Chinese Sketches

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CHINESE SKETCHES

by Herbert A. Giles




"The institutions of a despised people cannot be judged with fairness."

Spencer's Sociology: The Bias of Patriotism.




DEDICATION

To Warren William de la Rue,
"As a mark of friendship."




PREFACE

The following _Sketches_ owe their existence chiefly to frequent
peregrinations in Chinese cities, with pencil and note-book in hand.
Some of them were written for my friend Mr. F. H. Balfour of Shanghai,
and by him published in the columns of the _Celestial Empire_. These
have been revised and partly re-written; others appear now for the
first time.

It seems to be generally believed that the Chinese, as a nation, are
an immoral, degraded race; that they are utterly dishonest, cruel, and
in every way depraved; that opium, a more terrible scourge than gin,
is now working frightful ravages in their midst; and that only the
forcible diffusion of Christianity can save the Empire from speedy and
overwhelming ruin. An experience of eight years has taught me that,
with all their faults, the Chinese are a hardworking, sober, and happy
people, occupying an intermediate place between the wealth and
culture, the vice and misery of the West.

H. A. G.

Sutton, Surrey, 1st November 1875.





CHINESE SKETCHES




THE DEATH OF AN EMPEROR

His Imperial Majesty, Tsai-Shun, deputed by Heaven to reign over all
within the four seas, expired on the evening of Tuesday the 13th
January 1875, aged eighteen years and nine months. He was erroneously
known to foreigners as the Emperor T'ung Chih; but T'ung Chih was
merely the style of his reign, adopted in order that the people should
not profane by vulgar utterance a name they are not even permitted to
write.[*] Until the new monarch, the late Emperor's cousin, had been
duly installed, no word of what had taken place was breathed beyond
the walls of the palace; for dangerous thoughts might have arisen had
it been known that the State was drifting rudderless, a prey to the
wild waves of sedition and lawless outbreak. The accession of a child
to reign under the style of Kuang Hsu was proclaimed before it was
publicly made known that his predecessor had passed away.

[*] Either one or all of the characters composing an emperor's name
are altered by the addition or omission of certain component
parts; as if, for instance, we were to write an Alb_a_rt chain
merely because Alb_e_rt is the name of the heir-apparent.
Similarly, a child will never utter or write its father's name;
and the names of Confucius and Mencius are forbidden to all alike.

Of the personal history of the ill-fated boy who has thus been
prematurely cut off just as he was entering upon manhood and the
actual government of four hundred million souls, we know next to
nothing. His accession as an infant to the dignities of a sensual,
dissipated father, attracted but little attention either in China or
elsewhere; and from that date up to the year 1872, all we heard about
His Majesty was, that he was making good progress in Manchu, or had
hit the target three times out of ten shots at a distance of about
twenty-five yards. He was taught to ride on horseback, though up to
the day of his death he never took part in any great hunting
expeditions, such as were frequently indulged in by earlier emperors
of the present dynasty. He learnt to read and write Chinese, though
what progress he had made in the study of the Classics was of course
only known to his teachers. Painting may or may not have been an
Imperial hobby; but it is quite certain that the drama received more
perhaps than its full share of patronage. The ladies and eunuchs of
the palace are notoriously fond of whiling away much of their
monotonous existence in watching the grave antics of professional
tragedians and laughing at the broad jokes of the low-comedy man, with
his comic voice and funnily-painted face. Listening to the tunes
prescribed by the Book of Ceremonies, and dining in solemn solitary
grandeur off the eight[*] precious kinds of food set apart for the
sovereign, his late Majesty passed his boyhood, until in 1872 he
married the fair A-lu-te, and practically ascended the dragon throne
of his ancestors. Up to that time the Empresses-Dowager, hidden behind
a bamboo screen, had transacted business with the members of the Privy
Council, signing all documents of State with the vermilion pencil for
and on behalf of the young Emperor, but probably without even going
through the formality of asking his assent. The marriage of the
Emperor of China seemed to wake people up from their normal apathy, so
that for a few months European eyes were actually directed towards the
Flowery Land, and the _Illustrated London News_, with praiseworthy
zeal, sent out a special correspondent, whose valuable contributions
to that journal will be a record for ever. The ceremony, however, was
hardly over before a bitter drop rose in the Imperial cup. Barbarians
from beyond the sea came forward to claim the right of personal
interview with the sovereign of all under Heaven. The story of the
first audience is still fresh in our memories; the trivial
difficulties introduced by obstructive statesmen at every stage of the
proceedings, questions of etiquette and precedence raised at every
turn, until finally the _kotow_ was triumphantly rejected and five
bows substituted in its stead. Every one saw the curt paragraph in the
_Peking Gazette_, which notified that on such a day and at such an
hour the foreign envoys had been admitted to an interview with the
Emperor. We all laughed over the silly story so sedulously spread by
the Chinese to every corner of the Empire, that our Minister's knees
had knocked together from terror when Phaeton-like he had obtained his
dangerous request; that he fell down flat in the very presence,
breaking all over into a profuse perspiration, and that the haughty
prince who had acted as his conductor chid him for his want of course,
bestowing upon him the contemptuous nickname of "chicken-feather."

[*] These are--bears' paws, deers' tail, ducks' tongues, torpedos'
roe, camels' humps, monkeys' lips, carps' tails, and beef-marrow.

Subsequently, in the spring of 1874, the late Emperor made his great
pilgrimage to worship at the tombs of his ancestors. He had previous
to his marriage performed this filial duty once, but the mausoleum
containing his father's bones was not then completed, and the whole
thing was conducted in a private, unostentatious manner. But on the
last occasion great preparations were made and vast sums spent (on
paper), that nothing might be wanting to render the spectacle as
imposing as money could make it. Royalty was to be seen humbly
performing the same hallowed rites which are demanded of every child,
and which can under no circumstances be delegated to any other person
as long as there is a son or a daughter living. The route along which
His Majesty was to proceed was lined with closely-packed crowds of
loyal subjects, eager to set eyes for once in their lives upon a being
they are taught to regard as the incarnation of divinity; and when the
Sacred Person really burst upon their view, the excitement was beyond
description. Young and old, women and children, fell simultaneously
upon their knees, and tears and sobs mingled with the blessings
showered upon His Majesty by thousands of his simple-minded,
affectionate people.

The next epoch in the life of this youthful monarch occurred a few
months ago. The Son of Heaven[*] had not availed himself of western
science to secure immunity from the most loathsome in the long
category of diseases. He had not been vaccinated, in spite of the
known prevalence of smallpox at Peking during the winter season. True,
it is but a mild form of smallpox that is there common; but it is easy
to imagine what a powerless victim was found in the person of a young
prince enervated by perpetual cooping in the heart of a city, rarely
permitted to leave the palace, and then only in a sedan-chair, called
out of his bed at three o'clock every morning summer or winter, to
transact business that must have had few charms for a boy, and
possessed of no other means of amusement than such as he could derive
from the society of his wife or concubines. Occasional bulletins
announced that the disease was progressing favourably, and latterly it
was signified that His Majesty was rapidly approaching a state of
convalescence. His death, therefore, came both suddenly and
unexpectedly; happily, at a time when China was unfettered by war or
rebellion, and when all the energies of her statesmen could be
employed in averting either one catastrophe or the other. For one
hundred days the Court went into deep mourning, wearing capes of white
fur with the hair outside over long white garments of various stuffs,
lined also with white fur, but of a lighter kind than that of the
capes. Mandarins of high rank use the skin of the white fox for the
latter, but the ordinary official is content with the curly fleece of
the snow-white Mongolian sheep. For one hundred days no male in the
Empire might have his head shaved, and women were supposed to eschew
for the same period all those gaudy head ornaments of which they are
so inordinately fond. At the expiration of this time the Court
mourning was changed to black, which colour, or at any rate something
sombre, will be worn till the close of the year.

[*] Such terms as "Brother of the Sun and Moon" are altogether
imaginary, and are quite unknown in China.

For twelve long months there may be no marrying or giving in marriage,
that is among the official classes; the people are let off more
easily, one hundred days being fixed upon as their limit. For a whole
year it is illegal to renew the scrolls of red paper pasted on every
door-post and inscribed with cherished maxims from the sacred books;
except again for non-officials, whose penance is once more cut down to
one hundred days' duration. In these sad times the birth of a son--a
Chinaman's dearest wish on earth--elicits no congratulations from
thronging friends; no red eggs are sent to the lucky parents, and no
joyous feast is provided in return. Merrymaking of all kinds is
forbidden to all classes for the full term of one year, and the
familiar sound of the flute and the guitar is hushed in every
household and in every street.[*] The ordinary Chinese visiting-card
--a piece of red paper about six inches by three, inscribed with its
owner's name in large characters--changes to a dusky brown; and the
very lines on letter paper, usually red, are printed of a dingy blue.
Official seals are also universally stamped in blue instead of the
vermilion or mauve otherwise used according to the rank of the holder.
Red is absolutely tabooed; it is the emblem of mirth and joy, and the
colour of every Chinese maiden's wedding dress. It is an insult to
write a letter to a friend or stranger on a piece of plain white paper
with black ink. Etiquette requires that the columns should be divided
by red lines; or, if not, that a tiny slip of red paper be pasted on
in recognition of the form. For this reason it is that all stamps and
seals in China are _red_--to enable tradesmen, officials, and others
to use any kind of paper, whether it has already some red about it or
not; and every foreigner in China would do well to exact on all
occasions the same formalities from his employes as they would
consider a matter of duty towards one of their own countrymen, however
low he might be in the social scale.

[*] Mencius. Book v., part ii., ch. 4.

Certain classes of the people will suffer from the observance of these
ceremonies far more severely than others. The peasant may not have his
head shaved for one hundred days--inconvenient, no doubt, for him, but
mild as compared with the fate of thousands of barbers who for three
whole months will not know where to look to gain their daily rice. Yet
there is a large section of the community much worse off than the
barbers, and this comprises everybody connected in any way with the
theatres. Their occupation is gone. For the space of one year neither
public nor private performance is permitted. During that time actors
are outcasts upon the face of the earth, and have no regular means of
getting a livelihood. The lessees of theatres have most likely
feathered their own nests sufficiently well to enable them to last out
the prescribed term without serious inconvenience; but with us, actors
are proverbially improvident, and even in frugal China they are no
exception to the rule.

Officials in the provinces, besides conforming to the above customs in
every detail, are further obliged on receipt of the "sad announcement"
to mourn three times a-day for three days in a particular chapel
devoted to that purpose. There they are supposed to call to mind the
virtues of their late master, and more especially that act of grace
which elevated each to the position he enjoys. Actual tears are
expected as a slight return for the seal of office which has enabled
its possessor to grow rich at the expense too often of a poor and
struggling population. We fancy, however, that the mind of the mourner
is more frequently occupied with thinking how many friends he can
count among the Imperial censors than in dwelling upon the
transcendent bounty of the deceased Emperor.

We sympathise with the bereaved mother who has lost her only child and
the hope of China; but on the other hand if there is little room for
congratulation, there is still less for regret. The nation has been
deprived of its nominal head, a vapid youth of nineteen, who was
content to lie _perdu_ in his harem without making an effort to do a
little governing on his own responsibility. During the ten years that
foreigners have resided within half a mile of his own apartments in
the palace at Peking, he has either betrayed no curiosity to learn
anything at all about them, or has been wanting in resolution to carry
out such a scheme as we can well imagine would have been devised by
some of his bolder and more vigorous ancestors. And now once more the
sceptre has passed into the hands of a child who will grow up, like
the late Emperor, amid the intrigues of a Court composed of women and
eunuchs, utterly unfit for anything like energetic government.

The splendid tomb which has been for the last twelve years in
preparation to receive the Imperial coffin, but which, according to
Chinese custom, may not be completed until death has actually taken
place, will witness the last scene in the career of an unfortunate
young man who could never have been an object of envy even to the
meanest of his people, and who has not left one single monument behind
him by which he will be remembered hereafter.




THE POSITION OF WOMEN

It is, perhaps, tolerably safe to say that the position of women among
the Chinese is very generally misunderstood. In the squalid huts of
the poor, they are represented as ill-used drudges, drawers of water
and grinders of corn, early to rise and late to bed, their path
through the vale of tears uncheered by a single ray of happiness or
hope, and too often embittered by terrible pangs of starvation and
cold. This picture is unfortunately true in the main; at any rate,
there is sufficient truth about it to account for the element of
sentimental fiction escaping unnoticed, and thus it comes to be
regarded as an axiom that the Chinese woman is low, very low, in the
scale of humanity and civilisation. The women of the poorer classes in
China have to work hard indeed for the bowl of rice and cabbage which
forms their daily food, but not more so than women of their own
station in other countries where the necessaries of life are dearer,
children more numerous, and a drunken husband rather the rule than the
exception. Now the working classes in China are singularly sober;
opium is beyond their means, and few are addicted to the use of
Chinese wine. Both men and women smoke, and enjoy their pipe of
tobacco in the intervals of work; but this seems to be almost their
only luxury. Hence it follows that every cash earned either by the man
or woman goes towards procuring food and clothes instead of enriching
the keepers of grog-shops; besides which the percentage of quarrels
and fights is thus very materially lessened. A great drag on the poor
in China is the family tie, involving as it does not only the support
of aged parents, but a supply of rice to uncles, brothers, and cousins
of remote degrees of relationship, during such time as these may be
out of work. Of course such a system cuts both ways, as the time may
come when the said relatives supply, in their turn, the daily meal;
and the support of parents in a land where poor-rates are unknown, has
tended to place the present high premium on male offspring. Thus,
though there is a great deal of poverty in China, there is very little
absolute destitution, and the few wretched outcasts one does see in
every Chinese town, are almost invariably the once opulent victims of
the opium-pipe or the gaming-table. The relative number of human
beings who suffer from cold and hunger in China is far smaller than in
England, and in this all-important respect, the women of the working
classes are far better off than their European sisters. Wife-beating
is unknown, though power of life and death is, under certain
circumstances, vested in the husband (Penal Code, S. 293); while, on
the other hand, a wife may be punished with a hundred blows for merely
striking her husband, who is also entitled to a divorce (Penal Code,
S. 315). The truth is, that these poor women are, on the whole, very
well treated by their husbands, whom they not unfrequently rule with
as harsh a tongue as that of any western shrew.

In the fanciful houses of the rich, the Chinese woman is regarded with
even more sympathy by foreigners generally than is accorded to her
humbler fellow-countrywoman. She is represented as a mere ornament, or
a soulless, listless machine--something on which the sensual eye of
her opium-smoking lord may rest with pleasure while she prepares the
fumes which will waft him to another hour or so of tipsy
forgetfulness. She knows nothing, she is taught nothing, never leaves
the house, never sees friends, or hears the news; she is,
consequently, devoid of the slightest intellectual effort, and no more
a companion to her husband than the stone dog at his front gate. Now,
although we do not profess much personal acquaintance with the
_gynecee_ of any wealthy Chinese establishment, we think we have
gathered quite enough from reading and conversation to justify us in
regarding the Chinese lady from an entirely different point of
view. In novels, for instance, the heroine is always highly
educated--composes finished verses, and quotes from Confucius; and it
is only fair to suppose that such characters are not purely and wholly
ideal. Besides, most young Chinese girls, whose parents are well off,
are taught to read, though it is true that many content themselves
with being able to read and write a few hundred words. They all learn
and excel in embroidery; the little knick-knacks which hang at every
Chinaman's waist-band being almost always the work of his wife or
sister. Visiting between Chinese ladies is of everyday occurrence, and
on certain fete-days the temples are crowded to overflowing with
"golden lilies"[*] of all shapes and sizes. They give little
dinner-parties to their female relatives and friends, at which they
talk scandal, and brew mischief to their hearts' content. The first
wife sometimes quarrels with the second, and between them they make
the house uncomfortably hot for the unfortunate husband. "Don't you
foreigners also dread the denizens of the inner apartments?" said a
hen-pecked Chinaman one day to us--and we think he was consoled to
hear that viragos are by no means confined to China. One of the
happiest moments a Chinese woman knows, is when the family circle
gathers round husband, brother, or it may be son, and listens with
rapt attention and wondering credulity to a favourite chapter from the
"Dream of the Red Chamber." She believes it every word, and wanders
about these realms of fiction with as much confidence as was ever
placed by western child in the marvellous stories of the "Arabian
Nights."

[*] A poetical name for the small feet of Chinese women.




ETIQUETTE

If there is one thing more than another, after the possession of the
thirteen classics, on which the Chinese specially pride themselves, it
is _politeness_. Even had their literature alone not sufficed to place
them far higher in the scale of mental cultivation than the unlettered
barbarian, a knowledge of those important forms and ceremonies which
regulate daily intercourse between man and man, unknown of course to
inhabitants of the outside nations, would have amply justified the
graceful and polished Celestial in arrogating to himself the proud
position he now occupies with so much satisfaction to himself. A few
inquiring natives ask if foreigners have any notion at all of
etiquette, and are always surprised in proportion to their ignorance
to hear that our ideas of ceremony are fully as clumsy and complicated
as their own. It must be well understood that we speak chiefly of the
educated classes, and not of "boys" and compradores who learn in a
very short time both to touch their caps and wipe their noses on their
masters' pocket-handkerchiefs. Our observations will be confined to
members of that vast body of men who pore day and night over the
"Doctrine of the Mean," and whose lips would scorn to utter the
language of birds.

And truly if national greatness may be gauged by the mien and carriage
of its people, China is without doubt entitled to a high place among
the children of men. An official in full costume is a most imposing
figure, and carries himself with great dignity and self-possession,
albeit he is some four or five inches shorter than an average
Englishman. In this respect he owes much to his long dress, which, by
the way, we hope in course of time to see modified; but more to a
close and patient study of an art now almost monopolised in Europe by
aspirants to the triumphs of the stage. There is not a single awkward
movement as the Chinese gentleman bows you into his house, or supplies
you from his own hand with the cup of tea so necessary, as we shall
show, to the harmony of the meeting. Not until his guest is seated
will the host venture to take up his position on the right hand of the
former; and even if in the course of an excited conversation, either
should raise himself, however slightly, from a sitting posture, it
will be the bounden duty of the other to do so too. No gentleman would
sit while his equal stood. Occasionally, where it is not intended to
be over-respectful to a visitor, a servant will bring in the tea, one
cup in each hand. Then standing before his master and guest, he will
cross his arms, serving the latter who is at his right hand with his
left hand, his master with the right. The object of this is to expose
the palm--in Chinese, the _heart_--of either hand to each recipient of
tea. It is a token of fidelity and respect. The tea itself is called
"guest tea," and _is not intended for drinking_. It has a more useful
mission than that of allaying thirst. Alas for the red-haired
barbarian who greedily drinks off his cupful before ten words have
been exchanged, and confirms the unfavourable opinion his host already
entertains of the manners and customs of the West! And yet a little
trouble spent in learning the quaint ceremonies of the Chinese would
have gained him much esteem as an enlightened and tolerant man. For
while despising us outwardly, the Chinese know well enough that
inwardly we despise them, and thus it comes to pass that a voluntary
concession on our part to any of their harmless prejudices is always
gratefully acknowledged. To return, "guest tea" is provided to be used
as a signal by either party that the interview is at an end. A guest
no sooner raises the cup to his lips than a dozen voices shout to his
chair-coolies; so, too, when the master of the house is prevented by
other engagements from playing any longer the part of host. Without
previous warning--unusual except among intimate acquaintances--this
tea should never be touched except as a sign of departure.

Strangers meeting may freely ask each other their names, provinces,
and even prospects; it is not so usual as is generally supposed to
inquire a person's age. It is always a compliment to an old man, who
is justly proud of his years, and takes the curious form of "your
venerable teeth?" but middle-aged men do not as a rule care about the
question and their answers can rarely be depended upon. A man may be
asked the number and sex of his children; also if his father and
mother are still "in the hall," i.e., alive. His wife, however, should
never be alluded to even in the most indirect manner. Friends meeting,
either or both being in sedan-chairs, stop their bearers at once, and
get out with all possible expedition; the same rule applies to
acquaintances meeting on horseback. Spectacles must always be removed
before addressing even the humblest individual--sheer ignorance of
which most important custom has often, we imagine, led to rudeness
from natives towards foreigners, where otherwise extreme courtesy
would have been shown. In such cases a foreigner must yield, or take
the chances of being snubbed; and where neither self-respect or
national dignity is compromised, we recommend him by all means to
adopt the most conciliatory course. Chinese etiquette is a wide field
for the student, and one which, we think, would well repay extensive
and methodical exploration.