[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 most yamêns, 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.
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[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.
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[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.
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[192] Extended by the Chinese to certain cases of simple man
slaughter.
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[193] The Cantonese believe the following to be the usual
process:—“Young children are bought or stolen at a tender age and
placed in a ch‘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.
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[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. See The Wei-ch‘i Devil, No. CXXXI.
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[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.
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[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.
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[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.
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[198] In the Book of Rites (I. Pt. i. v. 10), which dates, in its
present form, only from the first century B.C., occurs this passage,
“With the slayer of his father, a man may not live under the same
heaven;” and in the Family 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 the
Lun-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 the Family 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.
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[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.
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[200] See No. X., note 75.
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[201] See No. X., note 78.
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[202] No man being allowed to hold office within a radius of 500 li,
or nearly 200 miles, from his native place.
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[203] This is a very common custom all over China.
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[204] Of all the Buddhist sutras, this is perhaps the favourite with
the Chinese.
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[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.
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[206] Being, of course, invisible to all except himself.
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[207] A very ancient expression, signifying “the grave,” the word
“wood” being used by synecdoche for “coffin.”
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[208] The supposed residence of Kuan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of
Mercy, she who “hears prayers” and is the giver of children.
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[209] The great Supreme Ruler, who is supposed to have absolute sway
over the various other deities of the Chinese Pantheon.
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[210] Generally spoken of as an inauspicious phenomenon.
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[211] This is the Buddhist patra, which modern writers have come to
regard as an instrumental part of the Taoist religion. See No. IV.,
note 46.
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[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.”
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[213] Sc. a “sponge.”
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[214] Said to have been introduced into China from the west by a
eunuch named San-pao during the Ming dynasty.
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[215] The women’s apartments being quite separate from the rest of a
Chinese house, male visitors consequently know nothing about their
inhabitants.
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[216] See No. XIII., note 90.
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[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.
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[218] A Chinese trousseau, in addition to clothes and jewels, consists
of tables and chairs, and all kinds of house furniture and ornaments.
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[219] Which ended some sixteen hundred years ago.
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[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.
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[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.
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[222] In corresponding English, this would be:—The young lady said
her name was Eloïsa. “How funny!” cried Chên, “and mine is Abelard.”
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[223] That is, she was the last to take the vows.
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[224] The usual signal that a person does not wish to take any more
wine.
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[225] This would carry him well on into the third of the years during
which Yün-ch‘i had promised to wait for him.
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[226] The celebrated lake in Hu-nan, round which has gathered so much
of the folk-lore of China.
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[227] The instrument used by masons is here meant.
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[228] The guardian angel of crows.
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[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.
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[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.
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[231] The text has nai-tung (“endure the winter”), for the
identification of which I am indebted to Mr. L. C. Hopkins, of H.M.’s
Consular service.
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[232] Women, of course, being excluded.
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[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 (Book IV.) 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.
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[234] The Pæonia albiflora.
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[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.
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[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.
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[237] Which form the unvarying curriculum of a Chinese education. These are (1) the Four Books, consisting of the teachings of Confucius and Mencius; and (2) the Five Canons (in the ecclesiastical sense of the word) or the Canons of Changes, History, Poetry, the Record of Rites, and Spring and Autumn. The Four Books consist 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) The Chung 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 Changes contains 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 to B.C. 1150.
The Canon of History embraces a period extending from the middle of the 24th century B.C. to B.C. 721. Was edited by Confucius from then existing documents.
The Canon of Poetry is a collection of irregular lyrics in vogue among the people many centuries before the Christian era. Collected and arranged by Confucius.
The Record of Rites contains a number of rules for the performance of ceremonies and guidance of individual conduct.
Spring and Autumn consists of the annals of the petty kingdom of Lu
from 722 to 484 B.C. Is the work of Confucius himself.
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[238] See No. XXIII., note 154.
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[239] To be presented to the Emperor before taking up his post.
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[240] Hoping thus to interest Buddha in his behalf.
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[241] In accordance with Chinese usage, by which titles of nobility
are often conferred upon the dead parents of a distinguished son.
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[242] In which Peking is situated.
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[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.
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[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.
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[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.
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[246] One of the most heinous offences in the Chinese Penal Code.
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[247] Deference to elder brothers is held by the Chinese to be second
only in importance to filial piety.
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[248] In a volume of Chinese 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.”
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[249] A wife being an infinitely less important personage than a
mother in the Chinese social scale.
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[250] Literally, of hand and foot, to the mutual dependence of which
that of brothers is frequently likened by the Chinese.
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[251] Any permanent change of residence must be notified to the
District Magistrate, who keeps a running census of all persons within
his jurisdiction.
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[252] To be thus beforehand with one’s adversary is regarded as primâ
facie evidence of being in the right.
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[253] By means of the status which a graduate of the second degree
would necessarily have.
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[254] A sham entertainment given by the Fu-t‘ai, or governor, to all
the successful candidates. I say sham, 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.
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[255] Much more so than at present.
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[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 the
olive should be specially employed I have in vain tried to
ascertain.
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[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.
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[258] A ceremonial visit made on the third day after marriage.
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[259] Contrary to all Chinese notions of modesty and etiquette.
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