Chapter 29

[122]Which, well cooked, are a very good substitute for asparagus.return to text[123]Seenote 115to the last story.return to text[124]Such as are from time to time bestowed upon virtuous widows and wives, filial sons and daughters, and others. These consist of some laudatory scroll or tablet, and are much prized by the family of the recipient.return to text[125]Seenote 119to last story.return to text[126]Probably theIllicium religiosumis meant.return to text[127]SeeNo. XII.,note 87.return to text[128]The common application of the term “same-year-men,” is to persons who have graduated at the same time.return to text[129]This is by no means an uncommon form of charity. During the temporary distress at Canton, in the summer of 1877, large tubs of gruel were to be seen standing at convenient points, ready for any poor person who might wish to stay his hunger. It is thus, and by similar acts of benevolence, such as building bridges, repairing roads, etc., etc., that the wealthy Chinaman strives to maintain an advantageous balance in his record of good and evil.return to text[130]It may be necessary here to remind the reader that Chan’s spirit is speaking from Chu’s body.return to text[131]We shall come by and by to a story illustrative of this extraordinary belief.return to text[132]Thesummum bonumof many a Chinese woman.return to text[133]Chinese silver, called sycee (from the Cantonesesai see“fine silk;” because, if pure, it may be drawn out under the application of heat into fine silk threads), is cast in the form of “shoes,” weighing from one to one hundred ounces. Paper imitations of these are burnt for the use of the spirits in the world below. The sharp edges of a “shoe” of sycee are caused by the mould containing the molten silver being gently shaken until the metal has set, with a view to secure uniform fineness throughout the lump.return to footnote anchor 133return to footnote 505[134]Death is regarded as a summons from the authorities of Purgatory; lictors are sent to arrest the doomed man, armed with a written warrant similar to those issued on earth from a magistrate’s yamên.return to text[135]The Milky Way is known to the Chinese under this name—unquestionably a more poetical one than our own.return to footnote anchor 135return to footnote anchor 361[136]SeeNo. XIII.,note 90.return to text[137]That is, of the Taoists. SeeNo. IV.,note 46.return to text[138]Predestinationafter the eventis, luckily for China, the form of this superstition which really appeals to her all-practical children. Not a larger percentage than with ourselves allow belief in an irremediable destiny to divert their efforts one moment from the object in view; though thousands upon thousands are ready enough to acknowledge the “will of heaven” in any national or individual calamities that may befall. SeeNo. IX.,note 69.return to text[139]Any disembodied spirit whose conduct for a certain term of years is quite satisfactory is competent to obtain this reward. Thus, instead of being born again on earth, perhaps as an animal, they become angels or good spirits, and live for ever in heaven in a state of supreme beatitude.return to text[140]Our author occasionally ends up with a remark of this kind; and these have undoubtedly had their weight with his too credulous countrymen.return to text[141]A.D.1682.return to text[142]The usual occupation of poor scholars who are ashamed to go into trade, and who have not enterprise enough to start as doctors or fortune-tellers. Besides painting pictures and fans, and illustrating books, these men write fancy scrolls in the various ornamental styles so much prized by the Chinese; they keep accounts for people, and write or read business and private letters for the illiterate masses.return to text[143]Kuan Chung and Pao Shu are the Chinese types of friendship. They were two statesmen of considerable ability, who flourished in the seventh centuryB.C.return to footnote anchor 143return to footnote anchor 655[144]Say about £10. SeeNo. II.,note 42.return to text[145]The term constantly employed by Confucius to denote the man of perfect probity, learning, and refinement. The nearest, if not an exact, translation would be “gentleman.”return to text[146]Literally, “a young lady whose beauty would overthrow a kingdom,” in allusion to an old story which it is not necessary to reproduce here.return to text[147]The Lady of the Moon. SeeNo. V.,note 49.return to text[148]SeeNo. VIII.,note 64.return to text[149]Miss Lien-hsiang was here speaking without book, as will be seen in a story later on.return to text[150]The female principle. In a properly-constituted human being the male and female principles are harmoniously combined. Nothing short of a small volume would place this subject, the basis of Chinese metaphysics, in a clear light before the uninitiated reader. Broadly speaking, theyinand theyangare the two primeval forces from the interaction of which all things have been evolved.return to text[151]“Ber.—It was about to speak, when the cock crew.Hor.—And then it started like a guilty thingUpon a fearful summons. I have heard,The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throatAwake the God of Day; and, at his warning,Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,The extravagant and erring spirit hiesTo his confine.”Hamlet.return to text[152]“From time immemorial, the Chinese have employed a combination of two sets of characters, numbering ten and twelve respectively, to form a cycle of sixty terms for the purpose of chronological notation. The period at which this cycle was invented is a subject upon which complete uncertainty prevails, but there is little doubt that it first came into use as a method of reckoning years after the reform of the calendar inB.C.104.”—Mayers’Reader’s Manual.The birthday on which any person completes his cycle is considered a very auspicious occasion. The second emperor of the present dynasty, K‘ang Hsi, completed a cycle in hisreign, with one year to spare; and his grandson, Ch‘ien Lung (or Kien Lung) fell short of this only by a single year, dying in the same cyclical period as that in which he had ascended the throne.return to footnote anchor 152return to footnote anchor 625[153]Bride and bridegroom drink wine together out of two cups joined by a red string, typical of that imaginary bond which is believed to unite the destinies of husband and wife long before they have set eyes on each other. Popular tradition assigns to an old man who lives in the moon the arrangement of all matches among mortals; hence the common Chinese expression, “Marriages are made in the moon.”return to text[154]The bill of sale always handed to the purchaser of a child in China, as a proof that the child is hisbonâ fideproperty and has not been kidnapped, is by a pleasant fiction called a “deed of gift,” the amount paid over to the seller being therein denominated “ginger and vinegar money,” or compensation for the expense of rearing and educating up to the date of sale. This phrase originates from the fact that a dose of ginger and vinegar is administered to every Chinese woman immediately after the delivery of her child.We may here add that the value of male children to those who have no heirs, and of female children to those who want servants, has fostered a regular kidnapping trade, which is carried on with great activity in some parts of China, albeit the penalty on discovery is instant decapitation. Some years ago I was present in the streets of Tientsin when a kidnapper was seized by the infuriated mob, and within two hours I heard that the man had been summarily executed.return to footnote anchor 154return to footnote 185return to footnote anchor 238return to footnote anchor 434[155]The power of recalling events which have occurred in a previous life will be enlarged upon in several stories to come.return to text[156]There is nothing in China like an aristocracy of birth. Any man may raise himself from the lowest level to the highest; and as long as he and his family keep themselves there, they may be considered aristocratic. Wealth has nothing to do with the question; official rank and literary tastes, separate or combined, these constitute a man’s title to the esteem of his fellows. Trade is looked upon as ignoble and debasing; and friendly intercourse between merchants and officials, the two great social divisions, is so rare as to be almost unknown.return to text[157]The medium, without whose good offices no marriage can be arranged. Generally, but not always, a woman.This system of go-betweens is not confined to matrimonial engagements. No servant ever offers himself for a place; he invariably employs some one to introduce him. So also in mercantile transactions the broker almost invariably appears upon the scene.return to text[158]SeeNo. II.,note 41.return to text[159]The so-called “golden lilies” always come in for a large share of criticism. SeeNo. XII.,note 86. This term originated with an emperor who reigned in the fifth century, when, in ecstasies at the graceful dancing of a concubine upon a stage ornamented with lilies, he cried out, “Every footstep makes a lily grow.”return to text[160]A common custom;e.g.in the case of a little child lying dangerously ill, its mother will go outside the door into the garden or field, and call out its name several times, in the hope of bringing back the wandering spirit.return to text[161]This process must be regularly gone through night and morning, otherwise the bandages become loose, and the gait of the walker unsteady.return to text[162]I have explained before that any great disparity of means is considered an obstacle to a matrimonial alliance between two families.return to text[163]This is a not unusual arrangement in cases where there are other sons in the bridegroom’s family, but none in that of the bride’s, especially if the advantage of wealth is on the side of the latter.return to text[164]Such is the Chinese rule, adopted simply with a view to the preservation of harmony.return to text[165]They are supposed never to see each other before the wedding-day; but, after careful investigation of the subject, I have come to the conclusion that certainly in seven cases out of ten, the intended bridegroom secretly procures a sight of his future wife. I am now speaking of the higher classes; among the poor, both sexes mix almost as freely as with us.return to text[166]This would still be considered a creditable act on the part of a Chinese widow. It is, however, of exceedingly rare occurrence.return to text[167]Being nearly dead from hanging.return to text[168]This is occasionally done, great influence or a heavy bribe being brought to bear upon the Examiners, of whom there are only two for the Master’s degree, and the second of these, or Assistant-Examiner, holds but a subordinate position. SeeAppendixA, andNo. LXXV.,note 426.return to text[169]Admission to the Han-lin, or Chinese National Academy, is the highest honour obtainable by a scholar. Its members are employed in drawing up Government documents, histories, etc.return to text[170]Besides the numerous secret societies so much dreaded by the Government, membership of which is punishable by death, very intimate friends are in the habit of adopting each other as sworn brothers, bound to stand by one another in cases of danger and difficulty, to the last drop of blood. The bond is cemented by an oath, accompanied by such ceremonies as fancy may at the moment dictate. The most curious of all, however, are the so-called “Golden Orchid” societies, the members of which are young girls, who have sworn never to enter into the matrimonial state. To such an extent have these sisterhoods spread in the Kuang-tung Province, that the authorities have been compelled to prohibit them under severe penalties.return to text[171]A Chinaman loves to be buried alongside of his ancestors, and poor families are often put to great straits to pay this last tribute of respect and affection to the deceased. At all large cities are to be found temporary burial grounds, where the bodies of strangers are deposited until their relatives can come to carry them away. Large freights of dead bodies are annually brought back to China from California, Queensland, and other parts to which the Chinese are in the habit of emigrating, to the great profit of the steamer-companies concerned. Coffins are also used as a means of smuggling, respect for the dead being so great that they are only opened under the very strongest suspicion.return to text[172]SeeNo. XIV.,note 104. The price of an elaborate Chinese coffin goes as high as £100 or £150.return to text[173]The never-failing resource of an impecunious Chinaman who has any property whatever bearing an exchange value. The pawn-shop proper is a licensed institution, where three per cent.per monthis charged on all loans, all pledges being redeemable within sixteen months. It is generally a very high brick structure, towering far above the surrounding houses, with the deposits neatly packed up in paper and arranged on the shelves of a huge wooden skeleton-like frame, that completely fills the interior of the building, on the top of which are ranged buckets of water in case of fire, and a quantity of huge stones to throw down on any thieves who may be daring enough to attempt to scale the wall. [In Peking, houses are not allowed to be built above a certain height, as during the long summer months ladies are in the habit of sitting to spin or sew in their courtyards, very lightly clad.] Pawning goods in China is not held to be so disgraceful as with us; in fact, most people, at the beginning of the hot weather, pawn their furs and winter clothes, these being so much more carefully looked after there than they might be at home.return to text[174]Nominally of three years’—really of twenty-eight months’—duration.return to text[175]These are entitled to receive from Government a small allowance of rice, besides being permitted to exercise certain petty functions, for which a certain charge is authorized. SeeAppendixA.return to text[176]One of the strangers was the disembodied spirit of Hsiu’s father, helping his son to take vengeance on the wicked Shên.return to text[177]An intermediate step between the first and second degrees, to which certain privileges are attached.return to text[178]A.D.1400return to text[179]The first of the sixteen maxims which form the so-called Sacred Edict, embodies these two all-important family ties. The doctrine of primogeniture is carried so far in China as to put every younger brother in a subordinate position to every elder brother. All property, however, of whatever kind, is equally divided among the sons. [The Sacred Edict was delivered by the great Emperor K‘ang Hsi, and should be publicly read and explained in every city of the Empire on the first and fifteenth of each month.]return to text[180]Ordinary devils being unable to stand for any length of time the light and life of the upper world, the souls of certain persons are often temporarily employed in this work by the authorities of Purgatory, their bodies remaining meanwhile in a trance or cataleptic fit.return to footnote anchor 180return to footnote anchor 606[181]Their family name.return to text[182]The Chinese corrupted form of Bodhisatva. Now widely employed to designate any deity of any kind.return to footnote anchor 182return to footnote anchor 664return to footnote anchor 697[183]The usual similitude for a Chinese tatterdemalion.return to text[184]The surnames Chang, Wang, and Li, correspond in China to our Brown, Jones, and Robinson.return to text[185]Slavery, under a modified form, exists in China at the present day. All parents, having absolute power over their children, are at liberty to sell them as servants or slaves to their wealthier neighbours. This is not an infrequent occurrence in times of distress, the children even going so far as to voluntarily sell themselves, and exposing themselves in some public thoroughfare, with a notice affixed to a kind of arrow on their backs, stating that they are for sale, and the amount required from the purchaser. This I have seen with my own eyes. The chief source, however, from which the supply of slaves is kept up is kidnapping. [SeeNo. XXIII.,note 154.] As to the condition of the slaves themselves, it is by no means an unhappy one. Their master has nominally the power of life and death over them, but no Chinaman would ever dream of availing himself of this dangerous prerogative. They are generally well fed, and fairly well clothed, being rarely beaten, for fear they should run away, and either be lost altogether or entail much expense to secure their capture. The girls do not have their feet compressed; hence they are infinitely more useful than small-footed women; and, on reaching a marriageable age, their masters are bound to provide them with husbands. They live on terms of easy familiarity with the whole household; and, ignorant of the meaning and value of liberty, seem quite contented with a lot which places them beyond the reach of hunger and cold. Slaves take the surnames of their masters, and the children of slaves are likewise slaves. Manumission is not uncommon; and Chinese history furnishes more than one example of a quondam slave attaining to the highest offices of State.return to footnote anchor 185return to footnote anchor 714[186]No Chinese wine-party is complete without more or less amusement of a literary character. Capping verses, composing impromptu odes on persons or places, giving historical and mythological allusions, are among the ordinary diversions of this kind.return to text[187]The Chinese night lasts from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., and is divided into five watches of two hours each, which are subdivided into five “beats” of the watchman’s wooden tom-tom.return to text[188]Therôlesof women are always played in China by men, dressed up so perfectly, small feet and all, as to be quite undistinguishable from real women.return to text

[122]Which, well cooked, are a very good substitute for asparagus.return to text

[123]Seenote 115to the last story.return to text

[124]Such as are from time to time bestowed upon virtuous widows and wives, filial sons and daughters, and others. These consist of some laudatory scroll or tablet, and are much prized by the family of the recipient.return to text

[125]Seenote 119to last story.return to text

[126]Probably theIllicium religiosumis meant.return to text

[127]SeeNo. XII.,note 87.return to text

[128]The common application of the term “same-year-men,” is to persons who have graduated at the same time.return to text

[129]This is by no means an uncommon form of charity. During the temporary distress at Canton, in the summer of 1877, large tubs of gruel were to be seen standing at convenient points, ready for any poor person who might wish to stay his hunger. It is thus, and by similar acts of benevolence, such as building bridges, repairing roads, etc., etc., that the wealthy Chinaman strives to maintain an advantageous balance in his record of good and evil.return to text

[130]It may be necessary here to remind the reader that Chan’s spirit is speaking from Chu’s body.return to text

[131]We shall come by and by to a story illustrative of this extraordinary belief.return to text

[132]Thesummum bonumof many a Chinese woman.return to text

[133]Chinese silver, called sycee (from the Cantonesesai see“fine silk;” because, if pure, it may be drawn out under the application of heat into fine silk threads), is cast in the form of “shoes,” weighing from one to one hundred ounces. Paper imitations of these are burnt for the use of the spirits in the world below. The sharp edges of a “shoe” of sycee are caused by the mould containing the molten silver being gently shaken until the metal has set, with a view to secure uniform fineness throughout the lump.return to footnote anchor 133return to footnote 505

[134]Death is regarded as a summons from the authorities of Purgatory; lictors are sent to arrest the doomed man, armed with a written warrant similar to those issued on earth from a magistrate’s yamên.return to text

[135]The Milky Way is known to the Chinese under this name—unquestionably a more poetical one than our own.return to footnote anchor 135return to footnote anchor 361

[136]SeeNo. XIII.,note 90.return to text

[137]That is, of the Taoists. SeeNo. IV.,note 46.return to text

[138]Predestinationafter the eventis, luckily for China, the form of this superstition which really appeals to her all-practical children. Not a larger percentage than with ourselves allow belief in an irremediable destiny to divert their efforts one moment from the object in view; though thousands upon thousands are ready enough to acknowledge the “will of heaven” in any national or individual calamities that may befall. SeeNo. IX.,note 69.return to text

[139]Any disembodied spirit whose conduct for a certain term of years is quite satisfactory is competent to obtain this reward. Thus, instead of being born again on earth, perhaps as an animal, they become angels or good spirits, and live for ever in heaven in a state of supreme beatitude.return to text

[140]Our author occasionally ends up with a remark of this kind; and these have undoubtedly had their weight with his too credulous countrymen.return to text

[141]A.D.1682.return to text

[142]The usual occupation of poor scholars who are ashamed to go into trade, and who have not enterprise enough to start as doctors or fortune-tellers. Besides painting pictures and fans, and illustrating books, these men write fancy scrolls in the various ornamental styles so much prized by the Chinese; they keep accounts for people, and write or read business and private letters for the illiterate masses.return to text

[143]Kuan Chung and Pao Shu are the Chinese types of friendship. They were two statesmen of considerable ability, who flourished in the seventh centuryB.C.return to footnote anchor 143return to footnote anchor 655

[144]Say about £10. SeeNo. II.,note 42.return to text

[145]The term constantly employed by Confucius to denote the man of perfect probity, learning, and refinement. The nearest, if not an exact, translation would be “gentleman.”return to text

[146]Literally, “a young lady whose beauty would overthrow a kingdom,” in allusion to an old story which it is not necessary to reproduce here.return to text

[147]The Lady of the Moon. SeeNo. V.,note 49.return to text

[148]SeeNo. VIII.,note 64.return to text

[149]Miss Lien-hsiang was here speaking without book, as will be seen in a story later on.return to text

[150]The female principle. In a properly-constituted human being the male and female principles are harmoniously combined. Nothing short of a small volume would place this subject, the basis of Chinese metaphysics, in a clear light before the uninitiated reader. Broadly speaking, theyinand theyangare the two primeval forces from the interaction of which all things have been evolved.return to text

[151]“Ber.—It was about to speak, when the cock crew.Hor.—And then it started like a guilty thingUpon a fearful summons. I have heard,The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throatAwake the God of Day; and, at his warning,Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,The extravagant and erring spirit hiesTo his confine.”Hamlet.return to text

[151]

“Ber.—It was about to speak, when the cock crew.Hor.—And then it started like a guilty thingUpon a fearful summons. I have heard,The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throatAwake the God of Day; and, at his warning,Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,The extravagant and erring spirit hiesTo his confine.”Hamlet.

“Ber.—It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

Hor.—And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,

Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat

Awake the God of Day; and, at his warning,

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

The extravagant and erring spirit hies

To his confine.”

Hamlet.

return to text

[152]“From time immemorial, the Chinese have employed a combination of two sets of characters, numbering ten and twelve respectively, to form a cycle of sixty terms for the purpose of chronological notation. The period at which this cycle was invented is a subject upon which complete uncertainty prevails, but there is little doubt that it first came into use as a method of reckoning years after the reform of the calendar inB.C.104.”—Mayers’Reader’s Manual.The birthday on which any person completes his cycle is considered a very auspicious occasion. The second emperor of the present dynasty, K‘ang Hsi, completed a cycle in hisreign, with one year to spare; and his grandson, Ch‘ien Lung (or Kien Lung) fell short of this only by a single year, dying in the same cyclical period as that in which he had ascended the throne.return to footnote anchor 152return to footnote anchor 625

The birthday on which any person completes his cycle is considered a very auspicious occasion. The second emperor of the present dynasty, K‘ang Hsi, completed a cycle in hisreign, with one year to spare; and his grandson, Ch‘ien Lung (or Kien Lung) fell short of this only by a single year, dying in the same cyclical period as that in which he had ascended the throne.return to footnote anchor 152return to footnote anchor 625

[153]Bride and bridegroom drink wine together out of two cups joined by a red string, typical of that imaginary bond which is believed to unite the destinies of husband and wife long before they have set eyes on each other. Popular tradition assigns to an old man who lives in the moon the arrangement of all matches among mortals; hence the common Chinese expression, “Marriages are made in the moon.”return to text

[154]The bill of sale always handed to the purchaser of a child in China, as a proof that the child is hisbonâ fideproperty and has not been kidnapped, is by a pleasant fiction called a “deed of gift,” the amount paid over to the seller being therein denominated “ginger and vinegar money,” or compensation for the expense of rearing and educating up to the date of sale. This phrase originates from the fact that a dose of ginger and vinegar is administered to every Chinese woman immediately after the delivery of her child.We may here add that the value of male children to those who have no heirs, and of female children to those who want servants, has fostered a regular kidnapping trade, which is carried on with great activity in some parts of China, albeit the penalty on discovery is instant decapitation. Some years ago I was present in the streets of Tientsin when a kidnapper was seized by the infuriated mob, and within two hours I heard that the man had been summarily executed.return to footnote anchor 154return to footnote 185return to footnote anchor 238return to footnote anchor 434

We may here add that the value of male children to those who have no heirs, and of female children to those who want servants, has fostered a regular kidnapping trade, which is carried on with great activity in some parts of China, albeit the penalty on discovery is instant decapitation. Some years ago I was present in the streets of Tientsin when a kidnapper was seized by the infuriated mob, and within two hours I heard that the man had been summarily executed.return to footnote anchor 154return to footnote 185return to footnote anchor 238return to footnote anchor 434

[155]The power of recalling events which have occurred in a previous life will be enlarged upon in several stories to come.return to text

[156]There is nothing in China like an aristocracy of birth. Any man may raise himself from the lowest level to the highest; and as long as he and his family keep themselves there, they may be considered aristocratic. Wealth has nothing to do with the question; official rank and literary tastes, separate or combined, these constitute a man’s title to the esteem of his fellows. Trade is looked upon as ignoble and debasing; and friendly intercourse between merchants and officials, the two great social divisions, is so rare as to be almost unknown.return to text

[157]The medium, without whose good offices no marriage can be arranged. Generally, but not always, a woman.This system of go-betweens is not confined to matrimonial engagements. No servant ever offers himself for a place; he invariably employs some one to introduce him. So also in mercantile transactions the broker almost invariably appears upon the scene.return to text

[157]The medium, without whose good offices no marriage can be arranged. Generally, but not always, a woman.

This system of go-betweens is not confined to matrimonial engagements. No servant ever offers himself for a place; he invariably employs some one to introduce him. So also in mercantile transactions the broker almost invariably appears upon the scene.return to text

[158]SeeNo. II.,note 41.return to text

[159]The so-called “golden lilies” always come in for a large share of criticism. SeeNo. XII.,note 86. This term originated with an emperor who reigned in the fifth century, when, in ecstasies at the graceful dancing of a concubine upon a stage ornamented with lilies, he cried out, “Every footstep makes a lily grow.”return to text

[160]A common custom;e.g.in the case of a little child lying dangerously ill, its mother will go outside the door into the garden or field, and call out its name several times, in the hope of bringing back the wandering spirit.return to text

[161]This process must be regularly gone through night and morning, otherwise the bandages become loose, and the gait of the walker unsteady.return to text

[162]I have explained before that any great disparity of means is considered an obstacle to a matrimonial alliance between two families.return to text

[163]This is a not unusual arrangement in cases where there are other sons in the bridegroom’s family, but none in that of the bride’s, especially if the advantage of wealth is on the side of the latter.return to text

[164]Such is the Chinese rule, adopted simply with a view to the preservation of harmony.return to text

[165]They are supposed never to see each other before the wedding-day; but, after careful investigation of the subject, I have come to the conclusion that certainly in seven cases out of ten, the intended bridegroom secretly procures a sight of his future wife. I am now speaking of the higher classes; among the poor, both sexes mix almost as freely as with us.return to text

[166]This would still be considered a creditable act on the part of a Chinese widow. It is, however, of exceedingly rare occurrence.return to text

[167]Being nearly dead from hanging.return to text

[168]This is occasionally done, great influence or a heavy bribe being brought to bear upon the Examiners, of whom there are only two for the Master’s degree, and the second of these, or Assistant-Examiner, holds but a subordinate position. SeeAppendixA, andNo. LXXV.,note 426.return to text

[169]Admission to the Han-lin, or Chinese National Academy, is the highest honour obtainable by a scholar. Its members are employed in drawing up Government documents, histories, etc.return to text

[170]Besides the numerous secret societies so much dreaded by the Government, membership of which is punishable by death, very intimate friends are in the habit of adopting each other as sworn brothers, bound to stand by one another in cases of danger and difficulty, to the last drop of blood. The bond is cemented by an oath, accompanied by such ceremonies as fancy may at the moment dictate. The most curious of all, however, are the so-called “Golden Orchid” societies, the members of which are young girls, who have sworn never to enter into the matrimonial state. To such an extent have these sisterhoods spread in the Kuang-tung Province, that the authorities have been compelled to prohibit them under severe penalties.return to text

[171]A Chinaman loves to be buried alongside of his ancestors, and poor families are often put to great straits to pay this last tribute of respect and affection to the deceased. At all large cities are to be found temporary burial grounds, where the bodies of strangers are deposited until their relatives can come to carry them away. Large freights of dead bodies are annually brought back to China from California, Queensland, and other parts to which the Chinese are in the habit of emigrating, to the great profit of the steamer-companies concerned. Coffins are also used as a means of smuggling, respect for the dead being so great that they are only opened under the very strongest suspicion.return to text

[172]SeeNo. XIV.,note 104. The price of an elaborate Chinese coffin goes as high as £100 or £150.return to text

[173]The never-failing resource of an impecunious Chinaman who has any property whatever bearing an exchange value. The pawn-shop proper is a licensed institution, where three per cent.per monthis charged on all loans, all pledges being redeemable within sixteen months. It is generally a very high brick structure, towering far above the surrounding houses, with the deposits neatly packed up in paper and arranged on the shelves of a huge wooden skeleton-like frame, that completely fills the interior of the building, on the top of which are ranged buckets of water in case of fire, and a quantity of huge stones to throw down on any thieves who may be daring enough to attempt to scale the wall. [In Peking, houses are not allowed to be built above a certain height, as during the long summer months ladies are in the habit of sitting to spin or sew in their courtyards, very lightly clad.] Pawning goods in China is not held to be so disgraceful as with us; in fact, most people, at the beginning of the hot weather, pawn their furs and winter clothes, these being so much more carefully looked after there than they might be at home.return to text

[174]Nominally of three years’—really of twenty-eight months’—duration.return to text

[175]These are entitled to receive from Government a small allowance of rice, besides being permitted to exercise certain petty functions, for which a certain charge is authorized. SeeAppendixA.return to text

[176]One of the strangers was the disembodied spirit of Hsiu’s father, helping his son to take vengeance on the wicked Shên.return to text

[177]An intermediate step between the first and second degrees, to which certain privileges are attached.return to text

[178]A.D.1400return to text

[179]The first of the sixteen maxims which form the so-called Sacred Edict, embodies these two all-important family ties. The doctrine of primogeniture is carried so far in China as to put every younger brother in a subordinate position to every elder brother. All property, however, of whatever kind, is equally divided among the sons. [The Sacred Edict was delivered by the great Emperor K‘ang Hsi, and should be publicly read and explained in every city of the Empire on the first and fifteenth of each month.]return to text

[180]Ordinary devils being unable to stand for any length of time the light and life of the upper world, the souls of certain persons are often temporarily employed in this work by the authorities of Purgatory, their bodies remaining meanwhile in a trance or cataleptic fit.return to footnote anchor 180return to footnote anchor 606

[181]Their family name.return to text

[182]The Chinese corrupted form of Bodhisatva. Now widely employed to designate any deity of any kind.return to footnote anchor 182return to footnote anchor 664return to footnote anchor 697

[183]The usual similitude for a Chinese tatterdemalion.return to text

[184]The surnames Chang, Wang, and Li, correspond in China to our Brown, Jones, and Robinson.return to text

[185]Slavery, under a modified form, exists in China at the present day. All parents, having absolute power over their children, are at liberty to sell them as servants or slaves to their wealthier neighbours. This is not an infrequent occurrence in times of distress, the children even going so far as to voluntarily sell themselves, and exposing themselves in some public thoroughfare, with a notice affixed to a kind of arrow on their backs, stating that they are for sale, and the amount required from the purchaser. This I have seen with my own eyes. The chief source, however, from which the supply of slaves is kept up is kidnapping. [SeeNo. XXIII.,note 154.] As to the condition of the slaves themselves, it is by no means an unhappy one. Their master has nominally the power of life and death over them, but no Chinaman would ever dream of availing himself of this dangerous prerogative. They are generally well fed, and fairly well clothed, being rarely beaten, for fear they should run away, and either be lost altogether or entail much expense to secure their capture. The girls do not have their feet compressed; hence they are infinitely more useful than small-footed women; and, on reaching a marriageable age, their masters are bound to provide them with husbands. They live on terms of easy familiarity with the whole household; and, ignorant of the meaning and value of liberty, seem quite contented with a lot which places them beyond the reach of hunger and cold. Slaves take the surnames of their masters, and the children of slaves are likewise slaves. Manumission is not uncommon; and Chinese history furnishes more than one example of a quondam slave attaining to the highest offices of State.return to footnote anchor 185return to footnote anchor 714

[186]No Chinese wine-party is complete without more or less amusement of a literary character. Capping verses, composing impromptu odes on persons or places, giving historical and mythological allusions, are among the ordinary diversions of this kind.return to text

[187]The Chinese night lasts from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., and is divided into five watches of two hours each, which are subdivided into five “beats” of the watchman’s wooden tom-tom.return to text

[188]Therôlesof women are always played in China by men, dressed up so perfectly, small feet and all, as to be quite undistinguishable from real women.return to text

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