We arrived at length safe and sound at the frontiers of China, where the climate of Thibet gave us a very cold farewell. In crossing the mountain which precedes the town of Ta-Tsien-Lou, we were almost buried in the snow, it fell so thick and fast; and which accompanied us into the valley where stands the Chinese town, which, in its turn, received us with a pelting rain. It was in the early part of June, 1846, and three months since we had departed from Lha-Ssa; according to the Chinese Itinerary, we had travelled 5,050 lis.
Ta-Tsien-Lou signifies the forge of arrows, and this name was given to the town, because in the year 234 of our era, General Wou-Heou, while leading his army against the southern countries, sent one of his lieutenants to establish there a forge of arrows. This district has by turns belonged to the Thibetians and to the Chinese; for the last hundred years it has been considered as an integral part of the empire.
“The walls and fortifications of Ta-Tsien-Lou,” says the Chinese Itinerary, “are of freestone. Chinese and Thibetians dwell there together. It is thence that the officers and troops, which are sent to Thibet quit China. Though it passes also a large quantity of tea coming from China, and destined to supply the provinces of Thibet, it is at Ta-Tsien-Lou that is held the principal tea fair. Although the inhabitants of this canton are very addicted to the worship of Buddha, they seek to get a little profit; yet they are sincere and just, submissive and obedient, so that nothing, even death, can change their natural good nature. As they have been long accustomed to the Chinese domination, they are the more attached to it.”
We rested three days at Ta-Tsien-Lou, and each day had several quarrels with the principal Mandarin of the place, who would not consent to our continuing our route in a palanquin. However, he had at length to give way, for we could not bear even the idea of mounting once more on horseback. Our legs had bestrid so many horses of every age, size, quality, and colour, that they refused to have anything further to do with horses at all, and were full of an irresistible resolution to stretch themselves at ease in a palanquin. This was granted them, thanks to the perseverance and energy of our remonstrances.
The Thibetian escort which had accompanied us so faithfully during the long and arduous route returned after two days’ rest. We gave the Lama Dchiamdchang a letter for the Regent, in which we thanked him for having assigned us so devoted an escort, and which had throughout kept in our memory the good treatment we had received at Lha-Ssa. On parting from these good Thibetians we could not help shedding tears, for insensibly, and as it were without our knowledge, ties had been formed between us which it was painful to sever. The Lama Dchiamdchang secretly told us that he had been charged to remind us, at the moment of separation, of the promise we had made to the Regent. He asked us if they might reckon on seeing us again at Lha-Ssa. We replied that they might, for at that time we were far from anticipating the nature of the obstacles that were to prevent our return to Thibet.
The next morning, at daybreak, we entered our palanquins, and were conveyed, at the public expense, to the capital of the province of Sse-Tchouen, where, by order of the Emperor, we were to undergo a solemn judgment before the Grand Mandarins of the Celestial Empire.
After a few months journey through China, we arrived at Macao, in the early part of October, 1846. Our long and painful journey was at an end; and at last we were able, after so many tribulations, to enjoy a little quiet and repose. During two years we applied our leisure moments to the preparation of the few notes made in our journey. Hence these “Reminiscences of Travel,” which we address to our European brethren, whose charity will no doubt be interested in the trials and fatigues of the missionaries.
Our entrance into China, for the purpose of returning to our mission in Mongol-Tartary, compels us to leave unfinished the labour we had undertaken. It remains for us to speak of our relations with the Chinese tribunals and Mandarins, to give a sketch of the provinces we have traversed, and to compare them with those which we had occasion to visit in our former travels in the Celestial Empire. This omission we will endeavour to supply in the leisure hours we may be able to snatch from the labours of the sacred ministry. Perhaps we shall be in a position to give some correct notions about a country, of which, at no time, certainly, have men’sideas been so erroneous as they are at this day. Not that we are without abundant books about China and the Chinese. On the contrary, the number of works on these subjects that have appeared in France, and particularly in England, within the last few years, is really prodigious. But the zeal of a writer will not always suffice to describe countries in which he has never set his foot. To write travels in China, after a saunter or two through the factories of Canton and the environs of Macao, involves the danger of speaking of things that one is not thoroughly acquainted with. Although it has been the good fortune of the learned orientalist, J. Klaproth, to discover the Potocki Archipelago without quitting his closet, it is, generally speaking, rather difficult to make discoveries in a country which one has not visited.
Chinese Ornamental Ware
[48]Oui, in Thibetian, means centre, middle; and hence the name was given to the province which occupies the centre of Thibet, and the capital of which is Lha-Ssa.
[76]Charmanas (in Sanscrit, S’raman’as) are monks in the Lamanesque hierarchy.
[84]Goucho is a title of honour, given to the Lamas by the Thibetians.
[104]Tchanak is the Mongol name of Peking; Kampo means Pontiff.
[155]Dalae-Lama is altogether an erroneous form of this designation; the words are Talé-Lama. Talé, in Thibetian, means sea, and the appellation has been applied to the Grand Lama of Thibet, because this personage is locally supposed to be a sea of wisdom and power.
[172]Siao-ti, an expression used by the Chinese when they speak of themselves in the presence of Mandarins.
[192]The Chinese name for Mr. Elliot, the English Plenipotentiary at Canton, at the commencement of the Anglo-Chinese war.
[195]The class of reptiles comprehends fish, mollusks, and all animals that are neither quadrupeds nor birds.
[200]Strabo, speaking of the customs of the nomadic Scythians, as retained among the Sogdians and Bactrians, writes: “In the capital of Bactria, they breed dogs, to which they give a special name, which name, rendered into our language, means buriers. The business of these dogs is to eat up all persons who are beginning to fall into decay, from old age or sickness. Hence it is that no tomb is visible in the suburbs of the town, while the town itself is all filled with human bones. It is said that Alexander abolished this custom.”
Cicero attributes the same custom to the Hyrcanians, in his “Tusculan Questions,” (Lib. i. § 45): “In Hyrcania plebs publicos alit canes; optimates, domesticos. Nobile autem genus canum illud scimus esse. Sed pro sua quisque facultate parat, à quibus lanietur: eamque optimam illi esse censent sepulturam.”
Justin also says of the Parthians: “Sepultura vulgò aut avium aut canum aniatus est. Nuda demum ossa terrâ obruunt.”
[203a]“Asia,” vol. v., p. 800, German edition, 1833–1837.
[203b]See “Asiatic Journal of London,” vol. xxi., p. 786, and vol. xxii., p. 596. A notice of Moorcroft’s manuscripts was inserted in the “Journal of the Geographical Society of London,” 1831.
[203c]Vol. xii, No. 9, p. 120.
[203d]M. Gabet.
[219]In the province of Oui there are three thousand.
[227]Ki-Chan, in fact, is now viceroy of the province of Sse-Tchouen.
[235]Nouveau Journal Asiatique, 1st series, tome iv. and vi.
[245]We had for a long time a small Mongol treatise on natural history, for the use of children, in which a unicorn formed one of the pictorial illustrations.
[246]A centimetre is 33–100 of an inch.
[248]The unicorn antelope of Thibet is probably the oryx-capra of the ancients. It is still found in the deserts of Upper Nubia, where it is called Ariel. The unicorn (Hebrew, reem; Greek, monoceros), that is represented in the Bible, and in Pliny’s “Natural History,” cannot be identified with the oryx capra. The unicorn of holy writ would appear rather to be a pachydermous creature, of great strength and formidable ferocity. According to travellers, it still exists in Central Africa, and the Arabs call it Aboukarn.
[251]Kouang-Ti, was a celebrated general who lived in the third century of our era, and who, after many and famous victories, was put to death with his son. The Chinese, indeed, say that he did not really die, but that he ascended to heaven, and took his place among the Gods. The Mantchous, who now reign in China, have named Kouang-Ti the tutelary spirit of their dynasty, and raised a great number of temples in his honour. He is ordinarily represented seated, having on his left hand his son Kouang-Ping, standing, and on his right, his squire, a man with a face so very dark, as to be almost black.
[264]The Kiang-Kian are the highest dignitaries of the military hierarchy in China; they are decorated with the red button. Each province has a Kiang-Kian, who is its military governor, and a Tsoung-Tou, or viceroy, who is its chief literary Mandarin.
[268]On Andriveau-Goujon’s map, this place is called Chamiton.
[292]Bathang signifies in Thibetian, plain of cows.