CHINA AND THE CHINESE

 CHINA AND THE CHINESE

 BY

 HERBERT ALLEN GILES, LL. D. 

 PROFESSOR OF CHINESE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE LECTURER (1902) ON THE DEAN LUNG FOUNDATION IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

 NEW YORK THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, Agents. 66 Fifth Avenue

 1902

 _All rights reserved. _

 Copyright, 1902, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

 Set up and electrotyped October, 1902. 

 Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. —Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U. S. A. 

PREFACE

The following Lectures were delivered during March, 1902, at ColumbiaUniversity, in the city of New York, to inaugurate the foundation byGeneral Horace W. Carpentier of the Dean Lung Chair of Chinese. 

By the express desire of the authorities of Columbia University theseLectures are now printed, and they may serve to record an important andinteresting departure in Oriental studies. 

It is not pretended that Chinese scholarship will be in any way advancedby this publication. The Lectures, slight in themselves, were nevermeant for advanced students, but rather to draw attention to, andpossibly arouse some interest in, a subject which will occupy a largerspace in the future than in the present or in the past. 

 HERBERT A. GILES. 

 Cambridge, England, April 15, 1902. 

CONTENTS

LECTURE I

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE

 Its Importance—Its Difficulty—The Colloquial—Dialects—"Mandarin"—Absence of Grammar—Illustrations—Pidgin-English—Scarcity of Vocables—The Tones—Coupled Words—The Written Language—The Indicators—Picture Characters—Pictures of Ideas—The Phonetics—Some Faulty Analyses . .. 3

LECTURE II

A CHINESE LIBRARY

 The Cambridge (Eng. ) Library—(A) The Confucian Canon—(B) Dynastic History—The "Historical Record"—The "Mirror of History"—Biography—Encyclopædias—How arranged—Collections of Reprints—The Imperial Statutes—The Penal Code—(C) Geography—Topography—An Old Volume—Account of Strange Nations—(D) Poetry—Novels—Romance of the Three Kingdoms—Plays—(E) Dictionaries—The Concordance—Its Arrangement—Imperial Catalogue—Senior Classics . .. 37

LECTURE III

DEMOCRATIC CHINA

 The Emperor—Provincial Government—Circuits—Prefectures—Magistracies— Headboroughs—The People—The Magistrate—Other Provincial Officials—The Prefect—The Intendant of Circuit (_Tao-t'ai_)—Viceroy and Governor—Taxation—Mencius on "the People"—Personal Liberty—New Imposts—Combination—Illustrations . .. 73

LECTURE IV

CHINA AND ANCIENT GREECE

 Relative Values of Chinese and Greek in Mental and Moral Training—Lord Granville—Wên T'ien-hsiang—Han Yü—An Emperor—A Land of Opposites—Coincidences between Chinese and Greek Civilisations—The Question of Greek Influence—Greek Words in Chinese—Coincidences in Chinese and Western Literature—Students of Chinese wanted . .. 107

LECTURE V

TAOISM

 Religions in China—What is Tao?—Lao Tzŭ—The _Tao Tê Ching_—Its Claims—The Philosophy of Lao Tzŭ—-Developed by Chuang Tzŭ—His View of Tao—A Taoist Poet—Symptoms of Decay—The Elixir of Life—Alchemy—The Black Art—Struggle between Buddhism and Taoism—They borrow from One Another—The Corruption of Tao—Its Last State . .. 141

LECTURE VI

SOME CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

 Origin of the Queue—Social Life—An Eyeglass—Street Etiquette—Guest and Host—The Position of Women—Infanticide—Training and Education of Women—The Wife's Status—Ancestral Worship—Widows—Foot-binding—Henpecked Husbands—The Chinaman a Mystery—Customs vary with Places—Dog's Flesh—Substitutes at Executions—Doctors—Conclusion . .. 175

LECTURE I

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE

CHINA AND THE CHINESE

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE

If the Chinese people were to file one by one past a given point, theinteresting procession would never come to an end. Before the last manof those living to-day had gone by, another and a new generation wouldhave grown up, and so on for ever and ever. 

The importance, as a factor in the sum of human affairs, of this vastnation, —of its language, of its literature, of its religions, of itshistory, of its manners and customs, —goes therefore without saying. Yeta serious attention to China and her affairs is of very recent growth. Twenty-five years ago there was but one professor of Chinese in theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and even that one spent histime more in adorning his profession than in imparting his knowledge toclasses of eager students. Now there are all together five chairs ofChinese, the occupants of which are all more or less actively employed. But we are still sadly lacking in what Columbia University appears tohave obtained by the stroke of a generous pen, —adequate funds forendowment. Meanwhile, I venture to offer my respectful congratulationsto Columbia University on having surmounted this initial difficulty, andalso to prophesy that the foresight of the liberal donor will be amplyjustified before many years are over. 

I have often been asked if Chinese is, or is not, a difficult languageto learn. To this question it is quite impossible to give a categoricalanswer, for the simple reason that Chinese consists of at least twolanguages, one colloquial and the other written, which for all practicalpurposes are about as distinct as they well could be. 

Colloquial Chinese is a comparatively easy matter. It is, in fact, moreeasily acquired in the early stages than colloquial French or German. Astudent will begin to speak from the very first, for the simple reasonthat there is no other way. There are no Declensions or Conjugationsto be learned, and consequently no Paradigms or Irregular Verbs. 

In a day or two the student should be able to say a few simple things. After three months he should be able to deal with his ordinaryrequirements; and after six months he should be able to chatter awaymore or less accurately on a variety of interesting subjects. A greatdeal depends upon the method by which he is taught. 

The written or book language, on the other hand, may fairly be regardedas a sufficient study for a lifetime; not because of the peculiarscript, which yields when systematically attacked, but because the styleof the book language is often so extremely terse as to make it obscure, and sometimes so lavishly ornate that without wide reading it is noteasy to follow the figurative phraseology, and historical andmythological allusions, which confront one on every page. 

There are plenty of men, and some women, nowadays, who can carry on aconversation in Chinese with the utmost facility, and even with grace. Some speak so well as to be practically indistinguishable from Chinamen. 

There are comparatively few men, and I venture to say still fewer, ifany, women, who can read an ordinary Chinese book with ease, or write anordinary Chinese letter at all. 

Speaking of women as students of Chinese, there have been so far onlytwo who have really placed themselves in the front rank. It gives megreat pleasure to add that both these ladies, lady missionaries, werenatives of America, and that it was my privilege while in China to knowthem both. In my early studies of Chinese I received much advice andassistance from one of them, the late Miss Lydia Fay. Later on, I cameto entertain a high respect for the scholarship and literary attainmentsof Miss Adèle M. Fielde, a well-known authoress. 

Before starting upon a course of colloquial Chinese, it is necessary forthe student to consider in what part of China he proposes to put hisknowledge into practice. If he intends to settle or do business inPeking, it is absolute waste of time for him to learn the dialect ofShanghai. Theoretically, there is but one language spoken by the Chinesepeople in China proper, —over an area of some two million square miles, say twenty-five times the area of England and Scotland together. Practically, there are about eight well-marked dialects, all clearly ofa common stock, but so distinct as to constitute eight differentlanguages, any two of which are quite as unlike as English and Dutch. 

These dialects may be said to fringe the coast line of the Empire ofChina. Starting from Canton and coasting northward, before we have leftbehind us the province in which Canton is situated, Kuangtung, we reachSwatow, where a totally new dialect is spoken. A short run now bringsus to Amoy, the dialect of which, though somewhat resembling that ofSwatow, is still very different in many respects. Our next stage isFoochow, which is in the same province as Amoy, but possesses a specialdialect of its own. Then on to Wênchow, with another dialect, and so onto Ningpo with yet another, widely spoken also in Shanghai, though thelatter place really has a _patois_ of its own. 

Farther north to Chefoo, and thence to Peking, we come at last into therange of the great dialect, popularly known as Mandarin, which sweepsround behind the narrow strip of coast occupied by the various dialectsabove mentioned, and dominates a hinterland constituting aboutfour-fifths of China proper. It is obvious, then, that for a person whosettles in a coast district, the dialect of that district must be hischief care, while for the traveller and explorer Mandarin will probablystand him in best stead. 

The dialect of Peking is now regarded as standard "Mandarin"; butprevious to the year 1425 the capital was at Nanking, and the dialect ofNanking was the Mandarin then in vogue. Consequently, Pekingese is thelanguage which all Chinese officials are now bound to speak. 

Those who come from certain parts of the vast hinterland speak Mandarinalmost as a mother tongue, while those from the seaboard and certainadjacent parts of the interior have nearly as much difficulty inacquiring it, and quite as much difficulty in speaking it with a correctaccent, as the average foreigner. 

The importance of Mandarin, the "official language" as the Chinese callit, is beyond question. It is the vehicle of oral communication betweenall Chinese officials, even in cases where they come from the same partof the country and speak the same _patois_, between officials and theirservants, between judge and prisoner. Thus, in every court of justicethroughout the Empire the proceedings are carried on in Mandarin, although none of the parties to the case may understand a single word. The prosecutor, on his knees, tells his story in his native dialect. This story is rendered into Mandarin by an official interpreter for thebenefit of the magistrate; the magistrate asks his questions or makeshis remarks in Mandarin, and these are translated into the local dialectfor the benefit of the litigants. Even if the magistrate knows thedialect himself, —as is often the case, although no magistrate may holdoffice in his own province, —still it is not strictly permissible for himto make use of the local dialect for magisterial purposes. 

It may be added that in all large centres, such as Canton, Foochow, andAmoy, there will be found, among the well-to-do tradesmen and merchants, many who can make themselves intelligible in something whichapproximates to the dialect of Peking, not to mention that two out ofthe above three cities are garrisoned by Manchu troops, who of coursespeak that dialect as their native tongue. 

Such is Mandarin. It may be compared to a limited extent with Urdu, thecamp language of India. It is obviously the form of colloquial whichshould be studied by all, except those who have special interests inspecial districts, in which case, of course, the _patois_ of thelocality comes to the front. 

We will now suppose that the student has made up his mind to learnMandarin. The most natural thing for him, then, to do will be to lookaround him for a grammar. He may have trouble in finding one. Such worksdo actually exist, and they have been, for the most part, to quote afamiliar trade-mark, "made in Germany. " They are certainly not made bythe Chinese, who do not possess, and never have possessed, in theirlanguage, an equivalent term for grammar. The language is quite beyondreach of the application of such rules as have been successfully deducedfrom Latin and Greek. 

The Chinese seem always to have spoken in monosyllables, and thesemonosyllables seem always to have been incapable of inflection, agglutination, or change of any kind. They are in reality root-ideas, and are capable of adapting themselves to their surroundings, and ofplaying each one such varied parts as noun, verb (transitive, neuter, or even causal), adverb, and conjunction. 

The word 我 _wo_, which for convenience' sake I call "I, " must berendered into English by "me" whenever it is the object of some otherword, which, also for convenience' sake, I call a verb. It has furthersuch extended senses as "egoistic" and "subjective. "

 For example: 我爱他 _wo ai t'a_. 

The first of these characters, which is really the root-idea of "self, "stands here for the pronoun of the first person; the last, which isreally the root-idea of "not self, " "other, " stands for the pronoun ofthe third person; and the middle character for the root-idea of "love. "

This might mean in English, "I love him, " or "I love her, " or "I loveit, "—for there is no gender in Chinese, any more than there is any otherindication of grammatical susceptibilities. We can only decide if "him, ""her, " or "it" is intended by the context, or by the circumstances ofthe case. 

Now if we were to transpose what I must still call the pronouns, although they are not pronouns except when we make them so, we shouldhave—

 他爱我 _t'a ai wo_

"he, she, _or_ it loves me, " the only change which the Chinese wordshave undergone being one of position; while in English, in addition tothe inflection of the pronouns, the "love" of the first person becomes"loves" in the third person. 

Again, supposing we wished to write down—

 "People love him (or her), "

we should have—

 人爱他 _jen ai t'a_, in which once more the noticeable feature is that the middle character, although passing from the singular to the plural number, suffers nochange of any kind whatever. 

Further, the character for "man" is in the plural simply because such arendering is the only one which the genius of the Chinese language willhere tolerate, helped out by the fact that the word by itself does notmean "_a_ man, " but rather what we may call the root-idea of humanity. 

Such terms as "a man, " or "six men, " or "some men, " or "many men, " wouldbe expressed each in its own particular way. 

"All men, " for instance, would involve merely the duplication of thecharacter _jen_:—

 人人爱他 _jen jen ai t'a_. 

It is the same with tenses in Chinese. They are not brought out byinflection, but by the use of additional words. 

来 _lai_ is the root-idea of "coming, " and lends itself as follows to theexigencies of conjugation:—

Standing alone, it is imperative:—

 来 _Lai!_ = "come!" "here!"

 我来 _wo lai_ = "I come, _or_ am coming. "

 他来 _t'a lai_ = "he comes, _or_ is coming. "

And by inserting 不 _pu_, a root-idea of negation, —

 他不来 _t'a pu lai_ = "he comes not, _or_ is not coming. "

To express an interrogative, we say, —

 他来不来 _t'a lai pu lai_ = "he come no come?" _i. E. _ "is he coming?"

submitting the two alternatives for the person addressed to choose fromin reply. 

The indefinite past tense is formed by adding the word 了 _liao_ or _lo_"finished":—

 他来了 _t'a lai lo_ = "he come finish, " = "he has come. "

This may be turned into the definite past tense by inserting someindication of time; _e. G. _

 他早上来了 = "he came this morning. "

Here we see that the same words may be indefinite or definite accordingto circumstances. 

It is perhaps more startling to find that the same words may be bothactive and passive. 

Thus, 丢 _tiu_ is the root-idea of "loss, " "to lose, " and 了 puts it intothe past tense. 

Now 我丢了 means, and can only mean, "I have lost"—something understood, or to be expressed. Strike out 我 and substitute 書 "a book. " No Chinamanwould think that the new sentence meant "The book has lost"—somethingunderstood, or to be expressed, as for instance its cover; but he wouldgrasp at once the real sense, "The book is or has been lost. "

In the case of such, a phrase as "The book has lost" its cover, quite adifferent word would be used for "lost. "

We have the same phenomenon in English. In the _New York Times_ ofFebruary 13, I read, "Mr. So-and-so dined, " meaning not that Mr. So-and-so took his dinner, but had been entertained at dinner by a partyof friends, —a neuter verb transformed into a passive verb by the logicof circumstances. 

By a like process the word 死 _ssŭ_ "to die" may also mean "to make todie" = "to kill. "

The word 金 _chin_ which stands for "gold" as a substantive may alsostand, as in English, for an adjective, and for a verb, "to gold, "_i. E. _ to regard as gold, to value highly. 

There is nothing in Chinese like love, loving, lovely, as nounsubstantive, verb, and adverb. The word, written or spoken, remainsinvariably, so far as its own economy is concerned, the same. Itsfunction in a sentence is governed entirely by position and by theinfluence of other words upon it, coupled with the inexorable logicof attendant circumstances. 

When a Chinaman comes up to you and says, "You wantchee my, nowantchee, " he is doing no foolish thing, at any rate from his own pointof view. To save himself the trouble of learning grammatical English, heis taking the language and divesting it of all troublesome inflections, until he has at his control a set of root-ideas, with which he canjuggle as in his own tongue. In other words, "you wantchee my, nowantchee, " is nothing more nor less than literally rendered Chinese:—

 你要我不要 _ni yao wo, pu yao_ = do you want me or not?

In this "pidgin" English he can express himself as in Chinese by merelychanging the positions of the words:—

"He wantchee my. " "My wantchee he. "

"My belong Englishman. "

"That knife belong my. "

Some years back, when I was leaving China for England with youngchildren, their faithful Chinese nurse kept on repeating to the littleones the following remarkable sentence, "My too muchey solly you gosteamah; you no solly my. "

All this is very absurd, no doubt; still it is _bona fide_ Chinese, and illustrates very forcibly how an intelligible language may beconstructed of root-ideas arranged in logical sequence. 

If the last word had now been said in reference to colloquial, it wouldbe as easy for us to learn to speak Chinese as it is for a Chinaman tolearn to speak Pidgin-English. There is, however, a great obstacle stillin the way of the student. The Chinese language is peculiarly lackingin vocables; that is to say, it possesses very few sounds for theconveyance of speech. The dialect of Peking is restricted to fourhundred and twenty, and as every word in the language must fall underone or other of those sounds, it follows that if there are 42, 000 wordsin the language (and the standard dictionary contains 44, 000), thereis an average of 100 words to each sound. Of course, if any soundhad less than 100 words attached to it, some other sound would haveproportionately more. Thus, accepting the average, we should have 100things or ideas, all expressed in speech, for instance, by the onesingle sound _I_. 

The confusion likely to arise from such conditions needs not to beenlarged upon; it is at once obvious, and probably gave rise to thefollowing sapient remark by a globe-trotting author, which I took froma newspaper in England:—

"In China, the letter _I_ has one hundred and forty-five different waysof being pronounced, and each pronunciation has a different meaning. "

It would be difficult to squeeze more misleading nonsense into a smallercompass. Imagine the agonies of a Chinese infant school, strugglingwith the letter _I_ pronounced in 145 different ways, with a differentmeaning to each! It will suffice to say, what everybody here presentmust know, that Chinese is not in any sense an alphabetic language, andthat consequently there can be no such thing as "the letter _I_. "

When closely examined, this great difficulty of many words with but onecommon sound melts rapidly away, until there is but a fairly smallresiduum with which the student has to contend. The same difficultyconfronts us, to a slighter extent, even in English. If I say, "I met abore in Broadway, " I may mean one of several things. I may mean a tidalwave, which is at once put out of court by the logic of circumstances. Or I may mean a wild animal, which also has circumstances against it. 

To return to Chinese. In the first place, although there are no doubt42, 000 separate written characters in the Chinese language, aboutone-tenth of that number, 4200, would more than suffice for the needs ofan average speaker. Adopting this scale, we have 420 sounds and 4200words, or ten words to each sound, —still a sufficient hindrance toanything like certain intelligibility of speech. But this is not thewhole case. The ten characters, for instance, under each sound, aredistributed over four separate groups, formed by certain modulations ofthe voice, known as Tones, so that actually there would be only anaverage of 2½ words liable to absolute confusion. Thus 烟 yen^1 means"smoke"; 鹽 yen^2 means "salt"; 眼 yen^3 means "an eye"; and 雁 yen^4 means"a goose. "

These modulations are not readily distinguished at first; but the ear iseasily trained, and it soon becomes difficult to mistake them. 

Nor is this all. The Chinese, although their language is monosyllabic, do not make an extensive use of monosyllables in speech to express asingle thing or idea. They couple their words in pairs. 

Thus, for "eye" they would say, not _yen_, which strictly means "hole, "or "socket, " but _yen ching_, the added word _ching_, which means"eyeball, " tying down the term to the application required, namely, "eye. "

In like manner it is not customary to talk about _yen_, "salt, " as wedo, but to restrict the term as required in each case by the addition ofsome explanatory word; for instance, 白盐 "white salt, " _i. E. _ "tablesalt"; 黑盐 "black salt, " _i. E. _ "coarse salt"; all of which tends verymuch to prevent confusion with other words pronounced in the same tone. 

There are also certain words used as suffixes, which help to separateterms which might otherwise be confused. Thus 裹 _kuo_^3 means "to wrap, "and 果 _kuo_^3 means "fruit, " the two being identical in sound and tone. And _yao kuo_ might mean either "I want fruit" or "I want to wrap. " Noone, however, says _kuo_ for "fruit, " but _kuo tzŭ_. The suffix _tzŭ_renders confusion impossible. 

Of course there is no confusion in reading a book, where each thing oridea, although of the same sound and tone, is represented by a differentsymbol. 

On the whole, it may be said that misconceptions in the colloquial arenot altogether due to the fact that the Chinese language is poorlyprovided with sounds. Many persons, otherwise gifted, are quite unableto learn any foreign tongue. 

Let us now turn to the machinery by means of which the Chinese arrestthe winged words of speech, and give to mere thought and utterance amore concrete and a more lasting form. 

The written language has one advantage over the colloquial: it isuniformly the same all over China; and the same document is equallyintelligible to natives of Peking and Canton, just as the Arabic andRoman numerals are understood all over Europe, although pronounceddifferently by various nations. 

To this fact some have attributed the stability of the Chinese Empireand the permanence of her political and social institutions. 

If we take the written language of to-day, which is to all intents andpurposes the written language of twenty-five hundred years ago, we gazeat first on what seems to be a confused mass of separate signs, eachsign being apparently a fortuitous concourse of dots and dashes. Gradually, however, the eye comes to perceive that every now and againthere is to be found in one character a certain portion which hasalready been observed in another, and this may well have given rise tothe idea that each character is built up of parts equivalent to ourletters of the alphabet. These portions are of two kinds, and must beconsidered under two separate heads. 

Under the first head come a variety of words, which also occur assubstantive characters, such as dog, vegetation, tree, disease, metal, words, fish, bird, man, woman. These are found to indicate the directionin which the sense of the whole character is to be sought. 

Thus, whenever 犭 "dog" occurs in a character, the reader may prepare forthe name of some animal, as for instance 狮 _shih_ "lion, " 猫 _mao_ "cat, "狼 _lang_ "wolf", 猪 _ehu_ "pig. "

Two of these are interesting words. (1) There are no lions in China;_shih_ is merely an imitation of the Persian word _shír_. (2) _Mao_, theterm for a "cat, " is obviously an example of onomatopoeia. 

The character 犭 will also indicate in many cases such attributes as猾 _hua_ "tricky, " 狠 _hên_, "aggressive, " 猛 _mêng_ "fierce, " and othercharacteristics of animals. 

Similarly, 艹 _ts'ao_ "vegetation" will hint at some plant; _e. G. _ 草_ts'ao_ "grass, " 荷 _ho_ "the lily, " 芝 _chih_ "the plant of immortality. "

木 _mu_ "a tree" usually points toward some species of tree; _e. G. _ 松_sung_ "a fir tree, " 桑 _sang_ "a mulberry tree"; and by extension itpoints toward anything of wood, as 板 _pan_ "a board, " 桌 _cho_ "a table, "椅 _i_ "a chair, " and so on. 

So 魚 _yü_ "a fish" and 鳥 _niao_ "a bird" are found in all characters ofichthyological or ornithological types, respectively. 

人 _jen_ "a man" is found in a large number of characters dealing withhumanity under varied aspects; _e. G. _ 你 _ni_ "thou, " 他 _t'a_ "he, " 作_tso_ "to make, " 仗 _chang_ "a weapon, " 傑 _chieh_ "a hero, " 儒 _ju_"a scholar, " "a Confucianist"; while it has been pointed out that suchwords as 奸 _chien_ "treacherous, " 媚 _mei_ "to flatter, " and 妒 _tu_"jealousy, " are all written with the indicator 女 _nü_ "woman" at theside. 

The question now arises how these significant parts got into theirpresent position. Have they always been there, and was the scriptartificially constructed off-hand, as is the case with Mongolian andManchu? The answer to this question can hardly be presented in a fewwords, but involves the following considerations. 

It seems to be quite certain that in very early times, when thepossibility and advantage of committing thought to writing firstsuggested themselves to the Chinese mind, rude pictures of _things_formed the whole stock in trade. Such were

[Illustration: Sun, moon, mountains, hand, child, wood, bending official, mouth, ox, and claws. ]

in many of which it is not difficult to trace the modern forms ofto-day, 日 月 山 手 子 木 臣 口 牛 爪

It may here be noted that there was a tendency to curves so long as thecharacters were scratched on bamboo tablets with a metal stylus. Withthe invention of paper in the first century A. D. , and the substitutionof a hair-pencil for the stylus, verticals and horizontals came moreinto vogue. 

The second step was the combination of two pictures to make a third; forinstance, a mouth with something coming out of it is "the tongue, " 舌;a mouth with something else coming out of it is "speech, " "words, " 言;two trees put side by side make the picture of a "forest, " 林. 

The next step was to produce pictures of ideas. For instance, therealready existed in speech a word _ming_, meaning "bright. " To expressthis, the Chinese placed in juxtaposition the two brightest things knownto them. Thus 日 the "sun" and 月 the "moon" were combined to form 明_ming_ "bright. " There is as yet no suggestion of phonetic influence. The combined character has a sound quite different from that of eitherof its component parts, which are _jih_ and _yüeh_ respectively. 

In like manner, 日 "sun" and 木 "tree, " combined as 東, "the sun seenrising through trees, " signified "the east"; 言 "words" and 舌 "tongue" =話 "speech"; 友 (old form [Illustration]) "two hands" = "friendship"; 女"woman" and 子 "child" = 好 "good"; 女 "woman" and 生 "birth, " "born of awoman" = 姓 "clan name, " showing that the ancient Chinese traced throughthe mother and not through the father; 勿 streamers used in signalling anegative = "do not!"

From 林 "two trees, " the picture of a forest, we come to 森 "three trees, "suggesting the idea of density of growth and darkness; 孝 "a child at thefeet of an old man" = "filial piety"; 戈 "a spear" and 手 "to kill, "suggesting the defensive attitude of individuals in primeval times = 我"I, me"; 我 "I, my, " and 羊 "sheep, " suggesting the obligation to respectanother man's flocks = 義 "duty toward one's neighbour"; 大 "large" and 羊"sheep" = 美 "beautiful"; and 善, "virtuous, " also has "sheep" as acomponent part, —why we do not very satisfactorily make out, except thatof course the sheep would play an important rôle among early pastoraltribes. The idea conveyed by what we call the conjunction "and" isexpressed in Chinese by an ideogram, viz. 及, which was originally thepicture of a hand, seizing what might be the tail of the coat of a manpreceding, _scilicet_ following. 

The third and greatest step in the art of writing was reached when theChinese, who had been trying to make one character do for severalsimilar-sounding words of different meanings, suddenly bethoughtthemselves of distinguishing these several similar-sounding words byadding to the original character employed some other characterindicative of the special sense in which each was to be understood. Thus, in speech the sound _ting_ meant "the sting of an insect, " and wasappropriately pictured by what is now written 丁. 

There were, however, other words also expressed by the sound _ting_, such as "a boil, " "the top or tip, " "to command, " "a nail, " "an ingot, "and "to arrange. " These would be distinguished in speech by the tonesand suffixes, as already described; but in writing, if 丁 were used forall alike, confusion would of necessity arise. To remedy this, itoccurred to some one in very early ages to make 丁, and other similarpictures of things or ideas, serve as what we now call Phonetics, _i. E. _the part which suggests the sound of the character, and to add in eachcase an indicator of the special sense intended to be conveyed. Thus, taking 丁 as the phonetic base, in order to express _ting_, "a boil, " theindicator for "disease, " 疒, was added, making 疔; for _ting_, "the top, "the indicator for "head, " 页, was added, making 顶; for "to command, " thesymbol for "mouth, " 口 was added, making 叮; for "nail, " and also for"ingot, " the symbol for "metal, " 金, was added, making 釘; and for "toarrange, " the symbol for "speech, " 言, was added, making 訂. We thusobtain five new words, which, so far as the written language isconcerned, are easily distinguishable one from another, namely, _ting_"a sting, " disease-_ting_ = "a boil, " head-_ting_ = "the top, "mouth-_ting_ = "to command, " metal-_ting_ = "a nail, " speech-_ting_ ="to arrange. " In like manner, the words for "mouth, " "to rap, " and "abutton, " were all pronounced _k'ou_. Having got 口 _k'ou_ as the pictureof a mouth, that was taken as the phonetic base, and to express "torap, " the symbol for "hand, " 手 or 扌, was added, making 扣; while toexpress "button, " the symbol for "metal, " 金 was added, making 釦. So thatwe have _k'ou_ = "mouth, " hand-_k'ou_ = "to rap, " and metal-_k'ou_ ="button. "

Let us take a picture of an idea. We have 東 _tung_ = the sun seenthrough the trees, —"the east. " When the early Chinese wished to writedown _tung_ "to freeze, " they simply took the already existing 東 as thephonetic base, and added to it "an icicle, " 冫, thus 凍. And when theywanted to write down _tung_ "a beam, " instead of "icicle, " they put theobvious indicator 木 "wood, " thus 棟. 

We have now got the two portions into which the vast majority of Chinesecharacters can be easily resolved. 

There is first the phonetic base, itself a character originally intendedto represent some thing or idea, and then borrowed to represent otherthings and ideas similarly pronounced; and secondly, the indicator, another character added to the phonetic base in order to distinguishbetween the various things and ideas for which the same phonetic basewas used. 

All characters, however, do not yield at once to the application of ourrule. 要 _yao_ "to will, to want, " is composed of 西 "west" and 女 "woman. "What has western woman to do with the sign of the future? In the daysbefore writing, the Chinese called the waist of the body _yao_. By andby they wrote 要, a rude picture of man with his arms akimbo and his legscrossed, thus accentuating the narrower portion, the waist. Then, whenit was necessary to write down _yao_, "to will, " they simply borrowedthe already existing word for "waist. " In later times, when writingbecame more exact, they took the indicator 月 "flesh, " and added itwherever the idea of waist had to be conveyed. And thus 腰 it is stillwritten, while _yao_, "to will, to want, " has usurped the characteroriginally invented for "waist. "

In some of their own identifications native Chinese scholars have oftenshown themselves hopelessly at sea. For instance, 天 "the sky, "figuratively God, was explained by the first Chinese lexicographer, whose work has come down to us from about one hundred years after theChristian era, as composed of 一 "one" and 大 "great, " the "one great"thing; whereas it was simply, under its oldest form, [Illustration], arude anthropomorphic picture of the Deity. 

Even the early Jesuit Fathers of the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies, to whom we owe so much for pioneer work in the domain ofSinology, were not without occasional lapses of the kind, due no doubtto a laudable if excessive zeal. Finding the character 船, which is thecommon word for "a ship, " as indicated by 舟, the earlierpicture-character for "boat" seen on the left-hand side, one ingeniousFather proceeded to analyse it as follows:—

 舟 "ship, " 八 "eight, " 口 "mouth" = eight mouths on a ship—"the Ark. "

But the right-hand portion is merely the phonetic of the character; itwas originally 铅 "lead, " which gave the sound required; then theindicator "boat" was substituted for "metal. "

So with the word 禁 "to prohibit. " Because it could be analysed into two木木 "trees" and 示 "a divine proclamation, " an allusion was discoveredtherein to the two trees and the proclamation of the Garden of Eden;whereas again the proper analysis is into indicator and phonetic. 

Nor is such misplaced ingenuity confined to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1892 a Protestant missionary published and circulated broadcast whathe said was "evidence in favour of the Gospels, " being nothing less thana prophecy of Christ's coming hidden in the Chinese character 來 "tocome. " He pointed out that this was composed of [Illustration] "across, " with two 人人 "men, " one on each side, and a "greater man" 人 inthe middle. 

That analysis is all very well for the character as it stands now; butbefore the Christian era this same character was written [Illustration]and was a picture, not of men and of a cross, but of a sheaf of corn. Itcame to mean "come, " says the Chinese etymologist, "because corn _comes"from heaven. "

Such is the written language of China, and such indeed it was, alreadyunder the dominion of the phonetic system, by which endless newcombinations may still be formed, at the very earliest point to whichhistory, as distinguished from legend, will carry us, —some eight or ninecenturies B. C. There are no genuine remains of pure picture-writing, toenable us to judge how far the Chinese had got before the phoneticsystem was invented, though many attempts have been made to palm offgross forgeries as such. 

The great majority of characters, as I have said, are capable of beingeasily resolved into the two important parts which I have attempted todescribe—the original phonetic portion, which guides towardpronunciation, and the added indicator, which guides toward the sense. 

Even the practical student, who desires to learn to read and writeChinese for purely business purposes, will find himself constrained tofollow out this analysis, if he wishes to commit to memory a serviceablenumber of characters. With no other hold upon them beyond their mereoutlines, he will find the characters so bewildering, so elusive, as topresent almost insuperable difficulties. 

But under the influence of systematic study, coupled with a fair amountof perseverance, these difficulties disappear, and leave the triumphantstudent amply rewarded for his pains. 

LECTURE II

A CHINESE LIBRARY

A CHINESE LIBRARY

The endowment of a Chinese chair at Columbia University naturallysuggests the acquisition of a good Chinese library. At the University ofCambridge, England, there is what I can only characterise as an idealChinese library. It was not bought off-hand in the market, —such acollection indeed would never come into the market, —but the books werepatiently and carefully brought together by my predecessor in theChinese chair during a period of over forty years' residence in China. The result is an admirable selection of representative works, always ingood, and sometimes in rare, editions, covering the whole field of whatis most valuable in Chinese literature. 

I now propose, with your approval, to give a slight sketch of theCambridge Library, in which I spend a portion of almost every day ofmy life, and which I further venture to recommend as the type of thatcollection which Columbia University should endeavour to place uponher shelves. 

The Chinese library at Cambridge consists of 4304 volumes, roughlydistributed under seven heads. These volumes, it should be stated, arenot the usual thin, paper-covered volumes of an ordinary Chinese work, but they consist each of several of the original Chinese volumes boundtogether in cloth or leather, lettered on the back, and standing on theshelves, as our books do, instead of lying flat, as is the custom inChina. 

Division A contains, first of all, the Confucian Canon, which nowconsists of nine separate works. 

There is the mystic _Book of Changes_, that is to say, the eight changesor combinations which can be produced by a line and a broken line, either one of which is repeated twice with the other, or three times byitself. 

 --------- --- --- --------- --------- --- --- --------- etc. --- --- --------- ---------

These trigrams are said to have been copied from the back of a tortoiseby an ancient monarch, who doubled them into hexagrams, and so increasedthe combinations to sixty-four, each one of which represents some activeor passive power in nature. 

Confucius said that if he could devote fifty years to the study of thiswork, he might come to be without great faults; but neither native norforeign scholars can really make anything out of it. Some regard it as aBook of Fate. One erratic genius of the West has gone so far as to saythat it is only a vocabulary of the language of some old Central Asiantribe. 

We are on somewhat firmer ground with the _Book of History_, which isa collection of very ancient historical documents, going back twentycenturies B. C. , arranged and edited by Confucius. These documents, merefragments as they are, give us glimpses of China's early civilisation, centuries before the historical period, to which we shall come later on, can fairly be said to begin. 

Then we have the _Book of Odes_, consisting of some three hundredballads, also rescued by Confucius from oblivion, on which as a basisthe great superstructure of modern Chinese poetry has been raised. 

Next comes an historical work by Confucius, known as the _Spring andAutumn_: it should be Springs and Autumns, for the title refers to theyearly records, to the annals, in fact, of the native State of Confuciushimself. 

The fifth in the series is the _Book of Rites_. This deals, as its titleindicates, with ceremonial, and contains an infinite number of rules forthe guidance of personal conduct under a variety of conditions andcircumstances. It was compiled at a comparatively late date, the closeof the second century B. C. , and scarcely ranks in authority with theother four. 

The above are called the Five Classics; they were for many centuries sixin number, a _Book of Music_ being included, and they were engraved onforty-six huge stone tablets about the year 170 A. D. Only mutilatedportions of these tablets still remain. 

The other four works which make up the Confucian Canon are known as theFour Books. They consist of a short moral treatise entitled the _GreatLearning_, or Learning for Adults; the _Doctrine of the Mean_, anothershort philosophical treatise; the _Analects_, or conversations ofConfucius with his disciples, and other details of the sage's dailylife; and lastly, similar conversations of Mencius with his disciplesand with various feudal nobles who sought his advice. 

These nine works are practically learned by heart by the Chineseundergraduate. But there are in addition many commentaries andexegetical works—the best of which stand in the CambridgeLibrary—designed to elucidate the true purport of the Canon; and thesemust also be studied. They range from the commentary of K'ung An-kuo ofthe second century B. C. , a descendant of Confucius in the twelfthdegree, down to that of Yüan Yüan, a well-known scholar who only died sorecently as 1849. These commentaries include both of the two greatschools of interpretation, the earlier of which was accepted until thetwelfth century A. D. , when it was set aside by China's most brilliantscholar, Chu Hsi, who substituted the interpretation still in vogue, andobligatory at the public competitive examinations which admit to anofficial career. 

Archæological works referring to the Canon have been published in greatnumbers. The very first book in our Catalogue is an account of everyarticle mentioned in these old records, accompanied in all cases bywoodcuts. Thus the foreign student may see not only the robes and capsin which ancient worthies of the Confucian epoch appeared, but theirchariots, their banners, their weapons, and general paraphernalia ofeveryday life. 

Side by side with the sacred books of Confucianism stand the heterodoxwritings of the Taoist philosophers, the nominal founder of whichschool, known as Lao Tzŭ, flourished at an unknown date beforeConfucius. Some of these are deeply interesting; others have not escapedthe suspicion of forgery—a suspicion which attaches more or less to anyworks produced before the famous Burning of the Books, in B. C. 211, fromwhich the Confucian Canon was preserved almost by a miracle. An Emperorat that date made an attempt to destroy all literature, so that a freshstart might be made from himself. 

But I do not intend to detain you at present over Taoism, about which Ihope to say more on a subsequent occasion. Still less shall I haveanything to say on the few Buddhist works which are also to be found inthe Cambridge collection. It is rather along less well-beaten paths thatI shall ask you to accompany me now. 

In Division B, the first thing which catches the eye is a long line of217 thick volumes, about a foot in height. These are the dynastichistories of China, in a uniform edition published in the year 1747, under the auspices of the famous Emperor Ch'ien Lung, who himselfcontributed a Preface. 

The first of this series, known as _The Historical Record_, was producedby a very remarkable man, named Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien, sometimes called theFather of History, the Herodotus of China, who died nearly one hundredyears B. C. ; and over his most notable work it may not be unprofitable tolinger awhile. 

Starting with the five legendary Emperors, some 2700 years B. C. , thehistorian begins by giving the annals of each reign under the variousmore or less legendary dynasties which succeeded, and thence onwardright down to his own times, the last five or six hundred years, _i. E. _from about 700 B. C. , belonging to a genuinely historical period. Theseannals form Part I of the five parts into which the historian divideshis scheme. 

Part II is occupied by chronological tables of the Emperors and theirreigns, of the suzerains and vassal nobles under the feudal system whichwas introduced about 1100 B. C. , and also of the nobles created to forman aristocracy after the feudal system had been swept away and replacedby the old Imperial rule, about 200 B. C. 

Part III consists of eight important and interesting chapters: (1) onthe Rites and Ceremonies of the period covered, (2) on Music, (3) on thePitch-pipes, a series of twelve bamboo tubes of varying lengths, thenotes from which were supposed to be bound up in some mysterious waywith the good and bad fortunes of mankind, (4) on the Calendar, (5) onthe Stars, (6) on the Imperial Sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, (7) onthe Waterways of the Empire, and lastly (8) on Commerce, Coinage, etc. 

Part IV deals with the reigns, so to speak, of the vassal nobles underthe feudal system, the reigns of the suzerains having been alreadyincluded in Part I. 

Part V consists of biographies of the most eminent men who came to thefront during the whole period covered. 

These biographies are by no means confined to virtuous statesmen orheroic generals, as we might very reasonably have expected. The Chinesehistorian took a much broader view of his responsibilities to futureages, and along with the above virtuous statesmen and heroic generalshe included lives of famous assassins, of tyrannical officials, ofcourtiers, of flatterers, of men with nothing beyond the gift of thegab, of politicians, of fortune-tellers, and the like. 

This principle seems now to be widely recognised in the compilation ofbiographical collections. It was initiated by a Chinese historian onehundred years B. C. 

His great work has come down to us as near as possible intact. To theChinese it is, and always has been, a priceless treasure; so much sothat every succeeding Dynastic History has been modelled pretty muchupon the same lines. 

The custom has always been for the incoming dynasty to issue the historyof the dynasty it has overthrown, based upon materials which have beengathered daily during the latter's lease of power. At this moment theHistoriographer's Department in Peking should be noting down currentevents for the use of posterity, in the established belief that alldynasties, even the most powerful, come to an end some day. 

In addition to the Dynastic History proper, a custom has grown up ofcompiling what is called the "Veritable Record" of the life of thereigning Emperor. This is supposed to be written up every day, and withan absolute fidelity which it is unnecessary to suspect, since theEmperors are never allowed under any circumstances to cast an eye overtheir own records. 

When the Hanlin College was burnt down, in 1900, some said that the"Veritable Records" of the present dynasty were destroyed. Othersalleged that they had been carted away several days previously. Howeverthis may be, the "Veritable Records" of the great Ming dynasty, whichcame to a close in 1644, after three hundred years of power, are safe inDivision B of the Cambridge Library, filling eighty-four large volumesof manuscript. 

The next historical epoch is that of Ssŭ-ma Kuang, a leading statesmanand scholar of the eleventh century A. D. , who, after nineteen years ofcontinuous labour, produced a general history of China, in the form ofa chronological narrative, beginning with the fourth century B. C. Andending with the middle of the tenth century A. D. This work, which ispopularly known as _The Mirror of History_, and is quite independentof the dynastic histories, fills thirty-three of our large bound-upvolumes. 

There is a quaint passage in the old man's Preface, dated 1084, andaddressed to the Emperor:—

"Your servant's physical strength is now relaxed; his eyes areshort-sighted and dim; of his teeth but a few remain. His memory is soimpaired that the events of the moment are forgotten as he turns awayfrom them, his energies having been wholly exhausted in the productionof this book. He therefore hopes that your Majesty will pardon his vainattempt for the sake of his loyal intention, and in moments of leisurewill deign to cast the Sacred Glance over this work, so as to learn fromthe rise and fall of former dynasties the secret of the successes andfailures of the present hour. Then, if such knowledge shall be appliedfor the advantage of the Empire, even though your servant may lay hisbones in the Yellow Springs, the aim and ambition of his life will befulfilled. "

Biography, as we have already seen, is to some extent provided for underthe dynastic histories. Its scope, however, has been limited in latertimes, so far as the Historiographer's Department is concerned, to suchofficials as have been named by Imperial edict for inclusion in thenational records. Consequently, there has always been a vast output ofprivate biographical literature, dealing with the lives of poets, painters, priests, hermits, villains, and others, whose good and evildeeds would have been long since forgotten, like those of the heroesbefore Agamemnon, but for the care of some enthusiastic biographer. 

Among our eight or ten collections of this kind, there is one whichdeserves a special notice. This work is entitled _Biographies ofEminent Women_, and it fills four extra-large volumes, containing 310lives in all. The idea of thus immortalising the most deserving of hiscountrywomen first occurred to a writer named Liu Hsiang, who flourishedjust before the Christian era. I am not aware that his original work isstill procurable; the present work was based upon one by another writer, of the third century A. D. , and is brought down to modern times, beingpublished in 1779. Each biography is accompanied by a full-pageillustration of some scene in which the lady distinguished herself, —allfrom the pencil of a well-known artist. 

Three good-sized encyclopædias, uniformly bound up in ninety-eight largevolumes, may fairly claim a moment's notice, not only as evidencing thepersistent literary industry of the Chinese, but because they are allthree perfect mines of information on subjects of interest to theforeign student. 

The first dates from the very beginning of the ninth century, and dealschiefly with the Administration of Government, Political Economy, andNational Defences, besides Rites, Music, and subordinate questions. 

The second dates from the twelfth century, and deals with the samesubjects, having additional sections on History and Chronology, Writing, Pronunciation, Astronomy, Bibliography, Prodigies, Fauna and Flora, Foreign Nations, etc. 

The third, and best known to foreign scholars, is the encyclopædia ofMa Tuan-lin of the fourteenth century. It is on much the same lines asthe other two, being actually based upon the first, but has of coursethe advantage of being some centuries later. 

The above three works are in a uniform edition, published in the middleof the eighteenth century under orders from the Emperor Ch'ien Lung. 

There are also several other encyclopædias of information on generaltopics, extending to a good many volumes in each case. 

One of these contains interesting extracts on all manner of subjectstaken from the lighter literature of China, such as Dreams, Palmistry, Reminiscences of a Previous State of Existence, and even Resurrectionafter Death. It was cut on blocks for printing in A. D. 981, only fiftyyears after the first edition of the Confucian Canon was printed. TheCambridge copy cannot claim to date from 981, but it does date from1566. 

Another work of the same kind was the _San Ts'ai T'u Hui_, issued in1609, which is bound up in seventeen thick volumes. It is especiallyinteresting for the variety of topics on which information is given, andalso because it is profusely illustrated with full-page woodcuts. It haschapters on Geography, with maps; on Ethnology, Language, the Arts andSciences, and even on various forms of Athletics, including the feats ofrope-dancers and acrobats, sword-play, boxing, wrestling, and foot-ball. 

Under Tricks and Magic we see a man swallowing a sword, or walkingthrough fire, while hard by an acrobat is bending backward and drinkingfrom cups arranged upon the ground. 

The chapters on Drawing are exceptionally good; they contain somespecimen landscapes of almost faultless perspective, and also cleverexamples of free-hand drawing. Portrait-painting is dealt with, and tenillustrations are given of the ten angles at which a face may be drawn. The first shows one-tenth of the face from the right side, the secondtwo-tenths, and so on, waxing to full-face five-tenths; then waning setsin on the left side, four, three, and two-tenths, until ten-tenths showsnothing more than the back of the sitter's head. 

There is a well-known Chinese story which tells how a very stingy mantook a paltry sum of money to an artist—payment is always exacted inadvance—and asked him to paint his portrait. The artist at once compliedwith his request, but in an hour or so, when the portrait was finished, nothing was visible save the back of the sitter's head. "What does thismean?" cried the latter, indignantly. "Oh, " replied the artist, "Ithought a man who paid so little as you wouldn't care to show his face!"

 * * * * *

Perhaps some one may wonder how it is possible to arrange anencyclopædia for reference when the language in which it is writtenhappens to possess no alphabet. 

Arrangement under Categories is the favourite method, and it is employedin the following way:—

A number of such words as Heaven, Earth, Time, Man, Plants, Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Minerals, and others are chosen, and the subjects aregrouped under these headings. Thus, Eclipses would come under Heaven, Geomancy under Earth, the Passions under Man, though all classificationis not quite so simple as these specimens, and search is often prolongedby failing to hit upon the right Category. Even when the Category is theright one, many pages of Index have frequently to be turned over; butonce fix the reference in the Index, and the rest is easy, thecatch-word in each case being printed on the margin of each page, justwhere the finger comes when turning the pages rapidly over. 

The Chinese are very fond of collections of reprints, published inuniform editions and often extending to several hundred volumes. Myearliest acquaintance with literature is associated with such acollection in English. It was called _The Family Library_, and ran toover a hundred volumes, if I recollect rightly, and included the worksof Washington Irving and the immortal story of _Rip Van Winkle_. Thereis also a Chinese Rip Van Winkle, a tale of a man who, wandering one dayin the mountains, came upon two boys playing checkers; and afterwatching them for some time, and eating some dates they gave him, hediscovered that the handle of an axe he was carrying had mouldered intodust. Returning home, he found, as the Chinese poet puts it, "City and suburb as of old, But hearts that loved him long since cold. "

Seven generations had passed away in the interim. 

The Cambridge Library possesses several of these collections ofreprints. One of them is perhaps extra valuable because the woodenblocks from which it was printed were destroyed during the T'ai-p'ingRebellion, some forty years ago. 

I may mention here, though not properly belonging to this section, thatwe possess a good collection of the curious pamphlets issued by theT'ai-p'ing rebels. 

Other interesting works to be found in Division B are the Statutes ofthe present dynasty, which began in 1644, and even those of the previousdynasty, the latter being an edition of 1576. 

Then there is the Penal Code of this dynasty, in several editions;various collections of precedents; handbooks for magistrates, withrecorded decisions and illustrative cases. 

A magistrate or judge in China is not expected to know anything aboutlaw. 

Attached to the office of every official who may be called upon to trycriminal cases is a law expert, to whom the judge or magistrate mayrefer, when he has any doubt, in private, just as our unpaid justices ofthe peace in England refer for guidance to the qualified officialattached to the court. 

Before passing on to the next section, one last volume, taken athaphazard, bears the weird title, _A Record in Dark Blood_. This workcontains notices of eminent statesmen and others, who met violentdeaths, each accompanied by a telling illustration of the tragic scene. Some of the incidents go far to dispose of the belief that patriotism isquite unknown to the Chinese. 

 * * * * *

Division C is devoted to Geography and to Topography. Here stands theImperial Geography of the Empire, in twenty-four large volumes, withmaps, in the edition of 1745. Here, too, stand many of the Topographiesfor which China is justly celebrated. Every Prefecture and everyDistrict, or Department, —and the latter number about fifteenhundred, —has its Topography, a kind of local history, with all thenoticeable features of the District, its bridges, temples, and likebuildings, duly described, together with biographies of all natives ofthe District who have risen to distinction in any way. Each Topographywould occupy about two feet of shelf; consequently a complete collectionof all the Topographies of China, piled one upon the other, would form avertical column as high as the Eiffel Tower. Yet Topography is only anoutlying branch of Chinese literature. 

Division C further contains the oldest printed book in the CambridgeUniversity Library, and a very interesting one to boot. It is entitled_An Account of Strange Nations_, and was published between 1368 and1398. Its contents consist of short notices of about 150 nationalitiesknown more or less to the Chinese, and the value of these is muchenhanced by the woodcuts which accompany each notice. 

Among the rest we find Koreans, Japanese, Hsiung-nu (the forefathers ofthe Huns), Kitan Tartars, tribes of Central Asia, Arabs, Persians, andeven Portuguese, Jean de Montecorvino, who had been appointed archbishopof Peking in 1308, having died there in 1330. Of course there are a fewpictures of legendary peoples, such as the Long-armed Nation, theOne-eyed Nation, the Dog-headed Nation, the Anthropophagi, "and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. "

There is also an account of Fusang, the country where grew the famousplant which some have tried to identify with the Mexican aloe, thussecuring the discovery of America for the Chinese. 

The existence of many of these nations is duly recorded by Pliny in his_Natural History_, in words curiously identical with those we find inthe Chinese records. 

Some strange birds and animals are given at the end of this book, themost interesting of all being an accurate picture of the zebra, herecalled the _Fu-lu_, which means "Deer of Happiness, " but which isundoubtedly a rough attempt at _fara_, an old Arabic term for the wildass. Now, the zebra being quite unknown in Asia, the puzzle is, how theChinese came to be so well acquainted with it at that early date. 

The condition of the book is as good as could be expected, after sixhundred years of wear and tear. Each leaf, here and there defective, iscarefully mounted on sheets of stiff paper, and all together very fewcharacters are really illegible, though sometimes the paper has slippedupon the printing-block, and has thus given, in several cases, a doubleoutline. 

Alongside of this stands the modern work of the kind, published in 1761, with an introductory poem from the pen of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung. Itcontains a much longer list of nations, including the British, French, Spanish, Dutch, Russians, Swedes, and others, and the illustrations—aman and woman of each country—are perfect triumphs of the block-cutter'sart, the lines being inconceivably fine. 

 * * * * *

Division D contains Poetry, Novels, and Plays. Under Poetry, in additionto collections of the works of this or that writer, there are numerousanthologies, to which the Chinese are very partial. The mass of Chinesepoetry is so vast, that it is hopeless for the general reader to do muchmore than familiarise himself with the best specimens of the greatestpoets. It is interesting to note that all the more extensive anthologiesinclude a considerable number of poems by women, some of quite a highorder. 

Two years ago, an eminent scientist at Cambridge said to me, "Have theChinese anything in the nature of poetry in their language?" In reply tothis, I told him of a question once put to me by a friendly Mandarin inChina: "Have you foreigners got books in your honourable country?" Weare apt to smile at Chinese ignorance of Western institutions; but if wewere Chinamen, the smile perhaps would sometimes be the other way about. 

Such novels as we have in our library belong entirely to what may becalled the classical school, and may from many points of view beregarded as genuine works of art. Besides these, there is in the marketa huge quantity of fiction which appeals to the less highly educatedclasses, and even to those who are absolutely unable to read. For thelatter, there are professional readers and story-tellers, who may oftenbe seen at some convenient point in a Chinese town, delighting largeaudiences of coolies with tales of love, and war, and heroism, andself-sacrifice. These readers do not read the actual words of the book, which no coolie would understand, but transpose the book-language intothe colloquial as they go along. 

_À propos_ of novels, I should like just to mention one, a romanticnovel of war and adventure, based upon the _History of the ThreeKingdoms_, third century A. D. , an epoch when China was split up underthree separate sovereigns, who fought one another very much after thestyle of the Wars of the Roses in English history. This novel, a verylong one, occupies perhaps the warmest corner in the hearts of theChinese people. They never tire of listening to its stirring episodes, its hair-breadth escapes, its successful ruses, and its appallingcombats. 

Some twelve years ago, a friend of mine undertook to translate it intoEnglish. After writing out a complete translation, —a gigantic task, —herewrote the whole from beginning to end, revising every page thoroughly. In the spring of 1900, after ten years of toil, it was ready for thepress; three months later it had been reduced to ashes by the Boxers atPeking. 

 "Sunt lacrymae rerum . .. "

Chinese plays in the acting editions may be bought singly atstreet-stalls for less than a cent apiece. For the library, many goodcollections have been made, and published in handsome editions. 

This class of literature, however, does not stand upon a high level, butcorresponds with the low social status of the actor; and it is a curiousfact—true also of novels—that many of the best efforts are anonymous. 

Plays by women are also to be found; but I have never yet come across, either on the stage or in literature, any of those remarkable dramaswhich are supposed to run on month after month, even into years. 

 * * * * *

Division E is a very important one for students of the Chinese language. Here we find a number of works of reference, most of which may becharacterised as indispensable, and the great majority of which areeasily procurable at the present day. 

Beginning with dictionaries, we have the famous work of Hsü Shên, whodied about A. D. 120. There was at that date no such thing as a Chinesedictionary, although the language had already been for some centuriesripe for such a production, and accordingly Hsü Shên set to work to fillthe void. He collected 9353 written characters, —presumably all that werein existence at the time, —to which he added 1163 duplicates, _i. E. _various forms of writing the same character, and then arranged them ingroups under those parts which, as we have already seen in the precedingLecture, are indicators of the direction in which the sense of acharacter is to be looked for. Thus, all characters containing theelement 犭 "dog" were brought together; all those containing 艹"vegetation, " 疒 "disease, " etc. 

So far as we know, this system originated with him; and we are thereforenot surprised to find that in his hands it was on a clumsier scale thanthat in vogue to-day. Hsü Shên uses no fewer than 540 of theseindicators, and even when the indicator to a character is satisfactorilyascertained, it still remains to search through all the characters underthat particular group. Printing from movable types would have beenimpossible under such a system. 

In the modern standard dictionary, published in 1716, under thedirection of the Emperor K'ang Hsi, there are only 214 indicatorsemployed, and there is a further sub-arrangement of these groupsaccording to the number of strokes in the other, the phonetic portion ofthe character. Thus, the indicators "hand, " "wood, " "fire, " "water, " orwhatever it may be, settle the group in which a given character will befound, and the number of strokes in the remaining portion will refer itto a comparatively small sub-group, from which it can be readily pickedout. For instance, 松 "a fir tree" will be found under the indicator 木"tree, " sub-group No. 4, because the remaining portion 公 consists offour strokes in writing. 

Good copies of this dictionary are not too easily obtained nowadays. The"Palace" edition, as it is called, is on beautifully white paper, and isa splendid specimen of typography. 

A most wonderful literary feat was achieved under the direction of thebefore-mentioned Emperor K'ang Hsi, when a general Concordance to thephraseology of all literature was compiled and published for generaluse. Word-concordances to the Bible and to Shakespeare are generallylooked upon as no small undertakings, but what about aphrase-concordance to all literature? Well, in 1711 this wassuccessfully carried out, and remains to-day as a monument of theliterary enterprise of the great Manchu-Tartar monarch with whose nameit is inseparably associated. 

The term "literature" here means serious literature, the classics, histories, poetry, and the works of philosophers, of recognisedauthorities, and of brilliant writers generally. 

It was not possible, for obvious reasons, to arrange this collection ofphrases according to the 214 indicators, as in a dictionary of words. Itis arranged according to the Tones and Rhymes. 

Let me try to express all this in terms of English literature. Readinga famous poem, I come across the lines

 "And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale. "

Now suppose that I do not know the meaning of "tells his tale. " [Irecollect perfectly that as a boy I thought it meant "whispered the oldstory into the ear of a shepherdess. "] I determine to hunt it up in theConcordance. First of all, I find out from the Dictionary, if I do notknow, to what Tone _tale_, always the last word of the phrase, belongs. Under that tone will be found various groups of words, each with akey-word which is called the Rhyme, that is to say, a key-word withwhich all the words in this group rhyme. There are only 106 of thesekey-words all together distributed over the Tones, and every word in theChinese language must rhyme with one of them. 

The question of rhyme in Chinese is a curious one, and before going anyfarther it may be as well to try to clear it up a little. All Chinesepoetry is in rhyme; there is no such thing as blank verse. The _Odes_, collected and edited by Confucius, provide the standard of rhyme. Anywords which are found to rhyme there may be used as rhymes anywhereelse, and no others. The result is, that the number of rhyme-groups isrestricted to 106; and not only that, but of course words which rhymedto the ear five hundred years B. C. Do so no longer in 1902. Yet such arethe only authorised rhymes to be used in poetry, and any attempt toignore the rule would insure disastrous failure at the publicexaminations. 

This point may to some extent be illustrated in English. The first twolines of the _Canterbury Tales_, which I will take to represent the_Odes_, run thus in modern speech:—

 "When that Aprilis with his showers sweet, The drought of March hath pierced to the root. "

No one nowadays rhymes _sweet_ with _root_. Neither did Chaucer; the twowords, _sote_ and _rote_, were in his days perfect rhymes. But if wewere Chinese, we should now rhyme _sweet_ with _root_, because, so tospeak, Chaucer did so. 

When the Tone of a word is known, it is also known in which quarter ofthe whole work to look; and when the Rhyme is known, it is also knownin which part of that quarter the key-word, or rhyme, will be found. Suppose the key-word to be _gale_, it might be necessary to turn overa good many pages before finding, neatly printed in the margin, therequired word, _tale_. Under _tale_ I should first of all find phrasesof two words, _e. G. _ "traveller's tale, " "fairy-tale"; and I should haveto look on until I came to groups of three characters, _e. G. _ "oldwife's tale, " "tells his tale, " and so forth. Finally, under "tells histale" I should still not find, what all students would like so much, aplain explanation of what the phrase means, but only a collection of thechief passages in literature in which "tells his tale" occurs. In oneof these there would probably be some allusion to sheep, and in anotherto counting, and so it would become pretty plain that when a shepherd"tells his tale, " he does not whisper soft nothings into the ear of ashepherdess, but is much more prosaically engaged in counting the numberof his sheep. 

Our Cambridge copy of the Concordance is bound up in 44 thick volumes. Each volume contains on an average 840 pages, and each page about 400characters. This gives a sum total of about 37, 000 pages, and about15, 000, 000 characters. Translated into English, this work would beone-third as large again, 100 pages of Chinese text being equal to about130 of English. 

In the year 1772 the enlightened Emperor Ch'ien Lung, who then sat uponthe throne, gave orders that a descriptive Catalogue should be preparedof the books in the Imperial Library. And in order to enhance itsliterary value, his Majesty issued invitations to the leading provincialofficials to take part in the enterprise by securing and forwarding toPeking any rare books they might be able to come across. 

The scheme proved in every way successful. Many old works were rescuedfrom oblivion and ultimate destruction, and in 1795 a very wonderfulCatalogue was laid before the world in print. It fills twenty-six octavovolumes of about five hundred pages to each, the works enumerated beingdivided into four classes, —the Confucian Canon, History, Philosophy, andGeneral Literature. Under each work we have first of all an historicalsketch of its origin, with date of publication, etc. , when known; andsecondly, a careful critique dealing with its merits and defects. Alltogether, some eight thousand to ten thousand works are entered andexamined as above, and the names of those officials who responded to theImperial call are always scrupulously recorded in connection with thebooks they supplied. 

Among many illustrated books, there is a curious volume in the Librarypublished about twenty-five years ago, which contains short notices ofall the Senior Classics of the Ming dynasty, A. D. 1368-1644. They numberonly seventy-six in all, because the triennial examination had not thencome into force; whereas during the present dynasty, between 1644 andtwenty-five years ago, a shorter period, there have been no fewer thanone hundred Senior Classics, whose names are all duly recorded in aSupplement. 

The pictures which accompany the letterpress are sometimes of quitepathetic interest. 

In one instance, the candidate, after his journey to Peking, where theexamination is held, has gone home to await the result, and is sittingat dinner with his friends, when suddenly the much-longed-for messengerbursts in with the astounding news. In the old days this news wascarried to all parts of the country by trained runners; nowadays thetelegraph wires do the business at a great saving of time and muscle, with the usual sacrifice of romance. 

Another student has gone home, and settled down to work again, notdaring even to hope for success; but overcome with fatigue and anxiety, he falls asleep over his books. In the accompanying picture we see hisdream, —a thin curl, as it were of vapour, coming forth from the top ofhis head and broadening out as it goes, until wide enough to contain therepresentation of a man, in feature like himself, surrounded by anadmiring crowd, who acclaim him Senior Classic. With a start theillusion is dispelled, and the dreamer awakes to find himself famous. 

To those who have followed me so far, it must, I hope, be clear that, whatever else the Chinese may be, they are above all a literary people. They have cultivated literature as no other people ever has done, andthey cultivate it still. 

Literary merit leads to an official career, the only career worthanything in the eyes of the Chinese nation. 

From his earliest school days the Chinese boy is taught that men withouteducation are but horses or cows in coats and trousers, and that successat the public examinations is the greatest prize this world has tooffer. 

To be among the fortunate three hundred out of about twelve thousandcandidates, who contend once every three years for the highest degree, is to be enrolled among the Immortals for ever; while the Senior Classicat a final competition before the Emperor not only covers himself, buteven his remote ancestors, his native village, his district, hisprefecture, and even his province, with a glory almost of celestialsplendour. 

LECTURE III

DEMOCRATIC CHINA

DEMOCRATIC CHINA

Theoretically speaking, the Empire of China is ruled by an autocraticmonarch, responsible only to God, whose representative he is on earth. 

Once every year the Emperor prays at the Temple of Heaven, andsacrifices in solemn state upon its altar. He puts himself, as it were, into communication with the Supreme Being, and reports upon the fidelitywith which he has carried out his Imperial trust. 

If the Emperor rules wisely and well, with only the happiness of hispeople at heart, there will be no sign from above, beyond peace andplenty in the Empire, and now and then a double ear of corn in thefields—a phenomenon which will be duly recorded in the _Peking Gazette_. But should there be anything like laxness or incapacity, or still worse, degradation and vice, then a comet may perhaps appear, a pestilence mayrage, or a famine, to warn the erring ruler to give up his evil ways. 

And just as the Emperor is responsible to Heaven, so are the viceroysand governors of the eighteen provinces—to speak only of Chinaproper—nominally responsible to him, in reality to the six departmentsof state at Peking, which constitute the central government, and towhich a seventh has recently been added—a department for foreignaffairs. 

So long as all goes well—and in ordinary times that "all" is confinedto a regular and sufficient supply of revenue paid into the ImperialTreasury—viceroys and governors of provinces are, as nearly as can be, independent rulers, each in his own domain. 

For purposes of government, in the ordinary sense of the term, the 18provinces are subdivided into 80 areas known as "circuits, " and overeach of these is set a high official, who is called an intendant ofcircuit, or in Chinese a _Tao-t'ai_. His circuit consists of 2 or moreprefectures, of which there are in all 282 distributed among the 80circuits, or about an average of 3 prefectures to each. 

Every prefecture is in turn subdivided into several magistracies, ofwhich there are 1477 in all, distributed among the 282 prefectures, or about an average of 5 magistracies to each. 

Immediately below the magistrates may be said to come the people; thoughnaturally an official who rules over an area as big as an averageEnglish county can scarcely be brought into personal touch with allthose under his jurisdiction. This difficulty is bridged over by theappointment of a number of head men, or headboroughs, who are furnishedwith wooden seals, and who are held responsible for the peace and goodorder of the wards or boroughs over which they are set. The post isconsidered an honourable one, involving as it does a quasi-officialstatus. It is also more or less lucrative, as it is necessary that allpetitions to the magistrate, all conveyances of land, and other legalinstruments, should bear the seal of the head man, as a guarantee ofgood faith, a small fee being payable on each notarial act. 

On the other hand, the post is occasionally burdensome and trying in theextreme. For instance, if a head man fails to produce any criminals oraccused persons, either belonging to, or known to be, in his district, he is liable to be bambooed or otherwise severely punished. 

In ordinary life the head man is not distinguishable from the masses ofhis fellow-countrymen. He may often be seen working like the rest, andeven walking about with bare legs and bare feet. 

Thus in a descending scale we have the Emperor, the viceroys andgovernors of the 18 provinces, the intendants, or _Tao-t'ais_, of the 80circuits, the prefects of the 282 prefectures, the magistrates of the1477 magistracies, the myriad headboroughs, and the people. 

The district magistrates, so far as officials are concerned, are thereal rulers of China, and in conjunction with the prefects are popularlycalled "father-and-mother" officials, as though they stood _in locoparentium_ to the people, whom, by the way, they in turn often speak of, even in official documents, as "the babies. "

The ranks of these magistrates are replenished by drafts of those_literati_ who have succeeded in taking the third, or highest, degree. Thus, the first step on the ladder is open to all who can win their wayby successful competition at certain literary examinations, so long aseach candidate can show that none of his ancestors for three generationshave been either actors, barbers and chiropodists, priests, executioners, or official servants. 

Want of means may be said to offer no obstacle in China to ambition anddesire for advancement. The slightest aptitude in a boy for learningwould be carefully noted, and if found to be the genuine article, wouldbe still more carefully fostered. Not only are there plenty of freeschools in China, but there are plenty of persons ready to help in sogood a cause. Many a high official has risen from the furrowed fields, his educational expenses as a student, and his travelling expenses as acandidate, being paid by subscription in his native place. Oncesuccessful, he can easily find a professional money-lender who willprovide the comparatively large sums required for his outfit and journeyto his post, whither this worthy actually accompanies him, to remainuntil he is repaid in full, with interest. 

A successful candidate, however, is not usually sent straight fromthe examination-hall to occupy the important position of districtmagistrate. He is attached to some magistracy as an expectant official, and from time to time his capacity is tested by a case, more or lessimportant, which is entrusted to his management as deputy. 

The duties of a district magistrate are so numerous and so varied thatone man could not possibly cope with them all. At the same time he isfully responsible. In addition to presiding over a court of firstinstance for all criminal trials in his district, he has to act ascoroner (without a jury) at all inquests, collect and remit theland-tax, register all conveyances of land and house-property, act aspreliminary examiner of candidates for literary degrees, and perform ahost of miscellaneous offices, even to praying for rain or fine weatherin cases of drought or inundation. He is up, if anything, before thelark; and at night, often late at night, he is listening to theprotestations of prisoners or bambooing recalcitrant witnesses. 

But inasmuch as the district may often be a large one, and two inquestsmay be going on in two different directions on the same day, or theremay be other conflicting claims upon his time, he has constantly todepute his duties to a subordinate, whose usual duties, if he has any, have to be taken by some one else, and so on. Thus it is that theexpectant official every now and then gets his chance. 

This scheme leaves out of consideration a number of provincialofficials, who preside over departments which branch, as it were, fromthe main trunk, and of whom a few words only need now be said. 

There are several "commissioners, " as they are sometimes called; forinstance, the commissioner of finance, otherwise known as the provincialtreasurer, who is charged with the fiscal administration of hisparticular province, and who controls the nomination of nearly all theminor appointments in the civil service, subject to the approval of thegovernor. 

Then there is the commissioner of justice, or provincial judge, responsible for the due administration of justice in his province. 

There is also the salt commissioner, who collects the revenue derivedfrom the government monopoly of the salt trade; and the graincommissioner, who looks after the grain-tax, and sees that the tributerice is annually forwarded to Peking, for the use of the Imperial Court. 

There are also military officials, belonging to two separate anddistinct army organisations. 

The Manchus, when they conquered the Empire, placed garrisons of theirown troops, under the command of Manchu generals, at various importantstrategic points; and the Tartar generals, as they are called, stillremain, ranking nominally just above the viceroy of the province, overwhose actions they are supposed to keep a careful watch. 

Then there is a provincial army, with a provincial commander-in-chief, etc. 

Now let us return to the main trunk, working upward by way ofrecapitulation. 

We have reached the people and their head men, or headboroughs, overwhom is set the magistrate, with a nominal salary which would be quiteinsufficient for his needs, even if he were ever to draw it. For he hasa large staff to keep up; some few of whom, no doubt, keep themselves byfees and _douceurs_ of various kinds obtained from litigants and otherswho have business to transact. 

The income on which the magistrate lives, and from which, after a lifeof incessant toil, he saves a moderate competence for the requirementsof his family, is deducted from the gross revenues of his magistracy, leaving a net amount to be forwarded to the Imperial Treasury. So longas his superiors are satisfied with what he remits, no questions areasked as to original totals. It is recognised that he must live, and thevalue of every magistracy is known within a few hundred ounces of silverone way or the other. 

Above the magistrate, and in control of several magistracies, comes theprefect, who has to satisfy his superiors in the same way. He has thegeneral supervision of all civil business in his prefecture, and to himmust be referred every appeal case from the magistracies under hisjurisdiction, before it can be filed in a higher court. 

Above him comes the intendant of circuit, or _Tao-t'ai_, in control ofseveral prefectures, to whom the same rule applies as to satisfyingdemands of superiors; and above him come the governor and viceroy, whomust also satisfy the demands of the state departments in Peking. 

It would now appear, from what has been already stated, that all aviceroy or governor has to do is to exact sufficient revenue fromimmediate subordinates, and leave them to exact the amounts necessaryfrom _their_ subordinates, and so on down the scale until we reach thepeople. The whole question therefore resolves itself into this, What canthe people be made to pay?

The answer to that question will be somewhat of a staggerer to those whofrom distance, or from want of close observation, regard the Chinese asa down-trodden people, on a level with the Fellahin of Egypt in pasttimes. For the answer, so far as my own experience goes, is that only somuch can be got out of the Chinese people as the people themselves areready and willing to pay. In other words, with all their show of anautocratic ruler and a paternal government, the people of China taxthemselves. 

I am now about to do more than state this opinion; I am going to try toprove it. 

The philosopher Mencius, who flourished about one hundred years afterConfucius, and who is mainly responsible for the final triumph of theConfucian doctrine, was himself not so much a teacher of ethics asa teacher of political science. He spent a great part of his lifewandering from feudal state to feudal state, advising the various vassalnobles how to order their dominions with the maximum of peace andprosperity and the minimum of misery and bloodshed. 

One of these nobles, Duke Wên, asked Mencius concerning the proper wayto govern a state. 

"The affairs of the people, " replied the philosopher, "must not beneglected. For the way of the people is thus: If they have a fixedlivelihood, their hearts will also be fixed; but if they have not afixed livelihood, neither will their hearts be fixed. And if they havenot fixed hearts, there is nothing in the way of crime which they willnot commit. Then, when they have involved themselves in guilt, to followup and punish them, —this is but to ensnare them. "

In another passage Mencius says: "The tyrants of the last two dynasties, Chieh and Chou, lost the Empire because they lost the people, by which Imean that they lost the hearts of the people. There is a way to get theEmpire;—get the people, and you have the Empire. There is a way to getthe people;—get their hearts, and you have them. There is a way to gettheir hearts;—do for them what they wish, and avoid doing what they donot wish. "

Those are strong words, especially when we consider that they come fromone of China's most sacred books, regarded by the Chinese with as muchveneration as the Bible by us, —a portion of that Confucian Canon, theprinciples of which it is the object of every student to master, andshould be the object of every Chinese official to carry into practice. 

But those words are mild compared with another utterance by Mencius inthe same direction. 

"The people are the most important element in a nation; the gods comenext; the sovereign is the least important of all. "

We have here, in Chinese dress, wherein indeed much of Western wisdomwill be found, if students will only look for it, very much the samesentiment as in the familiar lines by Oliver Goldsmith:—

 "Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, — A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride When once destroyed, can never be supplied. "

The question now arises, Are all these solemn sayings of Mencius to beregarded as nothing more than mere literary rodomontade, wherewith tobeguile an enslaved people? Do the mandarins keep the word of promise tothe ear and break it to the hope? Or do the Chinese people enjoy in reallife the recognition which should be accorded to them by the terms ofthe Confucian Canon?

Every one who has lived in China, and has kept his eyes open, must havenoticed what a large measure of personal freedom is enjoyed by even themeanest subject of the Son of Heaven. Any Chinaman may travel all overChina without asking any one's leave to start, and without having toreport himself, or be reported by his innkeeper, at any place at whichhe may choose to stop. He requires no passport. He may set up anylegitimate business at any place. He is not even obliged to be educated, or to follow any particular calling. He is not obliged to serve as asoldier or sailor. There are no sumptuary laws, nor even any municipallaws. Outside the penal code, which has been pronounced by competentWestern lawyers to be a very ably constructed instrument of government, there is nothing at all in the way of law, civil law being altogetherabsent as a state institution. Even the penal code is not too rigidlyenforced. So long as a man keeps clear of secret societies and remains adecent and respectable member of his family and of his clan, he has verylittle to fear from the officials. The old ballad of the husbandman, which has come down to us from a very early date indeed, already hintsat some such satisfactory state of things. It runs thus:—

 "Work, work, —from the rising sun Till sunset comes and the day is done I plough the sod, And harrow the clod, And meat and drink both come to me, — Ah, what care I for the powers that be?"

Many petty offences which are often dealt with very harshly in England, pass in China almost unnoticed. No shopkeeper or farmer would be foolenough to charge a hungry man with stealing food, for the simple reasonthat no magistrate would convict. It is the shopkeeper's or farmer'sbusiness to see that such petty thefts cannot occur. Various otherpoints might be noticed; but we must get back to taxation, which isreally the _crux_ of the whole position. 

All together the Chinese people may be said to be lightly taxed. Thereis the land-tax, in money and in kind; a tax on salt; and various_octroi_ and customs-duties, all of which are more or less fixedquantities, so that the approximate amount which each province shouldcontribute to the central government is well known at Peking, just as itis well known in each province what amounts, approximately speaking, should be handed up by the various grades of territorial officials. 

I have already stated that municipal government is unknown; consequentlythere are no municipal rates to be paid, no water-rate, no poor-rate, and not a cent for either sanitation or education. And so long as theImperial taxes are such as the people have grown accustomed to, they arepaid cheerfully, even if sometimes with difficulty, and nothing is said. 

A curious instance of this conservative spirit in the Chinese people, even when operating against their own interests, may be found in the taxknown as _likin_, against which foreign governments have struggled solong in vain. This tax, originally one-tenth per cent on all sales, wasvoluntarily imposed upon themselves by the people, among whom it was atfirst very popular, with a view of making up the deficiency in theland-tax of China caused by the T'ai-p'ing Rebellion and subsequenttroubles. It was to be set apart for military purposes only, —hence itscommon name "war-tax, "—and was alleged by the Tsung-li Yamên to beadopted merely as a temporary measure. Yet, though forty years haveelapsed, it still continues to be collected as if it were one of thefundamental taxes of the Empire, and the objections to it are raised, not by the people of China, but by foreign merchants with whose tradeit interferes. 

Here we have already one instance of voluntary self-taxation on the partof the people; what I have yet to show is that all taxation, even thoughnot initiated as in this case by the people, must still receive thestamp of popular approval before being put into force. On this point Itook a good many notes during a fairly long residence in China, leadingto conclusions which seem to me irresistible. 

Let us suppose that the high authorities of a province have determined, for pressing reasons, to make certain changes in the incidence oftaxation, or have called upon their subordinates to devise means forcausing larger sums to find their way into the provincial treasury. The invariable usage, previous to the imposition of a new tax, orchange in the old, is for the magistrate concerned to send for theleading merchants whose interests may be involved, or for the headboroughsand village elders, according to the circumstances in each case, and todiscuss the proposition in private. Over an informal entertainment, overtea and pipes, the magistrate pleads the necessities of the case, andthe peremptory orders of his superiors; the merchants or village elders, feeling that, as in the case of _likin_ above mentioned, when taxescome they come to stay, resist on principle the new departure by everyargument at their control. The negotiation ends, in ninety-nineinstances out of a hundred, in a compromise. In the hundredth instancethe people may think it right to give way, or the mandarin may give way, in which case things remain _in statu quo_, and nothing further is heardof the matter. 

There occur cases, however, happily rare, in which neither will giveway—at first. Then comes the tug of war. A proclamation is issued, describing the tax, or the change, or whatever it may be, and thepeople, if their interests are sufficiently involved, prepare to resist. 

Combination has been raised in China to the level of a fine art. Nowhereon earth can be found such perfect cohesion of units against forceswhich would crush each unit, taken individually, beyond recognition. Every trade, every calling, even the meanest, has its guild, orassociation, the members of which are ever ready to protect one anotherwith perfect unanimity, and often great self-sacrifice. And combinationis the weapon with which the people resist, and successfully resist, anyattempt on the part of the governing classes to lay upon them loadsgreater than they can or will bear. The Chinese are withal anexceptionally law-abiding people, and entertain a deep-seated respectfor authority. But their obedience and their deference have pecuniarylimits. 

I will now pass from the abstract to the concrete, and draw upon mynote-book for illustrations of this theory that the Chinese are aself-taxing and self-governing people. 

Under date October 10, 1880, from Chung-king in the province ofSsŭch'uan, the following story will be found in the _North ChinaHerald_, told by a correspondent:—

"Yesterday the Pah-shien magistrate issued a proclamation, saying thathe was going to raise a tax of 200 _cash_ on each pig killed by thepork-butchers of this city, and the butchers were to reimbursethemselves by adding 2 _cash_ per _pound_ to the price of pork. Thebutchers, who had already refused to pay 100 _cash_ per hog, under thelate magistrate, were not likely to submit to the payment of 200 underthis one, and so resolved not to kill pigs until the grievance wasremoved; and this morning a party of them went about the town and seizedall the pork they saw exposed for sale. Then the whole of the butchers, over five hundred at least, shut themselves up in their guild, where themagistrate tried to force an entry with two hundred or three hundred ofhis runners. The butchers, however, refused to open the door, and themagistrate had to retire very much excited, threatening to bring them toterms. People are inclined to think the magistrate acted wrongly intaking a large force with him, saying he ought to have gone alone. "

Three days later, October 13:—

"There is great excitement throughout the city, and I am told that thetroops are under arms. I have heard several volleys of small arms beingfired off, as if in platoon exercise. All the shops are shut, peoplebeing afraid that the authorities may deal severely with the butchers, and that bad characters will profit by the excitement to rob and plunderthe shops. "

Two days later, October 15:—

"The pork-butchers are still holding out in their guild-house, andrefuse to recommence business until the officials have promised that thetax on pigs will not be enforced now or hereafter. The prefect has beengoing the rounds of the city calling on the good people of hisprefecture to open their shops and transact business as usual, sayingthat the tax on pigs did not concern other people, but only thebutchers. "

One day later, October 16:—

"The Pah-shien magistrate has issued a proclamation apologising to thepeople generally, and to the butchers particularly, for his share of thework in trying to increase the obnoxious tax on pigs. So the officialshave all miserably failed in squeezing a _cash_ out of the 'sovereignpeople' of Ssŭch'uan. "

I have a similar story from Hangchow, in Chehkiang, under date April 10, 1889, which begins as follows:—

"The great city of Hangchow is extremely dry. There are probably sevenhundred thousand people here, but not a drop of tea can be bought in anyof the public tea-houses. There is a strike in tea. The tea-houses areall closed by common agreement, to resist a tax, imposed in thebeginning of the year, to raise money for the sufferers by famine. "

In the next communication from this correspondent, we read, "The strikeof the keepers of tea-shops ended very quietly a few days after itbegan, by the officials agreeing to accept the sum of fifteen hundreddollars once for all, and release tea from taxation. "

This is what happened recently in Pakhoi, in the province ofKuangtung:—

"Without the consent of the dealers, a new local tax was imposed on theraw opium in preparation for use in the opium shops. The imposition ofthis tax brought to light the fact, hitherto kept secret, that of theopium consumed in Pakhoi and its district, only sixty-two per cent wasimported drug, the remaining third being native opium, which wassmuggled into Pakhoi, and avoided all taxation. The new tax brought thissmuggled opium under contribution, and this was more than the localopium interest would stand. The opium dealers adopted the usual tacticsof shutting their shops, thus transferring the _onus_ of opposition totheir customers. These last paid a threatening visit to the chiefauthority of Pakhoi, and then wrecked the newly established tax-office. This indication of popular feeling was enough for the local authoritiesat Lien-chou, the district city, and the tax was changed so as to fallon the foreign opium, the illicit native supply being discreetlyignored, and all rioters forgiven. "

So much for taxation. Let us take an instance of interference withprescriptive rights, in connection with the great incorruptible viceroy, Chang Chih-tung, to whom we are all so much indebted for his attitudeduring the Siege of the Legations in 1900. 

Ten years ago, when starting his iron-works at Wuchang, in the provinceof Hupeh, he ordered the substitution of a drawbridge over a creek forthe old bridge which had stood there from time immemorial, the objectbeing to let steamers pass freely up and down. Unfortunately, the oldbridge was destroyed before the new one was ready. What was the result?

"The people rushed to the Yamên, and insisted by deputation andmass-brawling on the restoration of the bridge. 

"Finally, the viceroy thought it worth his while to issue a rhymingproclamation, assuring the people that what he was doing was for theirgood, and justifying his several schemes. "

Yet Chang Chih-tung always has been, and is still, one of the strongestofficials who ever sat upon a viceroy's throne. 

In November, 1882, there was a very serious military riot in Hankow, onthe opposite side of the Yang-tsze to Wuchang. It arose out of a reportthat four soldiers had been arrested and were to be secretly beheadedthe same night. This rising might have assumed very serious dimensions, but for the prompt submission of the viceroy to the soldiers' demands. As it was, the whole city was thrown into a state of the utmost alarm. Few of the inhabitants slept through the night. The streets were filledwith a terror-stricken population, expecting at any moment to hear thatthe prison doors had been forced, and the criminals let loose to jointhe soldiers in their determination to kill the officials, plunder thetreasury, and sack the city. Many citizens are said to have fled fromthe place; and the sudden rush upon the _cash_ shops, to convert papernotes into silver, brought some of them to the verge of bankruptcy. 

I have recorded, under March, 1891, a case in which several Manchus weresentenced by the magistrate of Chinkiang, at the instance of the localgeneral, to a bambooing for rowdy behaviour. This is what followed:—

"The friends of the prisoners, to the number of about three hundred, assembled at the city temple, vowing vengeance on the magistrate andgeneral. They proceeded to the yamên of the general, wrecked the walland part of the premises, and put the city in an uproar. The magistratefled with his family to the Tao-t'ai's yamên, where two hundred regulartroops were sent to protect him against the fury of the Manchus, whothreatened his life. "

This is what happened to another magistrate in Kiangsu. He hadimprisoned a tax-collector for being in arrears with his money; and thetax-collector's wife, frantic with rage, rushed to the magistracy anddemanded his release. Unfortunately, she was suffering from severeasthma; and this, coupled with her anger, caused her death actually inthe magistrate's court. The people then smashed and wrecked themagistracy, and pummelled and bruised the magistrate himself, whoultimately effected his escape in disguise and hid himself in a privatedwelling. 

Every one who has lived in China knows how dangerous are the periodswhen vast numbers of students congregate for the public examinations. Here is an example. 

At Canton, in June, 1880, a student took back a coat he had purchasedfor half a dollar at a second-hand clothes shop, and wished to haveit changed. The shopkeeper gave him rather an impatient answer, andthereupon the student called in a band of his brother B. A. 's to claimjustice for literature. They seized a reckoning-board, or abacus, thatlay on the counter, struck one of the assistants in the shop, and drewblood. The shopkeeper then beat an alarm on his gong, and summonedfriends and neighbours to the rescue. Word was at once passed to bandsof students in the neighbourhood, who promptly obeyed the call of adistressed comrade, and blows were delivered right and left. Theshopkeepers summoned the district magistrate to the scene. Upon hisarrival he ordered several of the literary ringleaders, who had beenseized and bound by the shopkeepers, to be carried off and impounded. In the course of the evening he sentenced them to be beaten. A bodyof more than a hundred students then went to his yamên and demanded theimmediate release of the prisoners. The magistrate grew nervous, yieldedto their threats, and sent several of the offending students home insedan-chairs. The magistrate then seized the assistants in the shopwhere the row began and sentenced them to be beaten on the mouth. 

Next morning ten thousand shops were closed in the city and suburbs. Theshopkeepers said they could not do business under such an administrationof law. In the course of the morning a large meeting of the studentswas held in a college adjoining the examination hall. The districtmagistrate went out to confer with them. The students cracked his gong, and shattered his sedan-chair with showers of stones, and then proddedhim with their fans and umbrellas, and bespattered him with dirt as hisfollowers tried to carry him away on their shoulders. He was quiteseriously hurt. 

The prefect then met a large deputation of the shopkeepers in theirguild-house in the course of the day, and expressed his dissatisfactionat the way in which the district magistrate had acted. A settlement wasthus reached, which included fireworks for the students, and businesswas resumed. 

 * * * * *

Any individual who is aggrieved by the action, or inaction, of a Chineseofficial may have immediate recourse to the following method forobtaining justice, witnessed by me twice during my residence in China, and known as "crying one's wrongs. "

Dressed in the grey sackcloth garb of a mourner, the injured party, accompanied by as many friends as he or she can collect together, willproceed to the public residence of the offending mandarin, and therehowl and be otherwise objectionable, day and night, until some relief isgiven. The populace is invariably on the side of the wronged person; andif the wrong is deep, or the delay in righting it too long, there isalways great risk of an outbreak, with the usual scene of house-wreckingand general violence. 

It may now well be asked, how justice can ever be administered undersuch circumstances, which seem enough to paralyse authority in thepresence of any evil-doer who can bring up his friends to the rescue. 

To begin with, there is in China, certainly at all great centres, alarge criminal population without friends, —men who have fallen fromtheir high estate through inveterate gambling, indulgence inopium-smoking, or more rarely alcohol. No one raises a finger to protectthese from the utmost vengeance of the law. 

Then again, the Chinese, just as they tax themselves, so do theyadminister justice to themselves. Trade disputes, petty and great alike, are never carried into court, there being no recognised civil law inChina beyond custom; they are settled by the guilds or trades-unions, as a rule to the satisfaction of all parties. Many criminal cases areequally settled out of court, and the offender is punished by agreementof the clan-elders or heads of families, and nothing is said; forcompounding a felony is not a crime, but a virtue, in the eyes of theChinese, who look on all litigation with aversion and contempt. 

In the case of murder, however, and some forms of manslaughter, theingrained conviction that a life should always be given for a life oftenoutweighs any money value that could be offered, and the majesty of thelaw is upheld at any sacrifice. 

It is not uncommon for an accused person to challenge his accuser to akind of trial by ordeal, at the local temple. 

Kneeling before the altar, at midnight, in the presence of a crowd ofwitnesses, the accused man will solemnly burn a sheet of paper, on whichhe has written, or caused to be written, an oath, totally denying hisguilt, and calling upon the gods to strike him dead upon the spot, orhis accuser, if either one is deviating in the slightest degree from theactual truth. 

This is indeed a severe ordeal to a superstitious people, whatever itmay seem to us. Even the mandarins avail themselves of similar devicesin cases where they are unable to clear up a mystery in the ordinaryway. 

In a well-known case of a murder by a gang of ruffians, the magistrate, being unable to fix the guilt of the fatal blow upon any one of thegang, told them that he was going to apply to the gods. He then causedthem all to be dressed in black coats, as is usual with condemnedcriminals, and arranged them in a dark shed, with their faces to thewall, saying that, in response to his prayers, a demon would be sent tomark the back of the guilty man. When at length the accused were broughtout of the shed, one of them actually had a white mark on his back, andhe at once confessed. In order to outwit the demon he had slily placedhis back against the wall, which by the magistrate's secret orders hadpreviously received a coat of whitewash. 

I will conclude with a case which came under my own personalobservation, and which first set me definitely on the track ofdemocratic government in China. 

In 1882 I was vice-consul at Pagoda Anchorage, a port near the famousFoochow Arsenal which was bombarded by Admiral Courbet in 1884. My houseand garden were on an eminence overlooking the arsenal, which was abouthalf a mile distant. One morning, after breakfast, the head officialservant came to tell me there was trouble at the arsenal. A militarymandarin, employed there as superintendent of some department, had thatmorning early kicked his cook, a boy of seventeen, in the stomach, andthe boy, a weakly lad, had died within an hour. The boy's widowed motherwas sitting by the body in the mandarin's house, and a large crowd ofworkmen had formed a complete ring outside, quietly awaiting the arrivaland decision of the authorities. 

By five o'clock in the afternoon, a deputy had arrived from themagistracy at Foochow, twelve miles distant, empowered to hold the usualinquest on behalf of the magistrate. The inquest was duly held, and theverdict was "accidental homicide. "

In shorter time than it takes me to tell the story, the deputy'ssedan-chair and paraphernalia of office were smashed to atoms. Hehimself was seized, his official hat and robe were torn to shreds, andhe was bundled unceremoniously, not altogether unbruised, through theback door and through the ring of onlookers, into the paddy-fieldsbeyond. Then the ring closed up again, and a low, threatening murmurbroke out which I could plainly hear from my garden. There was noviolence, no attempt to lynch the man; the crowd merely waited forjustice. That crowd remained there all night, encircling the murderer, the victim, and the mother. Bulletins were brought to me every hour, and no one went to bed. 

Meanwhile the news had reached the viceroy, and by half-past nine nextmorning the smoke of a steam-launch was seen away up the bends of theriver. This time it bore the district magistrate himself, withinstructions from the viceroy to hold a new inquest. 

At about ten o'clock he landed, and was received with respectfulsilence. By eleven o'clock the murderer's head was off and the crowd haddispersed. 

LECTURE IV

CHINA AND ANCIENT GREECE

CHINA AND ANCIENT GREECE

The study of Chinese presents at least one advantage over the study ofthe Greek and Roman classics; I might add, of Hebrew, of Syriac, andeven of Sanskrit. It may be pursued for two distinct objects. The first, and most important object to many, is to acquire a practicalacquaintance with a _living_ language, spoken and written by aboutone-third of the existing population of the earth, with a view to theextension of commercial enterprise, and to the profits and benefitswhich may legitimately accrue therefrom. The second is precisely thatobject in pursuit of which we apply ourselves so steadily to theliteratures and civilisations of Greece and Rome. 

Sir Richard Jebb, in his essay on "Humanism in Education, " points outthat even less than a hundred years ago the classics still held avirtual monopoly, so far as literary studies were concerned, in thepublic schools and universities of England. "The culture which theysupplied, " he argues, "while limited in the sphere of its operation, had long been an efficient and vital influence, not only in formingmen of letters and learning, but in training men who afterwards gaineddistinction in public life and in various active careers. "

Long centuries had fixed so firmly in the minds of our forefathers abelief, and no doubt to some extent a justifiable belief, in the perfectcharacter of the languages, the literatures, the arts, and some of thesocial and political institutions of ancient Greece and Rome, that acentury or so ago there seemed to be nothing else worth the attention ofan intellectual man. The comparatively recent introduction of Sanskritwas received in the classical world, not merely with coldness, but withstrenuous opposition; and all the genius of its pioneer scholars wasneeded to secure the meed of recognition which it now enjoys as animportant field of research. The Regius Professorship of Greek in theUniversity of Cambridge, England, was founded in 1540; but it was notuntil 1867, more than three centuries later, that Sanskrit was admittedinto the university curriculum. It is still impossible to gain a degreethrough the medium of Chinese, but signs are not wanting that thenecessity for such a step will be more widely recognised in the nearfuture. 

All the material lies ready to hand. There is a written language, whichfor difficulty is unrivalled, polished and perfected by centuries of theminutest scholarship, until it is impossible to conceive anything moresubtly artistic as a vehicle of human thought. Those mental gymnastics, of such importance in the training of youth, which were once claimedexclusively for the languages of Greece and Rome, may be performedequally well in the Chinese language. The educated classes in Chinawould be recognised anywhere as men of trained minds, able to carry onsustained and complex arguments without violating any of theAristotelian canons, although as a matter of fact they never heard ofAristotle and possess no such work in all their extensive literature asa treatise on logic. The affairs of their huge empire are carried on, and in my opinion very successfully carried on—with some reservations, of course—by men who have had to get their mental gymnastics wholly andsolely out of Chinese. 

I am not aware that their diplomatists suffer by comparison with ours. The Marquis Tsêng and Li Hung-chang, for instance, representing oppositeschools, were admitted masters of their craft, and made not a few of ourown diplomatists look rather small beside them. 

Speaking further of the study of the Greek and Roman classics, SirRichard Jebb says: "There can be no better proof that such a disciplinehas penetrated the mind, and has been assimilated, than if, in thecrises of life, a man recurs to the great thoughts and images of theliterature in which he has been trained, and finds there what braces andfortifies him, a comfort, an inspiration, an utterance for his deeperfeelings. "

Sir Richard Jebb then quotes a touching story of Lord Granville, who wasPresident of the Council in 1762, and whose last hours were rapidlyapproaching. In reply to a suggestion that, considering his stateof health, some important work should be postponed, he uttered thefollowing impassioned words from the Iliad, spoken by Sarpedon toGlaucus: "Ah, friend, if, once escaped from this battle, we were forever to be ageless and immortal, I would not myself fight in theforemost ranks, nor would I send thee into the war that giveth menrenown; but now, —since ten thousand fates of death beset us every day, and these no mortal may escape or avoid, —now let us go forward. "

Such was the discipline of the Greek and Roman classics upon the mind ofLord Granville at a great crisis in his life. 

Let us now turn to the story of a Chinese statesman, nourished only uponwhat has been too hastily stigmatised as "the dry bones of Chineseliterature. "

Wên T'ien-hsiang was born in A. D. 1236. At the age of twenty-one he cameout first on the list of successful candidates for the highest literarydegree. Upon the draft-list submitted to the Emperor he had been placedseventh; but his Majesty, after looking over the essays, drew the grandexaminer's attention to the originality and excellence of that of WênT'ien-hsiang, and the examiner—himself a great scholar and nosycophant—saw that the Emperor was right, and altered the placesaccordingly. 

Four or five years later Wên T'ien-hsiang attracted attention bydemanding the execution of a statesman who had advised that the Courtshould quit the capital and flee before the advance of the victoriousMongols. Then followed many years of hard fighting, in the course ofwhich his raw levies were several times severely defeated, and hehimself was once taken prisoner by the Mongol general, Bayan, mentionedby Marco Polo. He managed to escape on that occasion; but in 1278 theplague broke out in his camp, and he was again defeated and takenprisoner. He was sent to Peking, and every effort was made to induce himto own allegiance to the Mongol conqueror, but without success. He waskept several years in prison. Here is a well-known poem which he wrotewhile in captivity:—

"There is in the universe an _Aura_, an influence which permeates allthings, and makes them what they are. Below, it shapes forth land andwater; above, the sun and the stars. In man it is called spirit; andthere is nowhere where it is not. 

"In times of national tranquillity, this spirit lies hidden in theharmony which prevails. Only at some great epoch is it manifested widelyabroad. "

Here Wên T'ien-hsiang recalls, and dwells lovingly upon, a number ofhistorical examples of loyalty and devotion. He then proceeds:—

"Such is this grand and glorious spirit which endureth for allgenerations; and which, linked with the sun and moon, knows neitherbeginning nor end. The foundation of all that is great and good inheaven and earth, it is itself born from the everlasting obligationswhich are due by man to man. 

"Alas! the fates were against me; I was without resource. Bound withfetters, hurried away toward the north, death would have been sweetindeed; but that boon was refused. 

"My dungeon is lighted by the will-o'-the-wisp alone: no breath ofspring cheers the murky solitude in which I dwell. The ox and the barbherd together in one stall: the rooster and the phoenix feed togetherfrom one dish. Exposed to mist and dew, I had many times thought to die;and yet, through the seasons of two revolving years, disease hoveredaround me in vain. The dark, unhealthy soil to me became Paradiseitself. For there was that within me which misfortune could not stealaway. And so I remained firm, gazing at the white clouds floatingover my head, and bearing in my heart a sorrow boundless as the sky. 

"The sun of those dead heroes has long since set, but their record isbefore me still. And, while the wind whistles under the eaves, I open mybooks and read; and lo! in their presence my heart glows with a borrowedfire. "

At length, Wên T'ien-hsiang was summoned into the presence of KublaiKhan, who said to him, "What is it you want?" "By the grace of his lateMajesty of the Sung dynasty, " he replied, "I became his Majesty'sminister. I cannot serve two masters. I only ask to die. " Accordingly hewas executed, meeting his death with composure, and making a finalobeisance toward the south, as though his own sovereign was stillreigning in his capital. 

May we not then plead that this Chinese statesman, equally with LordGranville, at a crisis of his life, recurred to the great thoughts andimages of the literature in which he had been trained, and found therewhat braced and fortified him, a comfort, an inspiration, an utterancefor his deeper feelings?

Chinese history teems with the names of men who, with no higher sourceof inspiration than the Confucian Canon, have yet shown that they cannobly live and bravely die. 

Han Yü of the eighth and ninth centuries was one of China's mostbrilliant statesmen and writers, and rose rapidly to the highest officesof State. When once in power, he began to attack abuses, and wasdegraded and banished. Later on, when the Court, led by a weak Emperor, was going crazy over Buddhism, he presented a scathing Memorial to theThrone, from the effect of which it may well be said that Buddhism hasnot yet recovered. The Emperor was furious, and Han Yü narrowly escapedwith his life. He was banished to the extreme wilds of Kuangtung, notfar from the now flourishing Treaty Port of Swatow, where he did so muchuseful work in civilising the aborigines, that he was finally recalled. 

Those wilds have long since disappeared as such, but the memory ofHan Yü remains, a treasure for ever. In a temple which contains hisportrait, and which is dedicated to him, a grateful posterity has putup a tablet bearing the following legend, "Wherever he passed, hepurified. "

The last Emperor of the Ming dynasty, which was overthrown by rebelsand then supplanted by the Manchus in 1644, was also a man who in theElysian fields might well hold up his head among monarchs. He seems tohave inherited with the throne a legacy of national disorder similar tothat which eventually brought about the ruin of Louis XVI of France. With all the best intentions possible, he was unable to stem the tide. Over-taxation brought in its train, as it always does in China, firstresistance and then rebellion. The Emperor was besieged in Peking by arebel army; the Treasury was empty; there were too few soldiers to manthe walls; and the capital fell. 

On the previous night, the Emperor, who had refused to flee, slew theeldest Princess, commanded the Empress to commit suicide, and sent histhree sons into hiding. At dawn the bell was struck for the Court toassemble; but no one came. His Majesty then ascended the well-known hillin the Palace grounds, and wrote a last decree on the lapel of hisrobe:—

"Poor in virtue, and of contemptible personality, I have incurred thewrath of high Heaven. My ministers have deceived me. I am ashamed tomeet my ancestors; and therefore I myself take off my cap of State, andwith my hair covering my face, await dismemberment at the hands of yourebels. "

Instead of the usual formula, "Respect this!" the Emperor added, "Sparemy people!"

He then hanged himself, and the great Ming dynasty was no more. 

 * * * * *

Chinese studies have always laboured under this disadvantage, —that theludicrous side of China and her civilisation was the one which firstattracted the attention of foreigners; and to a great extent it does sostill. There was a time when China was regarded as a Land of Opposites, _i. E. _ diametrically opposed to us in every imaginable direction. Forinstance, in China the left hand is the place of honour; men keep theirhats on in company; use fans; mount their horses on the off side; begindinner with fruit and end it with soup; shake their own instead of theirfriends' hands when meeting; begin at what we call the wrong end of abook and read from right to left down vertical columns; wear white formourning; have huge visiting-cards instead of small ones; preventcriminals from having their hair cut; regard the south as the standardpoint of the compass; begin to build a house by putting on the rooffirst; besides many other nicer distinctions, the mere enumeration ofwhich would occupy much of the time at my disposal. 

The other side of the medal, showing the similarities, and even theidentities, has been unduly neglected; and yet it is precisely from astudy of these similarities and identities that the best results can beexpected. 

A glance at any good dictionary of classical antiquities will at oncereveal the minute and painstaking care with which even the small detailsof life in ancient Greece have been examined into and discussed. TheChinese have done like work for themselves; and many of theirbeautifully illustrated dictionaries of archæology would compare notunfavourably with anything we have to show. 

There are also many details of modern everyday existence in China whichmay fairly be quoted to show that Chinese civilisation is not, afterall, that comic condition of topsy-turvey-dom which the term usuallyseems to connote. 

The Chinese house may not be a facsimile of a Greek house, —far from it. Still, we may note its position, facing south, in order to have as muchsun in winter and as little in summer as possible; its division intomen's and women's apartments; the fact that the doors are in two leavesand open inward; the rings or handles on the doors; the portablebraziers used in the rooms in cold weather; and the shrines of thehousehold gods;—all of which characteristics are to be found equally inthe Greek house. 

There are also points of resemblance between the lives led by Chineseand Athenian ladies, beyond the fact that the former occupy a secludedportion of the house. The Chinese do not admit their women to socialentertainments, and prefer, as we are told was the case with Athenianhusbands, to dine by themselves rather than expose their wives to thegaze of their friends. If the Athenian dame "went out at all, it was tosee some religious procession, or to a funeral; and if sufficientlyadvanced in years she might occasionally visit a female friend, and takebreakfast with her. "

And so in China, it is religion which breaks the monotony of femalelife, and collects within the temples, on the various festivals, anarray of painted faces and embroidered skirts that present, even to theEuropean eye, a not unpleasing spectacle. 

That painting the face was universal among the women of Greece, muchafter the fashion which we now see in China, has been placed beyond alldoubt, the pigments used in both cases being white lead and some kind ofvegetable red, with lampblack for the eyebrows. 

In marriage, we find the Chinese aiming, like the Greeks, at equality ofrank and fortune between the contracting parties, or, as the Chinese putit, in the guise of a household word, at a due correspondence betweenthe doorways of the betrothed couple. As in Greece, so in China, we findthe marriage arranged by the parents; the veiled bride; the ceremony offetching her from her father's house; the equality of man and wife; thetoleration of subordinate wives, and many other points of contact. 

The same sights and scenes which are daily enacted at any of the greatChinese centres of population seem also to have been enacted in theAthenian market-place, with its simmering kettles of boiled peas andother vegetables, and its chapmen and retailers of all kinds ofmiscellaneous goods. In both we have the public story-teller, surroundedby a well-packed group of fascinated and eager listeners. 

The puppet-shows, ἀγάλματα νευρόσπαστα, which Herodotus tells us wereintroduced into Greece from Egypt, are constantly to be seen in Chinesecities, and date from the second century B. C. , —a suggestive period, asI shall hope to show later on. 

The Chinese say that these puppets originated in China as follows:—

The first Emperor of the Han dynasty was besieged, about 200 B. C. , in anorthern city, by a vast army of Hsiung-nu, the ancestors of the Huns, under the command of the famous chieftain, Mao-tun. One of the Chinesegenerals with the besieged Emperor discovered that Mao-tun's wife, whowas in command on one side of the city, was an extremely jealous woman;and he forthwith caused a number of wooden puppets, representingbeautiful girls and worked by strings, to be exhibited on the walloverlooking the chieftain's camp. At this, we are told, the lady's fearsfor her husband's fidelity were aroused, and she drew off her forces. 

The above account may be dismissed as a tale, in which case we are leftwith Punch and Judy on our hands. 

To return to city sights. The tricks of street-jugglers as witnessed inChina seem to be very much those of ancient Greece. In both countries wehave such feats as jumping about amongst naked swords, spitting firefrom the mouth, and passing a sword down the throat. 

Then there are the advertisements on the walls; the mule-carts andmule-litters; the sunshades, or umbrellas, carried by women in Greece, by both sexes in China. 

The Japanese language is said to contain no terms of abuse, so refinedare the inhabitants of that earthly paradise. The Chinese language morethan makes up for this deficiency; and it is certainly curious that, asin ancient Greece, the names of animals are not frequently used in thisconnection, with the sole exception of the dog. No Chinaman will standbeing called a dog, although he really has a great regard for theanimal, as a friend whose fidelity is proof even against poverty. 

In the ivory shops in China will be found many specimens of the carver'scraft which will bear comparison, for the patience and skill required, with the greatest triumphs of Greek workmen. Both nations havereproduced the human hand in ivory; the Greeks used it as an ornamentfor a hairpin; the Chinese attach it to a slender rod about a foot anda half in length, and use it as a back-scratcher. 

The Chinese drama, which we can only trace vaguely to Central Asiansources, and no farther back than the twelfth century of our era, hassome points of contact with the Greek drama. In Greece the plays beganat sunrise and continued all day, as they do still on the open-airstages of rural districts in China, in both cases performed entirelyby men, without interval between the pieces, without curtain, withoutprompter, and without any attempt at realism. 

As formerly in Greece, so now in China, the words of the play are partlyspoken and partly sung, the voice of the actor being, in both countries, of the highest importance. Like the Greek actor before masks wereinvented, the Chinese actor paints his face, and the thick-soled bootwhich raises the Chinese tragedian from the ground is very much thecounterpart of the cothurnus. 

The arrangement by which the Greek gods appeared in a kind of balcony, looking out as it were from the heights of Olympus, is well known to theChinese stage; while the methodical character of Greek tragic dancing, with the chorus moving right and left, is strangely paralleled in thedances performed at the worship of Confucius in the Confucian temples, details of which may be seen in any illustrated Chinese encyclopædia. 

Games with dice are of a high antiquity in Greece; they date in Chinaonly from the second century A. D. , having been introduced from the Westunder the name of _shu p'u_, a term which has so far defiedidentification. 

The custom of fighting quails was once a political institution inAthens, and under early dynasties it was a favourite amusement at theImperial Court of China. 

The game of "guess-fingers" is another form of amusement common to bothcountries. So also is the custom of drinking by rule, under the guidanceof a toast-master, with fines of deep draughts of wine to be swallowedby those who fail in capping verses, answering conundrums, recognisingquotations; to which may be added the custom of introducingsinging-girls toward the close of the entertainment. 

At Athens, too, it was customary to begin a drinking-bout with smallcups, and resort to larger ones later on, a process which must befamiliar to all readers of Chinese novels, wherein, toward the close ofthe revel, the half-drunken hero invariably calls for more capaciousgoblets. Neither does the ordinary Chinaman approve of a short allowanceof wine at his banquets, as witness the following story, translated froma Chinese book of anecdotes. 

A stingy man, who had invited some guests to dinner, told his servantnot to fill up their wine-cups to the brim, as is usual. During themeal, one of the guests said to his host, "These cups of yours are toodeep; you should have them cut down. " "Why so?" inquired the host. "Well, " replied the guest, "you don't seem to use the top part foranything. "

There is another story of a man who went to dine at a house where thewine-cups were very small, and who, on taking his seat at table, suddenly burst out into groans and lamentations. "What is the matterwith you?" cried the host, in alarm. "Ah, " replied his guest, "myfeelings overcame me. My poor father, when dining with a friend who hadcups like yours, lost his life, by accidentally swallowing one. "

The water-clock, or _clepsydra_, has been known to the Chinese forcenturies. Where did it come from? Is it a mere coincidence that theancient Greeks used water-clocks?

Is it a coincidence that the Greeks used an abacus, or counting-board, on which the beads slid up and down in vertical grooves, while on theChinese counting-board the only difference is that the beads slide upand down on vertical rods?

Is it a mere coincidence that the olive should be associated in China, as in Greece, with propitiation? To this day, a Chinaman who wishes tomake up a quarrel will send a piece of red paper containing an olive, intoken of friendly feeling; and the acceptance of this means that thequarrel is at an end. 

The olive was supposed by the Greeks to have been brought by Herculesfrom the land of the Hyperboreans; the Chinese say it was introducedinto China in the second century B. C. 

The extraordinary similarities between the Chinese and Pythagoreansystems of music place it beyond a doubt that one must have been derivedfrom the other. The early Jesuit fathers declared that the ancientGreeks borrowed their music from the Chinese; but we know now that themusic in question did not exist in China until two centuries after itsappearance in Greece. 

The music of the Confucian age perished, books and instruments together, at the Burning of the Books, in B. C. 212; and we read that in the firstpart of the second century B. C. The hereditary music-master wasaltogether ignorant of his art. Where did the new art come from? And howare its Greek characteristics to be accounted for?

There are also equally extraordinary similarities between the Chineseand Greek calendars. 

For instance, in B. C. 104 the Chinese adopted a cycle of nineteen years, a period which was found to bring together the solar and the lunaryears. 

But this is precisely the cycle, ἐννεακαιδεκαετηρίς, said to have beenintroduced by Meton in the fifth century B. C. , and adopted at Athensabout B. C. 330. 

Have we here another coincidence of no particular importance?

The above list might be very much extended. Meanwhile, the questionarises: Are there any records of any kind in China which might lead usto suppose that the Chinese ever came into contact in any way with thecivilisation of ancient Greece?

We know from Chinese history that, so far back as the second centuryB. C. , victorious Chinese generals carried their arms far into CentralAsia, and succeeded in annexing such distant regions as Khoten, Kokand, and the Pamirs. About B. C. 138 a statesman named Chang Ch'ien was senton a mission to Bactria, but was taken prisoner by the Hsiung-nu, theforebears of the Huns, and detained in captivity for over ten years. Hefinally managed to escape, and proceeded to Fergana, and thence on toBactria, returning home in B. C. 126, after having been once morecaptured by the Hsiung-nu and again detained for about a year. 

Now Bactria was then a Greek kingdom, which had been founded by Diodotusin B. C. 256; and it would appear to have had, already for some time, commercial relations with China, for Chang Ch'ien reported that he hadseen Chinese merchandise exposed there in the markets for sale. Wefarther learn that Chang Ch'ien brought back with him the walnut and thegrape, previously unknown in China, and taught his countrymen the art ofmaking wine. 

The wine of the Confucian period was like the wine of to-day in China, an ardent spirit distilled from rice. There is no grape-wine in Chinanow, although grapes are plentiful and good. But we know from the poetrywhich has been preserved to us, as well as from the researches ofChinese archæologists, that grape-wine was largely used in China formany centuries subsequent to the date of Chang Ch'ien; in fact, down tothe beginning of the fifteenth century, if not later. 

One writer says it was brought, together with the "heavenly horse, " fromPersia, when the extreme West was opened up, a century or so before theChristian era, as already mentioned. 

I must now make what may well appear to be an uncalled-for digression;but it will only be a temporary digression, and will bring us back in afew minutes to the grape, the heavenly horse, and to Persia. 

Mirrors seem to have been known to the Chinese from the earliest ages. One authority places them so far back as 2500 B. C. They are at any ratementioned in the _Odes_, say 800 B. C. , and were made of polished copper, being in shape, according to the earliest dictionary, like a largebasin. 

About one hundred years B. C. , a new kind of mirror comes into vogue, called by an entirely new name, not before used. In common with the wordpreviously employed, its indicator is "metal, " showing under whichkingdom it falls, —_i. E. _ a mirror of metal. These new mirrors weresmall disks of melted metal, highly polished on one side and profuselydecorated with carvings on the other, —a description which exactlytallies with that of the ancient Greek mirror. Specimens survived tocomparatively recent times, and it is even alleged that many of theseold mirrors are in existence still. A large number of illustrations ofthem are given in the great encyclopædia of the eighteenth century, andthe fifth of these, in chronological order, second century B. C. , isremarkable as being ornamented with the well-known "key, " or Greekpattern, so common in Chinese decoration. 

Another is covered with birds flying about among branches of pomegranateladen with fruit cut in halves to show the seeds. 

Shortly afterward we come to a mirror so lavishly decorated with bunchesof grapes and vine-leaves that the eye is arrested at once. Interspersedwith these are several animals, among others the lion, which is unknownin China. The Chinese word for "lion, " as I stated in my first lecture, is _shih_, an imitation of the Persian _shír_. There is also a lion'shead with a bar in its mouth, recalling the door-handles to temples inancient Greece. Besides the snake, the tortoise, and the sea-otter, there is what is far more remarkable than any of these, namely, a horsewith wings. 

On comparing the latter with Pegasus as he appears in sculpture, it isquite impossible to doubt that the Chinese is a copy of the Greekanimal. The former is said to have come down from heaven, and wascaught, according to tradition, on the banks of a river in B. C. 120. 

The name for pomegranate in China is "the Parthian fruit, " showing thatit was introduced from Parthia, the Chinese equivalent for Parthia being安息 _Ansik_, which is an easy corruption of the Greek Ἀρσάκης, the firstking of Parthia. 

The term for grape is admittedly of foreign origin, like the fruititself. It is 葡萄 _pu t'ou_. Here it is easy to recognise the Greek wordΒότρυς, a cluster, or bunch, of grapes. 

Similarly, the Chinese word for "radish, " 蘿蔔 _lo po_, also of foreignorigin, is no doubt a corruption of ῥάφη, it being of course well knownthat the Chinese cannot pronounce an initial _r_. 

There is one term, especially, in Chinese which at once carriesconviction as to its Greek origin. This is the term for watermelon. The two Chinese characters chosen to represent the sound mean "Westerngourd, " _i. E. _ the gourd which came from the West. Some Chinese say, onno authority in particular, that it was introduced by the Kitan Tartars;others say that it was introduced by the first Emperor of the so-calledGolden Tartars. But the Chinese term is still pronounced _si kua_, whichis absolutely identical with the Greek word σικύα, of which Liddell andScott say, "perhaps the melon. " For these three words it would nowscarcely be rash to substitute "the watermelon. "

We are not on quite such firm ground when we compare the Chinese kalendsand ides with similar divisions of the Roman month. 

Still it is interesting to note that in ancient China, the first day ofevery month was publicly proclaimed, a sheep being sacrificed on eachoccasion; also, that the Latin word _kalendae_ meant the day when theorder of days was proclaimed. 

Further, that the term in Chinese for ides means to look at, to see, because on that day we can see the moon; and also that the Latin word_idus_, the etymology of which has not been absolutely established, maypossibly come from the Greek ἰδεῖν "to see, " just as _kalendae_ comesfrom καλεῖν "to proclaim. "

As to many of the analogies, more or less interesting, to be found inthe literatures of China and of Western nations, it is not difficult tosay how they got into their Chinese setting. 

For instance, we read in the History of the Ming Dynasty, A. D. 1368-1644, a full account of the method by which the Spaniards, in thesixteenth century, managed to obtain first a footing in, and then thesovereignty over, some islands which have now passed under the Americanflag. The following words, not quite without interest at the presentday, are translated from the above-mentioned account of thePhilippines:—

"The Fulanghis (_i. E. _ the Franks), who at that time had succeeded byviolence in establishing trade relations with Luzon (the old name ofthe Philippines), saw that the nation was weak, and might easily beconquered. Accordingly, they sent rich presents to the king of thecountry, begging him to grant them a piece of land as big as a bull'shide, for building houses to live in. The king, not suspecting guile, conceded their request, whereupon the Fulanghis cut the hide into stripsand joined them together, making many hundreds of ten-foot measures inlength; and then, having surrounded with these a piece of ground, calledupon the king to stand by his promise. The king was much alarmed; buthis word had been pledged, and there was no alternative but to submit. So he allowed them to have the ground, charging a small ground-rent aswas the custom. But no sooner had the Fulanghis got the ground than theyput up houses and ramparts and arranged their fire-weapons (cannon) andengines of attack. Then, seizing their opportunity, they killed theking, drove out the people, and took possession of the country. "

It is scarcely credible that Chinese historians would have recorded suchan incident unless some trick of the kind had actually been carried outby the Spaniards, in imitation of the famous classical story of thefoundation of Carthage. 

A professional writer of marvellous tales who flourished in theseventeenth century tells a similar story of the early Dutch settlers:—

"Formerly, when the Dutch were permitted to trade with China, theofficer in command of the coast defences would not allow them, onaccount of their great numbers, to come ashore. The Dutch begged veryhard for the grant of a piece of land such as a carpet would cover; andthe officer above mentioned, thinking that this could not be very large, acceded to their request. A carpet was accordingly laid down, big enoughfor about two people to stand on; but by dint of stretching, it wassoon able to accommodate four or five; and so the foreigners went on, stretching and stretching, until at last it covered about an acre, andby and by, with the help of their knives, they had filched a piece ofground several miles in extent. "

 * * * * *

These two stories must have sprung from one and the same source. It isnot, however, always so simple a matter to see how other Westernincidents found their way into Chinese literature. For instance, thereis a popular anecdote to be found in a Chinese jest-book, which isalmost word for word with another anecdote in Greek literature:—

A soldier, who was escorting a Buddhist priest, charged with some crime, to a prison at a distance, being very anxious not to forget anything, kept saying over and over the four things he had to think about, viz. :himself, his bundle, his umbrella, and the priest. At night he gotdrunk, and the Buddhist priest, after first shaving the soldier's head, ran away. When the soldier awaked, he began his formula, "Myself, bundle, umbrella—O dear!" cried he, putting his hands to his head, "thepriest has gone. Stop a moment, " he added, finding his hands in contactwith a bald head, "here's the priest; it is I who have run away. "

 * * * * *

As found in Greek literature, the story, attributed to Hierocles, butprobably much later, says that the prisoner was a bald-headed man, acondition which is suggested to the Chinese reader by the introductionof a Buddhist priest. 

Whether the Chinese got this story from the Greeks, or the Greeks got itfrom the Chinese, I do not pretend to know. The fact is that we studentsof Chinese at the present day know very little beyond the vague outlinesof what there is to be known. Students of Greek have long since dividedup their subject under such heads as pure scholarship, history, philosophy, archæology, and then again have made subdivisions of these. In the Chinese field nothing of the kind has yet been done. Theconsequence is that the labourers in that field, compelled to work overa large superficies, are only able to turn out more or less superficialwork. The cry is for more students, practical students of the writtenand colloquial languages, for the purposes of diplomatic intercourseand the development of commerce; and also students of the history, philosophy, archæology, and religions of China, men whose contributionsto our present stock of knowledge may throw light upon many importantpoints, which, for lack of workmen, have hitherto remained neglected andunexplored. 

LECTURE V

TAOISM

TAOISM

China is popularly supposed to have three religions, —Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. 

The first is not, and never has been, a religion, being nothing morethan a system of social and political morality; the second is indeed areligion, but an alien religion; only the last, and the least known, isof native growth. 

The Chinese themselves get over the verbal difficulty by calling thesethe Three Doctrines. 

There have been, at various epochs, other religions in China, and somestill remain; the above, however, is the classification commonly in use, all other religions having been regarded up to recent times as devoid ofspiritual importance. 

Mahommedanism appeared in China in 628 A. D. , and is there to this day, having more than once threatened the stability of the Empire. 

In 631 the Nestorian Christians arrived, to become later on aflourishing sect, though all trace of them, beyond their famous Tablet, has long since vanished. 

It has also been established in recent years that the Zoroastrians, andsubsequently the Manichæans, were in China in these early centuries, but nothing now remains of them except the name, a specially inventedcharacter, which was equally applied to both. 

In the twelfth century the Jews had a synagogue at K'ai-fêng Fu, inCentral China, but it is not absolutely certain when they first reachedthe country. Some say, immediately after the Captivity; others put itmuch later. In 1850 several Hebrew rolls of parts of the Pentateuch, inthe square character, with vowel-points, were obtained from the abovecity. There were then no professing Jews to be found, but in recentyears a movement has been set on foot to revive the old faith. 

Roman Catholicism may be said to have existed in China since the closeof the sixteenth century, though there was actually an Archbishop ofPeking, Jean de Montecorvino, who died there in 1330. 

In the last year of the eighteenth century the first Protestantmissionary arrived. The first American missionaries followed in 1830. They found China, as it is now, nominally under the sway of the ThreeDoctrines. 

So much has been written on Confucianism, and so much more on Buddhism, that I propose to confine myself entirely to Taoism, which seems to haveattracted too little the attention of the general public. In fact, aquite recent work, which professes to deal among other things with thehistory of China, omits all discussion of this particular religion. 

Taoism is the religion of Tao; as to what Tao is, or what it means, weare told upon the highest authority that it is quite impossible to say. This does not seem a very hopeful beginning; but

 "even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea, "

and I shall therefore make an effort to set before you a clue, which, Itrust, will lead toward at any rate a partial elucidation of themystery. 

At some unknown period in remote antiquity, there appears to have liveda philosopher, known to posterity as Lao Tzŭ, who taught men, amongother things, to return good for evil. His parentage, birth, and lifehave been overloaded in the course of centuries with legend. Finally, heis said to have foreseen a national cataclysm, and to have disappearedinto the West, leaving behind him a book, now called the _Tao-Tê-Ching_, which, for many reasons, he could not possibly have written. 

The little we really know of Lao Tzŭ is gathered from traditionalutterances of his, scattered here and there in the works of laterdisciples of his school. Many of these sayings, though by no means allof them, with much other matter of a totally different character, havebeen brought together in the form of a treatise, and the heterogeneouswhole has been ascribed to Lao Tzŭ himself. 

Before proceeding with our examination of Tao, it is desirable to showwhy this work may safely be regarded as a forgery of a later age. 

Attempts have been made, by the simple process of interpolation inclassical texts, to prove that Lao Tzŭ lived in the same century as thatin which Confucius was born; and also that, when the former was a veryold man, the two sages met; and further that the interviews ended verymuch to the astonishment of Confucius. All this, however, has been setaside by the best native scholarship ever produced in China, as the workof later hands. 

Further, there was another philosopher of the same name, who really wascontemporary with Confucius, and it is held by many Chinese critics thatthe two have been confused, perhaps with malice aforethought. 

We can only say for certain that after Lao Tzŭ came Confucius—at whatinterval we do not know. Now, in all the works of Confucius, whether aswriter or as editor, and throughout all his posthumously publishedDiscourses, there is not a single word of allusion either to Lao Tzŭ orto this treatise. The alleged interviews have been left altogetherunnoticed. 

One hundred years after Confucius came Mencius, China's second sage. Inall his pages of political advice to feudal nobles, and all hisconversations with his disciples, much more voluminous than theDiscourses of Confucius, there is equally no allusion to Lao Tzŭ, nor tothe treatise. 

It has been pointed out by an eminent Chinese critic of the fifteenthand sixteenth centuries, that Mencius spent his life chiefly inattacking the various heterodox systems which then prevailed, such asthe extreme altruistic system of Mo Ti and the extreme egoistic systemof Yang Chu; and it is urged—in my opinion with overwhelming force—thatif the _Tao-Tê-Ching_ had existed in the days of Mencius, it mustnecessarily have been recognised and treated as a mischievous work, likely to alienate men's minds from the one perfect and orthodoxteaching—Confucianism. 

Chuang Tzŭ, a philosopher of the fourth century B. C. , devoted himself toelucidating and illuminating the teaching of Lao Tzŭ. His work, whichhas survived to the present day, will shortly occupy our attention. Forthe moment it is only necessary to say that it contains many of theMaster's traditional sayings, but never once mentions a treatise. 

In the third century B. C. There lived another famous Taoist writer, HanFei Tzŭ, who devotes the best part of two whole sections of his work toexplaining and illustrating the sayings of Lao Tzŭ. Yet he nevermentions the treatise. He deals with many sayings of Lao Tzŭ now to befound in the treatise, but he does not take them in the order in whichthey now stand, and he introduces several others which do not occur atall in the treatise, having apparently been overlooked by the compiler. 

In the second century B. C. There lived another famous Taoist writer, Huai-nan Tzŭ, who devotes a long chapter to illustrating the doctrinesof Lao Tzŭ. He never mentions a book. 

One hundred years B. C. Comes the historian Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien, whosebrilliant work, the first of the Dynastic Histories, I have already hadoccasion to bring to your notice. In his brief memoir of Lao Tzŭ, hedoes mention a book in five thousand and more characters; but hementions it in such a way as to make it clear beyond all doubt that hehimself could never have seen it; and moreover, in addition to the factthat no date is given, either of the birth or death of Lao Tzŭ, theaccount is so tinged with the supernatural as to raise a strongsuspicion that some part of it did not really come from the pen of thegreat historian. 

About two hundred years later appeared the first Chinese dictionary, already alluded to in a previous lecture. This work was intended as acollection of all the written characters known at date of publication;and we can well imagine that, with Lao Tzŭ's short treatise before him, there would be no difficulty in including all the words found therein. Such, however, is not the case. There are many characters in thetreatise which are not to be found in the dictionary, and in oneparticular instance the omission is very remarkable. 

Much other internal evidence against the genuineness of this work mighthere be adduced. I will content myself with a single, and a ludicrous, item, which shows how carelessly it was pieced together. 

Sentences occur in the _Tao-Tê-Ching_ which positively contain, inaddition to some actual words by Lao Tzŭ, words from a commentator'sexplanation, which have been mistaken by the forger for a part of LaoTzŭ's own utterance. 

Add to this the striking fact that the great mass of Chinese criticalscholarship is entirely adverse to the claims put forward on behalf ofthe treatise, —a man who believes in it as the genuine work of Lao Tzŭbeing generally regarded among educated Chinese as an amiable crank, much as many people now regard any one who credits the plays ofShakespeare to Lord Bacon, —and I think we may safely dismiss thequestion without further ado. 

It will be more interesting to turn to any sayings of Lao Tzŭ which wecan confidently regard as genuine; and those are such as occur in thewritings of some of the philosophers above-mentioned, from which theywere evidently collected by a pious impostor, and, with the aid ofunmistakable padding, were woven into the treatise, of which we may nowtake a long leave. 

Lao Tzŭ imagined the universe to be informed by an omnipresent, omnipotent Principle, which he called _Tao_. Now this word _Tao_ meansprimarily "a road, " "a way"; and Lao Tzŭ's Principle may therefore beconveniently translated by "the Way. "

Fearing, however, some confusion from the use of this term, thephilosopher was careful to explain that "the way which can be walkedupon is not the eternal Way. " But he never tells us definitely what theWay is. In one place he says it cannot find expression in words; inanother he says, "Those who know do not tell; those who tell do notknow. "

The latter saying was used by a famous poet as a weapon of ridiculeagainst the treatise. "If those who know, " he argued, "do not tell, howcomes it that Lao Tzŭ put his own knowledge into a book of five thousandand more words?"

We are assured, however, by Lao Tzŭ that "just as without going out ofdoors we can know the whole world, so without looking out of window wecan know the Way. "

Again we have, "Without moving, you shall know; without looking, youshall see; without doing, you shall achieve. "

Meanwhile, we are left to gather from isolated maxims some shadowy ideaof what Lao Tzŭ meant by the Way. 

It seems to have been a perpetual accommodation of self to one'ssurroundings, with the minimum of effort, all progress being spontaneousand in the line of least resistance. 

From this it is a mere step to doing nothing at all, the famous doctrineof Inaction, with all its paradoxes, which is really the criterion ofLao Tzŭ's philosophy and will be always associated with Lao Tzŭ's name. 

Thus he says, "Perfect virtue does nothing, and consequently there isnothing which it does not do. "

Again, "The softest things in the world overcome the hardest; that whichhas no substance enters where there is no crevice. "

"Leave all things to take their natural courses, and do not interfere. "

"Only he who does nothing for his life's sake can be truly said to valuehis life. "

"Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish, "—do not overdoit. Do not try to force results. The well-known Greek injunction, "notto go beyond one's destiny, " οὐκ ὑπὲρ μόρον, might well have fallen fromLao Tzŭ's lips. 

All this is the Way, which Lao Tzŭ tells us is "like the drawing of abow, —it brings down the high and exalts the low, " reducing all thingsto a uniform plane. 

He also says that if the Way prevails on earth, horses will be used foragricultural purposes; if the Way does not prevail, they will be usedfor war. 

Many of Lao Tzŭ's sayings are mere moral maxims for use in everydaylife. 

"Put yourself behind, and the world will put you in front; put yourselfin front, and the world will put you behind. "

"To the good I would be good; to the not-good I would also be good, inorder to make them good. "

All together, with the comparatively few scraps of Lao Tzŭ's wisdom tobe found in the treatise, we should be hard put to understand the valueof Tao, and still more to find sufficient basis for a philosophicalsystem, were it not for his disciple, Chuang Tzŭ, of the fourth centuryB. C. , who produced a work expanding and illustrating the Way of hisgreat Master, so rich in thought and so brilliant from a literary pointof view that, although branded since the triumph of Confucianism withthe brand of heterodoxy, it still remains a storehouse of currentquotation and a model of composition for all time. 

Let us go back to _Tao_, in which, Chuang Tzŭ tells us, man is born, asfishes are born in water; for, as he says in another place, there isnowhere where _Tao_ is not. But _Tao_ cannot be heard; heard, it is not_Tao_. It cannot be seen; seen, it is not _Tao_. It cannot be spoken;spoken, it is not _Tao_. Although it imparts form, it is itselfformless, and cannot therefore have a name, since form precedes name. 

The unsubstantiality of _Tao_ is further dwelt upon as follows:—

"Were _Tao_ something which could be presented, there is no man butwould present it to his sovereign or to his parents. Could it beimparted or given, there is no man but would impart it to his brotheror give it to his child. But this is impossible. For unless there is asuitable endowment within, _Tao_ will not abide; and unless there isoutward correctness, _Tao_ will not operate. "

It would seem therefore that _Tao_ is something which altogethertranscends the physical senses of man and is correspondingly difficultof attainment. Chuang Tzŭ comes thus to the rescue:—

"By absence of thought, by absence of cogitation, _Tao_ may be known. By resting in nothing, by according in nothing, _Tao_ may be approached. By following nothing, by pursuing nothing, _Tao_ may be attained. "

What there was before the universe, was _Tao_. _Tao_ makes things whatthey are, but is not itself a thing. Nothing can produce _Tao_; yeteverything has Tao within it, and continues to produce it without end. 

"Rest in Inaction, " says Chuang Tzŭ, "and the world will be good ofitself. Cast your slough. Spit forth intelligence. Ignore alldifferences. Become one with the Infinite. Release your mind. Free yoursoul. Be vacuous. Be nothing!"

Chuang Tzŭ lays especial emphasis on the cultivation of the natural asopposed to the artificial. 

"Horses and oxen have four feet; that is the natural. Put a halter on ahorse's head, a string through a bullock's nose; that is theartificial. "

"A drunken man who falls out of a cart, though he may suffer, does notdie. His bones are the same as other people's; but he meets his accidentin a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is notconscious of riding in the cart; neither is he conscious of falling outof it. Ideas of life, death, fear, etc. , cannot penetrate his breast;and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existences. And ifsuch security is to be got from wine, how much more is it to be got from_Tao_?"

The doctrine of Relativity in space and time, which Chuang Tzŭ deducesfrom Lao Tzŭ's teachings, is largely introduced by the disciple. 

"There is nothing under the canopy of Heaven greater than an autumnspikelet. A vast mountain is a small thing. The universe and I came intobeing together; and all things therein are One. 

"In the light of _Tao_, affirmative is reconciled with negative;objective is identified with subjective. And when subjective andobjective are both without their correlates, that is the very axis of_Tao_. And when that axis passes through the centre at which allinfinities converge, positive and negative alike blend into an infiniteOne. "

Thus, morally speaking, we can escape from the world and self, and canreverse and look down upon the world's judgments; while in thespeculative region we get behind and beyond the contradictions ofordinary thought and speech. A perfect man is the result. He becomes, asit were, a spiritual being. As Chuang Tzŭ puts it:—

"Were the ocean itself scorched up, he would not feel hot. Were theMilky Way frozen hard, he would not feel cold. Were the mountainsto be riven with thunder, and the great deep to be thrown up by storm, he would not tremble. In such case, he would mount upon the clouds ofHeaven, and driving the sun and moon before him, would pass beyond thelimits of this external world, where death and life have no more victoryover man. "

We have now an all-embracing One, beyond the limits of this world, andwe have man perfected and refined until he is no longer a prey toobjective existences. Lao Tzŭ has already hinted at "the Whence, and oh, Heavens, the Whither. " He said that to emerge was life, and to returnwas death. Chuang Tzŭ makes it clear that what man emerges from is sometranscendental state in the Infinite; and that to the Infinite he mayultimately return. 

"How, " he asks, "do I know that love of life is not a delusion afterall? How do I know that he who dreads to die is not like a child who haslost the way, and cannot find his home?

"Those who dream of the banquet wake to lamentation and sorrow. Thosewho dream of lamentation and sorrow wake to join the hunt. While theydream, they do not know that they dream. Some will even interpret thevery dream they are dreaming; and only when they awake do they know itwas a dream. By and by comes the Great Awakening, and then we find outthat this life is really a great dream. Fools think they are awake now, and flatter themselves they know if they are really princes or peasants. Confucius and you are both mere dreams; and I, who say you are dreams, —Iam but a dream myself. 

"Take no heed, " he adds, "of time, nor of right and wrong; but passinginto the realm of the Infinite, find your final rest therein. "

An abstract Infinite, however, soon ceased to satisfy the naturalcravings of the great body of Taoist followers. Chuang Tzŭ had alreadyplaced the source of human life beyond the limits of our visibleuniverse; and in order to secure a return thither, it was only necessaryto refine away the grossness of our material selves according to thedoctrine of the Way. It thus came about that the One, in whoseobliterating unity all seemingly opposed conditions were to beindistinguishably blended, began to be regarded as a fixed point ofdazzling intellectual luminosity, in remote ether, around which circledfor ever and ever, in the supremest glory of motion, the souls of thosewho had successfully passed through the ordeal of life, and who had leftthe slough of humanity behind them. 

Let me quote some lines from a great Taoist poet, Ssŭ-k'ung T'u, writtento support this view. His poem consists of twenty-four stanzas, eachtwelve lines in length, and each dealing with some well-known phase ofTaoist doctrine. 

 "Expenditure of force leads to outward decay, Spiritual existence means inward fulness. Let us revert to Nothing and enter the Absolute, Hoarding up strength for Energy. Freighted with eternal principles, Athwart the mighty void, Where cloud-masses darken, And the wind blows ceaseless around, Beyond the range of conceptions, Let us gain the Centre, And there hold fast without violence, Fed from an inexhaustible supply. "

In this, the first, stanza we are warned against taxing, or even using, our physical powers, instead of aiming, as we should, at a purelyspiritual existence, by virtue of which we shall ultimately be waftedaway to the distant Centre in the Infinite. 

 "Lo, the Immortal, borne by spirituality, His hand grasping a lotus-flower, Away to Time everlasting, Trackless through the regions of Space!"

These four lines from stanza v give us a glimpse of the liberated mortalon his upward journey. The lotus-flower, which the poet has placed inhis hand, is one of those loans from Buddhism to which I shall recur byand by. 

 "As iron from the mines, As silver from lead, So purify thy heart, Loving the limpid and clean. Like a clear pool in spring, With its wondrous mirrored shapes, So make for the spotless and true, And riding the moonbeam revert to the Spiritual. "

These eight lines from stanza vii, which might be entitled "Smelting, "show us the refining process by which spirituality is to be attained. 

Seclusion and abandonment of the artificial are also extolled in stanzaxv:—

 "Following our own bent, Let us enjoy the Natural, free from curb, Rich with what comes to hand, Hoping some day to be with the Infinite. To build a hut beneath the pines, With uncovered head to pore over poetry, Knowing only morning and eve, But not what season it may be . .. Then, if happiness is ours Why must there be Action? If of our own selves we can reach this point, Can we not be said to have attained?"

Utterances of this kind are responsible for the lives of many Taoisthermits who from time to time have withdrawn from the world, devotingthemselves to the pursuit of true happiness, on the mountains. 

 "After gazing abstractedly upon expression and substance, The mind returns with a spiritual image, As when seeking the outlines of waves, As when painting the glory of spring. The changing shapes of wind-swept clouds, The energies of flowers and plants, The rolling breakers of ocean, The crags and cliffs of mountains, All these are like mighty TAO, Skilfully woven into earthly surroundings . .. To obtain likeness without form Is not that to possess the man?"

This stanza means that man should become like the contour of waves, likethe glory of spring, —something which to a beholder is a mental image, without constant physical form or substance. Then motion supervenes; notmotion as we know it, but a transcendental state of revolution in theInfinite. This is the subject of stanza xxiv:—

 "Like a whirling water-wheel, Like rolling pearls, — Yet how are these worthy to be named? They are but adaptations for fools. There is the mighty axis of Earth, The never resting pole of Heaven; Let us grasp _their_ clue, And with _them_ be blended in One, Beyond the bounds of thought, Circling for ever in the great Void, An orbit of a thousand years, — Yes, this is the key to my theme. "

All that might be dignified by the name of pure Taoism ends here. Fromthis point the descent to lower regions is both easy and rapid. 

I am not speaking now in a chronological sense, but of the highestintellectual point reached by the doctrines of Taoism, which began todecline long before the writer of this poem, himself a pure Taoist ofthe tenth century, was born. 

The idea mentioned above, that the grosser elements of man's naturemight be refined away and immortality attained, seems to have suggestedan immortality, not merely in an unseen world, but even in this one, tobe secured by an imaginary elixir of life. Certain at any rate it is, that so far back as a century or so before the Christian era, the desireto discover this elixir had become a national craze. 

The following story is historical, and dates from about 200 B. C. :—

"A certain person having forwarded some elixir of immortality to thePrince of Ching, it was received as usual by the doorkeeper. 'Is this tobe swallowed?' enquired the Chief Warden of the palace. 'It is, ' repliedthe doorkeeper. Thereupon, the Chief Warden purloined and swallowed it. At this, the Prince was exceedingly angry and ordered his immediateexecution; but the Chief Warden sent a friend to plead for him, saying, 'Your Highness's servant asked the doorkeeper if the drug was to beswallowed, and as he replied in the affirmative, your servantaccordingly swallowed it. The blame rests entirely with the doorkeeper. Besides, if the elixir of life is presented to your Highness, andbecause your servant swallows it, your Highness slays him, that elixiris clearly the elixir of death; and for your Highness thus to put todeath an innocent official is simply for your Highness to be made thesport of men. ' The Prince spared his life. "

The later Taoist was not content with attempts to compound an elixir. Heinvented a whole series of physical exercises, consisting mostly ofpositions, or postures, in which it was necessary to sit or stand, sometimes for an hour or so at a time, in the hope of prolonging life. Such absurdities as swallowing the saliva three times in every two hourswere also held to be conducive to long life. 

There is perhaps more to be said for a system of deep breathing, especially of morning air, which was added on the strength of thefollowing passage in Chuang Tzŭ:—

"The pure men of old slept without dreams, and waked without anxiety. They ate without discrimination, breathing deep breaths. For pure mendraw breath from their uttermost depths; the vulgar only from theirthroats. "

A Chinese official with whom I became acquainted in the island ofFormosa was outwardly a Confucianist, but inwardly a Taoist of thedeepest dye. He used to practise the above exercises and deep breathingin his spare moments, and strongly urged me to try them. Apparently theywere no safeguard against malarial fever, of which he died about a yearor so afterward. 

Associated closely with the elixir of immortality is the practice ofalchemy, which beyond all doubt was an importation from Greece by way ofBactria. 

We read in the Historical Record, under date 133 B. C. , of a man whoappeared at court and persuaded the Emperor that gold could be made outof cinnabar or red sulphide of mercury; and that if dishes made of thegold thus produced were used for food, the result would be prolongationof life, even to immortality. He pretended to be immortal himself; andwhen he died, as he did within the year, the infatuated Emperorbelieved, in the words of the historian, "that he was only transfiguredand not really dead, " and accordingly gave orders to continue theexperiments. 

For many centuries the attempt to turn base metal into gold occupied aleading place in the researches of Chinese philosophers. Volumes havebeen written on the subject, and are still studied by a few. 

The best-known of these has been attributed to a Taoist hermit whoflourished in the second century A. D. , and was summoned to court, butrefused the invitation, being, as he described himself, a lowly man, living simply, and with no love for power and glory. The work inquestion was actually mistaken for a commentary on the _Book ofChanges_, mentioned in a former lecture, though it is in reality atreatise upon alchemy, and also upon the concoction of pills ofimmortality. It was forwarded to me some years ago by a gentleman inAmerica, with a request that I would translate it as a labour of love;but I was obliged to decline what seemed to me a useless task, especially as the book was really written by another man, of the samename as the hermit, who lived more than twelve hundred years later. 

The author is said to have ultimately succeeded in compounding thesepills of immortality, and to have administered one by way of experimentto a dog, which at once fell down dead. He then swallowed one himself, with the same result; whereupon his elder brother, with firm faith, andundismayed by what he saw before him, swallowed a third pill. The samefate overtook him, and this shook the confidence of a remaining youngerbrother, who went off to make arrangements for burying the bodies. Butby the time he had returned the trio had recovered, and were straightwayenrolled among the ranks of the immortals. 

As another instance of the rubbish in which the modern Taoist delightsto believe, I may quote the story of the Prince of Huai-nan, secondcentury B. C. , who is said, after years of patient experiment, to havefinally discovered the elixir of life. Immediately on tasting the drug, his body became imponderable, and he began to rise heavenward. Startledprobably by this new sensation, he dropped the cup out of which he hadbeen drinking, into the courtyard; whereupon his dogs and poultryfinished up the dregs, and were soon sailing up to heaven after him. 

It was an easy transition from alchemy and the elixir of life to magicand the black art in general. Those Taoists who, by their manner oflife, or their reputed successes in the above two fields of research, attracted public attention, came to be regarded as magicians or wizards, in communication with, and in control of, the unseen powers of darkness. The accounts of their combats with evil spirits, to be found in many ofthe lower-class novels, are eagerly devoured by the Chinese, who evennow frequently call in Taoist priests to exorcise some demon which issupposed to be exerting an evil influence on the family. 

As a specimen, there is a story of a young man who had fallen under theinfluence of a beautiful young girl, when he met a Taoist priest in thestreet, who started on seeing him, and said that his face showed signsthat he had been bewitched. Hurrying home, the young man found his doorlocked; and on creeping softly up to the window and looking in, he saw ahideous devil, with a green face and jagged teeth like a saw, spreadinga human skin on the bed, and painting it with a paint-brush. The devilthen threw aside the brush, and giving the skin a shake-out, just as youwould a coat, cast it over its shoulders, when lo! there stood the girl. 

The story goes on to say that the devil-girl killed the young man, ripping him open and tearing out his heart; after which the priestengaged in terrible conflict with her. Finally—and here we seem to besuddenly transported to the story of the fisherman in the _ArabianNights_—she became a dense column of smoke curling up from the ground, and then the priest took from his vest an uncorked gourd, and threw itright into the midst of the smoke. A sucking noise was heard, and thewhole column was drawn into the gourd; after which the priest corked itup closely, and carried it away with him. 

The search for the elixir of life was too fascinating to be readilygiven up. It was carried on with more or less vigour for centuries, aswe learn from the following Memorial to the Throne, dating from theninth century A. D. , presented by an aggrieved Confucianist:—

"Of late years the court has been overrun by a host of 'professors, ' whopretend to have the secret of immortality. 

"Now supposing that such beings as immortals really did exist—wouldthey not be likely to hide themselves in deep mountain recesses, farfrom the ken of man? On the other hand, persons who hang about thevestibules of the rich and great, and brag of their wonderful powers inbig words, —what are they more than common adventurers in search ofpelf? How should their nonsense be credited, and their drugs devoured?Besides, even medicines to cure bodily ailments are not to be swallowedcasually, morning, noon, and night. How much less, then, this poisonous, fiery gold-stone, which the viscera of man must be utterly unable todigest?"

Thus gradually Taoism lost its early simple characteristics associatedwith the name of Lao Tzŭ. The _Tao_ developed by Chuang Tzŭ, in thelight of which all things became one, paved the way for One ConcreteRuler of the universe; and the dazzling centre, far away in space, became the heaven which was to be the resting-place of virtuous mortalsafter death. Then came Buddhism, with its attractive ritual and itsmanifold consolations, and put an end once for all to the ancientglories of the teachings of Lao Tzŭ. 

The older text-books date the first appearance of Buddhism in China from67 A. D. , when in consequence of a dream the reigning Emperor sent amission to the West, and was rewarded by obtaining copies of parts ofthe Canon, brought to China by Kashiapmadunga, an Indian priest, who, after translating a portion into Chinese, fell ill and died. 

But we know now that Buddhist monks had already appeared in China soearly as 230 B. C. The monks were thrown into prison, but were said tohave been released in the night by an angel. 

Still, it was not until the third or fourth century of our era that thenew religion began to make itself appreciably felt. "When this cameabout, there ensued a long and fierce struggle between the Buddhists andthe Taoists, resulting, after alternating triumphs and defeats on bothsides, in that mutual toleration which obtains at the present day. 

Each religion began early to borrow from the other. In the words of thephilosopher Chu Hsi, of the eleventh century, "Buddhism stole the bestfeatures of Taoism; Taoism stole the worst features of Buddhism. It isas though one took a jewel from the other, and the loser recouped theloss with a stone. "

From Buddhism the Taoists borrowed their whole scheme of temples, priests, nuns, and ritual. They drew up liturgies to resemble theBuddhist _sûtras_; and also prayers for the dead. They adopted the ideaof a Trinity, consisting of Lao Tzŭ, the mythological Adam of China, and the Ruler of the Universe, before mentioned; and they furtherappropriated the Buddhist Purgatory with all its frightful terrors andtortures after death. 

Nowadays it takes an expert to distinguish between the temples andpriests of the two religions, and members of both hierarchies are oftensimultaneously summoned by persons needing religious consolation orceremonial of any kind. 

The pure and artless _Tao_ of Lao Tzŭ, etherealised by the loftyspeculations of Chuang Tzŭ, has long since become the vehicle of baseand worthless superstition. 

LECTURE VI

SOME CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

SOME CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

A foreigner arriving for the first time in China will be especiallystruck by three points to which he is not accustomed at home. 

The people will consist almost entirely of men; they will all wear theirhair plaited in queues; and they will all be exactly alike. 

The seclusion of women causes the traveller least surprise of the three, being a custom much more rigorously enforced in other Orientalcountries; and directly he gets accustomed to the uniform absence ofbeard and moustache, he soon finds out that the Chinese people are notone whit more alike facially than his own countrymen of the West. 

A Chinaman cannot wear a beard before he is forty, unless he happens tohave a married son. He also shaves the whole head with the exception ofa round patch at the back, from which the much-prized queue is grown. 

There are some strange misconceptions as to the origin and meaning ofthe queue, more perhaps on the other side of the Atlantic, where we arenot so accustomed to Chinamen as you are in America. Some associate thequeue with religion, and gravely state that without it no Chinaman couldbe hauled into Paradise. Others know that queues have only been worn bythe Chinese for about two hundred and fifty years, and that they wereimposed as a badge of conquest by the Manchu-Tartars, the present rulersof China. Previous to 1644 the Chinese clothed their bodies and dressedtheir hair in the style of the modern Japanese, —of course I mean thoseJapanese who still wear what is wrongly known as "the beautiful nativedress of Japan, "—wrongly, because as a matter of fact the Japaneseborrowed their dress, as well as their literature, philosophy, and earlylessons in art, from China. The Japanese dress is the dress of the Mingperiod in China, 1368-1644. 

It remains still to be seen whence and wherefore the Manchu-Tartarsobtained this strange fashion of the queue. 

The Tartars may be said to have depended almost for their very existenceupon the horse; and in old pictures the Tartar is often seen lyingcurled up asleep with his horse, illustrating the mutual affection anddependence between master and beast. Out of sheer gratitude and respectfor his noble ally, the man took upon himself the form of the animal, growing a queue in imitation of the horse's tail. 

Unsupported by any other evidence, this somewhat grotesque theory wouldfall to the ground. But there _is_ other evidence, of a rather strikingcharacter, which, taken in conjunction with what has been said, seems tome to settle the matter. 

Official coats, as seen in China at the present day, are made with verypeculiar sleeves, shaped like a horse's leg, and ending in what is anunmistakable hoof, completely covering the hand. These are actuallyknown to the Chinese as "horse-shoe sleeves"; and, encased therein, aChinaman's arms certainly look very much like a horse's forelegs. Thetail completes the picture. 

When the Tartars conquered China two hundred and fifty years ago, therewas at first a strenuous fight against the queue, and it has been saidthat the turbans still worn by the Southern Chinese were originallyadopted as a means of concealing the hateful Manchu badge. Nowadaysevery Chinaman looks upon his queue as an integral and honourable partof himself. If he cannot grow one, he must have recourse to art, for hecould not appear tailless, either in this world or the next. 

False queues are to be seen hanging in the streets for sale. They areusually worn by burglars, and come off in your hand when you think youhave caught your man. Prisoners are often led to, and from, gaol bytheir queues, sometimes three or four being tied together in a gang. 

False hair is not confined entirely to the masculine queue. Chineseladies often use it as a kind of chignon; and it is an historical factthat a famous Empress, who set aside the Emperor and ruled China with anElizabethan hand from A. D. 684 to 705, used to present herself in theCouncil Chamber, before her astonished ministers, fortified by anartificial beard. 

Dyeing the hair, too, has been practised in China certainly from theChristian era, if not earlier, chiefly by men whose hair and beardsbegin to grow grey too soon. One of the proudest titles of the Chinese, carrying them back as it does to prehistoric times, is that of theBlack-haired People, also a title, perhaps a mere coincidence, of theancient Accadians. In spite, however, of the universality of black hairin both men and women, there are exceptions to the rule, and I myselfhave seen a Chinese albino, with the usual light-coloured hair and pinkeyes. 

 * * * * *

The Rev. Dr. Arthur Smith, an American missionary, has long been knownfor his keen insight into the workings of the Chinese mind. In his lastbook, _China in Convulsion_, under the head of "Protestant Missions, " hemakes the following important statement, —important not only to thosewho intend to take part in missionary work, but also to the official, tothe explorer, and to the merchant:—

"It would be unfair, " he says, "not to point out that when a large bodyof Occidentals, imperfectly acquainted with the Chinese language, etiquette, modes of thought, and intellectual presuppositions, begins ona large and universal scale the preaching of an uncompromising system ofmorals and doctrines like Christianity, there must be much which, unconsciously to themselves, rouses Chinese prejudices. "

The following maxim comes from Confucius:—

"If you visit a foreign State, ask what the prohibitions are; if you gointo a strange neighbourhood, enquire what the manners and customs are. "Certainly it is altogether desirable that a foreigner going to China, whether in an official capacity, or as merchant, missionary, ortraveller, should have some acquaintance with the ordinary rules andceremonial of Chinese social life. Such knowledge will often go far tosmooth away Chinese prejudices against the barbarian, and on occasionsmight conceivably aid in averting a catastrophe. 

It is true that Lao Tzŭ said, "Ceremonies are but the veneer of loyaltyand good faith. " His words, however, have not prevailed against theteaching of Confucius, who was an ardent believer in the value ofceremonial. One of the latter's disciples wished, as a humanitarian, toabolish the sacrifice of a sheep upon the first day of every month; butConfucius rebuked him, saying, "My son, you love the sheep; I love theceremony. "

When, during his last visit to England, Li Hung-chang made remarksabout Mr. Chamberlain's eyeglass, he was considered by many to bewanting in common politeness. But from the Chinese point of view it wasMr. Chamberlain who was offending—quite unwittingly, of course—againstan important canon of good taste. It is a distinct breach of Chineseetiquette to wear spectacles while speaking to an equal. The Chineseinvariably remove their glasses when conversing; for what reason I havenever been able to discover. One thing is quite certain: they do notlike being looked at through a medium of glass or crystal, and it coststhe foreigner nothing to fall in with their harmless prejudice. 

Chinese street etiquette is also quite different from our own, a factusually ignored by blustering foreigners, who march through a Chinesetown as if the place belonged to them, and not infrequently complainthat coolies and others will not "get out of their way. " Now there isa graduated scale of Chinese street rights in this particular respect, to which, as being recognised by the Chinese themselves, it would beadvisable for foreigners to pay some attention. In England it hasbeen successfully maintained that the roadway belongs to all equally, foot-passengers, equestrians, and carriage-passengers alike. Not so inChina; the ordinary foot-passenger is bound to "get out of the way" ofthe lowest coolie who is carrying a load; that same coolie must makeway, even at great inconvenience to himself, for a sedan-chair; an emptychair yields the way to a chair with somebody inside; a chair, inasmuchas being more manageable, gets out of the way of a horse; and horse, chair, coolie, and foot-passenger, all clear the road for a wedding orother procession, or for the retinue of a mandarin. 

At the same time a Chinaman may stop his cart or barrow, or dump downhis load, just where-ever he pleases, and other persons have to make thebest of what is left of the road. I have even seen a theatrical stagebuilt right across a street, completely blocking it, so that all traffichad to be diverted from its regular course. There are no municipalregulations and no police in China, so that the people have to arrangethings among themselves; and, considering the difficulties inherent insuch an absence of government, it may fairly be said that they succeedremarkably well. 

When two friends meet in the street, either may put up his fan andscreen his face; whereupon the other will pass by without a sign ofrecognition. The meaning is simply, "Too busy to stop for a chat, " andthe custom, open and above-board as it is, compares favourably perhapswith the "Not at home" of Western civilisation. 

I do not know of any Chinese humorist who ever, as in the old story, shouted out to a visitor, "I am not at home. " Confucius himselfcertainly came very near to doing so. It is on record that when anunwelcome visitor came to call, the sage sent out to say that he was tooill to receive guests, at the same time seizing his harpsichord andsinging to it from an open window, in order to expose the hollowness ofhis own plea. 

Any one on horseback, or riding in a sedan-chair, who happens to meet afriend walking, must dismount before venturing to salute him. However toobviate the constant inconvenience of so doing, the foot-passenger is induty bound to screen his face as above; and thus, by a fiction whichdeceives nobody, much unnecessary trouble is saved. 

When two mandarins of equal rank find themselves face to face in theirsedan-chairs, those attendants among their retinues who carry theenormous wooden fans rush forward and insert these between the passingchairs, so that their masters may be presumed not to see each other andconsequently not be obliged to get out. 

No subordinate can ever meet a higher mandarin in this way; the formermust turn down some by-street immediately on hearing the approachinggong of his superior officer. A mandarin's rank can be told by thenumber of consecutive strokes on the gong, ranging from thirteen for aviceroy to seven for a magistrate. 

Take the case of a Chinese visitor. He should be received at the frontdoor, and be conducted by the host to a reception-room, the host beingcareful to see that the visitor is always slightly in advance. The actof sitting down should be simultaneous, so that neither party isstanding while the other is seated. If the host wishes to be veryattentive, he may take a cup of tea from his servant's hands and himselfarrange it for his guest. 

Here comes another most important and universal rule: in handinganything to, or receiving anything from, an equal both hands must beused. A servant should hand a cup of tea with both hands, except whenserving his master and a guest. Then he takes one cup in each hand, andhands them with the arms crossed. I was told that the crossing was inorder to exhibit to each the "heart, " _i. E. _ the palm, of the hand, intoken of loyalty. 

There is a curious custom in connection with the invariable cup of teaserved to a visitor on arrival which is often violated by foreigners, tothe great amusement of the Chinese. The tea in question, known asguest-tea, is not intended for ordinary drinking purposes, for whichwine is usually provided. No sooner does the guest raise the cup of teato his lips, or even touch it with his hand, than a shout is heard fromthe servants, which means that the interview is at an end and that thevisitor's sedan-chair is to be got ready. Drinking this tea is, in fact, a signal for departure. A host may similarly, without breach of goodmanners, be the first to drink, and thus delicately notify the guestthat he has business engagements elsewhere. 

Then again, it is the rule to place the guest at one's left hand, thoughcuriously enough this only dates from the middle of the fourteenthcentury, previous to which the right hand was the place of honour. 

Finally, when the guest takes his leave, it is proper to escort him backto the front door. That, at any rate, is sufficient, though it is notunusual to accompany a guest some part of his return journey. In fact, the Chinese proverb says, "If you escort a man at all, escort him allthe way. " This, however, is rhetorical rather than practical, somewhatafter the style of another well-known Chinese proverb, "If you bow atall, bow low. "

A Chinese invitation to dinner differs somewhat from a similarcompliment in the West. You will receive a red envelope containing ared card, —red being the colour associated with festivity, —on whichit is stated that by noon on a given day the floor will be swept, thewine-cups washed, and your host in waiting to meet your chariot. Lateron, a second invitation will arrive, couched in the same terms; andagain another on the day of the banquet, asking you to be punctual tothe minute. To this you pay no attention, but make preparations toarrive about 4 P. M. , previous to which another and more urgent summonsmay very possibly have been sent. All this is conventional, and theguests assemble at the same hour, to separate about 9 P. M. 

Women take no part in Chinese social entertainments except among theirown sex. It is not even permissible to enquire after the wife of one'shost. Her very existence is ignored. A man will talk with pleasure abouthis children, especially if his quiver is well stocked with boys. 

In this connection I may say that the position of women in China stillseems to be very widely misunderstood. Not only that, but a veryfrightful crime is alleged against the Chinese people as a commonpractice in everyday life, which, if not actually approved, meetseverywhere with toleration. 

I allude to the charge of infanticide, confined of course to girls, forit has not often been suggested that Chinese parents do away with such avaluable asset as a boy. 

Miss Gordon Cumming, the traveller, in her _Wanderings in China_, hasthe following impassioned paragraph in reference to her visit toNingpo:—

"The delicate fragrance (of the roses and honeysuckle), alas! cannotoverpower the appalling odours which here and there assail us, poisoningthe freshness of the evening breezes. 

"These are wafted from the Baby Towers, two of which we had to pass. These are square towers, with small windows, about twelve feet from theground, somewhat resembling pigeon-towers; these strange dove-cotes arebuilt to receive the bodies of such babies as die too young to havefully developed souls, and therefore there is no necessity to wastecoffins on them, or even to take the trouble of burying them in thebosom of mother earth. So the insignificant little corpse is handed overto a coolie, who, for the sum of forty _cash_, equal to about fivecents, carries it away, ostensibly to throw it into one of these towers;but if he should not choose to go so far, he gets rid of it somehow, —noquestions are asked, and there are plenty of prowling dogs ever on thewatch seeking what they may devour. To-day several poor uncoffined miteswere lying outside the towers, shrouded only in a morsel of oldmatting—apparently they had been brought by some one who had failed tothrow them in at the window ('about twelve feet from the ground'), inwhich, by the way, one had stuck fast!

"Some of these poor little creatures are brought here alive and left todie, and some of these have been rescued and carried to foundlinghospitals. The neighbourhood was so pestiferous that we could only pausea moment to look at 'an institution' which, although so horrible, is socharacteristic of this race, who pay such unbounded reverence to thepowerful dead who could harm them. Most of the bodies deposited here arethose of girl babies who have been intentionally put to death, but olderchildren are often thrown in. "

With regard to this, I will only say that I lived all together for overfour years within a mile or so of these Towers, which I frequentlypassed during the evening walk; and so far from ever seeing "severalpoor uncoffined mites lying outside the towers, shrouded only in amorsel of old matting, " which Miss Gordon Cumming has described, I nevereven saw one single instance of a tower being put to the purpose forwhich it was built, viz. : as a burying-place for the dead infants ofpeople too poor to spend money upon a grave. As for living childrenbeing thrown in, I think I shall be able to dispose of that statement alittle later on. Miss Gordon Cumming did not add that these towers arecleared out at regular intervals by a Chinese charitable society whichexists for that purpose, the bodies burnt, and the ashes reverentlyburied. 

Mrs. Bird-Bishop, the traveller, is reported to have stated at a publiclecture in 1897, that "one of the most distressing features of Chineselife was the contempt for women. Of eleven Bible-women whom she had seenat a meeting in China, there was not one who had not put an end to atleast five girl-babies. "

A Jesuit missionary has published a quarto volume, running to more than270 pages, and containing many illustrations of infanticide, and thejudgments of Heaven which always come upon those who commit this crime. 

Finally, if you ask of any Chinaman, he will infallibly tell you thatinfanticide exists to an enormous extent everywhere in China; and asthough in corroboration of his words, alongside many a pool in SouthChina may be found a stone tablet bearing an inscription to the effectthat "Female children may not be drowned here. " This would appear to endthe discussion; but it does not. 

To begin with, the Chinese are very prone to exaggerate, especially toforeigners, even their vices. They seem to think that some credit may beextracted from anything, provided it is on a sufficiently imposingscale, and I do not at all doubt the fact that eleven Bible-women toldMrs. Bird-Bishop that they had each destroyed five girl-babies. It isjust what I should have expected. I remember, when I first went to Amoy, it had been stated in print by a reckless foreigner that crucifixion ofa most horrible kind was one of the common punishments of the place. Onenquiring from the Chinese writer attached to the Consulate, the manassured me that the story was quite true and that I could easily see formyself. I told him that I was very anxious to do so, and promised him ahundred dollars for the first case he might bring to my notice. Threeyears later I left Amoy, with the hundred dollars still unclaimed. 

Further, those Chinese who have any money to spare are much given togood works, chiefly, I feel bound to add, in view of the recompensetheir descendants will receive in this world and they themselves in thenext; also, because a rich man who does nothing in the way of charitycomes to be regarded with disapprobation by his poorer neighbours. Such persons print and circulate gratis all kinds of religious tracts, against gambling, wine-drinking, opium-smoking, infanticide, and soforth; and these are the persons who set up the stone tabletsabove-mentioned, regardless whether infanticide happens to be practisedor not. 

Of course infanticide is known in China, just as it is known, too wellknown, in England and elsewhere. What I hope to be able to show is thatinfanticide is not more prevalent in China than in the Christiancommunities of the West. 

Let me begin by urging, what no one who has lived in China will deny, that Chinese parents seem to be excessively fond of all their children, male and female. A son is often spoken of playfully as a little dog, —apuppy, in fact; a girl is often spoken of as "a thousand ounces ofgold, " a jewel, and so forth. Sons are no doubt preferred; but is thatfeeling peculiar to the Chinese?

A great deal too much has been made of a passage in the _Odes_, whichsays that baby-sons should have sceptres to play with, whilebaby-daughters should have tiles. 

The allotment of these toys is not quite so disparaging as it seems. Thesceptre is indeed the symbol of rule; but the tile too has an honourablesignification, a tile being used in ancient China as a weight for thespindle, —and consequently as a symbol of woman's work in the household. 

Then, again, even a girl has a market value. Some will buy and rear themto be servants; others, to be wives for their sons; while nativefoundling hospitals, endowed by charitable Chinese, will actually pay asmall fee for every girl handed over them. 

It is also curious to note how recent careful observers have severaltimes stated that they can find no trace of infanticide in their ownimmediate districts, though they hear that it is extensively practisedin some other, generally distant, parts of the country. 

After all, it is really a question which can be decided inferentially bystatistics. 

Every Chinese youth, when he reaches the age of eighteen, has a sacredduty to perform: he must marry. Broadly speaking, every adult Chinamanin the Empire has a wife; well-to-do merchants, mandarins, and othershave subordinate wives, two, three, and even four. The Emperor hasseventy-two. This being the case, and granting also a widespreaddestruction of female children, it must follow that girls are born in anoverwhelmingly large proportion to boys, utterly unheard-of in any otherpart of the world. 

Are, then, Chinese women the down-trodden, degraded creatures we used toimagine Moslem women to be?

I think this question must be answered in the negative. The youngChinese woman in a well-to-do establishment is indeed secluded, in thesense that her circle is limited to the family and to mends of the samesex. 

From time immemorial it has been the rule in China that men and womenshould not pass things to one another, —for fear their hands mighttouch. A local Pharisee tried to entangle the great Mencius in hisspeech, asking him if a man who saw his sister-in-law drowning mightventure to pull her out. "A man, " replied the philosopher, "who failedto do so, would be no better than a wolf. "

The Chinese lady may go out to pay calls, and even visit temples forreligious purposes, unveiled, veils for women having been abolished inthe first years of the seventh century of our era. Only brides wear themnow. 

Girls are finally separated from boys at seven or eight years of age, when the latter go to school. 

Some say that Chinese girls receive no education. If so, what is theexplanation of the large educational literature provided expressly forgirls?

One Chinese authoress, who wrote a work on the education of women, complains that women can never expect more than ten years for theireducation, _i. E. _ the years between childhood and marriage. 

The fact is that among the literary classes girls often receive a faireducation, as witness the mass of poetry published by Chinese women. Oneof the Dynastic Histories was partly written by a woman. Her brother, who was engaged on it, died, and she completed his work. 

About the year 235 A. D. , women were actually admitted to official life, and some of them rose to important government posts. By the eighthcentury, however, all trace of this system had disappeared. 

The women of the poorer classes are not educated at all; nor indeed arethe men. Both sexes have to work as burden-carriers and field labourers;and of course in such cases the restrictions mentioned above cannot berigorously enforced. 

Women of the shopkeeper class often display great aptitude for business, and render invaluable assistance to their husbands. As in France, theyusually keep the cash-box. 

A mandarin's seal of office is his most important possession. If heloses it, he may lose his post. Without the seal, nothing can be done;with it, everything. Extraordinary precautions are taken whentransmitting new seals from Peking to the provinces. Every official sealis made with four small feet projecting from the four corners of itsface, making it look like a small table. Of these, the maker breaks offone when he hands the seal over to the Board. Before forwarding to theViceroy of the province, another foot is removed by the Board. A thirdis similarly disposed of by the Viceroy, and the last by the officialfor whose use it is intended. This is to prevent its employment by anyother than the person authorised. The seal is then handed over to themandarin's wife, in whose charge it always remains, she alone having thepower to produce it, or withhold it, as required. 

A Chinese woman shares the titles accorded to her husband. When thelatter is promoted, the title of the wife is correspondingly advanced. She also shares all posthumous honours, and her spirit, equally with herhusband's, is soothed by the ceremonies of ancestral worship. 

"Ancestral worship" is a phrase of ominous import, suggesting as it doesthe famous dispute which began to rage early in the eighteenth centuryand is still raging to-day. 

In every Chinese house stand small wooden tablets, bearing the names ofdeceased parents, grandparents, and earlier ancestors. Plates of meatand cups of wine are on certain occasions set before these tablets, in the belief that the spirits of the dead occupy the tablets andenjoy the offerings. The latter are afterward eaten by the family; butpious Chinese assert that the flavour of the food and wine has beenabstracted. Similar offerings are made once a year at the tombs wherethe family ancestors lie buried. 

The question now arises, Are these offerings set forth in the samespirit which prompts us to place flowers on graves, adorn statues, andhold memorial services?

If so, a Chinese convert to Christianity may well be permitted to embodythese old observances with the ceremonial of his new faith. 

Or do these observances really constitute worship? _i. E. _ are theofferings made with a view to propitiate the spirits of the dead, andobtain from them increase of worldly prosperity and happiness?

In the latter case, ministers of the Christian faith would of course bejustified in refusing to blend ancestral worship with the teachings ofChristianity. 

It would no doubt be very desirable to bring about a compromise, anddiscover some _modus vivendi_ for the Chinese convert, other than thatof throwing over Confucianism with all its influence for good, and ofsevering all family and social ties, and beginning life again as anoutcast in his own country; but I feel bound to say that in my opinionthese ancestral observances can only be regarded, strictly speaking, asworship and as nothing else. 

To return to the Chinese woman. She enjoys some privileges not shared bymen. She is exempt from the punishment of the bamboo, and, as a party toa case, is always more or less a source of anxiety to the presidingmagistrate. No Chinaman will enter into a dispute with a woman if he canhelp it, —not from any chivalrous feeling, but from a conviction that hewill surely be worsted in the end. 

If she becomes a widow, a Chinese woman is not supposed to marry again, though in practice she very often does so. A widow who remains unmarriedfor thirty years may be recommended to the Throne for some mark offavour, such as an honorary tablet, or an ornamental archway, to be putup near her home. It is essential, however, that her widowhood shouldhave begun before she was thirty years of age. 

Remarriage is viewed by many widows with horror. In my own family I onceemployed a nurse—herself one of seven sisters—who was a widow, and whohad also lost half the little finger of her left hand. The connectinglink between these two details is not so apparent to us as it might beto the Chinese. After her husband's death the widow decided that shewould never marry again, and in order to seal irrevocably her vow, sheseized a meat-chopper and lopped off half her finger on the spot. Thefinger-top was placed in her husband's coffin, and the lid was closed. 

This woman, who was a Christian, and the widow of a native preacher, hadlarge, _i. E. _ unbound, feet. Nevertheless, she bound the feet of heronly daughter, because, as she explained, it is so difficult to get agirl married unless she has small feet. 

Here we have the real obstacle to the abolition of this horrible custom, which vast numbers of intelligent Chinese would be only too glad to getrid of, if fashion did not stand in the way. 

There has been in existence now for some years a well-meaningassociation, known as the Natural Foot Society, supported by bothChinese and foreigners, with the avowed object of putting an end to thepractice of foot-binding. We hear favourable accounts of its progress;but until there is something like a national movement, it will not do tobe too sanguine. 

We must remember that in 1664 one of China's wisest and greatestEmperors, in the plenitude of his power issued an Imperial edictforbidding parents in future to bind the feet of their girls. Four yearslater the edict was withdrawn. 

The Emperor was K'ang Hsi, whose name you have already heard inconnection with the standard dictionary of the Chinese language andother works brought out under his patronage. A Tartar himself, unaccustomed to the sight of Tartar women struggling in such fetters, hehad no sympathy with the custom; but against the Chinese people, bandedtogether to safeguard their liberty of action in a purely domesticmatter, he was quite unable to prevail. 

Within the last few weeks another edict has gone forth, directed againstthe practice of foot-binding. Let us hope it will have a better fate. 

Many years ago the prefect of T'ai-wan Fu said to me, in the course ofan informal conversation after a friendly dinner, "Do you foreignersfear the inner ones?"—and on my asking what was meant, he told me thata great many Chinese stood in absolute awe of their wives. "_He_ does, "added the prefect, pointing to the district magistrate, a rathertruculent-looking individual, who was at the dinner-party; and the otherguests went into a roar of laughter. 

The general statement by the prefect is borne out by the fact that the"henpecked husband" is constantly held up to ridicule in humorousliterature, which would be quite impossible if there were no foundationof fact. 

I have translated one of these stories, trivial enough in itself, but, like the proverbial straw, well adapted for showing which way the windblows. Here it is:—

Ten henpecked husbands agreed to form themselves into a society forresisting the oppression of their wives. At the first meeting they weresitting talking over their pipes, when suddenly the ten wives, who hadgot wind of the movement, appeared on the scene. 

There was a general stampede, and nine of the husbands incontinentlybolted through another door, only one remaining unmoved to face themusic. The ladies merely smiled contemptuously at the success of theirraid, and went away. 

The nine husbands them all agreed that the bold tenth man, who had notrun away, should be at once appointed their president; but on coming tooffer him the post, they found that he had died of fright!

To judge by the following story, the Chinese woman's patience issometimes put to a severe test. 

A scholar of old was so absent-minded, that on one occasion, when he waschanging houses, he forgot to take his wife. This was reported toConfucius as a most unworthy act. "Nay, " replied the Master, "it isindeed bad to forget one's wife; but 'tis worse to forget one's self!"

Points of this kind are, no doubt, trivial, as I have said above, and may be regarded by many even as flippant; but the fact is that asuccessful study of the Chinese people cannot possibly be confined totheir classics and higher literature, and to the problem of their originand subsequent development where we now find them. It must embrace thelesser, not to say meaner, details of their everyday life, if we areever to pierce the mystery which still to a great extent surrounds them. 

In this sense an Italian student of Chinese, Baron Vitale, has gone sofar as to put together and publish a collection of Chinese nurseryrhymes, from which it is not difficult to infer that Chinese babies arevery much as other babies are in other parts of the world. 

And it has always seemed to me that the Chinese baby's father andmother, so far as the ordinary springs of action go, are very much of apattern with the rest of mankind. 

One reason why the Chinaman remains a mystery to so many is due, nodoubt, to the vast amount of nonsense which is published about him. 

First of all, China is a very large country, and from want of propermeans of communication for many centuries, there has been nothing likeextensive intercourse between North, South, East, West, and Central. Ofcourse the officials visit all parts of the Empire, as they aretransferred from post to post; but the bulk of the people never get farbeyond the range of their own district city. 

The consequence is that as regards manners and customs, while retainingan indelible national imprint, the Chinese people have drifted apartinto separate local communities; so that what is true of one part of thecountry is by no means necessarily true of another. 

The Chinese themselves say that manners, which they think are due toclimatic influences, change every thirty miles; customs, which theyattribute to local idiosyncrasies, change every three hundred miles. 

Now, a globe-trotter goes to Canton, and as one of the sights of thathuge collection of human beings, he is taken to shops, —there used to bethree, —where the flesh of dogs, fed for the purpose, is sold as food. 

He comes home, and writes a book, and says that the Chinese people liveon dogs' flesh. 

When I was a boy, I thought that every Frenchman had a frog forbreakfast. Each statement would be about equally true. In the north ofChina, dogs' flesh is unknown; and even in the south, during all myyears in China I never succeeded in finding any Chinaman who eithercould, or would, admit that he had actually tasted it. 

Take the random statement that any rich man condemned to death canprocure a substitute by payment of so much. So long as we believe stuffof that kind, so long will the Chinese remain a mystery for us, it beingdifficult to deduce true conclusions from false premises. 

As a matter of fact, that is, so far as my own observations go, theChinese people value life every whit as highly as we do, and asubstitute of the kind would be quite unprocurable under ordinarycircumstances. It is thinkable that some poor wretch, himself undersentence of death, might be substituted with the connivance of theofficials, to hoodwink foreigners; but even then the difficulties wouldbe so great as to render the scheme almost impracticable. 

For in China everything leaks out. There is none of that secrecynecessary to conceal and carry out such a plot. 

At any rate, the uncertainty which gathers around many of these pointsemphasises the necessity of more and more accurate scholarship inChinese, and more and more accurate information on the people of Chinaand their ways. 

How the latter article is supplied to us in England, you may judge fromsome extracts which I have recently taken from respectable daily andweekly newspapers. 

For instance, "China has only one hundred physicians to a population offour hundred millions. "

To me it is inconceivable how such rubbish can be printed, especiallywhen it is quite easy to find out that there is no medical diploma inChina, and that any man who chooses is free to set up as a doctor. 

By a pleasant fiction, he charges no fees; a fixed sum, however, is paidto him for each visit, as "horse-money, "—I need hardly add, in advance. 

There are, as with us, many successful, and consequently fashionable, doctors whose "horse-money" runs well into double figures. Their successmust be due more to good luck and strictly innocent prescriptions thanto any guidance they can find in the extensive medical literature ofChina. 

All together, medicine is a somewhat risky profession, as failure tocure is occasionally resented by surviving relatives. 

There is a story of a doctor who had mismanaged a case, and was seizedby the patient's family and tied up. In the night he managed to freehimself, and escaped by swimming across a river. When he got home, hefound his son, who had just begun to study medicine, and he said to him, "Don't be in a hurry with your books; the first and most important thingis to learn to swim!"

Here is another newspaper gem: "In China, the land of opposites, thedials of the clocks are made to turn round, while the hands standstill. "

Personally, I never noticed this arrangement. 

Again: "Some of the tops with which the Chinese amuse themselves are aslarge as barrels. It takes three men to spin one, and it gives off asound that may be heard several hundred yards away. "

"The Chinese National Anthem is so long that it takes half a day to singit. "

"Chinese women devote very little superfluous time to hair-dressing. Their tresses are arranged once a month, and they sleep with their headsin boxes. "

What we want in place of all this is a serious and systematicexamination of the manners and customs, and modes of thought, of theChinese people. 

Their long line of Dynastic Histories must be explored and theirliterature ransacked by students who have got through the early years ofdrudgery inseparable from the peculiar nature of the written language, and who are prepared to devote themselves, not, as we do now, to ageneral knowledge of the whole, but to a thorough acquaintance with someparticular branch. 

The immediate advantages of such a course, as I must point out oncemore, for the last time, to commerce and to diplomatic relations will beincalculable. And they will be shared in by the student of history, philosophy, and religion, who will then for the first time be able toassign to China her proper place in the family of nations. 

The founder of this Chinese Chair has placed these advantages within thegrasp of Columbia University. 

INDEX

INDEX

 _Account of Strange Nations_, book in Cambridge collection, 58. 

 Albinos, Chinese, 181. 

 Alchemy, Taoist practice, 166-168. 

 _Analects_, Confucian Canon, 42. 

 Ancestral worship, China, 199-201. 

 Ancestry of Chinese traced through mother in ancient times, 27. 

 Ancient Greece, _see_ Greece. 

 "And, " idea in Chinese written character, 28. 

 Archæology— Chinese dictionaries and work, 120. Confucian Canon, archæological works referring to, 43. "Ark, " erroneous analysis of Chinese written character, 34. 

 Athenian and Chinese women, points of resemblance, 121. 

 Baby Towers, Chinese infanticide, 190-192. 

 Bactria— Alchemy, practice imported into China, 166 Mission of Chang Ch'ien, 130-131

 Bamboo tables, style of Chinese writing, 26

 Biographies— _Historical Record_, 46-47. National and private records, 49-50. 

 _Biographies of Eminent Women_, description, 50. 

 Bird-Bishop, Mrs. , statement as to infanticide, 192, 193. 

 Black art, Taoism, 168-170. 

 Black-haired People, title of Chinese, 181. 

 _Book of Changes_, Confucian Canon, 40. 

 _Book of History_, Confucian Canon, 41. 

 _Book of Odes, see Odes_. 

 _Book of Music_, Confucian Canon, 42. 

 _Books of Rites_, Confucian Canon, 42. 

 Books, Chinese, _see_ Library, Cambridge University. 

 Buddhism in China— Borrowing from Tao, 172. Buddhist priest anecdote, 138. Cambridge collection, Buddhist works, 44. Date of appearance, 171, 172. Struggle with Taoism, 172. 

 Burning of the Books, 44, 129. 

 Butchers, tax on, resisted, 93-95. 

 Calendars, Greek and Chinese, similarities, 129. 

 Cambridge University library, _see_ Library. 

 Canon, _see_ Confucian Canon. 

 Canton— Dogs' flesh shops, 207. Riot, 1880, 99-101. 

 Catalogue of books in Imperial Library, China, 69-70. 

 Ceremonies, valued by Confucius, 182. 

 Chamberlain, J. , eyeglass remarked on by Li Hung-chang, 182-183. 

 Chang Ch'ien, mission to Bactria, 130-131. 

 Chang Chih-tung, viceroy, bridge incident, 97. 

 Changes, Book of, Confucian Canon, 40. 

 Charities, Chinese, 193-194. 

 Characters of Chinese language, _see_ Language. 

 Ch'ien Lung, Emperor, catalogue enterprise, 69. 

 Children— Fondness of parents for, 194. Girls, _see that title_. Infanticide, _see that title_. Nursery rhymes published by Baron Vitale, 206. Toys, passage in the _Odes_, 195. 

 China— Albinos, 181. Alchemy, 166-168. Ancestral worship, 199-201. Ancestry traced through mother in ancient times, 27. Anecdote, Grecian, in Chinese jest-book, 138. Archæology, _see that title_. Bactria, _see that title_. Biographies, _see that title_. Black art, 168-170. Buddhism, _see that title_. Burning of the Books, 44, 129. Calendars, Grecian characteristics, 129. Cambridge University library, _see_ Library. Canton, _see that title_. Chang Ch'ien, mission to Bactria, 130-131. Charities, 193-194. Children, _see that title_. City sights resembling Grecian, 122-124. Clocks, _see that title_. Columbia University, endowment of Chinese chair, 4, 37, 211. Combination, 92. Confucius _and_ Confucian Canon, _see those titles_. Counting board, likeness to Grecian, 128. Crucifixion, alleged punishment, 193. "Crying one's wrongs, " 101-102. Customs varying with places, 207. Dictionaries, _see that title_. Diplomatists, _see_ Statesmen. Doctors, "horse-money, " etc. , 209-210. Dogs' flesh, Canton shops, 207. Drama, _see_ Plays. Dress, _see that title_. Dutch settlement, story of, 137. Dynasties and Dynastic histories, _see those titles_. Education, _see that title_. Elixir of life, 163-170. Emperors, _see that title_. Encyclopædias, _see that title_. Entertainments, Grecian points of contact, 126. Erroneous ideas of Chinese life, 189-210. Etiquette, _see that title_. Exaggeration, fault of Chinese, 193. Execution substitutes, erroneous idea, 208. Eyeglasses, _see that title_. Facial differences of Chinese, 177. First impressions of foreigners, 177. Foot-binding, _see that title_. Games, Grecian similarities, 126. Girls, _see that title_. Government, _see that title_. Greek influence, _see_ Greece. Guests, _see_ Visitors. Hair, _see that title_. Han Yü, great works of, 117. Hankow military riot, 1882, 97. "Heavenly horse", 131-133. "Henpecked husbands", 204. History, _see that title_. Horses, _see that title_. House, Greek characteristics, 120-121. Huai-nan, Prince of, _see that title_. Immortality, _see that title_. Infanticide, _see that title_. Ivory carvings, Grecian resemblances, 124-125. Jesuits in China, _see that title_. Jews, 144. Jugglers similar to Grecian, 124. Justice, _see that title_. K'ang Hsi, Emperor, _see that title_. Kiangsu riot, 99. Language, _see that title_. Lao Tzŭ, _see_ Taoism. Library, Cambridge University, _see that title_. Library, Imperial, catalogue, 69-70. Li Hung-chang, _see that title_. "Lion, " word for, 23, 133. Literary qualities of nation, 72. Literature, _see that title_. Magic, _see that title_. Magistrates, _see that title_. Mahommedanism, 143. Manchus, imprisonment, 1891, people's fury, 98. Mandarin language _and_ Mandarins, _see those titles_. Manichæans, 144. Marriage customs, _see that title_. Mencius, _see that title_. Mental and moral training, relative values of Greek and Chinese, 109-119. Mirrors, ancient Chinese and Greek, 132-133. Murder, conviction for, illustrations, 103-106. Music, _see that title_. Mystery—the Chinaman a mystery, 206, 208. Nestorian Christians, 143. Newspaper extracts, 209-210. Novels, 61-62. Official coats, "horse-shoe sleeves, " 179. Official positions, _see that title_. Olive, Greek and Chinese associations, 128. Opposites—China regarded as land of opposites, 119, 210. Penal code, 56, 87-88. Personal freedom, 87-88. Plays, _see that title_. Poetry, _see that title_. Population, vastness of, 3. Portrait-painting, _see that title_. Protestant missionaries, 144. Puppet shows, alleged origin, 123. Quails, fighting, common custom in Greece and China, 126. Queue _see that title_. Readers, professional, 61. Religions, _see that title_. Rhyme, 67-68. Riots—people's self-government, 97-101. Rip Van Winkle, story of, 55. Roman Catholicism, 144. _Romance of Three Kingdoms_, novel, 61-62. Self-government, illustrations, 69-106. Self-taxation, _see_ Taxation. Senior Classics _see that title_. Social life, knowledge of, 181-182. Spanish seizure of islands, method of, 136. Statesmen, _see that title_. Statutes of present dynasty, 56. Story-tellers, 61, 123. Street etiquette and rights, 183-186. Study of Chinese affairs— Advantages of study, 140, 211. Columbia University endowment, 4, 37, 211. Language, _see that title_. People, study of, 205-206. Recent growth of study, 3. Students needed, 139, 208, 211. Taoism, _see that title_. Taxation _see that title_. Viceroys, 76, 82, 83. Visitors, _see that title_. Water-clocks, Grecian, 128. Watermelon, term for, Greek origin, 134. Wên T'ien-hsiang, influence of Chinese literature and training on, 113-116. Western incidents in literature, 135-139. Widows, 201-202. Wine, introduction of grape-wine, 131. Wine-drinking, _see that title_. Women, _see that title_. Wuchang bridge incident, 97. Zebra, picture of, in ancient Chinese book, 59. Zoroastrians in, 144. 

 Christians, Nestorian, in China, 143. 

 Christianity and ancestral worship in China, 109-201. 

 Chuang Tzŭ, Taoist writer, 148, 154-160, 165, 171. 

 Chu Hsi, commentary, 43. 

 Chung-king, tax on pigs resisted, 93-95. 

 Circuits, division of provinces into, 76, 83. 

 Classics, study of, relative values of Chinese and Greek training, 109-119. 

 Clocks, Chinese— Newspaper extract, 210. Water-clocks, Grecian and Chinese, 128. 

 Coats, official, "horse-shoe sleeves, " 179. 

 Colloquial language, _see_ Language. 

 Columbia University, endowment of Chinese chair, 4, 37, 211. 

 Combination against taxation, 92. 

 Commentaries, Confucian Canon, 43. 

 Commissioners, provincial government, 81. 

 Concordance to phraseology of Chinese literature, 65-69. 

 Confucian Canon, Cambridge University Library— _Analects_, 42. Archæological works, 43. _Book of Changes_, 40. _Book of History_, 41. _Book of Music_, 42. _Book of Odes_, _see Odes_. _Book of Rites_, 42. Commentaries, 43. Conversations of Mencius with disciples, 42. _Doctrine of the Mean_, 42. Five Classics, 40-42. Four Books, 42. _Great Learning_, 42. _Spring and Autumn_, 41. 

 Confucius— Acquaintance with Lao Tzŭ alleged, 146-147. Confucian Canon, _see that title_. Maxims and sayings, 182, 205. Unwelcome visitor anecdote, 185. Value of ceremonial, 182. 

 Counting-board, Chinese, likeness to Grecian, 128. 

 Crucifixion, alleged punishment in China, 193. 

 "Crying one's wrongs, " 101-102. 

 Cumming, Miss G. —infanticide in China, 189-192. 

 Dialects, Chinese language, 6-10. 

 Dice games in Greece and China, 126. 

 Dictionaries, Chinese— Cambridge library collection— Concordance to phraseology, 65-69. Hsü Shên, work of, 63-64. Modern standard dictionary, 64-65. Encyclopædias, _see that title_. Lao Tzŭ's treatise, characters not found in dictionary, 149-150. 

 Dinner, invitation to, 188. 

 Diplomatists, _see_ Statesmen. 

 Doctors, Chinese, "horse-money, " etc. , 209-210. 

 _Doctrine of the Mean_, Confucian Canon, 42. 

 Doctrines, _see_ Religions. 

 Dogs' flesh, Canton shops, 207. 

 Drama, _see_ Plays. 

 Drawing, chapters on, in Chinese encyclopædia, 53. 

 Dress, Chinese— Official coats, 179. Veils for women, abolition of, 197. 

 Dress, Japanese, misconception as to, 178. 

 Dutch settlement in China, story of, 137. 

 Dyeing the hair, practice of, 180. 

 Dynastic histories— Cambridge collection— Biographies, _see that title_. Edition of 1747, 45. Encyclopædias, _see that title_. _Historical Record, see that title_. _Mirror of History_, by Tsŭma Kuang. Penal Code, 56. _Record in Dark Blood_, 57. Reprints, 55. Statutes of present dynasty, 56. "Veritable Record", 48. Woman's work, 197. 

 Dynasties of China— Histories, _see_ Dynastic histories. History compilation custom, 47. Ming dynasty, _see that title_. Statutes of present dynasty, 56. 

 Education— Value of, 72, 79 Women, 197-198. 

 Elixir of life, Taoist doctrine, 163, 170. 

 Emperors of China— Ch'ien Lung, catalogue enterprise, 69. Government of the Emperor, 75. K'ang Hsi, _see that title_. Ming dynasty, character and end of last Emperor, 117-119. 

 Encyclopædias, Cambridge collection, 51-54. Arrangement, 54. Drawing, chapters on, 53. Portrait-painting topic, 53. _San T'sai Tu Hui_, 52-53. [_See also_ Dictionaries. ]

 England, Cambridge University library, _see_ Library. 

 English—"pidgin" English, 17. 

 Entertainments, Chinese and Grecian, 126-127. 

 Etiquette— Glasses, removal when conversing, 183. Street etiquette, 183-186. Visitors, _see that title_. 

 Exaggeration, Chinese, 193. 

 Execution substitutes, erroneous idea, 208. 

 Eyeglasses— Chamberlain's, J. , remarks by Li Hung-chang, 182-183. Chinese etiquette, removal of spectacles, 183. 

 _Family Library_, Chinese reprints. 

 Fay, Miss, student of Chinese, 6. 

 Fielde, Miss, student of Chinese, 6. 

 Finance commissioner, provincial official, 81. 

 Five Classics, Confucian Canon, 40-42. 

 Foot-binding— Edicts prohibiting, 203. Fashion, obstacle to abolition, 202. 

 Fulangbis, seizure of islands from China, 136. 

 Fusang, account of, in Chinese book, 58. 

 Games, Chinese, similarity to Grecian, 126. 

 Geography, Chinese, Cambridge collection, 57. 

 Girls— Education, 197. Foot-binding, _see that title_. Market value, 195. [_See also_ Women]

 Glasses, _see_ Eyeglasses. 

 "God, " analysis of Chinese written character, 33. 

 Government— Circuits, 76, 83. "Crying one's wrongs, " 101-103. Dynasties, _see that title_. Emperors, _see that title_. Headboroughs, 77-78. Justice, _see that title_. Magistrates, _see that title_. Mandarins, _see that title_. Mencius, quotations from, 84-87. Ming dynasty, _see that title_. Official positions, _see that title_. Penal Code, 56, 87-88. Prefectures, 76, 83. Provincial government, _see that title_. Scale of governors, 78. Self-government illustrations, 96-106. Viceroys, 76, 82, 83. 

 Governors of provinces, 76, 83. 

 Grain commissioner, provincial official, 81. 

 Granville, Lord, influence of the classics on, 112. 

 Grammar, Chinese, absence of, 10. 

 Grape-wine introduced into China, 131. 

 _Great Learning_, Confucian Canon, 42. 

 Greece, ancient Greece and China— Archæology, Greek and Chinese, 120. Bactria, _see that title_. Buddhist priest anecdote in Chinese jest-book, 188. Calendars, 129. City sights in China, 123-124. Classics, relative values of Chinese and Greek training, 109-119. Coincidences between Chinese and Greek civilisations, 120-139. Counting-board, 128. Entertainments, 126-127. Games, 126. "Heavenly horse, " 131, 133. House, Chinese, Greek characteristics, 120-131. Ivory carvings, 124-125. Language, terms of abuse, 124. Literatures of China and western nations, analogies, 135-139. Marriage, similar customs, 122. Mirrors, 132-133. Music, 129. Olives, 128. Plays, 125-126. Quails, fighting, 126. Question of Greek influence, 130-133. Water-clock, 128. Wine-drinking, 126-127. Women, points of resemblance, 121-122. Words, Chinese, Greek origin, 133-135. 

 "Guess-fingers, " game of, common to Greece and China, 126. 

 Guests, _see_ Visitors. 

 Hair— Black-haired People, title of Chinese, 181. Dyeing, 180. False hair, 180. Queue, _see that title_. 

 Han Fei Tzŭ, writer on Taoism, 148. 

 Hangchow tea strike, 95. 

 Hankow military riot, 1882, 97. 

 Han Yü, statesman, great works of, 117. 

 Headboroughs, government of Chinese boroughs, 77-78. 

 "Heavenly horse, " origin of, 131, 133. 

 Hebrews in China, 144. 

 "Henpecked husbands, " 204. 

 _Historical Record_— Alchemy, 166. Sketch of contents, 45-47. 

 History— B. C. , 130. _Book of History_, Confucian Canon, 41. Dynastic histories, _see that title. _ _Mirror of History_, 49. 

 Holland—story of Dutch settlement in China, 137. 

 "Horse-money, " Chinese doctors' fees, 209. 

 Horses— "Heavenly horse, " 131, 133. Official coats, "horse-shoe sleeves, " 179. Respect for, origin of queue, 179. 

 House, Chinese, Greek characteristics, 120-121. 

 Hsü Shên dictionary, 63-64. 

 Huai-nan, Prince of— Discovery of elixir of life, 168. Taoist writings, 149. 

 Husbands, "henpecked, " 204. 

 Immortality, Taoist doctrine— Elixir of life, 163-170. Memorial of aggrieved Confucianist, 170. Pills of immortality concocted, effect of, 167. 

 Imperial Library catalogue, 69-70. 

 Imperial statutes, present Chinese dynasty, 56. 

 Inaction, doctrine of, Lao Tzŭ's philosophy, 152, 156. 

 Infanticide— Baby Towers, 190-192. Bird-Bishop, Mrs. , statement of, 192, 193. Chinese exaggeration, 192-193. Cumming, Miss G. , writings of, 189-192. Drowning children in pools, 192-193. Jesuit writings, illustrations, 192. Market value of girls, 195. Negative argument, 193-195. [See also _Children. _]

 Intendant of circuit, official, 76, 83. 

 Invitation to dinner, 188. 

 Ivory carvings, Greek and Chinese, 124-125. 

 Japan— Dress, misconception as to, 178. Language, absence of terms of abuse, 124. 

 Jebb, Sir K. , influence of the classics in mental training, case of Lord Granville, 109-113. 

 Jesuits in China— Infanticide illustrations in writings, 192. Music of Greeks borrowed from Chinese, alleged, 129. Translation of Chinese character into "ark, " 34. 

 Jews in China, 144. 

 Jugglers, Chinese and Grecian, 124. 

 Justice— Administration of, 102-104. Commissioner of, 81. 

 K'ang Hsi, Emperor— Dictionary and phrase-concordance ordered, 64, 65. Foot-binding prohibited by, 203. 

 Kiangsu riot, 99. 

 Language, Chinese— Colloquial— Coupling of words, 20. Dialects, number and distinction of, 6-10. Lack of vocables, 17-21. Mandarin, _see that title_. Monosyllables, incapable of inflection, 10-17. Rhyme, 67-68. Simpleness of study, 4-5. Suffixes, 21. Tenses, 13-15. Tones, _see that title_. Dialects, number and distinction of, 6-10. Dictionaries, _see that title_. Grammar, absence of, 10. Greek words, 133-135. "Lion, " word for, 23, 133. Mandarin language, _see that title_. "Pidgin" English, 17. Study of— Advantages and objects of study, 107. Relative values of Chinese and Greek, 109. Students of Chinese wanted, 139. Women students—Misses Fay and Fielde, 6. Terms of abuse, 124. Tones, _see that title_. Written— Bamboo tablets, 26. Conjunction "and, " 28. Difficulty of study, 5-6. Errors in analysis of words, 33-35. Non-application of rule in cases, 32. Number of words, 18, 19. Origin and development, 25-32. Paper, invention of, 26. Parts of written characters, 22-28. Phonetic basis and indicator, 29-36. Hsü Shên dictionary, 63-64. Modern standard dictionary, 64-65. Pictures of words and ideas, 25-28. Uniformity all over China, 22. 

 Language, Japanese, absence of terms of abuse, 124. 

 Lao Tzŭ, _see_ Taoism. 

 Library, Cambridge University, collection of Chinese books— Account of strange nations, 58. Binding of volumes, etc. , 40. Biographies, _see that title_. Buddhist works, 44. Catalogue of Imperial Chinese Library, 69-70. Collection of the books, 39. Concordance to phraseology of all literature, 65-69. Confucian Canon, _see that title_. Dictionaries, _see that title_. Division A, 40-44. Division B, 45-57. Division C, 47-60. Division D, 60-63. Division E, 63. Dynastic histories, _see that title_. Encyclopædias, _see that title_. Geography of the Empire, 57. Historical collection, _see_ Dynastic histories. Illustrated books—notices of Senior Classics of Ming dynasty, 70-71. Novels, 61-62. Number of volumes, 40. Oldest printed book in the library, 58. Plays, 62-63. Poetry, 60. Reference works, 63. Reprints, 55. T'ai-p'ing rebels, pamphlets, 56. Taoist writings, 44. Topographies, 57-30. 

 Library, Imperial, China, catalogue, 69-70. 

 Life, elixir of, Taoist doctrine, 163-170. 

 Li Hung-chang— Diplomatic abilities, 112. Remark on Mr. Chamberlain's eyeglass, 182-183. 

 _Likin_, self-taxation of Chinese, 89-90. 

 "Lion, " Chinese word for, 23, 133. 

 Literary qualities of Chinese nation, 72. 

 Literature, Chinese— Cambridge University library, _see_ Library. Concordance to phraseology, 65-69. Relative values of Chinese and Greek in mental and moral training, 109-119. Western incidents in, 133-139. 

 Liu Hsiang, _Biographies of Eminent Women_, 50. 

 Luzon (Philippines), Spanish seizure, 136. 

 Magic— Jugglers, Chinese and Grecian, 124. Taoist black art, 168-170. 

 Magistrates— Advancement in ranks, 78. Deputy official, test of, 79-80. Division of prefectures into magistracies, 76. Duties, 80. Expenses of education no obstacle, 79. Income, 82-83. Law experts in offices, 56. Real rulers of China, 78. 

 Mahommedanism in China, 143. 

 Manchus, imprisonment, 1891, people's fury, 98. 

 Mandarin language— Importance of "official language, " 7-10. Sounds for conveyance of speech, lack of, 17-21. Study of, 10-21. [_See also_ Language. ]

 Mandarins— Meeting in street, 186. Seal of office, 198-199. 

 Manichæans in China, 144. 

 Marriage customs— Grecian customs, similarity of, 122. Widows, 201-202. Wives, number of, 196. 

 Mencius— Attacks on heterodox systems, 147. Conversations with disciples, book of Confucian Canon, 42. Lao Tzŭ, no allusion to, in writings, 147. Quotations from, 84-87, 196-197. 

 Ming dynasty— Emperor, character and end of last Emperor, 117-119. History, quotations, 136. Overthrow, 118-119. Senior Classics, illustrated books, 70-71. 

 _Mirror of History_, by Ssŭ-ma Kuang, 49. 

 Mirrors, ancient Chinese and Greek, 132-133. 

 Missionaries, Protestant, in China, 144. 

 Monosyllables, Chinese language, incapable of inflection, 10-17. 

 Murder, conviction for, illustrations, 103-106. 

 Music— _Book of Music_, Confucian Canon, 42. Burning of the Books, music destroyed, 129. Greek characteristics, 129. 

 Nestorian Christians in China, 143. 

 Netherlands—story of Dutch settlement in China, 137. 

 Novels, Chinese, 61-62. 

 Odes, Book of, Confucian Canon, 41. Mirrors mentioned in, 132. Standard of rhyme, 67. Toys of boy and girl babies, 195. 

 Official coats, "horse-shoe sleeves, " 179. 

 Official positions in China— Law experts in offices of judge of criminal cases, 56. Senior Classics, _see that title_. Value of, 72. Women once admitted to, 198. [_See also_ Government. ]

 Olives, Greek and Chinese associations, 128. 

 Opposites, China regarded as land of, 119, 210. 

 Painting the face, custom of Chinese and Grecian women, 122. 

 Pakhoi, opium tax resisted, 95-96. 

 Paper, invention of, effect on style of Chinese writing, 26. 

 Pegasus—Chinese "heavenly horse" compared, 133. 

 Peking, dialect of, standard Mandarin, 8. 

 Penal Code, Chinese, 56, 87-88. 

 Persia—"heavenly horse" in China, 131, 133. 

 Philippines, Spanish seizure from China, 136. 

 Phonetic basis and indicator, _see_ Language—Written. 

 Phraseology concordance, Chinese, 65-69. 

 "Pidgin" English, 17. 

 Pigs, tax on, resisted, 93-95. 

 Pills of immortality, concoction and effect of, 107. 

 Plays— Editions of, 62-33. Grecian similarities, 125-126. 

 Poetry— Cambridge collection, 60. Taoist poet, quotations from, 160-163. Women writers, 60, 197. 

 Population, Chinese, vastness of, 3. 

 Portrait-painting, Chinese— Encyclopædia topic, 53. Story, 53. 

 Prefectures, division of circuits, 76, 83. 

 Priest, Buddhist priest anecdote, 138. 

 Prince Huai-nan, _see_ Huai-nan. 

 Protestant missionaries in China, 144. 

 Provincial government— Division of provinces, 76, 78. Governors, 76, 83. Officials, commissioners, etc. , 81-82. Viceroys, 76, 82, 83. 

 Puppet-shows, China, alleged origin of, 123. 

 Pythagorean and Chinese systems of music, similarity of, 129. 

 Quails, fighting, Grecian and Chinese custom, 126. 

 Queue— False hair, 180. Tartars, fight against queue, 179. Theories as to origin, 178-179. 

 Readers, professional, Chinese, 61. 

 _Record in Dark Blood_, historical section, Cambridge, 57. 

 Relativity, doctrine of, Lao Tzŭ's teachings, 156. 

 Religions— Buddhism, _see that title_. Classification—Three Doctrines, 143, 145. Confucian Canon, _see that title_. Jews, 144. Lao Tzŭ, _see_ Taoism. Mahommedanism, 143. Manichæans, 144. Nestorian Christians, 143. Protestant missionaries, 144. Roman Catholicism, 144. Taoism, _see that title_. Zoroastrians, 144. 

 Reprints, Chinese— Cambridge collection, 55. _Family Library_, 55. 

 Rhyme, Chinese, 67-68. 

 Riots, Chinese, people's self-government, 97-101. 

 Rip Van Winkle, Chinese, story of, 55. 

 Rites, Book of, Confucian Canon, 42. 

 Roman Catholicism in China, 144. 

 Roman classics, relative values of Chinese and Greek training, 109-110. 

 _Romance of Three Kingdoms_, novel, 61-62. 

 Salt commissioner, provincial official, 81. 

 Sanskrit, introduction of, 110. 

 _San Ts'ai T'u Hui_ encyclopædia, 52-53. 

 Seal of office of mandarin, 198-199. 

 Self-government illustrations, 96-106. 

 Self-taxation, _see_ Taxation. 

 Senior Classics— Honours of, 72. Illustrated book in Cambridge collection, 70-71. 

 Shopkeepers, women's business ability, 198. 

 Smith, Rev. Dr. A. , statement as to prejudice against Christianity, 181. 

 Social life, knowledge of, necessary to foreigner in China, 181-182. 

 Spanish seizure of islands from China, 136. 

 Spectacles, _see_ Eyeglasses. 

 Speech, Chinese, _see_ Language. 

 Spring and Autumn, Confucian Canon, 41. 

 Ssŭ-k'ung T'u, Taoist poet, quotations from, 160-163. 

 Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien— _Historical Record_, 45-47. Memoir of Lao Tzŭ, 149. 

 Ssŭ-ma Kuang, author of _The Mirror of History_, 48-49. 

 Statesmen— Chang Ch'ien, mission to Bactria, 130-131. Compared with men from other countries, 112. Han Yü, great works of, 117. Li Hung-chang, _see that title_. Wên T'ien-hsiang, influence of Chinese literature on, 113-116. 

 Statutes, present Chinese dynasty, 56. 

 Story-tellers in Chinese towns, 61, 123. 

 Street etiquette and rights, 183-186. 

 Strikes—tea strike, Hangchow, 95. 

 Study of Chinese affairs, _see_ China. 

 Suffixes, Chinese language, 21. 

 T'ai-p'ing rebels, pamphlets of, 56. 

 Taoism— Alchemy, 166-168. Black art, 186-170. Borrowing from Buddhists, 172. Cambridge Library, collection of writings, 44. Chuang Tzŭ, writer on Taoism, 148, 154-160, 165, 171. Corruption of the Tao, 171-173 Decline, 163. Elixir of life, 163-170. Genuineness of _Tao-Tê-Ching_, evidences against, 146-151. Han Fei Tzŭ, writer on Taoism, 148. Huai-nan Tzŭ, writer on Taoism, 149. Immortality, _see that title_. Inaction doctrine, 152, 156. Last state, 143. Legends of Lao Tzŭ, 145-146. Philosophy of, 151-163, 182. Poet, quotations from, 160-163. Relativity doctrine, 156. Struggle with Buddhists, 172. 

 Tao-t'ai, intendant of circuit, 76, 83. 

 _Tao-Té-Ching_, evidences against genuineness, 146-151. 

 Tartar generals, provincial governors, 82. 

 Taxation— Combination and resistance, 92-96. Lightness of taxation, 89. New imposts, people's approval necessary before enforcement, 90-92. Opium tax resisted, 95-96. Pigs, tax on, resisted, 93-95. Self-taxation, 84. Illustrations, 92-96. _Likin_ tax, 89-90. Tea strike, 95. 

 Tea, serving and drinking, 187. 

 Tea strike, Hangchow, 95. 

 Tenses, Chinese language, 13-15. 

 "Three Doctrines, " 143, 145. 

 Tones, Chinese language, 20 Arrangement of concordance to phraseology, 66-68. 

 Topographies, Chinese, Cambridge collection, 57-60. 

 University, Columbia, endowment of Chinese chair, 4, 37, 211. 

 University of Cambridge, Library, _see_ Library. 

 Veils for women, abolition of, 197. 

 "Veritable Record, " Cambridge collection, 48. 

 Viceroys, Chinese, 76, 82, 83. 

 Visitors, Chinese etiquette, 186-189. Invitation to dinner, 188. Left-hand, place of honour, 187. Tea, serving and drinking, 187. 

 Vitale, Baron, publication of Chinese nursery rhymes, 206. 

 Water-clocks, Chinese and Grecian, 128. 

 Watermelon, Chinese term for, Greek origin, 134. 

 Wên Tien-hsiang, influence of Chinese literature and training on, 113-116. 

 Western incidents in Chinese literature, 135-139. 

 Widows, Chinese, 201-202. 

 Wine, introduction of grape-wine into China, 131. 

 Wine-drinking— Anecdotes, 127-128. Grecian resemblances, 126-127. Guest-tea, 187. 

 Wives— "Henpecked husbands, " 204. Status, etc. , 196, 198, 199. [_See also_ Women. ]

 Women— Ancestry of ancient Chinese traced through mother, 27. _Biographies of Eminent Women_, 50. Disregard of, 189. Education, 197-198. False hair, 180. Foot-binding, _see that title_. Girls, _see that title_. Greek similarities, 121-122. "Henpecked husbands, " 204. Official life, 198. Painting the face, custom, 122. Poems by, 60, 197. Privileges not shared by men, 201. Seclusion, 177, 196. Shopkeepers, business ability, 198. Veils, abolition of, 197. Widows, 201-202. Wives, _see that title_. 

 Written Chinese language, _see_ Language. 

 Wuchang bridge incident, 97. 

 Yüan Yüan, commentary, Confucian Canon, 43. 

 Zebra, picture of, in ancient Chinese book, 59. 

 Zoroastrians in China, 144.