VILLAGE CUSTOMS, FESTIVALS AND FOLK-LORE
The villages of Weihaiwei, so far as their domestic affairs are
concerned, are somewhat like so many little self-contained republics,
each with its own ancestral temple, its _t'u-ti miao_[96] or temple of
the local tutelary spirit, its theatre, its pasture-lands, its by-laws,
its graveyard, and its little band of elders under the leadership of
the headman. There is no regular village council. The "elders" are
simply the most influential or most respected of the inhabitants, and
their number is elastic. When important matters arise, affecting the
interests of the whole village, they discuss them in the headman's
house, or in a temple, or in the village street under the shade of an
old tree. Nothing is discussed with closed doors. The whole village,
including the women and children, may as a rule attend a meeting of
elders, and any one who wishes to air his views may do so, irrespective
of his age or position in the village. The elders have few privileges
that their fellow-villagers do not share, and the headman himself is
only _primus inter pares_. His authority, like that of the elders, is
chiefly derived from his position as head of the family or clan.
When all the people are bound together by ties of blood relationship,
as is the case in a typical Weihaiwei village, the bonds of family
life and the bonds of village life are one and the same. The senior
representative of the senior branch of the family holds as a rule a
double responsibility: as the head of the family he is the natural
arbitrator or judge in cases of domestic strife or petty crime, and as
headman of the village he is held, to a limited extent, responsible by
Government for the good conduct of his fellow-villagers. It is true
that in practice the headman is not always the senior representative
of the senior branch of the family. Under British rule, indeed, every
new headman is "confirmed" by Government and receives a _chih-chao_, or
official certificate of appointment. This applies both to the District
headmen[97] and to the headmen of villages. But in both theory and
practice the headman is the chosen of the people. He may fall into the
position with their tacit consent by virtue of the _patria potestas_,
or in consequence of his wealth, strong personality or social prestige;
or he may be definitely elected after a consultation among the heads of
families.
The position of headman is not altogether enviable, and there is little
or no competition for the filling of a vacancy. Sometimes, indeed,
it is only after a village has been threatened with a general fine
that it will make the necessary recommendation. This is especially
the case since the establishment of British rule, for Government
shows--or did show--a tendency in Weihaiwei to increase the headman's
responsibilities without giving him any compensating advantages.[98]
The headman, as such, has no very definite authority over the
individuals of his village, but every individual is bound by rigid
unwritten law to conform to the will of the _maior et sanior pars_,
and to fulfil his duties to the community even if they involve his own
discomfort.
It is true that the Chinese village cannot be said to possess
corporate unity. Even in Europe the evolution of the "juristic person"
was a slow process, and it is not likely that we shall find the
developed principles of corporate existence amid the heterogeneous
elements of village life in China, where there are no professional
lawyers to interpret indefinite social facts by the light of definite
legal fictions. Yet the germs of the theory of a _persona ficta_ may
perhaps be found in several features of the village-system. Most
villages, for instance, possess funds which are collected and disbursed
for the benefit or amusement of the inhabitants collectively; and
we usually find in the typical village a strongly-developed sense
of mutual responsibility and a general acceptance of the obligation
to co-operate for common ends. A man was once accused before me
of refusing to join his fellow-villagers in subscribing towards
the expenses of the local _hui_ with its inevitable theatrical
performances. He admitted in court that he was in the wrong and
undertook to contribute his proper share forthwith. Had this man been a
Christian the matter would not have been so easily disposed of. It is
well known that troubles have arisen in various parts of China through
the refusal of Christian converts to subscribe towards their village
entertainments on the ground that such entertainments were idolatrous
or involved the performance of pagan ceremonies. When one understands a
little of the Chinese village organisation one can see, perhaps, that
there is something to be said on the side of the indignant "pagans,"
and that the trouble has not necessarily arisen from their hostility to
the religious views, as such, of their converted fellow-villagers. It
is obvious that the solidarity of the village system would be severely
shaken if individuals were allowed to dissociate themselves at will
from the actions of the village as a whole.
As the Village does not possess a strictly corporate character, it
follows that though there may be pasture lands, wells, roads, and
other property which belong to all the inhabitants collectively, it
would be inaccurate to say that the Village as such is the ultimate
owner of, or has reversionary rights over any real property. If such
rights seem to be possessed by any given village they will be found
to rest on the fact that the village comprises a single family or
clan--village and family being, in fact, almost interchangeable terms;
but it is the family, not the village, that owns the land. If a village
has two "surnames," say Liu and Ch'i, it will never be found that
arable land is jointly owned by the Liu and the Ch'i families, though
both families may have equal customary rights (not definable in law)
over a tract of pasture-land. Another indication that the real entity
is the family and not the village may be found in the fact that many
old and long-established families "overflow," as it were, from their
original villages into many neighbouring villages, and still possess
a kind of unity entirely lacking to the villages as such. The Chiang
family, to take a specific example, is the sole or principal family in
the village of Chiang-chia-chai, but it is also the sole or predominant
partner in at least five villages within a radius of as many miles.
One outward sign of its essential unity consists in the old family
burying-ground, in which all the Chiangs in all these villages have
equal rights of sepulture.
[Illustration: A DISTRICT HEADMAN AND HIS COMPLIMENTARY TABLET (see p.
289).]
[Illustration: THREE VILLAGE HEADMEN (see p. 158).]
The peace of an ordinary Weihaiwei village is not often seriously
disturbed. The chief causes of trouble are bad-tempered women, who
form an appreciable proportion of the population. Robbers and other
law-breakers are few in number; not necessarily because the Chinese
are by nature more honest and respectable than other people, but
because the social system to which they belong is singularly well
adapted, in normal times at least, to prevent the outbreak of criminal
propensities. No village possesses any body of men whose special duty
it is to act as a police force, yet it is hardly an exaggeration to
say that every village is policed by its entire adult male population.
The bonds of family and village life are such that every male villager
finds himself directly or indirectly responsible for the good behaviour
of some one else. The bad characters of every village soon become
marked men. For minor offences, evil-doers are punished by their
neighbours in accordance with long-standing rules and by-laws; if they
are regarded as incorrigible, they are either expelled with ignominy
from the family and clan to which they belong[99] or they are handed
over for punishment to the nearest magistrate. Every unknown stranger
who arrives in a village is immediately treated with a disquieting
mixture of hospitality and suspicion. He is not interfered with so long
as he encroaches on nobody's rights, but all the villagers constitute
an informal band of amateur detectives for the purpose of keeping an
eye on his movements and ascertaining his intentions. He is regarded,
in fact, as a suspicious character until he settles down and becomes a
land-owner, and that--for reasons already explained--he can hardly ever
hope to do.
There are curious old customs which seem to indicate that even the
native of a village who returns home, after many years' residence
abroad, must in some places go through a kind of formal re-admission
before he is allowed to resume his position on the old footing
of equality. A man once came to me with a complaint which, under
cross-examination, he stated somewhat as follows: "I was nine years
absent from my village. When I went home a few days ago, I was ordered
by the people of the village to give a feast. I asked them to let me
postpone it for a few weeks. They did not say they were glad to see me
back. They insisted that the feast must be given at once. I am quite
willing to give it later on. It is a village custom. Any one who leaves
the village and stays away several years must provide a feast for the
heads of the village families when he returns. I have no fault to find
with the custom, only I want a few weeks' grace."
Nearly all villages in Weihaiwei have certain police regulations
which are made and promulgated by the local elders. They possess, of
course, no legal sanction, though they are frequently brought to the
British magistrates for approval and to be stamped with an official
seal. They consist of lists of punishable offences, and the penalties
attached to them: the money fines being imposed by the village or
clan elders, and applied by them to local uses. There is a good deal
of variety among these village regulations or _ts'un kuei_ in respect
of penalties, though the punishable offences are everywhere much the
same. They always repay inspection, for they throw an interesting
light on the local morality and the views held by the leaders of
public opinion as to the relative seriousness of different classes of
misdemeanours. A written copy of the _ts'un kuei_ is usually kept in
the family Ancestral Temple or in the headman's house. The following is
a translation of one of these documents:
"1. Trampling on or desecrating graves or
allowing domestic animals to desecrate graves
in the ancestral burial-ground 10 _tiao_.[100]
2. Usurping portions of the common pasture
land (_mu niu ch'ang_) or ploughing up
portions thereof 5 _tiao_.
3. Removing fuel from private land without
permission, and cutting willows and uprooting
shrubs and trees 3 _tiao_.
4. Allowing mules, ponies, pigs, sheep, or
other animals to feed on private ground
without the owner's permission 3 _tiao_.
5. Stealing crops 5 _tiao_.
6. Stealing manure from private gardens 3 _tiao_.
7. Moving boundary-stones 5 _tiao_.
8. Obstructing or blocking the right of way
to the common pasture land 5 _tiao_.
If any of the above offences are committed at night-time, the
punishment is Expulsion from the Village.
If any person having committed any of these offences declares that
he will die rather than pay his fine, let him be conveyed to the
magistrate.
The following are exempted from punishment as being irresponsible
for their actions and deserving of compassion: children under
twelve, dumb people, and imbeciles."
Very serious offences, such as housebreaking, violent assault,
homicide, and offences against morality are not mentioned in the
_ts'un kuei_, as neither Chinese nor British law would recognise the
power of the villagers to take upon themselves the punishment of such
crimes. The very prevalent vice of gambling is sometimes but not always
punishable under the _kuei_. It occupies a conspicuous place in the
_kuei_ published by the East and West villages of Ch'ü-chia-chuang, of
which the following is a translation:
"1. Gambling:
(_a_) The owner of the house where
gambling takes place to be fined 30 _tiao_.
(_b_) Each gambler to be fined 5 _tiao_.
(_c_) Persons of the village who gamble
outside the village, but within
the limits of the village lands, to
be fined 2 _tiao_.
(_d_) Gamblers under fifteen years of
age to be fined 2 _tiao_.
2. Any person who unlawfully digs up his
neighbor's grass and shrubs, to be fined 500 _cash_.[101]
3. Any person who steals manure from
private gardens, if the offence is committed
in daytime, to be fined 500 _cash_.
4. The perpetrator of the same offence, if
it is committed at night, to be fined 2 _tiao_.
5. Any person who steals crops from the
fields or vegetables or fruit from private
gardens, if he is adult, to be fined 3 _tiao_.
6. Any child who commits the same offence,
to be fined 200 _cash_.
The above Rules have been made by the whole Village in council, and
must be obeyed by every one, irrespective of age and sex. If any
offender refuses to pay his fine the headman and elders will report
him to the magistrate, who will be asked to inflict punishment."
The following is a translation of a similar document in which the
penalties imposed are somewhat light; but in this case the _kuei_ are
of ancient date and the _tiao_ was worth a great deal more than at
present.
"1. Gambling Fine levied according
to circumstances.
2. Cutting trees and shrubs 1 _tiao_.
3. Stealing crops 1 _tiao_.
4. Gleaning in the harvest-fields without
permission 1 _tiao_.
5. Feeding cattle in a neighbour's field
after harvest 1 _tiao_.
6. Uprooting grass and shrubs 500 _cash_.
7. Climbing over private walls and
stealing manure or removing soil 500 _cash_.
8. Stealing fuel at night 5 _tiao_.
9. Stealing silk-worms or cocoons Fine levied according
to circumstances.
10. Knocking down chestnuts with sticks 500 _cash_.
11. Allowing dogs to go on the _ts'an ch'ang_
(silk-worm feeding-ground) and eat the
silk-worms[102] 500 _cash_.
Headmen and elders who are found guilty of any of the above
offences will incur double the specified penalty.
If doubtful[103] characters enter the village and create a
disturbance, the heads of all the families will hold a meeting to
decide what is to be done with them."
We have seen that a large number of the villages of Weihaiwei are
named after the families that inhabit them. But when a single
prosperous family has "overflowed" into a number of other villages
it is necessary to differentiate between them, and the names given
have often some reference to the outward aspect of the locality.
For example, the name Sha-li-Wang-chia means the village of the
"Wang-family-who-live-in-the-sand." As a matter of fact this village
is situated near the sea-shore amid rolling sandhills, so the name is
appropriate enough. Similarly the name Sung-lin-Kuo-chia means "the
Kuo family of the Pine-grove." There are also such village names as
Willow-grove, Black Rock, Thatched Temple, North-of-the-Ku-mountain,
North-of-the-Pheasant-hill, White-pony Village. Sometimes pieces
of family-land are given fancy names for the convenience of
identification. The _Ssŭ-lao-p'o kou_ is "the ditch of the dead woman,"
apparently because a female's corpse was once found there: but as this
name struck the owner as being unlucky and likely to bring misfortune
on his family, he changed the "tone" of the first word, which
transformed the phrase into "the ditch of the four old wives."
Men have their nicknames as well as places. Such names generally
emphasise the owner's moral or physical peculiarities, and are often
highly appropriate. The name Liu T'ieh-tsui, for instance, means Liu
of the Iron Mouth--an allusion to his argumentative nature and love
of brawling. Chou Lü, or Chou the Donkey, implies just what it would
imply in England. One man writhes under the name Yü Hsieh-tzŭ--Yü
the Scorpion--because his neighbours look upon him as a poisonous
creature. Another is known as Wang Ko-p'i-tzŭ--Wang Gash-skin--because
he is possessed of a knife-like sharpness of tongue. Yet another is
spoken of as Chang T'ien Tzŭ--Chang the Son of Heaven, or Chang the
Emperor--because he is the tyrant of his village.
The food of the people, as everywhere in China, is largely vegetarian,
but fish (dried and fresh) is naturally eaten by all classes in
Weihaiwei, and pork is consumed by all except the very poorest. The
Chinese, it seems clear, would willingly endorse the judgment given in
the _Anatomy of Melancholy_, where we are told that "pork of all meats
is most nutritive in his own nature." Rice--the staple food in south
China--is something of a luxury, as it has to be imported. There is a
kind of "dry-rice"[104] grown in Shantung, but it is not a common crop
in Weihaiwei. The ordinary grain-crops are wheat, millet, maize, barley
and buckwheat. The wheat is harvested about the end of June and early
in July. Immediately after the harvest the fields are ploughed up and
sown with beans. The land is cultivated to its utmost capacity, and it
need hardly be said that the farmer takes care to waste no material
that may be useful for manuring purposes. Most fields are made to yield
at least three crops every two years, and as the rotation of crops is
well understood it is seldom that land is allowed to lie fallow.
In recent years very large areas have been devoted to pea-nuts,
which are exported from Weihaiwei to the southern parts in enormous
quantities and have become a source of considerable profit. Vegetables
are grown in large quantities and include asparagus, onions, cabbage,
garlic, celery, spinach, beans and sweet potatoes. Fruit is not
cultivated to any great extent, though there are apples, peaches,
apricots, plums, pears, melons and some other varieties, most of
which are inferior to similar fruit grown in England. The services
of an English fruit-grower were obtained by the British Government
of Weihaiwei during the years 1905-8 with the two chief objects of
testing the suitability of the district for fruit-cultivation and
inducing the people if possible to make fruit-growing an important
local industry. Partly owing to lack of enterprise and to a want of
familiarity with the conditions under which fruit could be exported or
profitably disposed of, the people have not responded to the efforts of
the Government with any enthusiasm; but that Weihaiwei is a suitable
locality for fruit-growing as well as for the cultivation of many kinds
of vegetables has been amply demonstrated. The grape-vine flourishes
provided reasonable precautions are taken against insect-pests.[105]
Of English fruits which do well in Weihaiwei are apples, pears, plums,
black-currants and strawberries. Of the last-named fruit it has been
reported that "English varieties grow and crop splendidly, and the
fruit is equal in every way to first-class fruit of the same varieties
grown at home. All the varieties introduced proved to be perfectly
hardy without any protection whatever."
Weihaiwei is not without game of various kinds, though the want of
sufficient cover keeps down the numbers of many game-birds that would
otherwise thrive. Woodcock are rare, and pheasants rarer still;
but partridges are to be found in certain localities such as the
neighbourhood of Lin-chia-yüan, near Wên-ch'üan-t'ang, and other
hill-districts. The coasts are visited by various kinds of duck and
teal, wild geese are common enough in winter, and the wild swan has
been shot occasionally; but the best sport is provided in spring
and autumn by the snipe. The record "bag," so far as I am aware, is
ninety-five and a half couple of snipe in one day to two guns. The
local Annals tell us that a small spotted deer, and also wild boar,
used to be common among the hills of Weihaiwei, but they are now
unknown. The Manchurian Muntjak tiger (_Felis brachyurus_) has also
disappeared. Mount Macdonald and other wild parts of the Territory
harbour a few wolves which occasionally raid the outskirts of a village
and kill pigs and other animals. In seasons of famine, as we have
seen,[106] the wolves of Weihaiwei have been something of a scourge,
but they have greatly decreased in numbers in recent years. Foxes are
occasionally seen, and there are said to be some wild cats. Hares are
numerous, and until the disbandment of the Chinese Regiment they were
regularly hunted with a pack of harriers.
Agriculture, fishing and the manufacture of a rough silk form the
principal industries of the people. The silk-worms are fed not on the
mulberry but, as already mentioned, on the leaves of the scrub-oak,
which now covers large areas of mountain land that would otherwise
be totally unproductive. One may often notice, about the months of
June and July, small shreds of red cloth tied to the oak-shrubs on
which the silk-worms are feeding. Red is the colour which betokens
happiness and success, and rags of that colour when tied to shrubs and
fruit-trees are supposed to act as charms, guaranteeing the success
of the fruit and silk crops, and keeping away injurious insects. Men
who are engaged in the work of _fang-ts'an_--putting out the worms on
the oak-leaves--make success surer by adorning the front of their own
coats with similar pieces of red cloth. They also invoke the sympathy
and help of the _shan-shên_, or Spirit of the Mountain, by erecting
miniature shrines to that deity.
If the Weihaiwei villages are not in themselves objects of beauty they
are often surrounded by groves of trees which go far to conceal their
less attractive features; and many of the cottages have little gardens
which if chiefly devoted to vegetables are seldom quite destitute of
flowers. The peony, chrysanthemum, wild lilies and roses, spiræa,
hibiscus, jasmine, sunflower, campanula, iris and Michaelmas daisy are
all common, and a few experiments made since the British occupation
prove that numerous English flowers such as the Canterbury Bell,
mignonette, carnation, aster, wall-flower, geranium and many others,
in spite of an uneven rainfall and extremes of heat and cold seldom
experienced in England, find a congenial home in Weihaiwei. Many of
the flowering plants are prized for their medicinal qualities, real or
supposed. The sunflower-seed--as in India and Russia--is used as a food
for both men and animals, and the leaves and stems are said to make
good fodder. A little purple wildflower named _ching tzŭ_ that grows on
sandy soil near the sea-side is in some localities eaten by women on
account of its magical efficacy in giving strength to unborn children:
but this superstition seems to be dying out.
The trees in the neighbourhood of villages and in graveyards are
common property, and it is very rarely, therefore, that they are cut
down: elsewhere trees are very few, and timber is so scarce that
large quantities are imported yearly from Manchuria.[107] Some of the
principal trees of the Territory are the fir (_Pinus Thunbergii_ and
_Pinus Massoniana_), ailanthus, _wu-t'ung_ (_Paulonia imperialis_) and
white poplar; and there are also cypress, walnut, _ch'iu_ (_Catalpa_),
pomegranate, wax-tree,[108] the beautiful maidenhair tree (_Salisbaria
adiantifolia_)[109] and the _huai shu_ (_Sophora japonica_).
Among the trees introduced since the British occupation, the acacia,
Lombardy poplar, laburnum, yew and some others thrive in the Territory,
but the oak, sycamore, elm, birch, mountain-ash and many other trees
well known in England have hitherto proved failures. From the present
denuded condition of the hills one would hardly suppose that the people
of Weihaiwei cared much for trees: yet as a matter of fact they value
them highly for their shade and for their beauty. Public opinion is
strongly averse to the wanton destruction of all trees and herbage.
An illustration of this is given in the local records. "It is a very
evil thing," says the _Weihaiwei Chih_, "to set fire to the woods and
shrubs, and pitifully cruel to the living animals that are made to
suffer thereby. In the Shun Chih period [about 1650] Chiang Ping and
his sons used to behave in this dreadful manner at Li Shan [a few miles
from Weihaiwei city]. They received numberless warnings but never would
they depart from their evil courses. One day they were going home from
market and lit a fire on the hillside. Suddenly when the fire had begun
to blaze a fierce wind sprang up, and Chiang Ping and his three sons
were all burned to death. This is a warning that men should take to
heart."
The compilers of the _Jung-ch'êng Chih_ sum up the character and
manners of the people in a way that hardly needs amplification and
shows what are the features that strike a Chinese observer as of
special interest. "They are very simple and somewhat uncouth and
unpolished," he says, "but they are honest. They have some good old
customs and show by their conduct that they are guided by the light of
nature more than by learning. The men are independent and self-reliant;
the women are frugal, modest, and are most careful of their chastity.
If they lose that they hold life as worthless. The men till the land;
the women spin. The people are stupid at business of a mercantile
nature: merchants therefore are few. Many strangers from other
districts live on the islands and in the market-centres.[110] In bad
years when the harvests are scanty and there is a dearth of grain the
hill-grasses and wild herbs are used as food. Clansmen, relatives, and
neighbours take pity on each other's distress, hence one rarely hears
of the sale of boys and girls.[111] ... Betrothals are arranged when the
principals are still in their swaddling-clothes, and thus (owing to
deaths and other causes) marriages often fail to take place. Babyhood
is certainly too early a time for betrothals.[112] There are too many
betrothals between people of different districts: hence one may find
women over thirty years of age still unmarried.[113] This tends to the
grave injury of morals. When betrothals are discussed it is considered
by all disgraceful to hold mercenary views[114] or to aim at riches and
honours. It is also considered discreditable to give a girl to a man as
a concubine."[115]
The "uncouthness" of the people must be understood in a relative sense
only. In spite of the fact that the great majority are illiterate they
possess in a marked degree the natural courtesy that characterises
so many Oriental races. In considering this point with reference to
Chinese in general one must not ignore the fact that they have been
often guilty of rudeness and even savage brutality in their intercourse
with Western foreigners; but to regard rudeness and brutality as
permanent or prominent elements in the Chinese character would be
absurd, for if such were the case every Chinese village would be
in a chronic state of social chaos. Outbursts against foreigners,
however inexcusable from a moral standpoint, are always traceable to
some misunderstanding, to foreign acts of aggression or acts which
the Chinese rightly or wrongly interpret as acts of aggression, or
to abnormal political or social conditions for which foreigners are
rightly or wrongly held responsible. Most unprejudiced foreigners are
willing to admit that in normal times the Chinese are a singularly
courteous people, except when they have taken on a veneer of Western
civilisation in the treaty-ports[116] and have lost their national
graces. If the Chinese behave politely to foreigners--whom they do not
like--we may well suppose that in social intercourse with one another
their manners are still more courteous: and this is undoubtedly true.
Their rules of ceremony may seem, from the foreigner's point of view,
too stiff and artificial, or exasperating in their pedantic minuteness.
The European is inclined to laugh at social laws which indicate
with preciseness when and how a mourner should wail at a funeral,
what expressions a man must use when paying visits of condolence or
congratulation, what clothes must be worn on different occasions, how
a visitor must be greeted, how farewells are to be said, how modes of
salutation are to be differentiated and how chairs are to be sat upon.
But, after all, every race has its own code of polite manners, and
rules that impress a foreigner as intolerably formal or as ludicrous
seem quite natural to one who has been accustomed to them from his
earliest childhood. The rules of Chinese etiquette may be stiff,
but there is no stiffness about the Chinese gentleman--or about the
illiterate Chinese peasant--when he is acting in accordance with those
rules.
Gambling has been mentioned as one of the vices of the people. That
this should be a common failing among the Chinese is not a matter of
surprise, seeing that there is probably no race among whom the gambling
instinct is not to be found. It is, perhaps, specially likely to
develop itself strongly among a people who, through lack of general
culture, are at a loss to find suitable occupations for their leisure
hours. The Chinese, however, delight in games for their own sake, as is
evident from their fondness for their own somewhat complicated forms
of chess and similar games. Serious cases of gambling are of course
punished by the law. A new penal offence is opium-smoking, which now
can be indulged in only by persons who hold a medical certificate.
According to the official lists prepared by the local Government, the
number of people who may be regarded as inveterate smokers amounts to
no more than (if as many as) one per cent. of the population: but there
is a certain amount of secret smoking and doubtless a good deal of
smuggling.
On the whole, it cannot be said that opium seems to have done any
very serious harm to the health or morals of the people of this
district,--not, at least, as compared with the havoc wrought by alcohol
in England and Scotland. If the experience of Weihaiwei goes for
anything, the view sometimes held that opium-smokers must necessarily
become slaves to the drug is an erroneous one. Many persons who were
in the habit of indulging in an occasional pipe of opium at festive
gatherings have now abjured the seductive drug without a sigh,
and--judging from a few rather ominous indications--seem inclined
to take to the wine-pot as a substitute. It may be only a curious
coincidence that while I have been obliged to punish only six Chinese
for drunkenness during a period of about five years, all six cases have
occurred since the establishment of the new anti-opium regulations in
1909.
The Chinese have great reverence for book-learning, but poverty and
the necessity for hard work from an early age have made it hopeless
for the Weihaiwei villager to aspire to erudition. Every large village
and every group of small villages have schools, but they are attended
only by a small though gradually increasing proportion of the village
children. The schoolmasters, moreover, are neither a very zealous nor
a very learned body,--not a surprising fact when it is remembered that
they receive no more than a bare living wage. At present the proportion
of villagers who can read and write is very small--probably under ten
per cent.--and even the headmen are often unable to sign their own
names.
Not much progress in education has been made under British rule, for
the resources of the Government are meagre in the extreme. A Government
school at Port Edward and one or two missionary schools provide
elementary education for a few dozen children, but very little has
been done to improve the village schools. It need hardly be said that
except in the Government and missionary schools the education, such
as it is, is confined to the orthodox curriculum of "Old China": the
flood of Western learning has not yet affected the little backwater of
Weihaiwei except to the extent of rousing a certain limited interest in
such subjects as geography and arithmetic.
Writing of present-day conditions, a Chinese diplomatist in the United
States has stated that "John Stuart Mill, Huxley, Spencer, Darwin
and Henry George, just to mention a few of the leading scholars of
the modern age, are as well known in China as in this country. The
doctrine of the survival of the fittest is on the lips of every
thinking Chinese.... Western knowledge is being absorbed by our young
men at home or abroad at a rapid rate, and the mental power of a large
part of four hundred millions of people, formerly concentrated on the
Confucian classics, is being turned in a new direction--the study of
the civilisation of the West."[117] These remarks are true enough of a
large and rapidly growing number of the Chinese people: but Weihaiwei
and the neighbouring regions have more in common with the Old China
that is passing away than with the New China that is coming and to
come.
The ignorance of the people of Weihaiwei is naturally accompanied by
many strange fancies and crude superstitions. Some of these must be
considered when we are dealing with the religious ideas of the people;
here it will be sufficient to mention a few of the miscellaneous
notions that seem to be connected with no definite religious faith.
There are, of course, ghosts and devils of many kinds and of varying
degrees of malevolence. One means of protecting oneself against these
dreadful creatures is to engage a fortune-teller or a Taoist priest to
provide a charm (_fu_),[118] the mere presence of which is supposed to
throw a whole army of demons into helpless confusion. Children, it is
thought, are specially liable to injury from evil spirits, and many
of them have charms or talismans carefully sewn into their clothes. A
piece of red cloth or a few scarlet threads woven into the queue are
understood to answer the purpose nearly as well. A disagreeable monster
called the Celestial Dog (_T'ien Kou_) is supposed to be the cause of
ill-temper and petulance in small children; but even he can be got rid
of by nailing a cunningly-prepared charm above the afflicted child's
bed. It is curious that a dog (a black one) also plays an undignified
part in the nursery-mythology of our own happy land. Whether the
Western dog would yield to the same treatment as the Eastern one is a
question that might easily be solved by any parent who is prepared to
make use of the charm here reproduced.[119]
Weihaiwei also has its witches (_wu p'o_) and diviners (often called
_suan kua hsien-shêng_), who by acting as trance-mediums between the
living and the dead, or by manipulating little wands of bamboo or
peach-wood,[120] or by the use of a kind of _planchette_, profess to
be able to foretell the future[121] or to answer questions regarding
the present and past, or to disclose where stolen property has been
concealed and by whom it has been taken. I have personally known of a
case in which a thief was captured by means of the indications given
by a fortune-teller. His method was to take a small stick in each
hand and point them both in front of him, keeping his clenched hands
close to his sides. He then moved slowly round, and when the sticks
were pointing in the direction the thief had gone the points came
together.[122] No doubt there is as much make-believe and quackery
about these mysterious doings as there is in the similar practices of
many so-called mediums in the West; but I am unwilling to believe that
"there is nothing in it." Some day, let us hope, the "spiritualism" of
China will be thoroughly studied by scientific investigators, and it
will be surprising if the results do not form a most valuable addition
to the material collected by the European and American societies for
psychical research.[123]
[Illustration: PROTECTIVE CHARMS USED IN WEIHAIWEI.]
Witches and mediums in Weihaiwei are often applied to for remedies in
cases of bodily sickness, for it is supposed that what such persons do
not know about herbs and drugs is not worth knowing; and the fact that
they are able to throw a little magic into their brews naturally makes
their concoctions much more valuable than those provided by ordinary
doctors. Chinese medicines, as every one knows, often consist of highly
disagreeable ingredients,[124] but some--even when compounded by
witches and other uncanny healers--are comparatively harmless. Certain
methods of treatment for the bite of a mad dog may perhaps be cited as
typical products of the combined arts of medicine and witchcraft in
Weihaiwei. The simplest method is to boil the mad dog's liver, heart
and lungs, and make the patient eat them. Another is to make a number
of little wheat-cakes, moulded into a dog's shape, and administer them
to the patient one by one. As he consumes them he should sit at the
front door of his house and repeatedly utter in a loud and determined
voice the words, "I am not going to die; I am not going to die." This
procedure is evidently a curious blend of something like sympathetic
magic and cure by self-suggestion. Have the Chinese anticipated the
methods of the well-meaning persons who call themselves Christian
Scientists? A third way of providing against hydrophobia is to take
some of the hairs of the mad dog and burn them to ashes; the ashes
are then mixed in a cup of rice-wine and imbibed by the patient. The
idea that the hair of a mad dog will cure the person who has had the
misfortune to be bitten must be very widespread, for it existed in
the British Isles and there is a reference to it in the Scandinavian
Edda.[125]
Those who are familiar with the mazes of folk-lore will not be
surprised to hear that the madness of a person who suffers from
hydrophobia is supposed by many people in Weihaiwei to communicate
itself to the very clothes he wears. "If the clothes are put aside
in a heap," said one of my informants, "they will be seen to quiver
and tremble, and sometimes they will leap about as if alive." Being
a truthful man, he added, "I have never actually seen this happen
myself." In the market-village of Fêng-lin there is a man of some
local celebrity who is said to have effected many remarkable cures of
hydrophobia by means of a recipe which he jealously guards as a family
secret.
If his prescription cannot be given here, another (supposed to
be equally efficacious) may take its place. Cut the tips off a
couple of chopsticks (the Oriental substitute for knife and fork),
pound them into a pulp and stew them for an hour; add an ounce of
hempen-fibre, burnt almost to ashes, and some morsels of the herb
known as _ch'ing-fêng-t'êng_. The chopsticks must be of wood, painted
red, and they must be old ones that have been often used. The tips
consist of the thin ends employed in picking up food. The whole mixture
should be well mixed together and boiled in water, and administered
to the patient as a liquid drug. The prescription adds that while
undergoing this treatment the patient should beware of yielding himself
to feelings of nervousness; that for three days he must shun cold
or uncooked food; and that owing to the singular efficacy of this
medicine, he need not avoid crossing rivers. The mention of the ends
of chopsticks as an ingredient in this preparation seems curious, and
specially noteworthy is the fact that the medicinal virtue resides
only in old chopsticks, not in new ones. As this ingredient appears
in other Chinese medicines besides those intended for the cure of
hydrophobia, it may be conjectured that some health-giving quality
is supposed to pass into the tips of chopsticks from the food which
they manipulate, and that this quality can be transferred from the
chopsticks to a living person by the simple process of conveying them
in a minced form into his physical system. The red colour is merely
intended to improve their efficacy, for red is the hue of health and
good luck. The reference to crossing rivers is also worthy of notice.
The theory of the Chinese in Weihaiwei is that the man who has been
bitten by a rabid dog is liable to be seized by paroxysms of madness if
he crosses flowing water. The word hydrophobia (dread of water) is thus
as applicable to the popular conception of the disease in China as in
Europe, though the belief that the human patient or the mad dog will
refuse water as a beverage does not seem to be known in Weihaiwei.
The lives of the Weihaiwei villagers are brightened and diversified by
a good number of festivals and holidays. Most of these are observed
all over China, others are of local importance, while some of the
customs and ceremonies now to be described are observed only in certain
villages. The universal holiday-season in China consists of course of
the first few days of the New Year, which falls about a month--more
or less--later than the corresponding festival in the West. After
the hour of _wu kêng_ (3 a.m.) on the first day of the year, torches
are lighted and certain religious or semi-religious observances take
place, consisting of the worship of Heaven and Earth (_T'ien Ti_),
the Hearth-god and the Ancestors of the family, and the ceremonial
salutation of father and mother by their children, and of uncles and
aunts and elder brothers by their respective nephews and younger
brothers. Fire crackers are let off at intervals during the morning
and throughout the day, and from dawn onwards visits of ceremony are
exchanged between relations and neighbours. The Ancestral Temple is
also visited, and incense burned before the spirit-tablets and the
pedigree-scrolls, which are unrolled only on solemn occasions. In
conversation all reference to unhappy or unlucky subjects is tabooed,
as likely to bring misfortune on the family in whose house such remarks
are made.[126]
On going out of doors for the first time care should be taken to
choose a "lucky" spot for the first footstep. If a person slip or
fall when going out to pay ceremonial visits on New Year's Day, it is
believed that he will bring disaster on his own family as well as on
the families visited. For the first three days of the year the floors
of the house are left unswept. The idea at the root of this custom
apparently is that anything thrown or swept out of the house will take
the "good luck" of the house with it; even dirty water and the refuse
of food must remain indoors until the critical three days are past.
New Year is the season of new clothes, and red is, of course, the
colour chiefly displayed. Special care is taken to dress the children
in the best and most brightly-coloured garments obtainable, as evil
spirits hate the sight of such things, and will remain at a respectful
distance. At the eaves of the roof are often hung hemp-stalks, which
are said to bring perpetual advancement and long life.[127] The
observation of the skies on New Year's Day is a matter of importance.
If the wind blows from the south-east the next harvest will be a
splendid one. If the clouds are tinged with red and yellow it will be
moderately good; if they are dark and gloomy it will be very poor.
"The Beginning of Spring" or _Li Ch'un_ is a movable feast, falling
usually in the first moon. The ceremonies observed have reference to
agriculture, and though they are chiefly official in character they
are considered of great importance to the farming public. Ages ago the
essential part of the proceedings was the slaughter of an ox, which was
offered as a sacrifice to the god of Agriculture--generally identified
with the legendary Emperor Shên Nung (B.C. 2838). Nowadays the place
of the ox is taken by a cheaper substitute. On the eve of _Li Ch'un_
the local magistrate and his attendants go in procession to the eastern
suburbs of the city for the purpose of ceremonially "meeting the
Spring."[128] Theatrical performers, singing as they go, and musicians
with cymbals and flutes, follow the sedan-chairs of the officials,
and after them are carried the Spring Ox[129]--not a real animal, but
a great effigy made of stiff paper--and a similar paper image of a
man, known as _Mang-Shên_, who represents either the typical ox-driver
or ploughman or the god of Agriculture.[130] When the procession has
"met the Spring" outside the city walls it returns to the magisterial
yamên, and there the magistrate and his principal colleagues, armed
with wands decorated with strips of coloured paper, go through the form
of prodding and beating the ox by way of "making him work" and giving
an official impetus to agricultural labour. When this ceremony is over
the paper ox is solemnly "sacrificed"--that is, he is committed to the
flames; and a similar fate befalls the _Mang-Shên_. Besides the paper
ox, a miniature ox made of clay is also supposed to be provided. The
clay ox, so far as I can ascertain, dates from a remote period when
it was considered necessary that the ox-effigy which was carried in
procession and sacrificed should for symbolical reasons be made of
earth or clay. When paper was substituted, conservatism demanded that
oxen of clay should continue to be made as before--for show if not for
use.[131]
While the images of the ox and _Mang-Shên_ are being prepared for the
approaching festival, a careful examination under official direction
is made of the newly-issued New Year's Almanac--the Chinese Zadkiel;
and the effigies are dressed up and decorated in accordance with
the prophecies and warnings of that publication. Hence the crowds
of people who go out to watch the procession on its way to meet the
Spring do so not only as a holiday diversion but also for the purpose
of inspecting the colours and trappings of the effigies and thereby
informing themselves of agricultural prospects for the ensuing year.
The prognostications are founded partly on astrology, partly on the _pa
kua_ or mystic diagrams of the _I Ching_ (Book of Changes), and partly
on calculations connected with _fêng-shui_. The colours and apparel
of the effigies correspond on an arbitrary system with the forecasts
of the Almanac. Thus if the people see that the head of the ox is
painted yellow, they know that great heat is foretold for the coming
summer; if it is green, there will be much sickness in the spring; if
red, there will be a drought; if black, there will be much rain; if
white, there will be high winds and storms. The _Mang-Shên_, also, is
a silent prophet of the seasons. If he wears a hat the year will be
dry; if he wears no hat there will be rain; shoes, similarly, indicate
very heavy rain; absence of shoes, drought; abundance of body-clothing,
great heat; lightness of clothing, cold weather. Finally, a red belt on
the _Mang-Shên_ indicates much sickness and many deaths; a white one,
general good health.
It will be noticed that the _Mang-Shên_, being a spirit, behaves in
a precisely contrary manner to ordinary mankind, and his garments
indicate exactly the opposite of what they would indicate if they were
worn by a living man. Thus he wears heavy clothes in hot weather,
light ones in cold weather; and as red is among men the colour that
denotes joy and prosperity and white betokens grief and mourning,
so the Mang-Shên wears red to indicate death and white to indicate
life and health. Thus it is that naughty children who take delight in
doing the opposite of what they are told to do are sometimes by their
long-suffering parents called "little Mang-Shên" or "T'ai Sui."
The Lantern Festival[132] is assigned to the fifteenth day of the
first month. As the Chinese year is strictly determined by lunations,
this means of course that the festival occurs at the time of the first
full moon of the year. Coloured-paper lanterns are hung at the doors
of houses and shops and are also carried in procession. Above the
doors of the houses are often hung fir-branches, betokening prosperity
and especially longevity.[133] The family eat little round cakes of
glutinous rice which, being supposed to represent the full moon,[134]
may be called moon-cakes. There is no doubt that in remote times the
fifteenth of the first and the fifteenth of the eighth months were
devoted to moon-worship. A curious custom observed at the Lantern
Festival is called the _tsou pai ping_--"the expulsion of disease."
In some localities this merely consists in a procession of villagers
across the neighbouring bridges, the procession returning home by
a route other than that by which they set out. The popular notion
obviously is that sickness is caused by invisible beings of a malignant
nature who on the occasion of this festival can be driven across
the local streams and so expelled from the village.[135] In other
localities the expulsion of disease is on this occasion performed only
by women, who do not necessarily cross bridges but simply walk out into
the fields and back by a different route. Male villagers perform a
similar ceremony on the ninth of the ninth month.
[Illustration: FIRST-FULL-MOON STILT-WALKERS (see p. 183).]
[Illustration: "WALKING BOATS" AT THE FIRST-FULL-MOON FESTIVAL (see p.
184).]
So far as Weihaiwei is concerned the Feast of Lanterns may be regarded
as pre-eminently the holiday season for children. During several days
before and after the fifteenth of the first month bands of young
village boys dress up in strange garments and go about by day and night
acting queer little plays, partly in dumb-show and partly in speech,
dance and song. Some of them wear the terrifying masks of wild beasts,
such as lions, a few assume the white beards of old men, and many are
attired in girls' clothing. The children perform their parts with great
vivacity, and go through their masquerades, dances and chorus-singing
in a manner that would do credit to the juvenile performers at a
provincial English pantomime. They are, indeed, taught their parts
and trained by their elders for some weeks before the festival. Every
group of villages keeps a stock of masks, false beards, clothes and
other "properties," and there are always adults who take pleasure in
teaching the little ones the songs and dances which they themselves
learned as children in bygone days. In daytime the dressed-up children
take a prominent part in processions to the local temples. On such
occasions many of them are perched on high stilts, which they manage
with great skill. At night they carry large lighted Chinese lanterns
and march amid music and song through the streets of their native
village, or from one village to another, stopping occasionally in front
of a prominent villager's house to act their little play or perform a
lantern-dance.[136]
No European who has seen a lantern-dance in a Shantung village can
fail to be delighted. The graceful movements of the children, their
young voices ringing clear in the frosty air, the astonishing dexterity
with which they manipulate the swinging lanterns, the weird effect of
rapidly-interchanging light and shadow as the gleaming paper moons
thread the bewildering mazes of a complicated country-dance,--all these
things combine to please the eye and charm the ear. Not the least
interesting part of the proceedings is the obvious pleasure taken by
the crowds of adult spectators in the performances of their little
ones: for the Chinese are devoted to children.
[Illustration: MASQUERADERS AT FESTIVAL OF FIRST FULL MOON.]
[Illustration: GROUP OF VILLAGERS WATCHING FIRST-FULL-MOON
MASQUERADERS.]
The next notable festival of the year is a movable feast known as the
"Awakening of the Torpid Insects," generally held early in the second
month. In many villages it is customary to rise before dawn and cook
a kind of dumpling, which as it "rises" is supposed to assist Nature
in her work of awakening the sluggish or dormant vitality of animals
and of vegetation. The presiding deity of this festival is, naturally
enough, the Sun, and it is to him that the dumplings are offered.
Similar offerings are made by the Emperor himself in his capacity of
High Priest. It is believed that if on the evening of this day children
wash their faces in a kind of soup made from a certain shrub (_Lycium
chinense_)[137] they will never be ill and never grow old. This reminds
us of the old English belief that young people will preserve their
youthful beauty indefinitely by going into the fields before breakfast
on the first of May and washing their faces in May dew.[138]
On the eighth of the second month it is thought that by observing the
direction of the wind it is possible to foretell whether the ensuing
weather will be favourable or otherwise to the crops. If the wind comes
from the south-east there will be a good rainfall; if it comes from the
north-west there will be a drought.
The fifteenth of the second month is known as _Hua Chao_, "the morning
of flowers,"--for it is supposed to be the flowers' birthday.[139]
The festival of Cold Food (_Han Shih_)--so called because it was once
customary to partake of no hot provisions on this day and to light
no fire--occurs on the eve of the Ch'ing-Ming festival. The Chinese
in Weihaiwei have no clear idea why cold food was compulsory on this
occasion, but the custom is undoubtedly connected with the ancient
rite, once prevalent in many parts of the world, of kindling "new fire"
once a year. The Chinese _Han Shih_ would thus represent an intervening
day between the extinction of the old fire and the lighting of the
new. The custom seems to be connected with sun-worship. "The solar
rite of the New Fire," says Dr. Tylor, "adopted by the Roman Church
as a paschal ceremony, may still be witnessed in Europe, with its
solemn curfew on Easter Eve and the ceremonial striking of the new holy
fire."[140] Another writer observes that "formerly throughout England
the house-fires were allowed to go out on Easter Sunday, after which
the chimney and fireplace were completely cleaned and the fire once
more lighted."[141] It is curious to note that similar observances took
place even on the American continent. "In Peru, as in Mexico," says a
writer on the religious systems of ancient America,[142] "there was a
solemn religious ceremony of renewing at stated periods, by special
generation, the fire used in the temples and even in the households....
It is one of the oldest rites of the human race, and it has survived
under all religions alike down to the other day, when perhaps it
received its death-blow from the lucifer match."
The Ch'ing-Ming or "Pure and Bright" festival is as carefully observed
at Weihaiwei as elsewhere throughout China. It is a movable feast
generally occurring early in the third Chinese month.[143] Edible
delicacies of various kinds are diligently prepared in every household
and taken to the family graveyard to be sacrificially offered to the
ancestral spirits. At this season, and at the corresponding festival
held on the first day of the tenth month, all the members of the
family who can attend prostrate themselves on the ground in front of
their ancestors' graves.[144] These observances are known as _shang
fên_--"going up to the tombs."[145] This is one of the occasions on
which family reunions take place. It is a holiday season and there is
plenty of jollity and feasting; but the sacrifices and the "sweeping
of tombs" are regarded as sacred duties, the omission of which through
negligence would show a discreditable lack of filial piety and might
entail misfortune on the present and future generations of the
family. The virtues of obedience and submission to authority are also
emphasised at this season in the village schools, where the pupils
formally salute their teachers. An old custom sometimes observed at
this time is the wearing of willow-leaves on the head. This is supposed
to produce good weather for agriculture. This practice is not so common
in Weihaiwei as in Shansi and some parts of Chihli and Honan, where
in seasons of drought--only too common in those parts--men and boys
go about for many days wearing on their heads wreaths made of fresh
willow-branches. The willow is a tree that loves water and the banks of
rivers, and willow-wreaths are therefore regarded as rain-charms.[146]
In the third month comes the festival of Corn-rain (_Ku Yü_). This is
the appropriate time for obtaining written charms as antidotes against
snakes and grubs and venomous or destructive reptiles and insects in
general.
The so-called Dragon Festival[147] is held on the fifth day of
the fifth month. This is the occasion on which the well-known
dragon-boat races take place at Canton and elsewhere in south China.
According to tradition, the festival was inaugurated in memory of
a high-minded statesman and poet named Ch'ü Yüan of the Ch'ü State
(south of the Yangtse) who was driven to commit suicide in the fourth
century B.C. It is with the simulated object of recovering his body
that the dragon-boats--so named from their length and peculiar
shape--annually dash through the waters of the southern rivers. But
there are no boat-races of this kind at Weihaiwei. Little cakes
called _tsung-tzŭ_--made of rice or millet with a morsel of fruit or
sweetmeat inside--are eaten by the people; but there seems to be no
local knowledge of the fact that these cakes were originally intended
as sacrifices to Ch'ü Yüan and ought to be thrown into flowing water as
offerings to his spirit.
The fifth month is regarded as the most "poisonous" of all the months
in the year, and antidotes and charms of all kinds are necessary to
repel the deadly influences that assail suffering humanity at this
period. Children are protected from the many dangers that surround them
by tying bands of parti-coloured silk threads round their fore-arms.
Among the most efficacious family-charms is the mugwort plant
(_Artemisia moxa_), which is hung over every doorway. Prof. Giles cites
an old saying to the effect that "if on the _Tuan Wu_ festival one does
not hang up mugwort, one will not eat any new wheat"; and explains it
by the comment that a famous rebel named Huang Ch'ao gave orders to his
soldiers to spare any family that exhibited this plant at its door.
But the superstitious use of mugwort is far more ancient than any such
story would imply. Its extreme antiquity is shown by the fact that
this plant has been similarly used as a valued charm against evil in
other parts of the world, including France, Germany and Britain.[148]
The custom in such lands was to pluck the plant at the summer solstice
(Midsummer Day) and to wear it on the person or (as in China) to
hang it over the doorway. This is only one of innumerable examples
of the strange unity that seems to underlie old popular customs and
superstitions all the world over.
In spite of the terrible potency of the evil things rampant during the
fifth month, it is supposed in Weihaiwei that from sunrise to sunset
on the fifth of the month (the festival we are now considering) all
poisonous and destructive influences--material and spiritual--totally
disappear, perhaps owing to the efficacy of the charms universally used
against them on that day. It is believed that even poisonous plants are
absolutely innocuous if plucked and eaten on the fifth of the fifth
moon, while medicinal herbs attain their supreme degree of efficacy.
A well-known custom is to rise early and walk exactly one hundred
paces into a grass-field without turning the head; then to pluck one
hundred blades of grass, which must be carefully taken home. The grass
is put into a pot of water and thoroughly boiled. The water--into
which all the virtues of the grass are now supposed to have passed--is
poured through a strainer into a second vessel, and the grass-blades
are thrown away. A second boiling now takes place, and the liquid is
poured into a bottle and kept for use as required. It is believed
to be a sovereign remedy for headaches, small wounds and bruises,
and various nervous disorders. The Chinese know it as _pai ts'ao
kao_--"hundred-grass lotion." The wise men who hand down this valuable
recipe from generation to generation are careful to explain that
the medicine will be of no avail whatever if any of the prescribed
conditions have been neglected. It is absolutely necessary to walk
neither more nor less than one hundred paces, to pluck neither more nor
less than one hundred blades of grass, and to boil and strain the water
in the manner laid down. Above all, everything must be done on the
fifth day of the fifth month, as it is only on that day that ordinary
grass possesses _ling_--spiritual or health-giving properties.
The seventh day of the seventh month is celebrated throughout China in
connection with a love-story to which allusion is constantly made in
Chinese literature. It is said that the Herd-boy (the star β γ Aquila)
and the Spinning Maiden (α Lyra), separated throughout the rest of
the year by the Milky Way, are allowed to cross a mystic bridge made
by magpies, and to meet and embrace each other on that night only. In
Weihaiwei, where there are large numbers of magpies, it is said that
not one of these birds will ever be seen on this day until after the
hour of noon: all having gone up to the skies to perform the duty of
making a bridge for the celestial lovers. The day is regarded as one of
good omen and suitable for fortune-telling and the drawing of lots.
On the preceding evening (the sixth of the month) boys and girls put
bowls of water on the window-sill and leave them standing all night. In
the morning each child picks a bristle from an ordinary broom[149] and
places it carefully on the surface of the water. The shadow made in the
water by the bristle is supposed to indicate the child's future lot in
life. If, for instance, the shadow seems to take the shape of a Chinese
brush-pen, the boy will become a great scholar; if it is shaped like a
plough he will remain in the condition of a peasant or farmer. I have
been told of a child who saw in the water the form of a fish. This was
interpreted to be a _mu yü_ or the "wooden fish" of Buddhist temples--a
queer hollow instrument of wood that lies on every Buddhist altar in
China and is tapped by the monks while reciting their prayers. The wise
men of the neighbourhood foretold, therefore, that the boy was destined
to become a monk. The prophecy was a true one, for subsequently of his
own accord he entered "the homeless state."
Another children's amusement on this occasion is to catch a spider
and put it under an inverted bowl. If, when the bowl is turned up,
the spider is found to have spun a web, the child and his parents
are overjoyed: for it is supposed that good fortune will adhere to
him throughout the ensuing year just as a captured fly adheres to a
spider's web.
On the fifteenth of the seventh month sacrifices are again offered to
the dead. This is a "Festival of Souls."[150]
On the first of the eighth month it is customary to collect some dew
and use it for moistening a little ink.[151] This ink is devoted to the
purpose of making little dots or marks on children's foreheads, and
this, it is supposed, will preserve them from sickness.
On the mid-autumn festival[152] of the fifteenth of the eighth month
reverence is paid to the ruler of the night. Offerings of cake,
wine and fruit are made to the full moon and then consumed by the
worshippers.[153] The occasion is one of family gatherings and festal
mirth.
On the Ch'ung Yang festival of the ninth day of the ninth month it
used to be the custom in many parts of China to eat specially-prepared
flour-cakes called _kao_[154] and to drink wine made of the
chrysanthemum.
The cakes are still made and eaten in Weihaiwei, but the chrysanthemum
wine appears to be obsolete.[155] On this day it is customary for young
men (especially those of the lettered classes) to climb to the top
(_têng kao_) of one of the hills of their neighbourhood. The advantages
are two in number: it will lead to the promotion of those who are
engaged in climbing the steep slopes of an official career, and it will
free them for the ensuing year from all danger of sickness. This is
equivalent to the _tsou pai ping_ of the women on the fifteenth of the
first month.
On the first day of the tenth month the family tombs are visited, and
the same ceremonies observed as at the Ch'ing-Ming festival. This is
one of the three days in the year that are regarded as specially sacred
to the souls of the departed (_Kuei Chieh_ or Festivals of Souls or
Spirits): the Ch'ing-Ming (movable) in or about the third month, and
the fixed festivals of the fifteenth of the seventh and the first
of the tenth months. Similarly there are three festivals specially
provided for the living (_Jên Chieh_ or Festivals of Men), and these
are marked by feasting and merriment; they are the New Year festival,
the fifth of the fifth and the fifteenth of the eighth months. The
former list does not, however, exhaust the occasions on which reverence
is paid to ancestors. At the winter solstice,[156] for instance,
ancestral sacrifices are offered in the family temples; and at the New
Year, as we have seen, the living do not forget, in the midst of their
own pleasures, the sacred duties owed to the souls of the dead.
On the eighth of the twelfth month it is customary for matrons to
regale their families with a concoction made of grain, vegetables and
water called La-pa-chou, which means "gruel for the eighth of the
sacrificial month." Children are made to partake of an unsavoury cake
made of buckwheat, hare's blood, sulphur, cinnabar and tea-leaves.
This, it is believed, will protect young people from smallpox--a
somewhat prevalent disease among the native children of Weihaiwei.
In the evening of the twenty-third of the twelfth month an
important family ceremony takes place known as _tz'ŭ tsao_ or _sung
tsao_--"Taking farewell of the Hearth-god." The hearth-god or
kitchen-god (_tsao shên_) is a Taoist divinity who is supposed to dwell
near the kitchen fireplace of every family,[157] and whose business
it is to watch the doings of every member of the family from day to
day with a view to reporting them in detail at the close of the year
to the Taoist Supreme Deity. In order to make his annual report he is
supposed to leave the kitchen on the twenty-third of the last month
of the year, and ascend to heaven. Before he goes, obeisance is made
to him by the family, and he is presented with small round sugared
cakes called _t'ang kua_ and lumps of _no mi_, a glutinous rice. The
object of providing the god with these dainties is to make his lips
stick together so that he will be unable to open his mouth and make his
report. The family is thus saved from any inconvenient results arising
from an enumeration of its misdeeds. Needless to say, the matter is
not regarded very seriously in most households, and the ceremonies are
chiefly kept up as a source of amusement for children, who receive
their full share of the sticky cakes. After a sojourn of a week in
heaven the hearth-god returns to his own fireside on New Year's Eve.
On the twenty-fourth of the month every house is thoroughly swept out
in preparation for the New Year's festivities. The object of this
ceremony is not merely the practical and necessary one of cleanliness:
the sweeping process will, it is believed, rid the house of all malign
influences that may have collected there during the past year, and
thereby render it fit for the reception of every kind of joy and good
luck. This is an auspicious day for the celebration of marriages.
New Year's Eve (_Ch'ü hsi_) marks the beginning of the Chinese holiday
season, and is a day of mirth and feasting. In many families it is the
custom to sit up all night; the phrase _shou sui_ has practically the
same signification as our "seeing the Old Year out and the New Year
in." In the evening, new red scrolls, such as adorn the outside and
inside of nearly every Chinese house, are pasted over the old ones
that have now become faded or illegible. The brilliant colour of these
scrolls and the felicitous phrases, virtuous maxims and wise literary
allusions with which they abound are regarded by the common people (who
can rarely read them) as equivalent to powerful charms that will bring
happiness and good fortune to all who dwell beneath the shadow of their
influence. Fire-crackers, the delight of old and young in China, are
let off at every doorstep, helping at each explosion to dissipate any
traces of bad luck that may be lingering in the neighbourhood and to
frighten away the last malignant spirit who might otherwise mar the
happiness of the New Year.
FOOTNOTES:
[96] See pp. 336, 371-7, 382, 386 _seq._
[97] See pp. 95, 289.
[98] The same tendency, with the same result, showed itself in Burma
after the annexation to the Indian Empire.
[99] This process, whereby the expelled one ceases to enjoy the rights
to which his birth entitles him, is known as _ch'u tsu_,--"expulsion
from the clan."
[100] A _tiao_ is at present worth approximately eighteenpence.
[101] Half a _tiao_.
[102] Silk-worms are fed on the leaves of the scrub-oak on the open
hillsides.
[103] Literally, "not clear" (_pu ming_).
[104] _Han tao mi._
[105] The Government fruit-grower has recommended the Black Hamburgh,
Muscat of Alexandria and Malaya--which ripen in succession--as the
best varieties of table-grapes for Weihaiwei, while of wine-grapes the
most satisfactory are the Mataro, Alicante Bouschet, Black Malvoise,
Grenache, Zinfandel, Charbons and Johannesburg Riesling.
[106] See pp. 56, 57.
[107] The local Government--not very wisely from the point of view of
sound economics--levies small "wharfage-dues" on imported timber.
[108] This is the _pai-la shu_ so well known in Ssŭch'uan in connection
with the insect-wax industry, which is also carried on to a small
extent in Shantung though not in Weihaiwei.
[109] Probably the finest specimen of the _ginkgo_ or maidenhair tree
in the Territory is that in the grounds of Pei-k'ou Temple. Besides
being very tall, it measures fourteen and a half feet in circumference
five feet from the ground. See p. 381 for remarks on another of these
trees.
[110] For temporary purposes of trade.
[111] Sale of children by starving parents is a painful feature of
famines in some parts of China.
[112] This criticism from a Chinese writer is interesting, when we
remember that the practice is much the same throughout the greater part
of the Empire.
[113] This is exceptionally rare at the present time. The overwhelming
majority of women are married before the age of twenty-five.
[114] Mercenary views are held all the same.
[115] In proportion to the population there are very few concubines in
Weihaiwei, and most of them are imported from Peking and other places.
[116] It is a curious fact, and one never yet satisfactorily explained,
that people of non-European races all seem to lose their native grace
of manner after a period of contact with Europeans. This does not
apply to Asiatic peoples (Indian and Chinese) only: it is apparently
equally true with regard to certain African races. Miss Bleek, in a
recent work published by the Clarendon Press under the auspices of the
Royal Anthropological Institute, remarks that the Bushmen are by nature
truthful, clean, honest and courteous. "Once another Bushman visited
ours for a few days. He was so much rougher than the other that our man
was asked why his friend was different. He said, 'Missis must excuse:
this man lost his parents early and was brought up by white people.'"
[117] _The United States and China_, by Wei-ching W. Yen (American
Association for International Conciliation: New York).
[118] See illustration.
[119] See illustration. The _T'ien Kou_ is the Japanese _Tengu_. See
_Trans. As. Soc. Jap._ Pt. ii (1908).
[120] For the magic uses of peach-wood see De Groot's _Religious System
of China_, vol. iv. pp. 304 _seq._
[121] "I see no race of men, however polished and educated, however
brutal and barbarous, which does not believe that warnings of future
events are given, and may be understood and announced by certain
persons." Cicero's words, after the lapse of a couple of thousand
years, are still true. (See Cic. _de Divinatione_, i. 1.)
[122] A very similar method of divining is practised in the Malay
States. See Swettenham's _Malay Sketches_, pp. 201-7, and Skeat's
_Malay Magic_, p. 542.
[123] The following remarks in Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_ (pp. 56
_seq._) will be of interest to those who are wise enough to regard this
subject with unorthodox seriousness: "Divination is in China as popular
as, and probably more respectable than, it was amongst the Israelites
in the days of the witch of Endor, and it is not perhaps going too far
to say that there is not a single means resorted to in the West by way
of lifting the impenetrable veil which hides the future from curious
mankind which is not known to and practised by the Chinese. From
'Pinking the Bible' to using the Planchette, from tossing for odd and
even to invoking spirits to actually speak through crafty media, the
whole range of Western superstition in this regard is as familiar to
the average Chinaman as to the most enthusiastic spiritualist at home.
The coincidences of practice and belief are indeed so startling that
many will doubtless see in them a sort of evidence either for their
truthfulness, or for a common origin of evil.... It is when we come to
the consulting of media, the use of a forked stick, writing on sand,
and similar matters that the Chinese practice becomes singular in its
resemblance to superstitions openly avowed at home. I would here remark
that I am no spiritualist. But how, without any apparent connection
with each other, such beliefs should at once be found in full force
in the farthest East and the extreme West is puzzling. Is our Western
spiritualism derived from China?" It may be added that Japanese
"occultism"--to use a disagreeable but useful word--is very similar to
Chinese, and offers equally striking analogies with that of Europe.
(See Percival Lowell's _Occult Japan_.)
[124] It is not so well known that almost equally disgusting medicines
used to be prescribed in England. One writer says of some old
Lincolnshire remedies for ague that they "were so horribly filthy that
I am inclined to think most people must have preferred the ague, or
the race could hardly have survived." One of these remedies consisted
of nine worms taken from a churchyard sod and chopped up small. (See
_County Folk-lore_, vol. v, p. 117.)
[125] Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (4th ed.), vol. i. p. 84. On this
subject see also Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_, pp. 51-2.
[126] "If the first person who enters a house on New Year's morning
brings bad news, it is a sign of ill-luck for the whole of the
year."--_County Folk-lore: Lincolnshire_, p. 168.
[127] The knots or joints of the hemp-stalk are supposed to represent
successive stages of advancement.
[128] _Ying ch'un._ The ceremonies differ from place to place in minor
details. Those here described are observed (with variations) at the
district cities nearest to Weihaiwei-namely Wên-têng, Jung ch'êng and
Ning-hai.
[129] _Ch'un Niu._
[130] In Shanghai, and probably elsewhere, a real ox is still sometimes
used, and he is led by a real child (_T'ai Sui_) instead of a cardboard
_Mang-Shên_. See the Rev. A. Box's "Shanghai Folk-lore" in the _Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society_ (China Branch), vol. xxxiv. (1901-2) pp.
116-7, and vol. xxxvi. (1905) pp. 136-7. Needless to say, no blood is
shed nowadays, though it seems not unlikely that at one time a living
child and a living ox were both offered up in sacrifice to promote the
fertility of the crops. In Northumberland, England, it is or used to be
a custom to hold rustic masquerades at the New Year, the players being
clothed in the _hides of oxen_ (see _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv.).
It would be interesting to know whether the Northumbrian custom was
originally a ceremony to promote fertility.
[131] Probably the Spring Ox is still, in some parts of China, made of
clay only, not of paper.
[132] _Shang Yüan Chieh_, Feast of the First Full Moon.
[133] Cf. pp. 262 _seq._ From Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ (vol. i. p.
344) we know that long after the establishment of Christianity there
was kept up, in Europe, a pagan festival at which it was customary to
decorate the doors of houses with branches of laurel and to hang out
lanterns. The doors of Roman houses were regarded as being under the
special protection of the household gods.
[134] _Yüan hsiao._
[135] For some interesting notes on the bridge-walking customs, see
Rev. E. Box's "Shanghai Folk-lore," in the _Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society_ (China Branch), vol. xxxvi. (1905) pp. 133-4. These
practices are not confined to China. In Korea, on the fourteenth and
fifteenth of the first month the men and boys of Seoul walk over three
particular bridges in succession, in order to safeguard themselves from
pains in the legs and feet throughout the ensuing year. (See article
by T. Watters in _Folk-lore_, March 1895.) For the beliefs of many
races on the subject of the expulsion of evils in general, see Frazer's
_Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), vol. iii. pp. 39 _seq._, 70 _seq._
[136] This may be compared with the Scottish customs in connection with
the guisers or guisards. In Shetland a torchlight procession sometimes
formed part of the revelry. (See _Folk-lore_, vol. iii. [Orkney and
Shetland], pp. 203 _seq._)
[137] For remarks on the supposed remarkable properties of this shrub,
see De Groot's _Religious System of China_, vol. iv. p. 320.
[138] See _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. (Northumberland) p. 73.
[139] In different parts of the Empire the date is variously assigned
to the second, tenth, twelfth and fifteenth of the month. For Shanghai
customs in connection with this festival, see Rev. A. Box, _Journal of
the R.A.S._ (China), vol. xxxiv. p. 117 and vol. xxxvi. pp. 137-8. In
that part of China "the women and children adorn the flowering shrubs
with paper rosettes, and recite verses and prostrate themselves in
token of respect and in hope of a fruitful season."
[140] Tylor's _Primitive Culture_ (4th ed.), vol. ii. pp. 277-8, 290
_seq._, 297 _seq._, and p. 432. See also Frazer's _Golden Bough_ (2nd
ed.), vol. iii. p. 251.
[141] Gomme's _Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life_, p. 97.
[142] J. M. Robertson in _Religious Systems of the World_ (8th ed.), p.
369.
[143] In 1910 it falls on April 6, which is the 27th of the second
Chinese month.
[144] See illustration.
[145] See p. 257.
[146] Instances of similar rain-charms may be found in Frazer's _Golden
Bough_ (2nd ed.), vol. i. pp. 188-9.
[147] _Tuan Wu_ or _Tuan Yang_.
[148] See Frazer's _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), vol. iii. pp. 268, 270,
274 and especially pp. 337-8. See also _Folk-lore Journal_, vol. iii.
p. 148.
[149] There is supposed to be some magic efficacy attached to brooms,
and evil spirits are believed to have a special dread of them. In
Europe, as every one knows, a witch must have her broomstick just as
she must have her black cat.
[150] _Kuei Chieh._
[151] The so-called Indian ink ordinarily used by Chinese.
[152] The ordinary Chinese name is _Chung Yüan_, a reference being
understood to the _Shang Yüan_, or the fifteenth of the first month,
and the _Hsia Yüan_ or the fifteenth of the tenth.
[153] Cf. the offerings to Ashtoreth the Moon-goddess of the Hittites.
For mention of similar offerings in England itself, see Dennys's
_Folk-lore of China_, p. 28.
[154] There is a play on this Chinese word, which has the same sound
as a different character meaning _to go up_ or _to receive promotion_.
He who eats the cake is supposed to be securing his own advancement in
life. There is a similar double-meaning in the phrase _têng kao_.
[155] For remarks on the ancient custom of drinking this wine, see De
Groot, _Religious System of China_, vol. iv. p. 322.
[156] See p. 277.
[157] There is some reason to believe that the Hearth-god was once
regarded as an anonymous ancestor of the family, though nowadays this
relationship is ignored. The Chinese _Tsao shên_ may be compared with
the Japanese Kojin. For some valuable notes on Hearth-worship in
general, see Gomme's _Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life_, pp. 87
_seq._ The cult of a hearth-god has been known in western Europe and
also in New Zealand.