there is points to their immigration

from elsewhere; the Chinese themselves have a tradition of a Western

origin. The first picture we have of their actual history shows us, not

a people behaving as if long settled in a land which was their home and

that of their forefathers, but an alien race fighting with wild beasts,

clearing dense forests, and driving back the aboriginal inhabitants.

Setting aside several theories (including the one that the Chinese

are autochthonous and their civilization indigenous) now regarded

by the best authorities as untenable, the researches of sinologists

seem to indicate an origin (1) in early Akkadia; or (2) in Khotan,

the Tarim valley (generally what is now known as Eastern Turkestan),

or the K'un-lun Mountains (concerning which more presently). The

second hypothesis may relate only to a sojourn of longer or shorter

duration on the way from Akkadia to the ultimate settlement in China,

especially since the Khotan civilization has been shown to have

been imported from the Punjab in the third century B.C. The fact

that serious mistakes have been made regarding the identifications

of early Chinese rulers with Babylonian kings, and of the Chinese

_po-hsing_ (Cantonese _bak-sing_) 'people' with the Bak Sing or Bak

tribes, does not exclude the possibility of an Akkadian origin. But

in either case the immigration into China was probably gradual, and

may have taken the route from Western or Central Asia direct to the

banks of the Yellow River, or may possibly have followed that to the

south-east through Burma and then to the north-east through what is

now China--the settlement of the latter country having thus spread

from south-west to north-east, or in a north-easterly direction along

the Yangtzu River, and so north, instead of, as is generally supposed,

from north to south.

Southern Origin Improbable

But this latter route would present many difficulties; it would seem

to have been put forward merely as ancillary to the theory that the

Chinese originated in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. This theory is

based upon the assumptions that the ancient Chinese ideograms include

representations of tropical animals and plants; that the oldest and

purest forms of the language are found in the south; and that the

Chinese and the Indo-Chinese groups of languages are both tonal. But

all of these facts or alleged facts are as easily or better accounted

for by the supposition that the Chinese arrived from the north

or north-west in successive waves of migration, the later arrivals

pushing the earlier farther and farther toward the south, so that the

oldest and purest forms of Chinese would be found just where they are,

the tonal languages of the Indo-Chinese peninsula being in that case

regarded as the languages of the vanguard of the migration. Also, the

ideograms referred to represent animals and plants of the temperate

zone rather than of the tropics, but even if it could be shown, which

it cannot, that these animals and plants now belong exclusively to the

tropics, that would be no proof of the tropical origin of the Chinese,

for in the earliest times the climate of North China was much milder

than it is now, and animals such as tigers and elephants existed in the

dense jungles which are later found only in more southern latitudes.

Expansion of Races from North to South

The theory of a southern origin (to which a further serious objection

will be stated presently) implies a gradual infiltration of Chinese

immigrants through South or Mid-China (as above indicated) toward

the north, but there is little doubt that the movement of the races

has been from north to south and not _vice versa_. In what are now

the provinces of Western Kansu and Ssuch'uan there lived a people

related to the Chinese (as proved by the study of Indo-Chinese

comparative philology) who moved into the present territory of Tibet

and are known as Tibetans; in what is now the province of Yünnan were

the Shan or Ai-lao (modern Laos), who, forced by Mongol invasions,

emigrated to the peninsula in the south and became the Siamese; and in

Indo-China, not related to the Chinese, were the Annamese, Khmer, Mon,

Khasi, Colarains (whose remnants are dispersed over the hill tracts

of Central India), and other tribes, extending in prehistoric times

into Southern China, but subsequently driven back by the expansion

of the Chinese in that direction.

Arrival of the Chinese in China

Taking into consideration all the existing evidence, the objections to

all other theories of the origin of the Chinese seem to be greater

than any yet raised to the theory that immigrants from the Tarim

valley or beyond (_i.e._ from Elam or Akkadia, either direct or _via_

Eastern Turkestan) struck the banks of the Yellow River in their

eastward journey and followed its course until they reached the

localities where we first find them settled, namely, in the region

covered by parts of the three modern provinces of Shansi, Shensi,

and Honan where their frontiers join. They were then (about 2500 or

3000 B.C.) in a relatively advanced state of civilization. The country

east and south of this district was inhabited by aboriginal tribes,

with whom the Chinese fought, as they did with the wild animals and the

dense vegetation, but with whom they also commingled and intermarried,

and among whom they planted colonies as centres from which to spread

their civilization.

The K'un-lun Mountains

With reference to the K'un-lun Mountains, designated in Chinese

mythology as the abode of the gods--the ancestors of the Chinese

race--it should be noted that these are identified not with the range

dividing Tibet from Chinese Turkestan, but with the Hindu Kush. That

brings us somewhat nearer to Babylon, and the apparent convergence

of the two theories, the Central Asian and the Western Asian, would

seem to point to a possible solution of the problem. Nü Kua, one of

the alleged creators of human beings, and Nü and Kua, the first two

human beings (according to a variation of the legend), are placed

in the K'un-lun Mountains. That looks hopeful. Unfortunately, the

K'un-lun legend is proved to be of Taoist origin. K'un-lun is the

central mountain of the world, and 3000 miles in height. There is

the fountain of immortality, and thence flow the four great rivers

of the world. In other words, it is the Sumêru of Hindu mythology

transplanted into Chinese legend, and for our present purpose without

historical value.

It would take up too much space to go into details of this interesting

problem of the origin of the Chinese and their civilization, the

cultural connexions or similarities of China and Western Asia in

pre-Babylonian times, the origin of the two distinct culture-areas

so marked throughout the greater part of Chinese history, etc., and

it will be sufficient for our present purpose to state the conclusion

to which the evidence points.

Provisional Conclusion

Pending the discovery of decisive evidence, the following provisional

conclusion has much to recommend it--namely, that the ancestors

of the Chinese people came from the west, from Akkadia or Elam,

or from Khotan, or (more probably) from Akkadia or Elam _via_

Khotan, as one nomad or pastoral tribe or group of nomad or pastoral

tribes, or as successive waves of immigrants, reached what is now

China Proper at its north-west corner, settled round the elbow of

the Yellow River, spread north-eastward, eastward, and southward,

conquering, absorbing, or pushing before them the aborigines into

what is now South and South-west China. These aboriginal races, who

represent a wave or waves of neolithic immigrants from Western Asia

earlier than the relatively high-headed immigrants into North China

(who arrived about the twenty-fifth or twenty-fourth century B.C.),

and who have left so deep an impress on the Japanese, mixed and

intermarried with the Chinese in the south, eventually producing the

pronounced differences, in physical, mental, and emotional traits,

in sentiments, ideas, languages, processes, and products, from the

Northern Chinese which are so conspicuous at the present day.

Inorganic Environment

At the beginning of their known history the country occupied by the

Chinese was the comparatively small region above mentioned. It was

then a tract of an irregular oblong shape, lying between latitude 34°

and 40° N. and longitude 107° and 114° E. This territory round the

elbow of the Yellow River had an area of about 50,000 square miles,

and was gradually extended to the sea-coast on the north-east as far as

longitude 119°, when its area was about doubled. It had a population of

perhaps a million, increasing with the expansion to two millions. This

may be called infant China. Its period (the Feudal Period) was in

the two thousand years between the twenty-fourth and third centuries

B.C. During the first centuries of the Monarchical Period, which lasted

from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912, it had expanded to the south to such an

extent that it included all of the Eighteen Provinces constituting

what is known as China Proper of modern times, with the exception of

a portion of the west of Kansu and the greater portions of Ssuch'uan

and Yünnan. At the time of the Manchu conquest at the beginning of the

seventeenth century A.D. it embraced all the territory lying between

latitude 18° and 40° N. and longitude 98° and 122° E. (the Eighteen

Provinces or China Proper), with the addition of the vast outlying

territories of Manchuria, Mongolia, Ili, Koko-nor, Tibet, and Corea,

with suzerainty over Burma and Annam--an area of more than 5,000,000

square miles, including the 2,000,000 square miles covered by the

Eighteen Provinces. Generally, this territory is mountainous in the

west, sloping gradually down toward the sea on the east. It contains

three chief ranges of mountains and large alluvial plains in the north,

east, and south. Three great and about thirty large rivers intersect

the country, their numerous tributaries reaching every part of it.

As regards geological features, the great alluvial plains rest upon

granite, new red sandstone, or limestone. In the north is found the

peculiar loess formation, having its origin probably in the accumulated

dust of ages blown from the Mongolian plateau. The passage from north

to south is generally from the older to the newer rocks; from east to

west a similar series is found, with some volcanic features in the

west and south. Coal and iron are the chief minerals, gold, silver,

copper, lead, tin, jade, etc., being also mined.

The climate of this vast area is not uniform. In the north the winter

is long and rigorous, the summer hot and dry, with a short rainy season

in July and August; in the south the summer is long, hot, and moist,

the winter short. The mean temperature is 50.3° F. and 70° F. in the

north and south respectively. Generally, the thermometer is low for

the latitude, though perhaps it is more correct to say that the Gulf

Stream raises the temperature of the west coast of Europe above the

average. The mean rainfall in the north is 16, in the south 70 inches,

with variations in other parts. Typhoons blow in the south between

July and October.

Organic Environment

The vegetal productions are abundant and most varied. The rice-zone

(significant in relation to the cultural distinctions above noted)

embraces the southern half of the country. Tea, first cultivated

for its infusion in A.D. 350, is grown in the southern and central

provinces between the twenty-third and thirty-fifth degrees of

latitude, though it is also found as far north as Shantung, the chief

'tea district,' however, being the large area south of the Yangtzu

River, east of the Tungting Lake and great Siang River, and north of

the Kuangtung Province. The other chief vegetal products are wheat,

barley, maize, millet, the bean, yam, sweet and common potato, tomato,

eggplant, ginseng, cabbage, bamboo, indigo, pepper, tobacco, camphor,

tallow, ground-nut, poppy, water-melon, sugar, cotton, hemp, and

silk. Among the fruits grown are the date, mulberry, orange, lemon,

pumelo, persimmon, lichi, pomegranate, pineapple, fig, coconut, mango,

and banana, besides the usual kinds common in Western countries.

The wild animals include the tiger, panther, leopard, bear, sable,

otter, monkey, wolf, fox, twenty-seven or more species of ruminants,

and numerous species of rodents. The rhinoceros, elephant, and tapir

still exist in Yünnan. The domestic animals include the camel and the

water-buffalo. There are about 700 species of birds, and innumerable

species of fishes and insects.

Sociological Environment

On their arrival in what is now known as China the Chinese, as already

noted, fought with the aboriginal tribes. The latter were exterminated,

absorbed, or driven south with the spread of Chinese rule. The Chinese

"picked out the eyes of the land," and consequently the non-Chinese

tribes now live in the unhealthy forests or marshes of the south,

or in mountain regions difficult of access, some even in trees (a

voluntary, not compulsory promotion), though several, such as the Dog

Jung in Fukien, retain settlements like islands among the ruling race.

In the third century B.C. began the hostile relations of the Chinese

with the northern nomads, which continued throughout the greater

part of their history. During the first six centuries A.D. there was

intercourse with Rome, Parthia, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Ceylon, India,

and Indo-China, and in the seventh century with the Arabs. Europe

was brought within the sociological environment by Christian

travellers. From the tenth to the thirteenth century the north

was occupied by Kitans and Nüchêns, and the whole Empire was under

Mongol sway for eighty-eight years in the thirteenth and fourteenth

centuries. Relations of a commercial and religious nature were held

with neighbours during the following four hundred years. Regular

diplomatic intercourse with Western nations was established as a result

of a series of wars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until

recently the nation held aloof from alliances and was generally averse

to foreign intercourse. From 1537 onward, as a sequel of war or treaty,

concessions, settlements, etc., were obtained by foreign Powers. China

has now lost some of her border countries and large adjacent islands,

the military and commercial pressure of Western nations and Japan

having taken the place of the military pressure of the Tartars already

referred to. The great problem for her, an agricultural nation, is

how to find means and the military spirit to maintain her integrity,

the further violation of which could not but be regarded by the student

of sociological history as a great tragedy and a world-wide calamity.

Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual Characters

The physical characters of the Chinese are too well known to need

detailed recital. The original immigrants into North China all

belonged to blond races, but the modern Chinese have little left of

the immigrant stock. The oblique, almond-shaped eyes, with black iris

and the orbits far apart, have a vertical fold of skin over the inner

canthus, concealing a part of the iris, a peculiarity distinguishing

the eastern races of Asia from all other families of man. The stature

and weight of brain are generally below the average. The hair is black,

coarse, and cylindrical; the beard scanty or absent. The colour of

the skin is darker in the south than in the north.

Emotionally the Chinese are sober, industrious, of remarkable

endurance, grateful, courteous, and ceremonious, with a high sense

of mercantile honour, but timorous, cruel, unsympathetic, mendacious,

and libidinous.

Intellectually they were until recently, and to a large extent

still are, non-progressive, in bondage to uniformity and mechanism

in culture, imitative, unimaginative, torpid, indirect, suspicious,

and superstitious.

The character is being modified by intercourse with other peoples

of the earth and by the strong force of physical, intellectual,

and moral education.

Marriage in Early Times

Certain parts of the marriage ceremonial of China as now existing

indicate that the original form of marriage was by capture--of which,

indeed, there is evidence in the classical _Book of Odes_. But a

regular form of marriage (in reality a contract of sale) is shown

to have existed in the earliest historical times. The form was not

monogamous, though it seems soon to have assumed that of a qualified

monogamy consisting of one wife and one or more concubines, the

number of the latter being as a rule limited only by the means of the

husband. The higher the rank the larger was the number of concubines

and handmaids in addition to the wife proper, the palaces of the

kings and princes containing several hundreds of them. This form it

has retained to the present day, though associations now exist for

the abolition of concubinage. In early times, as well as throughout

the whole of Chinese history, concubinage was in fact universal,

and there is some evidence also of polyandry (which, however, cannot

have prevailed to any great extent). The age for marriage was twenty

for the man and fifteen for the girl, celibacy after thirty and twenty

respectively being officially discouraged. In the province of Shantung

it was usual for the wives to be older than their husbands. The

parents' consent to the betrothal was sought through the intervention

of a matchmaker, the proposal originating with the parents, and

the wishes of the future bride and bridegroom not being taken into

consideration. The conclusion of the marriage was the progress of the

bride from the house of her parents to that of the bridegroom, where

after various ceremonies she and he worshipped his ancestors together,

the worship amounting to little more than an announcement of the union

to the ancestral spirits. After a short sojourn with her husband the

bride revisited her parents, and the marriage was not considered as

finally consummated until after this visit had taken place.

The status of women was low, and the power of the husband great--so

great that he could kill his wife with impunity. Divorce was common,

and all in favour of the husband, who, while he could not be

divorced by her, could put his wife away for disobedience or even

for loquaciousness. A widower remarried immediately, but refusal

to remarry by a widow was esteemed an act of chastity. She often

mutilated herself or even committed suicide to prevent remarriage,

and was posthumously honoured for doing so. Being her husband's as

much in the Otherworld as in this, remarriage would partake of the

character of unchastity and insubordination; the argument, of course,

not applying to the case of the husband, who by remarriage simply

adds another member to his clan without infringing on anyone's rights.

Marriage in Monarchical and Republican Periods

The marital system of the early classical times, of which the above

were the essentials, changed but little during the long period of

monarchical rule lasting from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912. The principal

object, as before, was to secure an heir to sacrifice to the spirits of

deceased progenitors. Marriage was not compulsory, but old bachelors

and old maids were very scarce. The concubines were subject to the

wife, who was considered to be the mother of their children as well

as her own. Her status, however, was not greatly superior. Implicit

obedience was exacted from her. She could not possess property, but

could not be hired out for prostitution. The latter vice was common,

in spite of the early age at which marriage took place and in spite

of the system of concubinage--which is after all but a legalized

transfer of prostitutional cohabitation to the domestic circle.

Since the establishment of the Republic in 1912 the 'landslide' in the

direction of Western progress has had its effect also on the domestic

institutions. But while the essentials of the marriage contract remain

practically the same as before, the most conspicuous changes have been

in the accompanying ceremonial--now sometimes quite foreign, but in a

very large, perhaps the greatest, number of cases that odious thing,

half foreign, half Chinese; as, for instance, when the procession,

otherwise native, includes foreign glass-panelled carriages, or the

bridegroom wears a 'bowler' or top-hat with his Chinese dress--and

in the greater freedom allowed to women, who are seen out of doors

much more than formerly, sit at table with their husbands, attend

public functions and dinners, dress largely in foreign fashion,

and play tennis and other games, instead of being prisoners of the

'inner apartment' and household drudges little better than slaves.

One unexpected result of this increased freedom is certainly

remarkable, and is one not likely to have been predicted by the most

far-sighted sociologist. Many of the 'progressive' Chinese, now that

it is the fashion for Chinese wives to be seen in public with their

husbands, finding the uneducated, _gauche_, small-footed household

drudge unable to compete with the smarter foreign-educated wives

of their neighbours, have actually repudiated them and taken unto

themselves spouses whom they can exhibit in public without 'loss

of face'! It is, however, only fair to add that the total number

of these cases, though by no means inconsiderable, appears to be

proportionately small.

Parents and Children

As was the power of the husband over the wife, so was that of the

father over his children. Infanticide (due chiefly to poverty,

and varying with it) was frequent, especially in the case of female

children, who were but slightly esteemed; the practice prevailing

extensively in three or four provinces, less extensively in others,

and being practically absent in a large number. Beyond the fact that

some penalties were enacted against it by the Emperor Ch'ien Lung

(A.D. 1736-96), and that by statute it was a capital offence to murder

children in order to use parts of their bodies for medicine, it was

not legally prohibited. When the abuse became too scandalous in any

district proclamations condemning it would be issued by the local

officials. A man might, by purchase and contract, adopt a person

as son, daughter, or grandchild, such person acquiring thereby all

the rights of a son or daughter. Descent, both of real and personal

property, was to all the sons of wives and concubines as joint heirs,

irrespective of seniority. Bastards received half shares. Estates were

not divisible by the children during the lifetime of their parents

or grandparents.

The head of the family being but the life-renter of the family

property, bound by fixed rules, wills were superfluous, and were used

only where the customary respect for the parents gave them a voice

in arranging the details of the succession. For this purpose verbal

or written instructions were commonly given.

In the absence of the father, the male relatives of the same surname

assumed the guardianship of the young. The guardian exercised full

authority and enjoyed the surplus revenues of his ward's estate,

but might not alienate the property.

There are many instances in Chinese history of extreme devotion of

children to parents taking the form of self-wounding and even of

suicide in the hope of curing parents' illnesses or saving their lives.

Political History

The country inhabited by the Chinese on their arrival from the West

was, as we saw, the district where the modern provinces of Shansi,

Shensi, and Honan join. This they extended in an easterly direction

to the shores of the Gulf of Chihli--a stretch of territory about 600

miles long by 300 broad. The population, as already stated, was between

one and two millions. During the first two thousand years of their

known history the boundaries of this region were not greatly enlarged,

but beyond the more or less undefined borderland to the south were

_chou_ or colonies, nuclei of Chinese population, which continually

increased in size through conquest of the neighbouring territory. In

221 B.C. all the feudal states into which this territory had been

parcelled out, and which fought with one another, were subjugated

and absorbed by the state of Ch'in, which in that year instituted the

monarchical form of government--the form which obtained in China for

the next twenty-one centuries.

Though the origin of the name 'China' has not yet been finally decided,

the best authorities regard it as derived from the name of this feudal

state of Ch'in.

Under this short-lived dynasty of Ch'in and the famous Han dynasty

(221 B.C. to A.D. 221) which followed it, the Empire expanded until

it embraced almost all the territory now known as China Proper

(the Eighteen Provinces of Manchu times). To these were added

in order between 194 B.C. and A.D. 1414: Corea, Sinkiang (the

New Territory or Eastern Turkestan), Manchuria, Formosa, Tibet,

and Mongolia--Formosa and Corea being annexed by Japan in 1895 and

1910 respectively. Numerous other extra-China countries and islands,

acquired and lost during the long course of Chinese history (at one

time, from 73 to 48 B.C., "all Asia from Japan to the Caspian Sea was

tributary to the Middle Kingdom," _i.e._ China), it is not necessary

to mention here. During the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1280) the

Tartars owned the northern half of China, as far down as the Yangtzu

River, and in the Yüan dynasty (1280-1368) they conquered the whole

country. During the period 1644-1912 it was in the possession of

the Manchus. At present the five chief component peoples of China are

represented in the striped national flag (from the top downward) by red

(Manchus), yellow (Chinese), blue (Mongolians), white (Mohammedans),

and black (Tibetans). This flag was adopted on the establishment of the

Republic in 1912, and supplanted the triangular Dragon flag previously

in use. By this time the population--which had varied considerably at

different periods owing to war, famine, and pestilence--had increased

to about 400,000,000.

General Government

The general division of the nation was into the King and the People,

The former was regarded as appointed by the will of Heaven and

as the parent of the latter. Besides being king, he was also

law-giver, commander-in-chief of the armies, high priest, and

master of ceremonies. The people were divided into four classes: (1)

_Shih_, Officers (later Scholars), consisting of _Ch'ên_, Officials

(a few of whom were ennobled), and _Shên Shih_, Gentry; (2) _Nung_,

Agriculturists; (3) _Kung_, Artisans; and (4) _Shang_, Merchants.

For administrative purposes there were at the seat of central

government (which, first at P'ing-yang--in modern Shansi--was

moved eleven times during the Feudal Period, and was finally

at Yin) ministers, or ministers and a hierarchy of officials,

the country being divided into provinces, varying in number from

nine in the earliest times to thirty-six under the First Emperor,

221 B.C., and finally twenty-two at the present day. At first these

provinces contained states, which were models of the central state,

the ruler's 'Middle Kingdom.' The provincial administration was

in the hands of twelve Pastors or Lord-Lieutenants. They were the

chiefs of all the nobles in a province. Civil and military offices

were not differentiated. The feudal lords or princes of states often

resided at the king's court, officers of that court being also sent

forth as princes of states. The king was the source of legislation

and administered justice. The princes in their several states had

the power of rewards and punishments. Revenue was derived from a

tithe on the land, from the income of artisans, merchants, fishermen,

foresters, and from the tribute brought by savage tribes.

The general structure and principles of this system of administration

remained the same, with few variations, down to the end of the

Monarchical Period in 1912. At the end of that period we find the

emperor still considered as of divine descent, still the head of

the civil, legislative, military, ecclesiastical, and ceremonial

administration, with the nation still divided into the same four

classes. The chief ministries at the capital, Peking, could in most

cases trace their descent from their prototypes of feudal times, and

the principal provincial administrative officials--the Governor-General

or Viceroy, governor, provincial treasurer, judge, etc.--had similarly

a pedigree running back to offices then existing--a continuous duration

of adherence to type which is probably unique.

Appointment to office was at first by selection, followed by an

examination to test proficiency; later was introduced the system of

public competitive literary examinations for office, fully organized

in the seventeenth century, and abolished in 1903, when official

positions were thrown open to the graduates of colleges established

on a modern basis.

In 1912, on the overthrow of the Manchu monarchy, China became a

republic, with an elected President, and a Parliament consisting

of a Senate and House of Representatives. The various government

departments were reorganized on Western lines, and a large number

of new offices instituted. Up to the present year the Law of the

Constitution, owing to political dissension between the North and

the South, has not been put into force.

Laws

Chinese law, like primitive law generally, was not instituted

in order to ensure justice between man and man; its object was

to enforce subordination of the ruled to the ruler. The laws were

punitive and vindictive rather than reformatory or remedial, criminal

rather than civil. Punishments were cruel: branding, cutting off the

nose, the legs at the knees, castration, and death, the latter not

necessarily, or indeed ordinarily, for taking life. They included in

some cases punishment of the family, the clan, and the neighbours of

the offender. The _lex talionis_ was in full force.

Nevertheless, in spite of the harsh nature of the punishments, possibly

adapted, more or less, to a harsh state of society, though the "proper

end of punishments"--to "make an end of punishing"--was missed, the

Chinese evolved a series of excellent legal codes. This series began

with the revision of King Mu's _Punishments_ in 950 B.C., the first

regular code being issued in 650 B.C., and ended with the well-known

_Ta Ch'ing lü li_ (_Laws and Statutes of the Great Ch'ing Dynasty_),

issued in A.D. 1647. Of these codes the great exemplar was the _Law

Classic_ drawn up by Li K'uei (_Li K'uei fa ching_), a statesman

in the service of the first ruler of the Wei State, in the fourth

century B.C. The _Ta Ch'ing lü li_ has been highly praised by competent

judges. Originally it sanctioned only two kinds of punishment, death

and flogging, but others were in use, and the barbarous _ling ch'ih_,

'lingering death' or 'slicing to pieces,' invented about A.D. 1000

and abolished in 1905, was inflicted for high treason, parricide,

on women who killed their husbands, and murderers of three persons

of one family. In fact, until some first-hand knowledge of Western

systems and procedure was obtained, the vindictive as opposed to the

reformatory idea of punishments continued to obtain in China down to

quite recent years, and has not yet entirely disappeared. Though the

crueller forms of punishment had been legally abolished, they continued

to be used in many parts. Having been joint judge at Chinese trials

at which, in spite of my protests, prisoners were hung up by their

thumbs and made to kneel on chains in order to extort confession

(without which no accused person could be punished), I can testify

that the true meaning of the "proper end of punishments" had no more

entered into the Chinese mind at the close of the monarchical _régime_

than it had 4000 years before.

As a result of the reform movement into which China was forced as

an alternative to foreign domination toward the end of the Manchu

Period, but chiefly owing to the bait held out by Western Powers,

that extraterritoriality would be abolished when China had reformed

her judicial system, a new Provisional Criminal Code was published. It

substituted death by hanging or strangulation for decapitation, and

imprisonment for various lengths of time for bambooing. It was adopted

in large measure by the Republican _régime_, and is the chief legal

instrument in use at the present time. But close examination reveals

the fact that it is almost an exact copy of the Japanese penal code,

which in turn was modelled upon that of Germany. It is, in fact, a

Western code imitated, and as it stands is quite out of harmony with

present conditions in China. It will have to be modified and recast

to be a suitable, just, and practicable national legal instrument

for the Chinese people. Moreover, it is frequently overridden in a

high-handed manner by the police, who often keep a person acquitted

by the Courts of Justice in custody until they have 'squeezed' him

of all they can hope to get out of him. And it is noteworthy that,

though provision was made in the Draft Code for trial by jury, this

provision never went into effect; and the slavish imitation of alien

methods is shown by the curiously inconsistent reason given--that "the

fact that jury trials have been abolished in Japan is indicative of the

inadvisability of transplanting this Western institution into China!"

Local Government

The central administration being a far-flung network of officialdom,

there was hardly any room for local government apart from it. We

find it only in the village elder and those associated with him, who

took up what government was necessary where the jurisdiction of the

unit of the central administration--the district magistracy--ceased,

or at least did not concern itself in meddling much.

Military System

The peace-loving agricultural settlers in early China had at first

no army. When occasion arose, all the farmers exchanged their

ploughshares for swords and bows and arrows, and went forth to

fight. In the intervals between the harvests, when the fields were

clear, they held manoeuvres and practised the arts of warfare. The

king, who had his Six Armies, under the Six High Nobles, forming

the royal military force, led the troops in person, accompanied by

the spirit-tablets of his ancestors and of the gods of the land and

grain. Chariots, drawn by four horses and containing soldiers armed

with spears and javelins and archers, were much in use. A thousand

chariots was the regular force. Warriors wore buskins on their legs,

and were sometimes gagged in order to prevent the alarm being given to

the enemy. In action the chariots occupied the centre, the bowmen the

left, the spearmen the right flank. Elephants were sometimes used in

attack. Spy-kites, signal-flags, hook-ladders, horns, cymbals, drums,

and beacon-fires were in use. The ears of the vanquished were taken

to the king, quarter being rarely if ever given.

After the establishment of absolute monarchical government standing

armies became the rule. Military science was taught, and soldiers

sometimes trained for seven years. Chariots with upper storeys or

spy-towers were used for fighting in narrow defiles, and hollow squares

were formed of mixed chariots, infantry, and dragoons. The weakness of

disunion of forces was well understood. In the sixth century A.D. the

massed troops numbered about a million and a quarter. In A.D. 627

there was an efficient standing army of 900,000 men, the term of

service being from the ages of twenty to sixty. During the Mongol

dynasty (1280-1368) there was a navy of 5000 ships manned by 70,000

trained fighters. The Mongols completely revolutionized tactics and

improved on all the military knowledge of the time. In 1614 the Manchu

'Eight Banners,' composed of Manchus, Mongolians, and Chinese, were

instituted. The provincial forces, designated the Army of the Green

Standard, were divided into land forces and marine forces, superseded

on active service by 'braves' (_yung_), or irregulars, enlisted and

discharged according to circumstances. After the war with Japan in

1894 reforms were seriously undertaken, with the result that the army

has now been modernized in dress, weapons, tactics, etc., and is by

no means a negligible quantity in the world's fighting forces. A

modern navy is also being acquired by building and purchase. For

many centuries the soldier, being, like the priest, unproductive,

was regarded with disdain, and now that his indispensableness for

defensive purposes is recognized he has to fight not only any actual

enemy who may attack him, but those far subtler forces from over the

sea which seem likely to obtain supremacy in his military councils,

if not actual control of his whole military system. It is, in my view,

the duty of Western nations to take steps before it is too late to

avert this great disaster.

Ecclesiastical Institutions

The dancing and chanting exorcists called _wu_ were the first Chinese

priests, with temples containing gods worshipped and sacrificed

to, but there was no special sacerdotal class. Worship of Heaven

could only be performed by the king or emperor. Ecclesiastical and

political functions were not completely separated. The king was

_pontifex maximus_, the nobles, statesmen, and civil and military

officers acted as priests, the ranks being similar to those of the

political hierarchy. Worship took place in the 'Hall of Light,'

which was also a palace and audience and council chamber. Sacrifices

were offered to Heaven, the hills and rivers, ancestors, and all the

spirits. Dancing held a conspicuous place in worship. Idols are spoken

of in the earliest times.

Of course, each religion, as it formed itself out of the original

ancestor-worship, had its own sacred places, functionaries,

observances, ceremonial. Thus, at the State worship of Heaven, Nature,

etc., there were the 'Great,' 'Medium,' and 'Inferior' sacrifices,

consisting of animals, silk, grain, jade, etc. Panegyrics were sung,

and robes of appropriate colour worn. In spring, summer, autumn,

and winter there were the seasonal sacrifices at the appropriate

altars. Taoism and Buddhism had their temples, monasteries, priests,

sacrifices, and ritual; and there were village and wayside temples

and shrines to ancestors, the gods of thunder, rain, wind, grain,

agriculture, and many others. Now encouraged, now tolerated, now

persecuted, the ecclesiastical _personnel_ and structure of Taoism and

Buddhism survived into modern times, when we find complete schemes

of ecclesiastical gradations of rank and authority grafted upon

these two priestly hierarchies, and their temples, priests, etc.,

fulfilling generally, with worship of ancestors, State or official

(Confucianism) and private or unofficial, and the observance of various

annual festivals, such as 'All Souls' Day' for wandering and hungry

ghosts, the spiritual needs of the people as the 'Three Religions'

(_San Chiao_). The emperor, as high priest, took the responsibility

for calamities, etc., making confession to Heaven and praying that

as a punishment the evil be diverted from the people to his own

person. Statesmen, nobles, and officials discharged, as already noted,

priestly functions in connexion with the State religion in addition

to their ordinary duties. As a rule, priests proper, frowned upon as

non-producers, were recruited from the lower classes, were celibate,

unintellectual, idle, and immoral. There was nothing, even in the

elaborate ceremonies on special occasions in the Buddhist temples,

which could be likened to what is known as 'public worship' and

'common prayer' in the West. Worship had for its sole object either

the attainment of some good or the prevention of some evil.

Generally this represents the state of things under the Republican

_régime_; the chief differences being greater neglect of ecclesiastical

matters and the conversion of a large number of temples into schools.

Professional Institutions

We read of physicians, blind musicians, poets, teachers, prayer-makers,

architects, scribes, painters, diviners, ceremonialists, orators,

and others during the Feudal Period, These professions were of

ecclesiastical origin, not yet completely differentiated from the

'Church,' and both in earlier and later times not always or often

differentiated from each other. Thus the historiographers combined the

duties of statesmen, scholars, authors, and generals. The professions

of authors and teachers, musicians and poets, were united in one

person. And so it continued to the present day. Priests discharge

medical functions, poets still sing their verses. But experienced

medical specialists, though few, are to be found, as well as women

doctors; there are veterinary surgeons, musicians (chiefly belonging

to the poorest classes and often blind), actors, teachers, attorneys,

diviners, artists, letter-writers, and many others, men of letters

being perhaps the most prominent and most esteemed.

Accessory Institutions

A system of schools, academies, colleges, and universities obtained in

villages, districts, departments, and principalities. The instruction

was divided into 'Primary Learning' and 'Great Learning.' There were

special schools of dancing and music. Libraries and almshouses for

old men are mentioned. Associations of scholars for literary purposes

seem to have been numerous.

Whatever form and direction education might have taken, it became

stereotyped at an early age by the road to office being made to

lead through a knowledge of the classical writings of the ancient

sages. It became not only 'the thing' to be well versed in the sayings

of Confucius, Mencius; etc., and to be able to compose good essays on

them containing not a single wrongly written character, but useless

for aspirants to office--who constituted practically the whole of the

literary class--to acquire any other knowledge. So obsessed was the

national mind by this literary mania that even infants' spines were

made to bend so as to produce when adult the 'scholarly stoop.' And

from the fact that besides the scholar class the rest of the community

consisted of agriculturists, artisans, and merchants, whose knowledge

was that of their fathers and grandfathers, inculcated in the sons

and grandsons as it had been in them, showing them how to carry on

in the same groove the calling to which Fate had assigned them, a

departure from which would have been considered 'unfilial'--unless,

of course (as it very rarely did), it went the length of attaining

through study of the classics a place in the official class, and thus

shedding eternal lustre on the family--it will readily be seen that

there was nothing to cause education to be concerned with any but one

or two of the subjects which are included by Western peoples under

that designation. It became at an early age, and remained for many

centuries, a rote-learning of the elementary text-books, followed by

a similar acquisition by heart of the texts of the works of Confucius

and other classical writers. And so it remained until the abolition, in

1905, of the old competitive examination system, and the substitution

of all that is included in the term 'modern education' at schools,

colleges, and universities all over the country, in which there is

rapidly growing up a force that is regenerating the Chinese people,

and will make itself felt throughout the whole world.

It is this keen and shrewd appreciation of the learned, and this lust

for knowledge, which, barring the tragedy of foreign domination, will

make China, in the truest and best sense of the word, a great nation,

where, as in the United States of America, the rigid class status and

undervaluation, if not disdaining, of knowledge which are proving so

disastrous in England and other European countries will be avoided,

and the aristocracy of learning established in its place.

Besides educational institutions, we find institutions for poor relief,

hospitals, foundling hospitals, orphan asylums, banking, insurance,

and loan associations, travellers' clubs, mercantile corporations,

anti-opium societies, co-operative burial societies, as well as many

others, some imitated from Western models.

Bodily Mutilations

Compared with the practices found to exist among most primitive races,

the mutilations the Chinese were in the habit of inflicting were but

few. They flattened the skulls of their babies by means of stones, so

as to cause them to taper at the top, and we have already seen what

they did to their spines; also the mutilations in warfare, and the

punishments inflicted both within and without the law; and how filial

children and loyal wives mutilated themselves for the sake of their

parents and to prevent remarriage. Eunuchs, of course, existed in great

numbers. People bit, cut, or marked their arms to pledge oaths. But

the practices which are more peculiarly associated with the Chinese

are the compressing of women's feet and the wearing of the queue,

misnamed 'pigtail.' The former is known to have been in force about

A.D. 934, though it may have been introduced as early as 583. It did

not, however, become firmly established for more than a century. This

'extremely painful mutilation,' begun in infancy, illustrates the

tyranny of fashion, for it is supposed to have arisen in the imitation

by the women generally of the small feet of an imperial concubine

admired by one of the emperors from ten to fifteen centuries ago

(the books differ as to his identity). The second was a badge of

servitude inflicted by the Manchus on the Chinese when they conquered

China at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Discountenanced by

governmental edicts, both of these practices are now tending toward

extinction, though, of course, compressed feet and 'pigtails' are

still to be seen in every town and village. Legally, the queue was

abolished when the Chinese rid themselves of the Manchu yoke in 1912.

Funeral Rites

Not understanding the real nature of death, the Chinese believed

it was merely a state of suspended animation, in which the soul

had failed to return to the body, though it might yet do so,

even after long intervals. Consequently they delayed burial, and

fed the corpse, and went on to the house-tops and called aloud

to the spirit to return. When at length they were convinced that

the absent spirit could not be induced to re-enter the body, they

placed the latter in a coffin and buried it--providing it, however,

with all that it had found necessary in this life (food, clothing,

wives, servants, etc.), which it would require also in the next (in

their view rather a continuation of the present existence than the

beginning of another)--and, having inducted or persuaded the spirit

to enter the 'soul-tablet' which accompanied the funeral procession

(which took place the moment the tablet was 'dotted,' _i.e._ when

the character _wang_, 'prince,' was changed into _chu_, 'lord'),

carried it back home again, set it up in a shrine in the main hall,

and fell down and worshipped it. Thus was the spirit propitiated,

and as long as occasional offerings were not overlooked the power

for evil possessed by it would not be exerted against the surviving

inmates of the house, whom it had so thoughtlessly deserted.

The latter mourned by screaming, wailing, stamping their feet,

and beating their breasts, renouncing (in the earliest times) even

their clothes, dwelling, and belongings to the dead, removing to

mourning-sheds of clay, fasting, or eating only rice gruel, sleeping

on straw with a clod for a pillow, and speaking only on subjects of

death and burial. Office and public duties were resigned, and marriage,

music, and separation from the clan prohibited.

During the lapse of the long ages of monarchical rule funeral rites

became more elaborate and magnificent, but, though less rigid and

ceremonious since the institution of the Republic, they have retained

their essential character down to the present day.

Funeral ceremonial was more exacting than that connected with most

other observances, including those of marriage. Invitations or

notifications were sent to friends, and after receipt of these _fu_,

on the various days appointed therein, the guest was obliged to send

presents, such as money, paper horses, slaves, etc., and go and join

in the lamentations of the hired mourners and attend at the prayers

recited by the priests. Funeral etiquette could not be _pu'd, i.e._

made good, if overlooked or neglected at the right time, as it could

in the case of the marriage ceremonial.

Instead of symmetrical public graveyards, as in the West, the

Chinese cemeteries belong to the family or clan of the deceased,

and are generally beautiful and peaceful places planted with trees

and surrounded by artistic walls enclosing the grave-mounds and

monumental tablets. The cemeteries themselves are the metonyms of the

villages, and the graves of the houses. In the north especially the

grave is very often surmounted by a huge marble tortoise bearing the

inscribed tablet, or what we call the gravestone, on its back. The

tombs of the last two lines of emperors, the Ming and the Manchu,

are magnificent structures, spread over enormous areas, and always

artistically situated on hillsides facing natural or artificial lakes

or seas. Contrary to the practice in Egypt, with the two exceptions

above mentioned the conquering dynasties have always destroyed the

tombs of their predecessors. But for this savage vandalism, China

would probably possess the most magnificent assembly of imperial

tombs in the world's records.

Laws of Intercourse

Throughout the whole course of their existence as a social aggregate

the Chinese have pushed ceremonial observances to an extreme

limit. "Ceremonies," says the _Li chi_, the great classic of ceremonial

usages, "are the greatest of all things by which men live." Ranks were

distinguished by different headdresses, garments, badges, weapons,

writing-tablets, number of attendants, carriages, horses, height of

walls, etc. Daily as well as official life was regulated by minute

observances. There were written codes embracing almost every attitude

and act of inferiors toward superiors, of superiors toward inferiors,

and of equals toward equals. Visits, forms of address, and giving

of presents had each their set of formulae, known and observed by

every one as strictly and regularly as each child in China learned by

heart and repeated aloud the three-word sentences of the elementary

_Trimetrical Classic_. But while the school text-book was extremely

simple, ceremonial observances were extremely elaborate. A Chinese

was in this respect as much a slave to the living as in his funeral

rites he was a slave to the dead. Only now, in the rush of 'modern

progress,' is the doffing of the hat taking the place of the 'kowtow'

(_k'o-t'ou_).

It is in this matter of ceremonial observances that the East

and the West have misunderstood each other perhaps more than in

all others. Where rules of etiquette are not only different,

but are diametrically opposed, there is every opportunity for

misunderstanding, if not estrangement. The points at issue in

such questions as 'kowtowing' to the emperor and the worshipping

of ancestors are generally known, but the Westerner, as a rule, is

ignorant of the fact that if he wishes to conform to Chinese etiquette

when in China (instead of to those Western customs which are in many

cases unfortunately taking their place) he should not, for instance,

take off his hat when entering a house or a temple, should not shake

hands with his host, nor, if he wishes to express approval, should he

clap his hands. Clapping of hands in China (_i.e._ non-Europeanized

China) is used to drive away the _sha ch'i_, or deathly influence of

evil spirits, and to clap the hands at the close of the remarks of a

Chinese host (as I have seen prominent, well-meaning, but ill-guided

men of the West do) is equivalent to disapproval, if not insult. Had

our diplomatists been sociologists instead of only commercial agents,

more than one war might have been avoided.

Habits and Customs

At intervals during the year the Chinese make holiday. Their public

festivals begin with the celebration of the advent of the new

year. They let off innumerable firecrackers, and make much merriment

in their homes, drinking and feasting, and visiting their friends

for several days. Accounts are squared, houses cleaned, fresh paper

'door-gods' pasted on the front doors, strips of red paper with

characters implying happiness, wealth, good fortune, longevity, etc.,

stuck on the doorposts or the lintel, tables, etc., covered with red

cloth, and flowers and decorations displayed everywhere. Business

is suspended, and the merriment, dressing in new clothes, feasting,

visiting, offerings to gods and ancestors, and idling continue pretty

consistently during the first half of the first moon, the vacation

ending with the Feast of Lanterns, which occupies the last three

days. It originated in the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. Innumerable

lanterns of all sizes, shapes, colours (except wholly white, or rather

undyed material, the colour of mourning), and designs are lit in front

of public and private buildings, but the use of these was an addition

about 800 years later, _i.e._ about 1200 years ago. Paper dragons,

hundreds of yards long, are moved along the streets at a slow pace,

supported on the heads of men whose legs only are visible, giving

the impression of huge serpents winding through the thoroughfares.

Of the other chief festivals, about eight in number (not counting the

festivals of the four seasons with their equinoxes and solstices), four

are specially concerned with the propitiation of the spirits--namely,

the Earlier Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of second moon), the

Festival of the Tombs (about the third day of the third moon), when

graves are put in order and special offerings made to the dead, the

Middle Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of seventh moon), and the Later

Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of tenth moon). The Dragon-boat Festival

(fifth day of fifth moon) is said to have originated as a commemoration

of the death of the poet Ch'ü Yüan, who drowned himself in disgust

at the official intrigue and corruption of which he was the victim,

but the object is the procuring of sufficient rain to ensure a good

harvest. It is celebrated by racing with long narrow boats shaped to

represent dragons and propelled by scores of rowers, pasting of charms

on the doors of dwellings, and eating a special kind of rice-cake,

with a liquor as a beverage.

The fifteenth day of the eighth moon is the Mid-autumn Festival, known

by foreigners as All Souls' Day. On this occasion the women worship the

moon, offering cakes, fruit, etc. The gates of Purgatory are opened,

and the hungry ghosts troop forth to enjoy themselves for a month on

the good things provided for them by the pious. The ninth day of the

ninth moon is the Chung Yang Festival, when every one who possibly

can ascends to a high place--a hill or temple-tower. This inaugurates

the kite-flying season, and is supposed to promote longevity. During

that season, which lasts several months, the Chinese people the sky

with dragons, centipedes, frogs, butterflies, and hundreds of other

cleverly devised creatures, which, by means of simple mechanisms worked

by the wind, roll their eyes, make appropriate sounds, and move their

paws, wings, tails, etc., in a most realistic manner. The festival

originated in a warning received by a scholar named Huan Ching from

his master Fei Ch'ang-fang, a native of Ju-nan in Honan, who lived

during the Han dynasty, that a terrible calamity was about to happen,

and enjoining him to escape with his family to a high place. On his

return he found all his domestic animals dead, and was told that

they had died instead of himself and his relatives. On New Year's Eve

(_Tuan Nien_ or _Chu Hsi_) the Kitchen-god ascends to Heaven to make

his annual report, the wise feasting him with honey and other sticky

food before his departure, so that his lips may be sealed and he be

unable to 'let on' too much to the powers that be in the regions above!

Sports and Games

The first sports of the Chinese were festival gatherings for purposes

of archery, to which succeeded exercises partaking of a military

character. Hunting was a favourite amusement. They played games of

calculation, chess (or the 'game of war'), shuttlecock with the feet,

pitch-pot (throwing arrows from a distance into a narrow-necked jar),

and 'horn-goring' (fighting on the shoulders of others with horned

masks on their heads). Stilts, football, dice-throwing, boat-racing,

dog-racing, cock-fighting, kite-flying, as well as singing and dancing

marionettes, afforded recreation and amusement.

Many of these games became obsolete in course of time, and new ones

were invented. At the end of the Monarchical Period, during the Manchu

dynasty, we find those most in use to be foot-shuttlecock, lifting of

beams headed with heavy stones--dumb-bells four feet long and weighing

thirty or forty pounds--kite-flying, quail-fighting, cricket-fighting,

sending birds after seeds thrown into the air, sauntering through

fields, playing chess or 'morra,' or gambling with cards, dice, or

over the cricket- and quail-fights or seed-catching birds. There were

numerous and varied children's games tending to develop strength,

skill, quickness of action, parental instinct, accuracy, and

sagacity. Theatricals were performed by strolling troupes on stages

erected opposite temples, though permanent theatres also existed,

female parts until recently being taken by male actors. Peep-shows,

conjurers, ventriloquists, acrobats, fortune-tellers, and story-tellers

kept crowds amused or interested. Generally, 'young China' of the

present day, identified with the party of progress, seems to have

adopted most of the outdoor but very few of the indoor games of

Western nations.

Domestic Life

In domestic or private life, observances at birth, betrothal, and

marriage were elaborate, and retained superstitious elements. Early

rising was general. Shaving of the head and beard, as well as cleaning

of the ears and massage, was done by barbers. There were public

baths in all cities and towns. Shops were closed at nightfall, and,

the streets being until recent times ill-lit or unlit, passengers or

their attendants carried lanterns. Most houses, except the poorest,

had private watchmen. Generally two meals a day were taken. Dinners to

friends were served at inns or restaurants, accompanied or followed

by musical or theatrical performances. The place of honour is stated

in Western books on China to be on the left, but the fact is that the

place of honour is the one which shows the utmost solicitude for the

safety of the guest. It is therefore not necessarily one fixed place,

but would usually be the one facing the door, so that the guest might

be in a position to see an enemy enter, and take measures accordingly.

Lap-dogs and cage-birds were kept as pets; 'wonks,' the _huang kou_,

or 'yellow dog,' were guards of houses and street scavengers. Aquaria

with goldfish were often to be seen in the houses of the upper and

middle classes, the gardens and courtyards of which usually contained

rockeries and artistic shrubs and flowers.

Whiskers were never worn, and moustaches and beards only after forty,

before which age the hair grew, if at all, very scantily. Full,

thick beards, as in the West, were practically never seen, even on

the aged. Snuff-bottles, tobacco-pipes, and fans were carried by both

sexes. Nails were worn long by members of the literary and leisured

classes. Non-Manchu women and girls had cramped feet, and both Manchu

and Chinese women used cosmetics freely.

Industrial Institutions

While the men attended to farm-work, women took care of the

mulberry-orchards and silkworms, and did spinning, weaving, and

embroidery. This, the primitive division of labour, held throughout,

though added to on both sides, so that eventually the men did most

of the agriculture, arts, production, distribution, fighting, etc.,

and the women, besides the duties above named and some field-labour,

mended old clothes, drilled and sharpened needles, pasted tin-foil,

made shoes, and gathered and sorted the leaves of the tea-plant. In

course of time trades became highly specialized--their number being

legion--and localized, bankers, for instance, congregating in Shansi,

carpenters in Chi Chou, and porcelain-manufacturers in Jao Chou,

in Kiangsi.

As to land, it became at an early age the property of the sovereign,

who farmed it out to his relatives or favourites. It was arranged on

the _ching_, or 'well' system--eight private squares round a ninth

public square cultivated by the eight farmer families in common for the

benefit of the State. From the beginning to the end of the Monarchical

Period tenure continued to be of the Crown, land being unallodial, and

mostly held in clans or families, and not entailed, the conditions

of tenure being payment of an annual tax, a fee for alienation,

and money compensation for personal services to the Government,

generally incorporated into the direct tax as scutage. Slavery,

unknown in the earliest times, existed as a recognized institution

during the whole of the Monarchical Period.

Production was chiefly confined to human and animal labour, machinery

being only now in use on a large scale. Internal distribution

was carried on from numerous centres and at fairs, shops, markets,

etc. With few exceptions, the great trade-routes by land and sea have

remained the same during the last two thousand years. Foreign trade was

with Western Asia, Greece, Rome, Carthage, Arabia, etc., and from the

seventeenth century A.D. more generally with European countries. The

usual primitive means of conveyance, such as human beings, animals,

carts, boats, etc., were partly displaced by steam-vessels from

1861 onward.

Exchange was effected by barter, cowries of different values being the

prototype of coins, which were cast in greater or less quantity under

each reign. But until within recent years there was only one coin,

the copper cash, in use, bullion and paper notes being the other

media of exchange. Silver Mexican dollars and subsidiary coins came

into use with the advent of foreign commerce. Weights and measures

(which generally decreased from north to south), officially arranged

partly on the decimal system, were discarded by the people in ordinary

commercial transactions for the more convenient duodecimal subdivision.

Arts

Hunting, fishing, cooking, weaving, dyeing, carpentry, metallurgy,

glass-, brick-, and paper-making, printing, and book-binding were

in a more or less primitive stage, the mechanical arts showing much

servile imitation and simplicity in design; but pottery, carving,

and lacquer-work were in an exceptionally high state of development,

the articles produced being surpassed in quality and beauty by no

others in the world.

Agriculture and Rearing of Livestock

From the earliest times the greater portion of the available land was

under cultivation. Except when the country has been devastated by war,

the Chinese have devoted close attention to the cultivation of the

soil continuously for forty centuries. Even the hills are terraced for

extra growing-room. But poverty and governmental inaction caused much

to lie idle. There were two annual crops in the north, and five in two

years in the south. Perhaps two-thirds of the population cultivated the

soil. The methods, however, remained primitive; but the great fertility

of the soil and the great industry of the farmer, with generous but

careful use of fertilizers, enabled the vast territory to support an

enormous population. Rice, wheat, barley, buckwheat, maize, kaoliang,

several millets, and oats were the chief grains cultivated. Beans,

peas, oil-bearing seeds (sesame, rape, etc.), fibre-plants (hemp,

ramie, jute, cotton, etc.), starch-roots (taros, yams, sweet potatoes,

etc.), tobacco, indigo, tea, sugar, fruits, were among the more

important crops produced. Fruit-growing, however, lacked scientific

method. The rotation of crops was not a usual practice, but grafting,

pruning, dwarfing, enlarging, selecting, and varying species were well

understood. Vegetable-culture had reached a high state of perfection,

the smallest patches of land being made to bring forth abundantly. This

is the more creditable inasmuch as most small farmers could not afford

to purchase expensive foreign machinery, which, in many cases, would

be too large or complicated for their purposes.

The principal animals, birds, etc., reared were the pig, ass, horse,

mule, cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, yak, fowl, duck, goose, pigeon,

silkworm, and bee.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, the successor to the Board

of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, instituted during recent

years, is now adapting Western methods to the cultivation of the

fertile soil of China, and even greater results than in the past may

be expected in the future.

Sentiments and Moral Ideas

The Chinese have always shown a keen delight in the beautiful--in

flowers, music, poetry, literature, embroidery, paintings,

porcelain. They cultivated ornamental plants, almost every house,

as we saw, having its garden, large or small, and tables were often

decorated with flowers in vases or ornamental wire baskets or fruits or

sweetmeats. Confucius made music an instrument of government. Paper

bearing the written character was so respected that it might not

be thrown on the ground or trodden on. Delight was always shown in

beautiful scenery or tales of the marvellous. Commanding or agreeable

situations were chosen for temples. But until within the last few

years streets and houses were generally unclean, and decency in public

frequently absent.

Morality was favoured by public opinion, but in spite of early

marriages and concubinage there was much laxity. Cruelty both

to human beings and animals has always been a marked trait in

the Chinese character. Savagery in warfare, cannibalism, luxury,

drunkenness, and corruption prevailed in the earliest times. The

attitude toward women was despotic. But moral principles pervaded the

classical writings, and formed the basis of law. In spite of these,

the inferior sentiment of revenge was, as we have seen, approved and

preached as a sacred duty. As a result of the universal _yin-yang_

dualistic doctrines, immorality was leniently regarded. In modern

times, at least, mercantile honour was high, "a merchant's word

is as good as his bond" being truer in China than in many other

countries. Intemperance was rare. Opium-smoking was much indulged in

until the use of the drug was forcibly suppressed (1906-16). Even now

much is smuggled into the country, or its growth overlooked by bribed

officials. Clan quarrels and fights were common, vendettas sometimes

continuing for generations. Suicide under depressing circumstances

was approved and honoured; it was frequently resorted to under the

sting of great injustice. There was a deep reverence for parents

and superiors. Disregard of the truth, when useful, was universal,

and unattended by a sense of shame, even on detection. Thieving was

common. The illegal exactions of rulers were burdensome. In times

of prosperity pride and satisfaction in material matters was not

concealed, and was often short-sighted. Politeness was practically

universal, though said to be often superficial; but gratitude was a

marked characteristic, and was heartfelt. Mutual conjugal affection

was strong. The love of gambling was universal.

But little has occurred in recent years to modify the above

characters. Nevertheless the inferior traits are certainly being

changed by education and by the formation of societies whose members

bind themselves against immorality, concubinage, gambling, drinking,

smoking, etc.

Religious Ideas

Chinese religion is inherently an attitude toward the spirits or gods

with the object of obtaining a benefit or averting a calamity. We

shall deal with it more fully in another chapter. Suffice it to say

here that it originated in ancestor-worship, and that the greater

part of it remains ancestor-worship to the present day. The State

religion, which was Confucianism, was ancestor-worship. Taoism,

originally a philosophy, became a worship of spirits--of the souls of

dead men supposed to have taken up their abode in animals, reptiles,

insects, trees, stones, etc.--borrowed the cloak of religion from

Buddhism, which eventually outshone it, and degenerated into a system

of exorcism and magic. Buddhism, a religion originating in India, in

which Buddha, once a man, is worshipped, in which no beings are known

with greater power than can be attained to by man, and according to

which at death the soul migrates into anything from a deified human

being to an elephant, a bird, a plant, a wall, a broom, or any piece

of inorganic matter, was imported ready made into China and took the

side of popular superstition and Taoism against the orthodox belief,

finding that its power lay in the influence on the popular mind of its

doctrine respecting a future state, in contrast to the indifference

of Confucianism. Its pleading for compassion and preservation of life

met a crying need, and but for it the state of things in this respect

would be worse than it is.

Religion, apart from ancestor-worship, does not enter largely

into Chinese life. There is none of the real 'love of God' found,

for example, in the fervent as distinguished from the conventional

Christian. And as ancestor-worship gradually loses its hold and dies

out agnosticism will take its place.

Superstitions

An almost infinite variety of superstitious practices, due to the

belief in the good or evil influences of departed spirits, exists in

all parts of China. Days are lucky or unlucky. Eclipses are due to a

dragon trying to eat the sun or the moon. The rainbow is supposed to be

the result of a meeting between the impure vapours of the sun and the

earth. Amulets are worn, and charms hung up, sprigs of artemisia or

of peach-blossom are placed near beds and over lintels respectively,

children and adults are 'locked to life' by means of locks on chains

or cords worn round the neck, old brass mirrors are supposed to cure

insanity, figures of gourds, tigers' claws, or the unicorn are worn

to ensure good fortune or ward off sickness, fire, etc., spells of

many kinds, composed mostly of the written characters for happiness

and longevity, are worn, or written on paper, cloth, leaves, etc.,

and burned, the ashes being made into a decoction and drunk by the

young or sick.

Divination by means of the divining stalks (the divining plant,

milfoil or yarrow) and the tortoiseshell has been carried on from

time immemorial, but was not originally practised with the object of

ascertaining future events, but in order to decide doubts, much as

lots are drawn or a coin tossed in the West. _Fêng-shui_, "the art of

adapting the residence of the living and the dead so as to co-operate

and harmonize with the local currents of the cosmic breath" (the _yin_

and the _yang_: see Chapter III), a doctrine which had its root in

ancestor-worship, has exercised an enormous influence on Chinese

thought and life from the earliest times, and especially from those

of Chu Hsi and other philosophers of the Sung dynasty.

Knowledge

Having noted that Chinese education was mainly literary, and why it

was so, it is easy to see that there would be little or no demand

for the kind of knowledge classified in the West under the head of

science. In so far as any demand existed, it did so, at any rate at

first, only because it subserved vital needs. Thus, astronomy, or more

properly astrology, was studied in order that the calendar might be

regulated, and so the routine of agriculture correctly followed, for

on that depended the people's daily rice, or rather, in the beginning,

the various fruits and kinds of flesh which constituted their means of

sustentation before their now universal food was known. In philosophy

they have had two periods of great activity, the first beginning with

Lao Tzu and Confucius in the sixth century B.C. and ending with the

Burning of the Books by the First Emperor, Shih Huang Ti, in 213 B.C.;

the second beginning with Chou Tzu (A.D. 1017-73) and ending with Chu

Hsi (1130-1200). The department of philosophy in the imperial library

contained in 190 B.C. 2705 volumes by 137 authors. There can be no

doubt that this zeal for the orthodox learning, combined with the

literary test for office, was the reason why scientific knowledge was

prevented from developing; so much so, that after four thousand or more

years of national life we find, during the Manchu Period, which ended

the monarchical _régime_, few of the educated class, giants though they

were in knowledge of all departments of their literature and history

(the continuity of their traditions laid down in their twenty-four

Dynastic Annals has been described as one of the great wonders of the

world), with even the elementary scientific learning of a schoolboy

in the West. 'Crude,' 'primitive,' 'mediocre,' 'vague,' 'inaccurate,'

'want of analysis and generalization,' are terms we find applied to

their knowledge of such leading sciences as geography, mathematics,

chemistry, botany, and geology. Their medicine was much hampered

by superstition, and perhaps more so by such beliefs as that the

seat of the intellect is in the stomach, that thoughts proceed from

the heart, that the pit of the stomach is the seat of the breath,

that the soul resides in the liver, etc.--the result partly of the

idea that dissection of the body would maim it permanently during

its existence in the Otherworld. What progress was made was due to

European instruction; and this again is the _causa causans_ of the

great wave of progress in scientific and philosophical knowledge

which is rolling over the whole country and will have marked effects

on the history of the world during the coming century.

Language

Originally polysyllabic, the Chinese language later assumed a

monosyllabic, isolating, uninflected form, grammatical relations

being indicated by position. From the earliest forms of speech several

subordinate vernacular languages arose in various districts, and from

these sprang local dialects, etc. Tone-distinctions arose--_i.e._

the same words pronounced with a different intonation came to

mean different things. Development of these distinctions led to

carelessness of articulation, and multiplication of what would be

homonyms but for these tones. It is incorrect to assume that the tones

were invented to distinguish similar sounds. So that, at the present

day, anyone who says _ma_ will mean either an exclamation, hemp,

horse, or curse according to the quality he gives to the sound. The

language remains in a primitive state, without inflexion, declension,

or distinction of parts of speech. The order in a sentence is: subject,

verb, complement direct, complement indirect. Gender is formed by

distinctive particles; number by prefixing numerals, etc.; cases

by position or appropriate prepositions. Adjectives precede nouns;

position determines comparison; and absence of punctuation causes

ambiguity. The latter is now introduced into most newly published

works. The new education is bringing with it innumerable words and

phrases not found in the old literature or dictionaries. Japanese

idioms which are now being imported into the language are making it

less pure.

The written language, too well known to need detailed description, a

thing of beauty and a joy for ever to those able to appreciate it, said

to have taken originally the form of knotted cords and then of notches

on wood (though this was more probably the origin of numeration than of

writing proper), took later that of rude outlines of natural objects,

and then went on to the phonetic system, under which each character is

composed of two parts, the radical, indicating the meaning, and the

phonetic, indicating the sound. They were symbols, non-agglutinative

and non-inflexional, and were written in vertical columns, probably

from having in early times been painted or cut on strips of bark.

Achievements of the Chinese

As the result of all this fitful fever during so many centuries,

we find that the Chinese, after having lived in nests "in order to

avoid the animals," and then in caves, have built themselves houses

and palaces which are still made after the pattern of their prototype,

with a flat wall behind, the openings in front, the walls put in after

the pillars and roof-tree have been fixed, and out-buildings added on

as side extensions. The _k'ang_, or 'stove-bed' (now a platform made

of bricks), found all over the northern provinces, was a place scooped

out of the side of the cave, with an opening underneath in which (as

now) a fire was lit in winter. Windows and shutters opened upward,

being a survival of the mat or shade hung in front of the apertures

in the walls of the primitive cave-dwelling. Four of these buildings

facing each other round a square made the courtyard, and one or more

courtyards made the compound. They have fed themselves on almost

everything edible to be found on, under, or above land or water,

except milk, but live chiefly on rice, chicken, fish, vegetables,

including garlic, and tea, though at one time they ate flesh and

drank wine, sometimes to excess, before tea was cultivated. They

have clothed themselves in skins and feathers, and then in silks

and satins, but mostly in cotton, and hardly ever in wool. Under

the Manchu _régime_ the type of dress adopted was that of this

horse-riding race, showing the chief characteristics of that noble

animal, the broad sleeves representing the hoofs, the queue the mane,

etc. This queue was formed of the hair growing from the back part

of the scalp, the front of which was shaved. Unlike the Egyptians,

they did not wear wigs. They have nearly always had the decency to

wear their coats long, and have despised the Westerner for wearing

his too short. They are now paradoxical enough to make the mistake

of adopting the Westerner's costume.

They have made to themselves great canals, bridges, aqueducts, and

the longest wall there has ever been on the face of the earth (which

could not be seen from the moon, as some sinologists have erroneously

supposed, any more than a hair, however long, could be seen at a

distance of a hundred yards). They have made long and wide roads, but

failed to keep them in repair during the last few centuries, though

much zeal, possibly due to commerce on oil- or electricity-driven

wheels, is now being shown in this direction. They have built honorary

portals to chaste widows, pagodas, and arched bridges of great beauty,

not forgetting to surround each city with a high and substantial wall

to keep out unfriendly people. They have made innumerable implements

and weapons, from pens and fans and chopsticks to ploughs and carts

and ships; from fiery darts, 'flame elephants,' bows and spears,

spiked chariots, battering-rams, and hurling-engines to mangonels,

trebuchets, matchlocks of wrought iron and plain bore with long

barrels resting on a stock, and gingals fourteen feet long resting on

a tripod, cuirasses of quilted cotton cloth covered with brass knobs,

and helmets of iron or polished steel, sometimes inlaid, with neck-

and ear-lappets. And they have been content not to improve upon these

to any appreciable extent; but have lately shown a tendency to make

the later patterns imported from the West in their own factories.

They have produced one of the greatest and most remarkable

accumulations of literature the world has ever seen, and the finest

porcelain; some music, not very fine; and some magnificent painting,

though hardly any sculpture, and little architecture that will live.