Although native scholars in China have not deemed it worth while to
compile such a work as the "Slang Dictionary," it is no less a fact
that slang occupies quite as important a position in Chinese as in any
language of the West. Thieves have their _argot_, as with us,
intelligible only to each other; and phrases constantly occur, even in
refined conversation, the original of which can be traced infallibly
to the kennel. _Why so much paint?_ is the equivalent of _What a swell
you are!_ and is specially expressive in China, where beneath a
flowered blue silk robe there often peeps out a pair of
salmon-coloured inexpressibles of the same costly material. _They have
put down their barrows_, means that certain men have struck work, and
is peculiarly comprehensible in a country where so much transport is
effected in this laborious way. Barrows are common all over the
Empire, both for the conveyance of goods and passengers; and where
long distances have to be traversed, donkeys are frequently harnessed
in front. The traditional sail is also occasionally used: we ourselves
have seen barrows running before the wind between Tientsin and Taku,
of course with a man pushing behind. _The children have official
business_, is understood to mean they are laid up with the small-pox;
the metaphor implying that their _turn_ has come, just as a turn of
official duty comes round to every Manchu in Peking, and in the same
inevitable way. Vaccination is gradually dispelling this erroneous
notion, but the phrase we have given is not likely to disappear.
A magistrate who has _skinned the place clean_, has extorted every
possible cash from the district committed to his charge--a "father and
mother" of the people, as his grasping honour is called. _That horse
has a mane_, says the Chinese housebreaker, speaking of a wall well
studded at the top with pieces of broken glass or sharp iron spikes.
_You'll have to sprinkle so much water_, urges the friend who advises
you to keep clear of law, likening official greed to dust, which
requires a liberal outlay of water in the shape of banknotes to make
it lie. A _flowery bill_ is understood from one end of China to the
other as that particular kind in which our native servants delight to
indulge, namely, an account charging twice as much for everything as
was really paid, and containing twice as much in quantity as was
actually supplied. A _flowery suit_ is a case in which women play a
prominent part. _You scorched me yesterday_ is a quiet way of
remarking that an appointment was broken, and implying that the rays
of the sun were unpleasantly hot. _Don't pick out the sugar_ is a very
necessary injunction to a servant sent to market to buy food, &c., the
metaphor being taken from a kind of sweet dumpling consumed in great
quantities by rich and poor alike. Another phrase is, _Don't ride the
donkey_, which may be explained by the proverbial dislike of Chinamen
for walking exercise, and the temptation to hire a donkey, and squeeze
the fare out of the money given them for other purposes. _That house
is not clean inside_, signifies that devils and bogies, so dreaded by
the Chinese, have taken up their residence therein; in fact, that the
house is haunted. _He's all rice-water_, i.e., gives one plenty of the
water in which rice has been boiled, but none of the rice itself, is
said of a man who promises much and does nothing. _One load between
the two_ is very commonly said of two men who have married two
sisters. In China, a coolie's "load" consists of two baskets or
bundles slung with ropes to the end of a flat bamboo pole about five
feet in length, and thus carried across the shoulder. Hence the
expression. Apropos of marriage, _the guitar string is broken_, is an
elegant periphrasis by which it is understood that a man's wife is
dead, the verb "to die" being rarely used in conversation, and never
of a relative or friend. He will not _put a new string to his guitar_
is, of course, a continuation of the same idea, more coarsely
expressed as _putting on a new coat_. His father has been _gathered to
the west_--a phrase evidently of Buddhistic import--_is no more, has
gone for a stroll, has bid adieu to the world_, may all be employed to
supply the place of the tabooed verb, which is chiefly used of animals
and plants. After a few days' illness _he kicked_, is a vulgar way of
putting it and analogous to the English slang idiom. The Emperor
_becomes a guest on high_, riding up to heaven on the dragon's back,
with flowers of rhetoric ad nauseam; Buddhist priests _revolve into
emptiness_, i.e., are annihilated; the soul of the Taoist priest
_wings its flight away_.
_Only a candle-end left_ is said of an affair which nears completion;
_red_ and _white matters_ are marriages and deaths, so called from the
colour of the clothes worn on these important occasions. A blushing
person _fires up_, or literally, _ups fire_, according to the Chinese
idiom. To be fond of _blowing_ resembles our modern term _gassing_. A
_lose-money-goods_ is a daughter as compared with a son who can go out
in the world and earn money, whereas a daughter must be provided with
a dowry before any one will marry her. A more genuine metaphor is a
_thousand ounces of silver_; it expresses the real affection Chinese
parents have for their daughters as well as their sons. To _let the
dog out_ is the same as our letting the cat out; to _run against a
nail_ is allied to kicking against the pricks. A man of superficial
knowledge is called _half a bottle of vinegar_, though why vinegar, in
preference to anything else, we have not been able to discover. He has
always _got his gun in his hand_ is a reproach launched at the head of
some confirmed opium debauchee, one of those few reckless smokers to
whom opium is indeed a curse. They have _burnt paper together_, makes
it clear to a Chinese mind that the persons spoken of have gone
through the marriage service, part of which ceremony consists in
burning silver paper, made up to resemble lumps of the pure metal. _We
have split_ is one of those happy idioms which lose nothing in
translation, being word for word the same in both languages, and with
exactly the same meaning. _A crooked stick_ is a man whose
eccentricities keep people from associating freely with him; he won't
lie conveniently in a bundle with the other sticks.
We will bring this short sketch to a close with one more example,
valuable because it is old, because the date at which it came into
existence can be fixed with unerring certainty, and because it is
commonly used in all parts of China, though hardly one educated man in
ten would be able to tell the reason why. A jealous woman is said _to
drink vinegar_, and the origin of the term is as follows:--Fang
Hsuan-ling was the favourite Minister of the Emperor T'ai Tsung, of the
T'ang dynasty. He lived A.D. 578-648. One day his master gave him a
maid of honour from the palace as second wife, but the first or real
wife made the place too hot for the poor girl to live in. Fang
complained to the Emperor, who gave him a bowl of poison, telling him
to offer his troublesome wife the choice between death and peaceable
behaviour for the future. The lady instantly chose the former, and
drank up the bowl of _vinegar_, which the Emperor had substituted to
try her constancy. Subsequently, on his Majesty's recommendation, Fang
sent the young lady back to resume her duties as tire-woman to the
Empress. But the phrase lived, and has survived to this day.