Chapter 30

[189]All underlings (and we might add overlings) in China being unpaid, it behoves them to make what they can out of the opportunities afforded. In mostyamêns, the various warrants and such documents are distributed to the runners in turn, who squeeze the victims thus handed over to them. For a small bribe they will go back and report “not at home;” for a larger one “has absconded,” and so on.Gatekeepers charge a fee on every petition that passes through their hands; gaolers, for a consideration and with proper security, allow their prisoners to be at large until wanted; clerks take bribes to use their influence, honestly or dishonestly, with the magistrate who is to try the case; and all the servants share equally in the gratuities given by anyone to whom their master may send presents. The amount, whatever it may be, is enclosed in a red envelope and addressed to the sender of the present, with the words “Instead of tea,” in large characters; the meaning being that the refreshments which should have been set before the servants who brought the gifts have been commuted by a money payment. This money is put into a general fund and equally divided at stated periods.All Government officers holding a post, from the highest to the lowest, are entitled to a nominal, and what would be a quite inadequate, salary; but no one ever sees this. It is customary to refuse acceptance of it on some such grounds as want of merit, and refund it to the Imperial Treasury.return to text[190]Anybody is liable to be “impressed” at any moment for the service of the Government. Boat owners, sedan-chair and coolie proprietors, especially dread the frequent and heavy calls that are made upon them for assistance, the remuneration they receive being in all cases insufficient to defray mere working expenses. But inasmuch as Chinese officials may not seize any men, or boats, or carts, holding passes to show that they are in the employ of a foreign merchant, a lively trade in such documents has sprung up in certain parts of China between the dishonest of the native and foreign commercial circles.return to text[191]Constables, detectives, and others, are liable to be bambooed at intervals, generally of three or five days, until the mission on which they are engaged has been successfully accomplished. In cases of theft and non-restoration of the stolen property within a given time, the detectives or constables employed may be required to make it good.return to text[192]Extended by the Chinese to certain cases of simple man slaughter.return to text[193]The Cantonese believe the following to be the usual process:—“Young children are bought or stolen at a tender age and placed in ach‘ing, or vase with a narrow neck, and having in this case a moveable bottom. In this receptacle the unfortunate little wretches are kept for years in a sitting posture, their heads outside, being all the while carefully tended and fed.... When the child has reached the age of twenty or over, he or she is taken away to some distant place and ‘discovered’ in the woods as a wild man or woman.”—China Mail, 15th May, 1878.return to text[194]Meaning that it would become known to the Arbiter of life and death in the world below, who would punish him by shortening his appointed term of years. SeeThe Wei-ch‘i Devil,No. CXXXI.return to text[195]One important preliminary consists in the exchange of the four pairs of characters which denote the year, month, day, and hour of the births of the contracting parties. It remains for a geomancer to determine whether these are in harmony or not; and a very simple expedient for backing out of a proposed alliance is to bribe him to declare that the nativities of the young couple could not be happily brought together.return to text[196]The bridegroom invariably fetches the bride from her father’s house, conveying her to his home in a handsomely-gilt red sedan-chair, closed in on all sides, and accompanied by a band of music.return to text[197]The Censorate is a body of fifty-six officials, whose duty it is to bring matters to the notice of the Emperor which might otherwise have escaped attention; to take exception to any acts, including those of His Majesty himself, calculated to interfere with the welfare of the people; and to impeach, as occasion may require, the high provincial authorities, whose position, but for this wholesome check, would be almost unassailable. Censors are popularly termed the “ears and eyes” of the monarch.return to footnote anchor 197return to footnote anchor 577[198]In theBook of Rites(I. Pt.i.v.10), which dates, in its present form, only from the first centuryB.C., occurs this passage, “With the slayer of his father, a man may not live under the same heaven;” and in theFamily Sayings(Bk. X.ab init.), a work which professes, though on quite insufficient authority, to record a number of the conversations and apophthegms of Confucius not given in theLun-yü, or Confucian Gospels, we find the following course laid down for a man whose father has been murdered:—“He must sleep upon a grass mat, with his shield for his pillow; he must decline to take office; he must not live under the same heaven (with the murderer). When he meets him in the court or in the market-place, he must not return for a weapon, but engage him there and then;” being always careful, as the commentator observes, to carry a weapon about with him. Sir John Davis and Dr. Legge agree in stigmatizing this as “one of the objectionable principles of Confucius.” It must, however, be admitted that (1) a patched-up work which appeared as we have it now from two to three centuries after Confucius’s death, and (2) a confessedly apocryphal work such as theFamily Sayings, are hardly sufficient grounds for affixing to the fair fame of China’s great Sage the positive inculcation of a dangerous principle of blood-vengeance like that I have just quoted.return to text[199]The Chinese theory being that every official is responsible for the peace and well-being of the district committed to his charge, and even liable to punishment for occurrences over which he could not possibly have had any control.return to text[200]SeeNo. X.,note 75.return to text[201]SeeNo. X.,note 78.return to text[202]No man being allowed to hold office within a radius of 500li, or nearly 200 miles, from his native place.return to text[203]This is a very common custom all over China.return to text[204]Of all the Buddhistsutras, this is perhaps the favourite with the Chinese.return to text[205]Contrary to the German notion that the spirit of the dead mother, coming back at night to suckle the child she has left behind, makes an impress on the bed alongside the baby.return to text[206]Being, of course, invisible to all except himself.return to text[207]A very ancient expression, signifying “the grave,” the word “wood” being used by synecdoche for “coffin.”return to text[208]The supposed residence of Kuan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, she who “hears prayers” and is the giver of children.return to footnote anchor 208return to footnote 569[209]The great Supreme Ruler, who is supposed to have absolute sway over the various other deities of the Chinese Pantheon.return to text[210]Generally spoken of as an inauspicious phenomenon.return to text[211]This is the Buddhistpatra, which modern writers have come to regard as an instrumental part of the Taoist religion. SeeNo. IV.,note 46.return to text[212]To call attention to his presence. Beggars in China accomplish their purpose more effectually by beating a gong in the shop where they ask for alms so loudly as to prevent the shopkeeper from hearing his customers speak; or they vary the performance by swinging about some dead animal tied to the end of a stick. Mendicity not being prohibited in China, there results a system of black mail payable by every householder to a beggars’ guild, and this frees them from the visits of the beggars of their own particular district; many, however, do not subscribe, but take their chance in the struggle as to who will tire out the other first, the shopkeeper, who has all to lose, being careful to stop short of anything like manual violence, which would forthwith bring down upon him the myrmidons of the law, and subject him to innumerable “squeezes.”return to text[213]Sc.a “sponge.”return to text[214]Said to have been introduced into China from the west by a eunuch named San-pao during the Ming dynasty.return to text[215]The women’s apartments being quite separate from the rest of a Chinese house, male visitors consequently know nothing about their inhabitants.return to text[216]SeeNo. XIII.,note 90.return to text[217]A very ancient custom in China, originating in a belief that these birds never mate a second time. The libation is made on the occasion of the bridegroom fetching his bride from her father’s house.return to footnote anchor 217return to footnote anchor 681[218]A Chinese trousseau, in addition to clothes and jewels, consists of tables and chairs, and all kinds of house furniture and ornaments.return to text[219]Which ended some sixteen hundred years ago.return to text[220]Corresponding with our five “senses,” the heart taking the place of the brain, and being regarded by Chinese doctors as the seat not only of intelligence and the passions, but also of all sensation.return to text[221]These nunneries, of which there are plenty in China, are well worth visiting, and may be freely entered by both sexes. Sometimes there are as many as a hundred nuns living together in one temple, and to all appearances devoting their lives to religious exercises; report, however, tells many tales of broken vows, and makes sad havoc generally with the reputation of these fair vestals.return to text[222]In corresponding English, this would be:—The young lady said her name was Eloïsa. “How funny!” cried Chên, “and mine is Abelard.”return to text[223]That is, she was the last to take the vows.return to text[224]The usual signal that a person does not wish to take any more wine.return to text[225]This would carry him well on into the third of the years during which Yün-ch‘i had promised to wait for him.return to text[226]The celebrated lake in Hu-nan, round which has gathered so much of the folk-lore of China.return to footnote anchor 226return to footnote anchor 338[227]The instrument used by masons is here meant.return to text[228]The guardian angel of crows.return to text[229]In order to secure a favourable passage. The custom here mentioned was actually practised at more than one temple on the river Yang-tsze, and allusions to it will be found in more than one serious work.return to text[230]Alluding to a legend of a young man meeting two young ladies at Hankow, each of whom wore a girdle adorned with a pearl as big as a hen’s egg. The young man begged them to give him these girdles, and they did so; but the next moment they had vanished, and the girdles too.return to text[231]The text hasnai-tung(“endure the winter”), for the identification of which I am indebted to Mr. L. C. Hopkins, ofH.M.’sConsular service.return to text[232]Women, of course, being excluded.return to text[233]Although the Chinese do not “shake hands” in our sense of the term, it is a sign of affection to seize the hand of a parting or returning friend. “The Book of Rites,” however, lays down the rule that persons of opposite sexes should not, in passing things from one to the other,let their hands touch;and the question was gravely put to Mencius (BookIV.) as to whether a man might even pull his drowning sister-in-law out of the water. Mencius replied that it was indeed a general principle that a man should avoid touching a woman’s hand, but that he who could not make an exception in such a case would be no better than a wolf. Neither, according to the Chinese rule, should men and women hang their clothes on the same rack, which reminds one of the French prude who would not allow male and female authors to be ranged upon the same bookshelf.return to footnote anchor 233return to footnote 489return to footnote 581[234]ThePæonia albiflora.return to text[235]The various subdivisions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms are each believed by the Chinese to be under the sway of a ruler holding his commission from and responsible to the one Supreme Power or God, fully in accordance with the general scheme of supernatural Government accepted in other and less civilized communities.return to text[236]This is by no means uncommon. The debt of gratitude between pupil and teacher is second only to that existing between child and parent; and a successful student soon has it in his power to more than repay any such act of kindness as that here mentioned.return to text[237]Which form the unvarying curriculum of a Chinese education. These are (1) theFour Books, consisting of the teachings of Confucius and Mencius; and (2) theFive Canons(in the ecclesiastical sense of the word) or the Canons of Changes, History, Poetry, the Record of Rites, and Spring and Autumn. TheFour Booksconsist of:—(1) The Book of Wisdom, attributed by Chu Hi to Confucius. It is a disquisition upon virtue and the moral elevation of the people.(2) TheChung Yung, or Gospel of Tzŭ Ssŭ (the grandson of Confucius) wherein the ruling motives of human conduct are traced from their psychological source.(3) The Confucian Gospels, being discourses of the Sage with his disciples on miscellaneous topics.(4) The Gospels of Mencius.The Canon of Changescontains a fanciful system of philosophy based upon the combinations of eight diagrams said to have been copied from the lines on the back of a tortoise. Ascribed toB.C.1150.The Canon of Historyembraces a period extending from the middle of the 24th centuryB.C.toB.C.721. Was edited by Confucius from then existing documents.The Canon of Poetryis a collection of irregular lyrics in vogue among the people many centuries before the Christian era. Collected and arranged by Confucius.The Record of Ritescontains a number of rules for the performance of ceremonies and guidance of individual conduct.Spring and Autumnconsists of the annals of the petty kingdom of Lu from 722 to 484B.C.Is the work of Confucius himself.return to footnote anchor 237return to footnote anchor 336return to footnote 379[238]SeeNo. XXIII.,note 154.return to text[239]To be presented to the Emperor before taking up his post.return to text[240]Hoping thus to interest Buddha in his behalf.return to text[241]In accordance with Chinese usage, by which titles of nobility are often conferred upon thedeadparents of a distinguished son.return to text[242]In which Peking is situated.return to text[243]A common form of revenge in China, and one which is easily carried through when the prosecutor is a man of wealth and influence.return to text[244]Another favourite method of revenging oneself upon an enemy, who is in many cases held responsible for the death thus occasioned. Mr. Alabaster told me an amusing story of a Chinese woman who deliberately walked into a pond until the water reached her knees, and remained there alternately putting her lips below the surface and threatening in a loud voice to drown herself on the spot, as life had been made unbearable by the presence of foreign barbarians. This was during the Taiping rebellion.return to text[245]Valuables of some kind or other are often placed in the coffins of wealthy Chinese; and women are almost always provided with a certain quantity of jewels with which to adorn themselves in the realms below.return to text[246]One of the most heinous offences in the Chinese Penal Code.return to text[247]Deference to elder brothers is held by the Chinese to be second only in importance to filial piety.return to text[248]In a volume ofChinese Sketches, published by me in 1876, occur (p.129) the following words:—“Occasionally a young wife is driven to commit suicide by the harshness of her mother-in-law, but this is of rare occurrence, as the consequences are terrible to the family of the guilty woman. The blood-relatives of the deceased repair to the chamber of death, and in the injured victim’s hand they place a broom. They then support the corpse round the room, making its dead arm move the broom from side to side, and thus sweep away wealth, happiness, and longevity, from the accursed place for ever.”return to footnote anchor 248return to footnote anchor 302[249]A wife being an infinitely less important personage than a mother in the Chinese social scale.return to text[250]Literally, of hand and foot, to the mutual dependence of which that of brothers is frequently likened by the Chinese.return to text[251]Any permanent change of residence must be notified to the District Magistrate, who keeps a running census of all persons within his jurisdiction.return to text[252]To be thus beforehand with one’s adversary is regarded asprimâ facieevidence of being in the right.return to text[253]By means of thestatuswhich a graduate of the second degree would necessarily have.return to text[254]A sham entertainment given by the Fu-t‘ai, or governor, to all the successful candidates. I saysham, because the whole thing is merely nominal; a certain amount of food is contracted for, but there is never anything fit to eat, most of the money being embezzled by the underlings to whose management the banquet is entrusted.return to text[255]Much more so than at present.return to text[256]Thereby invoking the Gods as witnesses. A common method of making up a quarrel in China is to send the aggrieved party an olive and a piece of red paper in token that peace is restored. Why theoliveshould be specially employed I have in vain tried to ascertain.return to text[257]Of course there is no such thing as spelling, in our sense of the term, in Chinese. But characters are frequently written with too many or too few strokes, and may thus be said to be incorrectly spelt.return to text[258]A ceremonial visit made on the third day after marriage.return to text[259]Contrary to all Chinese notions of modesty and etiquette.return to text

Gatekeepers charge a fee on every petition that passes through their hands; gaolers, for a consideration and with proper security, allow their prisoners to be at large until wanted; clerks take bribes to use their influence, honestly or dishonestly, with the magistrate who is to try the case; and all the servants share equally in the gratuities given by anyone to whom their master may send presents. The amount, whatever it may be, is enclosed in a red envelope and addressed to the sender of the present, with the words “Instead of tea,” in large characters; the meaning being that the refreshments which should have been set before the servants who brought the gifts have been commuted by a money payment. This money is put into a general fund and equally divided at stated periods.

All Government officers holding a post, from the highest to the lowest, are entitled to a nominal, and what would be a quite inadequate, salary; but no one ever sees this. It is customary to refuse acceptance of it on some such grounds as want of merit, and refund it to the Imperial Treasury.return to text

[190]Anybody is liable to be “impressed” at any moment for the service of the Government. Boat owners, sedan-chair and coolie proprietors, especially dread the frequent and heavy calls that are made upon them for assistance, the remuneration they receive being in all cases insufficient to defray mere working expenses. But inasmuch as Chinese officials may not seize any men, or boats, or carts, holding passes to show that they are in the employ of a foreign merchant, a lively trade in such documents has sprung up in certain parts of China between the dishonest of the native and foreign commercial circles.return to text

[191]Constables, detectives, and others, are liable to be bambooed at intervals, generally of three or five days, until the mission on which they are engaged has been successfully accomplished. In cases of theft and non-restoration of the stolen property within a given time, the detectives or constables employed may be required to make it good.return to text

[192]Extended by the Chinese to certain cases of simple man slaughter.return to text

[193]The Cantonese believe the following to be the usual process:—“Young children are bought or stolen at a tender age and placed in ach‘ing, or vase with a narrow neck, and having in this case a moveable bottom. In this receptacle the unfortunate little wretches are kept for years in a sitting posture, their heads outside, being all the while carefully tended and fed.... When the child has reached the age of twenty or over, he or she is taken away to some distant place and ‘discovered’ in the woods as a wild man or woman.”—China Mail, 15th May, 1878.return to text

[194]Meaning that it would become known to the Arbiter of life and death in the world below, who would punish him by shortening his appointed term of years. SeeThe Wei-ch‘i Devil,No. CXXXI.return to text

[195]One important preliminary consists in the exchange of the four pairs of characters which denote the year, month, day, and hour of the births of the contracting parties. It remains for a geomancer to determine whether these are in harmony or not; and a very simple expedient for backing out of a proposed alliance is to bribe him to declare that the nativities of the young couple could not be happily brought together.return to text

[196]The bridegroom invariably fetches the bride from her father’s house, conveying her to his home in a handsomely-gilt red sedan-chair, closed in on all sides, and accompanied by a band of music.return to text

[197]The Censorate is a body of fifty-six officials, whose duty it is to bring matters to the notice of the Emperor which might otherwise have escaped attention; to take exception to any acts, including those of His Majesty himself, calculated to interfere with the welfare of the people; and to impeach, as occasion may require, the high provincial authorities, whose position, but for this wholesome check, would be almost unassailable. Censors are popularly termed the “ears and eyes” of the monarch.return to footnote anchor 197return to footnote anchor 577

[198]In theBook of Rites(I. Pt.i.v.10), which dates, in its present form, only from the first centuryB.C., occurs this passage, “With the slayer of his father, a man may not live under the same heaven;” and in theFamily Sayings(Bk. X.ab init.), a work which professes, though on quite insufficient authority, to record a number of the conversations and apophthegms of Confucius not given in theLun-yü, or Confucian Gospels, we find the following course laid down for a man whose father has been murdered:—“He must sleep upon a grass mat, with his shield for his pillow; he must decline to take office; he must not live under the same heaven (with the murderer). When he meets him in the court or in the market-place, he must not return for a weapon, but engage him there and then;” being always careful, as the commentator observes, to carry a weapon about with him. Sir John Davis and Dr. Legge agree in stigmatizing this as “one of the objectionable principles of Confucius.” It must, however, be admitted that (1) a patched-up work which appeared as we have it now from two to three centuries after Confucius’s death, and (2) a confessedly apocryphal work such as theFamily Sayings, are hardly sufficient grounds for affixing to the fair fame of China’s great Sage the positive inculcation of a dangerous principle of blood-vengeance like that I have just quoted.return to text

[199]The Chinese theory being that every official is responsible for the peace and well-being of the district committed to his charge, and even liable to punishment for occurrences over which he could not possibly have had any control.return to text

[200]SeeNo. X.,note 75.return to text

[201]SeeNo. X.,note 78.return to text

[202]No man being allowed to hold office within a radius of 500li, or nearly 200 miles, from his native place.return to text

[203]This is a very common custom all over China.return to text

[204]Of all the Buddhistsutras, this is perhaps the favourite with the Chinese.return to text

[205]Contrary to the German notion that the spirit of the dead mother, coming back at night to suckle the child she has left behind, makes an impress on the bed alongside the baby.return to text

[206]Being, of course, invisible to all except himself.return to text

[207]A very ancient expression, signifying “the grave,” the word “wood” being used by synecdoche for “coffin.”return to text

[208]The supposed residence of Kuan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, she who “hears prayers” and is the giver of children.return to footnote anchor 208return to footnote 569

[209]The great Supreme Ruler, who is supposed to have absolute sway over the various other deities of the Chinese Pantheon.return to text

[210]Generally spoken of as an inauspicious phenomenon.return to text

[211]This is the Buddhistpatra, which modern writers have come to regard as an instrumental part of the Taoist religion. SeeNo. IV.,note 46.return to text

[212]To call attention to his presence. Beggars in China accomplish their purpose more effectually by beating a gong in the shop where they ask for alms so loudly as to prevent the shopkeeper from hearing his customers speak; or they vary the performance by swinging about some dead animal tied to the end of a stick. Mendicity not being prohibited in China, there results a system of black mail payable by every householder to a beggars’ guild, and this frees them from the visits of the beggars of their own particular district; many, however, do not subscribe, but take their chance in the struggle as to who will tire out the other first, the shopkeeper, who has all to lose, being careful to stop short of anything like manual violence, which would forthwith bring down upon him the myrmidons of the law, and subject him to innumerable “squeezes.”return to text

[213]Sc.a “sponge.”return to text

[214]Said to have been introduced into China from the west by a eunuch named San-pao during the Ming dynasty.return to text

[215]The women’s apartments being quite separate from the rest of a Chinese house, male visitors consequently know nothing about their inhabitants.return to text

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

[217]A very ancient custom in China, originating in a belief that these birds never mate a second time. The libation is made on the occasion of the bridegroom fetching his bride from her father’s house.return to footnote anchor 217return to footnote anchor 681

[218]A Chinese trousseau, in addition to clothes and jewels, consists of tables and chairs, and all kinds of house furniture and ornaments.return to text

[219]Which ended some sixteen hundred years ago.return to text

[220]Corresponding with our five “senses,” the heart taking the place of the brain, and being regarded by Chinese doctors as the seat not only of intelligence and the passions, but also of all sensation.return to text

[221]These nunneries, of which there are plenty in China, are well worth visiting, and may be freely entered by both sexes. Sometimes there are as many as a hundred nuns living together in one temple, and to all appearances devoting their lives to religious exercises; report, however, tells many tales of broken vows, and makes sad havoc generally with the reputation of these fair vestals.return to text

[222]In corresponding English, this would be:—The young lady said her name was Eloïsa. “How funny!” cried Chên, “and mine is Abelard.”return to text

[223]That is, she was the last to take the vows.return to text

[224]The usual signal that a person does not wish to take any more wine.return to text

[225]This would carry him well on into the third of the years during which Yün-ch‘i had promised to wait for him.return to text

[226]The celebrated lake in Hu-nan, round which has gathered so much of the folk-lore of China.return to footnote anchor 226return to footnote anchor 338

[227]The instrument used by masons is here meant.return to text

[228]The guardian angel of crows.return to text

[229]In order to secure a favourable passage. The custom here mentioned was actually practised at more than one temple on the river Yang-tsze, and allusions to it will be found in more than one serious work.return to text

[230]Alluding to a legend of a young man meeting two young ladies at Hankow, each of whom wore a girdle adorned with a pearl as big as a hen’s egg. The young man begged them to give him these girdles, and they did so; but the next moment they had vanished, and the girdles too.return to text

[231]The text hasnai-tung(“endure the winter”), for the identification of which I am indebted to Mr. L. C. Hopkins, ofH.M.’sConsular service.return to text

[232]Women, of course, being excluded.return to text

[233]Although the Chinese do not “shake hands” in our sense of the term, it is a sign of affection to seize the hand of a parting or returning friend. “The Book of Rites,” however, lays down the rule that persons of opposite sexes should not, in passing things from one to the other,let their hands touch;and the question was gravely put to Mencius (BookIV.) as to whether a man might even pull his drowning sister-in-law out of the water. Mencius replied that it was indeed a general principle that a man should avoid touching a woman’s hand, but that he who could not make an exception in such a case would be no better than a wolf. Neither, according to the Chinese rule, should men and women hang their clothes on the same rack, which reminds one of the French prude who would not allow male and female authors to be ranged upon the same bookshelf.return to footnote anchor 233return to footnote 489return to footnote 581

[234]ThePæonia albiflora.return to text

[235]The various subdivisions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms are each believed by the Chinese to be under the sway of a ruler holding his commission from and responsible to the one Supreme Power or God, fully in accordance with the general scheme of supernatural Government accepted in other and less civilized communities.return to text

[236]This is by no means uncommon. The debt of gratitude between pupil and teacher is second only to that existing between child and parent; and a successful student soon has it in his power to more than repay any such act of kindness as that here mentioned.return to text

[237]Which form the unvarying curriculum of a Chinese education. These are (1) theFour Books, consisting of the teachings of Confucius and Mencius; and (2) theFive Canons(in the ecclesiastical sense of the word) or the Canons of Changes, History, Poetry, the Record of Rites, and Spring and Autumn. TheFour Booksconsist of:—(1) The Book of Wisdom, attributed by Chu Hi to Confucius. It is a disquisition upon virtue and the moral elevation of the people.(2) TheChung Yung, or Gospel of Tzŭ Ssŭ (the grandson of Confucius) wherein the ruling motives of human conduct are traced from their psychological source.(3) The Confucian Gospels, being discourses of the Sage with his disciples on miscellaneous topics.(4) The Gospels of Mencius.The Canon of Changescontains a fanciful system of philosophy based upon the combinations of eight diagrams said to have been copied from the lines on the back of a tortoise. Ascribed toB.C.1150.The Canon of Historyembraces a period extending from the middle of the 24th centuryB.C.toB.C.721. Was edited by Confucius from then existing documents.The Canon of Poetryis a collection of irregular lyrics in vogue among the people many centuries before the Christian era. Collected and arranged by Confucius.The Record of Ritescontains a number of rules for the performance of ceremonies and guidance of individual conduct.Spring and Autumnconsists of the annals of the petty kingdom of Lu from 722 to 484B.C.Is the work of Confucius himself.return to footnote anchor 237return to footnote anchor 336return to footnote 379

(1) The Book of Wisdom, attributed by Chu Hi to Confucius. It is a disquisition upon virtue and the moral elevation of the people.

(2) TheChung Yung, or Gospel of Tzŭ Ssŭ (the grandson of Confucius) wherein the ruling motives of human conduct are traced from their psychological source.

(3) The Confucian Gospels, being discourses of the Sage with his disciples on miscellaneous topics.

(4) The Gospels of Mencius.

The Canon of Changescontains a fanciful system of philosophy based upon the combinations of eight diagrams said to have been copied from the lines on the back of a tortoise. Ascribed toB.C.1150.

The Canon of Historyembraces a period extending from the middle of the 24th centuryB.C.toB.C.721. Was edited by Confucius from then existing documents.

The Canon of Poetryis a collection of irregular lyrics in vogue among the people many centuries before the Christian era. Collected and arranged by Confucius.

The Record of Ritescontains a number of rules for the performance of ceremonies and guidance of individual conduct.

Spring and Autumnconsists of the annals of the petty kingdom of Lu from 722 to 484B.C.Is the work of Confucius himself.return to footnote anchor 237return to footnote anchor 336return to footnote 379

[238]SeeNo. XXIII.,note 154.return to text

[239]To be presented to the Emperor before taking up his post.return to text

[240]Hoping thus to interest Buddha in his behalf.return to text

[241]In accordance with Chinese usage, by which titles of nobility are often conferred upon thedeadparents of a distinguished son.return to text

[242]In which Peking is situated.return to text

[243]A common form of revenge in China, and one which is easily carried through when the prosecutor is a man of wealth and influence.return to text

[244]Another favourite method of revenging oneself upon an enemy, who is in many cases held responsible for the death thus occasioned. Mr. Alabaster told me an amusing story of a Chinese woman who deliberately walked into a pond until the water reached her knees, and remained there alternately putting her lips below the surface and threatening in a loud voice to drown herself on the spot, as life had been made unbearable by the presence of foreign barbarians. This was during the Taiping rebellion.return to text

[245]Valuables of some kind or other are often placed in the coffins of wealthy Chinese; and women are almost always provided with a certain quantity of jewels with which to adorn themselves in the realms below.return to text

[246]One of the most heinous offences in the Chinese Penal Code.return to text

[247]Deference to elder brothers is held by the Chinese to be second only in importance to filial piety.return to text

[248]In a volume ofChinese Sketches, published by me in 1876, occur (p.129) the following words:—“Occasionally a young wife is driven to commit suicide by the harshness of her mother-in-law, but this is of rare occurrence, as the consequences are terrible to the family of the guilty woman. The blood-relatives of the deceased repair to the chamber of death, and in the injured victim’s hand they place a broom. They then support the corpse round the room, making its dead arm move the broom from side to side, and thus sweep away wealth, happiness, and longevity, from the accursed place for ever.”return to footnote anchor 248return to footnote anchor 302

[249]A wife being an infinitely less important personage than a mother in the Chinese social scale.return to text

[250]Literally, of hand and foot, to the mutual dependence of which that of brothers is frequently likened by the Chinese.return to text

[251]Any permanent change of residence must be notified to the District Magistrate, who keeps a running census of all persons within his jurisdiction.return to text

[252]To be thus beforehand with one’s adversary is regarded asprimâ facieevidence of being in the right.return to text

[253]By means of thestatuswhich a graduate of the second degree would necessarily have.return to text

[254]A sham entertainment given by the Fu-t‘ai, or governor, to all the successful candidates. I saysham, because the whole thing is merely nominal; a certain amount of food is contracted for, but there is never anything fit to eat, most of the money being embezzled by the underlings to whose management the banquet is entrusted.return to text

[255]Much more so than at present.return to text

[256]Thereby invoking the Gods as witnesses. A common method of making up a quarrel in China is to send the aggrieved party an olive and a piece of red paper in token that peace is restored. Why theoliveshould be specially employed I have in vain tried to ascertain.return to text

[257]Of course there is no such thing as spelling, in our sense of the term, in Chinese. But characters are frequently written with too many or too few strokes, and may thus be said to be incorrectly spelt.return to text

[258]A ceremonial visit made on the third day after marriage.return to text

[259]Contrary to all Chinese notions of modesty and etiquette.return to text

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