THE CHINESE 
 
 PAINTED BY THEMSELVES 
 
 COLONEL TCHENG - KI - TONG 
 
(Qornell itntoetatty SItbrarg 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 
DS 721 cll"*" ""'**'*"" '■'""'T 
 
 ^*'™™IiiiMKil!i^'"'^'' **)( •'•eniselves / 
 
 3 1924 023 148 434 
 
A Cornell University 
 9 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023148434 
 
THE CHINESE 
 
 PAINTED BT THEMSELVES. 
 
 COLONEL TCHENG-KI-TONG, 
 
 MILITARY ATTACHE OF CHINA AT PARIS. 
 
 r 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 
 
 JAMES MILLINGTON. 
 
 LONDON : 
 FIELD & TUER, THE LEADENHALL PRESS, E.G. 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO. HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO, 
 

 FIELD AND TtTEK, 
 THE LEADENHALL PRESS, : 
 T 4,203. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 INTRODUCTION ..... j 
 
 CHINESE FAMILY LIFE - - 7 
 
 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY - - - 18 
 
 MARRIAGE. ...... 26 
 
 DIVORCE . - - . - - 35 
 
 WOMAN .... . . ^^ 
 
 THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE - - "53 
 
 CLASSES - - - - - - 61 
 
 THE LITERARY CLASS .... 62 
 
 JOURNALISM AND PUBLIC OPINION - - 72 
 
 PREHISTORIC EPOCHS - - 90 
 
 PROVERBS AND MAXIMS - - - 102 
 
 EDUCATION ... - II I 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS - - - I18 
 
 THE INSTITUTION OF ' LA SAINTE ENFANCE ' - - I23 
 
 THE WORKING CLASSES - - - 1 27 
 
 HISTORICAL SONGS ... . . 133 
 
 PLEASURES - - ... - 141 
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY - - - " 'S^ 
 
 CLASSICAL POETRY- - - - - 1 67 
 
 EAST AND WEST - ... 184 
 
 THE ARSENAL OF FOO-CHOO - - "195 
 
The 
 
 Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 A 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 TEN years' sojourn in Europe, has led me 
 to believe that of all countries on the globe 
 China is the least known. This certainly 
 does not arise from lack of curiosity. 
 
 Everything coming from China seems to possess 
 a particular attraction. A trifle — a little cup of 
 transparent porcelain — even a fan, are looked upon 
 as precious objects. They are Chinese ! 
 
 To judge from the astonishment excited, one might 
 imagine we were a kind of trained animals in a 
 menagerie performing curious antics, like human 
 beings. They would like to put us in the magic 
 lantern; and we can perfectly realize the truthful 
 description with which the exhibition would be 
 accompanied. Between the little Chinois floating in 
 syrup like prunes, and the big Chinois figuring upon 
 folding-screens, there is space enough for our four 
 hundred millions ! Little more is known concerning 
 our land of China. 
 
2 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 It is needless to dwell upon the amazement I felt 
 as I became more and more familiar with Western 
 ideas. Not only the questions put to me displayed 
 the most ludicrous ignorance, but even books pre- 
 tending to describe China related the greatest 
 absurdities. 
 
 If they were satisfied with saying we were ac- 
 customed to eat dogs, and to give our guests serpents' 
 eggs and roast lizards, there would be no great harm 
 done. Nor should I complain much if we were de- 
 scribed as polygamists — there are so many of them ; 
 or that we give our babies — our dear little babies — 
 as food to animals whose names I forget. There 
 are fallacies of such a nature that it is useless to be 
 offended at them ; merely to mention the truth is 
 sufficient to explode them. 
 
 In everything there is the probable and the im- 
 probable ; and we must make a distinction between 
 childishness and serious matters — between error and 
 prejudice. 
 
 I was not long in discovering that the source of 
 error was prejudice ; and I made the resolution to 
 publish, so soon as I felt equal to the task, my 
 personal impressions on the subject of China, 
 imagining that perhaps my nationality of Chinaman 
 , might not be less advantageous for that purpose 
 than the profession of traveller. 
 
 . Nothing is more imperfect than a notebook of 
 travels : the first fool one meets gives a physiognomy 
 
Introduction. 3 
 
 to the whole nation whose customs are tb be de- 
 scribed. The recorded conversation with an out- 
 cast may perhaps be considered a valuable docu- 
 ment by a traveller. A discontented or spiteful 
 person may interpret his own rancour, and discredit 
 his class. All the notes will be tainted with fatal 
 error ; nothing will be exactly true. 
 
 It is really simplicity on my part to argue the. 
 point. Do the Western nations know each other ? 
 Are there not unknown regions and unexplored 
 provinces even in the same country? Are not 
 manners as different as characters, and for certain 
 details is there not a point at which questions are 
 asked in vain? Manners represent the sum-total 
 of past history — they are the slow work of all the 
 ages that have come and gone in the district under 
 observation ; and to understand them you should 
 be acquainted with their endless series of traditions, 
 otherwise you go to work hap-hazard, like an organ- 
 grinder, and your narrative is worthless. 
 
 The fact is, that the book is often written before 
 the travels are undertaken, for the simple reason 
 that the aim of the journey is the book to be pub- 
 lished. The object is to obtain three hundred pages 
 of print ; what does it matter about the truth ? On 
 the contrary, if the book is to sell, it must be spiced 
 with the singular, the horrible, social evils, scandals, 
 or disgusting details. 
 
 But to depict the simple existence at the family 
 
 I — 2 
 
4 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 hearth; to study a language in order to meditate 
 upon its traditions ; to live a people's daily life-^— 
 Mandarin with the Mandarins, man of letters with 
 the literary class, workman with the workmen — in a 
 word, Chinese with the Chinese-^for the sake of a 
 mere book, that would be far too much trouble ! 
 
 But are not these really the conditions to be ful- 
 filled if we expect to give any information of the 
 slightest value ? Is it no longer necessary to learn 
 in order to know ? 
 
 But the proposition is too evident. To insist is 
 waste of ink. The traveller who meets a giant, 
 writes in his notebook : ' The denizens of these 
 distant Regions are lofty in stature.' If, on the 
 contrary, he should first see a dwarf, he writes : ' In 
 this country one sees only dwarfs ; it is like the land 
 described by Gulliver.' The same holds good of 
 manners as of facts. If a case of infanticide is ob- 
 served, out with the notebook ! ' These people are 
 barbarians !' If a Mandarin has done something 
 derogatory, notebook again ! ' The Mandarinate is 
 utterly perverted 1' And this is the easy method in 
 Virhich history is written. Truly, as the proverb says, 
 ' Travellers tell strange tales.' 
 
 I am of opinion that civilized nations ought to 
 institute an academy whose mission should be to 
 inspect books of travels and generally every publica- 
 tion purporting to describe the manners, principles of 
 government, or laws of a country. It should not be 
 
Introduction. 5 
 
 legal to distort the truth by way of speculation ; or 
 at least, since all rights are facultative, there should 
 be an index pointing out this book as untrustworthy, 
 and that as dependable. Editorial honesty would 
 in this manner be encouraged, because efforts to 
 speak the truth would be recognised, esteemed, and 
 compensated. Why should not a sanitary cordon 
 against slander be estabHshed ? 
 
 I propose in this book to represent China as it is 
 — to depict Chinese manners and customs by means 
 of my actual acquaintance with them, but in a 
 European spirit and style. I desire to place my 
 native experience at the service of my acquired 
 experience ; in a word, I think as a European would 
 who had learned all that I know concerning China, 
 and who wished to draw those parallels and contrasts 
 between Occidental and extreme Oriental civiliza- 
 tions which his studies might justify. 
 
 If I pass in review the subjects of .education and 
 family life, it will be perceived that I am not ignorant 
 of their organization in Europe. My reader will 
 accompany me ; he will go where I go ; be presented 
 to my friends, and share our pleasures. I will open 
 our books to him ; he shall know our language, and 
 learn our customs. Then we will journey to the 
 provinces together. On the way we will gossip in 
 French, English, or German; we will discuss his 
 own country, and those who await his return. We 
 will while away our evenings in turning over the 
 
6 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 poets, and he will feel his emotions stirred in listen- 
 ing to the^ harmony of our verses, joined to their 
 depth of sentiment. 
 
 He will then form a better idea of our civiliza- 
 tion, and find pleasure in the loftiness and justice 
 pervading it. If he should find something to criticize, 
 he will remember that nothing is perfect in this 
 world, and that we must always hope for future im- 
 provement. 
 
 Perhaps he will venture to reveal in all sincerity his 
 opinions, when I have opened wide my hospitable 
 gates ! Blit I shall be satisfied if I am not repaid 
 solely with disdain. 
 
 Here and there will be found criticisms upon the 
 manners and customs of the West. It must not be 
 forgotten that I use a steel pen, and not a China- 
 ink brush, and have learned to think and write in the 
 European manner. 
 
 Xriticism is in fact the salt of discourse ; we 
 cannot always be admiring, and now and then one 
 is tempted to think like the peasant who was angry 
 with Aristides because he was tired of hearing him 
 continually styled * the Just.' 
 
 Unvarying praise becomes commonplace and 
 tedious ; qualifications I have endeavoured to 
 avoid. 
 
 Let my reader, then, kindly remember these 
 criticisms have no other pretension than to give 
 more variety to my composition, and excuse the im- 
 
Chinese Family Life. y 
 
 perfections of a style which has no other ambition 
 than to be clear. 
 
 I have tried to instruct and to amuse, and if, I 
 am sometimes led away by the subject to the extent 
 of declaring my affection for my native land, I ask 
 pardon beforehand of all who love their own. 
 
 CHINESE FAMILY LIFE. 
 
 THE family is the institution upon which is 
 based the whole social and political ediiSce 
 of China. 
 
 Chinese society may be defined as an aggregation 
 of families. 
 
 From the most remote period the influence of the 
 family has predominated in every order of idea ; and 
 we say, quoting Confucius, that to govern a country, 
 one must first have learned to govern a family. 
 
 The family is essentially a government in miniature ; 
 it is the school in which governors are formed, and 
 the sovereign himself is a disciple of it. 
 
 The difference between East and West is so cha- 
 racteristic in the family point of view, that I imagine 
 it will interest the reader to get first a general idea 
 of that institution, without prejudice to a more 
 detailed description by-and-by. I will therefore 
 sketch the salient outlines with a free hand, reserv- 
 ing the minutiae for a later period. 
 
8 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 The Chinese family may be likened to a co- 
 operative society. All its members are under the 
 obligation to live in community, and to render mutual 
 assistance. History mentions an ancient minister 
 named Tchang, who united under his roof all the 
 members of his family proceeding from nine genera- 
 tions. This example is cited as a model we should 
 all endeavour to imitate. 
 
 Thus constituted, the family is a kind of religious 
 order, subject to fixed rules. All its resources are 
 united in a single fund, and all contributions are 
 made without distinction of more or less. The 
 family is subject to the regime of 'equality' and ' fra- 
 ternity'— great words, which in China are written in 
 the heart, and not, as elsewhere, upon the walls. 
 
 Every member of the family has to conduct him- 
 self in such a manner as to maintain harmony. This 
 is a duty. But perfection is nowhere to be found ; 
 and if we imagine an ideal, we know by experience 
 that every rule has its exceptions, just as there are 
 spots upon the sun. 
 
 If by fortuitous circumstances this tranquillity is 
 disturbed — if order is not maintained in the family — 
 the law authorizes the division of the common pro- 
 perty : a division which is made equally among all the 
 males. I will explain later why the women do not 
 participate. 
 
 This organization has incontestable advantages 
 from the point of view of mutual assistance. If a 
 
Chinese Family Life. 9 
 
 member of the family falls ill, he immediately re- 
 ceives all the aid he requires ; if another is unable 
 by his labour to obtain the necessaries of life, the 
 family forthwith intervenes, either to repair the in- 
 justice of fortune, or to ameliorate the woes and 
 privations of old age. 
 
 As may be seen, it is the institution of the patriar- 
 chal system, as it flourished formerly in Biblical times. 
 
 The chief authority is vested in the most aged 
 member of the family, and in all the important con- 
 junctures of life reference is made to his decision. 
 He has the attributes of the head of a government ; 
 all documents are signed by him in the name of the 
 family. 
 
 The traveller passing through our country can 
 easily verify the truth of these statements. Let him 
 ask to whom belongs such and such an estate, and 
 he will be told to such and such a family. If he 
 wishes to ascertain the fact with greater exactness, 
 he may read upon the posts marking the limits of 
 the property the name of the family it belongs to. 
 
 In our families some matters are much the same 
 during life, as they are in the West after death. In 
 the cemeteries outside the gates of European towns 
 may be seen tombs, upon which are inscribed 
 ' Family vaults.' There brothers are reunited who 
 have scarcely ever seen each other, and relations sleep 
 , side by side who have never felt mutual affection in 
 life. They are reconciled in death, and their parts 
 
lo The Chinese^ Painted by Themselves. 
 
 are equal As for us Chinese, we inaugurate during 
 this life the work that only death achieves without 
 opposition elsewhere. 
 
 Every family has its particular statutes regulating 
 its custonas ; they are a sort of written law. All the 
 properties the family possesses are inscribed upon 
 these statutes, together with the purpose to which 
 they are devoted. Thus, the produce of such an 
 estate is destined to pension the aged, and of such 
 another to furnish the prizes given to young people 
 after their examinations. The resources to provide 
 education for the children, those which furnish do- 
 nations to girls who marry; in a word, all the expenses 
 which correspond to foreseen requirements are in- 
 scribed upon the budget. 
 
 The statutes not only determine the conditions of 
 material life, they define also its duties ; and one of 
 the articles regulates the punishment to be inflicted 
 upon any member of the family who by criminal 
 conduct or dissipation may gravely compromise the 
 family honour. 
 
 Doubtless it would be incomprehensible how these 
 customs could be maintained, if education were not 
 specially directed to inculcate respect for them. Our 
 system of education is exactly adapted to the end 
 desired; namely, to inspire above all things family 
 affection. Without that precaution the family would 
 probably be as much divided in the East as it is in 
 the VVest, where all must admit it no longer exists 
 
Chinese Family Life. n 
 
 as a social force, and where it has no other advan- 
 tage but to create relations whose utility is mani- 
 fested by the windfall of unexpected inheritances — 
 the only things which seem to arouse the dormant 
 family spirit. 
 
 There are five general principles which by educa- 
 tion form and maintain the family tie. These are : 
 fidelity to the sovereign, respect towards parents, 
 concord between the married, harmony between 
 brothers, and constancy in friendship. 
 
 These principles are the very essence of our 
 education, and tend to fix in the mind the convictions 
 requisite to ensure family affection, and to maintain 
 the antique organization, in spite of those incom- 
 patibilities of temper which usually serve as excuse 
 to the least excusable disorders. 
 
 The family in which we are born is founded upon 
 forty centuries of harmony, and every succeeding 
 generation increases its authority. None, therefore, 
 need be astonished if the family spirit is so powerful 
 in China, and if the first article of our faith is fidelity 
 towards the sovereign. The sovereign is, in fact, 
 the keystone of the social edifice ; he is the head of 
 all the families — the patriarch to whom the devotion 
 of all is due. To serve the sovereign is to serve the 
 great master of the universal family, and to honour 
 one's own family. This explains why the most ' 
 powerful motive of ambition is a desire to belong to 
 the administration of the State. 
 
12 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Respect tbwards parents, or filial lovej is a senti- 
 ment which displays itself in every clime. It exists 
 in man's heart ; it is a natural sentiment. In China 
 filial respect is very great, and it has its peculiarity 
 in the fact that parents benefit by all the services 
 rendered by their children. Thus not only children 
 owe respect and gratitude to their parents, but even 
 strangers who receive benefits render gratitude to the 
 parents of those from whom they receive them* If 
 a State functionary is ennobled, his parents become 
 noble at the same time. The promotion has a retro- 
 spective effect ; and in proportion as the dignity of 
 the rank is raised, in such degree is it exalted in the 
 ancestral family. 
 
 This custom is characteristic, and marks a pro- 
 found discrepancy between Oriental and Occidental 
 manners. Nobility does not consist solely in the 
 honorific title awarded by a sovereign. We distin- 
 guish two kinds of nobility : one is hereditary, and 
 descends to the eldest son, as in England ; the other 
 attaches to the rank of a State office. Hereditary 
 nobility is only conferred in rare instances; it is 
 given to honour and immortalize eminent services — 
 warlike valour, for example. 
 
 The nobility attaching to the rank of an official 
 position in the Government is a sort of life peerage : 
 it is not transmitted to children, but to ancestors. 
 If a functionary is promoted, his parents receive a 
 dignity equal to his own ; they are really ennobled, 
 
Chinese Family Life. 13 
 
 if I may so express it, by right of authorship, in 
 order that they may receive the tribute of filial piety.. 
 Bift the children of the functionary, whatever the 
 elevation of his rank, have no right to any privilege 
 whatever. 
 
 The Chinese aristocracy is thus composed both of 
 those whose official rank constitutes a nobility, and 
 of thpse who obtain it by inheritance. The latter, 
 when their rank is not combined with personal 
 merit, are without influence in the Empire of the 
 Centre. 
 
 I have mentioned concord between the married as 
 a principle of the programme of education; and, 
 indeed, it is a principle whose excellence can scarcely 
 be over-estimated, since in China marriage is indis- 
 soluble. Not that this is to be understood in a legal 
 sense (it is known that in certain cases Chinese law 
 authorizes the dissolution of marriage), but in the 
 sense of respect due to the family, and more espe- 
 cially to the parents. 
 
 The indissolubility of marriage depends upon a 
 precise cause, proceeding from the circumstances 
 themselves under which it is contracted. In China 
 we marry at an early age, and it is the parents who 
 themselves choose for their son a suitable wife. In 
 Europe there is nothing similar : the young people- 
 take upon themselves to decide whether it suits them 
 to marry, and if it is time to finish with a bachelor 
 existence.. There are many motives to which the 
 
1.4 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 best marriageable years are sacrificed — those years 
 which are the happiest for the wife. Among us the 
 manners and customs of the good old times are still 
 in force. It is the parents who give their children 
 in marriage; and they truly believe that their ex- 
 perience is not altogether useless in the choice of 
 wives for their sons. 
 
 Marriage is in China considered purely as a family 
 institution — its sole aim is the enlargement of the 
 family ; and a family is only prosperous and happy 
 so long as it is becoming more numerous. It is, 
 therefore, quite logical that the husband and wife 
 should, for the sake of the principle of filial love, 
 respect a union desired by their parents. 
 
 I have mentioned ' fraternity ' also. This is not an 
 empty word. Words always mean something in 
 China, and that of fraternity, especially among 
 brothers, has a real significance. Fraternity is a 
 sentiment which has its origin in the family, and 
 draws its strength from that institution. It is there- 
 fore not surprising that in Western societies where 
 the family is disintegrated fraternity should have lost, x 
 its character. There has arisen in its place a kind 
 of feeling resembling resignation— not Christian, I 
 think — which, assisted by habit, has the effect of 
 creating a modus vivendi among brothers. Our 
 manners are altogether different.. 
 
 Friendship also constitutes one of our most 
 precious duties ; it is not a vain sentiment. Friends 
 
Chinese Family Life. 15 
 
 are friends in China ; and to use the same expression 
 as La Fontaine, I may say that ' ni le nom ni la chose 
 ne sont rares.' We have even an ancient versified 
 form which was formerly sung, and which defines in 
 a simple manner the duties of friendship. This is 
 the literal translation : 
 
 ' By Heaven and Earth, 
 
 In presence of the Moon and Sun, 
 •v By their father and their mother, 
 
 A and B have sworn unswerving friendship. 
 
 ' And now if A, riding in a chariot. 
 Meets B, wearing a shabby hat, 
 A will alight from his]^chariot 
 To pay respect to B. 
 
 ' If another day B, riding a fine horse, 
 Meets A carrying a pedlar's pack, ' 
 . He will dismount from his steed 
 
 As A dismounted from his car.' 
 
 This is plainly a practical kind of friendship, going 
 further than the purse — that cape rounded so un- 
 willingly _ by European friendship, as if that virtue 
 were but a kind of ornament. 
 
 Examples of friendly devotion are numerous in 
 our national history. For example, a man takes off 
 his vestment to clothe a friend fallen into poverty 
 whom he meets on the road. T^his example is 
 frequent enough not to be quoted as a rarity. I 
 have temarked that generally in Christian countries 
 absolutely commonplace anecdotes of benevolence 
 are held up to public admiration. The exercise of 
 
1 6 The Chinese Painted by Themsehes. 
 
 the virtues is presented as a marvel. Is this from 
 excess of humility, or is it simply a confession of 
 weakness ? I am inclined to adopt the latter 
 theory. 
 
 To my mind the word ' charity ' is the bane of many 
 human sentiments. The pretension to please God 
 and His saints^that is to say, everybody — is an 
 excuse for the neglect of the most obvious duties. 
 Indiscriminate charity is a method of doing good 
 certainly, but as it is a divine method, men can only 
 practise it after the fashion of imitators. There 
 appears to be a certain secret in the proceeding 
 that cannot be learned. I have somewhere read the 
 saying : ' He who tries to play the angel, plays the 
 fool.' I think similarly that he who tries to counter- 
 feit God does not come up to the angel. We in 
 China have no ambition of this kind, and are all the 
 better for it. 
 
 Not- only do the rich assist their unfortunate 
 friends, but the poor also come to the aid of those 
 poorer than themselves. If you belong to the literary 
 class, all your literary friends subscribe to help you. 
 If you are a labourer, your comrades act in the same 
 way. It is a custom among people of the same class. 
 There are even subscriptions among friends to con- 
 tribute towards the marriage of one of their circle. 
 Other subscriptions are raised to assist a friend's 
 widow, or to educate his children. The human being 
 is not isolated. 
 
Chinese Family Life. ly 
 
 . What strikes me most in the manners of the 
 Western world is the indifference of the human 
 heart. The misfortune of others has no attraction ; 
 on the contrary, it has been wri;tten that there is 
 something pleasant in it. The fact is not praise- 
 worthy; it is not that compassion and intelligence 
 are deficient, the simple reason is that people are 
 not practical. 
 
 Alfred de Musset, the favourite poet of many, 
 wrote these lines : 
 
 ' He who has never in the feverish night 
 Started from sleep, and prayed in causeless fright 
 Barefoot, with burning tears and trembling hands 
 Before the infinite Power that all commands, 
 His heart with pity racked for unknown woes, 
 » * * * * «» 
 
 For unknown woes ! That is an ideal with a ven- 
 geance ! Pity for unknown woes probably replaces 
 what should be bestowed upon woes that are known 
 but too much. I have never read anything equal to 
 this. Either it is ultra-pathetic or else it is a parody 
 of compassion unworthy of a gentleman. But in 
 poetry everything is excusable, even nonsense. It is 
 a license ! The finest verses, however, cut a sorry 
 figure beside the simple truth. Observe a sunbeam 
 thrown upon the gaudy decorations of a theatre ! 
 
1 8 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 RELIGIONS have existed from all time. 
 Primitively they constituted the mys- 
 terious bond uniting the creature to the 
 Creator, and {heir symbols represented adoration 
 and gratitude. Under those so divergent forms 
 expressing the sympathy of the human soul with 
 the universal Spirit, we always find the idea of the 
 supernatural joined to the most curious practices. 
 In his soaring towards God, man's imperfect nature 
 causes frequent falls. But the initiatory flight is 
 the , highest. Religions are less complicated as 
 we ascend the stream of Time ; they seem to 
 simplify themselves and tend towards that unity 
 which is our ideal of harmony and beauty. It 
 seems as if at first they must have been worthy of 
 the Deity. But that condition diminishes as the 
 world grows older, and at length casts only feeble 
 rays athwart the lengthening shadows upon the 
 pathway of humanity, as on the evening of a fine 
 summer's day. I have felt that impression in study- 
 ing our old books, and reading the admirable maxims 
 of our sages. I have felt it also while seeking to 
 decipher the secret of our destiny in the sacred books 
 of the West. It appeared to me that the greatest 
 
Religion and Philosophy. 19 
 
 intensity of the glorious light had died away, and 
 that we now received only the last pale reflections. 
 Ever3rwhere I see the radiance of a truth whose 
 beauty is the same, and I seem to hear an immense 
 choir in which all the voices of heaven and earth join 
 harmoniously ; and when, awaking from the enchant- 
 ment of this dream, I listen to the tumultuous 
 clamours of a world become a chaos of beliefs, my 
 spirit is full of amazement, and I could doubt that 
 truth existed, but that conscience forces me to believe 
 in spite of myself. We have no occasion to envy the 
 West its religious beliefs, although we do not look at 
 them from the same standpoint. Moreover, I will 
 not discuss the merits of religions. Man is so small 
 seen from on high that it matters little in what 
 manner he honours God. God understands all 
 languages, and especially that which is expressed in 
 silence by the movements of the spirit. We also 
 have those who pray with the spirit, and those who 
 pray with the lips. They have nothing in common. 
 We have the ideal religion which compels the spirit 
 to enter into itself, and we have the terrestrial 
 religion expressed by movements of the arms and 
 legs. In a word, we know what sincerity is, and 
 what hypocrisy. 
 
 Religions are at the same level as intelligence. 
 We have a religion of the literary class which cor- 
 responds to the degree of culture of the most en- 
 lightened body in the empire. This is the religion 
 
 2 — 2 
 
20 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 of Confucius, or rather his philosophy ; for his doc- 
 trine is that of the founder of a school who has 
 enunciated moral maxims, but has not meddled with 
 speculative- theories upon the destinies of man and 
 the nature of the divinity. 
 
 Confucius lived in the sixth century before the 
 Christian era, and his memory is in such veneration 
 that there is no town in China without a temple 
 erected in his honour. His philosophical system 
 consists essentially in the education of the human 
 heart ; and the word ' education ' is truly that which 
 best expresses the aim of his teaching. To raise 
 from earth the inert man abased by the bad use of 
 his faculties ; to open his eyes to the azure splendour 
 of the illimitable universe; to accustom. him by de- 
 grees to put off his nullity, and to feel himself a 
 spirit, a being, thinking, willing, and knowing. To 
 think, will, and know are the three steps of that 
 education which begins with awakening and ends 
 with science, and whose text-book contains the 
 finest maxims that ever philosopher wrote upon 
 humanity. 
 
 We must not imagine, however, that the doctrine 
 of Confucius is confined to maxims or to advice> 
 without pointing out a precise method. There is a 
 most exact method in that doctrine, and it is really 
 a practical course of moral education. I will try to 
 explain the plan of it. 
 
 The principle upon which the system rests is to 
 
, Religion and Philosophy. 21 
 
 maintain the reason within fixed limits. Confucius 
 said the human heart is like a galloping horse, which 
 'heeds neither rein nor voice;' or like a torrent de- 
 scending the rapid slopes of a mountain ; or like a 
 fire breaking out. These are violent forces, which 
 we must hope to keep within bounds, while main- 
 taining, their power without; allowing them to 
 develop. 
 
 He said that the human heart has an invariable 
 ideal — Justice and Wisdom ; and that the five senses 
 are so many powers of seduction turning it away 
 from that ideal. The means that Confucius advises 
 his adepts to use is to arm themselves beforehand 
 against the danger of these seductions, and the in- 
 vincible weapon he gives them is Respect. 
 
 Respect is the general sentiment which extends 
 to every action of life. The first cause of corruption 
 is negligence ; no quantity is so small as not to be 
 taken into account by Reason. 
 
 Negligence puts us in the power of habit, which 
 has been cynically called a second Nature — as if 
 Nature were not one and the same ! It is Respect 
 extended to all the acts of life, above all the most 
 insignificant, which turns away unhealthy influences, 
 and gradually performs the patient work of educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Confucius teaches us to observe that the five 
 senses, as they are defined, constitute faculties, but 
 not endowments. Man, however, has received en- 
 
22 The Chinese Painted hy Themselves. 
 
 dowments from Nature, and he enumerates them. 
 They are: a respectful physiognomy, soft speech> 
 acute hearing, piercing sight, passionless reflection. 
 These particular states of our faculties shoiald be 
 unremittingly developed. 
 
 The basis, therefore, of the philosophic system of 
 Confucius is Respect, as Charity is the basis of the 
 evangelical doctrine. Respect addresses itself to 
 actions; Charity to individuals— or, to speak' more 
 precisely, to ' our neighbour.' 
 
 I imagine — it is a caprice of imagination — that 
 Confucius had a glimpse of that Charity which 
 creates a ' neighbour.' But our moralist dared nbt 
 aim at such perfection; it required a divine pre- 
 sumption to believe in the existence of a ' neighbour.' 
 He preferred leaving the initiative of Charity to 
 man ; and if he gives him the key to arrive at human 
 perfection', he does not despair of humanity receiving 
 some benefit from it. 
 
 I have no pretension to give religious lessons, still 
 less to convert, inasmuch as Confucius leaves every- 
 one free to worship God as he pleases. I will, how- 
 ever, remark that this system, which consists in 
 raising the heart of man, in order to direct all his 
 thoughts to God, as a sort of consequence of moral 
 good, lacks neither grandeur nor logic. It seenis 
 right that the human being should adorn himself 
 with all the splendours of virtue to communicate 
 with the Divine Being; and to present adoration 
 
Religion and Philosophy. 23 
 
 as an aim is an elevated, sublime idea, which satis- 
 fies the mind and captivates the reason. 
 
 I shall perhaps be accused of embellishing the 
 subject, and only showing the beauty of theories. 
 My reader knows better than I that books have 
 magnificent bindings, and are very seldom opened — 
 that precepts do not make everybody virtuous, and 
 that to know them, and apply them, are different 
 operations. I have heard it said that our morality 
 is like the dead languages that are no longer spoken 
 — it has almost been called archaeological : but I am 
 acquainted with other moralities which have had the 
 same destiny ; and the maxims of Equality and 
 Fraternity — I might even say of Liberty — appear 
 to me to give more work to the speech-makers than 
 to practical disciples. Criticism of this kind is not 
 difficult : by turns the individuals composing the 
 great tribe of man love to discuss the enormous 
 motes in their neighbours' eyes, and forget the im- 
 perceptible beam in their own. These are incon- 
 sistencies which throw into all the more relief the 
 maxims of Confucius : for with a little more respect 
 and less negligence, life would be more dignified and 
 more estimable. 
 
 I return to the practical maxims. Confucius has 
 a number of small means to overcome great errors : 
 it is like homoeopathy applied to the diseases of the 
 mind. He forbids, to cite one of these means, fixed 
 ideas — that is, prejudice. He says all men are the 
 
24 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 same, the ancient and the modern ; and the good of 
 the ' one is the same as the good of the other : they 
 do not differ. To imitate the ancients in the wisdom 
 of their conduct, and to endeavour to know them, 
 are the best means to know one's self. 
 
 In a word, he tries to create a general point of 
 view, uniting all consciences. No one will escape 
 its magnetism ; and without reserve, without the 
 conception of another ideal, every spirit will turn 
 towards the sun of the moral world to receive its 
 beneficial light. 
 
 He says likewise : 
 
 ' Enter the secret recesses of Nature, and study 
 good and evil : you will be filled with the feeling, of/ 
 Nature herself ; and in spite of the vast dimensioiis 
 of the universe, and the distances separating social 
 situations, you will conceive in your inmost soul the 
 principle of the equality of creatures. 
 
 ' If you maintain conscience, you will restrict 
 desire, and arrive at the ideal of terrestrial life, 
 which is tranquillity of spirit. 
 
 ' Tranquillity is a kind of vigilant attention. It is 
 when tranquillity is perfect that the human faculties 
 display all their resources, because they are enlight- 
 ened by reason and sustained by knowledge.' 
 
 But I must stop short ; it is unnecessary to further 
 develop this magnificent doctrine, which constitutes 
 one of the niost splendid tributes made by man to 
 his Creator. 
 
Religion and Philosophy. 25 
 
 The ancient worship sanctioned by Confucius ad- 
 mitted neither images nor priests, but merely certain 
 ceremonies forming the rules of a cultus. These 
 ceremonies are but little noticed by minds occupied 
 by the principles. 
 
 Religious unity does not exist in China. Where 
 does it exist ? Unity is a state of perfection no- 
 where to be found. But if China has several leading 
 religions, I hasten to state she has but three. That 
 is moderate enough. 
 
 Besides the religion of Confucius, there is that of 
 Lao-Tse, which is now only practised by the lower 
 
 5s, and admits of metempsychosis; and the religion 
 ^o, or Buddhism, a doctrine appertaining to meta- 
 sics, in which admirable points of view are to be 
 found. 
 
 According to Buddhism the material world is an 
 illusion ; man should endeavour to isolate himself 
 in the midst of Nature — to abstract hiniself. It is 
 the doctrine of contemplation in God — that is to say, 
 in the immaterial essence. The aim of this ideal 
 life is to produce ecstasy ; then the divine principle 
 takes possession of the soul, penetrates it, and death 
 consummates the mystic union. Such is the abstract 
 principle of that religion which has its temples, altars, 
 and a pompous ritual. I may add that the Buddhist 
 monks, who live in vast monasteries, possess great 
 riches. 
 
 In China, as in all other countries, there exist 
 
26 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 sincere believers and a great number of the indif- 
 ferent. 
 
 Indifference is a sort of negligence attaching to 
 spiritual things ; it is a disease which receives no 
 medical treatment. Wherever there are men there 
 will be some who are indifferent. Religious hatred, 
 ' however, has no place among our national customs ; 
 to me it is a source of amazement. I can under- 
 stand that one may hate — a person, for instance r 
 but a religious idea — a religion 1 
 . As to atheism, it has been called a product of 
 modern civilization. We are not yet sufficiently 
 civilized to have no belief. 
 
 MARRIAGE. 
 
 IN China, the old bachelor and old maid are 
 considered phenomenal. 
 I purposely begin the subject under the pro- 
 tection of this observation : I shall be the better 
 enabled to make the most singular statements with- 
 out exciting too much surprise. The old bachelor 
 and old [maid are essentially Western productions ; 
 and that kind of existence is absolutely contrary to 
 our ideas. 
 
 In Europe it is said every valid man is a soldier ; 
 with us the same formula may hold good; it 
 
Marriage. 27 
 
 suffices to substitute for the word 'soldier' that of 
 ' husband.' 
 
 Quite seriously, celibacy is looked upon as a vice. 
 Reasons must be given to excuse it. In the West 
 one must have excuses to explain marriage. Perhaps 
 this saying is exaggerated, but it is Parisian ; and 
 when we speak of marriage in China, we are at the 
 antipodes of marriage in Paris. The details that 
 follow are therefore necfessarily curious. 
 
 The Chinese marry at a very early age : usually 
 before twenty. It is by no means rare to see young 
 people of sixteen marry girls of fourteen ; and there 
 are grandmothers of thirty ! It is useless to seek 
 climatic causes for this : it is a consequence of the 
 family institution itself, and of the ancestral cultus. 
 In the north and in the south of China, that is, in 
 regions of tropical heat or of Siberian cold, the 
 peculiarity remains the same : early marriage is 
 universal throughout the empire. 
 
 The first preoccupation of the parents is the 
 boy's marriage as soon as adolescence appears, 
 and even long before that period they make their 
 choice. They have already announced to friends 
 their wish to unite their son to the daughter of the 
 latter. It is agreed between them to realize the 
 wish when the time shall arrive. Often the choice 
 of a wife falls within the circle of the family itself. 
 There are also friends' friends who busy themselves 
 with making marriages, who serve as disinterested 
 
28 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 intermediaries, and sometimes couple the right per- 
 sons. For with us, as elsewhere, marriage is a lottery, 
 and the couple only know each other after they are 
 married. 
 
 To go courting is an unknown duty, and moreover 
 one that our manners do not admit. In Europe, 
 before- marriage, a few weeks are given as an appren- 
 ticeship in the art of love. It is a sort of first stage, 
 a kind of truce preceding the great battle, and the 
 interval is filled up with f^tes and great dinners. It 
 is a charming existence, serving as preface to mar- 
 riage, and whose memories will become all the more 
 precious as the years of marriage roll on. It seems 
 evident that nobody wishes to incur the responsi- 
 bility of the projected union. They say to the young 
 people, ' Learn to know each other ; you have two 
 months, and then you can say "Yes," or "No." Do 
 they know each other? or rather, can they know 
 each other ? Evidently not. I conclude, then, that 
 it is best for the parents to be the sole responsible 
 matrim9nial agents, and for the children to marry 
 when they are told. 
 
 I have heard the phrase : ' The happiest period of 
 marriage is before the marriage takes place.' A 
 Parisian would say that only a married man could 
 have made that assertion ; one must confess, how- 
 ever, that their manners are at least as curious as 
 ours. 
 
 Marriages are contracted upon principle between 
 
Marriage. 29 
 
 families of the same social standing. Certainly there 
 are eccentric marriages, but they are exceptions. 
 
 When the choice is settled — that is, when the 
 young girl has been fixed upon^the parents of the 
 future husband make an official demand in mar- 
 riage. That demand is followed by the ceremony of 
 betrothal. 
 
 On that occasion the parents exchange marriage- 
 contracts signed by the heads of the families and 
 themselves. The heads of families with us replace 
 the civil officers and notaries. Then the bridegroom 
 sends the bride two bracelets of gold or silver, 
 according to the fortune of the family, as betrothal 
 presents. These customs are the same as in Europe ; 
 but in China they are accomplished without the 
 presence of the bride. The bracelets are tied 
 together by a scarlet thread, symbolizing the con- 
 jugal bond. 
 
 The presentation of the wedding gift takes place 
 some time afterwards, and is the occasion of pompous 
 ceremonies. 
 
 The bridegroom sends his bride a score or two 
 baskets, richly ornamented, and containing silk, 
 cotton, embroidery, flowers — in a word, everything 
 pertaining to the bride's toilet. To these presents, 
 which may be of great value, are added exquisite 
 viands for the family, and in particular specially 
 made cakes, which the family of the bride • have to 
 distribute to all their friends, with the official an- 
 
30 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 nouncement of their daughter's marriage. On her 
 part the bride, after receipt of the gift, sends her 
 betrothed a dress, or the uniform of his rank if he is 
 already a Mandarin, to be worn on the wedding-day. 
 In each of the two families a great festival on the 
 day of betrothal unites relations and mutual friends. 
 
 The marriage has always to be celebrated during 
 the year in which the present has been sent. On 
 the eve of the day fixed for the ceremony, the young 
 girl's parents send to the husband everything con- 
 stituting his wife's dowry — her dresses, plate, furni- 
 ture, linen — in fact, all her household goods. The 
 transmission of these objects is always made the 
 occasion of much ostentation. 
 
 The evening of the same day at seven o'clock the 
 husband's family send his bride a palanquin lined 
 with embroidered red satin. This is preceded by a 
 band of musicians ; servants carrying lanterns or 
 torches ; if the family has official rank, a red umbrella 
 and a green fan (these are. the official insignia), and 
 the tablets upon which are inscribed all the titles 
 the family has possessed for several generations. 
 The same evening the bride's family gives a grand 
 dinner called ' invitation,' and the palanquin is dis- 
 played in the middle of the apartment to be admired 
 by the guests. During the dinner the musicians sent 
 by the son-in-law discourse joyful music. The hus- 
 band's family likewise gives a grand invitation 
 dinner, and all the objects forming the bride's dowry 
 
Marriage. 31 
 
 are exposed to the general gaze. On the wedding- 
 day, in the morning, four persons, chosen among the 
 relatives or friends of the bridegroom, proceed to the 
 house of the bride, and invite her to come to the 
 house of her betrothed. She gets into the palanquin, 
 and is carried by four or eight men, according to the 
 rank of her family and of that she is about to 
 enter. 
 
 Her palanquin is preceded by the four envoys, and 
 the procession thus formed proceeds to the house of 
 the bridegroom's family. Its arrival is announced 
 by joyous flourishes of music and the detonation of 
 fireworks. The palanquin is then carried, into the 
 apartment where the family, the friends, bridesmaids, 
 and groomsmen are assembled. One, of the latter, 
 carrying a metallic mirror before him, approaches 
 the palanquin, the curtains of which are still close 
 drawn, and salutes thrice. Then one of the brides- 
 maids, drawing aside the curtain, invites the bride 
 (who is still veiled) to alight and enter her room, 
 where the bridegroom awaits her in ceremonial 
 costume. This is the moment in which the pair see 
 each other for the first time. After this interview 
 they are taken to the drawing-room by two persons 
 who have already b^en a long time married, and 
 have had male children. These are the veterans pf 
 marriage, and we designate them 'the happy couple.' 
 
 In the middle of the drawing-room is a table upon 
 which have been placed a censer, fruits, and wine. In 
 
3? The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 our idea this table is exposed to the sight of heaven. 
 The pair then prostrate themselves before the table 
 to thank the Supreme Being for having created 
 them, the earth for having nourished them, the 
 Emperor for protecting, and their parents for 
 educating them. Then the bridegroom presents 
 his bride to the members of his family, and to those 
 of his friends who are present. 
 
 During the ceremony the music continues playing, 
 and also during the dinner which succeeds it. 
 
 The simplicity of these ceremonies is worthy of 
 remark. They are neither religious nor civil. No 
 priest or functionary is present ; there is neither 
 consecration nor legal act. The only witnesses of 
 the marriage are God, the family, and the friends. 
 After dinner the doors of the house remain open all 
 the evening, and all the neighbours and even the 
 passengers in the street have the right to enter the 
 house and see the bridfe, who stands in the drawing- 
 room, separated from the public by a table, upon 
 which are placed two lighted candles. 
 
 On the morrow it is the bride's turn to take her 
 husband to visit her own family, where the same 
 ceremonies are performed. 
 
 The foregoing is a general view of the marriage 
 ceremony. It only varies in rich families with respect 
 to the splendour of details, and it may easily be 
 imagined with what magnificence such an outline 
 may be filled in. If fashion allowed processions 
 
Marriage, 33 
 
 in Paris, marriages might be as pompous as 
 funerals. 
 
 But they are the reverse: marriage ceremonial 
 has had its day in the West, and is suppressed as 
 jTiuch as possible. It is only in the country that 
 marriages may still be called weddings ; there they 
 dance, sing, and enjoy themselves. 
 
 The marriages I have seen in high life are about 
 the least lively proceedings imaginable. Nobody 
 goes to the civil marriage, and those who tolerate the 
 religious consecration are in a hurry to leave the 
 church afterwards. The pair have scarcely returned 
 before they change their dress and are off to the 
 railway station. Really, it might be an improve- 
 ment to have the mayor and clergyman in a sleeping- 
 car, and get the marriage over quickly before the train 
 starts. The guests could assemble on the platform, 
 and the locomotives might be requested to execute a 
 chorus to work upon the bride's feelings. I expect 
 this is what it will come to by-and-by. 
 
 I am simple enough to believe in the influence of 
 ceremonies ; they induce respect for the act accom- 
 plished. In spite of yourself, you feel the grandeur 
 of something you are unable to define, but which 
 nevertheless exists. Ceremonies make us conscious 
 of a mystery, and by their aid we rise superior to 
 our petty weaknesses. The less imposing the cere- 
 mony, the less important appears the act. For this 
 reason marriage in Europe has lost its charm. 
 
 3 
 
34 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Singular to state, the honours rendered to the 
 dead remain the same; public ceremony is re- 
 spected, and mourning is not a subject for discus- 
 sion. The reason is, that the ceremonies of the 
 living are easy to ridicule ; but in presence of death 
 custom is left alone, and even the most practical 
 refrain from interfering with the ceremony of grief. 
 
 The cultivation of the serious has in modern 
 civilization substituted itself for every other cult. 
 Formerly there M^ere customs of a fascinating de- 
 scription, as I have learned from ancient books; 
 people then lived in more direct communication with 
 Nature. I have noticed in these ancient descrip- 
 tions many traits of resemblahce to our present 
 customs, which lead me to believe that change is i;ot 
 progress — or at least rarely so. When I examine 
 the handsome dresses of the old times — the plumed 
 hats and embroidered mantles — I am compelled to 
 acknowledge how ugly are the black tubes used as 
 headgear, and those curious black coats that every- 
 body wears, especially the servants. 
 
 I would wager that if a complete history of cos- 
 tumes and customs wisre written, their changes 
 would be found to correspond with some event of a 
 serious nature. Every local custom maintained love 
 of the natal soil ; costume maintained rank. Nowa- 
 days in the West everybody looks like everybody 
 else, and nobody cares much for anything. If this 
 is the desired progress, it is complete, and I admire 
 it without envy. 
 
Divorce. 3^ 
 
 DIVORCE. 
 
 DIVORCE exists in China in a certain way. 
 I have said that marriage created an in- 
 dissoluble bond in the eyes of the family ; 
 the legislator alone has introduced an exceptional 
 disposition, and h^s only introduced it in the interest 
 of the family itself. In truth, divorce is a legal 
 necessity. 
 
 The reader need not here expect to find an argu- 
 ment for or against the law of divorce. I am no 
 competitor with either Alexandre Dumas ftls or M. 
 Naquet. I state what we think of divorce in China, 
 and am unable to say what we should think of it if 
 the family were organized in China as it is among 
 Western nations. 
 
 Laws are made for societies according to their 
 transformations ; laws are the monuments of evolu- 
 tions — I had almost said revolutions. It is possible, 
 therefore, that this may be a favourable conjuncture 
 for the legal introduction of divorce in France ; it is 
 quite admissible, but personally I am unable to give 
 an opinion. 
 
 All that I know is that in the year 253 before the 
 Christian era, the epoch at which our code was pro- 
 mulgated, divorce already existed in China. When 
 was it first made legal ? The answer is obscure ; 
 
 3—2 
 
36 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 but Voltaire very pithily states : ' Divorce originated 
 about the same period as marriage ; I believe mar- 
 riage is a few weeks more ancient.' Wit finds a 
 solution for every problem. 
 
 Whatever may be the exact age of divorce, it has 
 not been lightly instituted, and it has accompani- 
 ments in the code making it a serious matter. The 
 law has foreseen certain circumstances unneces- 
 sary to specify, and which are within the knowledge 
 of all married people. Upon this head the East and 
 West are perfectly agreed. But we have something 
 original also. We have two grounds for divorce 
 unknown in Europe : they consist in disobedience 
 aniounting to insult towards the parents of either of 
 the married couple, and in sterility proved at a cer- 
 tain age fixed by the law. 
 
 These principles will appear strange, no doubt ; 
 but, recalling the organization of the family as I have 
 already described it, the reason for these two grounds 
 of divorce may be understood. They will confirm 
 the statement I have made as to the important 
 position of the family in the social edifice of China. 
 
 All these observations are but preliminary. The - 
 only interesting question with regard to divorce is, 
 whether it is practised. Everyone I have met, who 
 has questioned me upon our customs, has always 
 asked : ' Do they divorce much in China ?' The 
 question surprised me at first, but on reflection I 
 comprehended that it was in fact the only import- 
 
Divorce. 37 
 
 ant point. When for the first time the toothache 
 compels you to go to a dentist, you ask your friends 
 * if it hurts much.' The unknown disquiets you. 
 At the present time there is a similar feeling in 
 France with regard to divorce : people are nervous, 
 and so they ask, ' Do they divorce much in your 
 country ?' Be of good cheer, simple and timorous 
 souls ! 
 
 Divorce is not so dangerous as it looks. The fear 
 of it makes it terrible, like the children's bogey. To 
 render it harmless it suffices to know that it is a 
 remedy worse than the disease. This is its true defi- 
 nition in China. The possibility that it may be use- 
 ful excuses its existence ; but it has the essentfal 
 taint of a ' necessary evil,' because it is a testimony 
 of human imperfection, and breaks the charm of 
 marriage — that union projected and contracted by 
 the family for the family. 
 
 The only serious ground of divorce, except that of 
 adultery, which is punished by the husband despoti- 
 cally, consists in sterility, seeing that the end of 
 marriage is to give children to the family, to honour 
 their parents and continue the ancestral cult. Well, 
 then, even when sterility of the wife is proven at the 
 legal age, even in that case the husband does not use 
 his legal privilege. 
 
 Divorce is a violent rupture ; and to coldly deter- 
 mine upon it, a man must be able to forget the 
 woman he has loved, in spite of her sterility. Can 
 
38 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 she be made responsible for a misfortune from which 
 she suffers as much as her husband ? Of course not, 
 and so the pair remain united. That is the result of 
 experience. It is quite certain a man will reflect 
 maturely before changing his life ; he will ask him- 
 self whether, if he takes another legitimate wife, he 
 will have children ; perhaps after all it is a risk . . . 
 Why, then, sadden existence by such doubtful experi- 
 ments ? And so they remain united, and adopt a 
 child from among the children of the family, con- 
 formably to the law of adoption. That is a means 
 frequently employed to cure the misfortune of 
 sterility, especially when the family is rich. 
 
 If I were to multiply examples I should arrive at 
 the same conclusion, that divorce, authorized by the 
 law, is condemned by custom. It is an undeniable 
 fact. Whatever may be said to the contrary, divorce 
 is not a law of nature ; it is the consequence of a 
 certain social condition ; and in fact, legal or illegal, 
 does it not exist everywhere in this country ? What 
 are separations but a kind of divorce ? Only I am 
 inclined to think that in the countries where divorce 
 does not legally exist, there would, if it did exist, be 
 fewer divorces than there are actually separations. 
 To be divorced ! separated if you like, but divorced ! 
 they would think twice, as we do, before coming to 
 that extremity; half-measures are not sufficient to 
 cause serious reflection. How' many couples there 
 are who separate, and who under the same circum- 
 
Divorce. 39 
 
 stances would not divorce ! But I find I am plead- 
 ing the cause of divorce, for which I ask pardon, 
 because the respective situations of Western society 
 and ours are absolutely different. With us a woman 
 . marries without dowry. The sublime phrase of 
 Harpagon — ' without dowry ' — would be devoid of 
 meaning in China. Money and woman have no 
 connection with each other ; women do not inherit. 
 I, certainly have no desire to slander the fair sex; 
 but that is one of the most fortunate arrangements 
 of China, and one of the shrewdest. Marriage for 
 money has no existence. 
 
 I have sometimes tried to explain to my fellow- 
 countrymen what a marriage for money vvas, and 
 they have always understood that it was a stroke of 
 business, a bargain. With us the parents calculate 
 long beforehand the honourable testimonials of the 
 family in which they seek a wife for their son, and 
 seek information as to the virtues of the young girl. 
 In the West they count up the amount of the dowry, 
 and calculate the expectations — that is, of deaths of 
 relations ; and when all is exactly counted and added 
 up, and a round sum is arrived at, the marriage is 
 arranged — bon parti ! 
 
 Is this not the fact ? Why would Moli^re's sans 
 dot be sublime, if it were not the case ? 
 
 Marriages for money are the greatest insult that 
 can be offered to women. They, however, do not 
 appear to resent it, for while they allow themselves 
 
40 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 to be bought, they often have even the courage to sell 
 themselves. 
 
 I confess, divorce seems more necessary in such a 
 social condition as this. Marriage is such a slender 
 bond ! Ah ! our customs are more solid, more dig- 
 nified ; and I cannot, with the best will in the world, 
 admire this mixture of solemn traditions and of 
 petty trivialities, resembling a performance of comic 
 operetta. Thus constituted, marriage has become 
 so fragile that it requires the most delicate treatment 
 in its complications ; and divorce being of the nature 
 of a piece of heavy artillery, I fear it may blow away 
 whatever little goo4 is still left in French marriages. 
 That, however, is not my business. 
 
 The united couple is high in honour in China. An 
 old song in the ' Book of Verses ' celebrates a united 
 couple in a simple ode, of which the following is a 
 translation : 
 
 '"The cock has crowed !" says the wife. 
 The man replies : " It is still dark, 
 It is not yet day." 
 
 ' " Rise and look at the heavens ! 
 Already the morning star appears ; 
 'Tis time to depart. Remember thou 
 To bring down with thine arrows 
 The wild goose and duck. 
 
 ' " Thou hast shot thy arrows with good aim. 
 Let us drink a little wine, 
 And pass our life together ; 
 
Dworce. 41 
 
 Let our music be in harmony, 
 
 That no discord 
 
 May offend our ears !"' 
 
 Such is the song of a pair who are neither Romeo 
 nor Juliet, although the sentiment is worthy of them. 
 She has no other ambition than to inculcate duties, 
 and not to idealize a passion. And this hunter — 
 do not suppose he is some poor mountaineer un- 
 worthy of your interest, obliged to hunt to sustain 
 his wretched existence. It is a man of opulence, for 
 the ode terminates thus : 
 
 ' Offer precious stones 
 To thy friends who come to visit thee ; 
 They will take them away 
 Hanging at their girdles.' 
 
 I have said that divorce was condemned by custom. 
 It is above all in aristocratic society that it is 
 despised. Rather than give to publicity the secrets 
 of private life, when the causes of rupture are not 
 extremely grave, they prefer the system of mutual 
 concessions. 
 
 Moreover, the woman is from motives of vanity 
 interested in preserving peace, and not desiring a 
 divorce, for she possesses nothing except the honours 
 attaching to her rank as wife. 
 
 Marriage gives a woman all the privileges enjoyed 
 by the husband, even that of wearing the uniform of 
 his rank. Under these conditions divorce would be 
 
42 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 the greatest folly ; and if the wife understands this, 
 the marriage will remain unbroken. 
 
 Although these arrangements are Chinese, they 
 are not on that account less able. It is almost im- 
 possible in our country to say, Cherchez la femme. 
 That is a "Western idea. 
 
 Women, as I will show in another chapter, are as 
 happy in China as in Europe ; but not having the 
 idea of personality too highly developed, they are not 
 inclined to scandal or intrigue. 
 
 Our aristocratic families are above everything 
 aristocratic. They have that pride of rank which 
 maintains decorous living, and occasions to laugh at 
 their expense would be sought in vain. In the West 
 the expression has been used : ' I kaovt no place 
 where so many things happen as in the monde.' 
 That is true enough. Everything happens there. 
 This kind of monde is to be found everywhere ; but I 
 notice that in France it is ridiculous, which in China 
 is not the case. 
 
 Among the working classes , divorce occurs very 
 rarely. There every member of the family works 
 to earn the daily bread, and disputes are a waste of 
 time. The father, mother, and children go to the 
 fields together as in ancient times. If they quarrel, 
 as no doubt they do sometimes, they soon make it 
 up again. After rain fine weather ! If it happens 
 that the reasons of the dispute become grave — ^when, 
 for instance, the husband squanders the property of 
 
Divorce. 
 
 43 
 
 the community, and the wife goes to the magistrate 
 to obtain a divorce, that officer usually refrains from 
 pronouncing a final decision. He is the judge, and 
 in the exercise of his discretion he waits for his ad- 
 monitions to produce a good effect upon the culprit's 
 mind. His prudence is nearly always clear-sighted. 
 Finally, there is another consideration to be weighed 
 by a wife determined to seek a divorce. This is the 
 thought of her children, and the hopes she rests upon 
 their future. In China it is the mother who brings up 
 the children; and we shall never be civilized enough 
 to believe there can be a more perfect education. , 
 The mother transfers her ambition to the hearts of 
 her children. By them she may become noble and 
 honoured ; and when such a feeling as this resides 
 in a woman's heart it is a force. In China we have 
 made woman a being always hoping. It is this hope 
 she opposes like a solid wall to the troubles that 
 besiege her when her husband makes her too 
 wretched. She is patient in order that her children 
 may by-and-by recompense her, and avenge her of 
 her husband's neglect. 
 
 I could not terminate this study without a word 
 upon adultery, which European law does not punish 
 as a crime. 
 
 With us it is admitted that the husband alone has 
 the right to kill his wife when he finds her in flagrante 
 delicto. That settles the question of divorce. 
 
 So many absurdities, however, have been written 
 
44 The. Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 in Europe with regard to punishments supposed to 
 be inflicted in China on culpable wives, that I cannot 
 refrain from quoting one of them. Alexandre Dumas 
 fils says in his work, 'La Question du pivorce,' 
 p. 85 : ' In Tonquin and China a woman taken in 
 adultery is awarded a punishment that Philyra, the 
 mother of the centaur Chiron, had doubtless found 
 very agreeable. True, it was a god who had assumed 
 the form of a horse for her sake. After this punish- 
 ment, an elephant trained to these executions seizes 
 the woman with his trunk, raises her in the air, lets 
 her fall, and crushes her uiider his feet.' I might be 
 satisfied with the text as its own refutation. The 
 absurd surpasses the probable. But this example 
 shows the system adopted to depict our manners 
 and customs. The fact is, there are fewer elephants 
 in China than in France. There are perhaps two or 
 three at Pekin shown as curiosities, as animals are 
 in menageries. But it is the fashion to describe 
 China as the stronghold of barbarism. If there is in 
 any part of the world some cruel, inhuman custom 
 — what ! you cannot guess where ! In China, of 
 course ! 
 
 These extravagances of the imagination should be 
 revised and either proved or retracted, were there no 
 other motive than the abstract love of truth. 
 
Woman. 45 
 
 WOMAN. 
 
 THE Chinese woman is usually imagined as 
 a pitiful being, scarcely able to walk, and 
 imprisoned in her household among the 
 servants and concubines of her husband. This is 
 another flight of imagination to be cut short, how- 
 ever much it may hurt the feelings of veracious 
 travellers. 
 
 There is a striking similarity between what is re- 
 counted on this head and the celebrated definition 
 of a lobster, which a certain dictionary solemnly 
 stated to be a ' little red fish that walks backwards.' 
 Of course it is, hard to alter an opinion to which one 
 is accustomed ; but in presence of evidence the most 
 honest course is to own one's mistake, and resolve 
 not to be taken in again. 
 
 Lobsters, then, are not red, nor ever have been ; 
 and a Chinese woman walks just as well as you or I. 
 She even runs upon her little feet, and, to add the 
 last drop to the story-teller's bitter cup, she goes out 
 walking, or in her palanquin, and has not even a veil 
 to hide her from indiscreet gazers. 
 
 What a curious book, for the Chinese, might be 
 made with all that is said about them ! What would 
 be their astonishment to find themselves so imper- 
 fectly known, when so many travellers have passed 
 
46 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 through their cities, and received their hospitality ! 
 But one of the least flattering errors, and one which 
 I venture to rectify, is that which makes woman a 
 ridiculous, grotesque being, without influence, created 
 only to bring children into the world. 
 
 This is a singular idea to create of our women. 
 Certainly, they do not resemble women in the West ; 
 but they are women notwithstanding, with all those 
 qualities impossible to define ; and, with some slight 
 shades of difference, all are daughters of -Eve, if by 
 that expression is to be understood the instinctive 
 disposition which impels them to henpeck the male 
 sex. The best service to render a woman is to guide 
 her, and to flatter her self-love by allowing her to 
 believe she is guiding you. 
 
 Our traditions allow us to promote the happiness, 
 of woman, inasmuch as with us the masculine is 
 represented by the sun, and the feminine by the 
 moon — the one illuminates, the other is illuminated; 
 the one is radiant with splendour, the other borrows 
 from it its pale reflections. But the sun is a benefi- 
 cent and generous luminary, and the light i]t bestows 
 upon the moon has also the gift of illumination ; it 
 has a tempered softness, calming the wounded spirit, 
 and soothing the passions of the heart. 
 
 I have observed the sun is of the masculine gender 
 in most languages, except in German, in which the 
 moon is masculine and the sun feminine. This is a 
 curious exception, which would be much commented 
 
Woman. 
 
 47 
 
 by a sage of the Celestial Empire. He would slip- 
 pose the German women were occupied with politics, 
 and, managed the helm of the State, while the men 
 worked at their daughters' trousseaux. This would 
 not be altogether conformable to the truth. 
 
 However, since exceptions are said to "prove rules, 
 we may admit as a law the superiority of the mas- 
 culine gender over the feminine. In China this law 
 has the force of a law of Nature, and gives birth to 
 certain consequences which have founded customs 
 and created duties. 
 
 Man and woman, as members of the family, have 
 special duties, to which different systems of educa- 
 tion are adapted. Their social position is settled 
 beforehand, and each is brought up to follow the 
 fitting direction. Man and woman then receive a 
 separate education. The one is occupied with studies 
 leading to State employment ; the other adorns her 
 intelligence with useful knowledge, and learns the 
 invaluable science of the household., 
 
 We consider the depths of science a useless 
 burden to women; not that we insult them by 
 supposing they are inferior to us in ability to study 
 art and science, but because it would be leading- 
 them out of their true path. Woman has no need 
 to perfect herself : she is born perfect ; and science 
 would teach her neither grace nor sweetness — those 
 two lords of the domestic hearth inspired by Nature. 
 
 These principles are essential to Chinese manners. 
 
48 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 and what distinguishes them is that they are applied 
 literally, like a necessity. 
 
 Our women may be unacquainted with the ante- 
 chambers of ministers land fashionable receptions, 
 in which the European woman assumes all the 
 seductions of her sex to charm the society of men ;' 
 but they have no need to regret the loss. Her exist- 
 ence has no importance in a political point of view, 
 and the men manage their own affairs; but cross 
 the threshold of the house, and you enter her 
 domain, governed with an authority that European 
 women certainly do not possess. 
 
 In France the wife follows the condition of her 
 husband, but in no part of the world is she more 
 subject to the husband. I was simple enough to 
 suppose that this word 'condition' was of great 
 significance, but I soon discovered that the law 
 must be studied in order to understand it, and to 
 perceive that it gives the wife no power .what- 
 ever. 
 
 By marrying, a woman becomes a minor, an put- 
 law — she is under guardianship; and the law em- 
 powers the husband to prevent his wife from disposing 
 of her own property. These are details of manners 
 and customs which might well astonish the Chinese 
 women. Th&y can replace their husbands in every 
 circumstance of ownership ; and the law recognises 
 their right to sell and to buy, to alienate common 
 property, to draw bills, to give their children in mar- 
 
Woman. 49 
 
 riage, and give them what dowry they please. In a 
 word, they are free ; and it will be the more easily 
 understood that this should be the case when I state 
 that in China there are neither notaries nor lawyers, 
 and it has therefore been unnecessary to create 
 legal exceptions in order to provide employment for 
 that class. 
 
 Family life is the education which forms the 
 Chinese woman, and she only aspires to be learned 
 in the art of governing her family. She superin- 
 tends her children's education, and is content to 
 devote her existence to her family. If fate gives 
 her a good husband, she is certainly the happiest of 
 women. 
 
 I have said elsewhere that the honours obtained 
 by the husband are shared by the wife, and that 
 even by her children she may attain every satis- 
 faction of vanity— that weakness of the human heart 
 excusable in every clime. 
 
 It is therefore her interest to marry, in order to 
 elevate her rank ; it is even her interest to perform 
 all the duties of maternity. 
 
 The existence of our women is more to be envied 
 than criticized, since it is conformable to the order 
 estabhshed by Providence ; and I know plenty of 
 Europeans who would endorse my opinion if they 
 dared. 
 
 This subject would lose its interest if I forbore to 
 
 4 
 
50 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 mention concubinage : that is the catchword of this 
 section of my essay. 
 
 The ill-odour attaching to the word itself will 
 prevent me from finding an impartial reader; for 
 you may have as many mistresses as you please, but 
 not a concubine. It all depends upon the name. 
 Had it been said the Chinese had mistresses, they 
 would have escaped criticism. These are distinc- 
 tions difficult to explain. The mistress or concubine 
 in China differs from the mistress in Europe inas- 
 much as in China she is recognised — she is a kind 
 of legitiinate mistress. 
 
 Circumstances may exist, quite easily, under which 
 a marriage ceases to be what it ought to be. Special 
 reasons may arise to cut short a husband's matri- 
 monial career. Frequently change of temper or in- 
 firmities may be the cause. In Europe men easily 
 find mistresses, and the double menage is not an un- 
 known institution in the Christian world. 
 
 According to our social system, in which the 
 future of the rising generation is the chief care, and 
 in which the family prosperity is the family honour 
 itself, the dispersion of children born out of wedlock 
 would be contrary to established custom. Concu- 
 binage was therefore instituted with this object, 
 and it leaves no excuse for seeking adventures away 
 from home. 
 
 The institution itself is very difficult to tolerate on 
 first acquaintance — to a European it appears in- 
 
Woman. 5 1 
 
 delicate; but under the cloak of delicacy much 
 greater crimes are committed when children born 
 of illicit unions are thrown upon the world with an 
 ineffaceable stain upon their condition, and find 
 themselves with neither resources nor family. 1 
 consider these evils graver than the brutality of 
 concubinage. 
 
 What excuses the system is, that it is tolerated by 
 the legitimate wife ; and she at least knows the value 
 of the sacrifice she makes ; for love binds hearts to- 
 gether in China as elsewhere. But true love weighs 
 two evils, and in the family interest chooses the 
 lesser. 
 
 Monogamy is the character of Chinese marriage. 
 The law punishes most severely any person who 
 contracts a second marriage while the first exists. 
 The institution of concubinage takes nothing from 
 the indissolubility of marriage. I might even say, 
 at the risk of surprising my lady readers, that it 
 strengthens that indissolubility. The concubine can 
 only enter a family with the authorization of the 
 legitimate wife, and under certain conditions. This 
 consent is not lightly given, and is only accorded 
 in a spirit of devotion to the family, and in order 
 that the husband may have children to honour their 
 ancestors. 
 
 I perceive that I am trying to excuse this custom 
 rather than defend , it, and am forgetting that 
 after all it is only a faithful copy of the manners 
 
 4—2 
 
52 The Chinese Painted by Themselves, 
 
 of ancient times. Do we not read in the 
 Bible : ' Now Sarah, Abiram's wife, bare him no 
 children ; and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, 
 whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto 
 Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me 
 from bearing ; I pray thee go in unto my maid ; it 
 may be that I may obtain children by her. And 
 Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarah.' 
 
 This is, then, the horrible example that our customs 
 have copied. To be truthful, I ought to confess thaty 
 imitating in her turn the conduct of Hagar,a concubine 
 will often abuse the peculiar situation she occupies^ 
 by despising the legitimate wife. These are the 
 drawbacks of the institution. Although therefore 
 the custom exists, and is not considered immoral, it 
 is not rare to find families into which a concubine 
 will never be allowed to enter under any circum- 
 stances. 
 
 At all events, concubines are nearly always taken 
 from the lower class, or from among poor relations.. 
 The children are considered to be the legitimate 
 children of the legitimate wife, in case the latter has 
 none of her own ; if, on the contrary, the wife has- 
 children already, the others are considered as recog- 
 nised children — ^that is to say, as having the same 
 rights as the legitimate children. 
 
 The concubine is bound to obey the legitimate wife,. 
 and considers herself in her service. 
 
 That is all ! 
 
The Written Language. 53 
 
 THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 
 
 THE origin of language is a mystery to men 
 of science. When we examine a language 
 — that is, the group of sounds arranged in 
 a methodical manner, and expressing all the most 
 delicate shades of thought — we ask ourselves in 
 amazement, who could have created such a marvel ? 
 and when travelling over the various regions of the 
 world, we hear so many languages spoken, mutually 
 incomprehensible, we must agree that there have 
 been authors of languages, since they differ with 
 different peoples. 
 
 As it is certain these creations date from high 
 antiquity, we must conclude there has been an, 
 epoch of splendour in the early period of the world, 
 and that man's intelligence has been capable of 
 imagining and forming languages in the various 
 tribes of which human society was at that time 
 composed. 
 
 This, I think, is the deduction it is permissible to 
 draw. 
 
 Our authors are unable to explain this subject 
 more clearly than Western writers, although our 
 written literature is two thousand years more ancient 
 than Homer's poems. They, however, furnish some 
 indications as to the changes undergone by written 
 
54 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 language, indications which will doubtless be read 
 with interest by all those interested in archaeological 
 matters. 
 
 History states that China was ignorant of a written 
 language during the whole period between the creation 
 of the world and the year 3000 before the Christian 
 era. 
 
 The custom existed of making knots in cords, to 
 recall the remembrance of a circumstance. This 
 method of fixing an incident it is desired to recall 
 seems to have been preserved in the familiar knot in 
 'the handkerchief. 
 
 The absence of a written language recorded almost 
 officially possesses a certain interest, for the fact cha-, 
 racterizes a state of , ignorance, or a state of perfect 
 tranquillity. There exist still, in our extreme east, 
 certain tribes who have been sufficiently isolated from 
 the rest of the world to speak only a traditional 
 language free from any intermixture, and who are 
 ignorant of writing. There is reason to believe 
 that these tribes have preserved intact the lingual 
 roots composing their languages, and that a scholar 
 would find, in the study of these idioms, more than 
 one parallel to draw with the most celebrated 
 Oriental tongues. 
 
 It was after the year 3000 B.C. that an emperor, 
 named Tchang-Ki, invented letters called' Tsiang, 
 which he formed according to the constellations of 
 the stars. These characters did not bear the name 
 
The Written Language. ^^ 
 
 of letters, but of figures. They are ten centuries 
 more ancient than the characters invented by the 
 Egyptians. 
 
 These figures represented the objects themselves. 
 Certainly it was a very primitive system of writing ; 
 but the reahzed idea of the possibility of a written 
 language: and the efforts of future ages were to 
 produce more perfect processes, definitely fixing the 
 language and becoming the inseparable companions 
 of thought. 
 
 We can follow this progress athwart the ages ; for 
 history has preserved their trace. 
 
 At first we have only rough delineations represent- 
 ing objects. Later on, these sketches are modified, 
 and constitute letters called Li, which are still figures 
 representing objects, but in curved lines. These are 
 the characters used to compose the sacred books of 
 Confucius and Lao-Tze. 
 
 The transformations which followed these first 
 attempts were no longer of the same nature. The, 
 principle was changed, and characters were invented 
 called Tze (words) written according to the pronun- 
 ciation of the object. It was phonetic writing. 
 
 Later again, in the reign of the Emperor Tsang- 
 Ouang, of the Tcheon dynasty (783 B.C.), an acade- 
 mician, named Su - Lin, introduced the nattiral 
 principle of objects into writing. 
 
 These letters are called Ta-Tchiang. They have 
 been preserved in the sacred books Y-King, which 
 
56 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 alone escaped the flames when books were com- 
 manded to be burnt by the Emperor Tsin-Su- 
 Hoang. 
 
 These letters Ta-Tchiang answered for the purpose 
 of public instruction until the period of the new 
 transformation, in the reign of Tsing (b.c. 246). 
 The transformation was confined to the strokes, 
 which became straighter and in relief. These 
 characters are called the 'sticks of jade,' and are 
 still made use of in official- seals. The inscriptions 
 placed upon buildings and those which figure upon 
 vases of great value belong also to this category. 
 
 A century later another step in advance was made, 
 by the combination of all the ancient alphabets. 
 The characters thus formed are more regular in the 
 lines, and our present writing does not materially 
 differ from them. 
 
 All these successive transformations show with 
 what care our characters are composed, so many 
 different principles having .been applied to them. 
 They have been slowly perfected from age to age, 
 and each century adds a new development more in 
 accordance with the progress of inteUigence. At first 
 it is hke a rough diamond, rugged and without 
 lustre, which by degrees is worn and cut until the 
 deep limpidity of its facets is exposed to view. 
 
 Our writing, however, was still not fixed. At the 
 beginning of the first century an under-prefect named 
 Tcheng-Miao was thrown into prison. He addresses 
 
The Written Language. 57 
 
 a prayer for pardon to the Emperor, and composes 
 his characters on the basis of the writing Li. Three 
 thousand words were used in the request, and their 
 formation being easier and more simple than the 
 method hitherto adopted, the Emperor acceded to 
 the prayer ; ordering at the same time the introduc- 
 tion of the Li system into public documents. It was 
 under the Han dynasty the last important trans- 
 formation of our written language took place. A 
 councillor of the Emperor, wishing to give his 
 sovereign rapid information upon the various re- 
 quests addressed to him, invented a half-cursive 
 writing, still having the system Li for its ground- 
 work ; and it was this writing which, transformed 
 into cursive, was destined five centuries later to 
 become the definitive written language of China. 
 This style economises a great deal of time lost 
 wander the previous systems, either in drawing the 
 figures or tracing the lines of which the word was 
 composed. 
 
 It may be seen by these developments how difficult 
 our language may be niade to one who proposes to 
 learn the various systems of writing composing our 
 literary monuments and sacred books. The writing 
 at present used is composed in such a manner that 
 a word can be written with a stroke of the brush, 
 without leaving off. All the strokes are joined 
 together. This is indisputably a progress most 
 convenient for the various usages of life ; but official 
 
58 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 letters, examination papers, and reports to the 
 Emperor have to be writteii in a neat hand with 
 gi;eat precision, and this is rather troublesome work. 
 We have copies varying according to the method, 
 and their study forms one of the most important 
 occupations of our education. 
 
 Of course it is known how our letters are written, 
 the use of Indian ink not being confined to China. , 
 It is perhaps opportune to mention that it is not 
 enough to mdisten the ink and take up a brush. It 
 is requisite to moisten the ink to a certain fixed 
 extent, and to hold the brush perpendicular to the 
 table you write upon. 
 
 I will conclude these notes by giving my Western 
 teaders a celebrated lesson upon the various rules of 
 writing with the brush. 
 
 There are eight rules of writing, ist. The shape 
 of a letter should be bold, and the strokes should be 
 more or less in relief according to the connections of 
 the letter. 2nd. The parts composing a letter should 
 be straight, energetic, and proportioned. The be- 
 ginning and the end should be distinguished by 
 plain hues, 3rd. The marks which are not included 
 in the same word should be natural, hke the fins of 
 a fish or the wings of a bird. 4th. The feet of a 
 letter should be proportioned to the size of a letter, 
 and placed either top, bottom, right, or left. 5th. 
 A word, whether square or round, should be formed 
 of very straight hues in the straight parts, and of 
 
The Written Language. 59 
 
 rounded lines in the curves. 6th. The junction lines 
 should consist of progressive curves, without irre- 
 gularities. 7th. The termination of a straight line 
 should not be pointed like the brush itself, but very 
 decided. 8th. Before coming to the curve of a line, 
 the diminution or strengthening of the line must be 
 already begun. 
 
 If this lesson is carefully considered it will perhaps, 
 better than my descriptions, give a notion of a 
 character which is a sort of miniature, and in which 
 the idea is painted as upon a picture. These lines 
 crossing each other in every direction, these shades 
 of the brush, these thick or thin, straight or curyed 
 lines, express and represent all the multiple varia- 
 tions of thought, with the finish of an artistic work. 
 
 In this method of writing applied to language 
 there is an advantage which, in the West, can be 
 claimed only for speech itself. In the eyes of 
 Europeans the beauty of a language resides in its 
 sound, and it is not unusual to hear praised the 
 harmony of a word or even of a phrase. But these 
 modes of language are not represented by writing. 
 The words are dumb, a.nd have but orthographical 
 relations. The energy or faintness of the letters in 
 no way modifies the sense of a word ; it will always 
 have the same value, or if it ever changes it is by a 
 trick of style which cannot be often used without 
 tediousneSs. And yet is not the mind the world of 
 niMnces and delicate abstractions, and is not the 
 
6o The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 cultivation of the intelligence continually tending to 
 augment the sensibility of that faculty ? How can 
 th^t natural vocation be satisfied with words of 
 fixed meaning ? 
 
 And if an author succeeds by talent and good 
 fortune in writing in a particular style satisfactory to 
 the mind, his secret dies with him, and whosoever 
 endeavours to resuscitate it is but a plagiarist. But 
 we in China lose not our treasures so lightly; we 
 preserve them. They live in our characters, and, 
 once created, make the round of China, as an ex- 
 pression of Voltaire makes the round of the world; 
 with this difference, that the one has become a new 
 expression, and the other will never be anything but 
 a quotation. 
 
 I trust I have mdde myself understood by these 
 comparisons ; not that I seek to unduly exalt one 
 system at the expense of the other, but it seems to 
 me that the Western languages are devoid of many 
 of the resources that might satisfy or inspire an 
 author. 
 
 I have observed that the orator is infinitely more 
 influential than the writer. Why ? Because the 
 life of the language is in the sound. Well, it is that 
 life that exists in our characters ; they have not 
 only a body, but also a soul to give them warmth 
 and motion. 
 
Classes. 6 i 
 
 CLASSES. 
 
 THE people of China are divided into four 
 classes or categories of citizens, according 
 to the merits and honours that custom arid 
 the law of the land attribute to each. These classes 
 are the literary, the agricultural, the manufacturing, 
 and the commercial. Such is the order of the social 
 hierarchy in China. 
 
 The literary occupy the first place, as represent- 
 ing the thinking class; the agriculturists have the 
 second rank, as being the class that nourishes ; the 
 manufacturers also enjoy great consideration on ac- 
 count of their industry ; but the commercial class is 
 the lowest. 
 
 In point of fact, the two classes esteemed and 
 honoured are the two first ; they constitute the aris- 
 tocracy of mind and of labour. Our nobility could 
 only inscribe upon their blazon a pen — I mean a 
 paint-brush — or a plough : in one, Heaven for field ; 
 in the other. Earth. Does it not seem that the 
 preoccupations of man have been from all time 
 solely turned to these two poles : thought towards 
 heaven — that is to say, the invisible and unknown ; 
 manual labour towards earth beneath our feet? 
 These are the natural sources of human labour, 
 
62 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 and we have respected the disposition in fixing our 
 social distinctions. 
 
 If knowledge is the highest of occupations, the 
 most noble and the most honoured, it is because 
 it makes men capable of governing, and because 
 from aimong the literary are taken the functionaries 
 of the State. 
 
 But the preference accorded to the works of 
 the mind is not exclusive. Agriculture is equally 
 honoured, because the land is the principal source 
 of revenue. Compared to industry and commerce, 
 agriculture is called the root, and they the branches. 
 
 A 
 
 THE LITERARY CLASS. 
 
 LL the members of the four classes I have 
 just mentioned are admitted to take part 
 in the competitive examinations which deter- 
 mine degrees. 
 
 This right is in itself more precious than all those 
 inscribed in the celebrated code emphatically named 
 ' The Immortal Principles, or the Rights of Man.' 
 
 In no part'of the world is there a more democratic 
 institution, and I am surprised they have not thought 
 of adopting it in those Western countries where the 
 * Immortal Principles ' have not yet created the best 
 
The Literary Class. 63 
 
 of governments and the least imperfect social con- 
 dition. 
 
 The degrees which are called in China, as in 
 Western countries, those of bachelor, licentiate, 
 and doctor, are not simple diplomas, bearing witness 
 to the relative extent of knowledge in art and science. 
 They have quite another character, inasmuch as they 
 confer titles to which rights and privileges are 
 ^ attached. The song of Lindor would not be under- 
 stood in China, and the wishes of a * simple 
 bachelor ' would not be so modest. 
 
 In France I have been greatly surprised to observe 
 how slightly university grades , are respected. The 
 degree of bachelor, for instance, is absolutely de- 
 spised, both by those who have not obtained it — 
 naturally — and by those who have passed the ex- 
 amination. A man never mentions that he is a 
 bachelor, and nobody thinks of asking another if he 
 has obtained that grade ; it would be considered as 
 , great a blunder as asking her age of a woman who 
 used to be pretty. 
 
 As to the degrees of licentiate and doctor, only 
 those who intend to devote themselves to serious 
 study and high-class teaching take the trouble to 
 obtain them. But the degree of doctor is not a. 
 distinction creating an office and embellishing a 
 career. You may be a master of arts and doctor of 
 science, and solicit a humble post upon an equal 
 footing with a dunce. These anomalies I am assijred 
 
64 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 are the rule ; and I find that in spite of my re- 
 pugnance I am bound to beheve that such is really 
 the case. 
 
 After ten years' sojourn in Europe and numerous 
 studies, I am still vainly asking myself the question, 
 ' What principle among the institutions of the 
 Western world can really be called democratic or 
 liberal ?' I can see none, nor has anybody shown , 
 me one so pre-eminent in those qualities as the 
 right of all citizens to the examinations conferring 
 degrees. Of course I shall be reminded of universal 
 suffrage; but that is a weathercock — a principle 
 without principles, and one must have a singular 
 idea of public opinion to imagine it can manifest 
 itself according to decree at a precise period, such a 
 day and such an hour. The most curious thing is 
 that while no one could propose the election of the 
 Academicians by universal suffrage without making 
 himself ridiculous, they yet allow the members of the 
 legislature to be chosen by this same system. I 
 imagine the merits of the latter are less easily dis- 
 cerned than those of the former. What conclusion 
 must we draw, then ? 
 
 Where is the recompense that should be given to 
 assiduous work guided by a noble intelligence ? If 
 you are poor, having for sole wealth an honourable 
 name and the ambition to be worthy of it, can you 
 by study alone and its rewards obtain a place in the 
 State administration ? 
 
Classes. 65 
 
 ^an you rise by the credit of your science alone ? 
 Can you require of it to obtain for you a privilege ? 
 Can you obtain by it honours and power ? In China, 
 yes ; in Europe, no. 
 
 It is not, therefore, a vain boast when I claim that 
 our customs are more liberal, more just, and more 
 salutary; for the best taught citizens are the best 
 behaved, and it is by the ambitious that public 
 tranquillity is disturbed. Require as a qualification 
 to fill a high function of State, the test of the highest 
 merit, in the same way as tried bravery, a sense of 
 honour, and military knowledge are required of an 
 officer in the army, and you will at once suppress 
 the struggles on Ministerial backstairs, intrigues, 
 and favouritism. 
 
 This is the secret of the stability of our pacific 
 empire. To adopt the system would change — a great 
 many changes ; but the day Europe ceases to love 
 changes she will be perfect, and we shall only have 
 to envy her. 
 
 China has no official education. 
 
 Our Government has a more enlightened idea of 
 liberty than certain Western States, who make in- 
 struction obUgatory without giving it any definite 
 aim. The Government controls only the examina- 
 tions, and candidates are only subjected to one law 
 — the most tyrannical of all— that of knowing. 
 
 It must again be observed that our grades do not 
 merely signify merit, but the superiority of merit. 
 
 5 
 
66 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 They are in fact obtained by competitive examina- 
 tion, the only method of making a degree of value. 
 
 No better proof can be adduced than the system 
 of nominations in European armies from special 
 schools, entrance to which is obtained by com- 
 petitive examination. These schools' become veri- 
 table institutions, where an esprit de corps is formed, 
 exclusive, proud of its privileges, and constituting a 
 kind of aristocracy, whose influence is very elevating. 
 I admire the Ecole Polytechnique and its regula- 
 tions. Do we not see what prestige it maintains, in 
 spite of revolutions which have destroyed so many 
 excellent things ? It is because the grade demands 
 respect and commands it. 
 
 Suppose the profession of barrister were subjected 
 to competitive examination, and only a certain 
 number of diplomas were conferred each year, what , 
 immense benefits such a reform would produce ! 
 The right of pleading would become an honour, and 
 the esprit de corps that barristers claim to possess 
 would acquire real dignity. But this is a caprice of 
 my imagination, and were it only to confirni the 
 truth of an evangelic principle, we must leave the 
 last the privilege of becoming the first. This is the 
 essence of the democratic spirit. 
 
 In China studies are carried on in the family. 
 Well-to-do families have tutors ; but in every village 
 the poorest can send their children to schools ; and 
 there are both day and night schools. The children 
 
Classes. 67 
 
 attending them are so numerous that the fees are 
 very trifling. 
 
 The order of our examinations will perhaps 
 possess some interest for my European readers, 
 although the details may be learned from travellers 
 who have written upon China. I have no pretension 
 to open a new world. I merely wish to draw atten- 
 tion to certain institutions not altogether barbarous, 
 and for which it is admissible to profess a sentiment 
 passing the bounds of pity. I help my fellow- 
 creatures to see with my eyes; that is my sole 
 ambition. 
 
 "When the candidates suppose themselves suffi- 
 ciently prepared to undergo the first examination, 
 they send their names to the under-prefecture, where 
 the examination takes place. There are six trials. 
 
 The candidate selected after the sixth trial is con- 
 sidered worthy to undergo the examinations that take 
 place before the prefect at the capital of the province. 
 This examination also consists of a certain number 
 of trials ; and if the candidate comes forth victorious 
 from all, he presents himself to the imperial exami- 
 ner specially delegated to each province. 
 
 It is only after being admitted by this examiner 
 that a candidate receives the grade of bachelor. 
 
 Each trial lasts an entire day ; and about fifteen 
 have to be undergone to satisfy the conditions of the 
 programme. The whole, examination is in writing 
 and the candidates are shut in little' cells, without 
 
 5—3 
 
68 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 the assistance of any booki, having nothing with 
 them but their ink, brush, and paper. They have 
 to compose upon the subjects of hterature, poetry, 
 history, and philosophy. These examinations take 
 place every year, at the chief place in the prefec- 
 ture. 
 
 Examinations for the second degree conferring 
 the license take place every three years at the 
 provincial capital, and are composed of three ex- 
 aminations, each lasting three days, and spreading 
 over twelve days in all. The candidates are generally 
 very numerous, sometimes more than ten thousand 
 — for two hundred degrees. 
 
 Examinations for the third degree, conferring the 
 doctorate, take place at Pekin, in the same order 
 as the examinations for the second degree. Those 
 selected from this competition are still subject, to a. 
 last examination in the presence of the Emperor, 
 and are classified by order of merit in two categories. 
 The first numbers only four members, who are im- 
 mediately received academicians. The second cate- 
 gory comprises candidates who will have to compete- 
 still further to enter the Academy. The third cate- 
 gory furnishes the attaches to the ministerial depart- 
 ments ; and the fourth, the under-prefects, or officers, 
 of equal rank. 
 
 The number of doctors admitted at each session 
 varies froni two to three hundred. 
 
 The academicians become members of the Impe- 
 
Classes. 69 
 
 rial College of Hau-lin, and form the highest body, 
 from whom the Emperor's Ministers are usually 
 chosen. 
 
 No need to say, after this enumeration, that the 
 life of a literary man is passed in examinations. 
 
 In Europe, at the age of twenty years the time is 
 come for the greater number to put study aside, and 
 begin to forget. As for us, we at that age begin to 
 entertain a higher ambition — that is, to hope for a 
 new grade, to which an increase of honour and for- 
 tune will correspond. 
 
 The Chinese hierarchy is not founded upon 
 seniority, but upon merit. The degree fixes the 
 position ; and the higher the position, the higher- 
 must be the merit of its occupant. 
 
 No one in China would think of laughing at the 
 head of a department, for the simple reason that 
 the head of a department is necessarily more capable 
 than those under him. 
 
 Promotion by seniority is a mistake ; it is not the 
 bald head that is meritorious ; and the young 
 attaches of European ministries have sufficiently 
 edified me upon the failings of seniority, to make 
 me appreciate the sagacity of our rulers in ignoring 
 such a system. 
 
 Nothing can give an idea of the demonstrations of 
 joy at news of a success in the examinations. I have 
 seen in England and Germany, the only countries 
 possessing universities, processions of students, ffetes, 
 
yo The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 and congratulations, which certainly lacked neither 
 enthusiasna nor grandeur. But in China these re- 
 joicings have a wide extension, and are very popular. 
 The family rejoicings are as pompous as on the 
 occasion of a marriage. The relations meet first of 
 all in the temple of their ancestors, for the purpose 
 of making them the offering of the acquired distinc- 
 tion ; then magnificent feasts are given to all the 
 members of the family, and all the friends. Several 
 days are given up to the most lively manifestations 
 of joy. The successful candidate is carried in 
 triumph. When he goes to announce the tidings 
 of his success to his acquaintance and the mem- 
 bers 'of the family, a band of music accompanies 
 him, his friends surround him, carrying red silk flags, 
 and form a guard of honour. He is acclaimed by 
 the people like a king who has gained a great victory. 
 On the walls of his dwelling are posted letters noti- 
 fying all of the success he has attained, and the same 
 letters are sent to all the families with whom he 
 maintains relations. Of course the splendour of 
 these f^tes and honours is not ca,lculated to damp 
 the ardour of aspiring candidates. All these solem- 
 nities kindle emulation, and incite those who have 
 succeeded in the first examination to attempt the 
 second. The fetes on the occasion of a successful 
 examination for the doctorate assume the proportions 
 of a public rejoicing, shared by all the inhabitants of 
 the candidate's birthplace. 
 
Classes. y j 
 
 Besides the examinations I have mentioned, there 
 are others following the first, grade, and rewarding 
 success with a pension or a title. Those fortified 
 with this title may compete for places in the magis- 
 tracy, the members of which are not directly selected 
 by examination. 
 
 Lastly, if to these honours, sufficient to inflame 
 the most sluggish ambition, we add the belief so dear 
 to the Chinese, that they are reflected upon their 
 family, and are agreeable to their ancestors, and the 
 fact that the father and mother will, receive the same 
 rank and the same consideration, we may realize 
 what a power the institution of competition exerts 
 upon the nation. 
 
 It might possibly happen, as we see elsewhere, 
 that the parvenu son would despise his parents re- 
 maining in the same humble position as that in 
 which he himself was born. But our laws have 
 been prudent, and this scandal does not exist in our 
 society. The father and mother rise at the same 
 time as their son ; they receive the rank and honour 
 of his degree, and all the family are happy on the 
 day of a triumphant examination. Ah, our ancestors 
 understood the human heart, and their institutions 
 are truly wise ! They deserve the admiration and 
 gratitude of every friend of humanity. The more I 
 ' know of modern civilization, the more my love for 
 our old institutions increases : for they alone realize 
 what they promise — peace and equality. 
 
72 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 JOURNALISM AND PUBLIC OPINION. 
 
 IF we defined ' A journal ' as exactly as the def 
 tion of a term so complex could be stated, we 
 might say it was i periodical publication in- 
 tended to create a public opinion. 
 
 I imagine most journals would accept this defini- 
 tion, for it is a noble calling to create an opinion 
 and diffuse it almost instantaneously by thousands 
 of copies in that great and everlastingly new world 
 we call the public. I am an admirer of the European 
 journal. It helps one to pass the time agreeably ; in 
 travelling it is a companion that follows you as if 
 attached to your special service ; you find it every- 
 where, at all the railway stations ; its very title is 
 comforting to see, and in company with a newspaper 
 one regrets less keenly the absent. I think this is 
 perhaps the best that can be said for it. 
 
 The influence of newspapers upon opinion is not 
 so great as might be apprehended. If one journal 
 alone were always read, it is possible that in time- 
 supposing the journal so consistent as always to say 
 the same thing — it might make a deep , impression 
 upon the subscriber's mind. But the public reads 
 so many papers of every shade of opinion that it 
 ends by belonging to every political party at once, 
 
Journalism and Public Opinion. 73 
 
 which is of course convenient at a change of 
 Ministry. 
 
 Nevertheless, newspapers satisfy a requirement. 
 Society is so organized that it has become necessary 
 to utilize every disposable means of transmission of 
 thought, to regale it with the rumours of the world. 
 The journal usually reports what happens ; when it 
 is very well informed it says nothing more. Some- 
 times it risks reporting what has not happened — 
 under reserve ; this is the only news that might be 
 interesting, and the next day it is contradicted. 
 Besides this, a newspaper has leading articles which 
 readers of the same opinion highly approve ; but I 
 am told that no one has ever seen — except perhaps 
 in the provinces — a convert of journalism. 
 
 Although we can hardly say that journals preach 
 in the desert, they preach to the public, which is 
 rather of the nature of the desert, that moving 
 world, now plain, now mountain, where nothing 
 stands still and nothing lives, whose oases are a 
 mirage, and which seems to exist only by the noise 
 of the tempests stirring its sandy waves. 
 
 In truth it is a slippery, capricious public. What 
 pleases it to-day displeases it to-morrow ; it is never 
 satisfied. Notice these lunatics running after news- 
 papers every hour of the day: they read ten or 
 twenty with the same stoical air, and then you hear 
 them groan there is nothing in the papers ! They 
 wait ^ for the evening paper — nothing ! to-morrow's 
 
74 T^he Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 paper— again nothing ! At last some news comes — 
 and everybody knows" it before the papers. 
 
 As to the serious articles, it seems they are never 
 read. They are very well written, but possess no 
 interest except for their authors, who read them 
 twenty times, and retail them again and again with- 
 out tiring, to those of their friends who are fortunate 
 enough to meet them. To appreciate this enthu- 
 siasm, one must have seen one's self in print in the 
 first column, seen the article in the hands of some 
 member of this great public, seen him read it, 
 anxiously follow the thoughts of this unknown friend 
 — ^yoii would embrace him if you dared, and tell him 
 the author's name. He who has never known these 
 emotions, knows not the part played by the journal : 
 it is a very useful, very precious institution— for 
 those who write ! 
 
 That is my opinion, which will assist in elucidating 
 what follows. 
 
 In China no newspaper exists bearing any analogy 
 to a European journal — I mean a journal published 
 under the regime of complete freedom of the press. 
 It is a liberty which does not flourish in the Empire 
 of the Centre, and I will add — not to appear to 
 regret it — that there are great empires even in the 
 West where that liberty is not absolute. But 
 although we have neither freedom of the press nor 
 journaUsm, we have a public opinion, and it will be 
 seen later on that it is not an empty name. 
 
'Journalism and Public Opinion. y^ 
 
 The Chinese journal has its history and its anti- 
 quities, hke everything else appertaining to our 
 manners and customs. We read in our books that 
 in the twelfth century before the Christian era, the 
 people were accustomed to sing songs adapted to 
 the manners of each province. The Emperor Hung- 
 Hoang of the Tcheou dynasty ordained a compila- 
 tion of all these popular chants, in order to become 
 acquainted with the manners of his people. These 
 chants were lost in the great fire of books ; but Con- 
 fucius collected three hundred of them, of which he 
 . composed his ' Book of Verses.' We consider that 
 publication as the origin of journalism in China. 
 
 Although for a long time past there has been no 
 similar publication, and the custom of popular songs 
 has fallen into disuse, one fact remains clear, namely, 
 that the sovereigns of China have always been in- 
 formed of the state of public opinion relative to the 
 atts of tljeir government. For many ages past there 
 has been a permanent council composed of func- 
 tionaries called censors, whose mission is to present 
 reports to the sovereign upon the state of public 
 opinion in the different provinces of the empire. 
 These reports constituted a newspaper, having for 
 readers the Emperor and the high dignitaries of 
 the realm. Later on these reports were given a 
 wider publicity, and at the present time they form 
 the journal called the Pekin Gazette, which is in fact 
 the official journal of the empire. 
 
76 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Freedom of the press does not exist in China, 
 because it would be contrary to our idea of the 
 character and truth of history. 
 
 For us there is no contemporary history pubhshed. 
 History pubhshes only the annals of the dynasties, 
 and so long as the same dynasty occupies the throne 
 the publication of its history is not permitted. 
 
 That history is written contemporaneously by a 
 conclave of literary men, who exercise as much care 
 and discreet delay in its composition as the im- 
 mortals of the French Academy in compiling the 
 dictionary. 
 
 Of course, it will be understood that it is necessary 
 to keep all these documents secret, in order that 
 they may be an exact reproduction of the truth; and 
 it will be the more easily admitted that this must be 
 the case, when we remember that celebrated states- 
 men in Europe follow precisely the same plan in the 
 publication of the memoirs they write, upon contem- 
 porary events. These memoirs often do not see the 
 light until a determined period after the writer's 
 death, and will not become historical documents 
 until the time comes to write history after the 
 manner of Tacitus, without passion and without 
 hatred. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that this mutism 
 of history is invariable. In certain circumstances 
 we see audacious censors who do not hesitate to 
 accuse very high functionaries of administrative 
 
"Journalism and Public Opinion. yj 
 
 irregularities, to order an inquiry, and if necessary 
 inflict punishment upon the guilty. The sovereign 
 himself is not exempted from liability to censure. 
 
 This council of censors is a really unique institu- 
 tion, inasmuch as it realizes the same ideal pursued 
 by European journalism. It is composed of the 
 most celebrated literary men from every province. 
 They have the privilege, by the Emperor's permission, 
 of reporting what they please, even on dits, a:nd they 
 are never reprimanded for the groundlessness of 
 their statements. 
 
 The Official Gazette is usually only taken in official 
 circles. The people are in complete ignorance of 
 political events. This is not for want of experiments 
 in that direction, but they have not succeeded. In 
 truth, since the ports have been opened to inter- 
 national commerce, foreigners have established 
 Chinese journals edited by Chinese upon the 
 European model. 
 
 Example is cont9,gious, good as well as bad, and 
 in some instances Chinese have endeavoured to 
 establish newspapers in the provinces. These enter- 
 prises have come into collision with * press offences,' 
 that newspaper bane, which governments use pretty 
 frequently when journalistic license exceeds the 
 measure prescribed by existing laws. 
 
 This local journalism therefore died a violent death, 
 and no one thinks of resuscitating it. 
 
 Foreigners who are considered neutral alone 
 
78 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 continue to carry on the newspapers. Those with 
 the greatest circulation are the journals of Shanghai 
 and of Hong-Kong. There are other papers 
 published in English, but they are only taken by the 
 resident foreigners. 
 
 There is another kind of periodical, that might be 
 called a society journal, produced by the Chinese. 
 They insert in it their impressions of travel, the 
 different in^portant events at which they have been 
 present, and in general anything worth noting. iBut 
 if these narratives relate to political questions, they 
 cannot be published so long as the same dynasty 
 remains upon the throne. This law may appear 
 excessive, but it is powerful to ensure absolute 
 historical truth. 
 
 The press is a kind of statistic of the opinions of 
 the day. I take the day for unity'. From this point of 
 view journals are of great practical utility when these 
 opinions are numerous. In China, where the press has 
 no existence, it is consequently not easy to discover 
 what opinions are. However, in political matters 
 we have also our Conservatives and our Dernocrats ; 
 we have partisans of the ancient traditions of the 
 empire unwilling to make the least concession to 
 the spirit of innovation who might fraternize with 
 the reactionaries of every part of the world. The 
 democratic spirit, possessing also its numerous 
 devotees, has not the same tendency as in the West, 
 where democracy admits of an infinity of meanings 
 
"Journalism and Public Opinion. 79 
 
 unnecessary here to define, but which assuredly 
 would not be to the taste of our democrats. The 
 latter believe they are promoting the interests of 
 the people in such a manner that the people may 
 receive some profit. It is useful, I think, to draw 
 this distinction. 
 
 These democrats admit the principle that what is 
 beneficial to the community is good ; and in many 
 cases will not oppose a reform upon pretext of 
 scruples which others on the contrary consider in- 
 violable. 
 
 The voice of the people is called in China also the 
 voice of God. Such is the device adorning the un- 
 crowned blazon of all the peoples of the earth, as if 
 they were the descendants of some ancient dynasty 
 sprung from God Himself. This formula exists in 
 every nation. Our four hundred millions of people 
 are not ignorant of its profound meaning, and the 
 voice makes itself heard in the very centre of govern- 
 ment counsels in case of necessity. 
 
 The people is in truth represented by the literary 
 class, who go up to the capital from the provinces, 
 and although without official title, have the right of 
 presenting requests in which the necessary reclama- 
 tions are embodied. These requests are made in 
 the name of the people. 
 
 The practice may be considered a kind of re- 
 presentation without election ; the learned and 
 literary have the honour, which they owe to the. 
 
So The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 culture of their intelligence, of becoming the natural 
 advocates of the people, and causing the voice of 
 God to be heard. A magnificent tribute, I consider, 
 paid to industry and perseverance, and inspiring the 
 deepest respect for the tradition which perpetuates 
 this custom. 
 
 If ever China were to change her political system, 
 and adopt one of the modes of national representa- 
 tion in vogue among Western nations, she would 
 remember this tradition, and give the right of election 
 and the right to be elected only to those distinguished 
 by study and virtue. ' - 
 
 The requests presented in the name of the provinces 
 by their literary representatives are examined with 
 care, and when the laws permit, if the object re- 
 claimed be just, accepted by the Government. 
 
 But it often happens that to satisfy the wishes 
 contained in a request, it would be necessary to 
 create a new law. Now with us the code is un- 
 changeable. It is requisite, therefore, to create ex- 
 ceptions for these particular cases, which may in 
 their turn furnish precedents under similar circum- 
 stances. 
 
 It is thus we understand national representation. 
 The method is simple, and causes us no embarrass- 
 ment. We have none of that uneasiness suffered by 
 States with parliamentary government. The empire 
 is like a large family, whose sovereign chief promotes 
 all interests and maintains all rights, with an 
 
Journalism and Public Opinion. 8i 
 
 authority handed down to him by ages of history, 
 and consecrated by traditional respect. On the day 
 the empire, by the voice of all the people, calls the 
 attention of its governors to the necessity of a change 
 in the fundamental institutions of the State, these 
 changes may be effected without disturbance, because 
 they will not be inspired by passion, but by the sole 
 desire to maintain peace in all the provinces. 
 
 But that day has not yet seen the faintest glimmer 
 of its dawn ; and if the journalism implanted in our 
 ports believed for a moment in the influence it 
 pretended to exercise over opinion, it has after 
 experience had to acknowledge it was a dream. 
 
 To obtain an idea of the excellence of an inven- 
 tion, it is not sufficient for a journal or review to 
 extol its benefits. 
 
 In a country where . the prestige of newspaper 
 articles is non-existent, it must be experience itself 
 that demonstrates the reality of a desired progress. 
 It is impossible to judge without seeing the effects. 
 
 Thi^ is our only crime in the eyes of Europe. 
 
 The subject I touch upon is one of the most deli- 
 cate to handle ; for I desire to give my opinion, and 
 at the same time not seem to despite what excites 
 the wonder and admiration of Europeans themselves. 
 But sincerity excuses all. 
 
 The essential character of Western civilization is 
 to be encroaching. There is no necessity to demon- 
 strate that. 
 
 6 
 
82 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 In former times the hordes of barbarians were 
 likewise encroaching, not with the object of bringing 
 the benefits of a new spirit, but for the purpose of 
 pillaging and ruining prosperous countries. The 
 civilized people of the West follow the same method 
 with the pretension of establishing universal happi- 
 ness. 
 
 The initial point of their idea of progress is vio- 
 lence. I have the presumption to think the method 
 is not perfect, and that it will find, at all events in 
 China, as many opponents as there are people of 
 sense. In China, as everywhere else among the 
 human race, the struggle for existence tends to 
 happiness, and the only progress applicable is that 
 which assures peace and combats pauperism. War 
 and pauperism are the two scourges of humanity, 
 and when China is convinced that the spirit of inno- 
 vation, of which the Western world is so vain, with 
 all those ingenious inventions whose wonders we 
 applaud so much, possess the secret of making 
 nations peaceable and increasing their happiness — 
 ah, then China will join enthusiastically in the uni- 
 versal concert ! Those who know us have never 
 doubted on this point. 
 
 But has that conviction been arrived at ? What 
 are the commercial importations into those ports a 
 celebrated treaty has made international? Fire- 
 arms. We hoped for the machinery of peace, they 
 bring us the machinery of war, and as a specimen of 
 
yournalism and Public Opinion. 83 
 
 modern civilizing institutions we inaugurate stand- 
 ing armies. 
 
 And they complain we are mistrustful ! 
 
 Well, at the risk of exasperating all who think 
 differently, let me say, we hate with all our strength 
 everything which directly or indirectly threatens peace, 
 and excites the combative spirit in the already suf- 
 ficiently imperfect human disposition. What need 
 have we of these wars hateful to mothers ? and to 
 what ideal can the prospect of one day arming our 
 four hundred millions bring us ? Is it an idea of 
 progress to turn aside public wealth from the natural 
 path pointed out by the spirit of reason, to make it 
 contribute to the organization of every anguish re- 
 sulting from the employment and abuse of force ? 
 It seems to me this is going backwards and to the 
 bad. We shall never be persuaded to consider the 
 military spirit an element of civilization : quite the 
 reverse ! We are convinced it is a return to bar- 
 barism. ^ 
 
 But firearms are not the only articles of pripie 
 necessity offered to us. To tell the truth, they are 
 nearly the only ones whose utility has been proved 
 to us : the demonstration has been perfect. But 
 there are other essays which have not succeeded, 
 upon the subject of which it has always been thought 
 that we have displayed a prejudice contrary to the 
 laws of reason. 
 
 As I have already said, everything is submitted in 
 
 6—2 
 
84 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 China to examination, and the examination bears 
 not only upon the merit of the proposed system, but 
 upon the advantages it has procured. I take, for 
 example, the railway. It has not succeeded with us, 
 although it is a marvellous method of travelling ; but 
 marvellous as it is, has it been considered useful ? 
 Up to the present time. No. Consequently it has 
 not been taken in hand. Moreover, the execution 
 of such a project would violently disturb our social 
 system. We cling above everything to family tra- 
 ditions, and among them not one is dearer to us 
 than the worship of ancestors, and respect for their 
 tombs. The locomotive overturns all in its path, it 
 has neither heart nor soul, it must rush straight for- 
 ward like the hurricane. 
 
 Our people have not yet, therefore, decided to allow 
 the invasion of the fiery horse, and really one cannot 
 be utterly amazed at such a refusal when it is con- 
 sidered that the Institute of France itself declined to 
 admit Fulton's project relative to the application of 
 steam to the locomotion of ships. They deserve at 
 least as much indulgence as the wise men of the 
 Academie Frangaise; and even if they were to 
 destroy balloons through ignorance of the ascensional 
 force, or refuse to make use of the gas-light, such 
 conduct would not be wholly dissimilar from that of 
 Western nations. This gives me the opportunity of 
 saying that men must be convinced in spirit, and 
 that it is better to demonstrate a truth by evident 
 
Journalism and Public Opinion. 85 
 
 tacts, than to impose it violently, and trample tra- 
 ditions and customs under foot. 
 
 What is imposed by force is never accepted : this 
 is an experience it is not absolutely necessary to go 
 to China to make. In France, it -is said, nobody 
 would eat potatoes at first, because potatoes werfe 
 forced upon them. The people would have nothing 
 to do with them — would not even taste them. The 
 example of the Court was necessary ; in fact, it was 
 requisite, if we may believe history, for potatoes to 
 be expressly prohibited, and then everybody ate 
 them. 
 
 That is true civilization which proceeds by know- 
 ledge of the human heart — the same under every 
 degree of latitude. How many ^owwes de tevre we 
 might have been induced to eat, if they had gone 
 about it in a proper manner ! But instead of that 
 they have brought us the pomme de discorde ! 
 
 Ask a Chinese what he calls the English ; he will 
 tell you they are the opium merchants. In the same 
 way he will tell you the French are missionaries. It 
 is under these two aspects he knows them, and it 
 will easily be understood that he retains a lively re- 
 membrance of these foreigners, since -the former 
 ruin his health at the expense of his purse, and the 
 latter upset his ideas. , I simply mention the fact ; 
 for, of course, it may after all be true that opium 
 and new religions are irresistible steps in advance. 
 The impartial reader will decide. 
 
86 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 All the foreigners who seek China have but one 
 end in view^speculation ; and what is extremely 
 curious, all these speculators despise us because we 
 exhibit distrust. Is not that an observation worth 
 its weight in gold ? Distrust ! really ! how ground- 
 less ! ' Our enemy,' says the universal fabulist, ' is 
 our master ;' but it is likewise the man who makes 
 a snatch at our purse under pretext of civilization. 
 Distrust ? Why, we can never show enough ! . , 
 
 We are obliged to mix together in our conception 
 all strange peoples and individuals and call them 
 foreigners. But I wish to state that we can distin- 
 guish the good from the bad : for there are foreigners 
 who honour their nationality by the respect they 
 show for our institutions. I am speaking of diploma- 
 tists, who charm us by their good breeding, and who 
 accomplish tasks, often delicate, with a courtesy and 
 tact which are the best advertisement of their civil- 
 ization ; I am speaking also of literary men, who 
 come to study our languages, and to gather from 
 our books the instruction given by the most ancient 
 human society in the world. These are not foreigners 
 to us, but friends with whom we are proud to ex- 
 change thoughts ; and we dream sometimes of pro- 
 gress and civilization with these legitimate sons of 
 humanity, who have nothing in common with the 
 mountebanks infesting our ports. 
 
 In bringing to a conclusion this review of opinion 
 upon divers subjects, I cannot refrain from mention- 
 
'Journalism, and Public Opinion. 87 
 
 ing the missionaries, and the state of opinion with 
 respect to them. I intended to make a clean breast 
 of it, and in addition to the good that is said of them, 
 to state the reverse which is left unsaid. But I 
 dreaded to appear prejudiced, and I resolved when 
 writing these sketches to put dowii nothing that 
 might lay me open to a suspicion of disrespect for 
 liberty of thought. Fortunately, I found in one of 
 the publications of the SociStS des Eleves de I'Ecole- 
 libre des Sciences politiques, a school of which I 
 have the honour to be a pupil, a work by M. Vernede, 
 from which I may quote what I did not personally 
 venture to state from fear of not being listened to. 
 This is what the author says (' Annuaire Exercice,' 
 1875-6) : 
 
 ' Three centuries ago the writings of missionaries 
 gave an enthusiastic description of China. Every- 
 one, they said, is happy in this wonderful country. 
 God has heaped a thousand blessings upon it ; He 
 has given it rich fabrics, a delicious perfumed 
 beverage, and products in abundance. 
 
 'The powerful and intelligent Society of Jesus had 
 quickly seen what advantages the country offered, 
 and in consequence despatched thither very eminent 
 personages, who immediately comprehended that 
 they must conciliate sympathies, identify themselves 
 with Chinese ideas, and completely cast off their 
 European character before speaking of dogma and 
 mysteries to this great people, who would not have 
 
88 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 understood them. In 1579 we see illustrious Italians 
 travelling through China, teaching astronomy, 
 physics, arts, and religion. 
 
 ' Eagerly welcomed by the Emperor, and pensioned 
 from the treasury, they captivate all classes of 
 society by their irresistible manners. To convince, 
 they had but to speak. The reason of this was that 
 they did not revile, as is now done, the admirable 
 worship of ancestors, that same worship we find in 
 ancient Rome. They respected Confucius, and were 
 careful not to offend rooted convictions upon which 
 the political edifice of the empire reposes. 
 
 ' In recognition of their intelligent work, the 
 great Emperor Kang-Hi issues an edict allowing 
 them to open churches. The preamble is extremely, 
 curious : 
 
 '"I, President of the Ministry of Rites, present 
 with respect this request to your Majesty, to humbly 
 obey your orders. 
 
 ' " We have deliberated, I and my assessors, upoii 
 the affair your Majesty communicated to us, and 
 have concluded that these Europeans, who have ■ 
 crossed vast oceans, have come from the ends of the 
 earth' attracted by your wisdom and incomparable 
 virtue. They hold now the superintendence and- the 
 tribunal of mathematics ; they have rendered great 
 services to the empire. 
 
 ' " The Europeans who are in the provinces have 
 never been accused of doing mischief, or of com- 
 
Journalism and Public Opinion. 89 
 
 mitting any offence. The doctrine they teach is not 
 bad, nor capable of causing trouble. 
 
 ' " We are of opinion they should be allowed to 
 open churches, and every one permitted to worship 
 God in the manner he pleases." 
 
 ' Soon, however, the Dominicans and Franciscans, 
 jealous of the power of the Jesuits in the far East, 
 caused censure and persecution to issue from the 
 Vatican. They destroyed the magnificent edifice 
 raised by their rivals, and in 1773 procured their 
 expulsion by a bull of Pope Clement XIV. 
 
 'The Lazarists substituted another method for 
 theirs. They wounded the moral habits of the 
 nation, their prejudices and beliefs. The Jesuits 
 would have been admirable auxiliaries for European 
 policy and commerce ; they were influential through- 
 out China, and gradually prepared this great people 
 to welcome and exchange riches with the nations of 
 the West. The Lazarists compromised everything.' 
 
 This citation is a perfectly faithful narrative. It 
 is fair to state that wherever missionary zeal exerts 
 itself only upon the mind, it will experience no 
 hostility on the part of the Government. If their 
 aim is the education of the soul by the observance of 
 evangelical precepts, they will do well to apply them 
 personally before they can be certain of exciting 
 sympathy in place of mistrust. When under the 
 cloak of religion they conceal suspicious designs, 
 such manoeuvres are . detested even by Chinese, and 
 
90 The Chinese ' Painted by Themselves. 
 
 no one can undertake to defend missionaries whom a 
 , too ardent zeal has converted into political spies. 
 
 Perhaps I have said enough to obtain some re- 
 spite in the opinion of those who hurl the name of 
 ' barbarian ' at our heads. We are distrustful, that 
 is all. But how can we be otherwise ? 
 
 In an age of experiment, cannot some better 
 system than a ' protectorate ' be invented to consti- 
 tute an alliance with distant countries? Is it im- 
 possible for governments to become better acquainted 
 and prepare with one accord all those concessions 
 that minds created to understand each other can 
 mutually make ? The cause of civilization would gain 
 in this way what every cannon-shot tends to deprive 
 it of. But noise and smoke are too precious, and 
 the laurels of glory only flourish upon ruins. 
 
 PREHISTORIC EPOCHS. 
 
 THE Western nations have no ancient history. 
 They are not even sure of the authenticity 
 of certain events which happened scarcely 
 fifteen hundred years ago. Beyond the Christian 
 era nothing definite can be distinguished ; it is 
 historical chaos. Darkness hangs over the Western 
 world. 
 
 As we leave the Western shores behind, the 
 obscurity progressively diminishes. The light grows 
 
Prehistoric Epochs. 91 
 
 brighter as we approach the East, the country of the 
 sun. Rome and the Italian populations add five 
 centuries of higtory, while the poems of Greece and 
 her Asiatic colonies reach back to the twelfth century 
 B.C. Penetrating farther into Asia and the lands 
 bordering upon it, we discover civilizations which 
 have illuminated the banks of the Euphrates and 
 Nile with their splendour. Babylon and Nineveh, 
 Memphis and Thebes, with their stupendous ruins, 
 still bear witness of a brilliant civilization dating 
 back to beyond the twentieth century B.C. 
 
 All the nations bordering on the Mediterranean 
 have had grand destinies, and their labours have 
 promoted universal civilization. 
 
 Beyond them, however, history, arrested by no 
 prejudice, and seeking the truth, indicates an ancestry 
 to these peoples, and inscribes upon her tablets the 
 date of four thousand years B.C. She seeks the trace 
 of all those States which seem to have been the 
 dispersed tribes of some great people, and who by 
 turns have disappeared in a whirlwind of invasion, 
 carrying with them the secret of their origin. 
 
 One might imagine, judging history according to 
 the sentimental method, that a mysterious power 
 had raised and then destroyed each of these States, 
 placing power in the hands of a privileged people for 
 its own purposes, and subsequently depriving them 
 of it. That, in truth, is a way of explaining historical 
 events which does not lack originality. It is enough. 
 
92 T/ie Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 however, to glance at a map of these various States 
 to see that their geographical future was necessarily 
 unstable, and that they must sooner or later have been 
 carried away by the great stream, whatever struggles 
 they might be involved in before that decisive epoch. 
 They were upon the path of both Eastern and 
 Western countries, and were inevitably the prey of 
 both. It is certain that if all these States, instead of 
 destroying each other, had been powerful enough to 
 resist invasion, and become colonizers in their turn, 
 the West would have had another destiny. The 
 foundation of Massilia in the sixth century B.C. is a 
 proof of the justice of this observation. It was, 
 however, but an isolated case. 
 
 What I am endeavouring to establish is this : if 
 there have been Asiatic peoples from the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea to the Mountains of Thibet, enjoying a 
 perfect civilization in the most remote ages, why 
 should the people of China — that mysterious land 
 the classical conquerors were unable to reach — not 
 be the depositories of the same civilization? A 
 European philosopher might draw the induction 
 without infringing the rules of logic. 
 
 It would be curious indeed if the burning sands 
 of Persia and Arabia had been peopled, and not the 
 fertile countries of the Empirq of the Centre bor- 
 dering on the Pacific Ocean ! It is an absurdity 
 impossible to admit ; and if only it be remembered, 
 that already at the remote epoch of the kingdoms 
 
Prehistoric Epochs. 93 
 
 of Darius, the ambition of conquerors meditated 
 expeditions beyond the countries of the unconquered 
 Scythians, against peoples of whom they scarcely 
 knew the name, it is clear that China is historically 
 the most ancient state in the world, and in possession 
 of the most correct traditions of the human race. 
 
 China has owed to its geographical position alone 
 the fact of having escaped conquest. On the east 
 it is bordered by the Ocean, which may be con- 
 sidered a vast uninhabited continent ; on the north, 
 the frozen regions of the Pole ; on the south, 
 chains of mountains and wandering tribes. It is 
 only on the western border that China is vulnerable. 
 But the nations extending on this side of i^s fron- 
 tiers serve as a shield ; and throughout antiquity 
 China hears the far-off sound of combat, and con- 
 templates, without sharing, every social catastrophe. 
 
 From the moment that silence settles down be- 
 , tween our great walls and the tomb of Alexander, 
 our isolation becomes absolute : it was the same 
 throughout antiquity. 
 
 Let us suppose a tribe belonging to the most 
 ancient race of humanity, and forgotten by the rest 
 of the world in a corner of the earth, developing 
 itself according to the laws of Nature — according to 
 the notion of progress, that is to say, with the in- 
 tuition of better things — finding its resources in itself, 
 not dreaming of passing the limits within which it 
 lives ; on the contrary, believing it inhabits a world 
 
94 rhe Chinese Painted by Themselves . 
 
 distinct from the others : let us suppose all this, and 
 we shall be able to figure to ourselves the Chinese — a 
 hation no one can know, because it is unique in 
 humanity. 
 
 One can, in truth, only know by comparing ; and 
 only terms having points of contact can be com- 
 pared ; otherwise we become involved in error. 
 That is the origin of all th^ prejudices current con- 
 cerning China and the Chinese. 
 
 What surprises me is, that China is despised even 
 by scientific men ; and our letters find less favour in 
 their eyes than the hieroglyphics of Egypt. Yet it 
 would be sufficiently interesting to them to verify 
 that our philosophical maxims preceded those of the 
 great Greek masters ; that our arts flourished at an 
 epoch before Athens was founded, and that our prin- 
 ciples of government were in vigour long before the 
 Egyptian kings drew up their codes. These are 
 subjects worthy of attention, and of at least as 
 much interest as the study of the Chaldean inscrip- 
 tions. 
 
 Having, nevertheless, resolved to study Western 
 archaeology, and to ascertain the opinion of the 
 learned of Europe upon the origin of the world, I 
 consulted the recognised authorities, but have learned 
 nothing very definite upon the subject. 
 
 According to these sources of information, it would 
 seem that the first man made his appearance upon 
 the earth six thousand years ago ; his wife gravely 
 
Prehistoric Epochs. 95 
 
 compromised him in the esteem of his Creator, and 
 their descendants became mere miserable wretches, 
 the worthy objects of Divine vengeance — these de- 
 scendants are the human race. This is the Western 
 theory reduced to a simple expression : it proclaims 
 a Creator — God ; and a creature — man. 
 
 How arts and customs originated, and all the 
 elements of social life ; at what epoch society was 
 organized — are questions upon which the most sha- 
 dowy notions exist ; and the facts even are denied 
 by certain scientific, men, who treat them as theo- 
 retical or imaginary. Whether these criticisms are 
 founded, or not, whether they are the offspring of 
 science or of prejudice, is not my object to inquire ; 
 but the Bible has for us one great merit — it is an 
 ancient book, and an Eastern book. In this double 
 point of view it is dear to us, and we shall see further 
 on that our sacred history does not in some respects 
 altogether differ from it. 
 
 The history of China comprises two great periods : 
 that which extends from 1980 B.C. to the present 
 day, called the ' official period ;' and the other, 
 going back into antiquity from 1980 B.C., called the 
 ' prehistoric period.' 
 
 I will endeavour to give an abstract of this pre- 
 historic period, which our books develop with great 
 care, for it is the period of the birth of our civilization, 
 and the introduction of social life. 
 
 History does jiot state how man came upon the 
 
96 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 earth, but it states there was a first man. 'This 
 man was placed between heaven and earth, and knew 
 how far he was placed from each. He understood 
 the principle of causality, and the existence of the 
 elements. The germs of living creatures were 
 formed.' 
 
 Popular imagination still represents this first man 
 as endowed with great power, and holding in either 
 hand the sun and moon. 
 
 Our sacred books — as may be seen by reading the 
 text defining the nature of man — give an elevated 
 idea of his origin, and proclaim the principle of 
 personality. This creature placed between heaven 
 and earth — that is, possessing a spirit in an ealrthly 
 envelope — knows that it is neither God nor brute 
 matter, but endowed with an intelligence to evoke 
 the principle of causality, and surrounded by elements 
 to aid the resources of his invention. 
 
 Such is the first man. At what period did he 
 appear ? Thousands of years back — an incalculable 
 number. The history of this man and his descend- 
 ants forms the prehistoric period elapsed within the 
 limits of our empire. 
 
 The popular tradition placing the sun and moon 
 in the hands of the first man will be remarked. 
 The sun and moon symbolize with us the masculine 
 and feminine, and from their union dates the era 
 of suffering abandoned humanity. This tradition is 
 not quite dissimilar from the text of the Bible, and 
 
Prehistoric epochs. 97 
 
 has some analogy with the apple adventure in the 
 earthly paradise. We represent the same catastro- 
 phe by the sudden collision of the masculine sun and 
 feminine moon. This is, I imagine, an equally para- 
 bolical niethod of representing original sin, but rather 
 more specified. 
 
 This preface of the history of man immediately 
 precedes the narrative of their first essays of civi- 
 lization — if by that word may be expressed the first 
 steps of man upon the earth, and his first victories 
 over ignorance. 
 
 The notion of a celestial providence watching over 
 man, and causing his efforts to fructify, appears 
 strongly implanted in our history, by the statement 
 that men were governed by emperors of inspired 
 wisdom, who were the founders of Chinese civiliza- 
 tion. These emperors are considered sacred. His- 
 tory assigns them no certain date, but informs us 
 what were their works. 
 
 The first emperor was called the Emperor of 
 Heaven. He arranged the order of time, which he 
 divided into ten celestial stems, and twelve terres- 
 trial branches, the whole forming a cycle. This 
 emperor lived eighteen thousand years. The second 
 emperor was the Emperor of the Earth ; he lived 
 also eighteen thousand years : to him is attributed 
 the division of the month into thirty days. The 
 third emperor is the Emperor of Man. In his reign 
 appear the first rudiments of social life. He divides 
 
 7 
 
98 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 his territory into nine parts, and gives to each of 
 them for chief one of the members of his family. 
 History celebrates for the first time the beauties of 
 nature and the • softness of the climatei This reign 
 had forty-five thousand five hundred years' duration. 
 
 Throughout these three reigns, embracing a period 
 of eighty-one thousand years, there is mention 
 neither of habitation nor garment. History says 
 men lived in caverns, without fear of animals, and 
 the idea of modesty was unknown to them. 
 
 By what occurrences was this state' of things 
 altered ? History is silent. But we may remark 
 the names of the three emperors comprehending 
 three terms. Heaven, Earth, and Man, a gra!dation 
 leading to the hypothesis of a progressive decadence 
 in the condition of humanity. 
 
 It was in the reign of the fourth emperor, callqd 
 the Emperor of Nests, that the struggle for existence 
 really began. 
 
 Man seeks to defend himself against wild animals, 
 and constructs wooden nests. He uses the skins of 
 animals to cover himself, and the text distinguishes 
 between the terms ' to cover,' and * to clothe.' 
 
 Agriculture was still unknown. 
 
 The fifth emperor was the Emperor of Fire. It 
 was he who by observation of natural phenomena 
 discovered fire, and pointed out the means" of pro- 
 curing it. He taught man domestic life. To him 
 are owed the institution of barter, and the invention 
 
Prehistoric Epochs. 99 
 
 of knotted cords to fix the remembrance of important 
 facts. Savage life had completely disappeared. 
 
 His successor, Fou-Hy, taught man fishing, hunt- 
 ing, and the breeding of domestic animals. He pro- 
 claimed the eight Diagrams — that is, the fundamental 
 principles which gave birth to philosophy, containing 
 in embryo every step of civilization. It was also 
 during this reign that property was organized. 
 
 This- great emperor, whom our books consider in- 
 spired by Providence ,to prepare the happiness pf 
 njan, regulated the greater part of those institutions 
 which to the present day constitute the manners and 
 customs of China. He defined the four seasons and 
 instituted the calendar. In his system the first day 
 of the year was the first day of spring, nearly corre- 
 sponding to the middle of the winter in the calendar 
 used by the people of the Wefet. The institution of 
 marriage, with all its ceremonies, dates from that 
 reign ; the betrothal gift then consisted of skins of 
 animals. He taught men to find their position on 
 the earth by fixing, the cardinal points. He invented 
 also music by the vibration of cords. 
 
 The successor of Fou-Hy was Tcheng-Nung, or 
 the Emperor of Agriculture. He studied the pro- 
 perties of plants, and taught the method of curing 
 diseases. He undertook great canalizing works, 
 deepened rivers, and checked the inroads of the sea. 
 From his reign dates the emblem of the dragon now 
 adorning the arms of the emperor. History men- 
 
 7—2 
 
lOO The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 tions the apparition of this fantastic animal as a 
 mysterious event, a kind of prodigy frequent enough 
 in most of the traditions of antiquity. 
 
 The successor of Tcheng-Nung was the Yellow 
 Emperor, who continued the work begun by his pre- 
 decessors by iiiventing the observatpry, windmills, 
 costumes, furniture, the bow, carriages, ships, and 
 money. He published a book of medicine. We 
 there read, for the first time, the expression, * to feel 
 the pulse.' The value of objects was also regulated ; 
 thus it is said, ' Pearls are more precious than gold.' 
 The wife of this emperor raised the first silk- 
 worms. 
 
 Under this reign the administrative division of the 
 empire was organized. 
 
 The union of eight neighbouring houses was called, 
 a well. Three wells formed a friend, and three 
 friends a village. An under-prefecture comprised 
 five villages ; ten under-prefectures were a depart- 
 ment ; ten departments a district, and ten districts 
 a province. 
 
 The first copper-mines were worked by the Yellow 
 Emperor. 
 
 The reign of this emperor's successor bears a. 
 certain date : the year 2399 B.C. ; and down to the- 
 year 1980 B.C., when the official period begins, the 
 succeeding emperors are considered sacred. Until 
 this date the imperial power was not heredita!ry., 
 Each emperor, in the evening of his life, chose the^ 
 
Prehistoric Epochs. loi 
 
 most worthy to succeed, and abdicated in his 
 favour. 
 
 In the reign of the last sacred emperor — that is, 
 about the year 2000 B.C. — history mentions great 
 hydraulic works, accomplished during inundations 
 which caused great disasters. This is the only 
 occurrence of the kind bearing some analogy to 
 the Deluge. It remains to be seen whether the 
 dates agree : this is a question I will not undertake 
 to resolve, and which moreover is not particularly 
 interesting, since it has been proved the Deluge 
 was not universal. 
 
 Such is a summary, rapidly sketched, of our mys- 
 terious annals. They do not possess the seductive 
 interest of mythological fables, but simply narrate 
 the commencement of the world's history, by gra- 
 dually initiating us into the progress accomplished. 
 It is primitive life. 
 
 We attach a great value to everything ancient, 
 and among popular traditions which have resisted 
 the assaults of time, none is more venerated than 
 that teaching us that the work of civilization was 
 inspired by Providence. We love to connect our 
 institutions with a principle superior to mankind, as 
 Moses brought down to his people the text of laws 
 he had written from the dictation of God. The 
 Christian world will not find our spiritualism too 
 singular, since it is the basis of their own belief. 
 
[02 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 PROVERBS AND MAXIMS. 
 
 THERE are truths so precise and so com- 
 pletely exact that they are expressed in a 
 peculiar form, to distinguish them from 
 what we agree to call a thought. These truths are 
 recognised as true by everybody— they are pro- 
 verbial. 
 
 Proverbs are said to be the wisdom of nations. 
 They have the rather unique privilege of never being 
 contested. Proverbs are never modified and never 
 changed, are always old and always new : they are 
 all immortal. 
 
 I have been curious to know the proverbs of 
 Western nations, and to find out those bearing an 
 analogy to our own. Besides being 'a study from 
 which I immediately derived great benefit, because 
 proverbs are written in a simple and correct style, I 
 at the same time gained an insight into the genius 
 and morality of the race. I was delighted to 
 find that in a great number of instances, countries 
 diametrically opposed were marvellously agreed in 
 describing all the caprices, fancies, and whimsicalities 
 of the curious creature called man, so diverse, so 
 manifold, and who nevertheless proves he is capable 
 of constancy in one thing — his faults. 
 
 It is good sense which gives the stamp to a 
 proverb. It does not appear far fetched ; it is a real 
 
Proverbs and Maxims. 103 
 
 truth. French proverbs seem to me to be good 
 portly citizens, and not dandies. They speak in a 
 correct concise language, without flowers of speech, 
 and generally in a familiar, good-humoured tone. 
 They are grandmothers' sayings, and more usually 
 cheerful than sad. 
 
 In China, on the contrary, we sometimes give our 
 proverb.s embroidered robes, and they approach 
 nearer to those philosophical truths which disquiet 
 human nature. In that we are Orientals, and the 
 Orient has always been the land of parables, seeking 
 its text where it finds it, namely, in the book of 
 Nature, which perhaps is not the worst. 
 
 Europeans have little connection with Nature, and 
 their proverbs show it. 
 
 Happiness is a blessing desired also in the West, 
 and it appears that European and Chinese have the 
 same manner of expressing it. We say, ' Happy as 
 a fish in the water.' There axe plenty of formulas 
 making happiness depend upon the accomplishment 
 of duty or the moderation of desires, but these are 
 formulas blown away by the wind. 
 
 The really true proverb, is that declaring the happy 
 life of a fish. He wants nothing. It is a principle 
 universally acknowledged. 
 
 ' Union constitutes strength,' says a proverb ■ 
 beloved by the Belgians ; and the proverb is right, 
 for union is a social perfection. But it is a perfec- 
 tion, and on this account it is rather unusual to 
 
104 '^^ Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 experience the exact truth of this proverb. It appears 
 to me too ambitious. We are more modest and I 
 think clearer in the expression of the same thought : 
 ' A single bamboo does not make a raft.' That is an 
 evident fact compelling recognition, and the moral 
 lesson comes afterwards. 
 
 All the proverbs representing the exploitation of 
 man by mian, all the tricks of the fox and the folly of 
 the goat, are nearly the same. We say, 'To beat 
 the bushes for others ;' that represents taking the 
 chestnuts out of the fire. With us also, ' Everyone 
 loves to talk of his trade,' an excusable fault that 
 M. Josse has taken the trouble to turn into 
 ridicule. 
 
 We have also the flock of Panurge — not that this 
 Panurge himself is known to me, but his sheep 
 resemble ours, and we have plenty of people who 
 follow each other like sheep. 
 
 ' The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak,' is a 
 proverb that ' cries in the streets ' — every street in 
 the world. The one is more or less willing, the 
 other more or less weak; it is a question of more 
 or less. 
 
 We have in China ' Blind men climbing mountains 
 to admire the view.' I have read in Juvenal that 
 in his time there were eunuchs with mistresses. It 
 is the sanie kind of affectation. 
 
 We are acquainted also with the frog who would 
 like to eat a stork. This is a very near relative of 
 
Proverbs and Maxims. 105 
 
 La Fontaine's frog. Frogs of this kind are found 
 everywhere. 
 
 If you want advice, our proverbs are full of it : 
 ' A great fortune is not worth a small daily income.' 
 Is not this the same as the French proverb: 'Feu 
 qui vaille est feu qui dure.' 
 
 ' Speak not in the streets : there are ears under 
 the pavement !' is another coincidence. 
 
 We have also our simpletons who make nets to 
 catch the tempest. They would shake hands with 
 those who want to catch the moon with their teeth. 
 
 I pass over numbers of good ones with which I 
 might also institute comparisons ; but the reader will 
 do so more easily than I, and will become convinced 
 by reading the chief proverbs used by popular good 
 sense, that all these truths proceed from a principle 
 against which the history of humanity vainly protests, 
 that of the fraternity of souls. The Gospel has pro- 
 claimed this dogma ; but we proclaimed it three 
 thousand years before the Christian era, and our 
 ancient books contain this article of faith : ' All men 
 in the universe are brothers.' 
 
 Our common origin is easily perceived when we 
 study all these sayings, which may be called the 
 diagnostics of human nature. The fact that we 
 admit all these formulas as true brings us to the 
 conclusion that man does not change, expressed 
 in this manner : ' Dynasties change, but not man's 
 nature.' 
 
io6 Tfi£ Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Some of our proverbs assume an enigmatical form : 
 they are like those devices inscribed on the shields 
 of knights of old, whose meaning was sometimes not 
 quite evident, perhaps as an excuse for not always 
 acting up to them. A device, however, ought to be 
 clear, since it expresses a principle of honour. A 
 proverb has not the same aim. It passes from 
 mouth to mouth along the crooked roads of tradition, 
 and comes down to us anonymous, like those ancient 
 coins whose effigy is half obliterated and recognised 
 only by the learned from certain characteristic 
 marks. 
 
 Proverbs are the relics of memory. Thus we may 
 explain their conciseness and their enigmatical mean- 
 ing. ' Warmth for all, cold for one's self,' is an 
 ancient Chinese proverb, attracting the attention, 
 and requiring the aid of reflection. It expresses the 
 result of an experience sufficiently discouraging for 
 those having at heart the happiness of humanity; 
 but in spite of that, perfectly true. Benefactors, 
 when they succeed, distribute, their benefits to the 
 world. If they fail,' they alone support the con- 
 sequences of their ill-success. 
 
 Proverbs are often comparisons taken from Nature., 
 ' When the water gets low, the fish begin to show,' 
 to indicate that hidden crime ends by being found 
 out. ' Every blade of grass its drop of dew,' to re- 
 present the equitable liberality of Providence. We 
 have even proverbial expressions resembling those 
 
' Proverbs and Maxims. 107 
 
 witty extravagances, for some time the delight of 
 Paris, and called * les combles.' Wishing to describe 
 the avidity of the miser, we say : ' To fall into the 
 sea and grasp the foam.' Is that not a ' comhle ' ? 
 I do not, however, claim priority of invention for my 
 compatriots. I only wish to show there is nothing 
 new under the sun. 
 
 Who would believe it ? We have also our 
 satirical remarks about mothers-in-law, for they exist 
 everywhere. We show them little mercy. We say: 
 ' The sky in springtime often resembles the looks of 
 a mother-in-law.' Often ! What irony in the word, 
 and how natural it is ! 
 
 We go even more deeply into this subject of 
 domestic pin-pricks. 'An ugly daughter-in-law 
 cannot hide her ugliness from her husband's parents.' 
 This is a truth that will cause a smile to more than 
 one mother-in-law, if they do me the honour to read 
 my book ; and they will say to themselves there 
 exists a country where they are avenged. 
 
 I leave with regret these proverbs, among which I 
 could point out numbers, proving that we know 
 human nature. But it is not only in our proverbs 
 we show it ; we have also our ' maxims,' although the 
 world has never heard tell of our Pascals or Roche- 
 foucaulds. Far be it from me to defame those great 
 thinkers ; we have a great respect in China for those 
 who make the world think their thoughts. 
 
 I have collected a few of these maxims, not all — I 
 
io8 The Chinese Painted by Themselves . 
 
 should fill volumes — but only those known in xthe 
 ' society where one is bored,' since the society of the 
 learned is thus defined so — wittily. 
 
 I quote them in the order they present themselves 
 to my memory, and there is more than one among 
 them that will please : 
 
 Life has its destiny ; fortune depends on Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 Although the sea is wide, ships sometimes meet. 
 
 It is easy to make a fortune ; difficult to keep it. 
 
 Pure gold fears not the fire. 
 
 A good bee will not touch a faded flower. 
 
 An old man's life is like the flame of a candle in a 
 draught. 
 
 However high the tree, the leaves fall to the 
 ground. 
 
 The tree planted by chance often gives shade. 
 
 One must have suffered to understand others' 
 sufferings. 
 
 The deeply rooted tree fears not the wind. 
 
 It is easy to raise a thousand soldiers, but hard to 
 find a general. 
 
 Clothes oiight to be new, men old. 
 
 Heaven never creates a mouth without the food to 
 fill it, as the earth never grows a blade of grass 
 without giying it a root. 
 
 The capital has, many charms, but home has 
 always its own. 
 
Proverbs and Maxims. 109 
 
 Fidelity does not, recoil from death. 
 
 Man is not always good, as the flower is not 
 always beautiful. 
 
 We should not be the slaves of our children ; they 
 themselves will find their happiness later on. 
 
 True charity consists in sending fuel to the poor 
 when it is cold, and not in making presents to the 
 fortunate. 
 
 A child is brought up to be the support of old age, 
 as a money-box is filled to supply future wants. 
 
 To learn the disposition, listen to the speech. 
 
 The gates of the law are always open, but those 
 who have only right and no money need not enter. 
 
 After death the hands are empty. 
 
 Evil is evil, though it is done with the knowledge 
 it may become known. 
 
 Good that is done with the thought that it will be 
 known is not real good. 
 
 If you believe not in the gods, look at the light- 
 ning. 
 
 After good wine, sincere words. 
 
 Shame departs, debts remain. 
 
 When one is pressed for time, the horse seems to 
 stand still. 
 
 Through the crevice of a door a man looks small. 
 
 The saddle reminds of the horse. 
 
 The hammer strikes the axe, and the axe strikes 
 the wood. 
 
 Distant relations are not worth near neighbours. 
 
no The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 A beggar does not climb upon a rotten plank. 
 
 Better to ask one's self than ask others. 
 
 The soft speecli hides a cruel heart. 
 
 Ten rushlights are not worth a lamp. 
 
 After passing through trouble one becomes a man. 
 
 With a clear conscience we may walk in darkness. 
 
 Jewels are only beautiful when they are set, as the 
 flower is lovely only when shown up by the leaves. 
 
 To correct anyone's failing is like trying to cure 
 the leprosy. 
 
 A foolish husband dreads his wife ; a prudent 
 woman obeys her husband. 
 
 A good horse needs but one stroke, a wise man 
 but one word. 
 
 A man need, only correct himself as severely as he 
 does others, and have the same indulgence for 
 others as for himself. 
 
 It is not wine that makes the drunkard, but vice. 
 
 While men are prosperous they burn no incense ; 
 but when misfortune arrives they fall at the feet of 
 Buddha. 
 
 What superiors do is always exaggerated by in- 
 feriors. 
 
 The more the talents are exercised the more they 
 ■grow. 
 
 The error of a moment becomes the sorrow of a 
 lifetime. 
 
 The torment of envy is like a grain of sand in the 
 eye. 
 
Proverbs and Maxims. i ii 
 
 The wise man can adapt himself to circumstances, 
 as water takes the shape of the vase that contains it. 
 
 These maxims have no known author ; they live 
 in memory, and often occur - in conversation and 
 writing. They are habits of the mind. 
 
 There are also others with an odour of realism 
 inadmissible by delicate tastes, and which I pass over 
 in silence. I have chosen those only which may. be 
 read in French, not knowing enough Latin to trans- 
 late them, and brave — my own scruples. 
 
 But perhaps one day I may speak of them again, 
 when I have studied Rabelais. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 THE end I have proposed to myself has 
 been to make the character of Chinese 
 civilization known in its primitive state, 
 and to establish its originality. Everyone has seen 
 those concentric carved ivory balls, which astonish by 
 the deUcacy of their execution. They are the product 
 of skilful patience directing a curved steel point in 
 the interior of an ivory sphere, and there cutting 
 out by ingenious manipulation those little concentric 
 balls, which are afterwards adorned upon the sur- 
 face with various designs. These needle sculptures 
 
112 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 in a substance as hard as ivory give an idea of our 
 genius. We proceed with order and deliberation, 
 and what we do we endeavour to do well, by means 
 of method and patience. 
 
 Education has a supreme influence upon the des- 
 tinies of a State ; on its organization depend the 
 grandeur and prosperity of a society. Our Govern- 
 ment early understood the necessity of spreading 
 instruction throughout the empire : and in a work 
 written before the Christian era, mention is made 
 of the ' ancient system of instruction,' in virtue of 
 which every town and village had to be provided 
 with a common school. 
 
 In the genius of our institutions, the end pursued 
 in making instruction general is to diffuse science 
 among the masses, in order to bring forward true 
 talent, and make it serviceable to the State. 
 
 We in no way conceal that tendency of our 
 methods; for we only understand that kind of edu- 
 cation which may be transformed into real service, 
 to the profit of all. 
 
 Our systems of instruction are therefore very dif- 
 ferent from those in vogue in the West, where the 
 name is more important than the object itself. 
 Compulsory instruction only strives after effect : it is 
 not a system of education. 
 
 It is imagined that by diffusing a certain dose of 
 education, everything has been done for a people's 
 happiness ; but instruction without a system of edu- 
 
Education. 
 
 II 
 
 cation is a dead letter. It is a stream without depth ; 
 it neither matures the judgment nor develops the 
 nature. 
 
 According to the Chinese method, the obligation 
 lies in the method of instruction. The State takes 
 heed of nothing further. 
 
 Before making learned men, which always happens 
 soon enough, it wishes to make good instruments of 
 work : for it is not enough to be apt 'to learn, it is 
 necessary to know how, and be able to learn. 
 
 I have noticed that in Europe the State is more 
 particularly preoccupied with making programmes 
 than in teaching methods. I confess this appears 
 to me logically faulty, and there are many chances 
 that instruction thus presented, whatever the spirit 
 of it may be, will bear but little fruit. 
 
 Only the spirit of the instruction is in truth 
 attended to, and it is considered satisfactory, and 
 the end attained, if the masters leave off drawing 
 their examples from religious morality, and select 
 them from a manual of Positivist philosophy. In 
 fact, the Government concerns itself in the system 
 of instruction with a certain number of details which 
 concern opinions, and the system is imagined to be 
 perfect if it contains some of the high-sounding 
 fashionable phrases. 
 
 These differences of appreciation upon a subject 
 so important as education, show clearly the distance 
 separating European civilization from ours. Our 
 
1 1 4 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 institutions have been formed to wear, and last, as 
 we may see by reflecting with what careful wisdom 
 they halve been established.' By studying them we 
 may perceive what renders other institutions defec- 
 tive. 
 
 In education our rules are of two kinds : those in- 
 tended for children, and those for students. 
 
 The rules defining the instruction of children are 
 contained in one of the sixteen discourses of the 
 Emperor, Yong-Tching, called the Holy Edict, in 
 which are found the ideas that should animate the 
 conduct of parents and masters in the direction of a 
 child's intelligence. 
 
 With what authority the Emperor counsels parents 
 to accustom their children from an early age to take 
 a serious view of things, to point out to them prin- 
 ciples rather than circumstances, laws rather than 
 facts, and to prepare their minds to acquire the • 
 precious quality of attention ! All the efforts of edu- 
 cation during the earliest age should tend to culti- 
 vate the attention and fight against habits. Among 
 the latter the Emperor instances : ' The habit of re- 
 peating with the lips, while the heart (mind) is fixed 
 on something else.' He advises that children should 
 be taught not to be too easily satisfied, but to ask 
 questions, so that they may acquire the wish to 
 know. 
 
 Then the Emperor teaches parents what they 
 should do to direct this education, to be obeyed by 
 
Education. 115 
 
 their children, and rule them wisely until the age 
 when studies will begin to have an object. 
 
 The first thought that should occupy a student's 
 mind is this, ' To form a resolution.' It is admitted 
 that when a resolution is firmly made, the desired 
 end will be attained. 
 
 I know no principle more efficacious than this : to 
 make success in studies depend on the will alone 
 joined to perseverance ! such principles not only 
 direct the efforts but prepare the character. 
 
 The advice we are to follow possesses also great 
 value from the point of view of study in itself, and I 
 offer it to the attention of all students who desire to 
 attain success with certainty : 
 
 To analyze the work done every day. 
 
 To repeat every ten or twenty days what has pre- 
 viously been acquired. 
 
 To begin study at five o'clock in the morning, and 
 give as much attention to it as a general gives to the' 
 operations of his army. 
 
 Not upon any pretext to cease study for five or 
 si^ days. 
 
 Not to fear being slow ; but only to fear stopping. 
 
 And finally, one last warning : 
 
 Time passes with the swiftness of an arrow; a 
 month is gone in a twinkling, another follows it, and 
 presently the year is finished. 
 
 I think I should not easily be persuaded that this 
 method is not good, and that it is preferable to leave 
 
 8—2 
 
1 1 6 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 the intelligence to its own initiative. Certainly 
 there may he exceptional minds which have no need 
 to be directed ; but they are exceptional. It is the 
 direction of ordinary minds that methods ought to 
 have in view, and for these wd must proceed with 
 order, patience, and clearness. 
 
 I am persuaded that all those who are succjessful 
 do not owe their success to the spirit of their in- 
 struction, but to the method they have followed. 
 For this reason our legislators have preferred to in- 
 stitute precepts which lead to success. 
 
 This is not all : not only have they taUght the 
 best means of instruction, but they have made edu- 
 cation obligatory by the simple fact that parents are 
 responsible for their children, and that they are re- 
 warded or punished by the State according to the 
 manner in which they bring up their children. It is 
 easy to understand with what force such a system, 
 acts upon education. 
 
 Our language is full of proverbial expressions 
 alluding to the excellence of education : ' Bend the 
 mulberry-tree while it is young ;' ' If education is 
 not diffused in families, how will men capable of 
 governing be produced ?' It is with a sentiment of 
 legitimate pride I testify to the enormous number of 
 men in our vast empire capable of residing and 
 vfriting : nearly all the inhabitants of China are 
 instructed ! 
 
 And yet they live in concord. Ah, that is one of 
 
Education. iij 
 
 our claims to glory ! As, we have not made use of 
 gunpowder to blow up the world, neither have we 
 abused the printing press by corrupting minds, and 
 exciting useless desires. Education of this nature 
 would not be comprehended in China. The books 
 that are classical — that is, obligatory, the study and 
 knowledge of which lead to honour and fortune — 
 speak only of the direction of the mind, the duties 
 of' each of us in various situations ; in a word, edu- 
 cation teaches us first of all to live rationally ; to put 
 ourselves in the right path ; to remember what we 
 are, and what we shall be if we maintain ourselves 
 in respect. 
 
 To express all my thought, I will say that our 
 children are what these same children would be in 
 the Christian world, if education consisted in learn- 
 ing, under the direction of responsible parents, the 
 Gospel, the sacred books, history, the works of the 
 great writers of old, and poetry. That is a com- 
 parison proving — from the fact that our community 
 is prosperous — that in education everything depends 
 upon example, in the same manner as in making a 
 good draughtsman, all depends upon the model. In 
 education the model is example, and is not a model 
 a perfect thing ? 
 
 You must then necessarily have an invariable, 
 absolute logic, otherwise the system has no centre of 
 gravity, and you run the chatnces of instability. 
 Human nature is an organism of such sensitiveness 
 
1 1 8 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 — we call it in China a little world — that it must be 
 well understood before it is subjected to treatment. 
 Now certainly it is better — a million times better — 
 that human nature should be rough-hewn, and igno- 
 rant than badly taught, I should say badly edu- 
 cated. 
 
 If there are any who think differently I regret it : 
 and as for socialism, since there must necessarily be 
 a socialism of some sort, I infinitely prefer the State 
 socialism which regulates everything under the pro- 
 tection of public opinion, than the socialism of irre- 
 gular caprices leading only to anarchy. 
 
 As one of our proverbs has it : 'It is better to be 
 a dog and live in peace, than a man and live in 
 anarchy.' 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 
 
 AMONG the beliefs dearest to the hearts of 
 the Chinese, that relating to the worship' 
 of ancestors must be placed in the fore- 
 front. 
 
 To worship ancestors and pay them honour is a 
 duty as important as that of prayer among Christians, 
 and there is none greater nor more popular. 
 
 Every family honours its ancestors. Their names 
 are inscribed upon tablets, which also make mention 
 of the services rendered by each and the titles 
 
The Worship of Ancestors. iig 
 
 obtained in their lifetime. These tablets are placed 
 in the order of filiation so as to represent a sort of 
 genealogical tree, and if in accordance with the fortune 
 of the family, the ancestral monument may have the 
 magnificent proportions of a temple, where the soul 
 of the family dwells eternally like a sacred fire. This 
 temple is the abode of the' ancestors, and it is here 
 at fixed epochs that all the members of the family 
 assemble to honour those who are no more, and pay 
 their memory the homage of recollection. 
 
 This worship exists throughout China, in the 
 humblest houses, as in the most opulent. It 
 constitutes the very honour of the family. 
 
 I feel a certain diffidence in publishing and eulo- 
 gizing these - customs in European society, where 
 they are absolutely opposed to the idea entertained 
 of ancestors ; and I ought to ask pardon for the 
 boldness of our opinion relative to the constitution ■ 
 of the family, which is considered as being formed 
 both of its living members, and the souls of those 
 who are dead. 
 
 Death does not break the bond of family affection ; 
 it in some sort deifies it, and makes it sacred; The 
 dead are not forgotten. 
 
 Forgetfulness of the dead, is a rule in the W.est. 
 Few are the exceptions ; and beyond some families 
 which preserve the memory of those who have 
 illustrated their name in great offices of State — ^vanity 
 it is miscalled, but noble pride is a juster term — 
 
120 T/ie Chinese Painted by Themselves . 
 
 nothing is generally known of ancestors beyond 
 three generations. The great-grandfather is the x 
 of the family, and as to grandmothers, the obscurity 
 in which they are enveloped is deeper still. 
 
 I have heard this subject treated with a coolness 
 most interesting. It is a most noteworthy phase of 
 the history of modern civilization, which wears out 
 everything, consumes everything, ridicules every- 
 thing — with a remnant of CJhinese simplicity, I was 
 going to say even everything sacred. 
 
 Ancestors in France are called les vieux, and a 
 meaning not in the dictionary is given to the word. 
 Poor old ones in truth, less valued than the old 
 tapestry decorating the sumptuous staircases of 
 new mansions ; whose memory is less worth than a 
 worm-eaten chest or a piece of cracked china, and 
 whose half-obliterated names upon their tombstones 
 are recognised by nobody. They are gone into 
 oblivion. 
 
 I have visited the cemeteries — these cities of the 
 dead, melancholy as places accursed. The immortelles, 
 blackened with age, litter the old tombs to which 
 fresh flowers are unknown. Ah, I detest these im- 
 mortelies, these never-fading, flowers, without fresh- 
 ness or perfume, that symbolize the hypocrisy of 
 remembrance. They save the trouble of coming 
 again. As for 'roses, they live but the space of a 
 morning. 
 
 We carry our dead into the fields, upon the hills 
 
The Worship of Ancestors. 121 
 
 that surround our cities, as high, as near to heaven 
 as we can ; and the tombs we raise to the memory 
 of our vieux remain for ever in the midst of im- 
 mortal Nature. The dead rest in peace ! 
 
 Nevertheless, I have read that the dead are 
 honoured in the West. Yes, it is true ; I have seen 
 grand funerals and magnificent mourning. I have 
 seen on the day of the fete des marts a crowd 
 gathered in the cemeteries ; " but how few are the 
 living beside the great crowd of dead whose memory 
 is no more ! Does the respect paid to the dead 
 extend beyond the end of the year ? It is doubtful. 
 The ceremonies connected with ancestral worship 
 take place in China every year, in the spring and 
 autumn. These ceremonies have gratitude for their 
 particular characteristic, and are carried out with 
 great solemnity. The anniversaries are the occasion 
 of family reunions, and would be of value by that 
 happy influence alone. 
 
 In wealthy families the ancestral temple is large 
 enough to contain apartments, where members of 
 the family not residing in the same town may be 
 received. One may even see tables laid out for 
 school purposes, and as the temples are usually built 
 in the country, they sometimes during the summer 
 answer the purpose of pleasure villas. In numerous 
 families assemblies in these temples are very frequent ; 
 for instance, on the occasion of marriages, and at the 
 period of examinations. 
 
122 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 All family festivals are held in presence of the 
 family, that is, in the midst of its ancestors, and at 
 their house. They are absentees who are not 
 forgotten. 
 
 These usages are the same in every province of 
 China. In every village, where nearly all the in- 
 habitants are relations, may be seen a chapel 
 ■ dedicated to the ancestors. It is our parish church. 
 
 The Emperor honours a functionary who has 
 fulfilled with devotion and intelligence the high 
 charges confided to him during his lifetime, not by 
 raising a statue to him, but a temple in which his 
 posterity will celebrate the ancestral cult. At the 
 anniversaries these ceremonies take place not only 
 in presence of the members of the family, but the 
 Emperor sends delegates to represent him. The 
 temple is inscribed with the ,name and titles of the 
 deceased, and recalls the eminent services he has 
 rendered to the State. 
 
 This honour is but rarely accorded. It is the 
 marshal's baton of the family. 
 
'La Sainte Enfance' 123 
 
 THE INSTITUTION OF ' LA SAINTE 
 ENFANCE.' 
 
 A SAYING celebrated in Europe praises the 
 art of lying : ' Keep on lying ; some of it 
 will stick.' There can be no better proof of 
 the truth of this principle than the opinion which 
 has grown up in France concerning the fate of 
 certain little Chinese, whom it appears their cruel 
 parents throw upon the rubbish-heap, and abandon 
 to the voracity of domestic animals. 
 
 In itself this institution of La Sainte Enfance is of 
 so touching a character, when the halfpence of happy 
 childhood are collected to administer to the needs 
 of a childhood that is miserable — those halfpence 
 intended for useless sweetmeats, and destined to be 
 changed to a treasure — that one can hardly help 
 admiring and believing in the fable. _ These poor 
 little Chinese thrown . . . What perfidious imagi- 
 nation could invent such an infamous story ? 
 
 Of course in many niinds this belief no longer 
 remains, for numbers of travellers who have visited 
 these countries of the far East have contradicted the 
 shameful calumny ; but the institution continues to 
 prosper, and it might be imagined that the object of 
 it exists. 
 
 It has happened to me personally in Paris to hear 
 
124 ^^^ Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 an old lady behind me saying, as she pointed me 
 out : ' There's a Chinaman ; who knows whether it 
 is not my halfpence that have bought him ?' For- 
 tunately for me, she had not her title-deeds quite in 
 order, otherwise I might have had to pay her interest 
 on her halfpence. Ought not every good action* to 
 be profitable ? 
 
 However, I made a mental note of the remark, and 
 remembered it ; one is not always so fortunate. 
 
 It is Certain that parental love is the same through- 
 out the universe. That love is innate, and the 
 Chinese are no exception to the rule. There are un- 
 natural creatures who in a moment of desperation, 
 or to hide a misfortune, abandon a poor little newly 
 born creature ; but it is a crime punished by every 
 code of law, and is as frequent in Europe as in 
 China. Misery and vice lead to the same ■ conse- 
 quences. 
 
 It is said the abandonment of children in China 
 is explained by their great numbers, and the privation 
 of their parents. This argument is essentially false; 
 the privation is not so great as people wish to make 
 out, and numerous means exist to protect childhood 
 from want. 
 
 In the first place, the laws punish infanticide the 
 
 * As Colonel Tcheng's pun is lost in translation, the reader 
 may be reminded that action in French, in addition to Its 
 obvious meaning, possesses that of a share in a joint-stock 
 undertaking. 
 
'La Sainte Enfance.' 125 
 
 same as murder of near relations ; and in addition to 
 this, the State subsidizes public foundling establish- 
 ments. There are, besides, benevolent institutions, 
 founded by private persons, in which abandoned 
 children find asylum and protection. 
 
 Not only have these establishments a special object 
 defined in the regulations, but these same regula- 
 tions award recompenses to midwives who bring in a 
 foundling, or denounce a case of infanticide. 
 
 . The text of our laws is extremely severe, and when 
 such a crime has been committed, not only the per- 
 petrators are punished, but even the head of the 
 family and the neighbours, the former as responsible, 
 the latter as accomplices. 
 
 As I have shown in the preceding chapters, the 
 increase of family is n6t considered a misfortune. 
 The male children are the honour of a family, inas- 
 much as by them it is continued. 
 
 It is rare to hear of infanticide in towns, where the 
 means of existence are more abundant than in the 
 country. But in the latter, certain customs exist by 
 which the bringing up of children, especially of girls, 
 is promoted. In every family, so soon as a male 
 child is born, the custom is to choose the girl who 
 will one day be his wife. A little girl is selected in a 
 neighbouring family, who is brought up at the saipe 
 time as her future husband, and in the same house. 
 She is educated as if she belonged to the family. 
 
 There exists also for poor parents another means 
 
126 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 of escaping privation, and protecting the existence 
 of their female children ; this is, the sale of the 
 child to a rich family, in which it will become a 
 servant. 
 
 This word ' sale ' shocks delicate ears, and seems 
 to have some taint of slavery ; but we must not be 
 alarmed at words. The children sold are brought 
 up by the family that buys them, and employs them, 
 until their majority, in its service. They are then 
 dowried, and afterwards married, and become free. 
 These women who have been purchased children 
 are able to receive every right that maternity confers, 
 and their origin is not a humiliating stain. 
 
 These are usages we must accept without blame, 
 since they come to the assistance of too numerous 
 families, and even promote their increase. 
 
 There are great numbers of families who keep all 
 their children at home, and lavish the tenderest care 
 upon them. The mother, working in the fields, 
 carries two while she bends painfully over the earth. 
 They are fastened, one uponher shoulders, the other 
 in the folds of her robe, and smile at the birds flitting 
 around them, while the poor mother pursues her 
 toilsome task- 
 In the floating towns I have even seen children 
 fastened in baskets, awaiting their mother's return. 
 Alas ! poverty has its dangers ; but why shduld it 
 not also have its devoted love equally with riches, to 
 which everything is easy ? . 
 
The Working Classes. 127 
 
 The missionaries have founded hospitals and 
 schools with the sums arising from the harvest of 
 halfpence. These establishments are of great ser- 
 vice to the poor, and I have no intention of criti- 
 cising a work that does good. 
 
 THE WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 I HAVE sought in the most recent works upon 
 China, what impression the organization of 
 the working-classes had made upon the minds 
 of European travellers. 
 
 In treating of this subject myself, I should have 
 feared to be considered an optimist — seeing every- 
 thing from the depths of his easy-chair, and to some 
 extent estimating the happiness of humanity accord- 
 ing to his own ; as generally happens to those who 
 write about the poor. They always arrive at one of 
 two conclusions : either that the poor are poor by 
 their own fault, and are therefore unworthy of pity, 
 or that they are the happiest beings in creation. 
 
 Probably I should not have escaped that criticism. 
 
 I have therefore had recourse to books written by 
 those who have seen : they are Europeans — English 
 and French — and I will ask jny readers to be satisfied 
 with the information contained in the narratives of 
 these travellers. 
 
128 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 I read in the work of Mr. ]. Thompson, published 
 in French (by Hachette), in 1877, at Paris, the fol- 
 lowing description of the condition of the working- 
 classes at Canton : 
 
 ' In spite of its terrible exigencies, work has 
 moments of interruption, even for the poorest 
 labourer. Then, sitting on a bench, or simply upon 
 the ground, he smokes and gossips quietly with his 
 neighbours, without feeling the least constraint in 
 the presence of his excellent emplbyer, who seems to 
 find elements of prosperity in the smiles and content- 
 ment of his workmen. 
 
 ' In passing through these workmen's districts, it 
 is easy to understand how' in reality this great town 
 is much more populous than would at first be sup- 
 posed. The greater number of workshops are also 
 kitchen, dining-room, and bedroom, to the workmen 
 who occupy thein. It is there, upon their benches, 
 the workmen breakfast, and there upon the same 
 benches they sleep at night. There, likewise, they 
 keep all their possessions. A spare jacket, a pipe, a 
 few ornaments they wear by turns, and a couple of 
 small sticks of wood or ivory. But of all their treasures, 
 the most valuable they carry with them consists in a 
 good stock of health, and a contented heart. The 
 Chinese workman is satisfied if he escapes the pangs 
 of hunger, and if he has sufficient health to allow him 
 simply to live and enjoy life in a country so perfect, 
 
The Working Classes. 129 
 
 that the mere fact of living in it constitutes true 
 happiness. 
 
 ' China, in his idea, is a country where everything 
 is estabhshed and ordered by men who know exactly 
 what they oUght to know, and who are paid to 
 prevent people from creating a disturbance by am- 
 bitiously seeking to quit the condition Providence 
 has placed them in. It will be said, perhaps, that 
 a Chinese is ambitious ; and in one sense this is true. 
 Parents are ambitious to have their children well 
 instructed and capable of presenting themselves at 
 the examinations established by the Government to 
 test candidates for public functions ; and there 
 are no people in the world who more ardently covet- 
 power, fortune, and place, than the Chinese who 
 have passed their examinations with some success. 
 This arises from the knowledge that there is no 
 limit to the realization of their ambitious project's. 
 The poorest of them can aspire to the highest func- 
 tions of the Imperial Government.' (Page 225.) 
 
 Mr. Herbert A. Gille, attache to the British 
 Consulate, published in 1876 (Triibner and Co., 
 London) a book, having for title ' Chinese Sketches.' 
 There I find some passages I will take the liberty of 
 quoting in their proper place. 
 
 The preface of this work contains the following , 
 opinion : 
 
 * It is generally believeid the Chinese nation is a 
 degraded and immoral race ; that its people are ab-, 
 
 9 
 
130 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 solutely vicious, cruel, and in everyway depraved ; 
 that opium, a scourge more terrible than gin, creates 
 fearful ravages among them, which can only be 
 checked by Christianity. A sojourn of eight years 
 has taught me the Chinese are a people inde- 
 fatigable in work, sober, and happy.' 
 
 In the same work, p. 12 : ' The number of human 
 beings suffering from cold and hunger is relatively 
 far smaller than in England ; and in this relation, 
 which is of the greatest importance, it must be ac- 
 knowledged also that the condition of women of the 
 lower classes is far better than that of their European 
 sisters. Wife-beating is unknown ; she is subjected 
 to no bad treatment, and it is even unusual to ad- 
 dress a woman in that coarse manner not seldom 
 heard in European countries.' 
 
 I could multiply these citations — I was going to 
 say certificates — and extract from a good number of , 
 bodks proofs and curious details as to the condition 
 of the working classes of China. It would be seen, 
 for example, how cheap living is. With twopence 
 daily a workman can live, and his wages are never 
 less than tenpence. Generally in workmen's families 
 the wife exercises a calling ; either she carries on a 
 little trade, or she works by the day in neighbouring 
 houses. Even numerous families therefore can make 
 a living. 
 
 In the provinces ' the struggle for existence ' has 
 numerous auxiliaries. The land is cultivated through- 
 
The Working Classes. 131 
 
 out the whole extent of our vast empire, and field 
 labours occupy a great part of the population. 
 
 All the cultivators are generally well off, whether 
 they own the land, or only farm it. The land-tax is 
 excessively small ; it does not on the average re- 
 present tenpence per head, and it is customary for 
 the farmer not to pay rent in bad seasons. 
 
 Here, however, is a narrative I read in the report 
 of M. de la Verndde, already quoted, and which will 
 terminate the demonstration I have hesitated to 
 support with my own personal statements. 
 
 ' We travelled over provinces, and saw an immense 
 agglomeration of population arrived at such density 
 that the earth, being in certain parts no longer 
 sufficient, they build houses and cultivate gardens 
 even upon rafts. We saw provinces of fifty] thousand 
 square kilometres, containing fifty millions of people, 
 and admirably cultivated throughout their extent. 
 
 ' In Petchili, for instance, landed property is ex- 
 cessively divided, and agricultural operations are 
 carried out upon a small scale, but the intelligence, 
 with which they are directed prevents the grave in- 
 conveniences of minute subdivision. 
 
 ' The farmhouses, shaded by great trees, seem like 
 bouquets of flowers among vast fields of rich harvests. 
 The abundance of hands, and the low price of labour, 
 allow cultivation by alternate rows. 
 
 ' The soil is admirably cultivated, and agriculture 
 returns magnificent results. 
 
 9—2 
 
132 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 ' When one has explored the beautiful provinces 
 of China, it is hard to prevent the mind from 
 wandering to the unhappy lands of Asia Minor and 
 Egypt. There the desert is the rule, and cultivation 
 the exception. The' farm always seems isolated, 
 surrounded by uncultivated spaces. 
 
 ' Travelling along the banks of the Yang-Tse-Kiang 
 we saw clean and prosperous villages follow each 
 other without interruption, and an active and 
 laborious population showing by their faces and 
 deportment they were contented with their lot. 
 Descend the Nile a few kilometres ; approach an 
 important village : we perceive hundreds of heaps of 
 greyish mud far from having the appearance of 
 human habitations. 
 
 , ' What a difference between these and the pretty 
 villages we passed through in Hup6, on the shores 
 of Lake Poyang ! 
 
 ' Economical and sober, patient and active, honest 
 and laborious, this Chinese people possesses a 
 capability of work surpassing that of many Western 
 nations. This is an important factor, which must 
 not be neglected in questions of foreign policy.' 
 
 I have nothing to add to this testimony, and can 
 but congratulate and- thank their authors for having 
 faithfully, reported what they Saw. The rarity of the 
 occurrence makes it worthy of mention, 
 
Historical Songs. 133 
 
 HISTORICAL SONGS. 
 
 THE poetical periods fixing the transforma- 
 tion of poetry in the various ages of our 
 civihzation bear a- great analogy to those 
 that literature has established in the West. 
 
 Poetry has been in China, as in Greece, the 
 language of the gods. It was poetry that inculcated 
 laws and maxims ; it was by the harmony of its lines 
 that traditions were handed down, at a time when 
 memory had to supply the place of writing, and it 
 was the first language of wisdom and of inspiration. 
 
 The poetical pieces which have been collected iii 
 the ' Book of Verses ' relate, as I have already said, to 
 that first period of our literature in which poetry 
 was not, properly speaking, a luxurious art. It was 
 only later that poetical taste began to infuse itself 
 into our literature, and the intellect endeavoured to 
 express the sentiments of the soul in a poetical 
 form. 
 
 Our poets, those whose masterpieces are our 
 models, have not retained the metre of the historical 
 poems, the lines of which had but four feet. The 
 prosodical systenj we now use has lines of five and 
 seven feet. In our poetry the foot is equal to a 
 word. 
 
 Besides this change in the structure of the linej 
 
1 34 Tf^^ Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 inspiration abandoned its antique simplicity. From 
 religious • and moral, it became sentimental and 
 descriptive, and expressed all the passions of the 
 heart at the same time as the sentiments.- 
 
 Love and its deceptions, sadness and its melan- 
 choly thoughts, the pangs of misfortune, are the 
 subjects most often chosen by the poets for allegorical 
 treatment., There are others who, on the contrary, 
 describe the happiness of country life, the beauties 
 of nature, and the pleasures of friendship. These 
 are, as may be seen, the habits of the Muse, oftener 
 sad than gay, the same in every clime. 
 
 Chinese poetry admits rhyme, but it occurs only 
 in alternate lines. Thus, in a stanza of four lines 
 there are two rhymes — at the second line and the 
 fourth. Our poets also use pretty often a particular 
 form which is called parallelism, and consists in the 
 correspondence of one line with another, or in the 
 opposition of words expressing two contrary senti- 
 ments. These forms are very expressive. 
 
 China has had, like other nations, its poetical ' 
 epochs. We have had prolific ages in which the 
 rtiuse has produced numerous masterpieces. We 
 compare the progress of the poetical genius to the 
 growth of a tree ; * The ancient " Book of Verses " 
 is the root ; the buds appeared in the reign of 
 Hou-ti ; in the time of Kien-Ngan there was a great 
 plenty of leaves ; and lastly, under the Thang 
 dynasty, the tree furnished a grateful shade and 
 
Historical Songs. 135 
 
 superb crops of flowers and fruit.' This glorious 
 age of Chinese poetry corresponds to the eighth 
 century of the Christian era, eleven hundred years 
 back! 
 
 I propose in the present chapter, and one of the 
 following, to pass these various periods shortly in 
 review ; I will quote a few works chosen here and 
 there from our anthology, those which seem to me 
 to give the best idea of the genius of our poetry in 
 its different varieties. 
 
 The ' Book of Verses,' or Historical Songs, is a 
 collection of odes, all of which are anterior to the 
 seventh century B.C. ; they were sung in town and 
 country, as was the case in the Greece of Homer's 
 period. 
 
 The style of these odes is characterized by great 
 simplicity, and at the same time variety. They 
 represent the archdic manijers of China with all the 
 natural simplicity of the earliest ages. They display 
 no ornaments of style, artfully prepared to enrich 
 the idea ; art is not yet artistic, and is ignorant of 
 the luxury of gorgeous draperies ; it is uncut, but 
 still a diamond. I will now give an example : 
 
 ' I climbed the barren mountain, 
 And looked where dwells' my father ; 
 I thought I heard him sigh : 
 My son serves in the army, 
 Day and night ; , 
 But he is prudent, he may still 
 Return, and not be detained. 
 
136 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 ' I climbed the verdant mountain, 
 And looked where dwells my mother ; 
 I thought I heard her sigh : 
 My young son serves in the army, 
 And must sleep neither day nor night ; 
 But he is prudent, he may still 
 Return, and not leave his bones there. 
 
 ' I climbed the mountain to the top. 
 And looked where dwells my brother ; 
 I thought I heard him sigh : 
 My young brother serves in the army. 
 Day and night with his comrades ; 
 But he is prudent, he may still 
 Return, and not perish there.' 
 
 I have purposely given almost a literal translation 
 of this little piece, to give a better idea of its child- 
 like simplicity. It is not ambitious ; a young soldier 
 is thinking of the beings dearest to him in the world : 
 his father, his mother, his eldest brother. The order 
 in which the thought is presented reveals the family 
 organization in antique times ; it comprises three 
 terms : the father, the mother, and the eldest brother. 
 The father and mother are recognised by the nature 
 of the feelings distinguishing man from woman. The 
 poor mother is thinking that her son is unable to 
 sleep : the father thinks not of that : his son is a 
 soldier, and if he is prudent he may return. The 
 eldest brother sees the camp-life and the comrades, 
 and if the soldier must die, does not, like the mother, 
 wish he may return to die in his arms. These are 
 
Historical Songs. 137 
 
 true and natural feelings, and what impresses the 
 mind is that they will always be so. 
 
 How different are the warlike poems of Greece, 
 sounding with the clang of armed conflict! War- 
 like ruses, party hatred, rage, vengeance, and the 
 horrors of pillage successively inspire the poet's 
 genius. Fatherland, home, and family are aban- 
 doned for endless sieges, voyages without object, 
 and the most perilous adventures. In all our odes 
 breathes love of peace, and family union seems 
 essentially connected with our manners. 
 
 We may remark also the part played by the eldest 
 brother in the preceding ode, and remember that 
 t he Bible also speaks in the same way of the eldest 
 brother, and of his authority. The right of primo- 
 geniture in ancient society is as if the eldest alone 
 represented the family. It is a trait of manners 
 preserved in the traditions of the human race, and 
 which it can never be without interest to find so 
 clearly characterized. 
 
 The ' Book of Verses' includes a whole chapter of 
 simple poems, in which we may trace the exact 
 nature of the civilization of ancient times. They 
 lay bare to us not only thoughts and sentiments, but 
 also customs and institutions. Each of these odes 
 is a picture in which are represented living beings ; 
 we seem to see and hear them ; each has his ap- 
 pointed place. It is not' a world disinterred from its 
 ruins, like the'memories of Pompeii or.Herculaneum ; 
 
138 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 it is not a series of obscure inscriptions vainly pored 
 over by the learned ; no, it is life itself, it is move- 
 ment and colour. 
 
 These odes have therefore a great charm for us 
 Chinese ; we love to sing them like sacred texts, for 
 they fortify all our aspirations : love of peace, of 
 work, and of family; respect for absolute power, 
 deference to elders. It is these models that have^ 
 formed our national character. 
 
 In these odes we find pieces celebrating conjugal 
 fidelity and connubial love. They characterize a 
 trait of manners which I will cite out of respect for 
 that ancient tradition : 
 
 ' Outside the city gate to the East 
 We see many handsome women, 
 Graceful as clouds. 
 But be 'they graceful as clouds, 
 I think not of them : 
 With her white robe and simple dress, 
 I love my wife best ! 
 
 ' Around the city walls 
 We see lithe and graceful women, 
 Looking like flowers of the fields. 
 But be they like flowers of the fields. 
 They attract not my love : 
 With her white robe and rosy cheek, 
 My wife is my only joy !' 
 
 The rhyme is not rich, and the style is old ; but is 
 it not a charming expression of pure and natural 
 passion ? It only wants the ' J'aime mieux ma mie, 
 au gue,' to make it a song of King Henri. 
 
Historical Songs. 139 
 
 These odes are some of the oldest in the ' Book of 
 Verses.' As they were collected by Confucius in the 
 seventh century b.c, and came directly from tra- 
 dition, it is not easy to assign them a date. 
 
 Some of them, however, go back to the Chang 
 dynasty, whose founder preceded Sesostris. Others 
 are relatively very recent, although anterior to the 
 age of Confucius, and in them sentimental poetry 
 begins to make its appearance. These pieces are 
 elegies rather than songs ; I have selected a few as 
 a sample : 
 
 SIGHS. 
 
 ' I took my pine-built bark, 
 And drifted down the stream ; 
 Mine eyes remained unclosed aU night ; 
 My heart seems full of secret grief. 
 
 ' My heart is not a mirror, 
 That I might see what it feels :' 
 My brothers, although they support me not, 
 Are angry if I speak of my sadness: 
 
 ' My heart is not like stone. 
 To be shaped and cut at will ; 
 It is not like a blind, 
 To be drawn up" and down : , 
 
 It is full of truth and honesty ; 
 I cannot direct it at will. 
 
 ' My sadness is so great ! 
 Nearly all are jealous of me ; 
 Many calumnies attack me ; 
 And scoffing spares me not. 
 Yet what harm have I done ? 
 I can show a dear conscience. 
 
140 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 ' The^un is ever radiant, 
 But the moon is less each day. 
 Why are these changes ? 
 My heart seems so full, 
 Like a useless unclean rag. 
 Ah ! when I muse in silence, 
 I grieve I am not blown away !' 
 
 THE ABSENT ONE. 
 
 ' The moon is high and clear ; 
 My lamp is just put out. . . . 
 A thousand thoughts mingle in' my heart, 
 My sad eyes are filled with tears ; 
 But that which makes my grief sharper 
 Is that you will not know it !' 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 ' A pretty and virtuous young girl 
 Has given me an appointment 
 At the foot of the rampart. 
 I love her, but she delays coming ; 
 I doubt whether to return^ and I am impatient ! 
 
 ' That young girl is truly beautiful ! 
 'Tis she who has given me this jewel 
 Of red jade. , 
 
 But this jewel of red jade that seems to burn 
 Increases my love. 
 
 ' She has gathered, to give to me, 
 A flower lovely and rare ; 
 But what makes the flower far more lovely 
 Is that it was given me by the young girl.' 
 
 All these poems are imbued with a charmingly 
 delicate sentiment. Why can I not translate the 
 harmony of our lines ! 
 
Pleasures. 141 
 
 PLEASURES. 
 
 ONE of the numerous questions most often 
 asked me . is to know whether we amuse 
 ourselves in China, and how we amuse our- 
 selves. If people are amused, then of course the 
 country is delightful ! 
 
 To amuse one's self ! What a civilized expression, 
 and how difficult to translate ! 
 
 One day I answered a witty lady, who uncon- 
 sciously posed me with that same old question : 
 * What is being amused ?' She thought I was trying 
 to puzzle her, but replied immediately, ' What you 
 are doing now, for instance : are you amusing your- 
 self?' I was puzzled in my turn, or at least I 
 thought so. ' Yes, certainly,' I rejoined ; * that then 
 is what you mean by being amused ?' ' Of course; 
 Now,' she added, with a charming smile, ' do you 
 amuse yourselves in China ?' I was obliged to con- 
 fess we did not amuse ourselves in the same way. 
 
 At the same time, when one is not destitute of 
 wit, or at all events of good-humour, there is amuse- 
 ment, and plenty of it. The sparkle of intellect 
 plays the most important part in our pleasures. 
 Naturally there are accessories to excite, and give 
 it wings ; but intellectual vivacity itself is the great 
 organizer of our amusements. 
 
142 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 Our outdoor life is not organized in European 
 fashion 1 We do not seek solace and amusement away 
 from our homes. Chinese who are tolerably wealthy 
 are established in such a style as not to need those 
 factitious pleasures which in fact are a confession of 
 boredom. They anticipate the possible occurrence 
 of ennui, and provide against it. They do not con- 
 sider caf6s and other public places absolutely neces- 
 sary to pass the time agreeably. They give their 
 dwellings all the comfort a man of taste can desire, 
 gardens to walk in, summer-houses for shade, and 
 flowers to charm the senses. Indoors everything is 
 adapted for family life : usually the same roof 
 shelters several generations. The children grow up, 
 and as we marry very young, we are serious at an 
 eaHy age. 
 
 Our thoughts are directed to useful amusements, 
 to study and conversation, and our opportunities of 
 meeting are so numerous. 
 
 Festivals are greatly in honour, and they, are cele- 
 brated with great spirit. In the first place come, 
 birthdays, and in families they come frequently.' 
 These f^tes consist chiefly in banquets ; presents are 
 offered to the person honoured; it' is a series of 
 charming reunions. 
 
 We have also the great popular festivals : that of 
 the New Year puts everybody in motion. The Feasts 
 of Lanterns, pf Dragon-boats, and of Kites are popular 
 festivals rather than amusements ; but they are the, 
 
Pleasures. 143 
 
 occasion of assemblies and family gatherings which 
 occasion much animation. 
 
 The official festivals are not the only ones. 
 Flowers to which certain allegorical powers are 
 attributed have also their f6tes, and each flower has 
 its anniversary. One family invites another to con- 
 template a moonlight scene, a prospect, or a -rare 
 flower. Nature always has her share in the festival, 
 which ends , with a banquet. The guests are also 
 invited to compose verses which are the chrono- 
 grams of the evening. 
 
 In the fine season many excursions are made, 
 especially to the Buddhist monasteries, where every 
 attraction is found : delightful mountain views, ex- 
 quisite fruit, and the best tea. The Buddhist monks 
 understand perfectly how to receive visitors and do 
 the honours of their domains. These promenades, 
 when they can be taken near town, are very frequent. 
 Verses inspired by the occasion are nearly always 
 brought back. It is our way of taking sketches. 
 
 When the district one inhabits is not favoured by 
 nature, distant journeys are undertaken, either in 
 boat or palanquin. 
 
 The mountains of Soochoo are as much frequented 
 as the valleys of Interlaken, and at a certain period 
 of the year the ' high life ' of the district is gathered 
 together there to admire the marvels of creation. 
 
 Journeys by water are also, much appreciated. 
 The boats performing this service are organized in 
 
144 T'^^ Chinese Painted by Themselves. ' 
 
 such a manner as to satisfy the most fastidious 
 tourist. Good dinner, good bed, and the rest ; the, 
 hours pass quickly, charmed now by the sounds of 
 ~ music, and now by the melodious murmur of the 
 waves, to the accompaniment of sighing zephyrs. 
 In the evening the deck and saloons are lighted up^ 
 and nothing is more poetical than these great 
 shadows gliding over the water, with the sound of 
 laughter in the night-silence. 
 
 Woman has not the same liberty of amusement 
 as in Europe. She makes visits to her friends, and 
 receives theirs in turn ; but these reunions are not 
 open to men. Thus one of the causes which excite 
 and produce the pleasures of society — ^that is to say, 
 the best part of the amusement — is suppressed in 
 the organization of Chinese society. 
 
 Men frequently meet in parties, but they are un- 
 accompanied, nor do they visit ladies outside the 
 family circle. 
 
 The Chinese who are admitted into European 
 society, and are present at soirees and f6tes, would 
 show very bad taste in venturing to -boast of their own 
 customs in the organization of social relations. To 
 speak the truth, one may compare institutions of a 
 political character, but not social customs. They 
 have the same privilege as tastes and colours.. 
 
 ' Everyone takes his pleasure where he finds it ' 
 is a perfectly true saying, which expresses my idea ; 
 for in that case it is always found when it is sought. 
 
Pleasures. 14,5 
 
 But it is also probable that our legislators, in 
 diminishing as much as possible the number of 
 occasions for men and women to meet, have acted 
 in the interest of the family. 
 
 There is a Chinese proverb vi^hich says, ' In ten 
 women there are nine jealous.' Nor are men perfect. 
 Family concord is therefore subject to great danger. 
 
 I have already said the institutions of China have 
 but one aim— the organization of social tranquillity, 
 and to assure its realization the only infallible 
 principle has been — to avoid giving opportunities. 
 This is very practical. It may not display chivalric 
 bravery, but then how many of the brave are over- 
 come by temptation ! 
 
 This matter is difficult to treat of on account of 
 the very nature of the passions it brings upon the 
 scene. It is, however, worthy of attention. 
 
 In marriage the remedy to situations in extremis is 
 summary execution without form of process. It is 
 the celebrated tue-la, so vivaciously commended by 
 Alexandre Dumas fils. I should be the last to 
 contest a husband's right at a moment when his 
 dignity and authority are gravely compromised. 
 But still, I think, with our sages, it is better to 
 avoid this sort of denouement, which poisons after 
 existence, however just the punishment may have 
 been ; for in most cases you have loved the woman 
 who deceived you, and painful memories are the 
 result. 
 
 10 
 
1 46 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 The remedy consisting in taking a lawyer and 
 barrister and pleading in public a cause which ought 
 to be kept like a secret, seems to me to offer but 
 poor satisfaction. It is in a manner taking a diploma 
 for the degree of man trompe ; and in no country has 
 that ex-matrimonial situation ever excited com- 
 passion, much less respect. 
 
 There is nothing, therefore, but trouble and vexa- 
 tion in the institution of Western society as it exists. 
 My personal experience in the matter, and what I 
 have redd, have quite opened my eyes. I do not, 
 however, share the opinion of a large number of 
 Frenchmen, who maintain that most wives deceive 
 their husbands. That must be exaggeration, although 
 I have been told by a lady that it was the luxury of 
 marriage, and that men gradually resign themselves 
 to their new existence. I am no longer surprised 
 that marriages are becoming less in number ; they 
 will soon be nothing but a simple formality witnessed 
 by notaries. This can hardly be called progress, 
 but I agree it will be very amusing. 
 
 However this may be, the sacrifice we have im- 
 posed upon ourselves is worthy of having been made. 
 It is, moreover, in conformity with our opinion of 
 human nature. We consider that man is originally 
 inclined to virtue, and is only perverted by bad 
 example, by becoming soiled with what we call the 
 dust of the world. 
 
 Confucius classes woman and wine among 
 
' Pleasures. 1 47 
 
 dangerous things. . Universal history proves him to 
 be right. If a scandal of any kind occurs, the first 
 idea is cherchez la femme. The West offers this 
 remarkable peculiarity, that it presents not only the 
 example but its criticism. Instruction is therefore 
 easy. Cherchez la femme is a saying which would 
 have no meaning in China. To understand it you 
 must cross the Oural, and even draw nearer still to 
 the West, where you will find the woman. 
 
 I am certain these observations have never been 
 made respecting our manners, the taste being above 
 all to criticize them, and to pronounce them Chinese; 
 that is, extravagant. Their great defect, every 
 sincere mind will agree, is that they are too reason- 
 able. Old children are like the young ones — they 
 don't like prizes for good conduct. That is the real 
 character of Western society ; they are ashamed of 
 seeming good. They would like very well to be so, 
 but they plume themselves upon seeming worse than 
 they are for the sake of effect, and this amusement 
 finally perverts ; it is like playing with fire. 
 
 We have remained serious. . . . Ah, it is a terrible 
 word, but he who desires the end must take the 
 means, and if we have family happiness, it is because 
 we have suppressed — temptations. Gaiety is a 
 little the worse for it, but morality is maintained. 
 And then after all it is so easy to travel ; we have 
 Europe at hand. 
 
 I would not, however, wish it to be imagined that 
 
 10 — 2 
 
148 Jhe Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Chinese society, and above all our youth, are bound 
 doMiirn by tyrannical customs. 
 
 Everyone knows the exceptions it is unnecessary 
 tq mention. But an exception has been stated by 
 certain travellers, in the shape of those boats called 
 flower-boats, found in the neighbourhood of great 
 cities, and which have been represented as places of 
 debauch. Nothing can be further from the truth. 
 
 The flower-boats no more deserve the name of ill- 
 famed resorts than do the concert-rooms of Europe. 
 If the frigate which rots in the Seine at the Pont 
 Royal were taken down the river as far as the hills 
 of Saint-Germain, and a festive appearance given 
 to it, which it no longer possesses, it would be the 
 san^e as a flower-boat. 
 
 It is one of the favourite pleasures of Chinese 
 youth. Water-parties are got up, chiefly in the 
 evening, in company with women who accept invita-* 
 tions. These women are unmarried ; they are 
 musicians, and it is for this reason they are invited to 
 the flower-boats. 
 
 When you wish to organize a party, you find on 
 board invitations ready prepared, upon which you 
 write the name of the artist, your own, and the hour 
 of assembly. 
 
 It is an agreeable way of passing the time when 
 it is too slow. On the boats are found everything 
 an epicure can desire ; and in the cool of the even- 
 ing, with a cup of deliciously perfumed tea, the 
 
Pleasures. 1 49 
 
 woman's harmonious voice and the sound of musical 
 instruments are Hot considered a nocturnal de- 
 bauch. 
 
 The invitations are only for the space of an hour. 
 The time may be prolonged if the Avoman has no 
 other engagement, and naturally the expense is 
 doubled. 
 
 These women are not considered with. relation to 
 their moral conduct. In that respect they may be 
 what they like — that is their business. They exercise 
 the profession, of musicians or lady companions; 
 the name does not signify, and they [are paid for 
 their services as one pays a doctor or lawyer. They 
 are usually educated, and some are pretty. When 
 they unite beauty with talent, they are of course 
 much sought after. The charm of their conversa- 
 tion becomes as much appreciated as that of their 
 art, and is turned towards those numerous subjects 
 one hkes to hear a woman's judgment upon. Verses 
 even are sent to those who can compose them, and 
 there are some sufficiently instructed to answer the 
 rhythmical gallantries of the literary. 
 
 As to pretending that these meetings are some- 
 thing different, and are the occasion of scenes 
 of cabinet particuUer, it is absolutely false. The 
 foreigners who have reported these details have 
 depicted what they hoped to see, in place of the 
 serenades they could not understand. 
 
 The women musicians are often invited to the 
 
150 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 house of the family. They come after dinner to 
 perform music, as artists are invited in Europe to 
 amuse the guests. If the musicians were women of 
 immoral life they would not cross the threshold of 
 our houses, and above all, would not appear in the 
 presence of our wives. 
 
 These artists also receive at their own houses 
 when asked. You invite them to receive you at 
 their houses to dine. You order the dinner and 
 ask your friends, who can also bring the persons 
 they have engaged for the occasion. Soirdes arfe 
 thus organized. 
 
 The object of invitations may also be to attend 
 a theatre ; and it is not unusual in the evening to 
 see around the theatre, especially at Shanghai, hun- 
 dreds of sedan-chairs magnificently draped and per- 
 fumed. They are the chairs of the musicians in- 
 vited to the theatre, awaiting their exit. 
 
 These customs show sufficiently well that the 
 seductions of the fair are strongly appredated in 
 the Empire of the Centre, and it is not the incli- 
 nation that is lacking. 
 
 The human heart is ever)^where the same : it is 
 only the way of controlling it that varies. Doubt- 
 less many a chance romance commences with an in- 
 vitation. At first it is only a wish to hear music ; but 
 this music is so treacherous ! Confucius also has 
 placed it among the dangerous things : The sound 
 of the voice remains in the memory ; the invitations 
 
Pleasures. 151 
 
 are renewed ; and he who invites may in his turn 
 become not altogether an indifferent object. Then — 
 
 ' . . . I'herbe tendre, et je pense 
 Quelque diable aussi le poussant ;' 
 
 a romance is begun, and matters go on in the East 
 as they do in the West. It is very costly, but, how- 
 ever, will never be sufficiently so ; for it is only plea- 
 sures that ruin that are truly agreeable. 
 
 I have mentioned men's reunions. I ought to 
 remark that the subjects of conversation never touch 
 upon politics. 
 
 Everything that might disturb a good understand- 
 ing is carefully avoided. At the most* the news of 
 the day is discussed. Travels are talked over, and 
 absent friends, whose verses and letters are produced 
 and read. Playing upon words is also in vogue — a 
 pastime to which our language, rich in monosyllables, 
 is admirably adapted. 
 
 Antitheses are usually sought for, figurative ex- 
 pressions, oppositions of words or ideas. These 
 amusements are very fashionable. 
 
 The ladies play cards and dominoes a great deal. 
 They embroider admirably, but do not learn singing. 
 They have the resource of conversation, a resource 
 so precious to women ; and it is needless to ask if we 
 have C^limenes and Arsinoes. There is always a 
 very much-appreciated male fellow-creature in the 
 conversation of the fair sex. It is an irresistible 
 
152 The Chinese Painted by Themselves . 
 
 inclination, very much like instinct, and one which 
 may be brought forward as evidence of the com- 
 munity of origin of the feminine species. 
 
 A pastime, which I think is not so general in 
 Europe as in China, is that of which flowers and 
 their cultivation are the motives. The women love 
 . flowers passionately, render them a veritable worship, 
 idealize them, and draw the inspiration of sentimental 
 poetry even from their scattered petals. 
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 
 
 THE essential difference characterizing 
 European society, as compared with ours, 
 is that the former is infinitely more ex- 
 acting for everything constituting the organization 
 of existence. Let us suppose Chinese society 
 suddenly to become as difficult to satisfy as the 
 Western world is pleased to be, and I have no doubt 
 it would indulge in the same satisfactions. That 
 seems clear. 
 
 But these transformations of taste are not pro- 
 duced suddenly, and nothing is harder to uproot 
 than old custom. It must first fall into disuse, 
 almost by itself, like a rotten rafter, and a new life 
 must penetrate society. It is a slow, methodical 
 work of substitution,-which must proceed naturally, 
 and requires the patient perseverance of time. 
 
European Society. 153 
 
 My compatriots and I, who have tasted of the 
 fruit of the Western tree, know very well this fruit 
 is of fine colour and flavour, and that Europe is an 
 admirable portion of the globe to visit. But after 
 all its satisfactions are only those appertaining to 
 a life of pleasure, and end by wearying even the 
 giddiest. 
 
 The European is above all things proud of his 
 resources of amusement, and strangers must be 
 imbued with a deep passion for serious things to 
 be enabled to study in the midst of such various 
 obstacles. The long sojourn I have made in the 
 West has allowed me to live a society life as there 
 understood — chiefly at Paris — ^whilst observing the 
 programme of special studies laid down for us ; and 
 it is known we have done credit to our professors. 
 I may therefore speak of my leisure moments like a 
 student in the holidays, when he has finished his 
 examinations. 
 
 It has always been said of the Chinese that they 
 are suspicious. This word has many meanings, 
 but is usually applied to us in an unfavourable sense. 
 This is a mistake : it should be said we are practi- 
 cal — a quality that induces us to esteem the medium 
 as being the index of the best. We do not under- 
 stand exceptions. Now we have no difficulty in 
 concluding that in European society one must either 
 be very much amused or very much bored. There is 
 no medium. I should like to call the Western 
 
154 T^he Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 world the Empire of Extremes, in contrast to the 
 Empire of the Centre. I beg pardon for the joke, 
 but it expresses my thought. 
 
 This great civilization affords us nothing but sur- 
 prises, instead of a uniform condition. It is tiot 
 the smooth brilliant surface of an ingot of gold on 
 leaving the crucible ; it is an ore in which may be 
 distinguished veins of pure gold, alloys, and dross 
 that must be analyzed to find the gold-dust it con- 
 tains. The splendours of luxury represent in our 
 eyes only curiosities, and not real progress. 
 
 Thus, to give an example that may express my 
 thought, it is the custom to say that England is a 
 rich country because there are great fortunes in it. 
 To my mind that is bad logic. You can only say it 
 is a country rich in rich people. It is therefore an 
 exceptional point of view. Nevertheless, speak of 
 the English in France, you will always be told they 
 are rich ; it is a fixed idea. We need not therefore 
 be suirprised that there are so many fixed ideas upon 
 the subject of China, when at only a few hours' dis- 
 tance the most self-evident propositions are distorted. 
 It is the application of the formula : ah uno discs 
 omnes — a formula which will always be in use, be- 
 cause time is lacking to discern the truth. The 
 almost, the a peU-pres, is amply sufficient ; an obser- 
 vation is scribbled in a note-book, and a volume 
 made of it. They call that assimilation. 
 
 I have beep careful to note almost daily the 
 
European Society. 155 
 
 various incidents of my Parisian life, and I have 
 taken it into my head to classify them by dividing 
 them between two portfolios, the first of which bears 
 the title, ' Notes of interrogation,' and the second, 
 ' Notes of exclamation.' My readers will easily 
 distinguish one from the other, and I shall avoid the 
 tedium of seeming to be always asking questions or 
 expressing astonishment. 
 
 I have mentioned the reasons which decided our 
 legislators to separate the society of men from that 
 of women. I have frequented in Europe, and espe- 
 cially at Paris, conversational societies, and they 
 have particularly charmed me. Formerly, I am told, 
 it was fashionable to go into intellectual society, and 
 the salons were more sought after than at present. 
 I have seen in those still remaining charming 
 women, strongly attached to intellectual pleasures, 
 adopting them sometimes from taste, and sometimes 
 purposely to avenge themselves on politics which 
 absorb their husbands, or as a diversion from the 
 emptiness of the latter when it ha§ become in- 
 curable. 
 
 Woman has always the intellectual advantage in 
 the salons still worthy of the name, and perhaps 
 this is the reason the latter have disappeared. The 
 men, by no means flattered at having their insuf- 
 ficiency shown up, have ceased to appreciate this 
 kind of assembly, where their intellectual infirmities 
 generally served as a tairget; we must not blame 
 
156 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. ^ 
 
 them too much. It is always excessively disagree- 
 able to be classed among ninnies or naturals by a 
 clever woman. What a marvellous thing is a 
 woman's wit ! It is indefinable ; it is at the same 
 time light of touch and profound in depth; it is, 
 truly delightful ; and when two lovely eyes sparkle 
 amidst the laughter of this fairy that is never still, 
 but seems to flit everywhere like a butterfly in the 
 sunshine, it is a perfection which leaves far away in 
 oblivion the black coats and their affectations. 
 
 My profession of faith is very easy to make : it 
 has woman's wit for an ideal. Ask me not which — 
 there is no type to determine ; I have sometimes 
 met with it, and the effect was like a dazzling light. 
 
 I am a passionate admirer of wit. It is the only 
 thing that distinguishes and suffices. One gets 
 tired of everything except that. When it is ex- 
 hausted in others, one keeps a small personal pro- 
 vision of it, and it consoles in the society of a pack 
 of people who are incapable of entering into your 
 feelings. 
 
 Wit is very aristocratic ; it is indulgent to simple 
 good sense which knows itself to be commonplace, 
 but how it disdains that pedantic, parti-coloUfed, 
 borrowed, ticketed wit, resembling a purchased coat- 
 of-arms, or a foreign decoration emanating from 
 some region known only to geographers ! Women 
 intuitively recognise wit when it is authentic, and 
 were they consulted upon the choice of the Acade- 
 
European Society. 157 
 
 micians I should not have been surprised. To have 
 the women's vote ! What an honour to belong to 
 so illustrious a society !. 
 
 I have seen well-attended assemblies, but there 
 seemed to be rather too much consciousness of being 
 assembled. Everyone had been careful to furbish 
 up his valuable intellect, and try his pinions. The 
 impromptus were prepared beforehand, like soldiers 
 at a review. These preparations are admirable in 
 strategy, but when wit takes the field it ought to go 
 across country ! Nature is its best guide ! How 
 delightful not to know what you are going to say ! 
 It is like an excursion without a fixed object — 
 whither you please : you are certain to see some- 
 thing you have not seen before — you are an explorer ! 
 But to prepare beforehand the surprises you intend 
 to be surprised with, to hastily polish up a crib and 
 offer it as an inspiration, is worthy of a mounte- 
 bank. 
 
 Wit is only at ease when natural and urilooked 
 for ; it is the twin brother of Truth, that great un-- 
 known whom the Western nations have represented 
 so seductive that they pass their time looking at and 
 complimenting her. 
 
 I have never cared for mixed assemblies ; they are 
 become very fashionable, but they are a mistake. 
 In a very distinguished salon of the Faubourg Saint- 
 Germain I have seen assemblies of persons belong- 
 ing to very different classes. 
 
158 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Everybody there had wit or a talent, and each 
 was tuning up his instrument. One, a much admired 
 professor, was giving definitions : it was a minia-- 
 ture edition of his class. After his enun,ciations the 
 .guests seemed to reflect a moment, and then ' there 
 was a mingled murmur of 'Very good; very true.' 
 One evening, I remember, a celebrated Academician 
 was asked 'to define modesty ; he replied that it 
 arose from the feeling we had of our real worth. 
 We all admired the justice and profundity of the 
 idea. 
 
 In the assembly there was also an actor, who 
 represented with immense assurance the wit of 
 others. I was astounded to see this personage in 
 the place of honour, and gentlemen and Academi- 
 cians relegated to the other ranks. In China we 
 observe a rigorous etiquette with regard to acquired 
 social distinctions. I have been told etiquette in 
 France is no longer good form : I have no difficulty 
 in believing it. 
 
 The society of the Institute is very dignified. It 
 is a body reminding me of our literary class : it 
 forms, I believe, the only company whose credit is 
 not depreciated. True, the conditions to be fulfilled 
 before becoming a member are unchanged : to be 
 the first of your order suffices. That alone explains 
 the maintenance of prestige. 
 
 I greatly admire that institution which creates 
 the aristocracy of science, and whose palms are 
 
European Society. 159 
 
 glorious. They are , really the only distinctions a 
 man can feel proud of possessing; they confer an 
 honour that honours. 
 
 I have joyfully recognised among the usages of 
 the Institute one that exists in China. The Acade- 
 micians' wives wear as a privilege palms embroidered 
 on their evening dresses, and thus receive the same 
 ennoblement as their husbands. Chinese women, as 
 I have already said, wear the insignia of their hus- 
 baijds' rank and assume their title. It is a custom 
 that should be extended to many other elevated 
 positions. Emulation would thereby be created, 
 married women would highly appreciate the privi- 
 lege, and many husbands would find it extremely 
 salutary. It is quite right that a wife's ambition 
 should give the husband a pretext to aspire ; it is 
 good also that a husband should have the satisfac- 
 tion of ennobling his wife : these are little presents 
 maintaining friendship, that rare flower of marriage, 
 whose thorns do not always bear roses. 
 
 The wit of society appears to me overstrained, 
 which I have not found to be the case in the society 
 of , wit. It is made up of trifles powerless to charm. 
 It pleases at first sight, tjien it wearies. It is noise 
 without harmony. 
 
 I have noticed that the good breeding of men in 
 society is not invariable. In the presence of the 
 lady of the house they are exquisitely polite, but 
 scarcely are they out of her sight than they imagine 
 
i6o The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 they are at a club, and become extremely common, 
 In France I have heard the proper pride of rank 
 criticized as une pose. Surely, however, one must 
 be what one represents, otherwise it is no longer 
 possible to agree upon the meaning of words. 
 
 Only the lowest class, the vanaille, asserts its rank. 
 That alone has preserved its pride, however it may 
 inspire disgust. In our Oriental countries I have 
 seen beggars with the air of exiled kings ; in Italy I 
 have met ancient Caesars in ragged mantles. These 
 fellows possessed a style perfectly inimitable. No 
 doubt had they been compelled to put on a dress- 
 coat they would quickly have lost that noble air 
 which commands our unwilling respect. 
 
 Costume has a great influence upon manners, and 
 it is one of the notes of interrogation most strongly 
 underlined in my portfolio. 
 
 What reason could there have been for the sup- 
 pression of those magnificent costumes which used 
 to distinguish all classes and all ranks ? Was it the 
 idea of destroying social distinctions ? I much fear 
 it is distinction itself which has been the sufferer. 
 Can a less harmonious sight be imagined than a 
 gathering of black coats ? Every time a lady has 
 honoured us with an invitation to her house, she has 
 not omitted to say : ' Be sure to come in your 
 costume. Don't disguise yourselves in that horrible 
 black coat our lords and masters wear ! Don't follow 
 our fashions !' And we have always been con- 
 
European Society. i6i 
 
 ^ratulated upon the beauty of our costumes ; praise 
 has been given to the lustre of our colours, the rich- 
 ness of our silk, and the imposing elegance of the 
 dress. 
 
 It is a most curious circumstance. Everybody 
 seems to regret the disappearance of costumes, and 
 nobody has the idea of reintroducing them. The 
 only consolation is fancy-dress balls, one of the most 
 delightful inventions in the way of society pleasures, 
 and at the same time one of the most useful. There 
 I have seen gentlemen of all the courts of bygone 
 reigns, from the age of Francis I. to the last days of 
 the monarchy in which begins the falling-off— of 
 costume. It was really fairy-like, this lesson of 
 general history. And how suddenly these men 
 became noble, distinguished, self-contained, proud, 
 as men ought to be 1 
 
 I do not speak of the feminine sex, which, fortu- 
 nately for modern society, has not left off its charming 
 toilettes. Fashion often changes the styles bu^ 
 never destroys them, and sometimes resuscitates the 
 ancient models without being criticized. Women 
 would never have had the idea of adopting a society 
 uniform. How have they been able to allow the men 
 to do it ? They like brilliant costumes, and would 
 find pleasure in admiring them. This is a note 
 of interrogation I have often placed before a fair 
 friend, and one which has never been solved to my 
 complete satisfaction. One lady, however, remarked 
 
 II 
 
1 62 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 that a plain coat was much more convenient to — 
 turn. She observed that formerly the costume 
 designated a political party, and that if the fashion 
 remained unchanged men would ruin themselves 
 with dress. ' It is only since the French Revolu- 
 tion,' she added with a smile. ' Do you understand, 
 Mr. Mandarin ?' It was needless to ask. The reply 
 was not without wit. 
 
 I have had the privilege of seeing great official 
 balls, and of being present at the storming of the 
 supper-tables. It is in the highest degree curious, 
 and if I had not been aware of the manner in which 
 great official society eats, I might have written upon 
 my tablets under the heading etiquette the following 
 note : ' The personages forming the highest class, 
 when they are admitted to the presence of the Chief 
 of the State, do not place themselves at table, but 
 rush at it with warlike fury.' This, however, is the 
 way Europeans take their notes in travelling. To 
 mention but one instance of their culpable reckless- 
 ness, they have copied the pictures representing the 
 punishments suffered in the Buddhist hell, and given 
 them to their public as a delineation of the tortures 
 of our judicial system. It would be infamous if it 
 were not grotesque ! But I return to the famished 
 crowd awaiting the opening of the doors. It is quite 
 as grotesque, and I invite the partisans of the realistic 
 school to turn their attention to this scene, which 
 may be called the battle of black coats. 
 
European Society. 163 
 
 First the human torrent comes leaping over all 
 obstacles, and filling every empty space; then by 
 degrees becoming more closely packed together until 
 it forms a solid mass — a veritable chaos of black 
 shoulders surmounted by bald heads, encased in stiff 
 collars. These heads wag with indescribable move- 
 ments, showing the increased tightness of the 
 squeeze. Then arms are raised, hands approach the 
 goal, and succeed in seizing the delicate viands so 
 greedily coveted, which at last arrive half crushed at 
 the mouth of the happy victor. This first success 
 increases the appetite. 
 
 This time the cup reaches the lips, and the mouth 
 and pockets are simultaneously stuffed with delicacies 
 usually only found together in the most secret re- 
 cesses of the human stomach. 
 
 Such is the company seen from behind. Now let 
 us observe it as it turns ; for 
 
 ' Ce n'est pas tout de boire- 
 II faut sortir d'ici . . .' 
 
 and this is another sight quite as interesting as the 
 first. 
 
 In the foreground still undulates the sea of black 
 shoulders. These are they who have not yet had 
 anything, but struggle still, and keep on pushing. 
 Further on those who are fed, pressed against the 
 tables, begin to execute a turning movement. Their 
 imposing column sets itself in motion ; they push, 
 
 II — 2 
 
164 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 they crush, they come forth from the battle, bruised, 
 tumbled, crushed — but fed. I do not mention 
 those who remain, for there are some whose appetite 
 is such the servants have to ask them politely to 
 make room for others. 
 
 I have never been to the ball without "waiting to 
 see this battle. 
 
 The non-of&cial balls are society balls. But they 
 are not so amusing ; they are cold, formal, dull. It 
 is most difficult to find simplicity and distinction in 
 the same society. If you are not interested in 
 dancing, you run a good chance of being bored. 
 Have you noticed the indifferent manner of all this 
 great society ? It is sometimes icy. The dances 
 are silent ; a few groups talk in a low voice ; the 
 company comes and goes in and out, and disappears. 
 They meet without seeming to know each other, 
 scarcely shaking hands. Everybody seems pre- 
 occupied ; usually they are looking for somebody 
 who is not there. That is invariable ; everyone has 
 a person who has not come, and stays for the sake 
 of an excuse. What a comedy is drawing-room 
 society ! 
 
 When by chance a personage is present, he is 
 surrounded. A little court is represented, a pleasure 
 the more appreciated because it has a slight air of 
 conspiracy — authorized, like the lotteries. It is 
 in this way governments who can wait are supported. 
 It is inoifensive, and there is a certain style about it. 
 
European Society. 165 
 
 They imagine themselves dangerous! The only- 
 society completely to my taste is the art world, and 
 I comprise under that name that privileged society 
 where there are neither nobles, burgesses, magis- 
 trates, barristers, notaries, lawyers, placemen, 
 merchants, bureaucrats, nor fundholders, but all are 
 artists and satisfied with the title. To be an artist ! 
 it is the only thing' for which; one could desire to 
 belong to European society. 
 
 I trust I may be pardoned this partiality ; but 
 really I cannot see what there is to admire in 
 notaries or lawyers. We are more than four hun- 
 dred millions in China, and dispense with them, and 
 our title-deeds, contracts, settlements — in a word, 
 every document relating to business, is not less 
 regular on that account. My admiration for the 
 artist class is without reserve, for they are the only 
 men who have a lofty end in view ; they live to think, 
 to show man his greatness and spiritual nature. By 
 turns they melt or kindle his heart, and awake his 
 torpid faculties by Creating for him works resplen- 
 dent with an idea. Art ennobles all, elevates all. 
 What matters the price paid for the work ? Is it 
 the number of bank-notes that excites the artist's 
 passion, as it inflames the lawyer's zeal ? No. The 
 only thing that escapes the fascination of gold is art. 
 Whatever the artist may be, he is essentially free, and 
 therefore is alone worthy of esteem and honour. 
 The artist world comprises a great number of 
 
1 66 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 artists of different classes, and the same social dis- 
 tinctions are there seen as in other societies. There 
 are the favourites of inspiration. Art possesses, 
 even in France — that fatherland of artists — its king, 
 if by that title we may designate the greatest thinker. 
 His poetic genius has greatly influenced his century, 
 of which among so many other glorious names he 
 will be the pride. 
 
 All those minds which strive to obtain a glimpse 
 of light in the domain of the ideal belong to that 
 society of independent men called artists. Their 
 society is exclusive : it admits no sham brethren, 
 and none can assume the title of artist without 
 actually being one. It is a nobility that cannot be 
 bought. I will further add, that all the artists of all 
 countries extend their brotherly hands beyond the 
 frontiers, and laugh at politicians who pretend to 
 separate them. The human mind trained to the 
 flights of inspiration is controlled neither by distances 
 nor passports ; the higher the soul soars the greater 
 humanity grows, and the nearer its transfiguration 
 into fraternity. 
 
Classical Poetry. i tj 
 
 CLASSICAL POETRY. 
 
 IT was under the Thang dynasty (6i8 to 907 a.d.) 
 that poetry in China attained its highest de- 
 velopment. This great epoch has for us the 
 same splendour as that which in the West radiates 
 from the ages of Augustus and Louis XIV. — its 
 masterpieces are imperishable. ■ 
 
 I have collected a few pieces belonging to that 
 poetical period, and here present them to my lite- 
 rary readers, with all the restrictions a translator has 
 the privilege of making. 
 
 In poetry, above all, it is not sufficient 'to give the 
 idea or the subject of the composition. The word itself 
 has to be considered, the place it occupies, the force 
 or movement it giVes to a thought, and then the 
 harmony of the line and verse. These latter are 
 peculiarities impossible to translate. 
 
 Moreover, there is so wide a gulf between the 
 languages of the West and ours ! The forms of 
 thought are so completely different. One must 
 possess a large fund of good-will to translate Chinese 
 poetry ; and I only do it in deference to a frequently 
 expressed wish, and to give an idea of our poetical 
 works. My task has been simplified, happily for me, 
 and happily also for the reader, by translations I have 
 
1 68 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 selected from the learned work of the Marquis 
 d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, member of the Institute. 
 I have been careful to mark with an asterisk (*) the 
 pieces extracted from that work; moreover, the 
 reader will have no trouble in distinguishing the 
 elegant translation of the Marquis d'Hervey from 
 my humble effort, which is but a word-for-word 
 rendering without ornament. 
 
 The first ages of the Thang period were under the 
 influence of religion, and the earlier poets have aspi- 
 rations belonging rather to religious philosophy than 
 to sentimental poetry. I cite a few passages only, 
 merely to give an idea of that epoch : 
 
 CONTEMPLATION. (*) 
 
 ' The monk and I were united 
 In the same thoughts. 
 
 We had exhausted all that words can express, 
 We remained silent. 
 
 I looked at the flowers, motionless as we ; 
 I listened to the birds flitting through space, 
 And I grasped the great truth.' 
 
 Here is another piece of the same kind : 
 
 THE CELL. (•) , 
 
 ' The pure light of a lovely morn 
 Lights up the old convent ; 
 Already the sunlit tops of the great trees 
 Announce the sun's return. 
 It is by mysterious footpaths 
 We reach this solitary place, 
 Where the cell of the priest is hidden 
 Among verdure and flowers.' 
 
Classical Poetry. 169 
 
 As may be seen, these fragments are little else than 
 themes of poetical inspiration. The profundity of 
 thought displayed in the former of the two is worthy 
 of notice ; it breathes a pure spiritualism, and pre- 
 sents in a few words the solution of the highest 
 questions of religious philosophy., 
 
 This period of religious poetry was not of long 
 duration. It ended with the extinction of Buddhist 
 influence, after which we find scepticism in the 
 ascendant, and poetry inspired with ideas of doubt 
 and depression : 
 
 (*) ' I fall into a profound reverie : 
 
 How long do youth and maturity last ? 
 And what can we do against old age ? 
 
 These lines are by the greatest poet of China, 
 Tou-Fou, surnamed the God of Verse. I will quote 
 some of his works. They are usually imbued with 
 melancholy ideas. In his poems he compares the 
 future to a sea without an horizon. The sight of 
 the ruins of an old palace moves him to sadness : 
 
 (*) ' I feel a profound sadness, 
 I sit upon the thick grass. 
 I begin a song to express my grief, 
 Tears rise and flow in streams. . . . 
 Alas ! on this earthly path 
 That each treads in turn. 
 Who could walk for long ?' 
 
 The poet Li-tai-pe, who belongs to the same 
 period, is more philosophical ; he consoles himself 
 for the miseries of life : 
 
170 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 (*) ' Listen, down there in the moonlight, 
 How the crouching' ape weeps 
 All alone upon a tomb ! 
 And now fill up my glass : 
 It is time to drink a bumper !' 
 
 The same poet shows us in the following piece 
 that already in his time — that is, in the seventh 
 century — the soldier was a favoured mortal : 
 
 (*) ' His whole life long he never opens a book. 
 He can hunt ; 
 
 He is skilful, strong, and bold. 
 He gallops faster-than his shadow, 
 What a proud, disdainful air ! 
 
 « a » Sf 
 
 ' How different are our bookworms 
 From these intrepid marchers ; 
 They who grow grey over their books 
 Behind a drawn curtain — 
 And truly to what purpose ?' 
 
 Among the elegiac poets Tsom-Ming-Tong stands 
 out in bold relief; his muse, like that of Li-tai-pe, 
 indulges in melancholy reflections, and then, doubt- 
 less in resignation, sings of wine and flowers : 
 
 (*)' ' There is but one spring-time in each year ! 
 And in a hundred years 
 How many men reach the age of a hundred ? 
 How many times can we intoxicate ourselves 
 Among the flowers ? 
 This wine should cost dear 
 Before we complained of the price !' 
 
 Nature has also her singers, and poetical descrip- 
 tions of valleys and mountains are not lacking : 
 
 ' The sun has crossed to its rest 
 The chain of high mountains ; 
 
Classical Poetry. 171 
 
 Soon all the valleys are lost 
 
 In the shades of eve. 
 
 The moon rises among the pines, 
 
 Bringing coolness. 
 
 The wind that blows and brook th?,! flows 
 
 Fill my ears with enchantment.' 
 
 Elsewhere we find poetry in which" the joys of 
 friendship are contrasted with the grief of separa- 
 tion : 
 
 ' Let us think only of tuning our lutes, 
 
 While we are united 
 
 In this happy dwelling ! 
 
 I will remember the journey that awaits me 
 
 Only at the moment we must part, 
 
 When the bright moon will have sunk 
 
 Behind the tall trees !' 
 
 Exile is a cruel pang to a Chinese. Unfortunate 
 poets, victims of some palace revolution, have de- 
 picted all its sadness in admirable verses : 
 
 ' Before my eyes unceasing pass 
 New peoples and rivers. 
 But alas ! my poor village 
 Is lost to view ! 
 While the great river Kiang 
 Rolls its swift waves towards the East, 
 The days of exile grow longer 
 And seem without movement.' 
 
 This fragment is by Tou-Fou, who died disgraced, 
 and who breathed out his grief in charming verses. 
 He represents it under an allegorical form. The 
 poet's sadness will be observed in the following 
 lines : 
 
1172 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 THE ABANDOISIED. 
 
 •' A woman radiant in beauty, 
 Scion of a noble race, 
 Has withdrawn to a mountain solitude, 
 Where she lives abandoned, amid the bushes, 
 Her sole companions. 
 One day, said she, a revolution 
 Broke out on the frontier of the empire : 
 My brothers were killed ! 
 Alas, of what use are honours ! 
 Even their bones were left unburied. 
 Everything has an end ! 
 The deeds of a hero are like 
 The radiance of a flame 
 That a breath can extinguish. 
 My faithless husband has deserted me. 
 And his new wife is beautiful as jade. 
 He has no eyes btit for that woman's smile ; 
 He is, deaf to my sighs ! 
 Thus the limpid crystal of a spring 
 Creeps hiddeii from the side of a mountain. 
 The servant has gone to sell my pearls, 
 And returns to cover with thatch 
 The roof of my cottage. . . . 
 I gather flowers, but with them adorn not 
 My dark tresses. 
 With my own hands 
 I gather the sere-wood. 
 And to resist the cold. 
 Have but my thin sleeves ; 
 While I rest against the bamboos 
 And wait. 
 My sad eyes fixed upon the setting sun !' 
 
 ON A VOYAGE. 
 
 ^ ' Near the bank dotted with plants, 
 Blown by the breeze. 
 Floats my solitary bark. 
 
Classical Poetry. 17^ 
 
 In the night its lofty mast alone 
 
 Casts its shadow. 
 
 The starry firmament opens up 
 
 An immense universe ; 
 
 The moon breaks into a thousand pieces, 
 
 Which sparkle and float with the waves. 
 
 I muse that renown 
 
 Is not based upon talent alone. . . . 
 
 Old age may cause disgrace ; 
 
 And now, wandering in the universe, 
 
 I am like a swan upon the waters.' 
 
 RETURN AND FAREWELL. 
 
 ' The morning and evening stars 
 Never appear together : 
 Thus is it, they say, also with men. 
 What is then this evening 
 Which reunites us two 
 By the light of the lamps ? 
 How long has the time of youth lasted ? 
 Our hair is already white. 
 Our old friends, about whom we ask 
 Tidings, are, alas, all dead ! 
 Who could foresee, twenty years ago, 
 That I should return to thy dwelling ? 
 I left thee unmarried . . . 
 And now thy children are many. 
 See them all with joyous air 
 Running to call me uncle, 
 And ask me whence I come ! 
 During my gossip with thy family 
 The feast is already prepared ; 
 Thyself art gone to cut the vegetable's 
 In the rainy night, 
 
 And thou hast made ready rice of the new harvest 
 Since it is so hard to meet, 
 Thou say'st we must empty ten cups . . . 
 But it is not to intoxicate me, 
 
174 "T^^^ Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 But to make me feel 
 
 The warmth of thy old friendship. 
 
 Alas, we shall again be separated to-morrow 
 
 By a host of mountains, 
 
 And the world will become immense !' 
 
 These little poems have not the ambitious flight 
 of lyrical poetry, but they have preserved a certain 
 form of simplicity only to be found in the works of 
 antiquity. Our poesy is not made up of. these little 
 pieces alone : it possesses numerous poems in which 
 dramatic interest is conjoined with brilliance of 
 style and richness of colouring. As example, I will 
 give a piece from the works of the poet Pe-Ku-Hi. 
 Its title is ' Love ' : 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 ' The Emperor Ming-Noang desired 
 The most perfect beauty of his empire. 
 But during many years 
 His search had remained fruitless. 
 Nevertheless, there existed in the family of Yong 
 A young girl of radiant beauty of nubile age. 
 But she lived with her parents and was unknown. 
 Beauty created by nature 
 Cannot remain unknown : 
 She was selected and brought to the Emperor. 
 A thousand graces were born of her smile ; 
 At Court the most famous beauty paled beside hers. 
 When, in the freshness of spring, 
 She bathed in the pond of Hoa-Tseing, 
 Her body seemed transparent ; 
 And when she issued from the tepid water, 
 She seemed to rise, like an ideal creature, without weight. 
 She was loaded with favours by the sovereign ; 
 Her hair floated like clouds ; 
 
Classical Poetry. 175 
 
 Her face had the brightness of flowers ;' 
 
 Her footsteps had wings. 
 
 By her side the hours fled too swiftly. 
 
 Wherever the Emperor went, even on journeys, 
 
 She accompanied him : all was for her. 
 
 The Emperor built her a golden house 
 
 And pavilions of jade ; 
 
 Her brothers and sisters were ennobled, 
 
 Her family raised to honour. 
 
 From the highest tower of the pavilion 
 
 The harmony of her joyous music was heard. 
 
 Dancing and song 
 
 Charmed the Emperor's every moment. 
 
 ****** 
 Suddenly the drums beat : 
 A revolt breaks out to interrupt these pleasures ; 
 The dust rises from afar beyond the towns ; 
 Chariots and horses hurry towards the South-East 
 The imperial train has already journeyed 
 More than a hundred leagues ; 
 It is stopped :* all refuse to continue the march. 
 
 » <S S « « s 
 
 The Emperor must submit to his favourite's death. 
 All her jewels are scattered on the ground ; 
 The sovereign, his joined hands before his eyes, 
 Wept tears of blood — 
 Present at that sad scene, 
 Unable to save her he loved. 
 
 « e « » a 55 
 
 In the midst of the yellow dust 
 
 Raised by the furious blast 
 
 At length, by steep and winding paths, 
 
 They gain a resting-place. 
 
 At the foot of the mountain travellers are few : 
 
 -' The beauty of the favourite had inflamed the envious passion 
 of a powerful neighbour. To prevent a war the Emperor was 
 obliged to sacrifice his favourite. 
 
176 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 The banners shine no longer under the pale sun ; 
 
 The blue water and green fields 
 
 Increase still more the Emperor's sadness ; 
 
 His heart is breaking in the soft moonlight ; 
 
 He starts convulsively. 
 
 At last the Emperor returns to his capital ; 
 
 Passing near the tomb 
 
 Where his beloved reposes, 
 
 And seeing no longer that figure so dear to his heart, 
 
 He stops, motionless. 
 
 And the sovereign and his servants 
 
 Look at each other, their eyes filled with tears ! 
 
 At the palace the sight of relics. 
 
 Which have undergone no change, 
 
 Excites fresh grief : 
 
 The poppies, recalling the freshness of her hue. 
 
 And the willows, her eyelashes, 
 
 Cause tears to flow ; 
 
 Yellow leaves encumber the garden walks. 
 
 All the musicians seem aged, 
 
 The servants grown grey. 
 
 At night the fireflies flit 
 
 Around that desolation ; 
 
 And the lamps burn out 
 
 While the Emperor is still sleepless. 
 
 How long the nights are ! 
 
 He counts the watches until the stars grow pale. 
 
 The hoar-frost covers the roofs. 
 
 His bed seems cold to him as stone. 
 
 Alas ! the separation is years old, 
 
 And never has the soul of the favourite 
 
 Returned to him in dream. 
 
 A priest of Ling-Kung, 
 
 With power to communicate with spirits. 
 
 Has heard the Emperor is tormented with thoughts 
 
 Of love ; he offers himself to seek 
 
 The spirit of the favourite. 
 
Classical Poetry. 177 
 
 He traverses space ; he walks like the lightning 
 
 Upon the clouds ; 
 
 He rises to heaven ; he descends to the centre of the earth — 
 
 Nowhere in space does he find the favourite's spirit. 
 
 Suddenly he hears that on the sea exists 
 
 An ideal mountain peopled by the immortals. 
 
 In these transparent pavilions, 
 
 Raised among the clouds, 
 
 Are women of surpassing beauty. 
 
 Among them, one bears the favourite's name ; 
 
 Her face has the same radiance ; 
 
 Her body is of snow like hers. 
 
 Instantly he goes thither and knocks at the door of jade 
 
 West of the golden house, 
 
 And makes himself known. . . . 
 
 When the favourite hears in her slumber 
 
 That the Emperor's ambassador 
 
 Is asking for her, 
 
 She makes but one bound from her divine couch, 
 
 Dons in haste her vestments 
 
 And approaches through the curtains of pearls 
 
 Which open as she draws near. 
 
 Her tresses float like clouds ; 
 
 She looks still half asleep ; 
 
 The light breeze raises her wide sleeves, 
 
 Which recall the joyous dances of yore. 
 
 Tears run down over her charming grief-stricken face ; 
 
 She looks like the snowflower 
 
 Newly washed with rain. 
 
 With affectionate mien, her eyes fixed upon the messenger, 
 
 She ^sks for news of the Emperor, 
 
 And thanks him for thinking of her still. 
 
 She says that since the separation 
 
 Everything has seemed endless. 
 
 Favours and love were now no more"; 
 
 She was peaceful in the eternity of her rest. 
 
 Sometimes she bends down 
 
 To look towards the capital, 
 
 But sees only dust and fogs., 
 
 12 
 
178 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Then she gives the messenger, 
 ' To carry to the Emperor 
 In witness of her love, 
 A pin and bracelet of gold. 
 " If the heart of the mortal Emperor," she says, 
 " Is pure as that gold, 
 We may yet be re-united. 
 And the frontier between earth and sky vanish." 
 In the parting moment 
 She confides to the ambassador a secret vow, 
 And asks him to remind the Emperor of it ; 
 Let him remember 
 
 That the seventh day of the seventh moon, 
 At midnight, during the silence, 
 They had vowed 
 To be transformed in heaven 
 Into birds flying always together, 
 And upon earth into two branches intertwined 
 Of the same tree. 
 And that they had said : 
 " Perhaps eternity will have an end, 
 But our love will have none." ' 
 
 This poem is one of our most beautiful. The 
 literary will be able to extract from the legend the 
 delicate and profound sentiment which inspires it^ 
 They will recognise in this feeling the same passion 
 pulsating in the heart of every heroine of love. The 
 Emperor and his favourite loved as Romeo and 
 Juliet, or Faust and Marguerite loved, and are 
 worthy to enter Dante's Paradise in the dazzling 
 light of immortality. 
 
 In the poems of Li-tai-Pe, I find a few pieces of a 
 simple nature that I may also transcribe : 
 
Classical Poetry. 179 
 
 A NIGHT AT A FRIEND'S. 
 ' This evening I descended 
 From the green mountain-top. 
 The moon was niy companion on the path, 
 And when I turned me about, 
 To look whence I had come, 
 I saw but a sea of waving woods. 
 Thou hast taken me by the hand, 
 And led me to thy rustic home. 
 Thy children came to open the door, 
 When we had traversed the bamboo alley 
 Where climbing plants now and again 
 Held me by the cloak. 
 Oh, the charming welcome ! 
 What delicious wine we drink ! 
 We sing aloud 
 In harmony with the wind 
 Shaking the great trees, 
 Like the distant noise of waterfalls ; 
 And when our songs are ended, 
 We notice that the stars 
 Begin to grow pale ; 
 Then we both give way to slumber, 
 And we forget the Universe !' 
 
 By the same poet I quote the following little piece, 
 as being of a description which has had many imi- 
 tators. It expresses the thoughts of a woman whose 
 husband is absent. It is a sketch, entitled 
 
 SPRING-TIME. 
 
 ' The grass is green and soft 
 As silken threads. 
 
 The mulberry opens all its verdant buds. 
 This is the moment thou should'st be returning, 
 And my heart is wasted with sadness ; 
 But Zephy, whom I know not. 
 Why does he come to my house ?' 
 
 12, — 2 
 
i8o, The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 Here is another example of this description of 
 
 piece : 
 
 ' The light over the mountains 
 Grows dim by degrees in the west ; 
 And the moon rises quietly in the east. 
 I untie my hair : 
 I open wide my windows 
 To breathe the cool night air. 
 The soft breeze brings a sweet odour 
 Of water-lilies ; 
 
 And from the bamboo leaves I hear fall 
 The dew drop by drop. 
 I would take my instrument 
 To play music, bpt alas ! 
 None can hear nor understand me. 
 This makes you 
 
 The object of my thoughts and dreams 
 Day and night !' 
 
 Descriptions have also tempted our poets ; but 
 this kind of poetry, to escape sameness and weari- 
 someness, must be perfect. There are many original 
 . pieces worthy of being known. I will only quote one 
 whose equal I believe would be vainly sought in 
 Western poesy. I give it as one of the masterpieces 
 of this style : 
 
 THE GUITAR. 
 
 ' On the banks of the river Tcheng-Yang 
 In the night, I accompanied a friend. 
 The trees and the reeds 
 Shaken by the winds of autumn 
 Murmur sadly. 
 
 I had dismounted from my horse and followed 
 My friend upon his bark ; 
 We wished to drink one last time 
 
Classical Poetry. i8i 
 
 Before separating. 
 
 But without music we were not merry, 
 
 And only five minutes remained before parting. 
 
 The moon threw upon the stream 
 
 A melancholy light. 
 
 Suddenly we hear the sound of a guitar. 
 
 My friend and I forget the hour of departure ; 
 
 And, following the sound, 
 
 Seek to discover who plays. 
 
 We bring our bark to the shore : we call. 
 
 But the chords cease : the musician hesitates 
 
 To answer us. 
 
 Our invitation, however, is pressing ; 
 
 We renew it ; we dress again the table ; 
 
 The lamps are lighted. 
 
 At last we perceive a woman, 
 
 Her face half hidden by her guitar ; 
 
 She consents to enter our bark. 
 
 The first notes that vibrate, 
 
 As she tunes the chords, 
 
 Already express a sentiment : 
 
 Every sound is deadened but expressive, 
 
 As it were veiled by sadness. 
 
 Then she began to play. 
 
 The arpeggios trace curves upon the strings. 
 
 They come and go, 
 
 They rise and descend the octaves. 
 
 The major chords are like a shower. 
 
 The minor a whispering. 
 
 Suddenly the notes become brilliant ; 
 
 It is like a rain of pearls' 
 
 Falling upon a dish of jade. 
 
 The scale is like a nightingale's song, 
 
 Or like the falling water of a cascade. 
 
 The rests express a sadness that freezes. 
 
 The end of the air is like the breaking of a vase 
 
 Whence the abundant water gushes ; 
 
 Or rather is like a charge of cavalry. 
 
 When arms and armour clash simultaneously. 
 
1 82 The Chinese Painted by Themselves . 
 
 In ceasing she passes the bow over the strings, 
 
 Which vibrate together, 
 
 Like the tearing of, a woven stuff. 
 
 At this moment all the boats east and west 
 
 Are silent : we see but the light 
 
 Of the moon on the surface of the water. 
 
 She has finished : she has risen to salute her hosts. 
 
 She says she comes from the capital. 
 
 At thirteen years she learned to play the guitar. 
 
 And her name became the first 
 
 Among the artists : 
 
 Her pieces always charmed the auditors. 
 
 She excited the jealousy of all the women. 
 
 All the youth of the capital admired her. 
 
 Each of her pieces was paid 
 
 With priceless presents ; 
 
 Jewels filled her rooms ; 
 
 Upon her red skirts how many times ' 
 
 Wine was spilt ! 
 
 The year passed in festivals ; 
 
 Spring and autumn slipped away 
 
 Unperceived by her. 
 
 Her brother joined the service, her mother died ; 
 
 Day by day her youth faded ; 
 
 Before her door carriages and horses 
 
 Became few in number. 
 
 And she resolved to marry 
 
 A merchant. 
 
 But he loves only money, this merchant. 
 
 And feels not the pain of separation. 
 
 He went a month ago to buy tea. 
 
 " Since his departure I keep the ship alone, 
 
 Around which the moon and water 
 
 Diffuse an icy cbldneSs ; 
 
 And this evening, recalling my joyous youth, 
 
 So plenteously filled, I wept : 
 
 I played to distract my thoughts." 
 
 I had felt sympathy 
 
 When listening to the artist's music ; 
 
Classical Poetry. 183 
 
 But'after her narrative I could not repress a groan. 
 We all are the vagrants of the universe : 
 Do we need to know each other 
 Before meeting ? 
 
 I myself during the year since I left the capital 
 Live in sickness and exile 
 Where music is not heard. 
 
 All the year I have not heard a melodious sound. 
 My dwelling on the river-bank is marshy, 
 The yellow reeds and bamboos surround it. 
 Know you what I hear night and day ? 
 Wailing birds and yelling apes. 
 In spite of spring flowers and autumn moan, 
 Solitary always I fill the wine-cup. 
 True, I hear the song of the mountaineers, 
 And sound of rustic pipes ; 
 But this music deafens me 
 Without pleasing. 
 This evening, hearing your guitar, 
 I thought I heard 
 
 The song of the angels, and I was in ecstasy. 
 Play one more air, I pray you. 
 That I may write down this happy incident. 
 Touched by my prayer she played as she stood ; 
 Her song was sad ; all present 
 Were moved — for myself, I wept.' 
 
 This piece expresses an idea much in vogue in 
 China ; it will doubtless have been remarked : 
 
 ' We all are the vagrants of the universe : 
 Do we need to know each other 
 Before meeting ?' 
 
 A profoundly melancholy reflection proclaiming the 
 principle of man's universal equality in sorrow. But 
 what energy in the expression of that thought ! 
 I leave with reluctance this rapid sketch of our 
 
1 84 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 poetical works. I trust it may have given an idea 
 of our national poesy ; I shall think myself fortunate 
 if these fragments have pleased. 
 
 EAST AND WEST. 
 
 MOST of the famous discoveries which 
 have' altered civilizations, and given 
 birth to revolutions in ideas, have not 
 emanated from the nations profiting by them. 
 
 It is certainly true that an idea once expressed 
 belongs to humanity in general ; still, a people may 
 be proud of its inventions when they have marked 
 the footsteps of progress. 
 
 The various applications of steam and electricity 
 are wonderful discoveries to which all the nations of 
 the West have contributed. There are, however, 
 other inventions, not less valuable, proceeding often- 
 from very distant sources, impossible to trace to 
 their origin. 
 
 Of such nature are the exact sciences, which no 
 Western nation can boast of having created ; such 
 are the alphabetic characters which have served to 
 delineate sounds ; the fine arts, whose masterpieces 
 date from remotest antiquity; modern languages 
 themselves, whose roots are derived from a common 
 origin, the Sanscrit ; the propeirties of magnetism, 
 
East and West. 185 
 
 imported from the East, and the foundation of the 
 navigator's art; and such, lastly, the various de- 
 scriptions of literary composition, all of which, 
 without a single exception, were created in the 
 ancient world. Poetry, in all its forms of inspiration, 
 from the epic to the idyl, tragedy and comedy, 
 oratory, fable, all branches of metaphysics, legisla- 
 tion, policy and its numerous institutions, are so 
 many varieties represented by masterpieces more 
 than two thousand years older than the illustrious 
 age of Louis XIV. 
 
 Western nations, six hundred years back at the 
 most, were plunged in the darkness of ignorance. 
 Many of them were not in existence, and some, now 
 resplendent in their renown, were but insignificant 
 Power's. 
 
 These remarks are interesting to make ; they are 
 , especially interesting tp a Chinese, who also has 
 some title to throw his modicum of marvellous in- 
 ventions into the universal balance where the services 
 rendered to humanity are weighed. 
 
 If it be remembered how little intercourse we have 
 had with other nations, it will be conceded that it is 
 at least remarkable that we should know all that we 
 do. It is generally agreed that, with the exception 
 of astronomy and geography, all the sciences we 
 possess are the result of our own investigations ; and 
 while there exists no other nation upon the globe 
 able to attribute to itself the creation of a system of 
 
1 86 - The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 civilization, to claim to have orgapized itself, and, in 
 a word, to be original, we Chinese alone can justly 
 make that glorious boast. We have imitated nobody. 
 Chinese civilization exists only in China. ' 
 
 If, for example, our theatre is studied, it will be 
 seen that it is original, like that of Greece. 
 
 I hope shortly to have time to publish the prin-' 
 cipal works of our stage, although learned men — 
 among others Stanislas Julien — have already made 
 known a few fragments. Their writings, however, 
 are insufficient to form a criterion of the peculiar 
 genius of our literary school, which excels , in many 
 styles, and would give ample matter for study to the" 
 Western world. 
 
 What I now wish to impress upon the reader is a 
 fact of which I only understand the reason after 
 studying literary Europe audits history — namely, that 
 we Chinese are a world apart on the terrestrial 
 universe, and that the only question for an inquiring 
 mind is whether there has not existed between our 
 East and the West a type of civilization extending , 
 its branches both ways ; or rather, to use another 
 comparison, has there not existed a source common 
 to both races, springing, as it were, from a watershed 
 between them, and fertilizing the opposite regions of 
 East and West ? 
 
 This hypothesis may be accepted ; unless we sup- 
 pose the various tribes composing the human race, 
 dispersed after some great cataclysm, have gradually 
 
East and West. 187 
 
 raised themselves by continuous efforts, painfully 
 amassing all the treasures of science, and thus, by 
 an uninterrupted progressive movement, arriving at 
 a stable and definite condition. 
 
 I can see only these two ways of guessing what 
 our destiny has been : either human society, estab- 
 lished in its respective regions, suddenly enlightened 
 by revealed knowledge, and placed in possession of 
 all the active powers of intelligence, or human 
 society singly groping in uncertainty to seek the 
 road to a favourable region where it might rest and 
 prepare its future. 
 
 Such are the only two plausible suppositions, and 
 I know not which to prefer. If it is true that 
 actually acquired civilization has been the result of 
 the incessant labour of the human race, how many 
 ages must have elapsed anterior to the production of 
 a song of Homer or a book of Confucius ! How 
 many existences have passed upon the earth before 
 the earliest essays of civilization ! How many 
 sounds have been uttered before these regularly con- 
 structed languages were formed, these complicated 
 grammars, these numerous forms of poesy and 
 literature ! The mind becomes giddy in the contem- 
 plation of the vastness of these labours ! 
 
 If it be thus, why then this similarity of discoveries 
 corresponding to identical wants ? and why these 
 marked differences in languages, that is in the ex- 
 pression of thought, which is man's gift ? Certainly 
 
i88 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 one finds here and there traces of resemblance, but 
 they are few and far between, and it seems as 
 though some mysterious power had taken dehght in 
 entanghng the clues which might have revealed the 
 path travelled by the human race, 
 
 How great would be my satisfaction if by the 
 , study and comparison of our origins we could at last 
 throw a light upon the far-off world of tradition, and 
 re-constitute the genealogy of humanity ! Will 
 science never be able to address to man those noble 
 words of peace, ' Ye are brethren ' ? 
 
 The civilization of the Western world is, if I may 
 so express myself, a new edition, revised and cor' 
 rected, of former civilizations. Ours has doubtless 
 gone through many editions ; but we now find it 
 sufficiently corrected ; and at all events we have 
 no editor proposing to prepare a new one. 
 
 It seems as if the system of ceaseless amelioration 
 according to the precept of the great writer Boileau, 
 ' Vingt fois sur le metier remettez voire ouvrage,' 
 must be the more rational. We are accustomed to 
 hear the reproach, ' Why do you remain stationary?' 
 But if one is well off, or as well off as is possible, can 
 one be sure, by altering the present, to obtain a 
 better future ? That is the question. ' Better,' they 
 say, ' is the enemy of well,' and wisdom consists in 
 limiting our desires. 
 
 I am not finding fault with modern civilization, 
 which I think agreeable ; but is the desire of novelty 
 
East and West. 189 
 
 a means of real progress ? Are they on the right 
 path who suppose that progress consists in change ? 
 That is a theoretical question which would have its 
 advocates and adversaries, and of which I will not 
 hazard the discussion. What I will at present 
 confine myself to saying is that we were acquainted 
 with gunpowder for many ages — they do us the 
 honour of admitting we invented powder — but it is 
 in this we differ with our Western brethren : we only 
 used it to make fireworks ; and but for circumstances 
 making us acquainted with the West, we should not 
 have applied it to firearms. It was the Jesuits 
 ■ who taught us to cast cannon. ' lie, docete omnes 
 gentes . . .' 
 
 We claim also the priority of the invention of 
 printing. It is no longer denied that the art of 
 typography was known and applied in China in the 
 tenth century. Would it then be very difficult to 
 admit that the principle of that marvellous invention 
 travelled Westward by the way of the Red Sea or 
 Asia Minor ? I do not think so. I will say as much 
 of the properties of the magnet ; • all the erudite 
 works which have been written on the subject — and 
 they are numerous — establish the antiquity of that 
 valuable discovery, and attribute it to us. It is 
 stated the Arabs made use of the mariner's compass 
 at the time of the Crusades, and that the knowledge 
 was imparted to the Crusaders, who brought it back 
 to Europe. In China the knowledge of the magnet 
 
190 The Chinese Fainted by Themselves. 
 
 goes back to a remote antiquity. We find in a 
 Chinese dictionary, written in the year 121 of the 
 Christian era, this definition of the word ' lodestone ' : ' 
 ' Stone with which a direction may be given to the 
 needle ;' and a century later our books explain the 
 use of the compass. 
 
 These are questions of detail which have in them- 
 selves but a relative interest, but which warrant me 
 in placing upon a firm basis the so much contested 
 opinion that we are something better than simpletons, 
 when we refuse to admit the system, of changes. 
 Already we can count as ours, gunpowder, printing, 
 the compass, and I might add silk and porcelain, 
 which certainly are magnificent inventions of our 
 industry, and would suffice to rank us among 
 civilized nations. 
 
 It must then be concluded that if in the order of 
 eminently useful discoveries we have obtained a. 
 distinguished position, we may also have applied the 
 same practical spirit to our laws and institutions, 
 and obtained sufficiently good results not to wish to 
 change them for the sake of seeing what might come 
 of it. 
 
 There incontestably exists, then, a human civiliza- ' 
 tion whose monuments date from a period when the 
 Western world had as yet no being — a civilization' 
 contemporary with the famous dynasties of Egypt 
 and the patriarchs of Chaldaea, which was founded 
 in the earliest ages of humanity, and has not altered 
 
East and West. 191 
 
 for more than a thousand years. Such is the 
 historical fact. 
 
 Our relations with the peoples upon our frontiers 
 have left no traces in their history. Arrian speaks for 
 the first time of the Chinese as people who exported 
 raw and manufactured silk, which was brought West- 
 ward by way of Bactrim. That is the only piece 
 of rather ancient information — but modern to us— ^ 
 mentioning our existence to the Romans, the masters 
 of the world. It seems conclusively proved that the 
 Romans had no intercourse with our empire. Our 
 history only mentions a Chinese embassy which was 
 sent, under the Han dynasty, 94 B.C., with the 
 object of opening up intercourse with the Western 
 world. This embassy reached Arabia, and brought 
 thence a custom which was doubtless much ap- 
 preciated, as it was immediately adopted — that of 
 eunuchs. I believe this is the only allusion our 
 history makes to intercourse between China and 
 foreign nations. 
 
 However, if the inhabitants of the Celestial empire 
 have never quitted the limits of their territory to 
 undertake travels in the distant Western lands, or if 
 at least the memory of them has not been preserved 
 in history, there is one incontestable fact, namely, 
 that foreign populations came to domicile themselves 
 among us, and that even now there are descendants 
 of these ancient wandering tribes. 
 
 Among them are Jews who emigrated to China 
 
192 The Chinese Painted by Themsehes. 
 
 200 B.C., under the Han dynasty ; that is, in one of 
 the most flourishing epochs of the empire. 1 
 
 It was a Jesuit who in the eighteenth century 
 made the discovery of that Jewish colony ; and the 
 narrative he has written upon the subject deserves 
 to be recorded : 
 
 ' As to those who are here called Thiao-Kiu-Kiao 
 (the sect that tears out the sinews), I wished to visit 
 them under the idea they were Jews, and in the hope 
 of finding the Old Testament among them. I made 
 overtures of friendship to them, to which they im- 
 mediately replied. They had even the civility to 
 come and see me. I paid them a visit in the Li-pai- 
 Ss6, which is their synagogue, and where they were 
 assembled. There I had long interviews with them. 
 
 ' I examined their inscriptions, some of which are 
 in Chinese, and others in their own tongue. They 
 showed me their religious books, and allowed me to 
 enter the most secret part of their temple, even that 
 from which the vulgar are excluded. There is a 
 place reserved for the head of the synagogue, who 
 never enters it but with profound respect. 
 
 ' They told me their ancestors had come from a 
 kingdom in the West called the kingdom of Judah, 
 conquered by Joshua, after he had left Egypt, passed 
 the Red Sea, and traversed the desert ; and that 
 the Jews who emigrated from Egypt numbered six 
 hundred thousand. They assured me their alphabet 
 possessed thirty-seven letters, but that they usually , 
 
East and West. 193 
 
 •employed only twenty-two of them ; which agrees 
 with the testimony of St. Jerome, stating that the 
 Hebrew language has twenty-two letters, two of 
 which are double. 
 
 ' When they read the Bible in their synagogue they 
 ■cover their faces with a transparent veil, in memory 
 of Moses, who descended from the mountain with 
 his face veiled in this manner when he gave his 
 people the Decalogue. They read a section every 
 Sabbath day. The Jews of China, therefore, like 
 those of Europe, read the Law in the course of one 
 year. 
 
 ' They discoursed in a very absurd manner of Para- 
 dise and Hell. When I spoke to them of the Mes- 
 -siah promised in the Scriptures, they seemed much 
 .surprised at my words ; and when I informed them 
 that His name was Jesus, they replied that the Bible 
 mentioned a holy man named Jesus, the son of 
 Sirach, but that they had not heard of the Jesus I 
 .spoke of.' 
 
 Here, then, is an authentic tradition two thousand 
 years old ! It is only in the Jewish people one finds 
 such attachment to nationality ! 
 
 Take any people you please : at the end of four or 
 five generations they will be completely naturalized — 
 the Jews never ! They remain the same wherever 
 they go, attached to their religion, their nature, their 
 -customs ; and this permanence of a particular race 
 in the midst of a people numbering four hundred 
 
 13 
 
194 "^he Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 millions, is not an unimportant fact from the point 
 of view of general history. 
 
 It is certain that in the confusion following the 
 great invasions, many tribes, the remains of ancient 
 peoples, came to seek asylum in our peaceful regions. 
 If local religious practices and certain customs were 
 studied, and minute observations of character pur- 
 sued, doubtless light might, be thrown upon facts 
 interesting to the: archaeologist. 
 
 The date of the introduction of Christianity 
 among us has not been precisely recorded. All 
 nations, however, appear to have been evangelized 
 by the Apostles in the earliest Christian ages. The 
 Jesuits have stated that Christianity was preached in 
 China in the sixth century by Nestorian bishops ; but 
 this fact is not very certain. The same may be said 
 of the opinion relative to the visit of St. Thomas 
 to our country. There was certainly at a very early 
 period a Christian mission in China ; for we cannot 
 attribute to accident alone the identity of certain 
 Buddhist ceremonies with the worship of the Catho- 
 lic Church. However this may be. Christian churches 
 existed at Nankin in the thirteenth century, and the 
 fact is mentioned in the narratives of the celebrated 
 Venetian traveller, Marco Polo. 
 
 It was in the eighth century the cloud covering the 
 Chinese world was dispersed. This is the age of the 
 intercourse between the empire and the Arabians, 
 
East and West. 
 
 195 
 
 and from this period really dates our historical birth 
 into the world. 
 
 The accounts written of the sojourn of the Arabi- 
 ans in our lands, accounts written by themselves, and 
 which h^ve been translated, bear witness of the 
 prosperity of our empire, and compel the admission 
 that China possessed a brilliant civilization just a 
 thousand years ago. 
 
 It is natural to suppose the Arabians learned our 
 arts, and appropriated our discoveries ; which finally 
 arrived in Western lands, where they were perfected. 
 
 That, at least, is an opinion I imagine I have 
 clearly demonstrated. 
 
 THE ARSENAL OF FOO-CHOO. 
 
 I HAVE mentioned in the course of this essay 
 upon our civilization, that China had fre- 
 quently shown her desire to be initiated into 
 European arts and enterprises. I have shown that 
 the genius of our institutions encouraged us to prac- 
 tise useful arts, and that the only effort of foreigners 
 should be first directed to showing the value of their 
 novel methods and mechanical discoveries. 
 
 I did not consider I was arrogating an excessive 
 privilege in Western eyes by claiming for my country- 
 men the incontestable right of choice. 
 
 13—2 
 
196 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 The Jesuits, whose admirable skill in obtaining 
 results I have no need to extol, had perfectly under- 
 stood our character, and had it depended upon them 
 alone, great services might have been rendered to the 
 cause of universal civilization. They knew that all 
 progress is by its very nature slow, and that it is the 
 result of continual labour, instead of the violent fruit 
 of conquest. They have therefore left great recol- 
 lections in China, and I am not ashamed to recog- 
 nise the fact. 
 
 Many years have passed away since the day when 
 license to teach was given to the Jesuits — in China ; 
 a long century has passed over the Western world, 
 borne on the wings of tempest, uprooting dynasties 
 and beliefs, upsetting institutions, raising new thrones, 
 and founding amid clash of arms and thunder of 
 cannon contemporary civilization, which seems to 
 have arrived at its apogee without being able to 
 assure the reign of peace. 
 
 One of the most brilliant results of that great 
 tornado has been the opening of numerous outlets 
 of international commerce, the development of 
 which has been truly marvellous. All nations have 
 practised barter, and competed to establish the 
 superiority of their productions. Universal Exhi- 
 bitions have recompensed these efforts, and among 
 the nations of the world which have thronged to the 
 various European capitals, the Empire of the Centre 
 has held a distinguished place. 
 
The Arsenal of Foo-choo. i()'j 
 
 I need not here recall the political circumstances 
 preceding the definitive establishment of social inter- 
 course between China and the Western nations. I 
 have neither the right nor the wish. ; I have already 
 mentioned that in China, well-bred people never in 
 conversation discuss political questions, and this book 
 has no pretension to be aught but gossip in reply to 
 questions which have been so often asked me. 
 
 Neither have I the intention of stating my opinion 
 upon the various characters of the foreigners who 
 live in our seaports, and who for the most part covet 
 a great extension of influence. All of them import 
 into their intercourse the particular genius of their 
 race in its most exaggerated form. We are unable 
 to endow them with the character which would be 
 pleasing to us, and can only hope they may help us 
 to make mutual relations durable and easy. 
 
 There are some, however, among these foreigners 
 who have placed their knowledge or practical skill 
 at the service of China, and whose efforts have been 
 crowned with success. The patience they have dis- 
 played in their beneficent task, and the tact of which 
 they have given proof in their first attempts at inno- 
 vation, have been the victorious agents of their 
 enterprise. They have to complain neither of a 
 systematic opposition of the Chinese to their efforts, 
 nor of the ill-will of our functionaries. This oppo- 
 sition and ill-will have not usually been excited with- 
 out cause ; it is enough to state that those who have 
 
198 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 succeeded have neither excited them nor complained 
 of them. 
 
 Their works are standing : arsenals have been 
 founded in many of our towns and ports ; mines 
 have been opened ; a network of telegraphic lines 
 binds the various provinces of the empire ta the 
 capital ; steamers flying the , Chinese flag carry on 
 commerce along our coasts and the courses of our 
 rivers. These are results honouring those who have 
 contributed to produce them ; and if they are not 
 yet so complete as they should be, they testify at 
 least that a step has been made in the path of in- 
 dustrial enterprise.. Books of science also, translated 
 into Chinese, are becoming- common among our 
 people, who will no longer fear the fiery horse when 
 it makes its appearance in the country. 
 
 Among the foreigners who have opened a furrow 
 for the good seed, M. Prosper Giquel, whose name 
 is often mentioned in France in connection with 
 Chinese affairs, occupies a distinguished position ; 
 and in this sketch of the influence exercised by 
 young Europe upon our ancient empire, the estab- 
 lishment he has created occurs naturally to my mind, 
 I mean the arsenal of Foo-Choo. That work has in 
 truth been a great success, and if I mention it here, 
 it is less to pay homage to the professional ability 
 and energy of those who created and directed it, 
 than to the administrative measures taken with a 
 perfect knowledge of Chinese character, thanks to 
 
The Arsenal of Foo-choo. 199 
 
 which a numerous staff of Europeans and Asiatics 
 have been able to live in harmony. The regulations 
 producing this result may serve as a model every 
 time foreigners are commissioned by our Government 
 or our countrymen to found an establishment. 
 
 It is not, enough, however, as one might be 
 tempted to believe, to be animated by good inten- 
 tions to be successful in China. There, as every- 
 where else, the proverb applies, ' Heaven helps 
 those who help themselves ;' and the career of M. 
 Giquel in our empire would furnish the best proof of 
 its accuracy, were such necessary. 
 
 At his arrival in China M. Giquel was a naval 
 officer. In the first part of his sojourn he learned 
 the Mandarin language, and familiarized himself with 
 our manners and institutions. In the years 1862-4 
 he took an important part in the suppression of the 
 Taiping rebellion, organizing and commanding, with 
 several of his naval and military comrades, a Franco- 
 Chinese corps in the Province of Tche-kiang. It 
 was thus he won both his first steps in the Chinese 
 hierarchy, and the powerful protections which later 
 indicated him to the Emperor's choice for the 
 creation of the arsenal of Foo-Choo. Recompenses 
 endorsed by universal opinion have since raised him 
 to dignities in China only conferred upon officers of 
 the highest rank. 
 
 An arsenal is, in the exact sense of the word, a 
 factory or depot of arms or warlike engines ; but the 
 
200 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 establishment of Foo-Choo manufactures neither 
 gunpowder, rifles, nor cannon. It is essentially a 
 collection of workshops and factories devoted to 
 naval constructions, having for its object not only to 
 produce ships of war, but to make profitable use 
 of the metallic wealth of China. By the schools 
 attached to the works, and the instruction givfen by 
 European professors, the Arsenal is also a practical 
 school. 
 
 The pupils it has trained, several of whom have 
 finished their education in Europe, are already skil- 
 ful engineers, ready to take the superintendence of 
 several branches of industry now established or 
 projected. 
 
 The commencement of the works took place in 
 1867. I was too young then to appreciate the diffi- 
 culties of such an enterprise, and my memory would 
 be unable to give the exact measure of the efforts 
 they have necessitated. My readers will thank me for 
 here quoting a passage from the learned memoir 
 addressed by the Director of the Arsenal to the 
 Society of Civil Engineers at Paris : 
 
 ' At the beginning of the year 1867 some prepara- 
 tory work was put in hand, such as the accommoda- ^ 
 tion of the staff and stores ; but it was hardly before 
 the month of October of the same year, on my 
 return from France, where I had, been to obtain 
 labour and materials, that the works, properly called 
 those of the Arsenal, received their real impulse. I shall 
 
The Arsenal of Foo-choo. 201 
 
 never forget the painful feeling I experienced when I 
 found myself set down opposite a naked paddy-field, 
 upon which workshops were to be built. Of the 
 machinery purchased in France nothing had yet 
 arrived, and we found ourselves at a seaport possess- 
 ing no resources in the shape of European tools 
 or machinery. However, we had to get to work. 
 
 ' A little square hut, the only construction we 
 found on the land, and one whose use I am unable 
 to mention to you, served us for a smithy ; we imme- 
 diately built two furnaces, worked by a Chinese 
 bellows, and made our first nails. 
 
 'With the assistance of native carpenters, we 
 constructed pile-drivers, and proceeded to erect a 
 workshop. 
 
 ' During this time the earthworks were vigorously 
 carried on by the aid of twelve hundred men, for we 
 had to raise our site i"8o m. to put it above the level of 
 high floods ; and as it was necessary to soothe the 
 natural impatience of the Chinese, who required to 
 see results in the shortest possible period, we under- 
 took the construction of a series of wooden work- 
 shops, in which a portion of our machinery, was 
 placed as it arrived from France. These improvised 
 workshops still exist, and the Arsenal presents an 
 appearance common enough in new establishments 
 created abroad, of buildings erected in haste, by the 
 side of permanent constructions, built with a veritable 
 plethora of material and labour.' 
 
202 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. 
 
 All travellers who have been to Foo-Choo, and 
 have left a record of their travels, are unanimous in 
 their praises of the Arsenal. 
 
 The results have exceeded expectation. But 
 what has not been sufficiently praised, and is here 
 of great value, is the good administration of that 
 establishment, the order and harmony which have 
 never ceased to reign between Europeans and 
 Chinese. The latter had the administration of the 
 Arsenal, and regulated its discipline under the sur- 
 veillance of a committee composed of the high, 
 dignitaries of the empire ; the Europeans alone 
 assumed the direction of the works and instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 It was thanks to this system the little French 
 colony at the Arsenal always found difficulties re- 
 moved from their path,' and that all could con- 
 gratulate themselves upon the energy displayed in 
 the superintendence and the progress realized by the 
 instruction. 
 
 ' I believe our country,' says M. Giquel^ in the 
 same memoir I before quoted, ' may draw some 
 advantage from that establishment ; the direction of 
 the works being entirely French, the Chinese 
 officers are enabled to appreciate our system of 
 work and methods of manufacture. The shops 
 were organized with machinery from France, and 
 the Arsenal keeps up continual intercourse with 
 French industry. The industrial training given to 
 
The Arsenal of Foo-choo. 203 
 
 the pupils and apprentices being also French, they 
 will naturally turn their eyes towards France when 
 the progress realized in China makes them long to 
 break out of the narrow circle in which they are now 
 restrained.' 
 
 These words, inspired by an elevated , patriotisni 
 free from barren ambition, may be quoted without 
 hesitation by a Chinese. 
 
 Who among us is not ready to applaud this 
 noble language, animated by genuine patriotism, a 
 patriotism which offers its native land the homage 
 of every toil patiently borne, every effort realized, 
 and which salutes the future as a hope and a 
 source of good ? Institutions like those of the 
 Arsenal of Foo-Choo are great, because they create 
 civilizing emulations, and prepare the triumph of 
 those generous ideas which alone can make nations 
 more United. It is from such ideas alone that 
 progress can proceed. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press. 
 
Recent Books 
 
 AND 
 
 bomething About 1 hem 
 
 The Leadenhall Tress publications may 
 be had through any bookseller. 
 
 lonDon : 
 
 Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 
 SO, Leadenhall Street, E.C. 
 
^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 4? liNDEX }^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Illustrated ... - 3-7 
 
 Humorous .... . g-io 
 
 Theological - - . io.ii 
 
 Poetry . '^ ..... . 12 
 
 Fiction 13 
 
 Miscellaneous 13 to 24 
 
decent (Books ^ 
 Something ^bout Them, 
 
 ^ ILLUSTRATED > 
 
 *' A valuable and quaintly pretty addition to the literature of old-fashioned 
 costumes." 
 
 Our Grandmothers' Gowns. By Mrs. Alfred 
 
 W. Hunt. With Twenty-Four Hand-coloured Illustrations, drawn 
 by George R. Halkett. LONDON : Field 6- Tuer, TheLeadenhall 
 Press, E.G. [Seven-and-Sixpence. 
 
 IN addition to matter of much value and interest Mrs. Alfred 
 W. Hunt carefully describes the numerous, accurate, and 
 quaintly drawn illustrations by Mr. George R. Halkett, which are 
 all prettily tinted by hand. 
 
 Cheap and revised edition. 
 
 The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. By 
 
 W. M. Flinders Petrie. Containing, an account of excavations 
 and surveys carried on at Gizeh during 1880-1-2; with the application 
 of the results to various modern theories of the pyramids, (Illus- 
 trated.) LONDON : Field fr Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. 
 
 [Six Shilling!. 
 
 GIVES the results of an examination of the Pyramids of 
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 well as " the one indispensable basis " — as the Times says — ^for 
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 " Without a rival as a birthday or wedding present." 
 
 When is your Birthday ? or a Year of Good 
 
 Wishes. Set of Twelve Designs by Edwin J. Ellis, with Sonnets 
 
 by the Artist. LONDON : Field <5- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. 
 
 ^ [Twenty-one Shillings. 
 
 THE illustrations are beautiful, the sonnets are good, and the 
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 attempted, is simply fascinating. 
 
 LOtK1>OtK, S.C. 
 
 {3J 
 
(Recent (Books ^ 
 Something ^bout Them, 
 
 " A quaint specimen of the literature of a bygone age.'* 
 
 Old Aunt Elspa's ABC. Imagined and 
 
 Adorned by Joseph Crawhall. LONDON: Field &■ Tuer, The 
 Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [One Shilling, or Coloured throughout Two-and-Sixpence, 
 
 AN outrageously quaint book, full of outrageously quaint 
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 instructed our great-great-grandparents. 
 
 " As amusingly treated as the same author's A B C." 
 
 Old Aunt Elspa's Spelling. Imagined and 
 
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 [One Shilling, or Coloured throughout, Two-and-Sixpence. 
 
 FOR children who have learned their letters. Of the same 
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 " In every way attractive." — Harper^s Magazine. 
 
 Prince Pertinax : A Fairy Tale. By Mrs. Geo. 
 
 HooPERj Authoress of " The House of Raby," " Arbell," iS-c. Illus- 
 trated with Twenty-six drawings in sepia by Margaret L. Hoofer and 
 Margarey May. A charming present. LONDON : Field &■ Tuer, 
 The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [Twenty-one Shillings. 
 
 OF all the productions of the talented authoress this is per- 
 haps the one best liked by children. The story is as 
 fascinating as the illustrations are charming. 
 
 " A mediasval romance, now printed for the first time." 
 
 Ye Gestes of ye Ladye Anne : A marvellous 
 
 pleasaunt and comfortable tayle. Edited by Evelyn Forsyth. Illus- 
 trated by A. Hennen Broadwood. LONDON: Field &■ Tuer, The 
 Leadenhall Press, E.C. [Two-and-Sixpence. 
 
 A MEDIAEVAL romance, quaint, humorous, "full of wise saws 
 and modern instances," compiled from old manuscripts 
 and interspersed with ballads and lays. The numerous illustra- 
 tions are taking and characteristic. A book for those with a 
 taste for the antique and the ridiculous, both young and old. 
 
 LOtK'OOC^C, SC. 
 
 (4) 
 
(Recent (Books & 
 Something ^bout Them. 
 
 " Old and young will alike derive amusement and pleasure from turning 
 over its delightful pages."~^G;o6tf. 
 
 Chap-book Chaplets ; Adorn'd with suitable 
 
 Sculptures by Joseph Crawhall. The many hundreds of cuts being 
 all hand^olouredt the issue i^ necessarily limited. Contents of the Vo- 
 lume : I. — The Barkshire Lady's Garland. II. — The Babes in the Wood. 
 III. — I know what I know. IV.— Jemmy and Nancy of Yarmouth, 
 v.— The Taming of a Shrew. VI.— Blew-cap for me. VII.— John and 
 Joap, VIII.— George Barnwell. LONDON: Field & Tuer, The 
 Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [In one thick 4to Volume, Twenty-five Shillings. 
 
 A REPRODUCTION in facsimile of the crudely printed and 
 often humorously illustrated pamphlets that were hanlied 
 about the country by the chapmen of a bygone age. Book 
 collectors, antiquarians, and lovers of the quaint and curious 
 will be charmed with the reproduction in volume form of the 
 literature that amused the leisure hours of their forefathers. 
 From first to last the tales are literally crowded with amusing 
 and characteristic cuts, all hand-coloured. The type, though 
 purposely thick and coarse, is very legible, while the illustra- 
 tions, charming in their unique humour, will provoke smiles 
 from the gravest. 
 
 " A volume to delight in." — Pail MM Gazette. 
 
 Olde ffrendes wyth newe Faces: Adorn'd 
 
 with. suitable Sculptures by Joseph Crawhall. The many hundreds 
 of cuts being all hand-coloured, the issue is necessarily limited. Table 
 of the matter herein contained : I.— The louing Ballad of Lord Bate- 
 man. II.— A true relation of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal. III.— The 
 L.ong Pack : A Northumbrian Tale. IV.— The Sword Dancers. V 
 —John Cunningham, the Pastoral Poet. VI.— Ducks and Green Peas, 
 or the Newcastle Rider : a Tale in Rhyme. VII.— Ducks and Green 
 Peas : a Farce. VIH. — Andrew Robinson Stoney Bowes, Esq. IX, — 
 The Gloamin' Buchte. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall 
 Press, E.G. ' [In one thick 4to Volume, Twenty-five Shillings. 
 
 THE description appended to "Chapbook Chaplets" applies 
 equally to " Olde ffrendes." 
 
 (5) 
 
(Recent (Books ^ 
 Something t^bout Them, 
 
 " Internally and externally a delightful book." 
 
 On A Raft, and Through The Desert: By 
 
 Tristkam J. Ellis. LONDON: Field & Tuer, The LeadenhaH 
 Press, E.G. [Two Volumes, Price Two Pounds Twelve-and-Sixpence, 
 
 A DESCRIPTION of an artist's jovirney through Northern Sjrria 
 and Kurdistan, by the Tigris to Mosul and Baghdad, and 
 returning across the Desert by the Euphrates and Palmyra to 
 Damascus, over the Anti-Lebanon to Baalbek and Bejrrout, with 
 thirty-eight etchings on copper by the author, and a map. 
 
 " Not a book to criticise, but to admire." — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 ^I^e. Jtopy • of- a • Dup^ersy • ^^2^"^®* 
 
 By C. B,, with numerous whole-page illustrations by Edwin J. Ellis.. 
 LONDON : Field S- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [One Shilling. 
 
 A CLEVERLY viTitten, interesting, and prettily illustrated tale 
 for children. The text is in a new artistic type, and the 
 book is printed throughout, including the numerous whole-page 
 illustrations, in a pretty shade of blue ink. 
 
 " A most attractive volume." — The Times. 
 
 one Beauties : " A select Series of Ten 
 
 Portraits of Ladies op Rank and Fashion," from paintings by 
 John 'Hoppner, r.a., engraved by Charles Wilkin; annotated by 
 Andrew W. Tuer. LONDON ; Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 
 B.C. [Large Folio, Twenty-one Shillings^ 
 
 A SUPERBLY got up book, in size large folio. The stippled 
 portraits of " Ladies of Rank and Fashion " are those of 
 tea beautiful women of a bygone age, each worthy of a separate 
 frame. Single examples of the original prints fetch at an auc- 
 tion seyeral pounds. 
 
 Amongst the Shans: By Archibald Ross 
 
 CoLQUHouN, A.u.zx.E., F.R.G.S., AuthoF of "Acfoss Chiys^." With 
 upwardsof Fifty whole-page Illustrations. LONDON: Field S-Tuer, 
 The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [In preparation, Twenty-one ShillingSr 
 
 LOtK'DOtK.. S.C. 
 
 (6) 
 
(Recent (Books ^ 
 Something ^bout Them. 
 
 " A treat." — Sportsman. 
 
 Christmas Entertainments, Illustrated with 
 
 many diverting cuts — a reprint of the very amusing and scarce 174a 
 edition, an original copy of which' would now command more than 
 twice its weight in gold. LONDON: Field * Tuer, The Leadenhall 
 Press, E.G. [Sixpence. 
 
 A REPRINT on the oldest of old-fashioned paper of the scarce 
 and very amusing 1740 edition, an original copy of which 
 would now command more than twice its weight in gold. The 
 quaint cuts are faithfully reproduced. 
 
 " The interest of the volume is inexhaustible."— TJi* Times. 
 
 London Cries : With Six Charming Children 
 
 printed direct from stippled plates in the Bartolozzi st>rle. The text by 
 Akdrew W. Tuer, Author of "Bartolozzi and his Works," &c. 
 LONDON : Field S- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 One Guinea: Lar^e Paper Signed Proofs (250 only) Two Guineas: 
 
 Large Paper Signed Proofs on Satin (50 otUy) Four Guineas, 
 The twelve quaintly old fashioned and beautiful whole-page illustra- 
 , tions are eminently adapted for separate framingl 
 
 CONTAINS an account of London cries from the earliest 
 period. The " Six Charming Children " — highly finished 
 prints of the Bartolozzi School — are duplicated in red and brown, 
 and are eminently adapted for separate framing. There are in 
 addition about forty other illustrations — many of them in colours 
 — ^including ten of Rowlandson's humorous subjects in facsimile, 
 examples by George Cruikshank, Joseph Crawhall, frc. 
 
 " Contains a wealth of information," — Times. 
 
 Bartolozzi and his Works : (Dedicated by per- 
 
 mission to Her Majesty the Queen), Biographical, Anecdotal, and De- 
 scriptive. By Andrew W. Tube. Beautifully illustrated with engrav- 
 ings in red and brown of the St. James' and St. Giles' Beauties, from 
 the original copperplates engraved by Bartolozzi in 1783, &c., &c' 
 In two handsome vellum-bound 4.to. volumes. Price £3 3s. LONDON: 
 Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. For cheap edition of 
 Bartolozzi and his Works see " Miscellaneous." 
 
 Bewick Memento, Illustrated : see Miscellaneous. 
 
 L0tK1>0tK, SC. 
 
 (7) 
 
^Recent (Books £^ 
 Something ^About Them. 
 
 ^ HUMOROUS ^ 
 
 " Will delight every volunteer.' 
 
 Amateur Tommy Atkins : A Volunteer's ei- 
 
 periences related in the Letters of Private Sau^ Bagshaw to hii 
 Mother. Illustrated with many clever silhouettes. LONDON : Field 
 <S- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [One Shilling. 
 
 A MORE or less veracious but distinctly amusing relation of 
 the experiences of a volunteer recruit at drill, in camp, 
 and on the march. 
 
 " A New Year's Eve story." 
 
 The Keys ' at Home,' A New Year's Eve 
 
 Entertainment. ByJ. M. L. LONDON: Field* Tuer, The Lead- 
 enhall Press, E.C. [One Shilling. 
 
 AN account pf how the keys — from the door-key downwards 
 — entertained and amused their friends on New Year's 
 Eve, what they did and said and sung : with many original don 
 mots, songs, parodies, and vers de socUU. 
 
 " Excruciatingly funny." — The World. 
 
 English as She is Spoke : or a Jest in Sober 
 
 EARNEST: Ninth Edition. LONDON: Field * Tuer, The Leaden- 
 hall Press, E.C. [One Shilling. 
 
 A MANUAL by means of which the Portuguese author, who 
 has struggled with the difficulties of the English language 
 by aid of dictionary and phrase-book, proposes to teach its com- 
 plexities to his fellow countrymen. The solemn good faith of 
 the writer crowns the unapproachable grotesqueness of hii 
 composition. 
 
 " Deliciously humorous." — Detroit Free Press, 
 
 Enghsh as She is Spoke : or a Jest in Sober 
 
 EARNEST. "Her Seconds Part." (new matter.) LONDON: 
 Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [One Shilling. 
 
 A 
 
 N unlimited mine of salt for diners-out. 
 
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 (8) 
 
decent (Books SJ 
 Something ^bout Them, 
 
 '* Sure to be popular," — London Figaro. 
 
 You Shouldn't: Being Hints to Persons of 
 
 Aristocratic Instincts! By Brother Bob. LONDON : Field 6- Tuer, 
 The Lead^nhall Press, E.G. [Sixpence. 
 
 A COMPANION to " Don't," but of a distinctly more pronounced 
 flavour. The unruffled impudence of the writer must make 
 one either stamp with rage or shake with uncontrollable merri- 
 ment. There is no middle course. 
 
 *' For those who can read, between the lines, most amusing." 
 
 Don't: A Manual of Mistakes and Impro- 
 
 prieties more or less prevalent in Conduct and Speech. By Censor. 
 UNMUTILATED and with the additional matter. The only Autho- 
 rized and COMPLETE Edition. LONDON: Field <& -Tuer, The 
 Leadenhall Press, E.G. [Sixpence. 
 
 OF American origin, " Don't : A Manual of Manners/' may 
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 short time " Don't " has run through some thirty editions. 
 
 RJidget folio. Half-a-crown. 
 
 See Title-page, actual size, appended. 
 
 " An amusing bibliographical curiosity. Will be relished 
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 folio (Royal 304mo.), pp. i6o. Measures one by one- 
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 paper. Enshrined in vellum. LONDON: Field & 
 Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. 
 
 Midget folio.] 
 
 Quads 
 
 Pot 
 
 Authori, Editon 
 
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 And: W. Tube. 
 
 London : 
 
 Field & Tusr; 
 
 Simplcin; Hamilton. 
 
 (Demy i6mo. One Shilling.) 
 
 Will be relished by printers and their patrons : for the latter a needful 
 
 glossary of terms is not forgotten." 
 
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 W. Tuer. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. 
 
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 ■ (9) 
 
Recent (Boohs & 
 Something tAbout Them, 
 
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 " A book for clergymen and their critics," 
 
 Decently and in Order: A few hints on the 
 
 performance of the 9Drneti8 for^orittnff s «E»«ntnB lPrsje«, 
 
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 Clergyman. LONDON : Field" * Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [One Shilling. 
 
 AN outspoken criticism of the slovenly,' unthoughtful manner 
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 not consider themselves absolutely incapable of improvement. 
 
 " A collection of sentences, each a valuable sermon in itself." 
 
 Sermons in Sentences : Being selected pass- 
 
 ages from the Sermons of Ralph Brownrig, Bishop of Exeter. By the 
 Rev. A. A. Toms, m.a. LONDON : Field 6- Tuer, The Leadenhall 
 Press, E.G. [Half-a-Crown. 
 
 BEAUTIFUL and choice book printed in extra large type : 
 a book over which even minutes may be profitably expended. 
 
 A 
 
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 (10) 
 
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 " Possesses a felicitous charm." — Daily Chronicle, 
 
 Reasonable Apprehensions and Reassuring 
 
 HINTS : Papers designed to attract attention' to tlie Nature of Modem 
 Unbelief, and to meet some of its fundamental assumptions. By the 
 Rev. Henry Footman, M.A, LONDON: Field & Tue'r, The Leaden- 
 hall Press, E.C. [One ShilUng. 
 
 THE author begins by stating the case of unbelievers better 
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 the case for belief so clearly that twenty high-class reviews have 
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 " Adapted to please the eye and refresh the mind." — Scotsman. 
 
 One Hundred and Fortyrtwo Selected Texts 
 
 from the IMITATION OF CHRIST by Thomas a Kempis. LON- 
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 VALUABLE precepts for everyday life judiciously chosen from 
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 " A grand book, an upheaval of true spirituality." — The Theosophist* 
 
 The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ. 
 
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 A COMPENDIUM of Esoteric Religion, Christian Theosophy 
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 How the World came to an End in 1881. 
 
 ("Perfect Way" Shilling Series.) LONDON: Field * Tuer, The 
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 SHEWS the great number of predictions, sacred and other, of 
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decent (Books ^ 
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 " An elegant birthday or New Year's gift." 
 
 Love Letters. By a Violinist. Consisting 
 
 of Twelve Letters on the Despair, the Hope, and the Victory of this 
 True Lover, inclusive of his Confessions and his Vision of Beethoven, 
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 bound in vellum and tied with old gold silken strings. LONDON : 
 Field & Tuer, The Leadeiihall Press, E'.C. [Seven-and-Sixpence. 
 
 A COLLECTION of poems setting forth the eulogies of love, 
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 accomplished lady. The arrangement of the lines constitutes 
 what may be considered a new metre. 
 
 " As the brightest of poets have passed away. 
 Now it's left between Tennyson and James Gay." 
 
 Canada's Poet: By "Yours alway, James Gay" 
 
 (Of the Royal City of Guelph, Ontario), Poet Laureate of Canada, and 
 Master of all Poets. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Ptess, 
 E.C. " As amusing -as English as She is Spoke." [One Shilling. 
 
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 My Ladye and Others: Poems : Satirical, 
 
 Philosophical, and Arcadian : By J. W. Gilbart-Smith, b.a., Christ 
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 enhall Press, E.C. [Ten-and- Sixpence, 
 
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 A 
 
 ^ 
 
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 MiLLiNOTON. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [Two-and-Sixpence ; cloth, Three-and-Sixpence. 
 
 AN amusingly egotistical quasi-biographical story, written in 
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 language by the author — one of the Frenchiest of French writers. 
 
 " An interesting and cleverly written novel by a new author." 
 
 This Year, Next Year, Sometime, Never. A 
 
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 A STORY of to-day and of people one constantly meets. 
 Though non-sensational in the sense of not dealing with 
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 (Prince Pertinax : see Illustrated.) 
 
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 IN this volume, which is the continuation of " John Bull aijd 
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 and so forth. 
 
 LOtKliOU^, s.c. 
 (13) 
 
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 John Bull and his Island. Translated from 
 
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 Autobiography of Tracy Turnerelli, " The 
 
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 (14) 
 
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 Monsieur at Home. By Albert Rhodes. 
 
 LONDON : Field 6- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. 
 
 [Two-and-Sixpence ; Cloth, Three-and-Sixpence 
 
 AN amusingly epigrammatic, brilliant, and impartially written 
 book on the French people : the close knowledge shewn in 
 almost every page was gained by a long residence amongst them. 
 
 " Of remarkable interest and value." 
 
 The Wonderland of Evolution. By Albert 
 
 and George Gresswell. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leaden- 
 hall Press, E.C. [Three-and-Sixpenc^. ■ 
 
 THE authors illustrate in an understandable and amusing 
 manner the absurdities of some of the views held by 
 advanced evolutionists, and indicate the perfect harmony exist- 
 ing between natural phenomena and the true origin and future 
 destiny of man. 
 
 " The first of a valuable series of historical sporting books." 
 
 Football: Its History for Five Centuries. 
 
 (Historical Sporting Series, No. i.) By Montague Shearman and 
 James' E. Vincent. LONDON : Field S- Tuer, The Leadenhall 
 Press, E.C. ^ [One Shilling. 
 
 IN the first place a full, inquiry into the antiquities of the 
 winter pastime beloved by English men and boys of all 
 classes. The authors proceed to shew the manner in which the 
 two foj-ms of rules now in vogue have grown out of those in use 
 at the great public schools. 
 
 "A masterpiece." — Mag. of Art. 
 
 Bartolozzi and his Works. (Dedicated by per- 
 
 mission to Her Majesty the Queen), Biographical, Anecdotal and De- 
 scriptive. By Andrew W. Tuer. LONDON: Field S- Tuer, The 
 Leadenhall Press, E.C. For illvstrated edition of Bartolozzi and his 
 Works, see " Illustrated." [Six Shillipgs. 
 
 A COMPLETE guide to the study of old-fashioned prints of 
 the Bartolozzi School. Cheap and revised edition in one 
 handsome volume. 
 
 (15) 
 
Recent (Books £f 
 Something %A.bout Them, 
 
 " The first book on social life in China written by a Chinaman." 
 
 The Chinese Painted by Themselves. By 
 
 Colonel TcKEMc-Ki-ToNQ. 'Translated by James Millington. 
 LONDON : Field & Tuer, The LeadenhaU Press, E.C. [Six Shillings. 
 
 THE truth respecting Qhina and the Chinese, according to a 
 Chinaman who considers he may be allowed to know as 
 much abput his country and its people as the more or less 
 veracious travellers who have discoursed thereon. The subject 
 is full of interest, and Colonel Tcheng-ki-tong^s book is destined 
 to dispel many time-honoured prejudices. 
 
 ■ *' A weird and fascinating story which has the rare merit of heing true." 
 
 The True Story of Mazeppa: The Son of 
 
 Peter the Great : A Change of Reign. By Viscount E. Melchior 
 DE Vogue. Translated from the Frencl} by James Millington. 
 LONDON : Field & Tuer, The LeadenhaU Press, E.C. fSix Shillings. 
 
 FEW are unacquainted With tlie mythical Mazeppa of Voltaire, 
 Byron, Hugo, and Poushkin.- Fact, however, is stranger 
 than fiction, and the weird and fascinating»story herein related of 
 the hero, who is every year solemnly cursed in Russian churches 
 — with the exception of those founded by himself — will possess 
 an equal interest for the. lover of the romantic and the historical. 
 
 *' Should be read by literary aspirants." — Graphic, 
 
 John Oldcastle's Guide for Literary Begin- 
 
 NERS. LONDON: Field &■ Tuer, The LeadenhaU Press, E.C. 
 [One Shilling. 
 
 THE title is self-explanatory, and the nature of the book will 
 best be gathered by a perusal of the chapter headings : — 
 " Literary Amateurs," " Introductions to Editors," " How to 
 Begin," " Declined with Thanks," " Pounds, Shillings, and 
 Pence," " Journalism as a Career, ' (i. The fair side ; 2. The 
 seamy side), " In an Editor's Chair," " A Miscellaneous Chapter," 
 " Tei) Journalistic Commandments," " How to Correct Proofs." 
 To the literary tyro " Oldcastle's Guide for Literary Beginners " 
 is full of most useful hints, while to the outside world it wil 
 afford a fund of amusement. 
 
 L0tK1>0!K. SC. 
 
 (I6) 
 
decent (Books ^ 
 Something ^bout Them, 
 
 Tree Gossip. By Francis George Heath. 
 
 LONDON ; Field <5- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, e!c. Bs. 6d. 
 
 A BOOK on the oddities, mainly, of tree life, and one that, 
 taking the reader into the byways of tree lore, gives inter- 
 esting facts not usually found in books on trees. Its aim is to 
 discuss its subject lightly and pleasantly, so that whilst it com- 
 municates little-known matters it endeavours to do this in the 
 form of entertaining " Gossip." 
 
 "An excellent manual." — Athenawm. 
 
 An Essay of Scarabs : By W. J. Loftie, B.A., 
 
 p.s.A. (Author of " A History of London ") together with a Catalogue 
 . of Ancient Egyptian Amulets of various kinds, bearing the names 
 of Kings. LONDON : Field e> Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [Twenty-one Shillings. 
 
 CONTAINS an account of the use of the Scarabeus, or beetle, 
 as an amulet by the ancient Egyptians, to whom the 
 animal and its image in stone or pottery were significant of the 
 resurrection. To the essay is appended the illustrated catalogue 
 of an extensive and valuable collection of these curious objects 
 bearing the names of Egyptian kings, and standing to history 
 in the same relation as a collection of coins. One hundred and 
 twenty (numbered) copies only have been printed, of which only 
 a small number remain unsold. 
 
 "A quaint little volume." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Ye Oldest Diarie of Englysshe Travell : Being 
 
 the hitherto unpublished narrative of the pilgrimage of Sir Richard 
 Torkington to Jerusalem in 1517. Edited by W. J. Loftie, b.a., f.s.*. 
 Author of " A History of London," fi-c, &c. LONDON : Field &■ Tuer, 
 The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [One Shilling. 
 
 THE amusement to be derived from reading these ancient 
 travels, and guessing at the curiously misspelt names is 
 almost endless. After the title was chosen and printed it was 
 found that a nearly contemporary diary, that of Guylforde, had 
 already been circulated by a literary society ; but, as Torkington 
 went over nearly the same ground only afew years later, and as his 
 narrative is much more personal, and more amusing and quaintly 
 told it has not been thought necessary to make any alteration. 
 
 ♦ ^5^ ♦ Ueabengdff ♦::Qre0ff ♦ 
 
 (17) 
 
Recent (Books ^ 
 Something xAbout Them, 
 
 "Of great value and interest." 
 
 A Guide to the River Thames'from its source 
 
 to Wandsworth, together with particulars of the rivers Avon, Severn, 
 andWye, frc. Illustrated. By John Salter. LONDON : Field * 
 Tuer, The LeadenhaU Press, E.C.; OXFORD: John Salter, Univer- 
 sity Boat-house. [One Shilling. 
 
 THE contents of this dependable guide are sufficiently ex- 
 plained in the title, and the position of the author, who is 
 intimately acquainted with every inch of the Thames on which 
 a boat can be pulled, is a sufficient guarantee of accuracy. 
 
 "A most thoughtfully considered and valuable treatise." 
 
 Socialism of To-day. By Emile de Laveleye. 
 
 Translated from the French by Goddard H. Orpen. Including 
 " Socialism in England," by the Translator. LONDON : Field Sr Tuer, 
 The LeadenhaU Press, E.G. [Six Shillings. 
 
 SOCIALISM V. Individualism is rapidly becoming the most 
 pressing, as it is the most momentous, question of the day. 
 An English version of M. de Laveleye's account and criticism of 
 European Socialism is therefore a welcome contribution to the 
 subject. It embraces a lucid statement of the views of Marx and 
 Lassalle, the founders of German socialism, and a graphic des- 
 cription of the wild theories of Bakunin, the apostle of Nihi- 
 lism. Mr. Orpen has largely added to the importance of the 
 work by giving the first comprehensive account ever published 
 of socialism in England. He accurately describes and carefully 
 criticises the three socialistic movements conducted by the Land 
 Nationalisers, the Christian Socialists, and the thorough-going 
 Social Democratic Federation, respectively. The book appears 
 opportunely at a time when all Europe is astounded at the 
 electoral victories of the Social Democrats in Germany. 
 
 " Unique and attractive." — Newcastle Chronicle, 
 
 Journalistic Jumbles ; or, Trippings in Type. 
 
 Being Notes on some Newspaper Blunders, their origin and nature, 
 with numerous examples. By Frederic Conde Williams. 
 
 tOne Shilling. 
 
 ' I ^EEMS with laughable examples of typographical blunders. 
 
 Lov^rootK, s.c. 
 
 (I8) 
 
(Recent (Books £^ 
 Something %A.bout Them, 
 
 " Throw physic to the dogs." 
 
 "Fining Down" on Natural Principles with.- 
 
 OUT Bahtinq: By James Millington. "O that this too too solid 
 flesh would melt." LONDON ; Field S- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 
 E.G. [Sixpence, 
 
 EXPLAINS a system, novel and yet not new, by which the 
 bulkiest person may, without derangement, distress, or in- 
 convenience, be reduced in bulk and restored to the conditions 
 of health and activity. The Editor of Truth refers all his fat 
 correspondents to this little brochure. " Fined down ? — why, he's- 
 BOW as thin and strong as one of those spider bicycles you see 
 about, and he goes as well, too ! " 
 
 " The caustic irony of this little brochure is equal to that of Swift's best 
 political diatribes." — Birmingham Gazette. 
 
 History of the Decline and Fall of the 
 
 BRITISH EMPIRE. By Edwarda Gibbon, m.a., f.r.s.l., &c. 
 [Auckland, a.d. 2884.] LONDON; Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall 
 Press, E.C. [Sixpence. 
 
 CLEVER satire in the style of Gibbon on the Liberal 
 Government and present system of army organisation. 
 
 A 
 
 " Nothing could be simpler, or in better taste." — Saturday Review. 
 
 The Marriage Ring, or, The Mysteriousness 
 
 AMD DUTIES OF MARRIAGE : By Dr. Jeremy Taylor, with an. 
 Introduction by the Rev. J. A. Kerr. LONDON : Field & Tuer, 
 The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [Two-and-Sixpence. 
 
 A REPERTORY of quaint humour, varied learning, sound 
 theology, practical common sense, advice on the choice of 
 a husband or wife, the duties of the marriage state, the govern- 
 ment of the household, and the religious bringing up of children. 
 
 " Mysteries cease to be mysteries." 
 
 Thought-Reading, or Modern Mysteries Ex- 
 
 PLAINED: Being Chapters on Thought-Reading, Occultism, Mes- 
 merism, &c., forming a Key to the Psychological Puzzles of the Day. 
 By Douglas Blackburn. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall 
 Press, E.C. ._ [0°* Shillmg. 
 
 AN explanatory and curiously suggestive guide to the study of 
 thought-reading. 
 
 LOtKrDO^, s.c. 
 
 (19) 
 
(Recent (Books & 
 Something t^bout Them, 
 
 " Amusement and information combined." 
 
 Tennis Cuts and Quips, in Prose and Verse, 
 
 with Rules and Wrinkles. Edited by Julian Marshall, author of 
 " The Annals of Tennis," Hon. Sec. All England Lawn Tennis Club, 
 Wimbledon. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [Two-and-Sixpence. 
 
 A COLLECTION of essays, letters, anecdotes, and verses, serious, 
 comic, and serio-comic, by various hands, about tennis 
 and lawn-tennis, with the rules of the latter game. Useful in- 
 formation and critical remarks are mixed with much genuinely 
 amusing matter. 
 
 " A true picture of this great actor." — Heme Bay Press. 
 
 Henry Irving, Actor and Manager : A Criti- 
 cal study. By William Archer. LONDON: Field & Tuer, The 
 Leadenhall Press, E.C. Second Edition. [One Shilling. 
 
 AN attempt at a dispassionate and rational appreciation of 
 the distinguished actor's merits and defects. Shunning 
 "Irving-mania" and " Irving-phobia " alike, the author seeks 
 to moderate the transports of indiscriminating worshippers, 
 while at the same time combatting the prejudice of bigoted un- 
 believers. Neither a lampoon nor a. panegyric, but in short a 
 " critical study." 
 
 " May be cordially commended." — Liverpool Daily Post. 
 
 Are we to Read ? 8 Q ^ A W >^ OA 3 or What 
 
 is the Best Print for the Eyes? By James Milungton. With an 
 Introduction by R. Brudenell Carter, f.r.c.s. (Illustrated.) LON- 
 DON : Field * Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [One Shilling. 
 
 IN a little compass the author has gathered together much 
 valuable information on the eyesight, and he points out the 
 injurious effects of premature and excessive literary work, and 
 suggests such modifications of paper and print as will enable the 
 greatest amount of work to be done with the least possible 
 fatigue to the eyes. The introduction by R. Brudenell Carter 
 is most interesting and suggestive. 
 
 LOv^'DOv^, a.c. 
 
 (20) 
 
decent (Books ^ 
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 The Opening of China. Six Letters reprinted 
 
 from The Times on the present condition and future prospects of China. 
 By A. R. CoLQUHOUN, Assoc. Mem. Inst. C.E., F.R.G.S., Author of 
 " Across ChrysS,'', etc., Special Correspondent of The Times in China. 
 With an Introduction by S. H. Louttit. LONDON: Field & Tuer, 
 The Leadenhall Press, E.C. [One Shilling. 
 
 AN exhaustive account of the present condition of China, and 
 suggesting means for the opening of that Empire to Euro- 
 pean commerce. ' 
 
 LORD BEACONSFIELD ON THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 " What is he ? " and " A Vindication of the 
 
 Efigiish Constitution." By -Disraeli the Younger." 
 [The Earl of Beaconsfield, K.G.] Edited with an anecdotical preface by 
 Francis Hitchman, author of " The Public Life of the Earl of Bea- 
 consfield," S-c. LONDON: Field S- Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 
 E.C. [Two-and-Sixpence. 
 
 THE only vindicator of the " lost leader " of the Tories that is 
 necessary. A reprint of the famous and long lost pamphlet 
 "What is he ? " of which it is believed that only one copy is in 
 existence, and of the almost equally scarce " Vindication of the 
 Constitution," which Disraeli the Younger addressed to Lord 
 Lyndhurst in 1835. The former establishes the identity of 
 Disraeli's politics in youth and in age, and the latter vindicates 
 the consistency of the two great men -with whose names it is 
 associated against the calumnies of Lord Campbell. Mr. Hitch- 
 man's preface contains a great number of highly interesting and 
 hitherto unpublished facts concerning the Disraeli family. 
 
 " Novel readers and novel writers may advantageously study its pages." 
 
 Ethics of Some Modern Novels: By Trevor 
 
 Creiohton. LONDON : Field * Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. 
 [One Shilling. 
 
 A BRIEF review of the morals of some of the more notable 
 novels of the day, in which the author plainly says that 
 vice is too apt to be surrounded by a halo of sentimentalism, and 
 that the line is not clearly marked between right and wrong. 
 
 LOV^CfDOtK, S.C. 
 
 ( 21) 
 
decent (Books ^ 
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 Dickens Memento (with Introductions by 
 
 Francis Phillimore and John F, Dexter.) Catalogue, with pur- 
 chasers' names and prices realised, of the pictures, drawings, and 
 objects of art of the late Charles Dickens, dispersed at Christie, Man- 
 son & Woods in 1870. LONDON : Field S/ Tuer, The Leadenhall 
 Press, B.C. 
 
 A BEAUTIFULLY printed and luxuriously got-up book of 
 special value to the Dickens collector. In three separate 
 divisions, the text includes primarily a reprint of the catalogue 
 of the Dickens sale, at which it may be remembered almost fabu- 
 lous sums were realised. Mr. Francis Phillimore contributes a 
 gossipy and interesting introduction, and Mr. John F. Dexter 
 a lengthy, learned, and exhaustive paper on book rarities, sub- 
 titled " Hints to Dickens Collectors." 
 
 Bewick Memento (with an Introduction by 
 
 Robert Robinson). Catalogue, with purchasers' names and prices 
 realised, of the scarce and curious collection of silver plate, prints, 
 pictures, wood blocks, copperplates, and Bewick relics, S-c, dispersed 
 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1884. Illustrated. LONDON : Field Sr 
 Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C. 
 
 A BEAUTIFULLY printed and luxuriously got-up book of 
 special value to the Bewick collector. Mr. Robert Robin- 
 son, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who contributes the introduction, 
 has been connected during the greater part of a long lifetime 
 with the Bewick family, and he writes with a full knowledge of 
 his subject. Of the eighteen beautiful illustrations, printed 
 on separate leaves, twelve embellished the original catalogue, 
 but the six additional at the end, including the humorously 
 treated frontispiece of " Cows Angling " — all charming specimens 
 of Bewick's skill with the graver — are first impressions from 
 blocks hitherto not printed from. 
 
 *• By far the most complete, and at the same time entertaining book on old 
 glass yet published." — Saturday Review. 
 
 Glass in the Old World: By M. A. Wallace- 
 
 DuNLOP. With Illustrations. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leaden- 
 hall Press, E.C. [Twelve-and-Sixpence. 
 
 A MOST comprehensive and entertaining epitome of what is 
 known about glass in ancient times and in all countries. 
 A treasury of information full of interest and anecdote. 
 
 LOtK'^O^, S.C. 
 
 («) 
 
(Recent (Books ^ 
 Something %About Them, 
 
 " Thoroughly readable and interesting."— Z/Zierary World, t 
 
 Business and Pleasure in Brazil: By Ulick 
 
 Ralph Burke, author of " Loyal and Lawless," and Robert Staples, 
 Jr. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 [Ten-and-SJxpence . 
 
 A BOOK of travels, both practical and amusing, giving the 
 experiences and impressions of two men of the world during 
 their visits to Oporto, Lisbon, Pernambuco, Rio de Janiero, the 
 mining districts in the interior of Brazil, and the River Plate. 
 Fluent, unaffected, and full of observation. 
 
 " Full of important information." — Pictorial World. 
 
 The Truth about Tonquin: Being €i)Z Cimes 
 
 Special Correspondence. By Archibald R. Colquhoun, f.r.g.s., &c,, 
 Author of " Across ChiysS," S-c. LONDON : Field & Tuer, The Lead- 
 enhall Press, E.G. [One Shilling. 
 
 THESE letters should be studied by those who wish to under- 
 stand the position of affairs in China as regards the Ton- 
 quin difficulty. 
 
 Book of Japanese Designs, About 350 in all, 
 
 many being very intricate and beautiful, and of a character most useful 
 to designers. A few copies only, Three-and-Sixpence. Printed in Japan. 
 
 Printed on Vellum. [Six Copies only.] At 
 
 the various times of publication of their Vellum-Parchment 
 Series, Messrs. Field 6- Tuer, says the Academy, had six 
 copies of each book printed on fine vellum. Two sets have 
 been disposed of at one guinea per volume, and the remain- 
 ing four sets of the following volumes — thirteen in all — are 
 now offered for sale : — " Reasonable Apprehensions and Re- 
 assuring Hints," " Oldest Diarie of English Travell,' ' ' ' Don't," 
 " You Shouldn't," " Selected Texts from the ' Imitation of 
 Christ,' " " Truth about Tonquin," " Are we to Read Back- 
 wards ? " " Henry Irving," " English as She is Spoke," and 
 ditto "Her Seconds' Part ;" and in the Oblong Series, 
 " Journalistic Jumbles," " Oldcastle's Guide for Literary 
 Beginners," and "Decently and in Order." Twelve copies 
 have also been printed on vellum of that bibliographical 
 curiosity, " Quads within Quads : " two guineas each. 
 
 LOV^rDOUsC, s.c. 
 
 (23) 
 
decent (Books ^ 
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 " A covetable gift-book." 
 
 Echoes of Memory. By Atherton Furlong. 
 
 With etchings by Tristram J. Ellis. LONDON : Field S- Tner, 
 The Leadenhall Press, E.G. 
 
 A CHARMINGLY illustrated and beautifully bound volume of 
 gracefully written poetry produced as an edition de luxe in 
 the most fastidious manner. Will be prized alike by bibliophiles 
 and lovers of light and tender verses. 
 
 " With Bad Paper, one's Best is impossible.'' 
 
 The Author's Paper Pad (issued by the Proprietors of 
 The Leadenhall Press.) Contains, in block form, fifty sheets 
 of paper, fibrous and difficult to tear as a piece of linen, over 
 which — being of unusual but not painful smoothness — ^the 
 pen slips with perfect freedom. Easily detachable, the size 
 of the sheets is about 74X8| in., and the price is only that 
 usually charged for common scribbling paper. The Author's 
 Paper Pad may be comfortably used, whether at the desk, 
 held in the hand, or resting on the knee. As being most 
 convenient for both author and compositor, the paper is 
 ruled the narrow way, and of course on one side only.— 
 Sixpence each, 5/- per dozen, ruled or //ot«.— FIELD 6- TUER, 
 Publishers and Printers, The Leadenhall Press, London, E.C. 
 
 Field ef Tuer, 
 
 gDRINTERS * gPuBLISHERS, 
 
 The Leadenhall Press, 
 
 (a4) 
 
'^;^^/*v«i