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The Costume of China / Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Chinese cover

The Costume of China / Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Chinese

Chapter 42: Plate XLI. A SEDAN CHAIR.
By William Alexander
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About This Book

An illustrated volume presents fifty colored engravings with descriptive text that surveys dress, occupations, and social customs across urban and rural settings. Plates depict court and military attire with insignia indicating rank, everyday laborers, domestic servants, entertainers, religious practitioners and rituals, market and transport scenes, and tools and weapons, often accompanied by explanations of materials, costume elements, and local practices such as fishing methods and funerary observances. The commentary mixes observational notes on appearance and behavior with practical details about trades, ceremonies, and the visual markers of status.

Plate XLI.
 
A SEDAN CHAIR.

The vehicles of this description are nearly as various in the different provinces of China, and among the different ranks of inhabitants, as their boats and barges are. The one here engraved belongs to a person in a certain rank of life, probably an inferior mandarin. It will be observed that, instead of carrying the poles in the hands, as we do, the Chinese carry the chairs on the shoulders by means of a cross-bar fixed to the poles by straps: but different kinds of chairs are carried in different ways.

China—Plate 42